Anice

“ Though they saw comparatively little of each other, the friendly feeling established between Anice and Joan, in their first interview, gained strength gradually as time went on. Coming home from her work at noon or at night, Joan would see traces of Anice's presence, and listen to Liz's praises of her. Liz was fond of her and found comfort in her. The days when the gray pony came to a stop in his jog-trot on the roadside before the gate had a kind of pleasurable excitement in them. They were the sole spice of her life. She understood Anice as little as she understood Joan, but she liked her. ”

“ After Lowrie's death, Anice Barholm and Joan were oftener together than ever. What had at first been friendship had gradually become affection.
“I think,” Anice said to Grace, “that Joan must go away from here and find a new life.”
“That is the only way,” he answered. “In this old one there has been nothing but misery for her, and bitterness and pain.”
Fergus Derrick was sitting at a table turning over a book of engravings. He looked up sharply.
“Where can you find a new life for her?” he asked. “And how can you help her to it? One dare not offer her even a semblance of assistance.” ”

“ I, however, subdued my apprehensions, thinking, with a certain haughty pride which I fear will never be eliminated from my nature, of the dangers I had already met with and overcome in my brief but troubled life; and meeting his look with a smile which I knew to contain a spice of audacity, I calmly waited for the words I felt to be hovering upon his lips. They were scarcely the ones I expected.
"Miss Sterling," said he, "you have seen Anice, my mother's waiting-maid?" ”

“ When in due time Anice began to work out her plan of co-operation with her, she was not disappointed in the fulfillment of her hopes. Gradually it became a natural thing for a slow and timid girl to turn to Joan Lowrie for help. ”

“ After this, Miss Barholin was rarely absent from her place at the school. The two evenings always found her at work among her young women, and she made very steady progress among them.
By degrees the enterprise was patronized more freely. New pupils dropped in, and were usually so well satisfied that they did not drop out again. Grace gave all the credit to Anice, but Anice knew better than to accept it. She had been his "novelty" she said; time only would prove whether her usefulness was equal to her power of attraction. ”

“ Lanice broke it by saying, 'I think I had best drink my tea now, and then why couldn't we walk over the town?...' She hid the quiver of her lip against the edge of the teacup. 'The town, they say, is most worth while.'
'What would you like to see?' he asked humbly.
He knew that she did not care to see anything really, but admired the brave face she showed the world. Poor child! Most women would have been wistful—overcome with grief—prostrated, offended. ”

“ She looked baleful and evil, like a witch cat, and Lanice, thinking of the women hanged upon the hill, could imagine this bitter lady in a halter.
'Open it,' she commanded. 'No one has seen it for forty years, not since Sister Poggy deserted Salem to go with that worthless husband to Boston.'
Lanice found herself face to face with a beautiful Indian or Persian miniature painted upon ivory. The girl she faced had long jet eyes, black silk hair, pale shapely face, and locked red mouth. She was heavy with jewels, ear-rings, nose stud, bracelets, and necklaces. ”

“ When the school teacher, in his delirium, had seemed to ask for Annette, Janice was smitten to the quick. She could fight the other girl no further. If Nelson’s mind turned to the city girl in its beclouded state, he must be very fond of her indeed. ”

“ Of course, the Christmas package for Daddy had gone weeks before. The mail service to the mine in Mexico was very irregular.
On this day when the clouds began to hover so close above the mountain tops before noon, Janice decided that she would not risk putting off until Christmas Eve a visit that she must make. She packed an old box-sled of Marty’s full of little packages, all named and numbered, and pulled a coasting cap down over her ears in preparation for departure.
“You’d oughter take Marty with you, Janice,” her aunt told her. “B-r-r-r! It’s colder than a frog’s toes outside.” ”

“ Aunt Janice was all interest, as she included the whole group in the question.
For a moment everyone was silent, then Nora broke the pause shyly—"We put you as the first Aunt Janice, on the quest for happy hearts, because you said we had brought gladness into your life. You're the golden link that began our chain of happiness."
"Quite right—quite right—" Aunt Janice agreed heartily, almost overcome herself. "But now it's bedtime, so let us first of all thank our heavenly Father for our happiness and then go to bed. We all need a refreshing sleep." ”

“ Lanice had no answer, and Pauline continued: 'But I suppose you are unable to see the fine quality of a man like Professor Ripley. You like loose-living young rakes like that terrible Jones man or even Smith Scollay. Well, such men seem to drop you quickly enough.'
Lanice waved a graceful hand clad to the wrist in an uncompromising cambric robe de nuit. ”

“ Lanice began to blush slowly, furiously, until tears of mortification stood in her downcast eyes. She was suddenly, overwhelmingly conscious of Mr. Jones's physical presence. The back of his hand touched her wrist.
'Lovely hands,' he said quietly, 'and neck and face. I've never seen another face that could...at odd moments...move me more. How can the rest be only whalebone and buckram? Lanice, you could be a...beauty, and love as women loved a thousand years ago. You prefer to be a dressmaker's dummy and a lady editoress. ”

“ Lanice had recently gone to see Louisa and the two girls crept to the attic for privacy and seated on the rag-bag exchanged ambitions.
'I must make money. I will teach, act, write stories. Lanice, I'll even sell my one beauty, my hair. ”

“ Janice suspected that her aunt had her heart fixed upon a similar adornment, and when she picked her up again at one of Middletown’s biggest stores, after driving to the seminary and seeing the principal, Aunt ’Mira had a long pasteboard box clasped against her breast, her round, fat face was hot and perspiring, but she was smiling broadly.
“I got one, Janice!” she whispered, hoarsely, as she wedged herself into the car. “It cost me a sight of money. Don’t tell your Uncle Jason; he’d have a fit.” ”

“ He was evidently unacquainted with Nelson, for Janice saw him look at the school teacher curiously. Annette arose with an amused expression of countenance as though she were tolerating the requests of a small boy. Sisters do hold that attitude at times regarding their brothers. ”

“ You have a very hard heart, Janice. Never mind, when I get rich, I'll set you up like a queen. You must not be a housekeeper always even if you do refuse to be a baroness. You did n't know I had hopes of wealth, did you?” She looked rather sly as she put this question.
“I had fancied it, Mrs. Brane,” I said. ”

“ You simply have a low feminine desire to force him to propose so that you may'—Pauline waved her rusty arm in imitation of Lanice's graceful genture—'turn him down, and say with a shrug you can get a better one.'
'No,' said Lanice with a sudden angry defiance, 'there is no better...' She stopped, surprised that she had said so much. 'I think he is the best man in the world. ”

“ Janice shrank from contemplating the awkwardness bound to arise out of her meeting with the civil engineer’s sister. Frank might be a very “civil” engineer indeed; but Annette, as Janice well knew, was woefully lacking in that element of her brother’s character. When Janice and Annette met, the latter could not fail to recognize the former as the person who had driven the automobile when Judge Slater’s cob was frightened on the Middletown Lower Road. ”

“ The young civil engineer promised to come the very next day to give Janice her first lesson in the actual handling of the car, and then took his leave.
“Mighty smart-actin’ young feller,” commented Uncle Jason. “Got some git-up-an’-git about him—don’t ye say so, Almiry?”
“He’s got such pretty eyes!” exclaimed Mrs. Day. “And he says he ain’t never had a mother since he was nine years old. Wouldn’t his mother be proud of him now?”
“I’ve heard you say, ‘Handsome is as handsome [41] does,’ Aunt ’Mira,” said Janice roguishly. “He’s too new a friend to praise yet.”
“Huh!” said Marty. ”

“ She did this swiftly, while Janice took her other hand and with a soft, urgent pressure tried to draw her along.
But although she seemed so sweet and amenable, Janice did not breathe freely until they were both off the old wharf. Then she demanded, quickly:
"Do they let you come here alone? Where do you live?"
The little girl did not answer; of course she did not hear. She was still looking back toward the tall wall of spruce across the inlet, from which the sharp echo was flung.
"He-a! he-a! he-a!" she wailed again, and the echo sent back the cry; but the little girl shook her head. ”

“ Janice thought he was a very polite man.
"And I hope he is always kind to Pietro," she said, when the foreigner and his strange pet were gone. "But, Daddy! Don't we have the greatest happenings in our house?"
"Right you are, my dear. An aristocratic lady has left us flat; the neighborhood censor has washed her hands of us; and we have entertained a highly educated bear, all in a single day. As you might say, all these astonishing happenings are 'all in the Days' work.' The Days certainly do entertain the most astonishing adventures." ”

“ Janice told him the exact truth, as far as the racing of the automobile along the Upper Road went, but she was too excited to make dear all about the Trimmins and the sick baby.
“Mebbe you’d ought to have stopped when they told you to, Janice,” said Aunt ’Mira timidly.
[169] “She hadn’t nothing of the kind!” declared her angry husband. “You be still, Almiry. I glory in the gal’s spunk. If she’d stopped, they’d mebbe had her in jail till this time. The Elder’s got one of his mean fits on and he’s gotter have satisfaction. But I’ll give him satisfaction.” ”

“ Aunt ’Mira decided to accompany Janice to Middletown on this trip of arrangement.
“Even if I don’t spend a penny, I do just love to look into the Middletown shop-winders,” declared the fashion-hungry lady. “Them wax figgers with the latest style robes onto ’em look jest like the pictures in the Household Love Letter of the lords and ladies that live in castles in England, or in Europe, and have such wonderful times. You never read them stories, Janice—an’ I s’pose you air too young to ’preciate ’em—but they’re a gre’t comfort to me. ”

“ We’ll have more time for you some other day. And I want you and Janice [103] to be good friends—you’ll find lots to like about each other.”
Janice bade Annette good-day pleasantly, and immediately started the car. Naturally she was busy making the turn and starting up the hill; but she did not miss Annette’s languid smile and shrug as she returned to Nelson. A sudden rush of tears half blinded the troubled girl. High Street grew misty before her, and Marty yelled:
“Look out! you’ll run down ol’ Miz’ Cummings.” ”

“ If anything should happen to his father—God forbid!—I feel now as though Marty would be somethin’ more’n a willer-reed to lean onto.”
It was Aunt Almira who took the deepest satisfaction in the motor-car, after all. Born under another star, the large and lymphatic lady would [64] without doubt have been a society devotee. She loved dress and display, and sometimes Janice found it difficult to influence Aunt ’Mira to have frocks and hats proper to her age and station. ”

“ Janice started off rather blindly through the snow, holding the umbrella low to hide her smarting eyes. It seemed as though every time she and Nelson [189] had a chance to come to an understanding, Annette Bowman or Frank came between them. She had no suspicion of the little scene between the school teacher and the engineer’s sister when they arrived at the Lake View Inn and were warming themselves before the open fire in the parlor.
“Annette, you are a terribly ‘bossy’ girl,” grumbled Nelson. “Nothing suits you but having folks go your way all the time. ”

“ With her new interests at school, Janice had not forgotten her desire to help and interest the younger girls; and out of this desire had grown the society with which she was endeavoring to net the black-haired Trimmins girl. Janice had interested Mr. and Mrs. Middler, and they were enthusiastic for the plan. The good minister knew that something should be done to counteract the influence of Annette Bowman and the people whom she had enthralled. The little girls should be taught to be happy and sensible at the same time. ”

“ He was even chatty—for him—with Janice. It was a school day, and Janice hurried to put on her hat and get her school bag, into which she slipped the luncheon that her aunt very kindly put up for her. Aunt 'Mira had really begun to "put herself out" for her niece, and the luncheon was always tasty and nicely arranged.
"Wait for me, Marty!" she cried, as her cousin was sliding out of the door in his usual attempt to get away unobserved, and so not be called back for any unexpected chores.
"Aw, come on! A gal's always behind—like a cow's tail!" growled the chivalrous Marty. "What you want?" ”

“ Marty, flushing as she did so. Her gaze lingered on the boy only an instant, and without dreaming of his presence on the train how should she recognize her cousin?
"Why! he isn't exactly a boy, is he?" she said to the Madam. "He wears a pronounced mustache."
"Yes? Perhaps it is not the same, then," sighed the woman. "But his interest in you, my dear, is marked."
"Perhaps it is in you he is interested," said Janice, smiling. "You have made a conquest, Madam."
"Ach! of that so-little man? It would be my fate!" cried the majestic creature. "It iss always little men that fall in love with me—soh!" ”