Marjorie froze in consternation. She had forgotten to allow for
Francis's gusts of anger; indeed, there had been no need, for since his
one flare-up over the telephone he had been perfectly gentle and
courteous to her.
She stared at him, amazed.
"But I didn't do anything to make that happen!" she protested. "I
never dreamed--why, I'd have too much pride----"
"Pride!" thundered Francis. "It's plain cause and effect. You write
to that pup in New York, and I give you the envelope and paper--help
you straight through it, good heavens!--and you use my decency to
appeal to him for help, after you've agreed to try it out and see it
through!"
Marjorie stiffened with anger.
"I _was_ going to try it out and see it through," she countered with
dignity. "But if you treat me this way I see no reason why I should.
Even this housekeeper of yours would give me money to escape with."
"Escape! You act as if you were in a melodrama!" said Francis angrily.
"We made a bargain, that's all there is to it; and the first chance you
get, you smash it. I suppose that's the way women act. . . . I don't
know much about women, I admit."
"You don't know much about me," said Marjorie icily, "if you jump to
conclusions like that about me. Whatever that Logan man knows he
doesn't know from me. Have you forgotten Lucille?"
"Lucille wouldn't----" began Francis, and stopped.
"And why wouldn't she? Didn't she tell me that I was a poor little
pet, and that men could always take care of themselves and, then turn
around and help you carry me away? And it was carrying me away--it was
stealing me, as if I were one of those poor Sabine women in the history
book."
They were fronting each other across the threshold all this time,
Francis with his face rigid and pale with anger, his wife flushed and
quivering.
"I admit I hadn't thought of that," said Francis, referring presumably
to Lucille's possibilities as an informer, and not to Marjorie's being
a Sabine woman.
Marjorie moved back wearily and sat on the bed.
"And you were just getting to be such a nice friend," she mourned. "I
was getting so I _liked_ you. There never was anybody pleasanter than
you while we were coming up from New York. Why, you weren't like a
person one was married to, at all!"
"More like a friend nor a 'usband," quoted Francis unexpectedly.
Marjorie looked at him in surprise. Any one who could stop in the
middle of a very fine quarrel to see the funny side of things that way
wasn't so bad, her mind remarked to itself before she could stop it.
"What do you mean?" she asked, mitigating her wrath a little.
"Why, you know the story; the cockney woman who had a black eye, and
when the settlement worker asked her if her husband had given it to her
said, 'Bless you, no, miss--'e's more like a friend nor a 'usband!'"
"Oh," said Marjorie, smiling a little. Then she remembered, her eyes
falling on the yellow paper Francis still held. There was still much
to be settled between them.
"But, as you were saying about Mr. Logan----"
"I was saying a lot I hadn't any business to about Mr. Logan," said
Francis frankly.
"Then it's all right?" said Marjorie. "At least as far as you're
concerned?"
He nodded.
"Well," said she most unfairly, "it isn't, as far as I am. Francis, I
don't think we'd better think any more of ever trying to be married to
each other. It's too hard on the nervous system."
Francis colored deeply.
"What do you want to do?" he demanded.
Marjorie paused a minute before she answered. The truth was, she
didn't know. She had definitely given up her New York position. She
liked it up here, very much indeed. She liked the O'Maras and the
house, and she was wild to get outdoors and explore the woods. Leaving
Francis out of the question, she was freer than she had been for years.
Altogether it was a bit hard to be entirely moved by lofty
considerations. She wanted to stay; she knew that.
"Canada's a nice place," she began, dimpling a little and looking up at
Francis from under her eyelashes.
"Oh, then----" he began eagerly.
"And I want to stay, for perfectly selfish reasons," she went on
serenely. "But if my staying makes you think that there is any hope
of--of eventualities--I think I'd better go. In other words, I like
the idea of a vacation here. That's all. If you are willing to have
me as selfish as all that, why, it's up to you. I think myself I'm a
pig."
"You will stay, but not with any idea of learning to like me better--is
that it?"
"That's it," she said. "And, as I said, I feel colossally selfish--a
regular Hun or something."
"That's because you used the word 'colossal,'" he said absently. "They
did, a lot. All right, my dear. That's fair enough. Yes, I'm
willing."
"But no tempers, mind, and no expectations!" said Marjorie firmly,
making hay while the sun shone.
"No," said Francis. He looked at her appraisingly. "You know," he
remarked, "the gamble isn't all one way. It's just possible that I may
be as glad as you not to see the thing through when we've seen
something of each other. I don't feel that way now, but there's no
telling."
She sprang to her feet, angry as he had been. But he had turned, after
he said that, and gone quietly downstairs.
The idea was new to her, and correspondingly annoying.
Francis--Francis, who had been spending all his time since he got back
trying to win her--Francis suggesting that he might tire of her! Why,
people didn't _do_ such things! And if he expected to tire of her what
did he want her for at all?
She sprang up and surveyed herself in the glass that hung against the
rough wall, over a draped dressing-table which had apparently once been
boxes. Yes, she did look tired and draggled. Her wild-rose color was
nearly gone, and there were big circles under her eyes. And there was
a smudge on her face that nobody had told her a thing about. And her
hair was mussed too much to be becoming, even to her, who looked best
with it tossed a little. And there was not a sign of water to wash in
anywhere, and the room had no furniture except the cot and the
dressing-table----
Another knock stopped her here, and she turned to see young Peggy,
immaculate and blooming, at the door.
"I just came to bring you towels, and to see that everything was all
right, and show you the way to the bathroom," she said most
opportunely. "We have a bathtub, you know, even up here in the wilds!"
Marjorie forgot everything; home, husband, problems, life in
general--what were they all to the chance at a real bathtub? She
followed Peggy down the hall as a kitten follows a friend with a bowl
of milk.
"O-o! a bathtub!" she said rapturously.
Peggy threw open a door where, among wooden floor and side-wall and
ceiling and everything else of the most primitive, a real and most
enticingly porcelain bathtub sat proudly awaiting guests.
"It'll not be so good as you've been used to," she said with more
suggestion of Irishry than Marjorie had yet heard, "but I guess you'll
be glad of it."
"Glad!" said Marjorie. And she almost shut the door in Peggy's face.
She lingered over it and over the manicuring and hairdressing and
everything else that she could linger over, and dressed herself in the
best of her gowns, a sophisticated taupe satin with slippers and
stockings to match. She'd show Francis what he was perhaps going to be
willing to part with! So when Mrs. O'Mara's stentorian voice called
"Supper!" up the stair, she had not quite finished herself off. The
sophisticated Lucille had tucked in--it was a real tribute of
affection--her own best rouge box; and Marjorie was on the point of
adding the final touch to beauty, as the advertisement on the box said,
when she heard the supper call. She was too genuinely hungry to stop.
She raced down the stairs in a most unsophisticated manner, nearly
falling over Francis and Peggy, who were also racing for the
dining-room.
They caught her to them in a most unceremonious way, each with an arm
around her, and sped her steps on. She found herself breathless and
laughing, dropped into a big wooden chair with Francis facing her and
Peggy and her mother at the other two sides. It was a small table,
wooden as to leg under its coarse white cloth; but, oh, the beauty of
the sight to Marjorie! There were such things as pork and beans, and
chops, and baked potatoes, and apple sauce, and various vegetables, and
on another table--evidently a concession to manners--was to be seen a
noble pudding with whipped cream thick above it.
"The food looks good, now, doesn't it?" beamed Mrs. O'Mara. "I'll bet
ye're hungry enough to eat the side o' the house. Pass me yer plate to
fill up, me dear."
Marjorie ate--she remembered it vaguely afterwards, in her sleep--a
great deal of everything on the table. It did not seem possible, when
she remembered, also vaguely, all the things there had been; but the
facts were against her. She finished with a large cup of coffee, which
should have kept her awake till midnight; and lay back smiling drowsily
in her chair.
The last thing she remembered was somebody picking her up like a small
baby and carrying her out of the dining-room and up the stairs to her
own bed, and laying her down on it; and a heavy tread behind her
carrier, which must have been Mrs. O'Mara's, for a rich voice that
belonged to it had said, "Shure it's a lovely sight, yer carryin' her
around like a child. It's the lovely pair yez make, Mr. Francis!" And
then she remembered a tightening of arms around her for an instant,
before she was laid carefully on her own cot and left alone.
Mrs. O'Mara undressed her and put her to bed, she told her next
morning; but Marjorie remembered nothing at all of that. All she knew
was that the lady's voice, raised to say that it was time to get up,
wakened her about eight next day.
It is always harder to face any situation in the morning. And
theoretically Marjorie's situation was a great deal to face. Here she
was alone, penniless, at the mercy of a determined young man and his
devoted myrmidons--whatever myrmidons were. Marjorie had always heard
of them in connections like these, and rather liked the name. Mr.
Logan was imminent at any moment, and a great deal of disagreeableness
might be looked for when he turned up and had it out with Francis.
Altogether the Sabine lady felt that she ought to be in a state of
panic terror. But she had slept well,--it was an excellent cot--the
air was heavenly bracing, Mrs. O'Mara was a joy to think of, with her
brogue and her affectionate nature, and altogether Marjorie Ellison
found herself wondering hungrily what there would be for breakfast, and
dressing in a hurry so that she could go down and eat it.
Peggy, rosy and exuberant, rushed at her and kissed her when she got to
the foot of the stairs.
"Oh, isn't it lovely to think you're here, and I've got somebody to
have fun with, and Francis has to be out a lot of the time? Do you
like to dance? There's a French-Canadian family down the road, two
girls and three boys, and seven or eight other men out working with
Francis, and under him, and if you only say you like to dance I'll
telephone them to-night. Mother said I was too young to dance--and me
three years learning at the convent!--but with you here sure she can't
say a word. Oh, do say you'll have a little dance to-night! Francis
dances, too, if you haven't stopped it in him."
She stopped for a minute to take breath, and Marjorie clapped her hands.
"I love to dance! Do have them up! Never mind whether Francis likes
it or not!"
"Sure you have to mind what your own wedded husband likes," said the
Irish girl, shocked a little. "But unless he's been more sobered
than's likely by the big war, he'll be as crazy over it all as we are.
There's a dozen grand dance records on the phonograph, and sure a bit
of rosin on the floor and it'll be as fine as silk. Let's try them
now."
She made for the phonograph and had a dance-record on it before
Marjorie could answer, and in another minute had picked the smaller
girl up and was dancing over the rough floor with her. And so Francis,
coming in a little apprehensively, found them flushed and laughing, and
whirling wildly around to the music of a record played much too fast.
Peggy, in an effort to show off heavily before Francis, came a cropper
over a stool at his feet, pulling Marjorie down in her fall; both of
them laughing like children as they fell, so that they could scarcely
disentangle themselves, and had to be unknotted by Francis.
"Come on to breakfast now, you young wild animals," said he, his thin,
dark face sparkling all over with laughter as Marjorie had never seen
it.
"I'm killed entirely," said Peggy. "I have to be taken."
She made herself as limp and heavy as possible, and it ended in a
free-for-all scuffle which was finally shepherded into the dining-room
by Mrs. O'Mara, who was laughing so herself that she had to stop and
catch her breath.
So there was little time to think of one's sad lot at breakfast,
either. And Peggy was so keen on the dance proposition that it took
all breakfast time to discuss it.
"I'm taking the motor-cycle over to the clearing, and I don't think
I'll be back till night," said Francis unexpectedly when breakfast was
over.
Peggy made a loud outcry.
"Is this your idea of a honeymoon? Well, when my time comes may I have
a kinder man than you! And poor Marjorie sitting home darning your
socks, I suppose!"
"No. Not at all. I have to go over first to take some things. When I
come back I'll take her, too, if she'd like to go. Think you'd enjoy
it, Marjorie?"
"What is it?" she asked cautiously, not particularly willing to
implicate herself.
"Well, it's a little cabin--or two little cabins, rather, and a
lean-to--several miles away. A motor-cycle can go there by taking its
life in its hands. It's in the middle of a clearing, so to speak; but
it's also in the middle of a pretty thick patch of woods around the
clearing. There's a spring, and a kettle, and we make open fires.
There are provisions in the lean-to, locked up so the deer can't get
them--yes, deer like things to eat. We go there to stay when there's
such work to do that it isn't convenient to come back and forth at
night. There are lots of rabbits and birds, and once in a while a
harmless little green snake--do you mind harmless snakes, my
dear?--comes and looks affectionately at you, finds you're a human
being, and goes away again rather disappointed. Once in a long while
an old bear comes and sniffs through the cracks of the lean-to in hopes
of lunch, and goes away again disconsolately like the snake. But only
once since I can remember. I tell you, Marjorie, I don't ever remember
having a better time than when I'd built a fire out there in an open
spot near the trees, and just lay on the ground with my hands behind my
head, all alone, and everything in the whole world so far away that
there wasn't a chance of its bothering me! Just trees and sky and
wood-smoke and the ground underneath--there's nothing like it in the
world!"
He had flushed up with enthusiasm. Marjorie looked at him admiringly.
This was a new Francis, one she had never met. She had not realized
that any one could love that sort of thing--indeed, no one had ever
told her that such things existed. Her life had been spent between
Cousin Anna's little prim house with a pavement in front of it and a
pocket-handkerchief of lawn behind, and the tiny New York flat she had
occupied with Lucille. She had never really been out-of-doors in her
life.
"Oh, please do take me!" she cried.
He seemed extremely pleased at her asking.
"I can't this first trip; the side-car will be full of junk that I have
to get over there. But I _would_ like to take you on my second trip,
about noon to-day. Or it may be later when I get back--it's quite a
distance."
"That will be all right," said Marjorie sedately. "I'd like to rest a
little this morning, anyway."
So Francis, with a light in his eyes, and whistling happily, fussed
about for a while assembling a mysterious collection of tools and
curious bundles, and rode blithely off in the general direction of what
looked like virgin forest.
"And now we'll plan all about the dance," said Peggy gaily.
"You will not, Miss! You'll plan how to help me clean the back cellar
this beautiful sunny morning that was just made for it," said her
mother sternly, appearing on the scene, and carrying off a protesting
Peggy.
Marjorie, left alone, addressed herself to resting up in preparation
for the afternoon's trip. There was a big hammock on the porch, and
thither, wrapped in her heavy coat, she went to lie. She tried to
think out some plans for her future life without Francis; but the plans
were hard to make. There were so many wild things to watch; even the
clouds and sky seemed different up here. And presently when Peggy, no
more than healthfully excited by her hard morning's work on the cellar,
came prancingly out to enjoy more of her guest's society, she found her
curled up, asleep, one hand under her cheek, looking about ten years
old and very peaceful.
"Isn't she the darling!" she breathed to her mother.
"She is that!" said Mrs. O'Mara heartily. "But they've both got fine
young tempers of their own, for all they're so gay and friendly.
Somebody's going to learn who's rulin' the roost, when the first edge
of the honeymoon's off. And it's in me mind that the under-dog won't
be Mr. Francis."
"Oh, mother! How can you talk so horridly?" remonstrated Peggy. "As
if they ever had any chance of quarreling!"
"There's none," said Mrs. O'Mara wisely, "but has the chancet of
quarrelin' when they're man an' wife. An' why not? Sure it brightens
life a bit! 'Tis fine when it's over, as the dentist said to me whin
he pulled out the big tooth in me back jaw."
"Well, I know _I'm_ never going to quarrel," said Peggy vehemently.
"Then ye'd be a reformed character itself, an' why not start to curb
yer temper now?" said her mother. "I can mind a certain day----"
But Peggy engulfed her mother in a violent embrace, holding her mouth
shut as she did so, and as Peggy was even taller than Mrs. O'Mara and
quite as strong, the ensuing struggle and laughter woke Marjorie.
"Now, see that! An' take shame to yerself!" said Mrs. O'Mara
apologetically. "'Twas me angel girl here, Mrs. Ellison, explainin' by
fine arguments how peaceful-minded she is. Now let me away, Peggy, for
there's the meal to make."
Peggy, laughing as usual, sat down unceremoniously by Marjorie.
"I was just saying that I didn't see why married people should
quarrel," she explained, "and mother says that they all have to do some
of it, just to keep life amusing. _I_ think you and Francis get along
like kittens in a basket."
"And does she think we quarrel?" inquired Marjorie sleepily, yet with
suspicion.
Peggy shook her head with indubitable honesty.
"No, she only says you will sooner or later. But that's because she's
Irish, I think; you know Irish people do like a bit of a shindy once in
awhile. I admit I don't mind it myself. But you Americans born are
quieter. When you quarrel you seem to take no pleasure whatever in it,
for all I can see!"
Marjorie laughed irrepressibly.
"Oh, Peggy, I do love you!" she said. "It's true, I don't like
quarreling a bit. It always makes me unhappy. It's my Puritan
ancestry, I suppose."
"Well, you can't help your forebears," said Peggy sagely.
"And now shall I call up the folks for the dance to-night?"
"Oh, yes, do!" begged Marjorie, who had slept as much as she wanted to
and felt ready for anything in the world.
She lay on in the khaki hammock in a happy drowsiness. The wind and
sunshine alone were enough to make her happy. And there was going to
be a dance to-night, and she could wear a little pink dress she
remembered . . . and pretty soon there would be luncheon, and after
that she was going off on a gorgeous expedition with Francis, where
there was a fire, and rabbits and maybe a nice but perfectly harmless
little green snake that would look at her affectionately . . . but
everybody looked at you affectionately, once you were married . . . it
was very warming and comforting. . . .
She was asleep again before she knew it. It was only Francis's quick
step on the porch that woke her--Francis, very alert and flushed, and
exceedingly hungry.
"Yes, yes, Mr. Francis, the food's been waitin' you this long time,"
said Mrs. O'Mara, evidently in answer to a soul-cry of Francis's, for
he had not had time to say anything aloud. "Bring yer wife an' come
along an' eat."
So they went in without further word spoken, and after all Marjorie
found herself the possessor of as good an appetite as she'd had for
breakfast.
"Be sure to get back in time to dress for the dance," Peggy warned them
as they started off in the motor-cycle. "It's to be a really fine
dance, with the girls in muslin dresses, not brogans and shirtwaists!"
"The girls?" asked Marjorie of Francis wonderingly.
"I think she means that the men aren't to wear brogans, or the girls
shirtwaists," he explained, as they whizzed down what seemed invisible
tracks in a trackless forest. "Smell the pines--aren't they good?"
Marjorie looked up, beaming.
"Stunning!" she said. "I don't see how you ever wanted to come to New
York, after you'd had this."
"After a long time of this New York is pleasant again," he said. "But
I hope you won't tire of this, my dear."
"Oh, no!" she said fervently. "I'm crazy to go on, and see the cabins
you told me about. I can amuse myself there the whole afternoon, if
you have other things you want to do."
"You dear!" said Francis.
After that they were quiet, and rode on together, enjoying the glorious
afternoon.
"Here we are," said Francis after about two hours on the motor-cycle.
He slipped off and held the machine for her to get out.
"Oh," said Marjorie, "it's like something out of a fairy-book!"