Initial commit of ebook 79028 filesHEAD main

author: www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org> 2026-07-05 10:03:31 -0700
committer: www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org> 2026-07-05 10:03:31 -0700
commit: acba474b79b490c0fba44f49f0dcd0a50387f88f (patch)
tree: 4f5d19c55fcaed9431f11158ef74ebadc028cd6b /79028-h
10 files changed, 8641 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/79028-h/79028-h.htm b/79028-h/79028-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3343c91
--- /dev/null
+++ b/79028-h/79028-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,8641 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
+    <title>The Matrimonial Bureau | Project Gutenberg</title>
+    <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg"/>
+    <meta name="cover" content="images/cover.jpg" />
+    <meta name="DC.Creator" content="Carolyn Wells"/>
+    <meta name="DC.Creator" content="Harry Persons Taber"/>
+    <meta name="DC.Illustrator" content="Charles M. Relyea"/>
+    <meta name="DC.Title" content="The Matrimonial Bureau"/>
+    <meta name="DC.Language" content="en"/>
+    <meta name="DC.Created" content="1905"/>
+    <meta name="DC.date.issued" content="1905"/>
+    <meta name="DC.Subject" content="Romance"/>
+    <meta name="Tags" content="fiction, romance"/>
+    <meta name="generator" content="fpgen 4.67a"/>
+    <style type="text/css">
+      body { margin-left:8%;margin-right:10%; }
+      .it { font-style:italic; }
+      .bold { font-weight:bold; }
+      .sc { font-variant:small-caps; }
+      p { text-indent:0; margin-top:0.5em; margin-bottom:0.5em;
+          text-align: justify; }
+      div.lgc { }
+      div.lgl { }
+      div.lgc p { text-align:center; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; }
+      div.lgl p { text-indent: -17px; margin-left:17px; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; }
+      div.lgp {
+        display:inline-block;
+        text-align: left;
+      }
+
+      div.lgp p {
+        text-align:left;
+        margin-top:0;
+        margin-bottom:0;
+      }
+
+      .poetry-container {
+        text-align:center;
+      }
+
+          h1 {
+            text-align:center;
+            font-weight:normal;
+            page-break-before: always;
+            font-size:1.2em; margin:2em auto 1em auto
+          }
+
+          h2 {
+            text-align:center;
+            font-weight:normal;
+            font-size:1.1em;
+            margin:1em auto 0.5em auto;
+          }
+
+          h3 {
+            text-align:center;
+            font-weight:normal;
+            font-size:1.0em;
+            margin:1em auto 0.5em auto;
+            page-break-after:avoid;
+          }
+
+      hr.tbk { border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black; width:30%; margin-left:35%; margin-right:35%; }
+      hr.pbk { border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:100%; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:2em }
+      .figcenter {
+        text-align:center;
+        margin:1em auto;
+        page-break-inside: avoid;
+      }
+
+      div.blockquote { margin:1em 2em; text-align:justify; }
+          p.caption { text-align:center; margin:0 auto; width:100%; }
+          p.credit { text-align:right; margin:0 auto; width: 100%; }
+
+      .nobreak { page-break-before: avoid; }
+      p.line { text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; }
+      div.lgp p.line0 { text-indent:-3em; margin:0 auto 0 3em; }
+      table { page-break-inside: avoid; }
+      table.center { margin:0.5em auto; border-collapse: collapse; padding:3px; }
+      table.flushleft { margin:0.5em 0em; border-collapse: collapse; padding:3px; }
+      table.left { margin:0.5em 1.2em; border-collapse: collapse; padding:3px; }
+      .tab1c1 { }
+      .tab1c2 { }
+      .tab1c1-col2 { border-right: 0px solid black; }
+      .tdStyle0 {
+      padding: 2px 5px; text-align:center; vertical-align:top;
+      }
+      .tdStyle1 {
+      padding: 2px 5px; text-align:right; vertical-align:top;
+      }
+      .tdStyle2 {
+      padding: 2px 5px; text-align:left; vertical-align:top;padding-left:29px; text-indent:-24px;
+      }
+      .pindent { margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-indent:1.5em; }
+      .noindent { margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-indent:0; }
+      .hang { padding-left:1.5em; text-indent:-1.5em; }
+    </style>
+    <style type="text/css">
+    .poetry-container { margin-top:.5em; margin-bottom:.5em }
+    .pindent {margin-top: 0.25em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;}
+    .literal-container { margin-top:.5em; margin-bottom:.5em }
+    .figcenter { max-width:600px; }
+    h1 { font-size: 1.5em; }
+    div.lgc { margin-top:.5em; margin-bottom:.5em }
+    hr.tbk { border:none; border-bottom:1px solid white;
+           width:30%; margin-left:35%; margin-right:35%;
+           margin-top: 1.0em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; }
+    p { margin-top:0em; margin-bottom:0em; }
+    </style>
+  </head>
+
+  <body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79028 ***</div>
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='Book cover' id='iid-0000' style='width:95%;height:auto;'/>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div class='figcenter' style='width:50%'>
+<img src='images/cupid1.jpg' alt='' id='iid-0001' style='width:99%;height:auto;'/>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/title.jpg' alt='The Matrimonial Bureau by Carolyn Wells and Harry Persons Taber Houghton Mifflin &amp; Company 1905' id='iid-0002' style='width:95%;height:auto;'/>
+</div>
+
+<div><h1 class='nobreak'>The<br/> Matrimonial Bureau</h1></div>
+
+<div class='lgc' style=''> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<p class='line'>by</p>
+<p class='line'>Carolyn Wells</p>
+<p class='line'>and</p>
+<p class='line'>Harry Persons Taber</p>
+<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
+<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
+<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
+<p class='line'>BOSTON•AND•NEW•YORK</p>
+<p class='line'>Houghton Mifflin &amp; Company</p>
+<p class='line'>THE•RIVERSIDE•PRESS•CAMBRIDGE</p>
+<p class='line'>1905</p>
+</div> <!-- end rend -->
+
+<div class='lgc' style='margin-top:3em;margin-bottom:3em;'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<p class='line'>COPYRIGHT 1905 BY CAROLYN WELLS AND HARRY PERSONS TABER</p>
+<p class='line'>ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</p>
+<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
+<p class='line'><span class='it'>Published April 1905</span></p>
+</div> <!-- end rend -->
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<div class='lgc' style='margin-top:3em;margin-bottom:3em;'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<p class='line'>TO NANCY</p>
+</div> <!-- end rend -->
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<table id='tab1' summary='' class='center'>
+<colgroup>
+<col span='1' style='width: 3.5em;'/>
+<col span='1' style='width: 22.5em;'/>
+</colgroup>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tab1c1-col2 tdStyle0'  colspan='2'>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#img01'>1.</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'>“I’M NOT A SPOILED CHILD”</td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#img02'>2.</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'>TEA ON THE EAST PORCH</td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#img03'>3.</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'>IN THE BROILING SUN, OBLIVIOUS OF THE HEAT</td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle1'><a href='#img04'>4.</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle2'>“SUPPOSE YOU TAKE MISS FOWLER HOME”</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<h2>I</h2>
+
+<div class='figcenter' style='width:50%'>
+<img src='images/cupid2.jpg' alt='' id='iid-0003' style='width:99%;height:auto;'/>
+</div>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Think you there was, or might be such a man as this
+I dreamed of?—<span class='it'>Antony and Cleopatra.</span></p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>It all happened in the most curious fashion
+to begin with. If Lieutenant Adams had not
+sent to Miss Esther the particularly heavy
+box which contained some sort of a plaster
+cast which he had picked up somewhere,
+and which necessitated a great deal of packing-stuff
+to keep it from breaking, Tekla
+never would have found the paper. Then,
+too, she never would have found the paper
+if Michael had been about the place on the
+afternoon the box came. But he wasn’t, and
+Miss Esther was impatient. The box had to
+be unpacked, so she and Tekla, armed with
+a hatchet, a screw-driver, and a monkey-wrench,
+went at it.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I expect it’s broken,” said Miss Esther,
+after the protecting boards had been removed,
+with that lack of dexterity but determined
+effectiveness which characterizes the
+carpenter work of the average woman; “I
+have no doubt it’s broken all to pieces.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes’m, I suppose it is; they always are,”
+said Tekla, cheerfully, as she pulled out the
+bunches of paper which were stuffed about
+the cast.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It was packed carefully enough,” said
+Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, indeed, ma’am. They must have
+used all the papers they had saved up for
+housecleaning time. I don’t know what
+they’ll have left to put on their pantry
+shelves.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m glad they did; this is a specially fine
+cast, and I do hope it isn’t broken. It looks
+as if it were, though.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther took hold of the end of the
+cast and tried to lift it out. She succeeded
+in extricating it from the mass of papers and
+carried it off in triumph.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Tekla brought a basket and began picking
+up the crumpled papers from the kitchen
+floor. Some large figures on one bit caught
+her eye.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“ ‘Circulation yesterday, 840,327,’ ” she
+read; “must have used ’em all.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She went on picking up the papers, carefully
+smoothing out those pieces which she
+believed might be of use for such purposes
+as suggest themselves to the careful housewife.
+“I wish,” she thought, “that they
+hadn’t crumpled these things up so much.
+They might just as well have left them flat.
+We could have used them then.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>At the very bottom of the box she found
+several voluminous Sunday newspapers that
+apparently had never been opened. “At
+least here’s a few smooth ones,” she continued
+with a satisfied air.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>As she laid them aside, a conspicuous
+picture attracted her attention. “That,” said
+Tekla, after a long, steady stare at it, “is the
+kind of place I’m going to live in. There
+should be cows—yes—like those,” and she
+held the picture at arm’s length. “Chickens—yes—and
+dogs. Some calves, maybe, and
+pigeons and pigs, the same like those! Ah!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Again she held the picture out before her
+and gazed at it. “It is all there, all—but
+the man—not!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Taking down the big shears from their
+nail, Tekla cut out the picture and pinned
+it up above the kitchen table. “But I will
+have the cow-sheds nearer the house,” she
+said as she turned away. “They are not
+handy, so.”</p>
+
+<hr class='tbk'/>
+
+<p class='pindent'>In the household of Miss Esther Adams,
+a Sunday newspaper was almost an unknown
+quantity. To Tekla the discovery of three
+or four complete sheets, with all the various
+“sections” carefully put together, was an
+event of thrilling importance. She hurried
+through her work, and sat down that evening
+to enjoy without interruption the unexpected
+windfall.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>By a slow and laborious process of elimination
+she laid aside the primarily colored
+pages, the reproduced photographs, the
+editorial sections, and other interesting but
+unbelievable stories, and reserved only the
+advertisements.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>These she read eagerly, marking with
+her pencil such pictured glories of feminine
+apparel as appealed to her somewhat barbaric
+taste.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Idly scanning one of the more uninteresting
+looking pages, she chanced upon a sort
+of advertisement which seemed to her to be
+wholly new. Nothing like it had ever fallen
+under her observation.</p>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>SPINSTERS ATTENTION!</p>
+
+<p class='noindent'>Why remain unappropriated blessings? Why
+waste your sweetness on the desert air?
+Somewhere there is a heart that beats for
+you alone. He may be on our list. We
+have bankers, brokers, clergymen, lawyers,
+merchants, farmers,—</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='noindent'>“Farmers!” said Tekla, thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='noindent'>—machinists, carpenters, masons, and others.
+Every one of our clients is a worthy, honorable
+gentleman who wants a wife. If you
+will send $1 and your photograph, we will
+enter your name upon our records.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Tekla read and re-read this advertisement.
+“Only a dollar,—that is not so much.
+And they said farmers.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She raised her eyes to the picture she
+had pinned up on the wall.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“A farm—and a farmer, and some cows
+yet, and chickens. A house like that, and
+two pigs and two horses and a kitchen all
+over white paint—with a yellow floor—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She hesitated, looked at the picture again
+doubtfully, and continued. “It stands in the
+advertisement that there should be a farmer.
+I will do it! I will send yet one dollar.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Tekla had lived under the influence of
+Miss Esther so long that whatever she
+did was more or less tinged with the old-fashioned
+fineness which characterized
+her large-hearted, gentle-minded mistress.
+Therefore, after a considerable amount of
+earnest effort, she produced this letter:</p>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='line' style='text-align:right;margin-right:2em;'><span class='sc'>Whitfield</span>, June 8th.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>Dear Sir</span>,—I have read your advertisement
+and would say that I inclose herewith
+one dollar. Please enter my name on your
+records, and I would like a farmer.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The farm must contain many acres, also
+many cows, pigs, sheep, and a donkey. But
+there must be no bees, as I do not enjoy
+stinging.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>I have never lived on a farm, but I have
+a picture of one, and I am sure it will be
+good. I have lived with Miss Esther for
+seven years and she has trusted me with the
+care of her large house, and she says I am
+too good for James, who drives for the
+Doctor.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So please, Dear Sir, if among your worthy
+and honorable gentlemen there is a farmer
+with a farm which I have described, I
+should be glad to hear from you by return
+of post.</p>
+
+<p class='line' style='text-align:left;margin-left:9em;'>Yours to Command,</p>
+<p class='line' style='text-align:left;margin-left:13em;'><span class='sc'>Tekla Klein</span>.</p>
+<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
+<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>P. S.—My Mother is dead.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Tekla carefully copied the address given
+in the advertisement, folded her letter, and
+inclosed it in the envelope. Then she took
+from the top drawer of the old dresser, which
+stood in the kitchen closet, a new dollar bill,
+which Major Bradford had given her on his
+last visit. That was the day, Tekla remembered,
+when she had taken particular pains
+with the brushing of his uniform—it was
+the day of the dedication of the soldiers’
+monument. She regarded the new bill with
+real affection. She had had it more than a
+year. For a moment she hesitated. What if
+the farmer were not forthcoming in response
+to her request? But before her hung the
+picture of the farmhouse, the horses, cows,
+chickens—not one single bee was visible.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Tekla’s sense of justice was such that she
+felt a certain responsibility to Miss Esther
+for the spending of her wages, but surely,
+she thought, with this particular dollar she
+had every right to do as she chose.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Therefore, trusting that the end would
+justify the means, she neatly folded the bill
+and placed it carefully with the letter in
+the already stamped and addressed envelope,
+and sealed it.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And so, as we said at first, if Lieutenant
+Adams had not sent the cast to his cousin,
+and if Michael had not been absent the day
+it came, and if Miss Esther had not in her
+impatience insisted upon Tekla’s opening the
+box, the little German girl would not have
+seen the picture of her farm, the letter would
+not have been written, Adolf Hecksher would
+never have come to Whitfield, this story
+would never have been written—and what
+would you have done then?</p>
+
+<h2>II</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn brake
+our tyring-house; and we will do it in action.—<span class='it'>Midsummer
+Night’s Dream.</span></p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>How the town came to be named Whitfield
+nobody who was fortunate enough to live
+there could remember, even if ever there
+had been any accurate information on the
+subject. The town was as old as those
+others in central and southern New York
+which are still worrying along under the
+burden of names bestowed upon them by
+that band of surveyors who, fresh from the
+schools where they had learned much of
+the history of ancient cities, had christened
+the still unpopulated quarter sections with
+the names of classic heroes, states, and battles.
+Utica, Syracuse, Troy, Palmyra, Cicero,
+Manlius, Sparta, Homer, Ovid, Ithaca,—these
+towns, it had been hoped by their
+sponsors in baptism, might grow up to be
+a credit to their distinguished namesakes.
+Whitfield may have been named for an
+eminent Methodist clergyman. Or possibly
+not. And it didn’t matter anyway.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Whitfield was like a hundred other towns
+of its sort. One may find the sort in almost
+any state except perhaps Arizona. It had
+an escape about three miles wide from
+being on the railroad, and in consequence
+there was little manufacturing. There was
+a long street which ran out at both ends of
+the town and got lost somewhere in the
+country. This street was cut at right angles
+by another of less pretension. Both streets
+were bordered by great old trees, maples
+and elms and an occasional hickory, which
+had been left from the days when there had
+been a forest thereabouts. Looking at the
+town from the surrounding hillsides, these
+trees shut out all view of the houses, but
+when the casual visitor arrived in the village
+he found that they merely shaded them, and
+they were grateful. There were other streets
+in the village, and according to the census
+reports Whitfield had a population of 896,
+but that was before the Henderson twins
+were born, and before the Richardsons—eight
+of them—had moved into the Bradley
+house. Of course, this increase had been
+offset somewhat by the death of Kirk Buckley,
+who in a moment of temporary inebriety
+had walked one dark night into Deacon
+Wilson’s stone quarry, with a fatal result.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So Whitfield had remained for some years
+practically stationary as to population. It was
+a quiet, orderly, rather dignified town. Its
+officials took it seriously. Casual visitors,
+who were entirely unsympathetic because
+they had been born in cities, were apt to
+smile a little at its peculiarities, which were
+not peculiarities, but only the natural outpourings
+of a heart interested in the doings
+of whosoever came within the line of vision.
+That was, and is to this day, the Whitfield
+of this story.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>At one corner of the long street and the
+shorter one which intersected it stood the
+Adams house. When it had been built, a
+century before, the Putnam Adams who
+built it had called the place Elmwood, but
+the name had been forgotten. The house
+itself showed that essential severity which
+characterized the Adamses, and was the pride
+of all Whitfield. It reproduced, as well as
+wood and white paint could do so, the development
+of the classic impulse which had
+its beginnings in eastern New York at the
+time when Sir William Johnson was made
+colonel of the Six Nations.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The broad, low pediment set squarely
+upon four Ionic columns, the wide stone
+veranda and massive stone steps were as
+much a part of the landscape as the historic
+Whitfield elms. The interior of the house
+reflected the Adams attitude of mind and
+action. There were few curves in the decorations.
+The white-painted panels were
+uncompromisingly square. The mahogany
+balustrade ran straight up from the broad
+hall, and the stairs opened frankly at the
+top into the wide corridor which cut the
+upper floor into two halves,—five rooms
+on one side, five on the other, all precisely
+similar in size and shape. Every line which,
+architecturally, had to do with the making
+of the house, was straight up and down or
+straight across. There were no angles but
+right ones. There were no curves except
+those of the Ionic columns, and Colonel
+Adams had said after the house was built
+that he even wished he had made these
+square. But it was too late, and to-day in
+Whitfield these same columns stand, a lasting
+monument to the one weakness of decision
+in the character of Colonel Putnam
+Adams, of His Majesty’s forces in the
+Colonies.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But there was one other monument—the
+library.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>While the library as it exists now could
+not, in the very nature of things, have been
+built entire by the first Putnam Adams,
+yet he laid the foundation for it; and when
+he was sent to America by the king, and
+found a place where he was to build his
+home, he fetched with him from England
+the library which he had collected in France
+and Italy and Germany. Begun with little
+thought as to its ultimate fate, this collection
+of books had grown with the changing tastes
+of the young soldier. There were the classics
+in original and translation; much Greek
+poetry, a wonderful edition of Horace, picked
+up in Rome, and bound in leather and gold,
+which bore the magic signature, deeply
+wrought, of Leonardo da Vinci. Then there
+was a Machiavelli and the stories of his
+wars and his methods of statesmanship;
+there was the story of the Life, which Benvenuto
+Cellini himself had written, and this
+book the Colonel had caused to be inclosed
+in a case of silver which bore upon its cover
+the arms of the House of the Cenci. This
+book he worshiped with a worship which
+was little short of idolatry. In the long
+evenings, when the Indians were at rest
+and the messages from Sir William were
+such as to allow him some freedom, he
+would shut himself in his rooms—wherever
+he might be—and sit the whole night
+through, living again with the Benvenuto
+those fearsome hours when he fought his
+way through the streets of Florence, leaving
+in his wake a line of fourteen dead men’s
+bodies—but rushing on to his Art and his
+Love.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Perhaps, after all, that was why Colonel
+Putnam Adams decided on the curves for the
+capitals of the columns which guarded the
+entrance to the home which he had built for
+Margery, the daughter of the governor of
+Plymouth Colony.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The second Putnam Adams inherited his
+father’s tastes and spent much of his time
+among the books, eagerly adding to the
+shelves such volumes as his somewhat
+limited opportunities made possible.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther’s father, the third Putnam
+Adams, enlarged the collection still further,
+for in his time the flood of literature which
+marked the Victorian era had already begun.
+He acquired not only valuable classics, as
+had his ancestors, but also contemporary
+fiction, essays, and poetry.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The wife of the third Putnam Adams died
+when Esther was a baby, and the child grew
+up in the great house with only her father
+for guide, counselor, and friend. He was
+a silent man,—not stern with his little
+daughter, but maintaining the uncompromising
+dignity of the Adams family. He
+spent his days in the library, and Esther was
+allowed to stay there only on condition that
+she should not speak to him when he was
+reading. Often the child would stand wistfully
+waiting until he should lay down his
+book. But often he would do so only to take
+up another, and Esther would turn hopelessly
+away to amuse herself. Her amusements
+were peculiarly her own, and were not those
+which would have been considered entertaining
+by most children. She invented her
+own games. For the lonely child there was
+a certain fascination about a crowd of people,
+and her games always included certain
+strange individuals, who, though invisible
+to others, were very real to her. She peopled
+the stairs with vast armies marching valiantly
+up the hill and down again; she crowded
+the parlors with squires and dames of high
+degree, who danced minuets of great intricacy,
+bowing gallantly and languidly waving
+feathered fans.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The old Adams stables she filled with
+palfreys and milk-white steeds, and the barnyard
+with peacocks and falcons. In the grass
+plot in front of the house Esther could see
+a sun-dial where she fully expected in some
+year to come to hold tryst with a lover
+who should wear a velvet cloak and a curling
+feather, and who would say “Parting is
+such sweet sorrow, that I could say good-night
+till it be morrow,” and then would
+kiss her hand—just as Romeo did in the
+wonderful old engraving in the Gilbert
+Shakespeare.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Thus Esther Adams grew up. She went
+through the Whitfield school as a matter of
+course, but her tasks were easily learned and
+her school life was casual and perfunctory
+and quite outside the sentient part of her
+being. She lived in “that land where Rosalind
+and Imogen are—a Paradise apart.”
+The woodland about the old place was the
+Forest of Arden. The bank of the brook
+formed the shores of Illyria where the musicians
+played before the duke, and where
+Esther played the part—yes, lived the part—of
+Viola, and told to the wondering birds
+how she was letting concealment feed on her
+damask cheek.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Instead of these fancies passing away, later
+years brought to Esther Adams a stronger
+sense of reality in her dreams, and she but
+the more thoroughly identified herself with
+the creatures which her imagination had
+appropriated. Through girlhood to womanhood
+she lived Romance, sometimes as Rosalind,
+sometimes as Iseult, and sometimes,
+when in desperate mood, as Catherine of
+Medici.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But though the grass plot and the stairs
+had certain advantages of stage-setting, yet
+it was in the library that Esther gave her
+fancy fullest rein. The reason for this was
+too subtle to be understood by the child;
+but she had an inexplicable, intangible
+sense of the atmosphere of the books. As
+she grew older, this became clear to her,
+and she enjoyed her library with the definite
+knowledge of the satisfaction to be derived
+from the actual physical presence of
+books.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>For forty-five years she had enjoyed this
+library, as she believed, as much as was
+possible for her, without quite realizing that
+there was a sense of restraint in the presence
+of her father. Though she adored the silent
+man and gladly submitted to his mandates,
+the restrictions placed upon her as a child
+were never removed until the day of her
+father’s death, and it was not until after that
+event that she came to know what freedom
+from even unconsciously obeyed authority
+meant. And in the ten years since she had
+invested the room with more of her own
+personality, and instead of being as it had
+been before, merely a library, it was now
+her home.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Although always surrounded by her unreal
+associates, for the last seven years Miss
+Esther’s only human companion had been
+Tekla, the maid, and Tekla was very human.
+When she came to live at the Adams house,
+Miss Esther was shocked at her deplorable
+ignorance, and immediately began to teach
+her at least the rudiments of an education.
+The good lady consciously and laboriously
+taught her charge reading and writing, but
+far more easily yet, she unwittingly instilled
+in Tekla’s mind a romantic sort of fancy not
+unlike her own. And that’s how it happened
+that Tekla’s stolidly practical German adaptation
+of Miss Esther’s ideas clothed the
+problematical farmer with a reality only
+second to Miss Esther’s Romeos.</p>
+
+<h2>III</h2>
+
+
+          <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+          <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<div class='stanza-inner'>
+<p class='line0'>But where is Kate? where is my lovely bride?</p>
+<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
+<p class='line0' style='text-align:right;margin-right:2em;'>—<span class='it'>Taming of the Shrew.</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>Not that Miss Esther had preferred imaginary
+Romeos. Imagination was all very well
+in its place, but she would have gladly welcomed
+a hero who could have spoken his
+own lines. Although she had never consciously
+or definitely wished for a husband,
+yet she had often felt the lack of that companionship
+which she knew could only be
+afforded by association with one whose mentality
+was equal to her own, whose tastes
+were congenial, and whose temperament was
+similar.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Without reflection upon her own sex, but
+with total indifference to the lack of feminine
+comradeship, Miss Esther preferred masculine
+society. During their long and somewhat
+lonely life together, her association
+with her father had been a real friendship;
+and though not a whit mannish, indeed
+being herself the essence of femininity, men’s
+traits and characteristics appealed strongly
+to Esther Adams.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>More than this, she had, and knew she
+had, the capability to be a great deal to some
+one man. Responsive, tactful, loyal, and possessed
+of an instant perception, she demanded
+these qualities in the man she could love.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>No one in Whitfield had ever qualified.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The young men who had entered into Miss
+Esther’s girlhood life were not of inferior
+mental calibre, in the opinion of the best
+Whitfield society, but owing to Esther’s
+possibly unfortunate fastidiousness, they did
+not come up to her standards. Her mentally
+intimate association with Galahad, Romeo,
+and The Admirable Crichton had made her
+exacting. It is not that she was unreasonable,
+nor did she complain; her demeanor toward
+the young men of Whitfield was marked by
+a gentle courtesy and frank good comradeship.
+Whitfield society did not understand
+her attitude, and could not have done so had
+she explained it to them—which she did
+not. Indeed, so misleading was her apparent
+acceptance of their attentions, that more than
+one young man had put himself in a position
+to receive her gracious but decided refusal.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Through her girlhood years Miss Esther
+had thought it not impossible that she might
+yet meet a man who would be the realization
+of her ideals. But no strangers ever came
+to Whitfield, and her filial sense of duty
+would not allow her to leave her father
+alone, so she could not accept invitations to
+visit elsewhere, which would otherwise have
+given her great pleasure. Major Adams was
+so deeply occupied with his books that it
+never occurred to him that his daughter
+needed a change, or recreation of any sort
+other than that which was offered at home,
+although had she asked to go he would have
+gladly given consent. It had never occurred
+to him, either, but that she would sometime
+make a choice among the men of Whitfield,
+for he knew nothing of his daughter’s ideals
+and was himself amply content with the
+society of his native town.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Once, when Whistler was shooting at a
+Scotch country place, he deliberately shot
+a dog which was standing near by. Because,
+as he afterward explained, the dog was out
+of drawing. He should have been twenty
+feet further to the left, if in the landscape at
+all. And so it seemed to Miss Esther that
+the men who had come into her life had been
+“out of drawing.” She did not shoot them,
+but she put them out of her life as completely
+as if they had been shot.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>This state of things, however, did not
+leave Miss Esther’s life as empty as might
+have been expected. The very qualities
+which induced this lack brought with them
+their own means of fulfilling it. Although
+without any definite acceptance of these
+facts, Miss Esther went on from day to day,
+living in the way which seemed to her to
+offer the best possible selection from all that
+life had to offer. The Romeos and Galahads
+of her happy fancies came nearer the perfection
+of her standards than did the men of
+Whitfield, and her dream-life with them
+was happier in its ideality than any real life
+she had seen. This play-life was begun
+by Esther Adams, sitting in prim frocks,
+silent, her foot tucked comfortably under her
+on the straight-backed sofa of her father’s
+library. It continued through the girlhood
+days when she was still known as Esther
+Adams; and now, after many years, when,
+a woman of fifty, she was called Miss Esther
+by everybody in Whitfield, the gentle, gray-haired
+lady still found in the atmosphere of
+her wonderful old books the realization
+of the ideals which had been denied her
+elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And so this is the explanation of why
+Miss Esther Adams never married.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>One morning Miss Esther sat in her broad-armed
+veranda chair with her hands idly
+folded in her lap. She rocked slowly as she
+gazed across the lawn at the riotous rose-garden.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Ay, ’tis as thou sayest, Rosalind; the
+blossoms be o’er-blown. They ought to have
+been cut earlier. They are really of no use
+now except to make potpourri. Heigh-ho,
+Rosalind, I wonder if your roses in the
+Forest of Arden ever bothered you as much
+as mine do me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther’s attention was attracted from
+the roses by a stranger within her gates.
+This was an unusual occurrence; even more
+so in that this stranger was a man. And he
+was big and broad and black-bearded, and
+distinctly of Teutonic origin. His air was
+assured, yet deferential, and he approached
+the house with the look of one who was
+certain of a waiting welcome.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He looks like Thor,” said Miss Esther,
+critically, “but I never saw a brunette Thor
+before.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>With the pleasant manner of childlike
+confidence characteristic of the people of
+his country, he said:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is this Tekla Klein’s house?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No,—not exactly—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That is too bad. I wished to marry
+her.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is that so?” said Miss Esther, with
+interest. “In that case perhaps I had better
+call her.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If you will be so kind.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The big man seated himself on the lowest
+of the stone steps, removed his wide-brimmed
+hat, and calmly wiped his forehead with
+a huge handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther looked at her brunette Thor
+steadily, with a dawning appreciation that
+here at last she was confronted by a dramatic
+situation quite to her taste. She went into
+the house and into the library. She rang the
+bell and in a moment Tekla appeared.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“There is a person inquiring for you at
+the front door,” said Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, ma’am,” said Tekla.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The stranger had not moved since Miss
+Esther went into the house, but at the sound
+of a footstep behind him he rose and went
+up the steps to where Tekla Klein stood by
+one of Putnam Adams’s fluted pillars.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>He took a letter from his pocket, and she
+saw that it was the one which she had written
+in answer to the advertisement.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have come,” he said, simply.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Tekla looked at him critically, and then
+with an air of satisfaction she said, “It is
+good. And you have the farm?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, a half-section, many—three hundred
+and twenty acres—one hundred
+wheat, one hundred corn, one hundred and
+twenty in pasture.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is it in America?” asked Tekla.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is in Nebraska,” he replied.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh! I would rather it had been in
+America. But it does not matter. I will
+go.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Again the pleased smile broke over the
+big, good-natured face.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I was born near Breslau. I am a German.
+I have lived in America fifteen years—ten
+years in Nebraska. I own my farm
+there, and my cattle. I am thirty-five years
+old. My name is Adolf Hecksher.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Adolf is a nice name,” said Tekla.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, it is a good name. It was my
+father’s. Can you go soon?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, soon; but first I must tell Miss
+Esther. She will not be pleased.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“She will miss you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I have lived with her for seven
+years, and she has been very kind to me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But she will let you go?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, yes; I will go. Come with me and
+we will tell her together.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Leading her big captive, Tekla went
+straight to the library. Miss Esther smiled at
+the pair as they entered, and said indulgently,
+“Well?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He has come to marry me,” said Tekla.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So he told me,” said Miss Esther.
+“Who is he?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am Adolf Hecksher—” began the
+accepted suitor.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And he has three hundred and twenty
+acres,” interrupted Tekla, “and he wants to
+marry me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I understand that,” said Miss Esther,
+“but where did you find him or where did
+he find you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It was an advertisement,” said Tekla,
+“and—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What!” exclaimed Miss Esther, “you
+answered an advertisement? a matrimonial
+advertisement!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It was in one of those papers Lieutenant
+Adams sent with the cast,” asserted Tekla,
+“and it cost but a dollar.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther smiled. “He’s big enough
+to be worth it,” she said.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, ma’am,” and Tekla looked at the
+giant beside her, “he is.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But I don’t understand,” pursued Miss
+Esther. “Did that dreadful matrimonial
+agency send this man to you? Have you
+ever seen him before? Do you know who
+he is?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Tekla; “he is Adolf Hecksher.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You are a little fool,” said Miss Esther.
+“Leave the room and I will talk with your
+Adolf Hecksher myself.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Tekla left the room, smiling. Miss Esther
+invited her guest to be seated, and in the
+next half hour satisfied herself from the credentials
+which he produced in the shape of
+savings-bank books, deeds of property, and
+a draft which he had received from the last
+lot of cattle which had been shipped to
+Chicago, that he was at least in a position
+to take care of a wife. She promised to
+communicate with the people whom he had
+named as references in the little Nebraska
+town where he lived. This matter being
+disposed of, Miss Esther again rang the bell
+for Tekla. “It is all right,” she said, “and
+you may ask Mr. Hecksher to stay to dinner
+with you if you wish.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, ma’am,” said Tekla.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>As Miss Esther passed through the kitchen
+shortly before dinner, Tekla showed her
+the picture she had cut from the paper.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That is what my farm will be like,” she
+said. “There will be cows and sheep and
+many, many acres—and Adolf.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther returned to the veranda. “It
+is very nice for them,” she thought; “but
+where can I find another Tekla?”</p>
+
+<h2>IV</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Did you ever see the picture of we three?—<span class='it'>Twelfth Night.</span></p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>After several trials Miss Esther succeeded
+in obtaining a maid who, while she was not
+another Tekla, seemed capable of following
+in her footsteps. In most respects the new
+maid was competent and satisfactory, but in
+the matter of afternoon tea Miss Esther had
+found some difficulty in having her instructions
+rightly carried out. Afternoon tea was
+rather unusual in Whitfield, except as a
+special function. It was only at the Adams
+house that tea was served every afternoon
+at five o’clock, whether guests were present
+or not, but the custom appealed to Miss
+Esther because in the English novels she had
+read it had been such an attractive feature.
+Consequently tea was served every day at
+five o’clock—in winter in the library, and
+in summer on the veranda.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The mistress of the house was punctilious
+as to the appointments of her tea service, and
+Tekla, who was after all but a reflection of
+Miss Adams, had found no difficulty in
+pleasing her. But Nora, the new maid,
+had not yet learned to appreciate the vital
+importance of synchronizing the time and
+the tea.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>As a consequence of this, Miss Esther had
+sometimes to arrange or rearrange her own
+tea-table. And so when Jean Richards came
+flying across the lawn one warm afternoon,
+she found Miss Esther fussing over her
+alcohol lamp with her usual calm a little
+bit ruffled.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Tea ready?” she called out.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, it is not. That good sister in the
+kitchen is making a bondmaid and a slave of
+me. She hasn’t toasted the muffins.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Let me take them out and toast them.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, you can’t. They’re already buttered.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, well, never mind. We’ll eat them
+as they are. What are you playing to-day,
+Miss Esther?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“To-day I am Katherine. Nora is enough
+to make a shrew of anybody.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, I’m sure you’re Bonny Kate, and
+not Kate the Curst. May I take this chair or
+is Petruchio sitting in it?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He has already risen, that you may have
+it. Sit down.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jean sat down suddenly, as she always did
+everything, and took her cup of tea from
+Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is the very nicest part of the day’s
+work,” she said, “drinking tea here with
+you. I wonder if the other girls are coming.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I hope so,” said Miss Esther; “I haven’t
+seen Helen for a week.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Helen’s got the blues,” said Jean. “She’s
+had ’em for three days.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What’s the matter this time?” asked
+Miss Esther; “or is she just having the blues
+from a sense of duty?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That’s it,” said Jean, cheerfully. “It’s
+her make-up, you know. She has to have
+the blues about once in so often to live up to
+that temperament of hers. I’m glad I haven’t
+any.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes. It is a fearful thing to have to
+entertain a temperament. Don’t ever acquire
+one, Jeanie.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, ma’am,” said Jean, submissively; “I
+wouldn’t have one of the ridiculous things.
+People don’t like people with temperaments.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Nonsense,” replied Miss Esther; “everybody
+likes Helen.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Not as much as they like me,” said Jean,
+comfortably sipping her tea.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, if they don’t,” said Miss Esther,
+stoutly, “it is Helen’s own fault. She likes
+so few people.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That’s just what I said; and that’s the
+fault of her everlasting temperament.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jean leaned back in her chair and happily
+munched her untoasted muffin.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Now just look at the two of them,”
+she said, as two girls came in at the gate.
+“Couldn’t you tell at a glance which one has
+the blues? Helen looks as though she owned
+all the indigo mines in India, or wherever it
+comes from. Anybody could see, though,
+that Lillian hasn’t a blue to her name.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But if Helen Fairbanks had the blues they
+were certainly rather becoming to her than
+otherwise. As she approached the house,
+trailing her parasol listlessly along the walk,
+she was apparently paying no attention to
+her companion, who was pointing enthusiastically
+toward the distant landscape.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Helen Fairbanks’s sponsors in baptism had
+disagreed as to the child’s name. Her father
+had insisted on Pearl, but her mother had
+finally carried the day, and had given to her
+daughter the only name which absolutely
+fitted her. Tall, fair, graceful, statuesque,
+Helen Fairbanks’s beauty was of that classic
+perfection which is inevitably associated with
+the name of Helen. Her large, calm, gray
+eyes which had never yet lived up to the
+possibilities of their dark lashes, her golden
+hair which she wore a bit too smooth, her
+mouth which showed all too seldom the
+little curves at its corners, were trustworthy
+indexes of her beautiful but cold nature. Miss
+Esther had said of Helen that she reminded
+her of Cassius:</p>
+
+
+          <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+          <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“Seldom he smiles; and smiles in such a sort,</p>
+<p class='line0'>As if he mock’d himself, and scorn’d his spirit</p>
+<p class='line0'>That could be mov’d to smile at any thing.”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>As for Lillian Hastings, she was as unlike
+Helen as Helen was unlike Jean. But the
+three were united in their friendship for each
+other and their admiration of Miss Esther,
+which amounted almost to adoration. Lillian
+was an artist; that is, she was by every
+implication of her being, by every wish and
+desire of her soul, and by every intent of her
+strong and somewhat stubborn character.
+The mere fact that owing to limited opportunities
+she had not as yet achieved much
+on canvas, in no way contradicts the statement
+that she was an artist. She had spent
+two blessed weeks one summer at Shinnecock,
+and there fallen under the direction of
+Chase and his associates. There the impulse
+had its beginnings—possibly from the inspiration
+of the instructors, possibly because
+of the fact that she met there other girls
+who, so they had told her, could paint no
+better than she did when they began, but
+who now, after three years of work, had had
+the distinction of really selling a picture. So
+her ambition formed itself into an absolute
+mania for definite accomplishment.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>During those two weeks a great artist
+had asked her to pose for him, and he had
+painted her portrait. “Gad!” he had said
+to his friends, afterward, “she’s built like a
+greyhound. Her figure is the figure of a girl
+of eight—grown up. Her hair is Burne-Jones’s
+ladies’ hair, and her complexion—well,
+I tried to paint it here, but I haven’t
+got the transparency of it yet.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Who is this paragon?” his friends had
+asked him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“By George!” he exclaimed, “I forgot
+to ask her name. She was just a painter
+girl, working with the others down there on
+Peconic Bay.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And so Lillian had kept on painting. She
+had a studio which was an honest workroom,
+without draperies, plaster casts, or
+cosy corners, and here she worked doggedly,
+perseveringly, and without a moment’s doubt
+as to her ultimate success. She understood
+herself. She had no false or flattering opinions
+of her own ability, but she was sure that
+intelligent effort, properly directed, would
+lead her eventually to the Roman Road.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Confide in us, Helen, dear,” cried Jean
+as the two came up the steps. “Why so blue
+and wan, fair lady? Is it your doll or tea-set
+that’s broken to-day?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Neither,” said Helen, briefly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Perhaps it’s her heart,” suggested Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Not Helen’s,” returned Jean; “she
+hasn’t any heart.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Helen sat down on the wicker settee
+beside Miss Esther, with a look of patient
+exasperation.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, it’s nothing,” she said, “only another
+proposal; that’s all.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It’s a perfect shame,” said Miss Esther,
+“the way those men bother you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is,” said Jean. “Why don’t you hang
+out a sign, ‘No Others Need Apply’?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I think it’s awfully hard on Helen,” said
+Lillian, sympathetically; “she’s so kind-hearted,
+she hates to say ‘no’ to a goose.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And yet they keep her saying it most of
+the time,” said Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Who is it this time?” asked Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Mr. Walker,” said Helen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The young man who is staying at Bradstreet’s?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, that pretty boy with the glasses,”
+said Jean. “He came here for health, and
+he found Helen, and now he wants to take
+them both back to New York.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But you’ve always said you’d like to
+live in New York, Helen.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, Miss Esther, but I didn’t mean with
+Mr. Walker.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why not?” asked Miss Esther, straight-forwardly.
+“Why don’t you like Mr.
+Walker?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Because there’s nothing to like about
+him. He has no more to recommend him
+than—than—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Than any of the Whitfield men who
+have asked you to marry them?” queried
+Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean, Jeanie,
+as nobody knows better than you do.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Jean, with an exaggerated
+sigh. “I, too, have my troubles. It’s a fearful
+thing, girls, to be belles of society, with
+no society to be belles of.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And who are you, my girl,” asked Miss
+Esther, “that you scorn Whitfield society?
+Pray what sort of people would you like, if
+given your choice?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, a lot of gay people,” said Jean, “at
+some kind of a summery place, with lovely
+clothes, and hops, and bathing-suits. And
+beautiful men in white flannels, and automobiles,
+and—and—everything!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Modest child! With such easily gratified
+tastes, it’s a pity they cannot be realized.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, they will be, sometime,” said Jean.
+“What would you choose, Lillian?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, I don’t care for a lot of people, but
+if I just had one—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“A nearer one still, and a dearer one?”
+asked Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, what I mean is some fairy godmother
+or grandmother or great-grandmother who
+would take me abroad and let me see pictures—and
+paint them.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It’s your turn next, Helen,” said Miss
+Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I,” said Helen, slowly, “want nothing
+more nor less than a castle in Spain, but it
+must be the largest and handsomest castle
+there is in Spain, and it must be my own.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Anybody there with you?” asked Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I think so; one of Miss Esther’s
+best Galahads or Romeos.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I hope you’ll find your castle,” said Miss
+Esther, looking at Helen with keen appreciation.
+“You would make an admirable
+châtelaine.”</p>
+
+<h2>V</h2>
+
+
+          <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+          <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift,</p>
+<p class='line0'>As thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift.</p>
+<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>—<span class='it'>Two Gentlemen of Verona.</span></p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>In her library that evening Miss Esther’s
+thoughts came back to Helen and her castle
+in Spain.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“She ought to have one,” she thought.
+“She’s just the girl for a castle in Spain,—no,
+not exactly in Spain,—a Joyous Gard
+would suit her better. There should be a
+maze and a pleasaunce, and a mailed knight
+should come on his charger to beg for her
+glove, that he might joust for it in the Field
+of the Cloth of Gold. She would have made
+a wonderful Iseult, with a touch of Morgan
+le Fay. She is wonderful enough as it is, and
+it is a shame that there are no available
+Apollos or Abelards or Aucassins who want
+châtelaines for their castles.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>It is clearly to be seen that Miss Esther
+fully appreciated the fact that the ultimate
+ambition of the eternal feminine is the
+individual interpretation of that ubiquitous
+architectural structure known as a castle in
+Spain. This is distinctly opposed to the masculine
+attitude of mind which looks only for
+the Princess at the Window.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Though not definitely conscious of this
+differentiation, Miss Esther was building in
+her imagination various castles for Helen,
+when it suddenly occurred to her that the
+Prince would provide the castle, could she
+but find the Prince.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Tekla found her Prince for herself,”
+thought Miss Esther, smiling as she remembered
+the big brunette Thor; “but one
+could scarcely imagine Helen applying to a
+matrimonial agency. I might apply for her,
+select a suitable Prince, and deposit him on
+her doorstep the way that Adolf man was
+dropped here.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The whimsical idea pleased Miss Esther’s
+fancy, and she went into it in detail. “While
+I’m about it,” she thought, “I may as well
+select Princes for Jean and Lillian, too. This
+thing is not without precedent. Petruchio
+was brought and dropped at Katherine’s feet
+by outside influences. If I can help Helen,
+I’m going to do it. If she wants a castle,
+she’s going to have it, and if, as Tekla’s
+experience seems to prove, a matrimonial
+bureau is a necessary factor in the case—I’ll
+<span class='it'>be</span> one!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The beauty of the plan grew upon Miss
+Esther. The possibilities widened as she
+thought about it, and she grew so excited
+that she found herself walking about the
+library, peering into the bookcases and making
+quick, explosive remarks to her friends:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You, Henry the Eighth, you ought to
+appreciate what I’m doing! You were
+nothing but a matrimonial bureau yourself!”
+and she shook her fist at the worn, leather-backed
+volume. “And you, Don Quixote,
+if you had applied to a matrimonial bureau,
+you would have found your old Dulcinea
+without any trouble, and you wouldn’t have
+had to fight those ridiculous windmills.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I’ll be a matrimonial bureau—a
+first-class one, and I’ll apply to myself for
+Princes for those three girls—and I’ll get
+them, too!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Dr. Isaiah Bushnell,” announced Nora,
+appearing at the library door; “do you want
+to see him?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Of course she does,” said the Reverend
+Doctor Bushnell, affably, as, rubbing his
+hands, he walked past Nora into the room.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How do you do, Dr. Bushnell. Pray be
+seated. You find me very busy to-night.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Ah, yes, my dear Miss Adams, ’tis a
+busy world; but work is a blessing; as one
+of our poets has it, ‘ ’Tis better to have—better
+to have—’ but there, I have no doubt
+you know the quotation. You are so familiar
+with the flowers of poesy.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I fear I cannot place the quotation you
+refer to,” replied Miss Esther, a little coldly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Ah, well, ’tis no matter, ’tis no matter.
+How often our memory fails us just as
+we need it most. It was only yesterday that
+I intended to approach you in reference to
+a most unfortunate affair which has been
+brought recently to my attention. But, ah,
+that fickle memory again. The little errand
+entirely escaped my mind, but to-night, as
+I was passing your beautiful home, and
+remembered that here dwelt the most charitable
+of women, I said to myself, ‘I will ask
+her!’ That, my dear Miss Adams, is my
+errand.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is it?” said Miss Esther; “and how
+much money do you want?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Please do not be so abrupt, dear lady.
+Let me state the case. Let me tell you of
+the destitution—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Never mind the destitution, Dr. Bushnell,
+I will contribute to your cause, but as
+I said, I am extremely busy this evening.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Ah, yes indeed, yes indeed! and can
+I not help you? The benefit of my wider
+experience is yours for the asking. Let me
+advise and assist.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Do,” said Miss Esther, with sudden
+cordiality. “I should be glad of your help.
+Does your wide experience embrace the
+organization of a matrimonial agency?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Ah, you jest,” said Dr. Bushnell, a little
+stiffly; “surely you cannot mean to resort to
+such methods. You, who are destined to fill
+so nobly the niche in which Providence has
+placed you!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The matter being presented to her in this
+light, Miss Esther perceived a certain humor
+in the situation that had not appealed to her
+before.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, if you advise against it, I will drop
+all thought of such a thing.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I do, my dear Miss Adams,” said Dr.
+Bushnell, earnestly. “Trust to my maturer
+judgment. It would be a mistake to take
+any such step, I do assure you. As I was
+reading yesterday, in my collection of famous
+poetry, ‘ ’Twas ever thus—’ ah, again
+the flowing numbers have escaped me. But
+you know—doubtless you know the lines.
+Now, as you were saying, my dear Miss
+Adams, every little counts, and your contribution
+will be gladly welcomed not only
+by myself, but by the worthy people whom
+we are endeavoring to assist. If you will
+pardon my abrupt departure, I will, upon
+the receipt of your beneficence, take my
+leave.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Once again by herself, Miss Esther’s mind
+returned to her daring scheme.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Let me see,” she thought, “young Putnam
+Adams must be about thirty now, and
+the Adamses are good enough Princes for
+anybody. I wonder how he would do for
+Helen. But no. A lieutenant in the regular
+army would never be able to provide the
+kind of a castle that ambitious girl insists
+upon. He would suit Jean better. She loves
+uniforms and a gay life; her happy disposition
+would be a fair match for his. In fact,
+the more I think of it, the more appropriate
+it seems. But I haven’t seen Putnam of late.
+The last time I saw him was when he was
+graduated at West Point, and that was six
+years ago. Since then he has been stationed
+in Manila, and goodness knows where else.
+Now all this may have made a man of him,
+and then, again, it may not, but he is an
+Adams, and he has won his shoulder-straps
+since he went away, so I think the boy must
+be all right. At any rate, I will invite him
+up here. I wonder if he will come.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Having satisfactorily settled Jean’s future,
+Miss Esther turned her attention to the next
+name on the records of her matrimonial
+agency.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Lillian,” she thought, “is so different
+from Jean. She takes everything so seriously—even
+that ridiculous art of hers. Well,
+perhaps ridiculous isn’t the word, for Lillian
+is not the sort that paints calla-lilies on a
+black background. She goes only so far, but
+every step she takes is just right; the trouble
+is that’s as far as she goes, and she never
+will get far enough to know that she can’t
+go any farther. A woman has no business
+with art, anyway. There never was one that
+did anything really worth while. I’m glad
+nobody’s here to say George Eliot at me,
+or Rosa Bonheur, or Chaminade. Sporadic
+instances count for nothing except to prove
+the rule. And I think that Lillian would be
+much happier married to some good, kind
+fairy godfather than going to Europe with
+some fairy godmother.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But Putnam Adams would never do for
+Lillian—no, he is better for Jean. Lillian
+should have an older man—I don’t know
+why, for Lillian is no older than Jean, and
+yet it seems to me that the man who would
+be just the one for Lillian Hastings would be
+a kind, wise, staid sort of man—who would
+guide, counsel, and befriend her, and then if
+he thought she ought to go on with her art
+work, I’m sure I’d be perfectly willing.
+Then the responsibility of that girl would be
+off my mind. Now all I’ve got to do is to
+find that man. I wish there had been one in
+Whitfield, but as there isn’t, I must get him
+somewhere else. It’s positively maddening
+to think that there are probably hundreds
+of them in the world, if I only knew their
+addresses.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther possessed an absurd but
+absolutely unshakable belief in the way-pointing
+possibilities of the nearest available
+piece of printed matter.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She calmly picked up the morning paper
+with the certainty that she would find in it
+some indicating arrow pointing toward the
+material manifestation of the man whose
+image she had so clearly in her mind. It
+was part of her method to accept the first
+hint that could by any possibility be made
+available for her use as an accomplished
+fact.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This will do nicely,” she said:—</p>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>A PHILANTHROPIC BEQUEST</p>
+
+<p class='noindent'>Hiram Briggs Founds an Art School—The
+Wealthy Button Manufacturer Dedicates His
+New Edifice—Cost $500,000—A Memorial
+to His Late Wife.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='noindent'>—“That’s the one,” said Miss Esther, decidedly.
+“I need look no further. A man who
+is loving enough to erect such a memorial to
+his dead wife, and who is rich enough to spend
+$500,000 on it, and who is clever enough to
+have got rich on buttons, and who is sensible
+enough to be named Hiram Briggs, is
+just the man to take care of that artistic temperament
+of Lillian Hastings. He will act
+as a blender to her sharply colored views of
+life. Where does this altogether desirable
+man live? I will write to him to-night. Of
+course, Lillian may object to the buttons,
+but when she realizes Mr. Briggs’s devotion
+to Art, she will see the matter in its right
+light, I am sure.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther skimmed through the article
+quickly and discovered that Mr. Briggs was
+a citizen of Nashua, New Hampshire. This
+was entirely satisfactory, and the further
+details of the story also confirmed her good
+opinion of the man.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He ought to get my letter by the day
+after to-morrow,” she thought, “which will
+give him ample time to take Lillian abroad
+this summer. They ought to sail by the
+fifteenth of August, I should think. And
+I shall give her one of those lovely traveling-bags
+furnished with any number of silver
+things. It must be such fun to find out
+what they’re all for, and I should think her
+honeymoon would just about give her
+time enough.”</p>
+
+<h2>VI</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Give up yourself merely to chance and hazard.—<span class='it'>Othello</span>,
+iii, 7.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The Matrimonial Bureau had proved
+successful in meeting the demands of two
+of its clients, but the third name on its
+records still baffled Miss Adams. It seemed
+to her that the only possible mate for Helen
+Fairbanks was a being so far above and
+beyond the ordinary mortal that it would
+be impossible to find him outside the glass
+doors of her mahogany bookcases.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He might be in there,” she thought,
+looking toward a favorite corner where the
+fairy books were, “or even in there,” she
+added, as she glanced at the Thackeray
+shelf; “but one thing is certain, he never
+would be in a newspaper, so there’s no
+use looking there. I suppose he’s in the
+directory, but I don’t know what letter his
+name begins with, so I can’t find him there.
+I don’t know how I shall find him. I don’t
+believe there are many of that type of men
+in the world. The only one I ever knew
+was a woman. Cousin Emily Westcott—of
+the Chester Adams branch—is just the
+kind of person I mean. It’s a pity she is a
+woman, though of course she is too old for
+Helen. Let me see,—Cousin Emily must
+be sixty by now; she had four boys, and
+nice, well-behaved young chaps they were.
+I wonder if they are all married. I remember
+sending Roger his piece of the old
+Adams silver two years ago, and Emily
+wrote that Hugh was engaged. Still, that
+leaves two, and if they take after their
+mother they’re just the kind of men I want.
+I will write to her, too, and I’m sure one of
+them will be all right for Helen. They’re
+Adamses, anyway.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The president of the Matrimonial Bureau
+now resigned the chair in favor of the secretary,
+and Miss Esther began the clerical
+work. She wrote first to Lieutenant Putnam
+Adams and invited him to spend his vacation
+with her that summer. “I do not
+know,” she wrote, “whether the state of
+the country is such as to allow officers of
+the army anything like vacations, but if
+there is any for you this summer, please
+come up and visit your old cousin. I haven’t
+seen a real live Adams for a long time, and
+I want to thank you for the cast. Even if
+your visit must be a short one, I hope you
+can come, and come soon.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>To her cousin Emily Westcott Miss Esther
+wrote very frankly, saying that Lieutenant
+Putnam Adams was coming to visit her,
+and asking that one of the two younger
+Westcott boys come at the same time. She
+informed Mrs. Westcott that she wished her
+to send the one who was most distinctly an
+Adams, and said further that she would trust
+the mother’s judgment in the matter.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But they’re <span class='it'>all</span> Adams—both of
+them!” exclaimed Mrs. Westcott, as she
+read this letter. “I’ll have to send them
+both!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther’s letter to Hiram Briggs, the
+philanthropist of Nashua, was a more trying
+ordeal. For once in her life she found it
+difficult to express herself, and it was nearly
+midnight when she completed the following
+business-like if unconventional epistle:—</p>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='line' style='text-align:right;margin-right:2em;'><span class='sc'>Whitfield</span>, June 22.</p>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='sc'>Mr. Hiram Briggs, Nashua, N. H.</span></p>
+
+<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>Dear Sir</span>,—I have just read in the
+morning paper an account of the art school
+which you have founded. I have been thinking
+the matter over, for I am much interested
+in such philanthropic movements, and
+I have a special reason for a peculiarly personal
+interest in this one.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>It is apparent, from the facts stated in the
+account of your worthy undertaking, that
+you are an art patron, and are therefore
+alive to the possibilities in the development
+of the artistic effort. I am quite certain that
+a man with the name of Hiram Briggs, and
+who is the proprietor of a button manufactory,
+must be possessed of sound common
+sense and fully able to appreciate and understand
+the proposition which I am about to
+make.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>I have a young girl friend who believes
+that she is well on the way toward becoming
+a great artist, and who certainly has the
+artistic temperament. Her ambition is to go
+abroad for the study of art, but at present
+she has not the means to do this.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>From the fact that the praiseworthy memorial
+which you have built must have taken
+several years to complete, I assume that
+Mrs. Briggs must have long since been laid
+to rest. My young friend is eminently fitted
+to assist in the carrying out of the plans
+which you have evidently made for this
+great work which you have begun, and further,
+her education and accomplishments
+are such as to enable her to take her place
+in any social sphere.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>I trust, my dear Mr. Briggs, that you will
+receive this communication in the spirit
+in which it is written, and if at any time
+you wish to call on me I should be pleased
+to welcome you to my home in Whitfield.</p>
+
+<p class='line' style='text-align:left;margin-left:9em;'>Most sincerely yours,</p>
+<p class='line' style='text-align:left;margin-left:13em;'><span class='sc'>Esther Adams</span>.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The next morning Miss Esther was favored
+with a visit from her young neighbor,
+Jack Remington. Jack was a social character
+and often dropped in, apparently for
+no particular reason. These fortuitous calls
+were liable to happen on baking days, or
+when he felt the need of Miss Esther’s moral
+support in his seasons of tribulation. Ten
+years old, sturdily built, stolidly minded, he
+was of the stuff of which Lincolns are made,
+rather than Michael Angelos or Robert
+Brownings. Miss Esther had been obliged
+to recognize this fact, but she still hoped to
+train his young ideas into grooves of her
+own choosing. Though as yet no visible
+progress had been made, she did not despair,
+but continued in a course which gave her
+much pleasure and did not bother Jack.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The boy had a passion for battle-ships, and
+his highest ambition was to build one. He
+had already begun it, but obstacles often
+confronted him, and he depended on Miss
+Esther both for advice and for more material
+assistance. She did not know much
+about battle-ships, but her elementary knowledge
+was supplemented by furtive consultations
+of the encyclopedia between Jack’s
+visits. Afterward, she conversed on these
+subjects with much erudition, and Jack’s
+admiration grew, for she was the only
+woman of his acquaintance who even knew
+on which end of a ship the bow was placed.
+Miss Esther really cared very little about
+the technical construction of any ship, but
+she was fond of the boy and had her own
+notions as to his future career. Of these
+notions Jack was entirely aware, but since,
+in his opinion, they were totally unnecessary
+to a builder of ships, he ignored them with
+the superiority of a ten-year-old.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>With a view to gracious influences, the
+would-be architect of Jack’s fortunes had
+endeavored to induce a friendship between
+him and a golden-haired siren of four, who
+was her neighbor on the other side. Her
+name was Amabel, but for obvious reasons
+she was known as Chub. Miss Esther’s
+efforts toward the foundation of this friendship
+had resulted disastrously. On their first
+introduction the children had cordially approved
+of each other, and Amabel had not
+changed her mind. But just as the friendship
+was ripening, Jack discovered Chub’s calamitous
+ignorance concerning the necessity for
+guns on battle-ships. She had promised to
+sail with him on his to the great naval battle
+which he assured her was imminent. More,
+she had promised to assist in any capacity
+in the working of the ship, when, in an impulsive
+burst of generosity, Jack responded
+that she might man one of the guns.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Gunth!” and Chub suddenly sat down
+on the floor and shrieked. Her terror-stricken
+squeals brought Miss Esther to the
+scene. She looked from the screaming baby
+on the floor to the disdainful ship-builder,
+who stood with his legs apart and his hands
+in his pockets, surveying the disturbance
+with an expression of absolute disgust.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If she yells like that when I say guns,”
+said he, contemptuously, “I wonder what
+she’ll do when the shooting begins.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Thooting!” exclaimed Chub, her demonstrations
+checked for the moment, “who
+we going to thoot?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The enemy,” said Jack, tersely.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Won’t it hurt ’em?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It’ll <span class='it'>kill</span> ’em!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Chub’s wails began again with redoubled
+force. “Take her away,” said Jack. He
+turned to continue the building of his warship
+with the fixed resolve that henceforth
+and forever womankind should have no
+part or parcel in his life.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the young misanthrope made an exception
+of Miss Esther Adams. He relied
+implicitly upon her knowledge and judgment,
+not only in nautical matters, but regarding
+all the vicissitudes which beset his
+somewhat strenuous existence. His mother
+always accompanied the application of court-plaster
+with a reproof. When Miss Esther
+bound up his wounds, a delectable doughnut
+added largely to the healing qualities of her
+ministrations.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>On this particular morning, however, the
+doughnut was of minor importance. He ate
+it, and even abstractedly took a second one,
+but without enthusiasm. Not observing any
+necessity for sticking-plaster, Miss Esther
+concluded the distress was mental and
+awaited developments.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jack wriggled into one of the big veranda
+chairs opposite Miss Esther, and with his
+elbows on his knees and his chin in his
+hands stared moodily into space. Miss
+Esther waited.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I got to be a minister,” he said at last.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Have you, dear? When?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Soon’s I’m big enough. ’Tain’t fair,
+jes’ ’s I got my ship most done, and was
+goin’ to be a sailor like Dewey or somebody,
+and now I got to be an old minister;
+mother told me so las’ night.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But perhaps you’ll like being a minister,”
+suggested Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No sirree! I bet I won’t. I know the
+stunt. I was over to Dr. Bushnell’s jes’ now,
+and I asked him what a fellow had to do to
+be a minister, but he said, don’t be ’reverent,
+little boy, and I wasn’t. But I know my
+own self what they got to do. Preach and
+bury people and marry ’em and baptize
+kids and have prayer-meetin’s and donations
+and wear high hats and never smoke nor go
+to circuses nor go in swimmin,’—least I
+never seen Dr. Bushnell in,—and where’s
+any fun in all that, I’d like to know. But
+they was another man there a-visitin’ the
+minister, and he asked me what I wanted to
+be, and I told him a sailor and he said ’s
+that so. And I told him you and me was
+a-buildin’ a battle-ship and asked him to
+come over ’n see it and he said he would
+and he’s comin’ to-morrow mornin’ and he
+give me this card with his name on it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The name on the card was</p>
+
+<div class='lgc' style=''> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<p class='line'><span class='sc'>Theodore Winthrop Brewster.</span></p>
+</div> <!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>Although the surname meant nothing to
+Miss Esther, she remembered that there had
+been a Theodore Winthrop in her mother’s
+line. “Possibly he may be of that family,”
+she thought.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I wish mother’d let me be a sailor,” went
+on Jack, wistfully.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, wait until Mr. Brewster comes
+over here to-morrow,” said Miss Esther,
+“and we’ll see what he thinks about it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jack, much comforted at the thought of
+a possible escape from the reverend calling,
+went whistling to the kitchen, where he
+enjoyed another doughnut with an appetite
+unhampered by a depressed mentality.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It would be strange,” said Miss Esther,
+still looking at the card she held, “if this
+man were one of our Winthrops. I don’t
+remember the Brewster connection, but I’ll
+look it up in the book.”</p>
+
+<h2>VII</h2>
+
+
+          <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+          <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>My noble and well warranted cousin.</p>
+<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>—<span class='it'>Measure for Measure</span>, v, 1.</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>When a telegram arrived announcing that
+Lieutenant Adams accepted his cousin’s
+invitation, Miss Esther was greatly pleased,
+and at once began a pleasant flurry of preparation
+for his reception. A letter following
+the next day told how exceedingly welcome
+her invitation had been, and how it was
+necessary for him to leave Fort Monroe on
+sick leave for a time. “Your letter,” he
+wrote, “could not have reached me at a
+time when the prospect of a few weeks in
+the country was more attractive. In working
+out on the ramparts where we have been
+taking down the old guns, I slipped, and
+broke my leg. I had planned to go into the
+mountains of Virginia. I have changed my
+plans. I am coming to you. All I want is
+rest in a quiet place where my foolish leg
+can get well. I have already telegraphed,
+and I may reach Whitfield on the same day
+with this letter, for I am going north to-night.
+I can get about on crutches fairly
+well. Thank you again for the inspiration
+which led you to ask me to come.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther was pleased rather than otherwise
+at her cousin’s misfortune, for she was
+a born nurse and dearly loved to fuss over
+an invalid, and, moreover, she could keep
+him longer and use him to better advantage
+in the accomplishment of her fell project.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther knew, however, that a broken
+leg did not necessarily affect a man’s appetite,
+so she enjoyed stocking her larder with
+the lavishness which always characterized
+her hospitality. It was in the midst of
+these preparations that a letter arrived from
+Nashua.</p>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='line' style='text-align:right;margin-right:2em;'><span class='sc'>Nashua</span>, N. H., June 24.</p>
+
+<p class='noindent'><span class='sc'>Miss Esther Adams</span>,</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>Dear Madam</span>,—Mr. Briggs received
+your letter yesterday, and wishes me to
+thank you for your kind words. He especially
+appreciates your commendation of
+his philanthropic efforts, and wishes all
+success to your young friend in her pursuit
+of art.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>He regrets his inability to accept your
+kind invitation to call on you at Whitfield,
+and assures you that he received your proposition
+quite in the spirit in which it was
+written.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Mr. Briggs and myself have just returned
+from our wedding trip, and unite in sending
+you hearty good wishes for the future success
+of your own philanthropic plans. I am,
+my dear Miss Adams,</p>
+
+<p class='line' style='text-align:left;margin-left:9em;'>Very sincerely yours,</p>
+<p class='line' style='text-align:left;margin-left:13em;'><span class='sc'>Emmeline Fisher Briggs</span>,</p>
+<p class='line' style='text-align:left;margin-left:13em;'>(<span class='sc'>Mrs. Hiram Briggs</span>.)</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Just returned from their wedding journey!”
+exclaimed Miss Esther. “I should
+have written Mr. Briggs at least two months
+ago. Well,” she went on, cheerfully, “I
+must get somebody else for Lillian. And
+it’s just as well, too, for ‘Lillian Briggs’
+wasn’t a very pretty name; but I did want
+her to sail in August. I shall have to hurry.
+Let me see what I can do—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Hullo, Aunt Esther,” called Jack from
+the driveway, “I’ve got Mr. Brewster to
+come to see the ship.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther rose to greet the big blond
+man who accompanied Jack, and shook his
+hand cordially.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am assured,” began Mr. Brewster, “by
+my young friend, Mr. Remington, that any
+friend of his is welcome at the Adams
+house.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Not only that,” said Miss Esther, graciously,
+“but I have reason to think that your
+family and mine are connected, and that I
+may welcome you as a sort of relative. You
+are a Winthrop?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My mother was a Winthrop,” said Mr.
+Brewster, “of the Gideon Winthrop branch.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And my mother,” said Miss Esther, “was
+a Winthrop of the Wingate Winthrops. But
+of course, a few generations back they were
+identical, and I claim you as a relative.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am very glad to be claimed,” responded
+Mr. Brewster, with a touch of foreign-mannered
+courtesy which Miss Esther afterward
+discovered was characteristic of the man.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Providential,” thought Miss Esther.
+“Here is Mr. Briggs’s substitute ready-made
+to my hand.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then, Aunt Esther,” interrupted Jack,
+“that makes Mr. Brewster my uncle, don’t
+it? And now can he go see our ship?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther acquiesced, and Mr. Brewster
+and Jack went at once to the large room on
+the second floor which had been given over
+to the young ship-builder.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Then Nora brought the tea-table, and Miss
+Esther supervised the arrangement of her
+beloved cups and saucers, and when the two
+enthusiasts returned from the inspection of
+the ship, they found the hostess surrounded
+by three chattering girls.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Hullo, Jean!” cried Jack, “come on up
+and see my ship.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is the rudder working properly yet?”
+the young lady inquired, but before he could
+answer, Miss Esther presented Mr. Brewster
+to Helen, Lillian, and Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m so glad to meet you, Mr. Brewster,”
+exclaimed Jean. “I’ve been longing to meet
+you all day—ever since I saw you at the
+post-office this morning with Dr. Bushnell;
+but I didn’t know you knew Miss Adams.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I didn’t until half an hour ago, but she,
+too, has been kind enough to say that she
+was glad to meet me; though she didn’t
+say she had been longing for it all day.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But she didn’t see you at the post-office,”
+said Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No,” said Miss Esther, “but if I had I
+shouldn’t have waited for an introduction
+until now, for he is one of our own Winthrops.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I bet that’s Cousin Putnam coming now,”
+exclaimed Jack, watching a carriage turning
+in at the gate.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Who’s Cousin Putnam?” asked Jean, as
+Miss Esther hurried down the steps.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh,” explained Jack, ecstatically, “he’s
+Aunt Esther’s cousin and he’s a lieutenant
+in the army with a uniform and a sword and
+he knows all about war and navies and ships
+and he was in Cuba with General Kent and
+he was in Manila after Dewey was there, and
+he saw Dewey once, ’cause he wrote Aunt
+Esther so, and he’s had fights with natives
+and things and he’s going to tell me all about
+the ships, ’cause Aunt Esther said she’d
+make him, and he fell on a fort where he
+lives down South somewheres and he bust
+his leg and he’s come here to get well—and
+everything.” Jack paused for want of further
+breath as the carriage drove up, when he
+flew down the steps exclaiming, “Hello,
+Cousin Putnam! Why didn’t you wear your
+uniform?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Seeing Lieutenant Adams’s crutches, Mr.
+Brewster followed Jack and offered his assistance.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Notwithstanding Lieutenant Adams’s ability
+to manage his crutches, he was glad of
+Brewster’s support. Miss Esther had scarcely
+more than spoken to her cousin when she
+was surprised by seeing another carriage
+closely following the first.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“More company!” cried Jack. “Who is
+it, Aunt Esther?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>As the second carriage stopped, two young
+men jumped out, exclaiming, “Here we are.
+Mother sent us. She said you wanted us.
+You’re our Cousin Esther, aren’t you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Goodness! are you Emily’s boys? and
+what are the two of you doing here?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why you sent for us, didn’t you? Mother
+telegraphed us to stop here on our way home.
+Didn’t you get our telegram saying we’d be
+here to-day?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, I didn’t; but I’m just as glad to see
+you. Come right in. Which of you is Kenneth?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am. I am Kenneth Adams Westcott,
+and he is Mark Adams Westcott. He’s a
+little older than I am, but I’m a whole lot
+nicer than he is.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You look like the Adamses,” said Miss
+Esther, as she led the way up the steps and
+straight to the group around the tea-table.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>When Brewster reached the veranda with
+Lieutenant Adams, he suddenly realized that
+the responsibility of the hospitality of the
+house of Adams devolved upon him. He
+presented the newcomer to the young ladies
+and Jean promptly shared the honors with
+Mr. Brewster. She appropriated the bronzed
+invalid, and impressing Brewster into her
+service, she ordered from him successive
+relays of tea and muffins with which to regale
+her newly acquired subject, when she saw
+Miss Esther approaching with what seemed
+like two new worlds to conquer.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther introduced the Westcott boys
+to Lillian and Helen, and then bringing them
+over to Jean, begged her to make tea for
+them.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>This effervescent young woman was in
+her element. With four newly made and
+evidently admiring acquaintances, she fairly
+bubbled with excitement, and wondered
+how Helen and Lillian could take it all so
+calmly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It’s a funny thing,” said Miss Esther,
+looking proudly at the four young men, “to
+think that for years not a single one of my
+cousins has visited me, and now they come
+not single spies, but in battalions.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I think battalions are very nice things,”
+said Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So do I,” replied Miss Esther; “I only
+wish all my cousins were here.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“There are something like two hundred
+of them, I believe,” said Lieutenant Adams.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, I don’t care; I would put up tents
+on the lawn.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Won’t you have to put up tents for us as
+it is?” inquired Kenneth Westcott. “You
+seem to have had an unexpected avalanche
+of relatives to-day.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, no, indeed,” replied Miss Esther.
+“The Adams house has plenty of room, and,
+too, Mr. Brewster is not staying here. He’s
+a guest of Dr. Bushnell.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is this a surprise party to you as well as
+to us, Miss Esther?” asked Helen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>I</span> was expected,” said Lieutenant Adams;
+“these other scions of the house of Adams
+are base interlopers, but Cousin Esther wrote
+me that she specially wanted me to come,
+and I wrote her that I was coming to-day.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And mother telegraphed us that Cousin
+Esther specially wanted us to come,” said
+Mark, “and we telegraphed that we were
+coming to-day.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Here comes the telegram now,” said
+Lillian, as the boy from the telegraph-office
+rode slowly up the driveway on a bicycle.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Hello, Mercury!” said Jean, as he dismounted
+from his wheel.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Ah, gwan!” said the boy, gallantly, as
+he remounted and rode away.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther read the message. “I learn
+from this,” she said, “that my two Westcott
+cousins are coming to-day to make me a
+visit.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then we’re not interlopers any more?”
+asked Kenneth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Not at all. You are honored and expected
+guests, and I hope you will stay all
+summer.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I hope so, too,” said Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>When Brewster and the three girls went
+away, Lieutenant Adams said, “Do you
+often have such tea-parties as this, Cousin
+Esther?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Nearly every afternoon,” replied Miss
+Adams.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then we’ll all stay all summer,” exclaimed
+the Lieutenant.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I want you to, anyway, Putnam; and at
+least one of you other boys,” said Miss
+Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why can’t my little brother stay, too?”
+asked Mark.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, let’s all stay,” said the Lieutenant,
+“and I have a friend who’s awfully anxious
+to come to Whitfield for the summer with
+me, and he’s an all-round good fellow, too;
+besides, he has barrels of money, and he can
+sing and paint and everything.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Send for him,” said Miss Esther, in a
+sudden enthusiastic burst of hospitality.</p>
+
+<h2>VIII</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And wears upon his baby brow the round and top of sovereignty.—<span class='it'>Macbeth</span>,
+iv, 1.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Not only because her Cousin Putnam was
+an Adams, but also because he was a soldier
+and an invalid, he was invested to Miss
+Esther’s mind with a certain halo of romance.
+The mere incidental fact that his injury had
+not been received on the field of battle, but
+in the more commonplace pursuit of supervising
+the moving of certain heavy guns
+from the ramparts of Fort Monroe on a
+peaceful June afternoon, made no difference
+in her attitude toward it. She felt that a
+dearth of woman’s tears was just as pathetic
+in an accident of this sort as in the case of
+an Algiers hero, and she was resolved that
+there should be no lack of woman’s nursing
+if she had her way about it. Since he had
+decided on the career of a soldier and left
+home for West Point, Putnam Adams had
+seen enough of woman’s tears, for they were
+not an unknown commodity in Cuba and the
+Philippines, but he had had but little experience
+with the woman’s nursing part of the
+problem. His work had been cut out for
+him from the very day of his graduation, and
+when he was finally ordered home and to
+service at the artillery school at Fort
+Monroe there had been no thought but the
+accurate carrying out of the general and
+special orders of his commanding officer,
+with, back of it, the firm resolve to take his
+place at the very front rank of the profession
+which he loved with that love which comes
+through generations of trained soldiers—fighters.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And now in one of Miss Esther’s dimity-curtained
+bedrooms he was receiving the
+gentle motherly care which he had never
+had since his boyhood years. She did not
+fuss over him, or at least, if she did, it was
+with that practical, sensible fussing which
+carried conviction and brought a sense of
+absolute peace and rest.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The Westcotts were more easily disposed
+of. Miss Esther sent them off to bed
+as unceremoniously as she would have done
+ten years earlier had they visited her then.
+Their rooms boasted as many dimity-curtains
+and the wall-paper as many pink roses
+as were to be found in Putnam Adams’s
+room across the hall. But these details were
+entirely lost upon these two healthy young
+cubs whose physical prowess far outstripped
+their artistic instinct. They fell asleep without
+appreciating that the drapery of their
+couches was the traditional lavender-scented
+Adams linen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Having said good-night to her cousins,
+Miss Esther returned to her library. The
+immediate success of her plans had surpassed
+all her expectations. Within four
+days she had gathered under her own roof
+four eligible candidates for the hands of
+the unconscious clients of her Matrimonial
+Bureau. To be sure, she had only three
+clients, but it was well to have an extra
+man in case another client presented herself.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It seems to me, Portia,” she said, “that
+I have managed this thing quite as well as
+even you could have done it. I have laid
+my plans carefully, and I feel sure that they
+will work out successfully. Putnam Adams
+is a dear, and, as I thought, he is just the
+one for Jean. Winthrop Brewster I am not
+so sure of. He must be the one for Lillian,
+for he came almost the very moment after
+I received the refusal from Hiram Briggs.
+And Mr. Brewster is apparently very intellectual,
+though he doesn’t seem to have
+any special leaning toward art. The Westcott
+boys are all right. Either of them is
+good enough for Helen, and she can take
+her choice. I don’t suppose they have very
+large castles as yet; but the Westcott fortune
+is great and there is plenty of time.
+Yes, things are certainly working out well.
+The Matrimonial Bureau has already proved
+its right to existence, and I shall be glad to
+see my girls married and settled.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>With the feeling of satisfaction that comes
+from an achieved purpose, Miss Esther
+turned out the library lights and went slowly
+up the stairs. As she passed Jack’s shipyard,
+she smiled happily. “And after the
+weddings are all over,” she said, “Jack and
+I will go on with the building of the ship.”</p>
+
+<hr class='tbk'/>
+
+<p class='pindent'>On the east side of the Adams house was
+a square porch which had been built by
+Miss Esther’s father in order that he might
+have an out-of-door reading-room when the
+days of summer made it too warm to remain
+comfortably in the library. This was now
+inclosed in vines,—wistaria, honeysuckle,
+and crimson ramblers,—which gave the
+place a frisky appearance quite in contrast
+to the stately effect of the stone-floored,
+white-columned front porch.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>After breakfast next morning Miss Esther
+formally transferred this desirable bit of
+property to the boys, and especially to Putnam.
+For his especial benefit she had arranged
+a big wicker lounging-chair with
+a convenient table by its side. Then there
+were rugs and hammocks, ash-trays, and
+other things supposed to be necessary to the
+comfort of the average man. Lieutenant
+Adams, who found himself after his tiresome
+journey provokingly helpless, dropped
+gratefully into his pillow-filled chair, but the
+Westcott boys promptly upset the orderly
+scheme of things which Miss Esther had so
+happily arranged during the early morning
+hours. Kenneth picked up a large palm in
+a pot which he summarily deposited on the
+lawn outside. Mark pitched the pillows out
+of the hammocks. “There’s no place for
+my feet,” he said.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Much as Miss Esther had enjoyed arranging
+these things for the comfort of her
+guests, she enjoyed still more their high-handed
+demolishing of that arrangement.
+“Now have you everything you want?”
+she asked, beaming on the twelve-feet-six
+of Westcott humanity that was festooned
+end to end across the porch.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“All but one thing,” said Kenneth, “and
+that’s some fishing-tackle. I want to go
+fishing.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But there’s no place to fish.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That doesn’t make any difference. I
+don’t want to fish; I just want to go fishing,
+and so I want some tackle and bait and
+a creel and a pair of hip-boots.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“There is a little bit of a brook that runs
+through the east meadow,” said Miss Esther,
+thinking hard in her endeavor to provide
+what was wanted. “But there are no fish
+in it that I know of.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That will do nicely, thank you. Of
+course, I would have preferred something
+with tarpon in it; but a brook is a brook,
+after all. Where are the things?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Father used to have all those things.
+They’re in the big attic now. I’ll go and
+get them.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Not on your life you won’t!” And Kenneth
+bounced out of the hammock, picked
+Miss Esther up bodily and carefully deposited
+her in his place, tucking some pillows
+about her feet. “I’ll get them myself. You
+stay right there. Watch her, fellows!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The screen door slammed behind him
+and Kenneth went in search of his fishing-tackle.
+He returned triumphantly with the
+hip-boots and much other paraphernalia
+which he scattered over the floor, chairs,
+and also over his hostess, whom he decorated
+with red and yellow trout flies. Even
+after the good lady had escaped and unwillingly
+obeyed Nora’s summons to the kitchen,
+Kenneth was still fussing with his flies.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“By Jove!” exclaimed Putnam, looking
+down across the lawn, “what a picture!”
+Kenneth paused, and, looking through a vine-framed
+opening, saw an exceeding fat baby
+propelling herself on all-fours through a too-small
+aperture in the boxwood hedge. Halfway
+through she had paused perforce and
+beamed contentedly. Then redoubling her
+efforts she wriggled through the rest of the
+way, stood upright and carefully brushed the
+dirt from her tiny skirts, and started toward
+the house. She walked deliberately, as one
+with a set purpose. At a rose-bush a few
+feet from the hedge she stopped, kissed
+one of the roses, patted another lovingly,
+clasped her fat little hands and stood for
+a moment in rapt adoration of the flowers.
+Then she turned and trotted on toward the
+house.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>A small toad hopped in front of her. The
+baby gave a little squeal, and putting her
+hands over her eyes, she walked carefully
+and deliberately around the toad, leaving
+plenty of room between them. Contentedly
+then she came slowly on.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Hullo, Yellowtop!” called out Mark,
+who with the others had watched the eventful
+journey across the lawn.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>At this the baby looked up, saw the three
+strange men, and with a sudden absolute
+collapse she dropped to the ground where
+she stood, sitting squarely down, her chubby
+fingers outstretched on either side of her, and
+her feet sticking up in front. For a moment
+she stared blankly at the awful sight before
+her, and then, opening her mouth wide, there
+came forth a wail of terror and indignant surprise
+such as never was on land or sea.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Bless your baby heart!” said Kenneth,
+“what in the world’s the matter?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The response to this was another yell,
+more prolonged and terrified than the first.
+This brought Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What are you doing to Chub?” she
+exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Nothing,” said Kenneth, honestly; “she’s
+hollering at me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’ll get her,” said Mark, helpfully, and
+bounding down the steps he picked up the
+tumultuous morsel of humanity. Pausing in
+the vocal demonstration of her temper, she
+resorted to effective pugilism and pounded
+Mark with her dimpled fists, her blue eyes
+flashing with the indignation of outraged
+dignity.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Don’t hit him so hard, Baby,” laughed
+Putnam; “you’ll kill him!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Will I?” asked Chub, pausing in her
+warlike enterprise, and looking straight into
+Mark’s eyes.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Of course you will,” said Mark, reproachfully.
+“I’m almost dead now.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I wath goin’ to thtop anyway,” said
+Chub with a final thump on his chest. Then
+she threw her arms around him as far as they
+would go and beamed adoringly at him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>From that moment Mark bent his neck to
+Chub’s yoke. Her monarchy was absolute.
+Anything less than instantaneous obedience
+occasioned blood-curdling yells that always
+reduced Mark to sudden subjection, not only
+in self-defense but for the sake of suffering
+humanity. By the time Mark had reached the
+porch Chub had reached a state of intermittent
+calm, and submitted with a fine air of
+condescension to the introductions thrust
+upon her.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She greeted Lieutenant Adams and Kenneth
+Westcott pleasantly at Miss Esther’s
+bidding, but allowed it plainly to be seen
+that she very much preferred Mark’s society.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther, seeing that Chub was peacefully
+settled, turned to enter the house.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Don’t go,” called Lieutenant Adams
+after her.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I must,” said Miss Esther; “I have a lot
+of things to attend to.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“They can wait; I want you. I wish
+you’d get one of the new magazines and read
+me a story.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther went into the house and soon
+returned with several magazines. “Here
+are the books,” she said, “but I can’t read
+to you. I have a hundred things to do this
+morning.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Putnam looked at her calmly. “You are
+not going to do any of them,” he said; “you
+are going to stay right straight here with me—and
+read to me. Sit down in that chair.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther sat down, and Putnam
+regarded her with a look of entire satisfaction.
+“Any story will do,” he said.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She turned the pages, hunting for the
+most interesting story.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Her mind was slightly distracted by the
+novel sensation of submitting to irresistible
+authority. The feeling was distinctly pleasant.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Romeo couldn’t have done that,” she
+thought. “A lover is more condoling, but
+my chief humor is for a tyrant. Well, I’ve
+certainly found one in this dominating cousin
+of mine.”</p>
+
+<h2>IX</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>I pr’ythee, pretty youth, let me be better acquainted with
+thee.—<span class='it'>As You Like It</span>, iv, 1.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Kenneth started on his fishing expedition.
+The road which passed the Adams house
+wandered aimlessly off toward a woodland,
+and at the edge of this there was a brook.
+Here was shade, and fallen trees which
+offered particularly comfortable seats. As
+Miss Esther had said, there were no fish
+now. There had been one once—a very
+large one—which had been caught, but that
+was in the days when Miss Esther’s father
+used to fish there. This lack, however, did
+not cause the least worry to Kenneth. His
+mood was rather for the manner than the
+matter in hand. He wanted to fish—not to
+catch fish, and his mother’s pail, had there
+been nothing else available, would have
+suggested to him those essential ideas which
+are of the Waltonian impulse. He wanted
+to think, and there is nothing more subtly
+conducive to the reflective frame of mind
+than sitting on a log, dangling a fish-line in
+a brook. If one catches fish, then there is
+immediate business in hand which spoils
+a train of thought. Your true philosopher,
+therefore, desires no fish—he simply wants
+to sit and think. That is the secret of fishing,
+and Kenneth Westcott knew it.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jean Richards, from behind the vines of
+her own veranda, had watched Kenneth’s
+departure from the Adams house and his subsequent
+progress toward the brook. “How
+absurd,” she thought, as she noted the rod
+and creel. “He can’t catch anything in that
+brook. I’ll go down and tell him so. I rather
+like those boys of Miss Esther’s. I think I’ll
+cultivate them—the brothers I mean; that
+lame lieutenant is a prig, I’m sure, but the
+Westcott boys seem quite worth while. Yes,
+I’ll go down there. He’ll be glad of somebody
+to amuse him when he finds he can’t
+catch any fish.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jean waited until she thought that Kenneth
+had had time to discover the fishlessness of
+the brook, and then leisurely proceeded along
+the same path he had taken.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She came upon him suddenly. Seated on
+the ground, his back against a fallen log, his
+hands clasped behind his head, and his fish-line
+trailing in the brook, Kenneth was staring
+vacantly toward the blue of the sky.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Good gracious, how you scared me!”
+cried Jean. “I didn’t know you were here.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m going away in a minute,” he replied,
+as, after a disinterested glance at the intruder,
+he went on with his sky-gazing.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, of <span class='it'>all</span> things!” exclaimed Jean.
+“May I sit here until you go? I’m awfully
+tired.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Certainly, sit down if you like. It isn’t
+my log.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jean sat down. Kenneth continued to gaze
+at the sky.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What are you doing?” she asked at
+last.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Cleaning my automobile.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Papa has just got a new buggy,” said
+Jean, ingratiatingly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Has he?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My father is the manager of the Whitfield
+Flour and Feed Company.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is he?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, he is. He thinks I’m nice.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Does he?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jean rested her chin in her hand and regarded
+the young man steadily for some
+moments. “Do you know, I rather like
+you? Nobody ever talked to me like that
+before.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Do you like to be talked to that way?”
+Kenneth glanced critically at his fishing-rod,
+and moved his position a trifle.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes; who are you, anyway?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You know my name.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, what are you, then?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m a fairy prince.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What are you doing?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m hunting a fairy princess.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How fortunate I happened along just
+now.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Kenneth rose, picked up his rod, walked
+a little way and leaned it against a tree.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, are you going?” asked Jean. “Good-bye!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, I’m not going. I’m coming back
+to sit on the log and talk to you; but I see
+an interruption approaching in the shape of
+two able-bodied men. One of them is our
+friend, Mr. Brewster.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And the other is Dr. Bushnell, the minister.
+Mr. Brewster is staying at his house.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The two newcomers accepted the hospitality
+offered by the occupants of the log,
+Brewster throwing himself at full length on
+the grass, and Dr. Bushnell, carefully selecting
+an available place, seated himself with
+great dignity. “What a poetic spot,” he
+said. “It reminds me of that wonderful line
+of Mrs. Hemans’s, ‘Men may come and
+men may go, but I go on forever.’ That is
+a beautiful thought. It is well said that there
+are sermons in running brooks.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why don’t you pick one out for next
+Sunday, Dr. Bushnell?” inquired Jean, with
+an air of seriousness.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I think I will. I think I will. That is by
+no means a bad idea. I thank you, my dear
+young lady, for suggesting it to me. From
+a brook one may draw many—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Fish,” said Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Not from this brook,” said Kenneth.
+“I’ve been fishing all the morning and
+haven’t caught a thing.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I referred to sermons, not fish,” remarked
+Dr. Bushnell, mildly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, I didn’t have any sermon bait.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And haven’t you really caught anything?”
+inquired Brewster.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Only a fairy princess,” said Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And that without any bait,” retorted
+Kenneth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, I knew he wouldn’t catch any fish,
+so I came down to amuse him. We were
+playing fairy prince and princess.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Was this log your castle?” asked Brewster,
+interestedly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, indeed,” replied Jean. “I think
+the fairy prince was going to build a real
+air-castle, with moats and dungeons and
+things.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t think that kind of a castle would
+suit you,” said Kenneth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What kind would suit me?” asked Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“A more modern one,” said Brewster.
+“A brownstone front on Fifth Avenue, for
+instance.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That would suit me exactly,” she replied,
+“but it isn’t a castle.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Wouldn’t you rather be suited exactly
+than to have a castle?” said Brewster, quizzically.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I would,” said Jean, honestly.
+“Helen is the one for the castle. You know
+Miss Fairbanks,—you met her yesterday.
+She has set her heart upon a real castle with
+turrets and drawbridges and moats.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“She ought to have it, too,” said Brewster.
+“She would grace it perfectly.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am grieved to learn,” said Dr. Bushnell,
+“that Miss Helen has set her heart on anything
+so far beyond her reach. It seems to
+me not only the height of folly, but almost
+a sin to aspire to something that one may
+never hope to gain.”</p>
+
+
+          <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+          <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>“ ‘Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,</p>
+<p class='line0'>Or what’s a heaven for?’ ”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='noindent'>quoted Brewster.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Heaven, my dear sir, is quite another
+matter. We may all hope to attain that blessed
+state.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“True,” said Brewster, in such a bland
+tone of acquiescence that Jean giggled.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is not a matter for flippancy,” said
+Dr. Bushnell, with his most ministerial air.
+“Ambition, rightly directed, and not having
+its source in a prideful desire for vainglory,
+is admirable and praiseworthy in all. But
+ambition that is selfish and based on a desire
+for vulgar ostentation and display—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Helen Fairbanks is not vulgar or ostentatious,”
+broke in Jean. “She doesn’t want
+a castle for show. What she wants and what
+she ought to have is the sort of thing represented
+by a moated castle. She would fit
+right into a picture of that kind, and she
+knows it, and so, naturally, she longs intensely
+for it. But she isn’t miserable over
+it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Of course,” said Brewster; “I have
+only met Miss Fairbanks once, and she
+certainly gives a stranger the impression of
+the Haughty Princess. One would hardly
+imagine her longing intensely for anything.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That’s only because you don’t know
+her,” said Jean. “Her likes and dislikes are
+extreme. It is not the material castle that
+she cares for, either. It is simply that she
+wants to realize her tremendous ideals.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Just as I said,” interposed Dr. Bushnell.
+“Her ideals are so tremendous that I fear
+they can never be realized, and therefore I
+say that it is wrong for her to hold them. It
+is better to be like you, my dear young lady—contented
+with your lot and cherishing no
+overweening ambitions.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is that so?” said Kenneth, with much
+interest. “Do I really see before me an
+absolutely contented individual?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You do not!” said Jean, indignantly,
+as if content were a thing to be ashamed of.
+“I have fully as many ideals as Helen, though
+they are quite different ones.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What is the chief one?” asked Kenneth;
+“a fairy prince?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, indeed; I have dozens of fairy princes
+who await but my nod. My chief desire this
+morning is for a white chiffon parasol and
+a maltese kitten.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“They are not exactly in line with the
+ideals you attribute to Miss Fairbanks,” said
+Brewster.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No,” said Dr. Bushnell, “but they are
+within the possibilities, and so show a more
+admirable trait of character, in that your
+desires are subservient to your probable
+attainments. Yours is a disposition to be
+envied.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’ll tell Helen that,” said Jean. “I would
+like to have her envy me. It would be such
+a pleasant change.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why, do you envy her?” asked Kenneth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I do, indeed. She is so beautiful and
+stately, and so great-hearted under her apparent
+calm indifference, and so unswerving
+in her aims, and so—so fond of kittens.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But you are that,” said Kenneth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, but the kittens are fond of her in
+return—that’s Helen.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If Miss Helen would confine her ambitions
+to kittens,” said Dr. Bushnell, “it
+would be so much wiser and better for her.
+She is a dear girl, but it occasions me much
+serious thought when I observe her mistaken
+tendencies. Does it not seem to you,
+Mr. Brewster—I ask you now in a general
+way—does it not seem to you that our extravagant
+desires, which in the very nature
+of things are impossible of fulfillment, should
+be curbed—nay, should be rooted out by
+the kind hand of friendly counsel?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am sorry that I do not agree with you,
+Dr. Bushnell,” replied Brewster, “but I’m
+afraid I must confess to a deep sympathy
+with Miss Fairbanks, for I myself am a victim
+of unattainable and often even incomprehensible
+ideals.”</p>
+
+<h2>X</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>If he fail, yet go we under our opinion still that we have
+better men.—<span class='it'>Troilus and Cressida</span>, i, 3.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>After thinking it all over seriously, Miss
+Esther had concluded that Mark Westcott
+and Theodore Winthrop Brewster were the
+most suitable candidates yet entered on the
+books of her Matrimonial Bureau for the
+hand of her artist-client, Lillian Hastings. It
+had been difficult to choose between them,
+for they were both distinctly eligible, but
+after two or three days’ acquaintance, she had
+discovered that Mark possessed more of the
+traits which might develop into the character
+of the traditional fairy godfather. In pursuance
+of her plans, the wily lady one afternoon
+invented an errand for one unsuspecting
+youth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Mark,” she said, ingratiatingly, “wouldn’t
+you like to go over to Lillian Hastings’s for
+me?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why, are you over there?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Don’t be saucy. I assumed that you could
+understand English. I’ll try again. Cousin,
+or, fair cousin, I would wish you, or, I would
+request you, or, I would entreat you, not to
+fear, not to tremble: but to go, or, to walk,
+or, to amble withal, to the house, or the
+home, or the studio of Miss Lillian Hastings,
+and there with deep diplomacy acquaint thyself
+with that which I desire. This having
+done, I bid thee tell me true that which with
+subtle art thou hast discovered.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Sure, I’ll go; but what is this tremendous
+mission?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Lillian is painting a picture, and I want
+to know if it is finished yet.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But where does the diplomacy come
+in?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You see, I don’t want her to know that
+I want to know, but when the picture is
+finished, I’m going to have a party or something
+for her.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What is the picture? How am I to
+know it?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It’s a great big field with a cow in the
+middle.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“All right. I can tell it by the cow, but
+how am I to know if it is finished?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That’s where you must use your
+ingenuity. Take your time and lead the
+conversation around by devious by-paths
+until you find out.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“All right; put me up a little luncheon
+and I’ll stay all day.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You haven’t any diplomacy,” said Kenneth.
+“I’ll go along with you and manage
+the ingenious part.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, no! You can’t go, Kenneth. I want
+you this afternoon. I want you to take me
+driving.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But you can’t go driving, Cousin Esther,”
+broke in Lieutenant Adams. “You promised
+to stay with me. I’ve got to have you.
+Clear out, you two boys, and stay as long as
+you like.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>In the few days of Putnam Adams’s stay
+it had come about that the household obeyed
+him unquestioningly. Miss Esther realized
+that Kenneth’s going would interfere with
+her plans, yet there was no escape from the
+inevitable, and she docilely remained with
+Putnam and watched the brothers as they
+sauntered across the lawn.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>They found Lillian at her easel, at work on
+a large landscape.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That’s the picture, now,” exclaimed
+Mark, diplomatically.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I told you you hadn’t any ingenuity,”
+said Kenneth, “and besides that can’t be the
+picture. There isn’t any cow in it!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“There was a cow—” began Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How did it get away?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I painted it out,” replied the artist.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then that’s the picture. I knew it was,”
+said Mark.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What picture?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We can’t tell you. We’re diplomats.
+When will it be finished?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It’s almost finished now. I think it will
+be done by Saturday.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then that’s all right. I’ll tell Cousin
+Esther,” said Mark.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What does she want to know for?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We can’t tell you. That’s a surprise.
+How can people be diplomats if other people
+ask them questions all the time?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Hullo, who painted this head?” Kenneth
+had discovered a portrait among a lot of
+sketches.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“By Jove!” exclaimed Mark, “that looks
+like the girls.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What girls?” asked Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Our girls,” said Kenneth. “We’re engaged
+to them, you know. Want to see ’em?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, indeed. Where are they?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The boys simultaneously drew from their
+pockets two thin gold cases each containing
+a miniature of a young woman.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why, these are pictures of the same
+girl,” said Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Not exactly,” explained Kenneth.
+“We’ve each got one. You see they’re
+twins.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I should think they were twins. I never
+saw anything so much alike in my life.
+How do you tell them apart?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We can’t,” said Mark. “At least we can
+tell the girls apart, but not the pictures.
+They got mixed up once and we’ve never
+known which is which since. But it doesn’t
+matter. They can tell us apart.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, of course, they can tell which of
+you they are engaged to.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Kenneth, “we have to depend
+on them to sort us out. But sometimes
+I think they fool us.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I know they do,” said Mark. “They
+think it’s a great joke.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Are you to be married soon?” asked
+Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, there’s to be a double wedding in the
+fall. Great time—I wish you’d come to it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’d love to go. Is Miss Esther going?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, I guess so. She came on to Roger’s
+wedding, but she hasn’t said anything
+about ours.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“They’re awfully pretty girls. What are
+their names?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Butler—Edna and Edwina. We call
+them Ed for short.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How do they know which one you
+mean?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why, according to who says it. I
+wouldn’t call Edna ‘Ed.’ ”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You’d better not,” said Mark. “I’d
+pound you if you did.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Where are they now?” asked Lillian,
+interestedly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“They are going on with mother this
+week from Boston to the Adirondacks, and
+Mark and I are to join them there later.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Just then Brewster and Helen Fairbanks
+came into the studio.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We’ve been walking miles and miles,”
+said Helen, “and we’re going over to Miss
+Esther’s for a cup of tea, and we want you
+to come with us.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“All right,” said Mark, “we’ll go. Just
+wait a few minutes till Miss Hastings paints
+a cow into her picture.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, the cow can wait till to-morrow,”
+said Lillian; “but won’t you show Miss
+Fairbanks those two miniatures, or one at
+least?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The boys produced the lockets and
+handed them to Helen. “What a beautiful
+girl,” she said. “Is she your sister?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No—she isn’t one girl, she’s twins,
+and she’s engaged to these two brothers
+here,” said Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Which is which?” asked Helen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Merciful powers!” exclaimed Kenneth,
+“you haven’t mixed them up again, have
+you? We just got them sorted out.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why these are the Butler twins,” said
+Brewster as he looked at the pictures.
+“I’ve known them all their lives;—this is
+Edna and this is Edwina.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How can you tell?” asked Mark, admiringly;
+“but give me Edwina quick, while
+you know.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Now I’m ready,” said Lillian, sticking
+her brushes into an already crowded ginger
+jar. “Come on, let’s go. It’s almost five.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>On the way to the Adams house they
+passed Dr. Bushnell’s. Brewster turned in
+at the gate. “Go on,” he said, “I’ll get the
+book I promised Miss Fairbanks, and catch
+you before you get to Miss Esther’s.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>That afternoon had proved an eventful
+one for Miss Adams, and had completely
+disarranged her Matrimonial Bureau.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She had been sitting on the east porch
+with Putnam, when Nora announced the
+arrival of three ladies.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, Emily Westcott!” exclaimed
+Miss Esther, “I’m so glad to see you.
+Where under the sun did you come from?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m on my way to Saranac, and just
+stopped over for the night to see you and to
+show you my new daughters. This is Edwina
+Butler and this is Edna Butler. Where
+are the boys?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m very glad to see you—all of you.
+But why do you call these young ladies
+your daughters?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why, they’re engaged to Mark and
+Kenneth. Haven’t they told you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Mark and Kenneth?” said Miss Esther,
+“Mark and Kenneth! but which of you is
+which? How can they tell you apart?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“They can’t,” said Edna Butler. “We
+tell them.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther sat down. “Well, of <span class='it'>all</span>
+things!” she said.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why are you so surprised?” asked Mrs.
+Westcott. “The boys are old enough.
+Mark is twenty-five—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, yes, I know. And I’m very much
+pleased,—very much pleased. I am sure,”
+she added, turning to the young ladies,
+“that you must be twins. You are, aren’t
+you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, we are; I am Edwina. There’s no
+way to tell us apart except by our first
+names. Mark is my special property.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And Kenneth is mine,” said Edna.
+“He has written so much about you and
+this beautiful place that we’re perfectly delighted
+to be here. He told us, too, about
+numbers of new cousins he had found here.
+Mayn’t we see them?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, indeed,” said Miss Esther. “At
+least we have one of them on exhibition.
+Your boys have gone calling somewhere,
+but one of the new cousins—Lieutenant
+Adams—is on the east porch, laid up with
+a broken leg. Come out and amuse him for
+a while.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She took the Butler twins to the east
+porch, presented Lieutenant Adams, and
+then returned to Mrs. Westcott. “Those
+young people can take care of themselves,”
+she said, “and you and I can have a good
+old-time chat.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We’ve come out to get acquainted,”
+announced Edna. “You may not know it,
+but you are to be one of our new cousins,
+Lieutenant Adams.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m very glad to hear that,” he said;
+“but if I’m your cousin, you must call me
+Putnam. What’s your name?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Mine’s Edna, and hers is Edwina. You
+may use them, if you like.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t know how I can remember which
+belongs to which. Your gowns are exactly
+alike. You ought to have some distinguishing
+mark.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“All right. Give me one of your gilt
+buttons,” said Edna, “and I’ll wear it on
+my chain.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Of course,” said Lieutenant Adams, cutting
+off a button from his white duck coat,
+which Edna gleefully attached to her long
+chain.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I want one, too,” said Edwina, “to put
+on my chain.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Of course. Here’s one for you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Edwina strung the button on her chain.
+“Now shut your eyes,” she said, “and count
+ten.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>During the counting Putnam heard an
+ostentatious rustle and two very similar
+giggles. Then he announced “Ten!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Now look at us,” said one of them.
+“Which am I?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That’s dead easy; you’re Edwina.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How can you tell?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why, because one of you is so much
+prettier than the other.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Which?” cried the twins together.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Both,” said Putnam, gallantly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, if that doesn’t look like Winthrop
+Brewster,” said Edwina, as she saw
+a tall man in white flannels crossing the
+lawn.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is,” said her sister.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Of course it is,” said Putnam. “Do you
+know him?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, known him all our lives. Hullo,
+Winthrop!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, Peaches Butler!” exclaimed Brewster
+as he came up the steps. “How did you
+get here? You see,” he explained to Putnam,
+“that when I address these young
+women together I have to refer to them in
+the plural. When I meet only one of them
+I call her Peach.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>From the library window Miss Esther
+could hear the laughter on the east porch.
+She had left Mrs. Westcott in her room, after
+hearing from her the details of the boys’
+engagements.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Mark and Kenneth both out of it,” she
+thought. “To be sure, I only needed one
+of them, but I can’t have either, it seems.
+I think the Jean and Putnam affair will turn
+out as I have planned. Then, of course,
+I must give Winthrop Brewster to Lillian.
+That still leaves Helen. She is certainly
+my most troublesome client. This being
+a Matrimonial Bureau is harder work than
+I thought it would be.”</p>
+
+<h2>XI</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>He well may be a stranger, for he comes to an honored
+triumph.—<span class='it'>Pericles</span>, ii, 2.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>After leaving Brewster at Dr. Bushnell’s,
+Mark explained to his companions that he
+had forgotten to go to the post-office as
+he had promised Miss Esther he would do.
+They all went with him. When they reached
+the Adams house there was no one on the
+front veranda.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We’re late,” said Helen, “and yet I
+don’t see any appearance of tea-things. I
+wonder where everybody is?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Some fearful accident must have happened
+in this well-regulated family to have
+interfered with the tea routine,” said Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” exclaimed Kenneth, “the fearful
+accident is Putnam Adams. He has regulations
+of his own, and he has hypnotized
+Cousin Esther into thinking that they are
+hers. He’s probably having tea in that
+padded cell of his.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“From the racket, I should say he had
+a whole tea-party,” said Mark.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We’ll invite ourselves to it,” said Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>They sauntered slowly toward the porch,
+Lillian and Mark ahead, and Helen following
+with Kenneth.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That’s Mark’s laugh,” said Edwina.
+“The boys are coming, Ed.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The Butler twins flew to the vine-framed
+window and looked out to see Mark and
+Kenneth apparently very much interested
+in two merry young women. At the same
+moment Lillian spied the twin faces in the
+leafy frame. “There,” she cried, “are the
+girls out of your lockets!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Edwina Butler!” yelled Mark, dropping
+in an astonished heap on the grass. “Whichever
+one of you belongs to me, come out
+here—quick!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, you come up here. Aren’t you
+awful glad to see us? We’re a surprise
+party,” said Edwina.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You certainly are,” said Kenneth, bounding
+up the steps. “What are you doing
+here, anyway?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Lillian and Helen followed Kenneth, and
+Brewster introduced them to the Butler
+twins. Just as Mark rose to go, too, Jean
+came around the corner of the house.
+“Where’s everybody?” she said.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Up in Putnam’s porch,” replied Mark.
+“Come on up.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Here comes Mark with another girl,”
+said Edwina to Brewster. “Is he making
+a collection?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I think he is,” replied Brewster;
+“and I admire his taste in gems.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“His latest acquisition seems to be a
+sparkling one.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“She’s all of that,” said Brewster. “Jean
+Richards is a witch; but I’m not sure that
+I would call her Mark’s acquisition.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is she yours?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, not that either. Lieutenant Adams—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Just at this moment Mark came up and
+Edwina lost interest in Brewster’s sentence.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Mark has good taste,” thought Brewster,
+glancing at Miss Butler, “but for myself—”
+He deliberately walked across the porch
+and seated himself beside Helen Fairbanks.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther and Mrs. Westcott appeared
+at the door.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The Mother!” shrieked Kenneth, and
+sprang to meet her.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What a lot of people for tea,” said Miss
+Esther. “We must all go out on the front
+veranda right away. Everything is ready.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We are going to have tea here to-day,”
+said Putnam.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>He looked at Miss Esther with that air
+of absolute finality which she had already
+learned meant ultimate acquiescence on
+her part; and while she felt it necessary to
+parley a little, if only for a compromise with
+her own dignity, yet she was secretly pleased
+with the positive knowledge that she would
+capitulate at last. In a word, she enjoyed
+Putnam’s despotism.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But we always have it on the front veranda.
+We’ll have to go out there,” she said.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No,” said Putnam; “it is to be served
+here. Sit down.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther sat down.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Now, Miss Richards,” began Putnam,
+“you will kindly ask Nora to superintend
+moving all that tea baggage out here, and you
+Westcott boys get busy and do the boosting.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Usually Putnam’s orders were carried out
+to the letter, but when Jean reached the
+front veranda, she was surprised to see a
+strange young man sitting there. He was
+a fat little man, who looked as though he
+might be merry in favoring circumstances.
+But just now he sat in an attitude of deep
+dejection, his round face showing a most
+woe-begone expression.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Don’t cry!” said Jean. “It’s all right.
+What’s the matter?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Somebody’s broke the doorbell, and I
+can’t get in. Sit down, won’t you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jean sat down beside him. “I really must
+be going,” she said; “they’re waiting for
+me inside.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Can’t I go in, too? I’m expected. I
+am Abraham Lincoln Dodd.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jean regarded him critically. “You don’t
+look like Abraham Lincoln,” she said.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No; I favor the Dodds. We are the
+Dodds of Lawrence. We spell our name
+D-o-double-d. It is pronounced Dodd—the
+final d is silent.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How interesting,” said Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, isn’t it? Putnam Adams wrote
+for me to come down here. He said that
+his Cousin Esther said I might. Are you
+his Cousin Esther?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, no. Miss Adams is a lady of about
+fifty.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, so Putnam said.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Where are you, Miss Richards?” called
+Mark from the doorway.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Here I am. Come out and meet Mr.
+Dodd.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Certainly,” said Mark, dropping down
+on the top step. “Did Putnam tell you to
+keep Mr. Dodd out here?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We can’t get in,” said Abraham Lincoln
+Dodd. “Nobody answered my ring, and
+I can’t find Putnam.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What’s up?” asked Kenneth, coming
+out after more teacups.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’ve found a stranger,” said Jean, “and
+I took him in. Want to see him?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“She hasn’t taken me in <span class='it'>yet</span>,” said Dodd,
+cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“She will, though,” said Kenneth, sitting
+down beside his brother. “It’s a happy
+little faculty Miss Richards possesses. But
+you’re not a stranger. Putnam expected
+you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, Miss Adams was kind enough to
+invite me. They said to come as soon as
+I could, and so I came right away. I drove
+over from Richfield Springs in my automobile.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You did?” cried Jean. “Have you got
+an automobile? Will you take me out in
+it?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“All right,” replied Dodd. “Get your
+hat.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“There’s a riot on the east porch,” said
+Brewster, appearing suddenly. “<span class='it'>Where</span> is
+that tea-table?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Never mind the tea,” exclaimed Jean.
+“Here’s Mr. Dodd, and he’s got an automobile!
+Come out and see him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Where is it?” asked Brewster, joining
+the group.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why,” said Dodd, “it was most unfortunate.
+Just as I was coming through the
+village it had a pain, so I left it at the blacksmith’s.
+It will be all right by to-morrow.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I can go to-morrow,” said Jean. “We’ll
+all go.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How many are there of us?” asked
+Dodd.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, there’s a lot of us,” replied Jean.
+“There’s Miss Esther—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, here’s Miss Esther,” said that lady
+coming through the hall. “What is going
+on? Are you going to keep these boys here
+all the afternoon?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why,” said Jean, “I’m entertaining your
+company. Mr. Dodd is here.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, Putnam’s Mr. Dodd?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Your Mr. Dodd, if you will have me,”
+said Abraham Lincoln, rising.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Certainly I will. Consider yourself one
+of my adopted boys. I have a great many.
+Won’t you come in?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’ve been trying to get in, but Miss
+Richards has kept me out.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“She is quite capable of it. You’re a bad
+girl, Jean. Go back to the east porch at
+once. Putnam wants you. Also, I left two
+girls weeping for the Westcott boys. Mr.
+Brewster, tell Putnam that Mr. Dodd is here.
+I’ll bring him out there directly.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It was right down good of you to ask me
+over here, Miss Adams,” said Dodd as they
+were left alone.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am glad to have you. Any friend of
+Putnam’s is welcome. I am very fond of that
+boy.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, he’s an all-round good fellow.
+I’m sorry he’s laid up, but this is certainly
+an ideal spot to be laid up in. The country
+is beautiful, and I’m glad I brought my
+sketching-traps.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, yes. Putnam told me you painted.
+I’m so glad.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You won’t be when you see my pictures.
+I don’t paint very well.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But you take an interest in art?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, yes. I like pictures and I like people
+who like pictures.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>It was with great satisfaction that Miss
+Esther showed Abraham Lincoln Dodd to
+his room. When she came down stairs she
+paused a moment in the library. “It’s nothing
+short of providential,” she thought.
+“Just when I had to give up all hopes of
+one of those Westcott boys for Lillian, here
+comes along an even better candidate. He
+is not only available along the art lines, but
+Putnam says he is rich and so, of course, he
+could take Lillian abroad or anywhere she
+wants to go. I really think he’ll do very
+well. Dodd isn’t a much prettier name than
+Briggs, and I did want Westcott; but I must
+not sit too long on trifles. It is working out
+admirably. There does seem to be a special
+providence that waits on Matrimonial Bureaus.
+If all goes well, Lillian can sail by
+the middle of August after all.”</p>
+
+<h2>XII</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>My chief humor is for a tyrant.—<span class='it'>Midsummer Night’s
+Dream</span>, i, 2.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Putnam’s tea on the east porch proved a
+decided success. Abraham Lincoln Dodd
+was an acquisition, and Miss Esther viewed
+the entire group with a secret elation that at
+last she had secured a stage-setting such as
+she wanted, and furthermore had brought
+her actors all together upon the scene.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>It seemed to her the perfected realization
+of her attempt to model a situation after
+those described in her favorite English
+novels. The wicker tea-table and its complete
+appointments, the pretty girls in their
+light summer frocks, the jolly, careless men
+with their unostentatious thoughtfulness for
+Putnam, the blue sky, the green, close-cut
+grass, and even the sweep of the graveled
+driveway, along which Miss Esther’s imagination
+could see Lady Rose’s daughter rolling
+in her victoria,—all these filled her
+heart with joy. This joy was not expressed
+in words, but its manifestation was evident
+in her demeanor and made her, appropriately
+enough, a fitting central figure for the
+picture. She looked at the three girls she
+was so fond of, she looked at her recently
+acquired collection of cousins, and then she
+looked curiously at Mr. Dodd and wondered.
+“I think he will do,” she thought, “and he
+seems to like Lillian already.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>As a matter of fact, Mr. Dodd seemed to
+like not only Lillian but all of Miss Esther’s
+guests, and apparently the regard was mutual.
+The centre of an admiring group, he
+was telling of some exciting experience
+which befell him when he was young. “It
+wasn’t so bad, then, but after I grew up—”
+he began.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But you didn’t grow very far,” interrupted
+Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Not up, no; but I grew a lot cross-wise.
+I think Nature intended me for a
+sphere.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“She accomplished her purpose admirably,”
+said Putnam.</p>
+
+<div class='figcenter' style='width:80%'>
+<img src='images/ill002.jpg' alt='Group of men and women partaking in tea time' id='img02' style='width:99%;height:auto;'/>
+<p class='caption'><span class='it'>Tea on the east porch.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The minister was telling me the other
+day,” said Jean, “that I ought to find my
+sphere. I wonder if you’re it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No,” said Miss Esther, involuntarily.
+“That is, I mean,” she went on hurriedly,
+“I won’t have anybody calling my guests
+spheres or any other geometrical solids.
+And by the way, Mr. Dodd, what am
+I to call you? You see, all these other
+adopted boys of mine I call by their first
+names.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But Mr. Dodd’s first name is so ponderous,”
+said Helen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is,” said Dodd, hopelessly. “But,” he
+added, brightening, “they used to call me
+Little Sunshine.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I shall call you Lincoln,” said Miss
+Esther, decidedly. “It suits you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am very glad to hear that somebody
+has at last realized my essential Lincolnic
+attributes. I have always wanted to issue a
+proclamation. I am a born proclaimer, and
+if I could only emancipate somebody from
+something, I could die happy. I am Lincolnian
+to the backbone. I was cut out for
+a great fighter.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If you’re talking about fighters,” said
+Mark, “Fitzsimmons is my choice.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, call me Fitz if you like. I might
+just as well have been named after him, if
+he had done his fighting as early as Lincoln
+did. He’s another kind of fighter, to be
+sure, but if a man fights to win, what’s the
+odds whether he fights men or conditions?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t see why men like to fight so
+much,” said Lillian. “I should think you
+would rather be something nice. A painter,
+for instance, like Sir Joshua Reynolds.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, I am a painter, and you may call me
+Sir Josh if you like.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Are you really a painter?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I am. I’m a big painter. My last
+picture was a scene up Gloucester way, and
+covered the whole coast, all the shore from
+Rocky Neck to Cape Ann.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“All on one canvas?” asked Putnam.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I wanted it for a certain space, but
+somehow I got the thing too long, and when
+I got it home it wouldn’t fit.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What did you do then?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I had to take a tuck in it,—up and
+down, you know. It didn’t make any difference.
+It only cut out a few miles between
+the DeCamp cottage and the hotels on the
+eastern shore. That stretch is uninteresting,
+anyway.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m awfully glad you paint,” said Lillian;
+“I paint some, too. If you paint better
+than I do, you can teach me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I will, with pleasure, and if you paint
+better than I do, you can teach me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther smiled. Mr. Dodd was certainly
+a most tractable man. If she had told
+him just what she wanted, he couldn’t have
+fallen in with her plans better. She foresaw
+a friendship that should begin over the paint
+tubes, and should lead straight to the deck
+of the European steamer. “Perhaps I am
+not exactly the god in the machine,” she
+thought, while apparently listening to Mrs.
+Westcott’s periphrases, “but I am the machinist,
+and I must set the god to work. And
+if ’t were done when ’t is done, then ’twere
+well ’twere done quickly.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther regarded Lillian with the
+expression a chess-player would bestow upon
+an idle pawn. She decided to make a move
+upon her matrimonial chessboard. “Lillian,”
+she said, transparently diplomatic,
+“wouldn’t you like to take Mr. Dodd over
+to your studio and let him advise you about
+that new picture of yours?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Lillian did want to, but not feeling sure
+of Mr. Dodd’s state of mind on the subject,
+she looked at him, inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Nothing I should like better,” said he,
+jumping up. “As an adviser I am a great
+success. I make a specialty of advising. I
+have noticed that nowadays it is the thing to
+be a specialist.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But I thought specialists were surgeons
+or doctors,” said Edwina Butler. “Are you
+a doctor?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I am. I administer advice in capsules
+to my patients, and they’re not always
+sugar-coated, either.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then sometimes they are hard to take,”
+said Lillian. “I hope you’ll sugar-coat
+mine.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t know,” Dodd returned. “I
+haven’t seen your picture yet, and I don’t
+know what kind you’ll need.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Advise her to put her cow back in the
+pasture,” said Mark.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Where is she now?” asked Dodd. “Do
+you allow your cow to paint on your pictures,
+Miss Hastings, while you’re away?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, it was only a painted cow upon a
+painted picture, and I unpainted her, because—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Because she wouldn’t moo,” interrupted
+Helen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, you are a realist?” asked Dodd.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes. I want to paint cows that can
+moo,” replied Lillian, “although I may not
+hear them.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“They’d scare you to death if they did,”
+said Jean. “I never knew anybody so afraid
+of cows as you are.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, go on,” said Miss Esther. “I’ve
+no doubt if you meet any cows on the way
+Mr. Dodd will—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Paint them out,” supplemented Putnam.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We will,” said Dodd as he walked down
+the steps with Lillian; “but remember that
+sometimes it requires a good deal of courage
+to paint out.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Lillian gave him a glance of admiring
+appreciation. Miss Esther caught it, and
+smiled.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Pursuing her rôle of a zealous and very
+active fate, Miss Esther next proceeded to
+clear the stage for the more prominent actors
+in her comedy-drama. “Girls,” she said to
+the Butler twins, “wouldn’t you like to see
+something of the place? Why don’t you ask
+that pair of Westcotts of yours to take you
+down where Kenneth was fishing the other
+day? That’s a most romantic spot.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, we’re not so romantic as all that,”
+said Edwina, “or at least if we are, we have
+plenty of opportunities for romance; but it
+isn’t often that we get a chance at such a
+lovely afternoon tea as this is, and we want
+to stay to it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is my tea,” said Putnam, “and I
+can manage it any way I like. Now I’ll
+interrupt it right here, and you kids go down
+to the brook. We’ll begin the tea again
+when you come back.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Miss Esther, delighted that
+her necessary acquiescence with Putnam’s
+views should coincide so perfectly with her
+wishes, “run along at once. Stay as long
+as you like, and be sure to be here at seven
+o’clock for dinner.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“They’ll never get back by that time,”
+said Mrs. Westcott. “You don’t know that
+quartette as well as I do. They have no idea
+of time. You ought not to let them go.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why, she’s sending us,” cried Edna. “I
+don’t care a snip about going.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, go along,” said her hostess, “you’ll
+be back in time.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The four ran laughing down the steps and
+crossed the lawn in the direction of the
+woodland. Elated by her success so far,
+Miss Esther proceeded to dispose of Helen
+and Mr. Brewster, for her ultimate plan was
+nothing less than to leave Jean and Lieutenant
+Adams in undisturbed possession of
+the east porch. But Theodore Winthrop
+Brewster was not so easily managed as the
+Westcott boys. She made several unsuccessful
+attempts. “Mr. Brewster,” she said,
+finally, “have you seen Jack’s ship since he
+has painted it?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have, indeed,” said Brewster, cheerfully;
+“in fact I helped him paint it yesterday.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But he put on another coat this morning,
+and it really looks very different. Take
+Helen up to see it. She’s so interested in
+Jack’s ship.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m the one that is interested in Jack’s
+ship,” broke in Jean; “let me go.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Stay where you are,” said Putnam, dictatorially;
+“you weren’t invited. Miss Fairbanks
+was.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But I don’t want to go,” said Helen.
+“I am very comfortable here;” and she
+leaned back in her lounging-chair with one
+of her best expressions of reposeful content.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You always exasperate me when you
+look like that,” said Jean. “I wish Miss
+Esther would make you go.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I can’t,” said Miss Esther. “I can make
+some people do some things some of the
+time, but I know better than to order Helen
+Fairbanks around. Besides, Putnam is the
+only one here who can make anybody do
+anything.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Try it,” said Helen, looking over at Putnam.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Not I. I should be proud to have you
+give me orders, but I should never dream of
+commanding Miss Helen Fairbanks.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Your decision is a wise one, as my family
+could tell you. Collectively and individually
+they have tried to make me mind,
+but without any very startling success.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Come with me, Miss Fairbanks,” said
+Brewster. “There are some interesting details
+about Jack’s ship that I would like to
+show you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Helen rose smilingly, and with an evident
+unconsciousness that she was obeying
+dictation, she walked into the house with
+Brewster. Putnam caught Miss Esther’s
+glance across the porch and threw back an
+amused smile of comprehension.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>After Helen and Mr. Brewster left them,
+Miss Esther diplomatically contrived an exit
+for herself and Mrs. Westcott. “If you will
+come into the library with me, Emily,” she
+said, “I will look up those papers and we
+will settle those disputed genealogical questions.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, there’s no hurry about it,” said
+Mrs. Westcott, “I shall be here two or three
+days.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Come now,” said Miss Esther, “I’m
+just in the mood for it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She held the door open with such an air
+of compulsion that Mrs. Westcott reluctantly
+went in.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Left alone with Putnam on the veranda,
+Jean, for some unaccountable reason, felt
+vaguely embarrassed. “I must take these
+things out to Nora,” she said, as she began
+rather aimlessly to fuss with the teacups.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Stay where you are,” said Putnam.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But you see,” said Jean, “I really must
+look after these things. It’s Nora’s afternoon
+out—at least I think it is—and Miss
+Esther always depends on me to look after
+things for her—especially if she has company—and
+so, you see, I really must—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Sit down,” said Putnam.</p>
+
+<h2>XIII</h2>
+
+
+          <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+          <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>And I for no woman.—<span class='it'>As You Like It</span>, v, 2.</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I won’t sit down,” said Jean. “You can
+boss Miss Esther as much as you like, but
+you needn’t think that I’m going to do
+exactly as you say. I am in the habit of doing
+the ordering myself. That is the divine right
+of an only child.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“An only child needn’t be a spoiled
+child,” said Putnam, lazily.</p>
+
+<div class='figcenter' style='width:80%'>
+<img src='images/ill001.jpg' alt='Woman talks to man in chair' id='img01' style='width:99%;height:auto;'/>
+<p class='caption'>“<span class='it'>I’m not a spoiled child!</span>”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m not a spoiled child,” and Jean’s eyes
+flashed; “nobody ever said that before!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t object to being a pioneer. The
+rôle has always appealed to me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, don’t indulge your proclivities in
+this undiscovered country.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why not?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Putnam regarded Jean deliberately, and
+with an expression of amused curiosity. He
+was an unusually handsome man, and his
+magnificent physique gave an impression of
+resolute power to a degree rare, even in a
+soldier. This impression was in no way lessened,
+but was rather accented by his present
+condition of physical helplessness. Stretched
+at full length in a steamer-chair, and consequently
+incapable of active exertion, he still
+showed unmistakable evidence of an immense
+amount of reserve force. It was this
+air of indolently conscious superiority which
+proved so excessively tantalizing to Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She sat down in a low chair beside him,
+and resting her chin in her hands, gazed
+straight into his eyes.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why not?” repeated Putnam.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Because I won’t stand it. You’re the
+spoiled child yourself. You always have
+your own way, irrespective of what anybody
+else wants, and it makes me furious to have
+you think that you can order me about as
+you do others. You shan’t do it!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why not?” said Putnam again.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>He still looked at her quizzically with the
+added provocation of a slight patronizing
+smile. Jean flushed angrily. Putnam
+changed his position, but with difficulty, and
+the expression of pain which came into his
+eyes roused all Jean’s instincts of helpfulness.
+Without realizing what she was doing, she
+rose and took a pillow from the hammock.
+This she placed under Putnam’s shoulder,
+and with quick, deft touches patted it into
+exactly the right position.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Thank you,” he said, with a grave courtesy
+quite at variance with his former teasing
+mood. Jean flushed again, but this time it
+was not with anger. She could not have analyzed
+the reason even if she had tried. It
+was simply the charm of Putnam Adams’s
+personality. Splendid physical strength and
+an iron will, with a calm, consummate indifference,
+born of unqualified self-confidence,
+make the most attractive combination possible
+in a man, and he possessed these qualities
+in their perfection. Possibly the consciousness
+of this had added to his manner a
+little too great a touch of autocracy, but this
+was always forgiven him, because, when
+necessary, Putnam Adams commanded forgiveness
+with the same assurance that he
+commanded everything else.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And so this personality appealed to Jean,
+not only because of its effectiveness with all
+women, but because this was the first time
+that a man of this stamp had come within
+her experience. She was a little bewildered
+by it, and in consequence lost much of her
+self-confident ability to hold her own against
+any odds.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Indeed, it was otherwise inexplicable that
+she, the high-handed dispenser of begged-for
+favors, should, not only without invitation,
+but without volition, have bestowed upon an
+outrageously indifferent beneficiary a favor
+which, however casual it might seem, was
+really a tribute to his masterfulness. She
+was conquered, although she didn’t know it.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Putnam Adams knew it, but he did not
+tell her.</p>
+
+<hr class='tbk'/>
+
+<p class='pindent'>After a few weeks of rest and Miss
+Esther’s care, Putnam’s condition improved
+to such an extent that he was able to get
+about without his crutches, and was able to
+take his place in the sextette which had many
+excursions by automobile and otherwise in
+the surrounding country about Whitfield.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The Westcott party had gone on to the
+Adirondacks, after promising to stop at Miss
+Esther’s on the way back. After Mark’s departure,
+Chub had transferred her affections
+to Abraham Lincoln Dodd, whom she called
+Linkum, and whom she alternately petted
+and tyrannized over.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>One morning Dodd lay on his back on the
+lawn, looking up at a very blue sky, and Chub
+amused herself by piling leaves upon his face.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m a wobin,” she said, gleefully, “and
+you’re my Babeth in the Woodth.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I knew a robin once,—” began Dodd.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“A nither wobin than me?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, not nicer than you, except that that
+robin didn’t put sand in my eyes.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Wath it a weally wobin?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, a really robin, with feathers. We
+were great friends.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have a friend—he’th a chipmuk; and
+I have ’nother friend, and he’th a tagger;
+and I have ’nother friend, and he’th a—a—a—Bear—a
+awful big Bear; and I had
+’nother friend, and he wath a little kittypillar—but
+he ranned away.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is your bear a really bear?” asked
+Dodd.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, yeth; a big live bear with featherth,
+and he livth wight over there.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>With a comprehensive sweep of her dimpled
+arm, Chub vaguely indicated the habitat
+of the bear.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Lovely!” said Dodd. “And do the tiger
+and chipmunk live there, too?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yeth, we all live there, and we have
+thupper together and the tagger eath bread
+and milk, and the chipmuk eath cuthtard,
+and the bear—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Eats the caterpillar?” questioned Dodd.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, he didn’t. The little kittypillar
+ranned away, cauth the bear theen him go,
+and he ranned acroth the woad and acroth
+the brook and acroth the fenth, he ranned
+awful fatht.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Did you run after him?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yeth, and I felled in the brook and got
+all drownded up, and the chipmuk come
+’long and he felled in the brook, and the tagger
+come ’long and he felled in the brook,
+and the bear come ’long and he felled in the
+brook, and the chipmuk come ’long and he
+felled in the brook, and—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, you had the chipmunk in the brook
+before.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yeth, but he felled in two timeth; and
+the bear come ’long—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the end of this thrilling tale was lost
+to history, and so far as we know authoritatively,
+the animals are still in the brook, for
+just at this moment Chub’s nurse appeared
+and carried the baby off for her morning nap.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Dodd rose, brushed off the leaves and wisps
+of grass with which Chub had favored him,
+and went into the house in search of Miss
+Esther. When he reached the hall he saw
+her in the library.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>As he entered the room, she said, apparently
+to nobody, “They are all doing beautifully,
+except Winthrop Brewster. I cannot
+understand, Cassius,” she said, “what is the
+matter with that man. I’m sure he cares a
+lot about Helen, and last night I managed to
+leave them alone on the East porch, and,”
+seeing Dodd in the doorway, “if you’ll believe
+me, Lincoln Dodd, nothing came of it!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You don’t mean it!” said Dodd.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I do, and I was just telling Cassius—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I heard you address Cassius. Is he a
+dog?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, I mean Caius Cassius. I often talk
+to my books—especially when I want advice.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Do you often get it?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Always, if I ask the right ones.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How do you know who are the right
+ones?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My intuitions tell me, and just now they
+tell me that you are the one.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m a good adviser,” said Dodd.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I believe you are, and that is why
+I’m going to ask you seriously about a very
+important matter.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Do,” he replied. “I’ve been wanting
+excitement of some kind.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, this will be exciting enough, I
+promise you. It’s nothing more nor less
+than that you are to get married,—sooner
+than you expect to.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“To you? All right!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No. Don’t be foolish. Not to me. But
+really, a rich young man like you are, and
+a good man, and a kind man, ought to make
+some girl happy.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But perhaps it wouldn’t make me
+happy,” said Dodd.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, don’t attempt to be coy with me.
+I understand perfectly how the land lies, and
+I am thoroughly pleased, I can assure you.
+Lillian Hastings is one of the dearest girls
+I know, and—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Good Heavens! Miss Esther, what in
+the world are you talking about?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, anybody can see with half an eye
+that you’re in love with her.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But I’m not. I’m not a bit in love with
+Miss Hastings or with any other lady, and
+I never wish to marry or be given in marriage.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You’re not in love with Lillian Hastings!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther dropped onto the sofa. She
+looked the picture of woe.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Et tu, Brute!” she said. “Another candidate
+defeated!”</p>
+
+<h2>XIV</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Here’s a small trifle of wives.—<span class='it'>Merchant of Venice</span>, ii, 2.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Lillian’s studio was peculiarly fitted for
+confidences. It was away up in the top of
+a house which had been constructed in the
+time when gingerbread formed a part of the
+architectural impulse of Central New York.
+Still, up in the attic there had been left an unfinished
+room—garret, with rafters and other
+things dear to the heart of those who were
+born in Central New York in the middle
+seventies. This room the young woman had
+adapted to her own uses. She had impressed
+the men from the Whitfield Planing Mill
+and Agricultural Works, and she had directed
+them to construct a ceiling of matched
+lumber—though she did not know what
+matched lumber meant.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>After it was finished she discovered that
+it was simply a ceiling of boards closely
+fitted together, and that by no possibility
+could the boards be said to match—so far
+as her eye for color could discover. Still,
+she was satisfied, for she had covered the
+whole affair with a coat of burlap, and over
+this she had put a coat of paint—dark green,
+with splashes of gold in it—and when it was
+done she sat down and thought it all out.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“They thought it was matched lumber,”
+she said. “I have made it match.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>That, in effect, was the attitude which
+Lillian Hastings, she of the artistic temperament,
+held toward life.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>This point of view had been questioned
+by Jean, but Helen understood it. “It’s this
+way,” said she, as they discussed it for the
+thousandth time. “Very often Lillian’s
+lumber doesn’t match, but she covers it up
+with a bit of decorative drapery and is perfectly
+satisfied.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Lillian, “but the decoration,
+if it is of my own choosing, pleases me so
+much that I forget the unmatchedness of the
+lumber.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Just in the same way, I suppose,” said
+Jean, “that you have forgotten the ugliness
+of that picture which you have so cleverly
+covered with that square of Turkish embroidery.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Exactly that. As it is, I forget that the
+ugliness is behind, and see only the beautiful.
+To me the ugliness is not there.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No,” said Helen, “I know it. Now to
+me the ugliness is not only there, but is all
+the more visible to me from the fact that
+I try to cover it up.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That’s foolishness,” said Jean. “There’s
+no sense in seeing ugly things because they’re
+covered up; but then, there’s no sense in
+having them there, anyway. If a thing is ugly,
+why not take it away, or else go somewhere
+else yourself?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Lillian went about the work of the studio
+thoughtfully. “There are some uglinesses,”
+she said, presently, “that one cannot get
+away from. If they are there, and are put
+there by those who put things there for us
+in the beginning—then why not either
+accept them or get away from them, or—cover
+them up? The system is complicated.
+Not all can be escaped. Not all can be accepted—but
+all of them can be covered up
+to a greater or less degree, and the mere fact
+that we are conscious of them ourselves
+need not make them visible to those who
+happen to come under the influence of the
+beautiful things with which we cover the
+uglinesses—Bah! the very idea of exploiting
+all our guilty consciences and all our ugly
+little ideas before everybody that may come
+along! It is disgusting. We know they are
+there. We know the spots on the wall-paper,
+and we know that there is a worn place in
+the carpet, and these mean either carelessness
+or something else. Whatever they
+mean, we back a chair up against the spot
+on the wall and we put a rug over the carpet’s
+shortcomings—just exactly as we put
+figurative chairs and rugs over the spots on
+our consciences. We know they are there—but
+the other people do not, maybe, and
+if they don’t, then they are not offended by
+the sight. They haven’t got to fight the
+thing out. If we have—then we can do it
+after they have gone away. We will have to
+do it alone, anyway.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am more glad than ever that I haven’t
+the artistic temperament,” said Jean, “if you
+have to reason things out as deeply as that.
+I don’t see the use of paying any attention
+to ugly things. It’s all I can do to find time
+enough for all the beautiful things there are
+in the world.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Much you know about the world!” flung
+in Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Mr. Brewster says,” remarked Helen,
+“that nothing is ugly, <span class='it'>per se</span>.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I always did wonder what <span class='it'>per se</span> meant,”
+said Jean; “but it seems to me, Helen, that
+Mr. Brewster’s opinions mean an awful lot
+to you of late.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That’s because his opinions are valuable
+<span class='it'>per se</span>.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Now you see, Jean,” said Lillian, “what
+<span class='it'>per se</span> means. It means to Helen.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, if he expresses his opinions to me
+more than he does to you girls, it’s because
+I listen with some serious attention, and you—well,
+you never seem to be around when
+he’s talking.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“There’s gratitude for you!” exclaimed
+Jean. “After we have purposely kept out
+of your way and tried our best to give you
+opportunities for hearing opinions—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And for serious attentions,” broke in
+Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You needn’t have troubled yourselves,”
+said Helen, “for your kind efforts were not
+even noticed, let alone appreciated.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Speak for yourself,” said Jean; “speak
+for Mr. Brewster too, if you like; but I can
+tell you that Miss Esther understood and
+appreciated our delicate little unattentions.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Helen looked at Jean—blankly at first,
+and then with a slow-dawning realization of
+her meaning. “Am I to understand,” she
+said, “that you think Miss Esther thinks that
+I am trying to attract Mr. Brewster’s attentions?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Not so much that,” remarked Lillian,
+“but that Miss Esther is trying to attract
+them for you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Indeed,” said Helen; “do you imagine
+for a minute that I—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, Helen,” interrupted Jean, “take off
+that haughty Princess air. Have you ever
+seen anywhere one who fitted the rôle of
+Prince for your castle better than this same
+man whose opinions you have been quoting?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, if you are going to be serious about
+the matter,” said Helen, “I am quite willing
+to admit that Mr. Brewster comes nearer to
+my ideal than any other man I have ever
+met.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He ought to appreciate that compliment,”
+said Lillian; “that is, if he knows
+what your ideals are.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He does know,” said Helen, slowly.
+“I have told him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Wasn’t he scared, then?” asked Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Of course he was,” replied Helen. “He
+was so scared that he ran away and I haven’t
+seen him since.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You can see him right away, if you like,”
+cried Jean, who was sitting on the broad
+window-seat. “Mr. Brewster!” she called
+loudly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The automobile stopped. Brewster got
+out and came toward the house, smiling up
+at Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The machine, with Miss Esther and Lincoln
+Dodd as the only occupants, went puffing
+on along the country road.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am glad of this opportunity to talk to
+you alone, Lincoln,” began Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, you said you wanted to talk to
+me about something; that’s why I brought
+you out this afternoon. I thought we’d
+manage to drop Brewster somewhere.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Do you know, I was perfectly astounded
+when you told me the other day that you
+were not in love with Lillian Hastings!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I told you only the truth. I was not,
+I am not, and I am positive that I shall
+not be. But I have no reason to think that if
+I were, it would particularly please Miss
+Hastings.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That does not make any difference,”
+said Miss Esther, impatiently. “It would
+please me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You know, Miss Esther,” said Lincoln,
+“I would do anything in the world to please
+you, and if you are sure that Miss Hastings—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, will you, really? I do want you to
+fall in love with Lillian, and I want you
+to be married by the middle of August and
+then take her abroad to study art.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, that is certainly a delightful programme
+you have mapped out for us.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m so glad you think so. I knew that
+when you came to understand them fully,
+you would agree to my plans.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Have you many plans of this sort?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Three,” said Miss Esther, very seriously.
+“But the other two are all right. It was only
+you that I was worried about. I am very
+much obliged to you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Look here, Miss Esther, what in the
+world are you talking about? You surely
+are not in earnest?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I believe I’ll tell you all about it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If I’m to be married in August, I think
+it’s about time that I knew something definite.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>With an enthusiasm born of her deep
+interest in the cause, supplemented by her
+success with Lincoln Dodd, Miss Esther
+detailed to him the plans of her Matrimonial
+Bureau. She told him of the inception of
+the plan, and how happy Tekla was in her
+Nebraska home. She told him, too, of the
+dearth of suitable material for her protégées
+in Whitfield, and she told it all with a
+quaintness of argument that carried conviction.
+She enumerated instances which
+proved conclusively that Lieutenant Adams
+was interested in Jean; she confessed that
+the affair between Helen and Brewster was
+not progressing quite as rapidly as she desired,
+but looked forward with a cheerful
+confidence to what she hoped was inevitable.
+“And now,” she said, “that I feel
+assured of your regard for Lillian, I cannot
+help flattering myself that perhaps my seemingly
+unusual methods have not been employed
+altogether in vain.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But, my dear Miss Esther,” cried Dodd,
+“now that I grasp your meaning as one
+having inside information, let me hasten to
+tell you that although I must refuse to be
+a candidate, even for the hand of any one
+of your charming protégées, I shall be more
+than glad to remain upon the executive
+committee, and I promise to help you in
+every way that I possibly can.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther was of a buoyant nature; she
+was persevering, even persistent, and it took
+a pretty hard blow to daunt her, and now
+the blow had fallen. A week before Lincoln
+Dodd had discouraged her. He had refused
+to fall in with her plans. But to-day she had
+thought he was more tractable, even to the
+point of acquiescence; and to have her hopes
+ruthlessly crushed to earth, even though sure
+they would rise again, made her feel for the
+moment absolutely discouraged. “I don’t
+see,” she said, “how you can help me in any
+other way.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, there are lots of other ways, my
+dear Miss Esther. For one thing, I might
+provide a substitute. I know a man who
+I am sure would admire your Lillian Hastings.
+He is a most kind and estimable
+gentleman, admirably fitted for the rôle of
+loving fairy godfather. He is intensely
+interested in art and would enjoy nothing
+better than a honeymoon trip to Europe on
+the fifteenth of August. Is that a sailing-day?
+I never can be sure of what day a
+steamer sails.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That doesn’t matter,” said Miss Esther;
+“who is the man?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He is my father,” said Dodd.</p>
+
+<h2>XV</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Pray thee, let it serve for table talk.—<span class='it'>Merchant of Venice</span>,
+iii, 5.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>It was certainly surprising that when Dodd’s
+father accepted Miss Esther’s invitation and
+came to the Adams house, the gayety of that
+particular nation was increased rather than
+diminished. The young people most interested
+had felt that the advent of an elderly
+gentleman might prove an obstacle to the
+careless fun and frolic which they had enjoyed
+all summer. Instead of which, Mr.
+George Washington Dodd, father of Abraham
+Lincoln Dodd, proved himself not only
+ready to follow the leader, but to lead the
+followers. He not only fell in with their
+plans, but he proposed plans of his own and
+insisted upon their being carried out.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The plans were usually impracticable, but
+he insisted just the same, and the attempts
+at them were just as much fun as if they had
+been successful. He had not been in the
+house twenty-four hours before he had
+turned the East porch inside out. “I think
+the hammocks would be more comfortable
+out under the trees,” he said, and out the
+hammocks went.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Michael was instructed how to trim the
+box-hedges, and the cook was inducted into
+the mysteries of a salad dressing which had
+chives—and not too many. He persuaded
+all the clocks in the house to strike together,
+and painted the chicken-coops red because
+he liked them better so.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>He reconstructed Jack’s battle-ship upon
+more approved models and showed him the
+distinctive difference between a brig and a
+brigantine. As for Chub, he proved himself
+to be an adept in the quelling of the ebullient
+fits of temper which manifested themselves
+so often. Her most theatrical pose
+was to sit down and yell with much enthusiasm,
+as she did when she first discovered
+the young men on the East porch.
+When George Washington Dodd saw this
+exhibition for the first time, he approached
+Chub casually, put his hand over her mouth,
+and said “Stop that!” whereupon Chub immediately
+stopped. Though often repeated,
+this process continued efficacious.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>In a word Mr. Dodd became a power in
+the house. Not just such a power as was
+Lieutenant Adams. Putnam’s masterfulness
+was actuated by motives which would be
+considered rules under the Army Regulations,
+and, so far as he was concerned, they
+made law. They were reasonable and—well,
+when he wanted a thing done, he
+wanted it done instantly. They have that
+habit of demanding obedience in the Army.
+Dodd, on the contrary, had the wayward
+whims of a spoiled child, but carried them
+out with an unflinching determination before
+which even Putnam Adams went down.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther pondered deeply over this
+difference in the characters of the two men.
+She realized that she implicitly obeyed Putnam,
+and she enjoyed doing so. She assisted
+in the carrying out of Mr. Dodd’s plans, as
+they all did, compelled by the sheer force
+of his whimsical, inconsequent personality.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He’s like a child,” she thought, “a great,
+big, overgrown boy; and he’s just made
+to be humored. If Lillian can only learn to
+humor him, she can have her own way as
+much as she likes.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>It was at this point in her meditations that
+Miss Esther was interrupted by Lincoln
+Dodd.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Didn’t I tell you Father would admire
+your Lillian Hastings?” he said, dropping
+astride of the first chair he came to.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Does he?” said Miss Esther, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Does he! I should say so. Just look at
+them now!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther looked and saw Dodd Senior
+and Lillian Hastings sitting on the lawn
+deeply interested in a game of mumble-peg.
+Although Lillian’s discarded parasol lay only
+a few feet away, the players sat in the broiling
+sun, apparently oblivious of the heat.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Coming on all right, isn’t it?” said
+Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes. I hope so—I think so; but he
+hasn’t said anything definite.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How do you know he hasn’t?” asked
+Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, I’m sure Lillian would have told
+me if he had.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Perhaps he hasn’t had a chance.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, if that’s the case, let’s make a chance
+for them.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Lincoln entered into the spirit of the game
+with enthusiasm. “Let’s ask Lillian to stay
+to tea,” he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“She’ll stay anyway,” replied Miss
+Esther; “and besides, that won’t give them
+a chance alone.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, ask her to stay to dinner, and Dad
+can take her home.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That will do,” said Miss Esther; “and
+it’s a lovely moonlight night.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So the conspiracy succeeded, and Lillian
+stayed to dinner.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Am I the only guest?” asked Lillian,
+when dinner was announced.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Miss Esther; “that doesn’t
+embarrass you, does it?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I was afraid it might,” said Putnam,
+“so I’ve sent for Jean. Stay the proceedings,
+Cousin Esther; she’ll be here in a
+minute.”</p>
+
+<div class='figcenter' style='width:80%'>
+<img src='images/ill003.jpg' alt='Man and woman relax under shade of a tree' id='img03' style='width:99%;height:auto;'/>
+<p class='caption'><span class='it'>In the broiling sun, oblivious of the heat.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jean came flying in, becomingly flushed
+after her run across the field. “I came across
+lots,” she exclaimed, “because I was in such
+a hurry to get here. Thank you, so much,
+Miss Esther, for sending Jack for me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why, I didn’t send him,” said Miss
+Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But he said that you said that I must
+come because you were going to have strawberry
+shortcake for dinner.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How ridiculous,” said Miss Esther. “I
+never sent any message at all by Jack, and
+besides, there aren’t any strawberries now.
+It’s too late.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I never thought of that,” said Jean, looking
+a little blank. “I was so glad to come,”
+she explained, ingenuously.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I sent the message myself,” said Putnam,
+calmly. “I knew you wouldn’t come unless
+I sent an invitation from Cousin Esther. And
+of course, I didn’t mean real strawberry
+shortcake.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Perhaps you didn’t mean for me really
+to come,” said Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I meant I really wanted you to come.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If I had known that you sent the invitation
+I wouldn’t have come.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Not if you knew that I really wanted
+you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>At this, Lincoln, who was behind the
+speakers, nudged Miss Esther’s arm, and
+rolled up his eyes ecstatically. Miss Esther
+looked like a beneficent Machiavelli, and
+folded her hands with an air of intense complacency.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Of course,” said Jean, “you always succeed
+in getting what you want;—that’s
+your way. But in this case—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“In this case,” said Putnam, provokingly,
+“I succeeded in getting you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Indeed you haven’t succeeded in getting
+me!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, if I haven’t, I will,” said Putnam,
+as he rose to go to dinner.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>This speech so pleased the conspirators,
+that Lincoln Dodd seized Miss Esther’s
+hands, and the two fairly danced down the
+long hall toward the dining-room.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Hang out our banners on the outward
+walls,” sang Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What for?” asked Lillian, who, accompanied
+by Mr. Dodd, had joined the procession.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So people can see them, of course,” said
+Lincoln. “It’s foolish to hide your banners
+under a bushel.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>With what Miss Esther deemed a masterpiece
+of generalship, she arranged that
+Lillian should sit next to Mr. Dodd. Lillian,
+willfully misunderstanding instructions, took
+the chair on the side of the table where Lincoln
+stood.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, she doesn’t mean me,” he exclaimed
+in dismay. “She means the Ancient.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What are you?” asked Putnam; “the
+Honorable?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I think,” said Lillian, “that the young
+Mr. Dodd looks older than the old Mr.
+Dodd.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It’s quite as bad,” said Putnam, “to
+say ‘the old Mr. Dodd,’ as to say ‘the Ancient.’ ”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But I have to distinguish them in some
+way, and I don’t see that either one looks
+older than the other.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You might call me George,” suggested
+Mr. Dodd, casually.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m afraid if I did, you would call me
+Lillian.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Very likely,” said Mr. Dodd.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Let’s order some more banners,” whispered
+Lincoln to Miss Esther. “I think
+we’ll need them.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What are you talking about?” said Jean.
+“What are these banners?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“A banner,” said the Ancient, instructively,
+“is one who or that which bans.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What does ban mean?” asked Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“A ban,” said the Ancient, still instructively,
+“is a thing you put things under.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I thought it meant to get married,” said
+Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That’s when it’s plural,” explained the
+Ancient, kindly. “It takes two banns to get
+married.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“May I interrupt your very wise discourse,”
+said Putnam, “long enough to request
+you to pass me the salt?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Now that’s always the way,” said the
+Ancient in an exasperated tone; “the conventional
+dinner-table appointments are
+sadly at fault. One never gets fairly started
+on a logical sequence of ideas, but one is
+interrupted by a request to pass the salt.
+I use the term advisedly. The passing of
+the salt is but a type of the things which we
+are made to do at the time when we do not
+want to do them. There should be a remedy
+for all this. Invention, as it stands to-day,
+is deplorably neglectful of our minor needs.
+Invention, after all, is but the application of
+some well-known force or principle to a new
+use.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Here the Ancient produced from his
+pocket a small mechanical toy. It was a tiny
+automobile, made of tin and painted red, and
+when wound up would run by itself for
+several minutes. Turning it upside down, he
+proceeded to wind it; then reversing it, and
+holding the wheels tightly, he emptied into
+it the contents of Miss Esther’s salt-cellar.
+Starting it in the direction of Putnam, he
+released the wheels and the machine moved
+slowly along the table.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You see,” he observed, “how easy it is
+to apply mechanical power in a way which
+will do the most good. If every dinner-table
+were supplied with this simple contrivance,
+it would do away with the passing of the
+salt. Consequently, there would be no interruption
+in one’s flow of conversation.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“With <span class='it'>one’s</span> flow of conversation!” said
+Jean. “And pray, when would the other five
+get a chance to speak?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“They wouldn’t,” said the Ancient.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t see why any one wants to interrupt,”
+said Lillian, “when the conversation
+is so instructive and entertaining as Mr.
+Dodd’s is.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Banners!” said Lincoln, aside to Miss
+Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But later in the evening there was reason
+to bring in the banners from the outward
+walls, or at least it seemed so. Miss Esther’s
+deep-laid scheme for sending the elder Mr.
+Dodd home with Lillian seemed in imminent
+peril. When Lillian announced that it was
+time for her to go, Putnam suggested that as
+he was about to go home with Jean, Lincoln
+and Lillian could go with them, and they
+would all walk around by the brook. Miss
+Esther was not present at the moment, and
+though three people strongly objected to the
+arrangement, as Putnam’s suggestions were
+looked upon as commands, none of them
+dared question it.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Lincoln Dodd did not wish to appear
+ungallant; Washington Dodd was not quite
+sure that his escort was desired, and Lillian
+naturally hesitated to express her preference.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Lincoln Dodd rushed into the house, ostensibly
+to fetch his hat, but really to find
+Miss Esther. He almost ran over that lady
+in the hall, and whispered tragically, “Haul
+in the banners! Awful things are happening!
+Putnam says I’ve got to go home with Lillian.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Putnam, indeed!” cried Miss Esther.
+“I’ll fix Putnam.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She hurried out on the veranda.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Lincoln can’t go home with you, Lillian,”
+she said. “I want him myself this
+evening. He promised to—transplant some
+bulbs for me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“They’re night-blooming cereus,” said
+Lincoln, “and they always have to be moved
+at night.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Miss Esther; “and so, Mr.
+George Dodd, will you please escort Miss
+Hastings home?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Certainly, if Miss Hastings doesn’t object
+to the transfer,” said Mr. Dodd; but he
+spoke without enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, all Dodds look alike to me,” said
+Lillian, flippantly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther looked the picture of despair,
+as, after this speech, Lillian and her apparently
+unwilling escort walked silently down
+the path.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Honestly,” said Miss Esther, “from the
+depths of your heart, tell me truly what you
+think; tell me by the light of your greater
+experience, and by the knowledge you have
+of your father’s affections; tell me,” she
+continued, tragically, “<span class='it'>will</span> those two hearts
+find each other?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She hung on his words with the air of
+a doomed prisoner awaiting sentence.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t know,” said Dodd.</p>
+
+<h2>XVI</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Conspirant ’gainst this ’high-illustrious prince.—<span class='it'>King
+Lear</span>, v, 3.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I suppose,” said George Washington Dodd,
+indulgently, as they went out the gate, “that
+you, being possessed of youth, beauty, and
+a romantic temperament, would prefer to go
+home around by the brook.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Lillian, “I would, and I am
+going that way. But if you, not being possessed
+of those very desirable qualities,
+prefer to go the other way, you may.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, we’ll both go around by the brook,”
+said Dodd, airily; “for those qualities are
+as much mine as yours. Beauty is entirely
+a matter of opinion, and my own opinion is
+that I am very beautiful. Youth is a matter
+of comparison, and by some standards I am
+exceedingly young; and as to my romantic
+temperament—give me a chance.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Your beauty of its kind, I will admit,
+though perhaps it is not equal to my own,”
+said Lillian, consideringly; “your romantic
+temperament is an unknown quantity—it
+may be like mine; but surely I am not quite
+as old as you are.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m not sure about that,” Dodd replied.
+“Of course, you are young, but then so am
+I. The gods love me, and I shall never grow
+old.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But,” objected Lillian, “those whom
+the gods love die young.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That is, I admit, the accepted intent of
+the quotation, but its real meaning is that
+those whom the gods love are young when
+they die, for the simple reason that they
+never grow old. That makes me just the
+same age as you, and I shall always stay so.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“All right,” said Lillian; “then we’ll go
+around by the brook.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And now,” said Dodd, as they walked
+along the path to the brook, “since you have
+conceded my youth and beauty, I will proceed
+to convince you of my romantic temperament.
+Just now it is wildly enthusiastic
+over the beauty of the night. To me, the
+moon is a beautiful golden boat, sailing
+away over blue waters. And that reminds
+me, I shall sail myself next month, I am
+going abroad.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“To study art?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, not that, although I mean to buy
+a few pictures that I’ve had my eye on for
+some years. By the way, I want you to go
+with me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“To advise you about the pictures?” said
+Lillian, delightedly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, as my wife.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What!” exclaimed Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You heard me,” said Dodd. “It may
+seem precipitate, but I am a man of quick
+decisions. I always decide quickly when
+I find what I want—whether it’s a picture
+or you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Are you sure you want me?” asked
+Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I’m sure. I was sure the moment
+I saw you. I want you, and I want you now.
+I want you to marry me and go abroad with
+me next month.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And then may I study art?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You may not. There’s to be no more
+of this art foolishness. We will look at pictures
+together, and we will buy pictures
+together, but you have painted your last
+picture. Will you go with me?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, for a girl with a confessedly romantic
+temperament, this is about the most
+unromantic proposal I ever heard of; and
+from a man, too, who boasted of his own
+romantic temperament.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Never you mind that. Once you have
+answered my question in the way I want
+you to, my romantic temperament is at your
+disposal for the rest of your life; but just
+now I am in earnest.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You seem to be in earnest,” said Lillian,
+“but if ever I want an exhibition of your
+romantic temperament, it is at a time like
+this. Unless you can—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, I can ask you in more romantic
+terms, if that’s what you want.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Dodd dropped on one knee, struck his
+breast melodramatically, and began—</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Queen Regent of my heart, may I supplicate—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, not that way,” interrupted Lillian.
+“That’s foolish. I don’t believe your romantic
+temperament is the real thing at
+all.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, it is—truly, it is. I’ll try again.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>He put his arm around Lillian, and began
+with an impassioned, “My darling—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, that won’t do at all—that’s too
+familiar.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is it?” said Dodd, composedly, but he
+did not release her. “Well, then, I’ll tell
+you what. I’ll just say in plain English,
+‘Will you be my wife?’ and you just say,
+‘Yes,’ and then to-morrow I’ll make a study
+of this and write it out in a sort of an essay.
+We’ll write it together. Now then, will
+you marry me?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Lillian was helpfully silent.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Say Yes,” he prompted.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Lillian said yes.</p>
+
+<hr class='tbk'/>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The next day George Washington Dodd
+wandered around the house in a sort of
+beatific daze quite contrary to his usual alert
+activity.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>He and Lillian had planned to announce
+their engagement that afternoon at tea, and
+they anticipated a truly exciting occasion.
+After luncheon Mr. Dodd strolled into the
+darkened library and lay down upon a couch
+in a remote corner, where he promptly fell
+asleep. A little later he was wakened by
+voices in the room.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I wish I knew,” said Miss Esther, “exactly
+how the situation stands. Do you think
+there’s any hope?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t know,” said Lincoln. “Dad
+thinks an awful lot of her, but don’t believe
+she cares for him much; and it’s awfully
+soon, anyway. Give them time.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, I think Lillian is very fond of your
+father,” said Miss Esther; “but somehow he
+doesn’t seem to have a very high opinion of
+her art work.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He hasn’t,” said Lincoln, honestly.
+“But he has a high opinion of her.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, that will do just as well, if only
+he will come to the point soon. I wish you’d
+ask him what he means to do, for if Lillian
+sails by the fifteenth of August something
+must be done soon.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Me ask him!” exclaimed Dodd; “he’d
+tell me to go about my business. No, you
+ask him, or at least with your clever tact
+find out from him. I’d rather ask Lillian.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, then, you do that,” said Miss
+Esther; “and find out what you can and
+we’ll compare notes. You meet me here
+in the library to-night and tell me what
+you’ve learned, and in the mean time I’ll
+find out what I can from your father. And
+another thing that’s bothering me is this,
+I’m afraid Helen is not going to accept
+Mr. Brewster.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Has he asked her?” said Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No,” replied Miss Esther; “but it’s
+because she won’t give him a chance. She is
+so proud and reserved, and she snubs him
+far more than she realizes. I don’t wonder
+that he doesn’t like it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Can’t you reason with her?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No; the more you reason with Helen
+Fairbanks, the worse she is. The only girl
+who is acting just right is Jean, and Putnam
+is a dear. That affair is going on just as
+I want it to.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>George Washington Dodd, on the sofa,
+suddenly realized that he was deliberately
+listening to the deep-laid plans of a desperate
+conspiracy, but as he had not made his
+presence known in the first place, he certainly
+could not do so now, and it was with
+a decided feeling of relief that he saw the
+conspirators leave the room, quite unaware
+of his eavesdropping presence.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Huh!” he exclaimed; “so they’re going
+to hold a court of inquiry over Lillian and
+me, are they? Well, we’ll be ready for
+them. After I’ve made up my mind what
+to say, and after I’ve told Lillian what she’s
+to say, they may begin as soon as they like.
+I’ll go over and see her now, and I rather
+think we’ll defer that announcement this
+afternoon. We’ll have a lot of fun out of
+this thing.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>As he left the house, Lincoln was just
+coming from the stables in his automobile.
+“Take me in,” said his father. “Where are
+you going?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Over to the Hastings house,” said Lincoln.
+“Where do you want to go?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That’s where I want to go. I wish
+you’d leave me there and then do an errand
+for me down in the village.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But I was going to take Miss Hastings
+for a ride.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“All right. You can come back and get
+her after you do this errand for me. I want
+to send a wire to New York. Here it is.
+I have written it down.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Lincoln tucked the paper in his pocket.
+“All right,” he said; “I’ll be back in half
+an hour.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>While the telegraph operator waited, Lincoln
+read the message his father had given
+him. It ran:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No message for New York. Just want
+to be rid of you for a few minutes.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“There’s some mistake here,” said Lincoln
+to the operator. “I have brought the
+wrong paper. I’ll see you again later.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Phew!” he said. “Dad’s coming it
+rather strong. To think of his sending me
+on a kid’s errand like that! But I’ll be even
+with him yet!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>When he reached the Hastings house he
+found his father and his hoped-for stepmother
+apparently wrapped in the deepest
+gloom. They sat far apart on the veranda
+and appeared to be dejected beyond power
+of words. As he drew up, his father said,
+“I believe you were to take Miss Hastings
+for a drive. She is quite ready to go. I will
+walk on home.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Just as well take you over, Dad!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, thank you. I prefer to walk.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>After a very slight exchange of courtesies
+with Lillian, which Lincoln had no idea was
+part of a carefully prearranged plan, George
+Washington Dodd walked away, inwardly
+chuckling, but displaying great gravity of
+demeanor.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That telegram scheme was an inspiration,”
+he said to himself. “Now if Lillian
+only does exactly as I told her to, and I
+think she will, that young hopeful of mine
+will have a ripping report to take home to
+his fellow conspirator. As for the fellow
+conspirator herself, I will see to it that she
+has a report equally hair-raising.”</p>
+
+<h2>XVII</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>A quarrel, but nothing wherefore.—<span class='it'>King Lear</span>, ii, 3.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Delighted with the little comedy he had
+devised, Mr. Dodd walked on toward home.
+At the gate he was joined by Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why are you looking so particularly
+pleased?” she asked.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I was thinking about a friend of mine
+who is very, very happy.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What made him so?” demanded Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He has just become engaged to a very
+beautiful young lady.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh,” she replied; “I thought you were
+looking happy on your own account.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, no, indeed; far from it. On my
+own account I am deeply, desperately dismal.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What are you going to do about it?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t know. What would you do?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“When I feel like that I always go to Miss
+Esther and she talks to me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Good. I will go straight to Miss Esther,
+and somehow I have a feeling that she will
+talk to me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Do,” said Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>By this time the two had reached the East
+porch, where, as usual, Putnam was reading
+in the hammock.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How do you do,” said Jean. “Where’s
+Miss Esther?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I think she’s in the library,” said Putnam.
+“Shall I call her?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No,” replied Jean; “Mr. Dodd wants to
+see her; don’t you, Mr. Dodd?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, I do want to see her. I want to see
+her dreadfully.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What’s the matter with Dodd?” asked
+Putnam, as that gentleman went into the
+house.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t know,” said Jean; “but he’s got
+the blues something fearful. I’m so sorry
+for him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Be sorry for me, won’t you?” said Putnam;
+“I’ve got the blues, too.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why do you have the blues?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So you’ll be sorry for me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But I’m always sorry for you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Because you have such a dreadful disposition.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I have, haven’t I?” said Putnam,
+placidly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, you have; and the worst of it is you
+don’t care a bit.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Do <span class='it'>you</span> care?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, indeed—why should I?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jean tossed her head, and Putnam observed,
+coolly, “If you bob your head about
+like that, you’ll lose that very beautiful pink
+rose out of your hair, which you have arranged
+with such accuracy and precision.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t care if I do!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If you don’t care for the rose, then give
+it to me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Indeed I won’t. I wouldn’t give you
+a rose for anything.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why not?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, because it’s so silly and sentimental.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, I didn’t mean it in a sentimental
+way. I never thought of that. I just saw
+a beautiful rose, and wanted you to give it
+to me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, well, if you want it that way, then
+take it!” Jean snatched the rose from her
+hair, and threw it on the table between
+them.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Give it to me,” said Putnam, dictatorially.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’ve given it to you just as much as I intend
+to. If you want it, take it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I do want it, but I won’t take it, and you
+<span class='it'>shall</span> give it to me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I won’t do any such thing! You are
+altogether too domineering. It was all very
+well when you were an invalid, and ought
+to be read to, and coddled, and fussed over,
+but you needn’t think you can keep on ruling
+everybody who comes anywhere near
+you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t mean to rule you—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You’d better not,” she interrupted.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But I’m going to ask you once more to
+give me the rose.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have given it to you,” said Jean, stubbornly.
+“If you don’t take it, it’s because
+you don’t want it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I only want it if you’ll give it to me,”
+said Putnam, more gently than he had
+spoken before.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Nothing of the sort! You only want to
+have your own way. You’re a horrid, dictatorial,
+arrogant, overbearing, conceited man!
+and I <span class='it'>hate</span> you!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jean ran down the steps and across the
+lawn toward her own home.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Putnam got up lazily from the hammock,
+and taking the rose from the table, smiled as
+he put it carefully away in his pocket-book.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I did tease her,” he said, “but ’twas
+worth it!” And he smiled again.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Having held the session of the court of
+inquiry in the library, Miss Esther, after
+leaving Mr. Dodd, was in no mood to receive
+the shock which awaited her on the East
+porch.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Where’s Jean?” she asked, when she
+saw Putnam alone.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“She got mad at me,” said Putnam, “and
+ran away home.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“One of her usual playful jests, I suppose.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No,” said Putnam, “this time she seemed
+very much in earnest.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, she doesn’t mean anything, Putnam.
+Don’t take her too seriously.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m not sure that I shall take her at all,”
+said Putnam. “She’s a little spitfire.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther, clasping her hands in despair,
+was about to speak, when Nora announced
+that Mr. Brewster was on the front veranda.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Brewster’s dejected air was quite in harmony
+with Miss Esther’s mood, but she was
+unprepared for the news he brought her.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am going away,” he said, “and I have
+come to say good-bye.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>By a whimsical association of ideas, Miss
+Esther suddenly realized exactly how Chub
+felt when she indulged in her favorite trick
+of sitting flat down on the ground and squealing.
+The elder lady did not squeal, but had
+circumstances permitted it, she would have
+been glad to do so. All in the same day her
+three clients had disappointed her hopes.
+She wrung her hands, tragically. “One woe
+doth tread upon another’s heels, so fast they
+follow!” she exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I, too, am sorry to go,” said Brewster.
+“I have had a very happy summer,
+and you have been very kind to me, Miss
+Esther.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But you are leaving us very suddenly.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I know it; but there are reasons—good
+reasons.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But Helen—Miss Fairbanks—does she
+know you’re going?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, yes, she knows. I have just come
+from there.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And doesn’t she care?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, I think not,” said Brewster, with
+his calm dignity.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, Mr. Brewster,” cried Miss Esther,
+“I wish she did care.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I wish so, too,” he replied.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But have you made allowances for
+Helen’s excessive pride?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“She hasn’t made allowances for mine,”
+said Brewster.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Hullo, you people,” cried Lincoln Dodd,
+as he rushed up the driveway in his automobile;
+“is tea ready? I’m nearly starving.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Not quite,” said Miss Esther; “but it
+soon will be. Come on in.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>For the first time that summer, none of the
+girls came over to tea. Obliged to do all
+the honors herself, Miss Esther rose to the
+occasion nobly, and presided with her usual
+grace, her unruffled calm giving no hint of
+the perturbation of spirit beneath. But late
+that evening when a meeting of the conspirators
+was held in the library, Miss Esther
+confided to Abraham Lincoln Dodd her
+doubts of the final success of her Matrimonial
+Bureau.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“To think,” she said, “of that stupid Jean
+having a fight, a real fight with Putnam!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, they’re always squabbling,” said
+Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, but this time it’s serious. Putnam
+told me so. And now Helen has offended
+Mr. Brewster and he’s going away, and
+Lillian’s case is equally hopeless.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why, what did you find out from father?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why, it’s the strangest thing, and I’m
+not sure that I ought to tell you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And I’m not sure, either, that I ought to
+tell you what Lillian said.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, I must know what you learned, so
+I’ll tell you what I found out. Your father
+was awfully nice, and he said that he was
+very much in love with Lillian,—very much;
+and he thinks she cares for him. And he
+wants to marry her, but he thinks you
+wouldn’t like it if he did.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Me!” exclaimed Dodd; “why of course
+I want him to marry her, and I’ll tell him so
+so that he will understand it!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, no,” said Miss Esther; “he said not
+to let you know anything about it. He didn’t
+even want to suggest the idea to you for fear
+you’d be displeased.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, if that doesn’t beat all! Lillian
+said just the same thing about you. She
+didn’t say right out, you know, that she was
+fond of the Governor, but she said that even
+if she were she couldn’t marry him, for she
+felt sure that you wouldn’t approve of the
+match.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Me!” cried Miss Esther; “why of course
+I want her to marry him, and I’ll tell her so
+so that she will understand it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, don’t say a word. She expressly
+said that she didn’t want you to know she
+had ever had such a thought, for fear it
+would displease you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Good gracious!” cried Miss Esther,
+exasperated beyond all endurance. “Was
+there ever such a lot of intractable men and
+ridiculous girls.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why don’t you give them up?” suggested
+Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Never! I’m going to carry this thing
+through and you’re going to help me as you
+agreed. I haven’t brought these six people
+together and looked after them all summer,
+and brought them all to the very verge of
+success, to have my plans fail now. Jean and
+Putnam shall be persuaded to make up;
+though I don’t know how it will be accomplished,
+for he’s stubbornness itself and she’s
+just as bad. Helen and Brewster must be
+reconciled, and that’s harder yet, for she’s as
+proud as Lucifer and he’s more so. As to
+your father and Lillian—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh,” interrupted Dodd, “if they care for
+each other, surely they can be brought
+around.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, I don’t know—Lillian is a perverse
+little witch; but anyhow, it shall be done.
+On that I am resolved, and if I don’t succeed
+I will be the first Adams who ever failed in
+a great undertaking.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And you will succeed,” said Dodd, carried
+away by her eloquence.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I certainly shall,” said Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<h2>XVIII</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>With a solemn earnestness, more than indeed belonged to
+such a trifle.—<span class='it'>Othello</span>, v, 2.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>When Brewster left Miss Esther’s house,
+after telling her good-bye, he met Jack
+Remington.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Hullo, Mr. Brewster,” exclaimed Jack;
+“I thought you had gone away.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am going early in the morning,” replied
+Brewster; “and I won’t forget the book I
+promised to send you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jack turned and walked along by Brewster’s
+side. “I’m sorry you’re going,” he
+said; “we’ve been good chums, haven’t
+we?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, we have,” said Brewster, heartily;
+and then somehow the conversation seemed
+to flag. Jack was dimly conscious of this and
+tried to relieve the situation.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’ve just been over to Cousin Helen’s
+house,” he said, conversationally.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Have you?” said Brewster, with an
+unexpected exhibition of interest in his
+tone.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, and she gave me this,” said Jack,
+producing a knife from his pocket; “see, it
+has a saw-blade and a screw-driver and a lot
+of things.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So it has,” said Brewster, looking at
+Jack’s treasure critically. “It’s much better
+than the one I gave you last week.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, it is; and what do you think, Cousin
+Helen traded with me. She gave me this
+and I gave her that one you gave me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You did? What made you think she
+wanted it?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why, she asked me for it. She said if I’d
+give her that one she’d give me this.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What did she want of an old knife like
+that?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t know. I was showing it to her
+and she said she wanted it, and so we
+traded.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Did she know I gave it to you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I told her it was an old one of yours;
+and besides she saw your initials on it, but
+she didn’t mind that.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, she didn’t!” Brewster walked on in
+silence for a moment. “Jack,” he said, “it’s
+lucky you have that new knife. It is just
+what we want to use in working on the ship.
+I’ll come over to-morrow and we can finish
+it all up.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“To-morrow!” exclaimed Jack; “I
+thought you were going away in the morning.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’ve changed my mind,” said Brewster.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>If Jack was surprised at Brewster’s sudden
+change of plans, Helen was none the less so
+when the next afternoon she saw him walk
+in at her gate.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How do you do,” she said, in her calm,
+sweet way. “I thought you had left us.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No,” said Brewster, easily; “I’ve decided
+to stay a while longer.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>He dropped naturally into his accustomed
+place at the end of the veranda. He had been
+at the Fairbanks house a great deal that
+summer and in consequence had assumed
+the air of a privileged guest.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It’s a beautiful day,” said Brewster,
+gazing affably into the atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Helen, agreeingly. “It is a
+good day for reading aloud; and as you are
+going to stay longer, we may have time to
+finish the book we were reading yesterday.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>This was a distinct concession on Helen’s
+part, and Brewster accepted it as such. The
+book in question had been the cause of a
+violent argument the day before, which had
+resulted in his sudden determination to leave
+Whitfield. The immediate theme of the discussion
+had been certain ethical propositions
+which Brewster upheld and which seemed
+to him the very mainsprings of masculine action,
+but which Helen had denounced with
+a scornful pride that acknowledged no exceptions.
+So positive had been her assertions
+that he had been unable to escape the conviction
+that, knowing his views, she had deliberately
+intended to arraign him personally.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Helen had not meant this personal application—at
+least not to the extent that Brewster
+assumed. With all her uncompromising
+positivism and her insistence upon theoretical
+perfection, she was more than willing in individual
+cases to ignore shortcomings, even
+in important directions, for the sake of the
+things which she found good. But Brewster
+did not know this, and when she had so
+specifically condemned traits which he knew
+he possessed, he was forced to believe that
+her opinion of him was unfavorable and unchangeable.
+And as he was conscious of his
+own growing regard for her, it seemed to him
+that the only thing to do was to go away at
+once.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The trifling episode of the penknife had
+changed all this. It seemed to prove that
+Helen’s well-defined laws were capable of
+being at least slightly affected by the personal
+element. If she had cared enough for
+his old penknife to secure it for herself, then
+she had shown that there was a vulnerable
+point in her armor, and Brewster was not
+lacking in courage.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>It was characteristic of him that the slight
+favorable indication should impart to his
+attitude an air of assured success. His exultation,
+which was out of all proportion to its
+cause, was evident. This was a mistake on
+Brewster’s part, for Helen saw it and resented
+it. And so he defeated his own ends;
+for the girl, especially sensitive to Brewster’s
+moods, was annoyed at his mysterious air of
+triumph.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Certainly,” he said, most amiably; “I
+should be more than glad to read the book
+to you if I may; but this afternoon we are
+all going over to the Crossways Inn to supper.
+I have just come from Miss Esther’s,
+who sent your invitation by me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is everybody going?” asked Helen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, in Lincoln’s automobile.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, we’re all going together. Yes;
+certainly I will go.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I thought I would drive you over myself,—may
+I?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Thank you, no. I prefer to go with the
+others.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Very well,” said Brewster; “we’ll go
+with them, then.”</p>
+
+<hr class='tbk'/>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Chub crawled through the hedge and
+trotted across the lawn to the Adams house.
+Finding nobody on the East porch, she wandered
+aimlessly about the grounds and finally
+found herself on the path which led down to
+the brook. This was forbidden territory, and
+Chub had not forgotten it, but this afternoon
+she was in an irresponsible frame of mind
+and paid no heed to the unwelcome voice
+of conscience. Besides, where the bridge
+was there grew some wonderful scarlet blossoms,
+and these the young explorer desired
+for her very own. Even from the edge of
+the lawn she could see them, but beyond,
+where the wood began, there was darkness.
+The temptation to go down there was irresistible,
+so on the baby went.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The scarlet blossoms were achieved without
+mishap, and then, lured by the fascinations
+of the unknown, she strayed a little
+further into the wood.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t thee any puthy willowth,” she
+said, “but Uncle Linkum thaid they lived
+here. I’ll wait a li’le while and p’rapth I’ll
+hear thome mew.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She sat down in the shade of a big tree
+to wait. She did not hear the mewing of
+the pussy-willows, but she found plenty
+of things to interest her. A butterfly came.
+A black beetle labored with a leaf at her very
+feet, and she asked him questions concerning
+the welfare of his family. A squirrel chattered
+from a tree-top, and she scolded back
+at him. A bird perched on a dead twig and
+sang his very best song right at her. Then
+she sang—and then she went to sleep, the
+scarlet blossoms tightly clutched in her
+arms.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Chub’s propensity for getting lost was
+recognized by the members of her family.
+As she explained it, she “just losed herself,”
+and if she had thought of it, she might have
+added that the losing process was no part
+of her prearranged plans. All was well, and
+presently she was lost. Then people came
+and found her, and all was well again. It
+had never failed. She knew that somebody
+would eventually find her.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But on this occasion there was no conscious
+feeling of being lost. She slept peacefully,
+and the butterfly came back and hovered
+over the scarlet blossoms in her arms.
+The squirrel, with the insistent curiosity of
+his kind, came down from his tree and looked
+at the baby at close range. The bird still
+continued his song—a sort of lullaby now—and
+Chub slept, while the people up at
+her home and at the Adams house began the
+search.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>It was Putnam who found her, and he
+picked her up, still fast asleep, and carried
+her toward the house. Jean met him near
+the bridge. It was the first time he had seen
+her since the episode of the rose, and he
+wondered what attitude she would assume
+toward him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Where did you find her?” she asked.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“In the woods—asleep,” he replied,
+shortly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jean turned and walked beside him toward
+Chub’s home. Neither spoke. Presently
+the baby wakened. The scarlet flowers
+were still clasped tightly in her dimpled hand—crushed,
+perhaps, but they were none the
+less effective for all that.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She looked sleepily up into Putnam’s eyes.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“For you,” she said, offering the wilted
+blossoms.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Did you pick them for me?” said
+Putnam.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t know; but I will give them to
+you becauth I love you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Putnam took the flowers. “Thank you,
+sweetheart,” he said; but he looked squarely
+at Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jean stared straight ahead, but she saw his
+expression.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Do you care for flowers?” she asked.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, when they are given to me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Not otherwise?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Never but once otherwise.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“When was that?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, long ago.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Before you knew me?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, it was before I knew you as well
+as I do now.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Tell me about it,” said Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t think you’d be interested in the
+story.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yeth,” said Chub, “tell me thtory.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well,” began Putnam, “once upon a
+time there was a little girl.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“A very pretty little girl,” said Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And she had a rose,” continued Putnam,
+“and a man—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“A perfectly horrid man,” said Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Asked her for it,” Putnam went on;
+“and what do you think?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“She gave it to him,” said Chub, “becauth
+she loved him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So she did,” said Putnam, “and he carried
+it with him always after that.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Ith he got it yet?” asked Chub.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Putnam; “he has it yet.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What for?” questioned Chub; “it mutht
+be all dead.”</p>
+
+<hr class='tbk'/>
+
+<p class='pindent'>When the truant had been returned to her
+anxious family, Putnam and Jean went back
+to Miss Esther’s.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Had you finished the story of the rose?”
+she asked.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why, would you like to hear more of
+it?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Not particularly; but I would like to
+have some one care enough for my roses to
+carry them always and always.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Without a word Putnam produced his
+pocket-book and took from it a withered
+rose.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is the one you gave me,” said he.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So it is,” said Jean, complacently; “I
+knew you’d keep it.”</p>
+
+<h2>XIX</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She is beautiful and therefore to be woo’d.—<span class='it'>1 Henry VI</span>,
+v, 3.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The horse had seen better days—better
+in the sense that he had been in his earlier
+youth a better horse. Grown old in
+the service of a livery stable in the town
+of Farmington—the next one to Whitfield
+on the left as you go from Utica—he
+still maintained a sort of dignity and absolute
+safety which made him a valuable asset
+when his owner had a request from timid
+women for what is technically known as
+a “rig.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>He drew a phaeton of the type built on the
+lines of Central New York styles of carriage
+building—distinctly unattractive and ungraceful.
+Driving the horse was a young
+woman whose impetuosity urged her steed
+to greater efforts in the matter of speed.
+The horse wore no “blinders,” and when
+his driver told him to get up, and beat him
+gingerly with a whip, he glanced casually
+back at her over his shoulder, as who should
+say, “If I go faster I may be very dangerous.”
+So he strolled on, and Julia Fowler’s efforts,
+directed toward swifter locomotion, met with
+no response from him. He knew his business.
+He was a safe horse, and he did not
+propose to risk his reputation by any undue
+exertion.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Fowler herself was of a type distinctly
+different from that represented by her
+equipage. She could by no chance have
+been the product of Central New York.
+Possibly her ancestors might have been, but
+she was urban to her finger tips. Suburbanity
+had no accent on her appearance. Her
+beauty was of a spectacular order. She was
+the type of the twentieth century—its best
+expression—and she had come to Farmington
+to rest at the boarding-house of one
+Mrs. Moore. She had tired of it in a week,
+and her excursion to Whitfield was for the
+purpose of finding a place which might
+prove more attractive to her exacting demands.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She had been told that a certain Mrs.
+Hemingway in Whitfield conducted a boarding-house,
+and she was in search of this
+establishment when she caught sight of the
+Adams house. This seemed an ideal place
+to spend a few weeks, and being by no
+means timid, Miss Fowler concluded to
+make the attempt to induce the owner of the
+place to take her in for a time. She turned
+in at the gate, and when she saw Miss
+Esther on the veranda she was quite positive
+that she had found exactly what she was
+looking for.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther watched the stranger as she
+jumped out of the phaeton, ran up the steps,
+and without invitation seated herself in one
+of the large rocking-chairs.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Don’t mind me,” she said, pleasantly. “I
+always come in like that. I am Julia Fowler,
+and I am staying over in Farmington, but
+I don’t like it there, and somebody told me
+that Whitfield was lovely, and that Mrs.
+Hemingway kept a very nice boarding-house.
+I was on my way there when I
+noticed this house, and I thought I should
+like it here a great deal better. So won’t
+you please take me for a couple of weeks?
+I’m awfully good-natured and I won’t make
+a bit of trouble.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther looked at her visitor and came
+to the conclusion that she was the most
+beautiful woman she had ever seen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>It was not only a beauty of feature and
+coloring; but the vivacity and charm of Julia
+Fowler were of a degree which exceeded
+anything Miss Esther had ever known.
+Though her manner was gay and informal
+to the verge of sauciness, yet it was tinged
+with a delightful deference, and Miss Esther
+proved herself no exception to the rule that
+whoever met Julia Fowler fell immediately
+under the spell of her wonderful charm.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Nonsense, child,” said Miss Esther,
+smiling at her pretty visitor; “I don’t take
+boarders, but you will like it at Mrs. Hemingway’s,
+I’m sure. She can make you very
+comfortable.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But I like this house so much better,”
+said Julia, coaxingly; “and I’m sure you
+have room enough.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, of course, there are rooms enough
+in the Adams house, but we never take
+boarders.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, is this the Adams house?” asked
+Julia; “and are you Miss Adams, Miss
+Esther Adams? I have often heard of you
+in Farmington.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I am the one,” and Miss Esther
+smiled graciously. Somehow people always
+smiled graciously on Miss Fowler.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, then do let me stay. I have heard
+so much about your house and your library;
+and I’ll keep to myself when you don’t
+want me around, and I’ll be jolly good
+company when you do. You live alone,
+don’t you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Like a flash Miss Esther realized what
+it would be to have a young woman with
+such compelling attractions in her house, or,
+indeed, for that matter, in Whitfield at all.
+The three affairs which she was managing
+seemed to be complicated enough as it was,
+without an additional disturbing element.
+Putnam, she knew, would rave over her.
+Lincoln Dodd would flirt desperately, and
+she felt sure that Winthrop Brewster must
+also inevitably succumb to this bewitching
+beauty. It was apparent, then, to Miss
+Esther that it would never do to have Miss
+Fowler remain in Whitfield.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther’s three girls were sweet and
+attractive, but she well knew that they would
+not shine by comparison with this exquisite
+and experienced woman of the world.
+Though probably not older in years, Miss
+Fowler was far more sophisticated than the
+Whitfield girls, and her own personality,
+helped by her social training, gave her a
+fascination which could not otherwise be
+attained.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The imminent danger of this catastrophe
+almost stunned Miss Esther. Something
+must be done, and that quickly, to prevent
+Miss Fowler’s staying in Whitfield. In consequence
+her attitude towards her visitor
+changed instantly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I live alone,” she said, “and it is
+from preference. I have small need for
+company, for I am never lonely, and I
+could not think of taking a boarder even
+for a short time. Pray do not ask me
+again.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Indeed, I shall ask you again,” said
+Julia, with one of her most ingratiating
+smiles. “I shall keep on coaxing until I
+persuade you to say yes.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Had circumstances been otherwise, nothing
+would have pleased Miss Esther better
+than to have granted the request and
+taken this most attractive young woman
+into her house for a fortnight. This fact
+made it difficult for her to continue her
+refusals; but, awake to the seriousness of
+the situation, she answered decidedly, “No,
+I shall never say yes. I am not of a vacillating
+nature, and rarely change my mind. It
+is quite impossible for me to take you. Now
+that I think of it, I don’t believe that you
+would be satisfied at Mrs. Hemingway’s,
+either. They are plain people, and live very
+plainly.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That would just suit me,” said Julia.
+“I came up here for rest and quiet, and
+I love a simple country home.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But it is very dull in Whitfield,” continued
+Miss Esther. “There are no gayeties
+of any sort.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That would just suit me, too. I have
+a surfeit of gayety at home in the winter.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Baffled at every turn, and determined to
+accomplish her end, Miss Esther deliberately
+drew upon her imagination. “There
+are five little children at Mrs. Hemingway’s,
+and they are a most spoiled, disagreeable
+lot. I am sure they’d make your life a
+burden there.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That alters the case,” said Julia, decidedly.
+“I detest spoiled children. How old
+are they?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t know,” said Miss Esther, a little
+vaguely, which was only natural, considering
+the fact that there were really no children
+at the Hemingway house. “About
+four or five years old, I think.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, I don’t mind such little children,”
+said Julia, airily; “but I dislike them when
+they get to be about ten years old.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, there are several as old as that,
+too,” declared Miss Esther, whose imagination
+was equal to juveniles of any age.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then I won’t go there,” said Julia. “I’m
+surprised that she has any boarders. I think
+you might let me stay here.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I asked you not to mention that again,”
+said Miss Esther, with a sudden exhibition
+of the Adams dignity; “but if you really
+want country home life, there is a very
+delightful place at Westfield that I am sure
+would please you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Where is Westfield?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“About eight miles the other side of
+Farmington.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’ll drive over there to-morrow,” said
+Julia, “and look at the place, and if I don’t
+like it I’ll come back here.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>This bit of bravado was accompanied by
+such a winning smile that Miss Esther could
+not respond as sternly as she would have
+liked to do.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Will you have tea on the veranda or on
+Lieutenant Adams’s porch?” asked Nora,
+appearing at the door.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“On the East porch,” said Miss Esther,
+shortly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, mayn’t I stay to tea?” exclaimed
+Julia. “Please let me. I’ll be very good,
+and go away immediately after.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Excuse me one moment,” said Miss
+Esther, without answering her guest’s question.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She went to the East porch where she
+knew Lincoln Dodd was reading. He was
+the only one of her guests at home.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Lincoln,” she exclaimed, “come to my
+rescue, and come quick. What under the
+sun am I going to do?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What in the world’s the matter?” asked
+Dodd.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, it’s dreadful. The most beautiful
+girl in the world is on the front veranda.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Command my services,” said Lincoln,
+rising with alacrity. “What makes her so
+dreadful? Is she a maniac?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, indeed. I only wish she were.
+She’s perfectly charming.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What am I to do for you? Do you want
+me to marry her?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Don’t be foolish. But don’t you see I
+expect the people home to tea at any minute
+now, and if any of those men see that
+raving beauty, they’ll fall in love with her
+on the spot.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Of course they will,” said Dodd. “Give
+her to me. I’ll take her off to a desert
+island.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, but I want you to take her home in
+your automobile. That’s the only way I can
+get rid of her.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Where is her home? How did she
+come?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“She came in a forlorn old gig, but I can
+let Michael take that home for her. And
+mind, now, you’re not to make yourself too
+entertaining, or ask her to come again, or
+let her know that I have any young men
+staying here. She’s the most dangerous
+thing I’ve ever seen. You get your machine
+and come around in front just as if
+you were going out for a drive, and I’ll do
+the rest.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“All right,” said Dodd. “I’ll go, but I
+don’t know when I’ll be back. Don’t wait
+tea for me.”</p>
+
+<div class='figcenter' style='width:80%'>
+<img src='images/ill004.jpg' alt='Man talks to two women' id='img04' style='width:99%;height:auto;'/>
+<p class='caption'>“<span class='it'>Suppose you take Miss Fowler home.</span>”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Now don’t go scouring all over the
+country with her. She lives in Farmington,
+and you can go there and back in an
+hour.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Perhaps I can and perhaps I can’t,” said
+Dodd, as he ran down the steps.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And hurry,” called Miss Esther after
+him. “There’s no time to be lost.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther returned to the veranda, and
+in a few moments Lincoln came whirling
+up from the stables.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Ah, Mr. Dodd,” called Miss Esther, “are
+you going anywhere in particular?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No,” said Lincoln, pleasantly; “just out
+for a little spin.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, then, suppose you take Miss
+Fowler home. My dear,” she said, turning
+to the young lady, “you’d like to drive over
+with Mr. Dodd, wouldn’t you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, ever so much,” cried Julia, showing
+her most engaging dimples and laughing
+down at Dodd. “But what will become of
+my fractious steed?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Michael can drive him home for you,”
+said Miss Esther. “Run along quick, now.
+Mr. Dodd doesn’t like to wait.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>As the pair disappeared, Miss Esther drew
+a long breath of relief. Her manœuvre had
+been accomplished none too quickly, for
+they were hardly out of sight before Brewster,
+Putnam, and George Washington Dodd
+came strolling in to tea.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That was a narrow escape,” she thought.
+“The times would have been very much out
+of joint if I had not set them right. I have
+rescued the Matrimonial Bureau from the
+jaws of one more danger.”</p>
+
+<h2>XX</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Make feasts, invite friends and proclaim the banns.—<span class='it'>Taming
+of the Shrew</span>, iii, 2.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The three men came up to the East porch
+where Miss Esther gave them their tea. She
+was plainly in a mood of the utmost complacency.
+Nor were her guests less complacent.
+George Washington Dodd, with the
+knowledge that he had arranged his little
+comedy quite to his liking, was placidly
+awaiting its working out. Brewster was in
+a seventh heaven. The trifling affair of the
+penknife was to him a wind-proving straw,
+and, always self-confident, he felt now not
+the slightest doubt of his ability to win Helen
+Fairbanks.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>However, as time went on and the three
+girls did not appear, the edge of Miss Esther’s
+complacency was dulled, and she grew more
+and more perturbed.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t see what can be keeping them,”
+she said. “They said they’d come over for
+tea, and then we would all start for the Crossways
+together.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Where’s Lincoln?” said his father.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He went off to do an errand for me,”
+said Miss Esther, casually. “He’ll be back
+very soon. I told him particularly not to
+dawdle by the way. If we start by six we’ll
+have plenty of time.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But at half-past five Dodd had not returned,
+nor had any of the girls come. Miss Esther
+began to show signs of nervousness. Putnam’s
+brow clouded, and the senior Dodd
+began to fidget.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>At twenty minutes to six a decided gloom
+had settled upon the whole party, and at ten
+minutes of six, consternation was palpably
+apparent.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I can’t imagine why those girls don’t
+come,” said Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“At least one of them,” said Putnam.
+“She said she’d be here at five.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther smiled happily at her cousin;
+but her face clouded again as she said, “I
+wish Lincoln would come, then we could
+start and pick up the girls on the way.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Six o’clock struck, and still there were no
+signs of the expected ones.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I believe I’ll go over to Miss Fairbanks’s,”
+said Brewster, “and see why they
+don’t come.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’ll go with you,” said Putnam. “I hope
+nothing has happened to her.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Your pronoun is ambiguous,” said Dodd,
+“but never mind; we understand.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Before the investigating party could start,
+the automobile came romping up the driveway,
+and in it were Lincoln Dodd and the
+three girls. They all seemed to be in unusually
+good spirits.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We’ve had the loveliest ride,” cried Jean.
+“We’ve been over to Farmington!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What!” cried Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” began Helen; “we went with Mr.
+Dodd and the loveliest—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, yes,” interrupted Miss Esther, “I’ve
+no doubt you had a lovely time.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“She’s certainly a peach,” said Lincoln,
+winking at Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, you mean your automobile. Has
+she acted well to-day? She certainly is
+a beauty,” said Miss Esther, fearful lest he
+refer more explicitly to Julia Fowler.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, she certainly is a beauty,” replied
+Dodd; “and she acted very well.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Come, come,” said Miss Esther, still a
+bit nervously; “we must be starting.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“All right,” said Lillian; “and on the way
+I’ll tell you how Mr. Dodd picked us girls
+up and took us over to Farmington. As a
+traveling companion we had the most beautiful—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Do you consider Lincoln Dodd such a
+raving beauty,” said Miss Esther, looking at
+him critically.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, I didn’t mean him,” replied Lillian;
+“I—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, then you mean Helen? We all acknowledge
+her beauty.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I wish she had meant me,” said Helen;
+“but she meant—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“She meant me!” cried Jean, whose quick
+wit perceived that Miss Esther did not care
+to discuss Julia Fowler.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You would be a beautiful traveling companion,”
+said Putnam, judicially, “if your
+hat were on straight and that bunchy fluff
+which is supposed to decorate the back of
+your neck hadn’t twisted itself around under
+one ear.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That’s where it belongs,” said Jean.
+“That’s where they’re wearing them now,
+and my hat is at the very latest fashionable
+angle. I’m not one of those women who get
+all disheveled just because they take a little
+automobile ride.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We’re obliged to believe your statement,”
+said Lincoln Dodd; “but you are
+certainly giving a very good imitation of the
+type.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, I don’t look a bit more tumbled
+than your friend Julia did. Her veil hung
+by one pin.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Julia who?” asked Putnam, looking up.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jean caught Miss Esther’s bothered look,
+and good-naturedly helped her out. “I don’t
+mean Julia, exactly,” she said. “I mean—er—Alice.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Alice who?” inquired the elder Dodd.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Alice Ben Bolt,” said Miss Esther,
+shortly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, that one? By the way, did anybody
+ever remember her? I always hear people
+tunefully inquiring.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I didn’t know she wore an automobile
+coat,” said Lincoln, doubtfully. “At any
+rate, her costume must have been awfully
+queer.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How do you know what she wore?”
+said Lillian. “Have you ever seen her picture?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, but the song says they fitted a slab
+of granite so gray; it must have been a very
+superior tailor that could do it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“All women look well in gray,” said
+Brewster, glancing approvingly at Helen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Do you know, I like green best,” said
+George Washington Dodd, staring at Lillian’s
+crisp linen costume.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This isn’t green; it’s reseda,” said Lillian,
+scornfully; “and if I’d known you’d
+like it, I wouldn’t have worn it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>When Dodd admired Lillian’s gown Miss
+Esther looked distinctly pleased, but when
+that young lady spoke so rudely in reply her
+hopes fell again. Dodd, however, realized
+that she was reminding him of his almost
+forgotten rôle, and taking his cue, he replied,
+“I don’t like it. I said I liked green.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Huh!” said Lillian.</p>
+
+<hr class='tbk'/>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Crossways Inn is one of the few survivals
+of that class of hostelry that had its beginnings
+in the eighteenth century. Around
+many of them hamlets sprang up,—some
+grew into cities. In the stage-coach days
+they were the resting places of the weary
+travelers. When the railroads came the
+travelers rushed by in trains, and the inns
+were forgotten.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>No hamlet had sprung up about Crossways.
+Standing at the intersection of two
+country roads it had held its own through
+a century and a half of varying fortunes.
+There was little travel thereabouts, until the
+automobiles came. Then, after a time, the
+drivers of the machines came to understand
+that at Crossways there was to be had a
+dinner like grandmother used to cook, and
+now scarcely a day went by without some
+merry party from Richfield Springs, Farmington,
+or even Utica, making a pilgrimage
+in the direction of the fried chicken and
+green corn in the season.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>It was at a dinner of this sort that the
+Matrimonial Bureau entertained its clients.
+If gayety be a proof of appreciation, then
+were the clients, though unsuspecting of
+their claim to that title, deeply appreciative.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This would be a fine place to establish
+a rest-cure,” said Lillian. “It is the quietest
+place I ever saw.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If you’ll establish one,” said George
+Washington Dodd, “I’ll be press agent for
+you. I’ll engage to get you a lot of patients.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’ll do better than that,” said Lincoln;
+“I’ll be a patient.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Good idea,” said Putnam; “you need
+a rest-cure.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He does,” said his father; “he certainly
+needs to be cured of the resting habit. It
+has become chronic with him.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What will be your course of treatment?”
+asked Helen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“At first I shall only have the patients
+stop resting three times a day,” said Lillian,
+consideringly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“For meals?” suggested Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes; and then after that, oftener, until
+they can go without resting for an hour at
+a time.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“A whole hour?” asked Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes; and if they show signs of a relapse
+I shall make them work.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Work!” exclaimed Lincoln; “then I
+withdraw my application.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh,” said Lillian, “I don’t mean manual
+labor; I mean brain work.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, that would be the same to me as
+resting. My brain works automatically without
+any exertion on my part.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’ve often thought so,” observed Putnam.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Lincoln; “it’s a great convenience.
+I just set it going and then I go
+off and leave it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Where did you leave it to-night?” asked
+Jean, innocently.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I left it at home, working out a great
+problem. You see, Miss Esther and I—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is good pie,” said Miss Esther,
+hurriedly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is,” said Lincoln. “As I was saying,
+Miss Esther and I are very much worried—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is good pie,” said Miss Esther,
+glaring at him.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I said it was,” said Lincoln. “Miss
+Esther and I are trying very hard—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is good pie,” remarked Miss Esther,
+determinedly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That speech is getting to be a habit with
+you, Cousin Esther,” said Putnam. “Why
+don’t you take something for it?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well,” said Lincoln’s father, “if you
+have quite finished that exciting story about
+yourself and Miss Esther, I will tell you
+a little story. Miss Hastings and I—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is good pie,” said Lillian, blushing
+furiously.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It seems to have gone to your head,”
+remarked Jean, looking at Lillian, inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Miss Hastings and I,” went on Dodd,
+“are engaged to be married.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>To say that Miss Esther’s face beamed
+with delight, would be an inadequate expression
+of the illumination that took place
+on her countenance. She fairly radiated
+happiness and coruscated with joy.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“One home, and two on bases,” cried Lincoln,
+exultantly; but no one heard him in
+the tumult and the shouting consequent upon
+the announcement.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>As is usual with the inspirers of great
+movements, Miss Esther was entirely forgotten
+at the moment of final triumph. Oblivious
+to this, however, she sat in silent
+rapture, gloating over her first and irrevocable
+success.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Ah! King John,” she said, though not
+aloud, “at last Victory doth perch upon one
+of my dancing banners; and as to the other
+two, I am Sir Oracle, and when I ope my
+mouth, let no dog bark!”</p>
+
+<h2>XXI</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>A contract of true love to celebrate.—<span class='it'>The Tempest</span>, iv, 1.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Whitfield’s observance of holidays was in
+the nature of a religious rite. The patriotism
+of the Fourth of July, as shown in the
+firing of the anvil in the early morning, the
+speeches in the grove, and the reading of the
+Declaration of Independence, invariably by
+Dr. Bushnell, was all that the Father of his
+Country could have desired. Christmas and
+Thanksgiving had lost none of their original
+character. The flippant might have observed
+the groaning of boards from one end of the
+town to the other. May Day was a triumph
+of maidens crowned with wilted wild flowers
+holding court in rickety bowers. Other days
+had their importance; in fact any holiday
+which had any excuse for being was seized
+upon and made much of by the Whitfield
+citizens.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But above and beyond all others, in the
+hearts of the countrymen, was Circus Day.
+For the days intervening between the posting
+of the bills announcing its coming and
+the fateful day of its arrival, there were fierce
+debates at the post-office and at the blacksmith
+shop concerning the relative merits of
+the hippopotamus and the other animals.
+The postmaster himself averred that the man-eating
+tiger and the hippopotamus, whose
+wide-opened jaws showed glistening teeth
+of vast size, were much more fearsome beasts
+than the Behemoth of Holy Writ, and although
+this staggered the ultra-orthodox,
+yet were they fain to believe it.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The fact that the people of Whitfield had
+seen for many successive years the same
+posters representing the same gaudily attired
+ladies whose skirts were the soul of wit
+itself, poised on toe-tip upon the same madly
+careering charger, in no way interfered with
+their interest in them.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>This interest perennially expressed itself
+in long and deep arguments, embracing
+various views which resolved themselves
+finally into a generally commendatory condemnation.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The laws of the Medes and Persians were
+laxly obeyed in comparison with the unwritten
+but traditional law which demanded
+that every citizen take his or her nearest
+child relative to see the show. Census reports,
+however, showed the proportion of
+about one child to seventeen grown people.
+But this rather aided than hindered the
+law-abiding citizens, and uncles, aunts, and
+cousins cheerfully accompanied their particular
+portion of the juvenile audience.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The fact that there were no children in
+the Adams house in no wise disconcerted
+Miss Esther and her guests. They appropriated
+Jack and Chub, and days before the
+circus, had arranged to escort them. Jack
+announced that he had already been invited
+to attend the function by Dr. Bushnell, but
+this, of course, made no difference. Chub,
+being unattached, graciously signified her
+willingness to attend.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have theen the thircuth,” Chub announced.
+“It ith on the big, high fenth.
+There are lionth and ’pottymutheth and
+a beauty horth with a lovely lady on it—oh,
+a lovely lady, jutht like Couthin
+Helen.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I noticed the picture,” said Brewster.
+“It is indeed just like Miss Fairbanks.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But that isn’t the real circus,” explained
+Helen. “Those are only the pictures of
+what you are going to see when you get
+there.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh,” said Chub; “and will you weally
+wide on the horth on your tippy-toeth?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If she doesn’t, somebody else will,” said
+Brewster.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Another traditional law required that the
+country people for miles around, as well as
+the villagers, should assemble at the railway
+station to see the circus train come in. As
+its arrival was inconsiderately timed at four
+in the morning, this necessitated early rising.
+But this necessity was cheerfully met, the
+more so in that it made Circus Day just that
+much longer.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>At the Adams house all the traditions
+were strictly observed. Alarm-clocks were
+set for half-past three, and after a hasty cup
+of coffee Lincoln hustled Miss Esther, his
+father, and Putnam into the automobile,
+picked up Brewster and the three girls, and
+they reached the station just in time for the
+first act of the day’s play.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>To the men of the party the sight was
+a novel one, and not uninteresting. The sun
+was rising much as usual, although George
+Washington Dodd remarked that he thought
+the sun was always up a few feet in the
+morning. He was not given to getting up
+solely to see the spectacle, and though he
+had a dim idea that there were such things
+as sunrises, raved over by poets and such
+persons, he found the picturesqueness of the
+real thing of a character to call forth approving
+remarks from him. “Pretty good work
+for such a young sun,” he said, looking at
+the long streaks of light that shot across the
+fields and made a spectacular gathering of
+the otherwise commonplace crowd that
+swarmed over the railroad tracks. Into this
+crowd the locomotive puffed and snorted,
+and children shrieked with delight, while
+their elders—though hardly less vociferous,
+were no less eager. Vehicles of all
+descriptions lined the roadway. Luncheon
+baskets were in evidence in the democrat
+wagons. There was a superfluity of whiskers
+of varying shades of color and cut, and alpaca
+dresses, still showing the wrinkles of long-time
+packing, gave evidence that the holiday
+spirit was rampant in the hearts, even of the
+staid grandmothers and the mothers.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’ll bet,” said Lincoln, “that every one of
+them is possessed of some haircloth chairs,
+and is distinctly proud of a certain bunch of
+wax fruit under a glass bell in the parlor.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The small boys stood about, ecstatically
+rubbing bare foot against bare leg, and letting
+off sympathetic grunts of helpfulness
+as the men of the circus train pushed and
+shoved and lifted the big wagons and other
+paraphernalia off the cars. From one of the
+closed cages came the roar of a lion. Little
+girls clutched their mothers’ hands in an
+agony of fear and delight. These sounds
+were the foretaste of the joys to come.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The people who had come from the surrounding
+country prepared to make a full
+day of it camped under the trees in the grove
+near the circus grounds. The men sat about
+and discussed the outlook for the crops, while
+the women prepared a breakfast. The children
+stared, wide-open-eyed, at the closed
+cages, from which from time to time there
+issued strangely fascinating growlings of
+wild beasts. The circus men laid out the
+ring and raised the tent, and the side-show
+men, being quick in action, insistently proclaimed
+the presence of the bearded lady,
+the educated pig, the living skeleton, and the
+strong man who could shiver rocks with his
+fist. From the top of the big tent-pole a wire
+was stretched, and from the dizzy height
+a wonderful woman, clad in tightly fitting
+pink, slid boldly to the ground. This was in
+the nature of a daring advertisement of the
+wonderful, magnificent, marvelous, myriad of
+startling feats to be seen during the performance.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, I swan!” exclaimed an elderly
+man, with whiskers of an ancient design;
+“I should think she’d of fell off’n that slim
+wire.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But the villagers, not being obliged to
+camp under the trees, returned to their
+homes for breakfast. In celebration of Circus
+Day, and incidentally because it might
+materially assist her plans, Miss Esther had
+a house-party, and the clients of her Bureau
+made merry at the Adams house breakfast.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We’ll see the morning parade,” said
+George Washington Dodd, “from the front
+fence.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I choose to sit on the gate-post,” said
+Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You can have one gate-post,” said Mr.
+Dodd, “but I want the other myself.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“One is enough,” said Jean. “I rarely
+use two at once.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And then this afternoon we’ll take the
+children and Dr. Bushnell to the performance,
+and this evening we’ll go by ourselves.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And stay to the concert,” said Helen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And then we’ll all walk home in the
+moonlight,” continued Dodd. “My fiancée
+is very romantic.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It must be very nice to have a romantic
+fiancée,” said Putnam.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You never will have,” said Jean. “No
+romantic girl could possibly accept you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“This is good pie,” said Lincoln, gazing
+off into space.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Do they have nice circuses in Europe?”
+asked Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” replied Dodd, instructively; “they
+have a very large one in Rome, and Paris is
+a good deal of a circus all by itself, as you
+shall see.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Lillian, happily; “I’m so glad
+I’m going. I’ve always loved a circus, and
+if Paris is anything like it, I know I shall
+like that city.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“People always take their little boys to
+the circus,” said Lincoln, plaintively, “and
+I think you might take me—Ma-ma!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“All right, son, you shall go if you want
+to—the next time we go,” replied Lillian,
+kindly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, that’s what I meant,” said Lincoln.
+“Of course I’d be a bother this time.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Indeed you would,” said his father.
+“We’re going for pleasure.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“When do you sail?” asked Brewster.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’ve tickets for the fifteenth,” said Dodd.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So soon?” said Brewster, in surprise.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes; isn’t it lovely,” said Lillian. “I
+always did like to get married in a hurry.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t care how soon you get married,”
+said Jean, “so long as you wait till after this
+year’s Circus Day, and come home before
+the next one.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Next Circus Day you may be away on
+your own wedding trip,” said Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No,” said Jean; “I’d never marry anybody
+who would take me away from Whitfield
+on Circus Day.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“January would be a safe month,” said
+Putnam, musingly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jean’s only reply to this sally was a glance
+which was meant to be withering, but somehow
+it turned into a vivid blush.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Do you know the address of a good
+flagmaker in the city, Governor?” said Lincoln.
+“I want to telegraph an order for some
+banners.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Do!” said Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<h2>XXII</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Was ever woman in this humour woo’d?—<span class='it'>Richard III</span>, i, 2.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Although the afternoon performance was
+scheduled for three o’clock, Jack and Chub,
+anxious to be in time, arrived at the Adams
+house while Miss Esther and her guests
+were still at breakfast.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We’re all weddy,” announced Chub,
+consciously patting down her starched white
+ruffles, and turning her back to give a better
+view of her pink sash bows.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jack, no less conscious of his new sailor
+suit, but striving manfully not to call undue
+attention to it, remarked, casually, “I s’pose
+we’re a little early, but we’ll wait till
+you’re ready to go.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How fortunate,” said Lincoln; “then
+you’ll be here to help us watch the morning
+parade go by.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yeth,” said Chub; “we’re going to thit
+on the gate-potht, and you can hold uth
+on.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Huh,” said Jack; “I don’t need to be
+held on. I wasn’t last year, and I didn’t
+fall off but once, and that was when the
+elephant hollered.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I will be held on,” said Chub, “by Uncle
+Linkum.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You’ll have to sit backward, Chub, so
+the folks in the parade can see that big sash
+of yours.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Chub said nothing, but after a few moments’
+deep thought began tugging at her
+pink sash so effectively that she finally
+landed the big bow exactly in front.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“There!” she said, with a satisfied sigh.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>By eleven o’clock the children were on
+their respective gate-posts, Miss Esther and
+Dr. Bushnell occupying large arm-chairs in
+the gateway between them. The rest of the
+party were ranged along the fence on either
+side like birds on a telegraph wire.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Rocking amiably, his finger tips together
+in an attitude of judicial consideration, Dr.
+Bushnell filled the hour of waiting with
+pleasant discourse. Whitfield always expected
+to wait an hour after the scheduled
+time for the arrival of the circus parade, and
+in this it was never disappointed.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It has gratified me to note,” the Doctor
+said, “that the proprietors of this exhibition
+have among their collected animals a fine
+specimen of the wombat.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Whath a wombat?” asked Chub.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“A wombat,” went on Dr. Bushnell, with
+the air of imparting information to a large
+audience,—“a wombat is simply a <span class='it'>Phascolomys
+ursinus</span>. It is fond of hay—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“We’ll take some hay along for the
+wombat,” said Lincoln, kindly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“—which he bites into short pieces
+with his knife-edged teeth. As the poet
+has it,</p>
+
+
+          <div class='poetry-container' style=''>
+          <div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
+<div class='stanza-outer'>
+<p class='line0'>Let dogs delight to bark and bite,</p>
+<p class='line0'>For ’tis—for ’tis—”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Their nature to,” put in Miss Esther, involuntarily.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“True,” continued Dr. Bushnell; “and it
+is the wombat’s nature to excavate the earth
+until it forms a deep tunnel. The wombat is
+by no means an active animal, but trudges
+along with a heavy, rolling waddle, like the
+gait of a very fat bear.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have always admired the gait of a very
+fat bear,” said Brewster, dispassionately.
+“There is something peculiarly attractive
+and exceedingly graceful about it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Dr. Bushnell was a trifle ruffled by this
+slighting allusion to his favored animal, and
+went on with some asperity.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“A wombat, my dear sir, is far from
+being an ungraceful animal. I take it you
+have never seen one on its native heath.
+Indeed, a perfect wombat, a perfect wombat—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Nobly planned,” said Miss Esther, helpfully.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>At this Lincoln Dodd fell off the fence.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Ho!” said Chub; “Uncle Linkum wath
+going to hold me on, and now he’th felled
+off himthelf!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Except that Lincoln was nearly choked
+to death by Chub in her exuberance over the
+little white ponies, the parade passed without
+accident. Dr. Bushnell gazed eagerly at
+the open cages, and disappointedly at the
+closed ones, hoping to see the promised
+wombat. He philosophically met his failure
+to find it by an unshaken confidence in its
+appearance at the show proper.</p>
+
+<hr class='tbk'/>
+
+<p class='pindent'>At the afternoon performance Lincoln took
+especial charge of Chub. This proved to be
+a more arduous undertaking than he had
+anticipated. Twice he pulled her out from
+under the seats, and once he rescued her
+from apparent instant death at the feet of the
+elephant. He was also obliged to temper
+generosity with wisdom in the matter of pink
+lemonade and peanuts.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther had started under the mistaken
+impression that she was taking charge
+of Jack, but he soon made it evident that
+his understanding of the case was that she
+was in his charge. He grandly offered her
+prize packages of gum. He bought for her
+a complete programme of the whole show,
+and carefully scrutinized the numbers on
+their tickets and seats to make sure that they
+corresponded.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther herself was enjoying the afternoon.
+Aside from the entertainment provided
+by the circus troupe, she was delightedly
+entertained by the performances of her own
+immediate circle. Lillian and Mr. Dodd
+were a most exemplary engaged couple.
+Jean and Putnam, if not announced allies,
+were at least preserving an armed truce.
+As for Helen and Brewster, the more she
+saw them together, the more she thought
+that they were born for each other, and she
+felt confident that soon they would realize
+this for themselves. In consequence of this,
+it seemed to Miss Esther that the last cloud
+was dissipated and that the intents of her
+Matrimonial Bureau were practically the
+same as fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>To the exclusion of the startlingly incredible
+feats in the ring, Miss Esther’s thoughts
+were entirely concentrated on the pleasant
+outcome of her plans. It was with an expression
+of blank surprise, and a half conscious
+realization of impending disaster, that she
+looked up suddenly and saw Julia Fowler
+coming toward her along the aisle. Her
+first impulse was to stay the invader’s advance
+at any cost. Involuntarily, she half
+rose from her seat and glared at the intruder.
+Her unwelcoming expression was entirely
+lost on Miss Fowler, who rushed up to her
+and shook her warmly by both hands.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m so glad to see you again!” she
+cried.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How do you do?” said Miss Esther,
+perfunctorily, and with a frigidity of manner
+that would have repelled a less volatile personage
+than Julia Fowler.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Isn’t the circus perfectly lovely!” she
+exclaimed. “I’m enjoying it so much, and
+when I saw your party I flew right over here,
+and Lieutenant Adams has asked me to go
+home to dinner with you all, and come back
+to the show to-night—and may I go?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>However much she may have wanted to,
+Miss Esther’s ideas of hospitality would not
+allow her to say no. “Certainly,” she said;
+and if the invitation was not noticeably heartfelt,
+Julia seemed to overlook any lack of
+enthusiasm. Of course, Miss Esther still
+realized, and more emphatically than ever
+as she looked at Julia, the dangers involved.
+Mr. Dodd was out of the running. Lincoln’s
+heart interests were not her affair; but Putnam
+was decidedly susceptible, and her ideas
+of Brewster’s intentions toward Helen were
+as yet so unauthorized that she was by no
+means certain that they might not be easily
+swerved. Still, the mischief was done; the
+blow had fallen, and as a consequence, the
+Adams pluck rose triumphant.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But Miss Esther had crossed her bridge
+before she came to it. At dinner that night
+Julia was a decided acquisition, and charmed
+everybody. But the two men for whom
+Miss Esther had feared the most were not
+unduly interested in the fair visitor. Indeed,
+the only one who surrendered at sight was
+Lincoln Dodd. This state of mind, however,
+on Lincoln’s part was not necessarily a permanence,
+as Miss Esther well knew. Putnam,
+of course, showed the courteous
+deference and gentle consideration which all
+women received from him, but there was no
+apparent undercurrent of personal interest;
+Brewster maintained his usual attitude of
+polite indifference, which, however, had in
+it no lack of civility, but neither did it show
+any trace of a special attraction.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Although Whitfield went to the afternoon
+performance ostensibly for the benefit of its
+juvenile element, in the evening it attended
+the show frankly and openly for its own
+amusement. Following this precedent the
+Adams house-party at eight o’clock again
+bundled into the automobile and started for
+the tent. The men vowed that it was the
+hardest day’s work they had ever done in
+their lives, but the girls took the day as
+a matter of course, and would not hear of
+omitting any part of the regulation programme.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther’s complacency was restored
+by the turn affairs had taken, and her mind
+was relieved regarding Julia’s invasion.
+Therefore, she started off in the same high
+spirits that had marked the early afternoon.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>The circus managers, desirous of saving
+every possible scrap of time, had facilitated
+the midnight moving of their paraphernalia
+by taking the roof off the tent before the
+beginning of the evening performance. After
+sunset, and if the weather permitted, they
+always did this. The plan was acceptable
+to the audience, and the general effect of the
+crowded tent, open to the starry heavens,
+appealed especially to Brewster as a picturesquely
+humorous situation. Desirous of
+seeing it all from the best possible viewpoint,
+he asked Helen to sit with him in
+the top row of seats. The rest preferred
+seats nearer the ground, Lincoln devoting
+himself to Julia, and Miss Esther, supremely
+satisfied, listening willingly to Dr. Bushnell’s
+oratorical periods.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What a curious picture,” said Helen, as
+she took her seat.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” replied Brewster; “I never saw
+anything just like it before.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I have seen this every year,” said Helen,
+“but it always impresses me anew. The
+incongruity of the tawdry, noisy glitter of the
+scene below, compared to the calm beauty
+of the stars above, is—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is, perhaps, the ultimate contrast?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, that is exactly what I mean. Why
+is it, I wonder, that I can’t express myself
+as I want to? You always seem to know
+just what word to use.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Perhaps I know more words than you
+do.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, I know words enough, but I never
+can command them at the time I want them,
+though they often come to me when it is too
+late to use them.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Like Thackeray’s cab wit,” suggested
+Brewster.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I can quite picture him, disconsolate
+in his cab, saying to himself the bright
+things which he ought to have said an hour
+before. I have done the same thing.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You should have a preceptor, one who
+could teach you to say the right thing at the
+right time.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It would have to be one who would not
+only understand my moods, but be in
+thorough sympathy with them; some one
+of—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Quick perception,” said Brewster.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes; and gentle—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Instincts.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes; and a way of teaching that would
+not make me self-conscious or embarrassed.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That goes without saying if the teacher
+be of a true perception and sympathy.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>It might as well be you!</span>” sang a sextette
+of clowns through six megaphones in
+the ring.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So it might,” said Brewster; “in fact it
+might much better be me than anybody else.
+I think I will begin now.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I wish you would,” said Helen; “I do,
+honestly, but I’m afraid you will find it
+a hopeless task. There are so many things
+that you know so much more about than
+I do—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>There are a few</span>,” came bellowing up
+from the megaphone sextette.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“The megaphone men seem inclined to
+help out,” said Brewster.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, and I am grateful to any one who
+will help me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“May I try, Helen, though gratitude is
+not the return I ask?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>I may love you too well to let you go</span>,”
+vociferated the insistent megaphones.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Helen looked at Brewster. “The megaphone
+men <span class='it'>are</span> helping,” she said.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Would you have said that if you had
+thought of it in time?” he asked.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Helen.</p>
+
+<h2>XXIII</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And certainly a woman’s thought runs before her actions.—<span class='it'>As
+You Like It</span>, iv, 1.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Where’s Putnam?” asked Miss Esther,
+coming out on the East porch the next
+morning.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Don’t know,” said Lincoln. “I haven’t
+seen him since breakfast.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Chub, seated on a low stool directly in
+front of Lincoln, regarding him with worshiping
+eyes, volunteered the information
+that she “thaw him picking a lot of wotheth,”
+and that he had afterward gone out of
+the gate and walked rapidly up the street.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Ah,” said Miss Esther, with a satisfied
+smile, “I suppose he has gone over to
+Jean’s.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I thuppothe tho,” Chub acquiesced.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But when, a little later, Jean came over
+to the Adams house, Miss Esther looked at
+her aghast. “Where’s Putnam?” she said,
+sternly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“That’s what I want to know,” said Jean.
+“He asked me to play tennis with him this
+morning.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why, I don’t see where he can be,” said
+Miss Esther; “but he’ll probably be back
+in a few minutes. Chub said he went up the
+road—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, <span class='it'>up</span> the road,” said Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jean sat down by Chub. “I did want to
+play tennis this morning,” she said. “I
+think somebody else might take Lieutenant
+Adams’s place.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If that very obscure hint is aimed at all
+in my direction,” said Lincoln, “I refuse
+to act upon it. When I play tennis I must
+have a foeman worthy of my skill. Why don’t
+you ask Chub to play with you?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Chub, taking this as an invitation, rose
+and began a search for Putnam’s racket. “I
+will play with Couthin Jean,” she said, kindly,
+“becauthe bad old Uncle Putnam hath ranned
+away, and ithn’t never coming back to play
+with you.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Although Miss Esther was used to Chub’s
+romancing, this oracular utterance gave her
+a sudden but unmistakable shock. “Don’t
+mind what the baby says,” she said.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Couthin Jean doethn’t care if Couthin
+Putnam doethn’t never come back,” insisted
+Chub.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, yes, she does, Chub,” said Lincoln;
+“we all love Cousin Putnam.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yeth,” said Chub, who always agreed
+with Lincoln; “we all love Couthin Putnam.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Do you?” asked Miss Esther, looking
+pointedly at Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I love him a lot. I began worshiping
+at his shrine the very day he arrived.
+He seems to compel that sort of thing.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He’s an all-round good fellow,” said
+Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He is, indeed,” said Miss Esther, earnestly.
+“I don’t know what I shall do without
+him. He says he can’t stay more than a
+fortnight longer. I wonder where he is now?
+I thought he was over at your house.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I know where he ith,” said Chub, with
+the air of one who is possessed of a state
+secret.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Where?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t think Uncle Putnam wanth me
+to tell.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, don’t tell if it’s a secret,” said
+Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It ith a thecret,” said Chub, “and I won’t
+tell, becauthe he don’t want anybody to know
+he wath going to Farmington.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What did he go to Farmington for?”
+asked Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t know, but I gueth he wath going
+to thell wotheth.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“There ought to be a good market for
+roses in Farmington,” said Lincoln, reflectively.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well,” exclaimed Miss Esther; “if
+Putnam is carting roses over to Julia Fowler—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, maybe she likes roses,” remarked
+Jean, casually.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh,” said Miss Esther, softening a little;
+“if you say it’s all right, I suppose
+it is.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Of course it’s all right,” said Lincoln.
+“Whatever Putnam does is right.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What an enviable reputation,” said
+Helen, appearing suddenly in the doorway.
+“I wish people would say that whatever I
+did was always right.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But, my dear girl,” said Miss Esther,
+“you couldn’t expect to be looked up to
+as such a paragon of all the virtues as
+my cousin is. Of course, though, you’re
+always right—as far as you go.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’ve gone pretty far this time,” said
+Helen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I thought as much,” said Jean. “When
+did it happen?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Last night—at the circus,” replied
+Helen, serenely.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Good for you!” said Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What did Couthin Helen do at the thircuth?”
+asked Chub, with interest.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“She went and engaged herself to Mr.
+Brewster,” said Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What!” exclaimed Miss Esther. “Winthrop
+Brewster!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He’s the only Mr. Brewster I know,”
+said Helen, apologetically.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“He’s all right,” said Lincoln. “He’s
+the best Brewster going. I think it’s
+great.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Jean said nothing, but flew at Helen and
+bestowed upon her a few dozen of that particular
+variety of kisses which are supposed
+to mean a congratulatory acknowledgment
+of tidings such as these, and taking possession
+of her, marched her down the steps and
+across the lawn.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“As President of the Matrimonial Bureau,”
+said Lincoln, enthusiastically, “you are
+certainly making a screaming success of
+yourself.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Miss Esther, still looking a
+little bewildered, “but I am so surprised.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why, you planned it yourself.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I know, but I thought my plans had
+all fallen through. Helen was so haughty
+and Mr. Brewster was so reserved. I wasn’t
+half so surprised when Lillian announced
+her engagement. I wish Helen would come
+back. I want to ask her more about it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, she’s engaged all right—just as
+much as Lillian. Now that makes two, and
+you only have Jean left on your books.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Miss Esther, complacently.
+“And she’s all right, too, for I’m just as
+sure Putnam means to marry her as if he had
+said so. Sometimes I think she’s engaged
+now.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Perhaps she is,” said Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>When Helen and Jean reached the gate
+they turned naturally in the direction of
+Lillian’s house. They found her on the
+veranda, but when she saw the excited visitors
+she jumped to the conclusion that the
+exigencies of the occasion could only be
+met in the studio.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Come on up,” she cried; “what is the
+matter?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Ask Helen,” said Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, you see,” began Helen, “you said
+that Miss Esther said that she thought I ought
+to marry Mr. Brewster, and so—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And so she feels that she must,” interrupted
+Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How perfectly lovely,” cried Lillian; “I
+am so glad.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“On the principle that misery loves company?”
+suggested Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes—on that principle, of course; but
+I don’t believe we call it misery, do we,
+Helen?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Not yet,” said Helen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“May I come in?” said a voice from the
+doorway; and without waiting for a reply
+Miss Esther walked in. “I couldn’t wait
+another minute,” said she; “I just had to see
+Helen and hear more about this affair.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Helen says it’s all your doing, anyway,”
+said Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, I didn’t say exactly that,” replied
+Helen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, what did you say, then?” demanded
+Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Why, I don’t know that I said anything.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Then it’s time you began,” said Jean;
+“and you’ve got to tell us every single thing
+about it right straight away.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It was just this way,” said Helen; “Mr.
+Brewster said if I wanted to marry him I
+could, and I said I did, and that was all there
+was about it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What a kind man he is,” remarked
+Lillian, reflectively.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Did he tell you anything about his
+castle?” asked Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, he described it at length. It has
+the most modern and approved automatic
+drawbridges and an electric moat—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is that anything like an electric motor?”
+asked Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Same thing,” replied Helen; “and it has
+a portcullis and scullions and castellated turrets
+and—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And a Prince?” said Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes; a very beautiful Prince, too.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, Helen, he is,” said Miss Esther,
+“and I am very much pleased. He seems to
+come pretty near realizing the ideals which
+you were discussing last spring.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Helen, disdainfully; “Winthrop
+goes far beyond any ideals I had
+then.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well,” exclaimed Jean, “for a driveling
+idiot, give me a girl who has been engaged
+something less than twenty-four hours!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I think so, too,” agreed Lillian; “I’ve
+been engaged most a week, and I’m as
+sensible as a judge.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I wonder how I’d act if I were engaged,”
+said Jean, reflectively.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Aren’t you?” said Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“When I am,” said Jean, “you shall be
+the first to know of it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Of course I shall,” said Miss Esther; “I
+made Putnam promise that he’d tell me the
+very first one.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, you keep right on asking him
+every day,” said Jean, “and perhaps you’ll
+find out.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Just to think,” said Miss Esther, “only
+last spring we were discussing the futures
+of you three girls, and now you are all
+practically settled. Helen has her ideal
+Prince, Lillian has her fairy godfather, and
+Jean—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Jean isn’t engaged yet,” said Lillian.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“When I see how it affects you two
+girls,” said Jean, “I am not sure that I want
+to be.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Sour grapes,” said Helen.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Nothing of the sort,” said Miss Esther.
+“Jean can be engaged any minute she wants
+to.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, I wish she’d hurry up, then,” said
+Lillian. “It makes me embarrassed to have
+her left out.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Could you give me till to-morrow?”
+asked Jean, meekly.</p>
+
+<h2>XXIV</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>I am in haste; go along with me: I’ll tell you all.—<span class='it'>Merry
+Wives of Windsor</span>, v, 1.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Miss Esther was more than delighted
+when Putnam came to her in the library that
+evening and said that he had something
+to tell her.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Perhaps I can guess what it is,” she said.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You’re pretty clever if you can,” he replied,
+“for I didn’t know it myself until
+to-day.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No,” said Miss Esther, smiling; “you
+didn’t know it yourself until eleven o’clock
+this morning.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, I didn’t,” said Putnam, honestly.
+“In fact it came over me rather suddenly,
+and I thought you’d like it if I told you
+first.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Are you really engaged?” asked Miss
+Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, no; I haven’t spoken to her yet
+about anything like that.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, why don’t you?” said Miss Esther,
+with a slight show of impatience.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t know how she’d take it,” said
+Putnam, with the first indication of diffidence
+that Miss Esther had ever seen in her cousin.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“There’s only one way to find out.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, of course, I shall ask her sometime,
+but not yet.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well, don’t wait too long. I am very
+glad you have told me this. I think you and
+she were made for each other.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So do I. I never before believed in love
+at first sight, but it certainly is what has
+happened to me. She is the most beautiful
+girl I ever saw.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Perhaps not beautiful,” said Miss Esther,
+“but she is certainly very pretty.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“More than pretty. I think she is a raving
+beauty.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You’re probably prejudiced,” said Miss
+Esther, comprehendingly, “but I’m glad you
+do admire her so much. She is a good-hearted
+little thing with all her whimsical
+temper; but I feared you might think her
+perhaps too countrified and unsophisticated.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Well!” exclaimed Putnam, “I never
+should call Julia Fowler unsophisticated.
+To my mind she stands for everything that
+represents the best and highest type of a
+cultured woman of the world. That kind of
+a woman, Cousin Esther, is the kind that
+appeals most strongly to me. It is the type
+I like best and Miss Fowler is the perfection
+of that type, just as little Jean Richards is
+the perfection of the peach-blossom type, or
+Chub is the perfection of winsome babyhood,
+and it’s a great thing to meet at last the
+highest possible expression of the type one
+most desires. I have a great deal of the
+Adams clannishness in me, and I am glad
+you so thoroughly approve my choice.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Putnam,” said Miss Esther, looking at
+her cousin desperately, “go to bed!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Left to herself, Miss Esther faced the situation.
+Her worst fears were verified. The
+invasion of Julia had proved as disastrous as
+she had anticipated. Not only were her own
+plans defeated, but she realized the appalling
+wrong she had done to Jean by assisting
+to bring about a state of affairs that now
+she knew must inevitably break the child’s
+heart.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It seems,” she thought, “that this glorious
+summer of mine is like to be turned into
+a winter of discontent. Not that I care so
+much for myself: the Matrimonial Bureau is
+not yet at the end of its rope. I could, of
+course, find another Prince for Jean, but the
+trouble is, I’m sure she has set her heart on
+Putnam, notwithstanding her apparent antagonism,
+and after what she said this morning
+I feel sure I am right. I think she expected
+him to tell her so to-night, and now—well,
+I will do what I can. Patience, and shuffle
+the cards—perhaps there’ll be a way out
+of it yet. But I can’t see a ray of hope for
+my poor little Jean.”</p>
+
+<hr class='tbk'/>
+
+<p class='pindent'>But if Miss Esther had seen her poor little
+Jean at that moment she would have been
+obliged to confess that at least one ray of
+hope was illuminating her darksome horizon.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>As a matter of fact she was spinning along
+with Lincoln Dodd in his automobile, quite
+as contented as though there were no Putnam
+Adams in existence.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You see,” Dodd was saying, “I would
+have gone, but I had reasons for not wanting
+to go.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I don’t see,” insisted Jean, “what reasons
+you could possibly have for not wanting
+to go on a lovely yachting trip like that—way
+up the coast to Labrador—to be
+gone for weeks, and with such a lovely
+party—they are lovely, aren’t they?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes; the people are nice enough,” said
+Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And a crew all in white duck, with
+beautiful gilt buttons—aren’t they?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes; the crew is good enough.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And beautiful ladies, in gorgeous clothes,
+sitting around in wicker arm-chairs on the
+deck! Aren’t they?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh, yes; the women’s gowns are good
+enough.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“And then, whenever they stop anywhere,
+there would be gala nights, with flowers and
+music, and dances on deck and Japanese lanterns
+and flags flying and banners waving!
+Oh, I think it would be heavenly! I wish
+I could go!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Come on, and go—with me!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Oh,” cried Jean, “I wish I could! But
+I’m not invited.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My wife is invited wherever I am.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I didn’t know you had a wife,” said Jean,
+with an air of polite interest.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I haven’t,” said Dodd, “but I will have
+in about twenty minutes.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Lincoln turned the wheel and the huge
+machine swung around with reckless speed.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Where are you going to get her?” asked
+Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Now, listen,” said Lincoln, as they flew
+along the road, “and think fast. If we go on
+this yachting party,—you and I,—we’ve
+got to catch that twelve forty-five train from
+Utica.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What!” gasped Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It will take us about twenty minutes to
+get to Dr. Bushnell’s; about twenty more
+to get married. That leaves us two hours
+to get over to the Utica station, and I guess
+this old machine will do it.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You’re talking nonsense,” said Jean.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I know,” said Lincoln, cheerfully;
+“but never mind that now. I told you you
+had to think fast. Now you’ve got all the
+way from here to Dr. Bushnell’s parsonage
+to make up your mind, and if you don’t want
+to go on, say the word and I’ll turn around.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>As they stopped at Dr. Bushnell’s gate,
+Jean said, “I think we’d better turn
+around.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Too late now,” said Lincoln, lifting her
+out.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I thought it would be,” said Jean, softly.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>In response to Lincoln’s imperative ring
+at the doorbell, Dr. Bushnell appeared
+and looked with surprise at his two late
+visitors.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Come in,” he said, blandly; “come in.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Thank you, we will,” said Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Bushnell rose to greet the pair as
+they entered the pastor’s study. She was
+Jean’s aunt, and as Jean’s mother had been
+dead for many years, Mrs. Bushnell had always
+exercised more or less authority over
+her willful, high-spirited niece. Mr. Richards,
+Jean’s father, was away in a distant Western
+city on a business trip, and so Mrs. Bushnell
+considered Jean her special property for the
+time being.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You must excuse us if we seem rather
+hurried,” said Lincoln, with a more business-like
+air than he often showed. “We are
+sailing to-morrow morning, and we must
+catch the twelve forty-five train out of Utica.
+We want you to marry us, and you’ve got
+just twenty minutes to do it in.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Is that time enough?” asked Jean, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“My dear young friends,” began Dr.
+Bushnell, “you must realize the grave importance
+of the step you propose to take.
+The responsibilities of—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What are you two children talking
+about?” broke in Mrs. Bushnell.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Never mind what we are talking about,”
+said Lincoln, hurriedly. “We’ll tell you
+some other time—we’ll write to you—but
+now we want you to marry us—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But,” said Mrs. Bushnell, “have you
+thought this thing all over?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Indeed I have,” said Jean; “I had twenty
+minutes, and I thought fast. You see, it’s
+this way, Aunt Serena; I’m going to marry
+Lincoln, anyway, and if I marry him to-night
+and catch that twelve forty-five train, we can
+go on the most beautiful yachting trip you
+ever heard of. Way up to Labrador, and the
+ladies have the most beautiful clothes, and
+Japanese lanterns and flowers—and everything.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But, Jean—” began her aunt.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I know, Aunt Serena, but we’ve
+only got twenty minutes, you know—and,
+Auntie, the yacht is the loveliest thing—it’s
+all white and brass and shining—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Ah, yes,” said Dr. Bushnell, “as the poet
+so effectively puts it, ‘A painted ship—a
+painted ship’—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Now hold on, Dr. Bushnell,” said Lincoln;
+“as I told you, we’ve only got twenty
+minutes—five are gone already. As Jean
+says, she’s going to marry me, anyway; so
+you may as well let us go on that yachting
+trip and send us off with your blessing.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“You’re the only one that can do it, Uncle
+Isaiah,” said Jean; “and please do, ’cause I
+would love that trip!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But, Jean,” said Mrs. Bushnell, “does
+Miss Esther know about this?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“No, and that makes me downright sorry;
+but I can’t help it, Aunt Serena. You tell
+her to-morrow, won’t you? and I’ll write to
+her. But we must catch that twelve forty-five
+train.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“So you must,” said Dr. Bushnell, rising
+to the occasion, “so you must. Serena, my
+dear, if you will call the parlor maid—her
+name has for the moment escaped me, but
+you will doubtless remember it—if you will
+call her for a second witness we will proceed
+with the ceremony.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Her name is Martha,” said Mrs. Bushnell,
+still hesitating.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Call Martha,” said Lincoln, decisively.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Are you sure,” began Mrs. Bushnell,
+“that—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Call Martha,” said Jean.</p>
+
+<h2>XXV</h2>
+
+<div class='blockquote'>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Those men are happy; and so are all are near her.—<span class='it'>Henry</span>
+VIII, iv, 1.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='pindent'>After she had dismissed Putnam, Miss
+Esther sat disconsolately in her library,
+worrying over the imminent breaking of
+Jean’s heart. She was fully convinced that
+Jean’s interest in Putnam was very real, and
+she feared the effect on her emotional nature
+when she should discover Putnam’s attitude
+toward Julia Fowler.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Possibly Miss Esther had taken too much
+for granted. Neither Jean herself nor Putnam
+had told her definitely of any intention
+that either had in relation to the future happiness
+or unhappiness of the other. But
+still, Miss Esther had observed the drifting
+of the straws, and being used to the drawing
+of conclusions from seemingly unimportant
+premises, she had decided in her own mind
+at least, that there was only one conclusion
+to be drawn. This was one which pleased
+her very much.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>On the whole, Miss Esther, up to this
+time, had thought that the plans which had
+been so whimsically made in the beginning
+had been brought to a conclusion that was
+not only quite to her liking, but which was
+entirely fitting from every point of view.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>And now, just as she had dreamed that
+beside being the architect of the fortunes of
+her beloved girls, she had helped, too, in
+the detailed drawings of the plans for Putnam’s
+future, he had come in with the startling
+announcement that the design was not
+at all satisfactory, and that he had decided
+upon using some home-made affair that she
+knew was not drawn to a proper scale.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Somehow, though, even in spite of the
+fact that one of her pet plans had apparently
+failed, Miss Esther believed that she should
+win. Nor was it in a sense of winning that
+she thought of it. Rather, she believed that
+now that two of her protégées had found
+what she chose to call their Fates, the other
+one of the three should, sometime, come to
+a place where there should be the proverbial
+happy ending of the chapter. How it was
+all to come about she did not know. Her
+faith was secure in the fact that she knew
+what she knew. She had said long ago that
+the Adams pluck would ultimately win, and
+while the mere planning of the summer had
+been begun in the same spirit of romantic
+whimsicality which made her as a child play
+with the people of her dreams—on the
+stairs, on the lawns, and through the severe
+old halls of the Adams house—and which
+later had made her make these same heroes
+and heroines of her dreams her playmates
+through a life that would have been otherwise
+very lonely—“Ah,” she said, “some
+dreams come true; and after all, the jesting
+word is not so often false but that it may be
+true.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Perhaps Miss Esther did not realize that
+the whole summer had been a living of the
+dream which, though built of the flimsiest
+of fabrics in the beginning, had proved, at
+the last, to be constructed of very solid
+materials.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Begun, as it was, it seemed that the summer,
+after all, had shaped itself with a sort
+of seriousness of which Miss Esther had not
+dreamed. She cared too much for the girls
+to play with them—and particularly she
+would not have played a game that would
+bring to them anything but the most perfect
+happiness. In planning it all, she had believed
+that it was rather a bit of a game—such
+as she played with her characters in
+the plays in the old volumes in her library—hers
+and her father’s—and before that the
+father’s father’s—and even his father before
+him—they had all lived and dreamed among
+the books which had been to Esther Adams
+an inspiration and a delight which had lasted
+through the years of her life.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>That these dreams, in some subtle fashion,
+had really carried out the mental suggestion
+of a mere advertisement in a Sunday newspaper,
+brought to her notice in a way that
+was little short of providential—all this
+entered not at all into the calculations of the
+woman who now faced a condition which
+was far from being merely theoretical.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>So far as two of her girls were concerned,
+she was satisfied. Not that she—in thinking
+it all over—would admit to herself that she
+had deliberately brought Helen and Brewster
+together, or that she had thrown Lillian
+in the face of George Washington Dodd—far
+from it. That she was satisfied, there
+could be no doubt. But, as she put it to
+herself, “It was fortunate that Mr. Brewster
+came to visit Dr. Bushnell, and it was fortunate
+that Mr. Dodd came to visit his son.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Still—and this is the perversity of reasoning—she
+felt that Putnam’s failure to
+carry out a cherished plan of her own was
+something for which she was directly responsible—not
+alone because of the fact
+that she felt that he would fail to do as she
+wished—and she disliked antagonism, like
+all the Adamses—but she felt, too, that
+somehow she was responsible to Jean in
+having brought her to the place where
+she might by any chance fall in love with
+a man who was fickle enough to be drawn
+away by the first pretty face that rose above
+the horizon.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>There was in it all something which was
+altogether too like the suggestion of failure
+to appeal to Miss Esther. A battle fairly
+fought—won or lost—it didn’t matter, so
+long as it was in the open: this was her delight.
+But to make an attempt, under cover,
+with however good intentions, and then fail—that
+was a sting, and one which made her
+feel that it would have been better never to
+have tried. Logic entered into the discussion
+not at all. She would not admit that
+she had tried to accomplish anything. And
+yet, behind it all, there was the haunting
+shadow of a failure.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>She was as much annoyed as surprised
+when at that late hour Dr. Bushnell called
+upon her.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“How do you do,” she said, with a perfunctory
+politeness. “What is the charity
+this time?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Ah, Miss Esther, you will have your
+little joke,” said her visitor, blandly, “but it
+is not a charity this time. I come upon a far
+different errand. I bring news that will surprise
+you—ay, that will surprise you greatly.
+I come as winged messenger—as winged
+messenger—the quotation has escaped
+me.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“But what is your important news?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It is indeed important news. Mr. Dodd—Mr.
+Lincoln Dodd—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Has anything happened to Lincoln?”
+broke in Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I do not know that ‘happened’ is the
+term which I should use, but certainly something
+has occurred. Something has occurred
+to Mr. Lincoln Dodd. But a half hour since,
+I married Mr. Lincoln Dodd to my niece,
+Miss Jean Richards.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What!” exclaimed Miss Esther, excitedly.
+“What! Jean married!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” continued Dr. Bushnell, calmly,
+“they are married. My wife and I were
+very much surprised, as you are; but Jean
+is impulsive, you know, and Mr. Dodd
+said that it was absolutely necessary for
+them to catch the twelve forty-five train
+from Utica—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“From Utica,” gasped Miss Esther; “have
+they gone?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes, they have gone, and Mr. Dodd
+begged me to offer you his deepest apologies
+for seeming to leave you thus suddenly. But
+he said he would write.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Write!” exclaimed Miss Esther; “I
+should think he’d better! I never heard of
+such a performance. Jean! Lincoln!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Whistling blithely, George Washington
+Dodd came through the hall.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Will</span> you come in here!” called out Miss
+Esther. “What <span class='it'>do</span> you think!”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What has happened,” inquired Mr. Dodd,
+as he came smilingly into the library.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Tell him, Dr. Bushnell,” said Miss
+Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Prepare yourself, my dear sir,” began
+Dr. Bushnell, “for a great surprise. As I
+was seated in my study this evening—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Lincoln took Jean over there and married
+her,” broke in Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Exactly so,” agreed Dr. Bushnell; “exactly
+so.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Lincoln!” said Mr. Dodd, bewilderedly,
+“and Jean! Are you sure you mean Lincoln?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Dr. Bushnell; “he came in
+his automobile. I am sure it was Mr. Lincoln
+Dodd.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” said Mr. Dodd, reflectively; “it
+must have been he. On the whole, I am
+rather pleased than otherwise.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Pleased!” cried Miss Esther, “pleased!
+It’s glorious. It’s perfectly magnificent.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I am glad you feel that way, Miss Esther,”
+said Dr. Bushnell, cheerfully. “As Shakespeare—as
+Shakespeare says—”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“As Shakespeare says,” said Miss Esther,
+interrupting him, “ ‘O, rejoice beyond a
+common joy! and set it down with gold on
+lasting pillars.’ ”</p>
+
+<hr class='tbk'/>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Lincoln’s promised letter came. Miss
+Esther read it in the library. A part of it ran
+thus:</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Although my most abject apologies are
+due for running away as I did, with apparent
+ingratitude for your hospitality, I maintain
+that the exigencies of the plans of the Matrimonial
+Bureau demanded quick action. As
+Chairman of the Executive Committee and
+President of the Advisory Board, I felt the
+responsibilities of my position, and I trust
+you will approve and ratify my action in the
+matter.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Your orders, when I enlisted in your
+service, I have carried out in spirit if not in
+letter. You may remember that the first
+duty you required of me was to marry one
+of your clients. This I have done, and being
+thus disqualified for further assistance in
+your noble work, I am forced regretfully to
+offer you my resignation.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“If I may be pardoned for referring to one
+small favor I was happily enabled to grant,
+I will say, in connection with the fact of my
+bringing my father to Whitfield, that my
+great regret is that I have only one father to
+lay at the feet of the Matrimonial Bureau.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“One was enough,” said Miss Esther,
+placidly. “I think I may congratulate myself
+on the unqualified success of my plans.
+Fortune brings in some boats that are not
+steered, and though I steered some myself,
+Fortune played into my hands.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“What are you doing, Couthin Ethter?”
+cried Chub, dancing into the room with her
+arms full of flowers.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“I’m winding up the affairs of the Matrimonial
+Bureau,” replied Miss Esther, taking
+the baby up in her lap.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Whath that mean?” demanded Chub.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“It was an effort to make some people
+happy, which succeeded beyond anything
+I ever dreamed of.”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Thath nithe,” said Chub, contentedly.
+“Did it make <span class='it'>you</span> happy?”</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>“Very happy,” said Miss Esther.</p>
+
+<div class='figcenter' style='width:50%'>
+<img src='images/cupid3.jpg' alt='' id='iid-0004' style='width:99%;height:auto;'/>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='pbk'/>
+
+<h3>TRANSCRIBER NOTES</h3>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Misspelled words and printer errors have been corrected. Where multiple spellings occur, majority use has been employed.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Punctuation has been maintained except where obvious printer errors occur.</p>
+
+<p class='pindent'>Illustrations have been relocated due to using a non-page layout.</p>
+
+<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>[The end of <span class='it'>The Matrimonial Bureau</span> by Carolyn Wells and Harry Taber]</p>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79028 ***</div>
+</body>
+<!-- created with fpgen.py 4.67d on 2026-07-05 16:08:47 GMT -->
+</html>
diff --git a/79028-h/images/cover.jpg b/79028-h/images/cover.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b20c849
--- /dev/null
+++ b/79028-h/images/cover.jpg
diff --git a/79028-h/images/cupid1.jpg b/79028-h/images/cupid1.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1eee89d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/79028-h/images/cupid1.jpg
diff --git a/79028-h/images/cupid2.jpg b/79028-h/images/cupid2.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c6d5c1f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/79028-h/images/cupid2.jpg
diff --git a/79028-h/images/cupid3.jpg b/79028-h/images/cupid3.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..162de0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/79028-h/images/cupid3.jpg
diff --git a/79028-h/images/ill001.jpg b/79028-h/images/ill001.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bcb4c90
--- /dev/null
+++ b/79028-h/images/ill001.jpg
diff --git a/79028-h/images/ill002.jpg b/79028-h/images/ill002.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bd037e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/79028-h/images/ill002.jpg
diff --git a/79028-h/images/ill003.jpg b/79028-h/images/ill003.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf1138c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/79028-h/images/ill003.jpg
diff --git a/79028-h/images/ill004.jpg b/79028-h/images/ill004.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..910684c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/79028-h/images/ill004.jpg
diff --git a/79028-h/images/title.jpg b/79028-h/images/title.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d2a492d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/79028-h/images/title.jpg
author	www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org>	2026-07-05 10:03:31 -0700
committer	www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org>	2026-07-05 10:03:31 -0700
commit	acba474b79b490c0fba44f49f0dcd0a50387f88f (patch)
tree	4f5d19c55fcaed9431f11158ef74ebadc028cd6b /79028-h