"There are three sorts of egoists: those who live themselves and
let others live; those who live themselves and don't let others
live; and those who neither live themselves nor let others live."
"With thoughts and feelings very simple but very
strong."--TOURGUÉNIEFF.
The winter passed. The new pupil studied with diligence, and insisted
upon learning the beginnings of piano-playing so thoroughly that the
resigned little German master with ear-rings woke up and began to ask
her whether she could not go through a course of ten years or so, and
become "a real blayer, not like American blayers, who vant all to learn
de same biece, and blay him mit de loud pedal down." Sometimes Helen
bore her away to spend a Sunday; but there were no more New-Year's Days,
or occasions for the gray silk. When together at Miss Teller's, the two
sat over the dressing-room fire at night, talking with that delightful
mixture of confidence and sudden little bits of hypocrisy in which women
delight, and which undress seems to beget. The bits of hypocrisy,
however, were all Helen's.
She had long ago gathered from Anne her whole simple history; she was
familiar with the Agency, the fort, Miss Lois, Père Michaux, Dr.
Gaston, Rast, Tita, and the boys, even old Antoine and his dogs, René
and Lebeau. Anne, glad to have a listener, had poured out a flood of
details from her lonely homesick heart, going back as far as her own
lost mother, and her young step-mother Angélique. But it was not until
one of these later midnight talks that the girl had spoken of her own
betrothal. Helen was much surprised--the only surprise she had shown. "I
should never have dreamed it, Crystal!" she exclaimed. "Never!" (Crystal
was her name for Anne.)
"Why not?"
"Because you are so--young."
"But it often happens at my age. The fort ladies were married at
eighteen and nineteen, and my own dear mother was only twenty."
"You adore this Rast, I suppose?"
"Yes, I like him."
"Nonsense! You mean that you adore him."
"Perhaps I do," said Anne, smiling. "I have noticed that our use of
words is different."
"And how long have you adored him?"
"All my life."
The little sentence came forth gravely and sincerely. Helen surveyed the
speaker with a quizzical expression in her narrow brown eyes. "No one
'adores' all one's life," she answered. Then, as Anne did not take up
the challenge, she paused, and, after surveying her companion in silence
for a moment, added, "There is no time fixed as yet for this marriage?"
"No; Rast has his position to make first. And I myself should be better
pleased to have four or five years to give to the children before we are
married. I am anxious to educate the boys."
"Bon!" said Helen. "All will yet end well, Virginie. My compliments to
Paul. It is a pretty island pastoral, this little romance of yours; you
have my good wishes."
The island pastoral was simple indeed compared with the net-work of
fancies and manœuvres disclosed by Helen. Her life seemed to be a drama.
Her personages were masked under fictitious names; the Poet, the
Haunted Man, the Knight-errant, the Chanting Tenor, and the Bishop, all
figured in her recitals, to which Anne listened with intense interest.
Helen was a brilliant story-teller. She could give the salient points of
a conversation, and these only. She colored everything, of course,
according to her own fancy; but one could forgive her that for her
skillful avoidance of dull details, whose stupid repetition, simply
because they are true, is a habit with which many good people are
afflicted.
The narrations, of course, were of love and lovers: it is always so in
the midnight talks of women over the dying fire. Even the most secluded
country girl will on such occasions unroll a list as long as
Leporello's. The listener may know it is fictitious, and the narrator
may know that she knows it. But there seems to be a fascination in the
telling and the hearing all the same.
Helen amused herself greatly over the deep interest Anne took in her
stories; to do her justice, they were generally true, the conversations
only being more dramatic than the reality had been. This was not Helen's
fault; she performed her own part brilliantly, and even went over, on
occasion, and helped on the other side. But the American man is not
distinguished for conversational skill. This comes, not from dullness or
lack of appreciation, but rather from overappreciation. Without the
rock-like slow self-confidence of the Englishman, the Frenchman's
never-failing wish to please, or the idealizing powers of the German,
the American, with a quicker apprehension, does not appear so well in
conversation as any one of these compeers. He takes in an idea so
quickly that elaborate comment seems to him hardly worth while; and thus
he only has a word or two where an Englishman has several
well-intentioned sentences, a Frenchman an epigram, and a German a whole
cloud of philosophical quotations and comments. But it is, more than all
else, the enormous strength which ridicule as an influence possesses in
America that makes him what he is; he shrinks from the slightest
appearance of "fine talking," lest the ever-present harpies of mirth
should swoop down and feed upon his vitals.
Helen's friends, therefore, might not always have recognized themselves
in her sparkling narratives, as far as their words were concerned; but
it is only justice to them to add that she was never obliged to
embellish their actions. She related to Anne apart, during their music
lessons, the latest events in a whisper, while Belzini gave two minutes
to cream candy and rest; the stories became the fairy tales of the
school-girl's quiet life. Through all, she found her interest more and
more attracted by "the Bishop," who seemed, however, to be anything but
an ecclesiastical personage.
Miss Vanhorn had been filled with profound astonishment and annoyance by
Helen's note. She knew Helen, and she knew Miss Teller: what could they
want of Anne? After due delay, she came in her carriage to find out.
Tante, comprehending her motive, sent Anne up stairs to attire herself
in the second dress given by Helen--a plain black costume, simply but
becomingly made, and employed the delay in talking to her visitor
mellifluously on every conceivable subject save the desired one. She
treated her to a dissertation on intaglii, to an argument or two on
architecture, and was fervently asking her opinion of certain recently
exhibited relics said to be by Benvenuto Cellini, when the door opened
and Anne appeared.
The young girl greeted her grandaunt with the same mixture of timidity
and hope which she had shown at their first interview. But Miss
Vanhorn's face stiffened into rigidity as she surveyed her.
"She is impressed at last," thought the old Frenchwoman, folding her
hands contentedly and leaning back in her chair, at rest (temporarily)
from her labors.
But if impressed, Miss Vanhorn had no intention of betraying her
impression for the amusement of her ancient enemy; she told Anne curtly
to put on her bonnet, that she had come to take her for a drive. Once
safely in the carriage, she extracted from her niece, who willingly
answered, every detail of her acquaintance with Helen, and the holiday
visit, bestowing with her own eyes, meanwhile, a close scrutiny upon the
black dress, with whose texture and simplicity even her angry annoyance
could find no fault.
"She wants to get something out of you, of course," she said, abruptly,
when the story was told; "Helen Lorrington is a thoroughly selfish
woman. I know her well. She introduced you, I suppose, as Miss Vanhorn's
niece?"
"Oh no, grandaunt. She has no such thought."
"What do you know of her thoughts! You continue to go there?"
"Sometimes, on Sundays--when she asks me."
"Very well. But you are not to go again when company is expected; I
positively forbid it. You were not brought down from your island to
attend evening parties. You hear me?"
"Yes."
"Perhaps you are planning for a situation here at Moreau's next winter?"
said the old woman, after a pause, peering at Anne suspiciously.
"I could not fill it, grandaunt; I could only teach in a country
school."
"At Newport, or some such place, then?"
"I could not get a position of that kind."
"Mrs. Lorrington could help you."
"I have not asked her to help me."
"I thought perhaps she had some such idea of her own," continued Miss
Vanhorn. "You can probably prop up that fife-like voice of hers in a way
she likes; and besides, you are a good foil for her, with your big
shoulders and bread-and-milk face. You little simpleton, don't you know
that to even the most skillful flirt a woman friend of some kind or
other is necessary as background and support?"
"No, I did not know it," said Anne, in a disheartened voice.
"What a friend for Helen Lorrington! No wonder she has pounced upon you!
You would never see one of her manœuvres, although done within an inch
of you. With your believing eyes, and your sincerity, you are worth your
weight in silver to that straw-faced mermaid. But, after all, I do not
interfere. Let her only obtain a good situation for you next year, and
pay you back in more useful coin than fine dresses, and I make no
objection."
She settled herself anew in the corner of the carriage, and began the
process of extracting a seed, while Anne, silent and dejected, gazed
into the snow-covered street, asking herself whether Helen and all this
world were really as selfish and hypocritical as her grandaunt
represented. But these thoughts soon gave way to the predominant one,
the one that always came to her when with Miss Vanhorn--the thought of
her mother.
"During the summer, do you still live in the old country house on the
Hudson, grandaunt?"
Miss Vanhorn, who had just secured a seed, dropped it. "I am not aware
that my old country house is anything to you," she answered, tartly,
fitting on her flapping glove-fingers, and beginning a second search.
A sob rose in Anne's throat; but she quelled it. Her mother had spent
all her life, up to the time of her marriage, at that old river
homestead.
Soon after this, Madame Moreau sent out cards of invitation for one of
her musical evenings. Miss Vanhorn's card was accompanied by a little
note in Tante's own handwriting.
* * * * *
"The invitation is merely a compliment which I give myself the pleasure
of paying to a distinguished patron of my school" (wrote the old French
lady). "There will be nothing worthy of her ear--a simple school-girls'
concert, in which Miss Douglas (who will have the kind assistance of
Mrs. Lorrington) will take part. I can not urge, for so unimportant an
affair, the personal presence of Miss Vanhorn; but I beg her to accept
the inclosed card as a respectful remembrance from
"HORTENSE-PAULINE MOREAU."
* * * * *
"That will bring her," thought Tante, sealing the missive, in her
old-fashioned way, with wax.
She was right; Miss Vanhorn came.
Anne sang first alone. Then with Helen.
"Isn't that Mrs. Lorrington?" said a voice behind Miss Vanhorn.
"Yes. My Louise tells me that she has taken up this Miss Douglas
enthusiastically--comes here to sing with her almost every day."
"Who is the girl?"
Miss Vanhorn prepared an especially rigid expression of countenance for
the item of relationship which she supposed would follow. But nothing
came; Helen was evidently waiting for a more dramatic occasion. She felt
herself respited; yet doubly angry and apprehensive.
When the song was ended, there was much applause of the subdued
drawing-room kind--applause, however, plainly intended for Helen alone.
Singularly enough, Miss Vanhorn resented this. "If I should take Anne,
dress her properly, and introduce her as my niece, the Lorrington would
be nowhere," she thought, angrily. It was the first germ of the idea.
It was not allowed to disappear. It grew and gathered strength slowly,
as Tante and Helen intended it should; the two friendly conspirators
never relaxed for a day their efforts concerning it. Anne remained
unconscious of these manœuvres; but the old grandaunt was annoyed, and
urged, and flattered, and menaced forward with so much skill that it
ended in her proposing to Anne, one day in the early spring, that she
should come and spend the summer with her, the children on the island to
be provided for meanwhile by an allowance, and Anne herself to have a
second winter at the Moreau school, if she wished it, so that she might
be fitted for a higher position than otherwise she could have hoped to
attain.
"Oh, grandaunt!" cried the girl, taking the old loosely gloved hand in
hers.
"There is no occasion for shaking hands and grandaunting in that way,"
said Miss Vanhorn. "If you wish to do what I propose, do it; I am not
actuated by any new affection for you. You will take four days to
consider; at the end of that period, you may send me your answer. But,
with your acceptance, I shall require the strictest obedience. And--no
allusion whatever to your mother."
"What are to be my duties?" asked Anne, in a low voice.
"Whatever I require," answered the old woman, grimly.
At first Anne thought of consulting Tante. But she had a strong
under-current of loyalty in her nature, and the tie of blood bound her
to her grandaunt, after all: she decided to consult no one but herself.
The third day was Sunday. In the twilight she sat alone on her narrow
bed, by the window of the dormitory, thinking. It was a boisterous March
evening; the wildest month of the twelve was on his mad errands as
usual. Her thoughts were on the island with the children; would it not
be best for them that she should accept the offered allowance, and go
with this strange grandaunt of hers, enduring as best she might her cold
severity? Miss Lois's income was small; the allowance would make the
little household comfortable. A second winter in New York would enable
her to take a higher place as teacher, and also give the self-confidence
she lacked. Yes; it was best.
But a great and overwhelming loneliness rose in her heart at the thought
of another long year's delay before she could be with those she loved.
Rast's last letter was in her pocket; she took it out, and held it in
her hand for comfort. In it he had written of the sure success of his
future; and Anne believed it as fully as he did. Her hand grew warmer as
she held the sheet, and as she recalled his sanguine words. She began to
feel courageous again. Then another thought came to her: must she tell
Miss Vanhorn of her engagement? In their new conditions, would it not be
dishonest to keep the truth back? "I do not see that it can be of any
interest to her," she said to herself. "Still, I prefer to tell her."
And then, having made her decision, she went to Tante.
Tante was charmed with the news (and with the success of her plan). She
discoursed upon family affection in very beautiful language. "You will
find a true well-spring of love in the heart of your venerable
relative," she remarked, raising her delicate handkerchief, like the
suggestion of a happiness that reached even to tears. "Long, long have I
held your cherished grandaunt in a warm corner of my memory and heart."
This was true as regarded the time and warmth; only the latter was of a
somewhat peppery nature.
The next morning Helen was told the news. She threw back her head in
comic despair. "The old dragon has taken the game out of my hands at
last," she said, "and ended all the sport. Excuse the title, Anne. But I
am morally certain she has all sorts of vinegarish names for me. And
now--am I to congratulate you upon your new home?"
"It is more a matter of duty, I think, than congratulation," said Anne,
thoughtfully. "And next, I must tell her of my engagement."
"I wouldn't, if I were you, Crystal."
"Why?"
"She would rather have you free."
"I shall be free, as far as she is concerned."
"Do not be too sure of that. And take my advice--do not tell her."
Anne, however, paid no heed to this admonition; some things she did
simply because she could not help doing them. She had intended to make
her little confession immediately; but Miss Vanhorn gave her no
opportunity. "That is enough talking," she said. "I have neuralgia in my
eyebrow."
"But, grandaunt, I feel that I ought to tell you."
"Tell me nothing. Don't you know how to be silent? Set about learning,
then. When I have neuralgia in my eyebrow, you are to speak only from
necessity; when I have it in the eye itself, you are not to speak at
all. Find me a caraway, and don't bungle."
She handed her velvet bag to Anne, and refitted the fingers of her
yellow glove: evidently the young girl's duties were beginning.
Several days passed, but the neuralgia always prevented the story. At
last the eyebrow was released, and then Anne spoke. "I wish to tell
you, grandaunt, before I come to you, that I am engaged--engaged to be
married."
"Who cares?" said Miss Vanhorn. "To the man in the moon, I suppose; most
school-girls are."
"No, to--"
"Draw up my shawl," interrupted the old woman. "_I_ do not care who it
is. Why do you keep on telling me?"
"Because I did not wish to deceive you."
"Wait till I ask you not to deceive me. Who is the boy?"
"His name is Erastus Pronando," began Anne; "and--"
"Pronando?" cried Katharine Vanhorn, in a loud, bewildered
voice--"Pronando? And his father's name?"
"John, I believe," said Anne, startled by the change in the old face.
"But he has been dead many years."
Old Katharine rose; her hands trembled, her eyes flashed. "You will give
up this boy at once and forever," she said, violently, "or my compact
with you is at an end."
"How can I, grandaunt? I have promised--"
"I believe I am mistress of my own actions; and in this affair I will
have no sort of hesitation," continued the old woman, taking the words
from Anne, and tapping a chair back angrily with her hand. "Decide
now--this moment. Break this engagement, and my agreement remains.
Refuse to break it, and it falls. That is all."
"You are unjust and cruel," said the girl, roused by these arbitrary
words.
Miss Vanhorn waved her hand for silence.
"If you will let me tell you, aunt--"
The old woman bounded forward suddenly, as if on springs, seized her
niece by both shoulders, and shook her with all her strength. "There!"
she said, breathless. "_Will_ you stop talking! All I want is your
answer--yes, or no."
The drawing-room of Madame Moreau had certainly never witnessed such a
sight as this. One of its young ladies shaken--yes, absolutely shaken
like a refractory child! The very chairs and tables seemed to tremble,
and visibly hope that there was no one in the _salon des élèves_,
behind.
Anne was more startled than hurt by her grandaunt's violence. "I am
sorry to displease you," she said, slowly and very gravely; "but I can
not break my engagement."
Without a word, Miss Vanhorn drew her shawl round her shoulders, pinned
it, crossed the room, opened the door, and was gone. A moment later her
carriage rolled away, and Anne, alone in the drawing-room, listened to
the sound of the wheels growing fainter and fainter, with a chilly
mixture of blank surprise, disappointment, and grief filling her heart.
"But it _was_ right that I should tell her," she said to herself as she
went up stairs--"it _was_ right."
Right and wrong always presented themselves to her as black and white.
She knew no shading. She was wrong; there are grays. But, so far in her
life, she had not been taught by sad experience to see them. "It _was_
right," she repeated to Helen, a little miserably, but still
steadfastly.
"I am not so sure of that," replied Mrs. Lorrington. "You have lost a
year's fixed income for those children, and a second winter here for
yourself; and for what? For the sake of telling the dragon something
which does not concern her, and which she did not wish to know."
"But it was true."
"Are we to go out with trumpets and tell everything we know, just
because it is true? Is there not such a thing as egotistical
truthfulness?"
"It makes no difference," said Anne, despairingly. "I had to tell her."
"You are stubborn, Crystal, and you see but one side of a question. But
never fear; we will circumvent the dragon yet. I wonder, though, why she
was so wrought up by the name Pronando? Perhaps Aunt Gretta will know."
Miss Teller did not know; but one of the husky-voiced old gentlemen who
kept up the "barrier, sir, against modern innovation," remembered the
particulars (musty and dusty now) of Kate Vanhorn's engagement to one of
the Pronandos--the wild one who ran away. He was younger than she was, a
handsome fellow (yes, yes, he remembered it all now), and "she was
terribly cut up about it, and went abroad immediately." Abroad--great
panacea for American woes! To what continent can those who live "abroad"
depart when trouble seizes _them_ in its pitiless claws?
Time is not so all-erasing as we think. Old Katharine Vanhorn, at
seventy, heard from the young lips of her grandniece the name which had
not been mentioned in her presence for nearly half a century--the name
which still had power to rouse in her heart the old bitter feeling. For
John Pronando had turned from her to an uneducated common girl--a
market-gardener's daughter. The proud Kate Vanhorn resented the
defection instantly; she broke the bond of her betrothal, and sailed for
England before Pronando realized that she was offended. This idyl of the
gardener's daughter was but one of his passing amusements; and so he
wrote to his black-browed goddess. But she replied that if he sought
amusement of that kind during the short period of betrothal, he would
seek it doubly after marriage, and _then_ it would not be so easy to
sail for Europe. She considered that she had had an escape. Pronando,
handsome, light-hearted, and careless, gave up his offended Juno without
much heartache, and the episode of Phyllis being by this time finished,
he strayed back to his Philadelphia home, to embroil himself as usual
with his family, and, later, to follow out the course ordained for him
by fate. Kate Vanhorn had other suitors; but the old wound never healed.
"Come and spend the summer with me," said Helen. "I trust I am as
agreeable as the dragon."
"No; I must stay here. Even as it is, she is doing a great deal for me;
I have no real claim upon her," replied Anne, trying not to give way to
the loneliness that oppressed her.
"Only that of being her nearest living relative, and natural heir."
"I have not considered the question of inheritance," replied the island
girl, proudly.
"I know you have not; yet it is there. Old ladies, however, instead of
natural heirs, are apt to prefer unnatural ones--cold-blooded Societies,
Organizations, and the endless Heathen. But I am in earnest about the
summer, Crystal: spend it with me."
"You are always generous to me," said Anne, gratefully.
"No; I never was generous in my life. I do not know how to be generous.
But this is the way it is: I am rich; I want a companion; and I like
_you_. Your voice supports mine perfectly, and is not in the least too
loud--a thing I detest. Besides, we look well together. You are an
excellent background for me; you make me look poetic; whereas most women
make me look like a caricature of myself--of what I really am. As though
a straw-bug should go out walking with a very attenuated grasshopper.
Now if the straw-bug went out always with a plump young toad or
wood-turtle, people might be found to admire even _his_ hair-like
fineness of limb and yellow transparency, by force, you know, of
contrast."
Anne laughed; but there was also a slight change of expression in her
face.
"I can read you, Crystal," said Helen, laughing in her turn. "Old
Katharine has already told you all those things--sweet old lady! She
understands me so well! Come; call it selfishness or generosity, as you
please; but accept."
"It is generosity, Helen; which, however, I must decline."
"It must be very inconvenient to be so conscientious," said Mrs.
Lorrington. "But mind, I do not give it up. What! lose so good a
listener as you are? To whom, then, can I confide the latest particulars
respecting the Poet, the Bishop, the Knight-errant, and the Haunted
Man?"
"I like the Bishop," said Anne, smiling back at her friend. She had
acquired the idea, without words, that Helen liked him also.
The story of Miss Vanhorn's change was, of course, related to Tante:
Anne had great confidence both in the old Frenchwoman's kindness of
heart and excellent judgment.
Tante listened, asked a question or two, and then said: "Yes, yes, I
see. For the present, nothing more can be done. She will allow you to
finish your year here, and as the time is of value to you, you shall
continue your studies through the vacation. But not at my New Jersey
farm, as she supposes; at a better place than that. You shall go to
Pitre."
"A place, Tante?"
"No; a friend of mine, and a woman."
Mademoiselle Jeanne-Armande Pitre was not so old as Tante (Tante had
friends of all ages); she was about fifty, but conveyed the impression
of never having been young. "She is an excellent teacher," continued the
other Frenchwoman, "and so closely avaricious that she will be glad to
take you even for the small sum you will pay. She is employed in a
Western seminary somewhere, but always returns to this little house of
hers for the summer vacation. Your opportunity for study with her will
be excellent; she has a rage for study. Write and tell your grandaunt,
ma fille, what I have decided."
"Ma fille" wrote; but Miss Vanhorn made no reply.
Early in June, accompanied by "monsieur," Anne started on her little
journey. The German music master said farewell with hearty regret. He
was leaving also; he should not be with Madame Moreau another winter, he
said. The Italian atmosphere stifled him, and the very sight of Belzini
made him "dremble vit a er-righteous er-rage." He gave Anne his address,
and begged that she would send to him when she wanted new music; "music
_vort_ someding." Monsieur Laurent, Anne's escort, was a nephew of
Tante's, a fine-looking middle-aged Frenchman, who taught the verbs with
a military air. But it was not so much his air as his dining-room which
gave him importance in the eyes of the school. The "salle à manger de
monsieur" was a small half-dark apartment, where he took his meals by
himself. It was a mysterious place; monsieur was never seen there; it
was not known even at what hour he dined. But there were stories in
whispered circulation of soups, sauces, salads, and wines served there
in secret, which made the listeners hungry even in the mere recital.
They peered into the dim little room as they passed, but never saw
anything save a brown linen table-cloth, an old caster, and one chair.
It was stated, however, that this caster was not a common caster, but
that it held, instead of the ordinary pepper and mustard, various
liquids and spices of mysterious nature, delightfully and wickedly
French.
In less than an hour the travellers reached Lancaster. Here monsieur
placed Anne in a red wagon which was in waiting, said good-by hastily
(being, perhaps, in a hurry to return to his dining-room), and caught
the down train back to the city. He had lived in America so long that he
could hurry like a native.
The old horse attached to the red wagon walked slowly over a level
winding road, switching his tail to and fro, and stopping now and then
to cough, with the profundity which only a horse's cough possesses. At
last, turning into a field, he stopped before what appeared to be a
fragment of a house.
"Is this the place?" said Anne, surprised.
"It's Miss Peter's," replied the boy driver.
The appearance of Mademoiselle Pitre in person at the door now removed
all doubt as to her abode. "I am glad to see you," she said, extending a
long yellow hand. "Enter."
The house, which had never been finished, was old; the sides and back
were of brick, and the front of wood, temporarily boarded across. The
kitchen and one room made all the depth; above, there were three small
chambers. After a while, apparently, windows and a front door had been
set in the temporary boarding, and a flight of steps added. Mademoiselle
had bought the house in its unfinished condition, and had gradually
become an object of great unpopularity in the neighborhood because, as
season after season rolled by, she did nothing more to her purchase.
What did she mean, then? Simple comment swelled into suspicion; the
penny-saving old maid was now considered a dark and mysterious person at
Lancaster. Opinions varied as to whether she had committed a crime in
her youth, or intended to commit one in her age. At any rate, she was
not like other people--in the country a heinous crime.
The interior of this half-house was not uncomfortable, although arranged
with the strictest economy. The chief room had been painted a brilliant
blue by the skillful hands of mademoiselle herself; there was no carpet,
but in summer one can spare a carpet; and Anne thought the bright color,
the growing plants and flowers, the gayly colored crockery, the four
white cats, the sunshine, and the cool open space unfilled by furniture,
quaintly foreign and attractive.
The mistress of the house was tall and yellow. She was attired in a
black velvet bodice, and a muslin skirt whereon a waving design, like an
endless procession of spindling beet roots, or fat leeches going round
and round, was depicted in dark crimson. This muslin was secretly
admired in the neighborhood; but as mademoiselle never went to church,
and, what was worse, made no change in her dress on the Sabbath-day, it
was considered a step toward rationalism to express the liking.
Anne slept peacefully on her narrow bed, and went down to a savory
breakfast the next morning. The old Irish servant, Nora, who came out
from the city every summer to live with mademoiselle, prepared with
skill the few dishes the careful mistress ordered. But when the meal was
over, Anne soon discovered that the careful mistress was also an expert
in teaching. Her French, Italian, music, and drawing were all reviewed
and criticised, and then Jeanne-Armande put on her bonnet, and told her
pupil to make ready for her first lesson in botany.
"Am I to study botany?" said Anne, surprised.
[Illustration: IN THE WOODS.]
"All study botany who come to me," replied Jeanne-Armande, much in the
tone of "Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch' entrate." "Is that all the
bonnet you have? It is far too fine. I will buy you a Shaker at the
shop." And with her tin flower case slung from her shoulder, she
started down the road toward the country store at the corners; here
she bought a Shaker bonnet for her pupil, selecting one that was bent,
and demanding a reduction in price in consequence of the "irreparable
injury to the fibre of the fabric." The shop-keeper, an anxious little
man with a large family, did his best to keep on good terms with "the
foreigner" privately, and to preserve on other occasions that appearance
of virtuous disapproval which the neighborhood required of him. He lived
haunted by a fear lest the Frenchwoman and her chief detractors should
meet face to face in the narrow confines of his domain; and he had long
determined that in case of such event he would be down in the cellar
drawing molasses--an operation universally known to consume time. But
the sword of Damocles does not fall; in this instance, as in others,
mademoiselle departed in safety, bearing Anne away to the woods, her
face hidden in the depths of the Shaker.
Wild flowers, that seem so fresh and young, are, singularly enough, the
especial prey of old maids. Young girls love the garden flowers;
beautiful women surround themselves with hot-house hues and perfumes.
But who goes into the woods, explores the rocky glens, braves the
swamps? Always the ardent-hearted old maid, who, in her plain garb and
thick shoes, is searching for the delicate little wild blossoms, the
world over.
Jeanne-Armande had an absorbing love for flowers, a glowing enthusiasm
for botany. She now taught Anne the flower study with what Tante would
have called "a rage." More than once the pupil thought how strange it
was that fate should have forced into her hands at this late hour the
talisman that might once have been the key to her grandaunt's favor. It
did not occur to her that Tante was the Fate.
Letters had come from all on the island, and from Rast. Regarding her
course in telling Miss Vanhorn of her engagement, Miss Lois wrote that
it was "quite unnecessary," and Dr. Gaston that it was "imprudent." Even
Rast (this was hardest to bear) had written, "While I am proud, dearest,
to have your name linked with mine, still, I like better to think of the
time when I can come and claim you in person, in the face of all the
grandaunts in the world, who, if they _knew_ nothing, could not in the
mean time harass and annoy you."
Père Michaux made no comment. Anne looked through Tita's letters for
some time expectantly, but no message in his small, clear handwriting
appeared.
The weeks passed. The pupil learned the real kindness of the teacher,
and never thought of laughing at her oddities, until--Helen came.
For Helen came: on her way home from her grandfather's bedside, whither
she had been summoned (as usual two or three times each year) "to see
him die."
"Grandpapa always recovers as soon as I enter the door," she said. "I
should think he would insist upon my living there as a safeguard! This
time I did not even see him--he did not wish me in the room; and so,
having half a day to spare, I decided to send my maid on, and stop over
and see _you_, Crystal."
Anne, delighted and excited, sat looking at her friend with happy eyes.
"I am so glad, glad, to see you!" she said.
"Then present me to your hostess and jailer. For I intend to remain
overnight, and corrupt the household."
Jeanne-Armande was charmed with their visitor; she said she was "a lady
decidedly as it should be." Helen accompanied them on their botany walk,
observed the velvet bodice and beet-root muslin, complimented the
ceremonious courses of the meagre little dinner, and did not laugh until
they were safely ensconced in Anne's cell for the night.
"But, Crystal," she said, when she had imitated Jeanne-Armande, and Anne
herself as pupil, with such quick and ridiculous fidelity that Anne was
obliged to bury her face in the pillow to stifle her laughter, "I have a
purpose in coming here. The old dragon has appeared at Caryl's, where
Aunt Gretta and I spent last summer, and where we intend to spend the
remainder of this; she is even there to-night, caraway seeds, malice,
and all. Now I want you to go back with me, as my guest for a week or
two, and together we will annihilate her."
"Do not call her by that name, Helen."
"Not respectful enough? Grand Llama, then; the double l scintillates
with respect. The Grand Llama being present, I want to bring you on the
scene as a charming, botanizing, singing niece whom she has strangely
neglected. Will you go?"
"Of course I can not."
"You have too many principles; and, mind you, principles are often
shockingly egotistical and selfish. I would rather have a mountain of
sins piled up against me on the judgment-day, and a crowd of friends
whom I had helped and made happy, than the most snowy empty pious record
in the world, and no such following."
"One does not necessitate the other," said Anne, after her usual pause
when with Helen: she was always a little behind Helen's fluent phrases.
"One can have friends without sins."
"Wait and see," said Helen.
In the morning the brilliant visitor took her departure, and the
half-house fell back into its usual quietude. Anne did not go with
Helen; but Helen avowed her purpose of bringing her to Caryl's yet, in
spite of fate. "I am not easily defeated," she said. "When I wish a
thing, it always happens. But, like the magicians, nobody notices how
hard I have worked to have it happen."
She departed. And within a week she filled Caryl's with descriptions of
Jeanne-Armande, the velvet bodice, the beet-root skirt, the blue room,
the white cats, and the dinner, together with the solitary pupil, whose
knowledge of _botany_ was something unparalleled in the history of the
science. Caryl's was amused with the descriptions, and cared nothing for
the reality. But when Miss Vanhorn heard the tale, it was the reality
that menaced her. No one knew as yet the name of the solitary pupil, nor
the relationship to herself; but of course Mrs. Lorrington was merely
biding her time. What was her purpose? In her heart she pondered over
this new knowledge of botany, expressly paraded by Helen; her own eyes
and hands were not as sure and deft as formerly. Sometimes now when she
stooped to gather a flower, it was only a leaf with the sun shining on
it, or a growth of fungus, yellowly white. "Of course it is all a plan
of old Moreau's," she said to herself. "Anne would never have thought of
studying botany to gain my favor; she hasn't wit enough. It is old
Moreau and the Lorrington together. Let us see what will be their next
step."
But Helen merely decorated her stories, and told nothing new. One day
some one asked: "But who is this girl? All this while you have not told
us; nor the place where this remarkable half-house is."
"I am not at liberty to tell," replied Helen's clear even voice. "That
is not permitted--at present."
Miss Vanhorn fidgeted in her corner, and put up her glass to catch any
wandering expressions that might be turning in her direction; but there
were none. "She is giving me a chance of having Anne here peaceably,"
she thought. "If, after a reasonable time, I do not accept it, she will
declare war, and the house will ring with my hard-heartedness.
Fortunately I do not care for hard-heartedness."
She went off on her solitary drive; mistook two flowers; stumbled and
hurt her ankle; lost her magnifying-glass. On her way home she sat and
meditated. It would be comfortable to have young eyes and hands to
assist her. Also, if Anne was really there in person, then, when all the
duets were sung, and the novelty (as well as difficulty) over, Mrs.
Lorrington would be the first to weary of her protégée, and would let
her fall like a faded leaf. And that would be the end of that. Here a
sudden and new idea came to her: might not this very life at Caryl's
break up, of itself, the engagement which was so obnoxious? If she
should bring Anne here and introduce her as her niece, might not her
very ignorance of the world and crude simplicity attract the attention
of some of the loungers at Caryl's, who, if they exerted themselves,
would have little difficulty in effacing the memory of that boy on the
island? They would not, of course, be in earnest, but the result would
be accomplished all the same. Anne was impressionable, and truthfulness
itself. Yes, it could be done.
Accompanied by her elderly maid, she went back to New York; and then out
to the half-house.
"I have changed my mind," she announced, abruptly, taking her seat upon
Jeanne-Armande's hard sofa. "You are to come with me. This is the blue
room, I suppose; and there are the four cats. Where is the bodiced
woman? Send her to me; and go pack your clothes immediately."
"Am I to go to Caryl's--where Helen is?" said Anne, in excited surprise.
"Yes; you will see your Helen. You understand, I presume, that she is at
the bottom of all this."
"But--do you like Helen, grandaunt?"
"I am extremely fond of her," replied Miss Vanhorn, dryly. "Run and make
ready; and send the bodiced woman to me. I give you half an hour; no
longer."
Jeanne-Armande came in with her gliding step. In her youth a lady's
footfall was never heard. She wore long narrow cloth gaiters without
heels, met at the ankles by two modest ruffles, whose edges were visible
when the wind blew. The exposure of even a hair's-breadth rim of ankle
would have seemed to her an unpardonable impropriety. However, there was
no danger; the ruffles swept the ground.
The Frenchwoman was grieved to part with her pupil; she had conceived a
real affection for her in the busy spot which served her as a heart. She
said good-by in the privacy of the kitchen, that Miss Vanhorn might not
see the tears in her eyes; then she returned to the blue room and went
through a second farewell, with a dignity appropriate to the occasion.
"Good-by," said Anne, coming back from the doorway to kiss her thin
cheek a second time. Then she whispered: "I may return to you after all,
mademoiselle. Do not forget me."
"The dear child!" said Jeanne-Armande, waving her handkerchief as the
carriage drove away. And there was a lump in her yellow old throat which
did not disappear all day.