Pattie

“ Surely Cousin Pattie's words were those of a tempter, who would persuade Reba from her straight and difficult path. She would try to forget them. But even in her attempt and while she repeated the words of her favorite hymn, "My Savior, as Thou wilt," her eyes would be seeing Cousin Pattie's symbols—the dead tooth, the silent bell, the pool, the cowardly woman hiding underneath a cross. Her fingers would feel the scarab.
The next morning, after a night of restless sleep, Reba started out for a walk. She could always think best when she was walking. ”

“ Beyond was chaos—a dark gulf, into which the building had disappeared.
No voice spoke, no human being stirred. Cragg could see nothing of Mr. Dale, or of the maid-servant. Only Pattie Dale was visible, and Cragg hurried beneath the window.
"What does it all mean? Are you hurt?" he cried. He was close enough to render shouting unnecessary.
Pattie made no reply. She seemed to be dazed, perhaps hardly conscious. He could see that her blue eyes were widely-opened in a fixed stare.
"My dear," he called, "you must wake up; you must let me help you down. It isn't safe there." ”

“ Cragg, I didn't marry you to be kept in as close as this, and lectured as if I was a school-girl. And I don't mean to bear it. You've been worse than ever since Pattie came—and that's the truth."
"I shall have to be worse," Cragg answered coldly. "I cannot afford this sort of thing, and that's the long and short of the matter. If you run into debt, you must manage for yourself. But it's no use speaking to you. You don't choose to understand." And he left the room as Pattie came in. ”

“ He began to mount the staircase, and Pattie followed slowly. She wanted to see all the best points in their new home, not the worst, and she knew her father's tendency to get into a mournful mood over small discomforts. Naturally these big cracks, which oddly enough had made no previous impression, seemed less important to a young girl than to a man. ”

“ Pattie knows that her father was a scamp, and she doesn't want to make it known, that's all."
"My dear! Do you know what you are saying? What reason can you have for such a notion?"
"I know! There's a lot too much mystery. People don't go hiding up things when there's nothing to hide. I believe he was a downright bad man. And I believe Pattie knows it too. That's why she won't tell us about him, and why she pretends she doesn't want to read his papers. It's because she knows things will come out, and she doesn't want to have to tell."
Cragg was silent. ”

“ Dot cheerfully assented to that view of the question.
"Naughty bad Gazi!" she remarked. "And Lisha wasn't naughty, was he, Pattie? Lisha was good. I saw Lisha in the picture, frowning at Gazi most dreadful. It's Pattie's little picture. And lots of focks and coats all hided away."
"But you couldn't see the frocks and coats in the picture, Dot?"
"O no, dadda, 'cause they was hided away, and Gazi telled a wicked tory, and saided he hadn't not been nowhere. 'N then he was whited. Does everybody get whited what tells wicked tories? Does ma-ma when she tells tories?" ”

“ He could not, unhappily, feel sure that no cause existed for Dot's remarks, nor could he throw himself unreservedly into the defence of his wife. By this time he knew, only too well, that Mrs. Cragg was by no means always true in her utterances, that very often she was guilty of what Dot called "a tory." He was therefore the more anxious to divert attention at this moment.
"Why, Pattie, you've been crying!"
"One must—sometimes—cry a little," admitted Pattie, not trying to deny so patent a fact.
"Being a girl, perhaps one must. And it is nothing that I can set right? You are sure?" ”

“ Dot's leg mended, and at length a day came when it was decreed that she might venture on a good ramble. Pattie was to take her, and Mrs. Cragg fixed on a time of the day when no one else would be about. She saw them off the premises, waited for Dot's shrill little tones to die away, and then betook herself to Pattie's room, bolting the door inside. The box of papers was no longer where it had first been placed, under a small table. Mrs. Cragg took a look round, and went to the cupboard, within which she at once descried it, below a pile of cardboard boxes. ”

“ She's got the upper hand of Mr. Cragg—twists him round her little finger. And Dot won't look at anybody else."
"Well, I wouldn't have it so, if I were you. I'd make a stand. She's got a conceited look."
"Conceited! I should think she was. There's nobody in the world that's Pattie's equal, if you believe Pattie."
"And nobody knows wherever she came from," reflected Mrs. Smithers.
Mrs. Cragg pursed up her lips with a meaning air.
"Well, you may know, but nobody else does. What is Pattie Dale? Your husband's been going about saying she wants to find a situation. ”

“ The latter soon returned.
"The doctor wants a word with you, Pattie. I'll stay here," said Cragg. He had left his wife elsewhere, still violently sobbing, half with genuine distress and half with annoyance at being ordered away.
Pattie found the doctor alone.
"Is Dot badly hurt?" she asked.
"It is too early to say much. We shall know better in a few hours. I do not find tokens of actual injury, beyond a blow to the head— hardly severe enough to account for the symptoms. At all events, no bones are broken. My fear is that the spine may have sustained some injury. ”

“ And both he and the nurse say she has done more for Dot than either of them."
"Dadda!" murmured Dot, clinging to his hand, as he sat beside her.
"Dear little Dot!—But you see, don't you?"
"I see that Pattie manages to get the upper hand of you men somehow! I'm sick and tired to death of hearing of nothing but Pattie's goodness. If she'd condescend to be bad for once, I could put up with her better."
"You would probably be the first to blame her," rejoined Cragg, aware how useless it was to answer his wife, yet for once unable to resist doing so. "There are bad people in plenty. ”

“ If Aunt Pattie had been pleased by the change in Constance, Gresham was delighted. This was the first time she had really beamed on him since she had met Johnny Gamble.
"You are always charming," he observed, taking pleasure in his own gallantry, "but to-day you seem unusually so." ”

“ You ought to be able. Other people can talk to her about God; but you can show her what the talking means, by what you are to her yourself. There's no love in the world so near to the love of God as a mother's love. And Dot can never have another mother,—so it all depends upon you."
"Pattie—you don't mean—"
"I mean just what I'm saying," Pattie replied quietly. "If you don't show her what is meant by the love of God, she may learn it in some other way; but she can't learn it in the best way of all. It isn't so much a question of what you say or don't say to Dot, as of what you are to her. ”

“ The window was open and they hoped the smell would go out. Each girl sat or stood as she had been, you know like slinging statutes—and hoped that the matron would go on. But she didn’t!
“Aunt Pattie had all the demerits she could have that term so she was scared stiff. In spite of all her hopes the door opened and there stood the matron holding an old timey oil lamp in front of her. The hall proctor was close behind her. Before either of them had time to make out any of the girls’ faces, the suction sucked the light out. Aunt Pattie did some desperate thinking and then did a desperate thing. ”

“ Dot must be good and run away." Pattie came back, shut the door, and stood looking at Mrs. Cragg, her face full of wonderment. The cupboard door was open, the cardboard boxes were displaced, the bunch of keys hung from the lock of the open and empty tin box.
"You needn't have been at all that bother and fuss—sending Dot away. It don't matter. I don't care who knows," declared Mrs. Cragg hardily, while unable to meet Pattie's gaze. ”

“ Why, dear me, what rubbish! How can I tell that you're a proper person to have in the house, if you won't say more, or a nice companion for Dot? I never heard such nonsense in my life! Of course you've got to tell whatever we want to know. Your father might have been—anything—" as Pattie's quiet eyes gave a slight flash. "There mustn't be any mysteries. I shall just speak to Mr. Cragg." ”

“ Cragg sat up with a jerk.
"Really, Pattie, if you encourage the child in that sort of impertinence, I shall have—I think the less you're with her the better for Dot. She is growing insufferable, and it is your fault." ”

“ The doctor was impressed by the smallness and paleness of Pattie's face. He had come late, and for once the nurse had retired, leaving Pattie in charge.
"Not this morning, I think. By-and-by, when nurse can come."
"Not till evening, you mean. But how do you suppose you are going to manage when nurse is gone? You cannot be in the room always. Now that Dot is so much better, other people must take a share in the nursing."
By other people the doctor meant Mrs. Cragg. ”

“ Dot only needs to be amused and kept quiet."
Precisely what Mrs. Cragg was not fitted to undertake, thought Pattie; but she could not say so. The doctor would have to find out for himself.
"I don't feel that I want to go out this morning."
"The more reason why you should do so. You are getting used up. Mrs. Cragg"—as she came in—"I am telling Miss Dale that she must take a run early; not spend the whole day in this room. You can arrange it? She's looking tired."
"Pattie has nothing to keep her indoors," declared Mrs. Cragg. "She's only got to please herself." ”

“ Reba looked down at her folded hands abashed, and was silent. Cousin Pattie shook her head and sighed audibly, as much as to say, "I give you up." Then, "You're like a pool of water," she broke out afresh. "Stuck up here all alone on your New England hill-top—no inlet, no outlet, and if you don't do something about it you'll dry up, as sure as preaching. There won't be anything left of you but the shallow impression of your shape and size." ”

“ Men are not so curious." Pattie spoke with unconscious rebuke. "If he should ask, I need not say much. I think, if I were you, I should feel that I ought to tell him everything. But that is for you—not for me. I have only to speak to him about what concerns my father and me."
"I can't get that key out." Mrs. Cragg spoke curtly, yet in her voice there was a new note, a something like regret.
Pattie knelt down and worked patiently at the lock. It was a long business. For more than five minutes her efforts were in vain. Then at last the key yielded, and she handed the bunch to Mrs. Cragg. ”

“ He had to tell his wife of the promise made to Dale, and he dreaded doing so. Not that Mrs. Cragg could prevent his carrying out that promise, but she had it in her power to make matters extremely disagreeable, as well for him as for Pattie. Like most men, not to speak of women, he disliked to have things made disagreeable. ”

“ Cragg was puzzled how to answer. He could not make out Pattie, and he found himself saying involuntarily:
"I wonder whether you are older than I have fancied?"
"I was sixteen on my last birthday."
"You were! Really! I have thought of you as only—well, about thirteen."
"No; I am sixteen. People have often taken me for less. Old enough to be independent." And a curious smile flickered over her small face.
"We must see about that. I am not sure. You would not find it so easy as you may think to make your way—unaided."
"No. But people would help me. People are always so kind." ”

“ So talk fast, Reba. Come, tell me, what horrible thing is it you've escaped that makes you so thankful to heaven for your New England rock-bottom? This mysterious husband of yours, child?"
"Oh, no. Not Nathan," Reba assured her. "I should hope I wasn't trying to escape the man I married of my own free will."
"Oh!" the intuitive Cousin Pattie exclaimed. There was an emphasis in the girl's speech that substantiated the rumor about her, which she had heard at Hattie Miles'. "Look here," she asked bluntly in a lower tone. "Is it another man who's messed up your affairs for you, Reba?" ”

“ Then, "Is there any need of an illumination in here?" he growled, and approached the high gas-chandelier and turned off one of the two lights Reba had lit.
Cousin Pattie chuckled. "My! David. Anybody'd think you were a poor man, and couldn't afford those lights!"
"Rich or poor, waste is wicked," David remarked.
"Waste of good-nature over trifles is wicked, David," she replied. Then with a mighty effort she drew herself out from the depths of the armchair and got to her feet. ”

“ Smithers. "I'd like to hear my husband talking like that."
"Your husband isn't Cragg," observed Mrs. Cragg, with truth.
"If he was Mr. Cragg I wouldn't let him. People ought to have sense."
Mrs. Smithers' eyes roved, and Mrs. Cragg saw that another subject was about to be introduced.
"Nobody can tell you anything about Pattie except me."
"But what do you know about her? thought they came here as strangers."
"All the same, I know something." Mrs. Cragg's air was of fascinating mystery.
"Tell me, there's a good woman. What do you know?"
"Well, I know one thing—that her father was a scamp." ”

“ Of the roof hardly a trace could be seen; and with the roof was gone Mr. Dale, who had been standing on it. Pattie found herself left behind, seated on the sill, with no flooring beneath her feet; a tumult of terror and agony surging in her brain.
CHAPTER III Mrs. Anthony Cragg
"WHEREVER are you off to now, I wonder?" ”

“ Tell me how I'm to make Dot love me."
This was three weeks later. Dot was asleep, and Pattie had come to the sitting-room, leaving the new nursery-maid in charge. Mrs. Cragg broke out with the above remark.
"But Dot does love you. I am sure she does. Dot is such a loving little thing."
"She don't care to have me with her. I can see that plain enough. I can see the difference when you come in."
"A little child's love is so easily won. ”