Evelyn Raymond

“ He has as many lives as a cat.”
“Beatrice!”
By the time they reached the outer kitchen, whence the terrible sounds proceeded, Robert had been collared by Mr. Dolloway and was being shaken violently to and fro, while Roland was pitifully caressing the cat which their guest had brought, and which cowered in its rescuer’s embrace, hiding its head beneath the friendly arm and shivering as if in an ague.
“Mr. Dolloway! What are you doing? Can you and my darling never meet but you must come to an open battle? It is perfectly scandalous!” ”

“ Wait a moment, my dear! I have heard your name, you see. Your sister spoke it. Here is my card; and if you will not [6] tell me where you live that I may call and thank you, at least let me give you a posy before we part. Pick out what you like. Pick out what you like, my dear, and I will pay for it. Here is my card,—Philipse Chidly Brook, New Windsor, New York. Everybody thereabouts knows me, as everybody hereabouts used to know me half a century ago,
‘When I was young as you are young,
And love-lights in the casement hung.’”
Bonny dropped her hand from the door-knob. ”

“ THE FIRST EVENING IN THE NEW HOME. A FEW months later, when the spring was just opening, Beatrice and Roland stood on the wide porch of the old house in New Windsor, eagerly watching the approach of a carriage which was bringing to the Lindens the rest of their family. The girl’s feet could not keep from dancing, and the lad’s spirits found vent in a whistle so merry and so spontaneous that old Mr. Dolloway, hearing it, muttered grimly: “I hope he can keep on a feeling that way after he’s tried farming a spell. ”

“ Beatrice aroused herself with a scream. “My flowers! Oh, my flowers! Please, please, don’t tread upon them, people! Please give me time to—”
“Eh! Bon, what’s the matter? Who took ’em? This chap?” demanded Robert, who had returned, and eagerly catching hold of the wrong person. “Look a here, man! You’d better look out how you steal my sister’s chrysms! I’ll let you know I— Ginger! There’s the old fellow himself!”
Alas! the inevitable crowd! Nobody can utter a sound above the natural, but dozens of itching ears must pause to learn why. ”

“ Beckwith’s common-sense, had it been known, but of course it was not; nor did anybody observe the interest with which Robert received his first intimation of what had occurred.
“Well, I have never heard anything like it, and, of a certainty, it must have some rational explanation. What that may be we will find as soon as possible.”
“Now, Miss Brook, do let us believe it’s haunted!” cried Bonny, coaxingly. “It’s so delightful and uncommon in America. I feel just like a heroine this morning.”
“You look like one, my dear, with those shining eyes and pink cheeks. ”

“ I hope Motherkin will not be disappointed! Think of her trusting everything to her children, and saying that what we like will certainly suit her! Was there ever such a love of a mother in this world?”
“No, Bonny, I don’t believe there ever was. I can imagine no human being more perfect than our mother.” ”

“ We never have any secrets in our small household; and I have been so low-spirited all day over mine. Only, of course, I shall make a clean breast of the business as soon as I get home.”
“Miss Beckwith, or Beatrice, if you will let me call you so, I thank you for your confidence in me. I want to prove myself to you all that my Conrad would have been to any one dear to me, if I can. But I see very clearly that your mother is proud and self-reliant. She is not of the sort to whom one can offer pecuniary aid without offering a sting as well. I am of the same kind myself. ”

“ There was a moment of really anxious waiting. “Bonny has always been the house-worker,” said the elder girl, at length. “Why should she not continue and let me go as secretary to Mr. Brook? I took a course of typewriting before she did, if you’ll remember. I don’t like housework, and I shall make a botch of it. I shall worry mother more than help her.”
“I wish I could do both!” cried Beatrice, with her impulsive generosity. “And I can, some of it. You hate dish-washing the worst of any part. ”

“ And Roland, Bonny, even little Bob, has to think each day how best to increase the family income; while these old people, at the very end of life, have ten thousand times more than they can use or enjoy. ”

“ Beckwith would make her only punishment.
But it was not Beatrice’s habit to acknowledge herself worsted till compelled; and she dashed into the little parlor of their flat crying, as gayly as she could: “Fairy gifts, Motherkin! I’ve discovered the secret of transmuting posies into pounds, petals into pennies, and chrysanthemums into oysters! Behold—and believe!” ”

“ Why, Beatrice! I thought we had tried to express our gratitude continually. He is, in truth, very kind, though sometimes a bit officious, it seems to me. I do not suffer from this officiousness personally, but it annoys the others, especially Roland. The lad is trying so hard and is growing so manly and reliable that I can’t bear to have him fretted. However, I will try to be even more particular in future to express our obligation. If you are going among the hives now, call Robert to go with you. ”

“ Dolloway did frighten me. But what a pretty little luncheon you have set out! Did you make that batch of biscuits, or Motherkin?”
“I—I myself. And, Bonny, I’m sorry I was so hateful about the housework. Mother has been talking with me and showing me how I can manage. She thinks after I have learned I may be almost as quick as you; and if I plan my work systematically from day to day, that I will be able to get some hours each day for painting or sketching. If I do not have to give up all I dreamed, I shall not mind it so much.” ”

“ Are you not tired out with all your hard work? And, Roland, my son, it actually seems to me you have grown, even in these few days!”
“Grown in importance, Motherkin. He’s really very ‘masterful’ up here. He feels that he is the head of the family now, in good earnest. You should hear him say: ‘Bonny! that room must be my mother’s. It is the very sunniest, pleasantest [111] in the whole house!’ in such a tone. As if a body wished to dispute his royal highness! ”

“ Those who called upon her once, invariably did so the second time; and before the end of her “first season,” as Bonny teasingly called her sister’s early experiments, Miss Beckwith had become the fashion, but, fortunately, a “fashion” so thoroughly useful and agreeable that she was destined to outlive the common existence of “fads” and to be looked upon as a necessity in New Windsor festivities.
Now three years had slipped away. “Almost imperceptibly, isn’t it, Motherkin? We have been, we always are, so busy that it doesn’t seem any time from one spring to another;” ”

“ Brook’s servant, but was, at times, his master—through rheumatism, which mastered both.
“But I have. That must be what my anxiety to see the horse-show meant. Else why, after all these years, should I have been suddenly rendered too uneasy to abide at home, and must needs not only put myself out but you as well? How goes it, Dolloway?”
“Bad, sir; about as bad as it can be. But a body must expect that who goes a trapesing off after will-o’-wisps, at our time of life, leaving good, respectable feather beds to sleep on boards in a barn of a place like this.” ”

“ Miss Joanna foresaw just this behavior on your part, Motherkin darling, so she was forearmed. She says she shall take it as positively unneighborly if you do not come. She wishes you to meet these ‘old families,’ folks who have been aristocrats so long that they have forgotten how to be snobbish, if they ever knew. You will enjoy them, and they you. Our friends were very, very emphatic in their urgency. But that isn’t all; she wanted to know if I thought Isabelle would come over to-morrow early, and arrange her rooms for her. ”

“ We will all work the better for the lesson.”
“Motherkin! you are the dearest, wisest body in the world. Here’s your chair—right up front. And say! let’s every one tell what she or he sees in the flowers. I suppose that present represents something different to each; don’t you?”
[23] “I suppose with all your practical sense you are still a fanciful child!” responded Mrs. Beckwith, smiling fondly upon the active Beatrice, who was, indeed, her mother’s “right hand” of dependence in their every-day life. ”

“ How good a real dinner would taste to the child! Well, if people didn’t mean what they said they should be punished by being believed!
Yet Mr. Brook’s smile at her acceptance told certainly enough how sincere had been his invitation; and in a few seconds more the whole [71] party were driving down Broadway, and Robert felt himself of considerable more importance than when he had interviewed pedestrians on the flower question.
“Do you like riding, lad?” asked Mr. Brook, amused at the earnest expression of the boy’s face.
“Like it! You bet! It’s bully!”
Dolloway frowned and sniffed. ”

“ But ghosts! Oh, no! we have no ghosts in New Windsor.”
[147] “Still they’re so inspiring!” said Bonny, with a comical glance at Roland.
“Yes, dear Miss Joanna, will you believe that my matter-of-fact sister came down into the dining-room in the middle of the night, listened to the ‘rappings,’ and immediately burst into rhyme? Shall I repeat, Beatrice?”
“At the peril of your life! Beg pardon, Miss Brook. I will not talk any more, at present.”
“I like to hear you, my child, I like to hear you. It does old ears good to listen to youthful chatter. ”

“ I like good living immensely. I would like to tell you what a pretty family of five had prepared. Potatoes! nothing but potatoes, except, of course, the inevitable bread and butter and the detestable tea. I don’t wonder the woman had heart-failure, poor thing! And the air of that ‘flat’—it was enough to stifle a body. After our air at home, man.”
“Humph! Then I suppose I am not to know anything about Mr. Conrad’s folks, save what you choose to tell me in driblets, sir,” remarked Dolloway, in the injured tone of one suffering ungratified curiosity. ”

“ Dolloway, please consider the matter for a moment. I assure you that I had no idea my boy was torturing the poor creatures committed to his charge, and I have always overlooked their feeding for myself. But, after hearing what I have just now, only one course is left to me. I now take the poultry away from Robert altogether. He will be allowed no further connection with this business; but if you can trust me with your pretty present, I will do my best to rear the chickens safely. Until a boy learns the first simple rule of ‘doing as he would be done by,’ he is unfit for any post of honor. ”

“ Will you try to put your own impatience out of the question, dear?”
“I’ll leave it at home with you, Motherkin. I’ll be perfectly angelic, if I can. And I’m going to say, ‘A dollar a day, six dollars a week!’ to myself, continually. That’s going to be my rock of salvation, Motherkin! Six dollars a week for a whole year will be over three hundred dollars toward our home! And we’re all agreed on that. We all look forward to the day when we can go to Mr. Brook and say, ‘Please, sir, we’d like to buy The Lindens!’ Oh! I’m not [164] afraid now; and I’m getting as mercenary as a Jew.” ”

“ Miss Joanna had been as good as her word. The dinner-party had been a complete success, with Mrs. Beckwith and her elder daughter among the guests, and with no end of admiring phrases concerning the graceful decorations of the old house falling upon the decorator’s grateful ears. Whereupon Miss Brook had started the ball rolling in a quiet way, and within a few days Isabelle had already been called upon three [278] times to “help” some distracted hostess prepare for a social entertainment. ”

“ The reconciliation was complete, and once more two young hearts were beating high with aspirations after better things, although, it must be confessed, Bonny’s ideas were rather vaguely exalted, owing to her drowsiness; but Belle was [230] keenly self-reproachful, and exclaimed earnestly: “I wonder why we never learn to be what we mean to be. It seems as if life were one long season of acting hatefully and trying to make amends. Why can’t we be good?” ”

“ He is as good and generous as he can be, but he is also wise. He wants us to keep our self-respect and his, at the same time. Well, this way of getting the use of a horse is quite common among country people. I have inquired and satisfied myself that it is so. He hasn’t a cow to work for its keep, so that we shall have to buy. But—”
“Oh, Roland, you are so slow! Listen to me, Motherkin! I, Beatrice Beckwith, who never earned a penny in her life—but once, a flower-girling!—am going to be one of the bread-winners! True, true, true!”
“Why, Bonny! ”

“ Bonny is so bright, and Roland so manly and good, and little Bob so—”
“The least said about little Bob the better!” cried the old lady, smiling so brightly that Isabelle was quite reassured. “We all love the little scamp who teases the patience out of us a dozen times a day.” ”

“ It is good of you to come so early! That is exactly what I like: plenty of time to do things neatly and completely.”
“But, dear Miss Brook! you are so quick and active I should think you would not ever take much time for anything! You are certainly twice as spry as I am!” responded Isabelle, surprised from her revery by the salutation of her white-haired neighbor. ”