Melissy

“ Fillebrown, evasively, persisting in the shelter of her phrase.
She went to bed and slept like a little girl. In the morning she woke quietly. Ghost or man, she had somehow ceased to be afraid of Joe. She felt the sacred power of the marriage bond close around her solemnly. Better, oh, best, a thousand times, forever be true wife, let shame, misery, mystery, death, come as they will!
She told Melissy, vouchsafing no explanation of this fearful domestic irregularity, to wait breakfast for a little, and then she opened the front door and looked out. ”

“ Melissy finished, fingered her music, and became somehow aware that she was not alone. She turned unhurriedly on the seat and met the smiling eyes of her husband.
From his high-heeled boots to his black, glossy hair, Black MacQueen was dusty with travel. Beside him was a gunny sack, tied in the middle and filled at both ends. Picturesque he was and always would be, but his present costume scarce fitted the 335 presence of a lady. Yet of this he gave no sign. He was leaning back in a morris chair, rakish, debonair, and at his ease. ”

“ When Joe had been dead so many years that Melissy almost lost track of them, "Lordy," thought Melissy, "I calc'late she'd take a lickin' every day to set her eyes on him for a spell."
Melissy supposed it was because she had never been married that she found it so hard to understand the grief of the drunkard's widow. The old maid did not respect the wife altogether for this mystery of conjugal allegiance.
"When a man ain't wuth it," mused Melissy, "he ain't wuth." ”

“ Me and Melissy does the work ourselves, Mr. Crane. I hain't kept no gal sense Melissy was big enough t' aid and assist me. I think help's more plague than [Pg 1663] profit. No woman that has growed-up darters needn't keep help if she's brung up her gals as she'd ought tew. Melissy, dear, put on your cloak: it's a purty tejus evenin'. Kier, you tie up your throat: you know you was complainin' of a soreness in't to-day; and you must be keerful to tie it up when you cum hum: it's dangerous t' egspose yerself arter singin'—apt to give a body the brown-critters,—and that's turrible. ”

“ You are always so kind! He says he shall feel so much easier about me," sighed Mrs. Fillebrown, gently, as she hung the receiver in its place. The manager bowed gravely.
"What have you been doing in the front hall, Melissy?" asked Mrs. Fillebrown, after the representative of the corporation had left the house.
"Oh, nothin'," observed Melissy, carelessly—"only offerin' that fellar a hot apple tart I had."
"Dear me, Melissy! I don't know about that. Is it quite—" Mrs. Fillebrown paused for a word. Had the telephone already begun to corrupt the manners of her irreproachable household? ”

“ Melissy went on eagerly. “Of course they can’t blame you for what Lieutenant O’Connor did. It is absurd—ridiculous.”
“Certainly.” MacQueen tugged at his little black mustache and kept his black eyes on her constantly. “That’s not what we’re blaming him for. The indictment against your friend is that he interfered when it wasn’t his business.”
“But it was his business. Don’t you know he’s 293 sheriff? He had to do it.” Melissy turned to the outlaw impetuously.
“So. And I have to play my hand out, too. It wipes out Mr. Flatray. Sorry, but business is business.” ”

“ A year ago she had been a child. But in the Southland flowers ripen fast. Adolescence steals hard upon the heels of infancy, and, though the girl had never wakened 67 to love, Nature was pushing her relentlessly toward a womanhood for which her unschooled impulses but scantily safeguarded her.
She turned toward the shelves. “How many air-tights did you say?”
“I didn’t say.” He leaned forward across the counter. “What’s the hurry, little girl?”
“My name is Melissy Lee,” she told him over her shoulder.
“Mine is Phil Norris. Glad to give it to you, Melissy Lee,” the man retorted glibly. ”

“ And just because Tony had tried to escape. This man had freed the ranger. Very well. He should take O’Connor’s place. Let him die the death. A life for a life. Was that not fair?
Flatray turned his head and caught sight of Melissy. A startled cry died on his lips.
“Jack!” She held out both hands to him as she ran toward him.
The sheriff took her in his arms to console her. 292 For the girl’s face was working in a stress of emotion.
“Oh, I’m in time—I’m in time. Thank God I’m in time.”
Jack waited a moment to steady his voice. “How came you here, Melissy?”
“He brought me—Black MacQueen. ”

“ Before he could 230 make up his mind a light laugh rippled to them from behind the vines on the Lee porch.
The disguised outlaw and his friend were startled. Both fled swiftly, with all the pretense of desperate necessity young conspirators love to assume.
Melissy went into the house and the laughter died from her lips. She knew that either her father’s posse or that of Jack Flatray would come into touch with the outlaws eventually. When the clash came there would be a desperate battle. Men would be killed. ”

“ But husband couldn't eat 'em: they was like pizen tew him. Melissy never eats 'em nother: she ain't no pickle hand. Some gals eat pickles to make 'em grow poor, but Melissy hain't no such foolish notions. I've brung her up so she shouldn't have. Why, I've heered of gals drinkin' vinegar to thin 'em off and make their skin delekit. They say Kesier Winkle—Why, Kier, what be you pokin' the sass at Mr. Crane for? Melissy jest helped him. I heered Carline Gallup say how't Kesier Winkle—Why, Kier, what do you mean by offerin' the cold pork to Mr. Crane? jest as if he wanted pork for his tea! ”

“ Melissy noticed that from the pocket of his chaps the butt of a revolver peeped. She judged it to be the custom in Dead Man’s Cache to go garnished with weapons.
Her curiosity led her to deflect toward the old woman. But she had not taken three steps toward the cabin before the man with the jade eyes stopped her.
“That’ll be near enough, ma’am,” he said, civilly enough. “This old crone has a crazy spell whenever a stranger comes nigh. She’s nutty. It ain’t safe to come nearer—is it, old Sit-in-the-Sun?” ”

“ I always know'd you was a simpleton, Tim Crane, but I must confess I dident think you was quite so big a fool! Want Melissy, dew ye? If that don't beat all! What an everlastin' old calf you must be to s'pose she'd look at you. Why, you're old enough to be her father, and more tew—Melissy ain't only in her twenty-oneth year. What a reedickilous idee for a man o' your age! as gray as a rat, tew! I wonder what this world is a-comin' tew: 'tis astonishin' what fools old widdiwers will make o' themselves! Have Melissy! Melissy! ”

“ She bit her lip with chagrin. “I just happened to notice.”
“Some folks are more noticing than others. But you’re surely right. They came up the ditch one on each side. Now, why one on each side, do you reckon?”
Melissy hid the dread that was flooding her heart. 147 “I’m sure I don’t know. You know everything else. I suppose you do that, too, if they really did.”
“They had their reasons, but we won’t go into that now. First off when they reach the house they take a bunch of sheep down to the ditch to water them. ”

“ What you need is a man that ain’t afraid of you, one to ride close herd on you so as to head off them stampede notions of yours. Now this lad is the very one. He is a black-haired guy, and when he says a thing——”
Involuntarily she glanced at his sleek black head. Melissy felt a sudden clamor of the blood, a pounding of the pulses.
“—he most generally means it. I’ve wrangled around a heap with him and there’s no manner of doubt he’s up to specifications. In appearance he looks like me. Point of fact, he’s a dead ringer for me.” ”

“ He was the cattle detective of the association and for a year now the rustlers had outgeneraled him. “I’ll have you take me to the spot, Charley. Get a move on you and we’ll get there soon as the moon is up.”
Melissy gripped the arms of her chair tightly with both hands. She was looking at Norris with a new expression, a kind of breathless fear. She 54 knew him for a man who could not be swerved from the thing he wanted. For all his easy cynicism, he had the reputation of being a bloodhound on the trail. Moreover, she knew that he was no friend to Jack Flatray. ”

“ Well, I heerd tell of that shipment you was making, and I sets out to git it, for it ce’tainly did seem to belong to me. Understand, I wasn’t drunk, but had be’n settin’ pretty steady to the bottle for several days. Melissy finds it out, no matter how, and undertakes to keep me out of trouble. She’s that full of sand, she nevah once thought of the danger or the consequences. Anyhow, she meant to git the bullion back to you afteh the thing had blown over.”
“I haven’t doubted that a moment since I knew she did it,” said Bellamy quietly. ”

“ One of the Roaring Fork bunch of bad men, likely. But I don’t know.”
The young man was plainly very much excited and disturbed. He walked nervously up and down, 86 jerking his sentences out piecemeal as he thought of them.
“Was there only one man? And did you see him?” Melissy asked breathlessly. ”

“ He's deef as a seraphim on a gravestone, and drags on the left side sence he had his stroke," remarked Melissy. "An' I'd like to know how long you'd hev Adoniram perfumin' up this house—feelin' the way you do about caows."
"Have a telephone," suggested the doctor, with the cosmopolitan air that he wore when he had been to Boston, and felt that he was what he called "in touch with the world." "It is cheaper than a man, and more protection. You are quite able, Mrs. Fillebrown, to afford these modern improvements. Really, I should feel much easier about you." ”

“ Pelléas.
Oh, how you say that!... One would say that your voice had passed over the sea in Springtime! I have never heard it up to now...one would think it had rained on my heart! You say it so frankly...like an angel who is questioned. I cannot believe it. Melisande! Why should you love me?—But why do you love me?—Is what you say true?—You do not deceive me?—You do lot lie a little, so as to make me smile?...
Melisande.
No; I never lie; I only lie to your brother...
Pelléas.
Oh how you say that!... Your voice, your voice! It is fresher and franker than water. ”

“ Melisande.
Oh, oh! you hurt me. What is it, Pelléas? What is it that flies around me?
Pelléas.
It is the doves that come out of the tower. I frightened them. They fly away.
Melisande.
They are my doves, Pelléas.—Let us go, leave me; they would not return...
Pelléas.
Why would they not return?
Melisande.
They will be lost in the obscurity... Let me lift my head... I hear a noise of footsteps... Leave me!—It is Golaud... I think it is Golaud... He has heard us...
Pelléas.
Wait, wait!... Your hair is around the branches... It has got caught in the darkness. ”

“ In the Third Act Melisande is seen at a window of the tower arranging her long hair for the night. Pelléas enters the walk below and asks her for her hand to kiss before he goes away. She will not let him have it unless he promises to stay and, when he agrees, she leans so far out to let him reach it that her hair runs down over him in a flood and causes an ecstasy of love to bubble up. Both are so entranced that they give no heed to a menacing shadow in the darkness. It is Golaud. He comes upon them suddenly but treats their alliance as the play of children and leads Pelléas away. ”

“ Is it Pelléas?...
Melisande.
No, no; it is not Pelléas. It is nobody... You cannot understand me... it is something that is stronger than myself...
Golaud.
Come; be reasonable, Melisande.—What would you have me do?—You are no longer a child.—Is it me that you would leave?
Melisande.
Oh no! it is not that... I would like to go away with you... It is here that I cannot longer live... I feel that I should not live long.
Golaud.
But there still needs a reason. They will think you mad. They will think you have childish dreams. Come, is it Pelléas, perhaps? ”

“ Pelléas.
No, no, no; I have never seen hair like yours, Melisande... Look, look, look, it comes from so high and it inundates me to the very heart. It inundates me more, even to the knees... It is so soft, it is soft as if it fell from heaven! I no longer see the sky through your hair. You see. you see, my hands can no longer hold it. It even reaches to the branches of the willow. It lives as a bird in my hands, and it loves me, it loves me a thousand times more than you!
Melisande. ”

“ He had not therefore attended to the words of Melissa’s father with that eagerness which favourable anticipations commonly produce. But when his name was mentioned; when he found he was the choice—the happy favourite of Melissa’s affection, every tender passion of his soul became interested, and was suddenly aroused to the refinements of sensibility. Like an electric shock, it reanimated his whole frame, and vibrated every nerve of his heart. ”

“ Pelléas.
My lips cannot reach your hand...
Melisande.
I cannot bend over farther... I am on the point of falling. Oh, oh, my hair descends from the tower!...
(Her hair suddenly revolutes, as she bends over thus, and covers Pelléas.)
Pelléas.
Oh, oh, what is it?... Your hair, your hair comes down toward me!... All your hair, Melisande, all your hair is fallen from the tower... I hold it in my hands, I hold it in my mouth... I hold it in my arms, and I put it around my neck. I shall not open my hands again to-night... ”