Mrs. Merrill

“ To her amazement Mrs. Merrill did not give her an instantaneous answer to this question. Mrs. Merrill was thinking of Jethro's love for the girl, manifold evidences of which she had seen, and her heart was filled with a melting pity. It was such a love, Mrs. Merrill knew, as is not given to many here below. And there was Cynthia's love for him. Mrs. Merrill had suffered that morning thinking of this tragedy also.
"I do not think he is a proper guardian for her, Miss Penniman."
It was then that the tears came to Mrs. Merrill's eyes for there is a limit to all human endurance. ”

“ Merrill. Vainly did poor Mary try to accommodate these differences, her efforts generally ended in making both of the disputants displeased with her. It must not be thought that Mrs. Merrill was cross and ill-tempered. On the contrary, all her difficulties with Ellen arose from her desire to do what was kind and right by an orphan girl placed in her charge, for Mr. Villars before he brought his nieces home had said, "There will of course, Mrs. Merrill, be many things in which these girls will require the attention of a woman to their conduct and their comforts. ”

“ Merrill. "I couldn't recall just how far down the creek it was! Suppose we make this our headquarters. Set your baskets on that biggest rock over there—that will keep your food high and dry. That flat rock will be our table and these two rocks here," pointing to two angle-shaped rocks that formed a big V, "will be just right for making a fire."
"A fire!" exclaimed Alice. "What do we want with a fire?"
"Oh, I thought it might be fun to make one," said Mrs. Merrill indifferently, "but of course if you don't care to—"
"But we do, Mrs. Merrill," interrupted Ruth, "I think it would be jolly." ”

“ And even Anthony, countryman though he was, and unobservant of most things, could see that she was the best-dressed young woman in the room. Her black gown sat on her as if it had been modelled to her figure, and though it was by no means such a magnificent affair as Mrs. Tewkesbury's moire antique, Mrs. Poskitt's plum-coloured satin, or Miss Merrill's black silk, glittering with beads and bangles, there was an air of distinction about it which was very apparent indeed to all the womenfolk and a little evident to Anthony. ”

“ The girls were to wear the dainty little organdies they had worn on Class Day. Mrs. Merrill had had them pressed and when the girls stepped into the room there they were on the beds—as fresh and crisp as new. And now that the new shoes were fixed with a soft pad of leather at the heel to keep them from slipping up and down and making a blister, there was nothing likely to mar the day.
It didn't take long to dress as everything was laid out ready, and soon the three Merrills were in the subway, dashing out to meet Uncle Hal at Harvard Square. ”

“ Merrill, and he thinks that we must take time over it, Miss Penniman. Whatever we do, we must not act hastily."
"Well," said Miss Lucretia, "as I said, I am very fond of the girl, and I am willing to do my duty, whatever it may be. And I also wished to say, Mrs. Merrill, that I have thought about another matter very carefully. I am willing to provide for the girl. I am getting too old to live alone. I am getting too old, indeed, to do my work properly, as I used to do it. I should like to have her to live with me." ”

“ Don't you go to any of them wicked theatres, now, Anthony!"
"All right, mother," replied Anthony; "I can take care of myself."
"I'd call on Miss Lister if I were you, Tony," said Matilda. "I'm sure she'd be pleased to see you."
"Nothing of the sort, Matilda!" said Mrs. Merrill, in her most reprimanding manner. "Anthony's much too sensible to run after young girls."
Anthony heard and made no reply. He not only meant to see Miss Lister, but to take her out for a walk—perhaps to the theatre. It was not often that he got the chance of spending the evening in Leeds ”

“ It was a sort of family tradition amongst the Merrills that they should all dance well, and old Merrill himself, though he weighed eighteen stone, could foot it as lightly as a girl. So Anthony said that he would be only too pleased to dance with Miss Lister, and the hostess thereupon bade the gentlemen take their partners.
A consequential person with very black whiskers approached Miss Lister as she and Anthony stood near the piano. He executed a low bow and glanced at Anthony's un-evening-like garments with supercilious eyes. ”

“ Holt, for many years a leading teacher in the Boston schools. Mrs. Merrill's elder sister, Martha S. Randall, married Eben Pillsbury, and died in Minnesota, leaving a daughter, now Mrs. Keach, of Hartford, Conn. The other sister, who lives with Mrs. Merrill and skilfully manages their household affairs, is Miss Harriet Howard Randall. Mrs. Merrill is much loved and respected by her large circle of acquaintances. She is a prominent worker in St. ”

“ Merrill was a very kind woman, and received Mary and Ellen with great tenderness, but she too had her oddities as well as Mr. Villars. Like most persons who have had little to do with children, she was constantly afraid of their getting into some trouble or mischief, and she watched these girls, the youngest of whom was then twelve years old, with as much care as if they were only four or five. ”

“ As a young woman of two-and-twenty, Miss Lister had visions of settling down in life. She wondered, as the train carried her over a snow-bound land from the village to the great smoky town, whether she would not prefer a rural existence to a life amongst bricks and mortar. She had thought young Anthony an oaf at first, only to discover later on that he was intelligent enough and clever enough about the things which interested him, and that his tongue could wag with something like eloquence if it were unloosed on any topic that lay near his heart. ”

“ If Miss Annetta Lister had desired to make a conquest of Mr. Anthony Merrill, she could not have devised a better plan of campaign than that which Anthony himself thus forced upon her. When the two emerged from the stable after nearly three-quarters of an hour's horse-talk, Anthony was firmly convinced that of all the common-sense, intelligent, practical young women in the world, this tall and attractive young woman, wrapped in his new great-coat, was the paragon. ”

“ She loves the blackguard still. It is part of God's mysterious wisdom that no villain should fall so low that some good woman's love shall not reach down and fasten on him. And now God has called her child to Him, and she is pining to follow him to Heaven."
Merrill's outcast love made him savage. He snarled: "You know more about Heaven than I do, Neverend, but I know more about earth than you do, and I tell you people don't die of grief. ”

“ Merrill.
"How lovely?" asked Alice.
"And she thinks it's 'lovely'!" mimicked Mr. Merrill.
"Well, it is," insisted Mary Jane. "When things look perfectly awful and you're sure they're all wrong, then we always think of something to do different and we have a beautiful time—we always do."
As though to prove her right, at that very minute the porter came along the aisle to Mr. Merrill and said, "There's a taxi man outside at the steps, sir, and he says if you want a cab sir, he can back right up to the steps and the ladies won't even get damp." ”

“ There was no doubt that the leaf and its contents must be buried in Auntie Merrill's garden. That was the scene of all mysteries, and the only place where our caché would be reasonably secure from Ed Mason's sister Louise and her friend Jessie Plummer. These were high matters, too great for the feminine intellect. Also, of course, [31] we had Auntie Merrill to consider. A place must be discovered where she would not come poking around. ”

“ Merrill was close by Mary Jane, for there was something so vast and powerful and terrifying about the mad rush of those roaring, tumbling waters that even the iron bars around the edge of the rock couldn't quite make a little girl feel safe—it needed the hold of a person's warm hand to make one feel comfortable enough to stand there and watch. ”

“ The soft-hearted Findley was far more terrified than she. He stood fighting off womanly tenderness and whispering to himself to be a man, lest Merrill despise him. He could not have dreamed that Merrill was also at war with himself, and so full of dismay at his problem that he was greatly tempted to give up the case and leave the girl to a peaceful death. He thought of Findley's love and how much success or failure meant to him, but that was an unnerving sentiment, and he tried to banish it as a soldier going into battle dismisses thoughts of home. ”

“ He came closer. "Ten thousand lire," he added softly. "Not a centesimi less."
"Two thousand dollars," Merrill answered. You've got your nerve. Take me to jail." He put on his hat. "I suppose I can communicate with the embassy," he said.
"If you like," agreed the Italian. "Three other men of your nation, caught as you are caught, have communicated. It does little good. There are negotiations—what you call red tape—a long time is taken. Meanwhile you wait in prison."
Merrill paused. He cursed Henry Howard Fisher under his breath. ”

“ Merrill thoughtfully, "I'm afraid we couldn't ride all day, dear, but we might come again after the game this afternoon and get two or three rides. You know a friend of Uncle Hal's is going to take us on a drive to-morrow and there's something planned for every single day."
"Well, then," said Mary Jane, "let's come whenever we can—and oh, I do just love it, I do!"
After a hurried bit of primping at their room the Merrills took the subway to Cambridge where they met Uncle Hal and went to the game. ”

“ Webber slowly. "He's rather a small foot, and by Jove, bumpkin or not, he can waltz! There's none of us can waltz like that, Roller, old man."
"Pshaw!" said Mr. Roller. "I'm sick of women—fickle things! Wish we could go somewhere and do a bitter or a drop of Scotch. No hope of that, worse luck!"
There was no hope of anything of that sort until an hour later, when Miss Lister invited her guests into an adjoining room to partake of a cold collation. By that time Anthony had waltzed with several young ladies, and had become well warmed by the exercise. ”

“ Weeks passed and the reports from the mountains brought no comfort to the pastor, who received them from his Aunt Hannah or from Fanny's mother. They brought no comfort to Doctor Merrill, who received them at second hand. Her state grew so bad that Doctor Lucas was sent for. He came back from the mountains ignorant, and admitting it. He blamed her bodily ills to her mental condition. When Findley told Merrill, Merrill growled: "Doesn't the old idiot know that it's bound to be the other way round?" ”

“ I'm not afraid of cold," said Anthony, as he opened the hall-door and led the way to the stable. "When you come to rise at five o'clock of a morning, as I make a point of doing, you don't think much about cold. Now, then," he continued, as they entered the stable and saw Mr. Poskitt's mare throw a somewhat vicious eye over her shapely shoulders at them, "what do you think of that? Isn't she a beauty?—gad, I wish she was mine! She's a great deal too young and skittish for old Poskitt—she'll throw him some day. ”

“ Roller," she said, "but you must excuse me—I'm giving this dance to Mr. Merrill. See—there's Miss Jones over there—she's disengaged. Won't you ask her?"
Mr. Roller closed his very white teeth over his very black moustache and retired, not to dance with Miss Jones, but to get into a corner with his friend Mr. Webber, there to sulk and say nasty things.
"That's the way with women, Webber," he said bitterly. "Her and me's almost engaged, and she throws me over for a country bumpkin like that—a feller that comes to an evenin' party in shootin'-clothes and boots as big as canal boats." ”

“ My name is Henry Howard Fisher."
Two days Merrill had spent in Manhattan, and his heart was hungry for companionship. Quickly he revealed his name. mentioned Texas, the Silver Star, and suggested a drink.
"Sorry," said Mr. Fisher. "I don't touch it."
"Come and have a cigar then," Merrill offered. It developed that neither did the abstemious Mr. Fisher smoke. Merrill looked him over again, a trifle suspiciously this time. Men were not made thus in the neighborhood of the Silver Star. But Fisher's face was frank and winning. ”

“ Poskitt, a hospitable and jovial old gentleman, who believed that at Christmas every lass should have a lad, and every lad a lass, had discovered that after inviting Anthony to his party he had no young lady to pair off with him, and he had forthwith commissioned his nephew Stephen's wife, who was coming from Leeds to attend the festivity, to bring a friend with her—"a nice, lively young woman with no standoffishness about her, and up to a bit of fun." The nice, lively young woman proved on arrival to be Miss Annetta Lister, and Mr. ”

“ MERRILL, Miss Margaret Manton, journalist, born in England in 18 —. She has spent thirty-five years of her life in Minnesota, Colorado and California. Her father was the Rt. Rev. William E. Merrill, who fur forty years was one of the foremost educators of the Northwest. MARGARET MANTON MERRILL. Her mother was a grandniece of Sir Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, and her grandmother on the maternal side was second-cousin to "Royal Charlie" of Scotland. In spite of her lineage. Miss Merrill is very proud of the fact that she is an American woman. ”