TH6 
 
 OF 
 
 Grace S , Richm ond

 
 UCSB LIBRARY
 
 THE INDIFFERENCE OF 
 JULIET
 
 1 The rich voice of the bishop was as impressive as it had ever been." 
 
 (S page 77)
 
 The Indifference 
 of Juliet 
 
 By GRACE S. RICHMOND 
 
 Author of 
 "The Second Violin" "The Dixons 
 
 With Illustrations 
 By HENRY HUTT 
 
 A. L. BURT COMPANY, j * * 
 jfi * PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
 
 r 
 
 Copyright, 
 
 1902,1903,1904, 
 
 by The Curtis 
 
 [Publishing Company 
 
 Copyright, 1905, by 
 
 Doubleday, Page 
 
 & Company 
 
 Published, 
 March, 1905 
 
 AU rights reserved, including that ttj 
 translation also right of translation 
 into the Scandinavian langttagtt
 
 Co 
 jFat&er anD
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 An Audacious Proposition 
 
 Measurements 
 
 Shopping "With a Chaperon 
 
 The Cost of Frocks . 
 
 Muslins and Tackhammers 
 
 A Question of Identity . 
 
 An Argument Without 
 Logic .... 
 
 On Account of The Tea-Kettle . 
 
 A Bishop and a Hay-Wagon 
 
 On a Threshold .... 
 
 A Bachelor at Dinner 
 
 The Bachelor Begs a Dish-Towel 102 
 
 Smoke and Talk 
 
 Strawberries 
 
 Anthony Plays Maid . 
 
 A House-Party Outdoors 
 
 Rachel Causes Anxiety 
 
 An Unknown Quantity 
 
 All the April Stars Are Out 
 
 90 
 
 "5 
 
 121 
 
 137 
 
 145 
 15* 
 '65 
 176
 
 CONTENTS Continued 
 
 XX. A Prior Claim .... 
 
 XXI. Everybody Gives Advice 
 
 XXII. Roger Barnes Proves Invaluable . 
 
 XXIII. Two Not of a Kind . 
 
 XXIV. The Careys Are at Home . 
 XXV. The Robeson Will 
 
 XXVI. On Guard 
 
 XXVII. Lockwood Pays a Call 
 
 XXVIII. A High-Handed Affair 
 
 XXIX. Juliet Proves Herself Still Indifferent 
 
 PACI 
 
 182 
 
 192 
 
 2O2 
 217 
 
 235 
 248 
 268 
 284 
 296 
 
 305
 
 PRINCIPAL 
 
 CHARACTERS 
 
 HORATIO MARCY, an elderly New Eng- 
 lander of some wealth. 
 
 ANTHONY ROBESON, the last young male 
 representative of the Kentucky 
 ROBESONS, now making his own way 
 in Massachusetts. 
 
 WAYNE CAREY, Robeson's former college 
 chum, an office clerk on a salary, 
 
 DR. ROGER WILLIAMS BARNES, a surgeon. 
 Louis LOCKWOOD, an attorney-at-law. 
 STEVENS CATHCART, an architect. 
 MRS. DINGLEY, sister of Horatio Marcy. 
 
 JULIET MARCY, daughter of Horatio 
 Marcy. 
 
 JUDITH DEARBORN, Juliet's friend since 
 school-days. 
 
 SUZANNE GERARD > other friends of 
 MARIE DRESSER ) Juliet. 
 
 RACHEL REDDING, a poor country girl 
 of education. 
 
 MARY Me K AIM in the background, 
 but valuable.
 
 THE INDIFFERENCE OF 
 JULIET
 
 THE INDIFFERENCE OF JULIET 
 
 I. AN AUDACIOUS PROPOSITION 
 
 AITHONY ROBESON glanced about 
 him in a satisfied way at the 
 shaded nook under the low-hang- 
 ing boughs into which he had guided the 
 boat. Then he drew in his oars and let 
 the little craft drift. 
 
 "This is an ideal spot," said he, look- 
 ing into his friend's face, "in which to 
 tell you a rather interesting piece of 
 news." 
 
 " Oh, fine! " cried his friend, settling her- 
 self among the cushions in the stern and 
 tilting back her parasol so that the light 
 through its white expanse framed her 
 health-tinted face in a sort of glory. " Tell 
 me at once. I suspected you came with 
 something on your mind. There couldn't 
 be a lovelier place on the river than this for 
 confidences. But I can guess yours. Tony, 
 you've found ' her ' ! " 
 
 " And you'll be my friend just the same ? " 
 3
 
 4 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 questioned Anthony anxiously. " My chum 
 my confidante?" 
 
 "Oh, well, Tony, that's absurd," de- 
 clared Juliet Marcy severely. "As if she 
 would allow it ! " 
 
 "She's three thousand miles away." 
 
 "I'm ashamed of you! " 
 
 "Just in the interval, then," pleaded 
 Anthony. " I need you now worse than H 
 ever. For I've a tremendous responsibility 
 on my hands. The the you know is to 
 come off in September, and this is June 
 and I've a house to furnish. Will you help 
 me do it, Juliet?" 
 
 " Anthony Robeson!" she said explosively 
 under her breath, with a laugh. Then she 
 sat up and leaned forward with a command- 
 ing gesture. :< Tell me all about it. What 
 is her name and who is she? Where did 
 you meet her? Are you very much 
 
 " Would I marry a girl if I were not ' very 
 much ' ? " demanded Anthony. " Well I '11 
 tell you since you insist on these non- 
 essentials before you really come down to 
 business. Her name is Eleanor Langham, 
 and she lives in San Francisco. Her family 
 is old, aristocratic, wealthy yet she con- 
 descends to me."
 
 An Audacious Proposition 5 
 
 He looked up keenly into her eyes, and 
 her brown lashes fell for an instant before 
 something in his glance, but she said 
 quickly: "Goon." 
 
 "When the affair is over I want to 
 bring my bride straight home," Anthony 
 proceeded, with a tinge of colour in his 
 smooth, clear cheek. " I shall have no 
 vacation to speak of at that time of year, 
 and no time to spend in furnishing a house. 
 Yet I want it all ready for her. So you see 
 I need a friend. I shall have two weeks to 
 spare in July, and if you would help me 
 
 "But, Tony," she interrupted, "how 
 could I? If if we were seen shopping 
 together " 
 
 " No, we couldn't go shopping together 
 in New York without being liable to run 
 into a wondering crowd of friends, of course 
 not in the places where you would want 
 to go. But here you are only a couple of 
 hours from Boston; you will be here all 
 summer ; you and Mrs. Dingley and I could 
 run into Boston for a day at a time without 
 anybody's being the wiser. I know that 
 is I'm confident Mrs. Dingley would do it 
 forme " 
 
 "Oh, of course. Did Auntie ever deny
 
 6 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 you anything since the days when she used 
 to give you jam as often as you came across 
 to play with me ? " 
 
 "Never." 
 
 "Have you her photograph?" inquired 
 Miss Marcy with an emphasis which left no 
 possible doubt as to whose photograph she 
 meant. 
 
 " I expected that," said Anthony gravely. 
 " I expected it even sooner. But I am pre- 
 pared." 
 
 She sat watching him curiously as he 
 slowly drew from his breast-pocket a tiny 
 leather case, and gazed at it precisely as a 
 lover might be expected to gaze at his lady's 
 image before jealously surrendering it into 
 other hands. She had never seen Anthony 
 Robeson look at any photograph except her 
 own with just that expression. She had 
 often wondered if he ever would. She 
 had recommended this course of procedure 
 to him many times, usually after once more 
 gently refusing to marry him. She had 
 begun at last to doubt whether it would 
 ever be possible to divert Tony's mind 
 from its long-sought object. But that trip 
 to San Francisco, and the months he had 
 spent there in the interests of the firm he
 
 An Audacious Proposition 7 
 
 served, had evidently brought about the 
 desired change. She had not seen him 
 since his return until to-day, when he had 
 run up into the country where was the 
 Marcy summer home, to tell her, as she 
 now understood, his news and to make his 
 somewhat extraordinary request. 
 
 She accepted the photograph with a 
 smile, and studied it with attention. 
 
 "Oh, but isn't she pretty?" she cried 
 warmly and generously, for she was think- 
 ing as she looked how much prettier was 
 Miss Langham than Miss Marcy. 
 
 "Isn't she?" agreed Anthony with en- 
 thusiasm. 
 
 " Lovely. What eyes ! And what a dear 
 mouth!" 
 
 "You're right." 
 
 "She looks clever, too." 
 
 "She is." 
 
 "How tall is she?" 
 
 " About up to my shoulder." 
 
 " She's little, then." 
 
 "Well, I don't know," objected Anthony, 
 surveying his own stalwart length of limb. 
 "A girl doesn't have to be a dwarf not to be 
 on a level with me. I should say she must 
 be somewhere near your height."
 
 8 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 " What a magnificent dresser! " 
 
 " Is she ? She never irritates one with the 
 fact." 
 
 " Oh, but I can see. And she's going to 
 marry you. Tony, what can you give her ? " 
 
 "A little box of a house, one maid- 
 servant, an occasional trip into town, four 
 new frocks a year moderate ones, you 
 know, in keeping with her circumstances 
 and my name," replied Anthony com- 
 posedly. 
 
 "You won't let her live in town, then?" 
 
 " Let her! Good heavens, what sort of a 
 place could I give her in town on my 
 salary? Now, in the very rural suburb 
 I've picked out she can live in the greatest 
 comfort, and we can have a real home 
 something I haven't had since Dad died 
 and the old home and the money and all 
 the rest of it went." 
 
 His face was grave now, and he was 
 staring down into the water as if he saw 
 there both what he had lost and what he 
 hoped to gam. 
 
 "Yes," said Juliet sympathetically, 
 though she did not know how to imagine 
 the girl whose photograph she held in the 
 surroundings Anthony suggested. Present-
 
 An Audacious Proposition 9 
 
 ly she went on in her gentlest tone: "I'm 
 not saying that the name isn't a proud one 
 to offer her, Tony and if she is willing to 
 share your altered fortunes I've no doubt 
 she will be happy. Along with your name 
 you'll give her a heart worth having." 
 
 "Thank you," said Anthony without 
 looking up. 
 
 Miss Marcy coloured slightly, and hast- 
 ened to supplement this speech with 
 another. 
 
 "The question is since the home is to 
 be hers why not let her furnish it? Her 
 tastes and mine might not agree. Be- 
 sides " 
 
 "Well- 
 
 "Why you know, Tony," explained 
 Juliet in some confusion, " I shouldn't know 
 how to be economical." 
 
 " I'm aware that you haven't been 
 brought up on the most economical basis," 
 Anthony acknowledged frankly. "But I'll 
 take care of my funds, no matter how ex* 
 travagant you are inclined to be. If I should 
 hand you five dollars and say, ' Buy a 
 dining- table,' you could do it, couldn't you? 
 You couldn't satisfy your ideals, of course, 
 but you could give me the benefit of your
 
 io The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 discriminating choice within the five-dollar 
 limit." 
 
 Juliet laughed, but in her eyes there grew 
 nevertheless a look of doubt. "Tony," she 
 demanded, "how much have you to spend 
 on the furnishing of that house?" 
 
 ' ' Just five hundred dollars , " said Anthony 
 concisely. "And that must cover the repair- 
 ing and painting of the outside. Really, Juliet, 
 haven't I done fairly well to save up that 
 and the cost of the house and lot for a 
 fellow who till five years ago never did a 
 thing for himself and never expected to 
 need to? Yes, I know the piano in your 
 music-room cost twice that, and so did the 
 horses you drive, and a very few of your 
 pretty gowns would swallow another five. 
 But Mrs. Anthony Robeson will have to 
 chasten her ideas a trifle. Do you know, 
 Juliet I think she will for love of me?" 
 
 He was smiling at his own audacious 
 confidence. Juliet attempted no reply 
 to this very unanswerable statement. She 
 studied the photograph in silence, and 
 he lay watching her. In her blue-and-white 
 boating suit she was a pleasant object to 
 look at. 
 
 "Will you help me?" he asked again at 
 
 3605
 
 An Audacious Proposition n 
 
 length. "I'm more anxious than I can tell 
 you to have everything ready." 
 
 " I shouldn't like to fail you, Tony, since 
 you really wish it, though I'm very sure 
 you'll find me a poor adviser. But you 
 haven't been a brother to me since the 
 mud-pie days for nothing, and if I can help 
 you with suggestions as to colour and style 
 I'll be glad to. Though I shall all the while 
 be trying to live up to this photograph, and 
 that will be a little hard on the five-dollar- 
 dining- table scale." 
 
 " You've only to look out that everything 
 is in good taste," said Anthony quietly, 
 " and that you can't help doing. My wife 
 will thank you, and the new home will be 
 sweet to her because of you. It surely will 
 to me."
 
 II. MEASUREMENTS 
 
 IT was on the first day of Robeson's 
 two- weeks' July vacation that he came 
 to take Juliet Marcy and her aunt, Mrs. 
 Dingley, who had long stood to her in 
 the place of the mother she had early 
 lost, to see the home he had bought 
 in a remote suburb of a great city. 
 It was a three -hours' journey from 
 the Marcy country place, but he had 
 insisted that Juliet could not furnish the 
 house intelligently until she had studied 
 it in detail. 
 
 So at eleven o'clock of a hot July morning 
 Miss Marcy found herself surveying from 
 the roadway a small, old-fashioned white 
 house, with green blinds shading its odd, 
 small-paned windows; a very "box of a 
 house," as Anthony had said, set well back 
 from the quiet street and surrounded by 
 untrimmed trees and overgrown shrubbery. 
 The whole place had a neglected appearance. 
 Even the luxuriant climbing-rose, which 
 did its best to hide the worn white paint of 
 
 12
 
 Measurements 13 
 
 the house-front, served to intensify the look 
 of decay. 
 
 "Charming, isn't it?" asked Robeson 
 with the air of the delighted proprietor. 
 "Of course everything looks gone to seed, 
 but paint and a lawn-mower and a few other 
 things will make another place of it. It's 
 good old colonial, that's sure, and only 
 needs a bit of fixing up to be quite correct, 
 architecturally, small as it is." 
 
 He led the way up the weedy path, Mrs. 
 Dingley and Juliet exchanging amused 
 glances behind his back. He opened the 
 doors with a flourish and waved the ladies 
 in. They entered with close-held skirts and 
 noses involuntarily sniffing at the musty air. 
 Anthony ran around opening windows and 
 explaining the "points" of the house. 
 When they had been over it Mrs. Dingley, 
 warm and weary, subsided upon the door- 
 step, while Juliet and Anthony fell to dis- 
 cussing the possibilities of the place. 
 
 "You see," said Anthony, mopping his 
 heated brow, "it isn't like having big, high 
 rooms to decorate. These little rooms," 
 he put up his hand and succeeded, from 
 his fine height, in touching the ceiling of 
 the lower front room in which they stood
 
 14 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 " won't stand anything but the most simple 
 treatment, and expensive papers and up- 
 holsteries would be out of place. It will 
 take only very small rugs to suit the floors. 
 The main thing for you to think of will be 
 colours and effects. You'll find five hun- 
 dred dollars will go a long way, even after 
 the repairs and outside painting are dis- 
 posed of." 
 
 He looked so appealing that Juliet could 
 but answer heartily: " Yes, I'm sure of it. 
 And now, Tony, don't you think you'd 
 better draw a plan of the house, putting in 
 all the measurements, so we shall know just 
 how to go to work? And I will go around 
 and dream a while in each room. Give me 
 the photograph, you devoted lover, so I 
 can plan things to suit her." 
 
 Anthony laughed and put his hand into 
 his breast-pocket. But he drew it out 
 empty. 
 
 "Why I've left it behind," he admitted 
 in some embarrassment. " I really thought 
 I had it." 
 
 " Oh, Tony! And on this very trip when 
 we needed it most! How could you leave 
 it behind? Don't you always carry it next 
 your heart?"
 
 Measurements 15 
 
 "Is that the prescribed place?" 
 
 " Certainly. I should doubt a man's love 
 if he did not constantly wear my likeness 
 right where it could feel his heart beating 
 for me." 
 
 "Now I never supposed," remarked An- 
 thony, considering her attentively, "that 
 you had so much romance about you. Do 
 you realise that for an extremely practical 
 young person such as you have mostly- 
 appeared to be, that is a particularly senti- 
 mental suggestion? Er should you wear 
 his in the same way, may I inquire?" 
 
 " Of course," returned Juliet with defiance 
 in her eyes, whose lashes, when they fell 
 at length before his steadily interested gaze, 
 swept a daintily colouring cheek. 
 
 "Have you ever worn one?" inquired 
 this hardy young man, nothing daunted 
 by these signs of righteous indignation. 
 But all he got for answer was a vigorous: 
 
 "You absurd boy! Now go to work at 
 your measurements. I'm going up-stairs. 
 There's one room up there, the one with the 
 gable corners and the little bits of windows, 
 that's perfectly fascinating. It must be 
 done in Delft blue and white. Since I 
 haven't the photograph" she turned on the
 
 16 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 threshold to smile roguishly back at him 
 " memory must serve. Beautiful dark hair; 
 eyes like a Madonna's; a perfect nose; the 
 dearest mouth in the world oh, yes " 
 
 She vanished around the corner only to 
 put her head in again with the air of one who 
 fires a parting shot at a discomfited enemy : 
 "But, Tony do you honestly think the 
 house is large enough for such a queen of 
 a woman? Won't her throne take up the 
 whole of the first floor?" 
 
 Then she was gone up the diminutive 
 staircase, and her light footsteps could be 
 heard on the bare floors overhead. Left 
 alone, Anthony Robeson stood still for a 
 moment looking fixedly at the door by 
 which she had gone. The smile with 
 which he had answered her gay fling had 
 faded; his eyes had grown dark with a 
 singular fire ; his hands were clenched. Sud- 
 denly he strode across the floor and stopped 
 by the door. He was looking down at the 
 quaint old latch which served instead of 
 a knob. Then, with a glance at the uncon- 
 scious back of Mrs. Dingley, sitting sleepily 
 on the little porch outside, he stooped and 
 pressed his lips upon the iron where Juliet's 
 hand had lain.
 
 III. SHOPPING WITH A CHAPERON 
 
 "FIVE hundred dollars," mused Miss 
 Marcy, on the Boston train next morning. 
 " Six rooms living-room, dining-room, 
 kitchen, and three bedrooms. That's 
 
 ; ' You forget," warned Anthony Robeson 
 from the seat where he faced Juliet and 
 Mrs. Dingley. " That must cover the out- 
 side painting and repairs. You can't figure 
 on having more than three hundred dollars 
 left for the inside." 
 
 "Dear me, yes," frowned Juliet. She 
 held Anthony's plan in her hand, and her 
 tablets and pencil lay in her lap. "Well, 
 I can spend fifty dollars on each room 
 only some will need more than others. The 
 living-room will take the most no, the 
 dining-room." 
 
 "The kitchen will take the most," sug- 
 gested Mrs. Dingley. " Your range will use 
 up the most of your fifty. And kitchen 
 utensils count up very rapidly." 
 
 " It will be a very small range," Anthony 
 said. "A little toy stove would be more 
 
 17
 
 i8 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 practical for our the kitchen. How big is 
 it, Juliet?" 
 
 " ' Ten by fourteen,' " read Juliet. " From 
 the centre of the room you can hit all the 
 side walls with the broom. Speaking of 
 walls, Tony those must be our first con- 
 sideration. If we get our colour scheme 
 right everything else will follow. I have 
 it all in my head." 
 
 So it proved. But it also proved, when 
 they had been hard at work for an hour at 
 a well-known decorator's, that the tints 
 and designs for which Miss Marcy asked 
 were not readily to be found in the low- 
 priced wall - papers to which Anthony 
 rigidly held her. 
 
 " I must have the softest, most restful 
 greens for the living-room," she announced. 
 " There that- 
 
 "But that is a dollar a roll," whispered 
 Anthony. 
 
 "Then that!" 
 
 "Eighty-five cents." 
 
 " But for that little room, Tony- 
 
 " Twenty-five cents a roll is all we can 
 allow," insisted Anthony firmly. "And 
 less than that everywhere else." 
 
 The salesman was very obliging, and
 
 Shopping With a Chaperon 19 
 
 showed the best things possible for the 
 money. It was impossible to resist the 
 appeal in the eyes of this critical but re- 
 stricted young buyer. 
 
 " There, that will do, I think," said Juliet 
 at length, with a long breath. " The green 
 for the living-room and for the bit of a hall 
 No, no, Tony; I've just thought! You 
 must take away that little partition and let 
 the stairs go up out of the living-room. 
 That will improve the apparent size of 
 things wonderfully." 
 
 "All right," agreed Anthony obediently. 
 
 "Then we'll put that rich red in the 
 dining-room. For upstairs there is the 
 tiny rose pattern, and the Delft blue, and 
 that little pale yellow and white stripe. 
 In the kitchen we'll have the tile pattern. 
 We won't have a border anywhere the 
 rooms are too low; just those simplest 
 mouldings, and the ivory white on the ceil- 
 ings. The woodwork must all be white. 
 There now, that's settled. Next come the 
 floors." 
 
 There could be no doubt that Juliet was 
 becoming interested in her task. Though 
 the July heat was intense she led the way 
 with rapid steps to the place where she
 
 20 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 meant to select her rugs. Here the three 
 spent a trying two hours. It was hard to 
 please Miss Marcy with Japanese jute rugs, 
 satisfactory in colouring though many of 
 them were, when she longed to buy Persian 
 pieces of distinction. If Juliet had a 
 special weakness it was for choice antique 
 rugs. 
 
 She cornered Anthony at last, while Mrs. 
 Dingley and the salesman were politely but 
 unequivocally disputing over the quality 
 of a certain piece of Chinese weaving. 
 
 "Tony," she begged," please let me get 
 that one dear Turkish square for the living- 
 room. It will give character to the whole 
 room, and the colours are perfectly ex- 
 quisite. I simply can't get one of those 
 cheap things to go in front of that beau- 
 tiful old fireplace. Imagine the firelight 
 on that square ; it would make you want to 
 spend your evenings at home. Please!" 
 
 " Do you imagine that I shall ever want 
 to spend them anywhere else?" asked 
 Tony softly, looking down into her appeal- 
 ing face. " Why, chum, I'd like to get that 
 Tabriz you admire so much, if it would 
 please you, in spite of the fact that we 
 should have to pull the whole house up
 
 Shopping With a Chaperon 21 
 
 forty notches to match it. But even the 
 Turkish square is out of the question." 
 
 " But, Tony " -Juliet was whispering now 
 with her head a little bent and her eyes 
 on the lapel of his coat " won't you let me 
 do it as my my contribution? I'd like to 
 put something of my own into your house." 
 
 " You dear little girl," Anthony answered 
 and possibly for her own peace of mind 
 it was fortunate that Miss Langham, of 
 California, could not see the look with 
 which he regarded Miss Marcy, of Massa- 
 chusetts " I'm sure you would. And you 
 are putting into it just what is priceless to 
 me your individuality and your perfect 
 taste. But I can't let even you help furnish 
 that house. She must take what I and 
 only I can give her." 
 
 "You're perfectly ridiculous," murmured 
 Juliet, turning away with an expression of 
 deep displeasure. " As if she wouldn't bring 
 all sorts of elegant stuff with her, and make 
 your cheap things look insignificant." 
 
 "I don't think she will," returned An- 
 thony with conviction. " She'll bring noth- 
 ing out of keeping with the house." 
 
 " I thought you told me she was of a 
 wealthy family."
 
 22 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 " She is. But if she marries me she leaves 
 all that behind. I'll have no wife on any 
 other basis." 
 
 "Well for a son of the Robesons of 
 Kentucky you are absolutely the most 
 ^absurd boy anybody ever heard of," de- 
 clared the girl hotly under her breath. Then 
 she walked over and ordered a certain in- 
 expensive rug for the living-room with the 
 air of a princess and the cheeks of a poppy.
 
 IV. THE COST OF FROCKS 
 
 IT may have been that Miss Marcy was 
 piqued into trying to see how little she 
 could spend, but certain it was that from 
 the time she left the carpet shop she begged 
 for no exceptions to Mr. Robeson's rule of 
 strict economy. She selected simple, deli- 
 cate muslins for the windows, one and all, 
 without a glance at finer draperies; bought 
 denims and printed stuffs as if she had never 
 heard of costlier upholsteries; and turned 
 away from seductive pieces of Turkish and 
 Indian embroideries offered for her inspec- 
 tion with a demure, " No, I don't care to 
 look at those now," which more than once 
 brought a covert smile to Anthony's lips 
 and a twinkle to the eyes of the salesman. 
 It was so very evident that the fair buyer 
 did not pass them by for lack of interest. 
 
 Altogether, it was an interesting week 
 these three people spent for a week it 
 took. Anthony began to protest after the 
 first two days, and said he could not ask so
 
 24 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 much of his friends. But Juliet would not 
 be hindered from taking infinite pains, and 
 Mrs. Dingley good humouredly lent the two 
 her chaperonage and her occasional counsel, 
 such as only the gray-haired matron of long 
 housewifely experience can furnish. 
 
 The selection of the furniture took per- 
 haps the most time, and was the hardest, 
 because of the difficulty of finding good 
 styles in keeping with the limited purse. 
 Anthony possessed a number of good pieces 
 of antique character, but beyond these 
 everything was to be purchased. Juliet 
 turned in despair from one shop after 
 another, and when it came to the fitting 
 of the dining-room she grew distinctly 
 indignant. 
 
 "It's a perfect shame," she said, "that 
 they can't offer really good designs in the 
 cheap things. Did you ever see anything 
 so hideous? Tony, if I were you I'd rather 
 eat my breakfast off one of those white 
 kitchen tables or " 
 
 She broke off suddenly, rushed away 
 down the long room to a group of chastely 
 elegant dining-room furniture and came 
 back after a little with a face of great eager- 
 ness to drag her companions away with her.
 
 The Cost of Frocks 25 
 
 She took them to survey a set of the costliest 
 of all. 
 
 "Have you gone crazy?" Anthony in- 
 quired. 
 
 " Not at all. Tony, just study that table. 
 It's massive, but it's simple simple as 
 beauty always is. Look at those perfectly 
 straight legs what clever cabinet maker 
 couldn't copy that in in ash, Tony ? Then 
 there are stains I've heard of them that 
 rub into wood and then finish in some way 
 so it's smooth and satiny. You could do 
 that I'm sure you could. Then you'd get 
 the lovely big top you want. And the 
 chairs do you see the plain, solid-looking 
 things? I know they could be made this 
 way. Then the dining - room would be 
 simply dear!" 
 
 "Juliet, you're coming on," declared 
 Anthony with satisfaction that evening as 
 the two, back at the Marcy country place, 
 strolled slowly over the lawn toward the 
 river edge. "At this rate you'll do for a 
 poor man's wife yourself some day. That 
 frock you have on now isn't that a sort of 
 concession to the humble company you're 
 ia?"
 
 a6 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "In what way?" Juliet glanced down at 
 the pale-green gown whose delicate skirts 
 she was daintily lifting, and in which she 
 looked like a flower in its calyx. She had 
 rejoiced to exchange the dusty dress in 
 which she had come home from town for 
 this, which suggested coolness in each fresh 
 fold. 
 
 " Why, it strikes me as about the simplest 
 dress I ever saw you wear. Isn't it really 
 well the least expensive thing you have 
 had in that line in some time? " 
 
 The amused laugh with which this obser- 
 vation was greeted might have been dis- 
 concerting to anybody but Anthony Robe- 
 son, but he maintained his ground with 
 calmness. 
 
 "How many of these do you think you 
 can furnish Mrs. Anthony with in a year?" 
 Juliet inquired, her lips forcing themselves 
 to soberness, but the laughter lingering in 
 her eyes. 
 
 "Several, as girlishly demure as that, I 
 fancy," asserted the young man with con- 
 fidence. 
 
 But Juliet's momentary gravity broke 
 down. "Oh, you clever boy!" she said- 
 " I shall advise Mrs. Anthony to send you
 
 The Cost of Frocks 27 
 
 shopping for her when she needs a new 
 frock. You will order home just what she 
 wants without stopping to ask the price, 
 you will be so confident that you know a 
 cheap thing when you see it. Afterward 
 you will pay the bill and then the awful 
 frown on your brow! You will have to 
 live on bread and milk for a month to get 
 your accounts straightened out. Oh, Tony ! 
 No, I shouldn't do for a poor man's 
 wife not judging by this ' girlishly demure ' 
 gown, you poor lamb. But, Tony," with 
 a swift change of manner, " I do think the 
 little house will be very charming indeed. 
 I can hardly wait to know that the painting 
 and papering are done, so that we can go 
 down and get things in order. I long to 
 arrange those fascinating new tin things 
 in that bit of a cupboard. Tony"; turn- 
 ing to him solemnly " does she know how 
 to cook?" 
 
 " I think she is learning now," he assured 
 her. "Seems to me she mentioned it in 
 to-day's He fumbled in his breast- 
 
 pocket and brought out a letter. 
 
 Juliet stole an interested glance at it. 
 She observed that there were three closely 
 written sheets of the heavy linen paper,
 
 28 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 and that the handwriting was one suggestive 
 of a pleasing individuality. Anthony, in 
 the dim twilight, was scanning page after 
 page in a lover's absorbed way. Juliet 
 walked along by his side in silence. She 
 was thinking of the face in the photograph, 
 and wondering if Miss Eleanor Langham 
 really loved Anthony Robeson as he de- 
 served to be loved. 
 
 "For he is a dear, dear fellow," she said 
 to herself, "and if she could just see him 
 planning so enthusiastically for her com- 
 fort, even if he does have to economise, 
 she'd- 
 
 "No, it's not in this letter," observed 
 Anthony, putting the sheets together with 
 a lingering touch which did not escape 
 his companion's quick eyes. " It must 
 have been in yesterday's." 
 
 " Does she write every day ? " 
 
 "Did you ever hear of an engaged pair 
 who didn't write every day?" 
 
 " It must take a good deal of your time," 
 she remarked. " But, of course, she can 
 cook. Every sane girl takes a cooking- 
 school course nowadays. It's as essential 
 as French." 
 
 "You did, then?"
 
 The Cost of Frocks 
 
 29 
 
 " Of course. Don't you remember when 
 I used to edify you with new and wonderful 
 dishes every time you dropped in to 
 luncheon ? " , 
 
 " But did you learn the more important 
 things?" 
 
 "I paid especial attention to soups, sir," 
 laughed Juliet. "Now, if Mrs. Anthony 
 has done that you can live very econom- 
 ically." 
 
 "I'll suggest it to her," said Anthony 
 gravely.
 
 V. MUSLINS AND TACKHAMMERS 
 
 It took several trips to the small house, 
 and a great deal of hemming and ruffling of 
 muslin on the part of Juliet and the Marcy 
 sewing- woman, to say nothing of many 
 days of Anthony's hard labour, to get 
 everything in place. But it was all done 
 at length, and the hour arrived to close the 
 new home and leave it to wait the oncoming 
 day in September when it should be per- 
 manently opened. 
 
 "I'll just go over it once more," said 
 Juliet to Mrs. Dingley. The latter lady 
 was lying in a hammock out under the 
 apple trees, waiting for train time and her 
 final release from duties which were becom- 
 ing decidedly wearisome. It was the first 
 day of August, and the evening was a 
 warm one. Anthony had gone off upon 
 a last errand of some sort. Mrs. Dingley 
 was too exhausted to offer to accompany 
 her niece, and Juliet ran back into the 
 house alone. She wandered slowly through 
 the rooms, looking about to see if there 
 
 30
 
 Muslins and Tackhammers 31 
 
 might be any perfecting touch which she 
 could add. 
 
 It was a charming place ; even a daughter 
 of the house of Marcy could but own to 
 that. Under her skilful management the 
 little rooms had blossomed into a fresh, 
 satisfying beauty that needed only the 
 addition of the personal adornment which 
 Anthony's bride would be sure to bring, to 
 become a home the home not only of a 
 poor man but of a refined and cultured one 
 as well. Restricted though she had been 
 to the most inexpensive means of bringing 
 about this happy result, Juliet had made 
 them all tell toward an effect of great 
 harmony and beauty. Perhaps to nobody 
 was this more of a revelation than to the 
 girl herself. 
 
 She was very proud of the living-room, as 
 she looked about it. The partition between 
 it and the tiny hall had been removed, ac- 
 cording to her suggestion, and the straight 
 staircase altered by means of a landing and 
 an abrupt turn which transformed it into 
 picturesqueness. With its low, broad steps, 
 its slender spindles and odd posts, it added 
 much to the character of the room. 
 
 Like most old New England houses, this
 
 32 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 one's chief glory was its great central 
 chimney, with big fireplaces opening both 
 into the living-room and the dining-room. 
 In the former, between the fireplace and the 
 staircase, and forming a suggestion of an 
 inglenook, Juliet had contrived a high, wide 
 seat, cushioned in dull green, and boasting 
 a number of pretty pillows. It must be 
 confessed that she had surreptitiously added 
 a little to these in the matter of certain 
 modestly rich bits of material, and she 
 contemplated the result with great satis- 
 faction. It may be remarked, with no 
 comment whatever, that in spite of their 
 beauty there was not a pillow of all those 
 scattered about the house which a weary 
 man might not tuck under his head without 
 fear of ruining a creation too delicate for 
 any use but to be admired. 
 
 Having seized upon the idea of staining 
 cheap material, she had carried it out in a 
 set of low book-cases across the end and 
 one side of the room. These awaited the 
 coming of the several hundreds of choice 
 books which Anthony had saved from his 
 father's library. Two fine old portraits, 
 dear to the hearts of many generations of 
 the "Robesons of Kentucky," lent dis-
 
 Muslins and Tackhammers 33- 
 
 tinction to the home of their young de- 
 scendant. Altogether the room was both 
 quaint and artistic, and with its few plain 
 chairs and tables, mostly heirlooms, and all 
 of good old colonial design, was a room in 
 which one could readily imagine one's self 
 sitting down to a winter evening of cosy 
 comfort, such as is not always to be had 
 in far finer abiding-places. 
 
 The dining-room was a study in its reds 
 and browns, and its home-made furniture 
 was an astonishing success if one were 
 not too severely critical. As she surveyed 
 it Juliet seemed to see the future master 
 and mistress of this little home sitting down 
 opposite each other in the fireglow, and 
 smiling across. 
 
 The coming Mrs. Robeson, if one might 
 judge by her photograph, was a woman 
 to lend grace and dignity to her surround- 
 ings, whatever they might be. Juliet could 
 imagine her pretty, stately way of presiding 
 at such small feasts as the room was des- 
 tined to see, making her guests quite for- 
 get that she was not mistress of a mansion 
 equal to any in the land. Would she be 
 happy? Could she be happy here, after 
 all that she had had of another and very
 
 34 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 different sort of life? For some reason, as 
 Juliet stood and looked and thought, her 
 face grew very sober, and a long-drawn 
 breath escaped her lips. 
 
 The little kitchen was an exceedingly 
 alluring place, gay in the bravery of fresh 
 paint and spotless, shining utensils. There 
 were even crisp curtains at eight cents a 
 yard tied back at the high, wide-silled, 
 triple window with its diminutive panes. 
 It needed only a pot or two of growing 
 plants in the window, and a neat-handed 
 Phyllis in a figured gown, to be the old- 
 time kitchen of one's dreams. 
 
 But it was upon the rooms on the upper 
 floor that Juliet had exhausted her imagina- 
 tion and effort. Nothing could have been 
 conceived of more dainty than they. Here 
 her denims and muslins had run riot. Low 
 dressing-tables clad in ruffled hangings, 
 their padded tops delicate with the breath 
 of orris; beds valanced with similar stuffs; 
 high-backed chairs, their seats cushioned 
 into comfort everything was done in the 
 cleverest imitation of the ancient styles in 
 keeping with the old-fashioned house. It 
 all made one think of the patter of high- 
 heeled, buckled slippers, and stiff, rustling,
 
 Muslins and Tackhammers 35 
 
 brocaded gowns, and powdered hair, and 
 the odours of long ago. Anthony would 
 never know what his friendly home-maker 
 had put into these rooms of sentiment and 
 charm.
 
 VI. A QUESTION OF IDENTITY 
 
 AT the door of the blue-and-white room, 
 the one upon which the girl had lavished her 
 most tender fancies, she stood at length, 
 looking in. And as she looked something 
 swam before her eyes. A sob rose in her 
 throat. She choked it back; she brushed 
 her hand across her face. Then she tried 
 to laugh. "Oh, what a goose I am!" she 
 said sternly to herself. And then she ran 
 across the room, sank upon her knees before 
 the window-seat with its blue and white 
 cushions, and burying her face in one of 
 them cried her wretched, jealous, longing 
 heart out. 
 
 Anthony, coming in hastily but softly 
 through the small kitchen, heard the rush 
 of footsteps overhead, and stopped. He 
 waited a moment, listening eagerly; then 
 he came noiselessly into the living-room and 
 stood still. His face, always strong and 
 somewhat stern in its repose, had in it to- 
 night a certain unusual intensity. He 
 
 36
 
 A Question of Identity 37 
 
 looked at his watch and saw that there was 
 an hour before train time. Then he sat 
 down where he could see the top of the 
 staircase and waited. 
 
 By and by light footsteps crossed the 
 floor above and came through the little 
 hall. From where he sat Anthony caught 
 the gleam of Juliet's crisp linen skirt. 
 Presently she came slowly down. As she 
 turned upon the landing she met Anthony's 
 eyes looking up. In a fashion quite un- 
 usual to the straightforward gaze of his 
 friend her eyes fell. He saw that her 
 cheeks were pale. He rose to meet her. 
 
 "Come and rest," he said. "You are 
 tired. You have worked too hard. Such 
 a helper a man never had before. And 
 you have made a wonderful success. Juliet, 
 I can't thank you. It's beyond that." 
 
 But she would not be led to the cosy 
 corner by the window. She found some- 
 thing needing her attention in the curtain 
 of the bookcase in the dimmest corner of 
 the room, and began solicitously to pull it in 
 various ways, as if there were something 
 wrong with it. He watched her, standing 
 with his arm on the high chimney-piece. 
 
 " I think you enjoyed it just a little bit
 
 38 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 yourself, though," he observed. "Didn't 
 you, chum?" 
 
 "Yes, indeed," said Juliet. 
 
 Her back was toward him, her head bent 
 down, but his quick ear detected a peculiar 
 quality in her voice. He questioned her 
 again hurriedly. 
 
 " You're not sorry you did it? " 
 
 "Oh, no," said Juliet. 
 
 Now there is not much in two such 
 simple replies as these to indicate the state 
 of one's mind and heart; but when a girl 
 has been crying stormily and uninter- 
 ruptedly for a half-hour, and is only not 
 crying still because she is holding back the 
 torrent of her unhappiness by sheer force of 
 will, it is radically impossible to say so 
 much as four words in a perfectly natural 
 way. Anthony understood in a breath 
 that the unfamiliar note in his friend's 
 voice was that of tears. And, strange to 
 say, into his face there flashed a look of 
 triumph. But he only said very gently : 
 
 "Come here a minute will you, Juliet?" 
 
 She bent lower over the curtain. Then 
 she stood up, without looking at him, and 
 moved toward the door. 
 
 " I believe I'm rather tired," she said in
 
 A Question of Identity 39 
 
 a low tone. " It has been so warm all day, 
 and I I have a headache." 
 
 In three steps he came after her, stopping 
 her with his hand grasping hers as she would 
 have left the room. 
 
 " Come back please," he urged. " Your 
 aunt is asleep out there, I think. I wanted 
 to go over the house once more with you, if 
 you would. But you're too tired for that. 
 Just come back and sit down in this nook 
 of yours, and let's talk a little." 
 
 She could not well refuse, and he put her 
 into a nest of cushions, arranging them 
 carefully behind her back and head, and 
 sat down facing her. He had placed her 
 just where the waning [light from the 
 western sky fell full on her face; his own 
 was in the shadow. He was watching her 
 unmercifully she felt that, and desperately 
 turned her face aside, burying in a friendly 
 pillow the cheek which was colouring under 
 his gaze. 
 
 "Is the headache so bad?" he asked 
 softly. " I never knew Juliet Marcy to 
 have a headache before. Poor little girl 
 dear little girl who has worked so hard 
 to please her old friend." He leaned for- 
 ward and she felt his hand upon her hair.
 
 4O The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 The tenderness in his voice and touch were 
 carrying away all her defences. But he 
 went on without giving her respite. 
 
 " Do you think she will be happy here, 
 chum? Will it take the place of the old 
 life for a few years, till I can give her more ? 
 She'll have nothing here, you know, outside 
 of this little home, but my love. That 
 wouldn't be enough for any ordinary 
 woman, would it?" 
 
 She was not looking at him, but she could 
 see him as plainly as if she were. Always 
 she had thought him the strongest, best 
 fellow she knew. He had been her devoted 
 friend so long; she had not realised in the 
 least until lately how it was going to seem 
 to get on without him. But she knew now. 
 
 She felt a dreadful choking in her throat 
 again. It seemed to be closely connected 
 with another peculiar sensation, as if her 
 heart had turned into a lump of lead. In 
 another minute she knew that she should 
 break down, which would be humiliating 
 beyond words. She started up from her 
 cushions with a fierce attempt to keep a 
 grip upon herself. 
 
 " I know you're very happy," she 
 breathed, "and I'm very glad. But really
 
 A Question of Identity 41 
 
 I I'm not at all sentimental to-night. 
 I'm afraid a headache does not make 
 one sympathetic." 
 
 But she could not get past him ; Anthony's 
 stalwart figure barred the way. His strong 
 hands put her gently back among the 
 cushions. She turned her head away, fight- 
 ing hard for that thing she could not keep 
 her self-control. 
 
 ''Is it really a headache? " asked the low 
 voice in her ear. "Just a headache? Not 
 by any chance a heartache, Juliet?" 
 
 "Anthony Robeson!" she cried, but 
 guardedly, lest the open window betray 
 her. " What do you mean? You say very 
 strange things. Why should I have a 
 heartache? Because you are marrying the 
 girl you love? How often have I begged 
 you to go and find her? Do you think I 
 would have done all this for her and you 
 if I had cared?" 
 
 She tried to look defiantly into his eyes 
 those fine eyes of his which were watching 
 her so intently tried to meet them steadily 
 with her own lovely, tear-stained ones and 
 failed. Swiftly an intense colour dyed her 
 cheeks, and she dropped her head like a 
 guilty child.
 
 42 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "Of course I care that is, in a way," 
 she was somehow forced to admit before 
 the bar of his silence. " Why shouldn't I 
 hate to lose the friend who used to carry my 
 books to school, and fought the other boys 
 for my sake, and has been a brother to me 
 all these years? Of course I do. And 
 when I am tired I cry for nothing just 
 nothing. I 
 
 It was certainly a brave attempt at 
 eloquence, but perhaps it was not wonder- 
 fully convincing. At all events it did not 
 keep Anthony from taking possession of 
 one of her hands and interrupting her with 
 a most irrelevant speech. 
 
 "Juliet, do you remember telling me 
 that you should expect a man who loved 
 you to carry your likeness always with 
 him? And you asked me for hers and 
 I had to own I had left it behind. Yet I 
 had one with me then it is always with 
 me and that was why I forgot the other. 
 Look." 
 
 He drew out a little silver case, and 
 Juliet, reluctantly releasing one eye from 
 the shelter of the friendly sofa pillow, saw 
 with a start her own face look smiling back 
 at her. It was a little picture of he>*
 
 A Question of Identity 43 
 
 girlish self which she had given him long 
 ago when he went away to college. 
 
 "No," he said quickly, as he recognised 
 the indignant question which instantly 
 showed in her eyes, "I'm not disloyal to 
 Eleanor Langham. Because dear there 
 is no such person." 
 
 With a little cry she flung herself away 
 from him among the pillows, hiding her 
 face from sight. There was a moment's 
 silence while Anthony Robeson, his own 
 face growing pale with the immensity of the 
 stakes for which he played, made his last 
 venture. 
 
 "The little home is only for you, Juliet. 
 If you won't share it with me it shall be 
 closed and sold. Perhaps it was an auda- 
 cious thing to do it has come over me a 
 great many times that it was too audacious 
 ever to be forgiven. But I couldn't help 
 the hope that if you should make the home 
 yourself you might come to feel that life 
 with a man who had his way to make 
 could be borne after all if you loved him 
 enough. It all depended on that. As I 
 said, I didn't mean to be presumptuous, 
 but it was a desperate chance with me, 
 dear. I couldn't give you up, and I
 
 44 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 thought perhaps just perhaps you cared 
 more than you knew. Anyhow I loved 
 you so I had to risk it." 
 
 Juliet's charming brown head was buried 
 so deep in the pillows that only its back 
 with the masses of waving, half-rumpled 
 hair was visible. But up from the depths 
 came a smothered question: 
 
 "The photograph?" 
 
 Anthony's face lightened as if the sun 
 had struck it, but he kept his voice quiet. 
 " Borrowed it's my old friend Dennison's. 
 I never even saw the girl though I ought 
 to beg her pardon for the use I have made 
 of her face. She's married now, and lives 
 abroad somewhere. Will you forgive me ? " 
 
 He was standing over her, leaning down 
 so that his cheek touched the rumpled hair. 
 "How is it, Juliet? Could you live in the 
 little home with love and me?" 
 
 It was a long time before he got any 
 answer. But at last a flushed, wet, radiant 
 face came into view, an arm was reached 
 out, and as with an inarticulate, deep note 
 of joy he drew her up into his embrace, a 
 voice, half tears, half laughter, cried: 
 
 "Oh, Tony you dear, bad, darling, in- 
 solent boy! I did think I could do without
 
 A Question of Identity 45 
 
 you but I can't. And oh, Tony" she 
 was sobbing in his arms now, while he 
 regarded the top of her head with laughing, 
 exultant eyes " I'm so glad so glad so 
 glad there isn't any Eleanor .Langham! 
 Oh, Jiow I hated her!" 
 
 "Did you, sweetheart?" he answered, 
 
 laughing aloud now. Then bending, with 
 
 his lips close to hers " well, to tell the truth 
 
 to tell the honest truth, little girl so 
 
 did I!"
 
 VII. AN ARGUMENT WITHOUT LOGIC 
 
 "I don't like it," repeated Mr. Horatio 
 Marcy, obstinately, and shook his head for 
 the fifth time. " I've not a word to say 
 against Anthony, my dear not a word. 
 He's a fine fellow and comes of a good 
 family, and I respect him and the start he 
 has made since things went to pieces, 
 but " 
 
 Juliet waited, her eyes downcast, her 
 cheeks very much flushed, her mouth in 
 lines of mutiny. 
 
 "But " her father continued, settling 
 back in his chair with an air of decision, 
 "you will certainly make the mistake of 
 your life if you think you can be happy in 
 the sort of existence he offers you. You're 
 not used to it. You've not been brought 
 up to it. You can spend more money in a 
 forenoon than he can earn in a twelve- 
 month. You don't know how to adapt 
 
 yourself to life on a basis of rigid economy. 
 V 
 
 46
 
 An Argument Without Logic 47 
 
 "You don't forbid it, sir?" 
 
 "Forbid it? no. A man can't forbid a 
 twenty-four year old woman to do as she 
 pleases. But I advise you I warn you 
 I ask you seriously to consider what it all 
 means. You are used to very many habits 
 of living which will be entirely beyond 
 Anthony's means for many years to come. 
 You are fond of travel of dress of so- 
 cial " 
 
 "Father dear," said his daughter, inter- 
 rupting him gently by a change of tactics. 
 She came to him and sat upon the arm of 
 his chair, and rested her cheek lightly upon 
 the top of his thick, iron-gray locks. " Let's 
 drop all this for the present. Let's not 
 discuss it. I want you to do me a par- 
 ticular favour before we say another word 
 about it. Come with me down to see the 
 house. It's only three hours away. We 
 can go after breakfast to-morrow and be 
 back for dinner at seven. It's all I ask. 
 My arguments are all there. Please! 
 Pfeasel" 
 
 So it came about that at eleven o'clock 
 on a certain morning in August, Mr. 
 Horatio Marcy discovered himself to be 
 eyeing with critical, reluctant gaze a
 
 48 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 quaintly attractive, low-spreading white 
 house among trees and vines. He became 
 aware at the same time of a sudden close 
 clasp on his arm. 
 
 " Here it is," said a low voice in his ear. 
 " Does it look habitable? " 
 
 "Very pretty, very pretty, my dear," 
 Mr. Marcy admitted. No sane man could 
 do otherwise. The little house might have 
 been placed very comfortably between the 
 walls of the dining-room at the Marcy 
 country house, but there was an indefinable, 
 undeniable air of gracious hospitality and 
 homelikeness about its aspect, and its sur- 
 roundings gave it an appearance of being 
 ample for the accommodation of any two 
 people not anxious to get away from each 
 other. 
 
 Juliet produced an antique door-key of 
 a clumsy pattern, and opened the door into 
 the living-room. She ran across to the 
 windows and threw them open, then turned 
 to see what expression might be at the 
 moment illumining Mr. Marcy's face. He 
 was glancing about him with curious eyes, 
 which rested finally upon the portrait of a 
 courtly gentleman in ruffles and flowing 
 hair, hanging above the fireplace. He
 
 An Argument Without Logic 49 
 
 adjusted a pair of eyeglasses and gave the 
 portrait the honour of his serious attention. 
 
 "That is an ancestor," Juliet explained. 
 "Doesn't he give distinction to the room? 
 And isn't the room well just a little bit 
 distinguished-looking itself, in spite of its 
 simplicity? because of it, perhaps. The 
 tables and most of the chairs are what 
 Anthony found left in the old Kentucky 
 homestead after the sale last year, and 
 bought in with the last of his money." 
 Her eyes were very bright, but her voice 
 was quiet. 
 
 Mr. Marcy looked at the furniture in 
 question, stared at the walls, then at the 
 rug on the polished floor. The rug held his 
 attention for two long minutes, then he 
 glanced sharply at his daughter. 
 
 "The colourings of that rug are very 
 good, don't you think?" she asked with 
 composure. "It will last until Anthony 
 can afford a better one." 
 
 Mr. Marcy turned significantly toward 
 the door of the dining-room, and Juliet led 
 him through. He surveyed the room in 
 silence, laying a hand upon a chair back; 
 then looked suddenly down at the chair 
 and brought his eyeglasses to bear upon it.
 
 50 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "The furniture was made by a country 
 cabinet-maker who charged country prices 
 for doing it. Tony rubbed in a very thin 
 stain and rubbed the wood in oil afterward 
 till it got this soft polish." 
 
 The visitor looked incredulous, but he 
 accepted the explanation with a polite 
 though exceedingly slight smile. Then he 
 was taken to inspect the kitchen. From 
 here he was led through the pantry back 
 to the living-room, and so upstairs. He 
 looked, still silently, in at the door of each 
 room, exquisite in its dainty readiness for 
 occupancy. As he studied the blue-and- 
 white room his daughter observed that he 
 retained less of the air of the connoisseur 
 than he had elsewhere exhibited. She had 
 shown him this place last with artful intent. 
 No room in his own homes of luxury could 
 appeal to him with more of beauty than 
 was visible here. 
 
 When Mr. Marcy reached the living-room 
 again he found himself placed gently but 
 insistently in the easiest chair the room 
 afforded, close by an open window through 
 which floated all the soft odours of country 
 air blowing lightly across apple orchards 
 and gardens of old-fashioned flowers. His
 
 An Argument Without Logic 51 
 
 daughter, bringing from the ingle seat a 
 plump cushion, dropped upon it at his feet- 
 But instead of beginning any sort of argu- 
 ment she laid her arm upon his knee, and 
 her head down upon her arm, and became 
 as still as a kitten who has composed itself 
 for sleep. Only through the contact of 
 the warm young arm, her father could feel 
 that she was alive and waiting for his 
 speech. 
 
 When he spoke at last it was with grave 
 quiet, in a gentler tone than that which he 
 had used the day before in his own library. 
 
 "You helped Anthony furnish this 
 house?" 
 
 "Yes, father." 
 
 " Do you mind telling me how much you 
 Lad at your disposal?" 
 
 "Five hundred dollars." Juliet main- 
 tained her position without moving, and 
 her face was out of sight. 
 
 " Did this include the repairs upon the 
 place?" 
 
 " Yes but you know wages are low just 
 now and lumber is cheap. Having no roof 
 to the porch made it inexpensive. The 
 painting Anthony helped at himself. He 
 worked every minute of his two weeks'
 
 52 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 vacation on whatever would cost most to 
 hire done." 
 
 "Anthony worked at painting the house ? " 
 There was astonishment in Mr. Marcy's 
 voice. He had known the Robe sons of 
 Kentucky all his life. He had never seen 
 one of them lift his hand to do manual 
 labour. There had been no need. 
 
 "Yes," said Juliet, and the cheek which 
 rested against her father's knee began to 
 grow warm. 
 
 : 'You have obtained a somewhat ex- 
 traordinary effect of harmony and comfort 
 inside the house," Mr. Marcy pursued. " It 
 is difficult to understand just how you 
 brought it about with so small an expen- 
 diture of money." 
 
 It was quite impossible now for Juliet 
 to keep her head down. She looked up 
 eagerly, but she still managed to speak 
 quietly. 
 
 " It is effect, father, and it is art not 
 money. The paper on the wall cost twenty- 
 five cents a roll, but it is the right paper for 
 the place, and the wrong paper at ten 
 times that sum wouldn't give the room such 
 a background of soft restfulness. Then, 
 you see, the old white woodwork is in very
 
 An Argument Without Logic 53 
 
 good style, and the green walls bring it out. 
 The old floor was easily dressed to give that 
 beautiful waxed finish. They told me 
 how to do that at the best decorator's in 
 Boston. The rug fits the colourings very 
 well. Anthony's old furniture would give 
 any such room dignity. The portrait lends 
 the finishing touch, I think. You see, when 
 you analyse it all there's nothing in the least 
 wonderful. But it looks like a home 
 doesn't it? And when the little things are 
 in which grow in a home the photographs, 
 a bowl of sweet-williams from the garden, 
 the lovely old copper lamp you gave me on 
 my birthday can't you think how dear it 
 will all be?" 
 
 Mr. Marcy glanced down keenly into his 
 daughter's face. 
 
 " There are a great many things of your 
 own at home which would naturally come 
 into your married home," he said. 
 
 Juliet coloured richly. "Yes," she an- 
 swered with steady eyes, "but except for 
 the lamp, and the photographs, and a few 
 such very little things, I should not bring 
 them. Anthony is poor, but he is very 
 proud. I couldn't hurt him by furnishing 
 his home with the overflow of mine.
 
 54 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 Besides I don't need those things. I 
 don't want them. All I want out of the 
 old home is your love your blessing, 
 dear!" 
 
 The sharp eyes meeting hers softened 
 suddenly. Juliet drew herself to her knees, 
 and leaning forward across her father's lap, 
 reached both arms up and flung them about 
 his neck. He held her close, her head upon 
 his shoulder, and all at once he found the 
 slender figure in his arms shaken with 
 feeling. Juliet was not crying, but she was 
 drawing long, deep breaths like a child who 
 tries to control itself. 
 
 "You need have no doubt of either of 
 those things, my little girl," said her father 
 in her ear. " Both are ready. It is only 
 your happiness I want. I distrust the 
 power of any poor man to give it to you. 
 That is all. Since I have seen this house 
 the question looks less doubtful to me I 
 admit that gladly. But I still am anxious 
 for the future. Even in this attractive 
 place there must be monotony, drudgery, 
 lack of many things you have always had 
 and felt you must have. You have never 
 learned to do without them. I understand 
 that Robeson will not accept them at my
 
 An Argument Without Logic 55 
 
 hand, nor at yours. I don't know that I 
 think the less of him for that but you 
 will have to learn self-denial. I want you 
 to be very sure that you can do it, and that 
 it will be worth while." 
 
 There was a little silence, then Juliet 
 gently drew herself away and rose to her 
 feet. She stood looking down at the im- 
 posing figure of the elderly man in the chair, 
 and there was something in her face he had 
 never seen there before. 
 
 "There's just one thing about it, sir," 
 she said. " I can't possibly spare Anthony 
 Robeson out of my life. I tried to do it, 
 and I know. I would rather live it out in 
 this little home with him than share the 
 most promising future with any other man. 
 But there's this you must remember: A 
 man who was brought up to do nothing but 
 ride fine horses, and shoot, and dance, must 
 have something in him to go to work and 
 advance, and earn enough to buy even such 
 a home as this, in five years. He has a 
 future of his own." 
 
 Mr. Marcy looked thoughtful. "Yes, 
 that may be true," he said. "I rather 
 think it is." 
 
 "And, father " she bent to lay a
 
 56 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 roseleaf cheek against his own " you began 
 with mother in a poorer home than this, 
 and were so happy ! Don't I know that ? " 
 
 "Yes, yes, dear," he sighed. "That's 
 true, too. But we were both poor had 
 always been so. It was an advance for us 
 not a coming down." 
 
 "It's no coming down for me." There 
 was spirit and fire in the girl's eyes now. 
 "Just to wear less costly clothes to walk 
 instead of drive to live on simpler food 
 what are those things? Look at these," 
 she pointed to the rows of books in the 
 bookcases which lined two walls of the 
 room. "I'm marrying a man of refine- 
 ment, of family, of the sort of blood that 
 tells. He's an educated man he loves the 
 things those books stand for. He's good 
 and strong and fine and if I'm not safe 
 with him I'll never be safe with anybody. 
 But besides all that I I love him with 
 all there is of me. Oh are you satisfied 
 now?" 
 
 Blushing furiously she turned away. Her 
 father got to his feet, stood looking after 
 her a moment with something very tender 
 coming into his eyes, then took a step 
 toward her and gathered her into his arms.
 
 VIII. ON ACCOUNT OF THE TEA-KETTLE 
 
 "THIS is the nineteenth day of August," 
 observed Anthony Robeson. " We finished 
 furnishing the house for my future bride 
 on the third day of the month. Over two 
 weeks have gone by since then. The place 
 must need dusting." 
 
 He glanced casually at the figure in white 
 which sat just above him upon the step of 
 the great porch at the back of the Marcy 
 country house. It was past twilight, the 
 moon was not yet up, and only the glow 
 from a distant shaded lamp at the other end 
 of the porch served to give him a hint as to 
 the expression upon his companion's face. 
 
 "I'm beginning to lie awake nights," he 
 continued, "trying to remember just how 
 my little home looks. I can't recall whether 
 we set the tea-kettle on the stove or left it 
 in the tin-closet. Can you think?" 
 
 " You put it on the stove yourself," said 
 Juliet. " You would have filled it if Auntie 
 Dingley hadn't told you it would rust." 
 
 57
 
 58 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 Anthony swerved about upon the heavy 
 oriental rug, which covered the steps, until 
 his back rested against the column; he 
 clasped his arms about one knee, and in- 
 clined his head at the precise angle which 
 would enable him to study continuously 
 the shadowy outlines of the face above him, 
 shot across with a ruby ray from the lamp. 
 "I wish I could recollect," he pursued, 
 "whether I left the porch awning up or 
 down. It has rained three times in the 
 two weeks. It ought not to be down." 
 
 "I'm sure it isn't," Juliet assured him. 
 There was a hint of laughter in her voice. 
 
 " It was rather absurd to put up that 
 awning at all, I suppose. But when you 
 can't afford a roof to your piazza, and 
 compromise on an awning instead, you 
 naturally want to see how it is going to 
 look, and you rush it up. Besides, I think 
 there was a strong impression on my mind 
 that only a few days intervened before our 
 occupancy of the place. It shows how 
 misled one can be." 
 
 There was no reply to this observation, 
 made in a depressed tone. After a minute 
 Anthony went on. 
 
 "These cares of the householder they
 
 On Account of the Tea-Kettle 59 
 
 absorb me. I'm always wondering if the 
 lawn needs mowing, and if the new roof 
 leaks. I get anxious about the blinds 
 do any of them work loose and swing around 
 and bang their lives out in the night ? Have 
 the neighbours' chickens rooted up that row 
 of hollyhock seeds? Then those books I 
 placed on the shelves so hurriedly. Are 
 any of them by chance upside down? Is 
 Volume I. elbowed by Volume II. or by 
 Volume VIII.? And I can't get away to 
 see. Coming up here every Saturday night 
 and tearing back every Sunday midnight 
 takes all my time." 
 
 "You might spend next Sunday in the 
 new house." 
 
 "Alone?" 
 
 " Of course. You have so many cares 
 they would keep you from getting lonely." 
 
 Anthony made no immediate answer to 
 this suggestion, beyond laughing up at his 
 companion in the dim light for an instant, 
 then growing immediately sober again. 
 But presently he began upon a new aspect 
 of the subject. 
 
 " Juliet, are we to be married in church? " 
 
 "Tony! I don't know." 
 
 "But what do you think?"
 
 60 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "I don't think." 
 
 " What ! Do you mean that ? " 
 
 "No-o." 
 
 " Of course you don't. Well what 
 about it?" 
 
 "I don't know." 
 
 " Are we to have a big wedding? " 
 
 " Do you want one? " 
 
 " I but that's not the question. Do 
 you want a big wedding? " 
 
 She hesitated an instant. Then she 
 answered softly, but with decision: " No." 
 
 Anthony drew a long breath. "Thank 
 the Lord!" he said devoutly. 
 
 "Why?" she asked in some surprise. 
 
 "I've never exactly understood why the 
 boys I've been best man for were so miser- 
 able over the prospect of a show wedding 
 but I know now. A runaway marriage 
 appeals to me now as it never did before. 
 I want to be married tremendously but 
 I want to get it over." 
 
 A soft laugh answered him. "We'll 
 get it over." 
 
 Anthony sat up suddenly. "Will we?" 
 he asked with eagerness. " When? " 
 
 "I didn't say 'when'!" 
 
 "Juliet when are you going to say it?"
 
 On Account of the Tea-Kettle 61 
 
 "Why, Tony dear " 
 
 "That's right put in the 'dear,'" he 
 murmured. " I've heard mighty few of 
 'em yet, and they sound great to me 
 
 " We've been engaged only two weeks 
 
 " And two days 
 
 " And the little house isn't spoiling, even 
 though you're not sure about the tea- 
 kettle and the awning. I you don't want 
 to hurry things 
 
 " Don't I ! " rebelliously. 
 
 "If I'm very good and say 'Christmas' 
 
 " ' Christmas ! 'Great Caesar ! " 
 
 "But, Tony- 
 
 " Now see here " he leaned forward and 
 stared up at her, without touching her he 
 was as yet allowed few of the lover's favours 
 and prized them the more for that "do 
 you think our case is just like other people's ? 
 Here I've been waiting for you all my days 
 waiting and waiting, and tortured all the 
 time by suspense. Then I lived that month 
 of July with my heart in my mouth 
 you'll never know what you put me through 
 those days, talking and jollying about 
 'Eleanor Langham,' and never for one in- 
 stant, until just that last day, giving me
 
 62 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 the smallest pinch of hope that it was any- 
 thing to you except just what it pretended 
 to be. Then I've been a long time with- 
 out a home and the little house sweet- 
 heart it looks like Heaven to me. Must I 
 stay outside till Christmas when every- 
 thing's all ready? Confound it I don't 
 want to play the pathetic string, and the 
 Lord knows I'm happy as a fellow can be 
 who's got the desire of his life. But 
 
 A warm hand came gently upon his hair, 
 and for joy at the touch he fell silent. Once 
 he turned his head and put his lips against 
 the white sleeve as it fell near, and looked 
 up an instant with eyes whose expression 
 the person above him felt rather than saw 
 through the subdued light. By and by she 
 took up the conversation. 
 
 " So you are rejoiced that I don't want a 
 great wedding?" 
 
 "Immensely relieved." 
 
 " What would you like best ? " 
 
 "I don't dare tell you." 
 
 "You may." 
 
 " Tell me what you would like, Julie.' 
 
 "Of course father would say the town 
 house, even if it were a small affair. Auntie 
 Dingle)^ would probably agree to having
 
 On Account of the Tea-Kettle 63 
 
 it here if that were what you we 
 wanted that is ' 
 
 Anthony looked up quickly. " Even at 
 Christmas?" 
 
 "Why yes. We could come back. 
 People do that sometimes." 
 
 " Yes. Must we do what other people 
 do?" 
 
 "Would you rather not?" 
 
 "Ten thousand times. It seems to me 
 that the biggest mistake people make is 
 the way they do this thing. Juliet think 
 of the little house. We made it you made 
 it. For years, without doubt, it's to hold 
 us and our experiences. Do you know I'd 
 like to give it this one to begin with? I'm 
 holding my breath!" 
 
 Plainly she was holding hers. Her head 
 was turned away he could just see her 
 profile outlined against the ruby light. 
 And at the moment there were footsteps 
 inside a long French window near at hand 
 which lay open into the library. Mr. 
 Horatio Marcy came out and stood still 
 just behind them. 
 
 Anthony sprang to his feet, and came 
 forward up the steps. The older man 
 greeted him cordially. Anthony pulled a
 
 64 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 big chair into position, and Mr. Marcy sat 
 down. He was smoking and wore an air 
 of relaxation. He and his guest fell to 
 talking, the younger man entering into the 
 conversation with as much ease and spirit 
 as if he were not fresh from what was to 
 him at this hour a much more interesting 
 discussion. Juliet sat quietly and listened. 
 
 It grew into an absorbing argument after 
 a little, the two men taking opposite sides 
 of a great governmental question just then 
 claiming public interest. Mrs. Dingley 
 came out and joined the group, and she and 
 Juliet listened with increasing delight in 
 a contest of brains such as was now offered 
 them. Mr. Marcy himself, while he put 
 forth his arguments with conviction and 
 with skill, was evidently enjoying the keen 
 wit and wisdom of his young opponent. The 
 elder man met objection with objection, set 
 up men of straw to be knocked down, and 
 ended at last with a hearty laugh and a 
 frankly appreciative : 
 
 "Well, Anthony you have convinced 
 me of one thing, certainly. There are more 
 sides to the question than I had understood. 
 I will admit that you've made a strong 
 argument. But when I come back I'll
 
 On Account of the Tea-Kettle 65 
 
 down you with fresh material. I shall have 
 plenty of it." 
 
 "Are you going away soon, sir?" An- 
 thony asked with some surprise. Mr. 
 Marcy was a frequent traveller, preferring to 
 look after various business interests in far- 
 away ports himself rather than entrust 
 them to others. 
 
 " Yes I shall be off in a few weeks and 
 for a longer time than usual. I haven't 
 told these ladies of my household yet but 
 this is as good a time as any. Juliet, little 
 girl I may be gone all winter this time." 
 
 She came quickly to him without speak- 
 ing, and gave him her regretful answer 
 silently. 
 
 "When do you go, Horatio?" Mrs. Ding- 
 ley asked. 
 
 "About the first of October. I hadn't 
 fully decided till to-day. I had thought of 
 inviting you two to go with me." 
 
 He looked with a smile at his sister and 
 his daughter, then somewhat quizzically 
 at Anthony. The latter was regarding him 
 with an alert face in which, as nearly as 
 could be made out in the dim light, were no 
 signs of discomfiture. 
 
 "Horatio," said Mrs. Dingley, "I wish
 
 66 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 you would come into the library for a few 
 minutes. This reminds me of a letter I had 
 to-day from one of your old friends, asking 
 when you were to be at home." 
 
 The French window closed on the two 
 older people. Juliet, left sitting on the 
 arm of her father's chair, found Anthony 
 behind her. 
 
 " Do you want to go on a voyage to the 
 Philippines?" he was asking over her 
 shoulder. 
 
 "I'm not sure just what I do want," she 
 answered rather breathlessly. 
 
 "The tea-kettle would rust while you 
 were gone." 
 
 He got no reply. 
 
 " The dust would grow inches deep on the 
 dining-table we polished so carefully." 
 
 Juliet rose and walked slowly to the edge 
 of the steps. Anthony followed. "Let's 
 go and walk on the terrace," he proposed, 
 and they ran down to the smooth sward 
 below. It was a warm night, with no dew, 
 and the short-shaven grass was dry. All 
 the stars were out. Anthony walked beside 
 the figure in white, his hands clasped be- 
 hind his back. 
 
 "Do white ruffled curtains like those at
 
 On Account of the Tea-Kettle 67 
 
 our windows ever grow musty from being 
 shut up? " he insinuated gently. 
 
 "I don't know." 
 
 "Will you write from every port you 
 touch at ? It will take a good many letters 
 to satisfy me." 
 
 " I suppose so." 
 
 "Suppose what? That you will write?" 
 
 Juliet stood still. "You're the greatest 
 wheedler I ever saw," she said. 
 
 "Is that a compliment?" 
 
 "It's not meant for one. What am I 
 to do when I'm 
 
 "Married to me? I don't know, poor 
 child. I can only pity you. What do you 
 think the prospect is for me, never to be 
 able to get the smallest concession from 
 you except by every art of coaxing ? Yet 
 if I can get this thing I want, by any means 
 I warn you I shall not give up until I've 
 seen you sail." 
 i " You'll not see me sail. ' ' 
 
 He wheeled upon her. He had her hand 
 in his grasp. " And if you don't go ? " 
 
 "I'll stay." 
 
 "With me?" 
 
 She laughed irresistibly. "How could I 
 stay without you?"
 
 68 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 " Will you marry me before your father 
 goes?" 
 
 "Oh, Tony, Tony- 
 
 " We can't be married without his bless- 
 ing, can we?" 
 
 "No dear father." 
 
 "Then- 
 
 " I'll tell you to-morrow," said she.
 
 IX. A BISHOP AND A HAY- WAGON 
 
 JULIET Marcy's prospective maid-of-hon- 
 our found Anthony Robeson's best man 
 at her elbow the moment she entered the 
 waiting-room of the big railway station. 
 Now, although she greeted him with a 
 charming little conscious look, there was 
 nothing either new or singular about the 
 quiet rush he had made across the waiting- 
 room the instant he saw her. The rest of 
 the party of twenty people who were going 
 down into the country to the Marcy-Robe- 
 son wedding understood it perfectly, al- 
 though the engagement had not been 
 announced and probably would not be until 
 Wayne Carey should have an income 
 decidedly larger than he had at present. 
 
 Judith Dearborn joined the group at once, 
 and Carey reluctantly followed her. Judith 
 had a way of joining groups and of giving 
 her betrothed many impatient half-hours 
 thereby. 
 
 "Just think of this," she said to the 
 6 Q
 
 70 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 others. "When I knew Juliet had really 
 given in to Anthony Robeson at last I 
 thought I should be asked to assist at an 
 impressive church wedding. But here we 
 are going down to what Tony describes as 
 ' a box of a house ' in the most rural of 
 suburbs. If it's really as small as he says 
 even twenty people will be a tight fit." 
 
 " How in the world did they come to be 
 married there?" asked the sister of the 
 best man. Everybody had been sum- 
 moned to this wedding so hurriedly and so 
 informally that nobody knew much about it. 
 
 The son of the Bishop whose father 
 was going down to perform the ceremony 
 answered promptly: 
 
 "Tony tells me its Juliet's own choice. 
 You see they furnished the house together, 
 with her aunt, Mrs. Dingley; and Juliet fell 
 so in love with it that she must needs be 
 married in it. What's occurred to that 
 girl I don't know. After the Robesons 
 of Kentucky lost their money and every- 
 thing else but their social standing I 
 thought it was all up with Anthony. But 
 he's plucky. He's made a way for himself, 
 and he's won Juliet somehow. He seems to 
 be a late edition of that obstinate chap
 
 A Bishop and a Hay- Wagon 71 
 
 who remarked ' I will find a way or make 
 one.' By Jove he must have made one 
 when he convinced Juliet Marcy that she 
 could be happy in a house where twenty 
 people are a tight fit." 
 
 When the train stopped at the small sta- 
 tion Judith Dearborn said in Wayne Carey'* 
 ear, as he glanced wonderingly from the 
 train : " Is this it ? Juliet Marcy must be 
 perfectly crazy!" 
 
 "She certainly must," admitted Robe- 
 son's best man. But he stifled a sigh. If 
 Juliet Marcy could do so crazy a thing as 
 to marry Anthony Robeson on the com- 
 paratively small salary that young man- 
 brought up to do nothing at all was now 
 earning, why must Wayne Carey wait for 
 several times that income before he could 
 have Juliet's closest friend? Was there 
 really such a difference in girls ? 
 
 But at the next instant he was shouting 
 hilariously, and so was everybody else except 
 the Bishop and the Bishop's wife, who only 
 smiled indulgently. The rest of the party 
 were young people, and their glee brooked 
 no repression. The moment they reached 
 the little platform they comprehended not 
 only that they were coming to a most in-
 
 7 2 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 formal wedding they were also in for a 
 decidedly novel lark. 
 
 Close to the edge of the platform stood a 
 great hay- wagon, cushioned with fragrant 
 hay and garlanded with goldenrod and 
 purple asters. Standing erect on the front, 
 one hand grasping the reins which reached 
 out over a four-in-hand of big, well-groomed, 
 flower-bedecked farm horses, the other wav- 
 ing a triumphant greeting to his friends, was 
 Anthony Robeson, in white from head to 
 foot, his face alight with happiness and 
 fun. He looked like a young king; there 
 could be no other comparison for his 
 splendid outlines as he towered there. And 
 better yet, he looked as he had ever looked, 
 through prosperity and through poverty, 
 like a "Robeson of Kentucky." 
 
 Below him, prettier than she had ever 
 been and that was saying much her eyes 
 brilliant with the spirit of the day, laughing, 
 dressed also in w r hite, a big white hat 
 drooping over her brown curls, stood Juliet 
 Marcy. 
 
 In a storm of salutations and congratula- 
 tions the guests rushed toward this extraor- 
 dinary equipage and the radiant pair who 
 were its charioteers. All regrets over the
 
 1 Standing erect . . . one hand grasping the reins 
 was Anthony Robeson."
 
 A Bishop and a Hay-Wagon 73 
 
 probable commonplaceness of a small coun- 
 try wedding had vanished. 
 
 " Might have known they would do things 
 up in shape somehow," grunted the Bishop's 
 son approvingly. " This is the stuff. Con- 
 ventionality be tabooed. They're going to 
 the other extreme, and that's the way to 
 do. If you don't want an altar and candles, 
 and a high-mucky-muck at the organ, have 
 a hay- wagon. Gee I Let me get up here 
 next to Ben Hur and the lady ! " 
 
 Even the Bishop, sitting with clerical 
 coat-tails carefully parted, his handsome 
 face beaming benevolently from under his 
 round hat, and Mrs. Bishop, granted by 
 special dispensation a cushion upon the 
 hay seat, enjoyed that drive. Anthony, 
 plying a long, beribboned lash, aroused his 
 heavy-footed steeds into an exhilarating 
 trot, and the hay- wagon, carrying safely its 
 crew of young society people in their 
 gayest mood, swept over the half - mile 
 from the station to the house like a 
 royal barge. 
 
 As they drew up a chorus of " Oh's! " not 
 merely polite but sincerely surprised and 
 admiring, recognised the quaint beauty of 
 the little house. It was no commonplace
 
 74 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 country home now, though the changes 
 wrought had been comparatively slight. It 
 looked as if it might have stood for years 
 in just this fashion, yet it was as far removed 
 from its primitive characterless condition 
 as may be an artist's drawing of a face upon 
 which he has altered but a line. 
 
 Mrs. Dingley and Mr. Horatio Marcy a 
 pair whose presence anywhere would have 
 been a voucher for the decorum of the 
 most unconventional proceedings wel- 
 comed the party upon the wide, uncovered 
 porch. 
 
 " We're going to be married very soon, to 
 have it over," called Anthony. "But you 
 may explore the house first, so your minds 
 shall be at rest during the crisis. Just 
 don't wander too far away in examin- 
 ing this ancestral mansion. There are six 
 rooms. I should advise your going in line, 
 otherwise complications may occur in the 
 upper hall. Please don't all try to get into 
 the kitchen at once; it can't be done. It 
 will hold Juliet and me at the same time 
 all the rooms have been stretched to do 
 that they had to be; but I'm not sure as to 
 their capacity for more. Now make your- 
 selves absolutely at home. The place is
 
 A Bishop and a Hay- Wagon 75 
 
 yours for a few hours. After that it's 
 mine and Juliet's." 
 
 He glanced, laughing, at his bride, as he 
 spoke from where he stood in the doorway. 
 She was on the little landing of the staircase, 
 at the opposite end of the living-room. She 
 looked down and across at him, and nearly 
 everybody in the room they were throng- 
 ing through at the moment caught that 
 glance. She was smiling back at him, and 
 her eyes lingered only an instant after they 
 met his, but her friends all saw. There 
 could be no question that the Juliet Marcy 
 who, since she had laid aside her pinafores, 
 had kept many men at bay, had at last 
 surrendered. As for Anthony 
 
 " Why, he's always been in love with 
 her," said the Bishop's son in the ear of the 
 best man, as in accordance with their 
 host's permission they peeped admiringly 
 in at the little kitchen, " but any idiot can 
 see that he's fairly off his feet now. Ideal 
 condition eh? Say, this dining-room's 
 great Jove, it is. I'm going to get asked 
 out here to dinner as soon as they are back. 
 Let's go upstairs. The girls are just com- 
 ing down hear 'em gurgling over what 
 they saw?"
 
 76 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 Upstairs the best man looked in at the 
 blue-and-white room with eyes which one 
 with penetration might have said were 
 envious. Indeed, he stared at everything 
 with much the same expression. He was 
 the soberest man present. Ordinarily he 
 could be counted on to enliven such occa* 
 sions, but to-day his fits of hilarity were 
 only momentary, and during the intervals 
 he was observed by the Bishop's son to be 
 gazing somewhat yearningly into space with 
 an abstraction new to him. 
 
 Nobody knew just how the moment for 
 the ceremony arrived. But when the sur- 
 vey of the house was over and everybody 
 had instinctively come back to the living- 
 room, the affair was brought about most 
 naturally. The Bishop, at a word from the 
 best man, took his place in the doorway 
 opening upon the porch, which had been 
 set in a great nodding border of goldenrod. 
 Anthony, making his way among his guests, 
 came with a quiet face up to Juliet and, 
 bending, said softly, " Now, dear? " A hush 
 followed instantly, and the guests fell back 
 to places at the sides of the room. Anthony's 
 best man was at his elbow, and the two 
 went over to the Bishop, to stand by his
 
 A Bishop and a Hay-Wagon 77 
 
 side. Mr. Marcy moved quietly into his 
 place. Juliet, with Judith, who had kept 
 beside her, walked across the floor, and 
 Anthony, meeting her, led her a step 
 farther to face the Bishop. It was but a 
 suggestion of the usual convention, and 
 Anthony, in his white clothes, surrounded 
 as he was by men in frock-coats, was 
 assuredly the most unconventional bride- 
 groom that had ever been seen. Juliet, 
 too, wore the simplest of white gowns, with 
 no other adornment than that of her own 
 beauty. Yet, somehow, as the guests, 
 grown sober in an instant, looked on and 
 noted these things, there was not one who 
 felt that either grace or dignity was lacking. 
 The rich voice of the Bishop was as im- 
 pressive as it had ever been in chancel or 
 at altar; the look on Anthony's face was 
 one which fitted the tone in which he spoke 
 his vows; and Juliet, giving herself to the 
 man whose altered fortunes she was agree- 
 ing to share, bore a loveliness which made 
 her a bride one would remember long and 
 envy. 
 
 "There, that's done," said the Bishop's 
 son with a gusty sigh of relief, which brought 
 the laugh so necessary to the relaxing of
 
 78 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 the tension which accompanies such scenes. 
 " Jove, it's a good thing to see a fellow like 
 Robeson safely tied up at last. You never 
 can tell where these quixotic ideas about 
 houses and hay-wagons and weddings may 
 lead. It's a terrible strain, though, to see 
 people married. I always tremble like a 
 leaf I weigh only a hundred and ninety- 
 eight now, and these things affect me. 
 It's so frightful to think what might happen 
 if they should trip up on their specifica- 
 tions." 
 
 There was a simple wedding breakfast 
 served by whom nobody could tell. It 
 was eaten out in the orchard a" 1 pleasant 
 place, for the neglected grass had been close 
 cut, and an old-fashioned garden at one 
 side perfumed the air with late September 
 flowers. The trim little country maids 
 who brought the plates came from a willow- 
 bordered path which led presumably to the 
 next house, some distance down the road. 
 There were several innovations in the 
 various dishes, delicious to taste. Alto- 
 gether it was a little feast which everybody 
 enjoyed with unusual zest. And the life 
 of the party was the bridegroom. 
 
 " I never saw a fellow able to scintillate
 
 A Bishop and a Hay-Wagon 79 
 
 like that at his own wedding," remarked 
 the son of the Bishop to the best man's 
 sister. "Usually they are so completely 
 dashed by their own temerity in getting 
 into such an irretrievable situation that 
 they sit with their ears drooping and their 
 eyes bleared. Do you suppose it's getting 
 married in tennis clothes that's done it?" 
 
 "Tennis clothes!" cried the best man's 
 sister with a merry laugh. " If you realised 
 how much handsomer he looks than you 
 men in your frock-coats you would not 
 make fun." 
 
 "Make fun!" repeated the Bishop's son 
 solemnly. " I joke only to keep my head 
 above water. I never in my life was so 
 completely submerged in the desire to get 
 married instantly and live in a picturesque 
 band-box. Nothing can keep me from it 
 longer than it takes to find the girl and the 
 band-box. If if ' his voice dropped to 
 a whisper, and a hint of redness crept into 
 his face which belied his jesting words, 
 " you knew of the girl I er say should 
 you mind living in a band-box? " 
 
 The best man's sister was the sort of girl 
 who can discern when even an inveterate 
 joker is daring to be somewhat more than
 
 8o The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 half in earnest, and she flushed so prettily 
 that the son of the Bishop caught her hand 
 boyishly under the little table. He had 
 hitherto been considered a hopeless old 
 bachelor, so it may readily be seen that, 
 now the contagion had caught him, his was 
 quite a serious case.
 
 X. ON A THRESHOLD 
 
 WHEN it was all over Judith Dearborn 
 went upstairs with Juliet to help her dress 
 for her going away. The maid-of -honour 
 looked about the blue-and-white room with 
 thoughtful eyes. 
 
 "This is certainly the ^dearest room I 
 ever saw," she said. "Oh, Juliet, do you 
 think you really will be happy here? " 
 
 "What do you think about it, dear?" 
 asked Juliet. 
 
 "Oh I well, really I never imagined 
 that a little old house like this could be 
 made so awfully attractive. But, Juliet 
 you you must be very, very fond of An- 
 thony to give up so many things. How 
 well he looked to-day. Seems to me he's 
 grown gloriously in every way since he 
 since his family came into so many mis- 
 fortunes." 
 
 Juliet smiled, but answered nothing. 
 
 " And you're so different, too. Never in 
 my life would I have imagined you having 
 
 81
 
 82 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 a wedding like this and yet it's been 
 absolutely the prettiest one I ever saw. 
 That's a sweet gown to go away in but 
 it's the simplest thing you ever wore, I'm 
 sure. Juliet, where are you going?" 
 
 "We are going to drive through the 
 Berkshires in a cart." 
 
 "Juliet Marcy!" 
 
 "'Robeson," corrected Juliet with a 
 little laugh, but in a tone which it was a 
 pity Anthony could not hear. " Don't 
 forget that. I'm so proud of the name. 
 And I think a drive through the Berk- 
 shires will be a perfectly ideal trip." 
 
 Judith Dearborn was not assisting the 
 bride at all. Instead she was sitting in a 
 chair, staring at Juliet with much the same 
 abstraction of manner observable in the 
 best man throughout the day. 
 
 "Of course you didn't need to live this 
 way," observed Miss Dearborn at length. 
 "You could have afforded to live much 
 more expensively." 
 
 " No, I couldn't," said Juliet with a flash 
 in her eyes, though she smiled; " I couldn't 
 have afforded to do one thing that would 
 hurt Tony's pride. Why, Judith he's a 
 ' Robeson of Kentucky.' '
 
 On a Threshold 83 
 
 "Well, he looks it," admitted Judith. 
 "And you're a Marcy of Massachusetts. 
 The two go well together. Juliet, do you 
 know somehow I thought it was a fear- 
 ful sacrifice you were making, even for such 
 a man as Anthony but this blue-and- 
 white room 
 
 "Ah, this blue-and- white room ' re- 
 peated Juliet. Then she came over and 
 dropped on her knees by her friend in her 
 impulsive way and put both arms around 
 her. The plain little going- away gown 
 touched folds with the one whose elegance 
 was equalled only by its cost. Anthony 
 Robeson's wife looked straight up into the 
 eyes of her maid-of -honour and whispered: 
 
 "Judith, don't put Wayne and your 
 blue- and- white room off too long. You 
 will not be any happier to wait if you love 
 him." 
 
 Drawn up close to the door stood the 
 cart. Beside it waited Anthony. Around 
 the cart crowded twenty people. When 
 Juliet came through them to say good-bye 
 the son of the Bishop murmured: 
 
 "Er Mrs. Robeson- 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Farnham " said Juliet
 
 84 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 promptly, her delicate flush answering the 
 name, as it had answered it many times 
 that day. 
 
 "When are you going to be at home to 
 your friends?" 
 
 "The fifteenth day of October," said 
 Juliet. "And from then on, every day in 
 the week, every week in the year. Come 
 and see us everybody. But don't expect 
 any formal invitations." 
 
 "I'll be down," declared the Bishop's 
 son. " I'll be down once a week." 
 
 " Please don't stay long after we are 
 gone," requested Anthony, putting his bride 
 into the cart and springing in beside her. 
 He gathered up the reins. "Good-bye," 
 he called. "Take this next train home. 
 It goes in an hour. Lock the door, Carey, 
 and hang the key up in plain sight by the 
 window there. We live in the country now, 
 and that's the way we do. Good-bye- 
 good-bye!" 
 
 Then he drove rapidly away down the 
 road. 
 
 "And that pair," said the son of the 
 Bishop gravely, looking after them and 
 speaking to the company in general, " mar- 
 ried, so to speak, in a hay-wagon, and going
 
 On a Threshold 85 
 
 for a wedding trip in a wheel-barrow 
 through the Berkshires, is Juliet Marcy and 
 Anthony Robeson." 
 
 "No, my son," said the Bishop slowly 
 /and everybody always listened when the 
 'Bishop spoke: "It is Anthony and Juliet 
 Robeson and that makes all the difference. 
 I think two happier young people I never 
 married. And may God be with them." 
 
 The best man said that he and the maid- 
 of -honour would walk the half-mile to the 
 station. The son of the Bishop and the 
 sister of the best man had already taken 
 this course without saying anything about 
 it. Nearly everybody murmured some- 
 thing about it being a lovely evening and 
 a glorious sunset and a charming road, and, 
 pairing off advisedly, adopted the same 
 plan. The Bishop and Mrs. Bishop, Mrs. 
 Dingley and Mr. Marcy decided on being 
 driven over to the station in a light surrey 
 provided for this anticipated emergency. 
 
 The best man and the maid-of-honour 
 succeeded in dropping behind the rest of 
 the pedestrians. Their friends were used 
 to that, and let them mercifully alone. 
 
 "Mighty pretty affair," observed Carey 
 in a melancholy tone.
 
 86 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "Yes in its way," admitted Judith 
 Dearborn with apparent reluctance. 
 
 "Cosy house." 
 
 "Very." 
 
 "Tony seemed happy." 
 
 "Ecstatic." Judith's inflection was pe- 
 culiar. 
 
 " Nobody would have suspected Juliet of 
 feeling blue about living off here." 
 
 "She doesn't seem to." 
 
 "What's made the difference?" 
 
 "Anthony Robeson, probably." 
 
 " Must seem pretty good to him to have 
 her care like that." 
 
 " I presume so." 
 
 " It isn't everybody that could inspire 
 such an affection in such a girl." 
 
 "No, indeed." 
 
 Carey looked intensely gloomy. The 
 two walked on in silence, Miss Dearborn 
 studying the sunset, Carey studying Miss 
 Dearborn. Suddenly he spoke again. 
 
 "Judith, do all our plans for the future 
 seem as desirable to yoti as they did this 
 morning?" 
 
 "Which ones?" 
 
 " Apartment in the locality we've picked 
 out life in the style the locality calls for
 
 On a Threshold 87 
 
 and wait for it all until I'm gray " with 
 
 a burst of tremendous energy. " Good 
 heavens, darling, what's the use? Why 
 if I could have you and a little home like 
 that " 
 
 He bit his lip hard. The maid-of -honour 
 walked on, her head turned still farther 
 away than before. They were nearing the 
 station. Just ahead lay a turn in the road 
 the last turn. The rest of the party, 
 with a shout back at this dilatory pair, dis- 
 appeared around it. From the distance 
 came the long, shrill whistle of the ap- 
 proaching train. 
 
 The maid-of-honour glanced behind: 
 there was not a soul in sight; ahead: and 
 saw nothing to alarm a girl with an impulse 
 in her heart. At a point where great 
 masses of reddening sumac hid a little dip 
 in the road from everything earthly she 
 stopped suddenly, and turning, put out 
 both hands. She looked up into a face 
 which warmed on the instant into a half- 
 incredulous joy and said very gently: 
 "You may."
 
 88 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 lately settled down upon the silent little 
 house, waiting alone for its owners to come 
 back some October day, when a cart, driven 
 slowly, rolled along the road. In front of 
 the house it stopped. 
 
 "Where are we?" asked Juliet's voice. 
 "This is a private house. I thought we 
 Why, Tony do you see? We've come 
 around in a circle instead of going on to that 
 little inn you spoke of. This is home! " 
 
 "Is it?" said Anthony's voice in a tone 
 of great surprise. "So it is!" He leaped 
 out and came around to Juliet's side. 
 " What a fluke! " But the happy laugh in 
 his voice betrayed him. 
 
 "Anthony Robeson," cried Juliet softly, 
 "you need not pretend to be surprised. 
 You meant to do it." 
 
 " Did I?" He reached out both arms to 
 take her down. " Perhaps I did. Do you 
 mind Mrs. Robeson? Shall we go on?" 
 
 Juliet looked down at him. " No, I 
 don't think I mind," she said. 
 
 He swung her down, and they went 
 slowly up the walk. "Somehow," said 
 Anthony Robeson, looking up at the house, 
 lying as if asleep in the September night, 
 " when I thought of taking you to that little
 
 On a Threshold 8$ 
 
 public inn, and then remembered that we 
 might have this instead We can go on 
 with our wedding journey to-morrow, dear 
 but to-night- 
 He led her silently upon the porch. He 
 found the key, where in jest he had bade 
 his best man put it, and unlocked the door 
 and threw it open. 
 
 He stepped first upon the threshold, and, 
 turning, held out his arms. 
 
 " Come," he said, smiling in the darkness.
 
 XI. A BACHELOR AT DINNER 
 
 " HALLO there Anthony Robeson don't 
 be in such a hurry you can't notice a fellow. ' ' 
 
 The big figure rushing through the snow 
 paused, wheeled, and thrust out a hand of 
 hearty greeting. " That you, Carey ? Hat 
 over your eyes like a train robber electric 
 lights all behind you and you expect me 
 to smile at you as I go by! How are you? 
 How's Judith?" 
 
 " Infernally lonely I mean I am 
 Judith's off on a visit to her mother. Say, 
 Tony take me home with you will you? 
 I want some decent things to eat, so I'm 
 holding you up on purpose." 
 
 "Good come on. Train goes in a few 
 minutes. Juliet will be delighted." 
 
 The two hurried on together into the 
 station from which the suburban trains 
 were constantly leaving. As they entered 
 they encountered a mutual friend, at 
 whom both flung themselves enthusiastic- 
 ally with alternate greetings : 
 
 90
 
 A Bachelor at Dinner 91 
 
 "Roger Barnes " 
 
 " Roger old fellow glad to see you 
 back!" 
 
 " Patient safely landed? " 
 
 "Get a big fee?" 
 
 "Where you going?" 
 
 " Let's take him home with us, Tony " 
 
 The third man looked smiling at Tony. 
 " I'll challenge you to," said he. 
 
 "That's easy come on," responded 
 Anthony Robeson with cordiality. "I'll 
 just telephone Mrs. Robeson." 
 
 "That's it," said Dr. Roger Barnes. 
 "You don't dare not to. I understand. 
 Go ahead. But if she's too much dashed 
 let me know, will you? " 
 
 Anthony turned, laughing, into a tele- 
 phone closet, from which he emerged in time 
 to catch his train with his guests. 
 
 " It's all right," he assured them. " But 
 it's only fair to let her know a few minutes 
 ahead. You like to understand, Roger, 
 before you start, don't you, whether your 
 emergency case is a hip-fracture or a cut 
 lip, so you can tell whether to take your 
 glue or your sewing-silk?" 
 
 " By all means," said the bachelor of the 
 party. " And I suppose you think Mrs. Juliet
 
 92 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 Marcy Robeson is now smiling happily to 
 herself over this little surprise. I'll lay you 
 anything you please that if I can make her 
 own up she'll admit that she said ' Merciful 
 heavens!' into the telephone when she got 
 your message." 
 
 Anthony shook his head. "Evidently 
 you don't know what guests in the remote 
 suburbs on a stormy February night mean 
 to a poor girl whose nearest neighbour is 
 five hundred feet away. Your ideas of 
 married life need a little freshening, too. 
 They're pretty antique." 
 
 It was a half-mile from the station to the 
 house the "box of a house" which had 
 been Anthony's home for five months, and 
 toward which he now led his friends with 
 the air of a man about to show his most 
 treasured possessions. He strode through 
 the deepening snow as if he enjoyed the 
 strenuous tramp, setting a pace which 
 Wayne Carey, with his office life, if not the 
 doctor, more vigorously built and bred, 
 found difficult to maintain. 
 
 " Here we are," called the leader, pointing 
 toward windows glowing with a ruddy light. 
 The doctor looked up with interest. Carey 
 was a frequent visitor, but the busy sur-
 
 A Bachelor at Dinner 93 
 
 geon, old school - and - college chum of 
 Anthony's though he was, was about to 
 have his first introduction to a place of 
 which he had heard much, but of whose 
 nearness to Paradise he doubted with the 
 strong skepticism of a man who has seen 
 many a fair beginning end in all unhappiness, 
 and desolation. 
 
 As they stamped upon the little porch 
 the door flew open, the brilliancy and 
 comfort of a fire-and-lamplit room leaped 
 out at them, a delicious faint odour of 
 cookery assailed their hungry nostrils, and 
 the welcome which makes all worth having 
 met them on the threshold. 
 
 "Wayne," said the rich young voice of 
 the mistress of the house, " I'm so glad. 
 Roger Barnes, this is just downright good 
 of you; it's so long you've promised us this. 
 Tony " 
 
 What she said to Tony must have been 
 whispered in his ear if voiced at all, for the 
 two guests, looking on with laughing, 
 envious eyes, saw their hostess swept 
 unceremoniously into a bearlike embrace, 
 swung into the air as one thrusts up a 
 child, poised there an instant, laughing 
 and protesting, then slowly lowered to be
 
 94 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 kissed, and set down once more lightly 
 upon the floor. 
 
 "It's all right. I didn't tumble your 
 hair a bit," said Anthony coolly. " Excuse 
 me, gentlemen, but Wayne understands 
 and Roger will some day, I hope that a 
 man who has been thinking about it all the 
 way home can't put it off on account of a 
 couple of idiots who stand and stare instead 
 of politely turning their backs. Oh, don't 
 mention it it doesn't disturb me at all; 
 and Mrs. Robeson is becoming reconciled to 
 my impetuosity by degrees. Make your- 
 selves at home, boys. Juliet 
 
 "Take them upstairs, Tony, please. Of 
 course we can't let them go back to-night, 
 now we have them. It's beginning to 
 storm heavily, isn't it? I thought so. 
 Take them to the guest-room, Tony and 
 dinner will be served as soon as you are 
 down." 
 
 " By Jupiter, I believe she means it," de- 
 clared the doctor, with approval, as the 
 door of the bedroom closed on his host. 
 " I think I can tell when a woman is sham- 
 ming. She's improved, hasn't she, tremen- 
 dously? Pretty girl always, but well
 
 A Bachelor at Dinner 95 
 
 bloomed now. Nice little house. Believe 
 I'll have to stay, though I ought not 
 just to take observations on Tony. His 
 enthusiasm has all the appearance of 
 reality. In fact, it strikes me he has 
 rather " 
 
 It was on his lips to say " rather more than 
 you have," but it occurred to him in time 
 that jokes on this ground are dangerous. 
 Wayne Carey had been married in Novem- 
 ber, was living in a somewhat unpretentious 
 way in a downtown boarding-house, and 
 certainly had to-night so much of a lost-dog 
 air that it made the doctor pause. So he 
 substituted: " rather more than I should 
 have expected, even of a fellow who has got 
 the girl he has wanted all his life," and fell 
 to washing and brushing vigorously, eyeing 
 meanwhile the little room with a critical 
 bachelor's appreciation of beauty and com- 
 fort in the quarters he is to occupy. It was 
 very simply furnished, certainly, but it 
 struck him as a place where his dreams 
 were likely to be pleasant for every reason 
 in the world. 
 
 Downstairs, Juliet, in the dining-room, 
 was surveying her table with the hostess's 
 satisfaction. Opposite her stood a tall
 
 96 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 and slender girl, black-haired, black-eyed, 
 with a face of great attractiveness. 
 
 "I wish, Mrs. Robeson," she was saying 
 eagerly, " you would let me serve you 
 as your maid, and not make a guest 
 of me. Really I should love to do it. 
 I don't need to meet your friends, and I 
 don't mind seeming what I really am 
 your 
 
 "Rachel Redding," Juliet interrupted, 
 lifting an affectionate glance across the 
 table, " if you want to seem what you really 
 are my friend you will let me do as I 
 like." 
 
 "My shabby clothes " murmured the 
 
 girl. 
 
 " If I could look as much like a princess as 
 you do in them ' 
 
 "Mrs. Robeson, in that lovely dull red 
 you're a queen ' 
 
 " dowager," finished Juliet gayly. 
 " Well, I'll be proud of you, and you can be 
 proud of me, if you like, and together we'll 
 make those hungry men think there's 
 nothing like us. The dinner's the thing. 
 Isn't it the luckiest chance in the world I 
 sent for those oysters this morning ? Doctor 
 Barnes is perfectly fine, but he never would
 
 A Bachelor at Dinner 97 
 
 believe in the happiness of married life if 
 the coffee were poor or the beefsteak too 
 much broiled. Doesn't the table look 
 pretty ? Those red geranium blossoms you 
 brought me give it just the gay touch it 
 needed this winter night." 
 
 Three men, standing about the wide fire- 
 place, warming cold hands at its friendly 
 blaze, turned expectantly as their youthful 
 hostess came in, followed by a graceful girl 
 in gray. Juliet presented her guests with 
 the air of conferring upon them a favour, 
 and they seemed quite ready to accept it as 
 such. 
 
 Anthony looked on with interest to see 
 a person whom he had known hitherto only 
 as a pretty but poor young neighbour 
 whom Juliet had engaged to help her for a 
 certain part of every day, introduced as his 
 wife's friend, and greeted by Doctor Barnes 
 and Wayne Carey with quite evident ad- 
 miration and pleasure. He looked haid at 
 her, as Carey seated her, noticing for the 
 first time that she was really worth con- 
 sideration, and remembering vaguely that 
 Juliet had more than once tried to impress 
 him with the fact. If it had not been for
 
 98 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 the other fellows, with whose eyes as their 
 host he was now stimulated to observe her, 
 he might have been still some time longer 
 in coming to the realisation that Juliet had 
 found somebody in whom her genuine 
 interest was not misplaced. But Anthony 
 Robeson had all his life been singularly 
 blind to the fascinations of most other 
 women than Juliet. As he turned his keen 
 gaze from Rachel Redding to the charming 
 figure that sat on the other side of the 
 table the satisfaction in his eyes became 
 so pronounced that it could mean, Dr. 
 Roger Barnes admitted to himself, as he 
 caught it, nothing less than a very real 
 happiness. 
 
 It was not an elaborate dinner. It was 
 not by any means the sort of dinner Juliet 
 might have prepared had she known that 
 morning whom she was to entertain. It 
 was merely a dinner planned with affec- 
 tionate care to please and satisfy one 
 hungry man who liked good things to eat 
 and amplified as much as possible in 
 quantity after Anthony's message reached 
 her. And by that admirable collusion 
 between hostess and feminine friend which 
 can sometimes be effected when the situation
 

 
 A Bachelor at Dinner 99 
 
 demands it, the dinner prepared for three 
 seemed ample for five. 
 
 Between them Juliet and Rachel Redding 
 served the various dishes and changed the 
 plates which Anthony handed from his 
 place. It was gracefully done and r.o 
 simply that the absence of a maid was a 
 thing to be enjoyed rather than regretted. 
 When Juliet, in the softly sweeping dull-red 
 frock which made of her a warm picture for 
 a winter's night, slipped from her chair and 
 moved about the room, or brought in from 
 the kitchen a steaming dish, she seemed the 
 ideal hostess, herself bestowing what her own 
 hands had prepared. And when Rachel 
 Redding offered a man a cup of fragrant 
 coffee, smiling down in the general direction 
 of his uplifted face without meeting his 
 eyes, there was certainly nothing lost from 
 his enjoyment of the beverage. 
 
 "Say, but this dinner has tasted just 
 about right," was Wayne Carey's satisfied 
 observation as he leaned back in his chair 
 at last, after draining his third cup of 
 coffee and the pot itself, if he had but 
 known it. 
 
 "Went to the spot?" asked Anthony, 
 leaning back also with the expression of
 
 ioo The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 the friendly host. He was young to culti- 
 vate that expression, but he appeared 
 to find no difficulty about it. 
 
 " It did every last mouthful." 
 
 "Good. Now, if you fellows will come 
 back to the fire and have a pipeful of talk 
 we shall not be missed. In this house on 
 ordinary occasions we reverse the order of 
 after-dinner privileges the men retire to 
 the atmosphere of the sofa-pillows, and the 
 women I'm not allowed to tell what they 
 do. But after remaining discreetly out of 
 sight for some little time, during which faint 
 sounds as of the rattle of china penetrate 
 through closed doors, they reappear, pleas- 
 antly flushed and full of a sort of relieved 
 joy." 
 
 " I know what I wish," said Roger Barnes, 
 looking back from the dining-room doorway 
 at young Mrs. Robeson; " I wish that when 
 the dishes are all ready you would let me 
 know. I should like nothing better than 
 to have a dish-towel at them. I know all 
 about it my mother taught me how." 
 
 He looked so precisely as if he meant it, 
 and the glance he sent past Juliet at Rachel 
 Redding was so suggestive of his dislike 
 to be separated for the coming hour from
 
 A Bachelor at Dinner 101 
 
 the feminine portion of the household, that 
 his hostess answered promptly : "Of course 
 you may. We never refuse an offer like 
 that. We will try you on promise of good 
 behaviour."
 
 XII. THE BACHELOR BEGS A DISH-TOWEL 
 
 WHEN the door closed on the three Juliet 
 produced from somewhere two aprons 
 attractive affairs on the pinafore order 
 one of which she slipped upon Rachel, the 
 other donned herself. 
 
 "These are my kitchen party-aprons," 
 she said gayly, noting how the pretty gar- 
 ment became the girl, "calculated to im- 
 press the masculine mind with the charm 
 of domesticity in women. The doctor needs 
 a little illustrated lesson of the sort. Life 
 in boarding-houses isn't adapted to encour- 
 age a man in the belief that real comfort is 
 to be found anywhere outside of a bache- 
 lor's club." 
 
 Before he was called the doctor forsook a 
 half-smoked cigar and the seductive hollows 
 of Anthony's easiest chair and marched 
 briskly out to the kitchen. 
 
 "You see I distrust you," he announced, 
 putting in his head at the door. "I'm 
 afraid you will get them all done without 
 me." 
 
 102
 
 The Bachelor Begs a Dish-Towel 103 
 
 "Not a bit of it. Here you are," and 
 Juliet tied a big white apron about a large- 
 sized waist. " Here's your towel. No, 
 don't touch the glass; a man is too uncon- 
 scious of his strength." 
 
 "A surgeon?" demurred Rachel softly, 
 from over her steaming dishpan. 
 
 "Thank you, Miss Redding," said the 
 doctor, smiling. 
 
 "Ah, how stupid of me," Juliet made 
 amends swiftly. " Miss Redding remem- 
 bers that when I got my telephone message 
 to-night I told her that the most dis- 
 tinguished young specialist in the city was 
 coming here to dinner. A hand trained 
 to such delicate tasks as those of surgery 
 here, Dr. Roger Barnes, forgive me, and 
 wipe my most precious goblets." 
 
 "You'll have my nerves unsteady with 
 such speeches as that," said he, but he 
 accepted the trust. He held the goblets and 
 the other daintily cut and engraved pieces 
 of glass with evident pleasure in the task. 
 
 Meanwhile Juliet and Rachel made rapid 
 work of the greater part of the dishes, 
 handling thin china with the dexterity of 
 housewives who love their work and their 
 china. Talk and laughter flowed brightly
 
 104 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 through it all, and when the doctor had 
 finished his glass he looked disappointed at 
 seeing not much left to do. At the moment 
 Rachel was scrubbing and scraping a big 
 baking-dish, portions of whose surface 
 strongly resisted her efforts, in spite of pre- 
 vious soaking. The assistant, looking about 
 him for new worlds to conquer, fell upon this 
 dish. 
 
 "Here, here," said he, "let me have it. 
 I'll use on it some of the unconscious 
 strength Mrs. Robeson credits me with." 
 
 But Rachel clung to the dish. " Proper 
 housekeepers," she averred, "always say 
 ' That's all, thank you,' as soon as the china 
 is done, and finish the pots and kettles 
 after the guest has gone back to pleasanter 
 things." 
 
 "I see. Did you ever have a man for 
 dish-wiper before ? " 
 
 "Never a surgeon," admitted Miss Red- 
 ding. 
 
 " Then you don't appreciate the fact 
 that a man likes to do big things which 
 make the most show and get the credit for 
 them." 
 
 He took the dish away from her by a 
 dexterous little twist in which conscious
 
 The Bachelor Begs a Dish-Towel 105 
 
 strength certainly asserted itself. Rachel, 
 laughing, with a dash of colour in cheeks 
 which were normally of dark ivory tints, 
 accepted the dish-towel he handed her. 
 
 " Hallo, there," cried Wayne Carey's voice 
 from the door. "You're having more fun 
 out here than we are in there, and that's 
 not fair. The lord of the manor is getting 
 so chesty over the delights of a country 
 home in a February snowbank that he's 
 becoming heavy company." 
 
 "No room for you here," returned the 
 doctor, removing with a flourish the last 
 candied sugar lump from the bottom of the 
 big dish, and beginning to swash about 
 vigorously in the hot water. " We do some- 
 thing besides talk out here; we work. Our 
 kitchen is so small we have to waste no 
 time in steps ; as we dry the things we chuck 
 them straight into their places." 
 
 Suiting the action to the word he caught 
 up a shining cake-tin and cast it straight at 
 Carey. That gentleman dodged, but An- 
 thony caught it, performed upon it an 
 imitation of the cymbals, then turned about 
 and laid it in a nest of similar tins upon a 
 shelf in an open closet.
 
 io6 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "Ah, but I'm well trained," he boasted. 
 
 " If you were you wouldn't put it away 
 wet," observed Rachel slyly. 
 
 Anthony withdrew the tin, wiped it with 
 much solicitude, and replaced it. 
 
 "These little technicalities are beyond 
 me," he apologised. "Your real athlete in 
 kitchen work is your scientific man. See 
 him dry that bean-pot with the glass-towel. 
 Now, I know better than that." 
 
 "Go away, all of you," commanded the' 
 mistress of the place. " Go back to the 
 fire and we'll join you. If you are very 
 good we'll bring you a special treat by-and- 
 by." 
 
 "That settles it," said the doctor, and 
 led the retreat, but not without a backward 
 glance at the little kitchen. 
 
 Juliet had gone into the dining-room 
 with a trayful of glass and silver. Rachel 
 Redding was plunging half a dozen white 
 towels into a pan of steaming water. Barnes 
 stood an instant, staring hard at the slender 
 figure in the white pinafore, the round young 
 arms gleaming in the lamplight then he 
 turned to follow the others. There are 
 some pictures which linger long in a man's 
 memory; why, he can hardly tell. With
 
 The Bachelor Begs a Dish-Towel 107 
 
 all his varied experiences Dr. Roger Barnes 
 had never before discovered how attractive 
 a background a well-kept kitchen makes 
 for a beautiful woman, so that she be there 
 mistress of the situation. Long after he 
 had gone back to the fire his absent eyes, 
 while the others talked, were studying the 
 to him unaccustomed and singularly 
 charming scene he had just left in the 
 kitchen. 
 
 When Juliet and Rachel came in at length 
 they found a plan afoot for their entertain- 
 ment. Wayne Carey was standing at the 
 window showing cause why the whole party 
 should go out and coast upon the hill near 
 by. 
 
 "You admit," he argued with Anthony, 
 "that you know where we can get a pair 
 of bobs and if you can't I'll bribe some of 
 those youngsters out there to let us have 
 theirs. The storm has stopped; the boys 
 have swept off the whole hill, I should judge, 
 by the way their track shines again under 
 the moonlight. I haven't had a good coast 
 since I left college." 
 
 He turned to Juliet. "Will you go?" he 
 asked coaxingly. 
 
 "Of course we will," promised Juliet.
 
 io8 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 " Tony wants to go he's just enjoying mak- 
 ing you tease. As for the doctor 
 
 " If my right hand has not forgot her cun- 
 ning," he agreed. 
 
 In ten minutes the party was off. A 
 young matron of five months' standing is 
 not so materially changed from the girl she 
 used to be that she can fail to be the gayest 
 of company, perhaps with the more zest 
 that the old good times seem a bit far away 
 already and she is glad to bring them back. 
 
 As for the real girl of the party, in this 
 case it chanced to be a country lass who had 
 been away to school and half-way through 
 college, had been brought home by love 
 and duty to some elderly people who needed 
 her, and had known many hours of stifled 
 longing for the sort of companionship with 
 which she had grown happily familiar. 
 
 Matron and maid they were a pair for 
 whose sakes the men who were with them 
 gladly made slaves of themselves to give 
 them an evening of glorious outdoor fun 
 and at small sacrifice. 
 
 "What a night!" exulted the doctor, 
 striding up the long hill beside Rachel 
 Redding breathing deep. " I'm thanking
 
 The Bachelor Begs a Dish-Towel 109 
 
 all my lucky stars that they led my path 
 across Anthony Robeson's to-night. I've 
 been intending to come out here ever since 
 he was married and might not have done 
 it for another six months if I hadn't got 
 started. He'll have all he wants of me now. 
 It's the most delightful spot I've been in for 
 many moons." 
 
 "It is a dear little home," agreed Rachel 
 warmly. "Mrs. Robeson would make the 
 most commonplace house in the world one 
 where everybody would want to come." 
 
 "That's evident. Yet, somehow, know- 
 ing her well as a girl, I never should have 
 suspected just those home-making qualities. 
 You didn't know her then, I suppose? 
 She was a girl other girls liked heartily, and 
 men enthusiastically one of the ' I'll be a 
 good friend, but don't come too near ' sort, 
 you know. But she was very fond of 
 travel and change, ready for everything in 
 the way of sport and, well, I certainly 
 never saw her before in anything resembling 
 an apron of any description. What a de- 
 lightful article of attire an apron is, any- 
 how. I think I never appreciated it before 
 to-night." 
 
 "That's because you never saw one of
 
 no The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 Mrs. Robeson's aprons. Hers are not like 
 other people's." 
 
 "She makes hers poetic, does she?" 
 
 " She certainly does even the ones for 
 baking and sweeping. Not ruffled or be- 
 ribboned, but cut with an eye to attractive- 
 ness, and always of becoming colour." 
 
 " I see. She's an artist that was notice- 
 able in the oysters if she made the dish." 
 
 " Of course she did." 
 
 "The coffee was the best I ever drank." 
 
 "Was it?" 
 
 "You made that, then," remarked the 
 doctor astutely. 
 
 "I'm glad it was good," said Rachel 
 demurely. 
 
 They had reached the top of the hill. 
 Doctor Barnes insisted that Anthony had 
 been the best steerer of coasting parties 
 known to the juvenile world, and placed 
 him at the helm. Next came Juliet, with 
 both arms clasped as far about her hus- 
 band's stalwart frame as they would go. 
 Carey had wanted to be the end man, but 
 Doctor Barnes would have none of it. 
 "You have to take care of Mrs. Robeson," 
 he said firmly, and placed him next. This 
 brought Miss Redding last, and Dr. Rogei
 
 The Bachelor Begs a Dish-Towel m 
 
 Barnes, knowing man, as hanger-on behind 
 upon bobs already fairly full. The last 
 man, as every coaster understands, has to 
 be alert to help out any possible bad steer- 
 ing, and so keeps a watchful head thrust 
 half over the shoulder in front. 
 
 The foregoing explanation will show how 
 it. came about that all down the long, swift 
 descent, Rachel, breathless with the un- 
 accustomed delight of the flight, felt upon 
 her cheek a warm breath, and was con- 
 scious of a most extraordinary nearness 
 of the lips which kept saying merry things 
 into her ear. The ear itself grew warm 
 before the bottom of the track was reached. 
 
 "That was a great coast," cried the doc- 
 tor as they reached the end of the long slide. 
 " Now for another. I'm a boy again. This 
 beats the best thing I could have had in 
 town if I hadn't run across Anthony." 
 
 So they had another and another and 
 one more. Then Rachel Redding, stopping 
 in front of a small house which lay at the 
 foot of the hill, said good-night to them 
 and slipped away before Barnes had real- 
 ised what had happened. 
 
 * 
 
 "Does she live there?" he questioned
 
 H2 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 Juliet, as the four who were left moved on 
 toward home. Anthony and Wayne were 
 discussing a subject on which they had 
 differed at the top of the hill. " Somehow, 
 I got the impression she lived with you." 
 
 " No but she comes over a good deal 
 I couldn't get on without her." 
 
 "As a friend?" 
 
 Juliet looked up at him. "I think ii 
 would be better that you should know, 
 Roger," she said, "and I'm sure Miss Red- 
 ding herself would prefer it that I pay 
 her for several hours a day of regular work. 
 You've only to see her to understand that 
 she does this simply because it's the only 
 thing open to her as long as her father and 
 mother can't spare her to go away. She 
 gave up her college course in the middle 
 because she said they were pining to death 
 for her. They are in very greatly reduced 
 circumstances, after a lifetime of prosperity. 
 She's a rare creature I'm learning to 
 appreciate her more every day. She's never 
 said a word about her loneliness here, but 
 it shows in her eyes. It's a perfect delight 
 to me to have her with me, and I mean to 
 give her all the fun I can. For all that 
 demure manner and her Madonna face she's
 
 The Bachelor Begs a Dish-Towel 113 
 
 as full of mischief as a kitten when some- 
 thing starts her off." 
 
 "Juliet," said the doctor soberly, turning 
 to look searchingly down at her in the 
 moonlight, "would you be willing to let 
 me come often?" 
 
 Juliet looked up quickly. " So that you 
 may see her? " she asked straightforwardly. 
 
 "Yes. I won't pretend it's anything 
 else. I can tell you honestly that if there 
 were no other reason I should want to come 
 because of my old friendship for you and 
 Anthony, and because this evening in your 
 little home has given me a rare pleasure. 
 I know of no place like it. But I'll tell you 
 squarely that I want the chance to meet 
 your friend often and at once. If I don't 
 you will have other people coming out from 
 town " 
 
 " Yes," said Juliet, and something in the 
 way she said it made him ask quickly : " Has 
 that already happened? Am I too late?" 
 
 " I don't know whether you're too late, 
 but I know that we've suddenly grown 
 most attractive to another man from town. 
 If you had gone into Rachel's home the 
 odour of violets would have met you at the 
 door. He sends them every few days."
 
 1 14 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "Ah!" said the doctor. It was not much 
 of a comment, but it spoke volumes. He 
 had been keen before he was determined 
 now. Violets well, there were rarer flowers 
 than those.
 
 XIII. SMOKE AND TALK 
 
 At the house there remained for the 
 guests an hour before the fire, where Juliet 
 brought in something hot and sweet and 
 sour and spicy, which tasted delicious and 
 brought her a shower of compliments while 
 they drank a friendly draught to her. When 
 she had left them, standing in an admiring 
 group on the hearth-rug and wishing her 
 happy dreams, they settled into luxurious 
 positions of ease before the fire a fire in 
 the last stages of red comfort before it dies 
 into a smoulder of torrid ashes. 
 
 "Anthony Robeson," said Wayne Carey, 
 regarding the andirons fixedly over his bed- 
 time pipe, "you're a happy man." 
 
 Anthony laughed contentedly. He had 
 thrown himself down upon the hearth-rug 
 with his head on a pillow pulled from the 
 settle, and lay flat on his back with his 
 hands clasped behind his neck. It was an 
 attitude deeply expressive of masculine 
 comfort. 
 
 "5
 
 n6 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "You're exactly right," said he. "And 
 you would be the same if you would give 
 up living in that infernal boarding-house. 
 What do you want to fool with your first 
 year of married life like that for? You 
 told me that Judith was bowled over by 
 our wedding, and was ready to go in for this 
 sort of^thing with a will." 
 
 "I know it," admitted Carey, "but"- 
 he spoke hesitatingly "we couldn't seem 
 to find this sort of thing. You had cor- 
 ralled all there was." 
 
 "Nonsense." 
 
 "You had. Everything we looked at 
 was so old and mouldy, or so new and in- 
 artistic, or so high-priced, or so far away 
 well, we couldn't seem to get at it, so we 
 said we'd board a while and wait until we 
 could look around." 
 
 " How does it work? " 
 
 "Why, I suppose it works very well," 
 said Carey cautiously. "Judith seems con- 
 tented. We have as good meals as the 
 average in such houses, and the people are 
 rather a nice lot. We're invited around 
 quite a good deal, and Judith likes that. 
 I ought to like it better than I do, somehow. 
 I'm so confoundedly tired when I get home
 
 Smoke and Talk 
 
 117 
 
 nights I can't help thinking of you and 
 Juliet here in this jolly room. There's an 
 abominable blue and yellow wall-paper on 
 our sitting-room and it has a way of ap- 
 pearing to turn seasick in the evening under 
 the electrics. Sometimes I think it's that 
 that makes me feel 
 
 "Seasick, too?" inquired the doctor with 
 his professional air. He was standing with 
 his arm on the chimney-piece, looking al- 
 ternately down on his friends and around 
 the long, low room. It was a jolly room 
 the very essence of comfort and cosiness. 
 It was a beautiful room, too, in a simple 
 way; one which satisfied his sense of har- 
 mony in colours and fabrics a keen sense 
 with him, as it is apt to be with men of his 
 profession. 
 
 " Judith likes this, too, you know," Carey 
 went on loyally. " She thinks it's great. 
 But how to get it for ourselves that's 
 another matter. Somehow, you were 
 lucky." 
 
 " Did you ever happen to see," asked 
 Anthony, " a photograph I took, just for 
 fun, of this house as it was when Juliet saw 
 it first? No? Well, just look in that box 
 on the end of the farther bookcase, will
 
 n8 The Indifference or Juliet 
 
 you? It's near the top there that's it." 
 
 He lay looking up through half-closed 
 lashes at the two men as they studied the 
 photograph, the doctor leaning over Carey's 
 shoulder. 
 
 "On your word, man, did it look like 
 that?" cried Barnes. 
 
 "Just like that." 
 
 " Yes, I've heard it did," admitted Carey; 
 "but I never quite believed it could have 
 been as bad as that." 
 
 "Who planned it all?" the doctor asked, 
 getting possession of the photograph as 
 Carey laid it down, and giving it careful 
 scrutiny. 
 
 "My little home-maker." 
 
 "Jove are there any more like her?" 
 
 "They're pretty rare, I understand. 
 Juliet has one in training one with a good 
 deal of native capacity, I should judge." 
 
 " Let me know when her graduation day 
 approaches," remarked the doctor. 
 
 When he fell asleep that night in the 
 dainty guest-room Barnes was wondering 
 whether Mrs. Robeson got her own break- 
 fasts, and hoping that she certainly did not, 
 at least when guests were in the house. He
 
 Smoke and Talk 119 
 
 was down half an hour earlier than neces- 
 sary, and to his great satisfaction found a 
 slender figure brushing up ashes and setting 
 the fireplace in order for the morning fire. 
 As he begged leave to help he noted the 
 satin smoothness of Miss Redding' s heavy 
 black hair and the trim perfection of her 
 attire. She reminded him of his hospital 
 nurses in their immaculate blue and white. 
 When he saw the mistress of the house and 
 found her similarly dressed a certain skep- 
 ticism grew in his mind. 
 
 When he went out to breakfast he mur- 
 mured in Anthony's ear: " Just tell me, old 
 fellow to satisfy the curiosity of a bach- 
 elor do these girls of your household 
 always look like this in the early morn- 
 ing? I know it's mean but you will 
 know how to evade me if I'm too imper- 
 tinent " 
 
 Anthony glanced from Juliet, resembling 
 a pink carnation in her wash frock Feb- 
 ruary though it was to Rachel Redding in 
 dark blue and white, and smiled mischiev- 
 ously. " Mrs. Robeson and Miss Redding 
 you are challenged," he announced. 
 " Here's a fine old chump who has an awful 
 suspicion that maybe when there are no
 
 120 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 guests you come down in calico wrappers 
 with day -bef ore-yesterday's aprons on." 
 
 Juliet gave the doctor a glance which 
 made him pretend to shrink behind Carey 
 j for protection. " Will you please answer 
 him, Tony?" she said. 
 
 " On my word and honour, Roger Barnes, 
 then," said Anthony proudly, " they always 
 look like this." 
 
 When the doctor left he was weighing 
 carefully in his mind an urgent problem: 
 After waiting six months before making 
 his first visit at the Robesons, how soon 
 could he decently come again?
 
 XIV. STRAWBERRIES 
 
 "HERE are yer strawberries, ma'm." 
 
 Juliet, alone in her little kitchen, ran to 
 the door in dismay. She looked down at a 
 freckle-faced boy carrying a big basket 
 filled with strawberry-boxes. 
 
 " But my order was for next Wednesday," 
 she said. 
 
 " Well, Pa said he cal'lated you'd ruther 
 have 'em when they was at the best, an' 
 that's- now. This hot weather's a dryin* 
 'em up. May not be any good ones by 
 Wednesday." 
 
 Every housekeeper knows that if there 
 is one thing particularly liable to happen it 
 is the arrival of fruit for preserving at the 
 most inopportune moment of the week. 
 It matters little what the excuse of the 
 sender may be there is always a sufficient 
 reason why the original date set by the 
 buyer has been ignored. In this case the 
 strawberries had been engaged from a 
 neighbour, and Juliet understood at once 
 that she must not refuse to take them. 
 
 121
 
 122 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 She stood looking at the rows of baskets 
 upon the table, when the boy had placed 
 them there and gone whistling away. She 
 was in the midst of a flurry of work. It 
 was Saturday, and she was cooking and 
 baking, putting together various dishes to 
 be used upon the morrow. Mr. Horatio 
 Marcy had lately returned from abroad. 
 He and Mrs. Dingley were to spend the 
 coming Sabbath with Juliet and Anthony 
 the first occasion on which Juliet's father 
 should be entertained in the house. It was 
 an event of importance, and his daughter 
 meant to show him several things concern- 
 ing her fitness for her present position. 
 
 Rachel Redding was not available upon 
 this Saturday morning. Her mother had 
 been taken seriously ill the night before, 
 and Rachel had sent word that she could 
 not leave her. Juliet had not minded much, 
 although it was a day when Rachel's help 
 would have been especially acceptable. As 
 it was, she had reached a point where her 
 housewifely marshalling of the day's work 
 was at a critical stage. A cake had been put 
 into the oven. A large bowl of soup stock 
 had been brought from a cool retreat to 
 have the smooth coating of fat removed
 
 Strawberries 
 
 123 
 
 from its surface. Various other dishes, in 
 process of construction, awaited the skilled 
 touch of the cook. 
 
 " I shall have to do them, I suppose," 
 said Mrs. Robeson to herself, regarding the 
 strawberries with a disapproving eye. "But 
 why they had to come to-day " 
 
 She went at the strawberries, wishing 
 she had ordered less. They were fine 
 berries on top; by degrees, as the boxes 
 lowered, they became less fine. It seemed 
 desirable to separate the superior from the 
 inferior and treat them differently. Only 
 the best would do for the delectable pre- 
 serve which was to go into glasses and be 
 served on special occasions; the others 
 could be made into jam less attractive to 
 the eye if hardly less acceptable to the 
 palate. Juliet was obliged to put down 
 her berry-boxes every fifth minute to attend 
 to one or other of the various saucepans 
 and double-boilers upon the little range. 
 Her cheeks grew flushed, for the day was 
 hot and the kitchen hotter. It must be 
 admitted that her occasional glance out 
 over the green fields and the woods beyond 
 was a longing one. 
 
 The better selection of the berries went
 
 124 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 into the clear syrup in the preserving- 
 kettle. Juliet flew to get her glass pots 
 ready. She stopped to stir something in a 
 saucepan. She thrust some eggs into the 
 small ice-chest to cool them for the salad 
 dressing soon to be made. She kept one 
 eye on the clock, for the strawberry preserve 
 had to be timed to a minute ten, no more, 
 no less. It was a strenuous hour. 
 
 As she dipped up the fourth- ladlef ul of 
 crimson richness translucent as a church 
 window and filled the waiting jar, a pecu- 
 liar pungent odour drifted across the 
 fragrance of the strawberries. Juliet 
 dropped her ladle and pulled open the oven 
 door. 
 
 The delicate cake which she had com- 
 pounded with especial care because it was 
 Mrs. Dingley's favourite, lay a blackened 
 ruin. Some of it had run over upon the 
 oven bottom and become a mass of cinders. 
 Juliet jerked the cake-tin out into the day- 
 light and shut the oven door with a slam. 
 
 It was at this unpropitious moment that 
 a figure appeared in the doorway a tall, 
 slim figure, in crisp, cool, white linen. A 
 charming white hat surmounted Mrs. Wayne 
 Carey's carefully ordered hair, a white
 
 Strawberries 125 
 
 parasol in her hands completed a particu- 
 larly chaste and appropriate morning toi- 
 lette for a young woman who had nothing 
 to do with kitchens. 
 
 She was regarding with interest the young 
 person at the range. Juliet wore one of 
 her characteristic working frocks, and the 
 big pinafore which enveloped it from head 
 to foot was of an attractive design. But 
 the morning's flurry had set its signs upon 
 her, and the pinafore was not as immaculate 
 as it had been three hours earlier. Her 
 hair, curling moistly about her flushed face, 
 had been impatiently pushed back more 
 than once, and its disorder, while not un- 
 picturesque, was suggestive of a somewhat 
 perturbed mind. Her hands were pink 
 with strawberry juice. She looked warm, 
 tired, and if the truth must be told at 
 the moment not a little out of temper. 
 The smile with which she welcomed her 
 friend could hardly be said to be one of 
 absolute pleasure. 
 
 "I'm afraid I've come at the wrong 
 time," said Judith, regretfully. "Did you 
 just burn something? Too bad. I sup- 
 pose all young housekeepers do that. 
 Where's your assistant?"
 
 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "She's not here to-day," said Juliet, 
 ladling up strawberry preserve with more 
 haste than caution. Her fingers shook a 
 little but she kept her voice tranquil. " It's 
 all right. A number of things had to be 
 done at once, that's all. Please don't stay 
 in this hot place. Take off your hat and 
 find a cool corner somewhere in the house. 
 I'll be in presently." 
 
 " I mustn't bother you. I was going to 
 stay for lunch with you, it was so hot in 
 town, but I mustn't think of it when 
 you're so " 
 
 "Of course you'll stay," said Juliet with 
 decision. " What you see before you is only 
 the smoke of battle. It will soon clear 
 away. Run off and I'll be with you pres- 
 ently. You'll find the late magazines in 
 the living-room." 
 
 Her tone was intended to deceive and 
 it was sufficiently successful. Judith was 
 anxious to stay. She was also interested 
 in the situation. She had heard much 
 from Wayne in praise of Juliet's successful 
 housekeeping, and had seen enough of it 
 herself to be curious about its inner work- 
 ings. For the first time she had happened 
 upon a scene which would seem to indicate
 
 Strawberries 127 
 
 that there were phases in this sort of 
 domestic life less ideal than she was asked 
 to believe. She went back into the cool- 
 ness and quiet of the living-room with a 
 full appreciation of the fact that no hot 
 kitchens ever threatened her own peace of 
 mind. 
 
 Juliet finished her strawberry preserve, 
 saw that everything liable to burn was 
 removed to safe quarters ; then deliberately 
 took off her apron and stole out of the 
 kitchen door. She went swiftly down 
 through the orchard to the willow-bordered 
 path by the brook; then, out of sight of 
 everything human, ran several rods down 
 it with a sweep of skirts which put every- 
 thing in the bird creation to flight. At a 
 certain pleasant spot among the willows, 
 sheltered from all possible observation, she 
 paused and flung herself down upon the 
 warm ground. 
 
 But not in any attitude of despair. 
 Neither did she cry tears of vexation and 
 weariness. She was a healthy girl, with 
 the perfect physical being whose poise is 
 not upset by so small a matter as a fatiguing 
 morning. Because a cake had burned, an 
 extra amount of work had had to be con-
 
 ia8 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 quered and an unexpected guest had ar- 
 rived, her nerves were not worn to the rend- 
 ing point. But, having been reared in the 
 belief that a breath of outdoors is the great 
 antidote for all physical or mental discom- 
 forts born of confinement indoors, she had 
 acquired a habit of running away from her 
 cares at any and all times of day in pre- 
 cisely this fashion and many were the 
 advantages she had reaped from this some- 
 what unusual course of procedure. 
 
 Mrs. Anthony Robeson lay upon one side, 
 her arm outstretched, her cheek pillowed 
 upon her arm. She was drawing long, 
 deep breaths, and looking lazily off at a 
 stretch of blue sky cleft in the exact centre 
 by one great graceful elm tree. One would 
 have thought she had forgotten every care 
 in the world, not to mention the guest from 
 the city waiting expectantly for her hostess 
 to appear. After ten minutes of this sort 
 of indolence the figure in the blue and white 
 print dress sat up, clasped both arms about 
 her knees and remained regarding with half 
 closed eyes the softly fluttering leaves of 
 the willows along the edge of the brook. 
 The hot flush died out of her cheeks; the 
 lips whose expression a few minutes since
 
 Strawberries 129 
 
 had indicated self-control under a com- 
 bination of trying circumstances, relaxed 
 into their natural sweetness with a tendency 
 toward mirth ; and her whole aspect became 
 that merely of the young athlete resting 
 from one encounter and preparing herself 
 for another. 
 
 At length she rose, shook out her skirts, 
 and said aloud: "Now, Judith Dearborn 
 Carey, I'm ready to upset your expecta- 
 tions. Since you looked in at me this 
 morning you've been thinking I wished I 
 hadn't haven't you? Well, you may just 
 understand that I don't wish anything of 
 the sort." And in five minutes more she 
 had walked in upon her guest by way of the 
 front door, her pretty face serene, her 
 hands full of pink June roses which she 
 threw in a fragrant mass of beauty into her 
 friend's lap. 
 
 " Put those into bowls for me, will you? " 
 she requested. "Arrange them to suit 
 yourself. Aren't they lovely? I suppose 
 you're getting hungry. In half an hour 
 you shall be served with a very modest but, 
 I trust, not insufficient lunch. Would you 
 like hot chocolate or iced tea? " 
 
 "Iced tea, by all means," chose Judith,
 
 130 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 who, being used to the privileges of selec- 
 tion from a variety of offered foods and 
 beverages, was apt to want what was not 
 set before her, when at a private table. 
 Juliet understood this propensity of her 
 friend and slyly took advantage of it. As it 
 happened, she knew that at the moment she 
 was quite out of chocolate, but she had 
 counted advisedly upon Judith's choice on 
 a hot June day, and she smiled to herself 
 as she chopped ice and sliced lemon. 
 
 At the end of the half hour, Judith, who 
 found the coolness of the living-room too 
 delightful to allow her to keep watch of 
 her friend in the hot kitchen, much as she 
 was tempted to do so, was summoned to 
 an equally cool dining-room. Upon the 
 bare table, daintily set out upon some of 
 the embroidered white doilies of Juliet's 
 wedding linen, was a simple lunch of a char- 
 acter which appealed to the guest's critical 
 appetite in a way which made her draw a 
 long breath of satisfaction. 
 
 " You certainly do have a trick of serving 
 things to make them taste better than 
 other people's," she acknowledged, glancing 
 from the little platter of broiled chicken 
 with its bit of parsley to the crisp fruit
 
 Strawberries 131 
 
 salad made up of she knew not what, but 
 presenting an appetising appearance then 
 regarding fondly a dish of spinach, pleasingly 
 flanked by thin slices of boiled egg. 
 
 " It's really too hot to eat anything very 
 solid," agreed Juliet with guile. "Rachel 
 and I have a way of planning our lunches a 
 day or two ahead, so that the leftovers we 
 use up are not yesterday's but the day 
 bef ore's, and we remember with surprise 
 how good the original dish was far back in 
 the past. I wish Anthony could have his 
 midday meal at home though perhaps if 
 he did the dinners wouldn't strike him so 
 happily. Don't you think it's great fun 
 to see a big, hearty man sit down at a table 
 and look at it with an expression of ador- 
 ation? Women may deride the fact as 
 they will, but a healthy body does demand 
 good things to eat, and shouldn't be blamed 
 for liking them." 
 
 "Wayne hasn't much appetite," said 
 Judith, eating away with relish. " He dis- 
 likes the people at our table sometimes 
 I think that's why he bolts his food and 
 gets off in such a hurry. By the way, 
 Juliet, are you and Tony coming in to the 
 Reardons' to-night? Of course you are."
 
 132 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "I suppose we must," admitted Juliet 
 with reluctance. " We have refused a good 
 many things since we've been here, but I 
 did promise Mrs. Reardon we would try 
 to come to-night." 
 
 The little repast over, Judith offered, 
 with well simulated warmth, to help her 
 friend with the after work. But Juliet 
 would have none of her. She sent her 
 guest out into a hammock under the trees, 
 and despatched the business of putting the 
 little kitchen to rights with the celerity 
 of one who means to have done with it. 
 
 In the middle of the June afternoon 
 Judith awoke from a nap in the hammock 
 to find her hostess standing laughing beside 
 her, fresh in a thin gown of flowered dimity. 
 
 " Well," yawned Judith, heavily, " I must 
 have gone off to sleep. I was tired I am 
 tireder. This is a fatiguing sort of weather 
 don't you think so? But you don't look 
 it. And after all that work I found you 
 in! Why aren't you used up? It kills me 
 to do things in the heat." 
 
 Juliet dropped a big blue denim pillow 
 on the ground and sat down upon it in a 
 flutter of dimity. She lifted a smiling face 
 and said with spirit:
 
 Strawberries 133 
 
 " Last summer I could walk miles over 
 a golf course twice a day and not mind it in 
 the least. The year before I was most of 
 the time on the river, rowing till I was as 
 strong as a girl could be. I've had gym- 
 nasium work and fencing lessons and have 
 been brought up to keep myself in perfect 
 trim by my baths and exercise. What frail 
 thing am I that a little housework should 
 use me up?" 
 
 "Yes I know you always did go in 
 for that sort of thing," reflected Judith, 
 eyeing her companion's fresh colour and 
 bright eyes. " I suppose I ought, but I 
 never cared for it I don't mean the baths 
 and all that of course any self-respecting 
 woman adores warm .baths. I don't like 
 the cold plunges and^showers you always 
 add on." 
 
 "Then don't expect the results." 
 
 " It isn't everybody who has your ener- 
 getic temperament. I hate golf, despise 
 tennis, never rowed a stroke in my life, and 
 could no more keep house as you are doing 
 than I could fly." 
 
 "Let me see," said Juliet demurely, pre- 
 tending to consider. " What is it that you 
 do like to do?"
 
 134 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "You know well enough. And little 
 enough of it I can get now with a husband 
 who never cares to stir." There was a 
 suspicion of bitterness in Judith's voice. 
 But Juliet, ignoring it, went blithely on: 
 
 " I've a strong conviction that one can't 
 be happy without being busy. Now that 
 I can't keep up my athletic sports I should 
 become a pale hypochondriac without these 
 housewifely affairs to employ me. I don't 
 like to embroider. I can't paint china. 
 I'm not a musician. I somehow don't 
 care to begin to devote myself to clubs in 
 town. I love my books and the great out- 
 doors and plenty of action." 
 
 "You're a strange girl," was Judith's 
 verdict, getting languidly out of the ham- 
 mock, an hour later, after an animated dis- 
 cussion with her friend on various matters 
 touching on the lives of both. " Either 
 you're a remarkable actress or you're as 
 contented as you seem to be. I wish I had 
 your enthusiasm. Everything bores me 
 Look at this frock, after lying in a hammock ! 
 Isn't white linen the prettiest thing when 
 you put it on and the most used up when 
 you take it off , of any fabric known to the 
 shops?"
 
 Strawberries 135 
 
 "It is, indeed. But if anybody can 
 afford to wear it it's you, who never sit 
 recklessly about on banks and fences, but 
 keep cool and correct and stately and 
 
 " discontented. I admit I've talked 
 like a fractious child all day. But I've 
 had a good time and want to come of tener 
 than I have. May I ? " 
 
 "Of course you may. Must you go? 
 I'll keep you to dinner and send for Wayne. ' ' 
 
 >( You're an angel, but I've an engagement 
 for five o'clock, and there's the Reardons' 
 this evening. You won't forget that? You 
 and Anthony will be sure to come?" 
 
 " I'll not promise absolutely, but I'll see. 
 Mrs. Reardon was so kind as to leave it 
 open. It's an informal affair, I believe?" 
 
 " Informal, but very gorgeous, just the 
 same. She wouldn't give anybody but you 
 such an elastic invitation as that, and you 
 should appreciate her eagerness to get 
 you," declared Judith, who cared very 
 much from whom her invitations came and 
 could never understand her friend's care- 
 less attitude toward the most impressive 
 of them. 
 
 Juliet watched her guest go down the 
 street, and waved an affectionate hand at
 
 136 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 her as Judith looked back from her seat in 
 the trolley car. "Poor old Judy," she 
 said to herself. " How glad you are you're 
 not I! And how very, very glad I am I'm 
 not you! " 
 
 An observation, it must be admitted, 
 essentially feminine. No man is ever heard 
 to felicitate himself upon the fact that he is 
 not some other man.
 
 XV. ANTHONY PLAYS MAID 
 
 AFTER dinner that night, Juliet, having 
 once more put things in order and slipped 
 off the big pinafore which had kept her 
 spotless, joined her husband in the garden 
 up and down which he was comfortably 
 pacing, hands in pockets, pipe in mouth. 
 
 "Jolly spot, isn't it? Come and peram- 
 bulate," he suggested. 
 
 "Just for a minute. Tony, are we going 
 to the Reardons?" 
 
 He stood still and considered. " I don't 
 know. Are we? Did you accept?" 
 
 "On condition that you felt like it. I 
 represented you as coming home decidedly 
 fagged these hot nights and not always 
 caring to stir." 
 
 "Wise schemer! I don't mind the as- 
 persion on my physical being. She urged, 
 I suppose?" 
 
 " She did. I don't know why." 
 
 "I do." Anthony smiled down at his 
 wife. "Everybody is a bit curious about
 
 138 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 us these days. Your position, you see, is 
 considered very extraordinary." 
 " Nonsense, Tony. Shall we go? " 
 " Possibly we'd better, though it racks 
 my soul to think of dressing. The less I 
 wear my festive garments the less I want 
 to. For that very reason, suppose we 
 discipline ourselves and go. Do you mind? " 
 " Not at all. We'll have to dress at once, 
 for it's nearly eight now, and by the time 
 we have caught a train and got to Holly- 
 hurst " 
 
 "To be sure. Here goes, then." 
 Half an hour later Anthony, wrestling 
 with a refractory cuff button, looked up 
 to see his wife at his elbow. She was very 
 nearly a vision of elegance and beauty; 
 the lacking essential was explained to him 
 by a voice very much out of breath and a 
 trifle petulant: 
 
 " If you care anything for me, Tony, stop 
 everything and hook me up. I'm all 
 mixed up, and I can't reach, and I'm sure 
 I've torn that little lace frill at the back." 
 "All right. Where do I begin?" 
 "Under my left arm, I think I can't 
 possibly see." 
 
 " Neither can I." He was poking about
 
 Anthony Plays Maid 139 
 
 under the lifted arm, among folds of filmy 
 stuff. " Here we are no, we aren't. Does 
 this top hook go in this little pocket on the 
 other side?" 
 
 " I suppose so can't you tell whether it 
 does by the look?" 
 
 " It seems a bit blind to me," murmured 
 Anthony, struggling. 
 
 " It's meant to be blind it mustn't show 
 when it's fastened." 
 
 " It certainly doesn't now. Hold on 
 don't wriggle. I've got it now. I've found 
 the combination. Three turns to the right, 
 five to, the left, clear around once, then 
 Hullo! I've come out wrong. The thing 
 doesn't track at the bottom." 
 
 "You've missed a hook." 
 
 " Oh, no. I hung onto 'em all the way 
 down." 
 
 "Then you missed an eye. You'll have 
 to unhook it all and begin again." 
 
 Anthony obeyed. " I'm glad I don't 
 have to get into my clothes around the 
 corner this way," he commented. "Here 
 you are. We stuck to the schedule this 
 time." 
 
 " Wait, dear. You haven't fastened the 
 shoulder. There are ever so many little
 
 140 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 hooks along there and around the arm 
 hole." 
 
 " I should say there were. What's the 
 good of so many? Where do they begin? 
 Look out wait a minute Juliet, if you 
 don't stop twisting around so I never can 
 do it. I can do great, heroic acts, it's 
 the little trials that floor me There 
 no! that doesn't look right." 
 
 Juliet ran to the mirror. "It isn't 
 right," she cried. "Look that corner 
 shouldn't lap over like that. Oh, if I could 
 only reach myself!" 
 
 "You can't I've often tried it. The 
 human anatomy Stand still, Julie you're 
 getting nervous." 
 
 " If there's one thing that's trying- 
 murmured Juliet. 
 
 " Why do you let your dressmakers build 
 your frocks this way? Why not get into 
 'em all in front, where you can see what 
 you're doing? Now I've got it. Isn't that 
 right?" 
 
 "Yes. Wait, Tony here's the girdle. 
 It fastens behind." 
 
 Anthony surveyed the incomprehensible 
 affair of silk and velvet ribbon she put into 
 his hands. "Looks like a head-stall to
 
 Anthony Plays Maid 141 
 
 me," he said. Juliet laughed and fitted it 
 about her own waist. Anthony attempted 
 to make it join at the back of the points 
 she held out to him. 
 
 " It won't come together," he said. 
 
 " Oh, yes, it will. Draw it tight." 
 
 "I am drawing it tight. It's smaller 
 than you are. You can't wear it." 
 
 Juliet laughed again. Anthony tugged. 
 
 "Wait till I hold my breath," she said. 
 
 " Great guns / " he ejaculated, and by 
 the exertion of much force fastened the 
 girdle. Then he stood off a step or two 
 and looked at his wife curiously. Flushed 
 and laughing she returned his gaze. 
 
 " Can you breathe ? " he asked solicitously. 
 
 "Of course I can." 
 
 "What with?" 
 
 "It is a little tight, of course/' she 
 admitted. " This is one of my trousseau 
 dresses. I've grown a little stouter, I sup- 
 pose. Never mind, I can stand it for to- 
 night. Thank you very much. You must 
 hurry now, Tony." 
 
 " I haven't had my pay for playing 
 maid," he said, and came close. He sur- 
 veyed his wife's fair neck and shoulders, 
 turned her around and deliberately kissed
 
 142 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 the soft hollow where the firm white flesh 
 of her neck met the waving brown hair 
 drawn lightly upwards. 
 
 "That's the spot that tantalized me for 
 about six years," he observed. 
 
 Hunting hurriedly through various 
 drawers and boxes in the blue-and-white 
 room, in search of gloves and fan, Juliet 
 heard her husband come in his turn to her 
 open door. 
 
 "Will you have the goodness to look at 
 me?" he requested, in a melancholy voice. 
 Juliet turned, gave him one glance, and 
 broke into a merry peal. 
 
 " Oh, Tony ! What's the matter? Have 
 you been growing stouter, too? " 
 
 " It must be," he said solemnly. 
 
 His clawhammer coat was so tight across 
 the shoulders that the strain was evident. 
 He was holding his arms in the exaggerated 
 position of the small boy who wears a last 
 year's suit. Juliet revolved around her 
 husband's well built figure with interest. 
 
 "It does look tight," she said. "But. 
 have you grown heavier all at once? It 
 can't be long since you wore that coat 
 before." 
 
 " Don't believe I have for months. It's
 
 Anthony Plays Maid 143 
 
 been altogether frock-coats and informals. 
 I haven't been to an evening affair with 
 ladies for a good while." 
 
 "It doesn't look as it feels, I'm sure. 
 It's getting very late we ought to be off," 
 and Juliet gathered up her belongings and 
 gave him a long loose coat to hold for her 
 which covered her finery completely. 
 
 " Now's the hour when I regret that I 
 haven't a carriage for you," said Anthony, 
 as they descended the stairs. He got into 
 his outer coat reluctantly. " I shall split 
 something around my back before the 
 evening is over," he prophesied resignedly. 
 
 " Never mind. Remember how tight my 
 girdle is. It grows tighter every minute." 
 
 They got out upon the porch and An- 
 thony locked the door. " If I should show 
 that door-key to any man I know except 
 Carey he would howl," he remarked, hold- 
 ing up the queer old brass affair before he 
 slipped it into his pocket. He looked 
 down at Juliet in the gathering June twi- 
 light. " Don't you wish we didn't have to 
 go?" 
 
 "Yes, I do," she agreed frankly. 
 
 "Let's not!" 
 
 "My dear boy! At this hour?"
 
 144 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "We could telephone." 
 
 "Shouldn't you feel rather ashamed to, 
 so late?" 
 
 " Not a bit. But of course we'll go if you 
 say so." 
 
 She laughed, and he joined her boyishly. 
 She hesitated. 
 
 " If I see you looking faint in that girdle 
 shall I throw a glass of cold water over 
 you?" 
 
 " Please do. If I hear a sound as of 
 rending cloth shall I divert the attention of 
 the company?" 
 
 "By all means." 
 
 They were laughing like two children. 
 Anthony sat down in one of the porch 
 chairs. He drew a long sigh. " I never 
 hated to leave my dear home so since I 
 came into it," he said gloomily. 
 
 Juliet pulled off her coat. " If you'll 
 do the telephoning I'll stay," she said. 
 
 He jumped to his feet. " Let me loosen 
 that girdle for you. I haven't been breath- 
 ing below the fifth rib myself since you put 
 it on, just in sympathy," he declared.
 
 XVI. A HOUSE-PARTY OUTDOORS 
 
 " THE trouble is," said Anthony Robeson, 
 shifting his position on the step below 
 Juliet so that he could rest his head against 
 her knee, " the trouble is we're getting too 
 popular." 
 
 Juliet laughed and ran her fingers through 
 his thick locks, gently tweaking them. The 
 two were alone together in the warm dark- 
 ness of a July evening, upon their own little 
 porch. 
 
 " It's the first evening we've had to our- 
 selves since the big snowdrift under the 
 front windows melted. That was about 
 the date Roger Barnes met Louis Lock- 
 wood here the first time. Ye gods but 
 they've kept each other's footprints warm 
 since then, haven't they? And now Cath- 
 cart is giving indications of having con- 
 tracted the fatal malady. Can't Rachel 
 Redding be incarcerated somewhere until 
 the next moon is past? I notice they all 
 have worse symptoms each third quarter. 
 
 4S
 
 146 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 That girl looks innocent, but by heaven, 
 Julie, I think she has it down fine." 
 
 " No, you don't," said Juliet persuasively. 
 " I should catch her at it if she were deliber- 
 ately trying to keep two such men as Roger 
 and Louis pitted against each other. They're 
 doing it all themselves. I've known her to 
 run away when she saw one of them coming 
 so that she couldn't be found. But, 
 Tony dear, I've a plan." 
 
 "Good. I hope it's a duel between the 
 two principals. If it is I'm going to tamper 
 with the weapons and see that each injures 
 himself past help. I'm getting a little 
 weary of playing the hospitable host to a 
 trio of would-bes." 
 
 "Listen. We'll entertain them all at 
 once for a week, with some extra girls, and 
 Judith and Wayne, and then we'll announce 
 that we're not at home for a month." 
 
 ' ' All at once a house-party ? ' ' Anthony 
 sat up and laughed uproariously. " I've 
 tremendous faith in you, love, but where 
 in the name of all the French sardines that 
 ever were dovetailed would you put such 
 a crowd?" 
 
 " I've a practical plan. Louis Lockwood 
 belongs to a fishing club that spends every
 
 A House-Party Outdoors 147 
 
 August up in Canada. They have a big 
 tent, twenty by twenty-five, for he told me 
 so the other day. He would get it for us; 
 we would put it out in the orchard, close 
 to the river. You and Wayne, and Roger 
 and Louis, and Stevens Cathcart could 
 sleep down there, and I could easily take 
 care of Judith and Suzanne Gerard and 
 Marie Dresser, here in the house. Rachel 
 should stay here, too. And Auntie Dingley 
 would send down Mary McKaim to cook 
 for us, I'm sure." 
 
 " That's not so bad. But why Rachel 
 when you have so little room?" 
 
 " Because I want her to have all the fun; 
 because if I don't keep her here she will 
 be running away half the time; and be- 
 cause " 
 
 " Now comes the real reason," observed 
 Anthony sagely. 
 
 "I don't want the other girls thinking 
 she has the unfair advantage of taking a 
 man away from the party every evening to 
 walk down home with her." 
 
 "Wise little chaperon. I can see Roger 
 and Louis now, glaring at each other as the 
 hour approaches for her departure." 
 
 "What do you think of my plan? It's
 
 148 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 only a plan, you know, Tony subject to 
 your approval." 
 
 " Diplomat! " murmured Anthony, reach- 
 ing up one arm and drawing it about her 
 shoulders. " You know you're safe to have 
 my approval when you put it in that tone. 
 Well, provided you can figure out the 
 finances and I know you wouldn't propose 
 it if you hadn't done that already I don't 
 see any objection. On one condition, 
 though, Julie, mind you on one condition." 
 
 "Name it." 
 
 "Of course, I can only be here evenings 
 during your house party. So my condition 
 is that I have you and the home all to my- 
 self for my vacation afterward. Not a 
 wooer nor a chum admitted. No over- 
 dressed women out from town, taking after- 
 noon tea no invitations to lonesome hus- 
 bands out to dinner. Just you and I. Did 
 you ever imagine life in the rural localities 
 would be so gay, anyhow? I want to go 
 fishing with you tramping through the 
 woods with you sitting out here on the 
 porch with you in short, have you all 
 to myself and" he turned completely 
 about, kneeling below her on the step, 
 crushing her in both arms so vigorously
 
 A House-Party Outdoors 149 
 
 that he stopped her breath "eat you 
 up!" 
 
 "What a prospect," she cried softly, 
 when she found herself partially released. 
 ."Are you sure you need a vacation, just 
 "for that?" 
 
 "Certain of it. I've had to share you 
 with other people all the year and now 
 I've got to give you up to a jealous lovers' 
 assemblage. So after that, mind you, I 
 have my satisfaction." 
 
 When Doctor Barnes was told of the plan 
 he looked gloomy. "Going to ask Lock- 
 wood?" he inquired at once. 
 
 "Of course," assented Juliet promptly. 
 
 ** I don't see any ' of course ' about it." 
 
 "What would Marie Dresser do to me if 
 I cfidn't invite him?" 
 
 " He doesn't care for her " 
 
 " Oh, yes, he does. Why, last winter he 
 seemed to be on the point of asking her to 
 marry him. Everybody expected the an- 
 nouncement any day." 
 
 "Last winter and this summer are two 
 different propositions." 
 
 " Marie doesn't think so."
 
 150 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "She'll get mightily undeceived, then. 
 Whom else are you asking? " 
 
 "Stevens Cathcart." 
 
 The doctor groaned. " Is this a dose 
 you're fixing for me? I'm going to be too 
 busy I can't come." 
 
 "Very well," said Juliet placidly. She 
 was sewing, upon the porch, and the doctor 
 sat on the step. 
 
 He looked up with a grimace. " I sup- 
 pose you think I'll be out on the next train 
 after the rest arrive." 
 
 " I certainly do, Dr. Roger Williams 
 Barnes." 
 
 "I presume you are inviting Suzanne?" 
 he queried. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " No reason why not. Cathcart admires 
 her immensely or did, before he began to 
 cultivate this place." 
 
 Juliet laughed. "Suzanne would never 
 forgive you if she heard that." 
 
 " By-the-way , " said the doctor slowly, 
 "has she ever met Miss Redding?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 He meditated for several minutes in 
 silence, while Juliet sewed, glancing from 
 time to time at one of the most attractive
 
 A House-Party Outdoors 151 
 
 masculine profiles with which she was 
 familiar. He was not as handsome a man 
 as Louis Lockwood, but every line of his 
 face stood for strength, not without some 
 pretensions to good looks. He looked up 
 at length and straight at her. 
 
 " Would you mind telling me," he began, 
 "just what you intend to effect with this 
 combination? I never gave you credit, 
 you know, Juliet, for wanting to manage 
 Fate, and I don't believe it now." 
 
 " No, I don't want to manage Fate," said 
 Juliet, smiling over her work, "but I admit 
 I want two things: I want you to see 
 Rachel Redding beside Suzanne Gerard, 
 and I want Rachel to see you beside 
 Louis Lockwood and Suzanne." 
 
 "I see," said the doctor grimly. "In 
 other words, you want your protegee to 
 have fair play." 
 
 "Just that," Juliet answered, more 
 gravely now. " I think lots of you, Roger, 
 and well of you you know I do and 
 
 "And yet -- " 
 
 "Let me guard my girl. She's not like 
 the others, and you and Louis are making 
 it tremendously hard for her between you."
 
 152 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "You seem to be planning to make it 
 infinitely harder." 
 
 Juliet shook her head. " Trust me, Roger, 
 please." 
 
 "All right, I will," promised the doctor. 
 "But just assure me that you're on my 
 side." 
 
 "I'm on nobody's side," was all the 
 comfort he got. 
 
 Juliet's invitations received delighted 
 acceptances, though Wayne Carey and 
 Doctor Barnes would be able to come out 
 only for the nights in time, however, for 
 late and festive suppers outdoors. The 
 tent in the orchard, with its comfortable 
 bunks, was accepted by all the men with 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 "And to satisfy the men is the essential 
 thing, you know, Tony," Juliet had ob- 
 served sagely when she saw their pleasure in 
 their quarters. " The girls will accept any 
 crowding together if they have a mirror 
 and room to tie a sash in, as long as levoted 
 admirers are not wanting." 
 
 The moment Miss Dresser and Miss 
 Gerard saw Miss Rachel Redding to quote 
 Anthony the fun began. Mrs. Wayne 
 Carey had already met her, and had been
 
 A House-Party Outdoors 153 
 
 carefully coached by Juliet as to the bearing 
 she must assume toward Juliet's new friend. 
 So when Marie and Suzanne began to inquire 
 of Judith the latter was prepared to answer 
 them. 
 
 "She's a beauty in her way, isn't she?" 
 Judith asserted. " Juliet's immensely fond 
 of her, I should judge." 
 
 " But who is she? " demanded Suzanne. 
 
 "A neighbour, a country girl, a school 
 and college girl, a comparatively poor girl 
 and a lucky girl, for Juliet likes her." 
 
 " Have the men met her before? " 
 
 " Goodness, yes. Haven't you heard how 
 they beg invitations home to dinner of 
 Anthony, just to see her?" Judith was 
 enjoying the situation. This statement, 
 however, was no part of Juliet's coaching. 
 
 " I didn't see anything particularly attrac- 
 tive about her," said Marie promptly. 
 " She's a demure thing. One wouldn't 
 think she ever lifted those long lashes to 
 look at a man but that's just the kind. 
 Awfully plainly dressed." 
 
 " That's her style," said Suzanne. " These 
 poor, pretty girls are once in a while just 
 clever enough to make capital out of their 
 poverty by wearing simply fetching things
 
 154 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 in pale gray dimity and dark blue lawn and 
 sunbonnets. Stevens Cathcart would be 
 just the kind to be carried away with her. 
 Roger Barnes wouldn't look at her twice." 
 
 " Louis might pretend to admire her, to 
 please Juliet," admitted Marie. "He has 
 a way of making every girl think he is in 
 love with her and he is, to a certain extent. 
 But it's never serious." 
 
 Whether it were serious in this instance 
 Miss Dresser soon had opportunity to judge. 
 
 After dinner that first night Anthony 
 proposed taking all his guests out upon the 
 river in a big flat-boat he had rented. But 
 when he made up the party Rachel was not 
 to be found. 
 
 " I'm afraid she's gone home," said Juliet. 
 
 "I'll run down and see," proposed Lock- 
 wood instantly, and was suiting the action 
 to the word when Cathcart got off ahead of 
 him. 
 
 "I'll have her back presently," he called 
 as he dashed down the road. " You people 
 go on we'll catch you." 
 
 "We'll wait for you," Lockwood shouted 
 after him. 
 
 " Why should we wait ? " demurred Marie, 
 beginning to walk away toward the river.
 
 A House-Party Outdoors 155 
 
 " If we don't he's liable not to find it con- 
 venient to catch up with us," Lockwood 
 retorted. 
 
 " If they prefer their own company why 
 not let them have it?" she said over her 
 shoulder. 
 
 "Run along, Louis," murmured Doctor 
 Barnes. "One girl at a time." 
 
 He turned to Juliet. "Shall we go?" 
 he said. 
 
 Anthony caught his glance, and, laugh- 
 ing, turned to Suzanne. "Will you con- 
 sole an old married man, Miss Gerard? " he 
 inquired. 
 
 But when Cathcart reappeared, which 
 he did very soon, Rachel was not with him. 
 " She said she had to stay with her mother," 
 he explained in a tone which so closely 
 resembled a growl that everybody laughed. 
 
 "Bear up, Stevie, boy," chaffed Wayne 
 Carey. "I'm confident she likes you, butt 
 she may not like you all the time, you know. 
 They seldom do."
 
 XVII. RACHEL CAUSES ANXIETY 
 
 In spite of all Juliet's efforts to bring 
 about Rachel's presence as one of her guests 
 she found herself unable to accomplish it. 
 Whenever she was needed for help Rachel 
 was never absent, but the moment she was 
 free the girl was off, and that quite without 
 the appearance of running away. The 
 men of the party followed her, but they were 
 not allowed to remain. The girls, confident 
 that her disappearances were part of a very 
 deep game, begged her to stay; it was use- 
 less. Rachel's excuses were ready, her 
 manner charmingly regretful in a quiet 
 way, but stay she would not. 
 
 Dr. Roger Barnes waylaid her one even- 
 ing as she was vanishing down the willow- 
 bordered path by the brook, leading to her 
 own home. 
 
 "Here you go again," he began discon- 
 tentedly. "I wish I knew why." 
 
 Rachel paused. It was difficult to do 
 otherwise with a large and determined 
 figure blocking a very narrow path. 
 
 156
 
 Rachel Causes Anxiety 157 
 
 " I have ever so many things waiting at 
 home for me to do." 
 
 "At nine o'clock in the evening?" 
 
 "At whatever hour I am through at 
 Mrs. Robeson's." 
 
 "I wish I could imagine something of 
 what they are. It might relieve my mind 
 a little." 
 
 "Why, I will tell you," said Rachel with 
 great appearance of frankness. " I have 
 to do some mending for mother, read the 
 evening paper for father, and set the bread. 
 Then the clothes must be sprinkled for 
 ironing in the morning." 
 
 The doctor studied her face in the dim- 
 ming light. " Who washed the clothes ? " he 
 asked bluntly. 
 
 "Do you think you ought to ask?" said 
 Rachel. 
 
 "Yes. I'm in the habit of asking ques- 
 tions." 
 
 "Of patients- 
 
 "Of everybody I care for. You don't 
 have to answer, but if you don't I shall 
 know who did the washing." 
 
 " Yes, I did it," said Rachel steadily. " It 
 is easily done."
 
 158 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "And then you came over here and got 
 breakfast?" 
 
 " Not at all. I helped Mrs. Robeson and 
 Mary McKairn get it. Doctor Barnes, do 
 you know that you are standing directly 
 in my path?" 
 
 " Certainly, ' ' said the doctor. " It's what 
 I'm here for." 
 
 "Then I shall have to go back and take 
 the road home." 
 
 " If you do you will evade me only to 
 encounter another man. Lockwood's keep- 
 ing a ferret's eye on the Robeson house 
 door ; and I think Cathcart is already patrol- 
 ling the road in front of your house." 
 
 The girl turned. "You are making me 
 feel very absurd," she said. " I want to go 
 home, Doctor Barnes. Please let me pass 
 you." 
 
 " May I go with you? " 
 
 "I would rather not." 
 
 "Well, that's frank," he said, amusement 
 and chagrin struggling for the uppermost. 
 " I wonder I don't stalk angrily away ~ " 
 
 " I wish you would." 
 
 Roger Barnes threw back his head and 
 laughed. " I wish you would give some 
 other girls a leaf out of your book," he said.
 
 Rachel Causes Anxiety 159 
 
 "The more you turn me down the more 
 ardently I long to be with you; while the 
 opposite sort of thing I'll tell you, Miss 
 Redding, if you want to be rid of me try 
 these tactics : Say with a languishing smile, 
 'Oh, Doctor Barnes, won't you take me a 
 little way down this lovely path ? ' Perhaps 
 that will accomplish your ends. I've often 
 felt an instant desire not to do the thing I'm 
 begged to." 
 
 " ' Oh, Doctor Barnes,'" said Rachel Red- 
 ding and he caught the mischief in her 
 tone even Rachel could be mischievous, as 
 Juliet had said "'won't you take me a 
 little way down this lovely path ? ' ' 
 
 "With the greatest pleasure in the 
 world," replied the doctor promptly, and 
 stood aside to let her pass him. Where- 
 upon she slipped by him, and before he 
 could realise that she had gone was running 
 fleetly away in the twilight down the wind- 
 ing, willow -hung path. With an excla- 
 mation he was off after her, but though he 
 dashed at the pace of a hunter through the 
 intricacies of the way he presently dis- 
 covered that he was following nothing but 
 the summer breeze rustling the willow 
 leaves and wafting into his face the breath
 
 160 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 of new-cut hay, the aftermath of late July. 
 He stopped at length and stared about him, 
 baffled and half angry. 
 
 "There never was a girl like you," he 
 muttered. " If you are deliberately trying 
 to make men mad to get you you are suc- 
 ceeding infuriatingly well. If I catch you 
 to-night it will be your fault if I tell you 
 what I think of you. I'll tell you now, for 
 I suppose you are hiding somewhere in this 
 undergrowth till I give it up and you 
 can get away home. You shall listen to 
 me if you are here, for you can't help 
 yourself." 
 
 He was speaking in a low, even tone, 
 walking slowly along the path and peering 
 sharply into the bushes on both sides. Sud- 
 denly he stood still. He had detected a 
 spot beside a low-hanging willow which 
 showed nearly white in the deepening 
 darkness. Rachel was wearing white 
 to-night, he remembered. His heart 
 quickened its paces and he paused an 
 instant to get past a certain tightening 
 in his throat. 
 
 Then he bent forward and whispered: 
 " If that's not you there I can say what I 
 like, and there'll be some satisfaction in
 
 Rachel Causes Anxiety 161 
 
 that. If you'll speak now you may save 
 yourself, but if you don't I've no reason to 
 
 think it's you, and so I can say " 
 
 There was a sharply perceptible noise 
 farther down the path toward the Redding 
 home. Barnes turned quickly and stood 
 up straight, waiting. Footsteps came rapidly 
 along the path no footsteps of hers, evi- 
 dently. A man's voice humming a tune 
 grew momentarily plainer then the voice 
 stopped humming and began to sing in a 
 subdued but clear and fine barytone : 
 
 "Down through the lane 
 Come I again 
 Seeking, my love, for you; 
 Run to me, dear, 
 Losing all fear, 
 Love and " 
 
 The voice stopped. Two men's figures 
 confronted each other in an extremely nar- 
 row path. It was not too dark yet for each 
 to be plainly recognisable to the other. 
 "Hallo that you, Lockwood?" 
 " Hi there, Roger Barnes; what you doing 
 here? Fishing?" 
 
 "Looking for something I've lost." 
 " Getting pretty dark to find it. Some- 
 thing valuable ? "
 
 162 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "Rather. Think I'll give it up for to- 
 night." 
 
 "Too bad. Nice night." Lockwood 
 was hastening toward the end of the path 
 which came out near Anthony's house. 
 Barnes looked after him grimly. 
 
 "That voice of yours, young man," he 
 thought, "handicaps me from the start. 
 Now, if I could just warble my emotions 
 that way " 
 
 He turned and peered again at the white 
 place by the tree. He moved stealthily 
 toward it, and ascertained presently that 
 it was not what it seemed. He rose to his 
 feet and walked rapidly down the path to 
 the Redding house. When he came in sight 
 of it he saw that the kitchen windows were 
 lighted and that a man stood with his arm 
 on the sill of one of them. Silhouetted 
 against the light were the familiar outlines 
 of Stevens Cathcart. As Barnes stood star- 
 ing amazedly at this, a slender figure in 
 white came to the window, and in the still- 
 ness he could hear the quiet voice : 
 
 "Please let me close the window, Mr. 
 Cathcart. Thank you no and good- 
 night." 
 
 "'Three Men in a Boat/ by Rachel Red-
 
 Rachel Causes Anxiety 163 
 
 ding," murmured the doctor to himself, 
 and slipped back to the willow path, from 
 which he at length emerged to join the 
 group upon the porch which then, it may 
 be observed, held for the first time that 
 night its full complement of men. 
 
 Three big Chinese lanterns shed a softly 
 pleasant light upon the porch and the lawn 
 at its foot. Suzanne Gerard and Marie 
 Dresser made a most attractive picture, 
 one in a low chair, the other upon a pile of 
 cushions on the step. Suzanne lightly 
 picked a mandolin. Marie was singing 
 softly : 
 
 "Down through the lane 
 Come I again 
 Seeking, my love, for you; 
 Run to me, dear, 
 Losing all fear, 
 Love and my life will be true." 
 
 It was one of the songs of the summer 
 foolish words, seductive music everybody 
 hummed it half the time. Roger Barnes 
 smiled to himself, remembering where he 
 had heard it last. 
 
 "Come here and give account," com- 
 manded Suzanne the instant he appeared. 
 "Every unmarried man vanished the mo-
 
 164 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 ment twilight fell. You are the last to 
 show your face. I challenge you, one and 
 all, to swear that you have not been within 
 sight of a certain small brown house at 
 the foot of the hill since supper." 
 
 Her voice was music; in her eyes was 
 laughter. Marie sang on, pointing her 
 words with smiles at one and another of 
 the culprits. 
 
 From his seat on the threshold of the 
 door, where his head rested against Juliet's 
 knee as she sat behind him, Anthony 
 laughed to himself. Then he turned his 
 head and whispered to his wife: "Feel 
 the claws through the velvet? Poor boys, 
 they have my sympathy."
 
 XVIII. AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY 
 
 "Rachel," said Juliet decisively, next 
 morning, " to-night is the last of my house 
 party, and I refuse to let you off. I'm 
 asking ten or twelve more people out 
 from town. You must spend this even- 
 ing with my guests, or forfeit my friend- 
 ship." 
 
 She was smiling as she said it, but her 
 tone was not to be denied. 
 
 "If that is the alternative," Rachel an- 
 swered, returning the smile with an affec- 
 tionate look of a sort which neither Louis 
 Lockwood nor Stevens Cathcart nor Dr. 
 Roger Barnes had ever seen on her face 
 though they had dreamed of it " of course 
 I shall stay. But I'll tell you frankly I 
 would rather not." 
 
 "Why not, Rachel?" 
 
 " I think you know why not, Mrs. Robe- 
 son," Rachel answered. 
 
 "Yes, I know why not," admitted Juliet. 
 " Girls are queer things, Ray. They defeat 
 their own ends all the time lots of them. 
 165
 
 1 66 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 Suzanne and Marie are dear girls, with ever 
 so many nice things about them, but they 
 don't they don't know enough not to 
 pursue, chase, run down, the object of their 
 desires. And, of course, the object, being 
 run down panting, into a corner, dodges, 
 evades, gets out and runs away. Rachel, 
 dear, what are you going to wear to-night? " 
 
 "My best frock," said Rachel, smiling. 
 
 "Which is " 
 
 "White." 
 
 "Cut out at the neck?" 
 
 "A little." 
 
 " Short in the sleeves? " 
 
 " To the elbows. It was my sophomore 
 evening dress." 
 
 "It will be all right, I know. Rachel, 
 wear a white rose in those low black braids 
 of yours will you? " 
 
 " No, I think I won't," refused Rachel. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 Rachel did not answer. Into her cool 
 cheek crept a tinge of rebellious, telltale 
 colour. 
 
 Juliet studied her a minute in silence, then 
 came up to her and laying both hands on 
 her shoulders looked up into her eyes. 
 
 " You try to 'play fair,' don't you, dear? "
 
 An Unknown Quantity 167 
 
 she said heartily, "whatever the rest may 
 do. And whatever they may do, Rachel 
 Redding, don't you care. It's not your 
 fault that they are as jealous of you as girls 
 can be and keep sweet outside. I'd be 
 jealous of you myself i - She paused, 
 
 laughing. 
 
 "When you grow jealous," said Rachel, 
 
 "it will be because you have grown blind. 
 
 If anybody ever wore his heart on his sleeve 
 
 no, not there but beating sturdily in the 
 
 right place for one woman in the world 
 
 if'c _" 
 
 111 O 
 
 " Right you are," said Anthony Robeson, 
 coming up behind them, "and I hope you 
 may convince her of it. She has no con- 
 fidence in her own powers." 
 
 Rachel stood looking at them a moment, 
 her dark eyes very bright. "To see you 
 two," she said slowly at length, "is to 
 believe it all." 
 
 The evening promised to be a gay one. 
 The men of the party had sent to town for 
 many lanterns, flags and decorations of the 
 sort, and had made the porch and lawn the 
 setting for a brilliant scene. A dozen young 
 people had been asked out, and came 
 enthusiastically.
 
 1 68 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "We'll wind up with a flourish," said 
 Anthony in his wife's ear as they descended 
 the stairs together, "and then we'll send 
 them all off to-morrow where they'll cease 
 from troubling. I think it was the best plan 
 ill the world, but I'll be glad to prowl about 
 my beloved home without observing Cath- 
 cart scowling at Lockwood, Roger Barnes 
 evading Suzanne, or even my good boy 
 Wayne with that eternal wonder on his 
 face as to why his flat does not look like our 
 Eden." 
 
 " Hush and don't look too happy to- 
 morrow, Tony. Oh, here comes Rachel. 
 Isn't she lovely?" 
 
 "Now, watch," murmured Anthony, his 
 face full of amusement. " It's as good as 
 the best comedy I ever saw. See Suzanne. 
 She never looked toward Rachel, but don't 
 tell me she wasn't aware of the very in- 
 stant Rachel came upon the porch. I 
 believe she read it in Roger Barnes's face. 
 I'll wager ten to one his pulse isn't count- 
 able at the present instant." 
 
 "I don't blame him," Juliet answered, 
 smiling at her guests. " She's my ideal of a 
 girl who won't hold out a finger to the 
 men."
 
 An Unknown Quantity 169 
 
 "Yes, she's your sort," admitted An- 
 thony. " I know what it is poor fellows 
 I've been through it. Your cold shoulder 
 used to warm up my heart hotter than any 
 other girl's kindness. Look at the boys 
 now. They can't jump and run away from 
 the other girls, but they'd like to. And 
 they're all deadly anxious for fear the 
 others will get the start. Say, Julie, you 
 ought not to have asked those new young- 
 sters down from town. They'll catch it, 
 sure as fate; they're at the susceptible 
 age. I see five of them now, all staring at 
 Rachel." 
 
 "You positively mustn't stay here with 
 me any longer," whispered Juliet. "Go 
 and devote yourself to her and keep them 
 off for a little." 
 
 "Not on your life," Anthony returned 
 "She can take care of herself. If I mix 
 up in this fray you're likely to be hus- 
 bandless. Lockwood and Roger are get- 
 ting dangerous, and I'm going to keep on the 
 outskirts where it's safe." 
 
 They were all upon the lawn Rachel, 
 unable to help herself, according to An- 
 thony's intimation, the centre of a group 
 of men who would not give each other a
 
 1 70 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 chance when a stranger appeared upon 
 the edge of the circle of light. He stood 
 watching the scene for a moment a tall, 
 slender fellow, with a pale face and deep- 
 set eyes. Then he asked somebody to tell 
 Miss Redding that Mr. Huntington would 
 like to speak with her. Rachel, thus 
 summoned, rose, looked about her, caught 
 sight of the stranger, and went swiftly 
 down the lawn. A dozen people, among 
 them all the men who had been the guests 
 of the week, saw the meeting. They ob- 
 served that the newcomer put out both 
 hands, that his smile was very bright, and 
 that he stood looking down into Miss Red- 
 ding's face as if at sight of it he had instantly 
 forgotten everything else in the world. 
 
 Rachel, leaving him, came back up the 
 lawn to find her hostess. As she passed 
 it became evident to a good many pairs 
 of sharp eyes that her beauty had received 
 a keen accession from the sweeping over 
 her cheeks of a burning blush so unusual 
 that they could not fail to take note 
 of it. 
 
 Juliet came back down the lawn with 
 Rachel, who presented Mr. Huntington; 
 and presently, without a word of leave-
 
 An Unknown Quantity 171 
 
 taking to any one else, the two went away 
 down the road. 
 
 " Now, who under the heavens was that ? " 
 grunted Louis Lockwood in Anthony's ear, 
 catching his host around the corner of the 
 house. 
 
 "Don't know." 
 
 " Brother, perhaps? " 
 
 "Hasn't any." 
 
 "Relative?" 
 
 "Don't know." 
 
 " Just a messenger, maybe? " 
 
 "Give it up." 
 
 "She blushed like anything." 
 
 "Did she? Man she is going to marry, 
 probably." 
 
 "Oh, that can't be!" 
 
 "The lady looks marriageable to me," 
 observed Anthony, strolling away. 
 
 He ran into Cathcart. 
 
 " Say, who was that fellow, Tony ? " began 
 Stevens. 
 
 "Don't ask me." 
 
 " He looked confoundedly as if he meant 
 to embrace her on the spot." 
 
 " So he did," agreed Anthony soothingly. 
 "Don't blame him, do you? He may not 
 have seen her for a month. What con-
 
 172 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 dition do you suppose you'd be in if a week 
 should get away from you out of her 
 vicinity?" 
 
 " Bother you, Tony don't you know who 
 he was?" 
 
 " Intimate friend, I should judge." 
 
 "She turned pink as a carnation." 
 
 "Say hollyhock," suggested Anthony, 
 "or peony. Only a vivid colour could do 
 justice to it." 
 
 " That's right, ' ' groaned Cathcart. " She 
 never looked like that for any of us." 
 
 "Never," said Anthony promptly, and 
 got away, chuckling. 
 
 "Hold on, there, Robeson, man," said 
 the voice of Dr. Roger Barnes, and Anthony 
 found himself again held up. 
 
 "Come on, old Roger boy," said his host 
 pleasantly. "We'll amble down the road 
 a bit and give you a chance to get a grip on 
 yourself. No, I don't know who he is. 
 I'm all worn out assuring Louis and Steve 
 of that. She did turn red, she did look up- 
 set with joy, I infer. That girl has made 
 more havoc in one short week playing off 
 all the while, too than Suzanne and Marie 
 have accomplished in the biggest season 
 they ever knew. And I believe, Roger
 
 An Unknown Quantity 173 
 
 boy, you're about the hardest hit of any 
 of them." 
 
 The doctor did not answer. The two 
 had walked away from the house and were 
 marching arm in arm at a good pace down 
 the road. 
 
 "She's as poor as a church mouse/' sug- 
 gested Anthony. 
 
 There was no reply. 
 
 "She has a dead weight of a helpless 
 father and mother." 
 
 The doctor put match to a cigar. 
 
 "Juliet says her brother died of dissi- 
 pation in a gambling-house." 
 
 Doctor Barnes began to chew hard on a 
 cigar that he had failed to light. 
 
 "But she's a mighty sweet girl," said 
 Anthony softly. 
 
 " See here, Tony," the doctor burst out. 
 "Oh, hang it all " 
 
 "I see," said his friend, with a hand on 
 his shoulder. " Go ahead, Roger Barnes- 
 there 's nothing in life like it; and the good 
 Lord have mercy on you, for the sort of 
 girl worth caring for doesn't know the 
 meaning of the word."
 
 174 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "All gone, little girl," said Anthony 
 jubilantly, as he turned back into the 
 house the next evening, after watching out 
 of sight the big touring-car of Lockwood's 
 which had carried all his house-party away 
 at once. " They are mighty fine people and 
 I like them all immensely but I have 
 enjoyed to the full this speeding the part- 
 ing guest. And now for my vacation. It 
 begins to-morrow." 
 
 " What shall we do? " asked Juliet, allow- 
 ing him to draw her into his favourite settle 
 corner. 
 
 "Go fishing. If you'll put up a jolly 
 little: I mean a jolly big lunch, and array 
 yourself in unspoilable attire, I'll give you 
 a day's great sport, whether we catch any 
 fish or not. There's one fish you're sure 
 of he's always on the end of your line, 
 hooked fast, and resigned to his fate. Juliet, 
 are they really all gone?" 
 
 " I'm sure they are." 
 
 "Good Mary McKaim peace be to her 
 ashes, for she never gets any on the toast 
 has she gone, too?" 
 
 "She's packing." 
 
 "Rachel safe at home with her presum- 
 able fiance"?"
 
 An Unknown Quantity 175 
 
 " He can't be her fiance, Tony ' 
 
 " That's what Lockwood said but I sup- 
 pose he can, just the same. Rachel away, 
 do you say?" 
 
 "Yes. She didn't come over to-day at 
 all, you know." 
 
 " I noticed it by the gloom on three 
 stalwart men's faces. Well, if everybody's 
 safely out of the way I'm going to commit 
 myself. ' ' 
 
 ''To what, Tony?" 
 
 She was laughing, for he had risen, looked 
 all about him with great anxiety, tiptoed 
 to each door and listened at it, and was now 
 come back to stand before her, smiling 
 down at her and holding out his arms. 
 
 "To the statement," he said, gathering 
 her close and speaking into her upturned 
 rosy face, "that without doubt this is the 
 dearest home in the world, and that you 
 are the sweetest woman who ever has 
 stood or ever will stand here in it."
 
 XIX. ALL THE APRIL STARS ARE OUT 
 
 i 
 
 IT was an April night balmy with the 
 breath of an exceptionally early spring. 
 All .the April stars were out as Anthony 
 came to the door of the little house, and 
 opening it flung himself out upon the 
 porch, drawing great breaths. He looked 
 up into the sky and clasped his arms 
 tightly over his breast. 
 
 "O God," he said aloud, "take care 
 of her" 
 
 He went back into the house after a 
 minute, and paced the floor back and forth, 
 back and forth, stopping at each turn to 
 listen at the foot of the stairs; then took 
 up his stride again, his lips set, his eyes 
 dark with anxiety. Ove and over he 
 went to the open door to look up at the 
 stars, as if somehow he could bear his ordeal 
 best outdoors. 
 
 When half the night had gone Mrs. 
 Dingley came downstairs. Anthony met 
 her at the foot. She smiled reassuringly 
 into his face. 
 
 176
 
 All the April Stars Are Out 177 
 
 "This is hard for you, dear boy," she 
 said. " But they think by morning 
 
 " Morning! " he cried. 
 
 " Everything is going well 
 
 " It's only two o'clock. Morning! " 
 
 " She says tell you she's going to be very 
 happy soon." 
 
 But at that Anthony turned away, where 
 his face could not be seen, and stood by the 
 open door. Mrs. Dingley laid an affec- 
 tionate hand on his arm. t 
 
 "Don't worry, Tony," she said gently. 
 
 "I can't help it." 
 
 "This is new to you. Juliet is young 
 and strong and full of courage." 
 
 "Bless her!" 
 
 "In the morning you'll both be very 
 happy." 
 
 "I hope so." 
 
 "Why, Anthony, dear," said the kindly 
 little woman, " I never knew you to be so 
 faint of heart." 
 
 Anthony faced around again. "If my 
 strength could do her any good I'd be a 
 lion for her," he said. " But when all I 
 can do is to wait and think what I'd do 
 if " 
 
 He was gone suddenly into the night.
 
 178 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 With a tender smile on her lips Mrs. 
 Dingley went on upon the errand which had 
 brought her downstairs. " It's worth some- 
 thing to a woman to be able to make a 
 man's heart ache like that," she said to 
 herself with a little sigh. Anthony would 
 not have understood, but even in this 
 hour the older woman, in her wisdom, was 
 envying Juliet. 
 
 Morning came at last, as mornings do. 
 With the first Streaks of the gray dawn 
 Anthony heard a little, high-keyed, strange 
 cry new to his ears. He leaped up the 
 stairs, four at a time, and paused, breathless, 
 by the closed door of the blue-and-white 
 room. After what seemed to him an in- 
 terminable time Mrs. Dingley came out. 
 At sight of Anthony her face broke into 
 smiles, and at the same moment tears 
 filled her eyes. 
 
 " It's a splendid boy, Tony," she said. " I 
 meant to come to you the first minute, but 
 I waited to be perfectly sure. He didn't 
 breathe well at first." 
 
 But Anthony pushed this news aside 
 impatiently. "Juliet?" he questioned 
 eagerly. 
 
 "She's all right, you poor man," Mrs.
 
 All the April Stars Are Out 179 
 
 Dingley assured him. "You shall see her 
 presently, just for a minute. The first 
 thing she said was, ' Tell Tony. ' Go down 
 now I'll call you soon." 
 
 Anthony stole away downstairs to the 
 outer door again. This time he ran out 
 upon the porch and down the lawn and 
 orchard, in the early half-light, to the willow 
 path by the brook. He dashed along this 
 path to its end and back again, as if he 
 must in some way give expression to his 
 relief from the tension of the night. But 
 he was back and waiting impatiently long 
 before he received his summons to his wife's 
 room. 
 
 On his way up he wrung the friendly 
 hand of Dr. Joseph Wilberforce, the best 
 man in the city at times like these, and 
 thanked him in a few uneven words. Then 
 he came to the door of the blue-and-white 
 room. 
 
 "Don't be afraid, Tony," said a very 
 sweet, clear voice; "we're ever so well- 
 Anthony Robeson, Junior, and I." 
 
 Anthony Robeson, Senior, walked across 
 the room in a dim, gray fog which obscured 
 nearly everything except the sight of a pair 
 of eyes which were shining upon him
 
 180 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 brightly enough to penetrate any fog. At 
 the bedside he dropped upon his knees. 
 
 "I suppose I'm an awful chump," he 
 murmured, "but nothing ever broke me 
 up so in all my life." 
 
 Juliet laughed. It was not a sentimental 
 greeting, but she understood all it meant. 
 " But I'm so happy, dear," she said. 
 
 "Are you? Somehow I can't seem to 
 be yet. I'm too badly scared." 
 
 " He's such a beautiful big boy." 
 
 " I suppose I shall be devoted to him some 
 time, but all I can think of now is to make 
 sure I've got you." 
 
 The pleasant-faced nurse in her white 
 cap came softly in and glanced at Tony 
 meaningly. 
 
 " If you'll come in here you may see your 
 son, Mr. Robeson," she said, and went out 
 again. 
 
 Anthony bent over his wife. "Little 
 mother" he whispered, with a kiss, and 
 obediently went. 
 
 Across the hall he stood looking dazedly 
 down at the round, warm bundle the nurse 
 laid in his arms. 
 
 "My son," he said; "how odd that 
 sounds."
 
 All the April Stars Are Out 181 
 
 Then he hastily gave the bundle back to 
 the nurse and got away downstairs, wiping 
 the perspiration from his brow. 
 
 "Never dreamed it was going to knock 
 me over like this," he was saying to himself. 
 " I can't look at her; I can't look at him; I 
 feel like a big boy who has seen a little 
 fellow take his thrashing for him." 
 
 And in this humble albeit most sincerely 
 thankful frame of mind he absently drank 
 his breakfast coffee, and never realised that 
 in her confusion of spirit good Mary Mc- 
 Kaim, who was here again in time of need, 
 had brewed him instead a powerful cup of 
 tea.
 
 XX. A PRIOR CLAIM 
 
 "Come up, come up you're just the 
 people we want," cried Anthony heartily 
 from his own porch. " Thought you'd be 
 getting out to see us some of these fine 
 August nights. Sit down Juliet will be 
 out in a minute." 
 
 "Baby asleep?" asked Judith Carey, as 
 she and Wayne settled comfortably into 
 two of the deep bamboo chairs with which 
 the porch was furnished. 
 
 "To be sure he's asleep at this hour," 
 Anthony assured her proudly; " been asleep 
 for two hours. Regular as a clock, that 
 youngster.. Nurse trained him right at the 
 beginning, and Juliet has kept it up. Four 
 months old now, and sleeps from six at night 
 till four in the morning without waking. 
 How's that?" 
 
 "I suppose it's remarkable," agreed 
 
 Wayne meekly, " but I don't know anything 
 
 about it. He might sleep twenty-three 
 
 hours out of twenty-four I shouldn't 
 
 182
 
 A Prior Claim 183 
 
 understand whether to call him a prodigy 
 or an idiot." 
 
 "Why, yes, you would," Judith inter- 
 posed with spirit. " Think of that baby on 
 the floor above us. They're walking the 
 floor half the night with her." 
 
 "Girl babies may be different," Carey 
 suggested diffidently, at which Anthony 
 shouted. " I don't care all the girls I 
 ever knew wanted to sit up nights," Carey 
 insisted with a feeble grin. 
 
 Juliet came out, welcoming her friends 
 with the cordiality for which she was 
 famous. "It's so hot in town," she con- 
 doled with them. "You should get out 
 into our delicious air oftener. Somehow, 
 with our breezes we don't mind the heat." 
 
 "It's heaven here, anyhow," sighed 
 Carey, stretching back in his chair with a 
 long breath. Judith looked sober. 
 
 'You say it's heaven," commented 
 Anthony, staring hard at his friend, "and 
 you profess to admire everything we do, and 
 eat, and say, but you continue to pay good 
 money every week for a lot of extremely 
 dubious comforts from my point of view." 
 
 " It's one of the very best places in that 
 part of the city," protested Judith.
 
 184 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 Anthony eyed her keenly. "Yes; ii 
 that's what you're paying for you've got 
 it, I admit. If it's a consolation to you to 
 know that the address you give when you 
 go shopping is one that you're not ashamed 
 of why, you're all right. But I reckon 
 Juliet here doesn't blush when she orders 
 things sent home to the country. ' ' 
 
 " Oh, Juliet" began Judith; "she doesn't 
 need an address to make all the salespeople 
 pay her their most respectful attention. 
 
 "I understand," said Anthony. "That 
 sweetly imperious way of hers when she 
 shops I remember it the first time I ever 
 went shopping with her -- " 
 
 Juliet gave him a laughing glance. " If 
 I remember," she said, "it wasn't I who 
 did all the dictating on that historic ex- 
 pedition when we furnished this house." 
 
 "We've got to go shopping again," 
 Anthony informed them. " We're planning 
 to put a little wing on the house, opening 
 from under the stairs in the living-room, 
 for a nursery and a den." 
 
 "Going to put the two together?" asked 
 a new voice from the dimness of the lawn. 
 
 "Oh hullo, Roger Barnes, M.D. r
 
 A Prior Claim 185 
 
 F.R.C.S. come up. No, I think we'll 
 have a partition between. But I want a 
 room below stairs for Tony, Junior, so 
 his mother won't wear herself out carry- 
 ing him up and down. That youngster 
 weighs seventeen pounds and a fraction 
 already." 
 
 " I was confident I'd get some statistics 
 if I came out," said the doctor, % settling 
 himself near Juliet with a purpose, as she 
 instantly recognised. " It seemed to me 
 I couldn't wait longer to learn how much 
 he had gained since I met Tony day before 
 yesterday. It was seventeen without the 
 fraction then." 
 
 "That's right guy me," returned An- 
 thony comfortably. " I don't mind I've 
 the boy." 
 
 " I want a talk with you," said the doctor 
 softly to Juliet, as the others fell to dis- 
 cussing the project of the enlarged house. 
 "I've got to have it, too or go off my 
 head." 
 
 Juliet nodded, understanding him. Pres- 
 ently she rose. " I have an errand to do," 
 she said. "Will you walk over to the 
 Evanstons' with me, Roger?"
 
 i86 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "Now, tell me," began the doctor the 
 instant they were off, "is she going to 
 persist in this awful sacrifice?" 
 
 "Poor Rachel," breathed Juliet. "So 
 many lovers and so unhappy." 
 
 "Is she unhappy?" begged the doctor. 
 "Is she? If I only were sure of it ' 
 
 " What girl wouldn't be unhappy to be 
 making even one man out of two as miser- 
 able as you?" 
 
 " But you know what I mean. Is she 
 going to marry Huntington out of love as 
 well as pity or only pity ? " 
 
 " Roger " Juliet stood still in the road, 
 regarding him in the dim light with kind 
 eyes " if I knew I wouldn't tell you. That's 
 Rachel's secret. But I don't know. She's 
 as loyal as a magnet, and as reserved as 
 you would want her to be if you were Mr. 
 Huntington." 
 
 "She's everything she ought to be. I'm 
 a dastard for saying it, but I could forgive 
 her for being disloyal enough to him to 
 show me just a corner of her heart. Even 
 if she loves him it's what I called it an 
 awful sacrifice a man dying with con- 
 sumption. If she doesn't except as the 
 friend of her early girlhood, when she didn't
 
 A Prior Claim 187 
 
 know men or her own heart Juliet, it's 
 impious." 
 
 "Roger, dear, keep hold of yourself," 
 Juliet replied. "You're too strong and 
 fine to want to come between her 
 and her own decision if she has 
 made it." 
 
 "If you were a man," said he hotly, 
 "would you let a woman marry you 
 dying?" 
 
 "Yes," answered Juliet stoutly, "if she 
 insisted." 
 
 "Women are capable of saying any- 
 thing in an argument," he growled. ,"I 
 say it's outrageous to let her do it. She 
 doesn't love him she does love me," he 
 blurted. 
 
 Juliet turned to him anxiously. " Roger, 
 do you know what you are saying?" 
 
 " Yes, I do. I've got to tell somebody, 
 and there's nobody but you you perfect 
 woman. If ever a man knew a thing 
 without its being put into words I know 
 that. It was only a look, weeks ago, but 
 I'm as sure of it as I am of myself. I've 
 had nothing but coolness from her since, 
 but that's in self-defense. And the thought 
 that, loving me, she's going to give herself
 
 i88 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 to him a wreck do you wonder it's 
 driving me mad? " 
 
 "You ought not to have told me this," 
 said Juliet, tears in her voice. " If Rachel 
 is doing this it's because she's sure she 
 ought " 
 
 " Of course she is. And that's why I tell 
 you. You have more influence with her 
 than any one. Can't you show her that 
 duty, the most urgent in the world, never 
 requires a thing like that? Let her be his 
 friend to the last the sort of friend she 
 knows how to be, with a warm hand in his 
 cold one. But never his " 
 
 The doctor grew choky with his vehe- 
 mence, and stopped short. Juliet was 
 silent, full of distress. She thought of the 
 two men Huntington, a frail ghost, in the 
 grip of a deadly illness, yet fighting it des- 
 perately, and desperately clinging to the 
 girl he loved: a clever fellow, educated as a 
 mining engineer, successful, even beginning 
 to be distinguished in his work until his 
 health gave out; Barnes, the embodiment 
 of strength, standing high in his profession, 
 life and the world before him, a fit mate for 
 the girl who deserved the best there could 
 be for her Juliet thought of them both and
 
 A Prior Claim 189 
 
 found her heart aching for them and for 
 Rachel Redding. 
 
 They were slowly approaching the brown 
 house at the foot of the hill, the errand at 
 the Evanstons' forgotten, when suddenly a 
 familiar figure in white came toward them 
 from the doorway. The doctor started at 
 sight of it, and Juliet grew breathless all at 
 once. 
 
 " I thought it was you two," said Rachel. 
 " This rising moon struck you full just now, 
 and I could see you plainly. I've wanted 
 to see you both and this is my last chance. 
 I am going away to-morrow." 
 
 There was an instant's silence, while 
 Roger Barnes tried to choose which of all 
 the things he wanted to say to her should 
 come first. Juliet broke the stillness. 
 
 "Walk back up the road with us, dear," 
 she said, " and tell us how and where you 
 
 go." 
 
 "I have but a minute to spare," said 
 Rachel. "Let me say good-bye to you 
 both here " 
 
 "No, by heaven, you shall not," burst 
 out the doctor in a suppressed voice of 
 fire which startled Juliet. "You owe me 
 ten minutes, in place of the last letter you
 
 i go The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 haven't answered. There are a score of 
 them, you know but the last has to be 
 answered somehow." 
 
 Rachel hesitated. "Very well," she said 
 at length, "but only with Mrs. Robeson." 
 
 "Can't you trust me?" He was angry 
 now. 
 
 "Yes but not myself," she answered, 
 so low he barely caught the words. He 
 seized her hand. 
 
 " Then trust me for us both," he said, so 
 instantly gentle and tender that Juliet 
 found it possible to say what a moment 
 before she had thought unwise enough: 
 " Go with him, Ray, dear. I think it is his 
 right." 
 
 So presently she found herself crossing her 
 own lawn alone, while the two who had just 
 left her went slowly on up the road together. 
 Her heart was beating hard and painfully, 
 for she loved them both, and foresaw for 
 them only the hardest interview of their 
 lives. 
 
 At the end of half an hour Rachel Redding 
 stood again upon her own porch, and 
 Roger Barnes looked up at her from the 
 walk below with heavy eyes.
 
 A Prior Claim 191 
 
 " At least," he said, " you have done what 
 I never would have believed even you could 
 do convinced me against my will that you 
 are right. You love him he worships you. 
 There is a promise of life for him in Arizona 
 with you. I can't forbid the bans. But 
 I shall always believe, what you dare not 
 dispute, that if I had come first you 
 
 She held out her hand. " That you must 
 not say," she said. " But there is one thing 
 you may say that you are my best friend, 
 whom I can count on 
 
 "As long as there is life left in me," he 
 answered fervently. He wrung her hand 
 in both his, looked long and steadily up into 
 her face as if his eyes could never leave 
 the lovely outlines showing clear in the 
 light from the windows, then turned away 
 and strode off toward the station without 
 a look behind.
 
 XXI. EVERYBODY GIVES ADVICE 
 
 "I SHOULD do it in brown leather," said 
 Cathcart decidedly, looking about him. 
 
 He stood in the centre of Anthony's den. 
 The carpenters had gone, the plasterers 
 had finished their work, and the floor had 
 just been swept up. 
 
 "You're all right as far as you go," ob- 
 served Anthony, who stood at his elbow, 
 "but you don't go far enough. If you 
 want me to hang these walls with brown 
 leather you'll have to put up the money. 
 I may be sufficiently prosperous to afford 
 the addition to my house, but I haven't 
 reached the stage of covering the walls with 
 cloth-of-gold." 
 
 "Burlap would be the thing, Tony," 
 Judith suggested. 
 
 Anthony was surrounded by people 
 the room was half full of them, elbowing 
 each other about. 
 
 "Paint the walls," advised Lockwood. 
 
 "There are imitation - leather papers," 
 said Cathcart, with the air of one conde- 
 192
 
 Everybody Gives Advice 193 
 
 scending to lower a high standard for the 
 sake of those who could not live up to it. 
 
 "I suppose so," admitted Anthony, "at 
 four dollars a roll. I saw a simple thing 
 on that order that struck me the other day 
 at Heminways'. I thought it might be 
 about forty cents a roll. It was a dollar a 
 square yard. I told them I would think 
 it over. I haven't got through thinking it 
 over yet." 
 
 "You want a plate-rail," said Wayne 
 Carey. 
 
 "What for?" 
 
 "Why, to put piates, and steins, and 
 things on." 
 
 " Haven't a plate or a stein. Baby has 
 a silver mug. Would that do ? " 
 
 Cathcart smiled in a superior way. 
 ; ' You had a lot of mighty fine stuff in your 
 Yale days," he remarked. "Pity you let 
 it all go." 
 
 "I shouldn't have cared for that truck 
 now," Anthony declared easily, though he 
 deceived nobody by it. Most of them re- 
 membered, if Cathcart had forgotten, how 
 the college boy had sacrificed all his treas- 
 ures at a blow when the news of his family's 
 misfortunes had come. It had yielded
 
 194 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 little enough, after all, to throw into the 
 abyss of their sudden poverty, but the act 
 had proved the spirit of the elder son of the 
 house. 
 
 "You certainly will want plenty of rugs 
 and hangings of the right sort," Cathcart 
 pursued. 
 
 Anthony looked at him good-humouredly. 
 " I can see that you have got to be sup- 
 pressed," he said, with a hand on Stevens's 
 collar. " I can tell you in a breath just 
 what's going into this room at present. 
 The floor is to have a matting, one of those 
 heavy, cloth-like mattings. Auntie Dingley 
 has presented me with one fine old Persian 
 rug from the Marcy library, which she in- 
 sists is out of key with the rest of the stuff. 
 I'm glad it is it'll furnish the key to my 
 decorations. Then I've a splendid old desk 
 I picked up in a place where they temporarily 
 forgot themselves in setting a price on it. 
 That's going by the window. I've a little 
 Diirer engraving, and a few good foreign 
 photographs Juliet has put under glass for 
 me. For the rest I have what I like best 
 clear space, pipe -and -hearth room, the 
 bamboo chairs off the porch with some 
 winter cushions in, my books and that."
 
 Everybody Gives Advice . 195 
 
 He pointed to the windows, outside 
 which lay a long country vista stretch- 
 ing away over fields and river to the 
 woods in the distance, turning rich au- 
 tumn tints now under the late October 
 frosts. 
 
 "It's enough," said Carey, with the sup- 
 pressed sigh which usually accompanied any 
 allusion of his to Anthony's environment. 
 " Dens are too stuffy, as a rule. Fellows 
 try to see how much useless lumber they 
 can accumulate in altogether inadequate 
 space." 
 
 "But you ought to have a- couch," said 
 Judith. 
 
 "Oh, yes, I'm going to have a. couch," 
 assented Anthony, laughing across her head 
 at Juliet. " A gem of . a couch we're 
 making it ourselves. You're not to see it 
 till it's done. It'll be no brickbat couch, 
 either it'll be a flowery bed of ease or, 
 if not flowery, invitingly covered with some 
 stunning stuff Juliet has fished out of a 
 neighbour's attic." 
 
 " Now, come and see the nursery," Juliet 
 proposed, and the party crowded through 
 the door into the living-room, around to 
 the one by its side which opened into an
 
 196 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 attractive room behind the den, all air 
 and sunshine. 
 
 "I refuse to suggest," said Cathcart in- 
 stantly, "the decorations for this place." 
 
 " That's good," remarked Anthony cheer- 
 fully. " So much verbiage out of the way." 
 
 " It'll be pink and white, I suppose," said 
 Judith. "Pink is the colour for boys, I'm 
 told." 
 
 Behind all their backs Anthony glanced 
 at his wife, affection and amusement in 
 his face. She read the look and smiled 
 back. It was no part of their plan to let 
 the boy grow up alone. And as a mother 
 she seemed to him far more beautiful than 
 she had ever been. 
 
 " We are going to have a little paper with 
 nursery-rhyme pictures all over it," ex- 
 plained Juliet. "There are all sorts of 
 softly harmonising colours in it. And just 
 a matting on the floor with a rug to play on, 
 his white crib, and some gay little curtains 
 at the windows." 
 
 " Have you made the partition double- 
 thick, old man?" asked Lockwood. "This 
 den-nursery combination strikes me as a 
 little dubious." 
 
 " It's no use explaining to a fiendish old
 
 Everybody Gives Advice 197 
 
 bachelor," said Anthony, leading the way 
 out of the place, " that I'd think I was 
 missing a good deal if I should get so far 
 away that I couldn't hear little Tony laugh 
 or cry. Julie, where's the boy? May I 
 bring him down?" 
 
 He disappeared upstairs, whence sounds 
 of hilarity were at once heard. Presently 
 he reappeared on the stairs, bearing aloft 
 upon his shoulder a rosy cherub of a baby, 
 smiling and waving a chubby fist at the 
 company. The beauty in his face was 
 an exquisite mixture of that belonging 
 to both father and mother. Anthony and 
 his son together made a picture worth 
 seeing. 
 
 Once more Wayne Carey smothered a 
 sigh. But Judith hardened her heart. 
 Since Baby Anthony had come Wayne had 
 been difficult to manage. 
 
 Lockwood stayed after the others had 
 gone. Sitting smoking before the fire with 
 Anthony after Juliet had left them alone 
 he brought the conversation around to a 
 point which Anthony had expected. 
 
 " What do you hear of that man Hunting- 
 ton?" he asked, as indifferently as a man
 
 198 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 is ever able to ask a question which means 
 much to him. 
 
 "Huntington? Why, the last was that 
 he was improving a little, I believe. Ari- 
 zona is a great place for that sort of thing. ' ' 
 
 "Good deal of a sacrifice for her people 
 to go with her way out there." 
 
 " She couldn't leave them behind. Father 
 half -blind mother a cripple. I understand 
 that Arizona air is bracing them, too." 
 
 " The fellow's own mother was one of the 
 party, wasn't she?" 
 
 " I believe so. He's all she has." 
 
 " I don't see, with all those people to 
 chaperon her, why she couldn't have gone 
 along with him without marrying him," 
 observed Lockwood in a gruff tone. 
 
 Anthony smiled. "That would have 
 been a Tantalus draught indeed," he 
 remarked. " I imagine poor Huntington 
 will need all the concessions he can get if 
 he keeps on breathing even Arizona air." 
 
 "Anthony," said Lockwood, after a 
 silence of some minutes, during which he 
 had puffed away with his eyes intent on the 
 fire, " do you fancy Rachel Redding cared 
 enough for that man to immolate herself 
 like that?"
 
 Everybody Gives Advice 199 
 
 "Looks very much like it." 
 
 " I know it looks like it; but if I read that 
 girl right she was the sort to stick to any- 
 thing she'd said she'd do, if it took the 
 breath out of her body. How long had she 
 known him any idea?" 
 
 " A good while, I believe." 
 
 " I thought so. Early engagement, you 
 see ought never to have stood. ' ' 
 
 " If you'd been Huntington you'd prob- 
 ably have had the unreasonable notion that 
 it should." 
 
 "She's a magnificent girl," said Lock- 
 wood, blowing a great volume of smoke 
 into the air with head elevated and half- 
 shut eyes. " She made those two who were 
 here with her last summer seem like thirty 
 cents beside her. Nice girls, too fine 
 girls elegant dressers; I don't know what 
 the matter was. Neither did they." He 
 chuckled a little. "They couldn't believe 
 their own eyes when they saw three of us 
 going daft over a girl they wouldn't have 
 staked a copper on in a free-for-all with 
 themselves. They took it gamely, I'll say 
 that for them. Marie won't have me back. ' ' 
 
 "I don't blame her." 
 
 "Neither do I. Haven't got to the
 
 200 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 want- to - be - taken - back stage sometime s 
 think I never shall. One experience like 
 that spoils a man for the average girl. 
 The truth is, Tony, the most of them er 
 overdo the meet-you-half-way act. I want 
 a girl to keep me guessing till the last 
 minute." 
 
 "Tell that to the girl," advised Anthony. 
 
 " I wish I could. Yet there were a good 
 many times when I thought if Rachel 
 Redding would just look my way I shouldn't 
 take it ill of her. I wonder if she'd have 
 been like that if she hadn't been engaged to 
 another fellow." 
 
 "Probably." Anthony got up and 
 stretched himself. He was growing weary 
 of other men's confidences. 
 
 "You're right she would. She's built 
 that way. Yet when you get to fancying 
 what she'd be if she just let herself go and 
 show she cared 
 
 "Look here, my young friend," said An- 
 thony, " I advise you to go home and go to 
 bed. Sitting here dreaming over Mrs. Alex 
 ander Huntington isn't good for you. What 
 you want to be doing is to forget her. 
 Huntington 's going to get well, and they're 
 going to live happily ever after, and you
 
 Everybody Gives Advice 201 
 
 fellows out here can look up other girls. 
 Plenty of 'em. Only, for the love of heaven, 
 see if you can avoid all setting your affec- 
 tions on the same girl next time. It's 
 too rough on your friends ! "
 
 XXII. ROGER BARNES PROVES 
 INVALUABLE 
 
 TIME went swinging on, and by and by it 
 came to be Tony Robeson, Junior's, second 
 Christmas day. He rode down to breakfast 
 on his father's shoulder, crowing loudly on 
 a gorgeous brown and scarlet rooster, which 
 he had found on his Christmas tree the 
 evening before. He had been put to bed 
 immediately thereafter and had gone to 
 sleep with the rooster in his arms. The 
 fowl had a charmingly realistic crow, oper- 
 ated by a pneumatic device upon which 
 the baby had promptly learned to blow. 
 He performed upon it uninterruptedly 
 throughout breakfast. 
 
 "See here, my son," said Anthony, hur- 
 riedly finishing his coffee, "let's see if you 
 can't appreciate some of your less voiceful 
 toys. Here's a rabbit with fine soft ears 
 for you to pull. There's a train of cars. 
 Let me wind it for you. Your Grandfather 
 Marcy must have expended several good 
 dollars on that you want to show up an 
 interest in it when he comes out to see you 
 
 202
 
 Toys which can be relied upon to please a twenty months old infant.'
 
 Roger Barnes Proves Invaluable 203 
 
 to-day. And here's Auntie Dingley's pick- 
 aninny boy-doll well, I don't blame you 
 for failing to embrace that. Auntie Dingley 
 was born in Massachusetts." 
 
 The boy cast an indifferently polite eye 
 on these gifts as their charms were exhibited 
 to him, and clasped the brown and scarlet 
 rooster to his breast. There were moments, 
 half hours even, when he became sufficiently 
 diverted from his fowl to cease from making 
 it crow, but at intervals throughout the 
 day the family were given to understand 
 once for all that it is not the most expensive 
 and ornate toys which can be relied upon 
 to please a twenty-months-old infant. Even 
 the automobile presented by Dr. Roger 
 Barnes, and warranted to go three times 
 around the room without stopping, was a 
 tame affair to the recipient compared with 
 the rooster's shrill salute. 
 
 "Remember, Tony," Juliet had said, a 
 month before Christmas, "you are not to 
 give me any expensive personal gift this 
 year. I care for nothing half so much as for 
 making the home complete. If if you 
 cared to give me something toward the 
 bathroom fund 
 
 ' 'All right, ' ' said Anthony promptly, for he
 
 204 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 had learned by this time to know his wife well. 
 The bathroom fund was dear to her heart. 
 The small room at the front of the house 
 upstairs, which had been left unfurnished, 
 had been temporarily fitted up as a bath- 
 room by sundry ingenious devices in the 
 way of a tin bath and a hot and cold water 
 connection, but a full equipment of the best 
 sort was to be put in as soon as practicable, 
 and there was a growing fund therefor. 
 
 On Christmas morning, nevertheless, in 
 addition to a generous addition to the fund, 
 Juliet found beside her plate an exceedingly 
 "personal gift" in the shape of a little 
 pearl-and-turquoise brooch of rare design, 
 bearing the stamp of a superior maker. 
 
 "Must I scold you?" she asked, smiling 
 up at him as he stood beside her, watching 
 her face flush with pleasure. 
 
 "Kiss me, instead," he answered 
 promptly. "And don't expect me to give 
 up making you now and then a real present, 
 even though it has to be a small one. It's 
 too much fun." 
 
 Beside his own plate he found her gift, 
 a set of histories he had long wanted. It 
 was a beautiful edition, and he would have 
 looked reproachfully at the giver if she,
 
 Roger Barnes Proves Invaluable 205 
 
 had not forestalled him by running around 
 the table to say softly in his ear, both arms 
 about his neck: "Just at Christmas time, 
 dearest, let me have my way." 
 
 The day was a happy one. Mr. Horatio 
 Marcy and Mrs. Dingley arrived on the 
 morning train and stayed until evening. 
 At the Christmas dinner Judith and Wayne 
 Carey and Dr. Roger Barnes were the addi- 
 tional guests, and Mary McKaim was in the 
 kitchen. Dinner over, everybody sat about 
 the fireplace talking, when Juliet came in 
 to carry little Tony off to bed. 
 
 " Five minutes more," begged Dr. Barnes, 
 on whose knee the child sat, a willing cap- 
 tive to the arts of his entertainer. His 
 eyes, bright with the excitement of this 
 great day, were fixed upon the doctor's 
 face. 
 
 "And so" Barnes continued the story 
 he had begun " the rooster climbed right 
 up the man's leg"- the toy obeyed his 
 command and scaled the eminence from 
 the floor where it had been hiding behind 
 a Noah's ark -"and perched on his knee, 
 and cried " the rooster crowed lustily 
 and little Tony laughed ecstatically. " Then 
 the rooster flew up on the man's shoulder
 
 206 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 and flapped his wings, and all at once he 
 fell right over backwards and tumbled on his 
 head on the floor. Got to go to bed, 
 Tony ? Shall the rooster go too ? All right. 
 May I carry him up for you, Juliet? An- 
 thony's deep in that discussion. Get on my 
 back, old man that's the way! " 
 
 Everybody looked after the two as the 
 doctor mounted the stairs. 
 
 "That rooster has captivated the child 
 more than all the mechanical toys he has 
 had to-day," said Mrs. Dingley. 
 
 "What a handsome fellow he is," said 
 Carey, his eyes following little Tony till he 
 disappeared. " I never saw a healthier, 
 happier child. How sturdy he is on his 
 legs have you noticed? He's saying a 
 good many words, too. It was as good as 
 a play to see him imitate that rooster. ' ' 
 
 Juliet's father and Mrs. Dingley left on an 
 early evening train, and only the three 
 younger guests remained when Juliet came 
 down-stairs after putting her boy to bed. 
 She set about gathering up the toys scat- 
 tered over the floor, and Barnes helped her. 
 In the midst of this labour, during which 
 they all made merry with some of the more 
 elaborate mechanical affairs, Juliet sud-
 
 Roger Barnes Proves Invaluable 207 
 
 denly said " What's that? " and went to the 
 bottom of the stairs. 
 
 "Let me go," offered Anthony. "He's 
 probably too excited to get to sleep easily 
 after all this dissipation. Hullo! he's 
 crowing with the rooster yet." 
 
 But Juliet went up, and he followed her, 
 saying from the landing to his guests, 
 "Excuse me for a little. I'll get the boy 
 quiet, and let his mother come down. I've 
 a fine talent for that sort of thing. That 
 rooster will have to be given some soothing 
 syrup he's too lively a fowl." 
 
 " I never saw a man fonder of his young- 
 ster than Tony," Carey observed. 
 
 "The child is a particularly fine speci- 
 men," the doctor said. "I think I never 
 saw a more ideal development than he 
 shows." 
 
 He began to tell an incident in which 
 little Tony had been involved, when he 
 was interrupted. 
 
 " Barnes! " called Anthony's voice from 
 the top of the stairs. "Come up here, 
 please." 
 
 There was something in the imperative 
 quality of this summons which made the 
 doctor run up the stairs, two at a time.
 
 208 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 Judith and Wayne listened. The rooster 
 could still be heard crowing, faintly but 
 distinctly. 
 
 " Perhaps he's grown too excited over it," 
 Judith suggested. "They ought to take 
 it away." 
 
 Carey went to the bottom of the stairs and 
 listened. There were rapid movements over- 
 head. The doctor's voice could be heard 
 giving directions through which sounded 
 the steady crowing of the toy. " Hold him 
 so now move him that way as I thump 
 now the other- 
 Carey turned pale. " He's got that roos- 
 ter in his throat," he said solemnly. The 
 rooster was nearly life-size, but the incon- 
 gruity of this suggestion did not strike 
 him. Judith hastily rose from her chair 
 and went to him. 
 
 "Had we better go up?" he whispered. 
 "Heavens no!" Judith clutched his 
 arm. "We couldn't do any good. The 
 doctor's there. Such things make me ill. 
 They ought not to have let him have the 
 toy to take to bed with him. How could it 
 get into his throat? Perhaps they are 
 making it crow to divert him. Perhaps 
 he's hurt himself somehow."
 
 Roger Barnes Proves Invaluable 209 
 
 " He's got the crow part of that thing in 
 his throat," Carey persisted in an anxious 
 whisper. " The manufacturers ought to 
 be prosecuted for making a toy that will 
 come apart like that." 
 
 "Don't stand there," protested his wife. 
 " Maybe it's nothing. Come here and sit 
 down." 
 
 But Carey stood still. Presently Anthony 
 came to the head of the stairs. 
 
 "Wayne," said he rapidly, "telephone 
 Roger's office. Ask the trained nurse, 
 Miss Hughes, to send a messenger with the 
 doctor's emergency surgical case by the 
 first train he can catch the 9:40 if he's 
 quick. Tell Miss Hughes to follow as soon 
 as she can get ready, prepared to stay all 
 night.'.' 
 
 Then he disappeared. His voice had 
 been steady and quiet, but his eyes had 
 showed his friend that the order was given 
 under tension. Carey sprang to the tele- 
 phone, and his hand shook as he took down 
 the receiver. 
 
 Upstairs Roger Barnes, in command, was 
 giving cool, concise orders, his eyes on his 
 little patient. When he had despatched 
 Juliet for various things, including boiling
 
 210 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 water which she must get downstairs, he 
 said to Anthony in a conversational tone: 
 
 "It will probably not be safe to wait till 
 my instruments get here, and there's no 
 surgeon near enough to call. I'm not 
 going to take any chances on this boy. 
 If I see the necessity I'm going to get into 
 that throat and give him air. I shall want 
 you and Carey to hold him. Juliet must be 
 downstairs. ' ' 
 
 Anthony nodded. He did not quite 
 understand; but a few minutes later, when 
 Juliet had brought the boiling water. 
 he suddenly perceived what his friend 
 meant. 
 
 "Alcohol, now, please," said the doctor. 
 When Juliet had disappeared again Barnes 
 drew from his pocket a pearl-handled 
 pocket-knife and tried its blades. " It's a 
 fortunate thing somebody made me a 
 present of such a good one to-day," he ob- 
 served, "but it needs sharpening a bit. 
 Have you an oil-stone handy?" 
 
 With tightly shut lips Anthony watched 
 the doctor put a bright edge on his smallest 
 blade, then, satisfied, drop the open knife 
 into the water bubbling over a spirit-lamp. 
 Anthony turned his head away for an in-
 
 Roger Barnes Proves Invaluable 211 
 
 stant from the struggling little figure on 
 the bed. Barnes eyed him keenly. 
 
 "You're game, of course?" he said. 
 
 Anthony's eyes met his and flashed fire. 
 " Don't you know me better than that? " 
 
 "All right," and the young surgeon 
 smiled. " But I've seen a medical man 
 himself go to pieces over his own child. 
 This is a simple matter," he went on lightly. 
 " Luckily, boiling water is a more potent 
 antiseptic than all the drugs on the market 
 and alcohol's another. I shall want a 
 new hairpin or two if Juliet has a wire 
 one. That the alcohol ? Thank you. Now 
 if you've the hairpins, Juliet ah a silver 
 one all the better." 
 
 This also he dropped into the boiling 
 water. Then he spoke very quietly to 
 Tony's mother, as she bent over her child, 
 fighting for his breath. 
 
 "It's a bit tough to watch," he said, 
 "but we'll have him all right presently. 
 Suppose you go and get his crib ready for 
 him. You might fill some hot- water bags 
 and bottles and have things warm and 
 comfortable." 
 
 The telephone-bell rang below. After a 
 minute Carey dashed upstairs. He looked
 
 212 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 into the room and spoke anxiously. " The 
 messenger just missed the 9:40. He and 
 the nurse will come on the 10:15." 
 
 "All right," said the doctor, as if the 
 delay were of small consequence. "We're 
 going to want your help presently, Carey. 
 I think. Just ask Mrs. Carey to keep Mrs. 
 Robeson with her for a few minutes, if she 
 can." 
 
 Carey went down and gave his wife the 
 message, then he hurried back and stood 
 waiting just outside the door. And all at 
 once the summons came. In a breath the 
 doctor had changed his role. He spoke 
 sharply : 
 
 "Now, Robeson now, Carey we've 
 waited up to the limit. Keep cool hold 
 him like a rock 
 
 Wayne Carey came down to his wife, ten 
 minutes later, smiled tremulously, sank into 
 a chair, and fell to crying like a baby- 
 softly, so that he could not be heard. 
 
 "But Juliet says he'll be all right," 
 murmured Judith unsteadily. 
 
 "Yes, yes Carey wiped his eyes 
 
 and blew his nose. " I'm just a little un- 
 nerved, that's all. Lord and he's dropped
 
 Roger Barnes Proves Invaluable 213 
 
 off to sleep as quiet as a lamb with Barnes 
 holding the gash in his throat open with a 
 hairpin to let the air in. When it comes 
 to emergency surgery I tell you it's a lucky 
 thing to have an expert in the house. 
 Completely worn out the little chap. 
 When the nurse comes they'll get out the 
 whistle and sew the place up. She ought 
 to be here I'll go meet that train." 
 
 He sprang to his feet and hurried out of 
 the house. Presently he was back, fol- 
 lowed by an erect young woman who wore 
 a long coat over the uniform she had not 
 taken time to change. Carey carried the 
 long black bag she had brought with 
 her. 
 
 By and by Anthony and Roger Barnes 
 came down. The former was pale, but as 
 quietly composed as ever; the latter non- 
 chalant, yet wearing that gleam of satis- 
 faction in his eye which is ever the badge 
 of the successful surgeon. 
 
 "Well, Mrs. Carey," said the doctor, 
 smiling, "why not relax that tension a 
 bit? The youngster is right as a trivet." 
 
 " I suppose that's your idea of being 
 right as a trivet," Judith retorted. "In 
 bed, with a trained nurse watching you,
 
 214 the Indifference of Juliet 
 
 and a doctor staying all night to make 
 sure." 
 
 " Bless you what better would you 
 have ? If it were any other boy the doctor 
 would have been home and in bed an hour 
 ago, I assure you. Carey if you don't 
 stop acting like a great fool I'll put you to 
 bed too." 
 
 For Carey was wringing Barnes' hand, 
 and the tears were running unashamed 
 down his cheeks. " I gave him that rooster 
 myself," he said, and choked. 
 
 Upstairs all was quiet. The little life 
 was safe, rescued at the crucial moment 
 when interference became necessary, by the 
 skill and daring which do not hesitate to 
 use the means at hand when the authorized 
 tools can not be had. Every precaution 
 had been taken against harm from these 
 same unconventional means, and the doctor, 
 when he left his patient in the hands of 
 his nurse, felt small anxiety for the ulti- 
 mate outcome. 
 
 He said this very positively to the boy's 
 father and mother, holding a hand of each 
 and bidding them go peacefully to sleep. 
 He would have slipped away then, but 
 they would not let him go. There were no
 
 Roger Barnes Proves Invaluable 215 
 
 tears, no fuss ; but Juliet said, her eyes with 
 their heavy shadows of past suspense 
 meeting his steadily, " Roger, nothing can 
 ever tell you what I feel about this," and 
 Anthony, gripping his friend's hand with 
 a grip of steel, added: "We shall never 
 thank the Lord enough for having you on 
 hand, Roger Barnes." 
 
 But when the young surgeon had gone, 
 warm with pleasure over the service he 
 had done those he loved this night, the 
 ones he had left behind found their self- 
 control had reached the ragged edge. 
 Turning to her husband Juliet flung her- 
 self into his arms, and met there the 
 tenderest reception she had ever known. 
 So does a common anxiety knit hearts 
 which had thought they could be no 
 tighter bound. 
 
 Judith and Wayne Carey, walking along 
 silent streets in the early dawn of the day 
 after Christmas on their way to take their 
 train home, had little to say. Only once 
 Judith ventured an observation to her 
 heavy-eyed companion: 
 
 " Surely, such a scene as you went through 
 last night must diminish a trifle that envy
 
 216 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 you are always possessed with, when you're 
 at that house." 
 
 But Wayne, staring up at the wintry 
 sky, answered, more roughly than his wife 
 had ever heard him speak: "No God 
 knows I envy them even at a time like 
 this!"
 
 XXIIL Two NOT OF A KIND 
 
 "YES, they are very pleasant rooms," 
 Juliet admitted, with the air of one en- 
 deavouring to be polite. She sat upon a 
 many-hued divan, and glanced from the 
 blue-and-yellow wall-paper to the green 
 velvet chairs, the dull-red carpet and the 
 stiff "lace" curtains. 'You get the after- 
 noon sun, and the view opposite isn't bad. 
 The vestibule seemed to be well kept, and 
 I rang only three times before I made you 
 hear." 
 
 "The janitor promised to fix that bell," 
 said Judith hastily. " Oh, I know the 
 colour combinations are dreadful, but one 
 can't help that in rented rooms. Of course 
 our things look badly with the ones that 
 belong here. But as soon as we can we 
 are going to move into a still better place." 
 
 " Going to keep house ? " 
 
 " No-o, not just yet." Judith hesitated. 
 " You seem to think there's nothing in the 
 world to do but to keep house." 
 
 "I'm sure of it." 
 
 217
 
 2i8 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 " I can't see why. A girl doesn't need 
 to assume all the cares of life the minute 
 she marries. Why can't she keep young 
 and fresh for a while ? " 
 
 Juliet glanced toward a mirror opposite. 
 " How old and haggard I must be looking," 
 she observed, with it must be confessed 
 a touch of complacency. The woman who 
 could have seen that image reflected as her 
 own without complacency must have been 
 indifferent, indeed. 
 
 "Of course, you manage it somehow I 
 suppose because Anthony takes such care 
 of you. But you wait till five years more 
 have gone over your head, and see if 
 you're not tired of it." 
 
 " If I'm as tired of it as you are " began 
 Juliet, and stopped. " But seriously, Ju- 
 dith, is it nothing to you to please Wayne ? " 
 
 "Why, of course."' Judith flushed. "But 
 Wayne is satisfied." 
 
 "Are you sure of it?" 
 
 "Certainly. Oh, sometimes, when we 
 go to see you, and you make things so pleas- 
 ant with your big fire and your good things 
 to eat, he gets a spasm of wishing we were 
 by ourselves, but 
 
 Juliet shook her head. " Wayne doesn't
 
 Two Not <pf a Kind 219 
 
 say a word," she said, " and he's as devoted 
 to you as a man can be. But, Judith, if 
 I know the symptoms, that husband of 
 yours is starving for a home, and do I 
 dare say it?" 
 
 Judith was staring out of the window at 
 the ugly walls opposite. It was her bed- 
 room window, and the opposite walls were 
 not six feet away. 
 
 "I suppose you dare say anything," she 
 answered, looking as if she were about to 
 cry. "I'm sure I envy you, you're so 
 supremely contented. I don't think I 
 was made to care for children." 
 
 "That might come," said Juliet softly. 
 " I'm sure it would, Judith. As for Wayne, 
 if you could see the look on his face I've 
 surprised there more than once, when he 
 had little Anthony, and he thought nobody 
 noticed, it would make your heart ache, 
 dear. Don't deny him or yourself the 
 best thing that can happen to either of you. 
 At least, don't deny it for lack of a home. 
 I'm sure I can't imagine Tony, Junior, in 
 these rooms of yours. They don't look," 
 she explained, smiling, "exactly babyish." 
 
 She rose to go. She looked so young and 
 fair and sweet as she spoke her gentle homily
 
 220 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 that Judith, half doubting, half believing, 
 admitted to herself that of one thing there 
 could be no question : Mrs. Anthony Robe- 
 son envied nobody upon the face of the 
 earth. 
 
 The visits of the Robesons to the various 
 apartments which were in rotation occupied 
 by the Careys were few. Somehow it 
 seemed much easier and simpler for the 
 pair who had no children, and no house- 
 keeping to hamper them, to run out into 
 the suburbs than for their friends to get 
 into town. So the Careys came with 
 ever increasing frequency, always warmly 
 welcomed, and enjoyed the hours within 
 the little house so thoroughly that in 
 time the influence of the content they saw 
 so often began to have its inevitable effect. 
 
 " I've great news for you," said Anthony, 
 coming home one March day, when little 
 Tony was nearing his second birthday. 
 "It's about the Careys. Guess." 
 
 "They are going to housekeeping." 
 
 " How did you know? " 
 
 " I didn't know, but Judith told me 
 weeks ago she supposed she should have to 
 come to it. Have they found a house?" 
 
 " Carey thinks he has. Judith doesn't
 
 Two Not of a Kind 221 
 
 like the place, for about fifty good and 
 sufficient reasons to her. He's trying to 
 persuade her. He has an option on it for 
 ten days. He wants us to come out and 
 look at it with them." 
 
 "Where is it?" 
 
 "About as far east of the city as we are 
 north. If to-morrow is a good day I 
 promised we would run out with them on 
 the ten-fifteen. I suspect they need us 
 badly. Wayne looks like a man distracted. 
 The great trouble, I fancy, is going to be 
 that Judith Dearborn Carey is still too 
 much of a Dearborn to be able to make a 
 home out of anything. And Carey can't 
 do it alone." 
 
 " Indeed he can't, poor fellow. I never 
 saw a man in my life who wanted a home 
 as badly as Wayne does. Let's do our 
 best to help them." 
 
 "We will. But the only way to do it 
 thoroughly is to make Judith over. Even 
 you can't accomplish that." 
 
 "There's hope, if she has agreed at all to 
 trying the experiment," Juliet declared, 
 and thought about her friends all the rest 
 of the day. 
 
 It was but five minutes' walk, from the
 
 222 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 suburban station where the party got off 
 next morning, to the house which Carey 
 eagerly pointed out as the four approached. 
 
 "There it is," he said. "Don't tell me 
 what you think of it till you've seen the 
 whole thing. I know it doesn't look 
 promising as yet, but I keep remembering 
 the photographs of your home, Robeson, 
 before you went at it. I'm .inclined to 
 think this can be made right, too." 
 
 Anthony and Juliet studied Carey's choice 
 with interest. Judith looked on dubiously. 
 It was plain that if she should consent it 
 would be against her will. 
 
 "It looks so commonplace and ugly," 
 she said aside to Juliet, as the four com- 
 pleted the tour around the house and pre- 
 pared to enter. "Your home is old- 
 fashioned enough to be interesting, but 
 this is just modern enough to be ugly. 
 Look at that big window in front with the 
 cheap coloured glass across the top. What 
 could you do with that?" 
 
 " Several things," said her friend prompt- 
 ly. "You might put in a row of narrow 
 casement windows across the front, with 
 diamond panes. No the porch isn't at- 
 tractive with all that gingerbread work,
 
 Two Not of a Kind 
 
 223 
 
 but you could take it away and have 
 something plain and simple. The general 
 lines of the house are not bad. It has 
 been an old-fashioned house, Judith, but 
 somebody who didn't know how has altered 
 it and spoiled it. People are always doing 
 that. There must have been a fanlight 
 over this door. You could restore it. 
 And do you see that quaint round window 
 in the gable? Probably they looked at 
 that and longed to do away with it, but 
 happily for you didn't know how." 
 
 Carey glanced curiously at his friend's 
 wife, then anxiously at his own. Juliet's 
 face was alight with interest; Judith's 
 heavy with dissatisfaction. He wondered 
 for the thousandth time what made the 
 difference. He would have given a year's 
 salary to see Judith look interested in this 
 desire of his heart. It was hard to push 
 a thing like this against the will of the only 
 person whose help he could not do without. 
 Carey was determined to have the home. 
 Even Judith acknowledged that she had 
 not been happy in any of the seven apart- 
 ments they had tried during the less than 
 four years of their married life. Carey 
 believed with all his heart that their only
 
 224 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 chance for happiness lay in getting away 
 from a manner of living which was using 
 up every penny he could earn without 
 giving them either satisfaction or comfort. 
 His salary would not permit him to rent 
 the sort of thing in the sort of neighbour- 
 hood which Judith longed for. And if it 
 should, he did not believe his wife would 
 find such environments any more congenial 
 than the present one. Carey had a theory 
 that a woman, like a man, must be busy to 
 be contented. He meant to try it with his 
 handsome, discontented wife. 
 
 "Oh, what a pretty hall!" cried Mrs. 
 Robeson, with enthusiasm. " How lucky 
 that the vandals who made the house 
 over didn't lay their desecrating hands on 
 that staircase." 
 
 "The hall looks gloomy to me," said 
 Mrs. Carey, with a disapproving glance at 
 the walls. 
 
 "Of course with that dingy brown 
 paper and the woodwork stained that 
 hideous imitation of oak. You can scrape 
 all that off, paint it white, put on a warm, 
 rich paper, restore your fanlight, and 
 you'll have a particularly attractive hall." 
 
 " I wish I could see things that are not
 
 Two Not of a Kind 225 
 
 visible, as you seem to be able to," sighed 
 Judith, looking unconvinced. " I never 
 did like a long, straight staircase like that. 
 And there's not room to make a turn/' 
 
 "You don't want to, do you? It's so 
 wide and low it doesn't need to turn, and 
 the posts and rails are extremely good. 
 How about this front room ? " 
 
 She stood in the center of the front room, 
 and the two msn, watching her vivid face 
 as it glowed above her furs, noting the 
 capable, womanly way she had of looking 
 at the best side of everything and discern- 
 ing in a flash of imagination and intuition 
 what could be clone with unpromising 
 material, appreciated her with that full 
 masculine appreciation which it is so well 
 worth the trouble of any woman to win. 
 
 Judith was not blind ; she saw little by 
 little as Juliet went from room to room 
 seizing in each upon its possibilities, ignor- 
 ing its poorer features except to suggest 
 their betterment, giving her whole-hearted, 
 friendly counsel in a way which continually 
 took the prospective homemakers into con- 
 sideration that she herself waslosingsome- 
 thing immeasurably valuable in not at- 
 tempting to cultivate these same winning
 
 226 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 characteristics. And in the same breath 
 Judith was forced to admit to herself that 
 she did not know how to begin. 
 
 " There is really a very pretty view from 
 the dining-room," she said, as a first effort 
 at seeing something to admire. Both 
 Juliet and Anthony agreed to this state- 
 ment with a cordiality which came very near 
 suggesting that it was a relief to find Mrs. 
 Carey on the optimistic side of the discussion 
 even in this small detail. As for Carey, he 
 looked so surprised and grateful that 
 Judith's heart smote her with a vigour to 
 which she was unaccustomed. 
 
 " I suppose you could use this room as a 
 sort of den?" she was prompted to suggest 
 to her husband; and such a delighted smile 
 illumined Carey's face that the sight of it 
 was almost pathetic to his friends, who 
 understood his situation rather better than 
 he did himself. In his pleasure Carey put 
 his arm about his wife's shoulders. 
 
 "Couldn't I, though?" he agreed en- 
 thusiastically. "And you could use it fcr 
 a retreat while I was away for the day." 
 
 "A retreat from what? Too much ex- 
 citement?" began Judith, the old habit of 
 scorn of everything which was not of the
 
 Two Not of a Kind 227 
 
 city returning upon her irresistibly. But 
 it chanced that she caught Juliet's eyes, 
 unconsciously wearing such an expression 
 of solicitude to see her friend complaisant 
 in this matter which meant so much, that 
 Judith hurriedly followed her ironic question 
 with the more kindly supplement:. "But 
 doubtless I should have plenty, and be glad 
 to get away." 
 
 "You certainly would," asserted An- 
 thony. "We never guessed how much 
 there would be to occupy us in the country, 
 but there seems hardly time to write letters. 
 Nobody can believe, till he tries, how much 
 pleasure there is in wheedling a garden into 
 growing, nor how well the labour makes him 
 sleep o' nights." 
 
 "Yes I think I could sleep here," said 
 Carey, and passed a hand over a brow 
 which was aching at that very moment. 
 " I haven't done that satisfactorily for six 
 months." 
 
 'You'll do it here," Anthony prophesied 
 confidently. "It's a fine air with a good 
 breath of the salt sea in it, which we don't 
 get. Your sleeping rooms are all well 
 aired and lighted a thing you don't always 
 find in more pretentious houses. And
 
 228 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 \vhen the paint and paper go on ycu'll own 
 yourselves surprised at the transformation. 
 I was never so astonished in my life as I 
 was at the change in the little bedroom in 
 our house which has that pale yellow-and- 
 white stripe on the wall. It was a north 
 room, and the old wall was a forlorn slate, 
 like a thunder-cloud. My little artist here, 
 with her eye for colours, instantly an- 
 nounced that she would get the sunshine 
 into that room. And so she did with no 
 more potent a charm than that fifteen-cent 
 paper and a fresh coat of white paint." 
 
 Carey looked at Juliet with longing in 
 his eye. He wanted to ask her to supervise 
 the alterations in his purchase, if he should 
 make it. But he remembered other oc- 
 casions w T hen he had held the sayings and 
 doings of Mrs. Robeson before the eyes of 
 Mrs. Carey with disastrous result, and he 
 dared not make the suggestion. He hoped, 
 however, that Judith might be inclined to 
 ask the assistance of her friend, and himself 
 hinted at it, cautiously. But Judith, beyond 
 inquiring what Juliet thought of certain 
 possible changes, seemed inclined to shoul- 
 der her own responsibilities. 
 
 Anthony left his wife upon the home-
 
 Two Not of a Kind 229 
 
 bound train, to return to his work; the 
 Careys accompanied him, so that he had 
 no chance to talk things over until he came 
 home to dinner at night. But when he saw 
 Juliet again almost her first words showed 
 him where her thoughts were. 
 
 "Tony, I can't get those people off my 
 mind. Do you suppose they will ever make 
 a home out of anything? " 
 
 " They haven't much genius for utilizing 
 raw material, I'm very much afraid," 
 Anthony responded thoughtfully. "Carey 
 has the will, and he can furnish a moderate 
 amount of funds, but whether Judith can 
 furnish anything but objections and con- 
 trariety I don't dare to predict. If her 
 heart were in it I should have more hope of 
 her. There's one thing I can tell her. If 
 she doesn't set her soul to the giving the 
 cH boy a taste of peace and rest she'll have 
 him worn out before his time. A fellow who 
 doesn't know how it feels to sleep soundly, 
 and whose head bothers him half the time, 
 needs looking after. He's a slave to his 
 office desk, and needs far more than an 
 active chap like me to get out of the city as 
 much as he can." 
 
 "Yes, he's worried and restless, Tony.
 
 230 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 He's so devoted to Judith and so anxious to 
 make her happy, her dissatisfaction rests 
 on him like a weight. Don't you see that 
 every time you see them together? " 
 
 " Every time and more plainly. What's 
 the matter with her anyhow, Julie? She 
 seemed promising enough as a girl. You 
 certainly found enough in her to make you 
 two congenial. She's no more like you 
 than electric light is like sunshine," said 
 Anthony, picking up the simile with a 
 laugh and a glance of appreciation. 
 
 "Judith shines in the surroundings she 
 was born and brought up in, misses them, 
 and doesn't know how to adapt herself to 
 any others. She ought to have been the 
 wife of some high official she could enter- 
 tain royally and have everybody at her 
 feet." 
 
 " Magnificent characteristics, but mighty 
 unavailable in the present circumstances. 
 It carries out my electric-light comparison. 
 I prefer the sunlight and I have it. Poor 
 Carey!" 
 
 "We'll hope," said Juliet. "And if we 
 have the smallest chance to help, we'll do it. 
 
 But, as Anthony had anticipated, there 
 was small chance to help. Meeting Carey
 
 Two Not of a Kind 231 
 
 a fortnight later, Anthony inquired after 
 the new home, and Carey replied with ap- 
 parent lack of enthusiasm that the house 
 had been leased for a term of three years, 
 with refusal of the purchase at the expira- 
 tion of the time. He explained that Judith 
 had been unwilling to burii her bridges by 
 buying the place outright, and that he 
 thought perhaps the present plan was the 
 better one under these conditions. But 
 the fact that the house was not their own 
 made it seem unwise to expend very much 
 upon alterations beyond those of paint and 
 paper. With the prospect of a sale the 
 owner had unwillingly consented to replace 
 the gingerbread porch with one in better 
 style, but refused to do more. The big 
 window, with its abominable topping of 
 cheap coloured glass, was to remain for the 
 present. 
 
 "And I think this whole arrangement is 
 bound to defeat my purpose," said Carey 
 unhappily. "The very changes we can't 
 afford to make in a rented house are the 
 ones Judith needs to have made to recon- 
 cile her to the experiment. She says she 
 feels ill every time she comes to the house 
 and sees that window. She wants a porce-
 
 232 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 lain sink in the kitchen. She would like 
 speaking-tubes and a system of electric 
 bells. We're to have a servant if we can 
 find her. We've put green paper on all the 
 downstairs rooms, and it turns out the 
 wrong green. I wanted a sort of corn-colour 
 that looked more cheerful, but it seems 
 green is the only thing. I don't know 
 what's the matter with me. Perhaps I'm 
 bilious. Green seems to be all right in 
 your house, but in mine it makes me want 
 to go outdoors." 
 
 "That's precisely what you should do," 
 Anthony advised cheerfully. "Get out- 
 doors all you can. Start your garden. 
 Mow your lawn yourself. Make over that 
 gravel path to your front door." 
 
 "I've only evenings," objected Carey. 
 "And we're not settled yet. The paper's 
 only just on. We haven't moved. We're 
 buying furniture. We bought a sideboard 
 yesterday. It cost so much we had to get 
 a cheaper range for the kitchen than 
 seemed desirable, but Judith liked the side- 
 board so well I was glad to buy it. I don't 
 know when we shall get to living there 
 permanently. This furnishing business 
 knocks me out. We don't seem to know
 
 Two Not of a Kind 233 
 
 what we want. I'd like " he hesitated 
 " I hoped Mrs. Robeson might be able to 
 give us the advantage of her experience, 
 but it turns out that Judith has a sort of 
 pride in doing it herself, and of course I 
 presume you made some mistakes your- 
 selves, eh ? " He suggested this with eager- 
 ness. 
 
 " Oh, of course," agreed Anthony readily, 
 though he wondered what they were, and 
 inwardly begged Juliet's pardon for this 
 answer, given out of masculine sympathy 
 with his friend's helplessness. "You'll 
 come out all right," he hastily assured 
 Carey. "Once you are living in the new 
 place things will adjust themselves. Keep 
 up your courage. Your daily walk to and 
 from the train will do wonders. Lack of 
 exercise will make a rainbow look gloomy 
 to a fellow. I think you've great cause for 
 rejoicing that Judith has agreed to try 
 the experiment at all. And as with all 
 experiments, you must be patient while it 
 works itself out." 
 
 " That's so," agreed Carey, a gleam of hope 
 in his eyes; and Anthony got away. But 
 by himself the happier man shook his head 
 doubtfully. "Where everything depends
 
 234 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 on the woman," he said to himself, "and 
 you've married one that her Maker never 
 fashioned for domestic joys, you're certainly 
 up against a mighty difficult proposition!"
 
 XXIV. THE CAREYS ARE AT HOME 
 
 WAYNE and Judith Carey had been keep- 
 ing house for two months before Judith was 
 willing to accede to her husband's often 
 repeated request that they entertain the 
 Robesons. 
 
 "We've been there, together and sepa- 
 rately, till it's a wonder their hospitality 
 doesn't freeze up," he urged. "Let's have 
 them out to-morrow night, and keep them 
 over till next day, at least. I'd like to 
 have them sleep under this roof. They'd 
 bring us good luck." 
 
 " One would think the Robesons were the 
 only people worth knowing," said Judith, 
 with a petulance of which she had the grace, 
 as her husband stared at her, to be ashamed. 
 
 "They're the truest friends we have in 
 the world," he said, with a dignity m of 
 manner unusual with him. " Sometimes I 
 think they are the only people worth 
 knowing out of all those on your calling 
 list." 
 
 "We differ about that. Your ideas of 
 235
 
 236 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 who are worth knowing are very peculiar. 
 Heaven knows I'm fond of Juliet, but I get 
 decidedly tired of having her held up as a 
 model. And I haven't been anxious to 
 entertain her until we were in order." 
 
 "We're certainly as much in order now 
 as we shall be for some time. Let's have 
 them :>ut. You'll find they'll see every- 
 thing there is to praise. It's their way." 
 
 So Anthony and Juliet were asked, and 
 came. Wayne's prophecy was proven a 
 true one even Judith grew complacent as 
 her friends admired the result of her house- 
 furnishing. And in truth there was much 
 to admire. Judith was a young woman 
 of taste and more or less discretion, and 
 if she could have had full sway in her 
 purchasing the result might have been 
 admirable. As it was, the unspoken criti- 
 cism in the minds of both the guests, as 
 they followed their hosts about the house, 
 was that Judith had struck a key-note in 
 her construction of a home a little too am- 
 bitious to be wholly satisfactory. 
 
 " I believe in buying the best of every- 
 thing as far as you go," she said, indicating 
 a particularly costly lounging chair in a 
 corner of the living-room. "Of course
 
 The Careys Are at Home 237 
 
 that was very expensive, but it will always 
 be right, and we can get others to go with 
 it The bookcases were another high- 
 priced purchase, but they give an air to 
 the room worth paying for." 
 
 "I've only one objection to this room," 
 said Wayne with some hesitation. "As 
 Judith says, the things in it seem to be atf 
 right, and it certainly looks in good taste, 
 if I'm any judge, but I don't know just 
 
 how to explain it " he hesitated again, 
 
 and smiled deprecatingly at his wife. 
 
 "Speak out," said Judith. She was in a 
 very good humour, for her guests had shown 
 so fine a tact in their commendation that 
 she was in quite a glow of satisfaction, and 
 for the first time felt the pleasure of the 
 hostess in an attractive home. " It can't 
 be a serious objection, for you've liked 
 every single thing we've put into it." 
 
 "Indeed I have," agreed Carey, eagerly 
 glanjing about the brilliantly lit room. 
 " I like it all awfully well especially in the 
 daylight. The corner by the window is a 
 famous place for reading. But, you see, I'm 
 so little here in the daytime, except on 
 Sundays. Of course I know we lack the 
 fireplace that makes your living-room
 
 238 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 jolly, but it seems as if we lack something 
 besides that we might have, and for the 
 life of me I can't tell what it is." 
 
 Anthony knew by a certain curve in the 
 corner of his wife's mouth that she longed 
 to tell him what it was. For himself, he 
 could not discover. He studied the room 
 searchingly and was unable to determine 
 why, attractive as it really was, it certainly 
 did, upon this cool May evening, lack the 
 look of warm comfort and hospitality of 
 which his own home was so full. 
 
 "Possibly it's because everything is so 
 new," he ventured. "Rooms come to 
 have a look of home, you know, just by 
 living in them and leaving things about. 
 It's a pretty room, all right, and I fancy it 
 will take on the friendly expression you 
 want when you get to strewing your books 
 and magazines around a little more, and 
 laying your pipe down on the corner of the 
 mantel-piece, you know and all that. I 
 can upset things for you in half a minute if 
 you'll give me leave." 
 
 "You have my full permission," said 
 Judith, laughing. " I fancy it's just as you 
 say: Wayne isn't used to it yet. He always 
 likes his old slippers better than the hand-
 
 The Careys Are at Home 239 
 
 somest new ones I can buy him. Come 
 dinner has been served for five minutes. 
 No more artistic suggestions till afterward." 
 
 The dinner was perfect. It should have 
 been so, for a caterer was in the kitchen, and 
 a hired waitress served the viands without 
 disaster. As a delectable meal it was a 
 success; as an exhibition of Mrs. Carey's 
 capacity for home making, it was something 
 of a failure. It certainly did not for a 
 moment deceive the guests. For the life 
 of her, as Juliet tasted course after course 
 of the elaborate meal, she could not help 
 reckoning up what it had cost. Neither 
 could she refrain from wondering what sort 
 of a repast Judith would have produced 
 without help. 
 
 After dinner, as Wayne and Anthony 
 smoked in front of the fireless mantel- 
 piece in the den, each in a more luxurious 
 chair than was to be found in Anthony's 
 whole house, Judith took Juliet to task. 
 
 "You may try to disguise it," she com- 
 plained, "but I've known you too long not 
 to be able to read you. You would rather 
 have had me cook that dinner myself and 
 bring it in, all red and blistered from being 
 over the stove."
 
 240 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "As long as the dinner wasn't red and 
 blistered you wouldn't have been unhappy," 
 Juliet returned lightly. " But you mustn't 
 think that she who entertains may read my 
 ingenuous face, my dear. It isn't necessary 
 that I attempt to convert the world to my 
 way of thinking. And I haven't told you 
 that when Auntie Dingley goes abroad with 
 father again this winter I'm to have Mary 
 McKaim for eight whole months. I can 
 assure you I know how to appreciate the 
 comfort of having a competent cook in the 
 kitchen." 
 
 She got up and crossed the rcom. "Ju- 
 dith, what an exquisite lamp," she observed. 
 "I'd forgotten that you had it. Was it 
 one of your wedding presents? " 
 
 Judith followed her to where she stood 
 examining an imposing, foreign - looking 
 lamp, with jeweled inlets in the hand- 
 wrought metal shade. "Yes," she said 
 carelessly, "it's pretty enough. I don't 
 care much for lamps." 
 
 "Not to read by?" 
 
 " It's bright enough for anybody but a 
 blind man to read, here." Judith glanced 
 at the ornate chandelier of electric lights 
 in the centre of the ceiling. "The rooms
 
 The Careys Are at Home 241 
 
 aren't so high that the lights are out of 
 reach for reading." 
 
 "But this is beautiful. Have you never 
 used it?" 
 
 " It might be used with an electric con- 
 nection, I suppose. No, I've never used 
 it as an oil lamp. I hate kerosene oil." 
 
 " But you have some in the house? " 
 
 "Oh, yes, I think so. Wayne insisted 
 on getting some little hand-lamps. Some- 
 thing's always happening to the wires out 
 here. That's one of the numerous joys of 
 living in the suburbs." 
 
 "Let's fill this and try it," Juliet sug- 
 gested, turning a pair of very bright eyes 
 upon her friend. " If you've never lit it I 
 don't believe you've half appreciated it. 
 You're neglecting one of the prettiest 
 sources of decoration you have in the house. 
 Out of sympathy for the giver, whoever he 
 was, you ought to let his gift have a chance 
 to show you its beauty." 
 
 " Stevens Cathcart gave it to us, I be- 
 lieve," said Judith. "Here, let me have 
 it. I'll fill it, since you insist. But I never 
 thought very much of it. It was put away 
 m a closet until we came here. It took up 
 so much room I never found a place for it."
 
 242 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "Mr. Cathcart gave it to you? That 
 proves my point, that it's worth admiring. 
 If there's a connoisseur in things of this 
 sort, it's he. He probably picked it up in 
 some out-of-the-ordinary European shop." 
 
 Smiling to herself, as if something gave 
 her satisfaction, Juliet awaited the return 
 of her hostess. She understood, from the 
 manner of Judith's exit with the lamp, that 
 the free and easy familiarity with which 
 guests invaded every portion of Anthony's 
 little home, was not to be made a precedent 
 for the same sort of thing in Judith's. 
 
 The lamp reappeared, accompanied by a 
 lamentation over the disagreeable qualities 
 of kerosene oil for any use whatever. 
 
 "You can put electricity into this and 
 use it as a drop-light, if you prefer," said 
 Juliet, as she lit it and adjusted the shade. 
 "May I set it on the big table over here? 
 Right in the center, please, if you don't 
 mind moving that bowl of carnations. 
 There! Of course you can send it back to 
 oblivion over there on the bookcase if you 
 really don't like it. But you do like it 
 don't you?" 
 
 " It's handsomer than I thought it was," 
 Judith admitted without enthusiasm. Juliet
 
 The Careys Are at Home 243 
 
 glanced up at the blazing chandelier over- 
 head. 
 
 "May I turn off some of this light?" she 
 asked. " You won't get the full beauty of 
 your lamp till you give it a chance by itself." 
 
 Judith assented. Juliet snapped off three 
 out of the four lights, and smiled mischiev- 
 ously at her friend. Then she extin- 
 guished the fourth, so that the only lumi- 
 nary left in the room was the lamp, 
 Judith groaned. 
 
 " Maybe you like a gloomy room like this. 
 I don't. Look at it. I can hardly see 
 anything in the comers." 
 
 " Wait a little bit. You're so used to the 
 glare your eyes are not good for seeing what 
 I mean. Study the lamp itself a minute. 
 Did you ever see anything so fascinating as 
 the gleam through those jewels? An elec- 
 tric bulb inside would add to the brilliancy, 
 though it's not so soft a light to read by, 
 and the effect in the room isn't so warm. 
 Observe those carnations under the lamp- 
 light, honey ? Come over here to the door- 
 way and look at your whole room under 
 these new conditions. Isn't it charm- 
 ing? enticing? Let's draw that lovely 
 Morris chair up close to the table, as if
 
 244 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 you were expecting Wayne to come in 
 and read the evening paper Dy the lamp. 
 There/" 
 
 Juliet softly clapped her hands, her face 
 shining with friendly enthusiasm. There 
 could be no question that the whole room, 
 as she had said, had taken on a new look of 
 home-like comfort and cheer which it had 
 lacked before. Even Judith was forced to 
 see it. 
 
 "It looks very well," she admitted. 
 "But I should have more light from above. 
 I like plenty of light." 
 
 " So do I, if you manage it well." Where- 
 upon the guest, having gained her point 
 and made sufficient demonstration of it, 
 turned the conversation into other chan- 
 nels. But the lamp was not yet through 
 with its position of reformer. The two men, 
 having finished their cigars, and hearing 
 sounds of merriment from the adjoining 
 room, came strolling in. Anthony, compre- 
 hending at a glance the change which had 
 come over the aspect of the room and the 
 cause thereof, advanced, smiling. But 
 Carey came to a standstill upon the thres- 
 hold, his lips drawn into an astonished 
 whistle.
 
 The Careys Are at Home 245 
 
 "What's happened?" he ejaculated, and 
 stood staring. 
 
 "Do you like it?" asked his wife. 
 
 " I should say I did. But what's done 
 it ? What makes the room look so different ? 
 It looks why it looks like your rooms!" 
 he cried, gazing at Anthony. 
 
 " He can say nothing more flattering than 
 that," said Judith, evidently not altogether 
 pleased. " It's the highest compliment he 
 knows." 
 
 Carey stared at the lamp. " I didn't 
 know we had that," he said. "Is it that 
 that does it?" 
 
 " I fancy it is," said Anthony. " I never 
 understood it till I was taught, but it seems 
 to be a fact that a low light in a room gives 
 it a more homelike effect than a high one. 
 I don't know why. It's one of my wife's 
 pet theories." 
 
 "Well, I must say this is a pretty con- 
 vincing demonstration of it," Carey agreed, 
 sitting down in a chair in a corner, his hands 
 in his pockets, still studying this, to him, 
 remarkable transformation. "It certainly 
 does look like a happy home now. Before, 
 it was a place to receive calls in." He 
 turned, smiling contentedly, to his wife.
 
 246 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 Something about the glance which she 
 returned warned him that further ad- 
 miration was unnecessary. The con- 
 tented smile faded a little. He got up and 
 came over to the table. " Now, let's have 
 a good four-handed talk," he proposed. 
 
 Two hours later, in the seclusion of the 
 guest-room upstairs, Anthony said under 
 his breath: 
 
 " They're coming on, aren't they? Don't 
 you see glimmerings of hope that some day 
 this will resemble a home, in a sort of far- 
 off way? Isn't Judith becoming domes- 
 ticated a trifle? She didn't get up that 
 dinner?" 
 
 Juliet turned upon him a smiling face, 
 and laid her finger on her lip. "Don't 
 tempt me to discuss it," she warned him. 
 " My feelings might run away with me, and 
 that would never do under their very roof." 
 
 "Exemplary little guest! May I say 
 as much as this, then? I'd give a good deal 
 to see Wayne speak his mind once in a way, 
 without a side glance to see if Her Royal 
 Majesty approves." 
 
 But Juliet shook her head. " Don't 
 tempt me," she begged again. "There's 
 something inside of me that boils and boils
 
 The Careys Are at Home 247 
 
 with rage, and if I should just take the cover 
 
 off " 
 
 "Might I get scalded? All right I'll 
 leave the cover on. Just one observation 
 more. When I get inside our own four 
 walls again I'm going to give a tremendous 
 whoop of joy and satisfaction that'll raise 
 the roof right off the house ! "
 
 XXV. THE ROBESON WILL 
 
 WHEN people are busy and happy the 
 years may go by like a dream. So the 
 months rolled around and brought little 
 Tony past the third anniversary of his 
 birth, and into another summer of lusty 
 development. Except to the growing child, 
 however, time seemed to bring slight 
 changes to the little home under whose 
 roof he grew. The mistress thereof lost no 
 charm either for her husband or her friends 
 Anthony indeed insisted that she grew 
 younger; certainly, as time taught her new 
 lessons without laying hands upon her 
 beauty, she gained attractiveness in every 
 way. 
 
 "You look as much like a girl as ever," 
 Anthony said to her one morning, as dressed 
 for a trip into town she came out upon the 
 porch where he and little Tony were frolic- 
 ing together. 
 
 "You had ever a sweetly blarneying 
 tongue," said she, and bestowed a parting 
 caress impartially upon both the person? 
 248
 
 The Robeson "Will 249 
 
 before her. " I feel a bit guilty at making 
 a nursemaid of you for even one morning of 
 your vacation, but ' 
 
 " That's all right. Do your errands with 
 an easy conscience. I'll enjoy looking after 
 the boy, and am rather glad your usual 
 little maid is away. That's one thing my 
 vacation is for to get upon a basis of 
 mutual understanding and confidence with 
 my son. We see too little of each other." 
 
 So Juliet caught the early car, and left 
 the two male Robesons together, father and 
 son, waving good-bye to her from the 
 porch. When she was out of sight the 
 elder Robeson turned to the younger. 
 
 " Now, son," he said, " I'm going to mow 
 the lawn. What are you going to do?" 
 
 " I is going to mow lawn, too," announced 
 Tony, Junior, with decision. 
 
 "All right, sir. Here we are. Get in 
 front of me and mind you push hard. 
 That's the stuff!" 
 
 All went joyously for ten minutes. Then 
 little Tony wriggled out from between his 
 father's arms and went over to the porch 
 step. He sat down and crossed two fat 
 legs. He leaned his head upon his hand, 
 his elbow on his knee, and watched with
 
 250 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 serious eyes the progress of the lawn-mower 
 three times across before he said wistfully: 
 
 "Favver, I wis' you'd p'ay wiv me." 
 
 "When I get this job done perhaps I 
 will," said Anthony, and made the grass 
 fly merrily. Presently he put away the 
 lawn-mower, and stood looking down at 
 the sturdy little figure in the blue Russian 
 blouse. "What do you want to play?" 
 he asked. Tony's face lit up. 
 
 " Le's play fire-endjun," he proposed 
 enthusiastically. 
 
 "Where shall we play the fire is?" 
 
 " Le's have weal fire," said Tony eagerly. 
 
 "Real fire? Well, I don't know about 
 that, son," his father responded doubtfully. 
 " Young persons of three are not considered 
 old enough to play with the real thing. 
 Won't make believe do just as well?" 
 
 "No, no weal fire," repeated the child. 
 " Le's put it out wiv sqi'yt watto. P'ease, 
 fawer p'ease ! " . 
 
 "Sqi'wt watto'," repeated Anthony, 
 laughing. "What do you mean by -? 
 
 Oh, I see " as Tony demonstrated his 
 
 meaning by running to the garden hose 
 which remained attached to a hydrant 
 behind the house. "Well, son if I let
 
 The Robeson Will 251 
 
 you have a real fire and put it out with 
 real water, will you promise me never to try 
 anything of that sort by yourself?" 
 
 Tony walked over to his father and laid 
 a little brown fist in Anthony's. "Aw 
 wight, ' ' he said solemnly. Anthony looked 
 down at the clasped hands and smiled at 
 the serious uplifted face. " Is that the 
 way mother teaches you to promise her?" 
 he asked, with interest. 
 
 Tony nodded. "Aw wight," he said. 
 "Come on. Le's make fire!" 
 
 The fire was made, out of a packing-box 
 brought up from the cellar. It burned 
 realistically down by the orchard, and was 
 only discovered by chance when Anthony 
 Robeson, Junior, happened to glance that 
 way. 
 
 "Fire! fire!" he shouted, and alarmed 
 the fire company, who, as fire companies 
 should be, were ready to start on the instant. 
 The hose-cart, propelled by a pair of stout 
 legs, made a gallant dash down the edge 
 of the garden, followed by the hook-and- 
 ladder company, their equipment just three 
 feet long. It took energetic and skilful 
 work to quench the conflagration, which 
 raged furiously and made plenty of good
 
 252 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 black smoke. The fire chief rushed dramat- 
 ically about, ordering his men with ringing 
 commands. Once he stubbed his bare toe 
 and fell, and for a moment it looked as 
 though he must cry, but like the brave 
 fellow that he was he smothered his pain 
 behind an uplifted elbow, and in a moment 
 was again in the thick of the fray. His 
 men obeyed him with admirable prompti- 
 tude, although, contrary to the usual 
 custom of fire chiefs, he himself took hold 
 of the hose and poured its volume upon the 
 blazing structure. 
 
 When the fire was out the chief, breath- 
 less, his blue blouse bearing the marks of 
 the encounter with flood and flame, sat 
 down upon the overturned hose-cart and 
 beamed upon his company. 
 
 "Vat was awful nice fire," he said. 
 "Le's have anuver." 
 
 "Another? Oh, no," protested the com- 
 pany, hastily. " No more of that just now. 
 Pick up your hook-and-ladder wagon and 
 put it back where it belongs. I'll see to the 
 hose." 
 
 Anthony gently displaced the fire chief 
 and rolled away the hose. Then he looked 
 back down the garden and saw his son
 
 The Robeson Will 253 
 
 poking among the ruins of the fire. " Come 
 here, Tony," he called, "and bring the 
 hook-and-ladder. ' ' 
 
 Tony came slowly, but without the toy 
 wagon. Anthony stood still. When the 
 boy reached him he said, "Why didn't 
 you bring the hook-and-ladder cart?" 
 
 " 'Cause I'm ve chief," Tony responded 
 gravely. "My mens'll bring ve cart." 
 
 "Your men aren't there. You'll have 
 to bring it yourself." 
 
 Tony sho^k his head. " I'm ve chief," he 
 repeated, and looked his father in the eye. 
 Anthony understood. It was not the first 
 time. There were moments in one's ex- 
 perience with Anthony Robeson, Junior, 
 when one seemed to encounter a deadlock 
 in the child's will. Reasoning and com- 
 mands were apt at such times to be alike 
 futile. The odd thing about it was that it 
 was impossible to predict when these 
 moments w<.re at hand. They arose with- 
 out warning, when the boy was apparently 
 in the best of tempers, and they did not 
 seem to be the result of any previous 
 mismanagement on the part of those in 
 authority over him. 
 
 Of one point Anthony, Senior, was sure.
 
 254 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 The child, like all children, and possibly 
 more than most, possessed a vivid imagina- 
 tion. When he announced himself to be 
 a fire chief, there could be no question that 
 he believed himself to be for the time that 
 which he pretended to be. His father 
 understood, therefore, that to make progress 
 with the boy it was necessary to get back to 
 the standpoint of reality before commands 
 could be expected to take hold. So he sat 
 down on a rustic seat near Juliet's roses 
 and spoke in a pleasantly matter-of-fact 
 way. 
 
 "Yes, you've been a fire chief, son, 
 and a good one. That was a great game. 
 But the game is over now, and you're not a 
 fire chief any more. You're Tony Robeson, 
 and the little hook-and-ladder cart is your 
 plaything. Father wants you to bring it 
 here and put it in its place in the house. 
 It looks a little bit like rain, and the 
 cart mustn't be left out to get wet. 
 See?" 
 
 But Tony still shook his head. "My 
 men'll put it in," he said, with calmness 
 undisturbed. 
 
 "You haven't any men. You played 
 there were some, but the play is over and
 
 The Robeson Will 255 
 
 there aren't any men. If you don't put 
 the cart in it may get wet." 
 
 " I'm ve chief," said little Tony. " Chiefs 
 don't draw carts." 
 
 " When they've turned back to little boys 
 they do. You've turned back to a little 
 boy." 
 
 "No, I hasn't," said Tony, and his eyes 
 met his father's unflinchingly. " I's going 
 to be a chief all ve time." 
 
 The argument seemed unanswerable. 
 Anthony considered swiftly what to do. 
 He studied the grave brown eyes an instant 
 in silence, their beauty and the inflexibility 
 in their depths appealing to him with equal 
 force. He loved the tough little will. 
 He recognised it as his own the same 
 powerful quality which had brought him 
 thus far on the road to fortune after being 
 landed at the furthermost end from the 
 goal. He would not for worlds deal with 
 his son's will in any but the way which 
 should seem to him wisest. 
 
 He rose from his seat. He spoke quietly 
 but with force. "Very well," he said. 
 " If you're still a fire chief, of course you're 
 too big to play. I'm much obliged to you 
 for putting out my fire. But now that it's
 
 256 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 out I don't want your hook-and-ladder in 
 my garden any longer. When your men 
 take it away I shall be glad. But of course 
 we can't play any more till you stop being 
 a fire chief and the hook-and-ladder is back 
 in its corner in the nursery. Good-bye. 
 When you are ready to be Tony Robeson 
 again, you'll find me in my den." 
 
 He smiled at his son and walked away. 
 Tony watched him go. Tony's hands were 
 clasped behind his back, his legs planted 
 wide apart. 
 
 Anthony, Senior, found it difficult to re- 
 main in the den. He was obliged to keep 
 track of a small figure in a blue blouse 
 from whichever of the various windows 
 commanded the doings of that young 
 person. He perceived that the fire chief 
 was still holding dominion over the scene. 
 
 At the end of an hour small footsteps 
 were heard approaching. Anthony looked 
 up from the letter he was attempting to 
 write. " Fawer, may I have a bread and 
 butter? " asked a pleasant voice. Anthony 
 turned about in his chair. 
 
 " Is the hook-and-ladder in the nursery? " 
 he inquired gravely. 
 
 Tony shook his head.
 
 The Robeson Will 257 
 
 "Oh, then you are still the fire chief. 
 Fire chiefs go to the hotel for their bread 
 and butter. I haven't any bread and 
 butter for the fire chief." 
 
 He turned back to his desk. The small 
 figure in the doorway stood still a moment, 
 then the footsteps were heard retreating. 
 Five minutes later, Anthony, looking out, 
 saw Tony careering about the garden on a 
 hobby-horse. 
 
 "Obstinate little duffer," he said affec- 
 tionately to himself. " He's playing go to 
 the hotel, I suppose. Perhaps when that 
 imagination of his gets to work at hypo- 
 thetical bread and butter he'll find the 
 reality preferable to the fancy." 
 
 In a short time Anthony again recon- 
 noitred. The garden was empty. He 
 looked out at the front of the house. No 
 small figure in blue was to be seen. He 
 went out and took a turn about the place. 
 He called the boy; there was no response. 
 From past experience and from the state- 
 ments of Juliet and the young girls of the 
 neighbourhood, whom, at various times, 
 she was in the habit of engaging to assist 
 her in the oversight of the child at his 
 play, he knew that Tony had a trick of
 
 258 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 getting himself out of sight in an incredibly 
 brief space of time. 
 
 " As a fire chief he may consider himself 
 free to do what he pleases," said Anthony 
 to himself, and set about a thorough 
 search of the place, having no doubt that 
 at any moment he should come upon the 
 boy carrying out the details of his imaginary 
 vocation. After a time he went back into 
 the house and scoured it from top to bottom. 
 And when, even here, there was to be dis- 
 covered no trace of the child, he began to 
 feel a slight uneasiness. 
 
 There was no source of immediate danger 
 to a stray child in the neighbourhood, of 
 which he was aware, except the electric 
 line, and little Tony had never manifested 
 the slightest inclination to approach this by 
 himself. There were no open ponds, no 
 traps of any kind for the incautious feet of 
 a three-year-old. Everybody knew Tony, 
 and everybody admired and loved him, so 
 that, as Anthony took up his hat and 
 started upon a more extended search, he 
 had no doubt whatever of finding the run- 
 away without delay. 
 
 In a very short time it became a rousing 
 of the neighbourhood. It was Saturday,
 
 The Robeson Will 259 
 
 and all the children who knew Tony were 
 at hand. They were soon eagerly searching 
 for him near and far, without finding the 
 slightest trace of his passing. Anthony, now 
 thoroughly alarmed, telephoned in every 
 direction, warned every police station in the 
 city, and took every 7 possible step for the 
 discovery of the child. It occurred to him 
 with tremendous force that the boy might 
 have been stolen. Such things did happen. 
 It seemed almost the only way to account 
 for such a sudden and mysterious disap- 
 pearance. 
 
 Before it seemed possible two hours had 
 slipped past. And now, on every car 
 which whirled by the corner, Anthony 
 began to expect Juliet. He dreaded yet 
 longed to see her. He turned cold at the 
 thought of telling her the situation, yet at 
 the same time he felt as if she might have 
 some sort of a solution ready which nobody 
 ^Ise had thought of. And while, still 
 searching over and over the entire ground, 
 he kept watch of the arriving cars, he saw 
 his wife suddenly appear. He went to 
 meet her. 
 
 "What is it? ' she said, the instant her 
 eye met his.
 
 260 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 " I think it's all right, dear," he told her, 
 as quietly as he could, "but somehow we 
 can't find Tony. He disappeared during 
 five minutes when I was in the house too 
 short a time for him to have got very far 
 away, but we can't find him. Do you 
 think he may be hiding? Does he ever 
 hide himself so effectually as that?" 
 
 The bright colour in her face had slipped 
 out of it on the instant, for he could not 
 keep the anxiety out of his voice. But 
 she said no word of reproach, nor did she 
 lose command of herself in any way. 
 
 " How long has he been gone ? " she asked, 
 going straight toward the house, Anthony 
 close behind her. 
 
 " I think I am afraid nearly two hours. 
 I will tell you what happened. It is pos- 
 sible something I said is responsible for all 
 this, though I don't know." 
 
 She was going swiftly about the house, 
 as he told her the story of his attempt to 
 teach the boy a lesson, and she was listening 
 closely to every word as she examined for 
 herself each nook and corner. She dis- 
 closed several possible hiding places of which 
 Anthony had not thought, explaining that 
 Tony knew them all and sometimes betook
 
 The Robeson "Will 261 
 
 himself to them in the course of various 
 games. The two came out upon the porch, 
 and Juliet stood still, thinking. 
 
 " You have done everything to intercept 
 him, if he should really have got far 
 away ? " 
 
 " Everything I can think of, except start 
 out myself. I am ready to do that, if you 
 think best." 
 
 " Not until I have gone over the neigh- 
 bourhood myself. I don't believe he is far 
 away I believe he is near. He may have 
 heard every call you and the children 
 have made, and wouldn't answer. If by 
 any chance his pride has been a little hurt, 
 he is very likely to do this sort of thing. 
 Wait have you looked I wonder if the 
 children know " 
 
 She was off without stopping to explain, 
 through the garden and down the old 
 willow-bordered path by the brook. An- 
 thony followed. "I've been down here a- 
 dozen times," he called. " The brook is too 
 shallow to hurt him, and he's certainly not 
 anywhere on it within a mile. The children 
 have been all over the ground." 
 
 But Juliet did not pause. She ran along 
 the path for some distance, then turned
 
 262 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 abruptly at a point where an abandoned lot 
 filled with stumps joined the area by the 
 brook. She made her swift way among 
 these stumps, Anthony following, his hope 
 rising as he noted the directness of his 
 wife's aim. At the biggest stump she 
 came to a standstill, carefully swung out- 
 ward like a door a great slab of bark, and 
 disclosed a hollow. The sunlight streamed 
 in upon a little heap of blue, and a tangled 
 brown mass of hair. Anthony Robeson, 
 Junior, lay fast asleep in his cunningly 
 devised retreat. 
 
 Without a word his father stood looking 
 down at the boy's flushed cheeks. Then 
 he turned to Juliet, standing beside him, 
 smiling through the tears which had not 
 come until the anxiety was past. His own 
 eyes were wet. 
 
 "That was a bad scare," he said softly. 
 "Thank God it's over." 
 
 Then he stooped and gently lifted the 
 fire chief and carried him home without 
 waking him. Twenty children flocked joy- 
 fully from all about to see, and hushed 
 their shouts of congratulation at Juliet's 
 smiling warning. 
 
 Anthony went alone down the garden
 
 The Robeson Will 263 
 
 to the place where the hook - and - ladder 
 cart had stood. It was still there. He 
 stood and looked at it, his eyes very tender 
 but his lips firm. "The little chap didn't 
 give in," he said to himself. "It's going 
 to be hard to make him, but for the sake 
 of the Robeson will I think we'll have to 
 take up the job where we left it. I'd 
 mightily like to flunk the whole business 
 now, but I should be a pretty weak sort of 
 a beggar if I did." 
 
 When little Tony had wakened from his 
 nap, and had been washed and brushed 
 and fed, and made fresh in a clean frock, 
 his mother brought him to his father. 
 
 " Is this Tony Robeson? " Anthony asked 
 soberly. Tony considered for a moment, 
 then shook his head. 
 
 " I's ve fire chief," he said, with polite 
 stubbornness. 
 
 "Have your men put away the hook- 
 and-ladder cart?" 
 
 "No, fayver." 
 
 " Are they going to do it? " 
 
 "I didn't tell vem to." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "Didn't want to." 
 
 "Listen, son," said Anthony. "I could
 
 264 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 make the fire chief put away the cart. 
 I'm stronger than he is, you know. I 
 could make him walk out to where it lies 
 in the garden, and I could make his hands 
 pick it up and carry it into the house, and 
 then it would be done. Don't you think 
 I could?" 
 
 Tony considered. " Es, I fink 'ou could," 
 he admitted. Evidently the question was 
 one he could reflect upon from the stand- 
 point of the outsider. 
 
 "But I don't want to do that. I want 
 Tony Robeson to put the cart away 
 because his father asks him to do it. Don't 
 you think he ought to do that?" 
 
 "I isn't Tony Robeson, I'se ve fire 
 chief." 
 
 " Were you the fire chief when you woke 
 up, and mother washed you and dressed 
 you and gave you your lunch? I don't 
 think she thought you were. If you had 
 been the fire chief she would have left you 
 to take care of yourself." 
 
 Tony thought about it. "I dess I'se 
 Tony wiv muwer," he said. 
 
 " Then you aren't Tony with me ? " 
 
 The thick locks shook vehemently in the 
 sir with the negative response. " I said I
 
 The Robeson Will 265 
 
 was ve fire chief, and I'se got to be ve 
 fire chief," he reiterated. 
 
 Without question it was a battle of 
 wills. But Anthony's mind was made up. 
 For lack of time to deal with them previous 
 similar issues had been dodged in various 
 ways, compromises had been effected. It 
 was plain that argument and reasoning, 
 the wiles of the affectionately wise adver- 
 sary who does not want to bring the mat- 
 ter to a direct conflict, had been tried. An- 
 thony could see no way out except to 
 dominate the child by the force of his own 
 resolute character. It was not the way 
 by which he wanted to obtain the mastery, 
 but it was becoming plain to him that, in 
 this case, at least, it was the only way left. 
 
 His face grew stern all at once, his eyes, 
 though still kind, met his son's with deter- 
 mination. " Tony," he said very gravely 
 and there was a new quality in his tone to 
 which the child was not accustomed 
 "You are not the fire chief now. You 
 are Tony Robeson. / shall not let you be 
 the -fire chief any longer. Do you under- 
 stand?" 
 
 There was no threat in the words, only 
 a decisiveness of the sort before which
 
 266 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 men give way, because they see that 
 there is no alternative. Tony stared into 
 his father's eyes curiously. His own grew 
 big with wonder, with something which 
 was not alarm, but akin to it. He gazed 
 and gazed, as if fascinated. Anthony's 
 look held his; the man's powerful eyes 
 did not flinch neither did the boy's. It 
 is possible that both pulses quickened a 
 beat. 
 
 Little Tony drew his eyes away at last, 
 turned and started for the door. Silently 
 Anthony watched him as he reached for the 
 knob, turned again, and looked back at his 
 father. On the very threshold the child 
 stood still and stared back. His brown 
 eyes filled, his red lips quivered. The stern 
 face which watched his melted into a win- 
 ning smile, and Anthony held out his arms. 
 An instant longer, and his son had run 
 across the floor and flung himself into 
 them. 
 
 When the childish storm of tears had 
 quieted, and several big hugs had been 
 exchanged, Anthony set the boy down upon 
 the floor and took his hand. Silently the 
 two walked out of the house and down the 
 garden. The hook-and-ladder cart stood
 
 The Robeson Will 267 
 
 patiently waiting, just where it had waited 
 all day. Little Tony ran to it and picked 
 it up. Over his exquisite face broke the 
 first smile that had been seen there since 
 the earliest disregarded command of the 
 morning. 
 
 "Ve fire chief's gone," he said. "He 
 was a bad fire chief." 
 
 So together the man and the boy escorted 
 the hook-and-ladder cart to the nursery, 
 and backed it carefully into its stall, be- 
 tween the milk wagon and the automobile. 
 Then the child went to his play. But the 
 man drew a long breath. 
 
 " I would rather manage a hundred 
 striking workmen," he said to himself with 
 emphasis.
 
 XXVL ON GUARD 
 
 WHILE little Tony had been growing, 
 waxing strong and sturdy : while Juliet had 
 been tending and training him, learning, 
 as every mother does, more than she could 
 impart: Anthony, in his place, had not 
 stood still. The strength and determi- 
 nation he had from the first hour put into 
 his daily work had begun to tell. His 
 position in a great mercantile establish- 
 ment had steadily advanced as he had 
 made himself more and more indispensable 
 to its heads. 
 
 Cathcart, the successful architect, began 
 to talk about a new home for the man into 
 whose hands Henderson and Henderson 
 were putting large interests to manage 
 for them, and whose salary, he asserted, 
 must now justify, indeed call for, life under 
 more ideal surroundings than the little home 
 in the unfashionable suburb which poverty 
 had at first made necessary. 
 
 "Let me draw some plans for you," 
 urged Cathcart, one evening in June, when 
 268
 
 On Guard 269 
 
 he had run out to see his friend. Juliet 
 was by chance away, and Cathcart took 
 advantage of this to call Anthony's at- 
 tention, in a politely frank fashion, to 
 the shortcomings of his present residence. 
 "It's all right in its way," he said, stand- 
 ing upon a corner of the lawn with An- 
 thony, and surveying the house critically. 
 "Mrs. Robeson certainly deserves full 
 credit for the admirable way in which 
 she restored the old house and added 
 just the changes in keeping with its possi- 
 bilities. I've always said it couldn't have 
 been better done, with the means you've 
 told me you were able to put at her dis- 
 posal. But the place is too small for you 
 now." 
 
 "I don't think we feel it so," said An- 
 thony tentatively, strolling beside Cathcart 
 along the edge of the lawn, his hands in his 
 pockets, lifting friendly eyes at the little 
 house. " Since we put in the bathroom 
 that small room off the upper hall, you 
 know and added the nursery and den, 
 we're very comfortable. The furnace keeps 
 us warm as toast, and we're soon to have 
 the water system out here, so we won't 
 have to depend upon our present expedients.
 
 270 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 I'm fond of the place, and I'm confident 
 Mrs. Robeson is devoted to it." 
 
 "I can understand that," agreed Cath- 
 cart. "Of course, the spot where you 
 began life together will always have its 
 charm for you both in fact the sentiment 
 of the matter may blind you to the real 
 inadequacies of the place for a man in your 
 position." 
 
 " My position isn't so stable that I want 
 to build a marble palace on it yet," said 
 Anthony, a humorous twinkle in his eye. 
 He enjoyed watching another man man- 
 oeuvre for his favourable hearing of a 
 scheme. It was an art in which he was 
 himself accomplished; it was one of the 
 points of his value to Henderson and 
 Henderson. 
 
 " Everybody knows that you're in a fair 
 way to become head man with the Hender- 
 sons," said Cathcart, "and everybody also 
 knows that you might as well have struck 
 a gold-mine. It's superb, the way you 
 have come into the confidence of those 
 old conservatives." 
 
 "That's all well enough; but I don't see 
 that it entails upon me the duty of laying 
 out all I've saved on a new house. I
 
 On Guard 271 
 
 know what you fellows are when you begin 
 to draw plans your love of the ideal runs 
 away with the other man's pocketbook." 
 
 "Not at all," declared Cathcart. "Par- 
 ticularly when he's a friend and you under- 
 stand just what he can afford to do." 
 
 " Why don't you talk about enlarging the 
 old house? That's much more likely to 
 appeal to my desires." 
 
 The two had reached the back of the 
 house and were close by the kitchen win- 
 dows. Cathcart reached up and took hold 
 of a sill. With a strong hand he wrenched 
 and pounded about the window, until he 
 succeeded in showing that it was old and 
 uncertain. 
 
 "That's why," he said, dusting his hand 
 with his handkerchief. " The house is old 
 fairly rotten in places. The minute you 
 began to enlarge it in any ambitious way 
 you'd find it would be cheaper to tear 
 it down and begin again. But the site, 
 Robeson the site isn't desirable: The 
 place is respectable enough, but it has no 
 future. The good building is all going 
 south, not north, of the city. You don't 
 want to spend a lot of money here you 
 couldn't sell out except at a loss."
 
 272 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "Your arguments are good, very good," 
 admitted Anthony; "so good that I'd like 
 to put you on your mettle to draw me a set 
 of plans for just the sort of thing you think 
 I ought to have or Mrs. Robeson ought 
 to have, for she's the one to be considered. 
 Anything will do for me. I'll let you do 
 this on one condition." 
 
 "Name it." 
 
 "That you also do your level best to 
 demonstrate to me what a clever man and 
 an artist of your proportions could make 
 out of this house, provided he really wanted 
 to show the extent of his ability. Now, 
 that's fair. If you really care to convince 
 me you won't fool with this proposition, 
 you'll make a study of the one problem as 
 thoroughly as you do of the other, and let 
 me decide the case on its merits. If I 
 thought you weren't giving the old house 
 a fair chance I should take up ite cause out 
 of pure affection." 
 
 He smiled at Cathcart's discontented face 
 with so brilliant a good humour that the 
 architect cleared up. 
 
 "By Jove, Robeson," he said, "I think 
 I see what endears you to the Hendersons. 
 I wouldn't have said you could have in-
 
 On Guard 273 
 
 duced me to try my hand at the old house, 
 but I'll be hanged if I don't follow your 
 instructions to the letter and win out, 
 too." 
 
 "Good," said Anthony. "And don't 
 mention it to my wife. We'll keep it for 
 a surprise; and I promise you when the 
 time comes I won't prejudice her in any 
 way." 
 
 Cathcart drew out a notebook and pencil 
 and entered some memoranda on the spot, 
 while Anthony, coming up on the piazza of 
 the dining-room, laid upon the old Dutch 
 house-door a hand which seemed to caress 
 it. He was wondering if by any possible 
 magic Cathcart could create, in the rarest 
 abode in the world, a new door which he 
 should ever care to enter as he now cared 
 to enter this. 
 
 "I think," said Juliet decidedly, "you're 
 wrong about it." 
 
 "And I know," returned Anthony with 
 emphasis, " that you are." 
 
 The two faced each other. They were 
 walking through a short stretch of wood- 
 land, which lay as yet untouched by the 
 hand of suburban property owners. It
 
 274 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 was a favourite ground for the diversions 
 of the Robesons, when they had not 
 time to spend in getting farther away. 
 They had been strolling through it now, 
 in the early June evening, discussing a 
 matter relative to the investment of a 
 certain moderate sum of money which 
 had come into Anthony's hands. It de- 
 veloped that their ideas about it differed 
 radically. 
 
 " It's not safe to do as you propose," said 
 Juliet. 
 
 "To do what you propose would be only 
 one better than tying it up in an old stock- 
 ing or putting it away in the coffee pot. 
 It's essentially a woman's plan no man 
 would do it the honour of considering it a 
 moment." 
 
 Juliet flushed brilliantly. Even in An- 
 thony's cheek the colour rose a little. Their 
 eyes met with a challenge. 
 
 "Very well," said Juliet proudly. "I'll 
 offer no more woman's plans. Invest the 
 money as you like. Then, when you've 
 lost it- 
 Anthony's eyes flashed. "When I've 
 
 lost it " he began, and turned away 
 
 with a gesture of impatience. Then he
 
 On Guard 275 
 
 stopped short. "That isn't like you," he 
 said. 
 
 Juliet stared at him an instant. Then 
 she shut her lips together and walked on in 
 silence. Anthony shut his lips together 
 also. It was not their habit to indulge in 
 sharp altercation. While both had decided 
 ideas about things, both were also much 
 too well bred to be willing to allow differ- 
 ences of opinion which must arise as 
 inevitably as two human beings live under 
 the same roof to degenerate into the 
 deplorable thing commonly referred to as 
 a quarrel. 
 
 When they had proceeded a few rods 
 Juliet turned abruptly off from the path 
 and picked up from the ground a slender 
 straight stick, evidently cut and trimmed 
 by some boy and then thrown aside. She 
 looked about her and after some search 
 found another, of similar size, untrimmed. 
 She held out the latter to Anthony. He 
 accepted it with a look of surprise. Then 
 she walked into the path in front of him, 
 stood stiff and straight, her small heels 
 together, and made him the fencer's salute. 
 " On guard ! " she cried. 
 
 His lips relaxing, Anthony grasped his
 
 276 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 stick and fell into position. A moment 
 more and two accomplished fencers were 
 engaged in close combat. 
 
 Juliet happened to be wearing a trim 
 linen skirt of short walking length, which 
 impeded her movements as slightly as any- 
 thing not strictly adapted to the exercise 
 could do. Although her fencing lessons 
 were some years past, the paraphernalia 
 belonging both to herself and Anthony 
 were in the house, and an occasional bout 
 with the masks and foils was a means of ex- 
 ercise and diversion which both thoroughly 
 enjoyed. Although Juliet was no match 
 for the superior skill and endurance of her 
 husband, she was nevertheless no mean 
 antagonist, and her alertness of eye and 
 hand usually gave him sufficient to do to 
 make the encounter a stimulating one. 
 
 On the present occasion Anthony, chal- 
 lenged to combat with his coat and cuffs on, 
 and wielding the more awkward weapon 
 of the two impromptu foils, found himself 
 distinctly at a disadvantage. Moreover, 
 he was at the moment not precisely in the 
 mood for fun, and he began to defend him- 
 self with a somewhat lazy indifference. 
 After a minute or two, however, he dis-
 
 On Guard 
 
 277 
 
 covered that his adversary's slightly ruffled 
 temper was inspiring her hand and wrist 
 to distinctly effective work, and he found 
 himself forced to look to his methods. 
 
 Attack and parade, disengagement and 
 thrust the battle was waged over the un- 
 even ground of the wood. And presently 
 Anthony discovered that the richly glowing 
 face opposite his was a smiling one. The 
 absurdity of the match struck him irre- 
 sistibly and he smiled in return. He 
 tripped a little over an obtruding oak-root, 
 and Juliet took advantage of her opportun- 
 ity to press him hard. He fended off the 
 attack and himself assumed the aggressive. 
 An instant more and he had disarmed 
 her and had thrown his own stick flying 
 after hers. Both were laughing heartily 
 enough. 
 
 " Forgive the trick," cried Anthony. " A 
 man must disarm his wife when she be- 
 comes his enemy." 
 
 Breathless, Juliet sank upon a small 
 knoll, her hand at her side. "If I'd been 
 dressed for it ' she panted. 
 
 ;< You need coaching on your time thrusts, 
 but you gave me plenty to do as it was," 
 Anthony admitted. "More than that,
 
 278 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 you've presented me with a chance to re- 
 cover my equilibrium. I was hot inside 
 before. Now it's all on the outside." 
 
 He looked down at her affectionately. 
 She smiled back. " I was crosser than 
 sticks," she said. "I really can't imagine 
 why, now. I apologise." 
 
 "So do I." He threw himself down on 
 the ground at her feet, lay flat on his back, 
 his clasped hands behind his head, and 
 gazed up into the tree-tops. 
 
 "I'll take your advice into careful con- 
 sideration," said he. 
 
 "I know you won't do anything rash," 
 said she, and they both laughed again. 
 
 "How much more diplomatic that sort 
 of talk is," he observed. "Why do we 
 ever allow ourselves to use any other?" 
 
 "Because we are human, I suppose." 
 Juliet was putting a mass of waving brown 
 hair, disordered by the fight, into shape 
 again. "It isn't nice. We don't do it 
 often. To-night you came home tired, and 
 found a wife who had been entertaining 
 people from town all the afternoon. But 
 it's all right now, isn't it?" 
 
 She bent forward, and Anthony took 
 her outstretched hand in his own and gave
 
 On Guard 279 
 
 it a grip which made it sting. He began 
 to whistle cheerfully. 
 
 " Should we be happier if we never dis- 
 agreed?" she asked thoughtfully. 
 
 The whistle stopped. "Jupiter, no! I 
 want a thinking being to talk things over 
 with, not a mental pincushion." 
 
 "Thank you. Isn't it lovely here?" 
 
 "Delightful. Julie, do you know we'll 
 have been married five years next Sep- 
 tember?" 
 
 "It doesn't seem possible." 
 
 "I shouldn't know it, to look at you," 
 he observed. He rolled upon his left side 
 and regarded her from under intent brows. 
 "You haven't grown a day older." 
 
 " I'm not sure that's a compliment." 
 
 " It's meant for one. Do you know you're 
 a beauty?" 
 
 "I never was one and never shall be," 
 she answered laughing, but she could not 
 object to the obvious sincerity of his 
 opinion as he delivered it. 
 
 "You're near enough to satisfy me. 
 I'd rather have your good looks than all 
 the Well, I sat in front of a newly married 
 pair on the way home to-night that 
 fellow Scrivener and his bride. She's what
 
 280 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 people call a raving beauty, I suppose. I 
 wouldn't have her in the house at a dollar 
 an hour. She's a whiner. Had him doing 
 something to satisfy her whim every 
 minute. I heard him trying to tell her 
 about something that interested him, but 
 she couldn't take time from herself to 
 listen. His voice had a note of fatigue in 
 it, already, or I'm not Robeson. I tell you, 
 Juliet that's the sort of thing that makes 
 a bachelor vow to stay single, and he can't 
 be blamed." 
 
 "Suppose a bachelor had overheard us 
 half an hour ago? " 
 
 "I'm glad none did but if he had it 
 wouldn't have disgusted him the way the 
 other sort of thing did me to-day. A 
 brisk little altercation is nothing, with un- 
 limited hours of friendliness and under- 
 standing before and after. But a perpetual 
 drizzle of fault finding and exactions- 
 would make a fellow go hang himself. Mrs. 
 Robeson, do you know, you're a very 
 exceptional young person?" 
 
 " In what way, sir ? " 
 
 " Whatever you do, you never nag. I've 
 an awful suspicion that Judith Carey 
 nags. You know how to let a man alone
 
 On Guard 281 
 
 when he's in the mood for being alone. She 
 never does. Carey had me out there not 
 long ago, for what he called a quiet, confi- 
 dential talk on some business matters. 
 We went into what is supposed to be his 
 private room and shut the door. Probably 
 she came to that door not less than twelve 
 times during that two hours. She called 
 Carey away on every sort of pretext. 
 Once she got him to do a stroke of work for 
 her that took up at least ten minutes 
 neither of us could spare. And she looked 
 like a thundercloud every time I caught a 
 glimpse of her face. Cassar! think of 
 having to live with that sort of person. No 
 wonder Carey looks old before his time." 
 
 " It's certainly unfortunate. But I'm 
 not an exception, Tony. There are plenty 
 of women who know when to keep out of 
 the way." 
 
 " Well, then, they're erratic on some other 
 line, that's all. You're absolutely the only 
 thoroughly sweet and sane woman I know." 
 
 ' My dear boy! Remember how snappish 
 I was just this evening." 
 
 " I was grouchy enough to match it. I 
 tell you, Julie the women who don't talk 
 you to death on every subject, important
 
 282 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 or trivial, bore you with idiotic questions or 
 impertinence about your affairs. How do 
 I know so much about 'em? My dear, 
 dozens of them come into the office every 
 day, and Mr. Henderson has acquired a 
 habit lately of turning them all over to me. 
 I earn a double salary every hour I spend 
 that way wish I could put in a demand 
 for it. Speaking of salaries, dear" An- 
 thony suddenly sat up "I've no right to 
 be grouchy, for I'm promised another 
 advance next month." 
 
 " Splendid! " She put out her hand, and 
 the two shook hands vigorously again, like 
 the pair of comrades they were. 
 
 "Juliet," said her husband, watching her 
 face closely. " It's been a happy five years, 
 hasn't it?" 
 
 "A happy five years, Tony." 
 
 "Do you mean it?" He smiled at her 
 "You've never been sorry?" Then he got 
 to his feet and held out his hand again to 
 help her up. "The mortal combat we 
 engaged in gave you a magnificent colour,'' 
 he commented, and passed affectionate fin- 
 gers across the smooth cheek near his 
 
 shoulder. "Sweetheart " he drew her 
 
 into hs arms " I may fence with you once
 
 On Guard 283 
 
 m a while with sharp words for weapons, 
 but do you know how I love you? " 
 
 " I wonder why?" 
 
 "It's strange, isn't it? after all these 
 years. To be really up-to-date, we should 
 long since have become interested each in 
 some other " 
 
 A hand came gently but effectually upon 
 his mouth. He kissed the hand. "No, I 
 won't say it. It's a cynical philosophy, 
 and I'll not take its language on my lips 
 not with my wife in my arms, giving the 
 lie to that sort of thing. Julie, we're 
 not sentimentalists because we still care ' 
 
 'Who thinks we are?" 
 
 " Plenty of envious skeptics, I'll wager. 
 I see it in their green-eyed glances. They 
 can't believe it's genuine. Dear is it 
 genuine? Look up, and tell me." 
 
 She looked up, and seeing his heart in his 
 eyes, met his deep caress with a tenderness 
 which told him more than she could have 
 put into the words she suddenly found it 
 impossible to speak.
 
 XXVII. LOCKWOOD PAYS A CALL 
 
 " DID you know Roger Barnes was back ? " 
 asked Wayne Carey of Anthony Robeson, 
 on the evening of the twenty-fifth of June, 
 as the two met on the street corner from 
 which Anthony was to take his car. Elec- 
 trics ran within a few rods of his home now, 
 but they ran only at fifteen-minute inter- 
 vals and were difficult to catch. 
 
 " No. To stay this time, I hope? " 
 " Off again to-morrow. Never saw such 
 a fellow restless as a fish. Been working 
 all winter in Vienna off to-morrow on the 
 Overland Limited to sail Saturday for 
 Hongkong. Goes to do a special operation 
 on the Emperor's brother or some swell of 
 the sort. He's been doing some mighty 
 slick operating, according to the medical 
 review I ran across in a throat specialist's 
 office." 
 
 " I must see him. Where is he ? " 
 "At your house now, more than likely. 
 Said he'd got to see you, and if you haven't 
 seen him yet you're sure to before he goes 
 284
 
 Lock-wood Pays a Call 285 
 
 to-morrow night. By the way. Anthony, 
 do you know what we heard lately about 
 Rachel Redding Huntington? That she 
 wasn't married to Huntington till the night 
 he died, almost three years ago." 
 
 Anthony stared. 
 
 " Guess it's straight, too," pursued Carey. 
 " Queer she should have kept it all this time. 
 Didn't Juliet hear from her at all? " 
 
 "Only once or twice, I believe." 
 
 "Her father and mother both died last 
 winter." 
 
 "Are you sure?" 
 
 j 
 
 " The man who told me was a traveller. 
 Said she and Huntington's mother were 
 coming back to live East again. He was 
 an Eastern man himself knew Hunting- 
 ton, and got interested when he heard the 
 name out in Arizona. 'Alexander Hunt- 
 ington's' rather an uncommon name, you 
 know. But what could have been her 
 motive for keeping everything so still? " 
 
 "I've no idea," said Anthony, and let 
 Carey talk on by himself till the car came. 
 He was unwilling to discuss Rachel Red- 
 ding's affairs on a street corner even with 
 Wayne Carey, because she was Juliet's 
 friend. But he had an idea as to why
 
 286 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 Rachel had been so reserved about herself. 
 There were three men in the East whose 
 interest in Huntington's life or death had 
 not been an altogether unbiased one. He 
 could understand that the girl would not 
 be eager to declare herself free to them, 
 though the fact of Huntington's death had 
 reached them soon after its occurrence. But 
 this other fact that she had married him 
 only at the last moment it was obvious 
 that the sort of girl Rachel Redding was 
 would never make capital out of that 
 strange occurrence, whatever its explana- 
 tion might be. That Roger Barnes knew 
 nothing of it he was quite certain. 
 
 He missed Juliet from the corner where 
 she and the boy usually met him, and 
 hurrying on to the house came upon his 
 wife just as she was leaving. 
 
 "Oh, I didn't realise I was late, dear," 
 she said, while Anthony swung his little 
 son up to his shoulder, eliciting triumphant 
 shouts as a reward. "Tony, Rachel is 
 here." 
 
 "Rachel?" 
 
 " Hush yes; she's upstairs, and her win- 
 dow is open. Walk down the orchard with 
 me and I'll tell you. Her coining, an
 
 Lockwood Pays a Call 287 
 
 hour ago, was what made me forget the 
 time." 
 
 " Carey was talking about her this after- 
 noon," said Anthony, strolling by her side 
 and carrying on a frolic with the boy at the 
 same time. "He'd just heard a singular 
 thing that she wasn't married to Hunt- 
 ington till the very night he died." 
 
 " She told me. She's going away to- 
 night, she insists; but I shall not let her. 
 No, Mr. Huntington wouldn't let her marry 
 him. After they went away he said he 
 wouldn't take her unless he got well. Tony, 
 he was a fine character; in our sympathy 
 for Roger Barnes we haven't appreciated 
 him. It was only at the last that he let 
 her do it. She found out how happy it 
 would make him then, and she would have 
 it so." 
 
 "I'm glad she did poor fellow. Juliet, 
 Roger Barnes is in town." 
 
 "Really?" Juliet stopped, her breath 
 catching. "Oh, Tony- -" 
 
 " Came day before yesterday leaves to- 
 morrow night for Hongkong." 
 
 "Tony!" 
 
 Anthony looked down at her, smiling. 
 "There's a situation for you. Can you be
 
 288 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 expected to keep your friendly hands off 
 that possibility? " 
 
 "He won't go away without coming to 
 see us?" 
 
 "Most certainly not." 
 
 "Then he will naturally come to-night." 
 
 "It's more than probable." 
 
 "Tony, I won't be trying to manage 
 fate that's what the doctor calls it if 
 I keep Rachel here until after 
 
 " Until after the Overland Limited leaves 
 for San Francisco? Well, fate needs a 
 little assistance once in a while. I think 
 you may legitimately persuade Rachel to 
 stay, if you can. What is her hurry, any- 
 way?" 
 
 " I can't find out, except that I imagine 
 she's afraid of meeting one of the men she 
 most assuredly would meet if they knew 
 she had come. She thinks Roger Barnes 
 is in Vienna still." 
 
 " She does? Ye gods! I think my knees 
 will begin to tremble if I see their meeting 
 imminent. Come, son, let's try a race to 
 the house. I'll give you to the big, crooked 
 apple tree. One two three go!" 
 
 Juliet followed more slowly, thinking 
 busily. Rachel had been very decided about
 
 Lockwood Pays a Call 289 
 
 going back into the city that night. Mrs. 
 Huntington, Senior, was with friends, who 
 had begged her daughter's acceptance of 
 their hospitality, and for the elder woman's 
 sake she had acquiesced. Rachel was a 
 keeper of promises, Juliet knew. And to 
 tell her of the probability of the doctor's 
 appearance would be a doubtful means 
 of securing her detention. But if, for any 
 reason, the doctor should fail to appear 
 Juliet made up her mind that she would 
 give fate her chance until nine o'clock that 
 night. If by that time Barnes had not 
 come 
 
 Juliet looked on eagerly while Anthony 
 greeted Rachel. Her friend had never 
 seemed to her so lovely as now, in her sim- 
 ple black gown, accentuating, as it did, the 
 deep tone of her hair and eyes. Her face 
 had gained in colour and contour in the 
 Arizona climate its tints were richer. The 
 delicacy of her features was not changed, 
 but their beauty was greater. 
 
 ;< You've lived much outdoors, I see," 
 said Anthony, when dinner was over and 
 the three had gone out upon the porch, 
 "and it's been good for you."
 
 290 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "I've even slept outdoors," Rachel told 
 them, "fully half the year; and ridden 
 horseback every day. I can't quite think 
 how the electrics are going to seem in place 
 of my gallop on Scot. The people on the 
 ranch where we were have simply made 
 me do the things they did. The owner was 
 a dear old gentleman; he gave me Scot. 
 He wanted to send him after me ; but nurses 
 have small use for horses, I believe," she 
 ended, smiling. 
 
 "That's the plan, is it?" 
 "Yes. It's what I can do best, I think. 
 I am to enter the training-school the first 
 of July, at the Larchmont Memorial 
 Hospital." 
 
 " I'll wager tremendous odds you don't," 
 thought Anthony, "in spite of that confi- 
 dent tone. If Roger Barnes looks in to- 
 night it's all up with your plans or make 
 a bigger fight than even you can do. A 
 man who can't stay in his own town because 
 you are out of it- 
 He was sitting purposely where he 
 faced the road. He had considerately 
 offered Rachel a chair with her back to the 
 highway. Juliet was swinging lightly in 
 the hammock behind the vines. Anthony,
 
 Lockwood Pays a Call 291 
 
 talking on about Arizona and the Larch- 
 mont Memorial, kept an eye on the ap- 
 proach to the house from the corner where 
 visitors always left the car. His watch was 
 rewarded at length by the sight of a figure 
 rapidly turning the comer and making 
 straight for the house. 
 
 "Now we're in for it," he thought. 
 "From now on the question with Juliet 
 and me will be how we can most gracefully 
 efface ourselves without seeming to do it. 
 If I remember this young person correctly 
 she's a little difficult to leave unchaperoned 
 against her will." 
 
 Out of the corner of his eye he kept track 
 of the approaching figure. It was coming 
 on at a great pace, and in the twilight could 
 be seen looming taller and taller as it crossed 
 the road and turned in across the lawn, mak- 
 ing a short cut according to Barnes's own 
 fashion, so that the coming footsteps were 
 noiseless, even to the moment when the 
 figure reached the porch itself. 
 
 "Now for it," thought Anthony, feeling 
 as if the curtain were about to ascend on 
 the fourth act of a play, when the third had 
 ended amidst all possible excitement. 
 
 " I found the roses blooming just as they
 
 292' The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 used to do, at the side of the house" 
 Rachel's warm, contralto voice was answer- 
 ing a question from Juliet "only so un- 
 tended. I think I shall have to come out 
 again before I begin my work, to look after 
 them." 
 
 Anthony did not turn as the step 
 he had been watching for sounded upon 
 the porch. To save his life he could not 
 help keeping his eyes upon Rachel's face. 
 Rachel herself looked up with the air of 
 the visitor who does not know the guests 
 of the house, and the expression Anthony 
 saw upon her face showed only the 
 slightest possible surprise certainly no 
 other feeling. 
 
 Juliet rose. "Ah, Mr. Lockwood," she 
 said, with a cordiality, sincere little person 
 though she was, Anthony knew for once 
 she did not feel. " In the dusk I couldn't 
 be quite sure." 
 
 Lockwood's eyes instantly turned to 
 Rachel. That he had known in some way 
 whom he was to see was evident from a 
 most unusual agitation in his manner, 
 
 "Mrs. Huntington," he got out some- 
 how, taking her hand, and staring eagerly 
 down into her face, " I heard you were
 
 Lockwood Pays a Call 293 
 
 home, and I hoped to find you here. I 
 you are I am extremely glad " 
 
 Half an hour later Anthony came upon 
 his wife in the darkness of the dining- 
 room. " Oh, you shouldn't have left them 
 when I was away," she said. "Little 
 Tony cried out and I had to go. I know 
 Rachel doesn't want to be left with him 
 to-night." 
 
 "Angels and chaperons defend us," mut- 
 tered Anthony. " I can't stand it forever 
 to feel a man wanting to kill me for staying 
 by him through a meeting like this, after 
 three years. I didn't know but Lockwood 
 would attempt to throw me off my own 
 porch. Give him a chance he hasn't any, 
 anyhow." 
 
 "It's after nine," whispered Juliet." 
 
 " I know it. Roger's taking a terrible 
 risk." 
 
 " He doesn't know she's here. But I 
 thought he cared enough for us to " 
 
 " That's what I've been so sure of. He's 
 probably been detained by some case. He's 
 getting so distinguished, the minute he sets 
 foot in town now the folks with things the 
 matter with them begin to block his path.
 
 294 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 I hope she knows what she throws over her 
 shoulder if she refuses him now." 
 
 "I don't see that she's going to have a 
 chance to refuse him," mourned Juliet. 
 " Do you think he'd ever forgive us if we let 
 him get away without knowing she was 
 here?" 
 
 "Lockwood found it out, somehow. 
 Carey's safe to tell him if he sees him and 
 he's pretty sure to, at Roger's club." 
 
 "You couldn't telephone?" 
 
 "Where? If he can he'll come here, if 
 only to get news of her. She's never let 
 him write to her, has she ? " 
 
 " He told me she hadn't when he was 
 here last fall. And she didn't know where 
 he was." 
 
 ' ' Fellow-conspirator, ' ' whispered An- 
 thony, "we'll give fate her chance to- 
 night. If she bungles the game we'll take 
 it into our own hands to-morrow. But 
 I've a feeling I'd like to let it happen by 
 itself, if it will." 
 
 When Lockwood had gone which was 
 not until eleven o'clock, in spite of the way 
 his hosts remained in his vicinity Rachel 
 stood still upon the porch smiling a little 
 wearily at Juliet.
 
 Lockwood Pays a Call 295 
 
 "My staying all night has been settled 
 for me," she said. " There was no way to go." 
 
 " Luckily for us," Juliet answered. " Sit 
 here a little longer, dear. It's such a 
 perfect night, and I know we shall see little 
 enough of you when you get at work." 
 
 Rachel dropped into the hammock. "I 
 should like to lie here all night," she said, 
 "and watch the stars until I go to sleep. 
 I've done that so many, many nights from 
 under a tent flap." 
 
 All at once she looked up, her eyes 
 widening. Upon the porch step stood a 
 strong figure as unlike Lockwood's grace- 
 fully slender one as possible. A man's 
 eyes were gazing steadily down into hers 
 determined gray eyes, with a light in them. 
 The two faces were plainly visible to each 
 other in the radiance from the open door
 
 XXVIII. A HIGH-HANDED AFFAIR 
 
 IF she had not been standing in the door- 
 way Juliet would have run away, but she 
 had to welcome Dr. Roger Barnes, a traveler 
 whom she had not seen for almost a year. 
 Her presence, however, after one glad greet- 
 ing, seemed not to bother him much. He 
 turned from her to Rachel, who had 
 risen, and took her outstretched hand in 
 both his. 
 
 "It's been rather a long evening," he 
 said, "wandering around and around this 
 place, waiting for the other man to go. I 
 explored the orchard and the willow path, 
 and every familiar haunt. I had to refresh 
 myself occasionally by stealing up for a 
 glimpse of your face between the vines. 
 But, somehow, that only made it harder to 
 wait. I had to march myself off again, 
 with my fists gripped tight in my pockets 
 to keep them off that fellow, eating you up 
 with his eyes confound him you, who 
 belong only to me." 
 
 He did not smile as he said the last words, 
 296
 
 A High-Handed Affair 297 
 
 but stood looking eagerly at her with a gaze 
 that never faltered. She tried to draw her 
 hands away; it was useless. Juliet slipped 
 off, knowing that neither of them would 
 see her go. 
 
 "Come down on the lawn with me," 
 he said, but she resisted. 
 
 "Please stay here, Doctor Barnes," she 
 said, " and please let me have my hand. I 
 can't talk so." 
 
 " You needn't talk for a while," he an- 
 swered. He sat down facing her. "At 
 six o'clock I found out you were here. 
 At eight as soon as I could get away 
 I came out. I told you how I spent 
 the evening. If I had needed anything to 
 sharpen my longing for you that would 
 have done it but I think I had reached 
 about the limit of what I could bear in that 
 line already. It has been one constant 
 augmenting thirst for a draught that was 
 out of my reach. I shouldn't have kept 
 my promise not to write you another day 
 after I had been here this time and heard 
 what I have heard, Rachel." 
 
 She did not answer. Her face was turned 
 away; she was very still. Only a slightly 
 quickened breathing, of which he was barely
 
 298 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 conscious, betrayed to him that this was not 
 listening of an ordinary sort. 
 
 " I shouldn't have said anything could 
 make any difference with my feeling, to 
 strengthen it," he went on very quietly, 
 after a while, "but I find it has. I don't 
 try to explain it to myself, except by the 
 one thing I am sure of that Alexander 
 Huntington was the noblest and most 
 heroic of men, and deserved to the full 
 those last few hours of knowledge that you 
 had taken his name. And I can under- 
 stand your loyalty to him in wishing to 
 wear it these three years. But, Rachel, I 
 can't let you wear it any longer." 
 
 She turned her face a shade farther away. 
 
 "I am leaving to-morrow night for 
 another year's absence." He spoke as 
 simply as if he were discussing the most 
 ordinary of subjects. " So I can see but one 
 thing to do, and that is 
 
 He got up and came around behind her, 
 standing in the shadow of the vines, where 
 the light did not touch him " and that is, 
 to take you with me." 
 
 He had not said it doubtfully, although 
 his inflection was very gentle. She moved 
 quickly, startled
 
 A High-Handed Affair 299 
 
 'Doctor Barnes- 
 
 " Yes, I'm ready for them. You can't 
 raise an objection that I'm not ready for, 
 not one that I can't meet except one. 
 And that you can't raise, Rachel." 
 
 She was silent, the words upon her lips 
 held in check by this last bold declaration. 
 
 "You see you can't, being truthful," 
 he said, smiling a little. " If I seem too 
 confident, forgive me; but I've carried 
 with me all these years that one look, when 
 you forgot to veil your eyes away from 
 me as you always had and always have 
 since then. When I get that look from 
 
 you again -" He paused, drawing a 
 
 long breath. " I don't dare dream of it. 
 Rachel, will you go? " 
 
 She tried to glance at him, and managed 
 it, but no higher than his shoulders. 
 
 "I am engaged to take the training for 
 
 nurses at the Larchmont Memorial " 
 
 she began. 
 
 But he interrupted her joyfully. "You 
 don't say, 'I don't love you' it's 
 only, 'I was intending to be a nurse.' I 
 told you you couldn't say it, because it 
 isn't true. You do love me, Rachel. Tell 
 me so."
 
 300 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 Her hurried breathing was plainly per- 
 ceptible now. She rose quickly, as if she 
 could not bear the telltale lamplight upon 
 her face any longer, and went hurriedly 
 across the porch and down upon the lawn, 
 into the starlight. He followed her, his 
 pulses bounding. 
 
 "Oh, give up to me," he said in her ear, 
 his own breath coming fast. "You've 
 been fighting it four years now it's no use. 
 We were made for each other, and we've 
 known it from the first. You stood hero- 
 ically by your first promise you gave him 
 all you could; but that's all over. You 
 don't have to be true to anything or any- 
 body now but me. Give up, dear, and let 
 me know what it feels like to have you pull 
 a man toward you instead of pushing him 
 away." 
 
 They had reached the edge of the orchard 
 in deep shadow; and she stopped. 
 
 "I don't know what I came down here 
 for," she said, in confusion. 
 
 "I do; you were running away. It's 
 your instinct to run away I love you for 
 it it's what first made me want to follow. 
 But I can't stand your running away much 
 longer. Look, Rachel, can you see? I'm
 
 A High-Handed Affair 301 
 
 holding out my arms. Rachel I can't 
 
 wait- " 
 
 For an instant longer she held out, while 
 he stood silent, holding himself that he 
 might have the long-dreamed-of joy of re- 
 ceiving her surrender. Then, all at once, 
 he realised that it had been worth all his 
 days of patient and impatient waiting, for 
 turning to him at last she gave herself, 
 with the abandon such natures are capable 
 of showing when they yield after long 
 resistance, into the arms which closed 
 hungrily around her. 
 
 If anybody could have told what hap- 
 pened during the next twenty-four hours it 
 would have been Juliet, for it was she who 
 took the helm of affairs. She lay awake 
 half the night, or what there was left of it 
 after the doctor had come back with Rachel 
 and told his friends what had happened and 
 what was yet to happen, planning to make 
 the hasty wedding as ideal as might be. 
 She was a wonderful planner, and a most 
 energetic and enthusiastic young matron 
 as well, so by five in the afternoon she had 
 accomplished all that had seemed to her 
 good. Rachel's part was only to see that
 
 302 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 her trunk was packed, her explanations 
 offered and good-byes said, and her choice 
 made of several exquisite white gowns which 
 Juliet had had sent out from town. 
 
 "But I can't be married in white, Mrs. 
 Robeson," she had said protestingly when 
 Juliet had opened the boxes. 
 
 " Yes, you can and must. This is your 
 only bridal, dear. The other you know 
 that was only what the doctor said of it 
 once 'your hand in his to the last' the 
 hand of a friend. But this isn't this 
 different?" 
 
 Rachel had turned away her face. 
 ' Yes, this is different," she had owned. 
 "But- 
 
 " He asked me to beg you for him to have 
 it so," Juliet urged, and Rachel was silent. 
 So the simplest of the white frocks it was, 
 and in it Rachel looked as Juliet had meant 
 she should. 
 
 Only Judith and Wayne Carey were 
 asked down to see them married. To 
 humour the doctor the ceremony was 
 performed in the orchard, near the entrance 
 to the willow path. The time afterward 
 was short, and before she knew it Julkt was 
 bidding the two good-bye.
 
 A High-Handed Affair 303 
 
 "I've got her," said the doctor, looking 
 from Juliet to Rachel, who stood at his side. 
 " She's mine all mine. I have to keep 
 saying it over and over to make sure." 
 
 "For your comfort," answered Juliet, 
 smiling at them both, "I'll tell you that she 
 looks as if she were yours." 
 
 "Does she?" he cried, laughing happily. 
 " How does she look ? " He turned and sur- 
 veyed her. "She looks very proud and 
 sweet and still she's always been those 
 things and very beautiful more beautiful 
 than ever before. But do you think she 
 really looks as if she were mine? Tell me 
 how." 
 
 Juliet turned from him, big and eager like 
 a boy, to his bride, "proud and sweet and 
 still," as he had said. "I've never seen 
 Rachel look absolutely happy before," she 
 told him. " There's always been a bit of a 
 shadow. But now look down into her 
 eyes, Roger; there's no shadow there 
 now." 
 
 But when he would have looked Rachel's 
 lashes fell. "Not yet? By-and-by then, 
 Rachel," he whispered. Then he turned to 
 Juliet and Anthony, who had come up to 
 stand beside her.
 
 304 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 "If it hadn't been for you and your 
 home-making this day would never have 
 come for me," he said. "You have been 
 good friends and true, to us both. Let us 
 keep you so and good-bye."
 
 XXIX. JULIET PROVES HERSELF STILL 
 
 INDIFFERENT 
 
 On a July evening, a month later, Cath- 
 cart and a great roll of architects' paper 
 arrived on the Robeson porch. For an 
 hour Juliet looked and listened, while 
 Anthony, as he had promised, said not a 
 word to bias her decision. Cathcart laid 
 before her plans for a new house which 
 were even Anthony could but admit to 
 himself beyond praise. From every stand- 
 point the artistic, the domestic, the prac- 
 tical, even the economical, so far as the 
 modern architect understands the meaning 
 of the word the plans were ideal. Juliet 
 studied them absorbedly, showing plainly 
 her appreciation of them. 
 
 " It would be a beautiful home," she said 
 at length. " I can think of nothing more 
 perfect than such a house." 
 
 Cathcart looked triumphant. Without 
 glancing at Anthony he produced another 
 set of plans. 
 
 "Just to please myself, Mrs. Robeson," 
 35
 
 306 The Indifference of Juliet 
 
 he announced, " I have spent some interest- 
 ing hours in trying to show what could be 
 done with this old house, should any one 
 care to lay out a reasonable sum upon it. 
 Frankly, old houses never repay much ex- 
 penditure of money, yet there is a certain 
 satisfaction in working out the details of 
 restoration and improvement which makes 
 interesting study. Purely as a matter of that 
 sort I have fancied such extensions as these. ' ' 
 
 He laid the plans before her. Juliet 
 looked, bent over them, cried out with de- 
 light, and called upon Anthony to join her. 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Cathcart," she said eagerly, 
 " before you proved yourself an exceedingly 
 fine architect; but now you show yourself 
 a master. To make this of the old house- 
 why, it's far the higher art." 
 
 Anthony glanced, laughing, across at 
 Cathcart, whose face had fallen so pro- 
 nouncedly that Juliet would have seen it 
 if she had been observing. But she was too 
 absorbed in the new plans. 
 
 "If we could do this," she was saying, 
 " it would satisfy my best ideals of a perma- 
 nent home." 
 
 "But, my dear Mrs. Robeson," stam- 
 mered the man of castles, "consider the
 
 Juliet Proves Herself Still Indifferent 307 
 
 location the neighbourhood the rural 
 character of the surroundings." 
 
 "I do," she answered, still studying the 
 plans. " I love them all and the old home 
 most of all. Ever since I knew" how 
 had she known? they wondered "that a 
 change of houses was a possible thing for us 
 I have been homesick in anticipation of a 
 change I couldn't bear to think of. Yet I 
 wondered if we ought to go. But if you can 
 make this of the old home " 
 
 She lifted to her husband an enthusiastic 
 face. His eyes met hers in a long look in 
 which each read deep into the mind of the 
 other. Then Anthony Robeson, like a man 
 who hears precisely what he most wants to 
 hear, turned smiling to Cathcart. 
 
 "I think you've lost, Steve," he said.
 
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