CALIf.
 
 THE MORAL 
 IMBECILES 
 
 By SARAH P. McL. GREENE 
 Author of "Vesty of the Basins" 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 
 
 1898
 
 BY SARAH P. McL. GREENE. 
 
 STUART AND BAMBOO. A Novel. Post 8vo, 
 Cloth, Ornamental, $1 25. 
 
 A quaint story abounding in humor and pathos. 
 Minneapolis Tribune. 
 
 There are rare flashes of fun, touches of the ridiculous 
 and bizarre that provoke to laughter, mingled with the 
 real feeling and pathos underlying the story, which is 
 worth reading for its ingenious originality, its swift 
 transitions, and the vivid scene painting it presents. 
 Detroit Free Press. 
 
 VESTY OF THE BASINS. A Novel. Post 8vo, 
 Cloth, $1 25. 
 
 One of the sweetest, freshest of novels. . . . There are 
 scenes of humor and of pathos. Philadelphia Bulletin. 
 
 It is a work of real genius strong, true, brave, and 
 tender. It is a story to be read and remembered. 
 Newark Advertiser. 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON: 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS. 
 
 Copyright, 1898, by HARPER & BROTBKM. 
 
 All rightt rttentd.
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 2061724
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 "DARLING!" 
 
 No one had ever called me " darling " be- 
 fore. I turned, wonderingly. 
 
 " I do not know how to answer a single 
 question," she whispered. Her face bore the 
 intellectual stamp of generations, so thought- 
 ful as even to be tinged with melancholy. 
 She smiled at me. 
 
 "We are put upon our honor," I whispered 
 back. " I am breaking a rule in holding any 
 communication with you." And I solved the 
 last difficult problem upon my own paper. 
 
 "Dear, is not it better to be sweet and 
 kind than to be a crank about one's own 
 honor?" 
 
 She was vigorously well grown, there was 
 the unmistakable aroma of wealth about her, 
 and she was expressly beautiful ; neverthe-
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 less, I experienced in that moment an actual 
 physical sense as of a sad little child tugging 
 at my poor old black gown. 
 
 Avoiding the eyes of our mentors on the 
 platform, I drew her tasks to me. Under 
 the same acutely compelling sense I even 
 divined what her handwriting was like and 
 copied it. Before our papers were gathered 
 hers were in her hands, complete. 
 
 Our fate was read to us the next day. 
 
 " There are two candidates for admission 
 to this institution," said the woman presi- 
 dent, smiling, " whom we must particularly 
 congratulate upon the satisfactory character 
 of their papers Miss Martha Scheffer " (my 
 forlorn self) "and Miss Katherine Eleanor 
 Arundell " (the baby who had tugged at my 
 rusty gown). 
 
 A bevy of young women, endeared to her 
 by an acquaintance of some hours, were 
 clinging about the person of Miss Arundell. 
 " How did you do it, love ? You were sure 
 you could never pass the examinations." 
 
 " Oh, I do not know " the sweet melan- 
 choly of her face broke into an inspiring 
 smile " somehow it all came to me in a 
 flash !" 
 
 2
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 " I COULD not tell of you, you see," said she, 
 in my room. " I wanted to you angel ! 
 but it would have gotten you into such 
 trouble. So I stood true, and always shall !" 
 
 There was almost a sublime glow on her 
 features. 
 
 "What are you here for?" I said, shortly. 
 " There are fashionable seminaries for such 
 as you. Why did your parents send you 
 here ?" 
 
 "They are dead, dear," she gasped, and 
 made crosses with her forefinger on the lap 
 of my gown. " Grandmamma takes care of 
 me, and I do not think she loves me very 
 much. She said once that I was a 'moral 
 imbecile ' !" 
 
 The injustice of this remark blazed warm- 
 ly from her eyes. I was silent. 
 
 " I have really only Forrester. Forrester 
 is my brother." She turned pale and choked ; 
 the crosses became very rapid and frequent.
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " I have never told any one but you but 
 Forrester went wrong. He forged grand- 
 mamma's name to a check ; but grandmamma 
 has so much and was so stingy with him. 
 I do not see how he could do any other 
 way." 
 
 Her pale and rapid movements changed to 
 an air of conscientious resolution. 
 
 " Grandmamma told him never to enter the 
 house again till till he had been redeemed, 
 if you know what that means. He went to 
 California. One night he came back ; only 
 I and Watson the butler saw him. Dear- 
 est, I do not think he looked redeemed he 
 was all pinned up with safety-pins !" 
 
 An oblivious compassion shone in her eyes 
 as she lifted them to mine. 
 
 I looked away from her over into the glass 
 opposite. I saw a wide mouth, unfeelingly 
 sarcastic at this moment ; a dark, ugly face ; 
 a long scar on one cheek, and a permanent 
 frown between the eyes. " And does your 
 grandmother call him a moral imbecile 
 too ?" I queried. 
 
 " I dare say she is unkind enough." 
 The finger began making crosses again 
 on my gown. "I and "Watson gave him 
 4
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 some money. We love him. He came 
 here he was expelled from college once in 
 this place and knew some people. Grand- 
 mamma does not know where he is. I want 
 to be near him, so I told her if she would 
 let me come here to school, I would promise 
 to marry horrid old Beeman Price. Grand- 
 mamma thinks there can never be money 
 enough in the family, and he has oceans. 
 But I can get out of that all right, once I 
 have my way. All I care do not you 
 think I can help redeem poor Forrester?" 
 
 "How old are you?" said I, abruptly, 
 astray of the subject. The face over in the 
 glass looked bitter and stern. 
 
 " Twenty, and Forrester is twenty-two." 
 
 " You look seventeen, and you act like " 
 
 Her face grew pitifully crimson. 
 
 " Why should you tell all this to me," I 
 continued " an absolute stranger to you ? 
 Is it very discreet ? Why should you trust 
 me?" 
 
 " Because I do." 
 
 Her head went down on my lap, already 
 inscribed with innumerable crosses. I felt 
 the sobs that were shaking her. 
 
 " I do not know what to do with you," I 
 
 5
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 said. "You have come in here against 
 the rules, in study hours, and I am very 
 busy." 
 
 She crept nearer, her arms went round 
 my neck. 
 
 " Have you learned your lessons ?" The 
 head made a negative movement in my 
 neck. 
 
 " Bring your books ; I will help you." 
 
 The face over in the glass showed very 
 grim when she was gone. Hardship, pov- 
 erty, toil, from my childhood up the last 
 stage, three years, employed as nurse amid 
 the miseries and horrors of a county insane 
 asylum. Now, at twenty-four, I had earned 
 enough, and by lonely application had mas- 
 tered enough, to take for myself the papers 
 admitting me to the last year at X , pre- 
 paratory to entering the medical school near 
 by, the ambition of my life. 
 
 But all along my life thus far there had 
 been ever some helpless hand lifted by the 
 way, hindering, deterring, holding me. My 
 fate? Or was I, in spite of my ugly face, 
 foolish and soft-hearted ? 
 
 I laid my own work aside preparatory to 
 aiding Miss Katherine Eleanor Arundell in 
 
 6
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 her tasks ; but when she came back there 
 were no books in her hand, and her usual- 
 ly self-possessed and deliberate manner was 
 changed to a rush of excitement.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 " FORRESTER has come to call ! He wishes 
 to see you ! Parmenter " (our respected 
 president) " has given nie permission to take 
 you down !" 
 
 "But I am not going down to see your 
 brother," said I, coolly, taking up my book. 
 " It is absurd." 
 
 She closed the door behind her and stepped 
 across the room as if it had suddenly become 
 a place of awful solemnity, her face white 
 with emotion. 
 
 " You belong to a church, do you not?" 
 
 " Assuredly." 
 
 "And how will you feel how will you 
 feel in that great day they tell about, to have 
 it said that poor Forrester asked to see you, 
 and you would not go down no, not for one 
 single little moment to help me redeem 
 him?" 
 
 My life had not been of a humorous charac- 
 ter, but the quality was in me, and I bit my lip.
 
 " Little one," I said to the physically tall 
 and well - developed being before me, "go 
 down and see your brother, and leave me 
 alone. I have played with you already 
 enough for to-day." 
 
 I had not meant to deal her a blow, but I 
 had done so and I was amazed ; there was no 
 affectation in the still despair with which she 
 turned to the window, like some bright thing 
 wounded beyond recall. 
 
 I rose. " Come !" I said. 
 
 Evidently the mendicant era of safety-pins 
 had been erased from Forrester Arundell's 
 calendar. " Fop !" I said, mentally. 
 
 " This is so kind of you, Miss Scheffer," 
 he said, bowing low " so very kind of you. 
 My sister is already so deeply attached to 
 you, I hope you will let me call you a friend 
 too." 
 
 "Come," said Miss Arundell, now quite 
 joyful in spirits again, " let us all sit down, 
 and tell her about the old place and Graff 
 and Dinah. Dinah was my horse and Graff 
 was Forrester's." 
 
 " Ah, what a stick he was ! And I thought 
 him so tremendous." 
 
 "And poor grandpapa has lost his mind, 
 9
 
 THE -MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 you know," said Miss Arundell, appealing di- 
 rectly to me. 
 
 "Ah yes, my poor grandfather had lost 
 his mind years before I left home, Miss 
 Scheffer," said Forrester. 
 
 They sat, one on each side of me, at a 
 conventional distance, but as the sister now 
 moved her chair a little nearer me the large 
 brother immediately followed her example. 
 
 " Still, Dinah did a very pretty gait that 
 day at the country fair when we ran away 
 to it, Forrester, you remember ?" 
 
 " Yes, you won, Nell, although you were 
 not entered. How I tagged after you in 
 mischief !" 
 
 "Well, you poor boy, you could never 
 think of things to do yourself, you know." 
 
 They both came nearer. 
 
 " Grandmamma is just the same as ever." 
 
 "Yes, I should think my grandmother 
 would be likely to be just about the same as 
 ever, Nell." 
 
 " Oh, but, Forrester, the Kentuck} 7 " horse I 
 had last summer was a dream !" 
 
 " I am training a horse that would be a 
 jewel for you, Nell if he were mine to give 
 you." 
 
 10
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 They were both almost affectionately close 
 to me now. 
 
 " And what used you to ride, Miss Schef- 
 f er ? Tell us about it." 
 
 " I lived," said I, without embarrassment 
 as those who have struggled with penury 
 and pain are not apt to have " on a wretch- 
 ed little farm in Vermont ; we had one very 
 old and uncouth horse. I was sometimes 
 sent to mill on his back to bring home a bag 
 of meal. I had no saddle, and I need not tell 
 you the experience was entirely bracing." 
 
 " But I bet you stayed on," said Forrester, 
 earnestly, looking straight into my eyes. 
 
 " Well, yes I stayed on." 
 
 " How charming of you to do such wild 
 things," said Miss Arundell, "and not to 
 mind what people said." Her handsome 
 face had a sort of chastened saintship in 
 repose. The brother had no feature like 
 her, but he looked at me with the faithful- 
 est and kindest pair of blue eyes I have ever 
 seen in all this world. How was one to 
 know moral imbeciles by their looks, then ? 
 
 " It was not a fad, nor even a dashing 
 freak of mine," I returned. " It was a mat- 
 ter of necessity ; we all worked very hard." 
 11
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " You darling !" said Miss Arundell. The 
 brother sighed between his brutally strong 
 and perfect teeth. I did not know but they 
 were both going to put their arms around 
 me, but they restrained the momentary im- 
 pulse. 
 
 " And now I hope you will have a very 
 happy time together," I said, rising. " I am 
 going to leave you." 
 
 " Oh no !" Miss Arundell gasped, laying a 
 detaining hand on me. Forrester did not do 
 that, but he looked grave encouragement at 
 her. " "We have not come to the subject yet 
 have we, Forrester ?" 
 
 "No, Nell, we have not come to the sub- 
 ject yet." 
 
 I sat down again and waited.' 
 
 "You see" she began tracing crosses 
 again on the skirt of my gown "we are 
 going to do what you think right. Forrester 
 has been making his money well, betting 
 about horses, and well, cards ; and he nev- 
 er cheats but perhaps you think it is not 
 right?" 
 
 " Yes ; I think it is weak and wrong." 
 
 I looked straightly aside from him to the 
 questioning gaze of his sister. 
 12
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " Well, having promised to do what she 
 wished, I squeeze pocket-money out of grand- 
 mamma enough for us both and I wish 
 him to share it with me instead of doing 
 those things, and he laughs at me ; he says 
 it is unmanly ; he says he won't !" 
 
 " I think it is unmanly, too." 
 
 " There !" Forrester chuckled, and in his 
 elation drew out a perfumed handkerchief 
 from his pocket, a half - dozen pairs of kid 
 gloves, more or less worn, falling unnoticed 
 beside him on the floor. 
 
 Miss Arundell's face was a picture of dis- 
 may and perplexity. 
 
 " I do not know what to do!" she cried. 
 
 I had never been in society, and had walked 
 of necessity a hard, straight line. 
 
 " I do not feel competent to be the adviser 
 of you two," I said, " but you have appealed 
 to me, and I will tell you frankly the best I 
 think. I think it is beneath your brother 
 either to gamble or to take your pocket- 
 money. I think if he would get any honest 
 employment, however degrading he might 
 consider it in one sense, I, at least, according 
 to the best I think and know, should honor 
 him for it !" 
 
 13
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 Blank dismay showed on the faces of both 
 the moral imbeciles. 
 
 "And now I am going," I said. I held 
 out my hand to Forrester Arundell, looking 
 at him for the first time since I had thus 
 mercilessly suggested his line of conduct. 
 
 He grasped my hand warmly and without 
 anger, meeting me in his peculiarly earnest, 
 straightforward way, but he looked, as his 
 sister had done, as though I had dealt him an 
 irremediable blow.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 "CAN you account for your friend for 
 Miss Arundell?" said the president, who had 
 bidden me to her in private. " She passed 
 not taking papers in advance, like yourself 
 but she passed wonderfully good examina- 
 tions for admission and I am informed by 
 her teachers that during the nine days she 
 has already been here she has not yet been 
 able to answer a single question put to her 
 in the class-room." 
 
 I looked straight and sadly at Madam 
 Parmenter. 
 
 As far as my own undoing was concerned, 
 I can honestly say I would have preferred 
 to tell the truth then and there ; as it was, I 
 could only meet her gaze sadly and unblush- 
 ingly. 
 
 " We thought possibly some mental strain 
 in preparing herself to come here may have 
 temporarily unfitted her, Miss Scheffer?" 
 
 Still I could not even smile. " I hope you 
 
 15
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 will have all the patience possible with her," 
 I said. 
 
 "She is a most engaging person, and so 
 endearingly tractable. If she can make some 
 improvement, very well ; if not, it will doubt- 
 less be best for her to repair to her home 
 again until she can recover her mental tone." 
 
 O 
 
 " Eleanor," I said, later, to the subject of 
 this conversation, " if you do not learn your 
 lessons " 
 
 " Oh, darling, I have such news for you ! 
 Forrester has got a place as conductor on 
 the street cars !" 
 
 In tragedy Miss Arundell was supreme, 
 and solemnly tragic was her countenance 
 now. 
 
 "I am very glad of it," I said, briefly, 
 hiding my amazement. " Surely, if he has 
 resolved to do so nobly, you do not wish to 
 be sent home because " 
 
 " Yes," said she, very seriously, " I wish 
 to go home. October is my favorite month 
 in the country, and the sublimest to ride in. 
 Poor grandpapa misses me, too, I know 
 and I shall leave Forrester with you." 
 
 " With me !" 
 
 " Yes ; he is doing what you advised, and 
 16
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 we think, somehow, that you see the right 
 way for him to get redeemed and for grand- 
 mamma to take him back. He says he shall 
 keep right on, if you will let him call some- 
 times and ' get points.' It will not be often, 
 poor fellow ! he rarely has any time off. And 
 I shall have you with me in your winter va- 
 cation, when we are in New York." 
 
 . " What a preposterous idea, Eleanor ! Un- 
 less you will decide to stay here and apply 
 yourself, it will be 'farewell' between us 
 two." 
 
 " Ah no !" She smiled, confidently. 
 
 " In my winter vacation, I shall be at our 
 Vermont shanty, with my good brother Dan 
 very surely." 
 
 " Then I will come there to you." 
 
 "Excuse me but you will do no such 
 thing ! "We could neither entertain you nor 
 keep you warm." 
 
 " Well, it will be better for me to go to 
 you in the summer, I think, and in your win- 
 ter vacation you will come to me." 
 
 " Most certainly not." 
 
 "Oh yes, you will!" She laughed with 
 such enlightenment in the belief that she did 
 not even care to pursue the subject. 
 
 B 17
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 "Why won't you stay here and learu 
 something ?" I said. 
 
 An idea that Miss Arundell would fain 
 have considerately and delicately concealed 
 from me now forced itself upon me that 
 she considered it ill-bred to study. The soft- 
 est compassion only lighted her face. " You 
 cannot help it," she sighed, mysteriously, 
 " but perhaps some day things will be differ- 
 ent. You do not know," she added, "the 
 trial it was to me to come here at all; but I 
 felt it my duty, and I came." 
 
 Her saintship was clad all in white, and it 
 became her. 
 
 " You won't be sharp with poor Forrester ? 
 He might not understand you so well as I." 
 
 " Indeed, if you could look into ray heart, 
 Eleanor, you might see that I feel rather 
 sharp with you" 
 
 She laughed and laid the cool rose of her 
 face against my scarred, dark cheek.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 " FARE, please !" 
 
 .It was a Sunday evening, unseasonably 
 warm, and I had not noticed the conductor 
 till he appeared to me on the side platform 
 of the open car. 
 
 "I have been looking for you," said he, 
 eagerly and why he should seem so glad to 
 see me I could not imagine "but you must 
 always have been on some other fellow's car 
 Thorn Street! Change for Greyridge 
 you are not going to change ? Good ! ex- 
 cuse me one moment 
 
 " You do not know how good and home- 
 like it seems to see you again! What do 
 you hear from Nell ?" 
 
 " Her first letter was in French and very 
 good French, too." 
 
 " That was just to show you what she did 
 know dear old girl !" 
 
 A fellow-passenger, hearing only the last 
 19
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 part of this enthusiastic address, turned and 
 regarded me narrowly. 
 
 "The second is in English her native 
 tongue." I took the letter out of ray 
 pocket 
 
 " ' DEAREST MARTHA, It almost brakes my 
 harte that I cannot have you and Forrester 
 with me this devine wether ..." I then 
 read aloud to him, in a low tone: '"Tell 
 Forrester grandmamma had a new biblicul 
 text that came with an advertissment by 
 post, that she sent down to the servants' 
 parlor, becaus she said the goddy colors of 
 it were appropriate for them. It was, " Look 
 forhead and not back, look out and not in, 
 and lend a hand." ' " 
 
 There could not have been time for this in- 
 junction to take effect. Indeed, I think For- 
 rester Arundell had hardly comprehended it 
 yet : he was abstractedly picking the bits of 
 straw and dirt out of the fringe of an old, old 
 lady's shawl ; it had escaped through the 
 space in the seat back of her, and was sweep- 
 ing the floor. 
 
 " Laddis Street 1" No one getting off or 
 on, he continued his occupation with the 
 20
 
 fringe assiduously, then tucked it in tenderly 
 out of harm's way, without her observation. 
 
 "Bemis Street!'' The very old lady, who 
 was without an attendant, beckoned him 
 feebly to stop. He sprang off, and, disre- 
 garding her trembling hand instead of al- 
 lowing her to climb down painfully from the 
 high platform with only such small aid he 
 took her in his arms and set her slowly down 
 as if she had been priceless porcelain. A 
 grateful smile lightened her pallid old face, 
 and he leaped back to his car with a low 
 sweep of his conductor's cap. 
 
 " ' 109 ' 's rather soft on the girls," said 
 one of two unkempt individuals, smoking on 
 the rear seat. 
 
 " I'll tell you !" said Forrester, who had 
 evidently been meditating all this while. " I 
 can get Dick Thurston to take my place, 
 down at the station he and I change off, 
 Sunday nights and I'll go to church with 
 you. May I ?" 
 
 " Why yes." 
 
 " I know what church you go to. You go 
 to the true old blue." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 "Here we are! now, just a minute! 
 21
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 This is charming ! I haven't been to church 
 with a lady for years, Miss Scheffer." He 
 pulled a soft felt hat out of his pocket, and 
 crammed his cap into that receptacle. He 
 gave a pull at each side of his mustache. 
 " Excuse me for prinking on the street. I've 
 worn out my gloves ; besides, I can't fin- 
 ger the change with them. You won't be 
 ashamed of me?" 
 
 His light hair was parted in the middle 
 and gave evidence of the most vigorous nat- 
 ural growth ; his white felt hat had taken, 
 to say the least, a very hopeful cant ; he was 
 gigantic and brigandish-looking, and one of 
 his boots was waxing near that supplicatory 
 condition which cries for a patch. 
 
 " Oh no !" I said. " I am rather shabby 
 myself." 
 
 "Are you? I had never noticed it." A 
 long-breathing sigh, like the one he had given 
 in the parlor at the college, whistled through 
 his teeth. " Let's sit on the back seat, so we 
 can whisper !" 
 
 I had another motive for acceding instant- 
 ly to this request. Nearly all my professors 
 women attended this church, and I had 
 no fancy for marching conspicuously up the 
 
 22
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 aisle with my stupendous and uniformed 
 street-car conductor. I entered the very 
 last pew, in which sat only a little negro boy. 
 In his embarrassment at being thus invaded, 
 having let me pass, he gathered himself close 
 to me, leaving my escort at the other ex- 
 treme. 
 
 " See here, Mr. Jackson," whispered that 
 undaunted individual; "you came early to 
 get the end-seat, didn't you ?" 
 
 " Yeth, thir," replied the boy, who would 
 have responded in the affirmative to any- 
 thing, so ingratiating was Forrester's manner. 
 
 " "Well, come over here and take it, Sonny. 
 I'm no pig." In thus reversing the situation, 
 the two knocked the hymn-books out of the 
 rack. The juvenile element in the galleries 
 regarded us with sparkling eyes. 
 
 Forrester deliberately replaced the books, 
 stopping to read a selection from each one, 
 then folded his arms, crossed his long legs, 
 and leaned towards me : 
 
 " I get a lot of chaff from the fellows I 
 left, Miss Scheffer, about what I am doing 
 now. They think it's one of my daredev 
 bluffs, but it is not. I'm never going back 
 to that sort of life again !" 
 23
 
 T HE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " I will talk with you about it after service," 
 I said. 
 
 " All right, mamma !" He looked straight 
 into my face with his honest, laughing eyes, 
 and showed the whole two rows of his mas- 
 tiff teeth at me. 
 
 A look of disappointment encircled the 
 galleries as he now straightened himself up 
 with an air of adamantine seriousness. But 
 when we rose and sang, we became again the 
 cynosure of many eyes. Some in the audi- 
 ence even turned around to look. 
 
 So jubilant and profound a bass as issued 
 from the lungs of Forrester Arundell I had 
 never heard. My voice all voices seemed 
 borne on it like a bird on ocean billows. As 
 Madam Parmenter turned a sidelong glance, 
 I felt the blood in my face, but my brigand 
 sang on triumphantl} T . 
 
 " What do you say to walking home, Miss 
 Scheifer ?" a delicious sigh ! " it will be so 
 much longer." 
 
 " I prefer it," I said, hurriedly, seeing a 
 group I knew waiting for a car at the corner. 
 
 " Take my .arm, won't you, please ? Nell 
 always takes my arm. She and the fine young 
 ladies in her set used to say they could walk 
 24
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 miles with me and not tire. I'm not bad to 
 walk with if you only will You don't 
 touch me ! You act as if I was contamina- 
 tion!" A hot flush came to his face; his 
 lips quivered. I put my painfully mended 
 glove on his arm. 
 
 Here was I, who, all the days of my girl- 
 hood, had walked alone, while the village 
 youth escorted my fairer and merrier sisters, 
 here was I, at last the unsought and sedate 
 walking home from evening meeting on 
 the arm of a jaunty giant of six feet two, 
 with his hat cocked perilously near the verge 
 of his head. 
 
 " Would you mind," I inquired, " putting 
 your hat forward just a little ?" 
 
 " "What ! Oh, Miss Scheffer, will you pardon 
 me ? My hair's so rough I can never tell where 
 the confounded thing is. Xell and that set 
 used to push it back; they said it made me 
 picturesque! Ha, ha! but you've never a 
 good word for me, Miss Scheffer. There ! 
 Is it right now ?" 
 
 "You look as though you were masked 
 for house-breaking," I replied, laughing in 
 spite of myself. 
 
 " Well, now ? Have I got the right caper 
 
 25
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 now ? Yes ? It shall always be worn that 
 way always," said he, sturdily, and with 
 impressive gravity. 
 
 He now marched on with me as though we 
 had become affiliated by special bonds in a 
 compact in which words were unnecessary. 
 
 " Do you find your new life very hard ?" 
 said I, at last, by way of breaking this family 
 silence. 
 
 "Not a bit!" said he, joyously. "I'm 
 working for an object !" 
 
 " That is good." 
 
 " Good ! it's bliss ! I'm not only going 
 to prove myself to my grandmother, but in 
 the first place I'm running this course for a 
 love at first meeting yes, sir and, by all 
 that's true, a first .love, too!" 
 
 "I am more than glad that you have a 
 friend who is such an incentive to you." 
 
 He sniffed, chuckled, and bore me along 
 for a few steps at something of a ball-room 
 galop. 
 
 " Do you know, I thought nobody cared 
 really about me, and when Nell did something 
 that was just the hardest pull on her that 
 anything could be, to come and look after me 
 
 " And when you you consented to come 
 26
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 down and see me, and flung right out at me 
 from the shoulder, and sent me down. 
 
 " At first I coughed ' knocked out,' but 
 now I'm up in the ring, Miss Scheffer, and 
 bloody for the fight excuse me, I'd talk the 
 last edition of the grammar to you, on my soul, 
 if I knew it, but I mean business, you see, 
 and that's putting the case on the bee-line." 
 
 " I understand, and I wish you the victory." 
 
 " Do you ! Do you, though ! I wonder if 
 I shall get it ! My grandmother Arundell 
 '11 sneak around a corner and chip through 
 the cellar and beat a wire-fence, but she'll 
 always get her own way. Nell's lofty, but 
 Nell, somehow, always skirts around the 
 reefs and comes out with her own particular 
 flag flying. I wonder if I'm one of 'em !" 
 He became absorbed in almost palpable medi- 
 tation. 
 
 " Good-night," I said, at the gate. 
 
 He seemed not to hear me. " Miss Schef- 
 fer, this is straight : I've been bad enough in 
 some ways, but no woman in this world has 
 any cause to reproach me." He lifted his 
 hat and looked at me. " And Nell says now 
 this isn't conceit : you know I'm bound to be 
 rich any way in the end ; she and I are the 
 27
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 heirs straight, and the law settles that she 
 says there's not a girl in her set, and it's the 
 toney set, but would have me if I came back. 
 But I don't want any of those girls." 
 
 " Well," said I, knowing that my mouth 
 was taking its humorously cool expression, 
 " that is a dilemma, I should think, you could 
 avoid with care." 
 
 "I want somebody else." 
 
 " I should recommend, then," I said, laugh- 
 ing, "your paying your attentions in that 
 quarter." 
 
 " Miss Scheffer, you may be the eruditest 
 young woman in this institution they say 
 so but allow me to say that, on some trails, 
 you walk tremendous slow." He was 
 white and his hand shook the gate. 
 
 " It's you I'm going to try for !" He swung 
 his hat, adjusted it with sledge-hammer em- 
 phasis in the position I had recommended, 
 and strode away. 
 
 " He is insane !" I gasped. " They always 
 hung to me ; they always obeyed me." I got 
 to my room and sank down into a chair. In 
 the mirror opposite I saw only a pair of big, 
 gloomy, savage black eyes. 
 
 " "What a specimen for love at first meet- 
 28
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 ing !" I commented. " And lie two years my 
 junior ! with no brains and no character ! 
 Pah ! I will never see him again !" 
 
 I drew my books to me and buried this 
 hugely abortive romance in the pages of my 
 pet science.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 IT was a week after this that a maid canie 
 to my door. 
 
 " A gentleman to see you in the drawing- 
 room, Miss Scheffer." 
 
 I took the card it was a cheap one and 
 the bit of paper thoughtfully wrapped about 
 it to keep it clean had inadvertently still 
 been left to enfold it. I took out this guarded 
 kernel, and read, " Forrester Arundell." 
 
 " Tell him that I am very busy indeed," 
 I said, " and cannot possibly see him." 
 
 No further message ensued, and I returned 
 to my work. 
 
 And now, instead of the usually fascinat- 
 ing terms of my text-book, I began to see 
 intrusive characters, in a t} T pe befitting the 
 head-lines of the most atrocious newspaper : 
 
 " After all, he was doing bravely, bearing 
 scorn from his associates and hardship in his 
 lot. A congenial employment any employ- 
 ment was not easy to find in these days, 
 30
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 even for one specially endowed, and he he 
 had done at once the best he could." 
 
 The insistent characters still forced them- 
 selves on the page. 
 
 "You have always said 'heroism' is not 
 specific, but a matter of circumstances. He 
 in his stupid way was conquering him- 
 self at last. If he was morally and intellect- 
 ually childish, so much the more excuse 
 might be made for him, so much the more 
 due to his fortitude and constancy. 
 
 " And if he should sink back !" 
 
 Katherine Eleanor Arundell, too, took up 
 her position before me, all in white, and her 
 eyes regarded me. 
 
 " I will give up my work my ambition 
 and attend to grown-up babies to im- 
 beciles !" I cried, wrathf ully, in my heart. 
 
 " Other people, through infinite toil, may 
 have a right to some existence of their own, 
 but it is not for me !" 
 
 I nursed the bitterness of this for several 
 days, and said my prayers over it. "At 
 least, you might have been friendly and 
 kind," suggested the angel, who turned a 
 forbiddingly cold shoulder to my orthodox 
 petitions. 
 
 31
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 Another unique epistle came from Eleanor 
 (I had not answered the last). In it was an 
 enclosure addressed simply to " Forrester." 
 " Why does she not address him by post ?" 
 I snapped. " It is as though I comprised the 
 responsbility of the whole unknown family !" 
 But I was somewhat subdued, and I stopped 
 at the car-station in the course of my " con- 
 stitutional." 
 
 " Is Forrester Arundell here ?" 
 
 " Jim !" called the authority I had address- 
 ed, to a man in the restaurant devouring a 
 piece of pie by means only of the choice im- 
 plement of his fist. " Where's ' Forty ' ?" 
 
 " He's been laid off a week ! He's had a 
 hell of a cold ! He's coming on again to- 
 morrow !" bawled the mouth of pie, uncon- 
 scious of my presence. 
 
 " I will see him, then," I said, replacing 
 the note in my pocket. 
 
 " I thought Forty was iron !" I heard, as 
 I walked away. 
 
 " So he is. Forty's all right ! Kickless 
 as ever ! Giv' his overcoat to old Rheuma- 
 tiz! Old Rheumatiz has got ten eatin' off'n 
 him, you know !" 
 
 The next day, as I took my prescribed
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 stroll, I glanced at the conductor's place on 
 the rear platform of each passing car. They 
 were box-cars now, and the weather was very 
 cold. 
 
 I saw him before he saw me his cap rig- 
 orously placed. Demurely I hailed the car. 
 He was busy till we were running up past 
 the line of traffic. At last I was the only oc- 
 cupant. 
 
 " I came for the ride and to give you this 
 letter," I said. " I am going up to the ter- 
 minus and then back again." 
 
 He took the letter, thanking me. His eyes 
 looked heavy and hollow, his clothes dilapi- 
 dated, his hands chapped and cold. " I've 
 been a little sick and it threw me off," he 
 said, blushing. " I had to go on living just 
 the same, and I was not earning, but I shall 
 spruce up again now !" 
 
 " I want you to promise either to come to 
 see me, or to go to church with me again 
 next Sunday night," I continued, directly. 
 
 " Promise ! I'll be there ! I'd rather go 
 to call," he added, flushing again there was 
 plain need of a patch on his boot now " it 
 will be quieter." 
 
 " Yery well. And I want to say that I am 
 c 33
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 proud and glad to have you for a friend, Mr. 
 Arundell if it can be any pleasure to you," 
 I added, "to come occasionally to see an 
 old woman like me." 
 
 " Old woman !" He was straining the 
 switch -rod across his knee, and now he 
 snapped it in two. " If anybody else said 
 that, I'd brain 'em !" 
 
 "Well," said I, after the crash, as sooth- 
 ingly as a discreet school-mistress with the 
 recalcitrant of her flock, "at least, I am years 
 older than you, and I am very glad of it. 
 And that reminds me. I am going to have 
 confidence in you; and the little jest you 
 brought up the other night " 
 
 " What little jest ? That I'm going to try 
 some time to win you for my wife ? If that 
 was a jest, you may tar and feather me, and 
 all the town may help !" 
 
 " Must never be repeated." 
 
 " I know it looks black for me now. I 
 know it looks ridiculous to you now." A 
 cough, as impressive as his bass, shook him ; 
 he glanced down at his shabby clothes, and 
 the hot flush overspread his face. Coming 
 to a turn, he went out to appty his broken 
 switch-rod. 
 
 34
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " I understand," said he, coming back as 
 softly and insinuatingly as a weaned child 
 " that I can come up and see you my Sunday 
 nights ?" 
 
 u And you understand me ?" 
 
 " Yes, mamma dear !" The teeth flashed 
 merrily once more across his lugubriously 
 thinning visage. 
 
 He kept boyishly close to me on the return 
 trip. As the fares began to come in ten- 
 derly attentive to the cripples and babies 
 he cheerfully neglected the financial returns 
 to come and stand over me, gazing out of the 
 window with a contented possessive smile on 
 his face, and his hands sunk peacefully in his 
 pockets. 
 
 I got off as soon as I could, and concluded 
 that I would not go to seek my spiritual 
 patient any more on the line of the street- 
 cars.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 SOME days before the opening of the Christ- 
 mas vacation I received a telegram. 
 
 It was a strange and palpitating event to 
 me, who had no sphere of social acquaint- 
 ance, only one relative my brother and a 
 stepmother, both of vigorous constitution. 
 
 I tore it open and read : 
 
 "Miss Arundell is ill and entreats that you will come 
 to her at once. Answer and fare paid, via B & A, car 
 the 'Vincent,' seat No. 12. You will be met at station. 
 Doctor Clitus Latimer, New York City." 
 
 The empiricism of illness had been my 
 life-long monitor, and now I neither groaned 
 nor hesitated. Keturning an answer, I 
 packed my small wardrobe and took the 
 train for New York. Tender and pitiful 
 thoughts of Katherine Eleanor Arundell 
 now filled my breast. My interrupted vo- 
 cation, it is fair to say, did not once appeal 
 to me.
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 I left my luxurious chair the first time I 
 had ever travelled in such fashion and hast- 
 ened into the station on my arrival, looking 
 sharply about me. 
 
 A pair of beautiful seal-fur arms took me 
 unawares; the scent of violets was in my 
 nostrils, the imprint of kisses on my face 
 and there before me, trustfully, radiantly 
 glad, in the glow of such abundant health as 
 Providence had given her, stood the chief of 
 my moral imbeciles. 
 
 " Oh, Eleanor, how could you ?" I cried, 
 shocked to a degree that had not yet gasped 
 its way to indignation. 
 
 "Hush!" said she, gravely. "You must 
 be careful. . I nearly died of it once. When 
 I heard you would come it was almost a 
 miracle. Give me your check, dearest 
 this way !" 
 
 The door of a carriage, austere in its ele- 
 gance, was opened for us. "Drive home, 
 Michael!" That functionary touched his 
 hat at the command, and we rolled on mag- 
 nificently. 
 
 "What is the matter with you?" I de- 
 manded, unappalled by this exterior glory, 
 looking searchingly at my companion, who 
 37
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 was sparkling and rose-flushed with the win- 
 try air. 
 
 "Doctor Latimer will tell you. Don't 
 question me. Let me be happy, now I have 
 you again. I never was one to take such 
 fancies to people, really, Martha. I never 
 had a girl friend not real, deep friend be- 
 fore." 
 
 She sank back with the same air of serene 
 possession that her brother had displayed on 
 a recent occasion. 
 
 "I surely wish to be your friend," I said. 
 " And I, too, am glad to see you, and to see 
 you, apparently, so well ; do you know how 
 much you alarmed me ? But now, since you 
 have recovered, I must go back to my work 
 by the next train." 
 
 " You wish me to have a relapse, then ?" 
 she said. Both she and her brother, among 
 their other naive accomplishments, could 
 change color at will, and now she went quite 
 white. 
 
 " Not at all," I continued, with c} T nical 
 resignation ; " we will go on. When will 
 your doctor be in to see you again ?" 
 
 " This evening. He is grandpapa's doc- 
 tor, too. We have employed him a great 
 
 38
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 many years, and he is perfectly devoted to 
 us." 
 
 " It appears so." 
 
 We stopped before a brown-stone mansion, 
 and an individual whom I took at first to be 
 one of the special reverend dignitaries of the 
 established church opened the door. 
 
 " This is Watson !" said Eleanor, bound- 
 ing past him gayly. " This is my property, 
 Watson. I do not wish any of the maids. 
 I do not wish any one. She's mine. Pll 
 take care of her." 
 
 I was led into a most gracious room. 
 Spread out on the bed were three new gowns 
 of my own sombre sort, but fine and tasteful 
 beyond anything I had ever worn a fur-lined 
 cloak, also black and a bonnet, which I was 
 amazed to find being already fitted to my 
 head, my expansive old felt hat having been 
 removed by the" same dexterous fingers. 
 
 The luxurious cloak was flung around me 
 with a swing, and I was propelled at a rush 
 to the mirror. 
 
 " There !" said Eleanor, triumph and no 
 other quality in her eyes " did not I tell 
 you so ?" 
 
 "You certainly did not," I rejoined. 
 39'
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " What does this mean ? Whose clothes are 
 you masquerading me in? Let me have 
 them off, and behold your next play let 
 there be frequent changes of scene I am 
 entirely at your service !" 
 
 She had planned her rally and grand 
 charge, and, like all her acts of finesse, it 
 was none the less ingenuous for having been 
 premeditated. 
 
 " Do you know," said she, regarding me 
 with large and solemn eyes, " whose hands 
 made these things that is, a great deal of 
 them for love of you, Martha? Martha 
 Scheffer, it was almost like religion to me ! 
 And I stole your measure from one of your 
 dresses one day when I was in your room 
 3 r ou will see if they are not just perfect ! 
 And never wearying, and hoping and pray- 
 ing all the while to be good and brave like 
 you, and I think you will like the shoulder- 
 fit better just hoping and praying. And 
 now will you go and break her heart ? For, 
 if you do not wear them, it will seem to me 
 as if you think me beneath you and can 
 never have any hope of me, forever, and for- 
 ever, and forever," she wailed, pallid in view 
 of such an eternity. 
 
 "40
 
 "Eleanor, your poor brother is positive- 
 ly getting needy, actually needing patches. 
 How can I wear these things ?" 
 
 " That is the very reason," said she, re- 
 covering her superior and smiling sang-froid. 
 " You read your Bible ? You must get ac- 
 quainted with grandmamma." 
 
 " I once flattered myself on some mental 
 resource," 1 replied, gently, " but your logic 
 is beyond me, Eleanor." 
 
 " It is not logic," said she, religiously ; " it 
 is truth. Forrester is on my heart all the 
 time, Martha. Ever since I began su perm- 
 ten making those things, I have been say- 
 ing my prayers, Martha Scheffer; and if 
 you wear them, I shall keep right on, and 
 keep on planning." 
 
 " The prayers are good," I rejoined, with 
 the utmost gentleness. "As for the plan- 
 ning- 
 
 " I think," she said, " it is wicked to settle 
 down on our prayers, and not plan, too !" 
 
 " Could you give me a sort of synopsis of 
 your plans in general something concise, 
 that would appeal to my understanding ?" 
 
 She sighed. She had a smile to melt a 
 ' heart of stone. 
 
 41
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 "You must trust me, love," she said. 
 "This is the gown you are to wear down to 
 dinner." The arms went round me again ; 
 the scent of violets, with the cool cheeks 
 against mine. The door closed softly be- 
 hind her, and she was gone.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 "WHY don't we ever have some boiled 
 corned-beef and cabbage ? It's nothing now- 
 adays but crab-shells, and lark-bones, and 
 fiddle-de-dee !" 
 
 The nurse, in white apron and cap, who 
 was in attendance on my host, picked up the 
 bird's wing he had dropped on the floor, 
 erased the gravy from his trousers with a 
 napkin, and again took up her position be- 
 hind him with a perfectly immovable coun- 
 tenance. "Watson, the butler, observed a like 
 decorum. 
 
 I had never before dined at the tables of 
 the opulent, and I felt that it was anything 
 but monotonous. 
 
 Madam Arundell observed the high-bred 
 serenity of unconsciousness. Katherine Elea- 
 nor, to whose bed of illness I had been sum- 
 moned, devoted herself with choice discrim- 
 ination to the viands before her. My poor 
 host revelled in loquaciousness. 
 43
 
 THE MOEAL IMBECILES 
 
 " Glad to have you with us again, Martha. 
 Sensible name. How did you enjoy your 
 trip to Italy ?" 
 
 " Very much !" I responded, finding myself 
 again at my familiar occupation, as foster- 
 mother to the insane. 
 
 " Deuced dirty place, / think. Glad to 
 have you home. Look as though you had 
 some sense sharp, keen eye. Mostly fools 
 around here fools and hypocrites. Can you 
 pla} T backgammon ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Watson ! have the board brought out 
 after dinner, and some liquors. Martha and 
 I are going to play backgammon. D'ye 
 hear?" 
 
 *' Certainly, sir. I attended. Immejately 
 after dinner, sir. It shall be done as } r ou 
 stipulate, sir." 
 
 " D n your Pope and Milton grammar, 
 Watson ! Why don't you talk English ?" 
 
 The nurse gathered up a medley of lobster 
 from the carpet beside him, pulled out a 
 stalk of celery from his shirt-bosom, brushed 
 him a little, and resumed her position. 
 
 " What are you always mussing over me 
 for, Mrs. Rose ?" said the object of these at- 
 
 44
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 tentions, not discourteously but a little petu- 
 lantly. "Putting me here in a bib-and- 
 tucker at my own table, and I've made my 
 millions ! IJraph ! All fools ! Had me in 
 an insane asylum, only my brother prevented 
 it. Just because I wanted to be charitable 
 charitable, Martha. Go to church, and you're 
 bawled at, ' Charity, charity !' Come home 
 and practise it, and you're trotted off to the 
 mad-house. But they can't circumvent me. 
 I can sign checks yet ! Eh, my little Nell, 
 over there ! Grandpa can sign checks yet, 
 can't he 2" 
 
 Eleanor paused in the consumption of the 
 dainties before her long enough to assume a 
 brilliantly beautiful color. " Of course you 
 can, grandpapa!" 
 
 " Where's the boy ? "Where's Forrester ? 
 Haven't you got him home yet ? What did 
 he do ? Couple of hundred dollars nothin' 
 but a boy, then and all in the family. Wrong 
 wrong, of course but motherless boy 
 always had to go on the street when he 
 wanted a good time wouldn't have him 
 and his mates clutterin' in here ye know ye 
 wouldn't, Laura. Not a base thing in him 
 did it for a lark wouldn't do a base thing 
 45
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 for money. Sent him off to redeem his char- 
 acter. Pooh ! Set of hypocrites and fools, 
 Martha !" 
 
 The lady of the house preserved her im- 
 maculate serenity. Eleanor ate on. The at- 
 tendants remained unconscious, the nurse in- 
 volved now in gathering up an interesting 
 collection of scattered edibles. 
 
 " I reckon Martha here '11 find the boy and 
 bring him home. Watson !" 
 
 "Yes, sir!" 
 
 "Bring out my writing materials after 
 dinner. Martha must have a check. "Why 
 haven't you called on me before, Martha? 
 How you been supporting yourself ? Only 
 sensible one in the family pauperized, by 
 God. Watson !" 
 
 "Yes, sir. I attended, sir. Immejately 
 after dinner, sir. It shall be done as you 
 have enjoined upon me, sir." 
 
 " D n your Drj'den and Goldsmith, Wat- 
 son! D'ye think I'm goin' to be fed this 
 stuff ? Hand me the spoon ! Thank you, 
 Mrs. Rose. Why don't we have apple-slump 
 or punkin-pie once 'n a while, Laura ? Feed- 
 ing a man in midwinter on a squirting lot of 
 frozen pap all on the drip !" 
 46
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 These terms were fully realized as Mrs. 
 Rose swathed and encircled her charge with 
 napkins, fortifying both him and the area 
 about him at all points. 
 
 " Thank you, Mrs. Rose. Here ! take me 
 out of my winding-sheet ! I'm done drib- 
 bling, thank God ! Take the coppers off my 
 eyes, and the tuberoses and ' gate's ajar ' off 
 my bosom. Fools, Martha ! Come, Martha ! 
 We must attend to that check." 
 
 "You promised me a game of backgam- 
 mon, Mr. Arundell." 
 
 "Hear that, Laura? Hear that, Nell? 
 Mrs. Rose ! Watson ! Ain't after her own 
 interests. Thinks of an old man's pleasure 
 first. D n it, Martha, you make an old 
 in an cry ! Well, well we'll let it go, for a 
 little, but I've got you in mind, my daughter. 
 I've got you in mind. Where you been any 
 way, Martha? I'll have niy lawyers, and 
 nobody shall hold me. Watson! That 
 board!" 
 
 " Yes, sir ! It is prepared, sir. And your 
 reclining-chair in the right position. Now, 
 sir, let me assist you not too precipitate, sir." 
 
 " Watson, you are a longitudinal old ass !" 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 47
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE nurse took up her stoically attentive 
 attitude beside him, and the backgammon- 
 board was placed between my host and me. 
 
 "Mustn't try to let me beat, Martha. 
 Hate to be coddled. Play your best ?" 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " Yery much attached to me, Mrs. Rose !" 
 he said, turning with some cynicism, but not 
 unkindly, to that substantial shadow. " Well, 
 well let her look on, Martha. Estimable 
 woman nothing to do hangs around me. 
 House full of dawdling idiots somebody 
 got to keep 'em." 
 
 Mrs. Rose, with unmoved equanimity, 
 gathered up his dice from a jocund dance 
 towards the piano, and replaced them in the 
 box. He threw, at last, with a decision that 
 sent the chessmen scattering in all directions. 
 His attentive shadow, after faithful and 
 long-continued search, set them again on the 
 board. 
 
 48
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 ""Was that sixes I threw some weeks 
 ago there, Martha?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 ."Sixes. Ha! ha! Mrs. Rose, see here, 
 make yourself useful. Move these men 
 along my hand trembles a little. Play 
 with caution, Mrs. Rose with caution." 
 
 That gifted individual, without further ef- 
 fort, assumed at once a transparent air of 
 premeditation. Before it became necessary 
 for me to make my first throw, my host was 
 peacefully sleeping with his mouth wide open. 
 
 " Do you wish to continue the game, Miss 
 Scheffer ?" said the nurse. 
 
 "No," I replied, and turned to the other 
 occupants of the room, among whom was 
 now Doctor Clitus Latimer, the obliging 
 sender of telegrams. I did not hesitate to 
 direct towards him a glance of frank indig- 
 nation, which, I will do him the justice to 
 say, he received without dream of a blush. 
 He rose and bowed : 
 
 "I am one of the most enthusiastic, Miss 
 Scheffer, in welcoming your sex to our fra- 
 ternity. I hear you are entering the pro- 
 fession. I approve of it. I consider the co- 
 operation of your sex indispensable." 
 D 49
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 
 "Well, I am not rushing towards the 
 
 goal," I rejoined, and although I spoke in 
 extremely quiet tones, I felt that Madam 
 Arundell was shocked that any one should 
 carry into good society, and that without 
 apparent reason, such a villanously expres- 
 sive countenance. 
 
 " You will arrive there with just so much 
 the more practical ability, Miss Scheffer," he 
 said. 
 
 " I am aware," I replied, " that it is main- 
 ly practical." 
 
 Madam Arundell seemed afflicted with a 
 thought that I might fling the furniture. 
 " What a charming day it has been, doc- 
 tor !" she exclaimed. 
 
 " Charming ! You are taking the capsules 
 regularly, Mrs. Arundell ?" 
 
 "I obey you, always, doctor," she said, 
 with a sweet laugh. 
 
 My host woke up with a baffled snore. 
 "Who's there? heh? heh? Oh earning 
 another five dollars prescribing sugar-plums 
 to the women, eh, doctor? Well, well 
 welcome to it. Always dressed up like a 
 window-form black whiskers, pink cheeks 
 always welcome here, doctor; somebody 
 50
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 got to support 'em. Martha ! "Where's Mar- 
 tha?" 
 
 " She is here, Forrester," replied Madam 
 Arundell, soothingly, with the faintest pos- 
 sible tinge of irony in her voice. 
 
 " Glad to have ye home. Mustn't give 
 the old gentleman the slip again, Martha 
 lost without ye. Laura !" 
 
 " Yes, Forrester." 
 
 " Come over here and we'll have a game 
 of backgammon, Laura. Let the young 
 folks talk needn't be afraid. Martha ain't 
 go'n' to take up with any of your stand- 
 ard-cut, robin -breasted window-forms, he! 
 
 he! nor any of your d d sugar -plums, 
 
 either." 
 
 Madam Arundell rose with a resigned 
 sigh. The nurse, seeing her charge so tran- 
 quilly sleeping, had retired to the basement 
 for a little jaunting with the domestics. 
 Katherine Eleanor, with the Arundell trait 
 of easy sleeping, had been for some time re- 
 clining on the sofa in soft and sound repose ; 
 her saint -like features lay in sweet relief 
 against the crimson velvet. 
 
 Madam Arundell touched the electric bell 
 before seating herself ; the nurse appeared ; 
 51
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 the throwing of dice and scattering of chess- 
 men recommenced. 
 
 " What is the matter with Miss Arundell ?" 
 said I, fixing on Doctor Latimer a look de- 
 void of all sentiment save the one "not to 
 let go " till I had a reasonable answer. 
 
 "Miss Scheffer, I have been the family 
 physician here for fifteen years." The scorn- 
 ful curl on my own lips was suddenly met 
 by an injured sneer on his part. " The of- 
 fices are not those of a quack." 
 
 He picked up a book and stared angrily 
 at the cover. " It is about once in a decade 
 that Miss Katherine Eleanor Arundell sets 
 out to have her own way. If, knowing the 
 case, you have any counter-stimulant to pre- 
 scribe save immediate graceful concession 
 to her wishes, kindly produce it ! 
 
 "I am not vilifying Miss Arundell. In 
 fact, I never knew a sweeter disposition. 
 But, as I said, a few times strikingly in the 
 flight of years, she has set her heart on some 
 object. Once we stood firm. I saw spasms, 
 fits, the flesh empurpled, shrieks, ravings, 
 and at last a solid hour of unaffected death- 
 like unconsciousness. Do not misunderstand 
 me; she is, normally, tranquil, sweet, for- 
 52
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 giving, but when, semi-annually, as it were, 
 we hear the mutterings of that distant cy- 
 clone, we do not propose expedients, we do 
 not discuss metaphysical subtleties we 
 obey." 
 
 " I consider it all nonsense." 
 
 " You are very kind to say so ! When 
 Miss Arundell some days ago expressed a 
 desire to send for her friend Miss Scheffer 
 her grandmother objected. You may be 
 able to imagine reasons why Mrs. Arundell 
 should prefer to keep her domestic circle ex- 
 clusive and retired! "Well, the signs ap- 
 peared. The grandmother yielded, not 
 only speedily, but, I may almost say, fawn- 
 ingly. 
 
 " You are aware, Miss Scheffer, that fami- 
 ly traits, not to be considered in the patho- 
 logical sense of physical subversion, and cer- 
 tainly not of insanity, yet sometimes reach an 
 abnormal state of development." 
 
 " I am aware," I said, " that wilfulness has 
 sometimes been whipped out of people !" 
 
 " I should say," said he, with an enraged 
 smile, "that you could hardly put yourself 
 forward as a successful example of such 
 caustic discipline !" 
 
 53
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " They're quarrellin', Laura he ! he ! 
 look at 'em ! Red as lobsters ! I told you 
 Martha was enough for him." 
 
 " Mr. Beeman Price !" said Watson, at the 
 door. 
 
 I looked up, and saw a stout iron-gray 
 man, with features sardonically sordid ; a 
 large wart grew out of one ear, his hands 
 were soiled, and he held a stick in one corner 
 of his hard mouth. 
 
 " Dear Mr. Price !" said Mrs. Arundell, 
 rising, " you have come at the right time. 
 We were sinking into family ennui." 
 
 " Pish ! Great 'ongwee' ! Martha and the 
 doctor, over there, were just getting up a 
 fight ! 'Shamed of ye, Laura always after 
 money-bags got enough of our own," as- 
 serted our host, nonplussed, and slightly 
 offended at being left alone with his nurse 
 and his demoralized backgammon-board. 
 
 " Eleanor !" cried Madam Arundell, in her 
 peculiarly winning voice, " Eleanor, here is 
 Mr. Price !" 
 
 Eleanor opened her dream-entangled eyes, 
 and realized the fact. " Grandmamma," said 
 she, peevishly, " I'm dead with sleep," and 
 turned again to repose. 
 54
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 Doctor Latiraer looked over at me and 
 leered. 
 
 Beeraan Price reached out facetiously with 
 his cane. The tip of one of Eleanor's slip- 
 pered feet was visible under her robe ; he 
 gave her foot a decisive jog with his cane. 
 
 The girl sprang to a sitting posture like a 
 flame, snatched the fan at her side, and threw 
 it with smashing force against his foul shirt- 
 bosom. 
 
 He laughed. Madam Arundell's delicate 
 old face was red with mortification. " "What 
 conduct!" she exclaimed. "We are really 
 becoming barbarians, Mr. Price. "We have 
 been so long, in a sense, shut off from society." 
 
 "'Barbarians!' We ain't, neither !" said 
 
 our host. " We're a lot of d d fools ! all 
 
 except Martha. Served him right ! He 
 ain't go'n' to have her. Leave it to you, 
 Martha. Leave every thing to you goin' to 
 bed. Sick of it fiddlin' around here with 
 idiots. Where's my night-nurse ? He ! he ! 
 Where's the Kev. Solibeg ? Ring the bell, 
 Mrs. Rose." 
 
 A grave young man in spectacles appeared. 
 He stiffly offered his arm to our host. 
 
 " Good - night !" Leaning on the young 
 55
 
 man's arm, he tottered over to me. " Good- 
 night, Martha. Glad to have ye home. God 
 bless ye ! Mustn't go off and leave the poor 
 old man again. Look out for things. I de- 
 pend on ye, Martha depend on ye." His 
 voice trembled, he patted my hand an instant, 
 paternally, with his soft, trembling old fin- 
 gers. u Good-night !" 
 
 " He seems quite elated by Miss Scheffer's 
 advent," remarked the doctor, in a voice 
 suggestive of pleasantry. 
 
 " He fails," sighed Mrs. Arundell. " Poor 
 man ! I do not consider him accountable for 
 anything. And," she continued, as if ad- 
 dressing Beeman Price alone in personal con- 
 fidence, " his brother having insisted on his 
 being relieved from all guardianship, in one 
 sense, his actions, if not watched, would be 
 simply disastrous." 
 
 " Ought to be shut up shut up," clapped 
 the mouth of Beeman Price. 
 
 Eleanor looked as though she were reach- 
 ing for another missile. 
 
 " Going to the play with me to-morrow 
 night, Miss Eleanor?" said her admirer. 
 "Very idle, expensive business, but I'm for- 
 giving see! I'll do anything you wish." 
 56
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " No, I am not ! I wish you would take 
 that dirty stick out of your mouth !" 
 
 " Eleanor !" 
 
 " All right. Some men chew tobacco, my 
 pretty lady. But I obey. Old position re- 
 versed, they say. We say, ' I obey J now. 
 Ur-r-r ! Any other commands ?" 
 
 Eleanor looked as though she were about 
 to suggest in detail other vivid needs of per- 
 sonal cleanliness. 
 
 "Eleanor," interposed Madam Arundell, 
 "I really think you are half asleep yet. 
 You will come to dine, Sunday, as usual, 
 dear Mr. Price? There are some matters 
 about which I wish to consult with you. I 
 really am so dependent upon you for ad- 
 vice." 
 
 "Hear that, Miss Eleanor? But your 
 grandmother's adviser ain't good enough 
 to advise you, is he?" 
 
 " No !" 
 
 " She is foolish with sleep. Eleanor, you 
 may be excused and retire to your room. 
 You certainly are not fit for any society 
 except that of your maid." 
 
 Eleanor came over to me, slipped her arm 
 through mine, raised me, looking, meanwhile, 
 87
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 as if she had no other prop or stay in all the 
 world. 
 
 No sooner were we in the hall than she 
 burst into passionate weeping. 
 
 " Come," I said, " where is your room ? 
 Do not let them hear you boo-hooing here." 
 
 " She weeps my affliction ! She weeps !" 
 Another aspect of this discursive household 
 now presented itself a middle-aged French- 
 woman, with a countenance of tragic woe. 
 Eleanor clung to me. Together, we put this 
 special moral imbecile to bed. An Irish 
 house-maid was dawdling officiously about 
 the room. She sniffed, not too audibly, and 
 sang in resolute murmurs : 
 
 "The old man says to his wife, says he, 
 Says he and says I, 
 And says I, and says he." 
 
 "Mar'an!" said the Frenchwoman, with 
 sarcasm, " you have a tune indeed ! Ravish- 
 ment ! Mon Dieu ! ' Ce ce' and ' ci ci /' 
 Pah !" 
 
 The vocalist did not reply. She had an 
 air of pent-up contemplation : 
 
 " The old man says to his wife, says he, 
 Says he and says I, 
 And says I, and says he." 
 58
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 IT had been my firm intention to tell these 
 gifted of wealth and station, before I retired 
 for the night, that I should take the first 
 train back to my college in the morning to 
 point out to Eleanor with impressive serious- 
 ness her unheard-of nay, more her wicked 
 conduct, in sending for me as she had done 
 and to depart. 
 
 Instead of that I had been obliged to do 
 my utmost to adminster consolation to her. 
 White, quivering, with tear-stained eyes, she 
 had at last moaned and trembled into sleep. 
 It was not the tempest of which Doctor 
 Latimer had told ; but evidently she had 
 reached some signal crisis in her stratagem 
 of life ! 
 
 I found myself, at near midnight, in my 
 own room, in an amazing state of mind. 
 
 I smiled, therefore, as I brushed out my 
 hair, to see how firm was the brown hand 
 that flew up and down at this occupation. 
 59
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 Here, in surrounding sumptuousness, under 
 the gas-lights, a hand that had much swept, 
 delved, and brewed, held the rod of the rural 
 school-mistress, battled with illness in its 
 direst forms a brown, unlovely, virile, heart- 
 less hand. 
 
 " Thwarted again ! but I can as well make 
 my adieus in the morning," I declared. 
 
 Out of the shadows came another hand, 
 soft, palsied, white, and fell on mine. "Leave 
 it with you, Martha. Depend upon you, 
 Martha." 
 
 Was there ever anything so preposterous ? 
 I shook the feeble ghostly old hand off. It 
 reached out again from the shadows and 
 arrested mine. I sank down by the bed. 
 " These people are nothing to me," I prayed; 
 " they, with their servants for every need. It 
 is right for me to go my own hard-earned 
 way at last, and at once. But I cannot 
 think !" 
 
 The brown hands clasped the bewildered 
 head to press it into resolution ; the afflicted 
 head at last began to sink low ; the Arundell 
 doom of sleep was upon me. 
 
 " Are you awakened, mum ? Breakfast at 
 half after eight, if you please, mum." Wat- 
 60
 
 son intoned at my door. " Mary Ann has 
 probably been deliquescent in awaking you, 
 mum." 
 
 I dressed with resolved hands, but still 
 with a fretful and disturbed head, and de- 
 scended to the chaste silver and elaborate 
 service of the breakfast-table. I was alone. 
 
 " Mrs. Arundell presents her compliments, 
 mum, and begs that you will excuse her vale- 
 dictorian habit of taking her morning repast 
 in her room. Mr. Arundell is not yet awaken- 
 ed, mum. Miss Eleanor has a headache, but 
 sends her affection and will be with you 
 presently. The fruit is always to be recom- 
 mended, mum. As the poet says " 
 
 " "Watson," I said, " will you see that I 
 have a cab to catch the noon express ?" 
 
 "Watson, in broadcloth so choice that it 
 seemed hardly material at all, stood firm and 
 moved his reverend lips : 
 
 " It must not be, mum." 
 
 " And why not, pray ?" I blazed, scornful- 
 ly, with malignant eyes. " Certainly, then, 
 I will order my own." 
 
 He closed the hall door, where the flitting 
 form of a servant, now and then, appeared, 
 and stepped softly to me. 
 61
 
 " Pardon me humbly, mum. You have ob- 
 served the peculiar exegesis of this household ? 
 Bear with me ; did you commune last night 
 with your God, mum ?" 
 
 " I will have an orange, "Watson." The 
 orange was sweet ; my face was contemptu- 
 ous and sour. 
 
 " The fish is specially to be recommended, 
 mum. We are, as a family, rather debilitat- 
 ed. As the poet says, 
 
 " ' Swate bells jangling out their tune !"' 
 
 I laughed. "Watson's prelatical counte- 
 nance expressed satisfaction. " You don't like 
 the ice- water ? It shall be modified, mum." 
 He trotted away with the great silver pitcher. 
 ""Wat-son," he murmured, returning, "son 
 of "Watts ! Pardon the personal illusion to 
 myself accounts for my constant leaning to 
 the classics. "Watts ! a religious poet of the 
 early centuries, rather dogmatical. I, my- 
 self, am wholly latitudinal, mum." 
 
 I smiled. The aroma of my coffee was a 
 revelation. 
 
 "Beware of Mary Ann, mum." It was 
 with officious dignity that "Watson now bent 
 62
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 towards my ear. "Permit me to whisper 
 ' caution !' mum." 
 
 " Ah ! Is she the one who sings ' Says he 
 and says I,' Watson ?" 
 
 "The same." 
 
 " She seems no more dangerous than the 
 rest," I was pleased to commune with myself. 
 But "Watson did not mind ; his sacerdotal 
 eye rested sternly on the door; he sprang 
 forward and opened it. Mary Ann, apparent- 
 ly merely passing with her dust-cloth, flapped 
 him over the head with it. A scene ensued 
 of a sort with which experience, amid less 
 ornate surroundings, had made me familiar. 
 I contemplated it from time to time, as I 
 calmly pursued my breakfast. Archbishopric 
 coat-tails and menial white apron flashed be- 
 fore me in vivid warfare. Slaps and pushes, 
 deliberate rather than alarmingly violent, 
 formed the scheme of action. The stout 
 house-maid conquered ; the time-honored up- 
 holder of the Arundell family arms lay 
 gently sprawling on the floor. 
 
 I assumed not to have observed this as he 
 entered, soon after, with unimpaired dignity. 
 
 "I find it necessary sometimes," he en- 
 lightened me, slightly out of breath, " to ad- 
 63
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 minister chastisement in the case of some of 
 the lower servants. I have expressly for- 
 bidden Mary Ann to bear the morning let- 
 ters to their precipitants. I wrested them 
 from her, -though with difficulty. Yours 
 repose on the table in the library, mum." 
 
 I had the fewest possible letters in any 
 place. That here, where I had passed but 
 one strange night, my morning post receipts 
 should be spoken of in the plural was edify- 
 ing, and, I believed, another phase of "Wat- 
 son's always competent grandeur of speech. 
 
 Yet it was one. Having regarded with 
 indifferent amusement the magazines, now 
 nearly a month old, lying with uncut pages 
 on the table, Eleanor's specious novel, turned 
 flat to keep the place, the newspapers, placed 
 in a position to absorb hygienic warmth from 
 the fire, I did glance farther and saw a letter. 
 
 It bore my name in characters too atro- 
 ciously bold to suggest doubt. I opened it : 
 
 "Mr DEAR Miss SCHEFFER, Nell telegraphed me 
 you are with us. I never was moredelited at anything. 
 
 " I am doing fine, all over my cold, and got part of a 
 new suite of clothes. I wear my hat plum, forever- 
 more. 
 
 " I often think of what you said, I must not presume, 
 and ask you to forgive me. But the first time I met you 
 64
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 I turned from what I was. This is straight. But you are 
 right. I had no right to presume till I was more worthy 
 (which could never be), but you might think more so. 
 And I prommis never to be gilty by act or speech again 
 to presume to express affection till I may be more so. 
 " Yours with the love of all my harte, 
 
 "FORRESTER."
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 WITH this endearing and consistent effort 
 in my hand, I still stood before the fire when 
 Madam Arundell entered the room. 
 
 " Did you sleep well, dear Miss Scheffer?" 
 she said, effusively. 
 
 "Here," I merely thought, "is another 
 moral imbecile with a scheme." 
 
 She, too, closed the door confidentially. 
 
 " You are, I think," she murmured, in her 
 peculiarly sweet voice, "one likely to be 
 touched by the needs of affliction ? My poor 
 husband and my grandchild have taken such 
 an instinctive liking to you, Miss Scheffer, 
 let me add a reasonable word on my own 
 account." 
 
 I was in a mood to smile rather bitterly at 
 the lady's unconscious lack of flattery. 
 
 " Why not remain with us a while ? I 
 
 know that this is an unwarrantable request 
 
 to make, absorbed as you are in your studies, 
 
 but, I can assure you, the consequences wiD 
 
 66
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 be very hard indeed for me to bear if you 
 do not." 
 
 "Whatever there may have been to criticise 
 in this frank attitude of mind, she was angel- 
 ically refined of feature and she was very old. 
 The lace at her wrists trembled a little. Her 
 eye fell on the letter, which I had made no 
 attempt to conceal. 
 
 " Eleanor tells me you have her entire con- 
 fidence. You know, then, that she is engaged 
 to Mr. Price, and that the marriage is to 
 take place early next month. She has al- 
 ways been a peculiar child, and the early 
 death of her parents left me with respon- 
 sibilities which now, especially with my age 
 and delicate health, I really do not know 
 how to cope with, Miss Scheffer. For her 
 sake, above all, I shall be glad when she is 
 married to this estimable man, of very, very 
 great wealth." 
 
 She looked keenly and impressively at me, 
 as though a god had been mentioned whose 
 attributes I, as a poor student, could hardly 
 appreciate. 
 
 I dangled the unfolded letter in my hand. 
 
 " Excuse me " a bright red spot glowed 
 in the centre of her still pretty, old cheeks 
 67
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " as my eye glanced at the general style of 
 your correspondent's handwriting, it remind- 
 ed me of something familiar." 
 
 " It is a letter from your grandson." 
 
 11 To youf" 
 
 " To me." 
 
 " Pray" 
 
 " Let me read it to you. I have met him 
 but three times in my life. He, like your 
 granddaughter, has doubtless always been a 
 peculiar child. Is it any wonder that you 
 should wish to delegate, or, at least, share 
 your maternal duties !" 
 
 I read in a voice certainly cool of all sen- 
 timent. 
 
 She looked steadfastly at me. " You are 
 a sensible young woman!" she exclaimed, 
 sharply. " Where is he ?" 
 
 "He is conductor on a street -car in 
 B ." 
 
 The red spots flamed vividly in her cheeks. 
 " Is that the best he could accomplish ? In- 
 stead of returning, and confessing to me his 
 desire to reform when turned, temporarily, 
 for his own salvation, to his own resources 
 he chooses to absent himself indefinitely, and 
 to plunge instead into the utmost disgrace !" 
 68
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 "I cannot think that. I am a working- 
 woman myself, you know." 
 
 Her face turned white and calm again, but 
 with an indefinable, inflexible stamp of con- 
 tempt. " He would better continue, then, at 
 his very dignified and remunerative employ- 
 ment !" 
 
 " I quite agree with you." 
 
 " Well " she drew a long sigh " I esteem 
 you as a very sensible woman, Miss Scheffer. 
 You regard our sad family confidences, of 
 course, as sacred ?" 
 
 " It has become the business of my life in 
 all ways to foster them." 
 
 " And now as to Eleanor ?" 
 
 Well as to Eleanor ?" 
 
 " Beernan Price has not a vice, Miss Schef- 
 fer. Consider that, in this age and city ! 
 Not a single vice." 
 
 "Yes, he struck me as being very eco- 
 nomical." 
 
 " It is well, is it not," sighed Madam Arun- 
 dell, plaintively, and, I must say, with a very 
 sanctimonious face, "to be economical in 
 the matter of vices? Dear Miss Scheffer, 
 you have the most remarkable influence over 
 my precious child. The sooner such a capri- 
 69
 
 cious nature is settled, the better, is it not ? 
 And with a guide so trustworthy ! You 
 alone seem to have any positive influence 
 in the least with her. Will you not exert 
 it to help me " 
 
 " "Where's Martha ?" The door swung open. 
 " Oh, oh ! Good-morning, Martha ! Glad to 
 have ye home again. How d' do, Laura ? 
 looking very pious this morning up to mis- 
 chief, I expect he, he ! Come over here in 
 the light and read the .papers to me, Martha. 
 God bless ye ! Ain't one in the family can 
 read except Laura, and she makes an ever- 
 lastin' psalm tune of it all. Come, come, 
 Martha ! Bless ye, my daughter." 
 
 There were two enormous chairs in the 
 sunny bay-window. He sat down in one, 
 assisted by his valet, and smacked his lips 
 with delectation. 
 
 " Read it right along, Martha murders, 
 divorce - suits the whole business. Laura 
 picks and prunes so damnably, I 'ain't had 
 a taste of news since you went away." 
 
 He was very fine ; he shone from his bath 
 
 and was rosy -cheeked from his breakfast, 
 
 every particle of which had been removed 
 
 from his polished person, except a small hot- 
 
 70
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 water urn containing the remains of some 
 fried pan-fish, which the attendant, now dis- 
 covering protruding from his coat-tail pock- 
 et, bore gravely away. 
 
 I began a tragedy in the Times, he leaning 
 towards me with his mouth wide open and a 
 look of great relish in his kind old eyes. I 
 had read but a few sentences when his voice 
 suddenly interrupted me : 
 
 " Has Augusta called yet, Laura ?" 
 
 " Forrester, dear, you have asked Miss 
 Scheffer to have the kindness to read to you, 
 and now really you are interrupting her." 
 
 " No, I ain't, either. Martha wants to 
 know whether Augusta's called as well as I. 
 Has she?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Well, why don't she get along early and 
 get it over with ?" 
 
 " Because she wishes to find you dressed 
 and ready to receive her, I suppose." 
 
 " Martha's here now to entertain her. She 
 might get along early and get it over with, 
 I should think." 
 
 After this I was conscious that he mut- 
 tered a great deal and that his gaze turned 
 continually to the window. 
 71
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 Presently I looked there myself. A state- 
 ly equipage had stopped and a good and 
 beaming face appeared at the carriage door ; 
 a footman held out his arms to her on one 
 side ; Watson, who had now arrived to sup- 
 plement the scene, reached out to her from 
 the other ; a mature maid stood in the back- 
 ground. Thus, with one foot poised ponder- 
 ously on the step, she was, without doubt, 
 delivering some lengthy address ; her lips 
 moved, and her gloved finger was pointed in 
 warning or persuasion at one or another of 
 her obsequious audience. 
 
 On the solid earth she paused again. In 
 alighting, her bonnet had hit against some 
 obstacle and hung quite off her head. She 
 seemed unconscious of the maid's efforts to 
 restore it, pointing now at poor Watson, 
 her countenance alive with benign emotion 
 and her speech apparently flowing in a river. 
 
 " Laura, Laura ! Here's Augusta, lecturin' 
 as usual, with her bunnit on her ear !" 
 
 But Mrs. Arundell had left the room to 
 meet her guest. 
 
 " Stay right where you are, Martha. Al- 
 ways stick by your poor old father, Martha." 
 
 After some considerable time, in which I 
 72
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 read aloud to my host, while he conversed 
 in a still louder tone with himself, the door 
 opened, and she, with Madam Arundell in 
 her wake, came in. 
 
 " Dear, dear Forrester !" she said, and hav- 
 ing reached him, in a great deal of majesty 
 of rustling raiment, she clasped both his 
 hands in hers, and bent to him. " how are 
 ypu, dear ?" 
 
 " Pretty well pretty well very well in- 
 deed, 'Gusta. Take a chair, 'Gusta lots of 
 chairs. Watson ! Watson !" 
 
 " Yes, sir," said that ubiquitous one. 
 
 " See that Mrs. John Arundell has a loung- 
 ing -chair, Watson comfortable one big 
 one 't she can lay back in." 
 
 " Place it right here, Watson," said the 
 good lady " beside my brother. And this," 
 she said, temporarily coming over to hold 
 me in her love " this is the dear Miss Schef- 
 fer, of whom you and dear Eleanor have told 
 me, Laura ? I rejoice to see you. Are you 
 well, dear?" As I rose she folded me with 
 much choice lace and perfume of violets to 
 her bosom. 
 
 " You are serving the Lord, dear ?" she 
 said, in a genuinely gentle voice. 
 73
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " I do not know," I replied. " I am rather 
 confused. I hope so." 
 
 " Yes, yes," said Mrs. Arundell, speaking 
 boldly, I will say, on my behalf, " she be- 
 longs to our fold, Augusta." 
 
 "Lot of sheep, eh?" said my perturbed 
 host, and tried to laugh. 
 
 " Yes, dear Forrester," said Madam John 
 Arundell, taking the chair which Watson 
 had supplied arm to arm with that afflicted 
 being's "yes, dear, we are sheep, and we 
 have a shepherd. Are you not ready yet, 
 dear Forrester, to give your heart to Him ?" 
 
 " Stay right where ye are, Martha." I had 
 not moved. " Eh ? What's that ? Hearts ? 
 don't want our hearts everybody givin' 
 Him their hearts ! Wants our money too 
 wants our work wants our lives Bible says 
 so. Start out to do it, and get chucked in 
 the mad -house! Poor Lord Christ, wan- 
 derin' around everybody givin' Him their 
 hearts no end o' hearts nothin' else sh'd 
 think He'd be sick of it ! Lots of hypocrites, 
 stackin' up their money, and givin' Him their 
 hearts ! Don't want to hear anything more 
 about it. Lay back in your chair, 'Gusta 
 nice chair cost a hundred and fifty dollars, 
 74
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 that chair. Glad to see ye, 'Gusta how d' 
 do ? Lay back and take it easy, 'Gusta." 
 
 The two good ladies sighed. Madam John 
 Arundell still retained her clasp on her 
 brother's hand. 
 
 "Where is dear Eleanor?" she said. 
 
 "I do not know," replied madam, "I will 
 have her called. Eleanor is always very re- 
 miss about appearing in the morning. "Wat- 
 son ! have Miss Arundell called to the library 
 immediately." 
 
 " Instantly, mum." 
 
 Eleanor came in like a brilliant flower, 
 gushing with the family gush. "Dear 
 auntie !" she said, and was lost in the con- 
 ventional embrace. 
 
 " Are you striving, my darling ?" said the 
 great-aunt. 
 
 " Yes," replied the beautiful one, with her 
 saint-like largeness of vision as striving she 
 certainly was, in more ways than one. 
 
 "Dear child," said the lady, now with her 
 first accents of content. "Will you read 
 this little booklet which I have brought to 
 you, Eleanor?" 
 
 " Yery carefully, auntie," replied the ap- 
 proved one, tenderly receiving it. 
 
 75
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " Watson ! will you give these among the 
 servants, reserving one for yourself ?" 
 
 "Certainly, mum. Thank you, indeed, 
 mum. Very interesting literature in ap- 
 pearance, mum." 
 
 "And will you particularly have Mary 
 Ann sent up to me a moment, Watson ?" 
 
 " Certainly, mum. She nades it, mum." 
 
 'Mary Ann, dubious but stout, marched in 
 with an enviable wealth of color, fingering 
 her apron. 
 
 " Mary Ann, will you promise me to read 
 this little booklet ?" 
 
 " Yis, mum, if the words is aisy, I'll do it 
 for ye with pleasure !" said Mary Ann, with 
 a belligerent cast of her eye towards Watson. 
 
 "And appropriate it to yourself?" 
 
 " Do what, if you pl'ase, mum ?" 
 
 " Let its precepts sink into your heart ?" 
 
 "I will that!" recklessly affirmed Mary 
 Ann, anxious to comport herself creditably, 
 but, above all, to get out of the room. 
 
 " You may go, then." 
 
 " Laura," said she, turning at last to our 
 very hostess herself, " do you still have the 
 dangerous cup on your table ?" 
 
 "Just a little Sauterne, dear sister," said 
 
 76
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 Madam Arundell, winningly "as harmless 
 as water, you know.' 1 
 
 " "Worse 'n water !" said our host. " Have 
 it when you dine with us, 'Gusta other 
 times we have port and sherry and cham- 
 pagne. Huh !" 
 
 " Is this so, dear sister ?" 
 
 Madam Arundell's calm and perfect face 
 was a study for the psychologist. "Oh, 
 sometimes, possibly of a very light quality, 
 dear Augusta." 
 
 " 'Tain't, neither ! they're good and heavy, 
 or we wouldn't have 'em. We get all our 
 wines of Percival. Go to Percival to get 
 your wines, 'Gusta, and know what you're 
 drinkin'. Glad to see ye, 'Gusta how d' 
 do ? lay back and take it easy." 
 
 "Dear brother, the sacred gift of pure 
 water alone sparkles on iny board." 
 
 " Croton bugs, eh ? Oh yes I remember 
 used to dine with ye, you know. Lord, how 
 we used to dread it ! Laura ! remember how 
 we used to dread going to 'Gusta's to dine ? 
 Give it up, 'Gusta. Very fond of you 
 good woman, but gettin' too old to run long 
 on water flop up sudden one of these days. 
 
 Glad to see ye. Stay and dine get warmed 
 
 . 77
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 up for once. How d' do? Lay back and 
 take it easy, 'Gusta." 
 
 Tears stood in good Madam John Arun- 
 dell's eyes. She took leave, clasping each 
 of us in a fervent, almost poignant, embrace. 
 " Do you not see," she murmured to me 
 during this process, "how you are called, 
 dear child, to labor in the vineyard ?" 
 
 "I am almost overwhelmingly impressed 
 with the idea," I rejoined which she re- 
 ceived in the most abundant faith. 
 
 "I shall soon have you with me for a 
 private conference," she said.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 "WHAT did you mean by going and en- 
 gaging yourself to a man you did not love, 
 and did dislike ?" 
 
 In my vehemence, I let the verbs fly. 
 
 " It was the best I could do at the time, 
 Martha: Before this, something has hap- 
 pened always to get me so nicely out of 
 things." 
 
 She looked sadly forsaken of a Provi- 
 dence in whom she had placed such noble 
 trust. 
 
 "Well, the thing to do now is to go to 
 your grandmother and to Mr. Price at once, 
 like a woman, and tell them you entered 
 into the engagement heedlessly and very 
 wrongly ; ask him to forgive you he has, 
 indeed, something to forgive and say that 
 you cannot and will not fulfil it." 
 
 " But he told grandmamma, if I was * sil- 
 ly ' (he called it) he would sue for breach of 
 promise ! Imagine it, in our family !" she 
 79
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 gasped. " "We would rather both die. I would 
 even rather marry him. Can you imagine 
 how a man, even though he is not a gen- 
 tleman, could be so exacting ?" 
 
 With that face before me I could imagine 
 how a man, even though he was not a gen- 
 tleman, might be very exacting indeed in 
 holding to the pledge of its possession. 
 
 " No," she said ; " you must think of some 
 other way, Martha." 
 
 " And do you think that possibly this may 
 be any lesson to you in determining your 
 future conduct?" 
 
 " It has already. I am going to break 
 with Doctor Latimer. If I could not possi- 
 bly find any other way, I promised that he 
 should run away with me. He is so devoted 
 to us, I am sure grandmamma would forgive 
 him. I think he is as disgusting as Mr. 
 Price, only, you will admit, he has cleaner 
 hands, Martha. But after you came I made 
 up my mind I would not do such a wicked 
 thing and I am going to leave it all with 
 you !" 
 
 I knew that she was deplorably weak, I 
 knew that she was naughty, I knew, in 
 brief, that she was a moral imbecile, but the 
 80
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 simple and absorbing faith of saints and 
 martyrs had been wafted back by some 
 process of theosophy and shone upon her 
 high-bred countenance, and very greatly in 
 the eyes lifted to mine. 
 
 I knew that argument or scorn were 
 equally useless ; but I was moved to gaze at 
 her very fixedly. 
 
 Her beautiful look was not affected; it 
 challenged the deepest scrutiny. 
 
 "And so you expect me to meddle in 
 other people's affairs ?" 
 
 " They are my affairs, dearest, and so they 
 are yours. And isn't it strange how grand- 
 papa loved you too, the very first time he 
 saw you, and fancied you were his own?" 
 She laughed merrily ; the load was off her 
 heart, it had been consigned to " Martha." 
 
 Meanwhile I had automatically unpacked 
 my trunk. Not that I had assented, or had 
 come to any decision : we have convictions, 
 finally, which it is hopeless to attempt to 
 analyze, and against which it is equally 
 fruitless to rebel. 
 
 I was confirmed in this impression when 
 "Watson, with a slight preliminary knock, 
 proceeded to hold forth outside my door. 
 p 81
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " Pardon me, mum. Mrs. Arundell is con- 
 fined to her room with one of the attacks of 
 vartigo to which she is subject. She is in 
 bed, and the nurse she employs on such oc- 
 casions is with her, mum. She was very 
 much alarmed, but is now quite out of dan- 
 ger; but she sent me to ascertain if you 
 would have the very great kindness to step 
 down to her a moment, mum." 
 
 She looked pathetically transparent against 
 the white pillows. 
 
 " My dear Miss Scheffer, it is a special 
 Providence has sent you to us. Will, you 
 take these keys Eleanor is so careless; 
 and will you order give your orders or- 
 der" 
 
 " I am very little used to ' ordering,' " I 
 said, relieving her faint breath with these 
 words and a srnile. 
 
 " On the contrary," said she, and smiled 
 too. Her hand was shaking, and I took the 
 keys. She held a small one apart, and she 
 sent the nurse out of the room. 
 
 " Go," she said, " to the little drawer the 
 third inner drawer at the left of my dress- 
 ing-table; pull it out, please, and bring it 
 to me." 
 
 82
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 It was full of jewels. As she received 
 them, that inflexible and satisfied look came 
 over her face, as though, alas ! her gods 
 were with her. Now that she had them 
 and saw their lustre, I saw plainly that she 
 regretted some half-formed intention of her 
 mind ; but, from the first, she had selected 
 one, a diamond of exceeding beauty, curious- 
 ly set. She caught its light with admiring 
 and avaricious eyes, and still delayed her in- 
 tention. 
 
 "I think I got this attack I am very 
 much better from trying to write a letter 
 to Forrester. I tried to make him see 
 the disgrace disgrace. That other, I am 
 willing to think, was a boyish folly, a play- 
 ful trick merely, in our family he was 
 never bad. I regret I have no one to lean 
 on none ! But this this that he is doing 
 now a street-car !" 
 
 A flush like fever overspread her face. 
 
 " You must not talk about it now. It will 
 all be well." 
 
 I straightened the pillows and lifted her 
 a little. 
 
 I was amazed to see the covetous eyes 
 lifted from the jewels, with two great tears 
 83
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 in them. She caught my hand. " I wish 
 some one who could have influence with 
 Forrester would try to save him. This 
 was his mother's ring. She was not as 
 happy as might have been perhaps. I 
 have wondered sometimes if Some 
 time, Miss Scheffer, I shall have one of those 
 attacks, and not recover so readily!" Her 
 lip quivered. "I have a fancy you will 
 not refuse an old woman 2" She had lifted 
 the ring and was placing it on my finger. 
 
 " I cannot, Mrs. Arundell I cannot wear 
 this ! I will do anything I can to help you 
 in your troubles. I cannot " 
 
 Her eyes were fixed on me with a kind of 
 terror, wide and unnatural; a death -like 
 pallor began to creep over her face. 
 
 " See !" I said " I have put it on ! Now 
 hush I will not allow another word ! You 
 are going to rest." 
 
 She sank back with a satisfied sigh. She 
 turned with a sort of disgust from the jew- 
 els. " Put them away," she said, feebly, nor 
 even glanced at me as I put the drawer back 
 in its place and locked it. 
 
 "Send for me," I said, "whenever you 
 wish me. You must rest now." 
 84
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 She smiled, very naturally. "Order 
 dear Miss Scheffer. I am usually about, 
 in a day or two. At present I leave it all 
 with you. Order 
 
 Watson made an obeisance in the hall. 
 " Mrs. Arundell has sent out word that your 
 bequests are to be strictly obeyed, mum. 
 If my long experience with the tastes of the 
 family can assist you in making out the 
 bill of fare, I am humbly at your service, 
 mum."
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 DOCTOR LATIMEK avoided me, in what I 
 thought rather a slinking fashion. He was 
 engaged with Eleanor at one end of the 
 suite of drawing-rooms, and she, I had no 
 doubt, from her triumphant expression, was 
 "breaking up" her incidental compact with 
 him. 
 
 My host, with a child-like peace of coun- 
 tenance, was asleep and clearly snoring. 
 
 Beeman Price had taken a chair beside 
 me. He glanced with a derisive and un- 
 pleasant expression at the couple in the 
 stately distance. 
 
 " I understand the family's rather flung 
 onto you, Miss Scheffer ? Rather weak lot, 
 eh?" 
 
 " Altogether too weak, I think," I said, 
 " to take any advantage of." 
 
 He was not stupid, and he reddened through 
 his tough skin. 
 
 " But what if you had been of great ser- 
 86
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 vice to them, and only asked a business-like 
 fulfilment of a promise, eh ?" 
 
 " I have not been accustomed to expect 
 that. The more service I have rendered peo- 
 ple, the less scrupulous I have found them 
 in the fulfilment of promises." 
 
 He chuckled delightedly, and regarded me 
 with some interest. " Gad !" said he, " you 
 know human nature !" 
 
 " If you think so, let me assure you Miss 
 Arundell has no regard for the person with 
 whom she is talking yonder ; neither how- 
 ever perversely and unfortunately has she 
 any regard for you." 
 
 " ' Perverse !' Lord you've hit it ! I 
 should think so !" 
 
 "As you say, the family has appealed to 
 me in the most singular manner. I have 
 some affairs and ambitions of my own, al- 
 though it may not seem so. But you spoke 
 of weakness ; nevertheless, I know positive- 
 ly^that Eleanor will not fulfil the pettish 
 and capricious engagement she made with 
 you." 
 
 " She won't, eh 3" 
 
 " No. A child a third of your years, and 
 a child even for her own years ! You have 
 
 87
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 no writing from her, nor from her grand- 
 mother. You have only the ' Arundell word,' 
 and, in this case, it will be broken. You 
 may do your worst. I assure you they are 
 not under any apprehension as to the re- 
 sult." 
 
 He surveyed me, and his usually close 
 mouth was open. I was conscious of carry- 
 ing an unperturbed smile. 
 
 Then he laughed. " D' ye think I'm an 
 idiot, too ?" said he. 
 
 " Neither that nor a villain. Your success 
 is a matter of fame, your character unim- 
 peached." 
 
 " She's a handsome girl. She's a fool, but 
 she has an air! Gad! you know the air 
 that comes along down with that sort that 
 haven't any recollection of potato-grubbin' 
 and wood-choppin' ! Now I've done both, 
 but I could buy them out twice over !" 
 
 " I do not doubt it." 
 
 " She's handsome, and she carries herself 
 as if she'd took the first prize in all the turn- 
 turn colleges in creation, and if she was good- 
 natured I wouldn't mind her being, as I said, 
 a born fool. But if she's going to be rabid, 
 you don't suppose I want to marry her, do
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 you ? You saw that fan business the other 
 night fan that cost twenty dollars smash- 
 ed it on me ! That didn't hurt could stand 
 that but you can't tell with that sort what's 
 going to happen ! She's just as likely, if she 
 got booming mad, to throw something solid 
 at me, eh ?" 
 
 " Quite as likely," I said, and, at the sud- 
 den nature of my success, I even laughed a 
 little, basely, at his bold pleasantry. 
 
 " Tell her she's absolved, with my com- 
 pliments!" said he, looking to see if I ap- 
 preciated the wit of this also, and in my 
 relieved mood I met his conscious tri- 
 umph of cynicism with another encourag- 
 ing laugh. 
 
 He drew his chair nearer to me with a 
 sudden aspect of seriousness. 
 
 " You say you have affairs and ambitions 
 of your own. Miss Scheffer. You're a poor 
 woman, but you may get what other people 
 haven't the sense to appreciate " 
 
 "Martha! Where's Martha? Watson! 
 where's Martha?" My host awoke with a 
 shout, bewildered. 
 
 Watson dawned on us with a benignant 
 smile. " You have been enjoying a few mo- 
 89
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 ments of oblivion, sir. Miss Scheffer is in 
 your immejate presence, sir, doing the du- 
 ties of the drawing-room; Mrs. Arundell, as 
 you will recall, sir, being prostituted tem- 
 pora " 
 
 " D n your Bryant and ' Thanatopsis !' 
 Why don't you talk English, Watson ? Eh ? 
 Oh ! you here, Price ? How d' do ? Al- 
 ways welcome, Price. Shifted over to you, 
 eh, Martha ? He ! he ! Trust you to give 
 'em a walking- ticket! sharp eye chip o' 
 the old block. Lots o' tunes to Martha 
 won't make much out o' my eldest daughter, 
 Price. He ! he !" 
 
 "Well, I've got to be going," said Bee- 
 man Price, rising, rather contemptuously. 
 " I'll call again," said he, clapping his trap 
 of a mouth at me with grewsome signifi- 
 cance. 
 
 Eleanor rose from her retreat and came 
 gracefully across the room, holding out her 
 hand to him, beaming joy and a very sweet 
 dignity as well on her face. 
 
 " Good - night, dear Mr. Price," she said, 
 after the fashion of her grandmother. 
 
 He gave a kind of snort, and assuredly he 
 laughed. " Good-night, dear Miss Arundell ! 
 90
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 I've left a message for you," he added, and 
 buttoned up his coat, with a look as though 
 he had been spending merely an amusing 
 hour among the wit-bereft and incompetent.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 "MY DEAR Miss SCHEFFER, You haven't written 
 me since you got home. 
 
 " Please give my love and thanks to my grandmother 
 for her letter. My grandmother talks only about reel- 
 izing disgrace. I don't play a game, nor treat, nor take 
 a treat, and I am laing up something. I lift up and 
 down every day hundreds of babies and old folks and 
 deformed folks and lame folks " 
 
 " For Heaven's sake ! dear Miss Scheffer," 
 interrupted Madam Arundell, from the bed, 
 "let us take the rest of the catalogue for 
 granted. Pray go on to the next theme." 
 
 " If I had the abillity for the kinds of business my 
 grandmother wants me to do, I would, but fact is I 
 don't know how. If my grandmother won't say it's 
 disgrace, but that it's because she wants me, I'll come 
 home as my first duty. I leeve you to find out, and 
 leeve it all with you anyway. 
 
 " Yours with the love of all my harte, 
 
 "FORRESTER." 
 
 " "Well, what do you advise ?" sighed the 
 invalid. She had been disappointed at the 
 92
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 slowness of her recovery. Twice a day Doc- 
 tor Latimer attended and prescribed for her. 
 At last I began to apply some measures of 
 my own, and she fancied herself mending. 
 She still clung gracefully to Doctor Latimer 
 as an orthodox physician devoted to the 
 family, but in the silence of her chamber she 
 deferred entirely to me, sweetly laying the 
 whole burden of her convalescence on my 
 shoulders. 
 
 ' What do you advise, dear Miss Scheffer ?" 
 
 " I should send for him to come home. 
 He has shown practical amendment and re- 
 pentance. What is there more satisfactory 
 than that ?" 
 
 These moral imbeciles were, after all, per- 
 spicuous. It seemed to occur to her in a 
 flash that if Forrester returned, I would 
 take the opportunity to retreat. With re- 
 turning strength she had gathered firmness, 
 and she now put on one of the most virtuous 
 expressions I have ever seen on mortal face. 
 
 " Practical ! ah yes, but I see no signs 
 of the deepest feeling in this." 
 
 " But every effort towards purity and self- 
 control, every helpful act, is religious." 
 
 She shook her head. " I see no evidence 
 93
 
 of the true spirit, dear Miss Scheffer. I think 
 it is wise to let his self-effort continue a little 
 longer. He may find out how frail a reed 
 it is to lean upon ! I am able to bear no 
 excitement yet ; a straw might set me back, 
 as you know. He writes you continually 
 that he is in excellent health. Tell him I 
 regret his wilfulness, but watch his course 
 with unfailing interest" she was personi- 
 fied virtue. " Severe as the trial is to my 
 affections, I think it best to let him continue 
 a little." 
 
 The Arundell disinterestedness of this re- 
 solve was proven some hours later when I 
 came to her again, a letter from another 
 source in my hand this time. 
 
 " I have a brother, Mrs. Arundell," I said, 
 hoping to stimulate her by an air of great 
 cheerfulness and courage. "Now and then, 
 when there is something of importance, he 
 writes to me, for he is a very weighty young 
 fellow. I have a step-mother living with 
 him, and it seems her rheumatism is very 
 ' bad ' very bad, indeed. Our home is on 
 a little farm in Vermont ; we keep no ser- 
 vant, and at present she is not able to do 
 the necessary house-work for herself and 
 
 94
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 my brother. I must go and bolster them 
 up." 
 
 I had reckoned without my host. Madam 
 Arundell sank back pale, with an expres- 
 sion of great determination. She lifted her 
 hand and touched the electric button at the 
 side of her bed. 
 
 " Mary Ann, have Miss Arundell's maid 
 .sent down to me immediately." 
 
 Joan, the middle-aged French -woman, re- 
 sponded without delay. 
 
 "Joan, you remember how completely 
 you cured your own rheumatism severe, 
 almost chronic by measures known only to 
 yourself ?" 
 
 " Ya-a-s, by grasshus !" said Joan, her 
 dark, seamed face buoyant with grateful 
 recollection and benevolent hope. 
 
 "Miss Scheffer's step-mother is similarly af- 
 flicted. Miss Eleanor can very well manage to 
 dress herself for a while without you, and " 
 
 She held up a hand in majestic expostula- 
 tion as I was about to speak. 
 
 " If Miss Scheffer's medical services were 
 taken from me now I should probably go 
 into a relapse which might prove fatal!" 
 Her pallid lips quivered again! 
 95
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 "Joan, you are to pack your things and 
 go to Mrs. Scheffer's relief. Mary Ann !" 
 
 Mary Ann, always whisking a dust-cloth 
 within ear-shot of the pivotal interest in the 
 drama, responded, " Yis, mum." 
 
 " You are to pack your things and go 
 with Joan to Miss Scheffer's home for some 
 weeks. I can readily supply your place 
 here meanwhile. You are to do faithfully 
 all the domestic service there. Upon the 
 faithfulness with which you perform those 
 duties will depend your returning to your 
 situation here." 
 
 " Yis, mum." 
 
 " Go, both of you, and make your prep- 
 arations. Miss Scheffer will give you later 
 the necessary instructions in regard to the 
 journey." 
 
 Then she gasped. I put some wine to her 
 lips. She lay a moment faintly, with closed 
 eyes. 
 
 " I shall esteem it the barest justice, dear 
 Miss Scheffer, to assume the domestic ex- 
 penses of your household during this crisis." 
 An expenditure to forward her own ends 
 never afflicted Madam Arundell. 
 
 " But for you, this last prostration of mine 
 96
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 might be tending to a very different result. 
 I shall attend to it with confidence in Joan, 
 who is strictly to be trusted. Ah ! I fancied 
 the dizziness was returning. I will rest a 
 moment." 
 
 Many thoughts had flown rapidly through 
 my mind. If Joan had some mysterious 
 panacea for my step-mother's complaint, why 
 not let her go and apply it ? Madam Arun- 
 dell's illness, at least, was not affected ; and, 
 interested now in her case, I had a desper- 
 ate determination to see her well again. 
 Then, my step-mother had always disliked 
 me, and I returned the sentiment cordially. 
 Meditating, I sat by Madam ArundelPs bed- 
 side, when Eleanor burst into the room. 
 
 " Oh, grandmamma ! Joan says she is go- 
 ing to Martha's home, and she is packing 
 my things too I told her to do so !" 
 
 Madam Arundell opened her weary eyes, 
 rather with complacency, now that the di- 
 lemma revolved outside her own personal 
 needs. 
 
 " You told me that I might take Joan 
 and go to Cousin Kate's in Canada for a few 
 weeks this winter for the ice-sports, and I 
 am going to Yermont instead !" 
 G 97
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " Come over here, Eleanor," I said; "/ 
 want to talk to you. You will find un- 
 bounded ice, no doubt, in my home in Yer- 
 mont; it will even mix in the water for your 
 bath" 
 
 "I bathe in cold water every morning. 
 I am going !" 
 
 " There will be no way of heating your 
 bedroom " 
 
 " I hate hot rooms. I am going !" 
 
 " No lounges, no theatres, no carriage, no 
 quail on toast, no frogs' hind-legs " 
 
 "Eleanor," interposed Madam Arundell, 
 conclusively, " you forget that Miss Scheffer 
 has a brother." 
 
 "No, indeed, I do not, grandmamma. I 
 am so glad there is another young person." 
 
 "As for that, Mrs. Arundell," said I, 
 laughing, "Dan's interest, when he is not 
 laboring, is given entirely to the scientific 
 reviews. He is a good boy, but rather sour, 
 like myself. I doubt, when Eleanor comes 
 away from her ice-sports (of which Dan will 
 prove one), if he will know even the color of 
 her eyes and hair." 
 
 Madam Arundell smiled. Eleanor's en- 
 thusiasm was not abated a jot. 
 
 98
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 "I am going!" said she. 
 
 "Go, then, for a day, if you are deter- 
 mined," said Madam Arundell, wearily. 
 "Since you have broken your engagement 
 with poor Mr. Price, it may be well for you 
 to learn something of the rigors of life." 
 
 Eleanor, naturally, was not afraid of pen- 
 ury. She went out with a bounding step. 
 
 " Write at my table, I beg of you, Miss 
 Scheffer," said the invalid. 
 
 I wrote, with keen appreciation of the sit- 
 uation : 
 
 "DEAR DAN, There will arrive to you, to-morrow 
 night (self- sustaining), a French specialist to heal my 
 step-parent, a maid of all work, and a beautiful dam- 
 sel, no other than the daughter of the family, seeking 
 ice scenery and winter sports. Give her the room over 
 the sitting - room, and if your mechanical genius can 
 devise a way of getting a little warmth into it, even 
 though it be by knocking a hole through the floor, 
 do so. 
 
 " Mrs. Arundell is still precariously weak, and I have 
 decided to remain here a little longer. 
 
 ".MARTHA."
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 DAN went, in his stolid, matter-of-fact 
 way, to the "station," which, by-the-way, 
 resembled a cow-shed. 
 
 He had a sleigh fully equal to the occa- 
 sion in the generous extent of its plank- 
 flooring, if otherwise devoid of elegance, and 
 he carried and piled on the trunks unaided 
 the station-master being sickly. There 
 was one primitive seat in front. 
 
 " Come," said he, to the eldest woman to 
 Joan " you sit here." 
 
 " Mees ! mees !" said Joan, greatly smiling, 
 and pointing, in the moonlight, at Eleanor. 
 
 " No, Joan," said that gracious individual, 
 " sit just where Daniel tells you." His ma- 
 nipulation of the trunks had confused him in 
 her mind somewhat with the offices of a 
 porter ; so she said " Daniel," but he was 
 her Martha's brother, and his manner was 
 anything but servile, and she smiled di- 
 vinely. 
 
 100
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 And now I have to record of my brother 
 Daniel the last thing that should have been 
 expected of him in reason or in nature a 
 sudden thwarting of the logical principles of 
 life, which admits of no explanation and re- 
 mains merely to be stated as he gazed at 
 the moral imbecile, he Hushed with delight, 
 and wavered, as if longing, after all, to 
 place her on the seat beside him ! 
 
 But the obedient Joan was already en- 
 sconcing herself there. " Wa al," said this 
 anglicized Frenchwoman, and added, with 
 naive inelegance, " I have in me the joke to 
 bust 1" 
 
 " Now you two I am going to put in here 
 on the trunks," said Daniel ; and, still defer- 
 ring conscientiously to the precedence of 
 years, he lifted Mary Ann's stout form and 
 set her among the boxes ; he took up the 
 costly fur -robed form of Miss Katherine 
 Eleanor Arundell and put her down beside 
 the maid, on the latter' s flat box. "Put 
 your feet deep in the straw, lean against 
 those big trunks, get close together there !" 
 Mary Ann had on the frail ray of a bonnet 
 in which she went to city mass. " You do 
 not need that scarf, flying out under your 
 
 101
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 cloak," said Dan to Miss Arundeil ; " you 
 are in fur from head to foot ; let her have it 
 to wrap her head and neck in she will re- 
 alize what this wind means pretty soon !" 
 
 Eleanor delivered up the scarf on the in- 
 stant, with the sweetest good-nature. 
 
 Dan, going to the other extreme of the 
 sled, took off his own silk neckerchief his 
 pet article of furniture and turned up his 
 coat-collar. " Tie this over your head," said 
 he to Joan. 
 
 Joan, struck with amazement at her su- 
 perior and coquettish situation, only grinned 
 broadly at him. 
 
 He took off his mittens, and himself ad- 
 justed the scarf to her needs, leaving, with 
 masculine tact, a broad end flapping at each 
 of her ears. Miss Arundeil and Mary Ann 
 peeped over from among the boxes, and 
 were edified without distinction of class. 
 
 "Don't talk to me!" said Mary Ann, 
 through hilarious though frozen tears. 
 " Would I be getting tickets to the the-o-ter ? 
 The the-a-ters don't get the likes o' what I 
 see, day by day, God knows ! Take back-yer 
 scarf, Miss Eleanor. I wouldn't have taken 
 it only he was so sojerly." 
 
 102
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " No, no I wish I had thought of it my- 
 self. His eyes are like his sister's, Mary 
 Ann." 
 
 "Maybe. But I'd never think such a 
 scrawn as her 'u'd have such a roustin' big 
 biy for a brother. But he has the gall on 
 him, too, d'ye mind ?" 
 
 " You are not to talk to me in that way, 
 Mary Ann." 
 
 " I beg your pardon, Miss Eleanor. Don't 
 move off and let the wind blow between 
 
 us!" 
 
 Eleanor, realizing the potency of this ad- 
 vice, cuddled up again to her companion, 
 and, after the manner of the mature Arun- 
 dells, fell asleep. Mary Ann put a kind and 
 sheltering arm around her, and, being now 
 practically alone in a landscape of snow, 
 she comforted herself a little with philoso- 
 phy and that song of hers which was its 
 mysterious exponent : 
 
 "The old man says to his wife, says he, 
 Says he and says I, 
 And says I and says he " 
 
 Joan did not hear, to mock, the flapping 
 appendages at her ears constituting an en- 
 
 103
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 grossing avenue of sound ; but the latter 
 saw at last a light in the wild waste. 
 
 " "We arrive ?" she said, eagerly. 
 
 Dan nodded. " We arrive !" cried Joan, 
 shrilly, backward to the baggage. 
 
 My step-mother, it is to be said (another 
 thwarting of all rational inferences) took an 
 immediate fancy to Joan, but especially to 
 that pronounced moral imbecile, Miss Arun- 
 dell, who, on warming herself, went at once 
 to the bedside and folded Mrs. Scheffer in 
 an embrace of unquestioning affection. 
 
 " I do not know what Dan has got for 
 your supper, I'm sure," said the invalid, 
 flushing to the roots of her hair, which, by- 
 the-way, was always red. " I tried to have 
 him come to me for advice, but he goes his 
 own way; his sister and him both will go 
 their own way." 
 
 " They are very spunk}'-," said the faith- 
 less Eleanor. 
 
 " Ya-as, var' spunk," said the facile and 
 heathen Joan. 
 
 Considerable clatter arose from the kitch- 
 en, to whose exigencies Dan was introducing 
 Mary Ann ; they were both hale beings, 
 with no natural sentiments of noiseless- 
 104
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 ness, and the table was being set with a 
 will. 
 
 Soon a cow -bell, the only medium on 
 which the apt Mary Ann could lay her 
 hand, was heard resounding up the stairway, 
 and the daughter of the house of Arundell 
 descended. 
 
 Daniel, meanwhile, had struggled with 
 that first poignant arrow of delight and torn 
 it from his breast. Wholly? For, after 
 bringing in the boxes and putting up his 
 horse, he had gone up to his little cold bed- 
 room and put on the suit of black broad- 
 cloth, in which, by reason of his strength, 
 he acted as chief bearer at funerals. 
 
 " I tried to have her put seats for four," 
 gravely said this benighted Yermont coun- 
 tryman ; " they must be very hungry, too. 
 But she did not." 
 
 "Why, no" said Miss Arundell, smiling, 
 but very gently; "however hungry they 
 are, of course we could not eat with the 
 servants. They will not in the least mind 
 waiting till afterwards." 
 
 Daniel stretched out his great arms in 
 their thin broadcloth and asked a blessing 
 in his accustomed way ; the moral imbecile 
 105
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 openly regarding him during this rite with 
 graceful and complacent interest. The stove 
 and general culinary department of prepara- 
 tion were at one end of the dining-room, or, 
 rather, the dining-room was at one end of 
 those; and Mary Ann, standing buoyant and 
 silent during the blessing, now swung her 
 ladle and proceeded to dip from the caldron 
 of miscellaneous nourishment which Daniel 
 had prepared and left simmering on the 
 stove during his absence. 
 
 Having put some of this, with the hot 
 plates, on the table, she retreated into the 
 cold pantry, leaving the door a little ajar; 
 for Mary Ann designed not to miss any of 
 life's play as it evolved in ceaseless panorama 
 before her. 
 
 " There !" said Daniel, growing hot " we 
 haven't any bread. I got out, you see, and 
 I do not understand making it." 
 
 " I do not like bread," said the ready one ; 
 and being a lady of great tact, she began to 
 speak of some of her own difficulties and 
 sorrows in life, in her gentle way. 
 
 Daniel had never seen anything so proud 
 and yet so sweet as the moral imbecile, sit- 
 ting there pouring out his tea. 
 
 106
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " And what a delicious stew !" she added. 
 " I am sure it must be something very choice 
 to have such a strange flavor." 
 
 " It is a rabbit stew," said Daniel. 
 
 " And this is its dear little tail, I am sure," 
 said Eleanor, eying something on her plate 
 with childlike pleasure and admiration. 
 
 " No," said Daniel, wishing bitterly that 
 he had remembered to slice the vegetables 
 " that is only a carrot sprout." 
 
 Mary Ann retreated to the farthest corner 
 of the pantry and sang, gazing at the frozen 
 window : 
 
 "The old man says to his wife, says he, 
 Says he and says I, 
 And says I and says he " 
 
 After supper, Daniel went stoutly and 
 gravely into his workshop, at one end of 
 the sitting - room ; it was full of straps, 
 screws, wheels, and general contrivances. 
 
 Miss Arundell sat down by the fire, alone. 
 
 Daniel loved his work and became ab- 
 sorbed in it. But he glanced out after awhile 
 and saw the beautiful, listless figure, sitting 
 patiently in the glow of the firelight. 
 
 " "Would you like to read ?" said he, and 
 thoughtfully brought out to her the lightest 
 107
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 and spiciest volume of literature he pos- 
 sessed Our Country's Thousand Most Re- 
 markable Events. 
 
 " Thank you !" said Miss Arundell. He 
 looked out again. The book was open in 
 her lap, but she preserved her former atti- 
 tude, unenlivened. 
 
 " I made a way of heating your room," 
 said Daniel, " and I hope you won't find it 
 uncomfortable when you unpack your things 
 in it." 
 
 " Oh, Joan always unpacks my things," 
 drawled Eleanor, smiling, though weary. 
 
 Dan turned to his straps, with a fairy-tale 
 in his head. Oh, false human nature ! If he 
 had ever thought of uniting another's lot 
 to his own, it should be some serious, helpful 
 worker in life's struggles and now! the 
 poor county boor saw but one enthralling 
 ideal of womanhood ; that or none for him, 
 forever ; and hopeless as sweet. 
 
 " Martha says you invent things, Daniel," 
 said she, his ill-fitting funeral cloth impress- 
 ing her still further with the remoteness of 
 his social position. 
 
 " Yes, I do. You would not understand, 
 but I've got an idea here that I shall make 
 108
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 practical, just as sure as daylight. And 
 when I do I may have a penny ! It's no 
 chimera, either." 
 
 Eleanor's eyes were fixed on him with 
 wide interest now, his gloomy face had 
 turned so animated and handsome. 
 
 " You see," he went on he who had 
 never committed himself to mortal before. 
 Eleanor went over to the workshop door. 
 " The old way was so and so " he ex- 
 plained, eagerly. Eleanor entered. " But 
 now you would not understand, of course, 
 but I am working on this line now so 
 and so." Eleanor sat down on a tool-box, 
 attentively. 
 
 Mary Ann peeped in, and went up the 
 stairs, singing. 
 
 "Ce! ce!" and "Ci! ci!" sneered Joan, 
 intercepting her. " You have the tune, 
 Mar'an ! Is mam'selle 'appy below ?" 
 
 " She's settin' in the hide and 1'ather shop 
 with the young farmer. They looks to be 
 enjoyin' theirselves," replied Mary Ann, 
 coolly, and continued her refrain. 
 
 Joan went down. " Shall I go with mam'- 
 selle to her apartment, and assist her to re- 
 tire ?" she inquired, in French. 
 109
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 Eleanor, always ready to sleep, held out 
 her hand in a gracious " Good-night " to Dan- 
 iel. The poor wretch worked late at his de- 
 sign, sneezing obliviously in his thin coat 
 not bewildered, but resolute, though false 
 and lost to common-sense. 
 
 Oh, the delicious dream to his fallen 
 though toiling and masterful nature of a 
 possession like that beautiful and vigorous- 
 ly grown to woman's estate, and yet actually 
 requiring a nurse to put her to bed !
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THEEE was one simple piece of mechan- 
 ism which Daniel Scheffer executed without 
 delay. He put another seat on his sled. 
 
 " "Would you like to ride down to the vil- 
 lage and the post-office with me?" he said 
 to Eleanor, the day after her arrival. 
 
 " Oh yes ; and if Joan is engaged with 
 Mrs. Scheffer, Mary Ann can go." 
 
 Finding it an accepted fact that she was 
 not to go without an aproned attendant, and 
 determined to begin his courting right away, 
 in true Yermont fashion, and to have his 
 bride and his patent marching on in the 
 same line of completion, Daniel therefore 
 went out straightway and put another seat 
 to his sled, and he put it at a most remark- 
 able distance from the front one. 
 
 " Behol' Mar'an ! she rides behin' !" said 
 Joan, in ecstasy, at the window she her- 
 self having been notably chosen to sit be- 
 side the young man the night before. " She 
 ill
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 attracts not monsieur no ! He despise and 
 put her afar off." 
 
 " It is a wonder he did not put them both 
 there," said my step-mother. 
 
 " He have not the heart to love ? not one 
 entrancing as my mees?" said Joan, with a 
 sudden spur of conscientious anxiety. 
 
 " You need not be anyways put out," said 
 Mrs. Scheffer, dryly. "He loves his work- 
 shop and his reading, and that is all. The 
 Scheffers are queer, and, some think, hard." 
 
 " Would you like to drive the colt ?" said 
 Daniel, indulgently, to his companion, and 
 found it was one thing she could do com- 
 pletely. " You are sure you are quite warm ? 
 And so you do like our winter scenery? 
 Let me sit over on the windy side ; it will 
 make a great deal of difference, you will find. 
 I am not easily blown through." He moved 
 a little sideward, inward, further to protect 
 his seatmate. 
 
 "The old man says to his wife, says he," 
 
 murmured Mary Ann, in almost inaudible 
 song, from her lonely retreat. 
 
 " There is a conference at the village this 
 afternoon. "Would you like to go ?" 
 
 112
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " A coasting ' conference ' ?" 
 
 " N-no a church conference. The minis- 
 ters, and perhaps some of the laymen, will 
 discuss certain themes, and there will be a 
 collation, roast turkey, etc." 
 
 " It must be charming. We will go, cer- 
 tainly." 
 
 " Drive down the hill, please, and I will 
 leave the corn." 
 
 Daniel, with simple dignity, extracted two 
 bags of corn from the extreme rear of his car- 
 avan, and deposited them at the mill. The 
 colt pranced and shied at the noise. Eleanor 
 quieted him with a loving and practised 
 hand. Daniel Scheffer glowed with delight: 
 
 "I would trust you anywhere with the 
 colt. You drive better than I can. You 
 are so firm and patient with him. I think 
 you must have had some trials, Miss Arun- 
 dell, to make you so patient." 
 
 " Yes, Daniel," sighed the moral imbecile, 
 with perfect condescension, "I have had 
 some very deep trials." 
 
 He turned his broad shoulders still further 
 inward as they climbed up again to the 
 breezy heights. No wind should ever again 
 strike her if he could help it. 
 
 H 113
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 "The old man says to his wife, says he," 
 
 dimly moaned Mary Ann, more desolate 
 than ever, now that the meal-bags were gone 
 from her vicinity. 
 
 Daniel accomplished his errands in the 
 village, and brought up at the horse -sheds 
 by the bleak church. 
 
 Eleanor had dressed in the morning for a 
 day of " ice-sports," in a picturesque shoot- 
 ing-costume. She had thrown on for the 
 drive a great fur-lined opera-cloak, grave of 
 color and very long: but on entering the 
 warm church, Mary Ann took the cloak over 
 her arm, and Eleanor stepped forth with a 
 theatrical effect of which she, herself, was 
 wholly unconscious. 
 
 " She is a friend of my sister, from New 
 York, with her servant," explained Daniel 
 to the scandalized matrons at the collation- 
 board. " She came for the winter sports, and 
 she did not know we were to stop at the 
 church." 
 
 " Well, if she's come all the way from 
 New York to slide down-hill, I think she'd 
 better brought a flannel petticoat and a 
 dress-skirt," said one. 
 
 114
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 Daniel did not hear. " I am sure you will 
 make her feel at home," he said. 
 
 " She don't look timid." 
 
 " She certainly don't look bold," came 
 from a kindly heart, carrying off, too, more 
 attempt at external style than the others; 
 " them golf-suits are all the rage. I'll go and 
 say ' how d' do.' " 
 
 The afternoon session was about to begin. 
 Daniel gulped down some coffee and biscuits, 
 and took his place in the pews. Eleanor 
 and Mary Ann, by force of circumstances, 
 sat down together at the long table, which 
 was spread near the stoves in the rear of the 
 audience room. 
 
 "Will we be 'atin' while they be's discours- 
 in,' Miss Eleanor ?" whispered Mary Ann. 
 
 " Certainly. It is the way to do at ' col- 
 lations ' if you are late," said Eleanor, with 
 assumed erudition on that score. " They 
 begged me to help myself. You see the 
 rest have finished, but look at the whole 
 turkeys and cranberry- sauce and things left, 
 Mary Ann. "We must be very still. I think 
 we would better get the things we wish to- 
 gether first, they are scattered so. You see 
 that chocolate-cake away over at the end ?" 
 
 115
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 Mary Ann rose in the midst of the invo- 
 cation and cautiously tip-toed over to it, re- 
 turning stealthily with her prize. 
 
 " And see that exquisite-looking pumpkin- 
 pie, away over there, Mary Ann." 
 
 Mary Ann had on a large white apron 
 and one of my step-mother's knitted hoods, 
 which she allowed to hang by the strings 
 down her back, the stoves being very warm. 
 Like a thief in the night, she slunk over and 
 returned with the pumpkin-pie. 
 
 They ate slowly, deliberately, with exces- 
 sive quietness ; but they ate, through hymn 
 and through address, Mary Ann occasionally 
 making an adroit foraging tour, with a griev- 
 ously guilty air, on tiptoe. 
 
 Many wondering, sidelong glances were 
 cast back at them. Daniel was scarlet, but 
 adoringly true to his lady love. 
 
 " Let us hear from Scheffer. The laymen 
 have a word to say here. Scheffer!" was 
 called. 
 
 Eleanor paused in the dissection of a tur- 
 key's wing, and looked up. 
 
 Daniel stepped immediately to the plat- 
 form and stood there like a lion, head and 
 shoulders above them all, dark and massive. 
 116
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 And the words that poured out of him, with 
 self- possessed fluency ! ready and scholarly 
 English, and with a fitness to the occasion 
 which neither Eleanor nor Mary Ann lin- 
 gered to appreciate, amazed at his attitude. 
 
 " Well, now, he has the eddication on 
 him," gasped Mary Ann. " He's equal to 
 thim Chinamen in N' York. D'ye mind the 
 eddication they must have to be writin' the 
 way they do ?" 
 
 " He is not like a Chinaman at all," said 
 Eleanor. " I thought he was just a farmer. 
 Forrester was at college, but he could not 
 begin to address people like that, nor any- 
 thing but slang the darling ! But Mr. 
 Scheffer is eloquent. I have heard very dis- 
 tinguished speakers, Mary Ann." They had 
 discontinued their lazy and elaborate meal 
 for no other address, and it was during the 
 thesis of another speaker that the two re- 
 sumed eating and finally drew their chairs 
 back with respectful quiet, side by side, al- 
 most instantly relapsing into the serenity of 
 sleep. The wintry dusk fell and the kerosene 
 lamps were set alight. 
 
 " Did you enjoy it ?" said Daniel, as they 
 set out homeward, with the colt. 
 117
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " I think your conferences and collations 
 are simply delightful, Mr. Scheffer," said 
 Eleanor. 
 
 Mr. Scheffer ! At first, his face fell ; then, 
 as if at some new touch of dignity and with- 
 drawal in her manner, he became more 
 elate than before. 
 
 " I must bring down some of that wood 
 to-morrow," he remarked, as they passed a 
 pile on one of the heights of his wild domain. 
 
 "Why don't ye take along a bit now, 
 sorr?" said Mary Ann, who had been brood- 
 ing, in her retreat, over reminiscences of her 
 own, of an extremely rough and simple 
 manner of living "I'm sure the slid can 
 contain it !" 
 
 " Yes," cried Eleanor, gleefully, " in the 
 moonlight! Come on!" and she sprang 
 down, in hunting-cloth and gaiters. 
 
 Katherine Eleanor Arundell and Mary 
 Ann Lynch carried rails to the sled between 
 them, and Daniel carried alone. Refreshed 
 from their collation and their nap, they 
 worked jubilantly. Daniel thought the sun 
 of life and joy had risen over Haskell, Ver- 
 mont. He wrenched up his patent seats, and 
 the wood was piled high. 
 
 118
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 He spread blankets for Eleanor on top of 
 the load, and one for Mary Ann at the 
 scheduled distance. He wisely sat very near 
 Miss Arundell, on the precarious summit, to 
 protect her from possible harm. 
 
 "The old man says to his wife, says he, 
 Says he and says I, 
 And says I and says he," 
 
 sang Mary Ann, boldly now, and with un- 
 shackled philosophy, in the far back- 
 ground. 
 
 The cottage was uncommonly alight, and 
 there were horses tied here and there in 
 sheltered places about the premises. 
 
 " It's a surprise party !" groaned Daniel. 
 
 " Oh," exclaimed Eleanor, with delight, 
 " New York New York is nothing to Has- 
 kell, Vermont and oh, look at Joan !" 
 
 Joan was standing, wild and dishevelled, 
 in the doorway. " I resist, but they enter !" 
 she explained ; " they rush in ! they romp ! 
 they drink of cider, they eat of apple and 
 corn that is pop !" 
 
 "It's all right, Joan," laughed Daniel. 
 The rioters come pouring out, young men 
 and maidens ; they helped unload the wood, 
 119
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 they put up the horse and brought hay and 
 water. 
 
 The moonlight was pouring like day, in at 
 the barn door. 
 
 " Let's play "scape kiss,' three times round 
 the outside of the barn," suggested one. 
 
 Some modest young ladies sniffed and 
 stood back, but the more hilarious of the 
 party prepared to run. 
 
 "Cousin Tom couldn't play, of course," 
 said the same reckless first speaker; "he's 
 preparin' for the ministry." 
 
 Tom, smiling, in a long, black coat, stepped 
 forth, at this taunt, ready for the race. 
 
 " One two three if you get caught be- 
 fore the third time round, you get kissed. 
 One two three go !" said a referee. 
 
 Eleanor, in athletic gaiters all alive with 
 the merry scene and the crisp air, suddenly 
 threw her cloak at Mary Ann, and was off. 
 
 The handsome student, in clerical coat, 
 singled her out and made that way. Daniel 
 burst into the race; the student had the 
 first start. Eleanor was nearly safe, racing 
 in the second circuit, but the student was 
 fleet of foot. Daniel made a mighty spurt 
 and passed him ; he caught Eleanor just be- 
 
 130
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 fore her flying feet were entering safe on 
 the third run. He did not kiss her. "I 
 don't want you to play this any more," he 
 said, gravely, and seemed trembling. 
 
 " Oh, indeed ! why not ?" said Eleanor, 
 lifting her hand with a beautiful motion, 
 breathless, and laughing, to fasten her hair. 
 " Certainly I shall play if I like it's the 
 merest nonsense." 
 
 " Well, I can run faster than any man in 
 Haskell," said Daniel, gloomily, " and I shall 
 run after you, and the next time I catch you 
 according to the rules of the game I must 
 kiss you." 
 
 Eleanor turned her back on him and went 
 into the house. The genial student appear- 
 ed. "I will pop you some fresh corn, Miss 
 Arundell," said he; "this surprise- party is 
 in your honor did you know ?" 
 
 He put some corn and butter in a spider 
 and whirled it on the red-hot stove. He was 
 a dapper little fellow, with an innocent brow, 
 and companionable, very. 
 
 He and Eleanor sat on the wood-box, with 
 a milk -pan full of popcorn between them, 
 and they were exceeding merry. 
 
 But when the last sleigh-bell of the sur- 
 
 121
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 prise-party had jingled away in the distance, 
 Eleanor still turned her back with dignity 
 towards Daniel Scheffer, and sat down at 
 the remotest possible distance from him and 
 his workshop, to write a letter. 
 
 "My OWN DEAREST MARTHA, I never was so well 
 in my life. The senery is niagnifisent. I love to look 
 at the distant snow-covered mountain peeks " 
 
 " I hope I did not offend you, Miss Arun- 
 dell," said a deep, sad voice behind her. 
 
 Eleanor bent lower, brilliant, and wrote 
 again, in poetic repetition, " the distant moun- 
 tain peeks." 
 
 " Won't you forgive me ?" 
 
 " Would you have been insolent, if you 
 had caught me ?" 
 
 " I did catch you, and I was not insolent." 
 
 " But would you, another time ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Not any number of times ?" 
 
 "No. If you wished to run 'round the 
 barn and there were no others following, 
 to annoy you you may be sure you should 
 suffer no insolence from me." 
 
 " I will try to forgive you, if I can, Mr. 
 Scheffer, but you grieved me very deeply. 
 
 122
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 Good-night !" She held out her hand with 
 a sad and sweet gentleness. 
 
 " Yes, Joan. You may sit down until I 
 have finished my letter. 
 
 "The distant mountain peeks" [she reviewed brief- 
 ly, and added] "are beautiful. Mrs. Scheffer is al- 
 ready improving, but slowly, and we may remane some 
 time. Joan is faithful as ever. Mary Ann is extremly 
 useful. Do write me about precious Forrester. We 
 cannot all have quallities like you and Mr. Scheffer. 
 How dilagent he is ! We do riot get on very well, but 
 I came for the senery."
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THUS I received with satisfaction the nat- 
 ural confirmation of my foregone conclu- 
 sions. 
 
 " Well, if she is well and happy and so in- 
 nocently entertained, why not let the dear 
 child remain ?" said Madam Arundell, as it 
 were with a glow of affection. " And now, 
 Miss Scheffer, as to President Thome's note, 
 there is a distressing number of those poor 
 colleges, but he is related, distantly, to some 
 of our best families, and the list of donors 
 is noteworthy. Please read the names 
 again." 
 
 I did so. She listened with simple rever- 
 ence. " Our name," she said, blushing with 
 pleasure, and pointing at the head of the list, 
 " invariably stands among those. When he 
 calls, dear Miss Scheffer, may I beg of you 
 to take down my check to him, regretting 
 my inability to see him, and will you invite 
 him cordially to luncheon ? The poor man 
 124
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 has excellent sense and will not trouble you 
 by accepting." 
 
 " Very well." 
 
 " And you see how I lean on your kind- 
 ness it is an important day at the Wood- 
 side Hospital, of which, you know, I am one 
 of the directors. A vote is to be taken as 
 to whether a less expensive quality of meat 
 is to be substituted. I have no doubt that 
 the more economical pieces of meat furnish 
 fully as much nourishment as those we are 
 accustomed to supply for our own tables. It 
 is already known that I give you the author- 
 ity. Will you go and discuss and vote upon 
 this matter for me in fact, far more clever- 
 ly than I could do ordering the carriage at 
 two ?" 
 
 " With pleasure," I rejoined, brazenly de- 
 termining that the full influence of my vica- 
 rious vote should go towards the continuance 
 of superior meats. 
 
 Watson knocked, and spoke, standing out- 
 side the door : 
 
 " The laundress's sister has sent a de- 
 spatch for her, mum, as one of her children 
 is dying with croup, mum. I left her weep- 
 ing, mum." 
 
 125
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 Madam Arundell sighed, quite impatient- 
 ly. " Well, tell her to return as soon as pos- 
 sible. With the funeral and all, it will prob- 
 ably occupy three days, Watson ?" 
 
 " Presumably, mum." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " She requests to know if you will kindly 
 reimburse her with her wages to date, mum?" 
 
 " Oh, of course," said the lady, indifferent- 
 ly. " My dear Miss Scheffer, will you look 
 in my book of household expenses ? Maggie 
 Cruise how much to date? Four dollars 
 and a half? My purse thank you! How 
 provoking ! I have nothing under a five." 
 
 " I have fifty cents in my pocket, mum," 
 came the stately obsequious old voice, out- 
 side the door " which, if Miss Scheffer will 
 receive and kindly convoy to you, mum, will 
 relieve the occasion of its present embarrass- 
 ment, mum, and I will take the five-dollar 
 note to Maggie, without delay." 
 
 "Very well, and be sure she pays you 
 back the fifty cents, Watson. Correctness 
 in business is a duty a duty, Watson." 
 
 "I attend, mum. I have another com- 
 munication to make to you, mum, as soon 
 as I have despatched the matter in hand." 
 126
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 Madam Arundell waited, uneasily. 
 
 Watson returned. "Mr. Arundell's man 
 was reading the paper to him this morning, 
 mum, and he would have him turn to the 
 play notices, and picked out the ' The School 
 for Scandal ' (now reviving in New York, as 
 you know, mum), and sent him down im- 
 mejately to purchase a box, mum." 
 
 Mrs. Arundell sighed again, and fretfully. 
 
 " His man, thinking, mum, that he would 
 have forgotten it as usual, by the time he 
 returned, simply took a little stroll, mum, 
 and came back." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " Mr. Arundell said to him, ' Have you se- 
 cured the box ?' The man was in extramis, 
 so to speak. On his replying in the nega- 
 tive, Mr. Arundell to be brafe pitched into 
 him, mum, and even threw a variety of pro- 
 jectiles at him, mum, and sent him out again. 
 This time, the man went down and secured 
 the box, mum, and Mr. Arundell is dwelling 
 on the anticipation with pleasure, mum." 
 
 " He is the only one who can do so, I am 
 sure," said madam, bitterly. " What shall 
 we do?" she added, turning to me, with a 
 face of grievous despair. " I need not sug- 
 
 127
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 gest to you how positively unfit my poor 
 husband is to attend the theater." 
 
 " I think he will behave very well," I ob- 
 served, hopefully. 
 
 "He is confident that Miss Scheffer will 
 do him the honor to accompany him," in- 
 terpolated the patient Watson, behind the 
 door. 
 
 "Could your could your magnanimity 
 extend so far, dear Miss Scheffer? You 
 alone have any possible power to save the 
 occasion from disaster. Of course you must 
 take a maid; his man must go, and Wat- 
 son." 
 
 "Thus reinforced, I am sure we shall 
 prove a very discreet party of revellers," I 
 returned. 
 
 "He may forget it," she groaned, with 
 faint hope. 
 
 " I think, in this instance, mum, his mem- 
 ory is likely to prove retentive, mum." 
 
 " Yery well, Watson. You may go." 
 
 My host's memory proved retentive in an 
 eminent degree. Having, among other vi- 
 cissitudes of the day, handed Madam Arun- 
 dell's check to the poor college president, 
 who, by the way, perhaps owing to some 
 
 128
 
 fault of manner on my part, accepted the 
 invitation to luncheon and availed himself 
 heartily of its privileges, and having unhesi- 
 tatingly cast my vote for the best sirloin- 
 steaks at the hospital, I took my place in the 
 carriage, that evening, beside the most pure- 
 hearted exquisite old dandy existent in the 
 city. 
 
 "Do I appear well, Martha? You are 
 not ashamed of me? I haven't been very 
 social about town since you went away. 
 Now you are home again, we must make up 
 for lost time, my daughter we must make 
 up for lost time. Watson !" 
 
 "Yes, sir!" replied that much - enduring 
 individual, sitting stiffly away from the 
 bouncing maid at his side. The valet was 
 beside the coachman, on the box. "I at- 
 tend, sir." 
 
 " "Well, well, Watson, cheer up ! Put your 
 diploma from the theological seminary in 
 your pocket. The funeral's over, and we're 
 out on a lark, old fellow he ! he ! going to 
 the play again, Watson going to the play !" 
 
 " Unquestionably, sir." 
 
 "D n your canticles unabridged, Wat- 
 son. Well, well, we're growing old togeth- 
 
 i 129
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 er, old boy. You'll never be thrown on the 
 world, Watson I'll look out for that. 
 Martha !" he added, distinctly, " who is this 
 person sitting opposite me ?" 
 
 " A new maid." 
 
 "Oh! eh? Ah! very well, very well. 
 "Why the deuce are we taking a whole dray- 
 load of domestics to the play, Martha ?" 
 
 " It is the proper thing to do, now. It is 
 a mere fad." 
 
 "Makes the air very close, Martha. 
 Where's old nurse Kose ? Following along 
 somewhere with my penny whistle and tin 
 soldiers, I suppose ?" 
 
 " She has pledged herself never to attend 
 the theatre, and is morally debarred from 
 doing so." 
 
 " Fiddlesticks ! Did you ever see such a 
 houseful of picked and qualified old fools, 
 Martha? Where's my little Nell ?" 
 
 " She is away in the country for recrea- 
 tion." 
 
 " Ah who let her go?" 
 
 "I did." 
 
 "It's all right, Martha perfectly satis- 
 fied leave everything with you, Martha 
 Here we are ! Wake up, Watson ! Still at- 
 
 130
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 tending the funeral, I see. Keep well be- 
 hind there, young woman ! Strut along be- 
 hind there, Solibeg! I'm not going to be 
 seen going into the theatre with a whole 
 cabbage - garden ! Come, Martha ! Come, 
 my child, keep close to me !" 
 
 "We sat sumptuously and conspicuously in 
 the box, at the right of the stage, our ret- 
 inue in the rear; and the form of my old 
 beau shone out, polished and handsome, in 
 the gaslight. 
 
 "Whether prompted to attendance by Mrs. 
 Arundell, as a further safeguard to us, I dis- 
 covered Beeman Price in an orchestra-chair 
 near by, wearing a lively expression of cyn- 
 icism. 
 
 From the opposite box, two superbly well- 
 groomed old gentlemen, dandies of a perfect 
 era, like my own escort, rose and came over 
 to us. My host and they were exultant as 
 three cherubic boys at meeting one another 
 again under such delightful auspices. Their 
 bows, their smiles, their waved and scented 
 locks were charming to contemplate. 
 
 " Ned ! Jim !" said my host, pressing a 
 hand of either of these spotless and courtly 
 millionaires, " let me introduce you to my 
 
 131
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 grandson's wife, Mrs. Arundell Mrs. Forrest- 
 er Arundell. We are likely to keep up the 
 family prestige, eh ? he ! he ! yes. Mrs. 
 Arundell Mrs. Forrester Arundell !" he re- 
 peated, "with sublime precision. 
 
 The two bowed impressively. I felt that 
 Beeman Price had also come to the box and 
 was witnessing this scene in the silent back- 
 ground. At all events, all that he could dis- 
 cover on my face was an indifferent smile. 
 To thwart my host's hallucinations in our 
 present position would have been simply to 
 eclipse the stage in tragic or melodramatic 
 action. 
 
 " We shall have the honor of calling upon 
 you without delay," said one, indicating the 
 intentions of his family towards me, with an- 
 other bow. " We shall have the very great 
 pleasure of calling upon you without delay," 
 said the other, similarly bending low, and 
 they departed to their own box. 
 
 Beeman Price drew up a chair behind my 
 own. 
 
 " Do you want me to go over and explain 
 your ' grandfather-in-law's ' fiasco to those 
 superannuated old dudes ?" he whispered in 
 my ear. 
 
 132
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 "As you please," I replied, and looked, 
 without concern, to the stage. 
 
 " You ought to been a man," chuckled he. 
 "You'd bluff the whole lot of us. You're 
 acting sensible, though. I admire ye, egad ! 
 It's always sensible to keep your head. They 
 all know poor Arundell. Ye acted like the 
 top-crust o' quality, and sensible too egad ! 
 And, according to your own tell, ye're only 
 a poor woman in the working-classes." 
 
 "And never more so than during this pres- 
 ent stage of my existence." 
 
 He laughed delightedly. "I can tell ye 
 one thing," he whispered, "and I've made 
 up my mind to say it. It's optional with you 
 whether you go back to work, or stay in 
 that mare's-nest up at Arundell's, either one. 
 There's another course before ye and mighty 
 welcome if ye'll take it. You know what 
 I mean. "Will ye think it over ? Say, will 
 ye think it over ?" 
 
 " I should never please you. I am extrav- 
 agant." 
 
 " No !" 
 
 " I am excessively extravagant. I am a 
 spendthrift." 
 
 " You are chaffing." 
 
 133
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " Ah, if I only were ! Given your wealth 
 at my disposal and I should never marry 
 you unless you put your wealth at my dis- 
 posal I should give away at a speedier rate 
 even than you could accumulate. I have 
 many schemes of that sort in my head. It 
 only needs the means to carry them out." 
 
 " It's a propensity, then, a woman of your 
 sense might overcome." 
 
 " It is something deeper than that. It is 
 a taint or failing in the very fibre of my 
 being. Always and fatally, I have allowed 
 my plans to be thwarted by some weak yield- 
 ing to the pitiful disturbances in the air about 
 me. Conscious, if you will, of being strong 
 and able to sail alone, I have never been any- 
 thing but a tug for drifting boats : no straight 
 course, no sure haven, nothing but this desper- 
 ate struggle to keep off the immediate rocks." 
 
 "Come," he whispered, impatiently, "talk 
 sense. I've I've got love enough for ye, 
 too. Will you marry me ?" 
 
 " Will you sign over your property to me, 
 just keeping enough for your own simple 
 needs ?" 
 
 " Lord ! there's always got to be a screw 
 loose in a woman's head somewhere !" 
 134
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " In all heads, it is said." 
 
 " There ain't one of you but can torment 
 a man. Will you think it over, then, some 
 time when you are not chaffing ?" 
 
 " Alas ! I shall be ' chaffing' till the wind- 
 ing-sheet covers me. You may make up your 
 mind to that. I was born so." 
 
 "Martha!" exclaimed my host, discontent- 
 edly, aloud, as the curtain rose on the second 
 act " I'm sick of this let's go home ! The 
 actors are dead, Martha the old boys and 
 girls are dead. I see. "Well, well very pret- 
 ty acting very much obliged ; but let's wake 
 up our cabbage garden back here, and get 
 out ! Come, Martha come !" 
 
 This was uttered in so plaintive and heart- 
 broken a tone, no one within the range of 
 hearing could have felt scandalized. Beernan 
 Price accompanied us to the carriage door. 
 
 " We're full here, Price, sorry to say," said 
 my host " very close, as it is. Next time, 
 goin' to charter an omnibus and take the 
 scullery -maids and footboy show just fit 
 for 'em ! Won't make much out o' Martha, 
 Price he ! he ! lots o' tunes to Martha. 
 Always glad to see ye, Price always wel- 
 come. Tell the man to drive on ! 
 
 135
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " Old boys and girls dead. There was 
 acting! Well, well very pretty play. You 
 look quite chirked-up, "Watson. Need a little 
 recreation, all of us. Give us some poetry, 
 Watson." 
 
 " Yes, sir. Life's a play, and all the men. 
 and women marely actors. They have their 
 intrances and extrances " 
 
 " That '11 do ! Yery good very fine, in- 
 deed, Watson. D d trite, though! Dis- 
 tressingly trite!" My host sighed, and fell 
 asleep. 
 
 " You are home early," said Madam Arun- 
 dell, pale and with set lips ; " tell me the worst." 
 
 " There was no worst. Our conduct was 
 admirable. We simply tired of the play." 
 
 " If you leave me," said she, letting one 
 of those unfamiliar tears start to her eyes, 
 " I shall die. I have forgotten to ask you," 
 she added " how did you get on with poor 
 President Thorne ?" 
 
 " He expressed unbounded thanks towards 
 you, and deeply appreciated the luncheon as 
 well." 
 
 " He stayed for luncheon ! Dear me the 
 poor man must have been positively hungry ! 
 And about the hospital 3" 
 
 136
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " I spoke at some leDgth, and voted for 
 the best steaks for the patients." 
 
 "You thought it wise?" she murmured, 
 feebly, but without hardness. 
 
 " I have been employed in such places, 
 you know, and have had some practical ex- 
 perience. I thought it wise." 
 
 "Very well, dear Miss Scheffer thank 
 you ! Will you can you read to me just a 
 little, as usual ? the good book yes. Your 
 voice comforts me. I have been quite un- 
 strung."
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 MRS. JOHN ARUNDELL'S empty carriage ap- 
 peared at the door next morning. The foot- 
 man descended and delivered a note : 
 
 "Will dear Miss Scheffer kindly come to me, at her 
 convenience ? The carriage will wait." 
 
 With that extreme pliancy which only the 
 desperately wilful can command, I informed 
 Madam Arundell of my errand and prepared 
 to go. 
 
 "I think it is very inconsiderate of Au- 
 gusta, to say the least, to send for you this 
 morning, when I am feeling almost a pre- 
 monition of another attack," said madam, 
 with considerable healthy spite. " She prob- 
 ably only wishes you for the purpose of de- 
 livering one of her lectures." 
 
 " Better 'n having her come here, Laura," 
 chuckled my host for we were all of a phys- 
 ical condition, now, to be ensconced together 
 in the library for a time. " Martha '11 talk 
 up to her. Lots o' tunes to Martha." 
 138
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 I went with no aggressive spirit, however, 
 and I was touched to see Mrs. John Arun- 
 dell's kind old face actually peering out for 
 me, and that anxiously, at a window. 
 
 " Something has really occurred among 
 the moral imbeciles," I thought. 
 
 The rooms were spacious as those I had 
 left, and much colder, as though the more 
 bracing quality of grandaunt Augusta's nat- 
 ure had diffused itself in the general atmos- 
 phere. 
 
 "Come to my private room, dear," she 
 said, with a somewhat nervous haste, and 
 seated me. " Lettice !" she called to her 
 maid, " bring Miss Scheffer a fan. 1 am sure, 
 dear Miss Scheffer, you wish a fan." I ac- 
 cepted this corollary of polite existence with 
 rather numb fingers. 
 
 kV We Americans keep our houses too warm," 
 she murmured ; " we have lost healthful vig- 
 or of constitution. I have brought up my 
 own family more ruggedly and abstemi- 
 ously." 
 
 " They are all still with you?" 
 
 " No, dear no. Four of my beloved ones 
 are at rest. The other four are long since 
 flown from the home-nest." 
 139
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 The home-nest seemed to me at present 
 like a very exposed heritage on the bough 
 of a chill-tree. But I knew that Mrs. John 
 Arundell was tenderly good. 
 
 " I hear," she said, " dear, dear child I 
 hear that you went with my poor afflicted 
 brother to the play last night ?" 
 
 " Yes, I summoned up the fortitude to do 
 so." 
 
 " But bear with me, dear child ; I am al- 
 ready warmly attached to you what if you 
 had spent those precious hours in trying to 
 bring him into the fold ?" 
 
 "I think he is there already; and, for 
 that part, his kind impulses often shame 
 me." 
 
 "Alas, no he has never yet been folded 
 with us ! I hear that he introduced some 
 people to you as my grandnephew For- 
 rester's wife." 
 
 " He did so, but without doubt the poor 
 man's condition of mind is fully known to 
 his acquaintances." 
 
 "Alas! I fear that these particular indi- 
 viduals are nearly as daft as he. The wild- 
 ness of youth bears thorns, my child." 
 
 " In that case, the misstatement of an- 
 
 140
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 other unsound mind would probably make 
 little impression upon theirs." 
 
 " I dare say it has already escaped from 
 the unholy throng that perturb their diseased 
 memory. But this is not to the point. I 
 hear that my poor dear grand nephew writes 
 to you, and you alone ?" 
 
 " Yes, he persists in doing so." 
 
 " Does this oh, my dear does this sug- 
 gest to you no opportunity of bringing him 
 into the fold ?" 
 
 " I consider him already there. He is over- 
 coming the old life. He is striving bravely." 
 
 " But the first step ?" 
 
 " He is nobly taking it." 
 
 " Alas ! that the latitudinarian spirit of our 
 times should blind a conscience like yours. 
 Oh, my child !" 
 
 There were faithful tears in her eyes. 
 
 " Do not be distressed," I said, gently, 
 feeling a good courage. " I am walking faith- 
 fully, as I see the way. If I am blind, I shall 
 still reach the light !" 
 
 " Oh, with that spirit you will ! You will ! 
 And have you, then, no attachment for my 
 grandnephew ?" 
 
 " In the sense you mean, none ; not the 
 
 141
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 least !" I replied, from calm habit of thought : 
 and then, being put face to face with the 
 question, I realized that I had lied ! Keal- 
 ized, suddenly ! And, fearless of much, I was 
 in terror, not of my untruth, but of my love. 
 Were his daily letters (those unanswered 
 letters), his soul's confessions, his boyish, 
 manly, never-doubting love, taken from me, 
 should I miss them ? (That was implied in 
 her question.) Yes, after all, as my own 
 heart ! I felt it, and I hated my love. I 
 was reduced, then, to the condition of moral 
 imbecility with the rest, and worse ! They 
 usually told the truth as they saw it. I had 
 lied blankly. 
 
 " You are pale, dear let me fan you." 
 " I am rather cold, I think," I said. 
 " I am tiring you. These are deep and 
 vital questions, but your disdain of frivolity, 
 your severity of purpose, your earnest truth- 
 fulness draw me to you. I am speaking of 
 my grandnephew of Forrester. This was 
 paramount on my heart when I sent for you. 
 The arms of our family love should be about 
 him; he should be with us. You realize 
 that. Dear Laura has been ill, and psycho- 
 logically dear child you may have discov- 
 
 142
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 ered that her affections are charming, but 
 apt to be heedless. I speak to you with in- 
 stinctive trust. My own home is freely 
 pleadingly open to Forrester. Will you tell 
 him so ?" 
 
 " Surely surely, it is your place to tell 
 him." 
 
 I felt the blood in my cheeks. I used the 
 fan at last gratefully. 
 
 " Alas, dear the eccentricities of youth ! 
 He pays no heed to my voice. It is a mes- 
 sage a message. In the providence of God, 
 you have influence over his precious soul. I 
 know you will not refuse to give a message 
 from me." 
 
 " I will be your amanuensis." 
 
 " Lettice ! bring paper and ink." 
 
 " MY DEARLY BELOVED FoKRESTER, However far 
 the lamb may have wandered on the cold and thorny 
 mountains, a welcome awaits him who returns with a 
 bruised and contrite heart. I, your aunt Augusta, yearn 
 for you. Come to me. Though I may be debarred, 
 literally, from meeting you at the gate our modern 
 town-houses being differently constructed my heart 
 goes out to you, even where you are, and weeps over 
 you with inexpressible longing. 
 " Yours, 
 
 " AUGUSTA ARUNDELL 
 
 "(PerM. S.)." 
 143
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 I had disdained hysterics all my life, but, 
 as I transcribed this letter, a desperate and 
 immoderate desire to laugh seized upon my 
 sinful heart. 
 
 "Lettice! Miss Scheffer has dropped her 
 fan. "What is the temperature of the room, 
 Lettice ?" 
 
 "Sixty -two, ma'am!" snapped Lettice, 
 with bitter satisfaction. 
 
 " You sometimes read the mercury incor- 
 rectly, Lettice," replied her mistress, sooth- 
 ingly. " You may go, Lettice." 
 
 " Dear Miss Scheffer one thing more and 
 I will release you, for I know how strin- 
 gently poor suffering Laura holds you. Dear 
 child bear with me will you promise me, 
 however greatly to your worldly advantage, 
 not to consider Beeman Price (he is utterly, 
 utterly absorbed in the world), not to con- 
 sider him until he may, in time, show some 
 inclination to approach the fold ?" 
 
 " Most solemnly." 
 
 " Eleanor's temporary engagement to that 
 greed -absorbed man was made without my 
 consent ; but she was delivered from the 
 lions." 
 
 " I fancy she usually is ?" 
 144
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 "Yes. Our sweet Eleanor I speak to 
 you with the utmost confidence is the only 
 really religious one in my sister's family. I 
 think the child is full of earnest deliberation, 
 and is only waiting to come forward. Take 
 the fan with you, dear Miss Scheffer ; your 
 cheeks are unusually flushed, and your eyes 
 are a trifle a trifle feverish. Lettice! 
 Lettice ! bring my homoeopathic case. Take 
 six of these little pellets, on retiring. Six 
 my child. But I forget ! you are far more 
 learned in medicine than I." 
 
 " My own symptoms are a mystery to me, 
 however," I replied, firmly and sadly. "I 
 will take the pellets." 
 
 I was embraced, and the chariot bore me 
 home. 
 
 "What is Augusta's fad now?" inquired 
 Madam Arundell, coolly. "Temperance?" 
 
 " No, she has prescribed for me. I have 
 some of her pellets." 
 
 " Great heavens ! you are not ill ?" 
 
 " Not at all, but prevention is a noble 
 theory, and I accepted the pellets." 
 
 " I declare, Augusta is deplorable ! to 
 warn you of illness, when I never saw you 
 looking so charming." 
 K 145
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 "'It is the bright day that brings forth 
 the adder and that craves wary walking.' " 
 
 " Perfectly deplorable !" 
 
 " Lord ! Laura can't ye see through a 
 joke? Martha '11 fling Augusta's old sugar 
 plums to perdition. "When I eat confection- 
 ery want something big enough to see and 
 some flavor to it. Come up to the fire, my 
 daughter, and get warm. Remember how 
 we shivered last time we went to 'Gusta's, 
 Laura? ~No wine no fire nothin' but 
 Croton water and 'booklets.' Gusta's got 
 the constitution of an ox. Come! come, 
 my daughter, come and get warm ! God 
 bless ye ! house all sunshine since ye came 
 home."
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 JOAN took a trip down to the village store 
 and purchased some new dishes, Mary Ann 
 and Daniel having carried on a course of 
 considerable robust demolition. Also, she 
 brought back for Mrs. Scheffer and herself 
 some brilliantly flowered calico cloth, of a 
 design not authorized by anything in nature, 
 and she and the convalescent sewed together 
 with feminine anticipation. 
 
 " It surpass the rob's of Ne' York !" said 
 Joan, trying Mrs. Scheffer's on her at last ; 
 "it call you back to youth, madam by 
 grasshus !" 
 
 Mrs. Scheffer, in her heart, admitted this, 
 as she gazed in the glass. Joan, having re- 
 deemed her body, both towards health and 
 such efflorescence of outward adornment 
 Mrs. Scheffer thought to touch on Joan's 
 own spiritual condition 
 
 " I long to get able to take you to church 
 with me once Joan." 
 
 147
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " "Wa-al-.no matter if I go to church with 
 you, I get abs'lution for it," said Joan, whose 
 good heart saw a way through all difficulties. 
 
 Mrs. Scheffer sighed ; but she was very 
 fond of Joan, and they sewed on happily 
 together. 
 
 Eleanor, meanwhile if Katherine Eleanor 
 Arundell could have realized in the remotest 
 sense that Dan Scheffer, the Verjnont farmer 
 and amateur experimentalist, could deliber- 
 ately design to marry her, his course might 
 have been more interesting than it was, but 
 it could not have been more arduous. 
 
 He was baffled by her sublime uncon- 
 sciousness. 
 
 So they carried on the farm together, with 
 Mary Ann as vigorous deputy. 
 
 " It is more of a uniform heat out here in 
 the barn than it is in the house," said Miss 
 Arundell, sitting on a three-legged stool near 
 by to see that Dan milked properly, and 
 now and then holding out her cup for a 
 fresh supply to sip ; " it is charming." 
 
 " Them that loves new milk has a honest 
 
 heart in them and a stout corporation," said 
 
 Mary Ann, seriously, who was collecting 
 
 the hens' eggs in odd corners. Mary Ann 
 
 148
 
 was constantly singing, these days. What 
 the old man said to his wife she never dis- 
 closed, but that he did once say something 
 to her was mysteriously and indelibly im- 
 pressed on the minds of those about her. 
 
 " It's the breath of the cattle makes it so 
 warm here," said Dan. 
 
 " And their breath is so sweet," said Elea- 
 nor. 
 
 "It isn't any sweeter than yours," said 
 Dan, punching his big head against the side 
 of the cow. 
 
 " Thank you ! But mine would not warm 
 a barn, I am sure unless you had been 
 making a stew, Mr. Scheffer ! a rabbit stew 
 with whole onions and carrot tails." 
 
 Eleanor was merry. This was all only a 
 little episode in her life, and she would be 
 going back to more luxurious scenes. To 
 Daniel, it was life in the intense sense of 
 tragedy. 
 
 "Don't bother the poor biy about his 
 stew," said Mary Ann ; " 'twas a regular 
 man -stew, that's all, and good for the cor- 
 poration." 
 
 " Say ' physique,' Mary Ann." 
 
 "You know very well, Miss Eleanor, I 
 
 149
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 won't giddy myself with words I ain't eddi- 
 cated up to, no more than a Chinaman's 
 handwriting. So ye want to set agin my 
 will, do ye !" she cried, seizing a squawking 
 hen with a practised hand. Eleanor shrieked. 
 
 " It '11 bite you, Mary Ann !" 
 
 " Bite me ! with her claws in me fist and 
 her neck like a string. Ye'd ought to marry 
 a farmer, Miss Eleanor. Ye'd assist him fine !" 
 
 " You would make a good farmer's wife, 
 Mary Ann." 
 
 " I want none," said Mary Ann, giving 
 the mad hen a toss towards its loft. "My 
 prayers on that subjec' is aisy said, with a 
 quick ' amin ' to it." 
 
 " What has set you against marrying ?" 
 teased Eleanor. 
 
 " It's never being wanted has set me agin 
 it," said Mary Ann, with paralyzing frank- 
 ness. " I'll take in the eggs and be gettin' 
 the tay ready." 
 
 " She would make a good farmer's wife," 
 said Eleanor, contemplating the scene around 
 her and its fitness to Mary Ann. 
 
 " Very good," said Daniel, calmly, rising 
 with his full pail. 
 
 "And yet the calf is biting your coat- 
 
 150
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 tail, Mr. Scheffer! I really think she is not 
 good enough for you." 
 
 " How high do you think I ought to look ?" 
 
 " Oh, quite out of my sight ! some woman 
 principal of a school, or one of these women 
 women lawyers, or doctors, like your sis- 
 ter my own dearest Martha." 
 
 "Do you think I am anything like my 
 sister ?" 
 
 " You are her big image." 
 
 " But in other qualities besides looks?" 
 
 " She is so entrancingly sharp. But you, 
 of course, are just a bit more gentle." 
 
 " I am going to try to cultivate decision 
 of character, Miss Arundell. Will you carry 
 the lantern ?" 
 
 "You know I always carry the lantern. 
 Don't forget to feed Billy." 
 
 " I never yet forgot any creature under 
 my care. I'd rather go hungry myself/' 
 
 " Oh Daniel ! the calf really chewed up 
 some of your coat while you stood there ! 
 It looks so comical." 
 
 " I am glad you are amused. You must 
 mend it for me, this evening." 
 
 " Oh, Joan will mend it, certainly." 
 
 " But I said that you must mend it." 
 
 151
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " Indeed, I sha'n't touch your old coat ! 
 And if you speak to me in that way, I shall 
 not help you with your farm- work any 
 more !" 
 
 "That settles it. I give up decision of 
 character for the time being. Besides, if 
 you should mend my old coat, I should be 
 transformed in it. I should be a king in 
 disguise. If ever I won any success, I should 
 wear it for the occasion; if I finished my 
 course like a good knight, I would ask to be 
 laid out in it." 
 
 Daniel had set down the pail and stood, 
 leaning against Billy's stall, pale and tall, 
 regarding Eleanor with his black eyes, that 
 were both fearless and unspeakably tender. 
 
 Eleanor thought his pose majestic, and 
 tender-hearted her lip trembled with the 
 pity of it that he should not have been 
 born in an appropriate class. " I am sure 
 you will succeed," she said, earnestly. 
 
 Daniel's eyes smiled at her. " By sharp- 
 ness or gentleness ?" 
 
 "Billy is hungry. It is interesting in a 
 woman to be sharp, but not in a man." 
 
 " I will feed Billy ; and I shall try to 
 prove interesting, too. Don't forget it !" 
 
 152
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 ELEANOK had a way of her own to the 
 shoemaker's shanty. She had read in books 
 of people living as Shoemaker Prophett and 
 his wife lived, and the picturesque realism 
 of the state captured her. 
 
 " There's an unusual storm coming. Don't 
 take one of your long walks to-day, Miss 
 Arundell," said Dan. 
 
 " Yery well," said Eleanor, smiling gra- 
 ciously, and took her long walk quite as 
 usual. 
 
 " Lord sakes, dearie," said Mrs. Prophett, 
 " do the folks know ye've come this gait 
 ahead o' the snow-storm ?" 
 
 " I do not have to account for my actions 
 to any one," said Eleanor, sweetly, laying 
 aside her cloak and taking her accustomed 
 seat by the fire. 
 
 "Ain't she han'som'!" said wizened old 
 Mrs. Prophett, openly, to her wizened old 
 husband. 
 
 153
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " Tur'ble ! but beauty fades," said Sa- 
 lodius Prophett, who was professedly a pes- 
 simist. 
 
 Eleanor had something on her mind, and 
 was not to be diverted from it : 
 
 "Forty years, you say, you have been 
 working at shoemaking, Salodius ever since 
 the tree fell on you and twisted you ?" 
 
 " If I'd been a lucky man, I'd 'a' got shut 
 o' all this world's trouble then but no, I 
 had to get twisted." 
 
 " Don't mind him, dearie : he's stiddy as 
 stiddy, and a kind heart to him." 
 
 " Yes, if I didn't have a heart I couldn't 
 suffer, ye see. And as for stiddy, I don't 
 love the stuff never did. 'Twould have 
 proved something of a consolation if I'd 
 loved that, ye see : so no, I was made with 
 no taste for it." 
 
 " Don't mind him, dearie. He's worked 
 patient all the days long, and sometimes 
 into the night." 
 
 " Oh, shoe-mendin' ain't work so much as 
 it is philosophy ; footwear 's a philosophy. 
 Look at Deacon Snell's boots I'm mendin' 
 here look at them excrescences his bunions 
 has punched in 'era ! There's sufferin' for 
 154
 
 ye ! Look at little Jud Hopkins's shoes, 
 over there ; the sole o' one has to be made 
 three inches thick, so't he can stub along 
 even over this vale o' woe. We're called to 
 run a race in this world, and into it we come, 
 corns, bunions, uneven legs, twisted spines. 
 Look at the whole lot over there, gaspin' 
 with some sorrer or other. Look at 'em !" 
 
 " And you have worked all these years," 
 said Eleanor, " to keep your wife and your- 
 self from being sent to the poorhouse, and 
 to save enough for ill or helpless days, and 
 you told me for burial ?" 
 
 " And hain't done it ! Sickness enough, 
 but not our last, and the rent o' the hut, and 
 vittles to eat !" 
 
 " "Well," declared the moral imbecile, " I 
 have quite a bit of money put for me already 
 in this bank and that bank, besides a rich 
 family- to leave me much more." 
 
 " Your shoes are stanch and han'som', 
 sure enough, miss. May the corns of sorrer 
 and the tags o' poverty never touch 'em !" 
 
 Eleanor gave a subdued melodious laugh, 
 but her eyes were fixed on Salodius with a 
 very wide earnestness. 
 
 " And before I came down here to-day, I 
 
 155
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 made out this check," she went on, " and 
 you have got to take it. It is only a little 
 of what I have, and it is the sum you said 
 would save your wife and you from the 
 things you dread. I am of age to do what 
 I like with my own. And that paper will 
 be just as good as gold to you at the bank 
 in your nearest town." 
 
 " I know that." Salodius looked at the 
 paper in blank amaze, but shook his head. 
 " May the corns of sorrer and the tags o' 
 poverty never touch ye," he repeated, " but 
 'twon't do ! There'd be trouble. 'Tain't the 
 way o' the world." 
 
 " It is my way, in this case," said Miss 
 Arundell, " and there is never any trouble 
 if I am let to have my own way, Salodius ; 
 otherwise, there'll be great mountains of 
 trouble. Put it away it's got to be. Now 
 for the book! Mrs. Prophett to read, and 
 you to expound, as usual." 
 
 " 'Twon't do !" 
 
 " Isn't it remarkable that Mrs. Prophett 
 can read so beautifully, but does not know 
 the meaning of it, and you cannot read, but 
 can explain it all so wonderfully ! I love to 
 hear you. The book !" 
 
 156
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " May the corns of sorrer never " 
 
 " Put it away, Salodius. The book !" 
 
 Mrs. Prophett, with trembling excess of 
 joy, proceeded eagerly to execute the young 
 lady's wishes : the slow tears ran down the 
 cheeks of Salodius. 
 
 " Begin where I left off ?" said Mrs. Pro- 
 phett. 
 
 " Certain, certain. Where else ?" said Salo- 
 dius. 
 
 " ' She shall not see me. I will en-en-en- 
 sconce me behind the ar-ar-arras.' ' : 
 
 Mrs. Prophett paused listening for eluci- 
 dation. 
 
 " Ahem ! Ensconce old d'rivitive be- 
 come by vulgar parlice ensquat fin'lly con- 
 tracted inter squat plain squat. I will 
 squat me. There ye got the whole sense of 
 of it." 
 
 Mrs. Prophett gazed, stupefied at the 
 learning of her lord, who continued : 
 
 " ' Behind the arras ' simply any airy por- 
 tion o' the room near the winder." 
 
 Salodius was grave and dauntless, Mrs. 
 Prophett simply edified ; the moral imbe- 
 cile's expression was that of one who is par- 
 ticipating frankly at a feast. 
 
 157
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " Lord !" said Mrs. Prophett, at last, look- 
 ing up from these digested pearls of the Bard 
 of Avon " how it snows ! and the wind !" 
 
 " Yes, and will be dark," said Eleanor. " I 
 must be going." 
 
 " 'Deed ye mustn't ! Yesha'n't! I'll make 
 ye comfortable here. They'll come for ye." 
 
 Eleanor laughed. " I love the snow. I 
 love the wind. I would not miss my sport 
 with them for any money ! Good-bye !" 
 
 " If I wasn't a cripple !" groaned Salodius : 
 the old woman clung nervously to her cloak. 
 But Eleanor went out with the vigorous 
 boyish stride to which she had accustomed 
 her long limbs amid these wintry scenes, and 
 stanchly breasted the storm, out of their 
 sight. In another ten moments she would 
 have given anything could she have retraced 
 her steps even to that poor haven. 
 
 The darkness descended like a curtain 
 promptly dropped. The biting wind flung 
 the harsh snow persistently, painfully, 
 against that tender face. Eleanor Arun- 
 dell had never been so treated. Here and 
 there was only a dim outline of the drifted 
 path, and soon all outline ceased. 
 
 " I am getting lost !" she gasped, at last ; 
 
 158
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 and none the less the sifting snow bit and 
 stung her face. 
 
 " But I must keep walking keep walking 
 or I shall die. They always keep walk- 
 ing." After considerable baffling progress 
 of this sort, she stumbled against a bowlder, 
 covered her aching eyes and face with her 
 cloak, and lay there in the dreadful night 
 and loneliness, sobbing out her despair. 
 
 " Still, I must try to keep walking," 
 she moaned. " But if I should walk over 
 the ledge." And then agonizing thoughts 
 thronged thick upon her the sumptuous city 
 home, the rich young life of health and joy 
 to end here ! She heard her grandmother's 
 eulogistic sighs over her foolhardiness ; she 
 heard the wailing of Joan and Mary Ann : 
 and, in that desolation, she admitted an intu- 
 ition, as piercing as the snow, that there was 
 one who would mourn for her more than all : 
 one, too, so powerful to help ! 
 
 She scrambled up on the bowlder. " Dan ! 
 Dan !" she called, with her back to the wind 
 and stamping her numbed feet. Still " Dan ! 
 Dan !" she called, but that unutterably piti- 
 less night gave no answer. 
 
 Sinking, and again desperately struggling 
 159
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 to her feet, she saw the tiniest star afar off 
 in the waste of snow, a star of the earth that 
 swung and trembled. With a last effort she 
 plunged towards it, stopping now and then 
 to call with all her strength " Dan ! Dan !" 
 Suddenly the star came leaping towards her 
 it grew large and dazzled her. 
 
 When Dan saw her face, all sternness 
 died out of his own, and Eleanor Arundell 
 flung herself on his broad breast, simply as 
 a wrecked mariner touching shore. 
 
 " Come, dearest, come !" said Dan, with 
 great good cheer, for her sake " coine ! we 
 must go home !" 
 
 "I'd rather stay here a little," gasped 
 Eleanor. "I am so tired Daniel. You 
 won't tell Martha ?" 
 
 "Tell her what?" 
 
 " That I got lost." 
 
 " Never !" A smile quivered under Dan- 
 iel's sleeted and frozen mustache. " We must 
 walk. We must go home. Hang to my arm 
 so I can half carry you. Come !" 
 
 Eleanor struggled on bravely, but she had 
 been already nearly exhausted. 
 
 " Daniel !" she moaned, at length, sinking 
 in the snow, " I cannot ! You must go on 
 160
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 and leave me and come back for me, 
 when I am rested rested." 
 
 Daniel lifted her to her feet. "Come!" 
 he cried "a little farther! Come my 
 darling !" 
 
 Eleanor did, indeed, call up her last rem- 
 nant of strength, to meet the drifts and the 
 beating wind, and sank again, this time with- 
 out consciousness. 
 
 Daniel, who had measured the emergency 
 and his own ability to save at last, fastened 
 the lantern to his belt, and lifted this bur- 
 den and it was no small or light one in 
 his arms, renewing the wild struggle home- 
 ward. On and on, till his straining arms 
 and hands grew numb, till the snow seemed 
 to be beating in fire against his very brain. 
 Still doggedly, desperately, persistently on, 
 till the home door was reached, and opened 
 by eager watchers, and he staggered in 
 across the threshold. 
 
 Daniel Scheffer never fainted was hardly 
 expected, even in this present crisis, to be 
 either frozen or exhausted. 
 
 He ordered what they were to do with 
 Eleanor, in a voice painfully gruff. "No 
 wonder " they thought " that he is cross" 
 
 L 161
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 After a bath in ice-cold water, this son of 
 the Northern hills dressed himself in his 
 melancholy best, set his teeth at the pain 
 tingling in his members, smiled at the ice 
 still in his hair, and went in to inquire for 
 his lady love. 
 
 Her eyes were wide open, and the minis- 
 tering Joan had clothed both her wayward 
 act and her beautiful person in garments of 
 saintly white; scarcely whiter, however, 
 than her face. She held out her hand to 
 Daniel, with a smile. 
 
 "When I have my own establishment, 
 Daniel," she murmured, kindly, "you shall 
 always have some place in it." 
 
 "Yes," said Daniel, with benign assur- 
 ance, " I know that."
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 I HAD requested that Forrester should an- 
 swer his grandaunt Augusta's letter to her 
 in person, but he appealed solely to the 
 amanuensis. 
 
 "When" [he wrote] "I saw the beginning of that 
 letter, 'My dearly beloved Forrester,' in your hand- 
 writing, I jumped up into heven, Martha and that is 
 straight. I know it is not fair to call those your words; 
 but, fact is, I cannot possebly think of them as anybody 
 else's words. 
 
 " I guess you laughed when you were reeling off that 
 billycock of Aunt 'Gusta's. Does she think I'd come 
 mooning around to live on her in her old cold storage 
 brass chandelier battery ? 
 
 "I'm working like a horse. I'm doing prime. And 
 there's talk, Martha, about my being promoted, pretty 
 soon, to section boss. 
 
 "Give my love to Aunt 'Gusta, and thanks for her 
 very exceptable letter. She said I was a lamb wand- 
 dering on the thorny mountains. Tell her the moun- 
 tains are not thorny ; they're only rocky and I don't 
 mind the hardest kind of a scrabble if I can get to the 
 one I love, in the end. 
 
 " Yours with the love of all my harte, 
 
 " FORRESTER." 
 163
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 I did not transport this letter, neither did 
 I read it aloud to any one. But, the very 
 day that I received it, Mrs. John Arundell 
 appeared, anxiously. 
 
 She was in a Kussian sleigh, magnificently 
 plumed, and sent in a servant with the sum- 
 mons: "Mrs. John Arundell requests to 
 know if Miss Scheffer will kindly ride with 
 her in the park ?" 
 
 " "What's 'Gusty doin', out tobogannin' to- 
 day ?" said my host, at the window. " Good 
 soul eighty years old thermometer down 
 to zero blue nose bunnit on her ear. 
 Why didn't she come in her carriage ? Why 
 don't she come in and thaw out ? What the 
 devil's up ?" 
 
 "Oh, she is merely toughening herself, 
 you know," replied Madam Arundell,' 
 smoothly. " I presume the temperature out- 
 side, to-day, is not excessively lower than 
 that she enjoys at home." 
 
 " He ! he ! Laura. You can bite, and smile 
 like an angel. You don't like it because 
 she's come to take Martha." 
 
 " Certainly, I was expecting to take Miss 
 Scheffer to drive, myself, in a suitable man- 
 ner. I do not know how it is with Miss 
 164
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 Scheffer, but I do not. myself, care for coast- 
 ing through our crowded and public high- 
 ways." 
 
 " He ! he ! Put your feet up, Martha, and 
 cock your beaver." 
 
 "What news, my child?" said Mrs. John 
 Arundell, fixing her kind eyes upon me. 
 The robes that surrounded and covered us 
 were in themselves a revelation of satiating 
 wealth. A complex Russian in boots guard- 
 ed us in the rear. 
 
 " Did you not think your nephew would 
 address you personally ?" I asked. 
 
 "No," said she and I loved her for the 
 simple good-heartedness in her averted face. 
 " You see, he has become so accustomed to 
 addressing you." 
 
 One of the blushes that came so fatally 
 since I had realized my own guilt over- 
 spread my face. 
 
 " Dear Miss Scheffer, is my bonnet on 
 straight ?" murmured this noble soul. " It 
 feels perhaps I am mistaken ; it is so em- 
 barrassing to have one's bonnet awry. Ah 
 thank you ! You are flushed with the ex- 
 ertion of leaning over. This direct contact 
 with the bracing air will do you good. I 
 165
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 wonder that Laura never exposes herself to 
 its exhilarating influence. They have very 
 handsome sleighs. Precious Eleanor uses 
 them when she is at home. Why does she 
 not return to her natural guardians ?" 
 
 " She is fascinated with the scenery and 
 the exercises at Haskell." 
 
 " She should not be allowed to have every- 
 thing she is merely fascinated with." 
 
 " There are physical conditions in her case, 
 I understand, which make it necessary she 
 should have what she wishes." 
 
 " I fear, dear Miss Scheffer I speak to 
 you with the utmost confidence I fear Dr. 
 Clitus Latimer is a fraud. He encourages 
 my poor sister in every natural weakness of 
 the flesh. Precious Eleanor he cannot spoil ; 
 but I see traces of wilfulness even in her." 
 
 I was silent. 
 
 " But what from dear Forrester?" she 
 added. 
 
 " He sends many thanks to you for your 
 letter. But he seems very much immersed 
 in the active struggle he has taken up. He 
 speaks of probable advancement. He seems 
 disinclined, in fact, to well to sit down in 
 any one's lap." 
 
 166
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 "My dear, I could not hold Forrester! 
 It is a singular fact that the Arunclells have 
 had, at regular intervals, a giant in the fami- 
 ly. I, too, had in mind pursuits of an active 
 nature for him. Even of a philanthropic 
 even, dear, of a religious nature. I have 
 now at my home 5000 leaflets, received this 
 morning from my printer ; a little effort of 
 my own" she blushed "on substituting 
 free righteousness for the thraldom of in- 
 temperance. Think how my grandnephew, 
 if he were so minded, could aid me in dis- 
 seminating these works !" 
 
 " Yes, but is it not true that there must be 
 adaptability in all employments ?" 
 
 " Ah, there my heart bleeds for him ! 
 Why should not my grandnephew rise to 
 such an enterprise as this 2" 
 
 Beeman Price was out with a cutter, him- 
 self driving, one man-servant at his side. 
 
 As we first met, he lifted his hat. The 
 air had sting enough to make even his tough 
 skin glow. He was not an ill-looking man, 
 except for his greedy and compressed air of 
 the world. 
 
 But Mrs. Arundell sighed. " Think of 
 Forrester becoming a cold, self-absorbed 
 
 167
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 worshipper of Mammon, like that 1" she 
 said. 
 
 " He could not !" I cried, unguardedly. 
 "It is not in his nature! Whatever the 
 poor boy's failings, he is noble, impulsively 
 compassionate, unselfish !" 
 
 Good Mrs. Arundell, to my astonishment, 
 preened herself, uttered a gratified " click, 
 click !" in her throat. And her face of ele- 
 vated emotion was suddenly metamorphosed 
 into the most simple and natural smile. 
 
 " Is my bonnet ? ah, thank you ! dear. 
 Yes, yes, I think dear Forrester has the 
 germs of grace." 
 
 Again we met Beeman Price whose trot- 
 ter was swift making the rounds of the 
 park. And I regret to say that something 
 in the exuberance of the air, as well, per- 
 haps, as a deficiency in breeding, caused him 
 to wink at us, this time, distinctly, innocent- 
 ly, and alarmingly. 
 
 " "We shall continue," said Mrs. John Arun- 
 dell, "as we go round and round, to meet 
 that distressing individual." 
 
 " Certainly," said I, laughing ; " but, after 
 all, he is only a fellow human being, and 
 will do us no harm." 
 
 168
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " You are aware, dear Miss Scheffer, of a 
 promise you made me the other day ?" 
 
 " I am vividly conscious of it, and I am 
 one, you know, who holds to her promises." 
 
 " Very good. Certainly." She uttered the 
 "click, click!" in her throat again, but ad- 
 dressed the driver, ''Turn the horses, James, 
 and thus reverse our course." 
 
 But she had not calculated on the remark- 
 able advantage in diplomacy of that light- 
 geared trotter over her own elephantine 
 bays. Plumes, robes, silver-bells, and all oth- 
 er paraphernalia, we soon came face to face 
 again with Beeman Price. His wink, this 
 time, had even a merry significance. 
 
 "If you feel sufficiently invigorated, my 
 dear, perhaps it will be as well for us to 
 return before we become wearied, and thus 
 undo the benefit this elastic atmosphere has 
 given us." 
 
 " I think that altogether the wiser course," 
 I replied, and returned the clasp of her cling- 
 ing frank old hand with genuine admiration, 
 as she left me at the Forrester Arundell 
 mansion. 
 
 Beeman Price called that evening ; and 
 my hostess desiring, as the next best thing, 
 169
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 that I should pocket the goods which had 
 not accrued to her own family, adroitly ar- 
 ranged in her own masterly fashion that I 
 should be in the reception-room with him 
 alone. 
 
 " You and the old girl had quite a tricky 
 time out there in the park to-day," said he, 
 with exuberant joviality, for him. 
 
 I felt my lips tremble, but, " frankly," I 
 said, " I do not like to hear you speak of 
 Mrs. John Arundell in that way. I esteem 
 her too highly." 
 
 " ' Highly,' I should think ! She's enough 
 to break up a funeral with her lectures and 
 her leaflets and you know it." 
 
 " There's a vast deal behind that, which 
 we do not see at first, and I admire her." 
 
 "Egad! You gettin' befuddled? Better 
 look sharp. My proposition stands just the 
 same." 
 
 " Ah !" 
 
 " Just the same. Keady to consider it ?" 
 
 " You wish, I understand, to bestow all 
 qtt your worldly goods on me, without re- 
 serve." 
 
 " No, hang it ! No such nonsense ! But 
 tell 3 7 e what I will do, I'll give ye three 
 
 170
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 thousand a year, outside household expenses. 
 Eh?" 
 
 " It is no inducement. It would have to 
 be all or nothing." 
 
 " Jump too far, ye know, and ye'll land in 
 the ditch on the other side." 
 
 " I perfectly realize that." 
 
 " Can't ye be sensible ? Gad, I took to ye 
 'cause I thought ye was keen, and ye're more 
 finiky than a mouse, and a worse flirt'n that 
 girl Eleanor !" 
 
 " A woman is but a woman, you see." 
 
 " But you're actin' the fool on purpose 
 ye wa'n't born so." 
 
 " It is all the more hopeless if it is a mat- 
 ter of principle." 
 
 Shuffling steps were heard wandering here 
 and there, then dawned on us with a 
 "Where's Martha? You here, Price ? Glad 
 to see ye how d'do ? Courtin' Martha, eh ? 
 He! he! I ain't scared not a bit scared. 
 Lots o' tunes to Martha." 
 
 But he sat down before us, in all the elegance 
 of his feeble old dandihood, trembling visibly. 
 
 " If it annoys him thus," I murmured to 
 my scornful suitor, " perhaps you had better 
 not call. My first duty is to them." 
 171
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " Have you got to be a fool because the 
 rest of 'em are?" returned Beeman Price, 
 plainly. 
 
 " Yes, that is my present profession and, 
 in fact, my desire." 
 
 " Ketchin', eh ? Well, I'll get out. If you 
 ever come back to your senses where ye 
 was once let me know."
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 OXE quiet morning soon after this, "Wat- 
 son, breathless, overtook me in the hall. 
 
 " I have just gleaned this, mum, from a 
 scrap cook had laid over her tins, mum. My 
 eyes fell on it by chance. The paper is 
 three days old, mum. God 'a' mercy, mum! 
 Go and find him, mum. For God's sake, go 
 at once, mum !" Tears were flowing down 
 the old servitor's cheeks. 
 
 " Heroic act !" I read, in a short para- 
 graph in the corner of that ill-used scrap. 
 "Forrester Pardell, a street -car conductor 
 
 at jumped and saved the life of a child 
 
 who ran suddenly in front of the car. The 
 motorman could not apply the brakes in 
 time. The brave fellow threw the child from 
 danger, but was himself seriously, perhaps 
 fatally, injured. "Was taken at once to the 
 hospital." 
 
 " But this is Forrester Pardell" I said. 
 
 "Oh, mum. that's a ty-pog-ra-phal error 
 
 173
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 'tis he ! Oh, mum, you know it, mum ! Oh, 
 don't you turn white and fall, for God's sake, 
 mum ! You are the brace of the family. 
 Oh, think of Mm, mum !" 
 
 I was as sure as Watson that it was in- 
 deed he, and, as the " brace of the family," 
 I pulled myself sharply together. 
 
 " Order the carriage for the first express, 
 "Watson. I will get ready." This I did, 
 wisely, first of all. Then I went to Madam 
 Arundell. 
 
 " Your grandson has been hurt in an act 
 of self-sacrifice connected with his duty. I 
 do not know how badly. I do not know 
 even 1 am going !" 
 
 She turned very white and set her lips, 
 but she did not have an " attack," and I 
 had felt that she would not. 
 
 " I knew how it would be !" said she, with 
 an open bitterness that was sealed like a 
 pent lake in my own breast. 
 
 "If ever I can bring him home to you, 
 everything will be at its brightest?" I 
 felt my heart and my voice breaking, and 
 stopped. 
 
 " I will exert myself," said she, taking quick, 
 ambitious steps about the room as a mental 
 
 174
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 relief. " Yes, yes, I will try to bear bravely 
 my own duties and yours, too, till you re- 
 turn you return " 
 
 I flew along the hall to my host's private 
 sitting-room. He was not asleep, but sitting, 
 with an expression of singular sweetness and 
 patience on his face. I did not speak to him 
 of any hurt or tragedy, but stooped, taking 
 both his hands in mine. "Forrester has 
 been away a long time," I said. " I am going 
 to try to find him." 
 
 " That's right, Martha that's right," he 
 cried, fluttering, gladly. " I knew you'd go 
 and get him when the right time came. 
 Knew it ! Yes. How soon ? This evening, 
 perhaps ? To - morrow ? Leave everything 
 with you, Martha. Tell him he shall have 
 any horse he wants, no matter what price. 
 Tell him he shall have his own rooms and 
 valet. Tell him" 
 
 I sped down to the waiting carriage, and, 
 having still time, I stopped a moment at 
 Mrs. John Arundell's. She heard my news 
 without a word, but as I was turning away, 
 she caught me, and, looking at me solemnly 
 and tenderly, gave me one kiss, unlike her 
 usual flowery embraces. Her lips quivered. 
 
 175
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 I tore myself from her with a miserable sob, 
 and was away again. 
 
 Never fast enough, though the progress 
 of the train seemed like the prolonged, tire- 
 less flight of a bird through the air. At an- 
 other time I should have smiled to think how 
 naturally and unhesitatingly I had purchased 
 my seat in a drawing-room car; but now, 
 with this enforced repose, I wished rather 
 that it had been an instrument of torture. 
 
 " It was you" said my heart, over and 
 over, "who advised him to work, to main- 
 tain his independence, to endure hardship; 
 and afterwards the encouragement or ap- 
 proval you meted out to him were as scarce 
 and cold as though they were diamonds sole- 
 ly for your own hoarding. 
 
 " And if your Spartan method of friendly 
 discipline should meet now only a dying or 
 a silent form !" 
 
 I set my face and my heart, and in me 
 there was no forgiveness either for myself 
 or this possible fate. 
 
 The cabmen assailed me at the familiar 
 town. 
 
 " How soon can you get me to the hos- 
 pital?" 
 
 176
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " Twenty minutes." " Fifteen." " Ten," 
 said one. I was in the cab, the spiritless 
 horses whipped into an ostentatious but con- 
 strained gallop. 
 
 I knew the superintendent of the hospital. 
 His conventional, smiling greeting almost en- 
 raged me. 
 
 " Where is Forrester Arundell ?" I said. 
 
 "Ah, yes. Number sixteen. Noble fel- 
 low that ! You come from his friends ?" 
 
 " Yes ; take me to him." 
 
 " "Well," the superintendent sighed, " he 
 has been unconscious most of the time for 
 the past two days. But he may he 
 may " 
 
 In answer to my look, he rang the elec- 
 tric bell at his side, and a matron ap- 
 peared. 
 
 " Yes, you can see him," said she. " No 
 harm in that." 
 
 She turned to me suddenly. " Is your 
 name Martha ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " I'm glad you've come, then. It '11 com- 
 fort him, if he ever senses things again. He 
 couldn't or he wouldn't give us any address 
 to write to ; but before he went off into this 
 M 177
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 state, he gave that name ' Martha ' a pretty 
 dance, I can tell you !" 
 
 I crept like one in a dream up to that bed- 
 side that bare hospital bedside the low, 
 disordered, seemingly comfortless bed. 
 
 The matron lingered a little, curiously ; 
 now and then a nurse came in and lingered, 
 curiously ; but if they asked me questions, I 
 hardly answered them, or was conscious of 
 their presence. 
 
 I lifted the matted hair from the sunken, 
 pallid forehead. : The right arm was in 
 splints. I took the other bloodless hand 
 and held it in both mine. 
 
 Mine were tingling exultantly to find even 
 so much life here on the hospital cot. As I 
 held the hand, I knew that soon the heavy 
 lids would open and the eyes would look at 
 me, and they did so. I knew the expres- 
 sion that would be in them, and it was there ; 
 but, as they looked thus a moment, wide 
 and steadily, a hungry sorrow began to creep 
 over them, the poor face to twitch. And, 
 at that, I sat down beside his pillow and 
 took his head on my breast, and my face I 
 laid against his. 
 
 The blood of life came into his cheeks. 
 
 178
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 Thus he lay with closed eyes a few moments, 
 and when I put him back he slept. 
 
 " He is sleeping now he is not dead," I 
 said, with impressive consequence, and be- 
 gan to bustle about and give orders in my 
 own insufferable way.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THESE directions were unhesitatingly obey- 
 ed, though I heard myself, once, designated, 
 in a whispered conversation among the 
 nurses, as " Spitfire," which did not amaze 
 me ; and again, as " made of money," which 
 was an astounding revelation. 
 
 I was allowed as an established fact every- 
 where, and way was made for me. The doc- 
 tors became sedulously attentive to my pa- 
 tient; his wounds were freshly dressed; he 
 was carried by a brace of heedful arms to a 
 clean bed in a private apartment; a fire 
 sprang to glowing life in the grate. Instead 
 of the old gray shawl that had swathed his 
 shoulders, he lay majestic, in the choicest 
 dressing - gown the chief dry - goods empo- 
 rium of the town afforded. 
 
 A boy was sent a tramp country ward for 
 real milk from a cow, not to be accepted 
 except under witness of the fact. 
 
 At this sarcasm, encouraging smiles dawn- 
 
 180
 
 ed about me, but I snapped on, disregard- 
 ing. 
 
 Beef juice I extracted with my own hands 
 in the kitchen, and returned with it, trium- 
 phant, to recline in a luxurious chair before 
 the fire, waiting another waking from the 
 couch. 
 
 I was perfectly conscious when this came, 
 though I paid no immediate heed to it, giving 
 the roused one merely a quiet side face, as 
 though I had been sitting there from time 
 immemorial. I knew the excited joy, the 
 glorified speculation in those blue eyes. I 
 waited for the long, satisfied sigh, and the 
 feeble voice : 
 
 " "Well, we've got home at last, haven't 
 we, Martha ?" 
 
 I went to the bed with my offering of con- 
 centrated nourishment, and demurely fed 
 him, a spoonful at a time. This finished, he 
 looked childishly, eloquently, at the cup. 
 
 " Our family's rich, you know, Martha," 
 said he, as a telling and general suggestion. 
 
 " Still, I am the ' boss,' you know," I re- 
 plied, employing his own illustrative manner 
 of speech, and putting the empty cup out of 
 
 sight. 
 
 181
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 He gave up heedlessly for himself, as he 
 always gave up, and showed his superb teeth 
 as though I had resuscitated him by some 
 moving galaxy of wit. 
 
 I sat down by the fire again ; but pres- 
 ently, being aware, though he lay patient- 
 ly still and made no sign, that his aspect was 
 simply that of a forlorn, heart-broken baby, 
 I rolled the great chair over to the bedside, 
 and still giving him that unenlightened side 
 face, took his hand in mine. 
 
 He drew in a whistle through his teeth, 
 in a feeble imitation of the old manner. 
 
 " Martha,'' said he, " I always felt it, being 
 so strapping big and strong and so many 
 lame, pitiful ones all about." 
 
 This was an expression of contentment 
 with his lot if he should be maimed and 
 lame which he was not, in the end. But 
 there was no thought for the hardness of 
 his trial or the cruel blow that had fallen 
 on him in his path of duty. 
 
 " I know you, Martha ; you'll love me, 
 just the same." 
 
 " More," I commented, with entire self- 
 command in the brown hand that pressed 
 his a trifle more warmly. 
 
 182
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 "That was my mother's ring I knew 
 you would wear it." 
 
 " It was a mysterious demand of your 
 grandmother's; she threatened heart failure, 
 otherwise. The well, the worldliest peo- 
 ple are sometimes the most superstitious. 
 She did not explain to me, but I fancy she 
 thinks I am expiating thereby some possible 
 twinges of her own conscience." 
 
 If my manner was sarcastic, Forrester took 
 only the tone. 
 
 " Your voice rests me. I'm sleepy. But 
 first Martha you know we've not been 
 married yet." 
 
 " Go to sleep." 
 
 " But we shall be F 
 
 I arranged his pillows, as though they 
 were the perversity preventing his slumbers. 
 
 "When, Martha?" 
 
 Stooping thus over his tense, white face, 
 I had a singular sensation for a woman who 
 is asked to plight her troth ; it was, rather, 
 as though I had been the mother who bore 
 him. 
 
 " Martha when F 
 
 " Have you not had everything your own 
 way, dear F I said, dryly, my eyes straight- 
 183
 
 ly on a level with his. " Against my reso- 
 lution and all the probabilities of life ; and 
 though crushed out of the fight, as it were, 
 for a time still, have you failed to have 
 your own way ?" 
 
 " No," he smiled. 
 
 " Then go to sleep Forrester." 
 
 This was as near graciousness as I could 
 be expected to approach ; the full measure 
 of satisfaction it afforded my patient startled 
 me. He made a gesture as if to lift both 
 hands, winced with pain, but resolutely held 
 up high the one available, thin and blood- 
 less as it was. 
 
 "Father," he said, not with any affec- 
 tation of prayer, but simply as though he 
 were addressing some one in the room with 
 an earnestness that shook him " Father, 
 forgive me the sins that sent me wandering ! 
 I thank Thee for my happiness !" 
 
 And this wild boy showed not the least 
 shame for the great tears rolling down his 
 cheeks. 
 
 " Martha, you are not afraid of my going 
 wrong again ?" 
 
 " Never !" I said, rather chokingly, and 
 with a willing impulse gathered his head 
 
 ' 184
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 close to my heart again, watching him sink 
 off into sleep. 
 
 "Walking, in a measure, consciously, and 
 rather painfully, so many years, in the way 
 of righteousness there was something in 
 the utter and trustful consecration of this 
 moral imbecile that touched me, as though 
 the Lord of Life had stood in the room, 
 smiling sadly for my unbelief.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THEEE are some people who work with 
 doubtful results and venture that not fully 
 assayed in their own mind. Not so, Daniel 
 Scheffer. 
 
 "When his various screws and contraptions 
 were finally resolved into the right shape, 
 and, above all, the controlling key of the 
 mechanism found to move backward and 
 forward with the running ease' of a natural 
 law, then, instead of losing his head, Daniel 
 smiled for his past heavy vigils, palpitated a 
 little at the thought of being anticipated in 
 the very simplicity of the discovery, and 
 forthwith set about making the results his 
 own. 
 
 " Do you suppose, Mary Ann," said Elea- 
 nor, sitting on the three-legged stool in the 
 barn " that Mr. Scheffer is engaged and 
 has gone off to see his fiancee ?" 
 
 Mary Ann, who had fought with a tem- 
 porary "hired boy" and banished him, 
 186
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 milked away jubilantly, but hummed with 
 significance, 
 
 "The old man says to his wife, says he" 
 
 "Mary Ann! answer me! when I ask 
 you a question. What do I care what the 
 old man said to his wife ? I help you about 
 the barn work because it is interesting, and 
 I choose to do so ; but when I ask you a 
 question I expect an immediate answer." 
 
 ""Well, then, Miss Eleanor, them that fools 
 with a blast must take the ixplosion. 'Tis 
 no 'fancy' he's gone of for 'tis a spray /" 
 
 " A spree ! I do not believe it." 
 
 " Oh, but I know them ! 'Tis born in 
 them ivery one o' them. Some must be 
 at it frequent, and some takes their time; 
 mind that some takes their time !" 
 
 "I tell you, Mary Ann, I do not believe 
 Mr. Scheffer has gone on a spree !" 
 
 " Ho, hum ! ' The old man says ' " 
 
 " I forbid you to tell me what the old 
 man says." 
 
 " Them that goes afoot, Miss Eleanor, sees 
 more snakes than them that rides in car- 
 riages ; they gets the worl'ly wisdom, God 
 help them ! Hear me sayin', 'tis common to 
 
 187
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 them all. Father Donnelly himself would 
 be at it two days to the ivery other month, 
 quiet and hairmless in his room. Mr. 
 Dan'l is that topmost and sojerly, I doubt, 
 but he takes them only one to the } T ear. But 
 them kind has it hard. Mind what I'm say- 
 in', them kind has it hard. I wouldn't won- 
 der but he'd take a week to it maybe two." 
 
 Eleanor smiled contemptuously. She had 
 not the least fear that Daniel had gone off 
 for a season of vinous hilarity. But she 
 did feel piqued and wounded. 
 
 That Daniel, although he had said some 
 tender things to her, in the snow-storm, 
 should not feel that he was in a proper posi- 
 tion actually to propose to her Katherine 
 Arundell was becoming and natural ; but 
 that he should leave her without explana- 
 tion, and go off to propose to some other 
 girl, was a grave and haunting woe. 
 
 " I think we must be going back to New 
 York very soon, Mary Ann." 
 
 " Faith, that would be an ill trick while 
 the master's away." 
 
 " You and Joan need not go because I 
 do." 
 
 " You know very well, when you go, the 
 
 188
 
 whole artillery moves after, like a bob to a 
 kite." 
 
 " Immediately, though, as soon as Mr. 
 Scheffer returns, I intend to go back." 
 
 Mary Ann sighed. 
 
 " You would love to be a farmer's wife, 
 would not you, Mary Ann ?" 
 
 "'Tis no farmer's wife I'd like to be so 
 much as the farmer himself !" 
 
 "Well, if you are good and faithful, and 
 read Aunt Augusta's leaflets, sometime we 
 will buy you a little place like this to have 
 all for your own." 
 
 " Miss Eleanor," said Mary Ann, with an 
 appreciation not to be subdued " you're the 
 divul ! And she belaborin' all the rest of us 
 with her sarmons and scraps, and takin' you 
 for the one saint in the family, and 'tis no 
 saint you are, Miss Eleanor, hivun knows !" 
 
 " I am afraid, Mary Ann," laughed Elea- 
 nor, " that chopping wood with you, and 
 pitching 'fodder,' and shelling corn, I have 
 allowed you to become very familiar." 
 
 " 'Tis the same One made us both !" 
 
 " That is true : that is very true, when one 
 comes to think of it," said the moral imbe- 
 cile, sadly. 
 
 189
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 Eeminded of the corn - sheller, she went 
 over to it as an interesting pastime, put 
 one yellow ear in after another, and turned 
 the crank. 
 
 " 'Tis not ivery machine o' that size could 
 make the noise!" commented Mary Ann, 
 proudly. " I should think 'twas five o'clock, 
 and that of a Saturday night, on Broad- 
 way !" 
 
 The big door slid open and shut again, 
 and the merry face of the theological stu- 
 dent beamed on them : 
 
 "I knew I should find you two here! 
 You dismissed the boy ? well, he was a 
 shirk. Can't I be of some assistance to 
 you ?" 
 
 " Yes," said Eleanor, agreeably and prompt- 
 ly, " you can cut up some hay and feed Bil- 
 ly." And being large in administrative abil- 
 ity, she stood by to see this accomplished. 
 
 " Now, what ?" 
 
 "Nothing, that would please Mary Ann. 
 She does not like to be interfered with. Sit 
 down here and talk. Tell me the news from 
 the village." 
 
 " Well, the news from the village really 
 emanated from this quarter. It is that Dan- 
 
 190
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 iel Scheffer has finally captured the bee in 
 his bonnet, and is bound to be a rich man." 
 
 They were separated from Mary Ann, be- 
 hind the partition of the stables. 
 
 " Oh !" said Eleanor, with flashing eyes 
 "so that is what he went away about !" 
 
 " Everybody guesses it. Why, did he not 
 tell you ?" 
 
 " No ! He has no authority for confiding 
 his aifairs to me !" 
 
 "Now don't be high and mighty, Miss 
 Arundell," said the gentle little fellow, not 
 looking at her, but beaming straight ahead 
 into Billy's face. 
 
 " You are so like my brother Forrester," 
 said Eleanor, melting into sudden gracious- 
 ness. " You are not so ' large ' " she was 
 going to say, but continued kindly " awk- 
 ward as that dear boy, but you are so easy 
 and nice to talk with. Every one says For- 
 rester is just as sympathetic and easy as a 
 woman to talk with." 
 
 " My !" said the youth. " And if one can 
 be 'easy' and unconventional on this seat, 
 it's almost a test case, isn't it ?" 
 
 Eleanor wore an approving smile. " Now, 
 Mr. Scheffer is not easy to converse with. 
 191
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 He is a very estimable man : he has no com- 
 mon vices: he does not drink": she did 
 not speak interrogatively, but she paused 
 there. 
 
 "Daniel drink! Ha! ha! Well, yes, 
 sweet cider through a straw now and then." 
 
 " But he is not easy to converse with." 
 
 " If it has been hard for you and him to 
 talk, then you have done your duty brave- 
 ly ; for I've a notion I've usually seen you 
 off one side murmuring away together like 
 the purling, purling brook over the rubbly, 
 rubbly stones. Ahem !" 
 
 Eleanor blushed at Billy, and the student 
 threw another bright smile at him, both of 
 which he received contemplatively, with his 
 mouth full of substance. 
 
 Meanwhile Mary Ann had stamped in at 
 the kitchen door with her milk-pails. 
 
 " Where is my affliction ?" said Joan, who, 
 with Mrs. Scheffer as co-partner, was offici- 
 ating at the housework. 
 
 " She's a settin' with the little Mithodist 
 minister on the idge o' the horse-trough. 
 
 "The old man says to his wife, says he." 
 
 " You have a tune, by grasshus !" said 
 192
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 Joan, with anger and contempt, and started 
 for the barn. 
 
 "Suppaire! Suppaire!" she yelled, in 
 startling accents at the door. 
 
 "Come in and have tea with us," said 
 Eleanor, turning her blushing face from Billy 
 to the merry, unobservant smile of her com- 
 panion. " "We are so lonely. Come !" 
 
 " Gladly !" said he, following her rising 
 movement without hesitation. He had, on 
 former occasions, tasted the viands expressed 
 from the great metropolis to this retreat, 
 and the prowess of Joan since she had be- 
 come cook. " I shall be delighted. Thank 
 you !" 
 
 Mary Ann saw them coming in together, 
 and took pains to warble her particular tenet 
 of philosophy at Joan as the latter passed her. 
 
 " Shut you up !" demanded Joan " of the 
 old man, the old woman, and the whole 
 family ancient !" 
 
 Mrs. Scheffer, Eleanor, and the theologian, 
 sat down together. He asked grace with a 
 face just as cheerful as ever. Mrs. Scheffer 
 approved of his prospective vocation, but 
 not of being cheerful when one is asking 
 grace. She maintained a very circumspect 
 N 193
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 attitude, but could not control the abound- 
 ing merriment at her own board. 
 
 Then the moral imbecile and the incipient 
 divine betook themselves to the cribbage- 
 board. 
 
 " Come again to-morrow," said the former. 
 "Do! Bring your. books here and study. 
 It is so lonely." 
 
 "Gladly! Thank you. But,lonely? Ahem! 
 "Why, what makes it lonely ?" 
 
 Still, he did not look at her, his radiant 
 countenance surveying the board. 
 
 " It is always lonely !" said Eleanor, smart- 
 ly, a vivid flame in her cheeks, and biting 
 her lips. 
 
 "Why, a little while ago you were en- 
 chanted with it and did not wish to go 
 away !" 
 
 " You are so very like my brother," sighed 
 Eleanor "so perfectly simple about things." 
 
 " Then you might have me for a brother, 
 too. I'm willing. It's only now and then 
 you find a real simple person, most of us are 
 so tiresome and inquisitive." 
 
 " I know it !" said Eleanor, gratefully. 
 " And I will take you for another brother." 
 
 The hand of the clock stood at "ten." 
 
 194
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 "Won't you have a drink of cider before 
 you go ?" said Mrs. Scheffer, suggestively, 
 and with old-fashioned hospitality, looking 
 up from her knitting at the far end of the 
 room. 
 
 " Gladly thank you. Yes," said this new- 
 ly adopted brother, courteously rising at once. 
 
 Joan lighted the way with a tallow-can- 
 dle. There were clefts in the loose forma- 
 tion of the cellar-wall. In one cranny was 
 Eleanor's straw ; in one, Daniel's ; in anoth- 
 er, Joan's, and in a particularly deep nook 
 lay Mary Ann's. More prominent was a 
 fresh pile for chance guests. The student, 
 schooled to the conventionalities of country 
 life, at once selected one of these. Joan 
 probed for hers. 
 
 Eleanor hesitated a moment. There was 
 Daniel's straw and no one would notice. 
 Daniel was not gone on a spree, nor to pro- 
 pose to another girl. If she had done him 
 any injustice in her thought, it would be but 
 a beautifully contrite act to flatter him by 
 using his straw. So she fluttered a bit of 
 precious lace over it, and proceeded. 
 
 There were four barrels, all of the same 
 recent vintage, in a row. The candle disclosed 
 195
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 a blush of mysterious mildness and beauty 
 on Miss Arunclell's face. 
 
 " I've a new sister, Joan," said the theo- 
 logian; "isn't she looking well?" 
 
 " Go 'way !" said Joan, as complete moni- 
 tor of the situation, and bending over the 
 barrel of her choice, with abstract devotion 
 to her business. The brother and sister at- 
 tached themselves to theirs less absorbingly ; 
 especially was Eleanor's season of dissipa- 
 tion brief, for the scampering of a rat caused 
 her to drop her straw into the irrecoverable 
 depths of the barrel and fly up -stairs for 
 safety.
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE theologian appeared next day with his 
 books, which he placed, without unstrapping, 
 on the centre-table, and waited for Eleanor 
 to suggest what to play. He knew that she 
 would be extremely dignified as an initia- 
 tive, and he adapted himself wholly to her 
 mood. 
 
 " Isn't it about time for Daniel to be com- 
 ing back ?" he said. 
 
 " Surely, I think so. I am very anxious 
 to get back to New York. I wish to see 
 Martha." 
 
 " Who is Martha ?" 
 
 " She is a dear brown cross old angel." 
 
 " Do you keep her in the house ?" 
 
 " Keep her ! We do anything to get her 
 to stay!" 
 
 " Is she too old for me, do you think, if by 
 good-luck I could get acquainted with her ?" 
 
 " She is too sweet for you or any man." 
 
 " I thought you said she was cross." 
 
 197
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " I said no such thing. She is only de- 
 termined. She has more brains than you 
 and I and grandmamma and her brother " 
 
 " Oh, you mean Martha Sck-ejfer?" 
 
 " There isn't any other Martha that I know 
 of." 
 
 " But I thought she was after her profes- 
 sion doctor. Daniel never told me. How 
 in the world did you get her to come to 
 New York?" 
 
 " I managed it." 
 
 There was so much finality in Miss Arun- 
 dell's manner that the youth took a new 
 tack. 
 
 " Shall I read aloud to you, sister ?" 
 
 Eleanor broke down. " I should think we 
 were at the ' testimony ' meeting. Yes, you 
 may, please." 
 
 " I will read The Lady of Shalott.' My 
 voice is sweetest pitched at a sort of minor 
 key." 
 
 " If you do I will go out to the barn and 
 shell corn." 
 
 " Well, Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar,' then. 
 The amaze is, to my mind, that, bending to 
 light literature almost exclusively, as you 
 do, this play of war and bloodshed, of daunt- 
 
 198
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 lessness in vanquishment, of triumph in de- 
 feat, should be, in all profane literature, your 
 book of books, your constant your un- 
 wearying companion. What is there in it, 
 may I ask, that you particularly affect ?" 
 
 " I adore it all." 
 
 He read. 
 
 " Perhaps you have observed that I am 
 getting hoarse," he remarked, after some 
 time. 
 
 " I thought it was only the emotion you 
 ought to feel." 
 
 " Pardon me for intimating that any one 
 could grow weary in reading ' Julius Caesar.' " 
 
 "Well, then, we will go to the gymna- 
 sium." 
 
 The gymnasium was a sloping shed-roof, 
 with a huge pile of straw under the exalted 
 end. By a good run over the snow -crust, 
 these vigorous young people could leap to 
 the roof at its earthward terminus, race up 
 its gradual slope, and descend as by winged 
 flight. 
 
 They seized Mary Ann who was feeding 
 her chickens in the course of their track 
 between them, and bore her clairvoyantly 
 onward through every step of the feat to 
 
 199
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 its triumphant submergence in the billows 
 of straw beneath. 
 
 " You're the divuls !" said she, with re- 
 turning breath. " But no more ! D'ye hear 
 me sayin' ? No more ! Go and get yer hay- 
 then Frenchwoman if 'tis her I see, and 
 not the cat, grinnin' at the winda. She can 
 jump ye like a hill -goat, with no flesh to 
 her bones." 
 
 " Mar'an is persuade' to romp," Joan en- 
 lightened Mrs. Scheffer ; " she fly as a cow !" 
 
 " It is all very unseemly." 
 
 "She have such wil' spirit as if it was 
 some fever perhaps yell' fever! My dear 
 mees and the cure fly as an angel 1" 
 
 The cure, with cheeks as pure and bloom- 
 ing as Eleanor's own, suddenly paused ; ran 
 into the house and got his books. " I am 
 going, sister," he said. " I see a vision ad- 
 vancing over the snowy plain : he will wish 
 to make explanations. I am only a brother." 
 
 Eleanor looked, and saw Daniel in the 
 distance ; her eyes widened and darkened. 
 The student, observing, still looked merrily^ 
 but his femininely curved red lips trembled. 
 "I am only a brother, you know. Good- 
 bye!" 
 
 200
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 That wavering took both Eleanor and 
 himself unawares. Her startled look fell 
 full on his boyish face, more pathetic for its 
 stanch struggle for unselfish bravery. 
 
 " Good-bye ! sister." 
 
 Eleanor, with a solemn face, leaned slowly 
 forward and kissed his girlish cheek. 
 
 " That will always be sacred to me, sister. 
 Good-bye!" 
 
 " She smacked him, begor' !" gasped Mary 
 Ann, pausing in the death rites of an ancient 
 fowl, which she intended palming off on 
 Joan as one of her choicest chickens. " "Well, 
 'tis short work the old city missus '11 make 
 o' his wooin'." 
 
 " They flirt !" said Joan, with heathen ap- 
 proval; "but, alas! madame shall wither at 
 him." 
 
 Her sweet little companion gone and yet 
 such a brave, good little fellow ! and the 
 stalwart, successful Daniel coming, Eleanor 
 retired within the shed, some deep compunc- 
 tions for the sorrowful contrasts of life bur- 
 dening her heart and bringing the tears. 
 
 "Why, Eleanor, are you so sorry I am 
 come back ?" 
 
 A downcast face ; no look, and no answer. 
 201
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " I have been to New York, for one thing." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " My present success and that assured for 
 the future warranted me in going to see 
 your grandparents. Your grandmother is 
 satisfied. She has invited me to visit them." 
 
 "I did not know you were so anxious to 
 make a visit in New York. / could have 
 invited you. How is Martha ?" 
 
 "They get telegrams that your brother 
 is improving daily. He was hurt they 
 thought it best not to tell you he is get- 
 ting well. Martha went on to care for 
 him." 
 
 " Forrester hurt !" Eleanor leaned her 
 face against the uncomely shingles and sob- 
 bed like a child. 
 
 "He is getting better, dearest. Martha 
 went on to care for him." 
 
 Eleanor omitted the "dearest" from her 
 thought. 
 
 " ' Getting well.' ' Martha went to him.' " 
 A scheme a tentative hope one of those 
 plans that she trusted Providence wholly to 
 elaborate and secure for her, seemed open- 
 ing into fruition. "'Martha Forrester.'" 
 She worked at a loose nail in the wall, awak- 
 
 202
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 ened interest on her tear-stained face, a deep 
 luminousness in her eyes. 
 
 " I have your grandmother's permission to 
 ask you to marry me, Eleanor. I have been 
 doing that by manner and thought, I know, 
 ever since I knew you, but I kept the words 
 till I had the right." 
 
 Eleanor, with simple disregard for con- 
 ventionalities, abruptly picked her way over 
 the straw, walked firmly along the path, and 
 disappeared in the house. 
 
 Her next advent into the social circle dis- 
 closed her with a pensive dignity of counte- 
 nance, clothed entirely in black ; even a large 
 black bow, set very becomingly, it must be 
 confessed, against her shining coil of hair. 
 
 "Mournin', is it?" soliloquized Mary Ann. 
 " Well, 'tis better to mourn for him livin', 
 than that the old missus should have a hand 
 at him !" 
 
 " She weep to-day but volatile, la !" chat- 
 tered to herself the hopeful Joan. But 
 where affections had evidently been so deep- 
 ly engaged elsewhere, the usual chaperonage 
 seemed unnecessary. 
 
 So it chanced that Eleanor, in black, was 
 gravely perusing her ' Julius Ca3sar ' by the 
 
 203
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 very subdued rays of the homestead lamp, 
 when Daniel marched into the sitting-room, 
 stout cause for inquisition on his handsome, 
 smiling face. 
 
 " Eleanor, where is nty straw ?" 
 
 Then did Eleanor's conscious blushes con- 
 trast most strangely with her nun-like ap- 
 parel. 
 
 " It is very easy to lose one's straw, I am 
 sure," she remarked, turning the page. 
 " There are plenty more." 
 
 "Eleanor, however vague and different 
 our ethical theories may be, we all know the 
 punishment awaiting those who tell fibs. 
 "Where is my straw ?" 
 
 " Daniel !" said the moral imbecile, at this, 
 lifting her eyes in absorbing and full con- 
 fession " a rat frightened me and I dropped 
 it in the barrel." 
 
 " Dropped in the rat, Eleanor ?" 
 
 " The straw, Stupid !" 
 
 With this apostrophe she returned fear- 
 lessly to her page. 
 
 Daniel chuckled very softly, exulted, 
 watched her with radiant eyes, like one 
 whose cause is already secure. 
 
 "Eleanor Arundell, when a girl steals a 
 
 204
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 man's straw to drink cider, and, more than 
 that, when a girl calls a man ' Stupid,' she 
 is irrevocably committed to him. Did you 
 know that? It is a law of nature and a 
 creed of man, which have never been con- 
 futed." 
 
 " I polished it well with lace first !" she 
 declared, haughtily, staring at his assured 
 face with dilated eyes, like a wild creature 
 caught in an ambush. 
 
 " That makes no difference. You had my 
 straw on your lips. Oh ! but I won't kiss 
 you, though I've a right. "We're engaged, 
 though that is settled, Eleanor. We are 
 engaged." 
 
 Eleanor herewith gave a sigh of relief. 
 
 " You are a little glad, aren't you ?" said he. 
 
 " Yes ; because of course I should marry 
 sometime, and you are not at all disagree- 
 able." 
 
 " I am very glad of that." 
 
 " And one in my position has so much 
 trouble, you see. I was engaged once to a 
 very disagreeable man because he was rich. 
 And now that you are successful, grand- 
 mamma will be satisfied, and I think I would 
 be very foolish not to settle down on this, 
 205
 
 for who knows how much trouble I might 
 have again ?" 
 
 " You are an astonishingly wise child. 
 And you love me a little ?" 
 
 "Certainly you are so much like Mar- 
 tha." 
 
 " Well," groaned Daniel, "at least you do 
 not love any other man, Eleanor ?" 
 
 "No," she said, very candidly, "except, 
 Daniel, it might be some one in a perfectly 
 brotherly sort of way." 
 
 " And I am more than a brother ?" 
 
 " Yes," sadly admitted the moral imbe- 
 cile, " one does not feel nearly so easy with 
 you as with a brother."
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 " GREAT times, "Watson ! Great times !" 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " Where's Martha ? Oh, she's coming to- 
 day ! Forrester coming ! Ha ! ha ! great 
 times ! My little Kate coming ! Eh ? what 
 what's his name, "Watson ?" 
 
 " Mr. Daniel Scheffer, sir. Given so much 
 funds, cash down, sir, and an interest and 
 partnership in the great manufacturing firm 
 of Bates & "Whittemore, sir ; with other re- 
 sults of his mechanical genius undoubted- 
 ly-" 
 
 " Oh, d n your Congressional reports, 
 
 "Watson. He's Martha's brother, ain't he ?" 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " "Well, that's \vhat I'm trying to get at. 
 Martha's brother. Liked him very sensi- 
 ble young man. Martha's brother. Making 
 everything ready, "Watson ?" 
 
 " Yes, sir ; certainly, sir." 
 207
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 "Where's Martha? Who's at the helm, 
 Watson ?" 
 
 " Mrs. Arundell, sir." 
 
 " Well, well spread your horns out where 
 you can, Watson ; toss the blanket every 
 time you get a chance, Watson. What's 
 expense to us ? Make a spread make a 
 spread, Watson. Have an open fire in every 
 room in the house hear ? What's the first 
 dinner ?" 
 
 " Little necks, sir ; mock turtle " 
 
 " Confound your clam shells and imitation 
 vermin, Watson! Every time I make a 
 meal I have to scrabble through as much 
 offal and turf-weed as if I was wadin' by the 
 seashore. Have some turkeys, Watson 
 good, old-fashioned farm turkeys he ! he ! 
 with stuffing and sage in it. Sage mind 
 that. .And onions, Watson." 
 
 Watson put up a gentlemanly white hand 
 to hide the sympathetic but embarrassed 
 smile on his lips. 
 
 " Got down the onions, Watson ?" 
 
 " They were already ordered with the 
 roast, sir." 
 
 " Eoast turkeys ?" 
 
 " They shall be substituted, sir."
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " No, no have 'em both have 'em both, 
 Watson." 
 
 " It is noted, sir." 
 
 " And the ' Perriere & Jouet ' brand." 
 
 " Certainly, sir." 
 
 " Mrs. John Arundell invited, "Watson ?" 
 
 " Yes, sir, and Mr. John Arundell, sir, 
 who is expected home from abroad." 
 
 " John comin' back again ! Dear old boy ! 
 Fine boy ! Great times ! happy times, Wat- 
 son !" The old man's face gre\v exceeding 
 soft. He tried to brace himself again for 
 hospitable forethought. "Perriere & Jouet 
 brand, Watson." 
 
 " It is noted, sir." 
 
 " Should say it is ! three dollars a quart, 
 by the case. See here, Watson don't want 
 to offend Mrs. John Arundell good woman 
 noble woman. Couldn't ye mix up a little 
 arrow-root, orange-jelly something, for her 
 glass ? Too bad ! but please her better. 
 Make it the same color. She'll think we're 
 all drinkin' calves'-foot jelly make her hap- 
 pier. Eh, Watson ?" 
 
 Watson's faithful white hand sought his 
 mouth again. " I think it can be managed, 
 sir. But how shall we account for the nat- 
 o 209
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 ural percussion on the expulsion of the 
 corks, sir?" 
 
 " Kever mind that, Watson never mind 
 that," said the kind host, wearily. " We 
 want to make everybody happy, Watson. 
 Sad world, crushing world rich or poor 
 but happy world, too, when we love folks, 
 Watson. I've looked out for you looked 
 out for 'em all all. Watson! where's 
 Martha ?" 
 
 " Permit me to recall to you that she is 
 speedily returning, sir." 
 
 " Yes yes sound mind, but forget, now 
 and then, Watson, that's all. Great times ! 
 happy times! Made you independent, but 
 I want you to stay 'long o' Martha, Watson, 
 just the same. Stay and look out for 'em, 
 and see that they name the first boy ' For- 
 rester,' just as we've always done d'ye 
 hear?" 
 
 " Oh, sir ! God bless you, sir ! But it's 
 you I'll serve, too, many a long year yet, 
 sir!" 
 
 " Well, well never mind. Thinkin', just 
 now, little farmer's girl knew long ago at 
 my grandfather's place his farmer's daugh- 
 ter ; you remember, Watson ?" 
 210
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " Sir, permit me to endeavor to recall, 
 sir" 
 
 " Beauty good died ; died, "Watson, long 
 ago. Used to draw water together with the 
 old well-sweep she and I. So " With a 
 smile he slowly made the gesture of the 
 sweep. " I want some of it, "Watson !" said 
 he, suddenly looking up, with a childish, 
 querulous, pleading voice. " I want some 
 of that water !" 
 
 " It shall be procured, sir." 
 
 " I want it right from the spring ! tired 
 of wine tired of these bottled things want 
 to go back there and drink! youth life 
 want to drink from the spring again, "Wat- 
 son! 
 
 "What did He say? he that drinketh 
 this never thirst never thirst that's it! 
 Watson. Clearest mountains in the world 
 there, Watson. Gates used to open, top of 
 'em, at sunset. Saw some angels swingin' 
 there once she and I ! Smile away ! but, 
 fact, Watson always remembered that ! 
 Want to go back there and drink from the 
 spring. Watson ! where's Martha ?" 
 
 " They are expected this evening, sir." 
 
 But even as Watson spoke the words, he 
 211
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 sprang forward to his master, who had be- 
 come unconscious of his presence, drooping 
 more heavily than usual. Not the Arundell 
 sleep, nor, quite yet, the last sleep of this 
 gentle-hearted Arundell.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 Bur when I entered the mansion that night 
 it was not to the buoyant festivity planned 
 for us by our loving host. 
 
 " Another sorrow upon us. My poor hus- 
 band is stricken," said Madam Arundell, 
 meeting us in the hall with her perfectly 
 hard and hopeless face. She kissed her grand- 
 son, taking his thin hand. I felt his clutch 
 on my arm, like a child making sure of its 
 mother in a strange place. 
 
 Eleanor appeared from another quarter, 
 and laid her face against Forrester's, and 
 then his clutch loosened a little, as though 
 it was not quite so strange. 
 
 Then she sprang to me and clung to me, 
 sobbing. My efforts to maintain compo- 
 sure amid these scenes might have failed 
 but for the timely appearance of Watson, 
 displaying a joy and tenderness over Forres- 
 ter that he could hardly keep within proper 
 bounds. 
 
 213
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 "Let me remove your top-coat, sir," he 
 said by way of excuse, in a trembling voice, 
 and now first Forrester ventured to let go 
 of me wholly, and the old servant's hands 
 were clasped in both his. 
 
 " God bless you ! Watson. I'm so glad 
 to see you ! You're growing young, Watson ! 
 You're growing young !" 
 
 " God bless you, sir !" said Watson, devoid 
 of long words on this occasion, the tears 
 actually streaming down his face. " Thank 
 you, sir ! God bless you, sir ! Take this 
 large chair. Shall I get a hassock for your 
 feet, sir? Your rooms are prepared, sir. 
 How can I serve you, sir ?" 
 
 " Watson !" said Madam Arundell, severe- 
 ly, " Mr. Arundell is not a child." 
 
 "Yery near it, grandmother," said For- 
 rester, still rather hoarsely, lifting his pleas- 
 ant, worn face to her, and sinking back in 
 the chair gratefully. 
 
 "Watson!" continued Madam Arundell, 
 glancing back into the hall " you are crush- 
 ing Mr. Arundell's hat into the drawer in- 
 stead of hanging it upon the rack !" 
 
 " That, mum, if you plase, mum," Wat- 
 son ventured to affirm a trifle mirthfully, in 
 214
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 his joyful eagerness, "is to make sure of 
 his continuing at his home, mum, instead of 
 ever running away and leaving us in despair, 
 mum." 
 
 And Forrester's kind and merry glance 
 dwelt full on him, his white teeth gleaming 
 naturally. 
 
 "You are decidedly flustered, I think, 
 Watson," observed madam, contemptuously. 
 
 Meanwhile Eleanor had drawn me to one 
 side, and had my ear. 
 
 " I am engaged to Daniel !" 
 
 " What nonsense ! Let me hear no more 
 of this." 
 
 "And grandmamma consents. He has 
 been very fortunate, you know." 
 
 " I did not know. Well so that is it ?" 
 
 "Your eyes look as though they were 
 reading me, Martha. What do you see ?" 
 
 " I see that we do not very well plan our 
 lives that they are simply and comprehen- 
 sively guided for us." 
 
 " Of course, Martha I always knew 
 that." 
 
 "You have a wisdom, then, dear, that is 
 better than wisdom," said I, with a sigh. 
 " Do you understand ?" 
 
 215
 
 "And grandmamma invited Daniel to re- 
 turn with us and visit her. And he is 
 coming very, very soon. And I shall be in 
 your family now that is the best of it. I 
 shall be your sister, and you'll have a respon- 
 sibility of me a great responsibility of me, 
 dearest." 
 
 " Eleanor," said Madam Arundell, feeling 
 rather left out in the cold, " are you telling 
 Miss Scheffer of your engagement to her 
 brother?" 
 
 " Yes, grandmmama." 
 
 A look of pleasure and interest shone on 
 Forrester's face ; then he turned full to his 
 grandmother, his frank eyes never flinching, 
 even without the support of my arm. 
 
 " I am engaged, too, grandmother. I am 
 a happy man. I loved Martha from the 
 very first. I had hard work getting her to 
 think of me, grandmother. Those who 
 know her wonder she could take up with 
 me. I think if it had not been for that ac- 
 cident that seemed such a hard thing I 
 might never have had this best thing. But 
 I love her so dearly, I do not care if it is 
 pity." 
 
 " Martha Scheffer engaged to you /" said 
 216
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 his grandmother, with a cruel, almost un- 
 conscious accent of wonder. 
 
 Forrester faced her with direct eyes, but 
 his lips trembled. 
 
 " I said it was from pity," said he, very 
 gently. 
 
 " No but I can never admit that !" I 
 said, going over to him, and lifting the hair 
 from his forehead, still pale and damp from 
 weakness. " I love your grandson, Mrs. 
 Arundell, and am ready to take up life's 
 struggle with him anywhere." 
 
 " There shall be no struggle !" declared 
 Madam Arundell, with a toss of her head. 
 " I am rejoiced at the thought of having 
 dear Miss Scheffer Martha in this rela- 
 tion. And certainly I congratulate you, with 
 all justice, Forrester ! Providence seems to 
 have a peculiar predilection for those not al- 
 ways so endowed as they might be, perhaps, 
 in regard to managing for themselves. Do 
 you know that Beeman Price has offered her 
 his hand ?" 
 
 " I hope it was cleaner than it used to be," 
 said Forrester, with a smart flush, setting 
 his teeth. 
 
 " You have a very irritable boy to man- 
 '217
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 age, Martha, you see !" said madam, now 
 very sweetly. " What do you think of this 
 engagement, Eleanor?" 
 
 "I planned it I mean, I've trusted and 
 prayed for it for a long, long time," replied 
 this moral imbecile, with a dignity most com- 
 posed and gracious. 
 
 Madam flushed slightly, and shot a quick 
 glance of surprise at her, as well as at the 
 steady countenance of her other ethically in- 
 capable one who, at least, had voluntarily 
 offered his life to save that of another. 
 
 " What do you think, Martha ?" said she. 
 " I dare not draw a lesson from this irre- 
 sponsibility, which, seems to have had such 
 charming results. Perhaps a safe thought 
 is in ' The birds of the air, and the lilies of 
 the field,' " she concluded, rapidly and pious- 
 ly, with vague consideration. 
 
 "JT was rather a crow, grandmother," said 
 Forrester, " but if you love people better 
 than yourself I mean Martha " [his act of 
 self-sacrifice never entered his memory] " I 
 think God gets a hand at you, and goes to 
 whitewashing !" 
 
 Eleanor giggled rapturously. 
 
 "At least, let us not turn this incompre- 
 
 218
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 hensible act of mercy and forbearance into 
 mirth," said our hostess. " We will dine, 
 and then I think it best that Martha, alone 
 of you, should enter the room of my poor 
 stricken husband."
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 THIS sentiment saturated the atmosphere 
 again with a deep gloom. 
 
 But when I went in to see my host the 
 cloud instantly lifted. 
 
 "John, this is Martha my daughter 
 Martha." 
 
 A man, the counterpart of what my host 
 might have been in health, rose from the 
 bedside and met me with a smile. 
 
 "Why kiss her! John." 
 
 So in this fashion we very simply and 
 naturally saluted each other. 
 
 " Martha," said my host, holding my hand 
 " knew you'd come home, Martha, soon as 
 you could. Yery hard without you. Old 
 ship reeled and bumped. Great times, now ! 
 happy times ! Bring in Forrester bring in 
 my little girl." 
 
 " My dear," said Mrs. Arundell, in a voice 
 suggestive of the solicitude and kindness of 
 the tomb " you must not excite yourself." 
 
 220
 
 "Nonsense, Laura ! I'm windin' up affairs. 
 Goin' to do it, too ! Bring 'em in, Martha." 
 
 I felt my host's pulse ; it was the gentle 
 tottering of the citadel to its fall. " I think 
 it is best. It can do him no harm," I said. 
 " Is it not so, Doctor Latimer ?" 
 
 The latter stood leaning beside a window, 
 the sincerest expression of sympathy and 
 sorrow on his face that I had ever seen 
 there. 
 
 " Certainly it can do him no harm," he 
 said. 
 
 So the two were brought in. The grand- 
 father put a hand in that of each, and looked 
 upward, much as Forrester had done on his 
 sick-bed, gratefully and trustfully murmur- 
 ing. But the guardian thought in his soul 
 recalled him. 
 
 "Martha perfectly sound mind but I 
 forget forget. You and Forrester engaged 
 yes long time but married? eh? I just 
 forget." 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Dearest," interrupted Mrs. Arundell, sol- 
 emnly who had discerned from my words 
 and Doctor Latimer's that the end might 
 come at any time, and had sent with ex- 
 
 221
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 Deeding haste for her clergyman " would 
 you not like to see Doctor Bod well ? I heard 
 the bell ring, and I think he is below." 
 
 " Certainly !" said our host, with unex- 
 pected animation ; " Laura always keen 
 always to the point. Great times, now! 
 happy times ! Good wife dear wife." 
 
 But when the reverend gentleman entered 
 we were astounded. 
 
 " Here you are, doctor ! How d' do ? Get 
 a gait on excuse me, dear old friend he ! 
 he! but the old ship's sinking, you know. 
 Doctor ! Martha Forrester. Stand there ! 
 "We're gettin' home, you see. There ! Yes, 
 stand there ! Marry them, doctor." 
 
 Doctor Bod well regarded the group with 
 a blankly questioning gaze. 
 
 " Witnesses enough !" said the dying gen- 
 eral, with authority. " Come !" 
 
 Forrester and I stood beside the bed where 
 he bade us. The clergyman married us. 
 
 " Where's where's where's Martha's 
 brother ?" 
 
 "He will come soon, grandpapa." Elea- 
 nor the inspired kissed him, in as natural 
 and happy a manner as though no ghostly 
 guest stood among us. 
 
 222
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 "Well, little girl little girl Martha- 
 oldest sister '11 arrange your wedding. Leave 
 it all with Martha. Good old north-country 
 stock Martha Martha's brother. Goin' 
 to have some brains in the family now! 
 Money enough handsome 'nough gettin' 
 little reduced on brains never mind. Leave 
 it all with Martha. 
 
 " John ! 
 
 "Now the 'will'! legally drawn plen- 
 ty to sign : sound mind, John. Forget 
 now and then but all right? All right, 
 John ?" 
 
 "It is all right, brother," replied John 
 Arundell, with his gentle, reassuring smile. 
 " Doctor Bodwell, will you read this docu- 
 ment aloud ? It will soothe, rather than dis- 
 turb, my brother." 
 
 The spiritual consoler read the worldly 
 document, and he and Doctor Latimer af- 
 fixed their names thereto. 
 
 My host sighed like a laborer getting tow- 
 ards contented rest. 
 
 " And now, dearest," said Mrs. Arundell, 
 a desperately grave necessity burdening her 
 close lips, " will you not let Doctor Bodwell 
 talk with yon ?" 
 
 223
 
 " Why, yes, yes like to talk with Doctor 
 Bodwell but rather used up." 
 
 " About your soul, Forrester ?" 
 
 The old gentleman rallied his forces. 
 
 "Guess we think alike, Laura Doctor 
 and I always have talked a good deal 
 with Doctor Bodwell think alike. 
 
 " God our Father Christians lookin' at 
 other Christians and thinkin', ' Well, I know 
 he's mine, but ain't so sure about you !' 
 God our Father children like their fa- 
 ther, ain't they? law of nature law of 
 God. But go to actin' it charity love 
 Christian relations put you in a mad- 
 house !" 
 
 Madam ArundelPs face went shocked and 
 white at these benighted ravings. 
 
 " God our Father : children like their father, 
 ain't they ? dare to say so ought to say so 
 ought to act so. But Christians sayin', 
 ' Don't look at me ! Don't look one bit at 
 me ! look at God. Don't look at my ac- 
 tions won't bear lookin' at; look only at 
 God.' All wrong !" 
 
 Madam Arundell, so afflicted by these 
 strange vagaries, yet stood silent with the 
 rest. 
 
 224
 
 " Children like their father, ain't they ?" 
 said my host again, very pleasantly. 
 
 "Jesus Christ knew the way I always 
 loved Him ; didn't say, ' Don't look at Me' ! 
 stood up and said, ' Yes, look ! I'm like my 
 Father like our Father you be like Him, 
 too.' Didn't say, 'Don't look at Me'! Stood 
 up and said, ' Behold ! all ye weary yes 
 like our Father ! Trust Me ! Come to Me !' 
 I'm goin' to Him, too !" 
 
 There was such simplicity of resolve in 
 this laboring pilgrim's voice that Madam 
 Arundell recovered herself, conscientiously. 
 
 " Doctor Bodwell, will you not pray for 
 him?" 
 
 "Madam," said the great divine, with a 
 shaking voice, "I would rather need pray 
 for myself. This child sees the way home, 
 madam never fear !" 
 
 "Always thought alike, Laura Doctor 
 and I. Lots of talks. 
 
 " Children like their father, ain't they ?" 
 he murmured presently, softly, and with un- 
 conscious repetition. " Always loved Him. 
 Stumbled a long way forgive and He 
 stood up and said, ' Yes, look ! like Him ! 
 Trust Me! Come to Me!' Goin' to Him, too ! 
 p 225
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " Martha ! Where's Martha ?" 
 
 I went to his pillow, and, holding him, 
 pressed my cheek to his: his hand, desper- 
 ately clinging, sank in soft peace in mine. 
 
 " Stood up ' Look !' " With that word 
 my host's laboring speech was changed to 
 vision, even of the Compassionate, Himself ! 
 and he went to Him.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 "Mr last injunctions from my beloved 
 master, mum, was to accilerate the joys of 
 the youth of the family, mum. Shall I pro- 
 ceed to do so, mum ?" 
 
 " With caution, "Watson ; as I called you 
 particularly to say, I would rather you should 
 incline to the commands of Mrs. Forrester 
 Arundell, Junior. My precious Eleanor is so 
 extravagant." 
 
 " Mrs. Forrester Arundell, Junior's, com- 
 mands for Miss Eleanor's wedding far ex- 
 ceed Miss Eleanor's own, mum. She aims 
 to plase my beloved master and follow his 
 wishes, mum ; a suprame elegance, yet very 
 quiet, mum, befitting our mourning condi- 
 tion, mum." 
 
 " I hope, Watson, that Mrs. Forrester 
 Arundell, Junior, will not take on too in- 
 dulgent a temperament." 
 
 " Ah, mum ! you address me as a servant 
 long with you, mum. Permit me to reply 
 
 227
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 in a similar strain, mum. If, by a little 
 sympathy and indulgence, we can kape the 
 lambs in the fold, mum." 
 
 " Are you not growing rather sentimental, 
 Watson ?" 
 
 " Watson sentimental !" A cheerful voice, 
 of the kindest modulation, arose from the 
 other end of the hall, where John Arundell 
 had just entered. " Pardon me, Laura but 
 Watson sentimental ! Then he is a good 
 man, as I always knew. All good men are 
 sentimental." 
 
 " Ah, but you " said Madam Arundell, 
 quitting her emotional servant, and drawing 
 her brother, with quite a sprightly manner, 
 into one of the great parlors " how can you 
 call yourself so, when you are continually 
 deserting us for your wild travel travel 
 travel ?" 
 
 " Ah, but that only fills me with ten- 
 derer sentiment for the dear ones at 
 home !" 
 
 "How can Augusta bear your long ab- 
 sences ?" 
 
 " My Augusta is a saint, and she has end- 
 less compassion for my weak lung. Since 
 that requires California and Italy, she even 
 
 228
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 prescribes California and Italy. Oh, she is 
 perfect !" 
 
 It had been one of the untiring efforts of 
 Madam Arundell's long life to make John 
 Arundell say that he did not like an atmos- 
 phere of leaflets, and that his town house 
 was cold. But she had never accomplished 
 this, and she never would. He smiled softly 
 and unconsciously at her, and he was abso- 
 lutely and eternally true. 
 
 " And are you drinking ginger - beer as 
 usual ?" said she, a little exasperated. 
 
 " No ; but would to Heaven I had never 
 taken anything stronger ! I should not have 
 such a crying woe in my right leg every now 
 and then, I believe, Laura." 
 
 " You are very charitable, John." 
 
 " To whom, pray ?" 
 
 "Oh, generally speaking." 
 
 " "Well, I believe I am not ' near ' as * Un- 
 cle Zeb' used to have it. No no right- 
 minded Arundell was ever ' near.' " 
 
 The batteries had recoiled on the attack- 
 ing force itself. 
 
 " Great fortunes evaporate if not carefully 
 manipulated, John." 
 
 Let 'em !" 
 
 229
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 "Ah, you remind me so at times of poor 
 Forrester." 
 
 " Thank God for that !" 
 
 He was an inestimably true old man, this. 
 "When leaflets raged furiously and the win- 
 try air grew chill, he embraced his wife with 
 tearful tenderness and fled. Owning to no 
 multiplicity of oral or printed lectures, to no 
 frigidity of temperature ; owning only, in 
 his sweetness, to a left lung which the an- 
 gels in heaven alone, meanwhile, knew to 
 be perfectly sound. 
 
 It is by no means a bitter reflection on an 
 imaginary character, it is a fact concerning 
 literal human nature, that Madam Arundell 
 was accustomed to say, in tender comments 
 on the departed, " It is well, however, to 
 make one's assured peace with God." 
 
 " Grandmother," said I, at length, ever 
 maintaining my character as undismayed 
 snap-dragon of the family, " never was it 
 made more assured. Look deeper in your 
 own heart, dear, and see if yours is as child- 
 like, according to the commandment, and as 
 confident." 
 
 " So you think me self-righteous ?" said 
 she, not without a tinge of venom. 
 
 330
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " Yes, dear grandmother, and so am I. 
 And we must fight this, you and I." 
 
 She stared at me for an instant as an 
 anomaly, though she should have been used 
 to me by this time. Then that rare soften- 
 ing of tears came to her eyes. 
 
 For my Grandmother Arundell was a char- 
 acter that could tread on you very ruthless- 
 ly, gathering in the world, in the spirit of 
 certain conquerors of old ; but if you seized 
 lance and shield and faced her, she recog- 
 nized an instant equality ; and if you were 
 even fierce enough, she would twine her 
 arms about your neck and quite adore you. 
 
 " Martha," said she, " I confess that often 
 it all looks to me very dark and even uncer- 
 tain. What shall we do then ?" 
 
 " In the first place, we must not threaten 
 any creature of God with moral imbecility." 
 
 " But, Martha, we shall spoil people." 
 
 " But, grandmother, if Christ had pro- 
 nounced the world morally imbecile, and 
 left it with cold scorn, what then ? Was not 
 His charity like the ocean? Was not His 
 love like the sea ? Not so much a trait of 
 character as the element He swam in ?" 
 
 " But, Martha, we shall go too far." 
 331
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " We shall never go too far, grandmoth- 
 er you and I. "Would that we might! 
 And we must humble ourselves, it is said, 
 more like unto children." 
 
 " You say that, my beloved Martha, and 
 you are absolutely autocratic !" 
 
 " Oh, but, grandmother, that is a snare and 
 a delusion. I have a heart good for noth- 
 ing. It is soft as putty." 
 
 " And you think mine hard ?" 
 
 " Never any more, grandmother." 
 
 Grandaunt Augusta, on the contrary, hav- 
 ing distributed her latest essays on virtue 
 and temperance among us, was accustomed 
 to speak lovingly of " Dear John's account 
 of dear Forrester's triumphant release." 
 
 Madam Arundell had been wont to sigh. 
 Now, said she, at last, more like a child 
 repeating a text than with any conscious 
 acceptance of it : 
 
 " Yes, Augusta, I think it was so ! I am 
 sure it was so." 
 
 Yet I had her I had her as a child pull- 
 ing at my gown ; and with whatever com- 
 prehension I had, other than hers, I taught 
 her ; and ever, with all tenderness and respect, 
 I was master, as there was need I should be. 
 
 232
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 And now Grandaunt Augusta, though ever 
 steadfastly fighting the Evil One in large and 
 copious efforts, congratulated herself with 
 complacency on events in her own family. 
 
 " I always knew dear Eleanor would choose 
 wisely," she remarked to me. " I have had 
 deep anxieties about Forrester, but precious 
 Eleanor's judgment has always been unerr- 
 ing." 
 
 I digested this in silence, and then re- 
 marked casually, "Are you not anxious about 
 Forrester still ?" 
 
 "Ah, my child!" her large countenance 
 beamed" here are you, at last, fishing for a 
 compliment !" But none could take offence 
 at such a face. " No, Martha no. I am 
 not anxious about Forrester. Slight as the 
 difference is in your years, I look at Forres- 
 ter, my dear, as restored to the arms of a 
 mother !" 
 
 I laughed outright ; but Grandaunt Au- 
 gusta had had her brief time at laughter, 
 and now only smiled indulgently. 
 
 " But I never set him at good books, Aunt 
 Augusta, and I never talk with him about 
 his moral condition." 
 
 " "We labor according to our lights, my 
 233
 
 child," said she, with calm satisfaction. "And 
 I have observed, Martha, that, under a crust 
 of worldly severity and indifference, you 
 are inclined none the less to be a spiritual 
 nurse." 
 
 I gazed at her, biting my lips to conceal 
 further mirth. She lifted her finger and shook 
 her head at me. 
 
 " When will you be lecturing me ?" she 
 said. 
 
 I blushed. " Never !" I cried, with start- 
 ing tears. " Why do you think so ill of 
 me?" 
 
 " Martha, I struggle for light, but I am 
 an old lady, rather indurate in old ways, 
 perhaps. And, Martha, I have always, from 
 babyhood, been cradled in luxury. You young 
 eagles, thrown off the high ledges to sink or 
 fly, is it strange if you had, at least, a broad- 
 er outlook " 
 
 I threw my arms about her neck. I was 
 not naturally demonstrative, and few, if any, 
 were ever demonstrative with her, in spite 
 of her conventionally caressing manner. She 
 kissed me with an eager naturalness, pale 
 of face. "What we lack," she murmured, 
 " God forgives. Do you not think so ?" 
 
 234
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " All my hope for my own poor heart and 
 life is based on that, Aunt Augusta." 
 
 Tugging at my gown my brave husband, 
 for instance, stalwart and merry now, as ever, 
 but an Arundell, inconsequent and childish. 
 
 Disliking " receptions," and accompanying 
 me with sublime sincerity of discountenance 
 to those given in our honor, I remember 
 how a most beautiful girl, who had known 
 him of old, waylaid him amid the throng, 
 with the brightest eyes, with smiles, with 
 dimples, with captivating words and capti- 
 vating laughter. The Arundells have a naive 
 trick of simply turning away from whatever 
 dissatisfies or bores them. I was conversing 
 with a physician of celebrity and deeply in- 
 terested in his words, when I saw my large 
 husband turn away from this siren and saun- 
 ter over to me, and, finding me engaged, I 
 was conscious that he had literally taken 
 hold of a fold of my dress, and thus stood 
 unconscious and unblushing. 
 
 " My dear Booby !" I turned aside to whis- 
 per to him, " go over and talk to that beau- 
 tiful girl ! She is scandalized at your rude- 
 ness !" 
 
 335
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 " I won't, Martha ! You are my wife. 
 I've a right to stand by you and show 3 T ou 
 off!" 
 
 Show me off ! but thus much cause have 
 I ever had for jealousy ! 
 
 But when we take our walks abroad 
 together, then are we a scandal and a men- 
 ace to all good principles of organized char- 
 ity. Nothing of poverty, of misery, of 
 deformity, can Forrester pass but it is our 
 concern. 
 
 "]STo; but, any way, the old woman's shawl 
 is too thin, Martha ; and look at her feet ! 
 and old ! 
 
 " But you can see his leg is off, Martha 
 no sham, about that. And see his hands, all 
 twisted and numb ! 
 
 " Oh, but, Martha a child shivering like 
 that!" 
 
 And I, though sapient in worldly philoso- 
 phy, follow him blindly in evil doing; for we 
 have great wealth, and though we should be 
 kind to a miscreant now and then, I think 
 that were better than to walk stonily and 
 heedlessly along a path of such sorrowful 
 seeming. 
 
 And if there is a hunchback or one lame 
 
 236
 
 THE MORAL IMBECILES 
 
 or otherwise afflicted in our course, then my 
 husband's own free stride almost goes lame 
 itself and his tali head sinks. " It might so 
 easily be us, Martha. It is just the same 
 it is one of us." Such reverence for sorrow 
 is in him. And I remember how he once 
 threw his own strong life into the balance 
 for humanity, and am not dismayed because 
 his creed is a crudely simple one. 
 
 And the children ! Eleanor's and mine. 
 
 " The family name is certainly secure, 
 mum," says Watson, nobly, and without sar- 
 casm ; " indubbitably secure, mum, thank 
 God ! mum safe against all contiguities, 
 mum." 
 
 "It bates Irelan'," says Mary Ann at 
 least, I heard that she said so. " It bates 
 the domesthic incrase in me own sad coun- 
 thry, begor! Thank God they come but 
 wan to a time!" 
 
 " We shall have some brains in the family 
 now," my dear old host had chuckled, and 
 though this prophecy may not have been 
 signally justified in the event, yet they are 
 very beautiful, they are very healthy, and, 
 above all, they are tender " tender-hearted, 
 loving one another." 
 
 237
 
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