THE NEXT NEIGHBOR.
Panting for breath, radiant with hope, Judith flung the door open.
A woman stood upon the porch, looking up at a wren that was shooting
in and out among the vines, chirping and fluttering till all the
blossoms seemed alive.
Judith fell back with a hostile gesture, holding the door in her hand.
"Is it you?" she asked, curtly enough.
"Just me, and nobody else," answered the woman, quite indifferent to
the frowns on that young face. "Hurried through my work early, and
thought I'd just run over and see how you got along."
"Oh, I am doing well enough."
"But you never come round to see us now. Neighbors like us ought to be
a little more sociable."
"I've had a great deal to attend to," answered Judith, still holding
on to the door.
"Nothing particular just now, is there? Got nobody inside that you'd
rather a next-door neighbor shouldn't see--have you?" questioned the
woman, with a keen flash of displeasure in her eyes.
"What do you mean, Mrs. Parsons?"
"Oh, nothing; only I ought to know that chintz dresses of the best,
and red ribbons fluttering around one like butterflies, ain't, as a
general thing, put on for run-in callers such as I am. I begin to
think, Judith, that what everybody is saying has more truth in it than
I, as an old friend, would ever allow."
Judith turned as if to close the door and shut the intruder out; for
the girl was so angry and disappointed that she did not even attempt
to govern her actions. The woman had more patience.
"Don't do that, Judith; don't, now; for you will be shutting that door
in the face of the best friend you've got--one that comes kindly to
say her say to your face, but stands up for you through thick and thin
behind your back!"
"Stands up for me! What for?" questioned the girl, haughtily, but
checking a swift movement to cover the knot of ribbon with her hand.
"What is it to you or any one else what I wear?"
"Oh, nothing--nothing; of course not; only, having no mother to look
after you, some of the neighbors feel anxious, and the rest talk
dreadfully. I have eyes as well as other people, but I never told a
mortal how often I have seen you and--you know who--sitting in the
orchard, hours on hours, when the old man was out to work. That isn't
my way; but other people have eyes, and the best of 'em will talk."
Judith's face was crimson now, and her black eyes shot fire; but she
forced herself to laugh.
"Well, let them talk; little I care about it!"
"But you ought to care, Judith Hart, if it's only for your father's
sake. Somebody'll be telling him, next."
A look of affright broke through the fire in Judith's eyes, and her
voice was somewhat subdued as she answered:
"But what can they tell him or any one else? Come in and tell me what
they say; not that I care, only for the fun of laughing at it. Come
in, Mrs. Parsons!"
Mrs. Parsons stepped within the hall and sat down in the only chair it
contained, when she took off her sun-bonnet and commenced to fan
herself with it, for the good woman was heated both by her walk across
the fields and the curbed anger which Judith's rudeness had inspired.
"Laugh!" she said, at last. "I reckon you'll laugh out of the other
side of your mouth one of these days! Talk like this isn't a thing
that you or your father can afford to put up with."
"People had better let my father alone! He is as good a man as ever
lived, every inch of him, if he does go out to days' work for a
living!"
"That he is!" rejoined Mrs. Parsons; "which is the reason why no one
has told him what was going on."
"But what _is_ going on?" questioned Judith, with an air that would
have been disdainful but for the keen anxiety that broke through all
her efforts.
"That which I have seen with my own eyes I will speak of. The young
man who stops each week at the public-house yonder comes up the hill
too often; people have begun to watch for him, and the talk grows
stronger every day. I don't join in; but most of the neighbors seem to
think that you are on the highway to destruction, and are bound to
break your father's heart."
"Indeed!" sneered Judith, white with wrath.
"They say the young fellow left a bad character behind him, and that
his visits mean no good to any honest girl, especially a poor
workingman's child, who lives from hand to mouth."
"Does my father owe them anything?" demanded Judith, fiercely.
"Not as I know of; but the long and the short of it is, Judith, people
will talk so long as that person keeps coming here. A girl without a
mother can't spend hours on hours with a strange young man without
having awful things said about her; that's what I came to warn you
of."
"There was no need of coming. Of course, I expected all the girls to
be jealous, and their mothers, too, because Mr. Storms passed their
doors without calling," answered Judith.
"That is just where it is. People say that the father is a fore-handed
man, and keeps half a dozen hands to work on his place. This young
fellow is an only son. Now, is it likely, Judith, that he means
anything straight-forward in coming here so much?"
Mrs. Parsons said this with a great deal of motherly feeling, which
was entirely thrown away upon Judith, who felt the sting of her words
through all the kindness of their utterance.
"As if Mr. Storms was not old enough and clever enough to choose for
himself," she said.
"That's the worst of it, Judith. Every one is saying that, after
making his choice, he's no business coming here to fasten scandal on
you."
"It isn't he that fastens scandal on me, but the vile tongues of the
neighbors, that are always flickering venom on some one. So it may as
well be me as another. I'm only astonished that they will allow that
he has made a choice."
"Made a choice! Why, everybody knows, that he's engaged to be
married!"
"Engaged to be married!"
A rush of hot color swept Judith's face as these words broke from her
lips, but to retreat slowly, leaving a cold pallor behind.
"Just that. Engaged to be married to a girl who lives neighbor to his
father's place--one who has plenty of money coming and wonderful good
looks," said the woman.
"I don't believe it. I know better! There isn't a word of truth in
what any of them says," retorted Judith, with fierce vehemence, while
a baleful fire broke into her eyes that fairly frightened her visitor.
"Well, I had nothing to do with it. Every word may be a slander, for
anything I know."
"It is a slander, I'll stake my life on it--a mean, base slander, got
up out of spite? But who said it? Where did the story come from? I
want to know that!"
"Oh, people are constantly going back and forth from 'Norston's Rest,'
who put up at the public-house at the foot of the hill, where he
leaves his horse. All agree in saying the same thing. Then the young
man himself only smiles when he is asked about it."
"Of course, he would smile. I don't see how he could keep from
laughing outright at such talk."
Notwithstanding her disdainful words, Judith was greatly disturbed.
The color had faded even from her lips. Her young life knew its
keenest pang when jealousy, with one swift leap, took possession of
her heart and soul and tortured them. But the girl was fiery and brave
even in her anguish. She would not yield to it in the presence of her
visitor, who might watch and report.
"They tell you that my father does not know when Mr. Storms comes
here. That, you will find, is false as the rest. He is coming home
with father this afternoon. I thought it was them when you came in.
Look, I have just set out the table. Wait a while, and you will see
them coming down the lane together."
Judith flung open the parlor-door as she spoke, and Mrs. Parsons went
in. Never had that room taken such an air of neatness within the good
woman's memory. The table-cloth was spotless; the china unmatched, but
brightly clean; the uncarpeted floor had been scoured and the cobwebs
were all swept away. The open fireplace was crowded with leaves and
coarse garden flowers.
"Well, I'm glad that I can say that much, anyway," said the good
woman, looking around with no little admiration. "What a nack you have
got, Judith! Just to think that a few branches from the hedge can do
all that! I'll go right home and tell my girls about it."
"Not yet--not till you have seen father and Mr. Storms come in to tea,
as they are sure to do before long. The neighbors are so anxious to
know about it that I want them to have it from good authority."
Judith had not recovered from her first exasperation, and spoke
defiantly, not at all restrained by a latent fear that her father
might come alone.
Mrs. Parsons had made her way to a window, where the wren she had
taken so much interest in was twittering joyously among the
vine-leaves.
The great anxiety that possessed Judith drew her to the window also,
where she stood trembling with dread and burning with wrath. She had
been informed before that damaging rumors were abroad with regard to
Storms' stolen visits, and it was agreed upon between her and the
young man that he should in some natural way seek out old Mr. Hart,
and thus obtain a legitimate right to visit the house.
The expectation of his coming that very afternoon had induced Judith
to brighten up her dreary old home with so much care, and would make
her triumph only the greater if Mrs. Parsons was present to witness
his approach.
"Yes," she said, "it is father and Mr. Storms I am expecting to tea.
You can see with your own eyes what friends they are."
Mrs. Parsons was not so deficient in curiosity that she did not look
eagerly through the vine-leaves, even holding them apart with her own
hands to obtain a good view. She saw two persons coming down the lane,
as opposite in appearance as creatures of the same race could be.
Young Storms walked vigorously, swinging his cane in one hand or
dashing off the head of a thistle with it whenever those stately
wild-flowers tempted him with their imperial purple.
To the old man who came toiling after him this reckless destruction
seemed a cruel enjoyment. His gentle nature shrunk from every blow, as
if the poor flowers could feel and suffer under those cruel
lacerations. He could not have been induced to break the smallest
blossom from its roots in that ruthless fashion, but tore up unseemly
weeds in the garden gently and with a sort of compassion, for the
tenderness of his nature reached the smallest thing that God has made.
A slight man loaded down with hard work, stooping in the shoulders,
walking painfully beyond his usual speed, Hart appeared as he
struggled to keep up with young Storms, who knew that he was weary and
too old for the toil that had worn him out, but never once offered to
check his own steps or wait for him to take breath.
"Yes, it is father and Mr. Storms. You can tell the neighbors that;
and tell them from me that he'll come again, just as long as he wants
to, and we want to have him," said Judith, triumphantly.
"I'll tell the neighbors what I have seen, and nothing more," answered
the woman. "There's not one of them that wishes you any harm."
"Oh, no, of course not!" was the mocking answer.
The woman shook her head, half sorrowful, half in anger.
"Well, Judith, I won't say another word, now I see that your father
knows; but it is to be hoped he has found out something better about
the young man than any of us has heard of yet."
Mrs. Parsons tied her bonnet as she spoke, and casting a wistful look
on the table, hesitated, as if waiting for an invitation to remain.
But Judith was too much excited for any thought of such hospitality;
so the woman went away more angry than she had ever been with that
motherless girl before.
The moment she was gone Judith took her bowl of blackberries, emptied
them into the glass dish, heaping them unevenly on one side to conceal
a crack in the glass, then ran into the hall, for she heard footsteps
on the porch, and her father's voice inviting some one to walk in.