Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

“ I like black myself; but mourning—that’s different. Poor young thing, I wonder who it was. Her father, mebbe, or her mother. You didn’t happen to hear her say, did you, Phoebe?”
Mrs. Solomon Black compressed her lips tightly. She paused at her own gate with majestic dignity.
“I guess I’ll have to hurry right in, Abby,” said she. “I have my bread to set.”
Mrs. Solomon Black had closed her gate behind her, noticing as she did so that Wesley Elliot and Lydia Orr had disappeared from the piazza where she had left them. She glanced at Mrs. Daggett, lingering wistfully before the gate. ”

“ There’s no use talking, Fan; there’s mighty little chance for our sort. And if there’s one thing I hate more than another it’s what folks call sympathy.”
“So do I!” cried Fanny. “I simply can’t bear it to know that people are saying behind my back, ‘There’s poor Fanny Dodge; I wonder—’ Then they squeeze your hand, and gaze at you and sigh. Even mother—I want you to tell mother I’m not—that it isn’t true—I can’t talk to her, Jim.” ”

“ And no other than Lydia was to furnish Mrs. Whittle’s empty parlor. She had already given the minister a new long-tailed coat, as Jim chose to characterize the ministerial black. His cheeks burned under the slanting rays of the afternoon sun with something deeper than an added coat of tan. Why should Lydia Orr—that slip of a girl, with the eyes of a baby, or a saint—do all this? Jim found himself unable to believe that she really wanted the Bolton place. Why, the house was an uninhabitable ruin! It would cost thousands of dollars to rebuild it. ”

“ He has always known them—all. And thus it is, that love comes and goes unbidden, like the wind which blows where it listeth; and woman, hearing the sound thereof, cannot tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth.
In this particular instance Wesley Elliot had not chosen to examine the secret movements of his own mind. Baldly speaking, he had cherished a fleeting fancy for Fanny Dodge, a sort of love in idleness, which comes to a man like the delicate, floating seeds of the parasite orchid, capable indeed of exquisite blossoming; but deadly to the tree upon which it fastens. ”

“ Ellen Dix tossed her head.
“Oh, is there?” she said airily. “Well, I don’t even think she’s pretty; do you, Fan?—with all that light hair, drawn back plain from her forehead, and those big, solemn eyes. But I guess she thinks she’s pretty, all right.”
“She doesn’t think anything about herself,” said Jim doggedly. “She isn’t that kind of a girl.”
Ellen Dix bit a vexed exclamation short.
“I don’t believe any of us know her very well,” she said, after a pause. “You know what a gossip Lois Daggett is? Well, I met her and Mrs. Fulsom and Mrs. Whittle coming out of the Daggetts’ house. ”

“ But even the sanest and wisest of men has never thus easily surrendered the jealously guarded stronghold of sex. Wesley Elliot’s youthful ideas of women were totally at variance with the disconcerting conviction which strove to invade his mind. He had experienced not the slightest difficulty, up to the present moment, in classifying them, neatly and logically; but there was no space in his mental files for a woman such as Lydia Orr was representing herself to be. It was inconceivable, on the face of it! All women demanded admiration, courtship, love. They always had; they always would. ”

“ In the barroom of the Brookville House the flaring kerosene lamp lit up a group of men and half-grown boys, who had strayed in out of the chill darkness to warm themselves around the great stove in the middle of the floor. The wooden armchairs, which in summer made a forum of the tavern’s side piazza, had been brought in and ranged in a wide semicircle about the stove, marking the formal opening of the winter session. In the central chair sat the large figure of Judge Fulsom, puffing clouds of smoke from a calabash pipe ”

“ It was the sort of day when untoward events, near and far, stand out with unpleasant prominence against the background of one’s everyday life. A day in which a man is led, whether he will or not, to take stock of himself and to balance with some care the credit and debit sides of his ledger.
Wesley Elliot had been working diligently on his sermon since nine o’clock that morning, at which hour he had deserted Mrs. Solomon Black’s comfortable tight roof, to walk under the inadequate shelter of a leaking umbrella to the parsonage. ”

“ Jim Dodge had been hoeing potatoes all day. It was hard, monotonous work, and he secretly detested it. But the hunting season was far away, and the growing potatoes were grievously beset by weeds; so he had cut and thrust with his sharp-bladed hoe from early morning till the sun burned the crest of the great high-shouldered hill which appeared to close in the valley like a rampart, off Grenoble way. As a matter of fact, the brawling stream which gave Brookville its name successfully skirted the hill by a narrow margin which likewise afforded space for the state road. ”

“ Elliot had been as good as engaged to Fanny Dodge, as Mrs. Solomon Black had been at some pains to imply, in what way had she (Lydia) interfered with the dénouement?
She shook her head at last over the intricacies of the imperfectly stated problem. The idea of coquetting with a man had never entered Lydia’s fancy. Long since, in the chill spring of her girlhood, she had understood her position in life as compared with that of other girls. She must never marry. She must never fall in love, even. The inflexible Puritan code of her uncle’s wife had found ready acceptance in Lydia’s nature. ”

“ He was almost sure that the poor girl loved him. He was quite sure that he loved her. But he was also sure, with a strong sense of pride in her, that she would have refused him, not on mercenary grounds, for Fanny he knew would have shared a crust and hovel with the man she loved; but Fanny would love the man too well to consent to the crust and the hovel, on his own account. She would not have said in so many words, “What! marry you, a minister so poor that a begging fair has to be held to pay his salary?” ”

“ Daggett, cooling her flushed face with slow sweeps of the big turkey-feather fan Mrs. Dix handed her. “Ain’t she just the sweetest girl—always thinking of other folks! I never see anything like her.”
A subtle expression of reserve crept over the faces of the attentive women. Mrs. Mixter tasted the contents of her glass critically.
“I don’t know,” she said dryly, as if the lemonade had failed to cool her parched throat, “that depends on how you look at it.” ”

“ It is petty finance on such a moral height that even the sufferers by its code must look up to it. Before even woman, showing anything except a timid face of discovery at the sights of New York under male escort, invaded Wall Street, the church fair was in full tide, and the managers thereof might have put financiers to shame by the cunning, if not magnitude, of their operations. ”

“ Fanny said indignantly. “Oh, Ellen, how can you go on like that! I’m sure you don’t care a bit about Jim or me, either.”
“I do!” declared Ellen. “I love you with all my heart, Fan; but I don’t know about Jim. I—I might have—you know; but if he’s crazy over that Orr girl, what’s the use? There are other men, just as good-looking as Jim Dodge and not half so sarcastic and disagreeable.”
“Jim can be disagreeable, if he wants to,” conceded Jim’s sister. ”

“ Lydia could not hope to keep her secret long. And there was danger in her attempt. He shuddered as he remembered the man’s terrible words, “Twice I have been tempted to knock her down when she stood between me and the door.” Would it not be better to abandon this pretense sooner, rather than later? If the village knew the truth, would not the people show at least a semblance of kindness to the man who had expiated so bitterly the wrong he had done them?
“If the man is insane,” Miss Daggett said, “it doesn’t seem right to me to have him at large.” ”

“ Brookville was sick, despondent, dull, gloomy and impoverished—not because of Andrew Bolton’s crime; but because Brookville had never forgiven Andrew Bolton.... Hate is the one destructive element in the universe; did you know that, friends? It is impossible for a man or woman who hates another to prosper.... And I’ll tell you why this is—why it must be true: God is love—the opposite of hate. Hence All Power is enlisted on the side of love.... ”

“ He seemed somewhat blinded by his lantern, for he ran full tilt into Jim, who stood the shock with such firmness that the older man staggered back, and danced uncertainly to recover his balance. Deacon Amos Whittle stuttered uncertain remarks, as was his wont when startled. “It is only Jim Dodge,” said Jim. “Guess your lantern sort of blinded you, Deacon.”
Then the lantern almost blinded Jim, for Whittle swung it higher until it came on a level with Jim’s eyes. Over it peered Whittle’s little keen ones, spectacled under a gray shag of eyebrows. “Oh it is you!” ”

“ Picture to yourself what it would be like to live solely to make a great wrong right, and to save the wrongdoer. Literally, Ellen, she has borne that man’s grief and carried his sorrow, as truly as any vaunted Saviour of the world. Can you see it?”
“Do you mean—? Is that why she calls it Bolton House? Of course! And that dreadful old man is— But, Jim, everybody will find it out.”
“You’re right,” he acknowledged. “But they mustn’t find it out just yet. We must put it off till the man can shake that hang-dog air of his. Why, he can’t even walk decently. Prison is written all over him. ”

“ Whereat Fanny had been goaded into wishing the woman would mind her own business! She did wish everybody would leave her and her affairs alone! People had no right to talk! As for speaking to the minister; let any one dare—!
As for Ellen Dix, she had never quite forgiven Lydia for innocently acquiring the fox skin and she had by now almost persuaded herself that she was passionately in love with Jim Dodge. She had always liked him—at least, she had not actively disliked him, as some of the other girls professed to do. ”

“ Then it was that Jim Dodge, pressing closer to the long window, heard her say quite distinctly:
“Very well, father; we will go. Only I must go with you.... You are not strong enough to go alone. We will go anywhere you like.”
Andrew Bolton got nimbly out of his chair and stood glowering at her across its back. Then he burst into a prolonged fit of laughter mixed with coughing. ”

“ Lois Daggett’s eyes became on the instant watchful and suspicious. Lydia Orr had encountered that look before, on the faces of men and even of boys. Everybody was afraid of being cheated, she thought. Was this just in Brookville, and because of the misdeeds of one man, so long ago?
“Of course we shall have to talk it over some other day, when we have more time,” she said gently.
“Wouldn’t that be nice!” said Mrs. Daggett. “I was in a library once, over to Grenoble. Even school children were coming in constant to get books. But I never thought we could have one in Brookville. ”

“ As for Miss Lydia Orr’s girlish rapture over the view from her bedroom window, so long as it was productive of honestly earned dollars, Mrs. Black was disposed to view it with indulgence. There was nothing about the girl or her possessions to indicate wealth or social importance, beyond the fact that she arrived in a hired automobile from Grenoble instead of riding over in Mrs. Solomon Black’s spring wagon. Miss Orr brought with her to Brookville one trunk, the contents of which she had arranged at once in the bureau drawers and wardrobe of Mrs. Black’s second-best bedroom. ”

“ Then all at once she came upon Lydia Orr, in her simple white dress, made with an elegant simplicity which convicted every girl in the room of dowdiness. She was talking with Judge Fulsom, who was slowly consuming a huge saucer of ice-cream, with every appearance of enjoyment.
“As I understand it, my dear young lady, you wish to employ Brookville talent exclusively in repairing your house,” Fanny heard him saying, between smacking mouthfuls.
And Lydia Orr replied, “Yes, if you please, I do want everything to be done here. There are people who can, aren’t there?” ”

“ He took off his hat, but was so astonished he could scarcely utter a greeting. The girl was so shy that she stammered a little, but she laughed too, like a child caught in some mischief.
“Oh, I am so glad it is you!” she said.
“Well, taking all things into consideration, so am I,” said Jim.
“You mean—?”
“I mean it is pretty late for you to be out alone, and I’m as good as a Sunday School picnic, with the superintendent and the minister thrown in, for you to meet. I’ll see you home.”
“Goodness! There’s nothing to be afraid of in this little place,” said the girl. ”

“ Wesley had not been brought face to face, many times in his life, with the unprecedented. He had been brought before it, although in a limited fashion, at the church fair. The unprecedented is more or less shattering, partaking of the nature of a spiritual bomb. Lydia Orr’s mad purchase of that collection of things called a fair disturbed his sense of values. He asked himself over and over who was this girl? More earnestly he asked himself what her motives could be.
But the question which most agitated him was his relations with the girl, Fanny Dodge. ”