Gertie

“ Why was I not like Gertie? Why were not a new dress, everyday work, and an occasional picnic sufficient to fill my mind? My movements awakened Gertie.
“What is the matter, dear Sybylla? Come to bed. Mother has been scolding you. She is always scolding some one. That doesn’t matter. You say you are sorry, and she won’t scold any more. That’s what I always do. Do get into bed. You’ll be tired in the morning.”
“What does it matter if I will be. I wish I would be dead. What’s the good of a hateful thing like I am being alive. No one wants or cares for me.” ”

“ A high-pitched voice from the stoop.
Gertie glowered at a tall, meager woman with a long green-and-white apron over a most respectable black alpaca gown. Her nose was large, her complexion dull, but she carried herself so commandingly as to be almost handsome and very formidable. ”

“ Gertie, recognizing her friend Miss Radford, nodded; and that young lady, after a short scream of astonishment, gave a bow, and nudged her blushing companion as an instruction to imitate the example by raising his hat.
"I'm glad she's seen us," said Gertie. "Didn't the young fellow turn red?"
"He's a junior clerk in my office."
"What a score for me!" she cried exultantly. "I've a good mind to ask you now what you do for a living exactly, only that I'd rather find everything out bit by bit."
"You queer little person," he said affectionately. "Tell me instead about yourself. ”

“ Carl looked at her bobbing back (with wrinkles in her cloth jacket over the shoulders) as she melted into the crowd of glossy fur-trimmed New-Yorkers. He comprehended her goodness, her devotion. He sighed, "If she'd only stop this hinting about Gertie and me——" He was repentant of his irritation, and said to Gertie, who was intimately cuddling her arm into his: "Adelaide's an awfully good kid. ”

“ No children have blessed the union yet, but there is a young lady who lives with them, and who is their adopted daughter And there isn’t a prettier little lady for miles round, or one more beloved by the people on the estate and the villagers than ‘Miss Gertie up at the hall,’ as they call her. Gertie and Ruth attended by a faithful mastiff dog, who follows closely at their heels, and is almost as great a favourite as Gertie, are to be seen out on all the fine days, going hither and thither among the people and spreading happiness wherever their two kind faces are seen. ”

“ Then, when the paroxysm was over she lay for hours in a swoon so nearly resembling death, that at last they thought her gone and the whisper that she was dead ran through the hall, down to the servants’ quarters, where it was told to Gertie Westbrooke, who had come to inquire for her.
“No, no, not dead; oh, what shall I do?” Gertie cried, as with a low moan she sank down upon the grass by the door, and covering her face with her hands wept passionately. ”

“ Gertie," raising her voice, "isn't it about time you popped upstairs to make yourself good-looking? There's no cake in the house, and that always means some one looks in unexpectedly to tea."
No answer.
"Gertie! Don't you hear me when I'm speaking to you?"
"Beg pardon, aunt. I was thinking of something else."
"You think too much of something else, my dear," said Mrs. Mills persuasively. "I was saying to a customer, only yesterday, that you don't seem able lately to throw off your work when you've finished. You keep on threshing it out in your mind. ”

“ She had known Gertie since they were school-girls.58 When all was said and done Gertie was as good as she—in whatever met the eye. One divorced woman could hardly draw her skirts away from another. The longer she reflected the more clearly she saw that she couldn't have done anything but what she had done without becoming in her own eyes a hypocrite or a prude, and so she had laid herself open to hearing those words, spoken ever so respectfully, with a sympathy no American could have approached:
"Madame is so lonely. ”

“ He seemed to be waiting for a reply, and Gertie said at last:
“Col. Schuyler is very proud, and she is prouder than he, I think; but Glenthorpe may reconcile her to a great deal. You must tell her yourself, however. I shall not help you there.”
“But, Gertie, do you think she cares for me? You girls can judge of each other better than men can judge of you. Does she like me ever so little, think you?” ”

“ I believe you are the proudest girl in the world. I know you are too clever for me; but I love you, and could give you everything you fancied."
"Hal, dear, let me explain. I'm not insulted, only surprised. I thought you were going to tell me that you loved Gertie, and would ask me not to make things unpleasant by telling her of the foolish little bit of flirtation there had been between us."
"Marry Gertie! Why, she's only a child! A mere baby, in fact. Marry Gertie! I never thought of her in that light; and did you think I was that sort of a fellow, Syb?" ”

“ Now clerking, as Gertie would tell you, is fierce on the feet. And when your feet are tired you are tired all over. Gertie's feet were tired every night. About eight-thirty she longed to peel off her clothes, drop them in a heap on the floor, and tumble, unbrushed, unwashed, unmanicured, into bed. ”

“ What you suffer from is nothing more nor less than sheer ignorance. Imperfect education; that's what the complaint is called."
"Gertie!" A call from the shop.
"Yes, aunt."
"Do come here just a moment. Here's the strangest coincidence I ever came across." Gertie obeyed with signs of nervousness. "This young gentleman tells me that he knows Ewelme, and he's actually been inside the house where I was born!"
"How do you do?" said Gertie.
"And he's going down there again shortly," went on Mrs. Mills with animation, "and he means to bring me back some roses from the garden. ”

“ There was silence save for the whirr of the countless grasshoppers in the brier bushes. I knew he was expecting me to help him out, but I felt doggedly savage and wouldn’t. I looked up at him. He was a tall grand man, and honest and true and rich. He loved my sister; she would marry him, and they would be happy. I thought bitterly that God was good to one and cruel to another—not that I wanted this man, but why was I so different from other girls?
But then I thought of Gertie, so pretty, so girlish, so understandable, so full of innocent winning coquetry. ”

“ Gertie fulfilled only one of these conditions. She was a small woman, not nearly so tall as Nora herself. In all else she was as different as possible from what she had imagined. There could never have been anything of the 'clinging vine' about Gertie. As a girl she might have been handsome in an almost masculine way; pretty, in the generally accepted sense, she could never have been. ”

“ Opposition always strengthened Gertie’s decision, and she determined Daisy should take her note to Rex Lyon at all hazards.
The eloquent, mute appeal in the blue eyes raised to her own was utterly lost on her.
“The pride of these dependent companions is something ridiculous,” she went on, angrily. “You consider yourself too fine, I suppose, to be made a messenger of.” Gertie laughed aloud, a scornful, mocking laugh. “Pride and poverty do not work very well together. You may go to your room now and get your hat and shawl. ”

“ Lion and Gertie quite agreed with Miss Adrian that it was; but the parrot said, ‘Humbug!’
‘And it’s wicked to use bad words, Miss Adrian, isn’t it?’ said Gertie, with a withering glance at the objectionable bird.
‘It is, dear,’ answered Miss Adrian, with a smile; ‘but Polly has picked up bad words from hearing other people use them, and this shows us that when we do and say wicked things, we are injuring others as well as ourselves.’
Gertie quite saw that. She felt that her grandfather was responsible to a great extent for the depraved condition of Polly’s mind. ”

“ To Gertie it did not seem as if he had chosen well. He had nothing in common with Alice Creighton, but she did not tell him so, and she was wondering how she should answer him, when again the voice above them rang out, clear and loud:
“I have no fear of that. Her pretty face may attract Godfrey, and lead him to say soft nothings to her on the sly. All men do that, but I fancy I have influence enough to keep him from going far astray.”
“Oh, Godfrey, I must not stay here any longer. It is too much like listening. Let me go, please!” Gertie said, trying to release her hand. ”

“ It was an hour before dinner, and Gertie spent the time with Edith and in playing with little Jamie, who, at sight of her, gave a coo of delight, and nearly jumped into her arms. He was an active, playful child, and Gertie was sorry when the nurse came to take him, telling Mrs. Schuyler dinner was ready. This was an ordeal Gertie dreaded, and in a kind of nervous terror she cried, “Oh, Mrs. Schuyler, I wish I did not have to go down. Can’t I stay here and eat by myself?” ”

“ Fellers comes along and tikes in poor girls like me and you and steals the bread outer their mouths. I'll 'ave yer run in, yer bloody foreigner.' She waved her fist in the man's face. 'For two pins,' she screamed, 'I'd smash yer fice, I'd. . . .'
'Chuck it, Gertie,' said Lottie, suddenly taking her by the arm, 'don't you see he's got nothing to do with it?'
'Oh, indeed, Miss Mealymouth,' sneered Gertie, 'what I want is my money . . . .'
'Leave him alone, Gertie,' said Victoria, 'you can't kick a man when he's down.'
Gertie looked as if she were about to explode. ”

“ It was no news to her that men had a tendency to become interested in her ankles. But she still went to church and was accepted by quite the nicest of the St. Orgul's set, to whom Gertie had introduced her.
She and Gertie were the only thoroughly qualified representatives of Art, but Beauty and Gallantry and Wit were common. The conspirators in holding a party were, on the male side:
An insurance adjuster, who was a frat-brother to Carl and Ray, though he came from Melanchthon College. A young lawyer, ever so jolly, with a banjo. ”

“ Isn't farming in Canada all your fancy painted it?"
Gertie paused in the act of pouring water from the kettle into the dishpan. "Not a bit like it," she said dryly. "He's like most of the English I've run up against. They think all you've got to do is just to sit down and have afternoon tea and watch the crops grow by themselves."
"Oh, come now, Gertie. You've never had to accuse me of loafing, and I'm an Englishman," said her husband good-naturedly. ”

“ A couple of days later, Gertie was sitting alone in one of the class-rooms during the dinner hour, poring over a sum which wouldn't come right.
"If I'd got a Key," she said to herself, mindful of Dorothy's words, "I should get the silly old thing done in a minute—I wonder—" here a sudden temptation came into her heart—"if there is one anywhere on the shelf."
As it chanced there was one, and no sooner did Gertie spy the book, than she prepared to make use of it.
"You are doing wrong," said the voice of Conscience, as loudly and clearly as ever it could speak. ”

“ As Gertie grew more and more into the young lady, Marston recognised more than ever the likeness to the man who had come to a violent end in Josh Heckett’s gambling den.
Intuitively he felt that Gertie was a thorn in Gurth’s side. For her to be living in his (Marston’s) house, his ward, as it were, would be a strange revolution of the wheel of fate. He felt, moreover, that it would be galling to Gurth. He did not forget that Gurth had once expressed a desire to do something for Gertie himself. ”

“ In one of grannie’s letters there was concerning my sister: “I find Gertie is a much younger girl for her age than Sybylla was, and not nearly so wild and hard to manage. She is a great comfort to me. Every one remarks upon her good looks.”
From one of Gertie’s letters:
Uncle Julius came home from Hong Kong and America last week, and brought such a lot of funny presents for every one. He had a lot for you, but he has given them to me instead as you are not here. He calls me his pretty little sunbeam, and says I must always live with him. ”

“ They walked around the carriage drive and across fields; at the porch, Lady Douglass offered to Gertie the hospitable inquiry in regard to the night's rest that Miss Loriner had made, and went on without waiting for a reply.
Gertie found herself wishing the service would continue for ever. It was soothing, beautiful, appropriate. "Forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask," said the first collect of the day. "Grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger," said the third collect. ”

“ Not, mind you, that Gertie, in herself, could be reckoned as altogether to blame. Oh, no. Any girl who progressed in the world felt naturally eager to mix with her betters, and in this desire the existence of home was forgotten. As a matter of accuracy, Gertie had not called, before the present moment, for three months—close upon three months ago that she paid a visit.
"Alone?" asked Mr. Manners politely.
The door of the sitting-room was open, and it appeared the door of the kitchen had not been closed. Consequently the young man received nothing more than a wink in reply to his question ”

“ A spot of rain, and the stout young man says with a reckless air, "Oh, come on in!" and Gertie agrees to accompany him, with two provisions: first, that she shall be allowed to pay for herself; second (because aunt has a new trick of requiring every minute between Great Titchfield Street and Praed Street to be accounted for) , that Frederick will see her home later to the shop. Gertie thinks a dose of music will do her as much good as anything. ”