VI

I was feeling a trifle dull and heavy one afternoon, and after several

vain efforts to do good work, decided that a vigorous tramp would set my

blood to flowing, and the wheels of my thinking mill to revolving. So

out I started toward the lake, as usual. There had been a storm off the

Michigan shore, and we were just beginning to get evidence of it, in the

big waves that were tumbling on the beach, I like the lake in this

mood--in any mood, indeed, but especially when it is rough and wild.

After quite a brisk tramp along, or near the beach, I turned back; but

before going home again, I wished to come in closer contact with the

tumultuous waters. At risk of being wet by the spray, which the waves

were tossing on high, much as an excited horse tosses the foam from his

chafing mouth, I climbed around the little bathing house, set on the

shore end of the pier, and then boldly walked out, and took my seat in

the midst of the tumult.

The passion of the lake was magnificent; far out--as far as eye could

stretch--there were oncoming waves; the clan was gathering, and all in

battle array. What an overwhelming charge they made! Surely no one could

resist that onslaught. There was no deliberation, as was usual with a

moderately heavy sea; no calm, inevitable heaving of the water; no

steady rising, ever higher and higher, until it crested, curved, and

fell with a boom. There was nothing of this to-day; no preparation;

everything was ready; the warriors, armed and mounted, were already

making the attack.

For a time I gloried in it all; even the anger of the waves was more

admirable than terrific in my sight. It seemed as though they

interpreted my boldness as defiance, and accepted the challenge. From

near, from far, they were coming, and all upon me, or if that is taking

too much to myself, they were making their attack upon the shore,

meaning to claim it for their own, and incidentally to sweep me, a poor,

insignificant atom, from their sight.

By and by I found myself oppressed with the desolation of the scene. As

the day waned, and the chill that foreshadows night fell upon me, or

rather rose upon me, from the cold waters, I began to feel lonely and

unprotected. The waves looked so hungry, so cruel; they reached out and

up toward me; they encircled with the inevitable, as with a relentless

fate. I began to be afraid of them, and I rose to go back to shore.

Unlike the ocean, the lake is fixed; but that day the increase of the

waves, in height and fury, had the effect of a rising tide. I realized

that it would be very difficult for me to get off the pier alone, and I

was more than relieved to see Randolph Chance, who had come down for a

look at the lake before taking his train to the city. He joined me

without trouble; a man can perform those feats so easily, whereas a

woman is physically hampered.

"You're in rather a bleak place, Miss Leigh," he said.

"Yes, I have just begun to realize that."

"Oh, well, we'll manage to get off safely; but you mustn't mind a little

wetting. Just give yourself to me, and we'll be on shore in a minute."

I gladly did as he bade me; it was luxury just then to have some one as

strong and capable as he take the reins. He led me around the bathing

house, and then lifted me from the pier. As he set me safely on the

shore, his eyes met mine, and his look was a revelation to me. I was,

for a moment, too startled to think, and the strangest sensation I ever

experienced crept over me. If a look could speak, Randolph Chance--but I

did not put it into words--not then, at least, but it was all very

strange to me--most inexplicable.

We walked on quietly, both, I dare say, feeling our silence to be a

trifle awkward. It was for this reason that I decided to shorten the

time of our being together, by stopping at the house of a friend. The

wetting I had received from the waves did not amount to anything for one

so hardy as myself, so I was not deterred on that account.

The house where I stopped was a pleasant resort for me. Both Mr. and

Mrs. Bachelor were interesting people. I had known Mr. Bachelor for

fifteen years. He had once been one of our young men, as the saying is,

young merely in the sense of being single, not in actual years, for at

the time I met him he was nearer the forty than the thirty line. Nature

seemed to have marked him for single--cussedness, I had almost said,

from the first. He was no favorite with any set, being grumpy, fussy,

and peculiar. But five years after he rose into sight above my horizon

he married a most sensible, lovely woman; not a child, by the way, for

she was almost forty; and in less than no time, it seemed to us, had a

family of four children about him, one following the other so closely

that the predecessor was all but overtaken. At first we said among

ourselves that he must have borrowed these infants, and stuck them up in

his home for appearance's sake, in some such manner as the proprietor of

a summer hotel once stuck a number of trees in his grounds, to make a

sandy, barren spot seem fertile and enticing. But by and by we became

convinced that these little human shoots were his very own, not alone

because they evinced some disagreeable crotchets similar to his, but

also because of the love he bore them, and the change they wrought in

his character and life. Even around court the man was regarded

differently; warmth and esteem being extended him now in place of the

dislike he had formerly aroused. He had never ceased to be a study to

me, and a certain flavor of romance hung about his home--a delightful

flavor, that made it an attractive visiting spot. So it was with

considerable pleasure that I called upon this particular day.

I was shown into the parlor--a comfortable room, back of which was a most

home-like apartment, called the study. As I sat there, awaiting Mrs.

Bachelor's coming, I noticed that her husband's desk, which stood in the

center of the study, was strewn with dolls, and paraphernalia closely

related thereto. My observations were interrupted by the entrance of

Mrs. Bachelor, who welcomed me in her cordial, cheery way. A minute

later Mr. Bachelor came in, and gave me what was for him, a most

friendly greeting. He excused himself in a little while, and went into

his study. He had, so his wife explained, been ill with a cold for a

day or two, and had been working at home the while, to make ready for

the approaching trial of an important case.

Upon his entering the study, a scene occurred which I shall endeavor to

give you as near to the life as possible. As a matter of course he

steered directly for his desk, and his eye immediately fell upon a

quantity of grandchildren, variously disposed thereon.

"Well, I declare!" he exclaimed; "if this isn't outrageous!" and he

gathered up the whole crop--there were fully a dozen dolls, in all stages

of development, and much doll furniture, and toggery of all kinds.

After dumping the obnoxious elements on to a divan, he returned to his

desk, and with much grumbling sorted out his law-papers, and went to

work. But soon after he had cleared his visage, as it were, his small

daughter--a pretty child, four years old--ran into the room hugging two

puggy puppies, and two kittens of tender age. It did not take her long

to grasp the situation. Running to the divan, she uttered a series of

cries, indicative both of alarm and displeasure.

"What--what--what is the matter?" said Mr. Bachelor, who had probably

forgotten his offense by this time.

"You naughty papa!" cried the child; "what did you disturve my dollies

for?"

"What did you put them on my desk for?" queried her father indignantly;

"the idea! I haven't a spot on earth I can call my own."

"You've just mussed their best frocks all up," continued the child, who,

without paying the slightest attention to her father's vigorous protest,

was rapidly replacing her family, puppies, kittens, and all, on the

desk.

"I tell you I can't have them here! I have important papers around, and

I must be allowed to work in peace. Take them off!"

He started to sweep them on to the floor, but the little girl uttered a

shriek.

"Papa, papa, don't," she screamed. Then, as he desisted, she added,

"They've just _dot_ to be here--it's the bestest, highest table, and the

little doggies and kitties can't jump off, and I'm doing to have a

tea-party with Mamie Williams. You must put your nasty old papers

somewhere else."

"This is an outrage!" he exclaimed, standing up and declaiming as if he

were in court; "this is imposition run riot; it has reached a climax,

and I'll endure it no longer. Evidently I have no rights that even the

smallest and youngest in the household is bound to respect. It is a

notorious fact that I am ruled with a rod of iron, and that even this

baby of the family flouts me. I say I will stand it no longer. I have

been held with a tight rein, and a curb bit, but I will turn at last."

In his excitement, his metaphors became confused, horses and worms

being all mixed up in a heap.

"Take the desk, take the whole of it, and to-morrow I shall leave the

house! I shall go back to my bachelor quarters, where I once lived in

peace."

The child regarded him seriously, from out her great, brown eyes.

"Don't go away, papa," she said at last, "you may have a little of your

desk, if you won't take too much. I didn't mean to be cross at you," she

added, with a pathetic quiver of her lip.

"Well, well!" exclaimed the father hastily, "there, there!" and he laid

his hand softly on her curly little head, "I guess we'll get on somehow;

if I can have a part of the desk, that'll answer. It's big enough for

two, I guess."

And he began moving his papers around.

"Not there, papa," said the little tyrant; "no, that's the sunny side,

and little bowwow must be there, 'cause he's dot the badest cold, and

the kitties haven't dot but little weeny eyes yet, and they _must_ be

where it's most lightest."

"Well, well, well, where _may_ I sit? I must get to work."

"You may sit right there, and you mustn't fiddet, 'cause you'll upset

dolly's crib, if you do."

Soon he was safely bestowed, off on one side, and as he obediently kept

to his limitations, all proceeded happily.

During this domestic scrimmage, Mrs. Bachelor went on chatting in her

lively, pleasant fashion with me, never betraying, in any way, that she

overheard the scene in the study. I was so occupied with it, that I

could pay no heed to her remarks; but she was a wise woman, and knew

that her husband was being cooked to a delicious turn, and that any

interference on her part, would spoil the dish. I have since learned

that occasionally, when she sees that the fire is really too hot for

him, she comes to his rescue.

"If he sputters and fizzes, don't be anxious; some husbands do this

till they are quite done."

Evidently Mrs. Bachelor has studied her cook-book.