Azalia

“ A moan of pain came from the lips of beautiful Azalia, and she sighed:
"Ah, love, why did you leave me, without a word, to my cruel fate? Were you false in heart? Were you only amusing yourself with the simple child who loved you so well? Was that marriage true, or only a sham, or was there treachery somewhere? Treachery! It looked at me from Jewel's eyes—treachery and murderous hate! Ah, love, you died so soon after you went away that I can not hate you in your grave, even though you doomed me to a wretched life, cursed with memories that will not die! ”

“ She said to the good friend who had cared for her so nobly, that she must go into the world and work for a living for herself and the child.
But when that morrow dawned—and at the picture that rose in her mind Azalia sobbed aloud—the girl awoke from slumber and found beneath her breast a little, pulseless form, from which breath had so lately fled that the body was still limp and warm. Poor, puny babe! its feeble little life was ended, she thought, as she clasped and kissed it with raining tears and breaking heart. ”

“ It isn't right to condemn him, or turn from him, till we know he is not worthy of our confidence. I met him on the bridge last night, and he looked as if he hadn't a friend in the world. I shall stand by him," said Azalia.
"Deacon Hardhack and Miss Dobb mean to break down the choir. It is a conspiracy," said Hans, who felt that Paul's case was his own. ”

“ Azalia looked very grave.
"One hates to be underhand and deceitful," she said; but Marie laughed her objections away.
"One must fight the devil with fire," she said, coolly; and went on disclosing her plans. "If I get taken into her service again it will not be long before I shall go through her baggage," she said. "If I find that she has not got the papers with her, I shall disappear and go immediately to Boston. Mrs. Wellings is not with her this time, so I know she has left her to keep the house and the servants in order. ”

“ Everybody missed Paul. He was missed by the school-children, for the teacher who succeeded him was cross and harsh, while Paul was always kind and pleasant. He was missed by the congregation on Sunday, for although Hans did his best as leader of the choir, he could not fill Paul's place. He was missed by his mother, who, through the long, wearisome days and lonely nights, thought only of him, her pride, her joy, her hope. How good Azalia was to visit the Post-office every morning to get the letters which Paul wrote to his mother, often finding one for herself! ”

“ Lake Champlain, in its calm loveliness, shone brightly under the morning sun, its surface unruffled by the wind, and not a sail or boat was visible in all the blue extent of its far stretching vista. The gorgeous azalias were still in their bloom, so were the snowy blossoms of the sumach, and the glorious yellow light fell in flakes between the towering pines of the ancient forest, while the dewy prairie grass glittered as it rippled beneath the pleasant breeze. ”

“ It is a world of mountains rising around you in every direction, and in every form; savage, vast, and wild; yet almost at every step, some lovely spot meets your eye, green, bright and blooming, as the most cherished nook belonging to some noble Flora in our own beautiful land. It is a ride of ninety miles through kalmies, rhododendrons, azalias, vines and roses; sheltered from every blast that blows by vast masses of various coloured rocks, on which
“Tall pines and cedars wave their dark green crests.” ”

“ It was as if she had come into p. 133the house of her own mind; as if she had opened up the weed-choked door and crossed the threshold, discovering within fair rooms undreamed of; as if she had put the shutters back from long-closed windows and let the light stream in.
By four o’clock the rain seemed to have beaten itself out, and the wind died, too.
“Study is over!” cried Azalea at length. “Come, Paralee, get your things. Such a day! I tell you, anyone who can study as you do will make a success. Isn’t it so, Carin?”
Carin got up from her letter writing. ”

“ Carin, darling, when I looked at it, I knew it was the face of my father. It was like my own face, only a man’s and bolder. And yet, so like!
“My father!” I said. “I never saw his face before.”
“It is wonderfully like your own,” said Mr. Knox. “And now you must call me your Uncle David, Azalea; and you must call my dear wife your Aunt Lorena. Remember, you must never feel lonely any more.”
Then I suddenly thought of Mother McBirney waiting for me, and watching and watching the road, and praying and wondering, and I cried out:
“Oh, my dear Mother McBirney! I can never leave her—never!” ”

“ To be sure she grew very weary of going over and over the same thoughts; of wondering and wondering why no one came to her aid; of thinking what would happen to her when they had caught up with Sisson and his show. But when the dread and the fear were at their worst, she remembered certain words that Ma McBirney had spoken to her.
“No matter what comes to you, Azalea,” she had told her once, “you keep your heart full of God’s light and of God’s love, and nothing can really harm you. You mind what I say, child. You do that and the angels of the Lord will compass you about.” ”

“ The traveling men no longer told their stories; Aunt Zillah nodded but dared not doze for fear of missing her station; the mountain woman brooded patiently, caring little, it seemed, as to what fate might have in store for her; and little Constance slept in Azalea’s arms. Carin was supremely patient and quiet; and the bright eyes of Keefe O’Connor gleamed now and then from under the rim of his cap, which was pulled low over his face, and behind which he was occupied in thinking his own thoughts. ”

“ So it came to pass that Azalea, sitting on the doorstep one morning after her early breakfast, saw three heads appearing above the slope.
“Carin,” she called. “They’ve come!”
“Who? The gypsies?”
“No. The pupils. Oh, where is the key to the schoolhouse? Oh, Aunt Zillah, do I look in the least like a teacher? Come, Carin, we must go meet them.” ”

“ It was Ma McBirney who murmured: “Yes.”
“We came,” went on Mr. Carson gently, “to ask Azalea to make a choice. We are going to invite her to live with us and to be as our own daughter. She will share equally with Carin in everything; at least as far as it is possible for us to make an equal division. We know the story of her life and that under more fortunate circumstances the home we live in would have been hers. She would have been educated in the best manner and fitted for the life of a lady of position. Now, of our four children only one is left. ”

“ Azalea never forgot how quietly and sweetly that night came down. The mountain, so old—older than the peaks of the Rockies or the Sierras—lay beneath the stars with an air of placidity as comforting to the spirit as great music or great words.
Within the room where Keefe rested, the shadows deepened till Azalea and the others could no longer see his long form on the sofa, nor the little dark head of Mary Cecily bent to touch his.
“To think of finding some one on the earth who really, really belongs to you,” said Azalea. “Oh, Carin, how happy they are!” ”

“ Oh, fortunate girl! Always beautiful things happen to you. That, of course, is just as it ought to be. I hope they will keep right on happening to you all through life.
But, once more, in your happiness, do not forget your Azalea. For she is not very happy. No, though now she has much money and some friends—you, always, and Barbara and Annie Laurie, not to mention others—yet she is sad. Things are wrong—quite wrong.
I told you I was coming over here to visit Miss Delight Ravanel at her quaint old home, which she calls “Monrepos.” Aunt Lorena was quite willing I should come. ”

“ This time, Aunt Zillah and Carin rode together, and Azalea’s pony tried in vain to keep pace with Keefe’s raw-boned horse. Keefe had much to say of the day.
“I was very happy the little time I stayed there at Rowantree Hall,” he said. “I understood their ways—understood the things they do and the things they don’t do—and what’s more I perfectly understand why they don’t do them. Rowantree himself amuses me, yet I’m fond of him. Mrs. Rowantree—well, she’s a little miracle.”
“Oh, she is,” cried Azalea. “How she works—and doesn’t mind. What ducks the children are! ”

“ Couldn’t stay away from her old friend, Zalie couldn’t. Once a show girl always a show girl, eh?”
Azalea had been learning lessons of self-control since she had been with Mary McBirney, but now her old-time temper flamed up in her. She felt the familiar wave of fire sweeping across her brain and she screamed out angry things at Sisson.
“I’m no show girl!” she protested. “I never wanted to be a show girl. I think you are wicked, wicked, Hank Sisson! You’ve taken me away from the best people I ever knew and they’ll be so frightened! ”

“ To Carin, used to luxury and beauty and her parent’s unceasing care, it was an adventure in independence; to Azalea, accustomed to changes, to people of many sorts, to both rough and smooth living, it was one more chapter in a book destined to be filled with curious incidents. To Keefe—but let him speak for himself.
“This place,” he said, “looks to me singularly like Paradise. My own particular habitation is as damp and cold as the Mammoth Cave. My bed is done up in oilskins, and my easel is under the bed. Every stick of wood I have is drenched, and the field mice have got at my food.” ”

“ But when she goes away to school, as I mean she shall, she’ll bear a proper Christian name.”
p. 141Between Azalea and Carin the grim story of the Panther’s life was told.
“And now,” concluded Azalea, “my heart is set on rescuing that poor Mr. Panther. Why, it will be like bringing a man from a mine—or taking him from the Bastille. Oh, we mustn’t wait. We must set about the rescue at once!”
“It won’t be so easy as you imagine,” said Miss Zillah, with a sigh. “When people get away down like that, they don’t seem to want to be disturbed. They enjoy their misery. ”

“ Then I heard Aunt Lorena talking, but for a moment or two my heart and brain were in such an uproar that I could not really make out what she was saying. But at last the words got through to me.
“We know, Azalea, many things which you, perhaps, do not give us credit for knowing. We know that you are full of ambition and that the life here seems meaningless to you. Life has trained you in a different school from what it has us. ”

“ Even in the dusk Miss Zillah’s head could be seen shaking emphatically.
“Well,” she said, “if you’re an old-fashioned man, Mr. Rowantree, I suppose I’m what could be called an old-fashioned woman. But this I will say: I believe in women using their powers, and I think a woman of intelligence and health has the ability to look after her home and do something else besides. Azalea may marry or she may not, but in any event I hope she’ll use her influence and some of her best thought in behalf of these poor people ’round about us. ”

“ I was told about that by poor old Betty Bowen that time Sisson kidnapped me.”
“Oh, don’t talk about that, Azalea,” cried her friend, throwing her arms about her and kissing her on the cheek with a sort of desperate tenderness. “I can’t bear it. Oh, those nights that we didn’t know where you were!”
“I only speak of it,” said Azalea, holding her friend close to her, “because that explains why I want to make every place cheerful. I can’t stand gloom and chill and hunger—can’t stand them for myself or anyone else. And then—don’t laugh at me, Carin, please—there’s another reason. ”

“ Its feed and keep shall be, so far as possible, the care of my stable boys, so that my good friend McBirney, who is so willing to take other people’s burdens on him, may not have another one added. But I promise you all, for myself and for Mrs. Carson and Carin, that you shall be thought of, Azalea, as the daughter of this home here on the mountains. And while we shall give you all you will take in the way of schooling and development, we will not do one thing to win you away from the life you have chosen. ”

“ I begged. “I’m only Azalea.”
“Azalea Knox is a very pleasing and interesting young woman of a good deal of importance in the world, if she would only realize it,” she said.
I looked at her a moment.
“She’s not so very, very happy,” I said. The tears came in her eyes, and her eyebrows were not pointed at all. Really, Aunt Lorena is a dear. You just have to break through her crust. The only trouble is that the crust grows over, and you have to keep breaking through. It makes you feel a little like an Eskimo, fishing. ”

“ Carin was wild to join him, but the truth was that those first few days of teaching drained every drop of strength in her, and Azalea and Aunt Zillah hurried her into her bed immediately after supper.
“It wouldn’t be so bad,” she complained to Aunt Zillah, half laughing and half in earnest, “if it wasn’t for that dreadful Paralee Panther. She seems like a bad dream; the only trouble is I can’t wake up. I’d like to think I had imagined her. But she is real and needs us more, I suspect, than anybody else in the school.”
“She’s always frowning and watching,” Azalea added. ”

“ Just then, the man who was sitting next Azalea arose and went over by the window, and a moment later some one slipped down into the place he had left and gave Azalea’s hand a squeeze. Azalea turned her head as quick as a frightened bird, and there sat Carin Carson, smiling at her as if they were old friends.
“I was so glad when I saw you here,” she whispered. “Isn’t it a pity they don’t ask the children to sing? I just love to sing, don’t you?” ”

“ She heard Azalea’s voice going on and on, kindly, gently, insistently; heard Paralee’s gruff answers; but the rain and the wind drowned the words. It was only when Azalea called to her that she learned of the nature of the conversation. Paralee was standing with half dried garments before the fire. She had eaten her little repast, and with her one poor hand was brushing back the hair that straggled about her face.
“Paralee,” said Azalea, “wants to be a teacher, Carin. She has to make her own living, and that is the way she means to do it.” ”