Miss Van Norman

“ Carleton is my old and dear friend, and I need not tell you how he now calls forth my sympathy.”
Instinctively, Doctor Hills liked this young man. His frank manner and pleasant, straightforward ways impressed the doctor favorably, and he shook hands warmly as he said, “This is most kind of you, Mr. Fessenden, and you may prove the very man we need. At first, we were all convinced that Miss Van Norman’s death was a suicide; and though the evidence still strongly points to that, I am sure that there is a possibility, at least, that it is not true.” ”

“ The phlegmatic attitude of his colleague jarred on his own overwrought nerves, and he rose and walked about the room, now and then stopping to scrutinize anew the victim of the cruel dagger.
At last he stood still, across the table from her, but looking at Doctor Leonard.
"I have no suggestion to make," he said slowly. "I have no theory to offer, but I am firmly convinced that Madeleine Van Norman did not strike the blow that took away her life. ”

“ Doubtless, they're cooing doves when alone together, but their high-bred notions won't allow any sentiment shown before other people. But I almost wish she were going to marry Tom. He has sentiment and enthusiasm enough for two, and the relationship is so distant it's not worth thinking about. Dear old Tom! He's the only one who ever stirs Madeleine out of that dignified calm of hers."
And that was true enough. Madeleine had inherited the Van Norman traits of dignity and reserve to such an extent that it was difficult for any one to be a really close friend. ”

“ Peabody was an old man; moreover, he had for many years been intimately associated with the Van Norman household, and had been a close friend of both Richard Van Norman and Madeleine. Shattered and broken by the sad tragedy in the household, he could scarcely repress his emotion when he undertook to address the little audience. ”

“ Charleton valued all the discoveries of his time, but in setting them forth he could not free himself from the scholastic forms in which he had been bred. He had in early life read too much in Van Helmont, and his academic success was probably injurious to him as a physician by encouraging him to spend too much time in reading and composition, and too little at the bedside of patients. He nowhere shows any genius for medicine, and, though he sometimes relates cases, exhibits no acuteness of observation. ”

“ And I went with Wanza through the woods on many a trillium hunt.
Sometimes almost to breathlessness I felt Wanza’s charm, the galvanism she could always transmit to those with her intensified by some new strange quality I could not name. It was like a fillip given my dispassion. When she laughed and chirped to the squirrels, when she carried a wounded bird in her breast, when she stood on tip-toe, her face like a taper-flame, to greet the whole outdoors with wide-flung arms, I caught my lip between my teeth and watched her with observant eyes. Her beauty grew. Even Father O’Shan remarked it. ”

“ The pergola led to a bosky dell of green—a veritable bower—where wild honeysuckle hung its bells in the sweet syringa bushes, and wild forget-me-not and violets and kinnikinic gemmed the emerald banks of a limpid pool so hedged in by high green thickets that no eye save the initiated ever rested on its crystal clarity. ”

“ This morning the wood spaces were filled with visions of Haidee. She smiled at me from behind the clumps of bracken and huckleberry, her eyes beamed at me from the hearts of the flowers. The clouds were her garments, the blue sky her soul. As Dante walked dreaming of Beatrice so went I with Haidee ever before me.
Love is a rejuvenating precious thing. Even a hopeless love softens the fibres of one’s entire being, and straightens the warped soul of one. But I must not reach out toward Love! ”

“ We could see the river shining like silver gauze through the green latticed walls of the grove, and the sky above the steeples of the trees was amethyst and gray. The sun was low in the west, and the shadows lay purple along the wood aisles.
It was a magical May day. Hawthorn and serviceberry bushes waved snowy arms along the river bank and dropped white petals in the stream, the birch trees dangled long festoons of moss above the water, balm o’ Gileads shed their pungent perfume abroad, and the honeysuckle and wild clematis hung from the limbs of the slender young maples. ”

“ I must go on alone, like a battered, wrecked, drifting derelict. I have thought the blackest part of my life behind me. I have come to look forward too much. I have vented my heavy heart, and found solace in work and books. ”

“ Back of all the tears and the smiles and the mystery I read at last what they were saying. I read—and I was humbled and abashed. I knew the truth at last. Wanza loved me.
I saw clearly now, indeed. I recalled Father O’Shan’s words: “Be careful in your dealings with that child.” I had been blind, and a fool. [273] I blamed myself, and I hated myself. I stood stupidly staring into the face so near my own until with a sudden wrench Wanza jerked away from me, and ran on down the purpling wood-aisle before me, dashing the tears from her eyes as she fled. ”

“ I saw that she was terribly in earnest.
“A gipsy’s life isn’t all play, Wanza. It’s all right in poetry! And it’s all right for a gipsy. But Wanza Lyttle is better off in her peddler’s cart.”
“Well, I’d just like to try it for awhile!”
[108] I remembered a song I had heard in Spokane—at Davenport’s roof garden—on a rare occasion when an artist chap who had spent some weeks at my shack had insisted on putting me up for a day or two while I visited the art shops in the city. It was a haunting thing, with a flowing happy lilt. ”

“ Dear Wanza:
I am in trouble. Mrs. Batterly has met with an accident, and is here at my cabin, unable to be moved. I have also a very sick man—a stranger—on my hands. Joey and I need you—will you come?
Your old friend,
David Dale.
Wanza responded gallantly to my call for aid. In a couple of hours I heard the rattle of her cart and the jingle of harness, and the sound of Buttons’ hoof-beats on the river road, and emerged from my workshop to greet her. ”

“ She had seated herself with her back against a log; her cape had fallen away, disclosing a coarse white blouse and short skirt of green; about her slim waist she wore a sash of red. In her ears were hoops of gold; each time she tossed her head they danced riotously; and with every movement of her brown arms the bracelets on her wrists [101] jangled. I glanced at her suspiciously from time to time. But Joey’s delight was beyond bounds. He was so frankly overjoyed at the gipsy’s presence that once or twice he giggled outright when she looked at him. ”

“ I frowned at her, and received a moue in return.
“I’ve been telling the big man about my peddler’s cart,” she ventured finally. “He’s so set on seeing it, soon as he’s well enough! Seems he never saw one. He can’t talk much, he’s that weak yet—like a baby! But I can talk to him.”
“I shall not ask you not to talk with him, again, Wanza,” I announced.
“It’s just as well, seeing as I know what I’m about. Land! the poor man! He needs some one to talk to him. I don’t notice you hurting yourself seeing after him, Mr. David Dale!” ”

“ I stood thus for a long moment, catching my breath fiercely, staring, staring—her hands held mine, her scarf of red silk whipped my throat—how strangely beautiful her face, the full lids, the subtle chin, the delicate yet warm lips! Had I ever seen as beautiful a girl-face? The soft wind swept past us sweet with balm o’ Gilead; the [112] brook was awake and singing to the rushes; but the birds were asleep, and a sweet solitude was ours. This girl was of my world, all gipsy she, wilder than most. And I—was I not as wide a wanderer as any gipsy? as homeless? ”

“ Wanza shook her head at me, and left her sentence unfinished.
“I could not have found it in my heart to paint such a picture, Wanza girl,” I replied, “had I not intended to give Joey the opportunity to compare it with the reality. We will stretch the old tarpaulin over the ranch wagon in the morning, stow away some bacon and cornmeal and a frying pan, harness Buttons to the caravan, and go out into the greenwood to tilt a lance with fortune.” ”

“ Her eyes were soft and wet. “What a goose I was,” she cried softly. “Come on, I’ll race you to the cabin!”
I paddled home in the canoe with Wanza, after directing Lundquist to ride my horse back to Cedar Dale. The river purred to us all the way, the meadow larks and warblers chanted roundelays of joy and love from the thickets, and the birch trees shook their silver, tinkling leaves in elfish music above the sun-kissed water. We [189] were very silent drifting down the river, and my thoughts were strange, strange thoughts. ”

“ I guess if a body was busy enough there wouldn’t be no time.”
“We make our own limitations, Joey,” I said, bending over my cedar chest that was all but finished. “The Now is the principal thing, boy.” ”

“ The way she carried herself among men had always impressed him. Fearless and friendly, and with deep understanding, she created respect wherever she went. Men, toughened and coarsened by danger and hardship, somehow understood that Jane Norman was not the sort to make love to because one happened to be bored. ”

“ Love is woman's dominion; let her but once enter it, and she becomes a queen; her heart and soul grow grander, the light of love crowns her. It is the real diadem of womanhood, Norman; she knows no other."
He drew back startled; her words seemed to rouse him into sudden consciousness. She was quick enough to see it, and, with the distrait manner of a true woman of the world, quickly changed the subject. She asked some trifling question about Beechgrove, and then said, suddenly:
"I should like to see that fine old place of yours, Norman. ”

“ But I wish that Norman could have lived to see Nina. I had always a feeling that he did not entirely appreciate her. She has developed greatly since his death. Not long afterwards I began to notice long and serious Italian conversations between her and Guiseppe. And I asked him one day, jokingly, what they found to talk about so earnestly.
"I am teaching her, Mister Arnold, how to be a lady. Now that their father, who was a gentleman, is dead, it is necessary that the mother of the children should be a lady." ”

“ Norman laughed at that. "And if they couldn't stop them, we should," he said. "We're all like one family. Nothing could separate us for long."
When they came to the iron gate where the park ended, it was to find it open. "Oh, there's Dad!" said Pamela, and called out a greeting to him as they passed through. "I'm so glad, Norman. He isn't keeping out of your way. He must have got over it already."
She ran back to her father when the car stopped before the door, and put her arm through his. "Have you been lonely without us, darling?" she said. "I'll stay with you till Norman goes through again. ”

“ Norman’s project is too delightful to us; but I fear what it may be to your father.”
“He gives dear Norman, as his most precious gift, the flower and pride of us all.”
“But, Ethel, I am quite frightened at Miss Rivers’s looks. Is it possible that—”
“Aunt Flora,” broke in Ethel, “don’t say a word against it. The choicest goods wear the best; and whatever woman can do, Meta Rivers can. Norman is a great tall fellow, as clever as possible, but perfectly feckless. If you had him there alone, he would be a bee without a queen.” ”

“ Yet she did not experience the quick sense of pleasure which she had persuaded herself would be her response whenever Norman did come to announce the real thing.
"Oh, clever!" repeated Norman. "That's not the word for her. She knows. She's got extraordinary perceptions for a girl of her age. It isn't only music. It's books, and art—everything that's jolly and interesting. And she's such fun with it all. No more of a highbrow than you are. In fact, she's the only girl I've ever met who sees things in the way that you do."
Pamela did feel some pleasure at this. ”

“ Norman de Vere, eagerly conning the papers she had left with him, was startled presently by a soft little tap at the door.
“Come in,” he said, and the door opened, admitting a lovely vision—Thea in a dress and hat of dark-blue velvet with pale-blue plumes sweeping her shoulders and mingling with the spun silk of her golden curls, her beautiful face bright, eager, smiling.
Norman’s heart leaped with a thrill that no sophistry could pronounce brotherly—a thrill that startled him with its keen pleasure.
“What, going out again—so soon? You said there was company!” he cried. ”

“ She laughed—a sneer of jealous rage. "Father," she said, "the lady in the case is a common typewriter in his office."
But to men—especially to practical men—differences of rank and position among women are not fundamentally impressive. Man is in the habit of taking what he wants in the way of womankind wherever he finds it, and he understands that habit in other men. He was furious with Norman, but he did not sympathize with his daughter's extreme attitude. He said to Norman sharply:
"You say you have broken with the woman?" ”

“ She understood that. "You are really going to educate me?" she said, with an arch smile. Now that Norman had her attention, now that she was centering upon him instead of upon herself, she was interested in him, and in what he said, whether she understood it or not, whether it pleased her vanity or wounded it. The intellects of women work to an unsuspected extent only through the sex charm. Their appreciations of books, of art, of men are dependant, often in the most curious indirect ways, upon the fact that the author, the artist, the politician or what not is betrousered. ”