Cynthy

“ The child'll always have a woman for her fineries; why let her risk her eyesight and her figure?' Then he would pretend it would grieve Cynthia dreadfully to lay the tangle aside, and that she far preferred the morning-room to the park. 'I'm very sorry, Cynthy, but out you must go this fine day. Granny hasn't seen the sunshine, or your tippet would have been on an hour ago. ”

“ Tremenheere pretty well, she's a worldly woman and a schemer. She's done well for her girls so far, and she'll marry 'em well; and there's Anthony, you know, her only boy, and depend upon it she'll want a masterpiece for him; and [Pg 115] she knows, every one does, that Cynthy's an heiress. Very nice to land Anthony at Lafer Hall, eh? Now what I say is, she may be sending us a creature of her own.'
'Oh Simon, and Cynthy only nine years old!'
'Well, well, I don't say she is, but she's a schemer, depend upon it she is, Juliana. ”

“ He’d bought the store at the Corners two years before, and it seemed to me it would work out pretty well if he sold the farm and just tended store and had a little house in Garibaldi, as he and mother got along in years.
'I thought likely Sarah would marry, and anybody might be sure Cynthy would. She an’ Sarah had had two years' schooling in Oatesville by this time, and they held themselves a bit high. Cynthy was grown up that pretty and dainty you caught your breath when you looked at her. There’s some young girls have that dazzling kind of a look. ”

“ Ber. Alicia’s little girl! (Slight pause.)
Cyn. (outside) . Arey! Arey! (Enters.) Land, Cap’n, I thought Arey was here. Are you here all alone?
Ber. (slowly) . Yes, alone, Cynthy. The way I’ve lived the most of my life. The way I’ll always have to live it.
Cyn. My land, Cap’n, you must be dreadful down and out to talk that way.
Ber. I ain’t a mite o’ good to any one on the face of the earth. ”

“ Miss Cynthy! Miss Cynthy! (Stops and listens, then goes to table.) Gee! Muffins!
(Puts one in his pocket, and starts to eat another. He goes to door, listens; to stairs, listens; takes two pipes from his pocket, looks about uncertainly, puts one in the pocket of Lee’s raincoat which still hangs over chair by fire. He still looks about uncertainly; goes to table; opens the sugar-bowl, puts other pipe in, and puts cover on. He [Pg 24] then runs out, C. Slight pause. Lee comes half-way down-stairs. Cyn. enters R. with a pan but without noticing. Cyn. exits, C.)
Lee (looking up the stairs) . ”

“ Cynthia drew back with a jerk, scrupulously honorable, as usual. "Ought we to read it, Joyce? It's a letter!"
"I did," whispered Joyce. "I couldn't help it for I didn't realize what it was at first. I don't think it will harm. Oh, Cynthia, read it!" And Cynthia, doubting no longer, read aloud:
My dearest Mother,—the best and loveliest thing in my life,—I leave this last appeal here, in the hope that you will see it later, read it, and forgive me. ”

“ Molly had allowed her fancy to dwell much on the idea of Cynthia's coming; and in the short time since they had met, Cynthia's unconscious power of fascination had been exercised upon her. Some people have this power. Of course, its effects are only manifested in the susceptible. A school-girl may be found in every school who attracts and influences all the others, not by her virtues, nor her beauty, nor her sweetness, nor her cleverness, but by something that can neither be described nor reasoned upon. ”

“ He says often enough he does not care what he does so that he gets me to be his wife; and that after that he is sure he can make me love him.' Cynthia began to cry, out of weariness of body and despair of mind. Molly's arms were round her in a minute, and she pressed the beautiful head to her bosom, and laid her own cheek upon it, and hushed her up with lulling words, just as if Cynthia were a little child. ”

“ You do not think I would for anything short of saving—' She was going to have said, 'saving you and Roger from pain.' But Cynthia broke in,—
'For nothing. No reason whatever must make you tell your father. If you fail, you fail, and I will love you for ever for trying; but I shall be no worse than before. Better, indeed; for I shall have the comfort of your sympathy. But promise me not to tell Mr. Gibson.'
'I have promised once,' said Molly, 'but I promise again; so now do go to bed, and try and rest. ”

“ Cynthia was very beautiful, and was so well aware of this fact that she had forgotten to care about it; no one with such loveliness ever appeared so little conscious of it. Molly would watch her perpetually as she moved about the room, with the free stately step of some wild animal of the forest—moving almost, as it were, to the continual sound of music. Her dress, too, though now to our ideas it would be considered ugly and disfiguring, was suited to her complexion and figure, and the fashion of it subdued within due bounds by her exquisite taste. ”

“ The minute Cynthia saw her, her artist’s eye registered her as the one model for that Christmas cover. Such pansy-brown eyes, such soft curls around the little pink-cheeked face, such a dimpled round chin above the starched white collar and the tight little bodice, like a small child playing at grown-up.
Cynthia nodded her approval of Nancy’s choice. “How nice,” she thought, “to be with artists again. Oh, I wish they could be with me all over France,” remembering her loneliness in Paris. ”

“ Cynthia. I don't pretend.
John. [Interrupting her; proud, serious and strong.] How dare you look me in the face with the eyes that I once kissed, and pretend the least regard for me? [Cynthia recoils and looks away. Her own feelings are revealed to her clearly for the first time.] I begin to understand our American women now. Fire-flies—and the fire they gleam with is so cold that a midge couldn't warm his heart at it, let alone a man. You're not of the same race as a man! You married me for nothing, divorced me for nothing, because you are nothing!
Cynthia. [Wounded to the heart.] Jack! ”

“ A fatherless girl—you know one always does call them "poor dears." Oh, no! Cynthia never is ill. She's as strong as a horse. She never would have felt to-day as I have done. Could you get me a glass of wine and a biscuit, my dear? I'm. really quite faint.'
Mr. Gibson was much more excited about Cynthia's arrival than her own mother was. He anticipated her coming as a great pleasure to Molly, on whom, in spite of his recent marriage and his new wife, his interests principally centred. ”

“ It was Flossy's fault; but one cannot betray a woman, one's sister—can one? Even she would say that. But she has gone away, and she will never come back again. Cynthia—Cynthia! I might call as long as I pleased—she would never come. Why don't you fetch her, some of you? So many people here, and nobody will bring Cynthia to me! Cynthia, Cynthia, my love!"
"I am here, dear—I am here, beside you," said Cynthia.
But he did not seem to understand. She touched his hot hand with her own, and smoothed his fevered brow. ”

“ What was even more remarkable in Cynthia than the beauty of her face was the perfection of every line and contour of her body; the supple, swelling, lissom figure was full of absolute grace; she could not have been awkward if she had tried. It was the characteristic that chiefly earned her the admiration of men; women looked more often at her face.
"Are you alone?" said Hubert, smiling, and holding out both his hands, in which she impulsively placed her own. ”

“ He knew suddenly why he liked the statue and why he had so often turned in here to sit with his paper or his pipe. It had been a kind of assurance to him that change was not needed—that, once a choice was made and accepted, it had a beauty and meaning of its own. And now the quiet was broken for him. Miss Cynthia had been crying in her front yard. Cynthia crying—that hurt a little, somehow!
He got up impatiently and moved off. There was nothing a man could do—and what did he want to do? Nothing. Of that he was sure. ... ”

“ Cynthia has had many offers of marriage. I believe she has had a horror of being married for her money; the fact of your ignorance will delight her—has done in fact, for she named it to Theo. But it's been a blow to my wife, Danby; and, human-like, she's not ready just now to think the best of you. Her brother has been attached to Cynthia for many years, and so long as she was attached to no one else he would not have ceased to hope to win her. ”

“ Hudson Bowley had seen them change from the floppy, flowered fashions of twelve years back, to the scant draperies and severe skirts of later times, and then at last to an austerity that seemed to have little relation to the prevailing style—as little as the tenuous draperies of the marble lady there on her pedestal. Cynthia's clothes seemed merely to belong to Cynthia—though they were still very becoming.
He sat looking up at the statue and smoking reflectively. Cynthia had hardly grown—any more than the statue up there. ”

“ Cynthia laughed at her openly.
"Of course not. No one—Daffy does, of course. But us?—girls? Just because she's been heavenly to you, you take advantage, to watch her, to judge, to twist all she says and does. Why do you hate her so?"
"I don't." Cynthia pulled herself upright. "My dear, you're wrong there. I like her immensely. She's a real treat. But I don't worship her like you do." [149]
"I don't! I—I just love her." Louise glowed.
Cynthia laughed jollily.
"Oh, well! You'll get over that. Wait till you get a best boy." ”

“ I am like you in that, Cynthia, eh? We neither of us wear our hearts upon our sleeves or are fond of talking sentiment. But I am compelled to to-night. I think the most beautiful thing in the world is a couple of young lovers facing all the unknown future, hand in hand, high of hope and courage, and serious with the uplifting seriousness of love. Now you are not in love, Cynthia, and he's not young. So, from my point of view, on both sides this marriage falls short of the marriage which should be."
"Captain Rames is not old," replied Cynthia. ”

“ Cynthia spoke first,—
'I wish I could love people as you do, Molly!'
'Don't you?' said the other, in surprise.
'No. A good number of people love me, I believe, or at least they think they do; but I never seem to care much for any one. I do believe I love you, little Molly, whom I have only known for ten days, better than any one.'
'Not than your mother?' said Molly, in grave astonishment.
'Yes, than my mother!' replied Cynthia, half-smiling. 'It's very shocking, I daresay; but it is so. Now, don't go and condemn me. I don't think love for one's mother quite comes by nature ”

“ Cynthia took a lodging, for she knew not at present what to do with herself. The clergyman having put things on such a footing that she could not converse with him, made her very uneasy; for she was in hopes, before he spoke to her of love, that he would have been a great comfort to her when she came to town. She almost made a resolution never to speak to any man again; beginning to think it impossible for a man to be civil to a woman unless he has some design upon her. But now having brought Cynthia to town, I think it time to take leave of her for the present, and look after my hero. ”

“ Cynthia is a woman—she a'n't any corpse-light. She understands me, and she don't overrate me, either. She knew just how much I was worth, and she took me at her own valuation. I've got my way in life marked out, and she believes in it as much as I do. If anybody can keep me level and make the best of me, she can, and she's going to have the chance, if she wants to. ”

“ CRI. Adored Cynthia, and bright Arete, Another might seem fitter for this task, Than Crites far, but that you judge not so: For I (not to appear vindicative, Or mindful of contempts, which I contemn'd, As done of impotence) must be remiss: Who, as I was the author, in some sort, To work their knowledge into Cynthia's sight, So should be much severer to revenge The indignity hence issuing to her name: But there's not one of these who are unpain'd, Or by themselves unpunished; for vice Is like a fury to the vicious mind, And turns delight itself to punishment. ”

“ Cynthia's father did not get his question answered, because at that moment a thundering knock at the front-door announced the return of Madame, and there was rather a hasty struggle to get him away from the house without encountering that lady's sharp eyes and vivacious questioning, which Cynthia was not at all sure that he could meet with equanimity. For herself she felt at that moment equal to any struggle involving either cunning or courage. She could combat to death for one she loved. ”

“ But the moment he began to speak such a pleasant twinkle of courtesy came into his ugly countenance—by itself it was plain to the point of ugliness, although to this day Cynthia will never allow it to be so—and his voice was so wondrous musical, that straightway we forgot that he had such a singular appearance, and fell in love with him.
"A very good morning to you," says he. "I hope you are drinking in this golden morning that God hath sent us. Hey, what a thing it is to be a human being!" ”

“ But when she saw her face and eyes in the glass as she put on the hat, she took it off hastily and ran up-stairs and bathed her face and eyes again and again.
When at last she came down and stepped out into the sunlight she had a sense that a new Cynthia went with her down the path—a Cynthia strangely like a girl she had known, but stronger and full of buoyant life. She moved along the paths, gathering handfuls of flowers and filling the basket on her arm. Voices from over the fence came to her and she moved toward it, and paused. Then she went quickly to the gate and opened it. ”