Pansy

“ Joseph was not in any sense of the word a “hard” man, she assured herself; she had been a member of his household long enough to be sure of that. A reserved, silent man he might be; a disappointed man in many ways, and one harassed by daily anxieties; all this was plain enough; she ought to have been doing something to help him, instead of telling him what would open old wounds and set them to bleeding. Yet how could she avoid it? Derrick Forman’s name ought to be cleared of reproach, and who could desire this more than his own brother? ”

“ Poor Ray! you ought to be there this minute.”
Mr. Forman rose up suddenly, his coffee still waiting. “I must go,” he said. Mrs. Forman protested anxiously; wouldn’t he let her give him a cup of hot coffee? No, he wouldn’t; he murmured something about it being later than he had realized, and hurried away.
Mrs. Forman waited until the door closed after him, then spoke in a discouraged tone: “I wish, Jean, you could learn to be a little more considerate of your father’s feelings; it is hard enough for him to be compelled to deny you all sorts of pleasures, without having it stabbed into him.” ”

“ Being a boy who was distinctly loyal to his father, Derrick Forman had made very few remarks aloud about the family innovation; nobody but himself, at least so he fondly believed, knew how utterly he disliked the thought of it. He did not in the least remember his Aunt Elsie, although there was a tradition in the family that once in his very early childhood she had kissed him fervently and declared that he “looked enough like father” to be her brother. ”

“ Mrs. Forman sighed again, and said that Ray was doing, once more, what she had done ever since she was able to think and plan—sacrificing herself for others; she, the mother, ought to be used to it, but it did seem a pity that it must always be the same one on whom the burden fell heaviest. She arose from the table as she spoke, the others following her lead. Jean, as she clattered the cups and saucers, gathering them for the little maid in the kitchen, continued to express her mind, with no listener save herself. ”

“ Florence gave her sister another quick, searching look, and after a moment said: “You are a very strange girl, Jean, do you know it?”
“Why?” Jean asked. “What is there strange about hoping that a man who had to exchange worlds without a moment’s warning was ready for it? Florence, the way that lace falls back from your arms is exquisite; I shouldn’t wonder if you would be the most becomingly dressed girl there. Isn’t it time you were off? The moon has risen. ”

“ In the privacy of Jean’s room that evening her disrespectful nephew expressed his opinion to his boon companion.
“Isn’t she just about the homeliest critter you ever looked at? Turned-up nose, and no eyes to speak of, and the oddest little wad of gray hair perked on top of her head. I can’t imagine how she and Aunt Caroline ever came to be sisters.” ”

“ She knew that she realized, as he could not, that Ray Forman, one of the girls in her father’s unpretentious house, could be clothed respectably on a much smaller sum of money than would suffice for Mrs. Kendall Forsythe, who would enter a family that had for generations made a bride the excuse for all manner of social functions, of which she was expected to be the centre. The Forsythe family, at least that portion of it to which Kendall belonged, were no longer wealthy, but they were aristocratic, and were looked upon as one of the oldest and most honored of the “first families” ”

“ Yet after all, the real thorn in his heart was the fact that his aunt had not confined her “nagging” to the girls and himself, but was given to much advising his mother, and finding fault with her ways. He had a vivid memory of Aunt Caroline’s voice, high and insistent, as it came out to him when he stood in the hall waiting for a chance to speak to his mother: “You really ought to insist on Joseph’s having things fixed conveniently for you in the kitchen, at least; you can’t expect to keep a girl unless you furnish her with some of the modern conveniences; in these days they won’t stand it. ”

“ Aunt Elsie was being very glad over those same tiny spoons; she knew better than did any of the others that it was a proof of grace triumphant that they were there at all. She had feared that Uncle Evarts and his family would not be invited to the wedding nor could she blame her brother Joseph if he considered himself excused from such invitations to his house; feeling miserably sure, as he now did, of Evarts’ unfair dealings in the past. But, lo, it was Joseph who gave the final decision. “Invite him by all means, daughter; we can not right any past wrongs by hurting his feelings now.” ”

“ Fearing something of this kind, the entire family had earnestly enjoined one another not to talk over financial anxieties before Jean. Neither did they, of course, say anything intentionally about such burdens before Aunt Elsie. One who had nothing of her own, but was dependent upon relatives for her daily living, was the last person before whom to talk of the cost of living. By common consent the responsible members of the family had agreed that she should never hear a word which might make her think that her coming to them had added a feather’s weight to their daily budget. ”

“ I had not the least desire to pray that prayer any more; instead, I said, ‘Oh, Father, thank you!’ When I heard that the doctor had said you would not live until morning, I said, softly, ‘Yes, she will; the Physician who never loses a case has taken charge of this one.’ I was so sure that I went to Derrick’s room and told him to go to bed and to sleep, that you would be better in the morning. But I can’t explain the experience to you any better than that; and I really don’t expect you to understand it; some things have to be lived, before we can understand them. ”

“ I mean us, Ray dear, never you, though you did the sacrificing, you blessed darling! I hope that mysterious house will have a decent room in it for your very own. Just think, you really haven’t had a room to yourself—large enough to be called a room—for a whole year.”
“I’ve never for an hour been sorry that Aunt Elsie had mine,” Ray answered, “and it wasn’t half so much of a sacrifice to give it up as you girls imagined. You don’t remember my room at 1200 Dupont Circle very well, do you, Jean? but Florence does. ”

“ There is a sense in which the money is not mine; it is trust money. You must have heard of Derrick Forman, young Derrick’s uncle? It is his money that I am using; he wanted it used, some of it, for his brother Joseph’s children, but he chose to work through me, and left me to decide just who, and what, and when; only he had me wait until Derrick, his namesake was a certain age. ”

“ Mrs. Forman looked down at the closely written pages and sighed, as she answered: “It is from Aunt Caroline, and it is all about your Aunt Elsie; she wants us to let her come here.”
“Aunt Elsie!” Florence exclaimed.
“Oh, mother!” from Jean.
Then Ray: “Why, mother, what is the matter?”
“It is a long story, girls, going back before you were born; but the part that concerns us now is simple enough. The woman who has lived with Aunt Elsie for years, and cared for her like a daughter, has recently died, and there must be an entire change of arrangements.” ”

“ I suppose you never heard of Horace Beach? I knew him well, and never liked him, although he was smooth-spoken enough, and tried to pet me; it seemed as though I always knew he was a kind of sneak. He was several years older than Derrick, and had great influence over him; mother used to say that Horace Beach could make him do anything he chose. The last time the fellow was at our house was a Christmas vacation; Derrick coaxed to be allowed to bring him home with him, because his mother was in Europe and he was lonesome; and he had word to go out and join her, before the vacation was over. ”

“ Mortgages are kind of worrisome things, I guess; a man has to keep thinking about them.”
“Is there a mortgage?”
Derrick caught his breath in dismay; his instant thought was:
“Now you have put your foot in it, old blunderbuss; the idea of Aunt Elsie not knowing that there was a mortgage on the house!” It seemed to the boy that he had known it ever since he was born.
“Oh, yes,” he said, trying to speak carelessly, “there’s a mortgage, of course; there always is I guess, on houses; they’re there when you buy ’em, aren’t they?” ”

“ Home is spoiled, anyhow.”
His sister Ray, as she watched him a few minutes later swing down the street on an errand for his mother, had a shadow on her face over this very fear. It had been troubling her thoughts for days. Were they spoiling home for Derrick? If they were—ought it to be done? Derrick, the heedless, noisy, fun-loving boy, who rarely stopped to consider whether his fun was a pleasure or an annoyance to even his best friends. Derrick, who was inclined to be—gay; she had almost thought that hateful word “fast!” ”

“ I don’t see why people who belong to the same family are so different; there are regular sets of us; mother and Ray make one set and you and Florence and I the other.”
“Father doesn’t belong to the family, I suppose!” Derrick chuckled. Jean joined the laugh, then grew suddenly serious.
“Father doesn’t belong to the sets,” she said. “He is all by himself; he tries, but he doesn’t rise above things as mother and Ray do. I suppose it is because responsibilities rest heavier on him. Dick, what is going to become of us all, anyhow? Can’t you see that things are growing harder all while? ”

“ Well, that’s sensible. A little place of their own, no matter how humble, is better than living on other people. But, didn’t I hear that he had a relative of some sort to support? Oh, a mother; and is she going to live with them? They will need several rooms, then. Where have they found a desirable place? Or haven’t they got so far as that yet?”
Mrs. Forman arose suddenly, ostensibly to close a window where the wind was blowing in; really, to decide just how to answer him. It gave Jean the opportunity for which she longed:
“They are to be at 1200 Dupont Circle, Uncle Evarts.” ”

“ A fellow can afford to shout over the fact that he isn’t a bit like any of them.”
He had a distinct boyish recollection of his Aunt Caroline and his Uncle Evarts, and disliked them both. Aunt Caroline, as he remembered her, was always saying: “Dear me! Why do you yell so when you talk? None of your family is deaf.” Or: “If you were my boy I should give you a good whipping every time you rolled down stairs in that lubberly fashion.” Or: “For pity’s sake, Dick, don’t whistle all the time! your family do not seem to have any nerves.” ”

“ The fact is the man wants the house, he would rather have it on the terms he can arrange than the money; it has doubled in value since I bought it, and the street has improved very greatly; it is worth his while to get hold of the property, and he knows it.”
“Well,” Aunt Elsie said briskly, “I should tell him he couldn’t have it; my advice is that you take the money to him to-morrow morning when you go to the store; if he is afraid of checks you might stop at the Metropolitan Exchange and get it for him in gold.”
Mr. Forman gazed at his sister with a dazed, half-frightened look. ”

“ She drew back the curtain to gaze on the shimmering glory, and Florence went downstairs to the sound of her voice trilling:
“For the glow of eventide I wait, I’m a pilgrim going home.”
An hour later Derrick came clattering downstairs and bounced into the family sitting-room with an imperious question: “Where is Ray?”
When his mother explained that Kendall had taken her out for a moonlight walk, he growled: “Oh, bother Kendall! He is always carrying her off just when a fellow needs her most. ”

“ Florence Forman looked after them, with a frown of annoyance on her pretty face as she said: “Aunt Elsie ought to have a new suit; that queer woman who lived near them and made all her clothes because she needed the work did not know how to fit a coat any more than I do! and Kendall is such a gentleman! Mother, do you suppose she has left herself money enough for clothes?” ”

“ MRS. FORMAN and her two daughters, Ray and Florence, were in the attic studying the possibilities of certain stowed-away pieces of furniture; also arguing as to the merits—or possibly demerits—of a set of old curtains.
Florence was sure that they would not do at all for Aunt Elsie’s room, although while she said it she was oppressed by the thought that new curtains were not even to be mentioned. Only that morning her mother had tried to impress them with the fact that even very small expenditures must be carefully guarded; they really must not for the present spend an unnecessary penny. ”

“ It was only two days afterward, while Aunt Elsie in the little family room was trying to decide whether or not to retire to her room, ostensibly to write a letter, but in reality to give her brother and sister a chance to talk over their daily problems without the embarrassment of having a listener, that Derrick appeared, book in hand.
“Hello!” he said, “I’m in luck; you are here and you’re not doing a thing! Do you suppose you could give a fellow a lift out of another hole?” ”