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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/37515-8.txt b/37515-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6746ecc --- /dev/null +++ b/37515-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10018 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of In a Mysterious Way, by Anne Warner + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: In a Mysterious Way + +Author: Anne Warner + +Illustrator: J. V. McFall + +Release Date: September 23, 2011 [EBook #37515] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Matthew Wheaton and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY + + [Illustration: "THE ONLY REAL HOLE IS WHERE HE SAT DOWN ON AN ENGINE + SPARK AT THE STATION."] + + + + + IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY + + BY ANNE WARNER + + + AUTHOR OF "THE REJUVENATION OF AUNT MARY" + "SUSAN CLEGG AND HER FRIEND MRS. LATHROP" + "AN ORIGINAL GENTLEMAN," ETC. + + _Illustrated by_ J. V. McFALL + + BOSTON + LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY + 1909 + + + _Copyright, 1909_, + BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. + + _All rights reserved_ + + Published April, 1909 + + Electrotyped and Printed at + THE COLONIAL PRESS: + C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U.S.A. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. INTRODUCING MRS. RAY + II. THE COMING OF THE LASSIE + III. INTRODUCING LASSIE TO MRS. RAY + IV. THE DIFFERENCE + V. THAT DISPASSIONATE OBSERVER, MRS. RAY + VI. WHEN DIFFERENCES LEAD TO WHAT IS EVER THE SAME + VII. THE LATHBUNS + VIII. MISS LATHBUN'S STORY + IX. PLEASANT CONVERSE + X. THE BROADER MEANING + XI. THE WAR-PATH + XII. ANOTHER PATH + XIII. AND STILL ANOTHER PATH + XIV. DEVOTED TO COATS AND CASE-KNIVES + XV. LEARNING LESSONS + XVI. THE WALK TO THE LOWER FALLS + XVII. RIGHTEOUS JUSTICE + XVIII. IN THE HOUR OF NEED + XIX. DOUBTS + XX. SHIFTING SUNSHINE AND CLOUDS + XXI. THE POST-OFFICE + XXII. AFTERMATH + XXIII. THE DARKNESS BEFORE + XXIV. DAWN + XXV. THE BREAKING OF ANOTHER DAY AND WAY + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + + "THE ONLY REAL HOLE IS WHERE HE SAT DOWN ON AN ENGINE SPARK AT + THE STATION" + + "IT'S HER THAT BOUGHT THE OLD WHITTACKER HOUSE" + + "SURELY YOU REMEMBER ME" + + ALVA + + "IF YOU'VE LENT MONEY TO THE LATHBUNS YOU'RE GOING TO LOSE IT" + + + + +IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCING MRS. RAY + + +"'He moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform,'" sang Mrs. Ray, +coming in from the wood-shed and proceeding to fill up the stove, with +the energy which characterized her whole person. A short, well-knit, +active person it was, too,--a figure of health and compact muscular +strength, a well-shaped head with a tight wad of neat hair on top, +bright eyes, and a firm mouth. + +Mrs. Wiley, a near neighbor, sat by the table and watched her friend +with the after-nightfall passivity of a woman who has to be very active +during daylight. Mrs. Wiley was not small and well-knit, neither was she +energetic. Life for Mrs. Wiley had gone mainly in a minor key composed +largely of sharps, and as a consequence she sighed frequently and sighed +even now. + +Mrs. Ray slammed the stove door and caroled louder than ever, as if to +drown even the echo of a sigh in her kitchen. "'He moves in a mysterious +way His wonders to perform,'" she sang, and then, folding her arms on +top of her bosom in a manner peculiarly her own, she spoke to Mrs. +Wiley in that obtrusively cheerful tone which we use to those who sigh +when feeling no desire to sigh with them: "That's my motto--that +song--yes, indeed. It fits everything and accounts for everything and +comes in handy anywhere any time, even if I never have wondered myself, +but have been dead sure all along. Yes, indeed." + +Mrs. Wiley sighed again, and her eyes moved towards a large, awkward +parcel rolled in newspaper, which lay on the end of the table by her. +"I'm so glad you feel able to undertake it, Mrs. Ray. I don't know how I +ever could have managed it, if you'd said no. Mr. Wiley _will_ have a +new pig-pen this year, and the pigs never can pay for it themselves. So +you were my only way to a new winter coat. I'm so glad you didn't say +no. Besides it's father's suit, and I shall love to wear it for that +reason, too." + +"I never do say no to any kind of work, do I?" said Mrs. Ray, looking at +the clock, and then all over the room; "this would be a nice time of +life for me to begin to sit around and say no to work. What with Mr. +Ray's second wife's children not all educated yet, and his first wife's +children getting along to where they're beginning to be left widows with +six apiece and no life insurance, I'm likely to want all the work I can +get for some years, as far as I can see. Yes, indeed." + +Mrs. Wiley sighed heavily. + +"Mr. Wiley thinks we'd ought to insure our lives in favor of Lottie +Ann," she said, feeling for her pocket-handkerchief at the thought; +"she's so dreadful delicate--but I think it's foolish--she's so +_dreadful_ delicate." + +"Why don't you insure Lottie Ann, then?" Mrs. Ray glanced at the clock +again, frowned a little and puckered her lips. "If you don't mind taking +that chair the cat's in, Mrs. Wiley, I believe I've got just about time +enough to sprinkle the clothes before the mail comes in; it looks so to +me." + +Mrs. Wiley slowly and gravely exchanged seats with the cat. "Do you take +much washing in now? I shouldn't think you had time." + +"Time!" Mrs. Ray was dragging a clothes-basket from under the table and +filling a dipper with water. "I never stop to think whether I have time +or not, any more. 'He moves in a mysterious way--' there's where my +motto comes in again. Yes, indeed. I move just the same way myself. I +don't see how I get so much done, but I've no time to stop and study +over it, or I'd be behind just that much. There's more than you wonder +where I get time from, Mrs. Wiley. They asked me if I had time for the +post-office. And I said I had. They asked first if I could read and +write, and I said I could; and then they asked me if I had time, and I +said I had. And that settled it." + +"Why, Mrs. Ray," said Mrs. Wiley, watching the clothes-sprinkling, which +was now going forward, attentively, "that's one of the waists from that +girl at Nellie O'Neil's, isn't it?" + +"Yes, indeed. She asked Nellie for a French laundress, and Nellie put +her shawl right over her head and run up and asked me if I had time for +that, too. I said I was willing to try, so I'm a French laundress too, +now. 'He moves'--" + +"What do you think of those two young people at Nellie's, anyway?" Mrs. +Wiley dropped her voice confidentially. "I was meaning to ask you that, +right at first." + +"Well, if you ask _me_," said Mrs. Ray, "I can't make him out, and I +think she's mooney. I'm a great judge of mooney people ever since I +first knew Mr. Ray, and that girl looks very mooney to me. Look at her +coming here and hiking right over and buying the Whittacker house next +day--a house I wouldn't send a rat to buy--not if I had a real liking +for the rat. And now the way she's pulling it to pieces and nailing on +new improvements, with the trees all boxed up, as though trees weren't +free as air--oh, she's mooney, very mooney--yes, indeed." + +"Nellie don't think they act loving," said Mrs. Wiley; "and Joey Beall +says they don't act loving even when they're alone together. He's been +building a culvert for Mr. Ledge, and he's seen 'em alone together +twice. Joey knows how people ought to act when they're alone together. +He always knows when folks are in love, before they know themselves. He +tells by seeing them alone together. Why, he knew when you was going to +be married--he saw you and Mr. Ray alone together that day you walked to +the Lower Falls." + +"But it wasn't through our acting loving that he knew it," said Mrs. +Ray, energetically ruminative between the dipper of water and the +clothes to be sprinkled; "my, but I was mad that day! It was the first +and last time anybody ever fooled _me_ into walking to the Lower Falls. +Yes, indeed. I like to of died! If Mr. Ray hadn't asked me to marry him, +I'd never have forgiven him getting me to go on that walk. Those flights +of steps! And those paths! All the way down I was wanting to turn round +and go back. I made up my mind never to take Mr. Ray's word for nothing +again. And I never did. He fooled me into that walk, but he never fooled +me again. Yes, indeed. Never!" + +"But Joey Beall saw you that day," said Mrs. Wiley, whose mind was of +that strength which is not to be swept beyond its gait by any other +mind's rapidity, "and he said right off that night you'd marry him." + +"Maybe he saw Mr. Ray take his first and second wife down to the Lower +Falls, and knew it from his looks with them--Mr. Ray took 'em both down +there, and asked 'em each to marry him coming back. All the way down he +was telling me what they each said to everything they saw. And coming +back he showed me where he asked 'em each. Mr. Ray never made any secret +of his first and second wife to me. I'll say that for him. Yes, indeed. +And like enough Joey was around then. He's always round when people are +alone together." + +"But he doesn't think these young people act loving," Mrs. Wiley went +on, recurring to the main issue under discussion. "Joey says they don't +have the right way at all. He says they don't disagree right, either. +They're on opposite sides of the dam, the same as if they were married +folks, but they don't seem to feel interested in their discussing. +Nellie says they're real pleasant, but she can't understand them; +Nellie's very far from making them out." + +"Oh, Nellie can't make nothing out. She and Jack is dead easy. Look at +those other boarders they've got. She says she can't make them out, +either. I should think not." + +Mrs. Wiley's standpoint refused to stretch to the other boarders. She +sighed again. + +"She seems a very nice girl," she said, sadly. + +"Oh, yes, nice enough--but mooney," said Mrs. Ray. "I know the kind as +soon as I see 'em. I could almost tell 'em by their legs, when they get +down from the train on the side away from me. She's got ideas about +souls and scenery, that girl has; but that young man's got his living to +earn, and he hasn't no time for any ideas. I like him! We both work for +the United States Government, and that's a great bond. Yes, indeed. That +young man knows if the dam goes through here, he'll be fixed for life +digging it, and the girl's just the kind he wants, for he's practical +and she's mooney--she's so mooney she's bought a house to live in while +he digs the dam, and yet she's solemnly hoping there won't be no dam. +She says so." + +"Perhaps she don't mean it," suggested Mrs. Wiley. + +"Yes, she does mean it," said Mrs. Ray; "yes, indeed, she means it. I'm +a great judge of character and that girl means what she says." + +"About the dam?" + +"Yes, about everything. She's very friendly with me. She buys lots of +stamps, and cancels up like a lady. I'm very fond of her." + +"What did she say about the dam?" + +"Oh, lots of things. She said it was a desecration for one thing, and +then I was singing one day and she said I was very right, for the Lord +did move in a very mysterious way, and He would save the falls." + +"Was she as sure as that?" asked Mrs. Wiley, appalled. + +"She seemed to be. Oh, but she's very mooney." + +"She's expecting a friend on to-night's train," said Mrs. Wiley; "Nellie +says it's a girl younger than she is." + +"There'll be trouble then," said Mrs. Ray, with the calmness of all +prophets of evil; "a girl younger than she is is going to make her look +awful old." + +"I wonder how long they'll stay!" + +"I don't know. You never can tell how long any one will stay here. Some +come and say 'Oh, it's so quiet,' and the next morning the express has +got to be flagged to take 'em right away; and others come and say 'Oh, +it's so quiet,' and send for their trunks and paint-boxes that night. +You never can tell how this place is going to strike any one. Mr. Ray's +first wife cried all the time, till she died of asthma brought on by +hay-fever; and his second wife liked to be where she could go without +her false teeth, and she just loved it here! Yes, indeed." + +"It isn't so very long till the train now," said Mrs. Wiley; "I guess +I'll go down to the station. I always like to see the train come in. +It's so sort of amusing to think it's going to Buffalo. Lottie Ann says +it's so funny to think of something being right here with us, and then +going right to Buffalo. I wish Lottie Ann could travel more. Lottie Ann +would be a great traveller if she could travel any." + +Mrs. Ray took up the lamp. "Well, if you must go," she said, "I'll put +the light in the post-office and get down cellar, myself. I'm raising +celery odd minutes this year, and getting the beds ready to lay it under +is a lot of work." + +Mrs. Wiley rose and moved slowly towards the door. "I wonder how long +those other two will stay at Nellie's," she said. + +Mrs. Ray's lips drew tightly together. "I can't say I'm sure," she said; +"I know nothing about them. Folks who never write letters nor get +letters don't cut any figure in my life. Good night, Mrs. Wiley,"--she +opened the door as she spoke--"good-by." + +"They've been there--" murmured Mrs. Wiley, but the door closing behind +her ended her speech. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE COMING OF THE LASSIE + + +On that same evening Alva and Ingram, the main subject of Mrs. Ray's and +Mrs. Wiley's discourse, sat in the dining-room of the O'Neil House, +waiting for train time. They had the dining-room to themselves, except +for occasional vague and interjectional appearances of Mary Cody in the +door, to see "if they wanted anything." Ingram had been eating,--he was +late, always late,--and Alva sat watching him in the absent-minded way +in which she was apt to contemplate the doings of other people, while +she talked to him with the earnest interest which she always gave to +talking,--when she talked at all. The contrast between her dreamy eyes +and the intentness of her tone was as great as the contrast between the +first impression wrought by a glance at her colorless face and simple +dress, and the second, when, with a start, the onlooker realized that +here was some one well worth looking at, well worth studying, and well +worth meditating later. Perhaps she was not beautiful--I am not quite +sure as to that--but she was surely lovely, with the loveliness which a +certain sort of life brings to some faces. + +Ingram, on the other side of the table, was just the ordinary +good-looking, professional man of thirty to thirty-five. Tall, straight, +slightly tanned, as would be natural for a civil engineer who had spent +September in the open; especially well-groomed for a man sixty miles +from what he called civilization, fine to see in his knickerbockers and +laced shoes, genial, jolly, and appreciative to the limit, apparently. + +The contrast between the two was very great, and was felt by more than +Mrs. Ray, for there had been many who had watched them during the week +of Alva's stay. "He's a awful nice man," Mrs. O'Neil had said to Mrs. +Ray, "but I don't see how she ever came to fancy him. They seem happy +together, but it's such a funny way to be happy together." + +This had been the original form of the statement which Mrs. Ray had +later repeated to Mrs. Wiley. + +It was true that they seemed very far apart, but were nevertheless +apparently happy together. The week had been a pleasant week to both. +Not, perhaps, as the town supposed, but pleasant anyway. + +"I'm selfish enough to wish that it wasn't at an end to-night," Ingram +said, as he took his piece of blackberry pie from Mary Cody; "you're a +godsend in this place, Alva." + +"But you'll like Lassie," his companion replied; "she's a charming +little girl,--and I love her so. I always have loved the child, and just +now it seemed to me as if it would do both her and me good to be +together. Life for me is so wonderful--I don't like to be selfish with +these days. My thoughts are too happy to keep to myself. I want some one +to share my joy." + +Ingram looked at her quizzically. "And I won't do at all?" he asked. + +"You,--oh, you're away all day. And then, besides, you're still so +material, so awfully material. You can't deny it, Ronald, you're +frightfully material--practical--commonplace. Of the world so very +worldly." + +He laughed lightly. "Just because I don't agree with you about the dam," +he said; "there, that's it, you know. Why, my dear girl, suppose all +America had been reserved for its beauty, set aside for the perpetual +preservation of the buffaloes and the scenery,--where would you and I be +now?" + +She looked away from him in her curious, contemplative way. "If you +knew," she said, after a minute, "how silly and petty and trivial such +arguments sound to thinking people, you'd positively blush with shame to +use them. It's like arguing with a baby to try to talk Heaven's reason +with the ordinary man; he just sees his own little, narrow, earthly +standpoint. I wonder whether it's worth while to ever try to be serious +with you. You know very well that the most of your brethren would be +willing to wreck the Yellowstone from end to end, if they could make +their own private and personal fortunes building railways through it." + +Ingram laughed again. "Where would the country be without railroads?" he +asked. + +She withdrew the meaning in her gaze out of the infinite beyond, where +it seemed to float easily, and centred it on him. + +"Just to think," she said, with deep meaning, "that ten years ago I +might have married you, and had to face your system of logic for life!" + +"Is it as bad as that?" + +"It might have been. We might have made it so before we knew better. +That's the rub in marriage. Every one does it before he or she has +settled his or her own views. I wasn't much of an idealist ten years +ago, and you were not much of anything. But if I could have married any +one then, I should have married you." + +A shadow fell upon his face. He turned his chair a little from the +table. "If I was not the right one, I wish that you had married some +other man then,--I wish it with all my heart. You would have been so +much happier. You're not happy now--you know that. It would have been so +much better for you if you had married." + +She smiled and shook her head. "Oh, no. It is much better as it is. +Infinitely better. It's like coming up against a great granite wall to +try and talk to you, Ronald, because you simply cannot understand what I +mean when I say words, but nevertheless, believe me, I'm on my knees day +and night, figuratively speaking, thanking God that I didn't marry then. +I wasn't meant to marry then. I've been needed single." + +He took out his cigarette case. "What were you meant for, then, do you +think?" he queried; "nothing except as a convenience for others?" + +"I was meant to learn, and then later, perhaps, to teach." + +"To learn?" He looked his question with a quick intensity. "To teach?--" +the question deepened sharply. + +She smiled. "Yes. To learn so that I could teach. I feel some days that +I was born to teach, and of course no one may hope to teach until he has +learned first." + +He shrugged his shoulders and laughed a little. She smiled again. "You +great, granite wall, you don't understand a bit, do you? Never mind, +light your cigarette, and then tell me what time it is. We must not +forget Lassie, you know." + +He looked at his watch. "Ten minutes yet." + +"Dear child, how tired she'll be. Never mind, she'll have a good rest +during the next ten days." + +"Will she stay ten days? She'll be here as long as you will then, won't +she?" + +"Yes; I'm going when she does." + +"You think that the house will be done by that time?" + +"I know that it will be done. It must be done." + +He took his cigarette up in his fingers, turned it about a little, and +then looked suddenly straight at her. "Alva, tell me the mystery, tell +me the story, please. What is the house for?" + +She looked at him and was silent. + +"Why won't you tell me?" + +Still silence. Still she looked at him. + +"You'll tell her when she comes. Why not me?" + +She spoke then: "She'll be able to understand, perhaps. You couldn't." + +Ingram compressed his lips. "And am I so awfully dense?" he asked, half +hurt. + +"Not so dense, but, as yet, too ignorant. Or else it is that I am still +too little myself to be able to rise above some human sentiments. And +there is one point where endurance of the world's opinion is such +refinement of torture, that only the very strongest and greatest can go +willingly forward to meet and suffer the inevitable. The inevitable is +close to me these days; it is approaching closer hourly, and there is no +possible way for me to make you or the world understand how I feel in +regard to it all. And I shrink from facing the kind of thing that I +shall soon have to face any sooner than is absolutely necessary. And so +I won't tell you." + +She stopped. Although her voice was firm, her eyes had again become far +away in their expression, and she seemed almost to have forgotten him +even while making this explanation for his sake. He was watching her +with deepest interest, and the curiosity in his eyes burned more +brightly than ever. + +"But if it is all as terrible as you make out," he said, "how can you +make that young girl understand what you suppose to be so far beyond +me?" + +"Because I can teach her." + +"How?" + +"She'll be with me night and day for ten days. We'll have a good deal of +time together. And then, too, she is a woman. Women learn some lessons +easily. Easier far than men." + +"Is it right to teach her such a lesson as this?" + +"Why do you ask that, when you do not know what my lesson will be? How +can you dare fancy that it could possibly be wrong?" + +Ingram paused for a minute, a little staggered. Then he said, bluntly: +"The world is made up of reasonable men and women, and it seems to me +best that all men and women should be reasonable. What isn't reasonable +is wrong. Forgive me, Alva, but you don't sound reasonable." + +"You think that I am not reasonable? Therefore I must be wrong. That's +your logic?" + +He hesitated. "Perhaps I think you wrong. I must confess that to me you +often seem so." + +She thought a minute, considering his standpoint. + +"Ronald," she said then, "'reasonable' is a term that is given its +meaning by those in power, isn't that so? 'Reasonable' is what best +serves the ends of those who generally seek to serve no ends except +their own. It's true that I don't at all care what a few selfish and +near-sighted individuals think of me. I have thrown in my lot with the +unreasonable majority, the poor, the suffering, and those yet to be born +who are being robbed of their birthright. To leave my mystery and go +back to our familiar difference, there's the dam to illustrate my exact +meaning. The 'reasonable' use of the river out there is to build a dam, +and so make a few more millionaires and give employment for a few years +to a few thousands of Italians. The 'unreasonable' use to make of the +river is to preserve it intact for tired, weary souls to flee to through +all the future, so that their bodies may breathe God and life into their +being again, and go forth strong. You know you don't agree with me as to +that view of that case, so how can I expect you to disagree with the +general opinion that the 'reasonable' thing for me to do personally is +to take my life and get all the pleasure that I can from it? The +'unreasonable' view, the one I hold myself, is that I have elected to +take it and give--not get--all the pleasure that I can with it. Of +course you don't understand that unreasonableness, and so you don't +agree with me; but I can tell you one thing, Ronald," she leaned forward +and suddenly threw intense meaning into her words, "and that is this. My +story--my mystery as you call it so often--is at once a very old mystery +and a very new one. I have suffered, and I am to suffer, most terribly. +The happiness to which I am looking forward is going to be an ordeal +for which all that I have undergone until now will be none too much +preparation. But in the hour of my keenest agony I shall be happier and +more hopeful than you will ever be able to realize in your life. Unless +you change completely. Take my word for that." + +She rose as she spoke, and he rose, too, looking towards her with eyes +that plainly subscribed to Mrs. Ray's opinion as expressed in the simple +vernacular. + +"Oh, no, I can't understand, and I don't believe," he said: "but I am +able to meet trains, anyhow." + +A large cape lay on an empty chair near by, and she took it up now. + +"But I'm going alone," she said, as she slipped into it. + +"What nonsense. Of course I am not going to let you go alone." + +She looked at him, buttoning the woolen cross-straps upon the cape as +she did so; then she threw one corner back over her forearm and laid +that hand on his, speaking decidedly. + +"I'm going alone to meet her. You know what I asked you to promise when +I came here a week ago, and you know that you gave me your word that +you'd never interfere with me. Lassie is almost a stranger to you, and +after you have learned to know her as a young lady there will come years +for you two to talk together, but for me this meeting is something that +I don't want to share. Don't say any more." + +"But what will she think," he queried, "when she and you return +together, and here sits a cavalier who didn't trouble himself to +accompany one lady through the dark night to meet another's train?" + +"She will think nothing, because she will not see the cavalier. When we +come in, we shall go straight up-stairs." + +Ingram more than smiled now. "Forgive me, Alva, but you and I are such +old, such near, such dear friends, that I can say to you frankly, as I +do say to you frankly over and over again, I don't understand you." + +She laughed at that, and turned towards the door. + +"I know--I know. I'm very queer, most awfully queer, in the eyes of +every one. But I can tell you, as I tell them, that the worst of it is +only for a little while. Just a few brief weeks and I shall be again, in +most ways, a normal woman. A woman just like all the rest again," her +back was towards him now, "in most thing--in most things." + +"Never! You never have been like other women,--you've always been +different from other women; you always will be." + +"Have I? Shall I? Well, perhaps it's so. I'm rather glad of it. Most +women are stupid, I think. Poor things!" she sighed. + +He followed her as she moved towards the door, half-vexed, +half-laughing: + +"And men, Alva, and men. Are they all stupid in your eyes?" + +She had her hand on the knob, and her great cape was gathered about her +in heavy folds. + +"Oh, Ronald," she said, looking into his look, "if you had any idea how +fearfully stupid they seem to me. Often and often in the last three +years. Even yourself. And ten years ago, when we were eighteen and +twenty-five, I thought you so interesting, too." + +He burst out laughing at that,--it wasn't in him to take her seriously +enough to really mind her "ways" long. + +"But what are we to do, when we are such mere ordinary creatures? And +you know, my dear, that if the transcendentals like to muse on bridges +by moonlight, some well-educated, commonplace individuals must build +them the bridges first." + +"Ah, there you go again. Yes, that's true. One should never forget that, +of course. Particularly when talking with a man who uses a man's logic." + +Then she opened the door, passed quickly into the hall, and let it close +after her. + +A lantern was resting on the floor outside, as if in waiting, and she +picked it up and went at once into the night--a dark night through which +the station lights and signals, red and yellow, sparkled brightly. + +It was a brisk October air that filled that outer world, and the +superabundant vitality of God's country came glinting, storming, down, +up, and across earth, sky, and ether in between. + +"This glorious night!" she thought prayerfully. "If one might only +realize just all it means to be existing right now." She held the +lantern behind her, and saw her shadow spread forth into space and fade +away beyond. "The train isn't in the block yet," she thought, glancing +at the signal; "that means minutes long to wait." Quickly she ran down +the cinder-path beside the tracks, and entered the little station where +a crowd of men lounged. + +"Is the train on time to-night?" she asked one. + +He shook his head. "Half an hour late," he said; "wreck on the road. +Wheel off a car of thrashing-machines at Kent's." + +"A whole half hour?" + +"Well, I heard Joey Beall say they was making it up," said the man; "the +station agent's gone home to supper, or you could ask him." + +"Thank you very much," Alva said, and turned and went out. + +The night appeared even fairer than before. Her eyes roamed widely. She +thought for a minute of going back to the hotel and bidding Ingram come +out with her, but then her own mood cried for relief from the labor of +his companionship. We do not give our spirits credit for what they learn +through adapting themselves to uncongenial companionship. Alva felt hers +craved a rest. "I'll go out on the bridge and wait there," she told +herself; "that will be the right thing,--to stand above the gorge and +say my evening prayers." + +So, stepping carefully over the switch impedimenta, she walked on, +following the embankment that led out to the Long Bridge. + +It is very long--that Long Bridge--and very high as well. I believe that +the first bridge, the wooden one, was close to a world's wonder in its +days. Even now the skilfully combined network of iron, steel, joist and +cable seems a species of marvel, as it springs across the great cleft +that the glacier sawed through several million layers of Devonian +stratum several million years ago. I forget how many tons of metal went +into its structure, but so intricate and delicately poised is the whole, +that while trains roar forth upon its length and find no danger, yet +does it echo quick and responsive to the light step of a lithe treading +woman or even of the littlest child. On this night Alva, wrapped close +in her cape, fared fearlessly out into the black beyond. The high braces +and beams creaked all along its vanishing length, and she smiled at the +sound. "I wonder if sometime, years from now, I shall return and walk +out here again, and find the bridge crying me a welcome!" she thought; +"I wonder!" A narrow, boarded way led to the right of the rails, and she +was soon directly over the gorge. It was far too dark to see the ribbon +of river hundreds and hundreds of feet below, or the steep +picture-crevasse that encased the water's way. Beyond and below, to the +left, she could have seen the windows of Ledgeville, had she turned that +way, but she did not do so. It was the gorge that always claimed her, +whether by day or by night, and now she leaned upon the steel guard and +stared below. "I can see it plainly, even in the dark," she murmured to +herself. "I can see every rock and eddy down there, the great curve of +whirlpool, and the place where the water slides so smoothly off and then +goes mad and foams below. It is all distinct to me. I remember the day +that I first saw it, years ago, when--right here, where I stand +to-night--he came to me for the first time, and we knew one another +directly. And I shall see it just so plainly in the years to come, when +it will never enter into my daily life any more, and yet will be the +background of all my living." + +She stood there for a long time, wrapped in the depth of her own +thoughts. The shadows below seemed to shift and drift in their +variations of intensity, and her eyes found rest in their profundity. +"It's like drawing water out of a well when one is very thirsty," she +said, at last, straightening herself and sighing; "it's +unexplainable, but oh, it's so good,--the lesson of darkness and water +and trees and sky. How grateful I am to be able to spell out a little in +that primer!" + +Then she clasped her hands and said a prayer, and as she finished the +signal flashed the train's entrance within the block. That meant only +two minutes until its arrival, and so she turned herself back at once. +The crowd at the station had perceptibly increased and began now to +surge forth upon the platform. Mrs. Dunstall was there and Pinkie, and +Joey Beall and Mrs. Wiley, and Clay Wright Benton, and old Sammy Adams, +and Lucia Cosby. + +"Been out on the Bridge, I suppose?" Mrs. Dunstall said pleasantly to +Alva. + +"Yes; it's lovely to-night," the latter replied. + +Every one smiled. They all felt that any one who would go out on the +bridge on a pitch black night must be mildly insane, but they looked +upon Alva as mildly insane anyhow. Mrs. Ray had many beside Ingram to +uphold her opinion. + +"It's her that bought the old Whittacker house and is putting a bath-tub +in it," Joey Beall whispered to a man who was waiting to leave by the +last train out. + +[Illustration: "IT'S HER THAT BOUGHT THE OLD WHITTACKER HOUSE."] + +"I know it," said the man; he was one of those men who never let Joey or +anybody else feel that he had any advantage of him, in even the +slightest way. + +Just then the train charged madly in beside them. + +Lassie, out on the Pullman's rear platform, preparatory to climbing down +the steep steps the instant that it should be allowable, saw a +well-known figure wrapped in a dark cloak, and gave a little cry of +joy-- + +"Alva! Here I am--all safe." + +Then she was enwrapped in the same dark cloak herself, for the space of +one warm, all-embracing hug, her friend repeating over and over, "I'm so +happy to have you--so happy to have you." And then they moved away +through the little group of bystanders, and started up the cinder-path +towards the hotel. + +"I'm so happy to have you!" Alva exclaimed again, when they were alone. +She did not even seem to know that she had said so before. + +"It was so good of you to ask me! How did you come to think of it? And +oh, Alva, what are you doing here, in this lonely place?" + +"It will take me all your visit to properly answer those questions, +dear; but I'll tell you this much at once. I asked you because I wanted +to have you with me, and because I thought that you and I could help one +another a great deal right now. And I am here, dear, because I am the +happiest woman that the world has ever seen, and because the greatest +happiness that the world has ever known is to be here in a few weeks." + +Lassie stopped short, astonished. + +Alva went on, laughing gaily: "Yes, it is so! Come on,--or you will +stumble without my lantern to guide you. I'm going to tell you all about +everything when we get alone in our room, but now, little girl, hurry, +hurry. Don't stop behind." + +So Lassie swallowed her astonishment for the time being, and followed. + +The hotel stood on the crest of the hill above the station and the +railway's path curved by it. They were there in a minute, and in another +minute alone up-stairs in their room--or rather, rooms--for there were +two bedrooms, opening one into the other. + +"Why, how pretty you have made them," the young girl cried; "pictures, +and a real live tea-table. And a work-stand! How cosy and dear! It's +just as if you meant to live here always." + +Her face glowed, as she absorbed the surprising charm of her new abode. +One does not need to be very old or to have travelled very extensively +to recognize some comforts as pleasingly surprising in the country. + +Alva was hanging up her cloak, and now she came and began to undo the +traveller's with a loving touch. + +"Why, in one way I do mean to live here always, dear. I never am +anywhere that I do not--in a certain sense--live there ever after. +People and places never fade out of my life. Wherever I have once been +is forever near and dear to me, so dear that I can't bear to remember +anybody or anything there as ugly. The difference between a pretty room +and an ugly one is only a little money and a few minutes, after all, and +I'm beginning to learn to apply the same rule to people. It only takes a +little to find something interesting about each. We'll be so happy here, +Lassie; how we will talk and sew and drink tea in these two tiny rooms! +I've been just feasting on the thought of it every minute since you +wrote that you could come." + +Lassie hugged her again. "I can't tell you how overjoyed I was to think +of coming and having a whole fortnight of you to myself. Every one +thought it was droll, my running off like this when I ought to be deep +in preparations for my début, but mamma said that the rest and change +would do me good. And I was so glad!" + +Alva had gone to hang up the second cloak and now she turned, smiling +her usual quiet sweet smile as she did so. + +"It's a great thing for me to have you, dear; I haven't been lonely, but +my life has been so happy here that I have felt selfish over keeping so +much rare, sweet, unutterable joy all to myself,--I wanted to share it." + +She seated herself on the side of the bed, and held out her hand in +invitation, and Lassie accepted the invitation and went and perched +beside her. + +"Tell me all about it," she said, nestling childishly close; "how long +have you been here anyway?" + +"A week to-day." + +"Only a week! Why, you wrote me a week ago." + +"No, dear, six days ago." + +"But you spoke as if you had been here ever so long then." + +"Did I? It seemed to me that I had been here a long time, I suppose. +Time doesn't go with me as regularly as it should, I believe. Some years +are days, and the first day here was a year." + +"And why are you here, Alva?" + +"Oh, that's a long story." + +"But tell it me, can't you?" + +"Wait till to-morrow, dearest; wait until to-morrow, until you see my +house." + +"Your house!" + +"I've bought a house here,--a dear little old Colonial dwelling hidden +behind a high evergreen wall." + +"A house here--in Ledge?" + +"No, dear, not in Ledge--in Ledgeville. Across the bridge--" + +"But when--" + +"A week ago--the day I came." + +"But why--" + +Alva leaned her face down against the bright brown head. + +"I wanted a home of my own, Lassie." + +"But I thought that you couldn't leave your father and mother?" + +"I can't, dear." + +"Are they coming here to live?" + +"No, dear." + +"But I don't understand--" + +"But you will to-morrow; I'll tell you everything to-morrow; I'd tell +you to-night, only that I promised myself that we would go to a certain +dear spot, and sit there alone in the woods while I told you." + +"Why in the woods?" + +"Ah, Lassie, because I love the woods; I've gotten so fond of woods, you +don't know how fond; trees and grass have come to be such friends to me; +I'll tell you about it all later. It's all part of the story." + +"But why did you come here, Alva,--here of all places, where you don't +know any one. For you don't know any one here, do you?" + +"I know a man named Ronald Ingram here; he is the chief of the +engineering party that is surveying for the dam." + +"Is he an old friend?" + +"Oh, yes, from my childhood." + +Lassie turned quickly, her eyes shining: + +"Alva, are you going to marry him?" + +Her face was so bright and eager that something veiled the eyes of the +other with tears as she answered: + +"No, dear; he's nothing but a friend. I was looking for a house--a house +in the wilderness--and he sent for me to come and see one here. And I +came and saw it and bought it at once; I expect to see it in order in +less than a fortnight." + +"Then you're going to spend this winter here?" + +Alva nodded. "Part of it at any rate." + +"Alone?" + +Alva shook her head. + +Lassie's big eyes grew yet more big. "Do you mean--you don't mean--oh, +what do you mean?" + +She leaned forward, looking eagerly up into the other's face. "Alva, +Alva, it isn't--it can't be--oh, then you are really--" + +Two great tears rolled down that other woman's face. She simply bowed +her head and said nothing. + +Lassie stared speechless for a minute; then--"I'm so glad--so glad," she +stammered, "so glad. And you'll tell me all about it to-morrow?" + +"Yes, dear," Alva whispered, "I'll tell you all to-morrow. I'll be glad +to tell it all to you. The truth is, Lassie, that I thought that I was +strong enough to live these days alone, but I learned that I am weaker +than I thought. You see how weak I am. I am weeping now, but they are +tears of joy, believe me--they are tears of joy; I am the happiest and +most blessed woman in the whole wide world. And yet, it is your coming +that leads me to weep. I had to have some outlet, dear, some one to whom +to speak. And I want to live, Lassie, and be strong, very, very +strong--for God." + +Lassie sat staring. + +"You don't understand, do you?" Alva said to her, with the same smile +with which she had put the same question to Ingram. + +But Lassie did not answer the question as Ingram had answered it. + +"You will teach me and I shall learn to understand," she said. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +INTRODUCING LASSIE TO MRS. RAY + + +The next morning dawned gorgeous. + +When Lassie, in her little gray kimono, stole gently in to wake her +friend, she found Alva already up and dressed, standing at the window, +looking out over the October beauty that spread afar before her. It was +a wonderful sight, all the trees bright and yet brighter in their autumn +gladness, while the grass sparkled green through the dew that had been +frost an hour before. The view showed the radiance fading off into the +distant blue, where bare brown fields told of the harvest garnered and +the ground made ready for another spring. + +Lassie pressed Alva's arm as she peeped over her shoulder, and the other +turned in silence and kissed her tenderly. + +Side by side they looked forth together for some minutes longer, and +then Lassie whispered: + +"I could hardly get to sleep last night--for thinking of it all, you +know. You don't guess how interested I am. I do so want to know +everything." + +Alva turned to regard her with her calm smile. + +"But when you did get to sleep, you slept well, didn't you?" she asked; +"tell me that, first of all." + +"Why, is it late? Did I sleep too awfully long? Why didn't you call +me?" + +"Oh, my dear, why? It's barely nine, and that isn't late at all for a +girl who spent all yesterday on the train. I let you sleep on purpose. +What's the use of waking up before the mail comes? And that isn't in +till half-past under the most favorable circumstances; and even then it +never is distributed until quarter to ten. I thought we'd get our +letters after our breakfast, and then carry them across the bridge with +us. Would you like to do that? I have to cross the bridge every +morning." + +"Cross the bridge? That means to go to your house?" + +"Yes, dear." + +"How nice! I'm crazy to see your house. Is it far from here to the +post-office? Will that be on our way?" + +"That is the post-office there--by the trees." Alva pointed to a brown, +two-story, cottage-like structure three hundred yards further up the +track. + +"The little house with the box nailed to the gate-post?" + +"It isn't such a little house, Lassie; it's quite a mansion. The lady +who lives in it rents the upper part for a flat and takes boarders +down-stairs." + +"Does she take many?" + +Alva laughed. "She told me that she only had a double-bed and a +half-bed, so she was limited to eight." + +"Oh!" + +"I know, my dear, I thought that very same 'Oh' myself; but that's what +she said. And that really is as naught compared to the rest of her +capabilities." + +"What else does she do?" + +"I'm afraid I can't remember it all at once, but among other things she +runs a farm, raises chickens, takes in sewing, cuts hair, canes chairs +and is sexton of the church. She's postmistress, too, and does several +little things around town." + +Lassie drew back in amazement. "You're joking." + +"No, dear, I'm not joking. She's the eighth wonder in the world, in my +opinion." + +"She must be quite a character." + +"Every one's quite a character in the country. Country life develops +character. I expect to become a character myself, very soon; indeed I'm +not very positive but that I am one already." + +"But how does the woman find time to do so much?" + +"There is more time in the country than in the city; you'll soon +discover that. One gets up and dresses and breakfasts and goes for the +mail, and reads the letters and answers them, and then its only quarter +past ten,--in the country." + +Lassie withdrew from the arm that held her. "It won't be so with me +to-day, at all events," she laughed. "What will they think of me if +every one here is as prompt as that?" + +"It doesn't matter to-day; we'll be prompt ourselves to-morrow. But +you'd better run now. I'm in a hurry to get to my house; I'm as silly +over that house as a little child with a new toy,--sillier, in fact, for +my interest is in ratio with my growth, and I've wanted a home for so +long." + +"But you've had a home." + +"Not of my very ownest own, not such as this will be." + +The young girl looked up into her face. "I'm so _very_ curious," she +said, with emphasis; "I want so to know the story." + +Alva touched her cheek caressingly, "I'll tell you soon," she promised, +"after you've seen the house." + +Lassie went back into her room and proceeded to make her toilet, which +was soon finished. + +They went down into the little hotel dining-room then for breakfast, and +found it quite deserted, but neat and sweet, and pleasantly odorous of +bacon. + +"Such a dolls' house of a hotel," said Lassie. + +"It's a cozy place," Alva answered. "I like this kind of hotel. It's +sweet and informal. If they forget you, you can step to the kitchen and +ask for more coffee. I'm tired of the world and the world's +conventionality. I told Mrs. Lathbun yesterday that Ledge would spoil me +for civilization hereafter. I like to live in out-of-the-way places." + +"Mrs. Lathbun is the hostess, I suppose?" + +"No, Mrs. O'Neil is the hostess, or rather, she's the host's wife. You +must meet her to-day. Such a pretty, brown-eyed, girlish creature,--the +last woman in the world to bring into a country hotel. She says herself +that when you've been raised with a faucet and a sewer, it's terrible to +get used to a cistern and a steep bank. She was born and brought up in +Buffalo." + +By this time Mary Cody had entered, beaming good morning, and placed the +hot bacon and eggs, toast and coffee, before them. + +"I'm going for the mail after breakfast, Mary," Alva said; "shall I +bring yours?" + +"Can't I bring yours?" said Mary Cody. "I can run up there just as well +as not." Mary Cody was all smiles at the mere idea. + +"No, I'll have to go myself to-day, I think. I'm expecting a registered +letter." + +"I'll be much obliged then if you will bring mine." + +"If there are any for the house, I'll bring them all," Alva said; "will +you tell Mrs. Lathbun that?" + +"I'll tell her if I see her, but they're both gone. They went out +early--off chestnutting, I suppose." + +"Oh!" + +"Who is Mrs. Lathbun?" Lassie asked, when Mary Cody had gone out of the +room. + +"I spoke of her before and you asked about her then, didn't you? And I +meant to tell you and forgot. She's another boarder, a lady who is here +with her daughter. Such nice, plain, simple people. You'll like them +both." + +"I thought that we were to be here all alone." + +"We are, to all intents and purposes. The Lathbuns won't trouble us. +They are not intrusive, only interesting when we meet at table or by +accident." + +"Every one interests you, Alva; but I don't like strangers." + +Alva sighed and smiled together. + +"I learned to fill my life with interest in people long ago," she said +simply; "it's the only way to keep from getting narrow sometimes." + +Lassie looked at her earnestly. + +"Does every one that you meet interest you really?" she asked. + +"I think so; I hope so, anyway." + +"Don't you ever find any one dull?" + +Alva looked at her with a smile, quickly repressed. "No one is really +dull, dear, or else every one is dull; it's all in the view-point. The +interest is there if we want it there; or it isn't there, if we so +prefer. That's all." + +There was a little pause, while the young girl thought this over. + +"I suppose that one is happiest in always trying to find the interest," +she said then slowly; "but do tell me more about the Lathbuns." + +"Presupposing them in the dull catalogue?" + +Lassie blushed, "Not necessarily," she said, half confusedly. + +Alva laughed at her face, "I don't know so very much about them, except +that they interest me. The mother is large and rather common looking, +but a very fine musician, and the daughter is a pale, delicate girl with +a romance." + +Lassie's face lit up: "Oh, a romance! Is it a nice romance? Tell me +about it." + +"It's rather a wonderful romance in my eyes. I'll tell it all to you +sometime, but that was the train that came in just now, and I want to +get the mail and go on over to the house, so we'll have to put off the +romance for the present, I'm afraid." + +"I don't hear the train." + +"Maybe not--but it went by." + +"Went by! And the mail! How does the mail get off by itself?" + +"Oh, my dear, I must leave you to learn about the mail from Mrs. Ray. +She'll explain to you all about what happens to the Ledge mail when the +train rushes by. It's one of her pet subjects." + +"Do you know you're really very clever, Alva; you seem to be plotting to +fill me full of curiosity about everything and everybody in this little +out-of-the-way corner in the world? Nobody could ever be dull where you +are." + +A sudden shadow fell over the older's face at that; a wistful wonder +crept to her eyes. + +"I wish I could believe that," she said. + +"But you can, dear. You've always seemed to me to be just like that +French woman who was the only one who could amuse the king, even after +she'd been his wife for forty years. You'd be like that." + +Alva rose, laughing a little sadly. "God grant that it may be so," she +said, "there are so many people who need amusing after forty years. But, +dear, you know I told you last night that I sent for you to come and +teach and learn, and you are teaching already." + +"What am I teaching?" Lassie's eyes opened widely. + +"You are teaching me what I really am, and that's a lesson that I need +very much just now. It would be so very easy to forget what I really am +these days. My head is so often dizzy." + +"Why, dear? What makes you dizzy?" + +"Oh, because the world seems slipping from me so fast. I could so easily +quit it altogether. And I must not quit it. I have too much to do. And I +am to have a great task left me to perform, perhaps. Oh, Lassie, it's +hopeless to tell you anything until I have begun by telling you +everything. You'll see then why I want to die, and why I can't." + +"Alva!" + +"Don't be shocked, dear; you don't know what I mean at all now, but +later you will. Come, we must be going. No time to waste to-day." + +They went up-stairs for hats and wraps, and then came down ready for the +October sunshine. It was fine to step into the crispness and breathe the +ozone of its glory. On the big stone cistern cover by the door a fat +little girl sat, hugging a cat and swinging her feet so as to kick +caressingly the brown and white hound that lay in front of her. + +"A nice, round, rosy picture of content," Alva said, smiling at the tot. +"I love to see babies and animals stretched out in the sun, enjoying +just being alive." + +"I enjoy just being alive myself," said Lassie. + +They went up the path that ran beside the road and, arriving at the +post-office, turned in at the gate and climbed the three steps. The +post-office door stuck, and Alva jammed it open with her knee. Then she +went in, followed by Lassie. + +The post-office was just an extremely small room, two thirds of which +appeared reserved for groceries, ranged upon shelves or piled in three +of its four corners. The fourth corner belonged to the United States +Government, and was screened off by a system of nine times nine +pigeonholes, all empty. Behind the pigeonholes Mrs. Ray was busy +stamping letters for the outgoing mail. + +"You never said that she kept a grocery store, too," whispered Lassie. + +"No, but I told you that I'd forgotten ever so many things that she +did," whispered Alva in return. + +The lady behind the counter calmly continued her stamping, and paid not +the slightest attention to them. + +They sat down upon two of the three wooden chairs that were ranged in +front of a pile of sacks of flour and remained there, meekly silent, +until some one with a basket came in and took the remaining wooden +chair. All three united then in adopting and maintaining the reverential +attitude of country folk awaiting the mail's distribution, and Lassie +learned for the first time in her life how strong and binding so +intangible a force as personal influence and atmosphere may become, even +when it be only the personal influence and atmosphere of a country +postmistress. It may be remarked in passing, that not one of the letters +then being post-marked received an imprint anything like as strong as +that frame of mind which the postmistress of Ledge had the power to +impress upon those who came under her sceptre. She never needed to +speak, she never needed to even glance their way, but her spirit reigned +triumphant in her kingdom, and, as she carried her governmental duties +forward with as deep a realization of their importance as the most +zealous political reformer could wish, no onlooker could fail to feel +anything but admiration for her omniscience and omnipotence. Mrs. Ray's +governmental attitude towards life showed itself in an added seriousness +of expression. Her dress was always plain and severe, and in the +post-office she invariably put over her shoulders a little gray shawl +with fringe which she had a way of tucking in under her arms from time +to time as she moved about. + +Lassie had ample time to note all this while the stamping went +vigorously forward. Meanwhile the mail-bag which had just arrived lay +lean and lank across the counter, appearing as resigned as the three +human beings ranged on the chairs opposite. Finally, when the last +letter was post-marked, the postmistress turned abruptly, jerked out a +drawer, drew therefrom a key which hung by a stout dog-chain to the +drawer knob and held it carefully as if for the working up of some magic +spell. Lassie, contemplating every move with the closest attention, +could not but think just here that if the postal key of Ledge ever had +decided to lose its senses and rush madly out into the whirlwind of +wickedness which it may have fancied existing beyond, it would assuredly +not have gotten far with that chain holding it back, and Mrs. Ray +holding the chain. It was a fearfully large and imposing chain, and +seemed, in some odd way, to be Mrs. Ray's assistant in maintaining the +dignity necessary to their dual position in the world's eyes. + +The lady of the post-office now unlocked the bag and, thrusting her hand +far in, secured two packets containing nine letters in all from the +yawning depths. She carefully examined each letter, and then turned the +bag upside down and gave it one hard, severe, and solemn shake. Nothing +falling out, she placed it on top of a barrel, took up the nine letters, +and went to work upon them next. + +When they were all duly stamped, she laid them, address-side up, before +her like a pack of fortune-telling cards, folded her arms tightly across +her bosom, and, standing immovable, directed her gaze straight ahead. + +Now seemed to be the favorable instant for consulting the sacred oracle. +Alva and the third lady rose with dignity and approached the layman's +side of the counter; Lassie sat still, thrilled in spite of herself. + +Alva, being a mere visitor, drew back a little with becoming modesty and +gave the native a chance to speak first. + +"I s'pose there ain't nothing for me," said that other, almost +apologetically, "but if there's anything for Bessie or Edward Griggs or +Ellen Scott I can take it; and John is going down the St. Helena road +this afternoon, so if there's anything for Judy and Samuel--" + +"Here's yours as usual," said Mrs. Ray, rising calmly above the other's +speech and handing Alva three letters as she did so; "the regular one, +and the one you get daily, and then here's a registered one. I shall +require a receipt for the registered one, as the United States +Government holds me legally liable otherwise, and after my husband died +I made up my mind I was all done being legally liable for anything +unless I had a receipt. Yes, indeed. I'd been liable sometimes legally +in my married life, but more often just by being let in for it, and I +quit then. Yes, indeed. When they tell me I'm legally liable for +anything now, I never fail to get a receipt, and I read every word of +the President's message over twice every year to be sure I ain't being +given any chance to get liable accidentally when I don't know it--when I +ain't took in what was being enacted, you know. Here,--here's the things +and the ink; you sign 'em all, please." + +Alva bent above the counter obediently and proceeded to fill out the +forms as according to law. Mrs. Ray watched her sharply until the one +protecting her own responsibility had been indorsed, and then she turned +to the other inquirer: + +"Now, what was you saying, Mrs. Dunstall? Oh, I remember,--no, of course +there ain't anything for you. Nor for any of them except the Peterkins, +and I daren't give you their mail because they writ me last time not to +ever do so again. I told Mrs. Peterkin you meant it kindly, but she +don't like that law as lets you open other people's letters and then +write on 'Opened by accident.' Mrs. Peterkin makes a point of opening +her own letters. She says her husband even don't darst touch 'em. It's +nothing against you, Mrs. Dunstall, for she's just the same when I write +on 'Received in bad order.' She always comes right down and asks me why +I did it. Yes, indeed. I suppose she ain't to blame; some folks is +funny; they never will be pleasant over having their letters opened." + +Alva bent closer over her writing; Lassie was coughing in her +handkerchief. Mrs. Dunstall stood before the counter as if nailed there, +and continued to receive the whole charge full in her face. + +"But I've got your hat done for you; yes, I have. I dyed the flowers +according to the Easter egg recipe, and it's in the oven drying now. And +I made you that cake, too. And I've got the setting of hens' eggs all +ready. Just as soon as the mail is give out, I'll get 'em all for you. +It's pretty thick in the kitchen, or you could go out there to wait, but +Elmer Haskins run his lawn-mower over his dog's tail yesterday, and the +dog's so lost confidence in Elmer in consequence, that Elmer brought him +up to me to take care of. He's a nice dog, but he won't let no one but +me set foot in the kitchen to-day. I don't blame him, I'm sure. He was +sleepin' by Deacon Delmar's grave in the cemetery and woke suddenly to +find his tail gone. It's a lesson to me never to leave the grave-cutting +to no one else again. I'd feel just as the dog does, if I'd been through +a similar experience. Yes, indeed. I was telling Sammy Adams last night +and he said the same." + +"There, Mrs. Ray," said Alva, in a stifled voice, straightening up as +she spoke, "I think that will set you free from all liability; I've +signed them all." + +"Let me see,--you mustn't take it odd that I'm so particular, because a +government position is a responsibility as stands no feeling." She +looked at the signatures carefully, one after the other. "Yes, they're +right," she said then; "it wasn't that I doubted you, but honesty's the +best policy, and I ought to know, for it was the only policy my husband +didn't let run out before he died without telling me. He had four when I +married him--just as many as he had children by his first wife--he had +six by his second--and his name and the fact that it was a honest one, +was all he left me to live on and bring up his second wife's children +on. Goodness knows what he done with his money; he certainly didn't lay +it by for the moths and rust, for I'm like the text in the +Bible--wherever are moths and rust there am I, too. Yes, indeed, and +with pepper and sapolio into the bargain; but no, the money wasn't +there, for if it was where it could rust it would be where I could get +it." + +Alva smiled sympathetically, and then she and Lassie almost rushed out +into the open air. When they were well out of hearing, they dared to +laugh. + +"Oh, my gracious me," Lassie cried; "how can you stand it and stay +sober?" + +"I can't, that's the trouble!" Alva gasped. "My dear, she felt strange +before you, and was rather reticent, but wait till she knows you +well--until to-morrow. Oh, Lassie, she's too amusing! Wait till she gets +started about the dam, or about Niagara, or about her views on running a +post-office, or anything--" she was stopped by Lassie's seizing her +arm. + +"Look quick, over there,--who is that? He looks so out of place here, +somehow. Don't he? Just like civilization." + +Alva looked. "That? Oh, that's Ronald--Ronald Ingram, you know, coming +across lots for his letters. You remember him, surely, when you were a +little girl. He was always at our house then. You'll meet him again +to-night. I'd stop now and introduce you, only I want to hurry." + +"I suppose that he knows all about it?" + +"All about what?" + +"The secret." + +"Ronald? Oh, no, dear. No one knows. No one--that is, except--except we +two. You will be the only outsider to share that secret." + +"For how long?" + +"Until I am married." + +"Until you are married! Why, when are you to be married?--Soon?" + +"In a fortnight." + +"And no one is to know!" + +"No one." + +"Not his family? Not yours?" + +"No one." + +"How strange!" + +Alva put out her hand and stayed the words upon her friend's lips. +"Look, dear, this is the Long Bridge. You've heard of it all your life; +now we're going to walk across it. Look to the left; all that lovely +scene of hill and valley and the little white town with green blinds is +Ledgeville; and there to the right is the famous gorge, with its banks +of gray and its chain of falls, each lovelier than the last. Stand still +and just look; you'll never see anything better worth looking at if +you travel the wide world over." + +They stopped and leaned on the bridge-rail in silence for several +minutes, and then Alva continued softly, almost reverently: "This scene +is my existence's prayer. I can't make you understand all that it means +to me, because you can't think how life comes when one is crossing the +summit--the very highest peak. I've climbed for so long,--I'll be +descending upon the other side for so long,--but the hours upon the +summit are now, and are wonderful! I should like to be so intensely +conscious that not one second of the joy could ever fade out of my +memory again. I feel that I want to grave every rock and ripple and +branch and bit of color into me forever. Oh, what I'd give if I might +only do so. I'd have it all to comfort me afterwards then--afterwards in +the long, lonely years to come." + +"Why, Alva," said her friend, turning towards her in astonishment, "you +speak as if you didn't expect to be happy but for a little while." + +A sad, faint smile crept around Alva's mouth, and then it altered +instantly into its usual sweet serenity. + +"Come, dear," she said; "we'll hurry on to the house, and then after +you've seen it we'll go to my own dear forest-seat, and there I'll tell +you the whole story." + +"Oh, let us hurry!" Lassie said, impetuously; "I can't wait much +longer." + +So they set quickly forward across the Long Bridge. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE DIFFERENCE + + +On the further side of the Long Bridge the railway tracks swept off in a +smooth curve to the right, and, as there was a high embankment to adapt +the grade to the hillside, a long flight of steps ran down beside it +into the glen below. + +A pretty glen, dark with shadows, bright with dancing sun-rays. A glen +which bore an odd likeness to some lives that we may meet (if we have +that happiness), lives that lead their ways in peace and beauty, with +the roar and smoke of the world but a stone's throw distant. + +Lassie's eyes, looking down, were full of appreciation. + +"Is it there that you are going to live?" she asked. + +Alva shook her head. "Oh, no, not there; that is Ledge Park, the place +that all the hue and cry is being raised over just now." + +"Oh, yes," Lassie turned eagerly; "tell me about that. I read something +in the papers, but I forgot that it was here." + +"It is 'here,' as you say. But it concerns all the country about here, +only it's much too big a subject for us to go into now. There are two +sides, and then ever so many sides more. I try to see them all, I try to +see every one's side of everything as far as I can, but there is one +side that overbalances all else in my eyes, and that happens to be the +unpopular one." + +"That's too bad." + +"Yes, dear," Alva spoke very simply; "but what makes _you_ say so?" + +"Why? Why, because then you won't get what you want." + +Her friend laughed. "Don't say that in such a pitying tone, Lassie. +Better to be defeated on the right side, than to win the most glorious +of victories for the wrong. Who said that?" + +Lassie looked doubtful. + +Alva laughed again and touched her cheek with a finger-caress. "I'll +tell you just this much now, dear;--all of both the river banks--above, +below and surrounding the three falls--belong to Mr. Ledge, and he has +always planned to give the whole to the State as a gift, so that there +might be one bit of what this country once was like, preserved. He made +all his arrangements to that end, and gave the first deeds last winter. +What do you think followed? As soon as the State saw herself practically +in possession, it appointed a commission to examine into the +possibilities of the water power!" Alva paused and looked at her friend. + +"But--" Lassie was clearly puzzled. + +"The engineers are here surveying now. Ronald Ingram is at the head and +the people of all the neighborhood are so excited over the prospect of +selling their farms that no one stops to think what it would really +mean." + +"What would it really mean?" + +"A manufacturing district with a huge reservoir above it." + +"Where?" + +"Back there," she turned and pointed; "they say that there was a great +prehistoric lake there once, and they will utilize it again." + +"But there's a town down there." + +"Yes, my dear, Ledgeville. Ledgeville and six other towns will be +submerged." + +Lassie stopped short on the railroad track and stared. She had come to a +calamity which she could realize now. + +"Why, what ever will the people do then?" + +"Get damages. They're so pleased over being drowned out. You must talk +it over with Mrs. Ray. You must get Mrs. Ray's standpoint, and then get +Ronald's standpoint. Theirs are the sensible, practical views, the +world's views. My views are never practical. I'm not practical. I'm only +heartbroken to think of anything coming in to ruin the valley. Mr. Ledge +and I share the same opinions as to this valley; it seems to us too +great a good to sell for cash." + +"You speak bitterly." + +"Yes, dear, I'm afraid that I do speak bitterly. On that subject. But we +won't talk of it any more just now. See, here's the wood road that leads +to my kingdom; come, take it with me." + +They turned into a soft, pine-carpeted way on the left, and in the +length of a bow-shot seemed buried in the forest. + +"Lassie, wait!" + +Turning her head, Lassie saw that Alva had stopped behind, and was +standing still beside where a little pine-tree was growing out from +under a big glacial boulder. She went back to her. + +"Dear, look at this little tree. Here's my daily text." + +"How?" + +"Do you see how it has grown out and struggled up from under the rock?" + +Lassie nodded. + +"You know very little of what makes up life, dear. I've sent for you to +teach you." She lifted her eyes earnestly to the face near hers, and her +own eyes were full of appeal. "Lassie, try to understand all I say to +you these days; try to believe that it's worth learning. See this little +tree--" she touched her fingers caressingly to the pine branches as she +spoke--"it's a very little tree, but it has taught me daily since I +came, and I believe that you can learn of it, too." + +Lassie's big eyes were very big indeed. "Learn of a tree!" + +Alva lifted one of the little stunted uneven branches tenderly in her +fingers. "This is its lesson," she said; "the pine-cone fell between the +rocks; it didn't choose where it would fall, it just found itself alive +and under the rocks; there wasn't much earth there, but it took root and +grew. There was no room to give out branches, so it forced its way +crookedly upward; crookedly because there was no room to grow straight, +but always upward; there wasn't much sunlight, but it was as bravely +green as any other tree; the big rock made it one-sided, but it put out +thickly on the side where it had space. My life hasn't been altogether +sunlit. I was born between rocks, and I have been forced to grow +one-sided, too. But the tree's sermon came home to me the first day that +I saw it. Courageous little tree, doing your best in the woods, where +no one but God could take note of your efforts,--you'll be straight and +have space and air and sunshine in plenty next time--next time! Oh, +blessed 'next time' that is to surely right the woes of those who keep +up courage and continue fighting. That's the reward of all. That's the +lesson." + +Lassie listened wonderingly. "Next time!" she repeated questioningly, +"what next time? Do you believe in a heaven for trees?" + +"I am not sure of a heaven for anything," said Alva, "not an orthodox +heaven. But I believe in an endless existence for every atom existing in +the universe, and I believe that each atom determines the successive +steps of its own future, and so a brave little pine-tree fills me with +just as sincere admiration as any other species of bravery. 'Next time'! +It will have a beautiful 'next time' in the heaven which means something +so different from what we are taught, or here again on earth, or +wherever its little growing spirit takes form again. I'm not wise enough +to understand much of that, but I'm wise enough to know that there is a +next time of so much infinitely greater importance than this time, that +this time is really only of any importance at all in comparison just +according to how we use it in preparation. That's part of the lesson +that the tree teaches. But you can't understand me, Lassie, unless you +are able to grasp my belief--my fixed conviction--that this world is +only an instant in eternity. I couldn't live at all unless I had this +belief and hope, and it's the key to everything with me; so +please--please--give me credit for sincerity, at least." + +Lassie looked thoroughly awed. "I'll try to see everything just as you +do," she said. + +Alva pressed her hand. "Thank you, dear." + +Then they went on up the road. + +Presently the sound of hammer and saw was heard, and the smell of wet +plaster and burning rubbish came through the trees. + +"Is it from your house?" Lassie asked, with her usual visible relief at +the approach of the understandable. + +"Yes, from my house," Alva answered. "They are very much occupied with +my house; fancy buying a dear, old, dilapidated dwelling in the +wilderness, and having to make it new and warm and bright and cheerful +in a fortnight! Why, the tale of these two weeks will go down through +all the future history of the country, I know. Such a fairy tale was +never before. I shall become the Legend of Ledge, I feel sure." + +The road, turning here, ended sharply in a large, solid, wooden gate, +set deep in a thick hedge of pine trees. + +"It is like a fairy tale!" Lassie cried delightedly; "a regular +Tourangean _porte_ with a _guichet_!" + +"It is better than any fairy tale," said Alva; "it is Paradise, the +lovely, simple-minded, Bible-story Paradise, descending upon earth for a +little while." She pushed one half of the great gate-door open, and they +went through. + +A small, old-fashioned, Colonial dwelling rose up before them in the +midst of dire disorder. Shingling, painting, glass-setting, and the like +were all going forward at once. Workmen were everywhere; wagons loading +and unloading were drawn up at the side; mysterious boxes, bales and +bundles lay about; confusion reigned rampant. + +"Not exactly evolution, but rather revolution," laughed Alva, ceasing +transcendentalism with great abruptness, and becoming blithely gay. "And +oh, Lassie, the joy of it, the downright childish fun of it! Don't you +see that I couldn't be alone through these days; they are too grand to +be selfish over. I had to have some one to share my fun. We'll come here +and help every day after this; the pantries will be ready soon, and you +and I will do every bit of the putting them in order. Screw up the +little hooks for the cups, you know, and arrange the shelves, and oh, +won't we have a good time?" + +Lassie's eyes danced. "I just love that kind of work," she said, fully +conscious of the pleasant return to earth, "I can fit paper in drawers +beautifully." + +"Which proves that after all women stay women in spite of many modern +encouragements to be men," Alva said. "You know really I'm considered to +be most advanced, and people look upon me as quite intellectual; but I'm +fairly wild over thinking how we'll scrub the pantries, and put in the +china--and then there's a fine linen-closet, too. We'll set that in +order afterwards, and put all the little piles straight on the shelves." + +By this time they had gone up the plank that bridged over the present +hiatus between ground and porch, and entered the living-room, which was +being papered in red with a green dado and ceiling. + +"How pretty and bright!" Lassie exclaimed. + +"It's going to be furnished in the same red and green, with little +book-shelves all around and the dining table in the middle," Alva +explained. "Oh, I do love this room. It's my ideal sitting-room. It has +to be the dining-room, too, but I don't mind that." + +"Won't the table have to be very small?" + +"Just big enough for two." + +"But when you have company?" + +"We shall never have any company." + +"I mean when you have friends with you here." + +"I shall never have any friends with me, dear." + +"Alva! Why--I can come--can't I?--Sometime?" + +Alva shook her head. + +"That's part of the story, Lassie, part of the story that I am going to +tell you in a few minutes now. But be a little patient, dear; give me a +few minutes more. Come in here first; see--this was the dining-room, but +it has been changed into--I don't know what. A sort of bedroom, I +suppose one would call it. I've had it done in blue, with little green +vines and birds and bees and butterflies painted around it. Birds and +bees and butterflies are always so lively and bright, so busy and +cheerful. All the pictures here are going to be of animals, either out +in the wild, free forest or else in warm, sunshiny farmyards. I have a +lovely print of Wouverman's 'Im Stall' to hang in the big space. You +know the picture, don't you?--the shadowy barn-room with one whole side +open, and the hay dripping from above, and the horses just ridden in, +and the chickens scratching, and some little children playing in the +corner by the well. It's such a sweet _gemuthliche_ picture--so full of +fresh country air--I felt that it was the picture of all others to hang +in this room. There will be a big sofa-bed at one side, and my piano, +and pots of blooming flowers. And you can't think, little Lassie, of all +that I look forward to accomplishing in this room. I expect to learn to +be a very different woman, every atom and fibre of my being will be +altered here. All of my faults will be atoned for--" she stopped +abruptly, and Lassie turned quickly with an odd impression that her +voice had broken in tears. + +"Alva!" she exclaimed. + +"It's nothing, dear, only that side of me that keeps forgetting the +lesson of the tree. Don't mind me,--I am so happy that you must not mind +anything nor must I mind anything either; but--when I come into this +room and think--" her tone suddenly turned dark, full of quivering +emotion, and she put her hand to her eyes. + +"Alva, tell me what you mean? I feel frightened,--I must know what's +back of it all now. Tell me. Tell me!" + +"I'm going to tell you in just a minute, as soon as I've shown you all +over the house." She took her handkerchief, pressed it to her eyes, made +a great, choking effort at self-control, and then managed to go on +speaking. "See," pushing open a door, "this is a nice little +dressing-room, isn't it? And then around and through this narrow back +hall comes the kitchen. There is an up-stairs, but I've done nothing +there except make a room comfortable and pleasant for the Japanese +servant who will do the work, that is, all that I don't do myself." + +"Won't you want but one servant?" + +"I think so. A man from outside will take the extras, and really it's a +very small house, dear. The laundry will be sent out. Dear me, how I do +enjoy hearing that kind of speech from my own lips. 'The laundry will be +sent out!' That sounds so delightfully commonplace, so sort of everyday +and like other people. I can't express to you what the commonplaces, +the little monotonies of ordinary lives, mean to me here. You'll divine +later, perhaps. But fancy a married life where nothing is too trivial to +be glorified! That is how things will be with us." + +"Are you so sure?" Lassie tried to smile and speak archly. Tried very +hard to do both, because an intangible atmosphere of sorrow was +beginning to press heavily on her spirits. + +"Very sure,--really, quite confident. You must not think that, because I +sob suddenly as I did just now, I am ever weak or ever doubt myself or +any one else. I never doubt or waver. It is only that no matter how hard +one tries, one can hardly rise completely out of the thrall of one +existence into the freedom of another at only a week's notice." + +"Is that what you are trying to do?" + +"Dear, I'm not only trying to do it, but the greater part of the time I +do do it. It's only very seldom that my soul faints and the tears come. +I am really happy! You are not going to be able to comprehend how happy +I am. Every one who wants anything in this world always wants it in such +a narrow, finite way,--no one can understand joy too limitless to be +finite. The difficulty is that occasionally I get blind myself, or else +in mercy God sometimes veils the splendor for a few minutes. When I +faint or struggle, it is just that my soul is absent; you must not mind +when you see me suffer, for the suffering has no meaning. It's just a +sort of discipline,--it doesn't count." She smiled with wonderful +brightness into Lassie's troubled face, and then, pushing open the outer +door,--"You don't quite see how it is, but be patient with yourself, +dearie; it will come. All things come to him who waits." + +"Oh, but I don't understand, not one bit," Lassie cried, almost +despairingly. + +They were in the yard now; Alva looked at her and took her hand within +her own. "Come," she said, "we'll go down through the woods to a certain +lovely, bright spot where the view is big and wide, and there I'll tell +you all about it." + +"I so want to know!" + +"I know you do, dear, and I want to tell you, too. I'm not purposely +tormenting you, but there is no one else to whom I can speak. And that +human, sobbing part of me needs companionship just as much these days, +as the merry, house-loving spirit, or the beatifically blessed soul. +Can't you see, dear, that with all my affection for you, I dread telling +you my story, and the reason for that is that it will be too much for +you to comprehend at first, and that I know perfectly well that it is +going to shock and pain you." The last words burst forth like a storm +repressed. + +"Shock and pain me!" Lassie opened mouth and eyes. + +"Yes, dear, of a certainty." + +They were in the woods, quite alone. + +Involuntarily Lassie drew a little away; a common, cruel suspicion +flashed through her head. "Alva, is it--is it that you do not mean to +marry the man?" + +Alva laughed then, not very loudly, but clearly and sweetly. "No, +Lassie, it isn't that. I am going to be married in the regular way and, +besides, I will tell you in confidence that I fully believe that I have +been married to the same man hundreds of times before, and shall be +married to him countless times again. Does that help you?" + +"Alva!" + +"There! I told you that you wouldn't understand, and you don't." + +"No, I certainly don't, when you talk like that." + +"It's natural that you shouldn't, dear; but at the end of the week you +will, perhaps. We'll hope so, any way. Oh, Lassie, how much we are both +to live and learn in the next week." + +Lassie turned her eyes to the eyes of the other. + +"It's queer, Alva; you talk as if you were crazy, but I know you're not +crazy, and yet I'm worried." + +"You don't need to be worried,--" + +"I'll try not to be." She raised her sweet eyes to her friend's face as +she spoke, and her friend bent and kissed her. "Don't keep me waiting +much longer," she pleaded. + +They were passing through the little, tree-grown way which led out on +the brow of the hill. All the wide, radiant wonder of that October +morning unrolled before them there. For an instant Lassie stood +entranced, forgetting all else; and then: + +"Tell me now!" she cried. + +"Let us sit down here," Alva said, pointing to a rough seat made out of +a plank laid across two stumps. They sat down side by side. + +"Alva, it seems as if I cannot wait another minute; I must know it all +now. Tell me who he is, first; is it some one that I know?" + +Alva's eyes rested on the wide radiance beyond. + +"You know of him, dear," she replied quietly. + +"Who is it?" + +The woman laid her arm around the girl and drew her close and kissed her +gently. Then she whispered two words in her ear. + +With a scream, Lassie started to her feet. "Oh--no!--no!--_no!_" + +Alva looked straight up at her where she stood there above her and +smiled, steadily. + +"No, no,--it can't be! I didn't hear right." + +"Yes, you heard quite right." + +The girl's hands shook violently; tears came fast pouring down her face. +"But, Alva, he is--he can't--" + +Tears filled the other's eyes, too, at that, and stole thickly out upon +her cheeks. "I know, my dear child, but didn't I tell you how to me--to +us--this life is only a small part of the whole?" + +"Oh, but--but--oh, it's too horrible!" She sank down on the seat again +and burst out sobbing. + +"No, dear," Alva exclaimed, her voice suddenly firm, "not horrible, just +that highest summit of life of which I spoke before--the point toward +which I've lived, the point from which I shall live ever afterwards,--my +point of infinite joy,--my all. For he is the man I love--have always +loved--shall always love. Only, dear, don't you see?--he isn't a _man_ +as you understand the word; the love isn't even _love_ as you understand +love. It's all so different! So different!" + +A long, keenly thrilling silence followed, broken only by the sound of +the younger girl's repressed weeping. + +It was one of those pauses during which men and women forget that they +are men and women, that the world is the world, or that life is life. +Every human consideration loses weight, and one is stunned into heaven +or oblivion, according to his or her preparation for such an entry to +either state. + +The two friends remained seated side by side, facing the wonderful +valley in all its rich beauty of varied colorings; but neither saw +valley or color, neither remembered for a little what she was or where +she was. Alva, with her hands linked around her knees, was out and away +into another existence; Lassie, her eyes deadened and darkened with a +horror too acute for any words to relieve, sat still beside her, and +knew nothing for the time being but a fearful throbbing in her +temples--a black cloud smothering her whole brain--and tears. + +It was Lassie who broke the silence at last, trying hard to speak +evenly. "But, Alva, I never knew ... when did you learn to love him ... +why--" her voice died again just there, and she buried her face on the +other's shoulder. + +Alva laid her hand upon the little hand that shook under a fresh stress +of emotion, and said gently, her tone one of deepest pity: "Shall I tell +you all about it? Would you like to know the whole story?" + +"Oh, yes, yes,--so much." + +"You'll try to be patient and give yourself time to really see how +things may be to one who is altogether outside of your way of thinking, +won't you, dear? You won't pass judgment too quickly?" + +"I'll try. Indeed, I will, as well as I can--" + +Alva pressed the hand. "Dear little girl," she said, very tenderly, "you +see I look at even you with quite different eyes from those with which +the ordinary person sees you. If you could only see things as I do, +you'd see everything so much more clearly. How can I put it all straight +for you? When even my love for you is not at all what any other gives +you." + +Lassie lifted up her head. "How do you mean?" + +"There are two Lassies to me, dear,--the pretty, sweet-looking girl, and +the Lassie who loves me. Most people confuse the two, and think them one +and the same; I don't. No matter what happened to you, the Lassie whom I +love could never alter--she is unchangeable. She is not subject to +change; she doesn't belong to this world; she cannot die. And just as I +feel about you, I feel about everybody. What I can see and touch in +those I love is what I love least in them." + +"Oh, Alva!" it was like a little moan--the girl's voice. + +"That is my earnest belief. Bodies and what they suffer don't count. +That has come to me bit by bit under the pressure of these last years. +But it has come in its completest form in the end. I am entirely +satisfied as to the only truth in the universe being the fact that only +Truth is eternal. Please try to remember all this, while you listen to +my story; try not to forget it. You will, won't you?" + +"I'll try, but it isn't clear to me." + +"No, I don't suppose so--" Alva sighed--"but do your best, my dear;" she +paused a moment, then drew the hand that she held close between her own +two, and went on slowly; "I must tell you first of all that I have never +seen him but three times in my life. Just think--only three times!" + +"Only three--" Lassie looked up in surprise. + +"Only three times. And hardly any one knows that I saw him even those +times. No one knows to-day that we love one another, or that we are to +be married, except the surgeons and nurses, who had to be told, of +course. It's a very great secret." + +"Tell me how it all began, Alva." + +"I don't know when I first heard his name. It all began here, dear, five +years ago. When I stopped off for a few days to visit the Falls. I've +always loved this country, and from the time that I was born I've always +been here for a few days now and then. I always had a queer feeling that +something drew me here. I have those queer feelings about things and +places and people, you know, and out there on the bridge has always +seemed to me a sort of pivot in my life. Every time I go there, the +clock seems to strike some hour for me--" she stopped. + +Lassie opened and shut her free hand with a sensation of being very +uneasy; the suspicion that Alva was not quite sane just lightly crossed +her mind. It certainly was not sane to talk as she did. + +"So I came here again, on my way home from New York, just five years ago +now. And he was here then, staying at Ledge Park, and I saw him for the +first time; we met out there on the bridge;" she stopped for just a +second or so, then went steadily on. "I think I read about him in the +papers. I had learned to admire him intensely--who could help it?--but +of course I'd never for one instant thought of loving him. He was like a +sort of a story-hero to me; he never seemed like a man; I never thought +of any woman's loving him. He just seemed to be himself, all +alone--always alone. He had seemed quite above and apart from all other +men to me. He interested me; I wanted to learn all that I could about +him and his work, and I did learn a great deal, but I'd never dreamed of +meeting him face to face, of really speaking to him, of having his eyes +really looking at me; he seemed altogether beyond and away from my +existence. As if he lived on another world. And then I met him that +evening on the bridge, in just the simplest sort of way. Oh, it was very +wonderful." + +"Did you know him right off?" + +"Yes, he looked just like his picture; but then I knew him in another +way, too. I can't describe it; it was all very--very strange. It doesn't +seem strange to me now, but it would seem almost too strange to you." + +"Won't you try to tell me?" + +"I will some day, dear, perhaps. I can't tell you now, I couldn't +explain it all to you; but, anyway, we met and I looked at him and he +looked at me--" she pressed the hand within her own yet closer, adding +simply, "I believe that love--real love--comes like that, first of all +that one look, and then all the past rushes in and makes the bridge to +all the future. Oh, Lassie," her voice sank to a whisper, "when I think +of that meeting and of all that it brought me, I am so happy that I want +to take the whole wide world into my confidence, and beg every one not +to play at love or to take Love's name in vain; but to be patient, and +wait, and starve, or beg, or endure anything, just so as to merit the +joy which may perhaps be going to be. I never had thought of what love +might be; at least I had never been conscious of such thinking. My life +all these years had been bound so straitly and narrowly there at home. +How could I think of anything that would take me from those duties! And +yet I see now that it was all preparation, all the getting ready. If I +had only known it, though,--if I had only known it then! It would all +have been so much easier." + +The whisper died away; she sat quite still looking out over the hills. +Lassie's eyes gazed anxiously upon her; nothing in her own spirit tuned +to this key; instead, flashes of recollection kept lighting up the +present with forgotten paragraphs out of the newspaper accounts of the +accident. She shivered suddenly. + +Alva did not notice. After a while she went on again. + +"Some day you'll learn to love some one, and then you'll know something +of what I feel. I don't want you to suffer enough to know all that I +feel. But, believe me, whatever one suffers, love is worth it. In that +first instant I learned--that first look showed me--that it can mean +all, everything, more even than happiness itself; oh, yes, a great, +great deal more than happiness itself. In one way they're not synonymous +at all, love and happiness. I have been happy without love all my life, +and now I shall love without being what the world calls 'happy'; but I +_shall_ be happy--happy in my own way, just as I am happy now in +something that makes you tremble only to think of." + +She paused; her eyelids fell over her eyes and the lashes quivered where +they lay on her cheeks, but her hand continued to hold Lassie's, warm +and close. There was another long pause. And then another sigh. + +"So in that first hour--it was only one hour--I learned the beginning of +life's biggest lesson--what life may be, what love may be, and also what +for me could never be. For just as soon as I really saw him, I saw why +he had remained alone. It was perfectly plain to me. It was that he +didn't live for himself; he lived to carry out his purpose. One reads of +such people, but I never had met any one who was unable to see himself +in his own life before. It was a tremendous lesson to me. It was like +opening a door and looking suddenly out upon a new order of universe. +Everything whirled for the first minutes, and then I saw that my own +life had been sufficiently unselfish to have made me capable of +comprehending his. It rose like a flood through my soul, that everything +has a reason, and that my blind, stupid, hopeless years there at home +had all been leading straight up to that minute. It was such a +revelation, and such a new light on all things. I was born anew, myself; +I have never been the same woman since. Never, never!" + +Lassie's brows drew together; the revelation did not appeal to her +personal reason as reasonable. + +"We talked for quite a while--not about ourselves--we understood each +other too well to need do that. It seems to me now that we were almost +one then, but I didn't know it. All I knew was that I could measure a +little of what he was, and that there was a bond between us of absolute +content in working out God's will rather than our own. I believe now +that that is really the only true love or the only true basis for any +marriage, and that when that mutual bond is once accepted, nothing can +alter, not even an ocean rolling between--not even ten oceans. He spoke +of the Falls, and he spoke of his own work. I listened and thanked God +that I knew what he meant, and comprehended what it meant to me. At the +end of the hour we parted, and I came back to the hotel and started for +home the morning after.... He went away, too, and it was later--when we +began to write letters--that our life together, our beautiful ideal life +together, began. You can't realize its happiness any more than you can +measure all that my words really mean. I can't explain myself any +better, either. After a while it will all come to you, I hope. I went on +with the work at home, and he continued his labors which allowed him +neither home nor family. Nobody knew and nobody would have known, even +if he or she thought that they knew. The very best and loveliest things +lie all around the most of us, and the best and loveliest of all +treasures are within our own hearts--and yet very few of us know +anything about them. Perhaps better that the world in general shouldn't +understand the joy of my kind of love, anyhow; it isn't time for that +yet." + +"How, Alva?" + +She smiled almost whimsically, "Dearest, as soon as the whole world +understands that sort of life, its own mission will be fulfilled, and +then there will be no more of this particular world. You see!" + +"Oh!" + +"So then, dear, time went on and on, and I was happy, very happy. And he +was very happy, also. There was something truly childlike in his +happiness; he had never expected love in his life, because he had never +thought of meeting any one who would be able to adapt herself to his +circumstances. We never met, because it didn't seem best or wise. We +just loved, and I don't believe that any two people have ever been +happier together than we were, apart, for these five years--these happy, +happy five years." + +Lassie felt a deepening misery; the last horrible part must be going to +come now. + +Alva passed her hand over her eyes and drew a long breath. + +"It's so difficult to be different from other people, and then to bear +their way of looking at things. It's so hopeless to try to translate +one's feeling into their language all the time. How can I go on, when I +know just how it all looks to you. It's fearfully hard for me." + +"I won't say a word,"--the girl's cry was pitiful. + +Alva threw both arms quickly about her and held her close. "Bless you, +darling, I know it. But you'll suffer and I know that, too; and I feel +your suffering more than you guess. I know just how it all seems to you. +There is that within me which shudders too, sometimes, and would shrink +and weep only for the strong, divine power that fills me with something +better than I can describe, something big enough and high enough to +fight down the coward. You have that same divinity within you, dear, and +you can't tell when or where it will be called out, but once it is +called out, you never will be weak in the face of this earth's woes." + +Lassie was weeping softly again. + +"One morning--you know when--I opened the paper to read it to papa after +breakfast, and I saw on the first page, across the top in bright red +letters, that he had been killed." + +There was a little sharp cry--"But he wasn't?"--and then a great sob. + +"No, dear, but that was the first report." + +"And you thought--" + +"Yes, of course I believed it. But, Lassie, try to calm +yourself--because it wasn't to me what you think. I was calm; I had +learned so much, he had taught me so much, during the five years, that I +astonished myself with my strength; really, I did. I went about all that +day just as usual, only thinking with a white sort of numbness how long +the rest of life would seem; and then, in the evening, the paper said +that he was still alive. Then I telegraphed and the next day I went to +him. I knew that I must go to him and see him once more, so I arranged +things and went. I was surprised all the journey at my own courage; it +was like a miracle, my power over myself. It was a long journey, but I +knew that I should see him again at the end. I knew that he would not +leave me without saying good-bye, now that he was conscious that he was +going. I was sure of that. So confident can love and strength be in love +and strength. + +"I arrived--I went to the hospital--they had the room darkened +because--well, you can guess. I went to where the bed stood and knelt +down beside him, and laid my hand on his bosom. I felt his heart +beating--ever so faintly, but still beating,--and I heard his voice. +Only think, I had not heard his voice for five years! To you or to any +one else it might have all been frightful, because, of course, the +reality was frightful. The man, as you understand men, was mangled and +dying, and could not possibly be with me except for a few brief days. +But, oh, my dearest,--with me it was so different; it was all so +absolutely different. The man that _I_ loved was unhurt, and the evil +chance had only made us nearer and dearer forever. I don't say that I +was not trembling, and that I was not almost unnerved by the shock; but +I can say, too, and say truly, that the Something Divine which had +filled me from the first day, filled and upheld me and made me know that +all was good even then, even in that dark hour and in that dark room, +where he whom I held dearest on earth was chained to pain beneath my +hand. The nurses were very kind. They left me there beside him while he +was conscious and unconscious for some hours. They saw very quickly that +it was different with us from most people; and when I went out two of +the surgeons took me into a room alone and told me the truth. + +"I think that then was the greatest moment of my life--when I +comprehended that one who was not killed outright by such a shock might +live even months until--until--Well, if a man so injured has vitality +enough to live at all, he may--live--" + +"Don't go on, Alva, please,--I don't want to know how long he may live." + +"No, dear, I won't go into that. Only you must think that to me it was +such unexpected heaven. Instead of death, he was alive. Instead of +separation for this life, we were to have some days of absolute +companionship. It was something so much more than I had ever thought of +hoping. A life--even for a day--together! Companionship! Not letters, +but words. I to be his nurse, his solace, to have him for my own. I +stayed awake all night thinking. I knew what being swept suddenly away +meant to him. I knew of his life plans, and what made death hardest to +him. It came to me that I might ease that bitterness. That his need +could go forth through the medium of my love and interest. That his work +would pass on into other hands through mine. That all the golden web of +Fate had been woven directly to this end." + +Lassie continued sobbing. + +"I saw what we could do. In the morning I went to the surgeons, and they +said that each day added a week of possible life, and that although it +would be many days before anything could be done, after that, he could +be moved and wait for the end--with me. I went to him then, and again I +knelt there by the bed, and this time I told him how I was going to +spend the weeks, and what he must look forward to. He was unable to +talk, but he looked at me and--like the first time--we understood one +another absolutely. He accepted the happiness that was to be as +gratefully as I did myself. As I said before, it was so much more--so +much more--than we had ever expected! He took up his burden of agony as +cheerfully and courageously as he had taken everything in life, and I +came away. There was no use in my remaining there, as he would be either +unconscious or--I could not remain there; the surgeons forbade it. + +"Then I had to find a place quickly, a place where no one would come or +would see. A place where he and I could share life and God, who is Life, +without any outsiders breaking in to stare and wonder." + +Her voice suddenly became broken and hurried. "Of course I thought of +Ledge, where we had first met, and I wrote to Ronald at once. He found +me that dear little nest back there, and--" she stopped, for Lassie had +suddenly started to her feet. "What is it, dear?" + +"Oh, I can't bear it at all. To me it is horrible--horrible! Why, he can +never stand up again--he--Oh, I want to be alone. I must be alone. +I'll--I'll come back--in time--" + +She did not wait to finish; she gave one low, bitter cry, and wrung her +hands. Then she ran down the steep, little path that led to Ledgeville, +leaving her friend on the hilltop, with the October sun pouring its +splendor all about her. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THAT DISPASSIONATE OBSERVER, MRS. RAY + + +THERE never was the human tragedy, comedy, or melodrama, yet, which did +not have one or more dispassionate observers. This is strictly true +because, even if a man goes off into the wilderness to fight his fight +out utterly alone, there are moments when one part of his own spirit +will dissever itself from all the rest and, standing forth, tell him of +his progress or retrogression with a pitiless, unbiassed truth. The +wilderness is advisable for that very reason, but no one makes a greater +mistake than when he or she goes to a small far-away village and +pleasantly terms it "the wilderness," supposing soul-solitude an +integral part thereof. It is very right, proper, and conventional to +view life from one's own standpoint, but the real facts of the case are +old and trite enough to warrant me in repeating the statement that all +doings in this world have their dispassionate observer. + +Mrs. Ray was the natural observer for the town of Ledge. The town was +not quite aware that added to her keen powers of observation she was +also the Voice of the community. People never expressed themselves +fully, without first knowing what she said. Public opinion simmered all +over the township, so to speak, and then finally boiled over in Mrs. +Ray. + +It will be quite impossible to impress upon the ordinary reader the +importance of such Public Opinion, unless a few paragraphs are devoted +to the town of Ledge and its history. If one fails to properly +appreciate the town of Ledge, the tale might just as well have been +located in North Ledge, South Ledge, Ledgeville, Ledge Centre, or any of +the other Ledges. + +Therefore on behalf of the lovely little hamlet of Ledge itself, I will +state in as few words as possible that it lies upon a hill overlooking +one of the most beautiful and picturesque scenes in all Northeastern +America; that it took its name and being from a great and noble-hearted +man, who, passing that way by chance, half a century since, paused near +its site to sadly contemplate the denuded banks of the little river +winding its way amidst the débris and desolation left by the lumber +barons of the period. Time was when the same banks had been smiling +terraces covered thick with primeval pines, but "civilization" had +demanded their downfall and they fell. Fell without warning, and also +without discretion. Fell forever, flinging the riches of all the future +aside for the plenty of one man's day. Blackened stumps, great beds of +unsightly chips, waste which would never have been called waste in any +other land, ruthless destruction,--all this disfigured the landscape +that stretched before that visitor of fifty years ago. His heart was +heavy, for he was one who loved everything good, and trees and beauty +are two of man's best gifts from above; but while he gazed over what to +him and many others was almost as much desecration as desolation, he +saw, forever flowing--however choked--the little river below. Like the +thread of idealism which illuminates the most despairing situation, so +flowed the silvery stream down through the scene before him. Its bed was +clogged with drift, its banks covered with rotting rubbish, yet the +promise of its beauty remained; and then and there the traveller +formulated a plan for its redemption to the end that unborn generations +might revel in the realization of that of which he alone seemed then +conscious. + +The town of Ledge was a part of what resulted. There had to be a town, +and Ledge came into existence. Where there is work to be done, come the +workers, and with them come towns. Ledge came and grew. To the call of +prosperity many other Ledges gathered a little later; but they never +enjoyed the dignity of the one and original. The first Ledge was +tenacious of its priority. It held to its privileges as rigidly as any +medieval knight held to his. Castled upon the hill above, it simulated +power in more ways than one. For many years all the others had to go to +Ledge for their mail. Ledge also owned the sheriff, the blacksmith, and +the lawyer, and kept a monopoly on the summer excursionist; the express +office was its natural perquisite; a bend of the canal took it in, and +when the canal went the railroad came to console the losers. Mr. Ledge's +plans, which had turned his private estate into a public park for the +gently disposed, also held Ledge in high honor. To visit Ledge Park from +any of the other Ledges was rendered well-nigh impossible. The little +town stood like a sentinel at the end of the Long Bridge, and at the top +of the First Fall. Every picnicker had to go through it, had to check +such articles as could not conveniently be carried all day, in its +hotel; had to get whatever he might feel disposed to drink in the same +place. During the summer, visitors were so plenteous that it became the +fashion in Ledge to despise them, and that right heartily, too. The +people who brought the town most of its means of livelihood received +much that species of sentiment with which an irritating husband and +father is frequently viewed. It was the fashion in Ledge to despise city +people and their ways in all things; even their coming to see the Falls +was referred to as special proof of their singularly feeble minds, while +the way in which the visitors climbed and walked was the favorite topic +of mirthful criticism, all summer long. Criticism is a strange habit. It +is contagious, thrives in any soil or no soil at all, and is far more +destructive to him or her who gives it birth than it can possibly be to +any other person. Not that it really is destructive, but that the weight +of criticism rarely falls where it is supposed to be most needed. + +The summer visitors evoked so much comment between May and November that +a great longing to have something to talk about between November and May +followed. It therefore became the fashion in Ledge to talk of everything +and everybody, and as the summer visitors were rated low, the rest of +the world was pretty freely given over to the same cataloguing. It was +usual to rate Ledgeville and all the other Ledges particularly low, and +this opinion held firm, until a biting edge was given it by a second +railroad which came down the valley's bottom to the unspeakable wrath of +the hills on either side and of Ledge in special. It took several years +to assimilate the second railroad, and resume the even tenor of life. +But the adjustment was finally made, and at the date of this story Ledge +was a wee country idyll set like a pearl amidst the beautiful +environment of that fairest of country counties. He who was responsible +for town and environment lived on his own estate near by, and came in +for his share of consideration from the tongues of his namesake. The +great philanthropist was busily engaged in his battle to preserve +intact, for the good of the many to come, that matchless picture with +its open Bible of Nature's Own History. Of the picture and its practical +value, Ledge had its own opinion. It had its own opinion of the dam, +too. It had its own opinion of Alva. And of Lassie. And of Ingram. And +all these opinions flowed freely forth through the medium of Mrs. Ray. +As that lady herself put it: "Whether I'm picking chickens or digging +fence-posts, or carting the United States mail down to the train in the +wheelbarrow that I had to buy and the United States Government won't pay +for,--I never am idle; I'm always taking in something." + +And it was quite true. Whatever Mrs. Ray was working at, her brain was +never idle; it was always absorbing something. It was not uncommon to +see a neighbor walking with her while she ploughed, conversation going +briskly on meanwhile. She swept the church with company, and she almost +never sat alone between mail times. It was a full, busy life, and an +interesting one. It was full of importance and responsibility, too. Mrs. +Ray liked to be responsible and was naturally important. Her opinions +were in the main correct, but sometimes she did draw wrong conclusions. +For instance, when she looked down the road the morning after Lassie's +arrival, and saw the two friends departing over the Long Bridge. + +"Oh, dear," she said to whoever was near by at the minute, "I smell +trouble for that oldest one if she's planning to keep that pretty girl +here long. That man is going to fall in love with that pretty girl. He +never has cared much for her, anyway. He don't even seem to like to go +over to their house with her; she goes alone mostly. Yes, indeed." + +The somebody sitting near by at the minute was Mrs. Dunstall. And +Pinkie, of course. They had dropped in to see if they had any mail, and +had found Mrs. Ray cutting the hair of the three youngest children left +her, first by her predecessor and then by Mr. Ray himself. + +"Sit down," she had said cordially; "the second train isn't in yet, and +it's got to come in and go out and let the mail-train come in, even if +the mail ain't late, on account of the wreck." + +"Oh, is there a wreck?" Mrs. Dunstall asked anxiously. + +"Yes. Forty-four run into a open switch up at Cornell. If the switch is +open, I never see why the train don't just run on out the other end and +keep right along; but all the accidents is as often open switches as +anything, so I guess there's a reason. At any rate, the wrecking-train's +gone up and the second mail's going to be late. Tip your head a little, +Billy. Yes, indeed." + +"I wonder if we'd better wait," said Mrs. Dunstall, unwrapping her shawl +somewhat and taking a chair. "What do you say, Pinkie?" + +Pinkie was already seated. She weighed two hundred pounds and never +stood up when she could help it. "I say 'Wait,'" said Pinkie. + +Mrs. Dunstall thereupon sat down, too, and after ten minutes of a most +solemn silence Mrs. Ray finished her task and dismissed the children. +She faced her callers, then, folding her little gray shoulder-wrap +tightly across her bosom as she did so, and tucking the ends in close +beneath her armpits. The little gray shawl was one of the first signs of +winter in Ledge; Mrs. Ray always donned it at the beginning of October, +and never took it off before the last day of May. + +"Well!" she said now; "anything new come up?" + +"Millicent come on the same train with that girl," Mrs. Dunstall began +at once. "I wasn't really expecting any mail this morning, but I thought +I might as well come down about now and tell you how Millicent come on +the train with her. You know who I mean, of course?" + +"She knows," said Pinkie. + +"I s'posed you would. And so Millicent come on the same train with her. +Seems too curious of Millicent coming on the same train with her, when +Millicent hasn't been on a train but twice in her life before, and then +to think that she would come back with that girl. Things do fall out +queer in this world. She sit right in the seat behind her, too. That was +awful curious, I think." + +Mrs. Ray gave the ends of her shawl a fresh tuck, and drew in some extra +breath. + +"You never can tell," she began; "things do come about mighty strange in +this world. Yes, indeed. It's the unexpected that has happened so much +that it's got to be a proverb in the end. I always feel when a thing has +been coming about till it gets to be proverb, it's no use me disputing +it. Dig around in smoking ashes long enough, and I've never failed to +find some sparks yet. And what you just said is all true as true can +be. It's the unexpected as always happens. Look at me, for instance. +Look at how the post-office fell out of a clear sky on me, and Mr. Ray +much the same, too. I never had any idea of either of 'em beforehand, +and now here I am stamping letters morning and night to keep up the +payments on his tombstone. Things do work in circles so in this world. I +always say if I hadn't been postmistress no one would have expected to +see my husband have a fringed cloth hang on a pillar over his dead body, +and if I hadn't been postmistress I never could have paid for such a +thing. But where there's a will there's a way, which is another proverb +as I've never found go wrong, unless your way is to stay in bed while +you're willing." + +"Oh, but you never could have put anything plain on Mr. Ray--not in your +circumstances, and him passing the plate every Sunday and you the sexton +yourself." Mrs. Dunstall looked almost shocked at the mere fancy. + +"Couldn't I! Well, I guess I could if I'd had my own way. But I wasn't +allowed my own way. Nobody is. That's what holds us back in this world; +it's the being expected to live up to what we've got; and in this +country, where the garden is open to the public, most of us has to live +up to a good deal more'n we've got. If America ever takes to walls, +it'll show it's going to begin to economize. It'll mean we're giving up +tulips and going in for potatoes. And you'll see, Mrs. Dunstall, that +just as soon as we really have to economize we'll begin to build walls. +There's something about economy as likes walls around the house--high +ones." + +"You was raised with walls, wasn't you?" said Mrs. Dunstall. + +"I should think I was. I'm English-born--I am." + +"How old was you when you come to this country, Mrs. Ray?" + +"I've lived here thirty-eight years; that's how old I was." + +"You wasn't here before Mr. Ledge?" + +"No, I wasn't, nor before the Falls, neither." + +"Why, the Falls was here before Mr. Ledge," said Mrs. Dunstall, +enlarging her eyes. "Oh, I see, you're making a joke, Mrs. Ray." + +"I do occasionally make a joke," said Mrs. Ray, giving her shawl another +tuck. + +"Well, to go back to the girl," said Mrs. Dunstall, "she sit right +behind Millicent too, and what makes it all the stranger, is, she asked +Millicent the name of the next station. Millicent told her it was going +to be Ledge, and asked her if she was for Ledge, because if she was for +East Ledge she ought to stay on one station more. You know, Mrs. Ray, +how folks are always getting off here for East Ledge, and having to stay +all night or hire a buggy to drive over--two shillings either way; and +Millicent asked her, too, if she was for Ledge's Crossing, because if +she was for the Crossing the train don't stop there, and Millicent +always was kind-hearted and wanted her to know it right off. You know +how Millicent is, Pinkie; the last time she rode on a train she threw +the two bags off to the old lady who forgot them, and they weren't the +old lady's bags; they were the conductor's, and he had to run the train +way back for them; he did feel so vexed about them, Millicent said." + +"So vexed," said Pinkie. + +"And so then Millicent asked her if maybe she was for Ledgeville, +because if she was for Ledgeville she was on the wrong train, and had +ought to have took the Pennsylvania, unless she telegraphed from Ledge +Centre for the omnibus to come up, which nobody ever knows to do; and +then it come into Millicent's head as maybe she was going to visit Mr. +Ledge, in which case goodness knows what she would do, for although he +gets his mail at Ledge, he gets his company at Castile, and here was +that poor child five miles of bridge and walk out of her way, and +Millicent's heart just bleeding for her, she looked so tired. But she +said she was for Ledge." + +"Yes, I could have told you she was for Ledge," said Mrs. Ray; "there +was two letters for her here. When I have letters for people without +having the people for the letters, it always means one or two +things,--either the people are coming or the letters are addressed +wrong. I learned that long ago. Yes, indeed." + +"Millicent says she liked her looks from the first," pursued Mrs. +Dunstall, "only her hat did amuse her. I must say the hats folks from +town wear is about the most amusing things we ever see here. One year +they pin 'em to their fronts and next year to their backs, and Millicent +says this one was on hindside before with a feather duster upside down +on top. She never saw anything like it; but she said the girl was so +innocent of what a sight she was that she wouldn't have let her see her +laughing behind her back for anything. What do you think of city people +anyhow, Mrs. Ray?" + +"City people are always mooney," responded Mrs. Ray; "such mooney ideas +as come into their heads in the country always. Seems like they save +all their mooney ideas for the country. Yes, indeed. They take off their +hats and their shoes and carry stones around in their handkerchiefs; and +when I see 'em slipping and scrambling up and down that steep bank all +the hot summer long, and taking that walk to the Lower Falls that's +enough to kill any Christian with brains, I most humbly thank our +merciful Father in heaven that I've stayed in the country and kept my +good senses. Yes, indeed. And then what they lug back to town with them! +That's what uses me all up! Roots and stones! Why, I saw some one bring +a root from the Lower Falls last year, yes, indeed." + +"That walk to the Lower Falls is terrible," said Mrs. Dunstall, +meditatively. "I took it once,--and you, too,--didn't you, Pinkie?" + +"Twice," said Pinkie. + +"I took it once, too," said Mrs. Ray, who was never loath to discuss +that famous promenade. "Mr. Ray and me took it together. It was when we +first met. He took me, and we walked to the Lower Falls. It was a awful +walk; I never see a worse one, myself. They say it isn't so bad now. Of +course, the time I went with Mr. Ray was while he was still alive. It +was harder then. He asked me to marry him coming back. Oh, I'll never +forget that awful walk!" + +"It's bad enough yet," said Mrs. Dunstall. "Mr. Ledge has done all he +could to build things to catch hold of where you'd go head over heels to +heaven if he hadn't, but it's a awful walk still. And then the steps! +Why, Nathan and Lizzie was there last summer, and Lizzie says all the +way down she was thinking how she was ever going to be able to get back, +and all the way back she was thinking just the same thing. Going, you +go down steps till it seems like there never would come the bottom, and +coming back you come up steps till you're ready to move to Ledgeville +and live on the bottoms for life. You know how that is, Pinkie?" + +"Yes," said Pinkie. + +"It wouldn't do any good to move to Ledgeville to get rid of the Lower +Falls," said Mrs. Ray, "because the dam is going to do away with the +Lower Falls and drown Ledgeville entirely. That's the next little +surprise the city folks will be giving us." + +"I shall like to stand on the bridge the day they let the water in over +the dam the first time," said Mrs. Dunstall. "It'll be a great sight to +see the valley turn into a lake, and South Ledge and Ledgeville go +under." + +"I wouldn't look forward to it too much if I was you," said Mrs. Ray; +"it's going to take three or four years to dig that dam, they tell me. +You can't lay out a lake and break up three sets of falls in a minute." + +"They haven't got to do something to all the Falls," said Mrs. Dunstall. +"Josiah Bates was holding stakes for one of the surveyors yesterday, and +he heard him say as the Lower Falls wouldn't need a thing, for it was a +mill-race already." + +"Well, it's a blessing if there's one thing ready to their hands," said +Mrs. Ray, "for I must say the way the State has took hold of us, since +Mr. Ledge set out to give it something for nothing, is a caution. If +he'd offered to sell the Falls at cost price, we'd of had a petition and +our taxes increased and been marked 'keep off the grass,' in all +directions; but just because he offered to give it to 'em all cleared up +and in order, they must tear around and build a dam and drown five +villages and go cutting up monkey-shines generally. Yes, indeed." + +"They do say that the dam will keep the Falls, instead of spoiling +them," said Mrs. Dunstall; "they say the Falls is stratifying backward, +and is most through being falls, anyway, and if the dam is built, we'll +all have that to look at always." + +"It'll be all one to me," said Mrs. Ray; "I never get time to look at +nothing, anyway, unless it's folks waiting for their mail, and goodness +knows they've long ceased to interest me." + +Mrs. Dunstall looked a bit uncertain as to how to receive this outburst +of confidence. "It does you good to take a little rest," she said at +last; "you work too hard for a woman of your time of life, Mrs. Ray." + +"Well, I'd like to know how I can help it, with my farm and my chickens +and my grocery business, not to speak of the boarders and the children +and the post-office. When one's a mother and a farmer and a sexton and +an employee under bond to the United States Government one has to keep +on the jump." + +Mrs. Dunstall rearranged the set of her lips slightly. "The mail's very +late, ain't it?" she asked. + +"Late! I should think it was late. I guess that open switch has settled +Forty-four for to-day. But that train's always late. It isn't in the +block yet, and the mail-train follows it." + +"If it don't come soon, I can't wait," said Mrs. Dunstall; "this is one +of my awful days, and speaking of awful days, what do you think of the +doings over at the old Whittaker house, Mrs. Ray?" + +"I've heard she's wrecking it completely." + +"Josiah Bates' been doing some carting there. He says it's enough to +make old Grandma Whittaker shiver in her grave. He says they've turned +the house just about inside out. That girl must be crazy." + +"She is crazy," said Mrs. Ray with decision; "she's in love." + +"Oh!" said Mrs. Dunstall, "with him, you mean?" + +"Of course. But she's crazy two ways, I think, to go bringing that +pretty girl here, and she so thin and white herself. You can't tell me +that that man doesn't know a pretty girl when he sees her, even if he +ain't seen her yet--which he hasn't, for he didn't see 'em this morning. +I know that, for I was watching." + +"That's the train now, isn't it?" said Mrs. Dunstall, listening. + +Mrs. Ray pricked up her ears. "Yes, that's the train, rushing along and +sprinkling soot over everything. Picking hops used to be such nice clean +work, but now they're all over soot." + +"The canal was better, I think," said Mrs. Dunstall. + +Mrs. Ray made no answer; she was absorbed in looking out of the window. + +"It was cleaner, anyhow," Mrs. Dunstall continued; "but they do say the +men swore most awful locking boats through in the night. I never lived +on the canal, myself, but you did, Pinkie; did they swear much or not?" + +"They swore," said Pinkie. + +"Well," said Mrs. Ray, now facing about and making certain active +preparations for the reception of the mail, "it must be nice to spend +your days ways that lets you lay awake nights listening to anything +swear. I've never had time nor money to lay awake nights. I leave that +for those who can, but I can't. Walking to the Lower Falls and laying +awake nights is pleasant, I've no doubt, but I need my days other ways. +Summer folks is always coming in here and saying, 'Oh, have you seen the +gorge this morning, Mrs. Ray,' and me like enough out ploughing in the +opposite direction since sun up. I haven't got any time to lay awake or +to look at views. If the weeds grew up all around my fence-posts while I +was hanging over the bridge looking at the gorge, I guess you'd hear of +it, and since I've taken to raising chickens, there's hen-houses to +spray and me busier than ever. If I was a hen, my day's work would be +over when I'd laid my egg and I could run out with a free mind and look +at the gorge, but as it stands now, I ain't got time to look at +nothing,"--in testimony whereof she disappeared into the kitchen. + +"I'll tell you who's got time," said Mrs. Dunstall as soon as she +reappeared; "it's those Lathbuns down at Nellie's. How long are they +going to stay around here, do you suppose?" + +"I don't know; I don't know anything about them. They don't get any +mail, so I've no way of knowing a thing. My own opinion is that if I was +Nellie I'd keep a sharp eye on my shawls, for folks who come walking +along without baggage, can go walking off without baggage, too. Those +are her shawls they're wearing, you know; they haven't got so much as a +jacket between them of their own." + +"Nellie says they're very nice people," said Mrs. Dunstall; "and the +girl has got a love affair. She don't mind their wearing her shawls." + +"Why don't he write her, then," said Mrs. Ray; "that's the time even the +poorest letter-writer writes letters. Mr. Ray wrote me the first +Thursday after he was in love. I've got the letter yet." + +"What did he write you for, when you was keeping house for him, anyway?" +asked Mrs. Dunstall. + +"He was gone to Ledge Centre for the license." + +"I never see why you married him," said Mrs. Dunstall; "he paid you for +keeping house for him before that, didn't he?" + +"Yes, but he had his mind set on marrying some one, and I thought I'd +better marry him than any one else. And I was fond of the children, and +I didn't know nothing about the mortgages. I always say we was real +fashionable. I didn't know nothing about the mortgages, and he thought I +had some money in the bank. Well, it was an even thing when it all came +out. I guess marriage generally is. Everything else, too." + +"I don't see why the mail don't come, if it's in," said Mrs. Dunstall. + +Mrs. Ray went to the window and looked out. + +"It'll come soon now," she declared, hopefully. + +"But I can't wait any longer," said Mrs. Dunstall, rising, "I wasn't +expecting anything, anyway. Come, Pinkie." + +They both rose and started to go out together. + +But just at the door they met one of the surveyors. + +"Oh, that reminds me why I come," said Mrs. Dunstall, stopping; "young +man, do you know Sallie Busby?" + +The young surveyor looked startled. + +"Chestnuts in a blue and white sunbonnet, mainly?" said Mrs. Dunstall. + +"I don't recollect." + +"Well, you might not have noticed, or she might not have had it on, but +either way she's been most amused watching your young men pegging those +little flags all through her meadow, but she says that when you got +through last night you forgot seven, and she saw 'em when she went out +to pick the two trees up the cow-path this morning, and run down and got +'em, and has 'em all laid by for you whenever you want to send for 'em." + +The young man stood speechless. + +Finally he said: "But they were meant to be left there." + +"Were--were they?" said Mrs. Dunstall, in great surprise; "well, you +ought to have told her so then. She saw you pull some up, so she thought +you meant to pull them all up. Too bad! Now you'll have to get your +machine and go peeking all over her land again, won't you?" + +"We will if she's pulled up the flags, certainly." + +"Well, she's pulled up the flags. If Sallie set out to pull them up, +they'd up, you can count on that! How's the dam coming on, anyway?" + +The young man laughed. "Why, there's no question of the dam yet. You all +seem to think that we're here to build it. We have to make a report to +the commission first, and the commission will lay the report before the +legislature. That's how it is." + +Mrs. Ray folded her arms and joined in suddenly, "So--that's how it is, +is it? Well, I don't wonder it's difficult to run a post-office, when +anything as plain as a dam has to be fussed over like that. By the way, +you're one of the surveyors and you ought to know,--is it true that if +they do build the dam, it may get a little too full and run over into +our valley or burst altogether and drown Rochester? I'm interested to +know." + +"That's what we want to know, too," said Ingram's assistant; "that's +what we're surveying for." + +"How long will it take you to tell? I've got a friend--maybe you know +him, Sammy Adams?--and he owns most of the valley back here. He's the +worrying kind, and he's worried. Yes, indeed." + +"It wouldn't make so much difference about Rochester," said Mrs. +Dunstall; "it's a deal easier to go for our shopping to Buffalo from +here; but wouldn't it be awful for Sammy Adams! Why, his house is right +in the valley." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Ray, "and as a general thing Sammy's right in his +house. It's bad enough now, with the freshets scooping sand all over the +farm every other spring, but if the dam goes and scoops Sammy Adams, the +legislature'll have something else to settle besides the Capitol at +Albany. Sammy Adams looks meek, but he'd never take being drowned +quietly; he's got too much spirit for that. Yes, indeed!" + +"We're going to do away with the freshets, Mrs. Ray," the young man +said; "the dam--if it comes--will be the biggest blessing that ever came +this way, let me tell you. In the summer you'll have a beautiful lake to +sail on, and no end of excursions." + +"Why, I thought they were going to store up the water in spring, and +draw it off in the summer," said Mrs. Dunstall. "A man told my husband +that that was what they wanted the dam for,--to save the high water in +the spring so as to use it in the summer. Wasn't that what Ebenezer +said, Pinkie?" + +"Yes, it was," said Pinkie. + +"How do you explain that?" asked Mrs. Ray, turning an inquisitorial eye +sternly on the surveyor. "Where's your beautiful lake going to be by +July? Marsh and mosquitoes, that's what we'll have left. Don't tell me; +I've seen too many kind thoughts about making folks happy end that way, +and I've seen one or two reservoirs, too. The dam'll drown Sammy Adams, +that's what it'll do, and Ledge'll be left high and dry with a lot of +dead fish lying all over the fields. I know!" + +"Well, we'll see!" said the young man, laughing. + +"But I thought you was all for the dam, Mrs. Ray," said Mrs. Dunstall, a +little surprised. "Whatever has changed you so?" + +Mrs. Ray shut her mouth tightly and then opened it with a snap. "I've +been thinking," she said abruptly; "and I don't mind changing my opinion +when I must. Any one who wants to hold a position under the United +States Government has got to have brains and use 'em freely in changing +their opinion." + +"But you said--" began Mrs. Dunstall. + +"What if I did? Like enough I'll say it again. I will, if I feel like +it. Yes, indeed. 'He moves in a mysterious way,' you know, and I'm one +of His ways, and I've got a right to keep my own counsel about my own +work. But--speaking of work--the mail-train was in before you come up. I +wonder what's become of the bag!" She went to the window and looked down +towards the station. "I do have such trouble to get hold of that bag. +That's one of the hardest things about keeping a post-office, is the +getting hold of the bag. They don't have any sort of understanding of +what a United States Government position means, down at our station; +they kick the mail-bag around like it was a crate of hens. Once they +asked me if they couldn't have the key at the station, and open the mail +because there's always more inhabitants in the station than in the +post-office. They seemed to think that was a glory to the station, and a +reflection on me. But I don't want to have men sitting around here. I +won't have it. The only man who has any legal right to sit around me is +in heaven, and just because I'm the postmistress is no reason why I +should take chances. If you don't want men sitting around, you can +easily keep 'em from doing it by having no chairs for them to sit on. I +never have." + +"Don't you want me to go down and get the mail?" suggested the young +surveyor, somewhat uneasily. + +Mrs. Ray turned a severe eye his way. "Have you go down and get the +mail! Well, young man, I guess you don't know that it's a penitentiary +offence to lay hands on a mail-sack, unauthorized by the United States +Government! Yes, indeed. It is, though, and I've had such hard work +getting it into people's heads that it is, that I wouldn't authorize no +one. _No one!_ Why, when we first was a post-office, I had the most +awful time. Everybody coming this way brought the bag with 'em. It's a +penitentiary offence to touch the bag, and here Sammy Adams forgot he +had it in his buggy one night, and drove home with it. It was when Mrs. +Allen's cousin Eliza was dying, and she was so anxious, and no mail-bag +at all that night. I tell you I took a firm stand after that; I made the +rule and made it for keeps, that no matter if there wasn't but one +postal, and all the men in the station had felt the bag to see that +there wasn't, the bag must come up to me just the same. You'll find, +young man, that if you hold a United States Government position, you'll +be expected to uphold the United States Government, and if you're +building the dam and employ the men around here, you'll find that to +impress them you must keep a bold front. That's why I have my arms +folded most of the time." + +The young surveyor listened with reverent attention. + +"Whose business is it to bring the bag, anyway?" asked Mrs. Dunstall. "I +can't wait much longer." + +"It isn't anybody's business,--that's what's the trouble. The United +States Government don't provide nothing but penalties for touching the +mail-bag. That's another hard thing about holding a government position +when your hands are as full as mine. At first I couldn't get the +mail-bag respected, in fact they used it to keep the door to the station +open windy days; and then, when I got it respected by explaining what we +was liable to if we didn't respect it, I couldn't get no one to touch it +any more. I had to wheel it up and down in the baby-carriage for a +while, and then I looked up the law and found I could delegate my +authority; so since then Mr. Hopkins has delegated for me except when he +goes to Ledge Lake, and when he does that I take it in a wheelbarrow. I +give the baby-carriage to Lucy. She had that baby, you know. Well, of +course a baby needs a carriage, so I give her ours." + +"A baby's lots of trouble," said Mrs. Dunstall, thoughtfully. + +"Yes, but we're here for trouble," said Mrs. Ray, cheerfully. "I've got +the post-office, Lucy's got the baby, and poor Clay Wright Benton's got +his mother and the parrot. Everybody's got something!" + +"Well, I can't wait any longer," said Mrs. Dunstall; "good-bye. Come, +Pinkie." + +They went out. + +"Who is Pinkie?" the young man asked, when he was alone with Mrs. Ray. +"I d'n know," said Mrs. Ray, "she don't, either. They adopted her when +she weighed six pounds and named her Pinkie, and that's what come of +it." + +"I see." Just then the mail-bag was brought in. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +WHEN DIFFERENCES LEAD TO WHAT IS EVER THE SAME + + +Lassie fled down the path. Not even that primeval river which once +rushed wildly across the old Devonian rocks just here was more +thoughtless as to whither it was going. All that she was conscious of in +that instant was irresistible revolt against the horror of what she had +just heard, and which bred in her a sudden and utter rebellion. A vivid +imagination will have already pictured the possible effect of Alva's +story upon her friend, and that vast majority whose imaginations are not +vivid will be happy to be spared such details. It is sufficient to say +that tears, pain, groans, and a coffin suspended, like Damocles' sword, +above all the rest, was Lassie's background to her friend's romance; and +the picture thus held in her mind was so benumbing to her other senses +that as she ran she tripped, stumbled, almost fell, down the hill, so +blind and careless of all else had she become. The restraint of Alva's +presence was now removed; nothing stood between the young girl and her +sensation of appalling wretchedness. As she ran she shook, she +shuddered; the path was steep, and her knees seemed to crumble beneath +her; twice she almost went headlong, and at the minute she felt that a +broken neck was but a trifle in comparison to coming face to face with +anything like what she had just been told. "Of course he was a great +man," she gasped half aloud; "but he'll never be able to even feed +himself again--it said so in the paper. Why, at first it said his back +was broken. Oh, oh, if Alva can be so crazy as that, who is sane, and +what can one believe? Oh, dear--oh, dear--oh, dear! And she calls it +love, too!" + +The village of Ledgeville lay below, and a few more minutes of +precipitous flight brought Lassie in sight of its houses. Still a few +more minutes, and she was in the middle of the village--a very small +village, consisting of two streets composing the usual American town +cross, and half a dozen stores. Every one whom she met knew just who she +was (for had she not arrived upon the evening previous?), and they all +regarded her with earnest scrutiny. The inhabitants of Ledgeville +themselves were never in the habit of coming down from the Long Bridge +with tear-stained faces, heaving bosoms and a catch in their breath, but +that Lassie did so, caused them no surprise. Was she not of that +unaccountable multitude called "city folks?" + +Lassie herself neither thought nor cared how she appeared to the +ruminative gaze of Ledgeville at first, but as soon as she did notice +the attention which she was attracting, she wanted to get away from it +as quickly as possible, eyes being quite unbearable in her present +distress. She stopped and asked a kindly looking old man where the +bridge--the lower bridge--might be, knowing that it would take her to +solitude again. The kindly old man pointed to where the bridge could be +seen, a block or so beyond, and she thanked him and hurried on. It was +a wooden bridge, very long; and the river here glided in wonderful +contrast to that other aspect of itself which plunged so furiously from +cataract to cataract, a quarter of a mile further down the course. How +curious to think that all smooth-flowing rivers have it in them to foam +and rage and gnaw and rend away the backbone of the globe itself, if +driven in among narrow and hard environment. Is there ever any simile to +those conditions in human lives, I wonder! And then to consider on the +other hand that there is no volume of watery menace which, if spread +between banks of green with space to flow untrammeled, will not become +the greatest and most beneficial of all the helpers of need and seed! +That is also a simile--one more cheerful and happy than the former, +praise be to God. + +The river by Ledgeville is one of those flowing smoothly and broadly +between banks of green. So smoothly and sweetly does it flow just there +that it might well have brought some quieting mood, some gracious, even +current of gently rippling peace, into poor Lassie's throbbing heart, +had she but been able to receive any comfort at that moment. But +meditation was as far from her at this juncture as her mental attitude +was from Alva's, and more than that cannot be said for either +proposition. + +So the river carried its lesson unread, while the girlish figure +traversed the bridge as quickly as it had flown through the town, and, +hurriedly turning at the forking of the road beyond, started up the +hill. She knew that that way must lead to Ledge, and eventually her own +little hotel bedroom, that longed for haven where she would be able to +sit down quietly, away from the sunlight and omnipresent people, away +from everything and everybody. Oh, but it was freshly awful to think of +Alva, her beautiful Alva, and of what Alva was going to do! Marry that +man! Why, he would never even sit up again; he could hardly see, the +paper had said--the newspapers had said--everybody had said. + +She stopped suddenly and stood perfectly still. A choking pain gripped +her in the throat and side. Her spiritual torment had suddenly yielded +to her physical lack of breath. + +Beyond a doubt there is nothing that will curb any sentiment of any +description so quickly as walking up hill. Without in the slightest +degree intending to be flippant, I must say that in all my experience, +personal and observed, I have never yet felt or seen the emotion which +does not have to give way somewhat under that particular form of +exercise. In Lassie's case she found herself to be so suddenly and +completely exhausted that she could hardly stand. Her knees, which had +seemed on the verge of giving out as she hurried down the opposite bank, +now really did fail her and, looking despairingly about and feeling +tears to be again perilously near, she turned off of the road into the +woods that stretched down the bank and, treading rapidly over soft turf +and softer moss, came in a minute to a solitude sufficiently removed to +allow of her sinking upon the ground and there giving out completely. + +Oh, how she cried then! Cried in the unrestrained, childish way that +gasps for breath, and chokes and then sobs afresh and aloud. She thought +herself so safely alone in the depths of the wood that she could gasp +and choke and sob to her heart's uttermost content, not at all knowing +that Fate, who does indeed weave a mesh of the most intricate +patterning, had even now begun to interweave her destiny with that +of--well, let us say--of the dam at Ledgeville. + +Alva's talk about the dam had gone in one ear and out the other; Alva's +words regarding Ingram had been driven into the background of Lassie's +brain by the later surprises; but now things were to begin to alter. We +never can tell, when we weep over the frightful love affair of a friend, +what delightful plans that same little Cupid may have for our own +immediate comforting, or how deftly he and the dark-veiled goddess may +have combined in future projects. + +Sorrow is sorrow, but sometimes it comes with the comforter close upon +its heels, and when the sorrow is really another's, and the comforter is +unattached and therefore may quite easily become one's own!-- + +Ah, but all this is anticipating. It is true that disinterested parties +(like Joey Beall) always know everything before those most interested +have the slightest suspicion of what is going on; but still it seems to +me unfair to take any advantage of two innocent people as early in the +game as the Sixth Chapter. + +Therefore it shall only be said here that the party of surveyors had +employed that morning in sighting and flagging up and down the banks +beneath the Long Bridge, and Ingram, having spent two hours in their +company, was now climbing the hillside for pure athletic joy, being one +of those who prefer a scramble to a smooth road any day. As he came +lightly up the last long swing that measured the bank for him, he surely +was looking for nothing less in life than that which he found at the +top,--and yet that which he found at the top was not so disagreeable +a surprise, after all. For Lassie, even now when indubitably miserable, +pink-eyed and wretched, was still a very pretty girl. A pretty girl is +very much like a rose in the rain--a few drops of water only add to its +charm; and so when Ingram came suddenly upon her, crying there under a +tree, and caused her to look up with a little scream at the man crashing +out of the bushes with such a force of interruption as made her jump to +her feet and shrink quickly away--why, really it was all far less +startling and alarming than it sounds to read about. For he at once +exclaimed, "Surely you remember me." And she saw who it was, stared at +him dazedly for an instant, and then dropped her face in her hands +again, realizing that he was the first of the big world that "hadn't +been told," and that he would ask what was the matter, and that she must +not tell him. And so--and so--there was nothing to do but hide her +face--and collect her wits--and listen. + +[Illustration: "SURELY YOU REMEMBER ME."] + +"What is it?" he said, and as she felt for her handkerchief she could +but think how hard it was to resist sympathy when one's dearest friend +was doing such unheard-of things, and one had just learned about them. +Not that she would tell him why she was crying, of course. + +"What is it?" he asked again then--he was very near now. "You know who I +am. I used to know you when you were a little girl. You remember?" + +She was still feeling for her handkerchief, and he put a great white one +into her seeking hand. She wiped her eyes with it and thought again that +he must not be told, and so said, with quivering lips: + +"Oh, please leave me, please go away. Nothing is the matter, but I must +be alone. I want to be alone. Please go away and leave me." + +Ingram looked down upon her and, laying his hand on her arm with a grasp +that was so firm as to feel brotherly (to one not yet a débutante), said +in a tone of fascinating authority (to one not yet a débutante): + +"What is it? What is the trouble? You've had a letter with bad news?" In +his own mind he set it down that she and Alva had had a misunderstanding +of some sort, but that opinion he would not voice. + +"Oh, no," sobbed Lassie; "it isn't a letter--it is Alva!" She paused and +Ingram had just time enough to reflect how quickly a man could see +straight through any woman, when Lassie could bear the burden of reserve +no longer, and with a wild burst of accelerated woe cried: "She has told +me her secret, and I listened 'way through to the end and then--then +when I really understood and realized what it all meant, then I could +not bear it, and so--and so--I ran away from her and down the hill and +across the bridge and came here to be alone. And I wish you would go +away and leave me alone; oh, I want to be alone so very, very much, for +I cannot keep still unless I am alone; I am too unhappy over it all. Too +unhappy. And I have promised her not to tell." + +Ingram looked his startled sympathy. "What is the trouble?" he asked. +"Tell me; perhaps I can help you. Why should you keep 'it' a secret? I'm +her friend, too, you know." + +"But it isn't my secret, it's hers," Lassie sobbed; "and I've promised; +and, anyway, nobody or nothing can help her. Nothing! Nobody!" + +"Is it really as bad as that?" said the man, looking very serious. + +Lassie was wringing her hands. "Oh, it's ever so much worse than that; +it's the very worst thing I ever heard of. And that shows how bad I am; +for Alva is good, and it makes her happy!" + +Naturally Ingram could not follow the reasoning which caused her +terminal phrase to serve as a sort of mental apology for her way of +looking at the affair, but he was not alarmed by the breadth of her +confession of guilt, only unspeakably distressed by her distress, and +its mysterious cause. + +"But what _is_ it?" he asked. "What has Alva done?" + +"I musn't tell." + +"Alva's not in any difficulty across the river there, is she?" he +hazarded. + +"Oh, no; she isn't in any difficulty; she is very, very happy. That's +what seems so awful about it." + +"What? I can't understand." + +"I can't explain, either. And I musn't tell you. It's going to drive me +crazy to keep still, but I must not tell." + +"You can tell me;" his tone was suddenly authoritative again (quite +thrilling its young listener). + +"No, I can't. I can't tell any one," but _her_ tone was wavering, with a +catch in its note. + +Ingram became instantly imperious. + +"Yes, you can tell me! You must tell me! It will relieve your mind, and +perhaps I can help Alva." + +"No, you can't help her; she doesn't want to be helped." + +"Well, I can help you, anyway. Just telling me will help you." + +Lassie choked. + +"Tell me at once," said Ingram, sternly; "I insist upon knowing." + +She looked up at him. + +"Don't stop to think," he commanded; "tell me." + +Oh, the intense relief of having a burdensome secret torn from your +keeping! Lassie felt that when in trouble, a man was the friend to +find--even before one's début. + +"You won't ever let her know that I told?" she faltered. + +"Of course not." + +"She didn't ask me really to promise; she only said that I should be the +only one to ever know." + +"Never mind, I don't count. Go on." + +"Well, she is going to marry--" and then she told him, with many halts +and gasps, who; and then she told him further, when. + +Ingram listened, silent, turning white all about his mouth. "She can't +do it," he said, after a minute. "That man may die any hour. It said so +in last night's paper." + +"She is going to do it," Lassie said; "she doesn't mind his dying--that +is, she doesn't mind his dying as most people do." + +"Oh, but that's horrible," he said then; "you were right--it is awful. +No wonder you were frightened and ran away. She must be insane. I never +heard of such a thing." He went to the edge of the bank and looked off +for a little, standing there still, and then, after a while, "Oh, my +God!" he said; and then again "Oh, my God!" and came back beside her. +His action, his evident emotion, quieted her own strangely. + +"Isn't it terrible?" she asked, almost timidly, when he was close again; +"it seems to me the most terrible thing that I ever knew about." + +"Very terrible," said the man, briefly. "We will walk on up the hill," +he added, after a little; "it's near dinner time." She did as he said. + +"You won't tell Alva that I told you?" she asked. + +He shook his head. "No, indeed," and then both were silent. + +Towards the top, he asked: "How long shall you be with her?" + +"A week." + +"That means until she leaves to marry him?" + +"Yes." + +"That's good; I am glad that you can stay." + +She tried to say something then, and her voice died in one of those same +strange gasps, but she tried a second time and succeeded. "I suppose +that nothing could be done?" she questioned. + +"What would you do?" he asked. + +"I don't know," she said. + +He smiled a little oddly. "I am afraid that we should be fools," he +said; "those fools that rush in, you know. It is beginning to come back +to me how Alva looked and how she spoke when I took her to see the +house. It all had no meaning to me then, but it has meaning now. It +comes back to me more and more. Perhaps you and I are--are--not up to +seeing it quite as she does. Perhaps. It's possible." + +"That is what she says over and over--that I cannot understand," Lassie +said, faintly. + +"I can't understand either, but--perhaps she does. I _can_ understand +_that_." + +"I am glad that you know, anyway;" her tone was sweet and confiding. He +looked down into her pretty eyes. + +"I am, too," he said, heartily. + +"But I hope that it wasn't very wrong for me to tell you; it seemed as +if I could not bear it alone!" + +"Don't worry about that; Alva shall never know. And now, if you cannot +bear it (as you say) again, you know that you can come to me and say +what you like. We shall have that comfort." + +She smiled a little. "You don't seem like a stranger; you seem like an +old, old friend." + +"I'm glad. Because I am an old, old friend in reality, you know." + +"But, if--if I--when I want--" she hesitated. + +"Oh, you don't know where to find me if you want me?" He laughed. "It's +true that I am an uncertain quantity, but I take supper at the hotel +every evening, and sometimes I go to the post-office afterwards." He +smiled roundly at that, and she smiled, too. "We must go to the +post-office together, sometimes," he added; "it's the great social +diversion of Ledge." He was glad to see her face and manner getting +easier. That was what he was trying for--to lift the weight from her. + +"Alva took me there this morning," she said. + +They came now to the Soldiers' Monument and the tracks. + +"I hope that she isn't going to mind the way that I left her!" the +young girl exclaimed suddenly, smitten with anxiety. "I ran away, you +know; I couldn't bear it another minute." + +"She won't mind that," said Ingram; "all the little things of life won't +cut any figure with her any more, if she's the kind that has made up her +mind to do such a thing. That's what I've been thinking all the time +that we were coming along; a woman who has decided to marry in the way +that Alva has, must of course look at everything in life by a different +light from that of the rest of us; I don't know really that we have the +right even to criticize her. We don't understand her at all; that's all +it is." + +Lassie looked astonished. "You don't mean to say that you think that she +isn't crazy?" she said. + +Ingram smiled again, "I mean that I hardly think it possible to judge +what one cannot measure; savages reverence the Unknown, you know, and +I'm not sure that reverence is not a fitter attitude towards mystery +than condemnation or ridicule, although of course it isn't the civilized +or popular standpoint." + +"But do you think it's--it's--it's the thing, to do--" Lassie could not +get on further. + +"I think it's just as awful as you do," he said quietly; "but I've had +time since you told me to see that just because it seems awful to me, +it's very plain to me that I see it differently from the way in which +she does. She isn't a girl, she's a woman; and she's a very good and +sweet and true woman at that. If she is making this marriage, the really +awful part isn't the part that you or I or the world are going to think +about, it's something else." + +Lassie's glance rose doubtfully upward. "You think that it's all right +for her to do it, then?" she asked miserably. + +"I think that we aren't wise enough to talk about it at all," said +Ingram with determined cheerfulness. "Let's change the subject. I am +going to be here on and off for a year, likely, and digging holes to +hold little flags, and drilling to keep track of what one drills through +isn't the liveliest fun in the world to look forward to; so when Alva +doesn't need you, do give me some of your time and make me some jolly +memories to live on later, when I'm alone--will you?" + +"You won't ever be able to go and see Alva in her house afterwards, will +you?" said Lassie, her mind apparently unequal to changing the subject +on short notice; "because no one is ever to go there, she says." + +"I shall never go unless she asks me, surely." + +They were now quite near the little hotel. + +"Before we part, let us be a little conventional and say that we are +glad to have met one another," Ingram suggested; "will you?" + +"I'm glad that I met you," she said; "it will be a great comfort--as you +said." + +Ingram was looking at her and that turned his face towards the gorge. "I +see Alva coming across the bridge," he exclaimed; "go and meet her. Go +to her quite frankly, openly,--as if nothing had happened. That will be +easiest--and kindest--and best all around." + +She flashed a grateful glance to his eyes, and ran at once down the +tracks and out upon the bridge. + +Alva came towards her, with a rapid step, her open coat floating lightly +back on either side. She smiled sweetly as she saw the girlish figure. +"You beat me home," she called out, gaily. + +Lassie swallowed the lump in her throat and smiled, too. "It's such a +beautiful day, and I'm so happy and so glad that you are happy!" + +The pretty young voice rang fresh and true. The next instant they were +close, side by side. + +Alva stood still. What Ingram had said proved most truly true; she did +not seem to hold any recollection of that parting an hour before. She +drew Lassie close beside her and pointed over the bridge-rail. A rainbow +was spanning the Upper Falls, and its brilliant, evanescent promise +seemed to reflect in the face above. What is so fragile, illusive, +uncertain as a rainbow? And yet it is the mirrored mirage of all the +Eternal Purpose's immutable law. Form is there, and color; hope is +there, and the will-o'-the-wisp of human struggles evolving continually +and, in their evolution, fading to human eyes as they take their place +up higher. From the foaming, dashing water, which during the centuries +was strong enough to eat into the rock, arose the light, lovely mist +that in cycles of time was in its turn strong enough to wear it away. +Through the mist floated the impalpable radiance that, in ćons to come, +when rock should again flash fiery through unending space, and water +should have evaporated to await fresh form, would still continue to +illuminate the Divine Will. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE LATHBUNS + + +Mrs. Wiley, dropping into the post-office that evening along about +seven, was frankly disappointed at finding her newspaper bundle still +undisturbed on the table in the adjoining kitchen. + +"Why, I made sure you'd have laid 'em out, anyhow," she said, looking at +Mrs. Ray, who was busily beating batter; "you haven't even made a +start." And she sighed, seating herself in unwilling resignation. + +"Made a start," said Mrs. Ray, glancing at her placidity with an air of +tart exasperation, "made fifty starts, you mean. This has been what I +call _a day_. Mrs. Catt came in early this afternoon to ask me to make +Sally's wedding-cake, and Clay Wright Benton was here about the parrot. +He's awful tired of that parrot 'cause it keeps his mother so tired and +cross from getting up nights to wait on it. It routs her up at all hours +for things, and if she don't hurry it calls her names in Spanish that it +learned on the ship coming from Brazil, and, oh, they're having an awful +time of it. And then Sammy Adams was here too; he was here from four +o'clock on, asking me to marry him again. I don't know as anything gives +me a lower opinion of Sammy than the way he sticks to wanting to marry +me. The older I get, the worse he wants to marry me, which shows me +only too plainly as it ain't me at all he wants--it's just my work." + +"You ain't even unrolled it," said Mrs. Wiley, fingering the bundle +sadly. "I've been fixing onion-syrup for Lottie Ann and thinking of you +unrolling all day. And you wasn't ever unrolling, even." + +"He set right where you're setting now," said Mrs. Ray, beating briskly. +"I was stoning raisins, so he wasn't in my way, but I do get tired of +being asked to marry men. They don't make no bones about the business +any more, and even a woman of my age likes a _little_ fluff of romance. +Sammy always goes into how we could join our chickens and our furniture. +Like they was going to be married, too. Oh, Sammy's very mooney--he's +very much like Mr. Ray. Most men are too much like Mr. Ray to please me. +There was days when Mr. Ray'd sit all day and tell me how he had yellow +curls and blue eyes before he had smallpox. Those were his mooney days. +When Mr. Ray wanted to be specially nice, he always used to tell me how +pretty he was when he was a baby. Men are so awful silly. It's too bad I +ever married. I had so many pleasant thoughts about men before. But now +all I think is they're all spying round for women to work for 'em." + +"I never shall know no peace till I know whether you can get my two +backs out of these legs," said Mrs. Wiley, handling the bundle. "Father +was such a sitter the last year, his legs was very wore at the top." She +sighed. + +"Mr. Catt was here this afternoon, too," continued Mrs. Ray, never +ceasing to beat; "he wants to get up a petition about the dam. He's +afraid they won't pay him for his orchard. He's against it. He says Mr. +Ledge is right. He says if he's going to lose money, he'd rather see the +Falls preserved for the blessings of unborn generations. He says he +doesn't believe we think enough about unborn generations in this +country. He says his orchard is worth a lot." + +"If they're too wore out to cut over, I suppose we'll have to give it +all up," said Mrs. Wiley. "Oh, Mrs. Ray, Lottie Ann's so thin! I don't +know what to do! I say to her 'Lottie Ann, do eat,' and then she tries +and chokes. I think she ought to go to Buffalo and be examined with a +telescope. Rubbing her in goose-grease don't do a bit of good, and it +does ruin her flannels so." + +"I was sorry for Clay Wright Benton," pursued Mrs. Ray; "he kind of +wants me to take his mother and the parrot for the winter. He says +besides the nights, his mother and the parrot quarrels so days that he's +afraid Sarah just won't have 'em in the house much longer. She's losing +all patience." + +"If you _can't_ get my fronts out of his legs, do you suppose there'll +be any way to get them out of his fronts?" Mrs. Wiley propounded. + +"I told Clay I'd see," continued Mrs. Ray. "I'm pretty full now, but +there's a proverb about room for one more, and if I can't do nothing +else my motto'll help me out. 'He moves in a mysterious way' you know, +and maybe I can put her in my room with Willy and move into the kitchen +myself with the parrot. Yes, indeed. Only I won't get up and wait on it. +I don't care what I get called in Spanish, if I'm once asleep for the +night, that parrot won't get me up again; or there'll be more Spanish +than his around." + +"You'll be able to use the same buttons, anyhow," mused Mrs. Wiley. "Oh, +Mrs. Ray, we've had a letter from Uncle Purchase and the colt didn't +die. It'll be lame and blind in one eye, but anyway it's alive and it's +such a valuable colt. The father cost six thousand dollars, and if it +lives to have grandchildren maybe they'll race. Uncle Purchase does so +want a race-horse in his stock. He says a race-horse even raises the +value of your pigs and cattle." + +"Does a parrot sleep on its side or sit up all night, do you know? I +forgot to ask Clay." + +"Oh, that reminds me, speakin' of sleepin'," exclaimed Mrs. Wiley, +suddenly arousing to the realization of other woes than her own, "do you +know Cousin Granger Catterwallis was over this morning, and he says +those Lathbuns stayed at Sammy's the night afore they came here. You +know they come in a pourin' rain. Did Sammy ever tell you about it?" + +Mrs. Ray stopped her beating. She stood seemingly transfixed. + +"Cousin Granger says they wanted to stay all night, with him, but he's +too afraid of a breach of promise suit since his wife died, so he +wouldn't keep them, but he took his spy-glass and watched them through +the gap and they clum Sammy's fence," (Mrs. Ray's face was a sight), +"and then he went up to his cupalo and watched them through a break in +the trees, and he says he knows they went in the house!" + +Mrs. Ray folded her arms firmly. "Well," she said, "I never heard the +beat! Sammy never said one word to me!" + +"And Cousin Catterwallis says he doesn't believe they've got any trunks +or any money or any real love affair, except what they may manage to +pick up along the way. He says he wouldn't trust the young one as far as +you can throw a cat, and he says he wouldn't trust the old one as far as +that. Hannah Adele, indeed! He says he don't believe she's even Hannah." + +Mrs. Ray drew a long breath. "Oh, well, I wasn't meaning to marry him, +anyhow," she said, a little absent-mindedly. "I told him that to-day. +Sammy's mooney, and I've been married to one mooney man. There were days +when Mr. Ray would upset everything, from the beehives to his second +wife's baby--those were his mooney days. I don't want to have no more of +that!" + +"Cousin Catterwallis says it wasn't just proper taking them in that way, +either," Mrs. Wiley continued; "he's going to see Jack O'Neil this +afternoon, and tell him his opinion. Cousin Catterwallis says the dam is +bringing very queer folks our way. He doesn't take no interest in the +dam because he's so far inland, but he says when the canal was put +through the Italians stole one of his father's hens, and he hasn't any +use for any kind of improvements since then." + +Mrs. Ray began slowly beating her batter again. Her lips were firm and +her attitude painfully decided. + +"The old lady says she's Mrs. Ida Lathbun," Mrs. Wiley went on; "I +wonder if their name is really Lathbun." + +"I d'n know, I'm sure." + +Mrs. Wiley turned her eyes on the bundle. + +"When do you think you can get at my coat, Mrs. Ray?" the tone was sadly +earnest. + +"To-morrow, I guess. I haven't much on hand to-morrow, except to sweep +out the church and do some baking. I was planning to dig potatoes and +go to South Ledge to fit a dress, but I'll leave that till early Monday. +Think of his keeping them all night and never telling me!" + +"I guess I'll go down to Nellie's," said Mrs. Wiley, rising slowly; "the +Lathbuns sit in her kitchen evenings, and I'll just throw a few hints +about and see how they take it." + +"I wish I could go, too," Mrs. Ray's eyes suddenly became keenly bright, +"but I can't. The mail's due." + +Mrs. Wiley shook her head with the air of understanding the weightiness +of her friend's excuse. "I'll stop in on my way back, and tell you what +I find out," she said, kindly. + +She went away and was absent all of an hour. When she returned, Mrs. +Ray's duties, both as postmistress and stepmother, were over for that +day, her cake was safe in the oven, and she sat by the lamp, knitting. + +"What'd you find out?" she said, as the door yielded to Mrs. Wiley's +push. + +"Well, not much." Mrs. Wiley came in and sat down. "They was both there +in the kitchen, and there's no use denying it's hard to find out +anything about folks when they're looking right at you. But I did hear +one thing you'll like to know, Mrs. Ray?" + +"What was it?" + +"Why, those two girls went off walking this morning, and the young one +came back with the man." + +"Don't surprise me one bit," said Mrs. Ray. "I've been saying that was +what would happen from the minute I knew she was coming." + +"I'm sort of sorry for the older one," said Mrs. Wiley; "she's real +nice. I'm sorry for any one who's thinnish--Lottie Ann's so thin." + +"Those kind of blind-eyed people always have trouble, and nobody can +help it for 'em," said Mrs. Ray; "they make their own troubles as they +go along--if they don't come bump on to them while they're stargazing. +That girl's made for trouble; you can see it in her eyes. But didn't you +ask anything about Sammy?" + +"I just couldn't--with them right there. The old lady sits with her feet +in the oven the whole time. I don't see how Nellie cooks." + +"Feet in the oven! I should say so! Well, I'll ask Sammy just as soon as +I see him--I know that! Did you hear anything new about the dam?" + +"No; Nellie says the surveyors say it'll be six months before any one +can tell anything." + +"Huh!" Mrs. Ray's note was highly contemptuous. + +"Why, Mrs. Ray, don't you believe the surveyors?" + +"I never say what I believe, Mrs. Wiley, it's enough for me to say what +I think; but I _will_ say just this, and that is that if we get the dam, +it's precious little good it'll ever do us here in Ledge. It's fine work +talking, but the legislature and the Dam Commission aren't working day +and night for our good. It's men in Rochester and Buffalo who'll get the +good out of the dam, and we'll be left to find ourselves high and dry as +usual." + +"Why, Mrs. Ray, you talk as if you was against the dam, or is it only +because Sammy took those women in that night?" + +Poor Mrs. Wiley! She had inadvertently hit the bull's-eye. Mrs. Ray laid +down her knitting and rose at once. + +"No, Mrs. Wiley, it _isn't_ because Sammy took those women in that +night. As if I'd care whether Sammy took two women in or not! Did I ever +care about Mr. Ray's other two wives? or about their children? I guess +if I can stand all I've stood from Mr. Ray's first wife's children, I +won't care who Sammy Adams takes in out of the wet. I'm surprised at +you, Mrs. Wiley." + +Mrs. Wiley got up in great confusion. "I hope you'll excuse what I said, +Mrs. Ray; you see I wasn't really thinking what I did say. And it may +not have been them, anyhow. I must be goin', I guess; I don't like to +leave Lottie Ann alone like that. Good-by, Mrs. Ray." + +Mrs. Ray folded her arms severely. + +"Good-by, Mrs. Wiley," she said, with reserve. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +MISS LATHBUN'S STORY + + +Curiously enough, just as Mrs. Wiley abruptly terminated her call on her +friend Mrs. Ray, owing to the unpleasant twist given their conversation +by the Lathbun family, Lassie and Alva were speaking of the same two +ladies, whom Lassie had met in the dining-room an hour before. Alva had +introduced her to both with that pleasant courtesy which was given to +none too careful social scrutiny. It was Alva's habit to deal with all +humanity on a broad footing of equality--a habit which her well-born +friends politely termed a failing, and which those of other classes +accepted as the thirsty accept water, just with content. + +"Well, I'm glad I've seen them; now I feel as if I'd seen everything, +except the Lower Falls." Thus spoke Lassie, when the bedroom door was +shut, and she and her friend seemed well away from all the rest of the +world for the next ten hours, at least. Lassie, be it said, _en +passant_, had now sufficiently digested her first shock of surprise over +her friend's future, to be able to be pleasantly happy again. + +"What did you think of them?" Alva answered, half absent-mindedly. She +held in her hand a letter which the belated mail had brought, and her +thoughts seemed to quit it with difficulty. + +"I thought that they were rather common," said Lassie, frankly. Lassie +was well-born, and had judged Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter by no higher +standard than that of their blouses. + +"Do you know, I thought so, too,--at first," her friend replied, putting +the letter down and going to the window where she remained with her back +to Lassie, looking out into the dark. "I thought at first that Mrs. +Lathbun looked like a cook--" + +"She dresses exactly like one," interposed Lassie. + +"But I've come to like them very much, indeed. Of course so few days are +not enough to really know any one, but the night before you came such a +curious thing happened. You know I told you that the daughter had a love +affair? Well, that was the night that I learned about it. I never had +anything come to me more strangely. Do you know, dear, I am continually +more and more convinced that nothing happens by chance, never." + +"What did she tell you?" + +Alva turned from the window and sat down by the lamp-table. "I'll tell +you; only you mustn't misjudge Miss Lathbun for confiding in me. People +become friends very quickly in a lonely place like this, you know." + +"I won't misjudge her; I'll be glad to change my opinion of her. She +looks so like a restaurant girl." + +"Lassie, you're incorrigible." + +"But that dress, with that black cotton lace over that old red silk." + +"I never even noticed it." + +"Do you mean to say you've never noticed that dirty red silk front?" + +Alva shaded her eyes with her hand. "Lassie," she said, almost sadly, +"why does nothing count in this world except the front of one's frock?" + +Contrition smote the young girl. "Oh, forgive me, forgive me," she +pleaded; "I didn't think. I am interested! Play I didn't speak in that +way; I won't again. Indeed, I won't." + +"Of course I'll forgive you, dear; it's nothing to forgive, anyway; but +it makes it so hard to tell anything serious when one sets out in such a +way. I wonder how many good and beautiful thoughts have died +unexpressed, just because their first breath was met with mocking!" + +"Don't say that; I won't be that way--I'll never be that way again. I do +like Miss Lathbun--truly I do; I think she has sort of a sweet face, and +she must be clever to have been able to make a front of any kind out of +that lace. See, I'm quite serious now; and so interested. Do go on!" + +Alva looked at her for a minute with a smile. + +"You can't possibly overlook the front, can you?" she said; "but I will +go on, and you will learn never to judge again, as I learned myself; for +I must tell you, Lassie, that all you feel about them, I felt at +first--until I learned to know better. I didn't notice the front, but I +noticed some other things--little things like grammar; but American +grammar isn't a hard and fast proposition, anyway, you know." + +"They just call it 'dialect' in so many places," said Lassie, wisely. + +Alva smiled again. "Yes, they do," she assented. + +"And now for Miss Lathbun's story?" suggested the girl. + +"Yes, certainly. Well, my dear, you see, I was sitting here alone one +evening, and she came to the door and--and somehow she came in and we +fell to talking. You know how easy it is for any one to talk to me, and +after a while she told me her romance." + +Lassie's eyes opened. "To think of a girl like that having a romance! +Please go on." + +Alva hesitated, then smiled a little. "I suppose I can trust you to keep +a secret?" she asked. + +Lassie began: "Why, of--" and then stopped suddenly, remembering the +morning's betrayal, and blushed crimson. + +Alva leaned forward and touched her cheek with one petting finger. + +"Dear," she said, "don't feel distressed. I know that you told Ronald +and I don't mind." + +"You know!" cried Lassie, astonished. + +"Yes, dear, I know. I saw it in both your faces when I came across the +bridge. I don't mind--I think it's better so. Truly, I do." + +"Oh, Alva--" the young girl's tone was full of feeling. + +"But you mustn't tell him Hannah Adele's love affair," Alva went on, +smiling; "remember that, my dear." + +"I promise. Now tell me all about it." Lassie drew close, her face full +of eager curiosity mixed with content over being pardoned so simply. + +"It's just like a story," Alva said, thoughtfully; "it's more +wonderful--almost--than my own. I never heard anything quite so +wonderfully story-like before. Tell me, did you notice at supper how +Mrs. Lathbun watched every one that came off of the train? She can see +the station through the window from where she sits, you know." + +"No, I didn't notice. Does it matter?" + +"Oh, no; only I used to notice it and now I know why she does it." + +"Is she looking for the lover?" + +"She's afraid of him, dear." + +"Afraid!" + +"Yes, afraid he'll find them." + +"Goodness, are they hiding from him?" + +"Mrs. Lathbun thinks that they are." + +"And aren't they?" + +Alva lowered her voice to a whisper. "He watches outside of this house +every night!" she said impressively. + +Lassie quite jumped. "Watches! Outside this house! Oh, is he there now?" + +"I don't know, perhaps so." + +"What fun! Who does he watch for?" + +"For Miss Lathbun, of course." + +"But why does he do it?" + +"She doesn't know; she only knows that he watches there." + +"And her mother doesn't know that he is there?" + +"No." + +"How perfectly thrilling! Do go on!" + +"It's really a very long story." + +"I'll be patient." + +"It taught me a big lesson, Lassie; it taught me not to judge. Just see +how quiet and simple these two look to be, and yet that plain, ordinary +appearing woman is trying to hide her daughter from a rich man." + +"A rich man!" + +"He's a millionaire." + +"Who told you so?" + +"She did." + +Lassie stared. "Alva!--you don't believe that! That woman's never hiding +that girl from a millionaire. It isn't possible!" + +"But she is, my dear. She's a true, good mother; she doesn't want her +daughter to marry him, because he is so dissipated." + +"But I should think that they would run away and get married. I'd marry +a man, anyway, if I loved him." + +"Ah, Lassie, you don't know what you'd do if you were in the position of +that poor girl. Her mother has taken her away and is stopping here in +this very quiet and unassuming way to avoid all notice or being found +out." + +"But he has found them out!" + +"Yes, but Mrs. Lathbun doesn't know it." + +Lassie looked almost incredulous. "Mrs. Lathbun doesn't look a bit like +a woman who would hide her daughter away from a millionaire," she said, +obstinately. + +"You see how easy it is to misjudge any one, Lassie; because that's what +she's doing." + +"Mrs. O'Neil says they haven't any trunks or any clothes. She said so +this afternoon." + +"I know; I've heard her say that before." + +"Well, tell me the whole story." + +Alva looked at her for a long dozen of seconds and then her lips curved +slightly. "I'm going to tell you," she said; "but, do you know, it just +comes over me that you are surely going to disbelieve it." + +"Why do you think so?" + +"Because it's so strange." + +"But you believed it?" + +"But I can believe anything. Believing is my forte. Once 'heretic' and +'unbeliever' meant the same thing; well, I am a believer." + +Lassie laughed a little. "Go on and tell me the story," she said, "I'll +try to believe;" then, her face changing suddenly, she added, "it can +have a happy ending--can't it? Sometime?" + +Alva flashed a quick, sad flash of understanding at her. "All stories +will have that some day," she said, gently. It was the first reference +on the lips of either to that morning's revelation. + +"Do tell me the story," Lassie begged, after a minute's pause; "tell me +the whole. Do you think that perhaps he is out there now?" + +Alva shook her head in protestation of ignorance as to that. "It seems +very medieval and devoted for him to be out there at all, don't you +think? And these nights are so cold, too." + +"I should think that some one would see him sometimes?" + +"I should, too." + +"Well, go on. Has she known him always?" + +"No; it seems that he lives in Cromwell where her mother was born, and +she met him there two years ago when they went there to visit." + +"Did he fall in love with her at first sight?" + +"I think so. She said the first thing that she knew he was talking about +her all the time, and then he began watching outside of their house at +night." + +"Didn't he ever talk to her, or come inside the house?" + +"Oh, Lassie, what makes you say things like that? They make the story +seem absurd; and I began it by telling you that her mother was bitterly +opposed to him on account of his reputation." + +"I forgot," said Lassie, contritely; "is he so very bad?" + +"I'm afraid so. He drinks and gambles and does everything that he +shouldn't, she says." + +"But if he's rich he can afford it, can't he?" + +Alva turned quickly. "How can you say a thing like that? As if money can +condone sin. Don't you know that a thoroughly bad man is a soulless +thing, and that to marry a man like that is either heroic or deeply +degrading, just according to whether one does it for love or for money." + +"But you said that she loved him." + +"Yes; but you said he could afford to be wicked!" + +Lassie clasped her hands meditatively. "To think of that girl having a +millionaire watching outside her window, nights! And Mrs. O'Neil says +she hasn't even a nightgown with her, so she can't possibly get up in +the cold to peep out through the blinds." + +"I suppose she couldn't do that, anyway," said Alva; "you see her mother +doesn't know he's there, so she couldn't get up to look." + +"How does she know herself that he is there, then? perhaps he tells her +he watches and really stays in bed at some hotel." + +"Lassie!" + +"What's the use of his watching, anyway? Does it do any good? I should +think that she'd be afraid that he'd take cold. I--" + +"Lassie, don't you see that it's his only way to prove his devotion? He +can't write her, so he watches outside her window, nights. She says +that he takes a handful of sand and throws it against the side of the +house, and she hears it and knows that he's there." + +"Do you believe that?" + +"I believe the whole story." + +Lassie regarded her friend with amazement. + +"I don't see how you can;" she said; "why, those two women would go +almost wild for joy if any man wanted to marry either of them." + +"No, dear," Alva said, smiling; "no, they wouldn't. The world isn't +altogether worldly; there are simple, true, wholesome natures in it that +look at life in a straightforward way without any illusions. And Mrs. +Lathbun is one of those. Poor she may be, but she knows very well that +no possible happiness can come to her child from marrying a bad man who +has money." + +"But her daughter wants to marry him, and he wants to marry her." + +Alva paused before replying; then she said slowly: + +"Lassie, there's the puzzle. Does he want to marry her?" + +Lassie looked startled. "Doesn't he?" she asked. + +"She doesn't know," said Alva; "you see, they have hardly ever exchanged +a word." + +"Well," said the young girl, "this is the craziest love story I ever +heard in my life. Do you mean to say that you believe that a man who had +never heard a girl speak would go and stay outside her window, all night +long? What does he do all night, anyhow; walk about, or sit down? Alva, +you can't believe that story? Not possibly!" + +"Yes, I believe it," said Alva, cheerfully. "I believe it for two or +three very good reasons. One is that there is no reason why the girl +should construct such a silly lie for my benefit; another is that truth +is always stranger than fiction; and the third is that she has a little +picture of him, and as soon as I saw the picture I saw why Fate brought +the Lathbuns and me together, and why the man waited outside her window +all night." + +"Why?" Lassie's tone became suddenly curious. + +"My dear, the man is the image of the man that I love. They might be +twin brothers. And men of such strength put through whatever they lay +their hands unto." + +Lassie appeared dumbfounded. + +"He looks like--" she stammered and halted. + +"Yes, dear," Alva said, simply; "he looks exactly like him! Now you see +why I am interested. Now you see why I find it easy to believe. A bad +man--a thoroughly bad man--is a creature that for some reason has not +come into his heavenly birthright. If that girl, plain and pale and +unassuming as she looks, has the power to draw him from nights of +dissipation to nights in the cold outside her window, she has the power +to call a soul to him or waken his own that is but sleeping. It takes a +great deal of living and learning to attain to the faith which I have, +but I have it and I am firm in it, and I believe the story and I believe +that good is brewing for that man. I'm sure of it." + +Alva spoke with such energetic earnestness, such dominating force, that +Lassie was silenced for the minute. + +"I suppose that I am just stupid," she said, after a little; "I've had +so much that was different to try and learn to-day." + +There was a pathos in her tone that led the older girl to lean quickly +near and take one of her hands, drawing her close as she did so. "I +know it, dear, I know it. And I appreciate it all more than you guess. +We won't talk of Miss Lathbun any more just now, and, dear, believe me +when I say that I'm truly very glad that you met Ronald just as you did +this morning and told him what I had told you. I see all this from all +its sides, and the views that differ from mine don't hurt me--believe +me, they don't. I understand exactly how Ronald's fine, robust manhood +would revolt quite as you yourself revolted; but, you and he, with all +the possibilities of your gorgeous, glorious youth, can no more measure +the joy of these days to my love and myself, than the gay little birds +measure what life is to you. To us, you two and your ideas are very much +like the birds; we are glad to see you enjoy the sunshine, and our +better gladness we know is quite beyond you." + +Lassie turned her face upward to the earnest look and tender kiss, and +then they sat still for a little until Alva rose and began to make ready +for bed. + +"Tell me," she said, as she loosened her hair; "it was like this, wasn't +it? At first Ronald was almost angry; and then his feeling changed and +he felt that because it was I, it was rather a different thing from what +it would have been if it had been any one else." + +"Yes," said Lassie, in an awestruck tone, "it was just like that. How +did you know?" + +Alva laughed. "Not because I am a witch," she said, "but just because I +know Ronald. You see, Lassie, I am much stronger than Ronald; I am +stronger than Ronald, just as Ronald is stronger than you. He could not +condemn me; he has to own I am right. Right is a might so great that +wherever it holds good it rules its kind. Ronald gives me my due; you +will, too, after a while. Only I must not drive either of you forward +too quickly." She laughed a little. "I must give you time," she added. + +Lassie was taking down her own hair. She shook it apart now, and looked +forth from between the parted waves, her expression one of deeply +stirred interest. "I believe that this is going to be the most wonderful +time in my life," she said; "I feel as if everything were getting deeper +around me." + +"Ah, dearest," said her friend, with a sigh that was not sad--only a +long breath; "that's very true. I should not have sent for you, only +that I knew that when you came to leave me and go back to the world to +wear your white gown and make your début, you would have become a +stronger, better, wiser, sweeter woman all your life through, for this +experience. You see, dear child, the rarest thing in the world of to-day +is sincerity--absolute truth. I am not especially gifted or very +remarkable in any way, but I have learned the value of being sincere. It +isn't a small thing to learn in life, Lassie, and it isn't a small +privilege to live for a few days with one who has learned the lesson. +When you see what truth really is, and what it may really do for one, +you won't be revolted by my marriage; you will never wonder over me any +more, and you'll learn to look at strange stories with a new light of +comprehension." + +Lassie went close to her, put up her lips and kissed her. + +"And I can tell Mr. Ingram about Miss Lathbun, too?" she asked very +simply; "or must I keep that secret, as you said at first?" + +Alva put her arms fondly about the pretty young thing. "Lassie," she +said, "you are a dear, and I don't mind how much you discuss me with +Ronald; but you musn't tell him Miss Lathbun's secret. It wouldn't be +right." + +"Very well, then, I won't," said Lassie; "and I will keep my word, too." + +"Thank you," Alva said, patting her face caressingly; "thank you, and +heaven bless you and give you a good understanding." + +Lassie looked up with a smile. "You think I may learn to look at things +in your way?" + +"I think so," said Alva; "looking at things in my way has made me a very +happy woman, and so I desire the same for you." + +Then she kissed her good night. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +PLEASANT CONVERSE + + +"Well, what did I tell you?" said Mrs. Ray to Mrs. Catt, a day or so +later, when that lady had dropped in for a little call. "Those two young +people up at Nellie O'Neil's have fallen in love just as sure as beans +are beans. Not that he's so young, either, but a man's always able to +fall in love whenever he gets a chance. Age don't matter. There was Mr. +Ray. He was always in love unless he was married. Yes, indeed." + +"If he's engaged to that other one, I shouldn't think he'd find it very +easy to fall in love right under her nose, so to speak," said Mrs. Catt. + +"She wouldn't notice," said Mrs. Ray, adjusting her shawl, and turning +the needlework in her hands; "she's the kind who don't even see the +things they go headlong over. She's the mooney kind. I know. Yes, +indeed. Mr. Ray had mooney days. There were days when Mr. Ray called me +by his first wife's name all day. Those were his mooney days." + +"My cousin Eliza thinks she's crazy too. She says she's seen her time +and again setting on stumps in the woods, and she turns out in the road +for sparrows. And then that house. They're at it tooth and nail from +dawn to dark. I never see nothing like it." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Ray; "there's others say that, too. She is queer! +Nellie says she often doesn't eat breakfast--nor any meat either. And +she talks about the dam as if we was all heathens laying the axe at the +root of our own mothers. She says all the trees ought to belong to the +United States Government. As if we wasn't singing 'Pass under the rod of +the Republican party' from dawn to dark now. Such a country!" + +"She goes down to see Mr. Ledge, too," pursued Mrs. Catt; "of course he +don't want the dam, and he makes her more so. Josiah Bates was driving +home from Castile the other day, and he saw her coming from there. +Josiah said he was sure she'd been to see Mr. Ledge, 'cause she wasn't +ten feet from the house, and they was waving their hands to her from the +window. You can always depend on Josiah Bates knowing what he's talking +about." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Ray, turning her work about; "yes, Josiah Bates is a +very careful observer. He'll never die of no fish-bone in his throat for +want of watching the fish." + +"Speaking of fish-bones," said Mrs. Catt, "have you seen Lottie Ann +Wiley lately? There's a bag of bones for you!" + +"Not for a week or so. Why? Is she thinner than she was?" + +"Thinner! Well, I should say so. I don't know what the Wileys will do +with that girl if she keeps on getting thinner and paler." + +"She isn't any paler than that girl at Nellie O'Neil's." + +"Which one?" + +"That Lathbun girl. Do you know anything about them?" + +"That's what every one's asking." + +Mrs. Ray threaded her needle. "They're a queer pair," she remarked. + +"Well, I should say so. They don't eat any breakfast, either; make it up +on chestnuts. They're picking chestnuts all over. Lizzie says she never +saw people making so free. Folks don't know what to say, but it riles a +good many. They pick that little gray bag they've got full three or four +times a day." + +"Well, I declare," said Mrs. Ray; "do you suppose they eat 'em all?" + +Mrs. Catt rose. "I only stopped for a minute," she said. "Oh, I don't +know, I'm sure. Chestnuts is hearty, but seems to me they ought to ask +at the houses, anyway. Mrs. Wiley says if they come to her trees again, +she'll turn the bull in the lot." + +"Must you go?" Mrs. Ray asked. "I thought Mrs. Wiley was afraid of the +bull." + +"Yes, I must. What you making?" + +"I'm putting a new lining in this vest for Elmer Hoskins. His dog chewed +it up, while he was asleep." + +"Did he have it on?" Mrs. Catt asked in great surprise. + +"No; he had it on the chair and it fell off." + +"Fell off! I s'pose you've heard about Gran'ma Benton's parrot falling +off?" + +"Falling off what? No, I haven't heard." + +"Fell off the perch. I saw poor Clay this morning, and he's half mad. +The parrot and Gran'ma Benton have been discussing most all night +lately, and the parrot gets so mad he hops all over and last night he +got in a rage and fell off the perch. Broke the perch, too." + +"Well, I declare," said Mrs. Ray; "why don't Clay show some spirit and +put a stop to all that? I would." + +"He can't. Gran'ma Benton's so fond of discussing, and if she didn't +have the parrot she'd soon wear them all out." + +"I thought she was wearing them out as it is." + +"Well, yes--" Mrs. Catt looked cornered, "but, anyhow, they don't have +to do the talking now--the parrot does it. I'd like to see my husband's +mother have a parrot--that's all!" Mrs. Catt twitched her shawl +expressively. + +"Poor Clay Wright Benton," said Mrs. Ray. "Just to look at him you'd +know it all. I do despise men who haven't got any spirit; but if they +have spirit of course they're almost worse to get on with. Yes, indeed." + +"Yes, indeed!" said Mrs. Catt with meaning; "well, good-by, Mrs. Ray." + +"Oh! Good-by." + +Mrs. Catt went out. + +It was only a few minutes later that Mrs. Wiley arrived, with another +large bundle wrapped up in newspaper. + +"Don't stop your work," she said, putting it down with a sigh. "Oh, you +ain't sewing on my coat," she added, in a tone of deep disappointment, +evidently seeing interruption in a changed light at once. + +"No, but I've cut it out. What you got there?" + +"I've got another suit of father's." + +Mrs. Ray eyed the bundle with thoughtfully compressed lips, and gave her +shawl a fresh tuck. + +"What you want made out of this one?" + +Mrs. Wiley hesitated. "It's such a handsome piece of cloth," she said, +"I'm willing to leave the cut to you, but I thought maybe you could get +a winter jacket for Lottie Ann out of this one?" + +Mrs. Ray compressed her lips more, and frowned. "I don't know about +that," she said, shaking her head. "I've had trouble enough with the +last." + +"This was his new when he died. After he reached three hundred. And it +isn't worn anywhere. You can get her big sleeves out of the hips, I +think." + +"There's a good deal to a coat beside the sleeves," said Mrs. Ray; "that +coat of yours has most drove me mad. I never thought of your bringing me +another. Well, unroll it and let me look at it." + +Mrs. Wiley began to unfasten the package. + +"Any moth-holes in this one?" Mrs. Ray asked, with professional +interest. + +"None to speak of. The only real hole is where he sat down on a engine +spark at the station, the day of his last shock." + +"It isn't the suit he had on when the oil-tank exploded, then?" + +"No," said Mrs. Wiley; "that was the last but one. The oil-tank was the +middle one of his three shocks." + +She unfolded the garments and spread them out. Mrs. Ray watched her, and +continued her work at the same time. + +"How's Lottie Ann?" she asked, presently. + +"Oh, she's poorly," said Mrs. Wiley. "We're getting awful worried over +Lottie Ann. I thought maybe you could get her fronts out of his fronts; +you see, she's slimmer than I am." + +"But her big spread will come lower than yours," said Mrs. Ray; "is +there any up and down to the cloth? How much does she weigh, anyhow?" + +"Yes, there is an up and down. Ninety-six last time. That's mighty +little for her height. She only wanted it short, anyway." + +"It'll have to be short. Yes, indeed. Why you must have weighed most +double that at her age. It's too bad men always have pockets." + +"He would have them; you know how father always set store by pockets. +There, that's the engine spark. I don't know, I'm sure, what we'll do +about her. Mr. Wiley says his grandmother went just so--" Mrs. Wiley's +voice broke suddenly; she took out her handkerchief and dried her eyes. +"Do you see any way to getting the fronts out?" she asked, falteringly, +after a minute. + +"You musn't look to the worst that way," said Mrs. Ray, soothingly; +"those thin girls pick up wonderfully. The only way I see is if you've +got braid. If you've got any braid, I can piece it back of the braid. +She may marry and be as well as any one. Look at her great-grandmother +you just spoke of. Yes, indeed." + +"I haven't got any braid. But I can buy some. Judy was up from the St. +Helena road yesterday, and she said to give her milk--all she'll drink." + +"Turn it over so I can see the back," said Mrs. Ray; "will she drink it, +though? That's the question. She was up for the mail two nights ago, and +I thought she looked pretty well-willed. That's a nice piece of cloth. +My, but you were lucky he didn't have it on when the oil-tank exploded. +Yes, indeed. It's better cloth than the other." + +"Yes, that's what I think. That's just the trouble, Mrs. Ray; she will +_not_ drink it." + +"You never was severe enough with her. Not but what if it hadn't burnt +through you could get the oil out, maybe." + +"I know it, but she's my only girl. I thought you could use the same +buttons. Eleven boys, and then that one girl. She's named for Mr. +Wiley's mother and my mother. Charlotte, you know. See, Mrs. Ray, +there's six of each size, one on each cuff, too. And all so stout but +her. The boys and their father got together on the hay scales the other +day, and they went up over two thousand pounds. Did you hear about it?" + +Mrs. Ray stopped sewing and scanned the new proposition with one eye +half closed. + +"I'd have to piece the sleeves; you'd have to make up your mind to that. +Were they in the wagon?" + +"No, just standing on the scales. You think you can manage it if you +piece them--don't you?" + +"Yes, I can manage it then. I can get my backs out below the knee, and +get her sides out of his backs." + +"Oh, Mrs. Ray, you've taken a load off my mind. I'm so glad to get these +awful sad remembrances done some good with. I made pillow-slips out of +his nightshirts, but his flannels will haunt me till I die. Eddy's the +only one of the boys that is ever going to grow to them, and Eddy never +wears flannel." + +"I should think you could use 'em up to cover the ironing-table. Who did +you say was picking chestnuts,--Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter?" + +"I haven't said a word about them." Mrs. Wiley opened her eyes widely. +"But I'm hearing about them all over. I don't believe she's her daughter +any more than you are. They're a nice pair, those two. Chestnuts six +dollars a bushel, and they picking them morn, noon, and night. Have you +seen Sammy Adams? He took them in the night before they got here, you +know. You heard of that." + +"Yes, I did." Mrs. Ray's lips came together; "I shall ask him all about +that taking them in, the first time I see him. Never bought a stamp yet! +Such doings! They're not respectable. Don't tell _me_." + +"You're terrible prejudiced in your opinions, Mrs. Ray; you judge +everybody by the stamps they buy." + +"It's all I have to judge strangers by," said Mrs. Ray, "and it's a +pretty good guide, too. Mrs. Lathbun don't buy stamps and nobody can't +tell me that she's on the square. Wait till I see Sammy!" + +"When do you think you can try mine on?" asked Mrs. Wiley. + +"Will next Thursday do?" + +"Yes, I don't want to wear it till Thanksgiving; I won't go to Buffalo +till Christmas. Lottie Ann won't want hers till then." + +"I can do them both by Thanksgiving," said Mrs. Ray. "I've got a few +little jobs to do for others, and I want to build a new back fence, and +I guess I'm going to get the contract for whitewashing the church +cellar, I'm bidding on it. But after that, except for my house-cleaning +and my boarders and my regular duties under the United States +Government, I haven't got anything particular on hand." + +"I'll be so glad," said Mrs. Wiley, moving towards the door. "We're all +so kind of upset about not knowing whether Uncle Purchase will come and +live with us or not if the dam goes through, that I want to have my +things in order, anyhow. He wrote, you know." + +"No, I didn't know, but I guess he'll come and live with you, anyway," +said Mrs. Ray; "good-by." + +Mrs. Wiley went out, and before long there was another caller,--Clay +Wright Benton himself this time, usually called "poor Clay Wright +Benton" by his friends, for the simple reason that he was Sarah Benton's +husband, and his mother's son. + +"How d'ye do," he said, opening the door a few inches and looking in +through it. "No, I won't come in; I only stopped to speak about the hay. +You said I could have it, you know." + +"Yes, I know," said Mrs. Ray; "but I said, if you came before October +first. That's past now, and Elmer took it off yesterday. Him and his dog +was here at sun up and away again by noon. You see now what it is to +take your own time." + +Clay Wright Benton stood still, turning his cap about and about. + +"I thought you knew I wanted it," he said, finally; "I couldn't come +sooner." + +"I did know. But I thought you needed a lesson. Nobody that wants to get +ahead in this world can take their own time. You've got to be a little +ahead of other people's time if you really want to make your mark. How's +Susan? Got back from her father's yet?" + +"No," said the man; "she's going to stay till Thanksgiving. She was so +awful tired of the parrot." + +"Look out you don't leave her too long--same as the hay," said Mrs. Ray, +cheerfully. "Who's that coming up the steps behind you? I can feel the +draught as long as you stand there in the crack, but I can't see through +your body." + +Clay Wright Benton moved aside, and Mrs. Dunstall pushed past him. "I'm +sorry I was late about the hay," he said then, and went slowly away. +Mrs. Benton and his mother had left very little spirit in him. + +"What did he come for?" asked Mrs. Dunstall, shutting the door tightly. +"I'm sorry for Susan. She married him for his looks, and looks is all he +ever had to give her." The attitude of the community was that of larger +communities towards the humbly unsuccessful in life. + +"He ain't giving her even looks, any more," said Mrs. Ray; "she's gone +home, and his looks is gone heaven knows where. No man was ever so +handsome yet that he could rise above needing to shave." + +"He'll make his fortune if the dam goes through, though," observed Mrs. +Dunstall; "he owns all the land above Ledgeville." + +"He'll never see her for dust then," said Mrs. Ray, drily. "She'll leave +him to keep house for Gran'ma Benton and the parrot. Well, what did you +come for?" + +"I was walking by, and I thought I'd just stop and ask you if you'd +heard about that Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter staying all night with +Sammy Adams? Josiah Bates was up that way for a load of apples and he +heard of it." + +Mrs. Ray became rigid. "I have heard of it," she said; "but not from +Sammy. He was here and never said a thing about it, but some one else +told me. So it's all over town now, is it?" + +"They was walking across country and there came on a rain and they +stopped for shelter and it was Sammy's where they stopped." + +Mrs. Ray sewed very fast. "I always said they were tramps anyway," she +said, haughtily; "now you'll all see." + +"Seems funny Sammy never told you about it." + +"Well, he never did." + +"He tells you everything--don't he?" + +"I thought so." + +"It couldn't be he really took a fancy to either of 'em," reflected Mrs. +Dunstall; "I don't think they're good-looking." + +"Good-looking!" + +"But you know, men are queer, Mrs. Ray. There was Mr. Ray. He was +queer." + +Mrs. Ray gave her thread a jerk that broke it. + +"They never get any letter, do they? You said they never did, didn't +you?" Mrs. Dunstall was all query. + +"No, they never get any letters." + +"They claim to come from Cromwell, don't they?" + +"I don't know. I never heard. I wouldn't believe anything they said. No +trunks and stealing chestnuts all over. I never!" + +"Wouldn't it be a funny thing if, after all these years, some stranger +like those two was to come in from saints-know-where and marry Sammy?" + +"Yes, it would be funny," said Mrs. Ray, "very funny. Yes, indeed. Yes, +it would be _very_ funny!" + +"I thought I'd just stop and tell you," said Mrs. Dunstall. "I knew +you'd be interested. I know you're such a friend of Sammy's. I thought +if you knew, maybe you could look 'em up a little. Nathan's got an aunt +living in Cromwell. If I was you I'd look 'em up, Mrs. Ray." + +Mrs. Ray opened her scissors like the jaws of a shark. + +"I _am_ looking 'em up," she said, and the scissors closed with a snap +full of meaning; "they'll soon find what it means to get no letters and +write no letters and stop with Sammy Adams when it rains. Yes, indeed." + +Two hours later every one in the township--that is, every one except the +boarders of the O'Neil House--knew that Mrs. Ray was actively advocating +an investigation into the Lathbuns' history. + +"I guess she'll find out a good deal," said Samuel Peterkin to Judy, as +they drove home towards the St. Helena road. + +The scene far and near was one maddest autumn blaze of beauty. + +"Mrs. Ray will never let up on him till she does," said Judy; "she's +awful mad at Sammy." + +The road bent between giant pines, and revealed the gray facade of the +High Banks beyond, stretching in gigantic grandeur between the black +shadows below and the bewildering colors above. + +"If these trees was down, what a long ways we could see along the +river," said Samuel. + +"Yes," said Judy, "trees is dreadfully in the way when you want to see. +And to think that Mr. Ledge is always talking about having planted ten +thousand of them. People are curious." + +The sun came out upon the horizon behind them at that minute, and shot a +shaft of glory down the cańon, illuminating all the gray rock with +silver. + +"There, now," said Judy; "it's late when it's like that. It's right in +our eyes, too. We must hurry." + +"I told you you were staying too long," said Samuel; "and you know as +well as I do that nobody can trot the St. Helena hill." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE BROADER MEANING + + +It is surprising how quickly any situation can be assimilated. Be it +ever so pleasant or ever so painful, we get accustomed to its demands +surprisingly soon, and whether it is the fact that one has just gotten a +fortune, or just gotten the toothache, in either case it seems as if one +had had it always, before one has hardly had it at all. + +Lassie learned this with great rapidity. Before three days had passed +by, she discovered that the deep and earnest joy in Alva's mind had +eradicated all the horror in her own. Alva's love ceased to seem +shocking--it seemed, instead, more like some beautiful, mysterious +wonder. Lassie came to hear her friend talk without any distress--only +with a sort of wistful ignorance--a longing to fathom depths not before +even apprehended. + +"It doesn't strike me as it did at first at all," she said to Ingram one +night, as they went for the mail together. "All that I think of now is +how happy she looks. Did you ever see any one look as happy as she +does?" + +"She's very happy, surely," said Ingram; "but what uses me up is that +she is looking forward so. Why, that man is dying--he may die any +day--and she thinks that he will come here. He can't ever come here, +not possibly!" + +"Oh, can't he?" Lassie cried, in real distress, "are you sure of that?" + +"Of course. He knows it, too." + +"But she doesn't know it?" + +"No." + +"Don't you think that he ought to tell her, then?" + +Ingram did not speak for a minute. "Perhaps some miracle may come to +pass, and he may live," he said then; "you see, he has lived three weeks +longer than any man in his circumstances ought to expect to live." + +"Oh, then he hasn't got to die soon?" + +Ingram knit his brows in the dark. "I can't explain myself clearly," he +said; "but it seems to me that he and Alva sort of rise above rules, so +to speak. Part of the time she's as she always was--just as we are--and +then again I feel as if she herself had gone and left me sitting with +just a figure of some sort.--" He paused. "I expect he's the same way," +he added, after a second; "it's all beyond me." + +"It's strange, isn't it?" Lassie spoke thoughtfully. "She's very sweet +and lovely, and dear with it all. But I know just what you mean; I've +seen it, too. She is talking, and then she stops and that white look +comes over her face, and I never speak then until she does. Do you +know," she said, almost timidly, "I keep thinking of things I've read in +books about the Middle Ages,--about saints; about 'ecstasy,' they called +it. We say 'ecstasies' about hats, or little dogs, or the flowers at +Easter; but when Alva has been talking about her life in that house and +stops to think, and I see her face, I feel as if I understood what the +word really and truly meant." + +"I suppose there's no danger of her converting you," said Ingram; "it's +all very well for her, but I should hate to have you that way." + +"Why?" asked the girl, in surprise. + +"It isn't human, that's why," the man declared, energetically. "We're +past the Middle Ages," he added, with a little laugh, "far past now." + +"You think that people can be too good?" + +"Yes, I do. I wouldn't marry a woman like her for anything!" + +"But you thought differently once," said Lassie, shyly. + +"Yes," he said, easily, "I wanted to marry her once, but she wouldn't +have it at all. Droll--isn't it?" + +"We're ever so far by the post-office; do you know it?" she said. + +"So we are; I'd forgotten all about the mail." + +They turned back. + +"But I don't believe that Alva ever could make you see life in the way +that she does," Ingram said, tentatively; "does she ever try?" + +"I don't think so," said Lassie; "she just talks to me of her +happiness." + +"What would become of the world, I wonder, if every one adopted her +views," suggested the man. + +They turned in at Mrs. Ray's gate just here. The mail was distributed, +and every one else had taken theirs and gone. + +"Well, you're a little late," said Mrs. Ray, cheerfully. "Mary Cody run +up for the house letters when she saw you go by. Have a nice walk?" + +"Yes, very," said Ingram. + +"You're great walkers down your way. Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter walk +all day long, seems to me." + +"They do walk a good deal," said Lassie. + +Then she and Ingram went back to the hotel. They found Alva standing by +the dining-room door with her lamp and her letters in her hand. Mrs. +O'Neil stood close before her. + +"I wouldn't worry," said Alva to Mrs. O'Neil; "I don't believe one word +of it." + +"When they're out to-morrow I shall sweep the room _myself_," said Mrs. +O'Neil, decidedly; "you can learn a good deal about people by sweeping +their room." Then they all separated, Ingram going to his letters, their +hostess to her husband, and Alva and Lassie to their cosy nest +up-stairs. + +"What was the matter?" Lassie asked, directly their doors were shut. + +"Nothing especial," Alva said, laughing; "it was just that Mrs. Ray came +here this afternoon and rather upset Mrs. O'Neil by talking about Mrs. +Lathbun and her daughter." + +"What did she say?" + +"She didn't say anything in particular--she just talked." + +"What did she talk, then?" + +"She talked all sorts of things; she doesn't like them at all. She +doesn't consider them nice." + +Lassie was silent. She was conscious of a painful lack of admiration for +either Mrs. Lathbun or her daughter, herself. + +A freight train began to roll by and ended conversation for the time +being. Alva went to the window and stood there. After a while she spoke +musingly. + +"Everything must have a purpose. Every action has to have a thought +behind it. If we could only see through the veil!" + +The train, which had come to a standstill, now began to move again, +cracking and straining at first, then going on with a terrific roar. + +"They serve their purpose surely--the freight trains," Alva said; "even +if they did nothing else, their noise accomplishes something. One might +forget life so easily in this corner of the world, if it were not for +them." + +Lassie laughed. "But they serve a few more purposes than that." + +"Yes, of course. I never deny the broader meaning in life--if the +world's view _is_ the broader one--but trains mean such a great deal +besides what they carry, in a little bit of a town. I used to think that +they came pretty close to being all the meaning that life had to the +people there, and I still wonder sometimes if it isn't so. I've lived +here well over one week now, and really it seems to me that the trains, +their comings and goings, and whether they do them on time or not, are +the only topics of conversation that are ever broached." + +"Perhaps they talk about other things when we're not around," suggested +Lassie, wisely. + +"I hadn't thought of that. Or perhaps they think the trains our only +mutual interest. You know, Lassie, there really is no one that is +stupid, unless you do your half towards being stupid, too. It's like the +crash in the wilderness, which doesn't mean sound unless there are ears +to hear it." + +"I never thought of that," said Lassie; "isn't there really any sound in +the wilderness? What happens when the tigers roar?" + +"But of course they do talk about other things here," Alva continued, +paying no attention to her friend's flippancy. "They talk about the dam, +and they talk about me." + +"What do you suppose they say about you?" Lassie asked, curiously. + +"I know exactly what they say," Alva replied, a real amusement curling +her lips; "they say that Ronald and I are going to be married and live +in that house while he builds the dam." + +"Oh!" + +"Yes, indeed." + +"But I didn't know that the dam was decided on." + +"It isn't, my dear, and I don't believe myself that there ever will be +any dam. I can't believe that this State, even in her grossest +materialism, will have the face to accept a royal gift and then turn +around and give it away in direct contradiction of the terms of its +acceptance." + +"Is it as bad as that?" + +"It's very bad. That dear old gentleman has made the preservation of +this wonder of nature the realized dream of his whole life. He's carried +through no end of other big philanthropic schemes, but he never for one +instant allowed anything to turn him aside from this one. He told me +himself how he had rewooded the banks--he has planted thousands and +thousands of trees--and now to have the whole threatened. It's shameful, +shameful!" + +"Does every one know how you feel?" + +"Yes, every one knows how I feel." + +"What do they think themselves?" + +"I believe the predominant sentiment in Ledge is that it will be +entertaining to see Ledgeville drowned for good and all." + +Lassie laughed. + +The freight train was all gone by now. Alva turned from the window and +came back to a seat beside her friend, sinking upon it with a little +sigh. + +"All this goes very near with me, dear," she said, gently; "loving +Nature and fighting for the future has been _his_ life-work, you know." + +"Yes," Lassie said, softly. + +Suddenly the older one leaned close and put her arms about the young +girl. "It's so heaven-blessed to have you here,--it makes me so happy." + +"I'm very happy, too," said Lassie. "I never had just the feeling before +in my life that I have with you these days--it's as if nothing could +ever come between us. Sort of as if we had been sealed to a compact." + +Alva patted the brown waves of hair. "That's the understanding of true +friendship, dear," she said; "nothing ever can come between us. Once two +people realize mutual truth, how can anything come between them again? +All the trouble in the world arises out of falseness. Search in your +mind, and see if it isn't so?" + +Lassie reflected. "You're putting so many new ideas into my head," she +said, "I suppose I'll go home with nothing of my old self left in me." + +"Not quite that," said Alva. "Your old self wasn't so bad, Lassie, dear. +But the world has a way of hammering all its votaries into a certain set +of molds, and I'd like to see you casting, instead of cast,--do you +know the difference?" + +"Alva," said Lassie, with sudden appealing earnestness, "you weren't +like this when I saw you last; what changed you?" + +"I had the convictions then, but not the courage. Now I have the +courage, too." + +"What gave you the courage?" + +"Surely you can divine?" + +"Love." + +"Yes, dear, love. Love for him. All courage has its root in love of some +kind." + +"Alva, you teach me more each day." + +"Yes, and I'll teach you more and more and more yet, and so on and so on +until we part, and then I'll go on learning myself." + +"Hasn't your lesson any end?" + +"Love hasn't any end, dear, any more than it has any beginning. And so +my lesson hasn't any end, either." + +"But--" + +"I know what you are going to say, but that isn't real love. That which +can end has never been,--all the real things in existence are eternal." + +"But they--the people that--well, you know, they thought that it was +love--didn't they?" + +"Yes, dear, and little children think that there are bears in dark +closets, and ever so many people think that money buys happiness. The +world is full of lies, Lassie, but if one puts the test to them they all +fade away. You don't understand yet--but wait." + +"I want to understand." + +"But you are not ready to understand yet." + +"But I am ready, I will learn to be ready." + +"Yes, and I'm going to teach you. But I have to go slowly because I have +to hunt for the words. You are such a little thing--such a baby--to be +trusted with life; because you see most people never live--they just +exist. They are only a few steps up on the staircase, and when they are +dragged or pushed above the place that they are in by nature, they are +apt to be dizzy. I want to teach you life, Lassie; but I don't want to +make you dizzy." She paused, and a whimsical little smile danced across +her face; "and besides, dear, we must get undressed. It is after ten +o'clock." + +"Just a minute more, Alva; it seems as if I cannot break off right here. +And I won't be dizzy. I know that whatever you think and do must be +right and best. I want to learn to think just as you do. I want to be +told how you learned. I always knew you were so very good, and truly, +dear, I wouldn't have been surprised if you'd chosen to marry a +missionary or to go to that island where the lepers are--not after the +first minute, you know; it would have been just like you." + +"Oh, no, Lassie, it wouldn't have been like me at all. For ever so many +reasons. My first duty in life--the duty that comes before every +other--is to my father and mother. No claim could be strong enough to +justify my leaving them; and then, besides, I'm not a Christian, except +in the sense that I believe with Christ, and that isn't enough for any +mission or any leper nowadays." + +There was a little pause; then Lassie said: "But you are going to leave +your father and mother now, aren't you?" + +Alva smiled. "But for such a little while, dear," she said, gently; +"you forget how short the time is to be!" There was an instant's pause +and then she turned suddenly and her face had the bright color of deep +emotion flaming in it. "Lassie, Lassie," she exclaimed, with a strength +of feeling that startled the other into a sudden cry, "I'm trying to be +calm, I'm trying to talk to you quietly,--I don't want you to think me a +mad woman,--but I am so much closer to some other keener, sharper world +of soul and sensation than you or any one can realize, that I can hardly +curb myself to the dull, unknowing, unfeeling, throb, throb, of this +one. Don't you know, Lassie, that people are getting married every +day,"--she stopped and pressed her hands tightly together, her eyes +starring the pallor of her face with that curious radiance of which the +young girl had spoken to Ronald. "Oh," she went on, "to think that +people are getting married every day because they need cooks or because +they need care, or because the man has money or because the girl is +pretty, and they go forth un-understanding, and they live along somehow; +and the word that means their sort of companionship is all that I can +use to speak of the evening that I shall return here, his wife, and fall +on my knees beside him and realize that all my loneliness and waiting +and hoping has ended, and that at last--at last--we are to be together, +even if only for a few weeks, a few days, a few hours. A foretaste of +eternity! A memory of what was in the beginning of all things!" + +Ceasing to speak, she clasped her hands more tightly yet, and her eyes +closed slowly. Lassie sat still and trembling. Her breath came unevenly, +but she saw that Alva's swept in and out of her bosom with a wide +evenness that belies unconquered emotion. After a minute the other +opened her eyes and laid her hand lightly upon the girl's head. "I +frighten you, I know that I frighten you," she said; "you think that I +am crazy after all." + +"No, I don't, Alva; but I can't think what kind of a man the man can be +to make you feel that marrying him will be so different from marrying +any other man." + +"You can't think, because you don't know what love can mean to +people--what it has meant to him or what it has meant to me." + +Then she sprang up and began to undress herself rapidly. + +"I don't see how you can bring yourself back to earth, Alva, after you +have felt like that." + +Alva smiled. "But we must live on the earth, Lassie, and be of the +earth. We are made for the earth. God gave us our souls, and he gave us +our bodies, too. And he meant both to work together." + +Lassie sat still and meditative. She had herself been carried out beyond +her depth and could not get back easily. She was, in truth, a little +dizzy. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE WAR-PATH + + +Mrs. Ray in the post-office managed to keep track of Mrs. O'Neil's +personal sweeping of the Lathbun bedroom until it was terminated. Then +she left the United States Government's appointment in charge of Mr. +Ray's first wife's youngest daughter, and hied herself down the hill. + +Mary Cody and Mrs. O'Neil were in the kitchen discussing the results of +the investigation when she entered. + +"Well, you'll never guess what I found," said the landlord's wife; +"you'd never guess if you guessed till Doomsday." + +"What did you find?" Mrs. Ray tucked in the ends of her shawl with +fierce joy,--"a pistol?" + +"No;" Nellie O'Neil's brown eyes glowed and her face shone; "guess +again." + +"Oh, I can't guess," said Mrs. Ray, impatiently. "A monkey? A +love-letter from the king of England? A lot of stamps? I don't know,--I +can't guess." + +Mrs. O'Neil nodded her head very slowly, and with deeply seated meaning. + +"Go on," said Mrs. Ray, "tell me. I'm in a hurry. Yes, I am." + +"I found six case-knives!" + +"Six case-knives!" + +"Yes, that's what I found." + +"Six case-knives! Well, of all the--What did they want them for?" + +"One was broke off short." + +"Any blood on it?" + +"Oh, Mrs. Ray!" + +"Well, I just asked." + +"They were all clean." + +"And one broke off?--hum!" + +"What do you think about it, Mrs. Ray?" + +"I hope it'll be a lesson to Sammy Adams never to take two strange women +in on a rainy night again. The Bible, even, is severe on strange women." + +"Did he take them in?" Mrs. O'Neil opened her brown eyes widely. + +"Take them in! He kept them all night. Haven't you heard about it? And +never told me, either. That's just like a man. Flattering himself that +I'd give a second thought to any woman living. Six, you say, Nellie, and +one broke off?" + +"The broken one is one of the six." + +"They could have broken it off in his heart, just as easy! My, to think +of the chances that man took! Didn't they have anything else? Did you +look under the mattress?" + +"Yes,--I looked everywhere. There's a hair-brush that I'd have thrown +into the gorge a year ago if it had been mine, and a bent pin and a +broken mirror, and that's all." + +"I declare. Well, it's a very good thing that I set you to looking them +up. Yes, indeed. I shall look them up in all directions now, myself. I +shan't leave a stone unturned that I can even tip up on one side. To +think of those case-knives! And one broke off! And Sammy Adams taking +them in like that! But then, it isn't for you to criticize him, Nellie, +for you've taken them in yourself. You can thank your stars you haven't +had a case-knife stuck in you before now. How do they carry them, +anyway?" + +"They were wrapped in a piece of red flannel." + +"Red flannel! Why, you said all they had beside the knives was the +hair-brush and the mirror. Red flannel,--hum! So blood wouldn't show on +it, I expect. Was the edge of the blade of the broken one rusted at +all?" + +"Not that I noticed." + +"Noticed!" + +"Don't you want to come up and see for yourself, Mrs. Ray?" + +"I don't know. They might come in. It wouldn't look well for any one in +the employ of the United States Government to be found spying about, you +know. I'm always having to consider my country. Yes, indeed. But what do +you suppose they have those knives for? I never heard of such a thing in +all my life. Even if they used them for tooth-brushes, they'd only want +one apiece." + +"I think you'd better come up-stairs." + +"And Sammy Adams taking them in like that! That poor innocent! Not but +what he was a fool; think of me opening my doors to two tramps!" + +"Come on up-stairs. They won't be back till noon. They've gone +chestnutting in the Wiley wood. They can't be back till noon." + +The door opened just here, and Alva came in with Lassie behind her. + +"Have you told them?" Mrs. Ray asked. + +"What is it?" Alva asked. + +"We don't know what to think about Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter," said +Mrs. O'Neil. + +Alva glanced quickly into both their faces and then at Lassie. + +Mrs. Ray tucked the ends of her shawl in, folded her arms, and closed +her lips tightly for a second before opening them to speak. "I never did +like their looks," she declared. "I'm not surprised over what's come +out!" + +"I never liked their looks, either," said Lassie, "but what is it? Has +anything happened?" + +"No," said Mrs. Ray, "nothing in particular, only we're beginning to +find them out. You can't pretend to be somebody forever without any +trunks. Case-knives are good in their way, but they don't take the place +of trunks." + +"Case-knives!" Alva exclaimed. "Oh, what do you mean?" + +"There, Nellie, you see how they strike any one," said Mrs. Ray, with +deep meaning. + +"But have they case-knives with them?" Alva asked,--"not really?" + +Then Mrs. O'Neil told her story. + +"You'd better all lock your doors nights after this," said Mrs. Ray; +"you don't want to take Sammy Adams' chances if you can help it." + +"But what should they have the knives for?" Lassie asked. + +"They have their reasons," said Mrs. Ray, darkly; "you know you told me +the other day, Nellie, that the reason why they sat in the kitchen with +their feet in the oven so much was because their shoes was all wore +out; they've got their reasons for everything they do, depend on it. If +they're honest, why don't they have their shoes patched when they're +wore out? If they were respectable, why didn't that girl buy some black +laces instead of wearing brown ones. I always keep black shoe-laces in +my grocery business." + +"Maybe she doesn't know that," suggested Lassie. + +"Yes, she does know," said Mrs. Ray, "for I told her so one day when she +played come for mail." + +"I didn't know you kept shoe-laces," said Mrs. O'Neil. "I've always +bought them in Buffalo." + +"Well, I do. Yes, indeed. I keep pretty nearly everything--except +case-knives. There's nothing out of place in keeping shoe-laces in a +grocery business, not until after you begin to wear them, and for my own +part they seem to me just as decent as shoe buttons which all the town +would be up in surprise if I didn't have them in my grocery business." + +"Yes, I knew you kept shoe buttons," said Mrs. O'Neil. + +"I keep everything, except strange women travelling after dark. My store +is a general one. I thank heaven there's nothing of the specialist in +me. I'd of starved if there was, or been obliged to charge very high for +very little work, which would mean starving in a while anyhow, so being +no doctor I couldn't stay a specialist long even if I tried." + +"I think you ought to come up-stairs and see their room, Mrs. Ray," Mrs. +O'Neil said, going back to the main question. + +"What is it about their room?" Lassie asked. + +"There isn't anything about it--that's what it is," said Mrs. Ray; +"respectable people always have things about their room. Yes, indeed. +But of course women walking across country nights can't carry much fancy +fixings even if they don't mind stopping all night wherever the rain +catches them." + +"Did they stop over night anywhere?" Lassie asked. + +Mrs. Ray adjusted her shawl. "Such doings!" she muttered; "I never heard +the like. That's one way to work the game. I never had any game. I just +had the work. Whenever there came up something as had to be done that +nobody in town could do, I was glad to learn how for the money. Yes, +indeed. And now they come along and live on the fat of the land, +case-knives and all." + +"Do let's go up and see the room," pleaded Mrs. O'Neil. + +Mrs. Ray wavered. "Well, if Mary Cody will stand in the hall and watch?" +she stipulated. + +"And you must come, too," said Mrs. O'Neil to her two guests; "there +isn't anything to see--it isn't prying--it's just the wonder how they +can get along without anything at all that way." + +Alva was rather pale. + +"Do let's go," Lassie whispered. + +Alva smiled sadly. "Yes, we'll go," she said. + +Mrs. O'Neil called Mary Cody and stationed her below. Then they all four +mounted the stairs and went along the plain hall to the plain door at +the end. + +"You keep everything very neat, Nellie," said Mrs. Ray; "it's a pity you +don't stick to nice people who can appreciate nice things. If you go +taking in people like the Lathbuns too often, you might just as well +give up and get the name for it. I wouldn't dare stay under the same +roof with them, myself." + +Mrs. O'Neil made no answer, simply pressing the door at the end of the +hall and--as the door yielded--entering first. + +Mrs. Ray and Lassie were next. Alva did not go in, but stood still in +the doorway. + +It is hard to conceive the special effect of that interior on each of +the four. + +"Did you have any little things around before you swept?" Mrs. Ray +asked, standing in the middle like the head of some royal commission in +the days of the Dissolution. + +Mrs. O'Neil--in the capacity of the layman left to represent the monks +flown--replied that she had found all as bare as now. + +"Well, you told the truth, Nellie," her friend remarked; "there's the +hair-brush and here's the mirror. But where are the knives?" + +Mrs. O'Neil pulled open the upper drawer, and in one corner lay the roll +of red flannel. + +Mrs. Ray unrolled the knives and examined them with care. A case-knife +is rather limited as to its power of revelation, however, and she soon +laid them down. + +"Well, I never!" she said, with heaviest emphasis. + +"What do they sleep in, or wash with?" Mrs. O'Neil suggested. + +"The towels are yours, of course, Nellie?" + +"Of course." + +Lassie looked around the simple bedroom with its absolute bareness. She +felt pitiful. + +"They're comin' over the post-office hill!" Mary Cody suddenly yelled +below. The effect was magical. + +Lassie and Alva fled into their room. + +"I feel like a burglar myself," exclaimed the young girl, as she shut +their door. + +Mrs. Ray was going down the stairs in the hall outside. "There," she +exclaimed, "did you hear that? That's the way it goes when you harbor +criminals. They're very catching." + +"Oh, do you really think they're criminals?" Mrs. O'Neil asked, in great +distress. + +"Well, Nellie, put the case-knives and Sammy Adams together, and then +the way they pick up other folks' chestnuts and having no comb and only +half a brush for the two of 'em--it looks bad in my eyes." + +"But what shall I do?" Mrs. O'Neil asked. + +"Ask Jack if they pay their board regularly; that'll help you to know +some," propounded the postmistress solemnly, and then she returned to +her government duties forthwith. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +ANOTHER PATH + + +As Lassie closed the door, Alva moved to her favorite post by the window +and stood there looking out; the young girl looked anxiously towards her +friend. "What happens to those people doesn't really matter to us, does +it?" she asked after a minute, some atmosphere of trouble permeating +her. + +"Everything matters, dear." + +"But, Alva, you hardly know them, and they _are_ common." + +"Perhaps so, dear, but that room,--two weeks in that room with nothing, +no comforts such as we think absolutely essential--oh, it makes me feel +terribly. Life is such a puzzle. Ledge seemed such a simple-hearted, +secluded little nook,--and first I ran into the big, soul-wringing +problem of the dam, and now here are these two lives. Lassie, whatever +else they may or may not be, they are human. It can't be joy to live +like that. There must be some reason for their doing as they do, and I +can see no reason except the one the girl told me." + +Lassie began to wash and brush for dinner; Alva continued to stand at +the window. + +"That was the first time that I ever went into a room where I was +possibly not wanted," she continued, presently. "It seemed so strange. +And such a room, too. Oh, it all has made me fairly heart-sick. I +wonder what the end is to be. As I say so often, there are no accidents, +no chance happenings in life; if anything enters within my circle, there +is a reason for it. Either they are to do for me, or I am to do for +them, and I wish I knew which it were to be. I am so sorry for them!" + +"Then you don't think that they can be doing wrong--are perhaps bad?" + +"No," said Alva, firmly; "I'll never think that of any one. Nobody is +ever bad. The word is too complete. It says more than it means to +express." + +"They couldn't be going to do anything for you." + +"How can you tell, Lassie? Sometimes in doing for others we do a +thousand times more for ourselves. Haven't you learned that yet?" + +"No, not yet--not with people of that sort." + +"They don't look to be so wrong," Alva spoke half-musingly. "They just +look like plain, quiet people. I'm sure there's no evil in them!" + +"Perhaps she made up the love affair?" + +"She never made that man up, Lassie; that man is a real man. You can't +'make up' men like that." + +"But if he is rich and loves her, would he let her be living this way +and chasing her around that way. That does seem so awfully funny, to +me,--for a rich man to spend the nights outside the window of a girl who +hasn't even a change of pocket-handkerchiefs,--and she isn't pretty +either, you have to admit that, Alva?" + +"Lassie, you do look at everything from such a petty, worldly +standpoint. Of course it isn't your fault, but you judge too easily. How +do you know what rule governs that man; there are some men that no one +can understand,--they seem to be a race apart. All their springs of +action differ from the usual sources. I've been in love with such a +man--I'm in love with him now--I am going to marry him. The ordinary +woman wouldn't care much for a love that had to be set aside for bigger +things, as his for me was at first. But I understood. I accepted the +situation. All situations have their key--their clue--if one can get a +little way outside of body and senses, and then study them +thoughtfully." + +"Well, but if the man is an exceptional man as yours is, what can +interest him in such a girl?" + +Alva shook her head. "You don't find her interesting, and you will never +go near enough to her spirit to change your view; but she interests me, +and some day you'll come to see that every human being is full of +interest, if we will but take the trouble to hunt the interest out. I +have learned that lesson, and all that I can think of is the apparent +trouble and need of these two." + +"Would you have a man as great as the man you love, marry such a girl +with such a mother, Alva?" + +"I would have people who love sincerely always marry, whoever they +love." + +"But if he is so wild that a woman who hasn't even an extra hairpin +wants to hide her daughter from him, do you think he'll make her happy?" + +There was a pause. + +"Lassie," her friend said, presently, "do you know I used to be just +like you. I saw only the finite, too." + +"Yes?" + +"Yes, and I often wonder what would have become of me if I had not +learned through love to finally escape out of the bonds and shackles of +ordinary conditions, and to contemplate them only as either behind or +below me. How can we judge in the case of another? All that I know +absolutely in this case is that I have strayed into the midst of a +pitiful story. All I can do is to try to help that pain. That poor girl +is nothing but a passing ghost to you; to me she is a link in the +chain-armor of life that covers my spirit during its earthly war. As I +said before, there are no chance meetings, there are no accidents; +there's nothing trivial in life after one once grasps the greatness of +the whole. You can make things trivial by belittling them, or you can +make them great. I make Miss Lathbun great because a man who is great is +interested in her." + +"But how do you know that he's great? Or that he is interested in her? +She may have made it all up; I think that she did, myself." + +Alva turned from the window. + +"My dear child," she said, approaching the girl and laying her hand on +her shoulder, "I feel as if there were a thick veil between us; how can +I tell you what I think, when you don't want to understand what I try to +say? Suppose she did make it up? Suppose she and her mother are anything +you please? Still, I'd be glad that I believed in them. One little grain +of real belief may possibly be the seed of a new life for them; and even +if it isn't, think what it means to me to be able to believe in people. +It means that I am looking for good, instead of looking for evil. Can't +you see how much better that must be for me personally?" + +Lassie lifted her eyes to see what she called "the white look," on +Alva's face. She felt ashamed of her own standpoint. + +At that instant the dinner-bell rang loudly below. + +"Oh, we'll see them now!" Lassie exclaimed, all other thoughts fading. + +Alva gave her a quiet glance. "Yes, we'll see them now," she said, +turning towards the door. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +AND STILL ANOTHER PATH + + +It is difficult for one who has never taken an ocean voyage or lived in +a small village to realize the tremendous strides which interest, +friendship, love, or confidence can make in a very few days, or even +hours. I met three girls once whose kind parents had provided them with +a chaperon and sent them abroad to improve their minds. They met men on +the Lusitania (a record trip, too) going over, and all three were +engaged when they landed. Instead of improving their minds in Europe, +they bought their trousseaux, and then came home (another record trip) +and were married. A small village is just the same; one is introduced +and after that it goes like the wind. Women tell each other everything +that they shouldn't, and virtues which would never be noticed in a city +beget the deepest and sincerest admiration and affection. The dearth of +conventionality and variety draw spirits easily together. Perhaps the +purer air is a universal solvent for pride and prejudice. At any rate, +to make a long story short, Lassie and Ingram were in love with each +other before Alva had finished having the porch of her house painted, or +before Mrs. Ray had succeeded in tracking the case-knives to their +suspicious lair of crime. + +It's delightful to fall in love on the sea or in the country, quite as +delightful as to fall in love anywhere else. It is too bad that +fickleness is rated so low, for really the emotion of slowly discovering +that one is entering Elysium should be too great an experience to be +foregone forever after. However, we must not forget that fickleness is +rated low because humanity long since discovered that being in Elysium +is still better than making an entrance there, and furthermore that of +all sharp edges known, Love is the one most easily dulled by usage. +Therefore it is best to adhere to the dear old rules for the dear old +game, and only thank Fate with special reverence when sea-breezes or +country zephyrs float around one's own personal setting-out. + +Lassie didn't know that she was in love; she only knew that she was very +happy. Ingram didn't know that he was in love; he only knew that he was +very happy. Alva, whose soul sank daily deeper into the near approaching +abyss of her profound longings, noticed nothing. But every one else +knew, of course. Joey Beall, the invisibly omnipresent, saw them alone +together somewhere nearly every day. Mrs. Ray watched them come and go +together for mail. Mrs. O'Neil, who never had believed that Ingram was +in love with Alva, wished them well with all her heart. For she felt +sure that Alva wasn't in love with Ingram, either. + +"I'm glad to have something pleasant before my eyes just now," she said +to Mary Cody, and Mary Cody knew that she referred to the feeling over +the dam, which daily grew keener, and to the Lathbuns, who, it was now +openly known, had never paid any board since their arrival, but merely +referred to their banker in Cromwell, who, it appeared, was out of town, +and could not send on their October check until his return. + +"I don't know what there is about looking at them," said Mary Cody, who +was fifteen and grown up at that (and who did not refer to Mrs. Lathbun +and her daughter); "but every time he looks at her while I'm waiting on +them, I feel as if I'd just about die of joy if Ed Griggs would look at +me once that way." + +"Don't talk nonsense," said Mrs. O'Neil, severely. + +The days which bore such momentous happenings upon their bosom flowed +swiftly on, and the week was speeding by--was gone, in fact. + +"It doesn't seem possible, does it?" Lassie said, as she came across the +bridge with Ingram one afternoon. He had happened to return from the +long-distance telephone in Ledgeville by way of Alva's house; and she +had happened to be ready to go home, and Alva had happened not to be +ready. "It doesn't seem that it can be only a week. I feel as if it were +months, instead. Do you remember that first day, when Alva told me, how +I cried and how horrible I thought it was. And now I feel as if it were +too sad for words, but something so great and lovely and sacred, that +I'm sort of hushed in joy to have seen it all. I can see her side now, +and when I go back to the world and hear people say the things that I +thought myself when she first told me, I know that they are going to +hurt me awfully. And yet she says that they will not hurt her." + +"No," said Ingram, thoughtfully, "she seems to be quite beyond being +hurt. I never saw any one who impressed me just as Alva does." + +"It's very wonderful to be with her all the time," Lassie went on; +"nothing seems to affect her for herself, but only things about other +people. She doesn't seem to think her thoughts for herself any more, +but just for others. It's how she can study and learn and carry on some +part of his work for him after he's gone; it's how she can teach the +people around here that Ledge won't profit in the end by being turned +into a big lake or a big manufacturing district; it's how she can only +prove to people that those two queer women are really honest, and really +nice to know." + +"And do you agree with all her views now?" Ingram asked, recalling the +first of their meetings and the difference in Lassie's views from her +friend's then. + +"I think it's very splendid how she loves. I thought it was terrible at +first, but now I--" she hesitated; "I"--she stopped altogether. + +"Go on," said Ingram; "what were you going to say?" + +The girl looked down the cańon of gray, barren beauty, and then up +towards the sunlit valley of sweet, sunshiny, farming country. "Perhaps +you won't believe me," she said, her eyes for the minute almost as +distant in their withdrawal as Alva's own; "but now, I--truly--I envy +her. I would give anything to love as she does. I would almost give the +world to see life as she sees it. You see, I have begun to understand +what she means when she says things." + +Ingram was deeply stirred by pathos of which Lassie herself was +ignorant. The young desire to learn to drink of bitter waters! The +longing towards the crown of thorns stirs them, because they can +appreciate the sublimity of martyrdom, and cannot measure the agony! + +She had stopped and laid her hand upon the bridge-rail. Involuntarily +he laid his hand upon it, holding it within his strength and warmth. + +"When she talks to me of him," Lassie went on, seeming unconscious of +the hand and looking far ahead, "I forget myself, I forget Mamma, I +forget my début; I live only in her and her hope. I never saw love like +hers; she lives in him--in it--not in the world, and she's so sure of +the next world and of their future. It goes all through me, the wonder +of it. I can't tell you how I envy her. She said when I came that she +would send me back home all different, and I see now that she will do +it." + +"But I don't want you different." The words burst from the man's lips. +Mountain tops are serene and glorious and very close to the clouds, but +oh, the good warmth, the dear, cosy loveliness of those soft green +slopes far--so far--below. + +Lassie was too deeply engrossed to notice. "I shall go back to my home a +better girl," she said; "and I shan't let myself forget what I've +learned here." + +Ingram thought that she had heard, and felt himself silenced. + +There was a minute of stillness, and then they walked on. The October +evening was falling chill, and the night wind came winding up the gorge. + +"Do you agree with her about the dam, too?" the man asked finally, as +they approached the end of the bridge, striving against an echo of +bitterness. + +"Oh, yes, she has converted me about that, too. She took me down to call +on Mr. Ledge, and when I saw that dear, courtly, old gentleman, and +heard how quietly and earnestly and sadly he and Alva talked about it, +I came to see how different all that was, too." + +Ingram waited a second or two; then he said: + +"And Mrs. Lathbun,--do you believe in her too, now?" + +Lassie laughed. "No, I don't," she said, very positively; "I'm awfully +sorry for them both, but I cannot believe in them." + +"Alva does." + +"Yes,--but Alva--" + +"Yes, well,--go on." + +"I mustn't. Indeed I mustn't. I promised, and this time I must keep my +word. But Alva has a reason for believing in them." + +"Is it a good reason?" + +Lassie reflected. "No," she said, finally; "I don't think that it is a +good reason at all." + +They were at the hotel door now. + +"Well, I'm sorry for Alva," said Ingram, "because I hate to see ideals +shattered." + +"Oh, but they may justify her faith." + +"I am more inclined to think that they will justify your doubts." + +Lassie looked pleased. She valued Ingram's opinion highly. + +A little later Alva herself came home, pale as she always was, but more +weary looking than nightfall usually found her. + +[Illustration: ALVA.] + +"Lie down before supper," Lassie suggested; and her friend accepted the +suggestion. + +"Come and sit beside me," she said, in a tone that was almost pleading; +"give me your hand. I'm really quite used up." + +Lassie perched beside her on the bed, and took the long slender hand +between her own pretty little white ones. + +"You are a wise little maiden," Alva said, smiling into her face. "I +shall fight this away quickly. I know much better than to be weak. I +understand the scientific, spiritual reasons for it quite well--it is +that I am under a double strain these days, and also--" she +hesitated--"I think that I am really under a triple strain," she said, +"you do not guess how close to my heart that poor girl has come through +her description of her lover. I think of her so often, and such a +strange undercurrent sweeps up in me. I try to understand it, and I +can't; but I wonder if it can be some troubling of myself because the +one whose life is so valuable must go, and the one whose life has no +value will remain. I do not begrudge any one anything, God knows; but my +heart winces when I think that his soul will go on and leave me alone, +while a body that is the same as his will live and live for another. I +am brave, I am strong; my higher self has courage and understanding to +cope with any problem that may come, but it seems as if this one laid me +on a rack, because--because--" she stopped, and then in a low cry: +"Lassie, she doesn't seem to me to be worthy of even his body. Perhaps I +misjudge her, but even the human presentment of such a man should have a +wife of greater caliber. Somehow it hurts me, somehow everything hurts +me to-night. You see, dear, you were right. In some ways. Yes, you were +right." + +There was a pause, during which Lassie just gently stroked the hand +between her own. + +"Do you know what I believe?" Alva continued. "Some crisis is +preparing. I don't at all know what it is, but I feel it coming. I am +certain--confident--that God has some new wisdom close in hand for me. +Happy or sad--it is coming very close to-night. And whatever it is, I +must go bravely forward to meet it." + +Lassie shuddered ever so slightly. + +"Ah, you think that it is some sorrow," Alva said; "my dear, would you +credit me with telling you the truth, if I told you that there is a +comfort in understanding that verse about whom He loveth He chasteneth? +He doesn't call upon the weak among His children to bear what He has +sent to me, to us. And if there is some heavy sorrow,"--she stopped, and +presently added quite low,--"'not my will, but Thine be done!'" + +Lassie was deeply touched. She felt tears rolling down her cheeks. The +dusk had closed in and she could not see Alva's face, but she felt that +she, too, was weeping. + +Presently a freight train, going by, drowned everything by its roaring +clank for five minutes, and when all was still again, Alva said: "Come, +let us dress for supper!" + +She rose at once and lit the light, and Lassie saw with astonishment +that she was smiling and bright as usual. Alva caught her surprised +look. "I'm a creature of strong belief, dear," she said, laughing, "and +I know that whatever is hard, is worth itself. That is what one must try +never to forget. I wouldn't wish any one else my life to live, but it is +its own reward. The best thing in the world is to measure the real +standards of earth and heaven. That is what I am doing." + +"Don't you think perhaps you're overdoing, Alva?" the girl said, putting +the question in the way of timid suggestion. "Don't you think you crowd +even yourself too fast?" + +"Can any one learn to be good too fast? And then the great strain is for +such a little while, dear. Don't you see that in the world's eyes my +giving will be limited to these few weeks, and that in heaven's eyes I +shall then give all that I have and all that I am. Like him, I have +pawned my existence for a purpose. I shall redeem both." The look of +ecstasy that had opened to Lassie the gate of Medieval faith, flooded +her face. "What a life I shall live in those few brief days," she said, +softly; "how we shall enjoy our little oasis of bliss in the desert of +loneliness. I shall learn so much--so much. And the best of the learning +will be that I shall learn it from him." + +Lassie watched the uplifted look. The enthusiasm of the novice was hers. +As she had confessed to Ingram, envy dwelt at her heart. I wonder +whether envy is a vice or a virtue when it stirs a longing to emulate +one whom we recognize as better than ourselves? + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +DEVOTED TO COATS AND CASE-KNIVES + + +"'He moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform,'" chanted Mrs. +Ray, briskly, turning from the stove, with a hot iron in her hand, +towards the visitor then entering the door. "Yes, I'm just pressing the +seams. The mail was awful late--they had a bad wreck on the road, killed +three pigs--and the crowd is just gone. When the mail's late I'm always +late, too. Yes, indeed. Those two in love come up for the hotel mail, +while that poor, blind thing went over alone to look at what she fondly +supposes is going to be her happy home. Take a chair. How's Lottie Ann? +And, Mrs. Wiley, what do you think about those case-knives in the bureau +drawer?" for the case-knives were now the main topic of conversation all +over Ledge and its attendant villages. + +Mrs. Wiley had dropped in to see how her new winter jacket, now in +process of active manufacture, was getting on. She sank down on a seat +with a sigh which the chair echoed in a groan. + +"Oh, I don't know what to do," she said, wearily. "Uncle Purchase came +yesterday for a week, driving his colts, and last night one of the colts +had colic; and Lottie Ann gets thinner every day. Seems like I do have +so much trouble. Sister Anna got so tired with the improvements she's +making, that she just up and off for Buffalo Wednesday, and that left +Eliza to run things; and Eliza up and bit a chestnut and broke two +teeth, so she had to go off to Rochester yesterday early. That leaves me +with the whole thing now, and I'm running back and forth between houses +from dawn to dark. I wanted to make the dress for Cousin Dolly's +graduation, too, and the sewing machine always does for my legs; and +yesterday here come Uncle Purchase!" + +"Joey Beall is all used up over those case-knives," said Mrs. Ray, +pressing assiduously; "he won't say what he thinks." + +"How's it getting on?" asked Mrs. Wiley, hitching her chair nearer to +the ironing-board. "Oh, Mrs. Ray, you'll never know the sacred feelings +this coat will give me in church. Father was a true Christian, I always +have that to remember. He had his faults, but he was a true Christian. +Whatever went through his hands in the week, it was the plate at church +that they held on Sunday." + +"You don't need to worry over your father, Mrs. Wiley," said Mrs. Ray; +"nobody doubted his religion--it was only that he charged such awful +interest." + +Mrs. Wiley sighed. "I know," she said; "it wasn't so much what he +charged as bothered--" + +"No," said Mrs. Ray, "it was his way of insisting on being paid." + +Mrs. Wiley sighed again. + +"Well, thanks to the braid, the land is saved," Mrs. Ray went on +cheerfully. "Mrs. Wiley, do tell me, what do you think of all this at +the O'Neil House,--and did you bring the buttons?" + +"Why, I thought you said you could use the buttons on the suit," Mrs. +Wiley answered, with an unhappy start; "you ain't going to tell me that +you can't, are you?" + +"No, I ain't," said Mrs. Ray, "it's only that it's so common for folks +to forget to bring me their buttons that I forgot that you had brought +yours. It's awful, isn't it, about those two Lathbuns?" + +"I thought you'd lost 'em by accident," said Mrs. Wiley, seating herself +again with a huge relief; "I don't know what I'd of done if you had, for +my money is all in the chickens, and I never saw anything like the way +my chickens have acted lately. I wondered if it could be that the +surveyors upset them. They haven't been a bit regular, and so many +weasels!" + +"Perhaps the surveyors keep the weasels stirred up. I must say it would +stir me up to have the sharp end of one of their little flags suddenly +driven into the bosom of my family. Not but what a flag is better than a +case-knife. You've heard about the case-knives, of course?" + +"Yes, I heard about the case-knives. Mrs. Ray, don't you want me to try +it on? What do you think they had 'em for, anyway?" + +"Well, I don't know; you might on account of the sleeves, maybe. I don't +know what to think--of course they never got any mail; when any one +never gets any mail, it blocks my observation in all directions. I never +saw any strangers that stayed so long, that never got any mail before. +Why, those other girls are getting letters by the dozens. Such nice +mail, too,--thick white paper and thin blue paper, and little prints of +flags, such real, pretty mail. There, what do you think of that,--that's +your back; like it?" + +"Wait till I get out my glasses. But of course they must of bought +postals, didn't they? Mrs. Ray, you have done that fine! You're the +only one in the world that could ever fit me like that out of a suit of +father's. I take such a number of under-the-arm pieces." + +"Well, that isn't your fault, Mrs. Wiley; you come of a large family and +you ought to be very grateful, because if you hadn't you'd never have +had this jacket. If there hadn't been close on to two full breadths in +each of his legs, I never could have got it out. There's nothing takes +more skill than making a man's clothes over for any one but a boy. Yes, +indeed. Very few can think how difficult it is to adapt a man's legs +with the knees bagged, to either the front or back of a coat for you. +No, they never even bought postals. They never write at all. What would +they write with? You can't write with a case-knife." + +"No, that's so. I must say I think you've put that braid on beautiful. +Do you want me to slip it on now, or shall I wait? Uncle Purchase is up +at the house always, you know, and I mustn't be gone too long, but +Lottie Ann's there, so it don't matter much, after all." + +"I'll be ready in a second. I'd be further along, only Sammy Adams was +in last evening, and he hates to see me sew every minute. I sewed a good +deal of his visit--I don't know why I should consider Sammy Adams's +ideas when he don't consider mine. Taking in any one nights that way! I +tell you I had that out with him once for all. There,--that's your +pocket; big enough?" + +"Well, I wouldn't make it any bigger. What did he tell you about his +taking 'em in? Mrs. Ray, I took your advice and tried milk on Lottie +Ann, and she can't take any but buttermilk. Will that do her as much +good as milk in its first?" + +"I don't know why it shouldn't. I tell you frankly, Mrs. Wiley, you'll +need every inch of the room in this pocket. You may have your +prayer-book and a box of peppermint, and two or three other little +things, and you'll find this pocket very handy; the way I've got it cut +it'll hold as much as a small valise. I wouldn't cut it off, if it was +my coat. I always need all my pockets. But then I always have to carry +so many things, a corkscrew and a monkey-wrench and the key to my hens. +He said the rain was pouring down, and he didn't see anything to do but +take them in. Of course, if you're Sammy's easy kind, and it's raining, +too, you can see how that would be. He'd take a snake in, if it asked +him with a smile." + +"What do you think of cutting off about a half inch? I don't wonder that +he took them in, myself. But, Mrs. Ray, she don't like milk, anyhow, and +shouldn't you think morning and night was enough?" + +"I'll do it if you say so, of course, Mrs. Wiley. But I can't see myself +cutting them off, if they were mine. Of course, two glasses is better +than none, but two isn't six. I only know if it was me I'd never of let +them in, in this world." + +"I'll try to get her to take four. Shall I slip it on now? Do tell me +what else he said?" + +"If she was my girl, I'd see she took what I told her; I don't believe +in spoiling children. No, you'll have to wait. Why, Mrs. Wiley, would +you believe that that poor innocent didn't know a thing about the +case-knives till I told him. You know he don't often come to town." + +"Well, I never! I told Uncle Purchase all about it, and he promised me +he'd never take any one in. I thought I'd better be on the safe side, +even if Uncle Purchase hasn't let any one come into his house for twenty +years. Isn't it strange? But then Uncle Purchase is strange. The last +time I was in his house was when Abner was a baby. He had a dozen +tissue-paper hyacinths planted in real pots with the earth watered, to +make them look real. Uncle Purchase's quite a character." + +"Sammy said they rapped--that was how he came to first know that they +were at the door." + +"Uncle Purchase never goes to the door. He's so deaf he couldn't hear a +peal of thunder if it stood outside rapping all night, and that last +time I was there he had his trunk all packed standing in the hall. He +never unpacked it after he went to the Centennial. He said it would be +all ready for the next Centennial. They have them so often now, you +know. He's so odd. He went to the Insane Asylum once for a little while, +you know, but it didn't do him a bit of good, so he came back home. +Uncle Purchase is so odd." + +"Sammy said they were a sight. He said two drowned rats washed up by a +spring flood would be dry and slick beside them. Sammy always did talk +just like a poet. Yes, indeed." + +"Uncle Purchase says very pretty things, too. He's so loving to Lottie +Ann, he said yesterday she winged her way about the house like an angel. +I thought that was a sweet way of putting it, but it kind of depressed +me, too, she's so awful thin. Shall I slip it on now?" + +"Not yet. Don't you think maybe he just meant a fly? The last ones go so +slow that they might make him think of an angel." + +"No, he meant Lottie Ann. Uncle Purchase always says what he means. He +brought Lottie Ann a daguerreotype of his mother. It's so black you +can't see a thing, but it showed his kindness. I thought Lottie Ann +would bring the chimney down trying to thank him--he's so awful deaf. He +thought she was asking who it was, and he just roared about it's being +his mother, until I called Lottie Ann for her milk. He's always been so +fond of Lottie Ann. If she outlives him, I'm most sure he'll leave her +the farm. I wish she'd drink more milk." + +"I was speaking about her to Nathan and Lizzie when they were up +yesterday. You know Lizzie was delicate, too. Nathan thinks the Lathbuns +had those knives to pry open windows." + +"Oh, my heavens!" + +"He says you can pry open any window-catch with a case-knife. Yes, +indeed." + +Mrs. Wiley opened her eyes. "Any window?" + +"Yes, that's what he said. And poor Clay Wright Benton was in here, too, +and I spoke to him about them, too, and he said that you could, too." + +"My!" Mrs. Wiley's tone was appalled. "Did Clay seem frightened? I +suppose they aren't afraid of anything,--they've got the parrot, you +know." + +"I don't know how that would help them. It hangs upside down, yelling +'Fire, Fire,' rainy days, until nobody can possibly think it means it." + +"Well, but it wouldn't make any difference what it said, would it, if it +woke them?" + +"But they're so tired being woke, it can't wake 'em any more. Clay says +nothing wakes 'em now. Even Gran'ma Benton falls asleep while it's +calling her names." + +"Dear me," said Mrs. Wiley, seriously. "I wouldn't care about having one +for myself. I never let the children call names, and I just couldn't be +called names by a parrot." + +"Clay says his mother don't like it. She's tried to teach it Bible +verses. But names are so much easier. Bible verses are so long. And they +don't come in where they make sense. The short ones are worse yet. +There's 'Jesus wept'--that's the shortest verse in the Bible, and that +never would make sense. The parrot says 'Twenty-three,' and that always +makes sense. This world is meant to go wrong, seems to me. Case-knives +just swim along without paying board, while an honest woman has to scrub +her church once a week on her knees and labor like a heathen Chinese in +between times." + +"Well, Mrs. Ray, what are we coming to?" + +"I told Edward Griggs what Nathan said, but Edward thinks they're +government spies sent out to keep track of the surveyors, and they have +the knives to dig with." + +"To dig with!" Mrs. Wiley was full of amazement. + +"You know they do scour the country pretty freely, and that would +account for one being broke." + +"There's more strength in a broke knife than in one that isn't, of +course. Government spies!" + +"It would account for a lot of things. Edward Griggs is a pretty smart +man; he was at the Chautauqua last year." + +"Didn't they used to call them scouts, Mrs. Ray? Seems to me I've heard +of them in the war." + +"Oh, they call a spy anything--spies don't mind what they're called as +long as nobody knows who they really are. If they are government spies, +I'm glad to know it, because they'll be having an eagle eye out in every +government direction. I think I'll wash the post-office to-morrow, just +on the chance. I didn't want to wash it till after I'd filed my bond. I +sort of like to get my bond off my mind first, and clean up afterwards." + +"I'll ask Abner if he's heard anything from Josiah Bates lately. Joey +Beall is going over to Foxtown to-morrow or next day, and he says his +cousin there married a Cromwell girl; he's going to ask all about them +there. Mrs. Ray, seems like those women must be something out of the +ordinary. It would be too barefaced never to pay your board, otherwise." + +"Well, whatever they are, we'll soon know now. People are looking them +up in all directions. Mrs. Kendall's got an aunt in Cromwell, and she's +written her about the case-knives. But she says her aunt never writes +letters, so she don't expect to find out much that way; still, you never +can tell." + +"Well, Joey may find out a good deal. My cousin Eliza always says you'll +find out all there is to find out, if you get hold of Joey Beall. Mrs. +Ray, can't I slip it on now? I've _got_ to go back to Uncle Purchase, +Lottie Ann is so weak she won't be able to make him hear a thing by this +time; and if he can't hear, it always worries him because he's so afraid +of growing deaf." + +Mrs. Ray thoughtfully regarded the jacket. "I'd like to of got the +collar on," she said; "but you can put it on now, I guess." + +Mrs. Wiley stood up and donned the garment. + +"The sleeves are short," said Mrs. Ray; "but that's fashionable this +year. There was no other way, anyhow. I had to get 'em out from the +knee down, and he was short there--like an elephant." + +"How does it look in the back?" + +"It's a little short in the back, but nothing to speak of. You see I had +to swing the backs to get the coat skirts free of his side-seams; it +sets very well, considering that." + +"Yes, I like it," said Mrs. Wiley; "and I have my fur to sort of piece +it up at the neck, anyway. You know, Mrs. Ray, if those two women are +spies, I should think they'd wear nightgowns. I shouldn't think they'd +want to attract so much attention, and of course not wearing nightgowns +attracts lots of attention." + +Mrs. Ray--having her mouth full of pins--made no reply. + +"Lucia Cosby thinks they're tramps and nothing better," Mrs. Wiley +continued; "nobody can understand Jack's keeping them so long." + +Mrs. Ray continued silent. + +"Ellen Scott says she's afraid of them; she thinks it's so queer they're +not having any coats. But Ellen was always timid. She never got over +that time the boys dressed up like Indians and kidnapped her on April +Fool's Day when she was little." + +Mrs. Ray stuck in the last pin and freed her mouth. "Well, all I can say +is, we'll soon know now," she said; "all the wheels in the gods of the +mills is turning now, and in the end the Lathbuns will be ground out +exceeding small I hope and trust and am pretty sure of." + +Mrs. Wiley looked down over herself with an air of intense satisfaction. +"I don't see how you ever got it out," she repeated with deeply +appreciative emphasis. + +"You know those are Nellie O'Neil's shawls they wear," Mrs. Ray went +on, beginning to unpin the new winter coat from its owner. "Nellie's an +awful idiot to let them have those shawls; they'll walk off some day, +and leave her without shawls or pay,--that's the kind they are. Yes, +indeed." + +"Nellie's too good-hearted." + +"She and Jack are both too good-hearted." + +Mrs. Wiley went to the door and took hold of the knob. "Well, I must go +now. Lottie Ann will be all tired out if I stay any longer. And we never +leave Uncle Purchase alone. He always takes the clock to pieces or does +something we can't get together again, if he's left alone. He asked +after Susan Cosby last night, and I told him she was dead four times and +then I got Lottie Ann and the boys in, and they took turns telling him +she was dead till nine o'clock, and then Joey brought our mail and we +got him to tell him she was dead, and then all Uncle Purchase said was: +'Is she, indeed? When did she die?' Oh, my heavens!" + +"Well, if you must be going," said Mrs. Ray, "we may as well part now. +The Giffords are coming here for dinner, and I've got to begin to cook +it." + +Mrs. Wiley thereupon departed. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +LEARNING LESSONS + + +The wide range of standpoints is one of the most interesting studies in +this world. A man on a hill can look to the horizon in all directions, +and wonder about all the little black specks which he may see thereon, +and all on the horizon can see the little black speck on the hill and +draw their own conclusions as to what it may be. Ledge thought city +people lacking in intellect because of the way they "took the Falls," +and the visitors thought the townspeople lacking because of the way in +which they "took the Falls." Mrs. Ray knew that Ingram and Lassie were +in love, and Ingram and Lassie didn't know it; and Ingram and Lassie had +been told by Mrs. O'Neil that Mrs. Ray would eventually marry Sammy +Adams, while Mrs. Ray herself not only didn't know that, but had +declared herself to be "dead set" against the proposition. The State had +appointed a commission, and Mr. Ledge was troubled over its results; and +all the while Creation, in the first of its creating, had settled the +outcome of the commission's task definitely and forever. And so they all +went merrily, blindly forward, Alva, like the evening star, moving +serenely in the centre, almost as unconscious of her own position in +people's eyes as the evening star is unconscious of telescopes. She was +happy in her ideal existence, and always hopeful of good to come for +others. Her aims were high and true, her sincerity splendid, and Lassie +was learning a great deal--more than either of them guessed, in fact. +And the second week was now going blithely forward, while Alva worked +and waited, hoping each hour for the telegram that should summon her to +bring her lover into the haven her love was building. But the telegram +came not. + +"Lassie," she said, one noon, as they stood on the bridge looking down +into the tumbling waters below, "I wonder if I were ever like you, and I +wonder if you will ever be like me!" + +"How so?" + +"If you will ever be really in love? I can't believe that very many +people really know what love means,--that is, in the way that I mean it. +If they did, it could not possibly be a shock to any one to see me doing +what I am going to do. It would seem the only thing to do." + +Lassie made no reply for a little, then she said, slowly: "When we love, +we look forward to life together generally; that is why people won't +understand you." She hesitated again. "I mean-that seems to me to be the +reason; perhaps I'm wrong." + +Alva reflected, too, her eyes upon the autumn glory flaunting its color +over the deep gray shadows before her. "Even if one puts it all on the +material plan, I should think that the whole world would recognize by +this time that it isn't the man that a woman loves that fills her soul +with ringing joy; it's the way in which she loves the man. It's herself +and the effect of himself upon her thoughts that counts. It isn't the +house, but the life within the house that makes a home, you know." + +Some shy, latent color rose up in Lassie's face. "I never thought about +it in just that way," she said; "but I suppose it's the truth." + +"My dear, it is the truth. Of course it is the truth. No one to whom +sufficient has been revealed can doubt it. If you can't see it so, it is +because you are not yet old enough to comprehend. When I say 'old +enough' I don't mean the Lassie who is eighteen; I mean the Lassie who +began long before this mass of rock became even so stable as to be +shifting ocean sand. I mean the Lassie who departed out of God to work +in His way until she shall return to Him in some divine and distant +hereafter." + +"Oh, Alva, you do say such queer things!" + +"Perhaps; but you see I _know_ all this. It came to me through dire +hours of need. I've demonstrated its truth, step by step. Try to grasp +the idea." + +"Do people ever think you crazy?" The question came timidly. + +"Every one always thinks any one or anything that they can't understand, +crazy. Mrs. Ray thinks me crazy, and it's very difficult for me not to +consider her so." + +"Alva!" + +"Yes, really." + +"I'll try to consider you sane." + +"Thank you very much, dear." She smiled brightly. "Oh, Lassie, it's such +joy to have you to speak to. I was so choked and crowded with thoughts +before you came. It was so blessedly good that if I could not stay with +him, I could come to this quiet spot and have the house and you to help +me wait the days away. You see, Lassie, one has to be part body in +spite of everything, and it's so hard to keep your body up to your soul. +Sometimes it seems to me that all of a sudden I am drawn into a +whirlpool and cannot get hold of anything solid. I don't know just what +it is, but I imagine that I feel as they say the Saxons felt when they +saw the comet flaming in the year of the Conquest, that something +portends. And it seems to me so hard that I could not have stayed with +him. But they wouldn't hear to that." + +Lassie pressed her hand. "I don't wonder at the way you feel," she said, +sympathetically; "there must be so much that is hard in your mind these +days." + +"Words are poor to tell what I feel," said her friend; "that is what +binds me to him,--it is that he and I do not need to speak. We can feel +without translation." + +"I wonder if I shall ever be loved like that," Lassie murmured +wistfully, and at her words the delicate flame illumined her face again. + +Alva did not notice; she was looking down into the cleft beneath, and +watching the little river fret itself into foam and spray. + +"Look!" she said suddenly. "Isn't it lovely in the noon sunlight? Fancy +the countless centuries on centuries that it must have taken the river +to cut itself this path. There was once a great lake on the other +side--the side above the bridge--and it is with the idea of restoring +that lake that the State is having this survey made. The difficulty is +that the State isn't geologist enough to know that the lake's outlet +flowed out there to our left, and that this river is comparatively a new +thing. If they remade the lake, the lake would be desperately likely to +remake its old outlet." + +"Would it hurt?" + +"Hurt! My dear, it would be another Johnstown Flood." + +"Oh, dear! Do many know that?" + +"Yes, dear; but it wouldn't drown the men who will own the water-power, +so what does it matter to this world of yours." + +"But is that right--to look at anything in that horribly selfish way?" + +"In what other way do rich financiers look at anything? But there will +come a time when a change will dawn. Look, dear, down there; see the +rainbow dancing on the spray. Well, that's the way that public opinion +is going to come in among us soon--in a rainbow of truth." + +"It will be beautiful everywhere then?" Lassie asked, smiling. + +"Very beautiful!" Alva stared down upon the writhing, leaping waters +below; "and I shall have given my all towards the dream's fulfilment. +And I shall have learned from him how to devote my life to the same +great ends that he served. Lassie, when one comprehends that not +happiness but usefulness is the end to be worked towards, then one +begins to see what living really means." + +"How much it is all going to mean to you!" + +"How much? Ah, only he and I can guess at that! There will be something +quite different from all the imaginings, in our sweet, sad days of work +and suffering and comforting. I dare not try to picture it to myself. I +only think often of how I shall pause here in my walks to come, and +steal a long look over this scene, so as to go home and describe it. He +loves beauty and he loves wood and water." + +"You'll go back and forth across the bridge often then, won't you?" + +"When I'm married, you mean?" + +"Yes, when you're married." + +"My dear, fancy what a joy Mrs. Ray will be to us. I shall go for the +mail expressly so as to tell all that Mrs. Ray said to me when I went +for the mail." She paused and smiled and sighed. "Lassie, I wish I were +strong enough not to mind one thing. I know so well--so very well--just +how it will look to every one,--above all to my parents, who are to be +driven half mad, even though I shall only ask a few months' freedom, in +return for all my life before and after. I wish that I might be spared +the sharp, keen realization of all that." + +Lassie's eyes sought hers quickly. "But you have a right to do as you +please, Alva." + +"Have I, dear? It seems to me sometimes as if I were the one person who +had no right to do as she pleases, not even in that which concerned her +most. You know that every one thinks that if a woman marries with a +prospect of years of happiness taken or given, she is justified in going +her own way. Any one would feel that, would understand that view. I +never could have done that, because my life was too heavily loaded with +burdens and responsibilities; and his was the same. It was because we +were so hopeless of happiness for so long that we do not cavil over the +wonder of what is offered us. Because if it had come in the form that it +comes to others, we must have refused it. It did come to us in that +form, and we did refuse it. It was only when it returned in a guise +that the world calls tragic, that we could accept it for our own." + +"Yes, Alva, I understand," her tone was a cry, almost. + +"Lassie, remember one thing, and don't forget it during any of these +hours that we shall spend together. If I read life by another light than +yours, it isn't because it was natural to my eyes. Once I might have +recoiled even more than you did, when I first told you. God's best +purposes for humanity require that we recoil from what seems unnatural. +But there are exceptions to all rules, and in return for two human lives +freely offered up on the altar of His world, He gives, sometimes, a few +days of unutterable happiness to their spirits. Lassie, he was big, he +was splendid; you know all that he was as every one else does. If I had +been young, if I had been ignorant enough to dare to be selfish, and if +he had been young and ignorant enough not to know how necessary he was +to thousands,--why, then, we might have been happy in the way that two +people out of a million sometimes are. But we had gone beyond all that, +or else we passed beyond it the instant we realized; at any rate, we +knew too well that I was bound hand and foot on the wheel of my life and +he was bound on his. We had to set our faces in opposite directions and +go on. Straight ahead. The world for which we sacrificed ourselves will +never even be grateful. The world could not have understood why we +should make any sacrifice; the world generally disdains those who do the +most for it. Isn't that so? If you tell any one in these days that your +first duty is to do right by your own soul, and that that means doing +what is best for all other souls, they stare. If I say to you that I +could bear to live alone and he could bear to live alone, because we +both knew absolutely that we had had centuries of one another and should +win eternity united, you'd stare, too." + +"I wouldn't quite--" faltered Lassie. + +"Don't try to, dear; only think how it is to him and to me now, when we +are to have this short, this pitifully short space of time together--to +have to take it in the face of such an outcry as will be made. When I +creep back into life again, with my heart broken and my dress black +always from then on, I shall be so notorious, such an object of +curiosity for all time to come, that my friends will prefer not to be +seen in public with me. When I think of my home-going to tell them, my +very soul faints. My father abhors any form of physical deformity; what +he is going to say to my marrying one who is so maimed and crushed that +he can not use his right hand, I can't think. And then there is my +mother, to whom sentiment and religion are alike quixotic. What will she +say?" + +She was silent, and then she suddenly left the rail and moved on. + +"Ah, well, if it could only stay bright like this until we came back +together! But that is impossible. What we shall see together will be the +snow lying softly over all, and the brown, curving line of the tree-tops +and the pink sunset glow in the west. He will lie in his chair and I +shall sit on a cushion thrown close beside him, and with that one hand +that they have left him pressed to my face, we shall look out over all +the wide, still world and talk of that future which no one can bar us +out of, except our own two selves. God can say 'Well done, thou good and +faithful servant,' but He proves in the saying that the doing and the +goodness and the faith all emanated from the one who served. Religion is +such a grand thing, Lassie; I can't understand any one with intelligence +choosing to be an atheist. And lately, since I have realized that the +real trinity is two who love and their God, I have been overcome at the +mysticism of what life really means. Oh, I'm truly very, very happy. As +I look over these hills and valleys, I think how all my life long I +shall be coming back here--not to weep, but to remember. I shall be left +lonely to a degree that hardly any one can comprehend, because for me +there will be no possible chance of any earthly consolation; but in +another sense I shall never know grief at all, for I know, with the +absolute knowledge that I have attained to, that grief like all other +finite things is unreal, and that my happiness is eternal." + +They were now on the tracks quite near the hotel. + +"I wonder if Mrs. Lathbun got a letter from her lawyer to-day," Lassie +said, changing the subject suddenly. + +They went up the steps and opened the door, and there in the hall, on +her hurried way out to meet them, was Mrs. O'Neil, her face quite pale +with excitement. + +"Oh, what do you think?" she cried, opening the door into the +dining-room; "come right in here. What _do_ you think?" + +"What is it?" both asked together. + +"The biggest surprise you ever got in your life. They're swindlers!" + +Alva stepped in quickly and shut the door. "What?" she stammered; "who?" + +"They're swindlers, both of them! It's all in the Kinnecot paper." She +held out a paper which she had in her hand to Alva. "You can read it; it +isn't a bit of doubt but what it's them." + +Alva, turning quite pale, took the paper and read: + + A PRETTY FOXY PAIR + + Two women, claiming to be mother and daughter, came to the + Walker House in this village a few nights ago and inquired for + supper and a night's lodging, claiming they were very tired, as + they had walked over from Warsaw. Landlord Walker thought it a + little strange that they should have walked over when there + were two railroads that run from that village through here, but + said nothing and gave them supper and furnished them a room. + They remained in their room until about noon the next day, when + they paid their bill and left, taking the overland route for + Ledge, or in that direction. They registered at the Walker + House as Mrs. Ida M. Lathbun and Miss H. A. Lathbun, which are + the same names given by a pair who had been spending the summer + in the vicinity of Silver Lake and Perry. As stated above, they + came here from Warsaw, and our esteemed brother editor in that + place paid them the following compliment in a recent issue: + + 'A woman and daughter who are going from town to town, boarding + in one place until compelled to seek another because of their + inability to pay their board, have been found to be in this + town, coming here from Perry and Silver Lake, where their + record is one of unpaid bills. They are smart, clever, female + tramps, who have no income and no visible means of support.' + + It is said at Silver Lake they stated they were expecting some + money, and would stay at one boarding-place as long as they + could, and when fired out would settle at another. They finally + went to Perry, and, when compelled to leave there, walked + across the country to Warsaw, stopping at Mr. Samuel Adams's + overnight, while en route. + + The older Mrs. Lathbun is said to be an own cousin of Arthur + Rehman, who has been before the public for one escapade or + another for many years. She is said to have been well-to-do at + one time, and is living in expectations of more money from some + relative. The couple were fairly well dressed and intelligent + looking women. + +Alva's hand holding the paper fell limply at her side. She looked at +Mrs. O'Neil and Mrs. O'Neil looked at her; while Mary Cody, who had come +in from the kitchen, and Lassie looked at them both. + +"Well, what do you think of it?" Mrs. O'Neil said, finally. + +"I can't believe it," Alva gasped; "it can't be true!" + +"Just what I said! You know I said that right off, Mary Cody? But Jack +believes it. He's gone to Ledge Centre to see Mr. Pollock." + +"Who is Mr. Pollock?" + +"The lawyer." + +"And where are they now?" + +"Up-stairs. They never get up till noon, you know." + +"How long have they been here?" + +"Two weeks and a little over." + +"Haven't they paid you anything?" + +"Not a cent." + +Alva became more distressed. "And the girl is so delicate, too," she +said. + +"Delicate! I should think that she was. Every third day the old lady has +all my flat-irons wrapped in towels to put around her. And then, think +of it! October, and not a coat or a flannel have either of them got." + +A slight shiver ran over Alva. + +"You're cold," said Mrs. O'Neil; "come into the kitchen. Mary Cody, you +stand at the door and listen, for that old lady is a sly one." + +Mary Cody stood at the door, and the other three went into the kitchen. + +"Won't Mrs. Ray be pleased," said Mrs. O'Neil. "She was down at the +church, or I'd have gone right up to her with the paper. It was she that +set every one after 'em, because she was so crazy over their staying at +the Adams farm that night. She's so jealous of Sammy." + +"Ow!" exclaimed Mary Cody, interrupting; "I hear the stairs creaking!" + +Mrs. O'Neil grabbed the newspaper and thrust it back of a clothes +basket. The next instant Mrs. Lathbun, with an empty pitcher in her +hand, came in through the dining-room door. + +The large, heavily-built woman, not stout but very robust in appearance, +had on her usual dress, and smiled pleasantly at them all in greeting. + +"Was there any mail?" she asked, going to the stove and beginning to +fill her pitcher from the reservoir as she spoke. + +"No," said Mary Cody; "I went myself." + +"Dear me, how annoying," said Mrs. Lathbun; and then, having finished +filling her pitcher, she quietly retired again. + +"To think maybe she'll be in the jail at Geneseo to-morrow!" Mary Cody +exclaimed, in an awestruck whisper. + +Alva turned interrogative eyes towards Mrs. O'Neil. + +"Yes, Jack is going to have them arrested," she said. + +"Merciful heavens!" + +"Isn't it awful? I'm sorry for them, myself." + +"But--but suppose there's some mistake?" + +"There can't be, Jack says." + +Alva shut her eyes and stood still for a few seconds. "The poor +creatures," she said, softly and pitifully,--then: "How did you say you +came to find out about it?" + +"A man from Kinnecot had the paper in the station, and Josiah Bates +brought him over to our bar this morning and asked Jack if he could see +how folks like that could get trusted. Jack said yes, he could see, and +then he told the man from Kinnecot that just at present he was trusting +the same people, himself." + +"Oh, dear," Alva passed her hand wearily across her forehead; "it's +awful." + +"Yes, isn't it? The man gave him the paper then. And Jack's first idea +was to take it right up-stairs to them, but then he thought they might +skip before he could have them arrested, so he decided to drive over and +see Mr. Pollock first." + +"I can't make it seem true." + +"No, I can't, either. Of course they never paid anything, but they're +nice people. I've liked them." + +"Then they won't know anything about all this until they are really +arrested?" + +"No," said Mrs. O'Neil; "they'll eat dinner just as calm as they've +eaten all their other dinners." + +"Come, Lassie," said Alva; "that reminds me that we must get ready for +dinner, ourselves." + +"Do you want to take the paper up-stairs with you?" Mrs. O'Neil asked; +"right after dinner I want to take it up to Mrs. Ray, but you can keep +it till then if you like." + +"No, thank you," said Alva, with her strange, white smile; "I read it +all through." + +When they were up-stairs Lassie exclaimed: + +"There, now you see--" + +But her friend stopped her with a gesture. "It's too terrible to talk +about," she said, simply. "I must think earnestly what ought to come +next." + +Lassie became silent. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE WALK TO THE LOWER FALLS + + +"I certainly am going with Mrs. O'Neil when she carries that paper to +the post-office after dinner," Lassie exclaimed, as soon as they reached +their rooms. "Oh, Alva, this is the most interesting experience I ever +had. I'm just wild. It's such fun!" + +Alva came straight to her, laid her two hands on the girl's shoulders +and looked into her face. + +"Lassie!" she said, in a tone of appalled meaning, "Lassie!" + +Lassie laughed a little, just a very little. "I didn't make them bad," +she said; "it's just that I enjoy the fun of the developments." + +"The fun!" said Alva, "the fun! When there isn't anything except +tragedy, misery, and shame!" + +"But, Alva, if they are that kind of women, isn't it right that they +should be found out?" + +Her friend dropped her hands and turned away. + +"Oh, dear--oh, dear," she said, with a sigh that was almost a moan. + +Later they went down to the dining-room. Ingram had not come that noon, +and Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter were sitting placidly at their table. +Alva and Lassie took their own seats as usual. + +There are not many sensations so complexly curious as to be obliged to +eat your dinner within five feet of two ladies who perhaps are to be +arrested as soon as a man who drives a fast horse can get back from +Ledge Centre with the sheriff. + +Mrs. O'Neil's criminal code, reinforced by such stray bits of procedure +as she could recollect on short notice, led to a supposition on her part +that the case would go almost in a bee-line from Mr. Pollock the +attorney to the Geneseo jail. Therefore Mary Cody's eyes were full of +rounded curiosity as she waited at table, and Lassie could not forbear +to glance often at the quiet and simple-looking pair,--the mother in her +dark blue print, with its bands of stitched silk, and the daughter with +the red silk front that had so impressed her from the beginning. Alva +could not look at them,--her mind was full of devious wondering. Mrs. +O'Neil glanced in from time to time, her pretty face darkened by vague +distress, mixed with some righteous indignation. + +The door opened and Ronald Ingram entered. It was a surprise and a great +relief, for of course he knew nothing and was consequently under no +constraint. + +Mary Cody rushed to lay a place for him. + +"This would be a grand day to walk to the Lower Falls," he said, as he +sat down; "why don't you do it? You haven't been yet, have you?" + +"No," Alva said; "there hasn't ever been time." + +"Why don't you go this afternoon, then? I'll go with you, if you like. +I'm free." + +"I can't go this afternoon; take Lassie. That will take care of you both +at once." + +"I think that would be fine," said Ingram, heartily, "if Lassie will +like to go." + +Lassie looked helplessly from Alva to the Lathbun family. "I couldn't +go right after dinner," she said, hesitatingly, and stopped short to +meet Alva's eyes. + +"Why not?" the latter asked; "wouldn't you like the walk?" + +"Oh, I should like it very much," Lassie declared, her face flushing. It +seemed to her very cruel that no such delightful plan had ever been +broached before, when it was only just to-day that she wanted to stay at +home. She looked at Ingram, and the wistful expression on his face was +weighed in the balance against the thrill to come at the post-office +when Mrs. Ray should read the Kinnecot paper. Such was the effect of the +past week in Ledge upon a very human young girl. + +"Why can't you come, too?" Ingram asked Alva. + +Alva lifted her eyes to his, and in the same second Miss Lathbun at the +other table lifted hers, and fixed them on the other's face. + +"I can't this afternoon," she said, very stilly but decidedly; "I have +something that keeps me here." + +Lassie looked at her reproachfully. She was going to stay and hear Mrs. +Ray! For the minute Lassie felt that she could not go herself. + +"I think I'll stay with Alva," she said, suddenly. + +"Lassie!" Alva exclaimed. + +"Oh, come," urged Ingram; "it's such a grand day. You both ought to go. +Come, do." + +Alva shook her head. "I've a letter to write," she said; "I--" she +stopped. There was a noise outside. It was Mr. O'Neil, driving up the +hill towards the house! Mary Cody gave an exclamation in spite of +herself, and darted into the kitchen. Mrs. Lathbun, who faced the +window, said calmly: + +"Why, there's Mr. O'Neil, just in time for his dinner." + +Alva turned her head, feeling cold, and saw there was no sheriff with +him. Mrs. Ray could be seen standing out on her back porch, shading her +eyes to make out anything visible. Of course Mrs. Ray did not know full +particulars, but Josiah Bates had been to Ledge Centre on horseback and +had seen the O'Neil mare hitched in front of Mr. Pollock's. The +postmistress knew that something was up. + +Alva drew a breath of relief. The sheriff had not come back, so they +could not be arrested at once. Or else they could not be arrested at +all. There seemed to be a hush of suspense in the room, but Mr. O'Neil +did not enter to relieve it. Only Mary Cody entered, and Mary Cody's +face was as easy to read as a blank book. + +"Then you'll go?" Ingram asked again. + +Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter rose and went up-stairs, leaving the other +three alone. + +"Of course she'll go," Alva answered; "go, dear, and get your wraps." + +Lassie cast one last appealing look towards her, and then she also left +the room. + +"Ronald," Alva then said, hurriedly, "Lassie will tell you what has +happened here. I feel confident that there is some error in it all, but +whatever you think, try to be charitable, merciful. Don't be narrow in +your judgment." + +"Are you referring to your own affairs?" he asked in surprise. + +"I am not the only one who craves mercy," she said, smiling; "there are +many others." + +"Sharing your views?" he asked, smiling in his turn. + +"Lassie will tell you," she repeated. + +"Alva," the man said suddenly, earnestly, "don't teach her too many +ideals. We are mortal, and life is a real thing." + +"I understood that perfectly," she replied; "but the world is not +immortal and immortality is a real thing, too. A desirable thing, too." + +"To be achieved by working on the mortal plane, remember." + +"I have worked all my life upon the mortal plane; I shall be back there +next summer, you know. Yet Lassie has learned to see only beauty in my +immortal winter to be between." + +"Ah, there is your error," said Ingram; "you expect to live this winter +and return to your old life in the summer. But that's something that you +never will be able to do." + +"What do you mean?" + +"You won't be able to go back next summer." + +She looked at him sadly. "But I shall have to go back next summer," she +said; "do not deceive yourself as to that. And now excuse me, I want to +speak to her before she goes." + +She left him and ran up-stairs. Lassie was putting on the hat that +looked to the eyes of Ledge like a feather duster upside down. + +"You're going to stay here and have all the fun," she protested; "oh, +I'd give anything to see Mrs. Ray read that paper." + +"But I shall not see her." + +"You won't see her!" + +"No, dear;" then she went and stood at the window in her favorite +posture. "Oh, Lassie," she said, "I like to hear Mrs. Ray talk and I +enjoy the funny things she says, but do you think that to look on at the +hunting down of these two women is any pleasure for me? When I know why +they are destitute--why they are in hiding." + +"Alva," cried Lassie, "you don't mean you still believe that story?" + +"Yes, I do." + +"You're crazy!" + +"I expect so. But I still believe the story." + +Lassie stood still, staring at her friend's back. Then she went hastily +forward, seized her impetuously in her arms and kissed her. + +"Oh, little girl," Alva said, turning, "don't you see that it's charity, +and if they really are not what they pretend to be and if it all really +is a lie, it may be long before charity will cross their path again?" + +"Alva," Lassie said, with her little whimsical smile, "you've taken all +that nice, agreeable, aching desire to go to the post-office and see the +paper read, completely out of me." + +"Well, are you sorry for that?" + +Lassie lifted her pretty brown eyes. "No," she said, frankly; "I'm not." + +Then she ran down to Ingram and they set forth at once, for it is a long +walk to the Lower Falls. + +The day was magnificent. The bright autumn sun shone on the lines of +steel that glinted beside their way across the bridge, and there was a +silvery glisten dancing in all the world of earth and heaven and in the +rainbow of the mist, too,--a glisten that bespoke the approach of the +Frost King and the further glory soon to be. The glints of brown and +yellow here and there amidst the red presaged that Nature's festival was +daily drawing nearer to its white close. Ingram, looking ahead towards +the trees that hid the little Colonial house, wondered and wondered, but +was recalled by Lassie's bursting forth with the whole story of the +fresh developments which they had left behind them. + +"Oh, by George," Ingram exclaimed; "I'd like to have seen Mrs. Ray get +the news myself." + +Lassie felt herself fall with a crash back into the pit of ordinary +views. + +"Would you?" she asked eagerly; "oh, but we couldn't go back now; Alva +would be too disgusted." + +"Of course we can't go back now, but we've missed a lot of fun." + +"Yes, I thought it would be fun." + +Quite a little pall of gloom fell over both, in the consideration of +what they had missed, and both stared absent-mindedly up and down the +valley, seeing nothing except the vision of Mrs. Ray perusing the +Kinnecot paper. + +"Alva is so serious over everything," Lassie said presently, with a +mournful note in her voice. + +"She's too serious," declared Ingram. + +"She's looking forward to so much happiness that she says she can't bear +to add even a breath to any one's misery." + +"And she isn't going to have any happiness at all." + +"Don't you think there's any hope?" + +"Of course there isn't any hope." + +"What will become of that house?" + +"I don't know, I'm sure." + +"Shall you be here this winter?" + +"I don't know about that. I don't know just how long it will take for +the survey." + +"But you will be here while they build the dam, too, won't you? And that +will take years. Won't you live here a long time?" + +"The dam is not a fixed fact as yet, you know; far from it." + +"Isn't it? Every one talks as if it were,--that is, every one except +Alva." + +"But I couldn't live in that house, anyway; I wouldn't live there for +anything, would you?" + +"No, it would be full of ghosts to me. I'd feel about it just as you--" +the words died on her lips, as she suddenly realized how their +unconscious phrasing sounded. It was the first sunburst of the idea to +her, and it stormed her cheeks with pink. + +"No," said Ingram, unobserving, "that house would not affect any one but +you or I, in that way; but for us--" thereupon he stopped; the idea +which had come over the girl like a sunburst came over the man like a +cloudburst. He was almost scared as he tried to think what he had said. + +"Alva is--is--so set against it--the dam, I mean," he stammered, +hurriedly; "she--she has--told me all her views." + +"But she's different," said Lassie, catching her breath. "I don't know +very much, but I know that it doesn't look just that way to others." + +"The ultra-altruistic vaccine is already beginning to work again," +Ingram said, trying to laugh; "but you must not attack me, you know--" + +"I'm not attacking you," Lassie interposed, hoping her face would cool +soon. + +"Because, you see, I am nothing in the world but a mere ordinary, +humble, civil engineer, sent up here by a commission to see what the +situation is in feet and inches, and sand and gravel. I wholly refuse to +take sides as to the controversy;" he had regained composure now. + +"I suppose that you haven't really anything to say about it, anyhow." + +"Nothing except to make a report. That's all." + +Both felt relieved to be back on firm, friendly ground, but both were +saturated through and through by the wonderful new conception of life +bred by the accidental speeches. They did not look at one another, but +went down the steps and along the curving road with a sort of keyed up +determination not to let a single break come in the flow of language. + +"But you must be glad to work on a popular project," Lassie said. + +"But it isn't altogether popular," Ingram rejoined; "it's only popular +in spots, you see. If every one around here was as wild as I have seen +some people become when the business threatened their trees or their +river, we might be mobbed." + +"Why, I thought that every one wanted it. Alva said that the difficulty +was that all the people who would do anything to save the Falls were not +born yet." + +"She was partly right, but not altogether. The difficulty is that, with +the exception of Mr. Ledge, the people who are interested in preserving +the Falls do not live here, and the people who will make money by the +destruction of the Falls are right on the spot and own the land." + +"Why, you talk as if you didn't want the dam, either." + +"It is no use discussing my views; the dam will be a great thing. Very +possibly there will be no more Falls, but the high banks will +remain--until commercial interests demand their quarrying--and all we +can do is to go with the tide and remember that while man is destroying +in one place, Nature is building in another. There will always be plenty +of wild grandeur somewhere for those who have the money and leisure to +seek it." + +"But Alva says that Mr. Ledge is trying to save this for those who love +beautiful spots, and haven't time or money to go far." + +"America isn't made for such people," said Ingram, simply. + +Lassie thought seriously for a moment, until a glance from her companion +hurried her on to say: "I suppose that we are too progressive to let +anything just go to waste, and that's what it would be if we let all +this water-power flow unused." + +"Of course," said Ingram; "here would be this great tract of woodland, +which might be making eight or ten men millionaires, and instead of that +one man tries to save it for thousands who never can by any chance +become well-to-do. No wonder the one man has spent most of his life +investigating insane asylums; he is evidently more than slightly +sympathetic with the weak-minded." + +"Are you being sarcastic?" + +"No, not at all. I like to look at the Falls, but then I like to look +at a big dam, too; and sluice gates always did seem to me the most +interesting wonder in nature." + +They were deep in the quiet peace of Ledge Park by this time, and only +the squirrels had eyes and ears there. (They didn't know about Joey +Beall.) + +"Oh, how still and lovely!" Lassie exclaimed; "how almost churchlike." + +The broad, evenly graded road wound away before them, and the double +rank of trees followed its course on either side. + +"I used to camp out here summers, when I was a boy. You've read Cooper's +novels?" + +"'Deerslayer' and all those? Oh, yes." + +"Their scene was not so far away from here, you know; only a few score +miles." + +"There must be all sorts of stories about here, too?" + +"Did you ever hear tell of the Old White Woman?" + +"No." + +"She lived around here. She was stolen by the Indians and grew up and +married one." + +"How interesting! I wonder how it would seem to really love an Indian?" +Then Lassie choked--blushing furiously at this approach of the painful +subject. + +"You speak as one who has had a wide experience with white men." (Ingram +felt this to be fearfully daring.) + +"I've never been in love in my life." (Lassie felt this to be fearfully +pointed.) + +"How funny," said the man, "neither have I! Not really in love, you +know." + +Such thin ice! But the lure of the forest was there, and the lure of the +absence of interruption, too. Lassie felt very remarkable. This was so +delightful! So novel! Better than Mrs. Ray and the Kinnecot paper even. +Why, this was even better than all Alva's love affair. Ten thousand +times better! How stupid she had been. + +"How funny!" she said, looking up. + +"Why do you say that?" Ingram asked, quickly. + +He seemed quite anxious to know why she thought it funny that he had +never been in love before, and that was so delightful, too. A big, +handsome man anxious as to what she thought! She felt as wise as if she +had already made her début. + +"I don't know why I said it," she answered, laughing; "it just came to +me to say it. Was it silly to say? If so, please forgive me, because I +didn't mean it." + +"There's nothing to forgive," said Ingram; "only I never expected you to +say anything of that sort. You don't know anything about me and you +haven't any right to judge me." He spoke in quite a vexed, serious way, +and Lassie felt as wise now as if she had made two débuts. + +"But you were in love with Alva years ago, you know," she said. + +"I wasn't really in love; I only thought that I was." + +"Oh!" + +There followed a silence for a little while. Lassie was much impressed +by the statement just made. Of course it wouldn't be polite to repeat to +Alva, but it was very interesting to know, oneself. The road ran +sweetly, greenly on before them, all strewn with piney needles. There +was no sound except a little breeze rustling overhead, and the +occasional fall of an acorn or pine-cone. + +"How does Alva's story affect you, now?" the man asked, suddenly. + +"Differently from at first. When she first told me what she meant to do, +it just pounded in my ears that he was going to die in that very house +over there; and that they would have to carry him into it just as they +would later carry him out of it. Oh, it did seem so terrible to think of +this winter, and of her, sitting there beside him,--so terrible--so +terrible!" + +"And doesn't it seem terrible at all to you now?" + +"Not in the same way. She has talked to me so much; she has made me know +so much more of her way of looking at it. You know--"she hesitated a +little--"she feels about death so strangely,--it doesn't seem to count +to her at all. She feels that in some way he will be always near her; +she says that he promised her not to leave her again." + +"Poor Alva!" + +"I suppose that he is such a very great man that he can affect one like +that. I am beginning to see what very different kinds of people there +are in the world." + +"Thank God for that!" Ingram exclaimed. + +"Alva says that he is one of the greatest men that ever lived. She says +that to share even a few days of life with a man who has been a +world-force for the world-betterment, would overpay all the hardship and +loneliness to come." + +They emerged into the sunshine just here, and the roar of the Middle +Falls burst upon their ears. The fence of Mr. Ledge's house-enclosure +stretched before them, and to the right, along the bank, towered two +groups of dark evergreens. + +"We can go through here," Ingram said, unlatching the gate. + +So they entered the private grounds and passed around the simple, pretty +home and out upon the road beyond. + +"Everything is as sweet and quiet here as in the forest," said Lassie. + +"Yes, it's a beautiful place," Ingram assented. + +They went on and entered the wood path that goes to the Lower Falls. + +"I cannot understand one thing," the man said, suddenly; "if they loved +one another so much, why didn't they marry long ago? If I loved a woman, +I should want to marry her." + +Here was the thin ice again--delight again. + +"They never thought of it," Lassie said, revelling in the sense of +danger; "they couldn't. They recognized other claims." + +Ingram walked on for a little, and then he said: "I suppose that what +you say is true, and that with people like them everything is different +from what it is with you and me." + +(You and me!) + +"Yes," said Lassie, "Alva doesn't seem to have minded that his work +meant more to him than she did, and I suppose that he thought it quite +right that she should do her duty unselfishly." + +"It makes our view of things seem rather small and petty--don't you +think? Or shall we call her crazy, as the world generally does call all +such people?" + +"I know that she's not crazy," the girl said. + +"Shall we have to admit then that she is right in what she is going to +do, and that instead of its being horrible, it is sublime?" He looked +at her, and she raised tear-filled eyes to his. But she was silent. + +"I think that we must admit it--for Alva," he added; "but not for +ourselves." + +The girl was silent and her lips trembled. Finally she said: "I believe +that what she said is coming true, and that I am changing and that you +are changing, too." + +"Oh, I'm changed all the way through," he admitted. + +It was a long walk to the Lower Falls, and yet it was short to them. +Very short! But too long to follow them step by step. It was a beautiful +walk, and one which they were to remember all their lives to come. It +was such a walk as should form a powerful argument in favor of the +preservation of the Falls. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +RIGHTEOUS JUSTICE + + +Leaving Mary Cody to watch over the house, Mrs. O'Neil, the instant +dinner was over, threw something over her head and hurried to the +post-office. + +Mrs. Ray met her at the door. "What is it?" was her greeting; "I know +it's come out about the case-knives! Hasn't it?" + +"You'll never guess what they are," said Mrs. O'Neil, entering the house +and closing the door behind her. "Mrs. Ray, they're swindlers!" + +"I knew it; I knew it all the time. How did you find it out?" + +Mrs. O'Neil told her. + +"Give me the paper." + +The paper was unfolded, but as she unfolded it Mrs. Dunstall and Pinkie +came running in one way, and Mrs. Wiley rushed panting up the other +steps. + +"Have you heard?" Mrs. Dunstall cried. + +"Heard! I've heard it a dozen ways." Mrs. Ray was devouring the article +as she spoke. "Sit down," she said briefly, without looking around. + +"They can't be arrested till Saturday," Mrs. O'Neil said. "There isn't a +mite of doubt but what it's them, but Mr. Pollock told Jack that the law +is that he must give them notice, and then he must let them go before he +can arrest them." + +"Why, I never heard the equal," exclaimed Mrs. Wiley. "I didn't know +that you must let anybody who'd done anything go, ever! What will Uncle +Purchase say to that!" + +"Well, if that isn't the greatest I ever heard, either," said Mrs. Ray, +never ceasing to read; "that's a funny law. If the United States +Government run its business that way, every one would be skipping out +with the stamps." + +"And Mr. Pollock said," broke in Mrs. O'Neil, "that no matter how big +swindlers they were, we couldn't arrest them until some one whom they'd +swindled swore to the fact." + +"Well, why don't you swear, then?" interrupted Mrs. Ray still reading. + +"Because Mr. Pollock says they haven't actually swindled us, till they +really leave without paying, you see," explained Mrs. O'Neil. + +"Lands!" commented Pinkie. + +"Which means," said Mrs. Ray, always reading, "that the law is that you +mustn't try to catch 'em until after you let 'em go." + +"Seems so," said Mrs. O'Neil. + +"I never hear the beat!" exclaimed Mrs. Ray. "Why, this paper says +they'd been jumping their board all summer!" + +"All summer?" said Pinkie. + +"Well, I always knew they were no good," said Mrs. Ray, still reading; +"they never got any letters. They come to the post-office sometimes to +try to give themselves a reputation, but they didn't fool me, for they +never got any letters. I don't misjudge folks if they don't get many, +and if they cancel up good it says just as much for their characters as +if they got a lot--maybe more, for a lot of letters may be just +duns--but when there's no income and no outgo, better look out, I say. +Yes, indeed. Do they owe you much, Nellie?" + +"About thirty-five dollars," said Mrs. O'Neil; "but oh, dear! Why, +they've made fudge and worn my shawls and roasted chestnuts--" + +"Nellie, Nellie," it was a strange voice at the kitchen door. Everybody +looked up to see Mrs. Kendal, almost purple from rapid walking. "I've +just heard! Lucia Cosby ran down to tell me. We've got a Foxtown Signal +that's got some more about them in. I run right over to bring it to you. +I was sure I'd find you here. That's why the old lady always wore her +rubbers--her shoes were clean wore through with walking, skipping out, +all the time." + +Mrs. Kendal sank on a seat, and the Foxtown Signal was spread out upon +the table with the other paper. + +"I thought that was a funny story about the trunks," said Mrs. Wiley. + +"They've worn the same clothes for three weeks, to my certain +knowledge," said Mrs. O'Neil, "and not so much as an extra hairpin!" + +"And they haven't any toilet things except a hair-brush that isn't good +enough to throw at a cat, and a mirror that's broken," interposed Mrs. +Ray; "you said so, Nellie, and I saw it, too." + +"A broken mirror's bad luck," said Mrs. Wiley; "I hope you'll see that +it's bad luck for you too, Nellie. Your husband's too soft-hearted to +keep a hotel as we always tell every one who goes there to board." + +"Well, he isn't soft-hearted this time," said his wife; "he's mad +enough to-day, and he says he'll pay for his own ticket to Geneseo to +bear witness against them." + +Just here Mrs. Wellston, who lived in the first house over the hill from +the schoolhouse, came rushing in. + +"Oh, I just heard!" she panted, "they left a lot of bills at King's and +at Race's Corners, where my sister Molly lives, they left a board-bill +of eighteen dollars! They're known all over!" + +"What do you think of that?" Mrs. Ray said, turning to Mrs. O'Neil. + +Mrs. O'Neil gasped. + +"The man who told Jack told Nathan and Lizzie that the old woman's +husband died in the penitentiary," she said. "That's a nice kind of +people to have around your house." + +Mrs. Wiley gasped this time. Mrs. O'Neil gasped again. + +"Jack said we must tell you all the first thing for fear she'd try to +borrow money of some one. I told him he was foolish, because if they +borrowed money of any one then they could pay us." + +"He was only joking," said Mrs. Ray; "if they paid you, you wouldn't +really take the money, for you'd know that they must have gotten it from +some of us." + +"On the contrary, you ought to have taken it, I think," said Mrs. +Dunstall solemnly, "and then returned it to whoever give it to them." + +Lottie Ann and Uncle Purchase now arrived to add to the festivity of the +occasion. + +"I guess nobody need worry over that pair's paying anybody any money +they get their hands on," observed Mrs. Ray, fetching a chair for Uncle +Purchase. "What are you going to do about it, when they come down and +want to go out to walk next time, Nellie? Give 'em your shawls the same +as usual, I suppose." + +"Why, we've got to let 'em go or they can't skip and make themselves +liable to arrest, of course, but the old lady said she could surely get +money by to-morrow, and Jack has hired a boy to hang around the house +and if they go out, track them." + +"My sakes, ain't it interesting?" said Mrs. Dunstall. "And to think that +they're up there this minute and have no idea of it all." + +"I dare say they have been laughing at you all the time they were off +chestnutting our chestnuts," said Mrs. Wiley. "My husband says if they'd +sold all they've picked up, they could have paid their board honestly." + +"But they weren't honest, you see," said Mrs. Ray; "honest people all +get letters, or anyhow they buy postal cards of the Falls. And you ought +to have taken my word for it when I suspected them, Nellie; those +case-knives ought to have set you on to them." + +"Well, well, and us seeing them walking all around for a fortnight," +said Mrs. Dunstall; "and we so innocent, and they swindlers, and you +boarding them for nothing,--dear, dear!" + +"Well," said Mrs. Ray, "here's your paper, Nellie; what will happen +next, I wonder?" + +"Yes, I do, too," said Pinkie. + +"You'd better all come down about five, and see if they did go out," +said Mrs. O'Neil, with the air of extending an invitation to a party. +"Why, that old lady told me that she'd been to the Boston Academy of +Music." + +"Boston!" said Mrs. Dunstall with a sniff; "they never saw Boston. Not +those two. Not much." + +"Oh, but they have," said Mrs. O'Neil; "I know that they have, for I've +been there myself, and we talked about it." + +"Well, I guess Boston has its crooks as well as other places," said Mrs. +Ray, pacifically; "I guess if we can harbor swindlers and not know it, +Boston can, too." + +"I wouldn't believe it," Mrs. O'Neil said again. "But these papers make +me have to; you see, there's the names, and Hannah Adele, and no paper +would dare to print that if it wasn't true." + +"True! Of course it's true," said Mrs. Ray; "I never would be surprised +over anything anybody'd do that would wear brown laces in black shoes +and go in out of the rain at a strange house at midnight." + +"Did she have brown laces in black shoes?" asked Lottie Ann, in a tone +penetrated with horror. + +"She did, and what's more, she pinned herself together. I see the pins +sticking out of her, time and again, when she come in to stand around +and wait for mail like a honest person would. No man is ever going to +marry a girl who bristles with pins like that,--it'll be a job I +wouldn't like myself to be the sheriff and have to arrest her. He'd +better look sharp where he lays his hand on that girl, I tell you." + +"Will she really be arrested?" Lottie Ann cried. + +"Why, I should hope so," said her mother. + +"As a law-abiding citizen yourself, who may take boarders some day, you +wouldn't wish her not to be, would you?" said Mrs. Ray. + +"I don't know," said Lottie Ann; "it seems to me very--very terrible to +think that two women should go to jail." + +"But they haven't any money, and they're swindlers," said Mrs. +Dunstall; "they belong in jail. That's why we have jails." + +"If they'd had money, they'd have received at least two or three +letters," said Mrs. Ray. "If people have any money at all, there's +always some one who wants to keep posted as to their health. Yes, +indeed. No, they haven't any money. People that have money and never get +up till noon is generally buying tea and matches, at any rate, but they +didn't even do that. No, they ain't got any money." + +"I couldn't believe it myself at first," repeated Nellie O'Neil; "and +they certainly ate like people that aren't holding anything back. Two +helps of everything, and didn't she go and take half a loaf of +gingerbread up-stairs yesterday afternoon? As cool as a cucumber." + +"They were both cool as cucumbers," said Mrs. Ray; "that's why they +borrowed your shawls all the time, I guess. Cooler than cucumbers they +would have been without them, I reckon." + +"Jack went up and gave the old lady warning right after dinner," said +Mrs. O'Neil. "He only stopped to just get a bite first." + +"Well, I hope he didn't get a bite last, too," said Mrs. Ray, tucking in +the ends of her shawl. "That pair was too comfortable with you to want +to be warned to leave. Making fudge, indeed! I'm surprised at you, +Nellie; I'd no more think of letting my boarders make fudge than I would +of keeping them for nothing. You and Jack don't belong in the hotel +business. You can't possibly make boarding people pay, unless you make +them pay for their board." + +"No, you can't," said Pinkie. + +"Josiah was driving down to North Ledge yesterday, and he saw them +getting over a fence in that direction," said Mrs. Wiley, rising. "He +said they seemed to be learning the country by all means, fair or foul." + +"Well, I don't want to seem unfriendly," said Mrs. Ray; "but I guess +you'll all have to go. I found some ants in my grocery business this +morning for the first time, and while I'm give to understand it's the +regular thing in most grocery businesses, no ant need flatter himself +that it is in mine. I'm going to clean out the whole of the three +shelves this afternoon and sprinkle borax everywhere where it can't +taste. So I must have this room. I'll be down to-night after mail, +Nellie; good-by." + +Thereupon they all departed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +IN THE HOUR OF NEED + + +In the meantime Alva, left alone in her room, felt troubled, vastly +troubled, by the sorrow and shame gathering so close to her. The +emotions of those near by affect one keenly attuned, in a degree that +the less sensitive would hardly believe possible. + +She went and locked the door after Lassie left, and going to a chair +that happened to stand close to the bureau, sat down there, leaned her +face on her hand and thought earnestly of the whole matter. + +"Why must I trouble so?" she said to herself, presently; "no one else +does," and then she smiled sadly. "It is because I have set my face in +that direction," she said; "I have vowed myself to service, just as he +has vowed himself, for the love of God and God in humanity." + +A light tap on her own door sounded, and she started, crying "Come in," +quite forgetting that the door was locked. + +Some one tried the door and then Alva sprang up and unfastened it. It +opened, and Miss Lathbun stood there in the crack. + +"May I come in for a few minutes?" she asked, pale and with frightened +eyes. + +"Yes, come in," Alva said quickly; "come in and sit down." She drew a +chair near to the one that she had been occupying. + +"I have come to you on a--" began the girl, "on a--on a--" she stammered +and stopped. + +"You are in trouble," Alva said gently; "tell me all about it." + +"I am going to tell you; I have come on purpose to tell you. You were so +kind and friendly the other day, and I--I--wasn't truthful; I didn't +tell you everything." + +Alva rested her face on her hand again and looked straight at her. "Then +tell me everything now," she said. + +Miss Lathbun returned her look. "Mr. O'Neil has just been up to tell +Mother that we must pay our bill here, or leave," she said. "Mother is +desperate. She doesn't know what to do, and I don't know what to do. I +told you so little of the whole story. The truth is that he is actually +driving Mother and me into poverty. The truth is that I don't know +whether he ever really has thought of marrying me. Mother never has +believed that he has. She doesn't think that he would put us to such +straits if he was honest. Of course she doesn't know about his watching +nights. I can't tell her. She'd go mad." + +Alva contemplated her quietly. "But you love him?" she said. + +Miss Lathbun's eyes filled with tears. "I do love him, and I believe +that he loves me." + +"You feel sure of it, don't you?" + +The girl looked at her earnestly. "Doesn't one always know?" she asked. + +Alva smiled a little. "One ought to," she assented; "well, then, how +can he bear to make your life so miserable?" + +The white girl clasped her delicate hands tightly in her thin black +merino lap. "I don't know," she said, in a voice almost like a wail; +"but oh, we have been very miserable! We have such little income and it +comes through the lawyer. He sent the lawyer to Seattle on business in +July, and Mamma and I haven't had any money since. We have gone from +place to place--we have almost fled from place to place; our trunks are +held for bills; we are penniless, winter is coming, and--oh, I don't +know what to do; I don't know what to do!" She bit her lip so as not to +cry, but her pale face worked pitifully. + +Alva looked at her in a curiously speculative but not at all heartless +way. "Isn't it strange," she murmured, "that the resolution that drives +one man to any heights will drive another of the same calibre to any +depths?" She rose and went to her table. "Tell me," she said, taking a +framed picture from before the mirror, "is he really like this? You said +so before. Say it again." + +Miss Lathbun took the picture in her two hands. "Oh, yes, yes!" she +said, eagerly; "it is the same. They are just the same." + +"What did you say his name was?" Alva asked, taking the picture from her +and restoring it to its place. + +Miss Lathbun told her: "Lisle C. Bayard." + +Alva sat down again, and rested her chin on her hand as before. "I +wonder how I can really help you. I am trying to be big enough to see." + +Miss Lathbun's lips parted slightly; she looked at her breathlessly, and +held her peace. + +"Even if you were lying to me still," Alva said presently, "I should +want just as much to help you. If you cheated me and laughed at me +afterwards, I should still want to help you. If you are an adventuress +and I succored you, what would count to me would be that I tried to do +right." + +She spoke in a strange, meditative manner; Miss Lathbun continued to +watch her, always white, and whiter. + +"I cannot see why you and your mother came into my life," Alva went on; +"but you have come, and I have been interested in you. Our paths seemed +ready to diverge and yet just now they join again. Do you know, that a +week or so ago I knelt in a church and took two vows; one was to accept +without murmur whatever life might bring because for the moment I was so +superlatively blessed; the other was to never again pass any trouble by +carelessly. No matter what is brought to me, I must deal with it as +earnestly and justly as I know how,--as I shall try to deal with you." + +She got up, took a key from the pocket of a coat hanging on a hook near +by, unlocked her trunk, opened a purse therein, and extracted some +bills. + +The girl watched her like one fascinated. + +Alva came to her side and put the roll in her hands and closed her +fingers over it. "It will settle everything," she said; "there, take it, +go. Be honest again. Surprise every one. God be with you." + +Hannah Adele looked down at her hand as if in a dream. "I was going to +ask you for a little money," she faltered; "but this--this--" + +"I know," said Alva, "I knew when you came in. Now, please don't say any +more. Go back to your mother and tell her. I shall not say one word +about it, you can depend upon me." + +The girl rose in a blind, stupid kind of way and left the room. When she +was gone, Alva went to the window for a minute and looked out. The +glisten of coming cold was in the air. The thistles were loosing their +down and it floated on the wind like ethereal snow. She stood there for +a long time. "Something is to be," she murmured, "I feel it coming. What +is it?" + +Then she went to her table, picked up a pen and wrote: + + LISLE C. BAYARD, + + _Dear Sir_:--I am acting under an impulse which I cannot + overcome. It may be only a folly, but it is too strong within + me to be resisted. + + You may or may not know two ladies of the name of Lathbun; you + may or may not be interested in them; but if by any chance you + are interested in them, you ought to know that both have been + threatened with terrible trouble. If the story which I have + been told be really true it ought to make you not sorry, but + very glad, to learn that in their hour of stress they found a + friend. + Yours very truly ... +and she signed her full name. + +After that she wrote another letter, with full particulars of the story. +And when that letter, too, was finished, she slipped on her wraps and +walked up the cinder-path to the post-office. + +She found Mrs. Ray just in the fevered finale of her chase after ants. + +"Put the letters on the counter," said the postmistress; "I'm standing +on the post-box, and the Republican party is getting one good, useful +deed to its credit this term, anyhow. I tried a soap box and bu'st +through, and I haven't had a worse shock since I stepped down the wrong +side of the step-ladder last spring, when I was kalsomining for Mrs. +Clinch. But the post-box is as steady as the Bank of England and I feel +as if for this one occasion, at least, my grocery business was coming +out on top. Well, has anything new come up down your way since noon? +Haven't paid their bill yet, have they?" + +"I think they'll pay it," said Alva, smiling. + +"Pay it! Those two? Well, not much! You're from the city and don't get a +chance to judge character like I do, but I tell you every one that is +honest has got to have a change of undershirts, at least. I've heard of +people as turned them hind side before one week, and inside out the +next, but they washed 'em the week after that, if they had any +reputations at all to keep up." + +"Do you want to bet with me as to Mrs. Lathbun's paying her bill, Mrs. +Ray?" Alva asked. + +Mrs. Ray turned and looked sharply down from her government perch. "My +goodness me," she said, "you surely ain't been fool enough to lend her +money, have you?" + +Alva was too startled to collect herself. + +"Well, you deserve to lose it then," said Mrs. Ray, climbing down +abruptly; "see here, it isn't any of my business, but I'm going to make +it my business and tell you the plain truth, and if you take offence +I'll have done my duty, anyhow. Now you listen to me and bear in mind +that I'm twice your age and have got all the experience of a +postmistress and a farmer, and a sexton and a grocery business and a +married woman and a widow and a stepmother; if you've lent money to the +Lathbuns you're going to lose it, for they're just what the paper +said--they're a foxy pair and no mistake, and furthermore, with all the +money you're spending on that house, you'd better be keeping your eyes +open, mark my words." + +[Illustration: "IF YOU'VE LENT MONEY TO THE LATHBUNS YOU'RE GOING TO +LOSE IT."] + +"Why, Mrs. Ray, what makes you say that?" + +"Because I've got eyes of my own," said Mrs. Ray; "and I've been married +too. I've been married and I walked to the Lower Falls beforehand, too. +I saw 'em come up the road the first day, and I saw 'em going down it +to-day. I'd send her packing, if I was you." + +Alva laughed ringingly. "Oh, Mrs. Ray," she exclaimed; "I'm not going to +marry that man, and besides, let me tell you something else; I haven't +_lent_ any money to the Lathbuns." + +Mrs. Ray stared fixedly into her face for a long minute, then she said +abruptly: "You tell Nellie not to send up for mail to-night. I'll bring +the letters down. I'll be out filin' my bond, and I can just as well +bring 'em down. It won't do any good your coming for 'em, because the +post-office will be closed and me gone, so you couldn't get 'em if you +did come." + +Alva smiled. "We'll wait at the house," she said, laying her hand on the +door-knob. + +Mrs. Ray watched her take her departure. + +"I'm glad she's give up the man so pleasant," she said; "and she's give +up the money just as pleasant. Poor thing! She thought she was smart +enough to keep me from seeing how she meant it. As if any one from a +city could fool me!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +DOUBTS + + +Alva was sitting in her room, her hands clasped behind her head in her +favorite thinking attitude when Lassie returned from her walk to the +Lower Falls. The face of the older friend wore its habitual look of +far-away absorption as the young girl entered, but the look was almost +rivalled by Lassie's own look--for Lassie had returned from the Lower +Falls with what was to be her own private and personal absorption +forever after. + +"Had you a pleasant time?" Alva asked. + +"Oh, it was beautiful!" the young girl exclaimed, "we had such fun, +too," she stopped, and hesitated; then something in the other's face +made her ask: "Are they gone?" + +Alva shook her head. "No, dear, they've received their warning, but +they've not gone." + +"Oh," said Lassie, relieved, "then they won't be in jail this night, +anyway." + +"No, nor any other night," Alva said, quietly; "I shall not let those +women suffer shame and humiliation when a little money can prevent it." + +"You are going to pay their bills!" + +"No, but I am going to help them pay them." + +"You are going to give them money?" + +"I have given it." + +Lassie stood still in surprise, and yet, even surprised as she was, +there was a perfunctory aspect which had not been present in the +morning. + +"And I have written a little letter to the hero of Miss Lathbun's +romance, too." + +Lassie came close. "Alva!" she asked, "then you really believe that +there is such a man?" + +Alva put out her hand and pulled the girl down upon her lap. "I do +believe it," she said. "I may be deceived in some ways, but the man is +real, I know. As I said before, one cannot invent that kind of +character." + +"And you wrote him? What did you say?" + +"Only a few simple words. I felt that it was the right thing to do; I +did it for the same reason that I do all things. Out of the might of my +love. If you ever come to love as I do, you'll understand how wide and +deep one's interest in all love can become--yes, in all love and in all +things." + +Lassie leaned her cheek upon her friend's hair for a moment and did not +speak. + +"I know what you're thinking," Alva went on then (but she did not know, +really). "But do you know what I have been thinking? I have been +wondering. Surely no two people could seem further out of my realm than +these two forlorn women, but I always said there must be a reason and a +strong one, or else they would not interest me so, and now you see what +it was. They were brought to me to succor, and that is almost the +greatest joy that I know now." + +Lassie felt real life slipping from her, just as it always did when Alva +talked. She was silent and thoughtful, even her new sensation in +abeyance for the minute. Love was drawing back a step and letting Mercy +have its hour. + +"But if they deserved punishment?" she asked finally, in a timid voice. + +"Perhaps they do deserve it, but not at my hands. If I, feeling as I do, +suffered them to go down yet deeper into the pit, I should do a cruel +wrong. I can't do such a wrong, I must do right in so far as I know +how,--and it's their good luck to have met me just now." She smiled. + +"Alva," said Lassie, kissing her, "that's a very new view to me. The +evil-doers deserve to be punished, but others ought to be doing good; so +on account of those others and on their account mainly we are taught +forgiveness of sins;" she laughed softly. + +Alva opened her eyes. "What a forward leap your intellect has taken this +afternoon," she commented. "I never dreamed that Ronald was such a +Jesuit. Come now, jump up, we must go down to supper." + +"But you'll just tell me what Mrs. Ray said when she saw the paper." + +"My dear, I really haven't asked." + +"Oh, dear; then perhaps she took it calmly! Have you seen her since?" + +"Yes, she took this afternoon to clean ants out of the government +precincts. She seemed calm to me." + +"Goodness! Then I'm glad that I went." + +Alva laughed a little. For some odd reason the laugh caused Lassie to +blush deeply, although the laugh was absolutely innocent of innuendo. + +Down-stairs, Ingram awaited them. At the other small table Mrs. Lathbun +and her daughter sat as placidly as ever. The long table was full as +usual, but there was a keen subtlety of interest abroad which rendered +the conversation there fitful and jerky in the extreme. The mother and +daughter began to feel uneasy, and before Mary Cody had placed the soup +for the later comers, they rose and went quietly up-stairs. + +"Do you know what they said when Mr. O'Neil gave them warning?" Lassie +asked, when the others had also left the room. + +"They said they'd pay the money just as soon as a letter could get to +Cromwell and back," Alva replied. "They had been waiting for their own +lawyer to return from day to day, but if it came to the question of real +necessity they could get money from some one else." + +The squeak of the outside door was heard; it was Mrs. Ray, and the next +second she was in their midst. + +"Good evening," she said briskly. + +At the sound of her voice Mrs. O'Neil hurried in from the kitchen and +Mary Cody followed her as far as the door and stood there, spellbound +with eager interest. + +Mrs. Ray was out of breath and had her shawl over her head and her bond +under her arm. "I just run down before the mail to get Jack to sign this +and find out if anything more's come up. Sammy Adams was in to see me +about five, and he's scared white over their being swindlers. He says to +think of them swindling around his house all that night long! He's +afraid to stay in his house now, and he's afraid to leave it. He was +running to the window to look out that way all the time. I'm afraid +Sammy's getting mooney. There were days when Mr. Ray used to be always +looking out the window. Those were always his mooney days." + +"Nothing new's come up," said Mrs. O'Neil; "the old lady took her two +cups of coffee same as usual, didn't she, Mary?" + +"She took three to-night," said Mary Cody. + +"Loading up to skip," said Mrs. Ray, significantly; "well, Nellie, +where's your husband? He's got to sign this before I can go back. The +United States Government won't trust me after seventeen years without my +bondsmen are still willing to support their view." + +"Jack's in the bar," said his wife; "I'll go and fetch him." + +"Do sit down, Mrs. Ray," Alva begged. Ingram jumped up and drew out a +chair. Mrs. Ray seated herself. + +"Are they up-stairs, Mary?" she asked. + +"Yes, went right up after supper," said Mary Cody. + +"I thought they looked troubled," said Lassie. + +"Well, they did post a letter, after all," said Mrs. Ray, turning to +Alva. "I never malign any one, so I wanted to tell you that. They didn't +come in and lay it on the counter, like honest people, but they put it +in that box that the United States Government requires me to keep nailed +up outside and unlock and peek into twice every day of the year around. +Theirs was the first letter any one ever put in, I guess, because +although folks feel I'm honest enough to be postmistress, they don't +think I'm silly enough to look in that box twice a day, just because I +said I would on my oath. The boys put June-bugs and garter-snakes in to +try if I do; but I always find 'em before they've quit being lively." + +"What did you do with the letter?" Mary Cody asked. + +"Do with it! Don't I have to put any letter into the next mail and lock +the bag, no matter what my feelings are? Yes, indeed." + +"Where was it addressed?" asked Ingram, leaning back and putting his +hands in his pockets. + +"That I can't tell you," said Mrs. Ray; "my oath keeps my mouth closed +on all business connected with the United States Mail, but I'll tell you +what I did do. I copied the address off, and then I looked through the +little book of post-office regulations and I couldn't find one word to +prevent my bringing you a copy, so here it is." + +She opened her hand as she spoke and showed a piece of paper. Lassie, +who was nearest her, took it eagerly. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed disappointedly, "this is the letter that she told +Mr. O'Neil she'd write. It's to their lawyer. It isn't anything new." + +"Well, give it back to me so I can tear it up," said Mrs. Ray; "I meant +to tear it up, anyway. But where is Mr. O'Neil? I want to get my bond +filed. By the way," she said, turning to Ingram, "you owe me two cents." + +"Two cents!" + +"Yes; the stamp come off of one of your letters, and I put on a new one. +I've saved the other for you. It was a letter addressed to New York. +You'll have to buy some glue if you're ever meaning to get your money's +worth out of that stamp. I licked it good, but it won't stick. Too many +been at it before you and me, I guess. That's the way with most stamps +that won't stick, I always think." + +"Here's the two cents," said Ingram. + +"Thank you very much. Well, every one in town is wondering what the +lawyer will answer them. He's a real man, for Nathan says he got beat +for the Legislature once. But will he send them any money? That's the +question!" + +"What do you think?" asked Ingram. + +"I can't have any opinion. Any one who's had anything to do with the +Government closes my lips as a servant to the United States. It was very +hard for me to give up having opinions when I first came into politics, +but I'm so used to it now that I wouldn't feel easy if I could speak +freely any more." + +"But if you weren't postmistress what would you think?" Ingram queried. + +"Wouldn't think anything; I'd know they'd skip! They'll skip to-night; +mark my words." + +"Oh, but they won't," said Alva, smiling; "they'll pay their bill--wait +and see." + +"Yes, I will wait and see," said Mrs. Ray, darkly. "I'll wait a long +while and see very little. Yes, indeed. What sticks in my mind is poor +Sammy Adams. He says he's afraid to sleep alone in his house, and he's +too afraid of dogs and cats to have any to watch. He's going to put two +hens in his kitchen to-night and roll a sofa against the front door. He +says he knows every time the hens stir he'll go most out of his senses. +Sammy says he wasn't meant to live alone." + +"What did you say to that?" + +"Said it didn't look to me as if he was meant to live with hens, +neither. But where is your husband, Nellie?" (Mrs. O'Neil had just +re-entered the room). "I've got to get hold of him. I'm in a awful hurry +to get home. There's the mail, and I've got Sally Catt's dress to +finish, too." + +"He'll be in in just a minute," said Mrs. O'Neil; "did Sally decide to +line it, after all?" + +"No, she didn't decide to line it; but she decided to have me line it, +which is more to my point. I'm sure I'm glad not to be Joey Beall and +have to adapt myself to Sally; but then, if folks are still calling a +fellow Joey after he's forty, I don't know that it matters much who +marries him, and Sally hasn't changed her mind as to liking the house on +the hill since he moved it up on the hill to please her." + +"I'm sorry for Joey," said Mrs. O'Neil, warmly. + +"Well, I'm not," said Mrs. Ray. "I'm not sorry for any one who's a fool. +Speaking of fools, if they don't pay to-morrow, how much longer are you +intending to keep them for nothing? I'd just like to know that." + +"They can't get an answer to the letter before to-morrow night." + +"Huh! So you're going to feed them all day to-morrow, too! Well, I don't +know how you and Jack keep clothes on your backs the way you go on. I +never saw people like you two. If I ever want to live free, I know where +to come." + +"Indeed you do, Mrs. Ray," said Mrs. O'Neil, her bright eyes filling +suddenly; "indeed you do. You come right down here any day you want to, +and you can stay here till you die. You know I've told you that a +thousand times." + +"You're easy," said Mrs. Ray, drawing herself up with great dignity. "I +just believe you mean it, too, Nellie, and I just suppose if I was to +come and borrow a hundred dollars without witnesses, Jack would be +plenty idiot enough to give it to me, too." + +"Well, I should hope so," said his wife; "who'd he trust sooner?" + +Mrs. Ray looked around the table. "And it's this sort of people that +those two up-stairs are cheating," she said; "well, it's a queer world. +But if I ain't signed and witnessed and back up at my house before long, +the United States Government will likely go swearing out something +against me; where _is_ your husband, Nellie?" + +"He said he'd be right in. Mary Cody, you go and tell him to hurry." + +Mary Cody disappeared obediently. + +"Joey Beall says you won't have her, long," said Mrs. Ray, +significantly; "he saw her and Edward Griggs climbing down the bank +Sunday. He saw you two walking to the Lower Falls, too," she added, +turning suddenly on Ingram and Lassie. + +The inference fell like a sledge-hammer. Alva started violently, and +looked from one confused face to the other. + +But before any one could say anything Mr. O'Neil walked into the room. + +"Well, there you are at last," said Mrs. Ray. "I am glad to see you! +Here I sit, filing away at my bond and can't make any headway because +you're the first to sign." + +"It's hard to get away from the bar to-night," said Mr. O'Neil, bringing +pen and ink. "They're betting I never see my money." + +"We'll never see it in the world, Jack," said his wife; "everybody says +so." + +"Except me," interposed Alva, her eyes on Lassie. + +"And you haven't had any experience with swindlers," said Mrs. Ray; +"that's easy seen. You ain't any more fit to be trusted with a pair of +sharpers than Mr. and Mrs. O'Neil, or poor Sammy Adams alone in his +house to-night, relying on hens in the hour of need." + +"Perhaps not," Alva said sighing. She was deeply shaken by the new +conception of what was transpiring around her, in the discovery of how +much might go on without her ever noticing. Lassie in love with Ingram! +And the girl was not even out yet! What would her mother say! + +"There, there's my name for another year for you, Mrs. Ray," said Jack +O'Neil, pushing the bond towards its owner. + +"And remember, Mrs. Ray," added his wife, laughing, "remember, if you +ever want a place to live or to borrow any money, you come straight +here." + +"I'll remember," said Mrs. Ray, rising and adjusting her shawl. "Well, +it's back to duty and the mail-bag, now. So good night." + +She went out and Ingram felt an intolerable longing to avoid Alva's eyes +until she should have had a little time to think. Lassie shared the +feeling; she, too, was greatly upset by Mrs. Ray's loquacity. + +"Let us go out and walk until it's time to get the letters," the man +suggested to the girl. His tone was curiously imperative, and she +welcomed its command and jumped up quickly to fetch her wraps. + +"Ronald," Alva said, gently, then, "she's very young." + +He met her eyes squarely. "I know," he said; "but I'm not." She said no +other word, but sat silent until they were gone. Mr. O'Neil returned to +the bar at once, and in a minute--when Alva was alone--his wife came +and sat opposite her. Alva was supporting her chin on her hands, trying +to disentangle three urgent trains of thought. + +"I'll be so glad when they're gone," Mrs. O'Neil said, with a sigh. +"They've worn on me terribly, and now that I know what they are, it's +awful. There's no possible chance of their being straight any more. They +wear their heels off on the outside, and Mary Cody says Edward Griggs +worked in a shoe store once, and knows for a fact that that's the sign +of dishonesty." + +"But have you ever seen their shoes?" Alva asked, with a slight smile. + +"Why, I haven't put anything into the oven without having to take their +heels out first, since they came." + +"I'd forgotten." Alva sighed. + +Mrs. O'Neil glanced at her quickly. + +"You musn't take them so much to heart," she said, gently. "They could +be good if they wanted to." + +"It isn't them, altogether," the other replied. Mrs. O'Neil looked at +her in a sort of blind sympathy. She thought that the youth and +sweetness of the young girl was what weighed so heavily on the young +woman opposite. "But men will be men," she reflected, and tried to think +of something to say, and couldn't. + +The evening freight went roaring by. + +"Why, I thought it went up before," Alva said. + +"I did, too, but that must have been the wrecking-train; there must be a +wreck on the road." + +"Let's go out on the bridge!" Alva suggested. "I feel choked; I want +fresh air, and there is a moon." + +"Shall I go with you?" + +"Yes, do." + +"I'll tell Mary Cody." + +While Mrs. O'Neil went for a shawl and to tell Mary Cody, Alva sought +her big cape. Then they went out together into the frost, for the frost +was sharp in the air. + +"The woods will soon end being beautiful," the little woman said. + +Alva walked swiftly on and made no reply. In less than five minutes they +stood out over the gorge and looked down on its matchless glory of +silver illuminating blackest shadow. + +"I hope that the dam won't spoil all this," the girl said suddenly. + +"You like to look at it, don't you?" Mrs. O'Neil said softly. + +"Living here on its banks, as you do, I don't believe you can appreciate +it!" Alva exclaimed. "Can it possibly mean to any one what it does to +me, I wonder." + +"I think it's pretty and I love so to look at it," said Mrs. O'Neil in +gentlest sympathy. + +Alva caught her hand and pressed it hard in both her own. "Do you know, +Mrs. O'Neil, if I were very happy I should love best to be happy here, +and if more sorrow were to be, I would choose to have that here, too. I +am so close to God when I live in His country." + +She took the warm hand that she held and pressed it close against her +heart. + +"I wish that every one was so good as you are," Mrs. O'Neil said, +impulsively. + +"Every one is better than we give them credit for being." + +"Even those two?" + +"Yes, even those two." + +"I can't quite believe that," said the little woman. + +"Wait and you'll see." + +Then they stood quiet, until a cold wind, coming down the gorge, smote +them bitterly. + +"We must go in," Alva said, regretfully; "the wind comes so strongly +here." + +They turned and were only a few steps on their way when Alva stopped +suddenly. + +"Do you believe in signs?" she asked. + +"Why--I don't know." + +Alva put both hands up to her head. "That cold wind was a sign," she +said, her voice trembling. "Oh, I feel so strangely. Something strong +and fearful is sweeping into my life to-night." + +In her heart she hoped that it was only the shock of learning that +Lassie loved. + +But in her soul she knew that it must be something else. The long strain +of the waiting days had worn anxiety to its sharpest edge. When Truth +mercifully veils itself, Time--the softener--wears the veil thin until +at last, when we have gained strength enough to bear, we have learned to +know. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +SHIFTING SUNSHINE AND CLOUDS + + +Ingram and Lassie went out but not on the bridge; they did not even turn +their heads that way. + +"Alva says that she can see the gorge even when it's pitch-dark," Lassie +said. "She says she shall see it plainly to the end of her life, +wherever she may be in the world." She felt quite safe now that they +were alone; she didn't even mind that embarrassing speech of Mrs. Ray's. + +"Yes," said Ingram; they went calmly and happily up the road. He didn't +mind the speech either, now. + +"Alva and I never walk this way," Lassie said after a minute. "We always +walk the other, except just a little bit to the post-office, of course." + +"Yes," said the man again, and they went on, up the hill. + +The peculiar charm of the ordinary mode of falling in love is that it is +so simple; it requires so little effort, so to speak. If it was harder +work, it might produce bigger results--results nearer the millennium +than those we are now getting. Perhaps, however, the results are a +lesson to be learned, and we are still so deep in the primer of that +learning, that love remains the cheapest, easiest, and most common of +all its tasks. + +Ingram thought Lassie's remarks fascinating, and she thought his two +"Yes's" both clever and original. They were each thoroughly satisfied +with one another, and were deeply interested each minute. Ingram had +never tramped along a country road in starlight with this pretty young +girl before, and Lassie had never walked anywhere, with any man, in all +her life. It was not perhaps remarkable that what had happened was +happening. Not at all. + +"How fast the time has gone," Lassie said, as they mounted the Wiley +hill; "to think that I have been here over a week!" + +"And to think of all that has happened," said Ingram. + +"I know; isn't it strange?" + +"I shall be awfully lonesome after you go." + +This sounded so mournful and pathetic that it brought a lump into her +throat and she could not speak for a minute. + +"Alva will go, too," Ingram went on, presently. + +"But she'll come back." + +"Let us hope so." + +They walked over the Wiley hill. + +"Poor Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter won't go chestnutting any more after +to-morrow," Lassie said, after they passed under the heavy shadows cast +by Mrs. Wiley's huge trees. "I think that we ought to go back now, the +mail will be in." + +They turned around to walk back and enjoyed every step of the way. There +is really nothing that lights up a lack of conversation like being in +love. + +As they passed the post-office they saw Mrs. Ray standing on the porch, +tucked up in her shawl. + +"There was a wreck," she called; "the mail's late." + +"All right!" Ingram called in response. + +Mrs. Ray watched them vanish out of the light cast by her open door, and +then turned, went inside, and shut it. "I like that young man," she said +to herself; "he's got a good face. I wish we were as sure of getting the +dam as he is of getting that girl. We need the dam full as much as he +thinks he needs her. It'll bring men and lots of money to this section, +and this section needs men and money. All we've got around here is women +and land, and women and land can't get very far without men and money. +It's about time we was getting some show at prosperity. I do wonder how +Sammy's getting along with his hens!" + +Arrived at the hotel, Ingram bade Lassie good night and she went +up-stairs, one trembling tumult of tangling sentiments as to the +conversation now to ensue. + +Alva's room was dark, but when Lassie whispered her name at the door, +the answer came quickly. + +"Is that you, dear? come to me. Lassie, how I have wanted you!" + +Lassie crossed to the bed, from whence the voice came. She thought she +knew why she was wanted, but she only said: "What is it, dear?" + +"I am in the grip of an awful fear." + +The girl stood still, much startled. + +"Alva! What do you mean? What has happened?" + +"I don't know. I went out on the bridge for a minute after you left, and +it came blowing down the gorge--a wind of horrid presentiment; oh, I am +beside myself, I don't know what to do. There is no mail to-night--" she +stopped, and Lassie felt that she was weeping. Finally she added: "I +ought to have stayed there at the hospital. I should not have obeyed his +wishes or what the surgeon said. I ought to have obeyed my own heart. I +ought to have stayed with him!" + +The young girl was frightened, silent. + +Finally she managed to stammer: + +"But you said that he was not conscious--that it was not possible for +you to stay there--that no purpose could be served. Oh, what do you +fear? What do you think may have happened?" + +Alva controlled herself and drew Lassie down beside her upon the bed. +"Dear, I don't know; but I do know that I shall go away to-morrow!" + +"To-morrow!" + +"I shall, dear. I must see him; I have telegraphed--" Again tears choked +her. + +"You think something has happened?" Lassie faltered. + +"Yes, something warns me. It has come over me heavily to-night. I must +go and face it. What is the reason of my love, if it seems to fail him +when the strain comes. It shall not fail. They shall not trick me into +failing. Perhaps they are trying to spare me or shield me, but I'll go +to receive the blow. An instant swept him out of his life-work--I saw +his spirit of resignation--I will be resigned, too--" + +Lassie felt the bed shaken by the fierceness of sobs. She was dumb, not +knowing what to say. The orbit of Alva's love was so infinitely greater +than that of her own, that the feebler suffered eclipse in that hour. +She saw herself and Ingram completely swept aside, and was not even +conscious of the fact. + +"It is my heart that suffers," Alva pressed on after a minute, "only my +heart, Lassie; my soul is strong, very strong. There is nothing else for +my spirit to learn, but half of my being still suffers; it cannot +remember every second how it was when I knelt beside him and he told me +in whispers that he was content and that if I loved him I also would be +content. I have tried to be content, I have been content until +to-day--until to-night. But now, as I lay here in the dark, it seemed as +if content had fled not only me but the whole universe. I feel as if +content had ceased to exist. Rebellion is in the air. In some strange +way I'm sure that he has abjured resignation and renunciation; I feel +that he is in the throes of something--he is suffering, suffering agony; +and I want to be with him. I _must_ be with him! I shall leave +to-morrow!" + +Lassie trembled; she had never seen any one like this before. + +"When do you want me to go, Alva," she whispered, presently. + +"Could you go to-morrow at four, and I will take the train the opposite +way at eight?" + +"I'll be ready; don't mind about me a bit, dear." + +"We must go. Oh, listen to that wind coming down the gorge; doesn't it +sound as if some spirit were in travail? So sad, so melancholy! +Something tremendous is taking place, and I am far from him while he +endures." + +The wind was surely rising, and its moan shook the window sash. + +"I'm going mad," Alva exclaimed, springing from the bed; "why did I +leave him? No matter what they said, I should have stayed there. My +place was there. Oh, I have been cast in so many moulds these last +years; I have taken so many prizes, only to find them dust in my hands; +and now God will not--must not take this one from me! I have learned the +folly of the material, I have bent my head beneath the yoke enough to be +spared another lash of the goad. I pray--oh, I pray--that this cup may +pass me by." + +Lassie sat still, now quite terrified. + +Alva paced up and down the little room. "I have been dragged--or I have +managed to drag myself--up one step above the ordinary. I had accepted +the loneliness that comes when one gets where no one else stands. I +learned not to expect companionship. But we are not the less lonely +because we go our way alone,--we are not the less lonely. And that same +rule holds all through. Lassie, I tell you, that one does not crave +companionship the less because one chooses to marry a dying man; one +does not crave caresses the less when one loves as I do." She wrung her +hands miserably. "I'm weak--weak--weak! This is the test and +I am failing. I, who have worked so far, am being carried +down--down--down--now--to-night. Oh, the struggle, the tragedy, the +lesson! Life's lessons are always so terrible." Then, her emotions +seeming for the moment to exhaust all her strength, she came back to the +bed, and said, with some approach to calmness: + +"Perhaps it is that I preached too much to you, dear, or was too sure of +myself. Perhaps my joy was a selfish joy, or perhaps I did wrong in +planning to leave my parents, even for a little while. Just in +proportion as one rises, so do the subtlety of their problems increase. +To love a man whose life was too big for any one to share unless she +could give herself wholly--that was hard but I learned that lesson; I +would have given my life wholly. Then to have my duty chain me away from +him--that was terrible but I accepted that, too. Then to have him struck +down--I thought that that was the worst of all, but something held me up +through that. But--but," she broke out in a wail of absolute, +heartbroken desolation, "but if he is going to leave me before we--" and +there she stopped short, shivered violently, and became stilly rigid. + +Lassie dared to put her arms about her. + +"Why do you think such dreadful things? You don't know that anything has +happened." + +Alva drew a long, sharp breath. "But I do know it," she said; "something +has happened. You will see in the morning. Oh, I would have given up my +life while he was giving up his, and minded it so little; but to have to +give him up! What shall I do? I wanted those weeks, even if they shrank +to days--to hours. It seemed to me that we had earned the right to a +little, so little, happiness. The memories would have given me strength +to bear the hereafter. If I could only be a soul, and a brave one, like +him,--but to-night I am all heart, all quivering fear." She paused to +control her voice again. + +"But, Alva, let me give you back your own speeches in comfort. How often +you've told me how only his soul counted, and how that was yours for +eternity, and how, because of that, you found yourself equal to all +things. And you've told me, too, dear, how his renunciation, how his +exchange of power, strength and life for weakness and death--and all +without a murmur--made you quite confident that you would never fail, +either." + +"Yes," Alva murmured, "yes, I remember, but--" + +"And you said that the way that he ignored his poor, crushed body and +looked straight towards another future life of fresh labor made you full +of courage, too. You remember." + +"Yes, yes, I remember." Then she tried to dry her eyes. "I won't admit +that the world has a right to shudder, and yet I am shuddering myself," +she said, sadly. "I must learn to be braver. I can't fight down +foreboding, but I must be braver. But, dear, I do so love him--I have so +wanted him--he is so dear to me. I have so lived upon the picture of our +hours together. That little house across the river is full of him for +me. I saw him in it well and strong of spirit, fighting against the +desecration of the gorge, and showing me how I might help on the work +when he was gone. I meant to give him the joy of one more crusade, and +one more victory to his credit. He would have known how to act, even if +his only sympathizers were the poor and those yet to be born. He +understood the claims of the poor and the unborn; he gave his life for +them." + +Lassie enfolded her in her tender arms; the little star was in eclipse, +yet even in eclipse it was gathering power on high. Alva leaned her +cheek against the head on her shoulder. + +"How I suffer," she murmured. "Lassie, I feel that I have entered into a +maelstrom--a whirlwind. I seem to hear a dirge in that wind outside. I +must go to-morrow--we must go to-morrow." + +"Yes, we'll go," said Lassie, soothingly. + +"It is my heart, just my heart. It is so hard to strike an even balance +between the heart and the soul. My poor, thin, trembling flesh has ruled +to-night, truly." + +"Let me sleep with you," Lassie pleaded; "let me hold you fast and love +you dearly." + +Alva smiled in the dark. "Come, then," she said; "I fancy that I shall +sleep if my hand clasps yours--and if I know that we leave to-morrow." + +Later, after Lassie had slept thus for some hours, she was awakened by +Alva's rising and going to the window. + +"What is it, dear, you are not faint?" + +Alva turned, the pale, early sunrise illuminated her face. + +"Some riddle has been solved somewhere, dear," she said; "I'm quite calm +now. The struggle for him as well as for me is over." + +"Then come back and sleep with my arms tight round your neck," said the +friend, stretching forth her arms. + +Alva came back like an obedient child, crept in close beside her, and in +a few minutes was sleeping as a child sleeps. + +Later, when the real morning came and the real, enduring wakefulness +with it, it was Alva who roused first again, and, sitting up in bed, put +back her hair with both hands and smiled into her friend's eyes. + +"You're all right, now?" Lassie said, joyfully. + +"Very right, dear; the crisis is over. Forget last night. I shall never +be like that again." + +Lassie turned her face towards the window; looking out from where she +lay she could see the valley one burst of flame, its wave of color +sweeping off afar and the hoar frost sparkling over all the glory. "I +feel as if I never had seen anything so beautiful in all my life +before," the girl exclaimed; "I don't know what it makes me think of, +but it is as if my soul were growing, I am so happy to see you happy +again." + +Alva sat there with the white coverlet heaped about her and smiled. +"Thank you, dear," she said, with simplicity. "I am happy, and last +night and this morning have caused both our souls to grow." + +"It's too beautiful!" the girl said, after a long pause; "the valley is +more beautiful than I ever realized before." + +Presently Alva left the bed and went to close the window. "There's a +mist lying low in the valley," she said then; "it lies there like an +emblem of peace. Omens are curious. That cold, sad wind last night had +its message, and the morning mist has another. I know that some change +is at hand, but I know that whatever it is its burden is good. I feel +equal to anything this morning. I feel as if God had come to me in the +night and told me that he was charging Himself with my care." + +Lassie looked at her with freshly awakened anxiety. + +"Oh, don't look at me that way," she begged; "that is the very hardest +of all--to have those to whom you talk regard you as if you were mad." + +"But you astonish me so. Last night you were so frightened." + +"Last night some struggle was on, my dear; this morning it is settled." +She stopped and spoke very slowly. "I think, perhaps, that he knows now +that he can never come to the house," she said, and although her lips +quivered slightly her voice was clear and composed. + +"Alva," Lassie cried, in sudden horror, "you think that he is dead--that +is what you think." + +As soon as the words had passed her lips, she was frightened at her own +temerity; but Alva, whose back was towards her, now turned towards her +smiling. + +"He is not dead," she said; "he was thinking of me all last night and +this morning. He is not dead. That I know." + +"How can you be sure?" + +"When people love as we do, they can be very sure. I was awfully shaken +last night, Lassie; I confess it. Something big, that we shall know all +about later, hung in the balance and I trembled. But it's settled now." + +There came a tap at the door just then, announcing Mary Cody with their +hot water. + +"They're still asleep," she said in a whisper; "if the letter from the +lawyer don't come in this morning's mail, Mr. O'Neil is going to eject +them. Only think!" + +Naturally this remark gave quite a new turn to the conversation. + +"Unless they pay, you know," Alva reminded Mary Cody. + +"How do you eject people?" Lassie asked, rejoicing in the cheerfulness +of the commonplace. "If he puts them out the front door and they just +walk around and come into the kitchen, what can any one do?" + +"I don't know," said Mary Cody, apparently thunderstruck at the mental +vision of the O'Neil House besieged by Mrs. and Miss Lathbun, trying to +get in again. "I don't know what we could do. There's seven doors to +this house." + +"Will Mr. O'Neil pull them out, or push them out?" Lassie asked +further; "or will he just drive them out?" + +"I don't know," said Mary Cody; "everybody in town'll be up at the +post-office waiting to see if the letter from the lawyer comes, I +expect. If it doesn't come, Mr. O'Neil is going to Ledge Centre and get +a warrant." + +"Oh, dear," said Lassie. + +"You won't get any mail this morning," said Mary Cody; "there's a wreck +on the road. Two coal trucks and a car of cabbages. There'll be no +eastern mail till noon." + +Then Mary Cody went away again. + +"Isn't it strange that all this should happen just during the little +time that we're here?" Lassie said; "it's made it very exciting." + +Alva went on brushing her hair. + +Lassie looked at her then, and saw that she bore many traces of her +violent emotion of the night before. + +"You won't try to go to-day, will you?" she said, suddenly. + +"Oh, yes, I shall go." Then she turned and looked straight into the +girl's eyes. "I _must_ go," she said; "something has happened." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE POST-OFFICE + + +From 8.30 A.M. on, the tide of travel in Ledge always tended towards the +post-office, but on the famous morning when Mrs. Lathbun expected to +hear from her lawyer, the post-office's vicinity resembled nothing so +much as its own appearance upon Election Day. Every one that ever had +received a letter intended to be there to see if Mrs. Lathbun would get +hers. Long before train time not only the office itself, but the +adjoining rooms and the porch outside, were comfortably crowded with a +pleasantly anticipative collection of interested observers. + +"The United States Government doesn't allow me to interfere in politics, +or I'd come right square out with my views," said Mrs. Ray, who held +public interest with a tight rein, while awaiting the mail. "My views +may be uninteresting, but I hit enough nails on the head to box up a +good many people a year." + +"What _do_ you think?" some one asked. + +"I don't think anything," said Mrs. Ray; "I know!" + +"Well, what do you know, then?" + +"I know that a letter-getter stays a letter-getter, and the reverse the +reverse. Just as I know that case-knives are suspicious and that picking +chestnuts may be a bunco game as easy as anything else. I've found it +nothing but a bunco game, myself. I've never made my chestnuts pay, +just because they were so easy picked up by other people; and you can't +hire boys to do your nutting for you,--boys eat up all the profits and +most of the chestnuts into the bargain. Yes, indeed. And as for those +two up at Nellie's--they'll get no letter. Wait and see." + +"But what will happen to them then?" asked Joey Beall, aching to discuss +the details of the arrest and the journey to Geneseo. + +"I don't know, but I can tell you one piece of news, and it isn't gossip +either; it come straight from Nellie O'Neil herself; she's been here +this morning." + +"Have they found out anything new?" + +"Not about them; but her other two is leaving." + +"What!" + +"Yes, going this afternoon." Mrs. Ray folded her arms and leaned back +against the shelves containing her grocery business. + +The sensation caused by this extra and wholly unexpected bit of news was +thorough and sincere. Everybody looked at everybody else. + +Mrs. Dunstall pressed forward. "Haven't they paid, either?" she asked, +with horror in her voice. + +"Oh, yes, they've paid." Mrs. Ray was quickly reassuring on this point. +"But with them, it's something else. I don't know for sure just what, +but I guess that eldest one's beginning to see that it's no use as far +as she's concerned; but she'll have to do something with that house she +was fixing up to live in. Sarah Catt told me she never heard anything so +crazy as building a house to live in while a dam that Mr. Ledge don't +want built is being built. She says her husband says that dam never will +be built. She says Mr. Ledge is very quiet, but he's very sensible and +he says there's quicksands all under us." + +This statement caused another flutter of sensation. + +"Can't you dam a quicksand? I thought it run just like water." Thus Joey +Beall's fiancée from the back. + +"No, you can't," said Pinkie. "I know." + +"I'd be sorry to see the dam go," said Mrs. Wiley. "Cousin Catterwallis +Granger looked to see it raise all the property around here." + +"Drown all the property around here, you mean," said Mrs. Ray. "I thank +heaven it's the Dam Commission and not me who'll have to adjust all that +dam's going to drown before it gets done. Josiah Bates says he heard +that they'll have to take up all the cemeteries from here to Cromwell." + +"Why?" asked Pinkie. + +"Why? Why, because no matter what powers a commission can hold over the +living, no legislature can find a law for drowning the dead, I guess. +They've all got to be moved and set out in rows again in a new place. +Seems like I never will see the last of Mr. Ray's two wives! But I +shan't have to pay for their new start in life this time, anyway." + +"Where will they put them next, do you suppose?" said Mrs. Dunstall, +referring to the cemeteries--not to Mr. Ray's former wives. + +"I guess we'll all want to know that," said Mrs. Ray, turning her head +as if she heard the train (the tension in the room was increasing +momentarily,--so was the crowd). "I'm sure I wonder what will become of +Mr. Ray. I never could feel that I really was done with him, and now it +seems maybe I ain't. I wish they'd buy my three-cornered cow pasture +for a new cemetery. Then I could cut his grass when I went to milk my +cow." + +"The dam'll have to pay for the new cemeteries, won't it?" asked Lucia +Cosby in some trepidation. + +"The dam'll pay for everything. That's why every one wants it so bad," +said Mrs. Ray. + +"Yes, it is," said Pinkie. + +"Which room have the Lathbuns got?" some one asked, looking down towards +the O'Neil House. + +"The end one," said Mrs. Dunstall. + +"The curtains are down," said Nathan, elbowing his way to the window. + +"They never get up till noon." + +There was a hush,--sudden but intense. The train was approaching. + +"Yes, that's the train," said Mrs. Ray; "well, we'll soon know now." She +tucked her shawl tighter than ever, and got the key ready. + +"Mrs. O'Neil'll be pretty lonesome to-night with them all gone at once," +hazarded a bystander. + +"She'll miss those girls," said Mrs. Dunstall; "they're real nice young +ladies, she says. But she won't miss the Lathbuns." + +"We'll miss the Lathbuns," said Mrs. Wiley; "they've been so interesting +to talk about. We've even got Uncle Purchase to where he knows they live +at Nellie's. I tell you that was work. He's so deaf now." She sighed. + +"I guess it wasn't any worse than what the Bentons went through with +Gran'ma Benton teaching the parrot when they lived at Nellie's," said +Mrs. Ray. "Poor Clay Wright Benton was in here yesterday to see if I'd +board Gran'ma Benton and the parrot again. He says Sarah says she won't +come home till the parrot leaves, and he's most wild. Gran'ma Benton's +been teaching the parrot to say something new. She says 'Where's the +Lathbuns, Polly?' and the parrot says 'Out chestnutting,' only it won't +say it days. It just says it nights. And nights it's wild over saying +it. Last night no one in the house got one wink of sleep. Clay sit up +till midnight to ask it where the Lathbuns was, and then Gran'ma Benton +sit up and asked it where they was till morning. Poor Clay! He says it's +too awful how she's spoiled that parrot. It's afraid of spiders, and +it's so afraid of them at night that they have to keep a night-light +burning so it can see all over whenever it wakes." + +"Such doings!" said Mrs. Wiley, in disgust. + +"Yes, indeed," said Mrs. Ray. "I'd like to see myself burning a +night-light for a parrot. If it boards with me, it'll take its spiders +just as they come." + +"That's right," said Pinkie, with decision. + +"Well, we don't need any parrot," said Mrs. Wiley. "We've got Uncle +Purchase. Not but what I'm amused hearing about the parrot. But then, +I've been amused hearing about the Lathbuns, too," she sighed heavily. + +"Something else'll come up," said Mrs. Dunstall, cheerfully, "and you +don't really need anything to talk about while you've got your Uncle +Purchase, you know." + +"Well, I suppose maybe not," said Mrs. Wiley, and sighed again. + +"Well, thank Heaven," said Mrs. Ray, "I'm never short of two +things,--work and talk." She began to finger the key as she spoke, and +all ears were at once strained to listen for the sound of the feet of +the bearer of the mail-bag. + +Deathly silence reigned. In a few seconds the footsteps did approach, +the gate creaked and then banged. Mrs. Ray stepped with majestic haste +to the window and called out: + +"Wipe your feet!" + +The obedience that ensued whetted curiosity to more ravenous desire than +ever. People had lost sight of the main issue and were all riveted to +the single question--would Mrs. Lathbun get her letter? + +The door opened and Clay Wright Benton came in with the bag. + +"Lay it here," commanded Mrs. Ray, and Clay Wright Benton laid it there +and fell back into the crowd behind. Mrs. Ray put on her spectacles and +adjusted her shawl. In the intense excitement of the moment, nobody said +a word. The room was as full as it would hold, and people who had +apparently been secreted in other portions of the house now came pouring +in through the doors connecting therewith. The one window facing the +porch had turned into a mere honey-comb of faces. + +Mrs. Ray took up the key. A thrill went around as she inserted it in the +padlock and slowly turned it. Then she took it out of the padlock and +the padlock out of the lock. She laid key and padlock carefully aside. +"Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note," as she slowly drew the +lengthwise iron from the rings and laid that aside. A sort of fresh +intenseness pervaded the atmosphere as she opened the mouth of the bag +and inserted her arm. While her arm was in and her hand was feeling for +the mail, a boy sneezed and every one turned and looked at him +witheringly. This little incident was taken in the same light as the +inter-mission between two numbers of a concert, for all who were at the +doors at once took advantage of it to squeeze inside. The small room, +which had been unpleasantly full before, was now packed to suffocation. +Mrs. Ray drew out her arm. The interest was mounting each second. She +laid two packages, tied each with United States Government twine, upon +the counter, turned the bag upside down and shook it. If a pin had +fallen out, any one could have heard it, but nothing fell out. Mrs. Ray +folded the bag carefully and laid it on the floor behind her. The +atmosphere was breathless in every sense of the word. Mrs. Ray untied +the first package, taking a full minute to pick out the knot. She hung +up the string. The string fell off from where she hung it, and she +picked it up and hung it up a second time, this time more slowly and +carefully. Then she took out the postmarking machine. A sudden sigh went +around; every one had forgotten the necessity of the postmark. Mrs. Ray +turned the package face down and post-marked every piece carefully +without reading a single address. Then she turned them over, gave her +shawl a fresh and most careful adjustment, and proceeded to sort the +mail. When it was sorted, she called the roll of names amidst a hush +that was awe-inspiring. The few who had letters crowded to the fore, +received them and stayed there, greatly to the aggravation of those who +had none, and got shoved to the rear accordingly. + +Mrs. Ray now untied the second package, and hung up that string. Both +strings fell off together. She took up both strings at once, smoothed +them out and hung them up again. They stayed hung this time. Then she +post-marked the second package. It was a never-to-be-forgotten +scene,--the wrought-up faces, the fixed calm of Mrs. Ray herself. Then +she called the roll for the second batch. Each time a name was read off, +a wave of psychic emotion swept the room. One has to get into the real +true life of the country to appreciate the tremendous tumulus which +gossip had erected upon which to rear the monument of this moment. One +by one the names were all called; one by one the pile of letters in Mrs. +Ray's hand diminished. When it came to the last one, and the last one +was for Joey Beall, Joey received it almost as if it were some species +of sacrament. + +"Is that all?" some one in the back asked. + +"That's all," said Mrs. Ray. + +All turned to go. The outburst of pent-up feelings was tremendous. + +"I told you so," Mrs. Ray said over and over again. "I knew they'd got +no letter." The babel all of a sudden rose into so much noise that it +was evident that the heights to which popular feeling had risen were +going a bit higher yet. The egress from the stifling room ceased. Nobody +knew just what it was, but all became aware that something fresh had +happened. Nobody knew what had happened, and nobody seemed able to find +out. All that was known was that something held every one spellbound and +motionless in spite of their individual desire to go on out. + +After what seemed a deadlock of long duration but which was in fact a +matter of but a few seconds, it developed that the trouble arose around +the door leading on to the porch. Then it appeared that while every one +in the post-office was trying to get out by that door, Mary Cody was +trying to get in by the same way, and Mary Cody was young, strong, and +determined. + +For a few seconds the battle pressed wildly. Then Mary Cody won out and +entered. She was out of breath and disheveled. + +"Why, what is the matter?" Joey Beall, who was nearest, asked; "there's +something new down your way, I'll bet a peanut." + +Mary Cody gasped. "Oh, my," she said, "I run right up to tell you. We've +just found out as their room is empty. They must of skipped in the +night." + +"Skipped in the night!" cried Mrs. Dunstall. + +"Skipped!" cried Pinkie. + +"Oh, Mrs. Ray," wailed Mrs. Wiley, "how'll we ever be able to tell Uncle +Purchase!" + +But Mrs. Ray stood forth like a modern Medusa in her rage. + +"I've been expecting it all along," she exclaimed wrathfully. "I'm a +great judge of character, and I never looked for nothing else. Now, how +can they be arrested? We must catch 'em!" + +"If we can catch 'em!" said Josiah Bates. + +"_If_ we can catch them!" said Mrs. Ray,--"if! Young man, they'll be +caught. You wait and see!" She hastily threw her shawl over her head, +and rushed wildly out with the excited crowd. It is proverbial that +there are times when a common sentiment merges all classes into one. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +AFTERMATH + + +The excitement broke up into wide-spreading waves. All divided at once +into two distinct parties,--those who wanted to discuss the matter +further, and those who were filled with the hunter instinct and so +craved to set off at once in pursuit of "the foxy pair." Mrs. Ray justly +remarked that "they couldn't possibly get more than twelve hours' start, +in just one night," and as it was incredible to suppose that they would +return in the direction from which they had originally come, it followed +that there was only two-thirds of the horizon to scour in any case. +Elmer Hoskins and his dog lost no time, but set forth at once. + +Mary Cody walked back down the hill telling a deeply interested circle +the story of how, etc. (and that for the fifth time in ten minutes); +another group stood excitedly on Mrs. Ray's porch; another set off to +break the news to Ledgeville, and still others spread here and there, +after the manner of distracted bees into whose hive some great and +disturbing force has suddenly penetrated. + +"We won't be able to begin to get this in Uncle Purchase's head for two +days, at least," mourned Mrs. Wiley; "and Uncle Purchase is so awful +fond of knowing things, too." + +"They'll never catch them," said Lucia Cosby; "they know all the roads +too well. They know every road there is to know." + +"I should think they did!" said Mrs. Dunstall. "They've not got out of +practice walking in this locality, I can tell you. Josiah Bates was down +at the bottom of the St. Helena hill the other day, and if he didn't see +them there. Oh, they know the roads." + +"I'm sorry for the girl," said Clay Wright Benton. + +"I ain't a bit sorry for her," said Mrs. Ray; "as a woman who works from +before dawn to far on into the night to make a honest living by eleven +different kinds of sweat on her brow, I ain't a bit sorry for either of +them. And Jack O'Neil ain't going to be sorry for them, either; he told +me last night if they was men, he'd get hold of 'em and take 'em out +behind the wood-pile and he knew what they'd get. To-day isn't going to +alter _his_ views." + +"If I was Mrs. O'Neil, I'd wash that shawl Mrs. Lathbun wore all the +time," said Sarah Catt, one of the party escorting Mary Cody back to the +hotel. + +"It's in the tub already," said Mary Cody. + +Mrs. O'Neil came running forth to meet them, her brown eyes shining more +than ever. + +"Oh, but they were a 'foxy pair,'" she exclaimed; "haven't they gone and +left that hair-brush done up in a paper so that it's 'baggage,' and +shows they want the room held for them till they come back. Oh, they've +got the law at their finger-tips--those two." + +The whole crowd entered the house. Alva and Lassie, packing in their +room, had heard the news ten minutes earlier from Mrs. O'Neil herself. +Lassie had watched her friend's face curiously, but Alva had too much +else pressing upon her to be more than simply saddened. + +When Mrs. O'Neil had gone Lassie had said almost hesitatingly: "They +were adventuresses, weren't they, and Miss Lathbun's romance wasn't +true, was it?" + +"Let us not judge, even now," said Alva, quietly; "let us try to hope in +some way. After all, what little things they were in life--so little, +and probably beset beyond their strength. And such great things are +pressing on me to-day. What do they matter? God forgive me for saying +it." + +Lassie was silenced. + +When the Eastern mail train arrived about noon, belated as usual, their +packing was quite finished. Mary Cody brought up the letters. Alva took +hers into her room and a minute later she came to the door. + +"Lassie," she said, "there is something here that I must attend to at +once. Go down and have dinner, and I'll come a little late." + +So Lassie went down to dine alone, and found Ingram waiting for her. She +told him that Alva would come in a little. + +"Has she had bad news?" he asked, startled by a presentiment of +immediate sorrow. + +"No, I think not," Lassie said; "she didn't speak so." + +But Ingram stayed, distressed. "She has had bad news," he said; "poor +girl--her tragedy is closing in fast. I can feel its end, myself." + +His eyes went to the window. "Couldn't you go out with me for just an +hour after dinner?" he asked wistfully. Then he smiled a little. "We can +talk about the dam," he said--"or help hunt the Lathbuns." + +She looked at him and they both knew that she would go. It was a very +simple, almost childish, romance, theirs--but its lack of stress made it +all the more alluring to two who were living under the wings of so much +tragedy. + +"I'll get my hat," Lassie said, and ran up-stairs. Alva's door was +closed. "I'm lying down, please let me sleep. It's nothing but my head," +she called from behind it. Lassie slipped on her wraps quickly and ran +down; and they went out towards the Falls. + +Mrs. Ray saw them go from the post-office window. The excitement having +somewhat subsided, she was now left alone with Joey Beall's fiancée, who +was there to try on her wedding dress. + +"Such is life," Mrs. Ray commented; "that woman's pulled her shades down +for a nice nap, and off they skip for a good-by down by the Falls. Oh, +my, but those Falls are a blessing to the young! It's too far between +roots and rocks for children to get down there, and as soon as anybody's +married they never want to have nothing to do with love-making any more; +so steep romantic places is just made for the only kind of people that +have any reason for wanting to get to them." + +"The Falls is full of meaning for lovers," said Joey Beall's fiancée, +sentimentally. "Joey and I never get tired of them." + +"You wait till you're married," said Mrs. Ray; "you'll find no meaning +in climbing up and down those banks and having Joey jerk your arms out +of the sockets, then. Yes, indeed. They call it tempestuous affection +beforehand, but it comes to a plain jerk in the end. Life is full of +learning." + +"Gran'ma Benton's learning the parrot a great deal," said Sarah Catt. "I +come by there just now and she's beginning already to teach it a new +sentence. She says: 'Where are the Lathbuns, now?' and the parrot's got +to learn to say 'Skipped,'--she's just set her heart on it." + +"I d'n know but what I'm going to end by being sorry for that parrot," +remarked Mrs. Ray, thoughtfully. "I think Gran'ma Benton's overdoing it +a little, if she means it to keep up with the Lathbuns. You can force +even a parrot beyond its strength. She's made it nervous, already. She's +got to hold its claw all through every thunderstorm all summer long, and +if a fly gets in its milk, it won't touch either the fly or the milk, +which I call spoiling the parrot--not to speak of the fly and the milk, +for of course no one else in a house is going to eat a fly or drink milk +that a parrot won't look at." + +"Sarah told me they had to take away all the looking-glasses every +spring, or it cried the whole time it was moulting--over its tail +feathers, you know," said the caller, thoughtfully. + +"Well, if they come to live here, I shan't spoil it, I know that," said +Mrs. Ray. "I shall be pleasant to it and I shall be kind, and it can run +after me all it likes and I'll be careful never to step on it for the +very simple reason that I don't want to take the time to clean up any +sort of smashed creature, but it won't have no night-light here, nor get +its claw held when it thunders, nor have the looking-glasses took down +to spare its feelings. No one ever took a looking-glass down to spare my +feelings, and I can't begin to take them down to spare a parrot's. Well, +Sarah, I guess you can try on now. Wait till I fill up on pins. Oh, my +lands alive, I wish I knew where those foxy Lathbuns are this minute." + +"I guess Mr. Adams'll be glad to know they're caught," said Sarah Catt; +"he's so nervous for fear they'll stop with him to-night. Joey saw him +just after dinner. He was more scared even than Gran'ma Benton's parrot +in a thunderstorm." + +Mrs. Ray was thoughtfully putting pins in her mouth. "There's a great +difference between a man's hand and a parrot's claw," she said with some +difficulty. "Yes, indeed. Even in a thunderstorm." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE DARKNESS BEFORE + + +When Lassie came back from that last walk to the Falls she went straight +up to Alva's room, and found her lying on the bed, the faint light from +the shaded window throwing a deep shadow upon her face and form. Her +head and shoulders were a little propped up against the pillows, and her +hands were clasped on her bosom instead of behind her head, as was her +favorite position. + +Lassie's eyes were shining and her heart was very full and happy with +the bubbling joy of that bubbling joyous emotion which Youth in its +ingenuous innocence, ignorance, and arrogance has elected to call +"love." It had come very vividly to both herself and Ingram during their +walk, and instead of discussing Alva's affairs, they had suddenly become +more than ever keenly alive to their own. Ingram, conscious of good +looks, good health, and a good income, had for some time faced the +position very cheerfully and gratefully; but Lassie, conscious of no +personal advantages at all equalling those pertaining to her demigod, +was, of course, thrilled through and through. Certainly these be +topsy-turvy days for chivalric standards, but perhaps a century later, +people will quote with reverence from the stories of grandmother's +experiences before grandpapa was finally secured. + +Lassie was very happy. She felt sure that nothing so ideally beautiful +and altogether remarkable as Ingram's speeches during the walk had ever +been heard before. She was not engaged, but she was "as good as +engaged." And before her début, too. Fancy the faces of the girls when +she really announced it! She would be the first one of the whole set to +be married! Life was nothing but vistas of joy. Ingram was absolutely +going to take the same train that she did at six o'clock, and go two +hours of the way with her. Oh! + +And now she was back in Alva's room, standing at the bedside, looking +down at her friend. Something in the other's lax position made her look +more closely even in the semi-darkness. + +"Your head is worse?" she asked, startled. + +"No, dear," said Alva, and her voice rang strangely--like a low toned +bell, chiming afar. + +"Something has happened?" + +"Yes, dear." + +"Oh--" the young girl could not put the question. + +Alva did not speak. Lassie felt her heart freezing harder every instant. +It was always so, when one came within the circle of that greater +existence. Part of the attraction of Ingram was that he was just so +ordinarily human. Alva was never ordinary, and scarcely ever human. Oh, +dear! Her lovely dream seemed suddenly slipping out to sea before this +tremendous, quiet storm of resistless stress! + +"You have had a letter?" she whispered timidly, at last. + +"Yes, dear, and he is dead." Alva spoke quite steadily. + +"Dead!" + +"I had a letter from his friend--his doctor--the one who wrote for him. +You were right in what you thought. He died last night, in the night, +while I slept. He was unconscious when he died. He struggled first and +suffered--while I was struggling and suffering, you remember--and then +he grew still when I grew still, and then when I slept he slept and +began to die, and while I still slept he died--that is--his body died." + +Lassie sank down upon the bed beside her, took the clasped hands into +her own, and burst into bitter tears, hiding her face in the four hands +at once. + +After a little Alva spoke again, still in the same low, ringing voice. + +"It came so close that I did believe that it would be, but there are +some dreams that may not be realized on earth. Mine was such a one." + +Lassie lifted her head to look into her face; she was sufficiently +accustomed to the dim light by this time to be able to see distinctly +the pure and noble outlines, the large, tragic eyes. She felt herself +crushed into speechlessness. + +"He wrote me himself," Alva continued presently; "just the merest word. +I read it. I read it twice. Then I sat still for a long, long time. +Lassie," she pressed the girl's hands warmly, "it was good to think that +I had shown my happiness to you, for no one will ever know that I was +ever happy, now. Oh, it was so long that I sat here, thinking. I told +you once, how, in the first day of my supreme joy, I went into the +cathedral near the hospital and thanked God on my knees for all the past +and made a vow to accept with courage all that might come to me, in +return for that joy. I thought, as I prayed, that I'd go forth and +gladly starve and freeze till I died, if it were the purchase price of +such happiness. I am remembering that hour. I will not cry out, nor +weep, nor say one word. I have had him; we shall be one again. My desire +has always been only to be worthy him--to be worthy him--to be worthy +him! And now I have the chance to prove myself so; and I will not +fail,--though the heart in my body burst, my spirit will not fail." + +Lassie was still, overawed. + +"I had to search to be thankful at first," Alva went on, "but now I have +found something to be very thankful for. I am so glad that it came +before I had told my mother. She is spared. She will never know. Every +one is spared except him and me, and we are strong--we can endure. We +have endured. We can endure again." + +"If you only could have gone and been with him!" wailed the girl, +softly. + +"Oh, how I have wished that! You don't know how I have wished that! It +has been sweeping through me and rending me cruelly, but he did not wish +it, or he would have sent for me. And I have tried never even to wish +anything unless he wished it, too. You know how I have wished that I +might have stayed there with him. But he begged me to go. They would not +let me stay. I had to yield!" + +"Shall you go as you planned, to-night?" + +"No, dear, I want to stay here alone for three or four days, and then go +home,--back to my duty to my parents, you know. I never meant to leave +for long. Yes," she almost whispered, "I must hurry back home, +forever." + +"Never to return here?" + +"I think, never. I cannot see how or why I should return." + +Lassie's lips quivered. "And your house?" she whispered. + +A long, sad breath passed over lips that did not quiver. "Ah, yes, my +house," she answered softly; "I thought of going to it this afternoon, +and then I could not. Dear little home nest,--there are nothing but +happy thoughts there; all my best is there--unselfish dreams, devoted +hopes, great aims, longings to make some one and every one glad." + +She paused. Lassie leaned close. + +"May I lie down beside you, Alva, and put my arms around you and hold +you tightly, dear? It will be good-by, for you want me to go just the +same, I know." + +"Yes, dear, you must go. What time is it?" + +"It's over an hour till the train. Let me hold you close, dear, I--I +love you." + +"Yes, Lassie, come; I'll be glad to have you. Your head will lie on my +arm, and I shall like to draw you near as I might have drawn a little +child, had life fallen out differently long ago." + +Lassie crept up on the bed, clasped her arms about her and tried not to +weep. + +"You don't mind my talking of him, do you?" the woman asked, presently. +"You know after you go I shall never have any one again;" her voice +wailed desolate with the last words so that its very sound caused +Lassie's sobs to renew their force. + +"I don't mind anything that you want to do, Alva." + +"It's storming in upon me what life was to have been. What does the +world know of love? Love is something too great to comprehend. It costs +blood and years and tears. It goes so deep that the very joy in it cuts +like a knife. I knew that I was only to have had him a few weeks, that I +should have to compress all that I felt for him into them. But what +those few weeks would have meant! When to be quiet together was in +itself all that we asked! When we should have had a library and a piano, +and the gorge to look out over, and one another to talk to,--to be +with!" She stopped--her breath failed her. + +There was a pause, as if to let the tide of grief sweep up and out +again. + +"Oh, Lassie, we had waited so long and hopelessly," she went on finally, +her sentences short and tense and broken. "I tried to be so patient. I +tried so hard to do well with the bit of life dealt out to me. As much +as I could, I followed in his path in the giving of my all to others and +neither asking nor expecting for myself. I hoped nothing for us--nothing +for us! And then I had to see him stretched out--crushed--maimed, and I +had to live still, and smile into his eyes, and tell him that even that +was more than I had deserved. And then came our dream--our precious +dream--the promise of those few, sweet, perfect days! Oh, but why should +I repine? I have been so happy. I have contemplated the heights, even if +it was not given me to reach them." + +There was another pause. + +"Lassie, it is not my soul that is wailing; my soul is very strong and +resolute. He left work undone and even this afternoon it came to me that +that work was part of him and that in doing it I should do for him. If +we could suffer annihilation in a good cause, we should survive in the +cause. If I carry forward all that he held in heart, I shall continue to +be one with him. I know it. I longed unutterably to be with him, to make +his pain lighter, to share his hours at the last. I thought a great deal +of our happiness, but I thought also of what he would teach me to do for +the world. Oh, I can believe that he suffered last night. It was only +the edge of the storm that brushed over me, but I know how _I_ suffered. +There are some men who cannot die, who are too sorely needed; and he was +such a one. He did not want to leave his work." + +She stopped, and Lassie felt the tide of grief rise full and ebb again. + +"It wasn't love or marriage as the world understands it; but it was the +supreme self sacrifice that my spirit cried for in consecration. I +thought that I was to be greatly fitted for a great work." + +Lassie whispered: "Perhaps you have been fitted." + +"No. No! Heaven ordained that the sacrifice and the consecration should +be greater than I had ever imagined. It ordained that he should pass +away alone and leave me alone, too; and now it is left me to work out a +new salvation. I try not to doubt, I do trust God completely. But I +cannot see why--or how! Not yet. But, at any rate, the worst for me is +come. I have touched bottom. Battle for me is past." + +Then she rose from the bed, went to the window and let up the shade. The +night of Nature's world, always full of potency, calmed her suddenly +into another mood. + +"It is snowing," she exclaimed; "that means that rain is falling on +new-made graves." She came back from the window. "Lassie," she said, "my +heart is broken, my future is crushed, and yet I feel _so strong_! It +floods me fresh. I see now that wherever his soul passed last night, it +must have passed in triumph--gone on to further work. I shall work, too. +That is the legacy his letter left me--an intense desire to serve. How +small I am, how great God is; all life's misery results from setting our +little wills in opposition to His plan for our best. It is borne in upon +me clearly; I recognize the fact well. Now when I leave this room next +time and forever henceforth, so long as I live, I am willing with my +whole soul to do whatever work there is laid out for me. I feel in my +heart that no stumbling or even ridicule for stumbling can ever again +cause me to falter. I have found Truth. I will be strong." + +Lassie looked at her in wonder. The white look of unearthly radiance +which men once knew as "Ecstasy" was indeed on her face now--on her +pale, sad, worn face, filling it with a glow of wondrous resolution. + +"Oh, Alva!" the girl exclaimed, and then, even as the exclamation left +her lips, she was conscious of an upleaping of warm, human joy to think +of the six o'clock train and Ingram's companionship. The higher plane +was very high above her yet. + +Alva pressed her hands to her eyes and face. "That was like a lightning +flash, dear," she said; "oh, if I may only live by its light forever +after. If only!" There was a brief silence; then,-- + +"I must pick up my things, I guess," the girl suggested. + +"Yes, dear," Alva tried to smile; "yes, you must pick up your things. +That's what life here means." + +Lassie slipped into her own room. She was glad that Alva was quiet and +that she could smile upon her again; it was truly what life meant to +her. She was very little yet and very blind, and the angels might have +been smiling meaningly and mercifully at one another over her pretty, +childish head that hour. + +But over Alva the Spirits of Heaven might have wept,--as they weep for +any on earth who fancy that they have sounded either the depths or the +heights of any design wrought out above. + +Above is so far above, and we and all our hopes and joys and sorrows are +so far beneath. So far beneath that radiant serenity which moves +eternally forward in its fulfilling of the Divine Plan. His Divine Plan +for the uplifting of all that He has made. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +DAWN + + +As the train pulled out, a half hour later, Alva, now quite steady and +serene, waved her hand, and then turned away so as not to see Lassie, +weeping, yet clinging close to the strong arm thrown before her like a +guard. + +"You'll come home with me, my dear," said Mrs. O'Neil, who had come to +the station, too; "you look a little tired and pale, and I'll help you +finish your own packing, and then you must have some good hot tea and +gingerbread." + +Alva laid her hand in the kindly, warm hand of the other. "Yes, let us +go home," she said; "but I'm not going to-night, so my packing can +wait." + +"You aren't going! Oh, I am glad. Then you'll have a little time for +rest. You need it." Mrs. O'Neil was so frankly pleased that Alva was +forced to thank her kindliness in spirit. The racked are so grateful to +a tender touch after their sharpest agony. + +They went across the tracks and up the little cinder-path. Mary Loretta +and the cat came running out to meet them, and Mary Cody had the +teakettle boiling. + +"She's not going to-night," said Mrs. O'Neil, getting out the tea and +handing it to Mary Cody, who was now cutting gingerbread. "I'm so glad; +it would be so lonesome without her." + +Mary Cody assented. + +"And those two young people are happy, too," Mrs. O'Neil said to Alva, +in the dining-room a minute later, "such a nice-looking couple!" + +"I hope she'll be happy," said Alva, staring out of the window as she +sat by the table waiting idly. "She will have everything to make for her +happiness now." Lassie and Ingram had ceased to matter to her. Her brain +could not include them in this hour. + +Mrs. O'Neil's eyes filled as she glanced that way. The still, quiet face +and form by the window had some tragedy written in every line, although +the lips stayed closed and the bright-faced hostess felt what she could +not know. + +"There, my dear, there's the tea; let me pour your cup," she said. "Do +put in some cream just for once, it's so nourishing; and why, I declare, +if here isn't Mrs. Ray, just in time to have a cup with us!" + +Mrs. Ray had passed the window and now opened the door and came in. +There was an air of strongly repressed excitement about her. + +"So she's gone," she said briskly. "I was peeking out watching the +mail-bag to see that no one else stuck a letter in the strap on me, and +I saw you all seeing her off. Pretty she is,--and it's plain to be seen +what's going to happen next, and I'm very glad for them both." + +"Yes," said Mrs. O'Neil, smiling; "we're all that." + +"I come down for several reasons," said Mrs. Ray. "First," she turned to +Alva, "there's a letter that come this morning, and heaven knows how it +happened--with all my care--but it slipped under those pesky government +scales and I found it when I dusted out this afternoon. I hope it isn't +very important." + +Alva took the letter with its typewritten address and put it in her +pocket. "Don't worry, Mrs. Ray," she said, "Lassie's gone; I'm going +very soon; nothing can matter much now, can it?" She managed to smile. + +"Well, I don't know," said Mrs. Ray. "That's your view because you're +going, but I can't say that I shall feel really settled in my mind till +the dam's settled." + +"But I thought the quicksand was going to settle the dam," said Mrs. +O'Neil; "somebody said so." + +"You can't settle even a quicksand with a legislature," said Mrs. Ray; +"I guess I know. The United States Government is a great eye-opener, +especially when you have to tend a post-office according to any new +rules it finds time to have printed and mail you. I've had four pages of +new rules sent me to-day." + +"Here's your tea, Mrs. Ray," said Mrs. O'Neil; "do sit down. Bring some +more gingerbread, Mary. And won't you have a little jam? I've a lot of +nice fresh this-autumn, plum jam." + +"No, I don't want any jam," said Mrs. Ray, seating herself; "but, +Nellie, I've been hearing that legally your husband can't do nothing +with the Lathbuns." + +"Well, that isn't the worst," said Mrs. O'Neil, her face clouding +considerably; "what do you think I've up and done? I was so mad I threw +that old hair-brush over into the gorge, and I've thereby made Jack +liable for a suit of damage for breaking into the luggage a guest leaves +without due cause, or else for willful destruction of personal property +belonging to another and unoffending party who has reposed trust only to +be betrayed. Jack will have to go to the lawyer to-morrow to find out +which. Oh, they were slick--those two. They've got the law down fine." + +"Well, did you know they're caught?" Mrs. Ray brought this statement +forth as the cannon does the cannon ball. + +Mrs. O'Neil jumped in her chair. "Caught? No, I did not know it. When?" + +"They just told me over at the station that they were arrested about +three o'clock. I guess it's true. I hope so." + +"Oh, to think of it," said Mrs. O'Neil, "to think of them sleeping here +last night and in Geneseo to-night!" + +"The complaints will come pouring in," said Mrs. Ray; "everybody has got +a bill against 'em. I don't believe they'll be out of jail in years." + +Alva turned her face again to the window. She had not thought much of +the two unfortunate creatures during the past few hours, and their +misery bore in upon her with a vivid, headlong shock. + +"And those case-knives, too," Mrs. Ray continued; "did they have 'em on, +I wonder." + +"Oh, the case-knives don't count," said Mrs. O'Neil; "they were left +here by a travelling man. He was around to-day and asked if it was here +that he left them. I meant to tell you, but dear, dear, I've had so much +to do, seems like." + +Mrs. Ray was much taken aback, but quickly recovered herself. + +"Oh, well, they could have used a hat-pin just as well. Anyhow, they +might have got up in the night and murdered him some way. Mrs. Lathbun +could have held him while Hannah Adele just stuck anything handy into +him in every direction. I never could see what they had the case-knives +for, anyhow, if it wasn't on the chance of some such game. For two women +to carry six case-knives instead of combs and tooth-brushes is very +suspicious in itself, I think." + +"But, they weren't carrying them," said Mrs. O'Neil. "Jack thought they +had them for opening windows, but to think of them staying here three +weeks and no baggage. It makes me wild." + +"Well, you and Mr. O'Neil are easy," said Mrs. Ray; "you're very mooney, +both of you. You can't deny that, Nellie,--you and your husband haven't +got real good common sense, or you'd have nailed their windows on from +the outside the day you first mistrusted them." + +"Well, we won't be mooney any more, anyhow," said Mrs. O'Neil; "the +drillers came to-day with two freight cars of machinery, but Jack had +them pay a week in advance. He says he won't even trust the State after +this." + +"I don't trust the United States any further than I can see 'em," said +Mrs. Ray; "but this has been a good lesson for you, Nellie. You won't be +letting any sharper that comes along wear your gran'mother's Paisley +shawl while he spies out the road he's going to skip out over next, +again." + +"Indeed and I won't," said Mrs. O'Neil feelingly. + +"Sammy Adams was in to spend the afternoon," Mrs. Ray went on. "We +talked the question of my marrying him all over again. He always asks me +when he comes for the whole afternoon like that, and he had such a hard +time getting it all out to-day with people running in to talk about the +Lathbuns every second, that I just had to appreciate the way he stuck to +it clear through to the end." + +"What did you say?" asked Mrs. O'Neil. + +"I didn't say much. I was too busy talking to the others, you know. Yes, +indeed. But I was sorry for him. He's _so_ scared sleeping alone in his +house for fear of maybe being swindled in his bed before he knows it. +And now he's worried for fear the dam is going to drown him +unexpectedly, too. They say if that dam is built and does bu'st, the +Johnstown Flood won't be in it with Rochester. The folks that want the +Falls saved'll get their chance to say, 'I told you so' then; but that +won't help Sammy much." + +"What did you say?" Mrs. O'Neil asked again. + +"Well, when I got a chance, I told him I'd despise a man who'd let me +keep on working as hard as I work now, but that if any man was to ask me +to give up the church, or the post-office, or my chickens, that would +show he didn't know me, right in the start." + +"What did he say to that?" Mrs. O'Neil asked with interest. + +"He didn't know what to say at first, but then he's the kind of man that +never does know what to say. I declare, Nellie, I do think men that want +to marry women act too foolish for words. Yes, indeed. If a man wants to +do anything else in the world he gets to work and does it; but if he +wants to marry a woman he just sits still and looks silly and leaves it +to the woman to be done or not." + +"Do you think so?" said Mrs. O'Neil. + +"Think so," said Mrs. Ray; "I know so. I've had men acting foolish +around where I was all my life. I've tripped over 'em while sweeping, +cooking, washing, tending Mr. Ray's family by his second wife, sorting +mail,--why, I've had men thinking what a good wife I'd make all my life, +and looking so like idiots while they thought it that I wouldn't look at +it like they did for any money. They stop by the fence when I'm +ploughing, and just grin with thinking what a hired man I'd make. I was +cleaning the long aisle carpet at the church last Wednesday, and that +minister that's visiting our minister couldn't keep away from the +window. When I take my eggs and chickens to market, the buyer down there +looks at how I've got those eggs packed and pinches my chickens, and +then he turns to me and goodness, but his glance is loving." + +"Well, you're a very smart woman, you know," said Mrs. O'Neil. + +"I know that; I know it just as well as you do. But I'm a woman, and I'd +like to meet one man as was a man. I know men pretty well; I knew Mr. +Ray better than he knew himself. Mr. Ray thought he was doing me an +honor to marry me, and I knew he wasn't, and I lived with him fifteen +years and never threw it in his face once. I let him talk about his +ancestors and I never talked about mine. He thought I didn't have any; +he never realized I kept still so as to keep from telling such stories +as he did. His ancestors! I'd like to know what sort of ancestors he +had! If he'd had any ancestors, he'd have been bound to be descended +from them, I should think, in which case he wouldn't have been a Ray. +The fact that he and his father called themselves Jared and spelt it +Jarrod was enough for me; but to make a long story short I'm going to +marry Sammy Adams, and I ran down to tell you that at the same time that +I brought the letter." + +There was an outbreak of exclamations and then a beginning at +congratulations, but Mrs. Ray stopped those. + +"I don't want congratulations," she said; "there isn't anything to +congratulate me about, for I never tried to get him, so I haven't had a +success or anything to be proud of. It's just that the dam is so likely +to be going to drown him out that he wants to rent my second floor and +pay the rent every first Monday in the month. I'm going to go straight +on with my life, and continue to save my own money to finish educating +Mr. Ray's children by his second wife. We shall go to church together, +and he'll sit with me evenings when I ain't too tired, or when he's +nervous over case-knives and swindling. He's going to pay me for all his +tailoring and all his hair-cuts, but he's to say when he thinks he needs +anything new or it's getting too long. He'll buy our potatoes and +chickens of me at the regular price, but I'll furnish my own eggs, like +I always have." + +"It's settled, then?" said Mrs. O'Neil, with a slight smile. + +"Yes, it's settled. I don't believe the dam will ever be dug, but I'll +marry Sammy all the same." + +"You're right about the dam, Mrs. Ray," Alva said, speaking for the +first time. "I don't believe it will ever be built, either; the Falls +have too many friends. Besides, there must come a time when the God of +All will say to our American Mammon, 'So far and no further shalt thou +go,' and I believe the time is now and that the place is here." + +"Well, I don't know about all that," said Mrs. Ray; "but Josiah Bates +drove the surveyors home yesterday, and he gathered from them that if +they built that dam and made that lake, the lake was pretty sure to +burst out around back of the Wiley place--that low place you know--and +we'd have a new waterfall in through the Wiley cow-pasture, even if we +didn't have nothing worse." + +"Goodness me!" cried Mrs. O'Neil, "what would the Wileys say to that!" + +"I don't know what the Wileys would say to that," said Mrs. Ray; "but it +made me know what I'd say to Sammy. Yes, indeed. If there isn't going to +be any dam, the summers here are going to go on exactly as they used to, +and I've got to have a man to bring up my ice! You know my motto, 'He +moves in a mysterious way,' and I can see now why the Lathbuns and the +dam both come. I had a dreadful time last summer getting my ice up, and +as long as everybody's been betting all along that I'd always marry +Sammy some day, I might as well do it now as any time. Yes, indeed." + +"You are very sensible," said Alva, rising, "and I'm sure that you will +be very happy. I congratulate you." She held out her hand. "Good-bye." + +"I'm sorry you're going so soon," said Mrs. Ray, clasping it warmly, +"you've meant such a lot of cancellation, and then I've got very fond of +you, too." + +Alva smiled. "I'm only going out on the bridge just now for a little," +she said, turning to Mrs. O'Neil. "I'll be back shortly." + +Mrs. O'Neil glanced towards the window. "It's snowing harder and +harder," she said; "wrap up warm." + +Alva went quietly out. When they were alone, Mrs. Ray shook her head. +"She looks bad," she said; "I'm not sure that she didn't care for him, +after all. She's got that mooney look. I know just the look. I'd have +looked just that way by spring, if I'd taken Gran'ma Benton and the +parrot. I'm glad I've decided to marry Sammy, instead." + +"You won't take them, then?" asked Mrs. O'Neil. + +"No, I couldn't stand Sammy and a parrot at once, and then, too, he +might quarrel with the parrot, or Gran'ma Benton might make trouble +between Sammy and me. I never allowed any one to make trouble between +Mr. Ray and me, and I won't allow trouble this time, either. If I'm +going to be unhappy married, I won't marry. That's flat." + +"I wonder if Jack knows they're arrested!" said Mrs. O'Neil, +thoughtfully. + +"I stopped in the bar on purpose," said Mrs. Ray, "I thought he ought to +know right away." + +"Was he there?" asked the wife. + +"Oh, no," said Mrs. Ray, calmly, "but I did what I could, Nellie, and +nobody can be expected to pass _that_, you know." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE BREAKING OF ANOTHER DAY AND WAY + + +Alva slipped into her cape, and drawing some fur up round her throat, +set swiftly forth upon the Long Bridge--for the last time, she told +herself. + +The snow was falling fast, but not thickly as yet, and she had it in her +heart to steal under cover of the fast-approaching twilight to her +house, and look upon that also for the last time. Her sorrow was too +deep to leave any room to mourn the background of her dream, but the +background was consecrated by the dream and she longed to stand once +more close to those walls, even if only to sob her heart out alone under +the rustle of dead leaves, amidst the fast deepening snow. + +There was in her that awful strength that saves one's reason in the +first shock of the otherwise unbearable. Years were ahead and yet her +heart did not shrink; endless gray duties stretched between their +mile-stones, but to her it mattered not. Nothing mattered, she told +herself over and over. Life would go on, other lives in especial would +go on; their demands would be hers to meet, their cares and troubles, +their joys and sorrows would be hers to reflect, but to her personally +nothing would--nothing could--matter more. Her unseeing eyes looked out +over the gorge; the matchless beauty, for the preservation of which her +dead love had fought so hard, came to a blind market now; she could not +see, she could not feel, for her life and all that makes life worth +living was over. + +So she swept on, her dark cape fluttering wide like wings on either side +of her steady swiftness. The snow crystals clung to the wool and quickly +starred its night with stars, but she saw no night except her own, and +noted no stars. "And yet I must not give way too much," she thought +suddenly, with a quick stabbing sense of proving unworthy; "if I am what +I have told Lassie that one should be--if I am what one who has truly +loved should surely be--I shall be strong and live resolutely as he +lived, even though I have been so crushed. Pain could not crush his +spirit; shall sorrow crush mine? I _will_ be strong." + +The letter which she had brought out with her came to her mind then, and +she paused and read it. It was from the surgeon and told her what she +had lately mistrusted,--that there had never been the slightest chance +of moving him, that she had been sent away as a child is banished from a +painful scene, and that she had been beguiled as a child is beguiled. +She did not resent the truth, she was too big to resent such a truth; +but she felt freshly mournful, and the home that was to have been seemed +to fade utterly out of her consciousness, leaving her with no desire to +ever see it again. + +But there was another sheet within the envelope. She took that out, too. +It was printed--in a hand that trembled. Her heart contracted as she saw +the crooked lines,--so much ran deep between them. + + ALVA:--I have struggled. I shall not give up. I believe + sometimes God has given a new body to serve a needed end. I + cannot go. I must come back. Not for your sake. But for + theirs--for the sake of those who will never know. If I come, + help me again. For you and for me help is the only bond. I am + not sure that there is any other that endures. Not in this + present world of ours. + +She shook a little. Something especially cold and piercing struck to her +heart. She raised her eyes quickly, and there, close beside her on the +bridge, the dead man stood. + +His bright dark eyes looked straight into hers. + +"Don't you know who I am?" he said. + +She would have fallen but for his quick grasp, and the grasp choked the +cry that was rising, for it was the grasp of flesh and of strength. + +"Don't you know who I am?" he asked again. "I thought that I saw in your +eyes that you knew. I thought that she had described me to you. I'm +Lisle Bayard. You wrote to me, you know." + +She drew away from him, and leaned heavily against the bridge-rail. If +it were true that this were he! A new body to serve a great purpose. If +that Mystery that is the rooting of all that is or is to be had been +building this man and this hour, and weaving and twisting and shaping +both to its ends! She seemed to stand motionless, but within herself she +was dizzy and reeling. "He moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to +perform." + +"You have freed them?" she said, divining truth with a prescience that +startled herself. + +"Oh, yes," he said, "I have been to Geneseo. They are free. But you +never really believed that I had any interest in them, did you?" + +His voice was no strange voice in her ears, nor was his manner that of a +stranger. She had to press her temples hard with her two hands. "You are +like the man whom I loved," she said; "he--he died yesterday. That was +what drew me to her; she described you and said that you loved her." + +"Poor thing," he said, simply. + +"And that you pursued her," Alva went on; "you can think that I +befriended her then. I tried to help her. Because I, too, loved--and +hoped." + +"It was good of you," he said; "but they are mere adventuresses--not +worth your troubling." + +"But you have helped them?" + +"I? Oh, yes. But," he hesitated; "I am tired of my life," he added +suddenly. "I've turned over a new leaf--I've reformed." + +"Since when?" + +"Since yesterday." + +She held hard to the bridge-rail. "Since yesterday," she repeated; +"since yesterday?" + +"Yes, since yesterday." + +Her eyes were staring into his now. "Tell me about it?" she cried, as +the starving cry out for food--"at once." + +"I don't know about it. I just turned in disgust from myself. It was all +in a minute. I wandered about all day and all last night. I tried to +drink--you know I drink?--and then all of a sudden I realized what a +beast I'd been, and I turned from it all. Something stronger than myself +drew me to Geneseo this morning; something stronger yet drew me here; +what led me out upon the bridge was strongest of all. I don't know what +it all means, but perhaps you do." + +For a long minute she looked at him, and then she spoke. "The man who +died is guiding you," she said; "I know it is that." + +He smiled a little. "Can I trust him?" he asked. + +"I think so," she answered; "because his appeal is to your better self. +You will learn." + +"And you will teach me?" he said, quickly. + +She was silent. + +"You will teach me?" he repeated. + +"I am going home," she said. "I live far from here. I have duties which +will chain me there for life. You will learn of him alone. You will be +guided; do not fear." + +He looked at her, and his eyes blazed suddenly. She shrank back with a +cry. "Oh, no--not that--not that!" she exclaimed; "I loved him and he is +dead. His work descends on us to do, that is all. All!" + +The man, looking down at her with the dead man's eyes, was silent. + +"I am not able to talk to you," she said, "I can hardly control my +voice. He died yesterday, and to-day you speak to me with his voice. And +it is so strange,--your coming. It is all so strange." + +"Yes, it is all strange," he said; "but it cannot stop here, you know. +The Purpose that has brought this about will not cease to exist now." + +She felt herself agitated, unnerved, trembling. She took hold of the +bridge-rail again. "The Purpose works for great ends," she said; "we +must learn that. I have learned it. Even a little respite from daily +life is not allowed, when one has once crossed the border and left self +behind. I have had to learn that in a bitter school. For God's sake, +lift burdens; do not add to them. And do not make my lot harder than it +is to be. You are not him, and I know it. Do not seek friendship with +me; it is torture." + +"But if I were he," he said, "if I do his work, live towards his goal, +accomplish his purposes. Who shall say what soul I bear? I never had a +soul till yesterday. I have one now. Where did it come from, this new +soul of mine. Perhaps from him. I've read stories like that." + +"I cannot bear it," she said, suddenly; "my head refuses to understand. +All that I have believed is rolling and crashing around me. Let us say +good-by. In a few hours I shall be far away. Oh, I shall be glad--so +glad--to go." + +"But I shall remain," he declared. "I shall take up the battle, and I +shall win his unfinished fight. Let us leave the future wrapped in its +mystery. I have been impatient all my life, but now I can wait." + +She walked away through the snow. + +And then suddenly, as she moved, she felt her steps stayed--she stopped. +It was not the man who had stayed her; he was standing where she had +left him, behind her--there on the bridge. But she was stopped by a +thought; at that thought she turned. + +"If you are to live here," she said faltering, her voice quite unlike +its usual firm, low purpose,--"if you are to live here, you will want a +home. There is a house--" + +She paused. Her hand had drawn a key from her pocket, and without +further explanation she held it out to him. + +He approached and took the key. He asked no question. He spoke no word. +They did not even exchange a glance. + +Five minutes later a veil of snowflakes divided them, and the gorge lay +black between. + +What is there to be said further? Nothing unless perhaps the single line +that can so fitly begin and end all: + +"He moves in a mysterious way." + + + * * * * * + + +_An International Love Comedy_ + + +A WOMAN'S WILL + +By ANNE WARNER + +Author of "Susan Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop." + +It is a relief to take up a volume so absolutely free from +stressfulness. The love-making is passionate, the humor of much of the +conversation is thoroughly delightful. The book is as refreshing a bit +of fiction as one often finds; there is not a dull page in +it.--_Providence Journal._ + +It is bright, charming, and intense as it describes the wooing of a +young American widow on the European Continent by a German musical +genius.--_San Francisco Chronicle._ + +A deliciously funny book.--_Chicago Tribune._ + +There is a laugh on nearly every page.--_New York Times._ + +Most decidedly an unusual story. The dialogue is nothing if not +original, and the characters are very unique. There is something +striking on every page of the book.--_Newark Advertiser._ + +A more vivacious light novel could not be found.--_Chicago +Record-Herald._ + + Illustrated by I. H. Caliga. 360 pages. 12mo. + Decorated cloth, $1.50. + + LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., PUBLISHERS, BOSTON + _At all Booksellers'_ + + +_New Edition with Pictures from the Play_ + + +THE REJUVENATION OF AUNT MARY + +_By_ ANNE WARNER + +_Author of "Susan Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop," "A Woman's Will," +etc._ + +Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth. $1.50 + +Always amusing and ends in a burst of sunshine.--_Philadelphia Ledger._ + +Impossible to read without laughing. A sparkling, hilarious +tale.--_Chicago Record-Herald._ + +The love story is as wholesome and satisfactory as the fun. In its class +this book must be accorded the first place.--_Baltimore Sun._ + +The humor is simply delicious.--_Albany Times-Union._ + +Every one that remembers Susan Clegg will wish also to make the +acquaintance of Aunt Mary. Her "imperious will and impervious eardrums" +furnish matter for uproarious merriment.... A book to drive away the +blues and make one well content with the worst weather.--_Pittsburg +Gazette._ + +Cheerful, crisp, and bright. The comedy is sweetened by a satisfying +love tale.--_Boston Herald._ + + LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., PUBLISHERS + + 254 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON + + +_An exceedingly clever volume._--BOSTON GLOBE + + +AN ORIGINAL GENTLEMAN + +_By_ ANNE WARNER + +Author of "The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary," the "Susan Clegg" books, etc. + +Frontispiece by Alice Barber Stephens. Cloth. $1.50 + +Merry reading indeed.--_New York Tribune._ + +All are humorous.... In none is dialect used.--_New York Sun._ + +The book brings out new possibilities in the author's work and will add +much to her popularity.--_Springfield Republican._ + +Humor and novelty of plot characterize most of the stories, and they are +entirely worthy of the creator of "Susan Clegg" and "Aunt +Mary."--_Syracuse Herald._ + +Crisply told, quaintly humorous.... Only a woman with discernment and +tenderness, and only an artist could make characters live and breathe as +hers do.--_Boston Transcript._ + +Exhibits her cleverness and her sense of humor.... Show much of that +humor in the conception and that skill in droll delineation of character +which first brought Anne Warner into notice with her "Susan Clegg" +stories.--_New York Times._ + + LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., PUBLISHERS + 254 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON + + +_Anne Warner's "Susan Clegg" Books_ + + +SUSAN CLEGG AND HER FRIEND MRS. LATHROP + +_By_ ANNE WARNER + +With Frontispiece, $1.00 + +Nothing better in the new homely philosophy style of fiction has been +written.--_San Francisco Bulletin._ + +One of the most genuinely humorous books ever written.--_St. Louis +Globe-Democrat._ + +Anything more humorous than the Susan Clegg stories would be hard to +find.--_The Critic, New York._ + + +_By the Same Author_: + +SUSAN CLEGG AND HER NEIGHBORS' AFFAIRS + +With Frontispiece, $1.00 + +All the stories brim over with quaint humor, caustic sarcasm, and +concealed contempt for male and matrimonial chains.--_Philadelphia +Ledger._ + + +SUSAN CLEGG AND A MAN IN THE HOUSE + +Illustrated by ALICE BARBER STEPHENS. $1.50 + +Susan is a positive joy, and the reading world owes Anne Warner a vote +of thanks for her contribution to the list of American humor.--_New York +Times._ + + LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., PUBLISHERS + 254 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In a Mysterious Way, by Anne Warner + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY *** + +***** This file should be named 37515-8.txt or 37515-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/5/1/37515/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Matthew Wheaton and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: In a Mysterious Way + +Author: Anne Warner + +Illustrator: J. V. McFall + +Release Date: September 23, 2011 [EBook #37515] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Matthew Wheaton and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div> + +<br> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="400" height="617" alt="" title=""> +</div> + +<p class="caption">In a Mysterious Way<br>Anne Warner</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h1">IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a name="gs01" id="gs01"></a> +<img src="images/gs01.jpg" width="400" height="608" alt=""THE ONLY REAL HOLE IS WHERE HE SAT DOWN ON AN ENGINE SPARK AT THE STATION." +(Frontispiece See p. 129)" title=""> +</div> + +<p class="caption">"THE ONLY REAL HOLE IS WHERE HE SAT DOWN ON AN ENGINE SPARK AT THE STATION." +(Frontispiece <a href="#Page_129"><i>See p.</i> 129)</a></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h1 id="booktitle">IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY</h1> + +<p class="h2">BY ANNE WARNER</p> + +<p class="h5">AUTHOR OF "THE REJUVENATION OF AUNT MARY"<br> +"SUSAN CLEGG AND HER FRIEND MRS. LATHROP"<br> +"AN ORIGINAL GENTLEMAN," ETC.</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h5c"><i>Illustrated by</i></p> + +<p class="h4c">J. V. McFALL</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h3">BOSTON<br> +LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY<br> +1909</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h4"><i>Copyright, 1909</i>,<br> +<span class="smcap">By Little, Brown, and Company</span>.</p> + +<hr class="thin"> + +<p class="h4"><i>All rights reserved</i></p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h4">Published April, 1909</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h4">Electrotyped and Printed at<br> +THE COLONIAL PRESS:<br> +C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U.S.A.</p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents"> + <tr> + <td class="tdrfirst">Chapter</td> + <td></td> + <td class="tdrfirst">Page</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Introducing Mrs. Ray</td> + <td class="tdr">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">The Coming of the Lassie</td> + <td class="tdr">9</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Introducing Lassie to Mrs. Ray</td> + <td class="tdr">28</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">The Difference</td> + <td class="tdr">43</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">That Dispassionate Observer, Mrs. Ray</td> + <td class="tdr">68</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">When Differences Lead to What is Ever the Same</td> + <td class="tdr">90</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">The Lathbuns</td> + <td class="tdr">104</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Miss Lathbun's Story</td> + <td class="tdr">112</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Pleasant Converse</td> + <td class="tdr">125</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">The Broader Meaning</td> + <td class="tdr">137</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">The War-Path</td> + <td class="tdr">148</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Another Path</td> + <td class="tdr">156</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">And Still Another Path</td> + <td class="tdr">161</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Devoted to Coats and Case-Knives</td> + <td class="tdr">170</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Learning Lessons</td> + <td class="tdr">181</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">The Walk to the Lower Falls</td> + <td class="tdr">195</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">XVII.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Righteous Justice</td> + <td class="tdr">210</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">In the Hour of Need</td> + <td class="tdr">218</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Doubts</td> + <td class="tdr">225</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">XX.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Shifting Sunshine and Clouds</td> + <td class="tdr">238</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">XXI.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">The Post-Office</td> + <td class="tdr">250</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">XXII.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Aftermath</td> + <td class="tdr">259</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">XXIII.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">The Darkness Before</td> + <td class="tdr">265</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">XXIV.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">Dawn</td> + <td class="tdr">274</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">XXV.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">The Breaking of Another Day and Way</td> + <td class="tdr">284</td> + </tr> +</table></div> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<p class="h2">ILLUSTRATIONS</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations"> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc">"The only real hole is where he sat down on an engine spark at the station"</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#gs01"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc">"It's her that bought the old Whittacker house"</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#gs02">21</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc">"Surely you remember me"</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#gs03">95</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc">Alva</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#gs04">166</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc">"If you've lent money to the Lathbuns you're going to lose it"</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#gs05">224</a></td> + </tr> +</table></div> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<p class="h1">IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY</p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<span class="pagenum">[1]</span> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<p class="h3">INTRODUCING MRS. RAY</p> + +<p>"'He moves in a mysterious way His wonders to +perform,'" sang Mrs. Ray, coming in from +the wood-shed and proceeding to fill up the stove, +with the energy which characterized her whole person. +A short, well-knit, active person it was, too,—a figure +of health and compact muscular strength, a well-shaped +head with a tight wad of neat hair on top, +bright eyes, and a firm mouth.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley, a near neighbor, sat by the table and +watched her friend with the after-nightfall passivity +of a woman who has to be very active during daylight. +Mrs. Wiley was not small and well-knit, neither was +she energetic. Life for Mrs. Wiley had gone mainly +in a minor key composed largely of sharps, and as a +consequence she sighed frequently and sighed even now.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray slammed the stove door and caroled louder +than ever, as if to drown even the echo of a sigh in her +kitchen. "'He moves in a mysterious way His wonders +to perform,'" she sang, and then, folding her arms on +top of her bosom in a manner peculiarly her own, she<span class="pagenum">[2]</span> +spoke to Mrs. Wiley in that obtrusively cheerful tone +which we use to those who sigh when feeling no desire +to sigh with them: "That's my motto—that song—yes, +indeed. It fits everything and accounts for everything +and comes in handy anywhere any time, even if +I never have wondered myself, but have been dead +sure all along. Yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley sighed again, and her eyes moved towards +a large, awkward parcel rolled in newspaper, which +lay on the end of the table by her. "I'm so glad you +feel able to undertake it, Mrs. Ray. I don't know how +I ever could have managed it, if you'd said no. Mr. +Wiley <i>will</i> have a new pig-pen this year, and the pigs +never can pay for it themselves. So you were my only +way to a new winter coat. I'm so glad you didn't +say no. Besides it's father's suit, and I shall love +to wear it for that reason, too."</p> + +<p>"I never do say no to any kind of work, do I?" +said Mrs. Ray, looking at the clock, and then all over +the room; "this would be a nice time of life for me to +begin to sit around and say no to work. What with +Mr. Ray's second wife's children not all educated yet, +and his first wife's children getting along to where +they're beginning to be left widows with six apiece +and no life insurance, I'm likely to want all the work +I can get for some years, as far as I can see. Yes, +indeed."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley sighed heavily.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Wiley thinks we'd ought to insure our lives +in favor of Lottie Ann," she said, feeling for her pocket-handkerchief +at the thought; "she's so dreadful +delicate—but I think it's foolish—she's so <i>dreadful</i> +delicate."<span class="pagenum">[3]</span></p> + +<p>"Why don't you insure Lottie Ann, then?" Mrs. +Ray glanced at the clock again, frowned a little and +puckered her lips. "If you don't mind taking that +chair the cat's in, Mrs. Wiley, I believe I've got just +about time enough to sprinkle the clothes before the +mail comes in; it looks so to me."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley slowly and gravely exchanged seats with +the cat. "Do you take much washing in now? I +shouldn't think you had time."</p> + +<p>"Time!" Mrs. Ray was dragging a clothes-basket +from under the table and filling a dipper with water. +"I never stop to think whether I have time or not, any +more. 'He moves in a mysterious way—' there's +where my motto comes in again. Yes, indeed. I +move just the same way myself. I don't see how I +get so much done, but I've no time to stop and study +over it, or I'd be behind just that much. There's more +than you wonder where I get time from, Mrs. Wiley. +They asked me if I had time for the post-office. And I +said I had. They asked first if I could read and write, +and I said I could; and then they asked me if I had time, +and I said I had. And that settled it."</p> + +<p>"Why, Mrs. Ray," said Mrs. Wiley, watching the +clothes-sprinkling, which was now going forward, +attentively, "that's one of the waists from that girl +at Nellie O'Neil's, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed. She asked Nellie for a French +laundress, and Nellie put her shawl right over her head +and run up and asked me if I had time for that, too. I +said I was willing to try, so I'm a French laundress +too, now. 'He moves'—"</p> + +<p>"What do you think of those two young people at +Nellie's, anyway?" Mrs. Wiley dropped her voice<span class="pagenum">[4]</span> +confidentially. "I was meaning to ask you that, right +at first."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you ask <i>me</i>," said Mrs. Ray, "I can't +make him out, and I think she's mooney. I'm a great +judge of mooney people ever since I first knew Mr. +Ray, and that girl looks very mooney to me. Look +at her coming here and hiking right over and buying +the Whittacker house next day—a house I wouldn't +send a rat to buy—not if I had a real liking for the +rat. And now the way she's pulling it to pieces and +nailing on new improvements, with the trees all boxed +up, as though trees weren't free as air—oh, she's +mooney, very mooney—yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>"Nellie don't think they act loving," said Mrs. +Wiley; "and Joey Beall says they don't act loving even +when they're alone together. He's been building a +culvert for Mr. Ledge, and he's seen 'em alone together +twice. Joey knows how people ought to act when +they're alone together. He always knows when folks +are in love, before they know themselves. He tells +by seeing them alone together. Why, he knew when +you was going to be married—he saw you and Mr. +Ray alone together that day you walked to the Lower +Falls."</p> + +<p>"But it wasn't through our acting loving that he knew +it," said Mrs. Ray, energetically ruminative between +the dipper of water and the clothes to be sprinkled; +"my, but I was mad that day! It was the first and +last time anybody ever fooled <i>me</i> into walking to the +Lower Falls. Yes, indeed. I like to of died! If Mr. +Ray hadn't asked me to marry him, I'd never have +forgiven him getting me to go on that walk. Those +flights of steps! And those paths! All the way down<span class="pagenum">[5]</span> +I was wanting to turn round and go back. I made up +my mind never to take Mr. Ray's word for nothing +again. And I never did. He fooled me into that walk, +but he never fooled me again. Yes, indeed. Never!"</p> + +<p>"But Joey Beall saw you that day," said Mrs. Wiley, +whose mind was of that strength which is not to be +swept beyond its gait by any other mind's rapidity, +"and he said right off that night you'd marry +him."</p> + +<p>"Maybe he saw Mr. Ray take his first and second +wife down to the Lower Falls, and knew it from his +looks with them—Mr. Ray took 'em both down there, +and asked 'em each to marry him coming back. All +the way down he was telling me what they each said to +everything they saw. And coming back he showed me +where he asked 'em each. Mr. Ray never made any +secret of his first and second wife to me. I'll say that +for him. Yes, indeed. And like enough Joey was +around then. He's always round when people are alone +together."</p> + +<p>"But he doesn't think these young people act loving," +Mrs. Wiley went on, recurring to the main issue under +discussion. "Joey says they don't have the right way +at all. He says they don't disagree right, either. +They're on opposite sides of the dam, the same as if +they were married folks, but they don't seem to feel +interested in their discussing. Nellie says they're real +pleasant, but she can't understand them; Nellie's +very far from making them out."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Nellie can't make nothing out. She and Jack +is dead easy. Look at those other boarders they've +got. She says she can't make them out, either. I +should think not."<span class="pagenum">[6]</span></p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley's standpoint refused to stretch to the +other boarders. She sighed again.</p> + +<p>"She seems a very nice girl," she said, sadly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, nice enough—but mooney," said Mrs. +Ray. "I know the kind as soon as I see 'em. I could +almost tell 'em by their legs, when they get down from +the train on the side away from me. She's got ideas +about souls and scenery, that girl has; but that young +man's got his living to earn, and he hasn't no time for +any ideas. I like him! We both work for the United +States Government, and that's a great bond. Yes, +indeed. That young man knows if the dam goes +through here, he'll be fixed for life digging it, and the +girl's just the kind he wants, for he's practical and she's +mooney—she's so mooney she's bought a house to +live in while he digs the dam, and yet she's solemnly +hoping there won't be no dam. She says so."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps she don't mean it," suggested Mrs. +Wiley.</p> + +<p>"Yes, she does mean it," said Mrs. Ray; "yes, +indeed, she means it. I'm a great judge of character +and that girl means what she says."</p> + +<p>"About the dam?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, about everything. She's very friendly with +me. She buys lots of stamps, and cancels up like a +lady. I'm very fond of her."</p> + +<p>"What did she say about the dam?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, lots of things. She said it was a desecration +for one thing, and then I was singing one day and she +said I was very right, for the Lord did move in a very +mysterious way, and He would save the falls."</p> + +<p>"Was she as sure as that?" asked Mrs. Wiley, +appalled.<span class="pagenum">[7]</span></p> + +<p>"She seemed to be. Oh, but she's very mooney."</p> + +<p>"She's expecting a friend on to-night's train," said +Mrs. Wiley; "Nellie says it's a girl younger than she +is."</p> + +<p>"There'll be trouble then," said Mrs. Ray, with the +calmness of all prophets of evil; "a girl younger than +she is is going to make her look awful old."</p> + +<p>"I wonder how long they'll stay!"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. You never can tell how long any +one will stay here. Some come and say 'Oh, it's so +quiet,' and the next morning the express has got to be +flagged to take 'em right away; and others come and +say 'Oh, it's so quiet,' and send for their trunks and +paint-boxes that night. You never can tell how this +place is going to strike any one. Mr. Ray's first wife +cried all the time, till she died of asthma brought on +by hay-fever; and his second wife liked to be where +she could go without her false teeth, and she just loved +it here! Yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>"It isn't so very long till the train now," said Mrs. +Wiley; "I guess I'll go down to the station. I always +like to see the train come in. It's so sort of amusing to +think it's going to Buffalo. Lottie Ann says it's so +funny to think of something being right here with us, +and then going right to Buffalo. I wish Lottie Ann +could travel more. Lottie Ann would be a great traveller +if she could travel any."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray took up the lamp. "Well, if you must go," +she said, "I'll put the light in the post-office and get +down cellar, myself. I'm raising celery odd minutes +this year, and getting the beds ready to lay it under +is a lot of work."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley rose and moved slowly towards the door.<span class="pagenum">[8]</span> +"I wonder how long those other two will stay at +Nellie's," she said.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray's lips drew tightly together. "I can't say +I'm sure," she said; "I know nothing about them. +Folks who never write letters nor get letters don't +cut any figure in my life. Good night, Mrs. Wiley,"—she +opened the door as she spoke—"good-by."</p> + +<p>"They've been there—" murmured Mrs. Wiley, +but the door closing behind her ended her speech.<span class="pagenum">[9]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<p class="h3">THE COMING OF THE LASSIE</p> + +<p>On that same evening Alva and Ingram, the main +subject of Mrs. Ray's and Mrs. Wiley's discourse, +sat in the dining-room of the O'Neil House, waiting for +train time. They had the dining-room to themselves, +except for occasional vague and interjectional appearances +of Mary Cody in the door, to see "if they wanted +anything." Ingram had been eating,—he was late, +always late,—and Alva sat watching him in the absent-minded +way in which she was apt to contemplate the +doings of other people, while she talked to him with +the earnest interest which she always gave to talking,—when +she talked at all. The contrast between her +dreamy eyes and the intentness of her tone was as +great as the contrast between the first impression +wrought by a glance at her colorless face and simple +dress, and the second, when, with a start, the onlooker +realized that here was some one well worth looking +at, well worth studying, and well worth meditating +later. Perhaps she was not beautiful—I am not +quite sure as to that—but she was surely lovely, with +the loveliness which a certain sort of life brings to some +faces.</p> + +<p>Ingram, on the other side of the table, was just the +ordinary good-looking, professional man of thirty to +thirty-five. Tall, straight, slightly tanned, as would be<span class="pagenum">[10]</span> +natural for a civil engineer who had spent September in +the open; especially well-groomed for a man sixty +miles from what he called civilization, fine to see in +his knickerbockers and laced shoes, genial, jolly, and +appreciative to the limit, apparently.</p> + +<p>The contrast between the two was very great, and +was felt by more than Mrs. Ray, for there had been +many who had watched them during the week of Alva's +stay. "He's a awful nice man," Mrs. O'Neil had said +to Mrs. Ray, "but I don't see how she ever came to +fancy him. They seem happy together, but it's such a +funny way to be happy together."</p> + +<p>This had been the original form of the statement +which Mrs. Ray had later repeated to Mrs. Wiley.</p> + +<p>It was true that they seemed very far apart, but were +nevertheless apparently happy together. The week +had been a pleasant week to both. Not, perhaps, as +the town supposed, but pleasant anyway.</p> + +<p>"I'm selfish enough to wish that it wasn't at an end +to-night," Ingram said, as he took his piece of blackberry +pie from Mary Cody; "you're a godsend in this +place, Alva."</p> + +<p>"But you'll like Lassie," his companion replied; +"she's a charming little girl,—and I love her so. I +always have loved the child, and just now it seemed to +me as if it would do both her and me good to be together. +Life for me is so wonderful—I don't like to +be selfish with these days. My thoughts are too happy +to keep to myself. I want some one to share my +joy."</p> + +<p>Ingram looked at her quizzically. "And I won't +do at all?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"You,—oh, you're away all day. And then,<span class="pagenum">[11]</span> +besides, you're still so material, so awfully material. +You can't deny it, Ronald, you're frightfully material—practical—commonplace. +Of the world so very +worldly."</p> + +<p>He laughed lightly. "Just because I don't agree +with you about the dam," he said; "there, that's it, +you know. Why, my dear girl, suppose all America +had been reserved for its beauty, set aside for the perpetual +preservation of the buffaloes and the scenery,—where +would you and I be now?"</p> + +<p>She looked away from him in her curious, contemplative +way. "If you knew," she said, after a minute, +"how silly and petty and trivial such arguments sound +to thinking people, you'd positively blush with shame +to use them. It's like arguing with a baby to try to +talk Heaven's reason with the ordinary man; he just +sees his own little, narrow, earthly standpoint. I wonder +whether it's worth while to ever try to be serious with +you. You know very well that the most of your +brethren would be willing to wreck the Yellowstone +from end to end, if they could make their own private +and personal fortunes building railways through it."</p> + +<p>Ingram laughed again. "Where would the country +be without railroads?" he asked.</p> + +<p>She withdrew the meaning in her gaze out of the +infinite beyond, where it seemed to float easily, and +centred it on him.</p> + +<p>"Just to think," she said, with deep meaning, +"that ten years ago I might have married you, and had +to face your system of logic for life!"</p> + +<p>"Is it as bad as that?"</p> + +<p>"It might have been. We might have made it so +before we knew better. That's the rub in marriage.<span class="pagenum">[12]</span> +Every one does it before he or she has settled his or +her own views. I wasn't much of an idealist ten years +ago, and you were not much of anything. But if I +could have married any one then, I should have married +you."</p> + +<p>A shadow fell upon his face. He turned his chair +a little from the table. "If I was not the right one, I +wish that you had married some other man then,—I +wish it with all my heart. You would have been so +much happier. You're not happy now—you know +that. It would have been so much better for you if +you had married."</p> + +<p>She smiled and shook her head. "Oh, no. It is +much better as it is. Infinitely better. It's like coming +up against a great granite wall to try and talk to you, +Ronald, because you simply cannot understand what +I mean when I say words, but nevertheless, believe me, +I'm on my knees day and night, figuratively speaking, +thanking God that I didn't marry then. I wasn't +meant to marry then. I've been needed single."</p> + +<p>He took out his cigarette case. "What were you +meant for, then, do you think?" he queried; "nothing +except as a convenience for others?"</p> + +<p>"I was meant to learn, and then later, perhaps, to +teach."</p> + +<p>"To learn?" He looked his question with a quick +intensity. "To teach?—" the question deepened +sharply.</p> + +<p>She smiled. "Yes. To learn so that I could teach. +I feel some days that I was born to teach, and of course +no one may hope to teach until he has learned first."</p> + +<p>He shrugged his shoulders and laughed a little. She +smiled again. "You great, granite wall, you don't<span class="pagenum">[13]</span> +understand a bit, do you? Never mind, light your +cigarette, and then tell me what time it is. We must +not forget Lassie, you know."</p> + +<p>He looked at his watch. "Ten minutes yet."</p> + +<p>"Dear child, how tired she'll be. Never mind, +she'll have a good rest during the next ten days."</p> + +<p>"Will she stay ten days? She'll be here as long as +you will then, won't she?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; I'm going when she does."</p> + +<p>"You think that the house will be done by that +time?"</p> + +<p>"I know that it will be done. It must be done."</p> + +<p>He took his cigarette up in his fingers, turned it +about a little, and then looked suddenly straight at +her. "Alva, tell me the mystery, tell me the story, +please. What is the house for?"</p> + +<p>She looked at him and was silent.</p> + +<p>"Why won't you tell me?"</p> + +<p>Still silence. Still she looked at him.</p> + +<p>"You'll tell her when she comes. Why not me?"</p> + +<p>She spoke then: "She'll be able to understand, +perhaps. You couldn't."</p> + +<p>Ingram compressed his lips. "And am I so awfully +dense?" he asked, half hurt.</p> + +<p>"Not so dense, but, as yet, too ignorant. Or else +it is that I am still too little myself to be able to rise +above some human sentiments. And there is one point +where endurance of the world's opinion is such refinement +of torture, that only the very strongest and +greatest can go willingly forward to meet and suffer +the inevitable. The inevitable is close to me these days; +it is approaching closer hourly, and there is no possible +way for me to make you or the world understand<span class="pagenum">[14]</span> +how I feel in regard to it all. And I shrink +from facing the kind of thing that I shall soon have to +face any sooner than is absolutely necessary. And +so I won't tell you."</p> + +<p>She stopped. Although her voice was firm, her eyes +had again become far away in their expression, and she +seemed almost to have forgotten him even while making +this explanation for his sake. He was watching her +with deepest interest, and the curiosity in his eyes +burned more brightly than ever.</p> + +<p>"But if it is all as terrible as you make out," he said, +"how can you make that young girl understand what +you suppose to be so far beyond me?"</p> + +<p>"Because I can teach her."</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"She'll be with me night and day for ten days. We'll +have a good deal of time together. And then, too, she +is a woman. Women learn some lessons easily. Easier +far than men."</p> + +<p>"Is it right to teach her such a lesson as this?"</p> + +<p>"Why do you ask that, when you do not know what +my lesson will be? How can you dare fancy that it +could possibly be wrong?"</p> + +<p>Ingram paused for a minute, a little staggered. +Then he said, bluntly: "The world is made up of +reasonable men and women, and it seems to me best +that all men and women should be reasonable. What +isn't reasonable is wrong. Forgive me, Alva, but you +don't sound reasonable."</p> + +<p>"You think that I am not reasonable? Therefore +I must be wrong. That's your logic?"</p> + +<p>He hesitated. "Perhaps I think you wrong. I must +confess that to me you often seem so."<span class="pagenum">[15]</span></p> + +<p>She thought a minute, considering his standpoint.</p> + +<p>"Ronald," she said then, "'reasonable' is a term +that is given its meaning by those in power, isn't that +so? 'Reasonable' is what best serves the ends of +those who generally seek to serve no ends except their +own. It's true that I don't at all care what a few +selfish and near-sighted individuals think of me. I +have thrown in my lot with the unreasonable majority, +the poor, the suffering, and those yet to be born who +are being robbed of their birthright. To leave my +mystery and go back to our familiar difference, there's +the dam to illustrate my exact meaning. The 'reasonable' +use of the river out there is to build a dam, and +so make a few more millionaires and give employment +for a few years to a few thousands of Italians. The +'unreasonable' use to make of the river is to preserve +it intact for tired, weary souls to flee to through all the +future, so that their bodies may breathe God and life +into their being again, and go forth strong. You know +you don't agree with me as to that view of that case, +so how can I expect you to disagree with the general +opinion that the 'reasonable' thing for me to do personally +is to take my life and get all the pleasure that +I can from it? The 'unreasonable' view, the one I +hold myself, is that I have elected to take it and give—not +get—all the pleasure that I can with it. Of +course you don't understand that unreasonableness, +and so you don't agree with me; but I can tell you one +thing, Ronald," she leaned forward and suddenly +threw intense meaning into her words, "and that is +this. My story—my mystery as you call it so often—is +at once a very old mystery and a very new one. I +have suffered, and I am to suffer, most terribly. The<span class="pagenum">[16]</span> +happiness to which I am looking forward is going to +be an ordeal for which all that I have undergone until +now will be none too much preparation. But in the +hour of my keenest agony I shall be happier and more +hopeful than you will ever be able to realize in your life. +Unless you change completely. Take my word for +that."</p> + +<p>She rose as she spoke, and he rose, too, looking +towards her with eyes that plainly subscribed to Mrs. +Ray's opinion as expressed in the simple vernacular.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, I can't understand, and I don't believe," +he said: "but I am able to meet trains, anyhow."</p> + +<p>A large cape lay on an empty chair near by, and she +took it up now.</p> + +<p>"But I'm going alone," she said, as she slipped +into it.</p> + +<p>"What nonsense. Of course I am not going to let +you go alone."</p> + +<p>She looked at him, buttoning the woolen cross-straps +upon the cape as she did so; then she threw one corner +back over her forearm and laid that hand on his, +speaking decidedly.</p> + +<p>"I'm going alone to meet her. You know what I +asked you to promise when I came here a week ago, +and you know that you gave me your word that you'd +never interfere with me. Lassie is almost a stranger +to you, and after you have learned to know her as a +young lady there will come years for you two to talk +together, but for me this meeting is something that I +don't want to share. Don't say any more."</p> + +<p>"But what will she think," he queried, "when she +and you return together, and here sits a cavalier who<span class="pagenum">[17]</span> +didn't trouble himself to accompany one lady through +the dark night to meet another's train?"</p> + +<p>"She will think nothing, because she will not see +the cavalier. When we come in, we shall go straight +up-stairs."</p> + +<p>Ingram more than smiled now. "Forgive me, Alva, +but you and I are such old, such near, such dear friends, +that I can say to you frankly, as I do say to you frankly +over and over again, I don't understand you."</p> + +<p>She laughed at that, and turned towards the +door.</p> + +<p>"I know—I know. I'm very queer, most awfully +queer, in the eyes of every one. But I can tell you, as +I tell them, that the worst of it is only for a little while. +Just a few brief weeks and I shall be again, in most +ways, a normal woman. A woman just like all the +rest again," her back was towards him now, "in most +thing—in most things."</p> + +<p>"Never! You never have been like other women,—you've +always been different from other women; you +always will be."</p> + +<p>"Have I? Shall I? Well, perhaps it's so. I'm +rather glad of it. Most women are stupid, I think. +Poor things!" she sighed.</p> + +<p>He followed her as she moved towards the door, +half-vexed, half-laughing:</p> + +<p>"And men, Alva, and men. Are they all stupid in +your eyes?"</p> + +<p>She had her hand on the knob, and her great cape +was gathered about her in heavy folds.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Ronald," she said, looking into his look, "if +you had any idea how fearfully stupid they seem to me. +Often and often in the last three years. Even yourself.<span class="pagenum">[18]</span> +And ten years ago, when we were eighteen and twenty-five, +I thought you so interesting, too."</p> + +<p>He burst out laughing at that,—it wasn't in him +to take her seriously enough to really mind her "ways" +long.</p> + +<p>"But what are we to do, when we are such mere +ordinary creatures? And you know, my dear, that if +the transcendentals like to muse on bridges by moonlight, +some well-educated, commonplace individuals +must build them the bridges first."</p> + +<p>"Ah, there you go again. Yes, that's true. One +should never forget that, of course. Particularly when +talking with a man who uses a man's logic."</p> + +<p>Then she opened the door, passed quickly into the +hall, and let it close after her.</p> + +<p>A lantern was resting on the floor outside, as if in +waiting, and she picked it up and went at once into +the night—a dark night through which the station +lights and signals, red and yellow, sparkled brightly.</p> + +<p>It was a brisk October air that filled that outer world, +and the superabundant vitality of God's country came +glinting, storming, down, up, and across earth, sky, +and ether in between.</p> + +<p>"This glorious night!" she thought prayerfully. +"If one might only realize just all it means to be existing +right now." She held the lantern behind her, and saw +her shadow spread forth into space and fade away +beyond. "The train isn't in the block yet," she +thought, glancing at the signal; "that means minutes +long to wait." Quickly she ran down the cinder-path +beside the tracks, and entered the little station where a +crowd of men lounged.</p> + +<p>"Is the train on time to-night?" she asked one.<span class="pagenum">[19]</span></p> + +<p>He shook his head. "Half an hour late," he said; +"wreck on the road. Wheel off a car of thrashing-machines +at Kent's."</p> + +<p>"A whole half hour?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I heard Joey Beall say they was making it +up," said the man; "the station agent's gone home to +supper, or you could ask him."</p> + +<p>"Thank you very much," Alva said, and turned and +went out.</p> + +<p>The night appeared even fairer than before. Her +eyes roamed widely. She thought for a minute of going +back to the hotel and bidding Ingram come out with +her, but then her own mood cried for relief from the +labor of his companionship. We do not give our spirits +credit for what they learn through adapting themselves +to uncongenial companionship. Alva felt hers craved +a rest. "I'll go out on the bridge and wait there," she +told herself; "that will be the right thing,—to stand +above the gorge and say my evening prayers."</p> + +<p>So, stepping carefully over the switch impedimenta, +she walked on, following the embankment that led out +to the Long Bridge.</p> + +<p>It is very long—that Long Bridge—and very high +as well. I believe that the first bridge, the wooden one, +was close to a world's wonder in its days. Even now +the skilfully combined network of iron, steel, joist and +cable seems a species of marvel, as it springs across the +great cleft that the glacier sawed through several +million layers of Devonian stratum several million +years ago. I forget how many tons of metal went into +its structure, but so intricate and delicately poised is +the whole, that while trains roar forth upon its length +and find no danger, yet does it echo quick and responsive<span class="pagenum">[20]</span> +to the light step of a lithe treading woman or even of +the littlest child. On this night Alva, wrapped close +in her cape, fared fearlessly out into the black beyond. +The high braces and beams creaked all along its vanishing +length, and she smiled at the sound. "I wonder +if sometime, years from now, I shall return and walk +out here again, and find the bridge crying me a welcome!" +she thought; "I wonder!" A narrow, +boarded way led to the right of the rails, and she was +soon directly over the gorge. It was far too dark to see +the ribbon of river hundreds and hundreds of feet +below, or the steep picture-crevasse that encased the +water's way. Beyond and below, to the left, she could +have seen the windows of Ledgeville, had she turned +that way, but she did not do so. It was the gorge that +always claimed her, whether by day or by night, and +now she leaned upon the steel guard and stared below. +"I can see it plainly, even in the dark," she murmured +to herself. "I can see every rock and eddy down there, +the great curve of whirlpool, and the place where the +water slides so smoothly off and then goes mad and +foams below. It is all distinct to me. I remember the +day that I first saw it, years ago, when—right here, +where I stand to-night—he came to me for the first +time, and we knew one another directly. And I shall +see it just so plainly in the years to come, when it will +never enter into my daily life any more, and yet will +be the background of all my living."</p> + +<p>She stood there for a long time, wrapped in the depth +of her own thoughts. The shadows below seemed to +shift and drift in their variations of intensity, and her +eyes found rest in their profundity. "It's like drawing +water out of a well when one is very thirsty," she said, +<span class="pagenum">[21]</span>at last, straightening herself and sighing; "it's unexplainable, +but oh, it's so good,—the lesson of darkness +and water and trees and sky. How grateful I am to be +able to spell out a little in that primer!"</p> + +<p>Then she clasped her hands and said a prayer, and +as she finished the signal flashed the train's entrance +within the block. That meant only two minutes until +its arrival, and so she turned herself back at once. +The crowd at the station had perceptibly increased +and began now to surge forth upon the platform. Mrs. +Dunstall was there and Pinkie, and Joey Beall and Mrs. +Wiley, and Clay Wright Benton, and old Sammy +Adams, and Lucia Cosby.</p> + +<p>"Been out on the Bridge, I suppose?" Mrs. Dunstall +said pleasantly to Alva.</p> + +<p>"Yes; it's lovely to-night," the latter replied.</p> + +<p>Every one smiled. They all felt that any one who +would go out on the bridge on a pitch black night must +be mildly insane, but they looked upon Alva as mildly +insane anyhow. Mrs. Ray had many beside Ingram +to uphold her opinion.</p> + +<p>"It's her that bought the old Whittacker house and +is putting a bath-tub in it," Joey Beall whispered to +a man who was waiting to leave by the last train out.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a name="gs02" id="gs02"></a> +<img src="images/gs02.jpg" width="400" height="633" alt=""IT'S HER THAT BOUGHT THE OLD WHITTACKER HOUSE."" title=""> +</div> + +<p class="caption">"IT'S HER THAT BOUGHT THE OLD WHITTACKER HOUSE."</p> + +<p>"I know it," said the man; he was one of those men +who never let Joey or anybody else feel that he had any +advantage of him, in even the slightest way.</p> + +<p>Just then the train charged madly in beside them.</p> + +<p>Lassie, out on the Pullman's rear platform, preparatory +to climbing down the steep steps the instant that +it should be allowable, saw a well-known figure wrapped +in a dark cloak, and gave a little cry of joy—</p> + +<p>"Alva! Here I am—all safe."<span class="pagenum">[22]</span></p> + +<p>Then she was enwrapped in the same dark cloak +herself, for the space of one warm, all-embracing hug, +her friend repeating over and over, "I'm so happy to +have you—so happy to have you." And then they +moved away through the little group of bystanders, +and started up the cinder-path towards the hotel.</p> + +<p>"I'm so happy to have you!" Alva exclaimed again, +when they were alone. She did not even seem to know +that she had said so before.</p> + +<p>"It was so good of you to ask me! How did you come +to think of it? And oh, Alva, what are you doing here, +in this lonely place?"</p> + +<p>"It will take me all your visit to properly answer +those questions, dear; but I'll tell you this much at +once. I asked you because I wanted to have you with +me, and because I thought that you and I could help +one another a great deal right now. And I am here, +dear, because I am the happiest woman that the world +has ever seen, and because the greatest happiness that +the world has ever known is to be here in a few weeks."</p> + +<p>Lassie stopped short, astonished.</p> + +<p>Alva went on, laughing gaily: "Yes, it is so! Come +on,—or you will stumble without my lantern to guide +you. I'm going to tell you all about everything when we +get alone in our room, but now, little girl, hurry, hurry. +Don't stop behind."</p> + +<p>So Lassie swallowed her astonishment for the time +being, and followed.</p> + +<p>The hotel stood on the crest of the hill above the +station and the railway's path curved by it. They were +there in a minute, and in another minute alone up-stairs +in their room—or rather, rooms—for there +were two bedrooms, opening one into the other.<span class="pagenum">[23]</span></p> + +<p>"Why, how pretty you have made them," the young +girl cried; "pictures, and a real live tea-table. And a +work-stand! How cosy and dear! It's just as if you +meant to live here always."</p> + +<p>Her face glowed, as she absorbed the surprising +charm of her new abode. One does not need to be very +old or to have travelled very extensively to recognize +some comforts as pleasingly surprising in the +country.</p> + +<p>Alva was hanging up her cloak, and now she came +and began to undo the traveller's with a loving touch.</p> + +<p>"Why, in one way I do mean to live here always, +dear. I never am anywhere that I do not—in a certain +sense—live there ever after. People and places never +fade out of my life. Wherever I have once been is +forever near and dear to me, so dear that I can't bear +to remember anybody or anything there as ugly. The +difference between a pretty room and an ugly one is +only a little money and a few minutes, after all, and I'm +beginning to learn to apply the same rule to people. +It only takes a little to find something interesting about +each. We'll be so happy here, Lassie; how we will talk +and sew and drink tea in these two tiny rooms! I've +been just feasting on the thought of it every minute +since you wrote that you could come."</p> + +<p>Lassie hugged her again. "I can't tell you how overjoyed +I was to think of coming and having a whole +fortnight of you to myself. Every one thought it was +droll, my running off like this when I ought to be deep +in preparations for my début, but mamma said that the +rest and change would do me good. And I was so +glad!"</p> + +<p>Alva had gone to hang up the second cloak and now<span class="pagenum">[24]</span> +she turned, smiling her usual quiet sweet smile as she +did so.</p> + +<p>"It's a great thing for me to have you, dear; I +haven't been lonely, but my life has been so happy here +that I have felt selfish over keeping so much rare, +sweet, unutterable joy all to myself,—I wanted to +share it."</p> + +<p>She seated herself on the side of the bed, and held +out her hand in invitation, and Lassie accepted the +invitation and went and perched beside her.</p> + +<p>"Tell me all about it," she said, nestling childishly +close; "how long have you been here anyway?"</p> + +<p>"A week to-day."</p> + +<p>"Only a week! Why, you wrote me a week ago."</p> + +<p>"No, dear, six days ago."</p> + +<p>"But you spoke as if you had been here ever so long +then."</p> + +<p>"Did I? It seemed to me that I had been here a long +time, I suppose. Time doesn't go with me as regularly +as it should, I believe. Some years are days, and the +first day here was a year."</p> + +<p>"And why are you here, Alva?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's a long story."</p> + +<p>"But tell it me, can't you?"</p> + +<p>"Wait till to-morrow, dearest; wait until to-morrow, +until you see my house."</p> + +<p>"Your house!"</p> + +<p>"I've bought a house here,—a dear little old +Colonial dwelling hidden behind a high evergreen +wall."</p> + +<p>"A house here—in Ledge?"</p> + +<p>"No, dear, not in Ledge—in Ledgeville. Across +the bridge—"<span class="pagenum">[25]</span></p> + +<p>"But when—"</p> + +<p>"A week ago—the day I came."</p> + +<p>"But why—"</p> + +<p>Alva leaned her face down against the bright brown +head.</p> + +<p>"I wanted a home of my own, Lassie."</p> + +<p>"But I thought that you couldn't leave your father +and mother?"</p> + +<p>"I can't, dear."</p> + +<p>"Are they coming here to live?"</p> + +<p>"No, dear."</p> + +<p>"But I don't understand—"</p> + +<p>"But you will to-morrow; I'll tell you everything +to-morrow; I'd tell you to-night, only that I promised +myself that we would go to a certain dear spot, and sit +there alone in the woods while I told you."</p> + +<p>"Why in the woods?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, Lassie, because I love the woods; I've gotten +so fond of woods, you don't know how fond; trees and +grass have come to be such friends to me; I'll tell you +about it all later. It's all part of the story."</p> + +<p>"But why did you come here, Alva,—here of all +places, where you don't know any one. For you don't +know any one here, do you?"</p> + +<p>"I know a man named Ronald Ingram here; he is +the chief of the engineering party that is surveying for +the dam."</p> + +<p>"Is he an old friend?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, from my childhood."</p> + +<p>Lassie turned quickly, her eyes shining:</p> + +<p>"Alva, are you going to marry him?"</p> + +<p>Her face was so bright and eager that something +veiled the eyes of the other with tears as she answered:<span class="pagenum">[26]</span></p> + +<p>"No, dear; he's nothing but a friend. I was looking +for a house—a house in the wilderness—and he sent +for me to come and see one here. And I came and +saw it and bought it at once; I expect to see it in +order in less than a fortnight."</p> + +<p>"Then you're going to spend this winter here?"</p> + +<p>Alva nodded. "Part of it at any rate."</p> + +<p>"Alone?"</p> + +<p>Alva shook her head.</p> + +<p>Lassie's big eyes grew yet more big. "Do you +mean—you don't mean—oh, what do you mean?"</p> + +<p>She leaned forward, looking eagerly up into the +other's face. "Alva, Alva, it isn't—it can't be—oh, +then you are really—"</p> + +<p>Two great tears rolled down that other woman's +face. She simply bowed her head and said nothing.</p> + +<p>Lassie stared speechless for a minute; then—"I'm +so glad—so glad," she stammered, "so glad. And +you'll tell me all about it to-morrow?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear," Alva whispered, "I'll tell you all +to-morrow. I'll be glad to tell it all to you. The truth +is, Lassie, that I thought that I was strong enough to +live these days alone, but I learned that I am weaker +than I thought. You see how weak I am. I am weeping +now, but they are tears of joy, believe me—they are +tears of joy; I am the happiest and most blessed +woman in the whole wide world. And yet, it is your +coming that leads me to weep. I had to have some +outlet, dear, some one to whom to speak. And I +want to live, Lassie, and be strong, very, very strong—for +God."</p> + +<p>Lassie sat staring.</p> + +<p>"You don't understand, do you?" Alva said to<span class="pagenum">[27]</span> +her, with the same smile with which she had put the +same question to Ingram.</p> + +<p>But Lassie did not answer the question as Ingram +had answered it.</p> + +<p>"You will teach me and I shall learn to understand," +she said.<span class="pagenum">[28]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<p class="h3">INTRODUCING LASSIE TO MRS. RAY</p> + +<p>The next morning dawned gorgeous.</p> + +<p>When Lassie, in her little gray kimono, stole +gently in to wake her friend, she found Alva already +up and dressed, standing at the window, looking out +over the October beauty that spread afar before her. +It was a wonderful sight, all the trees bright and yet +brighter in their autumn gladness, while the grass +sparkled green through the dew that had been frost +an hour before. The view showed the radiance fading +off into the distant blue, where bare brown fields told +of the harvest garnered and the ground made ready +for another spring.</p> + +<p>Lassie pressed Alva's arm as she peeped over her +shoulder, and the other turned in silence and kissed +her tenderly.</p> + +<p>Side by side they looked forth together for some +minutes longer, and then Lassie whispered:</p> + +<p>"I could hardly get to sleep last night—for thinking +of it all, you know. You don't guess how interested +I am. I do so want to know everything."</p> + +<p>Alva turned to regard her with her calm smile.</p> + +<p>"But when you did get to sleep, you slept well, +didn't you?" she asked; "tell me that, first of all."</p> + +<p>"Why, is it late? Did I sleep too awfully long? +Why didn't you call me?"<span class="pagenum">[29]</span></p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear, why? It's barely nine, and that +isn't late at all for a girl who spent all yesterday on the +train. I let you sleep on purpose. What's the use of +waking up before the mail comes? And that isn't in +till half-past under the most favorable circumstances; +and even then it never is distributed until quarter to +ten. I thought we'd get our letters after our breakfast, +and then carry them across the bridge with us. Would +you like to do that? I have to cross the bridge every +morning."</p> + +<p>"Cross the bridge? That means to go to your +house?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear."</p> + +<p>"How nice! I'm crazy to see your house. Is it far +from here to the post-office? Will that be on our way?"</p> + +<p>"That is the post-office there—by the trees." +Alva pointed to a brown, two-story, cottage-like +structure three hundred yards further up the track.</p> + +<p>"The little house with the box nailed to the gate-post?"</p> + +<p>"It isn't such a little house, Lassie; it's quite a +mansion. The lady who lives in it rents the upper +part for a flat and takes boarders down-stairs."</p> + +<p>"Does she take many?"</p> + +<p>Alva laughed. "She told me that she only had a +double-bed and a half-bed, so she was limited to eight."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>"I know, my dear, I thought that very same 'Oh' +myself; but that's what she said. And that really is as +naught compared to the rest of her capabilities."</p> + +<p>"What else does she do?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I can't remember it all at once, but +among other things she runs a farm, raises chickens,<span class="pagenum">[30]</span> +takes in sewing, cuts hair, canes chairs and is sexton +of the church. She's postmistress, too, and does +several little things around town."</p> + +<p>Lassie drew back in amazement. "You're joking."</p> + +<p>"No, dear, I'm not joking. She's the eighth wonder +in the world, in my opinion."</p> + +<p>"She must be quite a character."</p> + +<p>"Every one's quite a character in the country. +Country life develops character. I expect to become +a character myself, very soon; indeed I'm not very +positive but that I am one already."</p> + +<p>"But how does the woman find time to do so much?"</p> + +<p>"There is more time in the country than in the +city; you'll soon discover that. One gets up and +dresses and breakfasts and goes for the mail, and reads +the letters and answers them, and then its only quarter +past ten,—in the country."</p> + +<p>Lassie withdrew from the arm that held her. "It +won't be so with me to-day, at all events," she laughed. +"What will they think of me if every one here is as +prompt as that?"</p> + +<p>"It doesn't matter to-day; we'll be prompt ourselves +to-morrow. But you'd better run now. I'm in a hurry +to get to my house; I'm as silly over that house as a +little child with a new toy,—sillier, in fact, for my +interest is in ratio with my growth, and I've wanted a +home for so long."</p> + +<p>"But you've had a home."</p> + +<p>"Not of my very ownest own, not such as this will +be."</p> + +<p>The young girl looked up into her face. "I'm so <i>very</i> +curious," she said, with emphasis; "I want so to +know the story."<span class="pagenum">[31]</span></p> + +<p>Alva touched her cheek caressingly, "I'll tell you +soon," she promised, "after you've seen the house."</p> + +<p>Lassie went back into her room and proceeded to +make her toilet, which was soon finished.</p> + +<p>They went down into the little hotel dining-room +then for breakfast, and found it quite deserted, but +neat and sweet, and pleasantly odorous of bacon.</p> + +<p>"Such a dolls' house of a hotel," said Lassie.</p> + +<p>"It's a cozy place," Alva answered. "I like this +kind of hotel. It's sweet and informal. If they forget +you, you can step to the kitchen and ask for more +coffee. I'm tired of the world and the world's conventionality. +I told Mrs. Lathbun yesterday that Ledge +would spoil me for civilization hereafter. I like to +live in out-of-the-way places."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Lathbun is the hostess, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"No, Mrs. O'Neil is the hostess, or rather, she's +the host's wife. You must meet her to-day. Such a +pretty, brown-eyed, girlish creature,—the last woman +in the world to bring into a country hotel. She says +herself that when you've been raised with a faucet +and a sewer, it's terrible to get used to a cistern and a +steep bank. She was born and brought up in Buffalo."</p> + +<p>By this time Mary Cody had entered, beaming good +morning, and placed the hot bacon and eggs, toast and +coffee, before them.</p> + +<p>"I'm going for the mail after breakfast, Mary," +Alva said; "shall I bring yours?"</p> + +<p>"Can't I bring yours?" said Mary Cody. "I can +run up there just as well as not." Mary Cody was all +smiles at the mere idea.</p> + +<p>"No, I'll have to go myself to-day, I think. I'm +expecting a registered letter."<span class="pagenum">[32]</span></p> + +<p>"I'll be much obliged then if you will bring mine."</p> + +<p>"If there are any for the house, I'll bring them all," +Alva said; "will you tell Mrs. Lathbun that?"</p> + +<p>"I'll tell her if I see her, but they're both gone. They +went out early—off chestnutting, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>"Who is Mrs. Lathbun?" Lassie asked, when Mary +Cody had gone out of the room.</p> + +<p>"I spoke of her before and you asked about her +then, didn't you? And I meant to tell you and forgot. +She's another boarder, a lady who is here with her +daughter. Such nice, plain, simple people. You'll +like them both."</p> + +<p>"I thought that we were to be here all alone."</p> + +<p>"We are, to all intents and purposes. The Lathbuns +won't trouble us. They are not intrusive, only interesting +when we meet at table or by accident."</p> + +<p>"Every one interests you, Alva; but I don't like +strangers."</p> + +<p>Alva sighed and smiled together.</p> + +<p>"I learned to fill my life with interest in people long +ago," she said simply; "it's the only way to keep from +getting narrow sometimes."</p> + +<p>Lassie looked at her earnestly.</p> + +<p>"Does every one that you meet interest you really?" +she asked.</p> + +<p>"I think so; I hope so, anyway."</p> + +<p>"Don't you ever find any one dull?"</p> + +<p>Alva looked at her with a smile, quickly repressed. +"No one is really dull, dear, or else every one is dull; +it's all in the view-point. The interest is there if we +want it there; or it isn't there, if we so prefer. That's +all."<span class="pagenum">[33]</span></p> + +<p>There was a little pause, while the young girl thought +this over.</p> + +<p>"I suppose that one is happiest in always trying to +find the interest," she said then slowly; "but do tell +me more about the Lathbuns."</p> + +<p>"Presupposing them in the dull catalogue?"</p> + +<p>Lassie blushed, "Not necessarily," she said, half +confusedly.</p> + +<p>Alva laughed at her face, "I don't know so very +much about them, except that they interest me. The +mother is large and rather common looking, but a very +fine musician, and the daughter is a pale, delicate girl +with a romance."</p> + +<p>Lassie's face lit up: "Oh, a romance! Is it a nice +romance? Tell me about it."</p> + +<p>"It's rather a wonderful romance in my eyes. I'll +tell it all to you sometime, but that was the train that +came in just now, and I want to get the mail and go +on over to the house, so we'll have to put off the romance +for the present, I'm afraid."</p> + +<p>"I don't hear the train."</p> + +<p>"Maybe not—but it went by."</p> + +<p>"Went by! And the mail! How does the mail get +off by itself?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear, I must leave you to learn about the +mail from Mrs. Ray. She'll explain to you all about +what happens to the Ledge mail when the train rushes +by. It's one of her pet subjects."</p> + +<p>"Do you know you're really very clever, Alva; you +seem to be plotting to fill me full of curiosity about +everything and everybody in this little out-of-the-way +corner in the world? Nobody could ever be dull where +you are."<span class="pagenum">[34]</span></p> + +<p>A sudden shadow fell over the older's face at that; +a wistful wonder crept to her eyes.</p> + +<p>"I wish I could believe that," she said.</p> + +<p>"But you can, dear. You've always seemed to me +to be just like that French woman who was the only +one who could amuse the king, even after she'd been +his wife for forty years. You'd be like that."</p> + +<p>Alva rose, laughing a little sadly. "God grant that +it may be so," she said, "there are so many people who +need amusing after forty years. But, dear, you know +I told you last night that I sent for you to come and +teach and learn, and you are teaching already."</p> + +<p>"What am I teaching?" Lassie's eyes opened +widely.</p> + +<p>"You are teaching me what I really am, and that's +a lesson that I need very much just now. It would be +so very easy to forget what I really am these days. My +head is so often dizzy."</p> + +<p>"Why, dear? What makes you dizzy?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, because the world seems slipping from me so +fast. I could so easily quit it altogether. And I must +not quit it. I have too much to do. And I am to have +a great task left me to perform, perhaps. Oh, Lassie, +it's hopeless to tell you anything until I have begun by +telling you everything. You'll see then why I want to +die, and why I can't."</p> + +<p>"Alva!"</p> + +<p>"Don't be shocked, dear; you don't know what I +mean at all now, but later you will. Come, we must be +going. No time to waste to-day."</p> + +<p>They went up-stairs for hats and wraps, and then came +down ready for the October sunshine. It was fine to +step into the crispness and breathe the ozone of its<span class="pagenum">[35]</span> +glory. On the big stone cistern cover by the door a +fat little girl sat, hugging a cat and swinging her feet +so as to kick caressingly the brown and white hound +that lay in front of her.</p> + +<p>"A nice, round, rosy picture of content," Alva said, +smiling at the tot. "I love to see babies and animals +stretched out in the sun, enjoying just being alive."</p> + +<p>"I enjoy just being alive myself," said Lassie.</p> + +<p>They went up the path that ran beside the road and, +arriving at the post-office, turned in at the gate and +climbed the three steps. The post-office door stuck, +and Alva jammed it open with her knee. Then she +went in, followed by Lassie.</p> + +<p>The post-office was just an extremely small room, +two thirds of which appeared reserved for groceries, +ranged upon shelves or piled in three of its four corners. +The fourth corner belonged to the United States +Government, and was screened off by a system of +nine times nine pigeonholes, all empty. Behind the +pigeonholes Mrs. Ray was busy stamping letters for +the outgoing mail.</p> + +<p>"You never said that she kept a grocery store, too," +whispered Lassie.</p> + +<p>"No, but I told you that I'd forgotten ever so many +things that she did," whispered Alva in return.</p> + +<p>The lady behind the counter calmly continued her +stamping, and paid not the slightest attention to them.</p> + +<p>They sat down upon two of the three wooden chairs +that were ranged in front of a pile of sacks of flour and +remained there, meekly silent, until some one with a +basket came in and took the remaining wooden chair. +All three united then in adopting and maintaining the +reverential attitude of country folk awaiting the mail's<span class="pagenum">[36]</span> +distribution, and Lassie learned for the first time in her +life how strong and binding so intangible a force as +personal influence and atmosphere may become, even +when it be only the personal influence and atmosphere +of a country postmistress. It may be remarked in +passing, that not one of the letters then being post-marked +received an imprint anything like as strong as +that frame of mind which the postmistress of Ledge +had the power to impress upon those who came under +her sceptre. She never needed to speak, she never +needed to even glance their way, but her spirit reigned +triumphant in her kingdom, and, as she carried her +governmental duties forward with as deep a realization +of their importance as the most zealous political +reformer could wish, no onlooker could fail to feel +anything but admiration for her omniscience and +omnipotence. Mrs. Ray's governmental attitude towards +life showed itself in an added seriousness of expression. +Her dress was always plain and severe, and +in the post-office she invariably put over her shoulders +a little gray shawl with fringe which she had a way of +tucking in under her arms from time to time as she +moved about.</p> + +<p>Lassie had ample time to note all this while the +stamping went vigorously forward. Meanwhile the +mail-bag which had just arrived lay lean and lank +across the counter, appearing as resigned as the three +human beings ranged on the chairs opposite. Finally, +when the last letter was post-marked, the postmistress +turned abruptly, jerked out a drawer, drew therefrom +a key which hung by a stout dog-chain to the drawer +knob and held it carefully as if for the working up of +some magic spell. Lassie, contemplating every move<span class="pagenum">[37]</span> +with the closest attention, could not but think just +here that if the postal key of Ledge ever had decided +to lose its senses and rush madly out into the whirlwind +of wickedness which it may have fancied existing +beyond, it would assuredly not have gotten far with +that chain holding it back, and Mrs. Ray holding the +chain. It was a fearfully large and imposing chain, +and seemed, in some odd way, to be Mrs. Ray's assistant +in maintaining the dignity necessary to their dual +position in the world's eyes.</p> + +<p>The lady of the post-office now unlocked the bag +and, thrusting her hand far in, secured two packets +containing nine letters in all from the yawning depths. +She carefully examined each letter, and then turned the +bag upside down and gave it one hard, severe, and +solemn shake. Nothing falling out, she placed it on +top of a barrel, took up the nine letters, and went to +work upon them next.</p> + +<p>When they were all duly stamped, she laid them, +address-side up, before her like a pack of fortune-telling +cards, folded her arms tightly across her bosom, +and, standing immovable, directed her gaze straight +ahead.</p> + +<p>Now seemed to be the favorable instant for consulting +the sacred oracle. Alva and the third lady rose +with dignity and approached the layman's side of the +counter; Lassie sat still, thrilled in spite of herself.</p> + +<p>Alva, being a mere visitor, drew back a little with +becoming modesty and gave the native a chance to +speak first.</p> + +<p>"I s'pose there ain't nothing for me," said that +other, almost apologetically, "but if there's anything +for Bessie or Edward Griggs or Ellen Scott I can take<span class="pagenum">[38]</span> +it; and John is going down the St. Helena road +this afternoon, so if there's anything for Judy and +Samuel—"</p> + +<p>"Here's yours as usual," said Mrs. Ray, rising +calmly above the other's speech and handing Alva +three letters as she did so; "the regular one, and the +one you get daily, and then here's a registered one. +I shall require a receipt for the registered one, as the +United States Government holds me legally liable +otherwise, and after my husband died I made up my +mind I was all done being legally liable for anything +unless I had a receipt. Yes, indeed. I'd been liable +sometimes legally in my married life, but more often +just by being let in for it, and I quit then. Yes, indeed. +When they tell me I'm legally liable for anything now, +I never fail to get a receipt, and I read every word of +the President's message over twice every year to be +sure I ain't being given any chance to get liable accidentally +when I don't know it—when I ain't took +in what was being enacted, you know. Here,—here's +the things and the ink; you sign 'em all, please."</p> + +<p>Alva bent above the counter obediently and proceeded +to fill out the forms as according to law. Mrs. +Ray watched her sharply until the one protecting her +own responsibility had been indorsed, and then she +turned to the other inquirer:</p> + +<p>"Now, what was you saying, Mrs. Dunstall? Oh, +I remember,—no, of course there ain't anything for +you. Nor for any of them except the Peterkins, and +I daren't give you their mail because they writ me last +time not to ever do so again. I told Mrs. Peterkin you +meant it kindly, but she don't like that law as +lets you open other people's letters and then write<span class="pagenum">[39]</span> +on 'Opened by accident.' Mrs. Peterkin makes a +point of opening her own letters. She says her husband +even don't darst touch 'em. It's nothing against you, +Mrs. Dunstall, for she's just the same when I write +on 'Received in bad order.' She always comes right +down and asks me why I did it. Yes, indeed. I suppose +she ain't to blame; some folks is funny; they never +will be pleasant over having their letters opened."</p> + +<p>Alva bent closer over her writing; Lassie was +coughing in her handkerchief. Mrs. Dunstall stood +before the counter as if nailed there, and continued to +receive the whole charge full in her face.</p> + +<p>"But I've got your hat done for you; yes, I have. +I dyed the flowers according to the Easter egg recipe, +and it's in the oven drying now. And I made you that +cake, too. And I've got the setting of hens' eggs all +ready. Just as soon as the mail is give out, I'll get 'em +all for you. It's pretty thick in the kitchen, or you +could go out there to wait, but Elmer Haskins run his +lawn-mower over his dog's tail yesterday, and the dog's +so lost confidence in Elmer in consequence, that Elmer +brought him up to me to take care of. He's a nice +dog, but he won't let no one but me set foot in the +kitchen to-day. I don't blame him, I'm sure. He was +sleepin' by Deacon Delmar's grave in the cemetery +and woke suddenly to find his tail gone. It's a lesson +to me never to leave the grave-cutting to no one else +again. I'd feel just as the dog does, if I'd been through +a similar experience. Yes, indeed. I was telling +Sammy Adams last night and he said the same."</p> + +<p>"There, Mrs. Ray," said Alva, in a stifled voice, +straightening up as she spoke, "I think that will set +you free from all liability; I've signed them all."<span class="pagenum">[40]</span></p> + +<p>"Let me see,—you mustn't take it odd that I'm +so particular, because a government position is a +responsibility as stands no feeling." She looked at the +signatures carefully, one after the other. "Yes, they're +right," she said then; "it wasn't that I doubted you, +but honesty's the best policy, and I ought to know, for +it was the only policy my husband didn't let run out +before he died without telling me. He had four when +I married him—just as many as he had children by +his first wife—he had six by his second—and his name +and the fact that it was a honest one, was all he left +me to live on and bring up his second wife's children +on. Goodness knows what he done with his money; he +certainly didn't lay it by for the moths and rust, for +I'm like the text in the Bible—wherever are moths +and rust there am I, too. Yes, indeed, and with +pepper and sapolio into the bargain; but no, the money +wasn't there, for if it was where it could rust it would +be where I could get it."</p> + +<p>Alva smiled sympathetically, and then she and +Lassie almost rushed out into the open air. When +they were well out of hearing, they dared to +laugh.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my gracious me," Lassie cried; "how can +you stand it and stay sober?"</p> + +<p>"I can't, that's the trouble!" Alva gasped. "My +dear, she felt strange before you, and was rather +reticent, but wait till she knows you well—until to-morrow. +Oh, Lassie, she's too amusing! Wait till +she gets started about the dam, or about Niagara, or +about her views on running a post-office, or anything—" +she was stopped by Lassie's seizing her +arm.<span class="pagenum">[41]</span></p> + +<p>"Look quick, over there,—who is that? He looks +so out of place here, somehow. Don't he? Just like +civilization."</p> + +<p>Alva looked. "That? Oh, that's Ronald—Ronald +Ingram, you know, coming across lots for his letters. +You remember him, surely, when you were a little girl. +He was always at our house then. You'll meet him +again to-night. I'd stop now and introduce you, only +I want to hurry."</p> + +<p>"I suppose that he knows all about it?"</p> + +<p>"All about what?"</p> + +<p>"The secret."</p> + +<p>"Ronald? Oh, no, dear. No one knows. No one—that +is, except—except we two. You will be the +only outsider to share that secret."</p> + +<p>"For how long?"</p> + +<p>"Until I am married."</p> + +<p>"Until you are married! Why, when are you to be +married?—Soon?"</p> + +<p>"In a fortnight."</p> + +<p>"And no one is to know!"</p> + +<p>"No one."</p> + +<p>"Not his family? Not yours?"</p> + +<p>"No one."</p> + +<p>"How strange!"</p> + +<p>Alva put out her hand and stayed the words upon +her friend's lips. "Look, dear, this is the Long Bridge. +You've heard of it all your life; now we're going to +walk across it. Look to the left; all that lovely scene +of hill and valley and the little white town with green +blinds is Ledgeville; and there to the right is the +famous gorge, with its banks of gray and its chain of +falls, each lovelier than the last. Stand still and just +<span class="pagenum">[42]</span> +look; you'll never see anything better worth looking +at if you travel the wide world over."</p> + +<p>They stopped and leaned on the bridge-rail in +silence for several minutes, and then Alva continued +softly, almost reverently: "This scene is my existence's +prayer. I can't make you understand all that it means +to me, because you can't think how life comes when one +is crossing the summit—the very highest peak. I've +climbed for so long,—I'll be descending upon the other +side for so long,—but the hours upon the summit are +now, and are wonderful! I should like to be so intensely +conscious that not one second of the joy could +ever fade out of my memory again. I feel that I want +to grave every rock and ripple and branch and bit of +color into me forever. Oh, what I'd give if I might +only do so. I'd have it all to comfort me afterwards +then—afterwards in the long, lonely years to come."</p> + +<p>"Why, Alva," said her friend, turning towards her +in astonishment, "you speak as if you didn't expect +to be happy but for a little while."</p> + +<p>A sad, faint smile crept around Alva's mouth, and +then it altered instantly into its usual sweet serenity.</p> + +<p>"Come, dear," she said; "we'll hurry on to the +house, and then after you've seen it we'll go to my own +dear forest-seat, and there I'll tell you the whole +story."</p> + +<p>"Oh, let us hurry!" Lassie said, impetuously; "I +can't wait much longer."</p> + +<p>So they set quickly forward across the Long Bridge.<span class="pagenum">[43]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<p class="h3">THE DIFFERENCE</p> + +<p>On the further side of the Long Bridge the railway +tracks swept off in a smooth curve to the right, +and, as there was a high embankment to adapt the +grade to the hillside, a long flight of steps ran down beside +it into the glen below.</p> + +<p>A pretty glen, dark with shadows, bright with dancing +sun-rays. A glen which bore an odd likeness to +some lives that we may meet (if we have that happiness), +lives that lead their ways in peace and beauty, with the +roar and smoke of the world but a stone's throw distant.</p> + +<p>Lassie's eyes, looking down, were full of appreciation.</p> + +<p>"Is it there that you are going to live?" she asked.</p> + +<p>Alva shook her head. "Oh, no, not there; that is +Ledge Park, the place that all the hue and cry is being +raised over just now."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," Lassie turned eagerly; "tell me about +that. I read something in the papers, but I forgot +that it was here."</p> + +<p>"It is 'here,' as you say. But it concerns all the +country about here, only it's much too big a subject +for us to go into now. There are two sides, and then +ever so many sides more. I try to see them all, I try +to see every one's side of everything as far as I can,<span class="pagenum">[44]</span> +but there is one side that overbalances all else in my +eyes, and that happens to be the unpopular one."</p> + +<p>"That's too bad."</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear," Alva spoke very simply; "but what +makes <i>you</i> say so?"</p> + +<p>"Why? Why, because then you won't get what +you want."</p> + +<p>Her friend laughed. "Don't say that in such a +pitying tone, Lassie. Better to be defeated on the +right side, than to win the most glorious of victories +for the wrong. Who said that?"</p> + +<p>Lassie looked doubtful.</p> + +<p>Alva laughed again and touched her cheek with a +finger-caress. "I'll tell you just this much now, +dear;—all of both the river banks—above, below and +surrounding the three falls—belong to Mr. Ledge, and he +has always planned to give the whole to the State as a +gift, so that there might be one bit of what this country +once was like, preserved. He made all his arrangements +to that end, and gave the first deeds last winter. +What do you think followed? As soon as the State +saw herself practically in possession, it appointed a +commission to examine into the possibilities of the +water power!" Alva paused and looked at her friend.</p> + +<p>"But—" Lassie was clearly puzzled.</p> + +<p>"The engineers are here surveying now. Ronald +Ingram is at the head and the people of all the neighborhood +are so excited over the prospect of selling +their farms that no one stops to think what it would +really mean."</p> + +<p>"What would it really mean?"</p> + +<p>"A manufacturing district with a huge reservoir +above it."<span class="pagenum">[45]</span></p> + +<p>"Where?"</p> + +<p>"Back there," she turned and pointed; "they say +that there was a great prehistoric lake there once, and +they will utilize it again."</p> + +<p>"But there's a town down there."</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear, Ledgeville. Ledgeville and six +other towns will be submerged."</p> + +<p>Lassie stopped short on the railroad track and +stared. She had come to a calamity which she could +realize now.</p> + +<p>"Why, what ever will the people do then?"</p> + +<p>"Get damages. They're so pleased over being +drowned out. You must talk it over with Mrs. Ray. +You must get Mrs. Ray's standpoint, and then get +Ronald's standpoint. Theirs are the sensible, practical +views, the world's views. My views are never +practical. I'm not practical. I'm only heartbroken +to think of anything coming in to ruin the valley. Mr. +Ledge and I share the same opinions as to this valley; +it seems to us too great a good to sell for cash."</p> + +<p>"You speak bitterly."</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear, I'm afraid that I do speak bitterly. On +that subject. But we won't talk of it any more just +now. See, here's the wood road that leads to my +kingdom; come, take it with me."</p> + +<p>They turned into a soft, pine-carpeted way on the +left, and in the length of a bow-shot seemed buried in +the forest.</p> + +<p>"Lassie, wait!"</p> + +<p>Turning her head, Lassie saw that Alva had stopped +behind, and was standing still beside where a little +pine-tree was growing out from under a big glacial +boulder. She went back to her.<span class="pagenum">[46]</span></p> + +<p>"Dear, look at this little tree. Here's my daily text."</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"Do you see how it has grown out and struggled +up from under the rock?"</p> + +<p>Lassie nodded.</p> + +<p>"You know very little of what makes up life, dear. +I've sent for you to teach you." She lifted her eyes +earnestly to the face near hers, and her own eyes were +full of appeal. "Lassie, try to understand all I say to +you these days; try to believe that it's worth learning. +See this little tree—" she touched her fingers caressingly +to the pine branches as she spoke—"it's a +very little tree, but it has taught me daily since I +came, and I believe that you can learn of it, too."</p> + +<p>Lassie's big eyes were very big indeed. "Learn of +a tree!"</p> + +<p>Alva lifted one of the little stunted uneven branches +tenderly in her fingers. "This is its lesson," she said; +"the pine-cone fell between the rocks; it didn't choose +where it would fall, it just found itself alive and under +the rocks; there wasn't much earth there, but it took +root and grew. There was no room to give out branches, +so it forced its way crookedly upward; crookedly because +there was no room to grow straight, but always +upward; there wasn't much sunlight, but it was as +bravely green as any other tree; the big rock made it +one-sided, but it put out thickly on the side where it +had space. My life hasn't been altogether sunlit. I +was born between rocks, and I have been forced to +grow one-sided, too. But the tree's sermon came +home to me the first day that I saw it. Courageous +little tree, doing your best in the woods, where +<span class="pagenum">[47]</span>no one but God could take note of your efforts,—you'll +be straight and have space and air and sunshine +in plenty next time—next time! Oh, blessed 'next +time' that is to surely right the woes of those who +keep up courage and continue fighting. That's the +reward of all. That's the lesson."</p> + +<p>Lassie listened wonderingly. "Next time!" she +repeated questioningly, "what next time? Do you +believe in a heaven for trees?"</p> + +<p>"I am not sure of a heaven for anything," said +Alva, "not an orthodox heaven. But I believe in an +endless existence for every atom existing in the universe, +and I believe that each atom determines the +successive steps of its own future, and so a brave little +pine-tree fills me with just as sincere admiration as +any other species of bravery. 'Next time'! It will +have a beautiful 'next time' in the heaven which +means something so different from what we are +taught, or here again on earth, or wherever its little +growing spirit takes form again. I'm not wise +enough to understand much of that, but I'm wise +enough to know that there is a next time of so +much infinitely greater importance than this time, +that this time is really only of any importance at +all in comparison just according to how we use it in +preparation. That's part of the lesson that the tree +teaches. But you can't understand me, Lassie, unless +you are able to grasp my belief—my fixed conviction—that +this world is only an instant in eternity. I +couldn't live at all unless I had this belief and hope, +and it's the key to everything with me; so please—please—give +me credit for sincerity, at least."</p> + +<p>Lassie looked thoroughly awed. "I'll try to see +everything just as you do," she said.<span class="pagenum">[48]</span></p> + +<p>Alva pressed her hand. "Thank you, dear."</p> + +<p>Then they went on up the road.</p> + +<p>Presently the sound of hammer and saw was heard, +and the smell of wet plaster and burning rubbish came +through the trees.</p> + +<p>"Is it from your house?" Lassie asked, with her +usual visible relief at the approach of the understandable.</p> + +<p>"Yes, from my house," Alva answered. "They are +very much occupied with my house; fancy buying a +dear, old, dilapidated dwelling in the wilderness, and +having to make it new and warm and bright and cheerful +in a fortnight! Why, the tale of these two weeks +will go down through all the future history of the country, +I know. Such a fairy tale was never before. I +shall become the Legend of Ledge, I feel sure."</p> + +<p>The road, turning here, ended sharply in a large, solid, +wooden gate, set deep in a thick hedge of pine trees.</p> + +<p>"It is like a fairy tale!" Lassie cried delightedly; +"a regular Tourangean <i>porte</i> with a <i>guichet</i>!"</p> + +<p>"It is better than any fairy tale," said Alva; "it +is Paradise, the lovely, simple-minded, Bible-story +Paradise, descending upon earth for a little while." She +pushed one half of the great gate-door open, and they +went through.</p> + +<p>A small, old-fashioned, Colonial dwelling rose up +before them in the midst of dire disorder. Shingling, +painting, glass-setting, and the like were all going +forward at once. Workmen were everywhere; wagons +loading and unloading were drawn up at the side; +mysterious boxes, bales and bundles lay about; confusion +reigned rampant.</p> + +<p>"Not exactly evolution, but rather revolution,"<span class="pagenum">[49]</span> +laughed Alva, ceasing transcendentalism with great +abruptness, and becoming blithely gay. "And oh, +Lassie, the joy of it, the downright childish fun of it! +Don't you see that I couldn't be alone through these +days; they are too grand to be selfish over. I had +to have some one to share my fun. We'll come here and +help every day after this; the pantries will be ready +soon, and you and I will do every bit of the putting +them in order. Screw up the little hooks for the cups, +you know, and arrange the shelves, and oh, won't we +have a good time?"</p> + +<p>Lassie's eyes danced. "I just love that kind of +work," she said, fully conscious of the pleasant return +to earth, "I can fit paper in drawers beautifully."</p> + +<p>"Which proves that after all women stay women in +spite of many modern encouragements to be men," Alva +said. "You know really I'm considered to be most +advanced, and people look upon me as quite intellectual; +but I'm fairly wild over thinking how we'll scrub the +pantries, and put in the china—and then there's a +fine linen-closet, too. We'll set that in order afterwards, +and put all the little piles straight on the shelves."</p> + +<p>By this time they had gone up the plank that bridged +over the present hiatus between ground and porch, and +entered the living-room, which was being papered in +red with a green dado and ceiling.</p> + +<p>"How pretty and bright!" Lassie exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"It's going to be furnished in the same red and +green, with little book-shelves all around and the dining +table in the middle," Alva explained. "Oh, I do love +this room. It's my ideal sitting-room. It has to be the +dining-room, too, but I don't mind that."</p> + +<p>"Won't the table have to be very small?"<span class="pagenum">[50]</span></p> + +<p>"Just big enough for two."</p> + +<p>"But when you have company?"</p> + +<p>"We shall never have any company."</p> + +<p>"I mean when you have friends with you here."</p> + +<p>"I shall never have any friends with me, dear."</p> + +<p>"Alva! Why—I can come—can't I?—Sometime?"</p> + +<p>Alva shook her head.</p> + +<p>"That's part of the story, Lassie, part of the story +that I am going to tell you in a few minutes now. But +be a little patient, dear; give me a few minutes more. +Come in here first; see—this was the dining-room, +but it has been changed into—I don't know what. +A sort of bedroom, I suppose one would call it. I've +had it done in blue, with little green vines and birds +and bees and butterflies painted around it. Birds and +bees and butterflies are always so lively and bright, so +busy and cheerful. All the pictures here are going to +be of animals, either out in the wild, free forest or else +in warm, sunshiny farmyards. I have a lovely print +of Wouverman's 'Im Stall' to hang in the big space. +You know the picture, don't you?—the shadowy +barn-room with one whole side open, and the hay +dripping from above, and the horses just ridden in, +and the chickens scratching, and some little children +playing in the corner by the well. It's such a sweet +<i>gemuthliche</i> picture—so full of fresh country air—I +felt that it was the picture of all others to hang in this +room. There will be a big sofa-bed at one side, and my +piano, and pots of blooming flowers. And you can't +think, little Lassie, of all that I look forward to accomplishing +in this room. I expect to learn to be a very +different woman, every atom and fibre of my being will<span class="pagenum">[51]</span> +be altered here. All of my faults will be atoned for—" +she stopped abruptly, and Lassie turned quickly with +an odd impression that her voice had broken in +tears.</p> + +<p>"Alva!" she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"It's nothing, dear, only that side of me that keeps +forgetting the lesson of the tree. Don't mind me,—I +am so happy that you must not mind anything nor +must I mind anything either; but—when I come into +this room and think—" her tone suddenly turned +dark, full of quivering emotion, and she put her hand +to her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Alva, tell me what you mean? I feel frightened,—I +must know what's back of it all now. Tell me. Tell +me!"</p> + +<p>"I'm going to tell you in just a minute, as soon as +I've shown you all over the house." She took her +handkerchief, pressed it to her eyes, made a great, +choking effort at self-control, and then managed to go +on speaking. "See," pushing open a door, "this is a +nice little dressing-room, isn't it? And then around +and through this narrow back hall comes the kitchen. +There is an up-stairs, but I've done nothing there +except make a room comfortable and pleasant for the +Japanese servant who will do the work, that is, all +that I don't do myself."</p> + +<p>"Won't you want but one servant?"</p> + +<p>"I think so. A man from outside will take the +extras, and really it's a very small house, dear. The +laundry will be sent out. Dear me, how I do enjoy +hearing that kind of speech from my own lips. 'The +laundry will be sent out!' That sounds so delightfully +commonplace, so sort of everyday and like other<span class="pagenum">[52]</span> +people. I can't express to you what the commonplaces, +the little monotonies of ordinary lives, mean +to me here. You'll divine later, perhaps. But fancy +a married life where nothing is too trivial to be +glorified! That is how things will be with us."</p> + +<p>"Are you so sure?" Lassie tried to smile and speak +archly. Tried very hard to do both, because an intangible +atmosphere of sorrow was beginning to press +heavily on her spirits.</p> + +<p>"Very sure,—really, quite confident. You must +not think that, because I sob suddenly as I did just +now, I am ever weak or ever doubt myself or any one +else. I never doubt or waver. It is only that no matter +how hard one tries, one can hardly rise completely out +of the thrall of one existence into the freedom of another +at only a week's notice."</p> + +<p>"Is that what you are trying to do?"</p> + +<p>"Dear, I'm not only trying to do it, but the greater +part of the time I do do it. It's only very seldom that +my soul faints and the tears come. I am really happy! +You are not going to be able to comprehend how happy +I am. Every one who wants anything in this world +always wants it in such a narrow, finite way,—no one +can understand joy too limitless to be finite. The +difficulty is that occasionally I get blind myself, or else +in mercy God sometimes veils the splendor for a few +minutes. When I faint or struggle, it is just that my +soul is absent; you must not mind when you see me +suffer, for the suffering has no meaning. It's just a sort +of discipline,—it doesn't count." She smiled with +wonderful brightness into Lassie's troubled face, and +then, pushing open the outer door,—"You don't +quite see how it is, but be patient with yourself,<span class="pagenum">[53]</span> +dearie; it will come. All things come to him who +waits."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but I don't understand, not one bit," Lassie +cried, almost despairingly.</p> + +<p>They were in the yard now; Alva looked at her and +took her hand within her own. "Come," she said, +"we'll go down through the woods to a certain lovely, +bright spot where the view is big and wide, and there +I'll tell you all about it."</p> + +<p>"I so want to know!"</p> + +<p>"I know you do, dear, and I want to tell you, too. +I'm not purposely tormenting you, but there is no +one else to whom I can speak. And that human, sobbing +part of me needs companionship just as much +these days, as the merry, house-loving spirit, or the +beatifically blessed soul. Can't you see, dear, that with +all my affection for you, I dread telling you my story, +and the reason for that is that it will be too much for +you to comprehend at first, and that I know perfectly +well that it is going to shock and pain you." The last +words burst forth like a storm repressed.</p> + +<p>"Shock and pain me!" Lassie opened mouth and +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear, of a certainty."</p> + +<p>They were in the woods, quite alone.</p> + +<p>Involuntarily Lassie drew a little away; a common, +cruel suspicion flashed through her head. "Alva, is +it—is it that you do not mean to marry the man?"</p> + +<p>Alva laughed then, not very loudly, but clearly and +sweetly. "No, Lassie, it isn't that. I am going to be +married in the regular way and, besides, I will tell you +in confidence that I fully believe that I have been married +to the same man hundreds of times before, and<span class="pagenum">[54]</span> +shall be married to him countless times again. Does +that help you?"</p> + +<p>"Alva!"</p> + +<p>"There! I told you that you wouldn't understand, +and you don't."</p> + +<p>"No, I certainly don't, when you talk like that."</p> + +<p>"It's natural that you shouldn't, dear; but at the +end of the week you will, perhaps. We'll hope so, +any way. Oh, Lassie, how much we are both to live +and learn in the next week."</p> + +<p>Lassie turned her eyes to the eyes of the other.</p> + +<p>"It's queer, Alva; you talk as if you were crazy, but +I know you're not crazy, and yet I'm worried."</p> + +<p>"You don't need to be worried,—"</p> + +<p>"I'll try not to be." She raised her sweet eyes to +her friend's face as she spoke, and her friend bent +and kissed her. "Don't keep me waiting much longer," +she pleaded.</p> + +<p>They were passing through the little, tree-grown way +which led out on the brow of the hill. All the wide, +radiant wonder of that October morning unrolled before +them there. For an instant Lassie stood entranced, +forgetting all else; and then:</p> + +<p>"Tell me now!" she cried.</p> + +<p>"Let us sit down here," Alva said, pointing to a +rough seat made out of a plank laid across two stumps. +They sat down side by side.</p> + +<p>"Alva, it seems as if I cannot wait another minute; +I must know it all now. Tell me who he is, first; is it +some one that I know?"</p> + +<p>Alva's eyes rested on the wide radiance beyond.</p> + +<p>"You know of him, dear," she replied quietly.</p> + +<p>"Who is it?"<span class="pagenum">[55]</span></p> + +<p>The woman laid her arm around the girl and +drew her close and kissed her gently. Then she whispered +two words in her ear.</p> + +<p>With a scream, Lassie started to her feet. "Oh—no!—no!—<i>no!</i>"</p> + +<p>Alva looked straight up at her where she stood there +above her and smiled, steadily.</p> + +<p>"No, no,—it can't be! I didn't hear right."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you heard quite right."</p> + +<p>The girl's hands shook violently; tears came fast +pouring down her face. "But, Alva, he is—he +can't—"</p> + +<p>Tears filled the other's eyes, too, at that, and stole +thickly out upon her cheeks. "I know, my dear child, +but didn't I tell you how to me—to us—this life is +only a small part of the whole?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, but—but—oh, it's too horrible!" She +sank down on the seat again and burst out sobbing.</p> + +<p>"No, dear," Alva exclaimed, her voice suddenly +firm, "not horrible, just that highest summit of life of +which I spoke before—the point toward which I've +lived, the point from which I shall live ever afterwards,—my +point of infinite joy,—my all. For he is the +man I love—have always loved—shall always love. +Only, dear, don't you see?—he isn't a <i>man</i> as you +understand the word; the love isn't even <i>love</i> as you +understand love. It's all so different! So different!"</p> + +<p>A long, keenly thrilling silence followed, broken +only by the sound of the younger girl's repressed +weeping.</p> + +<p>It was one of those pauses during which men and +women forget that they are men and women, that the +world is the world, or that life is life. Every human<span class="pagenum">[56]</span> +consideration loses weight, and one is stunned into +heaven or oblivion, according to his or her preparation +for such an entry to either state.</p> + +<p>The two friends remained seated side by side, facing +the wonderful valley in all its rich beauty of varied +colorings; but neither saw valley or color, neither remembered +for a little what she was or where she was. +Alva, with her hands linked around her knees, was out +and away into another existence; Lassie, her eyes +deadened and darkened with a horror too acute for any +words to relieve, sat still beside her, and knew nothing +for the time being but a fearful throbbing in her temples—a +black cloud smothering her whole brain—and +tears.</p> + +<p>It was Lassie who broke the silence at last, trying +hard to speak evenly. "But, Alva, I never knew ... +when did you learn to love him ... why—" her +voice died again just there, and she buried her face on +the other's shoulder.</p> + +<p>Alva laid her hand upon the little hand that shook +under a fresh stress of emotion, and said gently, her +tone one of deepest pity: "Shall I tell you all about it? +Would you like to know the whole story?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, yes,—so much."</p> + +<p>"You'll try to be patient and give yourself time to +really see how things may be to one who is altogether +outside of your way of thinking, won't you, dear? +You won't pass judgment too quickly?"</p> + +<p>"I'll try. Indeed, I will, as well as I can—"</p> + +<p>Alva pressed the hand. "Dear little girl," she said, +very tenderly, "you see I look at even you with quite +different eyes from those with which the ordinary person +sees you. If you could only see things as I do,<span class="pagenum">[57]</span> +you'd see everything so much more clearly. How can +I put it all straight for you? When even my love for +you is not at all what any other gives you."</p> + +<p>Lassie lifted up her head. "How do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"There are two Lassies to me, dear,—the pretty, +sweet-looking girl, and the Lassie who loves me. Most +people confuse the two, and think them one and the +same; I don't. No matter what happened to you, the +Lassie whom I love could never alter—she is unchangeable. +She is not subject to change; she doesn't +belong to this world; she cannot die. And just as I +feel about you, I feel about everybody. What I can +see and touch in those I love is what I love least in +them."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Alva!" it was like a little moan—the girl's +voice.</p> + +<p>"That is my earnest belief. Bodies and what they +suffer don't count. That has come to me bit by bit +under the pressure of these last years. But it has come +in its completest form in the end. I am entirely +satisfied as to the only truth in the universe being the +fact that only Truth is eternal. Please try to remember +all this, while you listen to my story; try not to forget +it. You will, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"I'll try, but it isn't clear to me."</p> + +<p>"No, I don't suppose so—" Alva sighed—"but do +your best, my dear;" she paused a moment, then drew +the hand that she held close between her own two, and +went on slowly; "I must tell you first of all that I +have never seen him but three times in my life. Just +think—only three times!"</p> + +<p>"Only three—" Lassie looked up in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Only three times. And hardly any one knows that<span class="pagenum">[58]</span> +I saw him even those times. No one knows to-day +that we love one another, or that we are to be married, +except the surgeons and nurses, who had to be told, of +course. It's a very great secret."</p> + +<p>"Tell me how it all began, Alva."</p> + +<p>"I don't know when I first heard his name. It +all began here, dear, five years ago. When I stopped +off for a few days to visit the Falls. I've always loved +this country, and from the time that I was born I've +always been here for a few days now and then. I +always had a queer feeling that something drew me +here. I have those queer feelings about things and +places and people, you know, and out there on the +bridge has always seemed to me a sort of pivot in my +life. Every time I go there, the clock seems to strike +some hour for me—" she stopped.</p> + +<p>Lassie opened and shut her free hand with a sensation +of being very uneasy; the suspicion that Alva was +not quite sane just lightly crossed her mind. It certainly +was not sane to talk as she did.</p> + +<p>"So I came here again, on my way home from New +York, just five years ago now. And he was here then, +staying at Ledge Park, and I saw him for the first time; +we met out there on the bridge;" she stopped for just a +second or so, then went steadily on. "I think I read +about him in the papers. I had learned to admire him +intensely—who could help it?—but of course I'd +never for one instant thought of loving him. He was +like a sort of a story-hero to me; he never seemed like +a man; I never thought of any woman's loving him. +He just seemed to be himself, all alone—always +alone. He had seemed quite above and apart from all +other men to me. He interested me; I wanted to learn<span class="pagenum">[59]</span> +all that I could about him and his work, and I did learn +a great deal, but I'd never dreamed of meeting him +face to face, of really speaking to him, of having his +eyes really looking at me; he seemed altogether beyond +and away from my existence. As if he lived on another +world. And then I met him that evening on the bridge, +in just the simplest sort of way. Oh, it was very wonderful."</p> + +<p>"Did you know him right off?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he looked just like his picture; but then I +knew him in another way, too. I can't describe it; +it was all very—very strange. It doesn't seem strange +to me now, but it would seem almost too strange to +you."</p> + +<p>"Won't you try to tell me?"</p> + +<p>"I will some day, dear, perhaps. I can't tell you +now, I couldn't explain it all to you; but, anyway, we +met and I looked at him and he looked at me—" she +pressed the hand within her own yet closer, adding +simply, "I believe that love—real love—comes like +that, first of all that one look, and then all the past +rushes in and makes the bridge to all the future. Oh, +Lassie," her voice sank to a whisper, "when I think +of that meeting and of all that it brought me, I am so +happy that I want to take the whole wide world into my +confidence, and beg every one not to play at love or to +take Love's name in vain; but to be patient, and wait, +and starve, or beg, or endure anything, just so as to +merit the joy which may perhaps be going to be. I +never had thought of what love might be; at least I +had never been conscious of such thinking. My life +all these years had been bound so straitly and narrowly +there at home. How could I think of anything that<span class="pagenum">[60]</span> +would take me from those duties! And yet I see now +that it was all preparation, all the getting ready. If I +had only known it, though,—if I had only known it +then! It would all have been so much easier."</p> + +<p>The whisper died away; she sat quite still looking +out over the hills. Lassie's eyes gazed anxiously upon +her; nothing in her own spirit tuned to this key; instead, +flashes of recollection kept lighting up the present with +forgotten paragraphs out of the newspaper accounts of +the accident. She shivered suddenly.</p> + +<p>Alva did not notice. After a while she went on again.</p> + +<p>"Some day you'll learn to love some one, and then +you'll know something of what I feel. I don't want +you to suffer enough to know all that I feel. But, +believe me, whatever one suffers, love is worth it. In +that first instant I learned—that first look showed +me—that it can mean all, everything, more even than +happiness itself; oh, yes, a great, great deal more than +happiness itself. In one way they're not synonymous at +all, love and happiness. I have been happy without love +all my life, and now I shall love without being what +the world calls 'happy'; but I <i>shall</i> be happy—happy +in my own way, just as I am happy now in something +that makes you tremble only to think of."</p> + +<p>She paused; her eyelids fell over her eyes and the +lashes quivered where they lay on her cheeks, but her +hand continued to hold Lassie's, warm and close. +There was another long pause. And then another +sigh.</p> + +<p>"So in that first hour—it was only one hour—I +learned the beginning of life's biggest lesson—what +life may be, what love may be, and also what for me +could never be. For just as soon as I really saw him,<span class="pagenum">[61]</span> +I saw why he had remained alone. It was perfectly +plain to me. It was that he didn't live for himself; he +lived to carry out his purpose. One reads of such people, +but I never had met any one who was unable to see +himself in his own life before. It was a tremendous +lesson to me. It was like opening a door and looking +suddenly out upon a new order of universe. Everything +whirled for the first minutes, and then I saw that +my own life had been sufficiently unselfish to have +made me capable of comprehending his. It rose like +a flood through my soul, that everything has a reason, +and that my blind, stupid, hopeless years there at +home had all been leading straight up to that minute. +It was such a revelation, and such a new light on all +things. I was born anew, myself; I have never been +the same woman since. Never, never!"</p> + +<p>Lassie's brows drew together; the revelation did not +appeal to her personal reason as reasonable.</p> + +<p>"We talked for quite a while—not about ourselves—we +understood each other too well to need do that. +It seems to me now that we were almost one then, but +I didn't know it. All I knew was that I could measure +a little of what he was, and that there was a bond +between us of absolute content in working out God's +will rather than our own. I believe now that that is +really the only true love or the only true basis for any +marriage, and that when that mutual bond is once +accepted, nothing can alter, not even an ocean rolling +between—not even ten oceans. He spoke of the Falls, +and he spoke of his own work. I listened and thanked +God that I knew what he meant, and comprehended +what it meant to me. At the end of the hour we parted, +and I came back to the hotel and started for home the<span class="pagenum">[62]</span> +morning after.... He went away, too, and it was +later—when we began to write letters—that our life +together, our beautiful ideal life together, began. You +can't realize its happiness any more than you can +measure all that my words really mean. I can't explain +myself any better, either. After a while it will +all come to you, I hope. I went on with the work at +home, and he continued his labors which allowed him +neither home nor family. Nobody knew and nobody +would have known, even if he or she thought that they +knew. The very best and loveliest things lie all around +the most of us, and the best and loveliest of all treasures +are within our own hearts—and yet very few +of us know anything about them. Perhaps better +that the world in general shouldn't understand the +joy of my kind of love, anyhow; it isn't time for +that yet."</p> + +<p>"How, Alva?"</p> + +<p>She smiled almost whimsically, "Dearest, as soon +as the whole world understands that sort of life, its +own mission will be fulfilled, and then there will be no +more of this particular world. You see!"</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>"So then, dear, time went on and on, and I was +happy, very happy. And he was very happy, also. +There was something truly childlike in his happiness; +he had never expected love in his life, because he had +never thought of meeting any one who would be able to +adapt herself to his circumstances. We never met, +because it didn't seem best or wise. We just loved, +and I don't believe that any two people have ever been +happier together than we were, apart, for these five +years—these happy, happy five years."<span class="pagenum">[63]</span></p> + +<p>Lassie felt a deepening misery; the last horrible +part must be going to come now.</p> + +<p>Alva passed her hand over her eyes and drew a long +breath.</p> + +<p>"It's so difficult to be different from other people, +and then to bear their way of looking at things. It's +so hopeless to try to translate one's feeling into their +language all the time. How can I go on, when I know +just how it all looks to you. It's fearfully hard for me."</p> + +<p>"I won't say a word,"—the girl's cry was pitiful.</p> + +<p>Alva threw both arms quickly about her and held her +close. "Bless you, darling, I know it. But you'll +suffer and I know that, too; and I feel your suffering +more than you guess. I know just how it all seems to +you. There is that within me which shudders too, +sometimes, and would shrink and weep only for the +strong, divine power that fills me with something better +than I can describe, something big enough and high +enough to fight down the coward. You have that same +divinity within you, dear, and you can't tell when or +where it will be called out, but once it is called out, you +never will be weak in the face of this earth's woes."</p> + +<p>Lassie was weeping softly again.</p> + +<p>"One morning—you know when—I opened the +paper to read it to papa after breakfast, and I saw on +the first page, across the top in bright red letters, that +he had been killed."</p> + +<p>There was a little sharp cry—"But he wasn't?"—and +then a great sob.</p> + +<p>"No, dear, but that was the first report."</p> + +<p>"And you thought—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course I believed it. But, Lassie, try to +calm yourself—because it wasn't to me what you<span class="pagenum">[64]</span> +think. I was calm; I had learned so much, he had +taught me so much, during the five years, that I astonished +myself with my strength; really, I did. I went +about all that day just as usual, only thinking with a +white sort of numbness how long the rest of life would +seem; and then, in the evening, the paper said that he +was still alive. Then I telegraphed and the next day I +went to him. I knew that I must go to him and see +him once more, so I arranged things and went. I was +surprised all the journey at my own courage; it was +like a miracle, my power over myself. It was a long +journey, but I knew that I should see him again at the +end. I knew that he would not leave me without saying +good-bye, now that he was conscious that he was going. +I was sure of that. So confident can love and strength +be in love and strength.</p> + +<p>"I arrived—I went to the hospital—they had the +room darkened because—well, you can guess. I +went to where the bed stood and knelt down beside +him, and laid my hand on his bosom. I felt his heart +beating—ever so faintly, but still beating,—and I +heard his voice. Only think, I had not heard his voice +for five years! To you or to any one else it might have +all been frightful, because, of course, the reality was +frightful. The man, as you understand men, was +mangled and dying, and could not possibly be with me +except for a few brief days. But, oh, my dearest,—with +me it was so different; it was all so absolutely +different. The man that <i>I</i> loved was unhurt, and the +evil chance had only made us nearer and dearer forever. +I don't say that I was not trembling, and that I was +not almost unnerved by the shock; but I can say, too, +and say truly, that the Something Divine which had<span class="pagenum">[65]</span> +filled me from the first day, filled and upheld me and +made me know that all was good even then, even in +that dark hour and in that dark room, where he whom +I held dearest on earth was chained to pain beneath my +hand. The nurses were very kind. They left me there +beside him while he was conscious and unconscious +for some hours. They saw very quickly that it was +different with us from most people; and when I went +out two of the surgeons took me into a room alone +and told me the truth.</p> + +<p>"I think that then was the greatest moment of my +life—when I comprehended that one who was not +killed outright by such a shock might live even months +until—until—Well, if a man so injured has vitality +enough to live at all, he may—live—"</p> + +<p>"Don't go on, Alva, please,—I don't want to know +how long he may live."</p> + +<p>"No, dear, I won't go into that. Only you must +think that to me it was such unexpected heaven. +Instead of death, he was alive. Instead of separation +for this life, we were to have some days of absolute +companionship. It was something so much more than +I had ever thought of hoping. A life—even for a day—together! +Companionship! Not letters, but words. +I to be his nurse, his solace, to have him for my own. +I stayed awake all night thinking. I knew what being +swept suddenly away meant to him. I knew of his +life plans, and what made death hardest to him. It +came to me that I might ease that bitterness. That +his need could go forth through the medium of my love +and interest. That his work would pass on into other +hands through mine. That all the golden web of Fate +had been woven directly to this end."<span class="pagenum">[66]</span></p> + +<p>Lassie continued sobbing.</p> + +<p>"I saw what we could do. In the morning I went +to the surgeons, and they said that each day added a +week of possible life, and that although it would be +many days before anything could be done, after that, +he could be moved and wait for the end—with me. +I went to him then, and again I knelt there by the bed, +and this time I told him how I was going to spend the +weeks, and what he must look forward to. He was +unable to talk, but he looked at me and—like the +first time—we understood one another absolutely. +He accepted the happiness that was to be as gratefully +as I did myself. As I said before, it was so much more—so +much more—than we had ever expected! +He took up his burden of agony as cheerfully and +courageously as he had taken everything in life, and I +came away. There was no use in my remaining there, +as he would be either unconscious or—I could not +remain there; the surgeons forbade it.</p> + +<p>"Then I had to find a place quickly, a place where +no one would come or would see. A place where he and +I could share life and God, who is Life, without any +outsiders breaking in to stare and wonder."</p> + +<p>Her voice suddenly became broken and hurried. +"Of course I thought of Ledge, where we had first +met, and I wrote to Ronald at once. He found me that +dear little nest back there, and—" she stopped, for +Lassie had suddenly started to her feet. "What is it, +dear?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I can't bear it at all. To me it is horrible—horrible! +Why, he can never stand up again—he—Oh, +I want to be alone. I must be alone. I'll—I'll +come back—in time—"<span class="pagenum">[67]</span></p> + +<p>She did not wait to finish; she gave one low, bitter +cry, and wrung her hands. Then she ran down the +steep, little path that led to Ledgeville, leaving her +friend on the hilltop, with the October sun pouring its +splendor all about her.<span class="pagenum">[68]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<p class="h3">THAT DISPASSIONATE OBSERVER, MRS. RAY</p> + +<p>THERE never was the human tragedy, comedy, +or melodrama, yet, which did not have one or +more dispassionate observers. This is strictly true +because, even if a man goes off into the wilderness to +fight his fight out utterly alone, there are moments +when one part of his own spirit will dissever itself +from all the rest and, standing forth, tell him of his +progress or retrogression with a pitiless, unbiassed +truth. The wilderness is advisable for that very +reason, but no one makes a greater mistake than when +he or she goes to a small far-away village and pleasantly +terms it "the wilderness," supposing soul-solitude an +integral part thereof. It is very right, proper, and conventional +to view life from one's own standpoint, but +the real facts of the case are old and trite enough to +warrant me in repeating the statement that all doings +in this world have their dispassionate observer.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray was the natural observer for the town of +Ledge. The town was not quite aware that added to +her keen powers of observation she was also the Voice +of the community. People never expressed themselves +fully, without first knowing what she said. Public +opinion simmered all over the township, so to speak, +and then finally boiled over in Mrs. Ray.</p> + +<p>It will be quite impossible to impress upon the<span class="pagenum">[69]</span> +ordinary reader the importance of such Public Opinion, +unless a few paragraphs are devoted to the town of +Ledge and its history. If one fails to properly appreciate +the town of Ledge, the tale might just as +well have been located in North Ledge, South +Ledge, Ledgeville, Ledge Centre, or any of the other +Ledges.</p> + +<p>Therefore on behalf of the lovely little hamlet of +Ledge itself, I will state in as few words as possible +that it lies upon a hill overlooking one of the most +beautiful and picturesque scenes in all Northeastern +America; that it took its name and being from a great +and noble-hearted man, who, passing that way by +chance, half a century since, paused near its site to +sadly contemplate the denuded banks of the little river +winding its way amidst the débris and desolation left +by the lumber barons of the period. Time was when +the same banks had been smiling terraces covered thick +with primeval pines, but "civilization" had demanded +their downfall and they fell. Fell without warning, +and also without discretion. Fell forever, flinging the +riches of all the future aside for the plenty of one man's +day. Blackened stumps, great beds of unsightly chips, +waste which would never have been called waste in any +other land, ruthless destruction,—all this disfigured +the landscape that stretched before that visitor of fifty +years ago. His heart was heavy, for he was one who +loved everything good, and trees and beauty are two of +man's best gifts from above; but while he gazed over +what to him and many others was almost as much desecration +as desolation, he saw, forever flowing—however +choked—the little river below. Like the thread of +idealism which illuminates the most despairing situation,<span class="pagenum">[70]</span> +so flowed the silvery stream down through the scene +before him. Its bed was clogged with drift, its banks +covered with rotting rubbish, yet the promise of its +beauty remained; and then and there the traveller +formulated a plan for its redemption to the end that +unborn generations might revel in the realization of +that of which he alone seemed then conscious.</p> + +<p>The town of Ledge was a part of what resulted. +There had to be a town, and Ledge came into existence. +Where there is work to be done, come the workers, and +with them come towns. Ledge came and grew. To +the call of prosperity many other Ledges gathered a +little later; but they never enjoyed the dignity of the +one and original. The first Ledge was tenacious of +its priority. It held to its privileges as rigidly as any +medieval knight held to his. Castled upon the hill +above, it simulated power in more ways than one. For +many years all the others had to go to Ledge for their +mail. Ledge also owned the sheriff, the blacksmith, +and the lawyer, and kept a monopoly on the summer +excursionist; the express office was its natural perquisite; +a bend of the canal took it in, and when the +canal went the railroad came to console the losers. +Mr. Ledge's plans, which had turned his private estate +into a public park for the gently disposed, also held +Ledge in high honor. To visit Ledge Park from any of +the other Ledges was rendered well-nigh impossible. +The little town stood like a sentinel at the end of the +Long Bridge, and at the top of the First Fall. Every +picnicker had to go through it, had to check such +articles as could not conveniently be carried all day, in +its hotel; had to get whatever he might feel disposed +to drink in the same place. During the summer,<span class="pagenum">[71]</span> +visitors were so plenteous that it became the fashion +in Ledge to despise them, and that right heartily, +too. The people who brought the town most of +its means of livelihood received much that species +of sentiment with which an irritating husband and +father is frequently viewed. It was the fashion in +Ledge to despise city people and their ways in all +things; even their coming to see the Falls was referred +to as special proof of their singularly feeble minds, +while the way in which the visitors climbed and walked +was the favorite topic of mirthful criticism, all summer +long. Criticism is a strange habit. It is contagious, +thrives in any soil or no soil at all, and is far more +destructive to him or her who gives it birth than it can +possibly be to any other person. Not that it really is +destructive, but that the weight of criticism rarely falls +where it is supposed to be most needed.</p> + +<p>The summer visitors evoked so much comment between +May and November that a great longing to have +something to talk about between November and May +followed. It therefore became the fashion in Ledge to +talk of everything and everybody, and as the summer +visitors were rated low, the rest of the world was pretty +freely given over to the same cataloguing. It was +usual to rate Ledgeville and all the other Ledges particularly +low, and this opinion held firm, until a biting +edge was given it by a second railroad which came +down the valley's bottom to the unspeakable wrath of +the hills on either side and of Ledge in special. It +took several years to assimilate the second railroad, and +resume the even tenor of life. But the adjustment was +finally made, and at the date of this story Ledge +was a wee country idyll set like a pearl amidst the<span class="pagenum">[72]</span> +beautiful environment of that fairest of country counties. +He who was responsible for town and environment +lived on his own estate near by, and came in for +his share of consideration from the tongues of his +namesake. The great philanthropist was busily engaged +in his battle to preserve intact, for the good of +the many to come, that matchless picture with its open +Bible of Nature's Own History. Of the picture and its +practical value, Ledge had its own opinion. It had its +own opinion of the dam, too. It had its own opinion +of Alva. And of Lassie. And of Ingram. And all +these opinions flowed freely forth through the medium +of Mrs. Ray. As that lady herself put it: "Whether +I'm picking chickens or digging fence-posts, or carting +the United States mail down to the train in the wheelbarrow +that I had to buy and the United States Government +won't pay for,—I never am idle; I'm always +taking in something."</p> + +<p>And it was quite true. Whatever Mrs. Ray was +working at, her brain was never idle; it was always +absorbing something. It was not uncommon to see a +neighbor walking with her while she ploughed, conversation +going briskly on meanwhile. She swept the +church with company, and she almost never sat alone +between mail times. It was a full, busy life, and an +interesting one. It was full of importance and responsibility, +too. Mrs. Ray liked to be responsible and was +naturally important. Her opinions were in the main +correct, but sometimes she did draw wrong conclusions. +For instance, when she looked down the road the morning +after Lassie's arrival, and saw the two friends +departing over the Long Bridge.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear," she said to whoever was near by at the<span class="pagenum">[73]</span> +minute, "I smell trouble for that oldest one if she's +planning to keep that pretty girl here long. That man +is going to fall in love with that pretty girl. He never +has cared much for her, anyway. He don't even seem to +like to go over to their house with her; she goes alone +mostly. Yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>The somebody sitting near by at the minute was +Mrs. Dunstall. And Pinkie, of course. They had +dropped in to see if they had any mail, and had found +Mrs. Ray cutting the hair of the three youngest children +left her, first by her predecessor and then by Mr. Ray +himself.</p> + +<p>"Sit down," she had said cordially; "the second +train isn't in yet, and it's got to come in and go out and +let the mail-train come in, even if the mail ain't late, +on account of the wreck."</p> + +<p>"Oh, is there a wreck?" Mrs. Dunstall asked +anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Forty-four run into a open switch up at +Cornell. If the switch is open, I never see why the +train don't just run on out the other end and keep right +along; but all the accidents is as often open switches +as anything, so I guess there's a reason. At any rate, +the wrecking-train's gone up and the second mail's +going to be late. Tip your head a little, Billy. Yes, +indeed."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if we'd better wait," said Mrs. Dunstall, +unwrapping her shawl somewhat and taking a chair. +"What do you say, Pinkie?"</p> + +<p>Pinkie was already seated. She weighed two hundred +pounds and never stood up when she could help +it. "I say 'Wait,'" said Pinkie.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dunstall thereupon sat down, too, and after<span class="pagenum">[74]</span> +ten minutes of a most solemn silence Mrs. Ray finished +her task and dismissed the children. She faced her +callers, then, folding her little gray shoulder-wrap +tightly across her bosom as she did so, and tucking the +ends in close beneath her armpits. The little gray +shawl was one of the first signs of winter in Ledge; +Mrs. Ray always donned it at the beginning of October, +and never took it off before the last day of May.</p> + +<p>"Well!" she said now; "anything new come up?"</p> + +<p>"Millicent come on the same train with that girl," +Mrs. Dunstall began at once. "I wasn't really expecting +any mail this morning, but I thought I might as +well come down about now and tell you how Millicent +come on the train with her. You know who I mean, of +course?"</p> + +<p>"She knows," said Pinkie.</p> + +<p>"I s'posed you would. And so Millicent come on +the same train with her. Seems too curious of Millicent +coming on the same train with her, when Millicent +hasn't been on a train but twice in her life before, and +then to think that she would come back with that girl. +Things do fall out queer in this world. She sit right +in the seat behind her, too. That was awful curious, +I think."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray gave the ends of her shawl a fresh tuck, +and drew in some extra breath.</p> + +<p>"You never can tell," she began; "things do come +about mighty strange in this world. Yes, indeed. It's +the unexpected that has happened so much that it's +got to be a proverb in the end. I always feel when a +thing has been coming about till it gets to be proverb, +it's no use me disputing it. Dig around in smoking +ashes long enough, and I've never failed to find some<span class="pagenum">[75]</span> +sparks yet. And what you just said is all true as true +can be. It's the unexpected as always happens. Look +at me, for instance. Look at how the post-office fell +out of a clear sky on me, and Mr. Ray much the same, +too. I never had any idea of either of 'em beforehand, +and now here I am stamping letters morning and night +to keep up the payments on his tombstone. Things do +work in circles so in this world. I always say if I hadn't +been postmistress no one would have expected to see +my husband have a fringed cloth hang on a pillar over +his dead body, and if I hadn't been postmistress I +never could have paid for such a thing. But where +there's a will there's a way, which is another proverb +as I've never found go wrong, unless your way is to +stay in bed while you're willing."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but you never could have put anything plain +on Mr. Ray—not in your circumstances, and him +passing the plate every Sunday and you the sexton +yourself." Mrs. Dunstall looked almost shocked at +the mere fancy.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't I! Well, I guess I could if I'd had my +own way. But I wasn't allowed my own way. Nobody +is. That's what holds us back in this world; it's +the being expected to live up to what we've got; and in +this country, where the garden is open to the public, +most of us has to live up to a good deal more'n we've +got. If America ever takes to walls, it'll show it's going +to begin to economize. It'll mean we're giving up +tulips and going in for potatoes. And you'll see, Mrs. +Dunstall, that just as soon as we really have to economize +we'll begin to build walls. There's something +about economy as likes walls around the house—high +ones."<span class="pagenum">[76]</span></p> + +<p>"You was raised with walls, wasn't you?" said +Mrs. Dunstall.</p> + +<p>"I should think I was. I'm English-born—I am."</p> + +<p>"How old was you when you come to this country, +Mrs. Ray?"</p> + +<p>"I've lived here thirty-eight years; that's how old I +was."</p> + +<p>"You wasn't here before Mr. Ledge?"</p> + +<p>"No, I wasn't, nor before the Falls, neither."</p> + +<p>"Why, the Falls was here before Mr. Ledge," said +Mrs. Dunstall, enlarging her eyes. "Oh, I see, you're +making a joke, Mrs. Ray."</p> + +<p>"I do occasionally make a joke," said Mrs. Ray, +giving her shawl another tuck.</p> + +<p>"Well, to go back to the girl," said Mrs. Dunstall, +"she sit right behind Millicent too, and what makes it +all the stranger, is, she asked Millicent the name of the +next station. Millicent told her it was going to be +Ledge, and asked her if she was for Ledge, because if +she was for East Ledge she ought to stay on one station +more. You know, Mrs. Ray, how folks are always getting +off here for East Ledge, and having to stay all +night or hire a buggy to drive over—two shillings +either way; and Millicent asked her, too, if she was +for Ledge's Crossing, because if she was for the Crossing +the train don't stop there, and Millicent always was +kind-hearted and wanted her to know it right off. You +know how Millicent is, Pinkie; the last time she rode on +a train she threw the two bags off to the old lady who +forgot them, and they weren't the old lady's bags; they +were the conductor's, and he had to run the train way +back for them; he did feel so vexed about them, +Millicent said."<span class="pagenum">[77]</span></p> + +<p>"So vexed," said Pinkie.</p> + +<p>"And so then Millicent asked her if maybe she was +for Ledgeville, because if she was for Ledgeville she +was on the wrong train, and had ought to have took the +Pennsylvania, unless she telegraphed from Ledge +Centre for the omnibus to come up, which nobody ever +knows to do; and then it come into Millicent's head +as maybe she was going to visit Mr. Ledge, in which +case goodness knows what she would do, for although +he gets his mail at Ledge, he gets his company at Castile, +and here was that poor child five miles of bridge and +walk out of her way, and Millicent's heart just bleeding +for her, she looked so tired. But she said she was for +Ledge."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I could have told you she was for Ledge," +said Mrs. Ray; "there was two letters for her here. +When I have letters for people without having the +people for the letters, it always means one or two things,—either +the people are coming or the letters are +addressed wrong. I learned that long ago. Yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>"Millicent says she liked her looks from the first," +pursued Mrs. Dunstall, "only her hat did amuse her. +I must say the hats folks from town wear is about the +most amusing things we ever see here. One year they +pin 'em to their fronts and next year to their backs, and +Millicent says this one was on hindside before with a +feather duster upside down on top. She never saw anything +like it; but she said the girl was so innocent of +what a sight she was that she wouldn't have let her see +her laughing behind her back for anything. What do +you think of city people anyhow, Mrs. Ray?"</p> + +<p>"City people are always mooney," responded Mrs. +Ray; "such mooney ideas as come into their heads in<span class="pagenum">[78]</span> +the country always. Seems like they save all their +mooney ideas for the country. Yes, indeed. They take +off their hats and their shoes and carry stones around in +their handkerchiefs; and when I see 'em slipping and +scrambling up and down that steep bank all the hot +summer long, and taking that walk to the Lower Falls +that's enough to kill any Christian with brains, I most +humbly thank our merciful Father in heaven that I've +stayed in the country and kept my good senses. Yes, +indeed. And then what they lug back to town with +them! That's what uses me all up! Roots and stones! +Why, I saw some one bring a root from the Lower Falls +last year, yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>"That walk to the Lower Falls is terrible," said Mrs. +Dunstall, meditatively. "I took it once,—and you, +too,—didn't you, Pinkie?"</p> + +<p>"Twice," said Pinkie.</p> + +<p>"I took it once, too," said Mrs. Ray, who was never +loath to discuss that famous promenade. "Mr. Ray +and me took it together. It was when we first met. He +took me, and we walked to the Lower Falls. It was a +awful walk; I never see a worse one, myself. They say +it isn't so bad now. Of course, the time I went with +Mr. Ray was while he was still alive. It was harder +then. He asked me to marry him coming back. Oh, +I'll never forget that awful walk!"</p> + +<p>"It's bad enough yet," said Mrs. Dunstall. "Mr. +Ledge has done all he could to build things to catch +hold of where you'd go head over heels to heaven if he +hadn't, but it's a awful walk still. And then the steps! +Why, Nathan and Lizzie was there last summer, and +Lizzie says all the way down she was thinking how she +was ever going to be able to get back, and all the way<span class="pagenum">[79]</span> +back she was thinking just the same thing. Going, you +go down steps till it seems like there never would come +the bottom, and coming back you come up steps till +you're ready to move to Ledgeville and live on the +bottoms for life. You know how that is, Pinkie?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Pinkie.</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't do any good to move to Ledgeville to +get rid of the Lower Falls," said Mrs. Ray, "because +the dam is going to do away with the Lower Falls and +drown Ledgeville entirely. That's the next little surprise +the city folks will be giving us."</p> + +<p>"I shall like to stand on the bridge the day they let +the water in over the dam the first time," said Mrs. +Dunstall. "It'll be a great sight to see the valley turn +into a lake, and South Ledge and Ledgeville go under."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't look forward to it too much if I was you," +said Mrs. Ray; "it's going to take three or four years +to dig that dam, they tell me. You can't lay out a lake +and break up three sets of falls in a minute."</p> + +<p>"They haven't got to do something to all the Falls," +said Mrs. Dunstall. "Josiah Bates was holding stakes +for one of the surveyors yesterday, and he heard him +say as the Lower Falls wouldn't need a thing, for it was +a mill-race already."</p> + +<p>"Well, it's a blessing if there's one thing ready to +their hands," said Mrs. Ray, "for I must say the way +the State has took hold of us, since Mr. Ledge set out to +give it something for nothing, is a caution. If he'd +offered to sell the Falls at cost price, we'd of had a +petition and our taxes increased and been marked +'keep off the grass,' in all directions; but just because +he offered to give it to 'em all cleared up and in order, +they must tear around and build a dam and drown<span class="pagenum">[80]</span> +five villages and go cutting up monkey-shines generally. +Yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>"They do say that the dam will keep the Falls, +instead of spoiling them," said Mrs. Dunstall; "they +say the Falls is stratifying backward, and is most +through being falls, anyway, and if the dam is built, +we'll all have that to look at always."</p> + +<p>"It'll be all one to me," said Mrs. Ray; "I never get +time to look at nothing, anyway, unless it's folks waiting +for their mail, and goodness knows they've long ceased +to interest me."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dunstall looked a bit uncertain as to how to +receive this outburst of confidence. "It does you good +to take a little rest," she said at last; "you work too +hard for a woman of your time of life, Mrs. Ray."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'd like to know how I can help it, with my +farm and my chickens and my grocery business, not +to speak of the boarders and the children and the post-office. +When one's a mother and a farmer and a sexton +and an employee under bond to the United States +Government one has to keep on the jump."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dunstall rearranged the set of her lips slightly. +"The mail's very late, ain't it?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Late! I should think it was late. I guess that +open switch has settled Forty-four for to-day. But +that train's always late. It isn't in the block yet, and +the mail-train follows it."</p> + +<p>"If it don't come soon, I can't wait," said Mrs. +Dunstall; "this is one of my awful days, and speaking +of awful days, what do you think of the doings over at +the old Whittaker house, Mrs. Ray?"</p> + +<p>"I've heard she's wrecking it completely."</p> + +<p>"Josiah Bates' been doing some carting there. He<span class="pagenum">[81]</span> +says it's enough to make old Grandma Whittaker +shiver in her grave. He says they've turned the house +just about inside out. That girl must be crazy."</p> + +<p>"She is crazy," said Mrs. Ray with decision; "she's +in love."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Mrs. Dunstall, "with him, you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Of course. But she's crazy two ways, I think, to +go bringing that pretty girl here, and she so thin and +white herself. You can't tell me that that man doesn't +know a pretty girl when he sees her, even if he ain't +seen her yet—which he hasn't, for he didn't see 'em +this morning. I know that, for I was watching."</p> + +<p>"That's the train now, isn't it?" said Mrs. Dunstall, +listening.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray pricked up her ears. "Yes, that's the +train, rushing along and sprinkling soot over everything. +Picking hops used to be such nice clean work, +but now they're all over soot."</p> + +<p>"The canal was better, I think," said Mrs. Dunstall.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray made no answer; she was absorbed in +looking out of the window.</p> + +<p>"It was cleaner, anyhow," Mrs. Dunstall continued; +"but they do say the men swore most awful locking +boats through in the night. I never lived on the canal, +myself, but you did, Pinkie; did they swear much or +not?"</p> + +<p>"They swore," said Pinkie.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mrs. Ray, now facing about and making +certain active preparations for the reception of the +mail, "it must be nice to spend your days ways +that lets you lay awake nights listening to anything +swear. I've never had time nor money to lay awake +nights. I leave that for those who can, but I can't.<span class="pagenum">[82]</span> +Walking to the Lower Falls and laying awake nights is +pleasant, I've no doubt, but I need my days other ways. +Summer folks is always coming in here and saying, +'Oh, have you seen the gorge this morning, Mrs. Ray,' +and me like enough out ploughing in the opposite +direction since sun up. I haven't got any time to lay +awake or to look at views. If the weeds grew up all +around my fence-posts while I was hanging over the +bridge looking at the gorge, I guess you'd hear of it, +and since I've taken to raising chickens, there's hen-houses +to spray and me busier than ever. If I was a +hen, my day's work would be over when I'd laid my egg +and I could run out with a free mind and look at the +gorge, but as it stands now, I ain't got time to look at +nothing,"—in testimony whereof she disappeared +into the kitchen.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you who's got time," said Mrs. Dunstall +as soon as she reappeared; "it's those Lathbuns down at +Nellie's. How long are they going to stay around here, +do you suppose?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know; I don't know anything about them. +They don't get any mail, so I've no way of knowing a +thing. My own opinion is that if I was Nellie I'd keep +a sharp eye on my shawls, for folks who come walking +along without baggage, can go walking off without +baggage, too. Those are her shawls they're wearing, +you know; they haven't got so much as a jacket +between them of their own."</p> + +<p>"Nellie says they're very nice people," said Mrs. +Dunstall; "and the girl has got a love affair. She +don't mind their wearing her shawls."</p> + +<p>"Why don't he write her, then," said Mrs. Ray; +"that's the time even the poorest letter-writer writes<span class="pagenum">[83]</span> +letters. Mr. Ray wrote me the first Thursday after he +was in love. I've got the letter yet."</p> + +<p>"What did he write you for, when you was keeping +house for him, anyway?" asked Mrs. Dunstall.</p> + +<p>"He was gone to Ledge Centre for the license."</p> + +<p>"I never see why you married him," said Mrs. +Dunstall; "he paid you for keeping house for him before +that, didn't he?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but he had his mind set on marrying some one, +and I thought I'd better marry him than any one else. +And I was fond of the children, and I didn't know +nothing about the mortgages. I always say we was +real fashionable. I didn't know nothing about +the mortgages, and he thought I had some money +in the bank. Well, it was an even thing when +it all came out. I guess marriage generally is. Everything +else, too."</p> + +<p>"I don't see why the mail don't come, if it's in," said +Mrs. Dunstall.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray went to the window and looked out.</p> + +<p>"It'll come soon now," she declared, hopefully.</p> + +<p>"But I can't wait any longer," said Mrs. Dunstall, +rising, "I wasn't expecting anything, anyway. Come, +Pinkie."</p> + +<p>They both rose and started to go out together.</p> + +<p>But just at the door they met one of the surveyors.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that reminds me why I come," said Mrs. +Dunstall, stopping; "young man, do you know Sallie +Busby?"</p> + +<p>The young surveyor looked startled.</p> + +<p>"Chestnuts in a blue and white sunbonnet, mainly?" +said Mrs. Dunstall.</p> + +<p>"I don't recollect."<span class="pagenum">[84]</span></p> + +<p>"Well, you might not have noticed, or she might +not have had it on, but either way she's been most +amused watching your young men pegging those little +flags all through her meadow, but she says that when +you got through last night you forgot seven, and she +saw 'em when she went out to pick the two trees up +the cow-path this morning, and run down and got 'em, +and has 'em all laid by for you whenever you want to +send for 'em."</p> + +<p>The young man stood speechless.</p> + +<p>Finally he said: "But they were meant to be left +there."</p> + +<p>"Were—were they?" said Mrs. Dunstall, in great +surprise; "well, you ought to have told her so then. +She saw you pull some up, so she thought you meant to +pull them all up. Too bad! Now you'll have to get +your machine and go peeking all over her land again, +won't you?"</p> + +<p>"We will if she's pulled up the flags, certainly."</p> + +<p>"Well, she's pulled up the flags. If Sallie set out to +pull them up, they'd up, you can count on that! +How's the dam coming on, anyway?"</p> + +<p>The young man laughed. "Why, there's no question +of the dam yet. You all seem to think that we're here +to build it. We have to make a report to the commission +first, and the commission will lay the report before the +legislature. That's how it is."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray folded her arms and joined in suddenly, +"So—that's how it is, is it? Well, I don't wonder it's +difficult to run a post-office, when anything as plain as +a dam has to be fussed over like that. By the way, +you're one of the surveyors and you ought to know,—is +it true that if they do build the dam, it may get a<span class="pagenum">[85]</span> +little too full and run over into our valley or burst altogether +and drown Rochester? I'm interested to +know."</p> + +<p>"That's what we want to know, too," said Ingram's +assistant; "that's what we're surveying for."</p> + +<p>"How long will it take you to tell? I've got a friend—maybe +you know him, Sammy Adams?—and he +owns most of the valley back here. He's the worrying +kind, and he's worried. Yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't make so much difference about Rochester," +said Mrs. Dunstall; "it's a deal easier to go for +our shopping to Buffalo from here; but wouldn't it be +awful for Sammy Adams! Why, his house is right in +the valley."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Ray, "and as a general thing +Sammy's right in his house. It's bad enough now, with +the freshets scooping sand all over the farm every other +spring, but if the dam goes and scoops Sammy Adams, +the legislature'll have something else to settle besides +the Capitol at Albany. Sammy Adams looks meek, but +he'd never take being drowned quietly; he's got too +much spirit for that. Yes, indeed!"</p> + +<p>"We're going to do away with the freshets, Mrs. +Ray," the young man said; "the dam—if it comes—will +be the biggest blessing that ever came this way, let +me tell you. In the summer you'll have a beautiful +lake to sail on, and no end of excursions."</p> + +<p>"Why, I thought they were going to store up the +water in spring, and draw it off in the summer," said +Mrs. Dunstall. "A man told my husband that that +was what they wanted the dam for,—to save the high +water in the spring so as to use it in the summer. Wasn't +that what Ebenezer said, Pinkie?"<span class="pagenum">[86]</span></p> + +<p>"Yes, it was," said Pinkie.</p> + +<p>"How do you explain that?" asked Mrs. Ray, turning +an inquisitorial eye sternly on the surveyor. "Where's +your beautiful lake going to be by July? Marsh and +mosquitoes, that's what we'll have left. Don't tell me; +I've seen too many kind thoughts about making folks +happy end that way, and I've seen one or two reservoirs, +too. The dam'll drown Sammy Adams, +that's what it'll do, and Ledge'll be left high and dry +with a lot of dead fish lying all over the fields. I know!"</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll see!" said the young man, laughing.</p> + +<p>"But I thought you was all for the dam, Mrs. Ray," +said Mrs. Dunstall, a little surprised. "Whatever +has changed you so?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray shut her mouth tightly and then opened it +with a snap. "I've been thinking," she said abruptly; +"and I don't mind changing my opinion when I must. +Any one who wants to hold a position under the United +States Government has got to have brains and use 'em +freely in changing their opinion."</p> + +<p>"But you said—" began Mrs. Dunstall.</p> + +<p>"What if I did? Like enough I'll say it again. I +will, if I feel like it. Yes, indeed. 'He moves in a +mysterious way,' you know, and I'm one of His ways, +and I've got a right to keep my own counsel about my +own work. But—speaking of work—the mail-train +was in before you come up. I wonder what's become +of the bag!" She went to the window and looked +down towards the station. "I do have such trouble +to get hold of that bag. That's one of the hardest +things about keeping a post-office, is the getting hold of +the bag. They don't have any sort of understanding +of what a United States Government position means,<span class="pagenum">[87]</span> +down at our station; they kick the mail-bag around +like it was a crate of hens. Once they asked me if they +couldn't have the key at the station, and open the +mail because there's always more inhabitants in the +station than in the post-office. They seemed to think +that was a glory to the station, and a reflection on me. +But I don't want to have men sitting around here. I +won't have it. The only man who has any legal right +to sit around me is in heaven, and just because I'm the +postmistress is no reason why I should take chances. +If you don't want men sitting around, you can easily +keep 'em from doing it by having no chairs for them +to sit on. I never have."</p> + +<p>"Don't you want me to go down and get the mail?" +suggested the young surveyor, somewhat uneasily.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray turned a severe eye his way. "Have +you go down and get the mail! Well, young man, +I guess you don't know that it's a penitentiary +offence to lay hands on a mail-sack, unauthorized by +the United States Government! Yes, indeed. It is, +though, and I've had such hard work getting it into +people's heads that it is, that I wouldn't authorize no +one. <i>No one!</i> Why, when we first was a post-office, +I had the most awful time. Everybody coming this +way brought the bag with 'em. It's a penitentiary +offence to touch the bag, and here Sammy Adams forgot +he had it in his buggy one night, and drove home +with it. It was when Mrs. Allen's cousin Eliza was +dying, and she was so anxious, and no mail-bag at all +that night. I tell you I took a firm stand after that; I +made the rule and made it for keeps, that no matter if +there wasn't but one postal, and all the men in the +station had felt the bag to see that there wasn't, the<span class="pagenum">[88]</span> +bag must come up to me just the same. You'll find, +young man, that if you hold a United States Government +position, you'll be expected to uphold the United +States Government, and if you're building the dam and +employ the men around here, you'll find that to impress +them you must keep a bold front. That's why +I have my arms folded most of the time."</p> + +<p>The young surveyor listened with reverent attention.</p> + +<p>"Whose business is it to bring the bag, anyway?" +asked Mrs. Dunstall. "I can't wait much longer."</p> + +<p>"It isn't anybody's business,—that's what's the +trouble. The United States Government don't provide +nothing but penalties for touching the mail-bag. That's +another hard thing about holding a government position +when your hands are as full as mine. At first I couldn't +get the mail-bag respected, in fact they used it to keep +the door to the station open windy days; and then, +when I got it respected by explaining what we was liable +to if we didn't respect it, I couldn't get no one to touch +it any more. I had to wheel it up and down in the +baby-carriage for a while, and then I looked up the +law and found I could delegate my authority; so since +then Mr. Hopkins has delegated for me except when he +goes to Ledge Lake, and when he does that I take it in +a wheelbarrow. I give the baby-carriage to Lucy. +She had that baby, you know. Well, of course a baby +needs a carriage, so I give her ours."</p> + +<p>"A baby's lots of trouble," said Mrs. Dunstall, +thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but we're here for trouble," said Mrs. Ray, +cheerfully. "I've got the post-office, Lucy's got the +baby, and poor Clay Wright Benton's got his mother +and the parrot. Everybody's got something!"<span class="pagenum">[89]</span></p> + +<p>"Well, I can't wait any longer," said Mrs. Dunstall; +"good-bye. Come, Pinkie."</p> + +<p>They went out.</p> + +<p>"Who is Pinkie?" the young man asked, when he +was alone with Mrs. Ray. "I d'n know," said Mrs. +Ray, "she don't, either. They adopted her when she +weighed six pounds and named her Pinkie, and that's +what come of it."</p> + +<p>"I see." Just then the mail-bag was brought in.<span class="pagenum">[90]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<p class="h3">WHEN DIFFERENCES LEAD TO WHAT IS EVER THE SAME</p> + +<p>Lassie fled down the path. Not even that +primeval river which once rushed wildly across +the old Devonian rocks just here was more thoughtless +as to whither it was going. All that she +was conscious of in that instant was irresistible +revolt against the horror of what she had just +heard, and which bred in her a sudden and utter +rebellion. A vivid imagination will have already +pictured the possible effect of Alva's story upon +her friend, and that vast majority whose imaginations +are not vivid will be happy to be spared +such details. It is sufficient to say that tears, pain, +groans, and a coffin suspended, like Damocles' sword, +above all the rest, was Lassie's background to her +friend's romance; and the picture thus held in her +mind was so benumbing to her other senses that as she +ran she tripped, stumbled, almost fell, down the hill, +so blind and careless of all else had she become. The +restraint of Alva's presence was now removed; nothing +stood between the young girl and her sensation of +appalling wretchedness. As she ran she shook, she +shuddered; the path was steep, and her knees +seemed to crumble beneath her; twice she almost +went headlong, and at the minute she felt that a<span class="pagenum">[91]</span> +broken neck was but a trifle in comparison to +coming face to face with anything like what she had +just been told. "Of course he was a great man," she +gasped half aloud; "but he'll never be able to even +feed himself again—it said so in the paper. Why, at +first it said his back was broken. Oh, oh, if Alva can +be so crazy as that, who is sane, and what can one +believe? Oh, dear—oh, dear—oh, dear! And she +calls it love, too!"</p> + +<p>The village of Ledgeville lay below, and a few more +minutes of precipitous flight brought Lassie in sight +of its houses. Still a few more minutes, and she was in +the middle of the village—a very small village, consisting +of two streets composing the usual American +town cross, and half a dozen stores. Every one whom +she met knew just who she was (for had she not arrived +upon the evening previous?), and they all regarded her +with earnest scrutiny. The inhabitants of Ledgeville +themselves were never in the habit of coming down from +the Long Bridge with tear-stained faces, heaving bosoms +and a catch in their breath, but that Lassie did so, +caused them no surprise. Was she not of that unaccountable +multitude called "city folks?"</p> + +<p>Lassie herself neither thought nor cared how she +appeared to the ruminative gaze of Ledgeville at first, +but as soon as she did notice the attention which she +was attracting, she wanted to get away from it as quickly +as possible, eyes being quite unbearable in her present +distress. She stopped and asked a kindly looking old +man where the bridge—the lower bridge—might +be, knowing that it would take her to solitude again. +The kindly old man pointed to where the bridge could +be seen, a block or so beyond, and she thanked him and<span class="pagenum">[92]</span> +hurried on. It was a wooden bridge, very long; and the +river here glided in wonderful contrast to that other +aspect of itself which plunged so furiously from cataract +to cataract, a quarter of a mile further down the +course. How curious to think that all smooth-flowing +rivers have it in them to foam and rage and gnaw and +rend away the backbone of the globe itself, if driven in +among narrow and hard environment. Is there ever +any simile to those conditions in human lives, I wonder! +And then to consider on the other hand that there is +no volume of watery menace which, if spread between +banks of green with space to flow untrammeled, will +not become the greatest and most beneficial of all the +helpers of need and seed! That is also a simile—one +more cheerful and happy than the former, praise be to +God.</p> + +<p>The river by Ledgeville is one of those flowing +smoothly and broadly between banks of green. So +smoothly and sweetly does it flow just there that it +might well have brought some quieting mood, some +gracious, even current of gently rippling peace, into +poor Lassie's throbbing heart, had she but been able to +receive any comfort at that moment. But meditation was +as far from her at this juncture as her mental attitude +was from Alva's, and more than that cannot be said +for either proposition.</p> + +<p>So the river carried its lesson unread, while the girlish +figure traversed the bridge as quickly as it had +flown through the town, and, hurriedly turning at +the forking of the road beyond, started up the +hill. She knew that that way must lead to Ledge, +and eventually her own little hotel bedroom, that +longed for haven where she would be able to sit down<span class="pagenum">[93]</span> +quietly, away from the sunlight and omnipresent +people, away from everything and everybody. Oh, +but it was freshly awful to think of Alva, her beautiful +Alva, and of what Alva was going to do! Marry that +man! Why, he would never even sit up again; he could +hardly see, the paper had said—the newspapers had +said—everybody had said.</p> + +<p>She stopped suddenly and stood perfectly still. A +choking pain gripped her in the throat and side. Her +spiritual torment had suddenly yielded to her physical +lack of breath.</p> + +<p>Beyond a doubt there is nothing that will curb any +sentiment of any description so quickly as walking up +hill. Without in the slightest degree intending to be +flippant, I must say that in all my experience, personal +and observed, I have never yet felt or seen the emotion +which does not have to give way somewhat under that +particular form of exercise. In Lassie's case she found +herself to be so suddenly and completely exhausted +that she could hardly stand. Her knees, which had +seemed on the verge of giving out as she hurried down +the opposite bank, now really did fail her and, looking +despairingly about and feeling tears to be again perilously +near, she turned off of the road into the woods +that stretched down the bank and, treading rapidly +over soft turf and softer moss, came in a minute to a +solitude sufficiently removed to allow of her sinking +upon the ground and there giving out completely.</p> + +<p>Oh, how she cried then! Cried in the unrestrained, +childish way that gasps for breath, and chokes and then +sobs afresh and aloud. She thought herself so safely +alone in the depths of the wood that she could gasp +and choke and sob to her heart's uttermost content, not<span class="pagenum">[94]</span> +at all knowing that Fate, who does indeed weave a +mesh of the most intricate patterning, had even now +begun to interweave her destiny with that of—well, +let us say—of the dam at Ledgeville.</p> + +<p>Alva's talk about the dam had gone in one ear and +out the other; Alva's words regarding Ingram had been +driven into the background of Lassie's brain by the +later surprises; but now things were to begin to alter. +We never can tell, when we weep over the frightful +love affair of a friend, what delightful plans that same +little Cupid may have for our own immediate comforting, +or how deftly he and the dark-veiled goddess may +have combined in future projects.</p> + +<p>Sorrow is sorrow, but sometimes it comes with the +comforter close upon its heels, and when the sorrow is +really another's, and the comforter is unattached and +therefore may quite easily become one's own!—</p> + +<p>Ah, but all this is anticipating. It is true that disinterested +parties (like Joey Beall) always know everything +before those most interested have the slightest +suspicion of what is going on; but still it seems to me +unfair to take any advantage of two innocent people +as early in the game as the Sixth Chapter.</p> + +<p>Therefore it shall only be said here that the party of +surveyors had employed that morning in sighting and +flagging up and down the banks beneath the Long +Bridge, and Ingram, having spent two hours in their +company, was now climbing the hillside for pure +athletic joy, being one of those who prefer a scramble +to a smooth road any day. As he came lightly up the +last long swing that measured the bank for him, he +surely was looking for nothing less in life than that +which he found at the top,—and yet that which he +<span class="pagenum">[95]</span>found at the top was not so disagreeable a surprise, +after all. For Lassie, even now when indubitably +miserable, pink-eyed and wretched, was still a very +pretty girl. A pretty girl is very much like a rose in the +rain—a few drops of water only add to its charm; +and so when Ingram came suddenly upon her, crying +there under a tree, and caused her to look up with a +little scream at the man crashing out of the bushes with +such a force of interruption as made her jump to her +feet and shrink quickly away—why, really it was all +far less startling and alarming than it sounds to read +about. For he at once exclaimed, "Surely you remember +me." And she saw who it was, stared at him +dazedly for an instant, and then dropped her face in +her hands again, realizing that he was the first of the +big world that "hadn't been told," and that he would +ask what was the matter, and that she must not tell +him. And so—and so—there was nothing to do but +hide her face—and collect her wits—and listen.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a name="gs03" id="gs03"></a> +<img src="images/gs03.jpg" width="400" height="604" alt=""SURELY YOU REMEMBER ME."" title=""> +</div> + +<p class="caption">"SURELY YOU REMEMBER ME."</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he said, and as she felt for her handkerchief +she could but think how hard it was to resist +sympathy when one's dearest friend was doing such +unheard-of things, and one had just learned about +them. Not that she would tell him why she was crying, +of course.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he asked again then—he was very +near now. "You know who I am. I used to know you +when you were a little girl. You remember?"</p> + +<p>She was still feeling for her handkerchief, and he put +a great white one into her seeking hand. She wiped +her eyes with it and thought again that he must not be +told, and so said, with quivering lips:</p> + +<p>"Oh, please leave me, please go away. Nothing is<span class="pagenum">[96]</span> +the matter, but I must be alone. I want to be alone. +Please go away and leave me."</p> + +<p>Ingram looked down upon her and, laying his hand +on her arm with a grasp that was so firm as to feel +brotherly (to one not yet a débutante), said in a tone of +fascinating authority (to one not yet a débutante):</p> + +<p>"What is it? What is the trouble? You've had a +letter with bad news?" In his own mind he set it +down that she and Alva had had a misunderstanding +of some sort, but that opinion he would not +voice.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," sobbed Lassie; "it isn't a letter—it is +Alva!" She paused and Ingram had just time enough +to reflect how quickly a man could see straight through +any woman, when Lassie could bear the burden of +reserve no longer, and with a wild burst of accelerated +woe cried: "She has told me her secret, and I listened +'way through to the end and then—then when I really +understood and realized what it all meant, then I could +not bear it, and so—and so—I ran away from her +and down the hill and across the bridge and came here +to be alone. And I wish you would go away and leave +me alone; oh, I want to be alone so very, very much, +for I cannot keep still unless I am alone; I am too +unhappy over it all. Too unhappy. And I have +promised her not to tell."</p> + +<p>Ingram looked his startled sympathy. "What is the +trouble?" he asked. "Tell me; perhaps I can help +you. Why should you keep 'it' a secret? I'm her +friend, too, you know."</p> + +<p>"But it isn't my secret, it's hers," Lassie sobbed; +"and I've promised; and, anyway, nobody or nothing +can help her. Nothing! Nobody!"<span class="pagenum">[97]</span></p> + +<p>"Is it really as bad as that?" said the man, looking +very serious.</p> + +<p>Lassie was wringing her hands. "Oh, it's ever so +much worse than that; it's the very worst thing I ever +heard of. And that shows how bad I am; for Alva is +good, and it makes her happy!"</p> + +<p>Naturally Ingram could not follow the reasoning +which caused her terminal phrase to serve as a sort of +mental apology for her way of looking at the affair, +but he was not alarmed by the breadth of her confession +of guilt, only unspeakably distressed by her distress, and +its mysterious cause.</p> + +<p>"But what <i>is</i> it?" he asked. "What has Alva +done?"</p> + +<p>"I musn't tell."</p> + +<p>"Alva's not in any difficulty across the river there, +is she?" he hazarded.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; she isn't in any difficulty; she is very, +very happy. That's what seems so awful about +it."</p> + +<p>"What? I can't understand."</p> + +<p>"I can't explain, either. And I musn't tell you. +It's going to drive me crazy to keep still, but I must not +tell."</p> + +<p>"You can tell me;" his tone was suddenly authoritative +again (quite thrilling its young listener).</p> + +<p>"No, I can't. I can't tell any one," but <i>her</i> tone was +wavering, with a catch in its note.</p> + +<p>Ingram became instantly imperious.</p> + +<p>"Yes, you can tell me! You must tell me! It will +relieve your mind, and perhaps I can help Alva."</p> + +<p>"No, you can't help her; she doesn't want to be +helped."<span class="pagenum">[98]</span></p> + +<p>"Well, I can help you, anyway. Just telling me will +help you."</p> + +<p>Lassie choked.</p> + +<p>"Tell me at once," said Ingram, sternly; "I insist +upon knowing."</p> + +<p>She looked up at him.</p> + +<p>"Don't stop to think," he commanded; "tell me."</p> + +<p>Oh, the intense relief of having a burdensome secret +torn from your keeping! Lassie felt that when in +trouble, a man was the friend to find—even before +one's début.</p> + +<p>"You won't ever let her know that I told?" she +faltered.</p> + +<p>"Of course not."</p> + +<p>"She didn't ask me really to promise; she only said +that I should be the only one to ever know."</p> + +<p>"Never mind, I don't count. Go on."</p> + +<p>"Well, she is going to marry—" and then she told +him, with many halts and gasps, who; and then she +told him further, when.</p> + +<p>Ingram listened, silent, turning white all about his +mouth. "She can't do it," he said, after a minute. +"That man may die any hour. It said so in last night's +paper."</p> + +<p>"She is going to do it," Lassie said; "she doesn't +mind his dying—that is, she doesn't mind his dying +as most people do."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but that's horrible," he said then; "you were +right—it is awful. No wonder you were frightened +and ran away. She must be insane. I never heard of +such a thing." He went to the edge of the bank and +looked off for a little, standing there still, and then, +after a while, "Oh, my God!" he said; and then<span class="pagenum">[99]</span> +again "Oh, my God!" and came back beside her. +His action, his evident emotion, quieted her own +strangely.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it terrible?" she asked, almost timidly, when +he was close again; "it seems to me the most terrible +thing that I ever knew about."</p> + +<p>"Very terrible," said the man, briefly. "We will +walk on up the hill," he added, after a little; "it's +near dinner time." She did as he said.</p> + +<p>"You won't tell Alva that I told you?" she +asked.</p> + +<p>He shook his head. "No, indeed," and then both +were silent.</p> + +<p>Towards the top, he asked: "How long shall you be +with her?"</p> + +<p>"A week."</p> + +<p>"That means until she leaves to marry him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"That's good; I am glad that you can stay."</p> + +<p>She tried to say something then, and her voice died in +one of those same strange gasps, but she tried a second +time and succeeded. "I suppose that nothing could be +done?" she questioned.</p> + +<p>"What would you do?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," she said.</p> + +<p>He smiled a little oddly. "I am afraid that we should +be fools," he said; "those fools that rush in, you know. +It is beginning to come back to me how Alva looked and +how she spoke when I took her to see the house. It all +had no meaning to me then, but it has meaning now. +It comes back to me more and more. Perhaps you and +I are—are—not up to seeing it quite as she does. +Perhaps. It's possible."<span class="pagenum">[100]</span></p> + +<p>"That is what she says over and over—that I cannot +understand," Lassie said, faintly.</p> + +<p>"I can't understand either, but—perhaps she does. +I <i>can</i> understand <i>that</i>."</p> + +<p>"I am glad that you know, anyway;" her tone was +sweet and confiding. He looked down into her pretty +eyes.</p> + +<p>"I am, too," he said, heartily.</p> + +<p>"But I hope that it wasn't very wrong for me to tell +you; it seemed as if I could not bear it alone!"</p> + +<p>"Don't worry about that; Alva shall never know. +And now, if you cannot bear it (as you say) again, you +know that you can come to me and say what you like. +We shall have that comfort."</p> + +<p>She smiled a little. "You don't seem like a stranger; +you seem like an old, old friend."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad. Because I am an old, old friend in +reality, you know."</p> + +<p>"But, if—if I—when I want—" she hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you don't know where to find me if you want +me?" He laughed. "It's true that I am an uncertain +quantity, but I take supper at the hotel every evening, +and sometimes I go to the post-office afterwards." +He smiled roundly at that, and she smiled, too. "We +must go to the post-office together, sometimes," he +added; "it's the great social diversion of Ledge." +He was glad to see her face and manner getting +easier. That was what he was trying for—to lift the +weight from her.</p> + +<p>"Alva took me there this morning," she said.</p> + +<p>They came now to the Soldiers' Monument and the +tracks.</p> + +<p>"I hope that she isn't going to mind the way that I<span class="pagenum">[101]</span> +left her!" the young girl exclaimed suddenly, smitten +with anxiety. "I ran away, you know; I couldn't +bear it another minute."</p> + +<p>"She won't mind that," said Ingram; "all the +little things of life won't cut any figure with her any +more, if she's the kind that has made up her mind to do +such a thing. That's what I've been thinking all the +time that we were coming along; a woman who has +decided to marry in the way that Alva has, must of +course look at everything in life by a different light from +that of the rest of us; I don't know really that we have +the right even to criticize her. We don't understand her +at all; that's all it is."</p> + +<p>Lassie looked astonished. "You don't mean to say +that you think that she isn't crazy?" she said.</p> + +<p>Ingram smiled again, "I mean that I hardly think it +possible to judge what one cannot measure; savages +reverence the Unknown, you know, and I'm not sure +that reverence is not a fitter attitude towards mystery +than condemnation or ridicule, although of course it +isn't the civilized or popular standpoint."</p> + +<p>"But do you think it's—it's—it's the thing, to +do—" Lassie could not get on further.</p> + +<p>"I think it's just as awful as you do," he said quietly; +"but I've had time since you told me to see that just +because it seems awful to me, it's very plain to me that +I see it differently from the way in which she does. +She isn't a girl, she's a woman; and she's a very good +and sweet and true woman at that. If she is making +this marriage, the really awful part isn't the part that +you or I or the world are going to think about, it's +something else."</p> + +<p>Lassie's glance rose doubtfully upward. "You<span class="pagenum">[102]</span> +think that it's all right for her to do it, then?" she asked +miserably.</p> + +<p>"I think that we aren't wise enough to talk about it +at all," said Ingram with determined cheerfulness. +"Let's change the subject. I am going to be here on +and off for a year, likely, and digging holes to hold little +flags, and drilling to keep track of what one drills +through isn't the liveliest fun in the world to look +forward to; so when Alva doesn't need you, do give me +some of your time and make me some jolly memories +to live on later, when I'm alone—will you?"</p> + +<p>"You won't ever be able to go and see Alva in her +house afterwards, will you?" said Lassie, her mind +apparently unequal to changing the subject on short +notice; "because no one is ever to go there, she +says."</p> + +<p>"I shall never go unless she asks me, surely."</p> + +<p>They were now quite near the little hotel.</p> + +<p>"Before we part, let us be a little conventional and +say that we are glad to have met one another," Ingram +suggested; "will you?"</p> + +<p>"I'm glad that I met you," she said; "it will be a +great comfort—as you said."</p> + +<p>Ingram was looking at her and that turned his face +towards the gorge. "I see Alva coming across the +bridge," he exclaimed; "go and meet her. Go to her +quite frankly, openly,—as if nothing had happened. +That will be easiest—and kindest—and best all +around."</p> + +<p>She flashed a grateful glance to his eyes, and ran at +once down the tracks and out upon the bridge.</p> + +<p>Alva came towards her, with a rapid step, her open +coat floating lightly back on either side. She smiled +<span class="pagenum">[103]</span> +sweetly as she saw the girlish figure. "You beat me +home," she called out, gaily.</p> + +<p>Lassie swallowed the lump in her throat and smiled, +too. "It's such a beautiful day, and I'm so happy and +so glad that you are happy!"</p> + +<p>The pretty young voice rang fresh and true. The +next instant they were close, side by side.</p> + +<p>Alva stood still. What Ingram had said proved most +truly true; she did not seem to hold any recollection of +that parting an hour before. She drew Lassie close +beside her and pointed over the bridge-rail. A rainbow +was spanning the Upper Falls, and its brilliant, evanescent +promise seemed to reflect in the face above. What +is so fragile, illusive, uncertain as a rainbow? And yet +it is the mirrored mirage of all the Eternal Purpose's +immutable law. Form is there, and color; hope is +there, and the will-o'-the-wisp of human struggles +evolving continually and, in their evolution, fading to +human eyes as they take their place up higher. From +the foaming, dashing water, which during the centuries +was strong enough to eat into the rock, arose the light, +lovely mist that in cycles of time was in its turn strong +enough to wear it away. Through the mist floated the +impalpable radiance that, in æons to come, when rock +should again flash fiery through unending space, and +water should have evaporated to await fresh form, +would still continue to illuminate the Divine Will.<span class="pagenum">[104]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<p class="h3">THE LATHBUNS</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley, dropping into the post-office that +evening along about seven, was frankly disappointed +at finding her newspaper bundle still undisturbed +on the table in the adjoining kitchen.</p> + +<p>"Why, I made sure you'd have laid 'em out, anyhow," +she said, looking at Mrs. Ray, who was busily beating +batter; "you haven't even made a start." And she +sighed, seating herself in unwilling resignation.</p> + +<p>"Made a start," said Mrs. Ray, glancing at her +placidity with an air of tart exasperation, "made fifty +starts, you mean. This has been what I call <i>a day</i>. +Mrs. Catt came in early this afternoon to ask me to +make Sally's wedding-cake, and Clay Wright Benton +was here about the parrot. He's awful tired of that +parrot 'cause it keeps his mother so tired and cross from +getting up nights to wait on it. It routs her up at all +hours for things, and if she don't hurry it calls her +names in Spanish that it learned on the ship coming +from Brazil, and, oh, they're having an awful time of +it. And then Sammy Adams was here too; he was here +from four o'clock on, asking me to marry him again. +I don't know as anything gives me a lower opinion of +Sammy than the way he sticks to wanting to marry me. +The older I get, the worse he wants to marry me, which +<span class="pagenum">[105]</span> +shows me only too plainly as it ain't me at all he wants—it's +just my work."</p> + +<p>"You ain't even unrolled it," said Mrs. Wiley, +fingering the bundle sadly. "I've been fixing onion-syrup +for Lottie Ann and thinking of you unrolling all +day. And you wasn't ever unrolling, even."</p> + +<p>"He set right where you're setting now," said Mrs. +Ray, beating briskly. "I was stoning raisins, so he +wasn't in my way, but I do get tired of being asked to +marry men. They don't make no bones about the +business any more, and even a woman of my age likes +a <i>little</i> fluff of romance. Sammy always goes into how +we could join our chickens and our furniture. Like +they was going to be married, too. Oh, Sammy's +very mooney—he's very much like Mr. Ray. Most +men are too much like Mr. Ray to please me. There +was days when Mr. Ray 'd sit all day and tell me how he +had yellow curls and blue eyes before he had smallpox. +Those were his mooney days. When Mr. Ray +wanted to be specially nice, he always used to tell me +how pretty he was when he was a baby. Men are so +awful silly. It's too bad I ever married. I had so many +pleasant thoughts about men before. But now all I +think is they're all spying round for women to work for +'em."</p> + +<p>"I never shall know no peace till I know whether +you can get my two backs out of these legs," said Mrs. +Wiley, handling the bundle. "Father was such a sitter +the last year, his legs was very wore at the top." +She sighed.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Catt was here this afternoon, too," continued +Mrs. Ray, never ceasing to beat; "he wants to get up +a petition about the dam. He's afraid they won't pay<span class="pagenum">[106]</span> +him for his orchard. He's against it. He says Mr. +Ledge is right. He says if he's going to lose money, +he'd rather see the Falls preserved for the blessings of +unborn generations. He says he doesn't believe we +think enough about unborn generations in this country. +He says his orchard is worth a lot."</p> + +<p>"If they're too wore out to cut over, I suppose we'll +have to give it all up," said Mrs. Wiley. "Oh, Mrs. +Ray, Lottie Ann's so thin! I don't know what to do! +I say to her 'Lottie Ann, do eat,' and then she tries +and chokes. I think she ought to go to Buffalo and be +examined with a telescope. Rubbing her in goose-grease +don't do a bit of good, and it does ruin her flannels +so."</p> + +<p>"I was sorry for Clay Wright Benton," pursued Mrs. +Ray; "he kind of wants me to take his mother and the +parrot for the winter. He says besides the nights, his +mother and the parrot quarrels so days that he's afraid +Sarah just won't have 'em in the house much longer. +She's losing all patience."</p> + +<p>"If you <i>can't</i> get my fronts out of his legs, do you +suppose there'll be any way to get them out of his +fronts?" Mrs. Wiley propounded.</p> + +<p>"I told Clay I'd see," continued Mrs. Ray. "I'm +pretty full now, but there's a proverb about room for +one more, and if I can't do nothing else my motto'll +help me out. 'He moves in a mysterious way' you +know, and maybe I can put her in my room with Willy +and move into the kitchen myself with the parrot. Yes, +indeed. Only I won't get up and wait on it. I don't +care what I get called in Spanish, if I'm once asleep for +the night, that parrot won't get me up again; or +there'll be more Spanish than his around." +<span class="pagenum">[107]</span></p> + +<p>"You'll be able to use the same buttons, anyhow," +mused Mrs. Wiley. "Oh, Mrs. Ray, we've had a letter +from Uncle Purchase and the colt didn't die. It'll be +lame and blind in one eye, but anyway it's alive and it's +such a valuable colt. The father cost six thousand +dollars, and if it lives to have grandchildren maybe +they'll race. Uncle Purchase does so want a race-horse +in his stock. He says a race-horse even raises the value +of your pigs and cattle."</p> + +<p>"Does a parrot sleep on its side or sit up all night, do +you know? I forgot to ask Clay."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that reminds me, speakin' of sleepin'," exclaimed +Mrs. Wiley, suddenly arousing to the realization +of other woes than her own, "do you know Cousin +Granger Catterwallis was over this morning, and he +says those Lathbuns stayed at Sammy's the night afore +they came here. You know they come in a pourin' rain. +Did Sammy ever tell you about it?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray stopped her beating. She stood seemingly +transfixed.</p> + +<p>"Cousin Granger says they wanted to stay all night, +with him, but he's too afraid of a breach of promise suit +since his wife died, so he wouldn't keep them, but he +took his spy-glass and watched them through the gap +and they clum Sammy's fence," (Mrs. Ray's face was a +sight), "and then he went up to his cupalo and watched +them through a break in the trees, and he says he knows +they went in the house!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray folded her arms firmly. "Well," she said, +"I never heard the beat! Sammy never said one word +to me!"</p> + +<p>"And Cousin Catterwallis says he doesn't believe +they've got any trunks or any money or any real love +<span class="pagenum">[108]</span> +affair, except what they may manage to pick up along +the way. He says he wouldn't trust the young one as +far as you can throw a cat, and he says he wouldn't +trust the old one as far as that. Hannah Adele, indeed! +He says he don't believe she's even Hannah."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray drew a long breath. "Oh, well, I wasn't +meaning to marry him, anyhow," she said, a little +absent-mindedly. "I told him that to-day. Sammy's +mooney, and I've been married to one mooney man. +There were days when Mr. Ray would upset everything, +from the beehives to his second wife's baby—those +were his mooney days. I don't want to have no +more of that!"</p> + +<p>"Cousin Catterwallis says it wasn't just proper taking +them in that way, either," Mrs. Wiley continued; "he's +going to see Jack O'Neil this afternoon, and tell him +his opinion. Cousin Catterwallis says the dam is +bringing very queer folks our way. He doesn't take no +interest in the dam because he's so far inland, but he +says when the canal was put through the Italians stole +one of his father's hens, and he hasn't any use for any +kind of improvements since then."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray began slowly beating her batter again. Her +lips were firm and her attitude painfully decided.</p> + +<p>"The old lady says she's Mrs. Ida Lathbun," Mrs. +Wiley went on; "I wonder if their name is really +Lathbun."</p> + +<p>"I d'n know, I'm sure."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley turned her eyes on the bundle.</p> + +<p>"When do you think you can get at my coat, Mrs. +Ray?" the tone was sadly earnest.</p> + +<p>"To-morrow, I guess. I haven't much on hand +to-morrow, except to sweep out the church and do some<span class="pagenum">[109]</span> +baking. I was planning to dig potatoes and go to South +Ledge to fit a dress, but I'll leave that till early Monday. +Think of his keeping them all night and never telling +me!"</p> + +<p>"I guess I'll go down to Nellie's," said Mrs. Wiley, +rising slowly; "the Lathbuns sit in her kitchen evenings, +and I'll just throw a few hints about and see how +they take it."</p> + +<p>"I wish I could go, too," Mrs. Ray's eyes suddenly +became keenly bright, "but I can't. The mail's due."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley shook her head with the air of understanding +the weightiness of her friend's excuse. "I'll +stop in on my way back, and tell you what I find out," +she said, kindly.</p> + +<p>She went away and was absent all of an hour. When +she returned, Mrs. Ray's duties, both as postmistress +and stepmother, were over for that day, her cake was +safe in the oven, and she sat by the lamp, knitting.</p> + +<p>"What'd you find out?" she said, as the door +yielded to Mrs. Wiley's push.</p> + +<p>"Well, not much." Mrs. Wiley came in and sat +down. "They was both there in the kitchen, and +there's no use denying it's hard to find out anything +about folks when they're looking right at you. +But I did hear one thing you'll like to know, Mrs. +Ray?"</p> + +<p>"What was it?"</p> + +<p>"Why, those two girls went off walking this morning, +and the young one came back with the man."</p> + +<p>"Don't surprise me one bit," said Mrs. Ray. "I've +been saying that was what would happen from the +minute I knew she was coming."</p> + +<p>"I'm sort of sorry for the older one," said Mrs.<span class="pagenum">[110]</span> +Wiley; "she's real nice. I'm sorry for any one who's +thinnish—Lottie Ann's so thin."</p> + +<p>"Those kind of blind-eyed people always have +trouble, and nobody can help it for 'em," said Mrs. +Ray; "they make their own troubles as they go along—if +they don't come bump on to them while they're stargazing. +That girl's made for trouble; you can see it in +her eyes. But didn't you ask anything about Sammy?"</p> + +<p>"I just couldn't—with them right there. The old +lady sits with her feet in the oven the whole time. I +don't see how Nellie cooks."</p> + +<p>"Feet in the oven! I should say so! Well, I'll ask +Sammy just as soon as I see him—I know that! Did +you hear anything new about the dam?"</p> + +<p>"No; Nellie says the surveyors say it'll be six months +before any one can tell anything."</p> + +<p>"Huh!" Mrs. Ray's note was highly contemptuous.</p> + +<p>"Why, Mrs. Ray, don't you believe the surveyors?"</p> + +<p>"I never say what I believe, Mrs. Wiley, it's enough +for me to say what I think; but I <i>will</i> say just this, and +that is that if we get the dam, it's precious little good +it'll ever do us here in Ledge. It's fine work talking, but +the legislature and the Dam Commission aren't working +day and night for our good. It's men in Rochester +and Buffalo who'll get the good out of the dam, and +we'll be left to find ourselves high and dry as usual."</p> + +<p>"Why, Mrs. Ray, you talk as if you was against the +dam, or is it only because Sammy took those women in +that night?"</p> + +<p>Poor Mrs. Wiley! She had inadvertently hit the +bull's-eye. Mrs. Ray laid down her knitting and rose +at once.</p> + +<p>"No, Mrs. Wiley, it <i>isn't</i> because Sammy took those<span class="pagenum">[111]</span> +women in that night. As if I'd care whether Sammy +took two women in or not! Did I ever care about Mr. +Ray's other two wives? or about their children? I +guess if I can stand all I've stood from Mr. Ray's first +wife's children, I won't care who Sammy Adams takes +in out of the wet. I'm surprised at you, Mrs. Wiley."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley got up in great confusion. "I hope you'll +excuse what I said, Mrs. Ray; you see I wasn't really +thinking what I did say. And it may not have been +them, anyhow. I must be goin', I guess; I don't like +to leave Lottie Ann alone like that. Good-by, Mrs. +Ray."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray folded her arms severely.</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Mrs. Wiley," she said, with reserve. +<span class="pagenum">[112]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<p class="h3">MISS LATHBUN'S STORY</p> + +<p>Curiously enough, just as Mrs. Wiley abruptly +terminated her call on her friend Mrs. Ray, +owing to the unpleasant twist given their conversation +by the Lathbun family, Lassie and Alva were +speaking of the same two ladies, whom Lassie had +met in the dining-room an hour before. Alva had +introduced her to both with that pleasant courtesy +which was given to none too careful social scrutiny. +It was Alva's habit to deal with all humanity on +a broad footing of equality—a habit which her well-born +friends politely termed a failing, and which those +of other classes accepted as the thirsty accept water, +just with content.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm glad I've seen them; now I feel as if I'd +seen everything, except the Lower Falls." Thus spoke +Lassie, when the bedroom door was shut, and she and +her friend seemed well away from all the rest of the +world for the next ten hours, at least. Lassie, be it +said, <i>en passant</i>, had now sufficiently digested her first +shock of surprise over her friend's future, to be able +to be pleasantly happy again.</p> + +<p>"What did you think of them?" Alva answered, +half absent-mindedly. She held in her hand a letter +which the belated mail had brought, and her thoughts +seemed to quit it with difficulty.<span class="pagenum">[113]</span></p> + +<p>"I thought that they were rather common," said +Lassie, frankly. Lassie was well-born, and had judged +Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter by no higher standard +than that of their blouses.</p> + +<p>"Do you know, I thought so, too,—at first," her +friend replied, putting the letter down and going to the +window where she remained with her back to Lassie, +looking out into the dark. "I thought at first that Mrs. +Lathbun looked like a cook—"</p> + +<p>"She dresses exactly like one," interposed Lassie.</p> + +<p>"But I've come to like them very much, indeed. Of +course so few days are not enough to really know any +one, but the night before you came such a curious thing +happened. You know I told you that the daughter had +a love affair? Well, that was the night that I learned +about it. I never had anything come to me more +strangely. Do you know, dear, I am continually more +and more convinced that nothing happens by chance, +never."</p> + +<p>"What did she tell you?"</p> + +<p>Alva turned from the window and sat down by the +lamp-table. "I'll tell you; only you mustn't misjudge +Miss Lathbun for confiding in me. People +become friends very quickly in a lonely place like this, +you know."</p> + +<p>"I won't misjudge her; I'll be glad to change my +opinion of her. She looks so like a restaurant girl."</p> + +<p>"Lassie, you're incorrigible."</p> + +<p>"But that dress, with that black cotton lace over +that old red silk."</p> + +<p>"I never even noticed it."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say you've never noticed that dirty +red silk front?"<span class="pagenum">[114]</span></p> + +<p>Alva shaded her eyes with her hand. "Lassie," +she said, almost sadly, "why does nothing count in this +world except the front of one's frock?"</p> + +<p>Contrition smote the young girl. "Oh, forgive me, +forgive me," she pleaded; "I didn't think. I am +interested! Play I didn't speak in that way; I won't +again. Indeed, I won't."</p> + +<p>"Of course I'll forgive you, dear; it's nothing to +forgive, anyway; but it makes it so hard to tell anything +serious when one sets out in such a way. I wonder how +many good and beautiful thoughts have died unexpressed, +just because their first breath was met with +mocking!"</p> + +<p>"Don't say that; I won't be that way—I'll never +be that way again. I do like Miss Lathbun—truly I +do; I think she has sort of a sweet face, and she must +be clever to have been able to make a front of any kind +out of that lace. See, I'm quite serious now; and so +interested. Do go on!"</p> + +<p>Alva looked at her for a minute with a smile.</p> + +<p>"You can't possibly overlook the front, can you?" +she said; "but I will go on, and you will learn never to +judge again, as I learned myself; for I must tell you, +Lassie, that all you feel about them, I felt at first—until +I learned to know better. I didn't notice the front, +but I noticed some other things—little things like +grammar; but American grammar isn't a hard and +fast proposition, anyway, you know."</p> + +<p>"They just call it 'dialect' in so many places," said +Lassie, wisely.</p> + +<p>Alva smiled again. "Yes, they do," she assented.</p> + +<p>"And now for Miss Lathbun's story?" suggested +the girl.<span class="pagenum">[115]</span></p> + +<p>"Yes, certainly. Well, my dear, you see, I was sitting +here alone one evening, and she came to the door +and—and somehow she came in and we fell to talking. +You know how easy it is for any one to talk to me, and +after a while she told me her romance."</p> + +<p>Lassie's eyes opened. "To think of a girl like that +having a romance! Please go on."</p> + +<p>Alva hesitated, then smiled a little. "I suppose I can +trust you to keep a secret?" she asked.</p> + +<p>Lassie began: "Why, of—" and then stopped +suddenly, remembering the morning's betrayal, and +blushed crimson.</p> + +<p>Alva leaned forward and touched her cheek with one +petting finger.</p> + +<p>"Dear," she said, "don't feel distressed. I know +that you told Ronald and I don't mind."</p> + +<p>"You know!" cried Lassie, astonished.</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear, I know. I saw it in both your faces when +I came across the bridge. I don't mind—I think it's +better so. Truly, I do."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Alva—" the young girl's tone was full of +feeling.</p> + +<p>"But you mustn't tell him Hannah Adele's love +affair," Alva went on, smiling; "remember that, my +dear."</p> + +<p>"I promise. Now tell me all about it." Lassie drew +close, her face full of eager curiosity mixed with content +over being pardoned so simply.</p> + +<p>"It's just like a story," Alva said, thoughtfully; "it's +more wonderful—almost—than my own. I never +heard anything quite so wonderfully story-like before. +Tell me, did you notice at supper how Mrs. Lathbun +watched every one that came off of the train? She<span class="pagenum">[116]</span> +can see the station through the window from where she +sits, you know."</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't notice. Does it matter?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; only I used to notice it and now I know +why she does it."</p> + +<p>"Is she looking for the lover?"</p> + +<p>"She's afraid of him, dear."</p> + +<p>"Afraid!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, afraid he'll find them."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, are they hiding from him?"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Lathbun thinks that they are."</p> + +<p>"And aren't they?"</p> + +<p>Alva lowered her voice to a whisper. "He watches +outside of this house every night!" she said impressively.</p> + +<p>Lassie quite jumped. "Watches! Outside this +house! Oh, is he there now?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, perhaps so."</p> + +<p>"What fun! Who does he watch for?"</p> + +<p>"For Miss Lathbun, of course."</p> + +<p>"But why does he do it?"</p> + +<p>"She doesn't know; she only knows that he watches +there."</p> + +<p>"And her mother doesn't know that he is there?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"How perfectly thrilling! Do go on!"</p> + +<p>"It's really a very long story."</p> + +<p>"I'll be patient."</p> + +<p>"It taught me a big lesson, Lassie; it taught me not +to judge. Just see how quiet and simple these two look +to be, and yet that plain, ordinary appearing woman is +trying to hide her daughter from a rich man."</p> + +<p>"A rich man!"<span class="pagenum">[117]</span></p> + +<p>"He's a millionaire."</p> + +<p>"Who told you so?"</p> + +<p>"She did."</p> + +<p>Lassie stared. "Alva!—you don't believe that! +That woman's never hiding that girl from a millionaire. +It isn't possible!"</p> + +<p>"But she is, my dear. She's a true, good mother; +she doesn't want her daughter to marry him, because he +is so dissipated."</p> + +<p>"But I should think that they would run away and +get married. I'd marry a man, anyway, if I loved him."</p> + +<p>"Ah, Lassie, you don't know what you'd do if you +were in the position of that poor girl. Her mother has +taken her away and is stopping here in this very quiet +and unassuming way to avoid all notice or being found +out."</p> + +<p>"But he has found them out!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but Mrs. Lathbun doesn't know it."</p> + +<p>Lassie looked almost incredulous. "Mrs. Lathbun +doesn't look a bit like a woman who would hide her +daughter away from a millionaire," she said, obstinately.</p> + +<p>"You see how easy it is to misjudge any one, Lassie; +because that's what she's doing."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. O'Neil says they haven't any trunks or any +clothes. She said so this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"I know; I've heard her say that before."</p> + +<p>"Well, tell me the whole story."</p> + +<p>Alva looked at her for a long dozen of seconds and +then her lips curved slightly. "I'm going to tell you," +she said; "but, do you know, it just comes over me +that you are surely going to disbelieve it."</p> + +<p>"Why do you think so?"</p> + +<p>"Because it's so strange."<span class="pagenum">[118]</span></p> + +<p>"But you believed it?"</p> + +<p>"But I can believe anything. Believing is my forte. +Once 'heretic' and 'unbeliever' meant the same thing; +well, I am a believer."</p> + +<p>Lassie laughed a little. "Go on and tell me the +story," she said, "I'll try to believe;" then, her face +changing suddenly, she added, "it can have a happy +ending—can't it? Sometime?"</p> + +<p>Alva flashed a quick, sad flash of understanding at +her. "All stories will have that some day," she said, +gently. It was the first reference on the lips of either to +that morning's revelation.</p> + +<p>"Do tell me the story," Lassie begged, after a +minute's pause; "tell me the whole. Do you think +that perhaps he is out there now?"</p> + +<p>Alva shook her head in protestation of ignorance as +to that. "It seems very medieval and devoted for him +to be out there at all, don't you think? And these +nights are so cold, too."</p> + +<p>"I should think that some one would see him sometimes?"</p> + +<p>"I should, too."</p> + +<p>"Well, go on. Has she known him always?"</p> + +<p>"No; it seems that he lives in Cromwell where her +mother was born, and she met him there two years ago +when they went there to visit."</p> + +<p>"Did he fall in love with her at first sight?"</p> + +<p>"I think so. She said the first thing that she knew he +was talking about her all the time, and then he began +watching outside of their house at night."</p> + +<p>"Didn't he ever talk to her, or come inside the +house?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Lassie, what makes you say things like that?<span class="pagenum">[119]</span> +They make the story seem absurd; and I began it +by telling you that her mother was bitterly opposed to +him on account of his reputation."</p> + +<p>"I forgot," said Lassie, contritely; "is he so very +bad?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid so. He drinks and gambles and does +everything that he shouldn't, she says."</p> + +<p>"But if he's rich he can afford it, can't he?"</p> + +<p>Alva turned quickly. "How can you say a thing like +that? As if money can condone sin. Don't you know +that a thoroughly bad man is a soulless thing, and that +to marry a man like that is either heroic or deeply degrading, +just according to whether one does it for love +or for money."</p> + +<p>"But you said that she loved him."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but you said he could afford to be wicked!"</p> + +<p>Lassie clasped her hands meditatively. "To think +of that girl having a millionaire watching outside her +window, nights! And Mrs. O'Neil says she hasn't even +a nightgown with her, so she can't possibly get up in the +cold to peep out through the blinds."</p> + +<p>"I suppose she couldn't do that, anyway," said Alva; +"you see her mother doesn't know he's there, so she +couldn't get up to look."</p> + +<p>"How does she know herself that he is there, then? +perhaps he tells her he watches and really stays in bed +at some hotel."</p> + +<p>"Lassie!"</p> + +<p>"What's the use of his watching, anyway? Does it +do any good? I should think that she'd be afraid that +he'd take cold. I—"</p> + +<p>"Lassie, don't you see that it's his only way to prove +his devotion? He can't write her, so he watches outside<span class="pagenum">[120]</span> +her window, nights. She says that he takes a handful +of sand and throws it against the side of the house, and +she hears it and knows that he's there."</p> + +<p>"Do you believe that?"</p> + +<p>"I believe the whole story."</p> + +<p>Lassie regarded her friend with amazement.</p> + +<p>"I don't see how you can;" she said; "why, those +two women would go almost wild for joy if any man +wanted to marry either of them."</p> + +<p>"No, dear," Alva said, smiling; "no, they wouldn't. +The world isn't altogether worldly; there are simple, +true, wholesome natures in it that look at life in a +straightforward way without any illusions. And Mrs. +Lathbun is one of those. Poor she may be, but she +knows very well that no possible happiness can come to +her child from marrying a bad man who has money."</p> + +<p>"But her daughter wants to marry him, and he wants +to marry her."</p> + +<p>Alva paused before replying; then she said slowly:</p> + +<p>"Lassie, there's the puzzle. Does he want to marry +her?"</p> + +<p>Lassie looked startled. "Doesn't he?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"She doesn't know," said Alva; "you see, they have +hardly ever exchanged a word."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the young girl, "this is the craziest +love story I ever heard in my life. Do you mean to say +that you believe that a man who had never heard a girl +speak would go and stay outside her window, all night +long? What does he do all night, anyhow; walk about, +or sit down? Alva, you can't believe that story? +Not possibly!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I believe it," said Alva, cheerfully. "I believe +it for two or three very good reasons. One is that there<span class="pagenum">[121]</span> +is no reason why the girl should construct such a silly +lie for my benefit; another is that truth is always +stranger than fiction; and the third is that she has a +little picture of him, and as soon as I saw the picture I +saw why Fate brought the Lathbuns and me together, +and why the man waited outside her window all night."</p> + +<p>"Why?" Lassie's tone became suddenly curious.</p> + +<p>"My dear, the man is the image of the man that I +love. They might be twin brothers. And men of such +strength put through whatever they lay their hands +unto."</p> + +<p>Lassie appeared dumbfounded.</p> + +<p>"He looks like—" she stammered and halted.</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear," Alva said, simply; "he looks exactly +like him! Now you see why I am interested. Now you +see why I find it easy to believe. A bad man—a +thoroughly bad man—is a creature that for some +reason has not come into his heavenly birthright. If +that girl, plain and pale and unassuming as she looks, +has the power to draw him from nights of dissipation +to nights in the cold outside her window, she has the +power to call a soul to him or waken his own that is but +sleeping. It takes a great deal of living and learning to +attain to the faith which I have, but I have it and I am +firm in it, and I believe the story and I believe that +good is brewing for that man. I'm sure of it."</p> + +<p>Alva spoke with such energetic earnestness, such dominating +force, that Lassie was silenced for the minute.</p> + +<p>"I suppose that I am just stupid," she said, after a +little; "I've had so much that was different to try and +learn to-day."</p> + +<p>There was a pathos in her tone that led the older +girl to lean quickly near and take one of her hands,<span class="pagenum">[122]</span> +drawing her close as she did so. "I know it, dear, +I know it. And I appreciate it all more than you +guess. We won't talk of Miss Lathbun any more +just now, and, dear, believe me when I say that +I'm truly very glad that you met Ronald just as +you did this morning and told him what I had told +you. I see all this from all its sides, and the views +that differ from mine don't hurt me—believe me, +they don't. I understand exactly how Ronald's fine, +robust manhood would revolt quite as you yourself +revolted; but, you and he, with all the possibilities of +your gorgeous, glorious youth, can no more measure the +joy of these days to my love and myself, than the gay +little birds measure what life is to you. To us, you two +and your ideas are very much like the birds; we are +glad to see you enjoy the sunshine, and our better gladness +we know is quite beyond you."</p> + +<p>Lassie turned her face upward to the earnest look +and tender kiss, and then they sat still for a little until +Alva rose and began to make ready for bed.</p> + +<p>"Tell me," she said, as she loosened her hair; "it +was like this, wasn't it? At first Ronald was almost +angry; and then his feeling changed and he felt that +because it was I, it was rather a different thing from +what it would have been if it had been any one else."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lassie, in an awestruck tone, "it was +just like that. How did you know?"</p> + +<p>Alva laughed. "Not because I am a witch," she +said, "but just because I know Ronald. You see, +Lassie, I am much stronger than Ronald; I am stronger +than Ronald, just as Ronald is stronger than you. He +could not condemn me; he has to own I am right. Right +is a might so great that wherever it holds good it rules<span class="pagenum">[123]</span> +its kind. Ronald gives me my due; you will, too, after a +while. Only I must not drive either of you forward too +quickly." She laughed a little. "I must give you +time," she added.</p> + +<p>Lassie was taking down her own hair. She shook it +apart now, and looked forth from between the parted +waves, her expression one of deeply stirred interest. +"I believe that this is going to be the most wonderful +time in my life," she said; "I feel as if everything were +getting deeper around me."</p> + +<p>"Ah, dearest," said her friend, with a sigh that was +not sad—only a long breath; "that's very true. I +should not have sent for you, only that I knew that +when you came to leave me and go back to the world to +wear your white gown and make your début, you would +have become a stronger, better, wiser, sweeter woman +all your life through, for this experience. You see, dear +child, the rarest thing in the world of to-day is sincerity—absolute +truth. I am not especially gifted or very +remarkable in any way, but I have learned the value of +being sincere. It isn't a small thing to learn in life, Lassie, +and it isn't a small privilege to live for a few days +with one who has learned the lesson. When you see +what truth really is, and what it may really do for one, +you won't be revolted by my marriage; you will never +wonder over me any more, and you'll learn to look at +strange stories with a new light of comprehension."</p> + +<p>Lassie went close to her, put up her lips and kissed +her.</p> + +<p>"And I can tell Mr. Ingram about Miss Lathbun, +too?" she asked very simply; "or must I keep that +secret, as you said at first?"</p> + +<p>Alva put her arms fondly about the pretty young<span class="pagenum">[124]</span> +thing. "Lassie," she said, "you are a dear, and I +don't mind how much you discuss me with Ronald; +but you musn't tell him Miss Lathbun's secret. It +wouldn't be right."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then, I won't," said Lassie; "and I +will keep my word, too."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," Alva said, patting her face caressingly; +"thank you, and heaven bless you and give you a good +understanding."</p> + +<p>Lassie looked up with a smile. "You think I may +learn to look at things in your way?"</p> + +<p>"I think so," said Alva; "looking at things in my +way has made me a very happy woman, and so I desire +the same for you."</p> + +<p>Then she kissed her good night.<span class="pagenum">[125]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<p class="h3">PLEASANT CONVERSE</p> + +<p>"Well, what did I tell you?" said Mrs. Ray to +Mrs. Catt, a day or so later, when that lady +had dropped in for a little call. "Those two young +people up at Nellie O'Neil's have fallen in love just +as sure as beans are beans. Not that he's so young, +either, but a man's always able to fall in love whenever +he gets a chance. Age don't matter. There was Mr. +Ray. He was always in love unless he was married. +Yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>"If he's engaged to that other one, I shouldn't +think he'd find it very easy to fall in love right under her +nose, so to speak," said Mrs. Catt.</p> + +<p>"She wouldn't notice," said Mrs. Ray, adjusting +her shawl, and turning the needlework in her hands; +"she's the kind who don't even see the things they go +headlong over. She's the mooney kind. I know. Yes, +indeed. Mr. Ray had mooney days. There were days +when Mr. Ray called me by his first wife's name all +day. Those were his mooney days."</p> + +<p>"My cousin Eliza thinks she's crazy too. She says +she's seen her time and again setting on stumps in the +woods, and she turns out in the road for sparrows. +And then that house. They're at it tooth and nail +from dawn to dark. I never see nothing like it."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Ray; "there's others say that, too.<span class="pagenum">[126]</span> +She is queer! Nellie says she often doesn't eat breakfast—nor +any meat either. And she talks about the +dam as if we was all heathens laying the axe at the +root of our own mothers. She says all the trees ought +to belong to the United States Government. As if +we wasn't singing 'Pass under the rod of the Republican +party' from dawn to dark now. Such a country!"</p> + +<p>"She goes down to see Mr. Ledge, too," pursued +Mrs. Catt; "of course he don't want the dam, and he +makes her more so. Josiah Bates was driving home +from Castile the other day, and he saw her coming +from there. Josiah said he was sure she'd been to see +Mr. Ledge, 'cause she wasn't ten feet from the house, +and they was waving their hands to her from the window. +You can always depend on Josiah Bates knowing +what he's talking about."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Ray, turning her work about; +"yes, Josiah Bates is a very careful observer. He'll +never die of no fish-bone in his throat for want of +watching the fish."</p> + +<p>"Speaking of fish-bones," said Mrs. Catt, "have +you seen Lottie Ann Wiley lately? There's a bag of +bones for you!"</p> + +<p>"Not for a week or so. Why? Is she thinner than +she was?"</p> + +<p>"Thinner! Well, I should say so. I don't know +what the Wileys will do with that girl if she keeps on +getting thinner and paler."</p> + +<p>"She isn't any paler than that girl at Nellie O'Neil's."</p> + +<p>"Which one?"</p> + +<p>"That Lathbun girl. Do you know anything about +them?"</p> + +<p>"That's what every one's asking."<span class="pagenum">[127]</span></p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray threaded her needle. "They're a queer +pair," she remarked.</p> + +<p>"Well, I should say so. They don't eat any breakfast, +either; make it up on chestnuts. They're picking +chestnuts all over. Lizzie says she never saw people +making so free. Folks don't know what to say, but +it riles a good many. They pick that little gray bag +they've got full three or four times a day."</p> + +<p>"Well, I declare," said Mrs. Ray; "do you suppose +they eat 'em all?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Catt rose. "I only stopped for a minute," she +said. "Oh, I don't know, I'm sure. Chestnuts is +hearty, but seems to me they ought to ask at the houses, +anyway. Mrs. Wiley says if they come to her trees +again, she'll turn the bull in the lot."</p> + +<p>"Must you go?" Mrs. Ray asked. "I thought +Mrs. Wiley was afraid of the bull."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I must. What you making?"</p> + +<p>"I'm putting a new lining in this vest for Elmer +Hoskins. His dog chewed it up, while he was asleep."</p> + +<p>"Did he have it on?" Mrs. Catt asked in great +surprise.</p> + +<p>"No; he had it on the chair and it fell off."</p> + +<p>"Fell off! I s'pose you've heard about Gran'ma +Benton's parrot falling off?"</p> + +<p>"Falling off what? No, I haven't heard."</p> + +<p>"Fell off the perch. I saw poor Clay this morning, +and he's half mad. The parrot and Gran'ma Benton +have been discussing most all night lately, and the +parrot gets so mad he hops all over and last night he +got in a rage and fell off the perch. Broke the perch, +too."</p> + +<p>"Well, I declare," said Mrs. Ray; "why don't Clay +<span class="pagenum">[128]</span> +show some spirit and put a stop to all that? I +would."</p> + +<p>"He can't. Gran'ma Benton's so fond of discussing, +and if she didn't have the parrot she'd soon wear them +all out."</p> + +<p>"I thought she was wearing them out as it is."</p> + +<p>"Well, yes—" Mrs. Catt looked cornered, "but, +anyhow, they don't have to do the talking now—the +parrot does it. I'd like to see my husband's mother +have a parrot—that's all!" Mrs. Catt twitched her +shawl expressively.</p> + +<p>"Poor Clay Wright Benton," said Mrs. Ray. "Just +to look at him you'd know it all. I do despise men who +haven't got any spirit; but if they have spirit of course +they're almost worse to get on with. Yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed!" said Mrs. Catt with meaning; +"well, good-by, Mrs. Ray."</p> + +<p>"Oh! Good-by."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Catt went out.</p> + +<p>It was only a few minutes later that Mrs. Wiley +arrived, with another large bundle wrapped up in +newspaper.</p> + +<p>"Don't stop your work," she said, putting it down +with a sigh. "Oh, you ain't sewing on my coat," she +added, in a tone of deep disappointment, evidently +seeing interruption in a changed light at once.</p> + +<p>"No, but I've cut it out. What you got there?"</p> + +<p>"I've got another suit of father's."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray eyed the bundle with thoughtfully compressed +lips, and gave her shawl a fresh tuck.</p> + +<p>"What you want made out of this one?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley hesitated. "It's such a handsome piece +of cloth," she said, "I'm willing to leave the cut to you, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +but I thought maybe you could get a winter jacket for +Lottie Ann out of this one?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray compressed her lips more, and frowned. +"I don't know about that," she said, shaking her head. +"I've had trouble enough with the last."</p> + +<p>"This was his new when he died. After he reached +three hundred. And it isn't worn anywhere. You can +get her big sleeves out of the hips, I think."</p> + +<p>"There's a good deal to a coat beside the sleeves," +said Mrs. Ray; "that coat of yours has most drove +me mad. I never thought of your bringing me another. +Well, unroll it and let me look at it."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley began to unfasten the package.</p> + +<p>"Any moth-holes in this one?" Mrs. Ray asked, +with professional interest.</p> + +<p>"None to speak of. The only real hole is where he +sat down on a engine spark at the station, the day of +his last shock."</p> + +<p>"It isn't the suit he had on when the oil-tank exploded, +then?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Mrs. Wiley; "that was the last but one. +The oil-tank was the middle one of his three shocks."</p> + +<p>She unfolded the garments and spread them out. +Mrs. Ray watched her, and continued her work at the +same time.</p> + +<p>"How's Lottie Ann?" she asked, presently.</p> + +<p>"Oh, she's poorly," said Mrs. Wiley. "We're +getting awful worried over Lottie Ann. I thought +maybe you could get her fronts out of his fronts; you +see, she's slimmer than I am."</p> + +<p>"But her big spread will come lower than yours," +said Mrs. Ray; "is there any up and down to the +cloth? How much does she weigh, anyhow?"<span class="pagenum">[130]</span></p> + +<p>"Yes, there is an up and down. Ninety-six last time. +That's mighty little for her height. She only wanted it +short, anyway."</p> + +<p>"It'll have to be short. Yes, indeed. Why you must +have weighed most double that at her age. It's too +bad men always have pockets."</p> + +<p>"He would have them; you know how father always +set store by pockets. There, that's the engine spark. +I don't know, I'm sure, what we'll do about her. Mr. +Wiley says his grandmother went just so—" Mrs. +Wiley's voice broke suddenly; she took out her handkerchief +and dried her eyes. "Do you see any way to +getting the fronts out?" she asked, falteringly, after a +minute.</p> + +<p>"You musn't look to the worst that way," said Mrs. +Ray, soothingly; "those thin girls pick up wonderfully. +The only way I see is if you've got braid. If +you've got any braid, I can piece it back of the braid. +She may marry and be as well as any one. Look at +her great-grandmother you just spoke of. Yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>"I haven't got any braid. But I can buy some. Judy +was up from the St. Helena road yesterday, and she +said to give her milk—all she'll drink."</p> + +<p>"Turn it over so I can see the back," said Mrs. Ray; +"will she drink it, though? That's the question. She +was up for the mail two nights ago, and I thought she +looked pretty well-willed. That's a nice piece of cloth. +My, but you were lucky he didn't have it on when the +oil-tank exploded. Yes, indeed. It's better cloth than +the other."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's what I think. That's just the trouble, +Mrs. Ray; she will <i>not</i> drink it."</p> + +<p>"You never was severe enough with her. Not but<span class="pagenum">[131]</span> +what if it hadn't burnt through you could get the oil +out, maybe."</p> + +<p>"I know it, but she's my only girl. I thought you +could use the same buttons. Eleven boys, and then that +one girl. She's named for Mr. Wiley's mother and my +mother. Charlotte, you know. See, Mrs. Ray, there's +six of each size, one on each cuff, too. And all so stout +but her. The boys and their father got together on the +hay scales the other day, and they went up over two +thousand pounds. Did you hear about it?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray stopped sewing and scanned the new +proposition with one eye half closed.</p> + +<p>"I'd have to piece the sleeves; you'd have to make +up your mind to that. Were they in the wagon?"</p> + +<p>"No, just standing on the scales. You think you can +manage it if you piece them—don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I can manage it then. I can get my backs out +below the knee, and get her sides out of his backs."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mrs. Ray, you've taken a load off my mind. +I'm so glad to get these awful sad remembrances done +some good with. I made pillow-slips out of his nightshirts, +but his flannels will haunt me till I die. Eddy's +the only one of the boys that is ever going to grow to +them, and Eddy never wears flannel."</p> + +<p>"I should think you could use 'em up to cover the +ironing-table. Who did you say was picking chestnuts,—Mrs. +Lathbun and her daughter?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't said a word about them." Mrs. Wiley +opened her eyes widely. "But I'm hearing about them +all over. I don't believe she's her daughter any more +than you are. They're a nice pair, those two. Chestnuts +six dollars a bushel, and they picking them morn, +noon, and night. Have you seen Sammy Adams? He<span class="pagenum">[132]</span> +took them in the night before they got here, you know. +You heard of that."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did." Mrs. Ray's lips came together; "I +shall ask him all about that taking them in, the first +time I see him. Never bought a stamp yet! Such +doings! They're not respectable. Don't tell <i>me</i>."</p> + +<p>"You're terrible prejudiced in your opinions, Mrs. +Ray; you judge everybody by the stamps they buy."</p> + +<p>"It's all I have to judge strangers by," said Mrs. +Ray, "and it's a pretty good guide, too. Mrs. Lathbun +don't buy stamps and nobody can't tell me that she's +on the square. Wait till I see Sammy!"</p> + +<p>"When do you think you can try mine on?" asked +Mrs. Wiley.</p> + +<p>"Will next Thursday do?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I don't want to wear it till Thanksgiving; +I won't go to Buffalo till Christmas. Lottie Ann won't +want hers till then."</p> + +<p>"I can do them both by Thanksgiving," said Mrs. +Ray. "I've got a few little jobs to do for others, +and I want to build a new back fence, and I guess +I'm going to get the contract for whitewashing the +church cellar, I'm bidding on it. But after that, except +for my house-cleaning and my boarders and my +regular duties under the United States Government, I +haven't got anything particular on hand."</p> + +<p>"I'll be so glad," said Mrs. Wiley, moving towards +the door. "We're all so kind of upset about not knowing +whether Uncle Purchase will come and live with +us or not if the dam goes through, that I want to have +my things in order, anyhow. He wrote, you know."</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't know, but I guess he'll come and live +with you, anyway," said Mrs. Ray; "good-by."<span class="pagenum">[133]</span></p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley went out, and before long there was +another caller,—Clay Wright Benton himself this +time, usually called "poor Clay Wright Benton" by his +friends, for the simple reason that he was Sarah Benton's +husband, and his mother's son.</p> + +<p>"How d'ye do," he said, opening the door a few +inches and looking in through it. "No, I won't come +in; I only stopped to speak about the hay. You said +I could have it, you know."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know," said Mrs. Ray; "but I said, if you +came before October first. That's past now, and Elmer +took it off yesterday. Him and his dog was here at +sun up and away again by noon. You see now what it +is to take your own time."</p> + +<p>Clay Wright Benton stood still, turning his cap about +and about.</p> + +<p>"I thought you knew I wanted it," he said, finally; +"I couldn't come sooner."</p> + +<p>"I did know. But I thought you needed a lesson. +Nobody that wants to get ahead in this world can take +their own time. You've got to be a little ahead of other +people's time if you really want to make your mark. +How's Susan? Got back from her father's yet?"</p> + +<p>"No," said the man; "she's going to stay till +Thanksgiving. She was so awful tired of the parrot."</p> + +<p>"Look out you don't leave her too long—same as +the hay," said Mrs. Ray, cheerfully. "Who's that +coming up the steps behind you? I can feel the draught +as long as you stand there in the crack, but I can't see +through your body."</p> + +<p>Clay Wright Benton moved aside, and Mrs. Dunstall +pushed past him. "I'm sorry I was late about the<span class="pagenum">[134]</span> +hay," he said then, and went slowly away. Mrs. Benton +and his mother had left very little spirit in him.</p> + +<p>"What did he come for?" asked Mrs. Dunstall, +shutting the door tightly. "I'm sorry for Susan. She +married him for his looks, and looks is all he ever had +to give her." The attitude of the community was that +of larger communities towards the humbly unsuccessful +in life.</p> + +<p>"He ain't giving her even looks, any more," said +Mrs. Ray; "she's gone home, and his looks is gone +heaven knows where. No man was ever so handsome +yet that he could rise above needing to shave."</p> + +<p>"He'll make his fortune if the dam goes through, +though," observed Mrs. Dunstall; "he owns all the +land above Ledgeville."</p> + +<p>"He'll never see her for dust then," said Mrs. Ray, +drily. "She'll leave him to keep house for Gran'ma +Benton and the parrot. Well, what did you come for?"</p> + +<p>"I was walking by, and I thought I'd just stop and +ask you if you'd heard about that Mrs. Lathbun and +her daughter staying all night with Sammy Adams? +Josiah Bates was up that way for a load of apples and +he heard of it."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray became rigid. "I have heard of it," she +said; "but not from Sammy. He was here and never +said a thing about it, but some one else told me. So +it's all over town now, is it?"</p> + +<p>"They was walking across country and there came +on a rain and they stopped for shelter and it was +Sammy's where they stopped."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray sewed very fast. "I always said they were +tramps anyway," she said, haughtily; "now you'll all +see."<span class="pagenum">[135]</span></p> + +<p>"Seems funny Sammy never told you about it."</p> + +<p>"Well, he never did."</p> + +<p>"He tells you everything—don't he?"</p> + +<p>"I thought so."</p> + +<p>"It couldn't be he really took a fancy to either of +'em," reflected Mrs. Dunstall; "I don't think they're +good-looking."</p> + +<p>"Good-looking!"</p> + +<p>"But you know, men are queer, Mrs. Ray. There +was Mr. Ray. He was queer."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray gave her thread a jerk that broke it.</p> + +<p>"They never get any letter, do they? You said +they never did, didn't you?" Mrs. Dunstall was all +query.</p> + +<p>"No, they never get any letters."</p> + +<p>"They claim to come from Cromwell, don't they?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I never heard. I wouldn't believe +anything they said. No trunks and stealing +chestnuts all over. I never!"</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't it be a funny thing if, after all these +years, some stranger like those two was to come in from +saints-know-where and marry Sammy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it would be funny," said Mrs. Ray, "very +funny. Yes, indeed. Yes, it would be <i>very</i> funny!"</p> + +<p>"I thought I'd just stop and tell you," said Mrs. +Dunstall. "I knew you'd be interested. I know you're +such a friend of Sammy's. I thought if you knew, +maybe you could look 'em up a little. Nathan's got +an aunt living in Cromwell. If I was you I'd look 'em +up, Mrs. Ray."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray opened her scissors like the jaws of a +shark.</p> + +<p>"I <i>am</i> looking 'em up," she said, and the scissors<span class="pagenum">[136]</span> +closed with a snap full of meaning; "they'll soon find +what it means to get no letters and write no letters and +stop with Sammy Adams when it rains. Yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>Two hours later every one in the township—that +is, every one except the boarders of the O'Neil House—knew +that Mrs. Ray was actively advocating an investigation +into the Lathbuns' history.</p> + +<p>"I guess she'll find out a good deal," said Samuel +Peterkin to Judy, as they drove home towards the St. +Helena road.</p> + +<p>The scene far and near was one maddest autumn +blaze of beauty.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Ray will never let up on him till she does," +said Judy; "she's awful mad at Sammy."</p> + +<p>The road bent between giant pines, and revealed the +gray facade of the High Banks beyond, stretching in +gigantic grandeur between the black shadows below +and the bewildering colors above.</p> + +<p>"If these trees was down, what a long ways we could +see along the river," said Samuel.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Judy, "trees is dreadfully in the way +when you want to see. And to think that Mr. Ledge is +always talking about having planted ten thousand of +them. People are curious."</p> + +<p>The sun came out upon the horizon behind them at +that minute, and shot a shaft of glory down the cañon, +illuminating all the gray rock with silver.</p> + +<p>"There, now," said Judy; "it's late when it's like +that. It's right in our eyes, too. We must hurry."</p> + +<p>"I told you you were staying too long," said Samuel; +"and you know as well as I do that nobody can trot +the St. Helena hill."<span class="pagenum">[137]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<p class="h3">THE BROADER MEANING</p> + +<p>It is surprising how quickly any situation can be assimilated. +Be it ever so pleasant or ever so painful, +we get accustomed to its demands surprisingly soon, +and whether it is the fact that one has just gotten a +fortune, or just gotten the toothache, in either case it +seems as if one had had it always, before one has +hardly had it at all.</p> + +<p>Lassie learned this with great rapidity. Before three +days had passed by, she discovered that the deep and +earnest joy in Alva's mind had eradicated all the horror +in her own. Alva's love ceased to seem shocking—it +seemed, instead, more like some beautiful, mysterious +wonder. Lassie came to hear her friend talk without +any distress—only with a sort of wistful ignorance—a +longing to fathom depths not before even apprehended.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't strike me as it did at first at all," she +said to Ingram one night, as they went for the mail +together. "All that I think of now is how happy she +looks. Did you ever see any one look as happy as +she does?"</p> + +<p>"She's very happy, surely," said Ingram; "but +what uses me up is that she is looking forward +so. Why, that man is dying—he may die any day<span class="pagenum">[138]</span>—and +she thinks that he will come here. He can't +ever come here, not possibly!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, can't he?" Lassie cried, in real distress, +"are you sure of that?"</p> + +<p>"Of course. He knows it, too."</p> + +<p>"But she doesn't know it?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think that he ought to tell her, then?"</p> + +<p>Ingram did not speak for a minute. "Perhaps some +miracle may come to pass, and he may live," he said +then; "you see, he has lived three weeks longer than +any man in his circumstances ought to expect to +live."</p> + +<p>"Oh, then he hasn't got to die soon?"</p> + +<p>Ingram knit his brows in the dark. "I can't explain +myself clearly," he said; "but it seems to me that he +and Alva sort of rise above rules, so to speak. Part of +the time she's as she always was—just as we are—and +then again I feel as if she herself had gone and left +me sitting with just a figure of some sort.—" He +paused. "I expect he's the same way," he added, +after a second; "it's all beyond me."</p> + +<p>"It's strange, isn't it?" Lassie spoke thoughtfully. +"She's very sweet and lovely, and dear with it all. +But I know just what you mean; I've seen it, too. She +is talking, and then she stops and that white look comes +over her face, and I never speak then until she does. +Do you know," she said, almost timidly, "I keep +thinking of things I've read in books about the Middle +Ages,—about saints; about 'ecstasy,' they called it. +We say 'ecstasies' about hats, or little dogs, or the +flowers at Easter; but when Alva has been talking +about her life in that house and stops to think, and I<span class="pagenum">[139]</span> +see her face, I feel as if I understood what the word +really and truly meant."</p> + +<p>"I suppose there's no danger of her converting you," +said Ingram; "it's all very well for her, but I should +hate to have you that way."</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked the girl, in surprise.</p> + +<p>"It isn't human, that's why," the man declared, +energetically. "We're past the Middle Ages," he +added, with a little laugh, "far past now."</p> + +<p>"You think that people can be too good?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do. I wouldn't marry a woman like her for +anything!"</p> + +<p>"But you thought differently once," said Lassie, +shyly.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, easily, "I wanted to marry her once, +but she wouldn't have it at all. Droll—isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"We're ever so far by the post-office; do you know +it?" she said.</p> + +<p>"So we are; I'd forgotten all about the mail."</p> + +<p>They turned back.</p> + +<p>"But I don't believe that Alva ever could make you +see life in the way that she does," Ingram said, tentatively; +"does she ever try?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think so," said Lassie; "she just talks +to me of her happiness."</p> + +<p>"What would become of the world, I wonder, if +every one adopted her views," suggested the man.</p> + +<p>They turned in at Mrs. Ray's gate just here. The +mail was distributed, and every one else had taken +theirs and gone.</p> + +<p>"Well, you're a little late," said Mrs. Ray, cheerfully. +"Mary Cody run up for the house letters when +she saw you go by. Have a nice walk?"<span class="pagenum">[140]</span></p> + +<p>"Yes, very," said Ingram.</p> + +<p>"You're great walkers down your way. Mrs. Lathbun +and her daughter walk all day long, seems to +me."</p> + +<p>"They do walk a good deal," said Lassie.</p> + +<p>Then she and Ingram went back to the hotel. They +found Alva standing by the dining-room door with +her lamp and her letters in her hand. Mrs. O'Neil +stood close before her.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't worry," said Alva to Mrs. O'Neil; +"I don't believe one word of it."</p> + +<p>"When they're out to-morrow I shall sweep the room +<i>myself</i>," said Mrs. O'Neil, decidedly; "you can learn +a good deal about people by sweeping their room." +Then they all separated, Ingram going to his letters, +their hostess to her husband, and Alva and Lassie to +their cosy nest up-stairs.</p> + +<p>"What was the matter?" Lassie asked, directly +their doors were shut.</p> + +<p>"Nothing especial," Alva said, laughing; "it was +just that Mrs. Ray came here this afternoon and +rather upset Mrs. O'Neil by talking about Mrs. Lathbun +and her daughter."</p> + +<p>"What did she say?"</p> + +<p>"She didn't say anything in particular—she just +talked."</p> + +<p>"What did she talk, then?"</p> + +<p>"She talked all sorts of things; she doesn't like +them at all. She doesn't consider them nice."</p> + +<p>Lassie was silent. She was conscious of a painful +lack of admiration for either Mrs. Lathbun or her +daughter, herself.</p> + +<p>A freight train began to roll by and ended conversation<span class="pagenum">[141]</span> +for the time being. Alva went to the window and +stood there. After a while she spoke musingly.</p> + +<p>"Everything must have a purpose. Every action +has to have a thought behind it. If we could only +see through the veil!"</p> + +<p>The train, which had come to a standstill, now began +to move again, cracking and straining at first, then +going on with a terrific roar.</p> + +<p>"They serve their purpose surely—the freight +trains," Alva said; "even if they did nothing else, +their noise accomplishes something. One might forget +life so easily in this corner of the world, if it were +not for them."</p> + +<p>Lassie laughed. "But they serve a few more purposes +than that."</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course. I never deny the broader meaning +in life—if the world's view <i>is</i> the broader one—but +trains mean such a great deal besides what they carry, +in a little bit of a town. I used to think that they came +pretty close to being all the meaning that life had to the +people there, and I still wonder sometimes if it isn't +so. I've lived here well over one week now, and really +it seems to me that the trains, their comings and goings, +and whether they do them on time or not, are the only +topics of conversation that are ever broached."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps they talk about other things when we're +not around," suggested Lassie, wisely.</p> + +<p>"I hadn't thought of that. Or perhaps they think +the trains our only mutual interest. You know, +Lassie, there really is no one that is stupid, unless you +do your half towards being stupid, too. It's like the +crash in the wilderness, which doesn't mean sound +unless there are ears to hear it."<span class="pagenum">[142]</span></p> + +<p>"I never thought of that," said Lassie; "isn't +there really any sound in the wilderness? What happens +when the tigers roar?"</p> + +<p>"But of course they do talk about other things here," +Alva continued, paying no attention to her friend's +flippancy. "They talk about the dam, and they talk +about me."</p> + +<p>"What do you suppose they say about you?" +Lassie asked, curiously.</p> + +<p>"I know exactly what they say," Alva replied, a +real amusement curling her lips; "they say that +Ronald and I are going to be married and live in that +house while he builds the dam."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>"But I didn't know that the dam was decided on."</p> + +<p>"It isn't, my dear, and I don't believe myself that +there ever will be any dam. I can't believe that this +State, even in her grossest materialism, will have the +face to accept a royal gift and then turn around and +give it away in direct contradiction of the terms of its +acceptance."</p> + +<p>"Is it as bad as that?"</p> + +<p>"It's very bad. That dear old gentleman has made +the preservation of this wonder of nature the realized +dream of his whole life. He's carried through no end +of other big philanthropic schemes, but he never for +one instant allowed anything to turn him aside from +this one. He told me himself how he had rewooded +the banks—he has planted thousands and thousands +of trees—and now to have the whole threatened. +It's shameful, shameful!"</p> + +<p>"Does every one know how you feel?"<span class="pagenum">[143]</span></p> + +<p>"Yes, every one knows how I feel."</p> + +<p>"What do they think themselves?"</p> + +<p>"I believe the predominant sentiment in Ledge is +that it will be entertaining to see Ledgeville drowned +for good and all."</p> + +<p>Lassie laughed.</p> + +<p>The freight train was all gone by now. Alva turned +from the window and came back to a seat beside her +friend, sinking upon it with a little sigh.</p> + +<p>"All this goes very near with me, dear," she said, +gently; "loving Nature and fighting for the future has +been <i>his</i> life-work, you know."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Lassie said, softly.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the older one leaned close and put her arms +about the young girl. "It's so heaven-blessed to have +you here,—it makes me so happy."</p> + +<p>"I'm very happy, too," said Lassie. "I never had +just the feeling before in my life that I have with you +these days—it's as if nothing could ever come between +us. Sort of as if we had been sealed to a compact."</p> + +<p>Alva patted the brown waves of hair. "That's the +understanding of true friendship, dear," she said; +"nothing ever can come between us. Once two people +realize mutual truth, how can anything come between +them again? All the trouble in the world arises out of +falseness. Search in your mind, and see if it isn't +so?"</p> + +<p>Lassie reflected. "You're putting so many new ideas +into my head," she said, "I suppose I'll go home with +nothing of my old self left in me."</p> + +<p>"Not quite that," said Alva. "Your old self +wasn't so bad, Lassie, dear. But the world has a way +of hammering all its votaries into a certain set of molds,<span class="pagenum">[144]</span> +and I'd like to see you casting, instead of cast,—do +you know the difference?"</p> + +<p>"Alva," said Lassie, with sudden appealing earnestness, +"you weren't like this when I saw you last; what +changed you?"</p> + +<p>"I had the convictions then, but not the courage. +Now I have the courage, too."</p> + +<p>"What gave you the courage?"</p> + +<p>"Surely you can divine?"</p> + +<p>"Love."</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear, love. Love for him. All courage has +its root in love of some kind."</p> + +<p>"Alva, you teach me more each day."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I'll teach you more and more and more +yet, and so on and so on until we part, and then I'll go +on learning myself."</p> + +<p>"Hasn't your lesson any end?"</p> + +<p>"Love hasn't any end, dear, any more than it has +any beginning. And so my lesson hasn't any end, +either."</p> + +<p>"But—"</p> + +<p>"I know what you are going to say, but that isn't +real love. That which can end has never been,—all +the real things in existence are eternal."</p> + +<p>"But they—the people that—well, you know, +they thought that it was love—didn't they?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear, and little children think that there are +bears in dark closets, and ever so many people think +that money buys happiness. The world is full of lies, +Lassie, but if one puts the test to them they all fade +away. You don't understand yet—but wait."</p> + +<p>"I want to understand."</p> + +<p>"But you are not ready to understand yet."<span class="pagenum">[145]</span></p> + +<p>"But I am ready, I will learn to be ready."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I'm going to teach you. But I have to +go slowly because I have to hunt for the words. You +are such a little thing—such a baby—to be trusted +with life; because you see most people never live—they +just exist. They are only a few steps up on the +staircase, and when they are dragged or pushed above +the place that they are in by nature, they are apt to be +dizzy. I want to teach you life, Lassie; but I don't +want to make you dizzy." She paused, and a whimsical +little smile danced across her face; "and besides, dear, +we must get undressed. It is after ten o'clock."</p> + +<p>"Just a minute more, Alva; it seems as if I cannot +break off right here. And I won't be dizzy. I know +that whatever you think and do must be right and best. +I want to learn to think just as you do. I want to be +told how you learned. I always knew you were so +very good, and truly, dear, I wouldn't have been surprised +if you'd chosen to marry a missionary or to go +to that island where the lepers are—not after the first +minute, you know; it would have been just like you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, Lassie, it wouldn't have been like me at +all. For ever so many reasons. My first duty in life—the +duty that comes before every other—is to my +father and mother. No claim could be strong enough +to justify my leaving them; and then, besides, I'm +not a Christian, except in the sense that I believe with +Christ, and that isn't enough for any mission or any +leper nowadays."</p> + +<p>There was a little pause; then Lassie said: "But +you are going to leave your father and mother now, +aren't you?"</p> + +<p>Alva smiled. "But for such a little while, dear,"<span class="pagenum">[146]</span> +she said, gently; "you forget how short the time is +to be!" There was an instant's pause and then she +turned suddenly and her face had the bright color +of deep emotion flaming in it. "Lassie, Lassie," she +exclaimed, with a strength of feeling that startled +the other into a sudden cry, "I'm trying to be calm, +I'm trying to talk to you quietly,—I don't want you +to think me a mad woman,—but I am so much closer +to some other keener, sharper world of soul and sensation +than you or any one can realize, that I can hardly +curb myself to the dull, unknowing, unfeeling, throb, +throb, of this one. Don't you know, Lassie, that +people are getting married every day,"—she stopped +and pressed her hands tightly together, her eyes starring +the pallor of her face with that curious radiance of which +the young girl had spoken to Ronald. "Oh," she +went on, "to think that people are getting married +every day because they need cooks or because they need +care, or because the man has money or because the +girl is pretty, and they go forth un-understanding, and +they live along somehow; and the word that means +their sort of companionship is all that I can use to +speak of the evening that I shall return here, his wife, +and fall on my knees beside him and realize that +all my loneliness and waiting and hoping has ended, +and that at last—at last—we are to be together, +even if only for a few weeks, a few days, a few hours. +A foretaste of eternity! A memory of what was in the +beginning of all things!"</p> + +<p>Ceasing to speak, she clasped her hands more tightly +yet, and her eyes closed slowly. Lassie sat still and +trembling. Her breath came unevenly, but she saw +that Alva's swept in and out of her bosom with a wide<span class="pagenum">[147]</span> +evenness that belies unconquered emotion. After a +minute the other opened her eyes and laid her hand +lightly upon the girl's head. "I frighten you, I know +that I frighten you," she said; "you think that I am +crazy after all."</p> + +<p>"No, I don't, Alva; but I can't think what kind of +a man the man can be to make you feel that marrying +him will be so different from marrying any other man."</p> + +<p>"You can't think, because you don't know what love +can mean to people—what it has meant to him or +what it has meant to me."</p> + +<p>Then she sprang up and began to undress herself +rapidly.</p> + +<p>"I don't see how you can bring yourself back to +earth, Alva, after you have felt like that."</p> + +<p>Alva smiled. "But we must live on the earth, Lassie, +and be of the earth. We are made for the earth. God +gave us our souls, and he gave us our bodies, too. +And he meant both to work together."</p> + +<p>Lassie sat still and meditative. She had herself +been carried out beyond her depth and could not get +back easily. She was, in truth, a little dizzy.<span class="pagenum">[148]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<p class="h3">THE WAR-PATH</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray in the post-office managed to keep track +of Mrs. O'Neil's personal sweeping of the +Lathbun bedroom until it was terminated. Then +she left the United States Government's appointment +in charge of Mr. Ray's first wife's youngest daughter, +and hied herself down the hill.</p> + +<p>Mary Cody and Mrs. O'Neil were in the kitchen +discussing the results of the investigation when she +entered.</p> + +<p>"Well, you'll never guess what I found," said the +landlord's wife; "you'd never guess if you guessed +till Doomsday."</p> + +<p>"What did you find?" Mrs. Ray tucked in the ends +of her shawl with fierce joy,—"a pistol?"</p> + +<p>"No;" Nellie O'Neil's brown eyes glowed and her +face shone; "guess again."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I can't guess," said Mrs. Ray, impatiently. +"A monkey? A love-letter from the king of England? +A lot of stamps? I don't know,—I can't guess."</p> + +<p>Mrs. O'Neil nodded her head very slowly, and with +deeply seated meaning.</p> + +<p>"Go on," said Mrs. Ray, "tell me. I'm in a hurry. +Yes, I am."</p> + +<p>"I found six case-knives!"</p> + +<p>"Six case-knives!"<span class="pagenum">[149]</span></p> + +<p>"Yes, that's what I found."</p> + +<p>"Six case-knives! Well, of all the—What did +they want them for?"</p> + +<p>"One was broke off short."</p> + +<p>"Any blood on it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mrs. Ray!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I just asked."</p> + +<p>"They were all clean."</p> + +<p>"And one broke off?—hum!"</p> + +<p>"What do you think about it, Mrs. Ray?"</p> + +<p>"I hope it'll be a lesson to Sammy Adams never to +take two strange women in on a rainy night again. +The Bible, even, is severe on strange women."</p> + +<p>"Did he take them in?" Mrs. O'Neil opened her +brown eyes widely.</p> + +<p>"Take them in! He kept them all night. Haven't +you heard about it? And never told me, either. That's +just like a man. Flattering himself that I'd give a +second thought to any woman living. Six, you say, +Nellie, and one broke off?"</p> + +<p>"The broken one is one of the six."</p> + +<p>"They could have broken it off in his heart, just +as easy! My, to think of the chances that man took! +Didn't they have anything else? Did you look under +the mattress?"</p> + +<p>"Yes,—I looked everywhere. There's a hair-brush +that I'd have thrown into the gorge a year ago +if it had been mine, and a bent pin and a broken mirror, +and that's all."</p> + +<p>"I declare. Well, it's a very good thing that I set +you to looking them up. Yes, indeed. I shall look +them up in all directions now, myself. I shan't leave a +stone unturned that I can even tip up on one side. To<span class="pagenum">[150]</span> +think of those case-knives! And one broke off! And +Sammy Adams taking them in like that! But then, it +isn't for you to criticize him, Nellie, for you've taken +them in yourself. You can thank your stars you +haven't had a case-knife stuck in you before now. +How do they carry them, anyway?"</p> + +<p>"They were wrapped in a piece of red flannel."</p> + +<p>"Red flannel! Why, you said all they had beside +the knives was the hair-brush and the mirror. Red +flannel,—hum! So blood wouldn't show on it, I +expect. Was the edge of the blade of the broken one +rusted at all?"</p> + +<p>"Not that I noticed."</p> + +<p>"Noticed!"</p> + +<p>"Don't you want to come up and see for yourself, +Mrs. Ray?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. They might come in. It wouldn't +look well for any one in the employ of the United States +Government to be found spying about, you know. I'm +always having to consider my country. Yes, indeed. +But what do you suppose they have those knives for? +I never heard of such a thing in all my life. Even if +they used them for tooth-brushes, they'd only want +one apiece."</p> + +<p>"I think you'd better come up-stairs."</p> + +<p>"And Sammy Adams taking them in like that! +That poor innocent! Not but what he was a fool; +think of me opening my doors to two tramps!"</p> + +<p>"Come on up-stairs. They won't be back till noon. +They've gone chestnutting in the Wiley wood. They +can't be back till noon."</p> + +<p>The door opened just here, and Alva came in with +Lassie behind her.<span class="pagenum">[151]</span></p> + +<p>"Have you told them?" Mrs. Ray asked.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" Alva asked.</p> + +<p>"We don't know what to think about Mrs. Lathbun +and her daughter," said Mrs. O'Neil.</p> + +<p>Alva glanced quickly into both their faces and then +at Lassie.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray tucked the ends of her shawl in, folded +her arms, and closed her lips tightly for a second before +opening them to speak. "I never did like their +looks," she declared. "I'm not surprised over what's +come out!"</p> + +<p>"I never liked their looks, either," said Lassie, +"but what is it? Has anything happened?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Mrs. Ray, "nothing in particular, only +we're beginning to find them out. You can't pretend +to be somebody forever without any trunks. Case-knives +are good in their way, but they don't take the +place of trunks."</p> + +<p>"Case-knives!" Alva exclaimed. "Oh, what do +you mean?"</p> + +<p>"There, Nellie, you see how they strike any one," +said Mrs. Ray, with deep meaning.</p> + +<p>"But have they case-knives with them?" Alva asked,—"not +really?"</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. O'Neil told her story.</p> + +<p>"You'd better all lock your doors nights after this," +said Mrs. Ray; "you don't want to take Sammy +Adams' chances if you can help it."</p> + +<p>"But what should they have the knives for?" Lassie +asked.</p> + +<p>"They have their reasons," said Mrs. Ray, darkly; +"you know you told me the other day, Nellie, that the +reason why they sat in the kitchen with their feet in<span class="pagenum">[152]</span> +the oven so much was because their shoes was all wore +out; they've got their reasons for everything they do, +depend on it. If they're honest, why don't they have +their shoes patched when they're wore out? If they +were respectable, why didn't that girl buy some black +laces instead of wearing brown ones. I always keep +black shoe-laces in my grocery business."</p> + +<p>"Maybe she doesn't know that," suggested Lassie.</p> + +<p>"Yes, she does know," said Mrs. Ray, "for I told +her so one day when she played come for mail."</p> + +<p>"I didn't know you kept shoe-laces," said Mrs. +O'Neil. "I've always bought them in Buffalo."</p> + +<p>"Well, I do. Yes, indeed. I keep pretty nearly +everything—except case-knives. There's nothing out +of place in keeping shoe-laces in a grocery business, +not until after you begin to wear them, and for my own +part they seem to me just as decent as shoe buttons +which all the town would be up in surprise if I didn't +have them in my grocery business."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I knew you kept shoe buttons," said Mrs. +O'Neil.</p> + +<p>"I keep everything, except strange women travelling +after dark. My store is a general one. I thank heaven +there's nothing of the specialist in me. I'd of starved +if there was, or been obliged to charge very high for +very little work, which would mean starving in a while +anyhow, so being no doctor I couldn't stay a specialist +long even if I tried."</p> + +<p>"I think you ought to come up-stairs and see their +room, Mrs. Ray," Mrs. O'Neil said, going back to the +main question.</p> + +<p>"What is it about their room?" Lassie asked.</p> + +<p>"There isn't anything about it—that's what it is,"<span class="pagenum">[153]</span> +said Mrs. Ray; "respectable people always have things +about their room. Yes, indeed. But of course women +walking across country nights can't carry much fancy +fixings even if they don't mind stopping all night wherever +the rain catches them."</p> + +<p>"Did they stop over night anywhere?" Lassie +asked.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray adjusted her shawl. "Such doings!" +she muttered; "I never heard the like. That's one +way to work the game. I never had any game. I +just had the work. Whenever there came up something +as had to be done that nobody in town could do, I +was glad to learn how for the money. Yes, indeed. +And now they come along and live on the fat of the land, +case-knives and all."</p> + +<p>"Do let's go up and see the room," pleaded Mrs. +O'Neil.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray wavered. "Well, if Mary Cody will +stand in the hall and watch?" she stipulated.</p> + +<p>"And you must come, too," said Mrs. O'Neil to +her two guests; "there isn't anything to see—it +isn't prying—it's just the wonder how they can get +along without anything at all that way."</p> + +<p>Alva was rather pale.</p> + +<p>"Do let's go," Lassie whispered.</p> + +<p>Alva smiled sadly. "Yes, we'll go," she said.</p> + +<p>Mrs. O'Neil called Mary Cody and stationed her +below. Then they all four mounted the stairs and went +along the plain hall to the plain door at the end.</p> + +<p>"You keep everything very neat, Nellie," said Mrs. +Ray; "it's a pity you don't stick to nice people who can +appreciate nice things. If you go taking in people like +the Lathbuns too often, you might just as well give up<span class="pagenum">[154]</span> +and get the name for it. I wouldn't dare stay under the +same roof with them, myself."</p> + +<p>Mrs. O'Neil made no answer, simply pressing the +door at the end of the hall and—as the door yielded—entering +first.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray and Lassie were next. Alva did not go +in, but stood still in the doorway.</p> + +<p>It is hard to conceive the special effect of that interior +on each of the four.</p> + +<p>"Did you have any little things around before you +swept?" Mrs. Ray asked, standing in the middle like +the head of some royal commission in the days of the +Dissolution.</p> + +<p>Mrs. O'Neil—in the capacity of the layman left +to represent the monks flown—replied that she had +found all as bare as now.</p> + +<p>"Well, you told the truth, Nellie," her friend remarked; +"there's the hair-brush and here's the mirror. +But where are the knives?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. O'Neil pulled open the upper drawer, and in +one corner lay the roll of red flannel.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray unrolled the knives and examined them +with care. A case-knife is rather limited as to its power +of revelation, however, and she soon laid them down.</p> + +<p>"Well, I never!" she said, with heaviest emphasis.</p> + +<p>"What do they sleep in, or wash with?" Mrs. O'Neil +suggested.</p> + +<p>"The towels are yours, of course, Nellie?"</p> + +<p>"Of course."</p> + +<p>Lassie looked around the simple bedroom with its +absolute bareness. She felt pitiful.</p> + +<p>"They're comin' over the post-office hill!" Mary +Cody suddenly yelled below. The effect was magical.<span class="pagenum">[155]</span></p> + +<p>Lassie and Alva fled into their room.</p> + +<p>"I feel like a burglar myself," exclaimed the young +girl, as she shut their door.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray was going down the stairs in the hall outside. +"There," she exclaimed, "did you hear that? +That's the way it goes when you harbor criminals. +They're very catching."</p> + +<p>"Oh, do you really think they're criminals?" Mrs. +O'Neil asked, in great distress.</p> + +<p>"Well, Nellie, put the case-knives and Sammy +Adams together, and then the way they pick up other +folks' chestnuts and having no comb and only half a +brush for the two of 'em—it looks bad in my eyes."</p> + +<p>"But what shall I do?" Mrs. O'Neil asked.</p> + +<p>"Ask Jack if they pay their board regularly; that'll +help you to know some," propounded the postmistress +solemnly, and then she returned to her government +duties forthwith.<span class="pagenum">[156]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<p class="h3">ANOTHER PATH</p> + +<p>As Lassie closed the door, Alva moved to her +favorite post by the window and stood there +looking out; the young girl looked anxiously towards +her friend. "What happens to those people doesn't +really matter to us, does it?" she asked after a minute, +some atmosphere of trouble permeating her.</p> + +<p>"Everything matters, dear."</p> + +<p>"But, Alva, you hardly know them, and they <i>are</i> +common."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps so, dear, but that room,—two weeks in +that room with nothing, no comforts such as we think +absolutely essential—oh, it makes me feel terribly. +Life is such a puzzle. Ledge seemed such a simple-hearted, +secluded little nook,—and first I ran into +the big, soul-wringing problem of the dam, and now +here are these two lives. Lassie, whatever else they may +or may not be, they are human. It can't be joy to +live like that. There must be some reason for their +doing as they do, and I can see no reason except the +one the girl told me."</p> + +<p>Lassie began to wash and brush for dinner; Alva +continued to stand at the window.</p> + +<p>"That was the first time that I ever went into a +room where I was possibly not wanted," she continued, +presently. "It seemed so strange. And such a room,<span class="pagenum">[157]</span> +too. Oh, it all has made me fairly heart-sick. I +wonder what the end is to be. As I say so often, +there are no accidents, no chance happenings in life; +if anything enters within my circle, there is a reason for +it. Either they are to do for me, or I am to do for them, +and I wish I knew which it were to be. I am so sorry +for them!"</p> + +<p>"Then you don't think that they can be doing wrong—are +perhaps bad?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Alva, firmly; "I'll never think that of +any one. Nobody is ever bad. The word is too complete. +It says more than it means to express."</p> + +<p>"They couldn't be going to do anything for you."</p> + +<p>"How can you tell, Lassie? Sometimes in doing +for others we do a thousand times more for ourselves. +Haven't you learned that yet?"</p> + +<p>"No, not yet—not with people of that sort."</p> + +<p>"They don't look to be so wrong," Alva spoke half-musingly. +"They just look like plain, quiet people. +I'm sure there's no evil in them!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps she made up the love affair?"</p> + +<p>"She never made that man up, Lassie; that man is +a real man. You can't 'make up' men like that."</p> + +<p>"But if he is rich and loves her, would he let her +be living this way and chasing her around that way. +That does seem so awfully funny, to me,—for a rich +man to spend the nights outside the window of a girl +who hasn't even a change of pocket-handkerchiefs,—and +she isn't pretty either, you have to admit that, +Alva?"</p> + +<p>"Lassie, you do look at everything from such a +petty, worldly standpoint. Of course it isn't your fault, +but you judge too easily. How do you know what rule<span class="pagenum">[158]</span> +governs that man; there are some men that no one can +understand,—they seem to be a race apart. All their +springs of action differ from the usual sources. I've +been in love with such a man—I'm in love with him +now—I am going to marry him. The ordinary woman +wouldn't care much for a love that had to be set aside +for bigger things, as his for me was at first. But I +understood. I accepted the situation. All situations +have their key—their clue—if one can get a little +way outside of body and senses, and then study them +thoughtfully."</p> + +<p>"Well, but if the man is an exceptional man as yours +is, what can interest him in such a girl?"</p> + +<p>Alva shook her head. "You don't find her interesting, +and you will never go near enough to her spirit +to change your view; but she interests me, and some day +you'll come to see that every human being is full of +interest, if we will but take the trouble to hunt the +interest out. I have learned that lesson, and all that I +can think of is the apparent trouble and need of these +two."</p> + +<p>"Would you have a man as great as the man you +love, marry such a girl with such a mother, Alva?"</p> + +<p>"I would have people who love sincerely always +marry, whoever they love."</p> + +<p>"But if he is so wild that a woman who hasn't even +an extra hairpin wants to hide her daughter from him, +do you think he'll make her happy?"</p> + +<p>There was a pause.</p> + +<p>"Lassie," her friend said, presently, "do you know +I used to be just like you. I saw only the finite, +too."</p> + +<p>"Yes?"<span class="pagenum">[159]</span></p> + +<p>"Yes, and I often wonder what would have become +of me if I had not learned through love to finally escape +out of the bonds and shackles of ordinary conditions, +and to contemplate them only as either behind or below +me. How can we judge in the case of another? All +that I know absolutely in this case is that I have strayed +into the midst of a pitiful story. All I can do is to try +to help that pain. That poor girl is nothing but a +passing ghost to you; to me she is a link in the chain-armor +of life that covers my spirit during its earthly war. +As I said before, there are no chance meetings, there +are no accidents; there's nothing trivial in life after +one once grasps the greatness of the whole. You can +make things trivial by belittling them, or you can make +them great. I make Miss Lathbun great because a +man who is great is interested in her."</p> + +<p>"But how do you know that he's great? Or that he +is interested in her? She may have made it all up; I +think that she did, myself."</p> + +<p>Alva turned from the window.</p> + +<p>"My dear child," she said, approaching the girl +and laying her hand on her shoulder, "I feel as if there +were a thick veil between us; how can I tell you what I +think, when you don't want to understand what I try +to say? Suppose she did make it up? Suppose she +and her mother are anything you please? Still, I'd +be glad that I believed in them. One little grain of +real belief may possibly be the seed of a new life for +them; and even if it isn't, think what it means to me to +be able to believe in people. It means that I am looking +for good, instead of looking for evil. Can't you see how +much better that must be for me personally?"</p> + +<p>Lassie lifted her eyes to see what she called "the<span class="pagenum">[160]</span> +white look," on Alva's face. She felt ashamed of her +own standpoint.</p> + +<p>At that instant the dinner-bell rang loudly below.</p> + +<p>"Oh, we'll see them now!" Lassie exclaimed, all +other thoughts fading.</p> + +<p>Alva gave her a quiet glance. "Yes, we'll see them +now," she said, turning towards the door.<span class="pagenum">[161]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<p class="h3">AND STILL ANOTHER PATH</p> + +<p>It is difficult for one who has never taken an ocean +voyage or lived in a small village to realize the +tremendous strides which interest, friendship, love, or +confidence can make in a very few days, or even hours. +I met three girls once whose kind parents had provided +them with a chaperon and sent them abroad to improve +their minds. They met men on the Lusitania (a record +trip, too) going over, and all three were engaged when +they landed. Instead of improving their minds in +Europe, they bought their trousseaux, and then came +home (another record trip) and were married. A small +village is just the same; one is introduced and after +that it goes like the wind. Women tell each other everything +that they shouldn't, and virtues which would never +be noticed in a city beget the deepest and sincerest +admiration and affection. The dearth of conventionality +and variety draw spirits easily together. Perhaps +the purer air is a universal solvent for pride and prejudice. +At any rate, to make a long story short, Lassie +and Ingram were in love with each other before Alva +had finished having the porch of her house painted, +or before Mrs. Ray had succeeded in tracking the case-knives +to their suspicious lair of crime.</p> + +<p>It's delightful to fall in love on the sea or in the +country, quite as delightful as to fall in love anywhere<span class="pagenum">[162]</span> +else. It is too bad that fickleness is rated so low, for +really the emotion of slowly discovering that one is +entering Elysium should be too great an experience to +be foregone forever after. However, we must not +forget that fickleness is rated low because humanity +long since discovered that being in Elysium is still +better than making an entrance there, and furthermore +that of all sharp edges known, Love is the one most +easily dulled by usage. Therefore it is best to adhere +to the dear old rules for the dear old game, and only +thank Fate with special reverence when sea-breezes +or country zephyrs float around one's own personal +setting-out.</p> + +<p>Lassie didn't know that she was in love; she only +knew that she was very happy. Ingram didn't know +that he was in love; he only knew that he was very +happy. Alva, whose soul sank daily deeper into the +near approaching abyss of her profound longings, +noticed nothing. But every one else knew, of course. +Joey Beall, the invisibly omnipresent, saw them alone +together somewhere nearly every day. Mrs. Ray +watched them come and go together for mail. Mrs. +O'Neil, who never had believed that Ingram was in love +with Alva, wished them well with all her heart. For she +felt sure that Alva wasn't in love with Ingram, either.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad to have something pleasant before my +eyes just now," she said to Mary Cody, and Mary Cody +knew that she referred to the feeling over the dam, +which daily grew keener, and to the Lathbuns, who, +it was now openly known, had never paid any board +since their arrival, but merely referred to their banker +in Cromwell, who, it appeared, was out of town, and +could not send on their October check until his return.<span class="pagenum">[163]</span></p> + +<p>"I don't know what there is about looking at them," +said Mary Cody, who was fifteen and grown up at that +(and who did not refer to Mrs. Lathbun and her +daughter); "but every time he looks at her while I'm +waiting on them, I feel as if I'd just about die of joy +if Ed Griggs would look at me once that way."</p> + +<p>"Don't talk nonsense," said Mrs. O'Neil, severely.</p> + +<p>The days which bore such momentous happenings +upon their bosom flowed swiftly on, and the week +was speeding by—was gone, in fact.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't seem possible, does it?" Lassie said, +as she came across the bridge with Ingram one afternoon. +He had happened to return from the long-distance +telephone in Ledgeville by way of Alva's +house; and she had happened to be ready to go home, +and Alva had happened not to be ready. "It doesn't +seem that it can be only a week. I feel as if it were +months, instead. Do you remember that first day, +when Alva told me, how I cried and how horrible I +thought it was. And now I feel as if it were too sad +for words, but something so great and lovely and sacred, +that I'm sort of hushed in joy to have seen it all. I +can see her side now, and when I go back to the world +and hear people say the things that I thought myself +when she first told me, I know that they are going to +hurt me awfully. And yet she says that they will not +hurt her."</p> + +<p>"No," said Ingram, thoughtfully, "she seems to +be quite beyond being hurt. I never saw any one who +impressed me just as Alva does."</p> + +<p>"It's very wonderful to be with her all the time," +Lassie went on; "nothing seems to affect her for herself, +but only things about other people. She doesn't<span class="pagenum">[164]</span> +seem to think her thoughts for herself any more, but +just for others. It's how she can study and learn and +carry on some part of his work for him after he's gone; +it's how she can teach the people around here that +Ledge won't profit in the end by being turned into a +big lake or a big manufacturing district; it's how she +can only prove to people that those two queer women +are really honest, and really nice to know."</p> + +<p>"And do you agree with all her views now?" +Ingram asked, recalling the first of their meetings +and the difference in Lassie's views from her friend's +then.</p> + +<p>"I think it's very splendid how she loves. I thought +it was terrible at first, but now I—" she hesitated; +"I"—she stopped altogether.</p> + +<p>"Go on," said Ingram; "what were you going to +say?"</p> + +<p>The girl looked down the cañon of gray, barren +beauty, and then up towards the sunlit valley of sweet, +sunshiny, farming country. "Perhaps you won't +believe me," she said, her eyes for the minute almost as +distant in their withdrawal as Alva's own; "but now, +I—truly—I envy her. I would give anything to +love as she does. I would almost give the world to +see life as she sees it. You see, I have begun to understand +what she means when she says things."</p> + +<p>Ingram was deeply stirred by pathos of which Lassie +herself was ignorant. The young desire to learn to +drink of bitter waters! The longing towards the crown +of thorns stirs them, because they can appreciate the +sublimity of martyrdom, and cannot measure the +agony!</p> + +<p>She had stopped and laid her hand upon the bridge-rail.<span class="pagenum">[165]</span> +Involuntarily he laid his hand upon it, holding +it within his strength and warmth.</p> + +<p>"When she talks to me of him," Lassie went on, +seeming unconscious of the hand and looking far +ahead, "I forget myself, I forget Mamma, I forget +my début; I live only in her and her hope. I never +saw love like hers; she lives in him—in it—not in +the world, and she's so sure of the next world and of +their future. It goes all through me, the wonder of it. +I can't tell you how I envy her. She said when I came +that she would send me back home all different, and +I see now that she will do it."</p> + +<p>"But I don't want you different." The words burst +from the man's lips. Mountain tops are serene and +glorious and very close to the clouds, but oh, the good +warmth, the dear, cosy loveliness of those soft green +slopes far—so far—below.</p> + +<p>Lassie was too deeply engrossed to notice. "I shall +go back to my home a better girl," she said; "and I +shan't let myself forget what I've learned here."</p> + +<p>Ingram thought that she had heard, and felt himself +silenced.</p> + +<p>There was a minute of stillness, and then they walked +on. The October evening was falling chill, and the +night wind came winding up the gorge.</p> + +<p>"Do you agree with her about the dam, too?" +the man asked finally, as they approached the end +of the bridge, striving against an echo of bitterness.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, she has converted me about that, too. +She took me down to call on Mr. Ledge, and when I +saw that dear, courtly, old gentleman, and heard how +quietly and earnestly and sadly he and Alva talked<span class="pagenum">[166]</span> +about it, I came to see how different all that was, +too."</p> + +<p>Ingram waited a second or two; then he said:</p> + +<p>"And Mrs. Lathbun,—do you believe in her too, +now?"</p> + +<p>Lassie laughed. "No, I don't," she said, very +positively; "I'm awfully sorry for them both, but I +cannot believe in them."</p> + +<p>"Alva does."</p> + +<p>"Yes,—but Alva—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, well,—go on."</p> + +<p>"I mustn't. Indeed I mustn't. I promised, and +this time I must keep my word. But Alva has a reason +for believing in them."</p> + +<p>"Is it a good reason?"</p> + +<p>Lassie reflected. "No," she said, finally; "I don't +think that it is a good reason at all."</p> + +<p>They were at the hotel door now.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm sorry for Alva," said Ingram, "because +I hate to see ideals shattered."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but they may justify her faith."</p> + +<p>"I am more inclined to think that they will justify +your doubts."</p> + +<p>Lassie looked pleased. She valued Ingram's opinion +highly.</p> + +<p>A little later Alva herself came home, pale as she +always was, but more weary looking than nightfall +usually found her.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a name="gs04" id="gs04"></a> +<img src="images/gs04.jpg" width="400" height="710" alt="ALVA." title=""> +</div> + +<p class="caption">ALVA.</p> + +<p>"Lie down before supper," Lassie suggested; and +her friend accepted the suggestion.</p> + +<p>"Come and sit beside me," she said, in a tone that +was almost pleading; "give me your hand. I'm really +quite used up."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[167]</span></p><p>Lassie perched beside her on the bed, and took the +long slender hand between her own pretty little white +ones.</p> + +<p>"You are a wise little maiden," Alva said, smiling +into her face. "I shall fight this away quickly. I +know much better than to be weak. I understand the +scientific, spiritual reasons for it quite well—it is +that I am under a double strain these days, and also—" +she hesitated—"I think that I am really under a triple +strain," she said, "you do not guess how close to my +heart that poor girl has come through her description +of her lover. I think of her so often, and such a strange +undercurrent sweeps up in me. I try to understand it, +and I can't; but I wonder if it can be some troubling +of myself because the one whose life is so valuable +must go, and the one whose life has no value will +remain. I do not begrudge any one anything, God +knows; but my heart winces when I think that his +soul will go on and leave me alone, while a body that +is the same as his will live and live for another. I am +brave, I am strong; my higher self has courage and +understanding to cope with any problem that may +come, but it seems as if this one laid me on a rack, +because—because—" she stopped, and then in a +low cry: "Lassie, she doesn't seem to me to be worthy +of even his body. Perhaps I misjudge her, but even +the human presentment of such a man should have a +wife of greater caliber. Somehow it hurts me, somehow +everything hurts me to-night. You see, dear, you +were right. In some ways. Yes, you were right."</p> + +<p>There was a pause, during which Lassie just gently +stroked the hand between her own.</p> + +<p>"Do you know what I believe?" Alva continued.<span class="pagenum">[168]</span> +"Some crisis is preparing. I don't at all know +what it is, but I feel it coming. I am certain—confident—that +God has some new wisdom close in +hand for me. Happy or sad—it is coming very close +to-night. And whatever it is, I must go bravely forward +to meet it."</p> + +<p>Lassie shuddered ever so slightly.</p> + +<p>"Ah, you think that it is some sorrow," Alva said; +"my dear, would you credit me with telling you the +truth, if I told you that there is a comfort in understanding +that verse about whom He loveth He chasteneth? +He doesn't call upon the weak among His +children to bear what He has sent to me, to us. And +if there is some heavy sorrow,"—she stopped, and presently +added quite low,—"'not my will, but Thine be +done!'"</p> + +<p>Lassie was deeply touched. She felt tears rolling +down her cheeks. The dusk had closed in and she +could not see Alva's face, but she felt that she, too, was +weeping.</p> + +<p>Presently a freight train, going by, drowned everything +by its roaring clank for five minutes, and when +all was still again, Alva said: "Come, let us dress for +supper!"</p> + +<p>She rose at once and lit the light, and Lassie saw with +astonishment that she was smiling and bright as usual. +Alva caught her surprised look. "I'm a creature of +strong belief, dear," she said, laughing, "and I know +that whatever is hard, is worth itself. That is what one +must try never to forget. I wouldn't wish any one else +my life to live, but it is its own reward. The best +thing in the world is to measure the real standards of +earth and heaven. That is what I am doing."<span class="pagenum">[169]</span></p> + +<p>"Don't you think perhaps you're overdoing, Alva?" +the girl said, putting the question in the way of timid +suggestion. "Don't you think you crowd even yourself +too fast?"</p> + +<p>"Can any one learn to be good too fast? And then +the great strain is for such a little while, dear. Don't +you see that in the world's eyes my giving will be limited +to these few weeks, and that in heaven's eyes I shall +then give all that I have and all that I am. Like him, +I have pawned my existence for a purpose. I shall +redeem both." The look of ecstasy that had opened to +Lassie the gate of Medieval faith, flooded her face. +"What a life I shall live in those few brief days," she +said, softly; "how we shall enjoy our little oasis of +bliss in the desert of loneliness. I shall learn so much—so +much. And the best of the learning will be that I +shall learn it from him."</p> + +<p>Lassie watched the uplifted look. The enthusiasm +of the novice was hers. As she had confessed to Ingram, +envy dwelt at her heart. I wonder whether envy +is a vice or a virtue when it stirs a longing to emulate +one whom we recognize as better than ourselves?<span class="pagenum">[170]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<p class="h3">DEVOTED TO COATS AND CASE-KNIVES</p> + +<p>"'He moves in a mysterious way His wonders +to perform,'" chanted Mrs. Ray, briskly, +turning from the stove, with a hot iron in her hand, +towards the visitor then entering the door. "Yes, +I'm just pressing the seams. The mail was awful late—they +had a bad wreck on the road, killed three pigs—and +the crowd is just gone. When the mail's late I'm +always late, too. Yes, indeed. Those two in love come +up for the hotel mail, while that poor, blind thing went +over alone to look at what she fondly supposes is going +to be her happy home. Take a chair. How's Lottie +Ann? And, Mrs. Wiley, what do you think about those +case-knives in the bureau drawer?" for the case-knives +were now the main topic of conversation all +over Ledge and its attendant villages.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley had dropped in to see how her new winter +jacket, now in process of active manufacture, was getting +on. She sank down on a seat with a sigh which the +chair echoed in a groan.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know what to do," she said, wearily. +"Uncle Purchase came yesterday for a week, driving +his colts, and last night one of the colts had colic; and +Lottie Ann gets thinner every day. Seems like I do +have so much trouble. Sister Anna got so tired with +the improvements she's making, that she just up and<span class="pagenum">[171]</span> +off for Buffalo Wednesday, and that left Eliza to run +things; and Eliza up and bit a chestnut and broke two +teeth, so she had to go off to Rochester yesterday early. +That leaves me with the whole thing now, and I'm +running back and forth between houses from dawn to +dark. I wanted to make the dress for Cousin Dolly's +graduation, too, and the sewing machine always does +for my legs; and yesterday here come Uncle Purchase!"</p> + +<p>"Joey Beall is all used up over those case-knives," +said Mrs. Ray, pressing assiduously; "he won't say +what he thinks."</p> + +<p>"How's it getting on?" asked Mrs. Wiley, hitching +her chair nearer to the ironing-board. "Oh, Mrs. +Ray, you'll never know the sacred feelings this coat +will give me in church. Father was a true Christian, +I always have that to remember. He had his faults, +but he was a true Christian. Whatever went through +his hands in the week, it was the plate at church that +they held on Sunday."</p> + +<p>"You don't need to worry over your father, Mrs. +Wiley," said Mrs. Ray; "nobody doubted his religion—it +was only that he charged such awful interest."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley sighed. "I know," she said; "it wasn't +so much what he charged as bothered—"</p> + +<p>"No," said Mrs. Ray, "it was his way of insisting +on being paid."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley sighed again.</p> + +<p>"Well, thanks to the braid, the land is saved," +Mrs. Ray went on cheerfully. "Mrs. Wiley, do tell +me, what do you think of all this at the O'Neil House,—and +did you bring the buttons?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I thought you said you could use the buttons +on the suit," Mrs. Wiley answered, with an unhappy<span class="pagenum">[172]</span> +start; "you ain't going to tell me that you can't, are +you?"</p> + +<p>"No, I ain't," said Mrs. Ray, "it's only that it's so +common for folks to forget to bring me their buttons +that I forgot that you had brought yours. It's awful, +isn't it, about those two Lathbuns?"</p> + +<p>"I thought you'd lost 'em by accident," said Mrs. +Wiley, seating herself again with a huge relief; "I +don't know what I'd of done if you had, for my money +is all in the chickens, and I never saw anything like +the way my chickens have acted lately. I wondered +if it could be that the surveyors upset them. They +haven't been a bit regular, and so many weasels!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps the surveyors keep the weasels stirred up. +I must say it would stir me up to have the sharp end of +one of their little flags suddenly driven into the bosom +of my family. Not but what a flag is better than a case-knife. +You've heard about the case-knives, of course?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I heard about the case-knives. Mrs. Ray, +don't you want me to try it on? What do you think +they had 'em for, anyway?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know; you might on account of the +sleeves, maybe. I don't know what to think—of +course they never got any mail; when any one never +gets any mail, it blocks my observation in all directions. +I never saw any strangers that stayed so long, that never +got any mail before. Why, those other girls are getting +letters by the dozens. Such nice mail, too,—thick +white paper and thin blue paper, and little prints of +flags, such real, pretty mail. There, what do you think +of that,—that's your back; like it?"</p> + +<p>"Wait till I get out my glasses. But of course they +must of bought postals, didn't they? Mrs. Ray, you<span class="pagenum">[173]</span> +have done that fine! You're the only one in the world +that could ever fit me like that out of a suit of father's. +I take such a number of under-the-arm pieces."</p> + +<p>"Well, that isn't your fault, Mrs. Wiley; you come +of a large family and you ought to be very grateful, +because if you hadn't you'd never have had this jacket. +If there hadn't been close on to two full breadths in +each of his legs, I never could have got it out. There's +nothing takes more skill than making a man's clothes +over for any one but a boy. Yes, indeed. Very few +can think how difficult it is to adapt a man's legs with +the knees bagged, to either the front or back of a coat +for you. No, they never even bought postals. They +never write at all. What would they write with? You +can't write with a case-knife."</p> + +<p>"No, that's so. I must say I think you've put that +braid on beautiful. Do you want me to slip it on now, +or shall I wait? Uncle Purchase is up at the house +always, you know, and I mustn't be gone too long, but +Lottie Ann's there, so it don't matter much, after all."</p> + +<p>"I'll be ready in a second. I'd be further along, +only Sammy Adams was in last evening, and he hates +to see me sew every minute. I sewed a good deal of +his visit—I don't know why I should consider Sammy +Adams's ideas when he don't consider mine. Taking +in any one nights that way! I tell you I had that out +with him once for all. There,—that's your pocket; +big enough?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I wouldn't make it any bigger. What did +he tell you about his taking 'em in? Mrs. Ray, I took +your advice and tried milk on Lottie Ann, and she +can't take any but buttermilk. Will that do her as +much good as milk in its first?"<span class="pagenum">[174]</span></p> + +<p>"I don't know why it shouldn't. I tell you frankly, +Mrs. Wiley, you'll need every inch of the room in this +pocket. You may have your prayer-book and a box of +peppermint, and two or three other little things, and +you'll find this pocket very handy; the way I've got +it cut it'll hold as much as a small valise. I wouldn't cut +it off, if it was my coat. I always need all my pockets. +But then I always have to carry so many things, a +corkscrew and a monkey-wrench and the key to my +hens. He said the rain was pouring down, and he didn't +see anything to do but take them in. Of course, if +you're Sammy's easy kind, and it's raining, too, you can +see how that would be. He'd take a snake in, if it asked +him with a smile."</p> + +<p>"What do you think of cutting off about a half +inch? I don't wonder that he took them in, myself. +But, Mrs. Ray, she don't like milk, anyhow, and +shouldn't you think morning and night was enough?"</p> + +<p>"I'll do it if you say so, of course, Mrs. Wiley. But +I can't see myself cutting them off, if they were mine. +Of course, two glasses is better than none, but two +isn't six. I only know if it was me I'd never of let them +in, in this world."</p> + +<p>"I'll try to get her to take four. Shall I slip it on +now? Do tell me what else he said?"</p> + +<p>"If she was my girl, I'd see she took what I told her; +I don't believe in spoiling children. No, you'll have to +wait. Why, Mrs. Wiley, would you believe that that +poor innocent didn't know a thing about the case-knives +till I told him. You know he don't often come +to town."</p> + +<p>"Well, I never! I told Uncle Purchase all about it, +and he promised me he'd never take any one in. I<span class="pagenum">[175]</span> +thought I'd better be on the safe side, even if Uncle +Purchase hasn't let any one come into his house for +twenty years. Isn't it strange? But then Uncle Purchase +is strange. The last time I was in his house +was when Abner was a baby. He had a dozen tissue-paper +hyacinths planted in real pots with the earth +watered, to make them look real. Uncle Purchase's +quite a character."</p> + +<p>"Sammy said they rapped—that was how he came +to first know that they were at the door."</p> + +<p>"Uncle Purchase never goes to the door. He's so +deaf he couldn't hear a peal of thunder if it stood outside +rapping all night, and that last time I was there he +had his trunk all packed standing in the hall. He never +unpacked it after he went to the Centennial. He said +it would be all ready for the next Centennial. They +have them so often now, you know. He's so odd. He +went to the Insane Asylum once for a little while, +you know, but it didn't do him a bit of good, so he came +back home. Uncle Purchase is so odd."</p> + +<p>"Sammy said they were a sight. He said two +drowned rats washed up by a spring flood would be dry +and slick beside them. Sammy always did talk just +like a poet. Yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>"Uncle Purchase says very pretty things, too. He's +so loving to Lottie Ann, he said yesterday she winged +her way about the house like an angel. I thought that +was a sweet way of putting it, but it kind of depressed +me, too, she's so awful thin. Shall I slip it on now?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet. Don't you think maybe he just meant a +fly? The last ones go so slow that they might make +him think of an angel."</p> + +<p>"No, he meant Lottie Ann. Uncle Purchase always<span class="pagenum">[176]</span> +says what he means. He brought Lottie Ann a daguerreotype +of his mother. It's so black you can't see +a thing, but it showed his kindness. I thought Lottie +Ann would bring the chimney down trying to thank +him—he's so awful deaf. He thought she was asking +who it was, and he just roared about it's being his +mother, until I called Lottie Ann for her milk. He's +always been so fond of Lottie Ann. If she outlives +him, I'm most sure he'll leave her the farm. I wish +she'd drink more milk."</p> + +<p>"I was speaking about her to Nathan and Lizzie +when they were up yesterday. You know Lizzie was +delicate, too. Nathan thinks the Lathbuns had those +knives to pry open windows."</p> + +<p>"Oh, my heavens!"</p> + +<p>"He says you can pry open any window-catch with a +case-knife. Yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley opened her eyes. "Any window?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's what he said. And poor Clay Wright +Benton was in here, too, and I spoke to him about +them, too, and he said that you could, too."</p> + +<p>"My!" Mrs. Wiley's tone was appalled. "Did +Clay seem frightened? I suppose they aren't afraid +of anything,—they've got the parrot, you know."</p> + +<p>"I don't know how that would help them. It +hangs upside down, yelling 'Fire, Fire,' rainy days, +until nobody can possibly think it means it."</p> + +<p>"Well, but it wouldn't make any difference what +it said, would it, if it woke them?"</p> + +<p>"But they're so tired being woke, it can't wake +'em any more. Clay says nothing wakes 'em now. +Even Gran'ma Benton falls asleep while it's calling +her names."<span class="pagenum">[177]</span></p> + +<p>"Dear me," said Mrs. Wiley, seriously. "I wouldn't +care about having one for myself. I never let the +children call names, and I just couldn't be called names +by a parrot."</p> + +<p>"Clay says his mother don't like it. She's tried +to teach it Bible verses. But names are so much +easier. Bible verses are so long. And they don't +come in where they make sense. The short ones +are worse yet. There's 'Jesus wept'—that's the +shortest verse in the Bible, and that never would make +sense. The parrot says 'Twenty-three,' and that +always makes sense. This world is meant to go wrong, +seems to me. Case-knives just swim along without +paying board, while an honest woman has to scrub +her church once a week on her knees and labor like a +heathen Chinese in between times."</p> + +<p>"Well, Mrs. Ray, what are we coming to?"</p> + +<p>"I told Edward Griggs what Nathan said, but +Edward thinks they're government spies sent out to +keep track of the surveyors, and they have the knives +to dig with."</p> + +<p>"To dig with!" Mrs. Wiley was full of amazement.</p> + +<p>"You know they do scour the country pretty freely, +and that would account for one being broke."</p> + +<p>"There's more strength in a broke knife than in +one that isn't, of course. Government spies!"</p> + +<p>"It would account for a lot of things. Edward +Griggs is a pretty smart man; he was at the Chautauqua +last year."</p> + +<p>"Didn't they used to call them scouts, Mrs. Ray? +Seems to me I've heard of them in the war."</p> + +<p>"Oh, they call a spy anything—spies don't mind +what they're called as long as nobody knows who they<span class="pagenum">[178]</span> +really are. If they are government spies, I'm glad to +know it, because they'll be having an eagle eye out in +every government direction. I think I'll wash the post-office +to-morrow, just on the chance. I didn't want to +wash it till after I'd filed my bond. I sort of like to +get my bond off my mind first, and clean up afterwards."</p> + +<p>"I'll ask Abner if he's heard anything from Josiah +Bates lately. Joey Beall is going over to Foxtown +to-morrow or next day, and he says his cousin there +married a Cromwell girl; he's going to ask all about +them there. Mrs. Ray, seems like those women must +be something out of the ordinary. It would be too +barefaced never to pay your board, otherwise."</p> + +<p>"Well, whatever they are, we'll soon know now. +People are looking them up in all directions. Mrs. +Kendall's got an aunt in Cromwell, and she's written +her about the case-knives. But she says her aunt never +writes letters, so she don't expect to find out much that +way; still, you never can tell."</p> + +<p>"Well, Joey may find out a good deal. My cousin +Eliza always says you'll find out all there is to find +out, if you get hold of Joey Beall. Mrs. Ray, can't +I slip it on now? I've <i>got</i> to go back to Uncle Purchase, +Lottie Ann is so weak she won't be able to make him +hear a thing by this time; and if he can't hear, it always +worries him because he's so afraid of growing deaf."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray thoughtfully regarded the jacket. "I'd +like to of got the collar on," she said; "but you can +put it on now, I guess."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley stood up and donned the garment.</p> + +<p>"The sleeves are short," said Mrs. Ray; "but +that's fashionable this year. There was no other way,<span class="pagenum">[179]</span> +anyhow. I had to get 'em out from the knee down, +and he was short there—like an elephant."</p> + +<p>"How does it look in the back?"</p> + +<p>"It's a little short in the back, but nothing to speak +of. You see I had to swing the backs to get the coat +skirts free of his side-seams; it sets very well, considering +that."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I like it," said Mrs. Wiley; "and I have my +fur to sort of piece it up at the neck, anyway. You +know, Mrs. Ray, if those two women are spies, I should +think they'd wear nightgowns. I shouldn't think +they'd want to attract so much attention, and of course +not wearing nightgowns attracts lots of attention."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray—having her mouth full of pins—made +no reply.</p> + +<p>"Lucia Cosby thinks they're tramps and nothing +better," Mrs. Wiley continued; "nobody can understand +Jack's keeping them so long."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray continued silent.</p> + +<p>"Ellen Scott says she's afraid of them; she thinks +it's so queer they're not having any coats. But Ellen +was always timid. She never got over that time the +boys dressed up like Indians and kidnapped her on +April Fool's Day when she was little."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray stuck in the last pin and freed her mouth. +"Well, all I can say is, we'll soon know now," she said; +"all the wheels in the gods of the mills is turning now, +and in the end the Lathbuns will be ground out exceeding +small I hope and trust and am pretty sure of."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley looked down over herself with an air of +intense satisfaction. "I don't see how you ever got +it out," she repeated with deeply appreciative emphasis.</p> + +<p>"You know those are Nellie O'Neil's shawls they<span class="pagenum">[180]</span> +wear," Mrs. Ray went on, beginning to unpin the new +winter coat from its owner. "Nellie's an awful idiot +to let them have those shawls; they'll walk off some day, +and leave her without shawls or pay,—that's the kind +they are. Yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>"Nellie's too good-hearted."</p> + +<p>"She and Jack are both too good-hearted."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley went to the door and took hold of the +knob. "Well, I must go now. Lottie Ann will be all +tired out if I stay any longer. And we never leave +Uncle Purchase alone. He always takes the clock to +pieces or does something we can't get together again, +if he's left alone. He asked after Susan Cosby last +night, and I told him she was dead four times and then +I got Lottie Ann and the boys in, and they took turns +telling him she was dead till nine o'clock, and then +Joey brought our mail and we got him to tell him she +was dead, and then all Uncle Purchase said was: +'Is she, indeed? When did she die?' Oh, my +heavens!"</p> + +<p>"Well, if you must be going," said Mrs. Ray, "we +may as well part now. The Giffords are coming here +for dinner, and I've got to begin to cook it."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley thereupon departed.<span class="pagenum">[181]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<p class="h3">LEARNING LESSONS</p> + +<p>The wide range of standpoints is one of the most +interesting studies in this world. A man on a +hill can look to the horizon in all directions, and wonder +about all the little black specks which he may see +thereon, and all on the horizon can see the little black +speck on the hill and draw their own conclusions as +to what it may be. Ledge thought city people lacking +in intellect because of the way they "took the Falls," +and the visitors thought the townspeople lacking because +of the way in which they "took the Falls." Mrs. Ray +knew that Ingram and Lassie were in love, and Ingram +and Lassie didn't know it; and Ingram and Lassie +had been told by Mrs. O'Neil that Mrs. Ray would +eventually marry Sammy Adams, while Mrs. Ray herself +not only didn't know that, but had declared herself +to be "dead set" against the proposition. The State +had appointed a commission, and Mr. Ledge was +troubled over its results; and all the while Creation, +in the first of its creating, had settled the outcome of +the commission's task definitely and forever. And so +they all went merrily, blindly forward, Alva, like the +evening star, moving serenely in the centre, almost as +unconscious of her own position in people's eyes as the +evening star is unconscious of telescopes. She was<span class="pagenum">[182]</span> +happy in her ideal existence, and always hopeful of +good to come for others. Her aims were high and +true, her sincerity splendid, and Lassie was learning +a great deal—more than either of them guessed, in +fact. And the second week was now going blithely +forward, while Alva worked and waited, hoping each +hour for the telegram that should summon her to bring +her lover into the haven her love was building. But +the telegram came not.</p> + +<p>"Lassie," she said, one noon, as they stood on the +bridge looking down into the tumbling waters below, +"I wonder if I were ever like you, and I wonder if you +will ever be like me!"</p> + +<p>"How so?"</p> + +<p>"If you will ever be really in love? I can't believe +that very many people really know what love means,—that +is, in the way that I mean it. If they did, it could +not possibly be a shock to any one to see me doing +what I am going to do. It would seem the only thing +to do."</p> + +<p>Lassie made no reply for a little, then she said, +slowly: "When we love, we look forward to life +together generally; that is why people won't understand +you." She hesitated again. "I mean-that seems +to me to be the reason; perhaps I'm wrong."</p> + +<p>Alva reflected, too, her eyes upon the autumn glory +flaunting its color over the deep gray shadows before +her. "Even if one puts it all on the material plan, +I should think that the whole world would recognize +by this time that it isn't the man that a woman loves +that fills her soul with ringing joy; it's the way in which +she loves the man. It's herself and the effect of himself +upon her thoughts that counts. It isn't the house,<span class="pagenum">[183]</span> +but the life within the house that makes a home, you +know."</p> + +<p>Some shy, latent color rose up in Lassie's face. +"I never thought about it in just that way," she said; +"but I suppose it's the truth."</p> + +<p>"My dear, it is the truth. Of course it is the truth. +No one to whom sufficient has been revealed can doubt +it. If you can't see it so, it is because you are not yet +old enough to comprehend. When I say 'old enough' +I don't mean the Lassie who is eighteen; I mean the +Lassie who began long before this mass of rock became +even so stable as to be shifting ocean sand. I mean the +Lassie who departed out of God to work in His way +until she shall return to Him in some divine and distant +hereafter."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Alva, you do say such queer things!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps; but you see I <i>know</i> all this. It came to +me through dire hours of need. I've demonstrated +its truth, step by step. Try to grasp the idea."</p> + +<p>"Do people ever think you crazy?" The question +came timidly.</p> + +<p>"Every one always thinks any one or anything that +they can't understand, crazy. Mrs. Ray thinks me crazy, +and it's very difficult for me not to consider her so."</p> + +<p>"Alva!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, really."</p> + +<p>"I'll try to consider you sane."</p> + +<p>"Thank you very much, dear." She smiled brightly. +"Oh, Lassie, it's such joy to have you to speak to. +I was so choked and crowded with thoughts before you +came. It was so blessedly good that if I could not stay +with him, I could come to this quiet spot and have the +house and you to help me wait the days away. You see,<span class="pagenum">[184]</span> +Lassie, one has to be part body in spite of everything, +and it's so hard to keep your body up to your soul. +Sometimes it seems to me that all of a sudden I am +drawn into a whirlpool and cannot get hold of +anything solid. I don't know just what it is, but I +imagine that I feel as they say the Saxons felt when +they saw the comet flaming in the year of the Conquest, +that something portends. And it seems to me so hard +that I could not have stayed with him. But they +wouldn't hear to that."</p> + +<p>Lassie pressed her hand. "I don't wonder at the +way you feel," she said, sympathetically; "there must +be so much that is hard in your mind these days."</p> + +<p>"Words are poor to tell what I feel," said her friend; +"that is what binds me to him,—it is that he and I +do not need to speak. We can feel without translation."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if I shall ever be loved like that," Lassie +murmured wistfully, and at her words the delicate +flame illumined her face again.</p> + +<p>Alva did not notice; she was looking down into the +cleft beneath, and watching the little river fret itself +into foam and spray.</p> + +<p>"Look!" she said suddenly. "Isn't it lovely in +the noon sunlight? Fancy the countless centuries +on centuries that it must have taken the river to cut +itself this path. There was once a great lake on the +other side—the side above the bridge—and it is with +the idea of restoring that lake that the State is having +this survey made. The difficulty is that the State isn't +geologist enough to know that the lake's outlet flowed +out there to our left, and that this river is comparatively +a new thing. If they remade the lake, the lake would +be desperately likely to remake its old outlet."<span class="pagenum">[185]</span></p> + +<p>"Would it hurt?"</p> + +<p>"Hurt! My dear, it would be another Johnstown +Flood."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear! Do many know that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear; but it wouldn't drown the men who +will own the water-power, so what does it matter to +this world of yours."</p> + +<p>"But is that right—to look at anything in that +horribly selfish way?"</p> + +<p>"In what other way do rich financiers look at anything? +But there will come a time when a change will +dawn. Look, dear, down there; see the rainbow +dancing on the spray. Well, that's the way that public +opinion is going to come in among us soon—in a rainbow +of truth."</p> + +<p>"It will be beautiful everywhere then?" Lassie +asked, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Very beautiful!" Alva stared down upon the +writhing, leaping waters below; "and I shall have +given my all towards the dream's fulfilment. And I +shall have learned from him how to devote my life to +the same great ends that he served. Lassie, when one +comprehends that not happiness but usefulness is the +end to be worked towards, then one begins to see +what living really means."</p> + +<p>"How much it is all going to mean to +you!"</p> + +<p>"How much? Ah, only he and I can guess at that! +There will be something quite different from all the +imaginings, in our sweet, sad days of work and suffering +and comforting. I dare not try to picture it to myself. +I only think often of how I shall pause here in my walks +to come, and steal a long look over this scene, so as to<span class="pagenum">[186]</span> +go home and describe it. He loves beauty and he loves +wood and water."</p> + +<p>"You'll go back and forth across the bridge often +then, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"When I'm married, you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, when you're married."</p> + +<p>"My dear, fancy what a joy Mrs. Ray will be to us. +I shall go for the mail expressly so as to tell all that Mrs. +Ray said to me when I went for the mail." She paused +and smiled and sighed. "Lassie, I wish I were +strong enough not to mind one thing. I know so well—so +very well—just how it will look to every one,—above +all to my parents, who are to be driven half mad, +even though I shall only ask a few months' freedom, +in return for all my life before and after. I wish that +I might be spared the sharp, keen realization of all +that."</p> + +<p>Lassie's eyes sought hers quickly. "But you have +a right to do as you please, Alva."</p> + +<p>"Have I, dear? It seems to me sometimes as if I +were the one person who had no right to do as she +pleases, not even in that which concerned her most. +You know that every one thinks that if a woman marries +with a prospect of years of happiness taken or given, +she is justified in going her own way. Any one would +feel that, would understand that view. I never could +have done that, because my life was too heavily loaded +with burdens and responsibilities; and his was the same. +It was because we were so hopeless of happiness for +so long that we do not cavil over the wonder of what +is offered us. Because if it had come in the form that +it comes to others, we must have refused it. It did come +to us in that form, and we did refuse it. It was only<span class="pagenum">[187]</span> +when it returned in a guise that the world calls tragic, +that we could accept it for our own."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Alva, I understand," her tone was a cry, +almost.</p> + +<p>"Lassie, remember one thing, and don't forget it +during any of these hours that we shall spend together. +If I read life by another light than yours, it isn't because +it was natural to my eyes. Once I might have recoiled +even more than you did, when I first told you. God's +best purposes for humanity require that we recoil from +what seems unnatural. But there are exceptions to +all rules, and in return for two human lives freely +offered up on the altar of His world, He gives, sometimes, +a few days of unutterable happiness to their +spirits. Lassie, he was big, he was splendid; you know +all that he was as every one else does. If I had been +young, if I had been ignorant enough to dare to be +selfish, and if he had been young and ignorant enough +not to know how necessary he was to thousands,—why, +then, we might have been happy in the way that +two people out of a million sometimes are. But we had +gone beyond all that, or else we passed beyond it the +instant we realized; at any rate, we knew too well that +I was bound hand and foot on the wheel of my life +and he was bound on his. We had to set our faces in +opposite directions and go on. Straight ahead. The +world for which we sacrificed ourselves will never +even be grateful. The world could not have understood +why we should make any sacrifice; the world generally +disdains those who do the most for it. Isn't that so? +If you tell any one in these days that your first duty +is to do right by your own soul, and that that means +doing what is best for all other souls, they stare. If<span class="pagenum">[188]</span> +I say to you that I could bear to live alone and he could +bear to live alone, because we both knew absolutely +that we had had centuries of one another and should +win eternity united, you'd stare, too."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't quite—" faltered Lassie.</p> + +<p>"Don't try to, dear; only think how it is to him and to +me now, when we are to have this short, this pitifully +short space of time together—to have to take it in +the face of such an outcry as will be made. When I +creep back into life again, with my heart broken and +my dress black always from then on, I shall be so +notorious, such an object of curiosity for all time to +come, that my friends will prefer not to be seen in +public with me. When I think of my home-going to +tell them, my very soul faints. My father abhors +any form of physical deformity; what he is going to +say to my marrying one who is so maimed and crushed +that he can not use his right hand, I can't think. And +then there is my mother, to whom sentiment and religion +are alike quixotic. What will she say?"</p> + +<p>She was silent, and then she suddenly left the rail +and moved on.</p> + +<p>"Ah, well, if it could only stay bright like this until +we came back together! But that is impossible. What +we shall see together will be the snow lying softly over +all, and the brown, curving line of the tree-tops and the +pink sunset glow in the west. He will lie in his chair +and I shall sit on a cushion thrown close beside him, +and with that one hand that they have left him pressed +to my face, we shall look out over all the wide, still +world and talk of that future which no one can bar +us out of, except our own two selves. God can say +'Well done, thou good and faithful servant,' but He<span class="pagenum">[189]</span> +proves in the saying that the doing and the goodness +and the faith all emanated from the one who served. +Religion is such a grand thing, Lassie; I can't understand +any one with intelligence choosing to be an +atheist. And lately, since I have realized that the real +trinity is two who love and their God, I have been +overcome at the mysticism of what life really means. +Oh, I'm truly very, very happy. As I look over these +hills and valleys, I think how all my life long I shall +be coming back here—not to weep, but to remember. +I shall be left lonely to a degree that hardly any one +can comprehend, because for me there will be no possible +chance of any earthly consolation; but in another +sense I shall never know grief at all, for I know, with +the absolute knowledge that I have attained to, that +grief like all other finite things is unreal, and that my +happiness is eternal."</p> + +<p>They were now on the tracks quite near the hotel.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if Mrs. Lathbun got a letter from her +lawyer to-day," Lassie said, changing the subject +suddenly.</p> + +<p>They went up the steps and opened the door, and +there in the hall, on her hurried way out to meet them, +was Mrs. O'Neil, her face quite pale with excitement.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what do you think?" she cried, opening the +door into the dining-room; "come right in here. What +<i>do</i> you think?"</p> + +<p>"What is it?" both asked together.</p> + +<p>"The biggest surprise you ever got in your life. +They're swindlers!"</p> + +<p>Alva stepped in quickly and shut the door. "What?" +she stammered; "who?"</p> + +<p>"They're swindlers, both of them! It's all in the<span class="pagenum">[190]</span> +Kinnecot paper." She held out a paper which she +had in her hand to Alva. "You can read it; it isn't +a bit of doubt but what it's them."</p> + +<p>Alva, turning quite pale, took the paper and read:</p> + +<blockquote><p>A PRETTY FOXY PAIR</p> + +<p>Two women, claiming to be mother and daughter, +came to the Walker House in this village a few nights +ago and inquired for supper and a night's lodging, +claiming they were very tired, as they had walked over +from Warsaw. Landlord Walker thought it a little +strange that they should have walked over when there +were two railroads that run from that village through +here, but said nothing and gave them supper and furnished +them a room. They remained in their room +until about noon the next day, when they paid their +bill and left, taking the overland route for Ledge, or +in that direction. They registered at the Walker House +as Mrs. Ida M. Lathbun and Miss H. A. Lathbun, +which are the same names given by a pair who had been +spending the summer in the vicinity of Silver Lake and +Perry. As stated above, they came here from Warsaw, +and our esteemed brother editor in that place paid +them the following compliment in a recent issue:</p> + +<p>'A woman and daughter who are going from town +to town, boarding in one place until compelled to seek +another because of their inability to pay their board, +have been found to be in this town, coming here +from Perry and Silver Lake, where their record is one +of unpaid bills. They are smart, clever, female tramps, +who have no income and no visible means of support.'</p> + +<p>It is said at Silver Lake they stated they were +<span class="pagenum">[191]</span>expecting some money, and would stay at one boarding-place +as long as they could, and when fired out would +settle at another. They finally went to Perry, and, when +compelled to leave there, walked across the country to +Warsaw, stopping at Mr. Samuel Adams's overnight, +while en route.</p> + +<p>The older Mrs. Lathbun is said to be an own cousin +of Arthur Rehman, who has been before the public +for one escapade or another for many years. She is +said to have been well-to-do at one time, and is living +in expectations of more money from some relative. +The couple were fairly well dressed and intelligent +looking women.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Alva's hand holding the paper fell limply at her side. +She looked at Mrs. O'Neil and Mrs. O'Neil looked at +her; while Mary Cody, who had come in from the +kitchen, and Lassie looked at them both.</p> + +<p>"Well, what do you think of it?" Mrs. O'Neil +said, finally.</p> + +<p>"I can't believe it," Alva gasped; "it can't be +true!"</p> + +<p>"Just what I said! You know I said that right off, +Mary Cody? But Jack believes it. He's gone to Ledge +Centre to see Mr. Pollock."</p> + +<p>"Who is Mr. Pollock?"</p> + +<p>"The lawyer."</p> + +<p>"And where are they now?"</p> + +<p>"Up-stairs. They never get up till noon, you know."</p> + +<p>"How long have they been here?"</p> + +<p>"Two weeks and a little over."</p> + +<p>"Haven't they paid you anything?"</p> + +<p>"Not a cent."<span class="pagenum">[192]</span></p> + +<p>Alva became more distressed. "And the girl is so +delicate, too," she said.</p> + +<p>"Delicate! I should think that she was. Every +third day the old lady has all my flat-irons wrapped in +towels to put around her. And then, think of it! +October, and not a coat or a flannel have either of +them got."</p> + +<p>A slight shiver ran over Alva.</p> + +<p>"You're cold," said Mrs. O'Neil; "come into the +kitchen. Mary Cody, you stand at the door and listen, +for that old lady is a sly one."</p> + +<p>Mary Cody stood at the door, and the other three +went into the kitchen.</p> + +<p>"Won't Mrs. Ray be pleased," said Mrs. O'Neil. +"She was down at the church, or I'd have gone right +up to her with the paper. It was she that set every +one after 'em, because she was so crazy over their +staying at the Adams farm that night. She's so jealous +of Sammy."</p> + +<p>"Ow!" exclaimed Mary Cody, interrupting; "I +hear the stairs creaking!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. O'Neil grabbed the newspaper and thrust it +back of a clothes basket. The next instant Mrs. +Lathbun, with an empty pitcher in her hand, came in +through the dining-room door.</p> + +<p>The large, heavily-built woman, not stout but very +robust in appearance, had on her usual dress, and smiled +pleasantly at them all in greeting.</p> + +<p>"Was there any mail?" she asked, going to the stove +and beginning to fill her pitcher from the reservoir +as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"No," said Mary Cody; "I went myself."</p> + +<p>"Dear me, how annoying," said Mrs. Lathbun;<span class="pagenum">[193]</span> +and then, having finished filling her pitcher, she quietly +retired again.</p> + +<p>"To think maybe she'll be in the jail at Geneseo +to-morrow!" Mary Cody exclaimed, in an awestruck +whisper.</p> + +<p>Alva turned interrogative eyes towards Mrs. O'Neil.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Jack is going to have them arrested," she said.</p> + +<p>"Merciful heavens!"</p> + +<p>"Isn't it awful? I'm sorry for them, myself."</p> + +<p>"But—but suppose there's some mistake?"</p> + +<p>"There can't be, Jack says."</p> + +<p>Alva shut her eyes and stood still for a few seconds. +"The poor creatures," she said, softly and pitifully,—then: +"How did you say you came to find out about +it?"</p> + +<p>"A man from Kinnecot had the paper in the station, +and Josiah Bates brought him over to our bar this +morning and asked Jack if he could see how folks like +that could get trusted. Jack said yes, he could see, and +then he told the man from Kinnecot that just at present +he was trusting the same people, himself."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear," Alva passed her hand wearily across +her forehead; "it's awful."</p> + +<p>"Yes, isn't it? The man gave him the paper then. +And Jack's first idea was to take it right up-stairs to +them, but then he thought they might skip before he +could have them arrested, so he decided to drive over +and see Mr. Pollock first."</p> + +<p>"I can't make it seem true."</p> + +<p>"No, I can't, either. Of course they never paid +anything, but they're nice people. I've liked them."</p> + +<p>"Then they won't know anything about all this until +they are really arrested?"<span class="pagenum">[194]</span></p> + +<p>"No," said Mrs. O'Neil; "they'll eat dinner just +as calm as they've eaten all their other dinners."</p> + +<p>"Come, Lassie," said Alva; "that reminds me that +we must get ready for dinner, ourselves."</p> + +<p>"Do you want to take the paper up-stairs with you?" +Mrs. O'Neil asked; "right after dinner I want to take +it up to Mrs. Ray, but you can keep it till then if you +like."</p> + +<p>"No, thank you," said Alva, with her strange, white +smile; "I read it all through."</p> + +<p>When they were up-stairs Lassie exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"There, now you see—"</p> + +<p>But her friend stopped her with a gesture. "It's +too terrible to talk about," she said, simply. "I must +think earnestly what ought to come next."</p> + +<p>Lassie became silent.<span class="pagenum">[195]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<p class="h3">THE WALK TO THE LOWER FALLS</p> + +<p>"I certainly am going with Mrs. O'Neil when +she carries that paper to the post-office after +dinner," Lassie exclaimed, as soon as they reached their +rooms. "Oh, Alva, this is the most interesting experience +I ever had. I'm just wild. It's such fun!"</p> + +<p>Alva came straight to her, laid her two hands on the +girl's shoulders and looked into her face.</p> + +<p>"Lassie!" she said, in a tone of appalled meaning, +"Lassie!"</p> + +<p>Lassie laughed a little, just a very little. "I didn't +make them bad," she said; "it's just that I enjoy the +fun of the developments."</p> + +<p>"The fun!" said Alva, "the fun! When there +isn't anything except tragedy, misery, and shame!"</p> + +<p>"But, Alva, if they are that kind of women, isn't it +right that they should be found out?"</p> + +<p>Her friend dropped her hands and turned away.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear—oh, dear," she said, with a sigh that +was almost a moan.</p> + +<p>Later they went down to the dining-room. Ingram +had not come that noon, and Mrs. Lathbun and her +daughter were sitting placidly at their table. Alva and +Lassie took their own seats as usual.</p> + +<p>There are not many sensations so complexly curious +as to be obliged to eat your dinner within five feet of<span class="pagenum">[196]</span> +two ladies who perhaps are to be arrested as soon as +a man who drives a fast horse can get back from Ledge +Centre with the sheriff.</p> + +<p>Mrs. O'Neil's criminal code, reinforced by such stray +bits of procedure as she could recollect on short notice, +led to a supposition on her part that the case would +go almost in a bee-line from Mr. Pollock the attorney +to the Geneseo jail. Therefore Mary Cody's eyes were +full of rounded curiosity as she waited at table, and +Lassie could not forbear to glance often at the quiet +and simple-looking pair,—the mother in her dark +blue print, with its bands of stitched silk, and the +daughter with the red silk front that had so impressed +her from the beginning. Alva could not look at them,—her +mind was full of devious wondering. Mrs. O'Neil +glanced in from time to time, her pretty face darkened +by vague distress, mixed with some righteous indignation.</p> + +<p>The door opened and Ronald Ingram entered. It +was a surprise and a great relief, for of course he knew +nothing and was consequently under no constraint.</p> + +<p>Mary Cody rushed to lay a place for him.</p> + +<p>"This would be a grand day to walk to the Lower +Falls," he said, as he sat down; "why don't you do it? +You haven't been yet, have you?"</p> + +<p>"No," Alva said; "there hasn't ever been time."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you go this afternoon, then? I'll go +with you, if you like. I'm free."</p> + +<p>"I can't go this afternoon; take Lassie. That will +take care of you both at once."</p> + +<p>"I think that would be fine," said Ingram, heartily, +"if Lassie will like to go."</p> + +<p>Lassie looked helplessly from Alva to the Lathbun<span class="pagenum">[197]</span> +family. "I couldn't go right after dinner," she said, +hesitatingly, and stopped short to meet Alva's eyes.</p> + +<p>"Why not?" the latter asked; "wouldn't you like +the walk?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I should like it very much," Lassie declared, +her face flushing. It seemed to her very cruel that no +such delightful plan had ever been broached before, +when it was only just to-day that she wanted to stay at +home. She looked at Ingram, and the wistful expression +on his face was weighed in the balance against the +thrill to come at the post-office when Mrs. Ray should +read the Kinnecot paper. Such was the effect of the +past week in Ledge upon a very human young girl.</p> + +<p>"Why can't you come, too?" Ingram asked +Alva.</p> + +<p>Alva lifted her eyes to his, and in the same second +Miss Lathbun at the other table lifted hers, and fixed +them on the other's face.</p> + +<p>"I can't this afternoon," she said, very stilly but +decidedly; "I have something that keeps me here."</p> + +<p>Lassie looked at her reproachfully. She was going +to stay and hear Mrs. Ray! For the minute Lassie +felt that she could not go herself.</p> + +<p>"I think I'll stay with Alva," she said, suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Lassie!" Alva exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, come," urged Ingram; "it's such a grand day. +You both ought to go. Come, do."</p> + +<p>Alva shook her head. "I've a letter to write," +she said; "I—" she stopped. There was a noise +outside. It was Mr. O'Neil, driving up the hill +towards the house! Mary Cody gave an exclamation +in spite of herself, and darted into the kitchen. +Mrs. Lathbun, who faced the window, said calmly:<span class="pagenum">[198]</span></p> + +<p>"Why, there's Mr. O'Neil, just in time for his +dinner."</p> + +<p>Alva turned her head, feeling cold, and saw there +was no sheriff with him. Mrs. Ray could be seen +standing out on her back porch, shading her eyes to +make out anything visible. Of course Mrs. Ray did +not know full particulars, but Josiah Bates had been +to Ledge Centre on horseback and had seen the O'Neil +mare hitched in front of Mr. Pollock's. The postmistress +knew that something was up.</p> + +<p>Alva drew a breath of relief. The sheriff had not +come back, so they could not be arrested at once. Or +else they could not be arrested at all. There seemed to +be a hush of suspense in the room, but Mr. O'Neil +did not enter to relieve it. Only Mary Cody entered, +and Mary Cody's face was as easy to read as a blank +book.</p> + +<p>"Then you'll go?" Ingram asked again.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter rose and went up-stairs, +leaving the other three alone.</p> + +<p>"Of course she'll go," Alva answered; "go, dear, +and get your wraps."</p> + +<p>Lassie cast one last appealing look towards her, and +then she also left the room.</p> + +<p>"Ronald," Alva then said, hurriedly, "Lassie will +tell you what has happened here. I feel confident +that there is some error in it all, but whatever you +think, try to be charitable, merciful. Don't be narrow +in your judgment."</p> + +<p>"Are you referring to your own affairs?" he asked +in surprise.</p> + +<p>"I am not the only one who craves mercy," she said, +smiling; "there are many others."<span class="pagenum">[199]</span></p> + +<p>"Sharing your views?" he asked, smiling in his +turn.</p> + +<p>"Lassie will tell you," she repeated.</p> + +<p>"Alva," the man said suddenly, earnestly, "don't +teach her too many ideals. We are mortal, and life +is a real thing."</p> + +<p>"I understood that perfectly," she replied; "but +the world is not immortal and immortality is a real +thing, too. A desirable thing, too."</p> + +<p>"To be achieved by working on the mortal plane, +remember."</p> + +<p>"I have worked all my life upon the mortal plane; +I shall be back there next summer, you know. Yet +Lassie has learned to see only beauty in my immortal +winter to be between."</p> + +<p>"Ah, there is your error," said Ingram; "you +expect to live this winter and return to your old life +in the summer. But that's something that you never +will be able to do."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"You won't be able to go back next summer."</p> + +<p>She looked at him sadly. "But I shall have to go +back next summer," she said; "do not deceive yourself +as to that. And now excuse me, I want to speak to +her before she goes."</p> + +<p>She left him and ran up-stairs. Lassie was putting +on the hat that looked to the eyes of Ledge like a +feather duster upside down.</p> + +<p>"You're going to stay here and have all the fun," +she protested; "oh, I'd give anything to see Mrs. +Ray read that paper."</p> + +<p>"But I shall not see her."</p> + +<p>"You won't see her!"<span class="pagenum">[200]</span></p> + +<p>"No, dear;" then she went and stood at the window +in her favorite posture. "Oh, Lassie," she said, "I +like to hear Mrs. Ray talk and I enjoy the funny things +she says, but do you think that to look on at the hunting +down of these two women is any pleasure for me? +When I know why they are destitute—why they are +in hiding."</p> + +<p>"Alva," cried Lassie, "you don't mean you still +believe that story?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do."</p> + +<p>"You're crazy!"</p> + +<p>"I expect so. But I still believe the story."</p> + +<p>Lassie stood still, staring at her friend's back. Then +she went hastily forward, seized her impetuously in her +arms and kissed her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, little girl," Alva said, turning, "don't you +see that it's charity, and if they really are not what they +pretend to be and if it all really is a lie, it may be long +before charity will cross their path again?"</p> + +<p>"Alva," Lassie said, with her little whimsical smile, +"you've taken all that nice, agreeable, aching desire +to go to the post-office and see the paper read, completely +out of me."</p> + +<p>"Well, are you sorry for that?"</p> + +<p>Lassie lifted her pretty brown eyes. "No," she +said, frankly; "I'm not."</p> + +<p>Then she ran down to Ingram and they set forth at +once, for it is a long walk to the Lower Falls.</p> + +<p>The day was magnificent. The bright autumn sun +shone on the lines of steel that glinted beside their way +across the bridge, and there was a silvery glisten dancing +in all the world of earth and heaven and in the rainbow +of the mist, too,—a glisten that bespoke the approach<span class="pagenum">[201]</span> +of the Frost King and the further glory soon to be. +The glints of brown and yellow here and there amidst +the red presaged that Nature's festival was daily drawing +nearer to its white close. Ingram, looking ahead +towards the trees that hid the little Colonial house, +wondered and wondered, but was recalled by Lassie's +bursting forth with the whole story of the fresh developments +which they had left behind them.</p> + +<p>"Oh, by George," Ingram exclaimed; "I'd like +to have seen Mrs. Ray get the news myself."</p> + +<p>Lassie felt herself fall with a crash back into the pit +of ordinary views.</p> + +<p>"Would you?" she asked eagerly; "oh, but we +couldn't go back now; Alva would be too disgusted."</p> + +<p>"Of course we can't go back now, but we've missed +a lot of fun."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I thought it would be fun."</p> + +<p>Quite a little pall of gloom fell over both, in the +consideration of what they had missed, and both stared +absent-mindedly up and down the valley, seeing nothing +except the vision of Mrs. Ray perusing the Kinnecot +paper.</p> + +<p>"Alva is so serious over everything," Lassie said +presently, with a mournful note in her voice.</p> + +<p>"She's too serious," declared Ingram.</p> + +<p>"She's looking forward to so much happiness that +she says she can't bear to add even a breath to any +one's misery."</p> + +<p>"And she isn't going to have any happiness at +all."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think there's any hope?"</p> + +<p>"Of course there isn't any hope."</p> + +<p>"What will become of that house?"<span class="pagenum">[202]</span></p> + +<p>"I don't know, I'm sure."</p> + +<p>"Shall you be here this winter?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know about that. I don't know just how +long it will take for the survey."</p> + +<p>"But you will be here while they build the dam, +too, won't you? And that will take years. Won't you +live here a long time?"</p> + +<p>"The dam is not a fixed fact as yet, you know; far +from it."</p> + +<p>"Isn't it? Every one talks as if it were,—that is, +every one except Alva."</p> + +<p>"But I couldn't live in that house, anyway; I +wouldn't live there for anything, would you?"</p> + +<p>"No, it would be full of ghosts to me. I'd feel about +it just as you—" the words died on her lips, as she +suddenly realized how their unconscious phrasing +sounded. It was the first sunburst of the idea to her, +and it stormed her cheeks with pink.</p> + +<p>"No," said Ingram, unobserving, "that house would +not affect any one but you or I, in that way; but for +us—" thereupon he stopped; the idea which had come +over the girl like a sunburst came over the man like +a cloudburst. He was almost scared as he tried to +think what he had said.</p> + +<p>"Alva is—is—so set against it—the dam, I +mean," he stammered, hurriedly; "she—she has—told +me all her views."</p> + +<p>"But she's different," said Lassie, catching her +breath. "I don't know very much, but I know that it +doesn't look just that way to others."</p> + +<p>"The ultra-altruistic vaccine is already beginning +to work again," Ingram said, trying to laugh; "but +you must not attack me, you know—"<span class="pagenum">[203]</span></p> + +<p>"I'm not attacking you," Lassie interposed, hoping +her face would cool soon.</p> + +<p>"Because, you see, I am nothing in the world but +a mere ordinary, humble, civil engineer, sent up here +by a commission to see what the situation is in feet and +inches, and sand and gravel. I wholly refuse to take +sides as to the controversy;" he had regained composure +now.</p> + +<p>"I suppose that you haven't really anything to say +about it, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"Nothing except to make a report. That's all."</p> + +<p>Both felt relieved to be back on firm, friendly ground, +but both were saturated through and through by the +wonderful new conception of life bred by the accidental +speeches. They did not look at one another, but went +down the steps and along the curving road with a sort +of keyed up determination not to let a single break +come in the flow of language.</p> + +<p>"But you must be glad to work on a popular project," +Lassie said.</p> + +<p>"But it isn't altogether popular," Ingram rejoined; +"it's only popular in spots, you see. If every one around +here was as wild as I have seen some people become +when the business threatened their trees or their river, +we might be mobbed."</p> + +<p>"Why, I thought that every one wanted it. Alva +said that the difficulty was that all the people who +would do anything to save the Falls were not born +yet."</p> + +<p>"She was partly right, but not altogether. The +difficulty is that, with the exception of Mr. Ledge, the +people who are interested in preserving the Falls do +not live here, and the people who will make money<span class="pagenum">[204]</span> +by the destruction of the Falls are right on the spot +and own the land."</p> + +<p>"Why, you talk as if you didn't want the dam, +either."</p> + +<p>"It is no use discussing my views; the dam will be +a great thing. Very possibly there will be no more +Falls, but the high banks will remain—until commercial +interests demand their quarrying—and all we can do +is to go with the tide and remember that while man +is destroying in one place, Nature is building in another. +There will always be plenty of wild grandeur somewhere +for those who have the money and leisure to seek +it."</p> + +<p>"But Alva says that Mr. Ledge is trying to save +this for those who love beautiful spots, and haven't +time or money to go far."</p> + +<p>"America isn't made for such people," said Ingram, +simply.</p> + +<p>Lassie thought seriously for a moment, until a glance +from her companion hurried her on to say: "I suppose +that we are too progressive to let anything just go to +waste, and that's what it would be if we let all this +water-power flow unused."</p> + +<p>"Of course," said Ingram; "here would be this +great tract of woodland, which might be making eight +or ten men millionaires, and instead of that one man +tries to save it for thousands who never can by any +chance become well-to-do. No wonder the one man +has spent most of his life investigating insane asylums; +he is evidently more than slightly sympathetic with +the weak-minded."</p> + +<p>"Are you being sarcastic?"</p> + +<p>"No, not at all. I like to look at the Falls, but then<span class="pagenum">[205]</span> +I like to look at a big dam, too; and sluice gates always +did seem to me the most interesting wonder in nature."</p> + +<p>They were deep in the quiet peace of Ledge Park +by this time, and only the squirrels had eyes and ears +there. (They didn't know about Joey Beall.)</p> + +<p>"Oh, how still and lovely!" Lassie exclaimed; +"how almost churchlike."</p> + +<p>The broad, evenly graded road wound away before +them, and the double rank of trees followed its course +on either side.</p> + +<p>"I used to camp out here summers, when I was a +boy. You've read Cooper's novels?"</p> + +<p>"'Deerslayer' and all those? Oh, yes."</p> + +<p>"Their scene was not so far away from here, you +know; only a few score miles."</p> + +<p>"There must be all sorts of stories about here, too?"</p> + +<p>"Did you ever hear tell of the Old White Woman?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"She lived around here. She was stolen by the +Indians and grew up and married one."</p> + +<p>"How interesting! I wonder how it would seem to +really love an Indian?" Then Lassie choked—blushing +furiously at this approach of the painful subject.</p> + +<p>"You speak as one who has had a wide experience +with white men." (Ingram felt this to be fearfully +daring.)</p> + +<p>"I've never been in love in my life." (Lassie felt +this to be fearfully pointed.)</p> + +<p>"How funny," said the man, "neither have I! +Not really in love, you know."</p> + +<p>Such thin ice! But the lure of the forest was there, +and the lure of the absence of interruption, too. Lassie +felt very remarkable. This was so delightful! So novel!<span class="pagenum">[206]</span> +Better than Mrs. Ray and the Kinnecot paper even. +Why, this was even better than all Alva's love affair. +Ten thousand times better! How stupid she had been.</p> + +<p>"How funny!" she said, looking up.</p> + +<p>"Why do you say that?" Ingram asked, quickly.</p> + +<p>He seemed quite anxious to know why she thought +it funny that he had never been in love before, and that +was so delightful, too. A big, handsome man anxious +as to what she thought! She felt as wise as if she had +already made her début.</p> + +<p>"I don't know why I said it," she answered, laughing; +"it just came to me to say it. Was it silly to +say? If so, please forgive me, because I didn't mean +it."</p> + +<p>"There's nothing to forgive," said Ingram; "only +I never expected you to say anything of that sort. You +don't know anything about me and you haven't any +right to judge me." He spoke in quite a vexed, serious +way, and Lassie felt as wise now as if she had made +two débuts.</p> + +<p>"But you were in love with Alva years ago, you +know," she said.</p> + +<p>"I wasn't really in love; I only thought that I +was."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>There followed a silence for a little while. Lassie +was much impressed by the statement just made. Of +course it wouldn't be polite to repeat to Alva, but it +was very interesting to know, oneself. The road ran +sweetly, greenly on before them, all strewn with piney +needles. There was no sound except a little breeze +rustling overhead, and the occasional fall of an acorn +or pine-cone.<span class="pagenum">[207]</span></p> + +<p>"How does Alva's story affect you, now?" the man +asked, suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Differently from at first. When she first told me +what she meant to do, it just pounded in my ears +that he was going to die in that very house over there; +and that they would have to carry him into it just as +they would later carry him out of it. Oh, it did seem so +terrible to think of this winter, and of her, sitting +there beside him,—so terrible—so terrible!"</p> + +<p>"And doesn't it seem terrible at all to you now?"</p> + +<p>"Not in the same way. She has talked to me so +much; she has made me know so much more of her +way of looking at it. You know—"she hesitated a +little—"she feels about death so strangely,—it +doesn't seem to count to her at all. She feels that in +some way he will be always near her; she says that he +promised her not to leave her again."</p> + +<p>"Poor Alva!"</p> + +<p>"I suppose that he is such a very great man that he +can affect one like that. I am beginning to see what +very different kinds of people there are in the +world."</p> + +<p>"Thank God for that!" Ingram exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Alva says that he is one of the greatest men that +ever lived. She says that to share even a few days of +life with a man who has been a world-force for the +world-betterment, would overpay all the hardship and +loneliness to come."</p> + +<p>They emerged into the sunshine just here, and the +roar of the Middle Falls burst upon their ears. The +fence of Mr. Ledge's house-enclosure stretched before +them, and to the right, along the bank, towered two +groups of dark evergreens.<span class="pagenum">[208]</span></p> + +<p>"We can go through here," Ingram said, unlatching +the gate.</p> + +<p>So they entered the private grounds and passed +around the simple, pretty home and out upon the road +beyond.</p> + +<p>"Everything is as sweet and quiet here as in the +forest," said Lassie.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's a beautiful place," Ingram assented.</p> + +<p>They went on and entered the wood path that goes +to the Lower Falls.</p> + +<p>"I cannot understand one thing," the man said, +suddenly; "if they loved one another so much, why +didn't they marry long ago? If I loved a woman, I +should want to marry her."</p> + +<p>Here was the thin ice again—delight again.</p> + +<p>"They never thought of it," Lassie said, revelling +in the sense of danger; "they couldn't. They recognized +other claims."</p> + +<p>Ingram walked on for a little, and then he said: +"I suppose that what you say is true, and that with +people like them everything is different from what it +is with you and me."</p> + +<p>(You and me!)</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lassie, "Alva doesn't seem to have +minded that his work meant more to him than she did, +and I suppose that he thought it quite right that she +should do her duty unselfishly."</p> + +<p>"It makes our view of things seem rather small and +petty—don't you think? Or shall we call her crazy, +as the world generally does call all such people?"</p> + +<p>"I know that she's not crazy," the girl said.</p> + +<p>"Shall we have to admit then that she is right in +what she is going to do, and that instead of its being<span class="pagenum">[209]</span> +horrible, it is sublime?" He looked at her, and she +raised tear-filled eyes to his. But she was silent.</p> + +<p>"I think that we must admit it—for Alva," he +added; "but not for ourselves."</p> + +<p>The girl was silent and her lips trembled. Finally +she said: "I believe that what she said is coming true, +and that I am changing and that you are changing, +too."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm changed all the way through," he admitted.</p> + +<p>It was a long walk to the Lower Falls, and yet it +was short to them. Very short! But too long to follow +them step by step. It was a beautiful walk, and one +which they were to remember all their lives to come. +It was such a walk as should form a powerful argument +in favor of the preservation of the Falls.<span class="pagenum">[210]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<p class="h3">RIGHTEOUS JUSTICE</p> + +<p>Leaving Mary Cody to watch over the house, Mrs. +O'Neil, the instant dinner was over, threw something +over her head and hurried to the post-office.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray met her at the door. "What is it?" was +her greeting; "I know it's come out about the case-knives! +Hasn't it?"</p> + +<p>"You'll never guess what they are," said Mrs. O'Neil, +entering the house and closing the door behind her. +"Mrs. Ray, they're swindlers!"</p> + +<p>"I knew it; I knew it all the time. How did you +find it out?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. O'Neil told her.</p> + +<p>"Give me the paper."</p> + +<p>The paper was unfolded, but as she unfolded it Mrs. +Dunstall and Pinkie came running in one way, and Mrs. +Wiley rushed panting up the other steps.</p> + +<p>"Have you heard?" Mrs. Dunstall cried.</p> + +<p>"Heard! I've heard it a dozen ways." Mrs. Ray +was devouring the article as she spoke. "Sit down," +she said briefly, without looking around.</p> + +<p>"They can't be arrested till Saturday," Mrs. O'Neil +said. "There isn't a mite of doubt but what it's them, +but Mr. Pollock told Jack that the law is that he must +give them notice, and then he must let them go before +he can arrest them."<span class="pagenum">[211]</span></p> + +<p>"Why, I never heard the equal," exclaimed Mrs. +Wiley. "I didn't know that you must let anybody +who'd done anything go, ever! What will Uncle Purchase +say to that!"</p> + +<p>"Well, if that isn't the greatest I ever heard, either," +said Mrs. Ray, never ceasing to read; "that's a funny +law. If the United States Government run its business +that way, every one would be skipping out with the +stamps."</p> + +<p>"And Mr. Pollock said," broke in Mrs. O'Neil, +"that no matter how big swindlers they were, we +couldn't arrest them until some one whom they'd +swindled swore to the fact."</p> + +<p>"Well, why don't you swear, then?" interrupted +Mrs. Ray still reading.</p> + +<p>"Because Mr. Pollock says they haven't actually +swindled us, till they really leave without paying, you +see," explained Mrs. O'Neil.</p> + +<p>"Lands!" commented Pinkie.</p> + +<p>"Which means," said Mrs. Ray, always reading, +"that the law is that you mustn't try to catch 'em until +after you let 'em go."</p> + +<p>"Seems so," said Mrs. O'Neil.</p> + +<p>"I never hear the beat!" exclaimed Mrs. Ray. +"Why, this paper says they'd been jumping their +board all summer!"</p> + +<p>"All summer?" said Pinkie.</p> + +<p>"Well, I always knew they were no good," said Mrs. +Ray, still reading; "they never got any letters. They +come to the post-office sometimes to try to give themselves +a reputation, but they didn't fool me, for they +never got any letters. I don't misjudge folks if they +don't get many, and if they cancel up good it says just<span class="pagenum">[212]</span> +as much for their characters as if they got a lot—maybe +more, for a lot of letters may be just duns—but when +there's no income and no outgo, better look out, I say. +Yes, indeed. Do they owe you much, Nellie?"</p> + +<p>"About thirty-five dollars," said Mrs. O'Neil; "but +oh, dear! Why, they've made fudge and worn my +shawls and roasted chestnuts—"</p> + +<p>"Nellie, Nellie," it was a strange voice at the kitchen +door. Everybody looked up to see Mrs. Kendal, almost +purple from rapid walking. "I've just heard! Lucia +Cosby ran down to tell me. We've got a Foxtown +Signal that's got some more about them in. I run right +over to bring it to you. I was sure I'd find you here. +That's why the old lady always wore her rubbers—her +shoes were clean wore through with walking, skipping +out, all the time."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kendal sank on a seat, and the Foxtown Signal +was spread out upon the table with the other +paper.</p> + +<p>"I thought that was a funny story about the trunks," +said Mrs. Wiley.</p> + +<p>"They've worn the same clothes for three weeks, +to my certain knowledge," said Mrs. O'Neil, "and not +so much as an extra hairpin!"</p> + +<p>"And they haven't any toilet things except a hair-brush +that isn't good enough to throw at a cat, and a +mirror that's broken," interposed Mrs. Ray; "you said +so, Nellie, and I saw it, too."</p> + +<p>"A broken mirror's bad luck," said Mrs. Wiley; +"I hope you'll see that it's bad luck for you too, Nellie. +Your husband's too soft-hearted to keep a hotel as we +always tell every one who goes there to board."</p> + +<p>"Well, he isn't soft-hearted this time," said his wife;<span class="pagenum">[213]</span> +"he's mad enough to-day, and he says he'll pay for +his own ticket to Geneseo to bear witness against them."</p> + +<p>Just here Mrs. Wellston, who lived in the first house +over the hill from the schoolhouse, came rushing in.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I just heard!" she panted, "they left a lot of +bills at King's and at Race's Corners, where my sister +Molly lives, they left a board-bill of eighteen dollars! +They're known all over!"</p> + +<p>"What do you think of that?" Mrs. Ray said, turning +to Mrs. O'Neil.</p> + +<p>Mrs. O'Neil gasped.</p> + +<p>"The man who told Jack told Nathan and Lizzie +that the old woman's husband died in the penitentiary," +she said. "That's a nice kind of people to have around +your house."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wiley gasped this time. Mrs. O'Neil gasped +again.</p> + +<p>"Jack said we must tell you all the first thing for +fear she'd try to borrow money of some one. I told him +he was foolish, because if they borrowed money of any +one then they could pay us."</p> + +<p>"He was only joking," said Mrs. Ray; "if they paid +you, you wouldn't really take the money, for you'd know +that they must have gotten it from some of us."</p> + +<p>"On the contrary, you ought to have taken it, I +think," said Mrs. Dunstall solemnly, "and then returned +it to whoever give it to them."</p> + +<p>Lottie Ann and Uncle Purchase now arrived to add +to the festivity of the occasion.</p> + +<p>"I guess nobody need worry over that pair's paying +anybody any money they get their hands on," observed +Mrs. Ray, fetching a chair for Uncle Purchase. "What +are you going to do about it, when they come down and<span class="pagenum">[214]</span> +want to go out to walk next time, Nellie? Give 'em +your shawls the same as usual, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Why, we've got to let 'em go or they can't skip and +make themselves liable to arrest, of course, but the old +lady said she could surely get money by to-morrow, and +Jack has hired a boy to hang around the house and if +they go out, track them."</p> + +<p>"My sakes, ain't it interesting?" said Mrs. Dunstall. +"And to think that they're up there this minute and +have no idea of it all."</p> + +<p>"I dare say they have been laughing at you all the +time they were off chestnutting our chestnuts," said Mrs. +Wiley. "My husband says if they'd sold all they've +picked up, they could have paid their board honestly."</p> + +<p>"But they weren't honest, you see," said Mrs. Ray; +"honest people all get letters, or anyhow they buy +postal cards of the Falls. And you ought to have taken +my word for it when I suspected them, Nellie; those +case-knives ought to have set you on to them."</p> + +<p>"Well, well, and us seeing them walking all around +for a fortnight," said Mrs. Dunstall; "and we so +innocent, and they swindlers, and you boarding them +for nothing,—dear, dear!"</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mrs. Ray, "here's your paper, Nellie; +what will happen next, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do, too," said Pinkie.</p> + +<p>"You'd better all come down about five, and see if +they did go out," said Mrs. O'Neil, with the air of +extending an invitation to a party. "Why, that old +lady told me that she'd been to the Boston Academy +of Music."</p> + +<p>"Boston!" said Mrs. Dunstall with a sniff; "they +never saw Boston. Not those two. Not much."<span class="pagenum">[215]</span></p> + +<p>"Oh, but they have," said Mrs. O'Neil; "I know +that they have, for I've been there myself, and we +talked about it."</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess Boston has its crooks as well as other +places," said Mrs. Ray, pacifically; "I guess if we can +harbor swindlers and not know it, Boston can, too."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't believe it," Mrs. O'Neil said again. +"But these papers make me have to; you see, there's +the names, and Hannah Adele, and no paper would +dare to print that if it wasn't true."</p> + +<p>"True! Of course it's true," said Mrs. Ray; "I +never would be surprised over anything anybody 'd do +that would wear brown laces in black shoes and go in +out of the rain at a strange house at midnight."</p> + +<p>"Did she have brown laces in black shoes?" asked +Lottie Ann, in a tone penetrated with horror.</p> + +<p>"She did, and what's more, she pinned herself +together. I see the pins sticking out of her, time and +again, when she come in to stand around and wait for +mail like a honest person would. No man is ever going +to marry a girl who bristles with pins like that,—it'll +be a job I wouldn't like myself to be the sheriff and +have to arrest her. He'd better look sharp where he +lays his hand on that girl, I tell you."</p> + +<p>"Will she really be arrested?" Lottie Ann cried.</p> + +<p>"Why, I should hope so," said her mother.</p> + +<p>"As a law-abiding citizen yourself, who may take +boarders some day, you wouldn't wish her not to be, +would you?" said Mrs. Ray.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said Lottie Ann; "it seems to me +very—very terrible to think that two women should go +to jail."</p> + +<p>"But they haven't any money, and they're swindlers,"<span class="pagenum">[216]</span> +said Mrs. Dunstall; "they belong in jail. That's +why we have jails."</p> + +<p>"If they'd had money, they'd have received at +least two or three letters," said Mrs. Ray. "If people +have any money at all, there's always some one who +wants to keep posted as to their health. Yes, indeed. +No, they haven't any money. People that have money +and never get up till noon is generally buying tea and +matches, at any rate, but they didn't even do that. No, +they ain't got any money."</p> + +<p>"I couldn't believe it myself at first," repeated Nellie +O'Neil; "and they certainly ate like people that aren't +holding anything back. Two helps of everything, and +didn't she go and take half a loaf of gingerbread up-stairs +yesterday afternoon? As cool as a cucumber."</p> + +<p>"They were both cool as cucumbers," said Mrs. Ray; +"that's why they borrowed your shawls all the time, I +guess. Cooler than cucumbers they would have been +without them, I reckon."</p> + +<p>"Jack went up and gave the old lady warning right +after dinner," said Mrs. O'Neil. "He only stopped to +just get a bite first."</p> + +<p>"Well, I hope he didn't get a bite last, too," said +Mrs. Ray, tucking in the ends of her shawl. "That +pair was too comfortable with you to want to be warned +to leave. Making fudge, indeed! I'm surprised at +you, Nellie; I'd no more think of letting my boarders +make fudge than I would of keeping them for nothing. +You and Jack don't belong in the hotel business. You +can't possibly make boarding people pay, unless you +make them pay for their board."</p> + +<p>"No, you can't," said Pinkie.</p> + +<p>"Josiah was driving down to North Ledge yesterday,<span class="pagenum">[217]</span> +and he saw them getting over a fence in that direction," +said Mrs. Wiley, rising. "He said they seemed to be +learning the country by all means, fair or foul."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't want to seem unfriendly," said Mrs. +Ray; "but I guess you'll all have to go. I found some +ants in my grocery business this morning for the first +time, and while I'm give to understand it's the regular +thing in most grocery businesses, no ant need flatter +himself that it is in mine. I'm going to clean out the +whole of the three shelves this afternoon and sprinkle +borax everywhere where it can't taste. So I must have +this room. I'll be down to-night after mail, Nellie; +good-by."</p> + +<p>Thereupon they all departed.<span class="pagenum">[218]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<p class="h3">IN THE HOUR OF NEED</p> + +<p>In the meantime Alva, left alone in her room, felt +troubled, vastly troubled, by the sorrow and shame +gathering so close to her. The emotions of those near +by affect one keenly attuned, in a degree that the less +sensitive would hardly believe possible.</p> + +<p>She went and locked the door after Lassie left, and +going to a chair that happened to stand close to the +bureau, sat down there, leaned her face on her hand +and thought earnestly of the whole matter.</p> + +<p>"Why must I trouble so?" she said to herself, presently; +"no one else does," and then she smiled sadly. +"It is because I have set my face in that direction," +she said; "I have vowed myself to service, just as he +has vowed himself, for the love of God and God in +humanity."</p> + +<p>A light tap on her own door sounded, and she started, +crying "Come in," quite forgetting that the door was +locked.</p> + +<p>Some one tried the door and then Alva sprang up +and unfastened it. It opened, and Miss Lathbun stood +there in the crack.</p> + +<p>"May I come in for a few minutes?" she asked, +pale and with frightened eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes, come in," Alva said quickly; "come in and sit<span class="pagenum">[219]</span> +down." She drew a chair near to the one that she had +been occupying.</p> + +<p>"I have come to you on a—" began the girl, "on +a—on a—" she stammered and stopped.</p> + +<p>"You are in trouble," Alva said gently; "tell me +all about it."</p> + +<p>"I am going to tell you; I have come on purpose +to tell you. You were so kind and friendly the other +day, and I—I—wasn't truthful; I didn't tell you +everything."</p> + +<p>Alva rested her face on her hand again and looked +straight at her. "Then tell me everything now," she +said.</p> + +<p>Miss Lathbun returned her look. "Mr. O'Neil has +just been up to tell Mother that we must pay our bill +here, or leave," she said. "Mother is desperate. She +doesn't know what to do, and I don't know what to do. +I told you so little of the whole story. The truth is +that he is actually driving Mother and me into poverty. +The truth is that I don't know whether he ever really +has thought of marrying me. Mother never has +believed that he has. She doesn't think that he would +put us to such straits if he was honest. Of course she +doesn't know about his watching nights. I can't tell +her. She'd go mad."</p> + +<p>Alva contemplated her quietly. "But you love him?" +she said.</p> + +<p>Miss Lathbun's eyes filled with tears. "I do love +him, and I believe that he loves me."</p> + +<p>"You feel sure of it, don't you?"</p> + +<p>The girl looked at her earnestly. "Doesn't one +always know?" she asked.</p> + +<p>Alva smiled a little. "One ought to," she assented;<span class="pagenum">[220]</span> +"well, then, how can he bear to make your life so +miserable?"</p> + +<p>The white girl clasped her delicate hands tightly in +her thin black merino lap. "I don't know," she said, +in a voice almost like a wail; "but oh, we have been +very miserable! We have such little income and it +comes through the lawyer. He sent the lawyer to +Seattle on business in July, and Mamma and I haven't +had any money since. We have gone from place to +place—we have almost fled from place to place; our +trunks are held for bills; we are penniless, winter is +coming, and—oh, I don't know what to do; I don't +know what to do!" She bit her lip so as not to cry, +but her pale face worked pitifully.</p> + +<p>Alva looked at her in a curiously speculative but +not at all heartless way. "Isn't it strange," she murmured, +"that the resolution that drives one man to any +heights will drive another of the same calibre to any +depths?" She rose and went to her table. "Tell me," +she said, taking a framed picture from before the +mirror, "is he really like this? You said so before. +Say it again."</p> + +<p>Miss Lathbun took the picture in her two hands. +"Oh, yes, yes!" she said, eagerly; "it is the same. +They are just the same."</p> + +<p>"What did you say his name was?" Alva asked, +taking the picture from her and restoring it to its place.</p> + +<p>Miss Lathbun told her: "Lisle C. Bayard."</p> + +<p>Alva sat down again, and rested her chin on her +hand as before. "I wonder how I can really help +you. I am trying to be big enough to see."</p> + +<p>Miss Lathbun's lips parted slightly; she looked at her +breathlessly, and held her peace.<span class="pagenum">[221]</span></p> + +<p>"Even if you were lying to me still," Alva said presently, +"I should want just as much to help you. If +you cheated me and laughed at me afterwards, I should +still want to help you. If you are an adventuress and +I succored you, what would count to me would be that +I tried to do right."</p> + +<p>She spoke in a strange, meditative manner; Miss +Lathbun continued to watch her, always white, and +whiter.</p> + +<p>"I cannot see why you and your mother came into +my life," Alva went on; "but you have come, and I have +been interested in you. Our paths seemed ready to +diverge and yet just now they join again. Do you know, +that a week or so ago I knelt in a church and took two +vows; one was to accept without murmur whatever +life might bring because for the moment I was so superlatively +blessed; the other was to never again pass any +trouble by carelessly. No matter what is brought to +me, I must deal with it as earnestly and justly as I +know how,—as I shall try to deal with you."</p> + +<p>She got up, took a key from the pocket of a coat +hanging on a hook near by, unlocked her trunk, opened +a purse therein, and extracted some bills.</p> + +<p>The girl watched her like one fascinated.</p> + +<p>Alva came to her side and put the roll in her hands +and closed her fingers over it. "It will settle everything," +she said; "there, take it, go. Be honest again. +Surprise every one. God be with you."</p> + +<p>Hannah Adele looked down at her hand as if in a +dream. "I was going to ask you for a little money," +she faltered; "but this—this—"</p> + +<p>"I know," said Alva, "I knew when you came in. +Now, please don't say any more. Go back to your<span class="pagenum">[222]</span> +mother and tell her. I shall not say one word about it, +you can depend upon me."</p> + +<p>The girl rose in a blind, stupid kind of way and left +the room. When she was gone, Alva went to the window +for a minute and looked out. The glisten of coming +cold was in the air. The thistles were loosing their +down and it floated on the wind like ethereal snow. +She stood there for a long time. "Something is to be," +she murmured, "I feel it coming. What is it?"</p> + +<p>Then she went to her table, picked up a pen and +wrote:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Lisle C. Bayard</span>,</p> + +<p><i>Dear Sir</i>:—I am acting under an impulse which +I cannot overcome. It may be only a folly, but it is too +strong within me to be resisted.</p> + +<p>You may or may not know two ladies of the name +of Lathbun; you may or may not be interested in +them; but if by any chance you are interested in them, +you ought to know that both have been threatened with +terrible trouble. If the story which I have been told +be really true it ought to make you not sorry, but very +glad, to learn that in their hour of stress they found +a friend.</p> + +<p>Yours very truly ...</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>and she signed her full name.</p> + +<p>After that she wrote another letter, with full particulars +of the story. And when that letter, too, was +finished, she slipped on her wraps and walked up the +cinder-path to the post-office.</p> + +<p>She found Mrs. Ray just in the fevered finale of her +chase after ants.</p> + +<p>"Put the letters on the counter," said the postmistress;<span class="pagenum">[223]</span> +"I'm standing on the post-box, and the +Republican party is getting one good, useful deed to +its credit this term, anyhow. I tried a soap box and +bu'st through, and I haven't had a worse shock since I +stepped down the wrong side of the step-ladder last +spring, when I was kalsomining for Mrs. Clinch. But +the post-box is as steady as the Bank of England and I +feel as if for this one occasion, at least, my grocery +business was coming out on top. Well, has anything +new come up down your way since noon? Haven't +paid their bill yet, have they?"</p> + +<p>"I think they'll pay it," said Alva, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Pay it! Those two? Well, not much! You're +from the city and don't get a chance to judge character +like I do, but I tell you every one that is honest has got +to have a change of undershirts, at least. I've heard +of people as turned them hind side before one week, and +inside out the next, but they washed 'em the week after +that, if they had any reputations at all to keep up."</p> + +<p>"Do you want to bet with me as to Mrs. Lathbun's +paying her bill, Mrs. Ray?" Alva asked.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray turned and looked sharply down from her +government perch. "My goodness me," she said, +"you surely ain't been fool enough to lend her money, +have you?"</p> + +<p>Alva was too startled to collect herself.</p> + +<p>"Well, you deserve to lose it then," said Mrs. Ray, +climbing down abruptly; "see here, it isn't any of my +business, but I'm going to make it my business and +tell you the plain truth, and if you take offence I'll have +done my duty, anyhow. Now you listen to me and +bear in mind that I'm twice your age and have got all +the experience of a postmistress and a farmer, and a<span class="pagenum">[224]</span> +sexton and a grocery business and a married woman +and a widow and a stepmother; if you've lent money to +the Lathbuns you're going to lose it, for they're just +what the paper said—they're a foxy pair and no mistake, +and furthermore, with all the money you're spending +on that house, you'd better be keeping your eyes +open, mark my words."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a name="gs05" id="gs05"></a> +<img src="images/gs05.jpg" width="400" height="624" alt=""IF YOU'VE LENT MONEY TO THE LATHBUNS YOU'RE GOING TO LOSE IT."" title=""> +</div> + +<p class="caption">"IF YOU'VE LENT MONEY TO THE LATHBUNS YOU'RE GOING TO LOSE IT."</p> + +<p>"Why, Mrs. Ray, what makes you say that?"</p> + +<p>"Because I've got eyes of my own," said Mrs. Ray; +"and I've been married too. I've been married and I +walked to the Lower Falls beforehand, too. I saw 'em +come up the road the first day, and I saw 'em going +down it to-day. I'd send her packing, if I was you."</p> + +<p>Alva laughed ringingly. "Oh, Mrs. Ray," she exclaimed; +"I'm not going to marry that man, and +besides, let me tell you something else; I haven't <i>lent</i> +any money to the Lathbuns."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray stared fixedly into her face for a long +minute, then she said abruptly: "You tell Nellie not +to send up for mail to-night. I'll bring the letters +down. I'll be out filin' my bond, and I can just as well +bring 'em down. It won't do any good your coming +for 'em, because the post-office will be closed and me +gone, so you couldn't get 'em if you did come."</p> + +<p>Alva smiled. "We'll wait at the house," she said, +laying her hand on the door-knob.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray watched her take her departure.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad she's give up the man so pleasant," she +said; "and she's give up the money just as pleasant. +Poor thing! She thought she was smart enough to keep +me from seeing how she meant it. As if any one from a +city could fool me!"</p> +<p><span class="pagenum">[225]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<p class="h3">DOUBTS</p> + +<p>Alva was sitting in her room, her hands clasped +behind her head in her favorite thinking attitude +when Lassie returned from her walk to the Lower +Falls. The face of the older friend wore its habitual +look of far-away absorption as the young girl entered, +but the look was almost rivalled by Lassie's own look—for +Lassie had returned from the Lower Falls with +what was to be her own private and personal absorption +forever after.</p> + +<p>"Had you a pleasant time?" Alva asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it was beautiful!" the young girl exclaimed, +"we had such fun, too," she stopped, and hesitated; +then something in the other's face made her ask: "Are +they gone?"</p> + +<p>Alva shook her head. "No, dear, they've received +their warning, but they've not gone."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Lassie, relieved, "then they won't be +in jail this night, anyway."</p> + +<p>"No, nor any other night," Alva said, quietly; "I +shall not let those women suffer shame and humiliation +when a little money can prevent it."</p> + +<p>"You are going to pay their bills!"</p> + +<p>"No, but I am going to help them pay them."</p> + +<p>"You are going to give them money?"</p> + +<p>"I have given it."<span class="pagenum">[226]</span></p> + +<p>Lassie stood still in surprise, and yet, even surprised +as she was, there was a perfunctory aspect which had +not been present in the morning.</p> + +<p>"And I have written a little letter to the hero of Miss +Lathbun's romance, too."</p> + +<p>Lassie came close. "Alva!" she asked, "then you +really believe that there is such a man?"</p> + +<p>Alva put out her hand and pulled the girl down upon +her lap. "I do believe it," she said. "I may be deceived +in some ways, but the man is real, I know. As I +said before, one cannot invent that kind of character."</p> + +<p>"And you wrote him? What did you say?"</p> + +<p>"Only a few simple words. I felt that it was the +right thing to do; I did it for the same reason that I do all +things. Out of the might of my love. If you ever come +to love as I do, you'll understand how wide and deep +one's interest in all love can become—yes, in all love +and in all things."</p> + +<p>Lassie leaned her cheek upon her friend's hair for a +moment and did not speak.</p> + +<p>"I know what you're thinking," Alva went on then +(but she did not know, really). "But do you know +what I have been thinking? I have been wondering. +Surely no two people could seem further out of my +realm than these two forlorn women, but I always said +there must be a reason and a strong one, or else they +would not interest me so, and now you see what it was. +They were brought to me to succor, and that is almost +the greatest joy that I know now."</p> + +<p>Lassie felt real life slipping from her, just as it always +did when Alva talked. She was silent and thoughtful, +even her new sensation in abeyance for the minute.<span class="pagenum">[227]</span> +Love was drawing back a step and letting Mercy have +its hour.</p> + +<p>"But if they deserved punishment?" she asked +finally, in a timid voice.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps they do deserve it, but not at my hands. +If I, feeling as I do, suffered them to go down yet deeper +into the pit, I should do a cruel wrong. I can't do such +a wrong, I must do right in so far as I know how,—and +it's their good luck to have met me just now." She +smiled.</p> + +<p>"Alva," said Lassie, kissing her, "that's a very new +view to me. The evil-doers deserve to be punished, +but others ought to be doing good; so on account of +those others and on their account mainly we are taught +forgiveness of sins;" she laughed softly.</p> + +<p>Alva opened her eyes. "What a forward leap your +intellect has taken this afternoon," she commented. +"I never dreamed that Ronald was such a Jesuit. Come +now, jump up, we must go down to supper."</p> + +<p>"But you'll just tell me what Mrs. Ray said when +she saw the paper."</p> + +<p>"My dear, I really haven't asked."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear; then perhaps she took it calmly! Have +you seen her since?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, she took this afternoon to clean ants out of +the government precincts. She seemed calm to me."</p> + +<p>"Goodness! Then I'm glad that I went."</p> + +<p>Alva laughed a little. For some odd reason the +laugh caused Lassie to blush deeply, although the +laugh was absolutely innocent of innuendo.</p> + +<p>Down-stairs, Ingram awaited them. At the other +small table Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter sat as +placidly as ever. The long table was full as usual, but<span class="pagenum">[228]</span> +there was a keen subtlety of interest abroad which +rendered the conversation there fitful and jerky in the +extreme. The mother and daughter began to feel +uneasy, and before Mary Cody had placed the soup for +the later comers, they rose and went quietly up-stairs.</p> + +<p>"Do you know what they said when Mr. O'Neil +gave them warning?" Lassie asked, when the others +had also left the room.</p> + +<p>"They said they'd pay the money just as soon as a +letter could get to Cromwell and back," Alva replied. +"They had been waiting for their own lawyer to return +from day to day, but if it came to the question of real +necessity they could get money from some one else."</p> + +<p>The squeak of the outside door was heard; it was +Mrs. Ray, and the next second she was in their +midst.</p> + +<p>"Good evening," she said briskly.</p> + +<p>At the sound of her voice Mrs. O'Neil hurried in +from the kitchen and Mary Cody followed her as far as +the door and stood there, spellbound with eager interest.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray was out of breath and had her shawl over +her head and her bond under her arm. "I just run +down before the mail to get Jack to sign this and find out +if anything more 's come up. Sammy Adams was in to +see me about five, and he's scared white over their being +swindlers. He says to think of them swindling around +his house all that night long! He's afraid to stay in his +house now, and he's afraid to leave it. He was running +to the window to look out that way all the time. I'm +afraid Sammy's getting mooney. There were days +when Mr. Ray used to be always looking out the window. +Those were always his mooney days."</p> + +<p>"Nothing new 's come up," said Mrs. O'Neil; "the<span class="pagenum">[229]</span> +old lady took her two cups of coffee same as usual, +didn't she, Mary?"</p> + +<p>"She took three to-night," said Mary Cody.</p> + +<p>"Loading up to skip," said Mrs. Ray, significantly; +"well, Nellie, where's your husband? He's got to sign +this before I can go back. The United States Government +won't trust me after seventeen years without my +bondsmen are still willing to support their view."</p> + +<p>"Jack's in the bar," said his wife; "I'll go and fetch +him."</p> + +<p>"Do sit down, Mrs. Ray," Alva begged. Ingram +jumped up and drew out a chair. Mrs. Ray seated +herself.</p> + +<p>"Are they up-stairs, Mary?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, went right up after supper," said Mary +Cody.</p> + +<p>"I thought they looked troubled," said Lassie.</p> + +<p>"Well, they did post a letter, after all," said Mrs. +Ray, turning to Alva. "I never malign any one, so I +wanted to tell you that. They didn't come in and lay +it on the counter, like honest people, but they put it in +that box that the United States Government requires +me to keep nailed up outside and unlock and peek into +twice every day of the year around. Theirs was the +first letter any one ever put in, I guess, because although +folks feel I'm honest enough to be postmistress, they +don't think I'm silly enough to look in that box twice +a day, just because I said I would on my oath. The +boys put June-bugs and garter-snakes in to try if I do; +but I always find 'em before they've quit being lively."</p> + +<p>"What did you do with the letter?" Mary Cody +asked.</p> + +<p>"Do with it! Don't I have to put any letter into<span class="pagenum">[230]</span> +the next mail and lock the bag, no matter what my +feelings are? Yes, indeed."</p> + +<p>"Where was it addressed?" asked Ingram, leaning +back and putting his hands in his pockets.</p> + +<p>"That I can't tell you," said Mrs. Ray; "my oath +keeps my mouth closed on all business connected with +the United States Mail, but I'll tell you what I did do. +I copied the address off, and then I looked through the +little book of post-office regulations and I couldn't +find one word to prevent my bringing you a copy, so +here it is."</p> + +<p>She opened her hand as she spoke and showed a +piece of paper. Lassie, who was nearest her, took it +eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she exclaimed disappointedly, "this is the +letter that she told Mr. O'Neil she'd write. It's to +their lawyer. It isn't anything new."</p> + +<p>"Well, give it back to me so I can tear it up," said +Mrs. Ray; "I meant to tear it up, anyway. But where +is Mr. O'Neil? I want to get my bond filed. By the +way," she said, turning to Ingram, "you owe me two +cents."</p> + +<p>"Two cents!"</p> + +<p>"Yes; the stamp come off of one of your letters, and +I put on a new one. I've saved the other for you. It +was a letter addressed to New York. You'll have to +buy some glue if you're ever meaning to get your money's +worth out of that stamp. I licked it good, but it won't +stick. Too many been at it before you and me, I guess. +That's the way with most stamps that won't stick, I +always think."</p> + +<p>"Here's the two cents," said Ingram.</p> + +<p>"Thank you very much. Well, every one in town<span class="pagenum">[231]</span> +is wondering what the lawyer will answer them. He's +a real man, for Nathan says he got beat for the Legislature +once. But will he send them any money? That's +the question!"</p> + +<p>"What do you think?" asked Ingram.</p> + +<p>"I can't have any opinion. Any one who's had anything +to do with the Government closes my lips as a +servant to the United States. It was very hard for me +to give up having opinions when I first came into politics, +but I'm so used to it now that I wouldn't feel easy if I +could speak freely any more."</p> + +<p>"But if you weren't postmistress what would you +think?" Ingram queried.</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't think anything; I'd know they'd skip! +They'll skip to-night; mark my words."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but they won't," said Alva, smiling; "they'll +pay their bill—wait and see."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I will wait and see," said Mrs. Ray, darkly. +"I'll wait a long while and see very little. Yes, indeed. +What sticks in my mind is poor Sammy Adams. He +says he's afraid to sleep alone in his house, and he's too +afraid of dogs and cats to have any to watch. He's +going to put two hens in his kitchen to-night and roll +a sofa against the front door. He says he knows every +time the hens stir he'll go most out of his senses. Sammy +says he wasn't meant to live alone."</p> + +<p>"What did you say to that?"</p> + +<p>"Said it didn't look to me as if he was meant to live +with hens, neither. But where is your husband, Nellie?" +(Mrs. O'Neil had just re-entered the room). "I've got +to get hold of him. I'm in a awful hurry to get home. +There's the mail, and I've got Sally Catt's dress to +finish, too."<span class="pagenum">[232]</span></p> + +<p>"He'll be in in just a minute," said Mrs. O'Neil; +"did Sally decide to line it, after all?"</p> + +<p>"No, she didn't decide to line it; but she decided to +have me line it, which is more to my point. I'm sure +I'm glad not to be Joey Beall and have to adapt myself +to Sally; but then, if folks are still calling a fellow Joey +after he's forty, I don't know that it matters much who +marries him, and Sally hasn't changed her mind as to +liking the house on the hill since he moved it up on the +hill to please her."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry for Joey," said Mrs. O'Neil, warmly.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm not," said Mrs. Ray. "I'm not sorry +for any one who's a fool. Speaking of fools, if +they don't pay to-morrow, how much longer are you +intending to keep them for nothing? I'd just like to +know that."</p> + +<p>"They can't get an answer to the letter before to-morrow +night."</p> + +<p>"Huh! So you're going to feed them all day to-morrow, +too! Well, I don't know how you and Jack +keep clothes on your backs the way you go on. I never +saw people like you two. If I ever want to live free, I +know where to come."</p> + +<p>"Indeed you do, Mrs. Ray," said Mrs. O'Neil, her +bright eyes filling suddenly; "indeed you do. You +come right down here any day you want to, and you can +stay here till you die. You know I've told you that a +thousand times."</p> + +<p>"You're easy," said Mrs. Ray, drawing herself up +with great dignity. "I just believe you mean it, too, +Nellie, and I just suppose if I was to come and borrow a +hundred dollars without witnesses, Jack would be +plenty idiot enough to give it to me, too."<span class="pagenum">[233]</span></p> + +<p>"Well, I should hope so," said his wife; "who'd +he trust sooner?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray looked around the table. "And it's this +sort of people that those two up-stairs are cheating," +she said; "well, it's a queer world. But if I ain't +signed and witnessed and back up at my house before +long, the United States Government will likely go swearing +out something against me; where <i>is</i> your husband, +Nellie?"</p> + +<p>"He said he'd be right in. Mary Cody, you go and +tell him to hurry."</p> + +<p>Mary Cody disappeared obediently.</p> + +<p>"Joey Beall says you won't have her, long," said +Mrs. Ray, significantly; "he saw her and Edward +Griggs climbing down the bank Sunday. He saw you +two walking to the Lower Falls, too," she added, turning +suddenly on Ingram and Lassie.</p> + +<p>The inference fell like a sledge-hammer. Alva +started violently, and looked from one confused face +to the other.</p> + +<p>But before any one could say anything Mr. O'Neil +walked into the room.</p> + +<p>"Well, there you are at last," said Mrs. Ray. "I +am glad to see you! Here I sit, filing away at my bond +and can't make any headway because you're the first +to sign."</p> + +<p>"It's hard to get away from the bar to-night," said +Mr. O'Neil, bringing pen and ink. "They're betting +I never see my money."</p> + +<p>"We'll never see it in the world, Jack," said his wife; +"everybody says so."</p> + +<p>"Except me," interposed Alva, her eyes on Lassie.</p> + +<p>"And you haven't had any experience with swindlers,<span class="pagenum">[234]</span>" +said Mrs. Ray; "that's easy seen. You ain't +any more fit to be trusted with a pair of sharpers than +Mr. and Mrs. O'Neil, or poor Sammy Adams alone in +his house to-night, relying on hens in the hour of need."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not," Alva said sighing. She was deeply +shaken by the new conception of what was transpiring +around her, in the discovery of how much might go on +without her ever noticing. Lassie in love with Ingram! +And the girl was not even out yet! What would her +mother say!</p> + +<p>"There, there's my name for another year for you, +Mrs. Ray," said Jack O'Neil, pushing the bond towards +its owner.</p> + +<p>"And remember, Mrs. Ray," added his wife, laughing, +"remember, if you ever want a place to live or to +borrow any money, you come straight here."</p> + +<p>"I'll remember," said Mrs. Ray, rising and adjusting +her shawl. "Well, it's back to duty and the mail-bag, +now. So good night."</p> + +<p>She went out and Ingram felt an intolerable longing +to avoid Alva's eyes until she should have had a little +time to think. Lassie shared the feeling; she, too, was +greatly upset by Mrs. Ray's loquacity.</p> + +<p>"Let us go out and walk until it's time to get the +letters," the man suggested to the girl. His tone was +curiously imperative, and she welcomed its command +and jumped up quickly to fetch her wraps.</p> + +<p>"Ronald," Alva said, gently, then, "she's very +young."</p> + +<p>He met her eyes squarely. "I know," he said; +"but I'm not." She said no other word, but sat +silent until they were gone. Mr. O'Neil returned to +the bar at once, and in a minute—when Alva was<span class="pagenum">[235]</span> +alone—his wife came and sat opposite her. Alva was +supporting her chin on her hands, trying to disentangle +three urgent trains of thought.</p> + +<p>"I'll be so glad when they're gone," Mrs. O'Neil +said, with a sigh. "They've worn on me terribly, and +now that I know what they are, it's awful. There's no +possible chance of their being straight any more. They +wear their heels off on the outside, and Mary Cody says +Edward Griggs worked in a shoe store once, and knows +for a fact that that's the sign of dishonesty."</p> + +<p>"But have you ever seen their shoes?" Alva asked, +with a slight smile.</p> + +<p>"Why, I haven't put anything into the oven without +having to take their heels out first, since they came."</p> + +<p>"I'd forgotten." Alva sighed.</p> + +<p>Mrs. O'Neil glanced at her quickly.</p> + +<p>"You musn't take them so much to heart," she said, +gently. "They could be good if they wanted to."</p> + +<p>"It isn't them, altogether," the other replied. Mrs. +O'Neil looked at her in a sort of blind sympathy. She +thought that the youth and sweetness of the young girl +was what weighed so heavily on the young woman +opposite. "But men will be men," she reflected, and +tried to think of something to say, and couldn't.</p> + +<p>The evening freight went roaring by.</p> + +<p>"Why, I thought it went up before," Alva said.</p> + +<p>"I did, too, but that must have been the wrecking-train; +there must be a wreck on the road."</p> + +<p>"Let's go out on the bridge!" Alva suggested. +"I feel choked; I want fresh air, and there is a moon."</p> + +<p>"Shall I go with you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, do."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell Mary Cody."<span class="pagenum">[236]</span></p> + +<p>While Mrs. O'Neil went for a shawl and to tell Mary +Cody, Alva sought her big cape. Then they went out +together into the frost, for the frost was sharp in the air.</p> + +<p>"The woods will soon end being beautiful," the +little woman said.</p> + +<p>Alva walked swiftly on and made no reply. In less +than five minutes they stood out over the gorge and +looked down on its matchless glory of silver illuminating +blackest shadow.</p> + +<p>"I hope that the dam won't spoil all this," the girl +said suddenly.</p> + +<p>"You like to look at it, don't you?" Mrs. O'Neil +said softly.</p> + +<p>"Living here on its banks, as you do, I don't believe +you can appreciate it!" Alva exclaimed. "Can it +possibly mean to any one what it does to me, I wonder."</p> + +<p>"I think it's pretty and I love so to look at it," said +Mrs. O'Neil in gentlest sympathy.</p> + +<p>Alva caught her hand and pressed it hard in both her +own. "Do you know, Mrs. O'Neil, if I were very +happy I should love best to be happy here, and if more +sorrow were to be, I would choose to have that here, too. +I am so close to God when I live in His country."</p> + +<p>She took the warm hand that she held and pressed +it close against her heart.</p> + +<p>"I wish that every one was so good as you are," Mrs. +O'Neil said, impulsively.</p> + +<p>"Every one is better than we give them credit for +being."</p> + +<p>"Even those two?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, even those two."</p> + +<p>"I can't quite believe that," said the little woman.</p> + +<p>"Wait and you'll see."<span class="pagenum">[237]</span></p> + +<p>Then they stood quiet, until a cold wind, coming +down the gorge, smote them bitterly.</p> + +<p>"We must go in," Alva said, regretfully; "the wind +comes so strongly here."</p> + +<p>They turned and were only a few steps on their way +when Alva stopped suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Do you believe in signs?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Why—I don't know."</p> + +<p>Alva put both hands up to her head. "That cold +wind was a sign," she said, her voice trembling. "Oh, +I feel so strangely. Something strong and fearful is +sweeping into my life to-night."</p> + +<p>In her heart she hoped that it was only the shock of +learning that Lassie loved.</p> + +<p>But in her soul she knew that it must be something +else. The long strain of the waiting days had worn +anxiety to its sharpest edge. When Truth mercifully +veils itself, Time—the softener—wears the veil thin +until at last, when we have gained strength enough to +bear, we have learned to know.<span class="pagenum">[238]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<p class="h3">SHIFTING SUNSHINE AND CLOUDS</p> + +<p>Ingram and Lassie went out but not on the bridge; +they did not even turn their heads that way.</p> + +<p>"Alva says that she can see the gorge even when +it's pitch-dark," Lassie said. "She says she shall see +it plainly to the end of her life, wherever she may be in +the world." She felt quite safe now that they were +alone; she didn't even mind that embarrassing speech +of Mrs. Ray's.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Ingram; they went calmly and happily +up the road. He didn't mind the speech either, now.</p> + +<p>"Alva and I never walk this way," Lassie said +after a minute. "We always walk the other, except +just a little bit to the post-office, of course."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the man again, and they went on, up the +hill.</p> + +<p>The peculiar charm of the ordinary mode of +falling in love is that it is so simple; it requires so +little effort, so to speak. If it was harder work, it +might produce bigger results—results nearer the +millennium than those we are now getting. Perhaps, +however, the results are a lesson to be learned, and we +are still so deep in the primer of that learning, that +love remains the cheapest, easiest, and most common +of all its tasks.<span class="pagenum">[239]</span></p> + +<p>Ingram thought Lassie's remarks fascinating, and +she thought his two "Yes's" both clever and original. +They were each thoroughly satisfied with one another, +and were deeply interested each minute. Ingram had +never tramped along a country road in starlight with +this pretty young girl before, and Lassie had never +walked anywhere, with any man, in all her life. It was +not perhaps remarkable that what had happened was +happening. Not at all.</p> + +<p>"How fast the time has gone," Lassie said, as they +mounted the Wiley hill; "to think that I have been +here over a week!"</p> + +<p>"And to think of all that has happened," said +Ingram.</p> + +<p>"I know; isn't it strange?"</p> + +<p>"I shall be awfully lonesome after you go."</p> + +<p>This sounded so mournful and pathetic that it +brought a lump into her throat and she could not speak +for a minute.</p> + +<p>"Alva will go, too," Ingram went on, presently.</p> + +<p>"But she'll come back."</p> + +<p>"Let us hope so."</p> + +<p>They walked over the Wiley hill.</p> + +<p>"Poor Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter won't go +chestnutting any more after to-morrow," Lassie said, +after they passed under the heavy shadows cast by Mrs. +Wiley's huge trees. "I think that we ought to go back +now, the mail will be in."</p> + +<p>They turned around to walk back and enjoyed every +step of the way. There is really nothing that lights up +a lack of conversation like being in love.</p> + +<p>As they passed the post-office they saw Mrs. Ray +standing on the porch, tucked up in her shawl.<span class="pagenum">[240]</span></p> + +<p>"There was a wreck," she called; "the mail's +late."</p> + +<p>"All right!" Ingram called in response.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray watched them vanish out of the light cast +by her open door, and then turned, went inside, and +shut it. "I like that young man," she said to herself; +"he's got a good face. I wish we were as sure of getting +the dam as he is of getting that girl. We need the dam +full as much as he thinks he needs her. It'll bring men +and lots of money to this section, and this section needs +men and money. All we've got around here is women +and land, and women and land can't get very far without +men and money. It's about time we was getting +some show at prosperity. I do wonder how Sammy's +getting along with his hens!"</p> + +<p>Arrived at the hotel, Ingram bade Lassie good night +and she went up-stairs, one trembling tumult of tangling +sentiments as to the conversation now to ensue.</p> + +<p>Alva's room was dark, but when Lassie whispered +her name at the door, the answer came quickly.</p> + +<p>"Is that you, dear? come to me. Lassie, how I +have wanted you!"</p> + +<p>Lassie crossed to the bed, from whence the voice +came. She thought she knew why she was wanted, +but she only said: "What is it, dear?"</p> + +<p>"I am in the grip of an awful fear."</p> + +<p>The girl stood still, much startled.</p> + +<p>"Alva! What do you mean? What has happened?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I went out on the bridge for a +minute after you left, and it came blowing down the +gorge—a wind of horrid presentiment; oh, I am +beside myself, I don't know what to do. There is no +mail to-night—" she stopped, and Lassie felt that she<span class="pagenum">[241]</span> +was weeping. Finally she added: "I ought to have +stayed there at the hospital. I should not have obeyed +his wishes or what the surgeon said. I ought to have +obeyed my own heart. I ought to have stayed with +him!"</p> + +<p>The young girl was frightened, silent.</p> + +<p>Finally she managed to stammer:</p> + +<p>"But you said that he was not conscious—that it +was not possible for you to stay there—that no purpose +could be served. Oh, what do you fear? What do you +think may have happened?"</p> + +<p>Alva controlled herself and drew Lassie down beside +her upon the bed. "Dear, I don't know; but I do +know that I shall go away to-morrow!"</p> + +<p>"To-morrow!"</p> + +<p>"I shall, dear. I must see him; I have telegraphed—" +Again tears choked her.</p> + +<p>"You think something has happened?" Lassie +faltered.</p> + +<p>"Yes, something warns me. It has come over me +heavily to-night. I must go and face it. What is the +reason of my love, if it seems to fail him when the +strain comes. It shall not fail. They shall not trick +me into failing. Perhaps they are trying to spare me or +shield me, but I'll go to receive the blow. An instant +swept him out of his life-work—I saw his spirit of +resignation—I will be resigned, too—"</p> + +<p>Lassie felt the bed shaken by the fierceness of sobs. +She was dumb, not knowing what to say. The orbit of +Alva's love was so infinitely greater than that of her +own, that the feebler suffered eclipse in that hour. She +saw herself and Ingram completely swept aside, and +was not even conscious of the fact.<span class="pagenum">[242]</span></p> + +<p>"It is my heart that suffers," Alva pressed on after a +minute, "only my heart, Lassie; my soul is strong, +very strong. There is nothing else for my spirit to +learn, but half of my being still suffers; it cannot +remember every second how it was when I knelt beside +him and he told me in whispers that he was content +and that if I loved him I also would be content. I have +tried to be content, I have been content until to-day—until +to-night. But now, as I lay here in the dark, it +seemed as if content had fled not only me but the whole +universe. I feel as if content had ceased to exist. +Rebellion is in the air. In some strange way I'm sure +that he has abjured resignation and renunciation; I +feel that he is in the throes of something—he is suffering, +suffering agony; and I want to be with him. I +<i>must</i> be with him! I shall leave to-morrow!"</p> + +<p>Lassie trembled; she had never seen any one like +this before.</p> + +<p>"When do you want me to go, Alva," she whispered, +presently.</p> + +<p>"Could you go to-morrow at four, and I will take the +train the opposite way at eight?"</p> + +<p>"I'll be ready; don't mind about me a bit, +dear."</p> + +<p>"We must go. Oh, listen to that wind coming down +the gorge; doesn't it sound as if some spirit were in +travail? So sad, so melancholy! Something tremendous +is taking place, and I am far from him while he +endures."</p> + +<p>The wind was surely rising, and its moan shook the +window sash.</p> + +<p>"I'm going mad," Alva exclaimed, springing from +the bed; "why did I leave him? No matter what they<span class="pagenum">[243]</span> +said, I should have stayed there. My place was there. +Oh, I have been cast in so many moulds these last +years; I have taken so many prizes, only to find them +dust in my hands; and now God will not—must not +take this one from me! I have learned the folly of the +material, I have bent my head beneath the yoke enough +to be spared another lash of the goad. I pray—oh, +I pray—that this cup may pass me by."</p> + +<p>Lassie sat still, now quite terrified.</p> + +<p>Alva paced up and down the little room. "I have +been dragged—or I have managed to drag myself—up +one step above the ordinary. I had accepted the +loneliness that comes when one gets where no one else +stands. I learned not to expect companionship. But +we are not the less lonely because we go our way +alone,—we are not the less lonely. And that same rule +holds all through. Lassie, I tell you, that one does not +crave companionship the less because one chooses to +marry a dying man; one does not crave caresses the +less when one loves as I do." She wrung her hands +miserably. "I'm weak—weak—weak! This is the +test and I am failing. I, who have worked so far, am +being carried down—down—down—now—to-night. +Oh, the struggle, the tragedy, the lesson! +Life's lessons are always so terrible." Then, her +emotions seeming for the moment to exhaust all her +strength, she came back to the bed, and said, with some +approach to calmness:</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it is that I preached too much to you, dear, +or was too sure of myself. Perhaps my joy was a selfish +joy, or perhaps I did wrong in planning to leave my +parents, even for a little while. Just in proportion as +one rises, so do the subtlety of their problems increase.<span class="pagenum">[244]</span> +To love a man whose life was too big for any one to +share unless she could give herself wholly—that was +hard but I learned that lesson; I would have given my +life wholly. Then to have my duty chain me away from +him—that was terrible but I accepted that, too. Then +to have him struck down—I thought that that was the +worst of all, but something held me up through that. +But—but," she broke out in a wail of absolute, heartbroken +desolation, "but if he is going to leave me +before we—" and there she stopped short, shivered +violently, and became stilly rigid.</p> + +<p>Lassie dared to put her arms about her.</p> + +<p>"Why do you think such dreadful things? You +don't know that anything has happened."</p> + +<p>Alva drew a long, sharp breath. "But I do know +it," she said; "something has happened. You will +see in the morning. Oh, I would have given up my +life while he was giving up his, and minded it so little; +but to have to give him up! What shall I do? +I wanted those weeks, even if they shrank to days—to +hours. It seemed to me that we had earned the right +to a little, so little, happiness. The memories would +have given me strength to bear the hereafter. If I +could only be a soul, and a brave one, like him,—but +to-night I am all heart, all quivering fear." She paused +to control her voice again.</p> + +<p>"But, Alva, let me give you back your own speeches +in comfort. How often you've told me how only his +soul counted, and how that was yours for eternity, and +how, because of that, you found yourself equal to all +things. And you've told me, too, dear, how his renunciation, +how his exchange of power, strength and life +<span class="pagenum">[245]</span>for weakness and death—and all without a murmur—made +you quite confident that you would never fail, +either."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Alva murmured, "yes, I remember, but—"</p> + +<p>"And you said that the way that he ignored his poor, +crushed body and looked straight towards another +future life of fresh labor made you full of courage, too. +You remember."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, I remember." Then she tried to dry her +eyes. "I won't admit that the world has a right to +shudder, and yet I am shuddering myself," she said, +sadly. "I must learn to be braver. I can't fight down +foreboding, but I must be braver. But, dear, I do so +love him—I have so wanted him—he is so dear to +me. I have so lived upon the picture of our hours +together. That little house across the river is full of +him for me. I saw him in it well and strong of spirit, +fighting against the desecration of the gorge, and showing +me how I might help on the work when he was gone. +I meant to give him the joy of one more crusade, and one +more victory to his credit. He would have known how to +act, even if his only sympathizers were the poor and +those yet to be born. He understood the claims of the +poor and the unborn; he gave his life for them."</p> + +<p>Lassie enfolded her in her tender arms; the little star +was in eclipse, yet even in eclipse it was gathering power +on high. Alva leaned her cheek against the head on her +shoulder.</p> + +<p>"How I suffer," she murmured. "Lassie, I feel +that I have entered into a maelstrom—a whirlwind. +I seem to hear a dirge in that wind outside. I must go +to-morrow—we must go to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Yes, we'll go," said Lassie, soothingly.</p> + +<p>"It is my heart, just my heart. It is so hard to strike<span class="pagenum">[246]</span> +an even balance between the heart and the soul. My +poor, thin, trembling flesh has ruled to-night, truly."</p> + +<p>"Let me sleep with you," Lassie pleaded; "let me +hold you fast and love you dearly."</p> + +<p>Alva smiled in the dark. "Come, then," she said; +"I fancy that I shall sleep if my hand clasps yours—and +if I know that we leave to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Later, after Lassie had slept thus for some hours, she +was awakened by Alva's rising and going to the window.</p> + +<p>"What is it, dear, you are not faint?"</p> + +<p>Alva turned, the pale, early sunrise illuminated her +face.</p> + +<p>"Some riddle has been solved somewhere, dear," +she said; "I'm quite calm now. The struggle for him +as well as for me is over."</p> + +<p>"Then come back and sleep with my arms tight +round your neck," said the friend, stretching forth +her arms.</p> + +<p>Alva came back like an obedient child, crept in close +beside her, and in a few minutes was sleeping as a +child sleeps.</p> + +<p>Later, when the real morning came and the real, +enduring wakefulness with it, it was Alva who roused +first again, and, sitting up in bed, put back her hair with +both hands and smiled into her friend's eyes.</p> + +<p>"You're all right, now?" Lassie said, joyfully.</p> + +<p>"Very right, dear; the crisis is over. Forget last +night. I shall never be like that again."</p> + +<p>Lassie turned her face towards the window; looking +out from where she lay she could see the valley one burst +of flame, its wave of color sweeping off afar and the +hoar frost sparkling over all the glory. "I feel as if I +never had seen anything so beautiful in all my life<span class="pagenum">[247]</span> +before," the girl exclaimed; "I don't know what it +makes me think of, but it is as if my soul were growing, I +am so happy to see you happy again."</p> + +<p>Alva sat there with the white coverlet heaped about +her and smiled. "Thank you, dear," she said, with +simplicity. "I am happy, and last night and this morning +have caused both our souls to grow."</p> + +<p>"It's too beautiful!" the girl said, after a long pause; +"the valley is more beautiful than I ever realized +before."</p> + +<p>Presently Alva left the bed and went to close the +window. "There's a mist lying low in the valley," +she said then; "it lies there like an emblem of peace. +Omens are curious. That cold, sad wind last night had +its message, and the morning mist has another. I know +that some change is at hand, but I know that whatever +it is its burden is good. I feel equal to anything this +morning. I feel as if God had come to me in the night +and told me that he was charging Himself with my +care."</p> + +<p>Lassie looked at her with freshly awakened +anxiety.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't look at me that way," she begged; "that +is the very hardest of all—to have those to whom you +talk regard you as if you were mad."</p> + +<p>"But you astonish me so. Last night you were so +frightened."</p> + +<p>"Last night some struggle was on, my dear; this +morning it is settled." She stopped and spoke very +slowly. "I think, perhaps, that he knows now that he +can never come to the house," she said, and although +her lips quivered slightly her voice was clear and composed.<span class="pagenum">[248]</span></p> + +<p>"Alva," Lassie cried, in sudden horror, "you think +that he is dead—that is what you think."</p> + +<p>As soon as the words had passed her lips, she was +frightened at her own temerity; but Alva, whose back +was towards her, now turned towards her smiling.</p> + +<p>"He is not dead," she said; "he was thinking of me +all last night and this morning. He is not dead. That +I know."</p> + +<p>"How can you be sure?"</p> + +<p>"When people love as we do, they can be very sure. +I was awfully shaken last night, Lassie; I confess it. +Something big, that we shall know all about later, hung +in the balance and I trembled. But it's settled now."</p> + +<p>There came a tap at the door just then, announcing +Mary Cody with their hot water.</p> + +<p>"They're still asleep," she said in a whisper; "if the +letter from the lawyer don't come in this morning's +mail, Mr. O'Neil is going to eject them. Only think!"</p> + +<p>Naturally this remark gave quite a new turn to the +conversation.</p> + +<p>"Unless they pay, you know," Alva reminded Mary +Cody.</p> + +<p>"How do you eject people?" Lassie asked, rejoicing +in the cheerfulness of the commonplace. "If +he puts them out the front door and they just walk +around and come into the kitchen, what can any +one do?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said Mary Cody, apparently +thunderstruck at the mental vision of the O'Neil House +besieged by Mrs. and Miss Lathbun, trying to get in +again. "I don't know what we could do. There's +seven doors to this house."</p> + +<p>"Will Mr. O'Neil pull them out, or push them out?"<span class="pagenum">[249]</span> +Lassie asked further; "or will he just drive them +out?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said Mary Cody; "everybody in +town'll be up at the post-office waiting to see if the letter +from the lawyer comes, I expect. If it doesn't come, +Mr. O'Neil is going to Ledge Centre and get a warrant."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear," said Lassie.</p> + +<p>"You won't get any mail this morning," said Mary +Cody; "there's a wreck on the road. Two coal trucks +and a car of cabbages. There'll be no eastern mail +till noon."</p> + +<p>Then Mary Cody went away again.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it strange that all this should happen just +during the little time that we're here?" Lassie said; +"it's made it very exciting."</p> + +<p>Alva went on brushing her hair.</p> + +<p>Lassie looked at her then, and saw that she bore +many traces of her violent emotion of the night before.</p> + +<p>"You won't try to go to-day, will you?" she said, +suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I shall go." Then she turned and looked +straight into the girl's eyes. "I <i>must</i> go," she said; +"something has happened."<span class="pagenum">[250]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<p class="h3">THE POST-OFFICE</p> + +<p>From 8.30 <span class="smcap">A.M.</span> on, the tide of travel in Ledge +always tended towards the post-office, but on the +famous morning when Mrs. Lathbun expected to hear +from her lawyer, the post-office's vicinity resembled +nothing so much as its own appearance upon Election +Day. Every one that ever had received a letter intended +to be there to see if Mrs. Lathbun would get hers. +Long before train time not only the office itself, but +the adjoining rooms and the porch outside, were comfortably +crowded with a pleasantly anticipative collection +of interested observers.</p> + +<p>"The United States Government doesn't allow me +to interfere in politics, or I'd come right square out with +my views," said Mrs. Ray, who held public interest +with a tight rein, while awaiting the mail. "My views +may be uninteresting, but I hit enough nails on the head +to box up a good many people a year."</p> + +<p>"What <i>do</i> you think?" some one asked.</p> + +<p>"I don't think anything," said Mrs. Ray; "I know!"</p> + +<p>"Well, what do you know, then?"</p> + +<p>"I know that a letter-getter stays a letter-getter, and +the reverse the reverse. Just as I know that case-knives +are suspicious and that picking chestnuts may be a +bunco game as easy as anything else. I've found it +nothing but a bunco game, myself. I've never made<span class="pagenum">[251]</span> +my chestnuts pay, just because they were so easy picked +up by other people; and you can't hire boys to do your +nutting for you,—boys eat up all the profits and most +of the chestnuts into the bargain. Yes, indeed. And +as for those two up at Nellie's—they'll get no letter. +Wait and see."</p> + +<p>"But what will happen to them then?" asked Joey +Beall, aching to discuss the details of the arrest and the +journey to Geneseo.</p> + +<p>"I don't know, but I can tell you one piece of news, +and it isn't gossip either; it come straight from Nellie +O'Neil herself; she's been here this morning."</p> + +<p>"Have they found out anything new?"</p> + +<p>"Not about them; but her other two is leaving."</p> + +<p>"What!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, going this afternoon." Mrs. Ray folded her +arms and leaned back against the shelves containing +her grocery business.</p> + +<p>The sensation caused by this extra and wholly unexpected +bit of news was thorough and sincere. Everybody +looked at everybody else.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dunstall pressed forward. "Haven't they +paid, either?" she asked, with horror in her voice.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, they've paid." Mrs. Ray was quickly +reassuring on this point. "But with them, it's something +else. I don't know for sure just what, but I +guess that eldest one's beginning to see that it's no use +as far as she's concerned; but she'll have to do something +with that house she was fixing up to live in. Sarah +Catt told me she never heard anything so crazy as +building a house to live in while a dam that Mr. Ledge +don't want built is being built. She says her husband +says that dam never will be built. She says Mr. Ledge<span class="pagenum">[252]</span> +is very quiet, but he's very sensible and he says there's +quicksands all under us."</p> + +<p>This statement caused another flutter of sensation.</p> + +<p>"Can't you dam a quicksand? I thought it run just +like water." Thus Joey Beall's fiancée from the +back.</p> + +<p>"No, you can't," said Pinkie. "I know."</p> + +<p>"I'd be sorry to see the dam go," said Mrs. Wiley. +"Cousin Catterwallis Granger looked to see it raise all +the property around here."</p> + +<p>"Drown all the property around here, you mean," +said Mrs. Ray. "I thank heaven it's the Dam Commission +and not me who'll have to adjust all that dam's +going to drown before it gets done. Josiah Bates says +he heard that they'll have to take up all the cemeteries +from here to Cromwell."</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked Pinkie.</p> + +<p>"Why? Why, because no matter what powers a +commission can hold over the living, no legislature can +find a law for drowning the dead, I guess. They've all +got to be moved and set out in rows again in a new +place. Seems like I never will see the last of Mr. Ray's +two wives! But I shan't have to pay for their new +start in life this time, anyway."</p> + +<p>"Where will they put them next, do you suppose?" +said Mrs. Dunstall, referring to the cemeteries—not +to Mr. Ray's former wives.</p> + +<p>"I guess we'll all want to know that," said Mrs. Ray, +turning her head as if she heard the train (the tension +in the room was increasing momentarily,—so was the +crowd). "I'm sure I wonder what will become of Mr. +Ray. I never could feel that I really was done with him, +and now it seems maybe I ain't. I wish they'd buy my<span class="pagenum">[253]</span> +three-cornered cow pasture for a new cemetery. Then +I could cut his grass when I went to milk my cow."</p> + +<p>"The dam'll have to pay for the new cemeteries, +won't it?" asked Lucia Cosby in some trepidation.</p> + +<p>"The dam'll pay for everything. That's why every +one wants it so bad," said Mrs. Ray.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is," said Pinkie.</p> + +<p>"Which room have the Lathbuns got?" some one +asked, looking down towards the O'Neil House.</p> + +<p>"The end one," said Mrs. Dunstall.</p> + +<p>"The curtains are down," said Nathan, elbowing +his way to the window.</p> + +<p>"They never get up till noon."</p> + +<p>There was a hush,—sudden but intense. The train +was approaching.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's the train," said Mrs. Ray; "well, we'll +soon know now." She tucked her shawl tighter than +ever, and got the key ready.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. O'Neil'll be pretty lonesome to-night with +them all gone at once," hazarded a bystander.</p> + +<p>"She'll miss those girls," said Mrs. Dunstall; "they're +real nice young ladies, she says. But she won't miss the +Lathbuns."</p> + +<p>"We'll miss the Lathbuns," said Mrs. Wiley; +"they've been so interesting to talk about. We've even +got Uncle Purchase to where he knows they live at +Nellie's. I tell you that was work. He's so deaf +now." She sighed.</p> + +<p>"I guess it wasn't any worse than what the Bentons +went through with Gran'ma Benton teaching the parrot +when they lived at Nellie's," said Mrs. Ray. "Poor +Clay Wright Benton was in here yesterday to see if I'd +board Gran'ma Benton and the parrot again. He says<span class="pagenum">[254]</span> +Sarah says she won't come home till the parrot leaves, +and he's most wild. Gran'ma Benton's been teaching +the parrot to say something new. She says 'Where's +the Lathbuns, Polly?' and the parrot says 'Out chestnutting,' +only it won't say it days. It just says it nights. +And nights it's wild over saying it. Last night no one +in the house got one wink of sleep. Clay sit up till midnight +to ask it where the Lathbuns was, and then +Gran'ma Benton sit up and asked it where they was till +morning. Poor Clay! He says it's too awful how she's +spoiled that parrot. It's afraid of spiders, and it's so +afraid of them at night that they have to keep a night-light +burning so it can see all over whenever it wakes."</p> + +<p>"Such doings!" said Mrs. Wiley, in disgust.</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed," said Mrs. Ray. "I'd like to see myself +burning a night-light for a parrot. If it boards with +me, it'll take its spiders just as they come."</p> + +<p>"That's right," said Pinkie, with decision.</p> + +<p>"Well, we don't need any parrot," said Mrs. Wiley. +"We've got Uncle Purchase. Not but what I'm amused +hearing about the parrot. But then, I've been amused +hearing about the Lathbuns, too," she sighed heavily.</p> + +<p>"Something else'll come up," said Mrs. Dunstall, +cheerfully, "and you don't really need anything to talk +about while you've got your Uncle Purchase, you +know."</p> + +<p>"Well, I suppose maybe not," said Mrs. Wiley, and +sighed again.</p> + +<p>"Well, thank Heaven," said Mrs. Ray, "I'm never +short of two things,—work and talk." She began to +finger the key as she spoke, and all ears were at once +strained to listen for the sound of the feet of the bearer +of the mail-bag.<span class="pagenum">[255]</span></p> + +<p>Deathly silence reigned. In a few seconds the footsteps +did approach, the gate creaked and then banged. +Mrs. Ray stepped with majestic haste to the window and +called out:</p> + +<p>"Wipe your feet!"</p> + +<p>The obedience that ensued whetted curiosity to more +ravenous desire than ever. People had lost sight of the +main issue and were all riveted to the single question—would +Mrs. Lathbun get her letter?</p> + +<p>The door opened and Clay Wright Benton came in +with the bag.</p> + +<p>"Lay it here," commanded Mrs. Ray, and Clay +Wright Benton laid it there and fell back into the crowd +behind. Mrs. Ray put on her spectacles and adjusted +her shawl. In the intense excitement of the moment, +nobody said a word. The room was as full as it would +hold, and people who had apparently been secreted in +other portions of the house now came pouring in +through the doors connecting therewith. The one window +facing the porch had turned into a mere honey-comb +of faces.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray took up the key. A thrill went around as +she inserted it in the padlock and slowly turned it. +Then she took it out of the padlock and the padlock +out of the lock. She laid key and padlock carefully +aside. "Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note," +as she slowly drew the lengthwise iron from the rings +and laid that aside. A sort of fresh intenseness pervaded +the atmosphere as she opened the mouth of the +bag and inserted her arm. While her arm was in and +her hand was feeling for the mail, a boy sneezed and +every one turned and looked at him witheringly. This +little incident was taken in the same light as the inter-<span class="pagenum">[256]</span>mission +between two numbers of a concert, for all who +were at the doors at once took advantage of it to squeeze +inside. The small room, which had been unpleasantly +full before, was now packed to suffocation. Mrs. Ray +drew out her arm. The interest was mounting each +second. She laid two packages, tied each with United +States Government twine, upon the counter, turned the +bag upside down and shook it. If a pin had fallen out, +any one could have heard it, but nothing fell out. Mrs. +Ray folded the bag carefully and laid it on the floor +behind her. The atmosphere was breathless in every +sense of the word. Mrs. Ray untied the first package, +taking a full minute to pick out the knot. She hung up +the string. The string fell off from where she hung it, +and she picked it up and hung it up a second time, this +time more slowly and carefully. Then she took out the +postmarking machine. A sudden sigh went around; +every one had forgotten the necessity of the postmark. +Mrs. Ray turned the package face down and post-marked +every piece carefully without reading a single +address. Then she turned them over, gave her shawl a +fresh and most careful adjustment, and proceeded to +sort the mail. When it was sorted, she called the roll +of names amidst a hush that was awe-inspiring. The +few who had letters crowded to the fore, received them +and stayed there, greatly to the aggravation of those +who had none, and got shoved to the rear accordingly.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray now untied the second package, and hung +up that string. Both strings fell off together. She took +up both strings at once, smoothed them out and hung +them up again. They stayed hung this time. Then +she post-marked the second package. It was a never-to-be-forgotten +scene,—the wrought-up faces, the<span class="pagenum">[257]</span> +fixed calm of Mrs. Ray herself. Then she called the +roll for the second batch. Each time a name was read +off, a wave of psychic emotion swept the room. One +has to get into the real true life of the country to appreciate +the tremendous tumulus which gossip had erected +upon which to rear the monument of this moment. +One by one the names were all called; one by one the +pile of letters in Mrs. Ray's hand diminished. When +it came to the last one, and the last one was for Joey +Beall, Joey received it almost as if it were some species +of sacrament.</p> + +<p>"Is that all?" some one in the back asked.</p> + +<p>"That's all," said Mrs. Ray.</p> + +<p>All turned to go. The outburst of pent-up feelings +was tremendous.</p> + +<p>"I told you so," Mrs. Ray said over and over again. +"I knew they'd got no letter." The babel all of a sudden +rose into so much noise that it was evident that the +heights to which popular feeling had risen were going +a bit higher yet. The egress from the stifling room +ceased. Nobody knew just what it was, but all became +aware that something fresh had happened. +Nobody knew what had happened, and nobody seemed +able to find out. All that was known was that something +held every one spellbound and motionless in +spite of their individual desire to go on out.</p> + +<p>After what seemed a deadlock of long duration but +which was in fact a matter of but a few seconds, it developed +that the trouble arose around the door leading +on to the porch. Then it appeared that while every one +in the post-office was trying to get out by that door, Mary +Cody was trying to get in by the same way, and Mary +Cody was young, strong, and determined.<span class="pagenum">[258]</span></p> + +<p>For a few seconds the battle pressed wildly. Then +Mary Cody won out and entered. She was out of +breath and disheveled.</p> + +<p>"Why, what is the matter?" Joey Beall, who was +nearest, asked; "there's something new down your way, +I'll bet a peanut."</p> + +<p>Mary Cody gasped. "Oh, my," she said, "I run +right up to tell you. We've just found out as their +room is empty. They must of skipped in the night."</p> + +<p>"Skipped in the night!" cried Mrs. Dunstall.</p> + +<p>"Skipped!" cried Pinkie.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mrs. Ray," wailed Mrs. Wiley, "how'll we +ever be able to tell Uncle Purchase!"</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Ray stood forth like a modern Medusa in +her rage.</p> + +<p>"I've been expecting it all along," she exclaimed +wrathfully. "I'm a great judge of character, and I +never looked for nothing else. Now, how can they be +arrested? We must catch 'em!"</p> + +<p>"If we can catch 'em!" said Josiah Bates.</p> + +<p>"<i>If</i> we can catch them!" said Mrs. Ray,—"if! +Young man, they'll be caught. You wait and see!" She +hastily threw her shawl over her head, and rushed wildly +out with the excited crowd. It is proverbial that there +are times when a common sentiment merges all classes +into one.<span class="pagenum">[259]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<p class="h3">AFTERMATH</p> + +<p>The excitement broke up into wide-spreading waves. +All divided at once into two distinct parties,—those +who wanted to discuss the matter further, +and those who were filled with the hunter instinct and +so craved to set off at once in pursuit of "the foxy +pair." Mrs. Ray justly remarked that "they couldn't +possibly get more than twelve hours' start, in just one +night," and as it was incredible to suppose that they +would return in the direction from which they had +originally come, it followed that there was only two-thirds +of the horizon to scour in any case. Elmer Hoskins +and his dog lost no time, but set forth at once.</p> + +<p>Mary Cody walked back down the hill telling a +deeply interested circle the story of how, etc. (and that +for the fifth time in ten minutes); another group stood +excitedly on Mrs. Ray's porch; another set off to break +the news to Ledgeville, and still others spread here and +there, after the manner of distracted bees into whose +hive some great and disturbing force has suddenly +penetrated.</p> + +<p>"We won't be able to begin to get this in Uncle Purchase's +head for two days, at least," mourned Mrs. +Wiley; "and Uncle Purchase is so awful fond of +knowing things, too."</p> + +<p>"They'll never catch them," said Lucia Cosby;<span class="pagenum">[260]</span> +"they know all the roads too well. They know every +road there is to know."</p> + +<p>"I should think they did!" said Mrs. Dunstall. +"They've not got out of practice walking in this +locality, I can tell you. Josiah Bates was down at the +bottom of the St. Helena hill the other day, and if he +didn't see them there. Oh, they know the roads."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry for the girl," said Clay Wright Benton.</p> + +<p>"I ain't a bit sorry for her," said Mrs. Ray; "as a +woman who works from before dawn to far on into the +night to make a honest living by eleven different kinds +of sweat on her brow, I ain't a bit sorry for either of +them. And Jack O'Neil ain't going to be sorry for them, +either; he told me last night if they was men, he'd get +hold of 'em and take 'em out behind the wood-pile and +he knew what they'd get. To-day isn't going to alter +<i>his</i> views."</p> + +<p>"If I was Mrs. O'Neil, I'd wash that shawl Mrs. +Lathbun wore all the time," said Sarah Catt, one of the +party escorting Mary Cody back to the hotel.</p> + +<p>"It's in the tub already," said Mary Cody.</p> + +<p>Mrs. O'Neil came running forth to meet them, her +brown eyes shining more than ever.</p> + +<p>"Oh, but they were a 'foxy pair,'" she exclaimed; +"haven't they gone and left that hair-brush done up +in a paper so that it's 'baggage,' and shows they want +the room held for them till they come back. Oh, they've +got the law at their finger-tips—those two."</p> + +<p>The whole crowd entered the house. Alva and +Lassie, packing in their room, had heard the news ten +minutes earlier from Mrs. O'Neil herself. Lassie had +watched her friend's face curiously, but Alva had too<span class="pagenum">[261]</span> +much else pressing upon her to be more than simply saddened.</p> + +<p>When Mrs. O'Neil had gone Lassie had said almost +hesitatingly: "They were adventuresses, weren't they, +and Miss Lathbun's romance wasn't true, was it?"</p> + +<p>"Let us not judge, even now," said Alva, quietly; +"let us try to hope in some way. After all, what little +things they were in life—so little, and probably beset +beyond their strength. And such great things are +pressing on me to-day. What do they matter? God +forgive me for saying it."</p> + +<p>Lassie was silenced.</p> + +<p>When the Eastern mail train arrived about noon, +belated as usual, their packing was quite finished. +Mary Cody brought up the letters. Alva took hers +into her room and a minute later she came to the door.</p> + +<p>"Lassie," she said, "there is something here that I +must attend to at once. Go down and have dinner, and +I'll come a little late."</p> + +<p>So Lassie went down to dine alone, and found Ingram +waiting for her. She told him that Alva would come in +a little.</p> + +<p>"Has she had bad news?" he asked, startled by a +presentiment of immediate sorrow.</p> + +<p>"No, I think not," Lassie said; "she didn't +speak so."</p> + +<p>But Ingram stayed, distressed. "She has had bad +news," he said; "poor girl—her tragedy is closing +in fast. I can feel its end, myself."</p> + +<p>His eyes went to the window. "Couldn't you go out +with me for just an hour after dinner?" he asked wistfully. +Then he smiled a little. "We can talk about the +dam," he said—"or help hunt the Lathbuns."<span class="pagenum">[262]</span></p> + +<p>She looked at him and they both knew that she would +go. It was a very simple, almost childish, romance, +theirs—but its lack of stress made it all the more +alluring to two who were living under the wings of so +much tragedy.</p> + +<p>"I'll get my hat," Lassie said, and ran up-stairs. +Alva's door was closed. "I'm lying down, please let +me sleep. It's nothing but my head," she called from +behind it. Lassie slipped on her wraps quickly and ran +down; and they went out towards the Falls.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray saw them go from the post-office window. +The excitement having somewhat subsided, she was +now left alone with Joey Beall's fiancée, who was there +to try on her wedding dress.</p> + +<p>"Such is life," Mrs. Ray commented; "that woman's +pulled her shades down for a nice nap, and off they +skip for a good-by down by the Falls. Oh, my, but +those Falls are a blessing to the young! It's too far +between roots and rocks for children to get down there, +and as soon as anybody's married they never want to +have nothing to do with love-making any more; so +steep romantic places is just made for the only kind +of people that have any reason for wanting to get to +them."</p> + +<p>"The Falls is full of meaning for lovers," said +Joey Beall's fiancée, sentimentally. "Joey and I never +get tired of them."</p> + +<p>"You wait till you're married," said Mrs. Ray; +"you'll find no meaning in climbing up and down +those banks and having Joey jerk your arms out of the +sockets, then. Yes, indeed. They call it tempestuous +affection beforehand, but it comes to a plain jerk in the +end. Life is full of learning."<span class="pagenum">[263]</span></p> + +<p>"Gran'ma Benton's learning the parrot a great +deal," said Sarah Catt. "I come by there just now +and she's beginning already to teach it a new sentence. +She says: 'Where are the Lathbuns, now?' and the +parrot's got to learn to say 'Skipped,'—she's just set +her heart on it."</p> + +<p>"I d'n know but what I'm going to end by being +sorry for that parrot," remarked Mrs. Ray, thoughtfully. +"I think Gran'ma Benton's overdoing it a little, +if she means it to keep up with the Lathbuns. You +can force even a parrot beyond its strength. She's made +it nervous, already. She's got to hold its claw all +through every thunderstorm all summer long, and if +a fly gets in its milk, it won't touch either the fly or +the milk, which I call spoiling the parrot—not to +speak of the fly and the milk, for of course no one +else in a house is going to eat a fly or drink milk that +a parrot won't look at."</p> + +<p>"Sarah told me they had to take away all the looking-glasses +every spring, or it cried the whole time it +was moulting—over its tail feathers, you know," +said the caller, thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"Well, if they come to live here, I shan't spoil it, I +know that," said Mrs. Ray. "I shall be pleasant to it +and I shall be kind, and it can run after me all it likes +and I'll be careful never to step on it for the very simple +reason that I don't want to take the time to clean up +any sort of smashed creature, but it won't have no +night-light here, nor get its claw held when it thunders, +nor have the looking-glasses took down to spare its +feelings. No one ever took a looking-glass down to +spare my feelings, and I can't begin to take them +down to spare a parrot's. Well, Sarah, I guess you can<span class="pagenum">[264]</span> +try on now. Wait till I fill up on pins. Oh, my lands +alive, I wish I knew where those foxy Lathbuns are +this minute."</p> + +<p>"I guess Mr. Adams'll be glad to know they're +caught," said Sarah Catt; "he's so nervous for fear +they'll stop with him to-night. Joey saw him just after +dinner. He was more scared even than Gran'ma Benton's +parrot in a thunderstorm."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray was thoughtfully putting pins in her mouth. +"There's a great difference between a man's hand and +a parrot's claw," she said with some difficulty. "Yes, +indeed. Even in a thunderstorm."<span class="pagenum">[265]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<p class="h3">THE DARKNESS BEFORE</p> + +<p>When Lassie came back from that last walk to +the Falls she went straight up to Alva's room, +and found her lying on the bed, the faint light from +the shaded window throwing a deep shadow upon her +face and form. Her head and shoulders were a little +propped up against the pillows, and her hands were +clasped on her bosom instead of behind her head, +as was her favorite position.</p> + +<p>Lassie's eyes were shining and her heart was very +full and happy with the bubbling joy of that bubbling +joyous emotion which Youth in its ingenuous innocence, +ignorance, and arrogance has elected to call "love." +It had come very vividly to both herself and Ingram +during their walk, and instead of discussing Alva's +affairs, they had suddenly become more than ever +keenly alive to their own. Ingram, conscious of good +looks, good health, and a good income, had for some +time faced the position very cheerfully and gratefully; +but Lassie, conscious of no personal advantages at all +equalling those pertaining to her demigod, was, of +course, thrilled through and through. Certainly these +be topsy-turvy days for chivalric standards, but perhaps +a century later, people will quote with reverence from +the stories of grandmother's experiences before grandpapa +was finally secured.<span class="pagenum">[266]</span></p> + +<p>Lassie was very happy. She felt sure that nothing +so ideally beautiful and altogether remarkable as +Ingram's speeches during the walk had ever been +heard before. She was not engaged, but she was "as +good as engaged." And before her début, too. Fancy +the faces of the girls when she really announced it! +She would be the first one of the whole set to be married! +Life was nothing but vistas of joy. Ingram was +absolutely going to take the same train that she did at +six o'clock, and go two hours of the way with her. Oh!</p> + +<p>And now she was back in Alva's room, standing at +the bedside, looking down at her friend. Something +in the other's lax position made her look more closely +even in the semi-darkness.</p> + +<p>"Your head is worse?" she asked, startled.</p> + +<p>"No, dear," said Alva, and her voice rang strangely—like +a low toned bell, chiming afar.</p> + +<p>"Something has happened?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear."</p> + +<p>"Oh—" the young girl could not put the question.</p> + +<p>Alva did not speak. Lassie felt her heart freezing +harder every instant. It was always so, when one came +within the circle of that greater existence. Part of the +attraction of Ingram was that he was just so ordinarily +human. Alva was never ordinary, and scarcely ever +human. Oh, dear! Her lovely dream seemed suddenly +slipping out to sea before this tremendous, quiet storm +of resistless stress!</p> + +<p>"You have had a letter?" she whispered timidly, +at last.</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear, and he is dead." Alva spoke quite +steadily.</p> + +<p>"Dead!"<span class="pagenum">[267]</span></p> + +<p>"I had a letter from his friend—his doctor—the +one who wrote for him. You were right in what you +thought. He died last night, in the night, while +I slept. He was unconscious when he died. He +struggled first and suffered—while I was struggling and +suffering, you remember—and then he grew still when +I grew still, and then when I slept he slept and began to +die, and while I still slept he died—that is—his body +died."</p> + +<p>Lassie sank down upon the bed beside her, took the +clasped hands into her own, and burst into bitter tears, +hiding her face in the four hands at once.</p> + +<p>After a little Alva spoke again, still in the same low, +ringing voice.</p> + +<p>"It came so close that I did believe that it would be, +but there are some dreams that may not be realized on +earth. Mine was such a one."</p> + +<p>Lassie lifted her head to look into her face; she was +sufficiently accustomed to the dim light by this time to +be able to see distinctly the pure and noble outlines, the +large, tragic eyes. She felt herself crushed into speechlessness.</p> + +<p>"He wrote me himself," Alva continued presently; +"just the merest word. I read it. I read it twice. Then +I sat still for a long, long time. Lassie," she pressed +the girl's hands warmly, "it was good to think that I +had shown my happiness to you, for no one will ever +know that I was ever happy, now. Oh, it was so long +that I sat here, thinking. I told you once, how, in the +first day of my supreme joy, I went into the cathedral +near the hospital and thanked God on my knees for all +the past and made a vow to accept with courage all +that might come to me, in return for that joy. I<span class="pagenum">[268]</span> +thought, as I prayed, that I'd go forth and gladly +starve and freeze till I died, if it were the purchase +price of such happiness. I am remembering that hour. +I will not cry out, nor weep, nor say one word. I have +had him; we shall be one again. My desire has always +been only to be worthy him—to be worthy him—to be +worthy him! And now I have the chance to prove myself +so; and I will not fail,—though the heart in my +body burst, my spirit will not fail."</p> + +<p>Lassie was still, overawed.</p> + +<p>"I had to search to be thankful at first," Alva went +on, "but now I have found something to be very +thankful for. I am so glad that it came before I had +told my mother. She is spared. She will never know. +Every one is spared except him and me, and we are +strong—we can endure. We have endured. We can +endure again."</p> + +<p>"If you only could have gone and been with him!" +wailed the girl, softly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how I have wished that! You don't know how +I have wished that! It has been sweeping through me +and rending me cruelly, but he did not wish it, or he +would have sent for me. And I have tried never even +to wish anything unless he wished it, too. You know +how I have wished that I might have stayed there with +him. But he begged me to go. They would not let me +stay. I had to yield!"</p> + +<p>"Shall you go as you planned, to-night?"</p> + +<p>"No, dear, I want to stay here alone for three or +four days, and then go home,—back to my duty to +my parents, you know. I never meant to leave for +long. Yes," she almost whispered, "I must hurry +back home, forever."<span class="pagenum">[269]</span></p> + +<p>"Never to return here?"</p> + +<p>"I think, never. I cannot see how or why I should +return."</p> + +<p>Lassie's lips quivered. "And your house?" she +whispered.</p> + +<p>A long, sad breath passed over lips that did not +quiver. "Ah, yes, my house," she answered softly; +"I thought of going to it this afternoon, and then I +could not. Dear little home nest,—there are nothing +but happy thoughts there; all my best is there—unselfish +dreams, devoted hopes, great aims, longings +to make some one and every one glad."</p> + +<p>She paused. Lassie leaned close.</p> + +<p>"May I lie down beside you, Alva, and put my arms +around you and hold you tightly, dear? It will be +good-by, for you want me to go just the same, I know."</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear, you must go. What time is it?"</p> + +<p>"It's over an hour till the train. Let me hold you +close, dear, I—I love you."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Lassie, come; I'll be glad to have you. Your +head will lie on my arm, and I shall like to draw you +near as I might have drawn a little child, had life fallen +out differently long ago."</p> + +<p>Lassie crept up on the bed, clasped her arms about +her and tried not to weep.</p> + +<p>"You don't mind my talking of him, do you?" the +woman asked, presently. "You know after you go I +shall never have any one again;" her voice wailed +desolate with the last words so that its very sound +caused Lassie's sobs to renew their force.</p> + +<p>"I don't mind anything that you want to do, Alva."</p> + +<p>"It's storming in upon me what life was to have been. +What does the world know of love? Love is something<span class="pagenum">[270]</span> +too great to comprehend. It costs blood and years and +tears. It goes so deep that the very joy in it cuts like a +knife. I knew that I was only to have had him a few +weeks, that I should have to compress all that I felt +for him into them. But what those few weeks would +have meant! When to be quiet together was in itself +all that we asked! When we should have had a library +and a piano, and the gorge to look out over, and one +another to talk to,—to be with!" She stopped—her +breath failed her.</p> + +<p>There was a pause, as if to let the tide of grief sweep +up and out again.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Lassie, we had waited so long and hopelessly," +she went on finally, her sentences short and tense and +broken. "I tried to be so patient. I tried so hard to +do well with the bit of life dealt out to me. As much as +I could, I followed in his path in the giving of my all to +others and neither asking nor expecting for myself. I +hoped nothing for us—nothing for us! And then I +had to see him stretched out—crushed—maimed, +and I had to live still, and smile into his eyes, and tell +him that even that was more than I had deserved. +And then came our dream—our precious dream—the +promise of those few, sweet, perfect days! Oh, +but why should I repine? I have been so happy. I +have contemplated the heights, even if it was not given +me to reach them."</p> + +<p>There was another pause.</p> + +<p>"Lassie, it is not my soul that is wailing; my soul is +very strong and resolute. He left work undone and +even this afternoon it came to me that that work was +part of him and that in doing it I should do for him. +If we could suffer annihilation in a good cause, we<span class="pagenum">[271]</span> +should survive in the cause. If I carry forward all that +he held in heart, I shall continue to be one with him. +I know it. I longed unutterably to be with him, to +make his pain lighter, to share his hours at the last. +I thought a great deal of our happiness, but I thought +also of what he would teach me to do for the world. +Oh, I can believe that he suffered last night. It was +only the edge of the storm that brushed over me, but +I know how <i>I</i> suffered. There are some men who cannot +die, who are too sorely needed; and he was such a +one. He did not want to leave his work."</p> + +<p>She stopped, and Lassie felt the tide of grief rise full +and ebb again.</p> + +<p>"It wasn't love or marriage as the world understands +it; but it was the supreme self sacrifice that my spirit +cried for in consecration. I thought that I was to be +greatly fitted for a great work."</p> + +<p>Lassie whispered: "Perhaps you have been fitted."</p> + +<p>"No. No! Heaven ordained that the sacrifice and +the consecration should be greater than I had ever +imagined. It ordained that he should pass away alone +and leave me alone, too; and now it is left me to work +out a new salvation. I try not to doubt, I do trust God +completely. But I cannot see why—or how! Not +yet. But, at any rate, the worst for me is come. I have +touched bottom. Battle for me is past."</p> + +<p>Then she rose from the bed, went to the window and +let up the shade. The night of Nature's world, always +full of potency, calmed her suddenly into another mood.</p> + +<p>"It is snowing," she exclaimed; "that means that +rain is falling on new-made graves." She came back +from the window. "Lassie," she said, "my heart is +broken, my future is crushed, and yet I feel <i>so strong</i>!<span class="pagenum">[272]</span> +It floods me fresh. I see now that wherever his soul +passed last night, it must have passed in triumph—gone +on to further work. I shall work, too. That is +the legacy his letter left me—an intense desire to serve. +How small I am, how great God is; all life's misery +results from setting our little wills in opposition to His +plan for our best. It is borne in upon me clearly; I +recognize the fact well. Now when I leave this room +next time and forever henceforth, so long as I live, I am +willing with my whole soul to do whatever work there +is laid out for me. I feel in my heart that no stumbling +or even ridicule for stumbling can ever again cause me +to falter. I have found Truth. I will be strong."</p> + +<p>Lassie looked at her in wonder. The white look of +unearthly radiance which men once knew as "Ecstasy" +was indeed on her face now—on her pale, sad, worn +face, filling it with a glow of wondrous resolution.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Alva!" the girl exclaimed, and then, even as +the exclamation left her lips, she was conscious of an +upleaping of warm, human joy to think of the six +o'clock train and Ingram's companionship. The higher +plane was very high above her yet.</p> + +<p>Alva pressed her hands to her eyes and face. "That +was like a lightning flash, dear," she said; "oh, if I +may only live by its light forever after. If only!" +There was a brief silence; then,—</p> + +<p>"I must pick up my things, I guess," the girl suggested.</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear," Alva tried to smile; "yes, you must +pick up your things. That's what life here means."</p> + +<p>Lassie slipped into her own room. She was glad that +Alva was quiet and that she could smile upon her again; +it was truly what life meant to her. She was very little<span class="pagenum">[273]</span> +yet and very blind, and the angels might have been +smiling meaningly and mercifully at one another over +her pretty, childish head that hour.</p> + +<p>But over Alva the Spirits of Heaven might have +wept,—as they weep for any on earth who fancy that +they have sounded either the depths or the heights of +any design wrought out above.</p> + +<p>Above is so far above, and we and all our hopes and +joys and sorrows are so far beneath. So far beneath +that radiant serenity which moves eternally forward in +its fulfilling of the Divine Plan. His Divine Plan for +the uplifting of all that He has made.<span class="pagenum">[274]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<p class="h3">DAWN</p> + +<p>As the train pulled out, a half hour later, Alva, now +quite steady and serene, waved her hand, and then +turned away so as not to see Lassie, weeping, yet +clinging close to the strong arm thrown before her like +a guard.</p> + +<p>"You'll come home with me, my dear," said Mrs. +O'Neil, who had come to the station, too; "you look +a little tired and pale, and I'll help you finish your own +packing, and then you must have some good hot tea +and gingerbread."</p> + +<p>Alva laid her hand in the kindly, warm hand of the +other. "Yes, let us go home," she said; "but I'm not +going to-night, so my packing can wait."</p> + +<p>"You aren't going! Oh, I am glad. Then you'll +have a little time for rest. You need it." Mrs. O'Neil +was so frankly pleased that Alva was forced to thank +her kindliness in spirit. The racked are so grateful to +a tender touch after their sharpest agony.</p> + +<p>They went across the tracks and up the little cinder-path. +Mary Loretta and the cat came running out to +meet them, and Mary Cody had the teakettle boiling.</p> + +<p>"She's not going to-night," said Mrs. O'Neil, getting +out the tea and handing it to Mary Cody, who was now +cutting gingerbread. "I'm so glad; it would be so +lonesome without her."<span class="pagenum">[275]</span></p> + +<p>Mary Cody assented.</p> + +<p>"And those two young people are happy, too," Mrs. +O'Neil said to Alva, in the dining-room a minute +later, "such a nice-looking couple!"</p> + +<p>"I hope she'll be happy," said Alva, staring out of +the window as she sat by the table waiting idly. "She +will have everything to make for her happiness now." +Lassie and Ingram had ceased to matter to her. Her +brain could not include them in this hour.</p> + +<p>Mrs. O'Neil's eyes filled as she glanced that way. +The still, quiet face and form by the window had some +tragedy written in every line, although the lips stayed +closed and the bright-faced hostess felt what she could +not know.</p> + +<p>"There, my dear, there's the tea; let me pour your +cup," she said. "Do put in some cream just for once, +it's so nourishing; and why, I declare, if here isn't Mrs. +Ray, just in time to have a cup with us!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray had passed the window and now opened +the door and came in. There was an air of strongly +repressed excitement about her.</p> + +<p>"So she's gone," she said briskly. "I was peeking +out watching the mail-bag to see that no one else +stuck a letter in the strap on me, and I saw you all +seeing her off. Pretty she is,—and it's plain to be +seen what's going to happen next, and I'm very glad for +them both."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mrs. O'Neil, smiling; "we're all +that."</p> + +<p>"I come down for several reasons," said Mrs. Ray. +"First," she turned to Alva, "there's a letter that come +this morning, and heaven knows how it happened—with +all my care—but it slipped under those pesky<span class="pagenum">[276]</span> +government scales and I found it when I dusted out this +afternoon. I hope it isn't very important."</p> + +<p>Alva took the letter with its typewritten address and +put it in her pocket. "Don't worry, Mrs. Ray," she +said, "Lassie's gone; I'm going very soon; nothing +can matter much now, can it?" She managed to smile.</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know," said Mrs. Ray. "That's +your view because you're going, but I can't say that I +shall feel really settled in my mind till the dam's settled."</p> + +<p>"But I thought the quicksand was going to settle +the dam," said Mrs. O'Neil; "somebody said so."</p> + +<p>"You can't settle even a quicksand with a legislature," +said Mrs. Ray; "I guess I know. The United +States Government is a great eye-opener, especially +when you have to tend a post-office according to any new +rules it finds time to have printed and mail you. I've +had four pages of new rules sent me to-day."</p> + +<p>"Here's your tea, Mrs. Ray," said Mrs. O'Neil; +"do sit down. Bring some more gingerbread, Mary. +And won't you have a little jam? I've a lot of nice +fresh this-autumn, plum jam."</p> + +<p>"No, I don't want any jam," said Mrs. Ray, seating +herself; "but, Nellie, I've been hearing that legally +your husband can't do nothing with the Lathbuns."</p> + +<p>"Well, that isn't the worst," said Mrs. O'Neil, her +face clouding considerably; "what do you think I've +up and done? I was so mad I threw that old hair-brush +over into the gorge, and I've thereby made Jack +liable for a suit of damage for breaking into the luggage +a guest leaves without due cause, or else for willful destruction +of personal property belonging to another and +unoffending party who has reposed trust only to be +betrayed. Jack will have to go to the lawyer to-morrow<span class="pagenum">[277]</span> +to find out which. Oh, they were slick—those two. +They've got the law down fine."</p> + +<p>"Well, did you know they're caught?" Mrs. Ray +brought this statement forth as the cannon does the +cannon ball.</p> + +<p>Mrs. O'Neil jumped in her chair. "Caught? No, +I did not know it. When?"</p> + +<p>"They just told me over at the station that they were +arrested about three o'clock. I guess it's true. I hope +so."</p> + +<p>"Oh, to think of it," said Mrs. O'Neil, "to think of +them sleeping here last night and in Geneseo to-night!"</p> + +<p>"The complaints will come pouring in," said Mrs. +Ray; "everybody has got a bill against 'em. I don't +believe they'll be out of jail in years."</p> + +<p>Alva turned her face again to the window. She had +not thought much of the two unfortunate creatures +during the past few hours, and their misery bore in upon +her with a vivid, headlong shock.</p> + +<p>"And those case-knives, too," Mrs. Ray continued; +"did they have 'em on, I wonder."</p> + +<p>"Oh, the case-knives don't count," said Mrs. O'Neil; +"they were left here by a travelling man. He was +around to-day and asked if it was here that he left them. +I meant to tell you, but dear, dear, I've had so much +to do, seems like."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray was much taken aback, but quickly recovered +herself.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, they could have used a hat-pin just as +well. Anyhow, they might have got up in the night and +murdered him some way. Mrs. Lathbun could have +held him while Hannah Adele just stuck anything +handy into him in every direction. I never could see<span class="pagenum">[278]</span> +what they had the case-knives for, anyhow, if it wasn't +on the chance of some such game. For two women to +carry six case-knives instead of combs and tooth-brushes +is very suspicious in itself, I think."</p> + +<p>"But, they weren't carrying them," said Mrs. O'Neil. +"Jack thought they had them for opening windows, but +to think of them staying here three weeks and no baggage. +It makes me wild."</p> + +<p>"Well, you and Mr. O'Neil are easy," said Mrs. Ray; +"you're very mooney, both of you. You can't deny +that, Nellie,—you and your husband haven't got real +good common sense, or you'd have nailed their windows +on from the outside the day you first mistrusted them."</p> + +<p>"Well, we won't be mooney any more, anyhow," +said Mrs. O'Neil; "the drillers came to-day with two +freight cars of machinery, but Jack had them pay a +week in advance. He says he won't even trust the +State after this."</p> + +<p>"I don't trust the United States any further than I +can see 'em," said Mrs. Ray; "but this has been a good +lesson for you, Nellie. You won't be letting any sharper +that comes along wear your gran'mother's Paisley shawl +while he spies out the road he's going to skip out over +next, again."</p> + +<p>"Indeed and I won't," said Mrs. O'Neil feelingly.</p> + +<p>"Sammy Adams was in to spend the afternoon," +Mrs. Ray went on. "We talked the question of my +marrying him all over again. He always asks me when +he comes for the whole afternoon like that, and he +had such a hard time getting it all out to-day with +people running in to talk about the Lathbuns every +second, that I just had to appreciate the way he stuck +to it clear through to the end."<span class="pagenum">[279]</span></p> + +<p>"What did you say?" asked Mrs. O'Neil.</p> + +<p>"I didn't say much. I was too busy talking to the +others, you know. Yes, indeed. But I was sorry for +him. He's <i>so</i> scared sleeping alone in his house for fear +of maybe being swindled in his bed before he knows it. +And now he's worried for fear the dam is going to +drown him unexpectedly, too. They say if that dam is +built and does bu'st, the Johnstown Flood won't be in +it with Rochester. The folks that want the Falls saved +'ll get their chance to say, 'I told you so' then; but +that won't help Sammy much."</p> + +<p>"What did you say?" Mrs. O'Neil asked +again.</p> + +<p>"Well, when I got a chance, I told him I'd despise +a man who'd let me keep on working as hard as I work +now, but that if any man was to ask me to give up the +church, or the post-office, or my chickens, that would +show he didn't know me, right in the start."</p> + +<p>"What did he say to that?" Mrs. O'Neil asked with +interest.</p> + +<p>"He didn't know what to say at first, but then he's +the kind of man that never does know what to say. I +declare, Nellie, I do think men that want to marry +women act too foolish for words. Yes, indeed. If +a man wants to do anything else in the world he gets +to work and does it; but if he wants to marry a woman +he just sits still and looks silly and leaves it to the +woman to be done or not."</p> + +<p>"Do you think so?" said Mrs. O'Neil.</p> + +<p>"Think so," said Mrs. Ray; "I know so. I've had +men acting foolish around where I was all my life. +I've tripped over 'em while sweeping, cooking, washing, +tending Mr. Ray's family by his second wife, sorting<span class="pagenum">[280]</span> +mail,—why, I've had men thinking what a good +wife I'd make all my life, and looking so like idiots +while they thought it that I wouldn't look at it like +they did for any money. They stop by the fence when +I'm ploughing, and just grin with thinking what a +hired man I'd make. I was cleaning the long aisle +carpet at the church last Wednesday, and that minister +that's visiting our minister couldn't keep away from the +window. When I take my eggs and chickens to market, +the buyer down there looks at how I've got those eggs +packed and pinches my chickens, and then he turns +to me and goodness, but his glance is loving."</p> + +<p>"Well, you're a very smart woman, you know," +said Mrs. O'Neil.</p> + +<p>"I know that; I know it just as well as you do. +But I'm a woman, and I'd like to meet one man as was +a man. I know men pretty well; I knew Mr. Ray +better than he knew himself. Mr. Ray thought he +was doing me an honor to marry me, and I knew he +wasn't, and I lived with him fifteen years and never threw +it in his face once. I let him talk about his ancestors +and I never talked about mine. He thought I didn't +have any; he never realized I kept still so as to keep +from telling such stories as he did. His ancestors! I'd +like to know what sort of ancestors he had! If he'd +had any ancestors, he'd have been bound to be descended +from them, I should think, in which case he wouldn't +have been a Ray. The fact that he and his father called +themselves Jared and spelt it Jarrod was enough for +me; but to make a long story short I'm going to marry +Sammy Adams, and I ran down to tell you that at the +same time that I brought the letter."</p> + +<p>There was an outbreak of exclamations and then a<span class="pagenum">[281]</span> +beginning at congratulations, but Mrs. Ray stopped +those.</p> + +<p>"I don't want congratulations," she said; "there +isn't anything to congratulate me about, for I never +tried to get him, so I haven't had a success or anything +to be proud of. It's just that the dam is so likely to +be going to drown him out that he wants to rent my +second floor and pay the rent every first Monday in +the month. I'm going to go straight on with my life, +and continue to save my own money to finish educating +Mr. Ray's children by his second wife. We shall go +to church together, and he'll sit with me evenings +when I ain't too tired, or when he's nervous over case-knives +and swindling. He's going to pay me for all his +tailoring and all his hair-cuts, but he's to say when he +thinks he needs anything new or it's getting too long. +He'll buy our potatoes and chickens of me at the regular +price, but I'll furnish my own eggs, like I always have."</p> + +<p>"It's settled, then?" said Mrs. O'Neil, with a slight +smile.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's settled. I don't believe the dam will ever +be dug, but I'll marry Sammy all the same."</p> + +<p>"You're right about the dam, Mrs. Ray," Alva said, +speaking for the first time. "I don't believe it will +ever be built, either; the Falls have too many friends. +Besides, there must come a time when the God of All +will say to our American Mammon, 'So far and no +further shalt thou go,' and I believe the time is now and +that the place is here."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know about all that," said Mrs. +Ray; "but Josiah Bates drove the surveyors home +yesterday, and he gathered from them that if they built +that dam and made that lake, the lake was pretty sure<span class="pagenum">[282]</span> +to burst out around back of the Wiley place—that +low place you know—and we'd have a new waterfall +in through the Wiley cow-pasture, even if we didn't +have nothing worse."</p> + +<p>"Goodness me!" cried Mrs. O'Neil, "what would +the Wileys say to that!"</p> + +<p>"I don't know what the Wileys would say to that," +said Mrs. Ray; "but it made me know what I'd say to +Sammy. Yes, indeed. If there isn't going to be any +dam, the summers here are going to go on exactly as +they used to, and I've got to have a man to bring up +my ice! You know my motto, 'He moves in a mysterious +way,' and I can see now why the Lathbuns +and the dam both come. I had a dreadful time last +summer getting my ice up, and as long as everybody's +been betting all along that I'd always marry Sammy +some day, I might as well do it now as any time. Yes, +indeed."</p> + +<p>"You are very sensible," said Alva, rising, "and I'm +sure that you will be very happy. I congratulate you." +She held out her hand. "Good-bye."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry you're going so soon," said Mrs. Ray, +clasping it warmly, "you've meant such a lot of cancellation, +and then I've got very fond of you, too."</p> + +<p>Alva smiled. "I'm only going out on the bridge +just now for a little," she said, turning to Mrs. O'Neil. +"I'll be back shortly."</p> + +<p>Mrs. O'Neil glanced towards the window. "It's +snowing harder and harder," she said; "wrap up +warm."</p> + +<p>Alva went quietly out. When they were alone, Mrs. +Ray shook her head. "She looks bad," she said; "I'm +not sure that she didn't care for him, after all. She's<span class="pagenum">[283]</span> +got that mooney look. I know just the look. I'd have +looked just that way by spring, if I'd taken Gran'ma +Benton and the parrot. I'm glad I've decided to marry +Sammy, instead."</p> + +<p>"You won't take them, then?" asked Mrs. O'Neil.</p> + +<p>"No, I couldn't stand Sammy and a parrot at once, +and then, too, he might quarrel with the parrot, or +Gran'ma Benton might make trouble between Sammy +and me. I never allowed any one to make trouble +between Mr. Ray and me, and I won't allow trouble +this time, either. If I'm going to be unhappy married, +I won't marry. That's flat."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if Jack knows they're arrested!" said +Mrs. O'Neil, thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"I stopped in the bar on purpose," said Mrs. Ray, +"I thought he ought to know right away."</p> + +<p>"Was he there?" asked the wife.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," said Mrs. Ray, calmly, "but I did what I +could, Nellie, and nobody can be expected to pass <i>that</i>, +you know."<span class="pagenum">[284]</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<p class="h3">THE BREAKING OF ANOTHER DAY AND WAY</p> + +<p>Alva slipped into her cape, and drawing some fur +up round her throat, set swiftly forth upon the +Long Bridge—for the last time, she told herself.</p> + +<p>The snow was falling fast, but not thickly as yet, +and she had it in her heart to steal under cover of +the fast-approaching twilight to her house, and look +upon that also for the last time. Her sorrow was too +deep to leave any room to mourn the background of +her dream, but the background was consecrated by the +dream and she longed to stand once more close to +those walls, even if only to sob her heart out alone +under the rustle of dead leaves, amidst the fast deepening +snow.</p> + +<p>There was in her that awful strength that saves +one's reason in the first shock of the otherwise unbearable. +Years were ahead and yet her heart did not +shrink; endless gray duties stretched between their +mile-stones, but to her it mattered not. Nothing +mattered, she told herself over and over. Life would +go on, other lives in especial would go on; their demands +would be hers to meet, their cares and troubles, their +joys and sorrows would be hers to reflect, but to her +personally nothing would—nothing could—matter +more. Her unseeing eyes looked out over the gorge;<span class="pagenum">[285]</span> +the matchless beauty, for the preservation of which her +dead love had fought so hard, came to a blind market +now; she could not see, she could not feel, for her life +and all that makes life worth living was over.</p> + +<p>So she swept on, her dark cape fluttering wide like +wings on either side of her steady swiftness. The snow +crystals clung to the wool and quickly starred its night +with stars, but she saw no night except her own, and +noted no stars. "And yet I must not give way too +much," she thought suddenly, with a quick stabbing +sense of proving unworthy; "if I am what I have told +Lassie that one should be—if I am what one who has +truly loved should surely be—I shall be strong and live +resolutely as he lived, even though I have been so +crushed. Pain could not crush his spirit; shall sorrow +crush mine? I <i>will</i> be strong."</p> + +<p>The letter which she had brought out with her came +to her mind then, and she paused and read it. It was +from the surgeon and told her what she had lately +mistrusted,—that there had never been the slightest +chance of moving him, that she had been sent away as +a child is banished from a painful scene, and that +she had been beguiled as a child is beguiled. She did +not resent the truth, she was too big to resent such a +truth; but she felt freshly mournful, and the home that +was to have been seemed to fade utterly out of her +consciousness, leaving her with no desire to ever see it +again.</p> + +<p>But there was another sheet within the envelope. +She took that out, too. It was printed—in a hand +that trembled. Her heart contracted as she saw +the crooked lines,—so much ran deep between +them.<span class="pagenum">[286]</span></p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>:—I have struggled. I shall not give up. +I believe sometimes God has given a new body to +serve a needed end. I cannot go. I must come back. +Not for your sake. But for theirs—for the sake +of those who will never know. If I come, help me +again. For you and for me help is the only bond. I +am not sure that there is any other that endures. Not +in this present world of ours.</p></blockquote> + +<p>She shook a little. Something especially cold and +piercing struck to her heart. She raised her eyes +quickly, and there, close beside her on the bridge, the +dead man stood.</p> + +<p>His bright dark eyes looked straight into hers.</p> + +<p>"Don't you know who I am?" he said.</p> + +<p>She would have fallen but for his quick grasp, and +the grasp choked the cry that was rising, for it was the +grasp of flesh and of strength.</p> + +<p>"Don't you know who I am?" he asked again. "I +thought that I saw in your eyes that you knew. I +thought that she had described me to you. I'm Lisle +Bayard. You wrote to me, you know."</p> + +<p>She drew away from him, and leaned heavily against +the bridge-rail. If it were true that this were he! A +new body to serve a great purpose. If that Mystery +that is the rooting of all that is or is to be had been +building this man and this hour, and weaving and twisting +and shaping both to its ends! She seemed to stand +motionless, but within herself she was dizzy and +reeling. "He moves in a mysterious way, His wonders +to perform."</p> + +<p>"You have freed them?" she said, divining truth +with a prescience that startled herself.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," he said, "I have been to Geneseo. They<span class="pagenum">[287]</span> +are free. But you never really believed that I had any +interest in them, did you?"</p> + +<p>His voice was no strange voice in her ears, nor was +his manner that of a stranger. She had to press her +temples hard with her two hands. "You are like the +man whom I loved," she said; "he—he died yesterday. +That was what drew me to her; she described +you and said that you loved her."</p> + +<p>"Poor thing," he said, simply.</p> + +<p>"And that you pursued her," Alva went on; "you +can think that I befriended her then. I tried to help +her. Because I, too, loved—and hoped."</p> + +<p>"It was good of you," he said; "but they are +mere adventuresses—not worth your troubling."</p> + +<p>"But you have helped them?"</p> + +<p>"I? Oh, yes. But," he hesitated; "I am tired +of my life," he added suddenly. "I've turned over a +new leaf—I've reformed."</p> + +<p>"Since when?"</p> + +<p>"Since yesterday."</p> + +<p>She held hard to the bridge-rail. "Since yesterday," +she repeated; "since yesterday?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, since yesterday."</p> + +<p>Her eyes were staring into his now. "Tell me +about it?" she cried, as the starving cry out for food—"at +once."</p> + +<p>"I don't know about it. I just turned in disgust +from myself. It was all in a minute. I wandered about +all day and all last night. I tried to drink—you know +I drink?—and then all of a sudden I realized what a +beast I'd been, and I turned from it all. Something +stronger than myself drew me to Geneseo this morning; +something stronger yet drew me here; what led me out<span class="pagenum">[288]</span> +upon the bridge was strongest of all. I don't know +what it all means, but perhaps you do."</p> + +<p>For a long minute she looked at him, and then she +spoke. "The man who died is guiding you," she said; +"I know it is that."</p> + +<p>He smiled a little. "Can I trust him?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>"I think so," she answered; "because his appeal is +to your better self. You will learn."</p> + +<p>"And you will teach me?" he said, quickly.</p> + +<p>She was silent.</p> + +<p>"You will teach me?" he repeated.</p> + +<p>"I am going home," she said. "I live far from here. +I have duties which will chain me there for life. You +will learn of him alone. You will be guided; do not +fear."</p> + +<p>He looked at her, and his eyes blazed suddenly. +She shrank back with a cry. "Oh, no—not that—not +that!" +she exclaimed; "I loved him and he is +dead. His work descends on us to do, that is all. +All!"</p> + +<p>The man, looking down at her with the dead man's +eyes, was silent.</p> + +<p>"I am not able to talk to you," she said, "I can +hardly control my voice. He died yesterday, and to-day +you speak to me with his voice. And it is so strange,—your +coming. It is all so strange."</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is all strange," he said; "but it cannot +stop here, you know. The Purpose that has brought +this about will not cease to exist now."</p> + +<p>She felt herself agitated, unnerved, trembling. She +took hold of the bridge-rail again. "The Purpose +works for great ends," she said; "we must learn that.<span class="pagenum">[289]</span> +I have learned it. Even a little respite from daily +life is not allowed, when one has once crossed the +border and left self behind. I have had to learn that +in a bitter school. For God's sake, lift burdens; do +not add to them. And do not make my lot harder +than it is to be. You are not him, and I know it. Do +not seek friendship with me; it is torture."</p> + +<p>"But if I were he," he said, "if I do his work, live +towards his goal, accomplish his purposes. Who shall +say what soul I bear? I never had a soul till yesterday. +I have one now. Where did it come from, this new soul +of mine. Perhaps from him. I've read stories like +that."</p> + +<p>"I cannot bear it," she said, suddenly; "my head +refuses to understand. All that I have believed is +rolling and crashing around me. Let us say good-by. +In a few hours I shall be far away. Oh, I shall be +glad—so glad—to go."</p> + +<p>"But I shall remain," he declared. "I shall take +up the battle, and I shall win his unfinished fight. +Let us leave the future wrapped in its mystery. I +have been impatient all my life, but now I can wait."</p> + +<p>She walked away through the snow.</p> + +<p>And then suddenly, as she moved, she felt her steps +stayed—she stopped. It was not the man who had +stayed her; he was standing where she had left him, +behind her—there on the bridge. But she was stopped +by a thought; at that thought she turned.</p> + +<p>"If you are to live here," she said faltering, her +voice quite unlike its usual firm, low purpose,—"if +you are to live here, you will want a home. There is +a house—"</p> + +<p>She paused. Her hand had drawn a key from her<span class="pagenum">[290]</span> +pocket, and without further explanation she held it out +to him.</p> + +<p>He approached and took the key. He asked no question. +He spoke no word. They did not even exchange +a glance.</p> + +<p>Five minutes later a veil of snowflakes divided them, +and the gorge lay black between.</p> + +<p>What is there to be said further? Nothing unless +perhaps the single line that can so fitly begin and end +all:</p> + +<p>"He moves in a mysterious way."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> +<img src="images/logo.jpg" width="200" height="179" alt="" title=""> +</div> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h4"><i>An International Love Comedy</i></p> + +<div class="topbox"> +<p class="h1">A WOMAN'S WILL</p> +</div> + +<p class="h4">By ANNE WARNER</p> + +<p class="h5">Author of "Susan Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop."</p> + +<p>It is a relief to take up a volume so absolutely free from +stressfulness. The love-making is passionate, the +humor of much of the conversation is thoroughly delightful. +The book is as refreshing a bit of fiction as one often finds; +there is not a dull page in it.—<i>Providence Journal.</i></p> + +<p>It is bright, charming, and intense as it describes the +wooing of a young American widow on the European +Continent by a German musical genius.—<i>San Francisco +Chronicle.</i></p> + +<p>A deliciously funny book.—<i>Chicago Tribune.</i></p> + +<p>There is a laugh on nearly every page.—<i>New York Times.</i></p> + +<p>Most decidedly an unusual story. The dialogue is nothing +if not original, and the characters are very unique. There +is something striking on every page of the book.—<i>Newark +Advertiser.</i></p> + +<p>A more vivacious light novel could not be found.—<i>Chicago +Record-Herald.</i></p> + +<p class="h4"> +Illustrated by I. H. Caliga. 360 pages. 12mo.<br> +Decorated cloth, $1.50.<br> + +<hr class="short"> + +<p class="h4">LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., <span class="smcap">Publishers</span>, BOSTON<br> +<i>At all Booksellers'</i><br> +</p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<p class="h4"><i>New Edition with Pictures from the Play</i></p> + +<div class="topbox"> +<p class="h1">THE REJUVENATION OF AUNT MARY</p> +</div> + +<p class="h4"><i>By</i> ANNE WARNER</p> + +<p class="h5"><i>Author of "Susan Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop," +"A Woman's Will," etc.</i><br> +<br> +Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth. $1.50</p> + +<hr class="short"> + +<p>Always amusing and ends in a burst of sunshine.—<i>Philadelphia +Ledger.</i></p> + +<p>Impossible to read without laughing. A sparkling, +hilarious tale.—<i>Chicago Record-Herald.</i></p> + +<p>The love story is as wholesome and satisfactory as the +fun. In its class this book must be accorded the first +place.—<i>Baltimore Sun.</i></p> + +<p>The humor is simply delicious.—<i>Albany Times-Union.</i></p> + +<p>Every one that remembers Susan Clegg will wish also to +make the acquaintance of Aunt Mary. Her "imperious +will and impervious eardrums" furnish matter for uproarious +merriment.... A book to drive away the blues +and make one well content with the worst weather.—<i>Pittsburg +Gazette.</i></p> + +<hr class="short"> + +<p>Cheerful, crisp, and bright. The comedy is sweetened +by a satisfying love tale.—<i>Boston Herald.</i></p> + +<p class="h4"> +LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., <span class="smcap">Publishers</span></p> + +<p class="h5"><span class="smcap">254 Washington Street, Boston</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<p class="h4"><i>An exceedingly clever volume.</i>—<span class="smcap">Boston Globe</span></p> + +<div class="topbox"> +<p class="h1">AN ORIGINAL GENTLEMAN</p> +</div> + +<p class="h3"><i>By</i> ANNE WARNER</p> + +<p class="h4">Author of "The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary," the "Susan +Clegg" books, etc.<br> +<br> +Frontispiece by Alice Barber Stephens. Cloth. $1.50</p> + +<hr class="short"> + +<p>Merry reading indeed.—<i>New York Tribune.</i></p> + +<p>All are humorous.... In none is dialect used.—<i>New +York Sun.</i></p> + +<p>The book brings out new possibilities in the author's +work and will add much to her popularity.—<i>Springfield +Republican.</i></p> + +<p>Humor and novelty of plot characterize most of the +stories, and they are entirely worthy of the creator of +"Susan Clegg" and "Aunt Mary."—<i>Syracuse Herald.</i></p> + +<p>Crisply told, quaintly humorous.... Only a woman +with discernment and tenderness, and only an artist +could make characters live and breathe as hers do.—<i>Boston +Transcript.</i></p> + +<p>Exhibits her cleverness and her sense of humor.... +Show much of that humor in the conception and that skill +in droll delineation of character which first brought Anne +Warner into notice with her "Susan Clegg" stories.—<i>New +York Times.</i></p> + +<hr class="short"> + +<p class="h4c"> +LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., <span class="smcap">Publishers</span></p> + +<p class="h5c"><span class="smcap">254 Washington Street, Boston</span></p> + +<hr class="chapter"> + +<p class="h4"><i>Anne Warner's "Susan Clegg" Books</i></p> + +<div class="topbox"> +<p class="h1">SUSAN CLEGG AND HER +FRIEND MRS. LATHROP</p> +</div> + +<p class="h3"><i>By</i> ANNE WARNER</p> + +<p class="h5c">With Frontispiece, $1.00</p> + +<hr class="short"> + +<p>Nothing better in the new homely philosophy style +of fiction has been written.—<i>San Francisco Bulletin.</i></p> + +<p>One of the most genuinely humorous books ever written.—<i>St. +Louis Globe-Democrat.</i></p> + +<p>Anything more humorous than the Susan Clegg stories +would be hard to find.—<i>The Critic, New York.</i></p> + +<p class="h5"><i>By the Same Author</i>:</p> + +<p class="h3">SUSAN CLEGG AND HER +NEIGHBORS' AFFAIRS</p> + +<p class="h5c">With Frontispiece, $1.00</p> + +<p>All the stories brim over with quaint humor, caustic +sarcasm, and concealed contempt for male and matrimonial +chains.—<i>Philadelphia Ledger.</i></p> + +<p class="h3">SUSAN CLEGG AND A MAN IN +THE HOUSE</p> + +<p class="h5c">Illustrated by <span class="smcap">Alice Barber Stephens</span>. $1.50</p> + +<p>Susan is a positive joy, and the reading world owes +Anne Warner a vote of thanks for her contribution to +the list of American humor.—<i>New York Times.</i></p> + +<p class="h4c">LITTLE, BROWN, & CO.,</p> + +<p class="h5c"><span class="smcap">254 Washington Street, Boston</span></p> + +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In a Mysterious Way, by Anne Warner + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY *** + +***** This file should be named 37515-h.htm or 37515-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/5/1/37515/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Matthew Wheaton and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: In a Mysterious Way + +Author: Anne Warner + +Illustrator: J. V. McFall + +Release Date: September 23, 2011 [EBook #37515] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Matthew Wheaton and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY + + [Illustration: "THE ONLY REAL HOLE IS WHERE HE SAT DOWN ON AN ENGINE + SPARK AT THE STATION."] + + + + + IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY + + BY ANNE WARNER + + + AUTHOR OF "THE REJUVENATION OF AUNT MARY" + "SUSAN CLEGG AND HER FRIEND MRS. LATHROP" + "AN ORIGINAL GENTLEMAN," ETC. + + _Illustrated by_ J. V. McFALL + + BOSTON + LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY + 1909 + + + _Copyright, 1909_, + BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. + + _All rights reserved_ + + Published April, 1909 + + Electrotyped and Printed at + THE COLONIAL PRESS: + C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U.S.A. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. INTRODUCING MRS. RAY + II. THE COMING OF THE LASSIE + III. INTRODUCING LASSIE TO MRS. RAY + IV. THE DIFFERENCE + V. THAT DISPASSIONATE OBSERVER, MRS. RAY + VI. WHEN DIFFERENCES LEAD TO WHAT IS EVER THE SAME + VII. THE LATHBUNS + VIII. MISS LATHBUN'S STORY + IX. PLEASANT CONVERSE + X. THE BROADER MEANING + XI. THE WAR-PATH + XII. ANOTHER PATH + XIII. AND STILL ANOTHER PATH + XIV. DEVOTED TO COATS AND CASE-KNIVES + XV. LEARNING LESSONS + XVI. THE WALK TO THE LOWER FALLS + XVII. RIGHTEOUS JUSTICE + XVIII. IN THE HOUR OF NEED + XIX. DOUBTS + XX. SHIFTING SUNSHINE AND CLOUDS + XXI. THE POST-OFFICE + XXII. AFTERMATH + XXIII. THE DARKNESS BEFORE + XXIV. DAWN + XXV. THE BREAKING OF ANOTHER DAY AND WAY + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + + "THE ONLY REAL HOLE IS WHERE HE SAT DOWN ON AN ENGINE SPARK AT + THE STATION" + + "IT'S HER THAT BOUGHT THE OLD WHITTACKER HOUSE" + + "SURELY YOU REMEMBER ME" + + ALVA + + "IF YOU'VE LENT MONEY TO THE LATHBUNS YOU'RE GOING TO LOSE IT" + + + + +IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCING MRS. RAY + + +"'He moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform,'" sang Mrs. Ray, +coming in from the wood-shed and proceeding to fill up the stove, with +the energy which characterized her whole person. A short, well-knit, +active person it was, too,--a figure of health and compact muscular +strength, a well-shaped head with a tight wad of neat hair on top, +bright eyes, and a firm mouth. + +Mrs. Wiley, a near neighbor, sat by the table and watched her friend +with the after-nightfall passivity of a woman who has to be very active +during daylight. Mrs. Wiley was not small and well-knit, neither was she +energetic. Life for Mrs. Wiley had gone mainly in a minor key composed +largely of sharps, and as a consequence she sighed frequently and sighed +even now. + +Mrs. Ray slammed the stove door and caroled louder than ever, as if to +drown even the echo of a sigh in her kitchen. "'He moves in a mysterious +way His wonders to perform,'" she sang, and then, folding her arms on +top of her bosom in a manner peculiarly her own, she spoke to Mrs. +Wiley in that obtrusively cheerful tone which we use to those who sigh +when feeling no desire to sigh with them: "That's my motto--that +song--yes, indeed. It fits everything and accounts for everything and +comes in handy anywhere any time, even if I never have wondered myself, +but have been dead sure all along. Yes, indeed." + +Mrs. Wiley sighed again, and her eyes moved towards a large, awkward +parcel rolled in newspaper, which lay on the end of the table by her. +"I'm so glad you feel able to undertake it, Mrs. Ray. I don't know how I +ever could have managed it, if you'd said no. Mr. Wiley _will_ have a +new pig-pen this year, and the pigs never can pay for it themselves. So +you were my only way to a new winter coat. I'm so glad you didn't say +no. Besides it's father's suit, and I shall love to wear it for that +reason, too." + +"I never do say no to any kind of work, do I?" said Mrs. Ray, looking at +the clock, and then all over the room; "this would be a nice time of +life for me to begin to sit around and say no to work. What with Mr. +Ray's second wife's children not all educated yet, and his first wife's +children getting along to where they're beginning to be left widows with +six apiece and no life insurance, I'm likely to want all the work I can +get for some years, as far as I can see. Yes, indeed." + +Mrs. Wiley sighed heavily. + +"Mr. Wiley thinks we'd ought to insure our lives in favor of Lottie +Ann," she said, feeling for her pocket-handkerchief at the thought; +"she's so dreadful delicate--but I think it's foolish--she's so +_dreadful_ delicate." + +"Why don't you insure Lottie Ann, then?" Mrs. Ray glanced at the clock +again, frowned a little and puckered her lips. "If you don't mind taking +that chair the cat's in, Mrs. Wiley, I believe I've got just about time +enough to sprinkle the clothes before the mail comes in; it looks so to +me." + +Mrs. Wiley slowly and gravely exchanged seats with the cat. "Do you take +much washing in now? I shouldn't think you had time." + +"Time!" Mrs. Ray was dragging a clothes-basket from under the table and +filling a dipper with water. "I never stop to think whether I have time +or not, any more. 'He moves in a mysterious way--' there's where my +motto comes in again. Yes, indeed. I move just the same way myself. I +don't see how I get so much done, but I've no time to stop and study +over it, or I'd be behind just that much. There's more than you wonder +where I get time from, Mrs. Wiley. They asked me if I had time for the +post-office. And I said I had. They asked first if I could read and +write, and I said I could; and then they asked me if I had time, and I +said I had. And that settled it." + +"Why, Mrs. Ray," said Mrs. Wiley, watching the clothes-sprinkling, which +was now going forward, attentively, "that's one of the waists from that +girl at Nellie O'Neil's, isn't it?" + +"Yes, indeed. She asked Nellie for a French laundress, and Nellie put +her shawl right over her head and run up and asked me if I had time for +that, too. I said I was willing to try, so I'm a French laundress too, +now. 'He moves'--" + +"What do you think of those two young people at Nellie's, anyway?" Mrs. +Wiley dropped her voice confidentially. "I was meaning to ask you that, +right at first." + +"Well, if you ask _me_," said Mrs. Ray, "I can't make him out, and I +think she's mooney. I'm a great judge of mooney people ever since I +first knew Mr. Ray, and that girl looks very mooney to me. Look at her +coming here and hiking right over and buying the Whittacker house next +day--a house I wouldn't send a rat to buy--not if I had a real liking +for the rat. And now the way she's pulling it to pieces and nailing on +new improvements, with the trees all boxed up, as though trees weren't +free as air--oh, she's mooney, very mooney--yes, indeed." + +"Nellie don't think they act loving," said Mrs. Wiley; "and Joey Beall +says they don't act loving even when they're alone together. He's been +building a culvert for Mr. Ledge, and he's seen 'em alone together +twice. Joey knows how people ought to act when they're alone together. +He always knows when folks are in love, before they know themselves. He +tells by seeing them alone together. Why, he knew when you was going to +be married--he saw you and Mr. Ray alone together that day you walked to +the Lower Falls." + +"But it wasn't through our acting loving that he knew it," said Mrs. +Ray, energetically ruminative between the dipper of water and the +clothes to be sprinkled; "my, but I was mad that day! It was the first +and last time anybody ever fooled _me_ into walking to the Lower Falls. +Yes, indeed. I like to of died! If Mr. Ray hadn't asked me to marry him, +I'd never have forgiven him getting me to go on that walk. Those flights +of steps! And those paths! All the way down I was wanting to turn round +and go back. I made up my mind never to take Mr. Ray's word for nothing +again. And I never did. He fooled me into that walk, but he never fooled +me again. Yes, indeed. Never!" + +"But Joey Beall saw you that day," said Mrs. Wiley, whose mind was of +that strength which is not to be swept beyond its gait by any other +mind's rapidity, "and he said right off that night you'd marry him." + +"Maybe he saw Mr. Ray take his first and second wife down to the Lower +Falls, and knew it from his looks with them--Mr. Ray took 'em both down +there, and asked 'em each to marry him coming back. All the way down he +was telling me what they each said to everything they saw. And coming +back he showed me where he asked 'em each. Mr. Ray never made any secret +of his first and second wife to me. I'll say that for him. Yes, indeed. +And like enough Joey was around then. He's always round when people are +alone together." + +"But he doesn't think these young people act loving," Mrs. Wiley went +on, recurring to the main issue under discussion. "Joey says they don't +have the right way at all. He says they don't disagree right, either. +They're on opposite sides of the dam, the same as if they were married +folks, but they don't seem to feel interested in their discussing. +Nellie says they're real pleasant, but she can't understand them; +Nellie's very far from making them out." + +"Oh, Nellie can't make nothing out. She and Jack is dead easy. Look at +those other boarders they've got. She says she can't make them out, +either. I should think not." + +Mrs. Wiley's standpoint refused to stretch to the other boarders. She +sighed again. + +"She seems a very nice girl," she said, sadly. + +"Oh, yes, nice enough--but mooney," said Mrs. Ray. "I know the kind as +soon as I see 'em. I could almost tell 'em by their legs, when they get +down from the train on the side away from me. She's got ideas about +souls and scenery, that girl has; but that young man's got his living to +earn, and he hasn't no time for any ideas. I like him! We both work for +the United States Government, and that's a great bond. Yes, indeed. That +young man knows if the dam goes through here, he'll be fixed for life +digging it, and the girl's just the kind he wants, for he's practical +and she's mooney--she's so mooney she's bought a house to live in while +he digs the dam, and yet she's solemnly hoping there won't be no dam. +She says so." + +"Perhaps she don't mean it," suggested Mrs. Wiley. + +"Yes, she does mean it," said Mrs. Ray; "yes, indeed, she means it. I'm +a great judge of character and that girl means what she says." + +"About the dam?" + +"Yes, about everything. She's very friendly with me. She buys lots of +stamps, and cancels up like a lady. I'm very fond of her." + +"What did she say about the dam?" + +"Oh, lots of things. She said it was a desecration for one thing, and +then I was singing one day and she said I was very right, for the Lord +did move in a very mysterious way, and He would save the falls." + +"Was she as sure as that?" asked Mrs. Wiley, appalled. + +"She seemed to be. Oh, but she's very mooney." + +"She's expecting a friend on to-night's train," said Mrs. Wiley; "Nellie +says it's a girl younger than she is." + +"There'll be trouble then," said Mrs. Ray, with the calmness of all +prophets of evil; "a girl younger than she is is going to make her look +awful old." + +"I wonder how long they'll stay!" + +"I don't know. You never can tell how long any one will stay here. Some +come and say 'Oh, it's so quiet,' and the next morning the express has +got to be flagged to take 'em right away; and others come and say 'Oh, +it's so quiet,' and send for their trunks and paint-boxes that night. +You never can tell how this place is going to strike any one. Mr. Ray's +first wife cried all the time, till she died of asthma brought on by +hay-fever; and his second wife liked to be where she could go without +her false teeth, and she just loved it here! Yes, indeed." + +"It isn't so very long till the train now," said Mrs. Wiley; "I guess +I'll go down to the station. I always like to see the train come in. +It's so sort of amusing to think it's going to Buffalo. Lottie Ann says +it's so funny to think of something being right here with us, and then +going right to Buffalo. I wish Lottie Ann could travel more. Lottie Ann +would be a great traveller if she could travel any." + +Mrs. Ray took up the lamp. "Well, if you must go," she said, "I'll put +the light in the post-office and get down cellar, myself. I'm raising +celery odd minutes this year, and getting the beds ready to lay it under +is a lot of work." + +Mrs. Wiley rose and moved slowly towards the door. "I wonder how long +those other two will stay at Nellie's," she said. + +Mrs. Ray's lips drew tightly together. "I can't say I'm sure," she said; +"I know nothing about them. Folks who never write letters nor get +letters don't cut any figure in my life. Good night, Mrs. Wiley,"--she +opened the door as she spoke--"good-by." + +"They've been there--" murmured Mrs. Wiley, but the door closing behind +her ended her speech. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE COMING OF THE LASSIE + + +On that same evening Alva and Ingram, the main subject of Mrs. Ray's and +Mrs. Wiley's discourse, sat in the dining-room of the O'Neil House, +waiting for train time. They had the dining-room to themselves, except +for occasional vague and interjectional appearances of Mary Cody in the +door, to see "if they wanted anything." Ingram had been eating,--he was +late, always late,--and Alva sat watching him in the absent-minded way +in which she was apt to contemplate the doings of other people, while +she talked to him with the earnest interest which she always gave to +talking,--when she talked at all. The contrast between her dreamy eyes +and the intentness of her tone was as great as the contrast between the +first impression wrought by a glance at her colorless face and simple +dress, and the second, when, with a start, the onlooker realized that +here was some one well worth looking at, well worth studying, and well +worth meditating later. Perhaps she was not beautiful--I am not quite +sure as to that--but she was surely lovely, with the loveliness which a +certain sort of life brings to some faces. + +Ingram, on the other side of the table, was just the ordinary +good-looking, professional man of thirty to thirty-five. Tall, straight, +slightly tanned, as would be natural for a civil engineer who had spent +September in the open; especially well-groomed for a man sixty miles +from what he called civilization, fine to see in his knickerbockers and +laced shoes, genial, jolly, and appreciative to the limit, apparently. + +The contrast between the two was very great, and was felt by more than +Mrs. Ray, for there had been many who had watched them during the week +of Alva's stay. "He's a awful nice man," Mrs. O'Neil had said to Mrs. +Ray, "but I don't see how she ever came to fancy him. They seem happy +together, but it's such a funny way to be happy together." + +This had been the original form of the statement which Mrs. Ray had +later repeated to Mrs. Wiley. + +It was true that they seemed very far apart, but were nevertheless +apparently happy together. The week had been a pleasant week to both. +Not, perhaps, as the town supposed, but pleasant anyway. + +"I'm selfish enough to wish that it wasn't at an end to-night," Ingram +said, as he took his piece of blackberry pie from Mary Cody; "you're a +godsend in this place, Alva." + +"But you'll like Lassie," his companion replied; "she's a charming +little girl,--and I love her so. I always have loved the child, and just +now it seemed to me as if it would do both her and me good to be +together. Life for me is so wonderful--I don't like to be selfish with +these days. My thoughts are too happy to keep to myself. I want some one +to share my joy." + +Ingram looked at her quizzically. "And I won't do at all?" he asked. + +"You,--oh, you're away all day. And then, besides, you're still so +material, so awfully material. You can't deny it, Ronald, you're +frightfully material--practical--commonplace. Of the world so very +worldly." + +He laughed lightly. "Just because I don't agree with you about the dam," +he said; "there, that's it, you know. Why, my dear girl, suppose all +America had been reserved for its beauty, set aside for the perpetual +preservation of the buffaloes and the scenery,--where would you and I be +now?" + +She looked away from him in her curious, contemplative way. "If you +knew," she said, after a minute, "how silly and petty and trivial such +arguments sound to thinking people, you'd positively blush with shame to +use them. It's like arguing with a baby to try to talk Heaven's reason +with the ordinary man; he just sees his own little, narrow, earthly +standpoint. I wonder whether it's worth while to ever try to be serious +with you. You know very well that the most of your brethren would be +willing to wreck the Yellowstone from end to end, if they could make +their own private and personal fortunes building railways through it." + +Ingram laughed again. "Where would the country be without railroads?" he +asked. + +She withdrew the meaning in her gaze out of the infinite beyond, where +it seemed to float easily, and centred it on him. + +"Just to think," she said, with deep meaning, "that ten years ago I +might have married you, and had to face your system of logic for life!" + +"Is it as bad as that?" + +"It might have been. We might have made it so before we knew better. +That's the rub in marriage. Every one does it before he or she has +settled his or her own views. I wasn't much of an idealist ten years +ago, and you were not much of anything. But if I could have married any +one then, I should have married you." + +A shadow fell upon his face. He turned his chair a little from the +table. "If I was not the right one, I wish that you had married some +other man then,--I wish it with all my heart. You would have been so +much happier. You're not happy now--you know that. It would have been so +much better for you if you had married." + +She smiled and shook her head. "Oh, no. It is much better as it is. +Infinitely better. It's like coming up against a great granite wall to +try and talk to you, Ronald, because you simply cannot understand what I +mean when I say words, but nevertheless, believe me, I'm on my knees day +and night, figuratively speaking, thanking God that I didn't marry then. +I wasn't meant to marry then. I've been needed single." + +He took out his cigarette case. "What were you meant for, then, do you +think?" he queried; "nothing except as a convenience for others?" + +"I was meant to learn, and then later, perhaps, to teach." + +"To learn?" He looked his question with a quick intensity. "To teach?--" +the question deepened sharply. + +She smiled. "Yes. To learn so that I could teach. I feel some days that +I was born to teach, and of course no one may hope to teach until he has +learned first." + +He shrugged his shoulders and laughed a little. She smiled again. "You +great, granite wall, you don't understand a bit, do you? Never mind, +light your cigarette, and then tell me what time it is. We must not +forget Lassie, you know." + +He looked at his watch. "Ten minutes yet." + +"Dear child, how tired she'll be. Never mind, she'll have a good rest +during the next ten days." + +"Will she stay ten days? She'll be here as long as you will then, won't +she?" + +"Yes; I'm going when she does." + +"You think that the house will be done by that time?" + +"I know that it will be done. It must be done." + +He took his cigarette up in his fingers, turned it about a little, and +then looked suddenly straight at her. "Alva, tell me the mystery, tell +me the story, please. What is the house for?" + +She looked at him and was silent. + +"Why won't you tell me?" + +Still silence. Still she looked at him. + +"You'll tell her when she comes. Why not me?" + +She spoke then: "She'll be able to understand, perhaps. You couldn't." + +Ingram compressed his lips. "And am I so awfully dense?" he asked, half +hurt. + +"Not so dense, but, as yet, too ignorant. Or else it is that I am still +too little myself to be able to rise above some human sentiments. And +there is one point where endurance of the world's opinion is such +refinement of torture, that only the very strongest and greatest can go +willingly forward to meet and suffer the inevitable. The inevitable is +close to me these days; it is approaching closer hourly, and there is no +possible way for me to make you or the world understand how I feel in +regard to it all. And I shrink from facing the kind of thing that I +shall soon have to face any sooner than is absolutely necessary. And so +I won't tell you." + +She stopped. Although her voice was firm, her eyes had again become far +away in their expression, and she seemed almost to have forgotten him +even while making this explanation for his sake. He was watching her +with deepest interest, and the curiosity in his eyes burned more +brightly than ever. + +"But if it is all as terrible as you make out," he said, "how can you +make that young girl understand what you suppose to be so far beyond +me?" + +"Because I can teach her." + +"How?" + +"She'll be with me night and day for ten days. We'll have a good deal of +time together. And then, too, she is a woman. Women learn some lessons +easily. Easier far than men." + +"Is it right to teach her such a lesson as this?" + +"Why do you ask that, when you do not know what my lesson will be? How +can you dare fancy that it could possibly be wrong?" + +Ingram paused for a minute, a little staggered. Then he said, bluntly: +"The world is made up of reasonable men and women, and it seems to me +best that all men and women should be reasonable. What isn't reasonable +is wrong. Forgive me, Alva, but you don't sound reasonable." + +"You think that I am not reasonable? Therefore I must be wrong. That's +your logic?" + +He hesitated. "Perhaps I think you wrong. I must confess that to me you +often seem so." + +She thought a minute, considering his standpoint. + +"Ronald," she said then, "'reasonable' is a term that is given its +meaning by those in power, isn't that so? 'Reasonable' is what best +serves the ends of those who generally seek to serve no ends except +their own. It's true that I don't at all care what a few selfish and +near-sighted individuals think of me. I have thrown in my lot with the +unreasonable majority, the poor, the suffering, and those yet to be born +who are being robbed of their birthright. To leave my mystery and go +back to our familiar difference, there's the dam to illustrate my exact +meaning. The 'reasonable' use of the river out there is to build a dam, +and so make a few more millionaires and give employment for a few years +to a few thousands of Italians. The 'unreasonable' use to make of the +river is to preserve it intact for tired, weary souls to flee to through +all the future, so that their bodies may breathe God and life into their +being again, and go forth strong. You know you don't agree with me as to +that view of that case, so how can I expect you to disagree with the +general opinion that the 'reasonable' thing for me to do personally is +to take my life and get all the pleasure that I can from it? The +'unreasonable' view, the one I hold myself, is that I have elected to +take it and give--not get--all the pleasure that I can with it. Of +course you don't understand that unreasonableness, and so you don't +agree with me; but I can tell you one thing, Ronald," she leaned forward +and suddenly threw intense meaning into her words, "and that is this. My +story--my mystery as you call it so often--is at once a very old mystery +and a very new one. I have suffered, and I am to suffer, most terribly. +The happiness to which I am looking forward is going to be an ordeal +for which all that I have undergone until now will be none too much +preparation. But in the hour of my keenest agony I shall be happier and +more hopeful than you will ever be able to realize in your life. Unless +you change completely. Take my word for that." + +She rose as she spoke, and he rose, too, looking towards her with eyes +that plainly subscribed to Mrs. Ray's opinion as expressed in the simple +vernacular. + +"Oh, no, I can't understand, and I don't believe," he said: "but I am +able to meet trains, anyhow." + +A large cape lay on an empty chair near by, and she took it up now. + +"But I'm going alone," she said, as she slipped into it. + +"What nonsense. Of course I am not going to let you go alone." + +She looked at him, buttoning the woolen cross-straps upon the cape as +she did so; then she threw one corner back over her forearm and laid +that hand on his, speaking decidedly. + +"I'm going alone to meet her. You know what I asked you to promise when +I came here a week ago, and you know that you gave me your word that +you'd never interfere with me. Lassie is almost a stranger to you, and +after you have learned to know her as a young lady there will come years +for you two to talk together, but for me this meeting is something that +I don't want to share. Don't say any more." + +"But what will she think," he queried, "when she and you return +together, and here sits a cavalier who didn't trouble himself to +accompany one lady through the dark night to meet another's train?" + +"She will think nothing, because she will not see the cavalier. When we +come in, we shall go straight up-stairs." + +Ingram more than smiled now. "Forgive me, Alva, but you and I are such +old, such near, such dear friends, that I can say to you frankly, as I +do say to you frankly over and over again, I don't understand you." + +She laughed at that, and turned towards the door. + +"I know--I know. I'm very queer, most awfully queer, in the eyes of +every one. But I can tell you, as I tell them, that the worst of it is +only for a little while. Just a few brief weeks and I shall be again, in +most ways, a normal woman. A woman just like all the rest again," her +back was towards him now, "in most thing--in most things." + +"Never! You never have been like other women,--you've always been +different from other women; you always will be." + +"Have I? Shall I? Well, perhaps it's so. I'm rather glad of it. Most +women are stupid, I think. Poor things!" she sighed. + +He followed her as she moved towards the door, half-vexed, +half-laughing: + +"And men, Alva, and men. Are they all stupid in your eyes?" + +She had her hand on the knob, and her great cape was gathered about her +in heavy folds. + +"Oh, Ronald," she said, looking into his look, "if you had any idea how +fearfully stupid they seem to me. Often and often in the last three +years. Even yourself. And ten years ago, when we were eighteen and +twenty-five, I thought you so interesting, too." + +He burst out laughing at that,--it wasn't in him to take her seriously +enough to really mind her "ways" long. + +"But what are we to do, when we are such mere ordinary creatures? And +you know, my dear, that if the transcendentals like to muse on bridges +by moonlight, some well-educated, commonplace individuals must build +them the bridges first." + +"Ah, there you go again. Yes, that's true. One should never forget that, +of course. Particularly when talking with a man who uses a man's logic." + +Then she opened the door, passed quickly into the hall, and let it close +after her. + +A lantern was resting on the floor outside, as if in waiting, and she +picked it up and went at once into the night--a dark night through which +the station lights and signals, red and yellow, sparkled brightly. + +It was a brisk October air that filled that outer world, and the +superabundant vitality of God's country came glinting, storming, down, +up, and across earth, sky, and ether in between. + +"This glorious night!" she thought prayerfully. "If one might only +realize just all it means to be existing right now." She held the +lantern behind her, and saw her shadow spread forth into space and fade +away beyond. "The train isn't in the block yet," she thought, glancing +at the signal; "that means minutes long to wait." Quickly she ran down +the cinder-path beside the tracks, and entered the little station where +a crowd of men lounged. + +"Is the train on time to-night?" she asked one. + +He shook his head. "Half an hour late," he said; "wreck on the road. +Wheel off a car of thrashing-machines at Kent's." + +"A whole half hour?" + +"Well, I heard Joey Beall say they was making it up," said the man; "the +station agent's gone home to supper, or you could ask him." + +"Thank you very much," Alva said, and turned and went out. + +The night appeared even fairer than before. Her eyes roamed widely. She +thought for a minute of going back to the hotel and bidding Ingram come +out with her, but then her own mood cried for relief from the labor of +his companionship. We do not give our spirits credit for what they learn +through adapting themselves to uncongenial companionship. Alva felt hers +craved a rest. "I'll go out on the bridge and wait there," she told +herself; "that will be the right thing,--to stand above the gorge and +say my evening prayers." + +So, stepping carefully over the switch impedimenta, she walked on, +following the embankment that led out to the Long Bridge. + +It is very long--that Long Bridge--and very high as well. I believe that +the first bridge, the wooden one, was close to a world's wonder in its +days. Even now the skilfully combined network of iron, steel, joist and +cable seems a species of marvel, as it springs across the great cleft +that the glacier sawed through several million layers of Devonian +stratum several million years ago. I forget how many tons of metal went +into its structure, but so intricate and delicately poised is the whole, +that while trains roar forth upon its length and find no danger, yet +does it echo quick and responsive to the light step of a lithe treading +woman or even of the littlest child. On this night Alva, wrapped close +in her cape, fared fearlessly out into the black beyond. The high braces +and beams creaked all along its vanishing length, and she smiled at the +sound. "I wonder if sometime, years from now, I shall return and walk +out here again, and find the bridge crying me a welcome!" she thought; +"I wonder!" A narrow, boarded way led to the right of the rails, and she +was soon directly over the gorge. It was far too dark to see the ribbon +of river hundreds and hundreds of feet below, or the steep +picture-crevasse that encased the water's way. Beyond and below, to the +left, she could have seen the windows of Ledgeville, had she turned that +way, but she did not do so. It was the gorge that always claimed her, +whether by day or by night, and now she leaned upon the steel guard and +stared below. "I can see it plainly, even in the dark," she murmured to +herself. "I can see every rock and eddy down there, the great curve of +whirlpool, and the place where the water slides so smoothly off and then +goes mad and foams below. It is all distinct to me. I remember the day +that I first saw it, years ago, when--right here, where I stand +to-night--he came to me for the first time, and we knew one another +directly. And I shall see it just so plainly in the years to come, when +it will never enter into my daily life any more, and yet will be the +background of all my living." + +She stood there for a long time, wrapped in the depth of her own +thoughts. The shadows below seemed to shift and drift in their +variations of intensity, and her eyes found rest in their profundity. +"It's like drawing water out of a well when one is very thirsty," she +said, at last, straightening herself and sighing; "it's +unexplainable, but oh, it's so good,--the lesson of darkness and water +and trees and sky. How grateful I am to be able to spell out a little in +that primer!" + +Then she clasped her hands and said a prayer, and as she finished the +signal flashed the train's entrance within the block. That meant only +two minutes until its arrival, and so she turned herself back at once. +The crowd at the station had perceptibly increased and began now to +surge forth upon the platform. Mrs. Dunstall was there and Pinkie, and +Joey Beall and Mrs. Wiley, and Clay Wright Benton, and old Sammy Adams, +and Lucia Cosby. + +"Been out on the Bridge, I suppose?" Mrs. Dunstall said pleasantly to +Alva. + +"Yes; it's lovely to-night," the latter replied. + +Every one smiled. They all felt that any one who would go out on the +bridge on a pitch black night must be mildly insane, but they looked +upon Alva as mildly insane anyhow. Mrs. Ray had many beside Ingram to +uphold her opinion. + +"It's her that bought the old Whittacker house and is putting a bath-tub +in it," Joey Beall whispered to a man who was waiting to leave by the +last train out. + +[Illustration: "IT'S HER THAT BOUGHT THE OLD WHITTACKER HOUSE."] + +"I know it," said the man; he was one of those men who never let Joey or +anybody else feel that he had any advantage of him, in even the +slightest way. + +Just then the train charged madly in beside them. + +Lassie, out on the Pullman's rear platform, preparatory to climbing down +the steep steps the instant that it should be allowable, saw a +well-known figure wrapped in a dark cloak, and gave a little cry of +joy-- + +"Alva! Here I am--all safe." + +Then she was enwrapped in the same dark cloak herself, for the space of +one warm, all-embracing hug, her friend repeating over and over, "I'm so +happy to have you--so happy to have you." And then they moved away +through the little group of bystanders, and started up the cinder-path +towards the hotel. + +"I'm so happy to have you!" Alva exclaimed again, when they were alone. +She did not even seem to know that she had said so before. + +"It was so good of you to ask me! How did you come to think of it? And +oh, Alva, what are you doing here, in this lonely place?" + +"It will take me all your visit to properly answer those questions, +dear; but I'll tell you this much at once. I asked you because I wanted +to have you with me, and because I thought that you and I could help one +another a great deal right now. And I am here, dear, because I am the +happiest woman that the world has ever seen, and because the greatest +happiness that the world has ever known is to be here in a few weeks." + +Lassie stopped short, astonished. + +Alva went on, laughing gaily: "Yes, it is so! Come on,--or you will +stumble without my lantern to guide you. I'm going to tell you all about +everything when we get alone in our room, but now, little girl, hurry, +hurry. Don't stop behind." + +So Lassie swallowed her astonishment for the time being, and followed. + +The hotel stood on the crest of the hill above the station and the +railway's path curved by it. They were there in a minute, and in another +minute alone up-stairs in their room--or rather, rooms--for there were +two bedrooms, opening one into the other. + +"Why, how pretty you have made them," the young girl cried; "pictures, +and a real live tea-table. And a work-stand! How cosy and dear! It's +just as if you meant to live here always." + +Her face glowed, as she absorbed the surprising charm of her new abode. +One does not need to be very old or to have travelled very extensively +to recognize some comforts as pleasingly surprising in the country. + +Alva was hanging up her cloak, and now she came and began to undo the +traveller's with a loving touch. + +"Why, in one way I do mean to live here always, dear. I never am +anywhere that I do not--in a certain sense--live there ever after. +People and places never fade out of my life. Wherever I have once been +is forever near and dear to me, so dear that I can't bear to remember +anybody or anything there as ugly. The difference between a pretty room +and an ugly one is only a little money and a few minutes, after all, and +I'm beginning to learn to apply the same rule to people. It only takes a +little to find something interesting about each. We'll be so happy here, +Lassie; how we will talk and sew and drink tea in these two tiny rooms! +I've been just feasting on the thought of it every minute since you +wrote that you could come." + +Lassie hugged her again. "I can't tell you how overjoyed I was to think +of coming and having a whole fortnight of you to myself. Every one +thought it was droll, my running off like this when I ought to be deep +in preparations for my debut, but mamma said that the rest and change +would do me good. And I was so glad!" + +Alva had gone to hang up the second cloak and now she turned, smiling +her usual quiet sweet smile as she did so. + +"It's a great thing for me to have you, dear; I haven't been lonely, but +my life has been so happy here that I have felt selfish over keeping so +much rare, sweet, unutterable joy all to myself,--I wanted to share it." + +She seated herself on the side of the bed, and held out her hand in +invitation, and Lassie accepted the invitation and went and perched +beside her. + +"Tell me all about it," she said, nestling childishly close; "how long +have you been here anyway?" + +"A week to-day." + +"Only a week! Why, you wrote me a week ago." + +"No, dear, six days ago." + +"But you spoke as if you had been here ever so long then." + +"Did I? It seemed to me that I had been here a long time, I suppose. +Time doesn't go with me as regularly as it should, I believe. Some years +are days, and the first day here was a year." + +"And why are you here, Alva?" + +"Oh, that's a long story." + +"But tell it me, can't you?" + +"Wait till to-morrow, dearest; wait until to-morrow, until you see my +house." + +"Your house!" + +"I've bought a house here,--a dear little old Colonial dwelling hidden +behind a high evergreen wall." + +"A house here--in Ledge?" + +"No, dear, not in Ledge--in Ledgeville. Across the bridge--" + +"But when--" + +"A week ago--the day I came." + +"But why--" + +Alva leaned her face down against the bright brown head. + +"I wanted a home of my own, Lassie." + +"But I thought that you couldn't leave your father and mother?" + +"I can't, dear." + +"Are they coming here to live?" + +"No, dear." + +"But I don't understand--" + +"But you will to-morrow; I'll tell you everything to-morrow; I'd tell +you to-night, only that I promised myself that we would go to a certain +dear spot, and sit there alone in the woods while I told you." + +"Why in the woods?" + +"Ah, Lassie, because I love the woods; I've gotten so fond of woods, you +don't know how fond; trees and grass have come to be such friends to me; +I'll tell you about it all later. It's all part of the story." + +"But why did you come here, Alva,--here of all places, where you don't +know any one. For you don't know any one here, do you?" + +"I know a man named Ronald Ingram here; he is the chief of the +engineering party that is surveying for the dam." + +"Is he an old friend?" + +"Oh, yes, from my childhood." + +Lassie turned quickly, her eyes shining: + +"Alva, are you going to marry him?" + +Her face was so bright and eager that something veiled the eyes of the +other with tears as she answered: + +"No, dear; he's nothing but a friend. I was looking for a house--a house +in the wilderness--and he sent for me to come and see one here. And I +came and saw it and bought it at once; I expect to see it in order in +less than a fortnight." + +"Then you're going to spend this winter here?" + +Alva nodded. "Part of it at any rate." + +"Alone?" + +Alva shook her head. + +Lassie's big eyes grew yet more big. "Do you mean--you don't mean--oh, +what do you mean?" + +She leaned forward, looking eagerly up into the other's face. "Alva, +Alva, it isn't--it can't be--oh, then you are really--" + +Two great tears rolled down that other woman's face. She simply bowed +her head and said nothing. + +Lassie stared speechless for a minute; then--"I'm so glad--so glad," she +stammered, "so glad. And you'll tell me all about it to-morrow?" + +"Yes, dear," Alva whispered, "I'll tell you all to-morrow. I'll be glad +to tell it all to you. The truth is, Lassie, that I thought that I was +strong enough to live these days alone, but I learned that I am weaker +than I thought. You see how weak I am. I am weeping now, but they are +tears of joy, believe me--they are tears of joy; I am the happiest and +most blessed woman in the whole wide world. And yet, it is your coming +that leads me to weep. I had to have some outlet, dear, some one to whom +to speak. And I want to live, Lassie, and be strong, very, very +strong--for God." + +Lassie sat staring. + +"You don't understand, do you?" Alva said to her, with the same smile +with which she had put the same question to Ingram. + +But Lassie did not answer the question as Ingram had answered it. + +"You will teach me and I shall learn to understand," she said. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +INTRODUCING LASSIE TO MRS. RAY + + +The next morning dawned gorgeous. + +When Lassie, in her little gray kimono, stole gently in to wake her +friend, she found Alva already up and dressed, standing at the window, +looking out over the October beauty that spread afar before her. It was +a wonderful sight, all the trees bright and yet brighter in their autumn +gladness, while the grass sparkled green through the dew that had been +frost an hour before. The view showed the radiance fading off into the +distant blue, where bare brown fields told of the harvest garnered and +the ground made ready for another spring. + +Lassie pressed Alva's arm as she peeped over her shoulder, and the other +turned in silence and kissed her tenderly. + +Side by side they looked forth together for some minutes longer, and +then Lassie whispered: + +"I could hardly get to sleep last night--for thinking of it all, you +know. You don't guess how interested I am. I do so want to know +everything." + +Alva turned to regard her with her calm smile. + +"But when you did get to sleep, you slept well, didn't you?" she asked; +"tell me that, first of all." + +"Why, is it late? Did I sleep too awfully long? Why didn't you call +me?" + +"Oh, my dear, why? It's barely nine, and that isn't late at all for a +girl who spent all yesterday on the train. I let you sleep on purpose. +What's the use of waking up before the mail comes? And that isn't in +till half-past under the most favorable circumstances; and even then it +never is distributed until quarter to ten. I thought we'd get our +letters after our breakfast, and then carry them across the bridge with +us. Would you like to do that? I have to cross the bridge every +morning." + +"Cross the bridge? That means to go to your house?" + +"Yes, dear." + +"How nice! I'm crazy to see your house. Is it far from here to the +post-office? Will that be on our way?" + +"That is the post-office there--by the trees." Alva pointed to a brown, +two-story, cottage-like structure three hundred yards further up the +track. + +"The little house with the box nailed to the gate-post?" + +"It isn't such a little house, Lassie; it's quite a mansion. The lady +who lives in it rents the upper part for a flat and takes boarders +down-stairs." + +"Does she take many?" + +Alva laughed. "She told me that she only had a double-bed and a +half-bed, so she was limited to eight." + +"Oh!" + +"I know, my dear, I thought that very same 'Oh' myself; but that's what +she said. And that really is as naught compared to the rest of her +capabilities." + +"What else does she do?" + +"I'm afraid I can't remember it all at once, but among other things she +runs a farm, raises chickens, takes in sewing, cuts hair, canes chairs +and is sexton of the church. She's postmistress, too, and does several +little things around town." + +Lassie drew back in amazement. "You're joking." + +"No, dear, I'm not joking. She's the eighth wonder in the world, in my +opinion." + +"She must be quite a character." + +"Every one's quite a character in the country. Country life develops +character. I expect to become a character myself, very soon; indeed I'm +not very positive but that I am one already." + +"But how does the woman find time to do so much?" + +"There is more time in the country than in the city; you'll soon +discover that. One gets up and dresses and breakfasts and goes for the +mail, and reads the letters and answers them, and then its only quarter +past ten,--in the country." + +Lassie withdrew from the arm that held her. "It won't be so with me +to-day, at all events," she laughed. "What will they think of me if +every one here is as prompt as that?" + +"It doesn't matter to-day; we'll be prompt ourselves to-morrow. But +you'd better run now. I'm in a hurry to get to my house; I'm as silly +over that house as a little child with a new toy,--sillier, in fact, for +my interest is in ratio with my growth, and I've wanted a home for so +long." + +"But you've had a home." + +"Not of my very ownest own, not such as this will be." + +The young girl looked up into her face. "I'm so _very_ curious," she +said, with emphasis; "I want so to know the story." + +Alva touched her cheek caressingly, "I'll tell you soon," she promised, +"after you've seen the house." + +Lassie went back into her room and proceeded to make her toilet, which +was soon finished. + +They went down into the little hotel dining-room then for breakfast, and +found it quite deserted, but neat and sweet, and pleasantly odorous of +bacon. + +"Such a dolls' house of a hotel," said Lassie. + +"It's a cozy place," Alva answered. "I like this kind of hotel. It's +sweet and informal. If they forget you, you can step to the kitchen and +ask for more coffee. I'm tired of the world and the world's +conventionality. I told Mrs. Lathbun yesterday that Ledge would spoil me +for civilization hereafter. I like to live in out-of-the-way places." + +"Mrs. Lathbun is the hostess, I suppose?" + +"No, Mrs. O'Neil is the hostess, or rather, she's the host's wife. You +must meet her to-day. Such a pretty, brown-eyed, girlish creature,--the +last woman in the world to bring into a country hotel. She says herself +that when you've been raised with a faucet and a sewer, it's terrible to +get used to a cistern and a steep bank. She was born and brought up in +Buffalo." + +By this time Mary Cody had entered, beaming good morning, and placed the +hot bacon and eggs, toast and coffee, before them. + +"I'm going for the mail after breakfast, Mary," Alva said; "shall I +bring yours?" + +"Can't I bring yours?" said Mary Cody. "I can run up there just as well +as not." Mary Cody was all smiles at the mere idea. + +"No, I'll have to go myself to-day, I think. I'm expecting a registered +letter." + +"I'll be much obliged then if you will bring mine." + +"If there are any for the house, I'll bring them all," Alva said; "will +you tell Mrs. Lathbun that?" + +"I'll tell her if I see her, but they're both gone. They went out +early--off chestnutting, I suppose." + +"Oh!" + +"Who is Mrs. Lathbun?" Lassie asked, when Mary Cody had gone out of the +room. + +"I spoke of her before and you asked about her then, didn't you? And I +meant to tell you and forgot. She's another boarder, a lady who is here +with her daughter. Such nice, plain, simple people. You'll like them +both." + +"I thought that we were to be here all alone." + +"We are, to all intents and purposes. The Lathbuns won't trouble us. +They are not intrusive, only interesting when we meet at table or by +accident." + +"Every one interests you, Alva; but I don't like strangers." + +Alva sighed and smiled together. + +"I learned to fill my life with interest in people long ago," she said +simply; "it's the only way to keep from getting narrow sometimes." + +Lassie looked at her earnestly. + +"Does every one that you meet interest you really?" she asked. + +"I think so; I hope so, anyway." + +"Don't you ever find any one dull?" + +Alva looked at her with a smile, quickly repressed. "No one is really +dull, dear, or else every one is dull; it's all in the view-point. The +interest is there if we want it there; or it isn't there, if we so +prefer. That's all." + +There was a little pause, while the young girl thought this over. + +"I suppose that one is happiest in always trying to find the interest," +she said then slowly; "but do tell me more about the Lathbuns." + +"Presupposing them in the dull catalogue?" + +Lassie blushed, "Not necessarily," she said, half confusedly. + +Alva laughed at her face, "I don't know so very much about them, except +that they interest me. The mother is large and rather common looking, +but a very fine musician, and the daughter is a pale, delicate girl with +a romance." + +Lassie's face lit up: "Oh, a romance! Is it a nice romance? Tell me +about it." + +"It's rather a wonderful romance in my eyes. I'll tell it all to you +sometime, but that was the train that came in just now, and I want to +get the mail and go on over to the house, so we'll have to put off the +romance for the present, I'm afraid." + +"I don't hear the train." + +"Maybe not--but it went by." + +"Went by! And the mail! How does the mail get off by itself?" + +"Oh, my dear, I must leave you to learn about the mail from Mrs. Ray. +She'll explain to you all about what happens to the Ledge mail when the +train rushes by. It's one of her pet subjects." + +"Do you know you're really very clever, Alva; you seem to be plotting to +fill me full of curiosity about everything and everybody in this little +out-of-the-way corner in the world? Nobody could ever be dull where you +are." + +A sudden shadow fell over the older's face at that; a wistful wonder +crept to her eyes. + +"I wish I could believe that," she said. + +"But you can, dear. You've always seemed to me to be just like that +French woman who was the only one who could amuse the king, even after +she'd been his wife for forty years. You'd be like that." + +Alva rose, laughing a little sadly. "God grant that it may be so," she +said, "there are so many people who need amusing after forty years. But, +dear, you know I told you last night that I sent for you to come and +teach and learn, and you are teaching already." + +"What am I teaching?" Lassie's eyes opened widely. + +"You are teaching me what I really am, and that's a lesson that I need +very much just now. It would be so very easy to forget what I really am +these days. My head is so often dizzy." + +"Why, dear? What makes you dizzy?" + +"Oh, because the world seems slipping from me so fast. I could so easily +quit it altogether. And I must not quit it. I have too much to do. And I +am to have a great task left me to perform, perhaps. Oh, Lassie, it's +hopeless to tell you anything until I have begun by telling you +everything. You'll see then why I want to die, and why I can't." + +"Alva!" + +"Don't be shocked, dear; you don't know what I mean at all now, but +later you will. Come, we must be going. No time to waste to-day." + +They went up-stairs for hats and wraps, and then came down ready for the +October sunshine. It was fine to step into the crispness and breathe the +ozone of its glory. On the big stone cistern cover by the door a fat +little girl sat, hugging a cat and swinging her feet so as to kick +caressingly the brown and white hound that lay in front of her. + +"A nice, round, rosy picture of content," Alva said, smiling at the tot. +"I love to see babies and animals stretched out in the sun, enjoying +just being alive." + +"I enjoy just being alive myself," said Lassie. + +They went up the path that ran beside the road and, arriving at the +post-office, turned in at the gate and climbed the three steps. The +post-office door stuck, and Alva jammed it open with her knee. Then she +went in, followed by Lassie. + +The post-office was just an extremely small room, two thirds of which +appeared reserved for groceries, ranged upon shelves or piled in three +of its four corners. The fourth corner belonged to the United States +Government, and was screened off by a system of nine times nine +pigeonholes, all empty. Behind the pigeonholes Mrs. Ray was busy +stamping letters for the outgoing mail. + +"You never said that she kept a grocery store, too," whispered Lassie. + +"No, but I told you that I'd forgotten ever so many things that she +did," whispered Alva in return. + +The lady behind the counter calmly continued her stamping, and paid not +the slightest attention to them. + +They sat down upon two of the three wooden chairs that were ranged in +front of a pile of sacks of flour and remained there, meekly silent, +until some one with a basket came in and took the remaining wooden +chair. All three united then in adopting and maintaining the reverential +attitude of country folk awaiting the mail's distribution, and Lassie +learned for the first time in her life how strong and binding so +intangible a force as personal influence and atmosphere may become, even +when it be only the personal influence and atmosphere of a country +postmistress. It may be remarked in passing, that not one of the letters +then being post-marked received an imprint anything like as strong as +that frame of mind which the postmistress of Ledge had the power to +impress upon those who came under her sceptre. She never needed to +speak, she never needed to even glance their way, but her spirit reigned +triumphant in her kingdom, and, as she carried her governmental duties +forward with as deep a realization of their importance as the most +zealous political reformer could wish, no onlooker could fail to feel +anything but admiration for her omniscience and omnipotence. Mrs. Ray's +governmental attitude towards life showed itself in an added seriousness +of expression. Her dress was always plain and severe, and in the +post-office she invariably put over her shoulders a little gray shawl +with fringe which she had a way of tucking in under her arms from time +to time as she moved about. + +Lassie had ample time to note all this while the stamping went +vigorously forward. Meanwhile the mail-bag which had just arrived lay +lean and lank across the counter, appearing as resigned as the three +human beings ranged on the chairs opposite. Finally, when the last +letter was post-marked, the postmistress turned abruptly, jerked out a +drawer, drew therefrom a key which hung by a stout dog-chain to the +drawer knob and held it carefully as if for the working up of some magic +spell. Lassie, contemplating every move with the closest attention, +could not but think just here that if the postal key of Ledge ever had +decided to lose its senses and rush madly out into the whirlwind of +wickedness which it may have fancied existing beyond, it would assuredly +not have gotten far with that chain holding it back, and Mrs. Ray +holding the chain. It was a fearfully large and imposing chain, and +seemed, in some odd way, to be Mrs. Ray's assistant in maintaining the +dignity necessary to their dual position in the world's eyes. + +The lady of the post-office now unlocked the bag and, thrusting her hand +far in, secured two packets containing nine letters in all from the +yawning depths. She carefully examined each letter, and then turned the +bag upside down and gave it one hard, severe, and solemn shake. Nothing +falling out, she placed it on top of a barrel, took up the nine letters, +and went to work upon them next. + +When they were all duly stamped, she laid them, address-side up, before +her like a pack of fortune-telling cards, folded her arms tightly across +her bosom, and, standing immovable, directed her gaze straight ahead. + +Now seemed to be the favorable instant for consulting the sacred oracle. +Alva and the third lady rose with dignity and approached the layman's +side of the counter; Lassie sat still, thrilled in spite of herself. + +Alva, being a mere visitor, drew back a little with becoming modesty and +gave the native a chance to speak first. + +"I s'pose there ain't nothing for me," said that other, almost +apologetically, "but if there's anything for Bessie or Edward Griggs or +Ellen Scott I can take it; and John is going down the St. Helena road +this afternoon, so if there's anything for Judy and Samuel--" + +"Here's yours as usual," said Mrs. Ray, rising calmly above the other's +speech and handing Alva three letters as she did so; "the regular one, +and the one you get daily, and then here's a registered one. I shall +require a receipt for the registered one, as the United States +Government holds me legally liable otherwise, and after my husband died +I made up my mind I was all done being legally liable for anything +unless I had a receipt. Yes, indeed. I'd been liable sometimes legally +in my married life, but more often just by being let in for it, and I +quit then. Yes, indeed. When they tell me I'm legally liable for +anything now, I never fail to get a receipt, and I read every word of +the President's message over twice every year to be sure I ain't being +given any chance to get liable accidentally when I don't know it--when I +ain't took in what was being enacted, you know. Here,--here's the things +and the ink; you sign 'em all, please." + +Alva bent above the counter obediently and proceeded to fill out the +forms as according to law. Mrs. Ray watched her sharply until the one +protecting her own responsibility had been indorsed, and then she turned +to the other inquirer: + +"Now, what was you saying, Mrs. Dunstall? Oh, I remember,--no, of course +there ain't anything for you. Nor for any of them except the Peterkins, +and I daren't give you their mail because they writ me last time not to +ever do so again. I told Mrs. Peterkin you meant it kindly, but she +don't like that law as lets you open other people's letters and then +write on 'Opened by accident.' Mrs. Peterkin makes a point of opening +her own letters. She says her husband even don't darst touch 'em. It's +nothing against you, Mrs. Dunstall, for she's just the same when I write +on 'Received in bad order.' She always comes right down and asks me why +I did it. Yes, indeed. I suppose she ain't to blame; some folks is +funny; they never will be pleasant over having their letters opened." + +Alva bent closer over her writing; Lassie was coughing in her +handkerchief. Mrs. Dunstall stood before the counter as if nailed there, +and continued to receive the whole charge full in her face. + +"But I've got your hat done for you; yes, I have. I dyed the flowers +according to the Easter egg recipe, and it's in the oven drying now. And +I made you that cake, too. And I've got the setting of hens' eggs all +ready. Just as soon as the mail is give out, I'll get 'em all for you. +It's pretty thick in the kitchen, or you could go out there to wait, but +Elmer Haskins run his lawn-mower over his dog's tail yesterday, and the +dog's so lost confidence in Elmer in consequence, that Elmer brought him +up to me to take care of. He's a nice dog, but he won't let no one but +me set foot in the kitchen to-day. I don't blame him, I'm sure. He was +sleepin' by Deacon Delmar's grave in the cemetery and woke suddenly to +find his tail gone. It's a lesson to me never to leave the grave-cutting +to no one else again. I'd feel just as the dog does, if I'd been through +a similar experience. Yes, indeed. I was telling Sammy Adams last night +and he said the same." + +"There, Mrs. Ray," said Alva, in a stifled voice, straightening up as +she spoke, "I think that will set you free from all liability; I've +signed them all." + +"Let me see,--you mustn't take it odd that I'm so particular, because a +government position is a responsibility as stands no feeling." She +looked at the signatures carefully, one after the other. "Yes, they're +right," she said then; "it wasn't that I doubted you, but honesty's the +best policy, and I ought to know, for it was the only policy my husband +didn't let run out before he died without telling me. He had four when I +married him--just as many as he had children by his first wife--he had +six by his second--and his name and the fact that it was a honest one, +was all he left me to live on and bring up his second wife's children +on. Goodness knows what he done with his money; he certainly didn't lay +it by for the moths and rust, for I'm like the text in the +Bible--wherever are moths and rust there am I, too. Yes, indeed, and +with pepper and sapolio into the bargain; but no, the money wasn't +there, for if it was where it could rust it would be where I could get +it." + +Alva smiled sympathetically, and then she and Lassie almost rushed out +into the open air. When they were well out of hearing, they dared to +laugh. + +"Oh, my gracious me," Lassie cried; "how can you stand it and stay +sober?" + +"I can't, that's the trouble!" Alva gasped. "My dear, she felt strange +before you, and was rather reticent, but wait till she knows you +well--until to-morrow. Oh, Lassie, she's too amusing! Wait till she gets +started about the dam, or about Niagara, or about her views on running a +post-office, or anything--" she was stopped by Lassie's seizing her +arm. + +"Look quick, over there,--who is that? He looks so out of place here, +somehow. Don't he? Just like civilization." + +Alva looked. "That? Oh, that's Ronald--Ronald Ingram, you know, coming +across lots for his letters. You remember him, surely, when you were a +little girl. He was always at our house then. You'll meet him again +to-night. I'd stop now and introduce you, only I want to hurry." + +"I suppose that he knows all about it?" + +"All about what?" + +"The secret." + +"Ronald? Oh, no, dear. No one knows. No one--that is, except--except we +two. You will be the only outsider to share that secret." + +"For how long?" + +"Until I am married." + +"Until you are married! Why, when are you to be married?--Soon?" + +"In a fortnight." + +"And no one is to know!" + +"No one." + +"Not his family? Not yours?" + +"No one." + +"How strange!" + +Alva put out her hand and stayed the words upon her friend's lips. +"Look, dear, this is the Long Bridge. You've heard of it all your life; +now we're going to walk across it. Look to the left; all that lovely +scene of hill and valley and the little white town with green blinds is +Ledgeville; and there to the right is the famous gorge, with its banks +of gray and its chain of falls, each lovelier than the last. Stand still +and just look; you'll never see anything better worth looking at if +you travel the wide world over." + +They stopped and leaned on the bridge-rail in silence for several +minutes, and then Alva continued softly, almost reverently: "This scene +is my existence's prayer. I can't make you understand all that it means +to me, because you can't think how life comes when one is crossing the +summit--the very highest peak. I've climbed for so long,--I'll be +descending upon the other side for so long,--but the hours upon the +summit are now, and are wonderful! I should like to be so intensely +conscious that not one second of the joy could ever fade out of my +memory again. I feel that I want to grave every rock and ripple and +branch and bit of color into me forever. Oh, what I'd give if I might +only do so. I'd have it all to comfort me afterwards then--afterwards in +the long, lonely years to come." + +"Why, Alva," said her friend, turning towards her in astonishment, "you +speak as if you didn't expect to be happy but for a little while." + +A sad, faint smile crept around Alva's mouth, and then it altered +instantly into its usual sweet serenity. + +"Come, dear," she said; "we'll hurry on to the house, and then after +you've seen it we'll go to my own dear forest-seat, and there I'll tell +you the whole story." + +"Oh, let us hurry!" Lassie said, impetuously; "I can't wait much +longer." + +So they set quickly forward across the Long Bridge. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE DIFFERENCE + + +On the further side of the Long Bridge the railway tracks swept off in a +smooth curve to the right, and, as there was a high embankment to adapt +the grade to the hillside, a long flight of steps ran down beside it +into the glen below. + +A pretty glen, dark with shadows, bright with dancing sun-rays. A glen +which bore an odd likeness to some lives that we may meet (if we have +that happiness), lives that lead their ways in peace and beauty, with +the roar and smoke of the world but a stone's throw distant. + +Lassie's eyes, looking down, were full of appreciation. + +"Is it there that you are going to live?" she asked. + +Alva shook her head. "Oh, no, not there; that is Ledge Park, the place +that all the hue and cry is being raised over just now." + +"Oh, yes," Lassie turned eagerly; "tell me about that. I read something +in the papers, but I forgot that it was here." + +"It is 'here,' as you say. But it concerns all the country about here, +only it's much too big a subject for us to go into now. There are two +sides, and then ever so many sides more. I try to see them all, I try to +see every one's side of everything as far as I can, but there is one +side that overbalances all else in my eyes, and that happens to be the +unpopular one." + +"That's too bad." + +"Yes, dear," Alva spoke very simply; "but what makes _you_ say so?" + +"Why? Why, because then you won't get what you want." + +Her friend laughed. "Don't say that in such a pitying tone, Lassie. +Better to be defeated on the right side, than to win the most glorious +of victories for the wrong. Who said that?" + +Lassie looked doubtful. + +Alva laughed again and touched her cheek with a finger-caress. "I'll +tell you just this much now, dear;--all of both the river banks--above, +below and surrounding the three falls--belong to Mr. Ledge, and he has +always planned to give the whole to the State as a gift, so that there +might be one bit of what this country once was like, preserved. He made +all his arrangements to that end, and gave the first deeds last winter. +What do you think followed? As soon as the State saw herself practically +in possession, it appointed a commission to examine into the +possibilities of the water power!" Alva paused and looked at her friend. + +"But--" Lassie was clearly puzzled. + +"The engineers are here surveying now. Ronald Ingram is at the head and +the people of all the neighborhood are so excited over the prospect of +selling their farms that no one stops to think what it would really +mean." + +"What would it really mean?" + +"A manufacturing district with a huge reservoir above it." + +"Where?" + +"Back there," she turned and pointed; "they say that there was a great +prehistoric lake there once, and they will utilize it again." + +"But there's a town down there." + +"Yes, my dear, Ledgeville. Ledgeville and six other towns will be +submerged." + +Lassie stopped short on the railroad track and stared. She had come to a +calamity which she could realize now. + +"Why, what ever will the people do then?" + +"Get damages. They're so pleased over being drowned out. You must talk +it over with Mrs. Ray. You must get Mrs. Ray's standpoint, and then get +Ronald's standpoint. Theirs are the sensible, practical views, the +world's views. My views are never practical. I'm not practical. I'm only +heartbroken to think of anything coming in to ruin the valley. Mr. Ledge +and I share the same opinions as to this valley; it seems to us too +great a good to sell for cash." + +"You speak bitterly." + +"Yes, dear, I'm afraid that I do speak bitterly. On that subject. But we +won't talk of it any more just now. See, here's the wood road that leads +to my kingdom; come, take it with me." + +They turned into a soft, pine-carpeted way on the left, and in the +length of a bow-shot seemed buried in the forest. + +"Lassie, wait!" + +Turning her head, Lassie saw that Alva had stopped behind, and was +standing still beside where a little pine-tree was growing out from +under a big glacial boulder. She went back to her. + +"Dear, look at this little tree. Here's my daily text." + +"How?" + +"Do you see how it has grown out and struggled up from under the rock?" + +Lassie nodded. + +"You know very little of what makes up life, dear. I've sent for you to +teach you." She lifted her eyes earnestly to the face near hers, and her +own eyes were full of appeal. "Lassie, try to understand all I say to +you these days; try to believe that it's worth learning. See this little +tree--" she touched her fingers caressingly to the pine branches as she +spoke--"it's a very little tree, but it has taught me daily since I +came, and I believe that you can learn of it, too." + +Lassie's big eyes were very big indeed. "Learn of a tree!" + +Alva lifted one of the little stunted uneven branches tenderly in her +fingers. "This is its lesson," she said; "the pine-cone fell between the +rocks; it didn't choose where it would fall, it just found itself alive +and under the rocks; there wasn't much earth there, but it took root and +grew. There was no room to give out branches, so it forced its way +crookedly upward; crookedly because there was no room to grow straight, +but always upward; there wasn't much sunlight, but it was as bravely +green as any other tree; the big rock made it one-sided, but it put out +thickly on the side where it had space. My life hasn't been altogether +sunlit. I was born between rocks, and I have been forced to grow +one-sided, too. But the tree's sermon came home to me the first day that +I saw it. Courageous little tree, doing your best in the woods, where +no one but God could take note of your efforts,--you'll be straight and +have space and air and sunshine in plenty next time--next time! Oh, +blessed 'next time' that is to surely right the woes of those who keep +up courage and continue fighting. That's the reward of all. That's the +lesson." + +Lassie listened wonderingly. "Next time!" she repeated questioningly, +"what next time? Do you believe in a heaven for trees?" + +"I am not sure of a heaven for anything," said Alva, "not an orthodox +heaven. But I believe in an endless existence for every atom existing in +the universe, and I believe that each atom determines the successive +steps of its own future, and so a brave little pine-tree fills me with +just as sincere admiration as any other species of bravery. 'Next time'! +It will have a beautiful 'next time' in the heaven which means something +so different from what we are taught, or here again on earth, or +wherever its little growing spirit takes form again. I'm not wise enough +to understand much of that, but I'm wise enough to know that there is a +next time of so much infinitely greater importance than this time, that +this time is really only of any importance at all in comparison just +according to how we use it in preparation. That's part of the lesson +that the tree teaches. But you can't understand me, Lassie, unless you +are able to grasp my belief--my fixed conviction--that this world is +only an instant in eternity. I couldn't live at all unless I had this +belief and hope, and it's the key to everything with me; so +please--please--give me credit for sincerity, at least." + +Lassie looked thoroughly awed. "I'll try to see everything just as you +do," she said. + +Alva pressed her hand. "Thank you, dear." + +Then they went on up the road. + +Presently the sound of hammer and saw was heard, and the smell of wet +plaster and burning rubbish came through the trees. + +"Is it from your house?" Lassie asked, with her usual visible relief at +the approach of the understandable. + +"Yes, from my house," Alva answered. "They are very much occupied with +my house; fancy buying a dear, old, dilapidated dwelling in the +wilderness, and having to make it new and warm and bright and cheerful +in a fortnight! Why, the tale of these two weeks will go down through +all the future history of the country, I know. Such a fairy tale was +never before. I shall become the Legend of Ledge, I feel sure." + +The road, turning here, ended sharply in a large, solid, wooden gate, +set deep in a thick hedge of pine trees. + +"It is like a fairy tale!" Lassie cried delightedly; "a regular +Tourangean _porte_ with a _guichet_!" + +"It is better than any fairy tale," said Alva; "it is Paradise, the +lovely, simple-minded, Bible-story Paradise, descending upon earth for a +little while." She pushed one half of the great gate-door open, and they +went through. + +A small, old-fashioned, Colonial dwelling rose up before them in the +midst of dire disorder. Shingling, painting, glass-setting, and the like +were all going forward at once. Workmen were everywhere; wagons loading +and unloading were drawn up at the side; mysterious boxes, bales and +bundles lay about; confusion reigned rampant. + +"Not exactly evolution, but rather revolution," laughed Alva, ceasing +transcendentalism with great abruptness, and becoming blithely gay. "And +oh, Lassie, the joy of it, the downright childish fun of it! Don't you +see that I couldn't be alone through these days; they are too grand to +be selfish over. I had to have some one to share my fun. We'll come here +and help every day after this; the pantries will be ready soon, and you +and I will do every bit of the putting them in order. Screw up the +little hooks for the cups, you know, and arrange the shelves, and oh, +won't we have a good time?" + +Lassie's eyes danced. "I just love that kind of work," she said, fully +conscious of the pleasant return to earth, "I can fit paper in drawers +beautifully." + +"Which proves that after all women stay women in spite of many modern +encouragements to be men," Alva said. "You know really I'm considered to +be most advanced, and people look upon me as quite intellectual; but I'm +fairly wild over thinking how we'll scrub the pantries, and put in the +china--and then there's a fine linen-closet, too. We'll set that in +order afterwards, and put all the little piles straight on the shelves." + +By this time they had gone up the plank that bridged over the present +hiatus between ground and porch, and entered the living-room, which was +being papered in red with a green dado and ceiling. + +"How pretty and bright!" Lassie exclaimed. + +"It's going to be furnished in the same red and green, with little +book-shelves all around and the dining table in the middle," Alva +explained. "Oh, I do love this room. It's my ideal sitting-room. It has +to be the dining-room, too, but I don't mind that." + +"Won't the table have to be very small?" + +"Just big enough for two." + +"But when you have company?" + +"We shall never have any company." + +"I mean when you have friends with you here." + +"I shall never have any friends with me, dear." + +"Alva! Why--I can come--can't I?--Sometime?" + +Alva shook her head. + +"That's part of the story, Lassie, part of the story that I am going to +tell you in a few minutes now. But be a little patient, dear; give me a +few minutes more. Come in here first; see--this was the dining-room, but +it has been changed into--I don't know what. A sort of bedroom, I +suppose one would call it. I've had it done in blue, with little green +vines and birds and bees and butterflies painted around it. Birds and +bees and butterflies are always so lively and bright, so busy and +cheerful. All the pictures here are going to be of animals, either out +in the wild, free forest or else in warm, sunshiny farmyards. I have a +lovely print of Wouverman's 'Im Stall' to hang in the big space. You +know the picture, don't you?--the shadowy barn-room with one whole side +open, and the hay dripping from above, and the horses just ridden in, +and the chickens scratching, and some little children playing in the +corner by the well. It's such a sweet _gemuthliche_ picture--so full of +fresh country air--I felt that it was the picture of all others to hang +in this room. There will be a big sofa-bed at one side, and my piano, +and pots of blooming flowers. And you can't think, little Lassie, of all +that I look forward to accomplishing in this room. I expect to learn to +be a very different woman, every atom and fibre of my being will be +altered here. All of my faults will be atoned for--" she stopped +abruptly, and Lassie turned quickly with an odd impression that her +voice had broken in tears. + +"Alva!" she exclaimed. + +"It's nothing, dear, only that side of me that keeps forgetting the +lesson of the tree. Don't mind me,--I am so happy that you must not mind +anything nor must I mind anything either; but--when I come into this +room and think--" her tone suddenly turned dark, full of quivering +emotion, and she put her hand to her eyes. + +"Alva, tell me what you mean? I feel frightened,--I must know what's +back of it all now. Tell me. Tell me!" + +"I'm going to tell you in just a minute, as soon as I've shown you all +over the house." She took her handkerchief, pressed it to her eyes, made +a great, choking effort at self-control, and then managed to go on +speaking. "See," pushing open a door, "this is a nice little +dressing-room, isn't it? And then around and through this narrow back +hall comes the kitchen. There is an up-stairs, but I've done nothing +there except make a room comfortable and pleasant for the Japanese +servant who will do the work, that is, all that I don't do myself." + +"Won't you want but one servant?" + +"I think so. A man from outside will take the extras, and really it's a +very small house, dear. The laundry will be sent out. Dear me, how I do +enjoy hearing that kind of speech from my own lips. 'The laundry will be +sent out!' That sounds so delightfully commonplace, so sort of everyday +and like other people. I can't express to you what the commonplaces, +the little monotonies of ordinary lives, mean to me here. You'll divine +later, perhaps. But fancy a married life where nothing is too trivial to +be glorified! That is how things will be with us." + +"Are you so sure?" Lassie tried to smile and speak archly. Tried very +hard to do both, because an intangible atmosphere of sorrow was +beginning to press heavily on her spirits. + +"Very sure,--really, quite confident. You must not think that, because I +sob suddenly as I did just now, I am ever weak or ever doubt myself or +any one else. I never doubt or waver. It is only that no matter how hard +one tries, one can hardly rise completely out of the thrall of one +existence into the freedom of another at only a week's notice." + +"Is that what you are trying to do?" + +"Dear, I'm not only trying to do it, but the greater part of the time I +do do it. It's only very seldom that my soul faints and the tears come. +I am really happy! You are not going to be able to comprehend how happy +I am. Every one who wants anything in this world always wants it in such +a narrow, finite way,--no one can understand joy too limitless to be +finite. The difficulty is that occasionally I get blind myself, or else +in mercy God sometimes veils the splendor for a few minutes. When I +faint or struggle, it is just that my soul is absent; you must not mind +when you see me suffer, for the suffering has no meaning. It's just a +sort of discipline,--it doesn't count." She smiled with wonderful +brightness into Lassie's troubled face, and then, pushing open the outer +door,--"You don't quite see how it is, but be patient with yourself, +dearie; it will come. All things come to him who waits." + +"Oh, but I don't understand, not one bit," Lassie cried, almost +despairingly. + +They were in the yard now; Alva looked at her and took her hand within +her own. "Come," she said, "we'll go down through the woods to a certain +lovely, bright spot where the view is big and wide, and there I'll tell +you all about it." + +"I so want to know!" + +"I know you do, dear, and I want to tell you, too. I'm not purposely +tormenting you, but there is no one else to whom I can speak. And that +human, sobbing part of me needs companionship just as much these days, +as the merry, house-loving spirit, or the beatifically blessed soul. +Can't you see, dear, that with all my affection for you, I dread telling +you my story, and the reason for that is that it will be too much for +you to comprehend at first, and that I know perfectly well that it is +going to shock and pain you." The last words burst forth like a storm +repressed. + +"Shock and pain me!" Lassie opened mouth and eyes. + +"Yes, dear, of a certainty." + +They were in the woods, quite alone. + +Involuntarily Lassie drew a little away; a common, cruel suspicion +flashed through her head. "Alva, is it--is it that you do not mean to +marry the man?" + +Alva laughed then, not very loudly, but clearly and sweetly. "No, +Lassie, it isn't that. I am going to be married in the regular way and, +besides, I will tell you in confidence that I fully believe that I have +been married to the same man hundreds of times before, and shall be +married to him countless times again. Does that help you?" + +"Alva!" + +"There! I told you that you wouldn't understand, and you don't." + +"No, I certainly don't, when you talk like that." + +"It's natural that you shouldn't, dear; but at the end of the week you +will, perhaps. We'll hope so, any way. Oh, Lassie, how much we are both +to live and learn in the next week." + +Lassie turned her eyes to the eyes of the other. + +"It's queer, Alva; you talk as if you were crazy, but I know you're not +crazy, and yet I'm worried." + +"You don't need to be worried,--" + +"I'll try not to be." She raised her sweet eyes to her friend's face as +she spoke, and her friend bent and kissed her. "Don't keep me waiting +much longer," she pleaded. + +They were passing through the little, tree-grown way which led out on +the brow of the hill. All the wide, radiant wonder of that October +morning unrolled before them there. For an instant Lassie stood +entranced, forgetting all else; and then: + +"Tell me now!" she cried. + +"Let us sit down here," Alva said, pointing to a rough seat made out of +a plank laid across two stumps. They sat down side by side. + +"Alva, it seems as if I cannot wait another minute; I must know it all +now. Tell me who he is, first; is it some one that I know?" + +Alva's eyes rested on the wide radiance beyond. + +"You know of him, dear," she replied quietly. + +"Who is it?" + +The woman laid her arm around the girl and drew her close and kissed her +gently. Then she whispered two words in her ear. + +With a scream, Lassie started to her feet. "Oh--no!--no!--_no!_" + +Alva looked straight up at her where she stood there above her and +smiled, steadily. + +"No, no,--it can't be! I didn't hear right." + +"Yes, you heard quite right." + +The girl's hands shook violently; tears came fast pouring down her face. +"But, Alva, he is--he can't--" + +Tears filled the other's eyes, too, at that, and stole thickly out upon +her cheeks. "I know, my dear child, but didn't I tell you how to me--to +us--this life is only a small part of the whole?" + +"Oh, but--but--oh, it's too horrible!" She sank down on the seat again +and burst out sobbing. + +"No, dear," Alva exclaimed, her voice suddenly firm, "not horrible, just +that highest summit of life of which I spoke before--the point toward +which I've lived, the point from which I shall live ever afterwards,--my +point of infinite joy,--my all. For he is the man I love--have always +loved--shall always love. Only, dear, don't you see?--he isn't a _man_ +as you understand the word; the love isn't even _love_ as you understand +love. It's all so different! So different!" + +A long, keenly thrilling silence followed, broken only by the sound of +the younger girl's repressed weeping. + +It was one of those pauses during which men and women forget that they +are men and women, that the world is the world, or that life is life. +Every human consideration loses weight, and one is stunned into heaven +or oblivion, according to his or her preparation for such an entry to +either state. + +The two friends remained seated side by side, facing the wonderful +valley in all its rich beauty of varied colorings; but neither saw +valley or color, neither remembered for a little what she was or where +she was. Alva, with her hands linked around her knees, was out and away +into another existence; Lassie, her eyes deadened and darkened with a +horror too acute for any words to relieve, sat still beside her, and +knew nothing for the time being but a fearful throbbing in her +temples--a black cloud smothering her whole brain--and tears. + +It was Lassie who broke the silence at last, trying hard to speak +evenly. "But, Alva, I never knew ... when did you learn to love him ... +why--" her voice died again just there, and she buried her face on the +other's shoulder. + +Alva laid her hand upon the little hand that shook under a fresh stress +of emotion, and said gently, her tone one of deepest pity: "Shall I tell +you all about it? Would you like to know the whole story?" + +"Oh, yes, yes,--so much." + +"You'll try to be patient and give yourself time to really see how +things may be to one who is altogether outside of your way of thinking, +won't you, dear? You won't pass judgment too quickly?" + +"I'll try. Indeed, I will, as well as I can--" + +Alva pressed the hand. "Dear little girl," she said, very tenderly, "you +see I look at even you with quite different eyes from those with which +the ordinary person sees you. If you could only see things as I do, +you'd see everything so much more clearly. How can I put it all straight +for you? When even my love for you is not at all what any other gives +you." + +Lassie lifted up her head. "How do you mean?" + +"There are two Lassies to me, dear,--the pretty, sweet-looking girl, and +the Lassie who loves me. Most people confuse the two, and think them one +and the same; I don't. No matter what happened to you, the Lassie whom I +love could never alter--she is unchangeable. She is not subject to +change; she doesn't belong to this world; she cannot die. And just as I +feel about you, I feel about everybody. What I can see and touch in +those I love is what I love least in them." + +"Oh, Alva!" it was like a little moan--the girl's voice. + +"That is my earnest belief. Bodies and what they suffer don't count. +That has come to me bit by bit under the pressure of these last years. +But it has come in its completest form in the end. I am entirely +satisfied as to the only truth in the universe being the fact that only +Truth is eternal. Please try to remember all this, while you listen to +my story; try not to forget it. You will, won't you?" + +"I'll try, but it isn't clear to me." + +"No, I don't suppose so--" Alva sighed--"but do your best, my dear;" she +paused a moment, then drew the hand that she held close between her own +two, and went on slowly; "I must tell you first of all that I have never +seen him but three times in my life. Just think--only three times!" + +"Only three--" Lassie looked up in surprise. + +"Only three times. And hardly any one knows that I saw him even those +times. No one knows to-day that we love one another, or that we are to +be married, except the surgeons and nurses, who had to be told, of +course. It's a very great secret." + +"Tell me how it all began, Alva." + +"I don't know when I first heard his name. It all began here, dear, five +years ago. When I stopped off for a few days to visit the Falls. I've +always loved this country, and from the time that I was born I've always +been here for a few days now and then. I always had a queer feeling that +something drew me here. I have those queer feelings about things and +places and people, you know, and out there on the bridge has always +seemed to me a sort of pivot in my life. Every time I go there, the +clock seems to strike some hour for me--" she stopped. + +Lassie opened and shut her free hand with a sensation of being very +uneasy; the suspicion that Alva was not quite sane just lightly crossed +her mind. It certainly was not sane to talk as she did. + +"So I came here again, on my way home from New York, just five years ago +now. And he was here then, staying at Ledge Park, and I saw him for the +first time; we met out there on the bridge;" she stopped for just a +second or so, then went steadily on. "I think I read about him in the +papers. I had learned to admire him intensely--who could help it?--but +of course I'd never for one instant thought of loving him. He was like a +sort of a story-hero to me; he never seemed like a man; I never thought +of any woman's loving him. He just seemed to be himself, all +alone--always alone. He had seemed quite above and apart from all other +men to me. He interested me; I wanted to learn all that I could about +him and his work, and I did learn a great deal, but I'd never dreamed of +meeting him face to face, of really speaking to him, of having his eyes +really looking at me; he seemed altogether beyond and away from my +existence. As if he lived on another world. And then I met him that +evening on the bridge, in just the simplest sort of way. Oh, it was very +wonderful." + +"Did you know him right off?" + +"Yes, he looked just like his picture; but then I knew him in another +way, too. I can't describe it; it was all very--very strange. It doesn't +seem strange to me now, but it would seem almost too strange to you." + +"Won't you try to tell me?" + +"I will some day, dear, perhaps. I can't tell you now, I couldn't +explain it all to you; but, anyway, we met and I looked at him and he +looked at me--" she pressed the hand within her own yet closer, adding +simply, "I believe that love--real love--comes like that, first of all +that one look, and then all the past rushes in and makes the bridge to +all the future. Oh, Lassie," her voice sank to a whisper, "when I think +of that meeting and of all that it brought me, I am so happy that I want +to take the whole wide world into my confidence, and beg every one not +to play at love or to take Love's name in vain; but to be patient, and +wait, and starve, or beg, or endure anything, just so as to merit the +joy which may perhaps be going to be. I never had thought of what love +might be; at least I had never been conscious of such thinking. My life +all these years had been bound so straitly and narrowly there at home. +How could I think of anything that would take me from those duties! And +yet I see now that it was all preparation, all the getting ready. If I +had only known it, though,--if I had only known it then! It would all +have been so much easier." + +The whisper died away; she sat quite still looking out over the hills. +Lassie's eyes gazed anxiously upon her; nothing in her own spirit tuned +to this key; instead, flashes of recollection kept lighting up the +present with forgotten paragraphs out of the newspaper accounts of the +accident. She shivered suddenly. + +Alva did not notice. After a while she went on again. + +"Some day you'll learn to love some one, and then you'll know something +of what I feel. I don't want you to suffer enough to know all that I +feel. But, believe me, whatever one suffers, love is worth it. In that +first instant I learned--that first look showed me--that it can mean +all, everything, more even than happiness itself; oh, yes, a great, +great deal more than happiness itself. In one way they're not synonymous +at all, love and happiness. I have been happy without love all my life, +and now I shall love without being what the world calls 'happy'; but I +_shall_ be happy--happy in my own way, just as I am happy now in +something that makes you tremble only to think of." + +She paused; her eyelids fell over her eyes and the lashes quivered where +they lay on her cheeks, but her hand continued to hold Lassie's, warm +and close. There was another long pause. And then another sigh. + +"So in that first hour--it was only one hour--I learned the beginning of +life's biggest lesson--what life may be, what love may be, and also what +for me could never be. For just as soon as I really saw him, I saw why +he had remained alone. It was perfectly plain to me. It was that he +didn't live for himself; he lived to carry out his purpose. One reads of +such people, but I never had met any one who was unable to see himself +in his own life before. It was a tremendous lesson to me. It was like +opening a door and looking suddenly out upon a new order of universe. +Everything whirled for the first minutes, and then I saw that my own +life had been sufficiently unselfish to have made me capable of +comprehending his. It rose like a flood through my soul, that everything +has a reason, and that my blind, stupid, hopeless years there at home +had all been leading straight up to that minute. It was such a +revelation, and such a new light on all things. I was born anew, myself; +I have never been the same woman since. Never, never!" + +Lassie's brows drew together; the revelation did not appeal to her +personal reason as reasonable. + +"We talked for quite a while--not about ourselves--we understood each +other too well to need do that. It seems to me now that we were almost +one then, but I didn't know it. All I knew was that I could measure a +little of what he was, and that there was a bond between us of absolute +content in working out God's will rather than our own. I believe now +that that is really the only true love or the only true basis for any +marriage, and that when that mutual bond is once accepted, nothing can +alter, not even an ocean rolling between--not even ten oceans. He spoke +of the Falls, and he spoke of his own work. I listened and thanked God +that I knew what he meant, and comprehended what it meant to me. At the +end of the hour we parted, and I came back to the hotel and started for +home the morning after.... He went away, too, and it was later--when we +began to write letters--that our life together, our beautiful ideal life +together, began. You can't realize its happiness any more than you can +measure all that my words really mean. I can't explain myself any +better, either. After a while it will all come to you, I hope. I went on +with the work at home, and he continued his labors which allowed him +neither home nor family. Nobody knew and nobody would have known, even +if he or she thought that they knew. The very best and loveliest things +lie all around the most of us, and the best and loveliest of all +treasures are within our own hearts--and yet very few of us know +anything about them. Perhaps better that the world in general shouldn't +understand the joy of my kind of love, anyhow; it isn't time for that +yet." + +"How, Alva?" + +She smiled almost whimsically, "Dearest, as soon as the whole world +understands that sort of life, its own mission will be fulfilled, and +then there will be no more of this particular world. You see!" + +"Oh!" + +"So then, dear, time went on and on, and I was happy, very happy. And he +was very happy, also. There was something truly childlike in his +happiness; he had never expected love in his life, because he had never +thought of meeting any one who would be able to adapt herself to his +circumstances. We never met, because it didn't seem best or wise. We +just loved, and I don't believe that any two people have ever been +happier together than we were, apart, for these five years--these happy, +happy five years." + +Lassie felt a deepening misery; the last horrible part must be going to +come now. + +Alva passed her hand over her eyes and drew a long breath. + +"It's so difficult to be different from other people, and then to bear +their way of looking at things. It's so hopeless to try to translate +one's feeling into their language all the time. How can I go on, when I +know just how it all looks to you. It's fearfully hard for me." + +"I won't say a word,"--the girl's cry was pitiful. + +Alva threw both arms quickly about her and held her close. "Bless you, +darling, I know it. But you'll suffer and I know that, too; and I feel +your suffering more than you guess. I know just how it all seems to you. +There is that within me which shudders too, sometimes, and would shrink +and weep only for the strong, divine power that fills me with something +better than I can describe, something big enough and high enough to +fight down the coward. You have that same divinity within you, dear, and +you can't tell when or where it will be called out, but once it is +called out, you never will be weak in the face of this earth's woes." + +Lassie was weeping softly again. + +"One morning--you know when--I opened the paper to read it to papa after +breakfast, and I saw on the first page, across the top in bright red +letters, that he had been killed." + +There was a little sharp cry--"But he wasn't?"--and then a great sob. + +"No, dear, but that was the first report." + +"And you thought--" + +"Yes, of course I believed it. But, Lassie, try to calm +yourself--because it wasn't to me what you think. I was calm; I had +learned so much, he had taught me so much, during the five years, that I +astonished myself with my strength; really, I did. I went about all that +day just as usual, only thinking with a white sort of numbness how long +the rest of life would seem; and then, in the evening, the paper said +that he was still alive. Then I telegraphed and the next day I went to +him. I knew that I must go to him and see him once more, so I arranged +things and went. I was surprised all the journey at my own courage; it +was like a miracle, my power over myself. It was a long journey, but I +knew that I should see him again at the end. I knew that he would not +leave me without saying good-bye, now that he was conscious that he was +going. I was sure of that. So confident can love and strength be in love +and strength. + +"I arrived--I went to the hospital--they had the room darkened +because--well, you can guess. I went to where the bed stood and knelt +down beside him, and laid my hand on his bosom. I felt his heart +beating--ever so faintly, but still beating,--and I heard his voice. +Only think, I had not heard his voice for five years! To you or to any +one else it might have all been frightful, because, of course, the +reality was frightful. The man, as you understand men, was mangled and +dying, and could not possibly be with me except for a few brief days. +But, oh, my dearest,--with me it was so different; it was all so +absolutely different. The man that _I_ loved was unhurt, and the evil +chance had only made us nearer and dearer forever. I don't say that I +was not trembling, and that I was not almost unnerved by the shock; but +I can say, too, and say truly, that the Something Divine which had +filled me from the first day, filled and upheld me and made me know that +all was good even then, even in that dark hour and in that dark room, +where he whom I held dearest on earth was chained to pain beneath my +hand. The nurses were very kind. They left me there beside him while he +was conscious and unconscious for some hours. They saw very quickly that +it was different with us from most people; and when I went out two of +the surgeons took me into a room alone and told me the truth. + +"I think that then was the greatest moment of my life--when I +comprehended that one who was not killed outright by such a shock might +live even months until--until--Well, if a man so injured has vitality +enough to live at all, he may--live--" + +"Don't go on, Alva, please,--I don't want to know how long he may live." + +"No, dear, I won't go into that. Only you must think that to me it was +such unexpected heaven. Instead of death, he was alive. Instead of +separation for this life, we were to have some days of absolute +companionship. It was something so much more than I had ever thought of +hoping. A life--even for a day--together! Companionship! Not letters, +but words. I to be his nurse, his solace, to have him for my own. I +stayed awake all night thinking. I knew what being swept suddenly away +meant to him. I knew of his life plans, and what made death hardest to +him. It came to me that I might ease that bitterness. That his need +could go forth through the medium of my love and interest. That his work +would pass on into other hands through mine. That all the golden web of +Fate had been woven directly to this end." + +Lassie continued sobbing. + +"I saw what we could do. In the morning I went to the surgeons, and they +said that each day added a week of possible life, and that although it +would be many days before anything could be done, after that, he could +be moved and wait for the end--with me. I went to him then, and again I +knelt there by the bed, and this time I told him how I was going to +spend the weeks, and what he must look forward to. He was unable to +talk, but he looked at me and--like the first time--we understood one +another absolutely. He accepted the happiness that was to be as +gratefully as I did myself. As I said before, it was so much more--so +much more--than we had ever expected! He took up his burden of agony as +cheerfully and courageously as he had taken everything in life, and I +came away. There was no use in my remaining there, as he would be either +unconscious or--I could not remain there; the surgeons forbade it. + +"Then I had to find a place quickly, a place where no one would come or +would see. A place where he and I could share life and God, who is Life, +without any outsiders breaking in to stare and wonder." + +Her voice suddenly became broken and hurried. "Of course I thought of +Ledge, where we had first met, and I wrote to Ronald at once. He found +me that dear little nest back there, and--" she stopped, for Lassie had +suddenly started to her feet. "What is it, dear?" + +"Oh, I can't bear it at all. To me it is horrible--horrible! Why, he can +never stand up again--he--Oh, I want to be alone. I must be alone. +I'll--I'll come back--in time--" + +She did not wait to finish; she gave one low, bitter cry, and wrung her +hands. Then she ran down the steep, little path that led to Ledgeville, +leaving her friend on the hilltop, with the October sun pouring its +splendor all about her. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THAT DISPASSIONATE OBSERVER, MRS. RAY + + +THERE never was the human tragedy, comedy, or melodrama, yet, which did +not have one or more dispassionate observers. This is strictly true +because, even if a man goes off into the wilderness to fight his fight +out utterly alone, there are moments when one part of his own spirit +will dissever itself from all the rest and, standing forth, tell him of +his progress or retrogression with a pitiless, unbiassed truth. The +wilderness is advisable for that very reason, but no one makes a greater +mistake than when he or she goes to a small far-away village and +pleasantly terms it "the wilderness," supposing soul-solitude an +integral part thereof. It is very right, proper, and conventional to +view life from one's own standpoint, but the real facts of the case are +old and trite enough to warrant me in repeating the statement that all +doings in this world have their dispassionate observer. + +Mrs. Ray was the natural observer for the town of Ledge. The town was +not quite aware that added to her keen powers of observation she was +also the Voice of the community. People never expressed themselves +fully, without first knowing what she said. Public opinion simmered all +over the township, so to speak, and then finally boiled over in Mrs. +Ray. + +It will be quite impossible to impress upon the ordinary reader the +importance of such Public Opinion, unless a few paragraphs are devoted +to the town of Ledge and its history. If one fails to properly +appreciate the town of Ledge, the tale might just as well have been +located in North Ledge, South Ledge, Ledgeville, Ledge Centre, or any of +the other Ledges. + +Therefore on behalf of the lovely little hamlet of Ledge itself, I will +state in as few words as possible that it lies upon a hill overlooking +one of the most beautiful and picturesque scenes in all Northeastern +America; that it took its name and being from a great and noble-hearted +man, who, passing that way by chance, half a century since, paused near +its site to sadly contemplate the denuded banks of the little river +winding its way amidst the debris and desolation left by the lumber +barons of the period. Time was when the same banks had been smiling +terraces covered thick with primeval pines, but "civilization" had +demanded their downfall and they fell. Fell without warning, and also +without discretion. Fell forever, flinging the riches of all the future +aside for the plenty of one man's day. Blackened stumps, great beds of +unsightly chips, waste which would never have been called waste in any +other land, ruthless destruction,--all this disfigured the landscape +that stretched before that visitor of fifty years ago. His heart was +heavy, for he was one who loved everything good, and trees and beauty +are two of man's best gifts from above; but while he gazed over what to +him and many others was almost as much desecration as desolation, he +saw, forever flowing--however choked--the little river below. Like the +thread of idealism which illuminates the most despairing situation, so +flowed the silvery stream down through the scene before him. Its bed was +clogged with drift, its banks covered with rotting rubbish, yet the +promise of its beauty remained; and then and there the traveller +formulated a plan for its redemption to the end that unborn generations +might revel in the realization of that of which he alone seemed then +conscious. + +The town of Ledge was a part of what resulted. There had to be a town, +and Ledge came into existence. Where there is work to be done, come the +workers, and with them come towns. Ledge came and grew. To the call of +prosperity many other Ledges gathered a little later; but they never +enjoyed the dignity of the one and original. The first Ledge was +tenacious of its priority. It held to its privileges as rigidly as any +medieval knight held to his. Castled upon the hill above, it simulated +power in more ways than one. For many years all the others had to go to +Ledge for their mail. Ledge also owned the sheriff, the blacksmith, and +the lawyer, and kept a monopoly on the summer excursionist; the express +office was its natural perquisite; a bend of the canal took it in, and +when the canal went the railroad came to console the losers. Mr. Ledge's +plans, which had turned his private estate into a public park for the +gently disposed, also held Ledge in high honor. To visit Ledge Park from +any of the other Ledges was rendered well-nigh impossible. The little +town stood like a sentinel at the end of the Long Bridge, and at the top +of the First Fall. Every picnicker had to go through it, had to check +such articles as could not conveniently be carried all day, in its +hotel; had to get whatever he might feel disposed to drink in the same +place. During the summer, visitors were so plenteous that it became the +fashion in Ledge to despise them, and that right heartily, too. The +people who brought the town most of its means of livelihood received +much that species of sentiment with which an irritating husband and +father is frequently viewed. It was the fashion in Ledge to despise city +people and their ways in all things; even their coming to see the Falls +was referred to as special proof of their singularly feeble minds, while +the way in which the visitors climbed and walked was the favorite topic +of mirthful criticism, all summer long. Criticism is a strange habit. It +is contagious, thrives in any soil or no soil at all, and is far more +destructive to him or her who gives it birth than it can possibly be to +any other person. Not that it really is destructive, but that the weight +of criticism rarely falls where it is supposed to be most needed. + +The summer visitors evoked so much comment between May and November that +a great longing to have something to talk about between November and May +followed. It therefore became the fashion in Ledge to talk of everything +and everybody, and as the summer visitors were rated low, the rest of +the world was pretty freely given over to the same cataloguing. It was +usual to rate Ledgeville and all the other Ledges particularly low, and +this opinion held firm, until a biting edge was given it by a second +railroad which came down the valley's bottom to the unspeakable wrath of +the hills on either side and of Ledge in special. It took several years +to assimilate the second railroad, and resume the even tenor of life. +But the adjustment was finally made, and at the date of this story Ledge +was a wee country idyll set like a pearl amidst the beautiful +environment of that fairest of country counties. He who was responsible +for town and environment lived on his own estate near by, and came in +for his share of consideration from the tongues of his namesake. The +great philanthropist was busily engaged in his battle to preserve +intact, for the good of the many to come, that matchless picture with +its open Bible of Nature's Own History. Of the picture and its practical +value, Ledge had its own opinion. It had its own opinion of the dam, +too. It had its own opinion of Alva. And of Lassie. And of Ingram. And +all these opinions flowed freely forth through the medium of Mrs. Ray. +As that lady herself put it: "Whether I'm picking chickens or digging +fence-posts, or carting the United States mail down to the train in the +wheelbarrow that I had to buy and the United States Government won't pay +for,--I never am idle; I'm always taking in something." + +And it was quite true. Whatever Mrs. Ray was working at, her brain was +never idle; it was always absorbing something. It was not uncommon to +see a neighbor walking with her while she ploughed, conversation going +briskly on meanwhile. She swept the church with company, and she almost +never sat alone between mail times. It was a full, busy life, and an +interesting one. It was full of importance and responsibility, too. Mrs. +Ray liked to be responsible and was naturally important. Her opinions +were in the main correct, but sometimes she did draw wrong conclusions. +For instance, when she looked down the road the morning after Lassie's +arrival, and saw the two friends departing over the Long Bridge. + +"Oh, dear," she said to whoever was near by at the minute, "I smell +trouble for that oldest one if she's planning to keep that pretty girl +here long. That man is going to fall in love with that pretty girl. He +never has cared much for her, anyway. He don't even seem to like to go +over to their house with her; she goes alone mostly. Yes, indeed." + +The somebody sitting near by at the minute was Mrs. Dunstall. And +Pinkie, of course. They had dropped in to see if they had any mail, and +had found Mrs. Ray cutting the hair of the three youngest children left +her, first by her predecessor and then by Mr. Ray himself. + +"Sit down," she had said cordially; "the second train isn't in yet, and +it's got to come in and go out and let the mail-train come in, even if +the mail ain't late, on account of the wreck." + +"Oh, is there a wreck?" Mrs. Dunstall asked anxiously. + +"Yes. Forty-four run into a open switch up at Cornell. If the switch is +open, I never see why the train don't just run on out the other end and +keep right along; but all the accidents is as often open switches as +anything, so I guess there's a reason. At any rate, the wrecking-train's +gone up and the second mail's going to be late. Tip your head a little, +Billy. Yes, indeed." + +"I wonder if we'd better wait," said Mrs. Dunstall, unwrapping her shawl +somewhat and taking a chair. "What do you say, Pinkie?" + +Pinkie was already seated. She weighed two hundred pounds and never +stood up when she could help it. "I say 'Wait,'" said Pinkie. + +Mrs. Dunstall thereupon sat down, too, and after ten minutes of a most +solemn silence Mrs. Ray finished her task and dismissed the children. +She faced her callers, then, folding her little gray shoulder-wrap +tightly across her bosom as she did so, and tucking the ends in close +beneath her armpits. The little gray shawl was one of the first signs of +winter in Ledge; Mrs. Ray always donned it at the beginning of October, +and never took it off before the last day of May. + +"Well!" she said now; "anything new come up?" + +"Millicent come on the same train with that girl," Mrs. Dunstall began +at once. "I wasn't really expecting any mail this morning, but I thought +I might as well come down about now and tell you how Millicent come on +the train with her. You know who I mean, of course?" + +"She knows," said Pinkie. + +"I s'posed you would. And so Millicent come on the same train with her. +Seems too curious of Millicent coming on the same train with her, when +Millicent hasn't been on a train but twice in her life before, and then +to think that she would come back with that girl. Things do fall out +queer in this world. She sit right in the seat behind her, too. That was +awful curious, I think." + +Mrs. Ray gave the ends of her shawl a fresh tuck, and drew in some extra +breath. + +"You never can tell," she began; "things do come about mighty strange in +this world. Yes, indeed. It's the unexpected that has happened so much +that it's got to be a proverb in the end. I always feel when a thing has +been coming about till it gets to be proverb, it's no use me disputing +it. Dig around in smoking ashes long enough, and I've never failed to +find some sparks yet. And what you just said is all true as true can +be. It's the unexpected as always happens. Look at me, for instance. +Look at how the post-office fell out of a clear sky on me, and Mr. Ray +much the same, too. I never had any idea of either of 'em beforehand, +and now here I am stamping letters morning and night to keep up the +payments on his tombstone. Things do work in circles so in this world. I +always say if I hadn't been postmistress no one would have expected to +see my husband have a fringed cloth hang on a pillar over his dead body, +and if I hadn't been postmistress I never could have paid for such a +thing. But where there's a will there's a way, which is another proverb +as I've never found go wrong, unless your way is to stay in bed while +you're willing." + +"Oh, but you never could have put anything plain on Mr. Ray--not in your +circumstances, and him passing the plate every Sunday and you the sexton +yourself." Mrs. Dunstall looked almost shocked at the mere fancy. + +"Couldn't I! Well, I guess I could if I'd had my own way. But I wasn't +allowed my own way. Nobody is. That's what holds us back in this world; +it's the being expected to live up to what we've got; and in this +country, where the garden is open to the public, most of us has to live +up to a good deal more'n we've got. If America ever takes to walls, +it'll show it's going to begin to economize. It'll mean we're giving up +tulips and going in for potatoes. And you'll see, Mrs. Dunstall, that +just as soon as we really have to economize we'll begin to build walls. +There's something about economy as likes walls around the house--high +ones." + +"You was raised with walls, wasn't you?" said Mrs. Dunstall. + +"I should think I was. I'm English-born--I am." + +"How old was you when you come to this country, Mrs. Ray?" + +"I've lived here thirty-eight years; that's how old I was." + +"You wasn't here before Mr. Ledge?" + +"No, I wasn't, nor before the Falls, neither." + +"Why, the Falls was here before Mr. Ledge," said Mrs. Dunstall, +enlarging her eyes. "Oh, I see, you're making a joke, Mrs. Ray." + +"I do occasionally make a joke," said Mrs. Ray, giving her shawl another +tuck. + +"Well, to go back to the girl," said Mrs. Dunstall, "she sit right +behind Millicent too, and what makes it all the stranger, is, she asked +Millicent the name of the next station. Millicent told her it was going +to be Ledge, and asked her if she was for Ledge, because if she was for +East Ledge she ought to stay on one station more. You know, Mrs. Ray, +how folks are always getting off here for East Ledge, and having to stay +all night or hire a buggy to drive over--two shillings either way; and +Millicent asked her, too, if she was for Ledge's Crossing, because if +she was for the Crossing the train don't stop there, and Millicent +always was kind-hearted and wanted her to know it right off. You know +how Millicent is, Pinkie; the last time she rode on a train she threw +the two bags off to the old lady who forgot them, and they weren't the +old lady's bags; they were the conductor's, and he had to run the train +way back for them; he did feel so vexed about them, Millicent said." + +"So vexed," said Pinkie. + +"And so then Millicent asked her if maybe she was for Ledgeville, +because if she was for Ledgeville she was on the wrong train, and had +ought to have took the Pennsylvania, unless she telegraphed from Ledge +Centre for the omnibus to come up, which nobody ever knows to do; and +then it come into Millicent's head as maybe she was going to visit Mr. +Ledge, in which case goodness knows what she would do, for although he +gets his mail at Ledge, he gets his company at Castile, and here was +that poor child five miles of bridge and walk out of her way, and +Millicent's heart just bleeding for her, she looked so tired. But she +said she was for Ledge." + +"Yes, I could have told you she was for Ledge," said Mrs. Ray; "there +was two letters for her here. When I have letters for people without +having the people for the letters, it always means one or two +things,--either the people are coming or the letters are addressed +wrong. I learned that long ago. Yes, indeed." + +"Millicent says she liked her looks from the first," pursued Mrs. +Dunstall, "only her hat did amuse her. I must say the hats folks from +town wear is about the most amusing things we ever see here. One year +they pin 'em to their fronts and next year to their backs, and Millicent +says this one was on hindside before with a feather duster upside down +on top. She never saw anything like it; but she said the girl was so +innocent of what a sight she was that she wouldn't have let her see her +laughing behind her back for anything. What do you think of city people +anyhow, Mrs. Ray?" + +"City people are always mooney," responded Mrs. Ray; "such mooney ideas +as come into their heads in the country always. Seems like they save +all their mooney ideas for the country. Yes, indeed. They take off their +hats and their shoes and carry stones around in their handkerchiefs; and +when I see 'em slipping and scrambling up and down that steep bank all +the hot summer long, and taking that walk to the Lower Falls that's +enough to kill any Christian with brains, I most humbly thank our +merciful Father in heaven that I've stayed in the country and kept my +good senses. Yes, indeed. And then what they lug back to town with them! +That's what uses me all up! Roots and stones! Why, I saw some one bring +a root from the Lower Falls last year, yes, indeed." + +"That walk to the Lower Falls is terrible," said Mrs. Dunstall, +meditatively. "I took it once,--and you, too,--didn't you, Pinkie?" + +"Twice," said Pinkie. + +"I took it once, too," said Mrs. Ray, who was never loath to discuss +that famous promenade. "Mr. Ray and me took it together. It was when we +first met. He took me, and we walked to the Lower Falls. It was a awful +walk; I never see a worse one, myself. They say it isn't so bad now. Of +course, the time I went with Mr. Ray was while he was still alive. It +was harder then. He asked me to marry him coming back. Oh, I'll never +forget that awful walk!" + +"It's bad enough yet," said Mrs. Dunstall. "Mr. Ledge has done all he +could to build things to catch hold of where you'd go head over heels to +heaven if he hadn't, but it's a awful walk still. And then the steps! +Why, Nathan and Lizzie was there last summer, and Lizzie says all the +way down she was thinking how she was ever going to be able to get back, +and all the way back she was thinking just the same thing. Going, you +go down steps till it seems like there never would come the bottom, and +coming back you come up steps till you're ready to move to Ledgeville +and live on the bottoms for life. You know how that is, Pinkie?" + +"Yes," said Pinkie. + +"It wouldn't do any good to move to Ledgeville to get rid of the Lower +Falls," said Mrs. Ray, "because the dam is going to do away with the +Lower Falls and drown Ledgeville entirely. That's the next little +surprise the city folks will be giving us." + +"I shall like to stand on the bridge the day they let the water in over +the dam the first time," said Mrs. Dunstall. "It'll be a great sight to +see the valley turn into a lake, and South Ledge and Ledgeville go +under." + +"I wouldn't look forward to it too much if I was you," said Mrs. Ray; +"it's going to take three or four years to dig that dam, they tell me. +You can't lay out a lake and break up three sets of falls in a minute." + +"They haven't got to do something to all the Falls," said Mrs. Dunstall. +"Josiah Bates was holding stakes for one of the surveyors yesterday, and +he heard him say as the Lower Falls wouldn't need a thing, for it was a +mill-race already." + +"Well, it's a blessing if there's one thing ready to their hands," said +Mrs. Ray, "for I must say the way the State has took hold of us, since +Mr. Ledge set out to give it something for nothing, is a caution. If +he'd offered to sell the Falls at cost price, we'd of had a petition and +our taxes increased and been marked 'keep off the grass,' in all +directions; but just because he offered to give it to 'em all cleared up +and in order, they must tear around and build a dam and drown five +villages and go cutting up monkey-shines generally. Yes, indeed." + +"They do say that the dam will keep the Falls, instead of spoiling +them," said Mrs. Dunstall; "they say the Falls is stratifying backward, +and is most through being falls, anyway, and if the dam is built, we'll +all have that to look at always." + +"It'll be all one to me," said Mrs. Ray; "I never get time to look at +nothing, anyway, unless it's folks waiting for their mail, and goodness +knows they've long ceased to interest me." + +Mrs. Dunstall looked a bit uncertain as to how to receive this outburst +of confidence. "It does you good to take a little rest," she said at +last; "you work too hard for a woman of your time of life, Mrs. Ray." + +"Well, I'd like to know how I can help it, with my farm and my chickens +and my grocery business, not to speak of the boarders and the children +and the post-office. When one's a mother and a farmer and a sexton and +an employee under bond to the United States Government one has to keep +on the jump." + +Mrs. Dunstall rearranged the set of her lips slightly. "The mail's very +late, ain't it?" she asked. + +"Late! I should think it was late. I guess that open switch has settled +Forty-four for to-day. But that train's always late. It isn't in the +block yet, and the mail-train follows it." + +"If it don't come soon, I can't wait," said Mrs. Dunstall; "this is one +of my awful days, and speaking of awful days, what do you think of the +doings over at the old Whittaker house, Mrs. Ray?" + +"I've heard she's wrecking it completely." + +"Josiah Bates' been doing some carting there. He says it's enough to +make old Grandma Whittaker shiver in her grave. He says they've turned +the house just about inside out. That girl must be crazy." + +"She is crazy," said Mrs. Ray with decision; "she's in love." + +"Oh!" said Mrs. Dunstall, "with him, you mean?" + +"Of course. But she's crazy two ways, I think, to go bringing that +pretty girl here, and she so thin and white herself. You can't tell me +that that man doesn't know a pretty girl when he sees her, even if he +ain't seen her yet--which he hasn't, for he didn't see 'em this morning. +I know that, for I was watching." + +"That's the train now, isn't it?" said Mrs. Dunstall, listening. + +Mrs. Ray pricked up her ears. "Yes, that's the train, rushing along and +sprinkling soot over everything. Picking hops used to be such nice clean +work, but now they're all over soot." + +"The canal was better, I think," said Mrs. Dunstall. + +Mrs. Ray made no answer; she was absorbed in looking out of the window. + +"It was cleaner, anyhow," Mrs. Dunstall continued; "but they do say the +men swore most awful locking boats through in the night. I never lived +on the canal, myself, but you did, Pinkie; did they swear much or not?" + +"They swore," said Pinkie. + +"Well," said Mrs. Ray, now facing about and making certain active +preparations for the reception of the mail, "it must be nice to spend +your days ways that lets you lay awake nights listening to anything +swear. I've never had time nor money to lay awake nights. I leave that +for those who can, but I can't. Walking to the Lower Falls and laying +awake nights is pleasant, I've no doubt, but I need my days other ways. +Summer folks is always coming in here and saying, 'Oh, have you seen the +gorge this morning, Mrs. Ray,' and me like enough out ploughing in the +opposite direction since sun up. I haven't got any time to lay awake or +to look at views. If the weeds grew up all around my fence-posts while I +was hanging over the bridge looking at the gorge, I guess you'd hear of +it, and since I've taken to raising chickens, there's hen-houses to +spray and me busier than ever. If I was a hen, my day's work would be +over when I'd laid my egg and I could run out with a free mind and look +at the gorge, but as it stands now, I ain't got time to look at +nothing,"--in testimony whereof she disappeared into the kitchen. + +"I'll tell you who's got time," said Mrs. Dunstall as soon as she +reappeared; "it's those Lathbuns down at Nellie's. How long are they +going to stay around here, do you suppose?" + +"I don't know; I don't know anything about them. They don't get any +mail, so I've no way of knowing a thing. My own opinion is that if I was +Nellie I'd keep a sharp eye on my shawls, for folks who come walking +along without baggage, can go walking off without baggage, too. Those +are her shawls they're wearing, you know; they haven't got so much as a +jacket between them of their own." + +"Nellie says they're very nice people," said Mrs. Dunstall; "and the +girl has got a love affair. She don't mind their wearing her shawls." + +"Why don't he write her, then," said Mrs. Ray; "that's the time even the +poorest letter-writer writes letters. Mr. Ray wrote me the first +Thursday after he was in love. I've got the letter yet." + +"What did he write you for, when you was keeping house for him, anyway?" +asked Mrs. Dunstall. + +"He was gone to Ledge Centre for the license." + +"I never see why you married him," said Mrs. Dunstall; "he paid you for +keeping house for him before that, didn't he?" + +"Yes, but he had his mind set on marrying some one, and I thought I'd +better marry him than any one else. And I was fond of the children, and +I didn't know nothing about the mortgages. I always say we was real +fashionable. I didn't know nothing about the mortgages, and he thought I +had some money in the bank. Well, it was an even thing when it all came +out. I guess marriage generally is. Everything else, too." + +"I don't see why the mail don't come, if it's in," said Mrs. Dunstall. + +Mrs. Ray went to the window and looked out. + +"It'll come soon now," she declared, hopefully. + +"But I can't wait any longer," said Mrs. Dunstall, rising, "I wasn't +expecting anything, anyway. Come, Pinkie." + +They both rose and started to go out together. + +But just at the door they met one of the surveyors. + +"Oh, that reminds me why I come," said Mrs. Dunstall, stopping; "young +man, do you know Sallie Busby?" + +The young surveyor looked startled. + +"Chestnuts in a blue and white sunbonnet, mainly?" said Mrs. Dunstall. + +"I don't recollect." + +"Well, you might not have noticed, or she might not have had it on, but +either way she's been most amused watching your young men pegging those +little flags all through her meadow, but she says that when you got +through last night you forgot seven, and she saw 'em when she went out +to pick the two trees up the cow-path this morning, and run down and got +'em, and has 'em all laid by for you whenever you want to send for 'em." + +The young man stood speechless. + +Finally he said: "But they were meant to be left there." + +"Were--were they?" said Mrs. Dunstall, in great surprise; "well, you +ought to have told her so then. She saw you pull some up, so she thought +you meant to pull them all up. Too bad! Now you'll have to get your +machine and go peeking all over her land again, won't you?" + +"We will if she's pulled up the flags, certainly." + +"Well, she's pulled up the flags. If Sallie set out to pull them up, +they'd up, you can count on that! How's the dam coming on, anyway?" + +The young man laughed. "Why, there's no question of the dam yet. You all +seem to think that we're here to build it. We have to make a report to +the commission first, and the commission will lay the report before the +legislature. That's how it is." + +Mrs. Ray folded her arms and joined in suddenly, "So--that's how it is, +is it? Well, I don't wonder it's difficult to run a post-office, when +anything as plain as a dam has to be fussed over like that. By the way, +you're one of the surveyors and you ought to know,--is it true that if +they do build the dam, it may get a little too full and run over into +our valley or burst altogether and drown Rochester? I'm interested to +know." + +"That's what we want to know, too," said Ingram's assistant; "that's +what we're surveying for." + +"How long will it take you to tell? I've got a friend--maybe you know +him, Sammy Adams?--and he owns most of the valley back here. He's the +worrying kind, and he's worried. Yes, indeed." + +"It wouldn't make so much difference about Rochester," said Mrs. +Dunstall; "it's a deal easier to go for our shopping to Buffalo from +here; but wouldn't it be awful for Sammy Adams! Why, his house is right +in the valley." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Ray, "and as a general thing Sammy's right in his +house. It's bad enough now, with the freshets scooping sand all over the +farm every other spring, but if the dam goes and scoops Sammy Adams, the +legislature'll have something else to settle besides the Capitol at +Albany. Sammy Adams looks meek, but he'd never take being drowned +quietly; he's got too much spirit for that. Yes, indeed!" + +"We're going to do away with the freshets, Mrs. Ray," the young man +said; "the dam--if it comes--will be the biggest blessing that ever came +this way, let me tell you. In the summer you'll have a beautiful lake to +sail on, and no end of excursions." + +"Why, I thought they were going to store up the water in spring, and +draw it off in the summer," said Mrs. Dunstall. "A man told my husband +that that was what they wanted the dam for,--to save the high water in +the spring so as to use it in the summer. Wasn't that what Ebenezer +said, Pinkie?" + +"Yes, it was," said Pinkie. + +"How do you explain that?" asked Mrs. Ray, turning an inquisitorial eye +sternly on the surveyor. "Where's your beautiful lake going to be by +July? Marsh and mosquitoes, that's what we'll have left. Don't tell me; +I've seen too many kind thoughts about making folks happy end that way, +and I've seen one or two reservoirs, too. The dam'll drown Sammy Adams, +that's what it'll do, and Ledge'll be left high and dry with a lot of +dead fish lying all over the fields. I know!" + +"Well, we'll see!" said the young man, laughing. + +"But I thought you was all for the dam, Mrs. Ray," said Mrs. Dunstall, a +little surprised. "Whatever has changed you so?" + +Mrs. Ray shut her mouth tightly and then opened it with a snap. "I've +been thinking," she said abruptly; "and I don't mind changing my opinion +when I must. Any one who wants to hold a position under the United +States Government has got to have brains and use 'em freely in changing +their opinion." + +"But you said--" began Mrs. Dunstall. + +"What if I did? Like enough I'll say it again. I will, if I feel like +it. Yes, indeed. 'He moves in a mysterious way,' you know, and I'm one +of His ways, and I've got a right to keep my own counsel about my own +work. But--speaking of work--the mail-train was in before you come up. I +wonder what's become of the bag!" She went to the window and looked down +towards the station. "I do have such trouble to get hold of that bag. +That's one of the hardest things about keeping a post-office, is the +getting hold of the bag. They don't have any sort of understanding of +what a United States Government position means, down at our station; +they kick the mail-bag around like it was a crate of hens. Once they +asked me if they couldn't have the key at the station, and open the mail +because there's always more inhabitants in the station than in the +post-office. They seemed to think that was a glory to the station, and a +reflection on me. But I don't want to have men sitting around here. I +won't have it. The only man who has any legal right to sit around me is +in heaven, and just because I'm the postmistress is no reason why I +should take chances. If you don't want men sitting around, you can +easily keep 'em from doing it by having no chairs for them to sit on. I +never have." + +"Don't you want me to go down and get the mail?" suggested the young +surveyor, somewhat uneasily. + +Mrs. Ray turned a severe eye his way. "Have you go down and get the +mail! Well, young man, I guess you don't know that it's a penitentiary +offence to lay hands on a mail-sack, unauthorized by the United States +Government! Yes, indeed. It is, though, and I've had such hard work +getting it into people's heads that it is, that I wouldn't authorize no +one. _No one!_ Why, when we first was a post-office, I had the most +awful time. Everybody coming this way brought the bag with 'em. It's a +penitentiary offence to touch the bag, and here Sammy Adams forgot he +had it in his buggy one night, and drove home with it. It was when Mrs. +Allen's cousin Eliza was dying, and she was so anxious, and no mail-bag +at all that night. I tell you I took a firm stand after that; I made the +rule and made it for keeps, that no matter if there wasn't but one +postal, and all the men in the station had felt the bag to see that +there wasn't, the bag must come up to me just the same. You'll find, +young man, that if you hold a United States Government position, you'll +be expected to uphold the United States Government, and if you're +building the dam and employ the men around here, you'll find that to +impress them you must keep a bold front. That's why I have my arms +folded most of the time." + +The young surveyor listened with reverent attention. + +"Whose business is it to bring the bag, anyway?" asked Mrs. Dunstall. "I +can't wait much longer." + +"It isn't anybody's business,--that's what's the trouble. The United +States Government don't provide nothing but penalties for touching the +mail-bag. That's another hard thing about holding a government position +when your hands are as full as mine. At first I couldn't get the +mail-bag respected, in fact they used it to keep the door to the station +open windy days; and then, when I got it respected by explaining what we +was liable to if we didn't respect it, I couldn't get no one to touch it +any more. I had to wheel it up and down in the baby-carriage for a +while, and then I looked up the law and found I could delegate my +authority; so since then Mr. Hopkins has delegated for me except when he +goes to Ledge Lake, and when he does that I take it in a wheelbarrow. I +give the baby-carriage to Lucy. She had that baby, you know. Well, of +course a baby needs a carriage, so I give her ours." + +"A baby's lots of trouble," said Mrs. Dunstall, thoughtfully. + +"Yes, but we're here for trouble," said Mrs. Ray, cheerfully. "I've got +the post-office, Lucy's got the baby, and poor Clay Wright Benton's got +his mother and the parrot. Everybody's got something!" + +"Well, I can't wait any longer," said Mrs. Dunstall; "good-bye. Come, +Pinkie." + +They went out. + +"Who is Pinkie?" the young man asked, when he was alone with Mrs. Ray. +"I d'n know," said Mrs. Ray, "she don't, either. They adopted her when +she weighed six pounds and named her Pinkie, and that's what come of +it." + +"I see." Just then the mail-bag was brought in. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +WHEN DIFFERENCES LEAD TO WHAT IS EVER THE SAME + + +Lassie fled down the path. Not even that primeval river which once +rushed wildly across the old Devonian rocks just here was more +thoughtless as to whither it was going. All that she was conscious of in +that instant was irresistible revolt against the horror of what she had +just heard, and which bred in her a sudden and utter rebellion. A vivid +imagination will have already pictured the possible effect of Alva's +story upon her friend, and that vast majority whose imaginations are not +vivid will be happy to be spared such details. It is sufficient to say +that tears, pain, groans, and a coffin suspended, like Damocles' sword, +above all the rest, was Lassie's background to her friend's romance; and +the picture thus held in her mind was so benumbing to her other senses +that as she ran she tripped, stumbled, almost fell, down the hill, so +blind and careless of all else had she become. The restraint of Alva's +presence was now removed; nothing stood between the young girl and her +sensation of appalling wretchedness. As she ran she shook, she +shuddered; the path was steep, and her knees seemed to crumble beneath +her; twice she almost went headlong, and at the minute she felt that a +broken neck was but a trifle in comparison to coming face to face with +anything like what she had just been told. "Of course he was a great +man," she gasped half aloud; "but he'll never be able to even feed +himself again--it said so in the paper. Why, at first it said his back +was broken. Oh, oh, if Alva can be so crazy as that, who is sane, and +what can one believe? Oh, dear--oh, dear--oh, dear! And she calls it +love, too!" + +The village of Ledgeville lay below, and a few more minutes of +precipitous flight brought Lassie in sight of its houses. Still a few +more minutes, and she was in the middle of the village--a very small +village, consisting of two streets composing the usual American town +cross, and half a dozen stores. Every one whom she met knew just who she +was (for had she not arrived upon the evening previous?), and they all +regarded her with earnest scrutiny. The inhabitants of Ledgeville +themselves were never in the habit of coming down from the Long Bridge +with tear-stained faces, heaving bosoms and a catch in their breath, but +that Lassie did so, caused them no surprise. Was she not of that +unaccountable multitude called "city folks?" + +Lassie herself neither thought nor cared how she appeared to the +ruminative gaze of Ledgeville at first, but as soon as she did notice +the attention which she was attracting, she wanted to get away from it +as quickly as possible, eyes being quite unbearable in her present +distress. She stopped and asked a kindly looking old man where the +bridge--the lower bridge--might be, knowing that it would take her to +solitude again. The kindly old man pointed to where the bridge could be +seen, a block or so beyond, and she thanked him and hurried on. It was +a wooden bridge, very long; and the river here glided in wonderful +contrast to that other aspect of itself which plunged so furiously from +cataract to cataract, a quarter of a mile further down the course. How +curious to think that all smooth-flowing rivers have it in them to foam +and rage and gnaw and rend away the backbone of the globe itself, if +driven in among narrow and hard environment. Is there ever any simile to +those conditions in human lives, I wonder! And then to consider on the +other hand that there is no volume of watery menace which, if spread +between banks of green with space to flow untrammeled, will not become +the greatest and most beneficial of all the helpers of need and seed! +That is also a simile--one more cheerful and happy than the former, +praise be to God. + +The river by Ledgeville is one of those flowing smoothly and broadly +between banks of green. So smoothly and sweetly does it flow just there +that it might well have brought some quieting mood, some gracious, even +current of gently rippling peace, into poor Lassie's throbbing heart, +had she but been able to receive any comfort at that moment. But +meditation was as far from her at this juncture as her mental attitude +was from Alva's, and more than that cannot be said for either +proposition. + +So the river carried its lesson unread, while the girlish figure +traversed the bridge as quickly as it had flown through the town, and, +hurriedly turning at the forking of the road beyond, started up the +hill. She knew that that way must lead to Ledge, and eventually her own +little hotel bedroom, that longed for haven where she would be able to +sit down quietly, away from the sunlight and omnipresent people, away +from everything and everybody. Oh, but it was freshly awful to think of +Alva, her beautiful Alva, and of what Alva was going to do! Marry that +man! Why, he would never even sit up again; he could hardly see, the +paper had said--the newspapers had said--everybody had said. + +She stopped suddenly and stood perfectly still. A choking pain gripped +her in the throat and side. Her spiritual torment had suddenly yielded +to her physical lack of breath. + +Beyond a doubt there is nothing that will curb any sentiment of any +description so quickly as walking up hill. Without in the slightest +degree intending to be flippant, I must say that in all my experience, +personal and observed, I have never yet felt or seen the emotion which +does not have to give way somewhat under that particular form of +exercise. In Lassie's case she found herself to be so suddenly and +completely exhausted that she could hardly stand. Her knees, which had +seemed on the verge of giving out as she hurried down the opposite bank, +now really did fail her and, looking despairingly about and feeling +tears to be again perilously near, she turned off of the road into the +woods that stretched down the bank and, treading rapidly over soft turf +and softer moss, came in a minute to a solitude sufficiently removed to +allow of her sinking upon the ground and there giving out completely. + +Oh, how she cried then! Cried in the unrestrained, childish way that +gasps for breath, and chokes and then sobs afresh and aloud. She thought +herself so safely alone in the depths of the wood that she could gasp +and choke and sob to her heart's uttermost content, not at all knowing +that Fate, who does indeed weave a mesh of the most intricate +patterning, had even now begun to interweave her destiny with that +of--well, let us say--of the dam at Ledgeville. + +Alva's talk about the dam had gone in one ear and out the other; Alva's +words regarding Ingram had been driven into the background of Lassie's +brain by the later surprises; but now things were to begin to alter. We +never can tell, when we weep over the frightful love affair of a friend, +what delightful plans that same little Cupid may have for our own +immediate comforting, or how deftly he and the dark-veiled goddess may +have combined in future projects. + +Sorrow is sorrow, but sometimes it comes with the comforter close upon +its heels, and when the sorrow is really another's, and the comforter is +unattached and therefore may quite easily become one's own!-- + +Ah, but all this is anticipating. It is true that disinterested parties +(like Joey Beall) always know everything before those most interested +have the slightest suspicion of what is going on; but still it seems to +me unfair to take any advantage of two innocent people as early in the +game as the Sixth Chapter. + +Therefore it shall only be said here that the party of surveyors had +employed that morning in sighting and flagging up and down the banks +beneath the Long Bridge, and Ingram, having spent two hours in their +company, was now climbing the hillside for pure athletic joy, being one +of those who prefer a scramble to a smooth road any day. As he came +lightly up the last long swing that measured the bank for him, he surely +was looking for nothing less in life than that which he found at the +top,--and yet that which he found at the top was not so disagreeable +a surprise, after all. For Lassie, even now when indubitably miserable, +pink-eyed and wretched, was still a very pretty girl. A pretty girl is +very much like a rose in the rain--a few drops of water only add to its +charm; and so when Ingram came suddenly upon her, crying there under a +tree, and caused her to look up with a little scream at the man crashing +out of the bushes with such a force of interruption as made her jump to +her feet and shrink quickly away--why, really it was all far less +startling and alarming than it sounds to read about. For he at once +exclaimed, "Surely you remember me." And she saw who it was, stared at +him dazedly for an instant, and then dropped her face in her hands +again, realizing that he was the first of the big world that "hadn't +been told," and that he would ask what was the matter, and that she must +not tell him. And so--and so--there was nothing to do but hide her +face--and collect her wits--and listen. + +[Illustration: "SURELY YOU REMEMBER ME."] + +"What is it?" he said, and as she felt for her handkerchief she could +but think how hard it was to resist sympathy when one's dearest friend +was doing such unheard-of things, and one had just learned about them. +Not that she would tell him why she was crying, of course. + +"What is it?" he asked again then--he was very near now. "You know who I +am. I used to know you when you were a little girl. You remember?" + +She was still feeling for her handkerchief, and he put a great white one +into her seeking hand. She wiped her eyes with it and thought again that +he must not be told, and so said, with quivering lips: + +"Oh, please leave me, please go away. Nothing is the matter, but I must +be alone. I want to be alone. Please go away and leave me." + +Ingram looked down upon her and, laying his hand on her arm with a grasp +that was so firm as to feel brotherly (to one not yet a debutante), said +in a tone of fascinating authority (to one not yet a debutante): + +"What is it? What is the trouble? You've had a letter with bad news?" In +his own mind he set it down that she and Alva had had a misunderstanding +of some sort, but that opinion he would not voice. + +"Oh, no," sobbed Lassie; "it isn't a letter--it is Alva!" She paused and +Ingram had just time enough to reflect how quickly a man could see +straight through any woman, when Lassie could bear the burden of reserve +no longer, and with a wild burst of accelerated woe cried: "She has told +me her secret, and I listened 'way through to the end and then--then +when I really understood and realized what it all meant, then I could +not bear it, and so--and so--I ran away from her and down the hill and +across the bridge and came here to be alone. And I wish you would go +away and leave me alone; oh, I want to be alone so very, very much, for +I cannot keep still unless I am alone; I am too unhappy over it all. Too +unhappy. And I have promised her not to tell." + +Ingram looked his startled sympathy. "What is the trouble?" he asked. +"Tell me; perhaps I can help you. Why should you keep 'it' a secret? I'm +her friend, too, you know." + +"But it isn't my secret, it's hers," Lassie sobbed; "and I've promised; +and, anyway, nobody or nothing can help her. Nothing! Nobody!" + +"Is it really as bad as that?" said the man, looking very serious. + +Lassie was wringing her hands. "Oh, it's ever so much worse than that; +it's the very worst thing I ever heard of. And that shows how bad I am; +for Alva is good, and it makes her happy!" + +Naturally Ingram could not follow the reasoning which caused her +terminal phrase to serve as a sort of mental apology for her way of +looking at the affair, but he was not alarmed by the breadth of her +confession of guilt, only unspeakably distressed by her distress, and +its mysterious cause. + +"But what _is_ it?" he asked. "What has Alva done?" + +"I musn't tell." + +"Alva's not in any difficulty across the river there, is she?" he +hazarded. + +"Oh, no; she isn't in any difficulty; she is very, very happy. That's +what seems so awful about it." + +"What? I can't understand." + +"I can't explain, either. And I musn't tell you. It's going to drive me +crazy to keep still, but I must not tell." + +"You can tell me;" his tone was suddenly authoritative again (quite +thrilling its young listener). + +"No, I can't. I can't tell any one," but _her_ tone was wavering, with a +catch in its note. + +Ingram became instantly imperious. + +"Yes, you can tell me! You must tell me! It will relieve your mind, and +perhaps I can help Alva." + +"No, you can't help her; she doesn't want to be helped." + +"Well, I can help you, anyway. Just telling me will help you." + +Lassie choked. + +"Tell me at once," said Ingram, sternly; "I insist upon knowing." + +She looked up at him. + +"Don't stop to think," he commanded; "tell me." + +Oh, the intense relief of having a burdensome secret torn from your +keeping! Lassie felt that when in trouble, a man was the friend to +find--even before one's debut. + +"You won't ever let her know that I told?" she faltered. + +"Of course not." + +"She didn't ask me really to promise; she only said that I should be the +only one to ever know." + +"Never mind, I don't count. Go on." + +"Well, she is going to marry--" and then she told him, with many halts +and gasps, who; and then she told him further, when. + +Ingram listened, silent, turning white all about his mouth. "She can't +do it," he said, after a minute. "That man may die any hour. It said so +in last night's paper." + +"She is going to do it," Lassie said; "she doesn't mind his dying--that +is, she doesn't mind his dying as most people do." + +"Oh, but that's horrible," he said then; "you were right--it is awful. +No wonder you were frightened and ran away. She must be insane. I never +heard of such a thing." He went to the edge of the bank and looked off +for a little, standing there still, and then, after a while, "Oh, my +God!" he said; and then again "Oh, my God!" and came back beside her. +His action, his evident emotion, quieted her own strangely. + +"Isn't it terrible?" she asked, almost timidly, when he was close again; +"it seems to me the most terrible thing that I ever knew about." + +"Very terrible," said the man, briefly. "We will walk on up the hill," +he added, after a little; "it's near dinner time." She did as he said. + +"You won't tell Alva that I told you?" she asked. + +He shook his head. "No, indeed," and then both were silent. + +Towards the top, he asked: "How long shall you be with her?" + +"A week." + +"That means until she leaves to marry him?" + +"Yes." + +"That's good; I am glad that you can stay." + +She tried to say something then, and her voice died in one of those same +strange gasps, but she tried a second time and succeeded. "I suppose +that nothing could be done?" she questioned. + +"What would you do?" he asked. + +"I don't know," she said. + +He smiled a little oddly. "I am afraid that we should be fools," he +said; "those fools that rush in, you know. It is beginning to come back +to me how Alva looked and how she spoke when I took her to see the +house. It all had no meaning to me then, but it has meaning now. It +comes back to me more and more. Perhaps you and I are--are--not up to +seeing it quite as she does. Perhaps. It's possible." + +"That is what she says over and over--that I cannot understand," Lassie +said, faintly. + +"I can't understand either, but--perhaps she does. I _can_ understand +_that_." + +"I am glad that you know, anyway;" her tone was sweet and confiding. He +looked down into her pretty eyes. + +"I am, too," he said, heartily. + +"But I hope that it wasn't very wrong for me to tell you; it seemed as +if I could not bear it alone!" + +"Don't worry about that; Alva shall never know. And now, if you cannot +bear it (as you say) again, you know that you can come to me and say +what you like. We shall have that comfort." + +She smiled a little. "You don't seem like a stranger; you seem like an +old, old friend." + +"I'm glad. Because I am an old, old friend in reality, you know." + +"But, if--if I--when I want--" she hesitated. + +"Oh, you don't know where to find me if you want me?" He laughed. "It's +true that I am an uncertain quantity, but I take supper at the hotel +every evening, and sometimes I go to the post-office afterwards." He +smiled roundly at that, and she smiled, too. "We must go to the +post-office together, sometimes," he added; "it's the great social +diversion of Ledge." He was glad to see her face and manner getting +easier. That was what he was trying for--to lift the weight from her. + +"Alva took me there this morning," she said. + +They came now to the Soldiers' Monument and the tracks. + +"I hope that she isn't going to mind the way that I left her!" the +young girl exclaimed suddenly, smitten with anxiety. "I ran away, you +know; I couldn't bear it another minute." + +"She won't mind that," said Ingram; "all the little things of life won't +cut any figure with her any more, if she's the kind that has made up her +mind to do such a thing. That's what I've been thinking all the time +that we were coming along; a woman who has decided to marry in the way +that Alva has, must of course look at everything in life by a different +light from that of the rest of us; I don't know really that we have the +right even to criticize her. We don't understand her at all; that's all +it is." + +Lassie looked astonished. "You don't mean to say that you think that she +isn't crazy?" she said. + +Ingram smiled again, "I mean that I hardly think it possible to judge +what one cannot measure; savages reverence the Unknown, you know, and +I'm not sure that reverence is not a fitter attitude towards mystery +than condemnation or ridicule, although of course it isn't the civilized +or popular standpoint." + +"But do you think it's--it's--it's the thing, to do--" Lassie could not +get on further. + +"I think it's just as awful as you do," he said quietly; "but I've had +time since you told me to see that just because it seems awful to me, +it's very plain to me that I see it differently from the way in which +she does. She isn't a girl, she's a woman; and she's a very good and +sweet and true woman at that. If she is making this marriage, the really +awful part isn't the part that you or I or the world are going to think +about, it's something else." + +Lassie's glance rose doubtfully upward. "You think that it's all right +for her to do it, then?" she asked miserably. + +"I think that we aren't wise enough to talk about it at all," said +Ingram with determined cheerfulness. "Let's change the subject. I am +going to be here on and off for a year, likely, and digging holes to +hold little flags, and drilling to keep track of what one drills through +isn't the liveliest fun in the world to look forward to; so when Alva +doesn't need you, do give me some of your time and make me some jolly +memories to live on later, when I'm alone--will you?" + +"You won't ever be able to go and see Alva in her house afterwards, will +you?" said Lassie, her mind apparently unequal to changing the subject +on short notice; "because no one is ever to go there, she says." + +"I shall never go unless she asks me, surely." + +They were now quite near the little hotel. + +"Before we part, let us be a little conventional and say that we are +glad to have met one another," Ingram suggested; "will you?" + +"I'm glad that I met you," she said; "it will be a great comfort--as you +said." + +Ingram was looking at her and that turned his face towards the gorge. "I +see Alva coming across the bridge," he exclaimed; "go and meet her. Go +to her quite frankly, openly,--as if nothing had happened. That will be +easiest--and kindest--and best all around." + +She flashed a grateful glance to his eyes, and ran at once down the +tracks and out upon the bridge. + +Alva came towards her, with a rapid step, her open coat floating lightly +back on either side. She smiled sweetly as she saw the girlish figure. +"You beat me home," she called out, gaily. + +Lassie swallowed the lump in her throat and smiled, too. "It's such a +beautiful day, and I'm so happy and so glad that you are happy!" + +The pretty young voice rang fresh and true. The next instant they were +close, side by side. + +Alva stood still. What Ingram had said proved most truly true; she did +not seem to hold any recollection of that parting an hour before. She +drew Lassie close beside her and pointed over the bridge-rail. A rainbow +was spanning the Upper Falls, and its brilliant, evanescent promise +seemed to reflect in the face above. What is so fragile, illusive, +uncertain as a rainbow? And yet it is the mirrored mirage of all the +Eternal Purpose's immutable law. Form is there, and color; hope is +there, and the will-o'-the-wisp of human struggles evolving continually +and, in their evolution, fading to human eyes as they take their place +up higher. From the foaming, dashing water, which during the centuries +was strong enough to eat into the rock, arose the light, lovely mist +that in cycles of time was in its turn strong enough to wear it away. +Through the mist floated the impalpable radiance that, in aeons to come, +when rock should again flash fiery through unending space, and water +should have evaporated to await fresh form, would still continue to +illuminate the Divine Will. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE LATHBUNS + + +Mrs. Wiley, dropping into the post-office that evening along about +seven, was frankly disappointed at finding her newspaper bundle still +undisturbed on the table in the adjoining kitchen. + +"Why, I made sure you'd have laid 'em out, anyhow," she said, looking at +Mrs. Ray, who was busily beating batter; "you haven't even made a +start." And she sighed, seating herself in unwilling resignation. + +"Made a start," said Mrs. Ray, glancing at her placidity with an air of +tart exasperation, "made fifty starts, you mean. This has been what I +call _a day_. Mrs. Catt came in early this afternoon to ask me to make +Sally's wedding-cake, and Clay Wright Benton was here about the parrot. +He's awful tired of that parrot 'cause it keeps his mother so tired and +cross from getting up nights to wait on it. It routs her up at all hours +for things, and if she don't hurry it calls her names in Spanish that it +learned on the ship coming from Brazil, and, oh, they're having an awful +time of it. And then Sammy Adams was here too; he was here from four +o'clock on, asking me to marry him again. I don't know as anything gives +me a lower opinion of Sammy than the way he sticks to wanting to marry +me. The older I get, the worse he wants to marry me, which shows me +only too plainly as it ain't me at all he wants--it's just my work." + +"You ain't even unrolled it," said Mrs. Wiley, fingering the bundle +sadly. "I've been fixing onion-syrup for Lottie Ann and thinking of you +unrolling all day. And you wasn't ever unrolling, even." + +"He set right where you're setting now," said Mrs. Ray, beating briskly. +"I was stoning raisins, so he wasn't in my way, but I do get tired of +being asked to marry men. They don't make no bones about the business +any more, and even a woman of my age likes a _little_ fluff of romance. +Sammy always goes into how we could join our chickens and our furniture. +Like they was going to be married, too. Oh, Sammy's very mooney--he's +very much like Mr. Ray. Most men are too much like Mr. Ray to please me. +There was days when Mr. Ray'd sit all day and tell me how he had yellow +curls and blue eyes before he had smallpox. Those were his mooney days. +When Mr. Ray wanted to be specially nice, he always used to tell me how +pretty he was when he was a baby. Men are so awful silly. It's too bad I +ever married. I had so many pleasant thoughts about men before. But now +all I think is they're all spying round for women to work for 'em." + +"I never shall know no peace till I know whether you can get my two +backs out of these legs," said Mrs. Wiley, handling the bundle. "Father +was such a sitter the last year, his legs was very wore at the top." She +sighed. + +"Mr. Catt was here this afternoon, too," continued Mrs. Ray, never +ceasing to beat; "he wants to get up a petition about the dam. He's +afraid they won't pay him for his orchard. He's against it. He says Mr. +Ledge is right. He says if he's going to lose money, he'd rather see the +Falls preserved for the blessings of unborn generations. He says he +doesn't believe we think enough about unborn generations in this +country. He says his orchard is worth a lot." + +"If they're too wore out to cut over, I suppose we'll have to give it +all up," said Mrs. Wiley. "Oh, Mrs. Ray, Lottie Ann's so thin! I don't +know what to do! I say to her 'Lottie Ann, do eat,' and then she tries +and chokes. I think she ought to go to Buffalo and be examined with a +telescope. Rubbing her in goose-grease don't do a bit of good, and it +does ruin her flannels so." + +"I was sorry for Clay Wright Benton," pursued Mrs. Ray; "he kind of +wants me to take his mother and the parrot for the winter. He says +besides the nights, his mother and the parrot quarrels so days that he's +afraid Sarah just won't have 'em in the house much longer. She's losing +all patience." + +"If you _can't_ get my fronts out of his legs, do you suppose there'll +be any way to get them out of his fronts?" Mrs. Wiley propounded. + +"I told Clay I'd see," continued Mrs. Ray. "I'm pretty full now, but +there's a proverb about room for one more, and if I can't do nothing +else my motto'll help me out. 'He moves in a mysterious way' you know, +and maybe I can put her in my room with Willy and move into the kitchen +myself with the parrot. Yes, indeed. Only I won't get up and wait on it. +I don't care what I get called in Spanish, if I'm once asleep for the +night, that parrot won't get me up again; or there'll be more Spanish +than his around." + +"You'll be able to use the same buttons, anyhow," mused Mrs. Wiley. "Oh, +Mrs. Ray, we've had a letter from Uncle Purchase and the colt didn't +die. It'll be lame and blind in one eye, but anyway it's alive and it's +such a valuable colt. The father cost six thousand dollars, and if it +lives to have grandchildren maybe they'll race. Uncle Purchase does so +want a race-horse in his stock. He says a race-horse even raises the +value of your pigs and cattle." + +"Does a parrot sleep on its side or sit up all night, do you know? I +forgot to ask Clay." + +"Oh, that reminds me, speakin' of sleepin'," exclaimed Mrs. Wiley, +suddenly arousing to the realization of other woes than her own, "do you +know Cousin Granger Catterwallis was over this morning, and he says +those Lathbuns stayed at Sammy's the night afore they came here. You +know they come in a pourin' rain. Did Sammy ever tell you about it?" + +Mrs. Ray stopped her beating. She stood seemingly transfixed. + +"Cousin Granger says they wanted to stay all night, with him, but he's +too afraid of a breach of promise suit since his wife died, so he +wouldn't keep them, but he took his spy-glass and watched them through +the gap and they clum Sammy's fence," (Mrs. Ray's face was a sight), +"and then he went up to his cupalo and watched them through a break in +the trees, and he says he knows they went in the house!" + +Mrs. Ray folded her arms firmly. "Well," she said, "I never heard the +beat! Sammy never said one word to me!" + +"And Cousin Catterwallis says he doesn't believe they've got any trunks +or any money or any real love affair, except what they may manage to +pick up along the way. He says he wouldn't trust the young one as far as +you can throw a cat, and he says he wouldn't trust the old one as far as +that. Hannah Adele, indeed! He says he don't believe she's even Hannah." + +Mrs. Ray drew a long breath. "Oh, well, I wasn't meaning to marry him, +anyhow," she said, a little absent-mindedly. "I told him that to-day. +Sammy's mooney, and I've been married to one mooney man. There were days +when Mr. Ray would upset everything, from the beehives to his second +wife's baby--those were his mooney days. I don't want to have no more of +that!" + +"Cousin Catterwallis says it wasn't just proper taking them in that way, +either," Mrs. Wiley continued; "he's going to see Jack O'Neil this +afternoon, and tell him his opinion. Cousin Catterwallis says the dam is +bringing very queer folks our way. He doesn't take no interest in the +dam because he's so far inland, but he says when the canal was put +through the Italians stole one of his father's hens, and he hasn't any +use for any kind of improvements since then." + +Mrs. Ray began slowly beating her batter again. Her lips were firm and +her attitude painfully decided. + +"The old lady says she's Mrs. Ida Lathbun," Mrs. Wiley went on; "I +wonder if their name is really Lathbun." + +"I d'n know, I'm sure." + +Mrs. Wiley turned her eyes on the bundle. + +"When do you think you can get at my coat, Mrs. Ray?" the tone was sadly +earnest. + +"To-morrow, I guess. I haven't much on hand to-morrow, except to sweep +out the church and do some baking. I was planning to dig potatoes and +go to South Ledge to fit a dress, but I'll leave that till early Monday. +Think of his keeping them all night and never telling me!" + +"I guess I'll go down to Nellie's," said Mrs. Wiley, rising slowly; "the +Lathbuns sit in her kitchen evenings, and I'll just throw a few hints +about and see how they take it." + +"I wish I could go, too," Mrs. Ray's eyes suddenly became keenly bright, +"but I can't. The mail's due." + +Mrs. Wiley shook her head with the air of understanding the weightiness +of her friend's excuse. "I'll stop in on my way back, and tell you what +I find out," she said, kindly. + +She went away and was absent all of an hour. When she returned, Mrs. +Ray's duties, both as postmistress and stepmother, were over for that +day, her cake was safe in the oven, and she sat by the lamp, knitting. + +"What'd you find out?" she said, as the door yielded to Mrs. Wiley's +push. + +"Well, not much." Mrs. Wiley came in and sat down. "They was both there +in the kitchen, and there's no use denying it's hard to find out +anything about folks when they're looking right at you. But I did hear +one thing you'll like to know, Mrs. Ray?" + +"What was it?" + +"Why, those two girls went off walking this morning, and the young one +came back with the man." + +"Don't surprise me one bit," said Mrs. Ray. "I've been saying that was +what would happen from the minute I knew she was coming." + +"I'm sort of sorry for the older one," said Mrs. Wiley; "she's real +nice. I'm sorry for any one who's thinnish--Lottie Ann's so thin." + +"Those kind of blind-eyed people always have trouble, and nobody can +help it for 'em," said Mrs. Ray; "they make their own troubles as they +go along--if they don't come bump on to them while they're stargazing. +That girl's made for trouble; you can see it in her eyes. But didn't you +ask anything about Sammy?" + +"I just couldn't--with them right there. The old lady sits with her feet +in the oven the whole time. I don't see how Nellie cooks." + +"Feet in the oven! I should say so! Well, I'll ask Sammy just as soon as +I see him--I know that! Did you hear anything new about the dam?" + +"No; Nellie says the surveyors say it'll be six months before any one +can tell anything." + +"Huh!" Mrs. Ray's note was highly contemptuous. + +"Why, Mrs. Ray, don't you believe the surveyors?" + +"I never say what I believe, Mrs. Wiley, it's enough for me to say what +I think; but I _will_ say just this, and that is that if we get the dam, +it's precious little good it'll ever do us here in Ledge. It's fine work +talking, but the legislature and the Dam Commission aren't working day +and night for our good. It's men in Rochester and Buffalo who'll get the +good out of the dam, and we'll be left to find ourselves high and dry as +usual." + +"Why, Mrs. Ray, you talk as if you was against the dam, or is it only +because Sammy took those women in that night?" + +Poor Mrs. Wiley! She had inadvertently hit the bull's-eye. Mrs. Ray laid +down her knitting and rose at once. + +"No, Mrs. Wiley, it _isn't_ because Sammy took those women in that +night. As if I'd care whether Sammy took two women in or not! Did I ever +care about Mr. Ray's other two wives? or about their children? I guess +if I can stand all I've stood from Mr. Ray's first wife's children, I +won't care who Sammy Adams takes in out of the wet. I'm surprised at +you, Mrs. Wiley." + +Mrs. Wiley got up in great confusion. "I hope you'll excuse what I said, +Mrs. Ray; you see I wasn't really thinking what I did say. And it may +not have been them, anyhow. I must be goin', I guess; I don't like to +leave Lottie Ann alone like that. Good-by, Mrs. Ray." + +Mrs. Ray folded her arms severely. + +"Good-by, Mrs. Wiley," she said, with reserve. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +MISS LATHBUN'S STORY + + +Curiously enough, just as Mrs. Wiley abruptly terminated her call on her +friend Mrs. Ray, owing to the unpleasant twist given their conversation +by the Lathbun family, Lassie and Alva were speaking of the same two +ladies, whom Lassie had met in the dining-room an hour before. Alva had +introduced her to both with that pleasant courtesy which was given to +none too careful social scrutiny. It was Alva's habit to deal with all +humanity on a broad footing of equality--a habit which her well-born +friends politely termed a failing, and which those of other classes +accepted as the thirsty accept water, just with content. + +"Well, I'm glad I've seen them; now I feel as if I'd seen everything, +except the Lower Falls." Thus spoke Lassie, when the bedroom door was +shut, and she and her friend seemed well away from all the rest of the +world for the next ten hours, at least. Lassie, be it said, _en +passant_, had now sufficiently digested her first shock of surprise over +her friend's future, to be able to be pleasantly happy again. + +"What did you think of them?" Alva answered, half absent-mindedly. She +held in her hand a letter which the belated mail had brought, and her +thoughts seemed to quit it with difficulty. + +"I thought that they were rather common," said Lassie, frankly. Lassie +was well-born, and had judged Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter by no higher +standard than that of their blouses. + +"Do you know, I thought so, too,--at first," her friend replied, putting +the letter down and going to the window where she remained with her back +to Lassie, looking out into the dark. "I thought at first that Mrs. +Lathbun looked like a cook--" + +"She dresses exactly like one," interposed Lassie. + +"But I've come to like them very much, indeed. Of course so few days are +not enough to really know any one, but the night before you came such a +curious thing happened. You know I told you that the daughter had a love +affair? Well, that was the night that I learned about it. I never had +anything come to me more strangely. Do you know, dear, I am continually +more and more convinced that nothing happens by chance, never." + +"What did she tell you?" + +Alva turned from the window and sat down by the lamp-table. "I'll tell +you; only you mustn't misjudge Miss Lathbun for confiding in me. People +become friends very quickly in a lonely place like this, you know." + +"I won't misjudge her; I'll be glad to change my opinion of her. She +looks so like a restaurant girl." + +"Lassie, you're incorrigible." + +"But that dress, with that black cotton lace over that old red silk." + +"I never even noticed it." + +"Do you mean to say you've never noticed that dirty red silk front?" + +Alva shaded her eyes with her hand. "Lassie," she said, almost sadly, +"why does nothing count in this world except the front of one's frock?" + +Contrition smote the young girl. "Oh, forgive me, forgive me," she +pleaded; "I didn't think. I am interested! Play I didn't speak in that +way; I won't again. Indeed, I won't." + +"Of course I'll forgive you, dear; it's nothing to forgive, anyway; but +it makes it so hard to tell anything serious when one sets out in such a +way. I wonder how many good and beautiful thoughts have died +unexpressed, just because their first breath was met with mocking!" + +"Don't say that; I won't be that way--I'll never be that way again. I do +like Miss Lathbun--truly I do; I think she has sort of a sweet face, and +she must be clever to have been able to make a front of any kind out of +that lace. See, I'm quite serious now; and so interested. Do go on!" + +Alva looked at her for a minute with a smile. + +"You can't possibly overlook the front, can you?" she said; "but I will +go on, and you will learn never to judge again, as I learned myself; for +I must tell you, Lassie, that all you feel about them, I felt at +first--until I learned to know better. I didn't notice the front, but I +noticed some other things--little things like grammar; but American +grammar isn't a hard and fast proposition, anyway, you know." + +"They just call it 'dialect' in so many places," said Lassie, wisely. + +Alva smiled again. "Yes, they do," she assented. + +"And now for Miss Lathbun's story?" suggested the girl. + +"Yes, certainly. Well, my dear, you see, I was sitting here alone one +evening, and she came to the door and--and somehow she came in and we +fell to talking. You know how easy it is for any one to talk to me, and +after a while she told me her romance." + +Lassie's eyes opened. "To think of a girl like that having a romance! +Please go on." + +Alva hesitated, then smiled a little. "I suppose I can trust you to keep +a secret?" she asked. + +Lassie began: "Why, of--" and then stopped suddenly, remembering the +morning's betrayal, and blushed crimson. + +Alva leaned forward and touched her cheek with one petting finger. + +"Dear," she said, "don't feel distressed. I know that you told Ronald +and I don't mind." + +"You know!" cried Lassie, astonished. + +"Yes, dear, I know. I saw it in both your faces when I came across the +bridge. I don't mind--I think it's better so. Truly, I do." + +"Oh, Alva--" the young girl's tone was full of feeling. + +"But you mustn't tell him Hannah Adele's love affair," Alva went on, +smiling; "remember that, my dear." + +"I promise. Now tell me all about it." Lassie drew close, her face full +of eager curiosity mixed with content over being pardoned so simply. + +"It's just like a story," Alva said, thoughtfully; "it's more +wonderful--almost--than my own. I never heard anything quite so +wonderfully story-like before. Tell me, did you notice at supper how +Mrs. Lathbun watched every one that came off of the train? She can see +the station through the window from where she sits, you know." + +"No, I didn't notice. Does it matter?" + +"Oh, no; only I used to notice it and now I know why she does it." + +"Is she looking for the lover?" + +"She's afraid of him, dear." + +"Afraid!" + +"Yes, afraid he'll find them." + +"Goodness, are they hiding from him?" + +"Mrs. Lathbun thinks that they are." + +"And aren't they?" + +Alva lowered her voice to a whisper. "He watches outside of this house +every night!" she said impressively. + +Lassie quite jumped. "Watches! Outside this house! Oh, is he there now?" + +"I don't know, perhaps so." + +"What fun! Who does he watch for?" + +"For Miss Lathbun, of course." + +"But why does he do it?" + +"She doesn't know; she only knows that he watches there." + +"And her mother doesn't know that he is there?" + +"No." + +"How perfectly thrilling! Do go on!" + +"It's really a very long story." + +"I'll be patient." + +"It taught me a big lesson, Lassie; it taught me not to judge. Just see +how quiet and simple these two look to be, and yet that plain, ordinary +appearing woman is trying to hide her daughter from a rich man." + +"A rich man!" + +"He's a millionaire." + +"Who told you so?" + +"She did." + +Lassie stared. "Alva!--you don't believe that! That woman's never hiding +that girl from a millionaire. It isn't possible!" + +"But she is, my dear. She's a true, good mother; she doesn't want her +daughter to marry him, because he is so dissipated." + +"But I should think that they would run away and get married. I'd marry +a man, anyway, if I loved him." + +"Ah, Lassie, you don't know what you'd do if you were in the position of +that poor girl. Her mother has taken her away and is stopping here in +this very quiet and unassuming way to avoid all notice or being found +out." + +"But he has found them out!" + +"Yes, but Mrs. Lathbun doesn't know it." + +Lassie looked almost incredulous. "Mrs. Lathbun doesn't look a bit like +a woman who would hide her daughter away from a millionaire," she said, +obstinately. + +"You see how easy it is to misjudge any one, Lassie; because that's what +she's doing." + +"Mrs. O'Neil says they haven't any trunks or any clothes. She said so +this afternoon." + +"I know; I've heard her say that before." + +"Well, tell me the whole story." + +Alva looked at her for a long dozen of seconds and then her lips curved +slightly. "I'm going to tell you," she said; "but, do you know, it just +comes over me that you are surely going to disbelieve it." + +"Why do you think so?" + +"Because it's so strange." + +"But you believed it?" + +"But I can believe anything. Believing is my forte. Once 'heretic' and +'unbeliever' meant the same thing; well, I am a believer." + +Lassie laughed a little. "Go on and tell me the story," she said, "I'll +try to believe;" then, her face changing suddenly, she added, "it can +have a happy ending--can't it? Sometime?" + +Alva flashed a quick, sad flash of understanding at her. "All stories +will have that some day," she said, gently. It was the first reference +on the lips of either to that morning's revelation. + +"Do tell me the story," Lassie begged, after a minute's pause; "tell me +the whole. Do you think that perhaps he is out there now?" + +Alva shook her head in protestation of ignorance as to that. "It seems +very medieval and devoted for him to be out there at all, don't you +think? And these nights are so cold, too." + +"I should think that some one would see him sometimes?" + +"I should, too." + +"Well, go on. Has she known him always?" + +"No; it seems that he lives in Cromwell where her mother was born, and +she met him there two years ago when they went there to visit." + +"Did he fall in love with her at first sight?" + +"I think so. She said the first thing that she knew he was talking about +her all the time, and then he began watching outside of their house at +night." + +"Didn't he ever talk to her, or come inside the house?" + +"Oh, Lassie, what makes you say things like that? They make the story +seem absurd; and I began it by telling you that her mother was bitterly +opposed to him on account of his reputation." + +"I forgot," said Lassie, contritely; "is he so very bad?" + +"I'm afraid so. He drinks and gambles and does everything that he +shouldn't, she says." + +"But if he's rich he can afford it, can't he?" + +Alva turned quickly. "How can you say a thing like that? As if money can +condone sin. Don't you know that a thoroughly bad man is a soulless +thing, and that to marry a man like that is either heroic or deeply +degrading, just according to whether one does it for love or for money." + +"But you said that she loved him." + +"Yes; but you said he could afford to be wicked!" + +Lassie clasped her hands meditatively. "To think of that girl having a +millionaire watching outside her window, nights! And Mrs. O'Neil says +she hasn't even a nightgown with her, so she can't possibly get up in +the cold to peep out through the blinds." + +"I suppose she couldn't do that, anyway," said Alva; "you see her mother +doesn't know he's there, so she couldn't get up to look." + +"How does she know herself that he is there, then? perhaps he tells her +he watches and really stays in bed at some hotel." + +"Lassie!" + +"What's the use of his watching, anyway? Does it do any good? I should +think that she'd be afraid that he'd take cold. I--" + +"Lassie, don't you see that it's his only way to prove his devotion? He +can't write her, so he watches outside her window, nights. She says +that he takes a handful of sand and throws it against the side of the +house, and she hears it and knows that he's there." + +"Do you believe that?" + +"I believe the whole story." + +Lassie regarded her friend with amazement. + +"I don't see how you can;" she said; "why, those two women would go +almost wild for joy if any man wanted to marry either of them." + +"No, dear," Alva said, smiling; "no, they wouldn't. The world isn't +altogether worldly; there are simple, true, wholesome natures in it that +look at life in a straightforward way without any illusions. And Mrs. +Lathbun is one of those. Poor she may be, but she knows very well that +no possible happiness can come to her child from marrying a bad man who +has money." + +"But her daughter wants to marry him, and he wants to marry her." + +Alva paused before replying; then she said slowly: + +"Lassie, there's the puzzle. Does he want to marry her?" + +Lassie looked startled. "Doesn't he?" she asked. + +"She doesn't know," said Alva; "you see, they have hardly ever exchanged +a word." + +"Well," said the young girl, "this is the craziest love story I ever +heard in my life. Do you mean to say that you believe that a man who had +never heard a girl speak would go and stay outside her window, all night +long? What does he do all night, anyhow; walk about, or sit down? Alva, +you can't believe that story? Not possibly!" + +"Yes, I believe it," said Alva, cheerfully. "I believe it for two or +three very good reasons. One is that there is no reason why the girl +should construct such a silly lie for my benefit; another is that truth +is always stranger than fiction; and the third is that she has a little +picture of him, and as soon as I saw the picture I saw why Fate brought +the Lathbuns and me together, and why the man waited outside her window +all night." + +"Why?" Lassie's tone became suddenly curious. + +"My dear, the man is the image of the man that I love. They might be +twin brothers. And men of such strength put through whatever they lay +their hands unto." + +Lassie appeared dumbfounded. + +"He looks like--" she stammered and halted. + +"Yes, dear," Alva said, simply; "he looks exactly like him! Now you see +why I am interested. Now you see why I find it easy to believe. A bad +man--a thoroughly bad man--is a creature that for some reason has not +come into his heavenly birthright. If that girl, plain and pale and +unassuming as she looks, has the power to draw him from nights of +dissipation to nights in the cold outside her window, she has the power +to call a soul to him or waken his own that is but sleeping. It takes a +great deal of living and learning to attain to the faith which I have, +but I have it and I am firm in it, and I believe the story and I believe +that good is brewing for that man. I'm sure of it." + +Alva spoke with such energetic earnestness, such dominating force, that +Lassie was silenced for the minute. + +"I suppose that I am just stupid," she said, after a little; "I've had +so much that was different to try and learn to-day." + +There was a pathos in her tone that led the older girl to lean quickly +near and take one of her hands, drawing her close as she did so. "I +know it, dear, I know it. And I appreciate it all more than you guess. +We won't talk of Miss Lathbun any more just now, and, dear, believe me +when I say that I'm truly very glad that you met Ronald just as you did +this morning and told him what I had told you. I see all this from all +its sides, and the views that differ from mine don't hurt me--believe +me, they don't. I understand exactly how Ronald's fine, robust manhood +would revolt quite as you yourself revolted; but, you and he, with all +the possibilities of your gorgeous, glorious youth, can no more measure +the joy of these days to my love and myself, than the gay little birds +measure what life is to you. To us, you two and your ideas are very much +like the birds; we are glad to see you enjoy the sunshine, and our +better gladness we know is quite beyond you." + +Lassie turned her face upward to the earnest look and tender kiss, and +then they sat still for a little until Alva rose and began to make ready +for bed. + +"Tell me," she said, as she loosened her hair; "it was like this, wasn't +it? At first Ronald was almost angry; and then his feeling changed and +he felt that because it was I, it was rather a different thing from what +it would have been if it had been any one else." + +"Yes," said Lassie, in an awestruck tone, "it was just like that. How +did you know?" + +Alva laughed. "Not because I am a witch," she said, "but just because I +know Ronald. You see, Lassie, I am much stronger than Ronald; I am +stronger than Ronald, just as Ronald is stronger than you. He could not +condemn me; he has to own I am right. Right is a might so great that +wherever it holds good it rules its kind. Ronald gives me my due; you +will, too, after a while. Only I must not drive either of you forward +too quickly." She laughed a little. "I must give you time," she added. + +Lassie was taking down her own hair. She shook it apart now, and looked +forth from between the parted waves, her expression one of deeply +stirred interest. "I believe that this is going to be the most wonderful +time in my life," she said; "I feel as if everything were getting deeper +around me." + +"Ah, dearest," said her friend, with a sigh that was not sad--only a +long breath; "that's very true. I should not have sent for you, only +that I knew that when you came to leave me and go back to the world to +wear your white gown and make your debut, you would have become a +stronger, better, wiser, sweeter woman all your life through, for this +experience. You see, dear child, the rarest thing in the world of to-day +is sincerity--absolute truth. I am not especially gifted or very +remarkable in any way, but I have learned the value of being sincere. It +isn't a small thing to learn in life, Lassie, and it isn't a small +privilege to live for a few days with one who has learned the lesson. +When you see what truth really is, and what it may really do for one, +you won't be revolted by my marriage; you will never wonder over me any +more, and you'll learn to look at strange stories with a new light of +comprehension." + +Lassie went close to her, put up her lips and kissed her. + +"And I can tell Mr. Ingram about Miss Lathbun, too?" she asked very +simply; "or must I keep that secret, as you said at first?" + +Alva put her arms fondly about the pretty young thing. "Lassie," she +said, "you are a dear, and I don't mind how much you discuss me with +Ronald; but you musn't tell him Miss Lathbun's secret. It wouldn't be +right." + +"Very well, then, I won't," said Lassie; "and I will keep my word, too." + +"Thank you," Alva said, patting her face caressingly; "thank you, and +heaven bless you and give you a good understanding." + +Lassie looked up with a smile. "You think I may learn to look at things +in your way?" + +"I think so," said Alva; "looking at things in my way has made me a very +happy woman, and so I desire the same for you." + +Then she kissed her good night. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +PLEASANT CONVERSE + + +"Well, what did I tell you?" said Mrs. Ray to Mrs. Catt, a day or so +later, when that lady had dropped in for a little call. "Those two young +people up at Nellie O'Neil's have fallen in love just as sure as beans +are beans. Not that he's so young, either, but a man's always able to +fall in love whenever he gets a chance. Age don't matter. There was Mr. +Ray. He was always in love unless he was married. Yes, indeed." + +"If he's engaged to that other one, I shouldn't think he'd find it very +easy to fall in love right under her nose, so to speak," said Mrs. Catt. + +"She wouldn't notice," said Mrs. Ray, adjusting her shawl, and turning +the needlework in her hands; "she's the kind who don't even see the +things they go headlong over. She's the mooney kind. I know. Yes, +indeed. Mr. Ray had mooney days. There were days when Mr. Ray called me +by his first wife's name all day. Those were his mooney days." + +"My cousin Eliza thinks she's crazy too. She says she's seen her time +and again setting on stumps in the woods, and she turns out in the road +for sparrows. And then that house. They're at it tooth and nail from +dawn to dark. I never see nothing like it." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Ray; "there's others say that, too. She is queer! +Nellie says she often doesn't eat breakfast--nor any meat either. And +she talks about the dam as if we was all heathens laying the axe at the +root of our own mothers. She says all the trees ought to belong to the +United States Government. As if we wasn't singing 'Pass under the rod of +the Republican party' from dawn to dark now. Such a country!" + +"She goes down to see Mr. Ledge, too," pursued Mrs. Catt; "of course he +don't want the dam, and he makes her more so. Josiah Bates was driving +home from Castile the other day, and he saw her coming from there. +Josiah said he was sure she'd been to see Mr. Ledge, 'cause she wasn't +ten feet from the house, and they was waving their hands to her from the +window. You can always depend on Josiah Bates knowing what he's talking +about." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Ray, turning her work about; "yes, Josiah Bates is a +very careful observer. He'll never die of no fish-bone in his throat for +want of watching the fish." + +"Speaking of fish-bones," said Mrs. Catt, "have you seen Lottie Ann +Wiley lately? There's a bag of bones for you!" + +"Not for a week or so. Why? Is she thinner than she was?" + +"Thinner! Well, I should say so. I don't know what the Wileys will do +with that girl if she keeps on getting thinner and paler." + +"She isn't any paler than that girl at Nellie O'Neil's." + +"Which one?" + +"That Lathbun girl. Do you know anything about them?" + +"That's what every one's asking." + +Mrs. Ray threaded her needle. "They're a queer pair," she remarked. + +"Well, I should say so. They don't eat any breakfast, either; make it up +on chestnuts. They're picking chestnuts all over. Lizzie says she never +saw people making so free. Folks don't know what to say, but it riles a +good many. They pick that little gray bag they've got full three or four +times a day." + +"Well, I declare," said Mrs. Ray; "do you suppose they eat 'em all?" + +Mrs. Catt rose. "I only stopped for a minute," she said. "Oh, I don't +know, I'm sure. Chestnuts is hearty, but seems to me they ought to ask +at the houses, anyway. Mrs. Wiley says if they come to her trees again, +she'll turn the bull in the lot." + +"Must you go?" Mrs. Ray asked. "I thought Mrs. Wiley was afraid of the +bull." + +"Yes, I must. What you making?" + +"I'm putting a new lining in this vest for Elmer Hoskins. His dog chewed +it up, while he was asleep." + +"Did he have it on?" Mrs. Catt asked in great surprise. + +"No; he had it on the chair and it fell off." + +"Fell off! I s'pose you've heard about Gran'ma Benton's parrot falling +off?" + +"Falling off what? No, I haven't heard." + +"Fell off the perch. I saw poor Clay this morning, and he's half mad. +The parrot and Gran'ma Benton have been discussing most all night +lately, and the parrot gets so mad he hops all over and last night he +got in a rage and fell off the perch. Broke the perch, too." + +"Well, I declare," said Mrs. Ray; "why don't Clay show some spirit and +put a stop to all that? I would." + +"He can't. Gran'ma Benton's so fond of discussing, and if she didn't +have the parrot she'd soon wear them all out." + +"I thought she was wearing them out as it is." + +"Well, yes--" Mrs. Catt looked cornered, "but, anyhow, they don't have +to do the talking now--the parrot does it. I'd like to see my husband's +mother have a parrot--that's all!" Mrs. Catt twitched her shawl +expressively. + +"Poor Clay Wright Benton," said Mrs. Ray. "Just to look at him you'd +know it all. I do despise men who haven't got any spirit; but if they +have spirit of course they're almost worse to get on with. Yes, indeed." + +"Yes, indeed!" said Mrs. Catt with meaning; "well, good-by, Mrs. Ray." + +"Oh! Good-by." + +Mrs. Catt went out. + +It was only a few minutes later that Mrs. Wiley arrived, with another +large bundle wrapped up in newspaper. + +"Don't stop your work," she said, putting it down with a sigh. "Oh, you +ain't sewing on my coat," she added, in a tone of deep disappointment, +evidently seeing interruption in a changed light at once. + +"No, but I've cut it out. What you got there?" + +"I've got another suit of father's." + +Mrs. Ray eyed the bundle with thoughtfully compressed lips, and gave her +shawl a fresh tuck. + +"What you want made out of this one?" + +Mrs. Wiley hesitated. "It's such a handsome piece of cloth," she said, +"I'm willing to leave the cut to you, but I thought maybe you could get +a winter jacket for Lottie Ann out of this one?" + +Mrs. Ray compressed her lips more, and frowned. "I don't know about +that," she said, shaking her head. "I've had trouble enough with the +last." + +"This was his new when he died. After he reached three hundred. And it +isn't worn anywhere. You can get her big sleeves out of the hips, I +think." + +"There's a good deal to a coat beside the sleeves," said Mrs. Ray; "that +coat of yours has most drove me mad. I never thought of your bringing me +another. Well, unroll it and let me look at it." + +Mrs. Wiley began to unfasten the package. + +"Any moth-holes in this one?" Mrs. Ray asked, with professional +interest. + +"None to speak of. The only real hole is where he sat down on a engine +spark at the station, the day of his last shock." + +"It isn't the suit he had on when the oil-tank exploded, then?" + +"No," said Mrs. Wiley; "that was the last but one. The oil-tank was the +middle one of his three shocks." + +She unfolded the garments and spread them out. Mrs. Ray watched her, and +continued her work at the same time. + +"How's Lottie Ann?" she asked, presently. + +"Oh, she's poorly," said Mrs. Wiley. "We're getting awful worried over +Lottie Ann. I thought maybe you could get her fronts out of his fronts; +you see, she's slimmer than I am." + +"But her big spread will come lower than yours," said Mrs. Ray; "is +there any up and down to the cloth? How much does she weigh, anyhow?" + +"Yes, there is an up and down. Ninety-six last time. That's mighty +little for her height. She only wanted it short, anyway." + +"It'll have to be short. Yes, indeed. Why you must have weighed most +double that at her age. It's too bad men always have pockets." + +"He would have them; you know how father always set store by pockets. +There, that's the engine spark. I don't know, I'm sure, what we'll do +about her. Mr. Wiley says his grandmother went just so--" Mrs. Wiley's +voice broke suddenly; she took out her handkerchief and dried her eyes. +"Do you see any way to getting the fronts out?" she asked, falteringly, +after a minute. + +"You musn't look to the worst that way," said Mrs. Ray, soothingly; +"those thin girls pick up wonderfully. The only way I see is if you've +got braid. If you've got any braid, I can piece it back of the braid. +She may marry and be as well as any one. Look at her great-grandmother +you just spoke of. Yes, indeed." + +"I haven't got any braid. But I can buy some. Judy was up from the St. +Helena road yesterday, and she said to give her milk--all she'll drink." + +"Turn it over so I can see the back," said Mrs. Ray; "will she drink it, +though? That's the question. She was up for the mail two nights ago, and +I thought she looked pretty well-willed. That's a nice piece of cloth. +My, but you were lucky he didn't have it on when the oil-tank exploded. +Yes, indeed. It's better cloth than the other." + +"Yes, that's what I think. That's just the trouble, Mrs. Ray; she will +_not_ drink it." + +"You never was severe enough with her. Not but what if it hadn't burnt +through you could get the oil out, maybe." + +"I know it, but she's my only girl. I thought you could use the same +buttons. Eleven boys, and then that one girl. She's named for Mr. +Wiley's mother and my mother. Charlotte, you know. See, Mrs. Ray, +there's six of each size, one on each cuff, too. And all so stout but +her. The boys and their father got together on the hay scales the other +day, and they went up over two thousand pounds. Did you hear about it?" + +Mrs. Ray stopped sewing and scanned the new proposition with one eye +half closed. + +"I'd have to piece the sleeves; you'd have to make up your mind to that. +Were they in the wagon?" + +"No, just standing on the scales. You think you can manage it if you +piece them--don't you?" + +"Yes, I can manage it then. I can get my backs out below the knee, and +get her sides out of his backs." + +"Oh, Mrs. Ray, you've taken a load off my mind. I'm so glad to get these +awful sad remembrances done some good with. I made pillow-slips out of +his nightshirts, but his flannels will haunt me till I die. Eddy's the +only one of the boys that is ever going to grow to them, and Eddy never +wears flannel." + +"I should think you could use 'em up to cover the ironing-table. Who did +you say was picking chestnuts,--Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter?" + +"I haven't said a word about them." Mrs. Wiley opened her eyes widely. +"But I'm hearing about them all over. I don't believe she's her daughter +any more than you are. They're a nice pair, those two. Chestnuts six +dollars a bushel, and they picking them morn, noon, and night. Have you +seen Sammy Adams? He took them in the night before they got here, you +know. You heard of that." + +"Yes, I did." Mrs. Ray's lips came together; "I shall ask him all about +that taking them in, the first time I see him. Never bought a stamp yet! +Such doings! They're not respectable. Don't tell _me_." + +"You're terrible prejudiced in your opinions, Mrs. Ray; you judge +everybody by the stamps they buy." + +"It's all I have to judge strangers by," said Mrs. Ray, "and it's a +pretty good guide, too. Mrs. Lathbun don't buy stamps and nobody can't +tell me that she's on the square. Wait till I see Sammy!" + +"When do you think you can try mine on?" asked Mrs. Wiley. + +"Will next Thursday do?" + +"Yes, I don't want to wear it till Thanksgiving; I won't go to Buffalo +till Christmas. Lottie Ann won't want hers till then." + +"I can do them both by Thanksgiving," said Mrs. Ray. "I've got a few +little jobs to do for others, and I want to build a new back fence, and +I guess I'm going to get the contract for whitewashing the church +cellar, I'm bidding on it. But after that, except for my house-cleaning +and my boarders and my regular duties under the United States +Government, I haven't got anything particular on hand." + +"I'll be so glad," said Mrs. Wiley, moving towards the door. "We're all +so kind of upset about not knowing whether Uncle Purchase will come and +live with us or not if the dam goes through, that I want to have my +things in order, anyhow. He wrote, you know." + +"No, I didn't know, but I guess he'll come and live with you, anyway," +said Mrs. Ray; "good-by." + +Mrs. Wiley went out, and before long there was another caller,--Clay +Wright Benton himself this time, usually called "poor Clay Wright +Benton" by his friends, for the simple reason that he was Sarah Benton's +husband, and his mother's son. + +"How d'ye do," he said, opening the door a few inches and looking in +through it. "No, I won't come in; I only stopped to speak about the hay. +You said I could have it, you know." + +"Yes, I know," said Mrs. Ray; "but I said, if you came before October +first. That's past now, and Elmer took it off yesterday. Him and his dog +was here at sun up and away again by noon. You see now what it is to +take your own time." + +Clay Wright Benton stood still, turning his cap about and about. + +"I thought you knew I wanted it," he said, finally; "I couldn't come +sooner." + +"I did know. But I thought you needed a lesson. Nobody that wants to get +ahead in this world can take their own time. You've got to be a little +ahead of other people's time if you really want to make your mark. How's +Susan? Got back from her father's yet?" + +"No," said the man; "she's going to stay till Thanksgiving. She was so +awful tired of the parrot." + +"Look out you don't leave her too long--same as the hay," said Mrs. Ray, +cheerfully. "Who's that coming up the steps behind you? I can feel the +draught as long as you stand there in the crack, but I can't see through +your body." + +Clay Wright Benton moved aside, and Mrs. Dunstall pushed past him. "I'm +sorry I was late about the hay," he said then, and went slowly away. +Mrs. Benton and his mother had left very little spirit in him. + +"What did he come for?" asked Mrs. Dunstall, shutting the door tightly. +"I'm sorry for Susan. She married him for his looks, and looks is all he +ever had to give her." The attitude of the community was that of larger +communities towards the humbly unsuccessful in life. + +"He ain't giving her even looks, any more," said Mrs. Ray; "she's gone +home, and his looks is gone heaven knows where. No man was ever so +handsome yet that he could rise above needing to shave." + +"He'll make his fortune if the dam goes through, though," observed Mrs. +Dunstall; "he owns all the land above Ledgeville." + +"He'll never see her for dust then," said Mrs. Ray, drily. "She'll leave +him to keep house for Gran'ma Benton and the parrot. Well, what did you +come for?" + +"I was walking by, and I thought I'd just stop and ask you if you'd +heard about that Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter staying all night with +Sammy Adams? Josiah Bates was up that way for a load of apples and he +heard of it." + +Mrs. Ray became rigid. "I have heard of it," she said; "but not from +Sammy. He was here and never said a thing about it, but some one else +told me. So it's all over town now, is it?" + +"They was walking across country and there came on a rain and they +stopped for shelter and it was Sammy's where they stopped." + +Mrs. Ray sewed very fast. "I always said they were tramps anyway," she +said, haughtily; "now you'll all see." + +"Seems funny Sammy never told you about it." + +"Well, he never did." + +"He tells you everything--don't he?" + +"I thought so." + +"It couldn't be he really took a fancy to either of 'em," reflected Mrs. +Dunstall; "I don't think they're good-looking." + +"Good-looking!" + +"But you know, men are queer, Mrs. Ray. There was Mr. Ray. He was +queer." + +Mrs. Ray gave her thread a jerk that broke it. + +"They never get any letter, do they? You said they never did, didn't +you?" Mrs. Dunstall was all query. + +"No, they never get any letters." + +"They claim to come from Cromwell, don't they?" + +"I don't know. I never heard. I wouldn't believe anything they said. No +trunks and stealing chestnuts all over. I never!" + +"Wouldn't it be a funny thing if, after all these years, some stranger +like those two was to come in from saints-know-where and marry Sammy?" + +"Yes, it would be funny," said Mrs. Ray, "very funny. Yes, indeed. Yes, +it would be _very_ funny!" + +"I thought I'd just stop and tell you," said Mrs. Dunstall. "I knew +you'd be interested. I know you're such a friend of Sammy's. I thought +if you knew, maybe you could look 'em up a little. Nathan's got an aunt +living in Cromwell. If I was you I'd look 'em up, Mrs. Ray." + +Mrs. Ray opened her scissors like the jaws of a shark. + +"I _am_ looking 'em up," she said, and the scissors closed with a snap +full of meaning; "they'll soon find what it means to get no letters and +write no letters and stop with Sammy Adams when it rains. Yes, indeed." + +Two hours later every one in the township--that is, every one except the +boarders of the O'Neil House--knew that Mrs. Ray was actively advocating +an investigation into the Lathbuns' history. + +"I guess she'll find out a good deal," said Samuel Peterkin to Judy, as +they drove home towards the St. Helena road. + +The scene far and near was one maddest autumn blaze of beauty. + +"Mrs. Ray will never let up on him till she does," said Judy; "she's +awful mad at Sammy." + +The road bent between giant pines, and revealed the gray facade of the +High Banks beyond, stretching in gigantic grandeur between the black +shadows below and the bewildering colors above. + +"If these trees was down, what a long ways we could see along the +river," said Samuel. + +"Yes," said Judy, "trees is dreadfully in the way when you want to see. +And to think that Mr. Ledge is always talking about having planted ten +thousand of them. People are curious." + +The sun came out upon the horizon behind them at that minute, and shot a +shaft of glory down the canyon, illuminating all the gray rock with +silver. + +"There, now," said Judy; "it's late when it's like that. It's right in +our eyes, too. We must hurry." + +"I told you you were staying too long," said Samuel; "and you know as +well as I do that nobody can trot the St. Helena hill." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE BROADER MEANING + + +It is surprising how quickly any situation can be assimilated. Be it +ever so pleasant or ever so painful, we get accustomed to its demands +surprisingly soon, and whether it is the fact that one has just gotten a +fortune, or just gotten the toothache, in either case it seems as if one +had had it always, before one has hardly had it at all. + +Lassie learned this with great rapidity. Before three days had passed +by, she discovered that the deep and earnest joy in Alva's mind had +eradicated all the horror in her own. Alva's love ceased to seem +shocking--it seemed, instead, more like some beautiful, mysterious +wonder. Lassie came to hear her friend talk without any distress--only +with a sort of wistful ignorance--a longing to fathom depths not before +even apprehended. + +"It doesn't strike me as it did at first at all," she said to Ingram one +night, as they went for the mail together. "All that I think of now is +how happy she looks. Did you ever see any one look as happy as she +does?" + +"She's very happy, surely," said Ingram; "but what uses me up is that +she is looking forward so. Why, that man is dying--he may die any +day--and she thinks that he will come here. He can't ever come here, +not possibly!" + +"Oh, can't he?" Lassie cried, in real distress, "are you sure of that?" + +"Of course. He knows it, too." + +"But she doesn't know it?" + +"No." + +"Don't you think that he ought to tell her, then?" + +Ingram did not speak for a minute. "Perhaps some miracle may come to +pass, and he may live," he said then; "you see, he has lived three weeks +longer than any man in his circumstances ought to expect to live." + +"Oh, then he hasn't got to die soon?" + +Ingram knit his brows in the dark. "I can't explain myself clearly," he +said; "but it seems to me that he and Alva sort of rise above rules, so +to speak. Part of the time she's as she always was--just as we are--and +then again I feel as if she herself had gone and left me sitting with +just a figure of some sort.--" He paused. "I expect he's the same way," +he added, after a second; "it's all beyond me." + +"It's strange, isn't it?" Lassie spoke thoughtfully. "She's very sweet +and lovely, and dear with it all. But I know just what you mean; I've +seen it, too. She is talking, and then she stops and that white look +comes over her face, and I never speak then until she does. Do you +know," she said, almost timidly, "I keep thinking of things I've read in +books about the Middle Ages,--about saints; about 'ecstasy,' they called +it. We say 'ecstasies' about hats, or little dogs, or the flowers at +Easter; but when Alva has been talking about her life in that house and +stops to think, and I see her face, I feel as if I understood what the +word really and truly meant." + +"I suppose there's no danger of her converting you," said Ingram; "it's +all very well for her, but I should hate to have you that way." + +"Why?" asked the girl, in surprise. + +"It isn't human, that's why," the man declared, energetically. "We're +past the Middle Ages," he added, with a little laugh, "far past now." + +"You think that people can be too good?" + +"Yes, I do. I wouldn't marry a woman like her for anything!" + +"But you thought differently once," said Lassie, shyly. + +"Yes," he said, easily, "I wanted to marry her once, but she wouldn't +have it at all. Droll--isn't it?" + +"We're ever so far by the post-office; do you know it?" she said. + +"So we are; I'd forgotten all about the mail." + +They turned back. + +"But I don't believe that Alva ever could make you see life in the way +that she does," Ingram said, tentatively; "does she ever try?" + +"I don't think so," said Lassie; "she just talks to me of her +happiness." + +"What would become of the world, I wonder, if every one adopted her +views," suggested the man. + +They turned in at Mrs. Ray's gate just here. The mail was distributed, +and every one else had taken theirs and gone. + +"Well, you're a little late," said Mrs. Ray, cheerfully. "Mary Cody run +up for the house letters when she saw you go by. Have a nice walk?" + +"Yes, very," said Ingram. + +"You're great walkers down your way. Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter walk +all day long, seems to me." + +"They do walk a good deal," said Lassie. + +Then she and Ingram went back to the hotel. They found Alva standing by +the dining-room door with her lamp and her letters in her hand. Mrs. +O'Neil stood close before her. + +"I wouldn't worry," said Alva to Mrs. O'Neil; "I don't believe one word +of it." + +"When they're out to-morrow I shall sweep the room _myself_," said Mrs. +O'Neil, decidedly; "you can learn a good deal about people by sweeping +their room." Then they all separated, Ingram going to his letters, their +hostess to her husband, and Alva and Lassie to their cosy nest +up-stairs. + +"What was the matter?" Lassie asked, directly their doors were shut. + +"Nothing especial," Alva said, laughing; "it was just that Mrs. Ray came +here this afternoon and rather upset Mrs. O'Neil by talking about Mrs. +Lathbun and her daughter." + +"What did she say?" + +"She didn't say anything in particular--she just talked." + +"What did she talk, then?" + +"She talked all sorts of things; she doesn't like them at all. She +doesn't consider them nice." + +Lassie was silent. She was conscious of a painful lack of admiration for +either Mrs. Lathbun or her daughter, herself. + +A freight train began to roll by and ended conversation for the time +being. Alva went to the window and stood there. After a while she spoke +musingly. + +"Everything must have a purpose. Every action has to have a thought +behind it. If we could only see through the veil!" + +The train, which had come to a standstill, now began to move again, +cracking and straining at first, then going on with a terrific roar. + +"They serve their purpose surely--the freight trains," Alva said; "even +if they did nothing else, their noise accomplishes something. One might +forget life so easily in this corner of the world, if it were not for +them." + +Lassie laughed. "But they serve a few more purposes than that." + +"Yes, of course. I never deny the broader meaning in life--if the +world's view _is_ the broader one--but trains mean such a great deal +besides what they carry, in a little bit of a town. I used to think that +they came pretty close to being all the meaning that life had to the +people there, and I still wonder sometimes if it isn't so. I've lived +here well over one week now, and really it seems to me that the trains, +their comings and goings, and whether they do them on time or not, are +the only topics of conversation that are ever broached." + +"Perhaps they talk about other things when we're not around," suggested +Lassie, wisely. + +"I hadn't thought of that. Or perhaps they think the trains our only +mutual interest. You know, Lassie, there really is no one that is +stupid, unless you do your half towards being stupid, too. It's like the +crash in the wilderness, which doesn't mean sound unless there are ears +to hear it." + +"I never thought of that," said Lassie; "isn't there really any sound in +the wilderness? What happens when the tigers roar?" + +"But of course they do talk about other things here," Alva continued, +paying no attention to her friend's flippancy. "They talk about the dam, +and they talk about me." + +"What do you suppose they say about you?" Lassie asked, curiously. + +"I know exactly what they say," Alva replied, a real amusement curling +her lips; "they say that Ronald and I are going to be married and live +in that house while he builds the dam." + +"Oh!" + +"Yes, indeed." + +"But I didn't know that the dam was decided on." + +"It isn't, my dear, and I don't believe myself that there ever will be +any dam. I can't believe that this State, even in her grossest +materialism, will have the face to accept a royal gift and then turn +around and give it away in direct contradiction of the terms of its +acceptance." + +"Is it as bad as that?" + +"It's very bad. That dear old gentleman has made the preservation of +this wonder of nature the realized dream of his whole life. He's carried +through no end of other big philanthropic schemes, but he never for one +instant allowed anything to turn him aside from this one. He told me +himself how he had rewooded the banks--he has planted thousands and +thousands of trees--and now to have the whole threatened. It's shameful, +shameful!" + +"Does every one know how you feel?" + +"Yes, every one knows how I feel." + +"What do they think themselves?" + +"I believe the predominant sentiment in Ledge is that it will be +entertaining to see Ledgeville drowned for good and all." + +Lassie laughed. + +The freight train was all gone by now. Alva turned from the window and +came back to a seat beside her friend, sinking upon it with a little +sigh. + +"All this goes very near with me, dear," she said, gently; "loving +Nature and fighting for the future has been _his_ life-work, you know." + +"Yes," Lassie said, softly. + +Suddenly the older one leaned close and put her arms about the young +girl. "It's so heaven-blessed to have you here,--it makes me so happy." + +"I'm very happy, too," said Lassie. "I never had just the feeling before +in my life that I have with you these days--it's as if nothing could +ever come between us. Sort of as if we had been sealed to a compact." + +Alva patted the brown waves of hair. "That's the understanding of true +friendship, dear," she said; "nothing ever can come between us. Once two +people realize mutual truth, how can anything come between them again? +All the trouble in the world arises out of falseness. Search in your +mind, and see if it isn't so?" + +Lassie reflected. "You're putting so many new ideas into my head," she +said, "I suppose I'll go home with nothing of my old self left in me." + +"Not quite that," said Alva. "Your old self wasn't so bad, Lassie, dear. +But the world has a way of hammering all its votaries into a certain set +of molds, and I'd like to see you casting, instead of cast,--do you +know the difference?" + +"Alva," said Lassie, with sudden appealing earnestness, "you weren't +like this when I saw you last; what changed you?" + +"I had the convictions then, but not the courage. Now I have the +courage, too." + +"What gave you the courage?" + +"Surely you can divine?" + +"Love." + +"Yes, dear, love. Love for him. All courage has its root in love of some +kind." + +"Alva, you teach me more each day." + +"Yes, and I'll teach you more and more and more yet, and so on and so on +until we part, and then I'll go on learning myself." + +"Hasn't your lesson any end?" + +"Love hasn't any end, dear, any more than it has any beginning. And so +my lesson hasn't any end, either." + +"But--" + +"I know what you are going to say, but that isn't real love. That which +can end has never been,--all the real things in existence are eternal." + +"But they--the people that--well, you know, they thought that it was +love--didn't they?" + +"Yes, dear, and little children think that there are bears in dark +closets, and ever so many people think that money buys happiness. The +world is full of lies, Lassie, but if one puts the test to them they all +fade away. You don't understand yet--but wait." + +"I want to understand." + +"But you are not ready to understand yet." + +"But I am ready, I will learn to be ready." + +"Yes, and I'm going to teach you. But I have to go slowly because I have +to hunt for the words. You are such a little thing--such a baby--to be +trusted with life; because you see most people never live--they just +exist. They are only a few steps up on the staircase, and when they are +dragged or pushed above the place that they are in by nature, they are +apt to be dizzy. I want to teach you life, Lassie; but I don't want to +make you dizzy." She paused, and a whimsical little smile danced across +her face; "and besides, dear, we must get undressed. It is after ten +o'clock." + +"Just a minute more, Alva; it seems as if I cannot break off right here. +And I won't be dizzy. I know that whatever you think and do must be +right and best. I want to learn to think just as you do. I want to be +told how you learned. I always knew you were so very good, and truly, +dear, I wouldn't have been surprised if you'd chosen to marry a +missionary or to go to that island where the lepers are--not after the +first minute, you know; it would have been just like you." + +"Oh, no, Lassie, it wouldn't have been like me at all. For ever so many +reasons. My first duty in life--the duty that comes before every +other--is to my father and mother. No claim could be strong enough to +justify my leaving them; and then, besides, I'm not a Christian, except +in the sense that I believe with Christ, and that isn't enough for any +mission or any leper nowadays." + +There was a little pause; then Lassie said: "But you are going to leave +your father and mother now, aren't you?" + +Alva smiled. "But for such a little while, dear," she said, gently; +"you forget how short the time is to be!" There was an instant's pause +and then she turned suddenly and her face had the bright color of deep +emotion flaming in it. "Lassie, Lassie," she exclaimed, with a strength +of feeling that startled the other into a sudden cry, "I'm trying to be +calm, I'm trying to talk to you quietly,--I don't want you to think me a +mad woman,--but I am so much closer to some other keener, sharper world +of soul and sensation than you or any one can realize, that I can hardly +curb myself to the dull, unknowing, unfeeling, throb, throb, of this +one. Don't you know, Lassie, that people are getting married every +day,"--she stopped and pressed her hands tightly together, her eyes +starring the pallor of her face with that curious radiance of which the +young girl had spoken to Ronald. "Oh," she went on, "to think that +people are getting married every day because they need cooks or because +they need care, or because the man has money or because the girl is +pretty, and they go forth un-understanding, and they live along somehow; +and the word that means their sort of companionship is all that I can +use to speak of the evening that I shall return here, his wife, and fall +on my knees beside him and realize that all my loneliness and waiting +and hoping has ended, and that at last--at last--we are to be together, +even if only for a few weeks, a few days, a few hours. A foretaste of +eternity! A memory of what was in the beginning of all things!" + +Ceasing to speak, she clasped her hands more tightly yet, and her eyes +closed slowly. Lassie sat still and trembling. Her breath came unevenly, +but she saw that Alva's swept in and out of her bosom with a wide +evenness that belies unconquered emotion. After a minute the other +opened her eyes and laid her hand lightly upon the girl's head. "I +frighten you, I know that I frighten you," she said; "you think that I +am crazy after all." + +"No, I don't, Alva; but I can't think what kind of a man the man can be +to make you feel that marrying him will be so different from marrying +any other man." + +"You can't think, because you don't know what love can mean to +people--what it has meant to him or what it has meant to me." + +Then she sprang up and began to undress herself rapidly. + +"I don't see how you can bring yourself back to earth, Alva, after you +have felt like that." + +Alva smiled. "But we must live on the earth, Lassie, and be of the +earth. We are made for the earth. God gave us our souls, and he gave us +our bodies, too. And he meant both to work together." + +Lassie sat still and meditative. She had herself been carried out beyond +her depth and could not get back easily. She was, in truth, a little +dizzy. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE WAR-PATH + + +Mrs. Ray in the post-office managed to keep track of Mrs. O'Neil's +personal sweeping of the Lathbun bedroom until it was terminated. Then +she left the United States Government's appointment in charge of Mr. +Ray's first wife's youngest daughter, and hied herself down the hill. + +Mary Cody and Mrs. O'Neil were in the kitchen discussing the results of +the investigation when she entered. + +"Well, you'll never guess what I found," said the landlord's wife; +"you'd never guess if you guessed till Doomsday." + +"What did you find?" Mrs. Ray tucked in the ends of her shawl with +fierce joy,--"a pistol?" + +"No;" Nellie O'Neil's brown eyes glowed and her face shone; "guess +again." + +"Oh, I can't guess," said Mrs. Ray, impatiently. "A monkey? A +love-letter from the king of England? A lot of stamps? I don't know,--I +can't guess." + +Mrs. O'Neil nodded her head very slowly, and with deeply seated meaning. + +"Go on," said Mrs. Ray, "tell me. I'm in a hurry. Yes, I am." + +"I found six case-knives!" + +"Six case-knives!" + +"Yes, that's what I found." + +"Six case-knives! Well, of all the--What did they want them for?" + +"One was broke off short." + +"Any blood on it?" + +"Oh, Mrs. Ray!" + +"Well, I just asked." + +"They were all clean." + +"And one broke off?--hum!" + +"What do you think about it, Mrs. Ray?" + +"I hope it'll be a lesson to Sammy Adams never to take two strange women +in on a rainy night again. The Bible, even, is severe on strange women." + +"Did he take them in?" Mrs. O'Neil opened her brown eyes widely. + +"Take them in! He kept them all night. Haven't you heard about it? And +never told me, either. That's just like a man. Flattering himself that +I'd give a second thought to any woman living. Six, you say, Nellie, and +one broke off?" + +"The broken one is one of the six." + +"They could have broken it off in his heart, just as easy! My, to think +of the chances that man took! Didn't they have anything else? Did you +look under the mattress?" + +"Yes,--I looked everywhere. There's a hair-brush that I'd have thrown +into the gorge a year ago if it had been mine, and a bent pin and a +broken mirror, and that's all." + +"I declare. Well, it's a very good thing that I set you to looking them +up. Yes, indeed. I shall look them up in all directions now, myself. I +shan't leave a stone unturned that I can even tip up on one side. To +think of those case-knives! And one broke off! And Sammy Adams taking +them in like that! But then, it isn't for you to criticize him, Nellie, +for you've taken them in yourself. You can thank your stars you haven't +had a case-knife stuck in you before now. How do they carry them, +anyway?" + +"They were wrapped in a piece of red flannel." + +"Red flannel! Why, you said all they had beside the knives was the +hair-brush and the mirror. Red flannel,--hum! So blood wouldn't show on +it, I expect. Was the edge of the blade of the broken one rusted at +all?" + +"Not that I noticed." + +"Noticed!" + +"Don't you want to come up and see for yourself, Mrs. Ray?" + +"I don't know. They might come in. It wouldn't look well for any one in +the employ of the United States Government to be found spying about, you +know. I'm always having to consider my country. Yes, indeed. But what do +you suppose they have those knives for? I never heard of such a thing in +all my life. Even if they used them for tooth-brushes, they'd only want +one apiece." + +"I think you'd better come up-stairs." + +"And Sammy Adams taking them in like that! That poor innocent! Not but +what he was a fool; think of me opening my doors to two tramps!" + +"Come on up-stairs. They won't be back till noon. They've gone +chestnutting in the Wiley wood. They can't be back till noon." + +The door opened just here, and Alva came in with Lassie behind her. + +"Have you told them?" Mrs. Ray asked. + +"What is it?" Alva asked. + +"We don't know what to think about Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter," said +Mrs. O'Neil. + +Alva glanced quickly into both their faces and then at Lassie. + +Mrs. Ray tucked the ends of her shawl in, folded her arms, and closed +her lips tightly for a second before opening them to speak. "I never did +like their looks," she declared. "I'm not surprised over what's come +out!" + +"I never liked their looks, either," said Lassie, "but what is it? Has +anything happened?" + +"No," said Mrs. Ray, "nothing in particular, only we're beginning to +find them out. You can't pretend to be somebody forever without any +trunks. Case-knives are good in their way, but they don't take the place +of trunks." + +"Case-knives!" Alva exclaimed. "Oh, what do you mean?" + +"There, Nellie, you see how they strike any one," said Mrs. Ray, with +deep meaning. + +"But have they case-knives with them?" Alva asked,--"not really?" + +Then Mrs. O'Neil told her story. + +"You'd better all lock your doors nights after this," said Mrs. Ray; +"you don't want to take Sammy Adams' chances if you can help it." + +"But what should they have the knives for?" Lassie asked. + +"They have their reasons," said Mrs. Ray, darkly; "you know you told me +the other day, Nellie, that the reason why they sat in the kitchen with +their feet in the oven so much was because their shoes was all wore +out; they've got their reasons for everything they do, depend on it. If +they're honest, why don't they have their shoes patched when they're +wore out? If they were respectable, why didn't that girl buy some black +laces instead of wearing brown ones. I always keep black shoe-laces in +my grocery business." + +"Maybe she doesn't know that," suggested Lassie. + +"Yes, she does know," said Mrs. Ray, "for I told her so one day when she +played come for mail." + +"I didn't know you kept shoe-laces," said Mrs. O'Neil. "I've always +bought them in Buffalo." + +"Well, I do. Yes, indeed. I keep pretty nearly everything--except +case-knives. There's nothing out of place in keeping shoe-laces in a +grocery business, not until after you begin to wear them, and for my own +part they seem to me just as decent as shoe buttons which all the town +would be up in surprise if I didn't have them in my grocery business." + +"Yes, I knew you kept shoe buttons," said Mrs. O'Neil. + +"I keep everything, except strange women travelling after dark. My store +is a general one. I thank heaven there's nothing of the specialist in +me. I'd of starved if there was, or been obliged to charge very high for +very little work, which would mean starving in a while anyhow, so being +no doctor I couldn't stay a specialist long even if I tried." + +"I think you ought to come up-stairs and see their room, Mrs. Ray," Mrs. +O'Neil said, going back to the main question. + +"What is it about their room?" Lassie asked. + +"There isn't anything about it--that's what it is," said Mrs. Ray; +"respectable people always have things about their room. Yes, indeed. +But of course women walking across country nights can't carry much fancy +fixings even if they don't mind stopping all night wherever the rain +catches them." + +"Did they stop over night anywhere?" Lassie asked. + +Mrs. Ray adjusted her shawl. "Such doings!" she muttered; "I never heard +the like. That's one way to work the game. I never had any game. I just +had the work. Whenever there came up something as had to be done that +nobody in town could do, I was glad to learn how for the money. Yes, +indeed. And now they come along and live on the fat of the land, +case-knives and all." + +"Do let's go up and see the room," pleaded Mrs. O'Neil. + +Mrs. Ray wavered. "Well, if Mary Cody will stand in the hall and watch?" +she stipulated. + +"And you must come, too," said Mrs. O'Neil to her two guests; "there +isn't anything to see--it isn't prying--it's just the wonder how they +can get along without anything at all that way." + +Alva was rather pale. + +"Do let's go," Lassie whispered. + +Alva smiled sadly. "Yes, we'll go," she said. + +Mrs. O'Neil called Mary Cody and stationed her below. Then they all four +mounted the stairs and went along the plain hall to the plain door at +the end. + +"You keep everything very neat, Nellie," said Mrs. Ray; "it's a pity you +don't stick to nice people who can appreciate nice things. If you go +taking in people like the Lathbuns too often, you might just as well +give up and get the name for it. I wouldn't dare stay under the same +roof with them, myself." + +Mrs. O'Neil made no answer, simply pressing the door at the end of the +hall and--as the door yielded--entering first. + +Mrs. Ray and Lassie were next. Alva did not go in, but stood still in +the doorway. + +It is hard to conceive the special effect of that interior on each of +the four. + +"Did you have any little things around before you swept?" Mrs. Ray +asked, standing in the middle like the head of some royal commission in +the days of the Dissolution. + +Mrs. O'Neil--in the capacity of the layman left to represent the monks +flown--replied that she had found all as bare as now. + +"Well, you told the truth, Nellie," her friend remarked; "there's the +hair-brush and here's the mirror. But where are the knives?" + +Mrs. O'Neil pulled open the upper drawer, and in one corner lay the roll +of red flannel. + +Mrs. Ray unrolled the knives and examined them with care. A case-knife +is rather limited as to its power of revelation, however, and she soon +laid them down. + +"Well, I never!" she said, with heaviest emphasis. + +"What do they sleep in, or wash with?" Mrs. O'Neil suggested. + +"The towels are yours, of course, Nellie?" + +"Of course." + +Lassie looked around the simple bedroom with its absolute bareness. She +felt pitiful. + +"They're comin' over the post-office hill!" Mary Cody suddenly yelled +below. The effect was magical. + +Lassie and Alva fled into their room. + +"I feel like a burglar myself," exclaimed the young girl, as she shut +their door. + +Mrs. Ray was going down the stairs in the hall outside. "There," she +exclaimed, "did you hear that? That's the way it goes when you harbor +criminals. They're very catching." + +"Oh, do you really think they're criminals?" Mrs. O'Neil asked, in great +distress. + +"Well, Nellie, put the case-knives and Sammy Adams together, and then +the way they pick up other folks' chestnuts and having no comb and only +half a brush for the two of 'em--it looks bad in my eyes." + +"But what shall I do?" Mrs. O'Neil asked. + +"Ask Jack if they pay their board regularly; that'll help you to know +some," propounded the postmistress solemnly, and then she returned to +her government duties forthwith. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +ANOTHER PATH + + +As Lassie closed the door, Alva moved to her favorite post by the window +and stood there looking out; the young girl looked anxiously towards her +friend. "What happens to those people doesn't really matter to us, does +it?" she asked after a minute, some atmosphere of trouble permeating +her. + +"Everything matters, dear." + +"But, Alva, you hardly know them, and they _are_ common." + +"Perhaps so, dear, but that room,--two weeks in that room with nothing, +no comforts such as we think absolutely essential--oh, it makes me feel +terribly. Life is such a puzzle. Ledge seemed such a simple-hearted, +secluded little nook,--and first I ran into the big, soul-wringing +problem of the dam, and now here are these two lives. Lassie, whatever +else they may or may not be, they are human. It can't be joy to live +like that. There must be some reason for their doing as they do, and I +can see no reason except the one the girl told me." + +Lassie began to wash and brush for dinner; Alva continued to stand at +the window. + +"That was the first time that I ever went into a room where I was +possibly not wanted," she continued, presently. "It seemed so strange. +And such a room, too. Oh, it all has made me fairly heart-sick. I +wonder what the end is to be. As I say so often, there are no accidents, +no chance happenings in life; if anything enters within my circle, there +is a reason for it. Either they are to do for me, or I am to do for +them, and I wish I knew which it were to be. I am so sorry for them!" + +"Then you don't think that they can be doing wrong--are perhaps bad?" + +"No," said Alva, firmly; "I'll never think that of any one. Nobody is +ever bad. The word is too complete. It says more than it means to +express." + +"They couldn't be going to do anything for you." + +"How can you tell, Lassie? Sometimes in doing for others we do a +thousand times more for ourselves. Haven't you learned that yet?" + +"No, not yet--not with people of that sort." + +"They don't look to be so wrong," Alva spoke half-musingly. "They just +look like plain, quiet people. I'm sure there's no evil in them!" + +"Perhaps she made up the love affair?" + +"She never made that man up, Lassie; that man is a real man. You can't +'make up' men like that." + +"But if he is rich and loves her, would he let her be living this way +and chasing her around that way. That does seem so awfully funny, to +me,--for a rich man to spend the nights outside the window of a girl who +hasn't even a change of pocket-handkerchiefs,--and she isn't pretty +either, you have to admit that, Alva?" + +"Lassie, you do look at everything from such a petty, worldly +standpoint. Of course it isn't your fault, but you judge too easily. How +do you know what rule governs that man; there are some men that no one +can understand,--they seem to be a race apart. All their springs of +action differ from the usual sources. I've been in love with such a +man--I'm in love with him now--I am going to marry him. The ordinary +woman wouldn't care much for a love that had to be set aside for bigger +things, as his for me was at first. But I understood. I accepted the +situation. All situations have their key--their clue--if one can get a +little way outside of body and senses, and then study them +thoughtfully." + +"Well, but if the man is an exceptional man as yours is, what can +interest him in such a girl?" + +Alva shook her head. "You don't find her interesting, and you will never +go near enough to her spirit to change your view; but she interests me, +and some day you'll come to see that every human being is full of +interest, if we will but take the trouble to hunt the interest out. I +have learned that lesson, and all that I can think of is the apparent +trouble and need of these two." + +"Would you have a man as great as the man you love, marry such a girl +with such a mother, Alva?" + +"I would have people who love sincerely always marry, whoever they +love." + +"But if he is so wild that a woman who hasn't even an extra hairpin +wants to hide her daughter from him, do you think he'll make her happy?" + +There was a pause. + +"Lassie," her friend said, presently, "do you know I used to be just +like you. I saw only the finite, too." + +"Yes?" + +"Yes, and I often wonder what would have become of me if I had not +learned through love to finally escape out of the bonds and shackles of +ordinary conditions, and to contemplate them only as either behind or +below me. How can we judge in the case of another? All that I know +absolutely in this case is that I have strayed into the midst of a +pitiful story. All I can do is to try to help that pain. That poor girl +is nothing but a passing ghost to you; to me she is a link in the +chain-armor of life that covers my spirit during its earthly war. As I +said before, there are no chance meetings, there are no accidents; +there's nothing trivial in life after one once grasps the greatness of +the whole. You can make things trivial by belittling them, or you can +make them great. I make Miss Lathbun great because a man who is great is +interested in her." + +"But how do you know that he's great? Or that he is interested in her? +She may have made it all up; I think that she did, myself." + +Alva turned from the window. + +"My dear child," she said, approaching the girl and laying her hand on +her shoulder, "I feel as if there were a thick veil between us; how can +I tell you what I think, when you don't want to understand what I try to +say? Suppose she did make it up? Suppose she and her mother are anything +you please? Still, I'd be glad that I believed in them. One little grain +of real belief may possibly be the seed of a new life for them; and even +if it isn't, think what it means to me to be able to believe in people. +It means that I am looking for good, instead of looking for evil. Can't +you see how much better that must be for me personally?" + +Lassie lifted her eyes to see what she called "the white look," on +Alva's face. She felt ashamed of her own standpoint. + +At that instant the dinner-bell rang loudly below. + +"Oh, we'll see them now!" Lassie exclaimed, all other thoughts fading. + +Alva gave her a quiet glance. "Yes, we'll see them now," she said, +turning towards the door. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +AND STILL ANOTHER PATH + + +It is difficult for one who has never taken an ocean voyage or lived in +a small village to realize the tremendous strides which interest, +friendship, love, or confidence can make in a very few days, or even +hours. I met three girls once whose kind parents had provided them with +a chaperon and sent them abroad to improve their minds. They met men on +the Lusitania (a record trip, too) going over, and all three were +engaged when they landed. Instead of improving their minds in Europe, +they bought their trousseaux, and then came home (another record trip) +and were married. A small village is just the same; one is introduced +and after that it goes like the wind. Women tell each other everything +that they shouldn't, and virtues which would never be noticed in a city +beget the deepest and sincerest admiration and affection. The dearth of +conventionality and variety draw spirits easily together. Perhaps the +purer air is a universal solvent for pride and prejudice. At any rate, +to make a long story short, Lassie and Ingram were in love with each +other before Alva had finished having the porch of her house painted, or +before Mrs. Ray had succeeded in tracking the case-knives to their +suspicious lair of crime. + +It's delightful to fall in love on the sea or in the country, quite as +delightful as to fall in love anywhere else. It is too bad that +fickleness is rated so low, for really the emotion of slowly discovering +that one is entering Elysium should be too great an experience to be +foregone forever after. However, we must not forget that fickleness is +rated low because humanity long since discovered that being in Elysium +is still better than making an entrance there, and furthermore that of +all sharp edges known, Love is the one most easily dulled by usage. +Therefore it is best to adhere to the dear old rules for the dear old +game, and only thank Fate with special reverence when sea-breezes or +country zephyrs float around one's own personal setting-out. + +Lassie didn't know that she was in love; she only knew that she was very +happy. Ingram didn't know that he was in love; he only knew that he was +very happy. Alva, whose soul sank daily deeper into the near approaching +abyss of her profound longings, noticed nothing. But every one else +knew, of course. Joey Beall, the invisibly omnipresent, saw them alone +together somewhere nearly every day. Mrs. Ray watched them come and go +together for mail. Mrs. O'Neil, who never had believed that Ingram was +in love with Alva, wished them well with all her heart. For she felt +sure that Alva wasn't in love with Ingram, either. + +"I'm glad to have something pleasant before my eyes just now," she said +to Mary Cody, and Mary Cody knew that she referred to the feeling over +the dam, which daily grew keener, and to the Lathbuns, who, it was now +openly known, had never paid any board since their arrival, but merely +referred to their banker in Cromwell, who, it appeared, was out of town, +and could not send on their October check until his return. + +"I don't know what there is about looking at them," said Mary Cody, who +was fifteen and grown up at that (and who did not refer to Mrs. Lathbun +and her daughter); "but every time he looks at her while I'm waiting on +them, I feel as if I'd just about die of joy if Ed Griggs would look at +me once that way." + +"Don't talk nonsense," said Mrs. O'Neil, severely. + +The days which bore such momentous happenings upon their bosom flowed +swiftly on, and the week was speeding by--was gone, in fact. + +"It doesn't seem possible, does it?" Lassie said, as she came across the +bridge with Ingram one afternoon. He had happened to return from the +long-distance telephone in Ledgeville by way of Alva's house; and she +had happened to be ready to go home, and Alva had happened not to be +ready. "It doesn't seem that it can be only a week. I feel as if it were +months, instead. Do you remember that first day, when Alva told me, how +I cried and how horrible I thought it was. And now I feel as if it were +too sad for words, but something so great and lovely and sacred, that +I'm sort of hushed in joy to have seen it all. I can see her side now, +and when I go back to the world and hear people say the things that I +thought myself when she first told me, I know that they are going to +hurt me awfully. And yet she says that they will not hurt her." + +"No," said Ingram, thoughtfully, "she seems to be quite beyond being +hurt. I never saw any one who impressed me just as Alva does." + +"It's very wonderful to be with her all the time," Lassie went on; +"nothing seems to affect her for herself, but only things about other +people. She doesn't seem to think her thoughts for herself any more, +but just for others. It's how she can study and learn and carry on some +part of his work for him after he's gone; it's how she can teach the +people around here that Ledge won't profit in the end by being turned +into a big lake or a big manufacturing district; it's how she can only +prove to people that those two queer women are really honest, and really +nice to know." + +"And do you agree with all her views now?" Ingram asked, recalling the +first of their meetings and the difference in Lassie's views from her +friend's then. + +"I think it's very splendid how she loves. I thought it was terrible at +first, but now I--" she hesitated; "I"--she stopped altogether. + +"Go on," said Ingram; "what were you going to say?" + +The girl looked down the canyon of gray, barren beauty, and then up +towards the sunlit valley of sweet, sunshiny, farming country. "Perhaps +you won't believe me," she said, her eyes for the minute almost as +distant in their withdrawal as Alva's own; "but now, I--truly--I envy +her. I would give anything to love as she does. I would almost give the +world to see life as she sees it. You see, I have begun to understand +what she means when she says things." + +Ingram was deeply stirred by pathos of which Lassie herself was +ignorant. The young desire to learn to drink of bitter waters! The +longing towards the crown of thorns stirs them, because they can +appreciate the sublimity of martyrdom, and cannot measure the agony! + +She had stopped and laid her hand upon the bridge-rail. Involuntarily +he laid his hand upon it, holding it within his strength and warmth. + +"When she talks to me of him," Lassie went on, seeming unconscious of +the hand and looking far ahead, "I forget myself, I forget Mamma, I +forget my debut; I live only in her and her hope. I never saw love like +hers; she lives in him--in it--not in the world, and she's so sure of +the next world and of their future. It goes all through me, the wonder +of it. I can't tell you how I envy her. She said when I came that she +would send me back home all different, and I see now that she will do +it." + +"But I don't want you different." The words burst from the man's lips. +Mountain tops are serene and glorious and very close to the clouds, but +oh, the good warmth, the dear, cosy loveliness of those soft green +slopes far--so far--below. + +Lassie was too deeply engrossed to notice. "I shall go back to my home a +better girl," she said; "and I shan't let myself forget what I've +learned here." + +Ingram thought that she had heard, and felt himself silenced. + +There was a minute of stillness, and then they walked on. The October +evening was falling chill, and the night wind came winding up the gorge. + +"Do you agree with her about the dam, too?" the man asked finally, as +they approached the end of the bridge, striving against an echo of +bitterness. + +"Oh, yes, she has converted me about that, too. She took me down to call +on Mr. Ledge, and when I saw that dear, courtly, old gentleman, and +heard how quietly and earnestly and sadly he and Alva talked about it, +I came to see how different all that was, too." + +Ingram waited a second or two; then he said: + +"And Mrs. Lathbun,--do you believe in her too, now?" + +Lassie laughed. "No, I don't," she said, very positively; "I'm awfully +sorry for them both, but I cannot believe in them." + +"Alva does." + +"Yes,--but Alva--" + +"Yes, well,--go on." + +"I mustn't. Indeed I mustn't. I promised, and this time I must keep my +word. But Alva has a reason for believing in them." + +"Is it a good reason?" + +Lassie reflected. "No," she said, finally; "I don't think that it is a +good reason at all." + +They were at the hotel door now. + +"Well, I'm sorry for Alva," said Ingram, "because I hate to see ideals +shattered." + +"Oh, but they may justify her faith." + +"I am more inclined to think that they will justify your doubts." + +Lassie looked pleased. She valued Ingram's opinion highly. + +A little later Alva herself came home, pale as she always was, but more +weary looking than nightfall usually found her. + +[Illustration: ALVA.] + +"Lie down before supper," Lassie suggested; and her friend accepted the +suggestion. + +"Come and sit beside me," she said, in a tone that was almost pleading; +"give me your hand. I'm really quite used up." + +Lassie perched beside her on the bed, and took the long slender hand +between her own pretty little white ones. + +"You are a wise little maiden," Alva said, smiling into her face. "I +shall fight this away quickly. I know much better than to be weak. I +understand the scientific, spiritual reasons for it quite well--it is +that I am under a double strain these days, and also--" she +hesitated--"I think that I am really under a triple strain," she said, +"you do not guess how close to my heart that poor girl has come through +her description of her lover. I think of her so often, and such a +strange undercurrent sweeps up in me. I try to understand it, and I +can't; but I wonder if it can be some troubling of myself because the +one whose life is so valuable must go, and the one whose life has no +value will remain. I do not begrudge any one anything, God knows; but my +heart winces when I think that his soul will go on and leave me alone, +while a body that is the same as his will live and live for another. I +am brave, I am strong; my higher self has courage and understanding to +cope with any problem that may come, but it seems as if this one laid me +on a rack, because--because--" she stopped, and then in a low cry: +"Lassie, she doesn't seem to me to be worthy of even his body. Perhaps I +misjudge her, but even the human presentment of such a man should have a +wife of greater caliber. Somehow it hurts me, somehow everything hurts +me to-night. You see, dear, you were right. In some ways. Yes, you were +right." + +There was a pause, during which Lassie just gently stroked the hand +between her own. + +"Do you know what I believe?" Alva continued. "Some crisis is +preparing. I don't at all know what it is, but I feel it coming. I am +certain--confident--that God has some new wisdom close in hand for me. +Happy or sad--it is coming very close to-night. And whatever it is, I +must go bravely forward to meet it." + +Lassie shuddered ever so slightly. + +"Ah, you think that it is some sorrow," Alva said; "my dear, would you +credit me with telling you the truth, if I told you that there is a +comfort in understanding that verse about whom He loveth He chasteneth? +He doesn't call upon the weak among His children to bear what He has +sent to me, to us. And if there is some heavy sorrow,"--she stopped, and +presently added quite low,--"'not my will, but Thine be done!'" + +Lassie was deeply touched. She felt tears rolling down her cheeks. The +dusk had closed in and she could not see Alva's face, but she felt that +she, too, was weeping. + +Presently a freight train, going by, drowned everything by its roaring +clank for five minutes, and when all was still again, Alva said: "Come, +let us dress for supper!" + +She rose at once and lit the light, and Lassie saw with astonishment +that she was smiling and bright as usual. Alva caught her surprised +look. "I'm a creature of strong belief, dear," she said, laughing, "and +I know that whatever is hard, is worth itself. That is what one must try +never to forget. I wouldn't wish any one else my life to live, but it is +its own reward. The best thing in the world is to measure the real +standards of earth and heaven. That is what I am doing." + +"Don't you think perhaps you're overdoing, Alva?" the girl said, putting +the question in the way of timid suggestion. "Don't you think you crowd +even yourself too fast?" + +"Can any one learn to be good too fast? And then the great strain is for +such a little while, dear. Don't you see that in the world's eyes my +giving will be limited to these few weeks, and that in heaven's eyes I +shall then give all that I have and all that I am. Like him, I have +pawned my existence for a purpose. I shall redeem both." The look of +ecstasy that had opened to Lassie the gate of Medieval faith, flooded +her face. "What a life I shall live in those few brief days," she said, +softly; "how we shall enjoy our little oasis of bliss in the desert of +loneliness. I shall learn so much--so much. And the best of the learning +will be that I shall learn it from him." + +Lassie watched the uplifted look. The enthusiasm of the novice was hers. +As she had confessed to Ingram, envy dwelt at her heart. I wonder +whether envy is a vice or a virtue when it stirs a longing to emulate +one whom we recognize as better than ourselves? + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +DEVOTED TO COATS AND CASE-KNIVES + + +"'He moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform,'" chanted Mrs. +Ray, briskly, turning from the stove, with a hot iron in her hand, +towards the visitor then entering the door. "Yes, I'm just pressing the +seams. The mail was awful late--they had a bad wreck on the road, killed +three pigs--and the crowd is just gone. When the mail's late I'm always +late, too. Yes, indeed. Those two in love come up for the hotel mail, +while that poor, blind thing went over alone to look at what she fondly +supposes is going to be her happy home. Take a chair. How's Lottie Ann? +And, Mrs. Wiley, what do you think about those case-knives in the bureau +drawer?" for the case-knives were now the main topic of conversation all +over Ledge and its attendant villages. + +Mrs. Wiley had dropped in to see how her new winter jacket, now in +process of active manufacture, was getting on. She sank down on a seat +with a sigh which the chair echoed in a groan. + +"Oh, I don't know what to do," she said, wearily. "Uncle Purchase came +yesterday for a week, driving his colts, and last night one of the colts +had colic; and Lottie Ann gets thinner every day. Seems like I do have +so much trouble. Sister Anna got so tired with the improvements she's +making, that she just up and off for Buffalo Wednesday, and that left +Eliza to run things; and Eliza up and bit a chestnut and broke two +teeth, so she had to go off to Rochester yesterday early. That leaves me +with the whole thing now, and I'm running back and forth between houses +from dawn to dark. I wanted to make the dress for Cousin Dolly's +graduation, too, and the sewing machine always does for my legs; and +yesterday here come Uncle Purchase!" + +"Joey Beall is all used up over those case-knives," said Mrs. Ray, +pressing assiduously; "he won't say what he thinks." + +"How's it getting on?" asked Mrs. Wiley, hitching her chair nearer to +the ironing-board. "Oh, Mrs. Ray, you'll never know the sacred feelings +this coat will give me in church. Father was a true Christian, I always +have that to remember. He had his faults, but he was a true Christian. +Whatever went through his hands in the week, it was the plate at church +that they held on Sunday." + +"You don't need to worry over your father, Mrs. Wiley," said Mrs. Ray; +"nobody doubted his religion--it was only that he charged such awful +interest." + +Mrs. Wiley sighed. "I know," she said; "it wasn't so much what he +charged as bothered--" + +"No," said Mrs. Ray, "it was his way of insisting on being paid." + +Mrs. Wiley sighed again. + +"Well, thanks to the braid, the land is saved," Mrs. Ray went on +cheerfully. "Mrs. Wiley, do tell me, what do you think of all this at +the O'Neil House,--and did you bring the buttons?" + +"Why, I thought you said you could use the buttons on the suit," Mrs. +Wiley answered, with an unhappy start; "you ain't going to tell me that +you can't, are you?" + +"No, I ain't," said Mrs. Ray, "it's only that it's so common for folks +to forget to bring me their buttons that I forgot that you had brought +yours. It's awful, isn't it, about those two Lathbuns?" + +"I thought you'd lost 'em by accident," said Mrs. Wiley, seating herself +again with a huge relief; "I don't know what I'd of done if you had, for +my money is all in the chickens, and I never saw anything like the way +my chickens have acted lately. I wondered if it could be that the +surveyors upset them. They haven't been a bit regular, and so many +weasels!" + +"Perhaps the surveyors keep the weasels stirred up. I must say it would +stir me up to have the sharp end of one of their little flags suddenly +driven into the bosom of my family. Not but what a flag is better than a +case-knife. You've heard about the case-knives, of course?" + +"Yes, I heard about the case-knives. Mrs. Ray, don't you want me to try +it on? What do you think they had 'em for, anyway?" + +"Well, I don't know; you might on account of the sleeves, maybe. I don't +know what to think--of course they never got any mail; when any one +never gets any mail, it blocks my observation in all directions. I never +saw any strangers that stayed so long, that never got any mail before. +Why, those other girls are getting letters by the dozens. Such nice +mail, too,--thick white paper and thin blue paper, and little prints of +flags, such real, pretty mail. There, what do you think of that,--that's +your back; like it?" + +"Wait till I get out my glasses. But of course they must of bought +postals, didn't they? Mrs. Ray, you have done that fine! You're the +only one in the world that could ever fit me like that out of a suit of +father's. I take such a number of under-the-arm pieces." + +"Well, that isn't your fault, Mrs. Wiley; you come of a large family and +you ought to be very grateful, because if you hadn't you'd never have +had this jacket. If there hadn't been close on to two full breadths in +each of his legs, I never could have got it out. There's nothing takes +more skill than making a man's clothes over for any one but a boy. Yes, +indeed. Very few can think how difficult it is to adapt a man's legs +with the knees bagged, to either the front or back of a coat for you. +No, they never even bought postals. They never write at all. What would +they write with? You can't write with a case-knife." + +"No, that's so. I must say I think you've put that braid on beautiful. +Do you want me to slip it on now, or shall I wait? Uncle Purchase is up +at the house always, you know, and I mustn't be gone too long, but +Lottie Ann's there, so it don't matter much, after all." + +"I'll be ready in a second. I'd be further along, only Sammy Adams was +in last evening, and he hates to see me sew every minute. I sewed a good +deal of his visit--I don't know why I should consider Sammy Adams's +ideas when he don't consider mine. Taking in any one nights that way! I +tell you I had that out with him once for all. There,--that's your +pocket; big enough?" + +"Well, I wouldn't make it any bigger. What did he tell you about his +taking 'em in? Mrs. Ray, I took your advice and tried milk on Lottie +Ann, and she can't take any but buttermilk. Will that do her as much +good as milk in its first?" + +"I don't know why it shouldn't. I tell you frankly, Mrs. Wiley, you'll +need every inch of the room in this pocket. You may have your +prayer-book and a box of peppermint, and two or three other little +things, and you'll find this pocket very handy; the way I've got it cut +it'll hold as much as a small valise. I wouldn't cut it off, if it was +my coat. I always need all my pockets. But then I always have to carry +so many things, a corkscrew and a monkey-wrench and the key to my hens. +He said the rain was pouring down, and he didn't see anything to do but +take them in. Of course, if you're Sammy's easy kind, and it's raining, +too, you can see how that would be. He'd take a snake in, if it asked +him with a smile." + +"What do you think of cutting off about a half inch? I don't wonder that +he took them in, myself. But, Mrs. Ray, she don't like milk, anyhow, and +shouldn't you think morning and night was enough?" + +"I'll do it if you say so, of course, Mrs. Wiley. But I can't see myself +cutting them off, if they were mine. Of course, two glasses is better +than none, but two isn't six. I only know if it was me I'd never of let +them in, in this world." + +"I'll try to get her to take four. Shall I slip it on now? Do tell me +what else he said?" + +"If she was my girl, I'd see she took what I told her; I don't believe +in spoiling children. No, you'll have to wait. Why, Mrs. Wiley, would +you believe that that poor innocent didn't know a thing about the +case-knives till I told him. You know he don't often come to town." + +"Well, I never! I told Uncle Purchase all about it, and he promised me +he'd never take any one in. I thought I'd better be on the safe side, +even if Uncle Purchase hasn't let any one come into his house for twenty +years. Isn't it strange? But then Uncle Purchase is strange. The last +time I was in his house was when Abner was a baby. He had a dozen +tissue-paper hyacinths planted in real pots with the earth watered, to +make them look real. Uncle Purchase's quite a character." + +"Sammy said they rapped--that was how he came to first know that they +were at the door." + +"Uncle Purchase never goes to the door. He's so deaf he couldn't hear a +peal of thunder if it stood outside rapping all night, and that last +time I was there he had his trunk all packed standing in the hall. He +never unpacked it after he went to the Centennial. He said it would be +all ready for the next Centennial. They have them so often now, you +know. He's so odd. He went to the Insane Asylum once for a little while, +you know, but it didn't do him a bit of good, so he came back home. +Uncle Purchase is so odd." + +"Sammy said they were a sight. He said two drowned rats washed up by a +spring flood would be dry and slick beside them. Sammy always did talk +just like a poet. Yes, indeed." + +"Uncle Purchase says very pretty things, too. He's so loving to Lottie +Ann, he said yesterday she winged her way about the house like an angel. +I thought that was a sweet way of putting it, but it kind of depressed +me, too, she's so awful thin. Shall I slip it on now?" + +"Not yet. Don't you think maybe he just meant a fly? The last ones go so +slow that they might make him think of an angel." + +"No, he meant Lottie Ann. Uncle Purchase always says what he means. He +brought Lottie Ann a daguerreotype of his mother. It's so black you +can't see a thing, but it showed his kindness. I thought Lottie Ann +would bring the chimney down trying to thank him--he's so awful deaf. He +thought she was asking who it was, and he just roared about it's being +his mother, until I called Lottie Ann for her milk. He's always been so +fond of Lottie Ann. If she outlives him, I'm most sure he'll leave her +the farm. I wish she'd drink more milk." + +"I was speaking about her to Nathan and Lizzie when they were up +yesterday. You know Lizzie was delicate, too. Nathan thinks the Lathbuns +had those knives to pry open windows." + +"Oh, my heavens!" + +"He says you can pry open any window-catch with a case-knife. Yes, +indeed." + +Mrs. Wiley opened her eyes. "Any window?" + +"Yes, that's what he said. And poor Clay Wright Benton was in here, too, +and I spoke to him about them, too, and he said that you could, too." + +"My!" Mrs. Wiley's tone was appalled. "Did Clay seem frightened? I +suppose they aren't afraid of anything,--they've got the parrot, you +know." + +"I don't know how that would help them. It hangs upside down, yelling +'Fire, Fire,' rainy days, until nobody can possibly think it means it." + +"Well, but it wouldn't make any difference what it said, would it, if it +woke them?" + +"But they're so tired being woke, it can't wake 'em any more. Clay says +nothing wakes 'em now. Even Gran'ma Benton falls asleep while it's +calling her names." + +"Dear me," said Mrs. Wiley, seriously. "I wouldn't care about having one +for myself. I never let the children call names, and I just couldn't be +called names by a parrot." + +"Clay says his mother don't like it. She's tried to teach it Bible +verses. But names are so much easier. Bible verses are so long. And they +don't come in where they make sense. The short ones are worse yet. +There's 'Jesus wept'--that's the shortest verse in the Bible, and that +never would make sense. The parrot says 'Twenty-three,' and that always +makes sense. This world is meant to go wrong, seems to me. Case-knives +just swim along without paying board, while an honest woman has to scrub +her church once a week on her knees and labor like a heathen Chinese in +between times." + +"Well, Mrs. Ray, what are we coming to?" + +"I told Edward Griggs what Nathan said, but Edward thinks they're +government spies sent out to keep track of the surveyors, and they have +the knives to dig with." + +"To dig with!" Mrs. Wiley was full of amazement. + +"You know they do scour the country pretty freely, and that would +account for one being broke." + +"There's more strength in a broke knife than in one that isn't, of +course. Government spies!" + +"It would account for a lot of things. Edward Griggs is a pretty smart +man; he was at the Chautauqua last year." + +"Didn't they used to call them scouts, Mrs. Ray? Seems to me I've heard +of them in the war." + +"Oh, they call a spy anything--spies don't mind what they're called as +long as nobody knows who they really are. If they are government spies, +I'm glad to know it, because they'll be having an eagle eye out in every +government direction. I think I'll wash the post-office to-morrow, just +on the chance. I didn't want to wash it till after I'd filed my bond. I +sort of like to get my bond off my mind first, and clean up afterwards." + +"I'll ask Abner if he's heard anything from Josiah Bates lately. Joey +Beall is going over to Foxtown to-morrow or next day, and he says his +cousin there married a Cromwell girl; he's going to ask all about them +there. Mrs. Ray, seems like those women must be something out of the +ordinary. It would be too barefaced never to pay your board, otherwise." + +"Well, whatever they are, we'll soon know now. People are looking them +up in all directions. Mrs. Kendall's got an aunt in Cromwell, and she's +written her about the case-knives. But she says her aunt never writes +letters, so she don't expect to find out much that way; still, you never +can tell." + +"Well, Joey may find out a good deal. My cousin Eliza always says you'll +find out all there is to find out, if you get hold of Joey Beall. Mrs. +Ray, can't I slip it on now? I've _got_ to go back to Uncle Purchase, +Lottie Ann is so weak she won't be able to make him hear a thing by this +time; and if he can't hear, it always worries him because he's so afraid +of growing deaf." + +Mrs. Ray thoughtfully regarded the jacket. "I'd like to of got the +collar on," she said; "but you can put it on now, I guess." + +Mrs. Wiley stood up and donned the garment. + +"The sleeves are short," said Mrs. Ray; "but that's fashionable this +year. There was no other way, anyhow. I had to get 'em out from the +knee down, and he was short there--like an elephant." + +"How does it look in the back?" + +"It's a little short in the back, but nothing to speak of. You see I had +to swing the backs to get the coat skirts free of his side-seams; it +sets very well, considering that." + +"Yes, I like it," said Mrs. Wiley; "and I have my fur to sort of piece +it up at the neck, anyway. You know, Mrs. Ray, if those two women are +spies, I should think they'd wear nightgowns. I shouldn't think they'd +want to attract so much attention, and of course not wearing nightgowns +attracts lots of attention." + +Mrs. Ray--having her mouth full of pins--made no reply. + +"Lucia Cosby thinks they're tramps and nothing better," Mrs. Wiley +continued; "nobody can understand Jack's keeping them so long." + +Mrs. Ray continued silent. + +"Ellen Scott says she's afraid of them; she thinks it's so queer they're +not having any coats. But Ellen was always timid. She never got over +that time the boys dressed up like Indians and kidnapped her on April +Fool's Day when she was little." + +Mrs. Ray stuck in the last pin and freed her mouth. "Well, all I can say +is, we'll soon know now," she said; "all the wheels in the gods of the +mills is turning now, and in the end the Lathbuns will be ground out +exceeding small I hope and trust and am pretty sure of." + +Mrs. Wiley looked down over herself with an air of intense satisfaction. +"I don't see how you ever got it out," she repeated with deeply +appreciative emphasis. + +"You know those are Nellie O'Neil's shawls they wear," Mrs. Ray went +on, beginning to unpin the new winter coat from its owner. "Nellie's an +awful idiot to let them have those shawls; they'll walk off some day, +and leave her without shawls or pay,--that's the kind they are. Yes, +indeed." + +"Nellie's too good-hearted." + +"She and Jack are both too good-hearted." + +Mrs. Wiley went to the door and took hold of the knob. "Well, I must go +now. Lottie Ann will be all tired out if I stay any longer. And we never +leave Uncle Purchase alone. He always takes the clock to pieces or does +something we can't get together again, if he's left alone. He asked +after Susan Cosby last night, and I told him she was dead four times and +then I got Lottie Ann and the boys in, and they took turns telling him +she was dead till nine o'clock, and then Joey brought our mail and we +got him to tell him she was dead, and then all Uncle Purchase said was: +'Is she, indeed? When did she die?' Oh, my heavens!" + +"Well, if you must be going," said Mrs. Ray, "we may as well part now. +The Giffords are coming here for dinner, and I've got to begin to cook +it." + +Mrs. Wiley thereupon departed. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +LEARNING LESSONS + + +The wide range of standpoints is one of the most interesting studies in +this world. A man on a hill can look to the horizon in all directions, +and wonder about all the little black specks which he may see thereon, +and all on the horizon can see the little black speck on the hill and +draw their own conclusions as to what it may be. Ledge thought city +people lacking in intellect because of the way they "took the Falls," +and the visitors thought the townspeople lacking because of the way in +which they "took the Falls." Mrs. Ray knew that Ingram and Lassie were +in love, and Ingram and Lassie didn't know it; and Ingram and Lassie had +been told by Mrs. O'Neil that Mrs. Ray would eventually marry Sammy +Adams, while Mrs. Ray herself not only didn't know that, but had +declared herself to be "dead set" against the proposition. The State had +appointed a commission, and Mr. Ledge was troubled over its results; and +all the while Creation, in the first of its creating, had settled the +outcome of the commission's task definitely and forever. And so they all +went merrily, blindly forward, Alva, like the evening star, moving +serenely in the centre, almost as unconscious of her own position in +people's eyes as the evening star is unconscious of telescopes. She was +happy in her ideal existence, and always hopeful of good to come for +others. Her aims were high and true, her sincerity splendid, and Lassie +was learning a great deal--more than either of them guessed, in fact. +And the second week was now going blithely forward, while Alva worked +and waited, hoping each hour for the telegram that should summon her to +bring her lover into the haven her love was building. But the telegram +came not. + +"Lassie," she said, one noon, as they stood on the bridge looking down +into the tumbling waters below, "I wonder if I were ever like you, and I +wonder if you will ever be like me!" + +"How so?" + +"If you will ever be really in love? I can't believe that very many +people really know what love means,--that is, in the way that I mean it. +If they did, it could not possibly be a shock to any one to see me doing +what I am going to do. It would seem the only thing to do." + +Lassie made no reply for a little, then she said, slowly: "When we love, +we look forward to life together generally; that is why people won't +understand you." She hesitated again. "I mean-that seems to me to be the +reason; perhaps I'm wrong." + +Alva reflected, too, her eyes upon the autumn glory flaunting its color +over the deep gray shadows before her. "Even if one puts it all on the +material plan, I should think that the whole world would recognize by +this time that it isn't the man that a woman loves that fills her soul +with ringing joy; it's the way in which she loves the man. It's herself +and the effect of himself upon her thoughts that counts. It isn't the +house, but the life within the house that makes a home, you know." + +Some shy, latent color rose up in Lassie's face. "I never thought about +it in just that way," she said; "but I suppose it's the truth." + +"My dear, it is the truth. Of course it is the truth. No one to whom +sufficient has been revealed can doubt it. If you can't see it so, it is +because you are not yet old enough to comprehend. When I say 'old +enough' I don't mean the Lassie who is eighteen; I mean the Lassie who +began long before this mass of rock became even so stable as to be +shifting ocean sand. I mean the Lassie who departed out of God to work +in His way until she shall return to Him in some divine and distant +hereafter." + +"Oh, Alva, you do say such queer things!" + +"Perhaps; but you see I _know_ all this. It came to me through dire +hours of need. I've demonstrated its truth, step by step. Try to grasp +the idea." + +"Do people ever think you crazy?" The question came timidly. + +"Every one always thinks any one or anything that they can't understand, +crazy. Mrs. Ray thinks me crazy, and it's very difficult for me not to +consider her so." + +"Alva!" + +"Yes, really." + +"I'll try to consider you sane." + +"Thank you very much, dear." She smiled brightly. "Oh, Lassie, it's such +joy to have you to speak to. I was so choked and crowded with thoughts +before you came. It was so blessedly good that if I could not stay with +him, I could come to this quiet spot and have the house and you to help +me wait the days away. You see, Lassie, one has to be part body in +spite of everything, and it's so hard to keep your body up to your soul. +Sometimes it seems to me that all of a sudden I am drawn into a +whirlpool and cannot get hold of anything solid. I don't know just what +it is, but I imagine that I feel as they say the Saxons felt when they +saw the comet flaming in the year of the Conquest, that something +portends. And it seems to me so hard that I could not have stayed with +him. But they wouldn't hear to that." + +Lassie pressed her hand. "I don't wonder at the way you feel," she said, +sympathetically; "there must be so much that is hard in your mind these +days." + +"Words are poor to tell what I feel," said her friend; "that is what +binds me to him,--it is that he and I do not need to speak. We can feel +without translation." + +"I wonder if I shall ever be loved like that," Lassie murmured +wistfully, and at her words the delicate flame illumined her face again. + +Alva did not notice; she was looking down into the cleft beneath, and +watching the little river fret itself into foam and spray. + +"Look!" she said suddenly. "Isn't it lovely in the noon sunlight? Fancy +the countless centuries on centuries that it must have taken the river +to cut itself this path. There was once a great lake on the other +side--the side above the bridge--and it is with the idea of restoring +that lake that the State is having this survey made. The difficulty is +that the State isn't geologist enough to know that the lake's outlet +flowed out there to our left, and that this river is comparatively a new +thing. If they remade the lake, the lake would be desperately likely to +remake its old outlet." + +"Would it hurt?" + +"Hurt! My dear, it would be another Johnstown Flood." + +"Oh, dear! Do many know that?" + +"Yes, dear; but it wouldn't drown the men who will own the water-power, +so what does it matter to this world of yours." + +"But is that right--to look at anything in that horribly selfish way?" + +"In what other way do rich financiers look at anything? But there will +come a time when a change will dawn. Look, dear, down there; see the +rainbow dancing on the spray. Well, that's the way that public opinion +is going to come in among us soon--in a rainbow of truth." + +"It will be beautiful everywhere then?" Lassie asked, smiling. + +"Very beautiful!" Alva stared down upon the writhing, leaping waters +below; "and I shall have given my all towards the dream's fulfilment. +And I shall have learned from him how to devote my life to the same +great ends that he served. Lassie, when one comprehends that not +happiness but usefulness is the end to be worked towards, then one +begins to see what living really means." + +"How much it is all going to mean to you!" + +"How much? Ah, only he and I can guess at that! There will be something +quite different from all the imaginings, in our sweet, sad days of work +and suffering and comforting. I dare not try to picture it to myself. I +only think often of how I shall pause here in my walks to come, and +steal a long look over this scene, so as to go home and describe it. He +loves beauty and he loves wood and water." + +"You'll go back and forth across the bridge often then, won't you?" + +"When I'm married, you mean?" + +"Yes, when you're married." + +"My dear, fancy what a joy Mrs. Ray will be to us. I shall go for the +mail expressly so as to tell all that Mrs. Ray said to me when I went +for the mail." She paused and smiled and sighed. "Lassie, I wish I were +strong enough not to mind one thing. I know so well--so very well--just +how it will look to every one,--above all to my parents, who are to be +driven half mad, even though I shall only ask a few months' freedom, in +return for all my life before and after. I wish that I might be spared +the sharp, keen realization of all that." + +Lassie's eyes sought hers quickly. "But you have a right to do as you +please, Alva." + +"Have I, dear? It seems to me sometimes as if I were the one person who +had no right to do as she pleases, not even in that which concerned her +most. You know that every one thinks that if a woman marries with a +prospect of years of happiness taken or given, she is justified in going +her own way. Any one would feel that, would understand that view. I +never could have done that, because my life was too heavily loaded with +burdens and responsibilities; and his was the same. It was because we +were so hopeless of happiness for so long that we do not cavil over the +wonder of what is offered us. Because if it had come in the form that it +comes to others, we must have refused it. It did come to us in that +form, and we did refuse it. It was only when it returned in a guise +that the world calls tragic, that we could accept it for our own." + +"Yes, Alva, I understand," her tone was a cry, almost. + +"Lassie, remember one thing, and don't forget it during any of these +hours that we shall spend together. If I read life by another light than +yours, it isn't because it was natural to my eyes. Once I might have +recoiled even more than you did, when I first told you. God's best +purposes for humanity require that we recoil from what seems unnatural. +But there are exceptions to all rules, and in return for two human lives +freely offered up on the altar of His world, He gives, sometimes, a few +days of unutterable happiness to their spirits. Lassie, he was big, he +was splendid; you know all that he was as every one else does. If I had +been young, if I had been ignorant enough to dare to be selfish, and if +he had been young and ignorant enough not to know how necessary he was +to thousands,--why, then, we might have been happy in the way that two +people out of a million sometimes are. But we had gone beyond all that, +or else we passed beyond it the instant we realized; at any rate, we +knew too well that I was bound hand and foot on the wheel of my life and +he was bound on his. We had to set our faces in opposite directions and +go on. Straight ahead. The world for which we sacrificed ourselves will +never even be grateful. The world could not have understood why we +should make any sacrifice; the world generally disdains those who do the +most for it. Isn't that so? If you tell any one in these days that your +first duty is to do right by your own soul, and that that means doing +what is best for all other souls, they stare. If I say to you that I +could bear to live alone and he could bear to live alone, because we +both knew absolutely that we had had centuries of one another and should +win eternity united, you'd stare, too." + +"I wouldn't quite--" faltered Lassie. + +"Don't try to, dear; only think how it is to him and to me now, when we +are to have this short, this pitifully short space of time together--to +have to take it in the face of such an outcry as will be made. When I +creep back into life again, with my heart broken and my dress black +always from then on, I shall be so notorious, such an object of +curiosity for all time to come, that my friends will prefer not to be +seen in public with me. When I think of my home-going to tell them, my +very soul faints. My father abhors any form of physical deformity; what +he is going to say to my marrying one who is so maimed and crushed that +he can not use his right hand, I can't think. And then there is my +mother, to whom sentiment and religion are alike quixotic. What will she +say?" + +She was silent, and then she suddenly left the rail and moved on. + +"Ah, well, if it could only stay bright like this until we came back +together! But that is impossible. What we shall see together will be the +snow lying softly over all, and the brown, curving line of the tree-tops +and the pink sunset glow in the west. He will lie in his chair and I +shall sit on a cushion thrown close beside him, and with that one hand +that they have left him pressed to my face, we shall look out over all +the wide, still world and talk of that future which no one can bar us +out of, except our own two selves. God can say 'Well done, thou good and +faithful servant,' but He proves in the saying that the doing and the +goodness and the faith all emanated from the one who served. Religion is +such a grand thing, Lassie; I can't understand any one with intelligence +choosing to be an atheist. And lately, since I have realized that the +real trinity is two who love and their God, I have been overcome at the +mysticism of what life really means. Oh, I'm truly very, very happy. As +I look over these hills and valleys, I think how all my life long I +shall be coming back here--not to weep, but to remember. I shall be left +lonely to a degree that hardly any one can comprehend, because for me +there will be no possible chance of any earthly consolation; but in +another sense I shall never know grief at all, for I know, with the +absolute knowledge that I have attained to, that grief like all other +finite things is unreal, and that my happiness is eternal." + +They were now on the tracks quite near the hotel. + +"I wonder if Mrs. Lathbun got a letter from her lawyer to-day," Lassie +said, changing the subject suddenly. + +They went up the steps and opened the door, and there in the hall, on +her hurried way out to meet them, was Mrs. O'Neil, her face quite pale +with excitement. + +"Oh, what do you think?" she cried, opening the door into the +dining-room; "come right in here. What _do_ you think?" + +"What is it?" both asked together. + +"The biggest surprise you ever got in your life. They're swindlers!" + +Alva stepped in quickly and shut the door. "What?" she stammered; "who?" + +"They're swindlers, both of them! It's all in the Kinnecot paper." She +held out a paper which she had in her hand to Alva. "You can read it; it +isn't a bit of doubt but what it's them." + +Alva, turning quite pale, took the paper and read: + + A PRETTY FOXY PAIR + + Two women, claiming to be mother and daughter, came to the + Walker House in this village a few nights ago and inquired for + supper and a night's lodging, claiming they were very tired, as + they had walked over from Warsaw. Landlord Walker thought it a + little strange that they should have walked over when there + were two railroads that run from that village through here, but + said nothing and gave them supper and furnished them a room. + They remained in their room until about noon the next day, when + they paid their bill and left, taking the overland route for + Ledge, or in that direction. They registered at the Walker + House as Mrs. Ida M. Lathbun and Miss H. A. Lathbun, which are + the same names given by a pair who had been spending the summer + in the vicinity of Silver Lake and Perry. As stated above, they + came here from Warsaw, and our esteemed brother editor in that + place paid them the following compliment in a recent issue: + + 'A woman and daughter who are going from town to town, boarding + in one place until compelled to seek another because of their + inability to pay their board, have been found to be in this + town, coming here from Perry and Silver Lake, where their + record is one of unpaid bills. They are smart, clever, female + tramps, who have no income and no visible means of support.' + + It is said at Silver Lake they stated they were expecting some + money, and would stay at one boarding-place as long as they + could, and when fired out would settle at another. They finally + went to Perry, and, when compelled to leave there, walked + across the country to Warsaw, stopping at Mr. Samuel Adams's + overnight, while en route. + + The older Mrs. Lathbun is said to be an own cousin of Arthur + Rehman, who has been before the public for one escapade or + another for many years. She is said to have been well-to-do at + one time, and is living in expectations of more money from some + relative. The couple were fairly well dressed and intelligent + looking women. + +Alva's hand holding the paper fell limply at her side. She looked at +Mrs. O'Neil and Mrs. O'Neil looked at her; while Mary Cody, who had come +in from the kitchen, and Lassie looked at them both. + +"Well, what do you think of it?" Mrs. O'Neil said, finally. + +"I can't believe it," Alva gasped; "it can't be true!" + +"Just what I said! You know I said that right off, Mary Cody? But Jack +believes it. He's gone to Ledge Centre to see Mr. Pollock." + +"Who is Mr. Pollock?" + +"The lawyer." + +"And where are they now?" + +"Up-stairs. They never get up till noon, you know." + +"How long have they been here?" + +"Two weeks and a little over." + +"Haven't they paid you anything?" + +"Not a cent." + +Alva became more distressed. "And the girl is so delicate, too," she +said. + +"Delicate! I should think that she was. Every third day the old lady has +all my flat-irons wrapped in towels to put around her. And then, think +of it! October, and not a coat or a flannel have either of them got." + +A slight shiver ran over Alva. + +"You're cold," said Mrs. O'Neil; "come into the kitchen. Mary Cody, you +stand at the door and listen, for that old lady is a sly one." + +Mary Cody stood at the door, and the other three went into the kitchen. + +"Won't Mrs. Ray be pleased," said Mrs. O'Neil. "She was down at the +church, or I'd have gone right up to her with the paper. It was she that +set every one after 'em, because she was so crazy over their staying at +the Adams farm that night. She's so jealous of Sammy." + +"Ow!" exclaimed Mary Cody, interrupting; "I hear the stairs creaking!" + +Mrs. O'Neil grabbed the newspaper and thrust it back of a clothes +basket. The next instant Mrs. Lathbun, with an empty pitcher in her +hand, came in through the dining-room door. + +The large, heavily-built woman, not stout but very robust in appearance, +had on her usual dress, and smiled pleasantly at them all in greeting. + +"Was there any mail?" she asked, going to the stove and beginning to +fill her pitcher from the reservoir as she spoke. + +"No," said Mary Cody; "I went myself." + +"Dear me, how annoying," said Mrs. Lathbun; and then, having finished +filling her pitcher, she quietly retired again. + +"To think maybe she'll be in the jail at Geneseo to-morrow!" Mary Cody +exclaimed, in an awestruck whisper. + +Alva turned interrogative eyes towards Mrs. O'Neil. + +"Yes, Jack is going to have them arrested," she said. + +"Merciful heavens!" + +"Isn't it awful? I'm sorry for them, myself." + +"But--but suppose there's some mistake?" + +"There can't be, Jack says." + +Alva shut her eyes and stood still for a few seconds. "The poor +creatures," she said, softly and pitifully,--then: "How did you say you +came to find out about it?" + +"A man from Kinnecot had the paper in the station, and Josiah Bates +brought him over to our bar this morning and asked Jack if he could see +how folks like that could get trusted. Jack said yes, he could see, and +then he told the man from Kinnecot that just at present he was trusting +the same people, himself." + +"Oh, dear," Alva passed her hand wearily across her forehead; "it's +awful." + +"Yes, isn't it? The man gave him the paper then. And Jack's first idea +was to take it right up-stairs to them, but then he thought they might +skip before he could have them arrested, so he decided to drive over and +see Mr. Pollock first." + +"I can't make it seem true." + +"No, I can't, either. Of course they never paid anything, but they're +nice people. I've liked them." + +"Then they won't know anything about all this until they are really +arrested?" + +"No," said Mrs. O'Neil; "they'll eat dinner just as calm as they've +eaten all their other dinners." + +"Come, Lassie," said Alva; "that reminds me that we must get ready for +dinner, ourselves." + +"Do you want to take the paper up-stairs with you?" Mrs. O'Neil asked; +"right after dinner I want to take it up to Mrs. Ray, but you can keep +it till then if you like." + +"No, thank you," said Alva, with her strange, white smile; "I read it +all through." + +When they were up-stairs Lassie exclaimed: + +"There, now you see--" + +But her friend stopped her with a gesture. "It's too terrible to talk +about," she said, simply. "I must think earnestly what ought to come +next." + +Lassie became silent. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE WALK TO THE LOWER FALLS + + +"I certainly am going with Mrs. O'Neil when she carries that paper to +the post-office after dinner," Lassie exclaimed, as soon as they reached +their rooms. "Oh, Alva, this is the most interesting experience I ever +had. I'm just wild. It's such fun!" + +Alva came straight to her, laid her two hands on the girl's shoulders +and looked into her face. + +"Lassie!" she said, in a tone of appalled meaning, "Lassie!" + +Lassie laughed a little, just a very little. "I didn't make them bad," +she said; "it's just that I enjoy the fun of the developments." + +"The fun!" said Alva, "the fun! When there isn't anything except +tragedy, misery, and shame!" + +"But, Alva, if they are that kind of women, isn't it right that they +should be found out?" + +Her friend dropped her hands and turned away. + +"Oh, dear--oh, dear," she said, with a sigh that was almost a moan. + +Later they went down to the dining-room. Ingram had not come that noon, +and Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter were sitting placidly at their table. +Alva and Lassie took their own seats as usual. + +There are not many sensations so complexly curious as to be obliged to +eat your dinner within five feet of two ladies who perhaps are to be +arrested as soon as a man who drives a fast horse can get back from +Ledge Centre with the sheriff. + +Mrs. O'Neil's criminal code, reinforced by such stray bits of procedure +as she could recollect on short notice, led to a supposition on her part +that the case would go almost in a bee-line from Mr. Pollock the +attorney to the Geneseo jail. Therefore Mary Cody's eyes were full of +rounded curiosity as she waited at table, and Lassie could not forbear +to glance often at the quiet and simple-looking pair,--the mother in her +dark blue print, with its bands of stitched silk, and the daughter with +the red silk front that had so impressed her from the beginning. Alva +could not look at them,--her mind was full of devious wondering. Mrs. +O'Neil glanced in from time to time, her pretty face darkened by vague +distress, mixed with some righteous indignation. + +The door opened and Ronald Ingram entered. It was a surprise and a great +relief, for of course he knew nothing and was consequently under no +constraint. + +Mary Cody rushed to lay a place for him. + +"This would be a grand day to walk to the Lower Falls," he said, as he +sat down; "why don't you do it? You haven't been yet, have you?" + +"No," Alva said; "there hasn't ever been time." + +"Why don't you go this afternoon, then? I'll go with you, if you like. +I'm free." + +"I can't go this afternoon; take Lassie. That will take care of you both +at once." + +"I think that would be fine," said Ingram, heartily, "if Lassie will +like to go." + +Lassie looked helplessly from Alva to the Lathbun family. "I couldn't +go right after dinner," she said, hesitatingly, and stopped short to +meet Alva's eyes. + +"Why not?" the latter asked; "wouldn't you like the walk?" + +"Oh, I should like it very much," Lassie declared, her face flushing. It +seemed to her very cruel that no such delightful plan had ever been +broached before, when it was only just to-day that she wanted to stay at +home. She looked at Ingram, and the wistful expression on his face was +weighed in the balance against the thrill to come at the post-office +when Mrs. Ray should read the Kinnecot paper. Such was the effect of the +past week in Ledge upon a very human young girl. + +"Why can't you come, too?" Ingram asked Alva. + +Alva lifted her eyes to his, and in the same second Miss Lathbun at the +other table lifted hers, and fixed them on the other's face. + +"I can't this afternoon," she said, very stilly but decidedly; "I have +something that keeps me here." + +Lassie looked at her reproachfully. She was going to stay and hear Mrs. +Ray! For the minute Lassie felt that she could not go herself. + +"I think I'll stay with Alva," she said, suddenly. + +"Lassie!" Alva exclaimed. + +"Oh, come," urged Ingram; "it's such a grand day. You both ought to go. +Come, do." + +Alva shook her head. "I've a letter to write," she said; "I--" she +stopped. There was a noise outside. It was Mr. O'Neil, driving up the +hill towards the house! Mary Cody gave an exclamation in spite of +herself, and darted into the kitchen. Mrs. Lathbun, who faced the +window, said calmly: + +"Why, there's Mr. O'Neil, just in time for his dinner." + +Alva turned her head, feeling cold, and saw there was no sheriff with +him. Mrs. Ray could be seen standing out on her back porch, shading her +eyes to make out anything visible. Of course Mrs. Ray did not know full +particulars, but Josiah Bates had been to Ledge Centre on horseback and +had seen the O'Neil mare hitched in front of Mr. Pollock's. The +postmistress knew that something was up. + +Alva drew a breath of relief. The sheriff had not come back, so they +could not be arrested at once. Or else they could not be arrested at +all. There seemed to be a hush of suspense in the room, but Mr. O'Neil +did not enter to relieve it. Only Mary Cody entered, and Mary Cody's +face was as easy to read as a blank book. + +"Then you'll go?" Ingram asked again. + +Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter rose and went up-stairs, leaving the other +three alone. + +"Of course she'll go," Alva answered; "go, dear, and get your wraps." + +Lassie cast one last appealing look towards her, and then she also left +the room. + +"Ronald," Alva then said, hurriedly, "Lassie will tell you what has +happened here. I feel confident that there is some error in it all, but +whatever you think, try to be charitable, merciful. Don't be narrow in +your judgment." + +"Are you referring to your own affairs?" he asked in surprise. + +"I am not the only one who craves mercy," she said, smiling; "there are +many others." + +"Sharing your views?" he asked, smiling in his turn. + +"Lassie will tell you," she repeated. + +"Alva," the man said suddenly, earnestly, "don't teach her too many +ideals. We are mortal, and life is a real thing." + +"I understood that perfectly," she replied; "but the world is not +immortal and immortality is a real thing, too. A desirable thing, too." + +"To be achieved by working on the mortal plane, remember." + +"I have worked all my life upon the mortal plane; I shall be back there +next summer, you know. Yet Lassie has learned to see only beauty in my +immortal winter to be between." + +"Ah, there is your error," said Ingram; "you expect to live this winter +and return to your old life in the summer. But that's something that you +never will be able to do." + +"What do you mean?" + +"You won't be able to go back next summer." + +She looked at him sadly. "But I shall have to go back next summer," she +said; "do not deceive yourself as to that. And now excuse me, I want to +speak to her before she goes." + +She left him and ran up-stairs. Lassie was putting on the hat that +looked to the eyes of Ledge like a feather duster upside down. + +"You're going to stay here and have all the fun," she protested; "oh, +I'd give anything to see Mrs. Ray read that paper." + +"But I shall not see her." + +"You won't see her!" + +"No, dear;" then she went and stood at the window in her favorite +posture. "Oh, Lassie," she said, "I like to hear Mrs. Ray talk and I +enjoy the funny things she says, but do you think that to look on at the +hunting down of these two women is any pleasure for me? When I know why +they are destitute--why they are in hiding." + +"Alva," cried Lassie, "you don't mean you still believe that story?" + +"Yes, I do." + +"You're crazy!" + +"I expect so. But I still believe the story." + +Lassie stood still, staring at her friend's back. Then she went hastily +forward, seized her impetuously in her arms and kissed her. + +"Oh, little girl," Alva said, turning, "don't you see that it's charity, +and if they really are not what they pretend to be and if it all really +is a lie, it may be long before charity will cross their path again?" + +"Alva," Lassie said, with her little whimsical smile, "you've taken all +that nice, agreeable, aching desire to go to the post-office and see the +paper read, completely out of me." + +"Well, are you sorry for that?" + +Lassie lifted her pretty brown eyes. "No," she said, frankly; "I'm not." + +Then she ran down to Ingram and they set forth at once, for it is a long +walk to the Lower Falls. + +The day was magnificent. The bright autumn sun shone on the lines of +steel that glinted beside their way across the bridge, and there was a +silvery glisten dancing in all the world of earth and heaven and in the +rainbow of the mist, too,--a glisten that bespoke the approach of the +Frost King and the further glory soon to be. The glints of brown and +yellow here and there amidst the red presaged that Nature's festival was +daily drawing nearer to its white close. Ingram, looking ahead towards +the trees that hid the little Colonial house, wondered and wondered, but +was recalled by Lassie's bursting forth with the whole story of the +fresh developments which they had left behind them. + +"Oh, by George," Ingram exclaimed; "I'd like to have seen Mrs. Ray get +the news myself." + +Lassie felt herself fall with a crash back into the pit of ordinary +views. + +"Would you?" she asked eagerly; "oh, but we couldn't go back now; Alva +would be too disgusted." + +"Of course we can't go back now, but we've missed a lot of fun." + +"Yes, I thought it would be fun." + +Quite a little pall of gloom fell over both, in the consideration of +what they had missed, and both stared absent-mindedly up and down the +valley, seeing nothing except the vision of Mrs. Ray perusing the +Kinnecot paper. + +"Alva is so serious over everything," Lassie said presently, with a +mournful note in her voice. + +"She's too serious," declared Ingram. + +"She's looking forward to so much happiness that she says she can't bear +to add even a breath to any one's misery." + +"And she isn't going to have any happiness at all." + +"Don't you think there's any hope?" + +"Of course there isn't any hope." + +"What will become of that house?" + +"I don't know, I'm sure." + +"Shall you be here this winter?" + +"I don't know about that. I don't know just how long it will take for +the survey." + +"But you will be here while they build the dam, too, won't you? And that +will take years. Won't you live here a long time?" + +"The dam is not a fixed fact as yet, you know; far from it." + +"Isn't it? Every one talks as if it were,--that is, every one except +Alva." + +"But I couldn't live in that house, anyway; I wouldn't live there for +anything, would you?" + +"No, it would be full of ghosts to me. I'd feel about it just as you--" +the words died on her lips, as she suddenly realized how their +unconscious phrasing sounded. It was the first sunburst of the idea to +her, and it stormed her cheeks with pink. + +"No," said Ingram, unobserving, "that house would not affect any one but +you or I, in that way; but for us--" thereupon he stopped; the idea +which had come over the girl like a sunburst came over the man like a +cloudburst. He was almost scared as he tried to think what he had said. + +"Alva is--is--so set against it--the dam, I mean," he stammered, +hurriedly; "she--she has--told me all her views." + +"But she's different," said Lassie, catching her breath. "I don't know +very much, but I know that it doesn't look just that way to others." + +"The ultra-altruistic vaccine is already beginning to work again," +Ingram said, trying to laugh; "but you must not attack me, you know--" + +"I'm not attacking you," Lassie interposed, hoping her face would cool +soon. + +"Because, you see, I am nothing in the world but a mere ordinary, +humble, civil engineer, sent up here by a commission to see what the +situation is in feet and inches, and sand and gravel. I wholly refuse to +take sides as to the controversy;" he had regained composure now. + +"I suppose that you haven't really anything to say about it, anyhow." + +"Nothing except to make a report. That's all." + +Both felt relieved to be back on firm, friendly ground, but both were +saturated through and through by the wonderful new conception of life +bred by the accidental speeches. They did not look at one another, but +went down the steps and along the curving road with a sort of keyed up +determination not to let a single break come in the flow of language. + +"But you must be glad to work on a popular project," Lassie said. + +"But it isn't altogether popular," Ingram rejoined; "it's only popular +in spots, you see. If every one around here was as wild as I have seen +some people become when the business threatened their trees or their +river, we might be mobbed." + +"Why, I thought that every one wanted it. Alva said that the difficulty +was that all the people who would do anything to save the Falls were not +born yet." + +"She was partly right, but not altogether. The difficulty is that, with +the exception of Mr. Ledge, the people who are interested in preserving +the Falls do not live here, and the people who will make money by the +destruction of the Falls are right on the spot and own the land." + +"Why, you talk as if you didn't want the dam, either." + +"It is no use discussing my views; the dam will be a great thing. Very +possibly there will be no more Falls, but the high banks will +remain--until commercial interests demand their quarrying--and all we +can do is to go with the tide and remember that while man is destroying +in one place, Nature is building in another. There will always be plenty +of wild grandeur somewhere for those who have the money and leisure to +seek it." + +"But Alva says that Mr. Ledge is trying to save this for those who love +beautiful spots, and haven't time or money to go far." + +"America isn't made for such people," said Ingram, simply. + +Lassie thought seriously for a moment, until a glance from her companion +hurried her on to say: "I suppose that we are too progressive to let +anything just go to waste, and that's what it would be if we let all +this water-power flow unused." + +"Of course," said Ingram; "here would be this great tract of woodland, +which might be making eight or ten men millionaires, and instead of that +one man tries to save it for thousands who never can by any chance +become well-to-do. No wonder the one man has spent most of his life +investigating insane asylums; he is evidently more than slightly +sympathetic with the weak-minded." + +"Are you being sarcastic?" + +"No, not at all. I like to look at the Falls, but then I like to look +at a big dam, too; and sluice gates always did seem to me the most +interesting wonder in nature." + +They were deep in the quiet peace of Ledge Park by this time, and only +the squirrels had eyes and ears there. (They didn't know about Joey +Beall.) + +"Oh, how still and lovely!" Lassie exclaimed; "how almost churchlike." + +The broad, evenly graded road wound away before them, and the double +rank of trees followed its course on either side. + +"I used to camp out here summers, when I was a boy. You've read Cooper's +novels?" + +"'Deerslayer' and all those? Oh, yes." + +"Their scene was not so far away from here, you know; only a few score +miles." + +"There must be all sorts of stories about here, too?" + +"Did you ever hear tell of the Old White Woman?" + +"No." + +"She lived around here. She was stolen by the Indians and grew up and +married one." + +"How interesting! I wonder how it would seem to really love an Indian?" +Then Lassie choked--blushing furiously at this approach of the painful +subject. + +"You speak as one who has had a wide experience with white men." (Ingram +felt this to be fearfully daring.) + +"I've never been in love in my life." (Lassie felt this to be fearfully +pointed.) + +"How funny," said the man, "neither have I! Not really in love, you +know." + +Such thin ice! But the lure of the forest was there, and the lure of the +absence of interruption, too. Lassie felt very remarkable. This was so +delightful! So novel! Better than Mrs. Ray and the Kinnecot paper even. +Why, this was even better than all Alva's love affair. Ten thousand +times better! How stupid she had been. + +"How funny!" she said, looking up. + +"Why do you say that?" Ingram asked, quickly. + +He seemed quite anxious to know why she thought it funny that he had +never been in love before, and that was so delightful, too. A big, +handsome man anxious as to what she thought! She felt as wise as if she +had already made her debut. + +"I don't know why I said it," she answered, laughing; "it just came to +me to say it. Was it silly to say? If so, please forgive me, because I +didn't mean it." + +"There's nothing to forgive," said Ingram; "only I never expected you to +say anything of that sort. You don't know anything about me and you +haven't any right to judge me." He spoke in quite a vexed, serious way, +and Lassie felt as wise now as if she had made two debuts. + +"But you were in love with Alva years ago, you know," she said. + +"I wasn't really in love; I only thought that I was." + +"Oh!" + +There followed a silence for a little while. Lassie was much impressed +by the statement just made. Of course it wouldn't be polite to repeat to +Alva, but it was very interesting to know, oneself. The road ran +sweetly, greenly on before them, all strewn with piney needles. There +was no sound except a little breeze rustling overhead, and the +occasional fall of an acorn or pine-cone. + +"How does Alva's story affect you, now?" the man asked, suddenly. + +"Differently from at first. When she first told me what she meant to do, +it just pounded in my ears that he was going to die in that very house +over there; and that they would have to carry him into it just as they +would later carry him out of it. Oh, it did seem so terrible to think of +this winter, and of her, sitting there beside him,--so terrible--so +terrible!" + +"And doesn't it seem terrible at all to you now?" + +"Not in the same way. She has talked to me so much; she has made me know +so much more of her way of looking at it. You know--"she hesitated a +little--"she feels about death so strangely,--it doesn't seem to count +to her at all. She feels that in some way he will be always near her; +she says that he promised her not to leave her again." + +"Poor Alva!" + +"I suppose that he is such a very great man that he can affect one like +that. I am beginning to see what very different kinds of people there +are in the world." + +"Thank God for that!" Ingram exclaimed. + +"Alva says that he is one of the greatest men that ever lived. She says +that to share even a few days of life with a man who has been a +world-force for the world-betterment, would overpay all the hardship and +loneliness to come." + +They emerged into the sunshine just here, and the roar of the Middle +Falls burst upon their ears. The fence of Mr. Ledge's house-enclosure +stretched before them, and to the right, along the bank, towered two +groups of dark evergreens. + +"We can go through here," Ingram said, unlatching the gate. + +So they entered the private grounds and passed around the simple, pretty +home and out upon the road beyond. + +"Everything is as sweet and quiet here as in the forest," said Lassie. + +"Yes, it's a beautiful place," Ingram assented. + +They went on and entered the wood path that goes to the Lower Falls. + +"I cannot understand one thing," the man said, suddenly; "if they loved +one another so much, why didn't they marry long ago? If I loved a woman, +I should want to marry her." + +Here was the thin ice again--delight again. + +"They never thought of it," Lassie said, revelling in the sense of +danger; "they couldn't. They recognized other claims." + +Ingram walked on for a little, and then he said: "I suppose that what +you say is true, and that with people like them everything is different +from what it is with you and me." + +(You and me!) + +"Yes," said Lassie, "Alva doesn't seem to have minded that his work +meant more to him than she did, and I suppose that he thought it quite +right that she should do her duty unselfishly." + +"It makes our view of things seem rather small and petty--don't you +think? Or shall we call her crazy, as the world generally does call all +such people?" + +"I know that she's not crazy," the girl said. + +"Shall we have to admit then that she is right in what she is going to +do, and that instead of its being horrible, it is sublime?" He looked +at her, and she raised tear-filled eyes to his. But she was silent. + +"I think that we must admit it--for Alva," he added; "but not for +ourselves." + +The girl was silent and her lips trembled. Finally she said: "I believe +that what she said is coming true, and that I am changing and that you +are changing, too." + +"Oh, I'm changed all the way through," he admitted. + +It was a long walk to the Lower Falls, and yet it was short to them. +Very short! But too long to follow them step by step. It was a beautiful +walk, and one which they were to remember all their lives to come. It +was such a walk as should form a powerful argument in favor of the +preservation of the Falls. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +RIGHTEOUS JUSTICE + + +Leaving Mary Cody to watch over the house, Mrs. O'Neil, the instant +dinner was over, threw something over her head and hurried to the +post-office. + +Mrs. Ray met her at the door. "What is it?" was her greeting; "I know +it's come out about the case-knives! Hasn't it?" + +"You'll never guess what they are," said Mrs. O'Neil, entering the house +and closing the door behind her. "Mrs. Ray, they're swindlers!" + +"I knew it; I knew it all the time. How did you find it out?" + +Mrs. O'Neil told her. + +"Give me the paper." + +The paper was unfolded, but as she unfolded it Mrs. Dunstall and Pinkie +came running in one way, and Mrs. Wiley rushed panting up the other +steps. + +"Have you heard?" Mrs. Dunstall cried. + +"Heard! I've heard it a dozen ways." Mrs. Ray was devouring the article +as she spoke. "Sit down," she said briefly, without looking around. + +"They can't be arrested till Saturday," Mrs. O'Neil said. "There isn't a +mite of doubt but what it's them, but Mr. Pollock told Jack that the law +is that he must give them notice, and then he must let them go before he +can arrest them." + +"Why, I never heard the equal," exclaimed Mrs. Wiley. "I didn't know +that you must let anybody who'd done anything go, ever! What will Uncle +Purchase say to that!" + +"Well, if that isn't the greatest I ever heard, either," said Mrs. Ray, +never ceasing to read; "that's a funny law. If the United States +Government run its business that way, every one would be skipping out +with the stamps." + +"And Mr. Pollock said," broke in Mrs. O'Neil, "that no matter how big +swindlers they were, we couldn't arrest them until some one whom they'd +swindled swore to the fact." + +"Well, why don't you swear, then?" interrupted Mrs. Ray still reading. + +"Because Mr. Pollock says they haven't actually swindled us, till they +really leave without paying, you see," explained Mrs. O'Neil. + +"Lands!" commented Pinkie. + +"Which means," said Mrs. Ray, always reading, "that the law is that you +mustn't try to catch 'em until after you let 'em go." + +"Seems so," said Mrs. O'Neil. + +"I never hear the beat!" exclaimed Mrs. Ray. "Why, this paper says +they'd been jumping their board all summer!" + +"All summer?" said Pinkie. + +"Well, I always knew they were no good," said Mrs. Ray, still reading; +"they never got any letters. They come to the post-office sometimes to +try to give themselves a reputation, but they didn't fool me, for they +never got any letters. I don't misjudge folks if they don't get many, +and if they cancel up good it says just as much for their characters as +if they got a lot--maybe more, for a lot of letters may be just +duns--but when there's no income and no outgo, better look out, I say. +Yes, indeed. Do they owe you much, Nellie?" + +"About thirty-five dollars," said Mrs. O'Neil; "but oh, dear! Why, +they've made fudge and worn my shawls and roasted chestnuts--" + +"Nellie, Nellie," it was a strange voice at the kitchen door. Everybody +looked up to see Mrs. Kendal, almost purple from rapid walking. "I've +just heard! Lucia Cosby ran down to tell me. We've got a Foxtown Signal +that's got some more about them in. I run right over to bring it to you. +I was sure I'd find you here. That's why the old lady always wore her +rubbers--her shoes were clean wore through with walking, skipping out, +all the time." + +Mrs. Kendal sank on a seat, and the Foxtown Signal was spread out upon +the table with the other paper. + +"I thought that was a funny story about the trunks," said Mrs. Wiley. + +"They've worn the same clothes for three weeks, to my certain +knowledge," said Mrs. O'Neil, "and not so much as an extra hairpin!" + +"And they haven't any toilet things except a hair-brush that isn't good +enough to throw at a cat, and a mirror that's broken," interposed Mrs. +Ray; "you said so, Nellie, and I saw it, too." + +"A broken mirror's bad luck," said Mrs. Wiley; "I hope you'll see that +it's bad luck for you too, Nellie. Your husband's too soft-hearted to +keep a hotel as we always tell every one who goes there to board." + +"Well, he isn't soft-hearted this time," said his wife; "he's mad +enough to-day, and he says he'll pay for his own ticket to Geneseo to +bear witness against them." + +Just here Mrs. Wellston, who lived in the first house over the hill from +the schoolhouse, came rushing in. + +"Oh, I just heard!" she panted, "they left a lot of bills at King's and +at Race's Corners, where my sister Molly lives, they left a board-bill +of eighteen dollars! They're known all over!" + +"What do you think of that?" Mrs. Ray said, turning to Mrs. O'Neil. + +Mrs. O'Neil gasped. + +"The man who told Jack told Nathan and Lizzie that the old woman's +husband died in the penitentiary," she said. "That's a nice kind of +people to have around your house." + +Mrs. Wiley gasped this time. Mrs. O'Neil gasped again. + +"Jack said we must tell you all the first thing for fear she'd try to +borrow money of some one. I told him he was foolish, because if they +borrowed money of any one then they could pay us." + +"He was only joking," said Mrs. Ray; "if they paid you, you wouldn't +really take the money, for you'd know that they must have gotten it from +some of us." + +"On the contrary, you ought to have taken it, I think," said Mrs. +Dunstall solemnly, "and then returned it to whoever give it to them." + +Lottie Ann and Uncle Purchase now arrived to add to the festivity of the +occasion. + +"I guess nobody need worry over that pair's paying anybody any money +they get their hands on," observed Mrs. Ray, fetching a chair for Uncle +Purchase. "What are you going to do about it, when they come down and +want to go out to walk next time, Nellie? Give 'em your shawls the same +as usual, I suppose." + +"Why, we've got to let 'em go or they can't skip and make themselves +liable to arrest, of course, but the old lady said she could surely get +money by to-morrow, and Jack has hired a boy to hang around the house +and if they go out, track them." + +"My sakes, ain't it interesting?" said Mrs. Dunstall. "And to think that +they're up there this minute and have no idea of it all." + +"I dare say they have been laughing at you all the time they were off +chestnutting our chestnuts," said Mrs. Wiley. "My husband says if they'd +sold all they've picked up, they could have paid their board honestly." + +"But they weren't honest, you see," said Mrs. Ray; "honest people all +get letters, or anyhow they buy postal cards of the Falls. And you ought +to have taken my word for it when I suspected them, Nellie; those +case-knives ought to have set you on to them." + +"Well, well, and us seeing them walking all around for a fortnight," +said Mrs. Dunstall; "and we so innocent, and they swindlers, and you +boarding them for nothing,--dear, dear!" + +"Well," said Mrs. Ray, "here's your paper, Nellie; what will happen +next, I wonder?" + +"Yes, I do, too," said Pinkie. + +"You'd better all come down about five, and see if they did go out," +said Mrs. O'Neil, with the air of extending an invitation to a party. +"Why, that old lady told me that she'd been to the Boston Academy of +Music." + +"Boston!" said Mrs. Dunstall with a sniff; "they never saw Boston. Not +those two. Not much." + +"Oh, but they have," said Mrs. O'Neil; "I know that they have, for I've +been there myself, and we talked about it." + +"Well, I guess Boston has its crooks as well as other places," said Mrs. +Ray, pacifically; "I guess if we can harbor swindlers and not know it, +Boston can, too." + +"I wouldn't believe it," Mrs. O'Neil said again. "But these papers make +me have to; you see, there's the names, and Hannah Adele, and no paper +would dare to print that if it wasn't true." + +"True! Of course it's true," said Mrs. Ray; "I never would be surprised +over anything anybody'd do that would wear brown laces in black shoes +and go in out of the rain at a strange house at midnight." + +"Did she have brown laces in black shoes?" asked Lottie Ann, in a tone +penetrated with horror. + +"She did, and what's more, she pinned herself together. I see the pins +sticking out of her, time and again, when she come in to stand around +and wait for mail like a honest person would. No man is ever going to +marry a girl who bristles with pins like that,--it'll be a job I +wouldn't like myself to be the sheriff and have to arrest her. He'd +better look sharp where he lays his hand on that girl, I tell you." + +"Will she really be arrested?" Lottie Ann cried. + +"Why, I should hope so," said her mother. + +"As a law-abiding citizen yourself, who may take boarders some day, you +wouldn't wish her not to be, would you?" said Mrs. Ray. + +"I don't know," said Lottie Ann; "it seems to me very--very terrible to +think that two women should go to jail." + +"But they haven't any money, and they're swindlers," said Mrs. +Dunstall; "they belong in jail. That's why we have jails." + +"If they'd had money, they'd have received at least two or three +letters," said Mrs. Ray. "If people have any money at all, there's +always some one who wants to keep posted as to their health. Yes, +indeed. No, they haven't any money. People that have money and never get +up till noon is generally buying tea and matches, at any rate, but they +didn't even do that. No, they ain't got any money." + +"I couldn't believe it myself at first," repeated Nellie O'Neil; "and +they certainly ate like people that aren't holding anything back. Two +helps of everything, and didn't she go and take half a loaf of +gingerbread up-stairs yesterday afternoon? As cool as a cucumber." + +"They were both cool as cucumbers," said Mrs. Ray; "that's why they +borrowed your shawls all the time, I guess. Cooler than cucumbers they +would have been without them, I reckon." + +"Jack went up and gave the old lady warning right after dinner," said +Mrs. O'Neil. "He only stopped to just get a bite first." + +"Well, I hope he didn't get a bite last, too," said Mrs. Ray, tucking in +the ends of her shawl. "That pair was too comfortable with you to want +to be warned to leave. Making fudge, indeed! I'm surprised at you, +Nellie; I'd no more think of letting my boarders make fudge than I would +of keeping them for nothing. You and Jack don't belong in the hotel +business. You can't possibly make boarding people pay, unless you make +them pay for their board." + +"No, you can't," said Pinkie. + +"Josiah was driving down to North Ledge yesterday, and he saw them +getting over a fence in that direction," said Mrs. Wiley, rising. "He +said they seemed to be learning the country by all means, fair or foul." + +"Well, I don't want to seem unfriendly," said Mrs. Ray; "but I guess +you'll all have to go. I found some ants in my grocery business this +morning for the first time, and while I'm give to understand it's the +regular thing in most grocery businesses, no ant need flatter himself +that it is in mine. I'm going to clean out the whole of the three +shelves this afternoon and sprinkle borax everywhere where it can't +taste. So I must have this room. I'll be down to-night after mail, +Nellie; good-by." + +Thereupon they all departed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +IN THE HOUR OF NEED + + +In the meantime Alva, left alone in her room, felt troubled, vastly +troubled, by the sorrow and shame gathering so close to her. The +emotions of those near by affect one keenly attuned, in a degree that +the less sensitive would hardly believe possible. + +She went and locked the door after Lassie left, and going to a chair +that happened to stand close to the bureau, sat down there, leaned her +face on her hand and thought earnestly of the whole matter. + +"Why must I trouble so?" she said to herself, presently; "no one else +does," and then she smiled sadly. "It is because I have set my face in +that direction," she said; "I have vowed myself to service, just as he +has vowed himself, for the love of God and God in humanity." + +A light tap on her own door sounded, and she started, crying "Come in," +quite forgetting that the door was locked. + +Some one tried the door and then Alva sprang up and unfastened it. It +opened, and Miss Lathbun stood there in the crack. + +"May I come in for a few minutes?" she asked, pale and with frightened +eyes. + +"Yes, come in," Alva said quickly; "come in and sit down." She drew a +chair near to the one that she had been occupying. + +"I have come to you on a--" began the girl, "on a--on a--" she stammered +and stopped. + +"You are in trouble," Alva said gently; "tell me all about it." + +"I am going to tell you; I have come on purpose to tell you. You were so +kind and friendly the other day, and I--I--wasn't truthful; I didn't +tell you everything." + +Alva rested her face on her hand again and looked straight at her. "Then +tell me everything now," she said. + +Miss Lathbun returned her look. "Mr. O'Neil has just been up to tell +Mother that we must pay our bill here, or leave," she said. "Mother is +desperate. She doesn't know what to do, and I don't know what to do. I +told you so little of the whole story. The truth is that he is actually +driving Mother and me into poverty. The truth is that I don't know +whether he ever really has thought of marrying me. Mother never has +believed that he has. She doesn't think that he would put us to such +straits if he was honest. Of course she doesn't know about his watching +nights. I can't tell her. She'd go mad." + +Alva contemplated her quietly. "But you love him?" she said. + +Miss Lathbun's eyes filled with tears. "I do love him, and I believe +that he loves me." + +"You feel sure of it, don't you?" + +The girl looked at her earnestly. "Doesn't one always know?" she asked. + +Alva smiled a little. "One ought to," she assented; "well, then, how +can he bear to make your life so miserable?" + +The white girl clasped her delicate hands tightly in her thin black +merino lap. "I don't know," she said, in a voice almost like a wail; +"but oh, we have been very miserable! We have such little income and it +comes through the lawyer. He sent the lawyer to Seattle on business in +July, and Mamma and I haven't had any money since. We have gone from +place to place--we have almost fled from place to place; our trunks are +held for bills; we are penniless, winter is coming, and--oh, I don't +know what to do; I don't know what to do!" She bit her lip so as not to +cry, but her pale face worked pitifully. + +Alva looked at her in a curiously speculative but not at all heartless +way. "Isn't it strange," she murmured, "that the resolution that drives +one man to any heights will drive another of the same calibre to any +depths?" She rose and went to her table. "Tell me," she said, taking a +framed picture from before the mirror, "is he really like this? You said +so before. Say it again." + +Miss Lathbun took the picture in her two hands. "Oh, yes, yes!" she +said, eagerly; "it is the same. They are just the same." + +"What did you say his name was?" Alva asked, taking the picture from her +and restoring it to its place. + +Miss Lathbun told her: "Lisle C. Bayard." + +Alva sat down again, and rested her chin on her hand as before. "I +wonder how I can really help you. I am trying to be big enough to see." + +Miss Lathbun's lips parted slightly; she looked at her breathlessly, and +held her peace. + +"Even if you were lying to me still," Alva said presently, "I should +want just as much to help you. If you cheated me and laughed at me +afterwards, I should still want to help you. If you are an adventuress +and I succored you, what would count to me would be that I tried to do +right." + +She spoke in a strange, meditative manner; Miss Lathbun continued to +watch her, always white, and whiter. + +"I cannot see why you and your mother came into my life," Alva went on; +"but you have come, and I have been interested in you. Our paths seemed +ready to diverge and yet just now they join again. Do you know, that a +week or so ago I knelt in a church and took two vows; one was to accept +without murmur whatever life might bring because for the moment I was so +superlatively blessed; the other was to never again pass any trouble by +carelessly. No matter what is brought to me, I must deal with it as +earnestly and justly as I know how,--as I shall try to deal with you." + +She got up, took a key from the pocket of a coat hanging on a hook near +by, unlocked her trunk, opened a purse therein, and extracted some +bills. + +The girl watched her like one fascinated. + +Alva came to her side and put the roll in her hands and closed her +fingers over it. "It will settle everything," she said; "there, take it, +go. Be honest again. Surprise every one. God be with you." + +Hannah Adele looked down at her hand as if in a dream. "I was going to +ask you for a little money," she faltered; "but this--this--" + +"I know," said Alva, "I knew when you came in. Now, please don't say any +more. Go back to your mother and tell her. I shall not say one word +about it, you can depend upon me." + +The girl rose in a blind, stupid kind of way and left the room. When she +was gone, Alva went to the window for a minute and looked out. The +glisten of coming cold was in the air. The thistles were loosing their +down and it floated on the wind like ethereal snow. She stood there for +a long time. "Something is to be," she murmured, "I feel it coming. What +is it?" + +Then she went to her table, picked up a pen and wrote: + + LISLE C. BAYARD, + + _Dear Sir_:--I am acting under an impulse which I cannot + overcome. It may be only a folly, but it is too strong within + me to be resisted. + + You may or may not know two ladies of the name of Lathbun; you + may or may not be interested in them; but if by any chance you + are interested in them, you ought to know that both have been + threatened with terrible trouble. If the story which I have + been told be really true it ought to make you not sorry, but + very glad, to learn that in their hour of stress they found a + friend. + Yours very truly ... +and she signed her full name. + +After that she wrote another letter, with full particulars of the story. +And when that letter, too, was finished, she slipped on her wraps and +walked up the cinder-path to the post-office. + +She found Mrs. Ray just in the fevered finale of her chase after ants. + +"Put the letters on the counter," said the postmistress; "I'm standing +on the post-box, and the Republican party is getting one good, useful +deed to its credit this term, anyhow. I tried a soap box and bu'st +through, and I haven't had a worse shock since I stepped down the wrong +side of the step-ladder last spring, when I was kalsomining for Mrs. +Clinch. But the post-box is as steady as the Bank of England and I feel +as if for this one occasion, at least, my grocery business was coming +out on top. Well, has anything new come up down your way since noon? +Haven't paid their bill yet, have they?" + +"I think they'll pay it," said Alva, smiling. + +"Pay it! Those two? Well, not much! You're from the city and don't get a +chance to judge character like I do, but I tell you every one that is +honest has got to have a change of undershirts, at least. I've heard of +people as turned them hind side before one week, and inside out the +next, but they washed 'em the week after that, if they had any +reputations at all to keep up." + +"Do you want to bet with me as to Mrs. Lathbun's paying her bill, Mrs. +Ray?" Alva asked. + +Mrs. Ray turned and looked sharply down from her government perch. "My +goodness me," she said, "you surely ain't been fool enough to lend her +money, have you?" + +Alva was too startled to collect herself. + +"Well, you deserve to lose it then," said Mrs. Ray, climbing down +abruptly; "see here, it isn't any of my business, but I'm going to make +it my business and tell you the plain truth, and if you take offence +I'll have done my duty, anyhow. Now you listen to me and bear in mind +that I'm twice your age and have got all the experience of a +postmistress and a farmer, and a sexton and a grocery business and a +married woman and a widow and a stepmother; if you've lent money to the +Lathbuns you're going to lose it, for they're just what the paper +said--they're a foxy pair and no mistake, and furthermore, with all the +money you're spending on that house, you'd better be keeping your eyes +open, mark my words." + +[Illustration: "IF YOU'VE LENT MONEY TO THE LATHBUNS YOU'RE GOING TO +LOSE IT."] + +"Why, Mrs. Ray, what makes you say that?" + +"Because I've got eyes of my own," said Mrs. Ray; "and I've been married +too. I've been married and I walked to the Lower Falls beforehand, too. +I saw 'em come up the road the first day, and I saw 'em going down it +to-day. I'd send her packing, if I was you." + +Alva laughed ringingly. "Oh, Mrs. Ray," she exclaimed; "I'm not going to +marry that man, and besides, let me tell you something else; I haven't +_lent_ any money to the Lathbuns." + +Mrs. Ray stared fixedly into her face for a long minute, then she said +abruptly: "You tell Nellie not to send up for mail to-night. I'll bring +the letters down. I'll be out filin' my bond, and I can just as well +bring 'em down. It won't do any good your coming for 'em, because the +post-office will be closed and me gone, so you couldn't get 'em if you +did come." + +Alva smiled. "We'll wait at the house," she said, laying her hand on the +door-knob. + +Mrs. Ray watched her take her departure. + +"I'm glad she's give up the man so pleasant," she said; "and she's give +up the money just as pleasant. Poor thing! She thought she was smart +enough to keep me from seeing how she meant it. As if any one from a +city could fool me!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +DOUBTS + + +Alva was sitting in her room, her hands clasped behind her head in her +favorite thinking attitude when Lassie returned from her walk to the +Lower Falls. The face of the older friend wore its habitual look of +far-away absorption as the young girl entered, but the look was almost +rivalled by Lassie's own look--for Lassie had returned from the Lower +Falls with what was to be her own private and personal absorption +forever after. + +"Had you a pleasant time?" Alva asked. + +"Oh, it was beautiful!" the young girl exclaimed, "we had such fun, +too," she stopped, and hesitated; then something in the other's face +made her ask: "Are they gone?" + +Alva shook her head. "No, dear, they've received their warning, but +they've not gone." + +"Oh," said Lassie, relieved, "then they won't be in jail this night, +anyway." + +"No, nor any other night," Alva said, quietly; "I shall not let those +women suffer shame and humiliation when a little money can prevent it." + +"You are going to pay their bills!" + +"No, but I am going to help them pay them." + +"You are going to give them money?" + +"I have given it." + +Lassie stood still in surprise, and yet, even surprised as she was, +there was a perfunctory aspect which had not been present in the +morning. + +"And I have written a little letter to the hero of Miss Lathbun's +romance, too." + +Lassie came close. "Alva!" she asked, "then you really believe that +there is such a man?" + +Alva put out her hand and pulled the girl down upon her lap. "I do +believe it," she said. "I may be deceived in some ways, but the man is +real, I know. As I said before, one cannot invent that kind of +character." + +"And you wrote him? What did you say?" + +"Only a few simple words. I felt that it was the right thing to do; I +did it for the same reason that I do all things. Out of the might of my +love. If you ever come to love as I do, you'll understand how wide and +deep one's interest in all love can become--yes, in all love and in all +things." + +Lassie leaned her cheek upon her friend's hair for a moment and did not +speak. + +"I know what you're thinking," Alva went on then (but she did not know, +really). "But do you know what I have been thinking? I have been +wondering. Surely no two people could seem further out of my realm than +these two forlorn women, but I always said there must be a reason and a +strong one, or else they would not interest me so, and now you see what +it was. They were brought to me to succor, and that is almost the +greatest joy that I know now." + +Lassie felt real life slipping from her, just as it always did when Alva +talked. She was silent and thoughtful, even her new sensation in +abeyance for the minute. Love was drawing back a step and letting Mercy +have its hour. + +"But if they deserved punishment?" she asked finally, in a timid voice. + +"Perhaps they do deserve it, but not at my hands. If I, feeling as I do, +suffered them to go down yet deeper into the pit, I should do a cruel +wrong. I can't do such a wrong, I must do right in so far as I know +how,--and it's their good luck to have met me just now." She smiled. + +"Alva," said Lassie, kissing her, "that's a very new view to me. The +evil-doers deserve to be punished, but others ought to be doing good; so +on account of those others and on their account mainly we are taught +forgiveness of sins;" she laughed softly. + +Alva opened her eyes. "What a forward leap your intellect has taken this +afternoon," she commented. "I never dreamed that Ronald was such a +Jesuit. Come now, jump up, we must go down to supper." + +"But you'll just tell me what Mrs. Ray said when she saw the paper." + +"My dear, I really haven't asked." + +"Oh, dear; then perhaps she took it calmly! Have you seen her since?" + +"Yes, she took this afternoon to clean ants out of the government +precincts. She seemed calm to me." + +"Goodness! Then I'm glad that I went." + +Alva laughed a little. For some odd reason the laugh caused Lassie to +blush deeply, although the laugh was absolutely innocent of innuendo. + +Down-stairs, Ingram awaited them. At the other small table Mrs. Lathbun +and her daughter sat as placidly as ever. The long table was full as +usual, but there was a keen subtlety of interest abroad which rendered +the conversation there fitful and jerky in the extreme. The mother and +daughter began to feel uneasy, and before Mary Cody had placed the soup +for the later comers, they rose and went quietly up-stairs. + +"Do you know what they said when Mr. O'Neil gave them warning?" Lassie +asked, when the others had also left the room. + +"They said they'd pay the money just as soon as a letter could get to +Cromwell and back," Alva replied. "They had been waiting for their own +lawyer to return from day to day, but if it came to the question of real +necessity they could get money from some one else." + +The squeak of the outside door was heard; it was Mrs. Ray, and the next +second she was in their midst. + +"Good evening," she said briskly. + +At the sound of her voice Mrs. O'Neil hurried in from the kitchen and +Mary Cody followed her as far as the door and stood there, spellbound +with eager interest. + +Mrs. Ray was out of breath and had her shawl over her head and her bond +under her arm. "I just run down before the mail to get Jack to sign this +and find out if anything more's come up. Sammy Adams was in to see me +about five, and he's scared white over their being swindlers. He says to +think of them swindling around his house all that night long! He's +afraid to stay in his house now, and he's afraid to leave it. He was +running to the window to look out that way all the time. I'm afraid +Sammy's getting mooney. There were days when Mr. Ray used to be always +looking out the window. Those were always his mooney days." + +"Nothing new's come up," said Mrs. O'Neil; "the old lady took her two +cups of coffee same as usual, didn't she, Mary?" + +"She took three to-night," said Mary Cody. + +"Loading up to skip," said Mrs. Ray, significantly; "well, Nellie, +where's your husband? He's got to sign this before I can go back. The +United States Government won't trust me after seventeen years without my +bondsmen are still willing to support their view." + +"Jack's in the bar," said his wife; "I'll go and fetch him." + +"Do sit down, Mrs. Ray," Alva begged. Ingram jumped up and drew out a +chair. Mrs. Ray seated herself. + +"Are they up-stairs, Mary?" she asked. + +"Yes, went right up after supper," said Mary Cody. + +"I thought they looked troubled," said Lassie. + +"Well, they did post a letter, after all," said Mrs. Ray, turning to +Alva. "I never malign any one, so I wanted to tell you that. They didn't +come in and lay it on the counter, like honest people, but they put it +in that box that the United States Government requires me to keep nailed +up outside and unlock and peek into twice every day of the year around. +Theirs was the first letter any one ever put in, I guess, because +although folks feel I'm honest enough to be postmistress, they don't +think I'm silly enough to look in that box twice a day, just because I +said I would on my oath. The boys put June-bugs and garter-snakes in to +try if I do; but I always find 'em before they've quit being lively." + +"What did you do with the letter?" Mary Cody asked. + +"Do with it! Don't I have to put any letter into the next mail and lock +the bag, no matter what my feelings are? Yes, indeed." + +"Where was it addressed?" asked Ingram, leaning back and putting his +hands in his pockets. + +"That I can't tell you," said Mrs. Ray; "my oath keeps my mouth closed +on all business connected with the United States Mail, but I'll tell you +what I did do. I copied the address off, and then I looked through the +little book of post-office regulations and I couldn't find one word to +prevent my bringing you a copy, so here it is." + +She opened her hand as she spoke and showed a piece of paper. Lassie, +who was nearest her, took it eagerly. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed disappointedly, "this is the letter that she told +Mr. O'Neil she'd write. It's to their lawyer. It isn't anything new." + +"Well, give it back to me so I can tear it up," said Mrs. Ray; "I meant +to tear it up, anyway. But where is Mr. O'Neil? I want to get my bond +filed. By the way," she said, turning to Ingram, "you owe me two cents." + +"Two cents!" + +"Yes; the stamp come off of one of your letters, and I put on a new one. +I've saved the other for you. It was a letter addressed to New York. +You'll have to buy some glue if you're ever meaning to get your money's +worth out of that stamp. I licked it good, but it won't stick. Too many +been at it before you and me, I guess. That's the way with most stamps +that won't stick, I always think." + +"Here's the two cents," said Ingram. + +"Thank you very much. Well, every one in town is wondering what the +lawyer will answer them. He's a real man, for Nathan says he got beat +for the Legislature once. But will he send them any money? That's the +question!" + +"What do you think?" asked Ingram. + +"I can't have any opinion. Any one who's had anything to do with the +Government closes my lips as a servant to the United States. It was very +hard for me to give up having opinions when I first came into politics, +but I'm so used to it now that I wouldn't feel easy if I could speak +freely any more." + +"But if you weren't postmistress what would you think?" Ingram queried. + +"Wouldn't think anything; I'd know they'd skip! They'll skip to-night; +mark my words." + +"Oh, but they won't," said Alva, smiling; "they'll pay their bill--wait +and see." + +"Yes, I will wait and see," said Mrs. Ray, darkly. "I'll wait a long +while and see very little. Yes, indeed. What sticks in my mind is poor +Sammy Adams. He says he's afraid to sleep alone in his house, and he's +too afraid of dogs and cats to have any to watch. He's going to put two +hens in his kitchen to-night and roll a sofa against the front door. He +says he knows every time the hens stir he'll go most out of his senses. +Sammy says he wasn't meant to live alone." + +"What did you say to that?" + +"Said it didn't look to me as if he was meant to live with hens, +neither. But where is your husband, Nellie?" (Mrs. O'Neil had just +re-entered the room). "I've got to get hold of him. I'm in a awful hurry +to get home. There's the mail, and I've got Sally Catt's dress to +finish, too." + +"He'll be in in just a minute," said Mrs. O'Neil; "did Sally decide to +line it, after all?" + +"No, she didn't decide to line it; but she decided to have me line it, +which is more to my point. I'm sure I'm glad not to be Joey Beall and +have to adapt myself to Sally; but then, if folks are still calling a +fellow Joey after he's forty, I don't know that it matters much who +marries him, and Sally hasn't changed her mind as to liking the house on +the hill since he moved it up on the hill to please her." + +"I'm sorry for Joey," said Mrs. O'Neil, warmly. + +"Well, I'm not," said Mrs. Ray. "I'm not sorry for any one who's a fool. +Speaking of fools, if they don't pay to-morrow, how much longer are you +intending to keep them for nothing? I'd just like to know that." + +"They can't get an answer to the letter before to-morrow night." + +"Huh! So you're going to feed them all day to-morrow, too! Well, I don't +know how you and Jack keep clothes on your backs the way you go on. I +never saw people like you two. If I ever want to live free, I know where +to come." + +"Indeed you do, Mrs. Ray," said Mrs. O'Neil, her bright eyes filling +suddenly; "indeed you do. You come right down here any day you want to, +and you can stay here till you die. You know I've told you that a +thousand times." + +"You're easy," said Mrs. Ray, drawing herself up with great dignity. "I +just believe you mean it, too, Nellie, and I just suppose if I was to +come and borrow a hundred dollars without witnesses, Jack would be +plenty idiot enough to give it to me, too." + +"Well, I should hope so," said his wife; "who'd he trust sooner?" + +Mrs. Ray looked around the table. "And it's this sort of people that +those two up-stairs are cheating," she said; "well, it's a queer world. +But if I ain't signed and witnessed and back up at my house before long, +the United States Government will likely go swearing out something +against me; where _is_ your husband, Nellie?" + +"He said he'd be right in. Mary Cody, you go and tell him to hurry." + +Mary Cody disappeared obediently. + +"Joey Beall says you won't have her, long," said Mrs. Ray, +significantly; "he saw her and Edward Griggs climbing down the bank +Sunday. He saw you two walking to the Lower Falls, too," she added, +turning suddenly on Ingram and Lassie. + +The inference fell like a sledge-hammer. Alva started violently, and +looked from one confused face to the other. + +But before any one could say anything Mr. O'Neil walked into the room. + +"Well, there you are at last," said Mrs. Ray. "I am glad to see you! +Here I sit, filing away at my bond and can't make any headway because +you're the first to sign." + +"It's hard to get away from the bar to-night," said Mr. O'Neil, bringing +pen and ink. "They're betting I never see my money." + +"We'll never see it in the world, Jack," said his wife; "everybody says +so." + +"Except me," interposed Alva, her eyes on Lassie. + +"And you haven't had any experience with swindlers," said Mrs. Ray; +"that's easy seen. You ain't any more fit to be trusted with a pair of +sharpers than Mr. and Mrs. O'Neil, or poor Sammy Adams alone in his +house to-night, relying on hens in the hour of need." + +"Perhaps not," Alva said sighing. She was deeply shaken by the new +conception of what was transpiring around her, in the discovery of how +much might go on without her ever noticing. Lassie in love with Ingram! +And the girl was not even out yet! What would her mother say! + +"There, there's my name for another year for you, Mrs. Ray," said Jack +O'Neil, pushing the bond towards its owner. + +"And remember, Mrs. Ray," added his wife, laughing, "remember, if you +ever want a place to live or to borrow any money, you come straight +here." + +"I'll remember," said Mrs. Ray, rising and adjusting her shawl. "Well, +it's back to duty and the mail-bag, now. So good night." + +She went out and Ingram felt an intolerable longing to avoid Alva's eyes +until she should have had a little time to think. Lassie shared the +feeling; she, too, was greatly upset by Mrs. Ray's loquacity. + +"Let us go out and walk until it's time to get the letters," the man +suggested to the girl. His tone was curiously imperative, and she +welcomed its command and jumped up quickly to fetch her wraps. + +"Ronald," Alva said, gently, then, "she's very young." + +He met her eyes squarely. "I know," he said; "but I'm not." She said no +other word, but sat silent until they were gone. Mr. O'Neil returned to +the bar at once, and in a minute--when Alva was alone--his wife came +and sat opposite her. Alva was supporting her chin on her hands, trying +to disentangle three urgent trains of thought. + +"I'll be so glad when they're gone," Mrs. O'Neil said, with a sigh. +"They've worn on me terribly, and now that I know what they are, it's +awful. There's no possible chance of their being straight any more. They +wear their heels off on the outside, and Mary Cody says Edward Griggs +worked in a shoe store once, and knows for a fact that that's the sign +of dishonesty." + +"But have you ever seen their shoes?" Alva asked, with a slight smile. + +"Why, I haven't put anything into the oven without having to take their +heels out first, since they came." + +"I'd forgotten." Alva sighed. + +Mrs. O'Neil glanced at her quickly. + +"You musn't take them so much to heart," she said, gently. "They could +be good if they wanted to." + +"It isn't them, altogether," the other replied. Mrs. O'Neil looked at +her in a sort of blind sympathy. She thought that the youth and +sweetness of the young girl was what weighed so heavily on the young +woman opposite. "But men will be men," she reflected, and tried to think +of something to say, and couldn't. + +The evening freight went roaring by. + +"Why, I thought it went up before," Alva said. + +"I did, too, but that must have been the wrecking-train; there must be a +wreck on the road." + +"Let's go out on the bridge!" Alva suggested. "I feel choked; I want +fresh air, and there is a moon." + +"Shall I go with you?" + +"Yes, do." + +"I'll tell Mary Cody." + +While Mrs. O'Neil went for a shawl and to tell Mary Cody, Alva sought +her big cape. Then they went out together into the frost, for the frost +was sharp in the air. + +"The woods will soon end being beautiful," the little woman said. + +Alva walked swiftly on and made no reply. In less than five minutes they +stood out over the gorge and looked down on its matchless glory of +silver illuminating blackest shadow. + +"I hope that the dam won't spoil all this," the girl said suddenly. + +"You like to look at it, don't you?" Mrs. O'Neil said softly. + +"Living here on its banks, as you do, I don't believe you can appreciate +it!" Alva exclaimed. "Can it possibly mean to any one what it does to +me, I wonder." + +"I think it's pretty and I love so to look at it," said Mrs. O'Neil in +gentlest sympathy. + +Alva caught her hand and pressed it hard in both her own. "Do you know, +Mrs. O'Neil, if I were very happy I should love best to be happy here, +and if more sorrow were to be, I would choose to have that here, too. I +am so close to God when I live in His country." + +She took the warm hand that she held and pressed it close against her +heart. + +"I wish that every one was so good as you are," Mrs. O'Neil said, +impulsively. + +"Every one is better than we give them credit for being." + +"Even those two?" + +"Yes, even those two." + +"I can't quite believe that," said the little woman. + +"Wait and you'll see." + +Then they stood quiet, until a cold wind, coming down the gorge, smote +them bitterly. + +"We must go in," Alva said, regretfully; "the wind comes so strongly +here." + +They turned and were only a few steps on their way when Alva stopped +suddenly. + +"Do you believe in signs?" she asked. + +"Why--I don't know." + +Alva put both hands up to her head. "That cold wind was a sign," she +said, her voice trembling. "Oh, I feel so strangely. Something strong +and fearful is sweeping into my life to-night." + +In her heart she hoped that it was only the shock of learning that +Lassie loved. + +But in her soul she knew that it must be something else. The long strain +of the waiting days had worn anxiety to its sharpest edge. When Truth +mercifully veils itself, Time--the softener--wears the veil thin until +at last, when we have gained strength enough to bear, we have learned to +know. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +SHIFTING SUNSHINE AND CLOUDS + + +Ingram and Lassie went out but not on the bridge; they did not even turn +their heads that way. + +"Alva says that she can see the gorge even when it's pitch-dark," Lassie +said. "She says she shall see it plainly to the end of her life, +wherever she may be in the world." She felt quite safe now that they +were alone; she didn't even mind that embarrassing speech of Mrs. Ray's. + +"Yes," said Ingram; they went calmly and happily up the road. He didn't +mind the speech either, now. + +"Alva and I never walk this way," Lassie said after a minute. "We always +walk the other, except just a little bit to the post-office, of course." + +"Yes," said the man again, and they went on, up the hill. + +The peculiar charm of the ordinary mode of falling in love is that it is +so simple; it requires so little effort, so to speak. If it was harder +work, it might produce bigger results--results nearer the millennium +than those we are now getting. Perhaps, however, the results are a +lesson to be learned, and we are still so deep in the primer of that +learning, that love remains the cheapest, easiest, and most common of +all its tasks. + +Ingram thought Lassie's remarks fascinating, and she thought his two +"Yes's" both clever and original. They were each thoroughly satisfied +with one another, and were deeply interested each minute. Ingram had +never tramped along a country road in starlight with this pretty young +girl before, and Lassie had never walked anywhere, with any man, in all +her life. It was not perhaps remarkable that what had happened was +happening. Not at all. + +"How fast the time has gone," Lassie said, as they mounted the Wiley +hill; "to think that I have been here over a week!" + +"And to think of all that has happened," said Ingram. + +"I know; isn't it strange?" + +"I shall be awfully lonesome after you go." + +This sounded so mournful and pathetic that it brought a lump into her +throat and she could not speak for a minute. + +"Alva will go, too," Ingram went on, presently. + +"But she'll come back." + +"Let us hope so." + +They walked over the Wiley hill. + +"Poor Mrs. Lathbun and her daughter won't go chestnutting any more after +to-morrow," Lassie said, after they passed under the heavy shadows cast +by Mrs. Wiley's huge trees. "I think that we ought to go back now, the +mail will be in." + +They turned around to walk back and enjoyed every step of the way. There +is really nothing that lights up a lack of conversation like being in +love. + +As they passed the post-office they saw Mrs. Ray standing on the porch, +tucked up in her shawl. + +"There was a wreck," she called; "the mail's late." + +"All right!" Ingram called in response. + +Mrs. Ray watched them vanish out of the light cast by her open door, and +then turned, went inside, and shut it. "I like that young man," she said +to herself; "he's got a good face. I wish we were as sure of getting the +dam as he is of getting that girl. We need the dam full as much as he +thinks he needs her. It'll bring men and lots of money to this section, +and this section needs men and money. All we've got around here is women +and land, and women and land can't get very far without men and money. +It's about time we was getting some show at prosperity. I do wonder how +Sammy's getting along with his hens!" + +Arrived at the hotel, Ingram bade Lassie good night and she went +up-stairs, one trembling tumult of tangling sentiments as to the +conversation now to ensue. + +Alva's room was dark, but when Lassie whispered her name at the door, +the answer came quickly. + +"Is that you, dear? come to me. Lassie, how I have wanted you!" + +Lassie crossed to the bed, from whence the voice came. She thought she +knew why she was wanted, but she only said: "What is it, dear?" + +"I am in the grip of an awful fear." + +The girl stood still, much startled. + +"Alva! What do you mean? What has happened?" + +"I don't know. I went out on the bridge for a minute after you left, and +it came blowing down the gorge--a wind of horrid presentiment; oh, I am +beside myself, I don't know what to do. There is no mail to-night--" she +stopped, and Lassie felt that she was weeping. Finally she added: "I +ought to have stayed there at the hospital. I should not have obeyed his +wishes or what the surgeon said. I ought to have obeyed my own heart. I +ought to have stayed with him!" + +The young girl was frightened, silent. + +Finally she managed to stammer: + +"But you said that he was not conscious--that it was not possible for +you to stay there--that no purpose could be served. Oh, what do you +fear? What do you think may have happened?" + +Alva controlled herself and drew Lassie down beside her upon the bed. +"Dear, I don't know; but I do know that I shall go away to-morrow!" + +"To-morrow!" + +"I shall, dear. I must see him; I have telegraphed--" Again tears choked +her. + +"You think something has happened?" Lassie faltered. + +"Yes, something warns me. It has come over me heavily to-night. I must +go and face it. What is the reason of my love, if it seems to fail him +when the strain comes. It shall not fail. They shall not trick me into +failing. Perhaps they are trying to spare me or shield me, but I'll go +to receive the blow. An instant swept him out of his life-work--I saw +his spirit of resignation--I will be resigned, too--" + +Lassie felt the bed shaken by the fierceness of sobs. She was dumb, not +knowing what to say. The orbit of Alva's love was so infinitely greater +than that of her own, that the feebler suffered eclipse in that hour. +She saw herself and Ingram completely swept aside, and was not even +conscious of the fact. + +"It is my heart that suffers," Alva pressed on after a minute, "only my +heart, Lassie; my soul is strong, very strong. There is nothing else for +my spirit to learn, but half of my being still suffers; it cannot +remember every second how it was when I knelt beside him and he told me +in whispers that he was content and that if I loved him I also would be +content. I have tried to be content, I have been content until +to-day--until to-night. But now, as I lay here in the dark, it seemed as +if content had fled not only me but the whole universe. I feel as if +content had ceased to exist. Rebellion is in the air. In some strange +way I'm sure that he has abjured resignation and renunciation; I feel +that he is in the throes of something--he is suffering, suffering agony; +and I want to be with him. I _must_ be with him! I shall leave +to-morrow!" + +Lassie trembled; she had never seen any one like this before. + +"When do you want me to go, Alva," she whispered, presently. + +"Could you go to-morrow at four, and I will take the train the opposite +way at eight?" + +"I'll be ready; don't mind about me a bit, dear." + +"We must go. Oh, listen to that wind coming down the gorge; doesn't it +sound as if some spirit were in travail? So sad, so melancholy! +Something tremendous is taking place, and I am far from him while he +endures." + +The wind was surely rising, and its moan shook the window sash. + +"I'm going mad," Alva exclaimed, springing from the bed; "why did I +leave him? No matter what they said, I should have stayed there. My +place was there. Oh, I have been cast in so many moulds these last +years; I have taken so many prizes, only to find them dust in my hands; +and now God will not--must not take this one from me! I have learned the +folly of the material, I have bent my head beneath the yoke enough to be +spared another lash of the goad. I pray--oh, I pray--that this cup may +pass me by." + +Lassie sat still, now quite terrified. + +Alva paced up and down the little room. "I have been dragged--or I have +managed to drag myself--up one step above the ordinary. I had accepted +the loneliness that comes when one gets where no one else stands. I +learned not to expect companionship. But we are not the less lonely +because we go our way alone,--we are not the less lonely. And that same +rule holds all through. Lassie, I tell you, that one does not crave +companionship the less because one chooses to marry a dying man; one +does not crave caresses the less when one loves as I do." She wrung her +hands miserably. "I'm weak--weak--weak! This is the test and +I am failing. I, who have worked so far, am being carried +down--down--down--now--to-night. Oh, the struggle, the tragedy, the +lesson! Life's lessons are always so terrible." Then, her emotions +seeming for the moment to exhaust all her strength, she came back to the +bed, and said, with some approach to calmness: + +"Perhaps it is that I preached too much to you, dear, or was too sure of +myself. Perhaps my joy was a selfish joy, or perhaps I did wrong in +planning to leave my parents, even for a little while. Just in +proportion as one rises, so do the subtlety of their problems increase. +To love a man whose life was too big for any one to share unless she +could give herself wholly--that was hard but I learned that lesson; I +would have given my life wholly. Then to have my duty chain me away from +him--that was terrible but I accepted that, too. Then to have him struck +down--I thought that that was the worst of all, but something held me up +through that. But--but," she broke out in a wail of absolute, +heartbroken desolation, "but if he is going to leave me before we--" and +there she stopped short, shivered violently, and became stilly rigid. + +Lassie dared to put her arms about her. + +"Why do you think such dreadful things? You don't know that anything has +happened." + +Alva drew a long, sharp breath. "But I do know it," she said; "something +has happened. You will see in the morning. Oh, I would have given up my +life while he was giving up his, and minded it so little; but to have to +give him up! What shall I do? I wanted those weeks, even if they shrank +to days--to hours. It seemed to me that we had earned the right to a +little, so little, happiness. The memories would have given me strength +to bear the hereafter. If I could only be a soul, and a brave one, like +him,--but to-night I am all heart, all quivering fear." She paused to +control her voice again. + +"But, Alva, let me give you back your own speeches in comfort. How often +you've told me how only his soul counted, and how that was yours for +eternity, and how, because of that, you found yourself equal to all +things. And you've told me, too, dear, how his renunciation, how his +exchange of power, strength and life for weakness and death--and all +without a murmur--made you quite confident that you would never fail, +either." + +"Yes," Alva murmured, "yes, I remember, but--" + +"And you said that the way that he ignored his poor, crushed body and +looked straight towards another future life of fresh labor made you full +of courage, too. You remember." + +"Yes, yes, I remember." Then she tried to dry her eyes. "I won't admit +that the world has a right to shudder, and yet I am shuddering myself," +she said, sadly. "I must learn to be braver. I can't fight down +foreboding, but I must be braver. But, dear, I do so love him--I have so +wanted him--he is so dear to me. I have so lived upon the picture of our +hours together. That little house across the river is full of him for +me. I saw him in it well and strong of spirit, fighting against the +desecration of the gorge, and showing me how I might help on the work +when he was gone. I meant to give him the joy of one more crusade, and +one more victory to his credit. He would have known how to act, even if +his only sympathizers were the poor and those yet to be born. He +understood the claims of the poor and the unborn; he gave his life for +them." + +Lassie enfolded her in her tender arms; the little star was in eclipse, +yet even in eclipse it was gathering power on high. Alva leaned her +cheek against the head on her shoulder. + +"How I suffer," she murmured. "Lassie, I feel that I have entered into a +maelstrom--a whirlwind. I seem to hear a dirge in that wind outside. I +must go to-morrow--we must go to-morrow." + +"Yes, we'll go," said Lassie, soothingly. + +"It is my heart, just my heart. It is so hard to strike an even balance +between the heart and the soul. My poor, thin, trembling flesh has ruled +to-night, truly." + +"Let me sleep with you," Lassie pleaded; "let me hold you fast and love +you dearly." + +Alva smiled in the dark. "Come, then," she said; "I fancy that I shall +sleep if my hand clasps yours--and if I know that we leave to-morrow." + +Later, after Lassie had slept thus for some hours, she was awakened by +Alva's rising and going to the window. + +"What is it, dear, you are not faint?" + +Alva turned, the pale, early sunrise illuminated her face. + +"Some riddle has been solved somewhere, dear," she said; "I'm quite calm +now. The struggle for him as well as for me is over." + +"Then come back and sleep with my arms tight round your neck," said the +friend, stretching forth her arms. + +Alva came back like an obedient child, crept in close beside her, and in +a few minutes was sleeping as a child sleeps. + +Later, when the real morning came and the real, enduring wakefulness +with it, it was Alva who roused first again, and, sitting up in bed, put +back her hair with both hands and smiled into her friend's eyes. + +"You're all right, now?" Lassie said, joyfully. + +"Very right, dear; the crisis is over. Forget last night. I shall never +be like that again." + +Lassie turned her face towards the window; looking out from where she +lay she could see the valley one burst of flame, its wave of color +sweeping off afar and the hoar frost sparkling over all the glory. "I +feel as if I never had seen anything so beautiful in all my life +before," the girl exclaimed; "I don't know what it makes me think of, +but it is as if my soul were growing, I am so happy to see you happy +again." + +Alva sat there with the white coverlet heaped about her and smiled. +"Thank you, dear," she said, with simplicity. "I am happy, and last +night and this morning have caused both our souls to grow." + +"It's too beautiful!" the girl said, after a long pause; "the valley is +more beautiful than I ever realized before." + +Presently Alva left the bed and went to close the window. "There's a +mist lying low in the valley," she said then; "it lies there like an +emblem of peace. Omens are curious. That cold, sad wind last night had +its message, and the morning mist has another. I know that some change +is at hand, but I know that whatever it is its burden is good. I feel +equal to anything this morning. I feel as if God had come to me in the +night and told me that he was charging Himself with my care." + +Lassie looked at her with freshly awakened anxiety. + +"Oh, don't look at me that way," she begged; "that is the very hardest +of all--to have those to whom you talk regard you as if you were mad." + +"But you astonish me so. Last night you were so frightened." + +"Last night some struggle was on, my dear; this morning it is settled." +She stopped and spoke very slowly. "I think, perhaps, that he knows now +that he can never come to the house," she said, and although her lips +quivered slightly her voice was clear and composed. + +"Alva," Lassie cried, in sudden horror, "you think that he is dead--that +is what you think." + +As soon as the words had passed her lips, she was frightened at her own +temerity; but Alva, whose back was towards her, now turned towards her +smiling. + +"He is not dead," she said; "he was thinking of me all last night and +this morning. He is not dead. That I know." + +"How can you be sure?" + +"When people love as we do, they can be very sure. I was awfully shaken +last night, Lassie; I confess it. Something big, that we shall know all +about later, hung in the balance and I trembled. But it's settled now." + +There came a tap at the door just then, announcing Mary Cody with their +hot water. + +"They're still asleep," she said in a whisper; "if the letter from the +lawyer don't come in this morning's mail, Mr. O'Neil is going to eject +them. Only think!" + +Naturally this remark gave quite a new turn to the conversation. + +"Unless they pay, you know," Alva reminded Mary Cody. + +"How do you eject people?" Lassie asked, rejoicing in the cheerfulness +of the commonplace. "If he puts them out the front door and they just +walk around and come into the kitchen, what can any one do?" + +"I don't know," said Mary Cody, apparently thunderstruck at the mental +vision of the O'Neil House besieged by Mrs. and Miss Lathbun, trying to +get in again. "I don't know what we could do. There's seven doors to +this house." + +"Will Mr. O'Neil pull them out, or push them out?" Lassie asked +further; "or will he just drive them out?" + +"I don't know," said Mary Cody; "everybody in town'll be up at the +post-office waiting to see if the letter from the lawyer comes, I +expect. If it doesn't come, Mr. O'Neil is going to Ledge Centre and get +a warrant." + +"Oh, dear," said Lassie. + +"You won't get any mail this morning," said Mary Cody; "there's a wreck +on the road. Two coal trucks and a car of cabbages. There'll be no +eastern mail till noon." + +Then Mary Cody went away again. + +"Isn't it strange that all this should happen just during the little +time that we're here?" Lassie said; "it's made it very exciting." + +Alva went on brushing her hair. + +Lassie looked at her then, and saw that she bore many traces of her +violent emotion of the night before. + +"You won't try to go to-day, will you?" she said, suddenly. + +"Oh, yes, I shall go." Then she turned and looked straight into the +girl's eyes. "I _must_ go," she said; "something has happened." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE POST-OFFICE + + +From 8.30 A.M. on, the tide of travel in Ledge always tended towards the +post-office, but on the famous morning when Mrs. Lathbun expected to +hear from her lawyer, the post-office's vicinity resembled nothing so +much as its own appearance upon Election Day. Every one that ever had +received a letter intended to be there to see if Mrs. Lathbun would get +hers. Long before train time not only the office itself, but the +adjoining rooms and the porch outside, were comfortably crowded with a +pleasantly anticipative collection of interested observers. + +"The United States Government doesn't allow me to interfere in politics, +or I'd come right square out with my views," said Mrs. Ray, who held +public interest with a tight rein, while awaiting the mail. "My views +may be uninteresting, but I hit enough nails on the head to box up a +good many people a year." + +"What _do_ you think?" some one asked. + +"I don't think anything," said Mrs. Ray; "I know!" + +"Well, what do you know, then?" + +"I know that a letter-getter stays a letter-getter, and the reverse the +reverse. Just as I know that case-knives are suspicious and that picking +chestnuts may be a bunco game as easy as anything else. I've found it +nothing but a bunco game, myself. I've never made my chestnuts pay, +just because they were so easy picked up by other people; and you can't +hire boys to do your nutting for you,--boys eat up all the profits and +most of the chestnuts into the bargain. Yes, indeed. And as for those +two up at Nellie's--they'll get no letter. Wait and see." + +"But what will happen to them then?" asked Joey Beall, aching to discuss +the details of the arrest and the journey to Geneseo. + +"I don't know, but I can tell you one piece of news, and it isn't gossip +either; it come straight from Nellie O'Neil herself; she's been here +this morning." + +"Have they found out anything new?" + +"Not about them; but her other two is leaving." + +"What!" + +"Yes, going this afternoon." Mrs. Ray folded her arms and leaned back +against the shelves containing her grocery business. + +The sensation caused by this extra and wholly unexpected bit of news was +thorough and sincere. Everybody looked at everybody else. + +Mrs. Dunstall pressed forward. "Haven't they paid, either?" she asked, +with horror in her voice. + +"Oh, yes, they've paid." Mrs. Ray was quickly reassuring on this point. +"But with them, it's something else. I don't know for sure just what, +but I guess that eldest one's beginning to see that it's no use as far +as she's concerned; but she'll have to do something with that house she +was fixing up to live in. Sarah Catt told me she never heard anything so +crazy as building a house to live in while a dam that Mr. Ledge don't +want built is being built. She says her husband says that dam never will +be built. She says Mr. Ledge is very quiet, but he's very sensible and +he says there's quicksands all under us." + +This statement caused another flutter of sensation. + +"Can't you dam a quicksand? I thought it run just like water." Thus Joey +Beall's fiancee from the back. + +"No, you can't," said Pinkie. "I know." + +"I'd be sorry to see the dam go," said Mrs. Wiley. "Cousin Catterwallis +Granger looked to see it raise all the property around here." + +"Drown all the property around here, you mean," said Mrs. Ray. "I thank +heaven it's the Dam Commission and not me who'll have to adjust all that +dam's going to drown before it gets done. Josiah Bates says he heard +that they'll have to take up all the cemeteries from here to Cromwell." + +"Why?" asked Pinkie. + +"Why? Why, because no matter what powers a commission can hold over the +living, no legislature can find a law for drowning the dead, I guess. +They've all got to be moved and set out in rows again in a new place. +Seems like I never will see the last of Mr. Ray's two wives! But I +shan't have to pay for their new start in life this time, anyway." + +"Where will they put them next, do you suppose?" said Mrs. Dunstall, +referring to the cemeteries--not to Mr. Ray's former wives. + +"I guess we'll all want to know that," said Mrs. Ray, turning her head +as if she heard the train (the tension in the room was increasing +momentarily,--so was the crowd). "I'm sure I wonder what will become of +Mr. Ray. I never could feel that I really was done with him, and now it +seems maybe I ain't. I wish they'd buy my three-cornered cow pasture +for a new cemetery. Then I could cut his grass when I went to milk my +cow." + +"The dam'll have to pay for the new cemeteries, won't it?" asked Lucia +Cosby in some trepidation. + +"The dam'll pay for everything. That's why every one wants it so bad," +said Mrs. Ray. + +"Yes, it is," said Pinkie. + +"Which room have the Lathbuns got?" some one asked, looking down towards +the O'Neil House. + +"The end one," said Mrs. Dunstall. + +"The curtains are down," said Nathan, elbowing his way to the window. + +"They never get up till noon." + +There was a hush,--sudden but intense. The train was approaching. + +"Yes, that's the train," said Mrs. Ray; "well, we'll soon know now." She +tucked her shawl tighter than ever, and got the key ready. + +"Mrs. O'Neil'll be pretty lonesome to-night with them all gone at once," +hazarded a bystander. + +"She'll miss those girls," said Mrs. Dunstall; "they're real nice young +ladies, she says. But she won't miss the Lathbuns." + +"We'll miss the Lathbuns," said Mrs. Wiley; "they've been so interesting +to talk about. We've even got Uncle Purchase to where he knows they live +at Nellie's. I tell you that was work. He's so deaf now." She sighed. + +"I guess it wasn't any worse than what the Bentons went through with +Gran'ma Benton teaching the parrot when they lived at Nellie's," said +Mrs. Ray. "Poor Clay Wright Benton was in here yesterday to see if I'd +board Gran'ma Benton and the parrot again. He says Sarah says she won't +come home till the parrot leaves, and he's most wild. Gran'ma Benton's +been teaching the parrot to say something new. She says 'Where's the +Lathbuns, Polly?' and the parrot says 'Out chestnutting,' only it won't +say it days. It just says it nights. And nights it's wild over saying +it. Last night no one in the house got one wink of sleep. Clay sit up +till midnight to ask it where the Lathbuns was, and then Gran'ma Benton +sit up and asked it where they was till morning. Poor Clay! He says it's +too awful how she's spoiled that parrot. It's afraid of spiders, and +it's so afraid of them at night that they have to keep a night-light +burning so it can see all over whenever it wakes." + +"Such doings!" said Mrs. Wiley, in disgust. + +"Yes, indeed," said Mrs. Ray. "I'd like to see myself burning a +night-light for a parrot. If it boards with me, it'll take its spiders +just as they come." + +"That's right," said Pinkie, with decision. + +"Well, we don't need any parrot," said Mrs. Wiley. "We've got Uncle +Purchase. Not but what I'm amused hearing about the parrot. But then, +I've been amused hearing about the Lathbuns, too," she sighed heavily. + +"Something else'll come up," said Mrs. Dunstall, cheerfully, "and you +don't really need anything to talk about while you've got your Uncle +Purchase, you know." + +"Well, I suppose maybe not," said Mrs. Wiley, and sighed again. + +"Well, thank Heaven," said Mrs. Ray, "I'm never short of two +things,--work and talk." She began to finger the key as she spoke, and +all ears were at once strained to listen for the sound of the feet of +the bearer of the mail-bag. + +Deathly silence reigned. In a few seconds the footsteps did approach, +the gate creaked and then banged. Mrs. Ray stepped with majestic haste +to the window and called out: + +"Wipe your feet!" + +The obedience that ensued whetted curiosity to more ravenous desire than +ever. People had lost sight of the main issue and were all riveted to +the single question--would Mrs. Lathbun get her letter? + +The door opened and Clay Wright Benton came in with the bag. + +"Lay it here," commanded Mrs. Ray, and Clay Wright Benton laid it there +and fell back into the crowd behind. Mrs. Ray put on her spectacles and +adjusted her shawl. In the intense excitement of the moment, nobody said +a word. The room was as full as it would hold, and people who had +apparently been secreted in other portions of the house now came pouring +in through the doors connecting therewith. The one window facing the +porch had turned into a mere honey-comb of faces. + +Mrs. Ray took up the key. A thrill went around as she inserted it in the +padlock and slowly turned it. Then she took it out of the padlock and +the padlock out of the lock. She laid key and padlock carefully aside. +"Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note," as she slowly drew the +lengthwise iron from the rings and laid that aside. A sort of fresh +intenseness pervaded the atmosphere as she opened the mouth of the bag +and inserted her arm. While her arm was in and her hand was feeling for +the mail, a boy sneezed and every one turned and looked at him +witheringly. This little incident was taken in the same light as the +inter-mission between two numbers of a concert, for all who were at the +doors at once took advantage of it to squeeze inside. The small room, +which had been unpleasantly full before, was now packed to suffocation. +Mrs. Ray drew out her arm. The interest was mounting each second. She +laid two packages, tied each with United States Government twine, upon +the counter, turned the bag upside down and shook it. If a pin had +fallen out, any one could have heard it, but nothing fell out. Mrs. Ray +folded the bag carefully and laid it on the floor behind her. The +atmosphere was breathless in every sense of the word. Mrs. Ray untied +the first package, taking a full minute to pick out the knot. She hung +up the string. The string fell off from where she hung it, and she +picked it up and hung it up a second time, this time more slowly and +carefully. Then she took out the postmarking machine. A sudden sigh went +around; every one had forgotten the necessity of the postmark. Mrs. Ray +turned the package face down and post-marked every piece carefully +without reading a single address. Then she turned them over, gave her +shawl a fresh and most careful adjustment, and proceeded to sort the +mail. When it was sorted, she called the roll of names amidst a hush +that was awe-inspiring. The few who had letters crowded to the fore, +received them and stayed there, greatly to the aggravation of those who +had none, and got shoved to the rear accordingly. + +Mrs. Ray now untied the second package, and hung up that string. Both +strings fell off together. She took up both strings at once, smoothed +them out and hung them up again. They stayed hung this time. Then she +post-marked the second package. It was a never-to-be-forgotten +scene,--the wrought-up faces, the fixed calm of Mrs. Ray herself. Then +she called the roll for the second batch. Each time a name was read off, +a wave of psychic emotion swept the room. One has to get into the real +true life of the country to appreciate the tremendous tumulus which +gossip had erected upon which to rear the monument of this moment. One +by one the names were all called; one by one the pile of letters in Mrs. +Ray's hand diminished. When it came to the last one, and the last one +was for Joey Beall, Joey received it almost as if it were some species +of sacrament. + +"Is that all?" some one in the back asked. + +"That's all," said Mrs. Ray. + +All turned to go. The outburst of pent-up feelings was tremendous. + +"I told you so," Mrs. Ray said over and over again. "I knew they'd got +no letter." The babel all of a sudden rose into so much noise that it +was evident that the heights to which popular feeling had risen were +going a bit higher yet. The egress from the stifling room ceased. Nobody +knew just what it was, but all became aware that something fresh had +happened. Nobody knew what had happened, and nobody seemed able to find +out. All that was known was that something held every one spellbound and +motionless in spite of their individual desire to go on out. + +After what seemed a deadlock of long duration but which was in fact a +matter of but a few seconds, it developed that the trouble arose around +the door leading on to the porch. Then it appeared that while every one +in the post-office was trying to get out by that door, Mary Cody was +trying to get in by the same way, and Mary Cody was young, strong, and +determined. + +For a few seconds the battle pressed wildly. Then Mary Cody won out and +entered. She was out of breath and disheveled. + +"Why, what is the matter?" Joey Beall, who was nearest, asked; "there's +something new down your way, I'll bet a peanut." + +Mary Cody gasped. "Oh, my," she said, "I run right up to tell you. We've +just found out as their room is empty. They must of skipped in the +night." + +"Skipped in the night!" cried Mrs. Dunstall. + +"Skipped!" cried Pinkie. + +"Oh, Mrs. Ray," wailed Mrs. Wiley, "how'll we ever be able to tell Uncle +Purchase!" + +But Mrs. Ray stood forth like a modern Medusa in her rage. + +"I've been expecting it all along," she exclaimed wrathfully. "I'm a +great judge of character, and I never looked for nothing else. Now, how +can they be arrested? We must catch 'em!" + +"If we can catch 'em!" said Josiah Bates. + +"_If_ we can catch them!" said Mrs. Ray,--"if! Young man, they'll be +caught. You wait and see!" She hastily threw her shawl over her head, +and rushed wildly out with the excited crowd. It is proverbial that +there are times when a common sentiment merges all classes into one. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +AFTERMATH + + +The excitement broke up into wide-spreading waves. All divided at once +into two distinct parties,--those who wanted to discuss the matter +further, and those who were filled with the hunter instinct and so +craved to set off at once in pursuit of "the foxy pair." Mrs. Ray justly +remarked that "they couldn't possibly get more than twelve hours' start, +in just one night," and as it was incredible to suppose that they would +return in the direction from which they had originally come, it followed +that there was only two-thirds of the horizon to scour in any case. +Elmer Hoskins and his dog lost no time, but set forth at once. + +Mary Cody walked back down the hill telling a deeply interested circle +the story of how, etc. (and that for the fifth time in ten minutes); +another group stood excitedly on Mrs. Ray's porch; another set off to +break the news to Ledgeville, and still others spread here and there, +after the manner of distracted bees into whose hive some great and +disturbing force has suddenly penetrated. + +"We won't be able to begin to get this in Uncle Purchase's head for two +days, at least," mourned Mrs. Wiley; "and Uncle Purchase is so awful +fond of knowing things, too." + +"They'll never catch them," said Lucia Cosby; "they know all the roads +too well. They know every road there is to know." + +"I should think they did!" said Mrs. Dunstall. "They've not got out of +practice walking in this locality, I can tell you. Josiah Bates was down +at the bottom of the St. Helena hill the other day, and if he didn't see +them there. Oh, they know the roads." + +"I'm sorry for the girl," said Clay Wright Benton. + +"I ain't a bit sorry for her," said Mrs. Ray; "as a woman who works from +before dawn to far on into the night to make a honest living by eleven +different kinds of sweat on her brow, I ain't a bit sorry for either of +them. And Jack O'Neil ain't going to be sorry for them, either; he told +me last night if they was men, he'd get hold of 'em and take 'em out +behind the wood-pile and he knew what they'd get. To-day isn't going to +alter _his_ views." + +"If I was Mrs. O'Neil, I'd wash that shawl Mrs. Lathbun wore all the +time," said Sarah Catt, one of the party escorting Mary Cody back to the +hotel. + +"It's in the tub already," said Mary Cody. + +Mrs. O'Neil came running forth to meet them, her brown eyes shining more +than ever. + +"Oh, but they were a 'foxy pair,'" she exclaimed; "haven't they gone and +left that hair-brush done up in a paper so that it's 'baggage,' and +shows they want the room held for them till they come back. Oh, they've +got the law at their finger-tips--those two." + +The whole crowd entered the house. Alva and Lassie, packing in their +room, had heard the news ten minutes earlier from Mrs. O'Neil herself. +Lassie had watched her friend's face curiously, but Alva had too much +else pressing upon her to be more than simply saddened. + +When Mrs. O'Neil had gone Lassie had said almost hesitatingly: "They +were adventuresses, weren't they, and Miss Lathbun's romance wasn't +true, was it?" + +"Let us not judge, even now," said Alva, quietly; "let us try to hope in +some way. After all, what little things they were in life--so little, +and probably beset beyond their strength. And such great things are +pressing on me to-day. What do they matter? God forgive me for saying +it." + +Lassie was silenced. + +When the Eastern mail train arrived about noon, belated as usual, their +packing was quite finished. Mary Cody brought up the letters. Alva took +hers into her room and a minute later she came to the door. + +"Lassie," she said, "there is something here that I must attend to at +once. Go down and have dinner, and I'll come a little late." + +So Lassie went down to dine alone, and found Ingram waiting for her. She +told him that Alva would come in a little. + +"Has she had bad news?" he asked, startled by a presentiment of +immediate sorrow. + +"No, I think not," Lassie said; "she didn't speak so." + +But Ingram stayed, distressed. "She has had bad news," he said; "poor +girl--her tragedy is closing in fast. I can feel its end, myself." + +His eyes went to the window. "Couldn't you go out with me for just an +hour after dinner?" he asked wistfully. Then he smiled a little. "We can +talk about the dam," he said--"or help hunt the Lathbuns." + +She looked at him and they both knew that she would go. It was a very +simple, almost childish, romance, theirs--but its lack of stress made it +all the more alluring to two who were living under the wings of so much +tragedy. + +"I'll get my hat," Lassie said, and ran up-stairs. Alva's door was +closed. "I'm lying down, please let me sleep. It's nothing but my head," +she called from behind it. Lassie slipped on her wraps quickly and ran +down; and they went out towards the Falls. + +Mrs. Ray saw them go from the post-office window. The excitement having +somewhat subsided, she was now left alone with Joey Beall's fiancee, who +was there to try on her wedding dress. + +"Such is life," Mrs. Ray commented; "that woman's pulled her shades down +for a nice nap, and off they skip for a good-by down by the Falls. Oh, +my, but those Falls are a blessing to the young! It's too far between +roots and rocks for children to get down there, and as soon as anybody's +married they never want to have nothing to do with love-making any more; +so steep romantic places is just made for the only kind of people that +have any reason for wanting to get to them." + +"The Falls is full of meaning for lovers," said Joey Beall's fiancee, +sentimentally. "Joey and I never get tired of them." + +"You wait till you're married," said Mrs. Ray; "you'll find no meaning +in climbing up and down those banks and having Joey jerk your arms out +of the sockets, then. Yes, indeed. They call it tempestuous affection +beforehand, but it comes to a plain jerk in the end. Life is full of +learning." + +"Gran'ma Benton's learning the parrot a great deal," said Sarah Catt. "I +come by there just now and she's beginning already to teach it a new +sentence. She says: 'Where are the Lathbuns, now?' and the parrot's got +to learn to say 'Skipped,'--she's just set her heart on it." + +"I d'n know but what I'm going to end by being sorry for that parrot," +remarked Mrs. Ray, thoughtfully. "I think Gran'ma Benton's overdoing it +a little, if she means it to keep up with the Lathbuns. You can force +even a parrot beyond its strength. She's made it nervous, already. She's +got to hold its claw all through every thunderstorm all summer long, and +if a fly gets in its milk, it won't touch either the fly or the milk, +which I call spoiling the parrot--not to speak of the fly and the milk, +for of course no one else in a house is going to eat a fly or drink milk +that a parrot won't look at." + +"Sarah told me they had to take away all the looking-glasses every +spring, or it cried the whole time it was moulting--over its tail +feathers, you know," said the caller, thoughtfully. + +"Well, if they come to live here, I shan't spoil it, I know that," said +Mrs. Ray. "I shall be pleasant to it and I shall be kind, and it can run +after me all it likes and I'll be careful never to step on it for the +very simple reason that I don't want to take the time to clean up any +sort of smashed creature, but it won't have no night-light here, nor get +its claw held when it thunders, nor have the looking-glasses took down +to spare its feelings. No one ever took a looking-glass down to spare my +feelings, and I can't begin to take them down to spare a parrot's. Well, +Sarah, I guess you can try on now. Wait till I fill up on pins. Oh, my +lands alive, I wish I knew where those foxy Lathbuns are this minute." + +"I guess Mr. Adams'll be glad to know they're caught," said Sarah Catt; +"he's so nervous for fear they'll stop with him to-night. Joey saw him +just after dinner. He was more scared even than Gran'ma Benton's parrot +in a thunderstorm." + +Mrs. Ray was thoughtfully putting pins in her mouth. "There's a great +difference between a man's hand and a parrot's claw," she said with some +difficulty. "Yes, indeed. Even in a thunderstorm." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE DARKNESS BEFORE + + +When Lassie came back from that last walk to the Falls she went straight +up to Alva's room, and found her lying on the bed, the faint light from +the shaded window throwing a deep shadow upon her face and form. Her +head and shoulders were a little propped up against the pillows, and her +hands were clasped on her bosom instead of behind her head, as was her +favorite position. + +Lassie's eyes were shining and her heart was very full and happy with +the bubbling joy of that bubbling joyous emotion which Youth in its +ingenuous innocence, ignorance, and arrogance has elected to call +"love." It had come very vividly to both herself and Ingram during their +walk, and instead of discussing Alva's affairs, they had suddenly become +more than ever keenly alive to their own. Ingram, conscious of good +looks, good health, and a good income, had for some time faced the +position very cheerfully and gratefully; but Lassie, conscious of no +personal advantages at all equalling those pertaining to her demigod, +was, of course, thrilled through and through. Certainly these be +topsy-turvy days for chivalric standards, but perhaps a century later, +people will quote with reverence from the stories of grandmother's +experiences before grandpapa was finally secured. + +Lassie was very happy. She felt sure that nothing so ideally beautiful +and altogether remarkable as Ingram's speeches during the walk had ever +been heard before. She was not engaged, but she was "as good as +engaged." And before her debut, too. Fancy the faces of the girls when +she really announced it! She would be the first one of the whole set to +be married! Life was nothing but vistas of joy. Ingram was absolutely +going to take the same train that she did at six o'clock, and go two +hours of the way with her. Oh! + +And now she was back in Alva's room, standing at the bedside, looking +down at her friend. Something in the other's lax position made her look +more closely even in the semi-darkness. + +"Your head is worse?" she asked, startled. + +"No, dear," said Alva, and her voice rang strangely--like a low toned +bell, chiming afar. + +"Something has happened?" + +"Yes, dear." + +"Oh--" the young girl could not put the question. + +Alva did not speak. Lassie felt her heart freezing harder every instant. +It was always so, when one came within the circle of that greater +existence. Part of the attraction of Ingram was that he was just so +ordinarily human. Alva was never ordinary, and scarcely ever human. Oh, +dear! Her lovely dream seemed suddenly slipping out to sea before this +tremendous, quiet storm of resistless stress! + +"You have had a letter?" she whispered timidly, at last. + +"Yes, dear, and he is dead." Alva spoke quite steadily. + +"Dead!" + +"I had a letter from his friend--his doctor--the one who wrote for him. +You were right in what you thought. He died last night, in the night, +while I slept. He was unconscious when he died. He struggled first and +suffered--while I was struggling and suffering, you remember--and then +he grew still when I grew still, and then when I slept he slept and +began to die, and while I still slept he died--that is--his body died." + +Lassie sank down upon the bed beside her, took the clasped hands into +her own, and burst into bitter tears, hiding her face in the four hands +at once. + +After a little Alva spoke again, still in the same low, ringing voice. + +"It came so close that I did believe that it would be, but there are +some dreams that may not be realized on earth. Mine was such a one." + +Lassie lifted her head to look into her face; she was sufficiently +accustomed to the dim light by this time to be able to see distinctly +the pure and noble outlines, the large, tragic eyes. She felt herself +crushed into speechlessness. + +"He wrote me himself," Alva continued presently; "just the merest word. +I read it. I read it twice. Then I sat still for a long, long time. +Lassie," she pressed the girl's hands warmly, "it was good to think that +I had shown my happiness to you, for no one will ever know that I was +ever happy, now. Oh, it was so long that I sat here, thinking. I told +you once, how, in the first day of my supreme joy, I went into the +cathedral near the hospital and thanked God on my knees for all the past +and made a vow to accept with courage all that might come to me, in +return for that joy. I thought, as I prayed, that I'd go forth and +gladly starve and freeze till I died, if it were the purchase price of +such happiness. I am remembering that hour. I will not cry out, nor +weep, nor say one word. I have had him; we shall be one again. My desire +has always been only to be worthy him--to be worthy him--to be worthy +him! And now I have the chance to prove myself so; and I will not +fail,--though the heart in my body burst, my spirit will not fail." + +Lassie was still, overawed. + +"I had to search to be thankful at first," Alva went on, "but now I have +found something to be very thankful for. I am so glad that it came +before I had told my mother. She is spared. She will never know. Every +one is spared except him and me, and we are strong--we can endure. We +have endured. We can endure again." + +"If you only could have gone and been with him!" wailed the girl, +softly. + +"Oh, how I have wished that! You don't know how I have wished that! It +has been sweeping through me and rending me cruelly, but he did not wish +it, or he would have sent for me. And I have tried never even to wish +anything unless he wished it, too. You know how I have wished that I +might have stayed there with him. But he begged me to go. They would not +let me stay. I had to yield!" + +"Shall you go as you planned, to-night?" + +"No, dear, I want to stay here alone for three or four days, and then go +home,--back to my duty to my parents, you know. I never meant to leave +for long. Yes," she almost whispered, "I must hurry back home, +forever." + +"Never to return here?" + +"I think, never. I cannot see how or why I should return." + +Lassie's lips quivered. "And your house?" she whispered. + +A long, sad breath passed over lips that did not quiver. "Ah, yes, my +house," she answered softly; "I thought of going to it this afternoon, +and then I could not. Dear little home nest,--there are nothing but +happy thoughts there; all my best is there--unselfish dreams, devoted +hopes, great aims, longings to make some one and every one glad." + +She paused. Lassie leaned close. + +"May I lie down beside you, Alva, and put my arms around you and hold +you tightly, dear? It will be good-by, for you want me to go just the +same, I know." + +"Yes, dear, you must go. What time is it?" + +"It's over an hour till the train. Let me hold you close, dear, I--I +love you." + +"Yes, Lassie, come; I'll be glad to have you. Your head will lie on my +arm, and I shall like to draw you near as I might have drawn a little +child, had life fallen out differently long ago." + +Lassie crept up on the bed, clasped her arms about her and tried not to +weep. + +"You don't mind my talking of him, do you?" the woman asked, presently. +"You know after you go I shall never have any one again;" her voice +wailed desolate with the last words so that its very sound caused +Lassie's sobs to renew their force. + +"I don't mind anything that you want to do, Alva." + +"It's storming in upon me what life was to have been. What does the +world know of love? Love is something too great to comprehend. It costs +blood and years and tears. It goes so deep that the very joy in it cuts +like a knife. I knew that I was only to have had him a few weeks, that I +should have to compress all that I felt for him into them. But what +those few weeks would have meant! When to be quiet together was in +itself all that we asked! When we should have had a library and a piano, +and the gorge to look out over, and one another to talk to,--to be +with!" She stopped--her breath failed her. + +There was a pause, as if to let the tide of grief sweep up and out +again. + +"Oh, Lassie, we had waited so long and hopelessly," she went on finally, +her sentences short and tense and broken. "I tried to be so patient. I +tried so hard to do well with the bit of life dealt out to me. As much +as I could, I followed in his path in the giving of my all to others and +neither asking nor expecting for myself. I hoped nothing for us--nothing +for us! And then I had to see him stretched out--crushed--maimed, and I +had to live still, and smile into his eyes, and tell him that even that +was more than I had deserved. And then came our dream--our precious +dream--the promise of those few, sweet, perfect days! Oh, but why should +I repine? I have been so happy. I have contemplated the heights, even if +it was not given me to reach them." + +There was another pause. + +"Lassie, it is not my soul that is wailing; my soul is very strong and +resolute. He left work undone and even this afternoon it came to me that +that work was part of him and that in doing it I should do for him. If +we could suffer annihilation in a good cause, we should survive in the +cause. If I carry forward all that he held in heart, I shall continue to +be one with him. I know it. I longed unutterably to be with him, to make +his pain lighter, to share his hours at the last. I thought a great deal +of our happiness, but I thought also of what he would teach me to do for +the world. Oh, I can believe that he suffered last night. It was only +the edge of the storm that brushed over me, but I know how _I_ suffered. +There are some men who cannot die, who are too sorely needed; and he was +such a one. He did not want to leave his work." + +She stopped, and Lassie felt the tide of grief rise full and ebb again. + +"It wasn't love or marriage as the world understands it; but it was the +supreme self sacrifice that my spirit cried for in consecration. I +thought that I was to be greatly fitted for a great work." + +Lassie whispered: "Perhaps you have been fitted." + +"No. No! Heaven ordained that the sacrifice and the consecration should +be greater than I had ever imagined. It ordained that he should pass +away alone and leave me alone, too; and now it is left me to work out a +new salvation. I try not to doubt, I do trust God completely. But I +cannot see why--or how! Not yet. But, at any rate, the worst for me is +come. I have touched bottom. Battle for me is past." + +Then she rose from the bed, went to the window and let up the shade. The +night of Nature's world, always full of potency, calmed her suddenly +into another mood. + +"It is snowing," she exclaimed; "that means that rain is falling on +new-made graves." She came back from the window. "Lassie," she said, "my +heart is broken, my future is crushed, and yet I feel _so strong_! It +floods me fresh. I see now that wherever his soul passed last night, it +must have passed in triumph--gone on to further work. I shall work, too. +That is the legacy his letter left me--an intense desire to serve. How +small I am, how great God is; all life's misery results from setting our +little wills in opposition to His plan for our best. It is borne in upon +me clearly; I recognize the fact well. Now when I leave this room next +time and forever henceforth, so long as I live, I am willing with my +whole soul to do whatever work there is laid out for me. I feel in my +heart that no stumbling or even ridicule for stumbling can ever again +cause me to falter. I have found Truth. I will be strong." + +Lassie looked at her in wonder. The white look of unearthly radiance +which men once knew as "Ecstasy" was indeed on her face now--on her +pale, sad, worn face, filling it with a glow of wondrous resolution. + +"Oh, Alva!" the girl exclaimed, and then, even as the exclamation left +her lips, she was conscious of an upleaping of warm, human joy to think +of the six o'clock train and Ingram's companionship. The higher plane +was very high above her yet. + +Alva pressed her hands to her eyes and face. "That was like a lightning +flash, dear," she said; "oh, if I may only live by its light forever +after. If only!" There was a brief silence; then,-- + +"I must pick up my things, I guess," the girl suggested. + +"Yes, dear," Alva tried to smile; "yes, you must pick up your things. +That's what life here means." + +Lassie slipped into her own room. She was glad that Alva was quiet and +that she could smile upon her again; it was truly what life meant to +her. She was very little yet and very blind, and the angels might have +been smiling meaningly and mercifully at one another over her pretty, +childish head that hour. + +But over Alva the Spirits of Heaven might have wept,--as they weep for +any on earth who fancy that they have sounded either the depths or the +heights of any design wrought out above. + +Above is so far above, and we and all our hopes and joys and sorrows are +so far beneath. So far beneath that radiant serenity which moves +eternally forward in its fulfilling of the Divine Plan. His Divine Plan +for the uplifting of all that He has made. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +DAWN + + +As the train pulled out, a half hour later, Alva, now quite steady and +serene, waved her hand, and then turned away so as not to see Lassie, +weeping, yet clinging close to the strong arm thrown before her like a +guard. + +"You'll come home with me, my dear," said Mrs. O'Neil, who had come to +the station, too; "you look a little tired and pale, and I'll help you +finish your own packing, and then you must have some good hot tea and +gingerbread." + +Alva laid her hand in the kindly, warm hand of the other. "Yes, let us +go home," she said; "but I'm not going to-night, so my packing can +wait." + +"You aren't going! Oh, I am glad. Then you'll have a little time for +rest. You need it." Mrs. O'Neil was so frankly pleased that Alva was +forced to thank her kindliness in spirit. The racked are so grateful to +a tender touch after their sharpest agony. + +They went across the tracks and up the little cinder-path. Mary Loretta +and the cat came running out to meet them, and Mary Cody had the +teakettle boiling. + +"She's not going to-night," said Mrs. O'Neil, getting out the tea and +handing it to Mary Cody, who was now cutting gingerbread. "I'm so glad; +it would be so lonesome without her." + +Mary Cody assented. + +"And those two young people are happy, too," Mrs. O'Neil said to Alva, +in the dining-room a minute later, "such a nice-looking couple!" + +"I hope she'll be happy," said Alva, staring out of the window as she +sat by the table waiting idly. "She will have everything to make for her +happiness now." Lassie and Ingram had ceased to matter to her. Her brain +could not include them in this hour. + +Mrs. O'Neil's eyes filled as she glanced that way. The still, quiet face +and form by the window had some tragedy written in every line, although +the lips stayed closed and the bright-faced hostess felt what she could +not know. + +"There, my dear, there's the tea; let me pour your cup," she said. "Do +put in some cream just for once, it's so nourishing; and why, I declare, +if here isn't Mrs. Ray, just in time to have a cup with us!" + +Mrs. Ray had passed the window and now opened the door and came in. +There was an air of strongly repressed excitement about her. + +"So she's gone," she said briskly. "I was peeking out watching the +mail-bag to see that no one else stuck a letter in the strap on me, and +I saw you all seeing her off. Pretty she is,--and it's plain to be seen +what's going to happen next, and I'm very glad for them both." + +"Yes," said Mrs. O'Neil, smiling; "we're all that." + +"I come down for several reasons," said Mrs. Ray. "First," she turned to +Alva, "there's a letter that come this morning, and heaven knows how it +happened--with all my care--but it slipped under those pesky government +scales and I found it when I dusted out this afternoon. I hope it isn't +very important." + +Alva took the letter with its typewritten address and put it in her +pocket. "Don't worry, Mrs. Ray," she said, "Lassie's gone; I'm going +very soon; nothing can matter much now, can it?" She managed to smile. + +"Well, I don't know," said Mrs. Ray. "That's your view because you're +going, but I can't say that I shall feel really settled in my mind till +the dam's settled." + +"But I thought the quicksand was going to settle the dam," said Mrs. +O'Neil; "somebody said so." + +"You can't settle even a quicksand with a legislature," said Mrs. Ray; +"I guess I know. The United States Government is a great eye-opener, +especially when you have to tend a post-office according to any new +rules it finds time to have printed and mail you. I've had four pages of +new rules sent me to-day." + +"Here's your tea, Mrs. Ray," said Mrs. O'Neil; "do sit down. Bring some +more gingerbread, Mary. And won't you have a little jam? I've a lot of +nice fresh this-autumn, plum jam." + +"No, I don't want any jam," said Mrs. Ray, seating herself; "but, +Nellie, I've been hearing that legally your husband can't do nothing +with the Lathbuns." + +"Well, that isn't the worst," said Mrs. O'Neil, her face clouding +considerably; "what do you think I've up and done? I was so mad I threw +that old hair-brush over into the gorge, and I've thereby made Jack +liable for a suit of damage for breaking into the luggage a guest leaves +without due cause, or else for willful destruction of personal property +belonging to another and unoffending party who has reposed trust only to +be betrayed. Jack will have to go to the lawyer to-morrow to find out +which. Oh, they were slick--those two. They've got the law down fine." + +"Well, did you know they're caught?" Mrs. Ray brought this statement +forth as the cannon does the cannon ball. + +Mrs. O'Neil jumped in her chair. "Caught? No, I did not know it. When?" + +"They just told me over at the station that they were arrested about +three o'clock. I guess it's true. I hope so." + +"Oh, to think of it," said Mrs. O'Neil, "to think of them sleeping here +last night and in Geneseo to-night!" + +"The complaints will come pouring in," said Mrs. Ray; "everybody has got +a bill against 'em. I don't believe they'll be out of jail in years." + +Alva turned her face again to the window. She had not thought much of +the two unfortunate creatures during the past few hours, and their +misery bore in upon her with a vivid, headlong shock. + +"And those case-knives, too," Mrs. Ray continued; "did they have 'em on, +I wonder." + +"Oh, the case-knives don't count," said Mrs. O'Neil; "they were left +here by a travelling man. He was around to-day and asked if it was here +that he left them. I meant to tell you, but dear, dear, I've had so much +to do, seems like." + +Mrs. Ray was much taken aback, but quickly recovered herself. + +"Oh, well, they could have used a hat-pin just as well. Anyhow, they +might have got up in the night and murdered him some way. Mrs. Lathbun +could have held him while Hannah Adele just stuck anything handy into +him in every direction. I never could see what they had the case-knives +for, anyhow, if it wasn't on the chance of some such game. For two women +to carry six case-knives instead of combs and tooth-brushes is very +suspicious in itself, I think." + +"But, they weren't carrying them," said Mrs. O'Neil. "Jack thought they +had them for opening windows, but to think of them staying here three +weeks and no baggage. It makes me wild." + +"Well, you and Mr. O'Neil are easy," said Mrs. Ray; "you're very mooney, +both of you. You can't deny that, Nellie,--you and your husband haven't +got real good common sense, or you'd have nailed their windows on from +the outside the day you first mistrusted them." + +"Well, we won't be mooney any more, anyhow," said Mrs. O'Neil; "the +drillers came to-day with two freight cars of machinery, but Jack had +them pay a week in advance. He says he won't even trust the State after +this." + +"I don't trust the United States any further than I can see 'em," said +Mrs. Ray; "but this has been a good lesson for you, Nellie. You won't be +letting any sharper that comes along wear your gran'mother's Paisley +shawl while he spies out the road he's going to skip out over next, +again." + +"Indeed and I won't," said Mrs. O'Neil feelingly. + +"Sammy Adams was in to spend the afternoon," Mrs. Ray went on. "We +talked the question of my marrying him all over again. He always asks me +when he comes for the whole afternoon like that, and he had such a hard +time getting it all out to-day with people running in to talk about the +Lathbuns every second, that I just had to appreciate the way he stuck to +it clear through to the end." + +"What did you say?" asked Mrs. O'Neil. + +"I didn't say much. I was too busy talking to the others, you know. Yes, +indeed. But I was sorry for him. He's _so_ scared sleeping alone in his +house for fear of maybe being swindled in his bed before he knows it. +And now he's worried for fear the dam is going to drown him +unexpectedly, too. They say if that dam is built and does bu'st, the +Johnstown Flood won't be in it with Rochester. The folks that want the +Falls saved'll get their chance to say, 'I told you so' then; but that +won't help Sammy much." + +"What did you say?" Mrs. O'Neil asked again. + +"Well, when I got a chance, I told him I'd despise a man who'd let me +keep on working as hard as I work now, but that if any man was to ask me +to give up the church, or the post-office, or my chickens, that would +show he didn't know me, right in the start." + +"What did he say to that?" Mrs. O'Neil asked with interest. + +"He didn't know what to say at first, but then he's the kind of man that +never does know what to say. I declare, Nellie, I do think men that want +to marry women act too foolish for words. Yes, indeed. If a man wants to +do anything else in the world he gets to work and does it; but if he +wants to marry a woman he just sits still and looks silly and leaves it +to the woman to be done or not." + +"Do you think so?" said Mrs. O'Neil. + +"Think so," said Mrs. Ray; "I know so. I've had men acting foolish +around where I was all my life. I've tripped over 'em while sweeping, +cooking, washing, tending Mr. Ray's family by his second wife, sorting +mail,--why, I've had men thinking what a good wife I'd make all my life, +and looking so like idiots while they thought it that I wouldn't look at +it like they did for any money. They stop by the fence when I'm +ploughing, and just grin with thinking what a hired man I'd make. I was +cleaning the long aisle carpet at the church last Wednesday, and that +minister that's visiting our minister couldn't keep away from the +window. When I take my eggs and chickens to market, the buyer down there +looks at how I've got those eggs packed and pinches my chickens, and +then he turns to me and goodness, but his glance is loving." + +"Well, you're a very smart woman, you know," said Mrs. O'Neil. + +"I know that; I know it just as well as you do. But I'm a woman, and I'd +like to meet one man as was a man. I know men pretty well; I knew Mr. +Ray better than he knew himself. Mr. Ray thought he was doing me an +honor to marry me, and I knew he wasn't, and I lived with him fifteen +years and never threw it in his face once. I let him talk about his +ancestors and I never talked about mine. He thought I didn't have any; +he never realized I kept still so as to keep from telling such stories +as he did. His ancestors! I'd like to know what sort of ancestors he +had! If he'd had any ancestors, he'd have been bound to be descended +from them, I should think, in which case he wouldn't have been a Ray. +The fact that he and his father called themselves Jared and spelt it +Jarrod was enough for me; but to make a long story short I'm going to +marry Sammy Adams, and I ran down to tell you that at the same time that +I brought the letter." + +There was an outbreak of exclamations and then a beginning at +congratulations, but Mrs. Ray stopped those. + +"I don't want congratulations," she said; "there isn't anything to +congratulate me about, for I never tried to get him, so I haven't had a +success or anything to be proud of. It's just that the dam is so likely +to be going to drown him out that he wants to rent my second floor and +pay the rent every first Monday in the month. I'm going to go straight +on with my life, and continue to save my own money to finish educating +Mr. Ray's children by his second wife. We shall go to church together, +and he'll sit with me evenings when I ain't too tired, or when he's +nervous over case-knives and swindling. He's going to pay me for all his +tailoring and all his hair-cuts, but he's to say when he thinks he needs +anything new or it's getting too long. He'll buy our potatoes and +chickens of me at the regular price, but I'll furnish my own eggs, like +I always have." + +"It's settled, then?" said Mrs. O'Neil, with a slight smile. + +"Yes, it's settled. I don't believe the dam will ever be dug, but I'll +marry Sammy all the same." + +"You're right about the dam, Mrs. Ray," Alva said, speaking for the +first time. "I don't believe it will ever be built, either; the Falls +have too many friends. Besides, there must come a time when the God of +All will say to our American Mammon, 'So far and no further shalt thou +go,' and I believe the time is now and that the place is here." + +"Well, I don't know about all that," said Mrs. Ray; "but Josiah Bates +drove the surveyors home yesterday, and he gathered from them that if +they built that dam and made that lake, the lake was pretty sure to +burst out around back of the Wiley place--that low place you know--and +we'd have a new waterfall in through the Wiley cow-pasture, even if we +didn't have nothing worse." + +"Goodness me!" cried Mrs. O'Neil, "what would the Wileys say to that!" + +"I don't know what the Wileys would say to that," said Mrs. Ray; "but it +made me know what I'd say to Sammy. Yes, indeed. If there isn't going to +be any dam, the summers here are going to go on exactly as they used to, +and I've got to have a man to bring up my ice! You know my motto, 'He +moves in a mysterious way,' and I can see now why the Lathbuns and the +dam both come. I had a dreadful time last summer getting my ice up, and +as long as everybody's been betting all along that I'd always marry +Sammy some day, I might as well do it now as any time. Yes, indeed." + +"You are very sensible," said Alva, rising, "and I'm sure that you will +be very happy. I congratulate you." She held out her hand. "Good-bye." + +"I'm sorry you're going so soon," said Mrs. Ray, clasping it warmly, +"you've meant such a lot of cancellation, and then I've got very fond of +you, too." + +Alva smiled. "I'm only going out on the bridge just now for a little," +she said, turning to Mrs. O'Neil. "I'll be back shortly." + +Mrs. O'Neil glanced towards the window. "It's snowing harder and +harder," she said; "wrap up warm." + +Alva went quietly out. When they were alone, Mrs. Ray shook her head. +"She looks bad," she said; "I'm not sure that she didn't care for him, +after all. She's got that mooney look. I know just the look. I'd have +looked just that way by spring, if I'd taken Gran'ma Benton and the +parrot. I'm glad I've decided to marry Sammy, instead." + +"You won't take them, then?" asked Mrs. O'Neil. + +"No, I couldn't stand Sammy and a parrot at once, and then, too, he +might quarrel with the parrot, or Gran'ma Benton might make trouble +between Sammy and me. I never allowed any one to make trouble between +Mr. Ray and me, and I won't allow trouble this time, either. If I'm +going to be unhappy married, I won't marry. That's flat." + +"I wonder if Jack knows they're arrested!" said Mrs. O'Neil, +thoughtfully. + +"I stopped in the bar on purpose," said Mrs. Ray, "I thought he ought to +know right away." + +"Was he there?" asked the wife. + +"Oh, no," said Mrs. Ray, calmly, "but I did what I could, Nellie, and +nobody can be expected to pass _that_, you know." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE BREAKING OF ANOTHER DAY AND WAY + + +Alva slipped into her cape, and drawing some fur up round her throat, +set swiftly forth upon the Long Bridge--for the last time, she told +herself. + +The snow was falling fast, but not thickly as yet, and she had it in her +heart to steal under cover of the fast-approaching twilight to her +house, and look upon that also for the last time. Her sorrow was too +deep to leave any room to mourn the background of her dream, but the +background was consecrated by the dream and she longed to stand once +more close to those walls, even if only to sob her heart out alone under +the rustle of dead leaves, amidst the fast deepening snow. + +There was in her that awful strength that saves one's reason in the +first shock of the otherwise unbearable. Years were ahead and yet her +heart did not shrink; endless gray duties stretched between their +mile-stones, but to her it mattered not. Nothing mattered, she told +herself over and over. Life would go on, other lives in especial would +go on; their demands would be hers to meet, their cares and troubles, +their joys and sorrows would be hers to reflect, but to her personally +nothing would--nothing could--matter more. Her unseeing eyes looked out +over the gorge; the matchless beauty, for the preservation of which her +dead love had fought so hard, came to a blind market now; she could not +see, she could not feel, for her life and all that makes life worth +living was over. + +So she swept on, her dark cape fluttering wide like wings on either side +of her steady swiftness. The snow crystals clung to the wool and quickly +starred its night with stars, but she saw no night except her own, and +noted no stars. "And yet I must not give way too much," she thought +suddenly, with a quick stabbing sense of proving unworthy; "if I am what +I have told Lassie that one should be--if I am what one who has truly +loved should surely be--I shall be strong and live resolutely as he +lived, even though I have been so crushed. Pain could not crush his +spirit; shall sorrow crush mine? I _will_ be strong." + +The letter which she had brought out with her came to her mind then, and +she paused and read it. It was from the surgeon and told her what she +had lately mistrusted,--that there had never been the slightest chance +of moving him, that she had been sent away as a child is banished from a +painful scene, and that she had been beguiled as a child is beguiled. +She did not resent the truth, she was too big to resent such a truth; +but she felt freshly mournful, and the home that was to have been seemed +to fade utterly out of her consciousness, leaving her with no desire to +ever see it again. + +But there was another sheet within the envelope. She took that out, too. +It was printed--in a hand that trembled. Her heart contracted as she saw +the crooked lines,--so much ran deep between them. + + ALVA:--I have struggled. I shall not give up. I believe + sometimes God has given a new body to serve a needed end. I + cannot go. I must come back. Not for your sake. But for + theirs--for the sake of those who will never know. If I come, + help me again. For you and for me help is the only bond. I am + not sure that there is any other that endures. Not in this + present world of ours. + +She shook a little. Something especially cold and piercing struck to her +heart. She raised her eyes quickly, and there, close beside her on the +bridge, the dead man stood. + +His bright dark eyes looked straight into hers. + +"Don't you know who I am?" he said. + +She would have fallen but for his quick grasp, and the grasp choked the +cry that was rising, for it was the grasp of flesh and of strength. + +"Don't you know who I am?" he asked again. "I thought that I saw in your +eyes that you knew. I thought that she had described me to you. I'm +Lisle Bayard. You wrote to me, you know." + +She drew away from him, and leaned heavily against the bridge-rail. If +it were true that this were he! A new body to serve a great purpose. If +that Mystery that is the rooting of all that is or is to be had been +building this man and this hour, and weaving and twisting and shaping +both to its ends! She seemed to stand motionless, but within herself she +was dizzy and reeling. "He moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to +perform." + +"You have freed them?" she said, divining truth with a prescience that +startled herself. + +"Oh, yes," he said, "I have been to Geneseo. They are free. But you +never really believed that I had any interest in them, did you?" + +His voice was no strange voice in her ears, nor was his manner that of a +stranger. She had to press her temples hard with her two hands. "You are +like the man whom I loved," she said; "he--he died yesterday. That was +what drew me to her; she described you and said that you loved her." + +"Poor thing," he said, simply. + +"And that you pursued her," Alva went on; "you can think that I +befriended her then. I tried to help her. Because I, too, loved--and +hoped." + +"It was good of you," he said; "but they are mere adventuresses--not +worth your troubling." + +"But you have helped them?" + +"I? Oh, yes. But," he hesitated; "I am tired of my life," he added +suddenly. "I've turned over a new leaf--I've reformed." + +"Since when?" + +"Since yesterday." + +She held hard to the bridge-rail. "Since yesterday," she repeated; +"since yesterday?" + +"Yes, since yesterday." + +Her eyes were staring into his now. "Tell me about it?" she cried, as +the starving cry out for food--"at once." + +"I don't know about it. I just turned in disgust from myself. It was all +in a minute. I wandered about all day and all last night. I tried to +drink--you know I drink?--and then all of a sudden I realized what a +beast I'd been, and I turned from it all. Something stronger than myself +drew me to Geneseo this morning; something stronger yet drew me here; +what led me out upon the bridge was strongest of all. I don't know what +it all means, but perhaps you do." + +For a long minute she looked at him, and then she spoke. "The man who +died is guiding you," she said; "I know it is that." + +He smiled a little. "Can I trust him?" he asked. + +"I think so," she answered; "because his appeal is to your better self. +You will learn." + +"And you will teach me?" he said, quickly. + +She was silent. + +"You will teach me?" he repeated. + +"I am going home," she said. "I live far from here. I have duties which +will chain me there for life. You will learn of him alone. You will be +guided; do not fear." + +He looked at her, and his eyes blazed suddenly. She shrank back with a +cry. "Oh, no--not that--not that!" she exclaimed; "I loved him and he is +dead. His work descends on us to do, that is all. All!" + +The man, looking down at her with the dead man's eyes, was silent. + +"I am not able to talk to you," she said, "I can hardly control my +voice. He died yesterday, and to-day you speak to me with his voice. And +it is so strange,--your coming. It is all so strange." + +"Yes, it is all strange," he said; "but it cannot stop here, you know. +The Purpose that has brought this about will not cease to exist now." + +She felt herself agitated, unnerved, trembling. She took hold of the +bridge-rail again. "The Purpose works for great ends," she said; "we +must learn that. I have learned it. Even a little respite from daily +life is not allowed, when one has once crossed the border and left self +behind. I have had to learn that in a bitter school. For God's sake, +lift burdens; do not add to them. And do not make my lot harder than it +is to be. You are not him, and I know it. Do not seek friendship with +me; it is torture." + +"But if I were he," he said, "if I do his work, live towards his goal, +accomplish his purposes. Who shall say what soul I bear? I never had a +soul till yesterday. I have one now. Where did it come from, this new +soul of mine. Perhaps from him. I've read stories like that." + +"I cannot bear it," she said, suddenly; "my head refuses to understand. +All that I have believed is rolling and crashing around me. Let us say +good-by. In a few hours I shall be far away. Oh, I shall be glad--so +glad--to go." + +"But I shall remain," he declared. "I shall take up the battle, and I +shall win his unfinished fight. Let us leave the future wrapped in its +mystery. I have been impatient all my life, but now I can wait." + +She walked away through the snow. + +And then suddenly, as she moved, she felt her steps stayed--she stopped. +It was not the man who had stayed her; he was standing where she had +left him, behind her--there on the bridge. But she was stopped by a +thought; at that thought she turned. + +"If you are to live here," she said faltering, her voice quite unlike +its usual firm, low purpose,--"if you are to live here, you will want a +home. There is a house--" + +She paused. Her hand had drawn a key from her pocket, and without +further explanation she held it out to him. + +He approached and took the key. He asked no question. He spoke no word. +They did not even exchange a glance. + +Five minutes later a veil of snowflakes divided them, and the gorge lay +black between. + +What is there to be said further? Nothing unless perhaps the single line +that can so fitly begin and end all: + +"He moves in a mysterious way." + + + * * * * * + + +_An International Love Comedy_ + + +A WOMAN'S WILL + +By ANNE WARNER + +Author of "Susan Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop." + +It is a relief to take up a volume so absolutely free from +stressfulness. The love-making is passionate, the humor of much of the +conversation is thoroughly delightful. The book is as refreshing a bit +of fiction as one often finds; there is not a dull page in +it.--_Providence Journal._ + +It is bright, charming, and intense as it describes the wooing of a +young American widow on the European Continent by a German musical +genius.--_San Francisco Chronicle._ + +A deliciously funny book.--_Chicago Tribune._ + +There is a laugh on nearly every page.--_New York Times._ + +Most decidedly an unusual story. The dialogue is nothing if not +original, and the characters are very unique. There is something +striking on every page of the book.--_Newark Advertiser._ + +A more vivacious light novel could not be found.--_Chicago +Record-Herald._ + + Illustrated by I. H. Caliga. 360 pages. 12mo. + Decorated cloth, $1.50. + + LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., PUBLISHERS, BOSTON + _At all Booksellers'_ + + +_New Edition with Pictures from the Play_ + + +THE REJUVENATION OF AUNT MARY + +_By_ ANNE WARNER + +_Author of "Susan Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop," "A Woman's Will," +etc._ + +Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth. $1.50 + +Always amusing and ends in a burst of sunshine.--_Philadelphia Ledger._ + +Impossible to read without laughing. A sparkling, hilarious +tale.--_Chicago Record-Herald._ + +The love story is as wholesome and satisfactory as the fun. In its class +this book must be accorded the first place.--_Baltimore Sun._ + +The humor is simply delicious.--_Albany Times-Union._ + +Every one that remembers Susan Clegg will wish also to make the +acquaintance of Aunt Mary. Her "imperious will and impervious eardrums" +furnish matter for uproarious merriment.... A book to drive away the +blues and make one well content with the worst weather.--_Pittsburg +Gazette._ + +Cheerful, crisp, and bright. The comedy is sweetened by a satisfying +love tale.--_Boston Herald._ + + LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., PUBLISHERS + + 254 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON + + +_An exceedingly clever volume._--BOSTON GLOBE + + +AN ORIGINAL GENTLEMAN + +_By_ ANNE WARNER + +Author of "The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary," the "Susan Clegg" books, etc. + +Frontispiece by Alice Barber Stephens. Cloth. $1.50 + +Merry reading indeed.--_New York Tribune._ + +All are humorous.... In none is dialect used.--_New York Sun._ + +The book brings out new possibilities in the author's work and will add +much to her popularity.--_Springfield Republican._ + +Humor and novelty of plot characterize most of the stories, and they are +entirely worthy of the creator of "Susan Clegg" and "Aunt +Mary."--_Syracuse Herald._ + +Crisply told, quaintly humorous.... Only a woman with discernment and +tenderness, and only an artist could make characters live and breathe as +hers do.--_Boston Transcript._ + +Exhibits her cleverness and her sense of humor.... Show much of that +humor in the conception and that skill in droll delineation of character +which first brought Anne Warner into notice with her "Susan Clegg" +stories.--_New York Times._ + + LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., PUBLISHERS + 254 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON + + +_Anne Warner's "Susan Clegg" Books_ + + +SUSAN CLEGG AND HER FRIEND MRS. LATHROP + +_By_ ANNE WARNER + +With Frontispiece, $1.00 + +Nothing better in the new homely philosophy style of fiction has been +written.--_San Francisco Bulletin._ + +One of the most genuinely humorous books ever written.--_St. Louis +Globe-Democrat._ + +Anything more humorous than the Susan Clegg stories would be hard to +find.--_The Critic, New York._ + + +_By the Same Author_: + +SUSAN CLEGG AND HER NEIGHBORS' AFFAIRS + +With Frontispiece, $1.00 + +All the stories brim over with quaint humor, caustic sarcasm, and +concealed contempt for male and matrimonial chains.--_Philadelphia +Ledger._ + + +SUSAN CLEGG AND A MAN IN THE HOUSE + +Illustrated by ALICE BARBER STEPHENS. $1.50 + +Susan is a positive joy, and the reading world owes Anne Warner a vote +of thanks for her contribution to the list of American humor.--_New York +Times._ + + LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., PUBLISHERS + 254 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In a Mysterious Way, by Anne Warner + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY *** + +***** This file should be named 37515.txt or 37515.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/5/1/37515/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Matthew Wheaton and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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