Mrs. J. Worthington Woodward A NOVEL By HELEN BEEKMAN BRENTANO'S NEW YORK 1904 COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY WM. H. YOUNG & CO. Dramatization and all other rights reservea. Entered at Stationers' Hall, COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY BRKNTANO'S. NOTE. THIS story has only recently been published and offered for sale under the name of ' ' Dainty Devils." Inasmuch as the original title selected was found to be misleading as expressing the character of the book, the present name," Mrs. J. Worthington Woodward," was chosen as being more appropriate. This explains the head-line differing from the title-page in the present volume. S138721 PREFACE. MY niece, born Gretchen von Waldeck, by marriage become Mrs. J. Worthington Wood- ward, and familiarly known in the beginning and up to date, as " Dot," had held me her slave since the morning I went, in the chill of a summer rain, to see my sister Margaret's new- born daughter. An hour later, as I sat dream- ily holding the tiny infant, the distracted father came to tell me that the young mother was dead my Margaret and his : mine first, if his more nearly. The helpless personality in the bundle within my arms was all that kept my brother-in-law from suicide. To that baby he devoted his days and his strength, and she grew and thrived and was blissfully unconscious of the fact that the situation was a most pathetic one. No baby was ever more gurglingly content, no child more bois- terously joyous, no young girl more saucy and happily self -sufficient, than motherless, brotherless and sisterless Dot. Watching her with adoring eyes, I wondered what it must be 3 4 Preface. like to have so keen a perception of all the beauty and gladness in the world. As she grew up she seemed impervious to any sense of trouble or pain and, fool that I was, I expected her always to remain as she had been. Meeting her then, after a six-months' dwell- ing in the home which marriage had brought her, the half -tearful gravity brooding over her young face, the earnest questioning in her round blue eyes, sent a poignant stab through my old heart. In my reading of the girl's nature, I had made one huge mistake : the same sensibility which responds to every impression of joy, answers as readily to sorrow. Poor little Dot had been having experiences too rapidly, and was upon the verge of a seri- ous collapse. It was the unexpected receipt of a telegram announcing that she and Jack would leave shortly for Europe, which had brought me into the City to spend a few hours with this child, whom I so loved. Dot's father was to come, too, but not till the last day she would be at home. I was astonished at find- ing Dot so extremely nervous and overwrought, although, to be sure, some of the gossip in which she undeservedly figured, had found its way even to Graytown. As I listened to Dot's rapid, excited talk, so rapid and so excited as to be at times upon the border of incoherency, the painful real- Preface. 5 ization of how complete and trying the difference in the circumstances of her life had been, over- whelmed me. Gravely and anxiously enough I received all the news she poured out to me. I think it was a full hour before I succeeded in leading her away from matters in New York, and we spent a while together in Graytown, imaginatively. This Graytown conversation greatly improved matters. Pretty, pathetic Dot became pretty, laughing Dot again. She forgot temporarily her troubles and perplexities until some chance remark of mine I do not know what it was brought recent events and com- plications back to her. There was an immediate suggestion of tears behind the laugh with which she said : " Oh, Nunk ! I've an enormous secret to tell you." Candidly, I felt slightly alarmed; could there by any possibility be more " secrets " than the newspapers published ? " I've written a book, or a lot of stuff you might not dignify by such a name." Relief made me gratifyingly enthusiastic in my expression of pleasant amazement at this dis- closure. Innocuous sheets of scribbled paper ! How unspeakably more desirable than new " mat- ter " for newspaper sensation ! Most eagerly did I request to be permitted to see her " secret." 6 Preface. We were in the most charming room in the Woodward house, the library. Since Dot's ar- rival, its large formidable desk had been sup- plemented by a delightful affair utterly feminine and ornamental in appearance, at which Dot had penned notes and invitations, and, as we all thought, nothing else. I was surprised to find that the fragile creation had a drawer that locked, and which Dot now opened with an air of grave importance. She drew out a wad of manuscript, and turned to me deprecatingly. " It's awfully mean," said she, ruefully, " but my writing it was a kind of revenge, I'm afraid." I reached for the manuscript. " No, not yet. First promise you won't laugh." " I promise ; I'd swear, only ministers must not." Still her slim, little hands tightly held the manuscript away from me. " We're going to Europe next week, Jack and I, aren't we ? " " Yes ; all this gorgeousness doesn't seem to satisfy my country niece." Dot looked painfully hurt as she continued : " Well, I don't care if we never come back except," hastily, " to see you and father. There ! I'm nervous and tired to death, and ready to cry, don't you see? Oh, take this paper, Nunk, if Preface. 7 you like, and do just as you please with it. I don't want to give it to father. He would grieve over it too much." I took the manuscript, and Dot wiped a few tears from her cheeks. I did not begin to read until she and Jack had been three or four days at sea. They are safe in Switzerland now, and you may read the ravings of Dot's brain if you want to. Frankly, I found them very different from what I had anticipated, and perused them with interest to the end. If the style of her compo- sition seems crude and wholly regardless of known rule, pray remember that Dot is not yet nineteen. Should too much family pride appear in her character, do not forget that her grand- father was Count von Waldeck, who came to America during the political troubles of '48, and that as her German blood proves itself in her complexion and blonde braids, her mental quali- ties are no less colored by the strain of the von Waldecks. Her independence, her gaiety, her quickness of wit, are all American ; her con- servatism, her sensitiveness, her power of think- ing things out, are truly German. My part is now finished. The rest of the book, beyond an occasional mention, has nothing to do with DALTON DARE. DAINTY DEVILS. NOVEMBER. FOUR days ago we arrived from our wedding- trip, having been married in June, at my uncle's church in Massachusetts. My wedding-day was my eighteenth birthday. A week after we were married, Jack and I sailed for Europe, which was awfully hard upon father, but very delight- ful for me. The only thorn in that rosy morning, was parting with father when the steward sounded the ghastly gong on the deck. At that moment I was dumb and blind with misery, but I was not deaf, because I heard the noise that wretched steward made, not only then but for hours afterward, and, insanely enough, it seemed to me that the unearthly din took father from me. I cried so terribly that an old maid with a wig told me three days later I could not possibly be 9 io Dainty Devils. in love with my husband, or it would not have overcome me so to part with my father. A lot she knows ! Jack hated her, too. My husband's name is written " J. Worthing- ton Woodward " and the men call him " Worth." Now, certain people in Graytown had upon several occasions absolutely disgusted me by in- sinuatingly asking how many millions I should " guess Mr. Woodward was worth; " and there- fore to call my heart's beloved by an expres- sion intimately connected with the idea of his money, was for me next-door to an utter impos- sibility. So I asked him what " J." meant, and hearing it was John, the only sensible thing to do was to call him " Jack." Anyway I think it a contemptible slight upon the writer of a Holy Gospel to give his name to a child, and later chop it down to a meaningless initial used sim- ply as a humble foil to a three-syllabled middle- name. To be sure we may take it for granted that an Apostle has more common-sense and less touchiness than human beings still trammeled with their bodies of clay. At least I hope he has. Because I knew a stern old lady named Tabitha Ann who heard that her daughter-in-law was about to name the new baby for her. Greatly elated and a trifle suspicious, the grandmother hastened across the State of Massachusetts to be present at the christening. Barely had she November. 1 1 laid aside her bonnet when she asked the young mother : " Are you sure you wish the baby named for me?" " Yes, mother," sweetly. " And you will call her Tabitha no nick- name ? " Baby's mama fidgeted a bit. " We intend to name her for you exactly, Tabi- tha Ann, and we shall call her Annette." " If you don't intend to call her by her given name, have her christened Annette right off and be done with it. I see you are too hifalutin to call the child Tabitha. So name her as you please, and may she be proud of your choice! As for me, I am going straight home." Temper, tears, the son's intervention, more tears, even a high fever meanwhile grandma had not gone, and in due time the minister brave- ly baptized the infant Tabitha Ann. There is at times a great deal in a name. This cowardly concession to the grandmother was worth exactly fifty thousand in the old lady's will. Peter, James and John, do not personally pro- test when they are treated as this grandmother would not be ; therefore we have P. Stuyvesant, J. Ferguson, J. Worthington, etc., ad infinitum. Perhaps the Apostles smile. Jack is thirty-five, very big and handsome, 12 Dainty Devils. and half the girls in New York wanted him; some for his millions, some for his good-looks, some for both. Of course I firmly believe that no other girl ever loved him quite as deeply as I. It certainly was amazingly queer that Jack married me. People say we shall be separated in two years. Maybe we shall if death us do part. My grandfather, Count von Waldeck, left Ger- many in political disgrace and noble poverty in 1848. Being informed that Massachusetts was more tractable than New York to the learning which he intended to impart Greek, Latin, Ger- man and music he turned his back haughtily upon an offer made him by a rich grocer upon the voyage, and traveled on to Graytown, where he settled with his title, a few books and no money. I have never been able to feel sure that grandfather's Greek and Latin would have stood the test had any one applied for instruction, but no one ever did, so he kept the dead languages for quotation and earned a scanty living between German and music. The minister liked him, and the minister had a daughter : small, dark and sprightly. She was my grandmother, and they say T have my figure from her. I positively have not a German one, nor German hands or feet ; I am exceedingly glad to have a few Amer- ican points, as my face belongs in Bremen. Grandmother's father insisted that she should November. 13 be called Mrs. von Waldeck, and not Countess. Oddly enough, grandfather did not object to this in the least, although he had a deal of pride in his name and family ; it was only grandmother who made a fuss and took on an habitual pout you can see it in her painted portrait up at Gray- town Rectory which rather became her, and which is the expression I fancied noble ladies wore, until I grew up and knew better. My grandparents had only one child, my father. That grandfather, loving the very word " Ger- many," came finally to pride himself upon being an American, and dropped his title of " Count," worked more and more upon grandmother's nerves, and, the villagers said, hurried her into her grave. That is all nonsense of course, but grand- mother actually did worship a title, and died at thirty-six. She made, if not enemies, many " cool friends," in Graytown, by saying upon several occasions, " The von Waldecks were of the most important nobility in Germany, long before America was discovered." Now the Plymouth Rockers did not accept that statement with pleasure, even in the end, and at the beginning openly discredited it. However, one of those persons predisposed to research upon all possible subjects I think he would not have minded being deputized to 14 Dainty Devils. look up the genealogy of one particular mosquito investigated grandmother's proud claim, and discovered it to be undeniably true. The von Waldecks were much more ancient than Colum- bus ! The Plymouth Rockers, defeated but by no means baffled, from that day on grudged grandmother even the bare name von Waldeck, without the Countess that she craved. That was, after all, some kind of satisfaction, however ignoble, for so appallingly noble a lady. Although I never saw grandfather, he must have been exactly like father, who inherited the German and music pupils along with the von Waldeck countenance. I can well comprehend how grandfather hated the Army, and unlike his brothers, preferred the quiet life of books and country pleasures, to an Officer's existence. I believe it was the study of Jean Jacques Rousseau which placed grand- father upon the side of the People in 1848, to the rage and horror of all his relatives and ac- quaintances. Pride is a sin in which I have some grievous participation, but in nothing am I quite so proud, as in the knowledge that grand- father had the courage of his convictions, al- though that brave steadfastness cost him every- thing so far as his Fatherland was concerned. And I am positive that my dear father would have had the same convictions, and would have November. 15 undergone the same exile with the same calm dignity. Needless to remark that father was poor, he- roically and aristocratically poor, and his mar- riage with the new pastor's sister, Margaret Dare, did not add to his worldly possessions. The pair were, however, romantically happy for two years. Then I came and mother died. So I grew up in the " Professor's " cottage, where we had hardly any furniture except books which I suppose, properly speaking, only go to furnish the mind and under the devoted care of my father, supplemented by the spasmodic attention of Lame Ann, who was housekeeper and nurse, and maid-of-all-work, and who took her meals with us. Father got Lame Ann to come " just for a home," because between her limp and cross-eyes, no one who could afford wages would take her. What would have become of us if there had not been a Lame Ann? Father taught me a great deal. French and German, of course, and his beloved music, and mathematics and history. For the last he had a passion almost as intense as his love for music. He made great men real for me, and I know exactly how they looked and acted. From ten years on, I was always in love with some King or Soldier-Knight of other days. That I should ever fall in love with a flesh-and-blood gentle- 16 Dainty Devils. man of modern times, the people of Graytown de- clared to be impossible. Father's friends, chosen almost entirely from the College Faculty, were old, scholarly and absent-minded, and no mat- ter what degree of affection I might some day attain for one of them, he would never recognize me outside of father's study, for the simple rea- son that none of them ever looked at me. I fancy that if my corporeal dimensions had not obstructed a certain amount of light, even the nod I usually received would have been want- ing, simply because my presence would have re- mained unknown. Sometimes, it is true, father would pull me fondly forward, and into evidence as it were, remarking: " Here is Gretchen." " Oh yes How are you, Miss Dot ? " would be the result of this effort upon dear father's part. You see Lame Ann could not pronounce Gretchen, and as she invariably called me " Miss Dot," everyone in Graytown did so, except father, who had named me for mother, and called my by the German diminutive. In spite of shabby clothes, plain fare, and long lessons, the years spent at home were very happy ones. We were wealthy in the possession of a good piano and a splendid violin, both of which I learned to play, and when one has lots of occu- pation and goes to bed so tired that sleep is de- November. 17 licious, it would be impossible to contrive to be blue. Although father never said so, I know the fact that he did not send me to school was the best proof of his great heartsickness about my mother, and of his inability to get along without me in the house. Lots of people advised father to marry again, and a widow with a good deal of money, and five children, wrote him a proposal. Lame Ann knew the handwriting and pieced the letter together out of the waste-bas- ket. I was only six, but I well remember how Lame Ann limped in to my cot-bed and read me the epistle in a mixture of holy horror at the brazenness, and gloating satisfaction at gratified curiosity. A few days later Lame Ann confided to my youthful ears that father had written the widow a letter, saying he did not approve of sec- ond marriages. How Lame Ann obtained this information, must be left to the imagination. Children are never so stupid as some people think. If there is anything which exemplifies " wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove," it is the child of average intelligence. With my small experience of six years of life, I instinctive- ly knew better than to speak of the widow or her letter to father. Not that I reasoned I just felt that I was, by some uncomprehended force, prevented from speaking upon these sub- 2 i8 Dainty Devils. jects. How I wish I had the same intuition to-day ! But I have not. It seems that the ser- pent's wisdom evaporates in the same ratio as the dove's innocence. Jack came into my life as unexpectedly as though he had dropped from the skies. He is good enough to say he thought I actually had fallen from heaven that day I bounced into Uncle Dalton's study with a message from father, that he had met the doctor driving like mad to old Mrs. Gage, who was dying. Uncle rose hastily, and when I realized that a tall strange man loomed up beside him, it was not only the breathlessness from running which kept me tem- porarily speechless. " Well, Dot ? Thought I was alone, didn't you ? Let me present Mr. Woodward to you My niece, Miss von Waldeck." I did not even bow, but turned from Mr. Woodward to Uncle Dalton, and blurted out what I had come to tell : " Mrs. Gage is dying, Nunk, and wants you." " Oh," said Uncle Dalton, not a bit like a min- ister, but exactly like the kind-hearted gentle- man he is, " then I must go at once ! Can't you stay a while and talk to Mr. Woodward ? He will be my guest for the next three weeks, dear." Whatever made me do it? Was it the last flickering gleam of the childish wisdom which November. 19 I had of late been losing ? In those few seconds, I remembered I had on a blue serge frock made three years earlier, and most visibly let down in the hem, and that at home I had a better dress. Still there was some other vague reason, new dignity, I think, which impelled me. I drew back and said: " Wouldn't it be better, if Mr. Woodward came to call upon father ? " Uncle Dalton turned with his coat half on and stared at me. " 1 believe you're right, child. You see, Mr. Woodward, I forget that Dot has grown up." Such a troubled look had flooded into Uncle's big eyes that I felt too silly and awkward for words. A scalding blush spread up to my yellow hair, the first wave followed by a second at the recollection of how ugly, according to Lame Ann, a blush made me appear. Jack came nobly to the rescue. " If Miss von Waldeck will permit me to walk home with her, I shall be very glad." I shall never admit to Jack the battle these words precipitated into my heart. On the one side was overwhelming joy at the idea of parad- ing that stunning man through Main Street and I meant to take him the long way in the face of all the matrons and maidens of Graytown; on the other side was fierce regret that if Mr. 2O Dainty Devils. Woodward accompanied me, I should necessarily be in my let-down blue serge with a white cro- cheted shawl for a wrap, and having arrived with him, I should be obliged to stay as I was through the length of his call. He would never know how nice I could look, in other clothes ! "I think," said I, redder than ever, "that I that father would rather have Mr. Woodward call in about an hour." " Oh," said Jack, apparently not at all abashed, " very well." Meanwhile Uncle stood holding the study-door open for me. " I am naturally in a bit of a hurry to reach Mrs. Gage," he said gravely; and from Uncle Dalton that was a reproof. " Good-bye, Mr. Woodward. You will be sure to come ? " The idea that Uncle was displeased with me added immeasurably to my already great ner- vousness. Jack laughed. He says he could not have helped it had his life been the penalty. I un- derstood that I had shown undignified eagerness, and in utter confusion ran past Uncle and out of the Rectory. Reaching the street I quieted down into a walk. But I went home the short way. Father, sitting in the library, received my November. 2 1 news not at all as I had expected, for he had known for two days that Uncle was to have a visitor from New York, who was in a law-suit about some Graytown property. It was exactly like father not to have told me. " An old man, is he not ? " asked father. " Oh, no. Just right," I replied, earnestly. " Just right ? " echoed father. " Just right for what?" " For Uncle," faintly. And Uncle was fath- er's age! " That certainly is not young, my child." " He's younger than Uncle," I said, hastily, " and handsome." " You seem to have observed him well, Gret- chen." " I've got to see Lame Ann about something," I remarked irrelevantly, going behind father's chair. Out of the range of his eyes I made the announcement I had resolved upon because Mr. Woodward had laughed at me. " Unless Mr. Woodward asks for me particu- larly, father, I'm not coming down." " Oh, of course, Gretchen ; but get ready, my child." That was exactly what I intended to do. I considered it uncannily clever of father to know. Quite crestfallen I sought Lame Ann in the kitchen. 22 Dainty Devils. " Ann, I was out in the wind and my hair is awful. Have you time to braid it ? " " No, I've not." " Oh, Ann, how nicely you have ironed my turn-over lace collar. I can put it on right away." Ann set the flat-iron down with a vicious thump. " And have it crumpled in five minutes ! I ironed it so you could wear it with your brown cashmere on Sunday." " I'm going to wear my brown cashmere right away, Ann. I expect company. A gentleman." " Pooh ! Don't fix up for the old mummies who come here, Miss Dot. Not one of them knows or cares whether you have two eyes or three. You might just as well be a nigger-wench for all the difference." Ann's scorn was magnifi- cent, as she hobbled over to the range for a fresh iron. I made a face at her back and picked up my lace collar. " My visitor," I said, grandly, "is from New York, and is not old. If you don't want to do my hair for me, never mind." I made hurriedly for the back-stairs which led directly from the kitchen up into my tiny band-box of a bed-room. Lame Ann was almost as quick as I was. She came stumbling at my November. 23 heels, iron still in hand, and as I shut and locked the narrow door at the top of the steps, she sent a perfect wail after me. " Oh, Miss Dot, of course I'll do your hair ! Lordy, if you shouldn't be ready when he came ! And from New York ! Open the door, there's a good child, and let your old Ann in." " I'll think about it," I said, glorying in the unusual opportunity of punishing poor Ann. I was rapidly unbraiding my hair. " I'll put the iron back and come up again," began the poor soul. At that I darted to the door, because I could not stand the idea of the old creature struggling up the stairs again, and unlocked it in a rush of repentance. " Give me the iron ; I'll poke it into the wash- basin. And hurry, Ann. He'll be here soon." I do not know who was the more nervous Ann or I. Ann, who was immensely proud of my long, unmanageable locks, braided them once and found that she had left a heavy strand loose. Undoing them, she pulled and tangled till tears of pain stood in my eyes. " If you'd stop asking questions, Ann," I said, crossly, " you'd probably get along better." " Lordy, Miss Dot, a gentleman from New York doesn't come every day! But only to stay three weeks ? What a pity ! " If some one had told us then that at the end 24 Dainty Devils. of those three weeks I should be engaged to the stranger, I think the notion would have pet- rified us. Yet Lame Ann has never ceased re- lating how she knew from the first that Mr. Woodward was my " fate." " There ! Your hair's done, and looks beauti- ful. Put on that nice stiff white petticoat, Miss Dot, the one I did up last week. It holds out the brown cashmere so that it looks like broadcloth. And a blue bow at your throat. You're just right-complected for blue." All of Ann's advice I followed. She was a great believer in starch, and when I went down- stairs to father for I had repented of my rash resolution to wait until I was called he said he heard me from the upper hall, " crackling." I did not admire that word, nor find it a com- pliment. Before I could protest, however, we heard a step on the frozen garden-path and father went to open the house-door. Every bit of that visit I can distinctly remem- ber. Long afterward, when we were married and traveling in Europe, I asked Jack what he had thought of us that afternoon ? He answered that his feelings were too deep for words ; he could have laughed or cried over the whole thing. He says my candid scrubbing and brushing and starching in preparation for company dur- ing the hour which I had asked for, made him November. 25 long to laugh, but that dear father's fine face and stately bearing in the shabby surroundings, made him want to cry. To him the most touch- ing part was when father, after talking enthusias- tically of Rome, said, in response to a question as to how recent changes impressed him : " I have never been in Rome, nor any place farther than New York. Travel would be su- preme joy to me; and above all I long to see my father's Fatherland." No one but a homesick exile can understand father's joy at the discovery that Jack had grad- uated from the University of Heidelberg, where grandfather had also studied. Father had a couple of badly-done little water-colors of the River and the Schloss which grandfather had treasured throughout his varying fortunes, and these father brought out and showed with pal- pitating pride to his delightful visitor. Were they like? Would he recognize them? Jack was very kind to the poor little pic- tures, although too honest to pretend that they bore much resemblance to the beautiful Neckar and the picturesque ruined Schloss. So deli- cately did he put it, that no picture could ade- quately reproduce the charm and poetry of Hei- delberg scenery, that father's sensitive faith in every thing that belonged to grandfather was un- hurt. The two men became more and more 26 Dainty Devils. enthusiastic in their conversation, and I accuse Jack to this day insincerely I admit of hav- ing succumbed to the traditions of father's study, and of forgetting me completely. Even were this so, he assures me that the pathos of father's love and yearning for the land he had never seen, were much more engrossing than such a pink-and-white piece of health and irresponsibility as I was. It is very evident that while by no means a liar, Jack is at times not scrupulously truthful. Judging by myself, I believe he was already in- terested in the stranger he had met at Uncle Dai- ton's, to the exclusion of everything else, pathetic or ridiculous. Only I admit I never could have pretended that flattering interest in the dis- cussion of Heidelberg which Jack did so beau- tifully. A positive climax was reached when Jack sang some words of a song which began, " Alt' Heidelberg, Du Feine ; " father went into raptures and something in Jack's voice made me cry. Father could not see me and Jack well, Jack was the same darling he is now and had the grace to pretend that he did not notice. The call was prolonged till dark. When Lame Ann brought a lamp, Jack went away. ******* That was the I5th of March. The events of the following three months crowded upon one November. 27 another. It is an exceedingly queer fact, but fact it is, that one person wanting something makes some one else want the same thing, too. Gretchen von Waldeck, unloved and unknown, suddenly possessed two lovers, about as different in birth, looks and breeding, as they well could be. I had known Jack two little weeks when I asked him, one day as I sat peeling potatoes for Lame Ann: " Are you really going away in a week ? " Jack took the peeled potato from me, dropped it into the basin of water (which I explained to him was to keep it white J and handed me a fresh one. When I recall this scene now ! " No," he said, smiling oddly ; " I'd like to, but I think it will take me longer." I peeled industriously. Feeling that my eyes would tell how glad I was, I kept them re- ligiously set upon the big potato-eyes beneath my knife, instead of raising them to the big human ones above me. " Lawyers are always slow, Uncle Dalton says," I remarked. " It's not lawyers," said Jack. " It's something quite different." In my astonishment I glanced up quickly. "What?" I asked, and then hastily looked down again, in the most unaccountable confu- sion. Jack's eyes had upset me. 28 Dainty Devils. " You will know some day," he said, slowly. I am pretty sure I knew then. A day or two later, in short, Sunday after- noon most ominous time Reuben Stevens came to call upon Miss Dot. Now society in Graytown is entirely democratic. I was Count von Waldeck's daughter: Rube "was just as good " Was he not the undertaker's son ? Rube was small in length, breadth and thick- ness. Afraid of suggesting his grave avocation, when not professionally employed he successfully avoided anything black. Accordingly his shirts and cravats were veri- table barber-poles, and his jewelry jingled and glittered with spectacular garishness. Rube re- mained an hour, interspersing his conversation of choir and early vegetables with frequent sighs directed at me. Father was taking a nap, and Lame Ann was reading her Bible. I do not think I could possibly have endured Rube that long hour had I not been sustained by the thought that Graytown gossips would now have vis- ual proof of their error a young Graytown eligible had called upon me. And on Sunday afternoon ! When Rube rose to go, he asked me with a great deal of unwarrantable assurance, whether he might come again. Personal prejudice made me want to deny him permission; the rec- November. 29 ollection of the gossips stayed me in the tempt- ing ungraciousness. I wickedly told him I should be delighted to see him, the next Sun- day afternoon. I had forgotten the row which Lame Ann would create. The second time Rube came, I should have to ask him to tea, and Lame Ann unfailingly delivered a scathing lecture over every extra plate and cup she had to wash. Truly, when father invited Mr. Woodward to dinner, Lame Ann had been all smiling interest, and had, for the first time since she entered our house, waited at table and not sat down till she had brought in the coffee. I felt absolutely certain that Rube Stevens would not evoke the like condescension. After five minutes' consider- ation of my rash act, I concluded not to tell Lame Ann anything beyond what she already knew Rube had called. How could I have been so mistaken in Lame Ann ? Did I not know by long experience that her eyes although so frightfully crossed, were sharper than mine, and that her ears in perfection of their function out- stripped her eyes? As for her conscience, in spite of long and fervent Bible study, it was to say the least, very adjustable. Barely had I decided upon the diplomatic si- lence, when Lame Ann burst into the best room, where I had received Rube and whence he had just departed. 30 Dainty Devils. " Miss Dot, you needn't waste your time on that little jinny-spinner of an undertaker's son. I'm surprised at you, I really am, and disgusted, too." " Ann, you forget that I am the mistress of this house and may invite whom I please to call upon me." A sudden flame of illuminating good sense flashed into poor Ann's brain. As I look back I sincerely admire her for it. At the time I was entirely resentful of her wisdom. " Mr. Woodward means to marry you, Miss Dot, and he is the best chance you will ever get. Don't frighten him off by this idiot of a Rube. Ask Mr. Woodward to tea, and I'll make salad and hot biscuit, but I'll not take a step for Rube. I've neuralgia badly of late, and no one knows when an attack will come on." This last with a positively vicious sniff. " You're a wicked hypocrite ! " I cried, hotly. " No worse than you," responded Ann, as she hobbled out of ear-shot. I was very silent all the evening, although Jack came. He found our Puritan custom of no music Sunday evenings, very trying, and told me father's Sundays were his saddest days mere- ly because he could not relieve the crowding of his lonely thoughts by the music of his violin. I was greatly shocked at this expression of Jack's November. 31 'feeling ; yet he did behave so devoutly in church ! At that time I could not understand how anyone Avho prayed in the morning, could indulge in what I heard an Evangelist once denounce as the " damning distraction of music," in the afternoon. What an ignorant, narrow-minded little savage I was ! Oh dear me ! If my better knowledge in some directions could only have been attained without my bitter and unfortunate elucidation along other lines! That week Jack came twice every day. He tells me it was very hard to remain away in the mornings, but he so commiserated Ann in her hobbling haste the one occasion he dined with us, that knowing father would earnestly urge his stopping to dinner if he appeared before Meridian, he gloriously put himself out of the way of temptation and never came to our door before two in the afternoon. The first hour he devoted exclusively to father and cigars. The second gradually became mine, for father had to have his nap, although never admitting it, and would doze surreptitiously in his chair from three to four, while I dutifully darned socks or mended linen, or crocheted lace for pantry-shelves, to the delightful accompaniment of blithe conver- sation, the tempo of which was accentuated by happily excited" heart-beats. Jack leaving at four, my heart subsided into wearily normal palpi- 32 Dainty Devils. tation, and I was lonesome and dreamy and ab- sent-minded till eight in the evening, when the interesting and unusual gentleman again ap- peared. Saturday night I was oddly nervous and dis- satisfied with myself. Mr. Woodward would leave at ten, and if he stayed away in the after- noon, as he had done the previous Sunday, ex- cept for church in the morning I should not see him again till after I had had Rube to tea. Our Sunday dinner was barely eaten, however, when I heard a step upon the porch which was not Rube's. Joy, consternation, defianceand fright struggled within me. While father went to welcome Mr. Woodward, I retired pell-mell to my room. Sitting down upon the edge of the bed I swung my feet violently, the performance being proof positive that I was fiercely excited. Rube would come Sunday afternoon To re- main for tea. Did Mr. Woodward understand Graytown etiquette? Would he believe me en- gaged to that miserable idiot of an undertaker's son? My face flamed at the thought. " Miss Dot, Miss Dot, come down and see Mr. Woodward." " I'll be down later," I called back. I went at once. Mr. Woodward asked hastily if I were well. November. 33 " Awfully," I answered, annoyed at the ques- tion. " I beg your pardon, you look so feverish," he said, anxiously, and waited a moment as though expecting some explanation for my want of re- pose. As I merely rubbed my hands nervously together and said nothing, Jack continued rather like one wishing to change the subject with a fretful child : " See what I have brought you, Miss von Waldeck. They came last night." He pointed to the table where stood a beautiful edition of Longfellow in green-and-gold-and- mottled richness. " Oh ! " I cried in rapture, then I drew back ; " I can't accept them from a gentleman. Can I, father?" " Mr. von Waldeck has permitted," said Jack, smiling ever so slightly. " It is a trifle of a gift who knows how much I may want to take?" Father started. I am sure he thought of the Stradivarius. I did not. I merely bent over the books, my face turned away. Why are women so clever in divining how much or how little men like them? " All I have," said father, gravely, " is at your disposal, Mr. Woodward." " Thank you, sir," returned Jack. " I hope 3 34 Dainty Devils. I'll never take too unwelcome advantage of your courteous generosity." Father sighed, still thinking, I am sure, of his priceless violin. I turned to Mr. Woodward to express my^ gratitude for the books, and caught a look upon his face which well, it made my heart beat in my throat and caused a wild re- gret that I had invited Rube for that Sunday afternoon. I realize now that I never thanked Jack at all for those books. He seemed to understand that I was painfully excited, although he did not dream the reason, and in his usual kind way began to talk to father, leaving me to recover my mental equilibrium. When father said he had some letters to write, and went upstairs, I felt half-glad, half-sorry. How- ever, I was not left long to the luxury of analyz- ing my emotions. Father had not reached his room before I saw Rube Stevens, resplendently attired, turn in at our gate. " Oh, Mr. Woodward," I gasped, " Mr. Stev- ens is coming in And I hate him," I added, ve- hemently. Jack stared in astonishment. " Can't you get rid of him, then ? " he asked, curiously. People talk about drowning men seeing all their lives in one horrible mental panorama at the moment of sinking. I fully believe they do, November. 35 for while Rube made his way to the front door, I laid a whole scheme of fibs to make him go away. " Yes," I said, gulping. " Quick go in here. He mustn't see you " I was about to say, " Or he won't believe me," but I did not dare tell Jack I meant to fib. I interrupted myself in the nick of time, and open- ing the door which led to the cellar-stairs, I pushed Mr. Woodward on to the small landing. Closing that door, I flew to the front one. " Good afternoon, Mr. Stevens," I said. " I'm sorry that I'm feeling so miserable with a head- ache, that I shan't be able to entertain you." " Ah, to look at you is enough, Miss Dot," entering unabashed. The day was very warm for April, and having hung up his hat, Rube drew out a silk handkerchief almost dripping with Stephanotis, and gently wiped his forehead, smiling at me the while. I recoiled before both smile and perfumery. " Really," I said, " cologne is extremely re- pugnant to me." " Is it, now ? " he exclaimed, in consternation. " But we'll fix that, Miss Dot," he added, with a reassuring smile. He went to the door, opened it, and dropped the offending handkerchief upon the porch. His simplicity was fascinating. Evidently unless I 36 Dainty Devils. asked him point-blank to go, there was no escape from Rube. I led the way to the study, wretched now in the thought that Mr. Woodward might think I had stooped to a trick because I was over-anxious to be in his society. What harm would it have been, after all, had Rube been caught paying his compliments to me? I flushed deeper and deeper and said nothing, leav- ing the making of small talk to my visitor. Fib- bing always brings uncomfortableness of some sort or another, and if not in this world, undoubt- edly in the next, when we and our fibs are bound to come face-to-face. Dreadful thought ! And still, perhaps the horrible astonishment will be consolingly universal. " Ah, you really look ill, Miss Dot," said Rube, anxiously, establishing himself, uninvited, I noted, in father's big chair. I sat opposite, rock- ing vigorously. " Yes ; perhaps, I'm getting scarlet fever. Are you not afraid of infection ? " And then ! Oh ! Shall I ever be able to recall that scene without hot tears of mortification rush- ing into my eyes? There was a smothered roar of laughter from the landing of the cellar-stairs, at which Rube sprang out of his chair and I sank deeper into mine. Nor was the laughter all. Jack, big, heavy creature that he is, had knocked over the rack that held a cane for Lame Ann's November. 37 assistance in going down into the cellar, and the stick went bumpety-bump from the top to the bottom of the stairs. " Oh, goodness gracious, what is it ? " asked Rube, visibly frightened. You see he had not been in the undertaking business very long. Dear Jack ! He was at the rescue, and patched up my blunder so far as anyone could. Flinging open the door, he came into the study, very red, very dusty and very determined. " There certainly are rats in your cellar, Miss von Waldeck," he said, his eyes dancing. " Why, Mr. Stevens, how do you do ? " " Very well," eagerly ; " but say, I've got a fox-terrier a dandy. Shan't I go get him right off?" " Oh, will you ? " said Jack, enthusiastically. " It would be immense." Rube paused, suddenly doubtful. " How about the parson ? It's Sunday." " Uncle Dalton would never object," I man- aged to say. Then I was sorry. It looked as if I wanted to be alone with Jack. Which is not nice in a girl to show. Incredible as it may seem, Rube departed in all seriousness for his dog, waving me an airy farewell and giving a parting assurance that his terrier was " game." The door safely closed upon him, Jack again burst out laughing. I 38 Dainty Devils. dropped into my chair and joined him. For sev- eral seconds we simply looked at each other and laughed like two lunatics. Jack's mirth ceased suddenly, so suddenly that I started to find I was laughing alone. Instantly I grew serious, too, as though some one had peremptorily said to me, "Be quiet!" " Gretchen ! " said Jack after a tiny pause of death-like silence. I jumped. My name to him was Miss von Waldeck. " Yes, Gretchen," he repeated, sternly em- phatic. " That boy wants to marry you. So do I. Which one is it to be ? " I stared, open-mouthed, began to stammer, to blush, and finally went to pieces. " Oh, don't," I begged, beginning to cry. " You musn't cry, little one," Jack said. " Rube will be back directly with the dog, you know." Was there ever such a proposal before? Jack stood some three feet away from me and I crouched sobbing in the rocking-chair. Jack came and laid his hand upon my shoul- der. " You are over-excited," he said, gently ; " I should not have asked you the great question now. It was following an unreasoning impulse. Anyway," whimsically, " your father is a Ger- November. 39 man and would like to be consulted first. Rube and his dog are my excuse for being so precipi- tate." The picture of Rube and his dog, so unfortun- ately real and tangible, and the rats which existed only in imagination, here overcame me. From tears I passed back to uncontrollable laughter, much to Jack's amazement. The yelping of a racing dog broke in upon us. My merriment subsided in a shiver of disgust. I stood up. " I shall not marry Rube, Mr. Woodward," I said, very faintly, my eyes upon the floor. " And I gave you only one alternative," he said, his voice ringing. " Yelp! Yelp! Yelp! " To that music Jack kissed my forehead. Did we go through the mockery of a rat hunt? Hilariously so far as Jack and I and the dog were concerned ; in chagrin and perspiration upon the part of Rube. At last Jack took compassion upon the panting disappointed boy and the pant- ing snapping terrier. " It's almost tea-time, and I must see Mr. von Waldeck. The rat is not here, so let's quit." At that very instant the dog made a mad rush and we heard the squealing of a rat the next second. " Jehosaphat ! " screamed Rube, in ecstasy ; 4O Dainty Devils. " didn't I tell you he was game, Mr. Wood- ward?" " Fine little beast," said Jack, heartily. " You'll stop to tea, won't you, Stevens ? I'll be here, too." Rube ceased dancing about the cellar and stood stock-still. An ugly, unhuman expression set- tled upon his heavy lips. " Have you got a mortgage here? " he asked, in his common way. I sprang impulsively from my seat on an over- turned barrel, tearing my gown upon a wicked nail as I did so. Jack was ahead of me. " If Mr. von Waldeck makes no objection, Miss von Waldeck and I are engaged," he said, pausing half way up the cellar-stairs. Rube gasped, struck mute and motionless. Jack passed from sight at the landing; I trembled a little when I remembered that it was " to see father " he had gone. How awfully sol- emn and eternal the word " engaged " sounded ! As for marriage my heart jumped into my mouth. It meant leaving father ! " Why don't you congratulate me ? " I asked, Rube's awkward presence compelling some recog- nition. Rube whistled to his dog. " I wanted you myself," he said, sullenly, start- ing to leave the cellar. What a stunning place November. 41 for the announcement of an engagement ! Gret- chen von Waldeck was certainly born for royal surroundings. I ran up the ladder we called stairs ; the dog scrambled behind me, Rube followed slowly, his head down. He went straight for his hat. " Won't you stop for tea ? " I asked, politely, because I knew now that he would not. " No, thank you. Come, Billy ! Good-even- ing." Yelp! Yelp! The dog was racing home- ward. Father came down the stairs, wet-eyed and sol- emn, although smiling. " Gott segne Euch!" was all he said, putting my hand into Jack's. At tea there was a bottle of old wine opened and drunk standing, Lame Ann being informed that she must drink her glassful to the happiness of Miss Dot and Mr. Woodward. She partici- pated in the little ceremony emotionally, if not gracefully, and limped from me to Jack, to touch glasses and say, " Prosit ! " The meal was no sooner finished than father went to his room upstairs. I know now that he spent that evening with my mother; at the time I thought only of Jack and myself. 42 Dainty Devils. When Jack left Graytown we went together, bride and groom. It was the fifteenth of June. Jack has no very near relatives, and as our wed- ding was very quiet, he only sent announce- ments to his twelve or fourteen cousins of differ- ent degrees. We sailed without having met any of his relatives, as they were not in New York at that time of the year. I never knew what I missed! That js what a girl said the third day out on the steamer to Italy. She had been sea-sick till then, and as she finished her first meal at the table she sighed with heart-breaking pathos, " you never knew what you missed ! " The remainder of the voyage she brought to every meal a huge black-bound book labeled in gold lettering, " My Trip Abroad." Into this book she faithfully cop- ied every menu, not even using ditto marks for the repeats. It took all my power of self-con- trol as well as my dignity as a matron, to refrain from asking her, " Will you tell them that you ate it all?" The same girl after having been ashore at Gibraltar announced at dinner while various pas- sengers were elaborating upon the beauties of the town and fortress, that the most interesting feature to her was the pork-market! I used to be awfully happy ! I do not mean that I am unhappy now, because I never could November. 43 be, so long as I had dear Jack. But since the moment my foot touched the pier in New York, somehow my utterly free-from-care condition quite barbarian in its perfection has not existed. I feel suppressed by iron vices of convention- ality, I am nervous at the thought of my pathetic ignorance of this social world, and frightened at the crucible I am sure the women in it will put me through before I learn their pace. I suppose the instantaneousness of the change in my mental attitude is rather a compliment to the feminine personalities who so subtly and successfully brought it about. I do not believe that any man living could be so quick, so quiet, and so effec- tive in crushing out the heart of a fellow-being, as are some society-women. If man be " little lower than the angels," such women are a little higher a very little than the devil. Jack is a perfect darling. I am nevertheless exceedingly thankful that he has no near rela- tives. Although, considering the matter, I do not believe that any one more closely related to Jack could be like his cousins at least, like the two who met us at the pier. They greeted Jack effusively and kissed him the imperti- nence ! And they are both very pretty and grace- ful and wear exquisite frocks. Thanks to the pa- tience and tact of dear old Jack, in these five months I have learned how to buy clothes, and 44 Dainty Devils. I know now how women ought to be gowned. These creatures are dainty to the highest degree. As for their looks in detail, they have noth- ing in common, despite as I learned later, the fact that they are twins. Mrs. Allison has a slim dark face, straight features and very dark eyes under black lashes. Jack told me after- ward that when Lou's face grows a trifle slimmer, she will have prominent cheek bones and a sharp, ugly chin. " Hatchet-face," he added, " the kind that in olden times penance and self-denial trans- formed into the countenances of saints, and which modern "self-indulgence and skepticism convert into repellent angles. After all, ' hatchet- face ' is hardly a fair description. Such faces in later life combine the ugliness of a hatchet with the sharpness of a sword." In spite of Jack's prognostications, she is ex- tremely good-looking now, and the deep secretive expression of her eyes holds one tantalized as to its meaning. Are such eyes beautiful for good or evil? I had a strange, recurring vision of Spoleto and Lucrezia Borgia, as I yielded to their fascination. Her sister is much shorter in figure, and alarm- ingly thin, save her face, which is well-rounded and small-chinned. Her hair is blonde, very fluffy, in sharp contrast to Mrs. Allison's smooth black locks. She has dark sleepy-looking eyes, November. 45 set far apart, as though her short broad nose had demanded more space than was its right. Nevertheless Mrs. St. John is also decidedly pretty. Her snub-nose is redeemed by the short child-like upper lip to the full mouth, and her teeth are faultless. Such an unusual combina- tion of hair and eyes, accentuated by the most bewitching pink cheeks, lends to Mrs. St. John's coloring extraordinary charm. Jack and I have held many animated discussions as to whether form or color is more conducive to beauty. Jack holds to the classic marble, the idealization of form. It would be the vastest kind of affectation if I pretended to agree with him. The beauty of statuary is for me" the beauty of death ; while the color of painting is vital. It appeals, it sat- isfies, and if true to nature, triumphs over many a defect of line. To my mind, Belle St. John is proof conclusive that coloring does more for feminine beauty than perfection of feature. Leave every line of her face the same, give her gray eyes, drab hair, and a sallow skin, and she would be positively ugly. As a matter of fact she is beautiful, because her coloring is her salva- tion to such a degree that one forgets the glaring irregularity of her features. That I was shabbily treated, in short, cruelly treated, upon my arrival, does not. prevent my acknowledging that Mrs. Allison and Mrs. St. 46 Dainty Devils. John are handsome enough to stand comparison anywhere. But as we drove home, all four of us, I ground my teeth once to keep from saying, as I contem- plated Jack's elegant cousins, " You dainty dev- ils!" The trouble began at the first words which fol- lowed Jack's introduction of his little wife, or perhaps to be more truthful, a second sooner, when Mrs. Allison I will not call her Cousin Lou kissed him. Let me confess that all the von Waldecks are jealous. " She is a little bit of a thing, indeed," said Mrs. Allison, staring me over in a business-like fashion. It's the way I have seen Jack calculate the points of a horse some one wanted him to buy. " Quite a child," added Mrs. St. John, delib- erately scanning my costume from the tip of my boot to the top wing in my hat. There was this difference in the surveys of the two women : Mrs. Allison did not move her eyes as she gazed, while Mrs. St. John lowered her chin when she stared at my boots, and ele- vated it gradually until her face was impudently tilted at that top wing which indicated my stature limit, including that portion attained by the tri- umph of millinery. November. 47 These remarks, spoken as if English were to me an unknown tongue, took the place of the customary greeting accorded by new relatives. That they considered me of the same genus, but of a different species from themselves, was pain- fully evident. At the moment my heart quiv- ered with anger and humiliation. Now I feel exultantly glad that I am unlike them. One day in Graytown, Jack said to me, " If I had never met you, I should have died a bachelor, because I could never take the ball-room product as my wife." On the pier, neither this recollection nor any other came to my comfort. I acknowledge that I was supremely hurt, frightened and angered by the cool criticism with which Jack's cousins received me. I was bitterly surprised too, for I had never doubted that Jack's friends would like me for his sake. And while I am undeniably small, no one had ever before seemed to find me ridiculous. Utterly oblivious of the incipient battle that waged in his immediate neighborhood, my adorable and unsuspecting husband immedi- ately went off to hurry the trunks through, leav- ing me at the mercy of these women whose rude- ness had already made me intensely dislike them. Stupidly I stood before them, rigid with wounded pride. " How did you enjoy the voyage? I suppose, 48 Dainty Devils. being your first experience, that you were very sea-sick ? " " Not in the least ; nor was it my first exper- ience. I had to go to Europe before I could come back." " Oh, now, that is funny ! But you don't look as though you were joking. I hope you're never cross, because Cousin Jack detests sharpness in women." This with a smile intended to be playful was from Mrs. St. John. I ignored the remark because had I spoken, I could not have been polite, and I felt that I had already showed unbecoming pique, which these two would attribute to my general crude- ness. " You're an orphan, aren't you ? " began Mrs. Allison. " No." I did not explain further. " Then," in a duet, (: sjc 5|c j|e Marion came early next day, her mother join- ing us later, at luncheon. The snow having amounted to more than we anticipated, it was possible to go sleighing in the afternoon. I have discovered that sleigh-rides in New York are 250 Dainty Devils. rare events. We found the Park packed to a degree positively dangerous, and I wondered once or twice what would become of us if only one horse in the mass of vehicles and animals should begin to cut up capers. Once out of the Park, I enjoyed myself better. It was inter- esting to note the infinite variety of sleighs pushed into service. From the most extrava- gantly appointed, to old painted boxes on run- ners, they flew by with equal gayety. And as for the occupants, for once New Yorkers seemed a jolly lot who did not keep themselves tightly screwed up in a kind of dignity, which is so unstable that those who indulge in it know the slightest relaxation of pressure would cause it to unwind and collapse. There were unaffected laughter, calls from one hooded, veiled and un- recognizable head to another as perfectly dis- guised. There was some singing of snatches of students' songs, and among the less elegant equipages, the interchange of good-natured teas- ing. All these were due to the magic of a rare sport. It seems odd to see people so excessively glad of a sleigh-ride. How often in Graytown have we unspeakably longed for the snow to de- part, although between snow and good roads, lay the inevitable horror of thaw ! In the evening we dressed the tree. Father had gone out alone, and found a wax angel with January. 251 a blue silk skirt exactly like ours at home: so nothing was wanting. Mrs. LaGrange helped energetically, and Marion was demurely happy. As for father, he climbed the ladder and draped and hung, as in the study at Graytown, happy as a child, and sweetly in earnest about everything. It was with a prayer of gratitude I reflected, that hardly one of our " set/' outside of Mrs. LaGrange and Marion, was in town, and there was no likelihood of a disturbing note entering into the present harmony. We decided that both Marion and her mother should remain over- night : for all wanted to save the lighting of the Christmas-tree till morning. Father was to offi- ciate at the distribution of the presents, and we agreed that the servants should come also to receive their gifts from beneath the tree. " At Christmas, if at any time, we ought to remember that we are all one family," father said. Would anyone believe it? When we came noisily downstairs in the morning, to meet the sight of the sombre evergreen transfigured into a blazing glory by its two hundred burning can- dles, our hearts so full of joy and good-will that we should have been temporarily glad to hail a red Indian as a near relative, the only servants who had deigned to appear were Blackwell and Perkins! Not one of the others was up yet. Evidently our well-meant invitation had been 252 Dainty Devils. scorned. The servants had no ambition what- ever to belong to our " family." Quite disgusted and disillusionised, I told Blackwell she could distribute the gifts to the below-stairs portion of the household when and where she liked They were to be removed at once from the library where we were gathered. This incident forgotten, that hour by the tree was very sweet. Jack had been most lavish, and every one of us was laden with remembrances. Father beamed perpetually, spoke little and bore in his face more of the spirit of the Little Child who was born in a manger, than any of us even intense, visionary, enthusiastic Marion. Breakfast was late, and most indifferently cooked. Our elevated thoughts came down hard when they sank into bitter, heavy biscuits, and were drowned altogether in the wretched reality of the worst coffee I ever drank anywhere. Six of the servants, including the cook, went to a ball last night, and returned at five this morning. Small wonder they were not at the Christmas-tree ! Never in her life did Lame Ann serve such a meal. Blackwell shall hear my opinion.. I am so glad I am not afraid of her any more. Later there was Church, and after luncheon, music. To be perfectly frank, the music did me more good than the service at St. Clara's. I January. 253 mean our own music Marion's and mine. At church there was much ornate singing, apropos of nothing whatever, all words lost in a confusion of trills and tra-las, and a sermon that was a conglomeration of Socialism, poetical quotations and an egotistic resume of the good works of St. Clara's parish during the past year. Of religion there was about as much in that dis- course as well, I almost wrote " in Paddy's pig," but that is too seemingly disrespectful, so I will say, in Addie Layton, who sat directly in front of me and spent every minute admiring her brand new Russian sable muff. It is as big as a good sized pig, by-the-way, and represents an invest- ment large enough to keep all the hands of the Mission children warm through the winter. At four o'clock Marion rose from the piano, where she had been playing accompaniments and singing while I did an Obligate on the violin, exclaiming that she would be late at the Set- tlement. I had been mentally calling her St. Cecelia for the last hour, yet her ecstatic expres- sion impressed me unpleasantly as she kissed me in the hall. It seems to me that a great many of the Saints must have worried their friends. " Dear me, Marion, must you go ? " " Yes, Dot. I must try to give some of this sense of peace to others. Wouldn't it be selfish not to go ? " 254 Dainty Devils. " Ye-es ; I suppose so." The thought required digestion. I slipped my arm about her waist. Even with her heavy jacket, her waist is unhealthily slim. " Marion, you're too ethereal in every way. You always give me the idea that you didn't get enough mush-and-milk when you were little." She laughed nervously. " I didn't get any, Dot. I hated it. And still I'm very strong. Don't you see how much I can stand?" Marion's dark eyes were dilated, her cheeks bright red. Father was right ; she works under the stimulus of unnatural excitement. I sighed as I told her to hurry back. If Percy Earle loved her, how different Marion would be! I do not believe marriage would leave her much time for Settlements, and that Settlement is killing her by inches, because she is unreasonable in the amount of time and strength she gives to it. With her it is not the quiet acceptance of a beautiful voca- tion it is the wild hurry of work to keep from thinking of another vocation for which she yearns. Oh, Percy Earle, I wish I did not like you! You ought to be thrashed for breaking this girl's heart. And Lou pretty, dainty, wicked Lou if only she would stay West for- ever! January. 255 Jack came into the hall to see whether I were lost. Marion was late for dinner. Her flush had died out, and dark hollows were under her eyes ; the ecstasy of a few hours back was replaced by weariness and suffering. I wondered crossly whether she had given so much peace to the rag- amuffins that her supply had been exhausted. She ate scarcely anything, and talked very little. Jack did not seem to notice, but father and Mrs. LaGrange closely watched her. I almost choked once at the ghastly thought that Marion might be doomed to consumption. In fiction, at least, so many good people are. " Merry Christmas ! " called Jack, suddenly. "What ails you, Dot?" " One can't be merry all the time," I an- swered, not very sweetly ; for I was provoked at the start I had given. " No only happy," said Marion, dreamily. " There's a difference. The angels sang ' Peace and Good Will,' you know: they didn't mention gaiety." " Being an angel yourself, I fancy you were there?" I glanced quickly at Marion, for I thought Jack's words might be interpreted either as a laughable compliment or a cruel sarcasm. Mar- ion's good sense saved the hour. 256 Dainty Devils. " No Perhaps I was nearer those of my color." She touched her coal-black pompadour, and father led the laugh. " Really I don't re- member." Jack smoked in silence a long time when we were alone that evening. " Dot," he began, suddenly, " can you use any influence to keep Marion from killing herself with her Missions? " " Why? " The question was meant to be eva- sive. " Oh ! Her mother is anxious." "Did she tell you so?" " Yes. I had never noticed how thin the girl was." " Well It's my shrewd guess that I should have to see that Marion became engaged." " To be married ? Nonsense. She will enter a Sisterhood." " All things are possible. However, Marion won't be a Sister." Jack's idea in this matter always angers me. " How do you know ? Is she in love with any- one, Dot?" " Oh, certainly not," sarcastically. " Marion will probably go into a nunnery. Haven't you said so ? " " What makes you so cross and so rude ? January. 257 Dot, if you know anything, I wish you would tell me." " I know nothing. Father surmises things, and Jack, father is cleverer than most men." " No doubt," gravely. This meek acceptance of my little dig made me ashamed. "If you please, Jack, I would rather speak of something else. Marion has never given me her confidence, and whatever I think may be entirely incorrect." " However, dear," said Jack, earnestly, " you might get Marion to eat more, you know, and see a doctor and all that." I burst out laughing. Dear old Jack, what a dull darling you are in matters of sentiment ! Fancy roast beef a cure for love-sickness ! And a doctor's serious professional visits in lieu of the stimulus of Percy Earle's society ! " Please excuse me for being frivolous, Jack. I'll do my best for Marion." Not a suspicion, not a dawning of the truth upon Jack yet Jack who sees these people almost every day ! My days were one long festa while father remained. Everybody I ever met called upon me, whether I owed her a visit or not, and paid homage, very gracefully, very deferentially, at the shrine of a genuine " Count." The title flew 17 258 Dainty Devils. through the atmosphere at the rate of a dozen times a minute and so unctuously that frequently I almost gasped at the change in the manners of my formerly cool and critical acquaintances. Nor were they content at overwhelming father with adulation: the Count's daughter came in for a rush of compliments and sweetness which would have been very lovely and agreeable, had I not known that the assumption of this attitude was too sudden to be trusted, and too extreme to last. At times I tried to swallow such remarks as " Your beautiful daughter, Count, has won all our hearts," and " Such talent seldom goes with so much beauty, Count von Waldeck, now really, you know." I found, however, I was not fool enough. A frightful-looking epistle from Lame Ann unexpectedly took father away from us. With the exercise of superhuman patience towards the vagaries of Ann's brain and Ann's pen, we gleaned that Uncle Dalton had been thrown from his horse and seriously injured. That news caused father to pack at once and rush for the next train to Graytown. I could have shaken Ann when the telegram came from father say- ing, " Ann exaggerated. Uncle doing well. Very slightly hurt." Not but what I am grateful that Nunk is all January. 259 right. What a stalwart " Man of God " he is, when I compare him with the Curate of St. Clara's ! To be appreciated, one must be brought into proper contrast, and Uncle Dalton and that Curate form the most ideal light and shade a master ever drew. Marion came into my room and dropped upon the couch. I put down the book I was reading, and stared speechlessly, mentally repeating the last sentence I had read, with a vague intention of not losing my place through this unexpected visitant. " Do you mean, ' When did I come ? ' " she asked, smiling in a sick sort of fashion as she unfastened her jacket. " I didn't hear the bell," I said, coming to myself and jumping up to kiss her. " Are you deadly tired or what, Marion dear ? " " Yes, tired, Dot. That's all." I surveyed her severely plain serge frock and the blue felt sailor. They always bear their own message. " Your costume suggests the Salvation Army, somewhat," I said, very crossly. " I judge you come from the Mission." " Yes. What makes you so acrid in voice and 260 Dainty Devils. manner? Would you rather I'd been playing bridge?" I caught her by the shoulders, and holding her back against the cushions, gazed sharply at her. " I know something about those who play bridge, and so do you ; and never before have we broached the subject, you and I alone to- gether. What makes you speak of bridge, now? You know very well that I'm positive you would never take a hand." The girl laughed uneasily, and her glance fell. " Let me up, Dot and come play an accompani- ment for me ; won't you ? " Music comes next to praying with Marion. " No ; I don't feel like playing, and neither do you, Marion. Tell me what ails you, or go home." I let go Marion's shoulders and sat down be- side her. She turned her eyes, full of doubt and distress, upon me. " Dot you know mother had Neddie Lawrence sent to New York ? " " Yes, you told me He wanted a start." " Well " she paused, flushed, threw her head up high and continued in a strangely challeng- ing voice : " He got started on an unfortunate road." " Oh I see bridge ! " " You're laconic but the one word will cover January. 261 considerable of his sins, as they're all accessory to bridge and poker." Marion pressed her lips together, and her sweet face took on an unfamil- iar look of severity. " I think, Dot, that several women we know ought to be electrocuted," she said, solemnly ; " I think I could turn on the cur- rent myself." A perverse resentment, because Lou and Belle were brought up like Jack's sisters, forced me to respond to this ferocious remark of my gentle Marion. " That's eminently Christian ! " " I admit it's wicked," she returned gravely, and then sighed with her whole heart. " Poor unfortunate Neddie ! " " You don't mean Marion, is he in trouble ? " " Yes, Dot, and has been for some time. He asked me for money once, and I gave it for mother's sake, as he admitted he was in the kind of debt he wouldn't care to explain to mother. He promised not to become involved again." Marion rose and began to walk about the room. Her actions were so unlike her habitual queenly calm that I wondered what would come next. " He's become involved again and owes a great many people." I felt a hot blush spreading over my face. Marion had not been at Robertsons' that Sunday 262 Dainty Devils. night, nor had she heard and seen Percy when he gave Lawrence a hundred dollars. I had also successfully resisted the temptation to tell her the story. As I sat silent and confused, Marion, cleverer than most, was not oblivious of my em- barrassment. " You know something, Dot," she cried, dart- ing over to me. " Hardly anything, Marion Oh, really ! I I know Neddie Lawrence plays cards for money, certainly." " And he " struggling bravely with gathering tears, " drinks to excess A boy who never tasted wine nor wished to taste it, while he was at home!" She stopped, biting her lips, and turning away from me. I waited in mute sympathy, and wished that I had Mrs. Robertson there so that I might pinch her. " Dot, I was talking to the women at the Mis- sion to-day about the evils of intoxication, when there was a sudden commotion at the door. Greatly annoyed, I turned from the class and saw a policeman trying to keep a young man from entering." The look in her eyes made me gasp: "It wasn't Neddie?" " It was it was dreadfully intoxicated and January. 263 saying he must see his cousin, Miss LaGrange. Oh, Dot ! " Proud Marion ! I groaned in horror. " The women all stood up, staring and laugh- ing, and shouted, ' Oh, get out ! Don't yer be afraid of the loafer, Miss LaGrange ! ' Then Neddie swore and struck at the officer, who took his club" At this point Marion broke down completely and sobbed. " And what did you do ? " I asked faintly, lay- ing my cheek against the heaving shoulder. " You poor darling, Marion ! " " I hardly know, Dot. Of course the officer is well acquainted with all those who work at the Mission, and I told him to get the young man outside and wait for me. There was a scuffle ; the women enjoyed the scene immensely. I dismissed them as soon as Neddie and the offi- cer no longer blocked the way." " What on earth did you tell the policeman? " I asked, the disgrace of the whole affair upper- most in my mind. Marion straightened up and dried her eyes. " The truth," said she, with dignity. " As soon as I came out he said, holding Neddie by the collar, ' You'll come enter a complaint, Miss, for his disturbin' o' the peace ? ' 'No,' I an- swered. ' Neddie, come into the Mission-room 264 Dainty Devils. with me.' The policeman seemed electrified. Neddie looked like a whipped dog. ' He is a relative of mine,' I told the astonished Irishman. ' A boy from the country I'll look out for him.' " Marion's voice died away; emotion had ex- hausted her. " Oh, Marion, you are wonderfully good ! . I would have sent him to the station-house." Marion's brown orbs burned me with reproof. " No you would not," said she, decidedly ; " cowardice would not make a deplorable matter better. The officer understood it. He said, ' God bless you, Miss, you're a good one,' and walked off calling roughly to the Mission women to go home." Marion is ever beyond me. Generally I hum- bly admire her superiority. This time some in- flection of her voice when she said the " officer " understood, hurt me and made me angry. I rocked very fast; my book slid to the floor, striking the wood part with a thud. Mar- ion politely picked up the volume and laid it upon my knee. I did not thank her, and she wonderingly leaned over and looked interroga- tively into my eyes. " Are you angry, Dot ? Why, what did I say?" " Nothing. You seemed somehow to be preach- January. 265 ing. Never mind ! What did you do with Ned- die?" " Not much," dejectedly. " He came for money, of course. I had only a couple of dollars with me, and told him so. Then he said he was afraid of mother, and that he must get the money by some means. Poor mother! She thought that Neddie might be like her own son ! " A swift thought brought the tears to my eyes. What must it be to have a mother! I had not known mine. Lame Ann was the substitute I had loved and obeyed. How might I have worshipped that Margaret Dare of whom uncle and father spoke at long intervals with few and reverent words ! Some new sympathy, some intangible influence of my dead mother, softened my heart into a burst of emotion, and I found myself crying hard before I quite knew what for. Very remorsefully indeed, I clung to Marion's hand. " Oh, Marion ! I'm sorry I haven't been nicer while you told me these things. I know my life is dreadfully selfish, and I'm not fit to tie your shoe" " For goodness sake, Dot, quit ! You're the best child that ever lived, and you've had an awful winter, getting used to the wretched peo- ple in your set. Don't you suppose I've seen and heard ? Don't I know you'll do great things 266 Dainty Devils. when you're broken in, as it were, and a little older and stronger? Haven't I seen your trials with the meanness and jealousy of the women who meant Jack to marry their sisters or daugh- ters or cousins? You poor little thing! I'll wager you're ten pounds lighter than when you entered this house as its mistress." My sobs grew bitter indeed under the encour- agement of these words of Marion. Curious that we never realize how much we are suffer- ing till some one puts our miseries into words ! There are people who have the inherent faculty of sitting down out of themselves, if you will and contemplating and commiserating their own woes. Not being gifted in that way, it took Marion to bring home to me the full sense of my social martyrdom. So I wept heartily. " Mother and I often speak of you, Dot, and of how well you have stood your initiation." Mar- ion's tone was delightfully sympathetic, and her gentle hands were softly stroking my hair. I dried my eyes. Marion's words were detach- ing themselves into groups. One sentence espe- cially reiterated itself persistently in my mind : " Women who meant Jack to marry their sisters or daughters or cousins." Here was the cause of much of the snubbing and sarcasm : I had taken the prize from them. Jack was a " match " of which any woman might be proud. I sighed January. 267 understandingly, and a great satisfaction flooded my heart. Was not Jack worth the envy and spite of all the world, let alone a few women who begrudged him and his wealth to me ? In my selfish digression, Marion and her mother and Neddie Lawrence were for a moment forgotten. Marion's rising and adjusting her hat it was a solidified equation of self-denial, and detracted somewhat even from Marion's beauty, which is of the kind that has no need of frills brought me back to her distress. " Marion, if I could only do something ! Where is Neddie now? Are you sure he will not go to your mother ?" " I lectured him a little he was maudlin and disgusting," Marion added, her tone showing that her superfine conscience condemned her for using the word. " All I could accomplish was the solemn promise to go straight to his room. Even then I could not trust him : so I walked uptown with him till I could get a cab and then I took him home." Fancy stately Marion walking the streets with that intoxicated boy ! My heart gave a most in- dignant throb at the thought. Remembering the " officer " who " understood," I merely asked : " Who will give him the money ?" Marion looked away, out of the window. In a very low tone, she answered, 268 Dainty Devils. " I had the amount in my desk, and I sent it by a messenger-boy with a note saying this was the last time I should help him." " Was it right to send it ? " I ventured, rather timidly. " I don't know. It's only for mother's sake, and because he was good until he knew Mrs. Rob- ertson and her chums." Marion's voice trembled with excitement. Her words again stabbed me Jack's cousin was one of the chums. " Tell me, Marion You know many more peo- ple than I do are they all as bad as Mrs. Robert- son and the rest ? " " Oh, don't ask me. Some are very good. Only they seem so few just now ! They are few. I cannot help the uncharitableness it may seem to say so." " I hate Mrs. Robertson !" I said, vehemently. "If she's not the worst of the party, she's the oldest, and has the greatest influence over the others." " There is no use talking about her. The only thing would be to get Neddie back to the country. But he won't go of that I'm certain. He told me the country was too dead slow for a man with any sport in him, and that he was having a bully good time, only luck was against him at cards. January. 269 Of course, he had no idea how he was talking," Marion concluded apologetically. " It's all villainous ! And, Marion, I should think you'd die at the thought of facing that Mission-class next time." " I shall not think about it. It was chokingly hard for a few moments, but now I'm over it." Marion smiled that brave forced smile which I hate, and with a kiss left me. My book failed to chain my interest after she had gone. Neddie Lawrence forced himself in front of the heroine, and meagre as his proportions are, he is so very real and miserable that he eliminated the possi- bility of seeing the " tall, slender maiden " who played golf, and fell in and out of love most comfortably, from cover to cover. The longer I thought of the case, the blacker Mrs. Robertson appeared. Bridge-whist and poker seemed the very incarnation of crime and wickedness ; and for me, Mrs. Robertson was their accredited High Priestess. My head began to ache wearily. I clasped my hands over my forehead and pressed back the slow, throbbing pain which I have so often lately. Probably the ache comes from the effort of my dull brain to penetrate the absorbing mys- teries of the lives about me. I am not good like Marion, and I have no right to denounce other people. Am I simply narrow and ignorant and 270 Dainty Devils. limited? Maybe my judgment and criticisms of the individuals I know are more sinful than their card-playing and flirting and drinking. Dear me, I am growing morbid ! I know I am, because last night, at the Fortnightly, I suddenly had a ghastly vision of the grave-yard back of Uncle Dalton's church, with its significant mounds under the snow, and for a moment it seemed to me that the gay crowd in the ball room were doing the " Two-Step " over those same grim, cold, white graves. I know I shivered, and Jack brought me a wrap, but the room was melting hot, and I was chilly only through imagination which kept away the laughter and electric light and the smooth floor, and left me these gayly- dressed people still dancing in the cold moonlight over the mournful mounds ; profound silence in- stead of the music; and for a background the black, motionless pines which used to frighten me at night when I was little and Lame Ann had taken me over to Uncle Dalton's for tea because father had gone to Boston to spend the day, and she would not bother to get supper for only me. In the warmth and comfort of my room, I again found myself shivering. Was I going to be ill, or what ? I longed for Jack to come home. He had said he would be late; there was some panic in Wall Street, and he would stay as long January. 271 as others did. I concluded, lonesomely, that there was a worse panic in my heart, and dis- covered I was sobbing. " Oh Jack ! Come home, come home ! " ******* It was an evening for which we had three en- gagements, only I had a small cold and a big attack of nerves, so when Dr. Stanton said I had better stop at home, Jack warmly approved. I could not fail to see that he was pleased at the prospect of an evening alone in my society, and I felt much gratified for a while. Dinner over, my throat grew worse, my head began to ache, the blues deepened fearfully, and I presently forgot that Jack's satisfaction about being at home alone with me, was decidedly complimen- tary and deserving of appreciation. Twice I answered his questions irrelevantly ; then Jack sat in silence and clouds of tobacco-smoke for what was probably a good while, because when he suddenly spoke, I very unpleasantly jumped. " I beg your pardon, Jack." " You're exceedingly nervous, Dot. What ails you?" " Nothing except New York." It was pro- voking to have started so, and a trifle of acidity might have been detected in my voice. " Is it so bad as that, dear ? In that case we ought to go off somewhere." 272 Dainty Devils. Jack had suggested the popular cure for every- thing in New York. It is a wonder that people who have not the money to go, and are forced to stay, get over things about as well ! " No, I don't want to ; we're home so short a time; let's not begin to be wandering Arabs, like the people around us. It seems to me a sin to shut up beautiful big houses and live all over creation. And besides, disagreeable experiences are probably salutary for me." This heroic sentiment was of the lips, not the heart. Jack tenderly patted me. He is at times delightfully motherly. " Why dwell upon the disagreeable things ? Can't you linger on the pleasant side? Our happiness, for instance?" I fancied there was a note of reproach in Jack's tone, and sensitive as I have become of late, began inanely to cry. " Dot, Dot ! What am I to do with you ?" Perhaps it was only discouragement, but I thought the question savored of impatience. I believe a cross husband would soon kill me. "Oh, don't scold me! I can't stand it," I wailed. " This will never do ; I think you hardly know what you are saying." Jack dropped my hand and rose to his feet. " Qh, what a way to speak to me !" Jack had January. 273 never looked as he did that minute, all the time I had known him. While really crying, I was not so overcome but that I could peek through my fingers at him all the time. " If you were satisfied with me, you couldn't get so down-hearted, no matter what happened." Such a cold, judicial tone from Jack, was mad- dening. " Oh-oh-oh !" I threw myself down into the cushions upon the couch, too crushed to think of peeking any longer. " If it were day time I'd go home to father !" I wonder how many wives threaten to go home to father " or mother" every day ? And what percentage of these would be welcome to " father "or " mother " ? " Thank you !" I glanced up hastily. Jack never swears, main- taining that swearing is a form of cowardice, but he looked exactly as though he meant " Damn it !" He said not a syllable beyond the two words of sarcastic gratitude. I was hurt to the quick and went on recklessly : " You are quite welcome. I thought you'd be glad to get rid of me." What an insolent lie it was ! I suppose I expected some denial, some plead- ing and petting. Slowly paling, Jack gazed at me a second or two. I quivered and sobbed 18 274 Dainty Devils. tearlessly, confidently expecting to drop my head directly upon his solacing shoulder. Instead I saw Jack turn upon his heel and leave me. I blinked in amazement. At first I was not fright- ened. I was only angrier than in the beginning. It was the sound of the hall-door closing that brought me hurriedly to my feet. " Jack ! Jack !" I called, wildly. It was no use. Jack had gone out. He had run away from me, his wife. I flew to the closet where his hats and coats are kept. Derbys,top- hats, Alpines, visor-caps Yes, the brown derby was missing. And my heart stood still the night was bitter cold but Jack had gone out with- out a coat. Driven out of the house by me ! Oh, what should I do? Why did I not die when I was born ? Why had I not rushed after Jack and kept him from going out? I returned to the library, and passionately wept. How long had Jack been away? What if he never came back? Or took pneumonia? Oh, he must come now ! Where had he gone ? I had not meant what I said. How could he misunder- stand his devoted wife? If he only had put on a coat? Stout people catch cold so easily, and had I not heard that their hearts nearly always gave out if they contracted pneumonia? Oh, I should go crazy! This was indeed genu- January. 275 ine wretchedness. If he did not come soon there would be an end of me. Unable to cry any longer, I ran into the hall, and paced up and down, straining my ears at every sound, in hope that I should hear Jack upon the steps. How horribly wicked I had been ! Had I not tortured Jack for several weeks past by my despondency and irritability? Had I not been lacking even in those outward demonstrations of affection which, while they are not essential to a happy life, certainly help it along consider- ably ? My soul wilted under the misery of the thought that for more than a week I had been too pre-occupied to pet poor Jack at all. Dear Jack, the best man that ever walked this earth ! And now he had left me ! A servant appeared. I slipped quickly into Jack's den, ashamed to be caught racing through the hall. Tenderly and with a big lump in my throat, I touched Jacks' ash-receiver and his cigar-cutter. They were precious, they were a consolation, because Jack's fingers so often held them. Faithful, inanimate servants, they had never offended him ! Would he ever again use them? The agony of the question! Hark ! The bell had rung. If it should be a caller and not Jack ! I would risk it I must I was choking with a combination of dread and contrition. The door was opened ; no one spoke. 276 Dainty Devils. A visitor would be obliged to say something. How many seconds did it take the servant to be out of hearing? Surely I had waited long enough. With a mad rush I darted out of the room, and screamed softly as I found myself caught in Jack's arms. " Oh, Jack," I cried, clinging to him convul- sively, " I was awful, and I am so sorry !" " My darling ! I was a fool and a brute. I ought to be sorry, and I am. You're tired out and ill, and I made no allowance for you, poor child.'- Jack's repentant kisses fell fast. " I thought you might never come back," I whispered, fearfully. " Is it hours since you left?" " Fifteen minutes, dear. Did you worry so much as that? It makes me sick to think how ridiculous I was." By this time I was on Jack's knee, in the cozy den, rubbing his poor, cold hands. " What made you go out, Jack ? I was naughty, but your punishment was very cruel." " I thought Don't make me tell it, Dot." " Yes, you must. Anyway, I know." " No, you don't. It was because I thought you didn't care for me any more." Jack's grav- ity was almost comical. " That's just what I meant. How could you, Jack?" January. 277 I grew silent, struck unpleasantly by a new thought. " I don't know how I could, except, as I said, because I was temporarily a fool. What makes you so serious now?" He raised my chin and smiled into my eyes. " Jack," I said, regretfully, " do you know we have had our first quarrel?" Jack sighed heavily, the smile completely mur- dered. " I fear we shall have to call it that," said he. " Well," earnestly, " let's never have another." " Agreed, Dot." And we kissed and were even if some people may not understand what I mean solemnly happy for the rest of the evening. Nevertheless I wish we had never had the sad experience of each other's tempers. It could all have been so easily avoided If either one of us had had a wee bit more patience and common sense! I am positive that many big troubles between husbands and wives commence with some such foolish, trifling things at the start. In my opin- ion the sweetest " make-up " that ever happened, is not worth the sting, the selfishness and the wretchedness, of a quarrel. We sat talking till very late, and in spite of an uninterrupted flow of affectionate eloquence, Jack impressed me as having a reserved something 278 Dainty Devils. upon his mind, which he fain would communi- cate. We had not been long upstairs when out came the matter: " I met Arnold Allison on the street, Dot." " Yes," I responded, for Jack paused as though expecting me to speak. " He was walking so rapidly and recklessly that we collided at the corner. I began to apol- ogize to the supposed stranger when the electric light made us plain to each other." Here Jack hesitated perceptibly, and glanced at me in alarmed haste. " I I'm afraid I looked pretty queer, Dot, because, as I mentally noted Allison's pallor and distracted expression, he cried out : ' My God ! Woodward, are you getting it, too ?' " I know I frowned furiously. What business had Jack to go out with the advertisement of our first difficulty stamped upon his face? I should rather he would have Yes, I should struck me, provided we had been alone, than have an inkling of our foolish quarrel become known to our friends. " What did you say ? " I asked, very haughtily, considering the beautiful humility I had displayed since Jack's return. "What did I say?" Jack echoed. "Why of course, I asked him what on earth he meant ?" January. 279 " And he said ?" I prompted, much relieved. " He laughed like a fiend, Dot, and answered that if I didn't know, it must be all right." " It is all right," I declared, decidedly. " And we'll never be such idots again. Did he tell you what troubled him, Jack?" " No : he bolted after exclaiming that it was all right." Jack paused, meditating. " Dot, do you know whether Lou has been less interested in Allison than usual, lately ? Since she returned from her trip?" I returned Jack's penetrating scrutiny squarely. " Lou has been home only a few days. I know nothing new. I fancied you knew nothing, either new or old. As for Allison, I can't make him out." " Can you make Lou out ?" My glance fell. What should I answer? " I don't know, Jack." That is the safest answer in all situations and under all circum- stances. Only sometimes it is cowardly and half a lie the resource of social sneaks. " You must have some opinion in the matter," Jack insisted, pulling his moustache as if his life depended upon the exercise. " I think, dear, that Lou is charming and fas- cinating and devilish." Jack was not shocked at the last word, much 280 Dainty Devils. to my surprise, for he is one of those men who think no ugly word should cross feminine lips. " You wouldn't trust Lou, Dot ?" "Oh, dear! What do you mean by trust? I'm deadly tired and can't think logically any more." Jack deeply sighed. Lou and Belle are the same as sisters in his affections, and neither one could be anything but a trial and an affliction to a brother who loved her. I think adoptions are breathlessly risky, even if everyone concerned is in the family. " We must hope for the best," said Jack, pa- thetically cheerful. " After all, Allison may have had a bad attack of indigestion this evening. ' It ' is enormously indefinite." I am sure Jack meant me to say that his own guilty conscience had caused him to give a serious interpretation to Allison's words. So far I have not enough conventional polish to instantaneously fill the part another thrusts upon me. The ac- complishment is, I allow, a valuable one to those who can (while putting on the external polish) succeed in shading the inconvenient lamp accom- panying our reason, and known as conscience: Its light is relentless and pierces through veneer in a manner calculated to daunt the boldest believer in his own shams. Such a lamp must be covered, hidden, extinguished best of all, January. 281 thrown away when one enters the arena where the prizes of society are awarded. There is light there plenty of it glaring, artificial light, which greets artificial polish as a near relation, and bathes it in a blaze of radiance. Only the light which God has given, the lamp which Heaven has filled, conscience, sensitive and clean, is the worst sort of superfluity for the indivi- dual entering the contest for social success. If one cannot even fib promptly and to the point, what is the use of attempting anything more advanced? One who does not know his alpha- bet, must not try to write an essay. The power for evil in intellect stripped of con- science, is immeasurable. The potency for good in a conscience quickened by the stupidest mind is undoubtedly, at least before God and the angels, also illimitable. Probably I am not at all clever, so let me find consolation and grati- tude in the reflection that I possess an abundance of inconvenient old-fashioned conscience. Jack had waited some time for me to say more. At last he spoke : " You don't want to discuss the question, Dot ? Well, never mind." Lou is not worth such a deep, deep sigh, as I heard Jack breathe. FEBRUARY. It was a most forsaken morning, pouring rain, and the side-walks, houses and everything, jet black with the wet. The lights were turned on for breakfast, and a sleepy feeling made us absent-minded and untalkative, as if we had been summoned to the table in the middle of the night. Jack, after somnolency had somewhat decreased, had the absorbing distraction of the newspaper, leaving me to desultorily open notes and invita- tions, and wonder how many I should have to answer at once. I was so numb and listless that Jack's departure passed almost unnoted, in- stead of calling forth tender complaints at the cruel order of things which has created a " down- town " to which the majority of men flock every morning in many cases, I believe, mutely grate- ful for the obligation. A victim of late to pricks of conscience induced by long neglect of practising, I roused sufficient ambition to begin some scales upon the violin. One dances to the music of a violin, and I sup- pose it is therefore capable of joyous strains. 282 February. 283 For me it is the best medium for the expression of sadness and loneliness, doubt and dread. I wandered from the salutary scales into a maze of musical scraps, all slow, minor, quivering with misery. " For Heaven's sake, Dot, quit ! " " Lou ! I never heard you. Isn't the weather awful?" Lou dropped a wet coat and a wetter hat upon a chair. She did not seem to notice my kiss. " I believe it is. I hadn't stopped to consider." " Has anything happened, Lou ? And did you walk here without an umbrella?" " Nothing has happened. Your doleful selec- tion of music exasperated me, that's all. It sounded like Arnold's." The remark grated upon me. " Shall we go upstairs ?" I asked, coldly. " Probably it will seem less dreary than down here." I carefully put away my violin, tucking in the silk handkerchief very tenderly. The instrument had responded to my mood. Lou was an inhar- monious interruption. "'Oh, no! All places are alike to me at pres- ent. And I've been talking to my lawyer for the last hour, so one flight of stairs is too much ex- ertion for my exhausted nerves. Do you know 284 Dainty Devils. anything about law, Dot ?" Lou frowned whim- sically at me. " No ; or at least so little that it isn't worth mentioning." Lou laughed, much to my relief, as frowns do not become her. " Oh, well, you won't ever need to know more, most likely. It's immensely interesting. Given a clever lawyer, one can get in or out of any- thing." Completely at a loss as to the trend of Lou's thoughts, I made no attempt to refute her alarm- ing assertion. She suddenly darted to the win- dow. " There goes Mrs. Robertson. I should know her gaudy equipage if I met it in Hades. I say Dot ! Have you any idea what goblin has got her?" " Why?" I asked, putting some music in order. " She's going around with a set face, and isn't eating anything like her proper rations. Belle had a note from her saying she's dreadfully hard up for money and won't Belle please pay her last winnings at once? Jingo! If I had a rich old idiot for a mother, and she was as stingy as hers, I'd poison her coffee some morning, if there was no other way of getting at the mil- lions !" " Lou, you're not like yourself this morning." February. 285 " Am I not ? I'm so glad you have warned me. You see I got weak and tired at the lawyer's and he recommended a high-ball to steady me. So I stopped at Blanks' and had one on the way up. It must have been a very heavy one, because I'm sort of dizzy and can just about recognize people, and that's all. I have," laugh- ing boisterously, " an uncontrollable desire to talk." A sensation of supreme disgust came over me. Then the recollection of the name Belle St. John often derisively called me, " Pharisee", stung me into repentant patience. " What a horrid man," I said, endeavoring to give him all the blame, " to advise a woman to drink whiskey !" " Not at all, dear ; the advice was most kind and timely. Why should a woman have to live under the old-fashioned constraint which defined one set of ethics for men, and a different one for her? We want men's freedom and men's privi- leges, even though some of their bothersome re- sponsibilities have to be thrown in. I'm glad I didn't live before the days I could go into a place for a drink if I wanted to. Not," she volubly rat- tled on, " that the particular department of alco- holic beverages especially appeals to me. That's more in Belle's line." 286 Dainty Devils. " Would you mind sitting down, Lou ? You fatigue me." " Dot upon her dignity ! As you used to be perpetually when we first knew each other. I didn't come to stay." " You'd better at least, Lou, till you've di- gested that high-ball. Come up to my room and lie down." " No, you don't. I'm not so far gone that I need to sleep it off. Dot, I came to ask a favor." Lou leaned against the piano and solemnly studied my face. For me the room was decidedly chilly, but Lou was flushed and over-heated from indulgence in the early stimulant. " You may ask as many as you please." " And you'll grant me as many as you please ? Really, you've grown amazingly saucy and wily. Dot, wouldn't you always take my part?" Her beautiful teeth flashed in a confident smile. " I don't know what you mean," I answered, vaguely troubled. " Oh, in a row or an argument, or any old thing?" " Are you in a row?" " Patience ! You're worse than a lawyer. I mean wouldn't you make a small sacrifice, put yourself out a bit, to get me out of trouble? I'd do as much for you, I swear." Mystified, I watched Lou growing redder as February. 287 she thumped the piano excitedly. How very potent a high-ball must be ! " I'd do anything I could, Lou, provided it was honest." " Oh, the deuce ! Well, it would be honest, of course." She seemed to expect a reiteration of my words. I remained silent, concluding that her random talk was not to be taken seriously. Lou brought her fist down hard upon my violin-case. " In the hour of need," said she, mockingly grave, " do we discover who are our true friends. I'll still bet on you, Dot." I had nothing to say. I wished very sincerely that my violin practice had not been interrupted. Suddenly, after quite a pause, during which I listened nervously to the beating, spattering, driv- ing rain, so soothing, so annoying, according to our chance mood, Lou darted to the piano and began to play and sing, " Coon, Coon, Coon !" She has a clear staccato touch, and the kind of ringing voice which is best adapted to rag- time. Rolling her eyes, grinning so that her teeth were visible in all their glory, nodding her black head at petrified me, she flew along in a whirl of sound and motion. Abruptly she stopped. I started as the silence struck me. Lou rising from the piano was her pale, sobered self. The change was marvelous. 288 Dainty Devils. " That was a dirge to my wasted youth," she said, quietly. " My kind of a dirge. I am thirty, Dot, but I'll be happy yet." Lou straightened the fulness in her red blouse, picked up her hat and told me to go back to my practising. Mechanically I helped her put on her coat. Like all her clothes, it fitted her to crease- less perfection, and despite dampness and limp- ness, Lou stood before me a model of finished elegance. Only pre-occupied indifference was in her face ; flush, impishness, and all traces of a high-ball were gone. " How pretty you are, Lou !" I exclaimed, in- voluntarily. "Think so? I'm too thin, but thank you all the same." " Won't you wait and let me telephone to the stable?" " No, for goodness' sake. I want the walk in the pour. It's good for the skin, and I haven't any rheumatism." " Are you going home ?" " Yep No Let me see ! Yes, I think I will. May I use your phone?" "Of course. Why this sudden formality ? " Lou's laugh fills in all pauses, embarrassments and unspoken replies. A gay peal answered me and she rushed to the instrument. February. 289 I tried not to listen honestly I did and I paid no attention till I heard : " Yes, my house at two. I'm dying of the blues. Did you ever see such a day? An en- gagement ?" Silence for a few seconds, then my end of the conversation always to one listening so com- ically like a monologue, in which words have become mixed or forgotten was resumed: " Break any and all engagements you have. I don't care for the consequences. I shall not touch a mouthful of luncheon till you arrive. You'll come? All right. If you don't, I'll make for the river. Good-bye." " Were you talking to Mr. Allison ?" I inquired, severely, as Lou returned to me. " Was I ? If you thought I was, why are you so cross about it? See here, Dot, do you fancy any sane person living would take a dose of Alli- son for the blues?" " You horrid, wicked woman ! And you made Percy promise to luncheon with you ! " " The same time, dear, I give you permission to have Arnold Allison here." This with a deli- cate, attenuated sneer, which galled all the worse because it was so daintily calculated. " Oh, Lou, how can you ?" She was going, and stopped near the door. " I forgot one piece of news, Dot. Addie Lay- 19 290 Dainty Devils. ton has her sixth another boy. Won't it be a relief to have the number changed? Imagine her rendering of the refrain ' Six helpless chil- dren.' Can't you hear her now?" " I must send some roses " I said, thinking aloud. " No, don't ; Addie threw a boxful at the head of her husband, as I stopped to leave my con- gratulations on the way here." " How in the world do you know ?" " Oh, the door of her room was open, and I heard her sweet voice altercating, and then the box came over the banister and down the stairs. Poor Layton ran down to explain that Addie was a bit nervous." " If only some men weren't such sheep !" I ex- claimed. Lou eyed me coolly. " I presume you allude to Layton and Allison," said she, unemotionally. " And neither one has a lamb for a wife." I recalled my unfortunate quarrel with Jack. He is not a sheep but his wife is far from being a lamb. Upon occasion she has come sugges- tively near the category of a goose. " Lou," I began, rather meekly, " why do you make yourself out so much worse than you are ?" " I never do. You needn't accuse me of that. And see here you won't be shocked by me February. 291 much longer. I'm going away again Oh, for an awfully long time in about a fortnight. Some far-off cousins have asked me to Jekyll Island, and I'm going as soon as Blanches! sends my new togs." " You're only home from the West about a month. Is Mr. Allison going to Jekyll Island with you ?" Lou opened her eyes enormously wide. Then she fairly shrieked with laughter. " Arnold going with me ? You may bet all Jack's worth, that he's not. How awfully funny you are, Dot !" " I'd rather be funny, as you call it, than un- principled," I hotly returned. " Don't you think a wife has any duties whatever ?" " Why !" exclaimed Lou, putting on an exas- peratingly innocent look. " Arnold wouldn't leave his nice times with you, you know, even if I wanted him. Jekyll Island wouldn't have' the ghost of a chance." " Oh !" I cried, too angry to get out another syllable. " Good-bye, dear little innocent ! If Allison comes, don't send him home early. I trust your power of fascination." Another laugh, a kiss, and the door slammed upon her. Probably she had no idea how her words had stung me. Mr. Allison was here verjr 292 Dainty Devils. frequently before the Holidays, to play trio-music with Marion and me. Did Lou not understand that music, and music only, was the attraction? Did she not know me? Did she not know Jack? A painful flush rose to my hair. Did others be- sides Lou jest about Mr. Allison's visits at my house? To flirt with anyone outside of Jack, had never been even a temptation. Was I to be punished for believing myself so much better than most of the women I knew ? I could no longer practise. I was too aston- ished and angry and alarmed. How dare Lou insinuate, even in fun, that I had been coquetting with her husband? As if Allison would be the kind to infatuate me! What had I been saying to myself? Was I tactily admitting that there were other men with whom I might flirt? No, no, no ! Impossible to make myself so cheap. I love Jack dearly, and I am tremendously proud of him, and he is certainly good to me. // / hated him and had made a wretched mistake, I should value myself too highly to acknowledge such a miserable state of affairs to the world, by seeking the diversion of a flirtation with some one else. I am very fond of Mr. Allison, and should not hesitate to tell Lou so. Were he disposed to flirt, I am much too old-fashioned to admire him as I do now. His passiveness about his wife's February. 293 'foolish conduct has frequently angered me, par- ticularly at first, when I judged from the sur- face of things, and believed Allison as free from emotion as his absolute self-possession might in- dicate. Lately I understand him differently although I still feel I am far from knowing him and often fancy that sudden flashes of deep feeling escape him, without his suspecting the fact. Before I recover from the surprise, he is Allison again. And, longing to be his friend, I am far off somewhere in the field of acquain- tances, with the sensation of having been cour- teously and coldly told, " No farther, please." Even among men, I am certain Allison has no in- timate friends. Perhaps longing for Lou's af- fection, and failing in receiving it, he shrinks from asking any love of other people. It is not difficult then, to comprehend how a shy, proud man, having given his utmost devotion, could not approach a woman upon the subject of her love for another man. What good will this affair with Percy do Lou Allison? She cannot marry him. And would he have Lou were she free ? When the forbidden fruit is flung before us with the importunate com- mand to eat it, its beauty and flavor soon depart. Great is the glamour of the unattainable! The dramatic agony of hopeless love stimulates de- votion till the apparently insurmountable obsta- 294 Dainty Devils. cles are swept away ; then the dream, the agony, and often love itself vanish with the obstacles, at the very moment that Society says, " Bless you, my children." Huddled upon the couch in my room that pink bower which has witnessed so many of the tears of its unappreciative owner I went deeper and deeper into a brown study where no rosy hue penetrated. I had thought I was learning my lessons of social etiquette, polite lies, intrigues and shams. It had been a shock to receive Lou's laughing words about her husband coming to see me. Had Marion known that people said things ? For I had rushed to the conclusion that I was the subject of gossip, and if so, Marion had wilfully left me in ignorance. How intolerably mean ! Was even Marion not a true friend? Oh, I would not believe she had neglected warning me if she knew anything about my name being drag- ged into the Allison difficulties ! I have not seen much of Marion lately. She is more than ever hopelessly devoted to charity, besides spending more time with her mother than formerly, partly to prevent her from hearing much about Neddie Lawrence, and partly because Mrs. LaGrange has recently been in rather poor health. Marion herself is looking old and worn. Her girlish freshness is being lost in the lines and shadows of a tired woman's face. February. 295 I tried to deceive myself for a while, as one fain would where one is fond. Now I have to give in that Marion, not yet twenty-one, is fading. I heard two insipid youths discussing her at Sherry's one night last week. There were plants between them and me, and they did not take the trouble to look around, when, having in mind an occasion upon which I failed to do so, and heard something not meant for my ears, I furi- ously coughed. " Marion was beastly pale, don't you know," and her " cheekbones were beginning to be deuc- edly prominent ; " altogether they concluded she was " no longer in it with the debutantes." One of the wonders of life is that strange species of insanity called love. One woman loves one man out of the earth's millions, and loves him so madly, that while thousands are hand- somer and nobler than he, if she is doomed to live without him, she will either pathetically die or continue to exist a sorry shadow of what she might have been, crowned with the happiness of possessing her idol. Then a man loves a woman so passionately, that being denied her, he takes to a pistol, drink or cynicism, and in one of the three ways, ruins all his chances in this world and the next. Marion could choose among half- a-dozen, and here she is wasting youth and beauty because the particular Percy regards her in the 296 Dainty Devils. calm light of a nice girl for some other chap to marry. Verily there is no greater joy, no deeper misery or mightier power in the universe than love. I have heard middle-aged women with grown daughters and shrinking incomes talk this winter about love being out of style, and not at all necessary in the bestowal of their girls in marriage. If the daughters themselves reach this godless condition of regarding matrimony as a blameless method of relieving parents and obtaining a splendid home and stunning gowns, there will be some excitement five or six years from now, when Love, thwarted and insulted, claims as victims the hearts which have already been, falsely and blasphemously at God's altar, pledged for a life-time's service and devotion where cold indifference is the least evil one dare expect. Love will never go out of style, nor will it always strike in the direction most desired by the on-lookers. Do I not wish Marion detested Percy Earle ? . To be more honest, how I long to force Percy to turn from Lou Allison and see what a girl he is making wretched! Ten years younger, twice as pretty, a thousand times more gifted and refined! Oh, besides all its glorious attributes, Love is, in a case like Percy's, not merely blind, as the proverb has it, but deaf, dumb and imbecile! February. 297 Browner and browner grew the study into which I had sunk. How had I ever been care- less and happy, as they say in Graytown, from "sun-up to sun-down?" There were tragedies in the world then, miseries, deceits, heart-aches, disgraces, and I floated through a cloudless ether of ignorance and unconcern, pitying no one, help- ing no one, half unconscious that I possessed a soul. Is it because I am so horribly unspiritual that the awakening to the truths of life brings such despair? Jack has patiently reasoned with me against a habit of morbidness, saying that in my secluded and guarded life at home, I was wholly ignorant of the wide possibility that most people have heart-histories which, although not dead, are scrupulously and persistently held down alive in their graves by their owners. And now Mr. Allison ! Would I again hear jests about my friendship for him? Oh, I could not stand it ! And I would not ! They had criticised me, ridiculed me, made it hard for me in every conceivable way, these New York women who did not care to welcome the unknown, penni- less country-girl into their midst. The first hard experience over, I could bear nearly everything of this nature, because I realized who I was, and who were many of my persecutors. But scandal ! No, I should die, if women giggled and men shrugged their shoulders when I entered a room. 298 Dainty Devils. Once, in a little inn upon the Rhine, I came across a small devotional book in French, the first chap- ter of which discoursed eloquently upon " Human Respect." It was immensely clever in a delicious- ly naive way, as are so many little pious French books ; and engulfed in miserable thoughts as I was, I vividly recalled some paragraphs about " the power to change our ideas, endeavors and actions, in even the unspoken, and ought-to- be-unknown, opinions of neighbors and acquaint- ances." At the time I pictured the volume in the course of composition on the worn old desk of some Monsieur le Cure, whose saintly calm had been frequently jarred by the gossipings and back- bitings of Monsieur le Boulanger and Monsieur le Cordonnier, by the petty cheating and huge in- dignation of Madame la Blanchisseuse and Ma- demoiselle la Couturicre. My own recently ac- quired experience as to the dread of the scath- ing cruelty and injustice of public opinion, made me yield a mournful acquaintance to the views so cleverly put forward by the earnest Cure. Strange that the lonely man in his restricted sphere of village pastor, so successfully expressed the thoughts which New York itself evokes! Ah, human nature! What is it but the weak- nesses and strength, the limitations and capa- bilities comon to all? No doubt, Monsieur le Cure had abundance of human nature to deal February. 299 with among his simple, unambitious, grubbing parishoners. And the whole world is still kin. As the afternoon waned, brighter possibilities filtered through the murky clouds of my thoughts. Lou was half-crazy. She had taken that repre- hensible high-ball. I could not believe that she meant to hint anything unpleasant. Impossible that anyone should consider me a flirt. Perhaps too, all that scare she gave me about law, had its origin in the same alcoholic beverage. Jack told me long ago that neither Lou nor Belle owns any real estate, and I am sure there are no wills being contested in the family. There is no reason for Lou being at law about anything under the sun. I believe that high-balls, if permissible at all, should be relegated exclusively to strong men. ******* There are more matters than a guilty con- science which at times give one a horror of being alone. Not that my conscience is blameless, only I fail to find it very rebellious, alone or other- wise. It may be that it is one of the convenient kind that "still sleep". Nothing but restless- ness made the house unbearable yesterday. I could not stay alone without screaming, nor would I see anyone I disliked. Marion saved the situation. Quite wrought-up and desperate, I walked down to her house, feeling that if she 3oo Dainty Devils. were out, there was no telling what I might do next. She was at home, the maid said, hesitatingly. Where ? Upstairs with Mrs. LaGrange, who had a severe headache. I stepped past the deliberat- ing servant and went directly to Marion's room ; she was not there. Going back one flight of stairs, I knocked at Mrs. LaGrange's door. No one answered in words, but there was a rustle of skirts, and Marion gently opened the door. " Is it you, Dot ?" she said, in a low voice. " Come in. You won't mind, mother? " Mrs. LaGrange lay upon the couch, her eyes glazed with pain. Marion had bound a com- press across her mother's forehead, and held a vinaigrette in one hand, while she unfastened my jacket without speaking. Did they always take headaches so seriously at LaGranges' ? " I'm so sorry you're ill," I began, feelingly. " I'm not ill, dear," Mrs. LaGrange interrupted. " Tell her, Marion." Alarmed I turned quickly to Marion. " What has happened ? Why didn't you send me word ? " " It has just happened scarcely half-an-hour ago. It's a letter from Neddie." Marion's voice was very cold. " Has he gone home ? " I asked, knowing very well he had not. February. 301 " No He's gone to Canada, probably." Marion had a basin of ice on a table. She went to it, wrung out a fresh compress, and pro- ceeded to change the application on her mother's head. Mrs. LaGrange moaned faintly, as she turned her face toward her daughter. " Yes, you're suffering for that foolish boy," Marion replied to the moan, in the same unim- passioned manner. " I can't bear to think of that, mother." " He's young," said Mrs. LaGrange, faintly and pleadingly, " and he wasn't strong enough to resist bad example." " He shouldn't have broken your heart. The ingratitude is shameful. Won't you show Dot the letter, mother ? " Mrs. LaGrange drew her hand from under the worsted rug Marion had wrapped about her. I leaned forward and took the sheet of paper curiously. It read : " MY DEAR COUSIN : It may seem strange to you that I write to beg forgiveness for an act which I ought to be ashamed to acknowledge. I have for some time been unworthy of the kind- ness and great interest that you and Marion have showered upon me. There can be no excuse; that I fully understand, but I beg you to believe 3O2 Dainty Devils. that in the last few weeks I have continued to play cards in the desperate hope that one day my luck would change, and I should be able to clear myself of the debts I have so unfortunately contracted. The confession which it half kills me to make to you, is that I have used fifteen hundred dol- lars of the bank's money, besides having bor- rowed from a number of your personal friends. Although I am leaving the city like a thief, will you try to pardon me and believe that I shall go somewhere and work hard until the money I have squandered, yes and stolen, has been re- turned? I shall write the pitiful truth to my poor mother, and all I can say to her, as well as to you, is that I have been undeserving of the favors I have received. With bitter regret for my faults and failings, believe me still, my dear cousin, Gratefully and humbly, EDWARD LAWRENCE." Awe-struck, I glanced from Mrs. LaGrange to Marion, and back again to Mrs. LaGrange. "Does it mean he has actually stolen?" I asked. Mrs. LaGrange quivered at the word. " They call it defaulting," said Marion. " The February. 303 suffering for mother is the same, whatever the name." " Oh, Marion, don't ! " said the mother. " Have a little pity. He is hardly more than a child. You have acted so queerly ever since the note came." Marion was outraged in what was, next to her love for Percy, her strongest feeling: -her devo- tion to her mother ; and her nature resented the action that brought pain to Mrs. LaGrange, in a stronger manner than most people would have believed possible for her. " Some are born criminals, some attain crimi- nality, some have criminality thrust upon them," the girl went on in a hard voice. " The last is Neddie, I fancy." Her eyes met mine. In spite of outward cold- ness, a great heart-sickness was within. By some undefined sympathy, I knew she was regretting having given Lawrence money to settle his debts. I recalled the scene at the Mission-room, and anger overcame my better judgment. " Mrs. Robertson is the one who should suffer for this," I cried. " She taught him to drink and to gamble." " Yes ; " added Marion, " she did." " Don't, children, don't ! " Mrs. LaGrange pressed her hands against her forehead distract- edly. " I am the one to blame ; I should have 304 Dainty Devils. brought him here to live. Oh, I did wrong to let him have rooms where I could not control him ! " " He would have been the same, mother. He'd have met the same people." Marion's tone was more judicial than soothing. " But you could have restrained him, Marion," reasoned the mother, relentlessly arguing her own condemnation. " And I confess I didn't bring him here because I was afraid he would fall in love with you ! Oh, I'm punished for my mater- nal vanity and conceit! And now what shall I say to his mother? What account can I give of the responsibility I undertook ? " Mrs. La- Grange's face contracted with physical and men- tal pain. " Hush, mother ! You must not speak so. You are not to blame. It's the wretchedness into which society is degenerating above all the women. If there were only a few more like you!" Marion knelt down and tenderly stroked her mother's cheek, her own face beginning to trem- ble, and her unnatural constraint giving way. The great resemblance in the two faces shows most strikingly when they are brought closely together, particularly since Marion has begun to look so much older. Snow-white hair would make Marion her mother's counterpart; and she February. 305 will have it while young. There are already a few stray white threads in her coal-black hair. As mother and daughter clung to each other in sorrow and affliction, I felt dreadfully outside and forgotten. " But I'm not so easy to fall in love with/' Marion supplemented after a while, struggling to overcome the grief to which she had almost succumbed. " On that score you might safely risk a whole University of boys ! " " Don't try to jest, Marion. It's too ghastly. My poor child, what will you do when the papers print the story in the morning?" Mrs. La- Grange's mouth quivered, and she drew Marion tightly to her, as if she were a small child to be protected from bodily harm. " To think that misery and disgrace must come to you through a member of my family ! My dear daughter ! " " I don't mind anything so long as I have you," Marion declared, swallowing hard. " Nothing whatever. Only get over this dreadful headache, and be well, and I shall bother about nothing else." " You are trying to feel that way, Marion, I know. But it is all very dreadful, and it will always remain my fault." The big tears rolled down Mrs. LaGrange's colorless cheeks. With the bursting of a great sob, Marion slipped for- ward and hid her face in her mother's shoulder. 20 306 Dainty Devils. I tip-toed out of the room, leaving Marion and her mother weeping together. And up in the country there was another mother who would be crushed almost unto death under the blow of a son's disgrace. I know and understand the harsh and frank way in which such sins are regarded in little, old-fashioned places, where everyone knows everybody else. The mother would not condemn him. Mrs. LaGrange, who was only some one else's mother, had not done that. But the agony would be all the greater because no salutary anger and indignation would stay the flow of the bitter water of unmitigated sorrow. Sadly enough I let myself out of the house.. The day was very cold, and out of doors most uninviting. That is one of the ways in which the city is so different from the country. In Gray- town when one felt excited or angry or blue or when anything important happened, like a death, for instance one went out of the house to breathe and feel better ; and the action was con- sidered natural and proper, because one's front- yard and back-yard are as much one's property as the house itself. In New York it is danger- ous to go to the window ; people might think the house was on fire and that a policeman was wanted to turn in an alarm. And as for going into the streets for rest and relief the stones would cry out : " This is a public thoroughfare February. 307 and public property Go back where you be- long " Oh, how delightful it is to own a little out-doors, although the little is not bigger than dear father's front-yard in Graytown ! I was plodding wearily along against the wind when at the corner of Fifth Avenue I almost stumbled against Percy Earle. He exclaimed in surprise as he recognized me : " Why, how do you do, Mrs. Woodward ? Have you heard the news? No? Jack's all right. But Robertson's lost heavily." " What do you mean ? " I stopped where I was, greatly alarmed by Percy's face. " The worst panic the ' Street ' has ever known. May I walk up with you? Thank you. I'm on my way to see Jack, if he has left his office. Robertsons' about wiped out, unless he has more back of him than people think." " What was it ? Can't you tell me ? Jack says I'm not so stupid." I was hurriedly calling upon my memory for terms used on the " Street." " Do you know what a ' corner ' is ? Well, they had a corner in Criss-Cross and forced the shorts. It was desperate, I tell you. By the way, have I a collar on ? " I obediently looked up at Percy's neck. Yes, he had a collar rumpled, and not at all like Percy's collars as I knew them but his tie was 308 Dainty Devils. gone. He smiled apologetically, and I suddenly noticed how worn his face was. " Did you lose, Mr. Earle ? " I anxiously asked. " Not a great deal. And Van Voort was in on Criss-Cross all right. They say Mrs. Robert- son's mother had two thousand shares. I'll wager she did, but that won't help Robertson any. Odd, isn't it, that her mind is so clear upon business, and so muddled about everything else? Her miserliness is a kind of insanity; her own daughter might starve before she would part with a dollar." " Are the Robertsons ruined ? " My mind re- fused to accept the idea. How could such a lot of money disappear in a day? " Yes, unless Robertson has something in his wife's name. I know nothing about her side of the affair." Percy was cheerful enough, although dread- fully excited, and he had no idea how fast he was walking. Between struggling to keep up with his rapid gait, and the disagreeable wind which was blowing straight at us across the Park, I was breathless when we reached home. We entered the house from out of a kind of gale. " Hello ! " Jack had been only a few minutes ahead of us. He was still in the hall, and he turned to me a pale and weary face. February. 309 " Jack," I gasped, catching hold of him, " are you really all right in spite of the ' corner ' ? " " Yes, little one. What has Percy been tell- ing you? Come into the library, old chap. It's mighty rough on Robertson, isn't it ? " " I should say so. Brompton told me the old man grew desperate. He couldn't have been as rich as people thought." " Are you not hit at all ? " Jack's anxiety for Percy pleased me. " Hardly. Thank the fates ! " The bell rang sharply. I sprang up, fancying an unwelcome caller: for I still had my hat and gloves on, and was altogether in need of Per- kins's ministrations. The man brought in a note for Jack. I sank back relieved, till a heavy frown gathered upon Jack's forehead. " It's from Robertson, Dot. Would you mind if I didn't get back for dinner ? " I pouted. It was impossible for me to com- prehend that the Robertsons were in real trouble, and I was not so fond of them that I would will- ingly allow Jack to go to them and leave me to a spoiled and lonely evening. Percy laughed lightly. " Be good, Mrs. Woodward. Poor Robertson is in hard straits, and Jack is the only man on earth he trusts." 3io Dainty Devils. " Very well," I said, grudgingly. " And I sup- pose you'll go too, Mr. Earle ? " " Extra ! Re'ad the Extra ! Terrible panic in Wall Street! Extra-a!" The shouts of tramps with special editions of the evening papers and it always seems to me that these Extras are special dispensations for the benefit of these tramps broke hoarsely in upon us. " It seems uncanny," I said, nervously. " And how grewsome the trees look shaking in the dark ! " Percy promptly drew down the shade of the window which commanded a view of the Park. A servant entered and turned on the lights. We sat silent for a minute or two; Jack and Percy very HIcely going on with some of the lightning calculations they had worn themselves out with all day, and I wondering how Mrs. Robertson, poor, would impress me. The stillness was broken by Percy apologizingly asking Jack for a tie. Five minutes later, the two men left the house together, while I heartily wished that I might go with them. Disspiritedly I started upstairs, and at that mo- ment the bell rang. I paused expectantly. An- other note this time to Mr. and Mrs. Wood- ward. I tore it open upon the stairs. " Mrs. Alexander Robertson begs to announce February. 311 that owing to her serious indisposition, her ball will be postponed from to-night to three weeks hence." The communication brought the recollection to my mind that upon this evening Mrs. Robertson was to have given the ball of the season at the Waldorf-Astoria. In the last few days I had entirely forgotten the momentous invitation. " Jiminy ! " I breathed, the situation beginning to dawn upon me. That expression was a relic of my barbarous, blissful days at home in Gray- town. As I proceeded to my room, I earnestly hoped the servant had not heard it. Jack returned in two hours. I was at the table, and he came in saying he was starved. " You look it," I said, sympathetically. " How are they, Jack ? " Jack unfolded his napkin deliberately. " Apres," said he, quietly. So I had to wait until we were alone. Then I heard all the news condensed and to the point. Robertson was practically penniless ; Mrs. Rob- ertson had for years been living beyond their income and had, unknown to her husband, heavily mortgaged the sumptuous house, which had been his wedding-gift to her. " Jack ! " I cried, excitedly. "Well?" 312 Dainty Devils. " She's used her gambling gains to pay the interest on the mortgage ! " " Exactly. You're growing apt. Only the last interest was never paid. She is in debt every- where including thousands for diamonds." "What will they do?" I asked, appalled. " It was a hideous scene, Dot dear. Mrs. Robertson is leaving on the nine o'clock train for Maine." " Not to go to that awful mother ? " I was more appalled than ever. What a fate she had dared ! " She has no choice, while Robertson remains in the rage he's in now. Bad as she is, I pity her when she reaches her mother." Neddie Lawrence darted suddenly into my seething brain, and with him the picture of Mrs. LaGrange and Marion in their despair. " I don't pity her," I said, savagely. Jack smiled indulgently. " You always did seem to dislike her uncom- monly." " I'm glad I did," I continued, warmly. " Wait till you read about Neddie Lawrence to-morrow ! It's worse than the panic, for Marion and her mother are heart-broken. Jack, he has stolen from the bank ! " Jack almost pushed me away from him. " Dot ! " he cried sternly, " are you sure ? " February. 313 " I saw it in his own handwriting." " The devil ! " said Jack, unfortunately break- ing his record of which I had been so proud. " Yes, the devil with poker and whiskey as baits," I hastily said, not wanting Jack to know that I took the exclamation as a swear. But he went on, terribly, awfully, frightfully: " It's a damned shame ! " And I could not cover that up, could I ? Jack is, in spite of all his perfections and high-mind- edness, mere man after all, and even his theories go to pieces once in a while, when too great a strain is put upon them. I should not want him to be quite an angel, even though opposites do attract Really, I am not wicked enough to need a genuine angel to live with me. Jack suits me as he is Mostly very good, and slightly a little naughty. The conclusion is apparent. Neddie's escapade received only a small notice in print. The panic was too enormous, too far- reaching not to overshadow any little individual case of a blackened name and a few broken hearts. Mrs. LaGrange is ill from the shock and disgrace. Marion finds compensation, as always, in rescuing wrecks of humanity out of the slums. She looks more unhealthily pious than ever, and 314 Dainty Devils. I begin to be slightly tainted with Jack's belief in her ultimate retirement into a Sisterhood. I read over some of these pages the other day. They are a queer record of gay society ! Almost all the people I know belong to those who are chronically busy enjoying themselves. Why then, in the name of reason, are they so conspicuously innocent of a good time ? Dancing and big bills and betting and noise do not seem, in the aggre- gate, to amount to such very undiluted happiness. Common sense whispers to me that the latter is made up of different ingredients. ******* Where shall I begin and how shall I express the chaos of thought in which I seem to lie half- stunned ? It was yesterday morning, yes, only yesterday morning, that Lou sent me this note : " Dearest Dot, come stay all day with me. Belle is under the weather and I am very de- spondent. LONELY Lou." Jack had gone, and I had no definite engage- ment until evening, when I, as well as Lou and Belle and all of us, would go to the Mardi Gras at Sherry's. Last week, the day she was feeling so blue, Lou telephoned for Percy Earle. My heart fluttered happily at the gratifying thought February. 315 that she was reforming, and I was the proper substitute for her usual guest when she needed consolation. Jubilantly I made my way down to the Allison house swinging along Fifth Avenue at a rate I have rarely indulged in since I left Graytown. In the morning throng I did not meet a familiar face until I reached the Waldorf, when Mr. Van Voort came sauntering along in indolent leisure, smoking by fits and starts. He stopped and per- force, I gave him my hand. We do not agree with one another any better than we ever did; he is too monumental a moneyed nonentity, and I suppose on the other hand I am too raw a re- cruit from pinching poverty. " Where so early, my dear Mrs. Woodward ? " Oh, what a disfiguring grin ! Inwardly, I re- sented the " my dear " and answered as I started off: " To Allisons'." " Oh ! " A light exclamation, but a trenchant laugh. Involuntarily I paused again for a second. Mr. Van Voort was in the act of lifting his hat, and his grin had spread, I believe, almost to the back of his head. Flushing as broadly as he grinned, and mutter- ing a ferocious " Good-morning " back at him, I hastily resumed my walk, all pleasure, all spirit, 316 Dainty Devils. except an evil one, knocked out of me. Lou had jested, and that idiotic Van Voort had chuckled. What would come next ? Although almost every- one I knew lived in a glass house, all without exceptions were throwing stones, and the break- ing of the crystal was maddening. Lou welcomed me very sweetly. She was got- ten up in a street-gown, for her a strange pro- ceeding in the morning, and she talked and acted more gently than ever before in our acquaintance. Yes, it must be that Lou was reforming. How beautiful if I had been the instrument ! And why not? Was it an impossibility for me to be of any use in the world? Might I not bring Lou at least to the point of giving up Percy, and then would not my Marion win the boy? Percy was impressionable, young compared with my Jack, and very unformed in character. Probably this pitiable affair with Lou would prove to be the folly of a first fancy, which would shrivel up in self-mortification as soon as actual love claimed him. " I suppose you want to see Belle a few minutes ? " Lou was saying. I had not been listening very attentively. "Yes; is she in bed?" " No ; only lying on the couch." Lou dropped her voice. " She is killing herself with morphine, poor girl." February. 317 " Can't you prevent it ? " " No, not here. Perhaps," a peculiar smile lit Lou's face, a dreamy, slowly-growing smile, " I shall take her to Italy next month. March will be bad for her in New York." " It certainly will. Jack says it will be hard even for me." " Don't say Belle looks ill," warned Lou at the door. Truly Lou was becoming thoughtful. I had always liked her, and now she was revealing how much good was in her. Belle in a trailing white tea-gown, lay with closed eyes upon the couch. I could not say she looked ill. Her cheeks had regained their plump- ness, and a bright pink glowed in them. When I kissed her I discovered they were burning hot. She opened her eyes lazily, and I noted her pupils contracted to the size of a pin-point. " Oh, Dot," she said, drowsily, " how are you? We talk of going to Europe next month. I might die here, you know." She smiled a meaningless, joyless smile, nega- tively content because she was drugged, poisoned, intoxicated. An odd uncertainty troubled her tongue and lips, and the latter were swollen and expressionless. " Lou," I said, hurriedly, " we'll go down and let Belle sleep/' 3i8 Dainty Devils. " Yes, let me sleep." Belle's eyes closed again. Lou shook her head, anxiety and pity in her countenance. " Oh, Lou," I whispered on the stairs, " you must make her stop ! She's in an awful state." " I know it. She gets the stuff no matter how. She hasn't been out for a week, and I found a big bottle of laudanum in the mattress of her bed to-day." " Where on earth did she get it ? " " There is only one possibility She bribes the maid, Annie." " She would stoop to that ? " I asked, incred- ulously. Lou shrugged her shoulders. " A morphine-fiend has already stooped so far, my dear, that another dip or two won't signify." Lou's dignified condemnation of her sister's failing was very touching. I cuddled up to her in affectionate and admiring sympathy, as we returned to our favorite divan in her small draw- ing-room. Belle seemed gone beyond redemp- tion, and I was so glad very selfishly and igno- bly, of course that I had never been fond of her. My friend, Lou, was developing into a sweet and resigned woman, and I began to hope that all the tangles about me were to be undone, so that the beautiful pattern of my life as Jack's wife could go on weaving itself February. 319 into smooth and brilliant perfection. It was very humiliating to have found myself so dense and dull in comprehending the personalities about me. Why was it that often, mostly on a windless, cloudy day, and in some lonely bit of country, I could see and hear the people of hundreds of years ago passing, riding and afoot, laughing, talking, animate as I myself? In Germany I could see the wild barons in their suits of mail go clattering up the rocky paths to their stern, threatening castles ; in France and Eng- land, watch the worn-out pilgrims returning from the Holy Land. These creatures of a far-off time for a moment I knew and understood, and pitied or dreaded or admired. When the vision left my mind and I stood beside Jack in the present, I drew a quick breath and felt oddly lonely, staring at the dusty road and motionless leaves. At Heidelberg, in the comfortless room in the crumbling Schloss, where in the old days pages waited for their lords' behests, I had seen the ruddy faces of the saucy boys, had heard their gibes and laughter, had watched them tussle and tease and bet, all under their breath, as it were, because the masters were near by. Yes, I was nearer these dead and buried ones than to the complicated productions of modern civilization which had bombarded and most suc- cessively my wits in New York. Marion had 32O Dainty Devils. remained my single solace; now I should find in Lou another preventitive of complete disgust with that congregation of self-satisfied, but if one considers the unrest never self-sufficient, people dubbed, " Society." Lou had a small work-bag hanging upon her left arm. I had never seen her divert herself with fancy-work, and was immensely astonished when she pulled out the beginnings of a steel- bead purse and began to crochet. She looked, outside her piquant, American face, like a proper Herr Lieutenant's wife doing her after- noon's quota at a Cafe Cesellschaft in some gar- rison-town in Germany. " Odd, Dot, isn't it, how men like to see women employ their fingers ? " She smiled at me, as I watched her in guilty idleness, and wished I had brought some of the handkerchiefs I am monogramming for Jack. " Yes," I answered, certain that Allison had given her the hint, " they think needlework very feminine and becoming." " Even," she continued, " if they have no idea to what end the exertion is put forth." I studied her closely. She was composed in a gracious, womanly way, very different from her habitual flippancy. " Lou," I said, earnestly, " you're changed, aren't you ? " February. 321 " Not in the least." She missed a bead and poked for it. " You're mistaken, dear ; I like you better than ever to-day." " Do you ? How funny ! Wouldn't you like to play to me until luncheon is announced ? " A strange blush flooded Lou's calm pallor. For the first time during the morning, her man- ner was forced, patently insincere, coldly forbid- ding of confidences. Like a rebuked child I rose without a word and went to the piano, but a sudden impulse made me look for the bow in- stead, and, finding it, run over a few appeggios upon Allison's violin. " Play," said Lou, in a low voice, " Raff's Cav- atina; you played it that night after your first dinner. Oh, it seems so long, long ago! It was Marion LaGrange who asked for it, do you remember ? " " Perfectly. And she isn't here now to play the accompaniment. Will you ? " I felt that my tone was a little frigid. Lou put her crochet-things into the bag, and glided over to the piano-stool, her face again soft and sweet. " I can't do it like Marion, but I'll try my best." She played well, and I forgot her. I was play- ing with Marion and was wondering what the 21 322 Dainty Devils. unnamed grief was, which shadowed her eyes. I was determining to know her better, and I was sure I was going to love her. " Thank you, Dot. I shall never forget that night." " Why, Lou ? " I inquired, curiously. Had I been so glaringly green and ignorant that my first experience of entertaining was to remain in- effaceable in the minds of the victimized partici- pants? The mental portion of that dinner I had never digested, and any illusion to it brought a giddiness to my brain. " Oh, it was the beginning o " she paused and laughed in a lower key than her wont, " of Well, Dot, of the end." I turned away, offended at the tantalizing an- swer. " I think I'll go home, Lou. You're not nice any more." " Yes, I am. And I'm happy too. Don't you see I am ? " " I hope so ; I suppose I'm very stupid, but I can't see why you answer my question so rudely." " Well, I beg your pardon. And now come to luncheon. There ! " She kissed me noisily, and I for the hundredth time yielded to the bewitch- ing fascination of Lou's eyes and laugh. " If you please, Madam, Mr. Allison says February. 323 he's sorry he can't come down, but he sends his compliments to Mrs. Woodward." Lou was unfolding her napkin when Davis delivered this speech. She started violently and repeated in astonishment : " Mr. Allison ! " " You mightn't have known, Madam, that Mr. Allison came home sick early yesterday after- noon and as how he still must keep his room, according to Dr. Stanton's orders." Davis brought his wide mouth together with an audible snap. Lou reddened and paled in rapid succession, and evidently she struggled hard for the voice in which she said : " See that Mr. Allison's luncheon is served in his room, Davis." " He's too sick for anything but soup, Madam." " That will do, Davis. You speak entirely too often." I sat in most uncomfortable silence. What ailed Lou? And how could Mr. Allison be ill upstairs and she not know it? Where was the reconciliation I had rashly fancied? " Dot, dear, aren't you hungry ? " " Not very. Why are you so nervous, Lou ? " " I, nervous ? You imagine it. I never felt less excited. Do you mean about Arnold's being sick? Oh, I knew he had some sort of a cold 324 Dainty Devils. a few days ago. It is nothing serious. Only I was sure he was at his office to-day." I made a brave attempt to eat. Lou talked rapidly a lot of disconnected stuff that amounted to nothing, till Davis left the room. Then she sank back in her chair and neither moved nor spoke, apparently waiting for something or some- one. " Are you sure," I finally asked, " that Mr. Allison got his luncheon ? " " Oh, Davis would never neglect him. Would you like to go up to Arnold and see ? " Lou was broadly scornful. " Lou ! " I sprang out of my chair. " Well, come now, what would be the harm ? " Lou sneered. " None," I said, severely ; " only that duty should fall upon his wife." " It may fall all it likes It will never strike her." " And I fancied you had changed ! " I cried. " I told you I hadn't. Am I not as charming as ever? Dear little Dot, you don't know every- thing." " I don't know why you begged me to come here to-day." "You don't? Well, I'll tell you. I expected to start for Jekyll Island to-day, and that wretched Blanches! disappointed me with my February. 325 clothes. Now you'll admit, dear, that I'm far too handsome to be condemned to shabby apparel in a brand-new field. So I've telegraphed that I'm delayed." " And am I to console you ? " " In a fashion um Eh I had other tele- grams to send, also. See here, Dot. Something is going to happen, and I ought to have been out of the way long ago. Only vicious poverty has kept me here for the last six months I mean officially here, for you know I've been away lots, too." " If you would only explain ! " I murmured, completely bewildered. " I'm trying to as far as is fit, at present. There is a man due in New York to-day, and when I found I couldn't be away, I telegraphed to head him off. No use, he started several days ago. Now I've wired my lawyer here He has no fresh information, and doesn't know where the Western man is. The devil knows how the whole thing will turn out ! " Lou scowled, and compressed her lips. " What thing, Lou ? Are you crazy ? " Her whole manner was shocking. " No, child. I'm both sane and sober." " You are very strange, to say the least. Why did you send for me ? " I again asked, distressed beyond measure. 326 Dainty Devils. " Oh, I particularly wished not to be alone to- day. I thought Arnold was out, I assure you." Lou blew mischievously into my pompadour, a form of teasing which I abominate, put her arm about my shoulders and led me back to the draw- ing-room. I was almost helpless with confu- sion. " Now, Dot, sit still and let me think a few minutes. I'm all in a muddle and may have to promptly change my plans." She dropped into 'an arm-chair and huddled herself into a heap, shoulders stooping forward, elbows upon her knees and her face in her hands. Meanwhile she kept up a most irritating murmur of " M m m." " Are you practicing for a play, Lou ? " I im- patiently asked. " No, not in the least. Real life satisfies me. Hark! Was that the bell ? Oh, the devil !" I sighed in despair. There was no use trying to expostulate: for Davis was coming with a card. " The gentleman has already been at Mr. Alli- son's office," said he, in an aggressive tone, " and insists on disturbing him here." Lou snatched the card from the tray and stood up very straight. She considered a moment, then her face hardened. She had taken her resolu- tion. February. 327 " The gentleman wishes to see Mr. Allison. You may take him up." Something gave a solemn finality to these ordinary words. I watched her, peculiarly frightened. She stood rolling up her handkerchief and unrolling it, so excited that she was unconscious of the action. Suddenly I was impelled to speak. Oh, thank God ! " Lou, isn't Mr. Allison too sick to see stran- gers?" She rolled the handkerchief more tightly than ever. " Oh, he only has a cold. And he might as well know now." " Know what, Lou ? " I asked. " Sh ! " A man was passing through the hall. I saw him go quickly up, Davis in attendance. Before I could speak again Lou had darted out of the room. I heard the ring for a messenger- boy, and then she was back and scribbling at her desk. The room was full of sunshine, yet a queer darkness floated before my eyes. I had no suspicion of the truth, but a sickening horror had seized me. " Lou ! " I called, faintly. She did not answer; she was reading a note. Several minutes passed, during which Lou re- mained at her desk, the note in her hand, wait- ing for the messenger-boy. One foot tapped the 328 Dainty Devils. floor; she was only half on the chair, her knee dropped down and her whole attitude one of read- iness to spring out of her seat at an instant's notice. After what seemed an interminable time, the messenger-boy arrived. Lou opened the door. Astonished at this, I was more so when I heard her say : " Take this at once to Mr. Percy Earle, 1000 Wall Street." I jumped. Why did Lou want Percy at this juncture? " Lou," I said, in a frightened whisper, " what is happening? There is something wrong." I had run to her in the hall. Catching her gown I held her tightly, staring up in bewildered terror at her face. Before she had time to speak, a door upstairs opened. " Good morning, sir." It was Allison dismiss- ing his caller. Lou stepped aside, crowding me against the wall as he passed us. She acknowledged his exaggerated bow by a curt nod. The door up- stairs had not closed. Evidently Allison was waiting to make sure of the stranger's departure. Lou pushed me into the drawing-room, follow- ing me closely and hastily. "Dot," said she, speaking in a low, warning tone, " remember that you are to stick to me. Arnold will probably try " February. 329 Mr. Allison was coming, and Lou interrupted herself. Her cheeks had flushed nervously, and her eyes were fiercely dilated. She let her hand- kerchief fall, and her arms hung limply at her sides. As Allison hesitated a moment at the portieres, Lou drew one gasping breath, and stepped backward till she leaned against some high book-shelves. There she waited, erect, si- lent and calm. Mr. Allison came in slowly, holding some papers out before him in his right hand. He was dressed, save his tie, and wore bed-room slip- pers, as if in the hurry of his toilet he had for- gotten them. Their heellessness added to the unnaturalness of his gait, which halted like that of an old man. He looked pale and ill, and his eyes were awful. I slunk back into a corner where some drapery served as a kind of con- soling shield, but I had to watch and listen and I trembled, expecting I did not know what. " Louise ! " His illness made him hoarse, but not so hoarse as that. Lou inclined her head ever so slightly, and met unflinchingly the gaze of his wild, command- ing eyes. " I have been " he stopped to cough, and my heart seemed to check off the seconds, so slowly and hard it beat. Almost breathless, Mr. Alli- son finally resumed " served with some papers 33o Dainty Devils. The first in proceedings for Absolute Di- vorce applied for by you, Louise Appleton Allison." Lou moved from the supporting book-case. Haughtily erect she said coldly, " Yes." Mr. Allison's outstretched arms dropped. His figure seemed to shrink and his features con- tracted. Involuntarily, I cried out : "Oh, don't!" The room was reeling. I believe I was faint- ing from horror and fright when Mr. Allison's voice startled me into my full senses. It was low, steady, courteous, and he no longer looked at Lou. " Then there is no mistake ? You wish to be free?" That insolent figure two feet from him did not move. Distantly, composedly, Lou answered, " I do." The man bowed, turned, and, with head hung and shoulders bent, went out, carrying the Sum- mons. I wrung my hands in impotent misery, and breathed a prayer which I know now was a ter- rible sin. What should I say to Lou? What could I do ? Oh, Allison ! How could you take it so tamely! " Thank Heaven, it's over ! '' Lou spoke in a matter-of-fact way, and picked February. 33 1 up her handkerchief. I saw her go to a mirror and carefully loosen her pompadour, afterwards tucking in more securely a few hair-pins for which her heavy black hair was too much. Amazement at her cold-bloodedness transfixed me. I had no voice, no power of motion, no cap- ability of reasoning. " Lou ! " The voice came from upstairs. It was Allison calling. Lou made no reply. I wanted to say, " Go to him," and I could not. " Good-bye, Lou ! " Clearly, piercingly, not at all like the husky voice of a few minutes earlier, the words rang out. Ah! Lou started at last. " What does he mean ? " she cried, laughing hideously. A pistol-shot answered her. I screamed shrilly, once, twice, a great many times. In the room above us, a body fell heavily. From the third floor came, like the crazed echo of my panic, the shrieks of Belle St. John. Then ser- vants ran, more women screamed, and I grew still through very terror as I heard Davis cry : " Oh, my God ! The master's killed himself ! " Lou swayed and caught at a chair. " It can't be," she muttered. " He was here a minute ago." 332 Dainty Devils. I rushed at her, I believe to strike her. A fly- ing figure in a long white gown separated us. "You fiend!" screamed Belle St. John. " What have you done now ? Oh, what did we ever do, that I got St. John, and you Allison? Allison dead ! The only friend I had ! " Belle broke off moaning, and tottered to a chair, as Lou pulled herself together. " Hush ! He can't be dead. It's some acci- dent, and Davis is telephoning for the doctor." Was it strength of nerve or lack of heart ? The woman could still look proud and speak authori- tatively. " Annie, Maggie, anybody, run for some doc- tor in the street Dr. Stanton is out." Davis was giving orders in an agonized voice. I heard him rush back again to the room where Mr. Allison lay, and saw Belle St. John leap after him, like some frenzied animal. " There is no use of my going," said Lou, in a low voice. " There is," I said, bitterly, " unless you want the whole house to know why he did it." Lou sat down on the edge of the divan. For an instant a look of doubt and despair darkened her face. Then she paled, but sullen determina- tion was in every feature. " They will know. He had the Process." " Good Heavens ! Can't you get it? " February. 333 There was commotion at the hall-door. Hur- ried footsteps, strange, curious voices, smothered arguing and eager questions. Lou turned her head toward the window. " Annie has brought a doctor and the pub- lic," said she. At last some physical limitation was reached, and she slipped back, white and still upon the cushions. Wretchedly I waited for a sound, a word, some message from Mr. Allison. Minutes passed. I could not force myself to go near Lou to help her. Finally she came out of the faint unassisted, and slowly raised herself upon her elbow. Courage seemed to have deserted her for the moment. " Dot," she whispered, fearfully, " have you heard anything? " Footsteps overhead were as plain to her as to me. I did not answer. I sat with every muscle tense and every nerve throbbing. Lou steadily gathered together her physical strength and men- tal assurance, and after a while calmly disap- peared into the next room. Several strangers, suggestive of a rabble, thronged the hall outside. I was so benumbed by fright that these intrud- ers did not annoy me in the least. "Mrs. Allison?" A pale young man, undisguisedly agitated, ad- dressed me. His eyes were full of respectful 334 Dainty Devils. pity and honest admission of his helplessness. Until he spoke, I had been unaware of his pres- ence. " No/' I stammered, relaxing a trifle from my mental rigidity ; " Mrs. Allison is in the next room." " I am here." Lou entered quietly, taking a lighted cigarette from her lips as she spoke. I stared at her in dull anger. What an actress and what a devil ! Yet I believe now she had no idea that she had picked up a cigarette. It was a strong habit coming to her aid in her dis- tracted state. " The accident is," said she, enunciating like one accustomed to some other language than English, " not at all serious, I trust ? There is no cause for alarm ? " The young physician gasped. " Are you not the doctor ? " asked Lou, in a bored voice. " I am, Mrs. Allison " a slight pause, then very clearly and distinctly he said, motioning barely perceptibly toward the group of servants and others at the door, " Mr. Allison has acci- dentally shot himself in a way which leaves small hope for his recovery, although he still breathes." Every word was impressively pronounced, es- pecially " accidentally." Lou stood silent, stunned^ delighted or fright- February. 335 ened, I do not Know which. I felt a great lump choking me and sending sharp pains through the back of my throat, which is the way a fit of weeping begins when my heart is breaking. Alli- son was dying ! A suicide ! " While there is life there is hope." It was Lou uttering the words in a mechanical way, which under the circumstances was heath- enish. She probably felt the absolute necessity of saying something. " True," said the physician. " Have I your permission to send for nurses ? " He had no time to waste upon Lou. " Send for everything that may be necessary. And first of all send those gaping intruders out of the house." She went back to the divan and bowed her head, most appropriately, most touchingly for the strange spectators. As for me, I knew she was neither praying nor grieving. Had I been sworn to give my opinion as to the expression of which mood her pretty head and arm concealed, I should have been obliged to say that she was calculat- ing how soon she might expect Percy Earle. Dr. Lane said a few grave words to the hu- man' beings, hushed and awed now at the an- nouncement that Mr. Allison had been accident- ally and dangerously shot. They dispersed de- cently The servants to hide upon the stairs and 336 Dainty Devils. listen to every word and movement, the strangers to loiter upon the sidewalk in front of the house, and imagine and report what they did not see or hear. Short nervous messages were going over the telephone. I was bitterly sorry when Dr. Lane ceased ordering, and returned to his patient. It was a comfort to hear things sent for, nurses summoned to the aid of poor Allison in his mor- tal need. Who would have believed him capable of such a deed? The quiet, methodical, undemonstra- tive man who never made a fuss about anything ! Strong feeling seemed far removed from his dis- position. Had impetuous Percy done such a thing, the insanity would not have been so com- pletely out of character. How far must a man suffer before he dares his Creator by taking the life he himself did not give? What was Alli- son's inner life, which the exterior so entirely be- lied? Not one of us had known him neither Jack, nor Lou, nor I. And as for Marion, I re- called what she said that dreary night we drove home from Blashfields' together : " He may be one of the still waters than run deep ! " He had indeed been still, under neglect, and insuft and deceit, but the waters of his sorrow were deep, and at last a mighty agony stirred their depths, an agony that overswept his judgment and rca- February. 337 son and faith in God. And he went down a mad- dened atom in the raging deluge. But as yet Allison was not dead. He was not yet out of this world we love and think we under- stand, and which we never can fully believe will continue to exist without us. The sunset is still for him to-night where will he be, at to-mor- row's ? " My God, have mercy ! " I found myself say- ing. Lou stirred. " Please don't go into hysterics, Dot," she said, plaintively, as though she were a suffering martyr who ought to be considered and spared as much as possible. " Where is Belle ? " " How should I know ? She is probably help- ing Dr. Lane with Mr. Allison." I resumed my tearful praying, to be again in- terrupted. "Dot, ought I to go up?" Lou turned sud- denly haggard. " You know very well what you ought to do," I answered, harshly. " For Mr. Allison's sake, I hope he is unconscious." She winced. Then she straightened her gown and left me without a word. I watched her go slowly up the stairs, her head thrown high in de- fiance of her own terror. Over and over again I petitioned wildly, " Oh, God, have mercy ! " not 02 338 Dainty Devils. knowing in what I hoped the mercy would con- sist. I had paced the length of the room a dozen times before Lou returned. " He has never regained consciousness," she said, excitedly ; " and I can't find the Summons." My prayer died away. " It would have been like Mr. Allison to lock it in his desk before he killed himself," I said, cruelly. " Hush ! " Lou cried, sharply. " It was an ac- cident." The maid Annie was answering the bell. I remorsefully regretted my speech, and realized at the same instant that it could never be re- called. An interval of black misery came between my words and recognition of Annie upon her way to the door. " Mr. Earle, Madam. And two reporters squeezed in with him. I couldn't help it. And master a-dying ! " Lou began to tremble. " Close the doors," she commanded. " I have nothing to say to the reporters. I will not see them, do you hear? Tell Mr. Earle to come in here." Percy was talking to the reporters in a man's decided way I heard " accident " three times. When he came to Lou, Annie clumsily banged the doors shut under the portieres. February. 339 " What has happened, Lou ? " Suppressed excitement and alarm made Percy's tone stern. " Percy ! " With the word, Lou threw herself into his arms. In the room directly above us, this woman's husband lay dying; forgetful of the tragedy, of her own guilt, of common every-day decency, she demanded her lover's caresses at this horrible crisis. Love is responsible for much. It is the instigator of the highest and the lowest, the noblest and the meanest acts holy or hellish, according to its origin and aims. Unspeakably revolted by Lou's behavior, I moved towards the door. " I am going, Lou/' I said, hastily and miser- ably. " No, pardon me, Mrs. Woodward, you are not." Percy supported Lou to a chair, which she had no choice but to take. " Tell me, Lou, what has happened? Is it true that Allison is shot?" Lou looked up at him in frightened wonder. " Did you think I did it, Percy? " The man's face softened, and he patted her head. " You poor girl ! What a question ! But why did he try to commit suicide? There must have been a cause." Darkness again settled upon Percy's countenance. 34 Dainty Devils. "You ask that, Percy?" The tone was low, reproachful, piteously wretched. Percy bit his lip. " I do ask it," said he, sternly at last. " To-day he received the first papers in the " the voice grew stronger " Divorce Suit." An ominous silence filled the room. Percy's face seemed cut out of marble. A trembling sigh from Lou broke the spell. "Percy!" He did not move. His eyes were fixed and his mouth set. " Say something to me." Lou clasped his arm and laid her face against his sleeve. " You did it for me ? " he asked, in a voice hardly audible. " You know I did." A smothered groan came from Percy's drawn lips. " Yes, dear," he said, forcing the words ; " I know it." Another mute pause, while Lou's face pressed Percy's sleeve more closely. His passiveness was like paralysis. At last Lou recognized it. She drew away slowly and her head fell. " Are you sorry, Percy ? " Cringing entreaty was in the query. Percy's brow contracted. He February. 341 put his hand to his forehead and pressed it dis- tractedly. " You are sorry ! " cried Lou, in despair, her face twitching. " I cannot be glad that Allison is shot." There was something desperate in Percy's distinct enunciation. Lou's breast heaved. Bursting into wild weep- ing she flung herself into Percy's arms. He held her a moment mechanically, his features immov- able. Earnest voices outside the door caused him to start with some sense that there was work to be done for Allison. He half lifted Lou back into her chair, she clinging wildly to him. " Stay with me, Percy, stay with me ! " she moaned. Percy disengaged her hands. " Your husband still lives," he said, in a far- away voice. " Perhaps I can be of use upstairs." He drew himself up and walked slowly out of the room, his face no less white than Allison's had been. As the door closed upon him, Lou fell face downward upon the floor, not swooning or ill, but in a paroxysm of fear and anger and disappointment, scratching at the carpet with her finger-nails and beating the floor with her feet. As I grew dizzy through fright and disgust, the door opened and Jack, sent for by Davis, came silently toward me; following him was Mar- 34 2 Dainty Devils. ion La Grange. They both stopped abruptly at sight of Lou. The next second Jack lifted her without a word and carried her to the divan in the next room. Marion took my hands and held them firmly. Evidently she had been in the house for some time, for she brought a kind of report. " We must pray, Dot, we must pray. Dr. Stanton has come, and two nurses, and Dr. Lane will help. They have already begun to operate. There is hardly one chance in a thousand." Twilight had fallen and Marion's figure trem- bled like an intangible shadow before my tired eyes. The running back and forth had ceased, and Davis, stationed in the vestibule, was preventing ringing of bells and entrance of re- porters. A deep foreboding silence had taken the place of the earlier commotion and excitement. Even Jack stooping over Lou in the next room, was silent. " Marion," I whispered, " sit close to me here, and pray if you can." I could no longer find words for a petition. Darkness followed the twilight. No one thought of lights. Lou was, or feigned to be, asleep. The hall-clock chimed every quarter of an hour. Jack joined Marion and me, and we three sat speechless. Carriages frequently stopped before the house; the inquirers they February. 343 brought were respectfully disposed of by the waiting Davis. For a while I was conscious of every sound. Later, weariness overcame me and I fell asleep against Jack's shoulder. About eight o'clock Jack roused himself, and I awoke. The doctors were leaving, and someone had at last lighted the house. " There is a slight possibility that he will re- cover." That was the best they could tell Jack. Alli- son had never regained consciousness. They had extracted the ball Oh, yes only the hemor- rhage was very bad. One of the nurses had fainted, and then Mr. Earle had given the ether. Mr. Earle would remain all night, and Dr. Stan- ton would be back at twelve. Lou stirred, arose and joined the doctors. " It would be better, you think " she faltered. " What is it, Lou dear ? " Marion and I heard Jack ask, gently. " Should we not send for a clergyman ? " Was a tortured conscience prompting her ? " As you wish, dear," from Jack. " Arnold is unconscious." " Yes, and so we needn't ask old Dr. Bliss," in a quick, nervous whisper. " The Curate of St. Clara's will come at once, I know." "Allison detested him," said Jack, forcibly. 344 Dainty Devils. Then he must have quickly repented of his can- dor, for he added hastily, " Send for any one who will make it easier for you." Sitting by Marion in the dark, I ground my teeth and felt like a wild animal. " Easier for her ! " How much consideration did the wicked wife merit? Let them send for venerable Dr. Bliss, of whom Lou had always been mortally afraid. Of what was Jack thinking? It was Allison who was dying Ah ! And my tears fell hot and fast Jack meant that for Allison there was no longer any help. It mattered nothing who came or went in the house where he had been the master, and where he now lay gasping un- knowingly in his last agony. Lou's voice, sweet and chastened, was summon- ing the Curate of St. Clara's who, in spite of Marion's rejection of him, had left neither the ministry nor New York. Afterward Lou passed through the hall on her way from the telephone, and at the open door I caught sight of her face under the strong light. I gripped Marion's hand, and she answered the pressure. Lou might speak calmly, might walk steadily, but her face, grown in a few hours old and pinched, bore the stamp of incredible horror and suffering. And yet ashamed I hid my face against Marion's shoulder I could not force myself to believe that the anguish shadowed heavily upon the white February. 345 countenance was for Allison. I had unfortun- ately witnessed the scene between Lou and Percy, as well as Lou's spasms and contortions after he had left her. Jack had seen the doctors out. Lou returned to her improvised couch in the drawing-room, and settled herself to await the arrival of the Curate of St. Clara's. Percy Earle had never left Allison's room since he first entered it. Once I heard him speak, and somehow I was thankful he was with Allison. In about half-an-hour the Curate arrived. Lou received him agitatedly and with tears. She did not, however, accompany him to her husband. He agreed with her that she should " spare " herself. For what? As Lou and the Curate parted, Jack brought me some coffee. I refused it decidedly, and he quietly put the cup to my lips. The hot, stimu- lating stuff revived me wonderfully. " And now, dear, I shall send you home with Marion." " Are you coming, too, Jack ? " " No, darling ; I can't leave Lou nor Arnold to-night." " Then I shall stay, too." He tried to dissuade me, although weakly. Marion said if Jack would send a message to her mother, who was ill with a cold, she would re- main with me and that settled the question. 346 Dainty Devils. So the ghastly night wore on. Cramped and chilled in the early dawn, I awoke from an unrefreshing sleep. Jack had thrown his top-coat over me, and sat sleeping soundly in a chair. Marion, awake, was at the window, her forehead resting upon her hand. " Marion ! " " Yes, Dot," starting. " You've been asleep." " Have you heard anything. " Marion's eyes filled. " They sent for Lou fifteen minutes ago." "Oh!" " The curate came for her. He stayed all night." "Hello! Yes! What is it?" Jack awoke in great confusion, and stared blankly at us. " How cold it is ! " he muttered. Then he re- membered where he was, and why, and sprang up eagerly. " The doctors said Allison would be safe if he saw the morning," exclaimed he, animatedly. " Hush ! " said Marion, heart-brokenly. She could see the Curate of St. Clara's and Percy Earle coming slowly, silently. Both men were pale, and Percy had been weeping. The Curate was posing, his hands with the fingers February. 347 pressed together as the acolytes walk in proces- sion, his chin in the air, his eyes rolled heaven- ward. Percy's head was low, and tall as he is, he seemed short in his limp carriage beside the stiff figure of the clergyman. They came to us almost side-by-side. The Curate broke the mes- sage in a manner of studied impressiveness : " Mr. Allison has just died ; he never recovered consciousness." Jack bowed his head. The Curate continued, rising slightly upon his toes. " It would be well if you and Mrs. Woodward would go to the stricken widow. Mrs. St. John is " he coughed " helpless, and Mrs. Allison needs some one." " Yes," said Jack, absently, " I shall go." He seemed stunned. Chimes for an early service suddenly floated in upon our weary, straining ears. All started, questioning one another with quick, uncompre- hending glances. " It is Ash Wednesday," the Curate began, be- nignly enlightening us. " ' Remember man, that thou are dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.' How sadly appropriate under these solemn cir- cumstances ! " The man was affected and theatrical, even in the presence of death. He quoted in a profes- sional sing-song and rolled his eyes frantically. 348 Dainty Devils. Jack turned from him to me and spoke ten- derly : " You, dear, shall not go to Lou. Wait for me here, and I'll take you home in a few minutes. The nurses will stay with her." The chimes continued, sweet, touching, invit- ing, in the dawn of a new day. Percy Earle suddenly raised his head. He had worn a sur- plice only five years back in St. Clara's choir. His eyes, feverish and frightened, wandered pite- ously over the room till they met Marion's. There they rested in boyish appeal. " Marion," he said in a kind of husky whisper, " shall we go to church together ? Out in the air I am suffocating ! Then to the chapel, where it is quiet and one can think." The girl spoke quietly, apparently without sur- prise. " If there is nothing more for you to do here." " No, no," Jack interposed. " Go, both of you. I am here, and the duty is mine. Percy was awake all night." " And I shall be only too happy to assist," said the Curate, unctuously. He supplemented this with a sigh and the remark, " Although I was awake all night, too." He had at last allowed his prayerful hands to assume a normal position. " If you will remain here with Mrs. Wood- ward," suggested Jack, unconscious of the pen- February. 349 ance he was inflicting upon me, by assigning me to so much poorer company than my own; the Curate bowed. They left me, first Marion and Percy, then Jack. I believe the Curate essayed some pious discourse, to which I made no response. In mute misery I waited Jack's return. People had come and gone, the chimes had ceased for an hour and begun again, before he was back and huddling me into a cloak. I was passive now, my emotions having exhausted themselves. Only once during the short drive home, a sudden recol- lection of Belle St. John caused me to ask where she was. Jack groaned. " In her room, Dot, oblivious of everything. Dr. Stanton was alarmed at first. She took an overdose of laudanum." I was not shocked nor worried. Jack carried me upstairs and Perkins, wide-eyed and curious, put me to bed. Then Jack gave me something bitter to drink, and I became drowsy. As in a dream I heard him say to Perkins : " Burn every morning-paper in the house, do you hear? And under no circumstances allow anyone to see Mrs. Woodward." MARCH. Two weeks ago poor Allison was laid away in Greenwood. I begged Jack to allow me to go to the funeral, to show my last mournful respect to the man who in life had been singularly with- out the solace of attention and consideration. Jack remained gently obdurate, and I perforce remained at home, where I had been grieving and half-sick in my room since the day Allison died, while Jack, very white and serious in his black clothes, drove off alone to the funeral. Perkins undoubtedly believed I was asleep on the couch in the darkened boudoir, for she stole out on tiptoe after Jack had gone. I lay still for some time, crying softly as I brooded over the thought that never again upon earth should I hear Allison's voice or see his face. As the clock struck ten I sprang up nervously. Dr. Bliss was beginning the service. " I am the Resurrection and the Life ! " I could hear him, I could see Jack's pale face, and Percy Earle's ! What were Lou's feelings, and how was she bearing herself ? Marion, like everybody I knew, was at the 350 March. 351 funeral. The loneliness of my room grew un- bearable. Strangely excited, I hurried down- stairs, why I do not know, for the lower rooms are bigger and drearier than my own. I wan- dered about, pausing once at a window to gaze out over the Park where the grass was already beginning to show brilliantly green between patches of snow. There is yellow as of light in the first green of spring. Last year I had greeted it with lively joy, as the precur- sor of a beautiful summer ; now, it only made me remember that Allison was going to his grave in that solemn country, the cemetery, where the grass was springing as tenderly and as brightly as in the Park. The trees were bare and brown, but beautiful in the maze of interlacing twigs against a sky which was deeply blue ex- cept in one great space over the horizon, where a million pearly broken shells seemed scattered broadcast. Had I ever seen quite such clouds before? I asked myself. I must call Jack but no ; Jack was away : for to-day they were burying Allison. I shuddered in the sunshine, and went listlessly back to the library. Many papers lay piled upon the table. Aimlessly I picked one up, glanced at it, cried out as though in physical pain, threw it down as if it stung me, then snatched it up again. This is what I read in big headlines ; 35 2 Dainty Devils. "ARNOLD WHITNEY ALLISON A SUI- CIDE." " PROMINENT YOUNG BROKER SHOOTS HIMSELF WIFE ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMEN IN SOCIETY- HER APPLICATION FOR ABSOLUTE DIVORCE CAUSE OF THE RASH ACT- JEALOUS OF HIS VISITS AT THE HOUSE OF MRS. J. WORTHINGTON WOODWARD." I reeled. Here was the reason Jack had said reading would be bad for my eyes because I had strained them by crying so much ! " Liar ! " I found myself gasping. The paper bore the date of Allison's death. I crushed it between my hands and picked up an- other. I did not at once find the article I sought, but it was there Oh, yes, it was there ! Red ink this time and taller capitals ! "MAN DISCHARGED FROM WOOD- WARD HOUSE GIVES IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT MR. ALLI- SON'S VISITS THERE." I glared at the words. At first they meant nothing. A few seconds of mental groping, and March. 353 I recollected Crosson, the man I had caused to be sent away. "What shall I do?" There were many more papers. Ought I find out more of the infamous falsehoods New York was reading ? No I would not. But as I threw the second sheet down, in spite of myself I read : "RUMORS THAT MR. WOODWARD WILL INSTITUTE LIBEL SUIT AGAINST TWO DAILY PAPERS." A law-suit, in my imagination, was a horror, a disgrace. And a law-suit about me ! To be read of not only here, but in Graytown ! And every- thing lies, black, diabolical inventions, while the guilty went untouched ! o O O Oh ! " Distracted, I ran screaming back to my room, to be rapidly followed by Perkins, who it seems, had been strictly forbidden to leave me one in- stant alone. Evidently for an excellent reason. " Madam, Madam ! I thought you were asleep ! Oh, what will the master say, if you have seen the papers ! " Perkins wrung her hands. I pushed her away as she knelt beside me. " It was wrong to deceive me so long ! O O O O ! Perkins, how could you lie to me ? Everybody in the world is a liar ! " 23 354 Dainty Devils. " I lie to you ? I never did, God knows," tear- fully solemn. " You should have told me," I reproached her, bitterly. " The master forbid. And indeed, what good could I do? The reporters asked for you often enough, to be sure. The house has been over- run with the creatures." This last was uttered in such superior disdain that in the midst of my suffering I scented some- thing back of it, and asked : "What did they do, Perkins?" " Huh ! They asked a million impudent ques- tions and when I'd answered 'em as Mr. Wood- ward ordered, they put me into the papers as ' Mrs. Woodward's Ancient Serving- Woman ! ' ' Only a step from laughter to tears, and when one is hysterical, only a jerk from tears to ner- vous laughter. Probably at the moment they were lowering Allison into his grave, I burst into uproarious laughter, at the title which, pictorially at least, fitted Perkins with such delicious per- fection. " Madam ! O ! Lordy ! Has she lost her rea- son ! What shall I say to the master ? And in- deed he said he feared for her mind ! " Still I laughed, painfully, mirthlessly, and could not stop. Perkins has boundless faith in aromatic spirits March. 355 of ammonia. Having regarded me with con- science-stricken horror for several seconds, she brightened at last, and rising from her knees flew to prepare a dose for me. Sputtering I gulped it down, and after a while, relapsed into merely an occasional giggle, which improvement Perkins gratefully laid to her medi- cine. When, however, a dreadful fit of weeping presently came upon me, she sat down in silent despair and cried with me, most of the long, wretched day, till Jack came home. I am not ashamed to say that I was soothed by the fact that Perkins's tears were for me. Perkins very courageously met Jack in the hall and made her confession I had been left alone, and had found the papers. There was an angry exclamation, quickly smothered, and fol- lowed by a few calm words directing Perkins to be more faithful to her trust in the future. Sob- bingly, she promised, and reiterated her apologies again and again. With one of the mightiest efforts I have ever made, I greeted Jack calmly as he came to me, sad and anxious, and whispered : " Never mind, dear I had to know it some time." " Dear little Dot ! I feared you would not be so brave." What wife who loves her husband, is not brave 356 Dainty Devils. so long as his arm is around her? It is when Jack is away that my heart seems breaking with grief and disappointment and the bitter sense of horrible injustice not only to me, but to poor dead Allison. I cannot sleep or rest, and I have refused to leave the house all this time. Neither will I allow anyone to see me, ( except Marion. She is very quiet, and will not speak of the newspapers. In truth, we are both silent and constrained during the hours we spend together, and never mention Allison, Lou, Belle, or Percy Earle. Are we afraid ? Jack took me to Lakewood for ten days. I was no better there, and was glad to come home. The newspapers have at last dropped Mr. Alli- son and all who knew him, from their sensa- tional columns. But I shrink back in the carriage every time I pass anyone I know, for the stares cut me as no one, not even precious Jack, can understand, and I imagine that behind every cor- dial word lie unspoken ridicule and condemna- tion. If I dared, I would go back to Graytown, my dear old home, where only a little over a year ago I met Jack, and was so happy in the firm belief that the world was as good and true as it is beautiful! Dr. Stanton, because Jack wished it, has or' March. 357 dered me a tonic, which I obediently swallow, and I suppose, without harm. Whenever Marion is here, I make her take some, and, oddly enough, it does seem to benefit her. She is get- ting stouter, and her eyes have lost their weary expression. I am glad Dr. Stanton's time and trouble are not entirely wasted, although they have not helped the patient for whom they were intended. Lou is hurriedly settling up her affairs, as she and Belle will sail for Europe next month. Jack told me, very sadly, that Belle will probably be left in a sanitarium in Paris, where Lou pur- poses spending a year visiting friends. I have not seen them, nor will I, even to say good-bye. Lou did nothing to prevent my being named as the cause of her divorce. I am neither hypocrite enough nor Christian enough to forgive her SQ soon. APRIL. DR. STANTON has told Jack to take me to Swit- zerland. The doctor seems to think I need a high altitude after my recent experiences. I am quite certain that I do Only even more a high mental plane,, than any amount of material Alps. Jack has tried all sorts of diversion here mostly along his favorite line of gifts and when a St. Bernard puppy, a new automobile, and a whole string of pear-shaped pearls, failed to stimulate me although administered in rapid succession the dear old chap gave in to the blues, and I believe asked Dr. Stanton whether I were going to die. This question must have disgusted the venerable physician beyond meas- ure. Jack told me, in rather an aggrieved way, that I possessed a perfect constitution, and that Dr. Stanton said all I needed was to be, " Got- ten out of this." Which phrase, translated, means across the wide ocean blessed barrier for many a tortured soul! and amongst new indi- viduals and conditions. At this message I copiously wept: because I 358 April. 359 weep at everything now-a-days. More mature consideration of it dried my tears. So far from the place where so much misery and treachery have occurred, I hope I shall be able to forget a great deal. That roaring ocean ought to be able to drown the voices I frequently fancy I hear, startling me in a nervous terror out of sleep, or even waking tranquillity. " Good-bye, Lou ! " Those words of poor Allison haunt me dreadfully; as though his soul would not suffer itself to be forgotten, they ring out apparently close beside me, and I jump, and then cringe, waiting for the following pistol-shot. Looking back the few months I have lived in New York, my life appears a succession of night- mares. Why was I so tortured ? Ridiculed, crit- icised into a condition of morbid sensitiveness and distrust, at the last I was used as a scape-goat for a wicked and unprincipled woman. What brutal instinct led Lou to drag me into the pres- ence of her tragedy ? There were scores of her friends who, lightly enough, would have acted this r61e for her. Only there was none whom Allison had approved, none to whom he had ever displayed aught beyond the coldest formal courtesy. He happened to like me; and Lou, calculating cleverly as well as unscrupulously, found a plausible victim presented by circum- stances, innocent as the dreams of a child. 360 Dainty Devils. Proud Gretchen von Waldeck! In the minds of many you stand disgraced, none the less be- cause entirely unjustly. Why do you complain? Do not men go to the electric-chair, convicted upon circumstantial evidence ? To my husband's face, Lou dared to say, " Appearances were against Dot." And for appearances am I crushed and humbled, in order that she may play the wronged one to her world. Ah well ! Another wretch is deprived of his Constitutional right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, upon no firmer ground. What did poor Emperor Frederick use as his motto? Learn to suffer without complaining. I cannot. The waters of bitterness are upon me, and in my despair I must cry out. ******* Lou accomplished her own defeat. She proved herself too wicked for Percy Earle. Her intended master-stroke was her destruction, and completely cured the boy of his folly. Turning in his sickening remorse and humiliation to Mar- ion, he found all the opposites of Lou's revolting characteristics. It was not Dr. Stanton's tonic which helped Marion: Percy has been the miracle-worker and Marion's face shines in a new and different fashion, that does not cause an unhappy foreboding of her early demise. Some time before Christmas, I am to crown her with April. 361 orange-blossoms, and, as matron-of-honor, pre- cede her up the aisle of St. Clara's, to the music of the Wedding March. Dr. Bliss, and not the curate, will officiate. In a dusky corner of the library, Marion and Percy sit side-by-side. They talk in those short sentences following long silences, which belong peculiarly to lovers. Marion says, " Dearest," Percy responds, " Sweetheart." There was more, but I caught only these words. The hate in my heart wavers, then fades away. Hope enters, in full strength and beauty, smil- ing, promising. The dim library becomes a place of refulgent glory, for love is here. Glancing at Marion and Percy, who could continue in de- spair Into the twilight the figure of the Master seems to steal, benignant as at that far-away Marriage- feast in Cana of Galilee. The miracle of love is wrought again. For, suddenly animated by a fresh, life-giving faith in human nature and its highest possibilities, my whole soul exclaims, in a burst of grateful jubilation : " The waters the most bitter waters are turned into wine!" THE END. A f\f\ ""illll