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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57603 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           A DAUGHTER OF JEHU
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "A daughter of Jehu, for behold she driveth furiously."
+[PAGE 50]
+]
+
+
+
+
+                               A DAUGHTER
+                                OF JEHU
+
+                                   BY
+                           LAURA E. RICHARDS
+         AUTHOR OF "ABIGAIL ADAMS AND HER TIMES," "PIPIN," ETC.
+
+
+                             [Illustration]
+                              ILLUSTRATED
+
+
+                        [Music: THE DUKE OF LEE]
+
+
+                        D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+                        NEW YORK         LONDON
+                                  1918
+
+
+
+
+                          COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY
+                        D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+
+                Printed in the United States of America
+
+
+
+
+                                   TO
+                          HENRIETTE AND MOLLY
+                             WITH MUCH LOVE
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS
+
+                                                                PAGE
+    Prologue                                                       1
+    CHAPTER
+         I. Cyrus      .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   5
+        II. Enter Kitty    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .  17
+       III. Ross House     .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .  29
+        IV. The Home Guard .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .  41
+         V. The Neighbors  .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .  51
+        VI. Johanna Ex Machina .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .  67
+       VII. A Symposium    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .  80
+      VIII. The Trivial Round  .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .  98
+        IX. The Skeleton in Cyrus' Cupboard    .   .   .   .   . 113
+         X. The Party      .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 126
+        XI. On the Rialto      .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 150
+       XII. Wilson Wimberley Wibird        .   .   .   .   .   . 167
+      XIII. Pilot      .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 186
+       XIV. Johanna Rediviva       .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 200
+        XV. Largely Literary       .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 212
+       XVI. Psycho-Cardiac Processes       .   .   .   .   .   . 222
+      XVII. Kitty Sings    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 237
+     XVIII. Old Love and New       .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 252
+       XIX. "The Trivial Round"    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 265
+        XX. The Pan-American       .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 276
+       XXI. The Tribulations of Cyrus      .   .   .   .   .   . 289
+      XXII. The Duke of Lee    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 303
+     XXIII. Haste to the Wedding!      .   .   .   .   .   .   . 316
+
+
+
+
+                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+    "A daughter of Jehu, for she driveth furiously"      _Frontispiece_
+                                                                 FACING
+                                                                  PAGE
+
+    "Oh, Judge, I've come home, I've come home!".....................18
+
+    "Filling his pockets with gold, Tom strolled happily
+      through the streets of Peking, looking in at all the
+      bazaars"......................................................172
+
+    --then the Duke of Lee took his bride away......................323
+
+
+
+
+                           A DAUGHTER OF JEHU
+
+
+                                PROLOGUE
+
+
+The June sun, lighting up the yard of the big white house, lights up a
+pretty scene. To begin with, the yard is pretty in itself, with its
+stretch of emerald lawn, its trim gravel sweep, its linden tree, in
+which the bees are humming, its fragrant masses of purple lilac; but
+though one feels all these things, one looks at the people in the yard.
+Two ladies, in light summer dresses, sitting on the steps by the kitchen
+door; two children, riding a pony by turns, shrieking with glee. Both
+ladies are good to look at: one, she in the pale green muslin, is so
+lovely that it takes one's breath; like a dark lily, with her pale clear
+skin, her shadowy hair and eyes, her bending grace and languor. The
+other contrasts with her prettily enough: a tall, powerful young
+creature, vigor in every line of her, color flashing in her red-gold
+hair, in her dark blue eyes, in the shell-pink of her cheeks. She is in
+white, as befits her; this type should wear white always. A white dimity
+gown, made with absolute simplicity, this again contrasting with the
+green muslin, which is flounced and ruffled and lace-trimmed, as if the
+lily had clad herself in fronds of the lady fern. The two are talking
+earnestly together, their eyes on the shouting children.
+
+"No, Eleanor! no! you are wrong. Kitty shall know nothing, if I can help
+it, but what is lovely. Think of St. Paul: 'Whatsoever things are pure,
+whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if
+there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.'
+My Kitty shall think on these things, and on nothing else."
+
+"Very well, my dear! but that will never do for my Tom. He must worship
+the God of things as they are. The public school for Tommy, the very
+minute he strikes six! He must rub shoulders with the ashman's children,
+the washerwoman's, the----"
+
+"_Eleanor!_ Kitty shall never know that the washerwoman _has_ any
+children! She shall not _touch_, if I can help it, anything that is rude
+or squalid or ugly. No, no! My little flower shall be 'a gentlewoman of
+high quality'! And she shall marry the Duke of Lee, and go to the King's
+levee, or at least to the President's. I don't dare to say, you fierce
+republican, that I wish we had a King! Come here, Kitty my Pretty, and
+dance the 'Duke of Lee' with Tommy! He shall be the duke--you'd love to
+be a duke, wouldn't you, Tommy? See! now Kitty is a gentlewoman of high
+quality, and she picks up her petticoats--pick them up, Kitty!--and you
+make a low bow, so! left hand on your heart, Tom, right hand on your
+sword--so! Now dance, while I sing!"
+
+The boy is perhaps eight years old, the girl six. Here, too, is
+contrast; Tommy Lee, a sturdy, square-shouldered, rosy urchin, Kitty
+Ross a slender windflower of a child, with all her mother's lissome
+grace, but with the fair hair and steady gray eyes of her father. They
+are both on the pony digging their heels into his side and shouting to
+him to "Go on! go _won_, Rosy Nanty!" Rosinante meanwhile, standing
+firm, revolving in his mind whether to rub them off gently against the
+fence, or to lie down and make believe go to sleep. They are his second
+generation of children; he knows all about them.
+
+At the call, they slide down and come running. Everybody does what Mary
+Ross bids. Readily enough they take place opposite each other: they
+often dance together. Tom is a bit clumsy, but Kitty has grace enough
+for two, her mother thinks; indeed, so does Tom's mother. Now Mary Ross,
+leaning forward, claps her hands, and begins to sing:
+
+    "When the Duke of Lee would marriéd be
+    To a gentlewoman of high quality,
+    How happy would that gentlewoman be
+    When she's blest with the duke's good company!
+    Marry oo diddy glu, diddy glu glu glu,
+    Diddy oo oo oo, diddy goo goo goo,
+    Marry oo diddy goo, diddy oo oo oo,
+    Marry oo, diddy glu, diddy glu!
+
+    "And she shall have silks and satins for to wear;
+    And a coach and six for to take the air;
+    And she shall ride in St. James's Square;
+    And no lady in the city shall with her compare!
+    Marry oo, etc.
+
+    "And she shall go to the king's levee,
+    And dance a minuet with his majestie;
+    And she shall the very finest be
+    Of all the great nobility!
+    Marry oo," etc.[1]
+
+    [1] Republished by permission of The Page Company from "The Wooing
+        of Calvin Parks" and "Up to Calvin's," by Laura E. Richards.
+        Copyright, 1908 and 1910, respectively, by The Page Company.]
+
+"Oh! Eleanor, aren't they darlings? Aren't they _darlings_? They simply
+_are_ the Duke and the Gentlewoman! What if--oh, Eleanor, dear!"
+
+The little creatures dance sedately, tiptoeing here, pirouetting there.
+The young mothers clap their hands in time to the quaint, old-world
+tune. The pony stamps and whinnies, rather vexed at being left out of
+the fun after all. The June sun, shining through the linden branches,
+thinks, perhaps, that he has seen nothing prettier that day, nor for
+many days.
+
+Dance, little Duke! Dance, fairy Duchess! Sing and clap your hands,
+sweet, dark lily-lady! It is June, in the world and in your hearts;
+dance and sing while yet you may!
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I
+
+                                 CYRUS
+
+
+To understand this story, you must know something of the topography of
+Cyrus, which is like no other town in the State. (But every town says
+that of itself!)
+
+In the middle is the Common; square, green, with intersecting gravel
+paths, each with its marshaled rows of maples, which in summer are just
+trees, but in autumn turn to bowers and towers of scarlet and gold. On
+one side of the Common are the Churches, Congregational and Baptist; on
+two others the Houses, whereof anon; the fourth side, that fronting
+west, is mostly occupied by the Mallow House, where Mr. Marshall Mallow
+reigns as king and landlord. Under the hill runs the Street proper,
+where are the "stores": Abram Hanks's, where you may buy everything from
+pins to poplin, from buttons to bonnet wire; the general store, kept by
+Orison and Aquila Wesley--peace to their memory! they are gone now, but
+one never forgets the large sign which gave their names in full, black
+on white, spelled over in wonder by generations of children; the
+"bookstore"--how proud we were of having a bookstore! Tinkham had none,
+nor Tupham. There were not many books in it, it is true; a selection of
+fifty-cent novels, chosen (it was always supposed) by Miss Almeria
+Bygood for their "tone." Parents were perfectly safe in buying a book
+for their children at Bygood's; "Bygones," Cissy Sharpe called them;
+some of the novels, the shopworn ones, were let out at two cents a day.
+My first novel, "John Halifax," came from Bygood's; I read "St. Elmo,"
+too, and "Queechy," and learned from the latter that a heroine may weep
+on every page of two hundred and be none the worse for it. Mr. Bygood
+was very old even when I first remember him. He sat mostly in the back
+shop, reading the _Farmers' Almanac_; a venerable figure in a black
+frock coat with a high dickey. His blue eyes were full of kindness. If a
+child of his acquaintance (and what child was not?) came in to buy a
+paper or get a library book, he would utter a gentle bellow. Then Miss
+Almeria or Miss Egeria would give one a little push and say, "Go on,
+dear! Father wants to pass the time of day with you!"
+
+"Nothing could have supported little Margery under the affliction she
+was in for the loss of her brother but the pleasure she took in her two
+shoes. She ran to Mrs. Smith as soon as they were put on, and stroking
+down her ragged apron, cried out: 'Two Shoes, Ma'am; see Two Shoes!' And
+so she behaved to all the people she met, and by that means obtained the
+name of Little Goody Twoshoes."
+
+This was for little girls. Mr. Bygood did not care much for boys as a
+rule; but when Tom Lee came in he always produced "Marmaduke Multiply,"
+which was even older than Goody Twoshoes, and read to him from that.
+Dear Mr. Bygood! how kind he was! He had peppermints, too, sometimes,
+but I fear we were not always grateful for these: they were apt to be
+fuzzy, from carrying in his blue cotton handkerchief; and besides, was
+not Cheeseman's next door? But we have not come to Cheeseman's yet.
+
+Miss Almeria and Miss Egeria kept the shop, sold the daily paper (that
+came from Tinkham; Tinkham was larger, we had to admit that, though
+otherwise--well, no matter!) and the _Cyrus Centinel_, our own weekly;
+besides pens and paper and the above-described books. They were dear
+ladies, Miss Almeria and Miss Egeria: we loved them both, and much of
+the romance of old-time Cyrus--long before our own time, Kitty Ross's
+and mine--clustered about them. Miss Almeria was tall and handsome, with
+jet-black hair and eyes of brilliant Irish blue. She had a fine figure
+and great dignity, yet her laugh was as merry as Kitty's own.
+Apparently, half Cyrus had wanted to marry Miss Almeria: it was matter
+of common knowledge that Mr. Mallow had asked her five times, and Mr.
+Jordano three. Hannah Sullivan, who did our chores and waited at our
+parties, was a warm partisan of Mr. Mallow's, and could never meet Miss
+Almeria without crying, "He'll die but he'll have ye!" Mr. Mallow did
+not look as if he would die, but one never could tell.
+
+Miss Egeria was gentle and quiet, a still brook where her sister was a
+flashing rapid. She had her father's mild eyes and kind, hesitating way.
+She never seemed quite sure of anything, dear Miss Egeria, but would
+always appeal to her sister. "I wouldn't wonder but it rained to-morrow,
+would you, Almy?" And if Miss Almeria said crisply, "Nonsense, Gerie!
+there isn't a cloud in the sky," Miss Egeria would nod her curls with a
+gentle, "I wouldn't wonder if 'twas pleasant, after all!"
+
+Miss Egeria, if not such a belle as Miss Almeria, had yet had her
+admirers. We all knew that the two gentlemen disrespectfully known as
+"Twinnies" had loved Miss Egeria and her alone, the greater part of
+their meek lives. They were not twins, not even brothers; but cousins
+and closest friends, Mr. Jason and Mr. Josiah Jebus. They kept the
+Crewel Shop: it had been opened under that name during the last craze
+for crewel work in the seventies, and had never changed. As Mr. Jason
+said, if they changed with every turn of fashion in fancy work, where
+would they be?
+
+"Why not call it the Fancy Shop once for all, and stick to that?" Kitty
+Ross asked him once; but Mr. Jason shook his head. "That would sound
+frivolous, Katharine!" he said. "Josiah and I are not frivolous!"
+
+They were not. They carried on their funny little business with a
+gravity and decorum that was all their own. Mr. Jason, as a rule, did
+the selling, matched the worsteds and yarns, advised the selection of
+patterns. Mr. Josiah embroidered. He had a club foot, and walked very
+lame, but his fingers were wonderfully nimble; we loved to watch him, as
+seated at his embroidery frame, half hidden by the green rep curtain
+which divided the front shop from the back (the latter was their living
+room), he sent his needle flying back and forth with what seemed to us
+miraculous speed.
+
+The Crewel Shop was a tiny building, tucked in between Adams's and the
+Mallow House. A minute kitchen behind the back-shop-sitting-room, a
+bedroom above:--that was all, but it was enough for the little
+gentlemen. They never wanted to lose sight of each other; they had only
+one opinion between them on any subject. In this they differed from the
+Miss Bygoods. They did not appeal to each other; they simply said, "We
+think it will rain to-morrow." This was carried so far that one or the
+other might be heard, in "grippy" weather, to say, "We have a cold!" and
+Cissy Sharpe insisted--but one did not always believe Cissy
+implicitly--that that she had seen Mr. Jason on several occasions try to
+walk lame like Mr. Josiah.
+
+This being so, it was no more than natural that both gentlemen should
+have loved the same lady. Our theory (a knot of school girls gossiping
+over their noonday buns and pickled limes, we had a theory to fit
+everything in town) was that they had never told their love, for fear of
+interfering with each other. If this was true, it might have been hard
+on Miss Egeria, supposing her to have cared for either; but we somehow
+doubted if she ever had. They were so very mild, and their wigs (exactly
+alike, and dressed every month by Mr. Beard the barber--so appropriately
+named, we thought!) were such a peculiar shade of pinkish brown, and so
+palpably made of jute!
+
+My mother, who detested gossip, put an end one fine day to all our
+romancing about still-remaining possibilities for "Miss Bygoods" by
+telling us the simple truth; that the dear ladies had both lost their
+lovers in the Civil War, and had never thought of matrimony since. She
+added that Kitty and I were a pair of silly girls, and would much better
+study our algebra lesson than gossip about people who presumably knew
+their own affairs; Kitty and I went off with hanging heads, but more
+imbued than ever with sentimental melancholy.
+
+We couldn't help it, we agreed: Cyrus certainly _was_ a romantic place.
+There were so many interesting people; so many curious names! Mr. Very
+Jordano! How could a man be named Very Jordano and not be romantic? His
+mother was a Miss Very, but his father was--_must_ be--of Italian
+descent. Look at Mr. Jordano's hair, and eyes, and the way he wore that
+picturesque cloak, such as no one else in Cyrus would ever think of
+wearing. Mr. Jordano had no objection to our looking at his hair and
+eyes and cloak: his Italian aspect was his joy and pride, and he
+cultivated it sedulously. "A poor scribbler!" he was wont to say of
+himself. "A poor country editor, sir; but in my veins flows the blood
+of--h'm! ha! _nimporto!_" and then he would glance over his shoulder
+mysteriously, as if to see whether he was being followed, and curl his
+long mustache, and hum "Santa Lucia" as fiercely as that plaintive air
+can be hummed. He edited the _Centinel_, as I have said, and signed his
+own articles "Italio." When, as sometimes happened, his spelling of
+_Centinel_ was criticized, he would say: "It is the spelling used by Sir
+Walter Scott, sir! what is good enough for the Wizard of the North is
+good enough for me--tee! tee!"
+
+I have left Cheeseman's till the last, but it was first in our hearts
+and our thoughts. Mr. Ivory Cheeseman's candy shop and kitchen was the
+delight and the despair of every child in Cyrus. We knew to a nicety the
+day each kind of candy was made. Monday was peppermint day, Tuesday was
+devoted to caramels, Wednesday to sticks, Thursday to drops, and so on.
+We timed our visits accordingly, and I fear we were shameless little
+beggars, for though we clutched our legitimate "nickel" tight, prepared
+to surrender it when we had made our choice, we knew very well that if
+we were "pretty-behaved," Uncle Ivory would probably ask us to taste
+those lemon drops or to see if that batch of cream ribbon wasn't a
+little mite better than common. Dear Uncle Ivory! how we loved him,
+spite of the sharp tongue that was the terror of "slack" or unmannerly
+children!
+
+But this will never do. I am wandering all about Cyrus, shaking hands
+with everybody--I wish I could!--as if I still lived there, as if this
+were my own story; whereas, it is the story of Kitty Ross, and it is
+high time that I brought her in properly, instead of letting her whisk
+round an occasional corner, as she has hitherto been doing.
+
+The story begins with Kitty's return to Cyrus after her mother's death.
+Her father had died two years before. Mrs. Ross--the gay, lovely,
+flower-like little lady, who had never felt a rough wind while he
+lived--could not stay long after him. She and Kitty went abroad, and
+wandered about here and there. Then came the panic, and most of the
+comfortable property Dr. Ross had left was swept away, I am not clear
+just how. Very little was left, and much of that little was invested in
+western railroads that paid no dividends. I will hurry over this part.
+Mrs. Ross drooped like a broken flower; drooped and died, and Kitty was
+left alone.
+
+If Tom Lee had been at home that year, this story would never have been
+written; but Tom was in China, building railways. So Kitty came back
+alone to Cyrus, where she was born and bred. Cyrus people are the
+kindest in the world, I believe. They may be fond of gossip (I don't
+find that a thousand miles away it is less popular) and they may be a
+trifle stiff-necked, like their Puritan ancestors before them, but kind
+they certainly are. Ever since the news of Mrs. Ross's death came, Cyrus
+had been asking, what _would_ Kitty do? The money was gone, practically
+gone, Judge Peters said. There was enough for her clothes and fal-lals,
+but little more, sir, little more. Something must be thought of.
+Some--thing--must--be--thought--of. The judge looked and spoke
+cheerfully, because he had already thought of something. He was Dr.
+Ross's executor, and who had a better right, he would like to know?
+
+The Miss Bygoods, talking together in low tones, while Father nodded
+over the fire, voiced the same sentiment. The dear child! they said. Of
+course she could not stay in that great house alone, even with Sarepta.
+Sarepta was good and faithful, of course, and an excellent cook, as
+everyone knew; but she was no companion for Kitty, even if her temper
+were not--well, uncertain.
+
+"I think the little blue room, Sister!" said Miss Almeria. "There are
+bluebirds on the paper, you know, and Kitty always made me think of a
+bluebird. Dear me! how pleasant to think of having a young creature in
+the house again!"
+
+"And oh, sister!" Miss Egeria beamed softly over her tatting. "We can
+give her a little Society! Nothing elaborate, of course, only ice-cream
+and sponge-drops, but--wandering about the Continent as she has
+been--not that I mean a word in criticism of dear, sainted Mrs. Ross;
+no, indeed! but to meet Cyrus people, and have a little social life,
+will mean a great deal to dear Kitty. I mean when she puts on half
+mourning, of course."
+
+Miss Almeria pondered.
+
+"I wish there were more young people!" she said. "There is no better
+society than that of Cyrus, but--but we must acknowledge that most of
+our agreeable people are--a--mature, and Kitty is so young!"
+
+"There is Wilson Wibird;" Miss Egeria spoke timidly. "Wilson is young."
+
+Miss Almeria looked grave.
+
+"Wilson is young!" she acknowledged with a dignified bend of her
+handsome head. "I fear there is little more to be said in his favor."
+She paused. Wilson Wibird had been in Egeria's Sunday School class, and
+she could not bear to think ill of him. Why give pain? thought Miss
+Almeria.
+
+"I cannot think that Kitty would find him interesting!" she concluded.
+
+Interesting, indeed! Miss Almeria had never heard Wilson Wibird
+shrieking from the gutter, "Ma! Ma! Kitty Ross knocked me down and
+trompled on me!"
+
+"And there are the Chanters!" Miss Egeria spoke more confidently, as
+Miss Almeria's face lightened.
+
+"Yes, there are the Chanters. They will be pleasant playmates for Kitty:
+they are young, and gay: I almost think--I fear--Zephine and Rodney may
+sometimes be a little _too_ gay, sister, but perhaps not. Yes, the
+Chanters will certainly be a resource; still, my dear, we must
+acknowledge that there have been great changes in Cyrus. It is not what
+it was in our youth."
+
+And Miss Egeria did acknowledge it meekly.
+
+Mr. Marshall Mallow, at the Mallow House, made a careful examination of
+his rooms about this time; studying wall-papers, carpets and
+decorations, with meticulous care. One room, he decided, a pleasant
+corner room, facing south and west, could do with a new paper, and one
+or two nice "edgin's." "I don't care for these chromios," he said to
+Billy. (Billy was his clerk: if he had another name, I never knew it.)
+"They're too glarish. Give me a good edgin' or engravement!"
+
+Mr. Mallow's English was all his own, but nobody minded, because he
+never said anything unkind in it. He overflowed with warmth, like the
+rising sun, which, indeed, he somewhat resembled, with _his_ round, rosy
+face and polished head. He inherited the Mallow House from his father,
+who in turn had taken it from _his_ father, who built it. It was a
+family affair. Since old Mrs. Mallow died, Mr. Marshall (known as
+"Marsh" among his intimates) had been his own housekeeper, major-domo
+and butler. "I don't want no woman gormineerin' over me!" he often said;
+but this was when youth was past, and with it all hope of Miss Almeria;
+or so we girls maintained.
+
+The boarders at the Mallow House--but here I go wandering again. The
+boarders must wait.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II
+
+                              ENTER KITTY
+
+
+Judge Peters, tall and spare, in glossy frock coat and tall hat, met
+Kitty at the station. Miss Almeria Bygood was there, too, and Mr.
+Mallow. It was quite a getherin', the latter said: quite a getherin'.
+Gen'lly, he despised to see folks conjugating round the deepo, but this
+was an occasion, you see.
+
+Mr. Very Jordano, notebook in hand, keeping a sharp lookout for the
+train, agreed with him.
+
+"I expect Miss Kitty will be a distang young lady!" he said. "Traveled
+the world around; the world around. A select gathering is surely
+appropriate-tate-tate!"
+
+It must not be supposed that Cyrus was a place of individual dialects.
+Most of us spoke ordinary English or good, strong, racy Yankee; it was
+only these two gentlemen who were peculiar in their speech. Mr. Jordano
+had formerly had an impediment; was, in fact, a confirmed stutterer,
+till he came to man's estate. The story went that one day, wishing to go
+to Tupham, he found himself wholly unable to ask for a ticket. He stood
+before the friendly station master, gasping, scarlet, but uttering no
+sound.
+
+"Come, Very!" said Mr. Tosh. "Put a name to it! Where do you want to go?
+Train's due!"
+
+"T-T-T-" stammered Mr. Very, "T-T-T-_Damn it! I'll walk to Tupham!_"
+
+After this experience, he set himself, carefully and methodically, to
+remedy the defect: labored, suffered, finally conquered. I know not what
+his method was: I only know that he was apt to repeat the final syllable
+of a word, sometimes with singular effect. When he said, "Business is
+looking up-pup-pup," or "I fear I must be going now-wow-wow!" strangers
+were surprised. To us, it was as much a part of Mr. Jordano as his
+foreign idioms; foreign idiocies, Mrs. Sharpe called them. These were
+simply an assertion of his Italian descent. Nothing vexed him so much as
+to be addressed as "Jordan," a thing that happened now and then. "Names
+ending in O," he would say, "are invariably of Latin origin, Latin
+origin-gin-gin!"
+
+He set great store by the letter "O," and seemed to think that it could
+not fail to impart a Latin tinge to whatever word it adorned. His
+favorite exclamation, "Nimporto!" (pronounced as spelled) was an example
+of his method, if it could be called a method. He knew little of French
+vowel sounds, nothing of accents; _i_ was English _i_ to him, long or
+short as might be, except when it was mysteriously _a_. _Distingué_ was
+"distang," and so on. It is unlikely that he was acquainted with Mrs.
+Plornish, as he thought Dickens unrefined, and never read him; but his
+epithets sometimes rivaled those of that immortal lady.
+
+Here is the train, and here is--a fine lady? a flounced and furbelowed
+Frenchwoman, as Mrs. Sharpe predicted? No! just Kitty! our own Kitty,
+rather pale, rather larger-eyed than usual (which was unreasonable!)
+sweet and simple in her dark gray dress.
+
+"Very distang!" murmured Mr. Jordano, making a series of little bows
+over his note-book. "Oh, very distang, indeed!"
+
+"Kitty! my dear child!" Miss Almeria had her in her arms, and the fair
+head drooped a moment on that kind black satin shoulder; but only for a
+moment; then Kitty was herself again.
+
+"Dear Miss Almeria! how perfectly _darling_ of you! Oh, Judge! Oh, Mr.
+Mallow, I _am_ so glad to see you! And oh! if it isn't Mr. Jordano! How
+d'ye do, Mr. Jordano? Did you come to meet me, too? I do think you are
+the kindest people in the world! Oh, Judge, I've come home! I've come
+home!"
+
+[Illustration: "Oh, Judge, I've come home! I've come home!"]
+
+Kitty's voice quavered, and the tears came into her gray eyes, but she
+winked them away resolutely. Judge Peters blew his nose with a long,
+sonorous note. He had had a little speech of welcome all ready in the
+back of his head; nothing formal, just distinctive enough to mark the
+occasion; but all he found to say, and that gruffly, without an atom of
+his beautiful Court manner, was: "How are you, Kitty? How are you? Glad
+to see you!"
+
+Mr. Jordano was hardly more fortunate, even though he had written down
+his remarks the night before, and committed them to memory while shaving
+that morning. But he began bravely:
+
+"Miss Kitty, I bid you welcome to your native heath! This day--a--every
+inhabitant of Cyrus--a--will be marked with a white letter and a red
+stone--I--I would say a red letter and a white stone-tone-tone. The
+Graces--a--the Muses----" Mr. Jordano hesitated and was lost.
+"Nimporto!" he said hastily. "I am glad to see you, Miss Kitty; you are
+looking well, my dear young lady, considering everything-ting-ting!"
+
+Mr. Jordano retired in confusion, flourishing his note-book nervously.
+Mr. Mallow's turn had come. Taking both Kitty's hands, he shook them up
+and down solemnly, as if working a double pump.
+
+"How are you, Kitty?" he said huskily. "Pretty well, thank ye! My
+bronical tubes don't conjingle, that's all. Well! well! well! how about
+it? Lots of water in the 'Tlantic Ocean, eh? Treat you pretty well, did
+they? Find anything better than the Mallow House in them foreign
+caravans? Bet you didn't!"
+
+Here the Chanters swept round the corner, rosy, breathless, shouting,
+"Late, as usual!" and the reception was over. There could be no ceremony
+where the Chanters were. The three girls enveloped Kitty in exclamatory
+embraces: the three boys (well-grown youths, but always boys!) hovered
+about, as nearly embarrassed as Chanters could be, cracking their
+finger-joints and getting in a word when they could. It was something
+like this:
+
+Trebles: "You dear, darling, delicious _Thing!_ It _is_ too simply
+heavenly to get you back! Oh, Kitty, it _is_ so rapturous!"
+
+Basses: "Great, Kitty! awf'lly glad!"
+
+Trebles: "My _dear_, I can't believe it is you, though you _do_ look so
+deliciously natural, you darling!"
+
+Basses: "Corking, Kitty! looking awf'lly well!"
+
+Trebles: "_Isn't_ she? Only a _scrap_ shadowy, but it makes her eyes all
+the bigger. _Kitty!_ They are a mile round at _least_! I never saw--Oh,
+you _precious_ Thing, I _must_ kiss you again! Won't you give the boys
+just _one_--"
+
+Basses: "Oh! I say!" _Exeunt_, blushing peony red.
+
+It had been decided that Nelly Chanter should have tea that first night
+with Kitty. Miss Egeria Bygood had held an anxious consultation with
+Sarepta, the Ruler of Ross House. Miss Bygoods had hoped to have Kitty
+at their house this first evening; Miss Egeria advanced the proposition
+rather tremulously. What did Sarepta think? It would be _such_ a
+pleasure to Father: Kitty had always been his favorite: there happened
+to be a sweetbread in the house--
+
+Sarepta fixed her with an inscrutable pale blue eye.
+
+"No'm! thankin' you all the same, but it can't be done. She's best off
+in her own home at the first of it. I've got everything provided. But
+it's real kind of you!" she added, relenting. "I'll tell her you asked
+her, and she'll be just as pleased."
+
+"Oh!" Miss Egeria had been making little plaintive sounds, like a
+deprecating bird. "But do you think, Sarepta--won't it be sad for the
+dear child, all alone--not that you are not excellent company, Sarepta!"
+
+"Ask Nelly Chanter!" Sarepta evidently had it all arranged in her mind.
+"I was goin' to send word to her, but if you would! She has the most
+sense of any of 'em. And she's young!"
+
+Sarepta did not mean to be cruel, but the thing must be understood. It
+was understood: Miss Egeria bowed her head meekly.
+
+John Tucker had waited till the first rush of Chanters was over. He now
+advanced quietly, and touching his hat with a twinkle of welcome, took
+possession of Kitty's bag.
+
+"Glad to see you, Miss Kitty!" he said. "The checks, Miss? I'll see to
+your trunks. Pilot's round the corner."
+
+"Oh, John!" Kitty's face broke into a wholly new combination of smiles.
+"Shake hands, John! Aren't you glad to see me? Oh, I am _so_ glad to see
+you! How's Mary? And the children? Sarepta is well, of course! She
+wouldn't dare to be anything else, with me coming home: not that she
+ever was!"
+
+Now, how exactly like John Tucker! All in a moment, with no word, with
+hardly a look, he had got Kitty away from the eager group of friends,
+each of whom was waiting for a little private word with her; had tucked
+her into the sleigh, given the checks to the expressman (who had rather
+hoped he might get a word and a glance, too), chirruped to Pilot, and
+whisked round the corner out of sight. Exactly like John Tucker!
+
+"How mean of John!" cried Zephine Chanter. "Why, I hadn't time to see
+her dress, or anything!"
+
+"John Tucker's movements are quick-wick-wick!" said Mr. Jordano. "We may
+as well be jogging, neighbors. Miss Almeria, may I accommodate my steps
+to yours as far as the corner?"
+
+The little group dispersed, Miss Bygood and Mr. Jordano departing first,
+a stately pair.
+
+"Aren't they _too_ delicious?" demanded Zephine Chanter, looking after
+them. "Don't you think they might hit it off after all, Lina? Hannah
+Sullivan says he'll die but he'll have her!"
+
+"Hannah Sullivan has said that of Mr. Mallow for twenty-five years,
+mother says!" Lina, the eldest and quietest of the Chanters, spoke
+reprovingly, "and--and I wouldn't, Zephine, if I were you!"
+
+"I know you wouldn't, Sobersides dear; but I would, you see! Where's
+Nelly? Nell, mind you notice every stitch she has on. _Disgusting_ of
+Sarepta to ask you instead of me--but perfectly right, you darling
+thing! Come on, girls! The boys have gone. Weren't they _too_ craven!
+when, of course, they were dying to!"
+
+Speeding along the level, jogging up the hill, John Tucker kept his eyes
+fixed steadily between Pilot's sharp-pricked ears, and kept up a steady
+stream of cheerful talk which enabled Kitty to cry quietly into her muff
+and no harm done. Yes, they was all well, he guessed. Mary had had one
+of them spells last summer, but she was rugged now, and the children
+similar. Sarepty was in her usual health, fur as he knew: he never knew
+anything to ail Sarepty. He didn't know but 'twas because she was so
+poor of flesh: nothin' for sickness to take holt of, or so it appeared.
+Bones wasn't liable to ail any, he guessed. What say?
+
+"John Tucker, how you talk!" Kitty was actually laughing, a quavering
+little laugh, but still--"As if bones didn't ache when people have
+rheumatism! Dear me! how is old Mrs. Tosh, John?"
+
+"I couldn't say, Miss Kitty; that is, not precisely. She ain't livin',
+Mis' Tosh ain't--at the present time!" John added gravely, with an air
+of guarding his words carefully. "She passed away--yes'm! 'Twas about
+the time we lost old Victory."
+
+"Is Victory dead? Oh, John! the dear old horse! Why, she was the first
+horse I ever drove. Don't you remember Father giving me the reins, and
+dear Mother being so frightened?"
+
+"I do, Miss!" John Tucker's face, which had been carefully wooden till
+now, broke into curiously carved wrinkles of laughter. "I'll remember
+that, I guess, long as I remember anything. Little tyke you was--excuse
+me, Miss Kitty!"
+
+"I certainly was! go on, John!"
+
+"Six years old, warn't you? Or not more'n seven anyhow. 'You may drive
+round to the stable, Daughterkin!' says Doctor, and puts the reins in
+your little mites of hands. 'Yes, Doctor,' says you. 'I'll drive round!'
+and you took them reins, and before any one could so much as wink, you
+was out of the yard, cuttin' down the ro'd full chisel--gee whiminy! I
+can see you now. Your Ma hollered right out, and I don't wonder,
+fraygile as she was. I know it took _my_ breath away. Why, I never see
+anything go so quick. It appeared like you and Victory had got it fixed
+up between you, so to speak. Doctor himself was took aback, I could see
+that, the way he winked his eyes, but he wouldn't let on.
+
+"'Don't be frightened, Mary,' he says. 'The little imp has a good grip,
+and Victory is as kind as kindness!' he says. All the same, I noticed he
+was lookin' pretty sharp up the ro'd! And when he see the old mare's
+nose come round the corner, gee whiminy! he slaps his leg and hollers
+out, 'A daughter of Jehu!' he says, quotin' Scriptur', I believe, the
+way he did. 'A daughter of Jehu, for behold she driveth furiously!'"
+
+Kitty was laughing outright now.
+
+"Dear Papa! I _was_ a little imp, wasn't I, John?"
+
+"Yes, Miss, you sure was. But yet--" John Tucker, cocking his head
+argumentatively, ventured for the first time to look at his companion,
+saw her face firm and cheerful, and went on with confidence--"but yet
+you knew what you was about well enough. You'd ben handlin' the ribbons
+a year or more goin' to and from the stable, 'longside o' me or your Pa:
+you was tough as hickory, and you was knowledgeable: there warn't
+nothing to be scared of. 'A daughter of Jehu!' says Doctor, 'for behold
+she driveth furiously. Here she comes, Mary! she's all right!' He
+laughed right out, and then he pulls his face straight, and looks mighty
+solemn, and you come lickety-split along the ro'd and turned in the gate
+as neat as a whistle, and pulls up front the door. I says to myself,
+'Wal!' I says; 'that young one,' I says, 'is all right!' And so it has
+proved."
+
+"Nice John! Thank you, John! And we've been friends ever since, haven't
+we? But Papa scolded me, didn't he?"
+
+"He did, Miss. 'You little imp,' he says, 'I told you to drive round to
+the stable!' 'Yes, Papa dear,' you says: I can hear you now. 'So I did,
+dear Papa; round the square!' He had to laugh then, would he or wouldn't
+he!"
+
+"Victory could have made just as good a turn without me!" said honest
+Kitty. "She was as wise as three ordinary horses; and she knew the way
+round that turn as well as the way into her own stall. She was pretty
+old even then, John, wasn't she?"
+
+"Victory," said John Tucker, slowly, "was thirty-five years old when she
+died this spring. I set out to write you, but I couldn't seem to. Kind
+o' broke me up, losin' her. She was the first hoss ever I come to know
+and care for. Lemme see! I come to work for Doctor thirty years ago this
+winter. Victory was five years old, and she was a pictur! prettiest hoss
+I ever see, bar none. Well! now you might be--?"
+
+"Twenty!" said Kitty.
+
+"That's right! And Vict'ry was twenty that time you driv her round the
+square. She kep' smart right along up to the last week, old mare did: I
+didn't drive her any last summer, only once in a while, so's her
+feelin's wouldn't be hurt, seein' the other hosses go out. She'd whinny
+out just as _askin'_! 'Why ain't I goin' out?' she'd say, plain as any
+person need to speak. Then I'd put her in the light sulky and drive her
+up and down the ro'd a piece, and she'd antic round and toss up her head
+as if she was the President's wife goin' to meetin'."
+
+"I hope she didn't suffer, John?"
+
+"No'm! no! she died like a Christian, the old mare did. One night she
+wouldn't take her sugar; I allers gave her the sugar, like you told me,
+Miss Kitty--"
+
+"Dear, good John! Thank you, John!"
+
+"So I suspicioned what was comin', seein' her age and all. I told
+S'repty, and she brung out an extry good mash, but 'twas no use. Old
+mare laid down, and we set there with her. She looked at me real lovin',
+and put her nose in my hand, and I rubbed her, and S'repty rubbed her;
+and 'long about ten o'clock she just stretched out and passed away, same
+as if she was a person."
+
+John Tucker cleared his throat and was silent for a few minutes; then he
+addressed Pilot, his present joy and pride, with some asperity:
+
+"Git ap, you! No reason for _your_ goin' to sleep that I know of. Miss
+Kitty--" he glanced sidelong at his companion--"the ro'd's first rate
+here on the level. I didn't know but you might like to drive a spell--"
+
+"Oh, John!" Kitty looked down ruefully at the gray suède gloves which
+had seemed just the right thing for traveling. Pilot had a pretty solid
+mouth. "If I only had some decent gloves!" she sighed.
+
+With a sheepish look, John Tucker fumbled in an outside pocket and
+pulled out a stout pair of leather gloves, fur-lined.
+
+"S'repty wouldn't give 'em to me!" he chuckled; "but I remembered the
+drawer where you kep' 'em. You'll need 'em. I kep' him in yes'day
+a-puppose."
+
+With a flashing, "Oh, John! You _are_ a darling!" Kitty almost snatched
+the gloves from him. Another moment, and they were speeding along the
+level, a swallow-flight which brought the blood to the girl's pale
+cheeks and the light to her eyes.
+
+"I tell ye!" chuckled John Tucker. "Gee whiminy! Go it, Miss Kitty, he's
+fresh: I kep' him in yes'day a-puppose."
+
+Kitty chirruped; Pilot tossed his handsome head and sped on the faster.
+
+"If I am a daughter of Jehu," said Kitty, "I might as well live up to my
+name, John Tucker!"
+
+So it came to pass that when Kitty Ross came home to her father's house,
+it was with a rush and a swirl that brought Sarepta flying from the
+kitchen in a panic, dish-cloth in one hand, stove-lifter in the other.
+
+"My land of the living!" cried Sarepta. "That John Tucker!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III
+
+                               ROSS HOUSE
+
+
+The Ross house stood--_stands_, thank heaven!--on the north side of the
+Common, between Judge Peters's and Madam Flynt's, its front windows
+facing due south. The main body of the house is of brick, the two wings
+and the portico with its Doric columns, of wood; all gleaming white,
+with blinds of exactly the right shade of green. The front fence (Cyrus
+has not done away with its fences; it would scorn to do so. "When I wish
+to move into my neighbor's yard," says Madam Flynt, "I shall ask his
+permission first." And Miss Almeria Bygood says, "I prefer to live _on_
+the street, not _in_ it") is of iron, with chains and tassels
+elaborately looped; the posts of white brick, surmounted by wooden balls
+large enough for a child to sit on with some measure of comfort. The
+gate, a beautiful affair of handwrought iron (a testimonial to Dr. Ross
+from a grateful blacksmith) was made, one would think, to be swung on.
+Near the bottom were four grapevine circles, into which two pairs of
+small feet fitted perfectly; while the smooth bar across the top was
+manifestly intended for the resting of dimpled chins and the grasping of
+chubby hands. Then, its squeak! At the friendly sound, Kitty Ross
+glanced down, and all her childhood came flooding back.
+
+"Ah, Tommy!" she sighed. "Ah, Duke! We are too big now, even if you were
+anywhere."
+
+Then the door opened, and there stood Sarepta Darwin, just as she had
+stood at similar home-comings all Kitty's lifetime.
+
+"Come in this minute, child!" she said. "You had the life nigh scared
+out of me. You, John Tucker, you'd ought to be ashamed of yourself, at
+your time of life!"
+
+"That's just it, S'repty," chuckled John. "I've outgrown the sensation!"
+
+"Don't scold, Sarepta dear!" said Kitty. "I've come home!"
+
+Sarepta snorted, and turned her head away. No one had ever seen a tear
+in that wintry blue eye, and no one ever should. The idea!
+
+"You're froze, I expect," she said severely, "speedin' like that in this
+cold. Come in to the fire! Nelly Chanter's comin' to supper with you and
+spend the night, but I thought you'd want to get your things off first."
+
+Home! After all the wandering, all the longing: home at last! Kitty had
+enjoyed much of the time abroad. Endless wonder, endless beauty; she
+rejoiced to have seen it; but the place where she was born, the
+countryside where she belonged, meant more to her than all the glories
+of Europe and Asia. So long as her mother was with her, so long as
+anything strange or fair could lift the languid head or bring a gleam of
+light to the sad eyes, on they must go, wherever the brightest way
+seemed to point: but when it was over, and the weary body which held the
+gay, innocent, flower-like soul, was hid quietly in the churchyard at
+Vevey, there was but one thought in Kitty's mind. The English cousins,
+the kind Swiss friends, might plead as they would; they all wanted her;
+it would mean so much to them if she would make her home with them.
+Kitty thanked them all with tears, and took the next and swiftest
+steamer for home.
+
+A plain square hall, with stairs going up at one side; old prints on the
+walls: Regulus and the Carthaginian Ambassadors, Cornelia, Mother of the
+Gracchi:--Kitty had a loving glance for all: the very oilcloth felt
+friendly under her feet. Had not Grandfather Ross laid it down fifty
+years ago, when oilcloth was oilcloth, and not, as dear Father used to
+say, brown paper and fish glue?
+
+It was late January, but the Christmas wreaths still hung in the
+windows, the fir boughs over the picture-frames. The mail-table, with
+its scales and weights, the barometer, the hanging shelf where garden
+baskets and implements slept the long winter away--Kitty's glance took
+them all in lovingly.
+
+"Fire's in the settin' room!" said Sarepta.
+
+Kitty turned to the right, and entered the room she loved best in the
+world. Shabby, Mrs. Sharpe called the sitting room of Ross House. If it
+was shabby, no one but Mrs. Sharpe knew it. The rugs were worn, it is
+true, the original patterns lost in a warm blending of reds and blues,
+but they were still thick and soft, and only Sarepta knew of the mended
+places. The wallpaper had not been changed since the memory of man. Why
+should it be, when it was in perfect condition? And how much of it was
+visible anyhow? Mellow, rich, warm: one sought for other kindred words,
+feeling the friendly harmony of everything from the Piranesi etchings to
+the books which lined half the walls and lay on every available flat
+surface. The fireplace occupied most of one side, the fire leaped and
+crackled behind the high fender--not so high as it used to be, Kitty,
+when you and Tom "stumped" each other to climb on it and grimace at your
+reflections in the round balls of the andirons. A leather sofa stood
+before the fireplace: well! I grant that the sofa was shabby, but who
+cared? Never was another, old or new, to compare with it in comfort.
+Kitty sank down on it now, and stretched her hands to the blaze, and
+made a little sound, half moan, half coo, of utter thankfulness.
+Sarepta, erect in the doorway, hands folded over her spotless apron, had
+the air of waiting for something. Presently Kitty spoke over her
+shoulder, her eyes still fixed on the fire.
+
+"She didn't suffer at all, Sarepta!"
+
+Sarepta grunted.
+
+"She just faded away quietly, like a flower. It was like--do you
+remember how I used to put the hollyhocks in the little black pool,
+under the trees? They didn't wither or crumple up, they just grew more
+transparent, day by day, till at last they seemed almost to melt into
+the water: it was more like that than anything else."
+
+Sarepta grunted again. "Got your feet wet reg'lar every time you did
+it!" she said.
+
+"She knew she was going," the clear lovely voice went on, as if
+repeating a lesson. "She asked me to--to leave her there, among the
+flowers: she was so tired, she thought it would trouble her in heaven to
+know that--it--was being carried about. And then--she said--'Go home,
+darling! Go home to--Sarepta and John Tucker: they will--take--care--'"
+
+The clear voice faltered, broke: Sarepta Darwin threw her apron over her
+head and went away.
+
+An hour later, a composed and cheerful Kitty was greeting Nelly Chanter,
+who came in rosy and breathless as usual, full of tender incoherence.
+
+"Darling Kitty! so heavenly of Sarepta to ask me to come! I _didn't_
+mean to be--oh, Kitty, you are home again! I thought you _never_--what a
+perfectly delicious kitten!"
+
+All the embarrassment was Nelly's, and she did not quite know what to
+make of the sensation, an unfamiliar one to Chanters; but she was, as
+Sarepta said, the most sensible of them, and followed Kitty's lead
+readily. The trunks had come, Kitty said; they wouldn't begin really to
+unpack, it was too near supper time, but she must just open the little
+leather one, and get out--come along!
+
+Up the stairs they went, every step holding its greeting for Kitty,
+every touch of the carved rail sending its little thrill through her;
+round the turn, up to the landing, where the orange tree was in full
+fruitage--one, two, three,--_twelve_ oranges!
+
+"Do look, Nelly! Sarepta is a wonder, isn't she?"
+
+Past the door from which the voice had always called as she went by,
+"Kitty my Pretty! is that you?"--silent now; the door open, of course,
+Sarepta knew enough for that, but not to be glanced at yet--not yet! So
+into her own room opposite, where the fire crackled as gayly as in the
+room below, and the curtains were drawn and the candles lighted.
+
+The little leather trunk, being investigated, yielded up a lace blouse,
+the most exquisite dream of a thing, according to Nelly, that ever was
+seen. It couldn't be for her! no! It wasn't possible! Reassured on this
+point, Nelly was overwhelmed. How could she ever, ever, _ever_ thank
+Kitty enough?
+
+"Hush, Nelly! it isn't half pretty enough for you. Tell me about
+everybody! Your mother is well, you say? How is Madam Flynt?"
+
+"Very well, except for her rheumatism. I saw her this morning: she sent
+her best love, and hopes you will come in to-morrow. She can't walk much
+in this slippery weather: she has been driving--" Nelly stopped
+suddenly, with a queer look: one would say a guilty look.
+
+Kitty, now in her white wrapper, brushing out her long fair hair before
+the glass, and looking, Nelly thought, like a heavenly mermaid, did not
+see the look.
+
+"Well, she wouldn't be driving next door anyhow," she said. "I'll run
+over right after breakfast. Let me see! I've seen all the dearest
+people, except your mother and Madam Flynt. Wasn't it darling of them to
+come to meet me? How handsome Miss Almeria looked! How are the Wibirds,
+Nell?"
+
+"Much as usual, I think. Melissa is poorly, but she keeps on at the
+Library. I don't think she's having a very good winter. Poor Melissa!"
+
+Nelly's rosy face clouded slightly.
+
+"Wilson?" Kitty spoke low.
+
+"Yes! pretty bad this winter, I'm afraid. Mrs. Wibird can't control him,
+nor any one else except Mr. Mallow and Billy."
+
+"How's Mr. Cheeseman?"
+
+"Oh, just the same! all agog to see you, like every one else. I was in
+there yesterday, and he was making every kind of candy you had ever
+liked since you were a baby, so he'd be sure to have the right thing on
+hand. And Mr. Bygood was so excited about your coming he got no nap
+yesterday, and Miss Egeria was so worried! But Miss Almeria told her joy
+was the best thing for the aged, so she cheered up. My dear, I think
+you'll have to go and see them _all_ to-morrow, or they will all pass
+away, and there will be no Cyrus left. _Kitty!_"
+
+"Yes, dear!"
+
+At Nelly's explosive utterance of her name, Kitty, whose toilet had been
+progressing while they talked, paused, slipper in hand.
+
+"What is it, Nelly?"
+
+"Oh, nothing! that is--well, Mother just wanted me to say that we hope
+you will come to live with us!"
+
+"Why, Nelly!"
+
+Nelly went on with a rush. "I know the house is small and crowded, but
+just listen! The boys are _dying_ to have you, simply dying! So they
+will sleep in the barn-chamber, and Zephine and I will take their room,
+and you will have ours. We've got it all planned out, and the boys have
+always wanted to have the barn-chamber, and they will fit it up
+themselves, so you see it will be the most convenient thing in the
+world, besides making us all so happy we want to dance whenever we think
+of it. Now, Kitty, say you'll think about it? Of course, you can't
+decide this moment, and of course the other houses are bigger, and you
+may say some of them are lonely--the people, not the houses!--but you
+_will_ think about it, Kitty, won't you, and remember that we spoke
+first!"
+
+Kitty's eyes were wide with astonishment, but full of affection.
+
+"Of course I will, Nelly! Why, I never heard of anything so kind in my
+life. Thank your dear mother a thousand times, and tell her--but I shall
+tell her myself. There's the bell! Come along. I'm sure Sarepta has
+pop-overs for us!"
+
+Sarepta had pop-overs for them, marvelous efflorescences of brown and
+gold, such as all Europe could not afford. Kitty exclaiming to this
+effect, Sarepta grimly supposed they hadn't the faculty, and drew
+attention to the creamed chicken and oysters, which were done the way
+Kitty used to like 'em, though Sarepta presumed she'd learned
+newer-fangled ways over there. Mebbe she wouldn't care. Reassured on
+this point, she handed the fried potatoes with a challenging air--she
+_knew_ no one could beat her there--and retired, to count over every
+word Kitty had said and store it away for future need.
+
+The girls fell to their supper as healthy, hungry girls should, and for
+a time conversation was chiefly exclamatory, dealing with the wonders of
+Sarepta's cookery. By and by, however, over the ice-cream which made it
+a "party," as they exclaimed with delight, and later, sitting on the
+sofa before the singing, purring fire, they had much talk, Kitty telling
+of things she had seen abroad, Nelly wondering, admiring, exclaiming.
+But always the talk would come back to Cyrus, the home of their hearts,
+and to the people who lived there. Only two thousand, all told, this
+including the three French families and the two "Polanders" down by the
+little woolen mill which was our one "industry," so that between them
+the two girls knew or knew of almost every one within the village
+limits. It was a farming community, save for the comfortable
+store-keepers, and the half dozen "tony" families as Mrs. Sharpe called
+them, whose ample mansions, white or yellow, had stood about the Common
+since Colonial days. Cyrus, her people were wont to say, did not _grow_:
+she _remained_. I don't know just why they were proud of this stationary
+quality, but they certainly were. For fifty years, the population had
+hardly changed; or to be accurate, it had changed in so gradual and
+regular a fashion that it always seemed the same. An accurate observer
+like Judge Peters would tell you that once in about thirty years there
+were more children: the schools were fuller, the wave of youth crept
+slowly up till street and meeting house blossomed with youths and
+maidens. Then, still gradually, the wave would recede: some of the lads
+went away to work, some of the lasses married "out-of-towners"; the
+numbers dwindled again, till in another thirty years another vigorous
+generation would come shouting to the front.
+
+"And _how_ is Savory Bite?" asked Kitty. "Does he still live alone?"
+(This gentleman's real name was Avery Bright, but he was never called by
+it.)
+
+"My dear, yes! No one goes near him: where is the use, when he won't let
+any one in? He did our garden last spring, and was just the same,
+snapping your head off if you spoke to him. I have never been in the
+house, though I have peeped in the window sometimes. It's always neat as
+wax, I'll say that for Savory."
+
+Kitty gave a little sudden laugh.
+
+"I've been in it!" she said. "Tom and I got in one day through the
+cellar; he had left the door unlocked. We got up into the kitchen, and
+had a wonderful time. You know everything is painted blue, floor,
+tables, chairs, everything? Well, naughty Tom had a piece of chalk in
+his pocket, and what does he do but write on the blue table in big
+letters,
+
+    "'Savory Bite,
+    Why not paint it white?'"
+
+A silence fell: then Nelly asked the question which had been on her
+tongue twenty times, and twenty times kept back.
+
+"Where is Tom, Kitty? Do you know?"
+
+Kitty looked straight at her with honest eyes.
+
+"I don't know, Nelly. I haven't heard one word from him. I wrote," she
+added, "when Father died--that was after Mrs. Lee's death, but I knew he
+was in Omaha, and I had his uncle's address--but I never had one word of
+answer."
+
+If a writer could only tell all she knows! That letter, Kitty, in which
+you poured out your sad heart to the lad who had been brother, playmate
+and boy lover ever since you can remember, is in the pocket of his
+uncle's spring overcoat, now laid away in camphor, till the first of
+May, when he changes from winter to spring clothes, regardless of
+weather. His uncle is not a villain, far from it; he would gladly
+forward the letter, only he does not know it is there, nor will till the
+above date.
+
+As for Tom's letter to you, Kitty, written about the same time, I don't
+know whose pocket that is in. He wrote it on board the steamer at San
+Francisco, and sent it back by the pilot: but it never reached you. It
+was a good letter, too. Tom knew nothing of Dr. Ross's death: full of
+his own recent loss of a beloved mother, he thought of you in your happy
+home with the two dear and delightful parents who seemed to belong
+almost equally to him--almost! He told you of his great "job"; he begged
+you to think of him whenever you had a minute to spare, but not to
+bother about writing, because he had no address to give beyond the
+Shanghai Bank, and he might not get back there for a year or two, from
+the way the job looked at this end. But you would know he was thinking
+about you, and you must be a good Cat and purr a great deal, and not
+scratch anybody except Wilson Wibird. And when he came back,
+Kitty--well, perhaps he'd better wait till then, but all the same you
+_knew_ well enough, so he remained yours always, The Duke of Lee.
+
+Yes, that letter would have comforted Kitty a great deal: it was a pity
+she did not get it.
+
+Tom, meanwhile, building bridges in a remote province of northern China,
+supposed comfortably that she had got it, and thought of her daily with
+great contentment.
+
+So things go--sometimes! And here is Sarepta with the bedroom candles.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV
+
+                             THE HOME GUARD
+
+
+Early next morning, Nelly was off for her school. Kitty, after waving
+her good-bye from the gate, went back into the house; into the kitchen,
+where she knew Sarepta was expecting her. "You come out quick as you get
+shet of her!" had been the mandate, which Kitty would never have thought
+of disobeying.
+
+"Dear kitchen!" she said. "I saw nothing like this, in Europe, Sarepta!"
+
+"I expect not!" said Sarepta, with a lift of her chin. "Take a seat!"
+
+Kitty sat down obediently in a Windsor chair, and looked about her with
+great content. Her eyes passed from the shining stove to the cupboard
+full of beautiful old blue crockery, the pride of Sarepta's heart; to
+the scarlet geraniums in the window, the yellow cat on her scarlet
+cushion. All good, all delightful. She had come home.
+
+"But what is all this, Sarepta?" asked Kitty.
+
+On the shining table sat a number of plump little bags, of stout
+unbleached cotton, bearing brief inscriptions in blackest ink. Kitty
+took them up one by one, and read in wonder: "Eggs," "Tomatoes,"
+"Sarce."
+
+"What in the world, Sarepta?"
+
+Sarepta, standing rigid, her hands folded in her apron, made austere
+reply.
+
+"There was no reason as I know of why things should go to waste. Your Ma
+wasn't fit to see to 'em before she went away. There wasn't no need she
+should. I should hope I knew _something_! This--" she took up the
+stoutest bag, "is the egg and chicken money. The hens has done real
+well; I've sold eggs and broilers and roosters. You count that!" She
+named a sum. "I expect it's right."
+
+"Sarepta! you dear, good soul! How could you--"
+
+"This is sarce!" Sarepta continued, taking up another bag. "Sugar was
+low and fruit was high, so I done well there too. I made two hundred
+glasses of currant jell, and three hundred of grape, and--"
+
+"But, Sarepta! What did you do with them all?"
+
+"Sold 'em! Mis' Flynt wasn't puttin' up, herself, this year, didn't want
+to bother with it. No more did Miss Bygoods. And Mr. Mallow gi' me the
+hull of his order, so you see--"
+
+"I see!" Kitty became thoughtful. "Sarepta--"
+
+"Well!" the answer was a snap, thrown backward over an uncompromising
+shoulder. Sarepta was suddenly very busy at the stove, rattling and
+raking with much commotion.
+
+"Sarepta! You didn't--you didn't _ask_ for these orders, did you?"
+
+Sarepta turned round; her face was like an iceberg carved with a
+jackknife.
+
+"Was your Pa satisfied with me?"
+
+"Sarepta! You know he adored you!"
+
+"Was your Ma satisfied with me?"
+
+"Sarepta dear! Don't be cantankerous!"
+
+"_Was_ your Ma satisfied with me?"
+
+"Of course she was! How can you--"
+
+"I made sarce before you was born or thought of!" Sarepta's tone
+expressed finality. "I've always made it--and I've never took it!" she
+added with a grim chuckle which splintered the iceberg in a singular
+way. "Anything else?" Sarepta's tone was amiable, but conveyed the idea
+that she had things to do, however it might be with other people.
+
+"Just one thing, Sarepta dear, and then I'll go. Have you taken your
+wages out of this money? If not, hadn't we better settle it now?"
+
+Sarepta made no immediate reply. Instead, she examined the draughts of
+the stove one by one, with meticulous care. Apparently satisfied with
+their condition, she next proceeded to brush the stove top (which did
+not need brushing) and to fill the kettle with ostentatious zeal. Kitty
+waited patiently, enjoying the kitchen and stroking the yellow cat.
+Finally, Sarepta washed her hands elaborately, rolled them in her apron,
+and turned round. So turning, she displayed the iceberg set again in
+rigid lines. The words appeared to freeze as they dropped from her lips.
+Sarepta had come to this house with Kitty's Ma, she intimated, when
+first she come here a bride.
+
+"Sarepta," Mrs. Ross had said, "this is my home, and it is yours, too,
+as long as you live." Was that so, or wasn't it?
+
+"Yes, Sarepta, that is true."
+
+"Well, then! I was offered a home, and I expect a home, long as I need
+it. When I want wages, I'll ask for 'em. It's likely I'd take 'em from a
+child like you."
+
+"_But_--" cried Kitty.
+
+"Butter!" replied Sarepta. Then they both felt better, for this was the
+give and take of Kitty's childhood.
+
+"But I do wish you would be reasonable, Sarepta! John Tucker has always
+had his wages, hasn't he?"
+
+"John Tucker has a wife and fam'ly. His wife has about as much gumption
+as a week-old guinea-pig, and the way that eldest boy of theirs is
+growin' up is enough to scare the feathers off a hen; he's got to have
+wages, of course. And I've had 'em, Kitty, all I wanted, and money in
+the bank. My uncle left me his farm and savin's, last year, if you
+_have_ to know. And if I'm pestered any more--" Sarepta's voice dropped
+to an ominous note--"I'll go and live there!"
+
+"There!" she added in a different tone. "You just let me do the way I
+want to, Kitty, and we'll get along first rate. I'm crotchety, but yet I
+mean well; only I can't bear to be crossed. Run along now, child, and
+take your money. I'd put it in the bank if I was you. I'm busy now," she
+added abruptly, as Kitty tried to speak. "Besides, that John Tucker
+wanted you should come out to the stable right away. Dinner at one
+o'clock!"
+
+"Dear me!" sighed Kitty, as she made her way toward the stable. "I feel
+just like Alice in Wonderland: I never was ordered about so in my life.
+Dear old thing! I shall always be ten to her, I suppose. But her name
+ought to be Pomona: she's right out of 'Rudder Grange'! Now for John
+Tucker! I hope _he_ hasn't been making sarce!"
+
+John Tucker was wont to say, Sarepty's kitchen was all right, but give
+him the harness-room! He was in the harness-room now, and it certainly
+was a pleasant place. A quaint little stove, of antiquated pattern,
+faced the door, and in front of the stove were two comfortable wooden
+arm-chairs, one for John and one for a visitor. John generally had
+visitors, in his few spare hours. People came to ask him
+everything--except in the medical way--that they used to ask Dr. Ross.
+The window of the little room looked out on the garden, the glazed upper
+half of the door gave a cheerful prospect of the stable, with its
+white-swathed vehicles--the doctor's buggy, the little phaeton, the old
+carryall, rather past use, but a wonderful place to play house in. You
+could not see the two box-stalls from the harness-room, for they were on
+the same side of the stable; but you could hear Pilot and Dan stamping
+and talking to each other through the partition. Kitty had already
+visited them, and given them sugar, and rubbed their dear velvet noses,
+and wept a little on their sympathetic necks.
+
+"Good morning, John! How cosy you look in here!"
+
+"Good morning, Miss Kitty! Step in! step in! I'm pleased to see you.
+Take a seat, won't you?"
+
+Kitty sat down obediently, as she had done in the kitchen. John's tone
+was not Sarepta's: he was never autocratic. When Kitty was three, he had
+advanced the opinion that "this filly must be druv with the snaffle!"
+and had regulated his words and ways accordingly.
+
+"The horses look beautifully, John! Of course, they always do."
+
+John expected the horses might look worse. He didn't know as they would
+be special easy to beat in this county--or State, either, come to that!
+
+"What a beauty Pilot is! And dear old Dan is just as handsome in his
+way. I suppose they are quite valuable horses, John?"
+
+"I s'pose they be!" John Tucker spoke gruffly, and turned his head away.
+Something in the girl's tone and wistful look made his eyes smart. He
+put too much pepper on that fur robe, he knowed he did when he done it.
+Thus John Tucker, muttering.
+
+"I asked, John dear, because--" Kitty's hand was on his arm now,
+fingering his rough sleeve as she used to in the days when she sat on
+his knee and, being interrogated as to whose gal she was, replied, "Don
+Tutter's dal!"--"because--I suppose we ought to sell them, John Tucker,
+dear. There is very, very little money, you know. Was that what you
+wanted to see me about, John?"
+
+"Miss Kitty!" John Tucker turned his rugged face toward her now, and it
+was aglow with feeling: "Don't sell them hosses! That was what I wanted
+to say to you, and I say it again. Don't sell them hosses! If money is
+needed, and I'm aware it is, there is more money to be made by keepin'
+them hosses than by sellin' 'em. Lemme tell you; don't be mad with me,
+Miss Kitty, for I done the best I knew how."
+
+"Of course you did, John! As if you ever did anything else. Why do you
+look at me so strangely, John Tucker?"
+
+"Miss Kitty, I say it again, I done the best I knew how. Now lemme tell
+you! You remember Flanagan?"
+
+"Flanagan, the cab-driver? Of course I do! Why, I didn't see him at the
+station yesterday. Wasn't he there? He used to say he never missed a
+train."
+
+"He's missed consid'ble many lately," said John Tucker grimly.
+"Flanagan's complaint is that he's dead. Yes, ma'am," in answer to
+Kitty's exclamation, "dropped off settin' right there in his team at the
+depot. Folks was surprised."
+
+"I should think so! Why, Flanagan! Why, John, I should as soon think of
+the train's dying! What do people do without him?"
+
+John Tucker cleared his throat elaborately.
+
+"I happened to be there, and I drove the folks home that he'd come to
+fetch. That was the way it began."
+
+"The way what began, John Tucker?"
+
+John Tucker rose and looked out of the window.
+
+"Wind's workin' round no'theast!" he muttered. "We shall have snow
+flyin' before night. Miss Kitty, you'll see it reasonable, I know you
+will. Take a look at it by and large!" He turned, and threw an appealing
+look at the girl. "Here was Flanagan dead, warn't he? And no insurance,
+so to speak. Hosses and cab sold to pay for the funeral and the board
+bill: hadn't no folks, Flanagan hadn't; boarded to Widow Peavey's. Well!
+there was the train to be met mornin' and night, and there was Madam
+Flynt to be took her airin', and Mr. Bygood sim'lar, to and from the
+store. The gals don't want him to walk up the hill, 'cause of his heart,
+and I dono as I blame 'em. Considerin' his age, you know. And--the
+hosses had to be exercised, no two ways about that."
+
+He paused: Kitty's eyes were shining, and she took up the word eagerly.
+
+"And you have been doing all this, John Tucker! You have been meeting
+the trains and taking the dear people to drive, while they are finding
+some one in Flanagan's place? You _clever_ John! Why, I think it was a
+wonderful idea! Of course I am perfectly delighted. And have they found
+a new Flanagan yet? Because, of course, you'll go right on till they--"
+
+John Tucker's face was almost as craggy as Sarepta's, as he faced Kitty
+again:
+
+"Found?" he said gruffly. "They've found me. I'm Flanagan: you're
+Flanagan. Miss Kitty--" he lifted a newspaper from the little table,
+displaying sundry piles of silver coin, arranged in neat pyramids; the
+base "cart-wheels" dollars, the top dimes. "Here's your money!" said
+John. "All that's ben taken in this six months since Flanagan died. You
+can take out my wages, if you're a mind to, 'count of Mary and the
+children: the rest is yours, lawful money, well airned, if I say it.
+Don't--don't you cry, Miss Kitty! don't you now! I done the best I knew
+how. I talked it over with Judge Peters, and he said, 'Stu' boy'; 'twas
+the best I could do; Mis' Flynt the same, and Sarepty. Don't you cry,
+Miss Kitty!"
+
+Kitty explained through her tears that she wasn't really crying; it was
+only because every one was so darling and kind, and--and--why did the
+tears come so easily? There had been none, until she came home; she had
+longed for them sometimes, when her head throbbed, and her eyes burned
+so hot and dry; now, the least thing brought them welling up, and every
+time some band seemed loosed from her heart.
+
+"It seems very--very strange, John Tucker, dear, to be taking money from
+the neighbors!" Kitty dried her eyes and looked up. "I am going to be
+sensible, John, and I know you did the very best--but it does seem
+strange, John Tucker! do you think Father would like it?"
+
+John Tucker's eyes were very blue and very bright.
+
+"Miss Kitty, if there is one thing under the canopy that I am sure of,
+it's that Doctor would approve. Doctor, you see, was reasonable. He'd
+see right off that here on one side was hosses to be fed, and grain
+costin' thus and so; and hosses to be exercised, or they'd go lame and
+poor. And he'd see on the other side, here was folks needin' to be
+hauled, and no one to haul 'em. Well, then Doctor would say,--'pears
+like I could hear him, and have heard him right along, 'When you're
+dealin' with hosses,' he'd say, 'you need hoss sense.' And this is hoss
+sense, Miss Kitty, or I don't know it."
+
+Kitty rose and held out her little hand, to be engulfed in John Tucker's
+huge brown one.
+
+"That's enough, John Tucker!" she said; and up went her chin. "I can
+hear him, too. We will be partners, John: Tucker and Ross! Only you will
+do all the work, John Tucker dear, I know you will."
+
+John Tucker, looking at her, fell into such a glowing state that the
+stove was nowhere beside him.
+
+"Now there!" he said. "What did I tell you? She's her Pa's own gal!"
+
+"And now I _must_ go and see Madam Flynt! You say she knows all about
+the Great Plan, John?"
+
+"And approves! Madam Flynt is a real sensible woman."
+
+He followed Kitty out of the harness-room, and they moved instinctively
+to the stalls, where two dark satin heads were thrust eagerly forward,
+two velvet noses sneezed and sniffed in eager greeting.
+
+"You darlings!" cried Kitty. "No, Dan, no more sugar. You are not a pet
+lamb any more, dear: you are a Horse of Business, and must realize your
+responsibilities. I shall drive Madam Flynt myself, John, most days."
+
+"I thought likely you would!" chuckled John. "You'll have to go keerful,
+though, Miss Kitty; it's slow and sure with Madam Flynt. None of your
+Bible doin's with her along!"
+
+"Bible doings? What _do_ you mean, John Tucker?"
+
+John Tucker chuckled again.
+
+"I was only thinkin' of Doctor!" he said. "'A daughter of Jehu, for
+behold she driveth furiously'."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V
+
+                             THE NEIGHBORS
+
+
+Madam Flynt was evidently expecting Kitty. She was ready dressed and in
+the drawing-room: the large, bright room with its hangings of apple
+green and gold brocade, its gilded cornices and fire screen. Dr. Ross
+used to say that the room was an apple-tree bower, and Madam Flynt the
+apple; indeed, she did look like one, a Bellefleur, say, or a rosy
+Porter. A woman of sixty, large, massive, fair. Her hair was faded from
+the bright gold of her girlhood, but was still yellow; her eyes were
+China blue, her cheeks apple red. The color was so set in them (no one
+had ever seen Madam Flynt pale, even in sickness) that a stranger might
+well think it clumsy art, instead of--what shall I say, over-zealous
+Nature? The story ran that one day in her youth, walking along the
+street, she heard a stranger say after passing her, "Painted, by God!"
+She turned instantly.
+
+"Yes, sir," she said calmly, "I _am_ painted by God!"
+
+Of course this was not in Cyrus: Cyrus people knew.
+
+"Well, Kitty!" Madam Flynt held out a large, plump white hand, amply
+be-ringed. She was dressed in flowing robes of green and white, a most
+un-negligent "_negligée_," and was a pleasant sight enough. "Well,
+Kitty! You have to come to me, you see. I couldn't go down with the rest
+of the town to meet you. I am glad to see you, my dear. We have been too
+long without you, Kitty."
+
+"Dear Madam Flynt, I am so glad to get home! How is the rheumatism?"
+
+"The rheumatism is very well, Kitty, it thanks you: it's more vigorous
+than I am; but I do very well, on the whole, very well. I get my airing,
+which is the principal thing. John Tucker told you of our little
+arrangement? A very good plan! John Tucker is a sensible man. He and
+Sarepta are really an able pair. Pity he didn't marry her, instead of
+that poor creature, Mary Spinney. You had a good voyage, my dear?"
+
+She talked easily, Kitty following her lead.
+
+"Glad to hear it! And now, Kitty, I hope you are going to be a sensible
+girl, and do as I wish."
+
+"As you wish, Madam Flynt? About the driving? Oh, surely! I am only too
+grateful. It is so dear of you--"
+
+"Nothing of the kind! A business arrangement, nothing more. Flanagan was
+dead--I didn't kill him, did I? What I wish, Kitty, is quite another
+thing. I want you to come and live with me."
+
+"Oh, Madam Flynt!"
+
+"There is everything to be said in favor of the plan," Madam Flynt swept
+on, "and nothing against it, so far as I can see. You can manage your
+home affairs, John and Sarepta, the house and so on, as well here as
+there; you've only to step across the yard. I need a companion, and so
+do you."
+
+Kitty opened wide eyes of astonishment.
+
+"Madam Flynt! Has Miss Croly left you?"
+
+"Miss Croly left me? Certainly not. Why should she leave me? Cornelia
+Croly is as old as I am, or very near it; she needs a companion, too.
+She grows more set every day of her life. Just move that poker, will
+you, Kitty? To the left side of the fireplace! Cornelia Croly _will_
+always put it at the right; she does it to assert herself; she told me
+so, in so many words. We both need a young person to keep us from biting
+each other, Kitty, and you are the person."
+
+At this point, Miss Croly entered the room, beaming welcome. Tall, thin,
+upright, hard-favored, with the kindest eyes and the most obstinate chin
+imaginable. Dressed in gray alpaca by day, in purple alpaca by night,
+with little benefit of fashion; such was Miss Cornelia Croly, Madam
+Flynt's quondam schoolmate--her companion now these many years of her
+widowhood. The two made a singular contrast, yet complemented each other
+oddly. Kitty could never think of one without the other. Corolla and
+calyx, Dr. Ross used to call them.
+
+Miss Croly had to hear all about Kitty's voyage; the sea had a
+fascination for her, though she had never ventured upon it.
+
+"A storm! how thrilling! the wonders of the deep!" sighed Miss Croly,
+all in one breath. "You make it all so real, Kitty. I can hear the roar
+of the elements and the dash of the breakers--"
+
+As she spoke, Miss Croly had taken up the poker, and after making a dab
+at the fire, was gently replacing it at the right of the fireplace, when
+Madam Flynt interrupted her.
+
+"There are no breakers in mid-ocean, Cornelia! And will you kindly leave
+the poker where it was, on the left side?"
+
+"Excuse me, my dear Clarissa, it is far more convenient on the right
+side. As attending to the fire is one of my little duties--a very
+pleasant one, I am sure--it seems not unreasonable for me to have the
+poker where I can use it. You grant that?"
+
+Seeing Argument throned on both brows, Kitty rose hastily and made her
+excuses. She had several other visits to make; she would run in this
+evening, or surely to-morrow morning. Madam Flynt was the kindest of the
+kind, as she always was: yes, Kitty would think over very carefully what
+she had said, and would let her know: she thanked her ever and ever so
+much: good-bye! "Good-bye, Miss Croly! So glad to see you!"
+
+Kitty shut the door on a rather awful "Cornelia!" and fled, only
+stopping a moment in the kitchen to greet the two maids, friends of her
+childhood, and to steal a cooky from under Sarah Cook's nose, to the
+huge delight of that kindly mammoth.
+
+Down the street sped Kitty: the dear, friendly street, where every house
+smiled a welcome, every window shed a friendly blink. The Common was on
+her left, a smooth field of snow, crossed by two intersecting board
+walks. Every tree was a friend too: the bare, graceful branches were
+moving in the crisp breeze, and each seemed to wave her a welcome. There
+was the Earliest Maple! Kitty wondered what children drove their spiles
+and hung their pails now for the sap. She and Tom used to be rather
+odious, she feared, about that tree. They assumed ownership of all
+rights in it, both tapping and climbing. She recalled a keen frosty
+morning like this, when Wilson Wibird had "cut in" early, pulled out her
+spile and driven in his own. Tom came like a flame of fire across the
+Common, tore out the spile and threw it away, then pummeled Wilson till
+he ran shrieking home. Wilson always shrieked when any one touched him.
+
+Where next? Judge Peters would be at his office: she would go down
+there. He was so wise, he would tell her what to say to Madam Flynt.
+Resisting the call of many a friendly housefront, Kitty went down the
+hill and turned into "the Street." There were several streets in Cyrus,
+be it understood, but only one that began with a capital.
+
+The first person she met was Wilson Wibird himself. He was on the
+opposite sidewalk, and came across, waving his hand with a familiar
+gesture.
+
+"Weedy, seedy, needy, greedy!" naughty Tom! But Wilson looked exactly
+the same, only a man instead of a hobbledehoy.
+
+"Katrine! my one thought since I opened my eyes this morning. Welcome! a
+hundred thousand welcomes!"
+
+Kitty gave Wilson her hand readily enough, but she did not altogether
+like his looks. His eyes were bloodshot, his speech thick; he seemed to
+waver a little as he spoke.
+
+"How do you do, Wilson? How is your mother, and Melissa?"
+
+"Less well than I, for they have not seen you, Katrine! You are more
+beautiful than ever," murmured Mr. Wibird. He cast on Kitty what he
+would have called a burning glance. To Kitty it looked rather like a
+leer, but she must not be unkind. But there was no earthly reason why
+Wilson Wibird should hold her hand, so she removed it firmly.
+
+"I am going to see Judge Peters," she said: her tone was cheerfully
+matter-of-fact. "Give my love at home, and say I'll run in soon to see
+your mother."
+
+"My way is yours!" Mr. Wibird announced, and fell into step, to Kitty's
+great annoyance. Wilson Wibird had been the butt of her childhood and
+Tom's; what on earth did he mean by assuming this tone?
+
+They were just outside the Mallow House; at this moment the door opened,
+and Mr. Very Jordano came out. He had been taking his leisurely
+breakfast and reading his New York paper, sitting in the office with
+Marshall Mallow; and seeing the meeting between the two young people had
+exchanged a word with his host and crony, and hastened out.
+
+"Good morning, Miss Kitty!" he said urbanely. "The sight of you is a
+refreshment indeed. Good morning, Wilson. Mr. Mallow would like to see
+you a moment, if you have a moment to spare-pare-pare!"
+
+Mr. Jordano's tone was faintly ironical, as he fell into step with Kitty
+on the other side. Wilson Wibird glared at him.
+
+"I have not!" he said sullenly. "I am escorting Miss Ross."
+
+"That shall be my privilege!" Mr. Jordano bowed blandly to Kitty. "Go
+away, Wilson!" he added in a lower and different tone. "Go quite
+away-tay-tay! Or I'll call Billy!"
+
+Involuntarily, Kitty quickened her pace, Mr. Jordano beside her. The
+other stood glowering, irresolute: suddenly the hotel door opened again,
+revealing Mr. Mallow, massive and rosy.
+
+"You come here, Wilson!" he commanded. "Don't stand dilatorin' there!
+Come on in, you hear me?"
+
+Mr. Mallow was Wilson Wibird's uncle; Mrs. Wibird had been a Mallow:
+moreover, such work as Wilson did was done for him. The young man, after
+kicking the curbstone sullenly for a moment, obeyed the summons and
+turned into the hotel.
+
+Kitty turned to Mr. Jordano with a breath of relief.
+
+"Quite so!" returned that gentleman. "He meant no harm: Wilson meant no
+harm, but nimporto! Miss Kitty, I welcome this opportunity for a word
+with you. You have been much in my thoughts, both during your absence
+and since your return. Miss Kitty, I feel assured that you have much of
+the deepest interest to impart-tart-tart. You will allow me the
+privilege of calling on you, I trust, some evening in the near future?"
+
+"Oh, surely, Mr. Jordano! I shall be very glad indeed to see you."
+
+"You have seen my country, Miss Kitty! Ah! counterio joyoso, would I
+might behold it! Italy, Miss Kitty! you have seen Italy?
+
+"Yes, Mr. Jordano, Mother and I spent last winter in Italy."
+
+"Ah! happy, happy--that is--" Mr. Jordano recollected himself, and
+changed his look of rapture for one of sympathy-- "tender reminiscences!
+tender is the word. I shall take great pleasure in waiting upon you,
+Miss Kitty. It has occurred to me that you might-tite-tite--that you
+might be willing to contribute some Sketches of Travel to the
+_Centinel_. They would be eagerly welcomed, eagerly welcomed, by all
+Cyrus and adjoining towns: the _Centinel_, you may be aware, has a
+considerable circulation. Our editorials are copied--nimporto! but if
+you could give me some sketches, Miss Kitty, I should regard it as a
+choice boon. No laborioso, you understand; nothing that would burden
+your--a--elegant leisure: a scratch of the pen, a scratch of the pen!
+the light feminine touch. It would indeed be a choice boon. The
+honorarium--we could arrange at a later date-tate-tate. I should wish to
+be lib----"
+
+"Oh, Mr. Jordano," cried downright Kitty, "I never wrote a word in my
+life, except just letters, and very few of them. Why, I _couldn't!_ and
+as for writing for a newspaper--you take my breath away! But it's just
+as kind of you!" she cried. "I am ever so much obliged, Mr. Jordano. I
+wish I could, but I truly could not. I know I couldn't."
+
+"Not at all! not at all!" Mr. Jordano was still bland, in spite of his
+evident disappointment. "The modesty of the sex, Miss Kitty. Perhaps you
+will be good enough to think it over. A--here we are at Judge Peters's,
+and I will leave you. I shall give myself the pleasure of calling--ah!
+good day-tay-tay!" And the good gentleman bowed himself off, having,
+indeed, stolen precious minutes from what he called the Ideals of
+Italio, his special contribution to the weekly _Centinel_.
+
+Judge Peters, like Madam Flynt, was evidently expecting Kitty: as if
+every one in Cyrus were not! The office windows were as dusty as
+ever--Kitty half expected to see an inscription on them in a round
+childish hand:
+
+    "Tom-mee,
+    Duke of Lee."
+
+--but his desk was a miracle of tidiness. His own person was not more
+carefully attired than usual, because that would have been difficult: he
+was the picture of a dignified jurist as he sat with his hand in the
+breast of his coat, reading a law book of appalling size and weight.
+
+His thin, somewhat austere countenance relaxed at sight of Kitty. He
+rose and came forward with extended hands, grasping hers cordially.
+
+"My dear child! welcome again! My dear Kitty, I am heartily glad to see
+you."
+
+He was: they all were: never was such a welcome, thought Kitty; another
+band snapped, and she looked up into the kindly face with a smile that
+was almost merry.
+
+"Dear Judge Peters! you are so good; everybody is so good. Never was
+such a home-coming--"
+
+A little stumble here, but only for a moment. Soon they were seated
+comfortably, the Judge in his chair, Kitty on a certain stool which had
+been hers ever since she was big enough to visit the "Dudds" in his
+office, which was long before she could speak his name plain. Kitty told
+her sad little story to a running commentary of "H'm!" "ha!" or "tut,
+tut!" which conveyed a sympathy that needed no words. Then the Judge
+took up the thread, and they went through many matters carefully and
+thoroughly. Kitty was clear-headed; he knew that; she had to know just
+where she stood. Yes, yes! There was something left, only a little, but
+a little was very different from nothing. Now the question was how they
+were to add to that little. John and Sarepta--yes! yes! good souls! good
+souls! they had consulted him. Very right, very proper. A nice little
+nest-egg, and John Tucker could carry on the business perfectly. The
+question was about Kitty herself. She--ah--had not heard from any of her
+relatives? True! she had but one, and--they need not go into that at
+present. Now, the Judge had a proposition to make: a--a business
+proposition. Here was he, a lone man, sixty years old and not getting
+any younger. He was lonely, very lonely, in that big house. It was
+absurd that he should be lonely in one house and Kitty in another;
+"absurd, you see that. Too many lonely people in Cyrus, as it is. I want
+you to come and live with me, Kitty. There! now don't answer at once:
+think it over! I never had a daughter of my own, but you have always
+been like a daughter to me, my dear. I think we could be very
+comfortable together: very comfortable. Another thing! I need help here,
+in the office; a--a--in point of fact, secretary! now, if you could
+manage to give me two or three hours a day--not too much; not enough to
+fatigue you, or interfere with your getting plenty of fresh air and
+exercise--and amusement, too, my dear, amusement, too, of course!--why,
+it would be a great help and comfort to me, and the salary--" he named a
+substantial sum--"would help to get--gloves, you know; fal-lals, my
+dear--toggery of various descriptions. Yes! well, my dear, how does it
+strike you?"
+
+It struck Kitty as the kindest thought that ever was in the wide world.
+Why was every one so good to her? Why, Madam Flynt had asked her to come
+and live with her! but--
+
+"_That_," Judge Peters struck in with some heat: "that is unnecessary!
+Clarissa--Madam Flynt--has a companion already. Cornelia Croly is an
+excellent person; they have lived together for twenty years; she cannot
+think of discharging Cornelia Croly! Monstrous!"
+
+"Oh, no! no, indeed, Judge! She only thought--she seemed to think--they
+both needed some one a little younger--but I--oh no, indeed! I only
+promised to think it over."
+
+"H'm!" the Judge was quite flushed: he rose and paced the floor. "The
+more you think it over, Kitty, the more unconscionable you will find it.
+Two women, used to each other for twenty years, fitting like ball and
+socket (I admit an occasional creak of the joint, but that only makes
+for variety): a young girl cooped up in that house, with two elderly
+women and a spaniel--monstrous, my dear! monstrous! Now my case----"
+
+"_But!_" cried Kitty to herself, as she went down the stairs, after a
+solemn promise to think it over well, "the dear old darling things! not
+one of them seems to realize!"
+
+Where next? Kitty looked up and down the street. One way was
+Cheeseman's, where one of her oldest friends would be looking for her,
+she knew: Mr. Cheeseman's, and the Twinnies: on the other--"Oh, I must
+see Miss Egeria and Mr. Bygood before any one else!" said Kitty, and
+turned back toward the Mallow House.
+
+At Bygoods', she found the same air of happy expectation. Miss Egeria
+had been fluttering to the door every five minutes all the morning,
+looking up and down the street; now she came fluttering to meet Kitty,
+and folded her in a tender embrace, and wept over her. Mrs. Ross had
+been Miss Egeria's goddess, and for her sake, Kitty seemed to the dear
+lady only half mortal. She uttered little soft moans in which "Heaven,"
+"saint," "crown of glory," and the like could be distinguished. It was
+Kitty who comforted her with soothing words and affectionate pats, and
+soon Miss Egeria collected herself and dried her eyes.
+
+"Forgive me, dear child!" she said. "I am so glad, Kitty, so happy to
+see you! Sister is in back with Father; come right in, won't you dear?
+They are so eager----"
+
+Here was Miss Almeria herself, stately and handsome, parting the
+curtains with a welcoming gesture: here was Mr. Bygood leaning forward
+in his armchair, his mild eyes shining, his lips trembling with
+eagerness. Such a welcome here, too, as never could be anywhere else
+except in dear Cyrus.
+
+"Mr. Bygood, you have been growing younger!" Kitty spoke with decision.
+"I believe you have found the Fountain of Youth. I think you might give
+me a drop!"
+
+"No, no, my dear!" Mr. Bygood quavered in high delight. "An old hulk,
+Kitty, left high and dry, high and dry.
+
+    "I came there again when the day was declining,
+    The bark was still there, but the waters were gone.
+
+You remember the song, my dear?"
+
+"Indeed I do, Mr. Bygood. You are going to sing it to me the very first
+I come to tea. When may I come to tea, Miss Almegeria?" This was her
+child name for the two sisters. "I want Banbury cakes, please, and apple
+sauce with whipped cream."
+
+"And fried oysters!" Miss Almeria beamed; Miss Egeria cooed, "You shall
+come to-night, if you will, Kitty. To-night and--presently!" Miss
+Almeria cast a warning look at her sister, on whose lips something
+seemed to be trembling. "Presently, Sister! Father's turn now; ours can
+wait!"
+
+"I have brought you a little present, Mr. Bygood!" Kitty was pulling
+something from her pocket; a little parcel, white tissue paper neatly
+tied with blue ribbon. The old gentleman opened it with trembling
+fingers. Only a bit of Derbyshire spar, Kitty explained, for the
+Collection; but he exclaimed delightedly at sight of the pretty thing, a
+golden egg darting rays as the sunlight struck it; surely, the Phoenix's
+egg, or as near it as mortal eyes may hope to see. Kitty was thanked,
+blessed, questioned, thanked again. Then she begged for a sight of Goody
+Twoshoes, and got it, and Marmaduke Multiply, too, because poor Tom had
+been so fond of it. Yes, poor Tom! Nobody heard from him, which was very
+sad. If he had only stayed in Cyrus, Mr. Bygood said, it would have been
+so much better: so much better! The old gentleman sighed, and shook his
+white head, fumbling meantime in his pockets for peppermint drops.
+
+"You know," Miss Egeria whispered to Kitty, "Father offered Thomas a
+position in the store!" Her tone implied affairs of Rothschildic scope.
+"It would have been such an opportunity for Thomas!"
+
+"Hush, sister!" Miss Almeria spoke with some severity. "Thomas had his
+own views; I am told he considered Cyrus slow! It is true I did not hear
+him say it!" she added more gently.
+
+"Believe half that you see and nothing that you hear!" murmured Mr.
+Bygood gently. "Tom was a dear boy, Almeria!"
+
+"Yes, Father dear! You set me right, as ever!" Miss Almeria patted his
+shoulder affectionately. "We must not judge!"
+
+"Almy is impulsive!" Mr. Bygood smiled to Kitty. "Youth is apt to be. Do
+you find Cyrus changed, my dear?"
+
+Presently he nodded, and on a sign from the ladies, Kitty stole into the
+front shop with them. Here they unfolded their great plan, which was
+just like all the rest. Kitty was to come and live with them: to be
+their--their younger sister, as it were. They had a little room--the
+blue room! Kitty remembered? She used to like it. It was never used, and
+it would be _such_ a happiness to them! She could help in the store--it
+was so interesting, Kitty, and truly educational, with the Library and
+all.
+
+"The gentlemen come in, too, for their morning paper, my dear, and
+discuss affairs of National Importance! I assure you, we feel that we
+have _great_ opportunities, and I trust we are not ungrateful for them.
+Our gentlemen have such _sound_ opinions! When I hear Judge Peters and
+Mr. Jordano exchange their views on public affairs, and dear Father adds
+his word of ripe experience, you know, Kitty, my dear, I feel that we
+are privileged, indeed!"
+
+Thus Miss Almeria, bending her stately head in emphasis.
+
+"So you _will_ come, Kitty darling, won't you?" begged Miss Egeria; "at
+least think it over well; we feel that we have as much claim as any of
+the friends, and--perhaps--I cannot help feeling, my love, as if our
+dear departed Saint might have wished----"
+
+"But!" cried Kitty, again, as after promising gratefully to think it
+over, she took her way to Cheeseman's, "the dear, kind, darling things!
+Nobody seems to realize that I have come home, to my own house!"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI
+
+                           JOHANNA EX MACHINA
+
+
+Kitty had her dinner alone, for Nelly Chanter's school was at some
+distance.
+
+"Besides," said Sarepta, "I only asked her to come for breakfast and
+supper and nights. You'd want _some_ time to yourself, I told her."
+
+Sarepta stood in the doorway, her hands folded in her apron, while Kitty
+ate her excellent little dinner soberly and thoughtfully. She had no
+idea of slighting Sarepta's cookery; she had a good appetite, and even
+if she hadn't, there must be no hurting of feelings.
+
+"Sarepta!"
+
+"Well!"
+
+"The pudding is delicious, Sarepta! And--they all want me to come and
+live with them!"
+
+"H'm!" Sarepta's sniff was eloquent. Kitty went on, crumbling her bread
+thoughtfully:
+
+"Madam Flynt, Judge Peters, the Miss Bygoods, the Chanters----"
+
+She smiled, still hearing the affectionate shouts and shrieks of that
+friendly circle, still seeing the dining-room where she had found them
+all, Mrs. Chanter ladling out chowder, beaming on her clamorous brood,
+Mr. Chanter with half an eye on his plate, and one and a half on the
+dog's-eared Thucydides beside him. How affectionate they were; what good
+friends! "And Mr. Mallow wants me to keep house for him, Sarepta; think
+of it! Why, he has always said he wouldn't have any woman gormineering
+over him; ever since I can remember he has said that. And now he thinks
+he would be as comfortable as old Tilley if I would come and be his lady
+housekeeper! Who was old Tilley, Sarepta?"
+
+"Some other old fool, I expect!" Sarepta was very grim. "If you asked
+me, I should say Marsh Mallow was a little wantin'. The idea!"
+
+"The funny thing is, none of them seems to realize that I have a home of
+my own! Isn't it funny, Sarepta? So dear and kind, every one of
+them--why, I am so full of gratefulness I couldn't hold any more!--but
+how _can_ they think I would leave my own dear darling home?"
+
+Sarepta Darwin drew a long breath, and blinked fiercely. If it had been
+any one but Sarepta, one would have said there were tears in those pale
+blue eyes, but of course Sarepta never shed tears.
+
+"Then you calc'late to stay on here!" she spoke dryly, but there was
+something in her tone that made Kitty look up quickly.
+
+"Why, Sarepta, of course I do! What else should I do! Don't be a goose,
+Sarepta dear!"
+
+She got up and gave Sarepta a little hug: she might as well have hugged
+the door for all outward response, but that did not matter.
+
+"Who--_what_ is that, Sarepta?" she demanded, as a figure came up the
+path. "It looks like a postman!"
+
+"Is! we've had d'liv'ry for a year past!"
+
+There was exultation in Sarepta's voice. Next to the well-being of Ross
+House and its inmates, she lived for the greater glory of Cyrus.
+
+"Why, it's Bingo!"
+
+Kitty was at the front door in a flash, greeting a highly embarrassed
+youth in gray uniform. "Bingo, how do you do? To think of your being
+postman! How splendid!"
+
+"Pleased to see you!" muttered Adolphus Evander Byng, who had never had
+any benefit of his fine name, but was called Addy Evy for long and Bingo
+for short, as Tom used to say. "Hope I see you well. Letter for you!
+Goo'day!"
+
+Thus Bingo, hurling himself away from the door, as if he had not been
+looking forward all day to this moment; as if he had not solemnly
+promised his Aunt Miny, who "dressmade" as we say in Cyrus, to notice
+every single thing Kitty Ross had on, coming straight from Paris that
+way. There was a painful scene that evening at the Byng cottage. Gray
+dress? Well, what kind of a gray dress? Was it silk, or wool, or
+melange? Did it do up behind? Was it made D'rectory? Was there gores in
+the skirt? Here Addy Evy fled to the barn, and his Aunt Miny did think
+he was real mean; she despised any one who hadn't eyes in his head, be
+he man or woman: there!
+
+Kitty came back with her letter, turning it over, as people do, before
+opening it. A large square envelope, superscribed in a stiff,
+official-looking hand.
+
+"From Aunt Johanna!" she said. "It is surely her hand. I wonder----"
+
+She opened the letter; read it; looked up with a dazed expression at
+Sarepta, who was lingering by the door with an air of elaborate
+detachment.
+
+"Why, Sarepta! why----"
+
+"_Well_," Sarepta's tone was incisive, to say the least.
+
+"It has been delayed!" Kitty looked at the envelope. "Missent to
+'Cyrene'! I should think so. Why, Sarepta, this was written a week ago!
+She's coming to-day!"
+
+"Who's comin'? Not Johanna Ross?"
+
+"Yes!" Kitty rose in agitation and began instinctively straightening
+everything in the room.
+
+"You no need to do _that_!" Sarepta spoke grimly, with looks to match.
+"I went to school with Johanna Ross. She comin' to-day, you say? How
+long she goin' to stay?"
+
+"She says--I'll read it to you.
+
+    "MY DEAR KITTY,
+
+    "I am retiring from business and should like to make you a visit
+    if agreeable. Ask Sarepta to find a young girl to take care of
+    me. Unless otherwise advised, expect me at 2.30 Saturday P. M.
+
+                                              "Affectionately yours,
+                                                     "JOHANNA ROSS."
+
+"Sarepta, it's two o'clock now! What room shall we put her in? I can't
+think----"
+
+Kitty's voice was trembling, her cheeks flushed. Seeing this, Sarepta
+assumed her dryest manner and tone.
+
+"Put her in the Red Injun room. It's all ready: I cleaned it last week."
+
+"Of course!" Kitty's brow lightened. "Clever Sarepta! The Red Indian
+room will be _just_ the thing. Let's come up and look at it! Of course
+it's all right, but actually I haven't been in it. Why, I haven't been
+here two days, Sarepta!"
+
+Her voice quivered again, but she mastered it, and hurried upstairs with
+Sarepta close behind her.
+
+"I wouldn't let Johanna Ross put me out," Sarepta remarked, apparently
+addressing the stair-rail, "not for one quarter of a second."
+
+Kitty made no reply. Sarepta, who certainly was "no canny," Kitty often
+thought, appeared to read her thought through the back of her head.
+
+"But you needn't be scared," she went on. "I know my place. I'm just
+freein' my mind, so to speak. I went to school with Johanna, and I know
+her like a book. She's a fine woman in spots, and she's Doctor's sister.
+I know my place, and she knows hers; you no need to be scared."
+
+Kitty turned and flashed such a look of mingled relief and thankfulness
+that Sarepta almost stumbled.
+
+"Go on up!" she said austerely.
+
+Before ever I saw the Red Indian room, I used to think--hearing it
+casually mentioned by Kitty or Tom--it was in some way connected with
+the North American Indians. I used to wonder about it: whether it were
+shaped and furnished like a wigwam; whether Indians had ever lived in
+it; whether--dreadful thought, born of too-early reading of Parkman's
+histories--there had been a Massacre there! I remember that when Kitty
+proposed a visit to it one day, as being the most convenient way of
+attaining the barn roof, I inwardly shrank and cowered, dreading what
+might meet my eyes. The relief of the first glance is still with me.
+
+Dr. Ross's grandfather had been a sea-captain, and had brought home from
+China a wonderful toilet set of Red India china. There it was, still
+perfect, not so much as a cover broken; there it is to-day, I trust. The
+room had been furnished to match the set, with hangings and cushions,
+bedspread, etcetera, of Eastern cotton, almost the exact shade of warm
+dull red; the chairs were lacquered in the same tint. An enchanting
+room! And its possibilities! Not only did one of its windows give access
+to the barn roof, but the little red-lacquered door beside the fireplace
+opened upon the Secret Staircase, the pride of Kitty's heart, the envy
+of every other child in Cyrus. A little winding, breakneck stair,
+burrowing down in the thickness of the chimney casing. You could come
+out in the sitting-room if you wished, but we never did; the staircase
+burrowed still further downward, and the cellar was far more exciting.
+
+"'Twill suit with Johanna's looks!" said Sarepta, after a critical
+survey of the room. "Come to think of it, I believe she had this room
+when she was a gal. It'll be real handy for her, bathroom and all to
+herself, and no need to bother you. Yes, I expect she'll like it. Hark!"
+
+The sound of wheels. Kitty fled down the stairs, Sarepta scuttling
+behind her as fast as dignity allowed, and threw open the front door.
+
+"Aunt Johanna! Come in! come in! How good of you to come!"
+
+"But you wish I hadn't, eh? Never mind, Kitty! Will John Tucker see to
+my trunks? How are you, Sarepta?"
+
+Miss Johanna Ross might be forty-five, but looked younger. A tall, fine
+figure of a woman, with dark eyes and hair, the former of a singularly
+piercing quality. Kitty felt, she told Nelly Chanter afterward, as if at
+the first glance her spinal marrow had been investigated. She was
+handsomely and fashionably dressed, and carried a satchel of the latest
+mode. Her voice was deep-toned, her speech as incisive as Sarepta's own,
+her gestures and carriage impressive. Such was the lady who now
+confronted Kitty in the sitting room.
+
+"You got my letter last week?" she said. "Has Sarepta got a young woman
+for me?"
+
+"No, Aunt Johanna. The letter was missent, you see: it only came an hour
+ago."
+
+"Missent? Inexcusable! I'll write to the Post Office Department. Well! I
+may as well explain matters at once, Kitty; Sarepta, you'd better wait a
+minute, as this concerns you also."
+
+Miss Ross sat down on the leather sofa, and looked thoughtfully from
+Kitty to Sarepta, and back again. "I haven't been here for twenty
+years," she said. "I am actually glad I came!" She seemed surprised at
+this, and pondered a moment. Sarepta sniffed slightly: Kitty was silent,
+hardly knowing what to say.
+
+"I have retired from business," Miss Ross went on in a clear,
+explanatory voice, "because I am tired. I intend to take to my bed--What
+is it?" She paused: Kitty had uttered a cry of surprise.
+
+"Nothing, Aunt Johanna. Did I understand--are you ill, Aunt Johanna?"
+
+"Not in the least. I have never been ill in my life, except for measles
+at the age of five. I tell you I am tired, and I intend to take to my
+bed. For twenty years," Miss Ross went on, still more explanatorily, "I
+have been Rug and Tapestry Expert for Kostly and Richmore:" she named
+one of the great houses of New York. "During these twenty years I have
+been on my feet all day, and often half the night. I have now
+retired--on a competence--and, as I said before, I intend to take to my
+bed. I am used to wholesale ways," she added with a smile. "I have
+worked in a wholesale way; now I mean to rest in a wholesale way. Have
+you found me a maid, Sarepta?"
+
+"Land sakes!" cried Sarepta, throwing her hands out in indignant
+protest. "Why, it ain't an hour since we heard you was coming!"
+
+"True!" Miss Ross paused and considered. "Well! I suppose you can find
+me one?"
+
+"I dunno as I can, and I dunno _as_ I can!" replied Sarepta cautiously.
+"What do you want of her, Miss Ross?"
+
+Miss Ross laughed outright, a merry laugh which somehow transformed her
+rather sharp face.
+
+"To take care of me, Miss Darwin! You don't suppose I expected you to
+take care of me, do you? Find me a young girl, whom I can order about,
+and send on errands and bully, and throw things at. I couldn't throw the
+bolster at you, Miss Darwin!"
+
+"You might try!" Sarepta replied with a grim chuckle, and a distinct
+softening of the frosty manner which had been upon her ever since the
+visitor entered. She looked at Kitty. "Jenny Tucker might do!" she said
+doubtfully. "She's sixteen, and takes after her father more than the
+rest."
+
+"Jenny! That's a good name to call," Miss Ross nodded approvingly. "John
+Tucker's daughter, is she? That's good, too. John and I were always
+friends. Is she pretty?"
+
+"Pretty enough, I guess."
+
+"Then send for her, will you? I won't go to bed now, Kitty. You shall
+come and help me unpack, and we'll have supper together--if Miss Darwin
+approves----" she threw a quizzical glance at Sarepta, who gave a snort
+and vanished--"and a cosy evening by the fire. You shall tell me
+everything you like, my dear, and nothing you don't like, and at ten
+o'clock I shall go to bed and stay there."
+
+"Aunt Johanna----"
+
+"Yes, my dear! How delightful this room is! What is it, Kitty?"
+
+"Do you mean--do you think of taking a _long_ rest, or only a few days?"
+
+"One year!" said Miss Ross crisply. Kitty gasped. "That is, if I find it
+suits me. Six months anyhow, to give it a full trial. That seems
+sensible, eh?" She looked up sharply. "Eh?" she repeated.
+
+"Oh, I--suppose so!" stammered Kitty. "Only--it seems a very long time,
+Aunt Johanna. You see, I have never been ill."
+
+"Nor tired!" Miss Ross spoke in short, sharp jerks, throwing up her chin
+with each remark. "You think you have been tired, but you haven't. I
+tell you, _the marrow is withered in my bones_. You say I don't look it,
+and I don't; every one says so. Last month, one of our partners asked me
+to open a branch in Nijninovgorod; said I looked strong enough for that
+or anything. Last week," this astonishing lady went on, "another of 'em
+asked me to marry him, because I looked as if I could take good care of
+him. That settled it! 'I'll take to my bed!' says I; and here I am.
+Well! that's enough about me. Now about you! Poor little White Rose
+couldn't stay any longer, could she? No! not to be expected. She
+couldn't live without John; she had merged her existence in his, you
+see. You did all you could, and the look you have of John probably kept
+her alive till now; but it couldn't last. No! So here you are, with
+Sarepta and John Tucker--and me!" she added with a sharp, quizzical
+glance. "What are your ideas? What are your plans? Is there any money
+left?"
+
+Kitty told her quietly what there was: told, too, of Sarepta's and John
+Tucker's earnings and of the proposed partnership with the latter. She
+found it singularly easy to talk to this relative whom she had hitherto
+known so slightly and seen so seldom. Miss Ross sat bolt upright on the
+sofa, listening intently, nodding emphatic approval from time to time.
+
+"Excellent!" she said, when Kitty had finished her story. "Admirable!
+With my board money and your earnings, you ought to be able to lay by,
+my dear."
+
+"Oh, Aunt Johanna!" Kitty lifted a shocked face. "I couldn't--you
+mustn't think of such a thing. Why, this is your own home, where you
+were born! Why should you pay board here?"
+
+"Little goose, why do you suppose I came here? Why didn't I go to a Rest
+Cure? 'Because,' I said, 'why pay good money to strangers and harpies
+when I can pay it to my own lawful niece in my own--not precisely
+lawful, because it belongs to her--but my natural home?' Enough about
+that. Besides, there was another reason. I wanted to _do what I wanted_,
+Kitty! For twenty years I have lived in a mold, worked in a mold, spoken
+in a mold, smiled in a mold. Now the mold is broken. I want to be able,
+if I feel like it, to fling open all the windows in this house--there
+are forty of them, I believe--and scream out of each one. Can you
+understand that?"
+
+"Perfectly!" cried Kitty kindling.
+
+"Exactly! You are a Ross, I see. Well! I shall not be likely to do that,
+because I shall be in my bed; but if I did, or whatever I might do, the
+neighbors would just say, 'Johanna! always peculiar!' and there would be
+an end of it."
+
+"Aunt Johanna!" Kitty came and sat down by her aunt. "Do you know what I
+think?"
+
+"No, my dear, unless you think I am mad. I'm not, only a bit cracked,
+like most people."
+
+"I think you are a dear! I think--I should like to give you a hug!"
+
+Suiting the action to the word, Kitty threw her arms round her aunt, who
+returned the embrace heartily.
+
+"Good little girl!" she said, and her clear emphatic voice was rather
+husky. "Nice little girl! We shall get on famously together."
+
+"And--" Kitty's eyes were opening very wide, as they always did when a
+new idea dawned upon her. "Why, Aunt Johanna, you are just like all the
+rest, only reversed."
+
+"What do you mean, Kitty? Speak English, child!"
+
+"Why, every one in the village, all the dear friends and neighbors, want
+me to come and live with them. Madam Flynt, Judge Peters, Miss Bygoods,
+the Chanters--and Mr. Mallow"--Kitty broke into a little crow of
+laughter--"wants me to be his housekeeper and matron! Well! and now you
+come, with the same dear wish to help me, at the other end. And, _oh_!"
+Kitty, jumping up, clapped her hands and actually began to dance, "Don't
+you _see_, Aunt Johanna, here is my answer to them all. They were all
+_so_ kind, and so urgent, I didn't know _what_ to say to them, though of
+course nothing would have induced me to leave my dear darling home. But
+now, don't you see, I _can't_ go to any of them, because of----"
+
+"Because of bedridden aunt! Precisely. _Johanna ex machina._ I learned
+my Latin of Mr. Bygood, my dear; he taught at the Academy when I was a
+girl. Well! so _that_ is all settled. They all wanted my little niece,
+eh? And I've stolen a march on 'em. Ha! ha! and now, Kitty, I should
+like to see my room and unpack a bit. I thought possibly, my dear, you
+might spare me the Red Indian room, which used to be mine, but I can
+sleep anywhere."
+
+"It is all ready for you!" cried Kitty joyously. "Oh, Aunt Johanna, you
+_are_ a dear, and you really belong, and I am so happy!"
+
+The last band snapped from Kitty's heart, and she led the way joyously
+upstairs.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+
+                              A SYMPOSIUM
+
+
+It was Wednesday, Ladies' Night at the Mallow House. For many years,
+Mrs. Wibird and Melissa, and the Misses Bygood had supped with Mr.
+Mallow on Wednesday evening. It was the "help's" evening out, and the
+boarders understood that they must sup elsewhere that night. Mr. Mallow
+invariably cooked the supper, the Wibirds assisting, Mrs. Wibird and
+Melissa eagerly, Wilson grudgingly. After the delightful little meal,
+always perfectly cooked and served, Mr. Mallow would take off his coat,
+roll up his immaculate shirtsleeves, and wash the dishes, the ladies
+wiping them daintily. Other neighbors would often drop in after supper;
+it was a pleasant and friendly occasion.
+
+Supper was over now, the dishes washed and put away, and the company
+gathered in Mr. Mallow's sitting room, a cheerful apartment, with a
+general aspect of chenille and "tidies," further brightened by a
+crackling wood fire on the hearth. They were hemming what Mr. Mallow
+called "wipers," more generally known as dish or glass towels. Mr.
+Mallow sat in the middle, a large basket balanced on his knees. He sewed
+slowly and carefully, using a long thread, which Melissa threaded for
+him, as he was wont to explain that "he was no camel, and could not go
+through a needle's eye." This was a wonderful joke, and never failed to
+send a ripple of genteel mirth through the assembled ladies. Mrs. Wibird
+and Melissa worked with bird-like, darting motions, swift but irregular,
+dropping their work whenever they spoke, which was very often. The
+Misses Bygood worked even more swiftly, and with perfect steadiness and
+grace.
+
+"This is an elegant piece of goods, Marsh!" said Mrs. Wibird. "Better
+than the last, 'pears to me."
+
+"So fine and smooth!" Miss Egeria cooed softly. "It is a pleasure to
+work on it, Mr. Mallow."
+
+"'Tis good goods!" Mr. Mallow assented. "Pure linen, not a fibre of
+cotton in it. I have to have my wipers good. Some things you can squinch
+on, others you can't; I am thrifty, but I do have to have my wipers
+good. And plenty!" he added. "A moisty wiper gives me the creeps, it so
+does. There! I should like to have a clean one for every dish."
+
+A gentle murmur arose, as of highly commending bees.
+
+"Such a profusion!" said Miss Almeria.
+
+"So agreeable," chimed in Miss Egeria, "to be able always to use a dry
+one. I assure you we greatly appreciate it, Mr. Mallow."
+
+Mr. Mallow beamed and made a little bow over his "wiper," thereby
+pricking his finger: a crimson drop appeared and fell on the shining
+linen. Then what a commotion! Melissa flew for water and a "cot." Mrs.
+Wibird, who could not bear the sight of blood, prepared to faint, but
+thought better of it, the first red drop being also the last. Miss
+Almeria and Miss Egeria murmured sympathy, and proffered their own fine
+handkerchiefs. Mr. Mallow, with manly stoicism, declared that it was
+"Nothin' at all! nothin' at all! Gives a chance to show that my blood is
+good and red. None of these white corp'scles they talk about nowadays."
+
+"I've heard of them!" said Mrs. Wibird. "Something to do with corpses,
+are they?"
+
+"I presume likely!" Mr. Mallow replied, with reserve. "Ahem! not a
+subject for ladies, perhaps. Sorry I mentioned 'em."
+
+"Have you seen our dear Kitty to-day, Mr. Mallow?" asked Miss Almeria,
+tactfully, seeing his brow clouded. He had a great deal of delicacy, Mr.
+Mallow; all Cyrus gentlemen had, she thought gratefully.
+
+"Yes, 'm! yes, I have seen her. I hoped--I asked Kitty to join us this
+evening, but she was degaged. How are you, Very? Come in! come in! Take
+a seat! Glad to see you!"
+
+Mr. Jordano entered, bowing right and left with his best Italian air.
+
+"Grazier, Marshall!" he replied urbanely. "Grazier, I'm sure!
+Good-evening, ladies! Miss Bygood--Miss Egeria--Mrs. Wibird--Miss
+Melissa"--a separate bow for each lady, but Miss Almeria's was the
+lowest--"your humble servant!"
+
+"We're having us a sewing-bee!" Mr. Mallow announced, beaming over his
+basket. "I don't know as you'd care to join us, Very. I never saw you
+handle a needle. I've just wownded myself, long as I've ben at it."
+
+"Oh, grazier! grazier!" fluttered Mr. Jordano. (This word was a new
+acquisition; the good gentleman could not resist flourishing it as if it
+were a specially fine and clean pocket handkerchief. If you had asked
+its meaning, he would have explained kindly that it was the Italian word
+for "thanks!") "I fear I should make but a poor hand at needlework,
+Marshall. A--a most graceful and feminine accomplishment," he bowed
+round the circle of ladies, "and one I always watch with
+delight-tite-tite: but I think I will remain a spectator."
+
+He drew a chair into the circle, and took out his notebook.
+
+"Any items for the Scribe?" he asked blandly. "After the excitement of
+last week--I allude to the return of Miss Katharine Ross to her native
+heath, if I may quote the Wizard of the North--the town has been
+unusually quiet, and promised to be equally so to-day-tay-tay;
+but--a--there was another arrival this afternoon."
+
+"Indeed!" the ladies exclaimed. "Who----"
+
+"I am not aware!" Mr. Jordano waved his notebook in some agitation. "I
+hoped to find information here, to tell the truth. A distang lady--oh,
+very distang indeed--quite unknown to me. I failed in my endeavor to
+interrogate John Tucker; his movements are so extremely
+quick-wick-wick!"
+
+He looked anxiously from one face to another; the ladies returned his
+look with another equally anxious. Mr. Mallow, however, nodded
+importantly.
+
+"Yes!" he said. "I was just goin' to tell the ladies when you come in,
+Very. I had asked Kitty to join us here this evening, but she is kept at
+home by a visitor. Ahem!"
+
+Mr. Mallow was too human not to enjoy prolonging the suspense a moment;
+he was too kind to prolong it further.
+
+"Johanna Ross!" he announced explosively. "I _was_ surprised!"
+
+"_Johanna Ross!_" all the ladies cried out in chorus.
+
+"Well, I never did!" Mrs. Wibird further elucidated the situation.
+
+"How unexpected!" said Miss Almeria gravely.
+
+"Yet not unnatural, sister!" Miss Egeria murmured gently. "Kitty's own
+aunt, you know!"
+
+"I am fully aware of that, my love!" Miss Almeria bent her head with
+dignity. "Nothing could be more natural, under ordinary circumstances;
+but Johanna is--peculiar, I am obliged to say."
+
+"I never could get over her not comin' to Doctor's funeral!" Mrs. Wibird
+lamented. "I was brought up with Johanna, but I never could get over
+that. And that message she sent! They were takin' stock, and John would
+understand. I hope he did, for I'm sure nobody else did."
+
+Mrs. Wibird gave a shiver of reprehension, and set her thin lips. She
+was a forlorn little lady, the opposite in every way of her brother.
+Marshall Mallow would have looked--and been--well nourished on bread and
+cheese, if he had enough of it. Marcia Mallow had always looked, as Mrs.
+Sharpe expressed it, like the thin end of a pea-pod, and the most
+generous diet never added a pound to the ninety-nine she owned to.
+Melissa had tried more than once to "flesh her up," without success. But
+then, "they" said she gave all the nice things her brother sent her to
+"that Wilson." Melissa always looked hungry, too; even to-night, after
+that excellent lobster supper. Cyrus collectively hoped that that Wilson
+would get his come-uppance some day. Melissa Wibird would be a pretty
+girl if she didn't look starved.
+
+"Has she come to stay, think?" asked Mrs. Wibird. "Did Kitty say, Marsh?
+What _did_ she say?"
+
+"She just said she was sorry she couldn't come, her Aunt Johanna had
+arrived."
+
+"And you didn't _ask_ her whether she was comin' to stay? Now,
+Marshall!"
+
+"A--if I may venture a conjecture"--Mr. Jordano waved his notebook with
+a gesture expressive of deprecatory delicacy--"the lady in question
+would appear to intend to pass some time in our--shall I say midst? Her
+trunks--four of them--were of ample size. I should hardly suppose that
+for a brief sojourn----"
+
+"She's come to stay!" Mrs. Wibird ejaculated positively; the Misses
+Bygood bent their heads and murmured, "she has doubtless come to stay!"
+
+"So there's an end to my fine projectile!" said Mr. Mallow, with a sigh.
+Then in answer to inquiring looks:
+
+"A projectile--a plan I had. I thought maybe Kitty would come and keep
+house for me; asked her, in fact. She promised to think it over; but, of
+course, there's an end of it now."
+
+"Why, Marshall!" Mrs. Wibird prepared to shed tears. "You know Melissa
+and I would come _any_ time to keep house for you: you know I have
+offered to, over and over again, but you always said----"
+
+"Never mind, mother!" Melissa broke in. "That was different! I
+understand entirely, Uncle Marsh."
+
+Mr. Mallow had been winking both eyes rapidly, a sign of embarrassment
+with him. He was very good to his sister, and really fond of Melissa,
+poor child, but--well, Lissy understood!
+
+"A singular coincidence!" Miss Egeria fluttered into the breach. "Sister
+and I had also hoped--had asked dear Kitty to make her home with us, Mr.
+Mallow. Of course we had no idea----"
+
+"Why," cried Melissa, "the Chanters expected her to live with them,
+Zephine told me so this very morning. The boys are going to move into
+the barn chamber, and the girls into their room, so Kitty can have
+_their_ room, the girls'. They spoke as if it were all settled."
+
+"Miss Kitty is in great demand: in great demand! Grando demando, as we
+say in Italy. I happen to know for a fact that Madam Flynt had made a
+similar plan for Miss Kitty's future. I had the honor of calling upon
+that estimable lady this afternoon, and she said quite confidently that
+she expected our young friend to take up her abode--in short, to share
+her elegant mansion with her. Miss Kitty had promised to think it over,
+but Madam Flynt appeared to have little doubt-tout-tout----"
+
+"I must say I think Kitty has been rather sly!" said Mrs. Wibird,
+compressing her thin lips. "It's all very well to keep your own counsel,
+but there is such a thing as being too close-mouthed, to _my_ mind!"
+
+"Oh, mother!" protested Melissa. "You're entirely mistaken!"
+
+"No doubt!" Mrs. Wibird folded her hands meekly. "I am usually mistaken,
+I admit; still I have my opinions, poor as they are."
+
+It was Miss Almeria who spoke now, with quiet dignity. "I do not
+understand, Marcia, that Kitty has done more in any case than agree to
+think over the invitation received by her. It seems to me in every way
+proper that she should do so. On the whole----" Miss Almeria paused, to
+give weight to her words, "on the whole, sadly as we are disappointed,
+my sister and I rejoice, I am sure, that matters have so arranged
+themselves that Kitty can remain in her own home. We have not intended
+to be selfish, friends and neighbors, but we may have been so
+unconsciously. Kitty is tenderly attached to her own home; I for one am
+surprised that I did not realize this more fully. It seemed--it would
+have been such a pleasure to have her----"
+
+"Dear child!" murmured Miss Egeria. "It would indeed! but you are
+perfectly right, sister!"
+
+"Doubtless Johanna realized this situation. I applaud, though I deplore
+in certain aspects, her action."
+
+All through Miss Almeria's address, pronounced with much dignity, Mr.
+Jordano had been making little bows of admiring approbation. When she
+paused, he took up the word eagerly.
+
+"Applause is doubtless indicated, Miss Almeria. I--a--heartily agree;
+heartily! A--would it be permissible for me to ask--I am not aware that
+Miss Ross has visited Cyrus during the years of my sojourn here--" (Mr.
+Jordano came from Tinkham, but, as every one said, he was not
+responsible for that, and he came away the very moment he was grown
+up)--"a--a--in short, are there any items that you would feel at liberty
+to communicate to the Scribe?"
+
+There was a silence. Cyrus loves to talk, but there are some subjects on
+which it is reserved. Johanna Ross is one of them. All looked at Miss
+Almeria, who was turning a hem with exquisite nicety. She felt the look
+and responded, a slight flush rising to her smooth cheek.
+
+"Miss Ross is a native of Cyrus," she said, "but has not lived here for
+many years. Twenty, I think, sister?"
+
+"Twenty!" assented Miss Egeria; there was a general confirmatory murmur.
+
+"She is a person of marked abilities, and has always felt--I
+believe--that Cyrus did not afford sufficient scope for these abilities.
+She has occupied a responsible position in a large
+establishment--wholesale--in the city of New York. This has absorbed all
+her time and energies; she has not felt--until now--that Cyrus had any
+claim upon them. May I trouble you for the eighty cotton, Mr. Mallow?"
+
+"Certingly! certingly, Miss Bygood!" Mr. Mallow, in his haste to comply
+with the request, upset his big basket, and spools, tape, buttons, flew
+in every direction. How the ladies flew after them! How gracefully Miss
+Egeria glided in pursuit of the big spool of linen thread! how
+majestically Miss Almeria bent to capture the flood of buttons that
+poured into her silken lap! how Mrs. Wibird pounced, and Melissa hopped
+and fluttered! As for Mr. Jordano, he had an encounter with a skein of
+darning cotton, and entangled himself with it in a quite unbelievable
+way, and had to be rescued by Miss Egeria. It was a most exciting
+incident; they spoke of it for weeks after. Mr. Mallow, meantime, sat
+with the overturned basket still on his knees, grasping it tight, as if
+he feared it would follow the rest, and ejaculating, "My! my! I _am_
+surprised!"
+
+"I make my 'pologies!" he said finally, when the last button had been
+restored to its place. "I make my 'pologies, ladies! I don't know as I
+ever did such a thing before. Quite a cat's trophy, I'm sure."
+
+Flushed and breathless with agitation and vicarious exertion, the good
+gentleman took up his work again, but uttered an exclamation of
+discomfiture. "There! I've unthreaded my needle. Lissy, you know what I
+say; I'm no dromedary--I would say camel! Thread it for me, will you,
+dearie?"
+
+While the threading was in process, Miss Almeria was advising with Mr.
+Jordano in low tones, as to the precise wording of the item which was to
+reveal to Cyrus at large the advent of Miss Johanna Ross. He had
+already, the evening before, submitted to her his account of Kitty's
+arrival, a piece of writing of which he was modestly proud. It began,
+"Flushed with oriflammes was the western sky, and Old Sol still shed his
+cheering ray over Cyrus and environs----"
+
+At this moment the door flew open, and Mrs. Sharpe appeared, with Cissy
+close behind her. Well! they _did_ look like an old vixen and a young
+one, there was no doubt about it, though of course Tom ought not to have
+said it.
+
+"Good-evenin', all!" Mrs. Sharpe was panting, as if she had hurried. "I
+thought I'd make a run-in: I calc'lated I should find you here, Almeria
+'n' Egeria. I want to know if you've heard----" her voice failed her,
+and she sat down, fanning herself with the "cloud" she had pulled off
+her head. "I hastened too much," she panted. "I got to get my breath!"
+
+"I don't know as anybody's in a hurry, Mis' Sharpe!" Mr. Mallow's tone
+was less cordial than usual. He did not like Mrs. Sharpe, or her
+"run-ins." He didn't see, he had confided to Miss Egeria, why a person
+should have no privation just because he thought fit to keep a hotel.
+"It isn't as if she was a guest," he said, "paying or invited."
+
+The rest of the company regarded the newcomers with mingled disfavor and
+curiosity.
+
+"What is it, Cissy?" Mrs. Wibird asked, the latter sentiment overcoming
+the former.
+
+"Why," began Cissy, nothing loth; "Miss Johanna----"
+
+"Now you hush up, Cissy!" said her mother, sharply. "You told over to
+Jebuses, and I'm going to tell here. Johanna Ross has come home!" she
+announced, with an air of dramatic triumph. "She came this afternoon. I
+saw her with these eyes." She indicated a pair--well, perhaps not
+exactly a pair--of yellowish eyes, decidedly too near together for
+beauty.
+
+"We are aware of that!" replied Mr. Mallow majestically. Sitting with
+his needle poised in air, his knees rather wide apart, to support the
+big basket firmly and prevent further "cat's trophy," he looked like a
+mild and rosy Rhadamanthus about to give judgment.
+
+"Oh, you are! Some one got ahead of me!"
+
+Mrs. Sharpe darted a suspicious glance round the friendly circle.
+
+"Well, do you know what she is up to? That--that _stay-away_--her that
+Cyrus isn't good enough for, that wouldn't attend her own brother's
+funeral because she was too stuck-up--do you know what has come to her
+in judgment? She has come back to Cyrus because she was _obliged_ to!
+she has come back to saddle herself on her brother's child, that she has
+neglected ever since she was born; she has _taken to her bed_, and there
+she is to remain. Yes, Mr. Mallow! yes, girls! Mr. Jordano, you can put
+it in the paper, if you're a mind to. Miss Johanna Ross, the fine New
+York lady who shook the dust of Cyrus off her feet, is a _bedridden
+invalid_!"
+
+She gazed around with eager triumph, drinking in the looks of dismay
+like wine.
+
+"A bedridden invalid!" she repeated. "What do you think of that?"
+
+"Who told you this?" asked Marshall Mallow abruptly.
+
+"A--precisely!" chimed in Mr. Jordano, in whom incredulity and good
+feeling were wrestling with the journalistic instinct. "What ground, so
+to speak, is there for this hypothesis-sis-sis?"
+
+"Mother heard her say so!" Cissy hastened to put in. "Now, Mother, you
+might let me say a word! She heard the telephone, and----"
+
+"I thought 'twas our ring!" cried Mrs. Sharpe. "I took up the receiver,
+and a _strange voice_ was speakin'. I knew 'twas no one in Cyrus: I
+thought mebbe somethin' was wrong and I ought to notify the marshal. And
+these words I heard: 'No, Madam Flynt, I'm sorry, but I can't come,
+because I am taking to my bed, there to remain.' And Madam Flynt said,
+'Oh, Johanna!' _Then I knew!_"
+
+Again, Mrs. Sharpe swept the circle with eager eyes. She had made the
+sensation of her life and was greedy of its sweets. But before any one
+could respond a rustle of skirts arose outside, a hubbub of voices, and
+in came The Boarders.
+
+Some of the Boarders were ready enough to sup "outside" on Wednesday
+evening. Mrs. Scatter and her sister Miss Pringle went regularly to
+Judge Peters's, and looked forward, and back, to it all the week
+through. Not that the Judge's Mary was a "patch" upon Mr. Mallow's
+Rosanna, but it made a change, and there was always a sense of
+distinction in supping with "my cousin, the Judge." In the same way, the
+Misses Caddie (Miss Pearl in the Bank, Miss Ruby in the Telegraph
+Office) were glad and proud of their weekly evening with Madam Flynt.
+But it was hard on those who had no life-long ties with Cyrus. Mr. and
+Mrs. Bagley (he traveled in oil--mystic phrase--she worked in hair, and
+"chiropodded," as Mr. Mallow put it) had only been there a matter of ten
+years, and they had no resource but the Dew Drop Inn, a very inferior
+little hostelry down by the station. It was harder still on the
+"transients." A tired bond salesman, let us say, just in from a long
+journey, and looking forward to one of the famous Mallow House suppers,
+was not pleased, after giving up his bag and taking his key, to be told,
+"No supper to-night, sir!" He might protest, in angry bewilderment,
+asking if this called itself a hotel, etc., etc. It made no difference:
+Billy had the one reply, "Wednesday: no supper, sir!" If the angry guest
+still protested, Mr. Mallow would come out of the office, smiling and
+urbane. Very sorry, but it was a Rule of the House. The Help, you see,
+their evening out; they had to be considered, times like these. Dew Drop
+Inn wasn't but a step; Billy would go down with him and bespeak a good
+supper.
+
+"We'll make it up to you at breakfast!" the guest was cheerfully
+assured, as Mr. Mallow bowed him toward the door, and this assurance was
+amply fulfilled. Now and then a traveler called for his bag and went in
+a huff to spend the night at the Dew Drop Inn; but he never did it
+twice.
+
+Now, as I said, the Boarders were back, and rustling in with a pleasant
+sense of home-coming. There were two or three salesmen to-night, old
+customers, who knew and accepted the Mallow House ways; they were not
+Cyrus people, however, and it would have been highly improper to
+continue the conversation recently begun. Even the Sharpes realized
+this.
+
+"Come on, Mother!" whispered Cissy, pulling her mother's shawl. "You
+won't get another word in to-night! They are just as glad, too, I can
+see that."
+
+Mother and daughter departed, and the others followed, after a suitable
+interchange of greetings with the newcomers. Wilson Wibird had come
+upstairs with the Sharpes, and had been hanging about the doorway, half
+curious, half sullen. He had been annoying Billy all the evening in the
+office, and had finally been dismissed by that apostle of silence, with
+"Go 'long! work to do!" He resented having to escort his mother and
+sister home, but there was no choice, with Mr. Mallow's eye upon him.
+
+"Here's Wilson, all ready!" said the kindly potentate. "Wilse, you'll
+find a basket in the back entry that Rosanny packed for your Ma. Take it
+along, but be sure to bring it back in the morning; Rosanny wants it.
+Good-night, Marshy; good-night, Lissy! Sleep tighty, flea bitey!"
+
+Mr. Jordano, as was his custom, offered his escort to the Misses Bygood,
+and they walked off together in the fashion of other days, the gentleman
+giving an arm to each.
+
+"A highly agreeable occasion!" he said. "Friend Mallow is the ideal
+host-tost-tost."
+
+"He is indeed!" said Miss Egeria, "and it is so remarkable, Mr. Jordano,
+for a lone man, so to speak, to be such an excellent housekeeper. I am
+told that the Mallow House is known far and wide as an ideal hostelry.
+It is very gratifying to know that Cyrus institutions (for the Mallow
+House is surely an institution) rank so high throughout the State."
+
+"Bello hotello! bello hotello," assented Mr. Jordano warmly. "House and
+host are well matched, well matched. May I ask, Miss Bygood, if you
+attach any--serious--a--importance to Mrs. Sharpe's--shall I say
+singular statement?"
+
+Miss Almeria pondered. "It is hard to say!" she pronounced finally. "The
+method by which the information was obtained--but we will not speak of
+that!" she closed her eyes for a moment, as if to shut out an unlovely
+vision. "Miss Ross _is_ peculiar: there is no gainsaying that. She has
+always gone her own way, with no guidance--that I am aware of--beyond
+her own wishes. But she is a woman of character and education, and I
+cannot for a moment believe that matters are as--as we have heard them
+represented. Doubtless we shall know all in good time. Meanwhile--may I
+ask if you were contemplating the possibility of altering or adding to
+your item, Mr. Jordano?"
+
+Mr. Jordano fluttered perceptibly.
+
+"Not if it would appear in any way unsuitable to a lady--to
+ladies"--with a little bow to Miss Egeria, "whose exquisite refinement
+of taste is equal to their--ahem! shall I say, other characteristics?
+Not for worlds, Miss Bygood, if you advise against it. At the same time,
+if--if the information is to be--a--generally disseminated, it
+might--the official organ--it might be expected by the people--il
+Publico, you understand-tand-tand--I will do whatever you advise, Miss
+Bygood!" the poor gentleman concluded.
+
+It was heroic, though none of the three fully realized it. To relinquish
+such a "story," leave it to unofficial babblers and--Mr. Jordano
+feared--spiteful gossips, when it might be set down with gravity and
+ornamented with flowers of speech--yes, it was heroic. The two ladies
+thought it very nice of Mr. Jordano; but they thought no more than that,
+and Miss Almeria gave the _coup de grace_ with unfaltering hand.
+
+"It will be best, I am convinced," she said, "to leave the item as it
+stood before Mrs. Sharpe's entrance. I will say, her unseemly entrance.
+Your own instinctive delicacy is so well known, Mr. Jordano----"
+
+"Oh! grazier! grazier!" murmured Mr. Jordano, trying to bow gracefully,
+a difficult thing with a lady on either arm--"too much, Miss Almeria!"
+
+"So well known," Miss Almeria repeated, with a gracious bend of her own
+stately head, "that all Cyrus will appreciate your motive for abstaining
+from comment upon what we have heard. If it proves true, we shall know
+it soon enough; if false----" Miss Almeria's gesture was eloquent as
+well as dignified.
+
+"If false," cried Mr. Jordano,--they were now at Mr. Bygood's door, and
+the ladies withdrew their arms, enabling him to fling his cloak over his
+left shoulder with a noble gesture--"if false, it has no place in the
+columns of the _Cyrus Centinel_."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII
+
+                           THE TRIVIAL ROUND
+
+
+These things and many more happened in the winter; in February, to be
+exact. A month later, when I came to make my annual visit in beloved
+Cyrus, things had "simpered down," as Mr. Mallow said. The excitement of
+Kitty's arrival, followed by the nine days' wonder of Miss Johanna
+Ross's return, were--not forgotten, no indeed! but laid away in
+spiritual camphor, as it were, to be aired and shaken out from time to
+time.
+
+"My dear," said Madam Flynt (one's first visit was always to Madam
+Flynt, one's second to the Misses Bygood: it was a Propriety of
+Cyrus!)--"it is not only that we could not get along without Kitty: we
+have forgotten that we ever did get along without her. She drives too
+fast; I go in fear of my life when we turn a corner; but except for
+that, it is an ideal arrangement."
+
+"The dear Doctor always drove fast!" Miss Croly looked up pensively from
+her knitting. "I suppose Kitty learned it naturally from him."
+
+"I suppose she did; but the dear Doctor never broke my neck, Cornelia
+Croly."
+
+"Kitty has not broken it, Clarissa, has she?"
+
+"Not yet, and I don't mean she shall. Where are you going, Cornelia?"
+
+"To get your milk-posset!" Miss Croly was rolling up her knitting
+methodically. "It is four o'clock."
+
+"I don't want milk-posset: get me some orange-juice!"
+
+"The Doctor recommended milk-posset!" Miss Croly's tone was mild, but
+firm. "I will try to make it palatable, Clarissa."
+
+"I tell you I won't have it! Whose house is this, I should like to
+know?"
+
+"Yours, assuredly, Clarissa. I can leave it at any moment you desire,
+but while here I must do my duty as I see it."
+
+"What a pretty scarf, Miss Croly!" I said hastily. How natural to be a
+buffer again! "Is it for a baby?"
+
+Madam Flynt uttered something between a snort and a chuckle.
+
+"Baby, indeed! I don't wonder you ask, my dear. Tell her what it's for,
+Cornelia Croly!"
+
+"For the deep-sea fishermen, my love!" Miss Croly glowed softly. "Most
+people send them gray mufflers, you know, but I feel as if a little
+variety, a touch of color, in their dangerous lives, would be desirable.
+The ocean! so grand, but so fraught with peril!"
+
+"In a storm, you understand," Madam Flynt actually snorted this time; "a
+pink, blue and yellow muffler would be more comforting than a gray one.
+Of course! Any one can see that!"
+
+"You are pleased to be facetious, my dear Clarissa;" Miss Croly paused,
+her hand on the door; "but I conceive that in case of disaster, the
+attention of a--of a bark of rescue would be more readily attracted by
+the waving of a bright object than of a dull one!"
+
+She slipped out quickly and shut the door quietly upon the last word.
+Madam Flynt looked after her with an air of exasperation.
+
+"The most provoking woman--I have half a mind to call her back! What
+were you saying, my dear?"
+
+I was saying as quickly as I could how very well Madam Flynt was
+looking. I hoped the rheumatism was fairly routed this time. The dear
+lady's brow cleared at once.
+
+"Much better! I am bound to say that it is much better than I ever
+expected it to be. Cornelia Croly, who has really more sense than you
+would give her credit for"--she cast another exasperated glance at the
+door--"says that I seem ten years younger, and I certainly do move much
+more freely than I have for years. It is partly the driving: Kitty is a
+delightful companion, you know, and she keeps me out a good part of the
+afternoon, instead of skimping the last ten minutes of the hour, as
+Flanagan did--old wretch! His carriage was uncomfortable, too, and as
+for his horses! Every day he would ask regularly whether I would have
+'the plain hoss or the double-speeder:' the double-speeder went about
+four miles an hour; as for the other--well, he's dead, and Flanagan,
+too, so no matter. John Tucker's horses, and the cee springs, and Kitty
+and all, makes driving a very different matter, I can tell you. But
+besides that, my dear, I verily believe"--Madam Flynt nodded this time,
+till her green cap ribbons quivered--"I verily believe Johanna has
+something to do with it!"
+
+"Johanna?"
+
+Well, I had only arrived the day before, and Kitty was out when I flew
+into Ross House on my way to Madam Flynt's: going to Kitty's did not
+count as a visit, of course!
+
+"You don't mean you haven't heard? My dear!" Madam Flynt's handsome
+hands were trembling with eagerness, her lips began to shape the words
+before she could find voice to utter them. "You don't mean you haven't
+heard?" she repeated. Madam Flynt was no gossip, but she loved to talk,
+and going out so little, she had fewer opportunities than the
+Gadderenes, as Dr. Ross used to call some of his neighbors. One's first
+visit was made to her, as I have said: but ten to one Cissy Sharpe or
+her mother had waylaid one on the way from the station, with "Oh, howdy
+do! quite a stranger! Have you heard"--and before getting free one had
+heard.
+
+"Johanna Ross--Kitty's aunt, the Doctor's only sister; very likely you
+never heard of her, my dear, just visiting as you do"--(Oh, Madam Flynt!
+as if I were not Cyrus born and bred, and exiled through no fault of
+mine!)--"but--well, anyhow, she has come home after _twenty years_ of
+absence; and what is more she has _taken to her bed_, and there she is!"
+
+Madam Flynt drew herself up and nodded gravely: the green satin cap
+ribbons following suit.
+
+"Is she seriously ill?" I asked, wondering.
+
+"My dear! she _says_ there is nothing whatever the matter with her
+except fatigue. I can understand that!" she nodded again. "Perfectly.
+One doesn't always care to discuss chronic or deep-seated troubles.
+Sometimes when people say 'rheumatism' to me, I want to throw the
+fire-irons at them. I don't mean you, my dear; perfectly natural and
+right for you to ask; I should have been hurt if you hadn't. Well! there
+Johanna is, as I said. I go over to see her once a week--walk over, with
+the step of youth, Cornelia Croly says, and there I find her in her bed,
+looking as permanent as the Pyramids."
+
+At this moment Miss Croly came in softly with the milk-posset. Madam
+Flynt took it with an absent-minded, "Thanks, Cornelia!" drank it off,
+then paused with a look of discomfiture.
+
+"I told you I wouldn't take it!" she said sharply.
+
+"Your natural good sense"--murmured Miss Croly with a glance at the
+empty cup--"the Doctor recommended----"
+
+"Hang the Doctor! and you, too!" exclaimed Madam Flynt.
+"You--you--you--_go away_, Cornelia Croly! go and"--Miss Croly was
+already at the door, aggressive meekness in every line of face and
+figure--"and bring me my smelling-salts, if you will have the goodness!"
+
+The last words were spoken with austere dignity: but, the door once
+closed, Madam Flynt's sense of humor was too much for her. Her lips
+began to twitch, her eyes to twinkle even under the bent brows of anger.
+She struggled for a moment, then burst into a hearty fit of laughter.
+
+"The old fox!" she cried. "She gets the better of me every time! every
+time, Mary! She's chuckling to herself now, but she'll come in as sober
+as--thank you, Cornelia! I hope you haven't over-exerted yourself!" as
+Miss Croly, still aggressively meek, retired to a corner with her
+rainbow scarf. Dear me! yes, she always sat in that uncomfortable chair
+when they had had a tiff.
+
+"What was I saying, my dear?" Madam Flynt rubbed her nose with her
+silver spectacle-case, and threw a vexed glance toward the corner.
+
+"Oh, yes, Johanna! like the Pyramids, my dear, I assure you! I don't
+mean in looks" (I had a moment's vision of Cheops with a nightcap tilted
+over his apex) "she looks like a picture--but in permanence. Sits up
+morning and evening to have her bed made: and, as Cornelia Croly says,
+in some mysterious way it makes me feel younger just to look at her.
+Cornelia, stop being ridiculous, and come out of that corner. I didn't
+really swear at you, though you are enough to make one."
+
+Seeing reconciliation imminent, I slipped away, to find my Kitty in the
+stable. My Kitty! I was just as foolish about her as any one else. I had
+not seen her since all the happenings, but by and by we were quiet and
+comfortable, and combing out Pilot's beautiful mane, as if we had never
+been away, either of us. Kitty confided to me that she was awaiting John
+Tucker's return in trepidation, not to say terror. She had bought a new
+horse, bought it all by herself, without John Tucker's seeing it. That
+is, not actually bought it, but taken it on trial.
+
+"How could I? Mary, I don't know! We had decided that we must have a
+third horse. The business is growing so, my dear! Mr. Chanter's horse is
+lame, and I have to take the dear man on his out-of-town calls. _Such_
+fun! well, this morning--oh! oh! Mary! here is John Tucker. Now I must
+confess to him. Stay by me, won't you?"
+
+Dan and John Tucker came into the stable, a sturdy, handsome pair. I was
+warmly greeted (I, too, had been Don Tutter's Dal when time was) and
+allowed to lead Dan into his stall. I hurried to the harness room in
+time to hear Kitty's confession, she standing like a schoolgirl with her
+hands behind her, John Tucker in that state of glowing pride in her that
+he could hardly take in the situation.
+
+"John Tucker, dear, I have bought a horse!"
+
+"You have, Miss Kitty? You _have_? Well, to be sure! the spirit of you!
+I'll bet he's a good one."
+
+"He's a miracle, John! A beautiful bright bay, with a star on his
+forehead, and four white stockings; you know I never could abide odd
+stockings."
+
+"No, Miss! To be sure not. Where did you get him, if I may make so bold,
+Miss Kitty?"
+
+"Don't talk about making bold, John Tucker. It's I who have been making
+bold. I am scared out of my wits, you know I am, but he _is_ such a
+beauty! Let's sit down, John Tucker dear, and I'll tell you all about
+it."
+
+Perched sidewise on the arm of a chair, her hands clasped on her knee,
+her chin tilted up, Kitty was so enchanting an object that I could not
+wonder at John Tucker's fatuous expression. Probably if she had told him
+of the purchase of a giraffe or an elephant, he would have looked no
+less fatuous. As it was----
+
+"You see, John," Kitty began slowly, taking out a hatpin and jabbing it
+into the arm of the chair to punctuate her remarks, "I took Mr. Chanter
+to see a poor old Thing who is sick, and in trouble besides; sad
+trouble, I'm afraid. Her son hasn't been doing well lately;
+but--well--he is a good son to her, only he has been unfortunate. He
+deals in horses----"
+
+John Tucker looked up. "What was the name, did you say, Miss?"
+
+"I didn't say, John Tucker dear, but the name is Boody; Mrs. L. M.
+Boody. Her son is L. M., too. I don't know----"
+
+"Ellum Boody: Slippery Ellum!" murmured John Tucker. "Scuse me, Miss
+Kitty. Luke his name is, but he's known like I say. Scuse me, Miss
+Kitty!"
+
+"Oh, I _hope_ he isn't slippery, John Tucker, dear. Let me tell you! I
+was sitting out in Mr. Chanter's buggy, when he--Boody, I mean--drove
+into the yard with this horse. His name is Hero, John; good name, don't
+you think? I was taken with him at once; such a beautiful color, and
+holds his head so well! The man touched his hat, and was very civil; I
+said how handsome the horse was, and he was _most_ enthusiastic. Said he
+had never had such a fine horse in his stable, and he wouldn't part with
+him for a gold mine if things weren't just as they were. So I asked was
+he thinking of selling him, because you know we decided we _had_ to have
+one, John; and he said yes, if the right party could be found. 'For sell
+that hoss to the wrong party is what I couldn't do, not if he was the
+Angel Gable!' he said. Then I asked about him, you know; six years old,
+sound and kind, a lady's horse every inch of him, Boody said, and
+wouldn't I like to take a turn behind him while I waited. So I did, and
+he is a _good_ roadster, John; eight or ten miles an hour, I should
+think; Boody says twelve, but I'm not sure----" I glanced at John Tucker
+and saw that he was not sure. "Good action! lifts his feet a _little_
+high, but Boody says that is his spirit; and as to his disposition,
+John, just _think_ what he did one day! Some women hired him, Boody
+says, and put him in their own wagon, and _forgot to fasten the
+breeching_. They drove him seven miles over that rough road by Gambrel
+Hill, all ups and downs, you know, and he _never did a thing_! What do
+you think of that, John Tucker?"
+
+"Sounds as if he might be some hoss!" said John Tucker cautiously.
+"You've took him on trial, you say, Miss Kitty?"
+
+"Yes, John, a week. I thought in that time--why, here he is now, this
+very minute!"
+
+A man was driving into the yard in a light trotting sulky. We all
+hastened out into the yard.
+
+"You _were_ quick, Mr. Boody!" cried Kitty. "This is Mr. Boody, John
+Tucker, and this is Hero: isn't he a beauty?"
+
+"Mornin', Slip!"
+
+"Mornin', Tucker!"
+
+Both men spoke gravely. Seeing that they knew each other, Kitty
+exchanged a glance with me, and we slipped back a pace. Followed remarks
+on the weather. It was seasonable, take it by and large, but dry. What
+we wanted was a nice warm rain. That was right; dry May made poor hay,
+no two ways to that. John Tucker, still grave, inquired for the health
+of Mr. Boody's Ma; he trusted she was smart these days. It appeared that
+she was slim, Mr. Boody was obliged to John Tucker for askin'. Her
+victuals didn't nourish her: any one gettin' on in years, they had to be
+nourished, you understand. John Tucker expected that was right, too.
+Upon this, both men pondered; John Tucker scrutinizing a wart on his
+left knuckle, Mr. Boody whistling through his teeth and looking up at
+the clouds. Presently:
+
+"Got a new hoss, I see!" said John Tucker.
+
+"Yep!" Mr. Boody's gaze came down with alacrity. "The lady thought she'd
+like to try him. Best hoss ever I had in my stable, bar none. Pequot out
+of Lady Lansing: sound and kind anywhere; lady's hoss every inch of him.
+Rising six, and not an out about him. You get that hoss and you'll
+get----"
+
+Boody paused abruptly. John Tucker had lifted one of the bay's hind
+feet, and was examining it carefully. Presently he straightened himself
+and looked at Boody.
+
+"I was to Rochester Fair last fall!" he said.
+
+"You was?" A curious change came over Mr. Boody's countenance. It seemed
+to flatten itself in a singular way, while his mouth widened into an
+uneasy grin. "Pooty good show, wasn't it?" he said.
+
+"Pooty fair! good truck, and middlin' stock. The most re-markable thing
+I see at that fair"--John Tucker spoke slowly, and there was a certain
+metallic quality in his voice that made Kitty look at him quickly--"the
+most re-markable was a young hoss; bright bay, as it might be this hoss:
+same color, same markin's; he was a pictur' to look at, he sure was.
+Well, sir, I see that hoss take and kick the wagon he was hitched to
+into pieces that the biggest of 'em wouldn't sell to a match factory. I
+was surprised!"
+
+There was a silence. Then L. M. Boody spoke, a hint of bluster in his
+voice.
+
+"Wal!" he said. "A kicker is a poor hoss, sure enough; but all kickers
+ain't bay, nor all bays ain't kickers. I brung this hoss for the lady to
+try, like she said for me to. Where shall I leave him? Is she boss here,
+or are you?"
+
+His speech was insolent, his look craven. John Tucker stepped forward,
+his sixty years resting very lightly on him. His meditative drawl gave
+place to quick, ringing speech.
+
+"Miss Ross is boss here," he said, "and that hoss shall go anywhere she
+tells me to put him. Before she gives her orders, she's going to hear
+what I have to say--if you have the time to spare, Miss--Miss Ross!" He
+turned to Kitty with a bow and gesture that would not have shamed a
+court. Kitty's cheeks were flushing and her eyes widening and darkening.
+One knew precisely what the Chanters meant by saying that her eyes were
+sometimes a mile round.
+
+"If you please, John!" she said quietly.
+
+Then John Tucker, standing very straight, thus delivered himself.
+
+"Miss Kitty, I'm a common man, and I may be mistook; but if I know
+anything--anything _at all_, let alone hosses--this young hoss is that
+identical young hoss that I see kick that shay to slivers over to
+Rochester. How do I know? Well, his color is the same, his markin's is
+the same, his shape and his action is the same. But that ain't all! That
+young hoss over to Rochester, he was a pictur' fer looks, same as this
+one; but yet when I looked in his countenance, I felt someways or
+another as if I couldn't say nothin' favorable about him. Don't know how
+'tis, but that feelin' 'll come over me, 'bout a hoss or 'bout a bein',
+'cordin' to; and when it comes, _I know it's right_. Now that same
+feelin' has come over me about this young hoss. And why?" John Tucker's
+voice rose. "Because he is the same hoss! But that ain't all!" as Mr.
+Boody was about to speak. "You might say one bust don't set a hoss down
+a kicker. That is so, but I say this ain't a case of one bust; I say
+this hoss has been kickin' within twenty-four hours."
+
+"Like to see you prove it!" said Boody. "Easy there, Hero! He knows
+you're slanderin' him. You can't fool this hoss. You'll get into
+trouble, John Tucker. I'll have the law of you if----"
+
+The horse had laid back his ears, and was settling back in a curious
+way.
+
+"Look out!" said John Tucker sharply.
+
+Boody, with a muttered curse and a savage look, laid his whip heavily
+over the horse's withers. The animal hesitated a moment, then sprang
+forward; another moment, and they had vanished round the corner in a
+cloud of dust.
+
+John Tucker turned to Kitty with an apologetic air.
+
+"I'm sorry, Miss Kitty!" he said. "I'm real sorry. I would of if I
+could----"
+
+"Oh, John Tucker, don't!" Kitty was scarlet, her eyes flashing, her
+hands clenched. "The _horrid_ man! Oh, I am so grateful to you, John!
+But how _did_ you know?"
+
+"Well, Miss Kitty, you see, 'twas easy enough, look at it one way. I'd
+seed the hoss before, seed him at his tricks, too. Yes'm: I'd seed him
+before, and--" a joke began to twinkle in John Tucker's eyes, and spread
+all over him till he became incandescent; you could have lighted a match
+at him; "and now I've seed him behind! haw! haw! You see me lift up his
+off hind foot? Well, why did I do that? Because when he shifted his
+footin' I see a spark of yeller. Come to look, and lo ye, his hoof was
+kind o' crushed in above the shoe, where he'd struck iron, and there was
+a flake of yellow paint on it big as my thumb nail."
+
+"And he knew that!" Kitty was pale now, not with fear but with anger.
+"The scoundrel!"
+
+"Well!" John Tucker pulled out his jack-knife and made a thoughtful
+incision in the door-jamb. "I dono as I'd just say that; I dono as he's
+a scoundrel; he's a trader! I've heard it said,--I dono as it's so, and
+I dono _as_ it is--but I've heard it said that there ain't no one, not
+even a minister of the Gospel, a holy man, but what he'll stretch the
+truth just a little grain in a hoss trade."
+
+John Tucker closed his jack-knife with a snap. "Forget it, Miss Kitty!"
+he said, and his tone expressed finality. "You won't have no more
+trouble with Slippery Ellum. He thought he'd try it on, that's all, to
+keep his hand in, like; tradin' is like drink to him. Hark! there's that
+hen again!"
+
+"What hen, John?"
+
+John Tucker chuckled and made a gesture of caution.
+
+"Now I'll show ye something curious, gals. I would say young ladies. You
+hear that hen cackle? Well, it's that little Brown Leghorn. She's made
+her nest in Dan's manger, and she won't lay nowhere else, not if the
+President was to ask her. Easy now! Don't let Dan see you!"
+
+Cautiously, we followed him into the stable, flattening ourselves
+against the wall so that we could not be seen from the loose boxes; very
+cautiously we peeped round the window opening. Dan, wisest of horses
+since old Victory died, was standing in the middle of the box, every
+fibre of him alert, his eyes fixed on a corner of the manger. In this
+corner sat a Brown Leghorn hen, proclaiming to the world that she had
+laid an egg. Having made this perfectly clear, she rose slowly from her
+nest, clucked, cocked an approving eye at the egg, clapped her wings,
+said, "Scraw!" several times, finally hopped down to the barn floor and
+departed, presumably in search of corn. In a flash, Dan's velvet nose
+was in the nest. Carefully he lipped the egg, daintily he took it in his
+teeth; a crack, a gulp; luncheon was over, and Dan looked up as we
+advanced, with eyes of innocent welcome.
+
+"Why, Dan!" cried Kitty. "You old fox! Do you mean that he does this
+regularly, John?"
+
+"Reg'lar every day since she begun to lay. I'd ought to stop him, but
+honest, he's so cute, and so quick, I'd need to spend the mornin'
+watchin'!"
+
+"Sugar, please!" said Dan. "I am very hungry!"
+
+"You really ought to be ashamed, Dan." Kitty was searching in her
+pocket. "You are extremely greedy, beloved. You shall have only one
+lump, and Pilot shall have two, because he has had no egg. Oh, me! there
+is the supper bell. We must run, Mary!"
+
+Sarepta, at the kitchen door, bell in hand, addressed us with severity.
+
+"Supper's ready, girls. Come in just as you are, Kitty, or the waffles
+will be leathery. Hasten, now!"
+
+"Mary," said Kitty, as we scurried across the yard, "do you suppose I
+shall ever be more than ten years old, in blessed Cyrus?"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX
+
+                    THE SKELETON IN CYRUS' CUPBOARD
+
+
+Perhaps no one was enjoying Kitty and her horses more at this time than
+the Reverend Timothy Chanter. When he came to Cyrus, to replace the
+Reverend Holdfast Baxter, deceased after a pastorate of forty-seven
+years, he took over the parsonage as it stood, and with it Gudgeon the
+sexton, Felicity the cat and Podasokus the horse. The age of Podasokus
+might be anywhere from twenty to forty years. The children, who had
+known him all their lives, supposed him to be a hundred. He was a
+singular, moth-eaten old creature, seeming to slope all ways at once; I
+don't know how else to describe him. He could trot rather fast when he
+wished, but this was seldom; he preferred to jog or single-foot at a
+rate of three miles an hour. This had suited Mr. Baxter well enough, for
+he composed his sermons while driving; as for his parish calls, if he
+could not compass them, he was all the better pleased. But Mr. Chanter,
+deep in his heart, had an inborn love of good horses and fast driving.
+It was part of his simple creed to deny himself anything he specially
+liked; it was an affair between himself and his Maker--or so he thought.
+The neck of the fowl was always his portion, till Mrs. Chanter took the
+carving into her own hands; he found the fireside too hot in winter, the
+shady corner too cool in summer. Much of his wife's time was devoted to
+circumventing "Pelican Pa," as he was disrespectfully called in the
+bosom of the family. Acting on this principle, Mr. Chanter had never
+thought of exchanging Podasokus for a better animal. He was there. If
+one could "live well in a palace," one could also drive a slow horse.
+So, when he was in a hurry, he walked, or borrowed the boys' bicycle.
+When he had plenty of time, he drove Podasokus.
+
+When Podasokus felt that he must have a nap in the middle of the high
+road, Mr. Chanter hauled the wagon to the hedge, and read the works of
+the late R. J. Ingersoll, which he particularly disliked, till the steed
+woke up again and jogged along.
+
+These things being so, Mr. Chanter found it hard to grieve deeply when
+"Pod" went lame, and he must call upon Kitty Ross for his longer
+expeditions. The parish was a straggling one; Cyrus itself is compact as
+a pie, but South, East and West Cyrus stretch far over hill and dale.
+What more delightful than to drive to South Cyrus behind Dan or Pilot,
+with Kitty holding the reins? Kitty was the perfect companion, Mr.
+Chanter said. She talked just enough and not too much; and she always
+seemed to know when one was inclined to meditate or--a--"or sleep!"
+assented Mrs. Chanter, who had "put Kitty wise" on certain points.
+"Exactly!"
+
+On a pleasant April morning the two were thus driving along the South
+Cyrus road. Pilot was in the shafts, and in high spirits. The day before
+had been rainy, and he had not been out; now he sped along the
+sun-dappled road as if every stride were a pleasure; now and then
+breaking into a canter of rejoicing, to be checked by Kitty with
+affectionate firmness. When they had climbed and dipped the intervening
+hills and the plain stretched before them like a floor, Mr. Chanter
+leaned back in his seat and rubbed his hands.
+
+"This is delightful!" he said. "This is de-lightful, Kitty! ha! the
+poetry of motion.
+
+    "'And thought the air must rush as fresh
+        To swallows on the wing!'
+
+A fine horse (and Pilot is a remarkably fine horse!) is
+after mankind, one of the noblest works of God."
+
+"Isn't he?" said Kitty. "And not always such a
+long way after, do you think, Mr. Chanter? Compare
+Pilot, or Dan either, with--with some people!
+that horrid Boody man! Neither Pilot nor Dan would
+_think_ of cheating in a horse trade!"
+
+"Surely not! surely not!" Mr. Chanter acquiesced.
+"They would scorn such an action."
+
+"To be sure, Dan does steal eggs!" Kitty continued
+meditatively. "But then--that seems a little different,
+don't you think? A hen is _such_ a goose!"
+
+"Surely not! surely not!" said the Reverend Timothy
+again in sonorous accent.
+
+Kitty glanced at him: he was making a series of
+courteous bows to Pilot's glossy hindquarters; was in
+fact as nearly asleep as any one could be whose eyes
+were only half shut.
+
+"Dear soul!" murmured Kitty to herself. "He was
+up half the night with that sick man, Mrs. Chanter
+said. He might as well take a good nap. Easy now,
+Pilot! easy, dear boy!"
+
+Pilot, who had been dancing a bit in the joy of his
+heart, settled into a smooth trot, and conveyed to Kitty
+by a toss of his beautiful head that he could keep this
+up all day, though it was a trifle dull. "Never mind,
+darling!" said Kitty. "You shall rush all the way
+home if you like."
+
+She fell into a muse, as the miles sped smoothly by.
+It was spring; really and truly, or almost really and
+truly, almost spring.
+
+    "Really spring, or nearly spring,
+    And, oh, I love you dearly, spring!"
+
+she hummed under her breath. Kitty loved to think in rhyme. Sometimes
+for days together she and Tommy would hardly speak in prose. Tommy was
+far cleverer, of course: (he was not!) did he talk rhyme now, Kitty
+wondered, and if so, to whom? Something pricked her; she put the thought
+resolutely away.
+
+    "'Tis a month before the month of May,
+    And the spring comes slowly up this way."
+
+What was the strange magic of those two lines? They simply _were_ the
+New England spring, which Coleridge never saw. Ah! pussy willows! she
+must get some--she half checked the horse, but chirruped to him again
+with a little sigh. Nobody to take pussy willows to, now. How Mother
+loved them! They were just like that gray velvet gown of hers. Little
+Mother! Aunt Johanna wouldn't care for pussy willows; as for
+Sarepta----! But how good they both were; what really interesting
+persons! and so bracing to live with! Kitty chuckled, recalling the
+after breakfast hour this morning.
+
+She was making her customary call on Aunt Johanna, and that lady, erect
+amid her pillows, resplendent in sapphire blue and Mechlin (she had a
+different jacket for every morning; the bedridden, she maintained, must
+make variety for themselves!) was holding forth on the subject of
+classes. "Keep people _in their place_!" said the lady. "It is my
+invariable rule. If a salesman is uppish with me, he takes his
+uppishness elsewhere within twenty-four hours. Whenever any one forgets
+his place, put him back in it _without delay_. Delay makes for
+uncertainty, and uncertainty is fatal in business and everywhere else.
+An instance, my dear! The day before I left New York, I took a friend, a
+nice young girl, who didn't have many friends, to the Ritz Carlton for
+lunch. They have good coffee there; not like Sarepta's, but good. Well,
+after the ice-cream I ordered peaches; the waiter brought me two. _Two
+peaches!_ I looked at him. 'I ordered peaches!' I said. 'I did not
+specify the number.' He mumbled something, and I told him to speak up.
+'Peaches is very expensive, Mum!' said the creature."
+
+Kitty burst into a ripple of laughter. "I wish I had been there, Aunt
+Johanna. What did you say?"
+
+"Say? I said, 'Trot along, Nancy! Do I look as if I couldn't pay for
+'em?' He trotted."
+
+Kitty's laughter rippled again as she recalled her aunt's gesture.
+
+"Speaking of trotting, Pilot dear," she said, "we might as well--quiet,
+boy! quiet!"
+
+Pilot had shied, a thing almost unheard of. They were passing a tall
+dark hedge; something rustled in it, and startled the horse. As Kitty
+soothed him, a figure half emerged from a gap in the hedge; she was
+aware of a thin, dark, haggard face, of two burning eyes, which fixed
+her for an instant with a piercing gaze; then the figure slunk back
+again and the branches closed over it.
+
+"Surely not! surely not!" said the Reverend Timothy Chanter, in a tone
+of profound conviction. "You were speaking of the good horse, my dear;
+has anything annoyed him? I think I lost myself a moment."
+
+"He was startled, and I don't wonder; I was startled too. A man came out
+of the hedge: such a strange-looking man, Mr. Chanter."
+
+"Hedge? Man?" Mr. Chanter glanced around him and his face changed. "What
+kind of man, Kitty?"
+
+"A wild, ragged man. He looked sick, and--I had just a glimpse, but he
+looked--all wrong, somehow. It's the old Gaylord place, you know. I
+never saw any living creature about it before,--but once! Have you ever
+seen any one there, Mr. Chanter?"
+
+Mr. Chanter cleared his throat with some elaboration.
+
+"I believe it has not been inhabited for some years," he replied. There
+was a shade on his candid countenance. He was not in the habit of
+evading the direct answer.
+
+"It is a fine place, spite of its neglected condition."
+
+Kitty glanced back at the dark hedge, with the dark chimneys rising
+above it, and shivered a little. "I have always been afraid of the
+place, somehow!" she said. "I had a fright there once, when I was a
+child."
+
+"Had you so, my love? No one should ever frighten a child. Very remiss:
+very wrong, if intentional."
+
+"Oh, no, no one meant to frighten me. It was just an accident. We used
+to go there for nuts, Tom Lee and I. There was a huge chestnut tree--I
+suppose it is still there--by the side door of the house. It bore the
+biggest chestnuts I ever saw, and Tom and I went there regularly every
+October. There was something terrifying about the great dark shuttered
+house; (to me, that is: Tom was never afraid of anything;) and that
+always made it an exciting expedition. You know there is a round hole in
+every shutter, near the top? We used to make believe we saw eyes looking
+at us out of those holes; and then--one day--" Kitty shivered again:
+"well, one day, there _were_ eyes!"
+
+"My child! my child! a--a--lively imagination, no doubt! The young----"
+
+"No, Mr. Chanter, the eyes were there: we saw them wink. And then--we
+used to call that little side door the postern, and imagine all kinds of
+people coming out of it, knights and giants and princesses--well; all of
+a sudden the door did open, and a man came out--why!" Kitty stopped
+short and turned a pale face on her companion. "Why, Mr. Chanter, I
+believe--it was--the--same man!"
+
+"The same man, my dear?"
+
+"The man I saw just now! He wasn't so thin or so haggard then: he wasn't
+ragged; but--the wild look, the burning eyes--oh, Mr. Chanter, it all
+comes back to me. It was the same man!"
+
+Mr. Chanter was silent for some time: then--"And whom did you suppose
+the man to be, my love? Did he speak to you?"
+
+"No! I think he might have, but we ran away. We were trespassing, of
+course, and I was frightened out of my wits. We supposed"--her voice
+dropped: "we told Father, and he said it was probably the owner of the
+house, and bade us say nothing about it to any one."
+
+Mr. Chanter's face cleared a little.
+
+"Very sound advice!" he said. "Excellent advice, my dear. Do you know,
+Kitty, my child, I believe you cannot do better than to follow it in
+this case also."
+
+Villages as well as houses have their skeleton cupboards. The Gaylord
+place was Cyrus' cupboard. Built in the middle of the eighteenth
+century, it had been inhabited by one generation after another of
+Gaylords; all people of the same stripe as their neighbors, gentle,
+cultivated, a little passive, a little inclined to smile and let the
+world go by. They farmed their wide acres; they loved their books, they
+caught trout at one season and shot woodcock at another, they spent
+certain weeks or months in the City. So things went for a hundred years
+and more. Then one Gaylord, more enterprising than his forebears, made
+money: copper, I think it was, in the early Calumet days. The money did
+him no special harm. He refurnished the house rather more splendidly
+than Cyrus thought in quite good taste, but his wife came from the City,
+and what could one expect? He bought a good many books, and some
+pictures, and enjoyed himself immensely: then he died, a few weeks after
+his City wife, and their son inherited.
+
+Kitty and I were babies when Russell Gaylord was running his race to
+perdition. In our childhood we used to hear a good deal about him; never
+from our parents, nor from Sarepta Darwin, but I am afraid we did listen
+to Cissy Sharpe, who knew all about it, or thought she did. He threw the
+money right and left. He drove four-in-hand through Cyrus streets with
+his college mates, to the scandal of the community; he held revels in
+the old house, with a hundred wax candles in each room, and flowers and
+music such as had never been dreamed of in the quiet village. People
+shook their heads, but indulgently: they were proud of the handsome,
+open-hearted boy. He had such pleasant ways! He loved to put a dime in
+the contribution box at church, and then slyly, after service, to pile
+it high with anonymous gold pieces. He loved to send preposterous
+Christmas boxes to everybody he knew, and to pile up loads of wood by
+night in lean woodsheds. People said he would learn in time; his heart
+was in the right place. He was the most brilliant scholar in his class,
+could stand at the head if he would only study; when he had sown his
+wild oats, he would settle down in Cyrus and be a credit to all. Even
+when he ran over their dogs and in a tipsy frolic smashed the post
+office windows, they forgave him and loved him. He was a Gaylord, and
+could not really do anything much out of the way.
+
+Then came the crash. A riotous houseparty of men from the City (poor
+City! it had to bear the sins of many a village like Cyrus!); a quarrel
+over the gaming table; an insult; a blow, a knife-thrust; a young man
+slain in his folly, and blood on Russell Gaylord's white hands.
+
+They had all been drinking; the verdict brought in was manslaughter, the
+sentence ten years' imprisonment. No sooner was the trial over than the
+creditors came flocking like vultures. Judge Peters--young Lawyer
+Peters, he was then,--who had charge of the estate, paid and paid and
+paid; debts of honor, so called, contracted in dishonor; bills for
+horses, for carriages, for rich wines and costly jewelry: he set his
+teeth and paid them all. The last bill took practically the last dollar;
+the house was closed, and for many a day Russell Gaylord's name was
+spoken no more in Cyrus.
+
+It must have been soon after his release from prison that Kitty and Tom
+saw him. It began to be whispered about, not among the gossips, but
+quietly, among those who had been friends of the family, that Russell
+had been back; that Marshall Mallow had seen him and spoken with him;
+that he was a wreck of his former self, his one idea to forget his
+troubles in drink.
+
+Mrs. Sharpe never heard this, though she knew something was going on.
+She knew that one night Judge Peters was out till midnight, _no one knew
+where_; she saw him come home and she _thought_ he didn't put his latch
+key in any too easy: and that she had met Marsh Mallow and Very Jordano
+at _ten o'clock_, when she was hastening home to her bed, having taken
+some gruel to those Jessups who were never thankful for anything, and
+she met those two men walking in the street, with their faces turned
+_away from their homes_, they best knew why. This was all she knew: she
+made the most of it, and succeeded in impressing Mrs. Scatter and Mrs.
+Wibird with a sense of impending calamity; but when the latter went to
+her brother with a face of woe, and "Oh, Marshall! what _is_ going on in
+Cyrus Village? Is Satan abroad in our midst, think? I do feel a
+trembling like in my inside!" she was met with a calm, "Take a dose of
+rhubarb, Marshy! that'll drive Satan out if he _has_ got into your
+cistern!"
+
+Mr. Mallow meant "system" presumably: anyhow he was pleased with his
+remark, and repeated it to Mrs. Wibird's indignant back as she left the
+room.
+
+"The idea!" he said to the fire-irons. "Nine o'clock bell's a good
+thing, and I allus stand for it; but a man might stay up till half past
+or so once in a while, you'd think, 'thout every woman in the place
+gettin' all frustrated up!"
+
+All this was ten years ago, be it remembered. The whispers had died
+away; silence had spread and deepened about the deserted house; all was
+as it had been.
+
+Kitty took Mr. Chanter's hint, and said no more about the stranger who
+had startled her and Pilot. Late that afternoon we two went for a walk,
+as we were apt to do when she was at liberty, and I turned naturally
+into what we always called Sunset Road, because the sun seemed to go
+down at the end of it. Kitty hesitated a moment at the corner, as if she
+would suggest another direction; then turned with a little shrug of
+self-rebuke and walked beside me. She was rather silent; we usually
+babbled like twin brooks towards the close of the day. When we passed
+the Gaylord house, I looked up and to my amazement saw a thin blue
+thread stealing up from one of the chimneys.
+
+"Kitty!" I said. "Look! do you see the smoke? Some one is in the Gaylord
+house!"
+
+Kitty told no one but me and Judge Peters; I am very sure Mr. Chanter
+told no one else: but little by little the knowledge sifted through
+Cyrus that Russell Gaylord had come back once more. That he was living
+in a corner of his great house, with not even a dog to bear him company.
+That there was no use in any one's trying to see him, as he would not
+open the door, even to the Messrs. Jebus, his old schoolmates, who had
+wished to show that they were prepared to let bygones be bygones and
+welcome the prodigal back to their kindly shop. Lastly, that he was a
+wreck, and no one knew how he lived or where he got bread to put in his
+mouth.
+
+This last statement was false; some one did know. Mr. Mallow sat up long
+after curfew these spring nights; long after his staid "help" were
+snugly tucked in their beds. Usually his bedroom light went out at ten
+punctually; now it might be midnight when, nodding by the kitchen fire,
+he would hear, or think he heard, a shuffling step on the walk outside
+the back door. Then he would open the door and stand in the cold,
+holding it wide open so that the red fire-light would shine out on the
+darkness.
+
+"Russ," he would whisper, "that you? Come in, won't you? Step in, and
+set with me a spell! what say? I'm rill lon'some!"
+
+Usually no answer came; then he would say, "Basket's behind the door,
+Russ! Call again when 'tis empty! Good-night, old chap!" and shut the
+door with a sigh, and so to bed. Usually, I say: but if now and then a
+bent, shivering figure crept in and sat for half an hour by the fire,
+warming its hands and listening dumbly to the friendly pleadings, the
+kindly offers, why, no one but Marshall Mallow ever knew it.
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X
+
+                               THE PARTY
+
+
+"Going?" said Miss Johanna Ross: "of course I'm not going, Gerie;
+bed-ridden folks don't go to parties--except in novels. I might be
+carried in like that woman in 'Barchester Towers,' in a white velvet
+gown on a red silk sofa--or was it a red shawl thrown over the sofa?
+Well, I have no white velvet gown, but I think I could get up a fancy
+rig. Imagine Madam Flynt's face! Do you advise it, Gerie?"
+
+Miss Egeria looked troubled: she never knew how far to take Johanna
+seriously.
+
+"You always look charming, dear Johanna," she said. "I hardly think--of
+course you know far more than I about social functions: it is so long
+since we had a large party in Cyrus----"
+
+"Cheer up! I'll stay at home to please you!" Miss Johanna settled
+herself comfortably among her pillows.
+
+"Now let me look at you!"
+
+In some trepidation, Miss Egeria removed her shawl (that, at least, was
+all right; a camel's hair shawl was always in good taste!) and felt the
+keen dark eyes take in and appraise every item of her apparel; the
+dove-colored _moiré_ of antiquated cut, the mosaic jewelry, the "bertha"
+of splendid Honiton.
+
+"It is so long since we had a party in Cyrus!" Miss Egeria repeated; her
+voice faltered a little; Johanna's eyes were really--she felt
+quite--"quite undressed, my love!" as she told Kitty afterward, "as if I
+were in my--my underwear!"
+
+"Anne Peace took it in a little," she said, "but she thought it best not
+to alter the style: the lines were good, she thought----"
+
+"If Anne Peace had altered it I'd have whipped her. You are perfect,
+Gerie: a perfect 'Keepsake'! I wouldn't change you for any model on
+Fifth Avenue. Where's Almeria? I don't believe she's a patch on you!"
+
+"Oh, my dear! Almeria has the Velvet: you remember the Velvet, surely!
+You always thought it elegant: Aunt Vanderscholt, for whom it was made,
+employed the best dressmaker in New York, I have always understood.
+Sister is downstairs in the parlor with Father: so kind of you and Kitty
+to help us out in this way. Kitty is in _such_ demand this evening!
+Would you like to see Sister, Johanna? She charged me to say--she felt
+that you would probably feel able to see only one person at a time----"
+
+"Gammon!" Miss Johanna's eyes twinkled. "Trot her up, Gerie, and your
+father, too! Don't look like that! I am perfectly proper: it won't hurt
+him to see a bed at his time of life."
+
+"My dear Johanna!" Miss Egeria gasped. "Not for worlds would Father
+intrude--a lady's chamber----"
+
+"Mr. Bygood!" Miss Johanna raised a clear, high-pitched voice. "Come up,
+won't you, and bring Almy? I want to see you!"
+
+Miss Egeria faded away with a little moan of protest; a moment later
+entered Miss Almeria, superb in black velvet, with a magnificent lace
+scarf on her admirable shoulders.
+
+"Ah!" said Miss Johanna under her breath. "I knew there was more
+Honiton. That's the flounce!"
+
+"Good evening, Almy!" she said aloud. "Where's your father? Oh, how do
+you do, Mr. Bygood? I _am_ glad to see you! shake hands! Are you
+shocked? Gerie was too shocked to stay in the room. How do you like my
+jacket? You look perfectly lovely! I'd marry you to-morrow if you'd ask
+me. Now I've shocked Almeria!"
+
+If Miss Almeria was shocked, she knew better than to give Johanna the
+satisfaction of knowing it. She drew up a chair for her father and
+settled herself in another, smoothing her velvet skirt composedly. Mr.
+Bygood was in a flutter. To be going to a party was exciting enough: to
+be called suddenly to wait upon an invalid lady of distinction was even
+more thrilling.
+
+"My dear Miss Ross----" he began, with a tremulous bow.
+
+"If you call me 'Miss', I'll throw the pillow at you and spoil your
+lovely necktie!" said the lady.
+
+"Oh! oh!--te-hee! te-hee!" tittered Mr. Bygood.
+
+"I used to be Jo," Miss Ross went on; and her sharp eyes softened.
+"Little naughty Jo, coming to play with little proper Almy and little
+saintly Gerie, and getting them both into hot water. Have you any
+peppermints in your pocket, Mr. Bygood? How many generations of children
+have you supplied with peppermints, my dear soul?"
+
+"Well, Johanna!" Mr. Bygood twinkled; "several, I suppose; several!
+Yours was the first, though, my dear. You were a very good child, a very
+good child. All my little friends have been good children. You--you--you
+look extremely well, Johanna, for a--a sufferer! I trust----"
+
+"I _am_ extremely well!" said Miss Johanna calmly. "Bedridden, but well.
+Gerie wanted me to be carried to the party in my bed--" an agonized
+cough from the hall announced that Miss Egeria was within hearing; "at
+least we spoke of it. Cheer up, Gerie! Nobody would lay it to your door.
+'Johanna! always peculiar!'" (She shot a wicked glance at Miss Almeria,
+who maintained her dignity, but could not suppress her blush.) "Can't
+you hear them say it? But I've decided not to go. I really think I am
+having the cream of the party here. This was my idea, Almy; you must
+allow I am clever, as well as peculiar. There's some one else coming
+in."
+
+It _was_ a clever idea; Madam Flynt was giving a party for Kitty and me;
+it was so kind of her to tuck me in! Of course everybody was going, and
+as it was a snowy evening in early April, Kitty and John Tucker were
+engaged ten deep, to transport the guests. It was necessary to begin
+early, and at Miss Johanna's suggestion, Kitty had asked a few special
+friends to be ready half an hour before the time set in the invitations.
+These favored ones were brought to Ross House, and deposited with
+instructions to walk right in (Sarepta was at Madam Flynt's, of course,
+helping Sarah and Abby Ann) and make Aunt Johanna a call, and then make
+themselves comfy in the parlor till called for.
+
+Mr. Bygood was the only gentleman who went upstairs, but the Chanters
+and several other parties of ladies rustled up to the Red Indian room
+and were passed in review by the invalid Arbitress. Last of all came
+Kitty herself; first rosy and breathless, in fur coat and cap, to summon
+Miss Johanna's last caller; then, half an hour later, still rosy, but
+calm and demure, to show herself to her aunt. I was with her, in what
+male writers call "something white and filmy"; I called it chiffon; Miss
+Johanna had forbidden filminess for Kitty.
+
+"When you've got lines, show 'em!" was her dictum. How different from
+Miss Egeria, who was always troubled if one sat down without shaking out
+one's skirts thoroughly. "My dear!" she would whisper. "You show your
+shape!"
+
+Kitty had rummaged the ancestral trunks in the attic and had found a
+thick, heavy pale green satin, over which Miss Johanna had waved the
+scissors of a necromancer, Miss Anne Peace, as her attendant sprite
+(dear, meek little brown sprite! she was at Madam Flynt's, too, "taking
+off" for the ladies upstairs), translating her magic into terms of
+needle and thread. The soft gleaming fabric clung round as lovely a
+figure, I thought, as ever entered a ballroom. There was just enough
+lace at the neck, not an inch too much: wonderful Rose Point. The
+Bygoods were not the only people who had lace, Miss Johanna said with a
+friendly sniff: and there was the Beryl Necklace, for which, the same
+lady pointed out, the satin had probably been woven and dyed. Certainly
+they were an astonishing match, and anything more beautiful than the
+combination of necklace and gown and Kitty cannot possibly be imagined.
+This is not just my enthusiasm--everybody said the same thing--except
+Miss Johanna; but her nod, and "H'm! you'll do!" was fully as emphatic.
+
+So we went to the Party; our Party, given for us! two proud and happy
+girls.
+
+Madam Flynt's spacious double parlors looked more ample than usual from
+the removal of most of the furniture. The tables were gone, the big
+sofa, all the armchairs except Madam Flynt's own; the Sheraton chairs
+shrugging their shoulders against the wall took up little room. The
+Turkey carpet was up, the polished floor gleamed in the light of
+numberless wax candles. Madam Flynt sat at the upper end of the long
+room, stately and handsome in lilac brocade with cascades of creamy
+Venetian Point. (I seem to be saying a great deal about lace: I can't
+help it: it is one of the pleasantest things I know!) Kitty and I stood
+by her, one on either side; Miss Croly, her purple alpaca exchanged for
+a silk of the same hue, hovered in the background, beaming welcome on
+the guests, but casting an occasional anxious glance at her friend and
+patroness. On her arm she carried a white Canton crape shawl, heavily
+embroidered, with long fringe. Occasionally she would bend over Madam
+Flynt and murmur something, with a gesture toward the shawl, but the
+hostess seemed unaware of her existence.
+
+The Bygoods were the first arrivals. "Father" must have a chance to see
+the rooms, and to find a comfortable seat, before the crowd came. Next
+came the Messrs. Jebus, very nervous, very neat in their claret-colored
+frock coats. Why did they wear claret-colored frock coats? Everybody in
+Cyrus knows! Twenty-five years ago Russell Gaylord had had one made for
+a frolic, or a wager, I forget which; and after wearing it once, had
+given to Mr. Jason. Even then, the two cousins always dressed alike:
+Russell Gaylord was the glass of fashion and the mold of form; Mr.
+Josiah had the coat copied as exactly as might be; that is all the
+story.
+
+The little gentlemen had their plan of campaign carefully laid out. They
+stepped through the long rooms as quickly as Mr. Josiah's lameness
+allowed, casting bird-like glances around them; they made their bows as
+Meltiah Torrence had taught them in their youth. "Two steps forward, to
+first position; bend from the hips, bob from the neck, recover; two
+steps back! Dismiss!" They delivered their speeches--not quite as they
+intended, be it said.
+
+"We congratulate you, Madam Flynt, on this festal occasion!" said Mr.
+Josiah. "We thank you for the honor of your invitation."
+
+"We have enjoyed ourselves extremely, we are obliged to you," chimed in
+Mr. Jason, "and we gratefully take our leave."
+
+Fortunately neither gentleman perceived that Mr. Jason had said this
+instead of "We are prepared to enjoy ourselves extremely, and we gladly
+join the gay circle!" Madam Flynt heard, understood, and appreciated.
+Their acknowledgments made, the Jebusites, as Dr. Ross used to call
+them, proceeded to explore the rooms, apparently with some special
+object in view. Their bird-like glances flitted from side to side,
+growing more and more anxious; they began to utter noises as of mice in
+peril. Miss Croly came to the rescue. "The beautiful screen," she said,
+"has been moved into the hall, Mr. Jebuses. (One always addressed them
+thus!) Madam Flynt feared that it might inconvenience--I would say
+feared that the dancers might injure it. It shows well in the hall!" she
+added kindly. The partners, with sounds as of mice relieved, fled to the
+hall, where the object of their search stood against the wall: a tall
+screen, covered with exquisite embroidery. This they considered with
+minute and anxious care.
+
+"There is less light here!" said Mr. Josiah.
+
+"But everybody will see it!" Mr. Jason consoled him.
+
+Finally, they spent the greater part of the evening hovered about Mr.
+Josiah's _chef d'oeuvre_ and enjoyed themselves, as they had predicted,
+immensely.
+
+Mr. Mallow and Mr. Jordano approached side by side, and were welcomed
+with dignified cordiality. They bent low before Madam Flynt; they gave
+separate and very special bows to Kitty and me: hers were the best, but
+I was not jealous.
+
+"You've got an elegant party, Madam!" Mr. Mallow glowed with civic and
+neighborly pride. "I don't know as any place but Cyrus could show such a
+conjugation of pretty gals and handsome ladies."
+
+"A galaxy!" exclaimed Mr. Jordano. "A golden galaxy! 'They walk in
+beauty like the night-tite-tite--' the second line escapes me! the poet
+Byron! Miss Kitty, boona sarah, as we say in beautiful Italy. Bella
+Italia, Miss Kitty! Bella Kitterina, also, if an old friend may take the
+liberty. Very eleganto, I must say."
+
+"_Grazie tante_, Signor Jordano!" Kitty smiled and dimpled, and sent Mr.
+Jordano straight to the seventh heaven. He did not follow the words, but
+that did not matter; he was hearing Italian spoken by lovely lips, and
+his gentle spirit soared ecstatic. He stepped aside to make room for the
+Chanter girls who swept in, like a white muslin billow, and after
+breaking in curtseys to Madam Flynt, surged round Kitty and me in
+shouting chorus. Mr. and Mrs. Chanter came next, beaming good will on
+all; the three boys brought up the rear. Bobby and Rodney had come over
+from their college town on purpose; Aristides was in the High School;
+all three were in love with Kitty, in varying degrees of intensity, but
+Bobby's prior claim was silently conceded by the other two. He was the
+eldest; he had the Dress Suit (a gift from a distant uncle whose inches
+could no longer be clipped within it); he was captain of the college
+football team. He had been in love with Kitty as long as he could
+remember. Of course, while Tom was "round," Bobby never had any hope,
+not even when his enchantress used to call him "Pretty Bobby Shafto,"
+and sing a little song, derisive but not unfriendly, about his being fat
+and fair, which he was, and about his combing down his yellow hair,
+which he might with advantage have done oftener, and about his going to
+sea, silver buckles at his knee, which was preposterous. When Kitty,
+perched on top of the fence, would trill in her silver voice,
+
+    "He'll come back and marry me,
+        Pretty Bobby Shafto!"
+
+the boy's honest heart thumped at his ribs, and his cheeks grew redder,
+if that were possible. She was Tommy's girl; he was perfectly loyal to
+Tommy; still--but now that Tom was gone and no one ever heard a word
+from him, Bobby saw no reason why his own modest hopes might not soar;
+so soar they did.
+
+Rodney and Aristides (the latter a chronic sufferer from his name, which
+he loathed equally in its entirety and in its customary abbreviation of
+"Sty") after making their bows, waited cheerfully for Bobby to ask Kitty
+for the first dance, which he promptly did. Rodney was just sidling up
+to claim the second when Wilson Wibird, leaning over Kitty from behind,
+laid a hand on the dance-card which hung from her fan.
+
+"The rest are mine, Katrine!" he murmured.
+
+Kitty, turning, spoke crisply. "Certainly not. Wilson! Why should they
+be? Did you ask for the second, Rodney? And you the third, Sty? I
+promised Mr. Jordano one; you can have the fifth, Wilson, if you like."
+
+"If I like! cruel Katrine!" murmured Mr. Wibird. He folded his arms and
+glared savagely at the three Chanters, who smiled cheerfully at him and
+said in chorus, "Hello, Wilse! h'are ye?" Then he retired to the wall,
+where he stood, his arms folded in a Napoleonic attitude, his brows
+bent, his eyes following Kitty as she glided about the room.
+
+Wilson Wibird had made up his mind to marry Kitty Ross, even before her
+return from Europe. There was no other mate for him in Cyrus, he
+confided to his one intimate, the greenish mirror that hung over his
+dressing table. She was lovely; she was accomplished; she had Mind and
+Taste; she could appreciate him, and on her the name of Wibird might be
+bestowed without derogation from its high descent. He saw himself in
+fancy--Wilson lived largely in fancy--the master of Ross House,
+welcoming his guests (and Kitty's) with the stately courtesy of a
+gentleman of the old school.
+
+"Katrine and I bid you welcome!" he would say to the mirror. "The simple
+comforts of our home are yours as long as you care to share them!"
+
+His air was very noble, he thought, as he waved his guests in. Now,
+Wilson was forced to acknowledge that up to this time Kitty had shown
+little sense of the honor he proposed to do her. He had met her several
+times, and walked with her along the street, but whenever he bestowed on
+her what he called a flower of speech, he found that she had an errand
+in the store they were passing. Sometimes he waited for her, and she
+never came out, being indeed well acquainted with the back door of every
+store on the street--sometimes he "punished" her by stalking on with
+bended brows. (Wilson loved bended brows; he sometimes bended them so
+far that his little eyes could hardly be seen; but this is by the way.)
+When he called in the evening, Kitty was apt to be busy waiting on her
+aunt, or else those Chanter girls were there. Altogether, Wilson felt
+that his suit was not prospering as it should: this, he told the mirror,
+must cease. She would set her will to his, forsooth! pretty birdling!
+She should see what it meant to thwart a man with a chin like that. He
+motioned toward his image. He must assert himself. Some lines of poetry
+came to his mind; lines which he had felt, the first time he read them,
+to describe himself:
+
+    "He was a strong man from the north,
+    Light-locked, with eyes of dangerous gray."
+
+The poem went on to tell how the strong man took the lady in his strong
+white arms and bore her on his horse away. It was a fine poem. That,
+Wilson felt, was the attitude for him; he had been too gentle, too
+_debonair_; now she must feel his power. He had thought to impress it
+upon her by dancing with her through the entire evening. He had seen
+himself folding her in his strong white arms (decently hid in
+conventional black) floating through the glittering halls to the sound
+of voluptuous music. Now the music was sounding; old Meltiah Torrence
+scraping away at his old fiddle, his son Jabez squeaking on the cornet.
+It was our own, our only "music"; we loved it, but voluptuous is hardly
+the word for it. The music was sounding, and Wilson Wibird, instead of
+carrying out his program, was standing against the wall with folded arms
+and bended brows.
+
+Mr. Mallow saw him and crossed the room to where he stood. "Why ain't
+you dancin', Wilse?" he inquired; and without waiting for a reply: "Go
+and take Lissy out for a turn! Nobody's asked her, and she admires
+dancin'. Ain't enough boys to go round. You go and take her out! Oh!
+hemp! nothin' at all, Very! nothin' at all!"
+
+Mr. Jordano, backing down the room with Miss Almeria Bygood, had come to
+the end of it sooner than he expected, and his heel had come down with
+some force on Mr. Mallow's toe. Wilson took advantage of his uncle's
+momentary anguish to slip away, but he did not take Melissa out. He
+folded his arms and bended his brows against another part of the wall,
+where Kitty could not fail to see him as she passed. It was good Bobby
+Chanter who took Melissa out; I rather think he would have done it even
+without Kitty's breathless little, "Oh, no, Bobby; I must stop now. Do
+take out Melissa, there's a dear!" Bobby was a kind boy, and Melissa's
+face had been very wistful as she watched the dancing. A pretty face, if
+it could be filled out a little; the thin cheeks were flushed to-night,
+and the hazel eyes sparkled above the pretty pink challis, Uncle
+Marshall's gift.
+
+"You make it tasty!" he bade Anne Peace. "Make it as tasty as any of
+'em! put on plenty of gimp, or galloon, or whatever the style is. I want
+Lissy dressed as nice as any gal there. You make her look like Venus
+Dimedici, that travelin' man was talkin' about. He said she was great."
+
+Mr. Mallow's rendering of the title of Venus made every _i_ long. Miss
+Peace had her own opinion of Venus, but reserved it, and promised to do
+her best; which she certainly had done.
+
+People came and came, and came. All Cyrus, of course, in its shining
+best: Mrs. Scatter in green poplin, Miss Pringle in blue; the Misses
+Caddie dressed alike in "that brown silk that was so fashionable one
+season--don't you remember? And then went out so sudden, and Hanks has
+been trying to get rid of the piece ever since. He put it down to half
+price directly Madam Flynt's invitations were out, and the Caddies took
+it and made it up themselves. There was four yards more than the pattern
+called for, but they took it all, so they could make over; and then if
+they didn't put every scrap of it into the skirt so 'twould fade alike!
+They stand out like penwipers, don't they?"
+
+Thus Mrs. Bagley to her husband, who said, "Yes! yes! very tasty! very
+tasty!" being absorbed in the problem of how much "Acme astral" it would
+take to light these rooms, and what possibility there might be of
+persuading Madam Flynt to try it instead of candles.
+
+Tinkham and Tupham came, in long barges: the former a little amused, a
+little patronizing as usual: patronizing not of Madam Flynt, but of
+Cyrus in general and Kitty in particular.
+
+"Drives a cab, or so I understand. Yes! a sad come-down for an old
+family. I understand the aunt has come on to give countenance to it: you
+remember her; Johanna Ross; always peculiar!"
+
+This attitude, whispered in the dressing room (to the silent rage of
+Miss Anne Peace, who longed to stick into Tinkham the pins she drew from
+its skirts and veils) rustled down the stairs and into the drawing-room,
+but appeared to evaporate at sight of Kitty and the beryl necklace.
+
+Tupham was, as usual, hearty and friendly; pleased at being asked, and
+eager to "take in the whole show" for the benefit of those at home. Thus
+female Tupham managed to slide an appraising thumb and finger over
+Kitty's satin, "thick as a board, my dear, and soft--well, there!" while
+male Tupham made a point of sampling every item of food and drink with
+strict impartiality.
+
+Corona College arrived rather late, in a somewhat superior, if not
+Tinkhamesque frame of mind. Madam Flynt, ever thoughtful, had bidden
+Bobby Chanter pick out ten nice boys for her, which he had done with
+anxious care. They had had a merry drive over, and were under the
+impression that they had come partly to please good old Bagpipes (a
+subtle rendering of Bobby's name), partly, perhaps unconsciously, to
+amuse themselves with the would-be graces of a rustic community.
+
+A fragment of trialogue, overheard near the drawing-room door, conveys
+the attitude of these young gentlemen:
+
+_A._ "Pink muslin one rather neat: what?"
+
+_B._ "So-so; not too! blue one has more go to her. P'raps she's the lady
+cab-driver: they have one here, I'm told. Trot her out, what say? Put
+her through her paces!"
+
+_C._ "Get on to the little thing with curls! She's quite a daisy. Think
+I must give her a turn." (Thank you, sir! This was my humble self.)
+
+                              "Jerusalem!
+  _A. B. C._ in sudden trio.  "Great Scott! _Who is that_
+                              "By George!
+
+              _ripping_
+  _perfectly stunning girl in green?_ I say, Bobs! Bags!
+              _screaming_
+
+Pipes! CHANTER! Won't you introduce me? Oh, I _say_, Bobby! I'm your
+friend! Don't go back on me!" etc., etc. Thus Corona in frantic
+whispers, plucking at Bobby Chanter, who swelled in serene pride, and
+was entirely kind to his friends, knowing Kitty's next dance to be his.
+
+Kitty was kind to them too, and gave them an "extra" when she could, but
+mostly had to meet their impassioned pleadings with a smile and "So
+sorry! I am engaged, but do let me find you a partner!"
+
+The collegians were nice, gentlemanly boys; we all had a delightful
+time, and I truly think they did. But here I may note a curious little
+by-product of the Party. For weeks after, Corona College had much
+business to transact in Cyrus. It came by train, one by one, and was
+observed to look eagerly about it on arrival, and to make hurried
+inquiry for a cab. Confronted by John Tucker, serenely yet critically
+observant, it suddenly decided it would walk, and proceeded to stroll
+about the village, investigating the shops and making aimless purchases,
+till the return train. Corona rarely met Kitty; the between-trains hour
+was just when she was taking Madam Flynt for her airing. Now and then,
+however, say on a rainy day, some happy youth would chance upon her, and
+walk home with her, and perhaps be asked in for a cup of tea, and return
+to Corona in a state of rapturous distraction very trying to his mates
+who had been dutifully practising football.
+
+But here is a long digression: let us hurry back to the Party.
+
+Among the revolving couples, none attracted more attention than Miss
+Almeria and Mr. Jordano, already mentioned. They danced the Boston Dip,
+seldom seen in these degenerate days. It is a slow, graceful waltz, very
+becoming to tall figures and sweeping velvet skirts. Mr. Jordano held
+his chin high; his eyes were nearly closed, a narrow slit only enabling
+him to pilot his partner safely through the dance; his expression, which
+totally belied him, was one of haughty arrogance. His lips moved
+constantly; one would have supposed he was murmuring caustic comments on
+the other dancers; instead, he was saying, "One, two, three, _one_, two,
+three!" in time, if not in tune, with the music. Miss Almeria's glossy
+braids bent gracefully over her partner's shoulder: her look was benign;
+she wore a slight, indulgent smile, as who should say, "Dancing is not
+what it was, but perhaps it is well for people to see occasionally what
+it can be."
+
+Madam Flynt was enjoying her party immensely. Her eyes followed the
+dancers continuously. Kitty, of course, was the most delightful person
+to watch, but they all looked happy, and youth was not everything.
+Almeria held her own as well as anybody, and Egeria was hardly less
+graceful. Now if Johanna Ross hadn't a bee in her bonnet, she might be
+dancing with Edward Peters. She did not suggest this to the Judge, who
+was sitting beside her; she received his congratulations amiably. She
+was glad he thought it a pretty party; yes, the rooms did light up well.
+People with good rooms had a responsibility to Society--Madam Flynt
+leaned nearer the Judge, and her voice dropped.
+
+"Of course, Edward, in a City, one might have thought--it might not have
+seemed proper to give Kitty a party so soon after--you understand! But
+everybody in Cyrus knows just how it is; and her not wearing black and
+all; but--well, if you must know, it was the Doctor made me do it."
+
+"Dr. Pettijohn?" naming the Tinkham practitioner who had ministered to
+Cyrus' few ailments since Dr. Ross's death.
+
+"No! no! our own Doctor--Dr. Ross, of course! I don't mean--I am no
+spiritualist, Edward, if that is why you are raising your left eyebrow!"
+
+Judge Peters blushed and lowered the eyebrow.
+
+"But it really is curious. Let me tell you! Several years ago, a young
+cousin came to visit me: Selina Hazelton: you may remember her. Her
+father had been ill, she may have had troubles of her own; in fact--but
+you shall hear. Anyhow, she drooped and drooped. I couldn't make her
+eat, and she didn't seem to care for anything; dreadful state she was
+in, and getting worse. So I sent for Dr. Ross, and he looked her over.
+Then I sent her out on an errand, and asked what he would advise. Would
+he give her a tonic? 'Give her a dance!' he said. 'Why Doctor!' I said.
+'She can hardly walk, much less dance. Just to cross the street seems to
+tire her out. _I_ think iron and wine is what she needs.' I always told
+him what I thought; he called me his consulting physician, you know:
+dear Doctor! Well, he said again, 'Give her a dance!' insisted on it,
+saying he got the idea out of Charles Reade. You know he was daft about
+Charles Reade. Well, my dear--friend, I _did_ give her a dance. Invited
+all the college boys I knew; and they all came, and one beside. Georgie
+Hathaway asked if he might bring a friend, and I said yes, of course.
+Friend came; nice-looking lad; Porter, his name was. Well, when I saw
+the color he and Selina went, one white, the other greenish-purple, I
+knew what had been the matter with the child. They danced every dance
+together but two, and those they sat out on the woodbox in the upper
+hall. And I giving the party for her! Next day they were engaged--I was
+_so_ surprised, of course! In two months they were married, and now they
+have three children and are as happy as June crickets. Well! so--now I
+come to the curious thing. You know how gay Kitty is--a gallant kind of
+gayety that makes me cry sometimes!"
+
+The Judge nodded. Kitty passed at that moment, dancing with Mr. Mallow,
+who handed her about as if she were a cream tart on a gold dish. The
+Judge's eyes rested very tenderly on the girl.
+
+"Well!" Madam Flynt bent still nearer till her lilac cap ribbons touched
+the Judge's fine gray hair. "I was thinking about her one evening, about
+ten days ago; and all of a sudden I seemed to hear Doctor speaking, as
+plain as I hear you to-night. 'Give her a dance!' he said. 'Give her a
+dance!' Now I am no spiritualist, Edward, but--what do you want,
+Cornelia Croly? I have told you that I will _not_ be hovered over. You
+may be a hen turkey, but I am _not_--what is it?"
+
+Miss Croly set her thin lips and advanced with a look of humble
+resolution. "Clarissa," she said firmly, "there _is_ a draught!" and she
+folded the crape shawl round Madam Flynt's ample shoulders. Madam Flynt
+is a large woman, usually deliberate in her movements; but in the
+twinkling of an eye the shawl was whisked off, rolled in a ball, and
+handed to Judge Peters.
+
+"Put that under my chair, will you, Edward?" said the lady. "_Well_
+under, so that nobody can get at it. Cornelia, I shall be obliged if you
+will go and see about supper. Time it was announced!"
+
+Madam Flynt's supper ought to have a whole chapter to itself, but that
+may not be. It was a wonderful and delightful supper, and never was
+feast more thoroughly enjoyed. Kitty and I sat with the Chanters; such a
+merry time as we had! Sarepta had made the chicken salad, Sarah the
+croquettes, Abby Ann the coffee and rolls: as for the ice-cream, Bobby
+insisted that all the good fairies in the Fairy Book must have taken a
+turn at it; it was too good to be the work of earthly hands. Bobby
+glowed till you could have warmed your hands at him. His radiance was
+not lessened by the sight of Wilson Wibird glowering across the room.
+
+"Poor Wilse!" he chuckled. "Supper doesn't seem to agree with him! Gee!
+it does with me, though! This salad suits my complaint first-rate: I
+wouldn't wonder but I got well now. Let me get you some more, Kitty!"
+
+Kitty's kind heart smote her a little at sight of Wilson's tragic face.
+Had she been _too_ horrid to him? She was almost sorry she hadn't
+another dance, though it was odious to be held so tight, and he _would_
+bump into one with his knees.
+
+There were no more dances for Kitty that night. Her own party though it
+was, she had firmly refused to let it interfere with business. Directly
+after supper she slipped away, after a whisper in Madam Flynt's ear that
+brought the tears to the good lady's eyes, and made her even speak
+mildly when Miss Croly thought more ice-cream would not be good for her.
+
+"I can get it myself, Cornelia," she said, "if you don't feel equal to
+the exertion. Or here is Mr. Jordano. Mr. Jordano, will you be so kind
+as to bring me some more ice-cream? Thank you! on the whole I'll have
+frozen pudding!"
+
+Kitty, I say, slipped away, and in twenty minutes was back in her fur
+coat and cap, nodding brightly to the first departing guests. These were
+the Bygoods, who feared Father had already been up too long beyond his
+usual time; it was long since he had passed so delightful an evening.
+
+    "'The gay, the gay and festive throng,
+    The halls, the halls of dazzling light!'"
+
+he quoted happily.
+
+"But you never asked me to dance, Mr. Bygood!" said Kitty. "If _you_ had
+asked me for the reel, I'd have stayed!"
+
+"Oh! oh, te-hee! te-hee!" quavered Mr. Bygood. "I fear I might have
+reeled more than I should, Kitty,--though sober, my dear, though sober!
+New cider never hurt any one, and our amiable hostess assured me it was
+not twenty-four hours old."
+
+Where had Wilson Wibird got hold of something stronger than new cider?
+Not at Madam Flynt's, certainly; yet this is what Kitty told me next
+day. Coming back from her last trip, at her own corner she came upon
+Wilson standing on the curbstone balancing himself and looking very
+forlorn. He called to her. He had lost his overshoes, and the snow was
+deep. "Could you give me a lift, Katrine?" he asked plaintively, the
+conqueror in him subdued by wet feet, which he hated as a cat does.
+
+"If you'll promise not to call me 'Katrine'!" was on Kitty's lips; but
+she checked herself. She _had_ been horrid to him; at her own party,
+too, when she ought to have been nice to everybody. "Weedy, seedy,
+needy--" "Think shame of yourself!" said Kitty to Kitty. Then aloud,
+"Very well, Wilson! I'll take you, though it's pretty late. Jump in!"
+
+The weather had cleared, and the night was so glorious that for the
+latest guests, all young and vigorous, Kitty had insisted on shifting
+over to Pilot and the open sleigh, and sending John Tucker home to his
+Mary, who had chosen this evening to have a "spell." Pilot thought it
+was time for a warm mash and bed; he sped swiftly through the white
+silent streets, where only an upper window here and there twinkled its
+assurance that the event of the season was over. The Wibirds lived at
+the other end of the village; Mrs. Wibird and Melissa had been among the
+early departures in the warm hooded sleigh behind Dan.
+
+Seated beside Kitty, wrapped in the same fur robe, Wilson felt the
+strong man from the north revive within him. The keen frosty air went to
+his head; or had something else gone there before? When Kitty, wishing
+to be kind to this forlornity, turned to him with "Hasn't it been a
+delightful evening, Wilson?" she was met by a burning glance (again, she
+would have called it a leer!) and a husky voice exclaiming, "Now, this
+moment, the evening begins! Katrine! my hour dawns!"
+
+"Don't be silly, Wilson!" she said curtly, but Wilson swept on,
+
+"You are beside me. I feel your presence, your gaze intoss-toxicates,
+Katrine! Together, thus, let us speed on through the night"----
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+"Kitty!" I cried, "you frighten me! What _did_ you do?"
+
+"My dear, it was perfectly simple. You know there is rather a sharp
+corner at the end of the street? We were near it. I cut it a little
+sharper, that's all. Up went one runner, out went Master Wilson into a
+nice soft drift. I was sorry to lower Pilot's opinion of my driving, but
+it was really the only thing to do. But that is the last time I shall be
+sorry for Wilson Wibird. Odious little atomy!"
+
+Which shows that even strong men from the north do not always see
+themselves as others see them.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI
+
+                             ON THE RIALTO
+
+
+Cyrus rises early as a rule, though the definition of the adverb varies.
+Six is my hour; I hold it a good one, winter and summer. But if I have
+ever mentioned this to City friends who get up at eight, with the
+purring contentment that early risers feel and that late risers scorn, I
+do so no more, since hearing the following fragment of dialogue between
+two Cyrus women:
+
+Mrs. A.: "What time did it happen?"
+
+Mrs. B.: "Oh! we was all up. 'Twas four or five o'clock; 'twas late!"
+
+Collective Cyrus, that part of it at least that went to Madam Flynt's
+party, allowed itself an extra half hour the following morning; all but
+two people. With the earliest morning red, Mrs. Sharpe and Cissy leaped
+from their beds, prepared and swallowed a hasty breakfast, flung on
+their "things," and rushed out into the street. They wasted no time in
+speech beyond a few exclamatory remarks while dressing. No words were
+needed between them: they knew what they knew. Behooved that the World
+should know. In the street they separated, one going north, one south.
+Since we cannot follow both, let us take the mother.
+
+The first person Mrs. Sharpe met was Jim Ruff, the one-armed milkman,
+whistling his way cheerily along. Jim was born with one arm, and never
+could for the life of him see what folks wanted of two. In his off hours
+he was a nurse, and in great demand among old gentlemen of rheumatic
+tendencies who liked to have "a rub and a lift" at bed-time. Mrs. Sharpe
+leapt into the roadway, beckoning: Jim checked his horse.
+
+"Good morning, Jim! Only a pint this morning, please; we've had
+breakfast. Leave it inside the storm door, will you? Have you heard the
+news?"
+
+"Not a word!" Jim leaned over the dasher sociably. "Nice party, was it?
+The cream was all right anyway, I bet!"
+
+"Very nice! very nice!" Mrs. Sharpe waved the cream away hastily. "But
+what is the outcome, I ask you? What comes of dancing and jigging and
+feasting? _Destruction!_ Kitty Ross has eloped with Wilson Wibird!"
+
+"_What!_" People did not, as a rule, pay much attention to Mrs. Sharpe,
+but the milkman was startled out of his usual calm.
+
+"What you say, Mis' Sharpe?"
+
+"They have _eloped_!" she repeated. "Kitty Ross and Wilson Wibird! I saw
+them with these eyes. Isn't it awful? What did I always say? But I won't
+keep you, Jim!"
+
+She waved her hand as if stricken speechless; in reality, she had spied
+Mr. Cheeseman, stumping along to take down his shutters and open shop.
+Him she attacked with such suddenness that he almost dropped his pipe.
+
+"Let me prepare you for a shock!" cried the lady. "You are an aged man,
+Mr. Cheeseman, and your nerves are easy shook. What I have to tell might
+strike an aged person into palsy, I wouldn't wonder. There has been an
+_elopement_ in Cyrus! a wicked, terrible elopement! Oh! what I say is,
+shall we ever hold up our heads again? When I think of what Tinkham will
+say!"
+
+(Mrs. Sharpe came from Tinkham; we were too polite as a rule to say that
+that accounted for her.)
+
+"I don't know what Tinkham will say," snapped Mr. Cheeseman, "nor I
+don't care. Cyrus will most likely say it ain't so. Who's eloped, I'd
+like to know!"
+
+"Kitty Ross and Wilson Wibird!" The lady's thin neck shot forward,
+serpent-wise, as she hissed out the names. Mr. Cheeseman received the
+shock calmly.
+
+"Don't believe a word of it!" he said.
+
+"You don't! You don't believe the witness of these eyes? I tell you I
+_saw_ them, the two of them, after midnight, in a sleigh, dashing
+through Cyrus Street, like--like flames of fire. The hoss was gallopin':
+they was fairly rushin' to their doom. Don't say you don't believe me,
+Mr. Cheeseman, because sight is sight, and I am not blind."
+
+"No, nor dumb!" Mr. Cheeseman was not a patient man. "Likely the hoss
+got roused up, waitin' in the cold. I always tell Kitty she drives too
+tarnal fast. Wish you good mornin', Mis' Sharpe." And he stumped on,
+resuming his interrupted pipe in short, irritated puffs.
+
+Mrs. Sharpe looked after him with a snort, half pitying, half
+contemptuous, and sped on her way. By this time the male part of Cyrus
+was trooping down to business. In half an hour every man in the street
+had heard with varying emotions that Kitty Ross had eloped with Wilson
+Wibird. I don't know that anybody exactly believed it; at least, no one
+was found who confessed afterward to having done so, but the Street
+certainly had an uncomfortable half hour till the counter report reached
+it; namely, that Wilson Wibird was lying in his bed, wounded and
+bleeding from a frightful accident with one of them wild hosses of Kitty
+Ross's. He had been hove out, and the hoss had gone off at a tearing
+gallop, and where Kitty was this minute no human being prob'ly knew.
+Likely she had been dragged to her death, and they would track her by
+the blood----
+
+You see, Cissy had gone straight to the Wibirds', secretly determined
+for once to "get ahead of Mumma." Mrs. Wibird had been naturally
+perturbed at seeing her son "hove out" (it was at their own corner that
+the incident occurred) and at his stumbling into the house some minutes
+later, bleeding profusely, and in a savage humor. It was no wonder
+perhaps that she made the most of what she had seen, but she ought to
+have made it clear, as Melissa did afterward, that Wilson's bleeding was
+from the nose. The two reports met at Bygood's, like the two halves of a
+chemical formula. The gentlemen had just come in for their morning
+papers, and it seethed and bubbled around them. Judge Peters said
+"Pish!" Mr. Mallow said "Bosh!" Mr. Jordano waved his note-book in a
+composite frenzy of anxiety, incredulity and professional excitement,
+and murmured unintelligible sounds ending in "O". Italian, he always
+maintained, was the natural language of the emotions. The result of all
+this was that by eleven o'clock ("Earlier than that would not be decent,
+sir! not decent, after a party! The child is probably in bed, and the
+best place for her!" thus Judge Peters, very erect over his black satin
+stock), by eleven o'clock, I say, the Judge and Mr. Mallow were posting
+up the hill toward Ross House. Wholly improbable that anything was out
+of the way; those women ought to get thirty days, sir, and learn to
+govern their tongues! But if there _were_ anything, these two, as old
+family friends, were manifestly the ones to look into it.
+
+"We'll let you know, Very," said Mr. Mallow kindly, "if there's anything
+for you in it."
+
+Mr. Jordano, still waving his notebook, thanked him, fervently, and
+turned to minister to Mr. Bygood, to whom the effervescence had
+penetrated, causing him great alarm. The ladies had not yet appeared:
+Mr. Jordano hovered about the old gentleman, adjuring him to be calm and
+murmuring, "No periloso! no dangeroso! Cheer up-pup-pup, my venerable
+friend; all will be right-tite-tite!" in a manner equally agitated and
+agitating.
+
+The Judge and "the Mine Host," as the _Centinel_ loved to call him, were
+not the first callers at Ross House. Bobby Chanter, speeding down the
+hill to his morning train, met Cissy's half of the chemical formula on
+the way; threw Education to the dogs, and sped back up the hill at a
+rate that brought him to Ross House crimson and breathless. His furious
+ring producing Sarepta Darwin in a state of high tension, he could only
+gape at her, and gasp, "All right?"
+
+Now this was no morning to gape at Sarepta. In the first place, she had
+slaved like three niggers, as she expressed it, the day before, had got
+to bed long after midnight, and been kept awake long after that,
+recalling the way Kitty had looked and the way "the folks" had looked at
+her. In the second place, she had already been bothered enough by Jim
+Ruff, who had no business that she knew of to inquire minutely into the
+state of Kitty's health, wanting to know if Sarepta had seen her this
+morning, and what time she got home. He got a flea in _his_ ear all
+right, Sarepta reflected comfortably; now she was fully ready for the
+next intruder.
+
+"All right?" she said with acerbity. "All wrong, I should say, from the
+looks of you! Ain't you ashamed, Bobby Chanter, at this time in the
+morning? Go home and tell your Pa, and see what he'll say to you! The
+idea! You're a disgrace!"
+
+She was shutting the door, but Bobby was not a football player for
+nothing. An adroit foot checked the door in its closing, and the next
+moment a broad shoulder pressed through the opening, followed by the
+whole person of a very vigorous young man. Bobby shut the door and stood
+against it: he had got his breath by this time; also, it was evident
+from Sarepta's aspect that no disaster had come to the house.
+
+"Don't be crusty, Sarepta!" he said coaxingly. "Tell me how Kitty is
+after the party! There's nothing the matter with me!" he added, "and I'm
+your friend, you know, Sarepta! I always was."
+
+Sarepta's iron face relaxed: it was true. With the sole exception of
+Kitty, she thought little of girls, had been heard to say that she
+wouldn't be bothered raisin' 'em: but she liked a good-looking boy, and
+Bobby was undeniably good-looking. Before she could speak, however, a
+clear voice sounded from the stairway.
+
+"How Kitty is? Very well, I thank you, Bobby Shafto!" and there was
+Kitty herself coming downstairs, so distractingly pretty in her brown
+corduroy suit that Bobby's feelings flew "all ways to once't," like
+Huldy's in "The Courtin'." She was too adorable! Bobby wanted to go down
+on his knees then and there, among the walking-sticks and the Christmas
+greens, and cry out that she was his queen, and that he would rather be
+under her little lovely feet than on a king's throne. But Bobby was
+twenty-three years old and a senior at Corona College.
+
+"All right, are you, Kitty?" he asked. "I--I thought I'd just inquire as
+I went to the train."
+
+"Bobby! the train has gone! I heard it whistle just as you rang the
+bell. Won't you catch it from the dean? Come into the sitting-room!"
+
+Muttering that he couldn't stop, Bobby came in; would not sit down, but
+leaned against the door with an air of elaborate detachment.
+
+"Got home all right, Kitty? It was mean of you not to let me see you
+home."
+
+"Don't you think I had earned a little solitude, Bobby? I didn't get it
+though!" Kitty's eyes twinkled.
+
+"What do you mean? We were the last load, you said."
+
+"Yes, you were! but I met Wilson, and he had lost his rubbers, and
+looked so forlorn, I _had_ to take him home, Bobby, when he asked me."
+
+"He didn't!" Bobby's cheek flushed. "The impudent shrimp!"
+
+"Impudent shrimpudent!" said Kitty, and then remembered that she had
+never played rhymes with Bobby.
+
+"I--I didn't take him quite all the way!" she began, and then broke into
+a peal of laughter so clear and joyous that Sarepta had to make a
+special errand--a stick of wood, it was, which the fire did not need--to
+see what was up.
+
+"Glad you didn't! of all the cheek I ever heard of! I wish I'd been
+there. How did you get rid of him, Kitty?"
+
+"Why--I ought not to tell, Bobby. Promise never to tell anybody!
+Promise, Sarepta! Well--Wilson felt a little sentimental after the party
+and all, and I--I--tipped him out, going round the corner!"
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" roared Bobby Shafto.
+
+"He! he! he!" tittered Sarepta, and fled, her bread being in the oven.
+
+Kitty held out her hands with a sudden gesture, Bobby grasped them, and
+the two danced up and down, holding hands and laughing like two
+children. Kitty ought to have known better. There are so many
+psycho-chemical formulae; they combine so easily, especially with
+certain cardiac conditions. She knew perfectly well that Bobby had been
+sighing and looking and sighing again, ever since she came back. I am
+afraid she was rather used to sighs and looks. She had spoken casually
+of "people" in Switzerland and Italy who had been "rather foolish." She
+knew, or she ought to have known, that it was one thing to dance with a
+lad at the party, one revolving unit among many, and a wholly different
+thing to take hands with that lad and dance child-fashion, just the two
+of them in all the world. What wonder that poor Bobby Shafto was swept
+out to sea in good earnest? He could not know that the girl was not
+really thinking of him at all, that she was dancing with Tommy Lee, as
+she always had danced, ever since she could toddle.
+
+Kitty saw the look in Bobby's eyes, and a cold wave swept over her. She
+would have withdrawn her hands, but Bobby held them tight.
+
+"Kitty!" The laughter died out of his rosy face.
+
+"Kitty, dear!"
+
+"Yes, Bobby! we must stop now, and you must run along; I have my
+housekeeping to see to."
+
+"Kitty, dear! wait just a minute. I--I want--I wish I might hold these
+little hands all the time!"
+
+Kitty tried to laugh. "Can't be done, Bobby," she said, "it would
+interfere with my driving. Let me go, please, there's a good Bobby
+Shafto!"
+
+But Bobby could not be stopped now. "I must tell you!" he cried. "I
+_have_ to! I love you so, Kitty, I can't think of anything else. And it
+isn't all selfishness, dear. I want to take care of you. I won't have
+you exposed to insults from a miserable chump like Wilson Wibird. I
+shall be out of college next year, Kitty, and I have a good job promised
+me; won't you--won't you let me take care of you, my dear?"
+
+Kitty was grave enough now. Her gray eyes were full of tender kindness,
+as they looked straight into the boy's burning blue ones; but at that
+kind look, the cold wave swept over him, too.
+
+"Dear Bobby! dear, good friend! no! it can never, never be. No! don't
+say any more. Let me go, _please_, my dear!"
+
+He dropped her hands, and turned away with a little broken sound. It was
+not quite a sob, but it went straight to Kitty's heart. Cruel, wicked
+girl that she had been! This was her friend, Tommy's friend, from
+petticoat-days. Was this the best she could do for him?
+
+"Bobby," she said quietly, "come into the sitting-room a minute! I have
+something to say to you."
+
+Bobby followed her mutely, with hanging head. She beckoned him to a seat
+beside her on the leather sofa. She was trembling, but she managed with
+an effort to steady her voice.
+
+"We have been friends all our lives, Bobby!" she said. "I am going to be
+honest with you; it is the least thing I can do, and the only thing. If
+you think a little, Bobby Shafto, perhaps--you will see why I
+cannot--cannot care in the way you mean, my poorest Bobby. Think back a
+little! There--there used to be three of us; don't you remember?"
+
+Her voice sank almost to a whisper, but her eyes were brave and honest.
+Bobby looked into them: then he hung his head: the comely red ebbed out
+of his face, leaving it very pale.
+
+"I--I wouldn't have spoken at all if he had been here!" he muttered. "Of
+course I wouldn't! but----"
+
+"I know you wouldn't, dear! And, oh, Bobby, I may never see him again.
+He may be dead, or--or--he may never think about me at all, he may care
+for somebody else: think of all the girls he has met since he went away!
+but--but you see, Bobby, there will never be any one else for me."
+
+When Bobby had gone away sadly down the hill, Kitty ran up to her room
+and had a good solid cry, a thing she rarely indulged in.
+
+"Tommy!" sobbed the girl, and she stretched out her young lonely arms to
+the empty air. "Tommy, I do want you so! Aren't you ever coming? Don't
+you really care? I want my Duke of Lee! Oh, how happy would this
+gentlewoman be, to be blessed with her Duke's good company! Oh! oh!"
+
+By and by she got the better of herself, dried her eyes, washed her
+face, and was cheerful Kitty again. Then she did an absurd thing: Kitty
+_was_ absurd, there was no denying that. She went to the long glass and
+curtsied to her image: then, gravely and formally, she proceeded to
+dance the "Duke of Lee," stepping high, stepping low, tossing her pretty
+head, waving her pretty arms, all as carefully and precisely as if a
+partner had been bowing and pirouetting opposite her. While she danced,
+she sang the song from end to end; sang it so clear and sweet (barring
+one little sob in the middle) that Aunt Johanna, in her bed, wiped her
+eyes and thanked goodness some one was happy in the world; and Sarepta
+Darwin in the kitchen sniffed, and forgot for the moment the dreadful
+fact of her having got too deep a bake on them loaves, l'iterin' in the
+parlor with them triflin' children.
+
+As the last "Marry oo, diddy goo, diddy goo!" died away, the doorbell
+rang, and Kitty went down, cheerfully, to receive Judge Peters and Mr.
+Mallow.
+
+The gentlemen had just called in passing to ask how Kitty found herself
+after the party: quite unnecessary to ask, on seeing her, said the
+Judge, but they thought they would call. What a delightful party! Madam
+Flynt always did things well. That was so! Mr. Mallow opined. She had a
+genus for soci'ty, no two ways about that. Used to entertain a great
+deal in the Colonel's time; Colonel was social, too. Great thing to have
+the house open again.
+
+"Got home all right, did you, Kitty?" Mr. Mallow bolted from the
+carefully circuitous path laid down by the Judge.
+
+"All right, thank you, Mr. Mallow! It cleared off fine, you know, and I
+took Pilot and the open sleigh for the last few loads. It was such fun!"
+
+"Pilot is a fine horse!" the Judge nodded the approval of a connoisseur.
+"A spirited animal! a trifle hard-bitted, is he, Kitty?"
+
+"Kind o' fresh last night, was he? Cold night and all; don't blame him a
+mite!" chimed in Mr. Mallow.
+
+Kitty looked from one to the other; her eyes began to twinkle.
+
+"What's the matter?" she asked. "Did I drive too fast for somebody? You
+know Father always called me a daughter of Jehu, Judge. Have you come to
+arrest me for fast driving? Is it to be fine or imprisonment?"
+
+The Judge laughed outright. "You are too sharp for me, Kitty; or Brother
+Mallow is too impatient for diplomatic procedure. Well! nothing of any
+consequence, my dear; we gather that your last trip was rather speedy,
+and that there was a little--a trifling accident toward the end of it.
+We--a--passing by, you understand--thought we would inquire--we wanted
+to make sure that you were not hurt, my dear."
+
+"Wilse Wibird was hove out, they claim!" Mr. Mallow could not abide what
+he called "snangles" in conversation. Give him a fack and he could
+handle it, but he wouldn't have no snangles.
+
+"His Ma says the hoss was runnin' away; how about it, Kitty?"
+
+Kitty broke into a sudden laugh; then suddenly looked grave.
+
+"Pilot never ran away in his life, Mr. Mallow! Don't let John Tucker
+know that he was ever suspected of such a thing. I was to blame, Judge.
+I--wanted to get home; I cut the corner too sharp, and Wilson rolled
+out, that's all! I suppose I ought to have stopped," she added. "I never
+thought of his being hurt, I truly didn't. There was a nice fat drift,
+and he went into it so comfortably, I thought! I do hope he isn't hurt,
+Mr. Mallow!"
+
+Here Kitty looked up at the two gentlemen with such a penitent
+expression that they both laughed again.
+
+"No serious injury, I gather!" said Judge Peters.
+
+"Hurt his pride and made his nose bleed," said Mr. Mallow. "That's all,
+Kitty. Don't you worry about him!"
+
+Something in her face made him add impulsively, "Wilse hadn't been
+pesterin' you, had he, Kitty?"
+
+Kitty turned scarlet and jumped up hastily.
+
+"Oh, no!" she said. At least she was sure Wilson had not meant to annoy
+her. She was so glad he was not hurt, and now she wanted to show the
+Judge her Dutch bulbs. He knew all about bulbs, and she thought some of
+them looked queer.
+
+"Blubs, eh? Good business!" Mr. Mallow rose also. "While you're showin'
+him the blubs, I'll step into the kitchen if you've no projection,
+Kitty, and ask S'repty for her receipt for them marracoons of hers. She
+promised it to me. Talk of Dutch, they beat any Dutch ever I see!"
+
+The bulbs pronounced upon, and Mr. Mallow lingering in fervent
+consultation over the "marracoons," the Judge inquired for Miss Johanna.
+He trusted she was gaining steadily. It was hard for so active a person
+to be deprived of liberty of locomotion even for a time. Was
+she--a--interested in the bulbs? Fond of flowers, perhaps?
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed, Judge! She enjoys them as much as I do. I take every
+pot up to her room as soon as it begins to bud. She isn't really ill,
+you know, just tired and resting. Speaking of flowers, do you know, some
+unknown friend sends her the most wonderful violets, every week! They
+scent the whole house! Don't you smell them, Judge Peters?"
+
+The Judge sniffed gravely and thought he did perceive a fragrance:
+highly agreeable. Miss Ross was fond of violets?
+
+"They are her favorite flowers; and just think," Kitty rippled on, "they
+have come to her every week for twenty years, and she has _never_ known
+who sent them. Did you ever hear of anything so romantic?"
+
+"Quite so!" the Judge rose and looked about for his hat. "Very pleasant,
+very agreeable. Probably the sender enjoys the blossoms fully as much as
+the recipient. Present my kindest regards to your aunt, will you, Kitty?
+Tell her I trust it will not be long before her old friends may enjoy
+the privilege of her society. Ahem! Brother Mallow, we should be
+stepping. Good-bye, my dear! Happy to find you so well!"
+
+Going down the hill, the two gentlemen came to a conclusion which was
+less than just to the unfortunate Wilson. He was not drunk, only
+slightly "elevated," to use an obsolescent slang phrase. But Mr. Mallow
+knew his nephew well, and if there was a doubt, Wilson received no
+benefit of it. Wilson had been drunk, they decided, and had annoyed
+Kitty, who had "speeded up" the only-too-ready Pilot in order to escape
+his importunities. Young cub had ought to be horsewhipped, Mr. Mallow
+thought; the Judge urged a severe reprimand instead. Kitty must be kept
+out of this so far as might be, he said. A different impression must be
+created from either of the two which had been--unfortunately--put about
+early in the day. Yes! highly injudicious.
+
+"Pair o' darned patterin' chetticoats!" interjected Mr. Mallow, and
+neither he nor the Judge noticed the transposition of consonants.
+
+Gravely consulting, the two gentlemen repaired to the office of the
+_Centinel_, where "Italio" had already begun a fervid eulogy of the
+Party. As a result, the following paragraph appeared next morning in the
+paper:
+
+"Among those who ministered to the enjoyment of Cyrus in connection with
+the delightful festivity of last evening, not least was our talented and
+accomplished young equestrienne, Miss Katharine Ross, who with the
+valuable assistance of Mr. John Tucker transported all the guests to and
+from the ball with equal skill and celerity. The gallant steeds which
+Mr. Tucker keeps in such prime condition partook of the gayety of the
+occasion, and doubtless in their equine fashion enjoyed the evening as
+much as the fortunate bipeds whom they furnished with the means of
+speedy locomotion. The Scribe is informed that an unexpected burst of
+playful speed on the part of the justly-celebrated black thoroughbred,
+Pilot, was the cause of one of our young gallants' receiving a morning
+bath of snow earlier than his accustomed hour. Hard luck, Wilson! Italio
+is glad you got off with a nosebleed!"
+
+So Pilot had to bear the blame after all, and John Tucker was furious.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII
+
+                        WILSON WIMBERLEY WIBIRD
+
+
+Mrs. Wibird and Melissa had a hard time of it for the next few days. No
+part of Wilson's bodily frame had been hurt, except his nose, which had
+encountered something hard and was swollen to the size and shape of a
+potato; but his feelings in general and his pride in particular had
+suffered grievous injury. After one glance in the mirror, the morning
+after the party, he fled back to his bed, and remained there for some
+hours; but his room was cold, and by afternoon he was downstairs in the
+sitting-room, with his back to the light, and his feet on the baseburner
+stove. No one was to be let in, he informed his mother peremptorily. He
+wouldn't be seen by any one, a sight like this. Mrs. Wibird, suggesting
+a flaxseed poultice, was waved away angrily. All he asked, he announced,
+was to be left alone. This meant that his mother must sit either in the
+kitchen or in a cold bedroom: she chose the former alternative, and
+repaired thither meekly with her sewing, leaving her son to nurse his
+injuries in solitude.
+
+His nose! if it had been anything else! A gash on the brow, or a cut on
+the cheek, which might look, when healed, like a Scar of Battle: either
+of them might have been displayed with equanimity, even with pride;
+might be accounted for in a dozen ways. But a swollen and crimson nose!
+Wilson groaned and clenched his teeth. He was proud of his nose, which
+was of the beak variety: he called it his commanding feature. He often,
+in fancy, read descriptions of his appearance in the leading journals of
+the country. "A glance at this eminent man shows a commanding nose and
+an indomitable chin." All great men had large noses; his nose was large;
+the conclusion was not far to seek.
+
+As a matter of fact, Wilson Wibird was a degenerate shoot from a stock
+once good. In Colonial days the Wibirds had been prominent among
+public-spirited citizens; had fought at Bunker Hill, valiantly enough;
+had held responsible positions, and been commemorated in sounding
+epitaphs. Little by little the race had dwindled, peaked and pined to
+its present state. Wilson's father had been postmaster, a meek, sandy
+little man whom everybody liked and was sorry for, because he had no
+"faculty." In the son, Nature had played one of her freaks, endowing him
+with the ambitions (and the features, if you will! it certainly was a
+good big nose, and his chin was, as Mr. Mallow said, as stubborn as a
+mule's jaw!) of a Tamburlane, and the abilities of a grocer's clerk in a
+very small way. The ability of a hotel clerk he did not possess, in Mr.
+Mallow's opinion.
+
+Deeply as he felt the injury to his commanding feature, deeper injuries
+still rankled in Wilson's breast. He knew perfectly well that Kitty had
+tipped him out on purpose. He resented it bitterly. Some twisted fibre
+of his once hard-bitted race was in him, making him cling like a limpet
+to any idea he once took up. Instead of relinquishing his quest, he was
+all the more intent upon it. He would show the proud girl what it meant
+to spurn a Wibird. She should be his none the less, but he would subdue
+her will to his. She should fly to him like a fondling bird, fawn upon
+him like a spaniel. Once humbled, he would take her to his heart, would
+raise her to his side. "Ha!" he would say. Wilson loved to say, "Ha!"
+"You sought to escape me, little one! You fluttered in the net, you
+pecked at the strong hand that held you; but all the time your fate was
+here, your fate was here, where it has always been!"
+
+Wilson had recently read "Lorna Doone," and been much struck by some of
+Carver Doone's expressions.
+
+The day passed heavily for both mother and son. Toward evening, Melissa
+entered, fresh from the Library. She had had a happy day; all the girls
+had been in, and they had talked over the party to their hearts'
+content. Everybody told Melissa how well she looked, and how pretty her
+dress was. When Nelly Chanter added that Bobby had said she looked "out
+of sight," Melissa's little cup overflowed, and she--hush! never let it
+be told--but Nelly took out a new book before it had been listed!
+Melissa being as a rule a most conscientious little soul, and moreover a
+librarian "not trained, but gifted," this action was eloquent, if
+unjustifiable. She came home full of compassion for Wilson, and with a
+bag of the cinnamon buns he specially liked, to "liven up" his supper.
+
+"Poor Wilson!" she said, "how is your poor nose? Have you had a tiresome
+day? I brought you the second volume of 'The Maid of Sker.'"
+
+Wilson growled something unintelligible and hunched his shoulders over
+the stove.
+
+"My! it's stuffy here!" Melissa went on. "Shan't I open the window for a
+minute? It's real warm out!'
+
+"You shall not! If you find the room stuffy, you needn't stay in it. It
+does seem as if a man might have a little peace in his own house. Shut
+the door, will you?"
+
+Melissa retired to the kitchen; her mother looked up anxiously.
+
+"How does he seem, Lissy? I haven't been in. I thought he might be
+asleep."
+
+"He's awful cross!" pouted Lissy. "Snapped me up like I was a bone!"
+
+"I expect he's feeling mean!" Mrs. Wibird spoke depreciatingly. "His
+nose must be dreadful sore; and his feelings--he is so sensitive! I do
+think Kitty Ross ought to be had up for driving that way!"
+
+"Now, mother! Don't you say a word against Kitty! Wilson oughtn't to
+have asked her to bring him home, tired as she was, and after midnight,
+too. He ought to have walked, as the other boys did. I hear Bobby
+Chanter said----"
+
+Here the door opened, and Wilson appeared, his small eyes glaring
+fiercely, though inadequately, over his crimson potato-nose.
+
+"I am going to bed!" he announced. "My head aches, and this chattering
+drives me distracted."
+
+"So do, dear!" his mother soothed him. "So do! I'll light the oil stove,
+and bring your supper up to you soon as it's ready."
+
+"I brought you some cinnamon buns, Wilson!" said Melissa, who could not
+harbor irritation more than two minutes. "I hope your head'll be better
+in the morning, dear!"
+
+Wilson flung away with no other answer than a snarl. He ate the buns,
+though, when they came up hot in a napkin; made a very good supper on
+the whole. The tray disposed of, he locked his door, and then proceeded
+to unlock a cupboard and take out a bottle and glass. Poor Wilson! we
+liked to think it was not his fault entirely, that some of his ancestors
+had been hard drinking as well as hard-bitted; but that made it no
+easier for Mrs. Wibird and Melissa.
+
+When putting back the bottle and glass, his hand touched something else
+in the cupboard, something hard and smooth and cold. He muttered under
+his breath; groped for the object, and brought it out. A pistol! not of
+the newest make or deadliest calibre, but still a practical weapon,
+capable of being loaded and fired. Wilson's face cleared as he looked at
+it. Here was a friend for a desperate man! He nodded darkly several
+times; stepped to the mirror to see how he looked when performing this
+act, but recoiled with a groan. He should, properly speaking, have
+thrust the pistol in his bosom, but pajamas have no bosoms: besides, the
+steel was cold. Finally, he put it under his pillow, and went to sleep
+to the tune of murder, suicide, and three columns in the City newspaper.
+
+Youth and sleep can do much, even for the foolish and befuddled. By
+morning Wilson was once more the master of Ross House, waving in his
+guests (and Kitty's) with courtly gesture. He was roused from this happy
+dream by the untimely entrance of Billy, the clerk of the Mallow House.
+Billy had just looked in on his way down town, at 6:45, to find Melissa
+preparing breakfast, Wilson in bed, and likely to remain there. Billy
+guessed he would go up and say howdy. Melissa protested: Billy grinned
+cheerfully, and went up.
+
+"Morn'n, Wilse! h'are'y?" (I find the last word cannot be spelled. It is
+chiefly H and broad A, but the other letters are there, somehow.) Wilson
+grunted and turned a striped shoulder pointedly on the intruder.
+
+"Better get up!" said Billy amicably. "Better come down!"
+
+"I can't! I'm sick! Can't you see I'm sick? Get out, Billy!"
+
+"Can't see anything but your pyjammer shirt," said Billy. "Better get
+up; better come down. Boss told me to fetch you."
+
+Wilson expressed his opinion of the Boss and of Billy, too, in no
+flattering terms.
+
+"Better get up! better come down!" Billy chanted monotonously. "Lose
+your job if you don't. Boss says he's most as sick of you as he wants to
+be: Jim Shute's been seekin' round for the job the past month. Better
+get up! here's your pants! better come down! here's your shirt! I'll
+wait downstairs."
+
+It was thus that Billy won his battles; he never lost one. Everybody did
+what Billy told him to. Nobody could analyze his power; Mr. Mallow
+opined that it was because he didn't open his head except when there was
+something doin'. "His gun's always lo'ded, but he don't pull it more'n
+once or twice a year." I think it was really because of his ignoring
+opposition. He never seemed to hear anything that was said on the other
+side; he simply went ahead and did what he had to do. Destiny in checks,
+Kitty called him. His weakness seemed to be for the largest and loudest
+checks imaginable, especially in his trousers. I always fancied he was
+in love with Melissa, but--well, no matter!
+
+I feel as if I ought to pause here to apologize for this utterly
+one-sided story, with hardly a sound, much less a sight of the hero. Of
+course every reader who knows anything at all knows that Tom Lee is
+neither dead nor false, and that he is bound to appear at some point.
+But Cyrus could not know this; even Kitty could not be sure of it, at
+least not always, when she was tired. So far as I can make out, Tom at
+about this time, the time of Madam Flynt's party, was taking leave of
+the Emperor of China (there were emperors in those days) and receiving
+from certain officers of that potentate large sums of gold. Filling his
+pockets with a small proportion of this gold, Tom strolled happily
+through the streets of Peking, looking in at all the bazaars, and buying
+everything he thought Kitty might like. Oh! the pale green kimono with
+the gold dragons! ah! the rose-colored crape showered over with cherry
+blossoms! How Cyrus was to sigh and clasp its hands over them! And the
+_parure_ of moonstones and aquamarines, which only a princess or Kitty
+in her bloom could possibly wear! And then, if that boy did not think of
+everybody in Cyrus, or almost everybody! and buy pink coral for Miss
+Egeria and red coral for Miss Almeria (coral was "in" then!) and
+tortoise-shell for Sarepta, and ebony and sandalwood boxes for all the
+rest of us, till his trunks could hold no more! Then he sat down and
+wrote to Kitty out of his faithful heart; saying it was a dog's age
+since he had heard from her, but the mails were rum in these parts, too
+rum for him, so he was coming home, coming for keeps. This had been a
+big job, and he had got big pay for it. In fact, he had made his pile,
+Kitty: not that he would ever stop working, she wouldn't have anything
+to say to him if he did that; but he meant to settle down and take
+expert jobs as they came along. They wanted him in ----, but he would
+rather live in dear old Cyrus, if Kitty was agreeable, and he fancied
+she would be. If the dear Lady wanted them to live with her, that would
+suit him all right; (alas! he did not know!) he loved her dearly, and he
+loved every nail in Ross House, Kitty knew that. If not, his own house
+was only let from year to year, and they would move right into that.
+
+    [Illustration:
+
+    Filling his pockets with gold, Tom strolled happily
+        through the streets of Peking, looking in at all the
+        bazaars....
+    ]
+
+"Kitty, you see I am taking it for granted that you have waited for me.
+What should I do if--but I _know_ you have! that is, I know it almost
+always, except when I'm dog-tired or the grub has given out. Once or
+twice, up in the mountains, I got a bit down, but it never lasted.
+Because, of course, you know how every hour and every minute I am
+thinking of you, my darling. You must have felt it, Kitty, even when you
+didn't get my letters, and I'm afraid they didn't always get through,
+but I hope so. You must have realized that it has been you, standing
+right beside me, going with me through everything, that has carried me
+over the rough places; and there have been some pretty rough ones,
+darling, but all that is over now, and in about two weeks I shall be
+sailing for home, the happiest man in the wide world, for you are at the
+other end, waiting for me--aren't you, Kitty?"
+
+Kitty got that letter. It arrived about a month after another arrival,
+to be chronicled in due time.
+
+Meantime the days came and went, and it was now late April. Not yet
+quite spring with us, but so near that one could hear her whispering
+over the hill-tops. Mother Earth was making ready to receive her. There
+was a vast deal of house-cleaning going on. Great rains sluiced out the
+roads, and filled the streams to overflowing; they rushed along, brown
+and foaming, carrying with them the unsightly leavings of winter, who
+had hurried off, as usual, without "redding up" in any way. The river
+flowed broad and swift, dotted with floating ice-cakes; the willows
+along the bank showed brown smoke touched with green. Here and there
+were bushes with blood-red stems, vivid as coral. In the woods, snow
+lingered in blackish patches; almost touching these patches, ferns were
+unrolling, hepaticas taking off their gray furs, bloodroot opening its
+lovely white cups.
+
+"And oh!" cried Kitty. "Don't speak to me, any one! I believe it's an
+anemone!"
+
+Kitty was having a holiday. Madam Flynt was not going out that
+afternoon; John Tucker would never let her, Kitty, meet the trains; Aunt
+Johanna had pronounced her pale, and bidden her walk five miles and
+bring back a color. She had meant to be back in time for one o'clock
+dinner, but as she came downstairs Sarepta appeared with a neat tin box
+and the announcement, "Here's a snack! You can have your dinner with
+your supper!"
+
+She vanished. Kitty peeped, saw chicken sandwiches and an apple
+turnover, and departed joyful.
+
+"Dear Sarepta," she murmured. "If one must have a tyrant, how nice to
+have one who can make turnovers!"
+
+It was a day of days. Not warm; one was not ready for warmth yet; but
+every breath was a delight, the air so tingled with wakening life. Kitty
+walked not five miles, but ten, if she had known it. She took no count
+of miles, swinging along over hill and dale, her quick eyes taking in
+every sign of promise; here a catkin waving, there a little host of
+green spears pushing up through the brown earth. She sat on a huge
+silvered root in a stump fence to eat her luncheon. A chipmunk came to
+make inquiries and received crumbs; a bluebird sang in a cherry tree
+near by. It was a delightful feast. This was on top of the Great Hill,
+from which one saw all the kingdoms of the earth, more or less. Kitty
+saw and rejoiced in all: the kingdom of pines, stretching dark and
+velvety along its waving miles; the kingdom of hills, bare and ruddy in
+the sunlight; the kingdom of streams and ponds, a great necklace of
+sapphires flung across the countryside. Kitty saw, and sighed with
+delight; then slipped her empty box in her pocket and set her face
+homeward. Already the sunbeams came slanting through the pines on the
+crest; she had a long way to go. "And I must and will go back through
+Lancaston Woods!" said Kitty. "Perhaps I'll make a call on Savory Bite;
+similarly, perhaps I won't. I wonder if his paint is blue still. Naughty
+Tom!"
+
+Down the hillside went Kitty, across lots; through steep pastures of
+slippery russet grass, where the huddled rocks looked like flocks of
+gray sheep, browsing; through hanging copses, the outlying pickets of
+the kingdom of pines; so down at last to the kingdom itself, the long
+stretch of woodland, bordered on one side by the river, on the other by
+that shy, pleasant thoroughfare known as Lancaston Road. It was near the
+edge of the road that Kitty was wandering happily along, about five
+o'clock, when she should have been nearer home; it was here that she
+found the first anemone. She was bending over it in rapture, when she
+heard a name pronounced; not her own name, but a perversion of it to
+which she was now only too well accustomed.
+
+"Katrine!" cried Wilson Wibird. "Can it be? Fate is kind for once!"
+
+Wilson had been to Tinkham: I fear on no profitable errand. He was on
+his homeward way, walking with a rather uncertain step, wavering from
+side to side of the road. Catching sight of a figure through the trees,
+his half-tipsy fancy prompted him to see who it was. Here he was now,
+balancing himself on unsteady feet, leering at Kitty in a way which he
+felt to be irresistible. Wilson's nose had long since resumed its normal
+appearance. He had by a happy inspiration put on his good suit; a
+necktie of undeniable brilliancy flaunted beneath the high collar which
+partly sheltered his long bird-like neck. He felt that the occasion was
+a fortunate one.
+
+"Well met by sunlight, proud Titania!" was his greeting to Kitty.
+
+"How d'ye do, Wilson!" Kitty nodded, and stepped past him toward the
+open: he, however, stepped with her.
+
+"Don't hurry, Katrine! it is a sweet evening: let us stroll home
+together! Fate has not lightly brought about this meeting."
+
+"I haven't time to stroll, Wilson! I must walk fast. Don't let me hurry
+you, though! Good evening!"
+
+She stepped aside to pass him, but again he stepped with her; tried for
+a space to keep pace with her, and finding this difficult, planted
+himself squarely in front of her.
+
+"Not so fast, sweet one!" he said. "I have a word to say to thee. We
+have not met since the dance, Katrine. A long month ago!"
+
+"I believe not!" Kitty spoke coolly, but she gave a quick glance up and
+down the road. No one was in sight: there was no house near except
+Savory Bite's cottage, and that was out of sight round the next corner.
+
+"Katrine was cruel that night!" Wilson went on, still balancing himself
+from side to side. He could not seem to stand still and straight at the
+same time. "Katrine was cruel indeed. She flung her Fate from her;
+tipped me out in the snow, didn't she? But her Fate came back." He
+laughed. "Here's Fate, Katrine! Can't escape it; here is Fate! Fate is
+here!"
+
+He tapped himself on the breast, and assumed an attitude of command.
+
+"What _are_ you talking about, Wilson?" exclaimed Kitty impatiently.
+"Please let me pass, and don't be silly."
+
+"Silly! she calls me silly!"
+
+Wilson nodded thrice solemnly and tried to take Kitty's hand; failing in
+which, he waved his own and then leveled a wavering forefinger at her.
+
+"Katrine, it is time we came to an unshand--undershand--understanding! I
+feel--I have long felt--that we were born for each other. Why blink the
+fact?"
+
+This struck Wilson as a strong expression; he repeated it--"Why blink
+the fact! Let us hail it, joyfully, Katrine. Two hearts that beat as
+one! You are mine, little bird: mine!"
+
+Now, however much Wilson Wibird might indulge in remarks of this kind to
+his crony, the mirror, he would not have dared to make them to Kitty
+when sober, and Kitty knew it. After that swift glance up and down the
+road, she drew out a long steel hatpin and held it in her hand.
+
+"Wilson," she said briefly, "what do you mean? What are you talking
+about, and what do you want?"
+
+"Want--you!" Wilson opened his arms with a dramatic gesture. "You are
+mine, I say! I have an iron will, Katrine, and that will claims you.
+Come, little bird! Let us seal our union with a k----"
+
+"If you come one step nearer," said Kitty quietly, "I'll run this pin
+into you."
+
+She displayed the pin, really a formidable weapon.
+
+Wilson, who had taken a step forward, paused.
+
+"I have an iron will!" he protested. "'Wibird hath iron will;' did you
+never hear that, Katrine? 'Tis the motto of our House. I am the tenth
+and perhaps the last Wilson Wimberley Wibird. In me meet the features--"
+he indicated his nose and chin--"and the forces of my ancestors. Don't
+be obstinate, Katrine!"
+
+Here his mood changed suddenly; his eyes filled with tears.
+
+"Don't be cruel, Kitty!" he implored. "You've always been cruel, Kitty,
+and I've always loved you. Don't be cruel to the tenth and perhaps the
+last Wilson Wimberley Wibird! Be kind, not cruel! They both begin
+with--at least the sound is the same. I am your Fate, Kitty--I mean
+Katrine! I should think you would be kind to your Fate."
+
+Here the gentleman wept bitterly.
+
+Kitty spoke kindly and distinctly.
+
+"I would go home now, Wilson, if I were you!" she said. "You are not
+yourself. Forget this foolishness, and go home to your mother. If you
+will walk ahead, I will follow you."
+
+But Wilson's mood changed again. "Never!" he said. "I am
+desh--desperate! deshperate man! If you won't be mine, I won't be--I
+mean, I'll put an end to myself! Blow my brains out, here's minute. Then
+you'll know what it is to spurn a Wibird! ha! You mock me!" He pulled
+out the pistol and flourished it in the air.
+
+Kitty stepped quickly forward and took it from him.
+
+"Now," she said quietly, "if you will walk ahead, Wilson, I will follow
+you."
+
+While these things were going on, Mr. Very Jordano had been making his
+annual call on Avery Bright, the hermit. This call was made at no
+regular time or season. When news was scarce, or the pulse of Cyrus
+seemed to beat feebly, the editor of the _Centinel_ was wont to cast
+about him for legitimate subjects of possible interest from which a
+"story" might be extracted. His native delicacy being perpetually at war
+with his professional instinct, he could not bring himself to take
+advantage of any occurrence the mention of which might cause any
+"feeling" in any quarter of the neighborhood. This warfare hampered him
+sadly. But "Savory Bite" never read a newspaper; he had no relations;
+there seemed no reason why he should not be exploited, if only he could
+be brought to unfold his tale. He never yet had unfolded his tale, but
+hope sprang eternal in Mr. Jordano's breast, and once a year, as I say,
+he would try his fortune. His zealous questions were met alternately by
+"Yep" and "Nope," with "I d'no!" as an occasional variant. As a matter
+of fact, Savory had no tale to unfold. He was not in any way an
+interesting or mysterious person, save to the young or the newcomer in
+Cyrus. The elders knew that he lived alone merely because his parents
+had died and left him so. There he was, and there he stayed. He had lost
+the habit of talking after twenty years of a stone-deaf mother; also, he
+had nothing special to say. So much for our hermit!
+
+On this occasion Mr. Jordano was in great need of a "story" to fill a
+certain column for this week's _Centinel_, already half set up. There
+had been no arrivals in Cyrus since the last issue; people had not begun
+to shingle their barns or plant their gardens: it was a dry time for
+editors. His success with Mr. Bright had been no more marked than usual,
+but as he left the house he was already composing a paragraph which
+could not, he modestly thought, fail to interest the public.
+
+"The Scribe made a neighborly call yesterday on our isolated but ever
+courteous fellow-townsman Mr. Avery Bright, in his domicile on the
+Lancaston Road. The gentle hermit received me in his commodious kitchen,
+which he would appear to use also as a sitting room. It is painted of a
+cerulean blue, and is as tasty an apartment as any housewife could
+desire. Mr. Bright is a man of few words, and may be said to cultivate
+the golden flower of silence: yet Italio received from him some valuable
+information, which he feels at liberty to impart to his readers. Spring
+will be late, in Mr. Bright's opinion. The breast of that useful and
+(when roasted with the seasonable adjuncts of sage, onion and
+applesauce) toothsome feathered biped, the goose, which hangs beside his
+well-polished stove, displays large patches of white. This shows that
+the winter has been a hard one, which, indeed, we know to have been the
+case: it also foretells, the weatherwise anchorite intimated, that the
+spring will be backward. On the Scribe's venturing a pleasantry to the
+effect that spring, like other good things, was worth waiting for, Mr.
+Bright signified his assent to the proposition by a sagacious nod. As to
+the woodchuck----"
+
+Mr. Jordano got no farther with the woodchuck. Lifting his eyes as he
+closed the gate of the hermitage behind him, he saw a sight that made
+him start and almost drop his notebook. Up the road came Wilson Wibird,
+plodding sullenly along with bent head and muttering lips; behind him
+walked Kitty Ross, holding a pistol in her hand. After the first
+petrified glance, Mr. Jordano hastened forward, calling Kitty's name;
+she and her convoy looked up at the same moment.
+
+"Damn!" said Wilson.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Jordano!" cried Kitty. "I am _so_ glad to see you! Are you--are
+you going my way?"
+
+"Absolutely! absolutely!" cried Mr. Jordano, seizing the first word that
+came to his bewildered mind. "I should esteem it a high privilege, Miss
+Kitty. Permit me, my--my dear young lady!"
+
+He motioned toward the pistol; Kitty gladly relinquished it, and he drew
+a breath of relief.
+
+"Periloso!" he murmured. "Extremely periloso! If your foot should
+slip-pip-pip--step out, Wilson!"
+
+His tone changed from that of anxious courtesy to imperious command. The
+unhappy Wilson, feeling the impact of the pistol muzzle between his
+shoulders, stepped out. Beginning to mutter curses, he was sternly
+bidden to hold his tongue-pung-pung! Thus they proceeded along the
+Lancaston Road, where fortunately the houses are few and far between; a
+tragi-comic little procession. Mr. Jordano was fairly snorting with
+chivalrous indignation. His dark eyes flashed real fire; his cloak was
+thrown superbly over his shoulder. Could the dear gentleman have known
+it, he really looked for the nonce like one of the Italian patriots on
+whom he so desired to form himself. Presently he became aware that Kitty
+was trembling. Bending anxiously toward her, she turned on him a face of
+suppressed and remorseful laughter.
+
+"Put it away!" she whispered. "We are coming to a house. He won't give
+any more trouble, I am sure."
+
+Mr. Jordano nodded and slipped the pistol into his pocket. Soon after,
+they came to a crossroad which led by a short cut to the Common and Ross
+House. Seeing Kitty about to turn aside, Mr. Jordano made as if to
+accompany her, but she checked him with a decided shake of her head. As
+he hesitated, she laid her finger on her lips, kissed it toward him with
+an adorable gesture of gratitude and affection, and, turning, sped away
+in the gathering dusk. Mr. Jordano looked after her with a sigh; he felt
+that kiss warm at his heart. He would lay down his life, if necessary,
+for that sweet young lady. Anger sweeping him again as he turned to the
+shambling figure before him, he addressed it with asperity.
+
+"Come, Wilson! wake up-pup-pup! Step out-tout-tout! You ought to be
+lighting the lamps this minute."
+
+But I ask you, was it not hard that the real "story" which had dropped
+for him out of a clear sky, as it were, was one that Mr. Jordano's
+knightly soul could not for an instant think of as matter for
+publication?
+
+What a paragraph it would have made!
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII
+
+                                 PILOT
+
+
+"Dear Dan! but you don't think it is anything serious, John?"
+
+"Oh, no, Miss Kitty. He'll be fit as a fiddle in two-three days. All I
+mean, he give himself a little wrinch, like, and I thought let him rest
+up a day or two, that's all. Anybody has to rest once in a while; any
+hoss, I would say."
+
+"Well!" Kitty gave Dan another lump of sugar. "I believe all he wants is
+more sugar, John Tucker. Just look at him! You are an angelic humbug,
+Dan dear, and you aren't to have another scrap. So--you'll take Old
+Crummles to the station, I suppose, John. And I'll take Madam Flynt with
+Pilot."
+
+Kitty did not look at John Tucker as she said this; they both looked a
+little conscious. Old Crummles, the third horse, bought by John Tucker
+(Kitty vowed she would never attempt another horse trade!) was eminently
+safe and sound, but a trifle dull. Neither Kitty nor John Tucker
+specially enjoyed driving him.
+
+"Yes, Miss!" said John Tucker. "Three o'clock, I suppose."
+
+Immediately Kitty's heart began to smite her.
+
+"You are as angelic as Dan, John Tucker," she cried. "And I am a selfish
+Thing! and wicked, too," she added: "I know Madam Flynt is dreadfully
+afraid of Pilot. She has only driven behind him once, and then she felt
+that her life hung on the dasher, she told me afterward. So I'll take
+Old Crummles, John Tucker, dear."
+
+But John Tucker was up in arms at once in defense of his favorite.
+
+"Madam Flynt has no call to be afraid of Pilot," he said gruffly. "Pilot
+is as clever a hoss as is in this State; and as stiddy, for a young
+hoss. What I mean, you don't expect a young hoss to reason things out
+the way an old one does. Take Dan now, or even Crummles, though he
+hasn't much more sense than a meal-tub; what I mean, you couldn't scare
+either one on 'em; not if you said 'Boo!' right in their count'nance.
+They'd toss their head, at least Dan would, and think, 'Well, I ain't a
+jackass, anyway!' But take a young, spirited hoss like Pilot, and he
+hasn't had the experience, Miss Kitty, that's all there is to it. You
+meet a thrashing-machine, say, with Pilot, or an elephant, or something
+else that it don't _belong_ there, what I mean is. Well, he'll antic up
+a mite, to express surprise, same as a person would. 'My land!' he says:
+'what's that?' Only he says it with his head and his four legs, not
+havin' language, as you may say."
+
+"John Tucker! you never met an elephant with Pilot!"
+
+"I did, Miss! not one, but three elephants: 'twas that circus used to go
+through North Cyrus to the City. Well! Pilot warn't only three years old
+then. He co't sight of them elephants, and he was all over the ro'd, all
+over the lot, all over the county, in a minute, but he never meant no
+harm. He was only wonderin', that was all. No, Miss Kitty!" John Tucker
+shut his jack-knife with a decided snap, and turned away from the stall.
+
+"You take Pilot for Madam Flynt. He'll do anything in creation you tell
+him, and she'll have a real nice ride. I ain't any too fond of takin'
+him to the trains anyway," he added. "He gets real annoyed if he has to
+stand round waitin', and I don't know as I blame him."
+
+So at three o'clock, after a confidential talk with Pilot, in which she
+explained the situation to him, and told him he was going to be just as
+saintly as Dan, and not so much as wink if they met a whole caravan of
+elephants (which was most unlikely at this season), Kitty drove up to
+Madam Flynt's door. Pilot stood like a rock while the two ladies got in.
+They were engaged in a rather acrimonious discussion as to the quality
+and thickness of an extra wrap carried by Miss Croly, and did not notice
+the horse; Kitty thought it unnecessary to call attention to him, and
+off they went. The day was perfect; so was Pilot. He settled down almost
+at once into the long smooth trot that covered twelve miles an hour and
+seemed absolutely effortless. "I can keep this up all day," he signified
+to Kitty with one ear, "if this is what you want. A trifle dull, what?"
+
+"Yes, darling!" replied Kitty with the slightest movement of the reins;
+"but it is precisely right, and you are a Cherry Pie, and shall have the
+most _delicious_ mash for your precious supper!"
+
+There is a State Road to South Cyrus, good even in early spring. Pilot
+sped along over hill and dale, now and then tossing his beautiful head
+from sheer joy, but otherwise behaving with absolute decorum. Madam
+Flynt's irritation about the cloak subsiding, she began to enjoy herself
+thoroughly.
+
+"How delightful the air is!" she said. "The tang is really gone: I call
+this positively balmy. Aren't you driving very fast, Kitty?"
+
+"It's just his usual gait, Madam Flynt," replied Kitty craftily. "It's
+partly the road. Don't you think one always seems to be going faster on
+a smooth road?"
+
+"That may be so!" said Madam Flynt sagaciously. "The road is certainly
+excellent. What are you doing, Cornelia?"
+
+"I was tucking your feet in, Clarissa. One of them was protruding beyond
+the robe!"
+
+"I protruded it on purpose!" Madam Flynt spoke with decision. "It was
+too warm. They are my feet, Cornelia: I suppose you will grant that?"
+
+"Willingly, my dear Clarissa!"
+
+Seldom, almost never, did Miss Croly allow any tinge of malice to color
+speech or even thought. She knew her duty and intended to do it, but her
+firmness was almost invariably gentle. This time, however, there was the
+slightest suspicion of meaning in her "willingly!" Her feet were her one
+beauty: long, narrow, high of instep. Madam Flynt's were flat and pudgy.
+
+"Very well!" said Madam Flynt, fully appreciating the shade of tone.
+"Then perhaps you will let me manage them myself. We'll turn round at
+the heater piece, Kitty, and come back over this same good road. I am
+enjoying this air so! The motion is really exhilarating!"
+
+They turned at the heater piece, and Pilot's stride quickened
+automatically. (Does every one know that a heater piece is the
+triangular space between two branching roads?) He was still behaving
+perfectly, he assured Kitty, but it was not in nature not to go a little
+faster when one's head was turned toward home and supper. Kitty
+explained this to Madam Flynt, who replied that she had never observed
+it before. Dan was one of those rare horses who can resist the call of
+the stable and keep the same untroubled pace whichever way their head is
+turned.
+
+"Can you check the animal, my love?" quavered Miss Croly, who had been
+secretly alarmed all through the drive. "Nervousness is very bad for our
+dear friend; it induces sleeplessness."
+
+"Nothing of the sort, Cornelia Croly!" Madam Flynt became majestic. "I
+have every confidence in Kitty's driving, I am sure. What--what is the
+matter, my dear?"
+
+Kitty had said a word and Pilot stopped suddenly, almost too suddenly
+for the equilibrium of the two passengers. They were passing the Gaylord
+place: Kitty was aware of two figures standing by the gap in the hedge,
+one of which beckoned to her: Judge Peters and Mr. Mallow. The Judge
+spoke.
+
+"You, Kitty? And with Pilot? Thank God! Madam Flynt, Miss Croly, your
+most obedient servant! do not be alarmed, ladies, but this is a case of
+emergency. Mr. Gaylord is here, seriously ill. Dr. Pettijohn must come
+at once. Mr. Mallow was about to set out on foot, but if you could go,
+Kitty?"
+
+"Of course!" cried Kitty. "That is, if Madam Flynt----"
+
+"Of course!" exclaimed Madam Flynt in turn. "Need you ask, Edward? Is he
+very ill?"
+
+"Dying, we fear!" The Judge spoke low. "I must go back to him. Kitty, my
+child, do the best you----"
+
+"Drive like _hemp_, will you, Kitty?" cried Mr. Mallow, down whose rosy
+cheeks the tears were streaming. ("Hemp" was Mr. Mallow's strongest
+expression: most people spelled it with _ll_ instead of _mp_.)
+
+"Oh, yes! yes! _Drive as fast as you can_, Kitty!" cried Madam Flynt.
+Russell Gaylord had been in her Sunday school class, and she loved him.
+
+Kitty flashed a glance back.
+
+"Do you mean it?" she cried. "You do? Oh, you darling Thing! Sit tight,
+then!"
+
+She bent forward and gave a long, low, clear whistle. It was her private
+signal to Pilot; it meant that there was a stretch of good road ahead
+and no one in sight to be shocked or frightened. The black horse
+whinnied a response, quivered, then sprang forward literally like an
+arrow from a bow. The Judge looked after him as he shot down the road at
+a three-minute gait. A momentary smile lightened his sad face.
+
+"Poor Madam Flynt!" he said. "Poor Miss Croly! Come, Marshall!" and they
+went back into the house.
+
+Remember that for many years Madam Flynt and her companion had been
+accustomed to Flanagan's horses, whose best speed never exceeded four
+miles an hour. Dan's steady eight had terrified them at first; though
+they were now used to it, and felt a certain pride in his swiftness as
+he trotted sturdily along, never quickening, never slackening, his
+comfortable stride. Fancy, then, their emotions when, as Miss Croly
+afterward expressed it in her fervent way, "the lightning was unchained,
+and they flew with the bolt of Heaven!"
+
+It was three good miles to Dr. Pettijohn's house. Before one mile was
+passed, the two ladies were perfectly sure that Kitty had lost control
+of the horse; that he was _running away_! They had heard the fatal word
+"Pilot!" Each clutched a side of the carriage with one hand; the other
+clasped that of her friend.
+
+"Clarissa," murmured Miss Croly, "we are together in death as in life."
+
+"Don't be--oh!" Madam Flynt had meant to say "absurd," but at this
+moment they turned off the smooth State road into one which led directly
+past Dr. Pettijohn's house. This road was an ordinary country
+thoroughfare, which, in our State, in the month of April, is not smooth.
+
+"Oh!" cried Madam Flynt, as they encountered the first "honeypot." (A
+honeypot is a spot where the frost, coming out of the ground, leaves
+behind it unplumbed depths of liquid mud.) Down went one wheel, up went
+the other.
+
+"Steady, darling!" said Kitty.
+
+"Pooh!" said Pilot with one ear, and was out and away before one could
+say "Oats," much less "Jack Robinson." Madam Flynt's bonnet was over one
+eye, Miss Croly's dangled from the back of her head.
+
+"Cornelia," said Madam Flynt, "I have left you an annuity!"
+
+"Oh, Clarissa!" moaned Miss Croly, "I have sometimes opposed your
+wishes; with the best intent, but perhaps mistakenly. Forgive me! We
+will die together!"
+
+"An annuity," repeated Madam Flynt; "sufficient to keep you and Sarah in
+the house--_oh!_ as long as you live. Abby Ann has her brother. The rest
+goes to Kitty--_Ah!_"
+
+Another "honeypot." This time any one but Kitty and Pilot would have
+thought they _must_ go over.
+
+"It is coming!" gasped Miss Croly. "Clarissa, _fall on me_! My body will
+break the fall: you may escape----"
+
+Even in this crisis, Madam Flynt's sense of humor did not desert her. "I
+don't know that bones are any better than rocks to fall on!" she
+whispered. "Hold on tight, Cornelia! _hold on_----"
+
+But now, a miracle! They whirled round a corner, whirled up a driveway:
+a touch on the reins, a word, and Pilot stood, breathing quickly, but
+otherwise statue-like, before Dr. Pettijohn's door. He had _not_ been
+running away! Kitty had had him in control all the time! In one
+thought-flash, Miss Croly removed Joan of Arc and Mary Stuart from their
+pedestals and set up Kitty Ross as her Heroine for all time.
+
+Three minutes more, and they were speeding back, still at arrow-flight.
+Dr. Pettijohn knew Pilot and Kitty, and leaned back comfortably on the
+front seat, reflecting that it was criminal for such a horse as that to
+be owned by any one but a doctor. Madam Flynt resumed her dignity, and
+cast a quelling glance at Miss Croly, who was now making ineffective
+dabs at her patroness's bonnet with a view to straightening it.
+
+"Let me alone!" said the lady. "I prefer it as it is. And _hold on_, you
+ridiculous woman! We are going faster than ever, even if the animal is
+under control."
+
+Kitty was very sorry about poor Mr. Gaylord, but she could not help
+realizing that Pilot was in wonderful condition to-day. She quoted under
+her breath, for Dr. Pettijohn's benefit:
+
+    "I would not have the horse I drive
+        So fast that folks should stop and stare;
+    An easy gait,--two-forty-five--
+        Suits me; I do not care.
+    Perhaps, _just for a single spurt_,
+        Some seconds less would do no hurt!"
+
+The doctor nodded.
+
+"Trouble is, Miss Kitty, your track is too short!" he said, as the
+Gaylord chimneys rose above the next turn of the road.
+
+"I know!" Kitty nodded regretfully. "He's just got warmed up to his
+work, and here we are!"
+
+Here they were; turning in at the great gateway; crunching over the
+gravel; stopping at the gaunt front door, which had not been opened in
+twenty years. It opened now, and Judge Peters stood on the steps.
+
+"Well done, Kitty!" he exclaimed. "Yes, you are in time. Come in, Dr.
+Pettijohn. One moment!" he bent to whisper in Kitty's ear. "One more
+errand for you, my dear brave child! Providence sent you to-night, I am
+confident of it. Our poor friend desires greatly to see your Aunt
+Johanna. Yes!" as Kitty uttered a cry of surprise. "They were friends in
+youth; perhaps more than friends. He wishes to take leave of her. Is she
+able to come, do you think, Kitty? Not for worlds would I have her do
+herself an injury!"
+
+"Perfectly able, I am sure! I'll just take the ladies home; thank you,
+Judge dear!"
+
+Pilot did very well, Kitty thought, to slacken his pace so cheerfully
+the rest of the way to Madam Flynt's house; even so, they were two
+shaken and disheveled ladies who dismounted at the stone steps, and Abby
+Ann, hurrying out with the foot-stool, exclaimed in dismay at their
+appearance.
+
+"For the goodness gracious sake, Madam!" she cried. "Whatever has
+happened to your bonnet?"
+
+Madam Flynt waved her aside with dignity and addressed Kitty.
+
+"We have had a _most interesting_ drive!" she said. "I congratulate you,
+Kitty, on your skill; and I am deeply thankful to have been able--you
+understand, my dear! Good evening! Cornelia, you are treading on my
+skirt. If you _have_ pretty feet, it is not necessary to
+trample----There! don't mind me! it was my fault, I dare say."
+
+Every moment of this evening was bitten into Kitty's mind, an
+ineffaceable impression: sharpest and clearest of all, the moment when
+she stood faltering in the doorway of the Red Indian Room.
+
+Miss Johanna Ross (in rose-color this time) was sitting erect among her
+pillows, reading "Framley Parsonage." She was going through the whole
+Trollope fleet of "old three-deckers" with infinite enjoyment. Her firm,
+rather sharp countenance was relaxed in lines of leisurely amusement.
+Looking up, and meeting Kitty's eyes, it waked into vivid attention.
+
+"What's the matter?" demanded Miss Johanna. "Sickness or accident?"
+
+She had dropped her book, and was gathering her draperies about her.
+
+"Sickness!" Kitty spoke quietly, trying to keep all hurry out of her
+voice.
+
+"An old friend of yours, Aunt Johanna, has come back and is--is very
+ill, I fear. He would like to see you. It is----"
+
+"Russell Gaylord!" said Johanna Ross.
+
+The Rosses all move quickly. "Medicated lightning," people used to call
+Dr. Ross, when he was summoned to an emergency case. Kitty could only
+think of this, as without another word her aunt flashed from her
+pillows, rustled into her clothes, and with a shake of her shoulders
+stood alert, able, prepared.
+
+"Now, child!" she pinned on her veil with a steady hand. "I am ready.
+Who sent you? Judge Peters? Good! and you have Pilot? Good again! we
+need lose no time. I dreamed last night--come!"
+
+Pilot may have wondered where his promised mash was; why he was
+carefully blanketed for ten minutes, then taken out once more, and once
+more given the signal for full speed; but beyond a whinny of surprise,
+and a toss of his head, he gave no sign. Kitty's word was Pilot's law.
+Again the miles sped by; this time the passenger took no heed of them;
+the pace was all too slow for her. Again the flying turn, the crunching
+gravel; again the door opening, the grave figure hastening down the
+steps.
+
+"Alive! still conscious! yes! asking for you. Thank God you are come!
+The end is near, prepare for a great change, my friend!"
+
+Shall we go in with Johanna Ross to that room where the love of her
+youth lies gasping his last hour away? Shall we look upon her, kneeling
+by the bedside, holding the skeleton hands, looking tenderly into the
+hollow eyes? No! we have no business there. We will come away, with the
+two faithful friends, who went, one to stand outside the chamber door,
+in case of need, the other on the steps, smoothing Pilot's glossy neck
+and exchanging brief snatches of talk with Kitty; she, wondering,
+pitying, yet dreading to touch upon the mystery that had outlasted her
+young life.
+
+They were all at school together, Mr. Mallow said. Russ was an elegant
+boy. "Him and Johanna was always together, same as you and----" Here Mr.
+Mallow was seized with a prolonged fit of coughing.
+
+"Anybody ask you about Russ Gaylord," cried the hotel keeper, "and you
+say he was nobody's enemy but his own. Nobody's but his own! Your father
+knew that. Doctor knew it. 'Russ,' he'd say, 'Stop _now_! stop to-day!
+_you can!_' but he couldn't; he couldn't. The peth was dead in him, like
+a dozy log. Yes! Poor Russ! too bad, ain't it?"
+
+"Has he been ill long, Mr. Mallow?" asked Kitty timidly.
+
+"He's ben ailin' ever sence he come. Lemme see! March wasn't it? Yes,
+March, and here we are in May. He's ben jest wastin' away, poor Russ
+has."
+
+"Not--he hasn't been all alone, has he?" with a glance at the dark,
+shuttered house, the tall firs pointing spectral fingers at it, and the
+great chestnut tree, tossing its bare arms as if in grief or horror.
+
+"Me and Ned--I would say the Jedge--has ben here all we could. He
+wouldn't have no one else! We was boon companions in primary school, and
+we kep' right on. Not in all ways, is what I would say; there was
+p'ints--no need to go into that! His heart was right in his boosum all
+the time, Russ's was. Now he lays there."
+
+Mr. Mallow drew out his handkerchief and wiped his eyes simply.
+
+All Cyrus came to Russell Gaylord's funeral. Tinkham, too, and Tupham.
+Some, no doubt, came from curiosity, idle or worse, to see the great
+house open once more, the long windows thrown wide, the sunlight gilding
+the mouldered furniture and moth-eaten tapestries. These would be
+outsiders. Cyrus people were full of sorrow and compassion. They came in
+their best clothes, Madam Flynt in her ermine and velvet, Anne Peace in
+her brown Sunday gown; it was all they could do. With bowed heads they
+entered the door. How jovially the gay young host used to welcome them
+to these long drawing-rooms! How shining and scented they used to be,
+with lights and flowers! There were flowers now. Kitty and Nelly Chanter
+had found enough early blossoms in the neglected garden to make a
+wreath--only Forsythia and Japanese pear, but it was gay and
+cheerful--and some one had sent a splendid wreath of passion flowers. At
+the last Johanna Ross, who stood at the head of the coffin, while Mr.
+Chanter read the service, took the bunch of violets from her bosom, and
+laid it over the dead man's heart.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV
+
+                            JOHANNA REDIVIVA
+
+
+Miss Johanna did not go back to bed. She had had six months of rest, she
+said, and that was enough.
+
+"Besides," she added, "I must show myself for poor Russell's sake. I
+can't have people saying that he ruined my health for life, as well as
+destroyed my reason."
+
+She spoke frankly to Kitty, as they sat together on the leather sofa,
+the evening after the funeral.
+
+"That was why I went away!" said Miss Johanna. "We were very much in
+love with each other, but it was no use. He couldn't keep straight; and
+I am not a fool, Kitty. He wouldn't give me up, so I went away. Wrongly,
+your little mother thought; John knew I was right. So there is all about
+that!" Thus Miss Johanna, very erect on the sofa. Kitty, moving close
+beside her, put her arm round her and laid her fair head against her
+shoulder.
+
+"Thank you, my dear! yes, it was hard; almost as hard to have Mary
+disapprove of me as to lose him." Miss Johanna brushed away a tear, and
+frowned at the spot on her handkerchief.
+
+"She asked me--little romantic goose of a white rose!--if I thought she
+would leave John if _he_----'My child,' I said, 'John would leave you!
+John would allow nothing of that kind to come within sight or sound of
+you. If he found he _had_ to drink, he would go and drink in the Mammoth
+Cave, and drop the bottles into the bottomless pit.' It was true!
+
+"But mind you, Kitty!" Miss Johanna spoke incisively, after a silence,
+during which both had gazed into the fire with tear-bright eyes. "You
+must not think I have mourned for twenty years. People don't do that,
+not even women. I mourned for a good while, as long as was reasonable;
+perhaps longer. Otherwise, I have been a busy and on the whole a
+contented woman. Why shouldn't I be? I have friends all over the
+country; I have had many pleasures; now, thanks to you, my dear child, I
+have a home, the home of my own childhood. Considering humanity in the
+aggregate, I have done extremely well. Extremely well! A single woman
+can be happy enough, Kitty," Miss Johanna did not look at her niece as
+she spoke, "happy enough if she has _sense_. I have known spinsters who
+had twice as many children as if they had borne 'em; and I've known
+mothers, dozens of 'em, with hearts and arms as empty as their heads.
+And if Sarepta Darwin wants anything," added Miss Johanna, "I'll thank
+her to put a name to it, instead of clucking and scuttling out there in
+the hall."
+
+Sarepta appeared, and fixed the speaker with a wintry eye. "_I_ don't
+want anything!" she said austerely. "I was comin' to ask whether _you_
+wanted any supper; that's all. Bell rang ten minutes ago; don't make no
+odds to me whether it's hot or cold."
+
+It did make odds to Miss Johanna, however, that Sarepta had prepared for
+supper all her little favorite delicacies, down to the dash of cinnamon
+on the buttered toast, with which she usually "couldn't bother." Late
+that evening, when Kitty was in bed, the stately lady crept down the
+back stairs to the kitchen, and had a comfortable little cry with her
+old grammar-school mate, who in her grim fashion had worshiped Russell
+Gaylord ever since, at the age of twelve, he gave her a bite of his
+apple.
+
+The next thing, Miss Johanna announced, was the Visits. People had left
+cards for her when she came: sympathetic cards, inquisitive cards,
+scandalized cards, as the case might be. Now, for the sake of things in
+general (and Kitty in particular, it may be confessed between author and
+reader), Miss Johanna determined to "make her manners," and prove her
+sanity of mind and body. These were exciting days for Cyrus. One hardly
+dared leave the house for fear of missing The Call.
+
+"Has she been to see you? She has? Well! how did she appear? Was she
+flighty, or what you would call reasonable? Stylish? Well, you would
+expect that! she was always one to dress. What did she----oh!
+broadcloth! Well! that is always ladylike. They claim basket-weaves are
+all the style now, but I don't know. Anyhow, it's something for her to
+be in her right mind."
+
+Mrs. Wibird was openly disturbed about the influence that Johanna was
+likely to exert over Kitty.
+
+"While she was in her bed," said the lady, "it was another matter; but
+now, the two of them together, and like that, it's my _fear_ we shall
+see things that we are not used to them in Cyrus."
+
+Melissa was on fire instantly.
+
+"I don't know what you mean, Mother! What kind of things?"
+
+"No, you don't know, my child;" Mrs. Wibird shook a melancholy head over
+the bowl in which she was mixing gingerbread. "You don't know, and it is
+far from my wish that you should." (N. B. The good lady had no idea
+herself what she meant, but Lissy shouldn't speak back like that.) "I
+say nothing; nothing at all! I never do say anything, as is well known.
+But take the way Kitty Ross drives, which is in itself a scandal, be the
+other who it may; and add to it a person who has _always_ been peculiar,
+and now little better than a lunatic, if all one hears--hand me the
+spice-box, will you, Lissy? You've kned that dough enough; you'll take
+the courage all out of it--all I say is, I _hope_ Cyrus will not rue the
+day that either one of them--My _gracious_, Lissy! they're driving up to
+the door this minute! Here, take my apron! No! You go to the door--no,
+I'll go to the door and keep 'em back while you pull up the parlor
+curt----
+
+"_Johanna_ Ross! do not tell me this is you! well! well! well! you _are_
+a stranger! Kitty comin' in? No! the wild animal wouldn't stand, of
+course. Terrible!" as Kitty and Pilot whisked round the corner. "I
+expect to see her dashed in fragments any day: _any_ day! My son Wilson
+nearly met his death the night of Madam Flynt's party. Well, if this
+isn't a sight for sore eyes. Come in! Come _right_ in, Johanna! I never
+thought to be welcoming you into my humble sitting-room in _this_
+world!"
+
+The Misses Bygood had made fitting preparations to receive their old
+friend and schoolmate. The covers were taken off Aunt Messenger's Chair
+(embroidered by that lady seventy-five years ago, and as fresh as the
+day it was finished, owing to the covers; there were three, one basted,
+one tied, and the third buttoned on); the tidies and the frilled
+tassel-bags were done up--I met some one the other day who had never
+heard of a tassel-bag!--an extra touch given to the shining silver and
+crystal. And after all this, Miss Johanna made her call in the shop! One
+might have known she would! Miss Almeria reflected; there was a shade of
+austerity on her smooth brow as she advanced to greet her guest. Miss
+Johanna was buoyant.
+
+"Howdy? howdy?" she cried. "Second call, you see, Almy! First call on
+Madam Flynt, second on Miss Bygoods: Proprieties of Cyrus, volume I,
+chapter I. Father down yet?"
+
+Father not down; it was early for him. Egeria usually brought him down
+at ten o'clock. It was now but----
+
+"I know! half-past nine. I came early on purpose. To-morrow Kitty and I
+are coming to the house to tea, if you will have us, Almy. We want the
+Chair taken out, and the tassel-bags done up, and the Lowestoft cups.
+I'll wear my best dress, which is a beauty. But now--may I help you
+dust? You used to let me--thanks! Best of Almys!"
+
+Miss Almeria proffered a silk duster with fingers that trembled
+slightly. She and Johanna Ross had been intimates in girlhood; she had
+found it hard to forgive the slight put upon Cyrus by her friend in
+leaving it with no word of explanation. She now felt that there had been
+extenuating circumstances. She had never thought to have Johanna dusting
+with her again.
+
+For some minutes they plied their delicate task in silence; then:
+
+"_My stars!_" cried Miss Johanna. She turned with shining eyes, holding
+up a book. "Almeria! here is 'Guy Livingstone' behind the Manila
+envelopes, where I dropped him twenty years ago when you wanted to burn
+him. Precious tome! untidy girl! Where is your housekeeping?"
+
+Her laugh rang out triumphantly; a delightful laugh, clear and bell-like
+as Kitty's own.
+
+Miss Almeria laughed, too. "I think you will find no dust on the volume,
+Johanna!" she said demurely. "I never thought it suitable for general
+circulation, as you are aware, but----"
+
+Miss Johanna gave her a kind glance.
+
+"But you kept it for naughty Johanna's sake! That was very sweet of you,
+Almy. I'll take it with me now, if you don't mind. Ah! 'I know men who
+would have given five years of life for the whisper that glided into his
+ear as he gave Miss Bellasys her candle on retiring, ten for the
+Parthian glance that shot its arrow home.' Now _that_ is the way to
+write, Almeria Bygood! Nobody writes like that nowadays."
+
+Then with an abrupt change of tone, "I wanted to ask you one or two
+things, Almy. You have sense, even if you don't appreciate 'Guy
+Livingstone.' People like my Kitty, do they, Almeria?"
+
+"Can you doubt it, Johanna? She is the idol of Cyrus. I express myself
+too strongly!" Miss Almeria corrected herself: "idolatry is not
+a--sentiment which--everybody loves her, Johanna! Who could possibly
+help it? She is the light of the place!"
+
+The touch of frost melted away, and Miss Almeria glowed with tenderness.
+
+"Good!" Miss Johanna nodded approbation. "She ought to be! She is a
+blessed little Christmas candle! And--a--about the driving, Almy! It
+hasn't--eh? People don't think--you know what I mean!"
+
+"Perfectly!" Miss Almeria bent her stately head in comprehension. "At
+first, Johanna, there were a few criticisms; only a few, and those not
+from persons whose opinions carry any weight in the community. In
+general, Kitty has had from the first the respect as well as the
+affection of Cyrus. Her course was unusual, but the circumstances were
+unusual. You need have no fear, Johanna!"
+
+"Because of course," Miss Johanna paused to straighten a calendar which
+was hanging awry; "of course there is no _need_ of her driving, you
+know, Almy!"
+
+"No need?" repeated Miss Almeria.
+
+"None in the world! I have done very well; I have plenty for both of us.
+But it was so good for her, and she was enjoying it so, I hadn't the
+heart to say 'Stop! Sit down, fold your hands, be a Young Lady of
+Cyrus'--Beg pardon, Almy! You know I always loved it, if it did stifle
+me!--when she was so gallant and having such a wonderful time. I pay
+enough to make it easy for her, _with_ the business, you see. A single
+woman without a trade is a dog without a tail, my dear; you know that!
+What are you flashing at, Almeria Bygood? Have people been saying--_they
+have!_ Transparency, thy name is Almy! They have been saying that I
+am--I suppose you would never speak to me again if I should say
+'bumming' on Kitty!"
+
+"The expression is new to me!" Miss Almeria stiffened for an instant,
+then flashed again.
+
+"Of course, Josie--" the diminutive slipped out unaware--"Egeria and
+I--in fact, all your friends knew it was absurd to suppose for a moment
+that--that you would think of any such thing; but--well, you know there
+are persons, even in Cyrus, of suspicious nature; in short, my dear, I
+am glad to be able to make a positive statement to the effect----"
+
+"Ah, but you aren't!" Johanna Ross turned a face a-twinkle with
+mischief.
+
+"You aren't able to make any statement at all, Almy. I don't authorize
+it! No!" as Miss Almeria exclaimed, protesting. "You are not to say a
+single word. Let Cyrus sup full on my iniquities! My dear soul, when I
+say Cyrus in this sense, of course I mean the Sharpes, and I know as
+well as you that they are really Tinkham, So--Ah! here is Mr. Bygood!
+Good morning, Mr. Bygood! What can I offer you this morning? Something
+in the fancy line, my dear Sir? A looking-glass is what you need, to see
+how handsome you are. Oh! oh! if here is not Marsh Mallow! Marshall, how
+_do you do_? How do you spell 'fish' nowadays? Do you remember, Almy? He
+thought 'Psyche' was the queerest way of spelling 'fish' that ever _he_
+saw. Ha! ha!"
+
+Judge Peters was late that morning. He had been detained by various
+petty annoyances. First he had cut his chin while shaving; then Mary
+wanted to talk about the price of eggs, which was a scandal, and to
+explain at length why there had been a button off his shirt last week. A
+client had come blundering to the house instead of the office--_most_
+annoying!--with a flood of questions about stumpage and flowage, and a
+torrent of asseverations that he wasn't goin' to be put upon, nobody
+needn't think he was. No l'ywer had ever got the better of him yet, his
+teeth was all eye-teeth, and he didn't cut 'em yesterday neither, no,
+sir! Etc., etc., etc. Altogether the Judge had been tried, and was in
+great need of his morning paper, and a few minutes of sedate chat at
+Bygoods' before going to his office. On entering the familiar door he
+started; absolutely started! the quiet place was a-bubble with laughter.
+Mr. Bygood's high "Te-hee! oh, very neat! very neat! te-hee!" quavered
+above the rest, but they were all laughing. Miss Almeria's blue eyes
+were flashing with merriment, Miss Egeria's beaming softly, as she
+murmured, "_Most_ diverting, I am sure!" Mr. Jordano was waving his
+notebook in a state of excited rapture, while Mr. Mallow, his head
+thrown back, uttered sonorous bellows of laughter. Miss Johanna was
+telling stories. Standing erect, her back against the counter, trim and
+elegant in her purple broadcloth, she held them all spellbound. Her dark
+eyes shot sparkles of mirth; her whole countenance was alight with fun
+and mischief. At sight of the Judge's grave face in the doorway, a
+shadow swept over her own for a moment; their looks crossed gravely, not
+like swords; say, like heralds' staves! Next moment the lady was
+laughing again.
+
+"Come in, Judge!" she cried. "Come in, Edward! Here I am, _Johanna
+rediviva_! We are having a Bygood reunion. There is one new boy!" she
+flashed a smile at Mr. Jordano, reducing him to the verge of fatuous
+idiocy; "the rest of us are all Bygood children, and Mr. Bygood is going
+to call the spelling class this minute. Go away, Kitty!" as Kitty's
+wondering face peeped in at the door. "This isn't the infant class. You
+are not born or thought of yet. Drive up and down the street a couple of
+times, will you, my dear? Or--say you meet me at Cheeseman's in fifteen
+minutes! I want some lemon drops."
+
+Kitty, with a nod of comprehension, sped away; a little lonely at heart,
+seeing them all so merry. Youth was a sad time, it seemed; when one was
+entirely used to it, it would be different, she supposed. Then she
+caught sight of Lissy Wibird and Nelly Chanter posting along the street,
+laden with parcels from the General Store (Adamses' had no delivery; if
+folks wanted things, they could come and get 'em, was their view).
+Joyously signaling, Kitty drew up at the curbstone; swept the girls and
+their parcels into the wagon, and took them for a "perfectly delirious
+spin," as Nelly called it, along the Tupham Causeway. It was nearer half
+an hour than fifteen minutes before she drew up at Cheeseman's, her
+pocket full of apologies for keeping her aunt waiting; when, behold, the
+said aunt coming slowly down the street, Judge Peters beside her. The
+laughter had died out of Miss Johanna's face; she looked gravely
+downward, listening to her companion, whose face was equally grave.
+Kitty wondered; might have wondered more, had she overheard their words.
+
+"I shall come very soon!" said the Judge. "You will find me unchanged,
+Johanna, in every respect."
+
+"I am glad to hear it, Edward!" Miss Johanna gave a glance half sad,
+half quizzical, at the Judge's handsome iron-gray hair; "I have never
+found the Fountain of Youth; I am an old woman, simply and frankly."
+
+"You are pleased to say so!" the Judge bowed courteously. "I have never
+measured sentiment by the calendar; nor do I find," the Judge's deep
+voice trembled slightly, "that Memory has lost any of her charm. With
+your permission, Johanna, I will call to-morrow evening."
+
+"Oh, dear!" sighed Miss Johanna. "Yes, do, Edward; I shall be delighted
+to see you, and so will Kitty. Here I am, child! Had you given me up? We
+had to recite our history lesson, as well as spelling. 'King Canute
+reproved his flatterers and bade them perceive that he was unable to
+keep back the rising tide----'"
+
+"_Quite so!_" said the Judge. "I wish you good morning, Johanna. Kitty,
+my love, your most obedient!"
+
+"Oh, dear!" sighed Miss Johanna again as they entered the shop. "What is
+it Peggotty says? 'Drat the man!' Oh, how do you do, Mr. Cheeseman? You
+have been growing steadily younger for twenty years, I do believe!"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV
+
+                            LARGELY LITERARY
+
+
+"People do!" said Kitty.
+
+"Do what?" asked Dan in an affectionate sniff. "Give a person an apple?"
+
+"Yes, my Angel Poppet!"
+
+Kitty reached for an apple--John Tucker kept a shelf of them handy by
+the stalls--gave it to Dan and ate one herself for company.
+
+(There should be a digression here on Kitty eating an apple; how she
+succeeded in looking prettier than usual during the--as a
+rule--unbecoming process; how daintily she set her teeth into it, taking
+little pretty bites; how well her teeth matched the clear white as it
+broke crisply from the red. If Dan were writing this story, he would
+make such digression!)
+
+"There is no need of snorting and sneezing over _every_ crunch, Beloved!
+I know it is good: apples in May! John Tucker is very extravagant. But I
+meant matchmaking, Daniel dear. Do you think it is _ever_ allowable?"
+
+Daniel refused to commit himself; hinted delicately that another apple
+might aid him in forming an opinion.
+
+"You see--" Kitty did not speak aloud; she was sure Dan understood pats
+just as well--"you see, Beloved, there is no sense in Bobby's going
+about looking sorrowful, when there is a perfectly dear, sweet girl,
+worth three of me, who--well, I know what I _think_, Dan dear! and I
+won't say I am probably mistaken as her mother does--and _is_!--and they
+are both _just_ as nice as they can be, you know they are, and just the
+right age for each other, and he two inches taller and all; and I do
+think she has a rather horrid time at home, Dan dear! Just _think_ of
+having to live perpetually with the tenth and last Wilson Wimberley
+Wibird! Poor creature; I wonder _what_ Mr. Jordano said to him that day!
+He has not been near me since. And Mrs. Wibird is pretty lamenting,
+somehow; oh dear! and I'm afraid they haven't much to do with, Dan
+dear!"
+
+Dan nodded thrice at this, whereupon Kitty told him he was a gossip, and
+she wondered at him; kissed his velvet nose and departed, thoughtful.
+She was on her way to the Library, to get books for Aunt Johanna, that
+lady being in frivolous mood, and demanding certain mid-Victorian novels
+which, when published, had caused Shudders. It was natural to step into
+the stable; she almost always did, whenever she was going out, in
+whatever direction. It seemed also natural (at least it had grown to be
+no uncommon thing) that Bobby Chanter should join her at the corner and
+be going to the Library, too. Wednesday, he explained, looking rather
+sheepish; funny thing, but there were some books they had here that the
+college library did not possess. They paced along together, the two
+young creatures, talking quietly of books. Bobby did not care much for
+books, but Kitty liked them, he knew. What had he been reading? she
+asked. Besides study books, of course! They took most of his time, no
+doubt, but one had always to have a book on hand.
+
+"Oh, yes!" said Bobby rather forlornly. "I've got a book; Mother gave it
+to me at Christmas. I've read quite a lot of it. I don't remember its
+name. I'm not sure who wrote it; think it was a chap--oh! here we are!"
+
+Could it be possible that Bobby felt for once the slightest shade of
+relief on arriving at the Library? Kitty knew such an awful lot! he
+reflected ruefully, and he was such a duffer!
+
+At sight of the pair, Melissa looked up, and blushed as pink as the
+ribbon at her neat collar. Melissa was very pretty when she blushed,
+Kitty thought; a little color was all she needed; how unreasonable that
+one could not paint without immediately adding "Jezebel" to one's name!
+
+"'Breaking a Butterfly,' Lissy, please! Now don't tell me you never
+heard of it, because I am perfectly sure Bobby never did, and that makes
+three of us."
+
+"I never did, Kitty, honestly I didn't. I don't believe it's in the
+library, unless it is one of those old, _old_ ones that haven't been
+catalogued yet. Old Mrs. Spooner left them to us, you know. They are in
+the inner room, waiting to be catalogued. I can't seem to get time----"
+
+"I'll go look; may I? And, oh, Bobby, do you want to be a _perfect_
+angel and look up _Orchis Spectabilis_ in Gray? We had such a dispute
+last night, Aunt Johanna and I! She says its habitat is--well, find out
+for me, there's a dear!"
+
+Kitty vanished into the inner room, leaving the other two staring
+blankly at each other.
+
+"Spec--_what_ did she say, Bobby?"
+
+"_Spectabilis!_" Bobby spoke hardily, as became a Corona senior, though
+he had not "taken" Latin since his first year in High School.
+"Respectable, I think it means; something bound in gray, she said. Let's
+see what there is in gray, Lissy! Here's the Life of Hannah More; that
+would be respectable, what?"
+
+"I don't believe she means that!"
+
+Melissa was fluttering very prettily. It was a most wonderful thing to
+be alone with Bobby in the Library, where she so often dreamed of him,
+little wistful gray dreams with only here and there a gleam of
+rose-color! How tall he was, how handsome, how strong! how like that
+beautiful bust! and Melissa glanced at the Olympian Hermes. Well,
+Bobby's hair did curl, but otherwise----
+
+"I don't believe she means that," Melissa repeated. "Nobody has ever
+taken that out since I've been here. I looked into it once, dusting, you
+know; it looked awfully poky. Perhaps----" Melissa put forth the
+suggestion timidly, "she meant Gray was the person who wrote it. There's
+the Elegy, you know!"
+
+"Of course!" Bobby responded heartily. "Sure thing! 'Curfew shall not
+ring to-night!' We learned that at High School, didn't we, Lissy?" He
+smiled kindly on the girl. "Gray's the chap; trot him out!"
+
+Melissa had not the heart to correct him. How could she? Why should she?
+Men didn't have to know poetry, except ministers, she supposed, and the
+like of that. She meekly brought the works of Thomas Gray, and they
+looked through them together, making a very pretty picture, Kitty
+thought, as she peeped through the crack of the door. Bobby's fair
+hair--all men ought to have fair hair, of course--was bent over
+Melissa's little dark head, both looking at the same page. He sighed,
+which Kitty thought distinctly encouraging.
+
+"Seems rather piffle, doesn't it?" asked the youth dolefully, looking up
+from "The Progress of Poesy." "Kitty knows an awful lot about books,
+doesn't she, Lissy? I suppose you do, too!"
+
+"Oh, _no_!" Melissa replaced Gray with a look of relief. "I ought to,
+Bobby, but I don't. I love a good story, and I read travels some, and
+the like of that, but--oh, no! I don't begin--why, Kitty ought to be
+librarian here, by good rights. She knows an _awful_ lot, simply awful.
+Why, she takes out books that no one else ever looks at, and reads 'em
+same as she would a detective story. Have you read 'The Hollow Needle,'
+Bobby?"
+
+"Yes! Great, isn't it? Say, have you got any of his stuff? You never can
+get hold of one at Corona; they're out all the time. That chap is
+top-hole, no mistake."
+
+When Kitty next peeped out, the two were surrounded by the works of a
+certain popular author. Bobby was discoursing upon their various merits,
+Melissa hanging on his words. Should she slip away and leave them
+together? Perhaps hardly, the first time. A glance at the clock showed
+that it was nearly closing time; at the same moment voices were heard in
+the entrance hall. Kitty slipped back into the main room and joined her
+two companions in time to greet Nelly Chanter and an attendant swain,
+also a Corona student, who came in quest of "something good to read!"
+Nelly fell instantly into what Kitty and I called Chanterics, embracing
+her friend with an ardor which made the two youths blink and blush.
+
+"You darling _Thing_! I haven't seen you for forty years! Between my
+teaching and your driving, Kitty, I _never_ see you! Except when you
+pick me up and give me a delicious turn, like an Angel, as you did the
+other day. How do, Lissy? How do, Bobby? Kitty, this is Mr. Myers,
+Bobby's roommate. He was at the Party, you know. Oh, and let me
+introduce Miss Wibird, Joe! I never _do_ know how to introduce, do you?
+he! he! I should have introduced him to her, shouldn't I, Kitty?"
+
+"We might all begin over again," said Kitty. "I am sure Mr. Chanter has
+never been introduced to me! Mr. Chanter, I am glad to have the honor of
+making your acquaintance!"
+
+It takes little to amuse Youth. The Library, fortunately empty of
+readers, rang with shouts of glee.
+
+"Isn't she killing?" whispered Nelly to her companion. "She's just as
+witty as she can be, _all_ the time. She knows a most terrible lot, too,
+but you'd never know it, she's so darling and nice. Kitty, do tell us
+something good to read! Not deep things, you know. Mr. Myers has to read
+enough deep things at Corona, don't you, Mr. Myers? Ha! ha!"
+
+Kitty laughed bravely with them, wondering why she was not amused. She
+must be growing old. She named at random the latest work of a great
+English novelist. Nelly exclaimed in dismay.
+
+"Oh, Kitty, that's awfully deep, you know it is. Why, it's just _full_
+of religion and politics. Isn't there anything of Summer Sweeting's in?
+Don't you _love_ her books? I cried _quarts_ over 'My Burnished Dove':
+perfect _quarts_! Do you think Summer Sweeting is her own name or a _nom
+de plume_?"
+
+"Too much sweetening for me!" said Bobby gruffly: one didn't have to
+make believe when it was one's sister. "I wouldn't give one of Sherlock
+Holmes for all she ever wrote."
+
+"That's right!" chimed in Mr. Myers. "I don't stand for crying when you
+don't have to, what?"
+
+"Oh, Joe! I _love_ a sweet, sad book! Don't you love a sweet, sad book,
+Kitty? Who is your _favorite_ author, Joe? I've often meant to ask you."
+
+Unconsciously, Nelly's voice dropped a little; her blue eyes rested
+tenderly on the open countenance of Mr. Myers, known to his mates as
+"Jometry Joe," owing to certain exploits of his in the region of higher
+mathematics. Mr. Myers looked thoughtful.
+
+"Of course, Ralph Henry Barbour used to be," he said, "and they're
+ripping good books still, but I suppose I read more novels now. I guess
+there's no one to beat old Sherlock, though Fu Manchu runs him close."
+
+The talk ranged far and wide through the realm of "Thrillers." At five
+o'clock, Kitty proposed that they should all come home with her for a
+cup of tea and some of Sarepta's scones, which she had just been baking.
+
+Accordingly, they closed the Library, with much merriment of mock
+formality and many friendly gibes from the lads at the Learned Ladies of
+Cyrus. Nelly's swain understood that Miss Wibird read the Encyclopedia
+through every year; was that so? Yes, Bobby assured him; but Miss Ross
+went her one better, and read it in French. Haw! haw! New shouts of
+mirth from both gentlemen at these subtle witticisms; tinkling peals of
+laughter from Melissa and Nelly. Kitty laughed, too, feeling motherly
+and benignant. What babes they were!
+
+"But I keep my accounts in Russian," she said gravely, "and say my
+prayers in Siamese."
+
+"Haw, haw! Oh, I _say_!" gasped the collegians. "That is rich! Russian
+and Siamese! I bet she does, what?"
+
+Crossing the Common, the path narrowed, so that only two could walk
+abreast. Half consciously, Kitty stepped ahead; the others followed, two
+by two. This being seen of John Tucker, who chanced to be exercising
+Pilot at the moment, that calm personage straigthway seemed to fall into
+a rage. He muttered a pious execration and unconsciously tightened the
+reins; Pilot shot ahead like a rocket, demanding with ears and voice to
+know what was the matter.
+
+"Stiddy, boy! stiddy!" muttered John Tucker. "Ca'm down, now. I didn't
+mean to rouse ye up. Them young idjits! lettin' her walk alone, and
+struttin' an' gigglin' along with Lissy Wibird and Nell Chanter--great
+hemlock! Well, stretch out a bit if you're a mind to; do us both good, I
+expect."
+
+Sarepta Darwin, paring apples at the kitchen window, saw the little
+procession coming across the Common. A spark crept into her pale blue
+eyes; she dropped her knife and hastened to the front of the house. When
+Kitty, still motherly and benignant, led her guests up the front garden
+path, the door opened; Sarepta stood there, erect, austere, as if she
+opened the door invariably, instead of on the rare occasions when she
+happened to feel like it.
+
+"Why, Sarepta, how nice of you!" said Kitty, surprised "Did you see us
+coming? This way, boys and girls!"
+
+She was about to enter the sitting-room, but Sarepta intervened.
+
+"_This_ way!" she said briefly, and indicated the Other Parlor, across
+the hall. Now the Other Parlor was a charming room in itself: with
+delicate moldings, and hangings of rose-color and pale gray; with cases
+of family miniatures, and delightful old pastels; but somehow, one did
+not sit there often; it was just a shade formal, a trifle austere. And
+after all, why should one ever sit anywhere except in the Sitting Room?
+Kitty opened her eyes wide with, "_Why_, Sarepta?" but encountered a
+glance of such icy command that as she told Nelly afterward, she could
+hear the ice crackling in her spinal marrow.
+
+"This way!" repeated Sarepta. "Your aunt has company in there!" And as
+Kitty, wondering more and more, shepherded the young people meekly into
+the Other Parlor, a steely whisper hissed in her ear, "Judge Peters--on
+business!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI
+
+                        PSYCHO-CARDIAC PROCESSES
+
+
+Kitty was so pleased with her little party, and so interested in seeing
+how many cheesecakes and hot scones the boys could eat ("There were four
+dozen of them cakes, I counted as I laid them out," Sarepta announced
+grimly at supper. "There's one apiece left for you two folks, and that's
+_all_ there is. If I was their Mas, I'd give 'em a portion of physic and
+put 'em to bed!") that she hardly noticed Judge Peters's quiet
+departure. When the young people reluctantly followed a little later,
+Kitty stood at the window of the Other Parlor, watching them with
+shining eyes. Melissa and Bobby walked together; well, they had to, of
+course, with that nice Myers boy so wrapped up in Nelly; dear Nelly!
+Kitty was _so_ glad! But Bobby's back was really interested, his
+shoulders _most_ attentive; and he did not once turn round to see if she
+were standing at the window. He always had, up to now, though of course
+she never let him see her. Now--of course he would walk home with Lissy;
+and then--there was no train back to Corona before the eight-thirty--if
+Lissy would only ask him in to supper!
+
+"Because," said Kitty aloud, "you see, if one could make some one
+else--some _two_ else--happy, perhaps it would not hurt so much; do you
+think?"
+
+Lissy _did_ ask him in to supper, in a rapture of wishfulness, in an
+anguish of terror lest there should not be enough, lest he should not
+like creamed fish and baked potatoes. Bobby hesitated, guessed the folks
+were expecting him at home; caught the glance of the sweet brown eyes,
+and yielded. There _was_ enough; the simple refection proved to be his
+favorite supper. He ate as if cheesecakes and scones had never existed
+for him; ate till Lissy glowed with delight over her own humming-bird's
+portion; till even Mrs. Wibird felt a thin stream of cordiality stealing
+through her poor chilly little heart, and fetched the plateful set aside
+for Wilson, mentally promising him "a good scramble," which he really
+liked better.
+
+"Gee!" said Master Bobby, surveying the total residue of two prunes and
+one molasses cooky, as he pushed his chair back; "I hope Wilse gets
+supper with Uncle Marsh, Mrs. Wibird. I don't seem to have left much, do
+I? Mother always says my legs are hollow!"
+
+Still with that thread of warmth curling about her heart, Mrs. Wibird
+hesitated a moment after leaving the table. For the first time (except a
+brief space when Lissy had croup) her house of maternal instinct was
+divided against itself. She had always sacrificed Lissy, as she had
+herself, to every wish of her son's. Wilson was so particular, he had to
+have things just so, or it went to his liver, and made him bilious! He
+commonly occupied the sitting-room in the evening; he let her and
+Melissa creep in with their sewing, and sit in the corner, but callers
+disturbed him. Could she--_how_ could she?
+
+She glanced at Bobby, cheerfully unconscious; then at her daughter,
+flushing, fluttering, the meek little drudge transfigured for the
+moment. Her own youth rose up within her and struck.
+
+"You take Robert into the sitting-room, Lissy!" she said. "You can light
+the stove if it's chilly. I'll wash the dishes; you go right along!"
+
+Oh, blissful hour in the little stuffy sitting-room, which yet was
+chilly this May evening! Oh, friendly blinking of that one red eye of
+the baseburner stove! Bobby, comforted by supper, conscious of tender
+sympathy fluttering by his side in the low rocking chair, waxed
+confidential; told of college pranks, of contests on ball fields and on
+the river. Lissy hung on his lips: her own were parted, her breath came
+quick; she thought he must hear the beating of her heart. Her cries of
+wonder and admiration warmed him still further. His voice dropped to a
+lower note. It was awfully nice of Lissy to care. It was ripping to have
+some one to talk to; he was awfully lonely sometimes! Bobby! Bobby! with
+three sisters, all a-quiver to share the treasure of your heart--never
+mind! These things must be.
+
+"I've been awfully unhappy, too, lately!" said Bobby. "Nobody knows,
+but----"
+
+Out it all came! His love, his hopes, "seeing Tom was out of the
+running, or so everybody said," his bitter disappointment. Out it all
+poured in a flood; and little Lissy heard it all with tear-brimmed eyes,
+with clasped hands, and soft ejaculations of pity, of sympathy, of
+wonder that was almost anger. How could Kitty? How _could_ she?
+
+"But it is all over now!" Bobby rose and straightened his shoulders
+manfully. "Of course there will never be any one like her in the world,
+but I promised I would never say anything more, and I never will. As she
+says, there's lots to life even if one isn't happy; and she thinks we
+ought not to stand for kicking because things are the way they are: not
+that she put it just that way. And I shall be real glad to have you for
+a sister, Lissy, and I'll tell you everything. You must tell me things,
+too!" Mr. Chanter added as an afterthought, reaching for his hat. "I'm
+sure you must have lots of things; good-night, Lissy!"
+
+He took her hand; hesitated a moment, and then took the other.
+
+"Good-night, Sister Lissy! What soft little hands you have! What makes
+them shake so? I mustn't keep you standing here in the cold!"
+
+Still he hesitated, holding the little hands in his. How they trembled!
+How they seemed to nestle in his! Kitty shook hands like another chap:
+her wrists were like steel. Well, of course, driving that way, she had
+to be strong. It was very pleasant to hold the little trembling hands;
+if they were to be brother and sister--perhaps? The girls were always
+bothering him to kiss them--Bobby decided it would be "too cheeky for
+the first time," and finally departed, warmer about the heart than he
+had felt since Madam Flynt's party.
+
+And Melissa? I believe her little cold attic glowed that night with all
+the warmth and light of paradise, and that she went to sleep lulled by
+the sound of silver bells.
+
+Kitty turned away happily from her window, and crossed the hall to the
+sitting-room, humming under her breath.
+
+"What _is_ that tune you are forever humming, child?" Miss Johanna looked
+up from her knitting.
+
+"'The Duke of Lee?' Oh, it's an old, old English song and dance. Mother
+used to sing it, don't you remember? And Tommy and I used to dance it:
+he was the Duke of Lee, and I was the gentlewoman of high qualitee.
+Surely you remember! How handsome you look, Aunt Johanna!"
+
+"Fiddlededee!" said Aunt Johanna; she got up and poked the fire. It was
+true none the less. The lady was slightly flushed; her dark eyes were
+very bright; the purple broadcloth, with touches of gold about the
+bodice, was extremely becoming; certainly she was a handsome woman.
+
+"It's true!" said Kitty. "Just look in the glass and see if it isn't! I
+wonder the dear Judge managed to go at all, with you looking so, and the
+violets smelling so, and the fire crackling so, and--he might have
+waited to see me!" Kitty was hovering over the bowl of violets, drawing
+deep breaths of fragrance. "Business, Sarepta said. Nothing wrong, I
+hope, Auntie?"
+
+"N-no!" said Miss Johanna, slowly and meditatively. "Nothing precisely
+wrong that I know of. Nothing half as wrong as this knitting!" she added
+briskly. "Come here, child! You and Sarepta Darwin together having
+accomplished this atrocity of teaching me to knit, are bound to see me
+through. I seem to have done something queer here!"
+
+Kitty sat down beside her on the leather sofa, and for some minutes both
+were absorbed in the mysteries of purling, compared with which, Miss
+Johanna declared, those of Eleusis were kindergarten play.
+
+"That's a ridiculous tune!" she remarked presently. "It keeps jigging
+through my head so, I can't keep my feet still. So you used to dance it
+with Tommy Lee. Tommy was a nice boy; I always liked him. Do you ever
+hear from him, Kitty?"
+
+"No," said Kitty quietly. "I believe he is doing very well--Mr. Chanter
+heard of him last winter from a friend who had met him in the West--but
+I don't know that any one has heard directly."
+
+She did not add that, according to Cissy Sharpe, "they claimed" that Tom
+Lee had married the widow of a cattle king, and was spending millions on
+a marble palace overlooking the Golden Gate; she did not believe this,
+but it hurt, somehow. If he would only write a line; a postal card even!
+Cissy had heard it in Tinkham; she fixed greedy eyes on Kitty as she
+spoke. Millions of money, they claimed! A handsome woman, ten years
+older than what he was. She presumed Kitty knew more about it than what
+she did; ha! ha!
+
+"There!" Kitty handed Miss Johanna her knitting and took up her own.
+"That's all clear, dear. Now knit straight on, ten rows, and then I'll
+show you about the neck."
+
+A long silence followed, broken only by clicking needles and purring
+fire. Presently Miss Johanna spoke, abruptly:
+
+"Elderly marriages are _ridiculous_! Grandpa Westcott to the contrary
+notwithstanding. _Ridiculous!_"
+
+Kitty started, then looked up wondering. "Are they?" she said vaguely.
+"And what about Grandpa Westcott, Aunt Johanna?"
+
+Miss Johanna looked a little confused. "My dear," she said, "I was just
+thinking aloud. I was in a referee, as old Mr. Weller says. Nothing of
+importance; and then I thought of Grandpa Westcott; that's all!"
+
+"Did he elderly marry?" Kitty roused herself with a little effort. _If
+it were true, what did anything else matter?_ But that was no reason why
+she should be an unsociable curmudgeon.
+
+"Tell me about him, Aunt Jo! dear Father never had time to tell me
+family stories, and blessed Mother didn't know them, I suppose. Let's
+have a good tell now!"
+
+She looked up brightly. Miss Johanna returned the smile, not quite with
+her usual crisp composure. Her fine eyebrows lifted and knitted in a
+curious little way they had when she was disturbed; her laugh rang not
+wholly clear.
+
+"I certainly cannot leave you in ignorance about Grandpa Westcott's
+third marriage!" she said. "I wonder at John; but he never cared about
+Family. Little White Lily didn't know, of course. _Her_ grandfather was
+an archangel and her grandmother a seraph; good gracious! Suppose Egeria
+should hear me! Well, my dear, you shall have your 'tell'; I have
+brought it upon myself."
+
+Miss Johanna paused to pick up a brand with the tongs and lay it
+carefully on top of the back-log. Kitty, turning the heel of her
+stocking, prepared for a pleasant season. She loved "tells," and Aunt
+Johanna was the ideal story-teller.
+
+"Grandpa Westcott," the lady began, "my great, your great-great, was one
+of the best men that ever lived. I remember him well; tall, dignified,
+handsome: the only person I ever saw in a queue. He had had two wives,
+both patterns in every way. The first--she was a Siddall of Trimount,
+and a Beauty--the Stuart portrait--had no children and died young. The
+second was my grandmother, Katharine Turner; you are named for her, of
+course, and you look like her. She was not altogether plain, either,"
+said Miss Johanna dryly, with a glance at the lovely face that smiled
+down from the wall in an exquisite pastel. "She had four children and
+lived to see them all grown up and settled in life, and to be the
+delight of her grandchildren's hearts. Then, when she was sixty and
+Grandpa seventy, she died quite suddenly, and Grandpa went all to
+pieces. Naturally! he was a very affectionate man, and for fifty years
+he had been told every day what to eat, drink and avoid, what shirt to
+put on, and where his socks were. More than that, he had been _listened
+to_, which is the most necessary thing for a man. He mourned and he
+moaned, he moaned and he mourned, till at last old Delia, who had been
+with him thirty of the fifty years, sent to the City for Uncle Doctor. I
+can just remember old Delia. She had large white teeth, and used to let
+me scribble on them with a pencil: _horrid_ child! She sang old Irish
+songs as no one else ever did: I wish you could have heard her sing,
+'Irish Molly O!'"
+
+Miss Johanna broke off to sing, in a high, clear little voice:
+
+    "'She's galliant, she's beautiful,
+        She's the fairest one I know;
+    She's the primrose of Ireland,
+        All for my guinea, oh!
+    And the only one entices me
+        Is Irish Molly O,
+            Molly O!'
+
+"Well! So Delia sent for Uncle Doctor, and he came. 'Mr. Doctor,' she
+said, 'your Da is looking for his dead clo'es. If you don't find a woman
+for him to marry, I'll have to marry him myself, and fine I'd look
+cocking in the parlor, d'ye see?"
+
+"'Bless my soul!' says Uncle Doctor, 'I see. I'll attend to it, Delia.'
+
+"So Delia went back to her pots and pans, and Uncle Doctor, after
+thinking a little, went down the street and called on Aunt Elizabeth.
+Aunt Elizabeth was Grandma's sister; they were like a pair of gloves,
+only she was a single woman.
+
+"'Auntie,'" says Uncle Doctor, 'would you mind marrying Father?'
+
+"'Bless my soul, Nathaniel!' says Aunt Elizabeth. So he told her what
+Delia said, and they talked it over. She was a sensible woman and fond
+of Grandpa. By and by, back he goes to Grandpa. 'Father,' he says, 'I
+want you to put on your hat and go down street and ask Aunt Elizabeth to
+marry you.'
+
+"'_Bless my soul!_' says Grandpa. 'She wouldn't have me, Nathaniel!'
+
+"'I think she would,' says Uncle Doctor.
+
+"'And what would Katharine say?' says Grandpa.
+
+"'She would say, "Put on your hat, and _don't forget your muffler_."'
+
+"So Uncle Doctor put on the hat and muffler for him and saw him out of
+the door, headed down street; and he and Aunt Elizabeth were married
+next day, and had ten happy years together. So there is _that_."
+
+Miss Johanna rolled up her knitting briskly, and rose from her seat.
+"But one swallow doesn't make a summer, Kitty, and one pair of old f--
+of dear old things doesn't make folly the less foolish. I am going
+upstairs, my dear. If you are watering the plants, you might just change
+the water for those violets: they are drooping a little."
+
+"Dear things! so they are!" Kitty rose, too, and bent lovingly over the
+bowl. "The new ones are due to-morrow, aren't they, Auntie?"
+
+"I don't know anything about the new ones!"
+
+Miss Johanna spoke rather snappishly from the door.
+
+"We may all be dead to-morrow, and very likely the best thing for us.
+They would be nice for our funerals!" she added rather enigmatically
+from the stairs: and the door of the Red Indian Room closed shortly
+behind her.
+
+Judge Peters seemed to have a good deal of business to transact with
+Miss Johanna. He came regularly once a week, almost always during the
+hour of Madam Flynt's drive. This puzzled Kitty, used all her life to
+being the Judge's pet and playmate. He could not be vexed with her, for
+his smile and greeting when they met was as affectionate as ever, even
+more so perhaps. He pressed her hand very tenderly on the steps one day,
+and said, "God bless you, my dear child!" in a way that brought the
+tears to Kitty's eyes. Yet he never came to see _her_ nowadays!
+
+"I do hope Aunt Johanna's business is all right!" she said to Madam
+Flynt one day, when that lady had brought her in after the drive for a
+little visit.
+
+"I hope so!" said Madam Flynt. "Why shouldn't it be? Johanna is an
+excellent woman of business, I have always heard."
+
+"Oh, it's only--well, Judge Peters comes pretty often, and--it may be
+all my imagination, but she seems rather troubled sometimes after he is
+gone. I ought not to speak of this, perhaps, but--Mother always used to
+come to you, didn't she, Madam Flynt?"
+
+Madam Flynt took off her gold spectacles to wipe her eyes.
+
+"She did, my dear. That sweetest flower of all the world used to bring
+her little troubles to me: she never had any big ones, bless her! she
+didn't like to bother John about the price of butter, she said. She
+called me her Cousin Confessor; as if she ever had anything to confess!
+But about Johanna--wait a moment, my dear!"
+
+The door opened, and Miss Croly appeared with the inevitable milk
+posset.
+
+"I will take it in ten minutes, Cornelia. I am busy now."
+
+"It is the regular hour----" Miss Croly began mildly; but she was cut
+short.
+
+"I will take it in ten minutes!" Madam Flynt raised her voice, a rare
+thing with her. "There is a gazelle in the garden, Cornelia!"
+
+Miss Croly vanished without a word. Kitty opened wondering eyes; Madam
+Flynt waved her hand.
+
+"She understands. We have our private code, my dear. Though exasperating
+at times, Cornelia Croly is no fool. She will be back in ten minutes.
+Kitty, my child----" Madam Flynt spoke with kindly emphasis--"don't be
+disturbed about your Aunt Johanna and the Judge. They know each other
+like two old shoes."
+
+"Of course! I was only afraid----"
+
+"You needn't be afraid. You would be glad, I should think, wouldn't you?
+Edward Peters is the very salt of the earth, and he has been in love
+with her all his life. It's the Cyrus way!" Madam Flynt added rather
+pettishly. "One-idea'd people: that's why they are mostly spinsters and
+bachelors. _Well_, Kitty! What is it?"
+
+Kitty had risen from her low stool, pale and wide-eyed.
+
+"You don't mean," she faltered; "Madam Flynt, you cannot mean that
+they----"
+
+Madam Flynt nodded her cap-ribbons into a perfect dance of triumph. "I
+mean that they are probably going to marry each other," she announced.
+"I certainly hope they are! Why upon earth shouldn't they? Kitty, do you
+suppose the affections run down like a clock if they are not wound up in
+the early twenties? Nothing of the sort! A man of sixty needs a wife as
+much as a boy of twenty; more, in many cases! And if ever," she added
+emphatically, "a woman needed a sensible man to take care of her, and
+keep the bees out of her bonnet, that woman is Johanna Ross! There! Give
+me a kiss, my dear, and then run along, and tell Cornelia Croly, as you
+go, that she may bring in her noxious draught. She doesn't sleep at
+night if I don't take it regularly. Most exasperating woman--and,
+Kitty!" she called the girl back to add impressively; "if you meet your
+Uncle Edward on the steps to-day give _him_ a kiss, and tell him you are
+thankful for your mercies!"
+
+Was Madam Flynt in league with Occult Powers? An already sufficiently
+bewildered Kitty did meet Judge Peters on the steps, just coming out of
+Ross House. Some strong emotion had broken up his usual courtly calm;
+his face was suffused, his eyes shone.
+
+"Kitty!" he cried. "Kitty, I----" He bent and kissed her forehead. "She
+will tell you!" he murmured, with a gesture toward the house.
+"Blessed,-blessed----" He waved his hand, almost (poor Kitty thought)
+like Mr. Jordano, and departed with long, hasty strides.
+
+Kitty hesitated a moment at the sitting-room door, dreading she hardly
+knew what. Strong emotions shook her like a leaf in these days, she did
+not ask herself why.
+
+"Foolish creature!" she murmured.
+
+She need have had no fear; Miss Johanna was pale, and her eyes showed
+traces of tears, but she was entirely calm.
+
+"Sit down, Kitty, my dear!" she said. "Here, by me, on the sofa. I have
+something to tell you. Do you remember my quoting Peggotty the other
+day? Barkis was willin', you know, and David didn't understand the
+message; 'Drat the man! he wants to marry me,' said Peggotty. Well, my
+child, drat the Judge, he wants to marry me! I haven't spoken of it
+before, because if I had decided to say no, there would have been no
+occasion; but he is the most obstinate man I ever saw, in his quiet way;
+so--I have said yes, Kitty. I told you, didn't I, it is he who has sent
+the violets all these years? You needn't smother me, my dear!"
+
+Kitty had her in her arms, exclaiming, caressing, laughing and crying,
+all at once.
+
+"Auntie! Darling, wicked, deceitful Auntie! What a blind bat I have
+been! I was afraid--oh! I am so glad, so glad! But you always said you
+didn't know who sent them."
+
+"I didn't--exactly--_know_! I only felt at the back of my head that it
+was probably Edward; he is that kind of faithful, doggy person. It's
+perfectly ridiculous, as I said. And--_my stars_!" Miss Johanna was all
+in a moment her crispest, most incisive self. "There is no possible
+thing that a woman of fifty can be married in except gray or lavender,
+and I look like a blown-out tallow dip in either of 'em. Run after him,
+Kitty, and tell him I've changed my mind!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII
+
+                              KITTY SINGS
+
+
+Miss Johanna decided finally on moss-green.
+
+"It's emblematic, you see!" she explained to the Misses Bygood, who had
+come in state and their best summer silks ("a _little_ early for them,"
+Miss Almeria admitted, "but something festal--Johanna will appreciate
+our motive!") to offer their best wishes.
+
+"Our congratulations," Miss Almeria said impressively, "are for Edward."
+
+Miss Johanna raised her eyebrows. "Poor Edward!" she said. "Do you
+remember John's remark to Mrs. Pringle when Emmy was engaged? 'I
+congratulate you, ma'am, on this auspicious and desolating event!' As I
+was saying, girls, moss-green is not only becoming to me, it is also
+emblematic. Green is for hope, which springs eternal, you know; moss is
+appropriate for age. Velvet, because Edward swears he won't marry me in
+anything else--_no_, Gerie; _don't_ look like that! because he likes it,
+and I may as well do _something_ to please him while I can. I am sorry
+for Edward, but he has brought it upon himself."
+
+"Johanna is jesting, sister!" Miss Almeria explained kindly. "We
+consider Edward an exceptionally fortunate man, Johanna!"
+
+"You are dears, both of you!" Miss Johanna's eyes softened, and she
+spoke in a different tone from her usual half-gibing utterance. "I am
+very happy, girls, and very thankful, as I ought to be. And--don't tell,
+but, when we come back, I am going to _try_ not to be peculiar any more.
+Only everybody will say I was changed at marriage!" she added ruefully.
+"Do you suppose Cyrus will think me all the more peculiar for trying not
+to be?" (As a matter of fact, this is precisely what Cyrus did think;
+but this is to anticipate.)
+
+It was a very quiet wedding, only the few old friends who had stood by
+Johanna Ross through all her wayward years, and one new one. Mr.
+Jordano, the bride insisted, must be present. She felt like a criminal
+in not having a Real Wedding for Cyrus, but Edward could not abide
+weddings; you would think he had had a dozen already. The least they
+could do was to have it written up in style, and that this Delicious
+Creature was sure to do. Mr. Jordano did not know that he was a
+Delicious Creature, but he did know that Opportunity beckoned, and he
+rose to it. Fortunately the wedding took place the day before the weekly
+appearance of the _Centinel_, and Cyrus read over its breakfast with
+mingled feelings, of the Event which only a "select party of choice
+spirits," as Mr. Jordano put it, had the privilege of attending. (Not
+that Mrs. Sharpe wondered; far from it. Marrying at that age, Johanna
+Ross naturally would not wish to have any more witnesses than were
+absolutely necessary: Mrs. Sharpe for one was thankful to be spared such
+a spectacle.) The Scribe had been one of the fortunate few bidden to
+attend the nuptials of Miss Johanna Ross, a lady who, though long absent
+from our midst, was admired and revered by all who had the privilege of
+her acquaintance, and our highly-esteemed and justly celebrated fellow
+citizen and jurist, the Hon. Edward Peters, Justice of the Supreme
+Bench. The ceremony had taken place in the elegant and commodious
+mansion of the late Dr. Ross, now the abode of his charming and talented
+daughter, Miss Katharine Ross, whose reputation as an equestrienne of
+the highest order had spread far beyond the limits of Cyrus and
+environs. The spacious parlors of Ross House were tastily adorned with
+ferns, emerald moss (to which, it appeared, the bride was specially
+addicted) and violets, the latter in such profusion as to lade the
+ambient air with perfumes of Araby the blest. The bride, a superb
+brunette, wore a confection of moss-green velvet with gold garniture,
+and resembled, if Italio might take the liberty, a rare jewel in an
+emerald chalice. (Mr. Jordano had written "cup" at first; but he liked
+to murmur his copy aloud as he wrote; and "cup-pup-pup" struck harshly
+on his ear. He was in sensitive mood; a tail seemed to wag in the corner
+of his eye. "Chalice" came as a happy and satisfying inspiration.)
+
+"The bride (we read over the shoulder of Cyrus, which is letting its
+coffee grow cold!) "was attended only by her niece, Miss Katharine Ross,
+who was indeed a vision for the Poet's eye. Simply gowned in filmy
+white, and which enclosed as fair a form as ever endowed nymph or grace,
+the effect was _distingué_ beyond the simple pen of the Scribe to
+relate. The ceremony (with ring) was performed by the Reverend Timothy
+Chanter, who appeared in full regalia of black silk, and was accompanied
+by Mrs. Chanter in brown poplin with self trimmings of velvet. The
+Misses Bygood wore flowered silk, with a profusion of priceless lace,
+and were as ever the peers of grace and beauty; no eye could gaze on
+them unmoved." (Mr. Jordano sighed heavily after writing this, and
+murmured, "Almeria, to thee!" in unconscious imitation of Sir Edward
+Bulwer Lytton.) "Madam Flynt was sumptuously attired in lilac brocade
+and diamonds, Miss Croly in purple silk. Mr. Marshall Mallow, the genial
+Mine Host of the Mallow House, and the humble Scribe who pens this
+tribute from a feeling heart, made up a party which must ever esteem
+itself fortunate in having been chosen to participate in an Event which,
+though characterized by chaste severity and exclusiveness, will ever
+dwell in the mind as an Acme of elegance. At the conclusion of the
+ceremony, exquisite refreshments were served in receptacles of priceless
+porcelain and cut glass. It was whispered in the ear of the Scribe that
+everything was made in the house. Cyrus is, indeed, fortunate in
+possessing a culinary artist of such dimensions as Miss Sarepta Darwin,
+to whom, if Italio were rightly informed, is due the credit of the truly
+superlative repast enjoyed by the guests."
+
+Sarepta read this next morning, and sniffed.
+
+"What did the man expect?" she asked of Kitty, who had brought the paper
+out to her. "What d'he think I'd been doin' for forty years? The idea!"
+but she cut the item out none the less, and pasted it in her scrapbook.
+
+So Judge Peters won the lady of his faithful heart, and carried her off
+for a summer in Europe: (there was a Europe in those days, not yet
+become a place of blood and tears!) "And now," said Cyrus hopefully,
+"perhaps Kitty will come and live with us!"
+
+To be exact, it was only the Chanter girls and Mr. Mallow who said this.
+Madam Flynt and the Misses Bygood knew better; so did the bride, who
+checked her Edward's affectionate hope, expressed to Kitty at parting,
+with "Nonsense, Ned! Kitty will stay in her own house. She would be a
+great fool if she didn't."
+
+Kitty cried a good deal after her aunt left. She missed the brusque,
+incisive speech, the odd, kindly ways. The house seemed very lonely,
+very silent; though of course it was just as dear. She was so glad they
+were going to be happy together, those two dear people! There would be
+no more violets now, she supposed. Ridiculous that here an absurd
+crystal tear dropped on the shining leaf of the orange-tree Kitty was
+watering: tears came so easily nowadays, when she was not really sad at
+all, only--only----
+
+_If Tom were really married, what did anything else matter?_ If he were!
+Kitty did not actually believe it. There were many people who did not
+write letters; but to marry, without a word or a line, after--she caught
+her breath, seeing his face as he took leave of her that day, so
+long--oh, so long ago!
+
+"I shall find you here when I come back, Kitty? You--you'll wait----"
+
+Some one came in: next moment he was gone. That was all. _If he were
+really married_----
+
+The curious thing was, songs came as easily as tears. She had not sung
+since her mother's death, till just lately; but now, for all her
+sadness, which of course was not really sadness, song bubbled within her
+like a fountain. "The Duke of Lee" was on her lips all day long: it
+possessed her; she could not drive it away. She tried to do so by a
+severe course of scales, singing her _solfeggi_ twice a day religiously;
+taking up, too, the Italian arias and _canzonetti_ that her mother had
+loved to hear her sing, and the Scotch ballads she used to croon to her
+father when he came in from a long drive and sat on the leather sofa
+before the sitting-room fire. There was nothing wonderful about Kitty's
+voice, but it was very sweet, and had a harp-like quality that thrilled
+one strangely somehow.
+
+She set herself a stiff little course of reading for the evening, when
+of course she would miss Aunt Johanna most. Plato to begin with; she had
+always meant to read Plato; then she would take Herodotus, and Josephus,
+and all the things she had never "got round to." It would be wonderful!
+she thought. If she kept at it steadily, by the time she was fifty, she
+might really begin to know just a scrap, "instead of being a Pit of
+Ignorance, Pilot, as I always have been; just like you, my lamb; heigh
+ho!
+
+    "'And she shall have silks and satins for to wear,
+    And a coach and six for to take the air----'
+
+"_I will not_ sing that again to-day!"
+
+You see, Kitty did not know, could not possibly know, psychical
+processes being in their present veiled condition, that currents were
+flowing, wireless messages flashing, between her subliminal self and
+another; that Tom Lee, striding up and down the deck of his steamer, was
+crying all day long in his heart, "Kitty! Kitty! Kitty! I am coming!
+_Wait for me!_" Had "Psychic Wireless, Unlimited," informed Tom that
+there were other aspirants for the hand he had so confidently thought
+his? Who can tell? Certainly, he told Kitty afterward, the voyage was
+"H. E. Double," and ten times a day he thought of jumping overboard and
+swimming the Pacific Ocean, as likely to make better time.
+
+John Tucker emerged from the harness-room, in leather apron and gloves.
+
+"It's good to hear you singin' round the place, Miss Kitty," he said:
+"it is so! I enjoy it, and I expect they do as well, if they could
+speak."
+
+He nodded toward Dan and Pilot, who were certainly pictures of
+attention, as they stood with shining eyes, ears pricked forward, and
+delicate nostrils dilated.
+
+"Bless them!" said Kitty. "It's sugar they want, the darlings, not
+singing. Pilot, stop! You cannot get your head into my pocket, you
+greedy cherub, and it is Dan's turn, anyhow. Here, Dan! Don't slobber,
+darling! Eat like a gentleman, because you know you are one, a Perfect
+Pattern, except for just a shade of gluttony. Now, Pilot!"
+
+John Tucker stood in the doorway, gazing at her with delight. She was
+the "very moral" of a picture that hung in his own sitting-room; a steel
+engraving, neatly framed. It was labeled "Thoroughbred," and showed a
+fair girl patting a noble horse. John Tucker had seen it in the window
+of a print shop in the city and had bought it, refusing steadfastly to
+tell his Mary what it cost. Miss Kitty and Pilot might have sat for the
+two portraits, he maintained, except for Pilot's being black, which was
+all a Pilot colt _could_ be.
+
+The horses fed and petted--not to their hearts' content, but as near it
+as the passing nature of time would allow--John Tucker turned back into
+the harness-room with a backward jerk of his head which said as plainly
+as one of Pilot's gestures, "Aren't you coming to see _me_ now?"
+
+Kitty followed him into the pleasant little leather-scented room and
+perched on the arm of a chair as was her wont.
+
+"What was that tune you was singin' just now, Miss Kitty?" asked John.
+
+"It is called the 'Duke of Lee,'" said Kitty. "It's an old English song,
+John, and there's a dance that goes with it."
+
+"Didn't your Ma used to sing it now and then? 'Pears to me I remember of
+her singin' it."
+
+"Of course she did! You clever John Tucker to remember! She used to sing
+it when I was a tiny tot, and I used to dance. Tommy and I," she added
+bravely.
+
+John Tucker nodded a slow confirmation. "I remember!" he said. "I
+ricollect one day--summer day it was, later in the season than this, and
+warm--I ricollect your Ma settin' on the kitchen steps, an' Mis' Lee
+settin' beside her. I couldn't but notice what a pictur' they made, kind
+of showin' of each other off, as you might say. What I mean, your Ma was
+dark, you understand, leastways her hair and eyes, though she had that
+kind of soft whiteness that you'd thought there was a light inside, if
+you see what I mean, Miss Kitty----"
+
+Kitty nodded silently.
+
+"An' Mis' Lee," John Tucker went on, "was more like a red and white
+setter pup. No offense to her mem'ry in sayin' so, for she sure was a
+handsome lady, and I thought the world of her--and Tommy, too!"
+
+John Tucker's eyes were bent studiously on the buckle he was polishing.
+
+"But what I mean, there they sot, and honest, Miss Kitty, I never go by
+that kitchen door but I see them two--well, beautiful women is what I
+would say--settin' there side by each, and your Ma singin' that song,
+and you two little shavers dancin'. I--gorry! I wish't they was all
+back, Miss Kitty."
+
+John Tucker dashed the back of his hand across his eyes, and gave a
+single portentous sniff.
+
+"Dear John!" Kitty's eyes were brimming, too. She stroked John's blue
+shirt sleeve very tenderly.
+
+"Dear John Tucker, I am so glad you remember. It's a pleasant picture to
+remember, isn't it, John?"
+
+"You bet it is!"
+
+John Tucker very gruff with himself, and polishing away like mad.
+
+"Mis' Lee, she's gone, too, ain't she, Miss Kitty? Too bad!"
+
+"Yes, John, she died three years ago. But Tom is alive," she added
+cheerfully, "and doing finely, I believe. Don't you want me to sing your
+own song for you, John? The one you taught me when I was a tiny? I have
+plenty of time before I go for Mr. Chanter. Do you believe Podasokus
+will ever get well, John Tucker, dear?"
+
+"No'm, I do not; not as long as you and Pilot are handy by!" John Tucker
+looked up with a twinkle. "What I mean, 'tisn't to be expected, though I
+don't suppose Mr. Chanter senses how it is. That hoss ought to be put
+away, Miss Kitty. He ain't fit to drive, no more than an old buff'ler
+that the moths has got into it. Yes'm, I'd be tickled to death to hear
+that song, if you feel like singin' it. It's a long time since I've
+heard that song, Miss Kitty."
+
+"I know, John! I haven't sung it since--I haven't sung at all since
+Mother went, till just these last few days. I don't know why I sing now,
+but somehow--now listen, John Tucker!"
+
+Still perched on the arm of the chair, Kitty lifted up her voice and
+sang "Cockles and Mussels" till the stable rang with silver sound, and
+Dan and Pilot stamped and whinnied with excitement, while even Old
+Crummles, dozing in the farthest stall, raised his sleepy head and
+wondered what was going on. As for John Tucker, he wept with pleasure,
+openly and unashamed; those honest blue eyes of his were always ready
+for tears when he was moved.
+
+"That's great!" he cried. "That certainly is great, Miss Kitty. I thank
+you for that!" he flourished a clean blue cotton handkerchief, and blew
+his nose sonorously. "You weren't more than knee-high to a grasshopper
+first time you sang that to old John Tucker. Your Ma sang it, too!" he
+added. "I remember of her singin' it that same day we was speakin' of.
+Miss Kitty----"
+
+"Yes, John Tucker!" as he stopped abruptly.
+
+"I was thinkin' I'd take Crummles to the station this afternoon. He
+ain't been out to-day."
+
+"Yes, John Tucker. What else were you going to say?"
+
+John gave a short embarrassed laugh. "I dunno as I ought to say it, Miss
+Kitty. Wal! if you will have it--there was something Mis' Ross said that
+day has stayed by me, kind of. Something--what I mean--well, 'twas this
+way. Those two ladies was talkin' together, and I no business to hear
+what they was sayin', but yet I couldn't _but_ hear, bein' as I was
+holdin' the pony. Old Rosy Nanty! he was gettin' on in years, and he
+liked to lay down once in a while, and take a roll. He didn't mean no
+harm, he'd just antic a mite. So they was talkin', 'bout the children:
+they were both wropped up in 'em. Mis' Lee, she said something about
+young uns learnin' to know all sorts, kind of mix in, like, with folks
+in general: thought 'twas good for 'em and like that. And your Ma, she
+bust right out: 'No!' she says: 'my Kitty shall never know anything but
+what is lovely!' she says: and she went on, quoted the 'postle Paul and
+like that. I never forgot it. It kind o' sunk in. You weren't never to
+touch, or know, or think of, anything that wasn't just _so_, just--well,
+lovely, and good report, and that. You understand, Miss Kitty?"
+
+Kitty nodded brightly. "I understand, John Tucker. Go on!"
+
+"Wal! I dunno--I set here sometimes and mull over that, Miss Kitty, and
+wonder if we're doin' just what's right by your Ma. There! I guess it's
+got to come right out. I thought the first of it, takin' Madam Flynt for
+her ride and like that, 'twould be all right: of course you wouldn't be
+let to go to no trains nor nothin' of that sort. But come to see you
+kitin' round with tag rag and bobtail--what I mean,--I dunno as your Ma
+would _like_ it, Miss Kitty. Of course 'tisn't for me to say, but----"
+
+Kitty's eyes were dancing. She slipped from the arm of the chair, and
+stood before John Tucker, accusatory forefinger leveled.
+
+"John Tucker," she said slowly, "you--are--a--snob!"
+
+"Now, Miss Kitty, don't you----"
+
+"A snob!" Kitty repeated with withering emphasis. "I know perfectly well
+what you mean. You saw me pick up poor old Mrs. Flanagan and take her
+home. John Tucker, Mrs. Flanagan is eighty if she is a day; and that
+basket weighed half a ton, I am _sure_. Would you have let her carry it,
+if you had been prancing past with Pilot? I ask you, John Tucker!"
+
+John Tucker looked uncomfortable.
+
+"Mis' Flanagan has four children of her own," he said, "and ten
+grandchildren. She'd oughter let them carry her baskets."
+
+"Yes, but they weren't there, and I was. _Try_ to have a _little_ sense,
+John! as for the children on Saturday mornings--Yes! I saw you look at
+us, you snobbish John; you were coming out of Adams's: you gave us a
+Gorgon glare, and I was ashamed of you! As for the children, they are my
+joy and delight. I wouldn't miss the Saturday morning drive for
+_anything_, John Tucker. The lambs! didn't you see how they were
+enjoying it?"
+
+"I saw they was awful dirty! Took me 'most an hour to get the wagon
+clean, all the mud they tracked in."
+
+"They had been playing in the mud. What should they be doing on Saturday
+morning? I don't suppose you noticed," she added demurely, "that one of
+the boys was named Tucker, did you, John?"
+
+"I did," said John Tucker grimly. "I told him I'd lick him out of his
+boots, if ever he took such a liberty again."
+
+"Are you sure it was Jimmy who took the liberty, John?"
+
+Kitty spoke very quietly, but there was a ring of steel in her voice.
+"There!" said John Tucker, describing the scene to Sarepta that night.
+"If it wasn't her Pa, lookin' straight at me, and lettin' me have it
+between the eyes, call me a juggins!"
+
+"I will!" said Sarepta. "It's what you are! The idea!"
+
+Kitty's vexation passed like summer lightning before John Tucker's
+abject penitence.
+
+"I know!" she said, cheering and soothing him at once. "I know, dear
+John! It's all your goodness and faithfulness, and I love you for it.
+But don't you see, I cannot 'sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam, and
+feast upon strawberries, sugar and cream.' That is what blessed Mother
+would have liked for me, because she _could_, you know, and because I
+was her baby, and--oh, I understand so well! But I am a different kind,
+you see, John. I am mostly Ross, I suppose, at least, so Aunt Johanna
+says; and I don't like cushions, and I'm afraid I am not _very_ fond of
+sewing fine seams. When one isn't driving or walking, it seems rather
+terrible not to be reading, don't you think?"
+
+"Yes, Miss!" said John Tucker, submissively. His reading was confined to
+the _State Farmer_, but never again would he differ from his idol in any
+particular.
+
+"And as for what is lovely, and so on--" Kitty's eyes and voice softened
+to the look and tone that were specially for her mother--"I think--John,
+would it be good for Pilot to live entirely on oats, and to trot always
+on a perfectly level State road? No? I thought not! And if he never did
+anything but speed in a trotting sulky, you wouldn't say he was being of
+any great use in the world? No, I thought not! And now it is half-past
+ten, John Tucker, and if you don't put Pilot into the beach wagon, I
+must."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII
+
+                            OLD LOVE AND NEW
+
+
+Why was Pilot put into the beach wagon instead of the buggy? Because it
+was the wedding anniversary of the Reverend Timothy Chanter and his
+Susan, and they were going on their annual picnic together. Unlike the
+Gilpin pair of immortal memory, they did not take the children with
+them. The children saw them off at the door, with many injunctions to be
+good, and to have a wonderful time, and not to get lost, as they did two
+years ago.
+
+"Kitty," cried Lina, "_do blaze a tree_ at the place where you leave
+them, won't you? They are not to be trusted _in the least_."
+
+On this one day of the year, the minister and his wife cast care to the
+winds, locked duty up in the cupboard, and even shut the door on
+parental responsibility. They were no longer Drudge and Drudgess, as the
+girls, exasperated at the vanity of efforts to "save Pa and Ma,"
+sometimes called them: they were Tim and Sue off on their holiday. They
+were to be taken first for a spin behind Pilot, because that was the
+greatest treat the Reverend Timothy could offer his faithful partner;
+then they were to be left at a certain place near the Lancaston Road,
+where the wood dipped sharply to a cup, enclosing a round pool, with a
+waterfall above it, and a ribbon of streamlet winding away at either
+end. Here they would sit and eat their luncheon, carefully prepared by
+Daughters; cold chicken (dear Madam Flynt always sent them a chicken the
+day before, one of her own prize Rhode Island Reds!), nut bread
+(Zephine's specialty), coffee and sponge cake (which no one could make
+like Lina), and some of dear Nelly's cream peppermints to top off with.
+
+These cates disposed of, the Reverend Timothy would light his pipe, and
+lean back against a sun-warmed boulder, at peace with the world, while
+Mrs. Chanter read aloud a certain chapter of "Prue and I" which had been
+the precipitating drop in their cup of happiness twenty-three years
+before. Then he would go to sleep, dear man, and she would knit, and
+think what a happy woman she was, and wonder if there was enough mutton
+for to-morrow, or if she must have a vegetable chowder. By and by, when
+the sunbeams began to slant through the firs, she would wake her lord,
+who would fear he had missed that last sentence, my love! and the two
+would wander happily through the wood and along the elm-shaded road, and
+so home in time for the wonderful supper the girls would have ready, and
+the glorified table round which all six children would be gathered. A
+golden day, for two golden hearts! May their fiftieth anniversary find
+them hale and vigorous as their twenty-third!
+
+This was Mrs. Chanter's first spin behind Pilot; it should be her last,
+she resolved, as she clung terrified to the low railing of the beach
+wagon. It was a bright June morning, and Pilot was "feelin' extry good,"
+as John Tucker had intimated to Kitty; he flung the miles behind him in
+a nonchalant rapture that was all his own. Once Mrs. Chanter opened her
+lips to cry out, but a glance at her husband's face of delight closed
+them again. After all, the children were all grown!
+
+"Thank you, Kitty!" cried Mr. Chanter, as they dismounted at the edge of
+the Lancaston woods. "_Thank_ you, my dear! this has been a wonderful,
+_wonderful_ treat; hasn't it, Susan?"
+
+"Wonderful!" echoed Mrs. Chanter, dryly. "Next time I'll have Podasokus,
+please, Kitty; or if he has left us, then that nice old woolly thing:
+Crummles, is he? No more Pilot for me, my dear!"
+
+Kitty laughed and sped away, leaving the worthy couple to gaze
+admiringly after her for a moment before they turned into the wood, hand
+in hand.
+
+"Glorious girl!" said the Reverend Timothy. "Glorious horse!"
+
+"He'll break her neck some day!" said his Susan.
+
+Joy of the road on a June morning! Elms arching overhead, in long
+feathery arcades, or giving way to groups of singing pines, and clusters
+of white birches that rustled and whispered together like Nausicaa and
+her maidens. Under these, stretches of gray stone wall along which the
+chipmunks whisked, trying in vain to keep pace with Pilot's flying feet;
+stretches, again, of stump fence, the silver-bleached bones of ancient
+giants, with sturdy new growth of fir and hemlock pushing up between
+their locked skeleton-arms. Between fence or wall and the white ribbon
+of road, a strip of green a few yards wide, sown thick with the jewels
+of early summer. Ferns of every variety, from the lady-fern which Kitty
+always thought so like Mother, in the pale green dresses she loved, to
+towering plumes of ostrich fern and tumbled masses of _Osmunda regalis_.
+There was maiden-hair, too, Kitty knew, hiding in the crannies of the
+stone wall, but that could not be seen from the road. The cinnamon roses
+were out, sweet and untidy as Herrick's tempestuously-petticoated girl;
+"Virgin's Bower" flung its white-starred veil over rock and tangle.
+Kitty, flashing quick glances, as she sped along, saw and loved it all.
+The world held no tears any more; how should it, on a day like this?
+
+"My heart leaps up when I behold, Pilot!" cried the girl. "Can't you
+hear it, Beloved? And oh--and oh--and _Oh!_ pearl of Poppets, _do_ you
+see whom we are overhauling? Do you _see_, Pilot? If my middle name is
+not Clotho"----
+
+Melissa and Bobby were walking slowly along the road. Bobby had come
+over for the Anniversary Supper, of course. It was one of Melissa's free
+afternoons (the library was open only three days in the week); it was
+all perfectly simple. Bobby came pretty often nowadays, and Sister Lissy
+happened to be passing the station about train time. They were near the
+village now. The two were deep in talk, and paid no heed to the
+approaching wheels. Melissa, who hardly knew a baseball from a football,
+was listening with bated breath and kindling eyes to a highly technical
+description of yesterday's game.
+
+"Binks got base on balls, you see, and walked; then Joyce threw to third
+to put out Bacon, but Hodges fumbled, so Bacon ran home, and Binks went
+to second, and then I got in a three-bagger and made a home-run."
+
+"Oh, Bobby! how _splendid_! What a wonderful game! I wish I could see
+one!"
+
+"You can!" said Bobby kindly. "I'll make one of the girls bring you over
+next time. And I'll get you a Corona banner!" he added. "A sister ought
+to wear her brother's colors, what, Lissy?"
+
+It is not stated whose color it was that flamed in Lissy's cheeks as she
+looked up with shining eyes; it was very pretty anyhow, Bobby thought.
+He had never realized till lately what a pretty girl Lissy was. Hazel
+eyes were warmer, somehow, than gray, though of course----
+
+"Hilo!" cried Kitty, checking Pilot with a touch.
+
+No living horse, she always maintained, not even Angel Dan, made such a
+beautiful stop as Pilot.
+
+"Hilo, folks! Don't you want a lift?" Glancing at Lissy's face, she
+added quickly, "I don't mean just home. I'm going to give this Lamb a
+little speed along the State Road. Will you come?"
+
+"Gee! Won't we?" cried Bobby. A speed behind Pilot was a thing rarely
+offered, and not to be refused by any Cyrus youth. "Come on, Lissy!"
+
+Melissa hung back. She was mortally afraid of Pilot, and of Kitty's
+reckless driving. Besides--ought she not to leave them? Would he not
+rather--A little cold snake seemed to creep about the girl's heart. It
+wasn't fair! Kitty didn't want him till she saw some one else--oh,
+Lissy! Lissy!
+
+"Jump in, Lissy!" cried Bobby joyously. "You scared of Pilot? I believe
+she is, Kitty! now, then! In you go!"
+
+In Lissy went, Bobby following; off went Pilot, at a three minute clip.
+Past fled the landscape, a blur of green, blue and white. Melissa, all
+in a moment her mother's daughter, sat crouched on the seat, clutching
+the rail. Bobby, in a state of high delight, glanced at her for
+sympathy, and saw her pale and trembling, her eyes brimming with
+frightened tears.
+
+"Why, Lissy!" he said. Involuntarily he held out his hand; a little cold
+trembling hand slid instantly into it and was warmly grasped. Poor
+little hand! it quivered like a frightened bird, yet nestled close in
+his, as a bird would not.
+
+"Don't be scared!" cried Bobby. "Pilot's steady as a rock, isn't he,
+Kitty? Perhaps," he added, "you might slow down just a scrap, though,
+Kitty. I hate to, but----"
+
+This was heroic of Bobby, who loved fast driving as his father did.
+
+Kitty said a word to Pilot, who cocked an indulgent ear, and slowed down
+to four minutes.
+
+"Why, Lissy," she laughed over her shoulder, "rocks are flighty compared
+to Pilot; positively flighty! You saw how he stopped. I can stop him any
+instant, just like that. Lean back and enjoy yourself!"
+
+Absorbed in her rôle of the youngest Fate, and used to fast driving from
+her cradle, Kitty could not realize the state of mind of an extremely
+timid girl, assailed by mingled pangs of terror and jealousy. It was not
+till they had reached the spot she had in mind for the development of
+her plan that, glancing round, she comprehended how for pleasure she was
+giving on the one hand anguish, and on the other embarrassment, if not
+distress. Melissa was leaning against her companion's shoulder with
+closed eyes and compressed lips: Bobby, red-faced and round-eyed, was
+holding her hand. His eyes met Kitty's with an expression of mingled
+deprecation, admiration and reprobation, which was too much for that
+young woman's composure.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" her laughter broke out bell-like; then she checked
+herself.
+
+"Oh! I am so sorry! Lissy, you poor child, I never thought--I never
+dreamed--Sst, Pilot!"
+
+Pilot stopped, and stood like the least flighty of rocks.
+
+"I am _so_ sorry!" Kitty repeated penitently. "Bobby, why didn't you
+tell me? Are you going to give me in charge for fast driving?"
+
+"Oh, I say!" cried a distracted Bobby. "Gee, Kitty, it was perfectly
+_great_, as far as I am concerned, but I do suppose we were going a
+pretty good clip, what? Poor little Lissy!"
+
+"Now, I'll tell you what!"
+
+Clotho Kitty advanced to her second parallel.
+
+"This is where I really meant to stop. I want you both to see the view
+from that high rock!" she nodded toward a huge boulder that frowned from
+the hillside above the road. "It's really beautiful, and you said the
+other day you had never climbed the rock, Lissy. It's only a minute's
+climb, with a good strong paw like Bobby's to pull you up. It will shake
+your crinkles out, and steady your nerves; and we will _crawl_ home,
+Lissy dear!" said penitent Kitty.
+
+Lissy dismounted and stretched her cramped limbs. Bobby followed, with a
+doubtful glance at Kitty. Was she sure Pilot would stand? Sure she
+didn't want him to----? Reassured on that point by her laughing shake of
+the head, he turned to the big rock. It was a brief, but a stiff little
+climb; all his energies were required to pilot Melissa, timid and unused
+to climbing. Neither of them heard the low, clear whistle, or saw the
+black horse toss his head in reply, then settle down in the shafts like
+a cat settling to her spring. They gained the top, prepared to enjoy the
+view, which really was fine; when Melissa uttered a cry,
+
+"Oh! oh, Bobby, look! Kitty!"
+
+Pilot was off. Had something startled him, or was it the inherent
+viciousness of which Melissa had always felt sure? Off down the road
+like an arrow.
+
+"He is running away!" cried Melissa. "She can't hold him any more than
+she could the wind. Oh, what shall we do? What shall we do?"
+
+"Sit down!" commanded Bobby. "Sit still, Lissy, till I come back!" With
+the word, he slithered down the rock and set out running along the road
+at his best pace. It was a good pace; Bobby Chanter was the best runner
+in Corona. Even in her terror, Melissa noticed how beautifully he ran,
+how nobly he threw his head back, how splendid----what horse could cope
+with a Marathon runner? Then a new pang assailed her. She crouched on
+the rock and wrung her hands in an ecstasy of terror. He might be hurt,
+trying to stop the mad creature. He might be _trampled on_! Wicked,
+hateful horse! wicked girl to drive such a creature, risking lives that
+were more precious----
+
+Bobby, reaching a curve in the road, saw Pilot skimming swallow-like
+along the next reach. At that moment, Kitty turned in her seat, and saw
+him. A flash, a smile, a wave of the hand--she shot round a second curve
+and vanished. Bobby Chanter stopped abruptly.
+
+"She's got him under!" he muttered. "She's going to turn and come back."
+
+He waited for some minutes, but in vain. No one came. Sorely puzzled,
+Bobby retraced his steps, looking over his shoulder from time to time.
+That horse wasn't bolting. She had him under control all right. What
+upon earth--Bobby positively scowled in his perplexity. Had Kitty
+_meant_ to leave them behind? And why? _Why?_ It was freakish; Kitty
+never used to be freakish. It was hardly even kind; poor little Lissy,
+scared to death there up on the rock. She would never have played Kitty
+a trick like that. She was very sweet. How her little hand trembled as
+it rested in his! A girl ought not to be _too_ independent, though of
+course Kitty was the finest----
+
+Bobby Chanter stopped short; the blood rushed singing up into his ears,
+and he stood in the middle of the road, as if he had been struck. What
+was that Kitty said to him, the last time he tried--A strange thing to
+say, he thought at the moment.
+
+"Bobby, how _foolish_ you are! I really wonder at you. You are like the
+man that lighted his lantern, a beautiful, clear, bright, little
+lantern, and then put it down and went after a will-o'-the-wisp."
+
+"I don't in the least understand you, Kitty!" he had said ruefully, for
+her tone was almost sharp.
+
+"No more did the bat; I mean the man!" snapped Kitty, and she turned her
+back and left him. It was at the Library door, and Melissa was just
+coming out. How pretty she looked that day, too; her eyes seemed to
+light up when she looked at a fellow! Was----was _that_ what Kitty
+meant? He was walking again, faster now; thinking hard as he went,
+putting two and two together in a fashion new to his simple, objective
+mind.
+
+_Was_ that what Kitty meant? Other words of hers came flocking back to
+him.
+
+"I _want_ you to be happy, Bobby! You might be so happy, if you weren't
+just a little stupid, Bobby dear!"
+
+That seemed rather cruel at the time, when he _had_ pulled through those
+rotten exams. What if she hadn't meant that at all? What if----she was
+awfully fond of Lissy, he knew; and he knew she liked him, too, she said
+she did, though she never offered to be a sister to him, as Lissy did.
+Lissy had a rotten time at home, he guessed, with that Wilse, and her
+mother always putting him first. She was too soft and gentle to stand up
+for herself. What was that Kitty said again? He ought to have a sweet,
+gentle, feminine girl, not a daughter of Jehu, who drove furiously. He
+hadn't understood that, either. Had he been a Nut all this time? Hark!
+what was that?
+
+A sound came to his ears; a breathless, sobbing wail.
+
+"Bobby! oh! Bobby!! oh, my heart!"
+
+A great clump of lilacs hid the road ahead. Hastening round it, he saw
+Melissa running toward him, crimson, panting, the tears rolling down her
+cheeks as she sobbed and ran and sobbed again.
+
+"Allow two minutes!" says Mr. Ezra Barkley in an immortal Tale. Bobby
+did not allow one. In ten seconds he had gathered his little sweetheart
+in his arms, pulled her in behind the big lilac bush, and was soothing,
+comforting, pouring tender words into her ear.
+
+"There, dear; there, Lissy! there, my little girl! You are my little
+girl, aren't you? My own dear little girl! Don't cry, sweetheart! What
+frightened you, Lissy?"
+
+"Oh! oh!" sobbed Lissy. "I thought he would trample on you. I thought
+you would be lying on the road all dead and bleeding. Oh, Bobby! Bobby!
+Did he hurt you?"
+
+"Did who hurt me, darling? Here! let's sit down! Put your dear little
+head on my shoulder; so! comfy? Did who hurt me, Lissy?"
+
+"The dreadful horse! I thought he would trample on you! oh! oh!"
+
+She started at Bobby's shout of laughter.
+
+"Lissy! _honestly!_ you didn't think I could catch Pilot? Gee! that is a
+good one!"
+
+The great lilac bush had seen lovers in its day; sheltered them, too. A
+generation ago, it had marked a gateway; the cellar hole of the house
+still yawned in the field, half filled with wild raspberry bushes. If
+not Jemmy and Jessamy, at least Zekle and Huldy, or their prototypes,
+had sauntered down the lawn with arms linked, and had sat under the
+great bush, sheltered from lane and road by tossing, purple plumes. Yes,
+the lilac bush knew all about it, and bent kindly over Bobby and Lissy
+as they sat in their turn, hand in hand, pouring out the wonderful new
+story that had never, never, never been told before.
+
+By and by (for not even new love could make Bobby unconscious of Dinner
+Time!) they walked home, and the road was paved with gold, and the skies
+above were diamond and sapphire, and the world was very fair.
+
+And Kitty? If the truth must be told, they did not once think of Kitty
+till they reached the Wibird door. Then Melissa, with a
+conscience-stricken blush, wondered if Kitty was all right, and Bobby,
+with another, guessed she was. Then his honest heart smote him, and
+after one last look and handclasp, he went straight off to Ross House
+and told Kitty all about it. Then who so happy as Clotho Kitty? She took
+Bobby's hands and danced up and down the hall with him. She had not been
+so happy, she vowed, since she was probably arboreal. Never mind what
+she meant! She was just sitting down to dinner, all alone, and Bobby
+must and should sit down with her. They would have a feast, the Feast of
+Friendship. There was chicken pie!
+
+"Come on, Bobby! we'll drink all our healths in pineapple lemonade.
+Sarepta! Sarepta! Put another plate, will you? Bobby is stopping to
+dinner!"
+
+Sarepta laid another plate, outwardly grim, inwardly rejoicing. Men
+folks seemed to have more real understanding of pastry than what
+women-folks did, some way of it. She thawed visibly with every crunch of
+Bobby's enraptured teeth. She brought ham and tongue and little crisp
+home-made sausages the size of Bobby's little finger, over which he
+fairly groaned with delight.
+
+"Honestly, Sarepta!" he kept saying. "Honestly! On the square now, I
+never _did_!"
+
+When it came to fruit jelly with whipped cream, Bobby sighed deeply, and
+Kitty had an inspiration. She caught up the pretty dish and rose from
+table.
+
+"You are to take this straight down to Lissy and eat it with her!" she
+commanded. "Hush! not a word! Sarepta, a fringed doily, please! Bobby is
+going to take this to----may I Bobby? Sarepta is a _tomb_ of
+secrecy!----to his dear, sweet, darling Melissa, and eat it with her.
+One more glass, Bobby! Sarepta must have one too! To the health of Mr.
+and Mrs. Robert Chanter! Hip! hip! hooray!"
+
+"Honestly, Kitty!" Bobby's voice faltered and broke. "Honestly! You are
+the greatest girl in the world--bar one, I'll have to say now, won't I?
+Good-bye! God bless you, Kitty!"
+
+"Well, of all the Actions!" said Sarepta Darwin.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX
+
+                          "THE TRIVIAL ROUND"
+
+
+I think the next month was the hardest that Kitty had to encounter in
+what she used afterward to call her Woful Waiting. Of course she missed
+Miss Johanna--I beg her pardon!--Mrs. Peters, wofully. Ever since she
+came back (after the first few days, that is) she had had this bright,
+sharp, cheery person to go to, to talk and take counsel with. I always
+supposed that one reason for Miss Johanna's taking to her bed was her
+wish to let Kitty live her own life. Indeed, she said as much one day
+while I was sitting with her.
+
+"Yes!" she said, with her little brisk snap. "I see just as much of
+Kitty as she likes. I don't poke about in her house; I wouldn't have
+anybody poking about in mine. When she wants me, I am here, delighted to
+see her. When she doesn't--well, I am here just the same, and not
+downstairs under her feet. Blessings of the Bedridden, my dear.
+Appreciated by few, but tangible none the less."
+
+My visit in beloved Cyrus had ended long before this, but Kitty had
+dropped a word now and then in her letters; and Nelly Chanter wrote me
+that they were all worried about her.
+
+"She is as gay and cheery as ever, but she doesn't _look right_. I am
+perfectly sure she has lost _pounds_, though of course nothing would
+persuade her to be weighed. You see, that cat Cissy Sharpe got hold of a
+western paper somehow in Tinkham, with the account of the marriage of
+_Thomas Leigh_ to a rich widow, millions, marble palaces, that kind of
+thing. She didn't _show_ Kitty the paper, just told her about it in the
+street, and she said Kitty went white as milk and didn't say a word,
+just walked away, looking as if she were blind. Then she--Cissy--came to
+Lina and me, open-mouthed, as you can imagine: I tell you we _gave_ it
+to her! And Lina, in her quiet way, cross-examined her and got out of
+her that it was _Leigh_ and not _Lee_. Did you _ever_, Mary? Well, the
+next time I saw Kitty, I managed to lead up to it--talking about Bobby
+and Lissy (yes, we are all _very_ fond of Lissy, and it is _all right_,
+though, of course, it was a blow _at first_, after all our hopes; but
+Bobby is so happy, of course we are too!) well, and so I spoke of the
+report, about Tom and the different spelling, said I didn't believe it
+was our Tom at all, and so forth and so on. She just listened, that
+little quiet way she has when she doesn't agree with you,--you know--her
+head a little on one side, looking down: and said yes, very likely. That
+was all I could get out of her; but, Mary, I think she has made up her
+mind that he _isn't coming back_; and I think her heart is breaking, and
+all ours are breaking for her."
+
+This was partly true. Kitty did at this time make up her mind that Tom
+was not likely to come into her life again; she has told me that since,
+and that she was very unhappy for a while; but as to breaking her
+heart--Nelly always was sentimental. Kitty is not. She just looked the
+thing straight in the face--that reminds me of something she said, that
+puts it all in a nutshell. It was on my first visit after her marriage,
+and we were talking over our sewing, sitting on the old leather sofa.
+She spoke of the Woful Waiting.
+
+"It wasn't really so bad!" she said. "It was--do you remember that verse
+in the 'Ancient Mariner' that always frightened me so?
+
+    "'Like one that on a lonesome road
+        Doth walk in fear and dread,
+    And having once turned round, walks on,
+        And turns no more his head,
+    Because he knows a frightful fiend
+        Doth close behind him tread.'
+
+"That used to come to me in the long passages upstairs, and I would
+run--oh, how I ran! Well, Mary, it was like that. Ever since I came back
+and found no word from Tom, I had felt this behind me. I had just seen
+it over my shoulder and I wouldn't turn round and look at it: I was
+afraid. But when I heard--that, you know; something definite, whether it
+was true or not--I turned square round and looked at it, and I found it
+wasn't so frightful after all. I wanted Tom to be happy, didn't I? I
+didn't want him back if he didn't want to come. I saw all the dear
+neighbors, so many of them living single--really _most_ of them, Mary!
+Cyrus is the most unmarried place that ever was, I do believe! and all
+so good, and so happy and busy--why, I said, 'Goose! do try to have a
+_little_ sense!' That helped me ever so much, Mary. I don't say I liked
+it, you know, but--well, it was easier because it was harder, if you see
+what I mean. And then--I began to do things, and that helped too."
+
+I had heard of some of the things she began to do at this time. It was
+then that she began the Saturday picnics for the school children, taking
+a wagonload of them out with Old Crummles to some lovely pasture or
+woodpiece, and frolicking with them all the morning. Then would come the
+feast: always chicken pie, because Kitty thought children liked that
+better than anything else (except icecream, which was sloppy to take on
+picnics) currant buns and raspberry tartlets and lemonade in a stone
+jug. What times those children did have! Then, too, little by little,
+she found out all the "poor things" for miles around. Half-invalids, who
+needed carriage exercise; tired country women who had no horse and could
+not walk so far as the village for their errands; sad people with few
+"privileges," to whom a cheery call, a book or magazine or nosegay would
+change the hue of a whole day from drab to rose-color. Kitty found them
+all out, and took them "buggy-riding," or sat on their steps and told
+them gay little stories. Every child for ten miles round Cyrus knew her,
+and set up a shout of "Miskitty! Miskitty!" (the first syllable strongly
+accented!) "gimme a ride!" She loved them all, but John Tucker often
+wished there was no such a thing as young uns in the endurin' world.
+
+She told me of a pleasant happening.
+
+One day she brought old Mrs. Grieven in to do some shopping, and waited
+outside Cheeseman's while the old lady pottered in and out of the
+various stores. Just in front of her stood a peddler's wagon, very neat
+and trim, with a brown horse attached to it. A bag was attached to the
+horse's nose, and he was asleep. Kitty looked him over approvingly. A
+good horse; a bit cobby and stocky; no speed, she judged, but much
+steadiness, and--she added mentally, as the horse waked and turned an
+appraising eye on Dan--some intelligence. At this moment Mr. Cheeseman's
+door opened and a man came out; a tall, loose-jointed brown man, with a
+sea-going air about him. A new face to Kitty: she loved a new face; a
+good one, too. Their eyes met; the brown man made a little gesture, as
+friendly as it was courteous. His arms were full of glass jars, small
+and large, containing bright-hued candies; these he proceeded to stow
+away carefully on the shelves of the neat cupboard at the back of his
+wagon. Over the shelves were drawers, labeled "Lozenges," "Jujubes,"
+etc., etc. These he filled with neat rolls and parcels produced from
+various pockets. As he worked he hummed and whistled under his breath,
+and presently broke into song, in a mellow baritone voice.
+
+    "'Now Renzo caught a fever,
+        That's what Renzo caught, tiddy hi!
+    It sot him all a-queever,
+        So haul the bowline, haul!
+
+    He took to his bed and the doctor come,
+    And give him a dose that sure was some,
+    For it h'isted him off to Kingdom Come,
+        So haul the bowline, haul!'"
+
+Kitty was reserved enough in some ways, but she never could restrain her
+laughter; she gave a little crow at the fate of "Renzo," the conclusion,
+had she but known it, of an eventful life. The brown man turned with a
+responsive chuckle.
+
+"There!" he said. "I was warblin', warn't I? You must excuse me, lady;
+I'm a sea-farin' man, and I have to warble, 'pears though: I b'lieve I
+warble in my sleep."
+
+"It was so funny, I couldn't help laughing!" said Kitty. "Poor Renzo! is
+there any more about him?"
+
+"Oh, my, yes! old Renzo! There's more songs and chanteys about him than
+you could shake a stick at. Renzo or Ranzo--I've heard much as a dozen
+of 'em. This one's the only one I know clear'n through, though."
+
+"Oh! please! won't you sing it all for me?" Kitty leaned forward, her
+eyes aglow.
+
+"Why, it ain't nothin' but an old sailor song, you understand, but
+you're welcome to it, such as 'tis."
+
+Leaning comfortably against the back of his wagon, his brown gaze
+wandering placidly up and down the street, the brown man sang as follows:
+
+    "Now Renzo was a sailor;
+        That's what Renzo was, tiddy hi!
+    He surely warn't a tailor,
+        So haul the bowline, haul!
+
+    He went adrift in Casco Bay,
+    Mate to a mud-scow haulin' hay,
+    And he come home late for his weddin' day,
+        So haul the bowline, haul!
+
+    "Now Renzo had a feedle,
+        That's what Renzo had, tiddy hi!
+    'Twas humped up in the meedle,
+        So haul the bowline, haul!
+    He played a tune, and the old cow died,
+    And the skipper and crew jumped over the side,
+    And swum away on the slack of the tide,
+        So haul the bowline, haul!
+
+    "Now Renzo had a parrot,
+        That's what Renzo had, tiddy hi!
+    He liked a piece of carrot,
+        So haul the bowline, haul!
+    They gave him a turnip once instead,
+    And he swore so loud he bust his head,
+    And when he come to he was di-dum-dead,
+        So haul the bowline, haul!
+
+    "Now Renzo went a-clammin',
+        That's what Renzo did, tiddy hi!
+    His boots they kep' a-jammin',
+        So haul the bowline, haul!
+    They jammed so hard that he gave up beat,
+    And went back home in his stockin' feet,
+    And the woman she dressed him down complete,
+        So haul the bowline, haul!
+
+    "Now Renzo went a-smeltin',
+        That's what Renzo did, tiddy hi!
+    The ice was just a-meltin',
+        So haul the bowline, haul!
+    He sot clear'n through, and he froze his toes,
+    And a foot-long ice-kittle hung to his nose,
+    And he says, 'Gol darn these oil-skin clo'es!'
+        So haul the bowline, haul!
+
+    "Now Renzo caught a fever,
+        That's what Renzo caught, tiddy hi!
+    It sot him all a-queever,
+        So haul the bowline, haul!
+    He took to his bed and the doctor come,
+    And give him a dose that sure was some,
+    For it h'isted him off to Kingdom Come.
+        So haul the bowline, haul!"
+
+"Oh! thank you!" cried Kitty. "Thank you ever so much!"
+
+"I thank you," replied the brown man, "for listenin'. I expect you've
+had the hardest job of the two, if all was known."
+
+He stepped to the head of the brown horse, felt of the bag and shook his
+head; the brown horse shook his.
+
+"Hossy," he spoke slowly, in a singularly cordial, pleasant tone, "you
+ain't eat your dinner!"
+
+The horse shook his head again and sneezed.
+
+"You no call to sneeze!" said the brown man. "It's good feed, and you've
+had time enough. I can't wag your jaws for you! If you expect that,
+Hossy, you're liable to be disappointed right away! Sam'll be in forty
+conniptions now because I'm late!"
+
+He took off the nose-bag and folded it deliberately, the brown horse
+continuing to sneeze protest. Looking up, he met Kitty's interested eyes
+again, and his face broke into a delightful smile.
+
+"He's a mite choosy to-day!" he said, nodding toward the animal.
+"Sometimes he forgets he isn't a bein'. I expect I make of him more'n I
+should, but you know how 'tis. That's a fine hoss you're drivin', lady.
+A No. 1, I should rate him, clipper-built and copper--what I would say,
+he's an elegant hoss. Might I take the liberty of offerin' you a
+pep'mint, Miss? No offense, I hope; they're just out o' the pan."
+
+The two talked horse happily for five minutes; then the brown man
+climbed somewhat laboriously into his wagon, and with "Good day! Pleased
+to have met up with you!" drove off. Kitty sprang down and ran into the
+shop.
+
+"Uncle Ivory," she cried, "who is that nice man? Isn't he a perfect
+duck? Do tell me who he is!"
+
+Mr. Cheeseman had watched the interview, and his eyes were twinkling.
+
+"As to bein' a duck," he said slowly, "I couldn't say. I never see him
+without his stockin's. Feet may be web, for all I know. That's Calvin
+Parks," he added in a different tone. "He's what I might call, if I was
+put to it, the best man in this world. If he wasn't a gump, he'd be an
+angel. He peddles candy. I supply him reg'lar, and I tell ye, Kitty, I
+fairly look forward to the day he comes, once a week."
+
+"I should think you would! Where does he live? Not in any Cyrus,
+surely?"
+
+"He lives over yonder!" Mr. Cheeseman nodded toward a point of the
+compass. "Drives a candy route, and looks out for the Sill boys, him and
+his wife. Awful nice woman she is, too. You'd like Mary Parks. Try that
+pineapple ribbin; I expect it's good!"
+
+At this point Mrs. Grieven appeared, lamenting. "Wesleys" had no yellow
+flannel, and it was a living shame, she must say, if she was to go
+without a flannel petticoat at her time of life.
+
+"But he has other colors, Mrs. Grieven!" Kitty tried to console her. "I
+know he has red flannel, for I bought some the other day; and white he
+has too, and I think gray."
+
+"I've worn yellow flannel for seventy-seven years," Mrs. Grieven
+replied; "and I'm not going to change at my time of life. Yellow flannel
+is healin' to the bones, and keeps off rheumatism; 'tis well known, and
+Orison Wesley ought to be ashamed to call himself a general store, and
+not keep----"
+
+"We'll talk about it as we drive!" said Kitty brightly. "I think we must
+start now, Mrs. Grieven. The 'ribbon' is delicious, Mr. Cheeseman; thank
+you so much! Let me know when you expect Mr. Parks again, won't you?"
+
+Uncle Ivory Cheeseman watched her as she drove off.
+
+"Now she'll sup yellow flannel all the way to North Cyrus!" he
+commented; "and take it as if 'twas butter scotch. Them kind of folks,
+you sympathize with them, and they're all over you in a minute, like a
+wet dog on a cold day. It's one thing to be friendly, but,--well, the
+Bible says to suffer fools gladly, but it don't say to encourage 'em,
+and so I tell Calvin!"
+
+He turned, and gave his mind to the molasses peppermints.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XX
+
+                            THE PAN-AMERICAN
+
+
+If little has been said hitherto of Miss Ruby Caddie, it is not because
+she was not an Institution of Cyrus; far from it! She was even more than
+that, though that would be enough for most people; she was a National
+Institution; she was the Pan-American! Miss Ruby spent her days in a box
+measuring eight feet by ten, glazed on two sides; one window giving on
+the street, the other on a small and dingy space which she called the
+Outer Office. The other two sides were profusely adorned with
+illuminated texts, of cheerful and admonitory nature. Miss Ruby's
+visitors were advised that this was Her Busy Day; that it was proper to
+Smile While You Wait: that
+
+    "When Time is withdrawn,
+    Will Eternity dawn!"
+
+etc., etc. The latter sentiment was also inscribed in letters of gold
+(decalcomania!) on a manuscript book which lay on Miss Ruby's desk, and
+which was further labeled "Timely Texts for Troublous Telegrams." This
+volume (a birthday present from Miss Pearl, who had spent a happy year
+in its compilation) was a constant help to Miss Ruby in discharging the
+responsibilities of her position, of which she was acutely conscious.
+The electric telegraph was to her sensitive nature no mere affair of
+keys, wires and switches: no, indeed! "It is a _Mighty Force_," the
+little lady was wont to say, shaking her flaxen ringlets impressively,
+"which through my agency raises the heart to the summit of joy or
+plunges it in the gulf of despair."
+
+Holding these views, Miss Ruby felt it her duty to wing the joyful
+message with special shafts of cheer, and to prepare the way for the
+sorrowful one with remarks of a fortifying nature. She invariably began,
+"_Good_ morning! (or afternoon, as the case might be). This is the
+Pan-American Telegraph Company." Then would follow, "Do not be alarmed!
+the news is of a cheering nature." And then the listener would learn
+that her Aunt Maria was coming that evening by the 8:3O train, or that
+John Henry had passed his college examinations. But were the message one
+of sorrowful import, Miss Ruby before delivering it would open the
+manuscript volume and select an appropriate sentence: then we might hear
+"Trouble is often benefit in disguise. Permit me to express my sympathy
+before delivering the following message. 'Your Aunt Maria passed away
+last night; a blessed release.'"
+
+With these lofty views of her responsibilities, it need not be said that
+Miss Ruby was the soul of conscientiousness in regard to the winged
+words of which she was the transmitter. Not even to Miss Pearl, her twin
+sister and other self, would she breathe a whisper of what passed over
+the wires. Miss Pearl, equally conscientious, respected her sister's
+reserve. If questioned by some thoughtless neighbor, she would say, "My
+sister has her business, and I have mine. I should no more think of
+asking her about the messages she receives than she would ask me the
+amount of your bank deposit. We are in positions of Public Trust!"
+
+Once only, in all the years of her service, was Miss Ruby tempted to
+break her rule of silence; that was on a certain June evening, not long
+after the events narrated in the last chapter. Miss Pearl had not
+visited the office that afternoon; it was "the birthday of Sister and
+Self," as she happily announced to all she met on her way home, and she
+must prepare for the Treat. The Treat consisted of creamcakes, bought at
+the bakery, as she hastened homeward; large pale yellow shells of
+brittle crust, irregularly paneled like alligator-skin, filled with a
+glutinous semi-liquid substance of irresistibly flowing nature. There
+were other delicacies of home manufacture; stuffed eggs, and what Miss
+Pearl called "lion's potatoes," with buttered toast and pickles; but the
+creamcakes were the real Treat, as they had been ever since the little
+Twins earned their first five cents apiece by picking berries for Madam
+Flynt. There were three creamcakes; two apiece would be too much; on the
+other hand, one was not quite enough; so the third was cut in two, with
+astonishing results in the way of swift pursuit and skillful capture
+(with spoons) of the glutinous substance before mentioned. The cakes
+were displayed upon a beautiful old platter of "flowed blue," the pride
+of the ladies' hearts. Have I said too much about the Treat? I always
+thought it so dear and funny! and I never can forget how I chanced in on
+an errand one Birthday evening, and found the Twins half way through
+their whole cakes. They held them in their hands, and darted from edge
+to edge as the custard threatened to overflow here or there. They
+offered me the third cake; dear little ladies!
+
+On the evening in question, Miss Ruby was not in her usual spirits. She
+praised the "lovely supper," which Sister had prepared, and joined in
+the annual duet of admiration for and joy in the flowed blue platter,
+the pink lustre jug, and the sprigged tea-set. The sisters found it
+convenient, as I have said, to spend their winters at the Mallow House.
+It was economical, Mr. Mallow being more than liberal in his rates for
+"permanents"; it was also social, and saved much time in getting to and
+from their business, for their cottage was quite at the end of the
+village; but perhaps the happiest day of the year for the sisters was
+that on which they "got back to their dishes!"
+
+"For there is nothing like _your own_!" said Miss Pearl, shaking her
+curls. "Not but what Mr. Mallow's pattern is handsome; it _is_, for them
+that likes a band. But when you have grown up with a sprig, nothing else
+is quite the same, seems as though."
+
+Miss Ruby, as I say, joined in the duet, but not, her observant twin
+thought, with her customary heartiness. Neither did she show her usual
+keen enjoyment of the eggs (scrambled this time, with crisp curls of
+bacon surrounding them) and the lion's potatoes. She was absent-minded
+and took little notice even of the Sally Lunns. All this might have
+passed as the result of fatigue, or an exceptionally busy day; but when,
+on finishing her creamcake, Miss Ruby refused, positively refused, her
+half of the odd one, Miss Pearl spoke with conviction.
+
+"Sister," she said, "you have something on your mind; do not deny it!"
+
+"Sister," replied Miss Ruby, "I _have_. Do not press me! I cannot eat
+another morsel."
+
+A troubled silence ensued. The table was cleared, the dishes washed and
+put away, but not to the customary accompaniment of cheerful babble.
+Miss Ruby sighed deeply over her "wiper," one of a set presented by Mr.
+Mallow as a birthday gift. Miss Pearl, the elder by half an hour in this
+world, and with all her maternal instinct centred in her sister, yearned
+to comfort her; but the bond of discretion and custom kept her silent.
+Anything that Sister felt at liberty to communicate, she would; far be
+it from Miss Pearl to intrude upon the sanctity of Office!
+
+Miss Ruby was the first to break the silence.
+
+"Let's we come out on the stoop!" she said. (The Misses Caddie never
+forgot that their father, the late lamented Cassius M. Caddie, had been
+a New York Merchant. They were only ten years old when he died, and
+their mother brought them back to her native Cyrus, but they said
+"stoop" for "porch" and "aquascutum" for "waterproof," as long as they
+lived.)
+
+The sisters went out on the porch--I beg their pardon! the stoop!--and
+sat down on a bench at the side. It was a lovely evening; the air was
+full of peace and silence, broken now and then by a low call from some
+nesting bird. Miss Ruby sighed again.
+
+"Sister," Miss Pearl spoke timidly; "could you feel to free your mind?
+You know that anything you might say would be sacred----"
+
+"I know it well!" Miss Ruby touched her twin's shoulder lightly; it was
+in the nature of a caress; they had not been brought up to kiss.
+
+"I will own this much to you, Sister, that never, in the course of my
+professional career, have I been so tempted to speak as I am this
+night."
+
+She paused; Miss Pearl made a little sound expressive of sympathy and
+concern.
+
+"It is not only," Miss Ruby went on, "the extra-ordinary nature of the
+message itself, though--well, Sister, you really _never did_!--but it is
+the feeling--" Miss Ruby glanced around her in the dusk and lowered her
+voice--"the feeling that the sanctity of the Office has been _already
+violated_."
+
+"Sister Ruby! how _could_----"
+
+"I feel it so to be! this much I can say, and will. Pearlie, the message
+was for Kitty Ross, from California. I delivered it by telephone as
+usual. 'Kitty,' I said, 'do not be alarmed; the message, though _most
+unusual_, is not otherwise than cheerful, if correctly transmitted,
+though of course at that distance it is impossible to be sure.' Then I
+gave her the words of the message----"
+
+"Yes, Sister!" Miss Pearl's voice was tense with eagerness.
+
+"The words of the message!" Miss Ruby seemed to be holding herself in
+forcible restraint. "I then asked her if it was clear, and she made
+answer that it was. To make quite sure, I asked her to repeat it, and
+she so did. Then she hung up; and--Sister, at that living moment of
+time, _some one else hung up_! I cannot be deceived;" as Miss Pearl
+uttered a cry of amazement, "and it is not the first time that it has
+happened, but I am resolved it shall be the last. That----"
+
+"Good evening, girls!" a high-pitched voice broke in on Miss Ruby's low,
+impressive tones. Mrs. Sharpe appeared, slightly out of breath as usual.
+
+"I thought I'd make a run in, and wish you joy; not that birthdays is
+all joy in this world, especially when you're on in years. You're
+gettin' quite gray, ain't you? Well, Ruby, _what_ do you make of that
+message?"
+
+Miss Ruby grew rigid. "To what do you allude, Sophia?" she asked.
+
+Mrs. Sharpe laughed, a high excited titter. "That telephone!" she cried:
+"it is the beat! I keep tellin' and tellin' Jonas Chamberlain, and he
+doesn't do a thing about it. Everything that goes to Kitty Ross's goes
+_right through_ my house. I s'posed you knew, of course. It's real
+annoying; I should think they would stop it. But--well, if that is _so_,
+girls, we shall see great times in Cyrus, what say, Pearlie?"
+
+"I do not understand you!" Miss Pearl spoke stiffly.
+
+"What!" Mrs. Sharpe bent forward eagerly, trying through the twilight to
+scrutinize the features of the twins. "You don't mean to say--you don't
+mean Ruby _hasn't told_ you? Well! It's _my_ belief that such things
+should be made public. The idea! Is this a Republic, I ask you, or a
+Monarchy? '_Coming, coach and six. Duke._' Did you ever? If that isn't
+English Aristocracy trying to lord it over----"
+
+She stopped. The twin sisters had risen to their feet; their round
+spectacles glistened through the dim twilight.
+
+"Sophia Sharpe!" Miss Ruby spoke slowly, her curls nodding emphasis.
+"Sophia Sharpe, you have tampered with the sanctity of Public Office. I
+_forbid_ you to repeat what you have criminally--I repeat, _criminally_
+overheard!"
+
+"You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" piped Miss Pearl, her bird-like
+voice shrill with indignation. "To cast reflection upon Sister's
+faithfulness in office!"
+
+"Oh!" Mrs. Sharpe's tone was shriller yet. "I've come here to be
+instructed, have I? By two old maids, too, who have never had any
+encouragement that _I_ know of to change their state! This is what I get
+by coming out of my way to wish you joy on your _birthday_! a precious
+day it is! so _important_ to everybody! One sure thing, you've had
+_enough_ of 'em, te hee! I guess my run-in will be a run-off, though you
+_are_ so pleasant and hospitable, I'm sure!"
+
+"Do not darken these doors again!" said Miss Pearl.
+
+"Do not speak to me in the street!" said Miss Ruby. "The acquaintance is
+at an end!"
+
+"I thank you for the favor!" the visitor flung back over her departing
+shoulder. "Of course it's been a _great privilege_ to come traipsing out
+here to the other end of nowhere, but it's one I _can_ dispense with, if
+I try hard; and as for _speaking_ to two poor mildewed little old maids
+that stick to their jobs like seaweed to a rock, and that's kept there
+out of _pity_--out of _pity_!----"
+
+The sound of the closing door checked her flow of eloquence; she
+departed.
+
+This is the true story of the quarrel between the Misses Caddie, "two
+ladies as highly respected in our midst for their ability and discretion
+as beloved for their many endearing social qualities," as Mr. Jordano
+took occasion to say in the next _Centinel_, and one who from this time
+on was commonly spoken of as "that _mean_ Sophia Sharpe!"
+
+But the deed was done. Before morning all Cyrus knew that Kitty Ross was
+about to receive a visit from an English Nobleman, and that: A, he
+expected to be met by a coach and six horses, or, B, that his arrival by
+such conveyance was to be anticipated.
+
+Before considering the effect of this news upon Cyrus, let us glance for
+a moment into Madam Flynt's parlor on the evening of the day just past.
+Madam Flynt was receiving a visitor; alone, Miss Croly having gone for
+the quiet stroll which was her delight on summer evenings. "With
+Nature!" the good lady would explain. "I love to stroll hand in hand
+with Nature: so vast, yet so benignant, in her gentler aspects." She
+recited poetry as she strolled, finding it most beneficial.
+
+Madam Flynt's visitor stood by the door, declining a proffered seat; an
+apron thrown over her head announced in some subtle way that her visit
+was one of urgency; she spoke in low, emphatic tones.
+
+"No'm! no! she wasn't feverish that I could see; I couldn't feel her
+pult, but her skin felt natural. She acted more like she was out of her
+mind. I thought I'd step over!"
+
+"You were quite right, Sarepta! Tell me again just how it was, will you?
+I didn't quite take it in the first time."
+
+Evidently nothing loth, Sarepta spoke as follows:
+
+"It was five o'clock, or thereabouts. She had just come in from the
+stable; she feeds too much sugar to them hosses, and so I tell John
+Tucker, but of course he knew all about hosses before they was created.
+The telephone rang and she went. It was Ruby Caddie's voice. I could
+tell by the cackle; she sounds for all the world like our Black Spanish
+hen; of course I couldn't hear what she said. 'Yes,' says Kitty. 'Yes,
+quite clear! Yes, I understand entirely.' Then I judge Ruby asked her to
+repeat the message, for she says, kind o' singin' it, Madam Flynt, the
+way I never heard her speak before since she _could_ speak: '_Comin',
+coach and six. Duke!_'
+
+"Well: Kitty covered her face with her two hands and stood there a
+spell: if you'll excuse me mentionin' it, as if she was _prayin'_! Then
+she hung up, and swung round, and see me standin' there. I had no idea
+of listenin' you understand, Madam Flynt. I would scorn the action. I
+was just passin' through the hall, and the sound of her voice--well, it
+was so _peculiar_, I just stopped in my steps. First of it when she
+looked up, she was white as my apurn: then, all in a flash, the child's
+face was like she was afire, so to express it; her eyes were shinin',
+and her cheeks--well, there! I expected to hear the flames cracklin'.
+She rushes up to me and takes my two hands. 'Dance, Sarepta!' she says,
+wild as a hawk. 'Dance! you _must_ dance!' and she drags me up and down
+that hall--you know the stren'th of her wrists, drivin' like she
+does--till the breath was out of my body; and all the time she was
+singin', a crazy kind of jig tune she's ben singin' about the house this
+two weeks past till I thought I should _fly_. 'Do for the land's sake,'
+I'd say, 'sing something that has some _sense_ to it!' It don't begin
+nor end anywhere, goes round and round like a cat's cradle--well, it's
+crazy, that's all there is to it! She sang and danced till _her_ breath
+gave out; I was past speech or cry by that time. Then she throws her
+arms round me and hugs me till--well, I _hadn't_ any breath, but if I
+had, I wouldn't of, if you understand what I mean: and then off she
+flings out the back door, and I heard her routin' round in the stable,
+and next thing out she comes with Pilot in the light wagon and off they
+go down the ro'd like Job's cat after a fish. That was two hours ago,
+and she ain't come back yet. I thought I'd step over----"
+
+"Where is John Tucker?" asked Madam Flynt.
+
+"Home sick, with the rheumatism. If he'd ben there, I don't know as I
+need to have troubled you; not that he has much sense, but still he has
+_some_. Hark! there! I do believe--yes'm, there she is; just turnin'
+into the yard. Thanks be! I must hasten back."
+
+"You are a good soul, Sarepta Darwin!" Madam Flynt spoke with feeling.
+"You were very right to come over. Get Kitty to come in and see me in
+the morning, will you? Make some errand, so she won't know----"
+
+"Yes'm, I will! I'll borry an egg or something; thank _you_, Madam
+Flynt! Good-night!"
+
+Kitty, dancing into the kitchen half an hour later, found a grim figure
+sitting bolt upright, reading a religious paper of austere appearance.
+Her gay "Supper, please, Sarepta!" was rewarded with the information
+that there was no supper that Sarepta knew of. Supper was at six
+o'clock; if folks were here, they'd get it; if they preferred to get
+their victuals elsewhere, it was no concern of hers that she knew of.
+Kitty opened wide eyes.
+
+"Oh! Excuse me for living!" she said. "Am I so _very_ late? The
+moonlight is so heavenly, Sarepta, I think I was very good to come in at
+all; and of course I had to see to those Lambs before I had my own
+supper. John Tucker wanted to send Timmy over, but I wouldn't let him; I
+love to put them to bed once in a while. But no matter, Sarepta. I'll
+find a doughnut and some milk; don't bother. I'm not really hungry!"
+
+Kitty's hand was on the buttery door when Sarepta intervened with a
+truly awful aspect.
+
+"When you wish me to go, Kitty Ross, you can say so and I will. While I
+stay, I calc'late to attend to things in this kitchen. You go into the
+sittin'-room and I'll bring you a tray."
+
+The tray, when brought, displayed a most tempting little meal: creamed
+chicken, buttered scones, cocoa and strawberry jam; but for once Kitty
+seemed hardly conscious of the good things. She looked up as if in a
+dream, her eyes soft and dewy.
+
+"Are you very cross, Sarepta?" she asked. "I'm sorry I was late."
+
+"Humph!" Sarepta apparently extremely cross, and busy setting down the
+tray.
+
+"Don't you love me?" asked the girl, as she had been used to ask when
+she was six and wanted an extra cooky. No answer being returned, Kitty
+came out of her dream, her own alert, thoughtful self; looked and saw
+the grim lips quivering, the workworn hands trembling as they hovered
+about the tray.
+
+"Sarepta!" Kitty sprang up, threw her arms round the neck of her
+faithful friend, and whispered three words in her ear.
+
+"So you see!" she said.
+
+Sarepta Darwin threw her apron over her head and departed, to hurry up
+to her room and lock her door. For this time, Sarepta _was_ crying, and
+no one must ever know it. The idea!
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI
+
+                       THE TRIBULATIONS OF CYRUS
+
+
+The matter came up at Bygoods', next morning, and was discussed with due
+gravity and decorum: present, Miss Almeria behind the counter, Messrs.
+Mallow and Jordano in front of it; Mr. Bygood in his wheel-chair,
+enjoying a little Society in the front shop, before retiring to the
+slumbrous calm of the back. To these were soon added the Messrs. Jebus,
+who had been alarmed by a sudden incursion of Sharpes the night before,
+heralding the proximate over-running of Cyrus by dissolute nobles
+"cracking their whips round our ears and driving their wheels _over our
+bodies_ if something isn't done about it!"
+
+Mr. Josiah, in anxious squeaks, wanted to know what all this _meant_;
+hey? He was all upset; he didn't know as he could match his silks, this
+kind of thing going on; his hand fairly shook. They claimed Ruby Caddie
+had taken to her bed: was that so?
+
+"It is so!" Miss Almeria inclined her head gravely. "Ruby is quite
+prostrated. My sister is with her, Pearl, of course, being unable to
+leave the Bank. It is very unfortunate, Mr. Jebus. The sanctity of the
+Office has been violated, you see, and Ruby feels it keenly. It was not
+in any way her fault: an unpardonable indiscretion----"
+
+"What I say is," Mr. Mallow broke in,--"excuse me for interruptin', Miss
+Bygood; what I say is, that woman ought to be taken and _ducked_, sir!
+ducked in the hoss-pond for a common cormorant! She is a dirigo, that's
+what she is! a dirigo, sir!" (Mr. Mallow meant termagant and virago, but
+it did not matter; everybody understood.)
+
+"Doubtless! doubtless!" Mr. Jordano waved his note-book anxiously. "Most
+ill-judged! most unfortunate-tate-tate! But as to the--if I may borrow a
+legal expression, the _corpus delicti_; as to the alleged message
+itself. Is that, does Miss Bygood consider, correctly reported? No
+indiscreeto, I beg to assure you! But if it _has_ been made
+public--there seem to be two reports current, which in a measure
+conflict-tict-tict. Is it permissible to ask which is the
+correct--a--version?"
+
+Miss Almeria pondered a moment, conscious that all eyes were fixed
+eagerly upon her.
+
+"As the message _has_ been made public," she said at last, "though
+feloniously so, feloniously so, I must consider----" she bowed to a
+general murmur of assent from the company--"it is perhaps best to be
+sure that it is correctly given. The words of the message were these:
+'_Coming; coach and six: Duke_.' So much our friend, Miss Caddie,
+admits. As to the precise meaning of the message, she declines to
+express an opinion; very properly, in my judgment."
+
+"Oh, quite so! quite so!" murmured Mr. Jordano.
+
+"Very discreeto, I am sure. Hers not to reason why, hers but to do
+and--which we sincerely hope that estimable lady will refrain from--"
+Mr. Jordano became involved, and flourished the note-book nervously.
+
+"Question is, what in hemp does it _mean_?" broke in Mr. Mallow again.
+"I beg you'll excuse me, Miss Bygood; that darned tattle-tale has got me
+all worked up; but I want to get to the bottom of this. Does it mean
+that the feller is _comin_' that way, drivin' six hosses--three pair,
+that would be, I presume--he wouldn't drive that number tantrum, most
+likely--because if it does, I'd have to get extry help, you see, Miss
+Almery. Or would he bring his own help with him, think? A Dook is next
+to a king, isn't he? Did you ever see a Dook, Mr. Bygood?"
+
+Mr. Bygood, as was well known, had made several voyages in his early
+manhood, in the mystic character of ship's husband, and had visited
+Foreign Parts. All eyes turned on the old gentleman, who beamed gently
+through his spectacles. No, he had never seen a duke; that is, never in
+life, sir! He had seen the statue of the Duke of Wellington, in Hyde
+Park, London, England; it was considered very fine, he believed: very
+fine. A work of art, sir!
+
+Mr. Jason Jebus, whose contribution to the conversation had been
+hitherto a running commentary of squeaks, now became articulate.
+
+"I was in to Abram Hanks's just now to get me some lahstic for my
+boots--" (have I said that the partners wore elastic-sided Congress
+boots? They did; the difference between right and left was less obvious
+in these than in other boots, and Mr. Jason always wore out Mr. Josiah's
+left boots, which did not fit the club foot)--"and _he_claimed
+the--individual--was comin' by rail, and wanted some one should meet him
+at the deepo with a coach and six horses. Cissy Sharpe told him, he
+said."
+
+"Good reason for believin' 'tain't so!" snorted Mr. Mallow.
+
+"Abram didn't let on he felt anyways sure of it," Mr. Jason continued.
+"He thought mebbe he'd dress up his window a mite on the
+chance--strangers, you know--and I didn't know but what I would. Like to
+have 'em see a tasty window, if they _should_ come. Like to have Cyrus
+stores make as good appearance as any. Josiah has a handsome centrepiece
+just com----"
+
+"Now! now!" Mr. Josiah put in testily. "Don't you go runnin' away with
+no notions, Jason! I ain't said I was willin' to put that piece in the
+winder, and I don't know as I am. There's consid'able blue in it, and
+blue won't stand a winder light, it perishes right out. Come on! we must
+be goin'. Give you good mornin', neighbors!"
+
+Mr. Josiah stumped off, Mr. Jason twittering at his heels. Mr. Mallow
+looked after them with a tolerant smile.
+
+"Now Jason will put in the day," he said, "publishin' up that winder.
+Start him and Abram Hanks, and we shall have the whole Street dandied up
+like Decoration Day. I guess the Mallow House will stay pretty much as
+it is, Dook or no Dook." (Oh, Mr. Mallow! Mr. Mallow! as if Hannah
+Sullivan were not at work at this moment "cleaning" your spotless paint,
+while Billy polishes the shining silver!) "I guess what suits the
+Boarders'll do for him, what say?"
+
+"Indeed, yes, Mr. Mallow!" Miss Almeria cast a kind glance on "the Mine
+Host." "The Mallow House is always the perfection of order and taste.
+You would put him in the Bird of Paradise Room, I presume?"
+
+"Yes'm; that is, I think so!" Mr. Mallow's brow was thoughtful. "It's
+the largest room, and the handsomest, most think. Me and Billy was
+lookin' things over this mornin'. He didn't know but the Castle Room
+would be the most suitable;" (the Mallow House rooms were named from the
+patterns of their wall-paper) "you know I put a _re_source in there last
+fall, kind o' balcove like, and he thought set the bed inside that,
+'twould have the look of two rooms; but I don't know! Nor I don't know
+as we've got this matter rightly settled," he added with a laugh, "which
+way this feller is comin', if he _is_ comin'. It may be all folderido,
+some fool kid monkeyin' with the telegraph, thinkin' he's all-fired
+smart. How 'bout that, Very?"
+
+Mr. Jordano, on reflection, thought that improbable. The message was not
+such as a boy would be likely to invent: besides, the distance--he
+understood California was the source----
+
+At this point Mr. Bygood, who had been dozing in his chair, looked up.
+"What does Kitty say?" he asked calmly.
+
+The others looked at each other.
+
+"Dear Father," said Miss Almeria gently; "under all the circumstances,
+it would be hardly suitable, I fear, to----"
+
+Mr. Mallow colored high and cleared his throat nervously. "That's
+right!" he said. "That's right, Miss Bygood. I--I met Kitty this
+mornin', on my way down: I forgot to mention it. I didn't _say_
+anything, you understand: I only just threw it off, jokin' like. 'Well,
+Kitty,' I says. 'How's the British this mornin'?' She looks at me,
+Doctor all over; astonishin' the way she'll call him up sometimes.
+'Pretty well, Mr. Mallow,' she says. 'As well as can be expected after
+Bunker Hill,' she says. We shan't get anything out of Kitty."
+
+It was finally decided, Miss Almeria voicing the general opinion, that
+the less said about the momentous telegram the better. The dignity of
+Cyrus would be compromised by taking any notice of tidings received in a
+manner "equally irregular and reprehensible." Miss Almeria bent her
+handsome head at its severest angle.
+
+"I am confident, dear friends," she concluded, "that silence is the
+only--shall I say attitude?--worthy of Cyrus in this emergency."
+
+"Oh, quite so! quite so!" murmured Mr. Jordano with forlorn nobility.
+"You point us the skyward way, Miss Almeria, as ever!"
+
+"That's right!" said Mr. Mallow. "Silence and Cyrus: both begin with C.
+Guess we can get along, even if he don't come at all, what say? Shall we
+toddle, Very? Good mornin', Mr. Bygood! mornin', Miss Bygood, and thank
+you kindly!"
+
+John Tucker was perhaps the only person in Cyrus who knew nothing of the
+fateful telegram. He was having a suffering time, poor John, with
+rheumatism. He had struggled valiantly against it through the long
+winter and the perilous combination of extremes that we call spring in
+New England. He had managed to keep the knowledge of his ailment from
+Kitty, and had gone to the station in all weathers, steadfastly refusing
+to allow her to meet "them pesky trains." Now, however, when "the season
+of snows and sins" was over, and summer was here with her lap full of
+roses, the enemy clutched John Tucker in an iron grip and held him fast.
+He struggled out every day, and crept over to Ross House, where he sat,
+in stable or harness room, directing his son Tim, who did his
+fourteen-year-old best, but found "Pa" hard to satisfy. Tim felt fully
+equal to driving Old Crummles, or even Dan, to meet the trains, but was
+bidden briefly to "shut up" when he volunteered to do so. Kitty was all
+eagerness to drive herself, but John's face of misery at the suggestion
+smote her heart, and she engaged Amos Barrell, the blacksmith's stalwart
+son, to perform this duty, and to help in the stable when more help was
+needed. Amos was usually a silent youth, with little more to say than
+"Yep" and "Nope" and "That so?" but about this time he became
+conversational, not to say inquisitive. He wanted to know if they was
+any coaches in town. What was that big wagon there all kivered up? Was
+that a coach? Warn't? Well, he didn't hardly think--some said there was
+a coach in the stable out to Gaylords'. Was it sold, think, or was it
+there yet? Gramp said there used to be one to the Maller House when he
+was a boy, but he never heard of their puttin' more'n four hosses to it,
+Gramp said. Gramp allowed mebbe----
+
+"Shut up!" said John Tucker. "Know what that means?"
+
+Visitors came to the harness room, as usual; more than usual, in fact.
+John Tucker, his bones like red-hot iron within him, thought they came
+like grasshoppers in a hayfield. Orison Wesley sidled in, lank and
+lantern-jawed; sat upon a keg and sympathized with John's sufferings. He
+knew what 'twas; ketched you in the small of your back--gorry! he
+guessed he'd used a case of Carter's Chlorodyne Liniment last winter.
+The woman just slabbed it on; slabbed it on, sir. That was right; you
+wanted something that s'arched your vitals.
+
+"How many hosses you drivin' now, Tucker?"
+
+"I ain't drivin' none!" growled John, one eye on the clock.
+
+"That's right! but I mean when you have your health? Lemme see! You've
+got three here, ain't you?"
+
+John grunted assent.
+
+"Drive 'em single mostly, do ye? Ever hitch 'em up together?"
+
+What ye mean? Three hosses together? No! did ever you go up to the
+Asylum? Well, I wouldn't if I was you; they mightn't let you out again."
+
+Mr. Wesley swayed to and fro on the keg, chuckling slowly. He could make
+allowances for a man's being a mite crotchetty with the rheumatiz.
+Besides, he had not got the information he sought.
+
+"Ever drive more than three?" he droned on. "Ever drive six hosses,
+Tucker?"
+
+John Tucker rose slowly and painfully, creaking in every joint.
+
+"I've drove six jackasses," he said. "I drove 'em out of this stable.
+S'pose you foller 'em, Orison, and see where they've got to by this
+time! I'm goin' home to supper."
+
+At the "Chantery," great excitement prevailed. The girls were all
+a-twitter, speculating on the probable age of the expected nobleman, his
+appearance--("He ought to be dark, of course, to contrast; and dark is
+so much more aristo----." "My _dear_! how absurd! every duke I ever
+_read_ of was pure Saxon, with blue or gray eyes and fair hair swept
+back from a marble--")--the the probable date of his advent.
+
+"My _dear_! he may be here to-morrow; just _think_! what _shall_ we say
+to him? Will he expect us to curtsey, do you suppose?"
+
+Thus Zephine, the least sensible of the girls.
+
+"Well, we won't!" said Nelly stoutly. Nelly was engaged to Joe Myers
+now, and was not afraid of all the Dukes in creation. "I'll tell you
+what, girls! Kitty is coming to supper to-night: I asked her this
+morning. Mother, you said there would be plenty, didn't you? We'll ask
+her right out. I'm sure we know her well enough!"
+
+"Ask what?" Mr. Chanter spoke abruptly, looking up from his
+_Congregationalist_. That was the most singular thing about Pa; you
+never could tell when he wouldn't hear, though generally you might
+discuss the most thrilling events in the (Cyrus) world without his
+taking the slightest notice.
+
+"Ask what?" repeated the Reverend Timothy.
+
+"Lor, Pa! how you startled us! Ask Kitty about this duke, or whatever he
+is, who is coming to see her. She is coming to supper to-night, and
+Nelly is going to ask her all about him, right straight out, and about
+the coach and six, and all."
+
+"Nelly will do nothing of the sort." Mr. Chanter spoke with calm
+decision. "Kitty knows her own affairs; if she has anything to tell us,
+she will; if not, it is none of our business."
+
+"Quite right!" nodded Mrs. Chanter over her basket. "Suppose we finish
+the stockings, girls! you will each want a whole pair to receive the
+Duke in, you know; perhaps Pa will read us a chapter of 'Pickwick' while
+we work."
+
+What was to be done with parents like these? "Wax nine times out of
+ten," whispered Zephine to Lina, "and the tenth time cast iron with a
+twinkle!"
+
+Kitty came to supper, looking so lovely that even these friends, who
+knew and loved her beauty so well, marveled at it. The girls worshiped
+openly; Rodney and Aristides heaved furtive sighs and cast shy glances
+over their cocoa-cups. The elders noticed with silent joy that a little
+pallor, a little drawn look about the sweet mouth, a little dark line
+under the eyes, that had troubled their kind hearts, was gone from the
+girl's face. She bloomed like one of her own June roses; her eyes shot
+gay sparkles; her laughter sounded every note of joyous mirth--but alas!
+for the girls! she said no word of dukes or coaches. At parting she
+kissed Mrs. Chanter with special warmth, and lingered a moment at the
+door looking at her host with shining eyes. "Would you mind if I kissed
+you, too?" she asked: and Mr. Chanter went back to his books with
+blurred spectacles and a lump in his throat. But Kitty made Rodney, her
+proud escort, race her all the way home, and honestly, he had no idea a
+girl could sprint like that.
+
+Madam Flynt? That lady kept her own counsel in these days. She refused a
+visit from Mrs. Sharpe, sending word that she was specially engaged. So
+she was, up in her room, looking over her jewel-case, selecting certain
+emeralds, and being very short with Miss Croly, who deemed it her duty
+to touch lightly on the unwisdom (she did not say folly: the word would
+be discourteous!) of persons in later life wearing other than the
+simpler forms of jewelry. A chaste gold brooch, now----
+
+It was intimated that when the lady's opinion was desired it would be
+asked for, and the friends parted--for half an hour.
+
+Mrs. Sharpe, failing of entrance at Madam Flynt's, rang at the door of
+Ross House; continued to ring at intervals, for fifteen minutes, Kitty
+being out; finally went round to the back door and knocked. The door was
+opened three inches by Sarepta, a figure of granite.
+
+"Oh, how do you do, Sarepta?" thus Mrs. Sharpe in honeyed tones. "I
+think the front door bell must be out of order. I've been ringing and
+ringing! Kitty at home?"
+
+Kitty out: not likely to return before night. Sarepta attempted to close
+the door, but the visitor slipped an adroit foot into the opening.
+
+"How well you're looking, Sarepta! I declare I think I must come in and
+make _you_ a little visit, he! he!"
+
+She tried to push the door, wider, but it was held in an iron grip;
+Sarepta, apparently, had not heard her remark.
+
+"Ahem!" Mrs. Sharpe tried a new tack. "Expecting visitors, are you,
+Sarepta?"
+
+"Not as I know of!"
+
+"Oh, I understand! _a_ visitor, I should have said. It's always well to
+be exact. Well, all I called for was to say, if you wanted to _borrow_
+anything, silver or the like of that, I hope you'll come to me, Sarepta.
+Mr. Sharpe was part English, you know; his grandfather came from the
+Provinces, and of course I'm acquainted with English ways. Perhaps I'd
+better come in and talk it over----"
+
+"Excuse me! _My bread is in the oven!_" said Sarepta Darwin.
+
+The door closed on a shriek.
+
+"I scrouged her toe _good_!" Sarepta told Madam Flynt that night. "She
+bellered right out, and I was glad."
+
+Perhaps the most complete summing up of the situation was given that
+evening by Miss Almeria Bygood as she sat with her sister over nine
+o'clock supper, that pleasant meal that still lingers in blessed Cyrus,
+where we dine at half-past twelve and sup at five or six. Molly had
+brought in the tray and drawn up the little round table between the two
+ladies as they sat with their feet on the embroidered fender-stool.
+(There was no fire, but they always sat there in the evening.) Pretty
+Molly, crisp and trim in her light print dress! Miss Bygoods did not
+hold with putting maids in black, especially young maids. "Why should
+they be made to ape the semblance of sorrow?" Miss Almeria asked with
+dignity. "We trust our service is not so arduous as to cause them the
+reality!"
+
+They were talking of the duke, of course, over their cocoa and sponge
+drops: who, save Kitty and John Tucker, talked of anything else in this
+week of the Tribulations of Cyrus? They wondered, hoped, feared,
+wondered again. Would they lose their Kitty, the rose and jewel of their
+little world? Would this great nobleman carry her off, if not on his
+horse (Miss Egeria knew nothing of strong men from the north!) at least
+in his coach and six? Thus Miss Egeria, trembling, romantic.
+
+Surely not, Miss Almeria replied gravely. A sense of propriety would
+assuredly not be wanting in a person of such lofty position. At the same
+time, it was most unfortunate that Johanna and Edward were absent.
+
+"Most unfortunate!" Miss Egeria sighed. "Not only for the--the
+suitability of it, of course, in every way, but--well, Sister, Johanna
+has such an air, such knowledge of the world; and Edward is such an
+elegant man! I am sure the duke would not anywhere meet finer manners,
+and we would wish him to see Cyrus at its best!"
+
+"Dear Sister!" Miss Almeria laid her slender hand, with its antique but
+costly rings, gently on Miss Egeria's cashmere sleeve; "have no fears on
+_that_ score! there at least, if nowhere else, we may feel secure. In
+matters of courtesy and breeding--with one or two exceptions----" Miss
+Almeria closed her eyes; "Cyrus is _always_ at its best!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXII
+
+                            THE DUKE OF LEE
+
+
+During the week that followed Cyrus was deeply impressed by the
+importance of fresh air and exercise. It walked abroad, at all hours of
+the day. Young Cyrus scoured the six roads that centred in the happy
+village, hung over fences, scanning the countryside, loitered about the
+station at train time. Mature Cyrus was genteelly busy in its front
+garden, tying up rose-bushes and removing (in gloves!) rose-beetles.
+Young and old alike found much business to be done in the Street. Abram
+Hanks drove a brisk trade in spools of thread and other small wares. Now
+and then something unusual was asked for, as when Nelly Chanter wanted
+some white mull, for a purpose unspecified.
+
+"No, I ain't got any!" Mr. Hanks's tone expressed injury. "I had some,
+but them folks that was at the hotel last summer bought it all out on
+me!"
+
+There was a positive run on Cheeseman's candy store; Uncle Ivory was
+almost annoyed by it. "Look at here, Sty!" he said one morning. "'Pears
+to me you've eat all the toffee that's likely to agree with you real
+good. That pan was full yesterday, and now look at it! I can't make it
+every day, you know. You ask the girls to make you up a pan of molasses
+at home, if you have to _have_ any more!"
+
+Aristides Chanter did feel that he needed special sustenance in the way
+of sweets. He knew, in his sixteen-year-old heart, that no one loved
+Kitty as he did; and now that Bobby was engaged to Melissa--well, Rod
+was only two years older; he didn't see but he had full as good a
+right--and anyhow, Rod was at college, and if this fellow was coming,
+Kitty's friends ought to be on the lookout for him; he might be an
+impostor, like the Ducal Decoy in that bloodhound yarn. Anyhow, it was
+awful poky hanging about the station, waiting for every train. Pa
+wouldn't let a fellow smoke, and a fellow must do _something_!
+
+There was one person who haunted the station even more persistently than
+Aristides; this was Wilson Wibird. Wilson had become a rather deplorable
+figure in these days. He had resented bitterly Kitty's treatment of him
+on the occasion described in a previous chapter; he had also been badly
+frightened. Mr. Jordano might be a thought fantastic in certain aspects,
+but he was not a man to be trifled with; the stern admonition with which
+he had dismissed Wilson that day still rang in the ears of the rejected
+lover.
+
+"Keep out of that lady's way-tay-tay, or it will be the worse for
+you-too-too!"
+
+Wilson cowered under "Italio's" fiery glance, and slunk away, muttering
+curses that he dared not breathe aloud.
+
+Uncle Marshall had been equally severe, on hearing from his friend of
+the occurrence. He told his nephew plainly that if ever he heard of his
+pestering Kitty Ross again he would not only discharge him on the spot,
+but would flounce (trounce) him till he couldn't tell whether he was a
+bluenette or a blondin.
+
+Nor were these threats the only ones that rankled in Wilson's mind.
+Bobby Chanter, now one of the family, disapproved entirely of his
+manners and customs in the bosom of that family, especially of his
+bearing toward his sister. Kind soul that Bobby was, he would not make
+trouble for poor Mrs. Wibird: he knew what mothers were; his blue eyes
+softened at the thought. He merely intimated to Wilson "on the quiet"
+that from now on he, Wilson, would be civil and pleasant-spoken to
+Melissa, and would bring in coal and kindling wood for his mother, or
+he, Bobby, would know the reason why.
+
+Smarting under these manifold injuries, Wilson sought consolation
+where--alas! he was in the habit of seeking it; but the cupboard bottle
+held no exhilaration for him nowadays. He grew more and more sullen,
+more and more morose, brooding over his wrongs. With limpet tenacity--I
+beg his pardon! with Iron Will--he still clung to the idea of marriage
+with Kitty, of the mastership of Ross House; but now he conjured up
+lurid pictures of the methods by which the conquest was to be obtained.
+His path might lie through Blood!
+
+"I would wade through seas of it to conquer you, proud woman!" he hissed
+through his teeth, scowling desperately at the mirror. He thought he
+looked rather like Lucifer. He saw his uncle and that "dastard
+scribbler," as he mentally termed Mr. Jordano, lying with faces turned
+to the sky, a ghastly wound in their temples, from which the life blood
+welled. As for Billy--Wilson ground his teeth. Billy had "held him up"
+only that morning: held him by the collar with one hand and searched him
+with the other, confiscating the pocket-lurking bottle, and dismissing
+him with a friendly kick and "Better look out! better give up! goin' to
+the dogs, and no decent pup would look at you!"
+
+The news of the expected advent of the "Duke," coming like a
+thunderclap, caused Wilson's cup of bitterness to overflow. On hearing
+it (Lissy came in full of the tidings. Wasn't it wonderful? Kitty
+deserved _everything_, of course, though Lissy understood the
+Aristocracy was commonly small and plain-looking. She didn't believe he
+would wear a coronet outside his hat, like they said; the idea!), Wilson
+retired to his room and locked the door. He would have double-locked it,
+as they did in stories, but did not know how.
+
+This was the end! he intimated to the mirror. To live defeated,
+disgraced, robbed of his rights, or to pass in blood and flame,
+_perchance not alone_! He summoned up the scene. The train dashing into
+the station (Wilson leaned to the theory of arrival by train), the proud
+scion of an effete aristocracy alighting to find John Tucker perched on
+top of a "Tally Ho" with six spanking thoroughbreds tossing their heads
+and champing the bit. A fair, false face looks out of the coach window;
+a white, traitress hand waves. At that instant a slender Form springs
+forward with gesture of command. "Stay! one word--the last! Katrine,
+farewell! I go, but _not alone_!"
+
+Two shots ring out. A shriek, a puff of smoke: two forms lie side by
+side, on the platform, and an agonizing woman flings herself on the
+bleeding breast of the last Wilson Wimberley Wibird--_too late!_
+
+It sounds ludicrous: it was tragic. Weak minds can be desperate as well
+as strong ones, and poor Wilson, between drink and diseased vanity, was
+very near the edge of mania. So he hung about the station at every train
+hour; haggard, sodden, miserable; and really, the wonder is that no
+tragedy came of it. One might so easily have come, had it not been for
+that blessed rain.
+
+The farmers had been saying for a month that what we wanted now was a
+nice warm rain. We got it, at the end of this week. It rained, and
+rained, and rained; one day, two days, three days. Not in showers or
+spurts, but in a steady, even downpour, without haste and without rest.
+For the first day, Cyrus held out bravely, tied up its roses and sped on
+its errands in waterproof and umbrella, hung about the station in
+mackintosh and rubber boots. The second day, the elders stayed indoors,
+looking anxiously out of window, listening eagerly for sound of hoofs or
+wheels; only young Cyrus patrolled the Street, and hung about the
+station. By evening of the third day, pretty much everybody had
+abandoned the Quest of the Duke, collective Cyrus expressing the opinion
+that no duke that ever was hatched was worth spoiling all your clothes
+and getting pneumonia for. It was on the evening of this third day that
+John Tucker gave up and took to his bed, his rheumatism taking an
+inflammatory turn. Kitty, alarmed at his condition, sent Amos Barrell
+off to Tinkham for Dr. Pettijohn, with rash orders not to come back
+without him. Amos found the doctor out of town, not to return till nine
+o'clock; obeyed orders, bestowed Dan in the livery-stable, and went to
+the "Movies." Briefly, when the 8:30 train was due, it was Kitty and
+Pilot who met it.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+Number 47 was an express train, the pride of the Road; it was making its
+usual speed, and confidently expected to arrive "on the dot" at Cyrus
+and every other station on the line; nevertheless, to one passenger on
+board, Number 47 seemed the very limit of slowness. The tall
+broad-shouldered young man who sat in the furthest seat forward, elbows
+on knees, chin in hands, was deep in thought through most of the
+journey, but as eight o'clock drew near he waxed impatient. Call this an
+express train? If he ever let an accommodation--or a freight for that
+matter--crawl at this rate over any road _he_ had anything to do
+with--good-night! Stopping at every back yard! to pick up the milk cans,
+he supposed! He fumed, looked at his watch (front and back: the latter
+seemed to interest him most, though the bright face that smiled at him
+from a kodak print had little to say about time), then plunged in
+thought again. Did she look like that now? he wondered. Had she changed
+much in these three years? Three years! it was a breath--it was an
+eternity!
+
+"_My soul! What if she--what if somebody else_----"
+
+He sprang up as if something had stung him; recollected himself, with a
+startled glance around him; met the interested gaze of a Vassar freshman
+across the aisle; sat down and with a shrug of his broad shoulders
+settled into his reverie again. Nonsense! that kind of girl--there was
+only one of the kind--wouldn't forget in three years, nor in thirteen.
+That last look she gave him, standing at the gate--he paused, letting
+the thought of it curl warm about his heart, sent the blood pulsing up
+into his ears. Beautiful ears, the Vassar freshman thought; they were
+all she could see now over his coat collar, except the thick crop of
+hay-colored hair. Kitty used to say that when the Cyrus hay-crop failed
+they could fall back on Tom's hair, and then she would quote with her
+own delicious twinkle, "Good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow!"
+
+If she had changed, Tom told himself severely, it could only be for the
+better. She was a woman now, his little girl: his little dancing
+gentlewoman of high quality. He hummed a tune between his teeth;
+whistled it; hummed it again. A quaint tune, with no special beginning
+or ending. A gentleman in the seat behind him became restive, shot
+irritated glances in his direction; was on the point of remonstrating
+when the tune ceased. The young man, glancing up, had caught a glimpse
+of himself in a wall mirror. Talk about change! what would Kitty say to
+him?
+
+He stared straight into the wide-apart gray-blue eyes with their thick
+short lashes like a black fringe; noted the three deep lines ruled
+straight across the broad forehead; scrutinized the curious scar on the
+left cheek. "Well, you _are_ a show!" muttered Tom.
+
+Of course he couldn't help the scar; well, he couldn't help any of it,
+for that matter; but she might like to know about the scar. They almost
+got him that time! It was rum, that particular tribe taking a round
+piece out of an enemy's cheek and stringing 'em on a necklace to hang
+round the joss's neck. Gee! that was a close shave! His eyes narrowed,
+seeing strange things through their thick lashes. A camp in a mountain
+pass, snowbound; food gone, water low. Lowering faces of yellow men,
+huddled round a fire, casting evil looks at the two, the white man and
+his faithful "boy," guarding the water skin. Then the rush, five against
+two; the daggers gleaming, the wild cries, the shots--how the echoes
+went battering back and forth between the rock walls! then the shriek,
+the fall--Tom shut his eyes, and drew a quick breath. He was a kindly
+man. It was an ugly sight, that figure pitching headlong over the edge,
+its yellow robes fluttering back like the wings of some great swooping
+bird--bah!
+
+"I _had_ to kill him!" said Tom. "He almost got me, and anyway we
+couldn't have managed but four. All the same," he added, his eyes still
+on the bronzed face in the glass, "it is not precisely a ducal
+countenance that will greet you, Kitty my dear. Will you mind very much?
+You shall have the silks and satins all right, little girl.
+
+    "'38 for to wear,
+    And a coach and six for to take the air.'"
+
+(I wonder what I shall find at the station: Flanagan, I suppose, with
+the 'speed hoss.' I'll walk, if it holds up a bit.)
+
+    "'And she shall drive in St. James's Square,
+    And no lady in the city shall with her compare--'"
+
+"_Oxcuse me, sair!_"
+
+Tom started, and turned in his seat, to behold a bearded and spectacled
+person of studious appearance, quivering with some strong emotion.
+
+"I beg pardon?"
+
+The gentleman's aspect relaxed slightly: Tom's speaking voice was of
+delightful quality, cordial and musical.
+
+"Oxcuse me, sair!" the bearded one repeated. "I am a musician!"
+
+Tom bowed slightly. "Awfully jolly, I'm sure!" he murmured. "Must be an
+interesting profession."
+
+"Zat air zat you sing," the gentleman continued, "it is _nossing_: but
+nossing at all! it is no composeetion! _ça m'agace les nerfs, jusqu' à
+la frénesie_----"
+
+"_Mille pardons, Monsieur!_"
+
+Tom spoke excellent French. He was extremely sorry to have offended a
+musical ear; he was humming unconsciously. He explained that the air was
+an ancient one: an old English folk-song and dance.
+
+"Ah!" the clouded brow cleared instantly. English! that explained
+itself. A great nation, but unmusical. Still, the song of the people,
+that revealed the heart; he in return asked a thousand pardons. Let
+Monsieur, he begged, continue to carol the artless chant of our Saxon
+neighbor highly respected. He begged, he insisted. Come, then! Let us
+hear the little air! it might--who knew?--be arranged----
+
+"Tinkham!" shouted the brakeman.
+
+The musician rose precipitately. His station! he was desolated to
+conclude an acquaintance so auspiciously begun. He gave piano lessons in
+Tinkham! His card: M. Anatole Beaulieu. _Peutêtre_----
+
+"_Au plaisir, Monsieur!_"
+
+Tom sat down laughing. "Five minutes more, and we should have been
+swearing eternal friendship and singing the 'Marseillaise.' Nice little
+fellow! give me the Caucasian every time! Only ten minutes now! I wonder
+if she'll like----"
+
+Mr. Lee cast a surreptitious glance around him. There were very few
+people in the car now, and nobody was paying any attention to him. (The
+Vassar freshman had got out, with a backward glance.) He furtively drew
+from an inside pocket a small case, and inspected its contents. It
+certainly was a good stone: _vieille roche_, the Peking jeweler assured
+him, and he believed it. The setting was good, too; he thought she would
+like the setting. Of course nothing was good enough for Kitty, but----
+
+"Ticket, please!"
+
+Tom started, and looked up to meet the keen, quizzical gaze of a pair of
+extremely intelligent brown eyes.
+
+"Some ring!" said the conductor. "Likely to give satisfaction, I should
+judge. Coming events cast their shadows before, what? Getting out at
+Cyrus, ain't you?"
+
+Blushing absurdly for such a big brown creature, Tom handed over his
+ticket and pocketed the ring.
+
+"I dare say you know how it is yourself!" he said with a half-laugh.
+
+"Bet your life! married mine last fall. Wish you--_suffering Moses_! if
+this isn't Tom Lee, you may toast and butter me and I won't say one
+word. Well, well, well! you _are_ a stranger! 'Member Bunty Jackson over
+to Tupham? That's me!"
+
+Amid mutual greetings, friendly reminiscences, laughter and chaff, the
+train drew into Cyrus station, and Tom was bundled off, rather
+bewildered, with "Good luck, Tommy! see that you get her, and when
+you've _got_ her----"
+
+_Exit_ train: _manet_ Thomas Lee, portmanteau in hand, looking about him
+through a curtain of rain.
+
+It was raining harder than it had all day; the rain came sluicing down
+in torrents; it flowed like a stream along the gleaming platform: it
+poured off the sou'-wester of the oil-skin clad figure standing with one
+hand on the neck of a mighty good horse, Tom observed. No Flanagan
+there! Flanagan must be dead. "Cab?" he asked. The boy--looked like a
+boy: might be anything, muffled like that: Flanagan's son, perhaps?--for
+all reply opened the door of the carryall. Tom was about to step in,
+when a man, appearing suddenly from nowhere, jostled rudely against him,
+and tried to thrust past him into the carriage.
+
+"Here!" said Tom Lee. "Get out, will you? Where were you brought up?"
+
+He had a glimpse of a white, furious face, that was somehow familiar; of
+eyes glaring at him in what looked like insane rage: what had he run
+into? Next moment his nostrils dilated; he sniffed, inhaling a pungent
+odor. Whiskey! That explained all.
+
+"Poor devil thinks he's struck the patrol wagon!" he laughed. "Nothing
+like water to sober up on!" He put out his foot in a certain way he had
+learned in Japan; the intruder staggered and fell with a loud splash
+into the rain pool that had formed beside the platform.
+
+"Drive on!" said Tom Lee. "He's all right! Dr. Ross's, please!"
+
+It was a silent drive. Tom, full of his own thoughts, did not care to
+talk to Flanagan's boy or any other boy; his thoughts flew ahead on
+bright wings. Yet still his eyes took note through the dusk of rain of
+familiar objects. The full moon was behind the clouds, and mid-June
+evenings are never very dark. Here was the Street, empty and silent: who
+was night-watchman now, he wondered? What pranks he and Bobby Chanter
+used to play on big Andy Doolan! Bobby was a good sort. Tom hoped he was
+here still Ah! was that Cheeseman's? "Just wait, Uncle Ivory! I'll be
+down to-morrow, sure pop! What price molasses peppermints?"
+
+Up the hill now; ah! there was the Common! Tom's heart was beating fast.
+Those lights, straight across, were hers. Ah! here was his own house,
+dark and shuttered. Poor mother! dearest mother! she would be glad he
+was coming home, even if she was not here to welcome him. She loved
+Kitty like her own daughter. She knew the hope of his heart; it was her
+own, too, she told him so the night before she went away. The sweet Lady
+would be pleased, too: the lovely dark-lily lady, his second mother.
+Everybody would be pleased, he thought; if only Kitty herself could put
+up with a brown, wrinkled, carved-up anatomy like himself. "Kitty!
+Kitty, do you hear? I am coming!"
+
+The carriage stopped. The silent figure on the front seat swung lightly
+to the ground: the door was opened. A trembling voice spoke.
+
+"Will your Grace step out, or shall I bring a foot-stool? Tom! _Tom!
+don't_! not in the street, my dear! my dear!"
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII
+
+                         HASTE TO THE WEDDING!
+
+
+Well! that is really all. Tom had come home: those four little words
+hold the rest of Kitty Ross's story.
+
+    "The Duke of Lee
+    Would married be
+    To a gentlewoman of high quality."
+
+And
+
+    "How happy would that gentlewoman be
+    To be blessed with the Duke's good company!"
+
+But--the refrain begins with "Marry!" Will you hear about the wedding? I
+came on for it, of course: I would have come ten times as far. Of
+course, too, if Tom had had his way, the way of his first masculine dash
+for possession, he and Kitty would have been married the morning after
+his arrival, with Sarepta for sole witness; but Kitty was firm. It would
+never do: Cyrus's feelings would be hurt.
+
+"You don't know, darling, how perfectly angelic everybody has been to
+me, from the very moment I arrived. Why, Tom,--don't, dear! how _can_ I
+talk when you--why, all these angel people wanted me to come and _live_
+with them!" Kitty very large-eyed with affectionate gratitude.
+
+Tom opined it was like their impudence! and promptly repeated a
+manoeuvre considered by him highly original, which resulted in the total
+eclipse of Kitty, all except the top of her little fair head. They were
+sitting on the old leather sofa in the sitting-room. It was a short
+sofa, and Kitty now decreed that Tom was to sit at the further end, and
+stay there, unless he would behave and listen to her. He couldn't hear
+unless he held her hand--both hands? What nonsense! Well, then----
+
+"You see, dear! Cyrus is the blessedest place in the world, and the
+_only_ place to live in; but there aren't many--many _occasions_, you
+see, Tom. Now a wedding is an occasion! Aunt Johanna's was delightful,
+but it had to be very small, because the Judge--I mean Uncle
+Edward--can't _abide_ occasions."
+
+"No more can I," said Tom.
+
+"You'll have to abide them, sir! what are you a duke for, I should like
+to know? For me? That is no answer. Well--so--when I saw how
+disappointed they were--the Twinnies, and dear Miss Caddies, and the
+Chanter girls, and--oh, everybody except just the few people who _had_
+to be asked--I said then that if ever I _should_ be married--though I
+never expected to be then--I would have a Real Wedding, and ask
+Everybody! Oh, Tommy! you know I heard----" Here followed an account of
+Tom's reported marriage to the cattle king's widow, marble palace and
+all. Tom shouted with laughter.
+
+"Good old Mother Harris! Sixty years old, and weighs two hundred pounds;
+that is rich! She's married a Leigh all right: Tim, her head stockman.
+She's a good friend of mine, though, Kitty. Darling--Well, I _have_ to
+have just one, after being married to Aunt Harris. Go on, you little
+precious, precious----"
+
+"That's all!" said Kitty, demurely. "I want to have a Real Wedding, and
+to ask Everybody: Savory Bite and all, Tommy!"
+
+So she had, and so she did. Some of the neighbors thought they would
+wait for the return of Judge and Mrs. Peters in September: but these did
+not know Tom Lee. Tom sent a cable the morning after his arrival. "Marry
+Kitty. When? Lee." The answer flashed back: "To-morrow. Joy. Peters." So
+_that_ was all right.
+
+It was the Reallest Wedding that ever was. The day was made on purpose,
+of diamond and sapphire and much fine gold of June sunshine. The
+church--I beg its pardon! the meeting-house; the beloved white box with
+its beautiful spire, its square pews, its towering pulpit, its
+everything that a meeting-house should have--was trimmed with masses of
+white lilac and spiræa, till, as the _Centinel_ said next day, it was a
+Palace of Purity and a Temple of Troth. Madam Flynt gave the bride away;
+the dear bride, more lovely in her simple white gown than words can say.
+The bridegroom looked like Cortez the Conqueror, Miss Croly said: "So
+majestic, yet so affable, my love!" There were six bridesmaids in pink
+muslin; I myself, the three Chanters, Lissy Wibird, who was to be
+married next month, and--I wonder if anybody in the world except Kitty
+Ross would have asked Cissy Sharpe to stand up with her! We all
+protested, I am rather ashamed to remember; but Kitty said Cissy was a
+schoolmate just as much as the rest of us, and it would be unkind to
+leave her out; and I am bound to say it was the making over of Cissy,
+who really was pathetic in her adoration of Kitty ever after.
+
+Mr. Jordano was head usher, cloak and all, very superb; the others were
+Mr. Mallow and Billy and the three Chanters. I don't know which was
+prouder, the eldest usher, or the youngest. Each thought it preposterous
+for the other to figure in "such a caparison," as Mr. Mallow put it, but
+that did not matter. Sixty and sixteen, Kitty loved them both: loved
+everybody, and Tom loved them because she did. They even had qualms of
+conscience about Wilson Wibird: but Wilson had left town shortly before.
+
+Miss Croly played the wedding march, shedding so many happy tears that
+the notes were not all exactly right, but nobody minded; the choir sang,
+"The Voice That Breathed": Mr. Chanter kissed the bride; it was over,
+and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Lee came down the aisle, smiling greetings on
+either hand. Then who so glorious as John Tucker, sitting on the box of
+the barouche (the only one in Cyrus!) holding the reins over Dan and
+Pilot, who wondered why they were harnessed together, but comported
+themselves with perfect dignity? White cockade in his hat, white bow on
+his whip, white rosettes on the horses' ears, brand new white reins--who
+so glorious as John Tucker? Rheumatism? He never heard of such a thing!
+
+"Don't sit too straight, John!" said Tom. "You might strain your back!"
+
+Roars of laughter from John Tucker at this subtle jest. So, through the
+Street (in case anybody had not been able to get to the church; but
+apparently everybody had!) up the hill, round the Common in state, to
+the door of Ross House.
+
+And the door was opened by Sarepta, the faithful retainer, in her best
+dress, with tears in her faithful eyes? Nothing of the sort! If any one
+thought Sarepta could bother with doors to-day--no, Jenny couldn't
+either! Jenny could set the door open and then set down and beat them
+eggs. If folks didn't know enough to come in, they could stay out. The
+idea!
+
+So the door stood wide open, as indeed was its summer habit, and in came
+the happy pair, and after them trooped Cyrus, which had walked across
+the Common while they were driving round through the Street. _All_
+Cyrus! except dear Miss Anne Peace, who had whipped up the back stairs
+so as to be ready to "help off" in the ladies' dressing-room. Why, would
+any one have believed it? Savory Bite came! Tom had called on him, it
+afterward transpired, and told him that if he didn't come, he would find
+his kitchen painted green some fine morning. So here he was, to the
+amazement of all, in decent black, cracking his finger-joints, sidling
+off if any one spoke to him, but evidently enjoying himself in his way.
+He spent much of the time in the upper room where the presents were
+displayed: the most delightful presents that any one ever had, Kitty
+thought. Madam Flynt's emeralds were perhaps the most valuable, from a
+pecuniary point of view (if one excepted the jewels that Tom had been
+producing at intervals ever since his return) but just as precious in
+Kitty's eyes was the Lowestoft tea-set, hitherto the pride of "Miss
+Bygoods'" china cupboard; the pink lustre jug over which the Misses
+Caddie shed tears at parting (yet which they gave so gladly!) the
+unparalleled collection of "wipers," roller-towels, and dusters, all
+hemmed by Mr. Mallow's own hands and tied up in dozens with pink
+ribbons: the centrepiece which Mr. Josiah Jebus regarded as the
+"shay-dove" of his professional life.
+
+    "But meanwhile in the kitchen
+        Great deeds of arms were wrought;
+    There S'repta the Dictator,
+        And there Cheesemanius fought!"
+
+as Tom said. Uncle Ivory Cheeseman had asked the privilege of frosting
+the cakes; asked it of Sarepta as one potentate of another, conferring
+and asking honor. Sarepta, who had hitherto refused all offers of
+assistance save from Sarah and Abby Ann, accepted this: royalty received
+royalty; Uncle Ivory ranged through the kitchen like the Frost King in
+person. According to Sarepta, he frosted everything he could lay hands
+on.
+
+"My land!" she said. "I had to ketch him by the coat-tails to stop him
+from frosting the boned turkey! why, the man was fairly loony!"
+
+Mr. Cheeseman was not so "loony" but that he could appreciate the
+triumphs of a fellow-artist. I fancy he did not really mean to frost the
+boned turkey: he certainly hung over it in fervent admiration,
+pronouncing it a work of art, sir! When it came to the _café mousse_,
+words failed him. He cast several thoughtful glances at Sarepta and
+finally asked in a casual way if she had ever thought of changing her
+state.
+
+"No, I ain't!" said Sarepta.
+
+After another glance, he didn't know but she was wise, and expected a
+single life was more handy like when one was used to it.
+
+Well! the Olympian Banquet--I should say the wedding breakfast--was
+served, and was enjoyed as I cannot think any banquet ever was before.
+Mr. Mallow and Mr. Jordano made speeches, each in his own vein. The
+former said well! well! well! how about it? He expected if Kitty and Tom
+conjingled as well as what we and this dandy spread did, there wouldn't
+any _divorcee_ lawyer make his fortune out of _them_, what say? He, Mr.
+Mallow, wasn't no hand at speechifyin', we all knew that, but he wished
+'em joy--here the good man's voice quavered a little--and he looked to
+Mr. Jordano to speak up for him and the rest of us.
+
+Mr. Jordano rose with dignity, his cloak thrown back over one shoulder
+in his best style. (Yes, it _was_ funny to wear it at table, but he
+wanted to so dreadfully, I had not the heart to say "No!" when he
+consulted me!)
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen-ten-ten!" He swept a splendid circular bow. "On
+this auspicious occasion, when the ashes--I would say the spirits of our
+fathers look down from the azure empyrean to hallow this union; when I
+gaze upon the countenances of the bride in her radiant
+youth-tooth-tooth, and of the groom in the--a--stalwart pride of his
+manhood; when I see highly esteemed neighbors--I will venture to say
+_friends_--("Hear! Hear!" and applause) gathered in festal
+garb-barb-barb about a banquet so, so--_sumptuoso_, if I may use the
+language of sunny Italy, as to impart a truly Olympian flavor to the
+occasion; I cannot but feel, in the words of the poet, the heart in my
+dumb breast flutter and sing-ting-ting. No poet, but a humble worshiper
+at the shrine of the Muses, I have ventured to--a--shall I say
+crystallize these flutterings--into----" Mr. Jordano produced a paper
+from beneath his cloak--"into the following brief roundelay." And
+clearing his throat nervously, the paper trembling in his fingers, the
+dear gentleman read as follows:
+
+    "A simple scribe, I yet imbibe
+        Of Helicon a draught,
+    And pray that doom o'er bride and groom
+        The airs of Eden waft!
+    Ay! may they capture of wedded rapture
+        A homogeneous whole,
+    Good angels shedding upon their wedding
+        The blessings of the soul!"
+
+This effusion was received with wild applause, and Mr. Jordano sat down
+very happy. Tom, his eyes dancing, replied briefly, making us all laugh.
+Then Kitty spoke a few tremulous words that made us all cry, herself
+included. Then she floated up the stairs, a white cloud (throwing back
+her bouquet, which dear Miss Croly caught!) and floated down a gray one,
+touched with morning rose; and then--then the Duke of Lee took his bride
+away, while we all waved our handkerchiefs and cried and laughed and
+showered blessings after them. And by and by he brought her back to live
+in blessed Cyrus, which really is the only place to live in, "and no
+lady in the City could with her compare!"
+
+    [Illustration: ----then the Duke of Lee took his bride away.]
+
+    [Music:
+
+      "Marry oo, diddy glu,
+          Diddy glu, glu, glu:
+      Diddy oo, oo, oo,
+          Diddy goo, goo, goo!
+      Marry oo, diddy goo,
+          Diddy goo, goo, goo!
+      Marry oo, diddy goo, diddy goo!"
+    ]
+
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+                           Transcriber Notes:
+
+Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_.
+
+Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS.
+
+Throughout the document, the oe ligature was replaced with "oe".
+
+Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of the
+speakers. Those words were retained as-is.
+
+The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up
+paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate.
+
+Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected
+unless otherwise noted.
+
+Throughout this book, the word "notebook" was written with a hyphen or
+without a hyphen, with about the same number for both variations. No
+changes were made
+
+On page 27, "leath" was replaced with "leather". ("leath" looks like a
+scanning error).
+
+On page 44, a closing quotation mark was placed after "I'll go and live
+there!"
+
+On page 104, the single closing quotation mark after "he's a good one."
+was replaced with a double quotation mark.
+
+On page 104, a closing quotation mark was placed after "all about it."
+
+On page 107, "obleeged" was replaced with "obliged".
+
+On page 172, the single closing quotation mark after "Get out, Billy!"
+was rep;aced with a double quotation mark.
+
+On page 195, "Kity" was replaced with "Kitty".
+
+On page 198, the last two lines were transposed to read "too, and
+Tupham. Some, no doubt, came from curiosity, idle or worse, to see the
+great house open".
+
+On page 212, a double quotation mark was added before "People do!".
+
+On page 212, a period was added about "Kitty".
+
+On page 253, "aftermoons" was replaced with "afternoons".
+
+On page 283, "The idea! is this" was replaced with "The idea! Is this".
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A daughter of Jehu, by Laura E. Richards
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57603 ***