Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

“ Dunn, “I must say I am sorry that they do feel quite so much above other folks, because Nelly is easy put upon for a long while, then when she does get to asserting herself she is more set about it than a great many people who are flying out in a temper every other minute. But Nelly and Julius have grown up together, and they do think a lot of each other, and Julius is a good, steady young man, and of course I am glad he has some property.” ”

“ When she came down-stairs she kept her face averted so that her father should not see that she had been weeping. She hurried home. She said she had to see to the luncheon before Julius got home. Everybody in South Barr except the Whittemores had dinner at noon. They had luncheon. Poor Oliver Dunn had seen Nelly's tear-stained face, and the minute she was out of hearing asked:
“What is the matter—the white-satin dress?”
Mrs. Dunn sat down opposite her husband and returned his anxious look.
“I suppose it is,” she said. “Oh dear! How people do act over nothing!” ”

“ He doesn't care. He has his way about it.” Nelly spoke half caressingly, half sarcastically.
“He is a man, and men are different,” said her mother. “And he wants you to look nice, and so does his mother.”
“His mother wants me to look nice because I am marrying her son,” declared Nelly. “I suppose Julius does want me to look nice because he is fond of me—but his mother!”
Mrs. Dunn looked anxiously at Nelly. She was sorry that the young married pair were to live with Julius's mother. She would have been equally sorry if they had been going to live with her. ”

“ Nelly had simply been the only girl in South Barr whom a young man who esteemed himself as Julius Cæsar Whittemore esteemed himself could marry, and Nelly, who had not much imagination, and very seldom went away from home to meet young men, did not dream of the possibility of marrying another man. ”

“ Julius was well-to-do. Nelly's father and mother, who were not especially prosperous, although they had enough to live on, were calmly pleased that their only daughter was to marry well as far as this world's goods were concerned. The week before the marriage, Mrs. Oliver Dunn, Nelly's mother, had driven her old gray horse over to Barr Center, and called on Sarah Edgewater.
“I am glad Nelly is to marry Julius,” she said. “He is a likely young man, and there is considerable property. It will all come to Julius after his mother dies.” ”

“ His wife looked anxious. “You don't think——?”
“I think it will be a long time before something worth more than that white-satin dress is forgotten. Nelly had better have worn it.”
“She thought it looked too grand—as if she were putting on airs before people about marrying a rich man.”
“What Julius thinks and what his mother thinks is what Nelly has to consider now,” said her father. “I wish she had worn it.”
The next morning Nelly came over. Julius had gone to Barr-by-the-Sea, and his mother to Boston. Nelly was alone with her mother for quite a while. ”

“ They have always ticked, and they go right on ticking. Nelly never gets all wrought up because Julius doesn't come over, or is late, and I don't think Julius would get jealous if she walked right off to meeting with another man before his eyes. ”

“ They quarreled a long time. She called Julius down-stairs and had it out with him. And now, this morning, she is packing all her trunks. She is putting in everything she owns. I even saw her packing vases and books, and—I don't believe she will ever come back! I suppose she is going to live with her sister out West—her sister Clara, who lost her husband awhile ago.”
“I don't see why on earth you are upset, if Jane Whittemore is going away,” said Mrs. Dunn. “I should think you would feel as if now you had a little chance of living in peace with your husband.”
Nelly shook her head hopelessly. ”

“ The Dunns are as good a family as ever lived in Barr. I don't except even the Leicesters, or the Edgewaters, or the Widners. What have the Whittemores done?”
“I really don't know, except be Whittemores,” admitted Mrs. ”