Sister Sue

“ It was Sister Sue who shamed May into a measurably serene acceptance of the loss of her daily hot water, and who laughed Gordon into learning the way to stop a kerosene lamp from smoking. It was Sister Sue, also, who bore the brunt of Katy's grumpy fault-finding about a kitchen that had no gas, no electricity, no hot water, no anything, Katy said, that a decent, respectable kitchen and pantry ought to have. And it was, of course, Sister Sue who attended to establishing John Gilmore in a daily routine that would not unduly tire him, but that would still keep him comparatively contented. ”

“ In December, when Sister Sue and her father were again alone in the old house, came the unexpected from Gordon. Sister Sue had to read the letter twice before she got its full meaning. Then from the incoherent, rhapsodic tangle of blue eyes, golden hair, moonlight, darlings, and sweethearts, she unraveled this information:
He was going to leave college. He had fallen in love. The dearest girl in all the world had promised to be his wife. ”

“ And I shan't have to listen to constant bemoanings and bewailings because it's all so different from what it used to be—except from you two children," finished Sister Sue, a little severely.
"But, honestly, Sister Sue, what shall we do?" besought May, disdainfully ignoring the challenging insinuation of the last remark.
"Do? We'll do ourselves, of course," retorted Sister Sue briskly. "I fancy I can do—what other women do, if I have to. Maybe yet I—I'll be making a great name for myself as a cook. Who knows? Anyhow, I ought to be as smart as—Katy!" ”

“ Sister Sue was ashamed and dismayed. She admitted it to herself now. She was in love with a man who not only was supremely indifferent to herself,—of that she was very sure,—but very evidently was in love with another woman—a Beth who sang or a Helen who painted.
Sister Sue wondered sometimes just how long she really had been caring for Donald Kendall. She had suspected it first at the time when he had gone away so suddenly that week in May and she had found how empty were those three last days of the week which she had expected would be so full. ”

“ You can't be jealous of a walking fiddle! I don't believe that Donald Kendall knows this minute whether Sister Sue is the distractingly pretty girl she is, or whether she is squint-eyed and freckled with a wart on her nose. ”

“ Signor Bartoni, watch in hand, had given a sudden exclamation:
"My pupil! It is past time! Look!" he cried. "But, listen. Can you wait? She is the last to-day. One little half-hour and she will be gone. Then I talk to you. You'll wait?"
"Yes, oh, yes! I shan't mind waiting a bit!" cried Sister Sue, gathering up her music and hurrying toward the door.
In the outer room they found a young woman, and a very handsome, distinguished-looking older woman. Toward the latter Signor Bartoni rushed, with outstretched hands, even more excitedly than he had toward Sister Sue a short time before. ”

“ Anybody who knew Sister Sue would know that it would not be for long. With a little shrug and a resigned upflinging of her two hands, Sister Sue softly opened the door, slipped out into the hall, and walked toward the stairway. ”

“ From morning until night (and it would apparently have been from night until morning if Donald Kendall could have had his way) the two were playing every spare minute that Sister Sue could wring from her busy life. And when the week was over, Sister Sue declared to herself that that one week had fully compensated for the long summer of distress and discomfort, besides fortifying her for whatever the future had in store. It seemed so good to live with real music, once more, Sister Sue told herself. ”

“ It's Sue Gilmore, the little girl next door you used to play with years ago. Even then they used to call her Sister Sue. Don't you remember? Always, to any questions you asked of any of the family there was only one answer: 'Sister Sue will know'; 'Sister Sue will do it.'"
"Indeed! And so you think this all-powerful, all-knowing Sister Sue can play the Tschaikowsky concerto for me Wednesday afternoon, do you?"
"She can try." ”

“ He pictured her life, barren and wasted, without love. He pictured his own work, come to naught, a failure, because of the lack of her love and her presence as an incentive. He pictured themselves grown old with love and youth lost forever. As he drew it, it was a picture calculated to strike cold terror to the stoutest heart.
Sister Sue, caught up in the whirlwind of his wooing, was lifted to an exaltation of surrender and self-sacrifice that saw only love and the world well lost. And Martin Kent went away that evening with her promise to marry him in July. ”

“ Sister Sue stared frankly. Then she gave a short laugh.
"Oh, I'll do what you say all right, I'll promise. Only I warn you, this is no case of too much soda in the pie-crust, Mrs. Preston. But I'll do what you say even if it's to give them a pink tea."
"Thanks. That's just about what I want you to do," nodded the little old lady imperturbably.
"Mrs. Preston!"
"Well?"
"You don't understand! I'm trying to tell you that the boy won't even stay at home with me! He wants to be off all the time. ”

“ Gilmoreville said never had they known such a winter. Never did they want to see its like again, and never had spring looked so good to them. All of which Sister Sue in the old Gilmore homestead echoed quite fervently.
And spring did, indeed, bring to Sister Sue a most welcome respite from many things. There were no more frozen water-pipes; no more shivering mornings with the fire almost out; no more blizzards that threatened to cut them off from all mankind. There was now, instead, the never-failing interest for John Gilmore in the garden which gave the shears (and Sister Sue) a rest. ”

“ Just enjoy yourself for once—if you can!
Always your loving sister May "Why! what—what can have happened to them both?" thought Sister Sue as, with excited fingers, she dropped May's letter into the bag with Gordon's. "What can have happened to them?" She was still trying to blink away the tears, but her eyes behind the tears were now shining with a light never in them before.
It was on that same afternoon that Donald Kendall, in Gilmoreville, sharply rang the Gilmores' front-door bell. A moment later he stepped into the still hall in response to Mrs. Preston's invitation. ”

“ But Sister Sue did not let her mind dwell on this. She would work, and work hard. She would procure all the pupils she could, and there were the schools in the autumn, besides.
In spite of her increasing number of pupils, Sister Sue always found time to see that her father was contented and well cared for. That he was so well physically made her burdens in this direction much lighter. Now that Martin Kent had come there was a new claimant for her time, one that refused to be denied and whom she did not wish to deny. ”

“ Sister Sue, noting all this, told herself that, after all, time and good associations might soften the girl's defects, and certainly her virtues were of the sort that made for smoothness in running the machinery of daily living. That she was not inherently coarse would certainly make it easier for her to acquire the little niceties and refinements that Sister Sue feared Gordon would miss some day—if she did not acquire them. ”

“ Preston. You don't understand. I like the town and the house and the people! I like to be without lights and hot water and gas and telephones! I like kerosene lamps and old clothes! And I like beefsteak-pie that's all yellow and brown and tastes like soap!"
Sister Sue stopped for breath, but only for breath. Before the dumbfounded little woman in the big chair could speak, Sister Sue was hurrying on again, her feet still restlessly pacing up and down the room.
"And I have n't a bit of sympathy with anybody who doesn't like them! ”

“ At the piano Sister Sue, as if under the sway of some magic message from his mind to hers, kept pace, note for note;—now faster and faster, till her fingers seemed scarcely to touch the keys; now slower and slower, till each note was a lingering caress bringing out the very soul of the instrument itself. And when the last strain had quieted into silence, May and Martin Kent drew a long breath of ecstasy which was echoed by Donald Kendall himself. ”

“ But I cannot tell her— I cannot."
"You won't have to," smiled the woman who had told Sister Sue that the greatest blessing in all the world was to be needed by some one. "You won't have to; I'm sure you won't. She will write to you, and she will tell you that she has changed her mind. She does not want to be the great pianist." ”

“ She asked Sister Sue how she enjoyed teaching, and if she did not find that it tried her—so confining, and in warm weather, too! It was such a pity that she had to do it. She inquired for the health of the family, mentioning in particular poor dear Mr. Gilmore. Then, a little later, she took her very gracious leave.
Sister Sue went to the piano and played for quite ten minutes; then very quietly she went out to the veranda and told May that Donald Kendall was coming. She gave the same piece of information to Mrs. French over the telephone. After that it was not necessary to tell any one ”

“ The doorbell jangled sharply, and with an impatient gesture Sister Sue rose to her feet.
"Yes, I know, and I don't blame you for not liking to see them. I don't, either. They're stupid, tiresome things, most of them; and why they will insist on coming to see us, I don't understand. However, I've got to see her, of course, I suppose, since you won't." And she disappeared through the doorway, leaving behind her a girl with a slightly puzzled frown on her face.
When the caller had gone, Sister Sue went back to her beans. She looked up crossly when her sister May again entered the kitchen. ”

“ Bless your heart, of course I'll sing for you—all you want me to!"
"And she's the biggest, the very biggest of the whole bunch!" cried May, when Sister Sue, as usual, had read the letter to her and Martin Kent on the veranda. "And yet look how little she makes of what she is doing for us!"
"Quite apt to be the way, from my experience," commented Martin Kent, reaching for the letter and critically examining the handwriting. "The bigger they are, the more simple and unassuming. ”

“ Make it three," shrugged Gordon disrespectfully.
"Hush! I'm ashamed of you," protested Sister Sue, a worried look coming to her face. "Something is plaguing him; I know there is. Or else he's—sick."
"Well, if he's sick, I know who'll have to be his nurse and it won't be Cousin Abby," teased Gordon, his eyes merry.
"Sue, shall we wear pink or blue, or will you have it a rainbow wedding, with all the colors?" palpitated May. "Oh, have it a rainbow wedding, Sister Sue, please have it a rainbow wedding!"
"Yes, please have it a rainbow wedding, Sister Sue!" mocked Gordon mischievously. ”

“ Loring appeared one day with a purchaser who offered a price quite too large to refuse. Like the furniture in the master's bedroom, however, the piano was to stay until the family themselves were ready to go. So Sister Sue was still enabled to seek its comfort and inspiration. But even after the big fat man with the diamond stick-pin in his tie had drawn the check that made the instrument his, sensitive ears might have detected in the notes that fell from Sister Sue's fingers a tragic undertone of longing and renunciation in even the most triumphant of the chords and melodies. ”

“ And so to-day when the bang of the slammed door reverberated through the house, Gordon shrugged his shoulders and observed:
"I think I hear Katy's piano."
"But what are we going to do?" gasped May.
It was Sister Sue's shoulders that shrugged this time.
"Well, I know some things I shan't have to do." Sister Sue was laughing a little grimly. "I shan't have to explain and apologize every time I go into the kitchen because we have n't a certain kind of fork or spoon or kettle or frying-pan that 'everybody has who pretends to have anything'! ”

“ You know you never miss the water till the well runs dry, and I suppose we never should have known what a big place Sister Sue filled in our lives if she just had n't walked out and left the big gaping hole! But we shall know it now, all right! And I was thinking only the other day, why! just what you did for Father was wonderful! To say nothing of all the watchful care you had of us! And I do hope that now you can get a little reward. And you will get it in your music. ”

“ She paused, but Sister Sue did not speak. The girl's eyes were turned away as if she were a little bewildered. After a moment the elder woman continued passionately:
"Barren! No woman is living a barren life who is needed by some one. My friend Mary's life was not 'barren.' Somebody wanted her,—somebody wanted her, every moment of the day. Is n't that worth anything? Nobody wants me, except when they want to be amused—perhaps. Why, Miss Gilmore! My friend Mary has made her life something 'worth while' twice over what mine is." ”

“ And she signed herself devotedly theirs, Cousin Abby Herford.
Sister Sue winced a little and bit her lip over the "wonderful talent" and the "great name." But instantly she scornfully asked herself what was a wonderful talent or a great name compared to love—real love? True, at the same time she put both her hands to her ears as if to shut out an insistent something that was clamoring to be heard. And she hurried very fast to tell her family that she had given up her career, and that she and Martin Kent were going to be married in July. ”