Selma

“ Selma had been a beauty in her youth, although of a type unappealing to the village young men. She had been too tall and pale and still and stately for them. She had always been a very simple village woman, whose life was narrow and quite translucent, flowing over her path of fate with no ripples of concealment. When she found herself in John Hopkins's room she stood with fingers in her ears to drown out all sounds of the tragedy being enacted behind the house ”

“ Maria was a little pale as she continued to stare at her friend. “I guess I don't just see what you are driving at yet, Selma,” she said, feebly.
“It is as easy as the nose on your face. You stay here and live in my house awhile with my things. You are at perfect liberty to nose round the whole house, and peek into every closet and bureau drawer, and use my things just as if they were yours, and — I will go and live in your house while you are here.”
Selma gazed at Maria with a defiant expression which gradually changed before the one of wondering delight on the other face. ”

“ He says I have spoiled him, Selma. Perhaps I have. It will be your turn now. You will fail to convert him as I have failed, and the world will be the better for it. There are too few men who think noble thoughts and practice them, who are true to themselves and the light which is in them through thick and thin. But you see, he admits himself that he needs to mix with the world a little more. Otherwise he is perfect. You know that perhaps, already, Selma. ”

“ Am I superficial and common? Do I lack the appearance and behavior of a lady?"
Selma accompanied these interrogatories with successive waves of the hand, as though she were branding so many falsehoods.
"Assuredly not, Selma. I consider you"—and here Mrs. Earle gasped in the process of choosing her words—"I consider you one of our best trained and most independent minds—cultured, a friend of culture, and an earnest seeker after truth. If you are not a lady, neither am I, neither is anyone in Benham. ”

“ Selma laughed softly. “We are both encountering the very delightfully unexpected,” she replied.
“But when I think of coming entirely without baggage!”
“My clothes will fit you perfectly,” said Selma. “I have a new black chiffon which I have never worn, which you can wear at dinner to-night.”
“You dress for dinner?” asked Clara with an accession of childish pleasure.
“Sometimes. When I am entirely alone I make no change,” said Selma, “but to-night I am entertaining—a very unusual thing for me—two guests, my lawyer and his cousin. ”

“ The fact that you are free makes clear to me what I have not dared to countenance before, that you are the one woman in the world for me—the woman I have dreamed of—and longed to meet—the woman whose influence has blessed me already, and without whom I shall lack the greatest happiness which life can give. Selma, I love you—I adore you. ”

“ Pauline has always said that she would never run the risk of spoiling everything by living with us."
"It would be very nice—and very simple," responded Selma, slowly. "You wouldn't think any the worse of me, Wilbur, if I were to marry you to-night?"
"The worse of you? It is what I would like of all things. Whom does it concern but us? Why should we wait in order to make a public spectacle of ourselves?" ”

“ I am sorry, Selma, not to be able to do as you wish."
Selma rose with burning cheeks, but a stately air. "If that is your decision, I must do without your name. Already we have many signatures, and shall obtain hundreds more without difficulty. We look at things differently, Pauline. Our point of view has never been the same. Ridiculous? I should be proud of the ridicule of people too selfish or too unenlightened to heed the outcry of aspiring humanity. If we had to depend on your little set to strike the note of progress, I fear we should sit with folded hands most of the time." ”

“ Selma was to arrive early the next morning, and he had reconciled himself to the conclusion that she need never know, and that he would henceforth be a faithful husband. Had he not given an earnest of his good faith in his reception of his visitor? Surely, no such untoward and unnatural accident would dash the cup of returning happiness from his lips. A more clever man would have gone straight to police headquarters, instead of trusting to chance. ”

“ They all consented unto this and betaking themselves to Selma, proffered her the kingship. She refused, but they were instant with her, till she consented, saying in herself, ‘My sole desire in [accepting] the kingship is [to find] my brother.’ Then they seated her on the throne of the kingdom and set the crown on her head, whereupon she addressed herself to the business of administration and to the ordinance of the affairs of the people; and they rejoiced in her with the utmost joy.
Meanwhile, Selim abode with the cook a whole year’s space, earning him two dinars every day ”

“ She had the homing instinct of every woman to whom love, or the knowledge of it, comes. Ever since she had read that old letter of her dead young lover she had longed to go home, although she had been extremely happy. She knew that she could enjoy more fully what had come to her, in all its exquisite meaning, under her own roof. Nevertheless, until the week was up she flew about Selma's house, working with vigor and full of delight. Then one afternoon she put on Selma's shawl and head-tie; Selma's rubbers were too small, and as the ice still endured she drew on a pair of old stockings. ”

“ So she took precaution for herself against her children and Selma said to Selim, ‘Thou seest that whereinto we have fallen through this woman, and indeed she hath gotten wind of our purpose and knoweth that we have discovered her secret. So, doubtless, she will plot against us the like of that which we plot for her ”

“ Voice of Selma— (Above.) Where are you, Father?
(Lightning.)
Canzler—Stay from the timber! Don't get near the trees!
(Thunder.)
Stay in the open, Selma!
(The form of Canzler, who stands back upon the ledge, disappears in the gathering gloom.)
Voice of Selma— Father!
Voice of Fritz— (Down the mountain.) Chief!
(There is heard, at first scarcely audible but rising more and more, low music as of spirit voices. Above, just where the sheep-path enters the bushes, Selma appears coming hurriedly down. Hearing the music, she stops and, listening, becomes as one entranced.) ”

“ Go back to her if you must: and when the day comes that you crave warmth, blood instead of ice—here!"
She caught his head in her hands and pressed it with savage tenderness against her heart, and her stormy eyes glittered with unshed tears.
"But I do love you, Selma! I shall never leave you. I'm not that kind. I am only a human being, I know, but I am not a cad. ”

“ Standing on a balcony in evening dress, in company with Mrs. Earle and Miss Luella Bailey, whom she had invited to view the procession from the River Drive, Selma looked down on the parade in an ecstatic mood. The torches, the music, the fireworks and the enthusiasm set her pulses astir and brought her heart into her mouth in melting appreciation of the sanctity of her party cause and her own enviable destiny as the wife of an American Congressman. ”

“ She bade them do suit and service to Selim, and they consented and paid him homage; after which they kept silence awhile, so they might hear what the king should command. Then said Selma, ‘Harkye, all ye soldiers and subjects, ye know that ye enforced me to [accept] the kingship and besought me thereof and I consented unto your wishes concerning my investment [with the royal dignity] ; and I did this [against my will] ; for know that I am a woman and that I disguised myself and donned man’s apparel, so haply my case might be hidden, whenas I lost my brother. ”

“ Then Selim turned to Selma and said to her, ‘O sister mine, how deemest thou of this calamity and what counsellest thou thereanent?’ ‘O my brother,’ answered she, ‘indeed I know not what I shall say concerning the like of this; but he is not disappointed who seeketh direction [of God] , nor doth he repent who taketh counsel. One getteth not the better of the traces of burning by [1] haste, and know that this is an affliction that hath descended on us ”

“ Selma knew intuitively that an American woman was able to cook a smooth custard, write a poem and control real society with one and the same brain and hand, and she was looking forward to the realization of the apotheosis; but, though she was aware that children are the natural increment of wedlock, she had put the idea from her ever since her marriage as impersonal and vaguely disgusting. ”

“ Selma did not admire women who were inclined to be stout. She associated spareness of person with high thinking, and an abundance of flesh as an indication of material or commonplace aims. She reflected that Pauline was presumably business-like and a good house-keeper, and, very likely, an industrious teacher in her classes, but she set her down in her mind as deficient in the finer sensibilities of the spirit belonging to herself and Wilbur. ”

“ Clara saw the fair head of the young man on Selma's black-satin lap. She saw the broad young shoulders heave. She saw Selma Windsor put her hand lovingly on the fair hair and stroke it, and murmur something which she did not catch. But soon the young man stood up, and his white face was lit by a brave smile.
“Oh, of course, Miss Windsor,” he said, “it is all the fortune of life and love and war. Of course I have courage enough to take what comes. Of course I am not beaten. Of course I am young, and shall get over it. I am not a coward. ”

“ Directly back of the Payson lot stood a huge ice-house, painted dark red and relieved by only one solitary aperture, which might as well have been left out, since it was always closely shuttered by a rough door, also painted red. The sheltered garden, however, was now just exactly the place for tender young seedlings and for Selma, who was never so happy, apparently, as when, her indoor work done, she was down on her knees transplanting infant pansies and youthful lettuces. ”

“ Selma, still with the child-like expression, but now one of curiosity, was examining Jane's masculine riding dress. "What a sensible suit!" she cried, delightedly. "I'd wear something like that all the time, if I dared."
"Dared?" said Jane. "You don't look like the frightened sort."
"Not on account of myself," explained Selma. "On account of the cause. You see, we are fighting for a new idea. So, we have to be careful not to offend people's prejudices about ideas not so important. If we went in for everything that's sensible, we'd be regarded as cranks. One thing at a time." ”

“ The next morning, four strong men entered Ally's cabin before he had left his bed, bound him hand and foot, and dragged Phyllis away, to be again whipped for having refused to betray Selma. Unable to stand, she was tied to a stake, and unmercifully beaten. Weak from the effects of the previous whipping, and crushed in spirit by anxiety for her child, nature could no longer sustain her. A fever set in, and, at the end of a week, she died.
Selma was told of their relation to each other. The nurse, so devotedly attached to her, and whom she had so long loved, was her own mother! ”

“ Then she resolved to take up her abode in the city and making choice of a dwelling, removed thither. The folk resorted to her from all parts, to sit with her and hearken to her speech and witness her good breeding; nor was it but a little while ere the king of the city died and the folk fell out concerning whom they should invest with the kingship after him, so that strife was like to betide between them. However, the men of judgment and understanding and the folk of experience counselled them to make the youth king who had lost his brother, for that they doubted not but Selma was a man. ”

“ She was not astute enough to realize that Selma had very few of her own ravages of time. Selma deceived people, though not intentionally. She had no desire to look older than she need. A woman who does that is almost monstrous. Selma simply considered that certain clothes were suitable for a woman of her age, and she wore them. ”

“ It was not so much that she looked young in color and contour, but the very essence of youth was in her carriage and her glance. She looked alive, as only living things which have been a short time upon the earth look alive. Her blue eyes were full of challenge; her chin had the lift of a conqueror; her very hair sprang from its restraining pins with the lustiness of childhood.
Selma and Clara sat together lingeringly over their breakfast, then Selma excused herself, and Clara settled herself happily in the library with newspapers and magazines. ”

“ The frigidity and dryness of the exclamation Littleton ascribed to Selma's intuitive enmity to the vanities of life.
"You mustn't pass judgment on them too hastily," he said. "New York is a wonderful place, and it's likely to shock you before you learn to appreciate what is interesting and fine here. I will tell you a secret, Selma. Every one likes to make money. Even clergymen feel it their duty to accept a call from the congregation which offers the best salary, and probing men of science do not hesitate to reap the harvest from a wonderful invention. ”

“ Moreover, I will address myself to the slaughter of whosoever knoweth that which is between yonder fellow and my mother.’ But Selma said, ‘I fear lest, if thou slay him in our dwelling-place and he savour not of robberhood, [2] suspicion will revert upon ourselves, and we cannot be assured but that he belongeth unto folk whose mischief is to be feared and their hostility dreaded, [3] and thus wilt thou have fled from privy shame to open shame and abiding public dishonour.’ ‘How then deemest thou we should do?’ asked Selim and she said, ‘Is there nothing for it but to slay him? ”