Dilly

“ Good-by, Dilly! I'll tell father. Good-by, Molly Drew!"
But Dilly followed her down to the road, where Elvin stood waiting with the reins in his hands. He was a very blond young man, with curly hair, and eyes honest in contour and clear of glance. Perhaps his coloring impressed one with the fact that he should have looked very young; but his face shrunk now behind a subtile veil of keen anxiety, of irritated emotion, which were evidently quite foreign to him. Even a stranger, looking at him, could hardly help suspecting an alien trouble grafted upon a healthy stem. ”

“ A long line of scholarly forbears had dowered him with a refinement and grace quite startling in this unornamented spot, and some old Acadian ancestor had lent him beauty. His eyes were dark, and they held an unfathomable melancholy. The line of his forehead and nose ran haughtily and yet delicate; and even after years of absence, Dilly sometimes caught her breath when she thought of the way his head was set upon his shoulders. She had never in her life seen a man or woman who was entirely beautiful, and he saturated her longing like a prodigal stream. ”

“ Don’t be frightened, Dilly. It’s a good thing to know you have relatives; but I do not propose to renounce my claim. You are my rightful property: I found you by the roadside when deserted by your father. I will still claim relationship; but, Dilly, it must now be as your husband.
Dilly. My husband!
Harry. Yes, Dilly, be my wife. I have had you in my thoughts night and day for the last five years. You have proved your love for me as a sister; now I shall claim a dearer title.
Dilly. O Harry, I do not deserve it!
Doctor. She does, Harry; and, if you don’t marry her at once, I will.
Butts. What! ”

“ Sometimes, as you may have observed, a star will fall while Dilly Bal is handling it. This happens when he is nervous for fear that King Sun, instead of going to bed in his tent, has crept back and is watching from behind the cloud mountains. Sometimes a star falls quite by accident, as when Lucindy or Patience drops a plate in the kitchen. You will be sure to know Dilly Bal when you see him, for, in handling the stars and dusting the sky, his clothes get full of yellow cobwebs, which he never bothers himself to brush off. ”

“ Mildred found Dilly at home a few minutes later, folding away a little, ragged doll's cap, and drenching it with tears.
Mildred put her arms around Dilly's neck. "Oh, Dilly," she said, "it was so beautiful of you! Aunt Lou saw it all from the window. I'm so 'shamed to think how I've treated you. Do you think you could forgive me? If you could I'd love you all my life."
Dilly forgave her, and, all in her ragged dress, went home with Mildred. Every little girl kissed her, and she stopped to tea. ”

“ Every day shows us the same principle of change at work, and no one has more reason to reflect and mourn about it than one Dilly Jones of this city. Dilly is not, perhaps, precisely the person who would be chronicled by the memoir writers of the time, or have a monument erected to him if he were no more; but Dilly is a man of a useful though humble vocation, and no one can saw hickory with more classic elegance, or sit upon the curbstone and take his dinner with more picturesque effect. ”

“ They sat there in the darkening room, and Dilly "stepped round" and began to get supper. Molly nervously joined her, and addressed her, once or twice, in a whisper. But Dilly spoke out clearly in, answer, as if rebuking her.
"Le's have a real good time," she said, when she had drawn the table forward and set forth her bread, and apples, and tea. "Passon, draw up! You drink tea, don't ye? I don't, myself. I never could bear to spile good water. But I keep it on hand for them that likes it. Elvin, here! You take this good big apple. It's man's size more 'n woman's, I guess." ”

“ Dilly. Good-morning, Mr. Butts: going to have a ride?
Butts. Oh, bother!
Dilly. I say, Mr. Butts—
Butts. Well, what now?
Dilly. Respect the law.
Butts. Oh, pshaw! (Runs off, C.)
Dilly. Ha, ha, ha! What a queer old customer!
Lucy. Why, Dilly!
Mrs. L. Dilly, child, you mustn’t talk so.
Dilly. That’s what Harry calls him.
Mrs. L. That’s no reason why you should speak so. Mr. Butts is a very worthy man, and tries to do his duty.
Dilly. He’s a constable, and I do hate constables: they’re always round poking their noses into every thing, and spoiling all the fun. ”

“ But alas! with that one step further, which is so often fatal to great enterprises, they had sought to add a finishing touch of realism to their impersonation by the inclusion of a little feminine interest; and to that end Dilly had been added to the cast—or more likely had added herself—in the rôle of a young person of humble station bringing her affianced his tea.
And, not for the first time in the history of man, it was the woman who opened the door to disaster.
Dilly wore a natty print dress—probably my housemaid's—with a tartan shawl over her head. ”

“ Dilly's mother taught her to read English, and great-grandfather inducted her into French. Gran'mere talked French to the old man. Every morning she brushed his hair and tied it in a queue with a black ribbon. He wore a ruffled shirt front, and lace ruffles at his wrist; knee breeches, silk stockings, and low shoes with great buckles.
Dilly learned to sew a little as well. But early industry was not held in as high esteem as in the Eastern Colonies. There was plenty of spinning and knitting. ”

“ But we thought you were just an ordinary bore."
"Children!" said Kitty.
"But what you have told us makes things quite different, doesn't it, Dolly?" continued Dilly.
"Quite—absolutely," said Dolly.
And they smiled upon him, quite maternally. And so the incident passed.
"How queer, not talking to a woman for three years!" continued Dolly reflectively.
"How awful it would be not to talk to a man for three years!" said Dilly, with obvious sincerity.
"There is little opportunity for social intercourse," said Robin, "to a man who comes to London to sink or swim." ”

“ There was an ineffable simplicity about Dilly. She had no respect whatever for money, save as a puzzling means to a few necessary ends. And now the place had been sold, and Jethro was coming in a month. Meanwhile Dilly was to pack up the few family effects she could afford to keep, and the rest would go by auction.
Little as she was accustomed to dread experiences which came in the inevitable order of nature, she did think of the last day and night in the old house as something of an ordeal. People felt that the human meant very little to Dilly ”

“ He licks stamps at the Foreign Office," she added in explanation.
"Tell her, Champion," said Dicky. "Out of my line altogether. Takes me all my time to keep an eye on those Johnnies in the Concert of Europe."
"I will tell you one thing the Bill will do, Miss Dilly," said Champion, a little heavily. (Dolly once said of him, "He's awfully clever and able and all that, but he hasn't got a light hand for conversational pastry.") "How many times have you noticed the streets up about here this year?"
"Heaps," said Dilly.
"They have hardly ever been down," corroborated Dolly. ”

“ Ladies and gentlemen, the toast is—Dicky!"
Dicky's health was drunk with cheers and laughter, and Dilly completed its subject's confusion by kissing him.
"Now, Dolly!" said every one.
"Not yet!" said Dolly. "Gerald and Moke are the next pair. Gerald must act lady, and think of a toast."
Master Gerald, hastily bolting a solid mass of mince-pie—one could almost follow the course of its descent—cheerfully complied.
"All right," he said; "I think I'll drink the health of old Moke himself. He's not much to look at, but he's a good sort. I shan't kiss him, though, Dilly. ”

“ The afternoon of the party came, and Dilly, with her doll, watched the gay little folks gather on the lawn in front of Mildred's home. She soon became interested in their play, and quite forgot that she was not one of them, in her excitement over a game of hide-and-seek. ”

“ Jethro came up to her, and laid a kindly hand on her shoulder. It was a fine hand, long and shapely, and Dilly, looking down at it, remembered, with a strange regretfulness, how she had once loved its lines.
"There, poor girl!" he said, "you're tired thinking about it. No wonder you've got fancies. I guess the ghosts won't trouble us. There's nothing here worse than ourselves." And again, in spite of the Joyces, Dilly felt homesick and alone.
There came a soft thudding sound upon the kitchen floor, and she turned, alert, to listen. This was Mrs. Eli Pike in her carpet slippers ”

“ Dilly got briskly up and gathered a drawer-full of papers into her apron.
"I can't stop workin'," she said. "I want to fix it so's not to stay here more'n one night. Now you talk! I know what these are. I can run 'em over an' listen too."
"I think't was real good of you to turn in the place to Tom's folks," said Jethro, also seating himself, and, as Dilly saw with a start, as if it were an omen, in her father's great chair. "Not that you'll ever need it, Dilly. You won't want for a thing. I've done real well." ”

“ I never could see why he didn't board somewheres decent."
"Wants to save his six hunderd dollars, to go out West an' start in the furniture business," said Dilly, succinctly. "Come, Molly, what say to walkin' over to Sudleigh Cattle-Show?"
Molly threw aside her listless mood like a garment.
"Will you?" she cried. "Oh, I'd like to! You know I'm sewin' for Mis' Eli Pike; an' they asked me to go, but I knew she'd fill up the seat so I should crowd 'em out of house an' home. Will you, Dilly?" ”

“ I never spec'lated much on keepin' house."
"But somebody'd have to keep it," said Jethro good-naturedly, smiling on her. "We can get good help. You'll like to have a real home table, and you can invite company every day, if you say so. I never was close, Dilly,—you know that. I sha'n't make you account for things."
Dilly got up, and, still holding her papers in her apron, walked swiftly to the window. There she stood, a moment, looking out into the orchard, where the grass lay tangled under the neglected, happy trees. Her eyes traveled mechanically from one to another. She knew them all. ”

“ After an appropriate interval the cold truth is revealed to him in a hysterical duet, and he goes home, glaring defiantly, but feeling an entire and unmitigated ass.
Or he may actually recognise that Dilly has been replaced by Dolly,—this is what happens when the case is a really serious one,—and if this occurs he is more sorrowful than angry, poor fellow, for he sees that he is being trifled with; and your true lover is the most desperately earnest person in the world. In either case the affaire terminates then and there. ”

“ Dicky and Dilly were still sufficiently newly married to be more or less independent of other people's society, and they kept up a continuous undercurrent of lover-like confidences and playful nothings all the time. Gerald, upon whom solid food seemed to have the effect that undiluted alcohol has upon ordinary folk, was stentoriously engaged with Mr Donkin in what a student of Paley's Evidences would have described as "A Contest of Opposite Improbabilities" concerning his election experiences.
Lastly, I turned to Dolly and Robin. ”

“ She turned about, and came back to her chair.
"I guess I never dreamt how you lived, Jethro," she said gently. "But it don't make no matter. You're contented with it."
"I ain't a rich man," said Jethro, with some quiet pride; "but I've got enough. Yes, I like my business; and city life suits me. You'll fall in with it, too."
Then silence settled between them; but that never troubled Dilly. She was used to long musings on her walks to and from her patients, and in her watching beside their beds. Conversation seemed to her a very spurious thing when there is nothing to say. ”

“ What happened when Robin locked the door on himself and Dolly is now set down here. Strictly speaking it ought to come later, but there is no need to make a mystery about it. I have taken the account of the proceedings mainly from the letter which Dolly wrote to Dilly three days later.
It would be useless to reproduce that document in full. In the first place, it contains a good deal that is not only irrelevant but absolutely incomprehensible. ”

“ I could save my shoe-shop money, an' help him pay his debt, when he's out o' jail."
"Yes," said Dilly, joyously. "An' there's more'n that you can do. You can keep him in your mind, all day long, an' all night long, an' your sperit'll go right through the stone walls, if they put him there, an' cheer him up.
"He won't know how, but so it'll be, dear, so it'll be. Folks don't know why they're uplifted sometimes, when there ain't no cause; but I say it's other folks's love. ”

“ Not long after, a beautiful doll came to Dilly. It was Mildred's gift, and all the little girls who were at the party helped to dress it.
Dilly loves it dearly, and though it will never take the place of the dear, double-faced doll, she is very happy, for Mildred is her loyal friend.
—Selected.
A good cure for discontent—count your blessings every day.
WHAT JENNY SHOWED JEAN. BY ADELE E. THOMPSON.
It was a happy day for Jean when the cars started that were to take her and Big Sister all the way to Grandpa's. ”

“ Dill showed symptoms of going back to "The Essays of Elia," so that Billy was stirred to speech.
"Now, looky here, Dilly. You're all right, as far as yuh go—but this range is carrying just about all the stock it needs right at present. I don't reckon yuh realize that all the good bottoms and big coulées are getting filled up with nesters; one here and one there, and every year a few more. It ain't much, uh course, but every man that comes is cutting down the range just that much. ”