Isabella M. Alden

“ She was so near the couch that Mrs. Dunlap could have put out her hand and touched her. When that good woman saw a pair of small hands clenched and heard a low moan, she came suddenly to a sitting posture and in a moment more was speaking in a low tone.
"Will you forgive me, dear? I am the mother of a precious girl who was about your age when God called her home. And I miss her so! I cannot help seeing that you are in trouble. May I not play mother to you for a little while and try to comfort you?" ”

“ Dear Mrs. Dunlap, I may as well confess that I am awfully proud of my husband!" The sentence had closed with an apologetic laugh.
What a transparent little lady her hostess was! She ought to be very happy, with a husband of whom she was "awfully" proud, a beautiful home crowded with all the luxuries that wealth could produce, and probably not a care in the world!
Mary Dunlap could not resist a little sigh of pity for herself; she was a lonely woman. Her husband and home and child all gone from her. She, too, had been "proud" of her husband with abundant reason; and her beautiful girl. ”

“ Her companion caught the gesture and slipped an arm around her.
"My dear, you are going straight back to the hotel and take a good long sleep," she said, and raised her other hand to summon a passing taxi.
"Oh, I'm all right," murmured the little white-faced mother, "Everything is all right now at least I hope it is, for a while. Only—what shall I do with Daisy? Her life is broken! My poor little flower of a girl!"
"Don't you believe it!" said the strong woman who knew life. "God doesn't let even a flower get broken as easily as that. Here, let's get in this taxi, and then we can talk." ”

“ Said the girl, laying her hot cheek against her mother's soft one:
"Oh, Mother! You are the most wonderful woman in the world! And Mrs. Dunlap is next. What should we have done without her? Suppose I had gone on and had my own way! Suppose—suppose—I had lost Nelson! Just think! Even if the other man hadn't been what he was—suppose I had missed knowing Nelson's love! Oh, Mother! You don't know how wonderful Nelson is! I can never make you understand. He is—different! He is—wonderful!" ”

“ Mary Dunlap felt that it was a pity that the girl had not had to suffer that look herself with full understanding of all that it meant to her wonderful little mother.
"My dear! I feel like a surgeon performing an operation, but you must know it all," said Mary Dunlap tenderly.
"Oh, yes, yes," breathed the mother sorrowfully. "If there is more, go on. It seems as if nothing mattered if Daisy, my Daisy, would go to such lengths. Actually running away to get married!" ”

“ Dunlap regretted her words. The terror in the girl's eyes transformed her face; and the low cry she gave was almost like that of a wounded animal! But she rallied rapidly and said with eagerness: "Oh, you are mistaken! It is some other person whose name you have mistaken for his. He would not—why, Rufus could not do such a thing!"
"My dear child, I am not mistaken." The very quietness of the woman's voice and manner carried conviction. ”

“ Didn't that horrid woman whose latest book is being lauded in every column of reviews make one of her characters boast of being a daughter of Eve to some purpose because she had told some successful lies about one of her victims? I tell you, Mother, you don't know the world. Times have changed since you were a girl. You think every woman is good, simply because she is a woman and dresses respectably. That is why you are willing to believe all these terrible things about Rufus, and why you want me to believe them. Just because a woman has told you. ”

“ Sheldon came back to her caller.
"Why couldn't it have been that young man?" asked Mary Dunlap with a sigh!
"Oh, if it only could have been!" sighed the mother. "He is the dearest boy! My husband trusted him so. He has been Daisy's schoolmate and companion for years, and yet she could think she has fallen in love with that other creature!"
"There, there, dear friend. I tell you the human heart is a mystery. And a girl at Daisy's age gets queer ideas sometimes. She will come out of it and be fine and beautiful. ”

“ You don't have to marry me if you find out I'm a villain, or that you love somebody else better. But you do have to wear my ring for a while anyway. You're not going back home without it, I'll tell the world. Nobody is going to have a chance, not that dirty crook of a Keller anyway, to say that he threw you over. You're going home engaged to me, Marguerite Sheldon, whatever you do with me afterward, you may as well understand that I have the upper hand now, and you're going to have a ring, right now! ”

“ Mary Dunlap looked up to see a tall young man standing in the doorway with his hat in his hand, a grave questioning look upon his face. He had keen gray eyes, a crop of nicely groomed reddish curls, and he looked strong and young and dependable.
"Oh, Nelson!" exclaimed Mrs. Sheldon, a kind of dazed relief in her voice, "You came to see Daisy about that committee meeting, didn't you? Why—she—she wasn't feeling very well to-night, Nelson. She has retired. She had a headache. She asked me to excuse her." ”

“ An almost unheard of thing for this busy woman. Not many hours of leisure came her way, and when one did, it filled her almost with dismay at the enforced waste of time.
Off in the west a thread of crimson still lingered on the horizon, but it soon faded into a line of pale amber and then disappeared. The lights of the train blared out and shut the travelers into the narrow confines of the car, and Mary Dunlap leaned back in her seat and fell to studying her fellow passengers. ”

“ Manhattan Transfer looked wide and desolate and empty. There were few passengers so late and there seemed to be no official in charge. Marguerite stood aimlessly for a few minutes, looking this way and that, wandering up, and then down, looking off at the dim distance of stars and weird lights. Was this the great New York about which she had heard so much?
But at last a train came. A brakeman on the step, swinging a lantern, and yelling some unintelligible thing condescended to listen to her plea.
"Where you wantta go, lady? Uptown or downtown?" ”

“ She felt completely exhausted. Still, Daisy certainly must not be called. She reminded herself that the name Dunlap was common enough, even though she did not happen to recall it among her acquaintances. It really was not at all probable that a woman who lived hundreds of miles away should suddenly appear late in the evening to make a call!
At last she crossed the hall and opened the living-room door. One glance sufficed; the woman who arose at her entrance was the same one who had kissed Daisy goodbye with unmistakable tenderness only a few days before! ”

“ Eighty-seven years old, a pain-wracked invalid—yet the author of "Ester Reid," "Four Girls At Chautauqua," "Mrs. Solomon Smith," has lost none of her earlier power and spontaneity. The problems of yesterday are the problems of to-day, though they may be furnished with electric lights, airplanes and automobiles to make them up-to-date. And Pansy knows life—her stories are real—they strike to the very heart of the girl and boy, the man and woman—they show us ourselves as God sees us—the real person beneath the sham and mockery of society. ”

“ Dunlap left her quite to herself and thanked God for the tears.
"What shall I do if he comes and demands to be let in?" the girl asked suddenly, looking up at her deliverer. "He is so—so masterful; and he does not look at things as I do. He thinks that a few hours cannot make any difference. I know how he argued it out with himself that he could not leave me alone, and that he would shield my name by giving me his in advance, but I cannot do it, I cannot! And if he comes and insists upon talking to me, I don't know what will become of me. ”

“ You are neither a fool, nor a lunatic. Why do you want to grovel before me by exposing that whole vile plot? It seems amazing that you can have so soon forgotten what you said to me that night at the hotel; and how awfully your words and your position contradict those statements! Before I saw you in this house this morning, as the husband of another woman, I supposed you were a half-way decent villain, who had tried to run away with and marry the girl he fancied he loved. ”

“ Then for a moment, memory carried her swiftly back to the day when she had been called upon to bid one dear girl the long goodbye.
Still, she reflected, on this girl's face there was unrest—real anxiety. There were even moments when she fancied that there was actual fear! What could be the explanation?
The husband had been most attentive, almost oppressively so. Could he be urging her to some course she did not approve?
"The man looks like a gentleman tyrant!" she told herself. "He will be certain to have his own way in the end. That poor child might as well yield first as last." ”

“ Fortunately both women were dead with sleep, and were able to get some real refreshing rest in their chairs while the miles raced along beneath the wheels, and Daisy drew nearer to New York.
What would Daisy do when she got to New York? Her mother could not keep the question out of her mind, and yet she could not answer it. Oh, what awful experience might she not have if she went to that office and met her old lover! A creature as hardened as he would perhaps think nothing of spiriting her away somewhere, so that her mother might never see her again. ”

“ She is not a hard or unreasonable woman."
"I see plainly that you do not trust me." He spoke with such bitterness and sharpness that the listener on the couch who could catch only portions of the girl's words, felt as though she would like to spring up that minute and defend her. But the voice rose clearer just then.
"Rufus! How can you say that to me? If I had not trusted you utterly, would I be here to-night? If you had a mother, you would understand how perfectly dreadful it is to—"
As she hesitated for words, a hotel official came towards them.
"Are you Mr. R. H. Keller, sir? ”

“ I will not cannot be married till my mother feels right about it."
"I think that sounds like a very wise decision," said Mary Dunlap with relief in her voice. "That is what mothers were given for, to help in grave decisions. They seem to have a sort of God-given intuition about the great critical things of life. Remember that if you do not succeed in winning her over, such a mother, as a girl like you must have, surely must have wise reasons for objecting—"
"Oh, I'm sure we will succeed," interrupted the girl's voice anxiously. "My mother wants nothing in this world so much as my happiness. ”

“ The door opened with a rush and closed with a bang as a slim pretty girl entered panting as if she had run up several flights of stairs.
"Oh, Miss Flinch," she gasped, "has Daddy come yet? I've simply ruined myself running up all the stairs. I couldn't wait for the elevator. I was afraid Dad and Mother wouldn't wait for me. Oh hasn't he come yet? Oh, I'm glad! But Muth is here isn't she? I thought she would be. I telephoned her I had a flat tire, and I had to leave the tiresome old car in a garage away uptown, and walk three blocks to get a bus, and then it didn't come forever and an age. ”

“ Marguerite giggled hysterically.
"You are always so good," she murmured, and then refinished it, "so—dear!"
He stooped over and kissed her gravely on the forehead.
"Thank you for that, little one. Now, are you ready to get out and find that fountain?"
"Wait," said the girl sitting up, her face clouded with trouble again. "Wait, Nelson, we can't go on like this. We can't even be friends again till I tell you everything. It—chokes me!" ”

“ Mary Dunlap had told the end of her story rapidly, conscious that her listener was under a heavy strain, and now she looked up with relief that all was told.
But the poor mother had borne all she could. She suddenly drooped and would have fallen if the caller had not put strong arms about her and laid her gently on the couch.
"My dear!" she said as she stooped over the poor sufferer and patted her gently. "My dear! Don't feel so terribly about it. I am sure this part of the story should be a relief, for it certainly puts that man in a position where he dare not touch your daughter again!" ”

“ In view of this, for the sake of your wife and daughters, so long as you keep your life steadily within the law that governs respectable men, and hold yourself from insulting, by your attentions, not only the girl you tried to ruin, but every other girl and woman on God's earth, I will agree to keep silence to all but the one whose affections you have stolen, and her mother! ”

“ But I don't blame you, Mother dear; I suppose it is natural for mothers to feel so; when you never have had a chance to find out for yourself what a wonderful man he is. Besides, think how I helped it along!
"Why, mother, when I think of the way I let that awful Mrs. Dunlap, a perfect stranger, manage me so that I almost insulted him, it makes me feel as though I were going insane! ”

“ At last Mary Dunlap who had stood by helpless, trying to think of something she might say which would bring the girl to her senses, leaned over toward the mother and said in a low tone:
"Suppose I just go away for the night now. She is excited and the sight of me only irritates her. If she could get some sleep she might be more reasonable in the morning. No, don't get up. I can find my own way to the door. You can telephone if you need me. I shall stay close to my room till I hear from you. And I will pray! Don't despair, dear sister! God is strong! ”

“ She will pay more heed to her mother's advice to her mother's intuition, and not consider that her own discernment of character is final. You know we all have to have sharp lessons to teach us to find our guidance in the Lord and our own utter helplessness without Him."
"But I'm so afraid Daisy won't look at it that way. She is such an intense child, so proud and excitable, and enthusiastic, and so prone to go to the depths when the heights have failed her. I am afraid—Mrs. Dunlap, forgive me, but I'm afraid she may lose her mind! ”