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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Romance of an Old Fool, by Roswell Field
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Romance of an Old Fool
+
+Author: Roswell Field
+
+Release Date: February 24, 2007 [EBook #20661]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMANCE OF AN OLD FOOL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Suzan Flanagan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+_The_ ROMANCE OF
+   AN OLD FOOL
+
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+ THE ROMANCE
+
+      OF
+
+ AN OLD FOOL
+
+
+      BY
+
+ ROSWELL FIELD
+
+
+   EVANSTON
+WILLIAM S. LORD
+     1902
+
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+_Copyright, 1902, by_
+    ROSWELL FIELD
+
+
+UNIVERSITY PRESS · JOHN WILSON
+ AND SON · CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
+
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+                      _To_
+                 MY GODCHILDREN
+
+_With the somewhat unnecessary assurance that
+     it is not an autobiography, this little
+         tale of misconceived attachment
+                is affectionately
+                   inscribed_
+
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+THE ROMANCE _of_ AN OLD FOOL
+
+
+If it had not been for Bunsey, the novelist, I might have
+attained the heights. As a critic Bunsey has never commanded my
+highest admiration, and yet I have had my tender moments for him.
+From a really exacting standpoint he was not much of a novelist,
+and to his failure to win the wealth which is supposed to
+accompany fame I may have owed much of the debt of his sustained
+presence and his fondness for my tobacco. Bunsey had started out
+in life with high ideals, a resolution to lead the purely
+literary existence and to supply the market with a variety of
+choice, didactic essays along the line of high thinking; but the
+demand did not come up to the supply, and presently he abandoned
+his original lofty intention in favor of a sort of dubious
+romance. The financial returns, however, while a trifle more
+regular and encouraging, were not of sufficient importance to
+justify him in giving up his friendly claims on my house, my
+library, my time, my favorite lounge, and my best brand of
+cigars, in return for which he contributed philosophic opinions
+and much strenuous advice on topics in general and literature in
+particular.
+
+From my childhood I have been in the habit of keeping a diary, a
+running comment on the daily incidents of my pleasant but
+uneventful life, and occasionally, when Bunsey's society seemed
+too assertive and familiar, I sought to punish him by reading
+long and numerous excerpts. To do him justice he took the
+chastisement meekly, and even insisted that I was burying a
+remarkable talent, sometimes going to the magnanimous extreme of
+offering to introduce me to his publisher, and to speak a good
+word for me to the editors of certain magazines with whom he
+maintained a brisk correspondence, not infrequently of a
+querulous nature. All these friendly offices I gently put aside,
+in recalling the degradation of Bunsey's ideals, though I went on
+tolerating Bunsey, who had a good heart and an insistent manner.
+In this way I possibly deprived myself of a glorious career.
+
+My ability to befriend Bunsey was due to a felicitous chain of
+circumstances. When the late Mrs. Stanhope passed to her reward,
+she considerately left behind a document making me the recipient
+of her entire and not inconsiderable fortune. This proved a
+most unexpected blow to the church, which had enjoyed the honor
+and pleasure of Mrs. Stanhope's association, and which, quite
+naturally, had hoped to profit by her decease. The late Mrs.
+Stanhope, who I neglected to say was, in the eyes of Heaven,
+the world, and the law, my wife, had not lived with me in that
+utter abandonment to conjugal affection so much to be desired.
+We married to please our families, and we lived apart as much
+as possible to please ourselves. Though not without certain
+physical charms, Mrs. Stanhope was a woman of great moral
+rigidity and religious austerity, who saw life through the
+diminishing end of a sectarian telescope, and who cared far
+more for the distant heathen than for the local convivial pagans
+who composed my _entourage_. She had brought to me a considerable
+sum of money, which I had increased by judicious investments,
+and I dare say that it was in recognition of my business ability,
+as well as possibly in a moment of becoming wifely remorse, that
+she bequeathed to me her property intact. I gave her final
+testimonial services wholly in keeping with her standing as
+a church-woman, and I must say for my friends, whom she had
+severely ignored during her life, that they behaved very
+handsomely on that mournful occasion. They turned out in
+large numbers, and testified in other ways to their regard for
+her unblemished character. I recall, not without emotion after
+all these years, that Bunsey's memorial tribute to the church
+paper--for which he never received a dollar--was a model
+of appreciation as well as of Christian forgiveness and
+self-forgetfulness.
+
+The passing of Mrs. Stanhope made it possible for me to put into
+operation the long-desired plan of retiring a little way into the
+country, not too far from the seductions of the club and the
+city, but far enough to conform to the tastes of a country
+gentleman who likes to whistle to his dogs, putter over his
+roses, and meditate in a comfortable library with the poets and
+philosophers of his fancy. Here, with my good house-keeper,
+Prudence--a name I chose in preference to her mother's selection,
+Elizabeth--and my gardener and man of affairs, Malachy, I lived
+for a number of years at peace with the world and perfectly
+satisfied with myself. Although I was dangerously over forty, and
+my hair, which had been impressively dark, was conspicuously gray
+in spots, my figure was good, my dress correct, and my mirror
+told me that I was still in a position to be in the matrimonial
+running if I tried. I mention these trifling physical details
+merely to save my modesty the humiliation and annoyance of
+referring to them in future, and to prepossess the gentle reader
+wherever the sex makes it highly important.
+
+I do not deny that in certain moments of loneliness which come to
+us, widowers and bachelors alike, I had the impulse to tempt
+again the matrimonial fortune, and counting on my financial
+standing, together with other attractions, I ran over the
+eligible ladies of my acquaintance. But one was a little too old,
+and another was a good deal too flighty. One was too fond of
+society, and another did not like dogs. A fifth spoiled her
+chances by an unwomanly ignorance of horticulture, and a sixth
+perished miserably after returning to me one of my most cherished
+books with the leaves dog-eared and the binding cracked. For I
+hold with the greatest philosophers that she who maltreats a book
+will never make a good wife. And so the years slipped cosily and
+cheerily by, while I grew more contented with my environment and
+less envious of my married friends, and whenever temporary
+melancholy overtook me I moved into the club for a month, or
+slipped across the water, finding in the change of scene
+immediate relief from the monotony of widowerhood.
+
+In thus fortifying myself against the wiles of woman I was much
+abetted by my good Prudence, who never ceased her exhortations as
+to the sinister designs of her sex, and who had a ready word of
+discouragement for any possible candidate who might be in the
+line of succession. "I see that Rogers woman walkin' by the house
+to-day, Mr. John," she would begin, "and I see her turnin' her
+nose up at the new paint on the arbor." (I selected that color
+myself.) "It's queer how that woman does give herself airs,
+considerin' everybody knows she's been ready for ten years to
+take the fust man that asks her." Prudence knew that I had
+escorted the elderly Miss Rogers to the theatre only the week
+before, and had commented pleasantly on the elegance of her
+figure. But the slight put upon my eye for color was too much.
+Wily Prudence!
+
+Or a day or two after I had rendered an act of neighborly
+kindness to the bereaved Mrs. Stebbins she would say quite
+casually:
+
+"I don't want to utter one word agin the poor and afflicted, Mr.
+John, but when the Widder Stebbins hit Cleo with a broom to-day I
+own I b'iled over. I shouldn't tell you if it warn't my duty."
+
+Cleopatra was my favorite cocker spaniel, and any faint
+impression my fair neighbor may have made on my unguarded heart
+was immediately dispelled. Thus subtly and vigilantly my
+house-keeper kept the outer gates of the citadel, and shooed away
+a possible mistress as effectually as she dispersed the predatory
+hens from the garden patch.
+
+But with the younger generation of women, good Prudence was less
+cautious. Any maiden under the very early twenties she regarded
+fair material for my friendly offices, and frequently she visited
+me with expressions commendatory of good conduct.
+
+"I likes to see you with the children, Mr. John, bless 'em, sir.
+And they do all seem to be so fond of you. There's nothin' that
+keeps the heart so young and fresh as goin' with young people,
+just as nothin' ages a man so much as havin' a lot of widders and
+designin' old maids about. Of course," she added, with a return
+of her natural suspicion, "you are old enough to be father to the
+whole bunch, which keeps people from talkin'."
+
+Whether it was Prudence's approbation or my own inclination I
+cannot say, but it soon came about that I was on paternally
+familiar terms with the entire neighborhood of maidens of
+reasonably tender years, and a very important factor in young
+feminine councils. These artful creatures knew exactly when
+their favorite roses were in bloom, exactly when the cherries
+back of the house were ripe, exactly when it was time to go to
+town for another theatre party, to give a picnic up the river, or
+a small and informal dance in the parlors. I was expected to
+remember and observe all birthdays, to be a well-spring of
+benevolence at Christmas, and a free and never-failing florist at
+Easter. I was the recipient of all young griefs and troubles, and
+no girl ever committed herself unconditionally to the arms of her
+lover until she had talked the matter over with Uncle John. All
+this, to a good-looking man of--well, considerably over forty,
+was flattering, but no sinecure.
+
+One morning, in the late spring, it came over me unhappily that
+in a moment of fatal forgetfulness I had promised to be present
+that evening at a card-party--a promise exacted by the "Rogers
+woman," _persona non grata_ to Prudence. A card-party was to me
+in the category with battle and murder and sudden death, from
+which we all petition to be delivered in the book of common
+prayer--but how to be delivered? I could not be called suddenly
+to town, for I had already run that excuse to its full limit. I
+could not conveniently start for Europe on an hour's notice. The
+plea of sickness I dismissed as feminine and unworthy. And while
+I sat debating to what extreme I could tax my over-burdened
+conscience, Malachy appeared with the information that he had
+discovered unmistakable signs of cutworms in the rose-bushes, and
+that the local custodians of the trees were thundering against an
+impending epidemic of brown-tailed moth. Surely my path of duty
+led to the garden. But that card-party? No, let the cutworm work
+his will, and let the brown-tailed moth corrupt; I must take
+refuge in flight, however inglorious. It was then that the good
+angel, who never forsakes a well-meaning man, whispered to me
+that far back in a quiet corner of New England was the little
+village where I had passed my boyhood, which I had deserted for
+five and twenty years, but which still remembered me as "Johnny"
+Stanhope, thanks to the officious longevity of the editor of the
+county paper.
+
+The situation I explained briefly to Prudence and Malachy, and
+swore them into the conspiracy. I threw a few clothes into a
+small trunk, despatched a hypocritical note of regret to Miss
+Rogers, caught the noon train, and was soon beyond the danger
+line. Mrs. Lot, casting an apprehensive glance behind her, could
+not have dreaded more fearful consequences than I, looking back
+on the calamity I was evading. But as we went on and on into the
+cool, quiet country, and felt the soft air stealing down from the
+nearing mountains, I began to experience a lively sense of relief
+and pleasure, and to wonder why I had so long delayed a visit to
+my boyhood home.
+
+I am sorry for the man whose childhood knew only the roar and
+bustle and swiftly shifting scenes of the city. For him there is
+no return in after years, no illusion to be renewed, no joy of
+youth to be substantiated. His habitation has passed away or
+yielded to the inroads of commerce, his landmarks have vanished,
+and he is bewildered by the strange sights that time and trade
+have put upon his memories. But time has no terrors for the
+country-bred boy. The Almighty does not change the mountains and
+the rivers and the great rocks that fortify the scenery, and man
+is slow to push back into the far meadowlands and the hillsides,
+and destroy the simple, primitive life of the fathers.
+
+All of the joy that such a returning pilgrim might have I felt
+when I left the train at the junction, and, scorning the pony
+engine and combination car supplied in later years by the railway
+company as a tribute to progress, set out to walk the two miles
+to the village. Every foot of the country I had played over as a
+boy. Here was the field where Deacon Skinner did his "hayin'";
+just beyond the deacon raised his tobacco crop. That roof over
+there, which I once detected as the top of Jim Pomeroy's barn,
+reminded me of the day of the raisin', when I sprained my ankle
+and thereby saved myself a thrashing for running away. Here was
+Pickerel Pond, the scene of many miraculous draughts, and now I
+crossed Peach brook which babbled along under the road just as
+saucily and untiringly as if it had slept all these years and was
+just awaking to fresh life. A hundred rods up the brook was the
+Widow Parsons's farm, and I knew that if I went through the side
+gate, cut across the barnyard, and kept down to the left, I
+should find that same old stump on which Bill Howland sat the day
+he caught the biggest dace ever pulled out of the quiet pool.
+
+The sun was going down behind Si Thompson's planing mill as I
+stopped at the little red covered bridge that marked the boundary
+of the village. Silas had been dead for twenty years, but it
+seemed to me that it was only yesterday that I heard his nasal
+twang above the roar of the machinery: "Sa-ay, you fellers want
+to git out o' that!" The little bridge had lost much of its color
+and most of its impressiveness, for I remembered when to my
+boyish fancy it seemed a greater triumph of engineering than the
+Victoria bridge at Montreal. And the same old thrill went through
+me as I started to run--just as I did when a boy--and felt the
+planks loosen and creak under my feet. Here was a home-coming
+worth the while.
+
+Hank Pettigrew kept the village tavern. The memory of man, so far
+as I knew, ran not back to the time when Hank did not keep the
+tavern. So I was not in the least surprised, as I entered, to see
+the old man, with his chair tilted back against the wall, his
+knees on a level with his chin, and his eyes fixed on a chromo of
+"Muster Day," which had descended to him through successive
+generations. He did not move as I advanced, or manifest the
+slightest emotion of surprise, merely saying, "Hullo, Johnny,"
+as if he expected me to remark that mother had sent me over to
+see if he had any ice cream left over from dinner. It probably
+did not occur to Hank that I had been absent twenty-five years.
+If it had occurred to him, he would have considered such a
+trifling flight of time not worth mentioning.
+
+With the question of lodging and supper disposed of, and with the
+modest bribe of a cigar, which Hank furtively exchanged for a
+more accustomed brand of valley leaf, it was not difficult to
+loosen the old landlord's tongue and secure information of my
+playmates. What had become of Teddy Grover, the pride of our
+school on exhibition day? Could we ever forget the afternoon he
+stood up before the minister and the assembled population and
+roared "Marco Bozzaris" until we were sure the sultan was quaking
+in his seraglio? And how he thundered "Blaze with your serried
+columns, I will not bend the knee!" To our excited imaginations
+what dazzling triumphs the future held out for Teddy.
+
+"Yep; Ted's still a-beout. Three days in the week he drives stage
+coach over to Spicerville, and the rest o' the time he does odd
+jobs--sort o' tendin' round."
+
+And Sallie Cotton--black-eyed, curly-haired, mischievous little
+sprite, the agony of the teacher and the love and admiration of
+the boys! Who climbed trees, rattled to school in the butcher
+wagon, never knew a lesson, but was always leading lady in the
+school colloquies, and was surely destined to rise to eminence on
+the American stage if she did not break her neck tumbling out of
+old Skinner's walnut tree?
+
+"Oh, Sal; she married the Congregational minister down to
+Peterfield, and was 'lected president of the Temperance Union and
+secretary of the Endeavorers. Read a piece down at Fust Church
+last week on 'Breakin' Away from Old Standards,' illustratin' the
+alarmin' degen'racy of children nowadays."
+
+And George Hawley, our Achilles, our Samson, our ideal of
+everything manly and courageous! Strong as an ox and brave as a
+lion! Our champion in every form of athletic sports! Who looked
+with contempt on girls and disdained their maidenly advances! Who
+thought only of deeds of muscular prowess, and who seemed to
+carry the assurance of a force that would lead armies and subdue
+nations! What of George?
+
+"Wa-al, George was a-beout not long ago. Had your room for his
+samples. Travellin' for a house down in Boston, and comes here
+reg'lar. Women folks say his last line o' shirt waists war the
+best they ever see."
+
+Oh, the times that change, and change us! Alas, the fleeting
+years, good Posthumus, that work such havoc with our childhood
+dreams and hopes and aspirations!
+
+It was a relief, after the shattering of these idols, to leave
+the society of the communicative Mr. Pettigrew and wander into
+the moonlight. Save as adding beauty to the scenery, the moon
+was comparatively of no assistance, for so well was the little
+village stamped on my memory, and so little had it changed in the
+quarter of a century, that I could have walked blindfolded to any
+suggested point. Naturally I turned my steps toward the home of
+my youth, and as I drew near the old-fashioned, many-gabled
+house, with its settled, substantial air, austere yet inviting,
+its large yard with the huge elms, and the big lamp burning in
+the library or "sittin'-room," where I first dolefully studied
+the geography that told me of a world outside, it seemed to bend
+toward me rather frigidly as if to say reproachfully: "You sold
+me! you sold me!" True, dear old home; in my less prosperous days
+I was guilty of the crime of selling the house that faithfully
+sheltered my family for a hundred years. But have I not repented?
+And have I not returned to buy you back, and to make such further
+reparation as present conditions and true repentance demand? Is
+this less the pleasure than the duty of wealth?
+
+With what sensations of delight I walked softly about the
+grounds, taking note of every familiar tree and bush and stump. I
+could have sworn that not a twig, not a blade of grass, had been
+despoiled or had disappeared in the years that marked my absence.
+I paused reverently under the old willow tree and affectionately
+rubbed my legs, for from this tree my parents had cut the
+instruments of torture for purposes of castigation, and its name,
+the weeping willow, was always associated in my infant mind with
+the direct results of contact with my unwilling person. On a
+level with the top of the willow was the little attic room where
+I slept, and the more sweetly when the crickets chirped, or the
+summer rain beat upon the roof, and where the song of the birds
+in the morning is the happiest music God has given to the
+country. Back of the woodshed I found the remains of an old
+grindstone, perhaps the same heavy crank I had so often
+perspiringly and reluctantly turned. Indeed my reviving memories
+were rather too generously connected with the strenuousness and
+not the pleasures of youth, but I thought of the well-filled lot
+in the old burying-ground on the hillside, and of those lying
+there who had said: "My boy, I am doing this for your good." I
+doubted it at the time, but perhaps they were right. At all
+events the memories were growing pleasanter, for a stretch of
+thirty-five years has many healing qualities, and our childhood
+griefs are such little things in the afterglow.
+
+In the early morning I renewed my rambles, going first to the
+little frame school-house, the old church with its tall spire,
+the saw-mill, the deacon's cider press, the swimming pool, and a
+dozen other places of boyish adventure and misadventure. Your
+true sentimentalist invariably gives the preference to scenes
+over persons, and is so often rewarded by the fidelity with which
+they respond to his eager expectations. It was not until I had
+exhausted every incident of the place that I sought out the
+companions of my school-days. What strange irony of fate is that
+which sends some of us out into the restless world to grow away
+from our old ideals and make others, and restrains some in the
+monotonous rut of village life, to drone peacefully their little
+span! But happy he, who, knowing nothing, misses nothing. If
+there were any village Hampdens, or mute, inglorious Miltons
+among my playmates, they gave no present indications. I found the
+girls considerably older than I expected, the boys less
+interesting than I hoped; but they all welcomed me with that
+grave, unemotional hospitality of the village, and we talked, far
+into the shadows, of our schooltime, the day that is never dead
+while memory endures.
+
+And so it came about that at the close of day I found myself
+standing at the garden gate of the Eastmann cottage. Peleg
+Eastmann had been our village postmaster, a grave, shy man, who
+had received the federal office because the thrifty neighbors
+agreed, irrespective of political feeling, that it was much less
+expensive to give him the office than to support him and his two
+daughters, the prettiest girls in our school. For they further
+agreed that Peleg was a "shif'less sort o' critter" and never
+could make a living, though he was a model postmaster and an
+excellent citizen and neighbor. Hence, when it came Peleg's turn
+to make the journey to the burying-ground in the village hearse,
+the whole community of Meadowvale was scandalized by the
+discovery that he had left his girls a comfortable little
+fortune, enough to keep them in modest wealth. Meadowvale never
+recovered from this shock. It felt that it had been victimized,
+and that its tenderest sensibility had been violated, and when
+his disconsolate daughters put up the granite shaft to their
+father's memory, relating that he had been faithful and just, the
+indignant political leader of the village remarked that it was
+"profanation of Scriptur'."
+
+Thirty years ago I had stood at this little gate with one of the
+Eastmann girls, escorting her home from Stella Perkins's party. I
+had attempted to kiss her good-night, and she had boxed my ears,
+thus contributing a disagreeable finale to an otherwise pleasant
+evening. Time is a great healer and I cherished no resentment at
+this late day toward the repudiator of my caresses. In fact I
+smiled in recollection of the incident as I walked up the
+gravelled path and knocked at the door. I wondered if the same
+vivacious, rosy-cheeked girl would come to meet me, and if I
+should feel in duty bound to make honorable amends. The door was
+opened by a tall, spare woman, who carried a lamp. The light
+reflected directly on her features, showed a face that in any
+other part of the world would be called hard; in New England it
+is merely resolute. It was the face of a woman fifty years of
+age, with massive chin, slightly sunken cheeks, a prominent nose,
+heavy eyebrows, and a high forehead rather scantily streaked by
+gray hair. There was no trace of the girlish bloom I had known,
+of the beauty that once had been hers, but the imperious manner
+of the woman was unmistakable.
+
+"Mary," I began jocularly, "I have come to apologize."
+
+She thrust the lamp forward, peered into my face, and said, with
+not the faintest trace of a smile or the slightest evidence of
+embarrassment:
+
+"Why, that's all right, Johnny Stanhope. I accept your apology.
+Come right in."
+
+I went in. We sat in the sitting-room and talked of our
+school-days and our fortunes. I told her how I had gone down to
+the city, how I had prospered, of my adventures in the world, of
+my marriage--dealing very gently with my relations with the late
+Mrs. Stanhope--of my bereavement and present idyllic existence.
+And she told me of herself, how she had lived on and on in the
+little cottage, caring only for the support and education of her
+niece, Phyllis Kinglake, an orphan for nearly twenty years. "You
+remember Sylvia?" she said, with the first touch of emotion.
+
+Did I remember Sylvia? My little fair-haired playmate with the
+large eyes and the blue veins showing through the delicate beauty
+of her face? Little Sylvia, who first won my boyish affection,
+and with whom I made a solemn contract of marriage when we were
+only seven years old? Did I not remember how I would pass her
+house on my way to school, and stand at the gate and whistle
+until she came shyly out, with her face as red as her little hood
+and tippet, and give me her books to carry, and protest with the
+ever present coquetry of girlhood that she thought I had gone
+long ago? Could I ever forget how I saved my coppers, one by one,
+until I had accumulated a sum large enough to buy a whole
+cocoanut, which I presented to her in the proudest moment of my
+life, and how the other girls tossed their heads with the
+affectation of a sneer, and with pretended indifference to this
+astonishing stroke of fortune? And that fatal evening when I
+provoked my little beauty's wrath, and in all the receding
+opportunities of "Post-Office" and "Copenhagen" she had turned
+her face and rosy lips away from me, until the world was black
+with a hopeless despair? And the singing-school where she was our
+shining ornament, and that blissful night when I stood up with
+her in the village church, while we sang our duet descriptive of
+the special virtues of some particular flower nominated in the
+cantata? And how, growing older and shyer, we still preserved our
+youthful fancy even to the day I struck out into the world, both
+believing in the endurance of the tie that would draw me back?
+What caprice of fate is it that dispels the illusions of youth
+and restores them tenfold in the reflection of after years and
+over the gulf of the grave? Did I remember Sylvia?
+
+Then Mary went on to tell me of Sylvia's happy marriage to George
+Kinglake, how, when little Phyllis had come, and the world was
+at its brightest, the parents had been stricken down in the same
+week by a virulent disease, and how, with her dying breath, the
+mother had asked her sister to look after her little one and
+protect her from sorrow and harm. Very simply this stern-featured
+woman told the story of her efforts to do her duty to her
+sister's child, and it seemed to me that her face grew softer and
+her voice gentler as she went over the years they had grown older
+together, while the beauty of this woman's life was glorified by
+the willing sacrifices of imposed motherhood. I could not see
+Phyllis, for she was spending the night with friends in another
+part of the village. Next time, she hoped, I might be more
+successful.
+
+Walking slowly to the tavern my mind still went back to my little
+playmate and the golden days of youth, and if my heart grew a
+little tenderer, and my eyes were moistened by the recall, what
+need to be ashamed of the emotion? And if in the night I dreamed
+that I was a boy again, and that a fair-haired child played with
+me in the changing glow of dreamland in the best and purest
+scenes of the human comedy, was it a delusion to be dispelled, a
+memory to be put aside? Did I remember Sylvia?
+
+
+
+
+The thought that my train was to leave at ten o'clock did not
+depress me as I awoke, with the sunlight streaming through the
+window, for, after all, I was obliged to admit that the monotony
+of Meadowvale and the sluggishness of my village friends were
+beginning to have an appreciable effect. Then the memory of
+little Sylvia came to me again, and nothing seemed pleasanter, as
+a benediction to the old days, than a visit to the burying-ground
+where she was sleeping. The previous day I had paid the
+obligations of remembrance and respect to the graves of
+my kindred, and it gave me at first an uncomfortable feeling
+to realize that the thought of them was less potent than
+the recollection of this young girl. But was it strange or
+inexcusable? Had they not lived out their lives of honored
+usefulness, and grown old and weary of the battle? And had
+not she passed away just as the greater joys of living were
+unfolding, and the assurance of happiness was the stronger?
+Poor Sylvia!
+
+The spectacle of a correctly dressed, middle-aged man passing
+down the street, bearing a somewhat cumbersome burden of
+lilies-of-the-valley and forget-me-nots, must have had its
+peculiar significance to the inhabitants of the village, and many
+curious glances were my reward. I passed along, however, without
+explanations in distinct violation of rural etiquette. The old
+caretaker of the burying-ground met me at the entrance and gave
+me the directions--second path to the right, half way up the
+hill, just to the left of the big elm. The old man had known me
+as a boy and would have detained me in conversation, but I
+pleaded that my time was short, and reluctantly he let me go my
+way. Slowly up the hill I walked, occasionally pausing to place a
+forget-me-not on the grave of one I had known in childhood. Even
+old Barrows did not escape my passing tribute--a cynical,
+cross-grained old fellow, the aversion of the boys, who tormented
+him and whom he tormented with reciprocal vigor. No need of a
+forget-me-not for Barrows, for he never forgot anything, so I
+gave his somewhat neglected grave the token of a long stem of
+little lilies, in evidence that the past was forgiven, and moved
+on to avoid possible protestation.
+
+I paused under the wide-branching elm to recover my breath. The
+assent had been arduous for a gentleman inclined to portliness
+and with wind impaired by tobacco. I turned to the left, and at
+that moment, just before me, a woman's figure slowly rose from
+the ground. A creeping sensation possessed me. My heart bounded
+and my pulses thrilled. Was this Sylvia risen from the dead?
+Surely it was Sylvia's graceful girlish form! This was Sylvia's
+oval face, with Sylvia's large gray eyes. In such a way Sylvia's
+pretty light hair waved about her temples, and the pink and
+white of her delicate complexion revealed the blue veins.
+Twenty-five years had rolled back in an instant, and I was
+standing in the presence of the past. Alas, the swift passing of
+the illusion, for the conversation of the evening came to me.
+
+"You are Phyllis?" I said.
+
+"I am Phyllis," she answered softly--her mother's voice--"and you
+are Mr. Stanhope. My aunt told me."
+
+I did not answer, for I was staring stupidly at her, reluctant to
+abandon the pleasing fancy that my thinking of her had brought
+her back from the dead again. She did not speak, but glanced
+inquiringly at the flowers I held in my hand.
+
+"I knew your mother, Phyllis," I managed to say. "She was a very
+dear playmate of my childhood. I have brought these flowers to
+put upon her grave. Shall we go together?"
+
+The girl's eyes filled, and she pointed to the rising mound at
+her feet. Silently we bent over and reverently laid the lilies
+and forget-me-nots under the simple headstone.
+
+"May I talk to you of your mother?" I asked.
+
+We sat down on a rude bench in the path, and I told her of my
+childhood, of the days when Sylvia and I were sweethearts, of our
+little quarrels and frolics, of her mother's beauty and
+gentleness. The girl laughed at the recital of our misadventures,
+and the tears came into her eyes when I touched on my boyish
+affection for my playmate. Then she told me of her own life, so
+peaceful and happy in the little village, and in the neighboring
+town, where she had been educated with all the care and diligence
+of the New England impulse. I looked at my watch.
+
+"It is quarter past eleven," I said ruefully, "and my train left
+at ten."
+
+"There's another train at three," she replied. "You will go home
+and dine with us? We dine at twelve in the country, you know."
+
+If I was somewhat ashamed to face Mary Eastmann, she received us
+with the same stolidity she had manifested when we first met, and
+at once insisted that I should remain for dinner. "Go into the
+parlor," she said abruptly.
+
+Phyllis plucked the sleeve of my coat. "Don't go in there," she
+whispered; "that's Aunt Mary's room exclusively, and I'm afraid
+you'll not find it very cheerful. Come out on the porch."
+
+"I know the room," I whispered back, as we went out together. "At
+least I know the type. Lots of horse-hair belongings. Square
+piano against the wall. Wax flowers under a glass case on the
+mantel. Steel engravings of Washington crossing the Delaware.
+Family album, huge Bible, and 'Famous Women of Two Centuries' on
+the centre table. Seashells, blue wedgwood and German china
+things mingled in delightful confusion on the what-not. If not
+wax flowers, it's wax fruit."
+
+Phyllis laughed--how much her laugh was like her mother's--and
+nodded her head. "Not a bad description," she assented; "you must
+have the gift of second sight."
+
+"Not second sight. Suppose we call it the gift of second
+childhood."
+
+We sat on the porch and looked down on the lawn that sloped to
+the orchard, and watched the robins run across the grass. And I
+pointed out to Phyllis the very tree under which Sylvia and I had
+stood the day we had our first memorable quarrel, confessing that
+while at the time there was no doubt in my mind that Sylvia was
+clearly at fault, I was now prepared to concede, after plenty of
+reflection, that possibly she might have had a reasonable defence.
+The recital of this pathetic incident led to other reminiscences
+connected with the old house and its grounds, and I was hardly in
+the second chapter when Mary came out and ordered us in to dinner.
+Mary never invited, never requested; she merely ordered. We sat at
+the table, and at a severe look from Mary I stopped fumbling with
+my napkin, while Phyllis--sweet saint!--folded her hands and asked
+the divine blessing. Pagan philosopher that I was, I was singularly
+moved by the simple faith of these two women, and I think that when
+I am led back into the fold of my family creed, a girl as young and
+fair and holy as Phyllis will be the angel to guide me.
+
+The dinner was toothsome, the environment fascinating, the
+afternoon perfect, and so it came about quite naturally that I
+missed the three-o'clock train. "There is nothing so disagreeable
+in life," I explained apologetically to my friends, "as a hard
+and fast schedule, which keeps one jumping like an electric
+clock, doing sixty things every hour and never varying the
+performance. Fortunately trains run every day except Sunday, and
+the general order of the universe is not going to be upset
+because I am not checking myself off like a section-hand."
+
+Perhaps Mary did not wholly coincide with my argument, but she
+was called away to her sewing-circle, while Phyllis and I lounged
+lazily on the porch, I continuing my reminiscences. Garrulity
+is not merely the prerogative of age; the privilege of the
+monologue is always that of the old boy who comes back to his
+childhood's home and finds in a pretty girl a charming and
+attentive listener. He is a poor orator, indeed, who cannot
+improve such opportunities. At a convenient lull in the flow of
+discourse we went off to ride, exploring the country roads I knew
+so well, and here began new matter and new reminiscences, patiently
+endured by Phyllis, who was a most delightful girl. And when we
+returned late in the afternoon it was directly in the line of
+circumstances that I should remain for tea; and after tea Phyllis
+played and sang for me in the little parlor, for Phyllis was a
+musician of no small merit. When in reply to my inquiry she sang
+a simple Scotch ballad her mother had sung so touchingly many
+years before, a great lump rose in my throat, and I sat far over
+in the shadow that she and Mary might not see how blurred were my
+eyes, and how unmanageable my emotion. At what age does it come
+to a man and a philosopher that he is no longer ashamed of
+honest, sympathetic tears?
+
+I shall never know whether it was the journey in the train,
+the air and cooking of Meadowvale, or the visits to the
+burying-ground, that upset me, but for the first time in a dozen
+years I found myself dissatisfied with my home. I remarked to
+Malachy that the roses seemed to be in a most discouraging
+condition, and that the garden in general was altogether
+disappointing. I noticed that my dogs barked a great deal, that
+the neighbors had become most tiresome, and that Bunsey was an
+unmitigated nuisance. Even the cuisine, which had been my pride
+and boast, grew at times unbearable, and I had not been home a
+fortnight before I astonished Prudence by positively assuring her
+that the dinner she had set before me was not worth any sane
+man's serious attention. Whereupon that excellent woman announced
+with superb pride that she "guessed it was about time for that
+Rogers woman to give another card-party."
+
+"Prudence," I said severely, for I encourage no flippancy on the
+part of domestics, "that remark, while probably hasty and
+ill-considered, borders on impertinence. I shall overlook it this
+time on account of your faithful services in the past. But don't
+let it happen again. In any event," I amended considerately,
+"don't let it drop in my presence."
+
+Thinking it over I came to the conclusion that Prudence was right
+in the general effect of the suggestion. What I needed was a
+change of scene. Long abstention from travel and variety of
+incident had made me restless and discontented. I had not been in
+Europe for two years. Undoubtedly I was pining for a lazy tour of
+the Continent. The thought decided me. I should book my passage
+on the steamer that sailed the Saturday of the following week.
+
+Strangely enough, at this interesting moment, I received a letter
+from the chairman of the committee on public improvements in the
+village of Meadowvale, announcing that it had been resolved to
+procure new rooms for the village library, and would Mr. John
+Stanhope do his native village the honor of subscribing a small
+amount toward this desirable end. As it is always much easier for
+an indolent man to telegraph than to write letters, I replied by
+wire that Mr. Stanhope felt himself much honored by the request.
+Not entirely satisfied with this confession, I sent a second
+telegram an hour later doubling my subscription. Still my
+conscience troubled me.
+
+"I have not done my duty," I said to myself. "Here I am, a man of
+means, I may say of large wealth, with no special obligations
+resting upon me, and yet I have done nothing to benefit or enrich
+my old home. It is strange that it has not occurred to me before
+what a privilege, what an honor, it is to be a philanthropist
+even in a small way, and with what alacrity those whom Heaven has
+blessed with a fortune should respond to the calls of deserving
+need. I blush for my past thoughtlessness, and I shall hasten to
+atone for my astonishing neglect. My duty lies before me, and I
+shall not shrink from it, whatever the personal inconvenience."
+
+Thereupon I telegraphed for the third time to the chairman that
+it would give Mr. Stanhope the greatest pleasure to put up a
+suitable library for the village of Meadowvale, and, in order to
+guard against any possible misunderstanding, he would depart the
+following day to confer with the committee as to site and
+probable extent of the structure. This concession to my
+conscience comforted me greatly, and I prepared for my journey
+with a lightness that was almost buoyancy. The chairman and two
+of the committee met me at the junction. They were most
+deprecatory and apologetic, and mentioned with evident sorrow
+the absence of several of the members which might cause a
+postponement of the conference until the following day. I bore up
+under this intelligence with astonishing cheerfulness.
+
+"My good friends," I said, "don't let this disturb you for a
+minute. I am not so pressed for time that I cannot wait on your
+reasonable convenience. Your tavern is well kept and the food is
+wholesome. I think I may say that my old friends in Meadowvale
+will interest me until we can come to an amicable understanding.
+Suppose, to be sure of a full meeting, that we fix the time of
+conference at day after to-morrow--a little late in the
+afternoon."
+
+After this suggestion had been received with suitable expressions
+of gratitude, we journeyed together to the village, where I was
+duly turned over to old Pettigrew. And then, as the day was by no
+means done, I strolled down the street and, most naturally and
+quite unthinkingly, found myself a few minutes later looking over
+the Eastmann gate at Phyllis on the porch. To say that this
+charming girl was surprised by my sudden appearance was no less
+true than to admit that she did not seem in the least displeased.
+I positively had no intention of going in, but before I knew it I
+was sitting beside her, relating in the most casual way the
+reason of my coming.
+
+"How good it was of you," said the ingenuous creature, "and how
+delighted and grateful Meadowvale will be. It must be glorious to
+be rich enough to do things for other people."
+
+Now it is not a disagreeable sensation to feel that one is rich
+and good and glorious in the large gray eyes of a very pretty
+woman, and I was conscious of the mild intoxication from the
+compliment. "It is, indeed," I answered magnanimously. "I have
+always maintained that money is given to us in trust for those
+around us, and that in making others happy we find our greatest
+happiness. I regret that I have not wholly lived up to this
+undeniably correct principle."
+
+"It will require at least a thousand dollars," she said naïvely.
+
+"Oh, at least."
+
+She was silent a moment. Then she said: "I was wondering what I
+would do if I had a thousand dollars to give away."
+
+"What do you think you would do?"
+
+"Speaking for my own preferences I think I should like to
+establish a country club."
+
+"The very thing. If there is one crying want more than another in
+Meadowvale it is a country club, with golf links, tennis courts,
+and shower baths."
+
+"Now you are laughing at me."
+
+"Not at all. Fancy old Hank and you playing a foursome with Aunt
+Mary and me for the cider and apples. Why, it would add years of
+robustness to our waning lives."
+
+"No," said the girl decisively. "It isn't feasible."
+
+"Then," I went on musingly, "we might have an Art Institute, or
+the Phyllis Kinglake School of Expression, or the Meadowvale
+Woman's Club, or the Colonial Dames, or, best of all, the
+Daughters of the American Revolution."
+
+"That shows how little you appreciate the local situation," she
+responded quickly, "for your best of all is worse and worse.
+Imagine an order of Daughters in a place where every woman's
+ancestors did nothing but fight in the Revolution. As well call a
+town meeting at once. Ah,"--with a sigh--"I see that I shall
+never spend the thousand dollars in Meadowvale."
+
+"Don't be too sure of that, my dear Phyllis," I exclaimed in an
+outburst, for I was in a particularly happy and generous mood;
+"and remember that when you do decide how the money is to be
+philanthropically invested we shall see that it is forthcoming."
+
+With such agreeable banter the minutes slipped away, and when
+Mary appeared with the customary invitation to tea, it would have
+been a jolt to the harmonious order of things to decline. I
+cannot say that I have ever cordially approved the austerity of
+the New England tea-table, with its cold bread and biscuits, its
+applesauce, its frugal allowance of sardines, its basket of cake,
+and its not very stimulating pot of tea. But such are the
+compensations of pleasant society that even these chilly viands
+may be forgotten, and I said my "Amen" to Phyllis's sweet and
+modest grace with all the heartiness of a thankful man. As no
+gentleman may, with propriety, run away immediately after he has
+accepted hospitality, I lingered in the evening, and we had more
+music, which so calmed and rested me that I wondered at my past
+nervousness and marvelled that I had even contemplated a journey
+across the water.
+
+How it came about that the next morning Phyllis and I were
+strolling over the village, down by the river and into the
+pleasant woods, I have forgotten, but I dare say that we were
+discussing further developments of philanthropy, and endeavoring
+to come to a conclusion as to the proper disposition of that
+troublesome thousand dollars. The girl was so young and
+joyous, so pretty, so arch, so fascinating with that little
+coquettishness that is not the usual type of the Puritan maiden,
+I could not find it in my heart to remember Mary's words and "try
+to instil in her a closer appreciation of the more serious
+purposes of life." Indeed life is so serious that it is one of
+the blessed decrees of Mother Nature that we have that brief
+allotment of time when it is too serious to think about, and
+youth passes so quickly that it is criminal to rob it of its
+golden hour. In such a presence I felt my own spirits rising, my
+step becoming springy, my whole nature less sluggish, and, had I
+looked in the mirror, I should have confidently expected to see a
+youthful bloom in my cheeks and a return of hair to primary
+conditions.
+
+It is due to this interesting young woman to say that she coyly
+urged me not to forget my other friends, since I was to leave so
+soon, and it pleased me to fancy that she was not altogether
+offended when I spoke somewhat hastily and rather flippantly of
+those of my former companions who had lapsed into tediousness. I
+reminded her also that as the happiest memory of my childhood was
+associated with her mother, so it was sweet to me to be with her
+and live again, in a pleasant dream, the brightness of the past.
+Then, for her mother's sake, she shyly let me take her hand while
+I went over again, not without emotion, the story of my early
+love. Dear little Sylvia!
+
+The meeting of the committee was followed by a general
+congregation of citizens, and I was invited to the platform,
+where I outlined my plans. I hinted that the library was merely
+the beginning of a number of beneficences which I desired to
+contribute to Meadowvale's prosperity, and as I looked down upon
+my listeners and caught sight of Phyllis, glancing up with
+flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes, I was nearly betrayed into
+promises of the most preposterous nature. At the end of
+my remarks--I recall that I spoke with unusual grace and
+eloquence--the chairman stood up and gravely thanked me,
+intimating that I was a credit to Meadowvale and its perfect
+public school system. I fancy I should have been applauded if it
+had been compatible with the nature of the people of Meadowvale
+to make so riotous a demonstration. At the close of the meeting
+it happened, by the purest accident, that I walked home with Mary
+and Phyllis, and when Mary said in her blunt way that I really
+had been most generous, Phyllis did not speak, but she slipped
+her hand under my arm and gave me an appreciative little squeeze,
+which made me regret that I had not pledged another thousand.
+
+I was to leave the next morning, thanks to the officious members
+of the committee, who had so blunderingly hurried matters to
+accommodate me that I had no longer an excuse of remaining. And
+it was for this reason that I went in and sat again in the little
+parlor, while Phyllis sang for me the songs that were my
+favorites, and some her mother sang in the long ago. Memories
+were again pleasantly stirred within me, as was not infrequent in
+those days, and I experienced all the happiness that comes to him
+who is persuaded that he has made himself a little above the
+ordinary attractions of the earth. In this excess of good
+feeling, and stimulated alike by the music and the consciousness
+of a philanthropic impulse, I waited until the moment of parting
+before declaring definitely my excellent intentions.
+
+"My dear Mary," I began, turning to that admirable spinster, "you
+know how our childhood was linked by a close family feeling, and
+how you and Sylvia and I planned in our simple ambitions to live
+together in the great world outside. We may say now that this was
+childish romance, and that the caprice of time has made it an
+idle fancy. For many years we have been separated, and only by a
+happy chance have we been brought together. Fortune has been kind
+to me. I am called a rich man, and I believe I may say without
+boasting that I am far beyond the need of anxiety. But to a
+degree I am a lonely man. My sister's child is my one near
+relative in the world, and he is a young man with an excellent
+business, able to take care of himself, and naturally engrossed
+with his own occupations. You can understand that at my time of
+life, alone as I am, and still young enough to appreciate the
+joys of living, I have a feeling of desolation for which no
+riches can compensate. Had fortune given me a daughter, like our
+Phyllis here, I think no happiness could have been so great. It
+has pleased me to look back upon the past, to recall the days of
+our childhood, and to see in Phyllis the image of her mother. Why
+can I not link the present and the future with the past? Why can
+I not look on Phyllis as my own daughter, and give to her all the
+father love I have learned to feel? I do not rob you either of
+her love or her presence. I merely add a new joy to my life, and
+know that in caring for you both and in contributing to her
+happiness, and securing her against misfortune after we are taken
+away, I am carrying out the pledge, however idle at the time, I
+made to Sylvia."
+
+I fancied I saw what may have been the suspicion of a tear in
+Mary Eastmann's eye. It vanished as quickly as it came, and when
+she spoke and thanked me for my generous offer, her voice was as
+calm and her manner as collected as if I had made a casual
+suggestion for attendance at a prayer meeting. She could not
+deny that the opportunity was too enticing to be ignored, and
+she admitted that my fatherly proposition was distinctly
+advantageous. Her New England independence rather revolted at the
+thought of any immediate financial assistance, which was not
+needed, while her New England thrift approved a future settlement
+based on family friendliness of many years' standing. On the
+whole she was inclined to be favorable to my point of view.
+
+As for Phyllis, she had listened to me with undisguised
+amazement. Her big gray eyes had grown larger, and the color left
+her cheeks as I finished. Then the rosy red rushed back, her lip
+quivered and the tears sprang to her eyes. A moment later she
+smiled, then laughed, and was serious again. How incomprehensible
+are these young girls! Poor child! she had never known a father's
+love.
+
+Phyllis followed me to the door. The light, streaming from the
+parlor, shone squarely on her exquisite face. A thrill of
+pleasure went through me as I realized that at last I had a
+daughter whom I could love and cherish. I took her hand in both
+of mine, and, as I released it, I parted the light, wavy hair,
+and kissed her forehead. It seemed to me that she trembled
+slightly, but in a moment she was herself, and a gleam of
+merriment was in her eyes, as she said:
+
+"Of course you will write to me--papa?"
+
+Doubtless the novelty of the situation made me just a little
+embarrassed. To be called "papa" the first time by a pretty girl
+was more embarrassing than I had expected. And why that
+half-laugh in her eye, and why that almost quizzical tone? Was I
+not kind and good enough to be her father, and had I not tried to
+show her every paternal consideration? Was I not honestly
+endeavoring to fulfil a sacred pledge? I was perplexed but not
+discouraged. "I will prove to her," I said to myself with
+firmness, "that I am entirely worthy of her filial affection, and
+that she may lean confidently upon me." And I went straightway
+to bed, and dreamed of her all night as every true father should
+dream of the daughter of his heart and his hope.
+
+
+
+
+In the very nature of things it was necessary that I should
+return frequently to Meadowvale, to confer with the village
+committee and make all proper arrangements for beginning so
+important a local enterprise. While this put an end to my
+projected trip to Europe I accepted the situation with calmness
+and forbearance, satisfied that in the pursuit of duty and in
+giving happiness to my fellow creatures I should have the reward
+of an approving conscience. To my nephew, Frederick Grinnell, I
+gave the task of preparing the plans, and his excellent
+suggestions were cordially adopted. Much of my spare time--and it
+is amazing how much spare time one has in a village--was spent at
+the Eastmann cottage with my new daughter, and in the evening I
+talked to her of the world outside, quite, I fancy, as Othello
+may have spoken to Desdemona, but with a more conservative and a
+better impulse. I unfolded to her the wonders of great London,
+the pleasures of Paris, the beauties of Venice, the sacred
+mysteries of Rome, the noble traditions of Athens. I journeyed
+with her up the Nile and down the Rhine. One night we were in gay
+Vienna, another in Berlin, a third in the grandeur of the
+Alhambra. From the fjords of Norway to the tea houses of Japan
+was the journey of a few minutes, and the indifference of my
+surfeited life gave way before the kindling enthusiasm of this
+lovely country girl, whose world had been the area of scarcely
+more than a township.
+
+But the paternal relation, however honest and commendable my
+intentions, did not seem to thrive as I had fondly hoped. Only in
+her teasing moments would this vivacious creature admit the
+solemnity of our compact, and when she called me "papa" there was
+always that gleam of the eye, with that merriment of tone, which
+may not have been disrespectful but was certainly not filial.
+This troubled me exceedingly. I thought it all over and one night
+I said to her:
+
+"My dear Phyllis, it has become only too evident that you do not
+entertain that deferential feeling for me which a daughter should
+have for a father. I shall not describe your emotions as I have
+analyzed them, but I am satisfied that we shall not make a
+complete success of my long cherished plan. However, I am not
+prepared to withdraw unreservedly from my schemes for your
+comfort and happiness, and since you cannot look upon me as a
+father, or treat me like a father, I have another suggestion to
+offer. Let me be your elder brother, and watch over and guard you
+as a brother's duty should direct. There shall be no diminution
+of my love, no retraction of my promises. Perhaps, in the feeling
+that I am your brother, you will talk with me with greater
+frankness, and feel more closely drawn to me, and we shall be all
+the better and the happier for the change."
+
+Thus speaking I took her pretty hand and carried it respectfully
+to my lips, at the same time patting it affectionately and
+assuring her of my brotherly devotion. And this incomprehensible
+girl threw back her head and laughed; then burst into tears,
+laughed again, flushed to crimson and ran out of the room. I was
+grieved beyond measure. Had I done wrong so quickly and rudely to
+sever a connection so holy? Had the filial feeling been suddenly
+awakened in her breast? Was I depriving this poor child of a
+tender paternal care, for which she longed, but which maidenly
+coyness could not immediately accept?
+
+As a philosopher I have made woman the subject of much research,
+and my library bears witness to the attention I have paid to the
+written opinions of the ablest writers and thinkers of all times,
+who have had anything to do with this fascinating theme. I have
+seen her in all her phases, analyzed her in all her emotions, and
+Bunsey has admitted to me that my theoretical knowledge has been
+of great value to him in dealing subtly with his heroines. And
+yet, despite my complete equipment in mental construction, I am
+constantly surprised by a new development, a sudden and
+unaccountable phenomenon of feminine nature, which undoubtedly
+escaped the experience and reasoning of the experts and sages. It
+is indeed a matter of pride in woman that while man has studied
+her for thousands of years, she continues to exhibit fresh
+delights in her infinite variety of moods and to put forth
+unexpectedly new and astounding shoots.
+
+I saw Phyllis no more that evening, save in my dreams, and it
+was wholly creditable to the goodness of my motives and the
+sincerity of my affection that she abided with me in my
+slumbering fancies with no protracted intermissions. The next
+day she was as sweet and gracious as ever, but I thought her
+tone a little constrained, and when, as a father or brother
+should, I ventured to speak of the tenderness of our family
+relation, a half-imploring look came into her beautiful eyes.
+And when I casually remarked on the softness of her hair, or the
+slenderness of her fingers, her glance was timidly reproachful.
+All this gave me great unhappiness, and I discovered, to my further
+distress, that in my attempt to return to the old familiar footing
+I was neglecting the committee and losing interest in the affairs of
+the library. A certain peevishness took possession of me; I was
+no longer myself, and I lost the gayety and sprightliness which
+had been always my distinguishing virtues.
+
+Furthermore I missed the companionship and solace of my books in
+this emergency, for I had no reference library to which I could
+go in Meadowvale for aid in establishing the true condition of
+this strange girl. I recalled dimly that somewhere on my shelves
+was a volume which contained a fairly analogous case, but while I
+knew that I possessed such a book I could not remember the
+circumstances or the incidents cited, and this added to my
+unrest. Only a student can understand the absolute wretchedness
+which overtakes a man when he finds himself miserably dependent
+on a distant library. For several days I gave myself up entirely
+to my mental depression, greatly wondering at the perplexing
+change in my life, and marvelling that in all my explorations in
+philosophy I had not provided for just such a crisis, whatever it
+might be. One afternoon as I sat in my room at the tavern,
+looking idly out of the window and across the little river which
+rippled by, something seemed to strike me violently in the
+forehead. It may have been a telepathic suggestion, it may have
+been a return to consciousness; at all events it was an idea. I
+leaped from my chair, put on my hat, and proceeded rather
+feverishly to the Eastmann cottage. Phyllis was away for the day;
+Mary was knitting in the sitting-room. I watched her in silence
+for a moment, and then I said abruptly:
+
+"Mary, I think I should like to marry Phyllis."
+
+Mary Eastmann was not the type of woman to lose herself or betray
+astonishment. She pushed her spectacles sharply above her eyes,
+looked at me sternly, and said in a rasping voice.
+
+"John Stanhope, don't be an old fool."
+
+"Whatever I may be, Mary," I answered, much nettled by her tone,
+"I do not think anybody can properly regard me as a fool. As for
+the other qualification," I went on complacently, "I am not so
+old."
+
+"You and Sylvia were the same age, and she would have been
+forty-eight."
+
+"A man is as old as he feels," I ventured, finding refuge in a
+proverb.
+
+"That is evasive, and has nothing to do with the question.
+Beside, what reason have you to believe that Phyllis has the
+slightest desire to marry you?"
+
+"Frankly, not the slightest reason in the world," I replied with
+the utmost candor. "That is why I have been so bold as to speak
+to you on the subject."
+
+"Perhaps you thought I might use my influence to help you
+along?"
+
+"Quite the contrary, my dear Mary, I assure you. I may not know
+very much about women"--I was quite humble when separated from my
+library--"but I do know that nothing is so fatal to a lover's
+prospects as the encouragement of the loved one's relations. You
+see that I am perfectly frank."
+
+"Then you wish my opposition?"
+
+"Come, let us be reasonable. I have told you I wish to marry
+Phyllis. I know my good points, and I am not unacquainted with my
+weak ones. Unhappily I can figure out my age to a day. Alas, I am
+forty-eight, and Phyllis is not yet twenty-three. The difference
+is positively ghastly from a sentimental standpoint, but if I
+love her, and she is not hopelessly indifferent to me, I think
+that even that difficulty can be bridged. You know my position,
+my character, my general reputation. Neither of us knows what
+Phyllis really thinks or what she will say or do in the matter. I
+do not ask either for your opposition or your good offices. I
+have come to you as an old friend and the girl's nearest
+relative to tell you exactly how I feel and what I wish to gain.
+And I ask only that I may have the same chance to win her
+affection that you might grant to a younger man."
+
+Mary's voice was gentler when she spoke again. "John," she said,
+"Phyllis is all I have in the world. It is my one idea to have
+her happily married to a worthy man whom she honestly loves.
+Providence, in inscrutable wisdom, may have decreed that you are
+that man, but," she continued with a sudden return of Yankee
+caution, "I have my doubts, considering your age. However, you
+have acted honorably in coming to me, and while I think Phyllis
+would be a better daughter than wife to you, I cannot speak for
+her. Remember that she is very young and very inexperienced. Her
+acquaintance with men has been slight. You are a man of the world
+and with enough of the surface polish--I don't say it stops with
+that--to dazzle any girl accustomed to such surroundings as we
+have here. Undoubtedly an offer from you would flatter her; it
+might induce her to accept you, thinking that she loved you. Be
+careful. Be sure of your ground before it is too late."
+
+As I walked back to the village I mused on what Mary had said,
+but I felt no apprehension. Most lovers are alike in this--in
+youth, in middle age, in senility. Perhaps the advantage of
+middle life is that a man is more the master of himself, more in
+possession of the faculties necessary to carry him through a
+crisis. Without the impetuous desire of youth, or the deadened
+sensibilities of old age, he has a certain serene confidence that
+is a mixture of love and philosophy. It disturbed me somewhat to
+find with what equanimity I faced a situation which promised
+nothing. It really annoyed me to note that I was picking out
+mentally the place to which I should conduct Phyllis in order to
+have the harmonious environment adapted to a sentimental
+proposition. I remembered that down by the river, just beyond
+the willows, there was an old tree where Sylvia and I--ah, so
+many years ago!--had sat and talked of our lives before us. To
+that sacred spot I would lead Sylvia's daughter, and, passing
+gently from the past to the present, I would tell her of my love
+and of my fondest hopes. How dignified and appropriate such a
+spot for a frank, calm, and self-contained avowal!
+
+Thus philosophically and amiably plotting I walked contentedly
+along, and, looking up, I saw Phyllis coming toward me, swinging
+her hat in her hand, and suggesting in her girlish beauty and
+graceful outline the poet's shepherdess. She did not see me, and,
+yielding to a sudden impulse, I stepped quickly aside in the
+shadow of a neighbor's house, as she passed on with her eyes on
+the ground. I followed at a little distance, and discovered,
+much to my dismay, that she chose the road that led to the
+burying-ground. Now a cemetery is not at all the spot that a man,
+whatever his philosophy, would select for a tender declaration,
+but I was buoyed by the remembrance of Mary's words. "The finger
+of Providence may be in it," I muttered. "The Lord's will be
+done."
+
+Slowly up the winding path she walked, and I as slowly followed.
+When I reached her, she was standing at her mother's grave, just
+as she had stood the morning we first met. I tried to accept this
+as an omen, but failed miserably, and omens, after all, depend on
+the point of view. She raised her eyes, and, seeing me, blushed,
+another omen which means comparatively little to a man who is
+aware of the thousand emotions that are responsible for the blush
+of woman. I was again annoyed by the discovery that my pulses
+were not beating wildly, and that my heart was not throbbing
+tumultuously, and when I addressed a commonplace remark to her I
+was thoroughly ashamed and humiliated. It seemed like taking a
+mean advantage of innocence and inexperience.
+
+We sat together on the little bench, and for the first time in
+our acquaintance she appeared embarrassed, as if she knew what
+was passing in my mind. I have always believed that women, in
+addition to their acknowledged intuition, have a special sense
+that enables them to anticipate a declaration of passion, and I
+had no doubt that Phyllis was fully prepared for my confession in
+spite of her embarrassment. This induced me to proceed to the
+point without unnecessary preliminaries.
+
+"Phyllis," I said, not without a certain agreeable ardor, "I have
+been talking with Aunt Mary."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"And about you."
+
+"Really?"
+
+"When I say that I have been talking with Aunt Mary, and about
+you," I continued in a grieved tone, for I do not like jerky
+responses, "I wish you to understand that it was in connection
+with no ordinary topic. Phyllis,"--I spoke with the utmost
+tenderness--"can you not guess the nature of our discussion?"
+
+Phyllis was equal to the emergency; her embarrassment had
+disappeared. "I am glad," she said, "that your conversation so
+far as it related to me was out of the ordinary. I suppose I may
+ask what the topic was--that is, if you don't mind telling."
+
+This was approaching the serious. "Phyllis, I was telling Aunt
+Mary that I loved you and wished to make you my wife."
+
+A flash, half merry, half angry, came to her eye. "That was
+thoughtful of you. Is it customary for gentlemen in the city,
+when they think they love a girl, to honor all her relations with
+their confidence before they speak to the girl herself?"
+
+I took her hand. She made the slightest motion to withdraw it,
+and permitted it to remain in my grasp. "Phyllis," I said with
+all earnestness, "do not misunderstand me. I sought you at the
+house. You were absent. Your Aunt Mary and I have been friends
+from childhood, and it was only natural that out of my heart I
+spoke the words that were in my mind. I told her that I loved
+you, just as at that moment I might have shouted it from the
+housetop. My heart was full of you and I had to speak. Can't you
+understand?"
+
+The girl was still obdurate, and she spoke with some petulance.
+"If that is the case, perhaps it is just as well that it was Aunt
+Mary and not one of the neighbors."
+
+"Dear little Phyllis, you are not angry with me because I love
+you? You cannot remain angry with me because I confessed my love
+before I met you to-day? If you had only seen with what
+applications of cold water your aunt rewarded my confidence, you
+would pity and not reproach me."
+
+For a minute the girl was silent. Then she asked softly: "How
+long have you known that you loved me?"
+
+"Must I answer that question candidly and unreservedly?"
+
+"Unreservedly and candidly."
+
+I seized her other hand and held her firmly. "About fifty
+minutes."
+
+She laughed, rather joyously I thought. "And having loved me for
+fully fifty minutes, you wish to make me your wife? Confiding
+man!"
+
+"Little girl," I said tenderly, "let us be serious. If my dull
+consciousness did not awaken till an hour ago, my heart tells me
+that I have loved you ever since I first saw you standing near
+this spot. I am not going to ask you now whether you love me, or
+ever can learn to love me. It is happiness enough for me to-day
+to know how much I love you, and to know that I have told you of
+that love. I do not care to have my dream too rudely and too
+suddenly dispelled. Very probably you do not care for me as I
+should like to have you care for me, but do not make a jest of my
+affection. I am wholly aware of the preposterousness of my
+demands in many respects"--this sounded very conventional and
+commonplace, but every lover must say it--"and, believe me, I
+shudder when I think of what I have dared confess."
+
+Then she said with the most delightful demureness: "Mr. Stanhope,
+is it likely that a girl would sit in a burying-ground on a bench
+with a gentleman, allowing him to hold both her hands, unless she
+cared for him a little--just a little?"
+
+Up to this moment I had fairly forgotten that I was depriving her
+of all power of resistance, but with such encouragement I took an
+even more sympathetic grasp and sat a trifle closer, while the
+minutes ticked away. A robin flew down from the tree near by and
+saucily hopped toward us, until at a rebuking call from his mate
+he flew away, and I fancied that I could hear them talking over
+the situation, and drawing conclusions from their own happiness.
+Phyllis was the first to break the charming spell.
+
+"Mr. Stanhope," she asked, hardly above a whisper, "what did Aunt
+Mary say when you told her that you wished to make me your
+wife?"
+
+"She said, Phyllis, that Providence may have decreed that I am
+the man to bring you happiness."
+
+And still in that same enchanting whisper, with her face a little
+rosier, as she half hid it below my shoulder: "Mr. Stanhope, do
+you think that a girl with my Christian training could fly in the
+face of Providence?"
+
+
+
+
+The philosopher was in love. It comes, I have no doubt, to every
+well-ordered man to be in love once. Some there are who maintain,
+with plausibility, that the passion we call love may be of
+frequent recurrence, and they point to the passing fancies of
+boys and girls, the romances of moonlight, the repeated sighings
+of the fickle Corydon, and the matrimonial entanglements of the
+aging Lydia, as evidence for their argument. That there are
+varying degrees of the ecstatic emotion cannot be truthfully
+denied. Heaven has wisely decreed that the heart, once filled
+with its ideal, may be compensated for the bitter hour of sorrow
+by the soothing balm of a new affection, and it is even possible
+that the second love may be more satisfying than the first, the
+third or fourth more typical of exaltation than its predecessors.
+But love, whether early or late, in the perfect absorption of the
+faculties comes only once; as compared with this remarkable
+mental state all other conditions are unemotional, unfilling.
+
+The true lover rises early, before the world is astir. If it is
+summer and in the country, his thoughts lead him to the cool
+groves, the shady banks of the river, the retired spots where he
+may uninterruptedly commune with his happiness or his misery, and
+reflect on the blessings that are to be, or should be, his. Was
+it not then as a true lover that in the early morning I walked
+into the country, and down the banks of the stream where Sylvia
+and I had strayed and talked in the sunny days of youth? And
+nature seemed a part of the wedding procession, and the squirrels
+on the fence rails, and the robins, wrens, and wood-thrushes in
+the trees chirped and twittered: "John Stanhope is in love! John
+Stanhope is in love!" And the mocking crow, lazily flapping his
+wings at a safe distance, croaked enviously: "Ha, ha! old
+Stanhope is in love. Ha, ha!" Yet the whole conspiracy of
+animated nature could not make old Stanhope in his present
+exaltation regretful of his age or ashamed of his passion.
+
+Mary Eastmann had accepted the situation without comment. She
+neither congratulated nor demurred, but went on with her
+household duties with the same method and precision as before.
+Men may come and go, hearts may be won and lost, republics may
+totter and empires may fall, but the grand scheme of sweeping,
+dusting, bed-making, and cooking knows no interruption. If I did
+not understand I at least commended this housewifely prudence,
+and often when the domestic battle was at its height I would
+spirit away my little charmer for the discussion of topics within
+my comprehension. At the outset I had declared that while it had
+pleased Providence to begin our romance in a burying-ground, I
+did not propose to sacrifice all tender sentiment to meditations
+among the tombs, and I bore her away to the old tree down by the
+river, where we sat for hours together as I unfolded my plans for
+our future life.
+
+A man who has sat at the feet of the philosophers from Ovid to
+Schopenhauer, and has gorged his intellect with the abstract
+principles of love, naturally adapts himself to the professorial
+capacity, and I soon saw that Phyllis, while one of the most
+lovable, one of the sweetest of girls, was almost wholly ignorant
+of the psychology of passion. I could not expect that a young
+girl of twenty-two would discourse glibly of the emotion in its
+intellectual phase, but I could not bear the thought that she
+should enter lightly into so serious a compact, and without
+gaining a reasonable comprehension of its mental analysis. Hence,
+as opportunity presented, I enriched her mind with the beauties
+of love from the standpoint of philosophers and thinkers, and
+showed her the priceless blessings that must result from a union
+dictated by careful provision of reasoning. To these addresses
+she listened with sweet patience, and if she did not always grasp
+their meaning, she showed much admiration for my erudition and
+frequently remarked that she had no idea that love was so
+abstruse a science. It seemed to me, in the serenity of my years
+and the calm assurance of my love, that I was a most persistent
+wooer, and I was greatly grieved when she broke out rather
+petulantly one afternoon:
+
+"I don't believe you really love me."
+
+"You don't believe I love you? And why?"
+
+She hesitated, half abashed by her own outburst, then added a
+little defiantly: "Well, in the first place, you never quarrel
+with me."
+
+"And why should I quarrel with you? Aren't you the most amiable,
+the most perfect little woman in the world?"
+
+"Oh, of course; I know all that. But I have always read, and
+always believed, that when two persons are truly, deeply in love,
+they have most exciting quarrels. Is it not true that in all
+romances the man is eternally quarrelling with the girl and
+bidding her farewell forever?"
+
+"Yes, and coming back in ten minutes to weep and grovel at her
+feet and beg her to forgive him. My dear little Phyllis, why
+should I bid you farewell forever, when I am morally certain that
+in half that time I should be cringing in the turf, weeping and
+begging you to say that all is forgiven and forgotten?"
+
+"That would be lovely," she said pensively.
+
+"Perhaps, but it would be very undignified and unnecessary. And I
+am not at all sure that you would admire me in that attitude even
+if I did imitate the heroes of romance. A weeping lover is much
+more agreeable in a novel than in actual life. However if you
+insist that we must quarrel, in order to demonstrate the
+sincerity of my affection, I shall suggest that we have our spats
+when we part for the night, in order that no precious waking
+hours may be lost."
+
+"You are joking," she exclaimed with a little pout.
+
+"Not at all. Still," I added reflectively, "even this plan has
+its disadvantages, for if we quarrel when we part at night, it
+will necessitate my return to your window, which would not only
+annoy your aunt but might scandalize the neighbors. Furthermore
+it might give me a shocking cold, unless you immediately
+repented, for the nights are very damp. No," I sighed with great
+feeling, "all this seems impracticable. You must give me a better
+reason for my coldness."
+
+Phyllis toyed with a clover blossom, and made no answer. I went
+on:
+
+"As a slight indication of my unlover-like hauteur, let me
+confess that I am going to bring you a marvellously glittering
+bauble when I come back from the city, something that will
+bewilder you by day and dazzle you by night."
+
+She shrugged her shoulders. "Of course you are; you are always
+giving me presents."
+
+I laughed at this. "Well, suppose I am; I have never heard that
+it is a sign of waning affection to bestow gifts on the loved
+one."
+
+"You refuse me nothing. I dare say you would give me the Boston
+State House if I wished it."
+
+"No, you are wrong there," I replied decisively. "If I bought the
+State House I should be compelled to include the emblematic
+codfish, and you know my aversion to codfish."
+
+She smiled at the thought, recalling the Sunday breakfast, and
+then with a roguish look and a half-embarrassed laugh she said:
+"At all events you cannot deny that you did not kiss me when you
+left last night."
+
+"Didn't I?" I asked in amazement, and then, quite thrown off my
+guard, I added thoughtlessly: "I had forgotten."
+
+"That," she replied quietly, "was because you were so taken up
+with the philosophy of love, and the mental attitude, that you
+overlooked the physical demonstration. Do you remember the
+conversation?"
+
+Unfortunately I did. I recalled that I had spent an hour or more
+defining the moral status of love and proving the sufficing
+reason. It was not a pleasant reflection that so agreeable and
+instructive a conversation was not thoroughly appreciated.
+
+"We spoke at length on love," I ventured feebly.
+
+"That is, you did," she replied. "I'll admit that it was better
+than an ordinary sermon, because the subject was more personal.
+But don't you think we admitted the sufficing reason at
+the start, and isn't it natural that a girl who has been
+conventionally brought up is pretty well satisfied in her own
+mind of the moral status? Of course," she added, with a toss of
+her pretty head, "I am not asking you or anybody else to kiss me.
+I am merely curious to know if this plays any part in the
+philosophy of love as understood by the greatest thinkers."
+
+Her speech had given me time to pull myself together. "No," I
+said with marked emphasis, "I did not kiss you, because I had
+noted the unworthy suspicions you have expressed to-day, and
+I was hurt and grieved. It was hard for me to exhibit my
+displeasure in this way, and I am regretful now that I have
+learned that it was simply playfulness on your part. Don't
+interrupt. I am satisfied that the pure merriment of your nature
+is responsible for this assault, and I shall take great pleasure
+in making up this evening for the deficiencies of last night."
+
+She laughed and we were friends again. And with such jocular
+asperities the days passed quickly and agreeably until my nephew
+arrived with the plans and specifications. Frederick Grinnell was
+not only my nephew, but an architect of reputation and promise,
+considering his years and experience. Like Phyllis he had been
+left an orphan early in life, and it had been my pleasure and
+privilege to give him an education and see that he was fairly
+started in life. While I think I may say that Frederick was not
+quite so attractive as was I at his age, he was nevertheless a
+fine, manly young fellow, tall, well put together, of good
+habits, industrious and devoted to his profession. It pleased me
+to see that he admired Phyllis's pretty face and bright, animated
+manner; but one evening, when I fancied that he was too deeply
+stirred by her really beautiful voice, I took the opportunity to
+converse with him confidentially as we walked back to the tavern.
+
+"I have been intending to tell you, Frederick," I began a little
+airily, "of the relations existing between Miss Kinglake and
+myself. So far it has been a profound secret"--I did not then
+know that the entire village was gossiping about it--"but I feel
+that I owe it to you, as my nearest relative, to admit that Miss
+Kinglake and I are engaged."
+
+I paused, and noting that he did not wince or appear in the least
+degree discomposed, continued:
+
+"Of course you will respect my confidence in this matter. Of
+course," I added magnanimously, "it will be perfectly proper for
+you to signify to Miss Kinglake that you are aware of our little
+secret as that will put us all on a better basis and lead to no
+misunderstandings. It would be awkward to play at cross purposes,
+and I should be extremely sorry, my dear boy, to think that I had
+withheld anything from you, for you have always enjoyed my
+fullest trust."
+
+Whatever he may have thought, his manner betrayed no unusual
+interest. "I congratulate you," he replied very calmly.
+
+Now that so perfect an understanding existed in the immediate
+family circle, I gave myself no further uneasiness. I was truly
+rejoiced to notice that Frederick was deferentially polite to
+Phyllis, and I encouraged him to show her those polite attentions
+which my betrothed would reasonably expect from my nephew. And at
+times I even insisted that he should represent me at certain
+gatherings of Phyllis's friends, who were too young and
+frivolous to claim my serious attention. When he protested, and
+pleaded headache, business, or other sign of disinclination, I
+rallied him good-humoredly on his lack of gallantry.
+
+"Nonsense, my boy," I argued; "a young fellow of your spirit
+should be only too glad to go out with a pretty girl and enjoy
+himself. You certainly would not deprive Phyllis of an evening's
+pleasure because your uncle has a stiff knee which interferes
+with his dancing, and--confound it, you know they never let me
+smoke at these frolics. Come now, be a good fellow and show the
+proper family impulse."
+
+As they went off together I looked at them admiringly and rather
+fancied that I saw in them a suggestion of what Sylvia and I had
+been when we made the rounds of the birthday parties. For it is
+fair to confess that the image of Sylvia did not infrequently
+rise before me, and I constantly saw in Phyllis the replica of
+her adorable mother. In my happiest moments I spoke of this
+suggestion to Phyllis, and continued to regale her with fragments
+of my early life associated with her family. At first I thought
+that the girl was somewhat piqued, fearing that Frederick was
+thrust upon her, although she admitted that he was good-looking,
+polite, and danced extremely well, but I succeeded in convincing
+her that true love should not be gauged by the low standards of
+hot-night dancing, and that all philosophers agree that the
+purest affection springs from quiet contemplation, such as I
+should enjoy while she was making merry with her friends. To this
+she once ventured to remark that in that case perhaps my
+affection would thrive to greater advantage if I contented myself
+with thinking about her and not seeing her at all, a suggestion
+which wounded me in my tenderest sensibilities, for I was
+very much in love. I was also not a little disturbed when,
+supplemental to my reminiscences, Mary went back to the past and
+humorously drew pictures of me as her own early lover. There is
+considerable difference between the impalpable, airy spirit of
+the fancy and a wrinkled and austere feminine actuality of fifty.
+
+In the midst of these innocent and improving pleasures a small
+cloud appeared in the summer sky. I received a letter addressed
+in a peculiar but not ornate hand, and I opened it with
+misgivings and read it with consternation.
+
+  MR. STANHOPE SIR: Prudence and I thinks youd better come home.
+  The plummer was hear twice yisterday and the cutworms is awfle.
+  Hero got glass in her foot and the brown tale moths is bad
+  again wich is al for the presnt.
+
+                                        Respecfuly
+
+                                        MALACHY.
+
+Duty is one of the exactions of life which I have never shirked
+when there seemed no possible way of evading it, but in this
+instance the call of duty was compromised by matters of equal
+urgency, for nothing can be more important than the successful
+administration of the affairs of love. It was a happy thought
+that suggested to me a way out of the difficulty, which was
+neither more nor less than that we should all go to the city
+together. I sprang the proposition at a family conference.
+Phyllis was delighted. "There is always so much to be seen in the
+city," she cried, "and I shall meet Mr. Bunsey. It has been one
+of the dreams of my life to know a real literary man."
+
+This appeared to call for an explanation. Heaven knows I am not
+jealous of Bunsey, and would not deprive him of a single
+distinction that is honestly his. But a regard for the truth,
+coupled with much doubt as to Bunsey's ability to live up to such
+lively expectations, compelled me to resort to a little gentle
+correction.
+
+"My dear Phyllis," I said, "you must disabuse your mind of that
+fallacy. Bunsey is a popular novelist, not a literary man."
+
+"But isn't a novelist a literary man?" she asked in amazement.
+
+"Not necessarily," I replied pityingly. "In fact I may say not
+usually. Of course we are speaking of popular novelists. The
+popularity of the novelist is in proportion to his lack of
+literary style. The distinctive popular charm of Bunsey is that
+he is not literary--at least, if he is, his critics have not
+succeeded in discovering it; he successfully conceals his crime.
+If he is popular, it is because he is not literary; if he were
+literary he could not be popular."
+
+"That does not seem right," said my little Puritan.
+
+"It is not a question of ethics at all, but a matter of
+taste. However, don't be prejudiced against Bunsey because
+he is a product of the time and fairly representative of the
+civilization. You shall meet him and shall learn from him how a
+man may succeed in so-called literature without any hampering
+literary qualifications."
+
+Mary did not receive my proposition in a thankful and
+conciliatory spirit. She shook her head doubtfully, and when we
+were alone together, she gave voice to her fears.
+
+"Phyllis is country-bred," she said, "and knows nothing of the
+toils and snares that beset young girls in the city."
+
+"Toils and snares," I echoed. "One might gather from your
+objections that we contemplate taking Phyllis to the city merely
+to expose her to temptation and corrupt the serenity of her mind.
+You seem to forget the elevating influences of my modest home."
+
+"No, John; I dare say that your home is not objectionable, taken
+by itself. But I am not blind to the seductions of the great
+city. You too forget," she added, with a touch of complacency,
+"that I am not inexperienced or without knowledge of the
+profligacy of the town."
+
+"Granting all this," I said, highly diverted by her earnestness,
+"and what are some of these seductions you have in mind?"
+
+"Theatres," she replied promptly, "theatres and late hours,
+midnight suppers--and cocktails."
+
+I laughed uproariously. "My dear Mary, if these deadly sins and
+perils alarm you, we'll cut them out. I care little for theatres,
+and less for midnight suppers. And as for cocktails, I shall make
+it my peculiar charge to see that Phyllis never hears the
+abominable word. Allowing for the removal of these temptations, I
+still think that a trip to the city would do our country flower a
+world of good, though I have nothing but praise for the manner in
+which you have brought her up."
+
+"John," she answered very gravely, "I have endeavored to do my
+duty as I saw it. I have tried to bring Phyllis up in the nurture
+and admonition of the Lord."
+
+The expression carried me back to my childhood, and I bit my
+lips. "Of course you have," I said. "Wasn't I brought up in this
+same village, in the same way? Did not my good mother and my
+blessed, grandmother inflict nurture and admonition upon me, that
+I might grow up as you see me, a true child of the pilgrim
+fathers? The nurture, I remember, was a particularly hard seat in
+our particularly gloomy old meetinghouse, and the admonition took
+up the greater part of the Sabbath day, with a disenchanting
+prospect of further admonition at home if I failed to keep awake.
+I do not mean to say that I am not thankful for the experience.
+In truth I am doubly thankful--thankful that I had it, and
+thankful that it is over."
+
+To this Mary vouchsafed no further remonstrance than a
+distrustful shake of the head. Excellent woman! Is it not to such
+as you, earnest, faithful, self-sacrificing, God-fearing, that
+the best in young manhood, the purest in young womanhood, owe the
+strength of the qualities that are the vital force of the
+nation?
+
+
+
+
+In the end the united opposition was too much for Mary's
+arguments, and to town we went. The pleasure of the journey, on
+my part, was somewhat clouded as to the welcome we should receive
+from Prudence, and truly it acquired my greatest powers of
+dissimulation to feign an easy indifference and air of authority
+before that worthy creature, as with the most studied politeness
+and formal hospitality she received us at the gate. Prudence and
+I had sparred so many years that we were like two expert
+athletes, and while neither apparently noticed the other, each
+was perfectly conscious of the adversary's slightest movement.
+Hence I detected at once her strong aversion to Mary, whom she
+immediately selected as a probable mistress, and I saw her
+several times vainly try to repress a grimace of disdain and
+wrath. It was my first impulse to follow Prudence into the
+kitchen, after the ladies had gone to their rooms, and make a
+clean breast of the untoward tidings, but I lacked the moral
+courage and contented myself with an inward show of strength. Why
+should I pander to this woman's caprices? Was I not master in my
+own house? Should I not do as I pleased? I would punish her with
+the severity of my silence, and perhaps in a week or two, when
+she was more tractable, I would condescend to tell her exactly
+how matters stood. In this I would be firm.
+
+But the next morning, before my guests were out of bed, I decided
+that I was not acting wisely. Was not Prudence an old, faithful,
+and trustworthy servant? Had she not been loyal to my interests,
+and was not her whole life wrapped up in my comfort? Surely I
+wronged her to withhold from her the confidence she had so fairly
+earned, and the flush of shame came to my face as I reflected
+that I was indulging my first deceit. I took a turn in the
+garden, in the heavenly cool of the early morning, to compose my
+nerves for a very probable ordeal, and then I walked boldly into
+the kitchen where Prudence sat, with a wooden bowl in her lap,
+paring apples.
+
+It was one of the unwritten laws of the cuisine that Prudence was
+never to be disturbed when engaged in this delicate operation.
+She maintained that it destroyed the symmetry of the peel, and
+I dare say she was right. Consequently she looked at me
+reproachfully as I entered, and bent again more assiduously to
+her work. I was much flustered by the ill omen, but I knew that
+if I hesitated I was lost; so I advanced valorously, though with
+accelerated pulse, and said with all the calmness I could
+command:
+
+"Prudence, I think it only right to tell you that I am going to
+be married."
+
+One apple rolled from the bowl down along the floor and under the
+kitchen stove. I cannot conceive of any shock, however great,
+that would cause Prudence to lose more than one apple. Partly to
+conciliate, and partly to conceal my own trepidation, I made a
+gallant effort to rescue the wanderer, and as I poked the
+hiding-place with my stick, I heard her say: "Lord, I know'd it'd
+come!"
+
+"The fact that it has come, Prudence," I answered with a sickly
+attempt at gayety, "does not seem to be a reason why you should
+call with such vehemence on your Maker. There does not appear to
+be any need of Providential interposition. Things are not so bad
+as all that."
+
+I always used my most elegant English when conversing with
+Prudence. If she did not understand it, it flattered her to think
+that I paid this tribute to her intelligence.
+
+"Mr. John," she said, and there was a suspicious break in her
+voice, "for twenty years I have tried to do my duty by you, and
+now that I must go--"
+
+"Go?" I interrupted; "who said you must go? Who spoke about
+anybody's going? You certainly do not expect to turn that bowl
+of apples over to me and leave me to get breakfast?"
+
+"No, Mr. John, I shall go on and do my duty, as I see it, until
+you have made all your plans and are comfortable."
+
+"Now, look here, Prudence, I am very comfortable as things are,
+thank you. And you will pardon me if I say I cannot understand
+why you should go at all. I shall continue to eat, I hope, after
+I am married, and I think it altogether probable that I shall
+require a house-keeper and a cook. I believe they do have such
+things in well-regulated families."
+
+"At my age, and with my experience, and considerin' how we
+have lived, Mr. John, I couldn't get along with a mistress,
+'specially," she added with a touch of malice, "with a woman
+considerable older than me."
+
+"Older than you? What are you talking about? Miss Kinglake is
+young enough to be your daughter."
+
+Another apple rolled on the floor. "Miss Kinglake!" she exclaimed
+in astonishment, "that lamb? Good Lord, I thought you were goin'
+to marry the other one!"
+
+"Prudence," I said rather hotly, for I did not relish her
+amazement, "you will oblige me by not speaking of these ladies as
+the 'lamb' and 'the other one.' I might gather from your remarks
+that I am a sort of ravening wolf, instead of a well-meaning
+gentleman who is merely exercising the privilege of selecting a
+wife. But," I said, checking myself, for I was ashamed of my
+explosion, "I shall be magnanimous enough to believe that you are
+delighted with my choice, and that I have your congratulations.
+You will be glad to know that Miss Kinglake and I are perfectly
+satisfied with each other, and that we are both entirely
+satisfied with you. And now that we understand the situation, I
+think I may presume that we shall have breakfast at the usual
+hour this morning, and to-morrow morning, and for many mornings
+to come. And, by the way, Prudence, while I have honored you
+with my confidence, permit me to impress it upon you that this
+revelation is not village gossip as yet, and you will put me
+under further obligations by not mentioning the circumstance.
+Good-morning, Prudence. Kindly call the ladies at eight o'clock."
+
+And thereupon I hastily departed, leaving the good woman in a
+state of stupefaction, since, for the first and only time in our
+long and controversial association, had I retired with the last
+word. Taking a second turn in the garden I encountered Malachy,
+and my conscience reproached me. "Am I doing right," I asked
+myself, "in withholding the glad news from this faithful servant
+who has shown himself so worthy of my confidence? Is it not my
+duty to tell him--not so much to interest him in his future
+mistress as to demonstrate the trust I repose in him?"
+
+Malachy received my confidence with less excitement than I had
+expected. In fact I was slightly humiliated by his seeming lack
+of gratitude. He touched his hat very respectfully, and observed
+irrelevantly that the roses below the arbor were looking
+uncommonly well. This was a poor reward for my attempt at
+consideration, and further convinced me of the uselessness
+of establishing anything like intimate relations with the
+proletariat.
+
+"By the way, Malachy," I said in parting, "you will keep this
+matter a profound secret. Miss Kinglake and I are desirous that
+we shall not be annoyed by village chatter and premature
+congratulations."
+
+Having discharged my duty to my good servants, I felt that my
+obligations, so far as the relation with Phyllis was concerned,
+were at an end, and the morning wore away without further
+misgivings of disloyalty. In the afternoon Bunsey came over for
+his daily smoke, and as we sat together in the library, and I
+noticed the entire absence of suspicion in his manner, my heart
+smote me. "Truly," I reasoned silently, "I am behaving ill to an
+old friend who has never withheld from me the very secrets of his
+soul. Should I not be as generous, as outspoken, with him as he
+has always proved to me? Should I not confide to him this one
+precious secret, at the same time swearing him to preserve it as
+he would his life?"
+
+I blew out a ring of smoke, and then I began with the utmost
+seriousness: "Bunsey, how do you like the ladies?"
+
+He shifted his position, tipped the ashes from his cigar, and
+replied tranquilly: "Oh, I dare say I shall in time."
+
+The answer vexed me. Bunsey was a bachelor, and should have been
+therefore the more impressionable. I forgot for the moment, in my
+annoyance, that he was a novelist, and had been so diligently
+creating lovely and impossible women to order that he was not
+easily moved by the realities of humanity.
+
+"At all events," I replied with delicate irony, "I am glad that
+the future is hopeful for the ladies. My reason for asking the
+question was simply to lead the way to a confidence I intend to
+repose in you. To proceed expeditiously to the end of a long
+story, I intend to marry one of them."
+
+Bunsey's tranquillity was unshaken. "Which one?"
+
+"Which one?" I echoed with heat, "why, Miss Kinglake, of course."
+
+"Does she intend to marry you?"
+
+"Naturally."
+
+"Or unnaturally?"
+
+"Confound your impertinence!" I roared, "what do you mean by
+that?"
+
+"No impertinence, at all, my dear fellow. In fact it is most
+pertinent. Miss Kinglake is a girl, and you--well, you voted for
+Grant."
+
+"Which is your gentle way of saying that I am too old."
+
+"No, not too old; just old enough--to know better."
+
+"We are never too old to love," I said, conscious that I was
+uttering a melancholy platitude.
+
+"Too old to love? Heaven forbid! But we may be too old to
+marry--at least to marry anybody worth while. Come, Stanhope,
+tell me: do you really love this young woman?"
+
+"Love her? Here I have been telling you that I intend to marry a
+charming girl, and you turn about and ask me if I love her. Of
+course I love her. I have been loving her in one way and another
+for years."
+
+"What do you mean by that? I thought you only met her a few weeks
+ago."
+
+I smiled pityingly. "So I did, but for years she has been my
+affinity. Incidentally I don't mind saying I began by loving her
+mother."
+
+Bunsey sat up straight. "Oh, you loved her mother. Was her mother
+pretty?"
+
+"She was as you see Phyllis. In fact I think she was, if
+anything, a trifle prettier. We were playmates and schoolmates,
+and in the nature of things, if I had not wandered off to the
+city, I presume we should have married. Dear little Sylvia," I
+went on musingly, "I can see her at this moment, looking down
+from heaven and smiling on my union with her daughter. For if
+ever a match was made in heaven this was. Confound it! what are
+you doing now?"
+
+While I was talking Bunsey had reached over, taken a sheet of
+paper and was busily writing. He looked up carelessly.
+
+"Your story interests me, and is such good material that I
+thought I would make a few notes. Young boy loves young
+girl--goes to city--forgets her--young girl marries--has charming
+daughter--dies--years pass--venerable gentleman returns--sees
+daughter--great emotion on part of v. g.--thinks he loves
+her--proposes--accepted--mar--no, there I think I must stop for
+the present."
+
+"Oh, don't stop there, I beg," I said sarcastically; "if you are
+thinking of using these materials for one of your popular
+novels, be sure to throw in a few duels, several heartrending
+catastrophes, and other incidents of what you call 'action,'
+appropriately expressed in bad English."
+
+Bunsey was imperturbable. "Thank you for your appreciative
+estimate of my literary style," he replied coolly; "but really,
+my consideration for my old friend deprives me of the pleasure of
+robbing his diary."
+
+I was still out of temper. "Bunsey, I don't mind favoring you
+with a further confidence. You're an ass!"
+
+With this parting shot I strode out of the library, when,
+remembering the sacredness of my revelation, I turned back.
+
+"Of course you will understand, Bunsey, that however flippantly
+you may choose to regard what I have said to you, you will have
+the decency to keep the subject-matter to yourself. I do not ask
+your congratulations or your approval, but I demand your
+secrecy."
+
+"The ass brays acknowledgments," answered Bunsey meekly, helping
+himself to another cigar. "You may rely on my loyal and devoted
+interest. The fact that I have heard your secret twice before
+to-day shall not open my lips or cause me to violate your trust."
+
+Notwithstanding my attitude of indifference I was greatly
+troubled by Bunsey's unfeeling suggestion. Could it be possible
+that I had mistaken my own heart? Was I, yielding, as I had
+believed, to the first strong passion of my life, only deluding
+myself with a remembrance of my vanished youth? I dismissed the
+thought impatiently. For, after all, was not Bunsey a hopeless
+cynic, a fellow without a single emotion of the ennobling
+sentiment of man toward woman, a sordid story-teller, who created
+characters for money, wrecked homes, committed literary murders,
+played unfeelingly on the tenderest sensibilities, and boasted
+openly that the only angels were those made by a stroke of the
+pen and retailed at department store book-counters? And while
+thus reasoning Phyllis came to me, so winsome in her girlish
+beauty, so radiant in the happiness I had infused into her life,
+so joyous in the pleasures of the present, that I laughed at my
+own doubts, reproached myself for my own unworthy suspicions, and
+straightway forgot both Bunsey and his evil promptings.
+
+
+
+
+Love at eight and forty is a very pleasant and indolent emotion,
+marking the most delightful stage in the progress of the great
+human passion. At twenty-five we talk it; at thirty-five we act
+it; at forty-five it is pleasant to sit down and think about it.
+The very young man loves without really analyzing. Ten years
+later he analyzes without really loving. In another decade he has
+compounded the proportions of love and analysis, and becomes,
+under favoring conditions, the most dangerous and hence the most
+acceptable of suitors. The man in middle life takes his adored
+one tolerantly, and keeps his reservations to himself. In the
+ordinary course of events he has acquired a certain knowledge of
+feminine character, he knows the rocks and the shoals of love,
+and, skillful pilot that he is, he avoids them. He is sure of his
+course, master of his equipment. If he errs at all--but I
+anticipate.
+
+Those were very joyous days, notwithstanding the applications
+of cold water so liberally bestowed by my confidential advisers.
+And eagerly and successfully I exerted myself to convince
+the doubting ones in general, and Bunsey in particular, how
+absurd were their suspicions, and how apparent it was that Phyllis
+and I had been purposely created for each other. Mary threw
+herself into our pleasures as heartily and joyously as her New
+England nature would permit, which was never a very riotous
+demonstration, and Phyllis, with the effervescence and enthusiasm
+of girlhood, eagerly assented to every proposition that had
+its pleasure-seeking side; while I, as a thoughtful lover
+should, busied myself in schemes for summer dissipation, thankful
+that it was in my power to prove so devoted a knight, and
+inwardly rejoicing at my triumph over those who had taxed me
+with such unworthy thoughts. Even Frederick--good fellow that
+he was--allowed himself unusual days of vacation to partake of our
+merriment, and it pleased me greatly to see that when business
+cares or physical disinclination kept me off the programme, he no
+longer allowed his indifference to interfere with his duty as my
+nephew and personal representative. Such, I take it, is the
+obligation of all young men similarly placed.
+
+For, before many weeks had passed, I discovered that it was not
+wise to allow the fleeting dissipations of the moment, however
+alluring, to monopolize time which should be given to the serious
+affairs of life. I found that a cramped position in a boat in the
+hot sun brought on nervous headaches, and that too much time in
+the garden when the dew was falling was conducive to lumbago.
+Furthermore I had been invited by a neighboring university to
+deliver my celebrated lecture on the protagonism of Plato, and
+several new and excellent thoughts had come to me which required
+careful and elaborate development. I explained these matters
+conscientiously and fully to Phyllis, and while she offered no
+unreasonable protest, her pretty face clouded, and she did me the
+honor to say that half the enjoyment was removed by my absence.
+Once she even went so far as to declare that Plato was a "horrid
+man," and that she believed I thought more of him than of her--a
+most ridiculous conclusion but so essentially feminine that I
+forgave her at once. And, when she came to me, and put her arms
+around my neck and urged me to go with her to a tennis match--a
+foolish game where grown-up people knock little balls over a net
+with a battledore--I pointed out to her that such spectacles,
+while eminently proper for young folk, argued a failing mind in
+those of maturer years. With a charming pout she said:
+
+"Do you think you would have refused to go if my mother had asked
+you?"
+
+Now tennis is a sport that has come up since Sylvia and I were
+children together, but I recalled, with a guilty blush, the time
+when she and I won the village championship in doubles in an all
+day siege of croquet, so what could I say in my own defence?
+Therefore I went with Phyllis to the tennis-court and sat for two
+long and inexpressibly dreary hours watching the senseless and
+stupid proceedings. It was pleasant to reflect that I was with
+Sylvia's daughter, and I tried to imagine that the keen interest
+of youth still remained, but I was sadly out of place. I am
+satisfied that this game of tennis has nothing of the fascinating
+quality of croquet. On our arrival home Phyllis kissed me, and
+thanked me for what she called my "self-denial," but after that
+one experience Frederick represented me at the tennis-court, as,
+indeed, the good-natured boy consented to do at many similar
+festivities.
+
+And so the summer wore gradually away, one day's enjoyment
+lazily following another's, with nothing to disturb the serenity
+of my life, or to interfere with the calm content into which I
+had settled. Phyllis was everything that a moderate and
+reasonable lover could wish--kind, gentle, affectionate within
+the bounds of maidenly discretion, attentive to my wishes,
+and considerate of my caprices. The more I saw of her the
+more I was persuaded that I had chosen wisely and well. One
+afternoon--Frederick, at my suggestion, had gallantly given up
+his work in the office and taken Phyllis down the river. I sat
+with Bunsey in the library, and took occasion to expound to him
+the philosophy of perfect love.
+
+"The trouble is," I said, "that people rush blindly into
+matrimony. They think they are in love, work themselves up to the
+proper pitch of madness, propose and marry while they are in
+delirium. Hence, so much of the wretchedness and misery that we
+see in the homes of our friends. For my part I am committed to
+the doctrine of affinities. It is true that I, like many others,
+was guilty of the usual folly in my youth, and perhaps that gave
+me the wisdom to wait for my second venture until precisely the
+fight party came along. Matrimony, Bunsey, is an exact science.
+If we regulate our passion, control all silly emotion, study
+feminine nature as critically and methodically as we investigate
+a mathematical problem, and commit ourselves only when the
+affinity presents herself, we shall make no mistakes. For, after
+all, what is an affinity? Nothing more than a human being sent by
+Providence as perfectly adapted to the wheels and curves of your
+nature."
+
+"A very pretty theory," retorted Bunsey, grimly; "and, by the
+way, when do you think of rushing into matrimony?"
+
+"Really," I said, somewhat confused, "to be entirely honest with
+you, I have not settled on any particular day. You see Phyllis
+should have her fling. She is very young."
+
+"True, but you are not."
+
+As Bunsey said this he rose and tossed his cigar out of the
+window. "Stanhope," he went on, "we are old friends, and I don't
+wish to be continually seeming to interfere with your business,
+but if I were a man with fifty years leering hideously at me, and
+engaged to a pretty girl of two and twenty, I'd make quick work
+of it before Providence came along with a younger affinity in a
+Panama hat, negligée shirt, and duck trousers."
+
+I stared at him with a sort of helpless amazement. "Exactly what
+do you mean?" I asked.
+
+"Well," he answered, shrugging his shoulders, "at the risk of
+being kicked out of the house, let me say that I think such an
+affinity has already presented himself."
+
+"Indeed, and who may that be?"
+
+"Suppose we say Frederick."
+
+"My nephew?"
+
+"Exactly; your nephew. He is an uncommonly good-looking fellow,
+and, thanks to his uncle's childlike belief in Providence and
+the doctrine of affinities, he has most unusual opportunities to
+test that doctrine for himself. I dare say that he is making a
+formal study of the situation at this very moment, and inviting
+Providence to appear on the scene as his sponsor."
+
+What more was said at this interview, if, indeed, it did
+not terminate with this brutal statement, I cannot recall,
+for Bunsey, usually so flippant and cynical, spoke with an
+earnestness that stunned me. My knowledge of the philosophy of
+love told me that he was wrong; my observation of the actualities
+of life made me fear that he might be right. Theoretically, I
+could not have been mistaken in my course; practically, I began
+to see weak spots in the chain of evidence. Swiftly, I ran over
+the events of the spring and summer, and as little spots no
+bigger than a man's hand magnified themselves into black clouds,
+Bunsey, sitting opposite, seemed to grow larger and larger, and
+his smile more malicious and demon-like. Possibly, had I been a
+younger and more impetuous man, I should have flown into a
+passion, taken Bunsey at his word, and kicked him out of the
+house; but the philosophy of the thing engrossed me, filled me
+with half fear, half curiosity, and engaged all my mental
+faculties. Had I been mistaken? Could I be deceived in the
+daughter of Sylvia?
+
+However strong my suspicions may have been, they were not
+increased when, with the evening, Phyllis and Frederick came home
+from their excursion. Never was Phyllis more unreserved, more
+cordial, more joyous, more attentive to the little wants, which
+I, in a mean and shameful test, imposed on her. She could not be
+acting a part, this New England girl, with her alert conscience,
+her Puritan impulse and training, her aversion to everything that
+savored of deceit. And Frederick was as much at his ease as if I
+knew nothing, as if I had not heard of his duplicity, as if the
+whole house and grounds were not ringing with accusations of his
+unworthiness. Such are the phenomena of the philosophy of middle
+life, I insisted that he should remain for the evening, and,
+after dinner, with that contrariness accountable only in a true
+student of psychology, I made a trifling excuse and walked down
+to the square, leaving them together.
+
+The curfew was ringing as, returning, I entered the lower gate at
+the end of the garden, and passed slowly along by the arbor. It
+may have been Providence, it may have been chance, it certainly
+was not philosophy that directed my steps to the far side of the
+syringa hedge which shut me off from the view of those who might
+come down to the rustic seat at the foot of the cherry tree. At
+least I had no intention of playing the spy, and when I heard
+Frederick's voice, and knew instinctively that Phyllis was with
+him, I quickened my pace that I might not be a sharer of their
+secrets. But an irresistible impulse made me pause when I heard
+the foolish fellow say:
+
+"After to-night I shall not come again. It is better for us to
+break now than to wait until it is too late."
+
+Her reply I could not hear. Presently he said, and a little
+brokenly:
+
+"I have fought it all out. It has been hard, so hard, but I must
+meet it as it comes."
+
+Then I heard Phyllis's voice: "It is for the best."
+
+"I believe that you care for me. I know how much I care for you,
+and how much this effort is costing me. We were too late. No
+other course in honor presents itself. God knows how eagerly and
+hopelessly I have sought a way out of this tangle of duty."
+
+Again I heard Phyllis's voice, sunk almost to a whisper: "I have
+given my word; it is for the best."
+
+"The governor has been so good to me," Frederick exclaimed
+resentfully, "that I feel like a criminal even at this moment
+when I am making for him the sacrifice of a life. He has been my
+father, my protector. What I am I owe to him, and I must meet him
+like a grateful and honest man. You would not have it otherwise?"
+
+And for the third time Phyllis answered: "It is for the best."
+
+Had I been of that remarkable stuff of which your true hero is
+made, of which Bunsey's heroes are made, and had I come up to the
+very reasonable expectations of the followers of literary
+romance, I should have burst through the syringa with passion in
+my face and rage in my heart and precipitated a tragedy. Or, on
+the other side, I should have taken those ridiculous children by
+the hand, and ended their suffering with my blessing then and
+there. But as I am only of very common clay, with little liking
+for heroics, I did what any selfish and unappreciative man would
+have done, and stole quietly away. I even felt a sort of fierce
+joy in the knowledge of the security of my position, a mean
+exultation in the thought that Phyllis was bound to me, and that
+those from whom I might reasonably fear the most, acknowledged
+the hopelessness of their case. Most strangely there came to me
+no resentment with the knowledge that I had been supplanted by my
+nephew in the affections of the girl; the fact that she loved
+another surprised rather than agitated me. My argument was upset,
+my doctrine of affinities had been seriously damaged in my
+individual case, and here was I, who should have been yielding to
+the pangs of disappointment, or raging with wounded pride,
+reflecting with considerable calmness on the reverses of a
+philosopher.
+
+I went into the library and lighted a cigar. I threw myself into
+an easy-chair, and as I looked up I saw a spider-web in a corner
+of the ceiling. "I must speak to Prudence about that in the
+morning," I said to myself with annoyance. Then for the first
+time it came to me that I was out of temper, for I am customarily
+tranquil and not easily upset. My mind wandered rapidly from one
+thing to another, and oddly enough I caught myself humming a
+little tune which had no sort of relevancy to the events of the
+day. I tried to dismiss the incident of the garden as the
+temporary folly of a romantic girl, which would wear itself out
+with a week's absence. Why should it trouble me? Had I been
+lacking in kindness or affection? Should I be disturbed because a
+few boat rides and the influence of moonlight had wrought on a
+mere child? Was I not secure in her promise, and had I not heard
+her say she had given her word? As for Frederick, was he not my
+debtor? Had he not confessed it? Then why give more thought to
+the matter? It was awkward, but both were young and both would
+outlive it. Sylvia and I were young, and we outlived it.
+
+But still kept ringing in my ears that despairing half-whisper:
+"It is for the best."
+
+Petulantly I threw away my cigar and went up to my room. I walked
+over to the dressing-case and turned up the gas. The shadow
+displeased me and I lighted the opposite jet. Then I stood
+squarely before the mirror and looked critically at the
+reflection.
+
+Yes, John Stanhope, you are growing old. That expanding forehead,
+with the retreating hairs, tells the tale of time. The gray upon
+your cheeks is whitening and the razor must be used more
+vigilantly to further deception. Those creases in your face can
+no longer be dismissed as character lines; the shagginess of your
+eyebrows has the flying years to account for it. Plainly, John,
+you and humbug must part company. You are not of this generation
+and it is not for you.
+
+I turned down the gas, threw open the window and let the
+moonlight filter in through the elms and over the tops of the
+little pines. The soft beauty of the night soothed me, and
+gradually and very gently my irritation and annoyance slipped
+away. Why should not a young girl, radiant in youth and beauty,
+affect a young man of her generation? What has an old fellow,
+with all his money and worldly experience and burnt-out youth, to
+give in exchange for that intoxication which every girl may
+properly regard her lawful gift? Undoubtedly I should make a
+better husband, as husbands go, than my romantic nephew, and any
+woman of rare common sense would see the advantages of my
+position, but why burden a woman with that rare common sense
+which robs her of the first and sweetest of her dreams? No, John
+Stanhope, go back to your pipe and your books and your gardening,
+your life of selfish, indolent do-nothing. Take life as it comes
+most easily and naturally. By sparing one heart you may save two.
+
+And that nephew of mine--what a fine, manly fellow he proved
+himself when put to the test! The governor had been good to him
+and he was going to stand by the governor. How my heart jumped,
+and what a warm little feeling there was about the internal
+cockles as I recalled his words. Bravely said, my boy, and nobly
+done! I fear I should not have been so generous at your age, and
+with Sylvia--
+
+And with Sylvia! How the past crowded back at the thought of her!
+Who are you, old dreamer, who neglected the gift the good gods
+provided in the heydey of your youth to return to chase the
+phantom of the past? Behind that little white cloud, sailing far
+into the north, Sylvia may be peeping at you, and smiling at the
+delusion of her ancient wooer. Or why not think that she is
+pleading with you--pleading for her child and the lover, as she
+might have pleaded for herself and somebody else, had somebody
+else known his own heart before it was too late?
+
+I watched the white cloud as it passed on and on, growing smaller
+and fainter as it receded. I settled back still deeper in my
+chair and sighed. And then--O unworthy knight of love!--and then,
+I fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+In the morning, before the family was astir, I wrote a note,
+pleading a sudden and imperative call to town, and vanished for
+the day. I argued with myself that such a step was a delicate
+consideration for a young woman, who, having listened to a
+confession of love a few hours before, would be hardly at her
+ease at a breakfast-table conversation. Incidentally I was not
+altogether sure of myself, although I was much refreshed by an
+excellent night's sleep which comes to every philosopher with
+courage and strength to rise above the unpleasant things of life.
+If Phyllis had yielded to an emotion of grief, there was little
+trace of it when we met at evening. I fancied that she was
+somewhat paler, and her manner at times seemed a little listless,
+but otherwise there was no great departure from her usual
+demeanor. As for myself the long sunshine of a summer day and the
+conviction that at last the opportunity had come to me to play
+the rôle of a minor hero gave me a peace that amounted almost to
+buoyancy. No need had I of the teachings of the musty old
+philosophers reposing on my bookshelves. John Stanhope had
+learned more of life in a few short hours than all his tomes
+could impart. His books had helped him many times in diagnosing
+the cases of his friends; when John fell ill they mocked and
+deceived him.
+
+Opportunely enough Phyllis followed me into the library, and when
+at my request she sat on a little stool at my feet, and I held
+her hand and stroked her soft light hair, a pang went through my
+heart, for I felt that she might be near me for the last time.
+The philosopher had yet much to learn. For several minutes we
+were both silent. Of the two I was doubtless the more ill at
+ease, though I concealed it bravely.
+
+"Phyllis," I said at last, "did you ever get over a childish
+fondness for fairy-stories?"
+
+She smiled at this--was I wrong in fancying that her smile was
+that of sadness?--and answered: "I hope not."
+
+"Because," I went on, bending over and affectionately patting the
+hand I held, "a little fairy-tale has been running through my
+head all day, and I have decided that you shall be the first to
+hear it and pass on its merits. And because," I added gayly, "if
+it has your approval I may wish to publish it. Shall I begin?"
+
+She nodded her head--I could swear now to the weariness the poor
+child was so staunchly fighting--and looked off toward the
+sunset.
+
+"Once upon a time--you see that I am conventional--there lived a
+beautiful young princess, on whom a wicked old troll had cast an
+evil eye. Now this wicked troll was not so hideous as the trolls
+we see in our fairy-books--I must say that--but he was so wicked
+that even this deficiency could not excuse him. The princess was
+as young and innocent--I was going to say as simple--as she was
+beautiful, and the wicked troll talked so much of his experience
+in the world, and boasted so hugely of his wealth and generosity
+and other shining virtues, that the imagination of the poor
+little princess was quite fired, and she was flattered into
+thinking that here was a treasure not to be lightly put aside.
+And so, in a foolish moment she consented to be his bride, and he
+took her away to his castle--I believe trolls do have castles--to
+make ready for the marriage. While the preparations were going
+on, and the wicked old troll was laughing with glee to think how
+he had deluded a princess, a handsome young prince appeared on
+the scene, and what so natural as that the princess should
+immediately contrast him with the troll. And it came about, also
+quite naturally, that before the prince and the princess knew
+that anything was happening, they fell so violently in love with
+each other that the birds, and the bees, and the flowers in the
+garden, and the squirrels in the trees sang and hummed and
+gossiped and chattered about it."
+
+Here I paused. Phyllis did not look up, but I felt a shiver run
+through her body as I stroked her hair and put my arm around her
+shoulder to caress away her fear.
+
+"But it happened that although the princess was so much in love
+that at times she must have forgotten even the existence of the
+old troll, she was still possessed of that most inconvenient and
+annoying internal arrangement which we call the New England
+conscience, and one night, when the prince had declared his love
+with more ardor than usual, she remembered the past, how she had
+promised to marry the troll, and how she must keep her word, as
+all good princesses do. And the prince, who was a very upright
+young man, most foolishly listened to her, and agreed to give her
+up. Whereupon these poor children, having resolved that it was
+for the best--"
+
+Phyllis looked up quickly. Her face was white, and a look, half
+of fear, half of reproach, came to her eyes. She sank down and
+hid her face in her hands. Both my arms were around her and I
+even laughed.
+
+"Dear little princess," I whispered, "don't give way yet. The
+best is still to come. For you must remember that this is a
+fairy-tale and all fairy-tales have a good ending. And, to make a
+long story short, this wicked old troll was not a troll at all,
+but a fairy-godmother, who had taken the form for good purposes.
+I would have said fairy-godfather, but I have never come across a
+fairy-godfather in all my reading, and I must be truthful. Well,
+the fairy-godmother came along right in the nick of time--and, of
+course, you know who married and lived happily ever after?"
+
+The convulsive movement of the poor child's body told me she
+was weeping. And I, being a philosopher, and more or less
+hard-hearted, as all philosophers are, let her weep on. Presently
+she said in a voice hardly audible:
+
+"I gave you my promise and I meant to keep it. I am trying so
+hard to keep it."
+
+"Of course you are, little girl, but why try? A bad promise is
+far better broken than kept, and, come to think of it, I am not
+at all sure that I am anxious to have you keep it. How do you
+know that I am not making a desperate effort to secure my own
+release?"
+
+She raised her head quite unexpectedly and caught me with the
+tears in my eyes. My eyes always were weak. "Why, you are
+crying!" she said.
+
+"Of course I'm crying. I always cry when I am particularly well
+pleased. It is a family peculiarity. You should see me at the
+theatre. At a farce comedy I am a depressing sight, and that is
+the reason I always avoid the front seats."
+
+Then realizing that I might be carrying my gayety too far, I went
+on more soberly:
+
+"Can't you see, Phyllis, that the old fool's romance must come to
+an end? Don't you understand that had I the selfish wish to hold
+you to a thoughtless promise, our adventure would terminate only
+in misery to us both? Perhaps you and I have been the last to see
+it, I, because I was thinking too much of myself, you, because
+you were carried away by an exalted sense of duty. Thank heaven
+it is clear to us both now. For it is clear, isn't it, dear?"
+
+The foolish girl did not reply, but she kissed my hand, and it is
+astonishing how that little act of affection touched and
+strengthened me.
+
+"So we are going to make a new start and begin right. To-morrow I
+shall see Frederick and make a proposition to him, and if that
+rascal does not give up his heroics and come down to his plain
+duty as I see it--well, so much the worse for him. No, don't
+raise objections"--she had started to speak--"for I am always
+quarrelsome when I cannot have my own way. Go to your room and
+think it over, and remember," I said more gently, for that old
+tide of the past was coming in, "that you are Sylvia's daughter,
+and that Sylvia would have trusted me and counselled you to obey
+me in all things."
+
+Slowly and with averted face Phyllis rose and walked toward the
+door. I had commanded her, and yet I felt a sharp pang of
+bitterness that she had yielded so quickly to my words. It seemed
+at the moment that everything was passing out of my life; that
+Phyllis, that Sylvia, that all the once sweet, continuous memory
+was lost to me forever. I could not call her back, and I could
+not hope that she would return. Philosopher that I was I could
+not explain the sinking and the fear that took possession of me.
+The philosopher did not know himself. All his thought and all his
+reasoning could not solve the simple riddle the quick intuition
+of a girl made clear.
+
+She had reached the door before she paused. Then she turned. I
+had risen mechanically and stood looking at her. As slowly she
+came back and waited as if for me to speak. And when the dull
+philosopher groped helplessly for words and could not meet the
+appealing eyes, she put her hands on his shoulders, and laid her
+warm, young face on his heart, and said, "Father!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The night was peacefully beautiful. I had strolled out of the
+garden and down to the river, and there along the bridle-path on
+the winding bank I walked for miles. Absorbed in my own thoughts
+I gave no heed to my little dog, Hero, trotting at my side and
+looking anxiously up at me with her large brown eyes, as if
+saying in her dog fashion: "Don't worry, old man; I'm here!" A
+strange, inexplicable happiness had fallen to him who thought he
+knew all others, and did not know even himself. I crossed the
+river to return on the opposite shore, and all the way back,
+through the arching trees, the shadows danced in the moonlight
+and the crickets chirped merrily. Life seemed so contrary, so
+bewildering, for I thought of the wedding music in those early
+mornings at my boyhood home, and I wondered at the optimism of
+Nature in attuning all emotions to a joyous note.
+
+Again in my garden I saw a half-light in Phyllis's room. Coming
+nearer I saw that she was standing at the window, with the same
+cloud on her face that had betrayed the battle with her
+conscience. At sight of her all the joyous emotion of my new
+tenderness overwhelmed me and I cried out cheerily:
+
+"Good-night, Phyllis!"
+
+Something in my voice sent a smile to her eyes and gladness to
+her heart, as, half leaning from the window, she kissed her hand
+to me and called back softly: "Good-night, father dear!"
+
+The south wind came, bringing the scent of the rose and the
+honeysuckle, and stirring the drowsy branches of the elms. The
+river rippled merrily in the moonlight, hurrying to bear the
+tidings of happiness to the greater waters, and off in the
+distance the blue hills lifted their heads above the haze. Toward
+the north scudded the friendly little white cloud, and it seemed
+again a soothing fancy that Sylvia--
+
+O sweet and pleasant world!
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
+
+Page 103: Changed housekeeper to house-keeper for consistency.
+
+Page 116: Changed typo "effervesence" to "effervescence."
+
+Page 142: Changed typo "moolight" to "moonlight."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Romance of an Old Fool, by Roswell Field
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Romance of an Old Fool, by Roswell Field
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Romance of an Old Fool, by Roswell Field
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+Title: The Romance of an Old Fool
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+Author: Roswell Field
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+</pre>
+
+
+<hr />
+<h1>
+<i>The</i> ROMANCE OF<br />
+AN OLD FOOL<br />
+</h1>
+<hr />
+
+<h2>THE ROMANCE</h2>
+
+<h5>OF</h5>
+
+<h1>AN OLD FOOL</h1>
+
+<h5>BY</h5>
+
+<h3>ROSWELL FIELD</h3>
+<p class="fm">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4>EVANSTON<br />
+WILLIAM S. LORD</h4>
+<h5>1902</h5>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h4><i>Copyright, 1902, by</i><br />
+<span class="smcap">Roswell Field</span></h4>
+
+<p class="fm">&nbsp;</p>
+<h5>UNIVERSITY PRESS &middot; JOHN WILSON<br />
+AND SON &middot; CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.</h5>
+
+<hr />
+<p class="center"><i>To</i><br />
+MY GODCHILDREN</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>With the somewhat unnecessary assurance that<br />
+it is not an autobiography, this little<br />
+tale of misconceived attachment<br />
+is affectionately<br />
+inscribed</i>
+</p>
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1" href="#Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>THE ROMANCE <i>of</i><br />
+AN OLD FOOL</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcapn">I</span><span style="margin-left: -.7em;"><b>F</b></span> it had not been for Bunsey, the
+novelist, I might have attained the
+heights. As a critic Bunsey has
+never commanded my highest admiration,
+and yet I have had my tender moments
+for him. From a really exacting standpoint
+he was not much of a novelist, and
+to his failure to win the wealth which is
+supposed to accompany fame I may have
+owed much of the debt of his sustained
+presence and his fondness for my tobacco.
+Bunsey had started out in life with high
+ideals, a resolution to lead the purely literary
+existence and to supply the market
+with a variety of choice, didactic essays
+along the line of high thinking; but the
+demand did not come up to the supply,
+and presently he abandoned his original
+lofty intention in favor of a sort of dubious
+romance. The financial returns, however,
+while a trifle more regular and encouraging,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2" href="#Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>
+were not of sufficient importance to
+justify him in giving up his friendly claims
+on my house, my library, my time, my
+favorite lounge, and my best brand of
+cigars, in return for which he contributed
+philosophic opinions and much strenuous
+advice on topics in general and literature
+in particular.</p>
+
+<p>From my childhood I have been in
+the habit of keeping a diary, a running
+comment on the daily incidents of my
+pleasant but uneventful life, and occasionally,
+when Bunsey's society seemed too
+assertive and familiar, I sought to punish
+him by reading long and numerous excerpts.
+To do him justice he took the
+chastisement meekly, and even insisted
+that I was burying a remarkable talent,
+sometimes going to the magnanimous extreme
+of offering to introduce me to his
+publisher, and to speak a good word for
+me to the editors of certain magazines
+with whom he maintained a brisk correspondence,
+not infrequently of a querulous
+nature. All these friendly offices I gently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3" href="#Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>
+put aside, in recalling the degradation of
+Bunsey's ideals, though I went on tolerating
+Bunsey, who had a good heart and an
+insistent manner. In this way I possibly
+deprived myself of a glorious career.</p>
+
+<p>My ability to befriend Bunsey was due
+to a felicitous chain of circumstances.
+When the late Mrs. Stanhope passed to
+her reward, she considerately left behind
+a document making me the recipient of
+her entire and not inconsiderable fortune.
+This proved a most unexpected blow to
+the church, which had enjoyed the honor
+and pleasure of Mrs. Stanhope's association,
+and which, quite naturally, had
+hoped to profit by her decease. The
+late Mrs. Stanhope, who I neglected to
+say was, in the eyes of Heaven, the world,
+and the law, my wife, had not lived with
+me in that utter abandonment to conjugal
+affection so much to be desired. We
+married to please our families, and we
+lived apart as much as possible to please
+ourselves. Though not without certain
+physical charms, Mrs. Stanhope was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4" href="#Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>
+woman of great moral rigidity and religious
+austerity, who saw life through the
+diminishing end of a sectarian telescope,
+and who cared far more for the distant
+heathen than for the local convivial pagans
+who composed my <i>entourage</i>. She had
+brought to me a considerable sum of
+money, which I had increased by judicious
+investments, and I dare say that it
+was in recognition of my business ability,
+as well as possibly in a moment of
+becoming wifely remorse, that she bequeathed
+to me her property intact. I
+gave her final testimonial services wholly
+in keeping with her standing as a church-woman,
+and I must say for my friends,
+whom she had severely ignored during
+her life, that they behaved very handsomely
+on that mournful occasion. They
+turned out in large numbers, and testified
+in other ways to their regard for her unblemished
+character. I recall, not without
+emotion after all these years, that
+Bunsey's memorial tribute to the church
+paper&mdash;for which he never received a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5" href="#Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>
+dollar&mdash;was a model of appreciation as
+well as of Christian forgiveness and self-forgetfulness.</p>
+
+<p>The passing of Mrs. Stanhope made it
+possible for me to put into operation the
+long-desired plan of retiring a little way
+into the country, not too far from the
+seductions of the club and the city, but
+far enough to conform to the tastes of a
+country gentleman who likes to whistle
+to his dogs, putter over his roses, and
+meditate in a comfortable library with
+the poets and philosophers of his fancy.
+Here, with my good house-keeper, Prudence&mdash;a
+name I chose in preference to
+her mother's selection, Elizabeth&mdash;and
+my gardener and man of affairs, Malachy,
+I lived for a number of years at peace
+with the world and perfectly satisfied with
+myself. Although I was dangerously
+over forty, and my hair, which had been
+impressively dark, was conspicuously gray
+in spots, my figure was good, my dress
+correct, and my mirror told me that I
+was still in a position to be in the matrimonial<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6" href="#Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>
+running if I tried. I mention
+these trifling physical details merely to
+save my modesty the humiliation and
+annoyance of referring to them in future,
+and to prepossess the gentle reader wherever
+the sex makes it highly important.</p>
+
+<p>I do not deny that in certain moments
+of loneliness which come to us, widowers
+and bachelors alike, I had the impulse to
+tempt again the matrimonial fortune, and
+counting on my financial standing, together
+with other attractions, I ran over
+the eligible ladies of my acquaintance.
+But one was a little too old, and another
+was a good deal too flighty. One was
+too fond of society, and another did not
+like dogs. A fifth spoiled her chances
+by an unwomanly ignorance of horticulture,
+and a sixth perished miserably after
+returning to me one of my most cherished
+books with the leaves dog-eared and the
+binding cracked. For I hold with the
+greatest philosophers that she who maltreats
+a book will never make a good
+wife. And so the years slipped cosily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7" href="#Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>
+and cheerily by, while I grew more contented
+with my environment and less
+envious of my married friends, and whenever
+temporary melancholy overtook me
+I moved into the club for a month, or
+slipped across the water, finding in the
+change of scene immediate relief from the
+monotony of widowerhood.</p>
+
+<p>In thus fortifying myself against the
+wiles of woman I was much abetted by
+my good Prudence, who never ceased her
+exhortations as to the sinister designs of
+her sex, and who had a ready word of
+discouragement for any possible candidate
+who might be in the line of succession.
+"I see that Rogers woman walkin' by
+the house to-day, Mr. John," she would
+begin, "and I see her turnin' her nose
+up at the new paint on the arbor." (I
+selected that color myself.) "It's queer
+how that woman does give herself airs,
+considerin' everybody knows she's been
+ready for ten years to take the fust man
+that asks her." Prudence knew that I
+had escorted the elderly Miss Rogers to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8" href="#Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>
+the theatre only the week before, and
+had commented pleasantly on the elegance
+of her figure. But the slight put
+upon my eye for color was too much.
+Wily Prudence!</p>
+
+<p>Or a day or two after I had rendered
+an act of neighborly kindness to the bereaved
+Mrs. Stebbins she would say
+quite casually:</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to utter one word agin
+the poor and afflicted, Mr. John, but
+when the Widder Stebbins hit Cleo with
+a broom to-day I own I b'iled over. I
+shouldn't tell you if it warn't my duty."</p>
+
+<p>Cleopatra was my favorite cocker
+spaniel, and any faint impression my fair
+neighbor may have made on my unguarded
+heart was immediately dispelled.
+Thus subtly and vigilantly my house-keeper
+kept the outer gates of the citadel,
+and shooed away a possible mistress as
+effectually as she dispersed the predatory
+hens from the garden patch.</p>
+
+<p>But with the younger generation of
+women, good Prudence was less cautious.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9" href="#Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>
+Any maiden under the very early twenties
+she regarded fair material for my friendly
+offices, and frequently she visited me
+with expressions commendatory of good
+conduct.</p>
+
+<p>"I likes to see you with the children,
+Mr. John, bless 'em, sir. And they do
+all seem to be so fond of you. There's
+nothin' that keeps the heart so young
+and fresh as goin' with young people,
+just as nothin' ages a man so much as
+havin' a lot of widders and designin' old
+maids about. Of course," she added,
+with a return of her natural suspicion,
+"you are old enough to be father to the
+whole bunch, which keeps people from
+talkin'."</p>
+
+<p>Whether it was Prudence's approbation
+or my own inclination I cannot say,
+but it soon came about that I was on
+paternally familiar terms with the entire
+neighborhood of maidens of reasonably
+tender years, and a very important factor
+in young feminine councils. These artful
+creatures knew exactly when their favorite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10" href="#Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
+roses were in bloom, exactly when the
+cherries back of the house were ripe, exactly
+when it was time to go to town for
+another theatre party, to give a picnic up
+the river, or a small and informal dance
+in the parlors. I was expected to remember
+and observe all birthdays, to be
+a well-spring of benevolence at Christmas,
+and a free and never-failing florist at
+Easter. I was the recipient of all young
+griefs and troubles, and no girl ever committed
+herself unconditionally to the arms
+of her lover until she had talked the
+matter over with Uncle John. All this,
+to a good-looking man of&mdash;well, considerably
+over forty, was flattering, but no
+sinecure.</p>
+
+<p>One morning, in the late spring, it came
+over me unhappily that in a moment of
+fatal forgetfulness I had promised to be
+present that evening at a card-party&mdash;a
+promise exacted by the "Rogers woman,"
+<i>persona non grata</i> to Prudence. A card-party
+was to me in the category with
+battle and murder and sudden death, from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11" href="#Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>
+which we all petition to be delivered in
+the book of common prayer&mdash;but how to
+be delivered? I could not be called suddenly
+to town, for I had already run that
+excuse to its full limit. I could not conveniently
+start for Europe on an hour's
+notice. The plea of sickness I dismissed
+as feminine and unworthy. And while I
+sat debating to what extreme I could tax
+my over-burdened conscience, Malachy appeared
+with the information that he had
+discovered unmistakable signs of cutworms
+in the rose-bushes, and that the local custodians
+of the trees were thundering
+against an impending epidemic of brown-tailed
+moth. Surely my path of duty led
+to the garden. But that card-party? No,
+let the cutworm work his will, and let the
+brown-tailed moth corrupt; I must take
+refuge in flight, however inglorious. It
+was then that the good angel, who never
+forsakes a well-meaning man, whispered
+to me that far back in a quiet corner of
+New England was the little village where
+I had passed my boyhood, which I had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12" href="#Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+deserted for five and twenty years, but
+which still remembered me as "Johnny"
+Stanhope, thanks to the officious longevity
+of the editor of the county paper.</p>
+
+<p>The situation I explained briefly to
+Prudence and Malachy, and swore them
+into the conspiracy. I threw a few clothes
+into a small trunk, despatched a hypocritical
+note of regret to Miss Rogers, caught
+the noon train, and was soon beyond the
+danger line. Mrs. Lot, casting an apprehensive
+glance behind her, could not have
+dreaded more fearful consequences than I,
+looking back on the calamity I was evading.
+But as we went on and on into the
+cool, quiet country, and felt the soft air
+stealing down from the nearing mountains,
+I began to experience a lively sense of relief
+and pleasure, and to wonder why I
+had so long delayed a visit to my boyhood
+home.</p>
+
+<p>I am sorry for the man whose childhood
+knew only the roar and bustle and swiftly
+shifting scenes of the city. For him there
+is no return in after years, no illusion to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13" href="#Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>
+renewed, no joy of youth to be substantiated.
+His habitation has passed away or
+yielded to the inroads of commerce, his
+landmarks have vanished, and he is bewildered
+by the strange sights that time
+and trade have put upon his memories.
+But time has no terrors for the country-bred
+boy. The Almighty does not change
+the mountains and the rivers and the
+great rocks that fortify the scenery, and
+man is slow to push back into the far
+meadowlands and the hillsides, and destroy
+the simple, primitive life of the
+fathers.</p>
+
+<p>All of the joy that such a returning pilgrim
+might have I felt when I left the
+train at the junction, and, scorning the
+pony engine and combination car supplied
+in later years by the railway company as a
+tribute to progress, set out to walk the two
+miles to the village. Every foot of the
+country I had played over as a boy. Here
+was the field where Deacon Skinner did his
+"hayin'"; just beyond the deacon raised
+his tobacco crop. That roof over there,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14" href="#Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+which I once detected as the top of Jim
+Pomeroy's barn, reminded me of the day
+of the raisin', when I sprained my ankle
+and thereby saved myself a thrashing for
+running away. Here was Pickerel Pond,
+the scene of many miraculous draughts,
+and now I crossed Peach brook which
+babbled along under the road just as
+saucily and untiringly as if it had slept
+all these years and was just awaking
+to fresh life. A hundred rods up the
+brook was the Widow Parsons's farm, and
+I knew that if I went through the side
+gate, cut across the barnyard, and kept
+down to the left, I should find that same
+old stump on which Bill Howland sat
+the day he caught the biggest dace ever
+pulled out of the quiet pool.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was going down behind Si
+Thompson's planing mill as I stopped
+at the little red covered bridge that
+marked the boundary of the village.
+Silas had been dead for twenty years, but
+it seemed to me that it was only yester<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15" href="#Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>day
+that I heard his nasal twang above
+the roar of the machinery: "Sa-ay, you
+fellers want to git out o' that!" The
+little bridge had lost much of its color
+and most of its impressiveness, for I
+remembered when to my boyish fancy
+it seemed a greater triumph of engineering
+than the Victoria bridge at Montreal.
+And the same old thrill went through
+me as I started to run&mdash;just as I did
+when a boy&mdash;and felt the planks loosen
+and creak under my feet. Here was a
+home-coming worth the while.</p>
+
+<p>Hank Pettigrew kept the village tavern.
+The memory of man, so far as I knew,
+ran not back to the time when Hank
+did not keep the tavern. So I was not
+in the least surprised, as I entered, to
+see the old man, with his chair tilted
+back against the wall, his knees on a
+level with his chin, and his eyes fixed
+on a chromo of "Muster Day," which
+had descended to him through successive
+generations. He did not move as I
+advanced, or manifest the slightest emo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16" href="#Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>tion
+of surprise, merely saying, "Hullo,
+Johnny," as if he expected me to remark
+that mother had sent me over to see
+if he had any ice cream left over from
+dinner. It probably did not occur to
+Hank that I had been absent twenty-five
+years. If it had occurred to him,
+he would have considered such a trifling
+flight of time not worth mentioning.</p>
+
+<p>With the question of lodging and supper
+disposed of, and with the modest bribe of
+a cigar, which Hank furtively exchanged
+for a more accustomed brand of valley
+leaf, it was not difficult to loosen the
+old landlord's tongue and secure information
+of my playmates. What had
+become of Teddy Grover, the pride of
+our school on exhibition day? Could
+we ever forget the afternoon he stood
+up before the minister and the assembled
+population and roared "Marco Bozzaris"
+until we were sure the sultan was quaking
+in his seraglio? And how he thundered
+"Blaze with your serried columns,
+I will not bend the knee!" To our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17" href="#Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
+excited imaginations what dazzling triumphs
+the future held out for Teddy.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep; Ted's still a-beout. Three days
+in the week he drives stage coach over to
+Spicerville, and the rest o' the time he
+does odd jobs&mdash;sort o' tendin' round."</p>
+
+<p>And Sallie Cotton&mdash;black-eyed, curly-haired,
+mischievous little sprite, the
+agony of the teacher and the love and
+admiration of the boys! Who climbed
+trees, rattled to school in the butcher
+wagon, never knew a lesson, but was
+always leading lady in the school colloquies,
+and was surely destined to rise
+to eminence on the American stage if
+she did not break her neck tumbling out
+of old Skinner's walnut tree?</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Sal; she married the Congregational
+minister down to Peterfield, and
+was 'lected president of the Temperance
+Union and secretary of the Endeavorers.
+Read a piece down at Fust Church last
+week on 'Breakin' Away from Old Standards,'
+illustratin' the alarmin' degen'racy
+of children nowadays."</p>
+
+<p>And George Hawley, our Achilles, our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18" href="#Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>
+Samson, our ideal of everything manly
+and courageous! Strong as an ox and
+brave as a lion! Our champion in every
+form of athletic sports! Who looked with
+contempt on girls and disdained their
+maidenly advances! Who thought only
+of deeds of muscular prowess, and who
+seemed to carry the assurance of a force
+that would lead armies and subdue nations!
+What of George?</p>
+
+<p>"Wa-al, George was a-beout not long
+ago. Had your room for his samples.
+Travellin' for a house down in Boston,
+and comes here reg'lar. Women folks
+say his last line o' shirt waists war the
+best they ever see."</p>
+
+<p>Oh, the times that change, and change
+us! Alas, the fleeting years, good Posthumus,
+that work such havoc with our childhood
+dreams and hopes and aspirations!</p>
+
+<p>It was a relief, after the shattering of
+these idols, to leave the society of the
+communicative Mr. Pettigrew and wander
+into the moonlight. Save as adding
+beauty to the scenery, the moon was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19" href="#Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>
+comparatively of no assistance, for so
+well was the little village stamped on my
+memory, and so little had it changed
+in the quarter of a century, that I
+could have walked blindfolded to any
+suggested point. Naturally I turned my
+steps toward the home of my youth,
+and as I drew near the old-fashioned,
+many-gabled house, with its settled, substantial
+air, austere yet inviting, its large
+yard with the huge elms, and the big lamp
+burning in the library or "sittin'-room,"
+where I first dolefully studied the geography
+that told me of a world outside, it
+seemed to bend toward me rather frigidly
+as if to say reproachfully: "You sold me!
+you sold me!" True, dear old home;
+in my less prosperous days I was guilty of
+the crime of selling the house that faithfully
+sheltered my family for a hundred
+years. But have I not repented? And
+have I not returned to buy you back, and
+to make such further reparation as present
+conditions and true repentance demand?
+Is this less the pleasure than the duty of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20" href="#Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
+wealth?</p>
+
+<p>With what sensations of delight I walked
+softly about the grounds, taking note of
+every familiar tree and bush and stump.
+I could have sworn that not a twig, not a
+blade of grass, had been despoiled or had
+disappeared in the years that marked my
+absence. I paused reverently under the
+old willow tree and affectionately rubbed
+my legs, for from this tree my parents had
+cut the instruments of torture for purposes
+of castigation, and its name, the
+weeping willow, was always associated
+in my infant mind with the direct results
+of contact with my unwilling person. On
+a level with the top of the willow was the
+little attic room where I slept, and the more
+sweetly when the crickets chirped, or the
+summer rain beat upon the roof, and where
+the song of the birds in the morning is
+the happiest music God has given to the
+country. Back of the woodshed I found
+the remains of an old grindstone, perhaps
+the same heavy crank I had so often perspiringly
+and reluctantly turned. Indeed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21" href="#Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>
+my reviving memories were rather too
+generously connected with the strenuousness
+and not the pleasures of youth, but I
+thought of the well-filled lot in the old
+burying-ground on the hillside, and of
+those lying there who had said: "My
+boy, I am doing this for your good." I
+doubted it at the time, but perhaps they
+were right. At all events the memories
+were growing pleasanter, for a stretch of
+thirty-five years has many healing qualities,
+and our childhood griefs are such little
+things in the afterglow.</p>
+
+<p>In the early morning I renewed my rambles,
+going first to the little frame school-house,
+the old church with its tall spire,
+the saw-mill, the deacon's cider press, the
+swimming pool, and a dozen other places
+of boyish adventure and misadventure.
+Your true sentimentalist invariably gives
+the preference to scenes over persons, and
+is so often rewarded by the fidelity with
+which they respond to his eager expectations.
+It was not until I had exhausted
+every incident of the place that I sought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22" href="#Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
+out the companions of my school-days.
+What strange irony of fate is that which
+sends some of us out into the restless world
+to grow away from our old ideals and make
+others, and restrains some in the monotonous
+rut of village life, to drone peacefully
+their little span! But happy he, who,
+knowing nothing, misses nothing. If there
+were any village Hampdens, or mute, inglorious
+Miltons among my playmates, they
+gave no present indications. I found the
+girls considerably older than I expected,
+the boys less interesting than I hoped;
+but they all welcomed me with that grave,
+unemotional hospitality of the village, and
+we talked, far into the shadows, of our
+schooltime, the day that is never dead
+while memory endures.</p>
+
+<p>And so it came about that at the close
+of day I found myself standing at the
+garden gate of the Eastmann cottage.
+Peleg Eastmann had been our village postmaster,
+a grave, shy man, who had received
+the federal office because the thrifty
+neighbors agreed, irrespective of political<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23" href="#Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>
+feeling, that it was much less expensive to
+give him the office than to support him
+and his two daughters, the prettiest girls
+in our school. For they further agreed
+that Peleg was a "shif'less sort o' critter"
+and never could make a living, though
+he was a model postmaster and an excellent
+citizen and neighbor. Hence, when
+it came Peleg's turn to make the journey
+to the burying-ground in the village hearse,
+the whole community of Meadowvale was
+scandalized by the discovery that he had
+left his girls a comfortable little fortune,
+enough to keep them in modest wealth.
+Meadowvale never recovered from this
+shock. It felt that it had been victimized,
+and that its tenderest sensibility had
+been violated, and when his disconsolate
+daughters put up the granite shaft to their
+father's memory, relating that he had
+been faithful and just, the indignant political
+leader of the village remarked that it
+was "profanation of Scriptur'."</p>
+
+<p>Thirty years ago I had stood at this
+little gate with one of the Eastmann<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24" href="#Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+girls, escorting her home from Stella Perkins's
+party. I had attempted to kiss her
+good-night, and she had boxed my ears,
+thus contributing a disagreeable finale to
+an otherwise pleasant evening. Time is a
+great healer and I cherished no resentment
+at this late day toward the repudiator
+of my caresses. In fact I smiled in recollection
+of the incident as I walked up the
+gravelled path and knocked at the door.
+I wondered if the same vivacious, rosy-cheeked
+girl would come to meet me, and
+if I should feel in duty bound to make
+honorable amends. The door was opened
+by a tall, spare woman, who carried a
+lamp. The light reflected directly on
+her features, showed a face that in any
+other part of the world would be called
+hard; in New England it is merely resolute.
+It was the face of a woman fifty
+years of age, with massive chin, slightly
+sunken cheeks, a prominent nose, heavy
+eyebrows, and a high forehead rather
+scantily streaked by gray hair. There
+was no trace of the girlish bloom I had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25" href="#Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+known, of the beauty that once had been
+hers, but the imperious manner of the
+woman was unmistakable.</p>
+
+<p>"Mary," I began jocularly, "I have
+come to apologize."</p>
+
+<p>She thrust the lamp forward, peered
+into my face, and said, with not the faintest
+trace of a smile or the slightest evidence
+of embarrassment:</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that's all right, Johnny Stanhope.
+I accept your apology. Come
+right in."</p>
+
+<p>I went in. We sat in the sitting-room
+and talked of our school-days and our
+fortunes. I told her how I had gone
+down to the city, how I had prospered,
+of my adventures in the world, of my
+marriage&mdash;dealing very gently with my
+relations with the late Mrs. Stanhope&mdash;of
+my bereavement and present idyllic
+existence. And she told me of herself,
+how she had lived on and on in the little
+cottage, caring only for the support and
+education of her niece, Phyllis Kinglake,
+an orphan for nearly twenty years. "You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26" href="#Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+remember Sylvia?" she said, with the first
+touch of emotion.</p>
+
+<p>Did I remember Sylvia? My little
+fair-haired playmate with the large eyes
+and the blue veins showing through the
+delicate beauty of her face? Little Sylvia,
+who first won my boyish affection, and
+with whom I made a solemn contract of
+marriage when we were only seven years
+old? Did I not remember how I would
+pass her house on my way to school, and
+stand at the gate and whistle until she
+came shyly out, with her face as red as
+her little hood and tippet, and give me
+her books to carry, and protest with the
+ever present coquetry of girlhood that
+she thought I had gone long ago? Could
+I ever forget how I saved my coppers,
+one by one, until I had accumulated a
+sum large enough to buy a whole cocoanut,
+which I presented to her in the
+proudest moment of my life, and how the
+other girls tossed their heads with the affectation
+of a sneer, and with pretended
+indifference to this astonishing stroke of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27" href="#Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+fortune? And that fatal evening when
+I provoked my little beauty's wrath,
+and in all the receding opportunities of
+"Post-Office" and "Copenhagen" she
+had turned her face and rosy lips away
+from me, until the world was black with
+a hopeless despair? And the singing-school
+where she was our shining ornament,
+and that blissful night when I
+stood up with her in the village church,
+while we sang our duet descriptive of the
+special virtues of some particular flower
+nominated in the cantata? And how,
+growing older and shyer, we still preserved
+our youthful fancy even to the
+day I struck out into the world, both
+believing in the endurance of the tie that
+would draw me back? What caprice of
+fate is it that dispels the illusions of youth
+and restores them tenfold in the reflection
+of after years and over the gulf of
+the grave? Did I remember Sylvia?</p>
+
+<p>Then Mary went on to tell me of
+Sylvia's happy marriage to George Kinglake,
+how, when little Phyllis had come,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28" href="#Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>
+and the world was at its brightest, the
+parents had been stricken down in the
+same week by a virulent disease, and
+how, with her dying breath, the mother
+had asked her sister to look after her
+little one and protect her from sorrow
+and harm. Very simply this stern-featured
+woman told the story of her efforts to
+do her duty to her sister's child, and it
+seemed to me that her face grew softer
+and her voice gentler as she went over
+the years they had grown older together,
+while the beauty of this woman's life
+was glorified by the willing sacrifices of
+imposed motherhood. I could not see
+Phyllis, for she was spending the night
+with friends in another part of the village.
+Next time, she hoped, I might be more
+successful.</p>
+
+<p>Walking slowly to the tavern my mind
+still went back to my little playmate and
+the golden days of youth, and if my
+heart grew a little tenderer, and my eyes
+were moistened by the recall, what need
+to be ashamed of the emotion? And if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29" href="#Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
+in the night I dreamed that I was a boy
+again, and that a fair-haired child played
+with me in the changing glow of dreamland
+in the best and purest scenes of the
+human comedy, was it a delusion to be
+dispelled, a memory to be put aside?
+Did I remember Sylvia?</p>
+<hr />
+<p>&nbsp;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30" href="#Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span style="margin-left: -.7em;"><b>HE</b></span> thought that my train was to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31" href="#Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>
+leave at ten o'clock did not
+depress me as I awoke, with the
+sunlight streaming through the window,
+for, after all, I was obliged to admit that the
+monotony of Meadowvale and the sluggishness
+of my village friends were beginning
+to have an appreciable effect. Then
+the memory of little Sylvia came to me
+again, and nothing seemed pleasanter, as
+a benediction to the old days, than a
+visit to the burying-ground where she
+was sleeping. The previous day I had
+paid the obligations of remembrance and
+respect to the graves of my kindred, and
+it gave me at first an uncomfortable feeling
+to realize that the thought of them
+was less potent than the recollection of
+this young girl. But was it strange or
+inexcusable? Had they not lived out
+their lives of honored usefulness, and
+grown old and weary of the battle? And
+had not she passed away just as the
+greater joys of living were unfolding,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32" href="#Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+and the assurance of happiness was the
+stronger? Poor Sylvia!</p>
+
+<p>The spectacle of a correctly dressed,
+middle-aged man passing down the street,
+bearing a somewhat cumbersome burden
+of lilies-of-the-valley and forget-me-nots,
+must have had its peculiar significance
+to the inhabitants of the village, and
+many curious glances were my reward.
+I passed along, however, without explanations
+in distinct violation of rural
+etiquette. The old caretaker of the
+burying-ground met me at the entrance
+and gave me the directions&mdash;second
+path to the right, half way up the hill,
+just to the left of the big elm. The old
+man had known me as a boy and would
+have detained me in conversation, but
+I pleaded that my time was short, and
+reluctantly he let me go my way. Slowly
+up the hill I walked, occasionally pausing
+to place a forget-me-not on the grave
+of one I had known in childhood. Even
+old Barrows did not escape my passing
+tribute&mdash;a cynical, cross-grained old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33" href="#Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>
+fellow, the aversion of the boys, who
+tormented him and whom he tormented
+with reciprocal vigor. No need of a
+forget-me-not for Barrows, for he never
+forgot anything, so I gave his somewhat
+neglected grave the token of a long stem
+of little lilies, in evidence that the past
+was forgiven, and moved on to avoid
+possible protestation.</p>
+
+<p>I paused under the wide-branching elm
+to recover my breath. The assent had
+been arduous for a gentleman inclined
+to portliness and with wind impaired by
+tobacco. I turned to the left, and at
+that moment, just before me, a woman's
+figure slowly rose from the ground. A
+creeping sensation possessed me. My
+heart bounded and my pulses thrilled.
+Was this Sylvia risen from the dead?
+Surely it was Sylvia's graceful girlish
+form! This was Sylvia's oval face, with
+Sylvia's large gray eyes. In such a way
+Sylvia's pretty light hair waved about
+her temples, and the pink and white
+of her delicate complexion revealed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34" href="#Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
+blue veins. Twenty-five years had rolled
+back in an instant, and I was standing in
+the presence of the past. Alas, the swift
+passing of the illusion, for the conversation
+of the evening came to me.</p>
+
+<p>"You are Phyllis?" I said.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Phyllis," she answered softly&mdash;her
+mother's voice&mdash;"and you are
+Mr. Stanhope. My aunt told me."</p>
+
+<p>I did not answer, for I was staring
+stupidly at her, reluctant to abandon
+the pleasing fancy that my thinking
+of her had brought her back from the
+dead again. She did not speak, but
+glanced inquiringly at the flowers I held
+in my hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew your mother, Phyllis," I
+managed to say. "She was a very dear
+playmate of my childhood. I have
+brought these flowers to put upon her
+grave. Shall we go together?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl's eyes filled, and she pointed
+to the rising mound at her feet. Silently
+we bent over and reverently laid the
+lilies and forget-me-nots under the simple<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35" href="#Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>
+headstone.</p>
+
+<p>"May I talk to you of your mother?"
+I asked.</p>
+
+<p>We sat down on a rude bench in the
+path, and I told her of my childhood, of
+the days when Sylvia and I were sweethearts,
+of our little quarrels and frolics,
+of her mother's beauty and gentleness.
+The girl laughed at the recital of our
+misadventures, and the tears came into
+her eyes when I touched on my boyish
+affection for my playmate. Then she
+told me of her own life, so peaceful and
+happy in the little village, and in the
+neighboring town, where she had been
+educated with all the care and diligence
+of the New England impulse. I looked
+at my watch.</p>
+
+<p>"It is quarter past eleven," I said ruefully,
+"and my train left at ten."</p>
+
+<p>"There's another train at three," she
+replied. "You will go home and dine
+with us? We dine at twelve in the country,
+you know."</p>
+
+<p>If I was somewhat ashamed to face<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36" href="#Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>
+Mary Eastmann, she received us with the
+same stolidity she had manifested when
+we first met, and at once insisted that I
+should remain for dinner. "Go into the
+parlor," she said abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>Phyllis plucked the sleeve of my coat.
+"Don't go in there," she whispered;
+"that's Aunt Mary's room exclusively,
+and I'm afraid you'll not find it very
+cheerful. Come out on the porch."</p>
+
+<p>"I know the room," I whispered back,
+as we went out together. "At least I
+know the type. Lots of horse-hair belongings.
+Square piano against the wall.
+Wax flowers under a glass case on the
+mantel. Steel engravings of Washington
+crossing the Delaware. Family album,
+huge Bible, and 'Famous Women of Two
+Centuries' on the centre table. Seashells,
+blue wedgwood and German china things
+mingled in delightful confusion on the
+what-not. If not wax flowers, it's wax
+fruit."</p>
+
+<p>Phyllis laughed&mdash;how much her laugh
+was like her mother's&mdash;and nodded her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37" href="#Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+head. "Not a bad description," she assented;
+"you must have the gift of second
+sight."</p>
+
+<p>"Not second sight. Suppose we call it
+the gift of second childhood."</p>
+
+<p>We sat on the porch and looked down
+on the lawn that sloped to the orchard,
+and watched the robins run across
+the grass. And I pointed out to
+Phyllis the very tree under which Sylvia
+and I had stood the day we had our first
+memorable quarrel, confessing that while
+at the time there was no doubt in my
+mind that Sylvia was clearly at fault, I was
+now prepared to concede, after plenty of
+reflection, that possibly she might have
+had a reasonable defence. The recital of
+this pathetic incident led to other reminiscences
+connected with the old house and
+its grounds, and I was hardly in the
+second chapter when Mary came out and
+ordered us in to dinner. Mary never invited,
+never requested; she merely ordered.
+We sat at the table, and at a severe look
+from Mary I stopped fumbling with my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38" href="#Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
+napkin, while Phyllis&mdash;sweet saint!&mdash;folded
+her hands and asked the divine
+blessing. Pagan philosopher that
+I was, I was singularly moved by the
+simple faith of these two women, and I
+think that when I am led back into the
+fold of my family creed, a girl as young
+and fair and holy as Phyllis will be the
+angel to guide me.</p>
+
+<p>The dinner was toothsome, the environment
+fascinating, the afternoon perfect,
+and so it came about quite naturally that
+I missed the three-o'clock train. "There is
+nothing so disagreeable in life," I explained
+apologetically to my friends, "as a hard
+and fast schedule, which keeps one jumping
+like an electric clock, doing sixty
+things every hour and never varying the
+performance. Fortunately trains run every
+day except Sunday, and the general order
+of the universe is not going to be upset
+because I am not checking myself off like
+a section-hand."</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps Mary did not wholly coincide
+with my argument, but she was called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39" href="#Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
+away to her sewing-circle, while Phyllis
+and I lounged lazily on the porch, I continuing
+my reminiscences. Garrulity is
+not merely the prerogative of age; the
+privilege of the monologue is always that
+of the old boy who comes back to his
+childhood's home and finds in a pretty
+girl a charming and attentive listener. He
+is a poor orator, indeed, who cannot improve
+such opportunities. At a convenient
+lull in the flow of discourse we went
+off to ride, exploring the country roads
+I knew so well, and here began new
+matter and new reminiscences, patiently
+endured by Phyllis, who was a most delightful
+girl. And when we returned
+late in the afternoon it was directly in the
+line of circumstances that I should remain
+for tea; and after tea Phyllis played and
+sang for me in the little parlor, for Phyllis
+was a musician of no small merit. When
+in reply to my inquiry she sang a simple
+Scotch ballad her mother had sung so
+touchingly many years before, a great
+lump rose in my throat, and I sat far over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40" href="#Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
+in the shadow that she and Mary might
+not see how blurred were my eyes, and
+how unmanageable my emotion. At what
+age does it come to a man and a philosopher
+that he is no longer ashamed of
+honest, sympathetic tears?</p>
+
+<p>I shall never know whether it was the
+journey in the train, the air and cooking
+of Meadowvale, or the visits to the burying-ground,
+that upset me, but for the
+first time in a dozen years I found myself
+dissatisfied with my home. I remarked
+to Malachy that the roses seemed to be
+in a most discouraging condition, and
+that the garden in general was altogether
+disappointing. I noticed that my dogs
+barked a great deal, that the neighbors
+had become most tiresome, and that
+Bunsey was an unmitigated nuisance.
+Even the cuisine, which had been my
+pride and boast, grew at times unbearable,
+and I had not been home a fortnight
+before I astonished Prudence by
+positively assuring her that the dinner
+she had set before me was not worth any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41" href="#Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
+sane man's serious attention. Whereupon
+that excellent woman announced
+with superb pride that she "guessed it
+was about time for that Rogers woman
+to give another card-party."</p>
+
+<p>"Prudence," I said severely, for I
+encourage no flippancy on the part of
+domestics, "that remark, while probably
+hasty and ill-considered, borders on impertinence.
+I shall overlook it this time
+on account of your faithful services in
+the past. But don't let it happen again.
+In any event," I amended considerately,
+"don't let it drop in my presence."</p>
+
+<p>Thinking it over I came to the conclusion
+that Prudence was right in the
+general effect of the suggestion. What I
+needed was a change of scene. Long
+abstention from travel and variety of
+incident had made me restless and discontented.
+I had not been in Europe for
+two years. Undoubtedly I was pining
+for a lazy tour of the Continent. The
+thought decided me. I should book my
+passage on the steamer that sailed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42" href="#Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
+Saturday of the following week.</p>
+
+<p>Strangely enough, at this interesting
+moment, I received a letter from the
+chairman of the committee on public improvements
+in the village of Meadowvale,
+announcing that it had been resolved to
+procure new rooms for the village library,
+and would Mr. John Stanhope do his
+native village the honor of subscribing a
+small amount toward this desirable end.
+As it is always much easier for an indolent
+man to telegraph than to write letters,
+I replied by wire that Mr. Stanhope
+felt himself much honored by the request.
+Not entirely satisfied with this confession,
+I sent a second telegram an hour
+later doubling my subscription. Still
+my conscience troubled me.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not done my duty," I said to
+myself. "Here I am, a man of means,
+I may say of large wealth, with no special
+obligations resting upon me, and yet I
+have done nothing to benefit or enrich
+my old home. It is strange that it has
+not occurred to me before what a privilege,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43" href="#Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
+what an honor, it is to be a philanthropist
+even in a small way, and with
+what alacrity those whom Heaven has
+blessed with a fortune should respond to
+the calls of deserving need. I blush for
+my past thoughtlessness, and I shall
+hasten to atone for my astonishing neglect.
+My duty lies before me, and I
+shall not shrink from it, whatever the
+personal inconvenience."</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon I telegraphed for the third
+time to the chairman that it would give
+Mr. Stanhope the greatest pleasure to
+put up a suitable library for the village
+of Meadowvale, and, in order to guard
+against any possible misunderstanding,
+he would depart the following day to
+confer with the committee as to site and
+probable extent of the structure. This
+concession to my conscience comforted
+me greatly, and I prepared for my journey
+with a lightness that was almost
+buoyancy. The chairman and two of
+the committee met me at the junction.
+They were most deprecatory and apologetic,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44" href="#Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
+and mentioned with evident sorrow
+the absence of several of the members
+which might cause a postponement of
+the conference until the following day.
+I bore up under this intelligence with
+astonishing cheerfulness.</p>
+
+<p>"My good friends," I said, "don't let
+this disturb you for a minute. I am not
+so pressed for time that I cannot wait
+on your reasonable convenience. Your
+tavern is well kept and the food is wholesome.
+I think I may say that my old
+friends in Meadowvale will interest me
+until we can come to an amicable understanding.
+Suppose, to be sure of a full
+meeting, that we fix the time of conference
+at day after to-morrow&mdash;a little late
+in the afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>After this suggestion had been received
+with suitable expressions of gratitude, we
+journeyed together to the village, where
+I was duly turned over to old Pettigrew.
+And then, as the day was by no means
+done, I strolled down the street and,
+most naturally and quite unthinkingly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45" href="#Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+found myself a few minutes later looking
+over the Eastmann gate at Phyllis on the
+porch. To say that this charming girl
+was surprised by my sudden appearance
+was no less true than to admit that she
+did not seem in the least displeased.
+I positively had no intention of going
+in, but before I knew it I was sitting
+beside her, relating in the most casual
+way the reason of my coming.</p>
+
+<p>"How good it was of you," said the
+ingenuous creature, "and how delighted
+and grateful Meadowvale will be. It
+must be glorious to be rich enough to
+do things for other people."</p>
+
+<p>Now it is not a disagreeable sensation
+to feel that one is rich and good and
+glorious in the large gray eyes of a very
+pretty woman, and I was conscious of
+the mild intoxication from the compliment.
+"It is, indeed," I answered magnanimously.
+"I have always maintained
+that money is given to us in trust for
+those around us, and that in making
+others happy we find our greatest happiness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46" href="#Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+I regret that I have not wholly
+lived up to this undeniably correct
+principle."</p>
+
+<p>"It will require at least a thousand
+dollars," she said na&iuml;vely.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, at least."</p>
+
+<p>She was silent a moment. Then she
+said: "I was wondering what I would
+do if I had a thousand dollars to give
+away."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think you would do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Speaking for my own preferences I
+think I should like to establish a country
+club."</p>
+
+<p>"The very thing. If there is one crying
+want more than another in Meadowvale
+it is a country club, with golf links,
+tennis courts, and shower baths."</p>
+
+<p>"Now you are laughing at me."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. Fancy old Hank and
+you playing a foursome with Aunt Mary
+and me for the cider and apples. Why,
+it would add years of robustness to our
+waning lives."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the girl decisively. "It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47" href="#Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+isn't feasible."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," I went on musingly, "we
+might have an Art Institute, or the
+Phyllis Kinglake School of Expression,
+or the Meadowvale Woman's Club, or
+the Colonial Dames, or, best of all, the
+Daughters of the American Revolution."</p>
+
+<p>"That shows how little you appreciate
+the local situation," she responded quickly,
+"for your best of all is worse and worse.
+Imagine an order of Daughters in a place
+where every woman's ancestors did nothing
+but fight in the Revolution. As
+well call a town meeting at once. Ah,"&mdash;with
+a sigh&mdash;"I see that I shall
+never spend the thousand dollars in
+Meadowvale."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be too sure of that, my dear
+Phyllis," I exclaimed in an outburst, for
+I was in a particularly happy and generous
+mood; "and remember that when
+you do decide how the money is to be
+philanthropically invested we shall see
+that it is forthcoming."</p>
+
+<p>With such agreeable banter the minutes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48" href="#Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
+slipped away, and when Mary appeared
+with the customary invitation to tea, it
+would have been a jolt to the harmonious
+order of things to decline. I cannot say
+that I have ever cordially approved the
+austerity of the New England tea-table,
+with its cold bread and biscuits, its applesauce,
+its frugal allowance of sardines,
+its basket of cake, and its not very stimulating
+pot of tea. But such are the compensations
+of pleasant society that even
+these chilly viands may be forgotten, and
+I said my "Amen" to Phyllis's sweet and
+modest grace with all the heartiness of a
+thankful man. As no gentleman may, with
+propriety, run away immediately after he
+has accepted hospitality, I lingered in the
+evening, and we had more music, which
+so calmed and rested me that I wondered
+at my past nervousness and marvelled that
+I had even contemplated a journey across
+the water.</p>
+
+<p>How it came about that the next morning
+Phyllis and I were strolling over the
+village, down by the river and into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49" href="#Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>
+pleasant woods, I have forgotten, but
+I dare say that we were discussing
+further developments of philanthropy,
+and endeavoring to come to a conclusion
+as to the proper disposition
+of that troublesome thousand dollars.
+The girl was so young and joyous, so
+pretty, so arch, so fascinating with that
+little coquettishness that is not the usual
+type of the Puritan maiden, I could not
+find it in my heart to remember Mary's
+words and "try to instil in her a closer
+appreciation of the more serious purposes
+of life." Indeed life is so serious
+that it is one of the blessed decrees of
+Mother Nature that we have that brief
+allotment of time when it is too serious
+to think about, and youth passes so
+quickly that it is criminal to rob it of its
+golden hour. In such a presence I felt
+my own spirits rising, my step becoming
+springy, my whole nature less sluggish,
+and, had I looked in the mirror, I should
+have confidently expected to see a youthful
+bloom in my cheeks and a return of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50" href="#Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>
+hair to primary conditions.</p>
+
+<p>It is due to this interesting young
+woman to say that she coyly urged me
+not to forget my other friends, since I
+was to leave so soon, and it pleased me
+to fancy that she was not altogether offended
+when I spoke somewhat hastily
+and rather flippantly of those of my former
+companions who had lapsed into
+tediousness. I reminded her also that
+as the happiest memory of my childhood
+was associated with her mother, so it was
+sweet to me to be with her and live again,
+in a pleasant dream, the brightness of the
+past. Then, for her mother's sake, she
+shyly let me take her hand while I went
+over again, not without emotion, the
+story of my early love. Dear little Sylvia!</p>
+
+<p>The meeting of the committee was followed
+by a general congregation of citizens,
+and I was invited to the platform,
+where I outlined my plans. I hinted
+that the library was merely the beginning
+of a number of beneficences which I desired
+to contribute to Meadowvale's prosperity,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51" href="#Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+and as I looked down upon my
+listeners and caught sight of Phyllis,
+glancing up with flushed cheeks and sparkling
+eyes, I was nearly betrayed into promises
+of the most preposterous nature. At
+the end of my remarks&mdash;I recall that I
+spoke with unusual grace and eloquence&mdash;the
+chairman stood up and gravely
+thanked me, intimating that I was a credit
+to Meadowvale and its perfect public
+school system. I fancy I should have
+been applauded if it had been compatible
+with the nature of the people of
+Meadowvale to make so riotous a demonstration.
+At the close of the meeting it
+happened, by the purest accident, that I
+walked home with Mary and Phyllis,
+and when Mary said in her blunt way
+that I really had been most generous,
+Phyllis did not speak, but she
+slipped her hand under my arm and gave
+me an appreciative little squeeze, which
+made me regret that I had not pledged
+another thousand.</p>
+
+<p>I was to leave the next morning, thanks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52" href="#Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+to the officious members of the committee,
+who had so blunderingly hurried
+matters to accommodate me that I had no
+longer an excuse of remaining. And it
+was for this reason that I went in and sat
+again in the little parlor, while Phyllis sang
+for me the songs that were my favorites,
+and some her mother sang in the long
+ago. Memories were again pleasantly
+stirred within me, as was not infrequent
+in those days, and I experienced all the
+happiness that comes to him who is persuaded
+that he has made himself a little
+above the ordinary attractions of the
+earth. In this excess of good feeling,
+and stimulated alike by the music and
+the consciousness of a philanthropic impulse,
+I waited until the moment of parting
+before declaring definitely my excellent
+intentions.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Mary," I began, turning to
+that admirable spinster, "you know how
+our childhood was linked by a close family
+feeling, and how you and Sylvia and I
+planned in our simple ambitions to live<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53" href="#Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>
+together in the great world outside. We
+may say now that this was childish romance,
+and that the caprice of time has
+made it an idle fancy. For many years
+we have been separated, and only by a
+happy chance have we been brought together.
+Fortune has been kind to me.
+I am called a rich man, and I believe I
+may say without boasting that I am far
+beyond the need of anxiety. But to a
+degree I am a lonely man. My sister's
+child is my one near relative in the world,
+and he is a young man with an excellent
+business, able to take care of himself,
+and naturally engrossed with his own
+occupations. You can understand that
+at my time of life, alone as I am, and
+still young enough to appreciate the joys
+of living, I have a feeling of desolation
+for which no riches can compensate.
+Had fortune given me a daughter, like
+our Phyllis here, I think no happiness
+could have been so great. It has pleased
+me to look back upon the past, to recall
+the days of our childhood, and to see in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54" href="#Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>
+Phyllis the image of her mother. Why
+can I not link the present and the future
+with the past? Why can I not look on
+Phyllis as my own daughter, and give to
+her all the father love I have learned to
+feel? I do not rob you either of her love
+or her presence. I merely add a new
+joy to my life, and know that in caring
+for you both and in contributing to her
+happiness, and securing her against misfortune
+after we are taken away, I am
+carrying out the pledge, however idle at
+the time, I made to Sylvia."</p>
+
+<p>I fancied I saw what may have been
+the suspicion of a tear in Mary Eastmann's
+eye. It vanished as quickly as it
+came, and when she spoke and thanked
+me for my generous offer, her voice was
+as calm and her manner as collected as
+if I had made a casual suggestion for
+attendance at a prayer meeting. She could
+not deny that the opportunity was too
+enticing to be ignored, and she admitted
+that my fatherly proposition was distinctly
+advantageous. Her New England<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55" href="#Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+independence rather revolted at the
+thought of any immediate financial assistance,
+which was not needed, while her
+New England thrift approved a future
+settlement based on family friendliness
+of many years' standing. On the whole
+she was inclined to be favorable to my
+point of view.</p>
+
+<p>As for Phyllis, she had listened to me
+with undisguised amazement. Her big
+gray eyes had grown larger, and the
+color left her cheeks as I finished. Then
+the rosy red rushed back, her lip quivered
+and the tears sprang to her eyes. A
+moment later she smiled, then laughed,
+and was serious again. How incomprehensible
+are these young girls! Poor
+child! she had never known a father's
+love.</p>
+
+<p>Phyllis followed me to the door. The
+light, streaming from the parlor, shone
+squarely on her exquisite face. A thrill
+of pleasure went through me as I realized
+that at last I had a daughter whom I
+could love and cherish. I took her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56" href="#Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
+hand in both of mine, and, as I released
+it, I parted the light, wavy hair, and
+kissed her forehead. It seemed to me
+that she trembled slightly, but in a
+moment she was herself, and a gleam
+of merriment was in her eyes, as she
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you will write to me&mdash;papa?"</p>
+
+<p>Doubtless the novelty of the situation
+made me just a little embarrassed. To
+be called "papa" the first time by a
+pretty girl was more embarrassing than
+I had expected. And why that half-laugh
+in her eye, and why that almost
+quizzical tone? Was I not kind and
+good enough to be her father, and had I
+not tried to show her every paternal consideration?
+Was I not honestly endeavoring
+to fulfil a sacred pledge? I
+was perplexed but not discouraged. "I
+will prove to her," I said to myself with
+firmness, "that I am entirely worthy of
+her filial affection, and that she may lean
+confidently upon me." And I went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57" href="#Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+straightway to bed, and dreamed of her
+all night as every true father should
+dream of the daughter of his heart and
+his hope.</p>
+<hr />
+<p>&nbsp;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58" href="#Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="dropcapn">I</span><span style="margin-left: -.7em;"><b>N</b></span> the very nature of things it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59" href="#Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
+necessary that I should return frequently
+to Meadowvale, to confer
+with the village committee and make all
+proper arrangements for beginning so
+important a local enterprise. While this
+put an end to my projected trip to
+Europe I accepted the situation with
+calmness and forbearance, satisfied that
+in the pursuit of duty and in giving
+happiness to my fellow creatures I should
+have the reward of an approving conscience.
+To my nephew, Frederick Grinnell,
+I gave the task of preparing the
+plans, and his excellent suggestions were
+cordially adopted. Much of my spare
+time&mdash;and it is amazing how much spare
+time one has in a village&mdash;was spent
+at the Eastmann cottage with my new
+daughter, and in the evening I talked
+to her of the world outside, quite, I
+fancy, as Othello may have spoken to
+Desdemona, but with a more conservative
+and a better impulse. I unfolded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60" href="#Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>
+to her the wonders of great London, the
+pleasures of Paris, the beauties of Venice,
+the sacred mysteries of Rome, the noble
+traditions of Athens. I journeyed with
+her up the Nile and down the Rhine.
+One night we were in gay Vienna,
+another in Berlin, a third in the grandeur
+of the Alhambra. From the fjords of
+Norway to the tea houses of Japan was
+the journey of a few minutes, and the
+indifference of my surfeited life gave
+way before the kindling enthusiasm of
+this lovely country girl, whose world had
+been the area of scarcely more than a
+township.</p>
+
+<p>But the paternal relation, however
+honest and commendable my intentions,
+did not seem to thrive as I had fondly
+hoped. Only in her teasing moments
+would this vivacious creature admit the
+solemnity of our compact, and when she
+called me "papa" there was always that
+gleam of the eye, with that merriment
+of tone, which may not have been disrespectful
+but was certainly not filial.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61" href="#Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>
+This troubled me exceedingly. I thought
+it all over and one night I said to her:</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Phyllis, it has become only
+too evident that you do not entertain
+that deferential feeling for me which a
+daughter should have for a father. I
+shall not describe your emotions as I
+have analyzed them, but I am satisfied
+that we shall not make a complete success
+of my long cherished plan. However, I
+am not prepared to withdraw unreservedly
+from my schemes for your comfort and
+happiness, and since you cannot look upon
+me as a father, or treat me like a father,
+I have another suggestion to offer. Let
+me be your elder brother, and watch over
+and guard you as a brother's duty should
+direct. There shall be no diminution of
+my love, no retraction of my promises.
+Perhaps, in the feeling that I am your
+brother, you will talk with me with greater
+frankness, and feel more closely drawn to
+me, and we shall be all the better and the
+happier for the change."</p>
+
+<p>Thus speaking I took her pretty hand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62" href="#Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>
+and carried it respectfully to my lips,
+at the same time patting it affectionately
+and assuring her of my brotherly devotion.
+And this incomprehensible girl threw back
+her head and laughed; then burst into
+tears, laughed again, flushed to crimson
+and ran out of the room. I was grieved
+beyond measure. Had I done wrong so
+quickly and rudely to sever a connection
+so holy? Had the filial feeling been suddenly
+awakened in her breast? Was I
+depriving this poor child of a tender
+paternal care, for which she longed, but
+which maidenly coyness could not immediately
+accept?</p>
+
+<p>As a philosopher I have made woman
+the subject of much research, and my
+library bears witness to the attention I
+have paid to the written opinions of the
+ablest writers and thinkers of all times,
+who have had anything to do with this
+fascinating theme. I have seen her in all
+her phases, analyzed her in all her emotions,
+and Bunsey has admitted to me
+that my theoretical knowledge has been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63" href="#Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
+of great value to him in dealing subtly
+with his heroines. And yet, despite my
+complete equipment in mental construction,
+I am constantly surprised by a
+new development, a sudden and unaccountable
+phenomenon of feminine nature,
+which undoubtedly escaped the
+experience and reasoning of the experts
+and sages. It is indeed a matter of pride
+in woman that while man has studied her
+for thousands of years, she continues to
+exhibit fresh delights in her infinite variety
+of moods and to put forth unexpectedly
+new and astounding shoots.</p>
+
+<p>I saw Phyllis no more that evening,
+save in my dreams, and it was wholly
+creditable to the goodness of my motives
+and the sincerity of my affection that she
+abided with me in my slumbering fancies
+with no protracted intermissions. The
+next day she was as sweet and gracious as
+ever, but I thought her tone a little constrained,
+and when, as a father or brother
+should, I ventured to speak of the tenderness
+of our family relation, a half-imploring
+look came into her beautiful eyes. And<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64" href="#Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+when I casually remarked on the softness
+of her hair, or the slenderness of her fingers,
+her glance was timidly reproachful.
+All this gave me great unhappiness, and I
+discovered, to my further distress, that in
+my attempt to return to the old familiar
+footing I was neglecting the committee and
+losing interest in the affairs of the library.
+A certain peevishness took possession of
+me; I was no longer myself, and I lost
+the gayety and sprightliness which had
+been always my distinguishing virtues.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore I missed the companionship
+and solace of my books in this emergency,
+for I had no reference library to
+which I could go in Meadowvale for aid
+in establishing the true condition of this
+strange girl. I recalled dimly that somewhere
+on my shelves was a volume which
+contained a fairly analogous case, but while
+I knew that I possessed such a book I
+could not remember the circumstances or
+the incidents cited, and this added to my
+unrest. Only a student can understand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65" href="#Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
+the absolute wretchedness which overtakes
+a man when he finds himself miserably
+dependent on a distant library. For several
+days I gave myself up entirely to my
+mental depression, greatly wondering at
+the perplexing change in my life, and
+marvelling that in all my explorations in
+philosophy I had not provided for just
+such a crisis, whatever it might be. One
+afternoon as I sat in my room at the
+tavern, looking idly out of the window
+and across the little river which rippled
+by, something seemed to strike me violently
+in the forehead. It may have been
+a telepathic suggestion, it may have been a
+return to consciousness; at all events it was
+an idea. I leaped from my chair, put on
+my hat, and proceeded rather feverishly to
+the Eastmann cottage. Phyllis was away
+for the day; Mary was knitting in the
+sitting-room. I watched her in silence for
+a moment, and then I said abruptly:</p>
+
+<p>"Mary, I think I should like to marry
+Phyllis."</p>
+
+<p>Mary Eastmann was not the type of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66" href="#Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
+woman to lose herself or betray astonishment.
+She pushed her spectacles sharply
+above her eyes, looked at me sternly, and
+said in a rasping voice.</p>
+
+<p>"John Stanhope, don't be an old fool."</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever I may be, Mary," I answered,
+much nettled by her tone, "I do
+not think anybody can properly regard me
+as a fool. As for the other qualification," I
+went on complacently, "I am not so old."</p>
+
+<p>"You and Sylvia were the same age,
+and she would have been forty-eight."</p>
+
+<p>"A man is as old as he feels," I ventured,
+finding refuge in a proverb.</p>
+
+<p>"That is evasive, and has nothing to do
+with the question. Beside, what reason
+have you to believe that Phyllis has the
+slightest desire to marry you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Frankly, not the slightest reason in
+the world," I replied with the utmost
+candor. "That is why I have been so
+bold as to speak to you on the subject."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you thought I might use my
+influence to help you along?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite the contrary, my dear Mary, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67" href="#Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
+assure you. I may not know very much
+about women"&mdash;I was quite humble when
+separated from my library&mdash;"but I do
+know that nothing is so fatal to a lover's
+prospects as the encouragement of the
+loved one's relations. You see that I am
+perfectly frank."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you wish my opposition?"</p>
+
+<p>"Come, let us be reasonable. I have
+told you I wish to marry Phyllis. I know
+my good points, and I am not unacquainted
+with my weak ones. Unhappily I can
+figure out my age to a day. Alas, I am
+forty-eight, and Phyllis is not yet twenty-three.
+The difference is positively ghastly
+from a sentimental standpoint, but if I
+love her, and she is not hopelessly indifferent
+to me, I think that even that difficulty
+can be bridged. You know my
+position, my character, my general reputation.
+Neither of us knows what Phyllis
+really thinks or what she will say or do in
+the matter. I do not ask either for your
+opposition or your good offices. I have
+come to you as an old friend and the girl's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68" href="#Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
+nearest relative to tell you exactly how I
+feel and what I wish to gain. And I ask
+only that I may have the same chance to
+win her affection that you might grant to a
+younger man."</p>
+
+<p>Mary's voice was gentler when she
+spoke again. "John," she said, "Phyllis
+is all I have in the world. It is my
+one idea to have her happily married to
+a worthy man whom she honestly loves.
+Providence, in inscrutable wisdom, may
+have decreed that you are that man, but,"
+she continued with a sudden return of
+Yankee caution, "I have my doubts, considering
+your age. However, you have
+acted honorably in coming to me, and
+while I think Phyllis would be a better
+daughter than wife to you, I cannot speak
+for her. Remember that she is very young
+and very inexperienced. Her acquaintance
+with men has been slight. You are
+a man of the world and with enough of
+the surface polish&mdash;I don't say it stops
+with that&mdash;to dazzle any girl accustomed
+to such surroundings as we have here.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69" href="#Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+Undoubtedly an offer from you would flatter
+her; it might induce her to accept you,
+thinking that she loved you. Be careful.
+Be sure of your ground before it is too
+late."</p>
+
+<p>As I walked back to the village I
+mused on what Mary had said, but I felt
+no apprehension. Most lovers are alike
+in this&mdash;in youth, in middle age, in senility.
+Perhaps the advantage of middle
+life is that a man is more the master of
+himself, more in possession of the faculties
+necessary to carry him through a crisis.
+Without the impetuous desire of youth, or
+the deadened sensibilities of old age, he
+has a certain serene confidence that is a
+mixture of love and philosophy. It disturbed
+me somewhat to find with what
+equanimity I faced a situation which promised
+nothing. It really annoyed me to
+note that I was picking out mentally the
+place to which I should conduct Phyllis
+in order to have the harmonious environment
+adapted to a sentimental proposition.
+I remembered that down by the river,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70" href="#Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
+just beyond the willows, there was an old
+tree where Sylvia and I&mdash;ah, so many
+years ago!&mdash;had sat and talked of our
+lives before us. To that sacred spot I
+would lead Sylvia's daughter, and, passing
+gently from the past to the present, I
+would tell her of my love and of my fondest
+hopes. How dignified and appropriate
+such a spot for a frank, calm, and self-contained
+avowal!</p>
+
+<p>Thus philosophically and amiably plotting
+I walked contentedly along, and, looking
+up, I saw Phyllis coming toward me,
+swinging her hat in her hand, and suggesting
+in her girlish beauty and graceful outline
+the poet's shepherdess. She did not
+see me, and, yielding to a sudden impulse,
+I stepped quickly aside in the shadow of
+a neighbor's house, as she passed on with
+her eyes on the ground. I followed at a little
+distance, and discovered, much to my dismay,
+that she chose the road that led to the
+burying-ground. Now a cemetery is not
+at all the spot that a man, whatever his
+philosophy, would select for a tender<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71" href="#Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+declaration, but I was buoyed by the remembrance
+of Mary's words. "The finger
+of Providence may be in it," I muttered.
+"The Lord's will be done."</p>
+
+<p>Slowly up the winding path she walked,
+and I as slowly followed. When I reached
+her, she was standing at her mother's
+grave, just as she had stood the morning
+we first met. I tried to accept this as an
+omen, but failed miserably, and omens,
+after all, depend on the point of view.
+She raised her eyes, and, seeing me,
+blushed, another omen which means comparatively
+little to a man who is aware of
+the thousand emotions that are responsible
+for the blush of woman. I was again annoyed
+by the discovery that my pulses
+were not beating wildly, and that my heart
+was not throbbing tumultuously, and when
+I addressed a commonplace remark to her
+I was thoroughly ashamed and humiliated.
+It seemed like taking a mean advantage of
+innocence and inexperience.</p>
+
+<p>We sat together on the little bench,
+and for the first time in our acquaintance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72" href="#Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+she appeared embarrassed, as if she knew
+what was passing in my mind. I have
+always believed that women, in addition
+to their acknowledged intuition, have a
+special sense that enables them to anticipate
+a declaration of passion, and I had
+no doubt that Phyllis was fully prepared
+for my confession in spite of her embarrassment.
+This induced me to proceed to the
+point without unnecessary preliminaries.</p>
+
+<p>"Phyllis," I said, not without a certain
+agreeable ardor, "I have been talking with
+Aunt Mary."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?"</p>
+
+<p>"And about you."</p>
+
+<p>"Really?"</p>
+
+<p>"When I say that I have been talking
+with Aunt Mary, and about you," I continued
+in a grieved tone, for I do not
+like jerky responses, "I wish you to
+understand that it was in connection with
+no ordinary topic. Phyllis,"&mdash;I spoke
+with the utmost tenderness&mdash;"can you
+not guess the nature of our discussion?"</p>
+
+<p>Phyllis was equal to the emergency;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73" href="#Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
+her embarrassment had disappeared. "I
+am glad," she said, "that your conversation
+so far as it related to me was out of the
+ordinary. I suppose I may ask what the
+topic was&mdash;that is, if you don't mind
+telling."</p>
+
+<p>This was approaching the serious.
+"Phyllis, I was telling Aunt Mary that
+I loved you and wished to make you my
+wife."</p>
+
+<p>A flash, half merry, half angry, came to
+her eye. "That was thoughtful of you.
+Is it customary for gentlemen in the city,
+when they think they love a girl, to honor
+all her relations with their confidence before
+they speak to the girl herself?"</p>
+
+<p>I took her hand. She made the slightest
+motion to withdraw it, and permitted
+it to remain in my grasp. "Phyllis," I
+said with all earnestness, "do not misunderstand
+me. I sought you at the
+house. You were absent. Your Aunt
+Mary and I have been friends from childhood,
+and it was only natural that out of
+my heart I spoke the words that were in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74" href="#Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
+my mind. I told her that I loved you,
+just as at that moment I might have
+shouted it from the housetop. My heart
+was full of you and I had to speak.
+Can't you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl was still obdurate, and she
+spoke with some petulance. "If that is
+the case, perhaps it is just as well that it
+was Aunt Mary and not one of the neighbors."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear little Phyllis, you are not angry
+with me because I love you? You cannot
+remain angry with me because I confessed
+my love before I met you to-day? If you
+had only seen with what applications of
+cold water your aunt rewarded my confidence,
+you would pity and not reproach
+me."</p>
+
+<p>For a minute the girl was silent. Then
+she asked softly: "How long have you
+known that you loved me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Must I answer that question candidly
+and unreservedly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Unreservedly and candidly."</p>
+
+<p>I seized her other hand and held her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75" href="#Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
+firmly. "About fifty minutes."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed, rather joyously I thought.
+"And having loved me for fully fifty minutes,
+you wish to make me your wife?
+Confiding man!"</p>
+
+<p>"Little girl," I said tenderly, "let us
+be serious. If my dull consciousness did
+not awaken till an hour ago, my heart tells
+me that I have loved you ever since I first
+saw you standing near this spot. I am
+not going to ask you now whether you
+love me, or ever can learn to love me. It
+is happiness enough for me to-day to know
+how much I love you, and to know that I
+have told you of that love. I do not care
+to have my dream too rudely and too suddenly
+dispelled. Very probably you do
+not care for me as I should like to have
+you care for me, but do not make a jest of
+my affection. I am wholly aware of the
+preposterousness of my demands in many
+respects"&mdash;this sounded very conventional
+and commonplace, but every lover
+must say it&mdash;"and, believe me, I shudder
+when I think of what I have dared confess."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76" href="#Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then she said with the most delightful
+demureness: "Mr. Stanhope, is it likely
+that a girl would sit in a burying-ground
+on a bench with a gentleman, allowing him
+to hold both her hands, unless she cared
+for him a little&mdash;just a little?"</p>
+
+<p>Up to this moment I had fairly forgotten
+that I was depriving her of all power
+of resistance, but with such encouragement
+I took an even more sympathetic grasp
+and sat a trifle closer, while the minutes
+ticked away. A robin flew down from the
+tree near by and saucily hopped toward
+us, until at a rebuking call from his mate
+he flew away, and I fancied that I could
+hear them talking over the situation, and
+drawing conclusions from their own happiness.
+Phyllis was the first to break the
+charming spell.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Stanhope," she asked, hardly
+above a whisper, "what did Aunt Mary
+say when you told her that you wished to
+make me your wife?"</p>
+
+<p>"She said, Phyllis, that Providence may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77" href="#Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>
+have decreed that I am the man to bring
+you happiness."</p>
+
+<p>And still in that same enchanting whisper,
+with her face a little rosier, as she half
+hid it below my shoulder: "Mr. Stanhope,
+do you think that a girl with my
+Christian training could fly in the face of
+Providence?"</p>
+<hr />
+<p>&nbsp;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78" href="#Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span style="margin-left: -.7em;"><b>HE</b></span> philosopher was in love. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79" href="#Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+comes, I have no doubt, to every
+well-ordered man to be in love
+once. Some there are who maintain, with
+plausibility, that the passion we call love
+may be of frequent recurrence, and they
+point to the passing fancies of boys and
+girls, the romances of moonlight, the repeated
+sighings of the fickle Corydon,
+and the matrimonial entanglements of the
+aging Lydia, as evidence for their argument.
+That there are varying degrees of
+the ecstatic emotion cannot be truthfully
+denied. Heaven has wisely decreed that
+the heart, once filled with its ideal, may be
+compensated for the bitter hour of sorrow
+by the soothing balm of a new affection,
+and it is even possible that the second love
+may be more satisfying than the first, the
+third or fourth more typical of exaltation
+than its predecessors. But love, whether
+early or late, in the perfect absorption of
+the faculties comes only once; as compared
+with this remarkable mental state all other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80" href="#Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>
+conditions are unemotional, unfilling.</p>
+
+<p>The true lover rises early, before the
+world is astir. If it is summer and in
+the country, his thoughts lead him to the
+cool groves, the shady banks of the river,
+the retired spots where he may uninterruptedly
+commune with his happiness or
+his misery, and reflect on the blessings
+that are to be, or should be, his. Was it
+not then as a true lover that in the early
+morning I walked into the country, and
+down the banks of the stream where Sylvia
+and I had strayed and talked in the
+sunny days of youth? And nature seemed
+a part of the wedding procession, and the
+squirrels on the fence rails, and the robins,
+wrens, and wood-thrushes in the trees
+chirped and twittered: "John Stanhope is
+in love! John Stanhope is in love!" And
+the mocking crow, lazily flapping his
+wings at a safe distance, croaked enviously:
+"Ha, ha! old Stanhope is in love. Ha,
+ha!" Yet the whole conspiracy of animated
+nature could not make old Stanhope
+in his present exaltation regretful of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81" href="#Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>
+his age or ashamed of his passion.</p>
+
+<p>Mary Eastmann had accepted the situation
+without comment. She neither congratulated
+nor demurred, but went on
+with her household duties with the same
+method and precision as before. Men
+may come and go, hearts may be won and
+lost, republics may totter and empires may
+fall, but the grand scheme of sweeping,
+dusting, bed-making, and cooking knows
+no interruption. If I did not understand
+I at least commended this housewifely
+prudence, and often when the domestic
+battle was at its height I would spirit
+away my little charmer for the discussion
+of topics within my comprehension. At
+the outset I had declared that while it had
+pleased Providence to begin our romance
+in a burying-ground, I did not propose
+to sacrifice all tender sentiment to meditations
+among the tombs, and I bore her
+away to the old tree down by the river,
+where we sat for hours together as I unfolded
+my plans for our future life.</p>
+
+<p>A man who has sat at the feet of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82" href="#Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
+philosophers from Ovid to Schopenhauer,
+and has gorged his intellect with the
+abstract principles of love, naturally
+adapts himself to the professorial capacity,
+and I soon saw that Phyllis,
+while one of the most lovable, one
+of the sweetest of girls, was almost
+wholly ignorant of the psychology of passion.
+I could not expect that a young
+girl of twenty-two would discourse glibly
+of the emotion in its intellectual phase, but
+I could not bear the thought that she
+should enter lightly into so serious a compact,
+and without gaining a reasonable
+comprehension of its mental analysis.
+Hence, as opportunity presented, I enriched
+her mind with the beauties of love
+from the standpoint of philosophers and
+thinkers, and showed her the priceless
+blessings that must result from a union
+dictated by careful provision of reasoning.
+To these addresses she listened with sweet
+patience, and if she did not always grasp
+their meaning, she showed much admiration
+for my erudition and frequently remarked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83" href="#Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>
+that she had no idea that love was
+so abstruse a science. It seemed to me,
+in the serenity of my years and the calm
+assurance of my love, that I was a most
+persistent wooer, and I was greatly grieved
+when she broke out rather petulantly one
+afternoon:</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe you really love me."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't believe I love you? And
+why?"</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated, half abashed by her own
+outburst, then added a little defiantly:
+"Well, in the first place, you never
+quarrel with me."</p>
+
+<p>"And why should I quarrel with you?
+Aren't you the most amiable, the most
+perfect little woman in the world?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course; I know all that. But
+I have always read, and always believed,
+that when two persons are truly, deeply
+in love, they have most exciting quarrels.
+Is it not true that in all romances the
+man is eternally quarrelling with the girl
+and bidding her farewell forever?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and coming back in ten minutes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84" href="#Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
+to weep and grovel at her feet and beg
+her to forgive him. My dear little
+Phyllis, why should I bid you farewell
+forever, when I am morally certain that
+in half that time I should be cringing
+in the turf, weeping and begging you to
+say that all is forgiven and forgotten?"</p>
+
+<p>"That would be lovely," she said
+pensively.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps, but it would be very undignified
+and unnecessary. And I am not
+at all sure that you would admire me
+in that attitude even if I did imitate the
+heroes of romance. A weeping lover is
+much more agreeable in a novel than
+in actual life. However if you insist that
+we must quarrel, in order to demonstrate
+the sincerity of my affection, I shall suggest
+that we have our spats when we
+part for the night, in order that no precious
+waking hours may be lost."</p>
+
+<p>"You are joking," she exclaimed with
+a little pout.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. Still," I added reflectively,
+"even this plan has its disadvantages,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85" href="#Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
+for if we quarrel when we part
+at night, it will necessitate my return
+to your window, which would not only
+annoy your aunt but might scandalize
+the neighbors. Furthermore it might
+give me a shocking cold, unless you
+immediately repented, for the nights are
+very damp. No," I sighed with great
+feeling, "all this seems impracticable.
+You must give me a better reason for
+my coldness."</p>
+
+<p>Phyllis toyed with a clover blossom,
+and made no answer. I went on:</p>
+
+<p>"As a slight indication of my unlover-like
+hauteur, let me confess that I am
+going to bring you a marvellously glittering
+bauble when I come back from the
+city, something that will bewilder you
+by day and dazzle you by night."</p>
+
+<p>She shrugged her shoulders. "Of
+course you are; you are always giving
+me presents."</p>
+
+<p>I laughed at this. "Well, suppose
+I am; I have never heard that it is a sign
+of waning affection to bestow gifts on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86" href="#Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>
+loved one."</p>
+
+<p>"You refuse me nothing. I dare say
+you would give me the Boston State
+House if I wished it."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you are wrong there," I replied
+decisively. "If I bought the State
+House I should be compelled to include
+the emblematic codfish, and you know my
+aversion to codfish."</p>
+
+<p>She smiled at the thought, recalling
+the Sunday breakfast, and then with a
+roguish look and a half-embarrassed laugh
+she said: "At all events you cannot
+deny that you did not kiss me when you
+left last night."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't I?" I asked in amazement,
+and then, quite thrown off my guard, I
+added thoughtlessly: "I had forgotten."</p>
+
+<p>"That," she replied quietly, "was
+because you were so taken up with the
+philosophy of love, and the mental attitude,
+that you overlooked the physical
+demonstration. Do you remember the
+conversation?"</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately I did. I recalled that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87" href="#Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
+I had spent an hour or more defining
+the moral status of love and proving the
+sufficing reason. It was not a pleasant
+reflection that so agreeable and instructive
+a conversation was not thoroughly
+appreciated.</p>
+
+<p>"We spoke at length on love," I ventured
+feebly.</p>
+
+<p>"That is, you did," she replied. "I'll
+admit that it was better than an ordinary
+sermon, because the subject was more
+personal. But don't you think we
+admitted the sufficing reason at the start,
+and isn't it natural that a girl who has
+been conventionally brought up is pretty
+well satisfied in her own mind of the
+moral status? Of course," she added,
+with a toss of her pretty head, "I am
+not asking you or anybody else to kiss
+me. I am merely curious to know if
+this plays any part in the philosophy
+of love as understood by the greatest
+thinkers."</p>
+
+<p>Her speech had given me time to pull
+myself together. "No," I said with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88" href="#Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>
+marked emphasis, "I did not kiss you,
+because I had noted the unworthy suspicions
+you have expressed to-day, and I
+was hurt and grieved. It was hard for
+me to exhibit my displeasure in this way,
+and I am regretful now that I have learned
+that it was simply playfulness on your
+part. Don't interrupt. I am satisfied
+that the pure merriment of your nature
+is responsible for this assault, and I shall
+take great pleasure in making up this
+evening for the deficiencies of last night."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed and we were friends again.
+And with such jocular asperities the days
+passed quickly and agreeably until my
+nephew arrived with the plans and specifications.
+Frederick Grinnell was not only
+my nephew, but an architect of reputation
+and promise, considering his years and experience.
+Like Phyllis he had been left
+an orphan early in life, and it had been my
+pleasure and privilege to give him an education
+and see that he was fairly started
+in life. While I think I may say that
+Frederick was not quite so attractive as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89" href="#Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
+was I at his age, he was nevertheless a fine,
+manly young fellow, tall, well put together,
+of good habits, industrious and
+devoted to his profession. It pleased me
+to see that he admired Phyllis's pretty
+face and bright, animated manner; but
+one evening, when I fancied that he was
+too deeply stirred by her really beautiful
+voice, I took the opportunity to converse
+with him confidentially as we walked
+back to the tavern.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been intending to tell you,
+Frederick," I began a little airily, "of the
+relations existing between Miss Kinglake
+and myself. So far it has been a profound
+secret"&mdash;I did not then know
+that the entire village was gossiping about
+it&mdash;"but I feel that I owe it to you, as
+my nearest relative, to admit that Miss
+Kinglake and I are engaged."</p>
+
+<p>I paused, and noting that he did not
+wince or appear in the least degree discomposed,
+continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you will respect my confi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90" href="#Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>dence
+in this matter. Of course," I added
+magnanimously, "it will be perfectly
+proper for you to signify to Miss Kinglake
+that you are aware of our little secret
+as that will put us all on a better
+basis and lead to no misunderstandings.
+It would be awkward to play at cross purposes,
+and I should be extremely sorry,
+my dear boy, to think that I had withheld
+anything from you, for you have
+always enjoyed my fullest trust."</p>
+
+<p>Whatever he may have thought, his
+manner betrayed no unusual interest.
+"I congratulate you," he replied very
+calmly.</p>
+
+<p>Now that so perfect an understanding
+existed in the immediate family circle, I
+gave myself no further uneasiness. I
+was truly rejoiced to notice that Frederick
+was deferentially polite to Phyllis, and I
+encouraged him to show her those polite
+attentions which my betrothed would
+reasonably expect from my nephew.
+And at times I even insisted that he should
+represent me at certain gatherings of
+Phyllis's friends, who were too young and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91" href="#Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+frivolous to claim my serious attention.
+When he protested, and pleaded headache,
+business, or other sign of disinclination, I
+rallied him good-humoredly on his lack
+of gallantry.</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense, my boy," I argued; "a
+young fellow of your spirit should be
+only too glad to go out with a pretty girl
+and enjoy himself. You certainly would
+not deprive Phyllis of an evening's pleasure
+because your uncle has a stiff knee
+which interferes with his dancing, and&mdash;confound
+it, you know they never let me
+smoke at these frolics. Come now, be a
+good fellow and show the proper family
+impulse."</p>
+
+<p>As they went off together I looked at
+them admiringly and rather fancied that I
+saw in them a suggestion of what Sylvia
+and I had been when we made the rounds
+of the birthday parties. For it is fair to
+confess that the image of Sylvia did not infrequently
+rise before me, and I constantly
+saw in Phyllis the replica of her adorable
+mother. In my happiest moments I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92" href="#Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+spoke of this suggestion to Phyllis, and
+continued to regale her with fragments of
+my early life associated with her family.
+At first I thought that the girl was somewhat
+piqued, fearing that Frederick was
+thrust upon her, although she admitted
+that he was good-looking, polite, and
+danced extremely well, but I succeeded in
+convincing her that true love should not
+be gauged by the low standards of hot-night
+dancing, and that all philosophers
+agree that the purest affection springs from
+quiet contemplation, such as I should enjoy
+while she was making merry with her
+friends. To this she once ventured to
+remark that in that case perhaps my affection
+would thrive to greater advantage if
+I contented myself with thinking about
+her and not seeing her at all, a suggestion
+which wounded me in my tenderest sensibilities,
+for I was very much in love. I
+was also not a little disturbed when, supplemental
+to my reminiscences, Mary
+went back to the past and humorously
+drew pictures of me as her own early<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93" href="#Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
+lover. There is considerable difference
+between the impalpable, airy spirit of the
+fancy and a wrinkled and austere feminine
+actuality of fifty.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of these innocent and improving
+pleasures a small cloud appeared
+in the summer sky. I received a letter
+addressed in a peculiar but not ornate
+hand, and I opened it with misgivings
+and read it with consternation.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Mr. Stanhope sir</span>: Prudence and I thinks
+youd better come home. The plummer was
+hear twice yisterday and the cutworms is awfle.
+Hero got glass in her foot and the brown tale
+moths is bad again wich is al for the presnt.</p>
+
+<p class="cite">
+Respecfuly<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Malachy</span>.<br />
+</p></div>
+
+<p>Duty is one of the exactions of life
+which I have never shirked when there
+seemed no possible way of evading it,
+but in this instance the call of duty was
+compromised by matters of equal urgency,
+for nothing can be more important than
+the successful administration of the affairs
+of love. It was a happy thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94" href="#Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>
+that suggested to me a way out of the
+difficulty, which was neither more nor less
+than that we should all go to the city
+together. I sprang the proposition at a
+family conference. Phyllis was delighted.
+"There is always so much to be seen in
+the city," she cried, "and I shall meet
+Mr. Bunsey. It has been one of the
+dreams of my life to know a real literary
+man."</p>
+
+<p>This appeared to call for an explanation.
+Heaven knows I am not jealous
+of Bunsey, and would not deprive him of
+a single distinction that is honestly his.
+But a regard for the truth, coupled with
+much doubt as to Bunsey's ability to live
+up to such lively expectations, compelled
+me to resort to a little gentle correction.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Phyllis," I said, "you must
+disabuse your mind of that fallacy. Bunsey
+is a popular novelist, not a literary
+man."</p>
+
+<p>"But isn't a novelist a literary man?"
+she asked in amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Not necessarily," I replied pityingly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95" href="#Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+"In fact I may say not usually. Of course
+we are speaking of popular novelists.
+The popularity of the novelist is in proportion
+to his lack of literary style. The
+distinctive popular charm of Bunsey is
+that he is not literary&mdash;at least, if he is,
+his critics have not succeeded in discovering
+it; he successfully conceals his crime.
+If he is popular, it is because he is not
+literary; if he were literary he could not
+be popular."</p>
+
+<p>"That does not seem right," said my
+little Puritan.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a question of ethics at all,
+but a matter of taste. However, don't be
+prejudiced against Bunsey because he is
+a product of the time and fairly representative
+of the civilization. You shall meet
+him and shall learn from him how a man
+may succeed in so-called literature without
+any hampering literary qualifications."</p>
+
+<p>Mary did not receive my proposition
+in a thankful and conciliatory spirit. She
+shook her head doubtfully, and when we
+were alone together, she gave voice to her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96" href="#Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>
+fears.</p>
+
+<p>"Phyllis is country-bred," she said,
+"and knows nothing of the toils and
+snares that beset young girls in the
+city."</p>
+
+<p>"Toils and snares," I echoed. "One
+might gather from your objections that we
+contemplate taking Phyllis to the city
+merely to expose her to temptation and
+corrupt the serenity of her mind. You
+seem to forget the elevating influences of
+my modest home."</p>
+
+<p>"No, John; I dare say that your home
+is not objectionable, taken by itself. But
+I am not blind to the seductions of the
+great city. You too forget," she added,
+with a touch of complacency, "that I am
+not inexperienced or without knowledge
+of the profligacy of the town."</p>
+
+<p>"Granting all this," I said, highly diverted
+by her earnestness, "and what are
+some of these seductions you have in
+mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"Theatres," she replied promptly,
+"theatres and late hours, midnight suppers&mdash;and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97" href="#Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>
+cocktails."</p>
+
+<p>I laughed uproariously. "My dear
+Mary, if these deadly sins and perils
+alarm you, we'll cut them out. I care
+little for theatres, and less for midnight
+suppers. And as for cocktails, I shall
+make it my peculiar charge to see that
+Phyllis never hears the abominable word.
+Allowing for the removal of these temptations,
+I still think that a trip to the city
+would do our country flower a world of
+good, though I have nothing but praise
+for the manner in which you have brought
+her up."</p>
+
+<p>"John," she answered very gravely,
+"I have endeavored to do my duty as I
+saw it. I have tried to bring Phyllis up
+in the nurture and admonition of the
+Lord."</p>
+
+<p>The expression carried me back to my
+childhood, and I bit my lips. "Of
+course you have," I said. "Wasn't I
+brought up in this same village, in the
+same way? Did not my good mother
+and my blessed, grandmother inflict nurture<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98" href="#Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
+and admonition upon me, that I
+might grow up as you see me, a true child
+of the pilgrim fathers? The nurture, I
+remember, was a particularly hard seat in
+our particularly gloomy old meetinghouse,
+and the admonition took up the
+greater part of the Sabbath day, with a
+disenchanting prospect of further admonition
+at home if I failed to keep awake.
+I do not mean to say that I am not
+thankful for the experience. In truth I
+am doubly thankful&mdash;thankful that I had
+it, and thankful that it is over."</p>
+
+<p>To this Mary vouchsafed no further
+remonstrance than a distrustful shake of
+the head. Excellent woman! Is it not
+to such as you, earnest, faithful, self-sacrificing,
+God-fearing, that the best in
+young manhood, the purest in young
+womanhood, owe the strength of the
+qualities that are the vital force of the
+nation?</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p>&nbsp;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99" href="#Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="dropcapn">I</span><span style="margin-left: -.7em;"><b>N</b></span> the end the united opposition was
+too much for Mary's arguments, and
+to town we went. The pleasure of
+the journey, on my part, was somewhat
+clouded as to the welcome we should receive
+from Prudence, and truly it acquired
+my greatest powers of dissimulation to
+feign an easy indifference and air of
+authority before that worthy creature, as
+with the most studied politeness and
+formal hospitality she received us at the
+gate. Prudence and I had sparred so
+many years that we were like two expert
+athletes, and while neither apparently
+noticed the other, each was perfectly
+conscious of the adversary's slightest
+movement. Hence I detected at once
+her strong aversion to Mary, whom she
+immediately selected as a probable mistress,
+and I saw her several times vainly
+try to repress a grimace of disdain and
+wrath. It was my first impulse to follow
+Prudence into the kitchen, after the ladies
+had gone to their rooms, and make a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100" href="#Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
+clean breast of the untoward tidings, but
+I lacked the moral courage and contented
+myself with an inward show of strength.
+Why should I pander to this woman's
+caprices? Was I not master in my own
+house? Should I not do as I pleased?
+I would punish her with the severity of
+my silence, and perhaps in a week or two,
+when she was more tractable, I would
+condescend to tell her exactly how matters
+stood. In this I would be firm.</p>
+
+<p>But the next morning, before my guests
+were out of bed, I decided that I was not
+acting wisely. Was not Prudence an
+old, faithful, and trustworthy servant?
+Had she not been loyal to my interests,
+and was not her whole life wrapped up
+in my comfort? Surely I wronged her
+to withhold from her the confidence she
+had so fairly earned, and the flush of
+shame came to my face as I reflected that
+I was indulging my first deceit. I took
+a turn in the garden, in the heavenly cool
+of the early morning, to compose my
+nerves for a very probable ordeal, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101" href="#Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>
+then I walked boldly into the kitchen
+where Prudence sat, with a wooden bowl
+in her lap, paring apples.</p>
+
+<p>It was one of the unwritten laws of the
+cuisine that Prudence was never to be disturbed
+when engaged in this delicate
+operation. She maintained that it destroyed
+the symmetry of the peel, and
+I dare say she was right. Consequently
+she looked at me reproachfully as I
+entered, and bent again more assiduously
+to her work. I was much flustered by
+the ill omen, but I knew that if I hesitated
+I was lost; so I advanced valorously,
+though with accelerated pulse, and
+said with all the calmness I could
+command:</p>
+
+<p>"Prudence, I think it only right to tell
+you that I am going to be married."</p>
+
+<p>One apple rolled from the bowl down
+along the floor and under the kitchen
+stove. I cannot conceive of any shock,
+however great, that would cause Prudence
+to lose more than one apple. Partly to
+conciliate, and partly to conceal my own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102" href="#Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
+trepidation, I made a gallant effort to
+rescue the wanderer, and as I poked the
+hiding-place with my stick, I heard her
+say: "Lord, I know'd it'd come!"</p>
+
+<p>"The fact that it has come, Prudence,"
+I answered with a sickly attempt at
+gayety, "does not seem to be a reason
+why you should call with such vehemence
+on your Maker. There does not
+appear to be any need of Providential
+interposition. Things are not so bad
+as all that."</p>
+
+<p>I always used my most elegant English
+when conversing with Prudence. If she
+did not understand it, it flattered her to
+think that I paid this tribute to her
+intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. John," she said, and there was
+a suspicious break in her voice, "for
+twenty years I have tried to do my duty
+by you, and now that I must go&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Go?" I interrupted; "who said
+you must go? Who spoke about anybody's
+going? You certainly do not
+expect to turn that bowl of apples over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103" href="#Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>
+to me and leave me to get breakfast?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mr. John, I shall go on and do
+my duty, as I see it, until you have made
+all your plans and are comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, look here, Prudence, I am very
+comfortable as things are, thank you.
+And you will pardon me if I say I cannot
+understand why you should go at all. I
+shall continue to eat, I hope, after I am
+married, and I think it altogether probable
+that I shall require a house-keeper and
+a cook. I believe they do have such
+things in well-regulated families."</p>
+
+<p>"At my age, and with my experience,
+and considerin' how we have lived, Mr.
+John, I couldn't get along with a mistress,
+'specially," she added with a touch
+of malice, "with a woman considerable
+older than me."</p>
+
+<p>"Older than you? What are you
+talking about? Miss Kinglake is young
+enough to be your daughter."</p>
+
+<p>Another apple rolled on the floor.
+"Miss Kinglake!" she exclaimed in
+astonishment, "that lamb? Good Lord,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104" href="#Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>
+I thought you were goin' to marry the
+other one!"</p>
+
+<p>"Prudence," I said rather hotly, for I
+did not relish her amazement, "you will
+oblige me by not speaking of these ladies
+as the 'lamb' and 'the other one.' I might
+gather from your remarks that I am a sort
+of ravening wolf, instead of a well-meaning
+gentleman who is merely exercising
+the privilege of selecting a wife. But,"
+I said, checking myself, for I was ashamed
+of my explosion, "I shall be magnanimous
+enough to believe that you are delighted
+with my choice, and that I have your
+congratulations. You will be glad to
+know that Miss Kinglake and I are
+perfectly satisfied with each other, and
+that we are both entirely satisfied with
+you. And now that we understand the
+situation, I think I may presume that
+we shall have breakfast at the usual hour
+this morning, and to-morrow morning,
+and for many mornings to come. And,
+by the way, Prudence, while I have
+honored you with my confidence, permit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105" href="#Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>
+me to impress it upon you that this
+revelation is not village gossip as yet,
+and you will put me under further obligations
+by not mentioning the circumstance.
+Good-morning, Prudence. Kindly call
+the ladies at eight o'clock."</p>
+
+<p>And thereupon I hastily departed,
+leaving the good woman in a state of
+stupefaction, since, for the first and only
+time in our long and controversial association,
+had I retired with the last word.
+Taking a second turn in the garden
+I encountered Malachy, and my conscience
+reproached me. "Am I doing
+right," I asked myself, "in withholding
+the glad news from this faithful servant
+who has shown himself so worthy of my
+confidence? Is it not my duty to tell
+him&mdash;not so much to interest him in
+his future mistress as to demonstrate the
+trust I repose in him?"</p>
+
+<p>Malachy received my confidence with
+less excitement than I had expected. In
+fact I was slightly humiliated by his seeming
+lack of gratitude. He touched his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106" href="#Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>
+hat very respectfully, and observed irrelevantly
+that the roses below the arbor
+were looking uncommonly well. This
+was a poor reward for my attempt at
+consideration, and further convinced me
+of the uselessness of establishing anything
+like intimate relations with the
+proletariat.</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, Malachy," I said in
+parting, "you will keep this matter a
+profound secret. Miss Kinglake and I
+are desirous that we shall not be annoyed
+by village chatter and premature
+congratulations."</p>
+
+<p>Having discharged my duty to my
+good servants, I felt that my obligations,
+so far as the relation with Phyllis was
+concerned, were at an end, and the morning
+wore away without further misgivings
+of disloyalty. In the afternoon Bunsey
+came over for his daily smoke, and as we
+sat together in the library, and I noticed
+the entire absence of suspicion in his
+manner, my heart smote me. "Truly,"
+I reasoned silently, "I am behaving ill to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107" href="#Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>
+an old friend who has never withheld
+from me the very secrets of his soul.
+Should I not be as generous, as outspoken,
+with him as he has always proved
+to me? Should I not confide to him this
+one precious secret, at the same time
+swearing him to preserve it as he would
+his life?"</p>
+
+<p>I blew out a ring of smoke, and then
+I began with the utmost seriousness:
+"Bunsey, how do you like the ladies?"</p>
+
+<p>He shifted his position, tipped the
+ashes from his cigar, and replied tranquilly:
+"Oh, I dare say I shall in
+time."</p>
+
+<p>The answer vexed me. Bunsey was a
+bachelor, and should have been therefore
+the more impressionable. I forgot for the
+moment, in my annoyance, that he was
+a novelist, and had been so diligently
+creating lovely and impossible women to
+order that he was not easily moved by
+the realities of humanity.</p>
+
+<p>"At all events," I replied with delicate
+irony, "I am glad that the future is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108" href="#Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>
+hopeful for the ladies. My reason for
+asking the question was simply to lead
+the way to a confidence I intend to repose
+in you. To proceed expeditiously
+to the end of a long story, I intend to
+marry one of them."</p>
+
+<p>Bunsey's tranquillity was unshaken.
+"Which one?"</p>
+
+<p>"Which one?" I echoed with heat,
+"why, Miss Kinglake, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Does she intend to marry you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally."</p>
+
+<p>"Or unnaturally?"</p>
+
+<p>"Confound your impertinence!" I
+roared, "what do you mean by that?"</p>
+
+<p>"No impertinence, at all, my dear
+fellow. In fact it is most pertinent.
+Miss Kinglake is a girl, and you&mdash;well,
+you voted for Grant."</p>
+
+<p>"Which is your gentle way of saying
+that I am too old."</p>
+
+<p>"No, not too old; just old enough&mdash;to
+know better."</p>
+
+<p>"We are never too old to love," I
+said, conscious that I was uttering a melancholy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109" href="#Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>
+platitude.</p>
+
+<p>"Too old to love? Heaven forbid!
+But we may be too old to marry&mdash;at
+least to marry anybody worth while.
+Come, Stanhope, tell me: do you really
+love this young woman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Love her? Here I have been telling
+you that I intend to marry a charming
+girl, and you turn about and ask me if I
+love her. Of course I love her. I have
+been loving her in one way and another
+for years."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by that? I thought
+you only met her a few weeks ago."</p>
+
+<p>I smiled pityingly. "So I did, but
+for years she has been my affinity. Incidentally
+I don't mind saying I began by
+loving her mother."</p>
+
+<p>Bunsey sat up straight. "Oh, you
+loved her mother. Was her mother
+pretty?"</p>
+
+<p>"She was as you see Phyllis. In fact
+I think she was, if anything, a trifle prettier.
+We were playmates and schoolmates,
+and in the nature of things, if I had not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110" href="#Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
+wandered off to the city, I presume we
+should have married. Dear little Sylvia,"
+I went on musingly, "I can see her at
+this moment, looking down from heaven
+and smiling on my union with her daughter.
+For if ever a match was made in heaven
+this was. Confound it! what are you
+doing now?"</p>
+
+<p>While I was talking Bunsey had reached
+over, taken a sheet of paper and was busily
+writing. He looked up carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Your story interests me, and is such
+good material that I thought I would make
+a few notes. Young boy loves young
+girl&mdash;goes to city&mdash;forgets her&mdash;young
+girl marries&mdash;has charming daughter&mdash;dies&mdash;years
+pass&mdash;venerable gentleman
+returns&mdash;sees daughter&mdash;great emotion
+on part of v. g.&mdash;thinks he loves her&mdash;proposes&mdash;accepted&mdash;mar&mdash;no,
+there I
+think I must stop for the present."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't stop there, I beg," I said
+sarcastically; "if you are thinking of using
+these materials for one of your popular
+novels, be sure to throw in a few duels,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111" href="#Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>
+several heartrending catastrophes, and
+other incidents of what you call 'action,'
+appropriately expressed in bad English."</p>
+
+<p>Bunsey was imperturbable. "Thank
+you for your appreciative estimate of my
+literary style," he replied coolly; "but
+really, my consideration for my old friend
+deprives me of the pleasure of robbing his
+diary."</p>
+
+<p>I was still out of temper. "Bunsey,
+I don't mind favoring you with a further
+confidence. You're an ass!"</p>
+
+<p>With this parting shot I strode out of
+the library, when, remembering the sacredness
+of my revelation, I turned back.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you will understand, Bunsey,
+that however flippantly you may
+choose to regard what I have said to you,
+you will have the decency to keep the
+subject-matter to yourself. I do not ask
+your congratulations or your approval, but
+I demand your secrecy."</p>
+
+<p>"The ass brays acknowledgments,"
+answered Bunsey meekly, helping himself
+to another cigar. "You may rely on my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112" href="#Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
+loyal and devoted interest. The fact that
+I have heard your secret twice before to-day
+shall not open my lips or cause me to
+violate your trust."</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding my attitude of indifference
+I was greatly troubled by Bunsey's
+unfeeling suggestion. Could it be possible
+that I had mistaken my own heart?
+Was I, yielding, as I had believed, to the
+first strong passion of my life, only deluding
+myself with a remembrance of my
+vanished youth? I dismissed the thought
+impatiently. For, after all, was not Bunsey
+a hopeless cynic, a fellow without a single
+emotion of the ennobling sentiment of
+man toward woman, a sordid story-teller,
+who created characters for money, wrecked
+homes, committed literary murders, played
+unfeelingly on the tenderest sensibilities,
+and boasted openly that the only
+angels were those made by a stroke of the
+pen and retailed at department store book-counters?
+And while thus reasoning
+Phyllis came to me, so winsome in her
+girlish beauty, so radiant in the happiness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113" href="#Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>
+I had infused into her life, so joyous
+in the pleasures of the present, that I
+laughed at my own doubts, reproached
+myself for my own unworthy suspicions,
+and straightway forgot both Bunsey and
+his evil promptings.</p>
+<hr />
+<p>&nbsp;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114" href="#Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">L</span><span style="margin-left: -.7em;"><b>OVE</b></span> at eight and forty is a very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115" href="#Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
+pleasant and indolent emotion,
+marking the most delightful stage
+in the progress of the great human
+passion. At twenty-five we talk it; at
+thirty-five we act it; at forty-five it is
+pleasant to sit down and think about
+it. The very young man loves without
+really analyzing. Ten years later he
+analyzes without really loving. In another
+decade he has compounded the proportions
+of love and analysis, and becomes,
+under favoring conditions, the most
+dangerous and hence the most acceptable
+of suitors. The man in middle life takes
+his adored one tolerantly, and keeps his
+reservations to himself. In the ordinary
+course of events he has acquired a certain
+knowledge of feminine character, he
+knows the rocks and the shoals of love,
+and, skillful pilot that he is, he avoids
+them. He is sure of his course, master
+of his equipment. If he errs at all&mdash;but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116" href="#Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
+I anticipate.</p>
+
+<p>Those were very joyous days, notwithstanding
+the applications of cold water
+so liberally bestowed by my confidential
+advisers. And eagerly and successfully
+I exerted myself to convince the doubting
+ones in general, and Bunsey in particular,
+how absurd were their suspicions,
+and how apparent it was that Phyllis and
+I had been purposely created for each
+other. Mary threw herself into our
+pleasures as heartily and joyously as
+her New England nature would permit,
+which was never a very riotous demonstration,
+and Phyllis, with the effervescence
+and enthusiasm of girlhood, eagerly
+assented to every proposition that had
+its pleasure-seeking side; while I, as a
+thoughtful lover should, busied myself
+in schemes for summer dissipation, thankful
+that it was in my power to prove
+so devoted a knight, and inwardly rejoicing
+at my triumph over those who had
+taxed me with such unworthy thoughts.
+Even Frederick&mdash;good fellow that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117" href="#Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>
+was&mdash;allowed himself unusual days of
+vacation to partake of our merriment,
+and it pleased me greatly to see that when
+business cares or physical disinclination
+kept me off the programme, he no longer
+allowed his indifference to interfere with
+his duty as my nephew and personal
+representative. Such, I take it, is the
+obligation of all young men similarly
+placed.</p>
+
+<p>For, before many weeks had passed,
+I discovered that it was not wise to allow
+the fleeting dissipations of the moment,
+however alluring, to monopolize time
+which should be given to the serious
+affairs of life. I found that a cramped
+position in a boat in the hot sun brought
+on nervous headaches, and that too much
+time in the garden when the dew
+was falling was conducive to lumbago.
+Furthermore I had been invited by a
+neighboring university to deliver my celebrated
+lecture on the protagonism of
+Plato, and several new and excellent
+thoughts had come to me which required<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118" href="#Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>
+careful and elaborate development. I
+explained these matters conscientiously
+and fully to Phyllis, and while she offered
+no unreasonable protest, her pretty face
+clouded, and she did me the honor to
+say that half the enjoyment was removed
+by my absence. Once she even went
+so far as to declare that Plato was a
+"horrid man," and that she believed I
+thought more of him than of her&mdash;a
+most ridiculous conclusion but so essentially
+feminine that I forgave her at once.
+And, when she came to me, and put
+her arms around my neck and urged me
+to go with her to a tennis match&mdash;a
+foolish game where grown-up people
+knock little balls over a net with a battledore&mdash;I
+pointed out to her that such
+spectacles, while eminently proper for
+young folk, argued a failing mind in those
+of maturer years. With a charming pout
+she said:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think you would have refused
+to go if my mother had asked you?"</p>
+
+<p>Now tennis is a sport that has come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119" href="#Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>
+up since Sylvia and I were children
+together, but I recalled, with a guilty
+blush, the time when she and I won the
+village championship in doubles in an
+all day siege of croquet, so what could
+I say in my own defence? Therefore
+I went with Phyllis to the tennis-court
+and sat for two long and inexpressibly
+dreary hours watching the senseless and
+stupid proceedings. It was pleasant to
+reflect that I was with Sylvia's daughter,
+and I tried to imagine that the keen
+interest of youth still remained, but I
+was sadly out of place. I am satisfied
+that this game of tennis has nothing of
+the fascinating quality of croquet. On
+our arrival home Phyllis kissed me, and
+thanked me for what she called my
+"self-denial," but after that one experience
+Frederick represented me at the
+tennis-court, as, indeed, the good-natured
+boy consented to do at many similar
+festivities.</p>
+
+<p>And so the summer wore gradually
+away, one day's enjoyment lazily following<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120" href="#Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
+another's, with nothing to disturb the
+serenity of my life, or to interfere with the
+calm content into which I had settled.
+Phyllis was everything that a moderate
+and reasonable lover could wish&mdash;kind,
+gentle, affectionate within the bounds of
+maidenly discretion, attentive to my wishes,
+and considerate of my caprices. The more
+I saw of her the more I was persuaded
+that I had chosen wisely and well. One
+afternoon&mdash;Frederick, at my suggestion,
+had gallantly given up his work in the
+office and taken Phyllis down the river.
+I sat with Bunsey in the library, and took
+occasion to expound to him the philosophy
+of perfect love.</p>
+
+<p>"The trouble is," I said, "that people
+rush blindly into matrimony. They think
+they are in love, work themselves up to
+the proper pitch of madness, propose and
+marry while they are in delirium. Hence,
+so much of the wretchedness and misery
+that we see in the homes of our friends.
+For my part I am committed to the doctrine
+of affinities. It is true that I, like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121" href="#Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
+many others, was guilty of the usual folly
+in my youth, and perhaps that gave me
+the wisdom to wait for my second venture
+until precisely the fight party came along.
+Matrimony, Bunsey, is an exact science.
+If we regulate our passion, control all silly
+emotion, study feminine nature as critically
+and methodically as we investigate
+a mathematical problem, and commit ourselves
+only when the affinity presents herself,
+we shall make no mistakes. For,
+after all, what is an affinity? Nothing
+more than a human being sent by Providence
+as perfectly adapted to the wheels
+and curves of your nature."</p>
+
+<p>"A very pretty theory," retorted Bunsey,
+grimly; "and, by the way, when do
+you think of rushing into matrimony?"</p>
+
+<p>"Really," I said, somewhat confused,
+"to be entirely honest with you, I have
+not settled on any particular day. You
+see Phyllis should have her fling. She is
+very young."</p>
+
+<p>"True, but you are not."</p>
+
+<p>As Bunsey said this he rose and tossed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122" href="#Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>
+his cigar out of the window. "Stanhope,"
+he went on, "we are old friends, and I don't
+wish to be continually seeming to interfere
+with your business, but if I were a man with
+fifty years leering hideously at me, and
+engaged to a pretty girl of two and twenty,
+I'd make quick work of it before Providence
+came along with a younger affinity
+in a Panama hat, neglig&eacute;e shirt, and duck
+trousers."</p>
+
+<p>I stared at him with a sort of helpless
+amazement. "Exactly what do you
+mean?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he answered, shrugging his
+shoulders, "at the risk of being kicked
+out of the house, let me say that I think
+such an affinity has already presented himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, and who may that be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose we say Frederick."</p>
+
+<p>"My nephew?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly; your nephew. He is an uncommonly
+good-looking fellow, and,
+thanks to his uncle's childlike belief in
+Providence and the doctrine of affinities,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123" href="#Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>
+he has most unusual opportunities to test
+that doctrine for himself. I dare say that
+he is making a formal study of the situation
+at this very moment, and inviting
+Providence to appear on the scene as his
+sponsor."</p>
+
+<p>What more was said at this interview, if,
+indeed, it did not terminate with this brutal
+statement, I cannot recall, for Bunsey,
+usually so flippant and cynical, spoke with
+an earnestness that stunned me. My
+knowledge of the philosophy of love told
+me that he was wrong; my observation of
+the actualities of life made me fear that
+he might be right. Theoretically, I could
+not have been mistaken in my course;
+practically, I began to see weak spots in the
+chain of evidence. Swiftly, I ran over
+the events of the spring and summer, and
+as little spots no bigger than a man's hand
+magnified themselves into black clouds,
+Bunsey, sitting opposite, seemed to grow
+larger and larger, and his smile more malicious
+and demon-like. Possibly, had I
+been a younger and more impetuous man,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124" href="#Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>
+I should have flown into a passion, taken
+Bunsey at his word, and kicked him out
+of the house; but the philosophy of the
+thing engrossed me, filled me with half
+fear, half curiosity, and engaged all my
+mental faculties. Had I been mistaken?
+Could I be deceived in the daughter of
+Sylvia?</p>
+
+<p>However strong my suspicions may
+have been, they were not increased when,
+with the evening, Phyllis and Frederick
+came home from their excursion. Never
+was Phyllis more unreserved, more cordial,
+more joyous, more attentive to the little
+wants, which I, in a mean and shameful
+test, imposed on her. She could not be
+acting a part, this New England girl, with
+her alert conscience, her Puritan impulse
+and training, her aversion to everything
+that savored of deceit. And Frederick
+was as much at his ease as if I knew
+nothing, as if I had not heard of his duplicity,
+as if the whole house and grounds
+were not ringing with accusations of his
+unworthiness. Such are the phenomena<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125" href="#Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>
+of the philosophy of middle life, I insisted
+that he should remain for the
+evening, and, after dinner, with that contrariness
+accountable only in a true student
+of psychology, I made a trifling
+excuse and walked down to the square,
+leaving them together.</p>
+
+<p>The curfew was ringing as, returning,
+I entered the lower gate at the end of the
+garden, and passed slowly along by the
+arbor. It may have been Providence, it
+may have been chance, it certainly was
+not philosophy that directed my steps
+to the far side of the syringa hedge which
+shut me off from the view of those who
+might come down to the rustic seat at
+the foot of the cherry tree. At least I
+had no intention of playing the spy, and
+when I heard Frederick's voice, and knew
+instinctively that Phyllis was with him, I
+quickened my pace that I might not be
+a sharer of their secrets. But an irresistible
+impulse made me pause when I
+heard the foolish fellow say:</p>
+
+<p>"After to-night I shall not come again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126" href="#Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>
+It is better for us to break now than to
+wait until it is too late."</p>
+
+<p>Her reply I could not hear. Presently
+he said, and a little brokenly:</p>
+
+<p>"I have fought it all out. It has been
+hard, so hard, but I must meet it as it
+comes."</p>
+
+<p>Then I heard Phyllis's voice: "It is
+for the best."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that you care for me. I
+know how much I care for you, and how
+much this effort is costing me. We were
+too late. No other course in honor
+presents itself. God knows how eagerly
+and hopelessly I have sought a way out
+of this tangle of duty."</p>
+
+<p>Again I heard Phyllis's voice, sunk
+almost to a whisper: "I have given my
+word; it is for the best."</p>
+
+<p>"The governor has been so good to
+me," Frederick exclaimed resentfully,
+"that I feel like a criminal even at this
+moment when I am making for him the
+sacrifice of a life. He has been my
+father, my protector. What I am I owe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127" href="#Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>
+to him, and I must meet him like a grateful
+and honest man. You would not
+have it otherwise?"</p>
+
+<p>And for the third time Phyllis answered:
+"It is for the best."</p>
+
+<p>Had I been of that remarkable stuff
+of which your true hero is made, of which
+Bunsey's heroes are made, and had I
+come up to the very reasonable expectations
+of the followers of literary romance,
+I should have burst through the syringa
+with passion in my face and rage in my
+heart and precipitated a tragedy. Or, on
+the other side, I should have taken those
+ridiculous children by the hand, and ended
+their suffering with my blessing then and
+there. But as I am only of very common
+clay, with little liking for heroics, I did
+what any selfish and unappreciative man
+would have done, and stole quietly away.
+I even felt a sort of fierce joy in the
+knowledge of the security of my position,
+a mean exultation in the thought that
+Phyllis was bound to me, and that those
+from whom I might reasonably fear the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128" href="#Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>
+most, acknowledged the hopelessness of
+their case. Most strangely there came to
+me no resentment with the knowledge
+that I had been supplanted by my nephew
+in the affections of the girl; the fact that
+she loved another surprised rather than
+agitated me. My argument was upset,
+my doctrine of affinities had been seriously
+damaged in my individual case, and here
+was I, who should have been yielding to
+the pangs of disappointment, or raging
+with wounded pride, reflecting with considerable
+calmness on the reverses of a
+philosopher.</p>
+
+<p>I went into the library and lighted
+a cigar. I threw myself into an easy-chair,
+and as I looked up I saw a spider-web
+in a corner of the ceiling. "I must
+speak to Prudence about that in the
+morning," I said to myself with annoyance.
+Then for the first time it came
+to me that I was out of temper, for I am
+customarily tranquil and not easily upset.
+My mind wandered rapidly from one
+thing to another, and oddly enough I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129" href="#Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>
+caught myself humming a little tune
+which had no sort of relevancy to the
+events of the day. I tried to dismiss the
+incident of the garden as the temporary
+folly of a romantic girl, which would
+wear itself out with a week's absence.
+Why should it trouble me? Had I
+been lacking in kindness or affection?
+Should I be disturbed because a few
+boat rides and the influence of moonlight
+had wrought on a mere child? Was
+I not secure in her promise, and had
+I not heard her say she had given her
+word? As for Frederick, was he not
+my debtor? Had he not confessed it?
+Then why give more thought to the
+matter? It was awkward, but both were
+young and both would outlive it. Sylvia
+and I were young, and we outlived it.</p>
+
+<p>But still kept ringing in my ears that despairing
+half-whisper: "It is for the best."</p>
+
+<p>Petulantly I threw away my cigar and
+went up to my room. I walked over
+to the dressing-case and turned up the
+gas. The shadow displeased me and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130" href="#Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>
+I lighted the opposite jet. Then I stood
+squarely before the mirror and looked
+critically at the reflection.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, John Stanhope, you are growing
+old. That expanding forehead, with the
+retreating hairs, tells the tale of time.
+The gray upon your cheeks is whitening
+and the razor must be used more vigilantly
+to further deception. Those
+creases in your face can no longer be
+dismissed as character lines; the shagginess
+of your eyebrows has the flying
+years to account for it. Plainly, John,
+you and humbug must part company.
+You are not of this generation and it
+is not for you.</p>
+
+<p>I turned down the gas, threw open the
+window and let the moonlight filter in
+through the elms and over the tops of
+the little pines. The soft beauty of the
+night soothed me, and gradually and
+very gently my irritation and annoyance
+slipped away. Why should not a young
+girl, radiant in youth and beauty, affect
+a young man of her generation? What<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131" href="#Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
+has an old fellow, with all his money and
+worldly experience and burnt-out youth,
+to give in exchange for that intoxication
+which every girl may properly regard her
+lawful gift? Undoubtedly I should make
+a better husband, as husbands go, than
+my romantic nephew, and any woman
+of rare common sense would see the
+advantages of my position, but why
+burden a woman with that rare common
+sense which robs her of the first and
+sweetest of her dreams? No, John
+Stanhope, go back to your pipe and your
+books and your gardening, your life of
+selfish, indolent do-nothing. Take life
+as it comes most easily and naturally. By
+sparing one heart you may save two.</p>
+
+<p>And that nephew of mine&mdash;what a
+fine, manly fellow he proved himself when
+put to the test! The governor had
+been good to him and he was going to
+stand by the governor. How my heart
+jumped, and what a warm little feeling
+there was about the internal cockles as
+I recalled his words. Bravely said, my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132" href="#Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>
+boy, and nobly done! I fear I should
+not have been so generous at your age,
+and with Sylvia&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>And with Sylvia! How the past
+crowded back at the thought of her!
+Who are you, old dreamer, who neglected
+the gift the good gods provided in the
+heydey of your youth to return to chase
+the phantom of the past? Behind that
+little white cloud, sailing far into the
+north, Sylvia may be peeping at you,
+and smiling at the delusion of her ancient
+wooer. Or why not think that she is
+pleading with you&mdash;pleading for her
+child and the lover, as she might have
+pleaded for herself and somebody else,
+had somebody else known his own heart
+before it was too late?</p>
+
+<p>I watched the white cloud as it passed
+on and on, growing smaller and fainter
+as it receded. I settled back still deeper
+in my chair and sighed. And then&mdash;O
+unworthy knight of love!&mdash;and then,
+I fell asleep.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p>&nbsp;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133" href="#Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="dropcapn">I</span><span style="margin-left: -.7em;"><b>N</b></span> the morning, before the family was
+astir, I wrote a note, pleading a sudden
+and imperative call to town, and
+vanished for the day. I argued with myself
+that such a step was a delicate consideration
+for a young woman, who, having
+listened to a confession of love a few
+hours before, would be hardly at her ease
+at a breakfast-table conversation. Incidentally
+I was not altogether sure of
+myself, although I was much refreshed
+by an excellent night's sleep which comes
+to every philosopher with courage and
+strength to rise above the unpleasant
+things of life. If Phyllis had yielded to
+an emotion of grief, there was little trace
+of it when we met at evening. I fancied
+that she was somewhat paler, and her
+manner at times seemed a little listless,
+but otherwise there was no great departure
+from her usual demeanor. As for myself
+the long sunshine of a summer day
+and the conviction that at last the opportunity
+had come to me to play the r&ocirc;le<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134" href="#Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>
+of a minor hero gave me a peace that
+amounted almost to buoyancy. No need
+had I of the teachings of the musty old
+philosophers reposing on my bookshelves.
+John Stanhope had learned more of life
+in a few short hours than all his tomes
+could impart. His books had helped
+him many times in diagnosing the cases
+of his friends; when John fell ill they
+mocked and deceived him.</p>
+
+<p>Opportunely enough Phyllis followed
+me into the library, and when at my request
+she sat on a little stool at my feet,
+and I held her hand and stroked her soft
+light hair, a pang went through my heart,
+for I felt that she might be near me for
+the last time. The philosopher had yet
+much to learn. For several minutes we
+were both silent. Of the two I was
+doubtless the more ill at ease, though I
+concealed it bravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Phyllis," I said at last, "did you ever
+get over a childish fondness for fairy-stories?"</p>
+
+<p>She smiled at this&mdash;was I wrong<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135" href="#Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>
+in fancying that her smile was that
+of sadness?&mdash;and answered: "I hope
+not."</p>
+
+<p>"Because," I went on, bending over
+and affectionately patting the hand I held,
+"a little fairy-tale has been running
+through my head all day, and I have decided
+that you shall be the first to hear it
+and pass on its merits. And because," I
+added gayly, "if it has your approval I
+may wish to publish it. Shall I begin?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded her head&mdash;I could swear
+now to the weariness the poor child was
+so staunchly fighting&mdash;and looked off
+toward the sunset.</p>
+
+<p>"Once upon a time&mdash;you see that I
+am conventional&mdash;there lived a beautiful
+young princess, on whom a wicked old
+troll had cast an evil eye. Now this
+wicked troll was not so hideous as the
+trolls we see in our fairy-books&mdash;I must
+say that&mdash;but he was so wicked that even
+this deficiency could not excuse him. The
+princess was as young and innocent&mdash;I
+was going to say as simple&mdash;as she was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136" href="#Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>
+beautiful, and the wicked troll talked so
+much of his experience in the world, and
+boasted so hugely of his wealth and generosity
+and other shining virtues, that the
+imagination of the poor little princess was
+quite fired, and she was flattered into
+thinking that here was a treasure not to
+be lightly put aside. And so, in a foolish
+moment she consented to be his bride,
+and he took her away to his castle&mdash;I
+believe trolls do have castles&mdash;to make
+ready for the marriage. While the preparations
+were going on, and the wicked
+old troll was laughing with glee to think
+how he had deluded a princess, a handsome
+young prince appeared on the scene,
+and what so natural as that the princess
+should immediately contrast him with the
+troll. And it came about, also quite
+naturally, that before the prince and the
+princess knew that anything was happening,
+they fell so violently in love with
+each other that the birds, and the bees,
+and the flowers in the garden, and the
+squirrels in the trees sang and hummed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137" href="#Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>
+and gossiped and chattered about it."</p>
+
+<p>Here I paused. Phyllis did not look
+up, but I felt a shiver run through her
+body as I stroked her hair and put my
+arm around her shoulder to caress away
+her fear.</p>
+
+<p>"But it happened that although the
+princess was so much in love that at times
+she must have forgotten even the existence
+of the old troll, she was still possessed of
+that most inconvenient and annoying internal
+arrangement which we call the New
+England conscience, and one night, when
+the prince had declared his love with more
+ardor than usual, she remembered the
+past, how she had promised to marry the
+troll, and how she must keep her word,
+as all good princesses do. And the prince,
+who was a very upright young man, most
+foolishly listened to her, and agreed to
+give her up. Whereupon these poor
+children, having resolved that it was for
+the best&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Phyllis looked up quickly. Her face
+was white, and a look, half of fear, half of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138" href="#Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>
+reproach, came to her eyes. She sank
+down and hid her face in her hands.
+Both my arms were around her and I
+even laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear little princess," I whispered, "don't
+give way yet. The best is still to come. For
+you must remember that this is a fairy-tale
+and all fairy-tales have a good ending.
+And, to make a long story short, this
+wicked old troll was not a troll at all, but a
+fairy-godmother, who had taken the form
+for good purposes. I would have said
+fairy-godfather, but I have never come
+across a fairy-godfather in all my reading,
+and I must be truthful. Well, the fairy-godmother
+came along right in the nick of
+time&mdash;and, of course, you know who
+married and lived happily ever after?"</p>
+
+<p>The convulsive movement of the poor
+child's body told me she was weeping.
+And I, being a philosopher, and more
+or less hard-hearted, as all philosophers
+are, let her weep on. Presently she said
+in a voice hardly audible:</p>
+
+<p>"I gave you my promise and I meant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139" href="#Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
+to keep it. I am trying so hard to keep
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you are, little girl, but why
+try? A bad promise is far better broken
+than kept, and, come to think of it, I am
+not at all sure that I am anxious to have
+you keep it. How do you know that I
+am not making a desperate effort to secure
+my own release?"</p>
+
+<p>She raised her head quite unexpectedly
+and caught me with the tears in my eyes.
+My eyes always were weak. "Why, you
+are crying!" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I'm crying. I always cry
+when I am particularly well pleased. It
+is a family peculiarity. You should see
+me at the theatre. At a farce comedy I
+am a depressing sight, and that is the
+reason I always avoid the front seats."</p>
+
+<p>Then realizing that I might be carrying
+my gayety too far, I went on more soberly:</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you see, Phyllis, that the old
+fool's romance must come to an end?
+Don't you understand that had I the
+selfish wish to hold you to a thoughtless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140" href="#Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>
+promise, our adventure would terminate
+only in misery to us both? Perhaps you
+and I have been the last to see it, I, because
+I was thinking too much of myself,
+you, because you were carried away by an
+exalted sense of duty. Thank heaven it
+is clear to us both now. For it is clear,
+isn't it, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>The foolish girl did not reply, but she
+kissed my hand, and it is astonishing how
+that little act of affection touched and
+strengthened me.</p>
+
+<p>"So we are going to make a new start
+and begin right. To-morrow I shall see
+Frederick and make a proposition to
+him, and if that rascal does not give up
+his heroics and come down to his plain
+duty as I see it&mdash;well, so much the
+worse for him. No, don't raise objections"&mdash;she
+had started to speak&mdash;"for
+I am always quarrelsome when I cannot
+have my own way. Go to your room
+and think it over, and remember," I said
+more gently, for that old tide of the past
+was coming in, "that you are Sylvia's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141" href="#Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>
+daughter, and that Sylvia would have
+trusted me and counselled you to obey
+me in all things."</p>
+
+<p>Slowly and with averted face Phyllis
+rose and walked toward the door. I had
+commanded her, and yet I felt a sharp
+pang of bitterness that she had yielded so
+quickly to my words. It seemed at the
+moment that everything was passing out
+of my life; that Phyllis, that Sylvia, that
+all the once sweet, continuous memory was
+lost to me forever. I could not call her
+back, and I could not hope that she would
+return. Philosopher that I was I could
+not explain the sinking and the fear that
+took possession of me. The philosopher
+did not know himself. All his thought
+and all his reasoning could not solve the
+simple riddle the quick intuition of a girl
+made clear.</p>
+
+<p>She had reached the door before she
+paused. Then she turned. I had risen
+mechanically and stood looking at her.
+As slowly she came back and waited as if
+for me to speak. And when the dull<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142" href="#Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>
+philosopher groped helplessly for words
+and could not meet the appealing eyes,
+she put her hands on his shoulders, and
+laid her warm, young face on his heart,
+and said, "Father!"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The night was peacefully beautiful.
+I had strolled out of the garden and
+down to the river, and there along the
+bridle-path on the winding bank I walked
+for miles. Absorbed in my own thoughts
+I gave no heed to my little dog, Hero,
+trotting at my side and looking anxiously
+up at me with her large brown eyes,
+as if saying in her dog fashion: "Don't
+worry, old man; I'm here!" A strange,
+inexplicable happiness had fallen to
+him who thought he knew all others,
+and did not know even himself. I
+crossed the river to return on the opposite
+shore, and all the way back, through
+the arching trees, the shadows danced
+in the moonlight and the crickets chirped
+merrily. Life seemed so contrary, so
+bewildering, for I thought of the wedding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143" href="#Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
+music in those early mornings at my
+boyhood home, and I wondered at the
+optimism of Nature in attuning all emotions
+to a joyous note.</p>
+
+<p>Again in my garden I saw a half-light
+in Phyllis's room. Coming nearer I saw
+that she was standing at the window,
+with the same cloud on her face that had
+betrayed the battle with her conscience.
+At sight of her all the joyous emotion of
+my new tenderness overwhelmed me and
+I cried out cheerily:</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night, Phyllis!"</p>
+
+<p>Something in my voice sent a smile
+to her eyes and gladness to her heart, as,
+half leaning from the window, she kissed
+her hand to me and called back softly:
+"Good-night, father dear!"</p>
+
+<p>The south wind came, bringing the
+scent of the rose and the honeysuckle,
+and stirring the drowsy branches of the
+elms. The river rippled merrily in the
+moonlight, hurrying to bear the tidings
+of happiness to the greater waters, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144" href="#Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
+off in the distance the blue hills lifted
+their heads above the haze. Toward the
+north scudded the friendly little white
+cloud, and it seemed again a soothing
+fancy that Sylvia&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>O sweet and pleasant world!</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="1" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="2" summary="Transcriber's Notes">
+<tr><td align='left'><h3>TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES</h3>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_103">103</a>: Changed housekeeper to house-keeper for consistency.</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_116">116</a>: Changed typo "effervesence" to "effervescence."</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_142">142</a>: Changed typo "moolight" to "moonlight."</p></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Romance of an Old Fool, by Roswell Field
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+</pre>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Romance of an Old Fool, by Roswell Field
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Romance of an Old Fool
+
+Author: Roswell Field
+
+Release Date: February 24, 2007 [EBook #20661]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMANCE OF AN OLD FOOL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Suzan Flanagan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+_The_ ROMANCE OF
+   AN OLD FOOL
+
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+ THE ROMANCE
+
+      OF
+
+ AN OLD FOOL
+
+
+      BY
+
+ ROSWELL FIELD
+
+
+   EVANSTON
+WILLIAM S. LORD
+     1902
+
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+_Copyright, 1902, by_
+    ROSWELL FIELD
+
+
+UNIVERSITY PRESS . JOHN WILSON
+ AND SON . CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
+
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+                      _To_
+                 MY GODCHILDREN
+
+_With the somewhat unnecessary assurance that
+     it is not an autobiography, this little
+         tale of misconceived attachment
+                is affectionately
+                   inscribed_
+
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+THE ROMANCE _of_ AN OLD FOOL
+
+
+If it had not been for Bunsey, the novelist, I might have
+attained the heights. As a critic Bunsey has never commanded my
+highest admiration, and yet I have had my tender moments for him.
+From a really exacting standpoint he was not much of a novelist,
+and to his failure to win the wealth which is supposed to
+accompany fame I may have owed much of the debt of his sustained
+presence and his fondness for my tobacco. Bunsey had started out
+in life with high ideals, a resolution to lead the purely
+literary existence and to supply the market with a variety of
+choice, didactic essays along the line of high thinking; but the
+demand did not come up to the supply, and presently he abandoned
+his original lofty intention in favor of a sort of dubious
+romance. The financial returns, however, while a trifle more
+regular and encouraging, were not of sufficient importance to
+justify him in giving up his friendly claims on my house, my
+library, my time, my favorite lounge, and my best brand of
+cigars, in return for which he contributed philosophic opinions
+and much strenuous advice on topics in general and literature in
+particular.
+
+From my childhood I have been in the habit of keeping a diary, a
+running comment on the daily incidents of my pleasant but
+uneventful life, and occasionally, when Bunsey's society seemed
+too assertive and familiar, I sought to punish him by reading
+long and numerous excerpts. To do him justice he took the
+chastisement meekly, and even insisted that I was burying a
+remarkable talent, sometimes going to the magnanimous extreme of
+offering to introduce me to his publisher, and to speak a good
+word for me to the editors of certain magazines with whom he
+maintained a brisk correspondence, not infrequently of a
+querulous nature. All these friendly offices I gently put aside,
+in recalling the degradation of Bunsey's ideals, though I went on
+tolerating Bunsey, who had a good heart and an insistent manner.
+In this way I possibly deprived myself of a glorious career.
+
+My ability to befriend Bunsey was due to a felicitous chain of
+circumstances. When the late Mrs. Stanhope passed to her reward,
+she considerately left behind a document making me the recipient
+of her entire and not inconsiderable fortune. This proved a
+most unexpected blow to the church, which had enjoyed the honor
+and pleasure of Mrs. Stanhope's association, and which, quite
+naturally, had hoped to profit by her decease. The late Mrs.
+Stanhope, who I neglected to say was, in the eyes of Heaven,
+the world, and the law, my wife, had not lived with me in that
+utter abandonment to conjugal affection so much to be desired.
+We married to please our families, and we lived apart as much
+as possible to please ourselves. Though not without certain
+physical charms, Mrs. Stanhope was a woman of great moral
+rigidity and religious austerity, who saw life through the
+diminishing end of a sectarian telescope, and who cared far
+more for the distant heathen than for the local convivial pagans
+who composed my _entourage_. She had brought to me a considerable
+sum of money, which I had increased by judicious investments,
+and I dare say that it was in recognition of my business ability,
+as well as possibly in a moment of becoming wifely remorse, that
+she bequeathed to me her property intact. I gave her final
+testimonial services wholly in keeping with her standing as
+a church-woman, and I must say for my friends, whom she had
+severely ignored during her life, that they behaved very
+handsomely on that mournful occasion. They turned out in
+large numbers, and testified in other ways to their regard for
+her unblemished character. I recall, not without emotion after
+all these years, that Bunsey's memorial tribute to the church
+paper--for which he never received a dollar--was a model
+of appreciation as well as of Christian forgiveness and
+self-forgetfulness.
+
+The passing of Mrs. Stanhope made it possible for me to put into
+operation the long-desired plan of retiring a little way into the
+country, not too far from the seductions of the club and the
+city, but far enough to conform to the tastes of a country
+gentleman who likes to whistle to his dogs, putter over his
+roses, and meditate in a comfortable library with the poets and
+philosophers of his fancy. Here, with my good house-keeper,
+Prudence--a name I chose in preference to her mother's selection,
+Elizabeth--and my gardener and man of affairs, Malachy, I lived
+for a number of years at peace with the world and perfectly
+satisfied with myself. Although I was dangerously over forty, and
+my hair, which had been impressively dark, was conspicuously gray
+in spots, my figure was good, my dress correct, and my mirror
+told me that I was still in a position to be in the matrimonial
+running if I tried. I mention these trifling physical details
+merely to save my modesty the humiliation and annoyance of
+referring to them in future, and to prepossess the gentle reader
+wherever the sex makes it highly important.
+
+I do not deny that in certain moments of loneliness which come to
+us, widowers and bachelors alike, I had the impulse to tempt
+again the matrimonial fortune, and counting on my financial
+standing, together with other attractions, I ran over the
+eligible ladies of my acquaintance. But one was a little too old,
+and another was a good deal too flighty. One was too fond of
+society, and another did not like dogs. A fifth spoiled her
+chances by an unwomanly ignorance of horticulture, and a sixth
+perished miserably after returning to me one of my most cherished
+books with the leaves dog-eared and the binding cracked. For I
+hold with the greatest philosophers that she who maltreats a book
+will never make a good wife. And so the years slipped cosily and
+cheerily by, while I grew more contented with my environment and
+less envious of my married friends, and whenever temporary
+melancholy overtook me I moved into the club for a month, or
+slipped across the water, finding in the change of scene
+immediate relief from the monotony of widowerhood.
+
+In thus fortifying myself against the wiles of woman I was much
+abetted by my good Prudence, who never ceased her exhortations as
+to the sinister designs of her sex, and who had a ready word of
+discouragement for any possible candidate who might be in the
+line of succession. "I see that Rogers woman walkin' by the house
+to-day, Mr. John," she would begin, "and I see her turnin' her
+nose up at the new paint on the arbor." (I selected that color
+myself.) "It's queer how that woman does give herself airs,
+considerin' everybody knows she's been ready for ten years to
+take the fust man that asks her." Prudence knew that I had
+escorted the elderly Miss Rogers to the theatre only the week
+before, and had commented pleasantly on the elegance of her
+figure. But the slight put upon my eye for color was too much.
+Wily Prudence!
+
+Or a day or two after I had rendered an act of neighborly
+kindness to the bereaved Mrs. Stebbins she would say quite
+casually:
+
+"I don't want to utter one word agin the poor and afflicted, Mr.
+John, but when the Widder Stebbins hit Cleo with a broom to-day I
+own I b'iled over. I shouldn't tell you if it warn't my duty."
+
+Cleopatra was my favorite cocker spaniel, and any faint
+impression my fair neighbor may have made on my unguarded heart
+was immediately dispelled. Thus subtly and vigilantly my
+house-keeper kept the outer gates of the citadel, and shooed away
+a possible mistress as effectually as she dispersed the predatory
+hens from the garden patch.
+
+But with the younger generation of women, good Prudence was less
+cautious. Any maiden under the very early twenties she regarded
+fair material for my friendly offices, and frequently she visited
+me with expressions commendatory of good conduct.
+
+"I likes to see you with the children, Mr. John, bless 'em, sir.
+And they do all seem to be so fond of you. There's nothin' that
+keeps the heart so young and fresh as goin' with young people,
+just as nothin' ages a man so much as havin' a lot of widders and
+designin' old maids about. Of course," she added, with a return
+of her natural suspicion, "you are old enough to be father to the
+whole bunch, which keeps people from talkin'."
+
+Whether it was Prudence's approbation or my own inclination I
+cannot say, but it soon came about that I was on paternally
+familiar terms with the entire neighborhood of maidens of
+reasonably tender years, and a very important factor in young
+feminine councils. These artful creatures knew exactly when
+their favorite roses were in bloom, exactly when the cherries
+back of the house were ripe, exactly when it was time to go to
+town for another theatre party, to give a picnic up the river, or
+a small and informal dance in the parlors. I was expected to
+remember and observe all birthdays, to be a well-spring of
+benevolence at Christmas, and a free and never-failing florist at
+Easter. I was the recipient of all young griefs and troubles, and
+no girl ever committed herself unconditionally to the arms of her
+lover until she had talked the matter over with Uncle John. All
+this, to a good-looking man of--well, considerably over forty,
+was flattering, but no sinecure.
+
+One morning, in the late spring, it came over me unhappily that
+in a moment of fatal forgetfulness I had promised to be present
+that evening at a card-party--a promise exacted by the "Rogers
+woman," _persona non grata_ to Prudence. A card-party was to me
+in the category with battle and murder and sudden death, from
+which we all petition to be delivered in the book of common
+prayer--but how to be delivered? I could not be called suddenly
+to town, for I had already run that excuse to its full limit. I
+could not conveniently start for Europe on an hour's notice. The
+plea of sickness I dismissed as feminine and unworthy. And while
+I sat debating to what extreme I could tax my over-burdened
+conscience, Malachy appeared with the information that he had
+discovered unmistakable signs of cutworms in the rose-bushes, and
+that the local custodians of the trees were thundering against an
+impending epidemic of brown-tailed moth. Surely my path of duty
+led to the garden. But that card-party? No, let the cutworm work
+his will, and let the brown-tailed moth corrupt; I must take
+refuge in flight, however inglorious. It was then that the good
+angel, who never forsakes a well-meaning man, whispered to me
+that far back in a quiet corner of New England was the little
+village where I had passed my boyhood, which I had deserted for
+five and twenty years, but which still remembered me as "Johnny"
+Stanhope, thanks to the officious longevity of the editor of the
+county paper.
+
+The situation I explained briefly to Prudence and Malachy, and
+swore them into the conspiracy. I threw a few clothes into a
+small trunk, despatched a hypocritical note of regret to Miss
+Rogers, caught the noon train, and was soon beyond the danger
+line. Mrs. Lot, casting an apprehensive glance behind her, could
+not have dreaded more fearful consequences than I, looking back
+on the calamity I was evading. But as we went on and on into the
+cool, quiet country, and felt the soft air stealing down from the
+nearing mountains, I began to experience a lively sense of relief
+and pleasure, and to wonder why I had so long delayed a visit to
+my boyhood home.
+
+I am sorry for the man whose childhood knew only the roar and
+bustle and swiftly shifting scenes of the city. For him there is
+no return in after years, no illusion to be renewed, no joy of
+youth to be substantiated. His habitation has passed away or
+yielded to the inroads of commerce, his landmarks have vanished,
+and he is bewildered by the strange sights that time and trade
+have put upon his memories. But time has no terrors for the
+country-bred boy. The Almighty does not change the mountains and
+the rivers and the great rocks that fortify the scenery, and man
+is slow to push back into the far meadowlands and the hillsides,
+and destroy the simple, primitive life of the fathers.
+
+All of the joy that such a returning pilgrim might have I felt
+when I left the train at the junction, and, scorning the pony
+engine and combination car supplied in later years by the railway
+company as a tribute to progress, set out to walk the two miles
+to the village. Every foot of the country I had played over as a
+boy. Here was the field where Deacon Skinner did his "hayin'";
+just beyond the deacon raised his tobacco crop. That roof over
+there, which I once detected as the top of Jim Pomeroy's barn,
+reminded me of the day of the raisin', when I sprained my ankle
+and thereby saved myself a thrashing for running away. Here was
+Pickerel Pond, the scene of many miraculous draughts, and now I
+crossed Peach brook which babbled along under the road just as
+saucily and untiringly as if it had slept all these years and was
+just awaking to fresh life. A hundred rods up the brook was the
+Widow Parsons's farm, and I knew that if I went through the side
+gate, cut across the barnyard, and kept down to the left, I
+should find that same old stump on which Bill Howland sat the day
+he caught the biggest dace ever pulled out of the quiet pool.
+
+The sun was going down behind Si Thompson's planing mill as I
+stopped at the little red covered bridge that marked the boundary
+of the village. Silas had been dead for twenty years, but it
+seemed to me that it was only yesterday that I heard his nasal
+twang above the roar of the machinery: "Sa-ay, you fellers want
+to git out o' that!" The little bridge had lost much of its color
+and most of its impressiveness, for I remembered when to my
+boyish fancy it seemed a greater triumph of engineering than the
+Victoria bridge at Montreal. And the same old thrill went through
+me as I started to run--just as I did when a boy--and felt the
+planks loosen and creak under my feet. Here was a home-coming
+worth the while.
+
+Hank Pettigrew kept the village tavern. The memory of man, so far
+as I knew, ran not back to the time when Hank did not keep the
+tavern. So I was not in the least surprised, as I entered, to see
+the old man, with his chair tilted back against the wall, his
+knees on a level with his chin, and his eyes fixed on a chromo of
+"Muster Day," which had descended to him through successive
+generations. He did not move as I advanced, or manifest the
+slightest emotion of surprise, merely saying, "Hullo, Johnny,"
+as if he expected me to remark that mother had sent me over to
+see if he had any ice cream left over from dinner. It probably
+did not occur to Hank that I had been absent twenty-five years.
+If it had occurred to him, he would have considered such a
+trifling flight of time not worth mentioning.
+
+With the question of lodging and supper disposed of, and with the
+modest bribe of a cigar, which Hank furtively exchanged for a
+more accustomed brand of valley leaf, it was not difficult to
+loosen the old landlord's tongue and secure information of my
+playmates. What had become of Teddy Grover, the pride of our
+school on exhibition day? Could we ever forget the afternoon he
+stood up before the minister and the assembled population and
+roared "Marco Bozzaris" until we were sure the sultan was quaking
+in his seraglio? And how he thundered "Blaze with your serried
+columns, I will not bend the knee!" To our excited imaginations
+what dazzling triumphs the future held out for Teddy.
+
+"Yep; Ted's still a-beout. Three days in the week he drives stage
+coach over to Spicerville, and the rest o' the time he does odd
+jobs--sort o' tendin' round."
+
+And Sallie Cotton--black-eyed, curly-haired, mischievous little
+sprite, the agony of the teacher and the love and admiration of
+the boys! Who climbed trees, rattled to school in the butcher
+wagon, never knew a lesson, but was always leading lady in the
+school colloquies, and was surely destined to rise to eminence on
+the American stage if she did not break her neck tumbling out of
+old Skinner's walnut tree?
+
+"Oh, Sal; she married the Congregational minister down to
+Peterfield, and was 'lected president of the Temperance Union and
+secretary of the Endeavorers. Read a piece down at Fust Church
+last week on 'Breakin' Away from Old Standards,' illustratin' the
+alarmin' degen'racy of children nowadays."
+
+And George Hawley, our Achilles, our Samson, our ideal of
+everything manly and courageous! Strong as an ox and brave as a
+lion! Our champion in every form of athletic sports! Who looked
+with contempt on girls and disdained their maidenly advances! Who
+thought only of deeds of muscular prowess, and who seemed to
+carry the assurance of a force that would lead armies and subdue
+nations! What of George?
+
+"Wa-al, George was a-beout not long ago. Had your room for his
+samples. Travellin' for a house down in Boston, and comes here
+reg'lar. Women folks say his last line o' shirt waists war the
+best they ever see."
+
+Oh, the times that change, and change us! Alas, the fleeting
+years, good Posthumus, that work such havoc with our childhood
+dreams and hopes and aspirations!
+
+It was a relief, after the shattering of these idols, to leave
+the society of the communicative Mr. Pettigrew and wander into
+the moonlight. Save as adding beauty to the scenery, the moon
+was comparatively of no assistance, for so well was the little
+village stamped on my memory, and so little had it changed in the
+quarter of a century, that I could have walked blindfolded to any
+suggested point. Naturally I turned my steps toward the home of
+my youth, and as I drew near the old-fashioned, many-gabled
+house, with its settled, substantial air, austere yet inviting,
+its large yard with the huge elms, and the big lamp burning in
+the library or "sittin'-room," where I first dolefully studied
+the geography that told me of a world outside, it seemed to bend
+toward me rather frigidly as if to say reproachfully: "You sold
+me! you sold me!" True, dear old home; in my less prosperous days
+I was guilty of the crime of selling the house that faithfully
+sheltered my family for a hundred years. But have I not repented?
+And have I not returned to buy you back, and to make such further
+reparation as present conditions and true repentance demand? Is
+this less the pleasure than the duty of wealth?
+
+With what sensations of delight I walked softly about the
+grounds, taking note of every familiar tree and bush and stump. I
+could have sworn that not a twig, not a blade of grass, had been
+despoiled or had disappeared in the years that marked my absence.
+I paused reverently under the old willow tree and affectionately
+rubbed my legs, for from this tree my parents had cut the
+instruments of torture for purposes of castigation, and its name,
+the weeping willow, was always associated in my infant mind with
+the direct results of contact with my unwilling person. On a
+level with the top of the willow was the little attic room where
+I slept, and the more sweetly when the crickets chirped, or the
+summer rain beat upon the roof, and where the song of the birds
+in the morning is the happiest music God has given to the
+country. Back of the woodshed I found the remains of an old
+grindstone, perhaps the same heavy crank I had so often
+perspiringly and reluctantly turned. Indeed my reviving memories
+were rather too generously connected with the strenuousness and
+not the pleasures of youth, but I thought of the well-filled lot
+in the old burying-ground on the hillside, and of those lying
+there who had said: "My boy, I am doing this for your good." I
+doubted it at the time, but perhaps they were right. At all
+events the memories were growing pleasanter, for a stretch of
+thirty-five years has many healing qualities, and our childhood
+griefs are such little things in the afterglow.
+
+In the early morning I renewed my rambles, going first to the
+little frame school-house, the old church with its tall spire,
+the saw-mill, the deacon's cider press, the swimming pool, and a
+dozen other places of boyish adventure and misadventure. Your
+true sentimentalist invariably gives the preference to scenes
+over persons, and is so often rewarded by the fidelity with which
+they respond to his eager expectations. It was not until I had
+exhausted every incident of the place that I sought out the
+companions of my school-days. What strange irony of fate is that
+which sends some of us out into the restless world to grow away
+from our old ideals and make others, and restrains some in the
+monotonous rut of village life, to drone peacefully their little
+span! But happy he, who, knowing nothing, misses nothing. If
+there were any village Hampdens, or mute, inglorious Miltons
+among my playmates, they gave no present indications. I found the
+girls considerably older than I expected, the boys less
+interesting than I hoped; but they all welcomed me with that
+grave, unemotional hospitality of the village, and we talked, far
+into the shadows, of our schooltime, the day that is never dead
+while memory endures.
+
+And so it came about that at the close of day I found myself
+standing at the garden gate of the Eastmann cottage. Peleg
+Eastmann had been our village postmaster, a grave, shy man, who
+had received the federal office because the thrifty neighbors
+agreed, irrespective of political feeling, that it was much less
+expensive to give him the office than to support him and his two
+daughters, the prettiest girls in our school. For they further
+agreed that Peleg was a "shif'less sort o' critter" and never
+could make a living, though he was a model postmaster and an
+excellent citizen and neighbor. Hence, when it came Peleg's turn
+to make the journey to the burying-ground in the village hearse,
+the whole community of Meadowvale was scandalized by the
+discovery that he had left his girls a comfortable little
+fortune, enough to keep them in modest wealth. Meadowvale never
+recovered from this shock. It felt that it had been victimized,
+and that its tenderest sensibility had been violated, and when
+his disconsolate daughters put up the granite shaft to their
+father's memory, relating that he had been faithful and just, the
+indignant political leader of the village remarked that it was
+"profanation of Scriptur'."
+
+Thirty years ago I had stood at this little gate with one of the
+Eastmann girls, escorting her home from Stella Perkins's party. I
+had attempted to kiss her good-night, and she had boxed my ears,
+thus contributing a disagreeable finale to an otherwise pleasant
+evening. Time is a great healer and I cherished no resentment at
+this late day toward the repudiator of my caresses. In fact I
+smiled in recollection of the incident as I walked up the
+gravelled path and knocked at the door. I wondered if the same
+vivacious, rosy-cheeked girl would come to meet me, and if I
+should feel in duty bound to make honorable amends. The door was
+opened by a tall, spare woman, who carried a lamp. The light
+reflected directly on her features, showed a face that in any
+other part of the world would be called hard; in New England it
+is merely resolute. It was the face of a woman fifty years of
+age, with massive chin, slightly sunken cheeks, a prominent nose,
+heavy eyebrows, and a high forehead rather scantily streaked by
+gray hair. There was no trace of the girlish bloom I had known,
+of the beauty that once had been hers, but the imperious manner
+of the woman was unmistakable.
+
+"Mary," I began jocularly, "I have come to apologize."
+
+She thrust the lamp forward, peered into my face, and said, with
+not the faintest trace of a smile or the slightest evidence of
+embarrassment:
+
+"Why, that's all right, Johnny Stanhope. I accept your apology.
+Come right in."
+
+I went in. We sat in the sitting-room and talked of our
+school-days and our fortunes. I told her how I had gone down to
+the city, how I had prospered, of my adventures in the world, of
+my marriage--dealing very gently with my relations with the late
+Mrs. Stanhope--of my bereavement and present idyllic existence.
+And she told me of herself, how she had lived on and on in the
+little cottage, caring only for the support and education of her
+niece, Phyllis Kinglake, an orphan for nearly twenty years. "You
+remember Sylvia?" she said, with the first touch of emotion.
+
+Did I remember Sylvia? My little fair-haired playmate with the
+large eyes and the blue veins showing through the delicate beauty
+of her face? Little Sylvia, who first won my boyish affection,
+and with whom I made a solemn contract of marriage when we were
+only seven years old? Did I not remember how I would pass her
+house on my way to school, and stand at the gate and whistle
+until she came shyly out, with her face as red as her little hood
+and tippet, and give me her books to carry, and protest with the
+ever present coquetry of girlhood that she thought I had gone
+long ago? Could I ever forget how I saved my coppers, one by one,
+until I had accumulated a sum large enough to buy a whole
+cocoanut, which I presented to her in the proudest moment of my
+life, and how the other girls tossed their heads with the
+affectation of a sneer, and with pretended indifference to this
+astonishing stroke of fortune? And that fatal evening when I
+provoked my little beauty's wrath, and in all the receding
+opportunities of "Post-Office" and "Copenhagen" she had turned
+her face and rosy lips away from me, until the world was black
+with a hopeless despair? And the singing-school where she was our
+shining ornament, and that blissful night when I stood up with
+her in the village church, while we sang our duet descriptive of
+the special virtues of some particular flower nominated in the
+cantata? And how, growing older and shyer, we still preserved our
+youthful fancy even to the day I struck out into the world, both
+believing in the endurance of the tie that would draw me back?
+What caprice of fate is it that dispels the illusions of youth
+and restores them tenfold in the reflection of after years and
+over the gulf of the grave? Did I remember Sylvia?
+
+Then Mary went on to tell me of Sylvia's happy marriage to George
+Kinglake, how, when little Phyllis had come, and the world was
+at its brightest, the parents had been stricken down in the same
+week by a virulent disease, and how, with her dying breath, the
+mother had asked her sister to look after her little one and
+protect her from sorrow and harm. Very simply this stern-featured
+woman told the story of her efforts to do her duty to her
+sister's child, and it seemed to me that her face grew softer and
+her voice gentler as she went over the years they had grown older
+together, while the beauty of this woman's life was glorified by
+the willing sacrifices of imposed motherhood. I could not see
+Phyllis, for she was spending the night with friends in another
+part of the village. Next time, she hoped, I might be more
+successful.
+
+Walking slowly to the tavern my mind still went back to my little
+playmate and the golden days of youth, and if my heart grew a
+little tenderer, and my eyes were moistened by the recall, what
+need to be ashamed of the emotion? And if in the night I dreamed
+that I was a boy again, and that a fair-haired child played with
+me in the changing glow of dreamland in the best and purest
+scenes of the human comedy, was it a delusion to be dispelled, a
+memory to be put aside? Did I remember Sylvia?
+
+
+
+
+The thought that my train was to leave at ten o'clock did not
+depress me as I awoke, with the sunlight streaming through the
+window, for, after all, I was obliged to admit that the monotony
+of Meadowvale and the sluggishness of my village friends were
+beginning to have an appreciable effect. Then the memory of
+little Sylvia came to me again, and nothing seemed pleasanter, as
+a benediction to the old days, than a visit to the burying-ground
+where she was sleeping. The previous day I had paid the
+obligations of remembrance and respect to the graves of
+my kindred, and it gave me at first an uncomfortable feeling
+to realize that the thought of them was less potent than
+the recollection of this young girl. But was it strange or
+inexcusable? Had they not lived out their lives of honored
+usefulness, and grown old and weary of the battle? And had
+not she passed away just as the greater joys of living were
+unfolding, and the assurance of happiness was the stronger?
+Poor Sylvia!
+
+The spectacle of a correctly dressed, middle-aged man passing
+down the street, bearing a somewhat cumbersome burden of
+lilies-of-the-valley and forget-me-nots, must have had its
+peculiar significance to the inhabitants of the village, and many
+curious glances were my reward. I passed along, however, without
+explanations in distinct violation of rural etiquette. The old
+caretaker of the burying-ground met me at the entrance and gave
+me the directions--second path to the right, half way up the
+hill, just to the left of the big elm. The old man had known me
+as a boy and would have detained me in conversation, but I
+pleaded that my time was short, and reluctantly he let me go my
+way. Slowly up the hill I walked, occasionally pausing to place a
+forget-me-not on the grave of one I had known in childhood. Even
+old Barrows did not escape my passing tribute--a cynical,
+cross-grained old fellow, the aversion of the boys, who tormented
+him and whom he tormented with reciprocal vigor. No need of a
+forget-me-not for Barrows, for he never forgot anything, so I
+gave his somewhat neglected grave the token of a long stem of
+little lilies, in evidence that the past was forgiven, and moved
+on to avoid possible protestation.
+
+I paused under the wide-branching elm to recover my breath. The
+assent had been arduous for a gentleman inclined to portliness
+and with wind impaired by tobacco. I turned to the left, and at
+that moment, just before me, a woman's figure slowly rose from
+the ground. A creeping sensation possessed me. My heart bounded
+and my pulses thrilled. Was this Sylvia risen from the dead?
+Surely it was Sylvia's graceful girlish form! This was Sylvia's
+oval face, with Sylvia's large gray eyes. In such a way Sylvia's
+pretty light hair waved about her temples, and the pink and
+white of her delicate complexion revealed the blue veins.
+Twenty-five years had rolled back in an instant, and I was
+standing in the presence of the past. Alas, the swift passing of
+the illusion, for the conversation of the evening came to me.
+
+"You are Phyllis?" I said.
+
+"I am Phyllis," she answered softly--her mother's voice--"and you
+are Mr. Stanhope. My aunt told me."
+
+I did not answer, for I was staring stupidly at her, reluctant to
+abandon the pleasing fancy that my thinking of her had brought
+her back from the dead again. She did not speak, but glanced
+inquiringly at the flowers I held in my hand.
+
+"I knew your mother, Phyllis," I managed to say. "She was a very
+dear playmate of my childhood. I have brought these flowers to
+put upon her grave. Shall we go together?"
+
+The girl's eyes filled, and she pointed to the rising mound at
+her feet. Silently we bent over and reverently laid the lilies
+and forget-me-nots under the simple headstone.
+
+"May I talk to you of your mother?" I asked.
+
+We sat down on a rude bench in the path, and I told her of my
+childhood, of the days when Sylvia and I were sweethearts, of our
+little quarrels and frolics, of her mother's beauty and
+gentleness. The girl laughed at the recital of our misadventures,
+and the tears came into her eyes when I touched on my boyish
+affection for my playmate. Then she told me of her own life, so
+peaceful and happy in the little village, and in the neighboring
+town, where she had been educated with all the care and diligence
+of the New England impulse. I looked at my watch.
+
+"It is quarter past eleven," I said ruefully, "and my train left
+at ten."
+
+"There's another train at three," she replied. "You will go home
+and dine with us? We dine at twelve in the country, you know."
+
+If I was somewhat ashamed to face Mary Eastmann, she received us
+with the same stolidity she had manifested when we first met, and
+at once insisted that I should remain for dinner. "Go into the
+parlor," she said abruptly.
+
+Phyllis plucked the sleeve of my coat. "Don't go in there," she
+whispered; "that's Aunt Mary's room exclusively, and I'm afraid
+you'll not find it very cheerful. Come out on the porch."
+
+"I know the room," I whispered back, as we went out together. "At
+least I know the type. Lots of horse-hair belongings. Square
+piano against the wall. Wax flowers under a glass case on the
+mantel. Steel engravings of Washington crossing the Delaware.
+Family album, huge Bible, and 'Famous Women of Two Centuries' on
+the centre table. Seashells, blue wedgwood and German china
+things mingled in delightful confusion on the what-not. If not
+wax flowers, it's wax fruit."
+
+Phyllis laughed--how much her laugh was like her mother's--and
+nodded her head. "Not a bad description," she assented; "you must
+have the gift of second sight."
+
+"Not second sight. Suppose we call it the gift of second
+childhood."
+
+We sat on the porch and looked down on the lawn that sloped to
+the orchard, and watched the robins run across the grass. And I
+pointed out to Phyllis the very tree under which Sylvia and I had
+stood the day we had our first memorable quarrel, confessing that
+while at the time there was no doubt in my mind that Sylvia was
+clearly at fault, I was now prepared to concede, after plenty of
+reflection, that possibly she might have had a reasonable defence.
+The recital of this pathetic incident led to other reminiscences
+connected with the old house and its grounds, and I was hardly in
+the second chapter when Mary came out and ordered us in to dinner.
+Mary never invited, never requested; she merely ordered. We sat at
+the table, and at a severe look from Mary I stopped fumbling with
+my napkin, while Phyllis--sweet saint!--folded her hands and asked
+the divine blessing. Pagan philosopher that I was, I was singularly
+moved by the simple faith of these two women, and I think that when
+I am led back into the fold of my family creed, a girl as young and
+fair and holy as Phyllis will be the angel to guide me.
+
+The dinner was toothsome, the environment fascinating, the
+afternoon perfect, and so it came about quite naturally that I
+missed the three-o'clock train. "There is nothing so disagreeable
+in life," I explained apologetically to my friends, "as a hard
+and fast schedule, which keeps one jumping like an electric
+clock, doing sixty things every hour and never varying the
+performance. Fortunately trains run every day except Sunday, and
+the general order of the universe is not going to be upset
+because I am not checking myself off like a section-hand."
+
+Perhaps Mary did not wholly coincide with my argument, but she
+was called away to her sewing-circle, while Phyllis and I lounged
+lazily on the porch, I continuing my reminiscences. Garrulity
+is not merely the prerogative of age; the privilege of the
+monologue is always that of the old boy who comes back to his
+childhood's home and finds in a pretty girl a charming and
+attentive listener. He is a poor orator, indeed, who cannot
+improve such opportunities. At a convenient lull in the flow of
+discourse we went off to ride, exploring the country roads I knew
+so well, and here began new matter and new reminiscences, patiently
+endured by Phyllis, who was a most delightful girl. And when we
+returned late in the afternoon it was directly in the line of
+circumstances that I should remain for tea; and after tea Phyllis
+played and sang for me in the little parlor, for Phyllis was a
+musician of no small merit. When in reply to my inquiry she sang
+a simple Scotch ballad her mother had sung so touchingly many
+years before, a great lump rose in my throat, and I sat far over
+in the shadow that she and Mary might not see how blurred were my
+eyes, and how unmanageable my emotion. At what age does it come
+to a man and a philosopher that he is no longer ashamed of
+honest, sympathetic tears?
+
+I shall never know whether it was the journey in the train,
+the air and cooking of Meadowvale, or the visits to the
+burying-ground, that upset me, but for the first time in a dozen
+years I found myself dissatisfied with my home. I remarked to
+Malachy that the roses seemed to be in a most discouraging
+condition, and that the garden in general was altogether
+disappointing. I noticed that my dogs barked a great deal, that
+the neighbors had become most tiresome, and that Bunsey was an
+unmitigated nuisance. Even the cuisine, which had been my pride
+and boast, grew at times unbearable, and I had not been home a
+fortnight before I astonished Prudence by positively assuring her
+that the dinner she had set before me was not worth any sane
+man's serious attention. Whereupon that excellent woman announced
+with superb pride that she "guessed it was about time for that
+Rogers woman to give another card-party."
+
+"Prudence," I said severely, for I encourage no flippancy on the
+part of domestics, "that remark, while probably hasty and
+ill-considered, borders on impertinence. I shall overlook it this
+time on account of your faithful services in the past. But don't
+let it happen again. In any event," I amended considerately,
+"don't let it drop in my presence."
+
+Thinking it over I came to the conclusion that Prudence was right
+in the general effect of the suggestion. What I needed was a
+change of scene. Long abstention from travel and variety of
+incident had made me restless and discontented. I had not been in
+Europe for two years. Undoubtedly I was pining for a lazy tour of
+the Continent. The thought decided me. I should book my passage
+on the steamer that sailed the Saturday of the following week.
+
+Strangely enough, at this interesting moment, I received a letter
+from the chairman of the committee on public improvements in the
+village of Meadowvale, announcing that it had been resolved to
+procure new rooms for the village library, and would Mr. John
+Stanhope do his native village the honor of subscribing a small
+amount toward this desirable end. As it is always much easier for
+an indolent man to telegraph than to write letters, I replied by
+wire that Mr. Stanhope felt himself much honored by the request.
+Not entirely satisfied with this confession, I sent a second
+telegram an hour later doubling my subscription. Still my
+conscience troubled me.
+
+"I have not done my duty," I said to myself. "Here I am, a man of
+means, I may say of large wealth, with no special obligations
+resting upon me, and yet I have done nothing to benefit or enrich
+my old home. It is strange that it has not occurred to me before
+what a privilege, what an honor, it is to be a philanthropist
+even in a small way, and with what alacrity those whom Heaven has
+blessed with a fortune should respond to the calls of deserving
+need. I blush for my past thoughtlessness, and I shall hasten to
+atone for my astonishing neglect. My duty lies before me, and I
+shall not shrink from it, whatever the personal inconvenience."
+
+Thereupon I telegraphed for the third time to the chairman that
+it would give Mr. Stanhope the greatest pleasure to put up a
+suitable library for the village of Meadowvale, and, in order to
+guard against any possible misunderstanding, he would depart the
+following day to confer with the committee as to site and
+probable extent of the structure. This concession to my
+conscience comforted me greatly, and I prepared for my journey
+with a lightness that was almost buoyancy. The chairman and two
+of the committee met me at the junction. They were most
+deprecatory and apologetic, and mentioned with evident sorrow
+the absence of several of the members which might cause a
+postponement of the conference until the following day. I bore up
+under this intelligence with astonishing cheerfulness.
+
+"My good friends," I said, "don't let this disturb you for a
+minute. I am not so pressed for time that I cannot wait on your
+reasonable convenience. Your tavern is well kept and the food is
+wholesome. I think I may say that my old friends in Meadowvale
+will interest me until we can come to an amicable understanding.
+Suppose, to be sure of a full meeting, that we fix the time of
+conference at day after to-morrow--a little late in the
+afternoon."
+
+After this suggestion had been received with suitable expressions
+of gratitude, we journeyed together to the village, where I was
+duly turned over to old Pettigrew. And then, as the day was by no
+means done, I strolled down the street and, most naturally and
+quite unthinkingly, found myself a few minutes later looking over
+the Eastmann gate at Phyllis on the porch. To say that this
+charming girl was surprised by my sudden appearance was no less
+true than to admit that she did not seem in the least displeased.
+I positively had no intention of going in, but before I knew it I
+was sitting beside her, relating in the most casual way the
+reason of my coming.
+
+"How good it was of you," said the ingenuous creature, "and how
+delighted and grateful Meadowvale will be. It must be glorious to
+be rich enough to do things for other people."
+
+Now it is not a disagreeable sensation to feel that one is rich
+and good and glorious in the large gray eyes of a very pretty
+woman, and I was conscious of the mild intoxication from the
+compliment. "It is, indeed," I answered magnanimously. "I have
+always maintained that money is given to us in trust for those
+around us, and that in making others happy we find our greatest
+happiness. I regret that I have not wholly lived up to this
+undeniably correct principle."
+
+"It will require at least a thousand dollars," she said naively.
+
+"Oh, at least."
+
+She was silent a moment. Then she said: "I was wondering what I
+would do if I had a thousand dollars to give away."
+
+"What do you think you would do?"
+
+"Speaking for my own preferences I think I should like to
+establish a country club."
+
+"The very thing. If there is one crying want more than another in
+Meadowvale it is a country club, with golf links, tennis courts,
+and shower baths."
+
+"Now you are laughing at me."
+
+"Not at all. Fancy old Hank and you playing a foursome with Aunt
+Mary and me for the cider and apples. Why, it would add years of
+robustness to our waning lives."
+
+"No," said the girl decisively. "It isn't feasible."
+
+"Then," I went on musingly, "we might have an Art Institute, or
+the Phyllis Kinglake School of Expression, or the Meadowvale
+Woman's Club, or the Colonial Dames, or, best of all, the
+Daughters of the American Revolution."
+
+"That shows how little you appreciate the local situation," she
+responded quickly, "for your best of all is worse and worse.
+Imagine an order of Daughters in a place where every woman's
+ancestors did nothing but fight in the Revolution. As well call a
+town meeting at once. Ah,"--with a sigh--"I see that I shall
+never spend the thousand dollars in Meadowvale."
+
+"Don't be too sure of that, my dear Phyllis," I exclaimed in an
+outburst, for I was in a particularly happy and generous mood;
+"and remember that when you do decide how the money is to be
+philanthropically invested we shall see that it is forthcoming."
+
+With such agreeable banter the minutes slipped away, and when
+Mary appeared with the customary invitation to tea, it would have
+been a jolt to the harmonious order of things to decline. I
+cannot say that I have ever cordially approved the austerity of
+the New England tea-table, with its cold bread and biscuits, its
+applesauce, its frugal allowance of sardines, its basket of cake,
+and its not very stimulating pot of tea. But such are the
+compensations of pleasant society that even these chilly viands
+may be forgotten, and I said my "Amen" to Phyllis's sweet and
+modest grace with all the heartiness of a thankful man. As no
+gentleman may, with propriety, run away immediately after he has
+accepted hospitality, I lingered in the evening, and we had more
+music, which so calmed and rested me that I wondered at my past
+nervousness and marvelled that I had even contemplated a journey
+across the water.
+
+How it came about that the next morning Phyllis and I were
+strolling over the village, down by the river and into the
+pleasant woods, I have forgotten, but I dare say that we were
+discussing further developments of philanthropy, and endeavoring
+to come to a conclusion as to the proper disposition of that
+troublesome thousand dollars. The girl was so young and
+joyous, so pretty, so arch, so fascinating with that little
+coquettishness that is not the usual type of the Puritan maiden,
+I could not find it in my heart to remember Mary's words and "try
+to instil in her a closer appreciation of the more serious
+purposes of life." Indeed life is so serious that it is one of
+the blessed decrees of Mother Nature that we have that brief
+allotment of time when it is too serious to think about, and
+youth passes so quickly that it is criminal to rob it of its
+golden hour. In such a presence I felt my own spirits rising, my
+step becoming springy, my whole nature less sluggish, and, had I
+looked in the mirror, I should have confidently expected to see a
+youthful bloom in my cheeks and a return of hair to primary
+conditions.
+
+It is due to this interesting young woman to say that she coyly
+urged me not to forget my other friends, since I was to leave so
+soon, and it pleased me to fancy that she was not altogether
+offended when I spoke somewhat hastily and rather flippantly of
+those of my former companions who had lapsed into tediousness. I
+reminded her also that as the happiest memory of my childhood was
+associated with her mother, so it was sweet to me to be with her
+and live again, in a pleasant dream, the brightness of the past.
+Then, for her mother's sake, she shyly let me take her hand while
+I went over again, not without emotion, the story of my early
+love. Dear little Sylvia!
+
+The meeting of the committee was followed by a general
+congregation of citizens, and I was invited to the platform,
+where I outlined my plans. I hinted that the library was merely
+the beginning of a number of beneficences which I desired to
+contribute to Meadowvale's prosperity, and as I looked down upon
+my listeners and caught sight of Phyllis, glancing up with
+flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes, I was nearly betrayed into
+promises of the most preposterous nature. At the end of
+my remarks--I recall that I spoke with unusual grace and
+eloquence--the chairman stood up and gravely thanked me,
+intimating that I was a credit to Meadowvale and its perfect
+public school system. I fancy I should have been applauded if it
+had been compatible with the nature of the people of Meadowvale
+to make so riotous a demonstration. At the close of the meeting
+it happened, by the purest accident, that I walked home with Mary
+and Phyllis, and when Mary said in her blunt way that I really
+had been most generous, Phyllis did not speak, but she slipped
+her hand under my arm and gave me an appreciative little squeeze,
+which made me regret that I had not pledged another thousand.
+
+I was to leave the next morning, thanks to the officious members
+of the committee, who had so blunderingly hurried matters to
+accommodate me that I had no longer an excuse of remaining. And
+it was for this reason that I went in and sat again in the little
+parlor, while Phyllis sang for me the songs that were my
+favorites, and some her mother sang in the long ago. Memories
+were again pleasantly stirred within me, as was not infrequent in
+those days, and I experienced all the happiness that comes to him
+who is persuaded that he has made himself a little above the
+ordinary attractions of the earth. In this excess of good
+feeling, and stimulated alike by the music and the consciousness
+of a philanthropic impulse, I waited until the moment of parting
+before declaring definitely my excellent intentions.
+
+"My dear Mary," I began, turning to that admirable spinster, "you
+know how our childhood was linked by a close family feeling, and
+how you and Sylvia and I planned in our simple ambitions to live
+together in the great world outside. We may say now that this was
+childish romance, and that the caprice of time has made it an
+idle fancy. For many years we have been separated, and only by a
+happy chance have we been brought together. Fortune has been kind
+to me. I am called a rich man, and I believe I may say without
+boasting that I am far beyond the need of anxiety. But to a
+degree I am a lonely man. My sister's child is my one near
+relative in the world, and he is a young man with an excellent
+business, able to take care of himself, and naturally engrossed
+with his own occupations. You can understand that at my time of
+life, alone as I am, and still young enough to appreciate the
+joys of living, I have a feeling of desolation for which no
+riches can compensate. Had fortune given me a daughter, like our
+Phyllis here, I think no happiness could have been so great. It
+has pleased me to look back upon the past, to recall the days of
+our childhood, and to see in Phyllis the image of her mother. Why
+can I not link the present and the future with the past? Why can
+I not look on Phyllis as my own daughter, and give to her all the
+father love I have learned to feel? I do not rob you either of
+her love or her presence. I merely add a new joy to my life, and
+know that in caring for you both and in contributing to her
+happiness, and securing her against misfortune after we are taken
+away, I am carrying out the pledge, however idle at the time, I
+made to Sylvia."
+
+I fancied I saw what may have been the suspicion of a tear in
+Mary Eastmann's eye. It vanished as quickly as it came, and when
+she spoke and thanked me for my generous offer, her voice was as
+calm and her manner as collected as if I had made a casual
+suggestion for attendance at a prayer meeting. She could not
+deny that the opportunity was too enticing to be ignored, and
+she admitted that my fatherly proposition was distinctly
+advantageous. Her New England independence rather revolted at the
+thought of any immediate financial assistance, which was not
+needed, while her New England thrift approved a future settlement
+based on family friendliness of many years' standing. On the
+whole she was inclined to be favorable to my point of view.
+
+As for Phyllis, she had listened to me with undisguised
+amazement. Her big gray eyes had grown larger, and the color left
+her cheeks as I finished. Then the rosy red rushed back, her lip
+quivered and the tears sprang to her eyes. A moment later she
+smiled, then laughed, and was serious again. How incomprehensible
+are these young girls! Poor child! she had never known a father's
+love.
+
+Phyllis followed me to the door. The light, streaming from the
+parlor, shone squarely on her exquisite face. A thrill of
+pleasure went through me as I realized that at last I had a
+daughter whom I could love and cherish. I took her hand in both
+of mine, and, as I released it, I parted the light, wavy hair,
+and kissed her forehead. It seemed to me that she trembled
+slightly, but in a moment she was herself, and a gleam of
+merriment was in her eyes, as she said:
+
+"Of course you will write to me--papa?"
+
+Doubtless the novelty of the situation made me just a little
+embarrassed. To be called "papa" the first time by a pretty girl
+was more embarrassing than I had expected. And why that
+half-laugh in her eye, and why that almost quizzical tone? Was I
+not kind and good enough to be her father, and had I not tried to
+show her every paternal consideration? Was I not honestly
+endeavoring to fulfil a sacred pledge? I was perplexed but not
+discouraged. "I will prove to her," I said to myself with
+firmness, "that I am entirely worthy of her filial affection, and
+that she may lean confidently upon me." And I went straightway
+to bed, and dreamed of her all night as every true father should
+dream of the daughter of his heart and his hope.
+
+
+
+
+In the very nature of things it was necessary that I should
+return frequently to Meadowvale, to confer with the village
+committee and make all proper arrangements for beginning so
+important a local enterprise. While this put an end to my
+projected trip to Europe I accepted the situation with calmness
+and forbearance, satisfied that in the pursuit of duty and in
+giving happiness to my fellow creatures I should have the reward
+of an approving conscience. To my nephew, Frederick Grinnell, I
+gave the task of preparing the plans, and his excellent
+suggestions were cordially adopted. Much of my spare time--and it
+is amazing how much spare time one has in a village--was spent at
+the Eastmann cottage with my new daughter, and in the evening I
+talked to her of the world outside, quite, I fancy, as Othello
+may have spoken to Desdemona, but with a more conservative and a
+better impulse. I unfolded to her the wonders of great London,
+the pleasures of Paris, the beauties of Venice, the sacred
+mysteries of Rome, the noble traditions of Athens. I journeyed
+with her up the Nile and down the Rhine. One night we were in gay
+Vienna, another in Berlin, a third in the grandeur of the
+Alhambra. From the fjords of Norway to the tea houses of Japan
+was the journey of a few minutes, and the indifference of my
+surfeited life gave way before the kindling enthusiasm of this
+lovely country girl, whose world had been the area of scarcely
+more than a township.
+
+But the paternal relation, however honest and commendable my
+intentions, did not seem to thrive as I had fondly hoped. Only in
+her teasing moments would this vivacious creature admit the
+solemnity of our compact, and when she called me "papa" there was
+always that gleam of the eye, with that merriment of tone, which
+may not have been disrespectful but was certainly not filial.
+This troubled me exceedingly. I thought it all over and one night
+I said to her:
+
+"My dear Phyllis, it has become only too evident that you do not
+entertain that deferential feeling for me which a daughter should
+have for a father. I shall not describe your emotions as I have
+analyzed them, but I am satisfied that we shall not make a
+complete success of my long cherished plan. However, I am not
+prepared to withdraw unreservedly from my schemes for your
+comfort and happiness, and since you cannot look upon me as a
+father, or treat me like a father, I have another suggestion to
+offer. Let me be your elder brother, and watch over and guard you
+as a brother's duty should direct. There shall be no diminution
+of my love, no retraction of my promises. Perhaps, in the feeling
+that I am your brother, you will talk with me with greater
+frankness, and feel more closely drawn to me, and we shall be all
+the better and the happier for the change."
+
+Thus speaking I took her pretty hand and carried it respectfully
+to my lips, at the same time patting it affectionately and
+assuring her of my brotherly devotion. And this incomprehensible
+girl threw back her head and laughed; then burst into tears,
+laughed again, flushed to crimson and ran out of the room. I was
+grieved beyond measure. Had I done wrong so quickly and rudely to
+sever a connection so holy? Had the filial feeling been suddenly
+awakened in her breast? Was I depriving this poor child of a
+tender paternal care, for which she longed, but which maidenly
+coyness could not immediately accept?
+
+As a philosopher I have made woman the subject of much research,
+and my library bears witness to the attention I have paid to the
+written opinions of the ablest writers and thinkers of all times,
+who have had anything to do with this fascinating theme. I have
+seen her in all her phases, analyzed her in all her emotions, and
+Bunsey has admitted to me that my theoretical knowledge has been
+of great value to him in dealing subtly with his heroines. And
+yet, despite my complete equipment in mental construction, I am
+constantly surprised by a new development, a sudden and
+unaccountable phenomenon of feminine nature, which undoubtedly
+escaped the experience and reasoning of the experts and sages. It
+is indeed a matter of pride in woman that while man has studied
+her for thousands of years, she continues to exhibit fresh
+delights in her infinite variety of moods and to put forth
+unexpectedly new and astounding shoots.
+
+I saw Phyllis no more that evening, save in my dreams, and it
+was wholly creditable to the goodness of my motives and the
+sincerity of my affection that she abided with me in my
+slumbering fancies with no protracted intermissions. The next
+day she was as sweet and gracious as ever, but I thought her
+tone a little constrained, and when, as a father or brother
+should, I ventured to speak of the tenderness of our family
+relation, a half-imploring look came into her beautiful eyes.
+And when I casually remarked on the softness of her hair, or the
+slenderness of her fingers, her glance was timidly reproachful.
+All this gave me great unhappiness, and I discovered, to my further
+distress, that in my attempt to return to the old familiar footing
+I was neglecting the committee and losing interest in the affairs of
+the library. A certain peevishness took possession of me; I was
+no longer myself, and I lost the gayety and sprightliness which
+had been always my distinguishing virtues.
+
+Furthermore I missed the companionship and solace of my books in
+this emergency, for I had no reference library to which I could
+go in Meadowvale for aid in establishing the true condition of
+this strange girl. I recalled dimly that somewhere on my shelves
+was a volume which contained a fairly analogous case, but while I
+knew that I possessed such a book I could not remember the
+circumstances or the incidents cited, and this added to my
+unrest. Only a student can understand the absolute wretchedness
+which overtakes a man when he finds himself miserably dependent
+on a distant library. For several days I gave myself up entirely
+to my mental depression, greatly wondering at the perplexing
+change in my life, and marvelling that in all my explorations in
+philosophy I had not provided for just such a crisis, whatever it
+might be. One afternoon as I sat in my room at the tavern,
+looking idly out of the window and across the little river which
+rippled by, something seemed to strike me violently in the
+forehead. It may have been a telepathic suggestion, it may have
+been a return to consciousness; at all events it was an idea. I
+leaped from my chair, put on my hat, and proceeded rather
+feverishly to the Eastmann cottage. Phyllis was away for the day;
+Mary was knitting in the sitting-room. I watched her in silence
+for a moment, and then I said abruptly:
+
+"Mary, I think I should like to marry Phyllis."
+
+Mary Eastmann was not the type of woman to lose herself or betray
+astonishment. She pushed her spectacles sharply above her eyes,
+looked at me sternly, and said in a rasping voice.
+
+"John Stanhope, don't be an old fool."
+
+"Whatever I may be, Mary," I answered, much nettled by her tone,
+"I do not think anybody can properly regard me as a fool. As for
+the other qualification," I went on complacently, "I am not so
+old."
+
+"You and Sylvia were the same age, and she would have been
+forty-eight."
+
+"A man is as old as he feels," I ventured, finding refuge in a
+proverb.
+
+"That is evasive, and has nothing to do with the question.
+Beside, what reason have you to believe that Phyllis has the
+slightest desire to marry you?"
+
+"Frankly, not the slightest reason in the world," I replied with
+the utmost candor. "That is why I have been so bold as to speak
+to you on the subject."
+
+"Perhaps you thought I might use my influence to help you
+along?"
+
+"Quite the contrary, my dear Mary, I assure you. I may not know
+very much about women"--I was quite humble when separated from my
+library--"but I do know that nothing is so fatal to a lover's
+prospects as the encouragement of the loved one's relations. You
+see that I am perfectly frank."
+
+"Then you wish my opposition?"
+
+"Come, let us be reasonable. I have told you I wish to marry
+Phyllis. I know my good points, and I am not unacquainted with my
+weak ones. Unhappily I can figure out my age to a day. Alas, I am
+forty-eight, and Phyllis is not yet twenty-three. The difference
+is positively ghastly from a sentimental standpoint, but if I
+love her, and she is not hopelessly indifferent to me, I think
+that even that difficulty can be bridged. You know my position,
+my character, my general reputation. Neither of us knows what
+Phyllis really thinks or what she will say or do in the matter. I
+do not ask either for your opposition or your good offices. I
+have come to you as an old friend and the girl's nearest
+relative to tell you exactly how I feel and what I wish to gain.
+And I ask only that I may have the same chance to win her
+affection that you might grant to a younger man."
+
+Mary's voice was gentler when she spoke again. "John," she said,
+"Phyllis is all I have in the world. It is my one idea to have
+her happily married to a worthy man whom she honestly loves.
+Providence, in inscrutable wisdom, may have decreed that you are
+that man, but," she continued with a sudden return of Yankee
+caution, "I have my doubts, considering your age. However, you
+have acted honorably in coming to me, and while I think Phyllis
+would be a better daughter than wife to you, I cannot speak for
+her. Remember that she is very young and very inexperienced. Her
+acquaintance with men has been slight. You are a man of the world
+and with enough of the surface polish--I don't say it stops with
+that--to dazzle any girl accustomed to such surroundings as we
+have here. Undoubtedly an offer from you would flatter her; it
+might induce her to accept you, thinking that she loved you. Be
+careful. Be sure of your ground before it is too late."
+
+As I walked back to the village I mused on what Mary had said,
+but I felt no apprehension. Most lovers are alike in this--in
+youth, in middle age, in senility. Perhaps the advantage of
+middle life is that a man is more the master of himself, more in
+possession of the faculties necessary to carry him through a
+crisis. Without the impetuous desire of youth, or the deadened
+sensibilities of old age, he has a certain serene confidence that
+is a mixture of love and philosophy. It disturbed me somewhat to
+find with what equanimity I faced a situation which promised
+nothing. It really annoyed me to note that I was picking out
+mentally the place to which I should conduct Phyllis in order to
+have the harmonious environment adapted to a sentimental
+proposition. I remembered that down by the river, just beyond
+the willows, there was an old tree where Sylvia and I--ah, so
+many years ago!--had sat and talked of our lives before us. To
+that sacred spot I would lead Sylvia's daughter, and, passing
+gently from the past to the present, I would tell her of my love
+and of my fondest hopes. How dignified and appropriate such a
+spot for a frank, calm, and self-contained avowal!
+
+Thus philosophically and amiably plotting I walked contentedly
+along, and, looking up, I saw Phyllis coming toward me, swinging
+her hat in her hand, and suggesting in her girlish beauty and
+graceful outline the poet's shepherdess. She did not see me, and,
+yielding to a sudden impulse, I stepped quickly aside in the
+shadow of a neighbor's house, as she passed on with her eyes on
+the ground. I followed at a little distance, and discovered,
+much to my dismay, that she chose the road that led to the
+burying-ground. Now a cemetery is not at all the spot that a man,
+whatever his philosophy, would select for a tender declaration,
+but I was buoyed by the remembrance of Mary's words. "The finger
+of Providence may be in it," I muttered. "The Lord's will be
+done."
+
+Slowly up the winding path she walked, and I as slowly followed.
+When I reached her, she was standing at her mother's grave, just
+as she had stood the morning we first met. I tried to accept this
+as an omen, but failed miserably, and omens, after all, depend on
+the point of view. She raised her eyes, and, seeing me, blushed,
+another omen which means comparatively little to a man who is
+aware of the thousand emotions that are responsible for the blush
+of woman. I was again annoyed by the discovery that my pulses
+were not beating wildly, and that my heart was not throbbing
+tumultuously, and when I addressed a commonplace remark to her I
+was thoroughly ashamed and humiliated. It seemed like taking a
+mean advantage of innocence and inexperience.
+
+We sat together on the little bench, and for the first time in
+our acquaintance she appeared embarrassed, as if she knew what
+was passing in my mind. I have always believed that women, in
+addition to their acknowledged intuition, have a special sense
+that enables them to anticipate a declaration of passion, and I
+had no doubt that Phyllis was fully prepared for my confession in
+spite of her embarrassment. This induced me to proceed to the
+point without unnecessary preliminaries.
+
+"Phyllis," I said, not without a certain agreeable ardor, "I have
+been talking with Aunt Mary."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"And about you."
+
+"Really?"
+
+"When I say that I have been talking with Aunt Mary, and about
+you," I continued in a grieved tone, for I do not like jerky
+responses, "I wish you to understand that it was in connection
+with no ordinary topic. Phyllis,"--I spoke with the utmost
+tenderness--"can you not guess the nature of our discussion?"
+
+Phyllis was equal to the emergency; her embarrassment had
+disappeared. "I am glad," she said, "that your conversation so
+far as it related to me was out of the ordinary. I suppose I may
+ask what the topic was--that is, if you don't mind telling."
+
+This was approaching the serious. "Phyllis, I was telling Aunt
+Mary that I loved you and wished to make you my wife."
+
+A flash, half merry, half angry, came to her eye. "That was
+thoughtful of you. Is it customary for gentlemen in the city,
+when they think they love a girl, to honor all her relations with
+their confidence before they speak to the girl herself?"
+
+I took her hand. She made the slightest motion to withdraw it,
+and permitted it to remain in my grasp. "Phyllis," I said with
+all earnestness, "do not misunderstand me. I sought you at the
+house. You were absent. Your Aunt Mary and I have been friends
+from childhood, and it was only natural that out of my heart I
+spoke the words that were in my mind. I told her that I loved
+you, just as at that moment I might have shouted it from the
+housetop. My heart was full of you and I had to speak. Can't you
+understand?"
+
+The girl was still obdurate, and she spoke with some petulance.
+"If that is the case, perhaps it is just as well that it was Aunt
+Mary and not one of the neighbors."
+
+"Dear little Phyllis, you are not angry with me because I love
+you? You cannot remain angry with me because I confessed my love
+before I met you to-day? If you had only seen with what
+applications of cold water your aunt rewarded my confidence, you
+would pity and not reproach me."
+
+For a minute the girl was silent. Then she asked softly: "How
+long have you known that you loved me?"
+
+"Must I answer that question candidly and unreservedly?"
+
+"Unreservedly and candidly."
+
+I seized her other hand and held her firmly. "About fifty
+minutes."
+
+She laughed, rather joyously I thought. "And having loved me for
+fully fifty minutes, you wish to make me your wife? Confiding
+man!"
+
+"Little girl," I said tenderly, "let us be serious. If my dull
+consciousness did not awaken till an hour ago, my heart tells me
+that I have loved you ever since I first saw you standing near
+this spot. I am not going to ask you now whether you love me, or
+ever can learn to love me. It is happiness enough for me to-day
+to know how much I love you, and to know that I have told you of
+that love. I do not care to have my dream too rudely and too
+suddenly dispelled. Very probably you do not care for me as I
+should like to have you care for me, but do not make a jest of my
+affection. I am wholly aware of the preposterousness of my
+demands in many respects"--this sounded very conventional and
+commonplace, but every lover must say it--"and, believe me, I
+shudder when I think of what I have dared confess."
+
+Then she said with the most delightful demureness: "Mr. Stanhope,
+is it likely that a girl would sit in a burying-ground on a bench
+with a gentleman, allowing him to hold both her hands, unless she
+cared for him a little--just a little?"
+
+Up to this moment I had fairly forgotten that I was depriving her
+of all power of resistance, but with such encouragement I took an
+even more sympathetic grasp and sat a trifle closer, while the
+minutes ticked away. A robin flew down from the tree near by and
+saucily hopped toward us, until at a rebuking call from his mate
+he flew away, and I fancied that I could hear them talking over
+the situation, and drawing conclusions from their own happiness.
+Phyllis was the first to break the charming spell.
+
+"Mr. Stanhope," she asked, hardly above a whisper, "what did Aunt
+Mary say when you told her that you wished to make me your
+wife?"
+
+"She said, Phyllis, that Providence may have decreed that I am
+the man to bring you happiness."
+
+And still in that same enchanting whisper, with her face a little
+rosier, as she half hid it below my shoulder: "Mr. Stanhope, do
+you think that a girl with my Christian training could fly in the
+face of Providence?"
+
+
+
+
+The philosopher was in love. It comes, I have no doubt, to every
+well-ordered man to be in love once. Some there are who maintain,
+with plausibility, that the passion we call love may be of
+frequent recurrence, and they point to the passing fancies of
+boys and girls, the romances of moonlight, the repeated sighings
+of the fickle Corydon, and the matrimonial entanglements of the
+aging Lydia, as evidence for their argument. That there are
+varying degrees of the ecstatic emotion cannot be truthfully
+denied. Heaven has wisely decreed that the heart, once filled
+with its ideal, may be compensated for the bitter hour of sorrow
+by the soothing balm of a new affection, and it is even possible
+that the second love may be more satisfying than the first, the
+third or fourth more typical of exaltation than its predecessors.
+But love, whether early or late, in the perfect absorption of the
+faculties comes only once; as compared with this remarkable
+mental state all other conditions are unemotional, unfilling.
+
+The true lover rises early, before the world is astir. If it is
+summer and in the country, his thoughts lead him to the cool
+groves, the shady banks of the river, the retired spots where he
+may uninterruptedly commune with his happiness or his misery, and
+reflect on the blessings that are to be, or should be, his. Was
+it not then as a true lover that in the early morning I walked
+into the country, and down the banks of the stream where Sylvia
+and I had strayed and talked in the sunny days of youth? And
+nature seemed a part of the wedding procession, and the squirrels
+on the fence rails, and the robins, wrens, and wood-thrushes in
+the trees chirped and twittered: "John Stanhope is in love! John
+Stanhope is in love!" And the mocking crow, lazily flapping his
+wings at a safe distance, croaked enviously: "Ha, ha! old
+Stanhope is in love. Ha, ha!" Yet the whole conspiracy of
+animated nature could not make old Stanhope in his present
+exaltation regretful of his age or ashamed of his passion.
+
+Mary Eastmann had accepted the situation without comment. She
+neither congratulated nor demurred, but went on with her
+household duties with the same method and precision as before.
+Men may come and go, hearts may be won and lost, republics may
+totter and empires may fall, but the grand scheme of sweeping,
+dusting, bed-making, and cooking knows no interruption. If I did
+not understand I at least commended this housewifely prudence,
+and often when the domestic battle was at its height I would
+spirit away my little charmer for the discussion of topics within
+my comprehension. At the outset I had declared that while it had
+pleased Providence to begin our romance in a burying-ground, I
+did not propose to sacrifice all tender sentiment to meditations
+among the tombs, and I bore her away to the old tree down by the
+river, where we sat for hours together as I unfolded my plans for
+our future life.
+
+A man who has sat at the feet of the philosophers from Ovid to
+Schopenhauer, and has gorged his intellect with the abstract
+principles of love, naturally adapts himself to the professorial
+capacity, and I soon saw that Phyllis, while one of the most
+lovable, one of the sweetest of girls, was almost wholly ignorant
+of the psychology of passion. I could not expect that a young
+girl of twenty-two would discourse glibly of the emotion in its
+intellectual phase, but I could not bear the thought that she
+should enter lightly into so serious a compact, and without
+gaining a reasonable comprehension of its mental analysis. Hence,
+as opportunity presented, I enriched her mind with the beauties
+of love from the standpoint of philosophers and thinkers, and
+showed her the priceless blessings that must result from a union
+dictated by careful provision of reasoning. To these addresses
+she listened with sweet patience, and if she did not always grasp
+their meaning, she showed much admiration for my erudition and
+frequently remarked that she had no idea that love was so
+abstruse a science. It seemed to me, in the serenity of my years
+and the calm assurance of my love, that I was a most persistent
+wooer, and I was greatly grieved when she broke out rather
+petulantly one afternoon:
+
+"I don't believe you really love me."
+
+"You don't believe I love you? And why?"
+
+She hesitated, half abashed by her own outburst, then added a
+little defiantly: "Well, in the first place, you never quarrel
+with me."
+
+"And why should I quarrel with you? Aren't you the most amiable,
+the most perfect little woman in the world?"
+
+"Oh, of course; I know all that. But I have always read, and
+always believed, that when two persons are truly, deeply in love,
+they have most exciting quarrels. Is it not true that in all
+romances the man is eternally quarrelling with the girl and
+bidding her farewell forever?"
+
+"Yes, and coming back in ten minutes to weep and grovel at her
+feet and beg her to forgive him. My dear little Phyllis, why
+should I bid you farewell forever, when I am morally certain that
+in half that time I should be cringing in the turf, weeping and
+begging you to say that all is forgiven and forgotten?"
+
+"That would be lovely," she said pensively.
+
+"Perhaps, but it would be very undignified and unnecessary. And I
+am not at all sure that you would admire me in that attitude even
+if I did imitate the heroes of romance. A weeping lover is much
+more agreeable in a novel than in actual life. However if you
+insist that we must quarrel, in order to demonstrate the
+sincerity of my affection, I shall suggest that we have our spats
+when we part for the night, in order that no precious waking
+hours may be lost."
+
+"You are joking," she exclaimed with a little pout.
+
+"Not at all. Still," I added reflectively, "even this plan has
+its disadvantages, for if we quarrel when we part at night, it
+will necessitate my return to your window, which would not only
+annoy your aunt but might scandalize the neighbors. Furthermore
+it might give me a shocking cold, unless you immediately
+repented, for the nights are very damp. No," I sighed with great
+feeling, "all this seems impracticable. You must give me a better
+reason for my coldness."
+
+Phyllis toyed with a clover blossom, and made no answer. I went
+on:
+
+"As a slight indication of my unlover-like hauteur, let me
+confess that I am going to bring you a marvellously glittering
+bauble when I come back from the city, something that will
+bewilder you by day and dazzle you by night."
+
+She shrugged her shoulders. "Of course you are; you are always
+giving me presents."
+
+I laughed at this. "Well, suppose I am; I have never heard that
+it is a sign of waning affection to bestow gifts on the loved
+one."
+
+"You refuse me nothing. I dare say you would give me the Boston
+State House if I wished it."
+
+"No, you are wrong there," I replied decisively. "If I bought the
+State House I should be compelled to include the emblematic
+codfish, and you know my aversion to codfish."
+
+She smiled at the thought, recalling the Sunday breakfast, and
+then with a roguish look and a half-embarrassed laugh she said:
+"At all events you cannot deny that you did not kiss me when you
+left last night."
+
+"Didn't I?" I asked in amazement, and then, quite thrown off my
+guard, I added thoughtlessly: "I had forgotten."
+
+"That," she replied quietly, "was because you were so taken up
+with the philosophy of love, and the mental attitude, that you
+overlooked the physical demonstration. Do you remember the
+conversation?"
+
+Unfortunately I did. I recalled that I had spent an hour or more
+defining the moral status of love and proving the sufficing
+reason. It was not a pleasant reflection that so agreeable and
+instructive a conversation was not thoroughly appreciated.
+
+"We spoke at length on love," I ventured feebly.
+
+"That is, you did," she replied. "I'll admit that it was better
+than an ordinary sermon, because the subject was more personal.
+But don't you think we admitted the sufficing reason at
+the start, and isn't it natural that a girl who has been
+conventionally brought up is pretty well satisfied in her own
+mind of the moral status? Of course," she added, with a toss of
+her pretty head, "I am not asking you or anybody else to kiss me.
+I am merely curious to know if this plays any part in the
+philosophy of love as understood by the greatest thinkers."
+
+Her speech had given me time to pull myself together. "No," I
+said with marked emphasis, "I did not kiss you, because I had
+noted the unworthy suspicions you have expressed to-day, and
+I was hurt and grieved. It was hard for me to exhibit my
+displeasure in this way, and I am regretful now that I have
+learned that it was simply playfulness on your part. Don't
+interrupt. I am satisfied that the pure merriment of your nature
+is responsible for this assault, and I shall take great pleasure
+in making up this evening for the deficiencies of last night."
+
+She laughed and we were friends again. And with such jocular
+asperities the days passed quickly and agreeably until my nephew
+arrived with the plans and specifications. Frederick Grinnell was
+not only my nephew, but an architect of reputation and promise,
+considering his years and experience. Like Phyllis he had been
+left an orphan early in life, and it had been my pleasure and
+privilege to give him an education and see that he was fairly
+started in life. While I think I may say that Frederick was not
+quite so attractive as was I at his age, he was nevertheless a
+fine, manly young fellow, tall, well put together, of good
+habits, industrious and devoted to his profession. It pleased me
+to see that he admired Phyllis's pretty face and bright, animated
+manner; but one evening, when I fancied that he was too deeply
+stirred by her really beautiful voice, I took the opportunity to
+converse with him confidentially as we walked back to the tavern.
+
+"I have been intending to tell you, Frederick," I began a little
+airily, "of the relations existing between Miss Kinglake and
+myself. So far it has been a profound secret"--I did not then
+know that the entire village was gossiping about it--"but I feel
+that I owe it to you, as my nearest relative, to admit that Miss
+Kinglake and I are engaged."
+
+I paused, and noting that he did not wince or appear in the least
+degree discomposed, continued:
+
+"Of course you will respect my confidence in this matter. Of
+course," I added magnanimously, "it will be perfectly proper for
+you to signify to Miss Kinglake that you are aware of our little
+secret as that will put us all on a better basis and lead to no
+misunderstandings. It would be awkward to play at cross purposes,
+and I should be extremely sorry, my dear boy, to think that I had
+withheld anything from you, for you have always enjoyed my
+fullest trust."
+
+Whatever he may have thought, his manner betrayed no unusual
+interest. "I congratulate you," he replied very calmly.
+
+Now that so perfect an understanding existed in the immediate
+family circle, I gave myself no further uneasiness. I was truly
+rejoiced to notice that Frederick was deferentially polite to
+Phyllis, and I encouraged him to show her those polite attentions
+which my betrothed would reasonably expect from my nephew. And at
+times I even insisted that he should represent me at certain
+gatherings of Phyllis's friends, who were too young and
+frivolous to claim my serious attention. When he protested, and
+pleaded headache, business, or other sign of disinclination, I
+rallied him good-humoredly on his lack of gallantry.
+
+"Nonsense, my boy," I argued; "a young fellow of your spirit
+should be only too glad to go out with a pretty girl and enjoy
+himself. You certainly would not deprive Phyllis of an evening's
+pleasure because your uncle has a stiff knee which interferes
+with his dancing, and--confound it, you know they never let me
+smoke at these frolics. Come now, be a good fellow and show the
+proper family impulse."
+
+As they went off together I looked at them admiringly and rather
+fancied that I saw in them a suggestion of what Sylvia and I had
+been when we made the rounds of the birthday parties. For it is
+fair to confess that the image of Sylvia did not infrequently
+rise before me, and I constantly saw in Phyllis the replica of
+her adorable mother. In my happiest moments I spoke of this
+suggestion to Phyllis, and continued to regale her with fragments
+of my early life associated with her family. At first I thought
+that the girl was somewhat piqued, fearing that Frederick was
+thrust upon her, although she admitted that he was good-looking,
+polite, and danced extremely well, but I succeeded in convincing
+her that true love should not be gauged by the low standards of
+hot-night dancing, and that all philosophers agree that the
+purest affection springs from quiet contemplation, such as I
+should enjoy while she was making merry with her friends. To this
+she once ventured to remark that in that case perhaps my
+affection would thrive to greater advantage if I contented myself
+with thinking about her and not seeing her at all, a suggestion
+which wounded me in my tenderest sensibilities, for I was
+very much in love. I was also not a little disturbed when,
+supplemental to my reminiscences, Mary went back to the past and
+humorously drew pictures of me as her own early lover. There is
+considerable difference between the impalpable, airy spirit of
+the fancy and a wrinkled and austere feminine actuality of fifty.
+
+In the midst of these innocent and improving pleasures a small
+cloud appeared in the summer sky. I received a letter addressed
+in a peculiar but not ornate hand, and I opened it with
+misgivings and read it with consternation.
+
+  MR. STANHOPE SIR: Prudence and I thinks youd better come home.
+  The plummer was hear twice yisterday and the cutworms is awfle.
+  Hero got glass in her foot and the brown tale moths is bad
+  again wich is al for the presnt.
+
+                                        Respecfuly
+
+                                        MALACHY.
+
+Duty is one of the exactions of life which I have never shirked
+when there seemed no possible way of evading it, but in this
+instance the call of duty was compromised by matters of equal
+urgency, for nothing can be more important than the successful
+administration of the affairs of love. It was a happy thought
+that suggested to me a way out of the difficulty, which was
+neither more nor less than that we should all go to the city
+together. I sprang the proposition at a family conference.
+Phyllis was delighted. "There is always so much to be seen in the
+city," she cried, "and I shall meet Mr. Bunsey. It has been one
+of the dreams of my life to know a real literary man."
+
+This appeared to call for an explanation. Heaven knows I am not
+jealous of Bunsey, and would not deprive him of a single
+distinction that is honestly his. But a regard for the truth,
+coupled with much doubt as to Bunsey's ability to live up to such
+lively expectations, compelled me to resort to a little gentle
+correction.
+
+"My dear Phyllis," I said, "you must disabuse your mind of that
+fallacy. Bunsey is a popular novelist, not a literary man."
+
+"But isn't a novelist a literary man?" she asked in amazement.
+
+"Not necessarily," I replied pityingly. "In fact I may say not
+usually. Of course we are speaking of popular novelists. The
+popularity of the novelist is in proportion to his lack of
+literary style. The distinctive popular charm of Bunsey is that
+he is not literary--at least, if he is, his critics have not
+succeeded in discovering it; he successfully conceals his crime.
+If he is popular, it is because he is not literary; if he were
+literary he could not be popular."
+
+"That does not seem right," said my little Puritan.
+
+"It is not a question of ethics at all, but a matter of
+taste. However, don't be prejudiced against Bunsey because
+he is a product of the time and fairly representative of the
+civilization. You shall meet him and shall learn from him how a
+man may succeed in so-called literature without any hampering
+literary qualifications."
+
+Mary did not receive my proposition in a thankful and
+conciliatory spirit. She shook her head doubtfully, and when we
+were alone together, she gave voice to her fears.
+
+"Phyllis is country-bred," she said, "and knows nothing of the
+toils and snares that beset young girls in the city."
+
+"Toils and snares," I echoed. "One might gather from your
+objections that we contemplate taking Phyllis to the city merely
+to expose her to temptation and corrupt the serenity of her mind.
+You seem to forget the elevating influences of my modest home."
+
+"No, John; I dare say that your home is not objectionable, taken
+by itself. But I am not blind to the seductions of the great
+city. You too forget," she added, with a touch of complacency,
+"that I am not inexperienced or without knowledge of the
+profligacy of the town."
+
+"Granting all this," I said, highly diverted by her earnestness,
+"and what are some of these seductions you have in mind?"
+
+"Theatres," she replied promptly, "theatres and late hours,
+midnight suppers--and cocktails."
+
+I laughed uproariously. "My dear Mary, if these deadly sins and
+perils alarm you, we'll cut them out. I care little for theatres,
+and less for midnight suppers. And as for cocktails, I shall make
+it my peculiar charge to see that Phyllis never hears the
+abominable word. Allowing for the removal of these temptations, I
+still think that a trip to the city would do our country flower a
+world of good, though I have nothing but praise for the manner in
+which you have brought her up."
+
+"John," she answered very gravely, "I have endeavored to do my
+duty as I saw it. I have tried to bring Phyllis up in the nurture
+and admonition of the Lord."
+
+The expression carried me back to my childhood, and I bit my
+lips. "Of course you have," I said. "Wasn't I brought up in this
+same village, in the same way? Did not my good mother and my
+blessed, grandmother inflict nurture and admonition upon me, that
+I might grow up as you see me, a true child of the pilgrim
+fathers? The nurture, I remember, was a particularly hard seat in
+our particularly gloomy old meetinghouse, and the admonition took
+up the greater part of the Sabbath day, with a disenchanting
+prospect of further admonition at home if I failed to keep awake.
+I do not mean to say that I am not thankful for the experience.
+In truth I am doubly thankful--thankful that I had it, and
+thankful that it is over."
+
+To this Mary vouchsafed no further remonstrance than a
+distrustful shake of the head. Excellent woman! Is it not to such
+as you, earnest, faithful, self-sacrificing, God-fearing, that
+the best in young manhood, the purest in young womanhood, owe the
+strength of the qualities that are the vital force of the
+nation?
+
+
+
+
+In the end the united opposition was too much for Mary's
+arguments, and to town we went. The pleasure of the journey, on
+my part, was somewhat clouded as to the welcome we should receive
+from Prudence, and truly it acquired my greatest powers of
+dissimulation to feign an easy indifference and air of authority
+before that worthy creature, as with the most studied politeness
+and formal hospitality she received us at the gate. Prudence and
+I had sparred so many years that we were like two expert
+athletes, and while neither apparently noticed the other, each
+was perfectly conscious of the adversary's slightest movement.
+Hence I detected at once her strong aversion to Mary, whom she
+immediately selected as a probable mistress, and I saw her
+several times vainly try to repress a grimace of disdain and
+wrath. It was my first impulse to follow Prudence into the
+kitchen, after the ladies had gone to their rooms, and make a
+clean breast of the untoward tidings, but I lacked the moral
+courage and contented myself with an inward show of strength. Why
+should I pander to this woman's caprices? Was I not master in my
+own house? Should I not do as I pleased? I would punish her with
+the severity of my silence, and perhaps in a week or two, when
+she was more tractable, I would condescend to tell her exactly
+how matters stood. In this I would be firm.
+
+But the next morning, before my guests were out of bed, I decided
+that I was not acting wisely. Was not Prudence an old, faithful,
+and trustworthy servant? Had she not been loyal to my interests,
+and was not her whole life wrapped up in my comfort? Surely I
+wronged her to withhold from her the confidence she had so fairly
+earned, and the flush of shame came to my face as I reflected
+that I was indulging my first deceit. I took a turn in the
+garden, in the heavenly cool of the early morning, to compose my
+nerves for a very probable ordeal, and then I walked boldly into
+the kitchen where Prudence sat, with a wooden bowl in her lap,
+paring apples.
+
+It was one of the unwritten laws of the cuisine that Prudence was
+never to be disturbed when engaged in this delicate operation.
+She maintained that it destroyed the symmetry of the peel, and
+I dare say she was right. Consequently she looked at me
+reproachfully as I entered, and bent again more assiduously to
+her work. I was much flustered by the ill omen, but I knew that
+if I hesitated I was lost; so I advanced valorously, though with
+accelerated pulse, and said with all the calmness I could
+command:
+
+"Prudence, I think it only right to tell you that I am going to
+be married."
+
+One apple rolled from the bowl down along the floor and under the
+kitchen stove. I cannot conceive of any shock, however great,
+that would cause Prudence to lose more than one apple. Partly to
+conciliate, and partly to conceal my own trepidation, I made a
+gallant effort to rescue the wanderer, and as I poked the
+hiding-place with my stick, I heard her say: "Lord, I know'd it'd
+come!"
+
+"The fact that it has come, Prudence," I answered with a sickly
+attempt at gayety, "does not seem to be a reason why you should
+call with such vehemence on your Maker. There does not appear to
+be any need of Providential interposition. Things are not so bad
+as all that."
+
+I always used my most elegant English when conversing with
+Prudence. If she did not understand it, it flattered her to think
+that I paid this tribute to her intelligence.
+
+"Mr. John," she said, and there was a suspicious break in her
+voice, "for twenty years I have tried to do my duty by you, and
+now that I must go--"
+
+"Go?" I interrupted; "who said you must go? Who spoke about
+anybody's going? You certainly do not expect to turn that bowl
+of apples over to me and leave me to get breakfast?"
+
+"No, Mr. John, I shall go on and do my duty, as I see it, until
+you have made all your plans and are comfortable."
+
+"Now, look here, Prudence, I am very comfortable as things are,
+thank you. And you will pardon me if I say I cannot understand
+why you should go at all. I shall continue to eat, I hope, after
+I am married, and I think it altogether probable that I shall
+require a house-keeper and a cook. I believe they do have such
+things in well-regulated families."
+
+"At my age, and with my experience, and considerin' how we
+have lived, Mr. John, I couldn't get along with a mistress,
+'specially," she added with a touch of malice, "with a woman
+considerable older than me."
+
+"Older than you? What are you talking about? Miss Kinglake is
+young enough to be your daughter."
+
+Another apple rolled on the floor. "Miss Kinglake!" she exclaimed
+in astonishment, "that lamb? Good Lord, I thought you were goin'
+to marry the other one!"
+
+"Prudence," I said rather hotly, for I did not relish her
+amazement, "you will oblige me by not speaking of these ladies as
+the 'lamb' and 'the other one.' I might gather from your remarks
+that I am a sort of ravening wolf, instead of a well-meaning
+gentleman who is merely exercising the privilege of selecting a
+wife. But," I said, checking myself, for I was ashamed of my
+explosion, "I shall be magnanimous enough to believe that you are
+delighted with my choice, and that I have your congratulations.
+You will be glad to know that Miss Kinglake and I are perfectly
+satisfied with each other, and that we are both entirely
+satisfied with you. And now that we understand the situation, I
+think I may presume that we shall have breakfast at the usual
+hour this morning, and to-morrow morning, and for many mornings
+to come. And, by the way, Prudence, while I have honored you
+with my confidence, permit me to impress it upon you that this
+revelation is not village gossip as yet, and you will put me
+under further obligations by not mentioning the circumstance.
+Good-morning, Prudence. Kindly call the ladies at eight o'clock."
+
+And thereupon I hastily departed, leaving the good woman in a
+state of stupefaction, since, for the first and only time in our
+long and controversial association, had I retired with the last
+word. Taking a second turn in the garden I encountered Malachy,
+and my conscience reproached me. "Am I doing right," I asked
+myself, "in withholding the glad news from this faithful servant
+who has shown himself so worthy of my confidence? Is it not my
+duty to tell him--not so much to interest him in his future
+mistress as to demonstrate the trust I repose in him?"
+
+Malachy received my confidence with less excitement than I had
+expected. In fact I was slightly humiliated by his seeming lack
+of gratitude. He touched his hat very respectfully, and observed
+irrelevantly that the roses below the arbor were looking
+uncommonly well. This was a poor reward for my attempt at
+consideration, and further convinced me of the uselessness
+of establishing anything like intimate relations with the
+proletariat.
+
+"By the way, Malachy," I said in parting, "you will keep this
+matter a profound secret. Miss Kinglake and I are desirous that
+we shall not be annoyed by village chatter and premature
+congratulations."
+
+Having discharged my duty to my good servants, I felt that my
+obligations, so far as the relation with Phyllis was concerned,
+were at an end, and the morning wore away without further
+misgivings of disloyalty. In the afternoon Bunsey came over for
+his daily smoke, and as we sat together in the library, and I
+noticed the entire absence of suspicion in his manner, my heart
+smote me. "Truly," I reasoned silently, "I am behaving ill to an
+old friend who has never withheld from me the very secrets of his
+soul. Should I not be as generous, as outspoken, with him as he
+has always proved to me? Should I not confide to him this one
+precious secret, at the same time swearing him to preserve it as
+he would his life?"
+
+I blew out a ring of smoke, and then I began with the utmost
+seriousness: "Bunsey, how do you like the ladies?"
+
+He shifted his position, tipped the ashes from his cigar, and
+replied tranquilly: "Oh, I dare say I shall in time."
+
+The answer vexed me. Bunsey was a bachelor, and should have been
+therefore the more impressionable. I forgot for the moment, in my
+annoyance, that he was a novelist, and had been so diligently
+creating lovely and impossible women to order that he was not
+easily moved by the realities of humanity.
+
+"At all events," I replied with delicate irony, "I am glad that
+the future is hopeful for the ladies. My reason for asking the
+question was simply to lead the way to a confidence I intend to
+repose in you. To proceed expeditiously to the end of a long
+story, I intend to marry one of them."
+
+Bunsey's tranquillity was unshaken. "Which one?"
+
+"Which one?" I echoed with heat, "why, Miss Kinglake, of course."
+
+"Does she intend to marry you?"
+
+"Naturally."
+
+"Or unnaturally?"
+
+"Confound your impertinence!" I roared, "what do you mean by
+that?"
+
+"No impertinence, at all, my dear fellow. In fact it is most
+pertinent. Miss Kinglake is a girl, and you--well, you voted for
+Grant."
+
+"Which is your gentle way of saying that I am too old."
+
+"No, not too old; just old enough--to know better."
+
+"We are never too old to love," I said, conscious that I was
+uttering a melancholy platitude.
+
+"Too old to love? Heaven forbid! But we may be too old to
+marry--at least to marry anybody worth while. Come, Stanhope,
+tell me: do you really love this young woman?"
+
+"Love her? Here I have been telling you that I intend to marry a
+charming girl, and you turn about and ask me if I love her. Of
+course I love her. I have been loving her in one way and another
+for years."
+
+"What do you mean by that? I thought you only met her a few weeks
+ago."
+
+I smiled pityingly. "So I did, but for years she has been my
+affinity. Incidentally I don't mind saying I began by loving her
+mother."
+
+Bunsey sat up straight. "Oh, you loved her mother. Was her mother
+pretty?"
+
+"She was as you see Phyllis. In fact I think she was, if
+anything, a trifle prettier. We were playmates and schoolmates,
+and in the nature of things, if I had not wandered off to the
+city, I presume we should have married. Dear little Sylvia," I
+went on musingly, "I can see her at this moment, looking down
+from heaven and smiling on my union with her daughter. For if
+ever a match was made in heaven this was. Confound it! what are
+you doing now?"
+
+While I was talking Bunsey had reached over, taken a sheet of
+paper and was busily writing. He looked up carelessly.
+
+"Your story interests me, and is such good material that I
+thought I would make a few notes. Young boy loves young
+girl--goes to city--forgets her--young girl marries--has charming
+daughter--dies--years pass--venerable gentleman returns--sees
+daughter--great emotion on part of v. g.--thinks he loves
+her--proposes--accepted--mar--no, there I think I must stop for
+the present."
+
+"Oh, don't stop there, I beg," I said sarcastically; "if you are
+thinking of using these materials for one of your popular
+novels, be sure to throw in a few duels, several heartrending
+catastrophes, and other incidents of what you call 'action,'
+appropriately expressed in bad English."
+
+Bunsey was imperturbable. "Thank you for your appreciative
+estimate of my literary style," he replied coolly; "but really,
+my consideration for my old friend deprives me of the pleasure of
+robbing his diary."
+
+I was still out of temper. "Bunsey, I don't mind favoring you
+with a further confidence. You're an ass!"
+
+With this parting shot I strode out of the library, when,
+remembering the sacredness of my revelation, I turned back.
+
+"Of course you will understand, Bunsey, that however flippantly
+you may choose to regard what I have said to you, you will have
+the decency to keep the subject-matter to yourself. I do not ask
+your congratulations or your approval, but I demand your
+secrecy."
+
+"The ass brays acknowledgments," answered Bunsey meekly, helping
+himself to another cigar. "You may rely on my loyal and devoted
+interest. The fact that I have heard your secret twice before
+to-day shall not open my lips or cause me to violate your trust."
+
+Notwithstanding my attitude of indifference I was greatly
+troubled by Bunsey's unfeeling suggestion. Could it be possible
+that I had mistaken my own heart? Was I, yielding, as I had
+believed, to the first strong passion of my life, only deluding
+myself with a remembrance of my vanished youth? I dismissed the
+thought impatiently. For, after all, was not Bunsey a hopeless
+cynic, a fellow without a single emotion of the ennobling
+sentiment of man toward woman, a sordid story-teller, who created
+characters for money, wrecked homes, committed literary murders,
+played unfeelingly on the tenderest sensibilities, and boasted
+openly that the only angels were those made by a stroke of the
+pen and retailed at department store book-counters? And while
+thus reasoning Phyllis came to me, so winsome in her girlish
+beauty, so radiant in the happiness I had infused into her life,
+so joyous in the pleasures of the present, that I laughed at my
+own doubts, reproached myself for my own unworthy suspicions, and
+straightway forgot both Bunsey and his evil promptings.
+
+
+
+
+Love at eight and forty is a very pleasant and indolent emotion,
+marking the most delightful stage in the progress of the great
+human passion. At twenty-five we talk it; at thirty-five we act
+it; at forty-five it is pleasant to sit down and think about it.
+The very young man loves without really analyzing. Ten years
+later he analyzes without really loving. In another decade he has
+compounded the proportions of love and analysis, and becomes,
+under favoring conditions, the most dangerous and hence the most
+acceptable of suitors. The man in middle life takes his adored
+one tolerantly, and keeps his reservations to himself. In the
+ordinary course of events he has acquired a certain knowledge of
+feminine character, he knows the rocks and the shoals of love,
+and, skillful pilot that he is, he avoids them. He is sure of his
+course, master of his equipment. If he errs at all--but I
+anticipate.
+
+Those were very joyous days, notwithstanding the applications
+of cold water so liberally bestowed by my confidential advisers.
+And eagerly and successfully I exerted myself to convince
+the doubting ones in general, and Bunsey in particular, how
+absurd were their suspicions, and how apparent it was that Phyllis
+and I had been purposely created for each other. Mary threw
+herself into our pleasures as heartily and joyously as her New
+England nature would permit, which was never a very riotous
+demonstration, and Phyllis, with the effervescence and enthusiasm
+of girlhood, eagerly assented to every proposition that had
+its pleasure-seeking side; while I, as a thoughtful lover
+should, busied myself in schemes for summer dissipation, thankful
+that it was in my power to prove so devoted a knight, and
+inwardly rejoicing at my triumph over those who had taxed me
+with such unworthy thoughts. Even Frederick--good fellow that
+he was--allowed himself unusual days of vacation to partake of our
+merriment, and it pleased me greatly to see that when business
+cares or physical disinclination kept me off the programme, he no
+longer allowed his indifference to interfere with his duty as my
+nephew and personal representative. Such, I take it, is the
+obligation of all young men similarly placed.
+
+For, before many weeks had passed, I discovered that it was not
+wise to allow the fleeting dissipations of the moment, however
+alluring, to monopolize time which should be given to the serious
+affairs of life. I found that a cramped position in a boat in the
+hot sun brought on nervous headaches, and that too much time in
+the garden when the dew was falling was conducive to lumbago.
+Furthermore I had been invited by a neighboring university to
+deliver my celebrated lecture on the protagonism of Plato, and
+several new and excellent thoughts had come to me which required
+careful and elaborate development. I explained these matters
+conscientiously and fully to Phyllis, and while she offered no
+unreasonable protest, her pretty face clouded, and she did me the
+honor to say that half the enjoyment was removed by my absence.
+Once she even went so far as to declare that Plato was a "horrid
+man," and that she believed I thought more of him than of her--a
+most ridiculous conclusion but so essentially feminine that I
+forgave her at once. And, when she came to me, and put her arms
+around my neck and urged me to go with her to a tennis match--a
+foolish game where grown-up people knock little balls over a net
+with a battledore--I pointed out to her that such spectacles,
+while eminently proper for young folk, argued a failing mind in
+those of maturer years. With a charming pout she said:
+
+"Do you think you would have refused to go if my mother had asked
+you?"
+
+Now tennis is a sport that has come up since Sylvia and I were
+children together, but I recalled, with a guilty blush, the time
+when she and I won the village championship in doubles in an all
+day siege of croquet, so what could I say in my own defence?
+Therefore I went with Phyllis to the tennis-court and sat for two
+long and inexpressibly dreary hours watching the senseless and
+stupid proceedings. It was pleasant to reflect that I was with
+Sylvia's daughter, and I tried to imagine that the keen interest
+of youth still remained, but I was sadly out of place. I am
+satisfied that this game of tennis has nothing of the fascinating
+quality of croquet. On our arrival home Phyllis kissed me, and
+thanked me for what she called my "self-denial," but after that
+one experience Frederick represented me at the tennis-court, as,
+indeed, the good-natured boy consented to do at many similar
+festivities.
+
+And so the summer wore gradually away, one day's enjoyment
+lazily following another's, with nothing to disturb the serenity
+of my life, or to interfere with the calm content into which I
+had settled. Phyllis was everything that a moderate and
+reasonable lover could wish--kind, gentle, affectionate within
+the bounds of maidenly discretion, attentive to my wishes,
+and considerate of my caprices. The more I saw of her the
+more I was persuaded that I had chosen wisely and well. One
+afternoon--Frederick, at my suggestion, had gallantly given up
+his work in the office and taken Phyllis down the river. I sat
+with Bunsey in the library, and took occasion to expound to him
+the philosophy of perfect love.
+
+"The trouble is," I said, "that people rush blindly into
+matrimony. They think they are in love, work themselves up to the
+proper pitch of madness, propose and marry while they are in
+delirium. Hence, so much of the wretchedness and misery that we
+see in the homes of our friends. For my part I am committed to
+the doctrine of affinities. It is true that I, like many others,
+was guilty of the usual folly in my youth, and perhaps that gave
+me the wisdom to wait for my second venture until precisely the
+fight party came along. Matrimony, Bunsey, is an exact science.
+If we regulate our passion, control all silly emotion, study
+feminine nature as critically and methodically as we investigate
+a mathematical problem, and commit ourselves only when the
+affinity presents herself, we shall make no mistakes. For, after
+all, what is an affinity? Nothing more than a human being sent by
+Providence as perfectly adapted to the wheels and curves of your
+nature."
+
+"A very pretty theory," retorted Bunsey, grimly; "and, by the
+way, when do you think of rushing into matrimony?"
+
+"Really," I said, somewhat confused, "to be entirely honest with
+you, I have not settled on any particular day. You see Phyllis
+should have her fling. She is very young."
+
+"True, but you are not."
+
+As Bunsey said this he rose and tossed his cigar out of the
+window. "Stanhope," he went on, "we are old friends, and I don't
+wish to be continually seeming to interfere with your business,
+but if I were a man with fifty years leering hideously at me, and
+engaged to a pretty girl of two and twenty, I'd make quick work
+of it before Providence came along with a younger affinity in a
+Panama hat, negligee shirt, and duck trousers."
+
+I stared at him with a sort of helpless amazement. "Exactly what
+do you mean?" I asked.
+
+"Well," he answered, shrugging his shoulders, "at the risk of
+being kicked out of the house, let me say that I think such an
+affinity has already presented himself."
+
+"Indeed, and who may that be?"
+
+"Suppose we say Frederick."
+
+"My nephew?"
+
+"Exactly; your nephew. He is an uncommonly good-looking fellow,
+and, thanks to his uncle's childlike belief in Providence and
+the doctrine of affinities, he has most unusual opportunities to
+test that doctrine for himself. I dare say that he is making a
+formal study of the situation at this very moment, and inviting
+Providence to appear on the scene as his sponsor."
+
+What more was said at this interview, if, indeed, it did
+not terminate with this brutal statement, I cannot recall,
+for Bunsey, usually so flippant and cynical, spoke with an
+earnestness that stunned me. My knowledge of the philosophy of
+love told me that he was wrong; my observation of the actualities
+of life made me fear that he might be right. Theoretically, I
+could not have been mistaken in my course; practically, I began
+to see weak spots in the chain of evidence. Swiftly, I ran over
+the events of the spring and summer, and as little spots no
+bigger than a man's hand magnified themselves into black clouds,
+Bunsey, sitting opposite, seemed to grow larger and larger, and
+his smile more malicious and demon-like. Possibly, had I been a
+younger and more impetuous man, I should have flown into a
+passion, taken Bunsey at his word, and kicked him out of the
+house; but the philosophy of the thing engrossed me, filled me
+with half fear, half curiosity, and engaged all my mental
+faculties. Had I been mistaken? Could I be deceived in the
+daughter of Sylvia?
+
+However strong my suspicions may have been, they were not
+increased when, with the evening, Phyllis and Frederick came home
+from their excursion. Never was Phyllis more unreserved, more
+cordial, more joyous, more attentive to the little wants, which
+I, in a mean and shameful test, imposed on her. She could not be
+acting a part, this New England girl, with her alert conscience,
+her Puritan impulse and training, her aversion to everything that
+savored of deceit. And Frederick was as much at his ease as if I
+knew nothing, as if I had not heard of his duplicity, as if the
+whole house and grounds were not ringing with accusations of his
+unworthiness. Such are the phenomena of the philosophy of middle
+life, I insisted that he should remain for the evening, and,
+after dinner, with that contrariness accountable only in a true
+student of psychology, I made a trifling excuse and walked down
+to the square, leaving them together.
+
+The curfew was ringing as, returning, I entered the lower gate at
+the end of the garden, and passed slowly along by the arbor. It
+may have been Providence, it may have been chance, it certainly
+was not philosophy that directed my steps to the far side of the
+syringa hedge which shut me off from the view of those who might
+come down to the rustic seat at the foot of the cherry tree. At
+least I had no intention of playing the spy, and when I heard
+Frederick's voice, and knew instinctively that Phyllis was with
+him, I quickened my pace that I might not be a sharer of their
+secrets. But an irresistible impulse made me pause when I heard
+the foolish fellow say:
+
+"After to-night I shall not come again. It is better for us to
+break now than to wait until it is too late."
+
+Her reply I could not hear. Presently he said, and a little
+brokenly:
+
+"I have fought it all out. It has been hard, so hard, but I must
+meet it as it comes."
+
+Then I heard Phyllis's voice: "It is for the best."
+
+"I believe that you care for me. I know how much I care for you,
+and how much this effort is costing me. We were too late. No
+other course in honor presents itself. God knows how eagerly and
+hopelessly I have sought a way out of this tangle of duty."
+
+Again I heard Phyllis's voice, sunk almost to a whisper: "I have
+given my word; it is for the best."
+
+"The governor has been so good to me," Frederick exclaimed
+resentfully, "that I feel like a criminal even at this moment
+when I am making for him the sacrifice of a life. He has been my
+father, my protector. What I am I owe to him, and I must meet him
+like a grateful and honest man. You would not have it otherwise?"
+
+And for the third time Phyllis answered: "It is for the best."
+
+Had I been of that remarkable stuff of which your true hero is
+made, of which Bunsey's heroes are made, and had I come up to the
+very reasonable expectations of the followers of literary
+romance, I should have burst through the syringa with passion in
+my face and rage in my heart and precipitated a tragedy. Or, on
+the other side, I should have taken those ridiculous children by
+the hand, and ended their suffering with my blessing then and
+there. But as I am only of very common clay, with little liking
+for heroics, I did what any selfish and unappreciative man would
+have done, and stole quietly away. I even felt a sort of fierce
+joy in the knowledge of the security of my position, a mean
+exultation in the thought that Phyllis was bound to me, and that
+those from whom I might reasonably fear the most, acknowledged
+the hopelessness of their case. Most strangely there came to me
+no resentment with the knowledge that I had been supplanted by my
+nephew in the affections of the girl; the fact that she loved
+another surprised rather than agitated me. My argument was upset,
+my doctrine of affinities had been seriously damaged in my
+individual case, and here was I, who should have been yielding to
+the pangs of disappointment, or raging with wounded pride,
+reflecting with considerable calmness on the reverses of a
+philosopher.
+
+I went into the library and lighted a cigar. I threw myself into
+an easy-chair, and as I looked up I saw a spider-web in a corner
+of the ceiling. "I must speak to Prudence about that in the
+morning," I said to myself with annoyance. Then for the first
+time it came to me that I was out of temper, for I am customarily
+tranquil and not easily upset. My mind wandered rapidly from one
+thing to another, and oddly enough I caught myself humming a
+little tune which had no sort of relevancy to the events of the
+day. I tried to dismiss the incident of the garden as the
+temporary folly of a romantic girl, which would wear itself out
+with a week's absence. Why should it trouble me? Had I been
+lacking in kindness or affection? Should I be disturbed because a
+few boat rides and the influence of moonlight had wrought on a
+mere child? Was I not secure in her promise, and had I not heard
+her say she had given her word? As for Frederick, was he not my
+debtor? Had he not confessed it? Then why give more thought to
+the matter? It was awkward, but both were young and both would
+outlive it. Sylvia and I were young, and we outlived it.
+
+But still kept ringing in my ears that despairing half-whisper:
+"It is for the best."
+
+Petulantly I threw away my cigar and went up to my room. I walked
+over to the dressing-case and turned up the gas. The shadow
+displeased me and I lighted the opposite jet. Then I stood
+squarely before the mirror and looked critically at the
+reflection.
+
+Yes, John Stanhope, you are growing old. That expanding forehead,
+with the retreating hairs, tells the tale of time. The gray upon
+your cheeks is whitening and the razor must be used more
+vigilantly to further deception. Those creases in your face can
+no longer be dismissed as character lines; the shagginess of your
+eyebrows has the flying years to account for it. Plainly, John,
+you and humbug must part company. You are not of this generation
+and it is not for you.
+
+I turned down the gas, threw open the window and let the
+moonlight filter in through the elms and over the tops of the
+little pines. The soft beauty of the night soothed me, and
+gradually and very gently my irritation and annoyance slipped
+away. Why should not a young girl, radiant in youth and beauty,
+affect a young man of her generation? What has an old fellow,
+with all his money and worldly experience and burnt-out youth, to
+give in exchange for that intoxication which every girl may
+properly regard her lawful gift? Undoubtedly I should make a
+better husband, as husbands go, than my romantic nephew, and any
+woman of rare common sense would see the advantages of my
+position, but why burden a woman with that rare common sense
+which robs her of the first and sweetest of her dreams? No, John
+Stanhope, go back to your pipe and your books and your gardening,
+your life of selfish, indolent do-nothing. Take life as it comes
+most easily and naturally. By sparing one heart you may save two.
+
+And that nephew of mine--what a fine, manly fellow he proved
+himself when put to the test! The governor had been good to him
+and he was going to stand by the governor. How my heart jumped,
+and what a warm little feeling there was about the internal
+cockles as I recalled his words. Bravely said, my boy, and nobly
+done! I fear I should not have been so generous at your age, and
+with Sylvia--
+
+And with Sylvia! How the past crowded back at the thought of her!
+Who are you, old dreamer, who neglected the gift the good gods
+provided in the heydey of your youth to return to chase the
+phantom of the past? Behind that little white cloud, sailing far
+into the north, Sylvia may be peeping at you, and smiling at the
+delusion of her ancient wooer. Or why not think that she is
+pleading with you--pleading for her child and the lover, as she
+might have pleaded for herself and somebody else, had somebody
+else known his own heart before it was too late?
+
+I watched the white cloud as it passed on and on, growing smaller
+and fainter as it receded. I settled back still deeper in my
+chair and sighed. And then--O unworthy knight of love!--and then,
+I fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+In the morning, before the family was astir, I wrote a note,
+pleading a sudden and imperative call to town, and vanished for
+the day. I argued with myself that such a step was a delicate
+consideration for a young woman, who, having listened to a
+confession of love a few hours before, would be hardly at her
+ease at a breakfast-table conversation. Incidentally I was not
+altogether sure of myself, although I was much refreshed by an
+excellent night's sleep which comes to every philosopher with
+courage and strength to rise above the unpleasant things of life.
+If Phyllis had yielded to an emotion of grief, there was little
+trace of it when we met at evening. I fancied that she was
+somewhat paler, and her manner at times seemed a little listless,
+but otherwise there was no great departure from her usual
+demeanor. As for myself the long sunshine of a summer day and the
+conviction that at last the opportunity had come to me to play
+the role of a minor hero gave me a peace that amounted almost to
+buoyancy. No need had I of the teachings of the musty old
+philosophers reposing on my bookshelves. John Stanhope had
+learned more of life in a few short hours than all his tomes
+could impart. His books had helped him many times in diagnosing
+the cases of his friends; when John fell ill they mocked and
+deceived him.
+
+Opportunely enough Phyllis followed me into the library, and when
+at my request she sat on a little stool at my feet, and I held
+her hand and stroked her soft light hair, a pang went through my
+heart, for I felt that she might be near me for the last time.
+The philosopher had yet much to learn. For several minutes we
+were both silent. Of the two I was doubtless the more ill at
+ease, though I concealed it bravely.
+
+"Phyllis," I said at last, "did you ever get over a childish
+fondness for fairy-stories?"
+
+She smiled at this--was I wrong in fancying that her smile was
+that of sadness?--and answered: "I hope not."
+
+"Because," I went on, bending over and affectionately patting the
+hand I held, "a little fairy-tale has been running through my
+head all day, and I have decided that you shall be the first to
+hear it and pass on its merits. And because," I added gayly, "if
+it has your approval I may wish to publish it. Shall I begin?"
+
+She nodded her head--I could swear now to the weariness the poor
+child was so staunchly fighting--and looked off toward the
+sunset.
+
+"Once upon a time--you see that I am conventional--there lived a
+beautiful young princess, on whom a wicked old troll had cast an
+evil eye. Now this wicked troll was not so hideous as the trolls
+we see in our fairy-books--I must say that--but he was so wicked
+that even this deficiency could not excuse him. The princess was
+as young and innocent--I was going to say as simple--as she was
+beautiful, and the wicked troll talked so much of his experience
+in the world, and boasted so hugely of his wealth and generosity
+and other shining virtues, that the imagination of the poor
+little princess was quite fired, and she was flattered into
+thinking that here was a treasure not to be lightly put aside.
+And so, in a foolish moment she consented to be his bride, and he
+took her away to his castle--I believe trolls do have castles--to
+make ready for the marriage. While the preparations were going
+on, and the wicked old troll was laughing with glee to think how
+he had deluded a princess, a handsome young prince appeared on
+the scene, and what so natural as that the princess should
+immediately contrast him with the troll. And it came about, also
+quite naturally, that before the prince and the princess knew
+that anything was happening, they fell so violently in love with
+each other that the birds, and the bees, and the flowers in the
+garden, and the squirrels in the trees sang and hummed and
+gossiped and chattered about it."
+
+Here I paused. Phyllis did not look up, but I felt a shiver run
+through her body as I stroked her hair and put my arm around her
+shoulder to caress away her fear.
+
+"But it happened that although the princess was so much in love
+that at times she must have forgotten even the existence of the
+old troll, she was still possessed of that most inconvenient and
+annoying internal arrangement which we call the New England
+conscience, and one night, when the prince had declared his love
+with more ardor than usual, she remembered the past, how she had
+promised to marry the troll, and how she must keep her word, as
+all good princesses do. And the prince, who was a very upright
+young man, most foolishly listened to her, and agreed to give her
+up. Whereupon these poor children, having resolved that it was
+for the best--"
+
+Phyllis looked up quickly. Her face was white, and a look, half
+of fear, half of reproach, came to her eyes. She sank down and
+hid her face in her hands. Both my arms were around her and I
+even laughed.
+
+"Dear little princess," I whispered, "don't give way yet. The
+best is still to come. For you must remember that this is a
+fairy-tale and all fairy-tales have a good ending. And, to make a
+long story short, this wicked old troll was not a troll at all,
+but a fairy-godmother, who had taken the form for good purposes.
+I would have said fairy-godfather, but I have never come across a
+fairy-godfather in all my reading, and I must be truthful. Well,
+the fairy-godmother came along right in the nick of time--and, of
+course, you know who married and lived happily ever after?"
+
+The convulsive movement of the poor child's body told me she
+was weeping. And I, being a philosopher, and more or less
+hard-hearted, as all philosophers are, let her weep on. Presently
+she said in a voice hardly audible:
+
+"I gave you my promise and I meant to keep it. I am trying so
+hard to keep it."
+
+"Of course you are, little girl, but why try? A bad promise is
+far better broken than kept, and, come to think of it, I am not
+at all sure that I am anxious to have you keep it. How do you
+know that I am not making a desperate effort to secure my own
+release?"
+
+She raised her head quite unexpectedly and caught me with the
+tears in my eyes. My eyes always were weak. "Why, you are
+crying!" she said.
+
+"Of course I'm crying. I always cry when I am particularly well
+pleased. It is a family peculiarity. You should see me at the
+theatre. At a farce comedy I am a depressing sight, and that is
+the reason I always avoid the front seats."
+
+Then realizing that I might be carrying my gayety too far, I went
+on more soberly:
+
+"Can't you see, Phyllis, that the old fool's romance must come to
+an end? Don't you understand that had I the selfish wish to hold
+you to a thoughtless promise, our adventure would terminate only
+in misery to us both? Perhaps you and I have been the last to see
+it, I, because I was thinking too much of myself, you, because
+you were carried away by an exalted sense of duty. Thank heaven
+it is clear to us both now. For it is clear, isn't it, dear?"
+
+The foolish girl did not reply, but she kissed my hand, and it is
+astonishing how that little act of affection touched and
+strengthened me.
+
+"So we are going to make a new start and begin right. To-morrow I
+shall see Frederick and make a proposition to him, and if that
+rascal does not give up his heroics and come down to his plain
+duty as I see it--well, so much the worse for him. No, don't
+raise objections"--she had started to speak--"for I am always
+quarrelsome when I cannot have my own way. Go to your room and
+think it over, and remember," I said more gently, for that old
+tide of the past was coming in, "that you are Sylvia's daughter,
+and that Sylvia would have trusted me and counselled you to obey
+me in all things."
+
+Slowly and with averted face Phyllis rose and walked toward the
+door. I had commanded her, and yet I felt a sharp pang of
+bitterness that she had yielded so quickly to my words. It seemed
+at the moment that everything was passing out of my life; that
+Phyllis, that Sylvia, that all the once sweet, continuous memory
+was lost to me forever. I could not call her back, and I could
+not hope that she would return. Philosopher that I was I could
+not explain the sinking and the fear that took possession of me.
+The philosopher did not know himself. All his thought and all his
+reasoning could not solve the simple riddle the quick intuition
+of a girl made clear.
+
+She had reached the door before she paused. Then she turned. I
+had risen mechanically and stood looking at her. As slowly she
+came back and waited as if for me to speak. And when the dull
+philosopher groped helplessly for words and could not meet the
+appealing eyes, she put her hands on his shoulders, and laid her
+warm, young face on his heart, and said, "Father!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The night was peacefully beautiful. I had strolled out of the
+garden and down to the river, and there along the bridle-path on
+the winding bank I walked for miles. Absorbed in my own thoughts
+I gave no heed to my little dog, Hero, trotting at my side and
+looking anxiously up at me with her large brown eyes, as if
+saying in her dog fashion: "Don't worry, old man; I'm here!" A
+strange, inexplicable happiness had fallen to him who thought he
+knew all others, and did not know even himself. I crossed the
+river to return on the opposite shore, and all the way back,
+through the arching trees, the shadows danced in the moonlight
+and the crickets chirped merrily. Life seemed so contrary, so
+bewildering, for I thought of the wedding music in those early
+mornings at my boyhood home, and I wondered at the optimism of
+Nature in attuning all emotions to a joyous note.
+
+Again in my garden I saw a half-light in Phyllis's room. Coming
+nearer I saw that she was standing at the window, with the same
+cloud on her face that had betrayed the battle with her
+conscience. At sight of her all the joyous emotion of my new
+tenderness overwhelmed me and I cried out cheerily:
+
+"Good-night, Phyllis!"
+
+Something in my voice sent a smile to her eyes and gladness to
+her heart, as, half leaning from the window, she kissed her hand
+to me and called back softly: "Good-night, father dear!"
+
+The south wind came, bringing the scent of the rose and the
+honeysuckle, and stirring the drowsy branches of the elms. The
+river rippled merrily in the moonlight, hurrying to bear the
+tidings of happiness to the greater waters, and off in the
+distance the blue hills lifted their heads above the haze. Toward
+the north scudded the friendly little white cloud, and it seemed
+again a soothing fancy that Sylvia--
+
+O sweet and pleasant world!
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
+
+Page 103: Changed housekeeper to house-keeper for consistency.
+
+Page 116: Changed typo "effervesence" to "effervescence."
+
+Page 142: Changed typo "moolight" to "moonlight."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Romance of an Old Fool, by Roswell Field
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