'ma SYLVIA'S EXPERIMENT THE STORY OF AN UNRELATED FAMILY Sylvia jlrden 3^&^ s n g| . S^d SYLVIA'S EXPERIMENT THE STORY OF AN UNRELATED FAMILY BY MARGARET REBECCA PIPER ILLUSTRATED WITH A FRONTISPIECE IN FULL COLOR BY Z. P. NIKOLAKI /^^ AE99A w THE PAGE COMPANY BOSTON % MDCCCCXIV ^r w. jft s JR ja. jjtsffjs St jw ja. jtt ja. ite jfc Tift iti 'at. SOL jft si Tni ^4 Copyright, 1914, by THE PAGE COMPANY All rights reserved First Impression, August, 1914 Second Impression, September, 1914 Third Impression, November, 1914 THE COLONIAL PRESS C. H. SIMONDS CO., BOSTON, U. 8. A. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. PLANNING THE FAMILY .... I II. THE CHRISTMAS MOTHER 15 m. THE GROWTH OF THE CHRISTMAS FAMILY 38 rv. PHIL APPROVES 58 V. THE " BIG BROTHER " . 6? VL THE HOME-COMING .... 82 VII. THE ABSENT MEMBER .... 9 8 VIII. A HAPPY DAY IO7 IX. A LONESOME MAN 122 X. THE CHRISTMAS TREE .... 138 XI. THE BELATED GUESTS .... 149 XII. CHRISTMAS MORNING .... 162 XIII. A CHRISTMAS ROMANCE 173 XIV. " Music HATH CHARMS "... 184 XV. OLD MEMORIES 198 XVI. MR. MclNTosH Is CONVINCED . 212 XVII. Two DECISIONS 226 yviTT 2^6 y\. V J.I.J.. XIX. NEW YEAR'S EVE J 250 XX. THE CHRISTMAS FAMILY ADJOURNS . 266 2137768 Sylvia' s Experiment CHAPTER I PLANNING THE FAMILY " TP\ UT, Sylvia," protested Bess, " if "^ you won't come home with me or Fran or Elinor, what will you do? You can't stay here! You'd die!" she added with tragic emphasis. Sylvia, standing before the mirror, giv- ing a last deft poke to the yellow butter- fly bow perched on her dark hair, laughed at the lugubrious prophecy. " I believe I could survive even a Christ- mas vacation at St. Anne's, but I don't mean to risk it; so cheer up, honey." " But, what will you do? " repeated her 2 Sylvia's Experiment friend anxiously. " You know, we all want you dreadfully. Why won't you come? Do, Sylvia that's a dear," she coaxed. ' You know that mother sent you a very special invitation for the holi- days." " Your mother is a dear, and I love her for wanting me; but I hope to be at home this year, myself, with mother and the family." Bess opened her round blue eyes to their fullest capacity, and a frightened look swept her chubby face. " Sylvia, darling, are you perfectly well ? I knew you had been cramming too hard on Math ! " she wailed. " Let me feel your head." "Hands off!" ordered Sylvia. "My hair's done for dinner. Don't worry, an- gel. I am perfectly sane and safe. Of course, I am perfectly aware that I haven't Planning the Family 3 any mother, or any family; but I have a home or at least a house and I don't see any reason why I couldn't acquire the rest of the ingredients of a real Christmas if I set about it properly. It came to me in church this morning, with a regular jump; the way ideas come, you know." " But they don't come that way to me," sighed Bess. " Go on, Sylvia. What came to you? " " The idea of having a real Christmas, all my own, like what the rest of you have. It seems to me I have just got to have it, this year." And she dropped herself down on the couch beside Bess. " You can always have a piece of mine," and a small, plump hand stole affection- ately into Sylvia's. She was rewarded by one of her friend's most radiant and heart-warming smiles. " I know you girls have been so beau- 4 Sylvia s Experiment tifully generous with your mothers and homes and happiness, ever since I came to America and St. Anne's; and I do appre- ciate it, truly; but this year I want a Christmas all my own!" There was an unusually wistful tone in her voice. Poor Sylvia, clearly destined to be the merry centre of a big, happy, riot- ous family, was absolutely alone in the world ! She was more alone even than usual this year, too, for her guardian and his wife were in Europe. Not that Sylvia minded that especially. She loathed the hotels of winter or summer resorts which her guardian's wife frequented, and would have infinitely preferred to spend her Christmas holidays at St. Anne's, rather than at Palm Beach or Jamaica. But their absence gave her a new freedom and an opportunity of which she was bound she would avail herself. Planning the Family 5 " But, Sylvia," puzzled Bess, " your house is perfectly lovely; but there is only you! How can you have a real Christ- mas?" " I don't know that I can; but I am go- ing to try. I have simply set my heart on it, and you know when I make up my mind to a thing I usually do it," and Sylvia set her pumps very squarely together on the rug, as if her feet were already bent on the accomplishment of her purpose. " I know," sighed Bess, admiringly. " There's nothing you can't do if you make up your mind. But do, please, explain a little. I'm dreadfully mud- dled." " It came to me in church, as I told you. I had just decided that the sermon was hopelessly lacking in unity, coherence and emphasis, and, therefore, not worth listen- ing to, and was letting my mind float, and 6 Sylvias Experiment watching the little dust specks dancing in the sunshine, when suddenly I noticed that the sunshine ended right on Mrs. Abbott's little shabby bonnet, and her wonderful grey hair, and her sweet rose- bud of a face, and, all at once, I knew that she was just what I had been wanting for a mother. So I am going to ask her if she will let me adopt her for my Christmas mother!" "Do you know Mrs. Abbott? Do you suppose she would like to be adopted? How are you going to ask her? " Bess' mind was built a little too solidly for such mental gymnastics. " ' I have a mind presages me such thrift ' Shakespeare, darling that I am almost positive she will dote on being adopted by me," cried Sylvia, gaily, nothing daunted by her friend's " buts." Planning the Family 7 Bess did not doubt it. She had a theory that there was no one in the world so stony hearted as to refuse to accept any suggestion of Sylvia's, made with a smile on her lips and her " please do " expres- sion in her eyes. '* Where are you going to get the rest of the family?" she asked. ' Well/' said Sylvia, resting her elbows on her knees, and her chin on her palms, and surveying her friend seriously, " you see, I have figured it out that there must be lots of poor people in the world at Christmas time not money poor, for they are often among the richest; but poor, like me, because they are lonely and longing for a real Christmas. If I only could get hold of some of them, I would take them all out to Arden Hall with me, and we would have a really, truly Christ- mas. It would be such a perfect house 8 Sylvias Experiment for a Christmas," she sighed. ' Why, it was just born for a Christmas house, just as I was born to be one of a big family. Just think of those great, big rooms, and wide staircases, and huge fireplaces, and the dance hall and billiard room, and that wonderful old oak dining-room. Oh, I just ache, sometimes, to see it just brim- ming over with people and laughter and music and happiness! Once I thought I would have a house-party and ask all you girls, and then I knew it wouldn't do, for you all have homes and families and Christmases of your own, and I couldn't take you away, even if I would. Besides, a house-party sounds just pleasant and temporary. I want something different - a home-party. So I am going to start a Christmas family of my own with Mrs. Abbott for a nucleus ! " " How many must you have? " Planning the Family 9 " Well, I haven't worked out the details, because the idea is young yet. I haven't se- lected the individuals; but I think I could name the types. First of all, there must be a baby a little, funny, fat, tottering baby who will crow and gurgle and suck his thumb. Then there ought to be one or two just a little bigger assorted sizes, you know big enough to have the Christmas wonder in their eyes when they see the tree. There ought to be a little girl with pigtails ; long, yellow ones the kind I always coveted. There's got to be a little Gretchen girl like that to mother the dollies Santa brings. Then I'd like a boy who will whistle and bang doors and use delicious slang. I suppose / would come next, Sister-away-at-school, and, oh ! so glad to be home again! Then, Brother. He's away at college, too. He Oh, my goodness! Why didn't I think of him?" 10 Sylvia's Experiment " Who? " Bess was wide-eyed with in- terest. In fact her eyes had been growing bigger and rounder every moment to suit the increasing compass of the Christmas family. "Phil! I know he would come. He was telling me only last night that Christ- mas made him just sick, he was so home- sick for his mother and father. They are mishing, somewhere in China, you know. He was describing the wonderful times they used to have when the whole family was at home. It made me feel almost choky it sounded so nice and homelike. I was really glad for once when the bell rang for callers' exit, for fear I should weep on the sacred reception-room cushions. But this is a digression. How big is the family? I have lost count." " Fat, gurgly Baby, one," Bess held up Planning the Family 11 a correspondingly plump thumb ; " Won- der Baby, two, or was he twins? " " No-o," relinquished Sylvia reluctantly. : ' I reckon we had better count him, or her - for I am not particular as to gender singly for the present, though I should really prefer twins. I fancy it is easier to order by the piece." 'Wonder Baby two; Pig-tails, three; Boy, four; you, five. Wait till I get my other hand. --Big Boy, six." 'Is that all?" relieved. "Then comes Big Brother." "Seven. Married?" " No. I don't want any ' in-laws.' Eight is Sister the kind every one calls Sister because well, just because she is the one everybody turns to in all sorts of predicaments for help and comfort." " She'll boss you," warned Bess, who had experience. 12 Sylvias Experiment ".Perhaps she will; but she will do it so beautifully that we sha'n't know it. She will be up on scientific management, the more scientific the less apparent. I think that will be enough, besides mother, who is really the heart of us all." " No father? " queried Bess, dubiously. Sylvia shook her head. "Isn't it funny? I can't imagine a father. I suppose because I don't know anything about them from personal expe- rience, though, for that matter, I haven't any more experience of mothers. But, somehow, I have always been able to pro- ject a mother. Of course, in the present instance, if a perfectly good father should apply I would admit him to the family circle." " You need one," Bess assured her sol- emnly. " Only I suppose you really ought Planning the Family 13 to consult Mrs. Abbott before you pick him out." Sylvia laughed. " You dear little literal goose, as if that mattered! It's only a play family." " I don't know. You remember what we had in Psychology the other day about the power of suggestion? Oh, there's the dinner-bell. Sylvia, dear, I do really and truly hope you will have your Christ- mas family, and somehow I feel it in my bones you will." " So do I," smiled her friend, " and my bones are far more reliable than yours, for I don't believe you have any, you dear old roly-poly." Bess paused with her hand on the door. " We forgot a grandfather," she ex- claimed. " One must draw the line somewhere," laughed Sylvia. " Never mind, Betty. 14 Sylvia's Experiment We will spare no expense to procure a grandfather, if you say the word. Come on; and don't breathe a word to any- body," she warned, as she flew down the stairs. CHAPTER II THE CHRISTMAS MOTHER " ~m If RS. ABBOTT, this is Miss \/ I Sylvia Arden of St. Anne's. I must run away and leave you, because I am sure the tea needs some more water," and kindly Mrs. Allen, the pastor's wife, went bustling on to the next duty. Sylvia held out her hand with unaf- fected pleasure and eagerness. " Oh, I am so relieved," she exclaimed, happily. " I was so afraid I wasn't going to meet you, and I wanted to so very much." "Me!" Mrs. Abbott smiled inquir- ingly up into the pretty young face under the quaint little velvet hat with nodding 15 16 Sylvia's Experiment pink roses. ''' It is a long time, my dear, since any one has been so anxious to meet me. May I ask just why you are? " " Because I want you for my Christmas mother," blurted Sylvia, her beautiful and graceful speech, which was to lead up to the proposition, basely deserting her, in spite of its frequent rehearsals, now that the crucial moment had come. " Bless me, dear child, and what is a Christmas mother? It sounds very nice; but what does she have to do? And could I really be it?" " I hope so. I mean I hope you will want to be. I know you can. Do you mind coming over to the window-seat, away from people, and let me tell you all about it?" " So far from minding, I'd simply love to," smiled the Christmas mother nom- inee. The Christmas Mother 17 When they reached the window-seat, which offered a haven of refuge from the babel of voices and protruding elbows, not to mention precarious tea-cups and treach- erous frappe glasses, they sat down very close together and Mrs. Abbott, slipping off her glove, patted the girl's hand reas- suringly. " Now," said she, " tell me all about it." And by the time the next half hour was over it was not the fault of Sylvia's tongue if Mrs. Abbott did not know " all about it." She knew how the baby Sylvia had been left an orphan years ago by a terrible railroad accident; how an aunt, the only living relative, had crossed the seas at once and taken the little girl back to Paris with her, where she had lived until five years ago, when the beloved aunt had also died and Sylvia had returned in the care of her guardian, a cousin of her mother's, 18 Sylvia's Experiment to America. She heard of those five years of Sylvia's school-days at St. Anne's, "learning to be American;" of those va- cations spent with generous and affection- ate school friends, or, horror of horrors, with her guardian's wife in ghastly, luxu- rious hotels. She learned of the beautiful old mansion which was Sylvia's, though she had never lived in it since babyhood; but which she still insisted on calling " home," for, in the magic eyes with which the girl saw the old house, it was not empty nor cheerless; but full of human life and stir, and human love and laughter. In her eyes it was as it should have been, and what she longed to make it for a little space, a home. And it was to this home that she was bidding her chief guest, the Christmas mother. " It isn't impossible, nor altogether fool- ish, to want it, is it?" she begged at the The Christmas Mother 19 end of her rambling and rather incoherent discourse. '' It is a beautiful idea, little friend; so beautiful that I almost tremble for it in this humdrum world. I don't wonder they named you Sylvia, Sylvia Arden. Surely you were meant for an ideal As You Like It world." " Oh, but you must not think I am un- practical," objected Sylvia. " It is really because I am so intensely practical that the thing seems so plausible and possible." Mrs. Abbott smiled, and wisely did not respond to this argument, though she did venture to ask a practical question. " How shall you get the family to- gether?" " Oh, I don't know yet those things always happen, don't you think?" in- quired the intensely practical person cheerfully. " You see, Christmas is over 20 Sylvias Experiment two weeks off, and surely that is plenty of time. Besides, I have one or two people in mind, already, and I am sure everything will come out all right if you will only promise to be the Christmas mother." And Sylvia's brown eyes begged elo- quently. " There's nothing in all the world I would rather do; but " "Oh, goody! Then there can't be any 'buts!' Oh, I am so happy." And she looked, indeed, as if she wanted to get up and execute a pas seul in spite of encum- bering tea-cups and watchful eyes of chaperones. " Dear child, there are, alas, terrible, in- surmountable * buts ' in this world. My chief ' but ' is Mr. Angus Ross Mcln- tosh." "Mr. Angus Ross Mclntosh! The owner of the Mclntosh Mills?" incredu- The Christmas Mother 21 lously. Sylvia did not see how he could be a " but." " The same. You see, he boards with me, has done so for years, and I don't know what he would say if I were to close the house and run away Christmasing." " But he could go to a hotel." "He could; but would he?" " I don't see why not. What will the rest of them do ? Is he the only boarder ? " ' The rest are teachers or students who will be away, anyway, for the holidays, with families or friends." " Well, hasn't he any family or friends?" " He has no family and " she hesi- tated, with a faint twinkle in her eyes " no Christmas friends." " He ought to be ashamed," said Sylvia; then, resignedly, " I suppose we will have to ask him, then." 22 Sylvia's Experiment "Ask him?" puzzled Mrs. Abbott. ' To join the family. He might do for the grandfather Bess insisted upon." " My dear!" gasped her new friend. ' He would never consent in the world." " Then let him go to a hotel! " " He detests hotels, and you know, yourself, how lonely they are at holiday time." Sylvia softened, admitting the point. ' Then I surely shall ask him," she said firmly. " Perhaps he would really like to be part of a Christmas family." Mrs. Abbott had her doubts as to this; but held her peace. After all, why not let this very determined young person go her way? She suspected that it would be Greek meeting Greek so far as determi- nation went. " Anyway, he must not be allowed to spoil the Christmas family," went on The Christmas Mother 23 Sylvia. " The idea of your staying at home just to oblige a pernickety old man." "My dear! My dear! He has been very kind to me in many ways, and I shouldn't like to inconvenience him. He has grown to depend on me, and he won't like to change." " A change is always beneficial," an- nounced Sylvia, oracularly; but with a little twinkle in her eyes to which Mrs. Abbott's responded. " Dear Mrs. Abbott, if I can get around Mr. Angus Ross Mcln- tosh will you come and be my Christmas mother?" " With all my heart, little Christmas daughter." " Thank you a thousand times. Miss Morris is looking exclamation points and interrogation marks at me, which means it is time to leave. Good-by, you best 24 Sylvia's Experiment little Christmas mother. Let us hope, and hope, and hope! " " It is perfectly impossible," thought Mrs. Abbott, as she watched the velvet hat and nodding roses cross the room to the waiting chaperone. " Perfectly impossi- ble! I suppose I ought to have discour- aged her; but, somehow, I couldn't. I do believe, you foolish old lady, you are ac- tually hoping it may come true! I won- der what Mr. Mclntosh would say if she should ask him." The twinkle came back into her eyes. " As Sylvia says," she added to herself amusedly, " a change is sometimes beneficial." But, when she broached the suggestion to the aforementioned gentleman, the fol- lowing evening, after she had given him a particularly appetizing and favorite din- ner, he frowned heavily, notwithstanding the favorable preparation. The Christmas Mother 25 " Perfectly ridiculous ! " he fumed. " You can't run a boarding-house and go on a vacation every other week. It's not business! " Mrs. Abbott forebore to retort that, so far from taking a vacation every other week, her holidays were so far back in the past that they were scarcely to be remem- bered, save for an occasional cheerless leave of absence on account of the illness or death of relatives. Even these lugubri- ous holidays were long since ended, for no relative remained to make demand upon her heart, hand or purse. She said noth- ing, however. Long ago, she had seen the futility of argument with her chief boarder. " It is perfect nonsense," he raged on, " your going away for two weeks ! How should I get along, I'd like to know? Women are so flighty, nowadays. Never 26 Sylvias Experiment content if they are not gadding some- where! I was saying to Professor Lane only to-day By the way, he says he used to know you," he interrupted him- self. Mrs. Abbott smiled a queer little enig- matical smile which might mean a good deal or nothing. "Does he?" she inquired. "I fancied he had forgotten that, long ago." " Apparently not. Not that he is a ladies' man," he added quickly. " I was congratulating him only to-day on his good sense in remaining single. He never would have been where he is to-day at the top of his profession if he had gone and married. I told him so." Mrs. Abbott nipped off a browning leaf from the fern in the centre of the table. " I suppose he agreed with you," she observed gently. The Christmas Mother 27 " No," admitted Mr. Mclntosh, " he differed with me. Obstinate chap, Lane; always on the other side of the fence." Had Mrs. Abbott been less wise she might have suggested that what consti- tutes the other side of the fence is merely a matter of point of view; but, being wise, she said nothing, and the gentleman rose from the table with the pleasant feeling of having been very affable and genial in thus lingering after the meal to chat with his landlady. He prided himself on his ability to recognize the equality of her inner station with his own, however di- verse their external positions. As he went up-stairs to his comfortable rooms he re- flected with considerable relief that he had been able to switch the good lady off that fool notion that she would like to go away for a holiday. He would make up to her by a substantial check which really 28 Sylvias Experiment would be much better for her. Women never knew when they were well off. The phrase sounded familiar, somehow, and he recalled that he had told Bob Lane the same thing, to-day, apropos of that gentleman's very unexpected refusal to ac- cept congratulations on his single blessed- ness. " I tell you it is at Christmas time," Lane had told him soberly, " that a man realizes how alone he is ! " Alone! Well, why not? There were worse things than being alone. He, him- self, was more comfortable than any mar- ried man of his acquaintance. Mr. Mcln- tosh did not at all realize that his comfort was almost wholly due to the little lady down-stairs, to whom he had just practi- cally forbidden a vacation. Or was it that he did realize it in a measure just enough to make him veer off indignantly The Christmas Mother 29 from the idea of missing her ministrations for even a fortnight? He turned to his desk to see if the post- man had left any mail a rare occurrence, by the way, as the owner of the Mclntosh Mills usually received all communications at the office, being without family or friends, and openly proud of his immunity from such claims. There was to-night, however, a letter, a square, grey envelope addressed to him in a large, clear, youthful hand. He tore it open and his brows contracted in a puz- zled frown as he read. It certainly was a surprising communication. No wonder he frowned. It ran as follows: "My DEAR MR. MclNTOsn: " I hope you will forgive my writing to you, when I don't know you, and you don't know me. I am sure we would each 30 Sylvia's Experiment be glad to know the other, so it really doesn't matter, does it? Besides, you will see how very important my reason for writing you is, when you understand all about it. " For a long time I have been thinking of lonely people, like you and me, and wishing there were some way to get some of us together so there would be a few of us, at least, a little less lonely this Christ- mas. And so I have decided to collect a Christmas family. " Of course you will see that, when I thought about the Christmas mother, I just naturally couldn't help thinking of dear Mrs. Abbott. She is just born for a Christmas mother. I spoke to her about it, and she said she did not like to leave you alone. And so, Mr. Mclntosh, won't you make everything all right by coming, too? We should all be so glad to have The Christmas Mother 31 you, for I know you must hate hotels. I do, myself, dreadfully, and they are worse than usual at Christmas, so I specially would like you to come and be one of the Christmas family, for it would make me feel very sad to think of you at a hotel while the rest of us were so happy. And you will persuade Mrs. Abbott to come, won't you? I need her so very much, and I am sure we could make her happy, don't you think we could? I should have said, before, that my house is out in Greendale, and you could very easily motor in any day you simply had to be at the mills; but I hope you will plan to stay most of the time with us at Arden Hall. You must need a vacation, too. ' You will come, won't you, dear Mr. Mclntosh? Please write me right away that you will, so I can ask the rest of the Christmas family. I did not like to do 32 Sylvia's Experiment anything until I was sure of my Christ- mas mother, who will make all the differ- ence in the world. If there is anybody you think of you would like to ask, please do, for the more of us there are the better only it must be a lonely person, please. If you would like to talk it over with me I should be very glad to have you call at St. Anne's. ' Very sincerely yours, " SYLVIA ARDEN." " Well, upon my word! " snorted " dear Mr. Mclntosh" vehemently. "Of all cheeky propositions I ever ran up against in my life, this is the cheekiest'! " His shoulders began to heave a little and, almost before he knew it, his whole, big, Scotch frame was convulsed with mirth. The very cheekiness of the propo- sition struck his sense of humor. A very The Christmas Mother 33 extraordinary letter, indeed! Most ex- traordinary! He Angus Ross Mcln- tosh was being invited to a Christmas house-party like any young galoot of the college. How Bob would chuckle if he knew! Moreover, he was invited, not in the person of Angus Ross Mclntosh; but as a sort of appendage to his landlady, who was, it appeared, a sine qua non of a Christmas family! He was to persuade her to come! Persuade! The big shoul- ders began to heave again at the thought. And he was to join in the process of ma- king happy the lady who was " just born" for a Christmas mother! Christ- mas mother, indeed! Who ever heard of such an absurd phrase? Suddenly the old man's gaze fell on a picture on the wall over the desk, a pic- ture of a big, plain woman with kind, tired eyes. All unexpectedly he was trans- 34 Sylvia's Experiment ported into the past, and recalled how the big, plain woman with kind, tired eyes had made the most of a slender purse in those bygone Christmases, going without even necessities for herself, that the bairns might not find empty stockings. He had not understood then, when he was just one of the bairns himself. It was only later, when the kind, tired eyes had long been closed, that he had realized how much love and sacrifice had gone into those far- away Christmas days. For a moment his own eyes blurred a little, and the words " Christmas mother " took on new signifi- cance. He blew his nose violently, and went back to the letter, picking out new phrases this time. " Lonely people like you and me " "a Christmas family " " a lonely person, please." Well, it was lonely. Come to think of it, Lane had been right about that! The child was The Christmas Mother 35 right. He was lonely even he An- gus Ross Mclntosh. He found himself speculating as to what it would be like to be one of a Christmas family. Well, ap- parently he was having a chance offered to find out for himself. A grim smile crossed his face as he played with the idea a moment before rejecting it for the pre- posterous nonsense that it was. At any rate he had not the heart to spoil the child's pleasure by denying her her " Christmas mother." He supposed he could get along somehow. He could go to a hotel. Bah! The frown returned in in- creased proportions as he reflected how he abominated hotels. She hated them, too, it seemed, this strange young person. He was not surprised at that, however. She was evidently a girl of sense. Anybody with brains enough to think up a Christ- mas family, and audacity enough to ask 36 Sylvia's Experiment him to join it, would naturally loathe hotels! Once more he picked up the letter. Greendale! Arden Hall! Sylvia Arden! Why, this must be Jack Arden's daughter and, by the same token, Eleanor Arden's niece! Years ago, Angus Mclntosh had been a penniless young clerk in the office of Arden and Daly, and he had never for- gotten how Miss Eleanor had been wont to flit into the gloomy office now and then, bringing sunshine with her. Her bright young beauty was one of the things that time and money-getting had never quite eradicated from his consciousness. He found himself wondering if Sylvia were all radiance and charm and life as the other had been. Where was Eleanor, any- way? Why was she not making a home for this child somewhere? Probably she was dead. He sighed ponderously. He The Christmas Mother 37 had not thought that a bright young thing like Eleanor Arden could die. For a mo- ment he forgot that the young clerk was close on to five and sixty, and that the thirty years, which lay between, might have robbed even Eleanor Arden of youth and brightness, as well as life itself. He sighed again, and, the furrowed brow resting on his hand, he fell into a revery. CHAPTER III THE GROWTH OF THE CHRISTMAS FAMILY " TH\ ESS, oh, Bess, your faith must "^ have moved the mountain even Angus Ross Mclntosh. Oh, isn't it just too splendiferous? Lis- ten!" "Did he write to you?" gasped Bess, staring at the stiff angular writing on the paper Sylvia flapped before her gaze, as if it held some cryptic cipher. " He did, indeed a perfectly lovely letter, too. I am awfully ashamed for im- agining he was an old crank. He is a dear. But, Bess, do listen!" " ' MY DEAR Miss SYLVIA ARDEN: " ' Your communication at hand and contents noted. It gives me great pleas- Growth of the Christmas Family 39 ure to accept your very kind and thought- ful invitation to become a member of your Christmas family. I assure you I did not know I was so forlorn until I read your letter; but I am so convinced of it, now, that nothing would keep me away from your family party. I shall, therefore, do my best to demean myself as befits the patriarch of the flock. At least, I assume, that I am to occupy that post, and sin- cerely hope that no individual, with fewer sprigs of hair on his shining pate, will be considered eligible for membership. I feel duly honored at being invited, in company with my esteemed friend, Mrs. Abbott, and will endeavor to pivot around her and may I add yourself? as merrily and heartily as my rheumatism permits. I have an impression that I was once so for- tunate as to know your father and your aunt, Miss Eleanor Arden an impres- 40 Sylvia's Experiment sion which strengthens my natural desire to see the author of so unique an idea as that of a Christmas family, which is, I am convinced, an entirely new article on the market, and destined to prove an immedi- ate and permanent success. " ' Wishing it and its inventor all hap- piness and prosperity, " ' I am, " ' Your obedient servant, " ' ANGUS Ross MC!NTOSH.' " There, isn't that a delightful letter, Bess? And isn't he a heavenly mixture of old-time courtesy and dry humor and business up-to-dateness? And he knew Aunt Nell ! Just think, my own best Aunt Nell!" " And your father," put in Bess. " Oh, yes, that, too. But Aunt Nell was mine. I really knew her. She isn't just Growth of the Christmas Family 41 a shadow. She was real, and I loved her." "Did you get another letter?" " Yes, but I haven't opened it. I flew to show you Grandpa's. Oh, it is from Mrs. Abbott!" And with heads close together the two girls read the second letter. "Mr DEAREST CHRISTMAS DAUGHTER: "Are you really a fairy godmother? I begin to suspect it. Had any one told me that Mr. Mclntosh would not only con- sent to my coming to you, but would him- self accept the invitation, I should have told them that the former was wildly im- probable, and the latter a perfect impossi- bility; and yet, thanks to your witcheries, both are coming true! What did you do to him? Once in a while I must confess to an unworthy suspicion that it was his 42 Sylvia's Experiment dread of hotels, his horror of bad coffee, his detestation of abbreviated sheets that conquered; but that cannot be. No such weak surrender would have brought that twinkle he has been carrying about all day. Besides, he knew my weakness - that I would never have left him to the mercies of a soulless hotel, against his will. No, dear little Christmas fairy, it was you who won ! How, I do not profess to understand; and, yet, perhaps, I do understand, after all! It was the same secret which won me, too the brim- ming-over enthusiasm and generosity and Christmas spirit of a certain damsel who shall be nameless. Fairy godmother, Christmas daughter, or benignant spirit of her own forest of As You Like It, you best know who and what she is. I only know she is a wonder worker. I found myself singing a foolish little song to-day Growth of the Christmas Family 43 - a thing I haven't done in years and the old happy feeling of ' something nice is going to happen ' is strong within me. God bless you, little Christmas daughter, and return to you a hundredfold the hap- piness you plan for others. " Your Christmas mother, "MARY ABBOTT." : ' Isn't it beautiful," sighed Sylvia, while Bess wiped a tear off her nose. :< But, Bess, she mustn't think it is because I am good or generous or anything that I want my Christmas family. It is really just pure selfishness." Bess surveyed her friend with one of those adoring looks which forbade speech. Then she laughed a little. " Sylvia, you are funny," she said. " I don't believe you know it." " Find the missing antecedent. Oh, 44 Sylvia's Experiment Bess, did Miss Leonard say if I was to go with her to choose the place-cards for the Chronicle banquet ? " " Yes, I almost forgot. You are to go with her at three to see the woman who does those ducky ones way over on Jef- ferson Avenue. Keep your eye out. Per- haps you will see some more of ' the family. ' " " Perhaps," laughed her friend. " It is me for Geometry now if I am to go out again at three. Unprecedented dissipa- tion!" An hour later, Sylvia and Miss Leonard, the faculty member of the board of editors of the St. Anne Chronicle, were deposited by the elevator boy on the topmost floor of a tall apartment house in a distant sec- tion of the city. In response to Miss Leonard's ring the door of the apartment opened a little, cautiously, and on the Growth of the Christmas Family 45 threshold stood a wee, golden-haired fairy with great serious forget-me-not eyes, clad in the daintiest of embroidered blue linen. " Muvver's out," she announced, then, apparently remembering her manners, she dropped a funny little, bobbing curtsey and appended "How do?" to her first speech. "A regular Wonder Baby," thought Sylvia, obsessed by her Christmas family, " I wish I could have her! " she coveted. " Muvver went to fix a lady's head. It ached. She will be back quick, I fink," volunteered the Wonder Baby, on being pressed by Miss Leonard. " We may as well wait," said the latter to Sylvia. " Mrs. Emory cannot be far off. She would never leave such a baby alone." " Baby's in crib," announced the little 46 Sylvia's Experiment maid with dignity, evidently resenting such confusion of identities. " I am Mawianna," she explained. " Marianna ! What a lovely name ! " cried Sylvia. The forget-me-not eyes surveyed her gravely. Every moment made Sylvia long more and more to possess her for the Christmas family. She was adorable. " Come and sit in my lap, Marianna," she coaxed. " I'll tell you a beautiful story." " Faiwy stowy ? " bargained Goldilocks. " Of course a perfectly lovely fairy story," agreed Sylvia. She held out her hands enticingly and smiled. The smile ." made a magic " as usual, and Marianna climbed contentedly into her new friend's lap with a little snuggle of content. Miss Leonard consulted her watch. Growth of the Christmas Family 47 " Sylvia," she said, " I believe I will leave you here to wait for Mrs. Emory, while I go out and see to the catering my- self. I will come back here for you. You don't mind being left, do you?" Naturally Sylvia did not mind, being an independent young person who regarded chaperonage as a perfectly unnecessary, if harmless, decree of destiny. She foresaw a very pleasant interview with Marianna, for she doted on babies. So Miss Leonard departed, and the " perfectly lovely " story began to spin itself out of Sylvia's ready imagination. The Wonder Baby's eyes began to grow bigger and bluer, and more filled with wonder, with every word, as she sat and listened to the tale of Prince Thimbleberry and the magic rose-leaf. Just at that crucial point when Prince Thimbleberry found that the wicked knight, Sir Hornet, had stolen the magic 48 Sylvia's Experiment rose-leaf, the door opened and a tall lady in black, with hair as gold and eyes as blue as Marianna's own, entered. Marianna gave a little, cooing cry, and slid out of Sylvia's lap, running to throw her arms around the newcomer, who knelt to receive the ardent embrace. " Muvver gone so long!" sighed the child. " Bruvver 'sleep. Lady came and told buful stowy." The mother rose and smiled at Sylvia, with a little questioning and greeting smile. Whereupon Sylvia explained her presence and the two were soon deep in discussion over the dainty sample place- cards, while Marianna stood quietly by, too well-trained to demand the rest of the beautiful story, but evidently shyly hope- ful that it might yet be forthcoming. Presently came a tap-tap-tapping sound down the hall, and the door opened just Growth of the Christmas Family 49 a crack, and a little, thin, dark-eyed face peeped in and vanished, evidently put to flight by the presence of a stranger. " 'Lizbef! Come, 'Lizbef ! " cried Mari- anna, running to the door. But the shy little guest was already far down the hall- way, and Marianna turned back disap- pointedly. Evidently " 'Lizbef " was a favorite with the Wonder Baby. " Run after her, dear," said Mrs. Emory. And Marianna went dancing demurely off, for even her childlikeness had something of minuet charm and grace and quaint- ness. " Elizabeth is a little neighbor," ex- plained Mrs. Emory. " She is a dear child, and we are all so fond of her; but she is very shy and sensitive because of her lameness." " Oh, is she lame?" in quick sympathy from Sylvia. 50 Sylvia's Experiment " Yes, a serious spinal curvature which the doctors think could be cured by an operation, possibly, but her aunt, with whom she lives, has a good-sized, healthy and hungry brood of her own, and no money to spare for the operation, though she regrets the fact, as we all do, and wishes Elizabeth might be cured." " Oh," cried Sylvia, and caught her breath. She had so much money, herself so much more than she could possibly spend. If only she could use a portion of it to cure the little invalid! Her fertile brain was already seeking ways and means. Suddenly an inspiration came! The Christmas family! With character- istic absorption in whatever lay upper- most in her mind, place-cards were for- gotten and in a flash she was pouring out her idea in Mrs. Emory's ears, a some- what incoherent jumble of words, but Growth of the Christmas Family 51 with a clearness of sentimeat and firm- ness of purpose which were unmistak- able. ' You and Marianna would have to come, too, with Elizabeth," she concluded. " Oh, I wanted her and you, too, from the first moment I saw you. And I do need you all so in my Christmas family, and I have a doctor friend who will look at Eliz- abeth, and see what can be done, and in the meantime we will all be so happy to- gether. Couldn't you, wouldn't you, dear Mrs. Emory? That would make Big Sis- ter and Little Sister and Wonder Baby and " But, before Mrs. Emory had time to respond to this very sudden and unex- pected proposition, the curtains from the next room parted, and a very sleepy, rosy, and altogether adorable little cherub stood blinking at them an instant, and then 52 Sylvia's Experiment staggered crazily, but joyously, to Mrs. Emory. Arrived at this haven of refuge, he smiled at Sylvia and announced rather ob- viously, but with much triumph, " Baby up." Surely no baby, expressly manufactured for the purpose, would so exactly have fulfilled Sylvia's ideal of a Christmas fam- ily baby. It was settled! She must and would have the rosy cherub, and his for- get-me-not-eyed sister, and his beautiful mother, or else the Christmas family would remain forever unrealized. Having seen the three, she could not have endured any one else in their place. And this she tried to explain to Mrs. Emory all in a breath. In the midst of her persuasions Marianna returned with the little cripple, to whom Sylvia's heart warmed at once. She was far from being the ideal that Syl- Growth of the Christmas Family 53 via had seen, in her mind's eye, of the Lit- tle Sister of the family; but she was so shy and fragile, and big-eyed and pathetic, that Sylvia remade her ideal at once to suit the occasion, and desired the child, crutches, big eyes, close-cropped black hair and all, as ardently as she had ever desired the red-cheeked, flaxen pig-tailed sister of her dreams. " Lady will tell west of stowy for 'Liz- bef and Bruvver and Mawianna," an- nounced the daughter of the house plac- idly. And, before her mother could protest, Marianna was at her old post in Sylvia's lap, and Elizabeth was seated as close as possible, watching Sylvia's face with ab- sorbed interest, and hugging an old rag doll to her breast as she listened. Sylvia smiled reassurance over the golden head at Mrs. Emory, who seated herself before 54 Sylvias Experiment the fire with the cherub in her arms and gave herself up to a moment of rare indo- lence. "Bless the child's kind heart," she thought. " Did any one ever hear such an extraordinary proposition made so sim- ply? A Christmas family!" She smiled into the fire at the thought, and then the smile died out. Once, not so very long ago, her own little circle had been a family even a Christmas family ; but an icy January had succeeded the Christmas. The young husband and fa- ther had succumbed, after a brief illness, to pneumonia, leaving a never-to-be-filled gap in the circle. The very joy of the holi- day season was a keen pang to her, with its memories and its empty loneliness. The baby patted her cheek caressingly, with that loving intuitive sympathy that little children have, and her heart filled Growth of the Christmas Family 55 with thankfulness that she still had so much. She must never let her own lone- liness and grief mar the sunshine of the children. She looked across at Syl- via, absorbed in her tale, and her heart warmed and went out to the girl who was so much more alone than herself, so much less blessed, in spite of her riches. " And so," Sylvia was saying, " Prince Thimbleberry was very happy, and gave the magic rose-leaf to the Princess This- tledown to keep for all the rest of her life, and whatever they wished for with all their heart, they always had, if it was good and wise and brought happi- ness with it for others as well as them- selves." Mrs. Emory smiled over at Sylvia. " I suspect you are the Princess Thistle- down, yourself," she said. 56 Sylvia's Experiment Sylvia smiled back, catching a different note in her hostess' voice and responding happily. " Then I shall wish on the magic rose- leaf for the one thing I want more than anything else in the world. Please, Mrs. Emory, don't you think I am going to get my wish? " Her eyes sought her new friend's anx- iously over Marianna's head. Elizabeth, with a child's instinct for knowing when there is something in the air, looked up, too. Perhaps it was the pathos in the child's eyes which decided Mrs. Emory, perhaps it was the magic that Bess be- lieved her friend wielded. At any rate, she did decide all in a flash. " I rather think you can, if you really want it," she answered. "Oh, goody!" cried Sylvia. " Mari- anna, Elizabeth and Brother, you are all Growth of the Christmas Family 57 going to be part of the Christmas family! How do you like that? " " Is dere a twee and good fings to eat and stowies in a Cwistmas fam'ly?" in- quired Marianna seriously. "Of course, you darling! There is everything in the world that is nice, and I am so happy." So happy, indeed, was she that her heart fairly danced and her feet flew and her eyes shone like stars in frosty nights when, a little later, she ran up-stairs to her room and Bess, to tell the latter all about it, and how astonishingly fast the Christ- mas family was growing. I CHAPTER IV PHIL APPROVES recital was over and the pe- riod of fifteen minutes or so which really constituted the cream of the evening was happily at hand. With what other end, indeed, had the stu- dents of Monroe College endured the slings and arrows of outrageous boredom if not for the privilege of those all too brief moments of feminine society at St. Anne's that were permitted to follow the pro- gram before the ominous bell should sug- gest that the motion to adjourn was in order? The corridor to-night was accordingly filled with big, beaming lads in formal 68 Phil Approves 59 black and pretty girls in rainbow hues, standing about in groups or couples. The very air was a-tingle with excitement and gaiety and a certain carpe diem spirit which both acknowledged and defied the transitoriness of all human felicity. Under the bust of John Milton, which stood in a fairly secluded and proportion- ally popular corner of the hall, was Sylvia, radiant with excitement and happiness and enthusiasm, all sparkle and glow. As Bess said, Sylvia was the " most alive per- son " she knew. The lucky individual for whom she was scintillating just now was Philip Lorrimer, a tawny-haired young giant famous in football annals, and with a modest reputation for scholarship into the bargain. On the present occasion his frank boyish countenance revealed the fact that he was enjoying himself hugely. " So you really like my idea of a Christ- 60 Sylvia's Experiment mas family?" Sylvia was inquiring ear- nestly. "Like it! I should say I did! It's bully! But what under the sun made you think of it?" " You, chiefly," laughed Sylvia. " The picture you drew of your own family hearthstone was so moving." " Sounds like a nickelodeum," he chuck- led. "So I'm to blame?" " Naturally. I never would have known how essential to happiness was a Christ- mas family if you had not painted yours in such glowing colors. I have known ever since what it was that kept me sub- merged in melancholia the mere lack of a Christmas family." He laughed at the vision of Sylvia the radiant submerged in anything, especially in melancholia. " ' Hence, loathed melancholy,' ' he Phil Approves 61 quoted, striking an attitude and bowing to Mr. Milton in courteous acknowledg- ment of his indebtedness. " Hurrah for the Christmas family! You certainly are a corker, Sylvia! You don't know what a blue funk I've been in for days when- ever I think of Christmas vacation. I miss Dad and the Mother most excrucia- ting when I have time." ' You don't think it is going to be a bore?" persisted his companion. Had young Mr. Lorrimer been a more finished man of the world, instead of a hearty honest boy, he would have turned a neat compliment at this juncture, instead he observed sincerely, "Bore nothing! It will be fine skating on the Green River, if this weather holds. Honest Injun, we'll have the time of our lives." And Sylvia smiled, well pleased, never missing the compliment she might have had. 62 Sylvia's Experiment " The party is fearfully heterogeneous," she warned. " We'll make it homogeneous, with the accent on the first syllable," he retorted. " Don't worry, my dear young friend, the Christmas family is going to be a howling success, if I have to do the howling my- self. By the way, more or less apropos, I liked your song very much." He glanced down at the roses she wore and lifted one in his big fingers awkwardly. " I am sorry I couldn't send you any flow- ers. I wanted to but " He paused. How could he explain that the tutoring money, which was rightfully his own, and which he had planned to dedicate to flow- ers, had gone to pay a sick friend's doc- tor's bill? She shook her head at him reprovingly. " Don't be a goose, Phil. You know we settled that long ago for good and all I Phil Approves 63 don't want you to send me flowers. I don't need them, and it's not fair to you or to your father and mother to let you spend your money on me. These are from the girls." A swift flash of relief swept his trans- parent face. It was not Amidon who had sent the roses, as he had feared, then. He did not know for Sylvia kept her own counsel that since his last too ardent and unduly cheerful serenade under her window, Jack Amidon had fallen from Sylvia's good graces. " I say, Sylvia," he burst out a little awkwardly, " I have been fooling more or less about the Christmas family, but, seri- ously, I think it is no end good of you to ask me and I do appreciate it. If I loafed around the city for two weeks I wouldn't answer for consequences. You know who finds occupation for idle hands?" whim- 64 Sylvia's Experiment sically but with an undercurrent of ear- nestness. " So I am to act as substitute for his Satanic Majesty?" smiled Sylvia. "With pleasure. You need not anticipate any idle hands at Arden Hall. There won't be any, if we have to play drop the hand- kerchief to keep 'em busy." " I can imagine Mr. Mclntosh indul- ging," he grinned back. " Hang it, there's the bell. They get stingier every night." " Come on, Lorry ! The curfew tolls the knell of parting hands," called a jovial Sophomore, and the two members of the Christmas family bade each other a laugh- ing good night. But Phil's share in the Christmas fam- ily was not destined to end with mere membership. The next evening Sylvia was summoned to the telephone and found her brother pro tern at the other end of the Phil Approves 65 line, evidently a good deal perturbed. The chaperoning teacher who presided over the one-sided conversation was unable to make much of what she heard. "Hello! Oh, Phil! Yes, it's Sylvia. Am I what? Amiable? Sure! As the tab- ernacles. Go ahead. It can't be so bad as that. Please don't keep me in this har- rowing suspense. What? I don't under- stand. Professor Lane! You asked Pro- fessor Lane! Oh, no, you know it's not that, Phil. Don't be foolish. It is because it is Professor Lane you asked. I am scared blue of him. He knows such a ter- rible lot. Oh, I don't doubt he is very nice when you know him. Really! I should suppose his bugs would keep him com- pany. Nonsense, Phil! Of course we are glad to have him, if he's lonesome and would like to come. I'll write to him to- night. Not a bit of it. Quite the contrary, 66 Sylvias Experiment I'm delighted. You are an honor to the family. What! Phil! Oh, your mother's love. That's dear of her. I'm ever so much obliged to her. Yes, I have to cram, too. Good luck! Not at all. Shoe's on the other foot, I assure you. Good-by." And, with a twinkle in her eyes and a little sinking feeling in her heart, Sylvia went up-stairs to write a pretty little note to Professor Lane, whom big-hearted, im- pulsive Phil had inadvertently invited to the Christmas family party. Professor Lane of all people! The great beetle man, whom the boys irreverently and affection- ately dubbed " Bug-house " Lane ! Syl- via was dazed, but still game, and the note which seconded Phil's invitation was, as she told Bess, a " little masterpiece of fic- tion." CHAPTER V THE "BIG BROTHER" CHRISTMAS fell on Wednesday that year, and St. Anne's closed for the holidays the preceding Friday. On the Saturday before vacation Sylvia and Bess obtained permission of the ruling powers to go out, under Mrs. Abbott's chaperonage, to Greendale, which was only a few miles out of the city, to make arrangements for opening up Arden Hall for the invasion of the Christmas family. The Hall was a beautiful old-fashioned mansion, set upon a hill, with wide porches and spacious lawns. Time had softened and mellowed its red brick to a warm gracious rosiness of tint, and its 67 68 Sylvias Experiment years of disuse had given it an air of dig- nified, waiting hospitality instead of churl- ish aloofness, for it had never been per- mitted to lapse into disrepair, and the faithful caretakers, Uncle George Wash- ington and Aunt Mandy, who had served the Ardens all their lives, took unremit- ting pride in keeping the Hall always ready for the coming of the young mis- tress, who was the last of the Ardens. Sylvia was nearly beside herself with delight at being " at home " again, and with such pleasant prospects of a speedy and more permanent stay, and Aunt Mandy was scarcely less stirred by the excitement of the occasion, and lent her- self to the plans for the unusual house party with an enthusiasm hardly less great than Sylvia's own. Luckily for the peace and comfort of the Christmas family, Aunt Mandy "took to" Mrs. Abbott at The " Big Brother " 69 once, thanks to that lady's gentle tact and graciousness, a fact which Sylvia per- ceived with inward gratitude, for she had foreseen breakers ahead in this direction. Aunt Mandy in a beatific frame of mind, all the rest was easy, clear sailing with the Christmas mother's hand at the helm. " Don't you all fret yersel's a mite," Aunt Mandy assured them. " I'll fetch in those no 'count nieces o' mine ter tote and scrub, and this yere old house will shine like yer two bright eyes, Miss Sylvy, honey. An' George Washington he'll git out his old fiddle 'n' this old Hall'll see such high jinks as it hain't seen these many days, not since the Master and Miss Nell was home, rest their souls ! " Sylvia's eyes traveled a bit wistfully about the big, dark, wainscoted dining- room, where they chanced to be standing, as she tried to conjure up the past Aunt 70 Sylvias Experiment Mandy's words suggested and the pos- session of which she half envied the old servant. "Anybody at home?" called a cheery voice unexpectedly. Everybody turned quickly and beheld a tall young man with red hair and twin- kling blue eyes standing in the doorway. "Oh, here you are! I couldn't raise a soul at the door, so I came on a personally conducted tour of discovery. How is your honor, Miss Sylvia? Right glad to see you." "Perfectly fine, Doctor Tom. Ouch! Please don't scrunch all my fingers. You always forget you're such a giant. Mrs. Abbott, this is Dr. Thomas Daly, one of our neighbors. Bess, you remember Doc- tor Tom, who sent us the wonderful choc- olates that I had to hide in my hat box to keep from being confiscated." The " Big Brother " 71 " They were awfully good chocolates," said Bess smiling reminiscently, " quite worth the risk we ran having them in our possession." He chuckled. " So chocolates are contraband goods in a young ladies' seminary. How was a poor bachelor to know that? Why wasn't I warned and advised?" he complained. "At the price of losing the chocolates? Not much. You are dreadfully ignorant, Doctor Tom. Oh, did you know that I am coming home for the vacation? Isn't it too good to be true? " " I hope it is not so good as all that," he smiled. " I say, Aunt Mandy, you had better watch out. She'll raise the roof. She is a dreadfully up and coming young person." Aunt Mandy grinned until both rows of white teeth showed from ear to ear. Next 72 Sylvia's Experiment to Sylvia the doctor was prime favorite with the old negro. " Sh-sh," reproved Sylvia. " You mustn't give me away before Mrs. Abbott. She thinks I am everything that is nice. Don't you, Mrs. Abbott?" turning to her friend, who had been listening with quiet interest to the conversation. " I wouldn't dare say how nice I think you are. Besides, there isn't time," she smiled back. " Bless you, you dear satisfactory Christmas mother! Doctor Tom, I didn't give you her full title. She is my Christ- mas mother." "And what is a Christmas mother? Something nice, evidently," with a little bow to Mrs. Abbott, "but just what, please? " Whereupon he was enthusiastically in- itiated into the mysteries of that " per- The "Big Brother" 73 fectly new article upon the market " a Christmas family. ' Well, upon my word, Miss Sylvia, you are more of a genius even than I took you for," he exclaimed admiringly, when the explanation ended. "Got any vacancies? When do the lists close? " " They are open at least until New Year's. Why?" " Because I am simply pining for mem- bership, if I could get some one to pro- pose my name and somebody to constitute a majority vote." :< But you aren't lonely, Doctor Tom, and the family exists solely for the benefit of lonely people. I'm sorry." "Not lonely! Jerusalem cherries! I'm the all-firedest lonesome chap between the poles. I'd have you know, you unfeeling wretch, that my mother and Letitia are in Bermuda, and I am living in a cob- 74 Sylvias Experiment webby, unswept corner of my maternal roof and taking my meals at the Dana House. If you can conjure a more har- rowing picture of desolation and gloom, do so at your peril, but don't repeat it to me. I could not stand anything worse than my condition." " You poor, dear, abused little man," said Sylvia, " of course you shall come. Sha'n't he, Aunt Mandy?" " Reckon we'll have to let him," beamed that functionary delightedly. " I wouldn't let a yellow purp feed at the Dana House, if he was my purp," she added. " And what is a yellow purp in compar- ison to a red-haired man? " cried the doc- tor triumphantly. " I feel like shedding tears of joy on being thus redeemed from the destruction that wasteth at noon-day and every other meal-time. May I really come, Miss Sylvia?" The "Big Brother" 75 " Of course you may," heartily. " I am really ever so glad, for you shall be the Big Brother. I am sure you are big enough, in all conscience. Besides, I wanted you anyway. I wanted to consult you professionally." "Professionally! You look about as much in need of my professional services as a Jack rose." " Oh, not for myself, for another mem- ber of the family little Elizabeth Gray. She has something the matter with her back, and I want you to see what, and if it can be cured." " I see," soberly. " Very well, my lady, I am yours to command. Backs are my business." " Thank you. And you will really be here Friday night, Doctor Tom? Next Friday, when we all come? " " Sure as preaching, and some surer 76 Sylvia's Experiment than some preaching," he promised. " See here, Miss Bess, aren't you in on this?" noticing her sober face. " Oh, Bess has four brothers and two sisters and a father and mother and grand- father, not to mention several in-laws, and an indefinite number of nephews and nieces, so she can't really figure among the lonesome on the face of the globe," ex- plained Sylvia. " But she is coming for a few days after Christmas, aren't you, Betty?" " If they'll let me," sighed Bess. " Oh, dear, I almost wish I was an orphan. Oh, no, I don't," she corrected herself hastily, looking so horrified at her own words that every one laughed. " Now we have them all except the boy," announced Sylvia later, while the party were doing ample justice to Aunt Mandy's delicious luncheon. " I can't see my way The Cf Big Brother " 77 clear to him, but perhaps he will drop from the skies as conveniently as his brother did. If he is as satisfactory as Doctor Tom I shall not complain." * You know him well?" asked Mrs. Abbott, thinking it might be well to know a little about his family, though the young doctor's face spoke for itself a sufficient recommendation. " Yes. His father was the junior mem- ber of my grandfather's firm, Arden and Daly, you know. After grandfather's death the business was sold out and Mr. Daly went in to some other concern. He lost nearly all his money just before he died. Doctor Tom was just through col- lege and he earned his own way through Harvard Medical School, and has done a good deal toward supporting his mother and sister into the bargain, I suspect, until recently; since Letitia has been a full- 78 Sylvia's Experiment fledged trained nurse, she, at least, is off his hands. When I came to America he was one of the first people who came to see me, and he and his mother and Miss Letitia have been so good to me ever since. His mother is the frailest little thing, and looks as if a puff of wind would blow her away, so they are terribly careful of her. I don't believe Doctor Tom ever takes a vacation himself, but, of course, it is he who is sending her to Bermuda. Oh, he is fine and big every way. He has had to fight for everything he has had for years, after having everything done for him as a boy. He is a very good surgeon for so young a man, too; and somebody told me he had a big future ahead of him, if he didn't have too much to hamper him." " He is ever so nice and jolly," said Bess, " though he is dreadfully homely." " I like homely men best," said Sylvia The "Big Brother" 79 loyally. " Adonises are always so con- ceited. I wouldn't swap him for the hand- somest man living. He's handsome un- derneath. There, Christmas mother, you are smiling. What is it? " :< I liked your defence of the homely men. I have a leaning that way my- self." " We'll have a number of 'em in the family. I judge beauty isn't Grandpa Mc- Intosh's strong suit, and as for Professor Lane " "Professor Lane!" " You blessed Christmas mother, did I forget to tell you he was coming? Phil asked him in a moment of temporary aber- ration. Do you mind?" anxiously. " Of course not, dear. I was merely sur- prised. Professor Lane and I were in col- lege together." " Really? I suppose he must have been 80 Sylvia's Experiment young once, but, somehow, I can't imag- ine it." Mrs. Abbott smiled at the arrogance and limited vision of youth. " Oh, yes," she observed quietly, " he was quite young once." " I am relieved to hear it. I'll have to remember the fact so as not to be too scared of him. Phil says he is great. But he likes all sorts of queer freaks, so I never can tell much by that. I fancy they go into buggy ecstasies together. Oh, me! Christmas mother, do you suppose we will mix?" It must be confessed she had moments of horrible doubt as to the success of her undertaking, which loomed at times very large and risky. " I think so, dear. This house is enough to promote family feeling in the most con- firmed desert island dweller." Mrs. Ab- The "Big Brother" 81 bott's eyes strayed lovingly, as she spoke, about the great, quiet, gracious room with the keen appreciation of a born home- maker. " Here's hoping," sighed Sylvia, still a little dubious. " Sylvia's a better mixer even than the house," put in Bess loyally. And Mrs. Abbott's gaze, returning from the carved oak panelling to her young hostess' radiant, earnest face smiled hap- pily and understandingly. CHAPTER VI THE HOME-COMING I "VIE last tedious lesson had been recited, the last suitcase locked, the last good-by exchanged, and, at last at last Sylvia was going home. It seemed as if the local train never poked itself with such aggravating leisureliness over the three miles from the city to Greendale as on this particular Friday afternoon, when her spirit was more fit for wings or Mercury sandals than accom- modation trains. " Gre-enda-le ! " drawled the conductor at length, and, in a flash, Sylvia was on her feet poised for instantaneous flight as soon as the crowds in the narrow aisles 82 The Home-coming 83 permitted. She had scarcely succeeded in reaching the station platform before a hand seized her satchel and a gay voice was saying, "Hello, Sister!" She looked up to behold Doctor Tom's big form tow- ering above and his jolly blue eyes twin- kling down at her from the heights. " Oh, Doctor Tom ! Aren't you a jewel ? Did you really come to meet me? " "Sure and I did! What's the use of adopting a sister if you can't have the fun of meeting her? Trunk?" " Yes. Wait, here are the checks. Is the stage here? " " Yes. It can take the trunk. You are coming with Tim and me." " Oh, goody ! I haven't had a sleigh ride the whole blessed winter!" And it was with a little blissful sigh of deep content that she permitted herself to be tucked in under the fur robe in the little 84 Sylvia's Experiment cutter behind black Tim who looked round at them, pawing the snow with some im- patience as if to say, " Do hurry. I've waited just as long as I possibly can stand." " All right, Timmy, my boy ! " said the doctor, and, in a twinkling, they were off down the smooth snow-packed road at a pace which set the color flying to Sylvia's face and made her eyes shine brighter than ever. She was so happy she was fairly breathless. This was the real thing, the kind of home-coming she had dreamed of, as different as white from black from the usual taxi-cab journey through crowded city streets to a great, cheerless hotel. She looked up to find her companion smi- ling inquiringly down at her. " Like it? " he demanded. " Like it! I never was so happy in my life! Is the Christmas mother there?" The Home-coming 85 " Yes, and Mrs. Emory and the babies. I must say, Miss Sylvia, you have aston- ishingly good taste in families, especially in the female line. I couldn't have done it better myself." "Aren't the babies perfect cherubs? Have you seen Elizabeth?" " Just a peep. She ran away as fast as her crutches would take her, which was going some, I can tell you." " She is dreadfully shy, but she won't run away from you when she knows you. She will stay and adore, the way the rest do. Oh, Doctor Tom, I do so hope you can cure her! " " So do I. What are her people about that they have not had a try at it before this?" " Her father and mother are dead. She lives with an aunt who has a very large family of her own, and more uses for her 86 Sylvias Experiment pennies than she has pennies, I fancy. She is nice and kind and will be very grate- ful if we can help Elizabeth." He smiled a little at the " we," for he guessed whose generous purse-strings were to be opened to defray the cost of an operation if there was to be one. " She is a lucky youngster to have strayed into the forest of Arden," he com- mented. " We all are. It's a charmed region." " I hope so," s'ighed Sylvia, a little dubi- ously. " Sometimes I have cold chills down my spinal column when I realize what a dreadfully presumptuous and dan- gerous thing I am doing. Suppose you all hate each other!" "Down with the haters! We'll drop the first one who shows symptoms of ill temper into the river." The Home-coming 87 " It's frozen," objected Sylvia whimsi- cally. " We will make him skate off his grouch, then. I say him advisedly, for a more amiable group of ladies it has never been my good fortune to meet. If there is any trouble it will come from the troublesome sex." ' You and Phil are all right, but when I reflect on the Professor and Mr. Mcln- tosh I quake." " Hm-m ! I know the Professor. He is the most gentle and genial chap on record. You need not turn Quaker on his account. Mclntosh is an unknown quantity, though he is, in a way, one of the family by good rights." "Mr. Mclntosh!" " He used to keep books for Arden and Daly in that far gone era before you and I were in existence." 88 Sylvias Experiment " Did he? That must have been how he knew my father and Aunt Nell. Isn't it queer? " " Surprising how small the world is ! Don't remonstrate. I only did it to spare you. Somebody had to say it. It's as inevitable as measles." Sylvia laughed, then grew grave. They had turned up the hill road which led be- tween the pines to the Hall. Joyous as the occasion was, she was vaguely aware that it had another aspect as well. She was going home at last, after all these years, and the thought brought with it a happiness so poignant as to be not wholly distinct from pain. The early winter twi- light was already descending on the pine- shaded road, but as they took the last turn, which revealed the house on the hill, the pale sunshine fell on the red brick, lighting it to a soft, benignant radiance of hue. The Home-coming 89 Tim had scarcely been brought to a halt before the wide front porch before Sylvia was out of the sleigh and up the steps. The door flew open and the Christmas mother stood on the threshold with out- stretched arms, and straight into those waiting arms sped Sylvia like a bird to its nest. Doctor Tom drove round to the stable to put up his horse, whistling valiantly as he went. He needed the whistle as an offset to his feelings. Sylvia's home-com- ing had stirred his big, affectionate, sym- pathetic heart and set him to thinking. Some day he would like just such a tall, bright-eyed daughter to come dancing light-heartedly up his own steps to the embrace of a real Christmas mother. He shook his head a little soberly as he took off Tim's bridle. " Don't see how we are going to manage 90 Sylvia's Experiment it, old boy," he said at last as he stroked the glossy neck. " Don't see how we are going to manage it." A little later, having exercised his priv- ilege of washing his hands in the kitchen and chatting a bit with Aunt Mandy, he strolled up-stairs and paused before the library door, whence issued a pleasant mingled sound of talk and laughter and tinkling china. " I am a-hungry a-hungry And I would I had some tea," he observed plaintively, as he projected his red head through the curtains. " May I come in? " Sylvia sprang up with a laugh. " Do come in, Doctor Tom. I began to think I had dreamed you. I was so ex- cited I never stopped to thank you," peni- tently. "Dream nothing! Tim and I are real- The Home-coming 91 ities, I assure you. You needn't go to making any attenuated ghosts out of us. We shall object." ' Then, if you are really flesh, you will want some tea. Mrs. Emory, you have met Doctor Daly? Then will you please pour him some tea? Very strong with two lumps. Isn't that it, Doctor Tom?" " To a T," he grinned. " Bless us," he added, dropping into a big chair, " we haven't been so happy since we had the measles. Have we, young lady?" ad- dressing Marianna gravely. That young person looked a little dubious and non-committal, never hav- ing experienced the pleasures of mea- sles and being unacquainted with the term. Having served the doctor, and brought a fresh cup of tea to Mrs. Abbott, Sylvia went back to the low stool before the fire, 92 Sylvia's Experiment which she had vacated at Doctor Tom's entrance. She held out a hand enticingly to Marianna, who hesitated then sidled up crab-fashion and permitted herself to be captured bodily. Brother whose real name was Donald, by the way stood like a plump little statue braced against his mother's knee by the tea table, taking in the whole scene with wide-open blue eyes, while he occupied himself happily munching a cracker, which had been his rather limited share of the tea-party. Elizabeth sat curled up in the corner of the big couch like a shy, bright-eyed lit- tle mouse, watching and listening. When Doctor Tom finished his tea he rose and strolled casually over to the couch and sat down. " I tell very remarkably good stories," he remarked impersonally to the air. Marianna wriggled round in Sylvia's The Home-coming 93 lap to peep at this boastful person and see if he were going to make good his asser- tion then and there. " Miss Elizabeth Jane Gray, do you like stories?" he continued, still without facing his neighbor. Silence. Then Marianna came to the rescue. 'Lizbef does like stowies," she volun- teered. " Oho! I thought so. Let's see though, I can tell for sure in a minute," and, en- tirely without warning, he whirled around on the shy mouse. " Let me see your nose," he ordered. " I can always tell by that." Gravely he tilted her chin and scrutinized the thin little nose. Marianna slid out of Sylvia's lap and drew near, fas- cinated by the process. " She does ! " he cried triumphantly at last. " She does. I felt sure of it." 94 Sylvia's Experiment Marianna came several steps nearer. Even Brother caught the infection and teetered unsteadily a few inches from his mother. Elizabeth smiled shyly and hitched a shade nearer her companion. Sylvia and Mrs. Emory exchanged amused glances. "That settles it!" cried Sylvia. "The rest of us are out of the race forever, if he once begins to tell stories. He is worse than the Pied Piper. Mrs. Emory, you are dreadfully tired," she added abruptly, suddenly realizing the dark shadows be- neath the blue eyes. "A little," admitted her friend. "I have been working rather late nights to fill the Christmas orders, so that I could have a real holiday with the Christmas family." Sylvia rose and held out her hand with a smile, The Home-coming 95 " Come and I'll show you a secret," she said. Instinctively Mrs. Emory turned to look for the children, but all three were on the couch with Doctor Tom, even the baby having been lured thereto by a de- lightfully dangling watch-fob. She turned back to Sylvia with a smile, and followed her into the curtained alcove just beyond the library. It was a tiny room, con- taining only a broad, comfortable couch, a cushioned window-seat, a little stand with a few magazines, and a low rocker. " This is the secret," said Sylvia. " You are to take a teeny weeny rest until din- ner-time." And Mrs. Emory submitted to being arranged on the couch with a soft afghan over her. It was a blissful change to be the cared for instead of always the 96 Sylvia's Experiment caring, and she smiled up at Sylvia happily. " I feel like a lotus eater," she mur- mured. " What a blessing you are, Syl- via!" " The house is full of them Christmas blessings," Sylvia told her. "Oh, Mrs. Emory " she paused, and a pretty color swept her face. " I can't keep calling you that. It is too stiff and far off," she pro- tested. " My name is Felicia. Why not call me that?" "Felicia! Oh, may I? It's so pretty! You are sure you do not mind? " " I am sure I shall love it from you. It is a long time since I have heard it from any one." When Sylvia went back to the library she found the children absorbed in Doc- tor Tom's story, and Mrs. Abbott sitting The Home-coming 97 quietly knitting before the fire. She went over and put her arms around her and whispered: "Christmas mother! Christ- mas mother! I am so happy." CHAPTER VII THE ABSENT MEMBER 1 evening train brought Phil Lorrimer and Professor Lane to the Hall, but no " Grandpa Mcln- tosh." While the rest of the family were pleasantly dovetailing themselves into the novel situation and finding mutual pleas- ure in the process, the oldest member sat in his comfortable room in the citv read- tf ing his newspaper before the gas log. But neither the tariff nor the potential Chinese republic, nor even the inconsistencies of presidential candidates had power to in- terest him to-night. There was no pleas- ure even in finding fault with the times! The times could take care of themselves. The Absent Member 99 It was himself that caused him concern to-night. The rash impulse which had made him promise to join the Christmas family had speedily given place to more prudent afterthought. What would he do in such an unfamiliar proceeding? The idea was absurd. He wondered at himself that he should ever have entertained it for a moment. It was sufficiently annoying, indeed, to have Mrs. Abbott gone, but, having a superstitious veneration for the spoken word, he had not seen fit to retract his permission for her absence. But the empty house gave him an unpleasant feel- ing, almost as if some one were dead. He had dined at the club, an indulgence he occasionally permitted himself, but there had been little that was heart-warm- ing in the process to-night, though the dinner was excellent. His old cronies were mostly absent. Toward Christmas 100 Sylvia's Experiment the club as a modern substitute for a home does not allure the middle-aged and old- fashioned. He had come away more or less dissatisfied, and had let himself into the house with a latch-key, and stumbled up-stairs in the dark, for the careless maid had gone out, and forgot to light the hall gas. His own rooms, too, had been dark, chill, and cheerless. The spirit of the house was fled, taking with it his boasted comfort. In between the pages of the newspaper the thought of the Christmas family out in Greendale intervened. He found himself wondering what they were doing. In par- ticular he reflected on Professor Lane. He had missed Lane at the club. It was a queer outlandish thing to do to go and spend a vacation with a houseful of strangers. Well, scientists usually were a little peculiar. He could not forget the The Absent Member 101 unusual vehemence in the Professor's tone that day when he had burst out, " I tell you, it is at Christmas time that a man realizes how lonely he is." Lonely! A man had no business to be lonely. That was for sentimental women and children. " Miau miau!" came a faint minor wail from somewhere down-stairs. "Confound that cat!" muttered Mr. Mclntosh. Nevertheless he experienced a vague satisfaction of spirit at this proof that he was not the only thing alive in the house. He turned back to his paper. " Miau miau miau ! " came the wail again, this time nearer and more insistent. Mr. Mclntosh rose and went to the door, throwing it wide open. There was a gen- tle pad, padding sound of approaching fe- line feet, and a ridiculously soft and fluffy yellow kitten appeared on the top step of the stairway surveying Mr. Mclntosh in- 102 Sylvia's Experiment quiringly. There was something strangely pathetic about that small kitten, bereft of its mistress, and, possibly, supperless, that struck a responsive chord somewhere in the heart of Mr. Mclntosh. Cat and man stared at each other a moment. " Well," remarked the latter, as gently as his gruff voice permitted. " Well, are you coming? " Pussy caught the note of acquiescence, if not ardent hospitality, in his voice, and came up to him, rubbing her soft yellow fluff against him and beginning to purr an absurdly loud performance as emana- ting from so tiny a creature. " Come in," he invited politely, and she accepted with deliberate graciousness. But there was unrest in her mood, and she prowled about the room so uneasily that her host caught the infection and became uneasy, too. The Absent Member 103 " I believe you are hungry," he an- nounced at last. Pussy came and rubbed ingratiatingly against the chair legs and looked wistful. " On my soul, I believe you are!" he added. "It's an outrage!" He hesitated a moment, but the pathos in Pussy's eyes decided him. The creature was hungry, and if there was no one else in the house to feed her, why he must. He shuffled, slipper-footed, to the door, which he opened just wide enough to permit his exit and then closed it hastily, lest his guest escape. On he went down-stairs, switch- ing on lights as he went, through the hall, into the dining-room, on into the kitchen, and, finally, into the pantry, the goal of his desires; falling over furniture as he passed, muttering inarticulate ejaculations that in a less devout and God-fearing Scotchman would have come out full- fledged oaths. In the pantry he seized a 104 Sylvia's Experiment pitcher of cream, meant, by the way, for his own breakfast, if he chose to take it at home. Fumblingly, too, he acquired a bowl and made off with his prizes. For- tunately the trail of electric light he had left behind him saved his shins and his temper, as well as the cream, on the return trip, and he was able at last to reach his own room with no serious fatalities. Having arrived, he looked about in some anxiety for the kitten who just at first appeared invisible. There she was, however, perched primly on the desk. As she saw the dishes she leaped down with a little friendly " per-miau." With awkward care Mr. Mclntosh deposited the bowl on the tiles before the fire and poured the cream into it. Pussy needed no verbal invitation to partake of the feast. She fell to with gusto and did not cease until the bowl was as clean as her little pink tongue The Absent Member 105 could make it, her host watching the whole process with immense satisfaction the while. Supper over, Pussy sat down to make an elaborate toilet before the pleas- ant warmth of the fire. Her feline unrest was completely exorcised and she fairly radiated content and well-being, as she washed and smoothed her long fur into an immaculate state of perfection. Mr. Mclntosh felt very friendly toward that cat. She was distinctly superior to the general run of cats. Any one could see that with half an eye. Apparently the ap- proval was mutual, for as soon as the toilet was finished Pussy sprang up in her bene- factor's lap and after a series of meaning- less but beatific gyrations and revolutions she curled herself up with a little drowsy, contented, vibrating buzz of purrs and went to sleep. Perhaps nobody missed Mr. Mclntosh 106 Sylvia's Experiment so very much at the other house. Sylvia wondered now and then out loud why he had not come, and Mrs. Abbott had to stifle some inner qualms occasionally as to his state of well-being and comfort, and Professor Lane expressed the hope that the morrow would bring him, as he knew no one save himself more in need of the benignant influence of a Christmas family. " I wonder why he didn't come," puz- zled Sylvia again, conscience troubled at having forced anybody into the hateful prison house of hotel existence. "Cold feet, probably," Phil had haz- arded, and then the talk drifted to other things, and nobody suspected that the ab- sent member was sitting before a solitary hearth, half dozing, half dreaming, with a cream-fed, yellow kitten in his lap. CHAPTER VIII A HAPPY DAY IT was the day before Christmas and the house on the hill was filled from cellar to garret with Christmas se- crets and Christmas joy. So far Sylvia's plan had worked marvelously, more suc- cessfully than she had dared to hope. The days had gone all too fast. She would have liked to prolong each indefinitely, each was so infinitely desirable. But, alas, the days we would fain put weights on to keep them from flying away too fast are the very ones which escape us with breath- less rapidity leaving only a happy memory in their place. Still there is always to- morrow, which will be perhaps nay, 107 108 Sylvias Experiment surely better even than yesterday or to- day, and with this philosophy Sylvia was content. The days had been cram full of fun and business and excitement as well as much quiet pleasure. There had been impromptu sleigh rides, shopping excursions into the city, a fascinating trip into the winter woods for Christmas greens, the inex- haustible delight of assisting Aunt Mandy in the preparation of the Christmas pud- ding and other culinary mysteries. There had been story-telling hours at twilight with the children, and romps outdoors and within. Best of all, perhaps, were the long pleasant evenings spent in cards or music or listening to some one read aloud while the rest sewed or loafed according to in- clination or sex. Sometimes there was just talk, when the conversation drifted idly and happily from one topic to an- A Happy Day 109 other, and they all grew very intimate and friendly and near together, as if they had always been a Christmas family. There were two members missing from the circle, the boy, who had never entered the family, and the oldest member, who had not cared to claim his privileges of membership. Sylvia had received a stiff little note from the absent member stating that press of business prevented his ac- cepting her invitation for the present a communication which first made its recip- ient angry, then compassionate, and, fi- nally, indifferent. She was far too busy and happy to spend many precious min- utes bewailing the absence of the volun- tary exile. The other members of the family were incredibly satisfactory. So far from ob- jecting to Professor Lane's society, Sylvia thanked the fates and Phil Lorrimer for 110 Sylvia s Experiment having bequeathed him to them. He was an addition that the family could ill have spared. And now it was the day before Christ- mas, and the family were enjoying a dila- tory breakfast. ; ' I have to go to the city/' announced Doctor Tom. " Any errands, Madame Mother?" Mrs. Abbott looked up quickly, evi- dently hesitating to speak. " Well," he encouraged, " don't spare me. I am yours to command. Is it cran- berries or candelabra or crochet needles? " he alliterated. " It is cats," she smiled back, unexpect- edly. " Cats ! Do we have to go to the city for them? I had a notion they were a local product." " Not strictly cats, but a kitten. I can- A Happy Day 111 not rest nights for thinking of poor Fluff. Jane was to run in every day to see to Mr. Mclntosh's rooms and feed Fluff, but she is so careless I am very much afraid poor Fluff will fare hard. She is on my mind dreadfully." " A cat on the mind is worth two in the alley," he parodied gaily. " Never fear, though, Mrs. Christmas Mother, we'll get her off before any complications set in. Shall I acquire her? " " Could you? Are you going to be too busy?" " Never too busy to deliver a damsel in distress," gallantly. " It will afford me much pleasure to rescue Miss Puss. Any- body coming to town with me? " " I am afraid not to-day," said Sylvia. " We are all too busy. Phil and I have an engagement first thing this morning to make a snow man. 'Lizbeth and Mari- 112 Sylvias Experiment anna never saw one. Then we have to make candy and string popcorn for the tree and tend to other things which cir- cumstances forbid my mentioning in de- tail." " Evidently I am doomed to a solitary journey. You needn't be so cocky about your old secrets. I know some that would make your hair stand perpendicular." Gradually they separated. Doctor Tom to the city, the Professor to a learned book, Mrs. Abbott to the kitchen for a secret conclave with Aunt Mandy, and Mrs. Emory to some painting she was doing for Sylvia, while the youngsters and the babies repaired to the yard, furred and cloaked and capped. It was the beauty of the household that everybody followed his own desire for the moment and no ques- tions asked. There was no attempt to en- tertain anybody. And perhaps this was A Happy Day 113 what made it so truly a Christmas family, to the manor born. Sylvia stood off to survey their statuary with critical eyes. " Phil," she cried suddenly. " I do be- lieve he looks like Santa Claus!" " Right you are. I believe he does. Clever of the old chap, isn't it? " Then simultaneously an idea dawned in the faces of both. "Let's make it a Santa!" cried Sylvia. " Children, would you like that? " " Wiv wanedeer?" questioned Mari- anna, always strong on local color. Phil whistled. " Some heap big order," he observed. " What do you say, Syl? I'm game, if you are." " Let's try," said Sylvia enthusiastically. " It would be great to have Santa and his sleigh and reindeer. Come on-" 114 Sylvias Experiment They set to work with a will, the chil- dren bringing great piles of loose snow while the others worked at the modeling. Phil's inventive genius, evolved, with the aid of a box, a fairly recognizable sleigh, into which they transferred the head and upper part of the body of the original gen- tleman, dismembering him ruthlessly. Perhaps he resented the process, for he insisted on losing, in the transformation, whatever resemblance he ever possessed to the jolly old saint. " Surly beggar! " commented Phil. " I say, look pleasant, please. Moisten the upper lip a trifle." But the offended gen- tleman refused to see the joke and re- mained as icily morose of aspect as be- fore, in spite of all efforts to change his expression for one more befitting the oc- casion and the part. " Oh, dear," sighed Sylvia. " He gets A Happy Day 115 worse and worse. I am afraid sculpturing is not our forte. I wish I have it. Ma- rianna, will you run and ask mother to come out? " And presently Mrs. Emory came out, looking very pretty with her fair hair peeping out from the blue hood of Mari- anna's which she had slipped on. It was onlv a bit added here and a bit taken off mf there, a curve or an angle changed by her skilful fingers, a gentle patting and poking and smoothing, but the effect was marvel- ous. The children fairly screamed with delighted recognition of their favorite, and hopped up and down in the snow, crying that it was just exactly like the Santy in the red Christmas book. Mrs. Emory set the equally enthusiastic Sylvia and Phil to work on the reindeer, and they modeled the rough outlines of two creatures which Phil declared were a cross between a zebra 116 Sylvia's Experiment and a Jack rabbit, and which Sylvia in- sisted were the image of some mythical monster she had seen in some book. They caught the Professor peeping out the win- dow at them and beckoned to him so wildly that he joined the group and was able to give them some really valuable suggestions as to the anatomical structure of reindeer, while the little folk pirouetted about in high glee. Even Elizabeth's tongue was loosened by the excitement of the occasion, and she chattered like a little monkey. When it came to the really artis- tic part of the performance, the fine chis- eling, the amateurs retired, leaving the finishing touches to Mrs. Emory's experi- enced hands. And then it was that the gay span began really to look like their prototypes, to the great delight and appro- bation of the company. Just as Marianna raised a shout of mirth A Happy Day 117 by declaring seriously that these were not reindeer at all but snowdeer, Doctor Tom drove into the yard and joined the admir- ing group. "Who is the artist?" he demanded. " I insist on knowing which limb of the family tree is sprouting this particular branch of art? " " Felicia ! " said Sylvia. " Sylvia ! " said Mrs. Emory simultane- ously. ''' Felicia, don't tarradiddle. It isn't seemly for your big sistership. We just made lumps of snow. You created. It is a marvel, isn't it, Doctor Tom?" :< It sure is. Surely you must have tried your hand at the real thing?" he asked Mrs. Emory. " Yes, I have done more or less of it," she acknowledged. " I studied several years in Paris before I was married." 118 Sylvias Experiment " I thought so." He remembered the bits Sylvia had told him about her past life. She had been brought up by a wealthy and somewhat eccentric aunt in luxury and with every advantage for cul- ture and training. At twenty-three she had married against the will of her aunt, who promptly cut her out of her will and died before she could change her mind. For four years of ideally happy married life she had sacrificed wealth, career and, indeed, all of her old life. So she had stud- ied in Paris, had perhaps intended seri- ously to make sculpture her life work ! A woman with a gift like that, who could model so wonderfully even in snow, was condemned to the everlasting painting of place cards and such trash ! It was a queer world. Doctor Tom stood contemplating the snow figure with unusual gravity of expression. He had a problem of his own A Happy Day 119 to settle these days, and Mrs. Emory was unconsciously throwing some new lights upon it. "Mi-au!" wailed a rather stifled but insistent feline voice, and he turned back to the sleigh with a laugh. "Heavens! I forgot the cat! Rescue her, Sylvia! Here take the basket. I'll take Tim around to the stable. Phil, may I borrow your services? I don't want these curious females to feel my packages." " My, what a duck of a cat ! " exclaimed Sylvia somewhat paradoxically, as she opened the basket in the house and per- mitted Miss Fluff to make a dignified exit therefrom. " She doesn't look thin at all," cried Mrs. Abbott, who had hurried in to judge of the welfare of her pet. " Jane must have been more faithful than I gave her credit for." 120 Sylvia's Experiment Naturally she had no means of knowing that the kitten's sleek and self-satisfied appearance was due not to the faithful- ness of Jane so much as to the unremitting attentions and ministrations of Mr. Angus R. Mclntosh. "Anyway," added Mrs. Abbott, "it is a real relief to have her here under my eye, thanks to Doctor Tom's kindness." The kitten surveyed her new environ- ment a bit superciliously, but apparently found it on the whole satisfactory, for she proceeded to select the softest chair in the room and settled herself therein with a little mild vocal demonstration of content. The journey had been exhausting and damage must be at once repaired by a beauty sleep. "Hello, everybody!" called Phil. " Aunt Mandy sent me to tell you that dinner would be on the table in three min- A Happy Day 121 utes, and that you all had better hurry before it got cold." Whereupon every one scattered to make a hasty toilet, for Aunt Mandy's dictates were not to be ignored. CHAPTER IX A LONESOME MAN MR. McINTOSH came home to prepare to go out to dinner, and the maid met him in the hall. " Please, sir, the kitten's gone," she an- nounced. " Gone! You don't mean to say you let her out, after all I've said?" testily, to cover the dismay in his heart. " Oh, no, sir. I watched her real faith- ful. A man took her." " A man ! " he snorted. " What sort of a man? " " The tallest man I ever saw, and with the all-firedest red hair. Mrs. Abbott sent him." 122 A Lonesome Man 123 The heart of Mr. Mclntosh sank as his anger abated. Of course there was no objection to Mrs. Abbott's sending for her own cat. She couldn't know how lonely Pshaw! The empty house was getting on his nerves. He must get away. The house would be unendurable without the cat. He went on up-stairs and switched on the lights and lit the fire. But the illumination seemed garish not cosy. He was conscious of an absurdly strong desire to see the cat stretched out comfortably before the fire. But there was no cat. He was alone. He flung himself into a chair with his head thrown wearily back, forget- ting, for the moment, that he had had no dinner. Opposite hung the portrait of his mother, the plain face with the kind, tired eyes. To-night they seemed to him to take on a pitiful yearning look, as if she were sorry for him. Well, why not? He 124 Sylvia s Experiment was a bit sorry for himself. He might as well face it. He was old and tired and lonely. And to-morrow was Christmas. He remembered that once his mother had said to him, " Angus, my boy, a man makes or mars his own life. No one can do either for him." Was it possible he wondered, that he had been marring his, all these years that he thought he had been making it and had been so proud of his success? Was it because he had marred instead of making that he was alone to- night, this Christmas eve? He rose heav- ily, shaking himself as a big Newfound- land shakes himself on coming out of the water, as if to rid himself of the weight of such heavy and unprofitable thoughts. He went about his preparations to move over to a neighboring hotel. The empty house had become a nightmare to which even a hotel was preferable. At last he A Lonesome Man 125 turned off the fire and lights, and, hand- bag in hand, descended the stairs. Jane, too, was just going out, and he called to her. " I shall not return until Mrs. Abbott does," he informed her abruptly. :( But she ain't a-coming for more'n a week," protested the girl. " Neither am I," curtly. " Oh, very well, sir. Good night. I hope you will have a merry Christmas." He muttered an incoherent response and slipped a bill into her hands and de- parted, leaving her gasping, for she had more than once heard his views on the folly of tipping expounded. Dinner somewhat mitigated the gloom of Mr. Mclntosh's outlook. No situation is ever as desperate with a full stomach as with an empty one. The city was very lively to-night with flying carriages and 126 Sylvia's Experiment automobiles and gay crowds of pedestri- ans in the streets. Blithe good humor and comradeship were in the air. The evening was young as yet, and Mr. Mclntosh racked his brain for the least obnoxious way of killing the hours until bedtime. Another man would have chosen the thea- tre as a refuge from boredom, but he char- acteristically chose work. There were some papers at the office that he had not been able to find time for during the day. They would easily keep, but, on the other hand, they would easily fill in an eve- ning. He hailed a passing street car, for, in spite of the fact that his income had for many years been rolling up ciphers to the left of the decimal point, the lifelong habit of economy was still so strong that he never thought of indulging in any more luxurious means of transportation. He A Lonesome Man 127 had to transfer to another car-line after a ten-minute ride, to reach the office, but instead of waiting for the belated car he walked on, finding a certain refreshment in the crisp, cold air. This was a very different part of the city from that which he had left. There were gay crowds here too, but instead of being in taxi-cabs and broughams they went a-foot, went to music-halls and moving- picture shows instead of to opera and ball- room. The cheapness of the manner and the finery of the women, the shrillness of their voices and the boldness of their faces jarred upon Mr. Mclntosh unspeakably. He supposed they were no worse than their sisters up-town, but they looked worse. How it all would have shocked and saddened his mother! His course was suddenly impeded by a good-natured, boisterous crowd elbowing 128 Sylvias Experiment its way into a cheap amusement hall. This was the way the people spent their Christmas eve. The thought disgusted, nauseated him. He made an impatient movement to get past, but in vain. The crowd closed in, blocking his steps. "Soak 'em, mister! Use your elbows," advised a boyish voice at his side, a voice which sounded strangely familiar. He turned quickly and saw that his neighbor in the swaying, jostling crowd was Gus, his office boy. Their eyes met, the man's stern with the spirit of his godly cove- nanting ancestors, the boy's, surprised, amused. " Gee, boss ! Never s'posed I'd spot you here," he announced cheerfully, and with boyish indifference to distinctions after office hours. " Young man, do you realize that place in there is a den of iniquity? " Mr. Mcln- A Lonesome Man 129 tosh ignored the pleasantry. There was righteous indignation in his tones. The boy shrugged his shoulders with a quick expressive gesture, which betrayed his foreign descent in spite of his Ameri- can vocabulary. " It's not so bad," he volunteered, " 'ceptin' the air. That's rotten." " This is Christmas eve. And you were going to spend it in a place like that?" pursued his mentor, severely. To his satisfaction the lad crimsoned and looked manifestly abashed. Evi- dently he was not wholly given over to the Mammon of unrighteousness if he had still the grace to be ashamed. "Wa'n't goin'," muttered the boy half sullenly. " Got caught in the crowd, same as you." Mr. Mclntosh surveyed him sharply from under knitted brows to see if this 130 Sylvia's Experiment was truth or fiction. If he had no such degenerate intent, why the embarrass- ment? "Where were you going?" he de- manded. " Office," laconically. " Forgot to do somethin'." "What?" " Lock the windows," desperately. " The janitor sees to that. Don't lie to me." He pulled the lad back out of the crowd, not roughly but firmly. " Now, then, tell me the truth. Why were you going to the office, if you really were go- ing?" A sudden swift motion on the part of his companion revealed what Mr. Mclntosh had not hitherto been aware of, namely that he carried under his arm a violin case. " I was goin' to play this," the lad burst out, half cowed, half defiant. A Lonesome Man 131 For once Mr. Mclntosh was discon- certed and struck dumb with astonish- ment. " I lied before," went on his companion. " I ain't lyin' now. It's the truth. I've been there lots of evenings to play. I didn't ever ask, for fear you wouldn't like it, and then there wouldn't be any place. I had to play. I've got ter," he reiterated fiercely. The man rallied a little. "Why don't you play at home?" he asked. "Home! Hain't got no home. A lot of us fellers live together like rats 'n a hole. 'Tain't a home. If I was to play there, they'd kill me. They'd stand for a little rag time maybe, the kind they have in there," with a contemptuous nod at the music-hall before whose portal they stood. " But if I was ter play the kind I've got 132 Sylvia's Experiment ter play the kind that's in me do yer s'pose they'd put up with it? Not on your life!" Mr. Mclntosh was once more reduced to silence. His hitherto well-ordered and circumspect order of universe spun like a top. He had never fathomed the mys- teries of the artistic temperament, perhaps had never heard of it, but to his credit be it said he understood the thing when it presented itself vitally before him. He re- spected the other human being's right and necessity for self-expression to play the music that was in him. Perhaps on the eve of the anniversary of Christ's birth our visions are clarified, our intuitions deeper and sweeter than on ordinary days. At any rate, Angus Mclntosh showed un- precedented grace of comprehension at this moment. His office boy, like the kit- ten, had become a personage. He must A Lonesome Man 133 be given his chance, somehow. Mr. Mc- Intosh saw that as clearly as he had seen the kitten's need of food, and here, too, he recognized the responsibility devolving upon himself and faced it like a dutiful Scotchman. He must take the boy away from the street. He must take him home. Home! Suddenly he realized that he was poor. He had no home to take anybody to, even himself. He, too, was an outcast. In his dismay a new thought came like an angel of deliverance. The Christmas family! One door was open to him to-night, and he had been bidden bring another with him if he chose. Why not? He scrutinized his companion so keenly under the glaring electric light that the boy wriggled and would fain have fled had it not been for the detaining hand which had not left his shoulder. He did not 134 Sylvia's Experiment know that so far from meditating dire vengeance upon him his employer was merely questioning his fitness for the Christmas family and summing him up as follows, " Clean, apparently respecta- ble, honest." "Gus," said Mr. Mclntosh at last, "I am going into the country to spend Christ- mas. Will you come along? " This time it was the boy's universe that reeled. " I say, are you dippy or just jossin'? ' : he queried, though he knew his employer was not given to either insanity or jest. " Certainly not. I am' perfectly serious. I have been invited to spend Christmas out in Greendale on the strength of my being a lonely homeless individual. I was instructed to invite somebody else in a similar plight. It occurs to me that you about fill the bill. Will you come? " A Lonesome Man 135 "When?" " To-night." "To-night! Gee!" " Certainly. Will it take you long to get ready? " The boy grinned. " Not so that you'd notice it. Never takes me long to pack my dress suit. My quarters are just around the corner. But sure you're jokin'. They wouldn't like me to come," he puzzled, accentuating the second pronoun. " They told me to bring a friend." " But I ain't your friend," expostulated the boy. "Aren't you? I hoped you would be. I was hoping you would help me out." There was a genial warmth about the gen- tleman and a twinkle in his eyes which was new to his office boy. Gus capitulated promptly to it. 136 Sylvia's Experiment " Sure thing, boss," he agreed heartily. " Shake on it. You wait here. I'll be back in a jiffy. Here, you hold this." Thrusting the instrument into his newly sworn-in friend's hands Gus darted off under the electric lights on the corner, leaving Mr. Mclntosh with strange sen- sations as well as a violin. This was a queer business he had let himself in for a distinctly sentimental business, too. But somehow that loathed epithet had no terrors at the moment. Why not indulge in a little sentimentality by way of vaca- tion relaxation and change? Surely he could afford that after years of stern ad- herence to the prosaic and common-sense basis of action. He felt strangely exhil- arated and happy like a boy. The age and weariness and gloom of the early part of the evening dropped off of him like a husk. Oddly enough he had no scruples as to A Lonesome Man 137 the welcome which would be accorded them. No Arden was ever a snob. The only requisite was loneliness, and that he and the boy alike possessed in full meas- ure. He looked at his watch and realized with a start of dismay that it was already eight-thirty. The last train for Greendale left at eight-fifteen. His heart sank like a school-boy's who had been foiled of a promised treat. Then he smiled. He tore into a neighboring drug-store, with the violin still under his arm, and telephoned the taxi-cab stand. " Yes, right away." " Corner of Green and Sixth." " Yes, two passengers." " Hotel Argyle first, then to Greendale." "Ten dollars? What of it? He didn't care if it cost fifty only send that cab at once." CHAPTER X THE CHRISTMAS TREE AT the hour when Mr. Mclntosh was hastening, in the company of his recently elected friend, late his office boy, to the bosom of the Christ- mas family, with all convenient speed and regardless of expense, the family itself, excepting its three youngest members, was very busy on its own account. These three youngest members had hung up their stockings, with due care and cere- mony, before the fireplace and had gone off to bed somewhat reluctantly, but con- soled by the consciousness that only so could the rites of Santa Claus be admin- istered. They were too well brought up 138 The Christmas Tree 139 not to know that the wise old saint never stopped at the chimneys of the children whose naughty eyes refused to close in slumber on Christmas eve. Marianna had declared that she never no, never could go to sleep, but she would keep her eyes tight shut truly, she would and never peep a tiniest bit, nor listen any more than she could help for Santa's bells. But fifteen minutes after her mother had tucked her away in the little white bed, the forget-me-not eyes were shut tight, indeed, and only in dreams did she hear the prancing reindeer and the merry jan- gle of bells. Brother had succumbed an hour earlier to the seductions of the sand- man, but Elizabeth lay long awake, too happy and excited to follow the example of the others. Not that she believed in the coming of Santa Claus! A too sophisticated cousin 140 Sylvia's Experiment had long since destroyed her illusions on that score. But no torture could have dragged her to betray the pleasure of the younger children in their cherished myth, for she remembered only too well how painful had been her own awakening to reality from happy ignorance. She had had far too few gratifications of wishes in her brief career to dare to expect overmuch on the morrow. She was far from anticipating the wealth the tree down-stairs would bear on its generous branches for her. She did hope softly to herself that there would be just one doll a really, truly, just-born dolly. So far, her children had fallen to her by right of inheritance as their original parents out- grew or discarded them. Her mother in- stinct was sufficiently strong to cause her to devote herself faithfully to these adopted offspring, battered and mutilated The Christmas Tree 141 as they often were. But always in her heart she had yearned for just one child all her own to love and care for. But even this pleasant little dream was not the chief cause of Elizabeth's wakeful- ness to-night. It was something far, far bigger a hope so big, so wonderful, so beautiful that it made her hold her breath. Sylvia had said that little girls with crooked backs sometimes got well and strong and straight like other people, that the doctors gave them something to put them to sleep and when they woke up again they were very weak and sick, but not crooked any more. "Not crooked! Not crooked ! Not crooked ! " sang her heart over and over. Oh, she mustn't be- lieve it not yet. Sylvia had told her not to hope too much, until after Doctor Tom and the other doctors had looked at her back with a queer machine that let them 142 Sylvias Experiment see into people's bodies the way God sees into their souls. The day after Christmas they would do it, Sylvia had promised, and then, if the doctors thought they could cure her, in a few days they would put her to sleep and perhaps just per- haps when she woke up she would be straight like Marianna and Sylvia and all the rest of the world. On the wall opposite Elizabeth's bed hung a picture. It was dark and she couldn't see it to-night with her bodily eyes, but she did not need to see it that way. She knew it by heart. It was a pic- ture of a man, straight and tall, with beau- tiful, gentle eyes and a look in them some- thing like the way Auntie Felicia looked at Brother sometimes when he was asleep. And there were crowds of children all about Him, big and little, pretty and plain. The man smiled and held out His hands The Christmas Tree 143 to them and they seemed to be drawing nearer and nearer all the time to those kind outstretched arms. Very close be- side Him was a little, little boy with a face like an angel and a poor crooked, twisted little figure, and Elizabeth fancied always that the man's smile was especially tender for the little humpback, and that He had called him near on purpose because He loved and pitied him. The picture had comforted Elizabeth ever since she first saw it. Of course she had heard all her life that Christ loved lit- tle children, but somehow she had fancied vaguely that it was the beautiful, straight, golden-haired, blue-eyed children that He would naturally love best children like Marianna, not little crooked, homely ones like herself, with cropped hair and dark eyes. Elizabeth adored beauty, and did not blame any one for making distinctions 144 Sylvia's Experiment along this line. It was only too natural. But if this picture were true, He cared for the little humpback, too, perhaps more even than the others. It made her feel all different and made over when she saw that. If this were so, then He must love her, too, and if He loved her, of course He would be glad to have her be made straight. She wouldn't mind about eyes or hair if only she needn't be crooked any more. ' Surely if she asked Christ He would tell God to let them cure her. A queer little inarticulate prayer filled her heart, and then, strangely comforted and happy, she fell asleep, secure in her child faith. Down-stairs there was a magic. A large handsome hemlock tree had been set up in the library, in front of the bay win- dow. A very large and handsome tree it had been, indeed, but not distinguished in The Christmas Tree 145 any particular from a host of other trees as it had stood in the forest. But then had come the magic, and the ordinary, large, handsome hemlock had been trans- formed into a fairy spectacle, all silver tinsel and tiny bells and stars and shim- mering crystal icicles, and iridescent balls and strings of popcorn and gold paper chains. There were no candles, although Sylvia had yearned for them for old time's sake. But Christmas candles are fast going the way of fire-crackers and other danger- ous delights, and the Christmas Mother, who had a mortal horror of fire, had begged for the omission. An up-to-date, if less mysteriously charming, substitute had been arranged by Phil, however, and tiny, airy, fairy little electric light bulbs hung here and there amid the deep green of the branches. But this was only the beginning of the 146 Sylvia's Experiment magic. Next came the presents, such piles and piles of them, tissue-papered, be- ribboned, gorgeous with seals and tags, besides the numerous other treasures which were to dangle fascinatingly un- wrapped from the branches and add to the festivity of the appearance of that once merely handsome tree. These last were chiefly to delight the eyes of the children, gay tarlatan candy-bags, dainty paper dollies, wooly lambs, balls and horns and gaudy picture-books, and all sorts of funny or pretty toys. Beneath the tree for there were limits to even its capacious boughs was ar- ranged the rest of the Christmas offering, books and boxes and packages with con- tents guessable or unguessable, according to shape or size or general knobbiness. There was a marvelous doll-house, com- plete from kitchen to chamber, beautifully The Christmas Tree 147 equipped throughout. There were iso- lated bits of doll furniture an adorable little bureau, a daintily fitted out brass bed, a most delectable Morris chair of Lili- putian proportions, and two rosebud tea- sets, spread out respectively on two white- clothed tables and surrounded hospitably with chairs. There was an oddly assorted menagerie of cows, pigs, kittens, roosters, horses, elephants, and rabbits peeping out from the branches of the tree with bright, expectant eyes. There were queer, fasci- nating things that wound up, and choo- choo-cars and fire-engines to delight Brother's mechanical inclinations. There were dolls of all sizes, nationalities and costumes, representing all ranks and con- ditions of social life. There was a great, beautiful, huggable, almost human, Teddy bear, and but why go on? Suffice it to say that never no, never had there 148 Sylvia's Experiment been such a magic since the Christmas- tree magic began. The magic being completed at last the Christmas family, somewhat exhausted but triumphant, sat down to view its la- bors. Just as Phil switched on the myriad lights that the magic might be manifest in its full glory there was a chug-chug of an automobile heard coming up the hill. It came nearer and nearer and finally ceased altogether before the house. CHAPTER XI THE BELATED GUESTS " X^OODNESS!" said Sylvia, "who 1 "IT can it be as late as this? Did anybody miss any presents that ought to have been delivered? " There was a sharp peal at the bell, which Sylvia herself went to answer, as Aunt Mandy had betaken her weary bones to bed. On the threshold stood a tall, rather stern-looking man in a fur-lined coat and a thin, dark-eyed boy in a worn and shabby ulster. " Good evening," said the former. " I am Angus Mclntosh and this is my friend, Gus Nichols. We would like to be mem- bers of the Christmas family in good and 149 150 Sylvia's Experiment regular standing. Will you take us in, Miss Sylvia Arden?" Sylvia's eyes opened wide with aston- ishment, but her greeting was quick and sincere. " Of course we will, and very gladly," she answered with a hand outstretched to each. Whereupon a triangular ceremony made the latest comers members of the Christmas family on the spot. " Stand under the light," ordered Mr. Mclntosh, rather unexpectedly. ' I want to see if you are as much an Arden as you look." Half-amused, half-abashed, Sylvia obe- diently stepped back under the chandelier and submitted to the keen scrutiny of the rather arbitrary and abrupt old gentle- man. Standing there in the bright light, in her white dress, with uplifted head, brown eyes a-shine and red lips curved The Belated Guests 151 for laughter, she might have been Eleanor Arden herself. For a moment Mr. Mcln- tosh forgot that he was an old man and was again the bashful young bookkeeper who had been wont to watch Miss Nell furtively, out of the tail of his eye, while ostensibly bending over his ledger. ' You are very like your Aunt Elea- nor," he said at last, coming back to the present with a long drawn sigh. " I felt certain you would be," he added. " No- body else but your Aunt Eleanor would have thought of so incredibly impossible and crazy notion as this of a Christmas family. Not that we object to the crazi- ness Gus and I. We like it, since to it we owe our presence to-night. Are you sure we are welcome in the Christmas family?" " Very sure," and Sylvia's smile went past the old man and reached the shy lad, 152, Sylvia's Experiment who had been hovering in the background more than half inclined to run away. That was before the smile, after it nothing would have dragged him away. " Come and see the rest of the family and the tree," went on Sylvia cordially. " Leave your bags here, please. Oh ! " to Gus, " you brought your violin. How perfectly splendid! This way." She pushed aside the curtains which separated the hall from the library and announced distinctly, but casually, as if there was nothing very unexpected about the announcement, " Christmas family, here are Mr. Mclntosh and Gus Nichols. Isn't it nice they could get here to-night? " If the family in its heart was astounded it was far too well trained to admit it, and rose to the occasion with a hospitable im- perturbability that did it credit. Greet- ings and introductions were exchanged. The Belated Guests 153 The Professor and Mrs. Abbott especially expressed pleasure at the arrival of Mr. Mclntosh, and the yellow cat, which had been dozing quietly before the fire, rose and stretched itself and jumped up into its old friend's lap and thence to his shoul- der, where she sat purring- pleasantly, un- rebuffed, to the amusement of the family and the surprise of Mrs. Abbott in par- ticular. The eyes of the temporarily emanci- pated office boy were glued to the Christ- mas tree, and small wonder. That tree would have attracted the attention of the most sophisticated connoisseur in Christ- mas trees, and the experience of Gus Nich- ols was confined solely to one or two meagre mission Christmas trees, as re- mote from this glory as could be con- ceived. Perhaps it was the expression in his 154 Sylvia's Experiment eyes which reminded Sylvia of a horrible truth. Amid all those countless treasures on that marvelous tree, there was not a single one for these two newcomers. Of course it was their fault for not having appeared upon the scene before, but that did not make the situation a whit more bearable. Had Sylvia been asked to act as a temporary substitute for St. Peter she would have found some excuse or other for letting in every applicant for admission. She never wanted anybody to be left out of anything, no matter whose the fault or what the cause for possible exclusion. Plainly something must be done to rectify this unnatural state of af- fairs. She slipped out in the hall, making a sign to Doctor Tom to follow. Safe outside, she poured forth her quandary in his sympathetic ears. " It wouldn't be so bad if it were just The Belated Guests 155 Mr. Mclntosh," she sighed. " Probably he wouldn't care, though I wouldn't like to leave even him out. But the boy Did you see him look at the tree? Oh, Doctor Tom, don't you see something has got to be done about it? " As usual Doctor Tom saw. That was one of the comforting things about him. He always did see. He consulted his watch. Nearly ten-thirty already, and the stores closed at eleven o'clock, and late enough, too, for the weary clerks. He turned to the telephone, to see what could yet be done to save the day. " 3i2j, please. Yes, Bailey and Sons' Department Store. Hello! Mr. Bailey there? No? Well, get me Mr. Norman Bailey, then, can you? Hello, that you, Norm? This is Tom Tom Daly. How long does your place keep open to-night? Eleven? Could you make it a bit later 156 Sylvia's Experiment as a favor? Can't explain over the 'phone very well, but it will mean an order a good one. What's that? Yes, I know they are tired. Send 'em home, but keep open for us, will you? You will? Good old boy ! Thank you." He turned back to Sylvia, who had been listening breathlessly. " All right, sisterchen. Bailey and Sons will keep open for us, or, rather, one son will. Call Phil. We'll hitch up the horses in a jiffy. Tell every one who wants to go on a belated shopping tour to get into his or her togs instanter." ;< Doctor Tom, you certainly are a per- fect dear. I knew you would fix it some- how." And Sylvia flew to deliver her messages. It was scarcely ten minutes before the Christmas family, who an hour ago would have declared themselves too tired to stir, The Belated Guests 157 were merrily piling into the two-seater, preparatory for a shopping excursion to Greendale's one large department store, as if it were the beginning of the evening. The trip became not only an errand of necessity but a first-class frolic. Of course there was no keeping the purpose of the nocturnal adventure a secret from the new arrivals. Mr. Mclntosh shrewdly scented it from the beginning, and declared that it was especially his party and that he ap- proved of it heartily. He had no mind to be left out of the fun either of Christmas giving or receiving. So jovially did he enter into the spirit of the occasion that he took pains to inform people casually, but with a twinkle in his eye, of the exact size slippers he wore, and of his absorbing mania for violet ties, and of his washer- lady's equally absorbing mania for retain- ing his best handkerchiefs in her posses- 158 Sylvia's Experiment sion. Gus could hardly believe his ears, to hear his dignified employer joking with Sylvia over a projected mutual exchange of hosiery and consequent gathering of data as to respective preferences in size, material, and color scheme. Only the sleeping children and the Pro- fessor and Mrs. Abbott were left behind to guard the Christmas tree, while the rest of the family went to gather in a new relay of gifts to offer at the shrine. The party arrived at the store at ten minutes before eleven and were met by Mr. Norman Bailey, who, after being in- troduced to the family and listening to their explanation of the dire necessity which brought them out shopping at such a scandalous hour on Christmas eve, granted them absolution and told them that the store was at their disposal. The weary clerks brightened a little at The Belated Guests 159 the advent of the merry party and ha- stened to wait upon them not grudgingly but cheerfully. Sylvia helped the situa- tion still more by telling the story of the Christmas family to the girl at the hosiery counter while she selected Mr. Mclntosh's gift. The story spread like fire, and every one rushed to serve the Christmas family party with a right good will. The shop- ping was not nearly completed when the clock struck eleven, but several of the clerks came to Mr. Bailey of their own accord and offered to stay a little longer, a proposal which he gladly accepted. They had more than one hearty laugh at the way the different members of the family dodged each other and sent intru- ders on wild goose chases to remote parts of the store whenever their absence was imperative. Mr. Mclntosh had thought- fully provided himself with a list of the 160 Sylvia's Experiment entire Christmas family, including ages, and set about his purchasing with an oc- casional hint from Mrs. Emory or some interested clerk, but for the most part on his own responsibility, and showed a re- markable skill and ingenuity for one so unpractised in Christmas family shopping. He had privately provided Gus with a roll of bills, bidding him come to him for more when that was exhausted. " Don't forget anybody," he ordered. ' We are bound to do this thing handsomely, partner." Just as the clock reached the halfway point between eleven and twelve some col- ored gentlemen appeared from the neigh- boring hotel with hot oyster stew, crack- ers, pickles, doughnuts and coffee, for the whole company, including proprietor, shoppers and clerks. The idea had been Doctor Tom's, but Mr. Mclntosh had been so delighted with it that he had The Belated Guests 161 insisted on footing the bills. Perhaps never was an impromptu feast more en- joyed. Every one forgot weariness, and ate and laughed and chatted as if it were the most pleasant and natural thing in the world to sit down at nearly midnight on Christmas eve and eat oyster stew from a dry-goods counter. It was midnight when the store finally closed, and the groups parted with friendly good nights and merry Christ- mases. Just as the family got itself packed into the sleigh the bells pealed out across the snow. It was Christmas. CHAPTER XII CHRISTMAS MORNING IF it hadn't been for the children every one would have slept late the next morning, owing to the midnight rev- elry, but they had made Mrs. Emory promise to wake them as soon as the chil- dren woke, for no one had a mind to miss the best part of Christmas, the seeing the delighted eyes of the " Wonder-Babies," a process which Sylvia had bespoken from the beginning. Consequently every one, even Mr. Mclntosh, sprang up with alac- rity in response to Marianna's " Mewwy Chwismas! Come see the twee! Huwwy ! " Everybody hurried, and made astonishingly speedy toilets so as to see 162 Christmas Morning 163 the first act, which was, of course, the rifling of the stockings fat, lumpy and distorted, with a dollie peeping out of the top of each, and a round yellow orange in each toe, with all kinds of marvels in between, which drew from the children an ecstatic chorus of " Ohs " and " Ahs," while the elders stood by, enchanted at the prospect. " Now for the tree ! " cried Sylvia, when the last treasure had been extracted and the stockings left lank and lean and un- interesting again. Phil turned on the lights, and the chil- dren, who had been too much absorbed in their stocking discoveries to realize the greater splendor, turned and stood for a moment speechless with wonder and de- light. " Pitty ! Pitty ! " cried Brother at length, finding voice. 164 Sylvia's Experiment 11 Oh ! Oh ! Oh ! " Marianna was cry- ing simultaneously, hopping up and down on one foot exultantly. But Elizabeth remained silent, too happy for speech. In the very foremost place under the tree, in the Morris chair, sat a doll, a wonderful blue-eyed, golden-haired doll, in a dainty flowered pink and white silk gown, and somehow Elizabeth knew that this child was hers hers hers. Her heart cried out and claimed it, though her lips were still. Doctor Tom was chosen to distribute the presents, which he did with many merry speeches, while Sylvia and Mari- anna presented the treasures to their re- spective owners. Such a seemingly endless process! There surely never was such an inexhaust- ible tree, and surely no Christmas family was ever so delighted, collectively and Christmas Morning 165 individually with its spoils. Every one not excepting Aunt Mandy and her hus- band and the two " no-count " nieces who had been called in to help with the house- work had everything he or she had ever dreamed of desiring and a hundred things besides. Perhaps outside of Elizabeth Sylvia herself was most surprised by the multiplicity of her gifts. She had been so absorbed in the fun of getting things for the others that she had had no time to speculate as to her own possible acquisi- tions. Mrs. Emory had been intercepting all Christmas mail and express for days, and the girl had no idea how many things had come from friends outside of the fam- ily. For Sylvia had hosts of friends of all ages and kinds. There had been a won- derful box from her guardian and his wife in Italy, with all sorts of alluring things, books, pictures, a beautiful jeweled pen- 166 Sylvia's Experiment dant, an exquisite chiffon scarf, and all manner of pretty trinkets, picked up here and there on their travels. Perhaps best of all was the card which came with the rest, bearing the love of the absent ones for "our dear little girl;" a message which almost brought the tears to Sylvia's eyes and made her heart very warm toward the two who, though scarcely kin at all had always been very kind to her. Another gift which delighted and touched her was a beautiful embroidered kimono, of white silk with wonderful gold and silver Chinese handiwork from Phil's mother, with a note expressing the wri- ter's appreciation for her kindness to " our boy." But the gifts of the Christmas fam- ily, from the six pairs of silk stockings from " Grandpa " to the tiny china bunny from Brother, which he had picked out " all by himself," as Marianna informed her- Christmas Morning 167 these were best of all. There was a beau- tiful edition of Tennyson from the Pro- fessor, with a charmingly complimentary little quotation on the fly-leaf; a dainty hand-embroidered waist from the Christ- mas mother, with " the best love and grat- itude of the giver for my dear Christmas daughter;" a set of dinner-cards and a pretty little water-color sketch from Mrs. Emory; a funny note from Doctor Tom, stating that his present was too obstrep- erous to be " cribbed, cabin'd and con- fined " by the limitations of a mere Christ- mas tree and would appear later when the place and the hour and the loved one should coincide geographically. From Phil was a queer pretty green stone set as a pendant and suspended from a silver chain, a stone which he had himself found and had had polished and set for her. Elizabeth's clever, patient ringers had 168 Sylvia's Experiment wrought a little daisy chain of beads for her beloved Miss Sylvia, while Marianna's gift was a photograph of herself and Brother set in a silver frame, which de- lighted Sylvia immeasurably. Gus had selected somewhat dubiously, and with the aid of the interested clerk, a box of handkerchiefs with pink butterflies in the corner of each. The clerk had pronounced them " simply swell," and if Sylvia found them a little too swell, nobody and cer- tainly not Gus ever guessed it. When the last package was opened, and Sylvia sat on the floor surrounded by bil- lows of tissue paper and yards of holly ribbon, she looked up and suddenly per- ceived that she was the last one to finish her revelations and that the others at least all the older ones were looking at her with faces wreathed in smiles. " Oh," she cried beatifically, " hasn't it Christmas Morning 169 been simply splendid, and how can I ever thank all you dear people?" " Sylvia, you do get things so twisted! " complained Doctor Tom. " Here we are all pining to rise with one accord and thank you for the best Christmas we ever had. Are we not, good people?" And the response was so hearty and unanimous that Sylvia's face grew rosy and she hid behind Brother and Teddy to conceal the happy tears in her eyes. " Know all men by these presents that this is Christmas morning," announced Doctor Tom. " But is anybody besides me hungry?" " Drefful hungwy," sighed Marianna, " Muvver wouldn't let me eat any candy not one piece," pathetically. :< I should say not. The candy would swallow up your breakfast appetite as fast as Jonah swallowed the whale." 170 Sylvia's Experiment He paused, and Marianna surveyed him with puzzled eyes. " But he didn't," she burst out at last. ' Whale swallowed him." "Oh, was that the way it was? Well, perhaps you are right. I was just judging Jonah's appetite by my own. I could swallow a couple of whales this minute and think nothing of it. Sylvia, if you can leave your goods and chattels long enough, I think we could find the obstreperous present." Sylvia sprang up with alacrity. " Come on, Phil, Felicia, everybody. I am simply crazy to see what it is." And when she opened the door into the hall, a beautiful Scotch collie sprang up to meet her, wiggling all over with excite- ment and pleasure. " Oh, Doctor Tom, is he really for me? I'd rather have a dog than anything in the Christmas Morning 171 world. Oh, you beauty! You blessed doggums ! " And Sylvia knelt and put her arms around his neck so that for a moment two pairs of brown eyes, girl's and dog's, were on a level, and an unspoken compact of friendship was made then and there. " What is his name? " demanded Sylvia of Doctor Tom. " Christmas. Chris for short. Neat and appropriate, isn't it?" " Perfect. But, Doctor Tom, what will I do with him? Do you suppose they will let me have him at St. Anne's? " "Not much -they won't. He is far too lively a customer. Aunt Mandy and I will look after him for you, and he'll do for a bribe to make you come home often. There is a method in my madness, you see." But before Sylvia had time to reply, the children came crying out for them to come 172 Sylvias Experiment and look at Santa. They all ran to the door and exclaimed with delight. Santa and his reindeer were simply dazzling and splendid in the clear sunshine. Phil had turned the hose on them the previous evening, and the water had frozen imme- diately and made a beautiful shining sur- face. " I dess Santy liked it when he came," said Marianna. " S'pose he laughed?' 1 " I'll bet he did," said Phil. And just then appeared Aunt Mandy from the dining-room door. "Are you all gone plum crazy?" she demanded. " A-standing in that there door with the thermometey down to nothin'. You all jist come 'n' put some hot coffee inter yer stomicks 'fore yer ketches yer never-git-over." CHAPTER XIII A CHRISTMAS ROMANCE CHRISTMAS day is short, indeed, in our northern hemisphere, one of the shortest days of the year, but perhaps, after all, the early winter twi- light comes none too soon for weary little folk, worn out with the joy of the day. Brother had fallen asleep with his head on the plump elephant and his beloved Teddy clasped in his embrace. So his mother had found him and borne him off to bed. Marianna, too, had followed with her hands full of treasures, declaring that she would like a little nap, and did not object when her mother suggested that she also go to bed, although the tall clock in the hall had not brought its hands to the point 173 174 Sylvia's Experiment on its face that officially spelled bedtime. Sylvia slipped up-stairs with them to help undress the children, a process that she dearly loved. To-night, however, even the insatiable Marianna was too weary to demand the usual bedtime story, and Brother hardly awakened at all during the disrobing process and settled down on the pillow with a profound sigh of content with Teddy still in his arms. Marianna begged to be allowed to omit prayers, explaining that her tongue was sleepy. " I'll ask God to bless ev'wybody. Will that do?" she inquired, drowsy but con- scientious. And, on being assured that it would be sufficient, she tumbled sleepily into bed, blissful if exhausted. Sylvia bent to give her and the sleeping Brother the good night kiss they usually vociferously demanded and slipped out of the room softly, feeling as if perhaps there A Christmas Romance 175 was some vague mother rite for Christmas night which profane eyes might not wit- ness. She did not, however go immedi- ately down-stairs, but went to the window in the hall and looked out into the still white world outside. The sun had set and the pines were already indistinct and dark, but over beyond in the western sky was a glow of deep rose, shot with bars of gold. It was all so quiet and beautiful that she felt almost as if she were in church, and the brown eyes grew tender and radiant as they looked out into the night and caught the mysterious sense of some holy presence brooding over the earth. There was a light step behind her, and, in a moment, Felicia's arms were around her. Neither spoke, but together they stood and watched the sunset color fade and the first stars come out in the deep purple evening sky. 176 Sylvia's Experiment " Oh, it is beautiful ! " sighed Sylvia, at last. " How can I ever leave it, now that I know how beautiful it is to have a home? But it wouldn't be home without you dear people," she added regretfully. " Oh, Felicia, if I could only keep you and the babies! Dear big sister, couldn't you stay and make a home for me? Oh, I know I am selfish to ask it, but the whole house just cries out for you, and you know you hate living in little stuffy apartments, and Marianna and Brother are so happy here. Oh, Felicia, couldn't you? Just think of our being here together all the time!" " Sylvia, dear, where would your educa- tion come in and my work? It is a beau- tiful idea, like all of yours, but I am afraid it isn't very possible." " Oh, I suppose I do have to keep on going to school," admitted Sylvia reluc- A Christmas Romance 177 tantly, " but I could come home often, and there would be vacations. Oh, dear, it is awfully selfish, I know. I sup- pose you wouldn't like to give up your work." " It isn't exactly wouldn't like, Sylvia. It is can't. Marianna and Brother and I have to live, and every year it will take more money to give them the things I desire for them." " Felicia I oh, I don't know how to put it, but, of course, I did not mean you were to give up everything just to gratify little selfish me. Housekeepers no, homekeepers command big salaries. No, don't interrupt, please, until I have finished. I have lots of money more than I can ever spend if I live to be a hun- dred a frightfully big amount of it, and I would rather spend some of it on having a home than any way I know. But that 178 Sylvia's Experiment isn't all. My guardian and his wife will probably live abroad a long time. You know he is an author and is writing a book about Italy. They have lived there a great deal at one time or another, and would like to stay permanently if it were not for me. They know I would hate to go abroad and live again, just as I have gotten all American. Besides, it wouldn't be sensible until I am through school. It isn't the first time the idea has been sug- gested of having some one make a home for me at the Hall. It is really the best way out of it. Mr. Gordon would approve heartily, if the right person could be found. Oh, Felicia, couldn't you let your- self be the right person? " " Sylvia, you fairly take my breath away. How can I answer all in a minute? Mr. Gordon might not think I was the right person at all." A Christmas Romance 179 " He would if Doctor Tom said you were. He has the greatest respect for Doctor Tom's opinions, and you know what Doctor Tom would say. He thinks you are just perfect." " Would it not be wiser to have some one a little older like Mrs. Abbott? Why don't you ask Mrs. Abbott?" with sudden generous inspiration. But Sylvia smiled and shook her head. " Like grape-nuts there is a reason. Didn't you guess? I didn't until last night after we came home from the village, and I wouldn't have believed my own presenti- ments then if the dear Christmas mother hadn't told." " You mean the Professor and Mrs. Abbott?" " Yes. Isn't it a beautiful Christmas romance? I've been fairly bursting with 180 Sylvia's Experiment it all day ever since I knew. He wanted to marry her ever so long ago and has kept on wanting it ever since. Isn't that a lovely thing to have happen in the Christ- mas family? " " It is indeed. What a good fairy you have been to us all, Sylvia! " " But that isn't answering my ques- tion," persisted Sylvia. " Big sister mine, couldn't you say yes? Or do you love your pretty picture cards so much? " wist- fully. " Sylvia, I'll tell you a secret. I loathe, detest and abominate my ' pretty picture cards,' as you call them." "Oh, goody! And you wouldn't mind leaving your cunning little apartment for me?" "And Arden Hall? Oh, Sylvia, Syl- via, you have no idea how I detest apart- ments as well as picture cards. But A Christmas Romance 181 I have endured both since needs must." "Then, you will come? Oh, Felicia!" " Gently, little sister. There is a good deal to be considered all round. We can- not do anything until your guardian gives his consent, and that will take time at least. But, if you like, I will stay a little longer, so as to be near Elizabeth during the operation and afterward. Dr. Daly thinks there is no doubt of the advisibility of an operation, though he cannot tell positively, of course, until after the exam- ination to-morrow. He wants the opera- tion to take place at the Greendale hos- pital, and, in that case, her aunt could not be with her much of the time, and I should be happy to see her every day, if you will permit me to remain a little longer here." " Permit ! I shall be so grateful if you only will! I had been worrying about 182 Sylvias Experiment that. For I suppose I shall have to go back to school." " Then we will leave it that way, for the present, until the more permanent ar- rangement can be discussed. For myself I can only say thank you again, dear little sister, with the cleverest brain and the kindest heart in the world. Do you know, dear, how sad a season Christmas is usu- ally for me? And this year it has been so happy, thanks to you and all the dear family. And, Sylvia, I don't believe you can guess how dearly I should love to make this beautiful house of yours a real home for you." " Felicia, don't think I mean just a com- mon housekeeper. I want you to be just as I said a homekeeper, with time to be your lovely, talented self besides. Do you know up-stairs there is a great big room that would make a perfect studio, and you A Christmas Romance 183 could paint or ' sculpt/ or do any other beautiful thing you liked up there. Oh, Felicia, I do want you so. I am going to write Cousin John to-night, and also make Doctor Tom write." CHAPTER XIV " MUSIC HATH CHARMS " HAND in hand, the two went down-stairs and found the li- brary quiet and dimly lit. Mr. Mclntosh had fallen asleep in his chair, his last night's unusual effort having left him, somewhat weary. Doctor Tom and Phil and Gus were all invisible, but the Pro- fessor and Mrs. Abbott sat before the fire, chatting quietly as became middle-aged lovers. " Christmas mother! Christmas mother!" said Sylvia, "I let the cat out of the bag to Felicia. Please forgive me, and -tell her quick officially, so it will be all right," 184 " Music Hath Charms " 185 Mrs. Abbott smiled up at them with a pretty little girlish blush. " There isn't much to tell," she an- swered. " Only we decided last night the Professor and I that we might as well be two happy people together as two lonely people apart. We loved each other long ago, and I rather think we have kept at it ever since, only we were too stupid to know it until our dear Christmas daughter brought us together again." " I am so glad," said Felicia heartily, " and I hope you will be very happy." A little snore from the arm-chair made Sylvia smile, then grow sober, remember- ing what the new arrangement would mean for poor " Grandpa." Mrs. Abbott followed her gaze and read her thought. " I know," she said, a little sadly. " That is what is troubling me. What will become of him? " 186 Sylvia's Experiment " He'll have to take care of himself," said the Professor, " as I have been doing all these years. Turn about is fair play. He can go to a hotel." As if the obnoxious word had power to rouse him from slumber, however pro- found, Mr. Mclntosh sat up. '' Bless me, I believe I took forty winks," he announced a little shame- facedly. " Poor dear Grandpa ! " smiled Sylvia, for he knew the little joke by this time and liked it from her. " Did the Christ- mas family tire him all out? " " Not a bit of it," he denied stoutly. " I am having the time of my life, as the boys say. By the way, where are the boys? " " Snowshoeing," said Mrs. Abbott. ' They got restless and had to work off their superfluous energies." " Good thing. Granddaughter Sylvia, "Music Hath Charms" 187 did I tell you that Gils' real name is Gus- tavus Niccolini? Gus Nichols is only his American pseudonym." " Oh ! I wondered where he got such a common ordinary name with eyes like that." " What do you think of him? " " I like him. Of course he is quiet and shy, so I don't know him very well; but I suppose he feels a little queer among so many strangers." " Partly that, but I fancy it is more be- cause he is afraid of letting out toads, in- stead of diamonds, if he opens his mouth. His vocabulary is mostly the language of the streets. I am glad he has sense enough to keep still." " I don't believe he could be any more slangy than Phil and I are. We shock the Christmas mother dreadfully. Don't we, dear? " 188 Sylvias Experiment Mrs. Abbott smiled indulgently. " Not so much shock as confound," she an- swered. ' When you and Phil really let yourselves go it is like listening to a for- eign language." " Mary," said the Professor, abruptly, " we haven't told Angus." Mr. Mclntosh sat up very straight, as if some one had suddenly rammed a yard- stick down his back. Was Bob Lane crazy, or was he himself still dreaming? The man was calling his housekeeper, " Mary." It was almost incredible. " She is going to marry me," went on Professor Lane, tranquilly. ' We would like your congratulations, Angus." It must be confessed that Mr. Mcln- tosh's first confused reflections were wholly personal and selfish. What was going to become of him ? He saw the com- fort of his remaining years vanishing a "Music Hath Charms" 189 dim speck in the distance never to be overtaken. Then to his credit be it said he rallied and rose to the occasion nobly. ' You have them, Bob many of them. You've won a treasure." Involuntarily he sighed a little, seeing the vision of the smooth seas of domestic comfort on which his friend was embarking, leaving him a forlorn shipwrecked mariner upon the strand. " You are a lucky man," he added fervently. '' I know it." And the Professor smiled his wise, deep, quiet smile into the eyes of the Christmas mother. If his interpreta- tion of his luckiness varied a little from his old friend's perhaps neither knew it. " Isn't it um ah a little sud- den? " inquired the latter, after a moment. ''' Not very. I asked her first some thirty years ago." " Oh ! " Mr. Mclntosh had no more to 190 Sylvia's Experiment say. The world of sentiment was not his world and never had been. Just then the boys Doctor Tom, Phil and Gus arrived, accompanied by Chris, who came bounding in, to the great con- sternation of the yellow cat, who retired to the top of the book-case, from which vantage-point she glared down at the in- truder with very large, frightened, vindic- tive eyes, and a tail enlarged to abnormal proportions. " I say, Sylvia," said Phil, " a messenger boy just left this for you." He deposited a huge florist box on the table beside her as he spoke. Sylvia opened it and drew forth a mass of enor- mous American Beauty roses, holding them up for the company to admire. " Wonder who they're from," she puz- zled, diving after the card which lay at the bottom of the box. "Music Hath Charms" 191 " Not so very hard to guess," muttered Phil, a little sulkily. " ' Who is Sylvia ? What is she ? That all her swains adore her ? ' ' quoted Doctor Tom teasingly. But Sylvia did not hear. She was busy reading the message on the back of Mr. John Stuart Amidon's correct bit of paste- board. " This is a peace offering," ran the words. " It's Christmas. Am I for- given? " " Isn't it just like Jack to send American Beauties when I had so much rather have violets or little quiet roses? " she thought. " I don't care a bit for big, flamboyant things, but he never can realize it. Poor stupid Jack. It was nice of him anyway, and I suppose I shall have to forgive him." She looked up and smiled a little wick- edly at Phil's ostentatiously turned back. 192 Sylvia's Experiment " Phil, will you please take the box away?" she begged innocently. "I have to find a vase big enough to put them in, if I can." " Perhaps Aunt Mandy will lend you the wash boiler," he observed a little sar- donically. If he had had a million dollars he would never have sent Sylvia American Beauties. He was far too wise and under- standing. Nevertheless he resented Ami- don's doing it, since he couldn't himself if he had wanted to. Therefore he stuffed the great box rather grimly under his arm as he held open the door for Sylvia to pass with her arms full of the roses almost as tall as herself, and followed with an air of martyred dignity. " Poor Phil, I suspect his nose is out of joint," smiled Mrs. Emory. " He need not worry though. He has some things that young Amidon for I suppose it was he "Music Hath Charms" 193 hasn't, and Sylvia is quite wise enough to know it." " She'd better," answered the Professor. " Phil Lorrimer's worth three Ami- dons." A large vase was at last secured, and Phil was obliged to stand by and hold the obnoxious roses while Sylvia took them from him one by one with aggravating deliberation, until the whole dozen were deposited in the vase to her liking. "There I think that will do," she an- nounced at last, standing back to admire her artistic handiwork. " Shall I carry them into the library for you?" he inquired with polite resigna- tion. But Sylvia shook her head. " No. Let's leave them in the hall. Don't breathe it aloud, Phil, but I couldn't bear 'em in there. The library belongs 194 Sylvia's Experiment just to us the Christmas family. And American Beauties well, they don't be- long do they? " She looked straight up at him, and sud- denly he was ashamed of his ill humor. " Just as you say," he told her cheer- fully. ' You're boss in the Christmas family. I say, Syl, it has been one glori- ous day, hasn't it? " " I think so," and Sylvia smiled happily. "It has been lovely, hasn't it?" " Sure thing," he responded heartily. And when they went back into the li- brary minus the roses, every one perceived that the status quo was what it had been before the advent of said roses. " And now," said Sylvia, " let's have some music. Gus, we are all waiting to hear you." He colored with pleasure, and rose with alacrity to get his violin, for which, in- " Music Hath Charms " 195 deed, he had himself been hungering. Sylvia turned the lights low, and Phil stirred up the logs to a cheerful blaze, while Gus tuned his instrument softly, as one who listens for a well-loved voice. And then he played, and the awkward, shy, silent lad who had been with them but not of them all day, found voice and self-expression through the violin. The listeners fairly held their breath as they listened, lest they break the spell which held them entranced. For Gus was an artist a born artist. The technique was doubtless faulty and crude and untrained, but the soul of the artist was in the music, and the violin sang and laughed and sobbed at his will. " More! More! " they begged when he would have stopped, and he played on, nothing loath, and inspired by the sympa- thy of the audience he played as he had 196 Sylvias Experiment never played before in any stolen solitary moment. Finally some intuition made him turn from Italian music to Scotch. He had once played at a Burns evening at the Set- tlement, and he knew the sweet old songs as he knew his own native ones. They had struck a responsive chord in him and he had played them often in those long, still evenings when he had crept off to the office alone to play the music that was in him. The beauty and pathos of the melodies went shivering from the strings of the violin to the hearts of the listeners and to the heart of one in particular a hard old Scotchman, who had first heard those songs from his mother's lips and had never forgotten them. They brought tears to-night under the beetling brows, and when at last the lad ended, worn out with the stress of emotional excitement, "Music Hath Charms" 197 the old man was the first to speak. He rose and took the boy's hand in his. ' Thank you ! " he said huskily. "Thank you!" And the break in his voice had a pathos not unlike that of the violin. They sang together then the beauti- ful old Christmas carols whose charm never ceases and whose beauty and sig- nificance still have power to call to the hearts of men and to remind them that the Christ once more is born. CHAPTER XV OLD MEMORIES f~l \HE next day Mr. Mclntosh re- paired to the city, accompanied by Gus, as the former had busi- ness to attend to, in spite of the allure- ments of the Christmas family. He prom- ised, however, to so arrange matters that later in the week he could be away from the office for several days. Gus was too loyal to his employer to desert him, and insisted upon going to his work just as usual, though Mr. Mclntosh offered him a holiday, a faithfulness which scored him a high mark in that gentleman's mental record book. He had always stuck to his post himself, and he liked others to do the 198 Old Memories 199 same. Not that he meant the boy to keep at his job too steadily. He was entitled to a real vacation, as a member of the Christmas family. He would arrange that for Gus as well as himself. In the mean- time, they would both be able to make the five-forty train from the city every night, and thus be with the Christmas family in time for dinner. He was secretly de- lighted at the aptness of his protege, in fitting into this new way of living, where clean hands and tongues were a matter of course. The boy, like many of his race, was quick in perception and clever in imi- tation. Nothing escaped him, and the art- ist in him was keen to perceive the beauty of the life at Arden Hall, and to desire to be a part of the harmony not a discord. " He'll do," Mr. Mclntosh reflected with considerable satisfaction and relief, for it had been rather a test of the boy's real 200 Sylvia's Experiment fineness, this mingling with people in a mode of living utterly foreign to his pre- vious experience. And indeed Gus did do better and better as the days went on. The Professor, too, had gone to town on the day after Christmas on a very im- portant errand to choose the ring. Hav- ing waited thus long, he was of no will to wait a day longer than necessary for his happiness. He had insisted that Mrs. Abbott write at once to her boarders and inform them that they could be boarders no longer. The vexed problem of what was to become of Mr. Mclntosh, though it still haunted Mrs. Abbott, troubled the Professor not a whit. He still felt that Angus could take care of himself. If the Professor was too much absorbed in his new found bliss to be over much worried as to the future boarding-place of a man Old Memories 201 who was reputed almost a millionaire, it is perhaps not really to be wondered at. Doctor Tom also was away nearly all that first day, during the morning in his office and the afternoon with Elizabeth at the hospital, where he and several other doctors examined the little cripple, and the general verdict was in favor of an operation, and the sooner the better. Sylvia was a little frightened if also re- joiced at the decision, for though Doctor Tom held out every hope of a successful operation, still it was a terrible respon- sibility, and if anything should go wrong Doctor Tom had smiled gravely when she confided her fears to him. "What about my responsibility?" he asked. " I am the one who is going to use the knife. Child, do you suppose we doc- tors do not realize the seriousness of it? 202 Sylvias Experiment We do what seems best to us, humanly speaking, and the outcome lies with God," he finished reverently. Sylvia nodded, a little abashed by his gravity. Her own fears seemed childish and selfish. ' Thanks to you, she isn't at all afraid," he added. " She will go on the table with the utmost serenity. I know just how she will smile up at me as she goes under. Bless her brave little heart, and your kind one. Don't worry. We'll pull her through. Never fear," and he smiled so reassuringly that Sylvia was comforted. " When will it be? " she asked, using the vague pronoun to shield her dread. " A week from Saturday, I think. That will give her a week to get ready, and also will not shadow your party too darkly, as I suppose the jig will be about up by then." Old Memories 203 " School begins Tuesday," sighed Syl- via. " We have to get back Monday night." " Exactly. I am more than pleased that Mrs. Emory will stay on a bit. The youngster will need a familiar face about when she wakes up, as she puts it. By the way, I wrote to Gordon last night, telling him the best possible thing he could do for you was to install Mrs. Emory perma- nently here, at Arden Hall." " Thank you, Doctor Tom. I wrote, too. I do hope he will consent, and I am sure he will. I asked him to cable." Doctor Tom laughed. " Little Miss Gold Purse, what would you have done if you had been born poor and couldn't royally order people to cable, so as to save your high and mighty impa- tience a few days?" " Search me," she retorted slangily. 204 Sylvia's Experiment " Don't tease, Doctor Tom. There's the dinner-bell. Race you to the dining- room." Which undignified proposal was actu- ally accepted, only no one ever knew who won, for Chris joined in the race and the performance ended in merry confusion. " Please, 'scuse us, Christmas mother. We'll be very good now. Won't we, Doc- tor Tom?" "Perfect ladies," he promised. "I'd hate to be put to bed without any supper. Where's Phil?" " In town. He went in to attend his Frat banquet. Poor boy! I suspect he was glad to go. We have been a hope- lessly feminine family to-day. I am sure he pined for masculinity." They sat down to dinner, and there was a pleasant feeling of intimacy renewed, as if the little separation had brought the Old Memories 205 Christmas family more closely together than ever. " Bob," said Mr. Mclntosh, " I heard in town to-day that you were going bugging to South America next summer. Are you going to permit that, Mrs. Abbott?" " Mrs. Abbott doesn't believe all she hears, and you had better follow her ex- ample," returned the Professor tranquilly. " Bother the bugs ! We are going to Italy. Mary has always wanted to go," he added, as if now what Mary desired had become of paramount importance. Sylvia wondered a little how this change of plan was going to affect Phil. She knew that he cherished a secret hope that through the Professor he might be asked to join the South American expedition the " buggy trip," as he termed it. She couldn't help feeling a little sorry, glad as she was for her dear Christmas moth- 206 Sylvia's Experiment er's happiness, that Phil should be disap- pointed in his hopes of the trip which meant so much to him. " It isn't only the adventure of it," he had told her once in a sudden fit of boyish confidence, " though, that appeals to me, too, naturally. It's being with men like that with their big knowledge, their big patience, their big desire to know more at any cost. They are good comrades, too the big fellows simple and straight- forward and unassuming. They never let a chap feel how small he is, which makes him see how big they are." He had ended with a paradox which had interested Syl- via and which she had turned over and over in her mind since. The evening was a rather quiet one. The Christmas family was a bit tired after the busy day and the excitement of yester- day. There was a little music and talk, Old Memories 207 but it was still early when Sylvia rose to say good night to the family. She stooped to kiss Mrs. Abbott, and smiled as the new diamond flashed up at her in the fire shine. "Are you happy, little Christmas mother? " she whispered. ' Very, very happy, little Christmas daughter. The something nice did hap- pen after all, you see, and you are a really truly fairy godmother, just as I suspected." " And can I be a sort of honorary Christmas father?" inquired the Profes- sor, looking up with his quiet smile. ' Indeed you may," she smiled back. ' You see, I came near doing a dreadful thing and not having a father in the fam- ily at all, and I have been so thankful to Phil for averting the disaster. It would have been a terrible omission, wouldn't it, Christmas mother?" " It would indeed," said Mrs. Abbott. 208 Sylvia's Experiment As Sylvia started up-stairs she fell to thinking a little about her own father. She had always thought about her mother a great deal, but somehow not so much about her father. She had never projected him, as she had said to Bess. In the hall hung the portraits of him and her mother painted shortly before their death, and, obeying a sudden impulse, she turned back to look at them once more. In front of her father's portrait she paused and stud- ied the noble young face. Hitherto the portrait had been just a picture to her. To : night it became a personality and her father. She noted the broad brow with the thick dark hair falling carelessly upon it, the straight nose with the sensi- tive, finely modelled nostrils, the mouth, beautiful but with strength as well as sweetness in it. The dark eyes which smiled serenely into hers, half dreamy, Old Memories 209 half mirthful, were so exactly like the eyes that met her every day from her mirror that Sylvia was almost startled and yet happy at the discovery. The likeness made him somehow more her own. A great longing rilled her heart for this young father of hers. She would never have been lonely if she had had him. They would have been comrades. She remem- bered what her Aunt Nell had said of him once. " There was nobody like him, child. You will never know what you missed, but there was nobody like him." And Sylvia, studying her father's face, began to realize the truth of her aunt's words and to see a little of what she had missed. Suddenly she felt a hand upon her shoulder and turning saw that Doctor Tom was beside her. :< I was just getting acquainted with my father," she told him simply 210 Sylvias Experiment He nodded understandingly. " Sylvia, I can remember him. He was the sort you don't forget, somehow. I know he seemed to me a sort of modern Galahad sans peur and sans reproche. Boy as I was, I shall never forget his funeral. It seemed that the whole world was mourning him. He had so many friends. They loved your mother, too, but she was new among them. They wor- shipped him. I remember the things they said of him. They also were the sort you don't forget. I recall one old man, the pastor who had known him boy and man, said that John Arden had the finest, most exquisite sense of honor he ever knew in any man. ' And the biggest, most gen- erous heart/ added some one else. It seemed to me then, and it still seems to me, that that was the finest tribute a man, or a woman either for that matter could Old Memories 211 win. Think of it, Sylvia the truest and the kindest. There isn't anything much better." The eyes Sylvia turned to the young doctor were full of tears. " The truest and the kindest," she re- peated. " Thank you, Doctor Tom, for telling me that. I shall not forget either." CHAPTER XVI MR. MCINTOSH IS CONVINCED YLVIA, come here, please. I want to talk to you." This from Phil, appearing at the nursery door. "Can't you talk to me here?" inquired Sylvia, who was engaged in building a marvellous block house for Brother's de- lectation. " You see, I am busy." " I see. Sure I can if you think Brother won't tell. My communication is of a moderately confidential order." Sylvia laughed. " Brother's a perfect repository of se- crets. As for me, I am dying of curiosity. Fire ahead." 212 Mr. Mclntosh Is Convinced 213 f< It's about Amidon," he blurted out un- expectedly. "Jack Amidon!" Sylvia looked up, frankly astonished. She knew that Jack and Phil were not especially fond of each other, though classmates and fraternity brothers. There could indeed be little in common between the rather fast son of a millionaire and the sturdy young athlete whose father was a poverty consecrated missionary. The one bond they had in fact was their mutual devotion to Sylvia Arden, a bond which was quite as likely to cause friction as congeniality. " Yes," nodded Phil. " He's in a pretty bad way. Everybody likes him, and every- body bleeds him, because he is so free with his money and such a jolly good fellow all round. And he keeps drinking with every- body to show his goodfellowship and to prove he is not a snob, and the result is 214 Sylvia's Experiment he is going all to pieces. I could see it last night." " I am sorry," said Sylvia. " I was a little afraid of that. I am awfully sorry, for I do like him so much. Nobody can help it." '' He is liked considerably too much for his own good," Phil retorted. " Don't misunderstand me, please, Sylvia. I'm not kicking about his popularity. He de- serves it a good deal of it. Part of it his money pays for, and that is the dan- gerous part." " But he has a mother and sisters. Why don't they look after him?" " His mother and sisters are at Palm Beach, playing the high-mucky-muck in society. They are much too busy to bother about him, and his father is too busy making money for the rest to spend. A jolly Christmas family he has. I Mr. Mclntosh Is Convinced 215 don't blame him for going to the bow- wows." " You don't go to the bow-wows and your father and mother are in China, and your sister in Constantinople," flashed Sylvia. He grinned a little sheepishly. " It takes money to pave the way dog- ward," he explained. ' That is one ad- vantage of poverty. Champagne suppers are necessarily tabooed. But that is not the real reason either," he added quickly. " My father and mother may be in China, but they care a lot what I do, and say so, and Jack's people don't do either appar- ently. It makes a heap of difference, Syl- via. Do you suppose I could write my mother every week that everything was all right with me if I'd been put to Uecl every night by the butler or somebody else, in a soused condition? There is no use in 216 Sylvia's Experiment measuring Amidon and me with the same tape. You can't do it." Sylvia knew that well. Happy-go- lucky, spoiled, weak Jack Amidon was as far apart as the poles from the manly lad leaning against the mantel looking down at her with frank, troubled eyes. " Well," she said at last, " what can we do about it ? " 1 We can't do much of anything, but if I am not much mistaken you can do a heap." "How?" " Ask him out here." "Here? To the Christmas family?" " Yes. The poor chap is desperately lonely since his mother and sisters went, and not knowing what else to do he nat- urally got into mischief, and there's the deuce to pay. If you asked him out here he would be all right. Amidon is a mighty Mr. Mclntosh Is Convinced 217 decent chap if he's given half a chance. This would straighten him out in a jiffy. What do you say, Syl? I'm butting in as usual, but " Sylvia was silent a moment reflecting, as she sedulously piled blocks upon the tower she was constructing. She was not thinking of the blocks nor yet primarily of Jack Amidon, but of Phil Lorrimer and his big-hearted generosity. For she was woman enough to be aware that it was a generous thing to do, to overcome the boyish antagonism he had for the other lad and plead his cause heroically, even to begging that he might be admitted into the Christmas family, thus deliberately foregoing whatever advantage his own position held. And then Sylvia looked up with a smile, and somehow he knew that he had gained rather than lost by his unselfishness. 218 Sylvia's Experiment " Sure we'll have him, Phil, and thank you." He colored boyishly. " Don't thank me. If the Christmas family does half as much for Amidon as it has for me, it will accomplish wonders. Do you suppose if I had hung round town these two weeks that I'd have had a per- fectly clean slate myself?" " Yes/' said Sylvia loyally. But he shook his head decidedly. " I am not so hanged certain. I don't mean that I should have gotten drunk every night, but being idle and lonesome is the very devil. Beg pardon, but it's the truth. That is really all the trouble with Amidon. Just let him come out here and he'll be straight as a string." " All right," said Sylvia. " You think he would come? " " Sure he would come. He told me last Mr. Mclntosh Is Convinced 219 night I was the luckiest man he knew to be here. He was verdant with envy. Oh, he'll come all right. Just ask him." " We will," agreed Sylvia. " Phil, you are a regular brick the corner-stone of the Christmas family. Brother, isn't that a wonderful house? There, that is the las f block." Brother, who had been sitting in a chubby little heap at her elbow hugging his Teddy and contemplating the rising edifice, smiled beatifically but said noth- ing, for he was a cherub of few words. He gazed for a few moments in rapt ad- miration of the marvel. Then the smile deepened, and he fairly quivered with the joy of the idea which had taken possession of him. " Me knock it over," he cried raptur- ously, and forthwith suiting the action to the words, he wrought destruction and 220 Sylvia's Experiment the edifice became a scattered mass of blocks. "Sic semper tyrannis" laughed Phil, swooping up the destroyer in his arms and tossing him up to the ceiling, where he crowed with delight. Then the three went down-stairs together, Brother still triumphantly striding Phil's broad shoul- ders. Sylvia was once more that day called into secret conclave, this time by no less a person than the patriarch of the family who had come out on an earlier train than usual, especially to consult her as he in- formed her. The two happened for a won- der to have the library all to themselves, as the family was scattered about its re- spective business or pleasure. " Granddaughter Sylvia," began Mr. Mclntosh, without further preliminaries, " if I give Gus Nichols a chance to have Mr. Mclntosh Is Convinced 221 music lessons, is it going to be good or bad for him? Tell me that." " Why, good," promptly. " How could it be bad?" '' It might be bad if it led him to aban- don an every-day useful career and get his mind set on being a musician." "Why?" asked Sylvia, who did not re- gard professional musicians as all inevi- tably children of darkness as the old Scotchman did. Musicians, artists, liter- ary men and other charming Bohemians of the American quarter in Paris had flocked to her aunt's home in Paris, and the little girl Sylvia had seen the best side of them and their life. :< It is not er respectable to be a musician." " Oh, yes, it is," contradicted Sylvia gravely. " Dear Mr. Mclntosh, I am sure it is much more respectable to be a good 222 Sylvia's Experiment musician if God meant you to be one than a poor business man with a secret hanker- ing all the time to be a musician." " But," reiterated her companion, " how am I to know that he will be a good mu- sician? How do I know I am not simply putting fool notions in his head?' : " I guess the notion fool or otherwise is there already. You might as well reckon with it. As for his being a musi- cian after hearing him Christmas night have you any doubt of it? I haven't." He nodded understandingly, and she went on, seeing her advantage. ' If he can play like that without lessons, think what he could do if he had them! It will be the very best thing you ever did in your life, Mr. Grandpa." " I thought so," he chuckled well pleased, " but I wanted your opinion on the subject. I have a high regard for your Mr. Mclntosh Is Convinced 223 opinion, Miss Sylvia. Very well, Gus gets his lessons." " Is he going to keep on being your office boy? " ''' I suppose so. Why not? A little work won't hurt him if he is a genius." " No," agreed Sylvia, " but if you are going to give him a musical education, somebody has to see to his every-day edu- cation. He has to know more than just music if he is going to be a great musician. And he can't go to school and practise hours every day and keep on being an office boy, too." " Bless me! I hadn't thought of that." Mr. Mclntosh was manifestly perturbed. ' What a wise little head you keep under your curly top-knot, Miss Sylvia Arden. What shall we do about it ? " he chal- lenged. Sylvia smiled. 224 Sylvia's Experiment " Get a new office boy." " Naturally, but - " Not but at all just and. And you will send Gus to school, like the dear, thor- oughgoing gentleman you are! Don't you see how easy it is? ' : " Very easy. But where would he stay, while the educational hose was being turned on? He can't live as he has been living." " Certainly not. He will go to board- ing-school, or, better still, live with you." He stared, fairly confounded. This was an advance on the original proposition with a vengeance. "Wouldn't you like that?" inquired Sylvia blandly, as casually as if she were suggesting afternoon tea. His expression of what Phil would have called " eternal flabbergastedness " amused her. It was a daring suggestion and she knew it. But Mr. Mclntosh Is Convinced 225 she was quite as clever as Mr. Mclntosh gave her credit for, and even a little clev- erer, and she had long since learned the value of striking while the iron was hot. " Bless my soul! " he muttered. " Bless my soul! I am not at all sure I shouldn't like it. Bless my soul! I rather think I should. Excuse me, Miss Sylvia Arden, I must consider this. I believe I should like it. Bless my soul! I believe I should." CHAPTER XVII TWO DECISIONS BY Saturday the hospitable doors of the Christmas family had swung wide to admit two new guests, Bess Farwell and Jack Amidon. It would be hard to tell which of the two was hap- pier to be there. Bess had fled from her own extensive family as soon as its affec- tion and her own had permitted flight, and she was now all a-quiver with delight at being with Sylvia again, and seeing for herself how perfectly beautifully the Christmas family was turning out. Jack, looking a little wan and heavy-eyed after a too swift vacation pace, was pathetically grateful to be at Arden Hall, and pro- 226 Two Decisions 227 ceeded to make himself beloved by young and old, in part because it was his " nature to," and in part because he was wise enough to know that so he could best rehabilitate himself in Sylvia's eyes, for he realized that in spite of her kindness she did not forget. He knew only too well how she scorned weakness of any sort and felt himself silently condemned by her clear judgment. Mr. Mclntosh and Gus also became " regular inmates," as Phil put it. Doc- tor Tom alone took no respite from his busy every-day career, except for an occa- sional sleigh-ride or other brief frolic. But for all his business he was the life of the party, and the family owed much of its mirth and happiness to his gay, unselfish presence among them. On Sunday it began to snow and by the time the family returned from church the 228 Sylvia's Experiment somewhat shattered figures of Santa and his noble reindeer were mere formless drifts, so fast and furiously did the snow drive and whirl. All day the storm con- tinued and all night, to the especial satis- faction of Bess, who kept congratulating herself that she had arrived in season for this, which seemed to her city-bred soul the best possible entertainment, arranged as it were for her special benefit. She went about quoting " Snowbound," when- ever she could find any one to listen to her " ravings," as Phil dubbed them. But though the others pretended to make fun of her raptures they all enjoyed that storm. It seemed to bar out all the rest of the world and make the Christmas fam- ily more truly one with itself. And the pure beauty of the still, white world to which they awakened on Monday morn- ing was enough to enrapture any one. Two Decisions 229 The boys, and Sylvia and Bess, too, dug paths and frolicked in the drifts and pelted each other with soft snow and generally behaved as if they were about Marianna's age, only with immeasurably less dignity in their manner than that possessed by the demure little lady. Brother created a sensation by interring his Teddy in a snowy grave, and when he wished to bring his treasure back to life was unable to find the spot. He sent up a piercing wail on discovering this dire calamity, and every one flew to the rescue, and after much reconnoitering poor Teddy was at last ex- humed and restored to the embrace of his owner. The snow was too deep for Elizabeth to venture out in, but she watched the gay frolics from the window or happily crooned her dollies to sleep, no small task, by the way, for her family was very ex- 230 Sylvias Experiment tensive since Christmas morning and her conscientious care of them all consumed considerable time, as every young mother will understand. Elizabeth was very happy these days, not only in her present content but in her dreams of a happiness still greater when she should be made straight. On Saturday, Doctor Tom had promised that they would put her to sleep. She was not at all afraid. She knew Doc- tor Tom would take care of her and make her well again well and strong and straight like Marianna. In the afternoon the youngsters rioted indoors instead of out, until Aunt Mandy declared that if she wasn't " plum crazy it was 'cause the good Lord had presarved her from affliction." They made molasses candy in the kitchen. They unearthed an old game of battledore, which they played vigorously and vociferously in the hall. In Two Decisions 231 due time the invading horde reached the library, but the Christmas mother looked up so plaintively and deprecatingly that they took pity on her and calmed their exuberant spirits a little out of considera- tion for her. It was only an intermission, however, and it was only an open question when and how the throttled energies of the younger members of the family would burst their bonds again, in the form of some more violent explosion. When Doc- tor Tom arrived they surrounded him, de- manding what they should do next, for the evening's entertainment. " Do? Why, you are going snow-shoe- ing. Didn't you know that? How igno- rant ! " pityingly. And snow-shoeing they went, immedi- ately after dinner: Mrs. Emory, Sylvia, Bess, Doctor Tom, Phil, Jack, Gus and an- other boy from the neighborhood, whom 232 Sylvia's Experiment the doctor had thoughtfully provided to keep Gus company and make an even number. It must be confessed that the elders were secretly relieved when the merry troop were safely out of the house and the children in bed. A Christmas family is thoroughly delightful, but there are mo- ments when an interim of calm can be appreciated. " Mrs. Abbott and Bob," announced Mr. Mclntosh when they were seated quietly about the library table, " I have decided to adopt Gus Nichols. He is all alone in the world and so am I. Sylvia thinks we shall like it, and I rather think we shall. Anyway, we are going to try it." They congratulated him warmly and approved his decision. " He is a very fortunate boy," said Mrs. Two Decisions 233 Abbott. :< It is very, very good of you, Mr. Mclntosh." He sniffed, though his eyes beamed at the praise. : ' Like Sylvia, I disclaim any goodness in the matter. I am going to do it because I want to just as she collected her Christmas family. It's pure selfishness on both our parts." " A very pleasant kind of selfishness for the other parties," smiled Mrs. Abbott. Then her eyes sought the Professor's a bit wistfully. " Robert, shall we ask Mr. Mclntosh, just the same? " she questioned. He smiled back, understanding the pleading in her eyes. "Why not?" he counter-questioned. " It will be all the better to my thinking, under the circumstances." Mrs. Abbott turned, evidently well pleased, to Mr. Mclntosh. 234 Sylvias Experiment " Robert and I have been hoping you would make your home with us," she said. "Will you?" Mr. Mclntosh had not expected this. He was surprised and touched ridicu- lously touched by the considerate kindness and evident sincerity of the invitation. "You are sure you want me? I am a crotchety old Scotchman, remember," he warned with unusual humility. " We do want you," she assured him warmly. "And the boy?" he questioned. " Somehow I have set my heart on the boy." " We shall be doubly glad of him. Shall we not, Robert? " "We shall, indeed. He will keep us young." "And we shall love his music," added Mrs. Abbott. Two Decisions 235 There was an unusual softness in the old Scotchman's keen eyes as he held out his hand to the " born mother." He guessed a little of what this arrangement would mean not only to himself but to Gus, who needed a home with a gentle- woman in it even more than he himself did. " Mrs. Abbott," he told her gravely, as he pumped her hand energetically up and down. " You are a very good woman. You will make three lonely male creatures happy and comfortable, which is a great deal for one woman to do. Thank you." CHAPTER XVIII CONFIDENCES IT had thawed a little during the day and then frozen at sun-down, conse- quently the snow was in perfect con- dition for snow-shoes. There was a moon, too, which added to the perfection of the situation. The wide, untracked meadow was all an unbroken space of pure, daz- zling whiteness. The air was just frosty enough to be exhilarating, and the spirits of the party were at their best, so the eve- ning promised to be a huge success. The two younger lads forged ahead, blundering along like young buffalo, for neither was an expert snow-shoeist, al- though Gus had practised assiduously 236 Confidences 237 since his first attempt on Christmas day. Bess, too, was a novice, and Phil good- naturedly fell back with her, to render in- struction and assistance, while the others naturally divided in couples, with Sylvia and Jack ahead. Mrs. Emory smiled as Sylvia's merry laugh drifted back to them. " What a child she is! " she said to Doc- tor Tom. " I wish we could keep her like this." " Kittens will grow into cats," he smiled back. " It's the way of the world. Don't worry, though. Sylvia will be Sylvia to the end of the chapter. Years won't mat- ter much ever with her." " Perhaps not, but I hate to think of anything that isn't happy touching her. She is just made for happiness, somehow." " She will make her own happiness any- where, I fancy, and be none the worse for 238 Sylvia's Experiment having to sometime. Surely, little lady, you are too wise to want to keep her packed away in rose petals. She is too big for that fate is Sylvia. By the way, speaking of wisdom, I have been wanting for days to consult yours to ask you a personal question, if I may?' : She looked up at him a little startled, but his eyes reassured her, and she nodded assent. " It is altogether irrelevant and more or less impertinent," he warned. ' But it is rather an important question, and I have a notion that you can help me out if you will." "Well?" she interrogated, wondering what was coming. " Given a man with a good many claims upon him claims that are quite certain to keep him buried in comparative poverty all his days and a woman, beautiful, Confidences 239 wealthy, talented Q. E. D. Has the man any business to ask the woman to marry him? " " The premises are incomplete. I am to assume that the man loves the woman? " He nodded emphatically. " That, of course." "And the woman?" " 'Tisn't decent to premise too much on that score. Let us assume she likes him, at least." " Then he ought to give her a chance to decide." " It is asking her to make a tremendous sacrifice! " he objected. " I do not think so. If she loved him there would be no sacrifice. I remember once a dear old lady said to me, ' Felicia, don't give up much for the man you think you could live with. He won't be worth 240 Sylvia's Experiment it to you. But when the man comes along that you think you cannot live without, it doesn't matter what you have to give up, the scales will tip in his direction.' I did not understand then. I do now. I believe it is true. It was true for me. Sydney made up makes up for every- thing else. I have never ceased to be thankful that he had the courage to sep- arate essentials from non-essentials and ask me to share his poverty. Doctor Daly, I am telling you this because I believe you want an honest opinion. If a man loves a woman and there is no actual impedi- ment to his marriage, the least he can do is to give her the opportunity to accept or reject his love, according as its worth seems to her. If she cares, poverty is no barrier; if she doesn't that is the only barrier. Love is the test, and there you have my answer, Doctor Daly." Confidences 241 " Thank you," he responded gravely. There was a moment's silence and the two walked on quietly, she with thoughts wrapped in the past, he, in the future. Suddenly she looked up at him with a little frank, luminous smile. " Ask her, Doctor Daly," she said, with a tender laughter in her eyes. " So, as usual, the ostrich only hid his head," he smiled back. " Thank you, Mrs. Emory, I think I will." " Isn't it wonderfully white and clean and big?" Sylvia was saying, as she and Jack reached the brow of the hill and paused a moment for breath, looking back over the wide, moon-flooded meadow they had just traversed. " Oh, I just hate the city! Don't you, Jack?" she turned to him. " No, can't say I do. The noise and lights and hustle appeal to me somehow. 242 Sylvia's Experiment 'Tisn't esthetic, I know, but I may as well own I like it." "And you don't like this?" in some resentment. " Oh, yes, I do. I like it very much indeed, but I am a little afraid of it." "Afraid?" she puzzled. "I don't un- derstand." " No, I suppose you don't. It doesn't disapprove of you. It does of me. Elec- tric lights take a chap as they find him and ask no questions. The stars - ' he finished with a little expressive gesture. " Yes," said Sylvia, quick to catch his mood and respond to it, " I understand. The stars do ask questions. They expect things of us. They are something like a mother, I suppose," she added, reflectively, remembering what Phil had said the other day. " Not much like my mother," he re- Confidences 243 torted. " She's on the electric light order. There, you don't like that. It doesn't sound very chivalrous, I'll admit, but My mother has been away a month and I have been honored with one short epistle from her in that period, telling me that she and father were giving me a check for Christmas, and hoping I was having a pleasant vacation. That was all," he ended, a little bitterly. " I am sorry," said Sylvia. That seemed about all there was to say. " You needn't be. I am not worth it," gloomily. " It's the devil for mine, and probably if I had been blessed with the starriest kind of a mother, it would have been just the same. I'm made that way." " That's a cowardly, shiftless point of view," rebuked Sylvia. " You see that fence over there. Do you suppose if the wires got broken, the farmer would sit 244 Sylvia's Experiment down while the sheep got away, and say 'Too bad! But fences are just naturally bound to get broken. There's no help for it. I might as well let the sheep go now as any time '? " He laughed, and looked a little shame- faced as the application of her homely metaphor struck in. ' Well, what am I going to do about it?" he asked, after a minute. " Mend the fence," she retorted. " Come on, Jack, it is getting cold here and the others have gone on ahead, through the wood." They walked on a few moments in si- lence and soon found themselves in the pine forest with the deep whiteness all around them and the tall trees, laden with snow, while above the interlacing boughs was the deep purple blue sky and the stars, which shone all the brighter for the Confidences 246 moment, as the moon had gone behind a cloud. The voices of the others sounded remotely in the distance, but otherwise all was still save for the deep chant of the wind-swayed pines. The hush, the purity, the solemnity of the winter woods stirred both young hearts vaguely. Perhaps no eloquent di- vine could have preached to Jack Amidon so forcibly as this grave silence of stars and trees. Boylike he made no vows of penitence and reform, but when Sylvia turned at last with a little rapturous sigh, he nodded comprehendingly. " Guess I'll have to mend the fence," he observed casually, with a whimsical twinkle in his eyes. In spite of the twinkle there was a new mood of earnestness be- hind and Sylvia understood. She was too wise to embarrass him with words, how- ever, and simply held out her hand to him. 246 Sylvia's Experiment " I am glad, Jack," was all she said. "1 thought you would." Then they hurried on to overtake the others, and the moment of seriousness banished, though not forgotten. " Sylvia," said Doctor Tom, " this is your world. How do you like it?" "Love it, don't you?" " Ardently," he punned. Whereupon Sylvia invited the boys to bury him in the snow as punishment fo; his verbal offence, but he retorted, " First catch your hare," and brandished his arms so vigorously that they decided on discre- tion instead of valor. All the way home, they sang and frolicked and jested, and apparently every heart was as light as thistledown. When they finally reached the Hall they found hot cocoa and crisp buttered crack- ers and delicious hermit cookies and Confidences 247 cheese, set out on the kitchen stove and table, ready for consumption, " quick con- sumption," Phil observed, and so it proved. And oh, were they not the hun- griest mortals? Having a wholesome awe of Aunt Mandy and her immaculate kitchen, however, they paused long enough to bear the viands into the din- ing-room, and there they enjoyed the merry impromptu feast as they enjoyed everything in the Christmas family, with all their might. "Oh, dear," sighed Bess. "A week from to-night we will be back at St. Anne's -hateful old thing!" " How disrespectful to the dear old lady," grinned Jack. " She's not half bad. I like her." :< Perhaps I should if I only saw her at plays and recitals or in the parlor, from seven to eight once a week. She is 248 Sylvia's Experiment dreadfully monotonous taken consecu- tively, every day in the week, including Sundays." " Cheer up! The Prom is coming," said Sylvia, and then suddenly realized that she had unwittingly exploded a bomb. Two pairs of appealing boyish eyes were aimed in her direction. The question was as good as asked, " Will you go to the Prom with me?" And alas, there were four eyes to answer! Sylvia colored a lit- tle but she did not hesitate in her decision. There was only one answer to make, and she made it as swiftly and tactfully as possible. She leaned forward as if to ex- amine the carnations in the centre of the table. The flowers were all white but one, a great crimson one. Deliberately she drew out the crimson one and breathed its fragrance a moment before she tossed it carelessly to Phil. Confidences 249 " It did not belong with the white ones," she said casually. " You may have it, Phil." " Thank you," he answered, with a lit- tle ring of satisfaction in his voice. All the evening he had given Amidon his chance, but she had chosen him. He could not help feeling a bit elated. Jack, too, understood, and though cha- grined and disappointed, he did not ques- tion the justice of the decision. Good old Lorry! He deserved it. As for himself he had to see to that fence. And Sylvia was relieved to find him smiling a little quizzically at her when their eyes met. CHAPTER XIX NEW YEAR'S EVE AFTER Monday Mr. Mclntosh and Gus became once more intermit- tent guests at Arden Hall. The former was busy with the intricate con- cerns of a big manufactory, the latter was occupied in training an understudy. For Gus was to cease his business career tem- porarily, and set about obtaining a belated education, musical and otherwise. He was to attend a small private school out in Greendale, going in to the city twice a week for violin lessons, from the best in- struction obtainable for money. For Mr. Mclntosh did nothing by halves, and, hav- ing made up his mind that Sylvia's sug- 250 New Year's Eve 251 gestion was a good one, carried through the affair with a thoroughness that nearly took every one's breath away, especially the recipient of his bounty, who was happy but considerably overwhelmed by his sud- den transformation of universe. Why any one should want to adopt him was a mystery, but he took the gifts the gods provided gratefully, and went at his new tasks as strenuously as he had his old ones, and offered a dog-like loyalty, fidelity and affection to his benefactor which was a secret source of delight to that somewhat grim and taciturn gentleman. The grim- ness and taciturnity melted frequently these days, and Mr. Mclntosh went about talking about " my boy," and was as in- ordinately proud of the whole scheme as if he had invented it himself. The next few days of the vacation were given over to general hospitality. Tues- 252 Sylvias Experiment day afternoon brought five of Sylvia's school friends and as many lads, friends or brothers of the girls or chums of Phil and Jack. Arden Hall saw " high jinks " indeed. From the very minute of their arrival to their reluctant departure there was " something doing." The Professor, deeming the better part of valor to be discretion, fled from the scene of revelry on the pretext of a sci- entific convention, but the two ladies re- mained loyally on the spot, and frankly declared that they enjoyed chaperoning the gay crowd, and did it very well, too, as every one agreed, efficiently, but not too assiduously, as became the ideal chape- rone. Tuesday evening there was a sleigh- ride, with glorious sleighing and a full moon, not to mention the hot supper and impromptu dance in the beautiful old ball- New Tear's Eve 253 room, where the lights were turned out and they danced in the flooding moonlight to the strains of Gus Nichols' violin. The whole evening was a safe and sane sub- stitute, so far as the boys were concerned, for the usual riotous New Year's eve fes- tivities in the city. The next day was the occasion for spe- cial celebration, being New Year's. The morning was spent in decorating the di- ning-room and ballroom for the evening's gaieties, for there was to be a little dinner and a fancy dress ball. In the afternoon the boys were dismissed on a snow-shoe- ing expedition, while the girls, at Mrs. Abbott's suggestion, took some " beauty sleep." Evidently the latter was effica- cious, for a prettier bevy of girls could hardly have been seen anywhere than sat down to the little six o'clock dinner, given for the guests of the house and such others 254 Sylvia's Experiment as were to stay over for the dance. To the dance itself many friends had been invited from Greendale and from the city. Describe it? Who would attempt it? No mere print could do it justice. And, be- sides, what would be the use? You all know the kind of dance it was the kind you describe to your chum, next day, as the " loveliest party you ever went to," and add that positively you had the best time you ever had in your life or ever hope to have as long as you live. It was ex- actly that kind, you will understand, and enough said. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the evening was the minuet danced in the moonlight by pretty shepherdesses and Dianas and Cinderellas and Dolly Madi- sons and gallant Romeos and Sir Walter Raleighs and George Washingtons and Bobby Shaftos; a motley but charming New Year's Eve 255 company making a scene not to be for- gotten. There was an enchantment about that minuet that cast a fairy spell upon participants and beholders, and it was known ever after as " Sylvia's minuet." Perhaps this was due in part to the fact that Sylvia, dressed as her own great- grandmother in stiff brocaded satin, with powdered hair and cheeks like crimson roses and eyes like winter stars, was the loveliest lady there, dancing in the moon- light with her handsome cavalier, who was no other than " bonny Prince Charley," known in every-day life as Jack Amidon. And then the orchestra played the " Home, Sweet Home " waltz, and the never-to-be-forgotten New Year's ball came to an end, as all lovely things do sooner or later, and became a happy mem- ory. Thursday morning there was a tobog- 256 Sylvia's Experiment gan frolic arranged by Doctor Tom on a friend's slide. In the afternoon somebody discovered that the snow had been swept off the reservoir, and everybody rushed off pell-mell to skate. The skating was distinctly poor, but their spirits were not, and, after all, the ice was the less impor- tant consideration of the two. Impelled still by the power of perpetual motion they flew home, rosy-cheeked and breathless, to take the five-thirty train into town, where Jack Amidon was making a return in hospitality by giving a dinner at the LaFayette for the Christmas family and its guests, to be followed by a box party at the theatre. Perhaps the gener- ous Christmas check could not have been better expended. At any rate, there were no wines at dinner, and accordingly, as he whispered mischievously to Sylvia, " no breaks in the fence or otherwise." The New Year's Eve 257 play was Sylvia's own " As You Like It," delightful as ever, with a charming Rosa- lind who played the part bewitchingly and a woodland setting lovely as one dreams it, which is saying much. Perhaps there was inspiration in the presence of the gay party who had been " fleeting the time carelessly " together in true Arden fash- ion of late, and were quite in the proper mood consequently to enjoy the play. Anyway, every one said it was the best performance of the season, and certainly the Christmas family and their guests found it absolutely perfect. There were automobiles to take them back to Greendale. Jack Amidon was quite as thorough as Mr. Mclntosh when he got started, and spending money mag- nificently for the pleasure of his friends was quite in his line. The swift exhila- rating journey home through the frosty 258 Sylvias Experiment moonlit night at midnight was a fitting close to a glorious day whose hours had sped faster than Puck on his magic girdle. The next day the guests departed re- gretfully enough. Even Bess and Jack took a reluctant departure, though both had been invited to stay over Sunday. Bess longed to accept, but her sister and the babies were starting for Florida on Saturday, and her faithful soul impelled her to be on hand for the last good-bys, embraces and tears. Not that the occa- sion was so excessively sad. They would be back in a month, but Bess always wept at weddings and separations on general principles. As for Jack, something in the atmos- phere of the Christmas family stirred a rather sluggish conscience to the realiza- tion that he had already left his father too New Year's Eve 259 long alone in the great solitary house in the city. The doctors had warned his family that Mr. Amidon should not be left alone, on account of a bad heart, which was likely to cause his life to puff out like a candle in a draught at any moment, without warning. For a while they had all been very careful of him, and then, as nothing happened, they grew careless and almost forgot the physician's warnings. Mrs. Amidon and her two daughters had repaired to Palm Beach to worship at the inner shrine of society, relying, if they considered the matter at all, on the fact that Jack was home, which was all that was necessary. But Jack had hated the big lonely house, and had been in it as little as possible, heedless as the rest of the welfare of the quiet, busy man, who never complained but kept on making money for the others to spend. It would 260 Sylvia's Experiment be hard to say just what set Jack to think- ing of his responsibility in the matter, but that he did think was attested by the fact that he refused the invitation for a longer sojourn with the Christmas family, much as he desired to accept it. To tell the truth, he was a little surprised at his own fortitude, for he was unused to have his will listen to the dictates of his conscience. It was queer, as he admitted to himself, but he went home. They met at dinner that night, father and son, and the latter experienced an uneasy pang of remorse as he saw how worn and bent and grey the other looked, though he was not an old man. " Evening, Jack," remarked his father casually, as if he were accustomed to see- ing his son opposite him at table every night. That was all. The boy told him- self he might as well have followed his New Year's Eve 261 inclinations and stayed away, for all the warmth or pleasure there was in the greet- ing. There was a pause, during which the two silently consumed their bouillon. "Why did you come home? Tired of it?" inquired Mr. Amidon, at length. " No, I thought you might be lonesome without me," and the boy laughed a little constrainedly. He was not used to ma- king intimate conversation with this silent parent of his. " It is a long time since any one has cared whether I was lonely," observed his father, methodically breaking off a frag- ment of cracker. The lad colored, feeling rather than hearing the reproach in his father's words, for they had been spoken colorlessly enough. " I'm sorry," he faltered. " I'm afraid we've been a selfish lot, Dad." 262 Sylvias Experiment ''' Isn't this well rather a new line of thought?" Jack nodded emphatically. ' It was the Christmas family that did it. I never understood before. I've been a pig." Soup went out and fish came in before anything else was said. ' You are looking very well," remarked Mr. Amidon, presently. The boy flushed again, sensitively. He guessed what made the difference in his appearance. He had noticed it himself in his mirror with a mixture of satisfaction and chagrin. " I am feeling well," he answered. " I say, Dad, I'm on the water-wagon," he blurted out, rather unexpectedly to him- self. There was a faint quiver of the lashes only to indicate that the announcement New Year's Eve 263 carried with it any emotion to the lis- tener. " That is fortunate. I had been think- ing I ought to speak to you about that on your mother's account." Jack grinned a little scornfully. " She wouldn't care or, yes, I suppose she wouldn't consider it comme il faut to get drunk." A ghost of a smile gleamed for a mo- ment in the narrow grey eyes, then faded. " My boy," said Mr. Amidon quietly, " when a gentleman discovers the frailties of his womankind he buries them in silence." " I know," Jack acknowledged the mild rebuke. " I beg her pardon and yours." ' It may make a difference to you to know that your resolution pleases me very much very much indeed," added the man. 264 Sylvia's Experiment " It makes a heap of difference," said the boy heartily, unconsciously echoing Phil Lorrimer. " Thank you. I shall remember. It will help." Fish had gone out and meat had come in and gone before another word was spoken. It was as if both were a little alarmed at their unusual burst of confiden- tialness. Over the salad the father spoke again. " I am very glad you came home, sen very glad. It was lonely eating alone." The very simplicity of the words, the absence of all reproach touched the lad somehow, but something rose in his throat and prevented response. "You had a pleasant time?" Perhaps the other suspected the obstruction in his son's throat and desired to set him at ease again by the casual inquiry. " Corking ! " And Jack launched into New Year's Eve 265 an enthusiastic account of the doings at Arden Hall, which lasted through coffee. At last they rose and the man, obeying a sudden impulse, laid both hands on the boy's shoulders and they looked straight into each other's eyes a moment, with a new sense of comradeship, but all that was spoken was Jack's apparently careless, " Come and have a game of billiards, Dad," and arm in arm they passed out of the dining-room. CHAPTER XX THE CHRISTMAS FAMILY ADJOURNS WELL," said Sylvia, " it has all been perfectly splendid - every minute of it, only I do believe it is nicest when we are all by our- selves just a Christmas family. What do you say, Phil ? " " Same as your honor. We've had a corking time, but I like just ' we-uns ' best. By the way," looking up at the clock, " I think I will go down and meet the Pro- fessor. He's corning on the eight-fifteen. Excuse me please, everybody." He had hardly gone before Doctor Tom came in. Doctor Tom was always cheer- 266 The Christmas Family Adjourns 267 ful, but to-night he fairly radiated hap- piness. It almost struck sparks, as Sylvia told him. ' Whatever does ail you, Doctor Tom? " she demanded. " Is it getting rid of the house-party or what?" '' It's what. Young woman, do you be- hold this piece of paper?" He waved a yellow telegram before her eyes. " Do you know what is on it? Just one word. But it's enough to make any man look fit to bust. What's the word? You have three guesses." " One word! I can't think of anything that could make you so happy in just one word," she puzzled. " I can," smiled Mrs. Emory. " What? " demanded Sylvia. " ' Yes/ " said Mrs. Emory. "What!" repeated Sylvia, interjection- ally this time. 268 Sylvia's Experiment "Right," agreed Doctor Tom. "The lady gets the prize." " But I don't understand." Sylvia was still mystified. " Stupid ! I am engaged to the sweetest, dearest, cleverest, blessedest, beautifullest girl in the world. That is what this means," brandishing the telegram again. "Doctor Tom! Who is she? Why didn't you tell me you were in love?' reproachfully. " One of those things better left unsaid until one is in a position to shout it except in the ear of one's confidential ad- viser," he added, with a smile at Felicia. " She is Lois Garth Adams. Do you won- der I hesitated until I was almost lost before I trumped up courage to ask her? " " The one who writes those adorable stories for the gilt-edged magazines?' 1 " The same, only she is infinitely more The Christmas Family Adjourns 269 adorable than her stories. Was I not a presumptuous customer? I don't believe I should ever have dared if it hadn't been for Felicia. Pardon the name slipped out. Please remember I am a lit- tle crazy to-night. Anyway, a name like yours ought to be a mascot. It would bring anybody luck and happiness." " You don't need any mascot to get yours," said Sylvia. ' You deserve any amount of luck and happiness, and I hope you will get it loads of it don't we, Christmas mother and Felicia?" And they assented heartily. " Hello, Phil," said the Professor, as the boy held out one hand for the suitcase and extended the other in cordial greet- ing. " This is something like to be met ^t the station in real family fashion. How is everything? " 270 Sylvia's Experiment " Fine and dandy. The attacking legion has retired in good order, and the fort is still in our possession," he grinned. " I say, Professor, do you remember the little ditty about " ' He who fights and runs away Will live to fight another day ' ? Honest Injun, didn't you run away? Was there really a convention?" ' There was," smiled the Professor. " On my honor there was. I don't mind admitting, however, that I did regard that convention in the light of a dispensation of Providence." Phil laughed, and they swung into a pleasant brisk pace up the snowy hill road. " We settled the South American expe- dition," observed the Professor, after a brief interval of silence. "Oh!" said Phil evenly, though his heart jumped. The Christmas Family Adjourns 271 ' The party is practically made up." "And you are going?" eagerly. Professor Lane shook his head, half regretfully. " No, I refused. Hale of Wisconsin goes in my place. I should have liked to go. I meant to. But the Christmas fam- ily knocked that all out. It is no trip for a woman, and when a man is as old as I am he has to compute comparative val- ues and choose. I chose not to go, this time." The lad breathed a little more quickly, but otherwise there was no sign that the other's words were a blow. After a mo- ment he spoke quietly but steadily, with perfect self-control. He was no child to cry out when he was hurt. " I see. They must have been sorry to lose you, Professor." " There are always plenty of men to step 272 Sylvia's Experiment into your shoes, Phil. You will find that out some day. Nobody is quite as impor- tant as he likes to think he is. There is always another man ready and able to fill the place you meant to fill your- self." " I suppose so." He swallowed hard. He couldn't help wondering who the chap was who was going to fill his place on the expedition his all but promised place. " They wanted a young chap to go along," the Professor continued, " a stu- dent with brains and pluck and health and enthusiasm. They asked me to rec- ommend the man. I said I knew just one who would fill the requirements and that was Philip Lorrimer. And they said, ' Very well Philip Lorrimer it is.' How is that, my boy? " Phil gasped, overcome for a moment by the sudden revulsion of feeling. The, Christmas Family Adjourns 273 ''' But are you sure they want me? They don't know me," he stammered. The Professor smiled. " But I do," he said quietly, " and they took my word for you, and they are not going to be disappointed, I fancy. Phil, my lad, I do know you pretty well bet- ter perhaps than you realize. I've seen you in a good many lights, in college and out, and especially here in the Christmas family, and there isn't a man I know that I can more heartily recommend for the post. It will be a big thing for you. I envy you a bit. I wonder just how old a man has to be before he foregoes the possibility of eating his cake and having it, too," and he smiled a little whimsically. On Saturday Elizabeth was " put to sleep." These were strenuous days for Doctor Tom. One day he was the hilari- 274 Sylvias Experiment ous youngster, irrepressibly bubbling over with his new happiness, the next, he was a man with a stern task before him which sobered and steadied him. It was* a sterner task than even he had realized, but he won. It would be a long time be- fore Elizabeth would walk again, but when she did she would be straight as she had prayed God to let her be. It was a strange quiet evening that Sat- urday at Arden Hall. Neither Doctor Tom nor Mr. Emory left the hospital that night, and it was Sylvia who put the chil- dren to bed and forced herself to tell them the usual good-night story. Later she and Gus played a little, but to-night the notes blurred, and the music Elizabeth loved was almost unendurable. At last came a cheerful telephone message from the doc- tor. " Everything all right. Go to bed and sleep, like a good girl, and don't The Christmas Family Adjourns 275 worry. I will call you if anything goes wrong, but it won't." And it didn't. Eliz- abeth rallied wonderfully from the anes- thetic, and was able to see Sylvia for a few moments on Sunday afternoon, though she could only lie and smile hap- pily up at her beloved friend, through whom she was being made " straight like Marianna." By Monday things were progressing even more favorably, and, to add to the general satisfaction, a cable message ar- rived from Mr. Gordon, seconding Sylvia's request and Doctor Tom's suggestion, to ask Felicia Emory to keep Arden Hall open for its young mistress. In spite of her delight at this piece of good news and joy at Elizabeth's fair pros- pects of satisfactory recovery, Sylvia could not help feeling rather sober at luncheon. The Christmas family was about to dis- 276 Sylvias Experiment solve, and the knowledge was almost un- bearable. It had all been so perfectly lovely. Why must it end? " Cheer up, lassie! " said Mr. Mclntosh, who had made a special effort to come out for this the last meal which the Christmas family were to have together. " There is hope yet. The Christmas family isn't go- ing to vanish into non-existence. It is merely temporarily disbanding, or, rather, adjourning. Gus and I are coming to the Hall just as often as we are invited. As for next summer, when these giddy globe- trotters desert us, we shall come whether we are invited or not." " Do," begged Sylvia, smiling through her gloom. " The Professor and Mrs. Ab- bott will be gone and Phil, but there will be you and Gus and Felicia and the chil- dren, and we are going to keep Elizabeth bless her. And Doctor Tom will be The Christmas Family Adjourns 277 near, and the house will never, never be shut up again as long as I live. It is going to be a home, isn't it, Felicia? Oh, every- thing is turning out beautifully. I ought not to complain. I had my Christmas family my dear, beautiful Christmas family and they were dearer and beau- tifuller even than I imagined them. And so many nice things have happened, with you and Gus made so comfortable and happy, and the Professor and the Christ- mas mother going to be all nicely married in the spring. They are going to do it out here in apple-blossom time, you know, and you are all going to come and help. Then it is so wonderful that Elizabeth is going to be well and strong, and that I am going to keep her and Felicia and Marianna and Brother, and have a real family all the time waiting for me. And, of course, we are all glad that Phil is going to South 278 Sylvia's Experiment America, though we shall miss him dread- fully, and " She paused for breath, and Doctor Tom humorously took up the thread of beati- tude. " And it is perfectly grand that I am going to be married some time. Come to count up, we each have a special bless- ing emanating from the Christmas family and its founder. I propose a toast to Miss Sylvia Arden may she go on carrying Christmas joy to people all her life long, and be as happy as she makes the rest of us," and, as he raised his glass of water, the others heartily followed suit, and drained the toast, while Sylvia sat still, pleased but a little overcome by the unex- pected demonstration. " Speech ! Speech ! " cried Phil. But Sylvia laughed and blushed and shook her head. The. Christmas Family Adjourns 279 " You do it for me," she begged of the Professor. He rose slowly, smiling his serene smile. " When I was a boy," he began, " I used to like to throw a stone into the water so as to see the circles around it grow bigger and bigger, until they grew so big that you couldn't count them or see them, but they kept on widening all the time. It occurs to me that Miss Sylvia Arden is a good deal like that stone." " Hear! Hear! " cried Doctor Tom ap- provingly. " So she is," said Mrs. Emory. " I don't believe she or any of us will ever be able to count or see the circles which she and her beautiful thought of a Christmas fam- ily have set in motion." ''' It wasn't me," protested Sylvia, with more warmth than strict grammar. " It was all of you the Christmas mother 280 Sylvia's Experiment and Doctor Tom and you, Felicia, and the children, and Oh, all of you! It was just the Christmas family!" she ended inclusively. " A rising toast to ourselves, then," said Phil: " May we keep on adding and mul- tiplying if we like but never be subtracted or divided. I give you the Christmas family." THE END. i ;:!:;;;:;;!;;;;!::;;;;;;;;:;!*. ;!;;*. ; MISS BILLY-MARRIED ^ A Sequel to " Miss Billy " and " Miss Ijfe Billy'* Decision" $y Eleanor H. 'Porter Author of " Pollyanna : " The GLAD Book ( Trade Mark\ " Crow Currents," " The Turn of the Tide," etc. 9 1 2mo, cloth decorative, with frontispiece in full color, decorative jacket. &et $ 1 .25; carriage paid $1.40 In which the gifted author of "Pollyanna," the most popular book for the year 1913, scores another success and makes of the married life of adorable Billy Neilson the heroine of the MISS BILLY books and Bertram Henshaw a story of un- usual tenderness and sweetness. There is a deal of delicious humor and common sense, too, in the story, and happiness in abundance, even in the trying days when the young bride finds herself bereft of a cook and burdened with the care of a Bea- con Street household. But whether the weather be fair or threatening, she is " just Billy," happy when making someone's burden lighter, happier still with the advent of Bertram, Jr., and happiest of all when her husband is able to use his strong jj right arm again, even to paint the dreaded "face of a girl." As is the case with all of Mrs. Porter's books, the story is " always life," gracefully and sympathetically presented, carry- ing with it a message of happiness. THE ROSE OF ROSES rs. Henry Backus Author of " The Career of Dr. Weaver " 9 I2mo, clolh decorative, with frontispiece in full color &ct $1.25 ; carriage paid $1.40 A girl of unusual beauty, endowed with a singing voice of rare quality, and possessor of that charm of person which men some- times describe as magnetic, this is Fraulein Antoinette Kroger, whom Conrad Questenberg, a young American archi- tect, visiting abroad, first meets in a Kaffee-haus in Bremen, Germany, where the fair " Toni " entertains every evening. Toni has ambitions which lean towards a career in Amertka, as Questenberg learns at what he had intended to be his fare- well meeting with the girl. Very generously he offers a chance of a voyage to the land of the free if Toni will agree to " a trial engagement." Impulsively, she accepts, and then the love game is on. The author has achieved a thing unusual in developing a love story which adheres to conventions under unconventional circumstances. She has written a novel out of the ordinary in every way and one of striking brilliance, remarkable for its unaffectedness and human interest appeal. MISS MADELYN MACK, DETECTIVE rjj^ In which are solved the mysteries of "The Purple Thumb," or "The White Orchids," "The Man with Nine Lives," "The Missing Bridegroom," " Cinderella's Slipper," etc. y Hugh C. Weir 1 2 mo, cloth decorative, with a frontispiece in full color, from a painting by Wm. 1}an Dresser. Net $ 1 . 25; carriage paid $ 1 . 40 No field of fiction is more interesting than that of a detect- ive, or professional investigator of mysteries, and it is easy to predict a popular welcome for this clever story of Mr. Weir's. Thereader will be absorbed in following the clues which guided Madelyn Mack, the unique woman detective, in the solution of the strange mystery of " The Purple Thumb." And this is only one of her remarkable cases in a continuous series of adventures which constitute a tale of swift and dramatic action. Clever in plot and effective in style, the author has seized on some of the most sensational features of modern life, and the result is a detective novel that gets away from the beaten track of mystery stories in the first page and never returns to it. PLANTATION STORIES OF OLD LOUISIANA ndreas Wilkinson I2mo, cloth decorative, illustrated by Charles Livingston Bull &Cet $2. 00; carriage paid $2.20 Primarily, these nature and animal stories are for the chil- dren's hour, but their underlying philosophy and humor will charm every member of the household from the smallest toddler to the old folks. In Old Jason, the author has created a character who will rival the justly famed Uncle Remus. The old fellow's legends, related in the quaint negro dialect of the South of years ago, are remarkable examples of a vanishing folk lore and are certain to entertain even the most blase reader. Nor has the author been satisfied with having created only that delightful character. He has included in his volume stories of birds and animals which will take rank with Kipling's Jungle Books ; he has given us stories in the hitherto little known Creole dialect, and through them all he has maintained an attractive interest which grasps the reader at the very outset and holds him until the last page has been read. %&&V8&^^ Selections from The Page Company's List of Fiction WORKS OF ELEANOR H. PORTER POLLYANNA: The GLAD Book (170,000) (TRADE MARK) Cloth decorative, illustrated by Stockton Mulford. Net, $1.25; carriage paid, $1.40 " All unconsciously it teaches a simple, wholesome lesson, which, if followed, would quickly transform this old world as a place to live in." Ex-Postmaster General John Wanamaker. MISS BILLY (9th Printing) Cloth decorative. With a frontispiece in full color from a painting by G. Tyng $1.50 " The story is delightful, and as for Billy herself she's all right ! " Philadelphia Press. MISS BILLY'S DECISION (5th Printing) A sequel to " Miss Billy." Cloth decorative. With a frontispiece in full color from a paifating by Henry W. Moore . Net, $1.25; carriage paid, $1.40 " The story is written in bright, clever style and has plenty of action and humor. Miss Billy is nice to know and so are her friends." New Haven Times Leader. CROSS CURRENTS Cloth decorative, illustrated $1.00 " To one who enjoys a story of life as it is to-day, with its sorrows as well as its triumphs, this volume is sure to appeal." Book News Monthly. THE TURN OF THE TIDE Cloth decorative, illustrated $1.25 " A very beautiful book showing the influence that went to the developing of the life of a dear little girl into a true and good woman." Herald and Presbyter, Cincinnati, Ohio. THE PAGE COMPANY'S WORKS OF L. M. MONTGOMERY ANNE OF GREEN GABLES (88ih Printing) Cloth decorative, illustrated by M. A. and W. A. J. Glaus. $1.50 " In ' Anne of Green Gables ' you will find the dearest and most moving and delightful child since the immortal Alice." Mark Twain in a letter to Francis Wilson. ANNE OF AVONLEA (20th Printing) Cloth decorative, illustrated by George Gibbs . $1.50 " A book to lift the spirit and send the pessimist into bank- ruptcy! " Meredith Nicholson. CHRONICLES OF AVONLEA (6th Printing) Cloth decorative, illustrated by George Gibbs. Net, $1.25; carriage paid, $1.40 " The author shows a wonderful knowledge of humanity, great insight and warm-heartedness in the manner in which some of the scenes are treated, and the sympathetic way the gentle peculiarities of the characters are brought out." Baltimore Sun. THE STORY GIRL (7th Printing) Cloth decorative, illustrated by George Gibbs . . $1.50 " A book that holds one's interest and keeps a kindly smile upon one's lips and in one's heart as well." Chicago Inter- Ocean. KILMENY OF THE ORCHARD (9th Printing) Cloth decorative, illustrated by George Gibbs . . $1.50 " A story born in the heart of Arcadia and brimful of the sweet and simple life of the primitive environment." Boston Herald. THE GOLDEN ROAD (3d Printing) Cloth decorative, illustrated by George Gibbs. Net, $1.25; carriage paid, $1.40 In which it is proven that " Life was a rose-lipped comrade with purple flowers dripping from her fingers." " It is a simple, tender tale, touched to higher notes, now and then, by delicate hints of romance, tragedy and pathos." Chicago Record-Herald. LIST OF FICTION WORKS OF CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS HAUNTERS OF THE SILENCES Cloth, one volume, with many drawings by Charles Livingston Bull, four ot wbicU are in full color .... $2.00 The stories in Mr. Roberta's new collection are the strongest and best he has ever written. He has largely taken for his subjects those animals rarely met with in books, whose lives are spent " In the Silences," where they are the supreme rulers. Mr. Roberts has written of them sympa- thetically, as always, but with fine regard for the scientific truth. " As a writer about animals, Mr. Roberts occupies an enviable place, lie is the most literary, as well as the most imaginative and vivid of all the nature writers." Brooklyn Eagle. RED FOX THE STORY OF His ADVENTUROUS CAREER IN THE RINGWAAK WILDS, AND OF His FINAL TRIUMPH OVER THE ENEMIES OF His KIND. With fifty illustrations, including frontispiece in color and cover design by Charles Livingston Bull. Square quarto, cloth decorative $2.00 " True in substance but fascinating as fiction. It will interest old and young, city-bound and free-footed, those who know ani- mals and those who do not." Chicago Record-Herald. " A brilliant chapter in natural history." Philadelphia North American. THE KINDRED OF THE WILD A BOOK OF ANIMAL LIFE. With fifty-one full-page plates and many decorations from drawings by Charles Livingston Bull Square quarto, decorative cover $2.00 " Is in many ways the most brilliant collection of animal stories that has appeared; well named and well done." John Bur- roughs. THE WATCHERS OF THE TRAILS A companion volume to " The Kindred of the WHd." With forty-eight full-page plates and many decorations from draw- ings by Charles Livingston BulL Square quarto, decorative cover . , . . . $2.00 THE PAGE COMPANY'S " These stories are exquisite in their refinement, and yet robust in their appreciation of some of the rougher phases of woodcraft . Among the many writers about animals, Mr. Roberts occupies an enviable place." The Outlook. " This is a book full of delight. An additional charm lies in Mr. Bull's faithful and graphic illustrations, which in fashion all their own tell the story of the wild life, illuminating and supplementing the pen pictures of the author." Literary Digest. THE HOUSE IN THE WATER With thirty full-page illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull and Frank Vining Smith. Cover design and decorations by Charles Livingston Bull. 12mo, cloth decorative $1 .50 " Every paragraph is a splendid picture, suggesting in a few words the appeal of the vast, illimitable wilderness." The Chicago Tribune. THE HEART THAT KNOWS Library 12mo, cloth, decorative cover . . . $1 .50 " A novel of singularly effective strength, luminous in literary color, rich in its passionate, yet tender drama." New York Globe. EARTH'S ENIGMAS A new edition of Mr. Roberta's first volume of fiction, pub- lished in 1892, and out of print for several years, with the addi- tion of three new stories, and ten illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull. Library 12mo, cloth, decorative cover . . . . $1.50 " It will rank high among collections of short stories. In ' Earth's Enigmas ' is a wider range of subject than in the ' Kin- dred of the Wild.' " Review from advance sheets of the illustrated edition by Tiffany Blake in the Chicago Evening Post. BARBARA LADD With four illustrations by Frank Verbeck. Library 12mo, cloth, decorative cover . . . $1.50 " From the opening chapter to the final page Mr. Roberts lures us on by his rapt devotion to the changing aspects of Nature and by his keen and sympathetic analysis of human character." Boston Transcript. LIST OF FICTION' CAMERON OF LOCHIEL Translated from the French of Philippe Aubert de Gaspe", with frontispiece in color by H. C. Edwards. Library 12mo, cloth decorative $1.50 " Professor Roberta deserves the thanks of his reader for giving a wider audience an opportunity to enjoy this striking bit 01 French Canadian literature." Brooklyn Eagle. THE PRISONER OF MADEMOISELLE With frontispiece by Frank T. Merrill. Library 12mo, cloth decorative SI. 50 A tale of Acadia, a land which is the author's heart's delight, of a valiant young lieutenant and a winsome maiden, who first captures and then captivates. THE HEART OF THE ANCIENT WOOD With six illustrations by James L. Weston. Library 12mo, decorative cover ..... $1.50 " One of the most fascinating novels of recent days." Boston Journal. " A classic twentieth-century romance." New York Commer- cial Advertiser. THE FORGE IN THE FOREST Being the Narrative of the Acadian Ranger, Jean de Mer, Seigneur de Briart, and how he crossed the Blac'c Abbe", and of his adventures in a strange fellowship. Illustrated by Henry Sandham, R. C. A. Library 12mo, cloth decorative $1.50 A story of pure love and heroic adventure. BY THE MARSHES OF MINAS Library 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . $1.50 Most of these romance aix in the author's lighter and more playful vein; each is a unit of absorbing interest and exquisite workmanship. A SISTER TO EVANGELINE Being the Story of Yvonne de Lamourie, and how she went into exile with the villagers of Grand Pre". Library 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . . $1.50 Swift action, fresh atmosphere. wloKsome purity, deep pa?- gion, and searching analysis characterize this strong novel. THE PAGE COMPANY'S WORKS OF THEODORE GOODRIDGE ROBERTS THE HARBOR MASTER Cloth decorative, with a frontispiece in full color from a painting by John Goss. Net, $1.25; carriage paid, $1.40 The salt of the sea is in every chapter. From start to finish the story thrills with its action and clear presentation of life in the open." Kansas City Star. RAYTON: A Backwoods Mystery Cloth decorative, illustrated by John Goss. Net, $1.25; carriage paid, $1.40 " The story has plenty of action, breathes of the fresh fields and forests of New Brunswick, and presents life in all its health and vigor." Boston Transcript. A CAPTAIN OF RALEIGH'S Cloth decorative, with a frontispiece in full color from a paint- ing by John Goss . . $1.50 " A strong, straightforward tale of love and adventure, well worth reading." Springfield Union. A CAVALIER OF VIRGINIA Cloth decorative, illustrated by Louis D. Gowing . $1.50 " The action is always swift and romantic and the love is of the kind that thrills the reader. The characters are admirably drawn and the reader follows with deep interest the adventures of the two young people." Baltimore Sun. HEMMING, THE ADVENTURER Cloth decorative, with six illustrations by A. G. Larned. $1.50 " Its ease of style, its rapidity, its interest from page to page, are admirable; and it shows that inimitable power the story teller's gift of verisimilitude." The Reader. BROTHERS OF PERIL Cloth decorative, with four illustrations in color by H. C. Edwards $1.50 A tale of Newfoundland in the sixteenth century, and of the now extinct Beothic Indians who lived there. " An original and absorbing story. A dashing story with a historical turn. There is no lack of excitement or action in it, all being described in vigorous, striking style." Boston Tran- script. LIST OF FICTION WORKS OF ROBERT NEILSON STEPHENS Each one volume, library 12mo, cloth decorative . . $1.50 THE FLIGHT OF GEORGIANA A ROMANCE OF THE DATS OF THE YOUNG PKETENDER. Illus- trated4>y H. C. Edwards. " A love-story in the highest degree, a dashing story, and a remarkably well finished piece of work." Chicago Record- Herald. THE BRIGHT FACE OF DANGER Being an account of some adventures of Henri de Launay, son of the Sieur de la Tournoire. Illustrated by H. C. Edwards. " Mr. Stephens has fairly outdone himself. We thank him heartily. The story is nothing if not spirited and entertaining, rational and convincing." Boston Transcript. THE MYSTERY OF MURRAY DAVENPORT (40th thousand.) " This is easily the best thing that Mr. Stephens has yet done. Those familiar with his other novels can best judge the measure of this praise, which is generous." Buffalo News. CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW OR, THE MAID OF CHEAPSIDE. (52d thousand.) A romance of Elizabethan London. Illustrations by Howard Pyle and other artists. Not since the absorbing adventures of D'Artagnan have we had anything so good in the blended vein of romance and comedy. " The story proceeds with a rapidity which holds the attention of the reader from the start to the finish. The characters are well portrayed with a vividness only found in this well-known author." The Waterbury Democrat. " It is a work of fiction well worth reading, and once read it is not easily forgotten." Common Sense Magazine, Chicago. THE CONTINENTAL DRAGOON A ROMANCE OF PHILIPSE MANOR HOTJSE IN 1778. (53d thousand.) Illustrated by H. C. Edwards. A stirring romance of the Revolution, with its scenes laid on neutral territory. " One of the most delightful stories we have had for many a day." Chicago Record-Herald. 8 THE PAGE COMPANY'S PHILIP WINWOOD (70th thousand.) A Sketch of the Domestic History of an American Captain in the War of Independence, embracing events that occurred between and during the years 1763 and 1785 in New York and London. Illustrated by E. W. D. Hamilton. AN ENEMY TO THE KING (70th thousand.) Illustrated by H. De M. Young. An historical romance of the sixteenth century, describing the adventures of a young French nobleman at the court of Henry III., and on the field with Henry IV. THE ROAD TO PARIS A STORY OF ADVENTURE. (35th thousand.) Illustrated by H. C. Edwards. An historical romance of the eighteenth century, being an account of the life of an American gentleman adventurer. A GENTLEMAN PLAYER His ADVENTURES ON A SECRET MISSION FOR QUEEN ELIZA- BETH. (48th thousand.) Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill. The story of a young gentleman who joins Shakespeare's company of players, and becomes a protg of the great poet. CLEMENTINA'S HIGHWAYMAN Illustrated by A. Everhart. The story is laid in the mid-Georgian period. It is a dashing, sparkling, vivacious comedy. TALES FROM BOHEMIA Illustrated by Wallace Goldsmith. These bright and clever tales deal with people of the theatre and odd characters in other walks of life which fringe on Bohemia. A SOLDIER OF VALLEY FORGE By ROBERT NEILSON STEPHENS AND THEODORE GOODRIDGB ROBERTS. With frontispiece by Frank T. Merrill. " The plot shows invention and is developed with originality, and there is incident in abundance." Brooklyn Times. THE SWORD OF BUSSY By ROBERT NEILSON STEPHENS AND HERMAN NICKERSON. With frontispiece by Edmund H. Garrett. Net, $1.25; carriage paid, $1.40 " The plot is lively, dashing and fascinating, the very kind of a story that one does not want to stop reading until it is finished." Boston Herald* LIST OF FICTION WORKS OF LILIAN BELL CAROLINA LEE With a frontispiece in color by Dora Wheeler Keith. Library 12rno, cloth, decorative cover . . $1.50 " A charming portrayal of the attractive life of the South, refreshing us a breeze that blows through a pine forest '' Albany Times-Union. HOPE LORING Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill. Library 12mo, cloth, decorative cover . . . . $1.50 " Tall, slender, and athletic, fragile-looking, yot with nerves and sinews of steel under the velvet flesh, frank as a boy and tender and beautiful as a woman, free and independent, yet no* bold such is ' Hope Loring.' " Dorothy Dix. ABROAD WITH THE JIMMIES With a portrait in duogravure, of the author. Library 12mo, cloth, decorative cover . . . $1.50 " Full of ozone, of snap, of ginger, of swing and momentum." Chicago Evening Post. AT HOME WITH THE JARDINES Library 12uio, cloth, decorative cover .... $1.50 " Bits of gay humor, sunny, whimsical philosophy, and keen indubitable insight into the less evident Aspects and workings of pure human nature, with a slender thread of a cleverly extraneous love story, keep the interest of the reader fresh/' Chicago Record-Herald. THE CONCENTRATIONS OF BEE With colored frontispiece Library 12mo, cloth, decorative ccver . $1.50 " One of the cleverest, women writers of fiction is Lilian Bell. She belongs to the younger class, old enough to have experience, but not old enough to have lost the saving grace of enthusiasm," Los Angeles Express. THE INTERFERENCE OF PATRICIA AND A BOOK OF GIRLS Witn a frontispiece from drawing by Frank T. Merrill. Library 12mo, cloth, decorative cover . . . . $1.50 " Lilian Bell surely understands girls, for she depicts all the variations of girl nature so charmingly." Chicago Journal. THE PAGE COMPANY'S WORKS OF NATHAN GALLIZIER THE SORCERESS OF ROME Cloth decorative, with four drawings in color by " The Kin- neys" .... $1.50 The love-story of Otto III., the boy emperor, and Stephania, wife of the Senator Crescentius of Rome. CASTEL DEL MONTE Cloth decorative, with six drawings by H. C. Edwards. $1.50 A romance of the fall of the Hohenstaufen dynasty in Italy. THE COURT OF LUCIFER Cloth decorative, with four drawings in color by " The Kin- neys " $1.50 An historical romance woven around the famous Borgia family. THE HILL OF VENUS Cloth decorative, with four drawings in color by Edmund H. Garrett. Net, $1.35; carriage paid, $1.50 This is a vivid and powerful romance of the thirteenth century in the times of the great Ghibelline wars. WORKS OF HELEN M. WINSLOW THE PLEASURING OF SUSAN SMITH Cloth decorative, illustrated by Jessie Gillespie. Net, $1.00; carriage paid, $1.15 " One is glad to recommend this book to folk who care for romance, humor and good sense, simplicity and brevity as quite the sort of reading they are sure to like by way of enter- tainment." Chicago Inter-Ocean. PEGGY AT SPINSTER FARM Cloth decorative, illustrated by Mary G. Huntsman . $1.50 "Very alluring is the picture she draws of the old-fashioned house, the splendid old trees, the pleasant walks, the gorgeous sunsets, and or it would not be Helen Winslow the cats." The Boston Transcript. LIST OF FICTION- II WORKS OF GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO Signer d'Annunzio is known throughout the woild as a poet and a dramatist, but above all as a novelist, for it is in his novels that he is at his best, in poetic thought and graceful expression he has few equals among the writers of the day. He is engaged on a most ambitious work nothing less than the writing of nine novels which cover the \\hole field of human sentiment. This work he has divided into three trilogies, and five of the nine books have been published. It is to be regretted that other labors have interrupted the completion of the series. " This book is realistic. Some say that it is brutally so. But the realism is that of Flaubert, and not of Zola. r lhere is no plain speaking for the sake of plain speaking. Every detail is justified in the fact that it illuminates either the motives or the actions of the man and woman who here stand revealed. It is deadly true. The author holds the mirror up to nature, and the reader, as he sees his own experiences duplicated in passage after passage, has something of the same sensation as all of us know on the first reading of George Meredith's ' Ego- ist.' Reading these pages is like being out in the country on a dark night in a storm. Suddenly a flash of lightning comes and every detail of your surroundings is revealed." Review of " The Triumph of Death " in the New York Evening Sun. The volumes published are as follows. Each 1 vol., library 12mo, cloth $1.50 * THE ROMANCES OF THE ROSE THE CHILD OF PLEASURE (!L PIACERE). THE INTRUDER (L'INNOCENTE). THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH (!L TRIONFO DELLA MORTE). J* THE ROMANCES OF THE LILY THE MAIDENS OF THE ROCKS (LE VERGINI DELLE ROCCE). ji THE ROMANCES OF THE POMEGRANATE THE FLAME OF LIFE (It Fuoco). M THE PAGE COMPANY'S WORKS OF EMMA RAYNER THE DILEMMA OF ENGELTIE Cloth decorative, with frontispiece in full color from a paint- ing by George Gibbs $1 . 50 " The story is one of unusual excellence both in the con- ception and in the development of the novel plot." Chicago Tribune. " A delightful romance of ' little olde New York.' A rol- licking tale of Dutch fun, pathos, and love." Boston Globe. FREE TO SERVE The novel that made the author famous. Cloth decoratiye, with frontispiece in full color from a painting by '^jjswrge Gibbs $1 . 50 To the chai.jfof a story well conceived and cleverly told is added the intel of characters that until now have been un- usual in presen$wRy fiction." New York Press. " In ' Free to Serve ' we have a book that rises from out of the dull monotony of mediocrity and amply deserves considera- tion." The Philadelphia American. WORKS OF STEPHEN CONRAD THE SECOND MRS. JIM With a frontispiece by Ernest Fosbery. Large 16mo $1.00* ' ' The Second Mrs. Jim ' is worth as many Mrs. Wiggses as could be crowded into the Cabbage Patch. The racy humor and cheerfulness and wisdom of the book make it wholly de- lightful." Philadelphia Press. MRS. JIM AND MRS. JIMMIE With a frontispiece in colors by Arthur W. Brown. 12mo $1.50 This book is in a sense a sequel to " The Second Mrs. Jim," since it gives further glimpses of that delightful stepmother and her philosophy. " Plenty of fun and humor in this book. Plenty of simple pathos and quietly keen depiction of human nature afford contrast, and every chapter is worth reading. It is a very human account of life in a small country town, and the work should be commended for those sterling qualities of heart and naturalness so endearing to many." Chicago Record-Herald. LIST OF FICTION 13 WORKS OF NORVAL RICHARDSON THE LEAD OF HONOUR Cloth decorative, with frontispiece in color by Frank T. Merrill $1.50 "It is rarely that a love story is written in these days that has in it so much of fine and lofty sentiment, of so high ideals and so absorbing in its romance that the reader for the time is lifted out of himself." Springfield Union. GEORGE THORNE Cloth decorative, with frontispiece in color by John Goss $1.50 " The author has made a strong story which embodies a most interesting study of the influences of physical conditions upon the mind." New York Sun. THE HONEY POT Cloth decorative, with frontispiece in color and numerous decorations by Jessie Gillespie. Net, $1.00; carriage paid, $1.15 " The tale is amusing, bright, full of local color and is well written." New York Sun. WORKS OF CHARLES FELTON PIDGIN THE CHRONICLES OF QUINCY ADAMS SAWYER, DETECTIVE Cloth decorative, illustrated. Net, $1.25; carriage paid, $1.40 "The author is to be complimented not only upon the clev- erness of the plots, but upon the skill with which he constructs and clears away mysteries." Boston Globe. THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF QUINCY ADAMS SAWYER AND MASON'S CORNER FOLKS Cloth decorative, illustrated . by Henry Roth . . $1.50 " The book is intensely human, bright, witty, hopeful, kindly, and interesting." Christian Endeavor World. STEPHEN HOLTON Cloth decorative, illustrated by Frank T. Merrill . $1.50 England's common life seems a favorite material for this sterling author, who, in this particular instance, mixes his colors with masterly skill." Boslon Globe. I 4 THE PAGE COMPANY'S BAHAMA BILL With frontispiece in color by H. R. Reuterdahl. Library 12mo $1.50 "As for Bahama Bill, the reader will like him whether he will or no; he dominates the book, unscrupulous though he may be. Nevertheless thure is not a mean streak in him. We shall be tempted to read ' Bahama Bill ' several times." - Springfield Union. THE BLACK BARQUE With five illustrations by W. Herbert Dunton. Library 12mo $1.50 " Captain Hains, the master of the straight sea story, has built a picture that teems with the sea life of the time, striking in its splendid details. The ' Black Barque ' is a rattling tale of the sea, as rough as a storm-lashed shoal, as brutal as the sea itself, with a splendid swing, a range of rough characters, and adventures on every page." Current Literature. " One of the best sea stories ever published." Chicago Tribune. THE WINDJAMMERS Library 12mo, illustrated $1.50 " A collection of short sea stories unmatched for interest, ranging from the tragic to the humorous, and including some accounts of the weird, unexplainable happenings which befall all sailors. Told with keen appreciation, in which the reader will share." N. Y. Sun. " This is an absorbing story, with the full flavor of the sea, and will be enjoyed by all readers." N. Y. World. THE VOYAGE OF THE ARROW Library 12mo, illustrated . . . - . _ . . $1 . 50 " A capital story, full of sensation and excitement, and a rollicking sea story of the good old-fashioned sort. The reader who begins this exciting voyage will sail on at the rate of twelve miles an hour until it is finished." Boston Transcript. "Bold in plot and told with spirit. Mr. Hains knows the sea and keeps its salt smell on every page." Philadelphia Enquirer, University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. AUG2019' lt+l DUE 2 WKS FRO DATE RECEIVED 6EP UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 000133507 4 Ur