When Dr. Howe reached his own door, Helen was waiting for him.
She had been sitting on the porch alone for more than an hour. She had
been very quiet; there was none of that restlessness which excitement
produced in her uncle or cousin; but when she saw Dr. Howe, she rose, and
stood trembling at the head of the steps. The rector flung himself out of
the carriage almost before it stopped.
"I want to see you, Helen," he said. "I have something to say to you.
Come into the library."
She followed him silently, and when he had closed the door he turned and
looked at her. "Now, my child," he began, "you must listen to what I have
to say."
He stood with one hand on his hip, and lifted the forefinger of the other
as he spoke. "I have seen that man. I have been insulted by him. He is as
firm as the devil can make him that you shall not return to him. Now, I
have no right to interfere between husband and wife; you are entirely
free at any moment to follow any course you may wish. At the same time,
I must tell you that I shall respect you more if you do not return to
him. And I want to add one other thing: from this time, his name is
not to be spoken in my presence."
Helen's face had grown slowly whiter. "Oh, you will not understand!" she
said hoarsely; but he interrupted her.
"I am sorry for you, my darling. Oh, what a blow this would have been for
your mother! Poor Mary felt any family trouble so deeply. But you must be
a woman, you must bear it bravely. Yes, your marriage with this fanatic
was a terrible mistake, but we must bear it."
Helen shook her head; she could not speak. She had not known that she had
hoped anything from her uncle's visit, but this final despair almost
over-powered her.
"He thinks you are going to change your mind in a week or two," he went
on. "I'd say he was insane if he were not so cruel! There is too much
method in his madness. There! I cannot speak of it; let us drop the
subject. Your place in my heart is secure; I trust you will never leave
me; but on this one topic we cannot meet." Then with a sudden tenderness,
"Oh, Helen, how hard this is for you! You must try to forgive him,--I
cannot."
"Forgive him?" she said, almost in a whisper, her beautiful eyes dilating
and her lips white. "Oh, John, how I have wronged you, if they think I
have anything to forgive!"
Dr. Howe looked at her, and seemed to swallow a sob; then he opened his
arms, and, drawing her head down on his shoulder, "Poor child," he said,
"poor child!"
But this softening on his part met no response from Helen. "You do not
understand John," she said, "and so--so please do not think about me."
The rebuff sent the rector back to his own resentment. "Remember, I do
not wish to speak of him again, Helen. I have nothing more to say."
Nor would he say more to Lois and Mrs. Dale than that John Ward was
inflexible, and he wished no further discussion upon the subject; he also
forbade any urging that Helen should return to her husband.
"Well, but, brother, what explanation shall we give of her being here?"
asked Mrs. Dale anxiously.
"I'm sure I don't know," he answered impatiently; "anything but the
truth."
"Why, Archibald!" his sister cried, in a shocked tone.
"Oh, well, you know what I mean," he said; "make some sort of an excuse.
Of course, don't say anything which is untrue, but don't tell people our
private affairs."
"Do you think she'll ever go back to him?" Mrs. Dale inquired, looking at
him meditatively over her glasses.
"I hope not!" he said savagely. "Now stop, Adele, stop! I will not
discuss that man!"
"Where did she get her obstinacy?" Mrs. Dale sighed. "I suppose it was
from her father's side. And the whole affair is so ill-bred; one would
know Helen was not all a Howe. I always felt there was something lacking
in Charles Jeffrey, though poor dear Mary was so infatuated. Yes, I
remember, when that sister of his came here to visit us, I did not feel
sure, not at all sure, that the Jeffreys were really well-born people.
She used to sit up straight and uncomfortable in a carriage. I never saw
her lean back, and I always said that that girl's grandmother wasn't used
to riding in carriages! So you see, that's where Helen gets her--her bad
taste."
"Well, don't talk about it," said Dr. Howe, walking restlessly back and
forth.
Mrs. Dale took off her glasses, and rubbed them on the corner of her
black silk apron. "It would never have happened," she said positively,
"if they had had children. I declare, I"--and she stopped, as though
about to suggest that Helen should adopt a child at once. Mrs. Dale
usually blamed John and Helen with equal impartiality, but to-day the
fault seemed to belong entirely to her niece. She was very much puzzled
to know how she was to "make excuses" without telling an untruth. "I'll
just speak to Giff about it," she thought; "it all depends on the way
Deborah Woodhouse hears it, and Giff is really quite sensible, and can
advise me what to tell her."
She saw him that afternoon, but, as she said afterwards in reluctant
confidence to her husband, "Giff hasn't much sense, after all. He thought
it was best to just tell the truth about it."
"Yes?" responded Mr. Dale. "Well, I have often noticed, I am only apt to
admire the good sense of people who agree with me. Gifford doubtless has
not the advantage of feeling sure that his wishes constitute the
standards of right and wrong."
"Nonsense," said Mrs. Dale; "I am sure I don't know what you are talking
about."
"Well, what are you going to do?" asked her husband.
"Oh," Mrs. Dale answered, "Gifford will tell Deborah Woodhouse the
truth (Helen wants him to), but he will do it as carefully and as mildly
as possible. And he will make her promise to keep it to herself. But
you know Deborah Woodhouse; she trickles--there is no other word for
it--everything. She couldn't keep a secret to save her life. But Helen
will have it so. Oh, dear, dear, dear! Heaven save us from willful
women!"
Gifford broke the news to his aunts as wisely as he knew how, but he
did not hide the truth. It was not until the day before he went back
to Lockhaven that he told them; he had put it off as long as he could,
hoping, as Dr. Howe had done, that John Ward would see how useless it was
to carry out his plan. Gifford had found the sisters together. Miss Ruth
was at work in her studio, while Miss Deborah sat in the doorway, in the
shadow of the grape-vines, topping and tailing gooseberries into a big
blue bowl. She had a handful of crushed thyme in her lap, and some
pennyroyal.
"It isn't roses," Miss Deborah remarked, "but it is better than Ruth's
turpentine. And so long as I have got to sit here (for I will sit here
while she's copying the miniature; it is a sacred charge), the pennyroyal
is stronger than the paint."
Miss Ruth, her hands neatly gloved, was mixing her colors a little
wearily; somehow, on her canvas, the face of the little sister lost what
beauty it had ever known.
"I can't get the eyes," Miss Ruth sighed. "I have a great mind to help
you with your preserving, sister."
"My dear Ruth," said Miss Deborah, with much dignity, "do I try to do
your work?"
"But you know you couldn't paint, dear Deborah," said the younger sister
eagerly. The round china-blue eyes of the little sister stared at her
maliciously.
"Well," returned Miss Deborah, running her small hand through the
gooseberries in the bowl, "neither could you make gooseberry jelly, or
even a tart." Then seeing her nephew lounging down the flagged path to
the door of the studio, his straw hat pushed back and his hands in his
pockets, she was suddenly reminded of his packing. "I hope, Giff, dear,"
she cried, "you left plenty of room in your trunk? I have a number of
articles I want you to take."
"There's lots of room, aunt Deborah," he answered. "You know I had to put
in a bag of straw to fill up, when I came on,--I couldn't have things
rattle around."
Miss Deborah laughed. "You need your aunt to look after you, my dear."
"Or a wife," said Miss Ruth, looking up at him over her gleaming
spectacles.
"Nonsense," replied her sister vigorously; "don't put such ideas into his
head, if you please. I must say such jokes are not in good taste, dear
Ruth."
But Miss Ruth was more anxious about her light than Gifford's marriage.
"You are really so big, Giff," she complained mildly, "you darken the
whole studio, standing there in the doorway. Do pray sit down."
Gifford obediently took his seat upon the step, and this brought his face
on a level with Miss Ruth's.
"Oh, that is nice," the little lady said, with gentle enthusiasm. "I
shall have your eyes to look at. I have not been able to get the little
sister's eyes just to suit me."
It made no difference to Miss Ruth that Gifford's eyes were gray and full
of trouble. "Aunt Deborah," he said abruptly, "Helen Ward is not going
back to Lockhaven for the present. Indeed, I do not know when she will
go."
Miss Deborah forgot her gooseberries, in her surprise. "Not going back!"
she cried, while her sister said, "Is Mr. Ward coming here?"
Then Gifford told them the story as briefly as he could, interrupted by
small cries of amazement and dismay. "Well," exclaimed Miss Deborah, her
delicate hands uplifted, "well! I never heard of such a thing! How
shocking, how ill-bred! And she is going to be at the rectory? Ruth, my
dear, you must never go there without me, do you hear? It is not proper.
A wife separated from her husband! Dear me, dear me!"
"How can she leave him?" gasped Miss Ruth. "Married people ought to love
each other so that they could not be parted."
"You have never been in a position to judge how they ought to love each
other," said Miss Deborah sharply. "But this is what comes of youthful
marriages, Gifford. A person should have reached years of maturity before
thinking of marriage. Such things do not happen when people are
reasonably old"--
"But not too old, sister," Miss Ruth interrupted, a little color creeping
into her faded cheek.
Miss Deborah did not notice the amendment; she was anxious to hear the
practical side of the matter, and had questions to ask about Helen's
money, and whether Gifford supposed that that man would do anything for
her; but except their grave disapproval that Helen should differ from her
husband, nothing was said of theology. As they talked, the sisters grew
full of sympathy, which waxed and waned as they thought of Helen's
sorrow, or the impropriety of her action.
"I shall make her some jelly directly," said Miss Deborah, "and put in
plenty of Madeira; the poor thing needs strength."
"This must be the reason," Miss Ruth said,--she had put her brushes down
some time ago,--"that she was in such distress that day at her mother's
grave. Oh, how trying this is for her! Indeed, I am sure death is easier
to bear, when one--loves--than a parting like this."
"Really, dear Ruth," returned her sister, holding her head very straight,
"you would not say that if you knew what it was to lose a--friend, by
death. At least Mr. Ward is alive, even if Helen cannot see him. Ah, dear
me! Well, I wonder how Adele Dale feels now? I should be miserable if we
had such a thing happen in our family. A husband and wife quarrel, and
separate! Shocking!"
"But there is no quarrel, you know," Gifford protested slowly, and for
the third or fourth time.
But Miss Deborah brushed this aside. "They are separated; it is the same
thing. In our family, an unhappy marriage was never known. Even when your
grandfather's sister married a Bellingham,--and of course everybody knows
the Bellingham temper,--and they quarreled, just three weeks to a day
after the wedding, she never thought of such a disgraceful thing as
leaving him. I have heard dear mamma say she never spoke to him again,
except when she had to ask for money; that almost killed her, she was so
proud. But she never would have lowered herself by leaving him. Yes, this
is really most improper in poor dear Helen."
Miss Deborah's feelings vibrated, even while she was making the jelly,
and though it was finally sent, she balanced her kindness by saying to
Mrs. Dale that it did not seem just right for a young thing like Lois to
know of such a painful affair. It gave Miss Deborah so much pleasure to
say this to her old enemy that she made excuses for Helen for a whole day
afterwards.
Late that afternoon Gifford went to say good-by at the rectory. It was
a still, hazy August day, with a hint of autumn in the air; sometimes a
yellowing leaf floated slowly down, or one would notice that the square
tower of St. Michael's could be seen, and that the ivy which covered its
south side was beginning to redden.
Miss Helen was not at home, Jean said. She thought she'd gone up to the
graveyard,--she most always went there.
So Gifford started in search of her. "She ought not to be alone so much,"
he thought, and he wondered, with a man's dullness in such matters, why,
if she and Lois had made up after that one quarrel, they were not the
same tender friends. He met Lois at the rectory gate. She was coming from
the village, and there was a look in her face which gave him a sudden
jealous pain. She held a letter in her hand, and her eyes were running
over with happiness; her lips smiled so that they almost broke into
laughter as she spoke.
"Something seems to make you very happy, Lois?" he said.
"It does," she cried,--"very, very!"
"I am glad," he said, wishing she could find it in her heart to tell him
of her joy.
"Forsythe has come to his senses," he thought. "I suppose he has been
unusually loving, confound him!"
The two young people parted, each a little graver than when they met.
"How he does like to be with Helen!" Lois thought, as she went on, and
Gifford sighed impatiently as he wished Forsythe were more worthy of her.
He found Helen walking wearily home alone. "I wanted to say good-by," he
said, taking her hand in his big warm grasp, "and just tell you that I'll
look after him, you know, in any way I can. I'll see him every day,
Helen." She looked at him gratefully, but did not speak. "I wish,"
Gifford continued, hesitating, "you would not take such long walks by
yourself. Why don't you let Lois come with you?"
"She would not care to," she answered briefly.
"Oh, I think you are wrong there," he remonstrated. "She is lonely, too."
Helen seemed to consider. "You know it has been an unhappy summer for
Lois, and if you shut her out of your sorrow"--
"I did not mean to be selfish," she replied, not seeing how much Gifford
spoke for her own sake, "and I do not shut her out; but so long as she
only sympathizes with me, and not with John too, I cannot let her talk to
me about it."
"That is not quite just, Helen," he said; and afterward, Helen
acknowledged this.
She put her hands into his, when he turned to go home, and searched his
face with sad, eager eyes. "You are going to see him,--oh, Giff, you'll
see John!" she said.
Lois saw them talking, as they came to the rectory door, with a dull
feeling of envy. Gifford never seemed to care to talk much to her. What
was that Miss Deborah had said of his once caring for Helen? She had the
good sense to be ashamed of herself for remembering it, but a thought
which comes even into an unwilling mind cannot be driven away without
leaving its impress; the point of view is subtilely and unconsciously
changed. She was not altogether cordial to Gifford, when he said good-by
to her, which he was quick to feel. "He thinks only of Helen," she said
to herself. "I suppose he has forgotten anything he ever said to me, and
my promise, too. I'm ready enough with promises," she thought, with a
bitter little smile. But even this memory could not keep that happiness
which Gifford had seen from shining in her eyes; and when she went
up-stairs, Helen noticed it.
Perhaps because of Gifford's gentle reproof, she roused herself to say,
as he had done, "You are very happy, Lois?"
"Oh, I am, I am!" she cried impulsively, "Oh, Helen, I have something to
tell you." A very little sympathy in her cousin's voice brought her eager
confidence to her lips. "Oh, Helen, a letter has come!"
"John?" she hardly breathed. For one exquisite moment, which had yet its
background that he had not been strong, Helen misunderstood her.
"No, it's only something about me," Lois answered humbly.
"Tell me," Helen said gently. "If anything makes you happy, you know I'll
be glad."
Lois twisted her fingers together, with a nervous sort of joy. "I've just
heard," she said; "Mrs. Forsythe has just written to me."
"And she is very well?" Helen asked. She had almost forgotten her
cousin's grief and anxiety about Mrs. Forsythe. It all seemed so long ago
and so unimportant.
"No, no," Lois said, "she says she's very sick; but oh, Helen, Dick
Forsythe is engaged to be married!"
Helen looked puzzled. "I don't understand."
"Never mind," Lois cried joyously, "he is, and I am so happy!"