Winnie

“ Moving-picture titles have made poets of us all.
Truth to tell, in business-hours Winnie was aloof, brisk, dignified. This untrammeled mode of expression was reserved for that happiest hour of her day when, after her work behind the counter in Dignowity's delicatessen store, she came back to her furnished room, sat at her kimono-clad ease in a battered wicker chair and gave way to reverie. It was then that Winnie Bout really lived; her hours behind the bean counter were the unreal part of her life, a nightmare that recurred daily. ”

“ Rosie looked at her in despair for a moment.
"Quick, quick, Winnie, the needles and thread," she said; and then she and Winnie tacked a garland of white heather round the hem of the frock, looped it up over the short, scarlet linsey petticoat, and placed bunches of white heather on the breast and shoulders with such effect that when Murtagh crowned the child's golden head with a wreath of the same white flowers, Winnie cried in delight, "Oh, Ellie, you do look like a little fairy, so you do." ”

“ To me every line tells of your love for Winnie.'
'And the hair, Winnie—look, it is getting quite grizzled.' Then, as the lovely head sank upon my breast. I whispered in her ears, 'Is there at last sorrow enough in the eyes, Winnie? Has the hardening effect of wealth coarsened my expression? Can a rich man for once enter the kingdom of love? ”

“ Up to that moment Winnie's text had entirely left her mind, and she recited it with a feeling of shame as she remembered the contrast between her morning conduct and the somewhat puffed-up feeling with which she had selected it: "He that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city." ”

“ Don't let those people up at the Patch get at you again, Winnie—for pity's sake, don't! Take care of yourself, my dear. My heart bleeds to see you where you stand to-day, and if you got into any other trouble—you don't understand that you're a woman a man might do bad as well as good things for."
Emotion was strong in his voice; Winnie lightly attributed it to his nationality.
"Don't fret about me. I've got to pay for my blunders, and, if I've any sense at all, I shall be wiser in future."
"If ye're ever inclined to another man, for God's sake try him, test him, prove him. ”

“ He cast a despairing look about him as though meditating flight, gulped, and——
“I love you,” he said in even, emotionless tones like one talking in his sleep, and he reached over and seized her hand as though it were a foot-ball which the opponents had fumbled. The girl’s face was suddenly averted and her shoulders trembled.
“Will you marry me?” continued Winnie, pale, determined. Then he dropped her hand, emitted a monstrous sigh of relief and awaited the storm. Mildred turned. Her cheeks were crimson and her lips were trembling, but her eyes never faltered. ”

“ As they opened the baskets, passing the thin sandwiches and pickles, Winnie made a suggestion.
"Aunt Kitty, let's play 'I have a thought.'"
"Very well," replied the lady; and, after a short explanation of the game, and a little time to think, she announced the fact that she had a thought.
"Why is it like the sky?" asked Winnie.
"Because it is round."
"Why is it like a bear?" asked Miriam, her thoughts still on the bear pit.
"Because—oh, Miriam, that is a hard one!—because it is sometimes white."
"Why is it like me?" said Ralph.
"Because everybody likes it when it is good." ”

“ As we hurried home to make up for our little escapade, Winnie amused us all by asking us how we thought Wilhelm would grace a princely station. "Just imagine, for an instant, that he was the lost Prince Para [Pg 112] diso! What a figure he would cut in chain armor, or in a court costume of velvet and jewels! Did you notice the elegance of his manners and the brilliancy of his wit?"
"Winnie, Winnie, have you gone wild?" Adelaide asked. "Why do you make such sport of the poor fellow? He is well enough where he is, I am sure." ”

“ Like a man in a dream, with a fixed and painful smile on his lips, the major crossed the room with Winnie. As she had said, a man was loitering on the far side of the road. From his side pocket protruded slightly the top of a foolscap envelope, the red blob of sealing wax was plainly visible. He looked like a private detective to the major. Even as they gazed out upon him he stopped a taxi and waved it over to the front door of the Mountarden house. ”

“ Yes! Yes!" said Winnie. "But I can't fly myself, Fairy. And Binny wouldn't let me climb up the tree."
I just turned round and blew my tiny golden trumpet, I blew it once, I blew it twice, I blew it three times. And suddenly Winnie saw a flock of lovely green things she thought were butterflies. They came flying and flying. They were my Working Fairies, dressed in their green working-smocks. They all stood in a row before me on the window ledge and made a bow and they sang together:
"Fairies are real. ”

“ Such as they were, her daughter Winnie helped to look after them. Traces of the French descent which the widow boasted of were apparent in Winnie too. They were apparent in the extremely neat and artistic arrangement of her glossy dark hair. Winnie had also other charms: her youth; her full, rounded form; her clear complexion; the provocation of her unfathomable reserve, which never went so far as to prevent conversation, carried on on the lodgers’ part with animation, and on hers with an equable amiability. It must be that Mr Verloc was susceptible to these fascinations. ”

“ Winnie remarked wrathfully. “Now how natural it would be to make a romance out of such a rescue, but Professor Waite’s heart is as stony as that of the Apollo Belvedere.”
Milly smiled piteously and shook her head, while she looked significantly from me toward Adelaide, as much as to say: “We know better; he is not so stony-hearted as he seems.” ”

“ Winnie herself would have cried "No" with all her heart. Revelling in the peace about her, in the strange freedom from the ever-present horror of friction and wrangles, in the feeling that at last she could look out on the world with her own eyes, no man saying her nay, she reached out eagerly to the new things, not indeed conceiving that they could become her gospel, her faith, but with a half-guilty appreciation, a sense of courage and of defiance, and a genuine pleasure in the exercise of such wits as she modestly claimed to possess. ”

“ That evening, — it was the seventeenth of August, and very fair, — they went down to the rocks, just when the afternoon had grown cool in the edge of the evening. Winnie put herself in the stern of the little white boat, and Winthrop took his old place and the oars. Winnie's eyes were sparkling.
"It will be harder work to pull than it used to be," she remarked joyously, — "you're so out of the habit of it." ”

“ Winnie’s visit had upset Mrs. Pennington very much. Matrimony had enforced all Winnie’s little peculiarities.
Mrs. Pennington had had no intention of reproaching her daughter, and, indeed, on the contrary, she had shown a pleasure and eagerness to see Winnie again. Mothers have a trick of forgetting and forgiving where others would be less amenable.
But Winnie did nothing to minister to the sorrow that reigned in her mother’s heart. She was cold, unsympathetic and self-centered.
Polly caught her mother shedding bitter tears after Winnie had gone, and the girl’s heart had ached with a new ache. ”

“ Winifred’s face took a pathetic look.
“Oh! mother dear, don’t let us leave London. Can’t we stay on just as we are?”
Winnie could be very pretty and babyish when she liked. She was so now, and Hubert Kestridge looked at her with much compassion.
“You are all going to be just as happy as queens,” he cried, heartily; “little girls like Winnie and Polly have no need to trouble their heads about anything but happiness.” ”

“ Somehow Mamma Farley made her more certain of its sureness.
In the morning they alighted in the teeming station, and Winnie, anxious not to be seen, walked a little behind Mrs. Price. Winnie was ashamed of herself. She felt herself cold and isolated in the vividness of the life she contained.
At the big gate at the end of the track, they met Laurence. "Well, Winnie. Well, Mrs. Price."
Winnie looked up at him with eyes shuddering in softness. She showed him her helplessness against which he could not defend himself. When she lifted her mouth he had to kiss her. ”

“ Father and mother were puzzled to conjecture what had caused the turn in the tide, for the distance between Winnie and Jim had suddenly disappeared, and Winnie began bossing him around, just like regular married folks.
"Jim," said Winnie, as they entered the parlor. "Your clothes do not fit, your boots are too big, and your hair is too long. Oh, dear me, after we are married what a time I will have fixing you up. What makes you smile?" ”

“ In future I follow the promptings of my brains. Don’t feel annoyed, Miss O'Wynn, if I advise you to do the same. Trust no man and fewer women. I know, you see. I have been through the mill.”
Winnie smiled upon her and reminded her that it had not robbed her of all her beauty or charm. Miss Allen laughed less tensely.
“Charm!” she said. “Since I have known you I’ve begun to wonder if I ever had any. You are the one with the charm, Miss O’Wynn. You could charm a woman who was jealous of you—and that’s a miracle. As for charming men, you couldn’t help that.” ”

“ I feel like telling somebody, and Winnie is so queer lately—she freezes me. She has disapproved of me and scolded me ever since she found out about Cynthia’s dress, and I can’t bear to be disapproved of. It isn’t one bit nice. Adelaide is perfectly splendid; she likes me and pets me, but perhaps she wouldn’t if she knew everything; but you are just my dear old Tib. You would always like me, wouldn’t you, even if I were real wicked?”
“Yes indeed, Milly,” I replied; “and so would Winnie; you don’t half realize her love for you.” ”

“ As I was about to say, there were moments when Winnie doubted whether Olympus was worth the price of admission, whether the present and subsequent honor and benefit made up for the days of dumb servitude. The society had the reputation of conducting the hardest initiations of any in college; and after two days of it Winnie was not in a mood to question the society’s right to the reputation. ”

“ Don’t try to cut any of the agony, now, because she’ll tell me when you get back.”
“I’m—I’m damned if I do!” exploded Winnie, his eyes large with horror.
“You’ll have to,” answered Dick calmly. “How are you going to get out of it?”
“I’ll—I’ll throw up the Society!”
“You couldn’t!”
“You’ve no right to ask me to do such a thing!” stammered Winnie.
“I don’t ask it; I tell you to. And you’ll do it. You’re under—well, remember what you undertook when you were called out. You can’t go back on that. No one but a cad would squeal. Besides, it’s never been done.” ”

“ You have planned a wicked thing, Mr. Boldre!” cried Winnie with a rather effective sob.
“You will have to prove that!” snapped Boldre.
Winnie opened the door.
“Come in, please, Beryl,” she said, and turned to Boldre as the distinguished-looking Beryl entered.
“Do you know this lady, Mr. Boldre?” asked Winnie almost brokenly, and flew to Lady Fasterton’s ready arms.
“Oh May, May, take me away! I have never been so badly treated in my life!” she seemed to sob. “Are all men wolves?”
Mr. Jay understood then, and he put up his hands in a perfect fury of irrepressible admiration. ”

“ I'll go," said Winnie, just a little proudly, as the girl passed her who had twitted her with being afraid in the dark.
Winnie picked up her books and trudged off. "How nice it will be to get out of the hot city!" she thought; "and what lovely lilacs I shall bring home! I wonder if their roses are out yet, and the syringas! And what nice teas Mrs. Graham always has!—so much better than [Pg 571] a dinner such a day as this! ”

“ Winifred sighed a little, and Charley stood up and put his arm about her neck.
“You’re not selfish, Winnie. You’re just as nice as you can be. Everybody says so. Everybody loves you—I know it, if you don’t.”
“Of course they do, Win,” added Ronald, waking up to what was passing. “All the fellows ask about you. They all want to know how you are when you’re ill. They don’t know you hardly at all; but they all like you—everybody does.” ”

“ Mightn't you run up for the day?"
He laid his hand on her shoulder. "I say, I leave it to you, Winnie. I leave it absolutely to you—but mother's set her heart on my spending Christmas with them. I've never missed a Christmas all my life, and—well, she's not very well, and has a fancy about it, you see."
"Do it, of course, Godfrey. And come down to me on Sunday." Winnie was now determined that Woburn Square should have no grievances, except the great, inevitable, insuperable one.
"You are a good sort, Winnie." He kissed her cheek. ”

“ His face lit up as he placed his arm round her waist and they began to waltz. The rhythm of the haunting melody carried Winnie’s soul away. She knew that she was giving great happiness, and it filled her with pleasure. The music stopped, and with a sigh of delight she sank into a chair.
“I want to tell you something,” he said presently, with much seriousness. “If ever you change your mind I shall be waiting for you. I can never love any one else. ”

“ God takes care of them, so I can’t help being quite sure that He will take care of me.”
Violet sat silent, staring into the fire. By-and-by she heaved a great sigh.
“How sorry every one will be! How they will all miss you!”
“Do you think they will?”
“Oh yes. Why everybody loves you, Winnie. You are so good and kind to every one.”
“I’m afraid not,” answered Winnie gravely. “I used to think about pleasing people, but since I’ve been ill I’ve got very selfish; I did nothing for anybody, and did not try to be even kind or pleasant.” ”