diff options
Diffstat (limited to '41440-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 41440-0.txt | 9856 |
1 files changed, 9856 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/41440-0.txt b/41440-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a8398c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/41440-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9856 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41440 *** + + POPPEA OF THE POST-OFFICE + + BY MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT + (BARBARA) + + AUTHOR OF "THE GARDEN OF A COMMUTER'S WIFE," "PEOPLE OF THE + WHIRLPOOL," "THE OPEN WINDOW," ETC. + + WITH FRONTISPIECE + BY THE KINNEYS + + New York + THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + 1909 + _All rights reserved_ + + THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO + ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO + + MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED + + LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA + MELBOURNE + + THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. + TORONTO + + COPYRIGHT, 1909, + BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + + Set up and electrotyped. Published July, 1909. Reprinted + July, 1909. + + Norwood Press + + J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. + Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. + + + + + To + E. C. S. + IN REMEMBRANCE + + + + +[Illustration: _Poppea glanced wistfully across the room and then +slipped out through one of the long windows_] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. THE TENTH OF MARCH 1 + + II. THE WRONG AT HIS DOOR 19 + + III. THE NEXT DAY 32 + + IV. THE FELTONS 50 + + V. THE NAMING 68 + + VI. AS IT WAS WRITTEN 83 + + VII. INTO THE DARK 101 + + VIII. SANCTUARY 116 + + IX. THE MYSTERY OF THE NAME 134 + + X. PHILIP 154 + + XI. INCOGNITA 172 + + XII. FRIENDSHIP? 192 + + XIII. THE TURNING 213 + + XIV. A PROPOSAL 231 + + XV. NIGHT AND MORNING 251 + + XVI. OUT OF THE ASHES 267 + + XVII. DADDY! 284 + + XVIII. THE SCAR ON THE HAND 305 + + XIX. JOHN ANGUS 318 + + XX. ON THE WINGS OF THE MORNING 337 + + + + +POPPEA OF THE POST-OFFICE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE TENTH OF MARCH + + +The six-thirty New York mail was late. So late that when the tall clock +that faced the line of letter-boxes boomed eight, the usual hour for +closing, Oliver Gilbert, the postmaster, ceased his halting tramp up and +down the narrow length of the office, head and ears thrown forward in +the attitude of a listening hunting-dog. Going to the door, he pulled it +back with a nervous jerk and peered into the night. + +As he did so, he was followed by a dozen men of various ages and social +conditions, who, in waiting for the evening mail, the final social event +of their day, had been standing about the stove, or, this choice space +being limited, overflowed into the open room at the back of the +post-office, with its work bench, chairs, and battered desk, topped by +book shelves; for, in addition to his official position, the postmaster +was a maker and mender of clocks and the Scribe for all those in the +village of Harley's Mills who could not safely navigate the whirlpools +of spelling. + +In fact, a smattering of law, coupled with the taste for random browsing +in every old book on which he could lay his hands, had given Gilbert +the ability to draw up a will, a promissory note, or round an ardent yet +decorous love-letter, with equal success. + +It was nothing unusual that the men saw as they looked into the bleak +March night, and yet they huddled together, listening spellbound and +expectant. A week before there had been a breath of spring in the air. +In a single day the heavy ice left the Moosatuck with a rush, to be lost +in the bay; a flock of migrant robins rested and plumed themselves in +the parsonage hedge; ploughing was possible in the fields that lay to +the southwest, and the wiseacres, one and all, predicted an early +spring. But in a single night this vision had vanished and winter +returned in driving snow that, turning to rain, coated everything +heavily with ice. Roadway, fences, and the sedate white colonial houses +that flanked the elm-bordered main street absolutely glittered in such +light as an occasional lantern on porch or fence post afforded. It +seemed almost mocking to the men in the door of the post-office; in +every way it had been a cruel season, this first winter of the War of +the Rebellion. It was not yet a year since the entire North had been +brought to its feet by the loss of Fort Sumter, and had sent forth an +army of seventy-five thousand volunteers as its reply. + +The gloom of repeated defeat settled heavy as a cloud of cannon smoke +over New England, whose invincibility had given birth to the union of +states that it now sought to preserve, the only recent glimmer of light +having been Grant's capture of Fort Donelson in February. + +This was discounted on the east coast by the terrifying career of the +_Merrimac_, beforetimes a United States cruiser, but now in Confederate +hands, that, by closely sheathing the wooden vessel with metal plates, +had converted her into a deadly ram which no wooden ship could +withstand, and already having ran amuck through the waters of Hampton +Roads, showed the possibility of putting every Union port in peril. + +Then had come the news this very Monday morning, vague in detail and +almost unbelievable, that the _Monitor_, the mysterious invention of +Ericsson, a craft that to the casual observer looked as harmless as any +harbor buoy, going from New York under tow, had, on Sunday morning, met +and vanquished the great fire-spitting dragon that guarded the entrance +to the James. + +It was for confirmation or details of this news that the men of Harley's +Mills were waiting and listening for the mail-train that did not come, +in their unfeigned anxiety interpreting its unusual delay as a bad omen. + +Presently, a faint whistle struggled up against the fierce gusts of east +wind; a locomotive headlight, gaining in power after every +disappearance, flashed across the rolling fields that lay toward +Westboro. The train was coming at last. + +"Here, take these lanterns, boys," cried Gilbert, "and do some of you go +down to meet her and come back with the mail-bag. It's a tough walk for +Binks's boy to bring it up alone in this storm." + +"'Lisha Potts, do you unhook that red light from the horse-post yonder, +and if the news is good (Binks will likely have it from the train crew +or some passenger), wave the light above your head as you come back." +This to a broad-shouldered, up-country giant, with a grim, square jaw, +and hair the color and consistency of rye stubble. + +"Good God! I can't stand this waiting and not knowing!" Gilbert almost +shouted as he closed the door behind the crowd and found himself alone +in the now dimly lighted post-office, except for old Selectman Morse, +white-haired and fragile, who, not being able to go out into the storm +with the others, was groping his way towards the stove. + +"If I had two sound legs," Gilbert continued, "my fifty years shouldn't +stand between me and seeing and helping do what must be done down there +south of Washington; the bitter part of it is staying here. Next month +when the Felton ladies come back, I guess we'll have a telegraph +operator right at the station, at least that's what Wheeler their +foreman told me yesterday. You see, both Mr. Esterbrook and John Angus +are directors in the Railroad Company, and what with one's wanting to +hear the good news and the other the bad, we're likely to get it. Come +back into the workroom, neighbor Morse. After your long wait you'll find +a chair easier sitting than the coal-box lid." + +"There's more than you that has to fight it out at home to give those +that's gone free minds," replied the old man, shivering as he settled +back in a carpet-covered rocker of strange construction. "Dan had turned +forty when he went, and now little Dan has run off to follow him and +he's scarce sixteen, so my fight must be fit out to keep son's wife and +girl children in food meantime; but I hope the Lord'll understand and +count it all for the same cause." + +Gilbert, who had seated himself at his desk and was fumbling among some +papers in an absent-minded way, wheeled toward the old man quickly. + +"Of course He will, for that's what Lincoln wrote me, and he and the +Lord have got to be of one mind in this business if it's going through +as it must." + +"Wrote _you_? Lincoln wrote you? When? How? Why didn't you tell the +boys? They'd burst with pride to know a letter from Lincoln was in the +town, much less right here in the post-office that's public property, so +to speak!" cried Morse, leaving his chair and stiff limbs together, and +coming toward the desk almost with a bound. + +Gilbert started as he realized what secret had slipped past his lips, +hesitated a moment, and then pulling a stool from under the desk, +motioned his companion to sit beside him. + +On the wall directly in front hung a very good engraving of Washington, +in a home-made frame of charred wood; under it was suspended an old +flint-lock, worm-eaten in stock and rusty at trigger. Below it, at one +side of the desk so that it came face to face with the owner, a large +colored lithograph of Lincoln was tacked to the wall, framed only by a +wreath of shrivelled ground-pine and wax-berries. + +Taking a key from his vest-pocket where it lay in company with bits of +sugared flag-root, Gilbert wiped it carefully and unlocking a drawer in +the desk that, to the casual glance, seemed merely an ornamental panel, +took out two letters and a double daguerreotype case that held the +pictures of a young woman and a little girl a year old. Placing these +things before him, Gilbert leaned back, grasping the arms of his chair +as if bracing himself for an effort. + +"Last year when Curtis died and it was thought well to have the +post-office come up here in the centre of the town, the boys did all +they could to push me for the place in spite of John Angus's opposition, +and Mr. Esterbrook drew up a nicely worded account of who I was and why +I should have the office, to go to Postmaster Blair by our Senator. Of +course it was done the right way I suppose, with this and that claim for +consideration, but I'd never known it was me it spoke of, and somehow it +didn't seem quite square, for I'm nobody. So I thought I'd just send a +few words to the President, explaining things, if word of such small +offices ever reached him; anyway it would ease my mind. I made it short +as I could: just told him that it wasn't all money need made me want the +office, for I'd a trade, but I was lonesome with only the dead-and-gone +people in books for company, and I wanted something to do that would +keep me near to my fellow-men, without which age is souring. + +"Well, Morse, in due time my appointment came and in with it, this--" +carefully opening and spreading out one of the letters:-- + + "'WASHINGTON, April 2, 1861. + + "'MR. OLIVER G. GILBERT: + + "'MY DEAR SIR:-- + + "'Your letter is in my hands. I have been lonely and have lived in + books. I was once a postmaster and I understand. + + "'Faithfully yours, + + "'A. LINCOLN.' + +"When a couple of weeks ago, in the midst of all this turmoil, his son +Willie died, I waked up in the night from dreaming of Mary and little +Marygold, and thought that Mary wanted me to write something. So I says +I guess I'll write Lincoln that I'm sorry, and that I understand his +trouble because of Mary's leaving me ten years ago, and Marygold the +next year, and how the Lord, through my crooked leg, won't let me join +them quick by way of battle. I put it down right then and there and sent +it the next morning, never thinking of a reply. + +"Saturday, this came," and Gilbert unfolded the second letter:-- + + "'WASHINGTON, March 3, 1862. + + "'OLIVER G. GILBERT: + + "'MY FRIEND:-- + + "'It seems that we understand each other. I thank you for your + letter. If the Lord's Will has stayed your joining in this + conflict, be sure that He will find some other wrong for you to + right, by your own door. + + "'Gratefully, + + "'A. LINCOLN.' + +"Now, Morse, you can see why I haven't spoken of these letters and why I +shouldn't brag of them, for they are not from the President, but from +man to man. + +"My grandfather, whose musket hangs up there, fought through the +Revolution. That picture of Washington is framed in a piece of oak wood +from this house that was set on fire by Arnold's men. Grandsir' revered +Washington next to God, and later, when he saw him as President, he +wrote a long letter, that cost eight shillings to deliver, to my +grandmother, telling her of his visit to Mt. Vernon. One part I've +always remembered, I've heard it read so often; it ran thus: 'His whole +demeanor was so full of dignity that he assuredly is great enough to +hold his own with kings, and be one in their company; yet though I +desired to have speech with him, as others did, I dared not take upon +myself to begin it. As he did not, I presently came away, much +disappointed.' + +"Don't shake your head, neighbor Morse, I'm drawing no comparisons, for +there's no man fit to pair with either of them; but, mind you, if +Washington was fit to match with kings, Abraham Lincoln is humble enough +to be a man, a brother of the Man of Sorrows, who well knew loneliness +in the midst of a multitude, saying, 'Foxes have holes and the birds of +the air have nests, but the Son of Man has not where to lay his head.'" + +A shout came down the street. Hastily pushing his treasures into their +drawer, the postmaster locked it with fingers that trembled, and reached +the door with his old friend, in time to see the little procession +crossing the road, the red lantern, held by a rake, swinging gayly +above 'Lisha Potts's head. + +"It's a true victory!" he called; "we've got the paper. Shouldn't wonder +if next month saw the war end. Hey, Gilbert, now's the chance to run +your big flag up with the little one atop, unless the halyard's frozen +fast." + +"Now, boys, bunch the lamps," said Gilbert, presently, as he cleared a +place on his work table, adjusted his spectacles, and spread out the +coveted sheet. The newspaper being fully three feet in length, the print +very small, and the large captions of to-day lacking, it took Gilbert +some time to locate the desired news. Meanwhile the boys pressed closer +and closer until, as he stopped for the second time to adjust his +glasses, 'Lisha Potts, peering over his shoulder, read at the top of his +voice: "Naval Engagement in Hampton Roads--Loss of the Frigates +_Cumberland_ and _Congress_--Great Success of the Ericsson Battery!" + +"That'll do, 'Lisha," said Gilbert, with some asperity. "I believe that +I'm reading this paper-- + +"_First Edition_--Fortress Monroe, March 9.--The _Monitor_ arrived at 10 +P.M. yesterday and went immediately to the protection of the _Minnesota_ +lying aground just below Newport News. At 7 A.M. to-day the _Merrimac_, +accompanied by two wooden steamers, the _Yorktown_ and _Jamestown_, and +several tugs, stood out toward the _Minnesota_ and opened fire. The +_Monitor_ met them at once and opened fire, when the enemies' vessels +returned, except the _Merrimac_. The two ironclads fought part of the +time touching each other, from 8 A.M. until noon, when the _Merrimac_ +retreated--" + +"Never mind the whole story now, get the finish first," chorused the +audience. + +"Here on the next page," cried 'Lisha. + +"_Second Edition_," read Gilbert, deliberately. "The side of the +_Merrimac_ pierced by the _Monitor_! The Ericsson battery finally +succeeded in forcing a long hole in the port side of the _Merrimac_ and +she retired with the whole rebel fleet to Norfolk about one o'clock!" + +Cheers drowned Gilbert's voice, and the paper passed from hand to hand, +each man reading some particular phrase that pleased him, while Seth +Moore, one of the retired sea-captains of which every coast town at this +period had its quota, banging on the floor with his cane, cried: "It +isn't only a blow to the rebels but to wooden ships as well; I didn't +think so much scrap-iron could keep afloat. Mark my words, first thing +we know even the passenger liners will all want their iron trim, and the +Lord knows but what even the coastwise service'll come to it some day!" + +It was after ten o'clock before, discussion ended, the men went their +various ways. The storm had ceased, and the intense blue black of the +sky set with stars seemed only a degree less cold and burnished than the +ice-coated earth over which the "boys" went home, slipping and sliding; +the younger making a frolic of the matter, the older clinging to the +fence rails. + +"It's going to be a mean walk for me to-night, three miles straight up +hill and against the wind," said 'Lisha Potts to Gilbert, as he helped +him fix the inside bars on the shutters, preparatory to closing the +office. + +"Then why not stop with me?" questioned the postmaster. "I couldn't +think of sleeping for a couple of hours yet, and somehow, the idea of +reading don't come natural to-night, though I've been mighty interested +getting into the workings of the wars of the ancients, all about the way +Xenophon managed to get those ten thousand Greeks to retreat across +country, without really skedaddling. Ever heard about it? Mebbe you'd +like I should read it to you." + +'Lisha, a man of the remoter farming country and timber land, used to +the big open spaces of life that some call loneliness, shook his head in +an emphatic denial that almost amounted to alarm, and began to button +his heavy frieze top-coat. + +"Well, well, I won't, so don't get scared," laughed Gilbert, +indulgently. "If folks don't thirst for knowledge, there's small use +choking it down their throats. Not that the best of learning comes out +of books, for you learned your trade of reading the ground and the +weather 'n' hunting and tracking all out o' doors." + +"I tell you what we'll do, go over back into the house, light all the +lamps I've got, and set them in the windows for a victory illumination. +Then we'll cook up a nice little supper for our two selves and have a +smoke by the fire. I don't often do it these days, haven't felt peart +enough; but to-night, somehow, I feel skittish, like I did forty years +ago when a pair of yearling steers I'd trained got first premium at the +Old Haven Fair. To-night a pipe between my teeth's not a bad habit as +the parsons preach, 'Lisha, but a necessity, yes, a bare, vital +necessity." + +This proposition being in the direct path of 'Lisha's own desires, he +gave a cheerful whistle of consent and followed Gilbert through the +partly roofed grape arbor that made a passageway between the post-office +and the sloped roofed house of Gilbert's forefathers, that stood well +back in the garden with its porch facing the hill road. + +"Nobody'll see the lights this time of night," criticised 'Lisha, as +Gilbert, mustering an array of six sperm-oil lamps and three sturdy +pewter candlesticks, proceeded to distribute them between the various +rooms, not forgetting the icy "spare chamber" upstairs, or the +"foreroom" at the right of the front door with its scriptural +engravings, bright three-ply carpet, and melodeon. + +"That's as may be," Gilbert answered, while he regulated a wick, stiff +from lack of use, "but they'll be there all the same, and we'll know it +anyhow. What'll you have? There's beans and brown bread been in the oven +all afternoon, besides apple pie, crullers, biscuits, and spice snaps in +the pantry. I think this time o' night when we're wakeful anyway, we +might as well have hot coffee to mix and blend the vittles and put some +ginger in us. Mebbe you'd prefer hard cider, but since I found the stuff +was tangling the feet of some good neighbors, I haven't kept any about. +Yes, get a pail of fresh water while I grind the coffee; you can never +get the flavor, Mary always said, without fresh-drawn water come to its +first boil." + +To have seen the neatness of the kitchen, pantry, and long, low bedroom +that ran across the back of both, no one would have supposed that the +house had been without the touch of a woman's hand for nine years. To be +sure, at the critical periods of spring and fall cleaning the +postmaster's sister, Satira Pegrim, a bustling widow of forty, came down +from her little hill farm to officiate. Why she did not stay on and keep +house for her brother had been a subject of much speculation during the +year after the baby Marygold had followed her young mother. But though +Gilbert said nothing, they came to understand that without the child to +care for there was not sufficient work to keep in check Mrs. Pegrim's +nervous energy, which found vent in a species of incessant reminiscent +sympathy that poor Gilbert could not bear. + +When the only love of a silent man's life comes upon him when he is +nearly forty, fairly sweeping him from his feet, and in less than three +years wife and the child just forming her first words are snatched away, +leaving him deaf at heart, work is the only consoler that can gain even +his ear. So Gilbert had baked and swept and garnished, kept the +geraniums and the calla lilies and pink flowering "Gypsey" in the +windows, and a white spread upon the bed, and the hooded mahogany +cradle-cover of pink and white basket-pattern patchwork, as it had been +during those years. + +As Gilbert added an armful of wood to the fire in the cooking stove that +was set in the wide chimney place, and opened the iron door of the +brick oven at the side, the bright light threw against the opposite wall +his somewhat remarkable silhouette. He was fully six feet tall with +close-cut, iron-gray hair, bushy eyebrows, and long, gray beard that +reached his waist, and so frequently got in his way that he twisted it +up and fastened it under his chin with an elastic band, or hairpin, as +upon the present occasion. Gilbert had craved education, but lacked the +strength to force the opportunity, though his reading had nourished a +gentle sentiment in him, and better speech than is often found in New +Englanders of his surroundings. + +When 'Lisha had filled the kettle, the two men lighted their pipes, and +slipping off their clumsy shoes, in unison, spread feet covered by blue +yarn socks before the open front of the stove and, puffing comfortably, +drifted into desultory talk. + +"It's mighty queer that John Angus, leading man in this town and his +folks Yankee all through after they stopped being Scotch, should stand +for slavery," mused 'Lisha. "Do you suppose he's got any reason other +than his usual one of taking the off side of things?" + +"He has big cotton interests for one thing," said Gilbert; "otherwise, +who can tell why he does this or that? Why does he hate me? Because he +can't drive me off the earth, I take it. We played together as boys, but +I've never presumed on that. His father left him fully two hundred acres +of land, mine left me three; but it stood something like a nose on the +face of his holding, coming in the south front of it. He seemed to +think all he had to do was offer me money for my home; he thought I had +no right to love the place where I was born, but that he had. Once or +twice I've been on the point of yielding, but never since it became the +home of my wife and child." + +"That's why, then, he did all he could to keep you from getting the +post-office?" + +"I reckon so, and now I've got it, he has all his mail sent to Westboro +to keep down the receipts." + +"Whew--!" whistled 'Lisha. "I didn't think he'd spite himself that far." + +"Well," replied Gilbert, "I don't know but at bottom I'm sorry for him. +He's got a grand place here, a city home, and money; he's been senator, +and, they say, could have been governor; but he's all alone up there +without love or kin." + +"He had a dreadful pretty wife, and pleasant spoken. I remember selling +her quail and partridge every fall of the year." + +"Yes; when she first came home, she was not over twenty, and most as +pretty as my Mary. He met her when he was travelling in Europe, the Miss +Feltons said. She was there learning to sing or something. I heard her +sing once up where the end of their garden stops short and the ground +drops to my bit. It was just like the voice of the last wood robin that +keeps singing till after dark, and then quits sudden as if he was +lonesome. After living up there for ten years, she, that at first had a +laughing face and skin like a peach, grew thin and white as marble, and +then all of a sudden, she left him and died away in England, they say, +about a year ago. Some claim he was always reproaching her because she +was childless; others, that once when he was away, she went to the +midsummer ball up at Felton Manor against his wish and danced with a +nephew of Mr. Esterbrook's so beautifully that folks spoke of it until +it got round to him. He'd never let her dance before, so nobody knew she +could. Then next Sabbath the young man walked from church with her. + +"I well remember the day she went, it's less than two years since. There +was no running about it; she came down the hill in her carriage as if +she was only going on a short journey. As she passed the shop, she +plucked the coachman by the coat to stop him and came in to ask me to +fit a key to her watch. I remember the watch too, small and thin, with a +flower on the back in diamonds. Oh, yes, Angus was generous enough, and +kept her well in clothes and jewels. + +"All of a sudden she said, 'Mr. Gilbert, I'm going away and never coming +back, and there's nobody to miss me or be sorry.' + +"I was struck all of a heap, for I'd always liked her and spoke my mind, +which added to his dislike of me, but I knew by her face she meant what +she said. She looked like a crumpled roseleaf, so young and frail, that +before I knew it, I had taken her cold little hands in mine and was +telling her that _I_ should miss her, and that I never should forget the +soft white slip made with her own hands she sent for Marygold to go to +sleep in, or how she came to comfort me in face of John Angus's +dislike. 'If ever I can do you a good turn, it's all I'd ask,' I said to +her. + +"With that, she put her poor thin arms about my shoulders, looked me +straight in the face, and said, 'Yes, I believe you would,' and pulling +my head down, kissed me on the forehead as if I'd been her father. +Before I got my wits again, she was in her carriage and away, and now +she's dead and gone. They say that the Miss Feltons have heard that John +Angus is to be married again this spring to a woman as rich as he is, +the daughter of somebody high up in New York life. So I suppose he'll +raise a grand family now, and poor little roseleaf is forgotten." + +"Hi there! the water's biled over," cried 'Lisha, and soon the subtle +aroma of good coffee filled the kitchen, and the men drew the table +toward the stove before sitting down to their supper, for in spite of +the rousing fire, the room was draughty. + +Three clocks that hung in a row between dresser and chimney, which were +undergoing the delicate process of being regulated, struck twelve with +different emphases and in three different keys before Gilbert had made a +bed for his guest upon the wide lounge by the chimney-corner, and the +two men went about the house to put out the lamps. + +"What's that?" said Gilbert, pausing as they came down the creaking back +stairs. + +"Just a log of wood rolling off the heap on the stoop, I reckon," +answered 'Lisha. + +"There isn't any wood there; I fetched it all in," said Gilbert, giving +a decided start, as the noise was repeated and this time resolved itself +into a rhythmic knocking on the outer door. + +'Lisha strode through the kitchen, picking up the poker on his way, and +threw open the door. At first he saw nothing, the change from light to +darkness was so sudden; then something white in the shadow beside the +door caught his attention. + +"It's only a dog," he thought; yet as training had made him cautious, he +called, "Bring the lantern," to Gilbert, who had stopped to pull on his +coat. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE WRONG AT HIS DOOR + + +As the lantern held by Gilbert flashed upon the furry object, 'Lisha, +who was bending over it, jumped back as though he had been shot, crying, +"Good God, Gilbert, it isn't a dog; I reckon it's a child!" + +At the same time he gathered up the bundle, and, almost trampling +Gilbert in his haste, strode into the kitchen, where he laid it on the +table. + +The outer wrapping was a well-worn buffalo-robe, and from between its +folds a small, white-mittened hand was visible. + +For a moment the two men stood side by side, speechless with +astonishment; then Gilbert began to unfold the robe with fingers that +trembled so he could scarcely direct them. Inside the skin was an afghan +of soft wool tied crosswise, while in the depths of this nest lay a +child, wrapped from foot to head in coat and cap of white coney, even +the face being hidden by a knitted Shetland veil. The little form was so +still that Gilbert dreaded to touch it, but 'Lisha, having pulled +himself together, lifted the veil, disclosing softly rounded, pink +cheeks and red lips slightly parted in regular, if rather heavy, +breathing. This action disturbed the sleeper without waking her, for +she relaxed the arm that had been pressed close against her breast, and +from under it a tiny puppy sprawled out, dragging with it a large +handkerchief in which it had been wrapped, as if to make a doll of it. +He was not an aristocrat of the dog world, but one of those waifs that, +decorated with a bit of ribbon, are sold on city street corners for a +dollar, the appeal of their youth, added to the speculative element in +all of us, finding ready purchasers for them. + +The puppy, tawny and roughish as to coat, having one ear that stuck up +while the other lopped, and the keenest of eyes, after licking the face +and the long-lashed lids of the child without getting a response, +tumbled to the edge of the table and began wagging his ridiculous rat +tail and making friendly advances to the men. Seeing that even the +puppy's rough caresses did not waken the baby, Gilbert raised one of the +eyelids gently, and then after holding his face close, whispered to +'Lisha: "Just as I thought, she's drugged with paregoric; we'll have to +rouse her even if she is scared of us and makes a time. I well remember +how it was with Marygold when sister Pegrim, not having her glasses, +gave her a large instead of a small spoon of cough syrup by mistake. +I'll wash her face and see if I can't liven her up. Just pull that +rocker over here, 'Lisha, and give me the tin basin of water." + +As he talked, Gilbert was undoing the coat and cap from which came the +head of a child of about a year, covered with a mass of hair that lay in +close golden rings, with here and there a tinge of copper, in strange +contrast to the dark lashes and eyebrows. + +From the moment his eyes had rested on her, Gilbert had unconsciously +said _she_, for every curve and line was feminine. Yet even with closed +eyes, there was nothing doll-like about her, while there was almost a +suggestion of resolution about the mouth corners. + +"Now, precious, wake up and look at the pretty light," crooned Gilbert, +holding her with awkward hands, against his shoulder, so that her head +came above it, yet in a way that no man would have done who had not held +his own child. + +Presently, the heavy eyelids drew upward, and then after the +consciousness of light became complete, she looked about the room, gave +a little cry of delight, and held out her hands when she saw the puppy, +rounding her lips into a sound like wow-wow; but as her eyes rested upon +big, ugly 'Lisha, her chin quivered, her cooing voice trailed off into a +heart-broken wail, and she hid her face in Gilbert's neck. + +What the confiding touch meant to the lonely man, only he and his Maker +knew. It thrilled him to his finger-tips, awakened life springs that he +believed forever dry, and tears, unknown to him these nine years, became +a possibility, but not while 'Lisha stood there gaping at him with +hanging jaw. In a few moments the wailing stopped, and she began to look +about once more. + +"Fetch me a cup of water, 'Lisha; mebbe she's thirsty." + +As he turned to carry out Gilbert's directions, the young lady began to +smack her lips and show by her bodily motions that she knew what the +word "thirsty" and a cup in sight promised. + +As Gilbert helped to guide it to her mouth with one hand, the corners of +her lips, assisted by a little quiver of the nose, expressed +unmistakable disgust at finding only water. + +"Guess she's looking for milk same as kittens do," suggested 'Lisha, +tiptoeing to the table and peering into an empty pitcher. "Great +snakes!" his favorite ejaculation, "I spilled the last drop into my +coffee. The pup wants some, too, I reckon," as the queer little beast, +nose in air and tail wagging furiously, seemed bound to climb up his +trousers leg. + +"Of course she does, the lamb!" said Gilbert, holding her from him upon +his knee, the better to look over her. "But where is it to come from? +It's half an hour past midnight and I don't like to wake up the +neighbors," he mused. + +"Got a small open kettle?" asked 'Lisha, rummaging in the pantry. "I've +found it; now do you fix up a place for her to sleep while I fetch her +supper," he continued, with the air of one to whom the care of strange +lady babies was an everyday occurrence, when, truth be told, he had +never before come in contact with any young thing more delicate than a +calf or a long-legged colt. + +"Don't go to the Bakers'," pleaded Gilbert; "I know they're the nearest, +but Mrs. Baker'll come back with you for sure, and I want time to turn +around before any women folks bear down on me." + +"Nope, I'm not going to confide in any female, least it's Brooks's red +cow. I milked for them when the old man broke his leg last fall, 'n' the +cow knows me. It's only a quarter of a mile up the road; cow barn has no +windows on house side; key's kept under a mustard box on the +window-sill. Baker took his gun to Bridgeton Saturday to get her +cleaned. Not a bit of danger, and I'll explain to 'em to-morrow. Back in +no time." + +So, jerking out his words with gestures as mysterious as if he were +going to commit a desperate crime, 'Lisha went out through the back +hallway, lest opening the front door should let in too much air. + +He had no sooner gone than Gilbert's whole attitude changed. Settling +the little girl comfortably on his knees, he began to scrutinize her +clothing carefully, babbling a string of baby talk that would have been +almost unintelligible to the uninitiated, but that seemed very soothing +and reassuring to the child, who, after wriggling for a few minutes, as +though determined to get to her feet, suddenly discovered Gilbert's +beard, which he had knotted up to get it out of the way of the cooking. +It was fastened with a large shell hairpin that he had probably picked +up in the post-office. Fascinated by this unusual object, she clutched +at it with both hands, gave a crow of delight, and began jerking up and +down on his knee as if riding on a hobby-horse, treating Gilbert's beard +as its mane. Next spying the puppy on the floor, she stiffened herself +and prepared to slide down to him. + +"All right," crooned Gilbert. "Let's see if the little lammy can stand? +Yes, but not so very well," he added, as, after taking a single step, +she doubled up and almost sat on the pup. + +"Now we'll sit her on the lounge to play with doggy, while daddy gets +her bed fixed." + +The word "daddy" slipped from his lips unconsciously, as he pulled the +high-backed sofa out from the wall and propped the child up with some +husk pillows and a comforter. Then he stole across to the bedroom where, +after choosing a key from the chain that was fastened to his pocket, he +unlocked a high chest of drawers still keeping his eye on the lounge and +its occupants. + +"She's somewhere about a year, I reckon," he said, talking to himself, +after the fashion of those who are much alone. "She's bigger than +Marygold was at fourteen months, but not so clever on her feet. As for +talking, they're something alike; Marygold only said 'Daddy' and 'Puss,' +and I guess I can piece out some words from what _she_ says when I get +the time. Wow-wow means dog plain enough. I must get her undressed +before 'Lisha comes back; he's all right, but too rough in his ways for +handling a lady baby, and that's what the little one is." + +Having taken some clothes from the drawers,--a pair of knitted socks, a +little night-dress of yellow shaker flannel, and a quilted wrapper in +gay-flowered print, all smelling of camphor and their long, pent-up +years in the chest,--he spread them on a chair by the stove to air and +warm. + +Meanwhile, the child had nestled back among the pillows and was half +dozing, the puppy clasped tight in her arms. Going once more to the +bedroom, Gilbert stood a moment before the quaint hooded cradle, made up +ready for occupancy from spread to pilch, the cradle from out of which +he himself had gazed alternately at the leaves on the wall paper and the +leaves against the sky, dreaming in knowledge after the manner of +babies. Then lifting the cradle, he carried it into the kitchen, +negotiating the doorway with difficulty, for his burden was heavy and +the rockers wide of angle to prevent the overthrow of the occupant. +Pushing his hand between the sheets and finding them clammy to the +touch, he pulled them off and brought others from the inexhaustible +chest. + +Then came the undressing of the lady baby herself, which was done as +dexterously as a woman might, for Gilbert's fingers, used to the +handling of mere specks of machinery, did not fumble with strings, +buttons, or the intricacies of shield pins. Moreover, memory crept into +his finger-tips and guided the almost-forgotten task, even as feet that +once have trodden a daily path, returning to it in the dark, after the +lapse of a lifetime, follow each rise and fall. + +Piling the clothes she had worn upon the table, he held the little feet +in his big, rough palm, warming them, rocking gently the while. With a +sleepy friendliness, the child nestled to him; then, twisting as though +something pressed uncomfortably on her flesh, pushing her hand into the +neck of the knitted shirt that Gilbert had left on for extra warmth, she +began tugging at something, looking into his face and patting his hand +as if to ask his help. + +"What is it, lammy? A tight string that chokes? Let daddy feel." + +Drawing up a chain of intricate links, his fingers closed upon a thin +locket or watch, he could not tell which, as it would not open. He +unfastened the chain and put it with the heap of clothes, as the door +opened and 'Lisha, fairly blue with the cold, some of which rushed in +with him, returned with the milk. The trip from the Brooks farm had +cooled it sufficiently to make it palatable and this time the child took +a long drink, sighing with satisfaction when she paused for breath, with +her four tiny teeth clenched on the thick china cup to prevent its being +taken away. + +Then with unmistakable gestures, she asked that the puppy might also +have some. She sat blinking and keeping her eyes open with difficulty +watching until his little elastic stomach began to grow heavy, and +rummaging a bit of carpet into a sort of nest, he settled for the night, +half under the stove. This did not suit the lady baby; she wished to +hold the puppy and began to show a decided bit of temper, until Gilbert, +lifting her from the lounge, carried her on his shoulder to the bedroom, +saying, "Hold crying a minute, lammy, 'til daddy sees what he can find +in the drawer. Yes, I thought it was here;" and the child, hugging a rag +doll flat faced and faded, allowed herself to be tucked into the cradle +without a murmur, and fell into natural sleep, the deep hood of the +cradle completely shutting off the light. + +'Lisha gave a sigh of relief that was almost tragic. "She's safe off to +sleep and we ain't dropped her, nor broke her, thank the Lord! Well, +Gilbert, what do you think?" and the giant, spreading his hands behind +him, backed toward the stove. + +"Think? Why, I reckon, after Marygold, she's the sweetest little one I +ever set eyes on, and in some ways she's remarkably like her, 'specially +the way she sets her chin,--" + +"Great snakes! I don't mean that," snorted 'Lisha. "How do you think she +come here? Who brought her and why? Don't it strike you as anything +unusual that a child of her age, all togged out fine, should be left on +a porch in the middle of a perishing cold night?" + +"Of course, of course, 'Lisha, it's unusual, and I reckon that's half +the reason that I've been in a daze ever since; that, and feeling +something warm and small on my knee. Now she's safe and asleep, it's our +duty to investigate and let her people know her whereabouts soon as I've +made up the morning mail. Draw up to the table and we'll find if there's +any marks on her clothes. + +"To my thinking, it's a case of kidnapping," Gilbert continued, "either +for money, or perhaps spite. Even parents do queer things to outface +each other sometimes. Oh, you needn't shake your head, I _know_; there's +a chance to see a deal of life in a post-office. + +"Whoever was making away with the lady baby likely got scared, or was +sorry for the job, so left her here in a public place where she'd be +soon found." + +"Where'd they come from _last_?" persisted 'Lisha, but received no +answer, as Gilbert was examining each garment, fingering them carefully, +inch by inch, and though 'Lisha did likewise, no marks of any sort, not +even an embroidered initial, could they discover. + +The large locket of heavily chased gold, the pattern much worn on the +sides, after many efforts at prying, at last flew open, purely by +accident when its secret spring was touched. Within, the picture of a +young woman seemed to look so directly in their faces, that both men +exclaimed. The face was that of a girl of eighteen or nineteen. Dark +brows and lashes guarded large hazel eyes, the nose was a trifle +tip-tilted, and this, together with the parted lips, gave the impression +that she was about to speak, while a very firm chin lent decision to the +youthful roundness of the face. Exquisitely shaded hair, in tints of +gold, copper, and ash, curved back from the broad forehead, and was +loosely braided and coiled about the small head, while resting lightly, +half sidewise on the braids, was a wreath of poppies, not the flaming +oriental flowers that suggest sensuous drowsiness, but delicate, +rosy-flushed blossoms with petals frail as the wings of a night moth. + +The two men did not analyze the face that looked frankly into theirs, +they only knew that it was beautiful. Presently, the light caught upon +the inside of the cover of the locket showing, imperfectly, letters +engraved thereon. + +"Get me my watch-glass from the work bench," said Gilbert, his hands +trembling with expectation. But this revealed only a single word and +date,--"Poppea--1850." + +"Poppea! what's that, a place?" asked 'Lisha, turning the locket this +way and that in the hope of finding more. + +"It's a woman's name if I remember rightly, and I think I've met it in +Mr. Plutarch's book or some history. The wife of one of the Cæsars or +some one of importance. I'll look it up to-morrow. Anyway, the picture +is done on ivory like the one of Miss Felton's mother that she wears in +a brooch. Some said it was only made of tea-cup china, so one day, when +she was waiting for me to weigh a package, I made bold to ask, and she +said, 'No, Mr. Gilbert, it is painted on ivory and is a work of art.' So +I judged only the well-to-do can lay claim to this sort, which carries +out what I say, as I did before, the lady baby has been kidnapped. Now +lets us turn in. You go in my room and I'll take the shake-down on the +lounge and keep a watch on the lady baby." + +'Lisha, pulling himself stiffly to his feet to obey, stumbled over the +corner of the buffalo-robe that had been pushed under the table and +remained unnoticed. + +"I wonder if this thing has anything to tell on the subject," he said, +spreading it wrong side up on the floor and scrutinizing the patched and +faded lining slowly. + +"Look here, Gilbert! Just look at that patch there in the northeast +corner, that piece of felt with moon and star figgers on it! 'Long about +Christmas, Dr. Morewood was up at the farm in a sleigh from the stable +at Westboro, his own being in the shop for new irons. He'd throwd the +robe over his horse, and it slipping off, it got trampled, so he asked +mother to take a stitch in it. But the hole being big, she threw in a +hasty patch made from the end of an old table cover that had been in our +setting room since I was knee high to a toad. What you're looking at is +that patch." + +"You'd reckon the party that brought the child had a team from Beers's +stable then," said Gilbert, now all eagerness. "If so, why didn't we +hear the rumble of it on the ice, and how would they account for the +robe when they got back?" + +"As for the team, it might have been a sleigh with hushed bells; we +fellows up our way often fix them like that when we want to take the +girls out riding on the sly and the old folks asleep. As for their going +back, yer running on too fast; that's to be found to-morrow. That we've +got a clew right here's enough for you now. One o'clock! Great snakes! +it's to-morrow right now, and me due up home to milk at six and you to +pack up the first mail down. Say, Gilbert, don't you want me to stop at +Mis' Pegrim's as I go up and hustle her down for the day until this +child business is settled up? You'll have your hands overflowin', what +with her and it and all the people that'll be in ponderin' and +advisin'." + +"Well," replied Gilbert, his hands working nervously, as he twisted and +untwisted the long beard from which the lady baby had pulled the pin, +"under the circumstances, I guess it'll be best, and I'd be obliged if +you'd hook up and fetch her yourself. 'Tisn't necessary for her to stop +and talk to every fence post on the way, either. As to the locket, +that's most likely _her_ mother's picture; we'll keep quiet about it, +lest, being valuable, it's wrongly claimed." + +Soon comfortable snores sounded from the inner room. Gilbert, wrapping a +quilt about him, lay down upon the lounge without undressing. Sleep +would not come; instead, scenes and people of long ago flitted through +the room as across a stage; the wind from chimney, keyholes, and +window-sash supplying speech. Presently the light of the old moon, that +would loiter in the west until after sunrise, crept in the window +through the geraniums and reaching out long fingers toward the cradle, +seemed to Gilbert's burning eyes to draw it from him. Getting up, he +looked at the child, rosy with sleep, still clasping Marygold's faded +doll, turned the cradle once more into the shadow, and kneeling by it +with his arms clasped over the hood, half thought, half whispered, "I +can't tell how or why, only that a child is here, but if to make up for +my home-staying, as he wrote, this is that other wrong for me to right +at my own door,--I thank Thee, Lord!" Then quickening the dying fire, +Gilbert finished his vigil before it in Mary's rocking-chair. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE NEXT DAY + + +Mrs. Jason Pegrim needed no urging in the matter of making haste to go +to her brother's assistance. During the nine years that she had lived in +her farm-house on the hill, her one desire had been to get back to the +village, and ever since her brother had been appointed postmaster she +had spent many sleepless nights in fruitless schemes for bringing it to +pass. For if the clock-maker's little shop had been a place of social +opportunities to the alert widow, how much wider a field could she find +in the post-office? + +Now the opportunity had almost dropped out of a dream, as she told +'Lisha Potts, when she hurried to admit him in the early dawn, her +toilet being so far from complete that hairpins bristled from her mouth +and rendered still more incoherent her announcement. "There now, and +folks say there's nothing in dreams! To be sure, the man in my dream +last night that came to price the heifer was dark and you're sandy, and +while I went to lead her out, he stole my best spoons out of the +clock-case, and slipped out of the back door, which, of course, no Potts +would do, even in a dream. But where it comes out true is that a man +did come, which is a matter for thankfulness, the first that's opened +that gate in a week." + +As 'Lisha explained his errand, his native shrewdness making him tell as +little as possible, brief as the time was, Mrs. Pegrim finished the +securing of the doorknob coil of hair at the back and freed her tongue +for better action. + +"Brother Oliver has his hands full and wants me to come down and help +him out for a week? You're sure he doesn't feel sick and doesn't want to +allow it? Or mebbe he's minded to get the spring cleaning done early; if +so, he's too forehanded, for March cleaning won't hold over till fall, +not but what I'm glad to go down and get three miles nearer to the +news." + +While her tongue flew, her hands and feet were not idle, for, shoving +'Lisha before her into the kitchen, Mrs. Pegrim quickly assembled a +pick-up breakfast, of which she motioned him to eat in expressive +pantomime, while continuing her questions. + +"Do you reckon he'll want me for more than a week? If I thought he +would, I'd put in my Sunday pelerine, but if not, I'd hate to muss it. +Didn't specify any length of time, only said fetch her down? That's like +a man. Anyhow, I'll tell neighbor Selleck to feed my fowls and the cow +and heifer until he hears contrary, besides which, you'll have to get +him to milk for you this morning if you're going to drive me down. +Oliver must be in some sort of strait if you can't even wait to milk and +do your chores first." + +Having packed a capacious carpet-bag, drawn down the gayly painted paper +window-shades, emptied and dried the tea-kettle, and made sure that not +an ash was at large on the hearth, for she still cooked in the open +chimney over a bed of wood embers by the aid of pot hook, crane, and +trammel, Satira joined 'Lisha at the table and poured herself a cup of +coffee. She had barely raised it to her lips when she set it down so +suddenly that the coffee splashed upon her cherry-colored bonnet +strings. + +"'Lisha Potts," she adjured solemnly, "I know what it is! Oliver is +going to take a second and he wants me to put things in shape! And why +shouldn't he if he wishes? He's got a tidy sum laid by and a trade and a +position under government. Of course I'll go and help him, not but what +a widow must feel, losing her only brother twice, so to speak, but if I +suspicioned who she is, I could ride down easier, and resign my spirits +better if I knew it wasn't widow Baker." + +"It isn't marrying anybody, so you're way off the track. It's just +unexpected company that Oliver ain't got time to entertain suitable, and +the quicker we get down there, the sooner you'll know all about it," +said 'Lisha, indulging in what for him was a wild flight of fancy. + +After the Sellecks had received instructions as to her live stock, +Satira Pegrim relapsed into a silence that lasted for almost a mile. + +"How much company is there?" asked Satira, launching the question +suddenly in the hope of taking 'Lisha unawares. + +"Two!" he replied, a gleam of amusement flitting across his grim visage. + +"Males or females?" + +"One of each." + +"Married couple?" + +"Nope." + +"Brother and sister?" + +"I reckon not." + +"Just friends, then?" + +"I guess you've hit it now, pretty near, though I should call them two +down to Gilbert's more sort of travelling companions that was on the way +to growin' real friendly." More than this, Satira Pegrim could not +extract, and she contented herself by weaving romance about the unknown +couple, paying no attention to the beauty of the morning, wherein every +ice-covered twig glistened in the sun. + +'Lisha pulled up at the post-office-house door, and after steering Mrs. +Pegrim carefully along the slippery path to the side porch, having +suddenly made up his mind to stay down at the village for another day, +he led the horse and bobbing two-wheeled chaise to Gilbert's barn that +stood at the end of the lot against the high bank that made John Angus's +boundary. + +The side door being open, Mrs. Pegrim went in without knocking, found no +one in either kitchen, bedroom, or pantry, though the general confusion +told its own story; as she almost fell over the cradle, its bedding +tumbled about as if to air, the last straw was added to the mystery. +With a gasp, combined of suppressed speech and astonishment, she seized +her bag and going up to the room over the kitchen that she had +previously occupied, donned a gown of stout indigo print, and throwing +over head and shoulders a wonderful shawl of her own knitting, a +marvellous blend of gray and purple stripes, resolutely crossed the +passage between house and post-office, and entering by the workshop +door, peered through into the office in an effort to see without being +seen. + +An unusual number of men for the time of the morning when chores are +most pressing stood about the stove, while two women, one being the +objectionable widow Baker, were actually holding an animated +conversation with Gilbert through the delivery window of the beehive, +standing a-tiptoe in their endeavors to see some object within the +sacred precinct. At the same time Mrs. Baker exclaimed--"The darling!" +in a wheezy tone that was meant to be confidential. + +To the searching eye of his sister, Gilbert looked completely unnerved. +His hair, usually so sleek and divided low over the left ear, stood on +end; his beard was buttoned under his collarless blue flannel shirt, +giving his face a curiously chopped-off appearance, while his hands +shook as he fumbled with the letters, and he continually cast furtive +glances behind him. + +Finally, Satira Pegrim made a dive through the group of men, and, +without appearing to see the women, slipped through the door at the back +of the sorting bench, only to trip over a soft something on the floor, +and suddenly find herself kneeling and very much jarred upon the edge of +a bright patchwork quilt, in the centre of which sat the lady baby, +alternately feeding herself and the puppy with a thick slice of bread +which she held butter side down. In the dull morning light, the child +looked more pathetic than pretty, for she had an unmistakable snuffly +cold, and a pair of tears that had been quivering on her long lashes +rolled down her cheeks as she looked up at Mrs. Pegrim. + +The puppy gave a shrill bark and began to play tug-of-war with a corner +of the cherished shawl. At the sound Gilbert turned, a look of infinite +relief spreading over his face when he saw his sister. + +"Thank the Lord you've come," he jerked out over his shoulder as he +handed widow Baker ten three-cent stamps that she had bought merely to +prolong the interview. "Take 'em right back to the house and I'll come +over soon as I can. She's got a cold and is wheezy; if you can't fix her +up, I calculate 'Lisha'd better go for the doctor." + +"Yes, I will, Oliver; the minute I set eyes on her it flashed through +me, lard and nutmeg, on the chest, that's what she needs. But who _be_ +they, 'nd how'd they come here without parents is what I'd like to know; +that is, the child, I mean, for lots of puppies don't have any." + +"That's what we don't know and have got to find out. Didn't 'Lisha +explain?" + +"Not a word, only rigmarolled about company." + +"'Lisha," called Gilbert to the backwoodsman, who had now come in, "will +you go over home with sister Pegrim? She wants to talk to you 'bout last +night." + +"I reckon if it isn't against the law, I'd ruther step in there and dish +out the rest of them letters," said 'Lisha; so brother and sister, the +lady baby muffled in the quilt, and wow-wow nipping at the heels of +Gilbert's carpet slippers, went together. + +The door had no sooner closed behind them than the men began questioning +'Lisha all together, propounding their theories of the event before +which the war news had temporarily paled; for never, even in the memory +of Selectman Morse, the oldest of them, had a baby been abandoned in the +township,--much less a well-grown child of a year. + +Mr. Morse, in view of his position, appointed two of the men present to +take up the clew; for in these good old days of New England, the First +Selectman was virtually mayor of the township and was so chosen. + +'Lisha, by reason of his being the first to discover the child, was +deputed to go to the stable at Westboro with the buffalo-robe, after +which the course of the search would depend upon what the stableman +could tell. + +"Gilbert, are you willing that the child should stay here while we +investigate?" the Selectman asked when the postmaster returned and +'Lisha had driven off to Westboro; "or would you rather she were handed +over to proper authorities right now?" + +"Who might those be?" asked Gilbert, by way of reply. + +"Well, now, that raises a question of some moment," said the Selectman, +fitting the tips of his fingers together precisely and making a flywheel +of his thumbs, at the same time adjusting his upper teeth in place with +a clicking sound. That it was the wandering disposition of these teeth +that had prevented their owner from becoming an orator in the cause of +patriotism, he firmly believed. + +"If the child's an orphan foundling, she goes to the county asylum; if +merely abandoned by worthless parents, she goes to the poor-house free; +while if she can be attributed to a living male parent, he must pay her +board either to the town or her mother." + +"It appears to me," said Gilbert, moistening his lips nervously, and +dangerous gleams shooting from his keen gray eyes, "that as you don't +know where to send her, and you've no authority to take her, she will +stay right where she was left! And now, boys, while I'm obliged to ye +all for your interest, this matter isn't federal business, nor connected +with this post-office, so if there's anything to say, come 'round to the +house later on and have it out. Under anything that may come out, the +child is innocent, and it might come pretty hard a score of years from +now if she knew she was made light of by you fellows." Gilbert's voice +broke at this juncture, and the boys were looking at each other +sheepishly when a team rattled up to the door and 'Lisha and Beers, the +Westboro liveryman, came in together, having met at the lower end of +town. + +"They hired a sleigh from Beers's all right and hushed the bells," cried +'Lisha, triumphantly. + +"Who?" chorused the boys. + +"The man and woman who brought the child here, of course." + +"I didn't say it was a man _and_ a woman," put in Beers, cutting off a +generous quid of tobacco and passing the remainder around, as though +preparing for a social occasion that would be a strain on the juices of +speech. + +"This here was the way of it," he said, settling himself within easy +range of the box of sawdust by the stove, while Gilbert came from the +hive to lean over the case where a collection of stationery, +knickknacks, cigars, and packages of lozenges was kept. + +"You know how late the mail-train was last night, and how it stormed? +Well, the last train was late by that much too; after waiting 'round a +spell I came home and I made up my mind I wouldn't send a team over to +the depot again but trust to any folks that wanted one coming over, for +it was near midnight. I suppose I must have dozed off by the stove in +the office, because the first thing I knew, a man stood there by the +fire stamping his feet to warm them, the spring bell on the door having +waked me. 'I've got off at the wrong station, intending to go on to +Harley's Mills,' says he in a voice like he'd an awful cold; 'can I get +a team to drive my wife over? She's at the depot.' + +"'A team you can have,' says I, 'but I've not a driver I could send out +to-night. What part are you going to?' + +"'To the post-office,' says he. 'Maybe you'd let me put up the team +there and bring it back in the morning. I'll pay you ten dollars down +for security,' says he, coughing and acting tired like. + +"Thinks I, this isn't any night for horse thieves and if I give him +Spunky Pete, it'll be a safe risk, for he won't go but just such a ways +from the stable when he balks and bolts back. + +"'All right,' says I, 'what kind of a team do you want, chaise or +sleigh?' He thought a minute and says, 'A sleigh'll jar less a night +like this, and if you've got any old rag of a robe, just pile her in.' +Well, he started off all right toward the depot, the bells jingling +nice, and pretty soon I see the sleigh come back with somebody else +within and go up the turnpike this way, and so I went upstairs and +turned into bed. It was after I'd got into a good first sleep when +something seemed to be pounding me in a dream and I started up with wife +pulling my sleeve and calling, 'There's somebody pounding away on the +front stoop and yelling like mad. Do you suppose one of the mules could +have broke loose?' + +"'One of the mules? That's Spunky Pete and no other,' says I, tumbling +into my clothes and grabbing a lantern. He always pounds and screeches +that way if I don't give him his feed first of the bunch. Yes, sure +enough, there was Pete pounding away on the porch. At first I thought +he'd served them some trick and upset them, but when my eyes fell on the +lines, I knew different; they were tied to the dash rail with a bit of +string! + +"That made me suspicious and I looked Pete over as I led him to the +stable. For a cold night he had surely sweat more than the short run +warranted. Then I noticed the bells didn't jingle--the string on the +girth was gone (I found it after under the seat) and the two big ones on +the shafts were hushed by being wrapped in paper. 'I wonder what's up,' +says I, 'the horse has come back safe, but there's something amiss +somewhere. A man doesn't give up ten dollars to ride three miles on any +straight errand.' So this morning I started up to find if any company +had come up to Mr. Gilbert's, and I met 'Lisha here with the buffalo, +which, I declare, I hadn't missed, and he told me the rest." + +"Did you keep the bits of newspaper?" asked Gilbert. + +"Yes, they're down home; they're torn from _The Boston Traveller_ of +last Friday." + +"I wonder if any one took the milk freight down last night; it carries a +passenger car," ventured the Justice of the Peace. "Nobody, so far as +Mr. Binks the agent saw; he loaded on some milk, but the ticket-office +isn't open for that train," said 'Lisha. + +"Can you describe the man?" asked the Justice of the Peace, poising his +pencil. + +"That's just what I've been trying to do for myself," said the +liveryman. "Not suspecting anything, I wasn't particular, and he had a +dark cloth cap with a chin piece that pretty well covered his mouth. He +was short and thick-set, 'n' I think his eyebrows were light, but that's +about all, except that he had a long scar between the two first fingers +of his right hand. I noticed that when he slapped the ten-dollar note +down on the table." + +"He asked you how far it was to Harley's Mills Post-office?" said +Gilbert. "Then wherever they came from and whoever they are, they +_meant_ to leave the child here, it wasn't mere chance. Do you hear +that, all?" + +"Yes," answered the Justice of the Peace; "but as you've said that you +have no kin that she could come from, mightn't she be of some distant +kin Down East of old Curtis's, who didn't know he was dead? He'd had the +office about ever since there was one and was reputed rich, you know." + +Gilbert winced as though some one had rudely touched a vital spot, and +then, turning to the First Selectman, said quietly: "I don't know +whether it's law or not, but I think a notice should be put in the best +county paper. I reckon those from whom the child was stolen should have +as much chance to know of it as if one of us had found a good horse tied +at his gate. Then in a month's time, if there is no clew, other plans +can be made. Meantime, as it seems she was left here with intention, +sister Pegrim and I will look after her." + +"That's well said--liberal too, for a man of your years--with prices +what they are--" were some of the comments. + +"That'll do for the present," said the First Selectman, gathering his +gray long-shawl about him and steadying himself with his cane; "but we +have a mystery among us for the first time, boys, and we must not treat +it lightly. If Mr. Allan Pinkerton was not at this time needed by Mr. +Lincoln, I should vote that we put the case before him." + +Then, led by 'Lisha Potts, who announced that he was going to finish the +day by asking a few questions at the Bridgeton station, the group, +having already shortened their working day by a couple of hours, drifted +away. + +Oliver Gilbert watched them go, and mechanically took his seat before +the sorting table. He was dizzy from lack of sleep and the rush of many +emotions that he had almost forgotten he had ever felt before, blended +with others wholly new. His life had been slow in blossoming, the +crippled hip from his very childhood had kept him aloof and apart. Then +he had lived in the full for three years and twilight again fell around +him; for a while he had struggled against it, and then, as the neighbors +said, "become resigned." Now, everything was upheaved; work, his +consoler, lay on the bench untouched; the sun melted the ice from the +halyards, and yet he did not go to raise the flag of victory where it +must be seen from John Angus's windows. The hour struck and then the +next before noon; he did not even remember that he had not eaten +breakfast. Presently the outer door opened and a pair of small, heavily +shod feet clumped across to the delivery-window, through which their +owner could not look, even on tiptoes, and after waiting for a few +moments, the piping voice of a boy of six or so called, "It's me, Mr. +Gilbert. I've come over to see your little girl, please." + +Gilbert started from his revery and came toward the voice. "Oh, it's +you, is it, Hughey, and who told you about her, pray?" + +"Nobody told me 'xactly, but I heard Mr. Morse telling father and +mother, and I asked her if I might come right down, and she said yes. +You see, there wasn't any school this morning because it was too +slippery, but now it's all wet. Broken for spring, father says. See my +new rubber-boots, Mr. Gilbert; all red inside," and he held up one +sturdy leg. + +"As it's so close on to noon I guess I'll shut up, and we'll go in +together and see little missy. Isn't this about the time of day for a +barley stick, sonny?" said the postmaster, taking one from the glass +case as he passed. + +The kitchen was in its usual order; a boiled dinner was under way on the +stove, beneath which the puppy slept, while Mrs. Pegrim sat mending some +socks with the rocker drawn up close to the lounge upon which the lady +baby was enthroned and playing gayly with a string of spools. When she +saw Gilbert, she dropped them and tried to roll off the sofa to her +feet. + +"No, no!" said Mrs. Pegrim, pleasantly but decidedly, "it's too cold +down there for little girls." Her face flushed, puckered up to cry; +then, for some reason, she changed her mind and held out her arms. + +"So she knows daddy already, does she?" crooned Gilbert, "and here's a +little boy come to see her, the very first caller. Satira, this is Hugh +Oldys from the Mills--Richard Oldys's boy, you know." + +Richard Oldys was one of the representative men of this section of New +England. He had rebuilt the original Harley's Mills near the mouth of +the Moosatuck, for which the town had been named, and made them a great +distributing centre of flour and all grains. The land had come down to +his wife, whose mother had been a Harley and was, therefore, kin of the +Misses Felton, who also had Harley blood in the female line. While a man +of less wealth than John Angus, Oldys was so much more liberal with it, +so much broader in his sympathies and culture, that nothing of +importance was undertaken in the community without his advice and +sanction. As for his wife,--in that clannish and conservative little +town, almost old-world-like in its simplicity and loyalty to +tradition,--it was a belief that a real Harley could do no wrong. +Coupled with this, Pamela Oldys was a rare woman, almost too highly +keyed to the needs and wishes of others for her own peace, and wrapped +up in this boy Hugh, the only child that her frail health had allowed +her. + +Hugh surveyed the lady baby in silence for a moment, and then gravely +shook her hand, saying, "How do you do?" A crow came from the prettily +curved lips by way of answer, and she began a sort of game of +peek-a-boo, covering her face with her hands and then peeping out. +Evidently she had lived among responsive people. + +"I suppose God sent her the same as usual," remarked Hugh, in the most +matter-of-fact way. "She's nice and big though, being so new; they're +mostly blinky and queer at first, like kittens. We've never had a baby +at our house; they often have them next door, but not as nice as this +one." + +At this moment the puppy spied Hugh's rubber-boots that had been left at +the door, and made a dash for them, for if there is anything a young dog +loves, it is either shoe leather or shoe rubber. + +"Hi! there's a puppy. Is it yours, Mr. Gilbert? I had a puppy once and +it died, and father's going to buy me one of a better kind next +Christmas. I'll be seven then. There's so many cats around the mill +that I hope they won't scratch its eyes out." + +"That pup belongs to the lady baby," answered Gilbert, who was now +brushing his tousled hair in front of the mirror over the sink. + +"Did it come with her?" asked Hugh, eagerly. + +"It surely did; she had it right in her little arms," answered Gilbert, +busy with a collar button and not thinking ahead. + +"Oh, I'm so glad!" cried Hugh, clapping his hands, "for now I know that +if dogs come from heaven, they must go back there too, and I was afraid +that my puppy would be dreadful lonely if he couldn't go where there +were little boys and girls, for he just loved them." + +Satira Pegrim looked at her brother with a horrified expression. Her +lips opened to speak, but something that she saw in his face made her +close them again. Whatever her feelings as a hard-shell Baptist upon the +future state of dogs might be, she did not propose to shorten her visit +to her brother by expressing them. + +"Have they got names yet?" asked Hugh, his attention now embarrassingly +divided between the lady baby and the pup. + +"No, sonny; that is, I'm not plumb sure, so I'm going to take time, say +until along about the first of the month, to think out a name for the +lady baby. As for the pup, suppose you help me out with that. Think up +all the names that's short and slick, and then we'll have a choosing +bee." + +"Dinner is ready," called Mrs. Pegrim from the pantry, where she was +slicing bread. "Won't you set up to the table, Hugh, and eat with us?" + +"I think I'd better go home now, mother didn't say anything about +dinner. Next time I come, I'm going to bring you something, lady baby," +Hugh said, gently kissing the dimpled hand she thrust into his face, +"and byme by, when you can walk, I'll bring you up to my house to see my +mother and lend you part of her, 'cause you've only got a daddy." + +"That's just it, at best there'll only be a daddy," murmured Gilbert, +drawing his chair to the table and eating as in a dream, in which the +wording of the notice for the papers was the chief theme, until he was +roused by a spoon pounding his hand vigorously, and found that the child +was seated close beside him in Marygold's high-chair, her eyes fastened +on his face. + +"Look a-here now, Oliver," said Satira Pegrim, resting her arms on her +elbows, with knife and fork raised in midair; "I've been thinking, +suppose'n the Oldys took a fancy to adopt her. Wouldn't that square up +everything for everybody just right? For it's plain to see that Hugh's +just achin' for a sister." + +Again the forbidding expression settled on Gilbert's face, but Satira +did not see it until too late. + +"Mrs. Pegrim, I don't know just how long you may be called to visit +here, but longer or shorter, recollect one thing, you'll have no call to +_think_ about my business nor to _talk_ about it to me, but just to keep +quiet." + +"Don't you want me to visit or have speech with the neighbors?" pleaded +Satira, her cheery voice dropping to a ludicrous whimper, as the vision +of social cups of tea flavored by neighborhood gossip began to fade. + +"I don't ask anybody to do what they manifestly according to nature +can't; I said _me_!" retorted Gilbert, about whose long forefinger the +lady baby had gripped her hand as a bird clings to its perch. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE FELTONS + + +A month crept by with warm rains at the end of it, and the spring called +the blood back to the pale tree-tops with a bound. + +Though the people of Harley's Mills did not by any means hibernate in +woodchuck fashion during winter, they did conserve their forces after +the habits of their thrifty forebears and did not light or heat any more +of their usually ample houses than was absolutely necessary. A strong +tie of kinship threaded the whole community. The stately residents of +Quality Hill and Westboro Road were often second and third cousins of +the owners of the lonely hill farms, of the blacksmith at the +cross-roads, or the joiner and carpenter, whose correct eye and a +self-taught course of mechanical drawing enabled him to supply plans +when required. Nor did this carpenter think it necessary to call himself +an architect and builder, as he would to-day, in order to back his +claims to consideration. + +No one was jealous because the Misses Felton, year after year, went to +New York after Thanksgiving, and returned via the South late in May. +Rather were their doings a sort of general stimulant and tonic, +administered in regular doses through the letters that Miss Emmy Felton +wrote weekly to pretty little Mrs. Latimer, the Episcopal minister's +wife, who had a love of life beyond the radius of eight hundred a year, +while Miss Felton herself was in constant communication with her +steward, Wheeler, as to every detail of the management of the place, so +that all Harley's Mills knew exactly what to expect before it happened. + +With the other wealthy landowner of the town the conditions were wholly +different. When John Angus left his house for travel or the city, the +gates were closed as far as knowledge of him was concerned. Ever since +he had come home to take the property at his father's death, twelve +years before, he had been a builder of barriers, not only between +himself and those he thought beneath him, but he hedged himself with +ceremony in his own household, his own inflexible will being his +universal measure, and every act being in accord with a fixed plan. If, +in his dislikes, he was deliberate and inexorable, those who knew him +said that it was the same with his passions; in nothing had he the +saving grace of spontaneity. Small wonder that his roseleaf wife +withered by his side until some final shock, too strong for her +endurance, swept her away to die in oblivion. + +Thus the news came to Harley's Mills not only that the Feltons would +return the middle of April because the disturbed state of the South had +made their usual journey impossible, but that John Angus, who had been +running up at odd times all the month, was going to remodel his place +for the reception of his bride in June; while following on the heels of +this report, house-painters, paperers, masons, and a landscape-gardener +came to confirm it. So it fell out that, for a time, the lady baby, who +remained unclaimed at Oliver Gilbert's, became a thing of secondary +interest to every one but the postmaster and Satira Pegrim, until the +full month having gone, the village was again excited, this time by the +news that Gilbert had taken the final steps toward adopting the child. + +Immediately several impromptu debating societies of villagers took up +the merits of the case for and against the adoption. The women of the +Hospital Aid Society vowing, as they rolled bandages and scraped lint, +that a man of Gilbert's age was no fit guardian for a female child, +especially as Satira Pegrim might be relied on to take her second at any +time he should come to hand, which might easily happen in a post-office, +and leave her brother in the lurch. + +The men did their talking in the blacksmith's shop, a place where +Gilbert was not likely to appear suddenly, their objections being +impersonal and based chiefly on the fact that it wasn't a good plan to +encourage the leaving of stray children on people's stoops, also that +the presence of the mysterious child might be prejudicial to his +official position; next the three ministers of the town, Episcopal, +Congregational, and Methodist, had all made friendly calls at the +post-office house and asked, according to their different methods, +whether Gilbert recognized the responsibility he was contemplating. +Meanwhile, in the thick of the discussion, the Misses Felton and Mr. +Esterbrook arrived. Not all together, it is true, for Miss Emmy, being a +trifle delicate and disliking the mixed air, crowds, and jolting of the +cars, always drove from New York in the family carriage, a spacious +landau, lined with rose satin and swung high upon C springs, the journey +of fifty odd miles being broken for luncheon and a change of horses, the +sedate family grays having been sent on to this point the day previous. +Mr. Esterbrook accompanied Miss Emmy on this excursion; Nora, maid and +general factotum, making the third. + +As for Miss Felton, this means of progress was too slow. She took the +train with the other maids and Caleb, the colored man-servant; but even +this method of progression was far from rapid, as the cars were pulled +singly by horses from the station in East Twenty-sixth Street, a little +above the Feltons' house on Madison Square, through Fourth Avenue until, +the press of traffic left behind, the cars were united and an engine +attached. Still, journey as they might, the family group that parted +after breakfast in the great high-ceiled house facing the square would +meet at a flower-decked supper table in a new and healthier atmosphere, +without hurry or disarrangement, so harmonious was Miss Felton's +housekeeping in the subduing of annoying details. + +Not to understand the component parts of the household that lived, or, +one might almost say, reigned, at Felton Manor would be to have little +understanding of the conditions of the life and surroundings into which +the lady baby bid fair to be adopted. The Felton ladies were Bostonians +by birth and education, their father having been a prominent judge. +Failing of sons, he had, after being some years a widower, virtually +adopted and educated a cousin's son to be his confidential secretary, +and afterward appointed him in his will as a sort of guardian and +adviser to his daughters, who were left at the respective ages of +eighteen and twenty with a large property for those days. This man was +William Esterbrook, ten years the senior of Elizabeth Felton. + +When Squire Felton died, the combination household continued as before, +except that the Boston house was given up for one in New York, as the +east winds were bad for Miss Emmy's throat. Miss Felton, however, took +her Aunt Lucretia's place at the helm. Strangers sometimes remarked upon +the peculiarity of the household arrangements, where William Esterbrook, +in a house not his own, filled the old-world position of guardian over +attractive and marriageable wards. The family friends, however, saw +nothing more than a brotherly and sisterly arrangement, and this was the +view that the trio thought they held themselves. The real fact was that +the kinship, so remote as to be merely a shadow, had kept them all three +from leading the normal life that was their due. + +Twenty years had passed, years full of event and social intercourse with +the best that either came to or lived in the land, and still it was the +Misses Felton that bought a picture from a rising but struggling artist; +gave the young poet or musician a chance to be heard; entertained the +sedate at dinner or the opera, and, though they no longer joined in it, +gave the young a chance to dance in their great rooms, or sit out the +dances on stairs or in the trim conservatory. For, motherless and young +as they had been at the time of their father's death, they realized the +true social and moral responsibility of their wealth. Miss Felton was +independent, I had almost said masculine, of action; without being +brusque, she was direct and to the point, comprehended financial +questions, and had an accurate judgment in real estate. Tall and of +elegant proportions, she wore dark rich silks of simple lines, a plain +linen collar and brooch, while her splendid hair, without a thread of +gray, was drawn loosely over the ears and braided close to her head. She +did not seem to make any exertion to follow the fashions, and yet was +always distinguished. + +Miss Emmy, having been the younger, and the pet of her father in +addition, was of the spontaneous, romantic, and feminine type that, +while it seems very yielding, has quite fixed ideas. She was but a +trifle above medium height, with large gray eyes and light brown hair, +that at forty was either heaped high in puffs, gathered in a netted +"waterfall" at the back of her head, or let loose in a shower of +ringlets as the whim of the moment required. She loved everything +dainty, in people as well as in clothes; her skirts rippled with ribbons +and lace as she trailed slowly along, her sunshades were of the +daintiest, and her flowery hats bits of art that almost defied nature. +Lyric music was her passion, and in spite of her years she still had a +pretty voice, quite the size for ballads. Small wonder that between +these two opposites William Esterbrook, who, though of somewhat +superfine tastes combined with an undeveloped sense of responsibility, +was still a man, stood undecided. + +Twenty years before, his interests had centred upon Miss Felton, and +together they had regarded pretty, kittenish Emmy as a child, a +plaything. This aspect soon ceased, when Emmy, coming into the social +world, had taken the sedate man of thirty-two for her cavalier quite as +a matter of course, and alternately bullied him and turned to him in +every strait. Once only he had come face to face with his manhood and +resolved to make the plunge and propose to Emmy, but an over-estimate of +the effect it might have upon Elizabeth held him back, and so the three +had drifted through the best years of life, loyal to each other, yet too +supremely and evenly comfortable to ever know the highest happiness. + +If the trio had been separated even by a season of travel, they might +have discovered their real selves, for absence is often quite necessary +to give the perspective for rightly judging the feelings and relations +with one another. + +Six months before, the fire of war had entered Esterbrook's veins, and +he, the veteran of a militia regiment, had almost broken away to join a +company of his old comrades as a minor officer; but even here he was +rebuffed and turned back by something wrong with his heart action that +his physician discovered at the last moment. Consequently, at fifty odd, +William Esterbrook, whom Miss Emmy called Willy, and Miss Felton, +cousin Esterbrook, though a very well-preserved man, who had no need as +yet to use either hair tonic or other toilet accessories, was possessed +by a sort of self-consciousness and a certain agitated courtesy of +manner. + +A married man of this age usually has relaxed his tension through +natural processes; a confirmed bachelor, living in his own apartments, +takes his ease because there is nothing to goad him to do otherwise; but +for Esterbrook, he was still living in the play that had absorbed his +youth without realizing that it was a play, and sometimes he was +horribly bored. + +In personal appearance he had a style quite his own. At a time of beards +and many whiskers, low collar, and loose tie, he kept a clean-shaven +face and still affected a modified stock. His coat--except in the +evening, a Prince Albert--had a decided waist line; he wore spats that +broke the plainness of the customary high boots of the time, and his +taste in waistcoats was as refined as it was fanciful. After all, it was +the hat that was the most distinguishing characteristic of his apparel. +This was of the softest beaver, brushed until it shone like silk; the +crown of moderate height was belled out at the top and the brim curled +well at the sides. In the crown of this he invariably carried his +right-hand glove, the left being always in place and neatly buttoned. +This habit came of the old-time courtesy of either removing the glove +when shaking hands with ladies or apologizing for its presence. Once +Esterbrook had removed the glove with graceful ceremony before extending +his well-shaped hand. Now?--well, he was a bit weary of manners and +customs, so that the offending glove lived in his hat. + +About ten o'clock on the morning after the Feltons' arrival Miss Emmy +and Mr. Esterbrook were seen walking on the road that ran from Quality +Hill down to Westboro. Many heads looked out of windows and nodded, and +not a few hands were extended over gates by way of greeting, together +with bits of local news, either offered at random or for exchange. + +"Had the ladies heard of the lady baby left at old Oliver Gilbert's, and +his preposterous idea of keeping her?" asked the farrier's wife, who had +been one of the many helpers who had married from Felton Manor. + +"Had they seen Miss Marcia Duane, John Angus's intended, and was she as +handsome and rich as folks said? Able to wind him, who had never before +bent head or knees, around her little finger? And if so, why did she +take a man old enough to be her father?" + +"Why?" said Mr. Esterbrook, with his jauntiest air. "John Angus and +myself are nearly of an age, and I'm not yet out of the running." + +"Oh! Mr. Esterbrook, present company is always suspected, and then I'm +sure no one ever thinks how old _you_ are; you've always been just the +same," said the farrier's wife. + +Yes, always the same, a house cat by the fire; the bitter thought +flashed through his brain, yet the next moment he was stooping +courteously to disentangle Miss Emmy's parasol from the fringe of her +silk mantilla. Then they proceeded along the street, Miss Emmy's full +skirt of gray chiné silk, with its bordered flounces of pink roses, +rustling as it swung about her, buoyed out by many petticoats, for this +dainty lady followed the fashion without the use of what she considered +the unnecessary vulgarity of a harsh and unmanageable hoop-skirt. + +Little Mrs. Latimer ran out to remind her friend that the Hospital Aid +Society would meet at the Rectory that afternoon, and did she suppose +that dear Miss Felton would come and say something to the ladies about +the necessity of rolling the bandages straight, as Dr. Morewood had said +that to expect an army surgeon in a hurry to use a long bandage rolled +loosely on the bias, was simply to invite a lesson in profanity. + +Finally the post-office was reached. Oliver Gilbert, who was at his work +bench in the back shop, put down a cuckoo clock that he was tinkering +with and came forward quite spryly to meet his visitors, the limp, +caused in boyhood by the ill setting of a broken hip, being less +noticeable than usual. + +"We've come to see you first, and then to take a peep at this wonderful +lady baby about whom the village is agog. That is, _I_ have; Mr. +Esterbrook would probably rather stay here and talk with you about the +new soldier, Grant, who has come out of nowhere and is doing such great +things. + +"By the way, my watch has been losing time, though sister Elizabeth +declares that I wind it in the dark and turn the hands backward; at any +rate, it will be the better for a visit with you." Then turning to Mr. +Esterbrook, who was trying to decide which of the three morning paper +she should read first, "Willy, my watch, please; you have it in your +pocket." + +As Miss Emmy passed through the arbor to the house, she was surprised to +hear the halting tap of Gilbert's footsteps behind her. "I do not need +to take you from the office," she said, "for you must not forget that +Mrs. Pegrim is an old friend of mine." + +"'Tisn't that, but I want to know what you think of _her_." + +"Hasn't she any name? I mean, haven't you decided what to call her?" + +"I've pretty much made up my mind; I had to, for she's to be baptized +this afternoon." + +At this moment, Mrs. Pegrim, who had been chafing with impatience ever +since she saw Miss Emmy go into the post-office, opened the door. By her +side, standing straight and true, even though one hand clung to the +woman's apron, was the lady baby. + +Very scant was the greeting that Miss Emmy gave Satira Pegrim, for +suddenly she picked up the child and, carrying her across the room, +stood her upon the table so that their faces were upon a level, all +oblivious of the fact that her mantilla had slipped from her shoulders +and that the lace sunshade she had dropped had been seized by the pup, +who bore it to his usual câche under the stove. + +"The darling! how could any one have the heart to desert such an +exquisite little creature? Positively, Mr. Gilbert, you must let us +have her; I've always thought that I should adopt a young girl some day, +twenty years hence, to buy pretty clothes for, after I grow too wrinkled +and gray to wear pink and corn color, but I never before realized what a +dear a lady baby could be. After all, it will be much nicer to watch her +grow up; how surprised sister Elizabeth will be, and as for Mr. +Esterbrook, I wonder what he would do if I asked him to carry her home +for me." + +As she leaned toward the child, who was clutching at her long pearl +earrings, shaped like bunches of grapes, seeming to regard her as a new +and improved species of doll, Gilbert's hand closed on Miss Emmy's arm +with a grip that was by no means gentle. + +"Hush!" he said almost roughly in her ear, "we don't speak about her +being deserted and talk of that sort any more. None can tell when she +will begin to understand. As for her being adopted by you or any one +else, that's not to be. She was not left on Quality Hill; no lights were +there that stormy night; there were no folks awake! She was as good as +born to me. There's just three of us in this, God and her and me, and +we've got to work it out between us, stand or fall." + +"I could do so much more for her," Miss Emmy murmured apologetically; +then stopped, checked by the expression of his face, though she did not +understand it. + +"Yes, ma'am, you could and would as far as boughten things would carry, +but I've held Marygold in my arms, her little fingers clasped around my +neck, so I _know_, and time out of mind it's come to me that with women +folks and children the _knowing_ and _feeling sure_ is more than the +_having_." + +"Miss Emmy, what is a parrotpet?" Satira Pegrim had been on pins and +needles during this interview, and in seeking to cut it short, jerked +out a sentence quite as irrelevant as those two that have become +famous,--"There's milestones on the Dover road," and "Barneses goose was +stole by tinkers." + +"A paroquet is a bird, a small parrot. Don't you remember that I kept a +pair until one died and the other one grew moody and bit Willy--I mean +Mr. Esterbrook?" said Miss Emmy, also glad of the break in a strained +situation. + +"No, it isn't a bird, it's something to do with bricks. They've been +carting them from sloops in Westboro Harbor up to John Angus's place +this week past, and this morning, when I was raking up the leaves in the +garden down beyond the apple trees, making ready to sow early radishes +and lettuce, I climbed up the bank to Angus's boundary to take a look, +and if the old fence wasn't gone! Half a dozen men were filling out the +bank even with dirt from what was the old flower garden; the old shrubs +was uptore and lying roots in air, and right at the end of what was the +long path was a mountain of bricks. + +"Peter Nichols, the overseer, was there, so I called out and asked him +what became of the fence and said I wished I could have had some of the +piney roots and garden stuff that was just tossed out for filling. He +says, 'There's going to be a fine brick parrotpet instead of the fence, +'cause this here's to be a rose garden, and as for the posy roots and +things, I daresn't give 'em, but later on I reckon that some of 'em'll +root and sprout on the filled bank your side of the parrotpet." + +"Oh, it's a parapet you mean!" exclaimed Miss Emmy; "a wall something +like a fort. That proves the reports that John Angus is anxious to +please his bride and let her carry out her tastes, for she has a +charming rose garden at their estate on the Hudson that ends in a stone +parapet overlooking the river." + +"Only this one overlooks the post-office and me, though I believe they +_can_ see over the trees to salt water," said Gilbert, dryly; and then +his frown changed to a smile, as the lady baby, tiring of her fingering +inspection of Miss Emmy's ribbons, crawled to his knee with the +sidewheel motion she used when she wished to hurry, and holding her head +on one side like an inquisitive bird, stretched out her arms and called +"Daddy!" with unmistakable clearness. + +"Mr. Gilbert, did I understand you to say that the child is to be +baptized this afternoon?" asked Miss Emmy, presently, not a trace of +annoyance at his rebuff remaining in her manner or voice. "Who is going +to do it, and will it be here or at one of the churches? I should like +to send the lady baby some of our roses; I know she will love flowers by +the way her eyes follow my hat." + +"Mr. Latimer is going to do it; he's coming here, Miss Emmy, and we'd be +grateful for a few posies to trick out the foreroom. I reckoned to get a +new paper on it before this, but it doesn't seem any season to spend +for ornaments." + +"Mr. Latimer, an Episcopalian? Why, I thought that you were a +Congregationalist, and your wife was certainly the daughter of Mr. +Moore, who used to be Methodist preacher in Bridgeton." + +"That's all so, Miss Emmy; but what I'm striving at in regards to the +bringing up of lady baby is to be fair and unbiassed in all things where +I can. Now, Mary belonging to one of the sects in town and me to +another, it seems fair to divide 'round and give this child whatever +benefit there is in the third. Then, too, they've got an organ down to +the 'Piscopal Church and we've only got a tuning-fork, 'cause whenever +an organ is brought up, John Angus votes it down as sinful." + +"Aye, aye! he still holds to Kirk o' Scotland; he's vairy serious and +canty," interposed Miss Emmy, with a well-feigned accent, "for his +housekeeper told that last winter, when the cook asked higher wages, he +couldn't give an answer until he'd pondered it on communion sabbath, +which put off the evil day four weeks." + +"The child likes music," continued Gilbert, "for only yesterday, when a +fiddler with a dancing bear came past and I had him in to play, she'd a +crept off after him in a twinkling while Satira's back was turned, if +the pup there hadn't barked and tugged her by the skirt. + +"Well, I asked Mr. Latimer and explained to him, and he said, 'Why not +bring her to the church after service Sunday morning,' but when I told +him Marygold was named in the foreroom, then he said he'd come up. I'm +not asking a company,--Satira couldn't see her way to manage,--so +there'll only be jest two or three, but I'd be pleased to see you, Miss +Emmy, if you're interested that far to take the trouble." + +"What is the news?" asked Miss Emmy, as she joined Mr. Esterbrook, who +was walking to and fro under the maples that lined the walk opposite the +post-office, a goodly quantity of their scarlet catkins decorating the +wide brim of his hat. + +"News? There isn't any, except that McClellan is still on his way to +Richmond and there are some war bonds, 5-20's and 6-20's, going on the +market that I think we should all subscribe to as far as we are able. I +must speak to Elizabeth about them to-night." + +Then as he raised the parasol in which there were several holes not in +the original pattern and held it between her and the now really hot sun, +he glanced at her face and saw, not only that it was flushed, but that +it wore a wholly new expression, while the strings of her bonnet, that +had been tied with a graceful precision, hung loose and bore the +unmistakable print of moist fingers. Her face held Esterbrook's eyes +until, unconsciously drawn, she looked up and in her turn was amazed at +the sudden intensity of his usually placid countenance and the flash of +his eyes as he shifted them. + +"What is it? What has happened?" he said. "Has the child been temperish +and vexed you, or did she pull your ribbons awry in play?" + +"No, she was lovely, far too lovable;" then she paused to look over the +neat picket-fence into one of the many gardens that filled the spaces +between street and white-pillared porches, where tufts of golden +daffodils shone like prisoned sunbeams on the lawn and single white +violets, short stemmed and fragrant, huddled timidly about the roots of +leafless rose-bushes in the long borders. "What has happened is that in +this last hour I've been away, Willy," she said, as she made a +wide-sweeping gesture, "so far away from you and Elizabeth that I almost +forgot how you looked. So far that I saw quite back to things that might +have been." + +Emeline Felton had always been, within fixed boundaries, of a romantic +and emotional disposition, but with that gesture, suggestive of the +breaking of bonds, Esterbrook felt that she swept these boundaries +aside. + +"Was I other than I am now in those far-away days? Have I not always +been the same to you? Do I not always study your interests?" Esterbrook +said, again meeting her eyes that did not turn away. + +"Yes, but you were different once, though not for long; since then, as +you say, you've been always the same, and that's part of the matter." + +"I wish that in those other days I'd had the courage to go away far +enough to see if you would miss me and then haunt you until I'd made you +marry me, Emeline." + +"And I--I wish you had!" + +Esterbrook caught his breath: "Is it too late? Am I too old to change +the might have been?" + +"Ah, yes; if I married, after to-day, it must be a younger man than you. +Besides you could not stand the shock of telling Elizabeth, and if I +told her, she might send me to bed without my supper! + +"Then at our age we must consider our obligations to society; as +Elizabeth puts it, how disappointed it would be if the institution known +as the _Misses Felton and Mr. Esterbrook_ should disintegrate! How we +should be missed, we nice _safe_ people! Ah, no, Willy, don't look so +serious; it's only some left-over mad March Hare that has bewitched me," +and Miss Emmy laughed with the same ripple in her voice as that of the +bluebird on the roof of its box in the garden. + +"We must not forget to be patriotic; we must hurry home to consult +Elizabeth about those 6-20's you spoke of, and please, Willy, ask +Wheeler to make me a nice little bouquet of roses with lace paper around +it by three o'clock to-day, and tie up a box of loose flowers also. I'm +going to the christening of Oliver Gilbert's lady baby." + +The bonnet strings were tied as usual and the flush on her cheek had +faded to its normal tint when Esterbrook next glanced at his companion, +but in those few minutes he too had looked back and travelled afar, and +his face changed as though he had been a ghost of himself. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE NAMING + + +The Feltons, in common with their neighbors of Quality Hill, dined at +one o'clock and had tea or supper, according to the heartiness of the +meal, at six or half past, the village and farm folk having their +mid-day meal at noon. While a number of these families kept the same +hours in their winter city life, during the past four or five seasons +there had been a move toward afternoon dinner at five. Dinner parties +were given at even a later hour, oftentime not beginning until six, the +Feltons being among those who adopted the extreme custom. So far, +however, no one had brought the innovation to upset the almost historic +domestic regulations of Harley's Mills. + +Promptly at half-past two on this April afternoon, the carriage came +around to take Miss Felton to the meeting of the Hospital Aid Society, +where she was preparing to inaugurate a better system of work, the +material for which was tied in a great bundle in the porch,--cotton +cloth, soft unbleached muslin for bandages, and rolls of the gray blue +flannel of the hue that for years after was known as army blue. + +"Are you coming, Emeline? Or are you too tired after your long drive +yesterday?" asked Miss Felton, as she stood before her bureau fastening +a wide lace collar with the brooch to which Gilbert had referred, and +then catching the folds of her India shawl with an inconspicuous pin of +Scotch pebbles that blended with the fabric. Her bonnet was of finely +braided straw of soft brown, the chaise-top front being filled in with +geraniums of crimson velvet; the broad strings of brown watered ribbon +were of the exact shade of her gown. Though the Misses Felton were but +two years apart, Elizabeth, by far the handsomer of the two, dressed as +a doting mother, who considers that all the daintily pretty things of +life belong by right to her daughter. + +Miss Emmy, who was searching for something in the many small drawers of +her dressing-table, did not answer immediately, and her sister repeated +the question. + +"I'm not in the least tired, but I'm not going with you because I've +promised dear quaint Oliver Gilbert that I will go to the christening of +the mysterious lady baby this afternoon." + +"Do you think under the circumstances it is necessary? Is it not a +rather public expression of our approval of what the conservative +townspeople consider a very unwise action of Gilbert's?" + +"It certainly is approval,--_my_ approval, that is,--for really, +Elizabeth, the only objection that I have to Gilbert's taking the lady +baby is that it prevents me from adopting her myself. No, this isn't one +of my little pleasantries, as you call them. I asked Gilbert for her +and he refused. From your standpoint it may seem strange, and I have no +wish to compromise you. I've come to think now that as we are both past +forty and likely to remain the Misses Felton and live in one house to +the end of our days, it is time that, at least, we allow ourselves to +hold different opinions. It will make variety and keep us fresher, you +know. See, I'm going to take the lady baby these coral beads that I wore +at her age. She has precisely the colored hair and eyes to wear coral; +when she looks up from under her long lashes, she might be a mer-baby, +or whatever a mermaid's child should be called." + +Miss Emmy chatted gayly along, nonchalantly and without the slightest +air of being put out, yet Miss Felton knew that some great change had +come over her volatile sister, but instead of accepting the warning in +silence, she still felt called upon to chide. + +"Do you think under the circumstances it is a wise thing to give +ornaments to a foundling of whose antecedents we know nothing? Isn't it +putting possible temptation in her way?" + +"The knowing nothing is precisely what makes it right, my dear +emotionless sister. As we know nothing about her, we can take it for +granted that she is everything we could wish for. There, don't be vexed; +you are so compounded of judgment and righteousness that you can't +possibly understand people that want to do things simply because they +feel that they must. Don't wait for me, but send the carriage back, +please; I'm taking down some flowers." + +Miss Emmy went on with her toilet, Nora lending a helping hand now and +then to adjust the net of silk and beads that to-day held her curls, but +so rapid and nervous were the fragile lady's movements that she had the +air of a paradise bird pluming itself, and while the color her exertions +spread upon her cheeks lasted, no one would have guessed her due in +years by ten or fifteen. + +The front yard at the post-office house was decked as for summer when +Miss Emmy arrived. She had refused Nora's aid, preferring to carry her +own bundles, and had a little single-handed tussle with the gate that +allowed her to see in detail the row of pink conch shells, alternating +with round stones freshly whitewashed, that outlined the path. While two +settees, also spotless white, of the form once used in schools, set off +the bit of lawn, one resting under a tall lilac bush, the other standing +aimlessly in the open, as though it lacked the decision of character +necessary for a choice of background, between a crab tree, the grape +arbor, or the bank that rolled up to John Angus's garden. The +little-used front door was open, and a pair of gigantic overshoes beside +the mat told that one guest had arrived from a region where the roads +were still "unsettled." + +Satira Pegrim was at the door before Miss Emmy had reached the top step, +and rushing out, laid hold of the boxes of flowers with one hand, while +she half led, half shoved her visitor in with the other. + +"Do mind your step, Miss Emmy; Oliver hasn't got the storm door off'n +yet, he's been so eat up with worry this last month. Neither have I had +the pluck to attack that hall tread and turn it. It's now dark figgers +on light, but bein' three ply, if turned it would be light on dark and a +sight fresher; so if you kin just play to see it that way, you'll ease +my feelin's. Won't you step up into the best room and lay off your +bunnit? + +"Going to leave it on? Well, it's real handsome, and I've heard say that +folks in New York keep their hats on to most all kinds of day parties, +which I lay to folks not bein' as well acquainted as they are this way. +Besides, there being such a heap o' ornery thievin' ones, the bunnits +might get mixed or done away with if laid off'n. Still, bein' as it's +right here in town, I do wish you'd loosen yours; it would seem more +friendly like, and as if you was one of the family, of which the good +Lord knows there's a lack, 'specially on an occasion like this." + +Miss Emmy laughingly expressed her willingness to take off her +head-gear, and after arranging the roses in two yellow and brown lustre +pitchers on the mantel-shelf, and laying the little bouquet beside the +deep bowl of Russian cut glass that was to do duty for the christening, +she followed Mrs. Pegrim upstairs. + +"Why, where is the lady baby?" she asked in surprise. + +"I'm letting her sleep until the last moment, and Oliver, who's dressing +and fussing between his room and the kitchen's, got an eye to her. +'Lisha Potts's in there talking to him. Oliver would have 'Lisha to the +naming 'cause of his being the one to open the door _that_ night, you +know." (This was as near as Satira ever allowed herself to approach the +forbidden subject.) "He balked considerable, not being used to society +down here at the centre, and settin' in there now he does look uncommon +like a coon they had in a cage last county fair, 'n' we-all didn't tell +him one of the Miss Feltons was coming, for fear he'd streak it, so +you'd best stand just behind the door 'ntil he gets in. + +"I'm turrible glad to see your bunnit off'n, and how you do your hair. +Only a few of the daring hereabout has fixed theirs in what's called a +waterfall, and those as has looks like they'd put spice bags on the back +of their necks for a crick' n' they'd stuck fast. Yourn is just elegant, +trickles down and hangs as easy as if there wasn't no net to gather it. + +"Who all is coming to the naming? Only First Selectman Morse, little +Hughey Oldys, me and you and 'Lisha and Gilbert, besides Mr. Latimer +that does it. Gilbert he wanted more, but, says I, not having cleaned +house I'm not ready for a charge o' the whole town 'at would come if we +loosed the line, so we'd best draw it close as we can without choking +ourselves, and that's how. + +"No, brother hasn't told me the name yet, but I suspicion it's something +choice and bookish, for though Gilbert never made out to get further'n +three terms at the old Academy (that little building 'nexed behind the +new one), he's always thought a sight of books. In fact, he got +something of the taste from pa, who was a carpenter and the +forehandedest man about naming his family in all Newfield County; he'd +names for us all before he'd picked out his wife, pa had. + +"You ain't never heard? Well, it come about this way: Thomas, Henry, and +Gideon had been the male names among the Gilberts ever since they set +foot in this land o' promise near two hundred years ago, and as they +slumped down in one spot and didn't journey to speak of, with first, +second, and third cousins all clinging to those names, things got mixed +pretty well. + +"Father, he that was to be, was jobbing around down at the Harley house, +which is now Mis' Oldys's, fixin' more shelves in grandsir' Harley's +liberary. My, but isn't there a sight of books there! They do claim that +grandsir' Harley had every one that was made from Adam up to the time of +his death, and the Oldys folks has been buyin' ever since. + +"Well, they knowin' and trustin' father, he put in his dinner hour there +in the liberary instead o' coming clear home, and he got real interested +in the printing outside the books, and he came to find there was quite a +few double names he'd never heard of. So he says to himself, says he, +'I'll put a few down; they'll come handy some day mebbe, and freshen up +the family,' and so he did, and after ma died we found his pocket-book +all full of figgerin' on work and the names writ in the end. There was +more than he ever used, there bein' only ten of us, six boys and four +girls. Some o' the names he'd passed over, I reckon, 'cause he wasn't +quite sure of their sect. + +"The first of us was a girl and she was named Jane Grey, but didn't live +out her second year; then come Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlow, and +Clarissy Harlow, Robinson Crusoe, Charlotte Temple, Daniel Defoe, +Oliver Goldsmith, Cotton Mather, and lastly me, with Oliver, all that's +living. I was called for grandma on ma's side on account of her silver +spoons, two candlesticks, and snufflers, which I didn't get, marryin' +against her wishes before she died. + +"Some of the names were a mouthful, but they did look real choice on +headstones, and liven up the West Hill graveyard a lot. The marble man +that came from Boston to set up John Angus's father's moniment allowed +he'd never seen such a litery crop o' stones outside east +Massachusetts." + +A knock at the door sent Mrs. Pegrim scurrying away, Miss Emmy following +more slowly, as the front stairs were so steep and high that a misstep +was all that lay between the top and bottom. In the foreroom Mr. Latimer +was alone, standing hands behind him looking out the south window, the +waking voice of the lady baby having called away Mrs. Pegrim. + +Miss Emmy had entered softly and waited a moment before she spoke. There +was something about Stephen Latimer that always seemed as though it +belonged to another world and appealed physically to her spiritual +sense. Though of American birth and ancestry, he was a type of the +old-world vicar, well born and cultured, yet who, through his intense +introspection, spends his life in a small church of a remote parish, +seeing each morning's sun through the dimly colored glass of the chancel +windows, as a light sent especially from heaven to him, and basking in +mystic joy as, between times, his fingers draw from the organ the +simple linked notes that hold the village children to their hymns. + +In figure Latimer was rather above the medium height, spare without +thinness; a smoothly shaven face was saved by distinct mouth lines and a +firm chin from the perfect symmetry that seems to lack sympathy. +Iron-gray hair belied his age, which was barely forty years. In New +England towns at this time people looked askance at men of this type. +Patriotism rushed to any form of dissent in which to cloak itself rather +than lean toward anything that might be preëstablished and, therefore, +un-American,--the middle classes knowing no distinction between +catholicity and Romanism. + +Such feelings had Stephen Latimer met with in coming to Harley's Mills +six years before, yet he stayed on and soon came to be reckoned with as +an influence, holding his own and more, by seeing over what he might not +see through. The Misses Felton, though not of his fold, had given St. +Luke's an organ, such as was not known in Newfield County, and through +it, Latimer's influence went out even more than by the pulpit. For +though his young wife played at service, on Wednesday afternoons, rain +or shine, he sat before the keys and let his fingers speak the words +that all might hear who would. + +Sometimes the little church was filled by the Quality Hill folk and +their guests, sometimes a tired woman with a fretful, half-sick child, +or a pauper laborer creeping in to rest from his work on the roads, +would be the only audience--it made no difference in the music. + +Presently Latimer turned,--"Ah, so you are here! I thought I recognized +your roses. Is it not a brave deed of Gilbert's, this going again into +the fray after time had healed his wounds and let him at least build a +shelter around his sorrow? Talk of the bravery of those who go to +battle, I believe his courage in this matter in facing the unknown is +the real heroism." + +"I think you are right, though I had not looked at it in this way +before; I only thought of the amusement of the child's companionship, +not the responsibility. Ah, here is little Hugh Oldys." + +Presently, Satira Pegrim came in, carrying the lady baby, who would have +much preferred to walk, for having acquired this accomplishment all of a +sudden, she was loath to relinquish it. Gilbert and 'Lisha Potts +followed. It was not until Potts had come quite into the room, crossing +to between the centre-table and Mary's melodeon that stood between the +windows, that he saw Miss Emmy. All retreat being cut off, he gave a +sort of gasp and tried in vain to sink into the depths of his +stiff-collared, deep-cuffed Sunday shirt as a turtle disappears into its +shell. + +The sight of Miss Emmy produced a different effect upon the child, who +crowed and stretched her hands toward her new friend, quietly allowed +her to fasten the corals upon the plump, bare neck, and afterward tried +to look at them with real satisfaction, moving them up and down with her +dimpled chin. + +For a moment general conversation reigned, then-- + +"What is she to be named? I cannot wait another moment," cried Miss +Emmy. + +"It's writ in this book," said Gilbert, taking a small morocco Bible +from the table and showing the fly leaf, upon which, in characters +painfully round and precise, was "Julia Poppea Gilbert, from her loving +Daddy on her first birthday, April 20, 1862." + +For a moment no one stirred, for all realized the final way in which the +quiet man had settled the matter of birth and name, giving her an +anchorage so far as might be. + +Then Stephen Latimer spoke. + +"Julia Poppea! Where did you find that name, Gilbert?" + +"Julia was my mother's name; seems as if there should be family in it +somehow. And the other--I've read it somewhere, and it's got my fancy." +(Not a word of the locket.) + +"If I remember," said Mr. Latimer, hesitatingly, "it was the name of one +of Nero's wives; would not something nearer home be more suitable, +neighbor Gilbert? Mary, or a flower name, if you like fanciful things, +such as Violet or Rose?" + +"No, I've settled to Poppea. I've known of some one called by it that +wasn't kin of any Neroes or spoken of in Mr. Plutarch's books. Poppea +comes near to being a posy too,--poppies, nice cheerful flowers that, +come to recollect, have long lashes to their eyes, just like the lady +baby." + +When Stephen Latimer explained the need of sponsors according to his +ritual, and their duties, Gilbert knit his brows at the unforeseen +complication. + +"It is customary to have some others than the parents of the child to +stand, as it were, in their place of responsibility in case of need; +under these circumstances, surely no one can be more suitable than Mrs. +Pegrim and yourself, neighbor Gilbert." + +"I couldn't stand for any such strange customs or their results," said +Satira, closing her jaws quickly; she had been reading the sentences of +promise in the prayer-book that Mr. Latimer had marked. "I couldn't go +further than to agree to keep her in clothes, her body clean and well +fed, and to say, 'Now I lay me.'" + +"As I am in the eye of the law her father, the choice must be outside of +me, parson," Gilbert said slowly. "Who is usually asked?" + +"Near kin, or friends upon whom one can rely to take a true interest in +the child." + +"Then I ask you, Miss Emmy, and you, 'Lisha Potts." + +"I'm Baptist born, but no church-member," said Potts, his words forced +out as by some explosive. + +"And I am a Channing Unitarian and therefore an arch dissenter," said +Miss Emmy; yet at the same time, through the yearning of her eyes, she +already had the lady baby in her arms. + +Stephen Latimer looked from one to the other, an expression of +satisfaction stealing over his features as if he saw some special +significance in this strange combination, then whispered to Miss Emmy +that upon her devolved the duty of holding the child, who began to fret +strangely and pucker her face for tears. + +Latimer said something to little Hugh, his music pupil, and going to +the melodeon, covered and silent these many years, threw back the lid, +coaxed the fitful breath and reluctant keys to speak again, so gently +that there was no discord, only a far-away voice as of memory. Then the +two, the childish treble and the baritone, sang, + + "Saviour, Who Thy flock art feeding + With the shepherd's tenderest care, + All the feeble gently leading, + While the lambs Thy bosom share." + + * * * * * + +"That was her tune, Mary's, the last she sang to Marygold. How did you +know?" asked Gilbert when the hymn ended, his voice sinking +unconsciously to an awed whisper. + +"_I_ did not, but God does not forget." + +Slowly and clearly Latimer read the brief service of private baptism, +ending with the sentence, "If thou art not already baptized, Julia +Poppea, I baptize thee in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy +Ghost--Amen." + +"Is that in the book?" asked Gilbert; "then if it is, there are enough +other children named that 'tisn't known about where or when, so that she +isn't the only one." + +"No, we are none of us the _only ones_ either for sorrow or joy; in that +lies the love of God, which is brotherhood;" and seeing the light of the +smile upon Stephen Latimer's face, the child laughed and crowed, and +succeeded in wriggling from Miss Emmy's arms down to the floor, where +the pup was wagging furiously, as though trying to shake hands with +everybody at once, having slipped in as Mrs. Pegrim hurried out for the +christening cake. + +"It is not as light as it should be," she said, bustling back, "but I +made it sponge, so's the children could have it (I've fruit cake coming +for we-all). It was the last of the limed eggs I used, and though fresh +to taste, they do act sort of discouraged when it gets spring o' the +year and the responsibility o' hefting sponge cake is laid on them. + +"Would you mind, Miss Emmy, seeing as you stepped so far into the +family, as to cut it, I mean break it, as a knife spiles sponge cake, +while I pour the coffee?" + +"Hasn't the pup got any name yet?" asked Hughey, joining the pair on the +floor. "Mr. Gilbert, you promised he should have a name and that I might +help choose." + +"The boys in the office of nights call him Mack, after that little +General McClellan, 'cause he's always busy barking and running about, +planning great things he never does, so I reckon that'll stick to him." + +"Oh, I forgot! I've brought _her_ a present," and Hughey tugged at a +small parcel that was bulging from the pocket of his overcoat. "It's tin +soldiers and a little cannon; father brought me them from Bridgeton. +Aren't they fine? I'll show her how to stand them up." + +"I've a whimsey name for you," said Miss Emmy, as she set down her +coffee cup, a relic of grandma Gilbert's old Lowestoft with the little +half Chinese flower on front and in bottom, and stooping over the child, +kissed the rim of her ear that had an odd break in its curve like the +blemish on the petal of a flower that has folded too tight in the bud, +"a name that won't mix you up with any Mrs. Nero. You aren't to be +called lady baby any more, but Poppea of the post-office!" + +Poppea, however, gave no heed; she was absorbed in the ecstatic task of +tasting tin soldier. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +AS IT WAS WRITTEN + + +The twilight had been long for April, as though the vivid sunset colors +had fairly dazzled night, but now it was fading. Oliver Gilbert sat +before his desk in the workshop. He was not looking at what was before +him, but out of the window across road and fields to where a pearly +mist, in which floated the crescent of the new moon, hung above +Moosatuck. The rush of the river over the last dam that checked it above +the mills was occasionally punctuated by the cry of a little screech-owl +or the call of a robin shifting its perch, while the rhythmic chorus of +peeping frogs insisted upon "sleep-sleep-sleep." + +That Gilbert was tired was apparent in the deepened lines of his face +and droop of his shoulders, but it was wholly fatigue of mind. The +adoption which had for a month filled his waking and sleeping thoughts +was a thing accomplished. A week before, when the matter hung in the +balance, possession of the child had seemed the finality. To-night it +appeared as merely an open gate through which stretched a vista beyond +ken; across this many figures passed to and fro, but with faces in +shadow or averted. A question asked by Satira Pegrim at supper had given +birth to the entire throng. + +"Don't you calkerlate, Gilbert, it'll be best to lead her up to calling +us aunty and uncle? Then byme-by, when she comes to know, as know she +must, there won't be such a mess o' unravellin' to do." + +Gilbert had answered hotly, chided her unreasonably, ending by saying +that the child called him Daddy already, and that it could do no harm as +she grew up for the two white stones on the hillside to stand for Mother +and little sister. Perhaps, God helping, she might not learn the truth +until she was a woman and married. Then it need not hurt so much. Thus +Gilbert drugged himself reckless with hope, after the manner of us all. + +Darkness fell about him as he sat, his head fallen between his hands, +the side rays of the post-office lamp only seeming to draw the shadows +closer. Presently he pulled himself together, lighted the other lamps in +office and workshop, talking to himself in an argumentative strain as he +walked about. One man came in for a paper of tobacco and another for +some stamps, but seeing that the postmaster was preoccupied, they did +not linger. + +"That's just what I'll do," he said, as though after arguing with some +one he had suddenly achieved a conclusion. Again seating himself before +the desk and selecting a particular key from the chain he continued the +conversation with the opponent who, being speechless, could not +contradict. "When I was a boy, I always was scheming to write a book +some day that should be printed out like them in Squire Oldys's study. +The printing won't be compassed, but I can write out all that happens +from _that night_ on concerning the child, and the village doings, so's +it'll be there plain and no hearsay when she comes to read it and I'm +not here perhaps. Yes, and I must not forget discretion in the doing of +it. Mr. Esterbrook lent me some books of Mr. Pepys's, his remarks on his +own and neighborhood doings. They were fine and edifying in parts, but +lacked the discreetness and holding back I always find in Mr. Plutarch. +I wonder anyhow, if in the beginning books weren't written just for the +sake of talking to some one." + +After searching in a cupboard under the desk, Gilbert drew out a large +ledgerlike volume, bound in sheep. The cover was worn merely by lying +for years side by side with its shelf mates. The pages within were of +thick smooth paper, finely ruled. Gilbert tried several pens, quill and +steel, and finally brought a new one from the office; then slowly and +painfully he inscribed on the first page:-- + +_As it was written--by Oliver G. Gilbert for Julia Poppea, beginning +March 10, 1862._ Next he took his two precious Lincoln letters from +their drawer and fastened them between the first and second pages by +corner strips of gummed paper. Then began the diary. + +Two hours passed ere he had finished the first week, but as time went +on, he would naturally grow more brief--the more action the fewer words. + + * * * * * + +By the first of May the reconstructed post-office household was accepted +as a matter of course, Satira Pegrim having leased her farm for a three +years' term to 'Lisha Potts, and stored her furnishings in the empty +half hayloft of the post-office barn. When urged by Potts to sell her +farm, she had answered: "No, Gilbert or I either one of us may feel +called to marry, then what's to do? 'Cause I wouldn't be number four to +Deacon Green with his white chin whiskers, and his 'it's all for the +best' and other heartless sayings when number one, two, and three was +took, or, I claim, clean froze to death, isn't to say I'm set against +the institution. To camp 'longside of an ice pond isn't marriage. I +never did like lizards, real or human, since brother Cotton Mather put +one down my neck in Sunday-school the day sister Clarissy Harlow +'sperienced religion and I screeched so folks thought I had it too." + +On May Day itself, Poppea emerged from the hands of Satira Pegrim +clad in the first attempts for many a year of that good woman in +fashioning clothes for a child. The result was a sunbonnet of +brown-and-white-checked gingham, a sack-shaped slip of the same +material, reenforced by the species of extension-legged underwear called +pantalets, below which came a glimpse of sturdy ankles and feet shod in +stout ties. This being the universal garb of children of her age and +station all over Newfield County, the color of the gingham being +diversified. + +Miss Emmy Felton had protested and begged to be allowed to keep the +child in dainty nainsook and dimities, ribbons, and flowery hats, but +Gilbert had stood firm that in clothing at least she must be like the +neighborhood children, as he expressed it. Thus Poppea began life at +Harley's Mills without pretence, having for guardian Mack, who was fast +developing into a brown-and-white hound of medium size, a trace of +setter blood showing in the grain of his hair, and having the +forethought and human intelligence that is more often found in dogs of +unknown parentage than in pampered thoroughbreds. + +The parapet that made a barrier between the Angus garden and Gilbert's +home acres was finished. A series of massive stone urns, filled with +foliage plants that topped it, seemed in the half light of night and +morning like seneschals in plumed helmets, keeping watch over the doings +of those humbly encamped below, whom they suspected, but might not +displace. Yet what does Nature care for such distinctions and +boundaries? She does not even stop to snap her fingers at them, but +simply keeps on surrounding, overlapping, or undermining all barriers +that oppose her plans. + +The wash of earth and water from Windy Hill was toward Gilbert's +orchard, with its trees of mossed-branch crannies and knot holes, +beloved of robins, bluebirds, and woodpeckers, where the ample red cow +flavored her cud with apple blossoms, meadow mint, or nips of the sweet +corn in the vegetable patch, according to season and the location and +length of her tether. + +Down through the ground gaps in the parapet, a combination of +architectural design and necessity, came the spirit of that other garden +that the roseleaf wife had created, tended, and left to outlive her. +From the bank presently there sprang a bunch of tulips here, a crimson +peony there, a musk rose-bush in the débris put forth new branches +reaching toward the light, then came the matted green of violets, tufts +of velvet sweet william, a wand of madonna lilies. All through this +season and others some deep-sleeping seed or bulb put forth, +Johnny-jump-ups, prim quilled asters, and, with June, there swayed a +flock of butterfly-winged poppies that in still other seasons would +wander from their earth bank and alight among the plumes of orchard +grass to colonize all the sunny spaces. This was the child's playground, +where she first rolled among the daisies, while Mack, led by his nose, +made quest of ground-hog and cottontail; there she sucked clover honey, +was stung by jealous bees, solved the first mystery of the nest and +eggs, told time by puff-ball clocks, and by and by, through playing +make-believe, approached the real. Like the good fairy of a story who +always comes to the christening to mend with her gift any evil that +others have wrought, so at Poppea's naming, Nature the mother was the +invisible sponsor, who gave her three gifts: love of the beautiful +through eye and ear, love of the best through a warm heart, and the +precious gift of the tears that cleanse the spirit. + +As soon as the wind-flowers starred the lowlands and the red bells of +the columbine swung from their many shrines in the rocky banks, Oliver +Gilbert once more resumed his Sunday habit of taking a posy to Mary and +Marygold in God's-acre on the hillside. When the afternoon was right, +Poppea went with him, riding in the old chaise safe in the grasp of +Daddy's left arm. It was on one of the first of these visits that +Gilbert began to train the five-fingered woodbine, that, creeping +through the half-wild grass, clung to the two white stones and would not +be denied. Heretofore he had always pulled it away ruthlessly, but now +he plucked a leaf here, a tendril there, coaxing it gently to make a +living frame about the names and date of day and month, but praying it +to overgrow the _year_ that filled a sunken oval near the base of both +the stones. + +While he worked, he prattled unceasingly, as a child might, to the +little one crawling in the mossy grass to gather the light-hued, +short-stemmed violets and soft-pawed "pussy-toes." She neither paused +nor seemed to heed, yet two sounds heard week after week lingered in her +brain until her tongue should one day release them, and these words were +"Mother" and "Ma'gold." + +There was no Fourth of July celebration at Harley's Mills that year,--no +picnics, no speeches. The depressing summer of McClellan's fruitless +meanderings, as well as lack of money, forbade crackers or fireworks, so +that the return of John Angus with his bride, the second week of the +month, was an event that helped to relieve the general tension. + +Mr. Binks, who saw Mrs. Angus on her arrival as she crossed the platform +of the little station, reported:-- + +"She's good-lookin', middlin' young 'n' dark haired with pale skin. +She's a high stepper 'at knows which way she wants to go, 'n' mark my +words, if John Angus's goin' to foller like she 'spects him to, he'll +have to act freer and more quick'n he ever did for t'other one." + +Next day the village had a shock almost as great as if Lee had suddenly +entered Washington. Mr. and Mrs. Angus appeared, walking in the village +street, he holding her sunshade to the best advantage, while she let her +flounced, fresh organdie gown brush the ground that she might clasp both +her hands over her husband's arm, the white roses on her wide chip hat +tickling his ear the while as she moved her head in talking. + +In and out of the half dozen shops they went marketing (John Angus had +habitually marketed in Bridgeton), she chatting gayly. Presently, as +they reached the post-office, there was a pause. Then she was heard to +say, by a loiterer who sat upon the steps:-- + +"Don't be tiresome, Jack; you mustn't expect me to help keep afloat +senseless old grudges. Please open the door, it hurts my hand. Oh, what +a lovely child!" For though Angus did not actually enter with her, he +held the door back without further opposition. + +"I will take box fifteen," she said to Gilbert with decision. "I see +that it is vacant. Is that your little grandchild? No, your daughter? +You must let your wife bring her up to see me some day. I'm devoted to +little children." + +"I thought that he looked red and was getting mad," the witness said, +"but when she come out, she stuck a big yaller rose she was wearing in +her belt right under his chin, and says she, 'Jack, do you love butter?' +Oh, Lordy, I thought I'd die, her callin' John Angus Jack, and ticklin' +of his chin!" + +Quality Hill called immediately, both those who had previously known +Mrs. Angus in New York as Miss Duane and those who had not. Meanwhile +the stern mansion on Windy Hill relaxed and bade fair to become a factor +in the town, drawing its social life westward. + +There was much discussion among the village people as to Mrs. Angus's +age; at one of the Feltons' piazza days at home, Miss Emmy, by a process +of calculation all her own, said thirty-six, but Mr. Esterbrook +gallantly declared that as looks should be the only way of reckoning +such matters, the lady could be barely twenty-five. + +When Mrs. Angus returned her calls, a trim footman in white tops seated +by the coachman on the box of the barouche, the first ever brought to +Harley's Mills, the good folks stared and raised their hands. When she +took a pew at St. Luke's church, her husband escorting her to the door +each Sunday, they lost their breaths completely. But when she invited +all to a garden party to see a new lawn game called _croquet_ that had +been sent her direct from London by a married sister, they found their +tongues again to wonder if the mastering of its fascinating mysteries +would in any way impeach their loyalty to the Declaration of +Independence; then straightway succumbed as to an epidemic, grace hoops, +battledore and shuttlecock, and even archery having to yield it place. + +If Marcia Angus handled her husband somewhat dramatically, his +satisfaction seemed complete as it was deep. Only two in the place, +Gilbert and Miss Emmy, ever whispered even to themselves that she was +playing the sort of comedy that is only possible to a woman when some +motive of ambition rather than her affections has sway. So that it was a +relief to both when, on the Anguses' return from town late the next +spring, the touch of nature that makes all women kin colored the village +gossip, and it was known that at last there would be a child born in the +great house on Windy Hill. Satira Pegrim, who chatted often with the +gardener's wife, though her brother had never let her take Poppea for +the oft-requested visit to the hill, repeated wild tales of the fineness +of the cambric needlework and lace upon the little wardrobe; of the blue +silk draperies of the south room now fitted for a nursery; of the gilt +bassinet, with its pillow and spread of real lace, and bed, they said, +of swan's-down. + +Finally a new rumor was whispered and then took visible shape. Harley's +Mills, with its staff of competent women, single and widowed, who were +ready and willing to "accommodate," was overlooked; an English head +nurse of the brand accustomed to rear an infant from its birth and +chosen by Mrs. Angus's sister, who had sent croquet, appeared in the +stalwart person of a Mrs. Shandy. + +Then the village pursed its lips, folded its hands, and waited. + + * * * * * + +_Some random extracts from Oliver Gilbert's book, 1863, Jan. 1._--Three +million slaves were freed to-day according to the promise of September. +It had to be, but now I'm wondering what will become of them. Poppea may +see the working out of this, though I shall not. Having her, there's +somebody ahead to hand out hopes and fears to. Without somebody ahead to +keep up with, old feet must stumble and get tired on the march. + +_July the 3._--Meade is in command and they're at it again hot and heavy +around Gettysburg. Morse's boy is there and his grandson, or they were +when it began. We've all been living around the station for the last +three days, just gasping for news like stranded fish for water, but half +the time the operator can't get the wire, and then it's only that +they're at it still, with Lee to the better last night. + +My head is on fire and seem's as if my hands can't feel. What if they +should win--but they _can't while Lincoln's above ground_. + +_July 4._--We've won Gettysburg; but now the fight's over, the fields +yonder are just seeded down with bodies, blue and gray together. The +Union's safe, and all the town boys, big and little, are firing cannons +and muskets, there not being a store that's charging for powder! There's +been hallelujahs in the meeting-house, bell-ringings and speeches on the +green. I've run up both the flags, one atop of t'other, and yet now it's +night and I've come in out of the crowd, it seems like I must put a bit +of black out somewhere for _those others_! The picture of them in the +glass looks darkly, but byme-by, when Poppea comes to read this, mebbe +it'll shine up clear and be seen face to face. Joy and sorrow, there's +always the two around; the matter is _which of us gets which_. + +_July 5._--It's just come in by 'Lisha Potts that plucky Grant, who's +been meandering down-stream and in the marshes this long time, got safe +down the river past the fort and in back of Pemberton's men, and through +battering and starving, Vicksburg has given in! _Hallelujah for +victory!_ say I with the rest, yet I can't get the thought out of my +head of those famished women and children living in ground-holes and +caves to keep out of shot range. Maybe when Poppea is grown, there'll be +some way of keeping peace and right _without this murder_. Perhaps it +might come about even through women themselves! Who knows? + +_July 7._--Joy and sorrow! Both amongst us in this village. John Angus's +wife has borne him his long-wished-for son, but she is dead! + +Oh, God! what has he done to be so dealt with? He bent his will +considerable through love of her, or maybe it was pride. Must it be +altogether broke? Or is it because he withered little Roseleaf? I hauled +my victory flags down just so soon as Dr. Morewood told me. Then I run +the little one back, halfway up. I wouldn't want Angus to think that I +bear malice or was aught but sorry; though if I told him so, he'd likely +read it as a taunt. Mrs. Angus was pleasant spoken to the child and me; +mebbe some day Poppea can pass those kind words back _to the little +boy_. + +_July 10._--To-day they buried her up in God's-acre on the hill. The +flowers and singing were beautiful,--'specially the little boys from +Mr. Latimer's church that he teaches music. Hughey Oldys sang one piece +all alone about flying away on the wings of a dove to find rest. It took +me straight up after it and set me down far away, wondering where little +Roseleaf lies and if any bedded her with flowers and singing. + +The women folks brought home satisfaction from the funeral anyhow, for +there on a graven silver plate was the age out plain--"In her +thirty-seventh year." + + * * * * * + +_1864, July 13._--Early tried to get into Washington yesterday, but he +didn't. What a terrible year it's been so far, and only half over. Blood +it seems everywhere, in earth and sky and sea. Our boys dropping down at +more'n a thousand a day, week in and week out. Can we hold out? Yes, to +the end, with patience; for Lincoln says, "Victory will come, but it +comes slowly." + +There's nobody else left to go soldiering from this town. 'Lisha Potts +was the last likely one and went yesterday. His mother has come down to +widow Baker's and they've sold most of their stock,--fodder and labor +both being so high. Three dollars a day for a man at haying. Tough bull +beef at thirty cents the pound; sack flour taken over from the Mills is +at the rate of seventeen dollars a barrel, and taxes up to eight mills +from five, they say, to help pay the war debt; things look pretty blue +in my purse. Did I do wrong in keeping the child from those who could do +better by her? + +Sister Satira is all shook up by 'Lisha's going. I never suspicioned +before that they were courting. But she claims ever since he hired her +farm it sort of seems as if she belonged with it, and he claims ever +since she left and shut the door more'n half the place is missing. +Satira isn't in any hurry, even if 'Lisha hadn't enlisted, for she says +she had less than a month's courting before and poor quality at that, so +now she means to make it last. + +I pray she does. What would become of us? + +_Nov. 12._--_The Union is safe for Lincoln is reëlected!_ + + * * * * * + +_1865, Feb. 10._--Lincoln wanted to pay the owners something for the +slaves set free, but the cabinet would not let _him_! Others wanted to +hang the chief Rebel leaders, but he would not let _them_. So it goes. I +want the child by and by to think of this every time she sees those +letters that he wrote her Daddy, so's she'll remember what times and +doings she came into to make her loyal to the land and the folks that +stand next her. + +This month the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution was passed that +cuts out slavery from every State and Territory. So help us, God! that +every soul of us on this soil may be free forever more, black or white, +man, woman, or child. Keep us from bondage to ourselves, for slavery +isn't only the body being bought and sold. + +_March 5._--Yesterday, Lincoln took oath again. + +_March 12._--'Lisha Potts came home to-day, honorably discharged and +wounded some, but not past mending. He's been in three battles, and +looks old enough to count out those four years that he's younger than +Satira. Dave Morse came with him, but little Davy lies at Gettysburg. +It seems as if we ones behind can't keep our hands from touching and +feeling of the flesh of them that was there, or our eyes from searching +the eyes of them that have seen! + +_April 5._--Yesterday, Lee surrendered and Richmond fell. This ends the +war. Yet woe is still upon the land. What martyrs' blood must be shed to +cleanse it? + +_April 15._--_He is dead! Assassinated! None else would suffice!_ + +_April 24._--To-morrow we are going to see them take him home, the +child and I. The Fennimans have made me free of their front porch; they +have a house on Union Square, New York. He will pass that way. The +neighbors think I'm crazy to take a child of four or five. She may not +understand, but she will see, and byme-by, some day, it will come back +to her, and she'll be glad that Daddy took her with him. + +_April 25._--We left at daybreak. As it was raw and threatening, the +child wore a little blue cloak and cap like a soldier's that Satira made +to please her last winter. It being eight years since I've seen the +city, I was forced to ask my way, but Mr. Esterbrook being at the +station to meet some friends, he counselled me. Carrying Poppea, for the +streets were thronged, I went out to Madison Square and so down to Fifth +Avenue. Black on every side, hanging from roof to street, black-banded +flags, black bands on people's arms, the great clock shrouded in black. +There were no public stages on the streets that I could see, so I walked +down Fifth Avenue to Seventeenth Street, then eastward to Union Square, +and so down to Fourteenth Street. + +One large building in particular was covered with black from the dormers +down to the street, with all the windows hid by black-trimmed flags. I +asked a passer-by whose house it was, and he told me that it was the +home of a society called the Union League, formed by the best men of +this city for the upholding of the Union. + +We got to the house at half after one o'clock. I don't know how long we +waited, bells tolling. A groan ran up and down the street, and then a +great silence. From where I stood out by the fence, the porch and +verandy being crowded, I could see the black-covered horses swinging +round the corner from Broadway, and after them the car. Down the street +it came, from the corner seemed an hour. I lifted Poppea to the iron +fence post by the walk. The groan rose once more, and then silence, with +all hats off. When the car passed, it seemed as though the world was +dead, and that after the minute guns would follow the last trump! + +Gazing before her at the car, the child pulled her little soldier cap +off, then whispered to me, drawing my head down, "I don't see him, +Daddy. Is he going to heaven in that bed asleep?" "Yes, yes," I said. +"'N' when he wakes up, will he see muvver and Ma'gold and tell 'em we +was here?" + +A band struck up a dirge, so I didn't have to answer. I can't but think +perhaps he'll find _her_ mother, and tell her that there's an old fellow +who couldn't fight, that just lives to right her wrongs. + +After the car a stream of faces followed, men and more men of high-up +societies and committees. I was looking at them without seeing, until +one man passed and looked back as he went, at us I thought. It was John +Angus! My suz, but he's aged or something. His face was drawn as if by +pain or anger, I can't judge which. + +Poppea saw him too, and as he passed she waved her hand, she's such an +eye for faces. Then she turned her mind to some cakes the ladies gave +her, with pink tops. It's wonderful how nature eases things for +children. + +_May 10._--The Anguses are back, and folks say that Philip is not well, +does not keep his footing as a boy should who is turning three. Satira +saw him yesterday, sitting in his little coach behind the parapet, and +she says he looks old and tired across the eyes. + +Some doctors are coming from New York to-night to see him. Morewood only +shakes his head when asked, as much as saying, _I know_, but he will not +believe _me_. + +_May 12._--Mrs. Shandy came down to Satira last evening crying, and +blurted out that Philip has a twist or something in his +backbone,--Pott's disease they call it. He will be a hunchback. "An' +when he looks at me so lovin' with those big gray eyes of his, it seems +that I can't bear it," she sobbed right on Satira's shoulder. + +"What did his father say?" asked she. + +"Mr. Angus? Well he was hard struck and stayed above stairs all +yesterday. But this morning he came down and says to us help standing +by, 'Do all the doctors say, but never mention to my son or to me that +he is different from other boys. Who breaks my order--goes.' Ah! Mrs. +Pegrim, but he's got an awful pride and will; I have my _doubts if God +himself could break it_." + + * * * * * + +_1867, May._ Poppea is past six now and the Misses Felton think she +should have lessons. She knows her letters from her blocks, and Hughey +Oldys reads fairy books to her, but it's the hill-country speech that +worries me, and also the Felton ladies. When I talk, I talk like those I +live among, but when I put pen to paper, I do better, and write more +like those I've met in reading. + +Miss Emmy wants to learn her every day so when she's eight she can go to +the Academy, and being a lady baby as she was, not shame her breeding. +For manners, she's catching them already, and Stephen Latimer says she +has a great ear for music, and can sing anything she hears Hugh sing in +Sunday-school; not out loud, of course, but soft and strange, like a +young bird that's trying. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +INTO THE DARK + + +During the week of the greenest Christmas that had been known at +Harley's Mills for years, sudden and bitter cold turned a heavy rain to +an ice-storm that locked village and country-side, laying low great +trees by the clinging weight of icicles, freezing outright more than one +veteran crow in the roost on Cedar Hill, and making prisoners of the +ruffed grouse and bob-whites in their shelter of hemlock and juniper in +the river woods. + +In two nights Moosatuck became a vast mirror, in which the figures of +the skaters by daylight and torchlight were reflected, framed by +wonderful prismatic colors. Below the falls, however, the water, +tempered by the breath of the sea, bedded the wild fowl, repulsed by the +ice-pointed reed bayonets from their usual shelter. + +From all the bordering towns the people gathered along the banks this +particular Wednesday afternoon in a spirit of holiday festivity, whether +they took the part of actors or spectators. Contrary to the custom of +years, the Feltons and Mr. Esterbrook had returned to Quality Hill for +the week, though quite against the wishes of Miss Elizabeth, who +insisted that for Miss Emmy, with her sensitive lungs, the tropic +atmosphere of a steam-heated New York house, with double windows to +prevent even a breath of fresh air from entering unduly, was the only +place. Miss Emmy, however, had rebelled, and seemed bent upon following +the advice of a young practitioner, who had for two years been +propounding the radical doctrine that fresh, cool air was the natural +cure. The absurdity of his theory was on every tongue, even though he +was backed by a few women of the progressive sort, who are always said +by others to fly in the face of Providence. + +Be this as it may, a quaint old push-sled that had belonged to Madam +Harley, and been many years in the loft at the Mills, presently appeared +on the ice, propelled by Patrick, somewhat indignant at his descent from +the thronelike box of the carriage. When above a mass of fur robes Miss +Emmy's eager face appeared, framed in a chinchilla hood tied with wide +rose-colored ribbons, she was quickly surrounded, even before she had +time to shrug her shoulders free and draw one hand from the depths of +her great muff, extending it toward a young girl who had come toward her +with the grace of a swallow skimming the air, bending to kiss her almost +before she had paused, saying in the same breath: "Oh, Miss Emmy, I'm so +glad that you've come out; I was afraid that we had missed you, and I +must be going soon, for I promised Daddy that I would be home by four. +No, it's not cold if you keep moving, but it will never do for you to +sit stock-still. Please let Hugh push and I will skate beside you, and +Patrick can wait in that old shed yonder, back of the bonfire the boys +have made. + +"We've been pushing Philip Angus all the afternoon. His tutor is ill, +and the man that brought him out only stood about stamping his feet and +beating his hands. It must be hard enough not to be able to skate, for +there's nothing like flying down with the wind and fighting your way +back in spite of it, without having to be stuck in one spot like a snow +man. So we simply made Philip fly along, until he said that he really, +truly felt as if the runners were on his feet instead of on the sleigh, +and his cheeks grew red and his big gray eyes shone so. He is such a +dear little fellow, Miss Emmy, and so clever at making pictures and +images of anything he sees. Last summer he made Mack's head out of pond +clay and baked it in the sun, and it was ever so much like Mack when he +holds one ear up to listen, you know. Then he tried to do a head of Aunt +Satira, but it wasn't so good; the nose and bob of hair behind looked +too much alike. But then he coaxed Mack up through one of the parapet +holes into his garden, but he had to look over at aunty where she sits +to sew or shell peas under the first apple tree. You see, Philip and I +can't visit to and fro like other people, because his father is angry +with Daddy about something that isn't Daddy's fault, but we love each +other over the parapet just the same, so now I have two make-believe +brothers, little Philip and big Hugh." + +Poppea had chattered on without a break in obedience to a signal from +Miss Emmy, who, putting her muff to her face, indicated that the young +girl must carry on the conversation, as she did not think it wise to +talk in the face of the wind. Then looking about for Hugh Oldys, Poppea +saw that he was evidently searching for her in the zigzag line of +skaters near the opposite bank, and as a wave of her scarlet muffler did +not attract his attention, she started in pursuit, still with the grace +of birdlike flight that makes of motion an embodied thought rather than +a muscular action. + +As she glanced after the girl, Miss Emmy seemed to see as a panorama all +the years between the time that she had first found the lady baby in the +post-office house, with Hughey Oldys giving her his beloved tin soldier +and the present, nearly thirteen years. Poppea, now at the crisis of her +girlhood, Hugh in his first college year. Did she realize the lapse of +time? In some ways not at all. Mr. Esterbrook was as courteous and +precise as ever; if his morning walk was a little shorter and his +before-dinner nap a little longer, the change was imperceptible to any +outsider. + +But it was through her interest in Poppea that Miss Emmy knew that time +was passing, and yet the same interest kept middle age from laying hold +upon her, either physically or mentally; Poppea, whom Miss Felton had +from the beginning called Julia as a matter of principle, the second +name having too theatrical a flavor to suit her. At first it had been +the little child of five, coming to take her lesson in needlework on +squares of dainty patchwork, one white, the alternate sprigged with blue +forget-me-nots. The tiny silver thimble and work-box as a reward when +the doll's bed-quilt was completed. With this came almost unconscious +teaching of pretty manners, rising when some one enters the room, +standing until all are seated. + +Next came the discovery that Poppea was all music and rhythmic motion to +her toe tips. At one of the summer afternoon concerts for which Felton +Manor was famous, Louis Moreau Gottschalk had been the soloist, playing +some of his Cuban dances, when to the surprise of all, the child of +seven, who had been sitting on the porch steps listening intently, got +up and, creeping inside the window of the music room, began to dance, +suiting her steps to the music, now slow, now rapid, perfectly +unconscious that any one was present, until the great emotional pianist, +glancing up, finished abruptly, pausing to applaud, and Poppea, brought +suddenly to herself and covered with confusion, fled out into the +shrubbery, where, her face hidden in Mack's soft neck, she cried out her +excitement. Then followed the music lessons, Poppea's legs dangling from +the high piano-stool as Miss Emmy leaned over her, repeating the +ceaseless, "one-two-three (thumb under) four-five-six-seven-eight" of +the scale of C for the right hand. + +Now, born of the last Christmas, a small upright piano stood in the +foreroom of the post-office house, the room being further transformed by +frilled draperies, flowery paper, and a few good prints, while in +another year, Poppea would, if Oliver Gilbert could bring his mind to +allow it, go away to school to have the necessary companionship of girls +of her own age; not that she had the slightest feeling of aloofness or +did not mingle with the village young people in the simplest way. It was +the village people themselves, not Poppea, who seemed to hold aloof, as +if they did not know how to place the girl, who, though belonging at the +post-office, had the freedom of the Felton home, calling the ladies +"aunt." Gilbert could not realize this, and a possible parting put him +in a state of panic, not only for himself, but for her. What questions +might be asked her? What doubts raised? + +The Misses Felton and Mr. Esterbrook, on this topic being united, said, +"Farmington, of course!" Yet they had to confess that there were certain +difficulties in the way, and were oftentimes inclined to agree with Hugh +Oldys's mother, who said in her gentle way, "You may be right, cousins +Felton, but my feeling would be to keep the dear child here close +amongst us, Stephen Latimer helping, so that when the time comes when +she must realize her natural loneliness, she need never otherwise feel +alone." + +Miss Emmy's momentary fit of retrospection was broken by the return of +Poppea and Hugh, skating "cross-hands," and in a moment Miss Emmy was +whirling over the ice until she began to feel, like Philip Angus, that +the runners were on her own feet. + +After a mile of this exhilaration, Hugh pushed the sled into a little +cove, to the shelter of the high bank and a hemlock tree combined, that +he might ease his numb hands and give Poppea a chance to collect her +straggling hair. + +"How do you like that, cousin Emmy?" he cried. "If it wasn't that +gripping that confounded handle bar paralyzes my hands, I could push +you clear up to Kirby; the mischief of it would be coming down again. +Face the wind, Poppy, then your hair will blow back so you can grab it." + +Hugh, of man's strength and stature, was still a boy in the joy of life +that was stamped in every line of his frank, well-featured, dark face. +His hair, tousled by a fur cap, had a wave above the forehead; his +almost black eyes looked straight at you without boldness. The corners +of both nostrils and mouth had a firmness of curve that might either +develop to a keen expression of humor or the power of holding his +emotions in check. + +As he looked at Poppea who, having taken off her red woollen hood, was +struggling to rebraid her long hair that had escaped from its ribbon, +his expression was of the affectionate regard of a boy for his sister, +who is also his chum, and so much a part of his normal life that it +never occurs to him to analyze their relations. + +"Here's your ribbon," he said, tossing it to her at the moment she +reached the end of the strand. "It blew into my hands a quarter of a +mile back. You tie and I'll hold; I never could manage a bow." + +"Put on your hood quick or you'll lose that too," laughed Miss Emmy, +revelling in the youth and freshness of the pair before her. So Poppea +tied tight the ample head-gear crocheted by Satira Pegrim's generous, if +not artistic hands, and in so doing, hid her thick, long mane of golden +brown, with the tints of copper and ash that painters love. Beautiful as +her hair was, the great charm of her face lay in her eyes. These, a +casual observer might say, were hazel, but at times they held slanting +glints of gold and green, like the poppy's heart, shaded by dark lashes, +and all the opal colors: yes, even the fire opal. + +Sometimes as they looked out from under the straight, dark brows, their +expression would have been wistful, almost sad, had it not been for the +upward curve of the lips and tip tilt of the straight nose that +separated them, the sort of a nose that in a child is termed kissable. + +"Once more up to the turn," said Hugh, "and then home. I'm afraid it +will snow to-night and spoil the skating." + +"No, home now; that is, for me," answered Poppea, looking for a hump +where she could take off her skates. "Daddy hasn't been feeling quite +well for a few days and he likes me to look over the mail after he has +tied up the packages. You see, he mismarked one, day before yesterday. +Quarter of four already? Then I shall be late." + +"Not if we take a short cut across the fields and go down the hill +through the cemetery. There's no snow to speak of, and it will be easier +walking that way than over the icy main roads. Yes, I'm going back with +you; I've got to, anyway, for father told me to go to the express office +and also buy a lot of stamps, and I forgot both this noon. + +"Bah! How cold my hands are! I wonder if, by any chance, Mrs. Pegrim +would give a couple of tramps a cup of tea and a doughnut." + +"Not tea, Hugh, chocolate with whipped cream on top, and I'll make it. +I've learned up at the Feltons'; the aunties have it every afternoon, +and it's delicious." + +In this mood, the girl and man tramped over the brown-and-white meadows +with their tumbledown stone fences, until in the high pickets of the +graveyard fence they met the first real obstruction, which they avoided +by going around to the north gate that opened above Oliver Gilbert's +plot. + +"I hope the ice hasn't broken the young dogwoods," said Poppea; "they +were growing so nicely. No, but they are bending. Stop one minute, Hugh, +and help me break off the biggest icicles that are weighing down these +branches until they will snap. + +"Oh, look! the ice and wind have torn all the vines from Mother's stone +and Daddy will feel dreadfully; he's trained it so as to make a frame +and he would never let me touch even a leaf. I wonder if we can put it +back? No," and she stooped to lift the vine; "the ice is too heavy." + +As Poppea bent over she suddenly slipped to her knees before the stone, +her eyes fixed upon it with an intensity amounting to terror. Hugh, +close behind her, followed her glance. For a second, neither moved or +spoke, then turning toward him, her hands outstretched and pleading, she +cried:-- + +"Look, Hugh! look quick, and tell me if the snow has blinded me, or are +those numbers 1851?" + +He stooped and looked intently before he answered what he already knew, +had known, these half dozen years; then said, "It is 1851, Poppea." + +"But it must be a mistake then of the stone-cutters, that we've never +noticed before because of the vines; it should be 18_6_1, the year that +I was born and Mother died, so that I never saw her. + +"Don't you think that is the way of it, Hugh? Why don't you speak? What +ails you?" + +Again she turned from the stone to look him in the face. Something she +saw there struck a chill into her more penetrating than the icy ground +on which she continued to kneel. + +Poor Hugh Oldys! What avail was his athletic strength or moral courage? +If his playmate had been drowning, burning, or in any other form of +physical peril, he could have dashed through anything, or even killed +men to rescue her from harm, but now--He stood facing the intangible, +with bent head, helplessly groping for some way of escape, not so much +for himself as for Poppea. The truth lay bare before them, and he knew +that it could no longer be veiled. The protective instinct of manhood +told him to get her home quickly and under cover, that the blow need not +seem so brutal as in the open cold. While he was trying to collect +himself and form a plan, Poppea's intuition, keyed almost to second +sight, was reading his mind through his eyes. + +"You do not think the date is a mistake, but you don't know what to +say!" + +The words came out so slowly that her lips hardly seemed to form them; +then Poppea faced the stone once more, her hands pressed to the sides of +her face. + +"If 1851 is right, then '_Mary, beloved wife of Oliver G. Gilbert_' +can't be my mother. Do you understand, Hugh? Not my mother. Why don't +you speak? Oh, do say something, Hugh; that is, if you understand!" + +Stumbling to her feet, Poppea went to the little stone and, pulling away +the vine, exposed the other date, 1852! + +"Then Marygold isn't my sister either! Who was my mother, Hugh? And +Daddy--isn't Daddy my father? Tell me, you must!" + +Grasping Hugh by the shoulders, half to steady herself, half in frenzy, +she shook him as she swayed to and fro. + +"Come home, Poppea, and ask Daddy himself; he is the one to tell you all +about it," the lump in Hugh's throat almost stopping his voice, as he +took her arm and tried, without force, to turn her homeward. But Poppea +was at bay. Still holding fast and looking in his face, she gasped:-- + +"What were my mother's and father's names? Tell me that _now_! Where did +Daddy get me? Tell me that!" + +Unconsciously Hugh shook his head, at the same time his lips said, "This +also you must ask Daddy." + +"That means that no one knows; that I'm not anybody, not anybody," she +repeated with a moan. "Did Miss Emmy and Mr. Esterbrook and 'Lisha and +Aunt Satira and everybody know but me? Does little Philip know? Take +your hand off my arm, Hugh. I'm not going home any more; how can I, when +I haven't a home or even a _dead_ mother or a Daddy, and every one has +deceived me?" + +The poor young fellow, meanwhile, was trying to lead her toward the +highway gate in the hope that a team might pass so that they could beg a +ride, for heavy snow clouds were hastening the dark, and even he began +to feel the chill of it through his pea-jacket, while Poppea was +colorless and rigid as one of the icicles that hung from the trees. +Could this be the same being who, less than an hour before, joyous and +radiant, was skating up the river holding Miss Emmy by the hand? If she +had cried, ever so passionately, it would have reassured him. + +"If you don't want to go back, you must go over to my mother or Miss +Emmy," he said, as she again halted outside the gate in sight of the +cross-roads. "Listen, I hear a wagon in the turnpike; wait a moment +while I stop it and beg a ride down; you are trembling all over, and if +you stay here any longer, you'll be very ill maybe." + +Hugh ran down the side road to the turnpike in time to stop the team, a +wave of relief sweeping over him when he saw that it was 'Lisha Potts +taking his evening milk down to the centre. ('Lisha, who was still +courting Satira Pegrim.) + +To 'Lisha no explanation was needed save the fact of the discovery of +the date and the need of getting Poppea home. + +"Great snakes!" he ejaculated, closing his jaw with the snap of a steel +trap. "So it's come at last! At the very first I rather sided with +Gilbert's keeping the thing dark from her, but Satiry had the common +sense,--'It's got to come,' says she, 'so why not let her grow up with +an aunty and uncle and fetch up to it drop by drop instead of gettin' +the whole thing some day like a pail of cold water on the head that may +jar the brain.' Now it seems the cold water's come. Go back and fetch +her, Hughey man, I'll wait; but I can't turn this long wagon on a hill +noway, nohow." + +Hugh hurried back, calling Poppea's name as he went, but when he reached +the gate, she was gone. + +Rushing frantically to and fro, he looked back into the graveyard and +behind the long line of stone fence opposite that the night was fast +blending with its other shadows, but Poppea was nowhere to be seen. + +"She would ha' passed this way if she'd gone down home," said 'Lisha, +now thoroughly startled at Hugh's drawn face and hurried words of what +had happened. "I can see almost all the way down the other road, and she +ain't on that. 'Tain't like she'd take to the hill-country this time o' +night. Anyway, it isn't no use trying to track her; the ground's froze +so hard it doesn't take a hoof print. Well, come to think of it, if that +isn't darned queer! It was froze jest like this the night she was left +at Gilbert's! Best come down to the centre and I'll drop this milk and +borrer a buggy and you and me'll do some tall searchin'. It does look +some as if the Lord had meant I was to be sort of trackin' of the little +gall from the beginnin'. But mebbe it's jest because I'm a good deal +round about and keep my eyes open. + +"You'll best tell Gilbert, but make him stay to hum, and we'll do the +searchin'. It's no fit night for his lame leg; jest say 'Lisha Potts's +going on the trail and he'll trust me, and mention to Satiry that the +coffee-pot on the back of the stove'll make a nice picture for us when +we get back." + +Meanwhile, the long-legged horses were making good time toward the +village, and presently, as Hugh entered the post-office, he could see +Oliver Gilbert's face looking anxiously up the road through the window +by the beehive, for the Binks boy had already come for the mail-bag. + +"Where's Poppy? Has anything happened? Don't say she's fell through the +ice and drowned!" Gilbert said almost in a whisper. + +"No, no, she's safe enough," and Hugh paused, realizing that even these +words might not be true. + +"Sit down, Daddy" (Hugh had fallen into using Poppea's epithets). "I +must tell you something." + +Hugh told all as it had happened, repeating Poppea's broken sentences +word for word with unconscious emphasis and pathos. Then, after giving +'Lisha's message, he stopped short and, still standing, looked at the +old man, who was sitting motionless. + +Gilbert arose with difficulty, steadying himself by the table corner. +"Go, Hugh, and do you and 'Lisha do the best you can. She--she came to +me in the night, and in the darkness she has gone from me," and hiding +his face in his arm he left the office and, stumbling across the passage +to the house, passed through the kitchen and entered his bedroom, where +he closed and locked the door. + +Hugh followed to say a few words to Satira, and remind her of the +deserted post-office. She, overcoming her desire to set forth the +fulfilment of her prediction in all its details, sat down suddenly in +the rocker, head between her hands, until the honest tears spattered +both on the floor and on the coat of old Mack, who, gray and rheumatic, +still kept the place, half under the stove, that he had first chosen +almost thirteen years before. + +Oliver Gilbert meanwhile paced up and down the inner room, the irregular +tapping of his heels telling its own story to Satira Pegrim, though she +could not see the pitiful working of his face or the nervous clenching +of his long, thin hands. Presently he paused by the hooded cradle that +stood as of old between the bed and wall. Lighting a candle, he set it +upon the chest of drawers, where its rays fell upon the cradle. Upon the +white counterpane was a little bouquet of Prince's pine, wintergreen +berries, and holly ferns that Poppea had placed there on Christmas eve. + +Stiffly Gilbert dropped to his knees, his arms clasped about the cradle +as on that first night.--"God keep her and lead her in somewhere out of +the cold and harm. Oh, Lord! I've been short-sighted and selfish. I +wanted her for my very own so bad that I've lived out a lie rather than +have the truth come between ever so little. Now she is suffering for it +when it should only be me. I was puffed up and said to myself in my +pride,--'A wrong has been laid at my door because the Lord knew that I +would right it,'--but instead I have added to it. Oh, Lord! have pity; +keep her away from the river and the railroad and Brook's pea-brush +swamp until she gets time to think." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SANCTUARY + + +When Hugh Oldys left Poppea by the graveyard gate, her first blind +impulse was to hide somewhere, anywhere from familiar faces, this being +an instinct common to all healthy young animals when either physically +hurt or in trouble. Knowing as she did all the by-ways, lanes, and pent +roads of the entire township, the very last thing she thought of was to +follow the highway or any of its cross-roads. So when Hugh was peering +among the shadows of the walls and bushes that hedged them on either +side, Poppea was crossing the graveyard toward the Northeast gate by +which they had entered, flitting swiftly behind the larger stones for +concealment. + +She had no voice to answer Hugh's call even if she had wished to; her +throat was contracted and dry, and to her ears, still ringing with the +rush of blood brought by the first shock, his voice sounded miles away. +When finally she heard the rattle of the milk wagon going unmistakably +downhill, she stopped her efforts at concealment, and walking directly +to the round hill above the graveyard took such a view of the +surroundings as the dusk would allow. The bitter north wind sweeping +down from the hill-country turned her about when she faced in that +direction, putting an end to a wild idea she had of spending the night +in a rough camp the young people had made the previous summer in the +hemlock woods. The Moosatuck was already being outlined by many bonfires +and all the lanterns that the young folks could collect, for they meant +to make the most of what might prove the only snowless skating of the +winter. + +The village lights began to twinkle below, and an up train, stopping at +Harley's Mills Station, drew out again, taking long breaths, and, +creeping through the fields like a great glow-worm, made its way toward +Bridgeton. There would be a down train in a quarter of an hour; could +she reach the station in time, she might gain the last car from the +brook side of the track without being seen. + +Then she realized that she had no money, and the Felton ladies, her only +friends in what was to her the fathomless mystery of New York, were at +Quality Hill. Could she have gone to Mrs. Oldys, sure of finding her +alone, and begged to be hidden for a few days, that would have suited +her mood and necessities the best. As she closed her eyes for a moment, +she saw the peaceful picture of Mr. Oldys sitting with his evening paper +by the fire in the library of endless books in their white, varnished +cases, discussing the doings of the day with Hugh. Through the doorway +into the dining room was a glimpse of white-clothed table, a jar of +flowers, and the delicate outlines of Mrs. Oldys' sensitive face, as she +bent over the great silver tray, tea-caddy in hand, watching for the +first puff of steam from the kettle in order to complete the brewing of +her perfect tea, and summon the father and son to table. + +To go there would be once more to give herself up to all the dearest +things of home that she had experienced through the kindness of friends, +but thought that she must forever more lack; but above all, she was held +back by a bitter feeling of resentment toward those who had been kind to +her, for had they not all banded to deceive her? she, who was nobody, +saved from charity possibly,--so quickly did her mind travel ahead of +what she knew,--from being a town charge! At this bitter moment, the +conventional expression came back to her as applied to a child who was +being brought up by the widow Baker, much being expected of her and +little done for the girl. + +Poppea did not analyze her feelings, she was too young and too miserable +for any logical reasoning; it was only that impressions crowded her +brain with the rapid confusion of a nightmare, and at this moment the +germs of two distinct natures began to develop rapidly: one sensitive +and emotional; the other stern, proud, and unflinching to the verge of +stubbornness. + +For a few moments she stood thus, overlooking the village, the upland, +and marsh meadows that stretched to salt water, until it seemed that the +winking eyes of the lights, one red and one yellow, that guarded the +entrance of the shallow bay, were beckoning her to come to them. As she +waited, a curtain dropped about her from the clouds, and fine, crisp +snowflakes melted upon her upturned face. + +Then she began to walk rapidly through the pasture, but whichever way +she turned thickets of bay or huckleberry bushes caused her to go back, +until, tired with groping, her feet found a worn track, one of the many +cow-paths that wound about the lot. Keeping to it, no longer trying to +think but walking blindly, she slipped and lost the narrow hollow worn +smooth in the thick old turf; then picking it up again, stumbled on. + +After she had gone many miles, as she thought, the path came to some +bars; two of these were down, left so probably since the cows had made +their last homeward trip in November. On the other side of the bars, the +path that had previously zigzagged down a steep hillside continued on a +level, and the whistle of a locomotive sounded very near. + +In a few minutes more a great hayrick stopped her short, and feeling a +way around it, she could see two cows, who were pulling their supper +from one side of the stack that had been hollowed into a sort of shelter +by many such meals. Then a lantern shone a few steps ahead, and a voice, +that she recognized as belonging to an old neighbor of their own, called +the cows into the shelter of the barnyard. + +Poppea, finding that she had travelled only a mile and was within a few +feet of the village street, and thinking that the farmer had awakened +and come to protect his cattle from the storm, was tempted to crawl into +the hay for warmth and rest; her feet were almost without feeling, her +hood and muffler were frayed in many places; she shivered so that she +had bitten her tongue until it bled, and faintness was creeping over +her. + +As she groped to find a place where the hay was loose enough to make a +place for her body, the clock in the tower of St. Luke's struck +melodiously, not counting out ten or eleven strokes as Poppea expected, +but stopping short at six. + +It was the joy of Stephen Latimer that both clock and bells sent forth a +cheerful message of love and hope for what good time might bring forth +rather than a warning of passing hours. 'Lisha Potts had once voiced +this interpretation with his characteristic direct emphasis, saying one +day to Miss Emmy, who had given the bells and was asking his opinion of +them:-- + +"Yes, marm, they're real coaxin', persuasive, and comfortable; the First +Church bell allers calls jerky like, 'Re-pent, re-pent, re-pent,' and +the Hill Meeting House's says, 'H E L L! HELL! _Hell!_' plain as words, +so's I don't feel called to go, though they do say bein' set against a +rock has a powerful lot to do with the expression." + +Be this as it may, the chimes had hardly ceased when Poppea left the +haystack and found her way to the main road through another pair of +bars, familiar to all the village children as the daily short cut to the +Academy. Perhaps the church door might be unlocked, it often was; surely +no one would look for her there. + +The snow flurry was one of a series of squalls, that stopped long enough +for her to see her way across the road, also that a dim light came +through the chancel window. Then the snow began to fall again in large, +loose flakes that quickly filled her footprints. + +Her scarf caught upon one of the shrubs that lined the bit of flagged +path from road to door, and when she had pulled herself free, she +noticed that the outer porch door stood open; then the notes of the +organ reached her. + +What day was it? It took her a full minute to remember that it was +Wednesday, the afternoon upon which Stephen Latimer played the organ, +only it was much later than he usually stayed. Expecting that the people +might come out at any moment, Poppea tried to turn away, but she was +nearly spent. Pulling herself into the vestibule with great effort, she +looked through the diamond panes of the inner door into the church; it +was quite empty save for the figure of Latimer himself at the organ, a +single lamp above his head breaking the darkness. The truth being that +the skating carnival had drawn all the people toward the Moosatuck, and +finding himself alone, Latimer had this day let loose his very soul, +dreaming and playing on, oblivious of time or falling night. + +Cautiously Poppea pushed open the felt-edged door and crept into the +church, watching intently for any move on the part of the player. Once +within she slipped into the first of the pair of pews, that were in the +deep shadow of the loft that once held the organ before the new +instrument had been placed beside the chancel. The backs and door ends +were high to keep out draughts; likewise these pews were seldom used +except for the infant class. Sinking upon the tufted seat, after trying +in vain to sit up, she gradually took a half-crouching position, her +head and shoulders supported by one of the little carpet footstools. + +Oh! the unspeakable relief of it, after the hour out in the storm, this +being surrounded once more by friendly walls, the sudden cessation of +cold, the light, the subtle fragrance of the fir trees and pine of the +Christmas greens, and the sight of a human being who was, at the same +time, unconscious alike of her presence as of her misery. + +Stephen Latimer, sitting upon the organ bench with the soft light of the +oil lamp outlining his face, looked little, if any, older than on the +day when he had baptized Poppea. It was his double vocation that kept +him young, for in reality he led two separate lives: in one he was the +tireless and sympathetic priest; in the other, romanticist, musician, +and dreamer. To-night he was leading this second life to the full. Once +he set the stops in order as though he had finished, then releasing a +few of the more delicate, he began to improvise, weaving together the +themes of the Christmas carols in which he had been drilling his little +choir throughout the Advent season. The very joy of the strains seemed +to mock the young girl listening back among the shadows, and she sat +upright with a gesture almost of impatience, so far away seemed the +singing and lighted tree of Christmas Eve. + +Presently his mood dropped from exalted joy down into the depths of +stern reality, and the little church began to tremble with the opening +chords of the _Stabat Mater_ of Rossini. + +Poppea knew nothing of the meaning of the music or the idea that it +interpreted, yet the emotion of it seized upon her, and she felt that +something inexplicable had found her in the dark hiding-place, and was +struggling with her body and soul. Her breath came quick and fast when +Latimer began the massive splendor of _Cujus Animam_, and when he let +the stop _Vox Humana_ sing the unpronounced words of _Sancta Mater_, it +seemed as though she must cry out, while the _Amen_ exalted her, but +painfully, and without final relief. + +Evidently, it had somewhat the same effect upon the organist, for he +stopped abruptly, wiped his forehead, that was beaded by the masterly +exertion, and, passing his hand wearily across his eyes, shut off the +stops still quivering with passion, leaving only _Vox Humana_, and then, +after a moment's pause, played the hymn of childhood, as though +convinced that in its simplicity alone lay peace. + + "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, + Look upon a little child." + +Poppea rose to her feet, grasping the back of the seat in front of her: +the hymn was the first that Gilbert had taught her while she still slept +in the hooded cradle. At last God was merciful: the tension broke; tears +rained from her strained eyes and began to quench the fire in her brain. + +Burying her face in her hood to stifle the blessed sobs, she again +crouched in the pew corner. + +At the same time, the door opened and Mrs. Latimer came into the church; +feeling her way, she steadied herself by the door of the pew where +Poppea lay until her eyes focussed to the surroundings. As Latimer +reluctantly closed the keyboard with the lingering of one parting from a +friend, she called, walking toward him as she spoke: "Stevie dear, what +have you been about? It is half-past seven and the popovers that I made +for tea have grown quite discouraged. I was expecting you hours ago, but +Hugh Oldys came rushing in looking so ghastly that he put everything +else out of my head. He was coming home with Poppy Gilbert from skating, +they took the short cut across the graveyard--" then, as Mrs. Latimer +reached her husband, she leaned over his shoulder and finished the +sentence, but the crouching girl knew its import perfectly. + +In a moment, husband and wife were hurrying from the church. As Stephen +Latimer stooped to bolt the swinging inner door, Poppea heard Mrs. +Latimer say, "Elisha Potts and Hugh are hunting everywhere, but if they +do not find her by nine o'clock, don't you think we would better ring +the church bells to collect the skaters and have a general search?" + +"Yes, if it must be; but I wish we could find some less public way of +reaching her, she is such a sensitive child, yet very proud beneath the +surface. Do you know, Jeanne, she very often reminds me of you yourself. +If you had fled before a cruel hurt, would you like to be brought home +by the ringing of bells?" + +"No, Stevie, all I should need _now_ would be time to remember and know +that you were waiting for me with your arms outstretched." + +Then the doors closed, and Poppea was a prisoner. Yet in those few +moments she had been given a glimpse of the perfection of one of the +great mysteries of life, and it made a lasting impression on the soul of +the girl who was pushed into womanhood in a single night. For the time +being she had what she most needed, rest and silence, with the single +lamp that had been forgotten, to prevent the oppression of darkness. She +was too physically numb to care what happened during the next hour or +realize the possible necessity of the ringing of the bells. Fixing +herself as comfortably as might be on the narrow seat, she fell into a +heavy sleep pillowed by the little carpet stool worn bare by the +restless feet of the infant class children. + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile 'Lisha Potts and Hugh Oldys had gone to all the places where +Poppea would have been likely to take refuge, and finally, a little +before nine o'clock, meeting with Stephen Latimer at the Feltons', where +they snatched a hasty supper, held an impromptu consultation. + +"Do you think," sobbed Miss Emmy, "that she could have drowned herself? +It's all open water below the dam at Harley's Mills." + +"No," almost shouted Latimer, "and do not let us give the ugly thought +shape even by suggestion. To a healthy-minded, responsible girl such as +Poppea, the idea would not even occur, for suicide is the final proof of +irresponsibility. That she may be wandering, dazed, in the bay marshes +is my greatest fear; still, before we make a general hue and cry, let us +go back to Gilbert's and ask him his exact wishes. Whoever may be her +father after the flesh, Gilbert is now according to the law." + +"Yes," seconded 'Lisha, "we'd best go back and ask Daddy, and keep a +good lookout by the way. She may head for home after a while, but not +have push enough to get there." + +For the third time during the twelve hours the mood of the weather had +changed. The wind had parted and banished the heavier snow clouds, and +the moon, edging its way persistently through those that remained, made +the lanterns that the three men carried almost unnecessary. + + * * * * * + +Oliver Gilbert had sorted and distributed the seven o'clock mail, closed +the post-office at the earliest legal moment, and was sitting by the +kitchen fire; that is, he sat there in the brief intervals when he was +not peering from the window toward the road or listening at the +different doors where the wind kept up a disconcerting tapping and +rattling. + +For the third time Satira Pegrim spread supper before her brother, but +she had ceased urging him to eat. Mixing his coffee exactly to his +taste, she set it close to his elbow and then silently left the room. As +she closed the door at the bottom of the attic stairs and began a +creaking ascent, Gilbert called after her: "Satiry, will you fetch the +pair of little iron fire dogs from under the eaves when you come down? +They lie to the north side under where the seed corn is hung." + +Noticing the food apparently for the first time, he ate a few morsels, +drank the coffee slowly, and then going to the side porch collected a +large armful of logwood topped with kindlings which he proceeded to +carry upstairs with no little difficulty, and coming in collision with +his sister on the landing at the top. + +"Sakes alive, man, what are you doing!" she cried, almost dropping the +heavy andirons. + +"I'm going to take out the chimney board in Poppy's room and start a +fire so's it will look real cheerful when she comes home--for--she'll be +tired and cold--most like. Mayhap the hearth'll need brushing," he +added; "the swallows' nests always fall down of a winter." + +The spare bedroom that was now Poppea's had an empty look, in spite of +the bright-flowered wall paper and braided rugs. The straight white +drapery at the windows, and on the old high-posted bed in which several +generations had been ushered into the world, suggested ice and snow to +Gilbert rather than a soft fabric. + +"Haven't you got a warm-looking comfortable to throw over that?" he said +to Mrs. Pegrim, who was standing in the doorway, jerking his thumb over +his shoulder toward the bed without looking at it. When, after a few +minutes of kneeling on the hearth and coaxing with the bellows, the +ruddy glow of the fire had penetrated all the ghostly nooks, Gilbert got +up and looked about with a sigh of satisfaction, letting his eyes rest +upon the white bed for the first time. + +Asking Satira to watch the fire until the sparks from the kindlings had +subsided, he lit a lantern and made his way slowly to the little +workshop back of the post-office, and seating himself before his desk, +drew out the shabby ledger in which was written the record of the years +since Poppea's coming. Below the record of the previous day he drew a +heavy line. Then writing _December twenty-eighth_, across the entire +page, he traced under it, writing painfully and making three strokes to +every letter,--"This day has the Lord taken the pen from my hand to put +it into hers. In three days comes a New Year. Amen." From a panel +beneath the drawer, that flew open when he touched the spring, he drew +the miniature and its slender chain, wrapped in a piece of chamois +leather. + +It was several years since he had looked at it; yes, he was almost sure +that the young woman must be of Poppea's blood, if not her mother, for +the likeness between the two was now more than mere fancy. Dropping it +into his pocket, he returned to Poppea's bedroom, where he fastened the +miniature against the frilled pincushion on top of the high chest of +drawers, and lighting the candles in the two straight glass holders that +had been Miss Emmy's Christmas gift, set one on either side of it, then +laid the precious book upon her work-table by the window, and crept back +to the kitchen, where Mack was whining uneasily as though he missed some +one, and scratching at the door to be let out. + + * * * * * + +Elisha Potts took the lead as the three men started on their slippery +walk from Quality Hill down through the main street of the village. As +they reached the Rectory, Mrs. Latimer flitted out to ask for news. When +they came abreast of the church, her husband, who had a veiled idea that +he had left the lamp burning, glanced up at the chancel window only to +be reassured that all was dark within. + +Brief as the stop was, Hugh Oldys, who had half turned toward the +flagged pathway, saw something fluttering from one of the shrubs; +raising his lantern he recognized it as a fraying of Poppea's scarf. + +"She has passed this way," he cried, "and since the snow has stopped, +for the worsted is quite dry, while the bush is crusted!" but lowering +the lantern to the pavement, the footprints there shown were confused +and told nothing, as Mrs. Latimer had gone in alone and come out with +her husband. + +"Have you the keys, Mr. Latimer? We must look here, though of course she +may have merely stumbled into the bushes and gone on." + +"I have them in my pocket, but I was in the church alone until half-past +seven and heard no one." + +"Most likely not, if you was a-playin' the organ," said 'Lisha, "for you +kin make her beller powerful disconcertin', Parson. Lemme have them +keys." + + * * * * * + +How long Poppea slept, she did not know. When she awoke, the church was +in total darkness, the lamp having burned out, and the cold of the +floor was creeping up to where she lay. Sitting up, she touched +everything in reach, yet could not place herself. Was it one of the +mazes of a bad dream? + +Then the pungence of the fir trees came to her, and the moon without +outlined the long window over the chancel. + +Something shook the outer door, and then some one fumbled at the keyhole +of the inner. The door was cautiously pushed open, and Poppea heard Hugh +Oldys's voice saying, "Go quietly and don't stamp so, Potts; she may be +asleep," and then Stephen Latimer's lantern was turned so full upon her +face that she raised her arm to shield her dazzled eyes. + +Hugh and Elisha drew back into the doorway, and it was Latimer who, +sitting beside her, said: "We have come to take you home, Poppea. How +long have you been here?" The answer came in a whisper. + +"Ever since six o'clock." + +"Then you were here while I was playing; it was you who were struggling +with yourself. It seemed to me suddenly as I played that some one was in +hard conflict, and that I must play to help them in some unseen way. I +did not dream that it was you, my child. Now I know from the soul that +struggled with me that you are ready to go home." + +"Let me give her some supper and go up with her," begged Jeanne Latimer +in her husband's ear, as she, alarmed by their long stay in the church, +joined them when they were leaving. "Send Hugh home, and ask Potts to +let Oliver Gilbert know that she will soon be there. She needs a woman +of her own sort to be with her at this moment, not Satira Pegrim." + +A pressure of the hand from Latimer told her that she was right, and +putting an arm about Poppea, she drew her into the Rectory and +ministered to her by the dim firelight, and presently the two were +driven to the post-office house by Potts, going together to Poppea's +room without meeting any one except old Mack. + +For a moment Poppea paused, her hand on the doorknob. The crackling +sound of the fire within made her turn it quickly. Mrs. Latimer hastened +to undress her, for she was nervously exhausted, and a red spot glowed +in the middle of each white cheek. + +As Poppea stood before the chest of drawers to braid her straggling +hair, her eyes fell on the miniature. Seizing it, she gazed at the face +intently, and then, with dilating eyes, turned to Mrs. Latimer. + +"Who is it?" she whispered; "how did it come here?" + +"You brought it with you about your neck the night you came. We do not +know, Daddy and I; we can't be sure, but we think it must have been your +mother." + +Without speaking, Poppea looked at it once more, put her hand to her +face as though struggling intently with memory, pressed the picture to +her lips, and then slipped the chain about her neck. + +Lying back between the white curtains with the flowery counterpane +across her breast, her loosely braided hair wreathing her head, the +resemblance to the miniature became almost startling, but Jeanne Latimer +put a restraint upon her tongue and all she wished to say. Stooping, +she quickly kissed Poppea good-night. + +"Shall I never know anything more?" Poppea asked pleadingly; "isn't +there anything to tell except that I am not me--that I don't belong to +them?" + +"Yes, a little more, but the telling of that belongs to Daddy." Then +even as Mrs. Latimer spoke, Poppea's expression changed, the mouth +hardened, and a rigid expression mantled the delicate features, that +remained after the long fringed lashes shut out the changeful fire of +her eyes. + +Waiting a moment to see if they would open again, Mrs. Latimer tiptoed +out. + +From forcing her eyes shut, Poppea really dozed, and only awakened as +the candles gave their final splutter before going out. Mack lay upon +the mat before the fire twitching and whining in his sleep. Starting up, +she felt, rather than saw, that there was some one in the room. Peering +around the curtain, she came face to face with Oliver Gilbert, who, +wrapped in his double gown, was sitting in the deep chintz chair by her +bedside. + +Instantly a long, thin hand was laid upon hers that struggled under it +for a moment but could not pull itself away. + +"Some things are real if others are hid from us for a little while, +Poppy. You see your home is here, yours to have and hold under love and +law, and you see you've still got a Daddy; perhaps if you'd _say_ the +word just once, we'd both feel better." + +The prisoned hand stopped struggling; raising herself on one arm she +repeated slowly, "Yes, I've a Daddy." Then she hid her face upon his +shoulder, the miniature of the other Poppea dangling from her neck. + +When she fell asleep, he did not go away, but sat there, replenishing +the fire lest she should wake in some new terror. + +Thus Gilbert kept his second vigil until dawn. In putting a last stick +upon the embers he stumbled over Mack, who did not move; his faithful +old life had gone out peacefully in the night, and with it his +mistress's careless girlhood. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE MYSTERY OF THE NAME + + +It being Saturday and market-day, Satira Pegrim had gone to Bridgeton +with 'Lisha Potts to look at furniture, for liberal as to matters of +time though Potts was as a wooer, he had told Satira on Christmas Day +that when a man reached fifty it was time he did something more about +settling down than talk of it. Satira, on the whole, had enjoyed a very +pleasant courtship during the years of her reign at the post-office. It +is given to few women to attend the county fair for thirteen consecutive +years at the expense of the same man without incurring further +responsibility. + +She was now divided between conscientious motives about leaving her +brother until Poppea was able to keep house, and the fear lest 'Lisha +become discouraged and transfer his affections to Judith, daughter of +the widow Baker. This veteran, having failed to secure a second spouse +for herself, was now trying to checkmate in turn every available man in +the county for the benefit of her daughter. The Bakers lived almost +opposite the Pegrim farm that 'Lisha leased, and well Satira knew that +nearness means a good deal, especially in winter, so she had consented +to look at furniture, saying demurely at the same time:-- + +"Of course, if you wish my housekeepin' 'xperience in trading, it'll +pleasure me to give it, but if you want a woman that can rush into +things helterskelter and unthinkin', why not try Judy Baker?" + +"No old maids for me, Satiry," he flung back, slapping his knees to give +emphasis to his words. "When I get spliced, it'll hev to be either a +young woman or a widder, the last bespoke and preferred." + +"Sakes alive! and what's Judy but a young woman? She's only turning +twenty-four." + +"Age hasn't got a thing to do with it; there's old maids at twenty and +women folks turning forty that though unmarried ain't, and is young." + +"Oliver Gilbert, he hit them differences plumb on the head once't some +years back, when he was havin' considerable trouble in making folks +understand that he wasn't calculatin' to take a second. Gilbert he's +read lots of unor'nary thoughts in books, and he says, says he: ''Lisha, +there's three kinds o' females when it comes to considerin' matrimony: +widders that understand us men through 'xperience; just plain nice women +folks that know what's necessary about us by intooition, as the Lord +meant they should; and old maids that thinks they're dead wise, but all +they know's by suspicion. Now don't you take one of those last, 'cause +they suspect so much more bad of us than we really are that their idee +is darned hard to live up tew!' Well, just at that time what I took to, +was not gettin' married, but to the woods, and went in for trapping and +lumbering for quite a spell. + +"Judy Baker's terrible knowin' by suspicion. When she shakes hands, +she'll jerk hern away before a man's really caught his grip, like she +most _knew_ he was goin' to squeeze it, which he, bein' I, hadn't no +such idee. Then she looks mad, 'cause he, bein' I, didn't." + +After this complete understanding, Satira Pegrim, who felt that in +addition to the trip of inspection 'Lisha deserved some more positive +encouragement, told him that if he would begin and mend the fence up at +the farm and reshingle the buildings, she would begin to sew her carpet +rags and sheets, and that would give them both time to be ready by +Poppea's sixteenth birthday--this being the earliest age in Newfield +County at which a well-brought-up girl could be expected to keep house, +with a neighbor to accommodate in matter of washing and house cleaning. + +'Lisha, jubilant over something so definite, not only bought tickets for +Christy's Minstrels that chanced to be in Bridgeton that night, but +insisted that they two sup at the Railway Hotel as well. Hence Satira's +prolonged absence. + +Thus it chanced that in two days after the night of Poppea's awakening, +the post-office house, put in order from attic to porch, was left in her +charge, and in the afternoon she read Gilbert's record written in the +old ledger, they two sitting together in the long kitchen where the +first scene had been set. + +As she read, Gilbert, from the south window, where he sat fitting and +adjusting an intricate bit of clockwork, furtively watched the varying +color and expression of her face. After slowly reading his simple story, +Poppea could not feel for a second that she was an unloved intruder, or +fail herself to be filled anew with love for the old man who had opened +his door. Her quick intuition and rapidly developing mentality scanned +between the lines, learning of many acts of self-sacrifice and devotion +that Gilbert believed locked securely in his own thoughts. It was the +_why_ of it all that rankled: the circumstances, people, or both that +had made the charity necessary. When the girl thought of this, a steely +flash came from her eyes, and the will that had been latent, except for +childish bursts of impetuosity, set its signals at the corners of lips +and nostrils, making the watcher sigh. + +"Well, perhaps she may need it to stiffen her up by and by, who knows," +said Gilbert to himself; "if only the Lord lets her always love +something harder than she hates something else." + +Dear, patient Oliver Gilbert, in those few words he summed up the +struggle that Poppea must fight her way through in the next ten years. +Would she be victor or vanquished? As a girl glides unconsciously into +womanhood, the mysteries that surround her are like the intangible, yet +real, mists of daybreak that may clear away before the purifying rays of +the sun, or solidify into angry storm clouds to blot out the entire day. + +In addition to these, over Poppea there hung what to her was a darker +cloud,--the mystery of the name; and the only rays that could penetrate +its shadow must come from the sun of love. + +Presently Poppea closed the book, and after resting with her arms +clasped about it for a moment, laid it on the table. Going to the window +where Gilbert was sitting, she stood behind him, stroking his hair +gently and smoothing back one troublesome lock that kept falling over +his eyes. Then stooping and laying her cheek upon his, she whispered:-- + +"Daddy, please say that I need not go away anywhere to school. I can +learn a great deal more at the Academy if I try, and besides the Felton +Aunties and Mr. Oldys lend me so many books, and they are going to have +a French teacher next summer, and Miss Emmy has asked me to read with +them. I want to work hard at my music, so that by and by I can play an +organ perhaps, or sing in a Bridgeton choir. And I must help you in the +post-office. You've said so often lately that people are more careless +of their spelling than they used to be, and do not write the addresses +well, that I'm quite sure your eyes are getting tired. Please, Daddy? It +will make things so much easier." + +Gilbert paused a moment in order to control his eagerness to assent. + +"I never wanted you to go away, child, but for your own good, and +now--it doesn't seem to me that I could bear it. Miss Emmy thinks, +though, that you'd be better of a little change, and she's spoken with +me about your going down to them next month to spend a fortnight or so, +to see the city, hear some good singing, the Opery she calls it, and +things like that. Wouldn't you like it, Poppy? Yes, I thought so. Well, +you go try your wings outside of Harley's Mills a bit, dearie. Mayhap +you'll think you've never tasted life before, but if you get homesick +for Daddy and the post-office, and feel peeky for a sight o' the river +again and a sniff of the salt harbor wind that blows over Quality Hill, +they'll be here, and all you've got to do is just to come right back." + + * * * * * + +A month later, Poppea was standing between the heavy crimson curtains of +one of the Feltons' parlor windows on Madison Avenue, overlooking the +Square. The sound of the traffic from the opposite side where Fifth +Avenue and Broadway meet and cross was deadened to a sullen roar by the +heavy double windows except when the stages passed, and then for a +moment the distinct sound of hoof and wheel was distinguishable. + +Over in the park many children were playing, rolling hoops to and fro, +or wheeling about on roller-skates, having a row of small wheels set +lengthwise under the foot that made the sport as much a matter of +equipoise as ice skating. + +Poppea longed to join them, to rush along and feel the air around her +and facing the wind, meet it halfway. For an airing she went to drive +every day with the Felton ladies in the new landau which was lined with +tufted blue satin, with little mirrors let into the side panels. +Sometimes they drove up Fifth Avenue to Central Park, through the east +drive to the turn and back again, at a decorous and leisurely pace, +Poppea and Mr. Esterbrook sitting opposite the ladies, who were +continually bowing and smiling to those in other carriages that they +passed. Even as late as 1874 to 1876, all those who kept private +equipages were well known to one another, and if a stranger appeared in +Mrs. ---- barouche, the identity was soon revealed by the sending out of +cards for a more or less stately reception to meet the guest. The +informal and irresponsible afternoon teas of the last two decades of the +century, their chief motive, as voiced by the Autocrat, being to +"gabble, gobble, and git," were as yet unconceived. Sometimes a party of +young folks on horseback, followed by an instructor, would come in +sight, winding among the trees that separate drive from bridlepath, and +pass before Poppea, all eagerness, could really see them, for except on +very mild days the carriage windows were closed in spite of Miss Emmy's +protestation that she never really breathed except in the open air. The +windows of Madam Felton's coach had always been closed against the east +winds of Boston fifty years before, and Miss Elizabeth felt that to do +otherwise would be too much of an exhibition of change. If Miss Emmy +chose to sleep with her bedroom window open, that was a different +matter; eccentric, of course, but inconspicuous. + +One day Mr. Esterbrook had suggested that they two should leave the +carriage, walk back to the entrance gate and take a stage or a horse-car +home. How Poppea had enjoyed it. There had been enough wind to ripple +the water of the reservoir, and the gulls were flying over it, preparing +to bed down for the night as they did on Moosatuck. Another time, the +ladies always being interested in everything concerning the good of the +city, had driven across the park and out the west side of it to see +where the building of the Museum of Natural History was to be located, +the laying of the corner-stone by President Grant having been set for +the following June. Continuing on over poorly paved streets or muddy +roadways that ran between partly decayed country houses, or the shanties +of squatter settlements, they came within sight of the Hudson, making +their way northward through Manhattanville and Bloomingdale to a hill +called Claremont, where there was a place of refreshment in an old +farm-house. + +The sight of the glorious river sweeping down between the high walls of +the palisades, with shadowy suggestion of headlands and mountains, made +the young girl's breath come quick and short. She could not keep her +eyes from the window and she spoke either in monosyllables or kept +silent. Could she, might she go out on the bank and see, not through the +glass, and feel the wind that was bending the old tulip trees with the +rattling seed cups? + +Alas, no; it was a place of public entertainment where one, especially a +young lady, must be very careful to do nothing unusual. So, though Miss +Emmy looked as though she would not only have encouraged Poppea in her +desire but gone with her if it had not been so cruelly windy, they +turned their backs on the wonderful panorama, while Patrick sought an +easier, if less picturesque, way home. + +He, in fact, scowled upon the whole trip to such an extent that it was +not repeated. The horses, used to half a dozen miles at most, had +sweated unduly; the rim of one of the newly painted wheels had sunk +between two cobbles and become badly scratched, while Patrick himself +had been jolted to such an extent that he had been obliged, in order to +keep his seat, to adapt himself to circumstances and do something more +than sit on the box and hold the reins, a new condition which raised his +ire. It may be said with truth that the tyrannical family coachman of +the old régime in New York was the logical and fitting ancestor of the +arbitrary chauffeur of to-day. The first, however, having only the "lame +horse" plea as his weapon; the other, any one of an endless series of +complicated intestinal diseases concealed in the corpulent tonneau. + +Thus, after the first week, Poppea's exercise was limited to the correct +walk for girls of her age, up or down Fifth Avenue to Washington Square, +or with Nora for attendant, dressed in the neat garb of a city maid, +down Twenty-third Street and eastward to Gramercy Park, a key to which +exclusive enclosure had been given to the Misses Felton by one of their +many friends in the surrounding houses. She often looked longingly at +the girls of her own age who walked in groups of twos and threes, +chatting vivaciously, the maid following far enough away to be out of +sight if not out of mind. At home she had never felt lonely. Now, for +the first time, she realized that she had no real girl companions of +her own age. + +This particular afternoon when she stood between the curtains, a hand on +each, looking alternately out into the square and then down the length +of the three great rooms, divided by marble columns, their size further +magnified by the vistas seen in the pier and mantel mirrors, she felt +like some wild thing at bay. The ladies had gone in the carriage to +Staten Island to visit a distant relative who was ill, taking Nora with +them. Mr. Esterbrook had lunched as usual at his club, the Union League, +only a few blocks further up the avenue, it having been his considerate +custom to leave the house to the ladies and their friends at mid-day +ever since luncheon had taken the place of early dinner. + +Poppea tried to open first a front and then a back window to get a +breath of air, but without success. She was too wise now to refresh +herself by sitting on the outer doorstep, since the doing of it, during +the first week, had brought a very decided remonstrance from the usually +sympathetic Miss Emmy. + +For a minute she was minded to get her hat and join the children in the +square; then some street musicians with harp and violins struck up +before the next house, riveting her attention. The playing was spirited +and the time good, though imperfect as to technique. The pent-up energy +in Poppea began to surge and sway her body to the music. Stepping from +the recessed window before the long mirror, where there was a space +clear of furniture, she began to dance, not with set steps or +calculated gestures, merely letting the music lead her. + +When she finally stopped, head forward, a sort of half-mocking courtesy +to the looking-glass, laughing,--her good temper restored,--she was +startled to see a reflection besides her own, that of a young man of +perhaps eight and twenty, of medium height, clean shaven at a time when +this was uncommon, immaculate as to clothes, having an air of being +perfectly at ease in unusual surroundings that Poppea noticed even in +her confusion. + +Caleb had ushered him through the sliding door unthinkingly, for the +colored servitor was standing transfixed, one hand raised in warning, +saying in the brief time that it took Poppea to prepare for flight:-- + +"Sho, I didn't know you was here, Miss Poppy; I 'lowed Marsa Esterbrook +was corned in." + +Then in a confidential whisper to the caller as the girl slipped past +him and flew rather than ran up the thickly padded stairs, he added:-- + +"It's jest Miss Poppy, a young missy from de country that Miss Emmy +thinks a mighty heap of. She was lonesome-like I reckon, and just +a-dancin' to keep up her spirits. Do set down, Marsa Winslow; the ladies +should shuah be back by now and they'll feel powerful bad to have missed +you. I well recomember your lady mother back in the old Boston time; she +and Miss Emmy was like two twins for standing up for each other. + +"Oh, so you'se livin' in New York an' can drop in any time. I'll deliber +your message wif honah, sah, to the ladies' pleasure," and Caleb bowed +the young man out, laying the silver salver with the bit of pasteboard +in a spot upon the hall table where it could not fail to attract +attention. The card read, Bradish Winslow, The Loiterers' Club. + +"I should like to meet that girl four or five years hence; she's a +wonderful bit of live color already," was Winslow's mental comment as he +went down the steps, hesitating at the foot whether he should go up or +down the avenue, or across the square. + +Poppea, having gained her room, where the windows consisted of a single +sash, threw one of them wide open, and kneeling on the floor so that her +chin rested on the sill, drew in a long, refreshing breath. + +For a moment she wondered who the caller might be, and thought of her +dancing with regret, but on the return of the Misses Felton they had +such a delightful bit of news to impart that she forgot even to ask his +name. The following week the opera of Lohengrin was to be sung, +Christine Nilsson taking the part of Elsa for the last time in New York. + +No such voice, Miss Felton declared, had been heard in America, except +possibly that of Nilsson's countrywoman, Jenny Lind. To hear her would +be a musical education in itself for Poppea; so not only had a box been +secured for the night, but Stephen Latimer and his wife were coming to +complete the party, in spite of the fact that there were some who +thought the witnessing of all dramatic performances unclerical. That +evening Miss Emmy played some fragments of the opera on the grand piano, +promising Poppea that Stephen Latimer should explain its construction +and motive to her when he came. + +For a few days Poppea forgot her desire to run away in thinking of the +opera, and trying to pick out bits from the score, but its complication +baffled her and she had to content herself with persuading Nora to +continue their walk from Gramercy Park down Irving Place to Fourteenth +Street that she might look at the outside of the Academy of Music that +was her Mecca. + +When the strain began again and she was once more longing for freedom +and a five-mile walk up the bank of the Moosatuck, alone or with Hugh, +the magic day came and with it the Latimers, Mrs. Stephen dimpling under +a bewitching spring bonnet entirely of her own manufacture, a cherished +possession. This, Miss Emmy told her playfully but firmly, she could +_not_ wear to the opera, but that Bachmann should dress her hair when +she came to do theirs. + +"No matter what Stephen may say to-night, I'm going to dress you to suit +myself," said Miss Emmy. "This pink brocade with the silver trimmings, +your hair loosened into a crown of puffs with the pink feather at the +side, and the coral comb. The coral necklace and the white lace shawl +for shoulder drapery, if you think low neck a trifle too much for a +clergyman's lady, and these white gloves topped with coral bands." + +"I will wear the white gloves gladly," said Jeanne Latimer, looking at +her two forefingers rather ruefully. One was roughened by the use of the +vegetable knife, for the times had been hard and houseworkers scarce at +Harley's Mills that winter; while the other was pricked deep from the +sewing of harsh muslin for the clothing that some would otherwise have +lacked. "But really, Miss Emmy, don't you think it would look more +honest if I wore my own gown?" + +Miss Emmy laughingly acknowledged that perhaps it might, yet held her +point with determination, and eight o'clock saw the party of six +gathered in the opera-box, their faces differing almost as much in +expression as the details of their clothing. + +Jeanne Latimer and Miss Emmy were what might be called very much dressed +without having overstepped the bounds of good taste. Miss Emmy wore pale +blue satin with much fine lace and pearl ornaments; though pale in the +morning, her color always grew somewhat hectic at night and helped +justify a combination by far too young for her years. + +While Jeanne Latimer enjoyed the novel sensation of wearing her gay +attire, Miss Emmy's pleasure came from the conscious result of wearing +hers. Miss Felton, who sat behind her sister, wore an almost straight +robe of black velvet; the point lace fichu crossed in front and fastened +by a heavy diamond brooch, her only ornament, covered all but her slim +white throat. Her hair was parted in bandeaux and coiled at the back of +her head as usual, the only addition being two waxy white camelias +tucked into the mass. During the last two years, however, a decided +thread of silver had woven itself among the dark coils. Talking in short +sentences to, rather than with, Mr. Esterbrook, who sat next her, she +had an anxious air and seemed to be striving to keep him awake, for +scarcely had they been seated when an air of intense weariness came over +his elaborately dressed person, and he began to nod. + +The remaining two of the party thus had the right-hand corner of the box +to themselves, Poppea, in her simple white summer muslin relieved by a +cherry sash, sitting in a low chair, with Stephen Latimer back of her. +From the moment of their entrance, he had busied himself in explaining +the great building to her, from the arrangement of the seats, boxes, and +orchestra, to the uses of the prompter's egg-shaped box. Music and +certain phases of human nature that he felt allied to the Divine were +the food for this man's dreams, and to-night he would have both very +near. + +Presently the orchestra took their places, falling into silence at the +tap of the leader's baton and the prelude to the first act began with +the high notes of the Grail motif, rising to a climax of trumpets and +trombones, then fading away to silence again. With a word here and there +to focus the story of the libretto, Latimer called Poppea's attention to +the new theme, where the Herald calls for a champion for the accused +girl, the Elsa motif is voiced by the wood-wind instruments, and +presently Lohengrin appears in the boat drawn by the swan. + +To Poppea the scene had the mystery of fairyland, but it was, at the +same time, her first glimpse of visible active romance, and through the +scenes that followed came her primal realization of the love of man and +woman as separate from the friendship of girl and boy. + +When Lohengrin sets the one condition for the marriage that Elsa shall +never ask him his name and Latimer explained the _Mystery of the Name_ +motif, Poppea with hands clasped in the folds of her gown sat with +strained eyes and parted lips scarcely breathing. Once heard, this motif +never left her ears, whether it was whispered by the wood-wind +instruments, the horn, or proclaimed by the whole orchestra, as when in +the scene of the bridal chamber the knight calls Elsa passionately by +name, but she, not knowing his, may not speak it, and so at last rebels +and demands to know. + +As Latimer watched Poppea's face, he saw the change that fell upon it. +The joy of music, color, and pageant faded from it, until, finally, when +the boat, now guided by the Dove of the Grail, bears Lohengrin, its +knight, away and Elsa falls fainting, he saw Poppea's lips, from which +the color had fled, frame rather than say:-- + +"She would not marry him because she did not know his name, and when at +last she knew it, he had to go away; suppose, oh, suppose--?" Poppea +turned her head from him, but Latimer, through the music and the +dreaming, read the thought that had taken possession of her. + +The Latimers returned to Harley's Mills the next afternoon, and Stephen, +at his wife's instigation, asked Miss Emmy if Poppea might not accompany +them. "It's very hard for her, Stephen," she said; "she isn't in a +natural frame of mind now at best, and all the new things she sees and +feels exaggerate it. I know how it is; last night, at first I loved my +fine feathers and then they pricked like pins, and I thought, 'Oh! +suppose I should have to wear them always and play a part and turn into +some one else and never go back to tell you what day of the week it is, +Stevie, or play the organ and peel potatoes and make nighties for stiff +old Mrs. Ricker, who scolds because it is so much trouble to wear and +wash them!' It simply paralyzes me. + +"I _know_ that Poppy feels, 'Suppose I should turn out to be somebody +else, who was born to live indoors and be shut in by these double +windows and never get back to Daddy and the post-office, and never any +more hunt for lady's-slippers and arbutus in the Moosatuck woods with +Hugh.' + +"I never could understand why people's friends always try to get them +away from home if there's anything they want them to forget. At home I +can always keep a worry in one place and needn't go out of my way to +look at it, but when one is away, it may turn up unexpectedly at any +corner." + +Miss Emmy, however, had replied: "Send Poppea home with you when she's +only been here two weeks? Not a bit of it. The house hasn't been so gay +in my memory, besides, I'm having Nora and the seamstress turn her out +such a lot of pretty clothes. I'm sure, too, I'm giving her as nice a +time as any girl could ask." + +A few days later the roving mood returned, and would not be restrained. +When the ladies had gone to a morning charitable meeting, leaving Poppea +practising some little ballads she had found in one of their many music +books, she slipped on her going-out things and, closing the front door, +made her way quickly across the square to where the omnibus passed that +Mr. Esterbrook had taken the day they two had left the carriage in +Central Park. Once in the park, she felt sure she could find her way to +that high bank overlooking the river, where she could feel the wind from +the hills on her face and look at the water that was always coming, +always passing, and yet never left one behind. + +She had a small netted purse of dimes and nickels that Satira Pegrim had +given her on parting, with the admonition, "'Tain't but what they'll +feed and lodge you, Poppy, and more too; 'tisn't that, but mebbe you'd +fancy an apple or a bit of spruce gum, and not be able to lay hand on it +without buying, or need a penny for an organ monkey, for they do say +that all the organs that goes through here in summer heads for New York +in winter, and consequently monkeys must be plenty. There's 'busses in +New York, too, they say, and most like you'd like to make a change from +carriage riding." + +Thus equipped, Poppea paid her fare and stole into a corner, where she +remained until the omnibus reached the end of its route. Her walk up +through the park to the northern outlet was easy, but after that, the +other mile was broken and irregular; for though there were old country +houses here and there, interspersed with newer buildings, the ground was +hilly, many shanties perched upon the rocks and huddled together in the +open fields. + +Once she asked her way of a pleasant-faced woman at the gate of a large, +brown building which proved to be an orphan asylum, and her informant +told her that the location was called Bloomingdale, that another large +building set in ample grounds that they could see to the northward was +the asylum, and that if in going back she would walk down the +Bloomingdale Road (Broadway) a piece, she would find a stage that would +take her back through Manhattanville and Harlem into the heart of the +city. Also she cautioned Poppea not to loiter, for the water side was a +lonesome spot for girls. + +At last the river was in sight. Getting her bearings, she crossed a lot +where a friendly cow followed her, trying to lick the rough woollen of +her coat, and crawling between some rails, reached the bank that she had +remembered, sitting to rest upon a low stump, where had been laid low +one of a group of giant tulip trees. + +The grandeur of it almost oppressed Poppea for a moment, then it seemed +to compact itself and close up until the river became the Moosatuck +winding its way from the hill country down to the Mills, and then onward +through the marshes to the bay. There were not many boats upon it, but +one was hers, built by 'Lisha Potts, and one was Hugh Oldys's, and they +two were deciding which boat they should use, and whether both should +row or only Hugh, for often they rowed together. Then the second boat +disappeared, and Poppea rowed her boat, and in the stern sat Daddy +fishing--Daddy, who seldom took a holiday. How young he looked when he +caught that fine big bass; what jolly stories he told, and how good +Satira Pegrim's basket lunch had tasted. This vision was vivid, and +reminded Poppea that she was hungry. + +Close in some bushes beside her a song-sparrow warbled his clear spring +ditty, and the lump that had been gathering in her throat tightened and +would not be swallowed. Scrambling to her feet she took one final look +up and down before turning homeward, and, as she did so, her eyes fell +upon a small marble shaft surmounted by an urn that stood not a dozen +feet from where she had been sitting. + +There were several like it in the hill graveyard at home, but this could +not be a graveyard with only a single stone. Going near she looked for a +name or date, but found only these words, _Erected to an Amiable Child_. + +Who was it? Was this another mystery of a name. Had the child none? + +Waving her hand good-by to the great river, she retraced her steps +toward the Bloomingdale Road, and at that moment she heard in her ear, +with bell-like clearness, the voice of Gilbert, calling to her as he +often did when she stayed out late in the bank garden below the orchard: +"Come home, Poppy, it's lonesome for you out there by yourself; besides, +Daddy needs you!" Yes, Daddy needed her; that must be the answer to +everything that troubled her. + +The next day it was Poppea who asked if she might go home, and Miss Emmy +said yes. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +PHILIP + + +When Poppea was nineteen, she became the assistant postmaster at +Harley's Mills, with all the legal formality that the name implied, Mr. +Oldys having "gone on her bond" as the local saying ran. Not that +Gilbert's mental faculties were in any way impaired, but at seventy he +was naturally less alert physically, and the long hours told on him. At +least Poppea said so, and urged him to spend more time in the garden +during pleasant weather in company with his pipe and one of his +well-worn books. These, however, had palled upon him, or, as he once +told Stephen Latimer, "It seems as if since Poppy grew up and into +things, Mr. Plutarch is rather far back, and I don't any more care if +Alcibiades returned or not, or much about the siege of Troy, though +that's livelier. I want something with more up-to-date flesh and blood +in it that'll help me to understand things that come up." + +Latimer had suggested Shakespeare as a remedy, at the same time offering +to lend Gilbert an edition that had clear print, and yet could be kept +in the pocket. So from the day that Latimer brought the books, Gilbert +had been under a new spell, while at the same period Miss Emmy had given +Poppea the Waverley Novels, which still further changed his emotional +horizon, and made him the more willing to leave the office in the warm +June days and go to the bench under the widest spreading tree in the old +orchard, with clover all about and the brilliant hues and perfumes of +what Poppea called her parapet garden showing between the trees. + +Satira Pegrim and 'Lisha Potts had finally joined names and farms, +though the bustling woman had left her post of vantage at the village +with many regrets. When Mrs. Shandy, Philip Angus's erstwhile nurse, had +been obliged to leave him at fifteen altogether in the hands of a tutor, +she had gladly, for the sake of being near the boy whom she almost +worshipped, slipped into Satira's shoes as general caretaker at the +post-office house, for Poppea's earnings, with her voice and as +Gilbert's assistant, made such a helper possible. + +No one in the village ever thought it strange that Poppea should fill a +position hitherto occupied by a man. Once Harley's Mills, in the person +of its elderly females, would have raised its hands in horror at the +thought of a young girl engaging in public business; but the Civil War +had changed all that by becoming the origin of the general necessity in +North and South alike for the woman's stepping into the man's empty +shoes, so that the labor horizon for all time widened for all women. + +From John Angus had come the only objection to the innovation. He said +openly on several occasions that the charge of the United States mail +should not be left in hands that were only fit to tie ribbons or tell a +fortune with cards. This superficial criticism was attributed to his +old grudge against Gilbert and his evident disgust at not having the +chance to dislodge him that a change of postmasters might have rendered +easier. As he took no steps toward doing anything in the matter by the +usual method of presenting a petition, it was supposed that he had +forgotten it, especially as immediately after, Angus went to Europe to +be gone six months, on business, his lawyer announced, the truth being +that the inscrutable man, jarred and rent by many disappointments and +his own unyielding temperament, had received several warnings that he +held life by a rather uncertain thread. Too secretive to confess that he +was not well by calling in local physicians, he had gone abroad to seek +advice under the plea of business. + +The last disappointment that he had forced himself to bear with an +immovable exterior was concerning Philip. Never from the day that he +knew that his only child had the inexorable disease covered by so short +a name, had he allowed any one to sympathize with him upon the subject, +nor had he admitted by any word or sign that the boy was suffering from +any physical limitation. Philip's life was arranged upon the same plan +as that of normal children, and nothing by way of affectionate regard or +added companionship was allowed to fill the place of all that he must +refrain from doing. + +Thus the greatest craving that the child had was for the warmth and +protection of affection; he saw the fathers of other boys whom he +sometimes visited put their arms about the lads' shoulders, draw them to +their knees, or make room for them in the great easy-chair, where +confidences about the work and play of the day were exchanged. Not so +with Philip; the little real love that made him hunger for more had come +from the servants and Mrs. Shandy, when they felt that they were out of +eye- and ear-shot of the master. + +Even this was stopped when Philip was fifteen by Mrs. Shandy's dismissal +because John Angus deemed that she was retarding his son's development +and keeping him childish. Henceforward a tutor and various teachers of +languages were the boy's associates, for Philip must needs go to college +and become, if not a lawyer, a man of affairs and politics like his +father. + +Now Philip loved learning, but on its æsthetic rather than positive +side; beauty of form, color, sound, all appealed to him intensely, and +the thought of the beauty shone from his great gray eyes and beautified +every feature of his exquisitely modelled face, as though in this Nature +had outdone herself. + +From the time he was a mere baby he had watched every butterfly and bird +and tried to copy them in what Mrs. Shandy called his mud pies; which +taste, as he grew, developed itself into a wonderful ability to +comprehend both the anatomy of things and their spiritual expression. +From time to time, during his winter city life, he had bought small +copies of the great statues, for at least he was never at a lack for +spending money, and gazed and gazed at them until he knew every curve +and line by heart. In short, as boy and youth, Philip's one desire was +to be a sculptor; but though John Angus never interfered with his +modelling as a recreation, to his appeals to be allowed to enter a +studio and study seriously he never made the slightest reply, and the +preparations for college were forced on. + +One day Philip's brain strength had flagged, suddenly, and, as his +father thought, unaccountably. Once again physicians gathered, and this +time the word came to John Angus, "If you wish your boy to live, his +life must be of the open, and his work, if any, something that he craves +and loves." + +Then again did John Angus shut himself up for a day and night, to emerge +as before and accept the inevitable with a denial of any need of +sympathy. In a week he announced that Philip was to study modelling, +therefore an outdoor studio was to be built in the garden, and he was to +be under the guidance of Clay Howell, a famous sculptor, who not only +had studios in Rome and New York, but also a summer home at Westboro. +The latest tutor was retained as a companion, and Angus, more ill than +he would confess even to himself, set sail at Christmas nominally for a +six months' absence. + +Philip had as a child a beautiful soprano voice which, by the time he +was seventeen, had developed a tenor quality without losing any of its +impersonal boyish sweetness. Stephen Latimer had taken great pains in +its training, and in his friendship the boy had found the one soul who +seemed to understand without spoken words. It was through this +companionship that he found that other that seemed to him in his dark +hours of self abasement and disappointment, the one light that kept hope +alive,--this was Poppea. + +As a child he had longed to play with her, and used to watch her by the +hour through the port-holes of the parapet, while she was working in the +garden that extended from the treasure-trove bank little by little until +it finally reached the apple trees. That they might not be playmates +Mrs. Shandy made plain to him, though never the reason why. Later on +they had met at children's parties at the Feltons' and at the choir +practice at St. Luke's, and Poppea had always so sweet and gentle a way +with him, that when he used to dream of angels or try to think what his +mother must have looked like, Poppea's face was always blended in his +visions, for he never _felt_ the stately portrait by Huntington in the +library to be his mother. + +When at last it was decided that he was not to go to college and life +held out an olive branch to Philip, Poppea seemed to be the dove that +brought it; Poppea, for whom Stephen Latimer asked Philip to play +accompaniments when she went of an afternoon to the Rectory for a +singing lesson "between mails," and Jeanne Latimer could not be of the +party. + +To Latimer, Philip seemed a mere child; it never occurred to him that he +might be reckoned with emotionally and sentimentally as a man, and it +rejoiced his gentle heart to see the boy so happy. + +Any boy is spiritualized and made better by the sympathetic +companionship of an older woman if she be of the right mettle, and +Latimer believed that this companionship would give Philip the very +thing, the conception of the essence of woman's sympathy, that he had +lacked all his sad life and that must be realized if he was to grapple +successfully with his art. Consequently, he was quite unprepared and +almost angry, when after coming into the room one day while they were +practising, Jeanne had said:-- + +"Have a care, Stephen dear, that you do not develop a tragedy in, as you +say, cultivating Philip's artistic perceptions. Will it be well, think +you, that he falls entirely in love with Poppea?" + +Even then Latimer would not understand. "There are many kinds of love +that are far removed from tragedy," he answered. + +"Yes, but to a sensitive dreamer for a woman like Poppea there is but +one love," she had replied almost vehemently. + +"You are mistaken, Jeanne, in this. I am with them, and I stand between +their thoughts as they pass, and my soul reads them. The safety lies in +that Poppea is what she is." + +"Time will prove," said Jeanne, half sadly. By the very insistence of +certain word combinations this commonplace saying of his wife refused to +leave Latimer's memory, and even though it failed in any way to impress +him, it left an irritation like the prick of an invisible thorn. + +Meanwhile, Poppea and Philip drew nearer together each day. + +Howell was finishing a large and important piece of work at his Westboro +studio, and for this reason remained there during the summer, and there +it was that Philip went every day. The master, to test his creative +quality, told him to set about the bit of work he felt he would most +like to do, and that he would help him with the technique. Philip's +response had been to bring a rough crayon sketch that he had made of +Poppea's head and shoulders the last summer when he, looking over the +parapet, had seen her pick up a little bird that had fallen from the +nest and, after holding it in her hand a moment to still its +flutterings, put it back with its brothers. Under the drawing was +written _Amor Consolatrix_. + +"Who is it?" the sculptor had asked abruptly. "She will make a good +model. I will send for her to come up here if she lives in the +neighborhood, as I suppose she does." + +"Oh! I couldn't ask her; she isn't a model, but I can remember her face +as well as if she were here. Is it not perfect?" + +"Head is well set on; forehead, eyes, and chin good; nose a bit too much +tipped up for classic proportions." Then, as he saw Philip's face flush +and quiver, he added "After all, noses are a matter of taste nowadays +when we are getting a long way on the road from Greek placidity, that in +the female face expressed little but form, toward the expression of +temperament. She'll do, my lad, she'll do; if for no other reason than +that you think so. + +"Who is she, that is neither a model nor askable?" he inquired a half +hour later, as he looked over from his work to where Philip was +wrestling mentally and physically with the lump of clay of the size for +a bust that the attendant had set upon its block. + +"Poppea Gilbert; she lives at the post-office in our town, and there is +nobody quite like her," Philip answered, his shyness suddenly rent by +the man's offhand air of comradeship, as well as in response to his own +need of some one to whom he might speak without restraint. + +Howell seldom took pupils, and the price that John Angus had offered him +for his services would not alone have tempted him, but the boy had +interested him from the first. Now, as he stood there watching the eager +face, the light in his eyes, the energy with which he was attacking a +well-nigh impossible task, he sighed and said to himself: "So long as he +believes there is no one like _her_, whoever she may be, so long will he +be able to work. Her strength will make up for his lack--but if his +belief ends--" Here Howell had made an unconscious downward gesture that +in its expression of complete destruction knocked the index finger from +the outstretched hand of the figure upon which he was impressing the +final details. + +For Poppea the last year had been rather lonely, so that the post-office +work was welcomed as a distraction as much as a necessity. A break had +come in the one companionship of her life, for after graduation from +college and the law school, Hugh Oldys, to carry out the carefully laid +plans of his father, was spending a year in foreign travel before +settling in New York, where a niche was waiting for the young man of +whose ability and qualities of determination no one who had come in +contact with him during his college life had any doubt. + +During all this period Hugh had come home at the week ends, so that +there had been no absolute break; but when he had finally gone, Poppea +felt herself surrounded by a sort of open space wherein the air blew +chilly and nothing offered a satisfactory shelter. She did not fully +connect cause with effect in all its subtlety, but confessed to herself +a loneliness that came simply from the cutting off of her glimpse of the +outside world that Hugh had given her. His letters came at regular +intervals, but they were largely of things, not people, and least of all +himself, so that it was only when she went to see his mother and heard +her homely talk that she felt any of the vitality that belonged to the +real Hugh. + +As for Mrs. Oldys, her eagerness to have Poppea with her was almost +pathetic. Locked in her heart, where no one suspected its existence, was +the simple mother-vision that so few cherish in its unselfish +perfection: in this lay the future of her boy, spent away from her if it +was best, and her place supplied by a younger woman to whom the +knowledge she had held of his innermost thoughts must be transferred. +But in this plan of hers for these many years it had been Poppea who was +to be that other woman. Poppea, whom she had watched and brooded over +almost as though she had been her own, and to whom now she revealed day +by day the devotion with which she had surrounded this only child +without in any way letting it hamper his freedom or his manhood. + +No word or hint was ever dropped by her, and yet her belief in the +outcome was as firmly fixed as if it had been a vital point of +religion. Would her faith be shattered? Who could tell or count the +pulse beats of a man and a maid, that, being good friends, have +temperament and the world before them? Hugh was now trying one with the +other. Might it not happen, far away as it seemed, that the change might +also lie before Poppea? + +It was now May; in August Hugh would return. As for the other traveller +from Harley's Mills, John Angus, he was due at almost any moment, and +the chill that was settling over his household at the prospect was a +tribute to the awe in which he was held that, had he been asked, he +doubtless would have preferred to any demonstration of affection. + +Philip alone seemed to look forward with pleasure to seeing his father. +He was in love with his work; Howell, seeing genius even in his crude +efforts, had not only written John Angus, but had told the boy himself +all that he dared, knowing that his temperament lay too much on the side +of self-abasement to take undue harm from praise. Moreover, Philip had, +with his master's help in technique, the expression being all his own, +finished the bust of Poppea and had placed it at the window of his +garden studio, where the beauty of its modelling was brought out by a +background of living green. Surely John Angus must be pleased; must see +at last that his son had not so much found his calling as that it had +found him. + +All about the studio were a score of other attempts of Philip's, very +crude, and yet none lacking in a truthful force, and in half of these, +what might be called the Poppea motive was visible. This he did not +realize, nor would he have thought it strange if he had. Why should he +not worship her? + +His feeling had been the motive of all art in all ages. So had many a +dreaming monk of old in a cloistered garden wrought his thought into a +missal's page, his inspiration coming not from his walled-in self, but +from the light upon it, shed, it might be, from the ideal of the real +Virgin behind her image in the dim-lit shrine. + +It chanced that upon the afternoon of John Angus's unheralded return, +Poppea and Philip had been bidden to the church to practise a duet which +they were to sing on Whitsunday at St. Luke's. This time Stephen Latimer +accompanied them on the organ, and the pair standing side by side in the +front choir stall facing the empty church, Poppea leaning forward +slightly that she might see the music Philip held, with a tender, +protective air, made a picture that would have appealed to any painter. + +Going to his home to find it empty, Angus felt a quickening of the +blood, a desire to see his son for his own sake, perhaps for the first +time. Howell's words had pleased him in spite of himself; the crude, +early American idea of material progress was now rapidly making way for +the realm of literature and art. His life abroad had opened his eyes. To +be the father of a famous sculptor had its mitigations, and then too, +narrow though he was, he could not but realize the underlying +compensation that art deals with the spirit of things and makes as +naught any physical defect in its medium. Philip should also travel; he +himself would take him. + +So on the whole, John Angus was in what might almost be called a genial +mood when, on hearing that his son was down at the church with Stephen +Latimer, he ordered the carriage (he had walked up from the station) and +went to seek him. He also looked in much better physical condition than +when he went abroad, and only those who are expert in such matters would +have detected the tension at the corners of the nostrils that came from +the continual apprehension of the heart condition that had been his for +years. + +"They are in the church," Jeanne Latimer said, as he greeted her with +the polished manner for which he was famous on the doorstep of the +Rectory. Then she had fled indoors with the swift sense of foreboding +and desire to reach cover that a bird feels when, on a summer day, the +wind suddenly changes and the murmur rises of a thunder cloud that as +yet but edges the horizon. + +Angus, hearing music, opened the door and stepped into the shelter of +the very pew that had shielded Poppea that winter night more than six +years before. Why he did it he could not have said, but when one is +watchful and suspicious by nature, the habit often becomes the dictator. +Having turned aside, he waited until the song ended, waited in a +condition of mixed rage and pain that amazed him, feelings stirred in +him which he believed buried; he seemed in some distant place; he could +not account for himself to himself. Even then he did not move at once; +the blending of the voices to any other ear had been uplifting. As +Philip stepped from the stall to the lower level of the chancel steps +and Poppea laid her hand lightly on his shoulder to steady him, John +Angus caught the expression of his face, and suspicion, as ever, being +his interpreter, he gnashed his teeth. + +In another minute he was walking up the aisle masked in the perfect +self-control he wore to all outside his household. + +"Philip, I have come for you," he said in clearly modulated tones, not +realizing that a warmer greeting might be expected after five months of +absence. + +"Some other day, Mr. Latimer; I've only within an hour returned and wish +to see my son," without even a hand clasp, was his reply to the rector's +outstretched hand, words of greeting, and invitation to join Mrs. +Latimer in a cup of tea in the Rectory. + +To Poppea he did not speak; looking toward her, he swept her with a +deliberate stare in which dislike and absolute non-recognition were +curiously blended. She at first had been impelled to look away, but +feeling his glance, she turned and met it proudly, head erect, without +either contempt or flinching, and even as she stood thus, John Angus, +gathering up the boy's music and the cloak he always wore, hurried him +from the church, without time for a word of explanation or good-by. + +"Poor Philip," said Poppea, lowering her head, while tears filled the +eyes she turned toward Latimer. + +"Yes, poor Philip," he echoed; "yet not so poor in any way as John +Angus." + + * * * * * + +Once in the carriage, the man's self-control seemed to dominate him once +more. He said nothing about the happenings of the past few minutes, but +turned the talk to Philip's work, even before the boy himself had +recovered from the suddenness of the meeting with its incomprehensible +discordance. The tutor, who had been in Bridgeton, whither he frequently +went during Philip's practice afternoons, had returned, and in an agony +of apprehension was superintending the arrangements of the tea things on +the screened veranda overlooking the garden. He need not have trembled, +for John Angus paid no heed to him after a formal greeting, but relaxed +unusually in his effort to interest Philip and draw him out, and the +boy, warming under his father's rare interest, spoke frankly of his +hopes and fears. + +"Now will you come to the studio and see it for yourself, father? Of +course it's lumpy and out of line in many ways yet, but Howell says that +I can do it over and over until it is right, and then, perhaps, you'd +have it cut in marble, not because it's good, but because it's the first +and I love it so." + +Hand in hand father and son crossed the garden, the maids and +men-servants peeping from their various windows in amazement until the +pair disappeared within the studio door. + +"There she is, father. Do you think it is like her?" Philip asked +eagerly, pulling the wet cloth from the bust, for every day he saw the +need of an added touch here and there. + +John Angus had seated himself in a high-backed, carved chair and was +gazing at the bust with fierce intensity; whenever he turned his eyes +away, it was to see its lineaments in the crude attempts that filled +every nook in the long room. + +"Like? who is it?" he finally managed to say in well-feigned ignorance. + +"Ah, then it can't be, if you do not know, for you saw her singing with +me at the church half an hour ago. It is Poppea Gilbert from the +post-office house. I suppose it was foolish of me to try to make her as +lovely as she really is, though Howell sees the likeness, and yet you +did not know." + +"Lovely! Know!" John Angus half shouted, jumping to his feet and going +toward Philip with an almost threatening gesture. "Do _you_ know who +this woman is, this adventuress? She was a waif left on Oliver Gilbert's +doorstep; he took her in and bred her up, what for no one knows, unless +to harry me; he who with his paltry four acres of ground and his +damnable Yankee independence has been the only man who has dared to balk +me with success. But now his time has come." + +"I only wish she had been left on _our_ doorstep; how different +everything might have been," said Philip, who in a moment seemed to have +gained bodily height through the sudden development of spirit. + +"Yes, so do I!" shrieked John Angus, "and, as you say, everything would +have been different, for I should have sent her to the almhouse! + +"What do you know of those she came from? Tell me that. What do you +know?" continued the man, lashed to frenzy. + +"What do I know of you or you of me, either; what we are or may be?" +said Philip, in the accents not only of manhood, but of a champion, the +words coming from lips that once and for all had ceased to tremble. "But +I do know that Poppea is a good woman and that I love her." + +With a word that rang in Philip's ears for many a day and night, John +Angus turned upon him as if to strike him down, even as long ago he had +struck his roseleaf wife the day before she left him. Then as an +invisible something stayed his hand, he rushed across the studio, and +picking up a chair, brought it down full upon the bust, crashing it +outward through the window in many fragments. + +For a moment Philip stood with one arm across his eyes as though to shut +out what to him seemed murder. Then dropping it to his side, he faced +his father, who, his wrath having reached a climax, had sunk back in his +chair, clutching his side, while an awful expression of apprehension +crossed his face. + +"I cannot tell you to leave the room, for it is yours; but I must go," +Philip said slowly and clearly, then crossed the studio and closed the +door quietly behind him. + +For two days no one but the tutor saw John Angus, who remained in his +room, to write important letters, the tutor said. Then word went forth +that the house would be closed for the summer, as father and son were +going yachting for a change of air. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +INCOGNITA + + +Philip and his father went away in early June. There were, of course, +many rumors about their plans, one being to the effect that the house on +Windy Hill might not be reopened for several years, in spite of the fact +that greenhouses and gardens were to be maintained as usual. One thing +alone was certain, that they were to spend the summer either on board +the yacht of a Mr. Challoner, John Angus's close business associate, or +at his house at one of the resorts on the Maine coast. + +Poppea had seen very little of Philip since his father's return, for his +singing lessons had become more and more irregular, until they finally +ceased. Stephen Latimer, when he frankly asked John Angus the reason, +was met by the vague excuse that he had been so long away that he wished +his son's society; there was much to be arranged. Also Philip was tiring +of singing. + +On the day before he was to leave, Poppea met Philip at the Feltons', +whither he had gone to say good-by. When she entered, he was in the +great, cool library, and the blinds being drawn to keep out the +afternoon sun, all the light in the room seemed focussed on his face +where he sat by the book-strewn table, his head resting on one hand. He +was so intensely quiet and so pale Poppea's heart went out to him more +than ever; that he was suffering pain not merely physical she was sure, +and equally so that she must not ask its cause. + +Nora came into the room at that minute to say, "Miss Felton and Mr. +Esterbrook had gone to Bridgeton and would Miss Gilbert come upstairs? +Miss Emmy was suffering from a bad headache, and so Mr. Philip must +excuse her." + +"Then I must tell you good-by and go home," Philip said to Poppea; +"Harvey is waiting for me with the chair, for somehow I'm rather tired +this week. Please come into the light and turn your face as I saw you in +the garden from the parapet the day, long ago, when you picked up the +little bird. There, that is it. I want to remember every line to take +with me, for I shall be so lonely." + +"And I too, Philip. Look up at me and remember, that whatever is +worrying you worries me also, and let me halve it with you," and Poppea, +stooping, lifted his face and kissed him gently on the forehead. + +The young man bent his head as if in reverence for an instant, then +raising it again to look Poppea in the eyes whispered, so far away his +voice sounded, "I shall not be lonely any more, for it seems as though +you must have called my mother's angel and she kissed me." And yet John +Angus could not understand, and would not had he been there. + + * * * * * + +The summer residents of Quality Hill had returned in full force, +increasing the work at the post-office so much that Poppea had but +little time to herself. Yet she was satisfied so long as everything ran +smoothly and no possible criticism could fall upon the postmaster; for +it was not only the income and certain fixed position that mattered so +much to Oliver Gilbert, but in and about the associations of his +appointment were woven the very elements of his patriotism and the +verbal contact with Lincoln that became more precious as time went on. +Of course Gilbert knew that the day would come when he must resign what +he called his trust, but that was not yet. In some respects he felt his +seventy years less than he had the weight of a lonely fifty. That his +conducting of the business might be unsatisfactory or the post-office +might be taken away from him had never troubled his thoughts even +remotely. + +It was therefore a great surprise to both postmaster and mistress, when +one day, about the middle of June, a duly accredited government +inspector appeared one morning, and after going over the accounts and +putting many abrupt and, to those in charge, meaningless questions, took +a seat by the sorting shelf, opened a newspaper, and seemed prepared to +spend the day. The visit being all the more strange from the fact that +the usual but rather perfunctory official visit had been paid less than +two months before. + +When noontime came and the official made no move to leave, Gilbert, +knowing that there was no suitable place of refreshment in town, with +old-time hospitality asked the stranger to join them at their mid-day +meal. The invitation was accepted, and the moment that the official left +his post behind the beehive, his entire manner changed; he talked and +laughed with Gilbert in a way that dismissed a growing apprehension, +complimented Satira Potts, who was substituting for the day, upon her +cooking, and kept his eyes fastened upon Poppea in a way that made her +color hotly and then turn rigid with resentment, saying that he had +heard Harley's Mills was a very quaint town, and that there was a pretty +walk by the river toward the hills. Wouldn't she be his guide that +afternoon? + +Poppea, feeling that she must hold herself in check at any cost, replied +that she could not leave the office, but that Oliver Gilbert would +doubtless drive him about town with horse and chaise; then turning to +the old man, she urged him to go, as he had been out so little of late. + +Poor Gilbert, entirely oblivious of the undercurrent, protested that he +could do all the office work required before night, saying in +good-hearted indiscretion, "Go you out, Poppy; the young gentleman will +enjoy the trip much better than with a half-deaf old codger like me." + +For a moment Poppea struggled for words less abrupt than "I will not +go," with which to extricate herself from the net. Then Satira Potts +(who was Pegrim, and having once taught Poppea what she called her +manners never forgot it), grasping the situation, rose so suddenly from +the table that she scattered the crumbs that she had in her apron, and +said, "Poppy couldn't go with you noway, nohow, Mister--I don't think +you've mentioned your name. Our Newfield County girls don't take up +with strangers, and besides, even if they did, Miss Gilbert, holding +what might be called a public place, has got to draw the line even +shorter!" + +Gilbert, who had raised his hand deprecatingly toward his, as he +considered, too officious sister, stopped short as he caught sight of +Poppea's face, while into the other man's eyes there flashed a glare of +rage which was far less offensive than the expression it replaced. +Getting up slowly with an affected yawn of boredom, he bit the end from +a cigar, lit it without asking leave, nodded curtly to the postmaster +and, picking up his bag of papers and hat, which he put on before +reaching the door, went on his way. + +"Shoo! Scat!" said Satira Potts, who, following him closely, drove away +a stray cat from the porch and scattered the remaining crumbs in her +apron on the flagging for the birds. + +For a minute Gilbert and Poppea sat looking at one another, then he +said: "I wonder why that smart Aleck dropped in here just now and hung +around so? Most likely missed connections in Bridgeton for somewhere +else and thought he'd pass the time and get a dinner. He wasn't mannered +like the regular inspector that's been here for three years past. It's +too bad he riled you so, Poppy; it's likely he thought he was being +polite and pleasuring of you." + +It was well for his feeling of content that Gilbert did not look back, +for when Satira Potts returned to the kitchen, Poppea, who had left the +table for the window and was looking with eyes that did not see up +through the orchard to the back garden, wheeled suddenly, and, throwing +her arms about Satira's neck, began to sob with the broken-hearted +abandon of a child. + +"There, there, dearie, that skate has gone flying, so don't you care. I +sensed right off the way he was squinting at you, and if only you hadn't +been born a lady baby, and so mustn't, I could have wished you'd slapped +his face." + +All that afternoon and for many days, whenever Poppea paused in her work +in the office or in the bank garden, where the flowers seeded from the +garden above ran riot and needed much restraining, the thought, "I +wonder, oh, I wonder, who sent that man here?" came to her. + +One day, as the insistence of the query was beginning to pass, Miss Emmy +sent for Poppea to come up to luncheon and hear the plans for the +afternoon and evening entertainment that the Felton ladies were in the +habit of giving each year, either at rose time or at midsummer. This +year, the season being late and also the roses, the twenty-first of +June, the summer equinox, was chosen; for, as time went on, the ladies +felt less like entertaining and keeping open house in the humid July +weather, though they did not yet acknowledge it even to one another. But +at sixty and sixty-two, why should not even those to whom that form of +tyranny known as duty to society is a law relax, and prepare to spend +the afternoon of life a little more naturally? + +As for Mr. Esterbrook, at threescore and ten, relaxation of any kind +would be impossible. For the last dozen years, having practically ceased +to take manly exercise, he was propped by his rigid surroundings, +courteous formalities of the old school, and clothes to such a degree, +that had he sought to escape from them, collapse would have resulted, +and it would have been as impossible to collect him as water that +suddenly rebelled against the confines of its pail. + +The ladies themselves could hardly have told when the thinning iron-gray +hair had been first subtly concealed, and then replaced by a wig of its +own exact shade; nor did they know that he had abandoned billiards at +the club in favor of whist or piquet, because following the course of +the red or white balls over the vivid green cloth with eyes slow to +focus had twice given him a fit of vertigo. As for riding, Oliver +Gilbert, hip-crippled as he was, could still throw himself across the +old white horse and follow the cow to its hill pasture, while the very +thought of riding made William Esterbrook dizzy; so wide apart is the +life natural from the life artificial. + +The afternoon reception, Poppea found, was to be general, the Bridgeton +band supplying outdoor music; the evening function, an affair in costume +combined of music, dancing, and a half-dozen tableaux of the seasons. To +the latter the residents of the hill and their guests, together with the +Feltons' more intimate neighborhood acquaintances, were bidden. + +Before leaving home, Poppea had resolved to decline Miss Emmy's +invitation to the evening party. Hugh being away and also Jeanne +Latimer, she was not in the mood for going among strangers, as they +would largely be. Then, too, a sense of depression had hung over her of +late, as she realized for the first time that the comparative luxury and +special privileges that her contact with the Feltons had surrounded her, +were not only not hers by right, but that at any time she must become, +at least in part, the financial protector of the man who had for twenty +years protected her. + +Virtually she was living under false pretences when she went to the +Feltons and mingled with their guests. As a child it had been different; +now it must stop, and the sooner the better. She did not find it easy to +carry out her resolutions at once when she found that Miss Emmy took it +for granted that she would sing half a dozen of the songs that Stephen +Latimer said few others could sing so well, either from point of +phrasing or simple pathos. Besides, Miss Emmy argued, New York friends +would be there who might help her to turn her music to account, and as +for the costume, anything dainty and summerish would do. There was a +chest full of old muslins and flowered organdies in the attic from which +Poppea could surely select something, and Nora should help her fashion +it if she herself lacked time. + +Under such circumstances how could Poppea refuse those who had made +music possible, as well as given all her education, even to the final +lessons in French pronunciation that made the Creole songs fall from her +lips in such perfection. So saying to herself, "only this once," she had +gone to the attic chest in question, and selected from it a soft green +muslin with embroidered fern fronds scattered over it, a relic of the +days when skirts were six yards full and further amplified by three +flounces; then declining Nora's help, she took it home to brood over. + +As she went slowly down the stairs, the muslin gathered into a hasty +bundle, Miss Emmy called to her from her morning room where she was +sealing some invitations, the social secretary not, as yet, having +become an institution. As she waited for the notes, Poppea, glancing +idly about the room, caught sight of a colored print of Gainsborough's +Mrs. Robinson as Perdita, in her pretty furbelows. This gave her an idea +that once at home she quickly put into form with scissors, thread, and +needle. + +To the muslin bodice, made a trifle low, frills falling from the half +sleeves, she added an open-fronted over-skirt, which, being caught back +below the waist, gave somewhat the appearance of the print. Then, other +matters calling her, she put the dress away until the day came for the +party. By this time she had forgotten how Perdita had arranged her hair, +and she had also discovered that the even green of the muslin looked +monotonous by lamplight. Ah me, what could she do? Mrs. Shandy, being +appealed to, with true bucolic British taste could suggest nothing but +"red ribbons, and plenty of them, to liven of yourself up, Miss." + +Walking about the room at a loss how to proceed, Poppea picked up the +miniature of her "little mother" as she called her to herself, that +other Poppea with the wreath of fragile summer poppies in her hair. It +had become almost a habit, this looking at the picture in moments of +perplexity either serious or trivial, as though the laughing eyes and +parted lips could in some way respond. In this instance, the reply, +though indirect, was instantaneous. + +"The poppies twisted in the hair and bunched at the neck; could anything +be better!" cried Poppea, "and the garden is full of the fall sown ones, +open and in bud. Frail as they are, if I pick buds this morning and put +them in water in the bright sun, they will be open by afternoon and keep +open if I do not let them see the dark. The leaves are the color of the +muslin, only of a lighter shade. Thank you, little mother!" + +As Poppea dressed that evening, taking the flowers that she had +transferred from sun to lamplight to put in her hair when she arrived, +she again turned to the miniature, talking to it as if it were a person. + +"You've stayed here by yourself too long," she said; "to-night you shall +go out and whisper to the people who will hear me sing and ask them to +be kind." Slipping the chain over her head, she let the locket hang half +veiled among the folds of drapery that crossed her bosom. + +There was no one but Nora in the dressing-room at the Feltons' when +Poppea looked shyly in, and, seizing the chance, dropped music and light +shawl upon a chair to arrange the flowers. They adjusted themselves +easily to her coiled hair. In a half wreath with a great bunch at the +waist, so intangible did they seem in their cloud colors of rose, pink, +salmon, and flame fading back to white, that it was impossible to +believe that they would not flutter away from their perch like +butterflies. + +"Look at that now! there isn't a dress here to-night'll touch yours, +dearie," said Nora, hands raised in honest admiration. "But I mistrust +them posies not to last long, gi'n you dance too hard." + +"That's precisely it, Nora," said Poppea, a mischievous smile banishing +the little pathetic droop that her lips sometimes wore, and the opal +colors flashing from the black-lashed eyes. "I must not dance, but sing +my songs and disappear, else my finery will drop away as Cinderella's +did when the clock struck." + +Downstairs among the maze of faces, she saw that of Stephen Latimer, and +motioning to him that she was there when needed, Poppea glanced +wistfully across the room, slipped through one of the long windows, then +drew into the shadows where she could see and not be seen, except as the +light fell now and then upon her eager face as she leaned forward to +watch the tableaux, dreading the time when she must step before so +fashionable and critical an audience. + +Evidently, she had not been as wholly unobserved as she thought, for +Miss Emmy, who had reached the veranda through another window in company +with a youngish man, came toward her, saying:-- + +"Ah, here she is, Bradish, keeping quiet until her own time comes. Julia +dear" (Miss Emmy often used this name in formal society), "this is Mr. +Winslow, the son of my dearest Boston friend, who wishes to meet you. It +is the first time that we have been able to lure him into the country, +and we wish him to like it. Where is your shawl, child? It is quite +breezy here, and you mustn't risk your voice. Upstairs? No, don't go; I +will tell Nora to fetch it," and as Miss Emmy flitted away, her +shimmering silver costume, with a crescent and gold stars in her fluffy +light hair still guiltless of gray, caught and held the combined lights +of moon and lamp, helping to perfect the part of "Evening" for which she +was costumed. + +For a moment after she had recognized Mr. Winslow's bow, Poppea +continued looking into the room. She wished that Miss Emmy had not +introduced her to this stranger; she did not care to talk, but to remain +quiet and alone. Then making an effort, she turned toward him to put the +orthodox query as to what character he represented, when before the +sentence was half framed, she realized that he wore conventional evening +dress, and her air of embarrassment turned to a smile when she saw the +half quizzical, half satirical expression of his cleanly shaven face. + +"Confess that you not only did not look at me, but that you are rather +vexed at either being obliged to do so now or be rude," he said, placing +a chair with a dexterous turn of the wrist in the exact spot where she +could continue to look at the tableaux and yet be seated. + +"I'm afraid that you are right, and yet I will not allow that I was even +almost rude to one of the Aunties' friends. It is this way; I am to sing +to-night before all these men and women from the city who know what +music means; I have only sung before here in the church for Mr. Latimer +or at some little musicals at Bridgeton. If I had to go into the room +now and be shut in among them all, I should simply run away. So I came +out here to find myself, and when Miss Emmy spoke your name, I was so +far away that I do not think I heard it. Pray forgive me." Something +about the direct simplicity of her excuse touched a new chord in +Winslow's perfectly controlled nature. This was not the simpering, +self-satisfied young woman of the small towns who usually, when taking +part in amateur social functions, keeps well in the limelight. + +He drew up a second chair, saying quietly: "I understand so well that I +will either go away or stay and play watch-dog; which do you prefer? I +see two callow youths in there who are looking toward this window as +their only loophole of escape, but they will not come until I go." + +"Then please stay," said Poppea, with a shimmer of a laugh, soothed into +perfect tranquillity by the self-possession of her companion,--a +condition that caused her much wonder when she afterward analyzed it. + +Much clapping of hands announced the completion of the first group of +pictures, and the stringed quartet struck up a Strauss waltz, to the +compelling measure of which Poppea's fingers, hanging over the back of +the chair, tapped time. + +"Are you fond of dancing?" + +"Yes and no; there are times when it seems as if I must dance, but I do +not believe that I could ever dance to order." + +"I have seen you somewhere before, but very long ago," he said abruptly. + +"Yes, I remember your face. I have been thinking and thinking when and +where. Ah! now I have it!" Poppea exclaimed, flushing deeply, so that +even in the moonlight it rivalled the color of the flowers in her hair. + +"Do you remember once calling upon the Felton ladies in New York one +afternoon and finding a half-wild girl dancing before the parlor +mirror?" + +"By Jove! that's it, and you were the little girl! I can see it all +perfectly. I should judge that it was one of the times that you danced +because you must, was it not?" + +"Oh, yes, the windows were so heavy that they would not open, and the +carpets so thick they held my feet, and I began to feel as though I were +in prison and should never get out, and so I danced to be sure that I +was alive." + +"Do you know what I said to myself as you slid away behind the heavy +stair guards?" + +"Probably that you wondered why the Feltons harbored such a barbarian." + +"No, that I wished that I might meet you again six or seven years hence; +and you see I have my wish." + +Noticing that Poppea seemed once more inclined to withdraw into herself, +Winslow dropped the personal tone that he had been forcing into the +conversation and sought more neutral ground in his next venture. + +"If, as I understand, you have lived about here all your life, you can +give me some help in a little matter of business, that, combined with +pleasure, brought me here. I suppose, of course, that you know every +resident in the town?" + +"Most surely, as well as almost every one who comes to or goes through +it;" Poppea was going to add, "because all news comes to the +post-office," but a sudden influence caused her to suppress the last +sentence. + +"Very good, now I will explain my errand, if you have the patience to +listen, and I have confidence in asking that what I say will go no +further, because the matter concerns others rather than myself." + +Poppea, nodding her head in assent, leaned forward, her lips slightly +parted in an attitude of undivided attention. + +"A cousin of mine, a young New Yorker, who is working his way into +politics _via_ being secretary to the postmaster-general, was intrusted +to look up a matter in this vicinity during a week of vacation. Meeting +me at the club a couple of days ago and finding I was coming here, he +asked me to help him out by doing the investigating and letting him +spend his time in town. + +"It seems that Postmaster Gilbert, here at Harley's Mills, is getting +rather old and doddering, and has for his assistant a young woman, a +foundling or something, that he has brought up. Complaints have been +coming in for the past year of the conduct of the office from a man who +is not only a prominent resident here, but one who has strong political +influence both in New York and Washington." + +Poppea straightened herself, opened her lips to speak, but no sound +came; meanwhile Winslow, intent upon reciting the story word for word as +he had had it from his cousin, paid no heed. + +"Under ordinary circumstances a change would possibly have been made on +the matter of age, but as the complainant is known to be a man of +violent prejudices and the appointment was one of the few now existing +made by Lincoln himself, extra trouble was taken in the matter. +Examinations showed the accounts to be all straight, and there the +affair halted on both sides. + +"A month ago new complaints came from the same source in a different +key; the young woman, called by the fantastic name of Poppea, it seems, +was causing trouble among the youths of the town, and the complainant +did not hesitate to call her a dangerous adventuress. A special sent to +cast his eye over the ground brought back an unsatisfactory and garbled +account. Now my point is, can you from an outside and perhaps kinder +point of view set me straight upon this matter?" + +It seemed to the woman sitting opposite that she had lived a lifetime +while Winslow was speaking; shame and courage, despair and pride, were +all struggling for the mastery, and courage, with the chance for +justification, won. + +"Yes, I know them both, the postmaster and his daughter, as well as John +Angus, the man who has complained." + +"Then his dislike is public property?" + +"Most assuredly; he has harried Oliver Gilbert for years because he +would not sell him his homestead to round out his own land." + +"Very good, a motive proven; that settles one point," said Winslow, +with legal brevity. "Now how about the girl?" + +"That is--not, cannot be told in so few words," said Poppea, nerving +herself with a visible effort. "It is true that she was a foundling left +in a storm upon Oliver Gilbert's porch. He took her in for the sake of +his dead wife and baby Marygold. Then he grew to love her until he quite +forgot she was not his own, and she thought all the world of 'Daddy,' as +she had learned to call him. By and by as he grew older she naturally +helped him in the office until, as the business grew and she became of +age, she was appointed his assistant. + +"She tried, oh, so hard, to work steadily and not forget her place, but +she could not help the fact that John Angus's son, a couple of years +younger and a cripple, who had no one to be kind to him, liked to talk +to her. She couldn't help being glad to find some one to help make up +for the sisters and brothers she had never known, for all the real kin +she had was an ivory miniature of a young woman with a wreath of poppies +in her hair, that hung about her neck on a gold chain the night she came +to Gilbert's. There was one word engraved upon the locket, 'Poppea' and +a date, '1850.' So they two practised singing together with Mr. Latimer +down at St. Luke's, Philip and she, and he made a bust of her, for he is +studying to be a sculptor. But John Angus did not understand, and though +no one but himself knows what he thought, it is bringing evil to Poppea, +for the last man they sent from Washington dared to insult her. Yet all +she asks is to be let work for her Daddy until his quarter century is +out and he resigns; for it would kill him if he thought that any one +could say anything against him or his that could take away the trust +that Lincoln gave him." + +Poppea stopped, her hands twisting at a flower that had fallen to her +lap, and then looked quietly at Winslow as though waiting for his +answer. As for him, he was completely taken out of himself and his +acquired stoicism in regard to all things feminine. The spectacle of the +beautiful young woman pleading the cause with such unconscious dignity +swept him from his feet and made him feel until he tingled. + +"Well?" she queried at last. + +"You have made it as plain as if I had seen the whole business myself, +and I'm no end grateful for the trouble you've taken. This meeting seems +to have been quite providential for the post-office family; all I need +do is to take a look at them to-morrow and leave. Let me think quickly; +there is so much more I wanted to say to you. I see the musical dominie +coming our way, and they are drawing the curtains on the last tableau." + +"Yes, it _was_ providential your coming, but there is one thing more to +be said, and I must say it before you go to the office to-morrow. Look +at this," and bending toward him, she held out the locket on its chain +that had lain concealed in the folds of her waist, pressing the spring +that opened it as she did so. + +Winslow looked and then grew bewildered. + +"Read," she said. "'Poppea, 1850.'" + +"Then you are--Impossible!" + +"Poppea of the post-office, whom you have heard accused, and have tried, +and, I hope, acquitted for her Daddy's sake." But the eyes that she +turned so bravely to meet his reassuring ones were full of tears that +could not be recalled. + +"What a brute I have been," he said, standing with bent head. + +Then Stephen Latimer came to lead her in. + +"You will dance with me or at least speak to me afterward?" Winslow +managed to ask, instinctively expecting refusal after the ordeal she had +gone through. + +"This is one of the nights I could not dance; in fact, I doubt if I ever +shall again." + +Winslow sought out the darkest corner of the porch, where he was yet +within sound of her voice. Lighting a cigar, he gave himself over to an +uninterrupted train of musing, while those within who missed him thought +him merely escaping them after the manner of a man of the world, who, +having been courted for a decade by maids, wives, and widows, prefers +his own society. + +After the final applause, which was unusually long and loud for such an +audience, had ceased, Winslow threaded his way rapidly through the rooms +in search of _Incognita_, as he called her to himself, but she was +nowhere to be found. + +"The excitement of her success was too much for the dear child," said +Miss Emmy, taking his arm and switching him in the direction where he +cared least to go. + +"I've sent Nora home with her in the coupé, for she looked really +overdone. Don't be so disappointed; you can go and inquire for her +to-morrow." + +When Winslow broke away from his hostess at last, he wondered what had +happened to him. He had intended leaving in the morning if he had +completed his inquiry. Well, he would sleep on it; some impressions lose +their color the next day. But in the morning he resolved to telegraph +his cousin and put off going at least until another to-morrow. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +FRIENDSHIP? + + +When the next morning came, Poppea kept her bed for the first time since +the childhood days of whooping-cough and measles. From sunrise waves of +intense heat swept the village and outlying country, intensified rather +than veiled by the low-hanging mists. Yet this alone could not account +for the flushed cheeks and restless sparkle of her eyes, or the +weariness of limb that almost refused to let her move. The fact was that +she had not slept, but each hour of the summer night had brought a new +phantom with which she had struggled. In so far as it was possible, she +had ceased to dwell upon the theme of _The Mystery of the Name_, now it +had returned with new force to haunt her, and with it the persecution of +John Angus. This in itself was hard enough to bear, but it meant also +complete separation from Philip, who had come to be such a part of her +inner life that no one else seemed fully to comprehend that even the +idea of readjustment was impossible. + +The unintentional abruptness of Bradish Winslow in stating the pith of +Angus's complaints against the post-office, by its very shock had +brought her face to face with the fact that she had tried to conceal +even from herself. Oliver Gilbert was swiftly coming to a time when, if +he did not resign, his age and slowness of motion might surely be cast +up against him for some trivial oversight that would, in a younger man, +pass unnoticed. + +For a time the danger of dismissal was probably averted; that is, if +Winslow's attitude of apparent sympathy was sincere. Was he to be +trusted? Standing face to face with him the night before, it had not +occurred to her to doubt him. Away from him, a certain sustaining +magnetism coming from his entire confidence in himself, blended with an +agreeable personality, was lacking, and Poppea wondered if he had read +her aright, or taken her justification as a clever bit of acting. And +why not, if John Angus could so misjudge her! + +Other women of her age and naturally emotional temperament might take +peeps into the promised land of love and romance even before the gate +opened and they were bidden to enter. The knowledge of her own name was +the only key to the gate for her; she had long since resolved this, that +evening at the opera when the Knight of the Grail, to her a real +personality, had disappeared. But since then the doubt had come to her, +suppose that the knowing proved to her also a final barrier instead of +the key? + +Oliver Gilbert was appalled at Poppea's indisposition, which he viewed +in the light of a positive disaster. Leaving his six o'clock cup of +coffee untasted, he went about putting up the early mail with shaking +hands and a lack of precision that might well have called down +criticism, had it been observed. Neither did he draw comfort from Mrs. +Shandy's common-sense assurance that "Miss Poppy is only a bit done up +with the strong heat coming all of a sudden, and having to sing before +such a gathering of the quality for the first time. When she's rested a +bit and had a nice cup of breakfast tea and some toast, she'll be quite +another thing." + +The doctor must be had! Nothing else would satisfy Gilbert. So, about +eleven o'clock, when Miss Emmy drove down in the barouche to tell Poppea +the pleasant gossip about the party, together with the comments upon her +singing, encountering Bradish Winslow in spotless white clothes +sauntering in the same direction, Dr. Morewood's chaise came up the +Westboro road and halted at the gate of the post-office house a little +ahead of them. + +Miss Emmy, on hearing that he had called to see Poppea, followed him +into the house, while Winslow went into the office and, over the buying +of a newspaper, drew Gilbert into conversation. + +Whether it was the tea and toast that had the predicted effect, or the +fact that Poppea had finally acquired the mastery of herself and +remembered that Winslow had promised to look at the post-office and its +master through his own eyes and judgment, at the moment that Miss Emmy +was ushered into the parlor she heard, through the open window, Dr. +Morewood's voice talking to Poppea in the room above. + +"Something is worrying you, child; get away from here for a week and +look at things from a different place," he said. "If it's too lively +for you at Felton Manor, go over to the Mills. Dear little Mrs. Oldys is +nearly down ill through homesickness for Hugh, and the next best thing +to seeing him will be to see some one who knows him to whom she can read +his letters. It'll do you good to go up there, with that view over the +Moosatuck to the hills that every sunrise is like a glimpse of the +promised land, and it will be a perfect godsend to her. Do you know, +sometimes I think that plucky little woman is simply clinging to life by +the love she has for her husband and son. I've been so impressed with +the idea this spring that about a month ago I wrote Hugh asking him if +he couldn't shorten his trip and come home early in August, so as to +give some leeway before he goes to his new work in September. + +"I am going up to the Oldyses' now; may I tell Madam that you're coming, +say this afternoon?" + +Poppea was looking out the window to where the grim outline of the +chimneys and roof of John Angus's house could be seen above the vines +that covered the parapet. Yes, she realized that she must go somewhere +if only for a couple of days, to be out of sight of that dominant house +and all that it implied, until she could pull herself together once +more, so she nodded in assent and followed the doctor downstairs. + +"Not sick, but playing lazy and caught at it," was her reply to Miss +Emmy's outstretched hands, and eyes full of sympathy. + +"You see that putting on fine feathers and spending an evening with the +quality has quite turned my head," she continued, forcing her +sprightliest manner that Miss Emmy might be led from questioning her too +closely. + +"Then your head will have to stay turned, for every one who heard you +sing last night wishes to hear you again," and the loquacious little +lady ran over a long list of names that represented not only many of the +bricks and beams of New York society, but much of the decorative +superstructure as well. + +"You always said that you wanted to step out and really do something +against the time when Daddy would be too old to keep the post-office, +and now here is the chance. You are to come to us in New York and be +properly introduced at our first musical of the winter, and then you +will have all the engagements you can fill at fifty dollars each for the +rest of the season. Two or three a week will be a plenty and leave you +time for lessons with Tostelli or some one equally good. Then, by and +by, when you have acquired manner, and you are well known, you might +consent to sing at a few public concerts, given of course under the +patronage of our best people. But we mustn't whisper of that yet; sister +Elizabeth would not hear of such a thing. You will naturally spend the +winter with us, for the post-office work is very light in the off +season, I've heard you say. + +"I will tell you a secret," and Miss Emmy drew Poppea toward her with a +dramatic air of extreme caution. "I've come to the time at which I used +to think I should adopt a young girl. I can no longer wear pink and pale +blue with impunity! I'm growing sallow! I must, therefore, think out +pretty costumes for some one else--for you. For the first winter, +simple dresses with flower trimmings will be very telling; violet tulle +and wistaria, corn-colored gauze and cowslips," and Miss Emmy's hands, +flexible and nervous, described the lines and folds of flower-wreathed +draperies, as she spoke. + +"What do you think? Don't you like the idea, child? I'm going to carry +you off to the Manor for luncheon, and afterward to call on some of the +hill people before their guests, who came for last night, disperse. +There is nothing like striking while the iron is hot, but especially +with people of the _beau monde_; if you let them cool off, there's the +heating process all to be done over again, whereas this time it was +simply a case of spontaneous combustion with you as the spark." + +In spite of her vivacity and high spirits, Miss Emmy coughed wrackingly +when she stopped, and even a casual observer could see the ominous +falling away at the temples and behind the ears, as well as the +wrinkling of the throat under its bertha of embroidered mull. + +"I like the idea of singing as an employment," said Poppea, when Miss +Emmy paused long enough to let her be heard; "but as to all the +rest--well, that would have to be on a business basis also. From the +moment I begin to earn money, I must pay money. You see, dear Aunty, up +to now it's been all for love and love in return, and now--it must be +different." + +"Don't be obstinate, Poppy, for if you are and put on that determined +look, I shall have to call you Julia, even in private." + +"No, I'm not obstinate, neither can I change; it is simply this, I +cannot allow myself to be an object of charity any longer. Ask Mr. +Latimer. I have talked of it with him, and he understands. Ah, Aunty, +Aunty, I cannot go on standing in false positions. If they like my +singing and it is worthy, I will sing, but I do not want it to come by +social favor only." + +"Think it over, child, and don't try to fly with ideas for wings that +may do very well here at Harley's Mills, but not in New York," Miss Emmy +replied, rather tartly for her. "I don't think that in your present +state of mind you will improve your prospects by calling on those who +heard you last night; they would best keep you in mind as the dreamy +looking girl with downcast eyes and poppies in her hair." Miss Emmy +walked out to the carriage without more ado, while Poppea wondered if it +was going to be her fate to be misunderstood. + +Going to the post-office, she encountered Winslow, who was occupying a +chair inside the beehive and alternately chatting with and scrutinizing +Gilbert over the edge of a _New York Herald_ in which he was ostensibly +studying the stock market. + +By the furtive glance that Gilbert gave her, Poppea knew he had been +talking of her, therefore her color heightened, and no one less keen +than Winslow in taking every detail of a woman's appearance in a casual +glance would have noticed that the shadows under her eyes were not those +of her lashes. She was dressed in a straight white gown akin to that of +a trained nurse in its simplicity, without a single touch of color other +than her hair; yet the effect in the bare surroundings of the shop was +to envelop her with a virginal freshness that appealed to Winslow even +more than the more poetic costume of the previous evening. + +"Having made the acquaintance of Cinderella, who vanished, I've now come +to call upon the Postmistress, hoping that she will not also disappear," +he said, taking her hand with a caressing touch that was personal enough +to be remembered, but not of a quality to be resented. + +"Sit down here, child, and just cast your eye over this money-order to +be sure if it is right, for Stephen Latimer may come for it any time. +Mr. Winslow will excuse you a minute, I reckon," said Gilbert, as Poppea +hesitated a moment in embarrassed silence, not knowing whether she +should ask Winslow to the porch or garden, or merely take the call in +her official capacity. The request decided the matter, and as Gilbert +went over to his work bench to become instantly absorbed, she slipped +into his revolving chair, glanced rapidly over the figures, separated +note from stub, and returned the book to the drawer. When she again +faced Winslow, her hands were clasped rather nervously in her lap. + +"I came over this morning for two reasons," he said, as though in answer +to a question in her eyes. "I was afraid that last night's excitement +was altogether too much of a strain, and I wanted to reassure myself by +a peep at you. Then I wished to tell you in plain, open daylight how +deeply I feel about my unknowing brutality concerning this post-office +business, and to ask you, if you can help it, not to let it tinge or +prejudice your feelings about me, but to judge me only by the outcome. +As it is, no one else need ever know the details except our two +selves." + +The look of intense relief that lighted Poppea's face and raised the +drooping lip corners was perfectly apparent to Winslow, and also told +him that doubt as to this outcome had probably broken her rest. + +"I do not think of it as brutality even though it hurt, and though I +shall not tell Daddy, because he would grieve himself sick, I _must_ +tell Mr. Latimer, because he has always known of everything concerning +me, and helps me understand my troubles by holding them, as he says, in +trust. For the rest, I can only thank you for taking the trouble to +consider a passing stranger." + +"I do not feel that you are a stranger; I did not when I first saw you +dancing before the mirror, or yet again on the porch last night. You are +to me Youth and all the good that belongs with it. We have met twice by +accident, the third time by intent; does not that make us friends?" + +As far as his emotions were concerned, Bradish Winslow at six and thirty +might be said to have his second wind. The things that appealed to him +with any permanence in these days knocked first at the door of his +judgment where his æsthetic taste was doorkeeper. It was by this route +that Poppea stole swiftly along until his heart was reached, and +responded before he even remembered that he had one. Then, too, she was +as refreshing as the first sun-ripened strawberries of June after the +complicated winter confections of the club. + +Winslow found himself leaning toward Poppea, holding her eyes and +speaking with a vibrating eagerness that would have surprised any one of +his half-hundred city intimates, both male and female. Of a +distinguished family, rich in moderation, and with no one to please but +himself, Winslow, though an indispensable social factor, was, as far as +women were concerned, a devoted cynic, always at the beck and call of +some modish woman, usually either married or a widow, but whenever the +chains of his own forging seemed likely to fetter, he had always eluded +them, to seek safety in numbers once more. + +He had no further reason for sitting in the stuffy little post-office +than to see Poppea; he had no other reason for having stayed the second +day at the hill, and yet, with all of his resources, quick wit, and +elastic principles, he could devise no way of prolonging the interview +or bringing Poppea into less conventional relations than her expressions +of gratitude implied. + +His hesitation surprised him, for on a still briefer acquaintance he had +brought a very difficult and much-sought widow to ask him to luncheon, +after which she had taken him to a round of "teas" in her carriage. + +Winslow realized this as they sat there, presently talking of inane and +safe topics, such as the heat, the city people visiting on the hill, and +the tennis match to be held there next day, and it was almost a relief +when Stephen Latimer, coming for his money-order, told Poppea that the +Oldyses' rockaway was stopping at the Rectory and would be down for her +in a quarter of an hour. As Latimer showed no signs of leaving +immediately, there was nothing left for Winslow to do but bow himself +out, more awkwardly than Stephen Latimer, who had known him of old, +would have believed possible. + +Once in the roadway, where he could throw back his shoulders and strike +out, the web that he had sought to spin as a spider, but which had held +him like a captive fly, parted, and he admonished himself in no measured +terms. + +"I wouldn't have thought it of you, Brad, my boy; there you sat as dumb +as a fish, and she, when she got through being politely grateful, looked +absolutely bored. It must be because you feel out of your running in a +real cow-country place like this. Is it possible that you're falling +in--? No, it's nonsense! But you'd give a pile to make her look in your +face with something other than gratitude in her eyes. Well, maybe she'll +go to the city some day, who knows. Meanwhile, we'll not let out of +sight be out of mind." + +This resolution was the foundation of a series of subtly chosen gifts +sent at regular intervals that, coming in the mail, Poppea could not +fail to see. As, however, after the first, from which fell a pressed +poppy, they contained no sign, she could neither acknowledge nor return +them, for their source was a matter of inference only. Neither did she +know that Winslow, summering here, there, and everywhere, from Newport +to the North Cape, had left an order with his agent for the sending of +the remembrances; consequently, in spite of herself, he was kept in +mind, and she was somewhat touched, according to his plan. + + * * * * * + +Poppea was shocked when she reached the Mill House to find how much +Madam Oldys had changed in a few weeks, and she reproached herself for +not having seen her oftener. But the house had seemed so strange and +still without Hugh that she had avoided bringing herself face to face +with its emptiness. + +Yes, as the doctor said, the chord that held her soul in her body was +Madam Oldys's love for husband and son. This Poppea saw as she knelt on +the mat beside the straw lounging chair on the deeply shaded porch and +watched the rapid pulsing at the thin temples as the time drew near for +Mr. Oldys to come home to tea. He was very busy these days in +remodelling the Mills and fitting them for a new manufacturing +enterprise that should not only retrieve the heavy loss of the last +years in the waning of the old business, but give work to the men who +had built their homes and houses about him and the surging outlet of +Moosatuck. + +This night he was unaccountably late, and Poppea had already run the +gamut of plausible excuses before Charlotte came out to inquire, after +the comfortable manner of the old colored servant, if Missy Oldys +wouldn't better have her tea before she went all gone from waiting. But +a negative shake of the head was her answer. + +"I think, my dear, that I will walk down to the gate to-night as usual, +where I can see beyond the turn," she said to Poppea, at the same time +trying to rise without aid and finding it impossible. + +"He is coming!" cried Poppea. "Mr. Oldys has this moment turned into the +road from the little gate in the south meadow. Ah, he has a man with +him, a stranger; some one about the new machinery, probably, which +accounts for his being late. There, he is waving his handkerchief, so +everything is right," and Poppea waved hers in return, thus keeping up +the significant little signal that had passed between this sweet old +couple every summer evening, time out of mind. + +"A stranger," the wifely anxiety instantly merging into the hospitable +interest in a guest. "Then please ask Charlotte to add coffee and one of +what Hugh called 'her hasty hot dishes' to supper; the ham omelet will +be best. He may have come by train and had merely a sandwich at noon." + +Poppea gave the order, and on her return looked again at the pair who +had almost reached the gate. She had never before realized that Mr. +Oldys either stooped or was short of stature; in fact, he was taller +than the average, but his companion, broad-shouldered, dark, and trimly +bearded, towered over him by half a head. At the gate they paused, and +Mr. Oldys, putting his hand on the other's shoulder, leaned +affectionately on it, while the stranger lifted and waved the +wide-brimmed soft felt hat. + +It was Hugh! the forehead line told the tale to Poppea that the beard +had concealed. + +With a swift gesture that warned the pair to come slowly, dreading the +shock to Madam Oldys that might come from the unexpected, Poppea knelt +again by the chair, and putting one hand each side of the face, still +beautiful with all its delicacy, turned it toward her and whispered:-- + +"Close your eyes and think of some one you would like to see coming +across the field, then make a wish, for the fairies are about to-night." + +The lids quivered and closed, then opened, and the eyes that read +Poppea's were full of new life. + +"It is Hugh! it is my boy! All day I have felt him come nearer, closer, +but I thought it was only in spirit. Give me your hand; he must not find +me idling. See, I am stronger already;" and Madam Oldys not only stood +up, but walked toward the steps, barely leaning on the arm that Poppea +stretched out to steady her, to be grasped the next moment by a strong +pair of arms in an embrace that stifled her cry halfway and lifted her +from her feet, while as Poppea tried to slip back, she found her hand +held in the same grasp and a kiss fell squarely upon her lips. + +She did not blush then or separate the greeting in any way from the +good-by of ten months before. But later, as they gathered about the +supper table where Madam Oldys sat behind the tray, handling the chubby +tea-caddy for the first time in months, and Poppea looked at Hugh as he +attacked the "hasty hot dish" with a traveller's relish, she knew that +he was and yet was not the same. The span of the months and distance had +added immeasurably to the man, but the boy, the chum, the comrade, that +he had been even throughout his college days, had vanished, and a hot +color flushed her face up to her hair roots until she became so +conscious of it that she put her hand up as though to shade her eyes +from the light. + +Before, Hugh Oldys had been clean shaven and slender for his height; now +he was filled out without fleshiness, and a closely trimmed beard and +crisp, clearly pencilled mustache gave a new masculinity to his face +without in any way concealing the determined yet flexible lips or the +nostril curve that told of nerves high strung but perfectly under the +control of will. + +Naturally it was Hugh who talked the most, his father putting brief +questions and gazing in deep contentment at his wife, who, without +expressing a shadow of the loneliness she must have felt or even asking +Hugh why he had shortened his year by nearly three months, was reviving +and expanding; a miracle under their very eyes, like the refreshment of +a plant that, withered and famished, takes hold of life anew even at the +breath of the wind that brings rain. + +A year before, Poppea would have stayed on as a matter of course, one of +the family group, but now she felt that on this precious evening the +three should be alone together, and when Hugh went upstairs to change to +a coat more suitable to the sultry night, she whispered a few words in +Madam Oldys's ear about feeling quite rested and not being needed now +for company; then with a nod to Mr. Oldys, finger on lips, slipped +through the side hall where hung her hat and scarf, and thence through +the garden gate into the depths of the June evening, where every bush +held a flower in bud and every tree a sleeping bird. + +The Oldyses saw nothing strange in her going, for she had always come +and gone at will. Rather it was another proof of her thought of them, +this silent understanding that three was company that night; besides, a +half-mile walk alone on a street where each house kept watch over its +neighbor, was a mere nothing to a village girl. + +"Where is Poppea?" was Hugh's question on reëntering, his hands full of +the trinkets of travel that he had pulled hastily from his grip. "Gone +home? alone in the dark? why, Mother!" and dropping his burden in her +lap, he went out the low French window and sprang over the piazza rail +without turning the corner for the steps. + +Mother and father, sitting side by side, exchanged glances and a hand +pressure that revealed that they two recognized a change in Hugh, but +that they were well content in the knowledge. + +Poppea walked down the side road to the main street that passed the base +of Quality Hill before she heard the rapid footsteps behind her that +halted presently by her side. No word was spoken, but her hand was drawn +through a muscular arm and held there fast. A year ago this might have +happened without comment, but the arm was not the same, neither the hand +that rested on it. + +"What made you run away, Poppea? You never did before; that is, never +but once." + +As soon as he had completed the heedless sentence, Hugh was sorry, while +to Poppea it was as though some one had spread the last seven years of +her life before her guised in a knitted fabric, and slipping the thread, +bade her ravel it stitch by stitch to its beginning. + +"I thought you would wish to be alone with the home people," she said, +searching for her words as if they were packed away for lack of use. + +"And what are you if you are not one of the home people? what else have +you ever been to me since the day that I first saw you and for a moment +wasn't quite sure whether I wanted you or the puppy the most?" + +Poppea could not answer at once; the ground seemed unsteady. The months +of parting had broken the old shuttle and snapped the thread; what +pattern would the new loom weave that the meeting had set in motion? + +At this moment they were passing the church, and the lamp in Stephen +Latimer's study cast a path of light across the turf almost to their +feet, against which the outline of his face was silhouetted. + +"Aren't you going in to see the Latimers?" she said, forgetting that +Hugh's last question was unanswered. + +"No, not to-night; to-morrow. This hour is mine and yours, Poppea. Why +do you shiver so and draw away; you've always taken my arm?" + +"I didn't know that I was doing either, but somehow everything seems +different to-night, strange and new. Perhaps it is because I've not been +feeling quite myself for a few days. Only this morning the doctor sent +me up to the Mill House for a change." Then, in her turn, Poppea +regretted the final words. + +"And my homecoming has sent you away when you were tired, and that is +why you falter. This is a bitter thought." + +"It is not exactly that; I don't know what it is, but that I seem to +bring distress upon all those I care for," and from a rush of +half-coherent words he heard of her friendship with Philip and its +results to him, and in a partial way the danger to Oliver Gilbert. As +she talked, they had reached the post-office house gate. + +The house itself was dark, but a light shone from Gilbert's workroom. On +the side porch the ample figure of Mrs. Shandy rocked to and fro, +fanning vigorously. + +As Poppea turned toward the steps, almost stumbling in her fatigue, Hugh +guided her along the path to a bench by the orchard edge, an old +schoolhouse bench with a platform under foot that he had made once, +years ago, when Gilbert had chided Poppea for letting the dew spoil her +new Sunday shoes. + +"Sit here," he said; "take off your hat and let the air blow through +your hair, while I get you some water." + +How good it seemed to have some one say with authority, "do this," or +"do that," the unspoken motive being "because it is for your good." Then +she began to realize that during the last few months she and Daddy had +rather been shifting places in point of responsibility. + +She drank the water slowly and gratefully, knowing through the clear +starlight that his eyes were on her face, and as she drank she breathed +the perfume of the half-double damask roses that had long ago crept from +the garden above the parapet to make a thicket on either side the bank. + +"A little while ago you said that everything seemed different and +strange. Then both of us feel this. I had not landed on the other shore +last autumn, hardly left this even, when the wrench of parting told me +that everything was different, and would remain so. But I wanted you to +have a chance to feel it for yourself if might be, and I kept it from my +letters,--though I knew they were like wretched guide-books,--because I +dared not let myself go. + +"To-night, when I came back, hurried by Dr. Morewood's letter, and saw +the woman who gave me life clinging to my little comrade, I knew the +time had come when I must tell her that my love had changed." + +"Then can we no longer be friends?" Poppea asked faintly. "Must I lose +you, too, as I have lost Philip?" + +"Always friends, Poppea; that is the beginning. Are not Stephen Latimer +and Jeanne friends? and my father and mother also? But it must be more +than friends, everything that a man and woman may be to each other. The +change is that I love you as Latimer does Jeanne, that I want you for my +wife. + +"Is that strange to you, Poppea? or does it seem to you as it does to +me, the fulfilment?" and Hugh leaned toward her, pale and anxious, in +the starlight and holding out his arms. + +Poppea turned quickly as though she would let him take her, then +catching her breath, drew back, covering her face with her hands, while +a half-forgotten harmony forced itself on her ears, and once more the +Knight of the Grail waving farewell, with the mystic sadness on his +face, passed before her mental vision. + +"Oh, Hugh!" she moaned, "I've lost you, lost you! It isn't what I feel; +it isn't what I wish! Don't you see that I can never be any man's wife, +much less yours, who knows my whole life through, until I can give my +own name with my love?" + +"That is for me to say, and I say yes!" cried Hugh, holding her to him +as though to prove her need of protection. + +"No, it is for neither of us to say; it is something beyond ourselves. I +cannot tell why, but I know it," Poppea answered, without the tremor of +the previous moment, but with a pleading dignity that made Hugh drop his +arms. + +"Suppose that something should some day come to light, when it was too +late, that made it wrong for me to love you, we might not be able to +bear the harm of it only ourselves." Then springing up with all the +intensity of nerve and lithe motion that marked her dancing, she stood +before him, with hands clasped, beseeching. + +"Oh, Hugh, Hugh, can't you help me; won't you help me find out who I am? +for sometimes I think that Daddy knows and will not tell!" + +"And if I can, is that all that stands between us, Poppea? Look into my +face so that I can see your eyes when you answer me." + +"Oh, Hugh, be patient with me, be merciful! How can I say until I know +my name, for it may be--that I have no real right to any." + +It was so long before Hugh spoke that Poppea found herself counting her +heart-beats, so keenly was the silence borne in upon her. + +Then she said timidly: "Meanwhile, Hugh, could you--could we go on being +friends? Your mother and Daddy, what could I say to them if we didn't +speak? What should I do without you?" + +Once more he drew her toward him, this time gently, not passionately. +"It isn't an easy road that is before us, little one, but it is hardest +for you, because I must, in any event, go out to make my way. Though I +do not agree with your resolution, I do not say it is wrong. + +"I love you, man to woman; that is where I stand. You must not forget +this for a moment, as I shall not. But you must not fear that I shall +harry you. I shall not tell you this in words again until you say to me, +'I need you, Hugh.'" + +"Not even if the mystery of the name is solved?" + +"Not even then, for only under such conditions will you cease to be on +your guard, and without frankness the name of friendship would be a +farce." + +"And your mother, if she asks you--I think now she has perhaps +thought--" + +"Yes, she loves you, Poppea, as my mother should love my wife. She is +the only one who has a right to ask. I shall tell the truth, which is +that we have come to a perfect understanding. + +"One thing more, Poppea; remember _you_ are not bound." + +If he could only have known the aching loneliness that fell upon her at +these words; again she seemed to feel herself cut adrift. With a sudden +turn she clung to him, and he, lifting her face, kissed her on lips and +eyes, whispering, "To-morrow or five years hence, you need only speak or +write the four words." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE TURNING + + +When one has spent the early morning hours of a journey, in which no +steps may be retraced, in following a fairly straight and level path +through a familiar wood, hindered only by a few briers, with sheltering +trees above, pleasant vistas on every side, and in friendly company, +hope rises high and straightway trusts the path ahead. But when an +abrupt turn shows there is a steep to climb, the pathway itself becomes +confused, indefinite, treacherous, and the guiding voices have +scattered, some going one way and some another, what must one do? +Hesitate? sit down to think it out? or still walk on foot-length by +foot-length, trusting to circumstance for keeping the course that one +may not divine? + +It was at the turn of such a road as this that Poppea found herself; she +could not go back if she would, and friendly voices called in opposite +directions from her own instinct. Of one thing only she was quite sure, +she must go on without a pause lest in it she lose courage; she must +climb on her hands and knees even, if necessary. The only mistake she +made was in thinking, as we all have done at times since the days of the +self-gratulatory St. Paul enumerating his trials, that she had reached +the turning alone. + +If she had but realized it, Oliver Gilbert, near the end of his journey +and travelling in the opposite direction, was confronted by the same +sharp turn and the same barrier, that to each this bore the same +name--The Future! + +If Poppea had been pondering how she could help her Daddy and lead him +naturally toward the resigning of his office, Gilbert was conscious of a +like necessity, but this was nothing compared to the appalling +realization of Poppea's womanhood that had suddenly confronted him. + +In Gilbert's simple mind, when a girl crossed the boundary of the +twentieth year, the mating time was at hand, and each year after that +she remained unbespoken if not married, reflected in some way either +upon her good looks, disposition, or opportunities. As in all rural +districts, there were many long courtships in Newfield County lasting +from half a dozen to even a dozen years, but after the serious +intentions of the man were recognized, and the woman was spoken of as +"his intended," then the couple passed from the interest of the +match-makers into a sort of intermediate state, wherein they were both +supposed to be working for a common end and the duration of which was +considered purely their own business. + +As Oliver Gilbert looked about at the eligible male population of the +country-side, his perplexity increased; many were prosperous after their +own standards, and some were even ambitious, but which one of them was +fit to mate with Poppea? Moreover, such an idea had never seemed to +occur to any of them. The only youths, who, dressed in their best, had +come of a Saturday evening to lean on the little shelf before the window +of the beehive and cast boldly admiring glances and random and +irrelevant remarks at the postmistress, were of the verdant and +irrepressible sort that Gilbert would not have tolerated for a moment, +and that Poppea had effectually withered by giving absolutely no more +heed to their pleasantries than to the wind muttering about the windows. + +The matter that had brought Gilbert face to face with the rock behind +which lay the pathway to futurity, was a call from a prosperous +manufacturer of Bridgeton, a clean, well-built man of five and thirty, +self-made and commercially intelligent, if lacking the culture that +marks the man of real education. He had met Poppea at the church, where +she had sung for several months the previous winter, and was sincere and +outspoken in his admiration of her. + +In a straightforward way he had come to the point and, with +old-fashioned courtesy, asked Gilbert for permission to court his +daughter, stipulating that he wished no influence brought to bear upon +her, only leave to make his own way if he might. + +The whole thing was so sudden, and came from a sky so wholly cloudless, +that Gilbert had difficulty at first in keeping down a choking +resentment at the man's presumption, while, at the same time, these +feelings were checked by the realization that as the world measures, +the man who owned a well-equipped factory, and had half a hundred men on +his pay-roll, was the one who was condescending. These mixed feelings +caused Gilbert to hesitate, begin a sentence only to break it off, and +finally, flushed and perspiring, say, "I'm afraid that you don't +understand; it isn't all just what I've got to say about it nor Poppy, +either, sir." + +Then very quietly and with a good deal of dignity, this man had drawn +near to Gilbert, and, lowering his voice, said: "That's what I do +understand; I know that she isn't your own born, for I was a lad driving +for the Westboro stables the time that she came here. Fifteen years +before that, I was left the same way at Deacon Tilley's in North +Bridgeton, so there's no need of explanations between Miss Gilbert and +myself; neither will have aught to hold against the other in family +matters." + +A groan had escaped Gilbert, before he could control himself +sufficiently to say briefly that Poppea, being of age, was her own +mistress. But after the man had gone, he paced up and down the shop, his +hands working nervously, until at last big tears rolled down his cheeks, +and, sitting at his desk, head on his arms, he said aloud: "The lady +baby as good as asked in marriage by a boy left on old Tilley's steps, +and then driving teams for Beers, and nothing for either to throw at the +other! Well, why not old Gilbert's steps as well as old Tilley's? What +can I say? I _feel_ the difference, but that isn't proving it! + +"I wonder what you'd have done, if you'd been cornered this way," he +continued, looking up at the portrait of Lincoln, that hung in the same +place as on the night of Poppea's coming. But now, a well-grown ivy +plant was wreathed about it, growing from a pot that stood on the window +ledge in a spot that the sun visited daily throughout the year, showing +that a woman's affection had been added to that of the old man's +hero-worship. + +"Would you have stopped still just long enough to tell a story to make +folks laugh, and then gone straight on and walked over or out of the +trouble? Could you have done that if you'd had a more than daughter that +was too good for any man and yet a nameless man asked for her on equal +terms just because she _wasn't_ your daughter?" + +As the incoherence of his speech dawned upon him, he threw back his head +and laughed aloud, then stopped short, calmed and steady of hand, as if +there had been something almost prophetic in the sound. + +This had happened on the day of Poppea's visit to the Mill House and +Hugh Oldys's return. A week afterward, Poppea, very quietly and with +some hesitation, broached the subject of singing in New York and of its +possibilities, together with her intention of taking lessons of a famous +teacher, who had been an opera singer, was a friend of the Feltons, and +feeling the need of rest, was to spend the month of August with them on +the hill. + +Instead of the opposition that she had expected, both on the ground of +Gilbert's seeing neither the necessity of self-support nor of her +partial separation from him, he not only gave a cheerful assent, but a +look as of a weight having been lifted from him crossed his face, and he +broke into what was for him voluble conversation about the virtue of +having something to do and doing it "up brown"; for this move of +Poppea's told the old man what he most wished to know, that either the +Bridgeton admirer had altered his intentions or been repulsed. + +Then drawing from his pocket a letter that had come by the milkman and +not the post, Gilbert said: "Come to speaking of winter, Poppy, there's +something that I've had it on my mind to tell you, but I couldn't see my +way clear of it until to-day, and I didn't want to hamper you ahead. +Mrs. Shandy has set her mind on going back to the old country next fall, +as there's less and less likelihood of her seeing Philip, and she says +the living so near is only an aggravation. Now to-day comes a letter +from sister Satira Potts. She writes that 'Lisha has a chance to get the +contract for cutting all the grown chestnut timber from the Stryker +Hollow tract that lies along Moosatuck, to the west side, about twenty +miles to the north of Bridgeton. If he takes it, and it will advantage +them greatly if he does, he will have to stay in the camp all week and +only come home for Sundays, Satiry thereby being left lonesome. So the +pith of her letter is, that she's sort of feeling 'round to see if there +is any chance of her being wanted down here for the winter, as it is +handier for 'Lisha to come here from Bridgeton than to take the drive +round about home. I reckon it'll seem good to me to have sister Satiry +Potts back here. Mrs. Shandy's strong in British ways of toast and tea, +boiling green peas and mint together, and having a forceful way of +_looking_ me into a clean collar at meal times when I've chanced to lay +mine by for comfort. But for coffee and pancakes, brown bread and beans +that's cooked until they're swelled to burst, but daresn't, being +checked at just the moment, give me Satiry, who also speaks right out +about my collar and such, without ado. + +"So you see, child, that old Daddy'll be well cared for, and you'll have +a ready listener to tell all about the city doings to when you come +back; for if they fancy you down there, there'll be a great to do; most +likely you'll have flowers thrown at you; I've read about its being done +for opery singers in the paper, and if they, why not you? Though likely, +if you're singing in folks' houses, they'll hand the posies to you, +instead of throwin', as being more polite and safer for the mantel +ornaments and mottoes on the wall. + +"Oh, child, child," he continued, as, leaning over his chair in her +old-time way, Poppea had laid her soft cheek against his grizzled beard, +and at the contact the mental vision of each grew clearer, "a couple of +weeks ago, all at once, things fell into a sort of heaviness, and as +late as yesterday I couldn't seem to see the way ahead. But now I think +the corner's sort of swinging to the turning, and pretty soon we may +come to another good stretch of road, and if the Lord hasn't other +plans, mebbe he'll let me walk beside you on it for a little piece yet, +until younger company comes up that's spryer, Poppy. And when they do, +remember one thing, honey-clover, don't let old Daddy hold you +backward; step right off brisk. Daddy'll be content to stop behind, so +long as he sees you on before." + +"Don't, Daddy, don't," she whispered, putting her hand over his mouth to +stop him. "Nobody else is going to walk beside me; it's either you or +loneliness, so never speak of falling back." She did not repeat the +reason that she had given Hugh Oldys, but Gilbert quickly divined it +from the tension of her arm, and the momentary joy that he had felt was +stifled in a sigh as though self merged in super-self. + + * * * * * + +In early autumn, Hugh Oldys went to his work, and though he usually +returned for Sunday, it was not always possible. To his mother the break +seemed more complete and of a different quality than the separation +either of his college life or his travels; these had been tentative, the +last final. It was the first independent stepping out of the only one, +upon the way that leads from home, not toward it, even by an indirect +circuit. + +Almost at the same time, Philip had returned, and had taken up his work +anew at Howell's studio at Westboro. Physically, he looked much +improved; his skin was sun-browned with sometimes a dash of color, he +weighed more, and his face had gained in strength and resolution. But +when he had been at work a month with the master, Howell saw that what +he was gaining in accuracy and flexibility was more than discounted by a +total lack of inspiration. + +"Where is she? What has become of the young woman who is not a model or +to be had for the asking? Why not try the head once more from memory?" +Howell asked abruptly one day, after his pupil had worked for an entire +morning with the listless accuracy that is almost infuriating to the +real artist. + +Taken off his guard, Philip cried out:-- + +"She is dead! My father murdered her and threw the pieces out of the +window." + +For a moment Howell was startled. Then, as he looked at the face turned +toward him, proud yet quivering at a wound, he read therein a tragedy +whose underlying principles were greater than mere murder. + +"Come and tell me about it, or you will let it kill your work and you +also," he said, fastening his eyes upon Philip in compelling sympathy, +at the same time stretching out his hand with a gesture wholly +compassionate, and motioning him to follow to an inner room beyond the +studio, where strangers never entered. + +It was quite an hour before the pair returned, the master's arm resting +on Philip's shoulder. + +"Now," he said, "we will make alive again, for that is the sculptor's +trade. This is my studio, and what I tell my pupils to do, they obey if +they are able, and it is the concern of no one outside. But this time +make her joyous and not pensive, in love with life; make her look up; +part her lips as though she were about to sing; twine poppies in her +hair to carry out her name; a butterfly on her shoulder, the Greek +emblem of immortality. Then she shall live here with us, and you can +look at her when you see nothing but bone and muscles in the lump of +clay you are working." + +So Philip went to work once more, buoyed up in that some one understood +and did not scoff, and that some one was the master, who knew. But he +saw the real Poppea only once to speak to her, at Stephen Latimer's, +before the time when the Felton ladies bore her with them to New York +for her musical début, in that season of social introduction that is +crowded between Thanksgiving and Christmastide. She was cordial and the +very same when looked at from a distance, but when Philip stood before +her, he was conscious of a subtle change, a certain veiling and holding +back of self, where all had been spontaneous and freely given before, +yet, as a woman, this added distinctly to her charm. + +"Can she know about my father; is it turning her away from me?" was his +constant thought, finally to be banished by the impossibility of such a +thing being the case, for the studio walls had no ears, and violent as +John Angus was in private, Philip well knew from his summer's experience +that it was no part of his father's policy to hold up his dislikes or +grievances for the public to peck at. + +The next time that he saw Poppea it was through the doorway of a +flower-trimmed room, where she had been singing. During the intermission +a stringed quartet was playing Mendelssohn's _Songs without Words_ from +behind a screen of palms. In the circle that surrounded her, to which +she was in course of being presented by Miss Emmy, the evening gowns of +women were equally mingled with the black coats of the men, while the +figure nearest to her, holding her bouquet of Maréchal Neil roses and +ferns, was that of Bradish Winslow. + +As Philip gazed hesitant about entering alone and yet wishing to, he +stepped backward, and in so doing jostled some one who was looking over +his shoulder. Turning, he saw that it was Hugh Oldys. + +"Are you going to speak to her?" Philip asked eagerly after the first +words of greeting. + +"Yes, surely, I am only waiting for the crowd to thin a little; I think, +Philip, that she will be glad to see some home faces among all these +strangers." + +As they waited, Caleb came through the wide hall with an envelope in his +hand, peering anxiously into every masculine face. When he caught sight +of Hugh, he drew close to him, standing on tiptoe the better to reach +his ear. + +"This here's a telegraph despatch fo' you, Marsa Hugh, and de boy what +brings it says it's a 'mergency and wants to be opened spry. Doan yo' +want to step in the little 'ception room and circumnavigate it private +like? Dem 'mergency despatches is terrible unsettlin', sah!" + +Hugh seized the envelope, opening it with a nervous twist as he crossed +the hall to the room indicated by Caleb where there was a drop-light, +Philip following close. + + "Your father has had a serious accident. Your mother unstrung. Bring + up MacLane or Grahammond, to-night, if possible. STEPHEN LATIMER." + +Hugh dropped into a chair, and spreading the paper on the table, read +it a second time, motioning Philip to do likewise. + +"MacLane and Grahammond are both brain specialists, I think; it must be +that the accident is to his head. I wonder where they live," he said, +half to himself and half aloud. Then turning to Caleb, who stood at a +respectful distance, the embodiment of discreet curiosity, he asked him +if there was a city directory in the house. + +"Not jest that big ornery volume what dey keeps in drug stores, Marsa +Hugh, but Miss Emmy, she's got de little Blue Book on her desk, what +records all de quality, sah, and guarantees 'em true, and I'll fotch it +right away." + +Hugh jotted the two addresses on a card, then rising, shook himself as +though to be sure he was awake. At this moment the tones of a clear +mezzo-soprano voice floated across the hall. + + "What's this dull town to me? Robin's not here!" + +Poppea was singing _Robin Adair_. Hugh listened until the verse was +ended, his face white and drawn with contending emotions. Then turning +abruptly to Philip and reading both comprehension and sympathy in his +glance, he said abruptly:-- + +"Tell her that I've been here, but was called away by bad news from +home. No--not that, it might spoil her evening. Only say that I could +not wait," and taking his hat and coat that Caleb was holding, he went +out. + +By the time Poppea had answered the last encore that her strength would +allow, a Creole folk-song ending in the minor key, Philip had made his +way through the throng that surrounded the girl, who was radiant with a +success that must appeal to her artistic sense, if her natural woman's +love of approbation was in the background. When she saw Philip, her +whole expression changed and softened, while the lips that had been +parted in laughing repartee drooped to wistfulness. + +Bradish Winslow, who still kept his post, noticed the change at once, +and, following her eyes for the cause, was surprised at his own feeling +of relief upon discovering Philip. + +Poppea came forward and, refraining from putting her hand upon his +shoulder in the old way that marked his boyishness, greeted him as she +would any other young fellow of nineteen, drawing him into a little +group back of the long piano where he saw Miss Emmy and half a dozen of +the Quality Hill colony. At the same time, he was conscious that her +eyes were looking over his head in a rapid search for something or some +one that she did not see, which reminded him of the message. + +"Hugh Oldys has been here," he said, "and was very sorry that he could +not wait to see you." + +"Then he has gone? Why could he not wait?" + +Philip, who read Poppea's moods with mercurial swiftness, was tempted to +add some words of explanation, but Winslow, hearing Poppea's question, +intervened, saying, to her ear alone:-- + +"Now you have earned a rest in cooler air where you can enjoy the +reflection of the pleasure you have given. Miss Emmy has a surprise for +you; Capoul, the most expressive emotional tenor of a decade, is coming +in from the opera where he is singing Wilhelm Meister in _Mignon_. You +have never heard it? Ah, there is so much music that I wish to hear +again for the first time through watching you hear it." + +The next morning Poppea slept late, owing to the fact that Nora had +slipped in and closed the shutters fast. She had intended taking the +early train for home, as three days would elapse before she was to sing +at an afternoon concert given for the benefit of a fashionable charity. + +When Nora finally judged that it was proper for the household protégée, +in whom she took no small pride, to awake, and brought her coffee and +rolls to her room, after the Feltons' winter custom, Poppea found +herself undergoing a sort of nervous reaction caused by the excitement +of the night before and the lack of air in the shuttered room. Twelve +o'clock was the next train possible, and entering the library to make +positive her going, she found Stephen Latimer standing before the fire, +while the ladies and Mr. Esterbrook sat opposite him in benumbed +silence, Miss Emmy having her handkerchief pressed to her eyes. + +Miss Felton motioned Poppea to the lounge beside her: "Mr. Latimer has +brought us dreadful news! Please tell her, Stephen." + +For a moment Poppea thought that she would suffocate; suppose that Daddy +was dead and she away! Then she found herself listening as through +rushing water to the story of how Mr. Oldys, when superintending the +placing of a heavy piece of the new machinery, had been instantly killed +by its fall. + +The mill hands, becoming demoralized in their wild rush to get a +physician, had broken the news abruptly to Madam Oldys, which at first +she did not believe. But later, when they brought her husband home and +Dr. Morewood was sitting by watching for a heart collapse, her mind, not +her body, had suddenly given way--not weakly or plaintively, but +violently, in a manner that no one who had witnessed her frailty would +have deemed possible, so that restraint was imperative. + +Hugh had been sent for the previous evening, and two specialists were +even then on their way to Harley's Mills for consultation. Latimer +himself had come down to inform Hugh's new employers, as well as to do +some friendly acts of necessity. + +"I am going home at noon," was Poppea's spoken answer to Latimer, but +between the brief words he read much besides. + +"I expected that you would, and told Oliver Gilbert so in passing," was +his reply. + +"How is Hugh?" was her first question, when after the bustle of transit +they were seated in the train with no other passengers in their +immediate vicinity. + +"Perfectly quiet, but as one stunned; his sorrow for his father is deep +enough, but his anguish at his mother's condition is heartrending." + +"Is there--do you think that there is anything I could do if I should go +there?" she faltered. + +"Not now, my child; it is a time when no friend and not even a man's +wife must come between him and his sorrow, his thoughts are only for the +eye of God. Such help as Charlotte needs below stairs is being given by +Jeanne and Satira Potts." + +"And the funeral?" + +"Will be from St. Luke's to-morrow." + +The next day Poppea and Oliver Gilbert followed with the rest, the +Feltons, Mr. Esterbrook, and half the summer colony. She only caught a +glimpse of Hugh, who, tearless, looking neither to the right or left, +seemed hewn from marble. + +How could she go back to town, Poppea thought, and wreathe her hair and +sing? If only she knew, if she could comfort Hugh in anyway; but he saw +no one but Stephen Latimer. She had set her feet on the path of +self-support and could not leave it now; there was nothing to do but +wait. + +Two weeks passed and public interest in Hugh Oldys's affairs had reached +a high pitch. Were the Mills to be abandoned? What would become of the +expectant men? Then it was whispered, though not maliciously, that Mr. +Oldys's affairs were seriously involved, and that a strong, alert man +with a keen business head would be required to save the property. + +Poppea being at home one morning within the month of Mr. Oldys's death, +Stephen Latimer came to the post-office house, and being as usual +questioned as to whether there was any improvement in Mrs. Oldys's +condition, said, almost as though he were giving a requested message.-- + +"No, there is none, nor ever likely to be; the specialists gave this as +their decision yesterday and advised that she be sent at once to a +trustworthy asylum, because the strain of her care, even if competent +nurses came between, would be too much for any one person." + +"Will Hugh let her be taken away?" asked Poppea, with dilating eyes and +hands tightly clasped. + +"No, never! He says that from now on he will, if necessary, withdraw +from everything else to care for her and keep the home intact, in case +that she comes to herself, and missing something, wonders. + +"This is not all," Latimer continued. "In order to have the money to +care for her, his father's funds being all placed in this new venture, +he must leave his profession, assume immediate control of the Mills, and +fight it out to a finish. But in this forced work lies his salvation. +When I saw him to-day, I marvelled at the new nobility of his face. +Resolution has always been its chief characteristic, now resignation is +blended with it. God grant that hope, born of the two, may presently +soften its set lines." + +That Hugh had wholly put away his need of her was the meaning that +Poppea took from Latimer's words. Then she, too, would lose herself in +work, and the next day that she went to the city to sing, she let Miss +Emmy persuade her that she owed it to her art to tarry between times and +take the lessons that Tostelli was so eager to give her. When once hard +at work, with the best music to be heard by way of relaxation, small +wonder if the days were winged to Poppea, and at times disappointment +and responsibility alike seemed the unreal things of life; she would +have been less than a woman had it been otherwise. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A PROPOSAL + + +On returning from her singing lesson in the middle of a bitter cold +January afternoon, Poppea had walked the short distance from Chickering +Hall back to the Felton house on Madison Square, so far up in the clouds +that she was quite unconscious that her feet touched the icy pavements. +For not only had Tostelli commended her improved vocalization with true +Italian fervor expressed in elaborate French, but he had praised her +first teacher, Stephen Latimer, saying: "He who has brought out +Mademoiselle's voice thus far without a scratch or strain or a falsity +has done so much that she may hope to be anything that she wills, even +an _artiste_ of the Grand Opera, after much study abroad. That she can +also act, I am ver' certain, for what she sings that she is for the +time, gay, _triste_, _pathetique_, simple _comme en enfant_, _mais +toujours naturel_, _toujours ravissante_." Then he had asked her to take +the leading part in an operetta that was to be given by his pupils +toward the end of the season in one of the ample old houses on Gramercy +Park that boasted a perfectly equipped private theatre. + +So buoyed up was she by his words that she had crossed the park, the +exquisite articulation of its crystal-covered trees still further +keeping up the illusion of fairyland wherein she was for the moment +living, and reached the steps of the house, before she realized where +she was, and that she was expected to make a round of calls with Miss +Emmy instead of going to sit by the fire and think it all out as she +desired. She had been in the company of others all day and had the need, +possessed by all those of her temperament, to be alone to realize +herself. + +"Are the ladies at home?" was her question to Caleb as he opened the +door, knowing that the day's history would be forthcoming. + +"Yes, Missy, and Mr. Esterbrook too; he doan seems to feel right peart +to-day. He didn't go to the club for his luncheon, and he isn't going to +the painter man's what's doing his picture. Miss 'Liz'beth's going out +later, but Miss Emmy's 'cided not to budge herself, and's taking her +comfort in the sitting room, where I'm to bring de tea soon's you come." + +"Good!" cried Poppea, running up to her room as swiftly as she had done +many years before when Winslow had caught her dancing. Only this time, +instead of kneeling in front of the open window for breath, she threw +off her street things, loosened her hair that had been compressed by her +hat, and slipping on a soft crimson wrapper that she and Satira Potts +had fashioned when she had been getting together what the latter +insisted upon calling her "trowsoo" for the city, went down to the +sitting room, the door of which stood hospitably open. + +The upstairs sitting room was one of the unsurpassed institutions of +the day among those who had sufficiently ample houses to allow for it. +Usually occupying the front room of the second floor, it served both as +a watch-tower of the street and a comfortable place of retreat when "not +at home," or "engaged," according to the moral veracity of the family, +was the word at the door. While there is a certain responsibility about +the coherent furnishings of all other rooms, from the music room of bare +floor and scant drapery to the library with its heavy rugs, draped +alcoves, and precise shelving--the sitting room may take tribute from +all others. A small upright piano, an open case of books, a table +serving both for writing and a comfortable litter of magazines, deep +nestlike chairs and a lounge that invites impromptu sleep without the +ceremonious disrobing suggested by a bedroom, a joyful canary or two, +and a shelf of blooming plants in the sunniest window complete the +setting. + +The modern living room is undoubtedly grandchild of the sitting room +that abdicated in its favor a quarter of a century ago, owing to an +increasing contraction in house room. For the living room in ordinary +houses is more often a combination of library, drawing and dining room, +than a separate bit of luxury; also it is usually on the first floor, +and therefore below the range of safety for flowing hair, kimonos, +slippers, and pajamas. + +When Poppea entered the Feltons' sitting room and saw Miss Emmy in one +of the deep chairs, released from stays and elaborate hair-dress, +actually sitting on her feet in curled-up comfort, while she petted Diva +the great fox-gray Angora, so-called from the vocal quality of her +purr,--whose wonderful fur enveloped her mistress like a lap robe,--she +knew that Miss Elizabeth had already gone out and she felt a sudden +relaxation and rush of comfort that brought tears of pleasure very near +to her eyes. + +"Ring for the tea, child, and then we can shut the door and be by +ourselves," said Miss Emmy, keeping her eyes fixed on the fire. + +When Caleb had brought in and lighted the kettle lamp and put another +lump of the unctuous Liverpool coal upon the fire, Poppea seated herself +on the tiger rug by Miss Emmy's chair and fed bits of Sally Lunn cake to +the cat while she waited for the elder woman to speak of the something +that lay behind her eager, restless expression. + +"Tell me about your day," said Miss Emmy, abruptly. + +Poppea began with her call at Mrs. Hewlett's, that the songs for her +afternoon musical of the next week might be chosen. In addition to the +list of old English ballads, Mrs. Hewlett had asked if she knew any +darky songs, and finding that she did, suggested that she make a +separate specialty of these as novelty was a _must be_ in social +entertaining. Then Gloria Hooper had taken her home to luncheon almost +forcibly, and there Bradish Winslow had drifted in and walked with her +over to Chickering Hall. Tostelli's comments and the hopes that were +aroused in her rounded out the narrative, while she waited, hands +clasped about her knees and her eyes gazing into Miss Emmy's, for her +judgment upon the matter. + +"You are beginning, Poppea. Every one is very nice to you, as they +should be, and New York seems to you the promised land; so it seemed to +me thirty-five years ago. This singing, half socially, half +professionally, is very pleasant while it lasts; but if, when the winter +is over, you've made up your mind that you are going to let music hold +the first place, then you must go on,--go abroad and study with the +concert stage, if not opera, for the goal." + +"Oh, Aunty, Aunty, you fly too fast!" Poppea cried. "Daddy is first, +though music fills up all the gaps and fits in between times and people, +and is letting me earn enough to save and help Daddy when he shall need +it. I am not even dreaming of opera, and 'abroad' is such a far-away +place. Why can't I stay where I am for at least a half a dozen years?" + +"Why? because they won't let you;" then as if she feared by the look of +pained wonder on Poppea's face that she had gone too far in the rather +bitter mood that was upon her, she laughed lightly. + +"There, there, you mustn't mind my nonsense, but I'm in a state of +rebellion myself to-day, and so wish every one else to be likewise. I've +just told sister Elizabeth that I will go on no more of the +wild-goose-chase performances known as 'making formal calls,' and that +after the dinners and other entertainments that are already afoot +between now and March are over, I shall withdraw from what is known as +'society'; not from my real friends, mind you, but merely from the +tyranny of the thing that should be called the 'Institution for +Amusement at the expense of one's own and one's neighbors' Comfort.' If +Elizabeth wishes to continue, she must, to use a card phrase, 'go it +alone.' + +"I am going abroad in the early spring, and when I return, I mean to +spend most of my time at Westboro, and see if Jeanne and Stephen Latimer +between them cannot find some work for my hands and brain that will keep +my heart from either freezing or turning wholly to stone," and Miss Emmy +broke off and held up Diva before her face in a vain effort to suppress +a dry sob that made her voice tremble. + +"Why, Miss Emmy, I have always thought that you loved New York and all +the people with whom you have lived so many years,--the art galleries, +theatres, music, shops, and all the rest. Don't you remember what you +said to me about it last autumn when you urged me to come down and try +my luck? That no American has lived or is fit to judge how or where they +will spend their lives until they have seen and known New York," and +Poppea arose to her knees in front of her admonisher, an expression of +incredulity on her upturned face, and her hands clasped in a +half-beseeching, half-defensive attitude. + +"Yes, I believe I did say that among other things, and it is true none +the less because, after having tried it for the best of my life, I have +decided to leave it before it leaves me. The New York that I knew is +passing in more senses than one. When I first came to it, making the +journey from Boston by boat, Washington Square was the north side of the +residential city limit, the present corners of Fourteenth Street and +Fifth Avenue cow pastures. There were many charming country houses all +through the northern part of the Island and more especially near the +Hudson, Bradish Winslow's grandfather, on the maternal side, living in +one of them. We ourselves went to visit at the Waddell mansion set on +the edge of a farm with its wheat fields near what is now the corner of +Fifth Avenue and Thirty-seventh Street, the site of a church, a crowded +city in itself and this was less than forty years ago. Young as you are, +you can see the changes that seven or eight years have made, Poppea." + +"Yes, I remember the fire-bell that pealed out numbers, and people +looked in little books that they kept in their pockets to see in what +district the fire was. Nora used to take me to a place down in +Fourteenth Street where I fed goats and chickens through the fence, and +there was a house on Broadway a little above Union Square that stood in +a high-fenced garden where we used to feed the peacocks. + +"But now the streets seem so much gayer and better lighted at night, and +then it is easier to get about; there are so many street-cars instead of +the slow, jolting busses, and the elevated railroad over there on Sixth +Avenue is almost like flying. Though I'm very sorry there is to be a new +opera-house so far uptown in the place of the dear old Academy, for I +suppose the first of a thing must always seem the best because it is the +first," and Poppea's first night at the opera again came before her, but +this time there was more pleasure than pain in the memory. + +Was it possible that she had been too sensitive? The people by whom she +was surrounded seemed to make her one of themselves without question, +and yet, coming from Quality Hill as many of them did, they must all +know. + +"It is not simply the growth of the city that appals me," she heard Miss +Emmy's voice say as if from a distance. "Formerly, society was one; you +knew your friends well, their houses and their coachmen in the distance. +We who entertained did it to give our friends pleasure to the best of +our ability. Now people are beginning to entertain to outvie, and this +bidding for guests and the game of chance, where the victory is to the +purse if it is only used with a certain degree of discretion, is drawing +strangers to our social midst, and presto, society is no longer one but +many, and we shall soon be driven by the crowd from our houses to +entertain in hotels. + +"Look at this!" and Miss Emmy tossed a couple of cards into Poppea's +lap. One was the ordinary engraved card of a formal afternoon reception +announcing that Mrs. John Sellers and the Misses Sellers would be at +home on January the twenty-fourth, from four to seven. The second card +bore simply the name of Mrs. M. E. Wilson, the address on both cards +being the same. + +"I do not see anything amiss about these cards," said Poppea, examining +them carefully. + +"Not in the cards, but in the facts back of them. Maria Wilson, one of +the best known of the old set, has a large house, well furnished, but +her husband's means have been decreasing ever since the Tweed Ring panic +ten years ago. The Sellers are from Minneapolis, rich, ambitious, and +their daughters decently educated, but as a family in a social sense +positively unknown. Maria Wilson has rented them her house for the +winter, herself included, for an enormous price. It is at their +reception in her house where she is to stand sponsor for them, and if it +is a success, it shows that society in New York is no longer able to +stand upon its own resources. It is the entering wedge, for as soon as +we cease to know personally those we invite, one must have police in +dress suits to see that the strangers that come do not steal the +spoons." + +"How do you know all this, Aunty dear?" asked Poppea, a bewildered +expression crossing her face as she began to wonder if the social fabric +could possibly be woven of other than the silk and fair colors in which +it presented itself to her. + +"Know? Maria Wilson came here to luncheon to-day and not only told me +the scheme, but asked me to receive at _her_ reception (as she called +it) and bring you to sing 'in a perfectly friendly way,' which, of +course, means without pay. I'm quite through with it all, and then, +besides, dear child, I'm very tired; lately I only seem to breathe an +inch at a time when I'm in a close room. I must get away and be myself +for a little, even though it is a rather poor thing to be, I'm afraid. + +"Now as to this trip abroad--I want to see England in May and then go to +the continent for two months, and you must go with me, Poppea." + +"You want me? But how about Miss Elizabeth and Mr. Esterbrook? Are they +not going?" + +"No, dear; I have struck at last. It is late in the day, I allow, but +once before my eyes close I must see through them without benefit of the +spectacles of other opinions. Besides, poor Willy is losing his hold +upon things. Even Elizabeth has agreed that we must put our affairs at +Harley's Mills into the hands of Hugh Oldys, and Mr. Cragin, our lawyer +here, has practically all the responsibility at this end. Poppea child, +whatever you do or do not do in this world, do not put off living your +life to the full every day that it is possible. To-morrow is a good word +for hope to know, but remember that it is a bad word for a woman's heart +to feed upon. Will you go with me, dear?" + +Poppea was looking into the fire, watching the little flock of sparks +creep up and burn a pathway through the soot. "Folks going to meeting," +Satira Pegrim had called them when she had watched the same procession, +born of the wood embers, in the foreroom chimney. Without looking up, +she could feel Miss Emmy's eyes upon her face and knew that the question +in them was a double one. + +"I should like to go abroad with you," she said at last, still keeping +her eyes upon the fire, "and I crave living to the full, but that it +might hurt some one else and, through them, me." + +"That is what I thought for years, and now I know that what I thought +would hurt another did not exist. You say that you would like to go. Now +the remaining question is, will you?" + +"I will try to make it yes, but between now and then something might +happen or Daddy might need me, dear Miss Emmy." + +"That will do for a beginning, child. See, the kettle has quite boiled +away and you must have fresh water." + +"De mail, ladies," said Caleb, advancing at that moment with half a +dozen letters on his salver, while at the same time they discovered that +Diva, unobserved, had finished the cake. + +Miss Emmy's mail consisted of invitations, while of Poppea's two letters +one was from Oliver Gilbert, the other from Hugh Oldys. + +Gilbert wrote carefully and in detail of every village happening, how +that it was proposed, through the influence of the Quality Hill people +who did not like the prosaic name of the old town, to unite Westboro and +Harley's Mills into a single town to be known as West Harbor. In this +case the Westboro post-office would be consolidated with his, and he +thought, under the circumstances, with the double work, he would be +justified in resigning "his charge." What did Poppea think of it? Then +he dwelt upon Hugh Oldys's kindness in coming frequently to see them and +supping at the post-office house on Sunday nights. But he did not add +that Hugh had cross-questioned him most keenly and persistently about +any possible ideas that he might entertain about Poppea's origin, and +had quietly told him that sooner or later he should find it out, thus +putting Gilbert into something akin to rage; for, blindly enough, the +one dread of his life was that some one should appear to claim the lady +baby. + +For the moment Poppea was divided. Was this change, by any chance, +another scheme of John Angus's to oust her Daddy, or was it a +providential happening to render it easy for Gilbert to retire? Being +optimistic under all her trials, she decided upon the latter and turned +to the other letter. + +Hugh wrote in a subdued rather than in a sad key and, without reference +to the interim, picked up their friendship as it was before the night of +his return when the fabric began to change its weave and pattern. That +he felt the need of her old-time letters and direct companionship he did +not hesitate to say, at the same time taking it for granted that his +would be a comfort to her. He told her freely of his daily routine of +life and asked for hers in such a frank way, free alike from either +restraint or curiosity, that the comrade emerged once more, and she +resolved again to write him the weekly letter of his college days. + +Ah, what a boy he seemed, however much his manhood had been tried and +developed in the last few months, compared to the men who crowded about +her at the musicals, lavish in words of praise, personal compliments, +and gifts of flowers. To be sure, they all seemed a part of the play +world in which she was living--all but Bradish Winslow, and as he in a +sense had stepped accidentally into her life in its own home +surroundings, so he seemed in a way to belong to it. + +"A polished man of the world" was Miss Felton's favorite expression +concerning him; yet knowing this as she did, there was something about +Winslow's personality, his deference, at once soothing and stimulating, +that when she was with him made it the most natural and desirable place +for her to be; but when he was absent, the condition was altered, and +she not only wondered at a certain influence that he held over her, but +experienced a sharp sense of repulsion at it. + +It was the last of March when the rehearsals for the operetta drew to a +close. The performance would be given in Easter week. Two large houses +were to be thrown together for the occasion,--one for the musical part +of the affair, the other for the cotillon and supper following, the two +being joined by a covered passage between the gardens in the rear. + +Poppea's character in the rather fantastic performance was that of a +young girl of the pastoral type, who for a part of the play personated +an actress, and for this scene, in which there was a dance, she was to +utilize the green muslin Perdita gown of her first appearance at Quality +Hill. Of course at this season the poppies must be artificial and more +abundant for stage effect, and after many protestations she was told +that she simply _must_ have her eyes pencilled and a dash of color added +to her cheeks to guard against nervous pallor. + +When the night came, Mr. Esterbrook was not well, and Miss Felton, for +some accountable reason, in no mood for going out, so that Miss Emmy and +Poppea went to the Hoopers' alone in the depths of the last new carriage +which, as though to carry out Miss Emmy's announcement that her days for +light blue and pink were over, was lined with rich wine-colored cloth. + +Poppea hardly knew whether she wished most to go or to run away, but by +the time that she stood behind the dark green plush curtain peeping at +the audience from between its folds, the desire for achievement had come +to her, and she was ready to stay and conquer. Very lovely were the +young society girls of the chorus arrayed as shepherdesses; +unembarrassed and statuesque was the contralto of the piece, Gloria +Hooper, otherwise Daphnis, the lover, a superb brunette and daughter of +the house; but for the time the sense of the music dominated her; she +was no longer Poppea of the Post-office in whose way stood many fears, +but Sylvaine of the Invincible Charm, whom she was personating. + +Among the familiar faces in the audience, Philip's and Bradish Winslow's +were the only ones that her memory retained as the orchestra finished +the tinkling overture, full of the piping of shepherds, the sound of +cow-bells, and the tripping of dancing feet, and the curtain was drawn +aside. Then in a moment all faces vanished but that of Tostelli, who was +conducting from under the shelter of a thick palm in a tub. He had faith +in her, nor was it misplaced. + +After the first act there was a storm of applause and flowers. In coming +forward to bow, hand in hand with Gloria, her eyes fell upon a figure +standing behind the last row of chairs. It was John Angus, who had +evidently come without knowledge that Poppea was taking part, for the +expression of his face was so blended of surprise, incredulity, anger, +and something else akin to dread, which she could not formulate, that +she was obliged to close her eyes for a second to blot it out, and then +fortunately Sylvaine again absorbed her. + +It was toward the end of the last act that the dance came, and as the +time changed for it, something compelled Poppea, she abandoned the set +steps she had been taught and improvised until the measure ended. Then +the final storm of applause descended upon her. "Brava! brava!" Tostelli +cried. Coming from under his bush, he first shook her by both hands and +then kissed them publicly, saying for her ear alone, "For you the grand +opera is near--very near!" + +Still the applause continued. Tostelli looked at her to see if she could +stand a repetition of the intricate song of the rather artificial scene, +but she shook her head. The revulsion had come; she was no longer +Sylvaine but herself, alone and among strangers but for the face of +Philip, whose eyes hung on her own. + +Stretching out one arm as though to enjoin silence, she stepped forward, +her eyes seeing above and beyond. Then the clear legato notes of _Robin +Adair_ rang forth. + + "What's this dull town to me? Robin's not here!" + +The effect of this sudden transition was marvellous, tears filled eyes +to which they were strangers, and for no reason that their owners could +understand. + +Then Poppea, as soon as she could break away, her arms laden with +flowers, looked for Miss Emmy, her one desire being to get home and be +alone. But Winslow, who was her shadow for the time, told her that Miss +Emmy had heard through some one who had come in from the club, where Dr. +Markam, the Feltons' physician, happened to be spending the evening when +sent for, that Mr. Esterbrook had been taken suddenly ill. Miss Emmy had +at once returned, and would send Nora back in the carriage for Poppea +as soon as possible. + +"Is there any quiet spot where I can wait?" begged Poppea; "I'm so +tired." + +"Yes, at the end of the hall there are chairs among those palms; go +there, and I will bring you some supper, for I'm sure that you are +hungry quite as much as tired." + +For a few moments Poppea waited at the place indicated, then the cooler +air of the improvised passage, which was quite empty, tempted her, and +crowding herself behind one of the curtains with which it was draped, +she found an opening through which she could breathe the air of the +first truly spring night. + +Approaching voices sounded that she recognized as belonging to the three +women who, aside from the Misses Felton, had done the most toward her +establishment--Mrs. Hewlett; her hostess Mrs. Hooper, Gloria's mother; +and a young widow, Hortense Gerard, a favorite cousin of Bradish +Winslow's. + +Fearing that they would insist upon her dancing the cotillon if she made +known her presence, Poppea remained behind the curtain, and they, +evidently in search of air also, seated themselves near by on a low +divan. Presently the sound of her own name made Poppea regret her +action, but it was already too late. + + * * * * * + +_Mrs. Hewlett._ "Well, Miss Gilbert has certainly achieved a great +success; what a social institution she has become in a few months!" + +_The Widow._ "Yes, but she will cease to be as quickly as she has +achieved; the very fact that we have admired her so much this winter is +the reason why no one will want her next." + +_Gloria's mother._ "I'm not so sure of that, Hortense; I only wish that +I could be. I'm afraid she's come to stay, or thinks she has as far as +the men are concerned; they all take her _so_ seriously. My Johnnie had +the folly to say this morning that as soon as he was a senior he should +offer himself, and you know very well that your cousin Bradish won't let +us say a word about her in his presence. Why didn't the Feltons have +better sense than to take her into their family, a less than nobody? It +puts the whole thing upon a semisocial footing: otherwise we need not +have recognized her except by the envelope with the check in it." + +_Mrs. Hewlett._ "I think you are a little hard on her, Charlotte; she's +a very sweet girl and not responsible for her origin, or rather lack of +it, though of course it would be deplorable if she should marry one of +our sons." + +_The Widow._ "_I_ think I'll put it into some rich old rascal's head to +offer to put up for her training abroad for an operatic career: she'll +surely jump at that bait. Possibly even Brad might work himself up to +that extent; in fact, I think it's a case when he would put himself out +to any degree short of matrimony, which proves her dangerous, for if +Brad will go so far, others less seasoned will go the whole ribbon. +She's probably got a lot of magnetic bad blood beneath her baby skin. +Think of her art and craft in dropping into _Robin Adair_ to-night +after that Frenchy rigmarole. Yes, she's got all the born wit of an +adventuress, and she must go before she outwits us." + +_Mrs. Hewlett._ "I had never thought of her in that light, before, but +of course it may be so, and no mother wishes her sons to--" + + * * * * * + +They go on to the ball-room. Poppea clings to the curtain for support, +her hand showing her hiding-place to Winslow, who has come through an +opposite curtain with a plate and a glass of champagne. + +"Drink this!" he said, in a voice that trembled. But Poppea shook her +head. + +"How long have you been here? Ever since those shameless fence cats +came?" + +Another motion of the head, this time in the affirmative. + +"Then you've heard every word they said?" + +"Yes," Poppea's lips managed to say. At the same time pride came to her +rescue; she raised her head and looked him in the face in a way that was +both supplication and a challenge. + +Hastily putting aside the food that he had brought, Winslow threw back +the curtain, and before she could resist, drew her into an anteroom out +of the passageway. + +"Sit down!" he commanded. Poppea dropped into a chair, but still kept +her eyes, now grown dull with despair, upon him; in fact, it seemed +impossible for her to remove them. + +"Don't look at me so, child! I should like to wring every one of their +scrawny necks; only tell me what to do, and I will do it." + +"You can do nothing," were the words formed by Poppea's dry lips, but no +sound came. + +Suddenly stepping toward her and resting one knee on the divan, he began +to speak rapidly in a voice whose vibrant tones were moderated with +difficulty. + +"I can, perhaps, do nothing alone, but _we_, we can do everything. + +"Marry me, Poppea. I love you wholly, finally, and have ever since the +night when I first met you, also on painful ground. But together we will +put away the pain, and you shall trample on those harpies that have +stuck their claws in you. As Bradish Winslow's wife your word will be +law, your position in society unassailable, and my cousin Hortense in +particular will come grovelling to you by to-morrow, afraid of what she +thinks you may know of her. + +"Come to me, child, and let me protect you once for all!" + +Poppea dragged herself slowly to her feet until her face was on a level +with his, her eyes still fastened upon him, but the dulness was gone, +and they blazed with a wild fury akin to delirium, and the color in her +cheeks outdid the rouge that had not been wiped away. + +"There is no one among them all to compare with you!" he whispered, his +voice turning hoarse; so moved was he by her wistful beauty that it +became a pain. + +She did not seem to hear the last words; her anger blazed out and +cooled, and her motions were like those of a somnambulist. She put her +hand to her head as though listening for something that she had +forgotten but yet expected, but the Knight of the Grail and his music +had deserted her. + +"Yes, I will marry you," she said in steady, monotonous voice, wholly +lacking in emotion. + +"Come then, we will go in and announce it to our hostess before the trio +may guess the good--that they have done," and he leaned forward to clasp +her to him, but as she shrank back, one arm before her face, still as +some one who walks in a dream and wards off danger, he merely drew her +hand through his arm, still grasping it. + +"Not to-night, to-morrow! please let me go home!" and at that moment a +man-servant came up to say that Miss Felton's carriage and maid were +waiting for Miss Gilbert. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +NIGHT AND MORNING + + +The picture of the night was in three panels,--that of the morning in +one. + +According to Nora, Mr. Esterbrook had suffered a shock, that indefinite +something that may mean so many things. He had been in the library and +had evidently fallen in crossing the room. Miss Felton had found him and +had sent for two or three doctors, who were now with him; she was +terribly upset, and so the woman babbled on until the house was reached. + +Three coupés were lined up before the door, and the house was lighted +from top to bottom. Poppea judged that the physicians were still in +consultation. + +The cook opened the door, explaining that Caleb was wanted upstairs, and +that Nora was to go at once to Miss Felton. + +On her way to her room Poppea passed through the sitting room and tapped +at Miss Emmy's door, which stood ajar, but there was no answer; the room +was empty, so she continued on her way. + +Turning up the light, she looked about the pretty bedroom, her eyes +lingering on each article it contained. Was it possible that only four +hours had elapsed since she had left it? Yes, the little Dresden clock +was tinkling twelve. + +Flowers from a concert of two days before filled the jars on the +mantel-shelf, then she remembered that all the tributes of that evening +had been forgotten and left behind. Philip had brought her a wicker +basket of daffodils such as later in the season starred the bank garden +below the parapet at home. She hoped that he would not know and be hurt; +as for the rest, what did it matter? + +The night was warm, yet she closed the window, and crouching before the +hearth, lit the symmetrical pile of small logs put there chiefly for +ornament. Stripping off her gay attire and dropping it in a heap on the +floor of the dressing closet, she threw a wrapper about her and again +kneeled before the fire, as though its upward motion was a spell against +the loneliness of the room. As she looked at the curling flames, her +eyes dilated, and a terror that was an absolute pain swept over her: a +strain of music had penetrated the fog that enveloped her brain; it was +the song of the Knight--the Knight of the Grail. + +"Oh, God, what have I done?" she whispered to the fire, "promised to +marry Bradish Winslow, when I have vowed that I would never marry until +_that_ is no longer a mystery. Promised to marry him, not for love, but +to trample on those who were trampling on me. It is true that when I am +with him there is something that makes me wish to stay, but when I am +alone, I want to keep away. There is no one to speak to, no one to ask; +if only I could feel Daddy's hand upon my hair to-night. Ah, little +mother, won't you ask God to help me in some way that I can feel and +understand? To-morrow it will be too late!" + +Clasping the locket to her breast, she crouched lower and lower until +her face almost touched the fire guard. The wood snapped and a live coal +fell upon the carpet. Crushing it out with her slipper, her eye fell +upon something white beside the hearthstone. Picking it up she saw that +it was Hugh's weekly letter that she had read and laid by the clock and +that a draught had wafted to her feet. Holding it between her palms, she +gradually grew calm, and as she looked at it the only recourse opened +before her: she must write to Winslow so that he would receive the +letter when he awoke. + +Going to the secretary with its litter of invitations and complimentary +social notes, she swept them to the floor with a gesture half contempt +and half full of the regret of renunciation. Then having cleared the +shelf, she began to write, slowly as a child pens its copy, giving each +letter a separate stroke and weighing its value. She had need of this +care, for before she had finished, the sheet was wet with tears. + +Quarter of one, tittered the silly little clock. Poppea knew that no +mail would be taken from the pillar at the street corner before six, but +it might be her only chance to get out unobserved. The lights in the +extension, where Mr. Esterbrook's rooms were located, were burning +brightly; now was her chance. Slipping on a long ulster, she went down +without meeting any one, threw off the night latch on the door, and +closed it behind her. Two of the cabs had gone, and the driver of the +one remaining slept upon the box. + +It was but a step to the corner and back, the only live thing that she +encountered being a long-bodied cat which seemed to separate itself from +the shadow of one pair of steps only to be swallowed by another shadow +farther on. Gaining her room once more, she put out the light and threw +herself upon the bed without undressing. + +In the room beyond, which was Miss Felton's, Miss Emmy was pacing to and +fro. The consulting physicians had gone and their own family stand-by, +Dr. Markam, was now coming from Mr. Esterbrook's quarters ushered by +Caleb, Miss Felton remaining behind. + +"Tell me the best and worst," said Miss Emmy, following the doctor down +to the sitting room. + +Dr. Markam looked at her keenly as if to gauge the quality of her +emotion, then said tersely, "The best is that he may be quickly released +by another stroke, the worst that he may live for years partly or wholly +helpless and with clouded mental faculties. Go up and try to persuade +Miss Elizabeth that it is unnecessary for her to remain. She is not used +to illness or misery. Caleb will stay to-night, and the nurse that I +shall send will be here by daylight," and after drinking the glass of +wine that Caleb offered him instinctively, he went out, thinking to +himself how little his old friend Esterbrook had, at the end of life, to +show for the elaborate trouble of his living. + +Thus bidden, Miss Emmy crept softly into the outer room of Mr. +Esterbrook's suite, then, not finding Elizabeth, she went through the +dressing closet to the inner room where a night lamp burned with the +pale rays of moonlight. + +On the bed in the corner she could see the outline of Mr. Esterbrook's +form, still as though he no longer breathed. A second look revealed a +stranger object. Kneeling by the bed in the attitude of passionate +despair, her face buried in the quilt, her hands clasping the rigid one, +was Miss Elizabeth. + +Miss Emmy could not at once take in the details; her natural supposition +was that her sister was ill or had fainted and slipped from the near-by +arm-chair. Going to her she touched her on the shoulder, and in a low +tone gave the doctor's message about the nurse and the sufficiency of +Caleb for the night. + +Suddenly Miss Felton turned, but without moving from her kneeling +posture, and her sister started back, amazed at the entire change in her +face. Haggard and worn, furrowed under the eyes and pinched at the +nostrils, it was a woman of seventy-five, not sixty-four, that looked +up, while the carefully braided hair, always so exact a coronal to the +unbending head, was loosened in a gray, dishevelled mass. Again Miss +Emmy tried to explain the doctor's words. Pulling herself to her feet +with difficulty, Miss Felton clutched her sister by one shoulder, almost +screaming in her ear. + +"I will not go! I will not have a nurse! Caleb will stay with us; Caleb +will be sufficient." Then as Miss Emmy did not move or seem to +understand, she shook her arm. + +"I am going to care for him now, because I love him, have always loved +him, and you, or else your shadow, have always stood between. If he +could have stepped out of it for a month, a week, he would have known. I +thought once that you too loved him and you were my frail little sister, +my charge, and so I repulsed him, suppressed my nature, and kept back. +But you, you called him 'Willy' and played kitten and knitting ball with +him until you tired, until it was too late. Now he will never know; but +if he lives, and I can make him comfortable, he may perhaps realize the +comfort, and through it that I love him. Now go--and leave us together +at last! And if the people talk, tell them that Miss Felton does not +care!" + +Shaken, nay, almost shattered, Miss Emmy dragged herself from the room, +clinging from chair to table like a child who creeps. Of all the +possibilities of life, this that had happened seemed the most +impossible. Elizabeth, the emotionless woman of perfect balance and +judgment! Like a condemned criminal but half conscious of what he is +accused, she groped her way along the hall. She must speak to some one, +it seemed, or lose her mind. + +Poppea had sent a message by Nora that she must be called if needed. +Surely her need was great, so she opened the girl's door and listened +before entering. + +"I am not asleep," said Poppea from the white draped bed, and raising +herself on her elbow, she lit the night lamp on the bed stand. + +"Is he--is Mr. Esterbrook any worse? Is he very sick?" + +"Yes, but being sick is not the worst," and Miss Emmy told Poppea +briefly what her sister now seemed to glory in, willing that the whole +world should know. + +Clasping her arms about the fragile creature, scarcely more than a +bundle of ribbon and lace, Poppea held her close, crying, "Poor Aunty, +dear Aunt Emmy, you are not blamable, neither did _you_ know." + +After a few minutes the girl's human sympathy relaxed the tension, and +freeing herself, Miss Emmy sat down by the bed. + +"What is it, child? You are not yourself to-night, any more than I am. +Were you not well received? Something has happened. What is it?" + +Poppea shivered as she tried to frame a sentence that should be truthful +and yet not reveal, then she said:-- + +"One day you said that I could not keep on for long singing as I had +this winter 'because they will not let you.' Every one was very kind, +but afterward--it chanced to come to me that the women on whom I counted +'will not let me' continue, as you said, so I am going home, +again--to-morrow." + +"That is not all, Poppea." + +"That is all that I shall ever say," she answered with the fixed intent +that always astonished those who for the first time realized her +capacity for firmness. + +"You do not need; I understand. I, too, am going home to the Hill, +Poppea, because they will not let me stay." + +"Oh, Aunty! Aunty!" she cried, "lie down beside me. I'm afraid, afraid +of I don't know what, as I used to be when I slept in the little hooded +cradle and Daddy came and put Mack in beside me and sat and held my +hand." + +Then peace fell gently on Miss Emmy because this young creature needed +her. + + * * * * * + +Bradish Winslow left the Hooper's as soon after Poppea as he might +without having the two departures coupled. Not for the first time in his +life had he been repelled and enraged by the absolute lack of social +sincerity on the part of the group of women who, in their day, were the +cohesive element of society. Yet he never realized the responsibility in +the matter of men of his stamp who condone nearly everything in a woman +so long as she is modish and amusing. Lighting a cigar and leaving his +top-coat open that he might feel the vigor of the night air, Winslow +strolled slowly from Gramercy Park westward to the Loiterers' Club. +Contrary to his usual gregarious habits, he made his way to one of the +least brilliantly lighted retiring-rooms, and ordering some club soda +and Scotch, a kind of whiskey that was considered a marked eccentricity +in the era of Rye and Bourbon, stretched himself on a sofa, hands behind +head, and gave himself up wholly to steadying his nerves. + +An hour later he entered his own bachelor home, a substantial and +conservative house in one of the wide streets that cross lower Fifth +Avenue, a little north of Washington Square. The house was neither his +birthplace nor the home of his childhood, but a legacy from a +great-aunt, the last of the Bradish name. It was twelve years since a +woman other than a caretaker or housemaid had lived in it; the first six +it had remained virtually closed, while during the second half of the +period, Winslow had developed the two first floors as suited the fancy +of a man who entertained elegantly and conservatively, not choosing to +establish a carousing Bohemia at too close range. If he had some or any +of the vices of his class and position, he chose to pursue them away +from his normal surroundings and at his own pace, where at any moment he +might either outdistance them or drop behind without clamor. + +Hence the house, as he entered it with his latch-key, had the subdued +and grave air of any family residence in the same quarter. Turning out +the lights in the lower rooms, he went to his personal suite on the +second floor, lighted some gas-jets in the three rooms, rang for his +man, and gave directions that he was to be wakened at half-past nine, +breakfast in his room, and would under no consideration see any one +before eleven o'clock. Then as the valet, but half awake, stumbled out, +steadying himself by the portières as he drew them to, Winslow gave a +sigh of relief, and flinging himself into a chair before the hearth, as +Poppea had done, he stirred the embers and kindled a fire that was not +for warmth but like summoning a sympathetic yet reticent friend. + +Winslow's feeling during the two hours since he had, as he considered, +rushed to Poppea's rescue was dual; he congratulated himself not a +little that for once in his life he had let himself be swayed by a +generous impulse and his own emotion. Also his curiosity was very +expectant as to the stir that would be made by the announcement of his +engagement to Poppea on the morrow and the consternation it would for +various reasons cause. He could see the pallor come to the unprotected +portion of his cousin Hortense's cheeks as she wondered if "Brad" would +ever tell that baby-faced girl how desperately she had worked to enmesh +him, and how deliberately and cleverly he had forced her to show a +trumpless hand. Then there were others, and the thoughts of them were +here and there tinged with regret. He had never been unscrupulous in his +pleasures; he had simply lived life to the full as he saw it. As he was +in a somewhat exalted and generous mood, why do things by halves? + +Going to a large mahogany secretary in the corner, he unlocked a deep +drawer that was hidden by a panel and took therefrom several bundles of +letters and some photographs; to these he added a picture from a silver +frame on the mantle, of a very charming dark woman, well-groomed and +poised, but with an air of not belonging exactly to his world. He held +the bundle to his chest a moment as he stood looking into the fire; +opening a pit in the middle of the molten coals, he cast the letters +into it, not even glancing at the superscriptions, and only separating +them sufficiently to be sure that they would ignite, sat and watched +them until they were consumed. + +From their ashes came a more natural mood. The house was at best rather +gloomy; how Poppea's coming would brighten it, and her voice echo up and +down those great rooms when she laughed; for he meant that she should +laugh and have no time for tears. The idea was very soothing; he +wondered why he had never seriously contemplated marrying before. + +Jove! but she was beautiful and unusual; he would have a miniature +painted of her in the green muslin with the poppies in her hair. Then he +would take her everywhere that people might envy him her loveliness. + +No, he would not! Formulating the thought brought a sharp revulsion. He +would take her abroad, away from the carpers and fawners alike, where +they two should be alone; for, after all contributing motives, what he +had said was true, he had loved Poppea at first sight, and as far as the +better side of his nature was concerned, he loved her finally. + +What a splendid ring he would buy her to-morrow, no to-day! a ruby held +in a setting of poppy leaves to form the flower. Ah! but she already +held the spell of oblivion over him. He liked to feel this. Of course +they would be married in a month; there was no reason for delay. The old +man Gilbert? That was easily fixed: an annuity as a parting gift from +Poppea and some tears, of course. It would be strange if she did not +show some feeling, and besides, ingratitude was one of the traits he +most detested in a woman. + +So when Winslow at last settled himself in his bed, severe almost as a +hospital cot, that stood in an alcove curtained from the luxurious room +to which it formed a sharp contrast, there was a smile on his lips, and +closing his eyes, he brought his finger-tips together, touched them +fervently, and flung a message into the dark. He well knew how to play +the lover, but it was only this night that he realized what it was to be +entirely in love with some one other than himself. + + * * * * * + +The morning, like the night, was mild, but with the chilly undercurrent +suggestive of sudden rain that divides April from May. The city, always +early to awake in some quarter, now wore its widespread spring +alertness, and the venders of plants in a cheerful burst of bloom added +their cries to the street sounds. + +Looking toward the square for a sign of color in the tree-tops, Poppea +saw a jet of water rising from the fountain that filled the air with +spray through which some birds were flitting. That the fountain was +being set in order showed that the same spring impulse was moving the +city wheels that sent all the little hillside springs rushing madly to +swell the tide of Moosatuck. How she hungered and thirsted for a sight +of it! + + * * * * * + +At half-past nine, precisely to the moment, the time that he had been +directed, Winslow's valet came in, closed the windows, drew the curtains +across the alcove, and after arranging the toilet articles in the ample +bathroom, which was also used as a dressing-closet, went out until the +bell should say that his master wished his breakfast. For accustomed to +luxury as Winslow was in externals, his primitive tastes were direct and +simple and he detested the fuss and servility of bodily service. + +When in half an hour's time, clad in a comfortable bath-gown, he lounged +into the library and rang for his coffee, picking up the letters that +were neatly piled on the desk, so quickly does the mind of man travel to +direct issues, that he was already considering the coming change of +breakfasting in one of the smaller rooms below stairs, and picturing +Poppea, gowned in some filmy draperies, flitting in like one of the +streaks of morning sunshine. As he glanced carelessly at the writing +upon the various envelopes that he might receive a clew as to which, if +any, were worth the trouble of opening on this particular morning, +Poppea's characters fixed his eye. It is true that he had previously +received but two or three brief notes from her, acknowledging flowers or +an invitation, but the writing, full of decision and so opposite from +the girl's almost poetic appearance, was of the type that is called +characteristic and became fixed in the memory. + +So she was moved to write immediately upon getting home, was his first +thought; but instead of hastily tearing the note open, he turned it +slowly and reflectively in one hand as he poured himself a cup of +coffee, then drank it deliberately, and seated himself, before releasing +the letter with a careful stroke of the paper-knife. + +He had vainly tried the whimsical experiment of judging of the contents +by the sense of touch. Everything about his connection with Poppea had +been unusual, hence its added piquancy. Why should he not expect that +its completion should be on the same plane? He almost dreaded the +finding of a gushing and honeyed first love-letter of the newly engaged +girl in her early twenties. + +He read the letter through, then rubbed his eyes, turned the paper to +the light, and read anew. In it was expressed gratitude to him coupled +with self-reproach for allowing a bitter hurt to be revenged even in +thought by the idea of marriage. There was a request for forgiveness, +not for the retracting of a promise so much as for the sense of injury +that had made the promise possible, and then the final statement that +she would never take another's name until she had one of her own to +yield. Piteous as was her agony of mind expressed, not so much in the +words used as in their haste and almost incoherence, Winslow felt +forcibly that the nature that lay beneath had its depths and measures of +pride that his world could not fathom, because it was based upon a +frankness, a fundamental _noblesse oblige_, that could neither be denied +or argued away. A princess Poppea was, though wandering from her +kingdom. + +One thing was evident through it all. She had been doubtless attracted +to him in a way, but she did not love him; her suffering, therefore, was +complicated, but not keenly direct, as more and more every moment he +felt his disappointment to be. Also the wind was taken out of any +fanciful balloon of his self-sacrifice, and it fell collapsed. + +No, she did not love him,--"By God, but she shall!" he cried, bringing +his clenched hand down on the stand with a fervor that dashed the +delicate porcelain cup and saucer to the floor in shivering fragments. +"Life's been getting a sleepy nuisance these two years. What better to +wake me up than to track her origin and find her name? Time, money, and +grip I've got, if luck will only come in and take the fourth hand! + +"What a conquest to remove her fantastic fortress and make her desire my +love at one bound!" + +This was the second time that a man had made this wish; a different man +pitched in a different key. + +This man, like the other, having made a resolution, went on his +accustomed way, which in Winslow's case was to dress with unusual care, +a dark red carnation, the prevailing flower for morning wear, in his +buttonhole. His business affairs calling him down town but three days a +week, he took a leisurely morning walk to the club, where he read the +papers and listened to other news that would never appear in print. On +some one's remarking upon the success that Miss Gilbert had achieved the +previous night, that she had left early on account of Mr. Esterbrook's +sudden illness before all the deserved congratulations had reached her, +and that those who knew her best said that not less than two men of +wealth were ready to back her for the study necessary to an operatic +career, Winslow merely looked up, apparently only mildly interested, and +observed in neutral tones:-- + +"Her voice has operatic capacity doubtless, but I should judge she +lacked the physique. By the way, what is the news of poor old +Esterbrook? A nice outlook ahead of us who grow old as bachelor +dandies, I must say." + +But what he _thought_ was, "The cats have begun to weave their cradle +for Poppea's undoing, and when they find she has gone, they will lay it +to their strategy. Damn them!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +OUT OF THE ASHES + + +Poppea's chief wonder on her return home was in finding everything +precisely as she had left it. A single winter does not witness a very +great change in place or people, but to Poppea, so much having been +crowded into those few months, it seemed as though the children of the +village should have become men and women in her absence. + +By the first of May, Miss Emmy had returned to Quality Hill. Miss Felton +had decided to remain with Mr. Esterbrook in the Madison Square house +for the present, the outlook being pleasant, though the nearness of the +doctor was her first thought. As for Mr. Esterbrook himself, he had +rallied sufficiently to be put in a wheel-chair. His right side was +paralyzed and his speech as yet well-nigh unintelligible, so that his +wants were filled mainly by the intuition of Miss Elizabeth and Caleb. + +In spite of his absence of the previous summer and a report that it was +to be repeated, John Angus had returned to Harley's Mills rather earlier +than usual, and Stephen Latimer, the only one of the people who had +received more than a casual greeting, said that he was looking ill, and +that he had virtually confessed to Latimer that the winter had been a +hard one to him, this being the first time that he had ever mentioned +his health. + +The new venture at the Mills was beginning to see daylight, for Hugh +Oldys's inexperience was offset by the loyalty of the men who surrounded +him. There was much also in connection with the growing plant that +interested Hugh in an altruistic way, and already, in cooperation with +Stephen Latimer, he was establishing relations with his employees and +their families entirely different from those obtaining in the near-by +New England factory towns. + +It was Poppea who felt herself the odd number. Within the limits of a +certain suppression of force, she had always seemed content, and her +quiet, well-directed energy had been the reverse of the restlessness +that now possessed her. She worked at everything with a feverish +intensity wholly new and very disturbing to Oliver Gilbert, whose daily +life had been unconsciously regulated by her impulse. Poppea not only +took charge of the making-up and sorting of the two heaviest mails of +the day, but had undertaken a new and gratuitous task,--the writing of +letters to the old country for those who either could not write at all +or could only pen their names and had no way of pouring out their +feelings to those they had left behind. In addition, she had announced +her intention of doing all the housework herself when Satira Potts +should leave, for although Mrs. Shandy had returned in April from her +visit home, Hugh Oldys's need of a housekeeper had taken her from the +field. + +Jeanne Latimer, who had been appealed to both by Satira Potts and Miss +Emmy as the one most likely to convince Poppea of the foolishness of +such a course, ended by indorsing the girl's resolution, for she felt +the growing tension that the others did not notice, and knew well, from +her own temperament, that only what sometimes would appear to be foolish +activity keeps the nerves elastic and from snapping. + +One day, in talking to Hugh Oldys about the life in the city, when he +had expressed, as far as he ever allowed himself to, the feeling of +being out of the midst of things after having once broken his way in, he +turned the matter quickly by saying to Poppea:-- + +"And you, how did you like the New York life? I do not mean the outside +things, the theatre, music, galleries, and shops, but the inner life +that you led of yourself?" + +As he spoke they were walking down the road from Quality Hill toward the +village and the afternoon sun was sifting through the hilltops that +gradually increased in height as Moosatuck disappeared among them,--a +slender, silvery thread unravelling toward its source. + +For a moment the girl stood looking afar off to where one hill, called +the mountain by the local youths who climbed it, arose above all the +others; presently she said, speaking as of a state of existence where in +passing through she had lost something of herself:-- + +"The life, the real life there in the city? Oh, Hugh! at first it seemed +like being on the mountain where everything is spread before one. You +are very lonely, to be sure, but still, somebody, and then suddenly you +find that you are nothing at all but the wind among the grass that falls +away as night comes!" + +And reading from what she did not say rather than from what she did, +Hugh sighed and then quickened their pace, wondering what would be the +end of it all for both of them. + +That night, or rather morning, the fire signal was given by one of the +factories on the Westboro road, to be repeated the next moment by the +whistle of the Owl Express due to pass at three, and which halted +presently, tolling its bell dismally. Instantly the male portion of the +village was in its boots and trousers and running toward the red light +at the north horizon. This was soon found to come from the railroad +station at Harley's Mills. 'Lisha Potts, who had arrived at the +post-office house with his team the previous evening to take his wife +home the next day, was among the first to reach the building which had +been set on fire at one end of the roof, presumably by a passing train. + +Breaking into the ticket-office to haul out a small safe, and such +express packages as had not been delivered, was the work of a few +moments, while some energetic villagers, with more vigor than +discretion, rushed into the attic and threw from the dormers a lot of +old lanterns, boxes, broken bits of furniture, and like rubbish already +partly on fire, that had been accumulating there ever since the station +was built and antedating the checking system. The lanterns, of course, +were shivered to atoms in transit, while the other smouldering stuff +was promptly seized by the crowd below and dumped into the little brook +that ran along the north side of the track. + +After these efforts, no attempt was made to save the building, for there +was no water-supply, or fire company other than a bucket-brigade, which +was ineffectual against the keen spring wind that was scattering the +brands over the thirsty old shingles. The burning station furnished an +hour's spectacle both for the villagers and the passengers on the Owl +Express which, being on the near track, had to wait; then shrivelled +into a cellar full of ashes crossed by a few charred beams, the fire of +which was soon changed to harmless smoke by the efforts of the +bucket-brigade. The express ceased its tooting, gave one long and two +short whistles, and proceeded on its way; while after the safe and +miscellaneous contents of the express office had been transferred to the +freight-house, the throng turned homeward to snatch a little sleep in +the couple of hours that remained before the working day began. + +'Lisha Potts was so thoroughly awake that it did not seem to him worth +while to go to bed again, especially as he wished to make an early start +for home. Satira, having also been to the fire, was in a bustling mood, +so she prepared some of her famous coffee, and the pair sat down to a +four o'clock pick-up breakfast in the kitchen of the post-office house, +with many cautions of silence interspersed with little jokes and much +chuckling that belonged to a young couple on the verge of eloping rather +than to people of sedate years who were about to take up housekeeping +once more after a winter of partial separation. + +Presently 'Lisha stood in the doorway facing the east, watching the sky +redden until the climax was reached in the coming up of the sun over +Moosatuck, while the swifts wheeling in and out of the stone chimney +behind him were making mimic thunder. He was undecided whether to begin +at once the grooming of his horses or take a stroll along the lane that +indirectly joined the two main roads and get a sniff of the mist-laden +morning air so necessary to those whose life has been of the open. + +Choosing the latter, he had gone but a dozen rods when he met the +station-master, who had come across lots with the direct intention of +hunting him out. It seemed that the mass of smouldering débris cast from +the attic into the brook had bunched together and formed an impromptu +dam, to the extent that the little stream, unusually lusty from the +spring rains, had been diverted from its course to the switch track, +where it was now busily washing the ballast from between the ties. The +station-master's errand was to see if 'Lisha would hook up and cart the +stuff about half a mile farther down the road to where a bottomless +bog-hole conveniently consumed the refuse of the community. + +Armed with a potato-digger by way of a weapon, 'Lisha was soon loading +the sodden stuff into his long wagon, which he chanced to be driving the +night before, when he had come direct from the lumber camp to the +post-office house. + +"Do you reckon there's any of this old stuff that's any good to dry +out?" he asked the station-master, who was standing on the switch track +on the lookout for the milk train. + +"Nope; there's no company property amongst it, only a lot of odds and +ends that's been up there since old Binks's day, and his widder didn't +see value in to move. That little cow-skin trunk I've never seen before; +it must have lain away in the dark pit behind the chimney; it might have +been a sort of a curiosity if it hadn't been scorched and bulged, but as +it is, better dump the whole lot and done with it." + +Not until 'Lisha was unloading the steaming and ill-smelling mass did +the box in question excite his curiosity; then dropping it to the grass, +he finished his task and swept out his wagon before waiting to examine +the trunk. + +The lock had been broken and rusted away, the strap also had +disintegrated, so that all that held it together was a loop of wire. +Jerking the top up disclosed a mass of smoking rags and a few bundles of +scorched papers. The smell of the burned hide with which it was still +partly covered nearly choked 'Lisha as he stooped to finger the +contents. He was about to gather the things together and give the trunk +a mighty toss into the swamp, when a bundle of yellow papers, swelled by +the dampness and heat, squirmed and fell apart, leaving a long envelope, +in fairly good condition, lying face upward. It was merely the sudden +movement of the papers that drew the man's eye toward them, but he +quickly went nearer for a second look, then seized upon the letter with +hands that shook so that the characters danced about like +will-o'-the-wisps before him. Yes, the address was plain enough, a +well-known name, written in a delicate, pointed hand; the sight of it +made his heart beat like a nervous woman's. Turning the letter, he saw +that the large seal on it had never been broken. + +Carefully wiping it on his coat, 'Lisha put it in his pocket and began +to stir the other papers, but very carefully, for the heat and moisture +made it very easy for a careless motion to turn the bundles into pulp. +"To whomsoever's hands these papers may fall," was written across the +wrapper of the most considerable package, while even as 'Lisha read it +moisture altered the writing so that its identity vanished in a blurred +streak. Quickly realizing that unless the papers were carefully dried +and separated their purport would be lost, he tipped the water from the +trunk and closed the lid, saying apparently to Toby the near horse, +after the fashion of a woodsman who talks to his animals:-- + +"There's suthin queer about this trunk, but as I be the hands the papers +have fallen into, I reckon I'll look into them." + +Then, as an impetus akin to an electric spark touched the mists of +conjecture that were gathering in his roomy if not systematically +ordered brain, he jumped fairly off the ground, shouting:-- + +"Great snakes! suppos'n' these here have something to do with the lady +baby! Maybe the box was meant to come along with her; those rags there +look as if they was once baby clothes. But how did them villains that +left her get her switched off from her goods, and why ain't the letter +'dressed to Oliver Gilbert instead of to--My Lord! but this here's a +dilemma with three horns, not the two-horned, ornery kind. + +"If I take 'em to Satiry, she'll be so fussed up she'll worry 'em to +bits before read; if Oliver Gilbert or Poppy gets 'em and I'm on the +wrong track, as I've nothing yet but instinct to prove that I ain't, +it'll pull her heart out with disappointment or maybe give him a stroke, +for strokes comes frequent to folks turned of seventy. If a thing's so +red-hot you can't handle it, there's folks that by nature's meant to do +it for you, and them's the doctor, the lawyer, and the parson. I reckon +in this case the parson's the best, 'cause if the Lord has let down a +bit of his wisdom, discretion, and loving-kindness in a sheet by four +corners in this neighborhood, it's fell on Stephen Latimer. + +"I'll just clip over there by the back way and leave the box and home +again before a soul's awake to spy and whisper; hey, Toby 'n Bill?" + +And the horses, accustomed to respond to his cheerful address and being +keen for breakfast, replied by a doubly shrill whinny. + +It was past six o'clock when 'Lisha drove into the yard of the Rectory. +Latimer had but then returned from the cottage colony at the Mills, +where he had given courage to a young mother on the road of shadows that +seemed doubly lonely in that she would leave her new-born son behind. + +Latimer wore the look of having himself walked in the beyond at day +dawn, and rough 'Lisha, no less than Jeanne, was struck by the +illumination of his face. + +At 'Lisha's whispered surmises concerning the contents of the trunk, he +showed no surprise, but the rapt intensity that surrounded him +increased. + +"Take it to my study," was all he said; and when Jeanne came in a few +minutes later, attracted by the sound of voices, 'Lisha had gone, and +her husband sat looking at the object on the floor, his hands clasped as +though he prayed. + +He read the question in her face, all the more beautiful to him that the +love and care of others had left their life-lines on the cheeks that +were once as round and dimpled as a baby's. Telling the bare facts, he +added: "Something was struggling to make known that this was coming, for +all last night the face of the new-born babe I christened was Poppea's +and the other face that of her mother. The day will come, Jeanne, when +there will no longer be anything unnatural about the happenings that we +call visions and miracles, because the knowledge will have come to us to +understand them." + +Then after breakfasting together in the sweet spring morning, in quiet +confidence, only separated in degree from the other couple who ate at +the post-office house before the dawn, Stephen Latimer lay down to take +some open-eyed rest before examining the trunk. When he began the work, +he cautioned Jeanne to refuse him absolutely to all callers. Then, +provided with blotters, a thin paper-knife, and warm irons, he spread a +sheet upon the study floor and raised the water-soaked lid. + +All through the morning he worked, separating and drying. At noon, when +Jeanne opened the door, he did not turn his head, and setting the tray +of luncheon where he could see it, she closed the door again without +speaking. When supper-time came and she again entered, the papers were +arranged upon his desk in tidy piles, and he was reading. He stretched +his hand out for the cup of tea she held and still kept at his task. + +It was after eight o'clock when he called her, and white and exhausted +as he looked, she saw at once that he had reached some definite +conclusion. Begging him to take at least a bowl of soup, he assented, +and then drew her to him on the seat before the open window. Holding her +hand as if the tender grasp of it would focus and harmonize his +thoughts, he sat a moment silent, as though he had lost the gift of +words. + +"Was Poppea's secret hid among those papers?" Jeanne finally asked, +unable to restrain her curiosity any longer. "And if it was, do tell me +quickly and simply who she is, and then the why of it after. You don't +realize, Stevie, what the strain of this long day has been upon a +woman." + +"It can be told quickly, but for the rest it's not a simple matter," +replied Stephen, trying with his tired brain to sort his ideas and put +them in sequence. "The papers in this trunk are various family letters, +the certificate of Poppea's birth and baptism and some of her mother's +diaries--" + +"Yes, yes! but _who_ was her mother?" cried Jeanne, the uncontrollable +impetuosity of youth returning to her, so that she rose to a kneeling +position on the window-seat and almost shook her husband, so vigorously +did she grasp his shoulder. + +"Helen Dudleigh, John Angus's first wife; she whom Gilbert calls 'the +little roseleaf.'" + +"Helen Dudleigh!" Jeanne repeated in an indrawn voice. "Then Poppea can +have no legal father, because John Angus's first wife merely left him +and there was never a divorce. Perhaps this was the reason for her +going, you know none was ever given; but no one ever dreamed that any +fault lay with her." + +"Yes, it was the reason of her going, yet no one need ever dream of +legal wrong, for John Angus himself is Poppea's father." + +Jeanne fell back, and then, after searching her husband's face and +reading there that he was speaking the unmetaphorical truth, she drew a +low chair to where she might continue to look at him and whispered:-- + +"Go on!" + +"There is much detail among those papers that belongs to Poppea alone, +but this is the brief story that I have drawn from them. + +"Over thirty years ago, John Angus was travelling on the continent when, +at the same hotel where he was stopping, he met an English artist, +Walter Dudleigh, who was staying there, both on account of his health, +and because his young daughter Helen was studying singing. + +"Dudleigh was a widower of good birth but of frail health and uncertain +means. That Angus was at once struck by the girl's delicate beauty--she +was then only eighteen--some of these letters prove, and after hearing +her sing at a fête of flowers given by the conservatory, in which she +took the part of a poppy, he proposed to her, or rather to her father +for her. The artist, knowing that he had only a short life before him +and no one with whom to leave his child, urged on the match, and as a +wedding gift to his son-in-law, painted a miniature of Helen as she had +appeared at the fête with the poppies in her hair, having the fanciful +name of Poppea engraved in the locket with the date. + +"This is, of course, the miniature that hung about Poppea's neck when +she was found. + +"Dudleigh died of hemorrhage of the lungs almost before the honeymoon +was over, leaving the girl an unexpected two thousand pounds that came +from her mother, and Angus soon after returned to this country with his +girl wife. + +"From the first she seems to have had a hard time of it. An emotional +child with an artistic temperament, thrown not only among strange people +and customs, but married to a man who always commanded and never +explained, and who considered that implicit affection, if it might be so +called, was her legal duty, a sort of commercial article that he had +bought, and nothing to be either won or kept by consideration or +tenderness. She, chilled and lonely, evidently did not make the marked +social success he desired, and his constant reproach was that she bore +him no children, for John Angus seems to have had an exaggerated idea of +the political importance of founding a family, so often held by those +of no especial ancestry. + +"Ten years wore away, and Helen Angus, still under thirty, had faded to +the timorous, trembling shadow that we knew, when one summer, the love +of youth and life taking a final flicker, in John Angus's absence she +came out of her seclusion and took part in some of the Feltons' +entertainments, and renewed her habit of going to church, which had +dropped away. At this time it chanced that Mr. Esterbrook's nephew, a +young army officer, met her, danced with her, and showed her some +courtesies, but no more than any woman might receive. Nevertheless, on +his return, Angus upbraided her for going out, and upon her maintaining +her own defence for the first time in many years, he struck her +furiously and left the house, not returning for more than a week. + +"During this period of outraged feeling and humiliation, she discovered +that at last a child was to be born to her, and resolving that John +Angus should not have it in his power to torture another human being as +he had herself, she determined to go away, leaving a letter saying that +the price of her silence concerning his treatment culminating in the +blow was that he should not try to find her. Public censure on his +private conduct was not what was desired by Angus in his prayer-meeting +and political purity pose, so he seems to have heeded her request. + +"Helen Angus went directly to the little village in Hampshire on the +Isle of Wight where she had spent her childhood and sought out Betty +Randal, a woman of fifty, who had also been her nurse and managed their +little household prior to her father's going abroad. With Betty she +arranged not only to care for her during the coming crisis, but if a +daughter should be born, to keep her as long as her little sum of money +lasted and to teach her to earn her living and thus make it possible for +her to be free from her father if she so desired on learning her +mother's story. + +"A girl was born and duly baptized Helen Dudleigh, by the rector of St. +Boniface's near Bonchurch, and the mother, worn out by contending +emotions more than disease, lived to see her daughter three months old, +and then was laid away, according to a death notice in a Hampshire +paper. This notice was in an envelope lettered by an illiterate hand and +is dated two weeks after the last record in Helen Angus's diary. That +she knew that she could not live is certain, for all the written +evidence was carefully prepared and the writing is decipherable in spite +of time and the blur of moisture. + +"One package contains Helen Angus's marriage certificate and the +certificate of Poppea's birth and baptism; another her diaries and some +letters marked, 'Not to be read by my daughter until she is either +eighteen or forced to return to her father.' And then a single thick +letter (the one that had attracted 'Lisha Potts), sealed and addressed +to John Angus, and underneath in brackets the words, 'To be delivered in +case he should dispute my daughter's paternity.'" + +As Latimer paused to wipe away the drops of sweat that stood upon his +forehead, he laid the letter on the table beside his wife and both +looked at the yellow paper and blurred writing with a feeling of awe at +the living evidence of the poor little roseleaf, wife who, beneath their +very eyes, had suffered so much in silence and then as silently gone +away to die. Hot tears trickled between the fingers that Jeanne held +before her face, but after the relief they brought, questions again +formed themselves. + +"But how did the child come here so soon and why was she left at Oliver +Gilbert's instead of the Angus house?" asked Jeanne, "and how could the +little trunk have been hidden away so long?" + +"The last question might be easily answered," said Stephen. "It was left +in the height of the excited war times when the checking of baggage was +not as rigid as it is now. In fact, merely the name of the village may +have been on the box, which was put aside until called for and presently +forgotten." + +"As to how Poppea came here, was separated from her possessions, and +left at the wrong door, there we have another and unsolved mystery that +must be learned from the man who left her, the man with the scar on his +hand." + +"Was it the wrong door after all, Stephen? Has she not been protected +and loved as her mother would have wished until she knows what love is, +even if she has suffered in a lesser way?" + +"Yes, Jeanne, in one way; but do you realize, at the same time, in what +a light she has learned to regard her father, and that a knowledge of +his unrelenting spite is almost a part of her being? In all this is her +mother justified, but how inextricably it complicates the future and +its relations to every one concerned." + +"How and when shall you tell her, Stephen? To-night?" + +"No, I am much too worn. I will write her a brief note at once, saying +that papers have come to me concerning the identity of her parents, and +asking her to come here at once. She will get the note in the morning +mail and be able to accustom herself to the contents without the effort +of speech." + +"Why do you not go to her?" + +"Because Poppea will need to be alone with her mother's papers for a +space. It would be too trying if she should hear it first amid the +confusion at the office or in the company of any one, even of Oliver +Gilbert." + +"Is it not strange, Stephen, that 'Lisha Potts, who was the first to +open the door that night, should have been the one to bring this all +about?" + +"Yes, Jeanne, more than strange; we seem to be floating in mystery. No, +I cannot sleep yet; I must let the organ speak to me. Come into the +church for a little while, dearest, and sit beside me while I play." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +DADDY! + + +Early in the afternoon of the day after the fire, as Stephen Latimer sat +writing in his study, a shadow that did not shift fell across his paper. +Glancing up, he saw Poppea, who, coming in the door behind, stood +looking at him as intently as though she would force him to yield up his +thoughts without the medium of words. Latimer, who knew that it would be +a trying interview, sought vainly to gauge her mood by the expression of +her face. When he thought, by the wistful lines of the mouth, that +tenderness was uppermost, the calm and searching look from her eyes +revealed indomitable pride, the trait of her later development. + +"Will you stay here?" he said, trying to gain time and turning Jeanne's +special low chair with its back to the bright light, "or would you +rather go down into the sitting room?" + +"Here, if you please," she replied, yet making no move toward the chair. +Then, as he sat fumbling with the papers, she took two or three steps +forward so that she could steady herself by resting her hands on the +table. + +"Please do not try to be ceremoniously polite, nor look away from me. I +know that you have something to tell me that you think I shall not like +to hear, perhaps cannot bear. Be it so, but remember you are making it +less hard by telling me yourself. Now you must speak at once, for I +think if this uncertainty lasts another hour, my heart will stop through +dread." + +Latimer stood up and faced her, moistening his lips the while, as if +trying to grip his words. + +"It is mainly good news, not bad, dear child," he said at last. "It is +the uncertainty of how best to begin coupled with fatigue of nerves that +makes me hesitate. Perhaps you would better read the papers +first"--pointing to the packages on the table. + +"Where did you get them?" + +Latimer told her as briefly as might be. + +"No, I cannot read them until I _know_; the printed words would prolong +that,--my brain is already on fire, I think. If I question, will you +answer, Mr. Latimer?" + +"Yes," and he pointed once more to the chair, feeling that he himself +had not strength to stand. + +Poppea, always alert to the needs of others, realized this and seated +herself, grasping the arms of the chair with a tension that made the +blood settle about her finger nails. + +"You know who my parents are?" + +"Yes." + +"Were they married?" + +"Yes." + +"Are they living?" + +"Your mother is not." + +"I think that I knew that; _she_ would not have left me on a doorstep. +Is the miniature in the locket my mother's portrait?" + +"Your mother at nineteen." + +"Ah, then, at least, I need not give up that idea! I have been telling +her so many things these last years that I could not let her cast me +off, and I could not leave her," Poppea murmured, looking over Latimer's +head out through the open door. + +"Would you not better read these papers now?" Latimer almost pleaded. He +had been at many death-beds, and had once walked beside a murderer to +the gallows without flinching, exalted by his calling, and able to +impart his confidence to others; now not only were his sympathies worked +to their highest pitch, but there was a complicated moral aspect about +the case that might at any moment be turned at him in a way to render +him speechless. + +"Only one more question before I touch the papers," and Poppea crossed +the room and again stood by the table facing the clergyman. + +"_Who_ was my mother?" + +Now that the moment had come, Latimer's perturbation vanished, and +rising and resting his hands also upon the table, he faced her, holding +her eyes by the firmness of his own. + +"Your mother was Helen Dudleigh, the first wife of John Angus." + +For a moment Poppea did not speak; she was communing with memory; when +she did, the voice was but an echo of her own. + +"Helen Angus, the roseleaf wife that Daddy has often told me about, who +went away alone and died far off; who stopped to speak to him at the +shop and have her watch fixed when she was leaving. I wonder if Daddy +has not dreamed of this, for he has told me of her over and over again." + +Then Poppea's wistful expression changed to one of new uncertainty. "But +how can that be, Mr. Latimer? The roseleaf wife never was divorced from +John Angus, Daddy says, and so she could not have been married to my +father. Was he mistaken, or are you?" + +"Neither of us, my child; do you not understand?" + +Putting one hand to her forehead, she thought with knitted brows, then +gave a sharp cry and started back. + +"You don't mean--you can't mean me to think that John Angus is my +father! No, God couldn't be so cruel to Daddy and to me. Anything, any +one but that man! I would rather have never known at all or have had my +mother alone and closed my eyes to all the rest." + +"Think what you say, Poppea!" + +"It is because I am thinking that I say it; I would rather for myself +alone have been born outside of what is called wedlock; it would have +been more natural and less horrible!" + +"But it is not for yourself alone, remember that. If the end lay with +ourselves and we could bear all the penalty, there would be many a law +that every one of us in our time would push aside or shatter. But we are +of the race on whom the charge is laid, _Thou shalt not!_ and when we +throw it off, the next in line, who has not felt the pressure of our +motive, bears the penalty." + +"I am the next and the end, and if I had to suffer, it would be alone." + +"Read, little one; read the papers and think awhile in quiet. Then sleep +on it; to-morrow you may feel differently." + +"To-morrow? There is no to-morrow to hate. You yourself told me years +ago that love is the only thing that owns to-morrow." + +For a moment Latimer winced, but only for a moment. + +"Yes, and love will make the to-morrow yours, the love of your brother +Philip!" + +"Philip--he? Philip, my brother! Oh, God, have mercy and forgive me. I +had not thought of him," and Poppea crouched by the table, burying her +face in her hands. + +Quietly and firmly Stephen Latimer raised her. Leading her to his chair, +he pointed again to the papers; then, saying, "Jeanne and I will be in +the room below; if you wish either of us, knock on the floor," he left +the room, closing the door behind him. + +At intervals during the afternoon there was a sound of rapid footsteps +overhead, as though Poppea was pacing the floor, but all else was +silent. It was almost supper-time when they heard steps upon the stairs, +and Poppea came slowly into the sitting room, the papers gathered into a +bundle in her arms. + +Jeanne went to her, clasped her arms about her neck and kissed her; she +then slipped out, saying she would hurry tea and that Poppea must stay +to take the meal with them. + +When Poppea, having wrapped her bundle in the light shawl she had +brought, came toward him, Latimer was again surprised at the change in +her whole bearing. Passion and tension had alike disappeared from her +face, and though she was pale and her eyelids showed traces of tears, +the eyes were clear and calm. When she spoke, there was no uncertainty +or vacillation in her tone, but a quiet resolve that seemed as though it +should have come through the experience and self-control of years +instead of a single afternoon. + +"Jeanne is very good, but I think I would best go home now; there are +several things that I must do to-night." + +"What are they, Poppea? I should think that you would need to rest first +of all. Stay with us now, and after supper we will walk home with you." + +"If you will do that, I will wait, for then you will stop and tell it +all to Daddy while I do--the other thing. Oh nothing, nothing you could +do would help more than telling Daddy, Mr. Latimer, for I think it will +be easier for him as it was for me to hear it from you. I only wish this +had not happened while he is here, now he _must_ know; yet after all, +what he _thinks_ will be the only difference it can make." + +"What is the other thing, my child, that you must do to-night?" Latimer +persisted. + +"Go up to see John Angus and show him these," and from her loose blouse +she pulled three papers, the certificate of her birth, baptism, and the +sealed letter. + +"But, Poppea, you must not do this yourself; suppose he will not listen, +does not believe, or, possibly, in his bewilderment, should say +something hard for you to bear and impossible for you to forget." + +"He has already done that more than once." + +"Be reasonable, my child; this is a matter for a lawyer, who will take +the case from its legal aspect only and see to it that your claims are +publicly maintained." + +"My mother did not have a lawyer when she went away; she made no public +claims, neither shall I." + +"Then let me go to Angus as your friend, or else Hugh Oldys, who would +be both friend and lawyer; you cannot possibly realize the position in +which you may place yourself or, for that matter, place us all, through +your suffering." + +"I do not mean to be wilful, but this that I must do to-night and what I +have to ask concerns only we three,--my mother, Philip, and myself,--so +I must go alone; a half hour will be more than enough, and there will be +no trouble. Will you not also tell Miss Emmy and Hugh? He has tried so +hard in every way to find out what this fire has made known, purely for +my sake, because he knew how much it meant to me, not that he cared. I +want him to know before any one else but Daddy, and I hope--I pray that +he will be _very_ glad," and a look crossed Poppea's face that she did +not know was there, but Latimer saw it, and his heart sank as he +replied:-- + +"In these dark days Hugh Oldys keeps both joy (of which he has little) +and sorrow to himself, as if the sharing of either might divert him from +his fixed purpose concerning his mother." + +Then Stephen Latimer ceased urging and they went to the supper table, +all three creating talk merely to avoid the strain of silence. + +It was a little past eight o'clock, the hour for closing, when Poppea +and Stephen Latimer reached the post-office; the only light other than +from the street lantern came from Oliver Gilbert's workshop. Going +softly to the farther window, Poppea looked in, beckoning Latimer to +follow her. + +Gilbert sat at his desk, with all his little relics spread before him, +the daguerreotype of Mary, a little black paper profile of Marygold, the +shoes Poppea had first worn, and various photographs of her, from one +taken at the county fair in company with Hugh Oldys, to the rather +dramatic picture by Sarony in her first concert gown. Then putting these +back into their drawer, he drew out the old ledger, read his Lincoln +letters through, touching them lovingly. After putting these also away, +he crossed the room to the work bench, lighted both lamps, and, in spite +of the sultriness of the evening, began to work, now and then glancing +first at the clock and then at the door, with a sigh. + +"I wonder of what he is thinking," said Poppea. "Please go in, Mr. +Latimer, and tell him that I am coming very soon. If I should go to him +now, even for a minute, I should stay and these papers would be burned," +and Poppea pressed her hand to her bosom as if to brace herself by the +knowledge of what she carried. + +"No, do not come with me, it is only a step up the hill and the moon is +rising." So saying, Poppea turned the corner of the post-office and went +up the hill road. + +When she reached the massive gate, she paused before she laid her hand +upon the latch, which, in all these years of proximity, she had never +before touched. It yielded easily, and she found herself walking toward +the house, guided on her way by the long beds of heavily scented +hyacinth and narcissus that outlined the path. + +A bronze lamp hung in the porch, the front door stood partly open, and +Poppea could see lights in the long hall beyond. She was surprised at +her own calmness. When she pulled the bell that jangled sharply through +the great rooms, she felt no less at ease than if she had rung at the +Feltons' door. + +The butler, who answered the summons, was the one to evince surprise, or +perhaps dismay is the apter term, for the feud as it was regarded +between the great house and the post-office was well known below stairs, +and of course mightily exaggerated in its details. + +Poppea said very quietly, "Please ask if Mr. John Angus can see Miss +Gilbert on business." + +The butler, however, wishing to take no risks, motioned Poppea to follow +him, and throwing open the door of one of the rooms on the left of the +long hall, announced in ringing tones, "Miss Gilbert to see Mr. Angus on +business!" then promptly disappeared down the corridor only to slip back +into the adjoining room where he could be a party to what was, to his +mind, an occasion where anything including murder might happen. + +As Poppea advanced into the room which was John Angus's library, he +arose slowly from one of the deep chairs in which he had been half +dozing, half reading. For a minute she thought that he had not heard her +name. + +John Angus, whatever his feelings might be, always kept up at least the +external traditions of courtesy in the ceremonious rooms of his own +house. Coming forward, but without asking her to be seated, in coldly +civil tones he asked her what he could do for her, at the same time +trying to gain an advantage by guessing her errand. Had she, possibly, +laid to him the scheme of consolidating the two post-offices under a new +name? Was she come to either beg or offer quarter in the shape of the +original bit of land he coveted? Or, the feeling of apprehension that +had come over him the night that he had seen her personate Sylvaine +returned with redoubled force, but he pushed it aside as being too +improbable. + +Seeing that she was looking at him fixedly and did not reply, he +repeated the question, motioning carelessly to a chair as he did so. + +Poppea remained standing, and drawing two of the papers from her dress, +she held them towards him, saying, "Read those." + +There was no insolence in her words or manner, but there was that +quality in her that precluded any idea of refusal. Without even feeling +surprised, he took the papers and carrying them to his reading lamp, +unfolded them deliberately. + +The minutes passed slowly; when perhaps five had elapsed, he turned an +ashy face toward Poppea, and asked curtly:-- + +"Where did you obtain these papers, and how long have you had them?" + +Poppea answered with equal brevity, then there was another pause. + +"Have you any other proof of this claim that you are making?" Angus +asked, his hand shaking so that he laid the papers on the table with +difficulty. + +"I am making no claim for myself; I am merely acting for my mother," she +replied, never taking her eyes from his face. "As to further proof, I +have this letter that my mother left for you, should you raise the +question." + +Angus took the letter in his hand, saw the address in the characteristic +writing of his first wife, and the words below in the corner. Crushing +the envelope in an effort not to drop it, he said quickly:-- + +"I did not say that I disputed your claim to be the daughter of Helen +Dudleigh, for you resemble her very closely, now that I see you for the +first time face to face." + +"Ah! you see it then; was that why you left the room so suddenly the +night that I sang in the dress of the miniature?" + +"Yes, it was," replied Angus, amazed at his direct answer, yet unable to +hold it back. + +"If it is not that but the other part that is in dispute, then you +_must_ read the letter!" + +John Angus looked at her, then at the envelope, an angry flash in his +eyes, the color surging back to his face until it was suffused with a +deep, veiny red. + +"And if I do not choose to read it? if I prefer to set a match to it, +instead of troubling myself with what might be the clever scheme of +an--" here Angus paused as though he were conscious of being swept +farther than he cared or dared to go. + +"Adventuress," said Poppea, "the same name that you gave me a year ago +in your complaint to the government about the post-office." Angus's eyes +dropped before the unexpected accusation, and Poppea continued:-- + +"You are perfectly at liberty to burn the letter, but you will not until +you have read it, because you are more anxious to know its contents than +to justify my mother or me." + +It is always the unexpected that subdues a man of John Angus's fibre, +who lives by carefully made and guarded plans and prides himself on the +fact of never changing his mind, and Poppea's quiet persistence, void of +either impertinence, threat, or beseeching, was the last thing he had +ever dreamed of encountering. Slowly he broke open the seal and +envelope, having some difficulty in unfolding the single sheet that it +contained, as the moistened ink had become sticky and in drying had left +an offset that made the letter difficult to decipher. As he read he +turned toward the light and Poppea could not see his face, but after he +had refolded the paper and put it in his pocket, he continued sitting in +the same position until, the silence becoming more than she could bear, +she closed her eyes and tried to call up the picture of Daddy poring +over his little relics at his desk in the shop, to give her relief. + +When a slight noise caused her to open them, Angus was standing before +her, his breath coming spasmodically, the drawn look having again driven +the color from his face. + +"What do you wish?" he asked abruptly. Poppea knew then that a more +complete verbal explanation was unnecessary. In that brief sentence and +its intonation lay the acknowledgment that she sought, while, at the +same time, her comprehension of his moods, in spite of her dislike of +the man, proved the bond of fundamental relationship. + +"What do you wish?" he repeated. + +"That you shall tell Philip what I _am_ as decidedly as you once told +him--what I was _not_." + +If it had been possible for Angus to be abashed, one might have said +that he was so now. In the suddenness of it all this phase had not +occurred to him, but his dominant will soon overcame what he put down to +the momentary physical weakness that had overcome him many times during +the past year, and he said, with his old air of conferring a favor:-- + +"I will explain to my son to-morrow. I mean when do you wish to come--" +(he was about to say home, and then the hollowness of the term even to +his comprehension changed the words) "up here to live?" + +Ignoring the second part of the sentence wholly, Poppea repeated:-- + +"Philip must know now, to-night. Suppose for one of the three to-morrow +should not come? I hear him on the stairs. Will you not call him in?" + +There was something in Poppea's suppressed passion that froze John Angus +and caused his faculties to work more slowly than their wont. As he +hesitated, trying to frame some moderate and dignified phrase, Poppea, +unable to stand the strain of being alone with him any longer, finding +her self-control vanishing and rash words pressing at her very lips, +called:-- + +"Philip, Philip, come here to the library--It is I--Poppea!" + +The slow steps quickened at the unexpected cry, and pushing the +door open so vigorously that it crashed back against a piece of +furniture, Philip came in--glanced at Poppea and his father both +standing--remembered the latter's fury on the day that he had broken the +plaster bust. Straightway going to Poppea, he threw one arm about her, +and then turning, said:-- + +"What are you saying to her, Father? Why did she call me as if she were +afraid?" + +With the air of one to whom Philip's coming was at precisely the desired +moment, Angus replied, "She called you that I might tell you that she is +your half-sister, Philip; the daughter of my first wife." + +All at once Poppea was kneeling beside Philip, her arms tight about him, +whispering, "I called you because I need you, shall always need you to +help me to bear this." + +Looking down into her upturned face, an almost holy light came into +Philip's eyes as he repeated softly, "Sister? You are my sister? Then +that is what it means that I have been feeling for you all these years. +Oh, sister! _I_ need _you_; I have always needed you to help me bear to +_live_." In that young face with all its artistic capacity for intense +joy as well as suffering there was stamped already the knowledge that in +such affection alone could he find place, that the barrier of his +infirmity stood forever between him and the other love of woman. + +As they spoke thus together John Angus waited for a moment, considering +them critically. Noticing the little blemish on Poppea's ear, he +involuntarily raised his hand to his own ear bearing the same mark. + +Poppea had all the first fresh beauty of his wife Helen, that after the +days of courtship he had thought to possess forever by mere force of +will and legal right; but in Poppea he saw much of the strength of his +own resolution with this, to him, incomprehensible cross,--Poppea knew +what love meant, but Angus understood only the power of ambition and +authority. There she was, his daughter, yet only the unwilling kin of +flesh, always to be a stranger in spirit. Then as he saw that the two +had forgotten his presence, he left the room to seek his own chamber and +pace up and down in a half-physical attempt to readjust himself to the +circumstances that had overtaken him. + +After all, he argued, thanks to the Feltons, his daughter was an +accomplished woman with many friends. At last he would have some one to +make his house a social centre, and probably she would after a time +make a brilliant marriage. He had heard that Bradish Winslow had +admired her--there would now be no reason on his part why he might not +follow the game to a suitable finish. Toward Oliver Gilbert, however, +his old-time resentment, instead of diminishing, was increased. How was +it that this humble man always managed to come between? How utterly +abominable to be obliged to assume an attitude of obligation! + +Had his wife Helen directed in the case of her death that the child be +left with Gilbert as a sort of spite to himself? Or was it a mistake and +the intention been to leave her at his house on Windy Hill? + +In either case he held Gilbert to blame, for he, in his comparative +poverty, had supported the child and naturally (from Angus's standpoint) +would expect recompense, while the very act had deprived Angus of +rearing his own child. In this way he worked himself into a commendable +fit of righteous indignation, entirely forgetting that had Poppea been +left at his door, without the subsequent evidence, he would have been +the first, on principle, to have sent her to the town farm. + + * * * * * + +As Poppea made her way up the hill, Stephen Latimer opened the door of +Oliver Gilbert's workshop. Gilbert put down the bit of work at which he +had been tinkering, and leaning back, hands behind head, prepared to +enjoy a comfortable dish of talk with the dominie, who could always move +satisfactorily from books and the political outlook to farming and +local news, without either exertion to himself or condescension toward +the listener, and then, first and last, he was always ready to speak of +Poppea. + +After delivering the girl's message that she would soon return, the +consolidation of the two towns under the name of West Harbor, now +practically an accomplished fact, was discussed, then the burning of the +railway station naturally followed. + +"Has 'Lisha Potts been in to-day?" Latimer inquired. + +"No, but he'll be down to-morrow; Satiry insists that she's coming to +bake us up once a week or so. Poppy don't want it, but I must look to it +she don't overdo her strength; you see she isn't in body one of our +hard-working race, Mr. Latimer. I sort of think her mother was a rather +delicate woman." + +With this for the entering wedge, Mr. Latimer saw his way to going +farther. + +"Then you have some idea about her mother? I have thought this for some +time. I have an idea also, more than an idea; suppose we compare them," +and he told briefly of the trunk of papers and 'Lisha finding them. + +Instantly Gilbert's bent shoulders straightened, new life came to his +eyes; leaning forward he sat in an attitude of such expectant certainty +of what he was to hear that Latimer could not help smiling as he said, +"Poppea's mother was--" + +"Helen Angus, little Roseleaf, wife of that man who drove her to do what +she did!" broke in Gilbert, unable to hold his conviction any longer. +"No one who knew her could blame her,--I, who know what Angus is and +was, least of all. Young Esterbrook was a dashing, taking blade, like +many an army man, not steady like his uncle. I kept track of him for +years one way or another; he never married, and was killed in Indian +warfare near Cheyenne, so he would never have turned up; and yet, of +course before the world this will be a blight upon Poppea. I wish 'Lisha +Potts had dropped the papers in the bog; I wish to God he had, Mr. +Latimer! Could you find it right in your conscience to burn the papers +and let the past be buried? Need _she_ know?" + +"She knows already, Gilbert." + +The old man groaned and struck his clenched hand on the table. "Ah, +well," he said, "that takes it from my hands and the temptation with it, +but it's hard, right hard, to feel, link by link, that my power to +protect her from trouble is going. But," as an idea made him brighten +again, "she can keep my name, can't she, dominie? It's hers, isn't it, +by law?" + +"Yes, Gilbert, it is hers for good unless she chooses to renounce it," +Latimer replied fervently. "But stop a minute, old friend, +think--suppose that young Esterbrook was _not_ Poppea's father, and that +the only wrong (though it was a virtue, not a fault) that Helen Angus +did was in preferring to have her child born away from the atmosphere of +tyranny that was crushing out her own life. Could you be glad? Not for +yourself, not for ourselves, but for the law's full measure?" + +For a while Gilbert sat so absolutely motionless that Latimer began to +fear that he was suffering some sort of shock, while it was merely the +slowness of his comprehension of what had never before occurred to him +ever so remotely. A moment later, he started up with blazing eyes and +all the fury of a madman. + +"That! that! Oh, my God! Then he can take her from me in my old age, +from me who have reared her. He can take her, but he cannot love her as +I have nor make her love him! I withheld the bit of land, my birthright, +that he coveted, and this is my punishment! + +"Pray and pray quickly, dominie; it isn't the dying of the body that +must soon come that I fear; no, nor even the craziness that is reaching +out after me. I'm losing my hold on believing! It's all slipping and +slipping until I'm going down out of sight of Mary and little Marygold. +Help me! Stephen Latimer, help me keep my faith! Not in the everyday +prayers from books or Bible; I want something nearer, something said by +some one that has lived and suffered in the times that I have! + +"There on that card that hangs under his picture--He knew,--he suffered. +I've pieced his words together for my need, and said them every day and +night these many years. Now all is a blank, I can't remember them," and +Gilbert fell upon his knees, his head covered by his arms, strangled +with sobs. + +Following where Gilbert pointed, Latimer saw an old calendar card +hanging below Lincoln's portrait. Seizing it, he found on the reverse +side Gilbert's crooked writing, and straightway kneeling beside him, one +arm about his shoulders, he read this prayer:-- + +"'Keep us free from giving offence, O Lord; neither let us be slandered +from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by +menaces of destruction. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in +that faith let us do our duty as we understand it to the end.' + +"'Both of us read the same Bible and pray to the same God. Each invokes +His aid against the other. The prayers of both cannot be answered--Thine +it is to choose between us. + +"'Thou hast Thine own purposes. Woe unto the world because of offences, +for it must needs be that offences come, but woe unto that man by whom +the offence cometh." Through Thine aid keep us with malice toward none, +with charity for all, with firmness in the right as it is given us to +see the right; let us strive on to finish the work and to do justly, +love mercy, and walk humbly with Thee, O God, for the sake of Him who +suffered to teach us how to bear suffering.'" + +After Latimer's voice ceased, there was again a long silence, as if each +man prayed alone. Then Gilbert pulled himself slowly to his chair, and +with hands clasped upon his knees to hide their trembling, he said +clearly, as if reading his own death sentence over in order to become +used to the sound of it:-- + +"I must not forget! She will go to her own home and father upon the +hill--" + +"Daddy!" came the cry from the open door. A rush across the room and +Poppea was clinging to the old man, laughing and sobbing at the same +time. + +"Daddy! dear Daddy! Don't you know that this is my home, and that you +are my father, just as God is, because we love each other?" + +Then it was Stephen Latimer's turn to steal away and turn his footsteps +to where Jeanne was waiting with anxious eyes, straining to see through +the dark. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE SCAR ON THE HAND + + +Stephen Latimer, as soon as might be, communicated with the few people +that Poppea considered had a right to know of the solving of the mystery +of the name, and these were the Felton ladies, Satira and 'Lisha Potts, +and Hugh Oldys. He wrote the details to Miss Felton and 'Lisha, but +called upon Miss Emmy and Hugh the same evening. + +If there is aught in the saying that bad news spreads like fire in dry +grass, while good news requires three kindlings, then the news +concerning Poppea must have been considered very bad indeed. Owing +probably to the eavesdropping of the butler, accounts more or less +garbled appeared within two days, not only in the local and county +papers, but in the New York journals as well. It was only in the latter, +however, that anything was attempted like writing up the matter as a +streak of good luck, upon which the heroine, as Poppea was called, was +to be congratulated; one paper adding optimistically that she would, the +coming season, open her father's house to those who had the past winter +welcomed and entertained her solely on account of her incomparable charm +coupled with her vocal ability. + +The way in which those nearest to her took the change was the greatest +possible proof of their single-hearted love for herself alone. + +'Lisha received an unexpected rating from Satira, who told him he'd have +better let Beaver Brook wash out the whole railroad company than have +fished out that box of misery. Miss Emmy took a more conventional view +of the matter, but ended by saying with a sigh, "As long as Poppea could +not have grown up with the knowledge, it was better unknown." + +Hugh Oldys alone remained absolutely silent; finally, Poppea, who was +waiting with feverish eagerness for him to make some sign, received +these few lines from him. + + "I am glad for you if you are glad, little comrade. Yet oftentimes + lately it has seemed to me that the positive knowledge of a thing + is so much harder to bear than the vague lack of it, that I have + ceased to ask, Why? + + "As ever your friend, + + "HUGH." + +Over these few words Poppea pondered long and sadly, seated in the +window of her little bedroom with the warm air of late May again +bringing the fragrance of apple blossoms with it. It was not yet a year +since they two had walked home together and she had hidden her heart +that with the first lift of its wings was poised, ready to fly to Hugh, +and at the same time she proffered him friendship. Her motives, surely, +had been of the most unselfish, and, as she then thought, far-seeing, +but now how insignificant they seemed compared to her loss that lay in +Hugh's acceptance of them. If she could have felt one pulse of the old +pressure in his hand-clasp when they met, or read the faintest +inclination toward a need of her between the lines of the brief note, +how quickly she would have revealed herself. Not only had she ceased to +be a necessity, but rather it seemed were their meetings becoming a +strain upon him, where even his cordial outward friendship was forced. + +Ah, back, far back, her thoughts flew, no longer the strains of the +motive of the Mystery of the Name sang to her brain; like Elsa, in the +pursuit of the mystery, she had not gained but lost. Moreover, though +she was happy in the fact that she might now see Philip without +restraint or reproach, her joy must be pale compared to his, for to him +she was all. + +For a week or more John Angus had made no move other than to see that a +proper statement of the facts of her birth was added to the village +record, writing tersely to Poppea that he had communicated with his +London solicitor to have all possible details traced out; then he +waited. + +The second week brought another note addressed to Miss Angus, asking her +to fix the time of her coming home, as there were some necessary +preparations to be made. + +This note remained unanswered for several days, not because of anything +contemptuous or insolent in Poppea's attitude, but for the reason that +she did not know how to word her refusal in order to make it final +without first consulting Stephen Latimer, and yet if she did so, she +feared that he might, from his high impersonal standpoint, try to +dissuade her; until, as she was about to write, the New York lawyer of +John Angus called at the post-office house. + +He was a polished man of the world as well as a legal light, but all the +subtly drawn pictures of advantage presented with the intricacies of his +calling were shattered upon the bare rock of her simple statement, "This +is my home, and I shall not leave Daddy or drop this name that has +sheltered me so long." + +Utterly baffled, the lawyer's admiration for the girl's firmness did not +prevent his returning to Angus and imparting something of the bitter and +sarcastic mood that opposition develops in legal temperaments. So that +while Angus ceased his attempts to bring Poppea to him, he brooded over +the matter to such an extent that he really came to believe that he +alone was wronged. If he had been physically able, he would have again +closed the house and gone away, but he could no longer hide his +increasing feebleness even from himself; consequently he had lost the +first field in his effort to conceal his condition from others. Besides, +Philip, once more established at his work, was now to be reckoned +with,--Philip with a man's spiritual courage and his newly acquired +strength of having kin, no longer bearing that brand of utter +desolation,--the being the last of one's race. + +All the other outlets being closed, John Angus fell back upon the law +for solace, and with its advice constructed a will under which, outside +of the cautionary sum of one hundred dollars, Poppea was to benefit in +no way by his estate. This was so tied up that Philip also would lose +his rights if he attempted in any way to share with his sister, and the +document being duly signed, sealed, was stowed away in the little safe +inserted in the wall by his bed head. He would not be within hearing of +criticism when the paper went into effect, so Angus, wearing his usual +air of inscrutability, took up his life much as before, save that he +suddenly announced that, owing to Philip's love of the sea, he would +build a midsummer home for him with a studio attached, on a strip of +land that he owned on the west side of Quality Hill, where the Moosatuck +joins the bay; and almost before the community had grasped the news the +quaintly gabled house was under way. + +With Poppea the matter was not to be allowed to rest so soon. Letters +came to her from all quarters, congratulating her, giving invitations +for visits, the sudden desire for her company all too evidently the +result of her supposedly changed condition. Gloria Hooper wrote more +than cordially, while Mrs. Hewlett, the well-meaning but very dense +mother of the two susceptible sons, ended her letter with this dubious +sentence, "I take great credit to myself, dear child, for always having +believed that you were not what you seemed to be." + +Others yet asked her plans and prospects in the most direct language, +with all their social training missing the fine reticence in this matter +that had marked the neighborhood people of Harley's Mills. + +In early June Poppea went up to visit Miss Emmy for a few days. Brave as +this little lady had been, the complete breaking up of the family +arrangements of years, and the lack of Miss Felton's strong personality +against which to lean, was telling upon her sadly. Her idea of a summer +abroad, once abandoned, was now again under discussion. A summer of long +periods of rest rather than hasty travel, with Nora for maid and Poppea +for companion, was the doctor's advice, and at the same time he said +that when the July heat came, it would be necessary for Miss Felton and +her charge to leave the city, and where else could they be so +comfortable as the great house on Quality Hill. + +Miss Emmy had been talking over the journey with Poppea, who at last had +consented to go with her, the final inducement being that she could +visit Hampshire, and in learning any possible facts concerning her +mother's life and death there, bring her nearer as a reality. + +The third week in July was the time now set, and the _Normanic_, with +its popular captain, the ship chosen, after much debate. That other +time, in the sixties, when Miss Emmy had been on the verge of breaking +away, the _Scotia_, with its ponderous side-wheels, had been the only +vessel to which women of sensibility felt that they could trust +themselves. + +Jeanne Latimer had come up for afternoon tea, and the two sat upon the +broad piazza overlooking the rose garden, already showing the golden +yellow of the scentless, old-fashioned, half-double brier roses +contrasting with the vivid crimson and rich perfume of the Jacqueminots. + +Each one of the three women was in a reflective mood, in which, strange +to say, the thought focussed about each other rather than about +themselves. + +"Where is Mr. Latimer?" asked Poppea. "This morning, when I met him on +the village road, he promised that he would surely come up this +afternoon to help us plan the English end of our journey; besides that, +he was to explain to me the best way for Daddy to write to Washington +concerning the new post-office. He cannot, of course, resign from an +office that will cease to exist the first of next January and he hopes +to hold it to the end. But he wishes to write in such a way that it will +be clearly seen that he does not desire the new _West Harbor_ position. +Not that they would give it to so old a man, but it satisfies his pride +not to allow himself to be merely dropped. + +"Think of it, Aunt Emmy, very soon Poppea of the Post-Office must give +up the name you gave her, not that she leaves it, but it will drop away +from her." + +"Why not take your mother's name, then?" said Jeanne Latimer. "Helen is +more fitting to the woman than Poppea, though of course to us you will +be Poppy for all time." + +"That also is one of the things about which I wanted to speak to Mr. +Latimer. Do you think that he is coming?" + +"He started with me, but as we were waiting at the church to see the men +who are doing something to the water-power that works the organ, Will +Burt, one of the young doctors from the Bridgeton Hospital, came past on +horseback, riding like mad. Stephen waved to him, for as a boy he had +been one of his music pupils, and he stopped short. It seems that he was +on his way to the Rectory on an errand that he had undertaken for its +very strangeness. + +"Late last night a short, thick-set man was brought into the hospital, a +brakeman from one of the through freights, and apparently a new hand on +the road, for he did not know of the low bridge at Moosatuck Junction, +or understand the signal lights. He was swept off and crushed against +the pier. Though hurt to death, he had remained conscious, and early +this afternoon, when rallied to the utmost by drugs, asked to speak to +one of the physicians alone. Burt, chancing through the ward, was +appealed to. There was something about the man that struck him at once; +past fifty, and bearing the signs of dissipation and recent neglect of +his person, he did not come of the grade who keep to the road at his +age. When he spoke, his words confirmed the impression. + +"'What place am I in, Doctor?' he began. + +"'Bridgeton, Connecticut,' Burt answered. + +"The man repeated the name to himself several times, and then asked:-- + +"'Would that be near a little place called Harley's Mills?' + +"'The next town to it.' + +"'Is there a clergyman hereabout who would, think you, do an errand for +a man that, being already dead in his legs, cannot do it for himself, a +matter of--well, we'll say _business_ rather than religion?' + +"Burt told him that there was a Roman Catholic priest always within +call, besides ministers of other denominations that could be had; but +the man sighed, hesitated, and finally said: 'I'm English born, though +I've long ago sold out my birthright, yet there's that much left of it +that makes me want to say what I must to the one that's the nearest like +him that used to teach us our duty in the little church betwixt the +wheat fields over there. I want the one that has the white robe, the +book, and the law behind him; but maybe, sir, you do not understand?' + +"Burt did understand, however, and remembering that the rector of St. +John's in Bridgeton was ill, came galloping over for Stephen. Why he did +it, or put Stephen to the trouble, he himself could not say, for maimed +railway men and similar requests are not uncommon in a hospital. Stephen +borrowed a horse from Hugh Oldys and fully expected to be back again by +six; it is after five now. Shall I make the tea, Miss Emmy? He would be +vexed to have you wait." + +How many odd moments as well as times of painful suspense the tea-tray +has bridged over. Many a time the period of waiting for the kettle to +boil has given the necessary pause to think that has changed a whole +life, and the need of balancing a cup and saucer in the hand has made an +excuse for looking down when looking up would have betrayed the whole. + +As Jeanne pottered and poured, Poppea's wandering eyes caught upon a +mere speck in the distance on the lower Bridgeton road. As it reached +the great span over Moosatuck it took the shape of horse and wheels. +Before it reached the turn below the hill, she knew rather than saw that +it was Hugh Oldys's outfit with Stephen Latimer driving, and that he was +in great haste. + +Though she neither spoke of it nor betrayed the slightest interest, yet +her heart pounded so that the hand that held the cup pulsed in response, +and she shifted it to the table, where she deliberately stirred the +sugar. Then, feeling that she could no longer sit still, she said, +looking toward the roses:-- + +"What a superb flower that is on the third bush. May I have it, Miss +Emmy?" and she swung herself lightly over the rail at the end of the +porch opposite the steps and arrived at the head of the walk with her +rose at the same time that Latimer drove in the gate. + +Seeing her, he threw the reins over the dashboard and jumped out; he had +the same pallor, coupled with the tension of suppressed excitement, that +he had worn the day after the fire. Coming directly toward Poppea, he +said:-- + +"Can you go through one more ordeal, the last?" + +"Yes," she answered quietly. "I knew that it was coming half an hour +ago. Is he dead? the man with the scar on his hand?" + +Latimer, startled in spite of himself at her words, merely nodded his +head for yes. + +"I felt that it was he when Jeanne told me you had been sent for. Won't +you please come and tell us all together, Jeanne and Miss Emmy? I have +not the courage I once had; I cannot seem to bear things alone." + +While Latimer walked slowly up the steps, his wife had time to gauge, in +a degree, the scene he had been through, before Poppea, who was in +advance of him, said, in answer to the questioning look upon the face of +both women:-- + +"The man whom he went to see was the one who brought me to Daddy; now +we shall know how," and dropping to a stool by Miss Emmy's side, she +rested her head upon the elder woman's knees, as she was used in the old +days of confidence before things began to happen. + +Latimer took the cup of tea that Jeanne brought to him, and then +another, before he drew his chair closer to the group of women and +began, trying to compress his narrative as much as possible for the sake +of all concerned, while he spoke as to Poppea alone. + +"The man brought to the Bridgeton Hospital was Peter Randal, the son of +Betty Randal, your grandfather Dudleigh's housekeeper and your mother's +nurse. When your mother returned to Hampshire and you were born, Peter +was away at sea, but came back soon after her death and married an old +sweetheart, a pretty barmaid of the town. Betty Randal, though to all +appearances in the prime of life and best of health, died suddenly a few +months after your mother, without having had time to carry out any of +her directions or safeguard you in any way, so that Peter and his wife +found themselves left with you on their hands and the temptation of a +snug fortune before them, because your little sum of money had been at +the time entirely in Betty Randal's control. + +"Peter's wife had a sister in Canada, who made great representations of +the fortunes to be made there in farming if one only had money in hand; +so after much persuading, Peter yielded doggedly to the scheme of +keeping your money, which it would have been really difficult to prove +did not belong to Betty herself. + +"Peter, however, refused even to think of the plan of leaving you at +some foundling asylum instead of taking you to your father, and insisted +upon going to Canada by way of Boston, bringing you with them, and +leaving you with John Angus _en route_. He also had sufficient family +feeling to take with you the papers your mother had left, upon which he +knew Betty had set such store. + +"Knowing nothing of the country, they found upon their arrival that +Boston was far east of their destination, and so, going to New York, +worked their way backward, getting off in the confusion of the war +excitement and the late train at Westboro, while the box, hastily +addressed to John Angus, Harley's Mills, and not checked, was dropped +off at this station, the tag evidently having been in some way mutilated +in transit so that the place of destination only remained. + +"On asking some chance loungers at the Westboro depot the direction of +John Angus's house at Harley's Mills, Randal was told 'the first above +the post-office,' and to that they drove, not realizing that their +guides in this case considered the joined house and office as one +building. In the fury of the storm the Randals only waited to be sure +that the door was opened, and going to Bridgeton, were lost among many +other travellers. For some time everything went well with the pair, and +then luck turned. Peter's wife left him after securing the farm to +herself, and first the man took to the road, trying in some way to +return to the old country, but in spite of all, a bit of deep-down +remorse made him wish to know what had become of the baby Helen on his +way.--The rest you know." + +"What will they do with him?" asked Poppea, softly. + +"That which he asked of me," said Latimer. + +"I must have known you would have thought of it, and yet there must be +an odd touch of the same race feeling in me too. Thief as he was, his +people were once loyal to mine, also I wish I might have thanked him for +his mistake." + +"I did it for you, child, and for us all," and in the look that Poppea +turned on him he read a gratefulness beyond words. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +JOHN ANGUS + + +In the early part of July, a lift having been added to the house to +accommodate his wheel-chair, Miss Felton and Caleb brought Mr. +Esterbrook to Quality Hill. The homecoming was in itself pathetic, but +not to be compared with the starved and yearning affection that beamed +from Miss Felton's eyes every time she looked at him, followed by an +expression of gratitude when he managed to express the simplest wish. + +In appearance the old man was as trim and dapper as of old; he never was +allowed to be seen below stairs without his light gray or buff spats, +and this toilet was made afresh every afternoon, though as to the +evening there was no change, for he supped in his room and was put to +bed by eight o'clock. + +Of waistcoats and neckties he had a fresh assortment and appeared to +take pleasure in them, and in some way express his choice to Caleb; but +aside from the physical difficulty of speech, such as he could command +had the aphasia warp, so that he usually said the opposite of what he +meant, thus bringing an added bitterness to Miss Elizabeth. When she was +in the room, he followed her with his eyes and sometimes refused to eat +at all unless she fed him, and he often held and patted her hand when +she walked beside his chair under the old shade trees, but when he tried +to call her by name, it was always Emmy that he said and not Elizabeth, +or Beth, as she had been called in childhood. + +Sometimes Miss Felton would try to argue, saying:-- + +"This is Elizabeth. You know Elizabeth, do you not?" but still he would +laugh noiselessly, the laugh of senility not mirth, and nod his head to +and fro, saying:-- + +"Know Emmy? know Emmy? yes, yes, Emmy!" and sometimes throw kisses to +her with the hand that he could move. So finally she let it pass +unnoticed. But Miss Emmy, being once within hearing of it, conceived an +intense aversion to the poor man, and afterward kept entirely out of his +sight. + +After a time of absolute silence, Poppea took up her singing with fresh +interest, and Stephen Latimer noticed the increased volume as well as +sympathy of her voice. After all, it seemed a pity to put any check upon +such a gift, and little by little he began to speak of the desirability +of her still further developing it as an art, even as her brother Philip +was developing his gift of modelling. + +Latimer well knew that Poppea's nature was not one of those who can eke +out a life of small things without the force of a mastering love to +blend them into dignity, and so he talked of study abroad and travel +until Poppea herself began to take up the idea. + +Early one evening she had been walking up and down the grassy garden +path, watching the poppies fold their petals, palm to palm, for the +night, taking the form of pilgrim's cockle-shells, and all at once it +came to her that these flowers from the old garden on the hill above had +doubtless been planted by her mother long ago, for they were English +poppies, delicate of tint, and not the heavy-hued Orientals. How +wonderful it was, this handing down. Touching them lightly with her +finger-tips as she walked, her heart began to sing back to that long +ago, and then the music welled from her lips, all unconscious that she +had two auditors; John Angus, sitting above on his piazza, muffled and +chilly even in the balmy evening, and a man, who with the air of a +stranger, had been walking up and down the road. Finally he opened the +gate to the post-office house, but instead of following the sound of the +music to its origin, proceeded to the door and knocked. + +Presently Oliver Gilbert came stumbling out into the twilight, and, cane +in hand, made his halting way into the garden. + +"Poppy," he said, "there is some one who wants to see you; it's that Mr. +Winslow who came down last summer, the day after the Felton ladies had +the party. Do you remember?" + +"Yes, Daddy," said Poppea, "I remember,"--the words feeling cold to her +lips like drops of dew. + +"Will you come indoors? or shall I tell him you are here?" + +"I will come in," she said, rising quickly from the bench on which she +had been seated for a moment. No, she did _not_ want him to come there, +for beside her in the twilight seemed to be sitting the ghost of Hugh. + +Yet slow as Gilbert was, he gained the house before her, and when she +reached the porch, it was Bradish Winslow alone who stood in the open +doorway, both hands extended. + +"I have been abroad; I did not know until yesterday," he said at once +without other greeting--as if she must have wondered at his silence. +"And now the thing of which you made a barrier has vanished, how can you +keep me out, how can you hold me away even if you want to, little one? +But you don't, you can't; ah, child, child, do you know how I have +missed you? How I had to put the ocean between in order to obey the plea +in your letter?" + +He had seized her hands in his greeting and still held them, drawing her +nearer and nearer to him by a power that was not wholly physical force; +while she, having forgotten a certain magnetism she had always felt in +his presence, did not know how to protest. + +Finally freeing her hand, she pulled forward a deep porch chair, and +intrenched in its protecting arms, motioned him to take its mate. + +"I did not know that you were away," she managed to say at last. + +"Then why did you not write me only one word, 'Come'?" + +"Because, because," she stammered miserably, "I didn't think of it, +because it was better that you shouldn't," and she hid her face between +her hands to free it from the yearning of his eyes. + +"Poppea, do you not understand how much and why I care for you, for +yourself and that only?" he said presently, his voice changing from the +ringing, joyous tone of his greeting to one serious to the verge of +sadness. + +"I believe that you do, with all my heart and soul," she answered, and +continued in an almost reverent tone, "Few men would have acted toward +me as you did that night of humiliation. I did not realize it fully +then, but I do now, and this makes me understand all the more the +difference between what you offer me and the best I have to give." + +"Even so, a little is a beginning, dear, and I can wait in patience if +you will only let me be near you and teach you what love means. You do +not even yet dream what it is, you, who, above all others I have met, +were made for it and cannot be yourself without it." He saw that Poppea +was moved, was trembling, and for the moment he believed he had almost +won. + +"Perhaps I have not yet dreamed as you say," she answered gently, "but +of this I am certain: love does not come by learning, love knows and is +sure." + +Winslow's face changed, his throat felt dry, his lips seemed riveted +together, his whole being fell under the spell of a complete depression. + +"Then you do know?" he said in a broken, husky voice. + +"Yes, I know," she replied like a faint echo. + +He did not make any attempt either to reason with her or to go; he +merely sat there in utter dejection, this man of the world and its +affairs, whom women had these many years called callous. + +When at last he pulled himself from the chair, he held out both his +hands, but did not go toward Poppea. + +"Then it is good-by?" he questioned. + +"I'm afraid it must be," she replied, touched by a profound sadness, +"but oh, I do wish for my own sake it need not be, for in spite of +everything I am so very lonely." Then of her own accord she took his +hands and looked into his face, but in her eyes there shone something +that checked the parting kiss that he intended. If she were born for +love, she was no less fashioned for fidelity even to an idea, and +Winslow saw that young as she was and whether she realized it or not, he +had come into her life too late. + + * * * * * + +John Angus, sitting alone on his piazza, had at first listened in +irritation to the voice below in the garden, then the very quality of +its tone brought back the past as a surging tide that he could not +check. Once more he was at the open-air fête of a foreign city and the +singing of a lovely girl, little more than a child, had crept into his +heart, as her exquisite form and coloring had pleased his critical eye, +and he had let himself go. Then to keep the time schedule he had +arranged between himself and certain inexorable ambitions, he had +suddenly pulled the chain brutally taut, and among those that it had +cruelly bruised, must he not at last count himself? + +What if he had not--but what was the use. The singing ceased and with it +his unusual revery. Shivering at the touch of the dew on the arm of his +chair, he went indoors, closing the long porch window after him, and +after wandering listlessly through the lower rooms for a while, climbed +slowly up to his own chamber in the same wing with Philip's rooms, where +he sat reading, and so seemed less lonely. For of late, without spoken +words having passed between, Philip was becoming more and more estranged +from his father, and sought his room or went to the studio as soon as +might be after meals, until John Angus began to wonder, with a +half-physical, half-emotional belief in the supernatural, if it were +possible that Philip knew the policy of the will that he had made, by a +form of second sight. + +This thought was uppermost as he entered his private room, and after +lighting the four lamps that it held, closed and locked the door. He +would read the will over once more after he was comfortably fixed in +bed. He could not understand why in July the air should be so cold, yet +as fresh air was his chief necessity, he could not close the windows. +Turning to ring for his valet, that he might light the wood fire that +was laid ready at all seasons, he changed his mind and put a match to it +himself. Drawing a chair before the blaze, that under ordinary +conditions he would have deemed suffocating, he chafed and warmed his +hands. This done, he slowly set about undressing. + +When quite ready for bed, he again changed his mind, and throwing on a +dressing-gown, slid back the panel from the small square closet by the +bed, and opening the safe, took from it the will, which, from its +completion, had seemed to exercise a strange fascination over him. He +would read it once more to be sure that all points were covered, and on +the morrow, as he expected to go to town, he would place it once for all +in the safety vault, for such a paper had no place in one's house, even +if under lock and key. + +As he turned for the twentieth time the half dozen pages he knew almost +by heart, a voice seemed to be making a running commentary in his ear, +and the pith of it all was: "What have you gained by trying to control +others absolutely all your life? What are you gaining now by trying to +control others absolutely after you are dead?" + +The worst of it was that the critic seemed waiting for an answer, and +he, having none ready, sat trying to frame one, but he could not, for +there was none to give. + +Suddenly the pain that was an agony ran through the arm and hand that +grasped the will and then gripped his chest. It was one of his seizures, +but more intense than usual. He felt himself realizing that it would +pass off as others had before, but it did not. He could not reach the +bell or little tablet vial on his dresser. He had known, of course, the +end must come some day. Was that time now? The will, stirred by the +tremor of his hand, fairly flaunted in his face. + +Why had he made it? Why? "Why not destroy it now," the voice whispered, +"and for once will for good?" + +He tried to move, but the agony held him fast, he was suffocating and +not even slowly. + +"Try," whispered the voice; "the fire is almost at your feet, and it +will help you." + +Then inch by inch he worked himself forward, and unclasping his +stiffening hand, dropped the paper on the hearth. + +Would the blaze reach it? Would he live to know? + +Yes, the eager flame caught hold; he saw the red seals melt, his +signature disappear, and then--John Angus's greed for power was quenched +by that last act. + +It was late the next morning that the man-servant, unable to open the +door, climbed in the open window and found his master fallen back in the +arm-chair, his bed untouched. When, panic-stricken, he opened the door, +calling loudly for help, Philip came quickly in, and saw his father, the +open safe, and the fragments of burnt legal papers on the hearthstone, +and reading the few words that remained, he understood. Putting his arms +about the lifeless form as he never before had dared, he thanked God in +his heart for the single tender memory. + + * * * * * + +Though due show of public respect was paid in the last rites, as due to +a leading citizen whose name, known to them rather than his person, was +always first on the subscription papers alike for foreign missions and +civic improvements, John Angus's death did not affect any one. The only +person who really took it to heart was Oliver Gilbert. To him the one +idea was paramount, the death of his neighbor before the possibility of +mutual understanding had come, and with the Puritan strain of +self-reproach strong in him, Gilbert, sitting in his little shop, +mentally scourged himself and followed painfully on foot in company with +the humbler members of the town as though the fault lay on his side. + +"What shall you do?" Jeanne Latimer had asked Poppea during the next day +when Philip was closeted with her husband in whose hands he had placed +all arrangements. + +"Whatever Philip wishes," Poppea answered. "You know he is the family +now, and he will never broach the one point I cannot yield." + +"Shall you wear black?" Jeanne continued with some hesitation. + +"I think so, for a time," Poppea said with brows knitted, "or else +Philip will feel so entirely alone, so isolated." + +In a week's time the lawyer, whom Poppea had met before, came to the +Rectory, where Philip had been staying since the funeral, for the boy +had told Stephen Latimer frankly that he should never again sleep in the +house on Windy Hill, where the servants now remained alone, awaiting +events and orders, or again go to the sombre city house that looked +across Washington Square. + +The lawyer met Philip and Mr. Latimer alone, as Poppea had asked to be +released from any part in this interview, and spoke of the will that he +had drawn up within the month and produced the draft of it. + +Philip laid on the table the scorched fragments found upon the hearth +on which a visible word here and there was enough to prove identity. + +"Then the course of the law lies straight," the lawyer said; "but as Mr. +Philip Angus is a minor until next year, a guardian must be appointed." + +"I shall petition that Mr. Latimer acts as such," Philip replied. + +"What has Miss Angus--Gilbert--or whatever she persists in calling +herself, to say to that, pray?" + +"She bids me say as her spokesman," Philip answered, "that she intends +to make no personal claim in the matter. Whatever may be hereafter +decided will be out of the range of business or of law and will lie only +between her brother and herself." + +"A close corporation, it seems," said the lawyer, puckering his mouth +for a contemptuous whistle, but catching sight of a glance in Latimer's +eye, he checked it by remarking:-- + +"Pray tell me, as between man and man, is this young woman quite sane? +She can claim half of an ample though not princely property." + +"Yes, quite sane," said Latimer, in accents as steely and clear-cut as +the man's own, "but the expression of her sanity does not chance to take +a form familiar to members of your calling." + +After this the wheels of local probate law began to turn with their +usual deliberation. + +At first Miss Emmy proposed to postpone their journey, but now it was +Poppea who urged her on, feeling the positive necessity of a change and +a little time away from familiar places, in which to readjust herself. +She not only now wished to look over the field for musical study at +close range, but dreams flitted through her head of a winter either in +Florence or in Rome in company with Philip, though not, perhaps, at +once; for winter was a perilous time for one of Oliver Gilbert's years, +and this winter the post-office would cease to be, in itself no small +bereavement to him. + +Again Satira, her snapping black eyes always fixed eagerly upon the +bustling life of the village centre, came to the fore, and 'Lisha, good, +easy man, acquiesced, acknowledging that "twarn't no further to go up to +the corn and potato fields of mornings than, living on the hill, to hev +to drop down to the village o' nights for a dish of gossip and the +news." + +Finally the day before the one for sailing came, and with it the +startling announcement from Oliver Gilbert that he was going to the city +to see Poppea off. + +"Land alive! you'll get lost; you don't know how the city's changed +these near twenty years since the time you would fetch Poppy down to +President Lincoln's obsequies!" cried Satira. "I've heard Miss Emmy say +that what were cow pastures where she used to pick dandelions when a +girl are built solid over with emporiums of fashion. Besides, you've +never been aboard anything bigger'n Captain Secors's onion schooner, and +if that big thing they're going on began to get up steam and snort, +_how_ it would quake your vitals. It did mine that trip I took." + +_That trip_ being the term applied to a wonderful excursion of the +previous summer, from Bridgeton to the new-found land of pleasure, Coney +Island, whither 'Lisha had taken her, and of which he was destined never +to hear the last. + +But Gilbert saying in a tone that barred discussion that he would take +whatever risks there were, the matter was dropped as being decided. + +Late in the scorching July afternoon he harnessed his old Roman-nosed +horse to the chaise and disappeared on the cross-road that ran eastward +toward the Moosatuck, without vouchsafing any explanation to his sister, +who, having questioned him in vain, called his attention to the +threatening array of 'thunder-heads' that were rolling over the hills, +every few seconds being rent together by forks of lightning. + +He had been gone perhaps half an hour when the storm reached the +village, and great splashes of rain, falling upon the shed roof, were +turned into steam by the heat of the tin. + +Poppea, having given the finishing touches to her simple packing, was +setting her room in order, fingering each article lovingly as though she +felt that even should she come back and find all as she left it, yet +there must be a difference. + +As the rain increased to a steady downpour, she looked anxiously up the +road and made a mental calculation as to what houses lay on the route +Daddy had taken, and where he would be by now, his probable destination +having been as obscure to her as to Satira. + +Meanwhile, the horse and chaise were standing in the shelter of an +abandoned lumber shack in the woods that overhung the west bank of +Moosatuck, while Gilbert, utterly oblivious of the rain that gradually +sifted to him through the heavy leafage, was following a narrow +foot-path. Glancing from side to side, he pulled a long string of +ground-pine here, there a fine branch of strong laurel, and then again a +handful of the dark green, white-veined leaves of the wax-flowered +pipsissewa; when his arms would hold no more and he again reached the +chaise, the thunder-heads were scurrying across the bay and the rain was +over. + +Poppea had sorted the evening mail and was sitting at the desk in +Gilbert's workshop when he came in, slowly yet without his cane, and +crossing to where she was, laid his armful of dripping wood-treasure +before her, saying, half-shamedfacedly, yet as to one who would +understand:-- + +"Will you tie me a nice wreath, Poppy, like the one we always have to +hang up there at Christmas, lacking of course the berries? I guess I'll +go in and change and get a bite to eat, if you'll spell me here for +twenty minutes longer," and Poppea, with a comprehending smile and nod, +buried her face in the fresh, spicy greenery. + +What Gilbert wanted with the wreath or did with it when he took it from +her hands presently, she did not know, for later, as she walked up and +down the flagged walk between the porch and gate, thinking of the +details of to-morrow, the latch clicked and Hugh Oldys came through the +wicket. + +It was not alone the colorless twilight that made the change in his +face which struck her like a blow. Without having become absolutely +thin, the man of a year before, with height and breadth, good color, +wholesome flesh, natural joy and interest in life and living, seemed to +have passed through some phase that, while it spiritualized in a sense, +had eliminated much that was characteristic. + +"Your mother--is she worse?" was Poppea's first question. + +"I do not think so, though in a case like hers it is worse to be no +better. I should have been to see you many days ago but for a sudden +change in nurses. No one stays more than a month," he added, breaking +through his habitual reticence on this subject, as though at last he +must have the support of sympathy. + +"No one but you, Hugh. Ah, how can you go on so when every one else +falters?" + +"Because she is my mother and not theirs; in that lies all." + +"All?" Poppea echoed, leaning toward him with such unmistakable +tenderness in her eyes that it must have broken through any self-raised +barrier of the man's had he but seen and compassed it. Yet he never +looked at her directly nor let her read his face, though it was not +until after he had gone that Poppea realized this. + +For an hour the conversation drifted to casual things, and save for +Philip, his work and plans, in wholly impersonal channels, they two +sitting on the top step of the porch. When at last Hugh rose to go, and +walking slowly side by side down the narrow path they halted at the +end, one inside the gate, one without, he said, looking backward up the +way they had come, as if into the past:-- + +"It will be good when you come back, but it isn't to be supposed or +hoped that after you have made the break you will care for this sleepy +little village as you have, Poppea. I have always wondered why you cared +so little for the New York life with the fine opening you made. In the +few months I had there, the fulness and the vigor of it all gripped me +so that leaving was a wrench." + +"For New York? Yes, I cared for that and all the best it gives. But the +life? Yes, I cared for that too, in a way, until I stood off and looked +back." + +Then, clasping her hands about the post, she said, smiling shyly, with a +little quizzical expression at the corners of her mouth:-- + +"Do you remember once, long ago, how you and I stood by the railroad +brook and watched a big, striped snake charm and swallow a little green +frog? + +"We didn't mean to let the affair come to the swallowing, but though the +beginning was slow, the frog sat still and waited too long, and the end +came quicker than we expected. Then, as the lump that was the frog began +to be moved down the snake's length in being digested, you took your +foot and little by little edged the frog backward out of the snake's +mouth to the ground, slime covered and quite insensible. Then we both +took water in our hands, and dashing it washed the slime away, until +presently the frog came to and hopped away like mad, without ever +looking back. + +"Well, once upon a time, Hugh, as the fairy stories say, I was a little +green frog and the life down there the snake; it drew me, and I didn't +want to get away, until, when it was almost too late, one night a great +splash of cold water, thrown by people who did not throw it in kindness, +and that nearly strangled me, brought me to, and I hopped away without +even wishing to look back. + +"So when you think to yourself again, 'Poppea will yet love the life of +the city,' remember the little green frog!" + +Thus they parted in a sudden ripple of laughter, good friends. + +Next day, in the hurry and bustle that always belong to an outgoing +steamer in the season of summer travel, some of those in the crowd on +the deck of the _Normanic_ were attracted by the sight of a young and +well-bred woman of unusual beauty, accompanied by a maid and some one +who might either be her mother or aunt, clinging tearfully about the +neck of an old man, whom she was wishing good-by. While there was +nothing unusual about the parting at such a time, yet the dainty dress +and bearing of the woman were in striking contrast to the homespun +plainness of the man, who wore the long, flowing beard, stiff clothes, +and wide-brimmed Panama hat, his Sunday best for years, that marks the +countryman. Moreover, he carried a home-made hickory cane and clutched +to his breast a bulky newspaper parcel. + +When the final blast of "all ashore" was sounded, the air quivering with +the vibrations, the girl loosed her hold, and crying, "Good-by, dear +Daddy!" disappeared in the crowd that gathered by the stairway; while +he, turning toward the gang-plank, marched down it with all the +soldier-like precision his lameness would allow, never looking back, his +bundle still clasped tightly to him. + +Boarding a small blue car known as a "bob-tail," Gilbert rode across the +city, carefully scanning his course. When he emerged presently from the +region of crooked ways to where the avenues run north and south and the +streets east and west, and saw ahead an open square, he stopped the car, +and standing at the street curb, shielding his eyes from the pitiless +sun, tried to get his bearings. + +"Fourteenth Street," said one lamp-post, "University Place" another. +Yes, the park opposite was Union Square, but where was the house on +whose porch he had stood that April day in eighteen sixty-five when the +procession swung around from Broadway? + +A business building covered with signs replaced it; yet at the same +moment, his eyes fell on what he sought. The statue of Lincoln, rugged +and majestic, standing above the cobbled plateau, calm and unmoved by +all the frantic bustle of the street. + +Making his way carefully through the traffic, Gilbert approached the +rail about the statue. He paused for a moment, and then, undoing his +parcel, took from it the wreath, rested it on the railing, while he +folded the paper and, winding the string about it, placed it in his +pocket. Then getting stiffly over the barrier, he laid the wreath at +Lincoln's feet, raised his old hat, looking up into Lincoln's face as +one in perfect, if humble, comradeship, while his lips murmured, +"Through you I have finished the course, with you I have kept the +faith!" + +The people of the street, big and little, loafer and gamin, who spring +up about an unusual object as swiftly as the circles surround a stone +flung in the water, neither jostled nor jeered nor plucked the wreath +away, for among the simple-minded, hero-worship will never die out save +for lack of heroes. + +Then making his way back to Fifth Avenue, Gilbert, seeking the scanty +bits of shade as best he might, walked up its length until he reached +the third open space and turned eastward to the railway station. + +At the coming of the evening mail he pottered as usual with the letters +as though that day had been like all the others, and ate his supper with +little sauce of conversation, to the inexpressible disappointment of +Satira Potts. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +ON THE WINGS OF THE MORNING + + +During the remainder of the summer the village of Harley's Mills went +into a sort of chrysalis state as befitted its coming change of name. +The fact that the Felton house had ceased to exist as a social centre +and that many of the Quality Hill folk had gone abroad added +considerably to its somnolence. Some of what are generally referred to +by the local press as "leading citizens" had under construction a brick +block on the Westboro side of the blacksmith shop in which the chief +trade interests of the place were to be sheltered, including the new +post-office. + +Philip Angus continued with the Latimers, for his new house overlooking +the sea would not be ready before October, and if the rumor proved true +that Howell, the sculptor, was anxious to take Philip with him to winter +in Rome, it was unlikely that it would be occupied before spring. + +Of course there was much speculation concerning the amount and +disposition of John Angus's property, especially his holdings in real +estate, for he owned some of the most sightly tracts in the township in +addition to the house and home acres on Windy Hill. Early in the autumn +a definite statement was given out concerning the latter by no less an +authority than Stephen Latimer. Poppea and Philip, agreeing that under +no circumstances could they live there, proposed to devote it to a +hospital and home for crippled children from the city, and the necessary +alterations began soon after. + +It was almost Thanksgiving time when Miss Emmy and Poppea returned, Miss +Emmy going directly to the house on Quality Hill which she now called +home, Miss Felton and Caleb having moved Mr. Esterbrook back to Madison +Square at the beginning of cold weather. The village did not realize how +much it had missed them both until Poppea was again seen walking daily +up the road to Quality Hill, and Miss Emmy resumed her morning marketing +trips, where she sat in the barouche (the lining was now a durable +russet leather) dressed in very suitable and becoming brown with a +warming glint of color in the velvet rose on her bonnet, holding a sort +of court, whereat the butcher extolled the quality of his sweetbreads, +and the blacksmith's wife related the details of her rheumatism and her +husband's father's last seizure, with equal freedom. + +Immediately after her return, Philip took Poppea to see the new house, +to which a music room with a place for an organ had been added to the +original plan by throwing out a wing to correspond with his studio. With +her arm about his shoulders they walked slowly through the rooms, +stopping before the picture that each window offered, until they came +to one on the second floor, a bay from which one might not only look out +to sea, but up the Moosatuck until it was lost in the hill-country. + +"This is your room," he said, laying a detaining hand upon her arm to +make her hear him out, "whenever you wish to come to it for an hour or +forever, but I never shall ask you by so much as a word to leave Daddy, +for I feel about it much as you do. What if he had not? Oh, Sister, what +if he had not? You would have still been yourself, but I, what should I +have been without you to love?" and the rapt expression stole across his +face with which the devotee is pictured. + +Presently, sitting side by side on the steps of the wide porch in the +early winter sunshine, they talked over Philip's plans, the tide +creeping up the sand laden with pungent seaweed, and the gulls now +flying across with shrill cries, now dropping to rest upon the water. + +At last Philip, taking Poppea's hand and laying it against his cheek, +told her of what was closest to his heart,--his desire to go to Rome +with Howell for the winter, to do there with the master a piece of work +he could not hope yet to accomplish alone. Unrolling a paper he showed +her the design for the group, the outcome of months of thought and +dreaming. Two women, one taller than the other, with tender, radiant +faces, standing side by side, hands outstretched to aid a crippled +child, who, having dropped his crutch, was clinging to them. About the +base this legend ran _Amor Consolatrix_. + +"These are our mothers," he said softly, "yours and mine. When they are +done in marble, they shall stand by the gate up at the hospital to +welcome the children who must go in alone." + +So Philip sailed away, and from the Christmas music at St. Luke's his +silver voice was missing. + +But if Philip's tones were silver, Poppea's now poured forth like rich, +unalloyed gold. It seemed to her as though she had never fathomed the +full joy of singing until, lacking necessity, it had ceased to be a +possible commercial profession, and become, as now she held it, a +freewill gift to all who asked for or needed it, singing alike in +church, hospital ward, the poor-house, or in the low farm-houses of the +back hill-country, where she carried hope and music to those for whom +all other doors were closed. Once even had she gone over the deeply +drifted roads on a wood sled with 'Lisha Potts to a revival meeting at +his lumber camp, and in the rough faces of the wood-choppers read a +deeper, truer appreciation than she had ever felt respond to her among +the music-lovers of the drawing-room. + +Then, too, there were the Sunday evenings, she and Daddy sitting on +either side the fire in the foreroom,--Satira going invariably to the +muscular type of prayer-meeting that would satisfy her soul's hunger for +the next seven days.--Then the heartstrings would quiver in vain for the +magic thrill and the sound of the melody that only one may play for each +one of us, until to break the oppressive silence, she would lift the +piano lid and let her fingers feel their way a moment, until the +old-time hymns and anthems made response. Gradually Daddy would join in, +until at the end of half an hour he was singing with might and main, +although often quite off the key and half a bar behind. As she paused, +he would limp to and fro rubbing his hands together, and saying for the +fortieth time:-- + +"Pretty good music you and I can make, eh, Poppy? Forty years ago I was +the loudest bass singer in this township, and 'twas when I was singing +in First Church Choir that Mary, a stranger to me, sang the second +treble, and it was the kind way she had of keeping me in line when I'd +shied from the tuning-fork that made me take to her. Yes, it's true what +the poet says, that Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast. It +soothed mine, Poppy, who always had dreaded women." + +So the winter wore away. March, the tug of war between seasons, +blustered out roaring defiance, and April, the capricious, in its last +week had kept to one mood long enough to green the grass, draw red blood +to the maple tops, and gold sap to the willows. + +In two weeks more Philip would return. Poppea was entering the gate with +a letter from him that had come in the last mail. She had walked slowly +up from the new post-office in the brick block, reading it as she came. +How different all concerning the new order was, to be sure: _Entrance_ +and _Exit_ printed plainly on the doors; no little knots of men from the +scattered back settlement exchanging news. Rather did these, after +getting their mail, continue to come to their old haunt and talk to +Gilbert as he sat in his shop, sometimes idle but never listless, while +a large checkerboard put by Poppea's suggestion in the place of the +boxes of the old beehive, filled the gap when the powers of conversation +needed rest. + +She stopped to look at a cluster of daffodils, whose jolly yellow +flowers kept on beaming even through the dusk, and then went toward the +house, when the wheels of a vehicle, coming rapidly up the road, stopped +short, and Hugh Oldys's voice called:-- + +"Poppea, wait a minute, please," and without pausing to fasten the +horse, he pushed through the gate and strode toward her. + +"What is it, Hugh?" she almost cried out, shocked by the ashiness of his +face and its nervous working. "Can I help you in any way?" + +"Yes, you can help me and only you, though I do not know that I ought to +let you undergo the strain even if you are willing. + +"Listen and judge, Poppea. Last night my mother became physically ill; +until then her bodily health has been better than for years. This +afternoon within two hours her mind has suddenly cleared, the doctors +explain it by the moving of a clot. She called me to her and spoke as +naturally as before the blow fell; yet she remembers perfectly well that +father is dead and that she has been very ill, though she has no sense +of the length of time. Then she begged me not to leave her for so long +again, and asked for you, Poppea." + +"Why, Hugh, I will go to her at once. Could you think that I would not?" + +"That--that is not all," he faltered, his shoulders drooping and his +whole attitude broken and dejected. "She thinks that everything is as +she had believed it would be--two years--ago. She thinks that we are +married--that you are in the house, but stay out of the room for fear of +disturbing her. Oh, Poppea, could you--could you slip a loose shawl or a +sack over your shoulders and go in for a moment and speak to her or +answer her, so that she need not know? Will you do it for the sake of +all those years that we were comrades?" + +Only for a moment had Poppea drawn back, but it was so imperceptibly +that Hugh did not notice. + +"I will go," she said slowly, without looking at him, "and you need wait +only a minute." + +Going swiftly to her room, she made a wrapper and pair of slippers into +a hasty bundle and threw a light shawl about her head and shoulders. +Saying a few words to Satira, who was in the kitchen kneading bread and +so could not follow her to the gate for details other than she chose to +give, she took her place silently by Hugh in the buggy. + +On the drive neither spoke, for it was one of the hours when the softest +spoken word is too harsh and jarring. Up from the marsh meadows the cry +of the rejuvenated "peepers" rose in what to Poppea's nerves, strained +to snapping, seemed a clamor that surrounded her head closely and dulled +even her powers of thought. + +At the threshold Mrs. Shandy was waiting, her eyes red from crying. With +finger on her lips Poppea signalled that she wished to go to Mrs. +Shandy's room. There she slipped on the wrapper she had brought, and +loosing the pins, let her hair fall in a careless braid, as though she +had but just waked up. + +In the square upper hall Dr. Morewood sat in a deep easy-chair, reading +by a shaded lamp. In answer to Poppea's questioning look he said in the +low tone, that yet is not a whisper, which the sensitive physician +acquires:-- + +"Yes, the brain is clear, but the physical vitality in its final +flicker; at best it can hold its own but a few hours." + +When, steadying herself by an almost superhuman effort, Poppea reached +the door of Mrs. Oldys's chamber, so familiar in every detail even in +the subdued light, Hugh was already there crouched by the bedside, one +of his mother's transparent hands clasping his, while with the other she +was striving to push back the heavy hair from his forehead. + +At the sight of Poppea the nurse drew back into the alcove shadows. +Seating herself in a vacant chair on the opposite side from Hugh and +waiting a few seconds, the girl made a very slight motion that revealed +her presence. + +"My dear daughter!" Mrs. Oldys formed the words rather than spoke them, +dropping her other hand upon Poppea's so that she was held fast as it +were between them. + +"Why have you stayed away so long? I have thought that you were ill," +the voice was clearer now. "Did Hugh break your sleep to call you?" + +"No,--Mother,--I was quite awake when he said you wanted me." + +"And you will stay with me to-night?" + +"Yes, surely I will stay." + +"Now I am at peace, my two dear children--" the fluttering eyelids +closed and for a while she seemed to sleep, except that the pressure of +her hands did not relax. + +Presently she looked up again. + +"I cannot seem to think by myself," she said, "I need something to lean +upon--to carry me with it. Do you remember, Hugh, the music--the song +that you and Poppy used to sing sometimes without the organ? It brought +me close to the gate--perhaps it would carry me through with it +to-night." + +Poppea, who was trembling like a leaf in the wind, looked toward Hugh, +but his face was buried in his arm. Then a calm settled over her. +Loosening the robe at her throat, she straightened herself, and from her +lips the notes fell soft yet clear:-- + + "Hark! hark, my soul; angelic songs are swelling." + +An expression of ineffable peace crossed Mrs. Oldys's face. + +"Yes, that is it," she whispered, smiling. + +Unfalteringly Poppea sang to the end, and it was not until the last note +died away in complete silence that Hugh raised his head. + +Presently the doctor looked in, the nurse came forward with some +nourishment, and so the night wore on, but it was not until the dawn +began to scatter darkness that the frail hands gradually relaxed their +loving clasp, and the nurse looking from the shadows beckoned the +watchers away. + +Through the passageway and down the stairs Hugh and Poppea passed +together. Then Hugh left her for a moment, returning to say that Dr. +Morewood would drive her home as she must have some rest as soon as +possible. + +Mrs. Shandy, coming out, begged her to wait and take a cup of coffee, +but Poppea shook her head. + +Out on the porch in the fresh, yet mysterious air of coming day, they +waited for the doctor to bring his chaise. Below lay Moosatuck veiled in +mist; beyond, the blue ridge of the hills; one bird called, then +another, until half a hundred had picked up the anthem. Each moment it +grew lighter, the darkness huddled cornerwise down the west, while the +morning star and the harbor beacon paled together. + +For a time neither spoke nor looked at each other, then Hugh broke the +silence. + +"In a few days, Poppea,--when I am no longer needed,--I shall be going +away for a rest, a long rest, and perhaps it may be that afterward my +life will lie in other places." Then suddenly breaking down, he grasped +her hands, and pressing them to his lips, said, with a half-suppressed +cry:-- + +"Little comrade! Little comrade! All that I can tell you, all that I +must tell you, is that God himself could not have done more for me than +you have this night." + +Poppea, who had been looking off into the sunrise, turned her head +quickly, and for the first time in months, found his eyes fixed full +upon her face before he could shift them. + +At last she knew! Leaving her hands in his, she leaned toward him, +murmuring in a voice so full of joy that it quivered as though strung +with tears:-- + +"Where is more rest than here? _I_ need you, Hugh!" + +Then to the one behind the closed door and to the two facing the dawn a +new life came on the wings of the morning. + + +THE END + + + + +NOVELS, ETC., BY "BARBARA" + +(MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT) + + +The Garden of a Commuter's Wife Illustrated + +"Reading it is like having the entry into a home of the class that is +the proudest product of our land, a home where love of books and love of +nature go hand in hand with hearty, simple love of 'folks.' ... It is a +charming book."--_The Interior._ + + +People of the Whirlpool Illustrated + +"The whole book is delicious, with its wise and kindly humor, its just +perspective of the true values of things, its clever pen pictures of +people and customs, and its healthy optimism for the great world in +general."--_Philadelphia Evening Telegraph._ + + +The Woman Errant + +"The book is worth reading. It will cause discussion. It is an +interesting fictional presentation of an important modern question, +treated with fascinating feminine adroitness."--Miss Jeannette Gilder in +the _Chicago Tribune_. + + +At the Sign of the Fox + +"Her little pictures of country life are fragrant with a genuine love of +nature, and there is fun as genuine in her notes on rural +character."--_New York Tribune._ + + +The Garden, You and I + +"This volume is simply the best she has yet put forth, and quite too +deliciously torturing to the reviewer, whose only garden is in Spain.... +The delightful humor which pervaded the earlier books, and without +which Barbara would not be Barbara, has lost nothing of its +poignancy."--_Congregationalist._ + + +The Open Window. Tales of the Months. + +"A little vacation from the sophistication of the +commonplace."--_Argonaut._ + + +Poppea of the Post Office + + * * * * * + +By EDEN PHILLPOTTS + + +The Three Brothers + +"'The Three Brothers' seems to us the best yet of the long series of +these remarkable Dartmoor tales. If Shakespeare had written novels we +can think that some of his pages would have been like some of these. +Here certainly is language, turn of humor, philosophical play, vigor of +incident such as might have come straight from Elizabeth's day.... The +story has its tragedy, but this is less dire, more reasonable than the +tragedy is in too many of Mr. Phillpotts's other tales. The book is full +of a very moving interest, and it is agreeable and beautiful."--_The New +York Sun._ + + +By Miss ELLEN GLASGOW + +The Romance of a Plain Man + +"From the first she has had the power to tell a strong story, full of +human interest, but as her work has continued it has shown an increasing +mellowness and sympathy. The atmosphere of this book is fascinating +indeed."--_Chicago Tribune._ + + +By FRANK DANBY + +The Heart of a Child + +BEING PASSAGES FROM THE EARLY LIFE OF SALLY SNAPE, LADY KIDDERMINSTER + +"'Frank Danby' has found herself. It is full of the old wit, the old +humor, the old epigram, and the old knowledge of what I may call the +Bohemia of London; but it is also full of a new quality, the quality of +imaginative tenderness and creative sympathy. It is delightful to watch +the growth of human character either in life or in literature, and in +'The Heart of a Child' one can see the brilliancy of Frank Danby +suddenly burgeoning into the wistfulness that makes cleverness soft and +exquisite and delicate.... It is a mixture of naturalism and romance, +and one detects in it the miraculous power ... of seeing things steadily +and seeing them wholly, with relentless humor and pitiless pathos. The +book is crowded with types, and they are all etched in with masterly +fidelity of vision and sureness of touch, with feminine subtlety as well +as virile audacity."--James Douglas in _The Star_, London. + + +Sebastian. A Son of Dreams. + + * * * * * + +Mr. ROBERT HERRICK'S NOVELS + + +The Gospel of Freedom + +"A novel that may truly be called the greatest study of social life, in +a broad and very much up-to-date sense, that has ever been contributed +to American fiction."--_Chicago Inter-Ocean._ + + +The Web of Life + +"It is strong in that it faithfully depicts many phases of American +life, and uses them to strengthen a web of fiction, which is most +artistically wrought out."--_Buffalo Express._ + + +Jock o' Dreams, or The Real World + +"The title of the book has a subtle intention. It indicates, and is true +to the verities in doing so, the strange dreamlike quality of life to +the man who has not yet fought his own battles, or come into conscious +possession of his will--only such battles bite into the +consciousness."--_Chicago Tribune._ + + +The Common Lot + +"It grips the reader tremendously.... It is the drama of a human soul +the reader watches ... the finest study of human motive that has +appeared for many a day."--_The World To-day._ + + +The Memoirs of an American Citizen. Illustrated with about fifty +drawings by F. B. Masters. + +"Mr. Herrick's book is a book among many, and he comes nearer to +reflecting a certain kind of recognizable, contemporaneous American +spirit than anybody has yet done."--_New York Times._ + +"Intensely absorbing as a story, it is also a crisp, vigorous document +of startling significance. More than any other writer to-day he is +giving us the American novel."--_New York Globe._ + + +Together + +"The thing is straight from life.... The spirit of the book is in the +end bracing and quickening."--_Chicago Evening Post._ + +"An able book, remarkably so, and one which should find a place in the +library of any woman who is not a fool."--_New York American._ + + * * * * * + +Mr. WINSTON CHURCHILL'S NOVELS + + +Mr. Crewe's Career Illustrated + +"Another chapter in his broad, epical delineation of the American +spirit.... It is an honest and fair story.... It is very interesting; +and the heroine is a type of woman as fresh, original, and captivating +as any that has appeared in American novels for a long time past."--_The +Outlook_, New York. + +"Shows Mr. Churchill at his best. The flavor of his humor is of that +stimulating kind which asserts itself just the moment, as it were, after +it has passed the palate.... As for Victoria, she has that quality of +vivid freshness, tenderness, and independence which makes so many modern +American heroines delightful."--_The Times_, London. + + +The Celebrity. An Episode + +"No such piece of inimitable comedy in a literary way has appeared for +years.... It is the purest, keenest fun."--_Chicago Inter-Ocean._ + + +Richard Carvel Illustrated + +"... In breadth of canvas, massing of dramatic effect, depth of feeling, +and rare wholesomeness of spirit, it has seldom, if ever, been surpassed +by an American romance."--_Chicago Tribune._ + + +The Crossing Illustrated + +"'The Crossing' is a thoroughly interesting book, packed with exciting +adventure and sentimental incident, yet faithful to historical fact both +in detail and in spirit."--_The Dial._ + + +The Crisis Illustrated + +"It is a charming love story, and never loses its interest.... The +intense political bitterness, the intense patriotism of both parties, +are shown understandingly."--_Evening Telegraph_, Philadelphia. + + +Coniston Illustrated + +"'Coniston' has a lighter, gayer spirit and a deeper, tenderer touch +than Mr. Churchill has ever achieved before.... It is one of the truest +and finest transcripts of modern American life thus far achieved in our +fiction."--_Chicago Record-Herald._ + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Poppea of the Post-Office, by Mabel Osgood Wright + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41440 *** |