PHEBE.
"Miss Phebe!"
"Oh, Mr. Halloway!"
"Hush. Don't let them know I'm here. I couldn't help peeping in as I went
by. You look done up."
"I am."
"What's going on?"
"Come in and see."
"Heaven forbid! Gracious! Mrs. Upjohn will think that's a swear.
Don't look this way, Miss Phebe. They'll discover me. What's Mr.
Hardcastle saying?"
"The world is very evil."
"'The times are waxing late.' Why doesn't he add that and go?"
"He never goes. He only comes."
"What is Mrs. Upjohn so wrought up about?"
"She caught one of her Sunday-school boys breaking Sunday."
"How?"
"Eating apples."
"Horrible! Where?"
"Up in a tree."
"Whose tree?"
"That's where the unpardonable comes in. Her tree."
"Poor boy; what a mistake! What are you doing with that hideous silk
stocking?"
"Picking up dropped stitches."
"Whose stitches? Yours?"
"Mrs. Hardcastle's."
"Don't aid and abet her in creating that monstrosity. It's participation
in crime. It's worse than eating apples up a tree. Do you always have
such a crowd here in the morning?"
"Always."
"How long have they been here?"
"Nearly two hours."
"What do they come for?"
"Habit."
"Miss Lydia's asleep."
"Habit too."
"What shall you do when you are done with that odious stocking?"
"Sort crewels for Mrs. Upjohn."
"And then?"
"Iron out my dress for the party."
"Oh, at Mrs. Anthony's? Who'll be there?"
"Everybody who has dropped in here this morning."
"Who else?"
"Those who dropped in yesterday."
"But what will you do to make it party-like?"
"Simper. Aren't you coming too?"
"Not if you think it would do for me to say that I held party-going wrong
for a clergyman. Could I? I might win over Mrs. Upjohn to the Church by
so holy a statement."
"You had better take to round-dancing instead, then, to keep her
out of it."
"Miss Phebe, is it possible you are severe on poor Mrs. Upjohn?"
"Very possible."
"As your pastor I must admonish you. Don't be. Besides, it's safer to
keep on her blind side."
"She hasn't any."
"Unhappy woman! What a blaze of moral light she must live in! But I
ought to have been in my study an hour ago. I must tear myself away. I
wish you all ill-luck possible with those stitches."
"Ah, is that you, Mr. Halloway? I was wondering what kept Phebe so long
in the window. Good-morning, sir. Good-morning, sir. Pray, come in." And
having, by a turn of his slow old head, discovered the young man standing
just outside the window, Mr. Hardcastle came pompously forward, waving
his hand in a grand way he had, that seemed to bespeak him always the
proprietor, no matter in whose house he chanced to be.
"Thank you, Mr. Hardcastle, not this morning. I was just telling Miss
Phebe I ought to be at work. Good-morning, Mrs. Lane. Good-morning, Mrs.
Upjohn--Mrs. Hardcastle--Miss Delano--Miss Brooks."
And with a cheery bow to each individual head, craning itself forward to
have a look at the unusual young man who had work to do, the Rev. Mr.
Halloway walked off to his rectory, which was directly opposite, giving a
merry glance back at Phebe from the other side of the street. Phebe was
still smiling as she went with the stocking to its owner.
"Thank you, my dear," said Mrs. Hardcastle, taking it from her without
looking. "Oh, my child, how could you be so careless! You have let me
pull out one of the needles. Well--well."
Phebe took the work silently back, and sat herself down on a stool to
remedy the mischief.
"A nice young fellow enough," remarked Mr. Hardcastle,
condescendingly, returning to the group of ladies. "But he'll never
set the river on fire."
"No need he should, is there?" said Mrs. Upjohn, looking up sharply from
her embroidery. She always contradicted, if only for argument's sake, so
that even her assents usually took a negative form. "It's enough if he's
able to put out a fire in _that_ Church. It doesn't take much of a man, I
understand, to fill an Episcopalian pulpit." (Nobody had ever yet been
able to teach the good dame the difference between Episcopal and
Episcopalian, and she preferred the undivided use of the latter word.)
"Any thing will go down with them."
"Yes, my dear Mrs. Upjohn. It's undeniably a poor Church, a poor Church,
and I hope we may all live to witness its downfall. It must have been a
hard day for you, Mrs. Lane, when Phebe went over to it. I never forgave
old Mr. White for receiving her into it; I never did, indeed."
Phebe only smiled.
"Humph!" said Mrs. Lane, biting off a thread. "Phebe may go where she
likes, for all me, so long as only she goes. Baptist I was bred, and
Baptist I'll be buried; but it's with churches as with teas, I say. One's
as good as another, but people may take green, or black, or mixed, as
best agrees with their stomachs."
"That's a very dangerous doctrine," said Mrs. Upjohn. "Push it a little
further, and you'll have babes and sucklings living on beef, and their
elders dining on pap."
"Humph!" ejaculated Mrs. Lane again. "If they like it, what's the odds?"
"He-he!" snickered Miss Brooks.
"Well, now," resumed Mr. Hardcastle, "it stands to reason children should
learn to like what their elders have liked before them. That's the only
decent and Christian way of living. And as I said to my son,--to my Dick,
you know" (Mr. Hardcastle had a son of whom he always spoke as if sole
owner of him, and indeed solely responsible for his being),--"'Dick,' I
said, when he spoke disrespectfully of Mr. Webb's prayers,--and Mr. Webb
is a powerful prayer-maker, to be sure,--'Dick,' I said, 'church is like
physic, and the more you don't like it, the more good it does you. And if
you think Mr. Webb's prayers are too long, it's a sign that for your
soul's salvation they ought to be longer.' And I said--"
Mrs. Lane knew by long experience that now or never was the time to stop
Mr. Hardcastle. Once fairly started on the subject of his supposed advice
to Dick on any given occasion, there was no arresting his eloquence. She
started up abruptly from her sewing-machine with her mouth full of pins,
emptying them into her hand as she went. "Those ginger-cookies--" she
mumbled as she passed Mr. Hardcastle. "They ought to be done by this."
A promissory fragrance caught the old gentleman's nostrils as she opened
the door, dispelling sterner thoughts. "Ah," he said, sniffing the air
with evident approbation, "I was about going, but I don't mind if I stay
and try a few. Your make, Phebe?"
"No," answered Phebe, shortly, moving just out of reach of the bland old
hand, which stretched itself out to chuck her under the chin, and was
left patting the air with infinite benevolence "mother made them."
"All wrong," commented Mrs. Upjohn. "All wrong. You should not leave your
mother any work that you could spare her. One of the first things I
taught our Maria" (Mrs. Upjohn in Mr. Hardcastle's presence always said
_our_ Maria with great distinctness),--"one of the first things I taught
her was, that it was her privilege to save me in every thing. I don't
believe in idleness for girls. Aren't you ready yet to attend to these
crewels, Phebe? Miss Brooks is snarling them terribly."
"Phebe's really a very good girl in her way though," remarked Mrs.
Hardcastle, indulgently, from her easy chair. "I will testify that she
can make quite eatable cake at a pinch."
Phebe secretly thought Mrs. Hardcastle ought to know. She remembered her
once spoiling a new-made company loaf by slashing into it without so much
as a by-your-leave.
"That was very nice cake Miss Lynch gave us last night," piped in
Miss Delano.
"Too much citron," pronounced Mrs. Upjohn, decisively. "You should never
overload your cake with citron. It turns it out heavy, as sure as there's
a sun in the heavens."
"There isn't any to-day; it's cloudy," Phebe could not help putting in,
demurely, but no one paid any attention, except that Mrs. Upjohn turned
on her an unworded expression of: "If I say so, it is so whether or no."
An animated debate on cake followed, in the middle of which Mrs. Lane
reappeared with a trayful of cookies hot from the oven; and two more
callers came in, Bell Masters and Dick Hardcastle, which last first woke
up Miss Lydia with a boisterous kiss, frightening the poor soul half to
death by assuring her she had been snoring so that he heard her way down
street, and then devoted himself to the cookies with a good-will and
large capacity that filled one with compassionate feelings toward his
mother's larder. With these new and younger elements the talk varied a
little. They discussed last night's party, the supper, the dresses, the
people, and then the probabilities of to-night's party, the people, the
dresses, the supper. And then Dick made a sensation by saying right out,
that he had just met Mr. Upjohn on Main Street with Mrs. Bruce, holding a
parasol gallantly over her head. And everybody looked at once at Mrs.
Upjohn, and then back at the graceless Dick, and an awful silence
succeeded, broken by Mrs. Upjohn's reaching out her hand and saying in
the tone of a Miss Cushman on the stage: "Dick, dear, I'll take another
cookie." If Mr. Upjohn chose to walk down town shielding women's
complexions for them, why in the world should she trouble herself about
it, beyond making sure that he did not by mistake take her parasol for
the kindly office? And so the talk went on, people coming and people
going, and Mrs. Lane did up a whole basketful of work undisturbed, and
Phebe inwardly chafed and fumed and longed for dinner-time, that at last
the ceaseless, aimless chatter might come to an end.
She went to the party that night, because in Joppa everybody had to go
when asked. To refuse was considered tantamount to an open declaration of
war, unless in case of illness, and then it almost required a doctor's
certificate to get one off. It was a good law and ensured the suppers
being disposed of. There was no dancing to-night, it being an understood
thing that when Mrs. Upjohn was asked there should be none or she would
not come; but there was music. Bell Masters had a very nice contralto
voice, and was always willing to sing, thus sure of securing one of
Joppa's few young gentlemen to stand by and turn over her leaves; she
thoughtfully took her music on that account, giving out that she could
not play without notes. Phebe had been doing her best all unconsciously
to herself to help her hosts entertain, but when the singing began she
stole away to the nearly empty piazza, and stood leaning by the window,
enjoying the cool air and softly whistling an accompaniment to the song;
and there Mr. Halloway found her. She looked up at him and smiled as he
joined her, but went on with her low, sweet whistling all the same.
"I like that better than the singing," he said, when at last it came to
an end with the music.
"You ought not to, Mr. Halloway. Don't you know it's very unlady-like to
whistle? Mrs. Upjohn puts Maria to bed for it."
"Dear me. I must take care she doesn't ever catch _me_ at it. Ah! the
dress has ironed nicely, hasn't it? Would you mind standing out a little
from the shadow?"
Phebe moved a step forward into the stream of light that shot across the
piazza from the open window, and stood so, looking up at him out of her
soft white muslin draperies and white ribbons, not a ray of color about
her anywhere, like a very material and sweet little ghost.
"Yes, you look very nice, very nice indeed," he said, after a grave
inspection that took in every detail of face and figure. A young,
innocent face it was, with soft brown hair as bright and as fine as silk,
all turned back from a low forehead, around which it grew in the very
prettiest way in the world, and gathered in loose braids in the neck; and
she had such a fresh, clear complexion, and such honest, loving, gray
eyes, and such a round, girlish figure,--how was it people never made
more of her prettiness?
"I think you look nicer than any one here," Mr. Halloway added, in
thorough conviction. "You must be an adept in ironing." Phebe laughed
softly in pure pleasure. It was so new to have such pretty things said to
her. "Would it be very wrong to slip away together for a rest?" he
continued, leading her a little farther along. "Let us sit down on the
steps here and recruit. I have talked my throat hoarse to each of the
very deafest old ladies in turn,--I suppose they came here purposely to
be screeched at,--and I saw you working valiantly among the old men. What
a place this is for longevity!"
"You are finding out its characteristics by degrees, I see."
"Yes, am I not?" said he, with his pleasant laugh. "I know intimately
every member of my parish and every member of every other parish by this
time from sheer hearsay. Each house I visit gives me no end of valuable
and minute information about all the other houses. I am waiting to come
out with a rousing sermon against gossip, till I shall have gained all
possible enlightenment and help from it. I mustn't kill my goose that
lays the golden eggs before I have all the eggs I want, must I?"
"And knowing us all so well, what do you think of Joppa as a whole?"
asked Phebe, curiously. "You always say it is too soon to judge, but
surely you must really know by this time."
He did not answer for a moment, then turned to her very seriously. "I
think," he said slowly, "it is a place that needs a much older, a much
better, and a much wiser man than I am to be among its leaders in any
sense. It is not at all what I thought it would be when I accepted the
trust. It is beyond me. But since the Bishop sent me here, I mean to stay
and do my best."
"How will you begin?"
"I will begin with you," he answered, lightly, with a smile that lit up
all his face, the moment's seriousness quite gone. "You were my first
friend, and I ought to take you first in hand, ought I not? I am going
to do you a great deal of good."
"How?"
"I'm going to teach you to love books."
"You can't."
"Yes, I can. You don't know books, that is all. I intend to introduce you
to each other. I have some so interesting you can't help liking them, and
you'll find yourself crying for more before you know it. I am going to
bring them over to you. You shall have something better to do than fill
up all your mornings with promoting stockings of exasperating colors, and
listening to tales of Sabbath-breakers. Just wait and see. I am going to
metamorphose you."
"Oh, I wish you would!" sighed Phebe, clasping her hands and speaking so
earnestly that he looked at her in surprise. "I am so sick of myself. I
do want to be something better than I am. I am so dreadfully
common-place. I amount to so little. I know so little. I can do so
little. And there is no one here who cares to help me to any thing
better. I don't know enough even to know how to improve myself. But I do
want to. Will you help me, Mr. Halloway? Will you really help me?" She
positively had tears shining in her eyes.
Mr. Halloway leaned forward and gently took her hand. "Am I not here for
that?" he asked. "Here purposely to help you and all who need me in any
way? Will it not be my greatest pleasure to do so, as well as my best and
truest work? You may be sure, Miss Phebe, I will do all I can for you,
with God's help."
"Rather damp for you to be sitting there without a shawl, isn't it,
my child?"
It was only Mrs. Anthony's friendly voice, as that lady passed
hurriedly by, intent on hospitable duties, but Phebe started guiltily.
What right had she to be out here with Mr. Halloway, keeping him from
the other girls, when she ought, of course, to be in the parlors seeing
that the old ladies got their ice-cream safely? "I'll go right in," she
said, rising hastily; but Mr. Halloway drew her hand through his arm to
detain her.
"Why? Because it is damp?"
"No; because I ought not to be selfish, ought to go back and help."
"Ah," said he, "I am getting new lights every moment. Then you don't go
to parties just to enjoy yourself?"
She opened wide, serious eyes. "Oh, no." He smiled down at her very
kindly, "You shall go right away," he said, releasing her. "I will not
keep you another instant from dear Mr. Hardcastle and that nice Mrs.
Upjohn. But before you go let me tell you, Miss Phebe, that, if only in
view of your latest confession, I do not think you commonplace at all!"