Babbie

“ Yet though my solitary life in the glen is cheating me of many experiences, more helpful to a writer than to a Christian, it has not been so tame but that I can understand why Babbie cried when she went into Nanny’s garden and saw the new world. Let no one who loves be called altogether unhappy. Even love unreturned has its rainbow, and Babbie knew that Gavin loved her. ”

“ All this Babbie read in the Gavin of the past night, and to her it was the book of love. What things she had known, said and done in that holy name! How shamefully have we all besmirched it! She had only known it as the most selfish of the passions, a brittle image that men consulted because it could only answer in the words they gave it to say. But here was a man to whom love was something better than his own desires leering on a pedestal. Such love as Babbie had seen hitherto made strong men weak, but this was a love that made a weak man strong. ”

“ Babbie answered, and told him what had brought her to Thrums. "I had no thought but of returning to you, nor he of keeping me from you. We had said good-by at the mudhouse door—and then we heard your voice."
"And my voice was so horrible to you that it drove you to this?"
"I—I love him so much."
What more could Babbie answer? These words told him that, if love commands, home, the friendships of a lifetime, kindnesses incalculable, are at once as naught. Nothing is so cruel as love if a rival challenges it to combat. ”

“ As Babbie sat in the most secluded corner of the stall, it is doubtful if anything but the tip of her ear, a nodding plume, and an absurdly small hand stretched out to press more of Cousin Kate’s cookies upon a hungry freshman, could have been visible to the staid young gentleman who had his tea at a small table in the alcove opposite.
“He’s the new history professor,” one of the freshmen announced in a sepulchral whisper. “Isn’t he handsome?”
“No, he isn’t,” snapped Babbie. “Isn’t the new history professor, I mean. He’s something or other in a factory. ”

“ CHAPTER XXII. LOVERS. Only something terrible, Gavin thought, could have brought Babbie to him at such an hour; yet when he left his mother's room it was to stand motionless on the stair, waiting for a silence in the manse that would not come. A house is never still in darkness to those who listen intently; there is a whispering in distant chambers, an unearthly hand presses the snib of the window, the latch rises. ”

“ Babbie laughed and introduced him to Babe, Betty, and Madeline, and he, in his turn, called to his companion to come and meet everybody.
“It’s my tutor—Max Dwight,” he explained hastily in an aside to Babbie. “He’s just out of college himself, and he’s a mighty good [Pg 98] sort, if he does try to keep me everlastingly plugging. I say, Babbie, are you through school yet?”
“Through college,” Babbie corrected him with dignity. “We’re all Harding 19—’s.”
“Gee!” John’s face expressed deep concern. “I’m scared. Girls frighten me to death anyhow, and four B. A.’s! ”

“ Nanny explained, “you being an Egyptian.”
“Ah,” said Babbie, with a side-glance at the minister, “I am only an Egyptian. Is that why you dislike me, Mr. Dishart?”
Gavin hesitated foolishly over his answer, and the Egyptian, with a towel round her waist, made a pretty gesture of despair.
“He neither likes you nor dislikes you,” Nanny explained; “you forget he’s a minister.”
“That is what I cannot endure,” said Babbie, putting the towel to her eyes, “to be neither liked nor disliked. Please hate me, Mr. Dishart, if you cannot lo—ove me.” ”

“ Babbie thought she had buried her old impulsiveness, and then remembering that from the top of the field she might see Gavin returning from church, she hastened to the hill to look upon him from a distance. Before she reached the gate where I had met her and him, however, she stopped, distressed at her selfishness, and asked bitterly, “Why am I so different from other women; why should what is so easy to them be so hard to me?”
“Gavin, my beloved!” the Egyptian cried in her agony, and the wind caught her words and flung them in the air, making sport of her. ”

“ Thrums was never colder in times of snow than were his congregation to their minister when the Great Rain began, but his fortitude rekindled their hearts. He was an obstinate minister, and love had led him a dance, but in the hour of trial he had proved himself a man.
When Gavin reached the manse, and saw not only his mother but Babbie, he would have kissed them both; but Babbie could only say, “She does not know,” and then run away crying. Gavin put his arm round his mother, and drew her into the parlor, where he told her who Babbie was. ”

“ It was he, too, who sent me to school in Edinburgh."
"He has been very kind to you," said Gavin, who would have preferred to dislike the earl.
"So kind," answered Babbie, "that now he is to marry me. But do you know why he has done all this?"
Now again she was agitated, and spoke indignantly.
"It is all because I have a pretty face," she said, her bosom rising and falling. "Men think of nothing else. He had no pity for the deserted child. ”

“ I quite look forward to seeing Europe in such good company.”
“Poor little mother!” said Babbie, as they went off. “She never had a chance to do as she liked when she was a girl. She always had nurses and governesses trailing around after her, and then she went to a fashionable school in Boston, where you take walks two and two and never stir without a chaperon. After that she had to ‘come out’ in society, though she hated it as much as Bob does, and wanted to study art in Paris. ”

“ He thinks me incapable of caring for any one.”
“And that is why he must be told of me,” Gavin replied. “You are no longer the woman you were, Babbie, and you know it, and I know it, but he does not know it. He shall know it before he decides whether he is to marry you.”
Babbie looked at Gavin, and wondered he did not see that this decision lay with him.
“Nevertheless,” she said, “the wedding will take place to-morrow; if it did not, Lord Rintoul would be the scorn of his friends.”
“If it does,” the minister answered, “he will be the scorn of himself. Babbie, there is a chance.” ”

“ Babbie had not heard him.
“I saw a face at the window just now,” she whispered, drawing closer to him.
“There was no face there; the very thought of Rob Dow raises him before you,” Gavin answered reassuringly, though Rob was nearer at that moment than either of them thought.
“I must go away at once,” she said, still with her eyes on the window. “No, no, you shall not come or stay with me; it is you who are in danger.” ”

“ It was a curious time for Babbie's beauty to be paid its most princely compliment.
"Because you're so bonny," Micah whispered across the dyke. Her tears gave him courage. "You might gang awa," he entreated. "If you kent what a differ Mr. Dishart made in my father till you came, you would maybe gang awa. When lie's roaring fou I have to sleep in the wood, and it's awful cauld. I'm doubting he'll kill me, woman, if you dinna gang awa."
Poor Babbie put her hand to her heart, but the innocent lad continued mercilessly—
"If ony shame comes to the minister, his auld mither'll die. ”

“ Let’s stroll off somewhere by ourselves and talk.”
“Nonsense!” laughed Babbie. “College girls aren’t blue-stockings nowadays. Why aren’t you a B. A. yourself, John? You were going to be a junior the year after that summer in the mountains.”
John nodded. “I got flunked out of my class,” he explained carelessly. “I suppose girls never get into that fix, but plenty of fellows do,—bright ones at that.”
“Why, John Morton!” Babbie’s tone was very scornful. “I didn’t think you were that kind. Oh, yes, some Harding girls get flunked out, but none of our crowd would. We’ve got too much pride.” ”

“ Margaret heard Jean open the front door and speak to some person or persons whom she showed, into the parlor.
CHAPTER XLI. RINTOUL AND BABBIE—BREAKDOWN OF THE DEFENCE OF THE MANSE. "You dare to look me in the face!"
They were Rintoul's words. Yet Babbie had only ventured to look up because he was so long in speaking. His voice was low but harsh, like a wheel on which the brake is pressed sharply.
"It seems to be more than the man is capable of," he added sourly. ”

“ It certainly ought to be noticed in some way on the menu.”
“I think he ought to add a night-school too,” declared Babbie playfully, “and a notice that Betty does tutoring. If we’re broadening out so much, we ought to let people know all about it.”
“Just because you happen to be running it, the night-school isn’t a branch of the tea-shop, Babbie,” demurred Madeline. “Wait until Mr. Thayer actually promises to buy the sandwiches before you consider it a part of the ‘eats’ business.” ”

“ But ask her to come up to me after he has gone—and, Jean, is the parlor looking tidy?”
Lord Rintoul having departed, Jean told Babbie how she had accounted to Margaret for his visit. “And she telled me to gie you dry claethes and her compliments, and would you gang up to the bedroom and see her?”
Very slowly Babbie climbed the stairs. I suppose she is the only person who was ever afraid of Margaret. Her first knock on the bedroom door was so soft that Margaret, who was sitting up in bed, did not hear it. ”

“ The first to come was Babbie.
So long as women sit up of nights listening for a footstep, will they flatten their faces at the window, though all without be black. Jean had not been back in the kitchen for two minutes before she raised the blind. ”

“ Babbie.
"The minister has neither a wife nor a cloak," retorted Nanny.
"He isn't married?" asked Babbie, the picture of incredulity.
Nanny gathered from the minister's face that he deputed to her the task of enlightening this ignorant girl, so she replied with emphasis, "Na, they hinna got him yet, and I'm cheated if it doesna tak them all their time."
Thus do the best of women sell their sex for nothing.
"I did wonder," said the Egyptian, gravely, "at any mere woman's daring to marry such a minister." ”

“ It was I, and I was dreadfully ashamed.”
[4]
“Mercy, no!” cried Atalanta, turning shocked eyes at the offender. “What on earth did you chuckle for, when it was so sad?”
“That’s just it!” said the Irreverent Infant. “When Babbie began to talk of Life and Love and the Discipline of Experience and the Opportunities for Uplifting One’s Environment,—wasn’t that it, Babbie?—I began to wonder how she knew it all. Babbie has never loved a man in her life” (the Infant glanced sharply at Barbara’s clear profile) ; “Babbie has never had any experiences to be disciplined about ”

“ We can’t be bothered with another of your suitors so soon.”
“Don’t apply the title of suitor to John, please,” laughed Babbie, leaning over for a last look at the figure on the steps. “He’s as [Pg 76] much of a professed woman-hater as you are man-hater, but he makes an exception of me because I like to tramp and ride horseback. You’d like him, Babe. Madeline, do you know where to get off for this tea place?”
Madeline didn’t; and as the conductor didn’t see fit to come up, Babbie had to climb down, while the tram was going at full speed, to find out. ”

“ Babbie blushed prettily. “Jack is awfully shy, and he just hates to meet a lot of people, so we stayed [Pg 48] down below. I’m so sorry.” Babbie caught sight of a tall youth shouldering his way to the edge of the wharf, and waved a big bunch of violets at him.
“I wish we could start now,” said Madeline. “This shouting last speeches indefinitely isn’t all that it might be. Dick looks bored to death.”
“They’re taking up the gangplank,” announced Babe excitedly, tossing a rose to Will.
Just then a hansom drew up with a jerk, a distinguished-looking gentleman tumbled out ”

“ It’s great being with some one who knows the ropes.”
The girls protested against their going so soon, when they had expended so much time and trouble in coming, but Mr. Trevelyan [Pg 266] insisted that he must get back at once, and Billy laughingly declared that the girls would have to see him safely home if he stayed and then he would have to see them safely back, and so ad infinitum.
When Babbie consulted her mother about the dance, Mrs. Hildreth listened to the story of the boys’ call, and after a little consideration decided that she couldn’t allow Babbie to go. ”

“ I detest business. Money should be seen and not heard,” ended Babbie sententiously.
But the next afternoon she rushed out of Flying Hoof’s stall, where she was being entertained at tea by some adoring freshmen, to inform Mr. Robert Thayer that his cousin Austin had sent him kind regards. ”

“ Babbie would not.
“I’m going to your Cousin Austin’s Adirondack camp,” she explained, “to see spring come in the woods. Mother is the chaperon, and I have an awful suspicion that I am a sort of guest of honor. Anyway, the spring part of it appeals to me. And secondly, mother has been solemnly promised a reunion with her long-lost daughter.”
Later in the day Babbie, in a kimono, which is the attire of confidential intercourse, complained that “Mummy was as bad as Margot about a multi-millionaire,” and that she hated the woods in spring ”

“ Jed, gazing after her, rubbed his chin reflectively.
His indecision concerning the acceptance of the Hunniwell invitation lasted until the day before Thanksgiving. Then Barbara added her persuasions to those of Captain Sam and his daughter and he gave in.
"If you don't go, Uncle Jed," asserted Babbie, "we're all goin' to be awfully disappointed, 'specially me and Petunia—and Mamma—and Uncle Charlie."
"Oh, then the rest of you folks won't care, I presume likely?"
Babbie thought it over. "Why, there aren't any more of us," she said. "Oh, I see! You're joking again, aren't you, Uncle Jed? ”