Miss Sally peered sharply at Willard Stanley, first through her
gold-rimmed glasses and then over them. Willard continued to look very
innocent. Joyce got up abruptly and went out of the room.
"So you have bought that queer little house with the absurd name?"
said Miss Sally.
"You surely don't call Eden an absurd name," protested Willard.
"I do--for a house. Particularly such a house as that. Eden! There are
no Edens on earth. And what are you going to do with it?"
"Live in it."
"Alone?"
Miss Sally looked at him suspiciously.
"No. The truth is, Miss Sally, I am hoping to be married in the fall
and I want to fix up Eden for my bride."
"Oh!" Miss Sally drew a long breath, partly it seemed of relief and
partly of triumph, and looked at Joyce, who had returned, with an
expression that said, "I told you so"; but Joyce, whose eyes were cast
down, did not see it.
"And," went on Willard calmly, "I want you to help me fix it up, Miss
Sally. I don't know much about such things and you know everything.
You will be able to tell me just what to do to make Eden habitable."
Miss Sally looked as pleased as she ever allowed herself to look over
anything a man suggested. It was the delight of her heart to plan and
decorate and contrive. Her own house was a model of comfort and good
taste, and Miss Sally was quite ready for new worlds to conquer.
Instantly Eden assumed importance in her eyes. She might be sorry for
the misguided bride who was rashly going to trust her life's keeping
to a man, but she would see, at least, that the poor thing should have
a decent place to begin her martyrdom in.
"I'll be pleased to help you all I can," she said graciously.
Miss Sally could speak very graciously when she chose, even to men.
You would not have thought she hated them, but she did. In all
sincerity, too. Also, she had brought her niece up to hate and
distrust them. Or, she had tried to do so. But at times Miss Sally was
troubled with an uncomfortable suspicion that Joyce did not hate and
distrust men quite as thoroughly as she ought. The suspicion had
recurred several times this summer since Willard Stanley had come to
take charge of the biological station at the harbour. Miss Sally did
not distrust Willard on his own account. She merely distrusted him on
principle and on Joyce's account. Nevertheless, she was rather nice to
him. Miss Sally, dear, trim, dainty Miss Sally, with her snow-white
curls and her big girlish black eyes, couldn't help being nice, even
to a man.
Willard had come a great deal to Miss Sally's. If it were Joyce he
were after Miss Sally blocked his schemes with much enjoyment. He
never saw Joyce alone--that Miss Sally knew of, at least--and he did
not make much apparent headway. But now all danger was removed, Miss
Sally thought. He was going to be married to somebody else, and Joyce
was safe.
"Thank you," said Willard. "I'll come up tomorrow afternoon, and you
and I will take a prowl about Eden and see what must be done. I'm ever
so much obliged, Miss Sally."
"I wonder who he is going to marry," said Miss Sally, careless of
grammar, after he had gone. "Poor, poor girl!"
"I don't see why you should pity her," said Joyce, not looking up from
her embroidery. There was just the merest tremor in her voice. Miss
Sally looked at her sharply.
"I pity any woman who is foolish enough to marry," she said solemnly.
"No man is to be trusted, Joyce--no man. They are all ready to break a
trusting woman's heart for the sport of it. Never you allow any man
the chance to break yours, Joyce. I shall never consent to your
marrying anybody, so mind you don't take any such notion into your
head. There oughtn't to be any danger, for I have instilled correct
ideas on this subject into you from childhood. But girls are such
fools. I know, because I was one myself once."
"Of course, I would never marry without your consent, Aunt Sally,"
said Joyce, smiling faintly but affectionately at her aunt. Joyce
loved Miss Sally with her whole heart. Everybody did who knew her.
There never was a more lovable creature than this pretty little old
maid who hated the men so bitterly.
"That's a good girl," said Miss Sally approvingly. "I own that I have
been a little afraid that this Willard Stanley was coming here to see
you. But my mind is set at rest on that point now, and I shall help
him fix up his doll house with a clear conscience. Eden, indeed!"
Miss Sally sniffed and tripped out of the room to hunt up a furniture
catalogue. Joyce sighed and let her embroidery slip to the floor.
"Oh, I'm afraid Willard's plan won't succeed," she murmured. "I'm
afraid Aunt Sally will never consent to our marriage. And I can't and
won't marry him unless she does, for she would never forgive me and I
couldn't bear that. I wonder what makes her so bitter against men. She
is so sweet and loving, it seems simply unnatural that she should have
such a feeling so deeply rooted in her. Oh, what will she say when she
finds out--dear little Aunt Sally? I couldn't bear to have her angry
with me."
The next day Willard came up from the harbour and took Miss Sally down
to see Eden. Eden was a tiny, cornery, gabled grey house just across
the road and down a long, twisted windy lane, skirting the edge of a
beech wood. Nobody had lived in it for four years, and it had a
neglected, out-at-elbow appearance.
"It's rather a box of a place, isn't it?" said Willard slowly. "I'm
afraid she will think so. But it is all I can afford just now. I
dream of giving her a palace some day, of course. But we'll have to
begin humbly. Do you think anything can be made of it?"
Miss Sally was busily engaged in sizing up the possibilities of the
place.
"It is pretty small," she said meditatively. "And the yard is small
too--and there are far too many trees and shrubs all messed up
together. They must be thinned out--and that paling taken down. I
think a good deal can be done with it. As for the house--well, let us
see the inside."
Willard unlocked the door and showed Miss Sally over the place. Miss
Sally poked and pried and sniffed and wrinkled her forehead, and
finally stood on the stairs and delivered her ultimatum.
"This house can be done up very nicely. Paint and paper will work
wonders. But I wouldn't paint it outside. Leave it that pretty silver
weather-grey and plant vines to run over it. Oh, we'll see what we can
do. Of course it is small--a kitchen, a dining room, a living room,
and two bedrooms. You won't want anything stuffy. You can do the
painting yourself, and I'll help you hang the paper. How much money
can you spend on it?"
Willard named the sum. It was not a large one.
"But I think it will do," mused Miss Sally. "We'll _make_ it do.
There's such satisfaction getting as much as you possibly can out of a
dollar, and twice as much as anybody else would get. I enjoy that sort
of thing. This will be a game, and we'll play it with a right good
will. But I do wish you would give the place a sensible name."
"I think Eden is the most appropriate name in the world," laughed
Willard. "It will be Eden for me when she comes."
"I suppose you tell her all that and she believes it," said Miss Sally
sarcastically. "You'll both find out that there is a good deal more
prose than poetry in life."
"But we'll find it out _together_," said Willard tenderly. "Won't
that be worth something, Miss Sally? Prose, rightly written and read,
is sometimes as beautiful as poetry."
Miss Sally deigned no reply. She carefully gathered up her grey silken
skirts from the dusty floor and walked out. "Get Christina Bowes to
come up tomorrow and scrub this place out," she said practically. "We
can go to town and select paint and paper. I should like the dining
room done in pale green and the living room in creamy tones, ranging
from white to almost golden brown. But perhaps my taste won't be
hers."
"Oh, yes, it will," said Willard with assurance. "I am quite certain
she will like everything you like. I can never thank you enough for
helping me. If you hadn't consented I should have had to put it into
the hands of some outsider whom I couldn't have helped at all. And I
_wanted_ to help. I wanted to have a finger in everything, because it
is for her, you see, Miss Sally. It will be such a delight to fix up
this little house, knowing that she is coming to live in it."
"I wonder if you really mean it," said Miss Sally bitterly. "Oh, I
dare say you think you do. But _do_ you? Perhaps you do. Perhaps you
are the exception that proves the rule."
This was a great admission for Miss Sally to make.
For the next two months Miss Sally was happy. Even Willard himself was
not more keenly interested in Eden and its development. Miss Sally did
wonders with his money. She was an expert at bargain hunting, and her
taste was excellent. A score of times she mercilessly nipped Willard's
suggestions in the bud. "Lace curtains for the living room--never!
They would be horribly out of place in such a house. You don't want
curtains at all--just a frill is all that quaint window needs, with a
shelf above it for a few bits of pottery. I picked up a love of a
brass platter in town yesterday--got it for next to nothing from that
old Jew who would really rather _give_ you a thing than suffer you to
escape without taking something. Oh, I know how to manage them."
"You certainly do," laughed Willard. "It amazes me to see how far you
can stretch a dollar."
Willard did the painting under Miss Sally's watchful eye, and they
hung the paper together. Together they made trips to town or junketed
over the country in search of furniture and dishes of which Miss Sally
had heard. Day by day the little house blossomed into a home, and day
by day Miss Sally's interest in it grew. She began to have a personal
affection for its quaint rooms and their adornments. Moreover, in
spite of herself, she felt a growing interest in Willard's bride. He
never told her the name of the girl he hoped to bring to Eden, and
Miss Sally never asked it. But he talked of her a great deal, in a
shy, reverent, tender way.
"He certainly seems to be very much in love with her," Miss Sally told
Joyce one evening when she returned from Eden. "I would believe in him
if it were possible for me to believe in a man. Anyway, she will have
a dear little home. I've almost come to love that Eden house. Why
don't you come down and see it, Joyce?"
"Oh, I'll come some day--I hope," said Joyce lightly. "I think I'd
rather not see it until it is finished."
"Willard is a nice boy," said Miss Sally suddenly. "I don't think I
ever did him justice before. The finer qualities of his character come
out in these simple, homely little doings and tasks. He is certainly
very thoughtful and kind. Oh, I suppose he'll make a good husband, as
husbands go. But he doesn't know the first thing about managing. If
his wife isn't a good manager, I don't know what they'll do. And
perhaps she won't like the way we've done up Eden. Willard says she
will, of course, because he thinks her perfection. But she may have
dreadful taste and want the lace curtains and that nightmare of a pink
rug Willard admired, and I dare say she'd rather have a new flaunting
set of china with rosebuds on it than that dear old dull blue I picked
up for a mere song down at the Aldenbury auction. I stood in the rain
for two mortal hours to make sure of it, and it was really worth all
that Willard has spent on the dining room put together. It will break
my heart if she sets to work altering Eden. It's simply perfect as it
is--though I suppose I shouldn't say it."
* * * * *
In another week Eden was finished. Miss Sally stood in the tiny hall
and looked about her.
"Well, it is done," she said with a sigh. "I'm sorry. I have enjoyed
fixing it up tremendously, and now I feel that my occupation is gone.
I hope you are satisfied, Willard."
"Satisfied is too mild a word, Miss Sally. I am delighted. I knew you
could accomplish wonders, but I never hoped for _this_. Eden is a
dream--the dearest, quaintest, sweetest little home that ever waited
for a bride. When I bring her here--oh, Miss Sally, do you know what
that thought means to me?"
Miss Sally looked curiously at the young man. His face was flushed and
his voice trembled a little. There was a far-away shining look in his
eyes as if he saw a vision.
"I hope you and she will be happy," said Miss Sally slowly. "When will
she be coming, Willard?"
The flush went out of Willard's face, leaving it pale and determined.
"That is for her--and you--to say," he answered steadily.
"Me!" exclaimed Miss Sally. "What have I to do with it?"
"A great deal--for unless you consent she will never come here at
all."
"Willard Stanley," said Miss Sally, with ominous calm, "who is the
girl you mean to marry?"
"The girl I _hope_ to marry is Joyce, Miss Sally. Wait--don't say
anything till you hear me out." He came close to her and caught her
hands in a boyish grip. "Joyce and I have loved each other ever since
we met. But we despaired of winning your consent, and Joyce will not
marry me without it. I thought if I could get you to help me fix up my
little home that you might get so interested in it--and so well
acquainted with me--that you would trust me with Joyce. Please do,
Miss Sally. I love her so truly and I know I can make her happy. If
you don't, Eden shall never have a mistress. I'll shut it up, just as
it is, and leave it sacred to the dead hope of a bride that will never
come to it."
"Oh, you wouldn't," protested Miss Sally. "It would be a shame--such a
dear little house--and after all the trouble I've taken. But you have
tricked me--oh, you men couldn't be straightforward in anything--"
"Wasn't it a fair device for a desperate lover, Miss Sally?"
interrupted Willard. "Oh, you mustn't hold spite because of it, dear;
And you will give me Joyce, won't you? Because if you don't, I really
will shut up Eden forever."
Miss Sally looked wistfully around her. Through the open door on her
left she saw the little living room with its quaint, comfortable
furniture, its dainty pictures and adornments. Through the front door
she saw the trim, velvet-swarded little lawn. Upstairs were two white
rooms that only wanted a woman's living presence to make them jewels.
And the kitchen on which she had expended so much thought and
ingenuity--the kitchen furnished to the last detail, even to the
kindling in the range and the match Willard had laid ready to light
it! It gave Miss Sally a pang to think of that altar fire never being
lighted. It was really the thought of the kitchen that finished Miss
Sally.
"You've tricked me," she said again reproachfully. "You've tricked me
into loving this house so much that I cannot bear the thought of it
never living. You'll have to have Joyce, I suppose. And I believe I'm
glad that it isn't a stranger who is to be the mistress of Eden. Joyce
won't hanker after pink rugs and lace curtains. And her taste in china
is the same as mine. In one way it's a great relief to my mind. But
it's a fearful risk--a fearful risk. To think that you may make my
dear child miserable!"
"You know you don't think that I will, Miss Sally. I'm not really such
a bad fellow, now, am I?"
"You are a man--and I have no confidence whatever in men," declared
Miss Sally, wiping some very real tears from her eyes with a very
unreal sort of handkerchief--one of the cobwebby affairs of lace her
daintiness demanded.
"Miss Sally, why have you such a rooted distrust of men?" demanded
Willard curiously. "Somehow, it seems so foreign to your character."
"I suppose you think I am a perfect crank," said Miss Sally, sighing.
"Well, I'll tell you why I don't trust men. I have a very good reason
for it. A man broke my heart and embittered my life. I've never spoken
about it to a living soul, but if you want to hear about it, you
shall."
Miss Sally sat down on the second step of the stairs and tucked her
wet handkerchief away. She clasped her slender white hands over her
knee. In spite of her silvery hair and the little lines on her face
she looked girlish and youthful. There was a pink flush on her cheeks,
and her big black eyes sparkled with the anger her memories aroused in
her.
"I was a young girl of twenty when I met him," she said, "and I was
just as foolish as all young girls are--foolish and romantic and
sentimental. He was very handsome and I thought him--but there, I
won't go into that. It vexes me to recall my folly. But I loved
him--yes, I did, with all my heart--with all there was of me to love.
He made me love him. He deliberately set himself to win my love. For a
whole summer he flirted with me. I didn't know he was flirting--I
thought him in earnest. Oh, I was such a little fool--and so happy.
Then--he went away. Went away suddenly without even a word of goodbye.
But he had been summoned home by his father's serious illness, and I
thought he would write--I waited--I hoped. I never heard from
him--never saw him again. He had tired of his plaything and flung it
aside. That is all," concluded Miss Sally passionately. "I never
trusted any man again. When my sister died and gave me her baby, I
determined to bring the dear child up safely, training her to avoid
the danger I had fallen into. Well, I've failed. But perhaps it will
be all right--perhaps there are some men who are true, though Stephen
Merritt was false."
"Stephen--who?" demanded Willard abruptly. Miss Sally coloured.
"I didn't mean to tell you his name," she said, getting up. "It was a
slip of the tongue. Never mind--forget it and him. He was not worthy
of remembrance--and yet I do remember him. I can't forget him--and I
hate him all the more for it--for having entered so deeply into my
life that I could not cast him out when I knew him unworthy. It is
humiliating. There--let us lock up Eden and go home. I suppose you are
dying to see Joyce and tell her your precious plot has succeeded."
Willard did not appear to be at all impatient. He had relapsed into a
brown study, during which he let Miss Sally lock up the house. Then he
walked silently home with her. Miss Sally was silent too. Perhaps she
was repenting her confidence--or perhaps she was thinking of her false
lover. There was a pathetic droop to her lips, and her black eyes were
sad and dreamy.
"Miss Sally," said Willard at last, as they neared her house, "had
Stephen Merritt any sisters?"
Miss Sally threw him a puzzled glance.
"He had one--Jean Merritt--whom I disliked and who disliked me," she
said crisply. "I don't want to talk of her--she was the only woman I
ever hated. I never met any of the other members of his family--his
home was in a distant part of the state."
Willard stayed with Joyce so brief a time that Miss Sally viewed his
departure with suspicion. This was not very lover-like conduct.
"I dare say he's like all the rest--when his aim is attained the
prize loses its value," reflected Miss Sally pessimistically. "Poor
Joyce--poor child! But there--there isn't a single inharmonious thing
in his house--that is one comfort. I'm so thankful I didn't let
Willard buy those brocade chairs he wanted. They would have given
Joyce the nightmare."
Meanwhile, Willard rushed down to the biological station and from
there drove furiously to the station to catch the evening express. He
did not return until three days later, when he appeared at Miss
Sally's, dusty and triumphant.
"Joyce is out," said Miss Sally.
"I'm glad of it," said Willard recklessly. "It's you I want to see,
Miss Sally. I have something to show you. I've been all the way home
to get it."
From his pocketbook Willard drew something folded and creased and
yellow that looked like a letter. He opened it carefully and, holding
it in his fingers, looked over it at Miss Sally.
"My grandmother's maiden name was Jean Merritt," he said deliberately,
"and Stephen Merritt was my great-uncle. I never saw him--he died when
I was a child--but I've heard my father speak of him often."
Miss Sally turned very pale. She passed her cobwebby handkerchief
across her lips and her hand trembled. Willard went on.
"My uncle never married. He and his sister Jean lived together until
her late marriage. I was not very fond of my grandmother. She was a
selfish, domineering woman--very unlike the grandmother of tradition.
When she died everything she possessed came to me, as my father, her
only child, was then dead. In looking over a box of old papers I found
a letter--an old love letter. I read it with some interest, wondering
whose it could be and how it came among Grandmother's private letters.
It was signed 'Stephen,' so that I guessed my great-uncle had been the
writer, but I had no idea who the Sally was to whom it was written,
until the other day. Then I knew it was you--and I went home to bring
you your letter--the letter you should have received long ago. Why
you did not receive it I cannot explain. I fear that my grandmother
must have been to blame for that--she must have intercepted and kept
the letter in order to part her brother and you. In so far as I can I
wish to repair the wrong she has done you. I know it can never be
repaired--but at least I think this letter will take the bitterness
out of the memory of your lover."
He dropped the letter in Miss Sally's lap and went away.
Pale, Miss Sally picked it up and read it. It was from Stephen Merritt
to "dearest Sally," and contained a frank, manly avowal of love. Would
she be his wife? If she would, let her write and tell him so. But if
she did not and could not love him, let her silence reveal the bitter
fact; he would wish to spare her the pain of putting her refusal into
words, and if she did not write he would understand that she was not
for him.
When Willard and Joyce came back into the twilight room they found
Miss Sally still sitting by the table, her head leaning pensively on
her hand. She had been crying--the cobwebby handkerchief lay beside
her, wrecked and ruined forever--but she looked very happy.
"I wonder if you know what you have done for me," she said to Willard.
"But no--you can't know--you can't realize it fully. It means
everything to me. You have taken away my humiliation and restored to
me my pride of womanhood. He really loved me--he was not false--he was
what I believed him to be. Nothing else matters to me at all now. Oh,
I am very happy--but it would never have been if I had not consented
to give you Joyce."
She rose and took their hands in hers, joining them.
"God bless you, dears," she said softly. "I believe you will be happy
and that your love for each other will always be true and faithful and
tender. Willard, I give you my dear child in perfect trust and
confidence."
With her yellowed love letter clasped to her heart, and a raptured
shining in her eyes, Miss Sally went out of the room.