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diff --git a/38490-h/38490-h.htm b/38490-h/38490-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..05c9f51 --- /dev/null +++ b/38490-h/38490-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3324 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of And So They Were Married, by Florence Morse Kingsley. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's And So They Were Married, by Florence Morse Kingsley + +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: And So They Were Married + +Author: Florence Morse Kingsley + +Illustrator: W. B. King + +Release Date: January 3, 2012 [EBook #38490] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AND SO THEY WERE MARRIED *** + + + + +Produced by Annie R. McGuire. This book was produced from +scanned images of public domain material from the Google +Print archive. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 397px;"> +<img src="images/ill_001.jpg" width="397" height="600" alt="Book Cover" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>And So They Were Married</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 309px;"> +<img src="images/ill_002.jpg" width="309" height="400" alt=""'It isn't your husband's place to do your work and his own, too, my dear'" (p. 126)" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"'It isn't your husband's place to do your work and his own, too, my dear'" (p. 126)</span> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>And So They Were</h2> + +<h2>Married</h2> + +<h4><i>By</i></h4> + +<h3>Florence Morse Kingsley</h3> + +<p class="center">Author of "Titus," "The</p> + +<p class="center">Singular Miss Smith," "The</p> + +<p class="center">Resurrection of Miss Cynthia"</p> + +<h4>With Illustrations</h4> + +<h3>By W. B. King</h3> + +<h4>New York</h4> + +<h4>Dodd, Mead & Company</h4> + +<h4>1908</h4> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1908</p> + +<p class="center">By THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1908</p> + +<p class="center">By FLORENCE MORSE KINGSLEY<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI</b></a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<p>Dr. North's wife, attired in her dressing-gown and slippers, noiselessly +tilted the shutter of the old-fashioned inside blind and peered +cautiously out. The moon was shining splendidly in the dark sky, and the +empty street seemed almost as light as day. It had been snowing earlier +in the evening, Mrs. North observed absent-mindedly, and the clinging +drifts weighed the dark evergreens on either side of the gate almost to +the ground. A dog barked noisily from his kennel in a neighbouring yard, +and a chorus of answering barks acknowledged the signal; some one was +coming along the moonlit street. There were two figures, as Mrs. North +had expected; she craned her plump neck anxiously forward as the gate +clicked and a light girlish laugh floated up on the frosty air.</p> + +<p>"Dear, dear!" she murmured, "I do hope Bessie will come right into the +house.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> It is too cold to stand outside talking."</p> + +<p>Apparently the young persons below did not think so. They stood in the +bright moonlight in full view of the anxious watcher behind the shutter, +the man's tall figure bent eagerly toward the girl, whose delicate +profile Mrs. North could see distinctly under the coquettish sweep of +the broad hat-brim.</p> + +<p>"The child ought to have worn her high overshoes," she was thinking, +when she was startled by the vision of the tall, broad figure stooping +over the short, slight one.</p> + +<p>Then the key clicked in the lock and the front door opened softly; the +sound was echoed by the closing gate, as the tall figure tramped briskly +away over the creaking snow. The neighbour's dog barked again, +perfunctorily this time, as if acknowledging the entire respectability +of the passer-by; all the other dogs in town responded in kind, and +again there was silence broken only by the sound of a light foot on the +carpeted stair.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mrs. North opened her door softly. "Is that you, Bessie?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, mother."</p> + +<p>"Isn't it very late, child?"</p> + +<p>"It is only half past eleven."</p> + +<p>"Did Louise go with you?"</p> + +<p>"No, mother; she had a sore throat, and it was snowing; so her aunt +wouldn't allow her to go."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" Mrs. North's voice expressed a faint disapproval.</p> + +<p>"Of course we couldn't help it; besides, all the other girls were there +just with their escorts. You and grandma are so—old-fashioned. I'm sure +I don't see why I always have to have some other girl along—and Louise +Glenny of all persons! I couldn't help being just a little bit glad that +she couldn't go."</p> + +<p>"Did you have a nice time, dear?"</p> + +<p>The girl turned a radiant face upon her mother. "Oh, we had a <i>lovely</i> +time!" she murmured. "I—I'll tell you about it to-morrow. Is father +home?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; he came in early to-night and went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> right to bed. I hope the +telephone bell won't ring again before morning."</p> + +<p>The girl laughed softly. "You might take off the receiver," she +suggested. "Poor daddy!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; I couldn't do that. Your father would never forgive me. But I +told him not to have it on his mind; I'll watch out for it and answer +it, and if it's Mrs. Salter again with one of her imaginary sinking +spells I'm going to tell her the doctor won't be in before six in the +morning. I do hope it isn't wrong to deceive that much; but your father +isn't made of iron, whatever some people may think."</p> + +<p>The girl laughed again, a low murmur of joy. "Good-night, dear little +mother," she said caressingly. "You are always watching and waiting for +some one; aren't you? But you needn't have worried about <i>me</i>." She +stooped and kissed her mother, her eyes shining like stars; then hurried +away to hide the blush which swept her face and neck.</p> + +<p>"Dear, dear!" sighed Mrs. North, as she crept back to her couch drawn +close to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> muffled telephone, "I suppose I ought to have spoken to +her father before this; but he is always so busy; I hardly have time to +say two words to him. Besides, he thinks Bessie is only a child, and he +would have laughed at me."</p> + +<p>The girl was taking off her hat and cloak in her own room. How long ago +it seemed since she had put them on. She smoothed out her white gloves +with caressing fingers. "I shall always keep them," she thought. She was +still conscious of his first kisses, and looked in her glass, as if half +expecting to see some visible token of them.</p> + +<p>"I am so happy—so happy!" she murmured to the radiant reflection which +smiled back at her from out its shadowy depths. She leaned forward and +touched the cold smooth surface with her lips in a sudden passion of +gratitude for the fair, richly tinted skin, the large bright eyes with +their long curling lashes, the masses of brown waving hair, and the +pliant beauty of the strong young figure in the mirror.</p> + +<p>"If I had been freckled and stoop-shouldered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> and awkward, like Louise +Glenny, he <i>couldn't</i> have loved me," she was thinking.</p> + +<p>She sank to her knees after awhile and buried her face in the coverlid +of her little bed. But she could think only of the look in his eyes when +he had said "I love you," and of the thrilling touch of his lips on +hers. She crept into bed and lay there in a wide-eyed rapture, while the +village clock struck one, and after a long, blissful hour, two. Then she +fell asleep, and did not hear the telephone bell which called her tired +father from his bed in the dim, cold hour between three and four.</p> + +<p>She was still rosily asleep and dreaming when Mrs. North came softly +into the room in the broad sunlight of the winter morning.</p> + +<p>"Isn't Lizzie awake yet?" inquired a brisk voice from the hall. "My, +<i>my</i>! but girls are idle creatures nowadays!"</p> + +<p>The owner of the voice followed this dictum with a quick patter of +softly shod feet.</p> + +<p>"I didn't like to call her, mother," apologised Mrs. North. "She came in +late, and——"</p> + +<p>Grandmother Carroll pursed up her small,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> wise mouth. "I heard her," she +said, "and that young man with her. I don't know, daughter, but what we +ought to inquire into his prospects and character a little more +carefully, if he's to be allowed to come here so constant. Lizzie's very +young, and——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, grandma!" protested a drowsy voice from the pillows; "I'm twenty!"</p> + +<p>"Twenty; yes, I know you're twenty, my dear; quite old enough, I should +say, to be out of bed before nine in the morning."</p> + +<p>"It wasn't her fault, mother; I didn't call her."</p> + +<p>The girl was gazing at the two round matronly figures at the foot of the +bed, her laughing eyes grown suddenly serious. "I'll get up at once," +she said with decision, "and I'll eat bread and milk for breakfast; I +sha'n't mind."</p> + +<p>"She's got something on her mind," whispered Mrs. North to her mother, +as the two pattered softly downstairs.</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't wonder," responded Grandmother Carroll briskly. "Girls of +her age are pretty likely to have, and I mistrust but what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> that young +Bowser may have been putting notions into her head. I hope you'll be +firm with her, daughter; she's much too young for anything of that +sort."</p> + +<p>"You were married when you were eighteen, mother; and I was barely +twenty, you know."</p> + +<p>"I was a very different girl at eighteen from what Lizzie is," Mrs. +Carroll said warmly. "She's been brought up differently. In my time +healthy girls didn't lie in bed till ten o'clock. Many and many's the +time I've danced till twelve o'clock and been up in the morning at five +'tending to my work. You indulge Lizzie too much; and if that young +Bixler——"</p> + +<p>"His name is Brewster, mother; don't you remember? and they say he comes +of a fine old Boston family."</p> + +<p>"Well, Brewster or Bixler; it will make no difference to Lizzie, you'll +find. I've been watching her for more than a month back, and I'll tell +you, daughter, when a girl like Lizzie offers to eat bread and milk for +breakfast you can expect almost anything. Her mind is on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> other things. +I'll never forget the way you ate a boiled egg for breakfast every +morning for a week—and you couldn't bear eggs—about the time the +doctor was getting serious. I mistrusted there was something to pay, and +I wasn't mistaken."</p> + +<p>Mrs. North sighed vaguely. Then her tired brown eyes lighted up with a +smile. "I had letters from both the boys this morning," she said; "don't +you want to read them, mother? Frank has passed all his mid-year +examinations, and Elliot says he has just made the 'varsity gym' team."</p> + +<p>"Made the <i>what</i>?"</p> + +<p>"I don't quite understand myself," acknowledged Mrs. North; "but that's +what he said. He said he'd have his numerals to show us when he came +home Easter."</p> + +<p>"Hum!" murmured Mrs. Carroll dubiously; "I'm sure I hope he won't break +his neck in any foolish way. Did he say anything about his lessons?"</p> + +<p>"Not much; he never was such a student as Frank; but he'll do well, +mother."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> + +<p>Elizabeth North, fresh as a dewy rose and radiant with her new +happiness, came into the room just as Mrs. Carroll folded the last sheet +of the college letters. "I'll ask Lizzie," she said. "Lizzie, what is a +g-y-m team?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, grandma!" protested the girl, "<i>please</i> don't call me <i>Lizzie</i>. +Bessie is bad enough; but <i>Lizzie</i>! I always think of that absurd old +Mother Goose rhyme, 'Elizabeth, Lizzie, Betsey and Bess, all went +hunting to find a bird's nest'; and, besides, you promised me you +wouldn't."</p> + +<p>"Lizzie was a good enough name for your mother," said grandma briskly. +"Your father courted and married her under that name, and he didn't +mind." Her keen old eyes behind their shining glasses dwelt triumphantly +on the girl's changing colour. "You needn't tell <i>me</i>!" she finished +irrelevantly.</p> + +<p>But Elizabeth had possessed herself of the letters, and was already deep +in a laughing perusal of Elliot's scrawl. "Oh, how splendid!" she cried; +"he's made the Varsity, on his ring work, too!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I don't pretend to understand what particular <i>work</i> Elliot is +referring to," observed grandma, with studied mildness. "Is it some sort +of mathematics?"</p> + +<p>Elizabeth sprang up and flung both arms about the smiling old lady. "You +dear little hypocritical grandma!" she said; "you know perfectly well +that it isn't any study at all, but just gymnastic work—all sorts of +stunts, swinging on rings and doing back and front levers and shoulder +stands and all that sort of thing. Elliot has such magnificent muscles +he can do anything, and better than any one else, and that's why he's on +the varsity, you see!"</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Elizabeth," said grandma tranquilly. "I'd entirely forgotten +that young men don't go to college now to study their lessons. My memory +is certainly getting poor."</p> + +<p>"No, grandma dear; it isn't. You remember everything a thousand times +better than any one else, and what is more, you know it. But of course +Elliot studies; he has to. Mr. Brewster says he thinks Elliot is one of +the finest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> boys he knows. He thinks he would make a splendid engineer. +He admires Frank, too, immensely, and——"</p> + +<p>"What does the young man think of Elizabeth?" asked Mrs. Carroll with a +wise smile.</p> + +<p>"He—oh, grandma; I—didn't mean to tell just yet; but he—I——"</p> + +<p>"There, there, child! Better go and find your mother. I mistrust she's +getting you a hot breakfast." She drew the girl into her soft old arms +and kissed her twice.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth sprang up all in a lovely flame of blushes and ran out of the +room.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<p>When Samuel Herrick Brewster, B.S. and Civil Engineer, late of the +Massachusetts School of Technology, came to Innisfield for the purpose +of joining the corps of engineers already at work on a new and improved +system of water-works, he had not the slightest intention of falling +seriously in love. By "seriously" Sam Brewster himself might have told +you—as he told his married sister living in Saginaw, Mich., and +anxiously solicitous of the young man's general well-being—that he +meant that sort and quality of affection which would naturally and +inevitably lead a man into matrimony. He had always been fond of the +society of pretty and amiable women, and well used to it, too. His +further ideas with regard to matrimony, though delightfully vague in +their general character, were sufficiently clear-cut and decided in one +important particular, which he had been careful to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> expound at length to +those impetuous undergraduates of his fraternity who had appeared to +need friendly counsel from their elders. "A man," said young Brewster, +conclusively, "has no business to marry till he can feel solid ground +under his feet. He should be thoroughly established in his profession, +and well able to pay the shot."</p> + +<p>When this sapient young gentleman first met Elizabeth North at a picnic +given by the leading citizens of Innisfield to celebrate the completion +of the new aqueduct he was disposed to regard her as a very nice, +intelligent sort of a girl, with remarkably handsome brown eyes. On the +occasion of his third meeting with the young lady he found himself, +rather to his surprise, telling her about his successful work in the +"Tech," and of how he hoped to "get somewhere" in his profession some +day. Elizabeth in her turn had confided to him her disappointment in not +being able to go to Wellesley, and her ambitious attempts to keep up +with Marian Evans, who was in the Sophomore year, in literature and +music. She played<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> Chopin's Fantasia Impromptu for him on Mrs. North's +garrulous old piano; and as her slender fingers twinkled over the yellow +keys he caught himself wondering how much a first-class instrument would +cost. In the course of a month he had fallen into the habit of strolling +home with Elizabeth after church, and twice Mrs. North, in the kindness +of her motherly heart, had asked him to dinner. She was afraid, she told +Grandma Carroll, that the table board at Mrs. Bentwick's was none of the +best. She spoke of him further as "that nice, good-looking boy," and +hoped he wouldn't be too lonely in Innisfield, away from all his +friends.</p> + +<p>As for Dr. North, that overworked physician was seldom to be seen, being +apparently in a chronic state of hastily and energetically climbing into +his gig, and as energetically and hastily climbing out again. He had +hurriedly shaken hands with young Brewster, and made him welcome to his +house in one of the brief intervals between office hours and the +ever-waiting gig, with its imperturbable brown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> horse, who appeared to +know quite as well as the doctor where the sick were to be found. After +that, it is fair to state, the worthy doctor had completely forgotten +that such a person as Samuel Herrick Brewster, B.S., C.E. existed. One +may judge therefore of his feelings when his wife chose a moment of +relaxation between a carefully cooked dinner and an expected summons by +telephone to acquaint him with the fact of their daughter's engagement.</p> + +<p>"<i>Engaged?</i>" exclaimed the doctor, starting out of his chair. +"Bess—engaged! Oh, I guess not. I sha'n't allow anything of the sort; +she's nothing but a child, and as for this young fellow—what 'd you say +his name was? We don't know him!"</p> + +<p>"You don't, you mean, papa," his wife corrected him gently. "The rest of +us have seen a good deal of Mr. Brewster, and I'm sure Bessie——"</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/ill_003.jpg" width="400" height="293" alt=""'Oh, daddy, he's the dearest person in the world!'"" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"'Oh, daddy, he's the dearest person in the world!'"</span> +</div> + +<p>"Now, mother, what made you? I wanted to tell daddy myself. Oh, daddy, +he's the dearest person in the world!" Then as Elizabeth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> caught the +hurt, bewildered look in her father's eyes she perched on his knee in +the old familiar fashion. "It seems sudden—to you, I know," she +murmured; "but really it isn't, daddy; as he will tell you if he can +ever find you at home to talk to. Why, we've known each other since last +summer!"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I'm very stupid, child; but I don't believe I understand. +You don't mean to tell me that you have been thinking of—of getting +married and to a man I don't know even." Dr. North shook his head +decidedly.</p> + +<p>"But you do know him, daddy; he's been here ever so many times. Of +course"—she added with a touch of laughing malice—"he's perfectly +well, and you seldom notice well people, even when they're in your own +family."</p> + +<p>"I don't have time, Bess," admitted the doctor soberly, "there are too +many of the other sort. But now about this young man—Brewster—eh? You +have him come 'round in office hours, say, and I'll——"</p> + +<p>"Now, daddy, <i>please</i> don't straighten out your mouth like that; it +isn't a bit becoming.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> Naturally you've got the sweetest, kindest look +in the world, and you mustn't spoil it, especially when you are talking +about Sam."</p> + +<p>The doctor pinched his daughter's pink ear. "I'm sorry to appear such an +ogre," he said with a touch of grimness, "but I know too much about the +world in general, and the business of getting married in particular, to +allow my one daughter to go into it blindly. I'll be obliged to make the +young man's further acquaintance, Bess, before we talk about an +engagement."</p> + +<p>The girl's scarlet lips were set in firm lines, which strongly resembled +the paternal expression to which she had objected; she kissed her father +dutifully. "I want you to get acquainted with him, daddy," she said +sweetly; "but we <i>are</i> engaged."</p> + +<p>That same afternoon Dr. North, looking worried and anxious after a +prolonged conference with the village hypochrondriac, who had come to +the office fully charged with symptoms of a new and distinguished +disease lately imported from Europe, found himself face to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> face with a +tall, fresh-faced young man. This new visitor came into the office +bringing with him a breath of the wintry air and a general appearance of +breezy health which caused the hypochondriac to look up sourly in the +act of putting on her rubbers.</p> + +<p>"If that new medicine doesn't relieve that terrible feelin' in my +epigastrium, doctor—an' I don't believe it's a-goin' to—I'll let you +know," she remarked acidly. "You needn't be surprised to be called most +any time between now an' mornin'; for, as I told Mr. Salter, I ain't +a-goin' to suffer as I did last night for nobody."</p> + +<p>"<i>Good</i>-afternoon, Mrs. Salter," said the doctor emphatically. "Now +then, young man, what can I do for you?"</p> + +<p>The young man in question coloured boyishly. "I shouldn't have ventured +to call upon you during your office hours, Dr. North; but I understood +from Elizabeth that you could be seen at no other time; so I'm here."</p> + +<p>"Elizabeth—eh? Yes, yes; I see. I—er—didn't recall your face for the +moment. Just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> come into my private office for a minute or two, Mr. +Brewster; these—er—other patients will wait a bit, I fancy."</p> + +<p>The worthy doctor handed his visitor a chair facing the light, which he +further increased by impatiently shoving the shades to the top of the +windows. Then he seated himself and stared keenly at the young engineer, +who on his part bore the scrutiny with a sturdy self-possession which +pleased the doctor in spite of himself.</p> + +<p>"Elizabeth told you of our engagement, I believe, sir?"</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 291px;"> +<img src="images/ill_004.jpg" width="291" height="400" alt=""'I said to her that I couldn't and wouldn't consider an +engagement between you at present'"" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"'I said to her that I couldn't and wouldn't consider an +engagement between you at present'"</span> +</div> + +<p>"She told me something of the sort—yes," admitted the doctor testily. +"I said to her that I couldn't and wouldn't consider an engagement +between you at present. Did she tell you that?"</p> + +<p>"I was told that you wished to make my further acquaintance. I should +like, if you have the time, to tell you something about myself. You have +the right to know."</p> + +<p>The doctor nodded frowningly. "If you expect me—at any time in the +future, you understand—to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> give you my only daughter, I certainly am +entitled to know—everything."</p> + +<p>The young man looked the doctor squarely in the eyes during the longish +pause that followed. "There isn't much to tell," he said. "My father and +mother are dead. I have one sister, older than I, married to one of the +best fellows in the world and living West. I made my home with them till +I came to the Tech. You can ask any of the professors there about me. +They'll tell you that I worked. I graduated a year ago last June. Since +then I've been at work at my profession. I'm getting twelve hundred a +year now; but——"</p> + +<p>"Stop right there. Why did you ask my girl to marry you?"</p> + +<p>"Because I loved her."</p> + +<p>"Hum! And she—er—fancies that she loves you—eh?"</p> + +<p>A dark flush swept over Samuel Brewster's ingenuous young face. "She +does love me," was all he said. But he said it in a tone which suddenly +brought back the older man's vanished youth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> + +<p>There was a short silence; then the doctor arose so abruptly that he +nearly upset his chair. "<i>Well</i>," he said, "I've got to go to Boston +to-morrow on a case, and I'll see those professors of yours, for one +thing; I know Collins well. Not that he or anybody else can tell me all +about you—not by a long shot; I know boys and young men well enough for +that. But you see, sir, I—love my girl too, and I—I'll say +<i>good</i>-afternoon, sir."</p> + +<p>He threw the door wide with an impatient hand. "Ah, Mrs. Tewksbury; +you're next, I believe. Walk right in."</p> + +<p>An hour later, when the door had finally closed on his last patient, Dr. +North sat still in his chair, apparently lost in thought. His dinner was +waiting, he knew, and a round of visits must be made immediately +thereafter, yet he did not stir. He was thinking, curiously enough, of +the time when his daughter Elizabeth was a baby. What a round, pink +little face she had, to be sure, and what a strong, healthy, plump +little body. He could almost hear the unsteady feet toddling across the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +breadth of dingy oilcloth which carpeted his office floor. "Daddy, +daddy!" her sweet, imperious voice was crying, "I'm tomin' to see you, +daddy!"</p> + +<p>His eyes were wet when he finally stumbled to his feet. Then suddenly he +felt a pair of warm arms about his neck, and a dozen butterfly kisses +dropped on his cheeks, his hair, his forehead. "Daddy, dear, he came; +didn't he? I saw him go away. I hope you weren't—cruel to him, oh, +daddy!"</p> + +<p>"No, daughter; I wasn't exactly cruel to him. But didn't the young man +stop to talk it over with you?"</p> + +<p>"No, daddy; I thought he would of course; but he just waved his hand for +good-bye, and I—was frightened for fear——"</p> + +<p>"Didn't stop to talk it over—eh? Say, I like that! To tell you the +truth, Bess, I—rather like him. Good, clear, steady eyes; good all +'round constitution, I should say; and if—Oh, come, come, child; we'd +better be getting in to dinner or your mother will be anxious. But I +want you to understand, miss, that your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> old daddy has no notion of +playing second fiddle to any youngster's first, however tall and +good-looking he may be."</p> + +<p>And singularly enough, Elizabeth appeared to be perfectly satisfied with +this paternal dictum. "I knew you'd like him," she said, slipping her +small hand into her father's big one, in the little girl fashion she had +never lost. "Why, daddy, he's the best man I ever knew—except you, of +course. He told me"—the girl's voice dropped to an awed whisper—"that +he promised his mother when she was dying that he would never do a mean +or dishonest thing. And—and he says, daddy, that whenever he has been +tempted to do wrong he has felt his mother's eyes looking at him, so +that he couldn't. Anybody would know he was good just from seeing him."</p> + +<p>"Hum! Well, well, that may be so. I'll talk to Collins and see what he +has to say. Collins is a man of very good judgment; I value his opinion +highly."</p> + +<p>"Don't you value mine, daddy?" asked Elizabeth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> with an irresistible +dimple appearing and disappearing at the corner of her mouth.</p> + +<p>"On some subjects, my dear," replied the doctor soberly; "but—er—on +this particular one I fancy you may be slightly prejudiced."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<p>The question of "wherewithal shall we be clothed," which has vexed the +world since its beginning in the garden "planted eastward in Eden," +confronts the children of Eve so persistently at every serious crisis of +life that one is forced to the conclusion that clothes sustain a very +real and vital relation to destiny. Even Solomon in all his glory must +earnestly have considered the colour and texture of his famous robes of +state when he was making ready to dazzle the eyes of the Queen of Sheba, +and the Jewish Esther's royal apparel and Joseph's coat of many colours +played important parts in the history of a nation.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth North had been engaged to be married to Samuel Brewster +exactly a fortnight when the age-long question presented itself to her +attention. It was perhaps inevitable that she should have thought +speculatively of her wedding gown; what girl would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> not? But in the +sweet amaze of her new and surprising happiness she might have gone on +wearing her simple girlish frocks quite unaware of its relation to her +wardrobe. She owed her awakening to Miss Evelyn Tripp.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth had known Evelyn Tripp in a distant fashion suited to the +great gulf which appeared to exist between the fashionable lady from +Boston, who was in the habit of paying semi-annual visits to Innisfield, +and the young daughter of the country doctor. She had always regarded +Miss Tripp as the epitome of all possible elegance, and vaguely +associated her with undreamed-of festivities and privileges peculiar to +the remote circles in which she moved when absent from Innisfield.</p> + +<p>Miss Tripp explained her presence in the quiet village after one formula +which had grown familiar to every one. "I was <i>completely</i> worn out, my +dear; I've just run away from a perfect whirl of receptions, teas, +luncheons and musicales; really, I was <i>on the verge</i> of a nervous +breakdown when my physician<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> simply <i>insisted</i> upon my leaving it all. I +<i>do</i> find dear, quiet Innisfield so <i>relaxing</i> after the social strain."</p> + +<p>Miss Tripp's heavily italicised remarks were invariably accompanied by +uplifted eyebrows, and a sweetly serious expression, alternating with +flashing glimpses of very white teeth, and further accented by +numberless little movements of her hands and shoulders which suggested +deeper meanings than her words often conveyed.</p> + +<p>Ill-natured people, such as Mrs. Buckthorn and Electa Pratt, declared +that Evelyn Tripp was thirty-five if she was a day, though she dressed +like sixteen; and furthermore that her social popularity in Boston was a +figment of her own vivid imagination. Elizabeth North, however, had +always admired her almost reverently, in the shy, distant fashion of the +young, country-bred girl.</p> + +<p>Miss Tripp was unquestionably elegant, and her smart gowns and the large +picture hats she affected had created quite their usual sensation in +Innisfield, where the slow-spreading<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> ripples of fashion were viewed +with a certain stern disfavour as being linked in some vague manner with +irreligion of a dangerous sort. "She's too stylish to be good for much," +being the excellent Mrs. Buckthorn's severe corollary.</p> + +<p>Miss Tripp had been among the first to press friendly congratulations +upon young Brewster, who on his part received them with the engaging +awkwardness of the unaccustomed bachelor.</p> + +<p>"You are certainly the <i>most</i> fortunate of men to have won that sweet, +simple Elizabeth North! I've known her since she was quite a +child—since we were both children, in fact, and she was always the same +unspoiled, unaffected girl, so different from the young women one meets +in society circles."</p> + +<p>"She's all of that," quoth the fortunate engineer, vaguely aware of a +lack of flavour in Miss Tripp's encomium, "and—er—more."</p> + +<p>Whereat Miss Tripp laughed archly and playfully shook a daintily gloved +finger at him. "I can see that you think no one is capable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> of +appreciating your prize; but I assure you <i>I do</i>! You shall see!" This +last was a favourite phrase, and conveyed quite an alluring sense of +mystery linked with vague promise of unstinted benevolences on the part +of Miss Tripp. "Do you know," she added seriously, "I am told that you +are closely related to Mrs. J. Mortimer Van Duser. She is a wonderful +woman, so prominent in the best circles and interested in so many +important charities."</p> + +<p>Samuel Brewster shook his head. "The relationship is hardly worth +mentioning," he said. "Mrs. Van Duser was a distant relative of my +mother's."</p> + +<p>"But of course you see a great deal of her when you are in Boston; do +you not?" persisted the lady.</p> + +<p>"I dined there once," acknowledged the young man, vaguely uneasy and +rather too obviously anxious to make his escape, "but I dare say she has +forgotten my existence by this time. Mrs. Van Duser is, as you say, a +very—er—active woman."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<p>On the following day Elizabeth North encountered Miss Tripp on the +street. She was about to pass her after a shy salutation, when Miss +Tripp held out both hands in a pretty, impulsive gesture. "I was just on +my way to see you, dear; but if you are going out, of course I'll wait +till another day. My dear, he's <i>simply</i> perfect! and I really +<i>couldn't</i> wait to tell you so. Do tell me when you are to be married? +In June, I hope, for then I shall be here to help."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth blushed prettily, her shy gaze taking in the details of Miss +Tripp's modish costume. She was wondering if a jacket made like the one +Miss Tripp was wearing would be becoming. "I—we haven't thought so far +ahead as that," she said. Then with a sudden access of her new dignity. +"Mr. Brewster expects to return to Boston in the spring. The work here +will be finished by that time."</p> + +<p>Miss Tripp's eyes brightened with a speculative gleam. "Oh, then you +will live in <i>Boston</i>! How <i>delighted</i> I am to hear <i>that</i>! Did you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +know your <i>fiancé</i> is related to Mrs. Mortimer Van Duser? and that he +has <i>dined</i> there? <i>You didn't?</i> But of course you must have heard of +Mrs. Van Duser; I believe your minister's wife is a relative of hers. +But Mrs. Van Duser doesn't approve of Mrs. Pettibone, I'm told; her +opinions are so odd. But I <i>am</i> so glad for you, my dear; if everything +is managed properly you will have an <i>entrée</i> to the most exclusive +circles." Miss Tripp's eyebrows and shoulders expressed such unfeigned +interest and delight in her prospects that Elizabeth beamed and smiled +in her turn. She wished confusedly that Miss Tripp would not talk to her +about her engagement; it was too sacred, too wonderful a thing to +discuss on the street with a mere acquaintance like Miss Tripp. Yet all +the while she was rosily conscious of her new ring, which she could feel +under her glove, and a childish desire to uncover its astonishing +brilliancy before such warmly appreciative eyes presently overcame her +desire to escape. "Won't you walk home with me?" she asked; "mother will +be so glad to see you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>thank</i> you! Indeed I was coming to condole with your dear mother +and to wish you all sorts of happiness. I've so often spoken of you to +my friends in Boston."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth wondered what Miss Tripp could possibly have said about her to +her friends in Boston. But she was assured by Miss Tripp's brilliant +smile that it had been something agreeable. When she came into the room +after removing her hat and cloak she found her mother deep in +conversation with the visitor, who made room for her on the sofa with a +smile and a graceful tilt of her plumed head.</p> + +<p>"We've been talking about you every minute, dear child. You'll see what +a <i>sweet</i> wedding you'll have. Everything must be of the very latest; +and it isn't a minute too soon to begin on your trousseau. You really +ought to have everything hand-embroidered, you know; those flimsy laces +and machine-made edges are so common, you won't <i>think</i> of them; and +they don't wear a bit well, either."</p> + +<p>Mrs. North glanced appealingly at her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> daughter. "Oh," she said, in a +bewildered tone, "I guess Elizabeth isn't intending to be married for a +long, long time yet; I—we can't spare her."</p> + +<p>Miss Tripp laughed airily. "<i>Poor</i> mamma," she murmured with a look of +deep sympathy, "it <i>is</i> too bad; isn't it? But, really, I'm sure you're +to be congratulated on your future son-in-law. He belongs to a <i>very</i> +aristocratic family—Mrs. Mortimer Van Duser is a relative, you know; +and dear Betty must have everything <i>suitable</i>. I'll do some pretty +things, dear; I'd love to, and I'll begin this very day, though the +doctor has absolutely forbidden me to use my eyes; but I simply can't +resist the temptation."</p> + +<p>Then she had exclaimed over the sparkle of Elizabeth's modest diamond, +which caught her eyes at the moment, and presently in a perfumed rush of +silken skirts and laces and soft furs Miss Tripp swept away, chatting to +the outermost verge of the frosty air in her sweet-toned drawling voice, +so different from the harsh nasal accents familiar to Innisfield ears.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> + +<p>Elizabeth drew a deep breath as she watched the slim, erect figure move +lightly away. She felt somehow very ignorant and countrified and totally +unfit for her high destiny as a member of Boston's select circles. As a +result of these unwonted stirrings in her young heart she went up to her +room and began to look over her wardrobe with growing dissatisfaction.</p> + +<p>Her mother hearing the sound of opening and shutting drawers came into +the room and stood looking on with what appeared to the girl a +provokingly indifferent expression on her plump middle-aged face.</p> + +<p>"It is really too soon to begin worrying about wedding clothes, Bessie," +observed Mrs. North with a show of maternal authority. "Of +course"—after a doubtful silence—"we might begin to make up some new +underclothes. I've a good firm piece of cotton in the house, and we can +buy some edges."</p> + +<p>The girl suddenly faced her mother, her pink lips thrust forward in an +unbecoming pout. "Why, mother," she said, "don't you know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> people don't +wear things made out of common cotton cloth now; everything has to be as +fine and delicate as a cobweb almost, and—hand-embroidered. You can +make them or buy them in the stores. Marian had some lovely things when +she went to college. All the girls wear them—except me. Of course I've +never had anything of the sort; but I suppose I'll have to now!"</p> + +<p>She shut her bureau drawer with an air of finality and leaned her +puckered forehead upon her hand while the new diamond flashed its blue +and white fires into her mother's perplexed eyes.</p> + +<p>"We'll do the very best we can, dear," Mrs. North said after a +lengthening pause; "but your father's patients don't pay their bills +very promptly, and there are the boys' college expenses to be met; we'll +have to think of that."</p> + +<p>This conversation marked the beginning of many interviews, gradually +increasing in poignant interest to both mother and daughter. It appeared +that "Sam," as Elizabeth now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> called her lover with a pretty hesitancy +which the young man found adorable, wished to be married in June, so as +to take his bride with him on a trip West, in which business and +pleasure might be profitably combined.</p> + +<p>Mrs. North demurred weakly; but Dr. North was found to be on the side of +the young man. "I don't believe in long engagements myself," he had +said, with a certain suspicious gruffness in his tones. "I hoped we +should have our daughter to ourselves for a while longer; but she's +chosen otherwise, and there is no use and no need to wait. We'll have to +let her go, wife, and the sooner the better, for both of them."</p> + +<p>The important question being thus finally decided, not only Miss Tripp +but the Norths' whole circle of acquaintances in Innisfield, as well as +the female relations, near and far, were found ready and anxious to +engage heart and soul in Elizabeth's preparations for her wedding, which +had now begun in what might be well termed solemn earnest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Are we going to—keep house?" Elizabeth asked her lover in the first +inrush of this new tide of experience which was soon to bear her far +from the old life.</p> + +<p>"To keep house, dear, with you would be pretty close to my idea of +heaven," the young man had declared with all the fervour of the +inexperienced bachelor. "I've boarded for nearly six years now with +barely a taste of home between whiles, and I'm tired of it. Don't you +want to keep house, dear?"</p> + +<p>And Elizabeth answered quite sweetly and truly that she did. "I can +cook," she said, proud of her old-fashioned accomplishment in the light +of her new happiness. "We will have just a little house to begin with, +and then I can do everything."</p> + +<p>But a suitable house of any size in Boston was found to be quite out of +the question. "It will have to be an apartment, my dear," the +experienced Miss Tripp declared; "and I believe I know the very one in a +<i>really good</i> neighbourhood. I'll write at once. You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> mustn't <i>think</i> of +South Boston, even if it is more convenient for Mr. Brewster. It is so +important to begin right; and you know, my dear, you couldn't expect any +one to come to see you in South Boston."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carroll, who chanced to be present, was observed to compress her +lips firmly. "Lizzie," she said, when the fashionable Miss Tripp had +finally taken her departure, after much voluble advice on the subject of +the going-away gown, coupled with a spirited discussion of the rival +merits of a church wedding and "just a pretty, simple home affair," "if +I were you I shouldn't let that Evelina Kipp decide everything for me. +You'd better make up your mind what you want to do, and what you can +afford to do, and then do it without asking her leave. It seems to me +her notions are extravagant and foolish."</p> + +<p>"Why, grandma!" pouted Elizabeth. "I think it is perfectly dear of Miss +Tripp to take such an interest in my wedding. I shouldn't have known +what to do about lots of things, and I'm sure you and mother haven't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> an +idea." The girl's pretty lips curled and she moved her slim shoulders +gently.</p> + +<p>"Your mother and I both managed to get married without Miss Fripp's +advice," retorted grandma tranquilly. "I may not have an 'idea,' as you +call it, but I can't see why you should have ruffled silk petticoats to +all your dresses. One good moreen skirt did me, with a quilted alpaca +for every-day wear and two white ones for best. And as for a dozen sets +of underclothes, that won't wear once they see the washtub, they look +foolish to me. More than all that, your father can't afford it, and you +ought to consider him."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth looked up with a worried pucker between her girlish brows. "I +don't see how I am going to help it, grandma," she sighed; "I really +must have suitable clothes."</p> + +<p>"I agree with you there, Lizzie," said Mrs. Carroll, eyeing her +granddaughter keenly over the top of her spectacles; "but you aren't +going to have them, if you let that Sipp girl tell you what to buy."</p> + +<p>"It isn't <i>Sipp</i>, grandma, it's Tripp.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> T-r-i-p-p," said Elizabeth, in a +long-suffering tone; "and she knows better than any one in Innisfield +possibly can what I am going to need in Boston."</p> + +<p>"You'll find the people in Boston won't take any particular interest in +your petticoats, Lizzie," her grandmother told her pointedly. But the +girl had spied her lover coming up the walk toward the house and had +flown to meet him.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, sweetheart?" asked the young man, examining his +treasure with the keen eyes of love. "You look tired and—er—worried. +Anything wrong, little girl?"</p> + +<p>"N-no," denied Elizabeth evasively. "Only grandma has such queer, +old-fashioned ideas about—clothes. And she thinks I ought to have just +what she had when she was married to grandfather fifty years ago. Of +course I want to have everything nice and—suitable for Boston, you +know."</p> + +<p>"What you are wearing now is pretty enough for anywhere," declared Sam +Brewster, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> masculine obtuseness. "Don't you bother one minute about +clothes, darling; you'd look lovely in anything."</p> + +<p>Then he kissed her faintly smiling lips with the fatuous idea that the +final word as to wedding finery had been said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<p>"If you can give me just a minute, Richard, before you go out." It was +Mrs. North's timidly apologetic voice which broke in upon her husband's +hasty preparations for a day's professional engagements.</p> + +<p>Dr. North faced about with a laughing twinkle in his eyes. "I know your +minutes, Lizzie," he said, absent-mindedly sniffling at the cork of a +half-emptied bottle. "This gentian's no good; I've a mind to ship it +back to Avery's and tell them what I think of the firm for selling +adulterated drugs. It's an outrage on suffering humanity. I'll write to +them anyway." And he began to rummage his desk in quest of stationery.</p> + +<p>"I wanted to speak to you about Bessie's things," persisted Mrs. North. +"You know you gave me some money for her wedding clothes last month; but +it isn't—it won't be nearly enough."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What on earth have you been buying for the child?" asked her husband. +"I should think with what she has already the money I gave you would go +quite a ways."</p> + +<p>"That's just it," sighed Mrs. North. "Bessie thinks none of the things +she has are—suitable." She hesitated a little over the hard-worked +word. "Of course living in Boston, and——"</p> + +<p>"Pooh! Boston's no different from any other town," put in the doctor. +"You tell Bess I said so. She doesn't need to worry about <i>Boston</i>!" He +plumped down in his office chair and began an indignant protest +addressed to the firm of Avery & Co., Wholesale Druggists and Dealers in +Surgical Supplies.</p> + +<p>"I haven't bought any of her best dresses yet," sighed Mrs. North; "and +she wants an all-over lace for her wedding dress. Miss Tripp says +they're very much worn now."</p> + +<p>She paused suggestively while the doctor's pen raced busily over his +page.</p> + +<p>"You didn't hear what I said, did you, Richard?" she ventured after a +while.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, m' dear; heard every word; you were saying you'd bought Bess a +lace wedding dress, and that Miss Tripp says they're very much worn," +replied her husband, fixing on a stamp with a sounding thump of his big +fist. "Glad to hear it. Well, I'll have to be moving now. Good-bye, m' +dear; home to dinner if I can; if not——"</p> + +<p>"If you could let me have two hundred and fifty dollars, Richard," said +Mrs. North rather faintly, "we'll try to manage with that for the +present."</p> + +<p>"Well, now, Lizzie, when it comes to your wanting anything I always get +it for you—if I can; and you know that; but I sent off cheques to Frank +and Elliot this morning, and I'm what you'd call strapped."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't you collect——"</p> + +<p>The doctor kissed his wife cheerfully. "How can I, wifey, when folks +leave their doctor's bills till the last cent's paid to everybody else? +Don't know as I blame 'em; it's hard enough to be sick without having to +pay out money for it; now, isn't it?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, Dick; if that isn't just like you! But I—I've thought of a way."</p> + +<p>"Good! What is it?"</p> + +<p>"We might—borrow some money on the house. Other people do, and——"</p> + +<p>"Mortgage our house for wedding finery? I guess you're joking, Lizzie. +At any rate, I'll call it a joke and let it pass! Good-bye!" The quick +slam of the office door put a conclusive finish to the doctor's words, +and his wife went back to her work on one of Elizabeth's elaborate +garments with a heavy heart.</p> + +<p>"What did Richard say?" Grandma Carroll wanted to know, when the girl +had gone into another room to be fitted.</p> + +<p>"He said he couldn't possibly let me have anything more just now," said +Richard's wife with a shade of reserve in her voice. "You know, mother, +people are so slow in paying their bills. The doctor has any amount +outstanding if he could only get it."</p> + +<p>"Such folks had ought to be made to pay before they get 'ary a pill or a +powder, same 's they do for what made 'em sick. They'd find<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> money for +the doctor quick enough once they had a right sharp pain from +over-eating," was grandma's trenchant opinion. "But I expected he'd say +that all along, and I wanted to give you this for Lizzie."</p> + +<p>She slipped a little roll of bills into her daughter's lap. "Don't say +anything to the child about it," she whispered, nodding her kind old +head; "it would worry her. Besides I don't approve of the amount of +money she's putting into perishable things. I meant to buy her a real +good clock or a nice solid piece of furniture; but if she'd rather have +lace frills that'll fall to pieces in the washtub, I'm willing she +should learn by experience, same 's we've had to do before her."</p> + +<p>Mrs. North's eyes were moist and shining. "It's what you've been putting +by for years, mother," she whispered, "for——"</p> + +<p>"Hush!" said grandma. "I guess when it comes right down to it I'm full +as foolish as Lizzie. Once I set foot in the golden streets I know I +sha'n't mind whether I leave a marble monument in the cemetery or not; +and you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> don't need to either, daughter. Now remember!"</p> + +<p>Upon this hushed conversation entered Elizabeth in a flutter of +excitement and rosy pleasure over a letter which the postman had just +handed her. "It is from Evelyn Tripp," she said, "and she wants me to +come to Boston and stay a week with her; she says she will help me pick +out all my dresses, and I'd better have my wedding dress and my +going-away gown made there, anyway. Isn't that lovely?"</p> + +<p>Then, as she met her mother's dubious gaze, "You know Malvina Bennett +hasn't a particle of style; and we don't know anything about the best +places to buy things in Boston; or the dressmakers, or anything."</p> + +<p>"I've shopped in Boston for years," said Mrs. North, with a show of +firmness, "and I'm sure everything at Cooper's gives perfect +satisfaction."</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>Cooper's</i>?" laughed the girl. "Why, mother, <i>dear</i>, nobody goes to +Cooper's nowadays. It's just for country people from out of town."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What are we, I'd like to know?" Grandma Carroll wanted to know, with a +humorous twinkle in her shrewd eyes. "I shouldn't wonder if you'd better +do your shopping with your mother, Lizzie; her judgment would likely be +quite as good as that Tipp girl's, and more in a line with what you can +afford. You should remember that Samuel isn't a rich man, and you'll +need good, substantial dresses that'll last. I remember I had a blue +Russell-cord poplin when I was married that I wore for <i>fifteen years</i>; +then I made it over for your mother, and she looked as pretty as a pink +in it for two more; then she outgrew it and I gave it away; but the +cloth in it was as good as new. A dress like that <i>pays</i>!"</p> + +<p>Elizabeth laughed somewhat impatiently. "I've heard about that wonderful +poplin ever since I can remember," she said. "I wonder you didn't save +it for me. But I don't want to buy any dresses that will last for +fifteen years. I'm sure Sam can buy me more dresses when I want them. I +may go to Boston; mayn't I, mother?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mrs. North looked wistfully at the pretty, eager face. She had looked +forward with pleasure—somewhat tempered, it is true, by the knowledge +of her meagre resources, yet still with pleasure—to the choosing of her +daughter's wedding gown, with all its dainty accessories of tulle and +lace. "I had thought of a silk muslin," she said rather faintly, "or +perhaps a cream satin—if you'd like it better, dear, and——"</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't like either of those," said the girl decidedly, "and +there's so much to do that it will really save time if you don't have to +bother with any of that; Evelyn (it was Evelyn and Elizabeth now) says +chiffon over liberty satin would be lovely if I can't afford the lace. +Of course I wouldn't buy a <i>cheap lace</i>."</p> + +<p>That night when Dr. North came home he tossed a handful of bills into +his daughter's lap. "For the wedding gown, Bess," he said; "worse luck +that you want one!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, why do you say that, you darling daddy?" murmured the girl, "when +I'm going to be so happy!" She was radiantly happy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> now, it appeared, +and the doctor's keen eyes grew moist as he looked at her.</p> + +<p>"Guess I was thinking about myself principally," he confessed gruffly, +"and about your mother. We're going to be lonesome; and I—don't like to +think of it."</p> + +<p>The girl's bright face clouded. "The boys will be at home summers," she +said, "and I'll come back to—visit often, you know. I sha'n't be far +away, daddy." She clung to him for a minute without a word, a faint +realisation of the irrevocable change so near at hand sweeping over her.</p> + +<p>"Of course you <i>will</i>, Betsey Jane!" vociferated the doctor, affecting a +vast jocularity for the purpose of concealing his feelings, which +threatened to become unmanageable. "If you don't show up in Innisfield +about once in so often I'll come to Boston with my bag and give that +young robber a dose that will make his hair curl."</p> + +<p>The next day the bride-elect journeyed to Boston carrying what appeared +to her a small fortune in her little hand-bag. "You've all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> been so +good!" she said. "I can just buy everything I need with all this."</p> + +<p>Evelyn Tripp met Elizabeth in South Station with open arms. "How well +you are looking, you <i>darling</i>!" she exclaimed effusively. "Now if we +can only keep those roses through all the shopping and dressmaking. It +is so exhausting; but I've everything planned for you down to the last +frill, and Madame Pryse has at last consented to make your gowns! If you +<i>knew</i> what I've been through with that woman! She simply will <i>not</i> +take a new customer; but when I mentioned the fact that you were to +marry a nephew of Mrs. Mortimer Van Duser she <i>finally</i> capitulated. I +could have <i>embraced</i> her!"</p> + +<p>"But Sam isn't Mrs. Van Duser's nephew, Evelyn. I believe his mother was +Mrs. Van Duser's second cousin."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, that doesn't signify. I'm sure, I had to say something +convincing, and Mrs. Van Duser was my <i>dernier resort</i>. Pryse will do +anything for you now, you'll see, my dear! And, oh, Betty dear, when I +was in at Altford's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> yesterday I just chanced upon the most <i>wonderful</i> +bargain in a lace robe, and had it sent up on approval. The most +exquisite thing, and marked down from a hundred and twenty-seven dollars +to—what do you think?—only eighty-nine, fifty! I was <i>so</i> pleased; for +I am sure it is <i>just</i> what you want. I got samples, too, of the most +bewitching silks for your dinner gown—you must have at least <i>one</i>, you +know, a simple, pretty crêpe de chine or something of the sort; and then +with a little frock or two for luncheons and card parties, your +tailor-made—that <i>must</i> be <i>good</i>—and your wedding gown for evening +affairs you will do nicely."</p> + +<p>"But, Evelyn," interrupted Elizabeth timidly, "I'm afraid I can't— You +know I didn't expect to buy but two dresses in Boston. Malvina Bennett +is making me a black silk, and——"</p> + +<p>Miss Tripp paused to smile and bow at a passing acquaintance; then she +turned protesting eyes upon the girl. "You <i>dear</i> child," she murmured, +"you're not to worry about a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> <i>single</i> thing. That's <i>just</i> what I mean +to spare you. I am determined you shall have just what you are going to +<i>need</i>; and if you haven't enough money with you, I can arrange +everything at Altford's without a bit of trouble; and of course you will +pay Pryse <i>her</i> bill when it is <i>perfectly</i> convenient for <i>you</i>. She +doesn't <i>expect</i> to be paid promptly. Really, I don't believe she would +have a particle of respect for a patron who insisted upon paying for a +gown the minute it was finished. First-class modistes and milliners, +too, are <i>all</i> that way; they know better than to send their bills too +soon. So <i>that</i> needn't bother you, dear; and of course Pryse <i>finds</i> +everything, which will save enormously on your outlay."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth felt very meek and hopelessly countrified as she laid off her +wraps in Miss Tripp's rather stuffy but ornate little apartment. Mrs. +Tripp, a faded, apologetic person smelling of rice-powder and sachet, +smiled vaguely upon her and murmured something about "Evy's wonderful +taste!"</p> + +<p>One thing at least was clear to Elizabeth as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> she lay wide-eyed in the +darkness that night, after an evening spent in the confusing examination +and comparison of fashion-plates and samples, and that was the +conviction that the "fortune" with which she had joyfully set forth that +morning had dwindled to a pitiful insufficiency before the multiplied +necessities imposed upon it by Miss Tripp's undeniable taste and +knowledge.</p> + +<p>She almost wished she had chosen to do her shopping with her mother and +Grandma Carroll, as she realised that she would be obliged to write home +for more money. But it was too late to change her mind now; and, after +all, Evelyn knew best as to what a bride about to move in polite circles +in Boston would require. She went to sleep at last and dreamed of +standing up to be married in a Russell-cord poplin (whatever that +wonderful fabric might be) which had already done duty for fifteen +years, and was "as good as new."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<p>As the twenty-first day of June drew on apace, Fate, in the slim, active +personality of Miss Evelyn Tripp, appeared to have taken the entire +North household firmly in hand. Events marched on in orderly, if +surprising sequence, beginning with the issuing of the invitations +bearing the name of Boston's most expensive firm of engravers on the +flap of the inner envelope.</p> + +<p>"Every one looks for that the very first thing," Miss Tripp had +announced conclusively; "and one simply <i>couldn't</i> have the name of a +department store or a cheap engraver!" The correct Miss Tripp shuddered +at the awful picture.</p> + +<p>"But these are so much more expensive than I had expected," demurred +Mrs. North, with a worried sigh. "I had intended ordering them at +Cooper's; they do them just as well there. Don't they sometimes leave +off the name?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> + +<p>Miss Tripp bestowed a pitying smile upon the questioner. "Indeed they +do, dear Mrs. North," she replied indulgently; "but <i>that</i> is merely a +subterfuge; one always suspects the worst when there is no name. It +<i>pays</i> to have the <i>best</i>."</p> + +<p>This latter undeniable dictum was found to be entirely applicable to +every detail of the forthcoming festivities, and involved such a +multiplicity of expensive items that Grandma Carroll was openly +indignant, and her more pliant daughter reduced to a state of bewildered +apathy.</p> + +<p>"I've been wanting to say to you for a long time, Miss Phipps, that our +Lizzie isn't a fashionable girl, and that her father is a poor man and +can't afford such doings," Mrs. Carroll protested in no uncertain tones. +"Now I can't for the life of me see why we should have an organist from +Boston to play the wedding march, when Liddy Green can do it just as +well, and her feelings is going to be hurt if she doesn't; and as for a +florist from Newton Centre to decorate the church, the young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> folks in +the Sunday-school would be glad to go to the woods after greens, and +they'll put 'em up for nothing. It's going to cost enough, the land +knows, but there's no use of piling up unnecessary expenses."</p> + +<p>Miss Tripp smiled winningly upon the exasperated old lady. "<i>Nothing</i> is +too good for dear Elizabeth <i>now</i>," she murmured, "and you know, dear +Mrs. Carroll, that a number of Boston people will be here—Mrs. Van +Duser, we <i>hope</i>, and—others."</p> + +<p>Grandma Carroll fixed piercing eyes upon the indefatigable Evelyn. "Of +course you <i>mean</i> well," she said crisply; "but if I was you I'd take a +rest; I'm afraid you're getting all tuckered out doing so much. And +considering that you ain't any relation I guess I'd let Lizzie's own +folks 'tend to the wedding from now on."</p> + +<p>There was no mistaking the meaning of this plain speech. For an instant +Evelyn Tripp's faded cheeks glowed with mortified colour; then she +recovered herself with a shrug of her elegant shoulders. Who, after all, +was Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> Carroll to interfere in this unwarranted manner?</p> + +<p>"It is <i>so</i> sweet of you to think of poor little me, dear Mrs. Carroll," +she said caressingly. "And indeed I <i>am</i> worn <i>almost</i> to a fringe; but +I am promising myself a good, long rest after everything is over. +Nothing would induce me to leave dear Elizabeth <i>now</i>. She couldn't +possibly get along without me." She dropped a forgiving kiss on top of +Grandma Carroll's cap and flitted away before that justly indignant lady +could reply.</p> + +<p>Miss Tripp was right. It would have been impossible for the +unsophisticated Norths to have completed the arrangements for the +entirely "correct" wedding which Miss Tripp had planned and was carrying +through in the face of unnumbered obstacles. As to the motives which +upheld her in her altruistic efforts in behalf of Elizabeth North Miss +Tripp was not entirely clear. It is not always desirable, if possible, +to classify and label one's actual motives, and Miss Tripp, for one, +rarely attempted the task. A vague emptiness of purpose,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> a vast +weariness of the unending routine of her own somewhat disappointing +career, a real, if superficial kindness of heart, and back of all an +entirely unacknowledged ambition to attain to that sacred inner circle +of Boston society wherein revolved the august Mrs. Mortimer Van Duser, +with other lesser luminaries, about the acknowledged "hub" of the +universe; toward which Miss Tripp had hitherto gravitated like a humble +asteroid, small, unnoticed, yet aspiring. One of the irreproachable +invitations had been duly sent to Mrs. Van Duser; but as yet there had +been no visible token that it had been received.</p> + +<p>"<i>Won't</i> you ask Mr. Brewster if he will not add a personal invitation?" +entreated Miss Tripp of the bride-elect, who had appeared alarmingly +indifferent when the importance of this hoped-for guest was duly set +forth in her hearing. "You don't seem to <i>realise</i> what it would mean to +you both to have Mrs. Van Duser present. Let me persuade him to +write—or perhaps better to call; one cannot be <i>too</i> attentive to a +person in her position."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> + +<p>But Sam Brewster had merely laughed and pulled the little curl behind +his sweetheart's ear when she spoke of Mrs. Van Duser. "Really, I don't +care whether the old lady comes or not," he said, without meaning any +disrespect. "She's a stiff, uncomfortable sort of person; you wouldn't +like her, Betty. I went there to dinner once, and, my word, it was +enough for me!"</p> + +<p>"But," persisted Elizabeth, mindful of Miss Tripp's solemn exhortations, +"if she's a relation of yours, oughtn't you to——"</p> + +<p>"She was mother's second cousin, I believe; not much of a relation to +me, you see. And seriously, little girl, we can't travel in her class at +all; and we don't want to, even if we could."</p> + +<p>"But why?" demanded Elizabeth, slightly piqued by his tone; "don't you +think I am good enough?"</p> + +<p>"You're a hundred times too good, in my opinion!" And the young engineer +kissed the pouting lips with an earnestness which admitted of no teasing +doubts. "It's only that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> Mrs. Van D. is rich and proud and—er—queer, +and that she won't take any notice of us. I'm glad you sent her an +invitation, though; that was a civil acknowledgment of a slight +obligation on my side. I hope she won't send us a present, and—I don't +believe she will."</p> + +<p>The two were examining the bewildering array of glittering objects which +had been arriving steadily for a week past, by mail and express; in +cases left by Boston firms, and in dainty boxes tied with white ribbons +from near-by friends and neighbours. The nebulous reports of Elizabeth's +wedding outfit, circulated from mouth to mouth and expanding in rainbow +tints as they travelled, were reflected in the shining cut glass and +silver which was spread out before the wondering eyes of the young +couple.</p> + +<p>When Aunt Miranda Carroll heard that Elizabeth's trousseau included a +dozen of everything (all hand-embroidered), a lace wedding-dress that +cost over a hundred dollars and a pale blue velvet dinner gown lined +with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> taffeta, she instantly abandoned the idea she had in mind of four +dozen fine cotton sheets, six dozen pillow-slips and fifty good, +substantial huck towels in favour of a cut-glass punch-bowl of gigantic +proportions. "It would be just the thing for parties in Boston," her +daughter Marian thought.</p> + +<p>And Uncle Caleb North, at the urgent advice of his wife (who had heard +in the meantime from Aunt Miranda), exchanged his cheque for a hundred +dollars for a chest of silver knives with mother-of-pearl handles. They +looked so much richer than the cheque, which would have to be concealed +in an inconspicuous envelope. Following the shining example of Aunt +Miranda and Uncle Caleb, other relatives of lesser substance contributed +cut-glass bowls and dishes of every conceivable design and for every +known contingency; silver forks and spoons of singular shapes and sizes, +suggesting elaborate course luncheons and fashionable dinners. While of +lace-trimmed and embroidered centre-pieces and doylies there was a +plenitude which would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> set forth a modest linen draper. Fragile +vases, hand-painted fans, perfume bottles, silver trifles of unimagined +uses, sofa pillows and gilt clocks crowded the tables and overflowed +onto the floor and mantelpiece.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth surveyed the collection with sparkling eyes. "Aren't they +lovely?" she demanded, slipping her hand within her lover's arm; "and +aren't you surprised, Sam, to see how many friends we have?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am—awfully surprised," acknowledged the young man. His brows +were drawn over meditative eyes as he examined a shining carving-set +with impossible ivory handles. "What are we going to do with them all?" +he propounded at length.</p> + +<p>"Do with them? Why use them, I suppose," responded Elizabeth vaguely. +"Do see these darling little cups, all gold and roses, and these +coffee-spoons with enamelled handles—these make eight dozen +coffee-spoons, Sam!"</p> + +<p>"Hum!" mused the unappreciative engineer. "We might set up a restaurant, +as far as coffee-spoons go."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> + +<p>Elizabeth was bending rapturously over a lace fan, sewn thick with +spangles. "I feel so rich with all these lovely things," she murmured. +"I never dreamed of having so many."</p> + +<p>She made such an exquisite picture in her glowing youth amid the sparkle +and glitter of the dainty trifles that it is little wonder that Samuel +Brewster lost his usually level head for the moment. "You ought always +to have all the pretty things you want, darling," he whispered; "for you +are the prettiest and sweetest girl alive."</p> + +<p>Later in the day the ubiquitous Miss Tripp was discovered in the act of +artfully concealing Mrs. Carroll's gift, made by her own faithful hands, +under a profusion of lace-edged doylies lately arrived from a distant +cousin. "There!" she exclaimed, with an air of relief, "those big +gingham aprons and the dish-towels and dusters did look so absurd with +all the other lovely things; they won't show now." And she planted a +silver fern-dish in the midst and surveyed the effect with her head +tilted thoughtfully. "Wasn't it <i>quaint</i> of Mrs. Carroll<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> to make all +those useful things? You can give them to your maid afterward; they +always expect to be found in aprons nowadays—if not frocks. Really, I +draw the line at frocks, with the wages one is obliged to pay; and I +should advise you to."</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to have a maid," said Elizabeth. "I can cook, and I like +to."</p> + +<p>Miss Tripp whirled about and caught the girl in her arms with an amused +laugh. "You dear, romantic child!" she cried. "Did it have the +<i>prettiest</i> dreams about love in a cottage, and the young wife with her +sleeves rolled up cooking delicious impossibilities for a doting +husband? That's all very well, my dear; but, seriously, it won't do in a +Boston apartment-house. You won't have a minute to yourself after the +season once begins, and of course after a while you'll be expected to +entertain—quite simply, you know, a luncheon or two, with cards; +possibly a dinner; you can do it beautifully with all these lovely +things for your table. <i>I'll</i> help you; so don't get frightened at the +idea. But <i>fancy</i> your doing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> all that without a maid! You mustn't +<i>think</i> of it! And I am sure dear Mrs. Van Duser will give you the same +advice."</p> + +<p>The soft pink in Elizabeth's cheeks deepened to rose. "Mrs. Van Duser +isn't coming to the wedding," she said, in a faintly defiant tone.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Did she send you——"</p> + +<p>"She sent regrets," said Elizabeth coldly.</p> + +<p>Miss Tripp's eyebrows expressed the profoundest disappointment. "I am so +<i>sorry</i>," she murmured, suddenly aware that she was exceedingly weary of +the North wedding. "It will <i>spoil everything</i>."</p> + +<p>"I can't see why," returned Elizabeth with spirit, not realising that +Miss Tripp's comment applied solely to her own feelings. "It won't +prevent my being married to Sam; and Sam says he is glad she is not +coming. She must be a stiff, pokey sort of a person, and I am sure it +will be pleasanter without her. She isn't hardly any relation to Sam, +anyway, and I don't think I care to know her."</p> + +<p>"My <i>dear</i>!" expostulated Miss Tripp, "you'll see things <i>very</i> +differently some day, I <i>hope</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> And I am glad to say that these +relationships <i>do</i> count in Boston, if not in other parts of the world, +and you cannot prevent people from knowing that they exist."</p> + +<p>Like a skilful general Miss Tripp was sweeping her field clear of her +disappointment, preparatory to marshalling her forces for a new +campaign. "Did Mrs. Van Duser send cards, or did she——"</p> + +<p>"She wrote a note—a stiff, disagreeable note."</p> + +<p>"Would you mind showing it to me, dear?"</p> + +<p>Elizabeth produced a thick white envelope from the little embroidered +pocket at her belt. "You may read it," she said; "then I mean to tear it +up."</p> + +<p>Miss Tripp bent almost worshipful eyes upon the large, square sheet. +"Mrs. J. Mortimer Van Duser" (she read) "begs to convey her +acknowledgments to Dr. and Mrs. North for their invitation to the +marriage of their daughter, and regrets that she cannot be present. Mrs. +Van Duser begs to add that she will communicate further with Mr. and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +Mrs. Samuel Brewster upon their arrival in Boston upon a matter of +moment to them both."</p> + +<p>"Isn't that a disagreeable-sounding note?" demanded Elizabeth, her +pretty chin tilted at an aggressive angle. "I just know I shouldn't like +her from that letter. But I'm sure I can't think what she wants to say +to us 'upon our arrival in Boston.'"</p> + +<p>"<i>My dear!</i>" exclaimed Miss Tripp, with a horrified stare, "what <i>can</i> +you be thinking of? That note is in the most perfect form. I am <i>so</i> +glad you showed it to me! 'Something of moment to you both,' what can it +mean but a gift—perhaps a generous cheque, and <i>undoubtedly</i> a +reception to introduce you. My <i>dear</i>! Mrs. Van Duser is said to be +worth <i>millions</i>, and what is more, and far, <i>far</i> better, she moves in +the most <i>exclusive</i> society. You dear, lucky girl, I <i>congratulate</i> you +upon the recognition you have received. <i>Tear it up</i>—indeed, you will +do nothing of the sort! I'll put it here right by this cut-glass vase, +where every one will see it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> + +<p>Elizabeth pouted. "Mother didn't like it," she said, "and grandma +laughed over it, and Sam told me to forget it; I don't see why you——"</p> + +<p>"<i>Because I know</i>," intoned Miss Tripp solemnly. "I only hope you won't +forget poor little me when you're fairly launched in Mrs. Van Duser's +set."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth gazed reflectively at her friend. "Oh, I couldn't forget you," +she said; "you've been so good to me. But," she added, with what Miss +Tripp mentally termed delicious naïveté, "I don't suppose we shall give +many large parties, just at first."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<p>"I am of the opinion," wrote the sapient Dr. Johnson, "that marriages +would in general be as happy, and often more so, if they were all made +by the Lord Chancellor, upon a due consideration of the circumstances +and characters, without the parties thereto having any choice in the +matter."</p> + +<p>That this radical matrimonial reform did not find favour in the eyes of +his own or any succeeding generation brands it as visionary, +impracticable, not to be seriously entertained, in short, by any one not +a philosopher and not himself in love. But could the benevolent shade of +Dr. Johnson be let into the details of a fashionable modern wedding, it +is safe to predict that he might recommend a new civic function to be +administered either by the Lord Chancellor, or by some equally +responsible person for the purpose of regulating by sumptuary law the +bridal trousseau and the wedding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> presents. The renowned Georgian sage +could not fail to recognise the relation which these too often +unconsidered items bear to the welfare of the private citizen in +particular and to the weal of mankind in general. And who can deny that +all legislation is, or should be, centred chiefly on these very ends.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/ill_005.jpg" width="400" height="266" alt=""Never had there been such a wedding in Innisfield"" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"Never had there been such a wedding in Innisfield"</span> +</div> + +<p>Such sober reflections as the above, though perhaps forming an +unavoidable background in the minds of several of the older persons +present, did not cloud the rapturous happiness of Elizabeth Carroll +North, as she paced slowly up the aisle of the Innisfield Presbyterian +church on the arm of her father, the folds of her "Pryse gown," as Miss +Tripp was careful to designate it, sweeping gracefully behind her. The +bridesmaids in pale rose-colour and the maid of honour in white; the +tiny flower-girls bearing baskets of roses; the ushers with their +boutonnières of orange buds; the waving palms and the sounding music +each represented a separate Waterloo, fought and won by the Napoleonic +Miss Tripp, who looked on, wan but self-satisfied,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> from a modest +position in the audience. Never had there been such a wedding in +Innisfield. Everybody said so in loud, buzzing whispers. Sadie +Buckthorn, who was engaged to Milton Scrymger, informed her mamma that +she should be married in church in October, and that her bridesmaids +should wear yellow. And Bob Garrett, a clerk in a Boston department +store, told his sweetheart that he guessed the wedding was about their +speed, and added that he knew a swell floor-walker who would look simply +great as best man.</p> + +<p>As for the young couple chiefly concerned they might have walked on air +instead of on the roses strewed in their path by the little +flower-girls; and the hundreds of curious eyes fastened upon them were +as dim, painted eyes upon a tapestried wall. They only saw each other +and the gate of that ancient Eden of the race opening before them.</p> + +<p>That same evening, after all was over, and when, as the village reporter +phrased it with happy originality, "the young couple had departed upon +their wedding journey amid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> showers of rice and roses," Dr. North sought +his tired wife, busy clearing away the tokens of the late festivities.</p> + +<p>"Come, Lizzie," he said kindly, "we may as well get what rest we can; +to-morrow'll be another day, and we've got to go jogging on about our +middle-aged business as usual."</p> + +<p>Mrs. North looked up at him with tearful eyes. "I can't seem to realise +that Bessie's gone to stay," she said tremulously. "I just caught myself +thinking what I'd say to her when she came home, and what we'd——"</p> + +<p>Richard North passed his arm about the wife of his youth. "I—hope he'll +be good to her," he said, his voice shaken with feeling. "I—I believe +he's all right. If he isn't I'll—" He shrugged his broad shoulders +impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm not a bit worried about <i>Sam</i>," said Mrs. North; "I know enough +about men. But, O Dick, I'm going to miss my—baby!"</p> + +<p>He held her close for a minute while she sobbed on his shoulder; then +the two went slowly up the stairs together, leaving the disordered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +rooms and the fading roses in the luminous dark of the June night.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The Boston apartment to which young Samuel Brewster brought his bride in +the early part of September was of Miss Evelyn Tripp's choosing. The +engineer had demurred at its distance from his work, but Elizabeth had +said she preferred to be near Evelyn; and Evelyn said that the location, +if not strictly fashionable, was at least <i>near</i> the people they ought +to know.</p> + +<p>The rent was thirty-eight dollars a month. And the rooms were small, +inconvenient and old-fashioned. "But," as Miss Tripp kindly pointed out, +"if one is obliged to choose between a small, old-fashioned suite in a +really good locality and a light airy one in the unfashionable suburbs +of South Boston one <i>ought</i> not to hesitate."</p> + +<p>Mrs. North and Grandma Carroll had seen to putting the furnishings in +place; and when the two arrived at the close of a hot afternoon they +found everything in the exquisite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> order with which Elizabeth had been +happily familiar all her life.</p> + +<p>She ran from room to room laughing and crying in the same breath. "Oh, +Sam, dear, do see, there is ice in the refrigerator and a cunning little +jar of cream and a print of butter; and here is a roast chicken and some +of grandma's rolls and one of mother's delicious lemon pies! How hard +they must have worked. I'll put on one of these big aprons, and we'll +have supper in no time!"</p> + +<p>And Sam Brewster, as he watched his wife's pretty little figure moving +lightly about her new kitchen, heaved a mighty sigh of content. "It +seems almost too good to be true!" he murmured. "And to think it is for +always!"</p> + +<p>It was not until they had eaten their first blissful meal together, and +had washed the dishes, also together, in the dark little kitchen—an +operation in which the young engineer covered himself with glory in his +masterly handling of the dish-towel—that Elizabeth discovered a large +square envelope, bearing the Van Duser crest, and addressed to herself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + +<p>She opened it in the circle of Sam's arms, as the two reposed on their +one small sofa in the room bearing the dignified title of reception +hall.</p> + +<p>"Why—what in the name of common sense is she giving us?" was Sam +Brewster's startled exclamation as his quick eye took in the contents of +the sheet.</p> + +<p>"I—I don't understand," gasped Elizabeth, growing hot and cold and +faint, "I can't think—how it could have happened."</p> + +<p>Yet Mrs. Van Duser's words, though few, were sufficiently succinct. They +were inspired, as she afterward confided to her rector, Dr. Gallatin, by +the most altruistic sentiments of which the human heart is capable. +"Truth," Mrs. Van Duser had enunciated majestically, "never finds itself +at a loss. And in administering so just a rebuke to a young person +manifestly appointed to fill a humble station in life I feel that I am +in a measure assuming the prerogatives of Providence."</p> + +<p>In this exalted rôle Mrs. Van Duser had written to Elizabeth North, +whose miserable,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> shamed eyes avoided those of her husband after she had +realised its contents. The letter enclosed a bill for one hundred and +twenty-five dollars from Madame Léonie Pryse, for the material, making +and findings for one blue velvet reception gown. There was a pencilled +note attached, to the effect that as Madame Pryse had been referred to +Mrs. Van Duser, she begged to present the bill, with the hope that it +would be settled at an early date. Mrs. Van Duser's own majestic hand +had added a brief communication, over which the young engineer scowled +fiercely. He read:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"As Mrs. Brewster's personal expenses, either before or after her +marriage, can have no possible interest for Mrs. Van Duser, Mrs. +Van Duser begs to bring to Mrs. Brewster's attention the enclosed +statement. Mrs. Van Duser wishes to inform Mrs. Brewster that she +has taken the pains to send for the tradeswoman in question, and +that she has elicited from her facts which seem to show an entire +misapprehension of the commoner ethical requirements on the part of +the person addressed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Mrs. Van Duser begs to add in the interests of society at large +and of the person in whom, as a distant relative, she has +interested herself somewhat, that she distinctly frowns upon all +extravagance. Mrs. Van Duser trusts that this communication, which +she begs to assure Mrs. Brewster is penned in a spirit of Christian +charity, will effectually prevent further errors on the part of so +young and inexperienced a person as Mrs. Brewster appears to be."</p></div> + +<p>"Well?" Samuel Brewster's blue eyes, grown unexpectedly keen and +penetrating, rested questioningly upon his bride.</p> + +<p>"Don't look at me like that—please, Sam!" faltered Elizabeth. "I—I +didn't mean to buy that dress; truly I didn't. I had paid for all the +others, and I had twenty-seven dollars left, and Evelyn told me that +Madame Pryse had a—a remnant of blue velvet which she would make up for +me for a song. And—I—let her do it. I thought she would send the bill +to me, and I would——"</p> + +<p>"Did she send it to you?"</p> + +<p>"Y-yes, twice. But Evelyn said for me not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> to worry. She said Madame +Pryse's customers never paid her right away, and there was so much +else—just at the last, I didn't like to ask daddy; Uncle Caleb always +gives me fifty dollars for my birthday, and I thought—" Elizabeth's +voice had grown fainter as she proceeded with her halting explanations. +But she started up with a little cry, "Oh, Sam! what are you going to +do?"</p> + +<p>For her husband was examining the bill with an expression about his +mouth which she had never seen there before. "I don't see that you have +been credited with the twenty-seven dollars," he said quietly. Then with +a sorry attempt at a smile, "These <i>mesdames</i> appear to pile up the +items sky-high when it comes to building a gown; better have a cast-iron +contract with 'em, I should say, and pay up when the job's finished."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth's tear-stained face was hidden on her husband's shoulder. +"I—I spent the twenty-seven dollars for—for gloves," she confessed. +"Evelyn said I didn't have enough long—ones."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> + +<p>"<i>Confound Evelyn!</i>" said the young man strongly. "Come, Betty, dear, +you're not to let this thing bother you, it isn't worth it. I'll pay +this bill to-morrow. It's lucky I've the money in the bank; and I'll +write to Mrs. Van D., too." He clenched his fist as though he would like +to use something more powerful than his pen.</p> + +<p>"But, Sam, you oughtn't to—I can't let you pay—for——"</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess I can buy my wife a dress if I want to, and that blue +velvet's a stunner. You haven't worn it yet, have you, dear? but when +you do you'll look like a posy in it. Come, sweetheart, this was a tough +proposition, I'll admit, but don't you let it bowl you over completely. +And, Betty, you won't tell the Tripp lady about it, will you? +I—er—couldn't stand for that, you know."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth stole one look at the strong, kind face bent toward her. For +the first time, though happily not for the last, she was realising the +immense, the immeasurable comfort to be found in her husband's love. +"I'll never—do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> such a thing again," she quavered. "I knew all the time +I was being extravagant; but I didn't expect—I never supposed——"</p> + +<p>"You couldn't very well have foreseen the Pryse woman's astonishing +business methods, nor Mrs. Van D.'s Christian forbearance." His tone was +bitter as he spoke the last words. "But what I can't seem to understand +is how that bill ever found its way to my esteemed sixteenth cousin."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth's eyes overflowed again. "I'm afraid it was Evelyn," she +stammered. "She—told Madame Pryse that you—were Mrs. Van Duser's +nephew."</p> + +<p>Sam Brewster whistled. Then he fell into a fit of revery so prolonged +that Elizabeth nestled uneasily in the strong circle of his arm. He was +reviewing the events of the immediate past in the cold light of the +present, and the result was not altogether complimentary to Miss Tripp.</p> + +<p>"I say, little girl," he said at length, looking down at the +tear-stained face against his shoulder, "I don't want to be +disagreeable, but—er—I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> can't for the life of me see why Miss Tripp +should interest herself so—intimately—in our affairs. Don't you think +you might—er—discourage her a bit?"</p> + +<p>Elizabeth sighed reminiscently. "I wouldn't hurt Evelyn's feelings for +the world," she said, "but I—I'll try."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<p>The very next morning as Elizabeth was engaged in putting the finishing +touches upon the arrangements of her new home, with all the keen delight +of nest-building, so strong in some women and so utterly lacking in +others, Miss Evelyn Tripp was announced, and a moment later stepped +airily from the laborious little elevator. "Oh, here you are <i>at last</i>, +you <i>darling</i> girl!" she exclaimed, clasping and kissing Elizabeth with +<i>empressement</i>. "I knew you were expected last night—indeed, I was here +all the morning helping, but as I told your mother and that dear, quaint +grandmamma of yours, I wouldn't have intruded upon your very first +evening <i>for the world</i>! How delightfully well and pretty you are +looking, and isn't this the <i>sweetest</i> little place? and oh! I nearly +forgot, <i>did</i> you find Mrs. Van Duser's note? I assure you I pounced +upon <i>that</i>, and took good care to put it where you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> would both see it +the <i>very</i> first thing. I don't mind confessing that I am simply +devoured with <i>curiosity</i>. <i>Was</i> it a cheque, dear? And <i>is</i> she going +to do something nice for you in a social way?"</p> + +<p>Elizabeth's cheeks burned uncomfortably. "It was only a—a friendly—at +least I think—I am sure she meant it to be a friendly letter. She said +so, anyway. Sam put it in his pocket and took it away with him," she +made haste to add, forestalling the urgent appeal in Miss Tripp's +luminous gaze.</p> + +<p>"Well, I am sure that was <i>most</i> sweet and gracious of Mrs. Van Duser. +Didn't you find it so, my dear? So <i>dear</i> of her to personally welcome +you to <i>Boston</i>! You'll call, of course, as soon as she returns from her +country place. She will expect it, I am sure; such women are <i>most</i> +punctilious in their code of social requirements, and you can't be <i>too</i> +careful not to offend. You'll forgive me for saying this much, won't +you, dear?"</p> + +<p>Elizabeth was conscious of a distinct sense of displeasure as she met +Miss Tripp's anxiously<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> solicitous eyes. "You are very good, Evelyn," +she said, "but Sam—Mr. Brewster—thinks it will be best for us not +to—" She paused, her candid face suffused with blushes. "I'd—prefer +not to talk about Mrs. Van Duser, if you please. We don't <i>ever</i> expect +to go and see her."</p> + +<p>The tactful Miss Tripp looked sadly puzzled, but she felt that it would +not be the part of wisdom to press the issue for the moment. Her face +wreathed itself anew in forgiving smiles as she flitted about the little +rooms. "<i>Isn't</i> this the most convenient, cosy little apartment?" she +twittered. "I am <i>so</i> glad I was able to secure it for you; I assure you +I was obliged to use all of my diplomacy with the agent. And your pretty +things <i>do</i> light up the dark corners so nicely. And speaking of corners +somehow reminds me, I have found you a <i>perfect treasure</i> of a maid; but +you must take her at once. She's a cousin of our Marie, and has always +been employed by the best people. She was with Mrs. Paget Smythe last, I +believe. She told Marie last night that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> she would be willing to come to +you for only twenty dollars a month, and that's <i>very</i> reasonable, +considering the fact that she is willing to do part of the laundry +work,—the towels, sheets and plain things, you know. <i>Expensive?</i> +Indeed it's not, dear—for <i>Boston</i>. Why, I could tell you of plenty of +people who are <i>glad</i> to pay twenty-five and put all their laundry out. +I'd advise you to engage Annita without delay. Really, you couldn't do +better."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth shook her head. "I mean to do my own work," she said +decidedly. "I shall want something to do while Sam is away, and why not +this when I—like it?"</p> + +<p>"But you won't like it after a while, my poor child, when the shine is +once worn off your new pans and things, and <i>think</i> of your hands! It's +absolutely impossible to keep one's nails in any sort of condition, and +besides the heat from the gas-range is simply <i>ruinous</i> for the +complexion. Didn't you <i>know</i> that? Of course you are all milk and roses +now, but how long do you suppose that will last, if you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> are to be +cooped up in a hot, stuffy little kitchen from morning till night?" Miss +Tripp paused dramatically, her eyes wide with sympathy and apprehension.</p> + +<p>"But we—I am sure we oughtn't to afford to keep a maid," demurred +Elizabeth in a small, weak voice. "So please don't——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course, it is nothing to me, my dear," and Miss Tripp arose with +a justly offended air. "I <i>thought</i> I was doing you a kindness when I +asked Annita to call and see you this morning. It will be perfectly easy +for you to tell her that you don't care to engage her. But when it comes +to <i>affording</i>, <i>I</i> think you can scarcely afford to waste your good +looks over a cooking range. It is your duty to your husband to keep +yourself young and lovely as long as you possibly can. It is only <i>too</i> +easy to lose it all, and then—" Miss Tripp concluded her remarks with a +shrug of her shapely shoulders, which aroused the too impressionable +Elizabeth to vague alarms.</p> + +<p>"I am sure," faltered the bride of two months,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> "that Sam would like me +just as well even if I——"</p> + +<p>"Of course you <i>think</i> so, dear, every woman does till it is <i>too +late</i>," observed Miss Tripp plaintively. "I'm sure I <i>hope</i> it will turn +out differently in your case. But I could tell you things about some of +my married friends that would— Well, all I have to say is that <i>I</i> +never dared try it—matrimony, I mean—and if I were in your place— But +there! I <i>mustn't</i> meddle. I solemnly promised myself years and years +ago that I wouldn't. The trouble with me is that I love my friends <i>too</i> +fondly, and I simply cannot endure to see them making mistakes which +might <i>so easily</i> have been avoided. I'm coming to take you out +to-morrow, and we'll lunch down town in the nicest, most inexpensive +little place. And—<i>dear</i>, if you finally decide <i>not</i> to engage Annita, +<i>would</i> you mind telling her that through a <i>slight misunderstanding</i> +you had secured some one else? These high-class servants are <i>so easily</i> +offended, you know, and on account of <i>our Marie</i>—a perfect +<i>treasure</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> Oh, <i>thank</i> you! <i>Au revoir</i>—till to-morrow!"</p> + +<p>Perhaps it is not altogether to be wondered at that immediately after +Miss Tripp's departure Elizabeth found occasion to glance into her +mirror. Yes, she was undoubtedly prettier than ever, she decided, but +suppose it should be true about the withering heat of the gas-range; and +then there were the rose-tinted, polished nails, to which Elizabeth had +only lately begun to pay particular attention. The day's work had +already left perceptible blemishes upon their dainty perfection. +Elizabeth recalled her mother's hands, marred with constant household +labour, with a kind of terror. Her own would look the same before many +years had passed, and would Sam—<i>could</i> he love her just the same when +the delicate beauty of which he was so fond and proud had faded? And +what, after all, was twenty dollars a month when one looked upon it as +the price of one's happiness?</p> + +<p>Elizabeth sat down soberly with pencil and paper to contemplate the +matter arithmetically.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> Thirty-eight dollars for rent, and twenty +dollars for a maid, subtracted from one hundred and twenty—the latter +sum representing the young engineer's monthly salary—left an undeniable +balance of sixty-two dollars to be expended in food, clothing and other +expenses. After half an hour of careful calculation, based on what she +could remember of Innisfield prices, Elizabeth had reached very +satisfactory conclusions. Clothing would cost next to nothing—for the +first year, at least, and food for two came to a ridiculously small sum. +There appeared, in short, to be a very handsome remainder left over for +what Sam called "contingencies." This would include, of course, the +fixed amount which they had prudently resolved to lay by on the arrival +of every cheque. This much had already been settled between them. Sam +had a promising nest-egg in a Boston bank, and both had dreams of its +ultimate hatching into a house and lot, or into some comfortable +interest-bearing bonds. Elizabeth was firmly resolved to be prudent and +helpful to her husband in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> every possible way; but was it not her duty +to keep herself young and lovely as long as possible? The idea so +cogently presented to her attention by Miss Tripp not an hour since +appeared to have become so much her own that she did not recognise it as +borrowed property.</p> + +<p>It was at this psychological instant that a second summons announced the +presence of a certain Annita McMurtry in the entrance hall below. "Did +Mrs. Brewster wish to see this person?"</p> + +<p>Elizabeth hesitated for the fraction of a minute. "You may tell her to +come up," was the message that finally found its way to the hall-boy's +attentive ear.</p> + +<p>Annita McMurtry was a neatly attired young woman, with a penetrating +black eye, a ready smile and a well-poised, not to say supercilious +bearing. In response to Elizabeth's timid questions she vouchsafed the +explanation that she could "do everything" and was prepared "to take +full charge."</p> + +<p>"And by that you mean?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I mean that the lady where I work doesn't have to worry herself about +anything. I take full charge of everything—ordering, cooking, laundry +and waiting on table, and I don't mind wiping up the floors in a small +apartment like this. Window-cleaning and rugs the janitor attends to, of +course."</p> + +<p>"When—could you come, if I—decide to engage you?" asked Elizabeth, +finding herself vaguely uncomfortable under the scrutiny of the alert +black eyes.</p> + +<p>"If you please, madam, I'd rather speak first about wages and days out. +I'd like my alternate Thursdays and three evenings a week; and will you +be going to theatres often with supper parties after? I don't care for +that, unless I get paid extra. I left my last place on account of it; I +can't stand it to be up all hours of the night and do my work next day."</p> + +<p>"I should think not!" returned Elizabeth, with ready sympathy. "We +should not require anything of the sort. As to wages, Miss Tripp said +you would be willing to come for twenty dollars. It seemed very high to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +me for only two in the family." Elizabeth spoke in a very dignified way; +she felt that she appeared quite the experienced housekeeper in the eyes +of the maid, who was surveying her with a faint, inscrutable smile.</p> + +<p>"I never work for a family where there is more than two," said Miss +McMurtry pointedly. "I could make my thirty-five a month easy if I +would. But Miss Tripp must have misunderstood me; twenty-two was what I +said, but you'll find I earn it. I'll come to-morrow morning about this +time, and thank you kindly, madam." The young woman arose with a proud +composure of manner, which put the finishing touch upon the interview, +and accomplished her exit with the practised ease of a society woman.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if I ought to have done it? And what will Sam say?" Elizabeth +asked herself, ready to run undignifiedly after the girl, whose retiring +footsteps were already dying away down the corridor. But Sam was found +to be of the opinion that his Elizabeth had done exactly right. He +hadn't thought of hiring a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> servant, to be sure, but he ought, +manifestly, to have been reminded of his omission. It was surely not to +be expected that a man's wife should spend her time and strength toiling +over his food in a dark little den of a kitchen. No decent fellow would +stand for that sort of thing. He wanted his wife to have time to go out, +he said; to enjoy herself; to see pictures and hear music. As for the +expense, he guessed they could swing it; he was sure to get another rise +in salary before long. And much more of the same sort, all of which +proved pleasantly soothing to Elizabeth's somewhat disturbed conscience.</p> + +<p>"I suppose Grandma Carroll would say I was a lazy girl," she sighed.</p> + +<p>"You didn't marry Grandma Carroll, dear," Sam told her, with a humorous +twinkle in his eyes which Elizabeth thought delightfully witty.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<p>Whatever the opinion of the unthinking many on the subject of honest +work as related to the happiness of the individual, there can be but one +just conclusion as to the effect of continued idleness, whether it be +illustrated in the person of the perennially tired gentleman who +frequents our back doors at certain seasons of the year, or in the +refined woman who has emptied her hands of all rightful activities.</p> + +<p>At the end of her first week's experience with her new maid Elizabeth +found herself for the first time in her wholesome, well-ordered life at +a loss for something to do. When Miss McMurtry stated that she would +take full charge of Mrs. Brewster's ménage she meant what she said, and +Elizabeth's inexperienced efforts to play the rôle of mistress, as she +had conceived it, met with a civil but firm resistance on the part of +the maid.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, Mrs. Brewster, I had expected to wipe up the dining-room floor +this morning, after I have finished my kitchen work," she would announce +frostily, in response to Elizabeth's timid suggestion. "I have my +regular days for things, an' I don't need to be told. I've already +spoken to the janitor's boy about the rugs, an' you'll please to leave +some money with me to pay him. Just put it on the kitchen dresser." And +"No, madam, I shall not have time to make an apple-pie this morning; I +generally order pastry of the baker when it's called for. Yes, Mrs. +Brewster, those were baker's rolls you had on the breakfast-table. I +ordered the man to stop regularly. You prefer home-made bread, you say? +I'm sorry, but I never bake. It is quite unnecessary in the city."</p> + +<p>The young woman's emphasis on the last word delicately conveyed her +knowledge of Mrs. Brewster's country origin, and her pitying disapproval +of it.</p> + +<p>Miss Tripp, to whom Elizabeth confided her new perplexities, merely +laughed indulgently.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> "You mustn't interfere, if you want Annita to stay +with you," she counselled. "Just keep religiously out of your kitchen, +my dear, and everything will go on peacefully. We never think of such a +thing as dictating to Marie, and we're careful not to make too many +suggestions. Of course you don't know what a perfectly <i>dreadful</i> time +people are having with servants here in town. My <i>dear</i>, I could tell +you things that would frighten you! Just fancy having your prettiest +<i>lingerie</i> disappear bit by bit, and your silk stockings worn to rags, +and not <i>daring</i> to say a word!"</p> + +<p>"I have lost two handkerchiefs since Annita came," said Elizabeth +doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>handkerchiefs</i>, nobody expects to keep those forever. Really, do +you know when I treat myself to a half dozen new ones I conceal them +from Marie as long as I possibly can, for fear she'll decide I have too +many."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth's artlessly inquiring gaze provoked another burst of well-bred +merriment. "You dear little innocent, you <i>do</i> amuse me so! Don't you +see our good Marie doesn't propose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> to encourage me in senseless +extravagance in laundry; you see there is no telling to what lengths I +might go if left to myself, and it all takes Marie's time. No, I don't +pretend to know what she does with them all. Gives them to her +relations, perhaps. She <i>couldn't</i> use them all, and I give her a half +dozen at Christmas every year. Why, they're all that way, and both Marie +and Annita would draw the line at one's best silk stockings, I am sure. +We think Marie <i>perfectly honest</i>; that is to say, I would trust her +with everything I have, feeling sure that she would use her discretion +in selecting for herself only the things I ought not to want any longer. +<i>They know</i>, I can tell you, and they despise parsimonious people who +try to make their old things do forever. You may as well make up your +mind to it, my dear, and when you are fortunate enough to secure a +really good, competent servant like Annita, you <i>mustn't</i> see <i>too</i> +much."</p> + +<p>Just why Elizabeth upon the heels of this enlightening conversation +should have elected to purchase for herself two new handkerchiefs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> of a +somewhat newer pattern than the ones she had lost was not entirely clear +even to herself.</p> + +<p>There had been a new, crisp bill in her purse for a number of weeks +nestling comfortably against the twin gold pieces her father had given +her on the day of her wedding. Sam had put it there himself, and had +joked with her on her economical habits when he had found it unbroken on +what he laughingly called her next pay day. "Seriously, though, little +wife of mine, I never want you to be out of money," he had said; "if I +am cad enough to forget you mustn't hesitate to remind me. And you need +never feel obliged to tell me what you've done with it."</p> + +<p>This wasn't the ideal arrangement for either; but neither husband nor +wife was aware of it, nor of the fact that in the small, dainty purse +which lay open between them lurked a possible danger to their common +happiness. Elizabeth had been brought up in the old-fashioned way, her +wants supplied by her careful mother, and an occasional pocket-piece by +her overworked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> father, who always referred to the coins transferred +from his pocket to her own as "money to buy a stick of candy with." The +sum represented by the twin gold pieces and the crisp bills appeared to +contain unlimited opportunities for enjoyment. A bunch of carnations for +the dining table and a box of bonbons excused the long stroll down +Tremont Street, during which Miss Tripp carried on the education of her +protégée on subjects urban without interruption.</p> + +<p>"If I had only thought to stop at the bank this morning," observed Miss +Tripp regretfully, "I should simply have insisted upon your lunching +with me at Purcell's; then we might have gone to the matinée afterward; +there is the dearest, brightest little piece on now—'Mademoiselle +Rosette.' You haven't heard it? What a pity! This is the very last +matinée. Never mind, dear, I sha'n't be so thoughtless another day."</p> + +<p>"But why shouldn't I—" began Elizabeth tardily; then with a deep blush. +"I have plenty of money with me, and I should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> be so happy if you would +lunch with me, and——"</p> + +<p>"My dear, I couldn't <i>think</i> of it! I <i>mustn't</i> allow you to be +extravagant," demurred Miss Tripp. But in the end she yielded prettily, +and Elizabeth forthwith tasted a new pleasure, which is irresistibly +alluring to most generous women.</p> + +<p>That evening at dinner her eyes were so bright and her laughing mouth so +red that her young husband surveyed her with new admiration. "What did +you find to amuse you to-day in this big, dull town?" he wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"It isn't dull at all, Sam, and I've had the loveliest time with +Evelyn," she told him, and added a spirited account of the opera seen +with the unjaded eyes of the country-bred girl. "I've never had an +opportunity to go to theatres and operas before," she concluded, "and +Evelyn thinks I ought to see all the best things as a matter of +education."</p> + +<p>"I think so too," beamed the unselfish Sam, "and I hope you'll go often +now that you have the chance."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I may as well, I suppose, now that I have Annita," Elizabeth said. +"It's dreadfully dull here at home when you are gone. I've nothing to do +at all."</p> + +<p>Sam pinched her pink ear gently as the two strolled away from the table. +"How does the new kitchen mechanic suit you?" he asked. The meat had +been overdone, the vegetables watery and the coffee of an indifferent +colour and flavour, he thought privately.</p> + +<p>"Why, she seems to know exactly what to do, and when to do it," +Elizabeth said rather discontentedly, "and she's very neat; but did you +like that custard, Sam? I thought it was horrid; I'm sure she didn't +strain it, and it was cooked too much."</p> + +<p>"Since you put it to me so pointedly, I'm bound to confess that the +present incumbent isn't a patch on the last lady who cooked for me," +confessed her husband, laughing at the puzzled look in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you mean me! I'm glad you like my cooking, Sam. I should feel +dreadfully if you didn't. But about Annita, I am afraid she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> won't allow +me to teach her any of the things I know; and when I said I meant to +make a sponge-cake this morning, she said she was going to use the oven. +But she wasn't, for I went out and looked afterward. Then she said right +out that she wasn't used to having ladies in her kitchen, and that it +made her nervous."</p> + +<p>"Hum!" commented the mere man; "you'd better ask your father to +prescribe for the young person; and in the meanwhile I should frequent +'her kitchen' till she had gradually accustomed herself to the idea."</p> + +<p>"She would leave if I did that, Sam."</p> + +<p>"There are others."</p> + +<p>"Not like Annita," objected Elizabeth, with the chastened air of a +three-dimensioned experience. "You've no idea of the dreadful times +people have with servants here in Boston. And, really, one oughtn't to +expect an angel to work in one's kitchen for twenty-two dollars a month; +do you think so, Sam?"</p> + +<p>Her uplifted eyes and earnest lips and rose-tinted cheeks were so +altogether charming as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> she propounded this somewhat absurd question +that Sam said, "Speaking of angels puts me in mind of the fact that I +have one right in hand," and much more of the good, old-fashioned +nonsense which makes the heart beat quicker and the eyes glow and +sparkle with unreasoning joy when the heart is young.</p> + +<p>Half an hour had passed in this agreeable manner when Elizabeth +bethought herself to ask, "What had I better do about the butcher's and +grocer's slips, Sam dear? Annita says that in all the places where she +has worked they always run bills; but if we aren't to do that——"</p> + +<p>"And we're not, you know; we agreed about that, Elizabeth?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course; but Annita brought me several when I came in to-day; I +had forgotten all about them. Do you think I ought to stay at home every +day till after the butcher and grocer and baker have been here? +Sometimes they don't call till after twelve o'clock."</p> + +<p>This was manifestly absurd, and he said so emphatically. The result of +his subsequent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> cogitations was an order to Annita to leave the slips on +his desk, where they would be attended to each evening. "Mind," he said, +"I don't want Mrs. Brewster annoyed with anything of the sort."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, sir, I can see that Mrs. Brewster has not been used to being +worrited about anything, an' no more she ought," the young woman had +replied with an air of respectful affection for her mistress which +struck Sam as being no less than admirable. It materially assisted him +in his efforts to swallow Annita's muddy coffee of a morning and her +leaden puddings at night. All this, while Elizabeth light-heartedly +entered upon what Miss Tripp was pleased to call her "first Boston +season."</p> + +<p>There was so much to be learned, so much to be seen, so much to enjoy; +and the new gowns and hats and gloves were so exactly the thing for the +matinées, teas, card-parties and luncheons to which she found herself +asked with unlooked-for cordiality. She could hardly have been expected +to know that her open sesame to even this circle without a circle +consisted in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> low-voiced allusion to the sidereally remote Mrs. Van +Duser, "a connection by marriage, my dear."</p> + +<p>It was on a stormy afternoon in late February when Dr. North, +unannounced and disdaining the noisy little elevator, climbed the three +flights of stairs to his daughter's apartment and tapped lightly on the +corridor door. His summons was answered by an alert young woman in a +frilled cap and apron. Mrs. Brewster was giving a luncheon, she informed +him, and could see no one.</p> + +<p>"But I am Mrs. Brewster's father, and she'll want to see me," the good +doctor had insisted, sniffing delicately at the odours of salad and +coffee which floated out to him from the gingerly opened door. "Go tell +your mistress that Dr. North is here and would like to see her."</p> + +<p>In another minute a fashionable little figure in palest rose-colour had +thrown two pretty lace-clad arms about his neck. "Oh, you dear, old +darling daddy! why <i>didn't</i> you let me know you were coming? Now I've +this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> luncheon party, with bridge after it, and I can't— But you must +come in and wait; I'll tuck you away somewhere—in my bedroom, or——"</p> + +<p>"I can't stay, Bess—at least not long. I've a consultation at the +hospital at three. But I'll tell you, I'll be back at five; how'll that +do? I've a message from your mother, and——"</p> + +<p>Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders distractedly. "They won't go a minute +before six," she said; "but come then—to dinner. Be sure now!"</p> + +<p>The doctor was hungry, he had had no lunch, and despite the warmth of +his welcome there was a perceptible chill about his aging heart as he +slowly made his way down the stairs.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I'll not be able to make it," he told himself; "my train +goes at six-fifty, and—bless me! I've just time for a bite at a +restaurant before I'm due at the hospital."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<p>A loving letter from his daughter followed Dr. North to Innisfield. In +it Elizabeth had described her disappointment in not being able to see +more of her darling daddy. They had waited dinner for him that night, +she said, and Sam was dreadfully put out about it. "He <i>almost</i> scolded +me for not bringing you right in. But how could I, with all those women? +You wouldn't have enjoyed it, daddy dear; I know you too well. Next +time—and I hope it will be soon—you must telephone me. We have a +'phone in our apartment now, and I'm sure I don't know how we ever lived +without it. You see I have so many engagements that even if I didn't +happen to be entertaining, I might not be at home, which would be just +as bad."</p> + +<p>The rest of the sheet was filled with a gay description of the +automobile show, which was "really quite a function this year," and of +her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> success as a hostess. "Evelyn says I've made immense progress, and +she's quite proud of me."</p> + +<p>There was a short silence as Mrs. North folded the letter and slipped it +into its envelope.</p> + +<p>"But I don't understand why you didn't go back and take dinner with +them, as Bessie asked you to do," she said at last, in a reproachful +tone. "You ought to have made an effort, Richard."</p> + +<p>The doctor's grizzled brows lifted humorously as he glanced across the +breakfast table at his wife's worried face. "Ought to have made an +effort—eh?" he repeated. "Well, didn't I? I wanted to see Bess the +worst way, but it seems she didn't want to see me—at least not at the +time I arrived. So I went my way, got my lunch, met Grayson at the +hospital at two-thirty, finished the operation at four, ran over to +Avery's and left an order, then——"</p> + +<p>"But why——"</p> + +<p>"I could have gone back to Bess then, and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> wanted to; but she didn't +invite me to come till six, and I knew I must make that six-twenty +train, for I'd promised Mrs. Baxter I'd call in the evening. So you see, +my dear, I was up against it, as the boys say."</p> + +<p>"Did she look well, Richard?" asked his wife anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Perfectly well, I should say."</p> + +<p>"And did she tell you when we might expect her at home for a little +visit?"</p> + +<p>The doctor shook his head. "I didn't have a chance to ask any questions, +my dear." He arose and pushed back his chair. "Well, I must be going. +When you write to Bess tell her it's all right, and she's not to worry. +I'll take care to let her know next time I'm coming." He went out and +closed the door heavily behind him.</p> + +<p>Grandma Carroll, who had listened to the conversation without comment, +pursed up her small, wise mouth. "That reminds me, daughter, I think I +shall go to Boston to-day," she observed briskly.</p> + +<p>"To Boston—to-day?" echoed her daughter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> in surprise. "I don't believe +I can possibly get away to go with you, mother. Malvina Bennett is +coming to fix my black skirt; besides, there's the baking and——"</p> + +<p>"You needn't to feel that you must put yourself out on my account, +Lizzie," Mrs. Carroll replied with a slightly offended air. "I am quite +capable of going to China if it was necessary. I hadn't thought to +mention it to you yesterday, but there's some shopping I want to do, so +I'll get right off on the morning train."</p> + +<p>"Will you have time to get around to see Bessie?"</p> + +<p>"I'll make time," said grandma trenchantly. "I want to see what she's +doing with my own eyes. I don't know what <i>you</i> think about her not +asking her father in to her table, but I know what <i>I</i> think."</p> + +<p>"Oh, mother, I hope you won't——"</p> + +<p>"You needn't to worry a mite about what I'll say or do, I shan't be +hasty; but I mistrust that Sipp woman is leading Lizzie into +extravagance and foolishness, and I mean to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> find out. I shall probably +stay all night, and maybe all day to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"But it might not be convenient for Bessie," hesitated Mrs. North, "you +know what she said about telephoning; I guess I'd better let her know +you're coming."</p> + +<p>"Hump!" ejaculated grandma, "it wasn't always convenient for me to be up +nights with her when she had whooping-cough and measles, but I did it +just the same. I don't want you should telephone, daughter. I don't know +just when I shall get around to Lizzie's house; when I do, I'll stay +till I get ready to come home, you can depend upon that, if all the +folks in Boston are there a-visiting. I'll go right in and visit with +them. I'm going to take my best silk dress and my point lace collar, so +I guess I'll be full as dressy as any of 'em."</p> + +<p>Mrs. North sighed apprehensively, but in the end she saw Mrs. Carroll +onto the train with a wondering sense of relief. "Mother always did know +how to manage Bessie better than I did," she told herself vaguely.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p> + +<p>When Mrs. Carroll arrived at her destination the whistles were +proclaiming the hour of noon. "I'm just in time for dinner, I guess," +she observed cheerfully to the elevator boy, who grinned his +appreciation. But there was no token of occupancy about the Brewster +apartment when Mrs. Carroll rapped smartly upon the door.</p> + +<p>"The missis is out," volunteered the boy, who had lingered to watch the +progress of the pink-cheeked, smiling old lady; "but the girl's there. I +seen her go in not fifteen minutes ago."</p> + +<p>Thus encouraged Mrs. Carroll repeated her summons. After what seemed a +second interminable silence the door opened, disclosing an alert +presence in an immaculate cap and apron.</p> + +<p>"How do you do?" said grandma pleasantly. "This boy here says Mrs. +Brewster isn't at home; but I'll come in and wait till she does. I'm her +grandmother, Mrs. Carroll; you've probably heard her speak of me, and I +guess you're the girl she tells about in her letters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> sometimes. You've +got a pretty name, my dear, and you look real neat and clean. Now if +you'll just take my bag, it's pretty heavy, and——"</p> + +<p>Annita had not taken her beady black eyes off the little presence. "I +never let strangers in when Mrs. Brewster's not at home," she said +stolidly. "It ain't to be expected that I should. I guess you'll have to +come again, about four this afternoon, maybe."</p> + +<p>"I like to see a hired girl careful and watchful," said grandma +approvingly, "but if you look in the photograph album I gave my +grandaughter Lizzie, on her sixteenth birthday, you'll see my picture on +the front page, and that'll relieve you of all responsibility." She +pushed determinedly past the astonished Annita, and was laying off her +bonnet in the front room before that young person could collect her +forces for a second protest.</p> + +<p>"So your mistress isn't coming home for dinner?" Mrs. Carroll's voice +full of kindly inflections pursued Miss McMurtry to her final +stronghold. "My! I'd forgotten what a small<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> kitchen this was. Dark, +isn't it? I'm afraid that's what makes you look so pale. Now if you'll +just make me a cup of tea—or let me do it if you're busy; I'm used to +waiting on myself. I suppose I'll find the tea-caddy in here."</p> + +<p>"You—let—my place alone—you!" hissed Annita, livid with rage, as +Grandma Carroll laid her hand on the door of the cupboard. But she was +too late; the open door disclosed a large frosted cake, a heap of +delicately browned rolls and a roasted chicken.</p> + +<p>"Well, well! your cooking looks very nice indeed. I suppose you're +expecting company; but if you can spare me one of those tasty rolls I +shall make out nicely with the tea. Be sure and have it hot, my dear." +And grandma pattered gently back into the dining-room, smiling wisely to +herself.</p> + +<p>Just how many of Miss McMurtry's plans went awry that afternoon it would +be hard to say. At three o'clock, when a mysterious black-robed elderly +person carrying a capacious basket came up in the elevator she was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> met +in the corridor by a white-visaged fury in a frilled cap and apron, who +implored her distractedly to go away.</p> + +<p>"An' phwat for should I go away; ain't the things ready as usual?" +demanded the lady with the basket. "I'd like me cup o' tea, too; I'm +that tired an' cold."</p> + +<p>Miss McMurtry almost wept on the maternal shoulder. "I've got a lovely +chicken," she whispered, "an' a cake, besides the rolls you was hungry +for, an' the groceries; but her gran'mother, bad luck to her, come this +mornin' from the country, an' she's helpin' me <i>clean my kitchen</i>."</p> + +<p>"Phwat for 'd you let her into your kitchen?" demanded the elder +McMurtry indignantly. "I'm surprised at ye, Annie."</p> + +<p>"I didn't let her in, she walked right out and poked her nose into me +cupboard without so much as sayin' by your leave. I think I'll be +leavin' my place; I won't wait t' be trowed out by her." Miss McMurtry's +tone was bitter. "They ain't much anyway. I'd rather go where there was +more to do with."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Right you are, Annie, my girl, I've towld you that same many's the +time. But if you're leavin' the night be sure—" The woman's voice +dropped to a hissing whisper.</p> + +<p>"I'll do it sure, and maybe—" The girl's black eyes gleamed wickedly as +she caught the creak and rattle of the ascending elevator "—I can do +better than what you said in the end. It's safe enough with the likes o' +them. They're easy."</p> + +<p>At six o'clock in fluttered Elizabeth, a vision of elegant femininity in +her soft furs and plumes and trailing skirts. Darling grandmamma was +kissed and embraced quite in the latest fashion, and the two sat down +cosily to visit while Annita set the table for dinner with stony +composure.</p> + +<p>"I've been here since noon," said grandma, complacently, "and I've been +putting in my time helping your hired girl clean her cupboards."</p> + +<p>"What! Annita? You've been helping Annita?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes; I didn't have anything else to do,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> and the cupboards +certainly did need cleaning. Seems to me, Lizzie, you keep a big stock +of all sorts of groceries on hand for so small a family as yours."</p> + +<p>"Do we?" asked Elizabeth, yawning daintily. "I'm sure I don't know what +we have. Annita is perfectly competent to attend to everything in the +kitchen, and I never interfere. She doesn't like it, and so why should +I."</p> + +<p>"What are you paying for butter this winter?" grandma wanted to know, +after a thoughtful pause.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure I don't know, the usual price, I suppose. Sam attends to the +bills. He looks them over every night when he comes home, and gives +Annita the money to pay them with."</p> + +<p>"Hum!" commented grandma, surveying her granddaughter keenly over the +top of her spectacles; "that's a new way to keep house, seems to me."</p> + +<p>"It's a nice way, I know that," laughed Elizabeth.</p> + +<p>She had changed subtly from the shy, undeveloped girl who had left +Innisfield less than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> a year ago into a luxuriance of bloom and beauty +which astonished the older woman. There was an air of poise, of +elegance, of assured dignity about her slender figure which fitted her +as did her gown.</p> + +<p>"It must be easy, certainly," agreed Mrs. Carroll, sniffing delicately, +after a well-remembered fashion.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth laughed and shrugged her shoulders in a way she had caught +from Evelyn Tripp. "Now you know you are dying to lecture me, grandma," +she said caressingly; "but you see, dear, that things are decidedly +different here in Boston, and— But here comes Sam; he'll be so glad to +see you."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carroll was very cheerful and chatty with the young people that +evening. She told them all the Innisfield news in her most spirited +fashion, and never once by word or look expressed her growing +disapproval of what her shrewd old eyes were telling her.</p> + +<p>Miss McMurtry, who stood with her ear glued to the crack of the door for +a long half hour, finally retired with a contemptuous toss<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> of her black +head. Then, the coast being clear, she found opportunity to convey to +their destination the comestibles dutifully provided for maternal +consumption. "She's full as easy as the young one for all her meddlin' +ways," said Miss McMurtry, "an' she'll be leavin' in the mornin', so +there'll be no back talk comin' from her."</p> + +<p>But for once Annita was mistaken in her premises. Mrs. Carroll, it is +true, made no immediate reference to the disclosures afforded by her +daring invasion of the kitchen fastnesses, nor did she even remotely +allude to the probable date of her departure for Innisfield.</p> + +<p>"I don't want you should make company of me, Lizzie," she said +pleasantly, "or put yourself out a mite. I'll just join right in and do +whatever you're planning to do."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth puckered her pretty forehead perplexedly; she was thinking +that Grandma Carroll's unannounced visit would necessitate the hasty +giving up of a gay luncheon and theatre party planned for that very +afternoon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> Tears of vexation sparkled in her brown eyes, as she took +down the telephone receiver.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carroll listened to the one-sided conversation which followed +without visible discomfiture. "Now that's too bad," she observed +sympathetically. "Why didn't you tell me you wanted to go, and I'd have +eaten my lunch right here at home. There's plenty of cooked victuals in +your kitchen pantry; I saw 'em yesterday whilst I was out helping +around. I suppose your hired girl cooked that roast chicken and the +layer-cake and the rolls for Samuel's noonings. I hope you'll see to it, +Lizzie, that he takes a good, tasty lunch to work every day. But of +course you do."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth stared. "Why, grandma," she said, "Sam doesn't carry his lunch +like a common workman. He eats it at a restaurant in South Boston."</p> + +<p>"Hum!" mused Mrs. Carroll, "I wonder if he gets anything fit to eat +there? Samuel appears to have gone off in his weight considerable since +I saw him last," she added, shaking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> her head wisely. "He needs a +gentian tonic, I should say, or—something."</p> + +<p>"You're mistaken, grandma," Elizabeth said, with an air of offended +wifely dignity. "Sam isn't the least bit ill. Of course he works hard, +but I should be the first to notice it if there was anything the matter +with my husband."</p> + +<p>"Care killed a cat," quoted grandma sententiously, "and you appear to be +pretty much occupied with other things. Home ought to come first, my +dear; I hope you aren't forgetting that."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth's pretty face was a study; she bit her lip to keep back the +petulant words that trembled on her tongue. "Evelyn is coming, grandma," +she said hurriedly, "and please don't—discuss things before her."</p> + +<p>Miss Tripp was unaffectedly surprised and, as she declared, "<i>charmed</i>" +to see dear Mrs. Carroll in Boston. "I didn't suppose," she said, "that +you ever <i>could</i> bring yourself to leave dear, quiet Innisfield."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carroll, on her part, exhibited a smiling blandness of demeanour +which served as an incentive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> to the lively, if somewhat one-sided +conversation which followed; a shrewd question now and then on the part +of Mrs. Carroll eliciting numerous facts all bearing on the varied +social activities of "<i>dear</i> Elizabeth."</p> + +<p>"I'm positively looking forward to Lent," sighed Miss Tripp; "for really +I'm <i>worn</i> to a <i>fringe</i>, but dear Elizabeth never seems tired, no +matter how many engagements she has. It is a perfect <i>delight</i> to look +at her, isn't it, dear Mrs. Carroll?"</p> + +<p>"Lizzie certainly does look healthy," admitted the smiling old lady, +"but it beats me how she finds time to look after her husband and her +hired girl with so many parties."</p> + +<p>The result of Mrs. Carroll's subsequent observations and conclusions +were summed up in the few trenchant remarks addressed to her +granddaughter the following day, as she was tying on her bonnet +preparatory to taking the train for Innisfield.</p> + +<p>"I hope you'll come again soon, grandma," Elizabeth said dutifully.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I mistrust you don't mean that, Lizzie," replied Mrs. Carroll, facing +about and gazing keenly at the young matron, "and I may as well say that +I'm not likely to interfere with your plans often. I like my own bed and +my own rocking-chair too well to be going about the country much. But I +couldn't make out from what your father said just what the matter was."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders with a pretty air of forbearance. "I +was awfully sorry about daddy," she murmured; "but I don't see how I +could have done anything else under the circumstances."</p> + +<p>"Well, <i>I</i> do," said Grandma Carroll severely. She buttoned her gloves +energetically as she went on in no uncertain tones. "I've always been a +great believer in everybody minding their own business, but there's +times when a little plain speech won't hurt anybody. Things aren't going +right in your house, Lizzie; I can see that without half looking. <i>I +warn you to keep an eye on your kitchen pantry.</i> I mistrust there's a +leak there."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I trust Annita perfectly," said Elizabeth, her round chin tilted +aggressively. "And I'm sure I ought to know by this time."</p> + +<p>"I agree with you there, Lizzie, you ought to know, but you don't. That +girl is carrying things out of your kitchen as fast as the grocer and +the butcher can bring them in; I don't think you can afford to let her +spend your husband's money as she pleases, and that is what it amounts +to the way you're managing now."</p> + +<p>"But grandma," protested Elizabeth, "Sam looks over every one of the +bills himself before he pays them."</p> + +<p>"It isn't your husband's place to do your work and his own too, my +dear."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth hung her head, her face flaming with angry colour.</p> + +<p>"You've been brought up to be a sensible, industrious, economical +woman," pursued Mrs. Carroll earnestly; "but from what that Tipp girl +said yesterday, I should imagine you'd taken leave of your senses. What +does<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> Samuel say to your spending so much money and being out so +constant?"</p> + +<p>"He—he likes to have me have a good time."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll lose my guess if <i>he's</i> having one," said grandma pointedly. +"Samuel looked worried to death last night when Terita brought him the +bills. And I took notice he didn't eat scarcely anything at dinner. For +that matter, I didn't myself; there wasn't a thing on the table cooked +properly. Now, Lizzie, I've said my say, and I'm going." She kissed her +granddaughter heartily. "Take time to think it over, child, and mind you +don't tell the Fripp girl what I've said. She could talk a bird off a +bush without a bit of trouble."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if everybody gets as queer and unreasonable as grandma when +they are old," mused Elizabeth, as she picked her way daintily through +the sloppy streets. "I'm sure I hope I sha'n't. Of course Sam is all +right. I guess he'd tell me the very first thing if he wasn't."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, Mrs. Carroll's significant words had left an unpleasant +echo in her mind which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> haunted her at intervals all day. Under its +influence she made a bold incursion into her kitchen, after a luncheon +of chipped beef, dry toast and indifferent baker's cake.</p> + +<p>"Have we any cold chicken, Annita?" she asked hesitatingly. "I—that is, +I am expecting a few friends this afternoon, and I thought——"</p> + +<p>Miss McMurtry faced about and eyed her mistress with lowering brows. +"There ain't any chicken in the place, Mrs. Brewster," she said stonily; +"an' as I ain't in the habit of havin' parties sprung on me unbeknownst, +I'll be leaving at the end of my month, which is to-morrow—<i>if</i> you +please."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth's new-found dignity enabled her to face the woman's angry +looks without visible discomfiture. "Very well, Annita," she said +quietly. "Perhaps that will be best for both of us."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<p>Elizabeth greeted her husband that night with a speculative anxiety in +her eyes born of the uncomfortable misgivings which had haunted her +during the day. And when after dinner he dropped asleep over his evening +paper she perceived with a sharp pang of apprehension that his face was +thinner than she had ever seen it, that his healthy colour had paled +somewhat, and that hitherto unnoticed lines had begun to show themselves +about his mouth and eyes.</p> + +<p>She reached for his hand which hung idly by his side, and the light +touch awakened him. "Oh, Sam," she began, "Grandma Carroll insisted upon +it that you were looking ill, and I wanted to see if you had any fever; +working over there in that unhealthy part of town, you might have caught +something."</p> + +<p>"Who told you it was unhealthy?" he wanted to know. "It really isn't at +all, little girl,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> and you're not to worry about me—or anything."</p> + +<p>At just what point in his career Samuel Brewster had acquired the +Quixotic idea that a woman, and particularly a young and beautiful +woman, should not be allowed to taste the smallest drop of the world's +bitterness he could not have explained. But the notion, albeit a +mistaken one, was as much a part of himself as the blue of his steadfast +eyes or the bronzy brown of his crisp locks.</p> + +<p>"You're not," he repeated positively, "to give yourself the slightest +anxiety about me. I never felt better in my life." And he smiled +determinedly.</p> + +<p>"But, Sam dear, I shall be obliged to worry if you are going to be ill, +or if—" a misty light breaking in upon her confused thoughts, "you are +keeping anything from me that I ought to know. I've been thinking about +it all day, and I've been wondering if—" she lowered her voice +cautiously—"Annita is perfectly reliable. I've always thought so till +to-day. Anyway, she's going to leave to-morrow,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> and you'll be obliged +to go back to my cooking for a while, till I can get some one else."</p> + +<p>The somewhat vague explanations which followed called for an examination +of grocer's and butcher's accounts; and the two heads were bent so +closely over the parti-coloured slips that neither heard the hasty +preparations for departure going on in the rear.</p> + +<p>"It looks to me as if our domestic had been spoiling the Egyptians," +hazarded Sam, after half an hour of unsatisfactory work. "But I really +don't know how much meat, groceries and stuff we ought to be using."</p> + +<p>"I might have found out," murmured Elizabeth contritely. "I've just gone +on enjoying myself like a child, and—and I'm afraid I've spent too much +money. I haven't kept any count."</p> + +<p>Her husband glanced at her pretty worried face with a frown of +perplexity and annoyance between his honest eyes. "The fact is, Betty," +he burst out, "a poor man has no business to marry and make a woman +uncomfortable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> and unhappy. You haven't spent but a trifle, dear, and +all on the simplest, most innocent pleasures; yet it does count up so +confoundedly. I wanted you to have a good time, dear, and I +couldn't—bear—" He dropped into a chair and thrust his hands deep into +his pockets.</p> + +<p>"Then we <i>have</i> been spending too much on—contingencies; why didn't you +tell me before?"</p> + +<p>He bit his lip. "We've spent nearly every dollar of our reserve, Betty," +he said slowly, "and this month I'm afraid—I don't see how I am going +to meet all of the bills."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Sam!" gasped Elizabeth, turning pale.</p> + +<p>A voice from the softly opened kitchen door broke in upon, this crucial +conversation. "You'll please to excuse me, Mrs. Brewster, but I've had +word that my mother is sick, an' I'll have to be leaving at once. My +month's up in the morning anyway, an' I hope you'll not mind paying me +my wages to-night."</p> + +<p>Her lip curled scornfully as she glanced at the tradesmen's slips +scattered on the table.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> Miss McMurtry openly despised people who, as +she expressed it, were always "trying to save a copper cent on their +meat and groceries." She herself felt quite above such economies. One +could always change one's place, and being somewhat versed in common +law, she felt reasonably secure in such small pecadilloes as she had +seen fit to commit while in the employ of the Brewsters.</p> + +<p>"I should like to ask you a few questions first about these accounts," +said the inexperienced head of the house sternly. "How does it happen +that you ordered fifteen pounds of sugar, seven pounds of butter and two +of coffee last week? Surely Mrs. Brewster and I never consumed such an +amount of provisions as I see we have paid for."</p> + +<p>Miss McMurtry's elbows vibrated slightly. "I only ordered what was +needed, sir," she replied in a high, shrill voice. "Sure, you told me +yourself not to bother the madame."</p> + +<p>"I did tell you that, I know. I thought you were to be trusted, but this +doesn't look like it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> + +<p>A fearsome change came over the countenance of the respectable young +person in the frilled apron. "Are you meaning to insinooate that <i>I</i> +took them groceries?" she demanded fiercely. "I'll ask you to prove that +same. Prove it, I say! It's a lie, an' I'd be willin' to swear to it in +a court of justice. That's what comes of me workin' for poor folks that +can't pay their bills!" Miss McMurtry swung about on her heels and +included Elizabeth in the lightning of her gaze. "I come here to +accomydate her, thinkin' she was a perfec' lady, an' I've slaved night +an' day in her kitchen a-tryin' my best to please her, an' this is what +I gets for it! But you can't take my character away that easy; I've the +best of references; an' I'll trouble you for my wages—if you can pay +'em. If not, there's ways I can collect 'em."</p> + +<p>"Pay her, Sam, and let her go, do!" begged Elizabeth in a frightened +whisper.</p> + +<p>"I ought not to pay the girl, I'm sure of that; but to save you further +annoyance, my dear—" He counted out twenty-two dollars, and pushed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> the +little pile of bills across the table. "Take it," he said peremptorily, +"and go."</p> + +<p>The two gazed at each other in silence while the loud trampling +footsteps of the erstwhile gentle and noiseless Annita sounded in the +rear. Then, when a violent and expressive bang of the kitchen door +announced the fact that their domestic had finally shaken off the dust +of her departure against them, Elizabeth burst into a relieved laugh. +She came presently and perched on her husband's knee.</p> + +<p>"Sam, dear," she murmured, "it is all my fault, every bit of it. No; +don't contradict me—nor interrupt—please! We can't afford to go on +this way, and we're not going to. We'll begin over again, just as we +meant to before I—" she paused while a flood of shamed colour swept +over her drooped face "—tried to be fashionable. It isn't really so +very much fun to go to card-parties and teas and luncheons, and I don't +care a bit about it all, especially if—if it is going to cost us too +much; and I—can see that it has already."</p> + +<p>All her little newly acquired graces and affectations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> dropped away as +she spoke, and her husband saw the sweet, womanly soul he had loved and +longed for in the beginning looking out of her brown eyes. He kissed her +thankfully, almost solemnly. "Dear Betty," he whispered.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't we—go away from this place?" she went on after a while. "It +isn't very pleasant, is it? and—I'm almost ashamed to say it—but +Evelyn Tripp has such a way of making things look different to one. What +she says sounds so—so <i>sensible</i> that I can't—at least I haven't done +as I intended in hardly anything."</p> + +<p>"There's a little red cottage to let, with a pocket-handkerchief lawn in +front and room for a garden behind, not half a mile from where we are +working," Sam told her, "but I haven't mentioned it because it's a long +way to Tremont Street and—Evelyn." His blue eyes were full of the +laughing light she had missed vaguely for more weeks than she cared to +remember.</p> + +<p>"Let's engage it to-morrow!" exclaimed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> Elizabeth. "Why, Sam dear, we +could have roses and strawberries and all sorts of fun out there!"</p> + +<p>When, after missing her friend for several days, Miss Tripp called at +the Brewster apartment she was astonished beyond measure to find her +dearest Elizabeth busy packing some last trifles, while several brawny +men were engaged in taking away the furniture.</p> + +<p>"<i>My dear!</i>" she exclaimed. "What <i>are</i> you doing?"</p> + +<p>"We're moving," said Elizabeth tranquilly. "You know I never cared +particularly for this apartment, the rooms are so dark and unpleasant; +besides the rent is too high for us."</p> + +<p>"But <i>where</i>——"</p> + +<p>"I was just going to tell you; we've taken a little house away over near +the new water-works." Then as Miss Tripp's eyebrows and shoulders +expressed a surprise bordering on distraction, "I felt that it would be +better for us both to be nearer Sam's work. He can come home to luncheon +now, and I—we shall like that immensely."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But you're going <i>out of the world</i>; do you <i>realise</i> that, my dear? +And <i>just</i> as you were beginning to be known, too; and when I've tried +so hard to—" Miss Tripp's voice broke, and she touched her eyelids +delicately with her handkerchief. "Oh, <i>why</i> didn't you consult <i>me</i> +before taking such an irrevocable step? I'm sure I could have persuaded +you to change your mind."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth opened her lips to reply; then she hesitated at sight of +Evelyn's wan face, whereon the lavishly applied rice powder failed to +conceal the traces of the multiplied fatigues and disappointments of a +purely artificial life.</p> + +<p>"You'll be glad you didn't try to make me change my mind when you see +our house," she said gaily. "It has all been painted and papered, and +everything about the place is as fresh and sunny and delightful as this +place is dark and dingy and disagreeable. Only think, Evelyn, there is a +real fireplace in the living room, where we are going to burn real wood +of an evening, and the bay-window in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> the dining-room looks out on a +grass-plot bordered with rose-bushes!"</p> + +<p>"But the neighbourhood, dear!" wailed Evelyn. "Only think what a social +Sahara you are going into!"</p> + +<p>"I don't know about that," Elizabeth told her calmly. "Several of the +engineers who are working with Sam live near with their families, and +Sam thinks we are going to enjoy it immensely. He is so glad we are +going."</p> + +<p>Evelyn had folded her hands in her lap and sat looking hopelessly about +the dismantled rooms. "You don't seem to think about me, Betty," she +said, after a while. "I—I am going to miss you terribly." Tears shone +in her faded eyes and her voice trembled.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth's warm heart was touched. "You've been very good to me, +Evelyn," she said. "I shall never forget all that I've—learned from +you. But we're really not going out of the world, and you shall come and +see us whenever you will, and bye and bye we shall have strawberries and +roses to offer you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<p>The roses on the tiny lawn of which Sam had spoken were in full bud, and +Elizabeth was searching eagerly for the first streak of pink in the +infant blossoms when she was surprised by the sight of an imposing +equipage drawing up at the curb. The fat black horses pawed the gravel +disdainfully, shaking their jingling harness, as the liveried footman +dismounted from his perch and approached the mistress of the house.</p> + +<p>"I beg pawdon, miss," he said loftily; "but can you tell me +where—aw—Mrs. Samuel Brewster lives?"</p> + +<p>"I am Mrs. Brewster." Elizabeth told him.</p> + +<p>Whereupon the man presented a card with an air of haughty humility.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth's wondering eyes uprose from its perusal to the vision of a +tall, stout lady attired in purple broadcloth who was being assisted +from the carriage. The hot colour<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> flamed over her fair face, and for an +instant she was tempted to run into the house and hide herself and the +neat checked gingham gown she was wearing. Then she gripped her courage +with both hands and came forward smiling determinedly.</p> + +<p>The august personage in purple paused at sight of the slender, +blue-frocked figure, and raising a gold-mounted lorgnette to her eyes +deliberately inspected it. "You are—Samuel Brewster's wife?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mrs. Van Duser." Elizabeth's voice trembled in spite of herself, +but her eyes were calmly bright. "Won't you come in?" she added +politely.</p> + +<p>The lady breathed somewhat heavily as she mounted the vine-wreathed +porch. "I will sit down here," she announced magisterially; "the air is +pleasant in the country."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth's brief experience in Boston society came to her assistance, +enabling her to reply suitably to this undeniable statement of fact. +Then an awesome silence ensued, broken only by the bold chirp of an +unabashed robin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> successfully hunting worms in the grass-plot.</p> + +<p>"Where is your husband?" suddenly propounded the visitor.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Brewster is engaged in making a topographical map for the city; I +do not know exactly where he is this afternoon," replied Elizabeth, her +colour paling, then rising as she recalled the too well-remembered words +of Mrs. Van Duser's late communication. "Did you wish to see him?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Van Duser was apparently engaged in a severe inspection of the +adventurous robin. She did not at once reply.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth looked down at the toe of her shabby little shoe. "Sam—comes +home to lunch now," she faltered. "I—he hasn't been gone long."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" intoned Mrs. Van Duser, majestically transferring her attention +from the daring robin to Elizabeth's crimson face.</p> + +<p>"Samuel has neglected to call upon me since his return to Boston," was +Mrs. Van Duser's next remark, delivered in an awe-inspiring contralto;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +"though it is evident that he owes me an acknowledgment of his present +good fortune."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth fixed round eyes of astonishment upon her visitor. "I can't +think what you mean," she exclaimed unguardedly.</p> + +<p>"And yet I find you here, in this sylvan spot, far removed from the +follies and temptations of your former position, and—I +trust—prospering in a modest way."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," murmured Elizabeth, pink with indignation, "we are getting +on very well."</p> + +<p>"What rent do you pay?"</p> + +<p>Elizabeth looked about rather wildly, as if searching for a way of +escape. The robin had swallowed his latest find with an air of huge +satisfaction, and now flew away with a ringing summons to his mate. "We +pay thirty dollars, Mrs. Van Duser," she said slowly, "by the month."</p> + +<p>"Um! Why don't you buy the place?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think—I'm sure we—couldn't—" hesitated Elizabeth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You are wrong," said Mrs. Van Duser, again raising her lorgnette to her +eyes; "if you can afford to pay three hundred and sixty dollars in rent +you can afford to own a home, and you should do so. Tell Samuel I said +so."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mrs. Van Duser," murmured Elizabeth in a depressed monotone.</p> + +<p>"Do you keep a maid?"</p> + +<p>"No, Mrs. Van Duser, I do my own housework." Elizabeth's brown eyes +sparkled defiantly as she added, "I was brought up to work, and I like +to do it."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Van Duser's large solemn countenance relaxed into a smile as she +gazed into the ingenuous young face at her side.</p> + +<p>"Ah, my dear," she sighed, "I envy you your happiness, though I had it +myself once upon a time. I don't often speak of those days, but John Van +Duser was a poor man when I married him, and we lived in a little house +not unlike this, and I did the cooking. Do you think you could give me a +cup of tea, my dear?"</p> + +<p>When Samuel Brewster came home from his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> work at an unexpectedly early +hour that afternoon he was astonished to find an imposing coupé, drawn +by two fat, shining horses, being driven slowly up and down before his +door; and further, as he entered the house, by the cheerful sound of +clinking silver and china and low-voiced conversation. Elizabeth, +pink-cheeked and smiling, met him with an exclamation of happy surprise.</p> + +<p>"I am so glad you came home, Sam dear," she said. "Mrs. Van Duser was +hoping to see you before she went."</p> + +<p>And Mrs. Van Duser, looking very much at home and very comfortable +indeed in Sam's own big wicker chair, proffered him a large white +jewelled hand, while she bade him give an account of himself quite in +the tone of an affectionate relative.</p> + +<p>"You have a charming and sensible wife, Samuel, and a well-conducted +home," said the great lady. "I have seen the whole house, cellar, +kitchen and all," she added with a reminiscent sigh, "and it has carried +me back to the happiest days I ever spent."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p> + +<p>The young engineer passed his arm about his Elizabeth's shoulders as the +two stood at the gate watching the stately departure of the Van Duser +equipage. "Well, Betty," he said, "so the mountain came to Mahomet? But +the mountain doesn't seem such a bad sort, after all. I liked the way +she kissed you good-bye, though I should never have guessed she was +capable of it."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth drew a deep breath. "I never was so frightened in my life as +when she first came," she confessed. "But she is kind, Sam, in her way, +though at first I thought it wasn't a pleasant way. And O, Sam dear, she +thinks we gave up our flat and came out here just because she wrote us +that letter; she was as complacent as could be when she spoke of it."</p> + +<p>"Did you undeceive her?"</p> + +<p>"N-no, dear, I didn't even try. Perhaps it was the letter—partly, and +anyway I felt sure I couldn't make her think any differently whatever I +might say. But I did tell her about Annita and about how thoughtless and +selfish I was, and——"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Did you tell her about the Tripp lady?" he suggested teasingly.</p> + +<p>"No," she said gravely. "Evelyn meant to be kind, too; I am sure of +that."</p> + +<p>"O benevolent Betty!" he exclaimed with mock gravity. "O most sapient +Elizabeth! I perceive that in gaining a new friend thou hast not lost an +old one! I suppose from now on you will begin to model your small self +on the Van Duser pattern. My lady will see to it that you do, if you see +much of her."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth looked up at her tall husband, her brown eyes brimming with +thoughtful light. "It is good to have friends," she said slowly; "but, +Sam dear, we must never allow any—<i>friend</i> to come between us again. We +must live our own lives, and solve our own problems, even if we make an +occasional blunder doing it."</p> + +<p>"We've solved our problems already," he said confidently, "and I'm not +afraid of the blunders, thanks to the dearest and best little wife a man +ever had."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p> + +<p>And Elizabeth smiled back at him, knowing in her wiser woman's heart +that there were yet many problems to be solved, but not fearful of what +the future would bring in the light of his loving eyes.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of And So They Were Married, by +Florence Morse Kingsley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AND SO THEY WERE MARRIED *** + +***** This file should be named 38490-h.htm or 38490-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/4/9/38490/ + +Produced by Annie R. McGuire. 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