The conversation began, paradoxically, with a silence. Otherwise, it
would have begun with platitudes. Since neither Von Rosen nor Annie
Eustace were given usually to platitudes, the silence was
unavoidable. Both instinctively dreaded with a pleasurable dread the
shock of speech. In a way this was the first time the two had been
alone with any chance of a seclusion protracted beyond a very few
minutes. In the house was Aunt Harriet Eustace, who feared a rose, as
she might have feared the plague, and, moreover, as Annie comfortably
knew, had imparted the knowledge to Von Rosen as they had walked down
the pergola, that she would immediately fall asleep.
"Aunt Harriet always goes to sleep in her chair after a cup of tea,"
Annie had said and had then blushed redly.
"Does she?" asked Von Rosen with apparent absent-mindedness but in
reality, keenly. He excused himself for a moment, left Annie standing
in the pergola and hurried back to the house, where he interviewed
Jane Riggs, and told her not to make any noise, as Miss Eustace in
the library would probably fall asleep, as was her wont after a cup
of tea. Jane Riggs assented, but she looked after him with a long,
slow look. Then she nodded her head stiffly and went on washing cups
and saucers quietly. She spoke only one short sentence to herself.
"He's a man and it's got to be somebody. Better be her than anybody
else."
When the two at the end of the pergola began talking, it was
strangely enough about the affair of the Syrian girl.
"I suppose, have always supposed, that the poor young thing's husband
came and stole his little son," said Von Rosen.
"You would have adopted him?" asked Annie in a shy voice.
"I think I would not have known any other course to take," replied
Von Rosen.
"It was very good of you," Annie said. She cast a little glance of
admiration at him.
Von Rosen laughed. "It is not goodness which counts to one's credit
when one is simply chucked into it by Providence," he returned.
Annie laughed. "To think of your speaking of Providence as
'chucking.'"
"It is rather awful," admitted Von Rosen, "but somehow I never do
feel as if I need be quite as straight-laced with you."
"Mr. von Rosen, you have talked with me exactly twice, and I am at a
loss as to whether I should consider that remark of yours as a
compliment or not."
"I meant it for one," said Von Rosen earnestly. "I should not have
used that expression. What I meant was I felt that I could be myself
with you, and not weigh words or split hairs. A clergyman has to do a
lot of that, you know, Miss Eustace, and sometimes (perhaps all the
time) he hates it; it makes him feel like a hypocrite."
"Then it is all right," said Annie rather vaguely. She gazed up at
the weave of leaves and blossoms, then down at the wavering carpet of
their shadows.
"It is lovely here," she said.
The young man looked at the slender young creature in the blue gown
and smiled with utter content.
"It is very odd," he said, "but nothing except blue and that
particular shade of blue would have harmonised."
"I should have said green or pink."
"They would surely have clashed. If you can't melt into nature, it is
much safer to try for a discord. You are much surer to chord. That
blue does chord, and I doubt if a green would not have been a sort of
swear word in colour here."
"I am glad you like it," said Annie like a school girl. She felt very
much like one.
"I like you," Von Rosen said abruptly.
Annie said nothing. She sat very still.
"No, I don't like you. I love you," said Von Rosen.
"How can you? You have talked with me only twice."
"That makes no difference with me. Does it with you?"
"No," said Annie, "but I am not at all sure about--"
"About what, dear?"
"About what my aunts and grandmother will say."
"Do you think they will object to me?"
"No-o."
"What is it makes you doubtful? I have a little fortune of my own. I
have an income besides my salary. I can take care of you. They can
trust you to me."
Annie looked at him with a quick flush of resentment. "As if I would
even think of such a thing as that!"
"What then?"
"You will laugh, but grandmother is very old, although she sits up so
straight, and she depends on me, and--"
"And what?"
"If I married you, I could not, of course, play pinocle with
grandmother on Sunday."
"Oh, yes, you could. I most certainly should not object."
"Then that makes it hopeless."
Von Rosen looked at her in perplexity. "I am afraid I don't
understand you, dear little soul."
"No, you do not. You see, grandmother is in reality very good, almost
too good to live, and thinking she is being a little wicked playing
pinocle on Sunday when Aunt Harriet and Aunt Susan don't know it,
sort of keeps her going. I don't just know why myself, but I am sure
of it. Now the minute she was sure that you, who are the minister,
did not object, she would not care a bit about pinocle and it would
hurt her."
Annie looked inconceivably young. She knitted her candid brows and
stared at him with round eyes of perplexity. Karl von Rosen shouted
with laughter.
"Oh, well, if that is all," he said, "I object strenuously to your
playing pinocle with your grandmother on Sunday. The only way you can
manage will be to play hookey from church."
"I need not do that always," said Annie. "My aunts take naps Sunday
afternoons, but I am sure grandmother could keep awake if she thought
she could be wicked."
"Well, you can either play hookey from church, or run away Sunday
afternoons, or if you prefer and she is able, I will drive your
grandmother over here and you can play pinocle in my study."
"Then I do think she will live to be a hundred," said Annie with a
peal of laughter.
"Stop laughing and kiss me," said Von Rosen.
"I seldom kiss anybody."
"That is the reason."
When Annie looked up from her lover's shoulder, a pair of topaz eyes
were mysteriously regarding her.
"The cat never saw me kiss anybody," said Von Rosen.
"Do you think the cat knows?" asked Annie, blushing and moving away a
little.
"Who knows what any animal knows or does not know?" replied Von
Rosen. "When we discover that mystery, we may have found the key to
existence."
Then the cat sprang into Annie's blue lap and she stroked his yellow
back and looked at Von Rosen with eyes suddenly reflective, rather
coolly.
"After all, I, nor nobody else, ever heard of such a thing as this,"
said she. "Do you mean that you consider this an engagement?" she
asked in astonishment.
"I most certainly do."
"After we have only really seen and talked to each other twice!"
"It has been all our lives and we have just found it out," said Von
Rosen. "Of course, it is unusual, but who cares? Do you?"
"No, I don't," said Annie. They leaned together over the yellow cat
and kissed each other.
[Illustration: They leaned together over the yellow cat and kissed
each other]
"But what an absurd minister's wife I shall be," said Annie. "To
think of your marrying a girl who has staid at home from church and
played cards with her grandmother!"
"I am not at all sure," said Von Rosen, "that you do not get more
benefit, more spiritual benefit, than you would have done from my
sermons."
"I think," said Annie, "that you are just about as funny a minister
as I shall be a minister's wife."
"I never thought I should be married at all."
"Why not?"
"I did not care for women."
"Then why do you now?"
"Because you are a woman."
Then there was a sudden movement in front of them. The leaf-shadows
flickered; the cat jumped down from Annie's lap and ran away, his
great yellow plume of tail waving angrily, and Margaret Edes stood
before them. She was faultlessly dressed as usual. A woman of her
type cannot be changed utterly by force of circumstances in a short
time. Her hat was loaded with wisteria. She wore a wisteria gown of
soft wool. She held up her skirts daintily. A great amethyst gleamed
at her throat, but her face, wearing a smile like a painted one, was
dreadful. It was inconceivable, but Margaret Edes had actually in
view the banality of confessing her sin to her minister. Of course,
Annie was the one who divined her purpose. Von Rosen was simply
bewildered. He rose, and stood with an air of polite attention.
"Margaret," cried Annie, "Margaret!"
The man thought that his sweetheart was simply embarrassed, because
of discovery. He did not understand why she bade him peremptorily to
please go in the house and see if Aunt Harriet were awake, that she
wished to speak to Mrs. Edes. He, however, went as bidden, already
discovering that man is as a child to a woman when she is really in
earnest.
When he was quite out of hearing, Annie turned upon her friend.
"Margaret," she said, "Margaret, you must not."
Margaret turned her desperate eyes upon Annie. "I did not know it
would be like this," she said.
"You must not tell him."
"I must."
"You must not, and all the more now."
"Why, now?"
"I am going to marry him."
"Then he ought to know."
"Then he ought not to know, for you have drawn me into your web of
deceit also. He has talked to me about you and the book. I have not
betrayed you. You cannot betray me."
"It will kill me. I did not know it would be like this. I never
blamed myself for anything before."
"It will not kill you, and if it does, you must bear it. You must not
do your husband and children such an awful harm."
"Wilbur is nominated for Senator. He would have to give it up. He
would go away from Fairbridge. He is very proud," said Margaret in a
breathless voice, "but I must tell."
"You cannot tell."
"The children talk of it all the time. They look at me so. They
wonder because they think I have written that book. They tell all the
other children. Annie, I must confess to somebody. I did not know it
would be like this."
"You cannot confess to anybody except God," said Annie.
"I cannot tell my husband. I cannot tell poor Wilbur, but I thought
Mr. von Rosen would tell him."
"You can not tell Mr. von Rosen. You have done an awful wrong, and
now you can not escape the fact that you have done it. You cannot get
away from it."
"You are so hard."
"No, I am not hard," said Annie. "I did not betray you there before
them all, and neither did Alice."
"Did Alice Mendon know?" asked Margaret in an awful voice.
"Yes, I had told Alice. She was so hurt for me that I think she might
have told."
"Then she may tell now. I will go to her."
"She will not tell now. And I am not hard. It is you who are hard
upon yourself and that nobody, least of all I, can help. You will
have to know this dreadful thing of yourself all your life and you
can never stop blaming yourself. There is no way out of it. You can
not ruin your husband. You can not ruin your children's future and
you cannot, after the wrong you have done me, put me in the wrong, as
you would do if you told. By telling the truth, you would put me to
the lie, when I kept silence for your sake and the sakes of your
husband and children."
"I did not know it would be like this," said Margaret in her
desperate voice. "I had done nothing worth doing all my life and the
hunger to do something had tormented me. It seemed easy, I did not
know how I could blame myself. I have always thought so well of
myself; I did not know. Annie, for God's sake, let me tell. You can't
know how keenly I suffer, Annie. Let me tell Mr. von Rosen. People
always tell ministers. Even if he does not tell Wilbur, but perhaps
he can tell him and soften it, it would be a relief. People always
tell ministers, Annie."
It seemed improbable that Margaret Edes in her wisteria costume could
be speaking. Annie regarded her with almost horror. She pitied her,
yet she could not understand. Margaret had done something of which
she herself was absolutely incapable. She had the right to throw the
stone. She looked at a sinner whose sin was beyond her comprehension.
She pitied the evident signs of distress, but her pity, although
devoid of anger, was, in spite of herself, coldly wondering.
Moreover, Margaret had been guilty in the eyes of the girl of a much
worse sin than the mere thievery of her book; she had murdered love.
Annie had loved Margaret greatly. No, she loved her no longer, since
the older woman had actually blasphemed against the goddess whom the
girl had shrined. Had Margaret stolen from another, it would have
made no difference. The mere act had destroyed herself as an image of
love. Annie, especially now that she was so happy, cared nothing for
the glory of which she had been deprived. She had, in truth, never
had much hunger for fame, especially for herself. She did not care
when she thought how pleased her lover would have been and her
relatives, but already the plan for another book was in her brain,
for the child was a creator, and no blow like this had any lasting
power over her work. What she considered was Margaret's revelation of
herself as something else than Margaret, and what she did resent
bitterly was being forced into deception in order to shield her. She
was in fact hard, although she did not know it. Her usually gentle
nature had become like adamant before this. She felt unlike herself
as she said bitterly:
"People do not always tell ministers, and you cannot tell Mr. von
Rosen, Margaret. I forbid it. Go home and keep still."
"I cannot bear it."
"You must bear it."
"They are going to give me a dinner, the Zenith Club," said Margaret.
"You will have to accept it."
"I cannot, Annie Eustace, of what do you think me capable? I am not
as bad as you think. I cannot and will not accept that dinner and
make the speech which they will expect and hear all the
congratulations which they will offer. I cannot."
"You must accept the dinner, but I don't see that you need make the
speech," said Annie, who was herself aghast over such extremity of
torture.
"I will not," said Margaret. She was very pale and her lips were a
tight line. Her eyes were opaque and lustreless. She was in reality
suffering what a less egotistical nature could not even imagine. All
her life had Margaret Edes worshipped and loved Margaret Edes. Now
she had done an awful thing. The falling from the pedestal of a
friend is nothing to hurling oneself from one's height of self-esteem
and that she had done. She stood, as it were, over the horrible body
of her once beautiful and adored self. She was not actually
remorseful and that made it all the worse. She simply could not evade
the dreadful glare of light upon her own imperfections; she who had
always thought of herself as perfect, but the glare of knowledge came
mostly from her appreciation of the attitude of her friends and
lovers toward what she had done. Suppose she went home and told
Wilbur. Suppose she said, "I did not write that book. My friend,
Annie Eustace, wrote it. I am a thief, and worse than a thief." She
knew just how he would look at her, his wife, his Margaret, who had
never done wrong in his eyes. For the first time in her life she was
afraid, and yet how could she live and bear such torture and not
confess? Confession would be like a person ill unto death, giving up,
and seeking the peace of a sick chamber and the rest of bed and the
care of a physician. She had come to feel like that and yet,
confession would be like a fiery torture. Margaret had in some almost
insane fashion come to feel that she might confess to a minister, a
man of God, and ease her soul, without more. And she had never been
religious, and would have formerly smiled in serene scorn at her own
state of mind. And here was the other woman whom she had wronged,
forbidding her this one little possibility of comfort.
She said again humbly, "Let me tell him, Annie. He will only think
the more of you because you shielded me."
But Annie was full of scorn which Margaret could not understand since
her nature was not so fine. "Do you think I wish him to?" she said,
but in a whisper because she heard voices and footsteps. "You cannot
tell him, Margaret."
Then Von Rosen and Aunt Harriet, whose eyes were dim with recent
sleep, came in sight, and Harriet Eustace, who had not seen Margaret
since the club meeting, immediately seized upon her two hands and
kissed her and congratulated her.
"You dear, wonderful creature," she said, "we are all so proud of
you. Fairbridge is so proud of you and as for us, we can only feel
honoured that our little Annie has such a friend. We trust that she
will profit by your friendship and we realise that it is such a
privilege for her."
"Thank you," said Margaret. She turned her head aside. It was rather
dreadful, and Annie realised it.
Von Rosen stood by smiling. "I am glad to join in the
congratulations," he said. "In these days of many books, it is a
great achievement to have one singled out for special notice. I have
not yet had the pleasure of reading the book, but shall certainly
have it soon."
"Thank you," said Margaret again.
"She should give you an autograph copy," said Harriet Eustace.
"Yes," said Margaret. She drew aside Annie and whispered, "I shall
tell my husband then. I shall."
Then she bade them good afternoon in her usually graceful way;
murmured something about a little business which she had with Annie
and flitted down the pergola in a cloud of wisteria.
"It does seem wonderful," said Harriet Eustace, "that she should have
written that book."
Von Rosen glanced at Annie with an inquiring expression. He wondered
whether she wished him to announce their engagement to her aunt. The
amazing suddenness of it all had begun to daunt him. He was in
considerable doubt as to what Miss Harriet Eustace, who was a most
conservative lady, who had always done exactly the things which a
lady under similar circumstances might be expected to do, who always
said the things to be expected, would say to this, which must, of
course, savour very much of the unexpected. Von Rosen was entirely
sure that Miss Harriet Eustace would be scarcely able to conceive of
a marriage engagement of her niece especially with a clergyman
without all the formal preliminaries of courtship, and he knew well
that preliminaries had hardly existed, in the usual sense of the
term. He felt absurdly shy, and he was very much relieved when
finally Miss Harriet and Annie took their leave and he had said
nothing about the engagement. Miss Harriet said a great deal about
his most interesting and improving collection. She was a woman of a
patronising turn of mind and she made Von Rosen feel like a little
boy.
"I especially appreciate the favour for the sake of my niece," she
said. "It is so desirable for the minds of the young to be improved."
Von Rosen murmured a polite acquiescence. She had spoken of his
tall, lovely girl as if she were in short skirts. Miss Harriet
continued:
"When I consider what Mrs. Edes has done," she said,--"written a book
which has made her famous, I realise how exceedingly important it is
for the minds of the young to be improved. It is good for Annie to
know Mrs. Edes so intimately, I think."
For the first time poor Annie was conscious of a distinct sense of
wrath. Here she herself had written that book and her mind, in order
to have written it, must be every whit as improved as Margaret Edes'
and her Aunt Harriet was belittling her before her lover. It was a
struggle to maintain silence, especially as her aunt went on talking
in a still more exasperating manner.
"I always considered Mrs. Wilbur Edes as a very unusual woman," said
she, "but of course, this was unexpected. I am so thankful that Annie
has the great honour of her friendship. Of course, Annie can never do
what Mrs. Edes has done. She herself knows that she lacks talent and
also concentration. Annie, you know you have never finished that
daisy centre piece which you begun surely six months ago. I am quite
sure that Mrs. Edes would have finished it in a week."
Annie did lose patience at that. "Margaret just loathes fancy work,
Aunt Harriet," said she. "She would never even have begun that centre
piece."
"It is much better never to begin a piece of work than never to
finish it," replied Aunt Harriet, "and Mrs. Edes, my dear, has been
engaged in much more important work. If you had written a book which
had made you famous, no one could venture to complain of your lack of
industry with regard to the daisy centre piece. But I am sure that
Mrs. Edes, in order to have written that book of which everybody is
talking, must have displayed much industry and concentration in all
the minor matters of life. I think you must be mistaken, my dear. I
am quite sure that Mrs. Edes has not neglected work."
Annie made no rejoinder, but her aunt did not seem to notice it.
"I am so thankful, Mr. von Rosen," said she, "that my niece has the
honour of being counted among the friends of such a remarkable woman.
May I inquire if Mrs. Edes has ever seen your really extraordinary
collection, Mr. von Rosen."
"No, she has not seen it," replied Von Rosen, and he looked annoyed.
Without in the least understanding the real trend of the matter, he
did not like to hear his sweetheart addressed after such a fashion,
even though he had no inkling of the real state of affairs. To his
mind, this exquisite little Annie, grimy daisy centre piece and all,
had accomplished much more in simply being herself, than had Margaret
Edes with her much blazoned book.
"I trust that she will yet see it," said Miss Harriet Eustace.
Harriet Eustace was tall, dull skinned and wide mouthed, and she had
a fashion, because she had been told from childhood that her mouth
was wide, of constantly puckering it as if she were eating alum.
"I shall be of course pleased to show Mrs. Edes my collection at any
time," said Von Rosen politely.
"I hope she will see it," said Harriet, puckering, "it is so
improving, and if anything is improving to the ordinary mind, what
must it be to the mind of genius?"
The two took leave then, Annie walking behind her aunt. The sidewalk
which was encroached upon by grass was very narrow. Annie did not
speak at all. She heard her aunt talking incessantly without
realising the substance of what she said. Her own brain was
overwhelmed with bewilderment and happiness. Here was she, Annie
Eustace, engaged to be married and to the right man. The combination
was astounding. Annie had been conscious ever since she had first
seen him, that Karl von Rosen dwelt at the back of her thoughts, but
she was rather a well disciplined girl. She had not allowed herself
the luxury of any dreams concerning him and herself. She had not
considered the possibility of his caring for her, not because she
underestimated herself, but because she overestimated him. Now, she
knew he cared, he cared, and he wanted to marry her, to make her his
wife. After she had reached home, when they were seated at the tea
table, she did not think of telling anybody. She ate and felt as if
she were in a blissful crystal sphere of isolation. It did not occur
to her to reveal her secret until she went into her grandmother's
room rather late to bid her good night. Annie had been sitting by
herself on the front piazza and allowing herself a perfect feast in
future air-castles. She could see from where she sat, the lights from
the windows of the Edes' house, and she heard Wilbur's voice, and now
and then his laugh. Margaret's voice, she never heard at all. Annie
went into the chamber, the best in the house, and there lay her
grandmother, old Ann Maria Eustace, propped up in bed, reading a
novel which was not allowed in the Fairbridge library. She had bidden
Annie buy it for her, when she last went to New York.
"I wouldn't ask a girl to buy such a book," the old lady had said,
"but nobody will know you and I have read so many notices about its
wickedness, I want to see it for myself."
Now she looked up when Annie entered. "It is not wicked at all," she
said in rather a disappointed tone. "It is much too dull. In order to
make a book wicked, it must be, at least, somewhat entertaining. The
writer speaks of wicked things, but in such a very moral fashion that
it is all like a sermon. I don't like the book at all. At the same
time a girl like you had better not read it and you had better see
that Harriet and Susan don't get a glimpse of it. They would be set
into fits. It is a strange thing that both my daughters should be
such old maids to the bone and marrow. You can read it though if you
wish, Annie. I doubt if you understand the wickedness anyway, and I
don't want you to grow up straight-laced like Harriet and Susan. It
is really a misfortune. They lose a lot."
Then Annie spoke. "I shall not be an old maid, I think," said she. "I
am going to be married."
"Married! Who is going to marry you? I haven't seen a man in this
house except the doctor and the minister for the last twenty years."
"I am going to marry the minister, Mr. von Rosen."
"Lord," said Annie's grandmother, and stared at her. She was a queer
looking old lady propped up on a flat pillow with her wicked book.
She had removed the front-piece which she wore by day and her face
showed large and rosy between the frills of her night cap. Her china
blue eyes were exceedingly keen and bright. Her mouth as large as her
daughter Harriet's, not puckered at all, but frankly open in an
alarming slit, in her amazement.
"When for goodness sake has the man courted you?" she burst forth at
last.
"I don't know."
"Well, I don't know, if you don't. You haven't been meeting him
outside the house. No, you have not. You are a lady, if you have been
brought up by old maids, who tell lies about spades."
"I did not know until this afternoon," said Annie. "Mr. von Rosen and
I went out to see his rose-garden, while Aunt Harriet--"
Then the old lady shook the bed with mirth.
"I see," said she. "Harriet is scared to death of roses and she went
to sleep in the house and you got your chance. Good for you. I am
thankful the Eustace family won't quite sputter out in old maids."
The old lady continued to chuckle. Annie feared lest her aunts might
hear. Beside the bed stood a table with the collection of things
which was Ann Maria Eustace's nightly requirement. There were a good
many things. First was a shaded reading lamp, then a candle and a
matchbox; there was a plate of thin bread and butter carefully folded
in a napkin. A glass of milk, covered with a glass dish; two bottles
of medicine; two spoons; a saucer of sugared raspberries; exactly one
square inch of American cheese on a tiny plate; a pitcher of water,
carefully covered; a tumbler; a glass of port wine and a bottle of
camphor. Old Ann Maria Eustace took most of her sustenance at night.
Night was really her happy time. When that worn, soft old bulk of
hers was ensconsed among her soft pillows and feather bed and she had
her eatables and drinkables and literature at hand, she was in her
happiest mood and she was none the less happy from the knowledge that
her daughters considered that any well conducted old woman should
have beside her bed, merely a stand with a fair linen cloth, a glass
of water, a candle and the Good Book, and that if she could not go
immediately to sleep, she should lie quietly and say over texts and
hymns to herself. All Ann Maria's spice of life was got from a hidden
antagonism to her daughters and quietly flying in the face of their
prejudices, and she was the sort of old lady who could hardly have
lived at all without spice.
"Your Aunt Harriet will be hopping," said the perverse old lady with
another chuckle.
"Why, grandmother?"
"Harriet has had an eye on him herself."
Annie gasped. "Aunt Harriet must be at least twenty-five years
older," said she.
"Hm," said the old lady, "that doesn't amount to anything. Harriet
didn't put on her pearl breast-pin and crimp her hair unless she had
something in her mind. Susan has given up, but Harriet hasn't given
up."
Annie still looked aghast.
"When are you going to get married?" asked the old lady.
"I don't know."
"Haven't settled that yet? Well, when you do, there's the white satin
embroidered with white roses that I was married in and my old lace
veil. I think he's a nice young man. All I have against him is his
calling. You will have to go to meeting whether you want to or not
and listen to the same man's sermons. But he is good looking and they
say he has money, and anyway, the Eustaces won't peter out in old
maids. There's one thing I am sorry about. Sunday is going to be a
pretty long day for me, after you are married, and I suppose before.
If you are going to marry that man, I suppose you will have to begin
going to meeting at once."
Then Annie spoke decidedly. "I am always going to play pinocle with
you Sunday forenoons as long as you live, grandmother," said she.
"After you are married?"
"Yes, I am."
"After you are married to a minister?"
"Yes, grandmother."
The old lady sat up straight and eyed Annie with her delighted china
blue gaze.
"Mr. von Rosen is a lucky man," said she. "Enough sight luckier than
he knows. You are just like me, Annie Eustace, and your grandfather
set his eyes by me as long as he lived. A good woman who has sense
enough not to follow all the rules and precepts and keep good, isn't
found every day, and she can hold a man and holding a man is about as
tough a job as the Almighty ever set a woman. I've got a pearl
necklace and a ring in the bank. Harriet has always wanted them but
what is the use of a born old maid decking herself out? I always knew
Harriet and Susan would be old maids. Why, they would never let their
doll-babies be seen without all their clothes on, seemed to think
there was something indecent about cotton cloth legs stuffed with
sawdust. When you see a little girl as silly as that you can always
be sure she is cut out for an old maid. I don't care when you get
married--just as soon as you want to--and you shall have a pretty
wedding and you shall have your wedding cake made after my old
recipe. You are a good girl, Annie. You look like me. You are enough
sight better than you would be if you were better, and you can make
what you can out of that. Now, you must go to bed. You haven't told
Harriet and Susan yet, have you?"
"No, grandmother."
"I'll tell them myself in the morning," said the old lady with a
chuckle which made her ancient face a mask of mirth and mischief.
"Now, you run along and go to bed. This book is dull, but I want to
see how wicked the writer tried to make it and the heroine is just
making an awful effort to run away with a married man. She won't
succeed, but I want to see how near she gets to it. Good-night,
Annie. You can have the book to-morrow."
Annie went to her own room but she made no preparation for bed. She
had planned to work as she had worked lately until nearly morning.
She was hurrying to complete another book which she had begun before
Margaret Edes' announcement that she had written _The Poor Lady_. The
speedy completion of this book had been the condition of secrecy with
her publishers. However, Annie, before she lit the lamp on her table
could not resist the desire to sit for a minute beside her window and
gaze out upon the lovely night and revel in her wonderful happiness.
The night was lovely enough for anyone, and for a girl in the rapture
of her first love, it was as beautiful as heaven. The broad village
gleaming like silver in the moonlight satisfied her as well as a
street of gold and the tree shadows waved softly over everything like
wings of benediction. Sweet odours came in her face. She could see
the soft pallor of a clump of lilies in the front yard. The shrilling
of the night insects seemed like the calls of prophets of happiness.
The lights had gone out of the windows of the Edes' house, but
suddenly she heard a faint, very faint, but very terrible cry and a
white figure rushed out of the Edes' gate. Annie did not wait a
second. She was up, out of her room, sliding down the stair banisters
after the habit of her childhood and after it.