THE BRIDE
ONLY one memory in the ten days that followed before her school began
ever stood out clearly and distinctly with Kate. That was the morning
of the day after she married George Holt. She saw Nancy Ellen and
Robert at the gate so she went out to speak with them. Nancy Ellen was
driving, she held the lines and the whip in her hands. Kate in dull
apathy wondered why they seemed so deeply agitated. Both of them
stared at her as if she might be a maniac.
"Is this thing in the morning paper true?" cried Nancy Ellen in a high,
shrill voice that made Kate start in wonder. She did not take the
trouble to evade by asking "what thing?" she merely made assent with
her head.
"You are married to that--that--" Nancy Ellen choked until she could
not say what.
"It's TIME to stop, since I am married to him," said Kate, gravely.
"You rushed in and married him without giving Robert time to find out
and tell you what everybody knows about him?" demanded Nancy Ellen.
"I married him for what I knew about him myself," said Kate. "We shall
do very well."
"Do well!" cried Nancy. "Do well! You'll be hungry and in rags the
rest of your life!"
"Don't, Nancy Ellen, don't!" plead Robert. "This is Kate's affair,
wait until you hear what she has to say before you go further."
"I don't care what she has to say!" cried Nancy Ellen. "I'm saying my
say right now. This is a disgrace to the whole Bates family. We may
not be much, but there isn't a lazy, gambling, drunken loafer among us,
and there won't be so far as I'm concerned."
She glared at Kate who gazed at her in wonder.
"You really married this lout?" she demanded.
"I told you I was married," said Kate, patiently, for she saw that
Nancy Ellen was irresponsible with anger.
"You're going to live with him, you're going to stay in Walden to
live?" she cried.
"That is my plan at present," said Kate.
"Well, see that YOU STAY THERE," said Nancy Ellen. "You can't bring
that--that creature to my house, and if you're going to be his wife,
you needn't come yourself. That's all I've got to say to you, you
shameless, crazy--"
"Nancy Ellen, you shall not!" cried Robert Gray, deftly slipping the
lines from her fingers, and starting the horse full speed. Kate saw
Nancy Ellen's head fall forward, and her hands lifted to cover her
face. She heard the deep, tearing sob that shook her, and then they
were gone. She did not know what to do, so she stood still in the hot
sunshine, trying to think; but her brain refused to act at her will.
When the heat became oppressive, she turned back to the shade of a
tree, sat down, and leaned against it. There she got two things clear
after a time. She had married George Holt, there was nothing to do but
make the best of it. But Nancy Ellen had said that if she lived with
him she should not come to her home. Very well. She had to live with
him, since she had consented to marry him, so she was cut off from
Robert and Nancy Ellen. She was now a prodigal, indeed. And those
things Nancy Ellen had said--she was wild with anger. She had been
misinformed. Those things could not be true.
"Shouldn't you be in here helping Aunt Ollie?" asked George's voice
from the front step where he seated himself with his pipe.
"Yes, in a minute," said Kate, rising. "Did you see who came?"
"No. I was out doing the morning work. Who was it?" he asked.
"Nancy Ellen and Robert," she answered.
He laughed hilariously: "Brought them in a hurry, didn't we? Why
didn't they come in?"
"They came to tell me," said Kate, slowly, "that if I had married you
yesterday, as I did, that they felt so disgraced that I wasn't to come
to their home again."
"'Disgraced?'" he cried, his colour rising. "Well, what's the matter
with me?"
"Not the things they said, I fervently hope."
"Well, they have some assurance to come out here and talk about me, and
you've got as much to listen, and then come and tell me about it," he
cried.
"It was over in a minute," said Kate. "I'd no idea what they were
going to say. They said it, and went. Oh, I can't spare Nancy Ellen,
she's all I had!"
Kate sank down on the step and covered her face. George took one long
look at her, arose, and walked out of hearing. He went into the garden
and watched from behind a honeysuckle bush until he saw her finally
lift her head and wipe her eyes; then he sauntered back, and sat down
on the step beside her.
"That's right," he said. "Cry it out, and get it over. It was pretty
mean of them to come out here and insult you, and tell any lie they
could think up, and then drive away and leave you; but don't mind,
they'll soon get over it. Nobody ever keeps up a fuss over a wedding
long."
"Nancy Ellen never told a lie in her life," said Kate. "She has too
much self-respect. What she said she THOUGHT was true. My only chance
is that somebody has told her a lie. You know best if they did."
"Of course they did," he broke in, glibly. "Haven't you lived in the
same house with me long enough to know me better than any one else
does?"
"You can live in the same house with people and know less about them
than any one else, for that matter," said Kate, "but that's neither
here nor there. We're in this together, we got to get on the job and
pull, and make a success out of it that will make all of them proud to
be our friends. That's the only thing left for me. As I know the
Bates, once they make up their minds, they never change. With Nancy
Ellen and Father both down on me, I'm a prodigal for sure."
"What?" he cried, loudly. "What? Is your father in this, too? Did he
send you word you couldn't come home, either? This is a hell of a
mess! Speak up!"
Kate closed her lips, looked at him with deep scorn, and walked around
the corner of the house. For a second he looked after her
threateningly, then he sprang to his feet, and ran to her, catching her
in his arms.
"Forgive me, dearest," he cried. "That took the wind out of my sails
until I was a brute. You'd no business to SAY a thing like that. Of
course we can't have the old Land King down on us. We've got to have
our share of that land and money to buy us a fine home in Hartley, and
fix me up the kind of an office I should have. We'll borrow a rig and
drive over to-morrow and fix things solid with the old folks. You bet
I'm a star-spangled old persuader, look what I did with you--"
"You stop!" cried Kate, breaking from his hold. "You will drive me
crazy! You're talking as if you married me expecting land and money
from it. I haven't been home in a year, and my father would
deliberately kill me if I went within his reach."
"Well, score one for little old scratchin', pickin', Mammy!" he cried.
"She SAID you had a secret!"
Kate stood very still, looking at him so intently that a sense of shame
must have stirred in his breast.
"Look here, Kate," he said, roughly. "Mother did say you had a secret,
and she hinted at Christmas that the reason you didn't go home was
because your folks were at outs with you, and you can ask her if I
didn't tell her to shut up and leave you alone, that I was in love with
you, and I'd marry you and we'd get along all right, even if you were
barred from home, and didn't get a penny. I just dare you to ask her."
"It's no matter," said Kate, wearily. "I'd rather take your word."
"All right, you take it, for that's the truth," he said. "But what was
the rumpus? How did you come to have a racket with your old man?"
"Over my wanting to teach," said Kate. Then she explained in detail.
"Pother! Don't you fret about that!" said George. "I'm taking care of
you now, and I'll see that you soon get home and to Grays', too; that's
all buncombe. As for your share of your father's estate, you watch me
get it! You are his child, and there is law!"
"There's law that allows him to deed his land to his sons before he
dies, and that is exactly what he has done," said Kate.
"The Devil, you say!" shouted George Holt, stepping back to stare at
her. "You tell that at the Insane Asylum or the Feeble Minded Home!
I've seen the records! I know to the acre how much land stands in your
father's name. Don't try to work that on me, my lady."
"I am not trying to work anything on you," said Kate, dully, wondering
to herself why she listened, why she went on with it. "I'm merely
telling you. In Father's big chest at the head of his bed at home lies
a deed for two hundred acres of land for each of his seven sons, all
signed and ready to deliver. He keeps the land in his name on record
to bring him distinction and feed his vanity. He makes the boys pay
the taxes, and ko-tow, and help with his work; he keeps them under
control; but the land is theirs; none of the girls get a penny's worth
of it!"
George Holt cleared his face with an effort.
"Well, we are no worse off than the rest of them, then," he said,
trying to speak naturally and cheerfully. "But don't you ever believe
it! Little old Georgie will sleep with this in his night cap awhile,
and it's a problem he will solve if he works himself to death on it."
"But that is Father's affair," said Kate. "You had best turn your
efforts, and lie awake nights thinking how to make enough money to buy
some land for us, yourself."
"Certainly! Certainly! I see myself doing it!" laughed George Holt.
"And now, knowing how you feel, and feeling none to good myself, we are
going to take a few days off and go upstream, fishing. I'll take a
pack of comforts to sleep on, and the tackle and some food, and we will
forget the whole bunch and go have a good time. There's a place, not
so far away, where I have camped beside a spring since I was a little
shaver, and it's quiet and cool. Go get what you can't possibly exist
without, nothing more."
"But we must dig the potatoes," protested Kate.
"Let them wait until we get back; it's a trifle early, anyway," he
said. "Stop objecting and get ready! I'll tell Aunt Ollie. We're
chums. Whatever I do is always all right with her. Come on! This is
our wedding trip. Not much like the one you had planned, no doubt, but
one of some kind."
So they slipped beneath the tangle of vines and bushes, and, following
the stream of the ravine, they walked until mid-afternoon, when they
reached a spot that was very lovely, a clear, clean spring, grassy
bank, a sheltered cave-in floored with clean sand, warm and golden.
From the depths of the cave George brought an old frying pan and coffee
pot. He spread a comfort on the sand of the cave for a bed, produced
coffee, steak, bread, butter, and fruit from his load, and told Kate to
make herself comfortable while he got dinner. They each tried to make
allowances for, and to be as decent as possible with, the other, with
the result that before they knew it, they were having a good time; at
least, they were keeping the irritating things they thought to
themselves, and saying only the pleasant ones.
After a week, which George enjoyed to the fullest extent, while Kate
made the best of everything, they put away the coffee pot and frying
pan, folded the comforts, and went back to Aunt Ollie's for dinner;
then to Walden in the afternoon. Because Mrs. Holt knew they would be
there that day she had the house clean and the best supper she could
prepare ready for them. She was in a quandary as to how to begin with
Kate. She heartily hated her. She had been sure the girl had a
secret, now she knew it; for if she did not attend the wedding of her
sister, if she had not been at home all summer, if her father and
mother never mentioned her name or made any answer to any one who did,
there was a reason, and a good reason. Of course a man as rich as Adam
Bates could do no wrong; whatever the trouble was, Kate was at fault,
she had done some terrible thing.
"Hidin' in the bushes!" spat Mrs. Holt. "Hidin' in the bushes! Marry a
man who didn't know he was goin' to be married an hour before,
unbeknownst to her folks, an' wouldn't even come in the house, an' have
a few of the neighbours in. Nice doin's for the school-ma'am! Nice
prospect for George."
Mrs. Holt hissed like a copperhead, which was a harmless little
creature compared with her, as she scraped, and slashed, and
dismembered the chicken she was preparing to fry. She had not been
able, even by running into each store in the village, and the post
office, to find one person who would say a word against Kate. The girl
had laid her foundations too well. The one thing people could and did
say was: "How could she marry George Holt?" The worst of them could
not very well say it to his mother. They said it frequently to each
other and then supplied the true answers. "Look how he spruced up after
she came!" "Look how he worked!" "Look how he ran after and waited on
her!" "Look how nice he has been all summer!" Plenty was being said
in Walden, but not one word of it was for the itching ears of Mrs.
Holt. They had told her how splendid Kate was, how they loved her, how
glad they were that she was to have the school again, how fortunate her
son was, how proud she should be, until she was almost bursting with
repressed venom.
She met them at the gate, after their week's camping. They were
feeling in splendid health, the best spirits possible in the
circumstances, but appearing dirty and disreputable. They were both
laughing as they approached the gate.
"Purty lookin' bride you be!" Mrs. Holt spat at Kate.
"Yes, aren't I?" laughed Kate. "But you just give me a tub of hot
soapsuds and an hour, and you won't know me. How are you? Things look
as if you were expecting us."
"Hump!" said Mrs. Holt.
Kate laughed and went into the house. George stepped in front of his
mother.
"Now you look here," he said. "I know every nasty thing your mind has
conjured up that you'd LIKE to say, and have other folks say, about
Kate. And I know as well as if you were honest enough to tell me, that
you haven't been able to root out one living soul who would say a
single word against her. Swallow your secret! Swallow your suspicions!
Swallow your venom, and forget all of them. Kate is as fine a woman as
God ever made, and anybody who has common sense knows it. She can just
MAKE me, if she wants to, and she will; she's coming on fine, much
faster and better than I hoped for. Now you drop this! Stop it! Do
you hear?"
He passed her and hurried up the walk. In an hour, both George and
Kate had bathed and dressed in their very best. Kate put on her
prettiest white dress and George his graduation suit. Then together
they walked to the post office for their mail, which George had ordered
held, before they left. Carrying the bundle, they entered several
stores on trifling errands, and then went home. They stopped and spoke
to everyone. Kate kissed all her little pupils she met, and told them
to come to see her, and to be ready to help clean the schoolhouse in
the morning. Word flew over town swiftly. The Teacher was back,
wearing the loveliest dress, and nicer than ever, and she had invited
folks to come to see her.
Kate and George had scarcely finished their supper, when the first pair
of shy little girls came for their kisses and to bring "Teacher" a
bunch of flowers and a pretty pocket handkerchief from each. They came
in flocks, each with flowers, most with a towel or some small
remembrance; then the elders began to come, merchants with comforts,
blankets, and towels, hardware men with frying pans, flat irons, and
tinware. By ten o'clock almost everyone in Walden had carried Kate
some small gift, wished her joy all the more earnestly, because they
felt the chances of her ever having it were so small, and had gone
their way, leaving her feeling better than she had thought possible.
She slipped into her room alone and read two letters, one a few
typewritten lines from John Jardine, saying he had been at Hartley,
also at Walden, and having found her married and gone, there was
nothing for him to do but wish that the man she married had it in his
heart to guard her life and happiness as he would have done. He would
never cease to love her, and if at any time in her life there was
anything he could do for her, would she please let him know. Kate
dropped the letter on her dresser, with a purpose, and let it lie
there. The other was from Robert. He said he was very sorry, but he
could do nothing with Nancy Ellen at present. He hoped she would
change later. If there was ever anything he could do, to let him know.
Kate locked that letter in her trunk. She wondered as she did so why
both of them seemed to think she would need them in the future. She
felt perfectly able to take care of herself.
Monday morning George carried Kate's books to school for her, saw that
she was started on her work in good shape, then went home, put on his
old clothes, and began the fall work at Aunt Ollie's. Kate, wearing her
prettiest blue dress, forgot even the dull ache in her heart, as she
threw herself into the business of educating those young people. She
worked as she never had before. She seemed to have developed fresh
patience, new perception, keener penetration; she made the dullest of
them see her points, and interested the most inattentive. She went
home to dinner feeling better. She decided to keep on teaching a few
years until George was well started in his practice; if he ever got
started. He was very slow in action it seemed to her, compared with
his enthusiasm when he talked.