Lois Howe's mind was in a strange tumult that night; the subtile thrill,
which is neither pain nor pride, and yet seems both, with which a young
woman hears for the first time that she is loved, stung through all her
consciousness of grief at having wounded her old friend. Tears came into
her eyes once, and yet she did not know why; perhaps it was anger. How
could Gifford have been so foolish as to talk that way, and make her have
to say what she did? The old friendship was what she wanted. And then
more tears came; and for the first time in her simple girlish life, Lois
could not understand her own heart.
It was because Helen had gone away, she said to herself, and she was
tired; and that gave her the right to cry with all her heart, which was
a great relief.
But Lois was young. The next morning, when she pushed back her windows,
she felt joy bubble up in her soul as unrestrainedly as though she had
never said a word to Gifford which could make his heart ache. The
resistance and spring of the climbing roses made her lean out to fasten
her lattices back, and a shower of dew sprinkled her hair and bosom; and
at the sudden clear song of the robin under the eaves, she stood
breathless a moment to listen, with that simple gladness of living which
is perhaps a supreme unselfishness in its entire unconsciousness of
individual joy.
But like the rest of the world, Lois found that such moments do not last;
the remembrance of the night before forced itself upon her, and she
turned to go down-stairs, with a troubled face.
Of course there is plenty to do the day after a wedding, and Lois was
glad to have the occupation; it was a relief to be busy.
Ashurst ladies always washed the breakfast things themselves; no length
of service made it seem proper to trust the old blue china and the
delicate glass to the servants. So Lois wiped her cups and saucers, and
then, standing on a chair in the china-closet, put the dessert plates
with the fine gilt pattern borders, which had been used yesterday, on the
very back of the top shelf, in such a quick, decided way Jean trembled
for their safety.
The rectory dining-room was low-studded, and lighted by one wide latticed
window, which had a cushioned seat, with a full valance of flowered
chintz; the dimity curtains were always pushed back, for Dr. Howe was
fond of sunshine. In the open fireplace, between the brasses, stood a
blue jug filled with white lilacs, and the big punch-bowl on the
sideboard was crowded with roses. There were antlers over the doors, and
the pictures on the walls were of game and fish, and on the floor was a
bear-skin, which was one of the rector's trophies.
Lois stood by a side-table which held a great pan of hot water; she had
a long-handled mop in her hand and a soft towel over her arm, and she
washed and wiped some wine-glasses with slender twisted stems and
sparkling bowls, and then put them on their shelves in the corner closet,
where they gleamed and glittered in the sunshine, pouring through the
open window.
She did not work as fast now, for things were nearly in order, and she
dreaded having nothing to do; her aunt, Mrs. Dale, would have said she
was dawdling, but Miss Deborah Woodhouse, who had come over to the
rectory early to see if she could be of use, said haste was not genteel,
and it was a pleasure to see a young person who was deliberate in her
movements.
"But you must let me help you, my dear," she added, taking off her
gloves, and pulling the fingers straight and smooth.
"Indeed, Miss Deborah, there is nothing more to do," Lois answered,
smiling, as she closed the brass-hinged doors of the corner closet.
"Dear me!" said the other absently, "I do trust dear Gifford's
china-closet will be kept in proper order. Your shelves do credit to
Jean's housekeeping; indeed they do! And I hope he'll have a maid who
knows how to put the lavender among the linen; there's always a right and
a wrong way. I have written out directions for her, of course, but if
there was time I would write and ask Helen to see to it."
"Why, Giff says he won't get off for a fortnight," Lois said, with
sudden surprise.
"I thought so," responded Miss Deborah, shaking her head, so that the
little gray curls just above her ears trembled,--"I thought so, too; but
last night he said he was going at once. At least," stopping to correct
herself, "dear Ruth and I think it best for him to go. I have everything
ready for him, so no doubt he'll get off to-morrow."
Lois was silent.
"The fact is," said Miss Deborah, lowering her voice, "Gifford does not
seem perfectly happy. Of course you wouldn't be apt to observe it; but
those things don't escape my eyes. He's been depressed for some time."
"I hadn't noticed it," said Lois faintly.
"Oh, no, certainly not," answered Miss Deborah; "it would be scarcely
proper that you should, considering the reason: but it's no surprise to
me. I always thought that when they grew old enough, dear Giff and Helen
would care for one another; and so I don't wonder that he has been
feeling some disappointment since he came home, though I had written him
she was engaged--Much too young she was, too, in my judgment."
Lois's astonishment was so great that she dropped her mop, and Miss
Deborah looked at her reprovingly over her glasses. "Oh, yes, there's no
doubt Gifford felt it," she said, "but he'll get over it. Those things do
not last with men. You know I wouldn't speak of this to any one but you,
but he's just like a brother to you."
"Yes, exactly like a brother," Lois said hurriedly, "and I think I should
have known it if it had been--had been that way."
"No," said Miss Deborah, putting down the last glass, "I think not. I
only guessed it myself last night; it is all over now; those things never
last. And very likely he'll meet some nice girl in Lockhaven who will
make him happy; indeed, I shouldn't wonder if we heard he was taken with
somebody at once; hearts are often caught on the rebound! I don't know,"
Miss Deborah added candidly, "how lasting an attachment formed on a
previous disappointment might be; and dear me! he does feel her marriage
very much."
Here Sally came in to take away the pan and mop, and Lois looked about to
see if there was anything more to do. She was very anxious to bring Miss
Deborah's conversation to an end, and grateful that Jean should come and
ask her to take some silver, borrowed for yesterday's festivities, back
to Mrs. Dale.
"It's these spoons," the old woman explained to Miss Deborah. "Mrs. Dale,
she lent us a dozen. I've counted 'em all myself; I wouldn't trust 'em to
that Sally. If there was a hair's difference, Mrs. Dale would know it
'fore she set eyes on them, let alone havin' one of our spoons 'stead of
hers."
Miss Deborah nodded her head. "Very likely, Jean," she said; "I've not a
doubt of it. I'm going now, and Miss Lois will walk along with me. Yes,
Mrs. Dale would see if anything was wrong, you can depend upon it."
They set out together, Lois listening absently to Miss Deborah's chatter
about the wedding, and vaguely glad when, at the gate of her aunt's
house, she could leave her, with a pretty bow, which was half a courtesy.
There was a depressing stateliness about Dale house, which was felt as
soon as the stone gateway, with its frowning sphinxes, was passed. The
long shutters on either side of the front door were always solemnly
bowed, for Mrs. Dale did not approve of faded carpets, and the roof of
the veranda, supported by great white pillars, darkened the second-story
windows. There was no tangle of vines about its blank walls of
cream-colored brick with white trimmings, nor even trees to soften the
stare with which it surveyed the dusty highway; and the formal precision
of the place was unrelieved by flowers, except for a stiff design in
foliage plants on the perfectly kept lawn.
On the eastern side of the house, about the deep windows of Mr. Dale's
sanctum, ivy had been permitted to grow, and there were a few larch and
beech trees, and a hedge to hide the stables; but these were special
concessions to Mr. Dale.
"I do dislike," said Mrs. Dale,--"I do dislike untidy gardens; flowers,
and vines, and trees, all crowded together, and weeds too, if the truth's
told. I never could understand how the Woodhouse girls could endure that
forlorn old place of theirs. But then, a woman never does make a really
good manager unless she's married."
Lois found her aunt in the long parlor, playing Patience. She was sitting
in a straight-backed chair,--for Mrs. Dale scorned the weakness of a
rocking-chair,--before a spindle-legged table, covered with green baize
and with a cherry-wood rim inlaid with mother-of-pearl and ivory. On it
were thirteen groups of cards, arranged with geometrical exactness at
intervals of half an inch.
"Well, Lois," she said, as her niece entered. "Oh, you have brought the
spoons back?" But she interrupted herself, her eyebrows knitted and her
lower lip thrust out, to lift a card slowly, and decide if she should
move it. Then she glanced at the girl over her glasses. "I'm just waiting
here because I must go into the kitchen soon, and look at my cake. That
Betty of mine must needs go and see her sick mother to-day, and I have to
look after things. But I cannot be idle. I declare, there is something
malicious in the way in which the relatives of servants fall ill!"
She stopped here long enough to count the spoons, and then began her game
again. She was able, however, to talk while she played, and pointed out
various things which did not "go quite right" at the wedding.
The parlor at Dale house was as exact and dreary as the garden. The whole
room suggested to Lois, watching her aunt play solitaire, and the motes
dancing in the narrow streaks of sunshine which fell between the bowed
shutters, and across the drab carpet to the white wainscoting on the
other side, the pictures in the Harry and Lucy books, or the parlor
where, on its high mantel shelf, Rosamond kept her purple jar.
She wondered vaguely, as Mrs. Dale moved her cards carefully about,
whether her aunt had ever been "bothered" about anything. Helen's
marriage seemed only an incident to Mrs. Dale; the wedding and the
weather, the dresses and the presents, which had been a breathless
interest to Lois, were apparently of no more importance to the older
woman than the building up a suit.
"Well," Mrs. Dale said, when she had exhausted the subject of the
wedding, "I'm sure I hope it will turn out well, but I really can't say.
Ever since I've seen this Mr. Ward I've somehow felt that it was an
experiment. In the first place, he's a man of weak will,--I'm sure of
that, because he seems perfectly ready to give way to Helen in
everything; and that isn't as it ought to be,--the man should rule! And
then, besides that, whoever heard of his people? Came from the South
somewhere, I believe, but he couldn't tell me the first name of his
great-grandfather. I doubt if he ever had any, between ourselves. Still,
I hope for the best. And I'm sure I trust," she added, with an uneasy
recollection of the cake in the oven, "she won't have trouble with
servants. I declare, the happiness of married life is in the hands of
your cook. If Betty had not gone off this morning, I should have come
over to the rectory to help you. There's so much to do after a wedding."
"Oh, you're very kind," said Lois, "but I think Jean and I can see to
things. Miss Deborah came to help me, but we were really quite in order."
"Miss Deborah!" said Mrs. Dale. "Well, I'm glad if she could be of any
use; she really is so un-practical. But it's lucky you have Jean. Just
wait till you get a house of your own, young lady, and then you'll
understand what the troubles of housekeeping are."
"I'm in no haste for a house of my own," said the girl, smiling.
"That's because you're a foolish child," returned Mrs. Dale promptly.
"You'd be a great deal happier if you were married and settled. Though I
must say there is very little chance of it, unless you go away to make a
visit, as Helen did. There is only one young man in Ashurst; and now he's
going. But for that matter, Gifford Woodhouse and you are just like
brother and sister. Yes, Lois, I must say, I wish I could see you in a
home of your own. No woman is really happy unless she's married."
"I think I'm the best judge of that," Lois answered. "No girl could be
happier than I am; to hear father call me his--Tyrant? I don't want
anything better than that."
"Nonsense!" said Mrs. Dale decidedly. "If you had a husband to call you
_his_ Tyrant, it would be a thousand times better. I declare, I always
think, when we pray for 'all who are destitute and oppressed,' it means
the old maids. I'm sure the 'fatherless children and widows' are thought
of, and why not the poor, forlorn, unmarried women? Indeed, I think
Archibald is almost selfish to keep you at home as he does. My girls
would never have been settled if I had let them stay in Ashurst. I've
a great mind to tell your father he isn't doing his duty. You ought to
have a winter in town."
"Indeed, I hope you won't tell him anything of the sort!" cried Lois. "I
wouldn't leave Ashurst for the world, and I'm perfectly happy, I assure
you!"
"Don't be so silly," said Mrs. Dale calmly, "or think that no one loves
your father but yourself. He was my brother for thirty-four years before
he was your father. I only spoke for your good, and his too, for of
course he would be happier if you were."
She stopped here to gather her cards up, and deal them out again in
little piles, and also to reprove Lois, who had made an impatient gesture
at her words.
"These little restless ways you have are very unpleasant," she said; "my
girls never did such things. I don't know where you get your unlady-like
habits; not from your father, I'm sure. I suppose it's because you don't
go out at all; you never see anybody. There, that reminds me. I have had
a letter from Arabella Forsythe. I don't know whether you remember the
Forsythes; they used to visit here; let me see, fifteen years ago was the
last time, I think. Well, they are going to take the empty house near us
for the summer. She was a Robinson; not really Ashurst people, you know,
not born here, but quite respectable. Her father was a button
manufacturer, and he left her a great deal of money. She married a person
called Forsythe, who has since died. She has one boy, about your age,
who'll be immensely rich one of these days; he is not married. Heaven
knows when Ashurst will see an eligible young man again," she added; and
then, absently, "Eight on a nine, and there's a two-spot for my clubs!"
"I wonder if I remember Mrs. Forsythe?" Lois said, wrinkling her pretty
forehead in a puzzled way. "Wasn't she a tall, thin lady, with a pleasant
face?"
"Yes," answered Mrs. Dale, nodding her sleek, head, "yes, _rather_
pleasant, but melancholy. And no wonder, talking about her aches and
pains all the time! But that's where the button manufacturer showed. She
was devoted to that boy of hers, and a very nice child he was, too." She
looked sharply at her niece as she spoke.
"I remember him," Lois said. "I saw Gifford shake him once; 'he was too
little to lick,' he said."
"I'm afraid Gifford is very rough and unmannerly sometimes," Mrs. Dale
said. "But then, those Woodhouse girls couldn't be expected to know how
to bring up a big boy."
"I don't think Giff is unmannerly," cried Lois.
"Well, not exactly," Mrs. Dale admitted; "but of course he isn't like Mr.
Forsythe. Gifford hasn't had the opportunities, or the money, you know."
"I don't think money is of much importance," said Lois. "I don't think
money has anything to do with manners."
"Oh, you don't know anything about it!" cried Mrs. Dale. "There! you made
me make a mistake, and lose my game. Pray do not be silly, Lois, and talk
in that emphatic way; have a little more repose. I mean this young man
is--he is very different from anybody you have ever seen in Ashurst. But
there is no use trying to tell you anything; you always keep your own
opinion. You are exactly like a bag of feathers. You punch it and think
you've made an impression, and it comes out just where it went in."
Lois laughed, and rose to go.
"Tell your father what I said about a winter in town," Mrs. Dale called
after her; and then, gathering her cards up, and rapping them on the
table to get the edges straight, she said to herself, "But perhaps it
won't be necessary to have a winter in town!" And there was a grim sort
of smile on her face when, a moment later, Mr. Dale, in a hesitating way,
pushed the door open, and entered.
"I thought I heard Lois's voice, my dear," he said, with a deprecating
expression.
He wore his flowered cashmere dressing-gown, tied about the waist with a
heavy silk cord and tassel, and a soft red silk handkerchief was spread
over his white hair to protect his head from possible draughts in the
long hall. Just now one finger was between the pages of "A Sentimental
Journey."
"She was here," said Mrs. Dale, still smiling. "I was telling her the
Forsythes were coming. It is an excellent thing; nothing could be
better."
"What do you mean?" asked Mr. Dale.
"Mean?" cried his wife. "What should I be apt to mean? You have no sense
about such things, Henry."
"Oh," said her husband meekly, "you want them to fall in love?"
"Well, really," she answered, leaning back in her chair, and tapping her
foot impatiently, "I do not see how my husband can be so silly. One would
think I was a matchmaker, and no one detests anything of that sort as I
do,--no one! Fall in love, indeed! I think the expression is positively
indelicate, Henry. Of course, if Lois should be well married, I should be
grateful; and if it should be Mr. Forsythe, I should only feel I had done
my duty in urging Arabella to take a house in Ashurst."
"Oh, you urged her?"
"I wrote her Ashurst was very pleasant," Mrs. Dale acknowledged, "and it
was considered healthy. (I understand Arabella!) I knew her son was going
abroad later in the summer, but I thought, if he once got here"--
"Ah," responded Mr. Dale.