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diff --git a/37515.txt b/37515.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5645492 --- /dev/null +++ b/37515.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: 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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