SUSY CASTLE
The Forsyth Mills had built Wassumsic--in truth, Wassumsic _was_ the
Forsyth's Mills. It had had its beginning in that first small mill where
the first Forsyth worked in his shirt-sleeves; a cluster of houses had
sprung up close to the river, a store, more houses, more stores, a
tavern, a church, a school. And as the Mills grew, so grew the village.
For themselves the Forsyth family had built the stone house on the hill,
that looked, indeed, like a grand old woman holding off her skirts from
contamination. And that lofty apartness had always been the attitude of
the Forsyth family to the workaday life in the village.
The growth of the village had been toward the railroad so that the first
Mill houses had been left by themselves "up the river" and were commonly
known as the "old village." They were so old that they were not worth
keeping in repair and so close to the river that they were damp the year
round and for these very good reasons were offered to the mill workers
at a low rental. Many of the mill workers--such as Dale--looked upon
them as a disgrace to the Mills and felt a hot anger in their hearts
when they thought of them--but unfortunates like the Castles were glad
to move into the worst of them.
The short walk from the Mills to the old village skirted the river and
was overhung with a double row of willows which, on this wintry day,
cast long purple shadows. Robin, walking along it with Mrs. Lynch,
thought it lovely and solemn--like a cathedral aisle. But when they
stopped before a low cottage, one window nailed across with boards where
the panes were missing, the front door propped in place by a rotting
rail tie, tin cans and frozen refuse littering the strip of yard, and
Mrs. Lynch said "This is the house," she wanted to cry out in protest at
the ugliness. They had to pick their way around to a back door upon
which Mrs. Lynch knocked. Several moments elapsed before the door swung
back a little way, a round black eye peered at them cautiously, and a
shrill voice piped "whachy'want?"
"I s'pose that's Susy," thought Robin, her heart skipping a beat with a
terror of shyness.
Mrs. Lynch's pleasant: "We want to see Granny," admitted them. Robin,
blinded for the first moment of coming into the darkness of the room
from the bright sunshine outside, stumbled over a chair and in her
confusion mumbled some incoherent answer to the shrill cackle of welcome
that came from the shrunken bit of humanity bending over a small stove.
"Poor Granny doesn't understand who you are," explained Mrs. Lynch, in
an apologetic whisper, touching her head significantly. "Come here,
Susy," and she motioned the staring child to her. Susy approached with
the hang-back step of a child or a dog not always certain of what he may
get but Mrs. Lynch magically produced a round cookie, fat with currants,
and Susy sprang at her with a quick leap.
The room was heavy with stale air and bare of any comforts. A tattered
First Reader lay on the greasy floor, unwashed dishes cluttered the bare
pine table, on every available shelf and in every corner were piled old
cans and bottles and half-filled paper bags. On a what-not in the corner
a faded bunch of pink paper roses drooped over a cracked vase. The
wallpaper, its ugly pattern mercifully faded, was fantastically streaked
from the dampness, in one corner the ceiling plaster had fallen and
newspapers had been tacked over the laths to keep out the cold.
A sickening revulsion, a longing to escape into the sweet crisp air
swept Robin. She shrank away into a corner for fear the dreadful old
Granny might touch her. But she _must_ say something! She had come here
for a purpose--to know Susy.
At that moment Susy's voice pealed out in a merry, piping laugh--because
she had put her small finger into her cookie and pulled out a fat round
currant! And something in the laugh touched the spark to the mothering
instinct strong in Robin's young heart--the mothering instinct that had
caused her bitter anguish over Cynthia's loss, that had taught her how
to care for her Jimmie, and had given her strength to run away from her
Jimmie that he might have his "chance." She forgot the dirty
surroundings, the old Granny in her rags and her crown of wispy gray
hair, she saw only the child's face, lightened with joy, and laughed
with Susy as Susy held out the currant on the end of an uplifted--and
very dirty--finger.
The ice broken, Susy made friends quickly. She leaned her thin little
self against Robin's knee and stared with rapture into Robin's face.
Like Granny she could not seem to realize that Robin was a Forsyth; to
her she was "a big girl" and big girls did not come to the house now
that Sarah had died. She timidly touched Robin's soft coat sleeve with a
rough, sticky hand and poked at the bright buttons of Robin's blouse,
her eyes round with wonder.
Afterward, after Robin and Mrs. Lynch had, with some difficulty, broken
away from Susy's clinging and Granny's childish lamentations, and were
walking back through the "cathedral aisle" Robin gave herself a little
shake as though to rouse herself from some nightmare.
"Oh, Mrs. Lynch, it's dreadful!"
"What, dearie?" Mrs. Lynch had been thinking that Granny Castle couldn't
be one of the Castle's of her old-country county.
"That place. Are they all like that? How can they live?"
Mrs. Lynch hesitated a moment and there was a perceptible tightening of
her tender lips.
"Well, dearie, people _have_ to live--life goes on in spite of things.
Maybe poor old Granny wishes real often it'd been her that had been
taken instead of that poor Sarah. Things weren't so bad for them when
Sarah lived--they say. She was an up-and-doing girl and kept things nice
though she had to work hard to do it, poor little thing. It's in the
hospital that old woman should be with some one to wait on her and keep
her warm. No one but little Susy--"
"I forgot all I'd planned to say! Susy looked so cold, Mrs. Lynch. I
hated my nice warm clothes."
"Oh, Susy was warm enough. She's a bright child, she is. When she's a
bit older things will ease up."
Robin remembered what Beryl had said of the girls in Wassumsic having
nothing else to do but go into the Mills. Susy would grow older and take
Sarah's place. But what if she didn't want to? What happened to the "big
girls" who didn't want to go into the Mills? Robin could hear Beryl's
contemptuous: "Why they haven't a chance in the world." Well, anyway,
someone could make the Mills so nice that the girls would _want_ to work
in them. "I wish I were big!" cried Robin with such passion that Mrs.
Lynch, not knowing her train of thought, had a sudden qualm at taking a
sensitive little thing like Miss Robin to poor old Granny Castle's.
"Now, dearie, don't you worry. Things come out somehow--in the next
world maybe for the Granny Castles, but they do. Now that idea of yours
of fixing that cottage--"
"Oh, I forgot to tell you! My guardian says I may. At least he said that
if I wanted a club, to help myself, and that must mean he consents. He's
a dear. Have you time to go there with me now and just peek into it? I'm
sure we can get in."
"I'll take the time," cried Mrs. Moira with an interest as eager as
Robin's. "I'll just drop in and tell my Danny when we go past--it's so
lonesome he gets when I'm slow coming."
Robin's House of Laughter looked a little deserted standing alone in the
shadow of the hillside, gaunt branches creaking over its low roof, the
ends of the trailing vines whipping restlessly against the gray
clapboards. But Robin and Mrs. Lynch saw it as they wanted it to
be--neatly painted, its windows curtained, its yard trimmed, its
doorstep dignified by a broad inviting step, and flanked by a trellis
for the rambling rose vine. The door opened for them in the most
promising way and they tiptoed into a big bare room with two windows at
one end looking out over the hills and river.
"Isn't this nice?" cried Robin in delighted staccato. "It's just made
for what we want. Look--a fireplace!" To be sure, it was nothing more
than a gap in the wall. "And these darling windows. We can put a seat
way across, all comfy." She promptly saw, in her mind, Susy curled upon
it with a beautiful picture book and a handful of cookies. "Oh, let's
see the rest. Look, a cunning kitchen. The children can play cooking.
And this room--what can we use this room for?"
Mrs. Lynch was thinking rapidly. Because of her experience with Miss
Lewis she saw possibilities way beyond Robin's eager planning--class
rooms where the older girls could learn other trades--a domestic science
class in the kitchen for the mothers--a sewing room, a library full of
instructive and entertaining books, and the big living room where the
children could gather after school hours, and the men and women and big
boys and girls in the evening. And a playground outside--and gardens.
"Can't we fix it up right away?" Robin's eager questioning brought her
sharply out of her dream to a practical realization that all the House
of Laughter had as endowment was an unselfish girl's enthusiasm.
"Harkness will help if I ask him and maybe Williams, too. And Mrs.
Williams."
"It's quite tidy for standing empty so long," mused Mrs. Lynch, sweeping
the bare rooms with an appraising eye. "That stove's good as new under
the rust."
"Oh, you _will_ help, won't you? I can't do anything without you."
"That I will, Miss Robin." Mrs. Moira promised with no thought of the
added tax it must be on her energy. "It's a beginning everything has to
have and you get your Harkness man and some brooms and some soap and
we'll have your little House of Laughter ready to begin in no time."
A half hour later Robin burst upon Beryl absorbed in her practicing.
"Oh, _please_ listen," she cried and without waiting for encouragement
poured out her precious plans. Beryl obediently listened but with an odd
surprise tugging at her attentiveness--this Robin seemed different, full
of a fire that was quite new, and all over fixing up that old place for
the Mill kids. To Beryl, wrapped in her own precious ambition, that
seemed a ridiculous waste of energy. However she concealed her scorn,
affected a lively interest and put in a few helpful suggestions.
"Mr. Tubbs has been hunting for you," she suddenly informed Robin. "I
heard him talking to Harkness about a party. Your guardian's written to
him, I guess."
"Oh, _dear_!" cried Robin, in dismay. She remembered what Mr. Allendyce
had written to her. A party would be terrible!
"I should think you'd think it was fun--and with all your pretty
clothes. It's exciting meeting people, too. If _I_ were you--"
Beryl simply wouldn't finish--there were so many things she would do if
she were Gordon Forsyth, she could not begin to name them.
Robin's doleful face betrayed her state of mind.
"What will I have to do?"
"That depends upon what kind of a party it is." Beryl felt flattered
that Robin should appeal to her. "And I should think you'd have the say.
_I_ certainly would. Receptions are stiff and dinners aren't much fun. I
think a dance--"
"But I can't dance. And I never went to a young party in my life!"
"Well, you're Gordon Forsyth, now, and you'll have to do lots of things
you never did before," reminded Beryl, a comical sternness edging her
voice.
An hour before, in her empty House of Laughter, poor Robin had thrilled
at the thought of "being" a Forsyth; now, alas, her heart sank to her
boots under the weight of these new obligations she must face. Nor was
she cheered when Mr. Tubbs found her and laid his plans before her. Mr.
Tubbs, short of memory, always carried his thoughts on neat little slips
of paper over-written with memoranda. He fluttered some of these now
before Robin's eyes and Robin saw that they contained lists of names.
"A party--your guardian is quite right--we were remiss--of course Madame
would have wished--in the old days--it must be at least an at-home--yes,
an at-home--I have found the cards of the best people of the county in
Madame's desk--Harkness will know who of them have died--yes, an
at-home, say from four to seven--Mr. Allendyce and his sister will come
to help you receive--I will talk to Budge--yes--" Mr. Tubbs rarely
finished a sentence. He always spoke as though he were thinking
memoranda aloud, and punctuated his words with little tugs at his silky
Van Dyke beard.
Robin had a rebellious impulse to snatch the fluttering lists from his
long fingers and tear the "best people of the county" into tiny bits but
she remembered what Beryl had said about a Forsyth having to do many
things, smothered a sigh, and said meekly: "I don't know much about
parties."
"My dear young lady, experience will teach you. They are important--yes,
for one of your station--important as your books. I will see
Budge--about the date--yes."
"Old grandmother!" cried Beryl, as Mr. Tubbs went off in search of the
housekeeper. "An at-home!" She mimicked his precise tones. "Of all the
tiresome things. He'll invite a lot of doddering old women who'll come
and look you over _this_ way!" Beryl lifted an imaginary lorgnette to
her eyes. "Why didn't you say you'd like a regular party and just have
young people--there's a boys' school only ten miles from here and it
would have been such fun. Of course I couldn't have come down but I
could watch you--"
"Beryl Lynch, you _are_ coming down or I won't stir one foot. You shall
pick out one of my dresses and we'll make it longer or something. And I
think a party with boys I don't know would be lots more terrible than
an at-home. All I hope is that he makes the date soon so that it will be
over with."
Percival Tubbs, inwardly much annoyed at having the peaceful routine of
his days at the Manor thus disturbed, was as anxious as Robin to have
the party over with. After due deliberation with Mrs. Budge he fixed the
date for a day two weeks ahead. Mrs. Budge insisted she needed that much
time to make "things look like anything."
Budge and Harkness welcomed the party as a beginning of the "change"
they had prayed might come to Gray Manor.
"It'll be some'at like old times," Harkness had declared.
"That chit won't look like much," (poor Budge had not yet forgiven Robin
for being a girl) "but it'll make talk if she ain't shown. Talk enough
for Madame going away like she did. I've half a mind to get out the gold
plate. That old Mis' Crosswaithe from Sharon'll be over here the first
of any, peeking around and she ain't going to see how things are going
to sixes and sevens. No one else ain't either or my name ain't Hannah
Budge. It ain't." And Budge squared her shoulders as a challenge to an
inquisitive world.
Harkness, while he anxiously watched the weather, grew loquacious over
the old times. "This house has known great parties, missy," he told
Robin. "The best lydies from miles 'round coming in their carriages.
The Crosswaithes, from Sharon, before old Mr. Crosswaithe died. And the
Cullens and the Grangers--she as was the daughter of a gov'nor. The
Manor was the finest place in the county and things were done right here
and as gay as could be." He launched forth on a long description of
Christopher the Third's eighteenth birthday party. "He come up from
school, missy, with his friends and the young lydies come from New York
and some from these parts and the house was as gay, what with flowers
and palms and music and their talk. And the young master's table was
laid in the conservatory--and the olders sat in the dining-room and Held
come from New York--the best caterer, missy--"
Robin and Beryl listened with breathless interest--Robin with a moment's
vision of that handsome lad laughing and talking with the "young lydies
from New York." How dreadful, she thought, that only a few months after
that brilliant affair he should have been killed--he would have been
about twenty-four, now--and would have been such a splendid Forsyth,
while she was so small and insignificant.
"These automobiles are all very well, missy, but if it snows--" and
Harkness scowled through the window at the darkening sky.
"Do you mean, if it snows--no one will come?"
"I'm not thinking that, missy, but not so many--the Grangers and their
young people."
Robin refrained from saying she hoped it _would_ snow, for if Harkness
and Budge enjoyed fussing over the dreadful party she did not want to
spoil their anticipation.
The entire house seemed ridiculously astir over the approaching event;
extra help came from the village, the air throbbed with the hum of
vacuum cleaners, chairs and tables were beaten with a frenzied
thoroughness, tables polished, everything dusted. Certainly, no one
_was_ going to see that things were going to sixes and sevens!
Robin and Beryl busied themselves making over one of Robin's dresses for
Beryl, a process to which Beryl consented only after a stormy scene and
tears on Robin's part.
Robin's plans for her House of Laughter had to be tucked away for the
time, and when she sighed now and then over her ripping and stitching it
was because she'd so much rather be making frilly, crispy curtains for
those little windows.