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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30436 ***
+
+HOPE MILLS;
+
+OR,
+
+BETWEEN FRIEND AND SWEETHEART.
+
+BY
+
+AMANDA M. DOUGLAS,
+
+AUTHOR OF "FROM HAND TO MOUTH," "NELLY KINNARD'S KINGDOM," "IN TRUST,"
+&C., &C.
+
+                                 "Abou spake more low,
+          But cheerly still; and said, 'I pray thee, then,
+          Write me as one that loves his fellow-men.'"
+
+          LEIGH HUNT.
+
+
+          BOSTON:
+          LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS.
+          NEW YORK:
+          CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM.
+
+
+
+
+THE DOUGLAS NOVELS.
+
+
+          OSBORNE OF ARROCHAR.
+          A MODERN ADAM AND EVE IN A GARDEN.
+          THE FORTUNES OF THE FARADAYS.
+          FOES OF HER HOUSEHOLD.
+          A WOMAN'S INHERITANCE.
+          CLAUDIA.
+          FLOYD GRANDON'S HONOR.
+          FROM HAND TO MOUTH.
+          HOME NOOK.
+          HOPE MILLS.
+          IN TRUST.
+          LOST IN A GREAT CITY.
+          NELLIE KINNARD'S KINGDOM.
+          OUT OF THE WRECK.
+          SEVEN DAUGHTERS.
+          STEPHEN DANE.
+          SYDNIE ADRIANCE.
+          THE OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE.
+          WHOM KATHIE MARRIED.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+          PRICE PER VOL., $1.50.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+          LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS,
+          BOSTON.
+
+
+          COPYRIGHT, 1879,
+          BY LEE AND SHEPARD.
+
+          _All rights reserved._
+
+
+
+
+          TO
+
+          HON. MARCUS L. WARD,
+
+          As a Tribute
+
+          TO ONE WHO HAS HELD LOYALLY TO GOD AND HIS FELLOW-MEN,
+          WHO HAS LABORED IN THE NOBLE CAUSE OF HUMANITY,
+          NOT DISHEARTENED WHEN RESULTS WERE INFREQUENT,
+          BUT CONTENT TO REAP THE REWARD
+          IN THE GREAT HEREAFTER.
+
+
+
+
+BETWEEN FRIEND AND SWEETHEART.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+"THERE is Fred again with his arm around Jack Darcy's neck. I declare,
+they are worse than two romantic schoolgirls. I am so thankful Fred goes
+away to-morrow for a year! and I do hope by that time he will have
+outgrown that wretched, commonplace youth. Mother, it is very fortunate
+that Jack is the sole scion of the Darcy line; for, if there were a
+daughter, you would no doubt be called upon to receive her into the
+bosom of the family."
+
+"Which I never should do," remarked quiet, aristocratic Mrs. Lawrence,
+not even raising her eyes from her book.
+
+"Not for the sake of your only son?" continued Agatha, with an
+irritating laugh.
+
+"Don't be silly, Agatha," returned the mother, with an indifference that
+took off the point of the query.
+
+Her second sister glanced up from a bit of pencil-drawing, then lowered
+her eyes to the street where the boy friends stood, one with his arm
+over the other's shoulder.
+
+"Think of a Harvard graduate arm-in-arm with--well, a mill-hand! No
+doubt Jack's father will put him in the mill. I cannot see any sense in
+a boy of that class taking two years at the academy."
+
+On the opposite side of the room were two girls, hardly more than
+children, busily engaged in ornamenting a box with transfer-pictures.
+One had a rather haughty mien, as became a Lawrence; the other, pretty,
+piquant little Sylvie Barry, looked toward the elders, knit her brow,
+with both thought and indignation visible in its lines, and held her
+picture absently in her hand.
+
+"Why do you listen to that?" asked Irene Lawrence disdainfully. "It is
+only Jack Darcy, and he's nobody. His father works in the mill."
+
+"I know that!" was Sylvie's rather sharp retort, answering the latter
+part of the sentence merely. Child as she was, she experienced a strong
+desire to do battle, not only for Jack, but for some puzzling cause she
+could not quite comprehend. With the blood of a French duke in her
+veins, of soldiers and martyrs as well, she was a sturdy little
+democrat. It seemed cowardly not to take up arms.
+
+"That butterfly is to go next," remarked Irene, reaching out for it; and
+Sylvie held her peace, though she felt the warm blood burning in her
+cheeks.
+
+Jack Darcy did not need any champion within doors; for Fred stood up
+bravely against these three girls, and from them received his first
+impression that women were small of soul and narrow of mind. As they
+stood by the gate now, this last hour grudged to them, neither dreamed
+that this was the final canto in the poem of boyhood. They had been fast
+friends since the first day pale, puny Fred made his appearance in
+school, and was both laughed at and bullied by some boys larger in size,
+but younger in years.
+
+"He will have to get the nonsense rubbed out of him some time," thought
+Jack; "and it can never be younger." But, when the contest degenerated
+into the force of the strong against the weak, one blow of Jack's fist
+sent Brown reeling and howling.
+
+"Try a fellow of your own size next time," was Jack's pithy advice.
+
+Fred came to him, and cried hysterically in his arms. Jack had
+experienced the same feeling for some poor rescued kitten. Fred, with
+his head full of King Arthur and his knights, mythology, and bits of
+children's histories, wherein figured heroes and soldiers, elected Jack
+to the highest niche in his regard.
+
+Jack Darcy was a wonderful boy withal, a very prince of boys, who hated
+study and work, and loved play; who despised Sunday clothes and girls'
+parties; but who had not his equal for spinning a top, or raising a
+kite, and when it came to leap-frog, or short stop, he was simply
+immense. Then he always knew the best places to dig worms, and the
+little nooks where fish were sure to bite, the best chestnut and walnut
+trees; and, with years and experience, he excelled in baseball, skating,
+wrestling, leaping, and rowing. Jack Darcy was no dunce, either. Only
+one subject extinguished him entirely, and that was composition. Under
+its malign influence he sank to the level of any other boy. And here
+Fred shone pre-eminently, kindly casting his mantle over his
+friend,--further, sometimes, than a conscientious charity would have
+admitted; but a boy's conscience is quite as susceptible of a bias as
+that of older and wiser people. On the other hand, Jack wrestled
+manfully with many a tough problem on which Fred would have been
+hopelessly stranded. Once rouse the belligerent impulse in Jack, and he
+would fight his way through.
+
+These two were at different ends of the social plane. Fred's father was
+the great man of Yerbury, the present owner of Hope Mills; not only
+rich, but living in luxury. He had married Miss Agatha Hope, and by the
+death of her two brothers she had become sole heir to the Hope estate:
+though it was whispered that her brothers had left a heavy legacy of
+debts behind them. There was family on the Lawrence side as well, but
+not much money. David Lawrence had prospered beyond his wildest dreams.
+He had twice been mayor of Yerbury, gone to the State Legislature, and
+been spoken of as a possible senator; but he did not sigh for political
+distinction.
+
+Agatha was their first-born; then Frederic De Woolfe, named for some
+Hope ancestor. Two girls afterward; but Fred remained the only son. He
+was a delicate boy, and, until he reached the age of ten, studied with
+his sisters' governess, when he rebelled, and insisted upon his boy's
+prerogative of going to school. Here he met and loved Jack Darcy.
+
+Jack was a few months the elder,--a stout, hardy, robust boy, full of
+mischief, falling into scrapes, and slipping out easily. Not vicious or
+ugly; in fact, he had thrashed Ned Thomas for robbing birds' nests, been
+known to rescue a miserable kitten from its tormentors, and was always
+bringing home sore-eyed, mangy curs to be nursed and healed. If he had
+cared, he could have boasted as good a pedigree as the Hopes and the
+Lawrences. For his grandmother was of pure old French Jacobin descent,
+titled too. Many a wild romance and adventure had her family figured
+in,--now on the top round of prosperity, now in bitter poverty and
+exile. At the age of eighteen she was living on the western coast of
+Ireland with her old father, when she fell in love with handsome Jack
+Darcy, whose persuasive blue eyes were enough to melt the heart of the
+most obdurate woman; the merriest, wittiest, best-tempered lad for miles
+around, the owner of a small farm and numberless family traditions that
+counted back to the time when
+
+          "Malachi wore the collar of gold,
+             He won from the proud invader."
+
+For a while they were prosperous and happy: then came bad seasons,
+famine, and finally typhus. Two bright, handsome sons and a little
+daughter were victims, leaving only baby Bernard. They came to the New
+World, and began life again, managing thriftily, and buying a house and
+garden in the quaint old town of Yerbury. Mr. Darcy died; and his son
+grew to man's estate, settled to the business of carpenter and builder
+(as he possessed a good deal of mechanical skill), married a pretty,
+delicate girl, but did not seem to make of life a signal success. Still
+it is possible that a life of happiness and content may have its use in
+this world, if it does not serve to point a prosperous moral.
+
+He added a wing to the house, he raised fruit and flowers that were
+marvels. Grandmother preferred for several years to keep house by
+herself, raise chickens and geese, and keep putting by a little of her
+very own. They had a choice garden and a soft-eyed Alderney cow, but
+Bernard Darcy had surely missed his vocation. He should have been a
+scientific farmer.
+
+Baby Jack came to them. He certainly had not inherited the beauty of the
+Darcys nor the Beaumanoirs, not even the delicacy of his mother. The
+eyes of Irish blue were tinged with gray, his hair inclined to the
+warmer tints of chestnut, and now he always kept the curls cropped
+short. However, his magnificently shaped head was not disfigured by the
+process. He did get terribly freckled and tanned as warm weather came
+on, and the hair turned almost red by much bathing and sunshine. A
+striking contrast indeed to the handsome, well-dressed Frederic.
+
+When Fred went to the academy he pleaded for Jack to go, and Grandmother
+Darcy decided that he should. She had never taken kindly to her son's
+rather plebeian occupation. After several years of indifferent success,
+Mr. Darcy had accepted a position at the mill, in which, if there was
+not so much profit, there were no losses.
+
+Jack was not a student in an intellectual point of view. He did not
+care to be a doctor, lawyer, or clergyman, and certainly not a
+professor. He would have liked to pack a satchel, and start westward,
+prospect for a railroad, gold or silver mine, and live the rugged,
+unconventional camp-life. Once he had ventured to suggest this noble
+ambition; but his timid mother was startled out of her wits, and his
+grandmother said with a sage shake of the head,--
+
+"A rolling stone gathers no moss."
+
+"Grandmother," began Jack argumentatively, "of what real value is the
+moss to the stone, except in the picturesque aspect? Do you know that a
+great many of these time revered and honored adages are the greatest
+humbugs in the world?" asked the audacious young iconoclast. "Who wants
+to be a stone or a clod, or even a bit of velvet moss? They go to make
+up the world, it is true; but is that narrow, torpid, insensate life any
+pattern for human souls and active bodies? I think a man's business in
+this world is to find out new channels, to build up, to broaden and
+deepen, and somehow to make the world feel that he has been in it. I
+can't just explain,"--and his brows knit into a puzzled frown,--"but it
+seems to me there is something grander than plodding along and saving a
+little money."
+
+"No doubt you would be glad enough to have the money, when you have gone
+off like the prodigal son, and wasted health and substance in foreign
+lands," said grandmother with some asperity.
+
+Jack had been brought up to reverence the Bible and religion, and to
+respect his grandmother was the first article in his creed. He relapsed
+into silence, but the busy brain kept up a vigorous ferment. What was
+life all about, anyhow? Why did people come into the world, live thirty,
+sixty, or even eighty years, and then drop out of it. Was it merely to
+eat, drink, and sleep?
+
+The wider lore at the academy had a peculiar effect upon Jack, tangled
+his brain, begat confusing mental processes. Greek he hated; Latin he
+barely endured; chemistry and mineralogy interested him, and in
+mathematics he excelled. Fred carried every thing before him, graduated
+with honors, and was to enter Harvard. The Lawrences went to Newport,
+and Jack missed his bosom friend sorely. He rambled through the woods,
+read every thing that came in his way, and thought a good deal in his
+crude, undisciplined fashion.
+
+What was he to do with this tough problem of unknown quantities?
+
+He ventured at last to broach the subject to his father.
+
+Bernard Darcy studied his son gravely. Now, it must be considered that
+he had never been troubled with this hungry, perplexing view of life
+that urges one on to dip deep into the secrets of existence. To have a
+pretty house and garden, to watch his flowers, vegetables, and chickens
+grow, to dream over his books in his cosey sitting-room, not to be
+pinched for money, not to be anxious about employment, but to go on
+serenely day after day,--this was Mr. Darcy's idea of happiness; and,
+having this, he was perfectly content.
+
+His mother secretly chafed at his lack of ambition; his neighbors said,
+"A good, honest fellow, but with no 'push' in him." Curiously enough,
+the virtues that are preached from pulpits Sunday after Sunday, that we
+are always recommending to our friends, are _not_ the ones that gain any
+vast amount of credit in this life. "Be content! be content!" cries
+every one, from revelation downward; yet content, pure and simple, is
+rather despised and flouted by our fellow-men.
+
+"I don't know, Jack," said the elder, gravely shaking his head with slow
+dubiousness. "What would you do if you were once away?"
+
+"I'd go on until I found some place into which I just fitted;" and the
+boy glanced over westward with hungering eyes.
+
+"But, Jack," said his father, after a pause, "I think people oftener fit
+themselves into a place. There are so few places ready made to one's
+hand. It's always something. Now, I'll venture to say that David
+Lawrence, with all his money, doesn't see as much real happiness as I
+do. His is a slave's life, after all. It's day and night, bills to pay
+and stock to get, dissatisfied hands, poor hands spoiling work, losses
+here and there, little leisure, small peace of mind; and all for what?
+There was a time when I might have envied him: I don't now."
+
+Jack had lost all but the first two sentences.
+
+"That's the thing!" he cried, with boyish enthusiasm,--"fitting
+yourself; coming to something that takes hold of you like an
+inspiration; that you could work for, fight for, that rouses soul and
+body."
+
+Bernard Darcy studied the youthful face, eager, alert, hopeful, and with
+something else in it that he could not understand.
+
+"I never had any such dreams or desires," he said in an uncertain tone,
+as if fearful he might lose his way among his son's vagaries. "I wanted
+a pleasant home, and a loving wife and children. I wish there had been
+more of them, Jack, for your sake," and his voice took on a tender
+inflection. "Then, if one wanted to go away, there would have been
+others left. You see, Jack, mother's heart is bound up in you, and she's
+getting to be an old woman with but few ties. I might manage to comfort
+your own mother; but you are so young, Jack. There will be many years
+before you, doubtless; and if you could give a few to us," with a
+wistful, loving look. "Now, if you wanted to study"--
+
+"But I don't," in a hasty, husky tone. "I believe I hate quiet. I want
+life, adventure! I've staid in school this last year just to please
+Larry."
+
+"Have a little patience, Jack. Old people are not like young ones. They
+feel the changes keenly. And you are all we have. It would take the
+sunshine out of our lives. It would seem as if there had been a
+funeral."
+
+"Yes," said Jack with meek hopelessness that one would hardly look for
+in a vigorous boy; and winking hard to keep back some tears. No logical
+argument, no stricture of duty, could have half the weight of this bit
+of love pleading. Father was right. God had made him a son first of all,
+given him a son's duties. Jack had never troubled his head much about
+religion in any theological sense; but his simple creed had some great
+if old-fashioned truths in it.
+
+"If there's any thing you would like to do, I'd be glad to give you a
+chance. And there's no need to hurry. You may come to the right thing
+presently."
+
+Jack swallowed over a great lump in his throat. The two kittens came
+scampering up the walk, and he caught one, lifting it to his shoulder.
+Then Sylvie Barry entered the gate with her dainty milk-kettle shining
+like silver.
+
+They were in a manner neighbors, for Larch Avenue was the next street to
+Maple Place. Both streets were now given over to what is termed decayed
+gentility. The larches were old and ragged and brown with clustering
+cones, and the blue blood of the denizens had grown a little sluggish.
+
+Miss Honoria Barry and her small niece lived together, with a tall and
+gaunt handmaiden Norman French, and a broad Yorkshire gardener. Miss
+Barry was the old cream of Yerbury. Here her family had lived since the
+Huguenot persecution, and dwindled finally to two. Louis Barry was a
+dissipated spendthrift. He married, and tormented his wife into an early
+grave, and might have worn out his sister, but Providence kindly removed
+him. Miss Honoria retrenched, paid off debts and mortgage by degrees,
+and brought up Sylvie in a quaint, refined, old-world fashion.
+
+Old Mrs. Darcy and Miss Barry exchanged formal calls, and discussed la
+belle France. Sylvie took great delight in listening to grandmother's
+stories of brave heroes and handsome women who figured in old legends.
+
+Oddly enough, one of the many points of agreement between Jack and Fred
+had been their aversion to girls in general. Fred judged them from his
+sisters, who were always nagging, always exhorting him to be a
+gentleman, and always holding up Jack Darcy to ridicule. Jack, on the
+other hand, had a bashful fear of girls, and fancied they were laughing
+at every little awkwardness; then they cried so easily, went off in a
+huff if they could not have their own way, were silly, vain, and
+tattling, ready enough to beg your assistance if there was a munching
+cow by the roadside, a worm swinging from a tree, or a harmless mouse
+running across the floor. The great fascination to the Darcy house was,
+that the boys could sit in the large, clean kitchen, trying all sorts of
+crude experiments, with Ann to clear away the _débris_ and find no
+fault. Jack never wanted to go to the great house. In true boy fashion
+he understood without any explanation. But they both liked little
+Sylvie. She was taught at home except in music and drawing, and she was
+as much interested in grandmother's heroes as the two boys.
+
+On the other hand, the Hopes and the Barrys had always been great
+friends; and, from some odd freak of unlikeness, Sylvie and Irene
+Lawrence carried on the intimacy.
+
+She stopped now, and talked about the kitten with Jack; and he carried
+her milk-pail home to the gate.
+
+It was a long, wearisome vacation to poor Jack. Fishing lost its charm,
+even tramps in the woods became monotonous. He spent hours in his
+father's shop, inspecting machinery, though he seldom asked a question
+or ventured upon a remark. Indeed, some of the hands thought "Darcy's
+boy wasn't over-bright." Yet here he laid the foundation of the problem
+that was to vex and puzzle his soul in after-years. Here was the great,
+whirring machinery, belts, bands, spindles, looms, and oftentimes a
+stupid and stolid enough workman at one end, grinding out luxury and
+elegance for David Lawrence, Esq.; that his family might tread on Wilton
+and Axminster, dine from silver and crystal, dress in silks and velvets,
+drive about with high-stepping bays, and scorn all beneath them. Once as
+Jack was thinking it over he laughed aloud.
+
+"You must feel very much amused," said a rather sour-looking man
+standing near by, with a peculiar touchiness as if he had been laughed
+at.
+
+"No, I wasn't amused, I was only thinking"-- But Jack stopped in the
+middle of his sentence. Could _this_ man take any such position as that
+of Mr. Lawrence?
+
+Then he came across a volume of self-made men, which he eagerly
+devoured. Every one seemed to have commenced life without a dollar, and
+almost without friends. Were those the important factors in the race, to
+be light-weighted? And he had a triple chain.
+
+Fred returned, handsomer than ever, and doubly glad to get back to Jack.
+There was just four days grace. They revisited old haunts, talked
+endlessly and to little purpose, like so much of the talk of youth, and
+now they were parting at the gate for the last time. Unlike girls they
+exchanged no vows or kisses. It is not in boy-nature to be effusive.
+
+"To think that I shall not be home until Christmas! If only you _were_
+going with me, Jack, what jolly times we would have!"
+
+"I could have gone," answered Jack with some pride, "that is, if I had
+been prepared. Father was willing, and grandmother would have been proud
+enough;" and just then Jack wondered why going to seek his fortune
+appeared so much more terrible to them.
+
+"Well, why not, Jack?" with impetuous eagerness. "It isn't too late."
+
+"I don't want the years of study. I should come to hate the sight of a
+book. No, I'll find out where I belong, some day. Don't worry about me,"
+with an abrupt laugh.
+
+"But I am so sorry!" Then they looked into each other's eyes. All these
+years had been filled with such good, honest boy-love.
+
+"Good-by, old chap!" cried Jack suddenly; for the wrench must come, and
+lingering over it was painful. "I shall miss you lots! it seems so queer
+to be without you! Of course you'll succeed: there's no use wishing
+about that."
+
+"It's a good wish from you, Jack. Good-by. I hate awfully to say it: I
+hate to think that our jolly boyish frolics are over."
+
+"But we'll have many a good row on the river, and tramps through the
+woods. We can't outgrow every thing. And there'll be summers and
+summers."
+
+"Good-by."
+
+The gate-latch clicked: Jack walked rapidly down the street, whistling
+"Kathleen Mavourneen" unconsciously. Did he dream the simple faith of
+boyhood had reached its culmination, and was henceforth to wane?
+
+"Dear old Jack," thought Fred: "I don't know as he is quite Launcelot,
+though I used to think so at first. But there was Sir Gawain and Sir
+Bedevere and a host of worthies, and if he only _would_ he could come up
+to the highest. What makes him so obstinate and unambitious, I wonder?
+Are there any King Arthurs and loyal knights nowadays, or only common
+men and women?"
+
+His sisters opened upon him with the fatal persistency of narrow
+feminine natures.
+
+"You may say what you like about Jack Darcy," he flung out angrily, "but
+you'll never make me give him up,--never, never!"
+
+"Do hush, children," interposed Mrs. Lawrence. "Fred, I hope you will
+learn to modulate your voice, and not shriek so."
+
+Sylvie put on her hat to go home. As she passed Fred she said just above
+her breath,--
+
+"You are right and brave. I wouldn't give up my friend because he was
+poor; and Jack is so nice!"
+
+"Much she knows about it," thought Fred, with a true boyish disdain. Yet
+her approval of Jack was a virtue in his eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+"FATHER!" exclaimed Jack a few days after this parting from his bosom
+friend, "I think I will go in the mill for a year or two, if there is
+any thing for me to do. Meanwhile my inspiration may come along."
+
+"But what would you like best, Jack?"
+
+"That's just the trouble," and the youthful brows knit in perplexity.
+"All things seem alike to me: I haven't any choice."
+
+Mr. Darcy drew a long breath that was almost a sigh. If Jack only would
+evince some preference!
+
+However, a place was found as under-bookkeeper. It was desperately
+tiresome to Jack to sit perched on a high stool all day; and after three
+months of it he begged to be put at something else.
+
+At this period we had gone through our costly civil war; and, instead of
+being exhausted as friends and enemies predicted, the machinery of
+business appeared to have been set in motion with a new and overwhelming
+impetus. Every thing was wanted; everybody had work or money; and the
+most useless commodity found a purchaser: as if our anguish had crazed
+us, and we went into a delirium of mental opium, and dreamed wild,
+exhilarating dreams which we mistook for reality.
+
+Yerbury had been a slow, solid, conservative town. Property was low,
+taxes light and easily paid, a balance on hand in the treasury to
+commence the new year, and very little pauperism in the town. Yerbury
+officials utilized their inefficient population, and their county jail
+was not made a palace of luxury. The old-fashioned element in the place
+held crime as the result of sin instead of occult disease,--a thing to
+be punished, rather than petted. It had good railroad connections,
+plenty of water, with one navigable stream, and a variety of industries.
+Iron, shoes, hats, paper, and clothing were manufactured to a
+considerable extent, to say nothing of many smaller branches. Hope Mills
+was the largest, the focus of the town, and had the prestige of being
+handed down through three generations, though never as extensive as now.
+
+Toward the west there was a succession of pretty hills that lay in the
+broad sunshine, making you think somehow of Spanish slopes, covered with
+vineyards, olives, and luxuriant verdure. Over beyond, a wide,
+diversified country range, farms, woodland, hills and valleys, with a
+branch of the river winding through, called, rather unromantically,
+Little Creek.
+
+On these slopes, the new part, dwelt the aristocracy. Streets wound
+around in picturesque fashion to make easy grades, and many old
+forest-trees were preserved by that means, giving the place an air of
+years, rather than yesterday and improvement. There were two pretty
+parks,--one devoted to Fourth-of-July orations from time immemorial;
+there were churches of every denomination; a boarding and day school for
+young ladies, the academy, some excellent district schools; a hall with
+library and reading-room; a bank; rows of attractive shops and stores;
+and, coming down in the scale of refinement, beer-saloons and
+concert-halls, kept generally up to a certain point of morality. There
+were so many laboring-men, and they must have something by way of
+entertainment.
+
+It struck Jack with a curious wonder. These stolid faces and plodding
+steps were part of the human machines out of which wealth was being
+ground. They went to the beer-shops at night in their dirty clothes,
+smelling of grease and dye, drank beer, played a few games, and
+harangued each other, and went home maudlin or stupefied. Perhaps it was
+more comfortable than the slatternly wives and crying children. Did it
+need to be so? If you gave the workingman a helping hand, did he turn
+straightway into an unreasoning demagogue?
+
+_He_ was not likely to be tempted by such doings. His home had always
+been too clean and pleasant. He still kept up with the boys, and joined
+the lyceum club; but the intimate companionship of his life was gone.
+
+Fred did not come home for Christmas. College-life was
+delightful,--would be just perfect if dear old Jack were there. The
+glowing letters kept alive his own secret dissatisfaction. But how
+explain it to one who would be sure to say, "Get out of it all, Jack: no
+one has any right to keep you in such a distasteful round, and thwart
+your life-plans." To be sure, he had no life-plans.
+
+One raw, cold March day, Mr. Darcy went out to repair a roof that had
+leaked in the previous storm. He rarely minded wind or weather.
+
+"I declare," he said that evening, dropping into his capacious armchair,
+"I feel as if I should never get warmed through. I do believe we shall
+have a tremendous snowstorm to take this chill out of the air. Jack,
+read the paper aloud, won't you?"
+
+Jack complied. Local items, bits of State news, and the general progress
+of the country; the starvation of a nation at the antipodes, the
+discovery of a wonderful silver-mine, plans for new railroads,--how busy
+the world was! It stirred Jack's youthful blood.
+
+"I'd like to be a railroad-president," said Jack suddenly.
+
+His father stared, then laughed at the absurdity. "Why, you're only a
+boy, Jack," he replied.
+
+"I know it. But the boy who means to be a railroad-president must begin
+somewhere. Or if I could own a silver-mine," he went on, with the
+boundless audacity of youth.
+
+"Could you find use for the silver?" asked his father humorously.
+
+Jack flushed, and lapsed into dreams. Grandmother opposite was nodding
+in her chair, her knitting still in her fingers. Jack left his vision
+for a moment, to calculate if the old chest upstairs was not nearly full
+of stockings. His mother sat sewing some trifle, and just raised her
+eyes with that longing, beseeching glance mothers so often give to their
+sons.
+
+"If women only did not care so much for one," thought Jack, "or if there
+had been a great family of us. And still I can't see the wonderful
+difference between going to college, and going to seek your fortune.
+Does two or three hundred miles more matter when you are once away?"
+
+The snow came on through the night. There being nothing urgent on hand,
+Mr. Darcy remained within; but Jack buffeted the storm gallantly. It
+would be worse than this out in the new countries where he meant to go
+some time.
+
+The next day Mr. Darcy was out. There was a dull pain in his breast,
+going through to his back, and he coughed a little. It went on thus for
+forty-eight hours, when the pain became intense, and fever set in. Dr.
+Kendrick was summoned; and, though the case was severe, it had no
+alarming symptoms at first. Jack went to and fro with his merry whistle;
+speculative he might be, but he was not introspective or morbid: wife
+and mother watched at home.
+
+There came one of those sudden and inexplicable turns in the disease.
+Jack was stunned, incredulous. In his mother's eyes lay a look of
+helpless terror he was never to forget.
+
+"You'll care for them always, Jack; you'll never leave them," said his
+father imploringly, in one lucid interval.
+
+"Always," answered the young voice bravely.
+
+"Thank you, my son, my dear boy;" and there was a fervent clasp of the
+hand.
+
+A few days later Bernard Darcy lay coffined in the pretty parlor, while
+wife and mother were crushed with grief.
+
+"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes;" and Jack dropped the first handful of
+earth in his father's open grave. The two women clung to him,--he was
+their all. Here lay his duty as long as God pleased.
+
+It seemed for weeks after this as if Mrs. Darcy would follow her
+husband. She looked so white and wan, she was so feeble that some days
+she could not leave her bed. Grandmother rallied with that invincible
+determination not to be beaten down if her prop was wrenched away.
+
+Jack was now a few months past eighteen, stout, and growing tall
+rapidly. There was about him a sturdy persistence and the good common
+sense that lends an adaptiveness or pliability of disposition, so to
+speak, that is often mistaken for content. Since he must stay here for
+some years to come, he would devote himself to learning the business of
+manufacturing woollen cloth. It entertained him more than keeping books.
+For the sake of these two bereaved women, he would take an actual
+interest in the work he had to do.
+
+Looking back in after-years, he was glad he made the resolve, and stood
+by it manfully. It gave ballast to his character, shaped him to a
+definite purpose. A narrow life, to be sure; nay, more, a distasteful
+one: but he did his best, and waited, and that was all that could be
+asked of him.
+
+Early in June there was a great commotion at the mansion on Hope
+Terrace. Miss Agatha Lawrence was married to Hamilton Minor, one of the
+great firm of brokers in Wall Street, 'Morgan, Minor, & Co.' For weeks
+it had been the talk of the town. The trousseau came from Paris, and was
+marvellous. The presents were on exhibition, and created a vast amount
+of envy and admiration,--silver, jewels, pictures, crystal, china, and
+laces. And last of all a sumptuous wedding,--every delicacy in season
+and out of season, costly wines, pyramids of cake, and a lavish
+profusion of flowers. Nothing so grand had ever occurred in Yerbury.
+
+Fred and a stylish Miss Minor were to stand. He reached home just in
+time; and, as he was to be off again with the bridal party, he sent a
+note of regret to Jack.
+
+Jack had too much good sense to feel hurt, though he was disappointed. A
+few weeks later he took his mother and grandmother up to the mountains
+for change of air, and enjoyed the vacation hugely himself. So it
+happened he did not see Fred at all.
+
+The second year letters languished, indeed failed, I may as well admit.
+Jack was being rapidly inducted into the wisdom of the world, Fred into
+the wisdom of society. They would never meet on the old plane again. The
+mill-hand would be no companion for the son and heir of David Lawrence,
+Esq.
+
+It was not in Jack Darcy's nature to be bitter or cynical. He just
+accepted the fact. Somewhere he and Fred had outgrown each other, and
+the boyish interests, once such a bond of union. Fred would be an
+educated and cultivated gentleman.
+
+Why should he be left in the background? His ambition was suddenly
+roused again, and he more than half wished himself in college. He went
+back to his books; he joined a debating-society. There was no need of
+being a mere clod because he had to work. David Lawrence was a
+gentleman. And the next spring he took up a little botany and
+horticulture with his gardening. Old Mr. Rising down the street, who had
+been gardener to some great lord,--a peculiar, obstinate Englishman,
+with his head crammed full of odd bits of knowledge,--took a fancy to
+Jack. They discussed not only fruit and flowers, but trade in its
+various aspects, as Mr. Rising had relatives at Manchester who had
+soared to the ambitions of mills and factories.
+
+Time sped on, and they came to the second summer. Miss Gertrude Lawrence
+was a belle now, and the great house was constantly filled with guests.
+The Lawrence equipages were seen in every direction. Mrs. Minor was up
+frequently, in grand state. The lawn was gay with croquet-parties, the
+evenings were brilliant with lights and music: they had two elegant
+garden-parties, when the grounds were illuminated with colored lanterns,
+and the teas were festivals in themselves. Fred had brought home two
+college chums, and for the first fortnight was deeply engrossed. Then,
+too, the girls no longer nagged at him. He was developing into an
+elegant young man, with due regard for the proprieties.
+
+He did go to call on Jack one evening. It was a duty, a rather awkward
+and embarrassing one, and he took to himself great credit in the point
+of moral courage. He understood thoroughly now what Agatha had striven
+so sedulously to explain, the difference in social station. He was not
+likely in the future to make a blunder on that side, but it would not do
+to turn the cold shoulder to Jack all at once. "A boy's will's the
+wind's will," he repeated with much complacency, and it was but natural
+that it should veer in other directions. Jack was a good enough fellow,
+but no Sir Galahad or Sir any one now.
+
+He was a little shocked at Mrs. Darcy in her mourning dress and widow's
+cap. She was pale, and with the extreme delicacy so often pronounced
+characteristic of American women. Grandmother sat in state and dignity,
+rather resentful of what she termed in her secret heart Fred's neglect,
+but a thing she would not have confessed openly if she had been put to
+torture. And Jack?
+
+Frederic De Woolfe Lawrence studied him with a critical eye. A great,
+lumbering, inelegant fellow! Jack seemed to have grown out in every
+direction, without being finished up in any. He was taken somewhat at a
+disadvantage, too: somehow he fancied, if he had met Fred alone in a
+stray walk, there would have been less formality.
+
+They talked about college. Fred was doing well, for he was by nature a
+student. Society's arts and airs would never entirely uproot that love.
+He meant to distinguish himself, and have one of the prize essays. Jack
+was rather grave and quiet, hard to get on with, Fred thought; and he
+was relieved when the duty was ended, and he could go with a good grace.
+
+Jack lingered on the porch, clinching his fingers, and listening to the
+jaunty retreating footstep. There was something different in Fred's walk
+even, a buoyancy as if he could override any little difficulties that
+fate might have in store for him. Jack smiled grimly. Fortune had
+showered every good gift upon him. He would go proudly, successfully,
+through life. He would be praised and honored--and for what?
+
+For a moment Jack felt like wrestling with him, shoulder to shoulder, to
+distance him, to defeat him, to lower his complacent pride. His
+half-patronizing manner had stung keenly. Then the real nobility of his
+nature cropped out, and he laughed at his own sudden heat and passion.
+
+"It would be folly," he said softly to himself. "I could not distinguish
+myself in any line he will be likely to follow. He must work his way: I
+must work mine. He knows what he means to do; and there he has gone
+ahead of me, for I really do not know my own mind. No, there's no
+further basis for a friendship: the boy-love has had its day, and died.
+After all, isn't that the history of every thing?" and Jack looked up to
+the stars, still with a little wordless pain at his heart.
+
+He heard during the next week that Fred had gone West with one of his
+friends, who was nephew to a great railway magnate. It would be only a
+flying trip, to be sure, but here Jack was tempted to envy him. That
+boundless West, the land of his own dreams!
+
+Grandmother grew a trifle less energetic, still it could not be said
+that her health began to fail. Mrs. Darcy remained about the same. Every
+day Jack realized how much he was to the two women. To leave them would
+be absolute cruelty.
+
+At Christmas of this year Miss Gertrude Lawrence was married. The
+wedding was rather quieter, from the fact that it was winter, and the
+bride was to leave for Europe the next day. Irene was shooting up into a
+tall girl, and being educated at a fashionable and expensive
+boarding-school. Nothing happened to impair her friendship with Sylvie
+Barry, though the two girls were as dissimilar in many respects as Jack
+and Fred, but they both stood on the same social plane.
+
+Meanwhile matters at Yerbury prospered mightily. The town was quite
+bright at night with the glow from factory-windows, and people seemed
+always hurrying to and fro. New shops and stores were started, new
+streets were laid out, rows of houses built in town, and out on the edge
+pretty and ugly suburban villas. Property began to increase everywhere.
+
+Gertrude and her husband George Eastman came back to Yerbury in about
+five months. He had begun his career as clerk in a bank, and joined his
+brother afterward as an army-contractor. From thence they had branched
+into general speculating, and were both considered rich men. Mr. Minor
+owned a Fifth-avenue palace, and Mrs. Minor never came to Yerbury
+without her maid. Mrs. Eastman could not have the palace in town, so she
+decided to have a handsome summer residence at Yerbury, and spend her
+winters at different hotels. Mr. Eastman thought he saw a grand opening
+just in this pretty spot. Property was ridiculously low. Here were farms
+and farms that might as well be cut up into building-lots, and turned
+into cities. Here was the river-front, here were railroads: why not have
+twice or thrice as many shops? why not call in the people from far and
+wide, and make Yerbury a place of note? Time had been when our fathers
+were content to dream and doze, but now it behooved everybody to be up
+and stirring. In the new race the laggards would fall far behind.
+
+Mr. Eastman set the example by purchasing one large tract, and laying
+out streets. Then uprose houses as if by magic. Modern improvements,
+water, gas, bath, butler's pantries, and dumb-waiters; and the houses
+offered so cheaply that the solid, slow-going, honest business-men
+wondered how it could be done. The places had a wonderfully seductive
+look, and were sought after eagerly.
+
+There was a peculiar interest in all this to Jack. When one day somebody
+said,--
+
+"Downer's property south of the bridge has gone for thirty thousand
+dollars. Five years ago he'd been glad to have taken ten for it. Crater
+and Harmon are going to build a big factory,"--Jack's heart went up with
+a bound.
+
+He still wanted to get away from Yerbury. He began to feel that he had
+made a mistake with his life, and was anxious to rectify it if possible.
+He did not see how he could do it here. He had gone into the groove, and
+it was hard getting out. But if some one came along, and offered them a
+fortune!
+
+The chance drew near. A new street was prospected through Miss Barry's
+grounds, through the Lanier place farther back, and the southern end
+would touch the Darcy place, giving it some new fronts and available
+lots, and placing the house on the corner. There would be sufficient
+ground for the width of the street. A petition was forthwith circulated.
+
+Alas that there could be people so blind to their own interests and the
+general welfare of the community! Miss Barry stoutly resisted. She even
+inspired some of her neighbors to that extent of opposition that they
+would not sell at any price. Destroy the beauty of Larch Avenue, that
+had been "Lovers' Walk" in the old days, and held so many tender
+reminiscences!
+
+"When I am gone I don't care what is done with the place," said Miss
+Barry. "It will have but little sentiment for the next generation. A
+change to me now would be like tearing up an old tree by the roots. I
+could not endure it. They may have their elegant new houses; but give me
+my large airy rooms and my old-time flowers, my nectarines and apricots.
+Let me live my few years in peace and quiet."
+
+"There is certainly enough to improve," returned Grandmother Darcy.
+"There are miles and miles that people are glad to sell. Let them take
+that. Let them build up the vacant lots. And where are all the people
+coming from to fill them?"
+
+"The factories and mills will bring in the people," said Jack sturdily.
+
+"There is plenty of room elsewhere," returned Miss Barry with some
+asperity. "There certainly is no need of turning people out of homes
+they like, and have made comfortable."
+
+"I suppose you cannot look at it in a business light," said Jack. "Women
+rarely do"--
+
+"There have been just such whirlwinds before, Mr. Darcy," said the
+shrewd little old lady. "I have lived through two of them myself. And it
+seems to me it is an epidemic of running in debt, rather than
+prosperity. If everything were paid for; but you see here are
+improvement-bonds, and our town runs in debt: here is everybody raising
+money on mortgages. How is it to be paid? Do wages and salaries double?
+History proves that it is a bad thing for a state when its rich men grow
+richer, and its poor poorer."
+
+"I am sure they need not," said Jack valiantly. "There is a higher scale
+of wages paid than ever before."
+
+"And no account made of thrift or economy. Enticements at every corner;
+women flaunting silks and laces as everyday gear, with no sacredness;
+old-fashioned neatness despised, industry ridiculed; men lounging in
+beer-shops; girls flirting on the public streets, having no duties
+beyond a day's work in a mill. What will the homes and the wives of the
+next generation be like?"
+
+"But that was all so irrelevant," said Jack after she had gone. "Women
+mix up everything. Now, here: you are offered a big price for this
+property. You two could live at ease all the rest of your life, and I"--
+
+"You would go away," said his mother sorrowfully.
+
+"Well, perhaps not," trying to make the tone indifferent.
+
+"Jack," began his grandmother, sitting very erect, and glancing straight
+before her into vacancy, "I am an old woman now; and, like Miss Barry, I
+could not take a change comfortably. No other place will ever be home to
+your mother or me. There is some money,--enough, I think, to take care
+of us both. So, if you cannot be content, if you must have the restless
+roving of youth out before your blood can cool, go and try the world. It
+is pretty much alike all over,--some one going up while another goes
+down; chances here, and chances there. As for the few years left me"--
+And there was a slight tremble in her voice.
+
+"Don't fret. I'm not going away," said Jack crossly, huskily, too much
+hurt to study his tone. "If I can't always see things as you do"--
+
+There were tears in his mother's eyes. Jack rose suddenly, thrust his
+hands in his pockets, and walked out into the twilight. There was
+nothing to be done with so obstinate a problem as his life. He would
+learn the business thoroughly, getting on as fast as possible, and some
+time make a strike out for himself, become a manufacturer in turn. The
+thing was settled now. Maybe some one would want him for mayor or
+congressman. There was a time when David Lawrence, Esq., had been a
+comparatively poor man; and though Jack felt that he would hardly turn
+his hand over to have a million of dollars put in it for the mere
+money's worth, if he could not discover a silver-mine, or build a
+railroad over the Rocky Mountains, he might become a rich man. Wealth
+was a mighty lever, after all. He shut his lips grimly, and pushed his
+hat down over his eyes. In the early summer dusk, fragrant with rose and
+violet, he went over the old battle-ground. Did some enemy sow it
+continually with dragon's teeth? To stay here eight or ten years,
+mayhap, to make all the money he could. Not one year of her life did he
+mean to grudge grandmother.
+
+It was quite late when he came in, but his mother was watching for him.
+She put her arms softly about his neck, and kissed him.
+
+"Have a little patience, dear," she said, in tender, motherly tones; but
+he knew her sympathy was with him.
+
+"Yes, I mean to. I don't care as much as I did an hour ago. I'm going to
+set myself steadily to business. You'll hear no more moans or groans out
+of me, mother."
+
+"Jack--you know I would go to the end of the world with you."
+
+"I believe you would--yes, I do. There, good-night!" for she was crying.
+
+"This is the way we rule circumstances," said Jack dryly, sitting down
+in his own room, and taking up Carlyle. "What an amount of humbug is
+talked in this world,--yes, and written too!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+THERE was an influx of new blood in Yerbury, and it brought in fresh
+ideas. A new railroad touched it at one edge, and real-estate dealers
+left off fighting about Larch Avenue. The ancient stages were laid aside
+for the more modern horse-cars: there was bustle and rivalry on every
+hand. George Eastman began to be quoted, and his advice asked generally.
+Mrs. Eastman held her head loftily. Then there came on the arena of
+action a certain Horace Eastman, cousin to George, who had been abroad
+as agent for a large firm, and who slipped into the place of general
+manager of Hope Mills.
+
+Plainly, F. De Woolfe Lawrence was not preparing to follow in his
+father's steps. He had graduated with honors, and taken a prize essay,
+and was now a fully-fledged modern young man. He was fond of discoursing
+on abstruse subjects, he dabbled a little into art, wrote some mystical
+poems, tied a cravat beyond criticism, and wore faultless gloves and
+boots. His mother and Mrs. Eastman were extremely proud of him. His
+father wondered a little what the young man's future would be.
+
+"I have not decided upon a profession," he said, with a just perceptible
+but extremely stylish drawl. "The next thing is going abroad. I want at
+least two years of travel, and I should not wonder if I settled myself
+at some German or Parisian university. We, as a nation, are so sadly
+deficient in culture. Our country is crude, as I suppose all young
+countries must be."
+
+David Lawrence nodded slowly, and asked,--
+
+"When did you think of going?"
+
+"I may as well go at once, and have it over," returned the young man,
+with the princely indifference he affected.
+
+His father did not dissent. As well in Europe as here, or anywhere.
+
+As for Jack, he was quite as much out of his reach as if the ocean
+already rolled between. They used to pass each other quietly, nodding if
+they came face to face, but often evading any kind of recognition. Was
+the old regard dead?
+
+Fred smiled rather pityingly on the boy who had been so blinded in his
+first love.
+
+"I used to think him such a hero, because he once thrashed a boy in my
+behalf," mused the young man. "And how I used to fly at the girls, who
+were always looking at the feet of clay my idol possessed! How I _did_
+coax him to go to college!" and Fred gave a little rippling laugh. "I
+must admit that he has good common sense,--he has found his place, and
+keeps it. There could be nothing between us now, of course. My lines lie
+in such different ways."
+
+No moan for a lost ideal under all that self-complacency.
+
+Jack Darcy took the defection in good part. He did see the utter
+incongruity of keeping up even the semblance of the old dream. But,
+where Fred had made dozens of new friends, Jack had admitted no one to
+his vacant shrine. He liked, even now, to recall those old hours, so
+bright and gay with childish whims and frolics. And he did envy Fred,
+just a little, that ramble over Europe. Would it be a ramble? It was
+Jack's turn to smile. Would it not be bits and pictures seen through
+coach-windows, rather than getting close to Nature's heart? No, that
+would not suit _him_.
+
+And so glided by two more years. De Woolfe Lawrence--he had dropped the
+initial now--returned home in a still higher state of cultivation, and
+quite as undecided as to his future career. A life of leisure and
+_belles-lettres_ looked the most tempting to him. He had read up a
+little in medicine, but the practice would not please his fastidious
+inclinations. Law had its objections. In fact, Mr. Lawrence had dropped
+into that dilettante state into which extreme cultivation, without
+genius or ambition, is apt to drift its possessor. He was nearing
+twenty-four now,--handsome, aristocratic, the pride of his family, and
+the distraction of young women in general. Invitations were showered
+upon him, and the delicate flattery society loves to use, ministered to
+his vanity.
+
+Meanwhile what of Jack?
+
+He had improved considerably through these years. The rough angularity
+of twenty had softened. Tall, but robust and compact, no stooping
+shoulders or slouching gait. The chestnut hair was no longer faded, but
+still cropped close; and the eyes were so deep that they seemed to have
+a blue-black tint, large, slow-moving, with that unutterable wistfulness
+which makes one sad. The face was good, strong, and earnest; and, if his
+manners were not those of a gentleman of leisure, they bore the impress
+of something quite as noble, honor, tenderness, and sincerity. The old
+restlessness had dropped out. Love, being larger than duty, hinted now
+at no sacrifice. Grandmother Darcy, now grown quite feeble, leaned on
+this strong arm, always outstretched, forgetting there had ever been any
+wild dreams of youth.
+
+And, though Yerbury had changed so much, they and the old street
+remained unchanged. Mrs. Darcy was a little thinner and older, the light
+hair just touched with silver. The garden was the same: wherever his
+father's favorite flowers had died out, Jack had replaced them. Only the
+honeysuckle was like great twisted ropes, and the syringas and lilacs
+were trees instead of bushes.
+
+Old neighbors had gone, and new ones come, but they were of the quiet,
+steady kind. Miss Barry seemed smaller and frailer, but she was as
+active as ever in her refined way. Sylvie no longer came to the gate for
+milk: indeed, the wide-eyed Alderney had long been given up, and Sylvie
+was a young woman. Irene Lawrence had been sent to a fashionable
+boarding-school; but Sylvie had been educated at home, under her aunt's
+eye, by a French governess who had proved something more than a mere
+teacher. The coming of Madame Trépier served to cement more closely the
+intimacy with the Darcy family. Indeed, Jack took a queer, half-shy
+liking for madame, and began to study French. He had a great fondness
+for music, and a fine, rich tenor-voice: so he and Sylvie sang duets
+together, and often walked in the twilight with madame. Indeed, Miss
+Barry would have kept her for friend and companion all the rest of her
+life; but there came a very persistent wooer, and madame succumbed a
+second time to the destiny of women.
+
+Sylvie Barry was piquant rather than pretty: a soft peachy skin neither
+dark nor fair, with a creamy tint; deep lustrous hazel eyes, that seemed
+to change with her moods; hair that had barely shaken off the golden
+tint, and clustered in rings about the low broad forehead; a passable
+nose of no particular design, but a really beautiful mouth and chin, the
+latter dimpled, the former with a short curved upper lip, displaying the
+pearly teeth at the faintest smile; barely medium height, with a figure
+that was slim yet not thin, rounded, graceful, pliant, with some of the
+swift dazzling motions of a bird.
+
+While Jack and Fred had drifted so apart, Sylvie and Irene still kept up
+a curious friendship. On Sylvie's part there was no election: indeed,
+Irene in her imperious fashion took Sylvie up as the mood seized her.
+Mrs. Lawrence, now quite an invalid, was fond of Sylvie's bright face
+and gay inspiriting voice. In Irene's absence she was often sending for
+her. "Play me a little song before you go," she would say; or, "Read a
+chapter in my book for me, will you not? You always make people seem so
+real." Consequently Sylvie had never left off going to the great house.
+Mrs. Eastman would fain have patronized her, but in her spirited way she
+shook off the faintest attempt. But Irene flew to her, and insisted upon
+a croquet-party or a drive, or a musical soirée.
+
+"I can't do without you, you obstinate little thing," she would exclaim.
+"I don't know why I take so much trouble about you; for I don't believe
+you like me at all, but just tolerate me for the sake of old times.
+There are twenty girls in Yerbury who would go wild with delight if I
+were to ask them."
+
+"Why do you not, then?" inquired Sylvie with a tantalizing light in her
+eyes.
+
+"Because I don't choose to, Miss Impertinence! Don't be cross now, and
+torment me to death with your perverse ways."
+
+"You surely need not be tormented."
+
+"Sylvie, you are exasperating."
+
+"Why do you ask me, then, or tease me to do any of these things? I would
+rather stay at home to-day, and paint."
+
+"But I shall not give you up. I'll stay here, and talk so that your wits
+will wander!"
+
+And so at last Sylvie would consent to her friend's demands.
+
+One evening she came over to discuss a costume for a fancy-dress
+garden-party. Mrs. Eastman had brought some fashion-plates up from New
+York, but they did not altogether suit her fancy: so the carriage was
+ordered, and in a few moments it rolled to Sylvie's door.
+
+Sylvie and Jack were at the piano. There was a soft, drizzling,
+summer-night rain, that made all the air fragrant without any noisy
+patter. It was just the evening for an old Latin hymn; and Sylvie was
+playing the strong, rich chords that had in them mysterious hints of
+heavenly joy, coming up through waves of passionate suffering. Jack's
+voice seemed toned to these sympathetic vibrations, and the grand old
+words rolled out simply, with none of the vicious taste of the more
+modern fashionable school. So engrossed were they, that they did not
+hear the carriage stop; but Sylvie caught her aunt's voice.
+
+They had reached the end of a verse. "Let me see what auntie wants,"
+said Sylvie, running into the next room; and then it was, "Oh, Irene!
+oh, Sylvie!"
+
+"Singing to yourself in the twilight!" laughed Irene. "How romantic! I'm
+going to interrupt you now, and put you in better business. I am just
+loaded down with the excellent fripperies of this world, and unable to
+make a choice. And the grand occasion is Mrs. Avery Langton's
+garden-party. Now, be good-natured, and help me decide."
+
+Uttering this in a rapid breath, she had walked through the sitting-room
+to the parlor, and tumbled her parcel down on the great antique sofa,
+whose edges everywhere were studded with brass nails. And there stood
+Jack, thinking, if he had been quicker, he could have stepped out of the
+window into Miss Sylvie's pretty flower-bed, now purple with odorous
+heliotrope. But, as he had not, there was nothing to do but to stand his
+ground manfully.
+
+He had often seen Irene Lawrence in the carriage and on horseback; but
+as she stepped into the room now, and stood there rather surprised, she
+might have been a daughter of Juno. Tall, slender, arrowy straight, but
+lithe and faultlessly rounded, her fleecy white shawl like a gossamer
+web falling off her shoulders, her haughty carriage, her wealth of
+purple-black hair coiled about her shapely head, a hundred times
+handsomer than any artifice of dressing, her brilliant complexion, her
+large eyes with their long sweeping lashes that veiled their depth, but
+seemed to add a certain imperiousness, her coral-red lips that shaped
+differently with every breath, her straight nose, with the nostrils thin
+as a bit of shell, and the softly rounded chin, made her a picture that
+Jack Darcy never forgot.
+
+"Oh!" in a tone of surprise, "I thought you were alone: pardon me."
+
+Sylvie was bringing in another lamp, and placed it on the great clawfoot
+centre-table. Then it occurred to her that Irene might not know Jack.
+She should recognize him here socially, anyhow.
+
+"My friend Miss Lawrence," she said with a world of dignity, "Mr.
+Darcy."
+
+Jack bowed, in no wise abashed by this proud and handsome Miss Lawrence,
+though as a child she had snubbed him many a time. And she glanced him
+over with a sudden interest. It was a manly face and a manly figure; and
+she wondered from what remote corner of the earth Sylvie Barry had
+summoned this fair, stout giant, who made her think of the Norse gods of
+her childish romances. She always liked strength: Sylvie was for
+tenderness, pathos, and beauty.
+
+"Good-evening," inclining her proud head. "Did I interrupt? You were
+singing?"
+
+"That is finished," returned Sylvie, with her peculiar manner, as if,
+being hostess here, she should have proper respect paid to her position;
+and each guest should be as deferent to the other as if she were a
+little queen, and this her court.
+
+She picked up a stray piece of music that had fallen to the floor,
+seated Irene, and half turned to Jack. Any other woman might have been
+awkward.
+
+"I will leave you two ladies to yourselves," began Jack; but Irene
+interrupted,--
+
+"No, Mr. Darcy: I shall think I have driven you away;" with a beguiling
+smile. "If you understand music, you may have a taste in the fine arts
+of dress as well. At all events, look over these elegant women in their
+party-gowns, and tell me which is fairest and rarest."
+
+The honesty of the glance, although it was coquettish, told Jack that
+Miss Irene did not remember him. For, of all the haughty Lawrence women,
+she had the name of being the haughtiest. She gathered up her skirts in
+other people's houses when the plebeian element came too near. Now she
+waved him to a chair, and gently sank into another, her trailing robe of
+thin filmy black with golden flecks falling about her like clouds in a
+gusty sky.
+
+He took the seat indicated. Some strange feeling moved him, an
+enchantment that he had never before experienced. The very air about her
+was filled with a subtle, indescribable perfume that he should always
+associate with a tall, dark-eyed woman,--a glimpse of the Orient and its
+sweetness, he fancied.
+
+Sylvie took her place, and began to tumble over the colored plates.
+
+"I'm so tired of those Watteau things!" began Miss Lawrence
+disdainfully. "They all savor of bread-and-butter girls,--a shepherdess
+with her crook,--bah! And I've been Marie Stuart so many times. If it
+were a masquerade; but garden-parties are beginning to prove bores,
+after all. There is nothing new about them, only to out-shine every
+other woman. A high ambition, is it not, Mr. Darcy?"
+
+"A temptation perhaps."
+
+The tone had in it a bit of delicate homage. Irene understood. She knew
+at once that this man was a little dazed by her beauty, just as many
+other men had been. Puny, delicate, namby-pamby men she despised, and
+always gave them a cut with her sharp tongue. Where had Sylvie picked up
+this Saul among his peers?
+
+They were all interested in the pictures, and soon fell to making merry
+comments on them. Sylvie had a quick eye and a bright wit, and something
+made Jack Darcy brilliant. They selected bits of fine taste here, they
+made an elegant costume of no particular style, and Irene was struck
+with what she knew would be its becomingness.
+
+"Mr. Darcy, are you an artist?" She remembered just then what an odd way
+the Barrys had of picking up people with some gift or grace.
+
+"No," and Jack flushed boyishly.
+
+"Then you must have a houseful of sisters."
+
+"No, I never had a sister."
+
+"When all things else fail with you, you can set up opposition to Worth.
+I shall come to you for designs. Now, this will be a peculiar source of
+gratification to me, because no one can possibly have the same
+combination. And you never can depend upon a modiste. Mr. Darcy, what
+makes women so faithless to one another?"
+
+"Are they?" he asked with a man's simplicity.
+
+She laughed gayly, and met Jack's fun-loving, shady blue eyes. How
+handsome they were!
+
+Miss Barry entered the room, and joined in the pleasant chat: then a
+rumble of carriage-wheels was heard.
+
+"It has stopped raining," said Sylvie, going to the window. "A few soft,
+melancholy stars have come out."
+
+"You have been very obliging, Sylvie," said Miss Lawrence. "Miss Barry,
+I shall send the carriage over to-morrow. Good-night."
+
+Jack Darcy handed her out, pushing aside a trailing rose that it might
+not catch her shawl. Then she half turned, and said "Good-night" in a
+softer tone.
+
+Sylvie was standing on the porch. "It has been as good as a play, Jack,"
+she said with her gay-humored laugh. "I don't believe she ever
+thought"--
+
+"That I worked in her father's mill!" and Jack laughed; but it was a
+rather pained, jarring sound.
+
+"Jack--why do you? You are a puzzle to me!" and Sylvie's voice sharpened
+unconsciously. "You do not like it. Why did you not go on at the
+academy, or"--
+
+"Raise myself in the social scale? That's what you mean, Sylvie;
+although we pass just as pleasant hours as if I were a prince, and you
+the lady of high degree. Well, we have gone over the ground a good many
+times, and it is always the same thing. I have no fancy for a
+profession; I have no genius for art, though Miss Lawrence suggests that
+I might become a man-milliner--is that what you call it? You know, I am
+staying here because mother and grandmother will not go anywhere else.
+And I dare say I make as much money as young Dr. Romer or Ned Remington.
+And somehow, now that I'm in it, I go on with a stubborn, plucky
+feeling. Some day I'll be a great manufacturer."
+
+This time his laugh was cheerful and ringing.
+
+"You see, Sylvie, your good-nature places you on the debatable ground.
+You and your aunt could be hand-in-glove with all these great people,
+and yet you open your generous heart to take in everybody."
+
+"No, not everybody, Jack. And what a little coward I am just this
+minute! No, it is not that either. Jack, you _do_ know that I should
+never be a bit ashamed of you before any one. I feel vexed when I think
+that you could take the high places, and yet you let people put you
+down,--people not half as worthy or half as good as you. There's Horace
+Eastman. He came here a comparatively poor man; and now he owns half
+Yerbury, and talks of the mill-hands as if they were--well, a flock of
+sheep."
+
+"An apt comparison, Sylvie. To my mind, they are shorn pretty close to
+make broadcloth for their masters."
+
+"And there is Fred--have you seen him since his return?"
+
+"Not to speak to him, of course." And then Jack flushed deeply, with a
+little hurt feeling.
+
+"And what friends you were! Is it the way of the world? Then it is a
+mean, hateful world!"
+
+"Sylvie, you are talking wildly. Don't you see there is no point of
+union in our lives? Now, I do not feel so badly over an outgrown
+friendship. When I was a little boy, I remember having a wonderful fancy
+for Tom Deane. We traded jack-knives; we told each other of the best
+nut-trees; we hunted squirrels; we coasted together; and, I dare say, he
+was as much of a hero in my childish eyes as I used to be in Fred's. But
+think of any friendship between us now! There isn't a greater loafer in
+all Yerbury than Tom Deane. Why, we have not a feeling in common."
+
+"Still I think it is rather different," and a shade of annoyance passed
+over her face. If Jack only would not call up these people below him, if
+he would not identify himself so strongly with that common brotherhood!
+He had so many nice tastes, such a clean, pure, honest soul. And, young
+as Sylvie was, she knew this was not always the result of culture or
+wealth or ambition.
+
+Jack guessed what was passing in her mind. From his father he had
+inherited a kind of womanish intuition. A pleasant-tempered man Bernard
+Darcy had always been called, but it was that delicate tact, the
+intuitive knowledge of what would be pleasant to others.
+
+"What else can I do here, Sylvie?" Jack cried with sudden heat. "If the
+chance ever comes, I shall be fitted for a good business man. You may
+think there is no worthy ambition in that, but wait. Do not judge me too
+hastily."
+
+"I am impatient at times, I know; but it is because I see your
+capabilities, and I can't bear to think of your going through the world
+unappreciated."
+
+"Do not worry about that. Good-night!" rather abruptly. "Miss Barry, I
+have forgotten myself. Pleasant dreams!"
+
+"And we did not have our old hymn, after all," said Sylvie regretfully.
+
+Jack took the short cut across the garden. There was a dim light in the
+sitting-room; and his mother lay in the hammock on the latticed porch,
+her favorite evening resort. She came in now, and Jack bolted the doors.
+Then, with a good-night kiss, he went to his room, and in ten minutes
+was asleep. Sylvie, on the other hand, girl-like, tossed and tumbled.
+Why was the world so queer and awry and obstinate? After all, you could
+do so little with it. Your plans came to nought so easily. Lizzie Wise,
+in her Sunday-school class, preferred going in the mill, and buying
+herself cheap finery, because the other girls did it. And so all
+through. You tried to train some one, and he or she followed the _ignis
+fatuus_ more readily than any high, ennobling truth. It was hard lifting
+people out of their old grooves.
+
+How bright and entertaining Jack had been this evening! Of course Irene
+had not remembered him. Would she be vexed, Sylvie wondered,--she who
+held herself up so high, and believed in a separate world as it were?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+THE garden-party was a success, and Miss Lawrence the acknowledged belle
+of the evening. No one else could have carried off the peculiar style of
+dress. She knew that she was radiant; and triumphs were a necessary
+sweet incense, that she always kept alive on her shrine. There was no
+need of making a hurried election: indeed, her chief aim now was
+pleasure and conquest.
+
+They were sitting over their dainty lunch, Mrs. Eastman having dropped
+in; and, after the party had been pretty thoroughly discussed, a little
+lull ensued. Fred toyed with some luscious cherries, in his usual
+indolent manner. Nothing in this world was worth a hurry or a worry,
+according to this young man's creed. He had dawdled through the party,
+waltzing with a languid grace that most girls considered the essence of
+high-breeding. It was all one to him. His "set" affected to think life
+something of a bore. Intense emotion of any kind was vulgar.
+
+"By the by, Rene," said Mrs. Eastman, "do you suppose Sylvie Barry is
+engaged to that Darcy fellow? It was odd that she should go off on a
+picnic with him, instead of the party. She has the queerest, mixed-up
+tastes."
+
+"What Darcy fellow?" asked Irene in surprise.
+
+"Sylvie Barry! Jack Darcy!" exclaimed Fred, in as much amazement as his
+superfine breeding would allow.
+
+Mrs. Eastman gave a mellifluous laugh.
+
+"Don't you remember? but you were such a child! Fred does. The Damon to
+his Pythias."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+A vivid scarlet ran up to the edge of Irene's white brow. So that was
+Jack Darcy. What a blind fool she had been, _not_ to think! She had
+laughed and chatted with him, smiled on him, worn the costume of his
+designing,--a common workingman! For a moment she could have torn her
+hair, or beaten her slender white hands against the table. What had
+possessed her?
+
+"I do recall some green and salad days," rejoined Fred with a laugh.
+
+"How Agatha and I used to badger you! We were little fools to think such
+a thing ever went on when one came to years of discretion. Only I
+believe we were afraid the elder and idiotic Darcy might foist his son
+on some college. I must say Yerbury has become quite endurable now that
+party lines have been set up;" and Mrs. Eastman crumbed her cake,
+watching her diamond sparkle.
+
+"How do you know Sylvie went on a picnic?" asked Rene, with an angry
+glitter in her eyes.
+
+"Didn't the dear confess? Rene, you do not keep your penitent in very
+good order."
+
+Mrs. Eastman had a faculty of putting something extremely irritating in
+her voice. It was honey smooth, and yet it rasped.
+
+"Really," answered Irene indifferently, "I do not see that Miss Barry's
+selection of friends need affect me much, so long as she keeps the
+distasteful ones out of my way. I may wonder at her choice of pleasures,
+but I suppose she suits herself."
+
+"My nursery-girl belongs to the mission-school. It was very good of
+Lissette to let her off for a whole day, I thought. I left her to settle
+it. What Sylvie sees in such people, I cannot imagine. I own I was a
+trifle surprised when I found this remarkable Mr. Darcy was our old
+_bête noir_, Jack. Is he still in the mill, I wonder?"
+
+"Apply to papa," laughed Irene.
+
+"I don't believe papa could tell you the names of five workmen. As if he
+troubled his head about that!"
+
+"Sylvie is a nice little thing," remarked Fred patronizingly.
+
+"I have no patience with her!" declared Mrs. Eastman. "As if it was not
+necessary to have a line drawn somewhere! These people are all well
+enough in their way: they are a necessary factor,"--picking the words
+slowly to give them weight,--"and society establishes schools and homes
+for them, trains teachers, provides employment: what more do they want?
+A holiday now and then, of course; but why not go off by themselves as a
+class, as the French do? This maudlin, morbid sympathy we Americans
+give, spoils them. There is no keeping a servant in her place here.
+Before you know it she studies and graduates at some school, teaches for
+a while, goes abroad, and paints a picture, likely as not."
+
+"Do not excite yourself, Gerty," and Fred pulled the ends of his silky
+moustache.
+
+"Well, it does annoy me to see a young girl like Sylvie Barry with no
+better sense. Some day we shall have all these people rising up against
+us, as they did in the French Revolution. I hate socialism and all that;
+and I took good care to say to Mrs. Langton that Miss Barry had been
+casting in her lot that day with a parcel of charity-children, and would
+no doubt be too tired to enjoy the exquisite pleasure of her fête."
+
+"I do not think Sylvie cares a penny!" said Irene with a touch of scorn,
+anxious to return her sister's little stab. "I suppose she comforts
+herself with the remembrance of her old blue blood, while Mr. Langton
+made his fortune as an army-contractor."
+
+"The Wylies were a very good family, Irene."
+
+"If you are through eating, I will have a cigar," said the young man,
+sauntering over to the bay-window.
+
+What was there in this simple announcement of Sylvie having gone on a
+charity-school picnic with Jack Darcy that should so rouse the
+art-cultured pulses of Fred Lawrence? He had always liked Sylvie: her
+freshness and piquancy stirred him like a whiff of mountain air,--a sure
+sign that all healthy tone had not been cultivated out of him. It would
+be very foolish for Sylvie to commit a _mésalliance_ with this young
+man, who was no doubt good enough in his way,--a rather rough, awkward,
+clownish fellow, with a coarsely generous heart. Sylvie so delicate and
+refined, with her pretty ways, her genius,--yes, she really did have a
+genius! In Paris or Rome she might make herself quite a name. He must
+see a little more of her: he must--well, did he want to marry any one?
+
+Irene and Gertrude retired to the room of the former, and discussed
+Newport and Saratoga.
+
+"I do hope we shall have a cottage at Newport another summer," said Mrs.
+Eastman.
+
+"It gives you tone, of course," was Irene's response; "but honest, now,
+Gerty, don't you think it a little poky? I do not want to go anywhere
+for a whole summer: I like the fun of all. Agatha is to spend a month at
+Long Branch, and I am going down just for a little dazzle and to give my
+gowns an airing."
+
+Their siesta was passed in this kind of small talk. Late in the
+afternoon she drove Mrs. Eastman home, and then went for Sylvie in her
+pretty pony-phaeton. As Sylvie was about nothing more important than a
+pale-blue zephyr "fascinator," she accepted the invitation.
+
+What a delicious drive it was! A dappled under-roof of cloud with the
+sun just behind it, a golden-gray haze filming the air, and fragrant
+breezes suggestive of roses and honeysuckle. All the way was starred
+with daisies. Sylvie drew in long breaths of delight, for she never
+wearied of nature.
+
+They turned homeward early. The bells were ringing for six, and the
+mills and factories began to empty out their swarm of human beings.
+
+"Why do you go through here?" asked Sylvie in surprise. "I thought you
+hated all this."
+
+"So I do," briefly.
+
+She let the pony walk now. These shrill sounds jarred on the summer air.
+Groups of girls in procession in faded gear or tawdry finery; brawny men
+with an old-country, heavy cast of feature, in blue flannel, with arms
+bared to the elbow, and throats exposed; pale stripling youths of the
+American type, boys with the rough fun not yet knocked out of them by
+hard work or the harder blows of fate,--a motley crowd indeed.
+
+It thinned a little just here. Two or three men came along
+leisurely,--one tall and compact, with a slow, firm step, the face
+grave, the eyes glancing over beyond the hills. Irene Lawrence shut her
+lips with a touch of displeasure. Was she to miss the satisfaction that
+had been brooding in her mind for the last hour, for the accomplishment
+of which she had driven through this dusty, ill-smelling street?
+
+The pedestrian raised his head. A sudden warm, smiling glow overspread
+the face, no longer grave, but brightening like an April sky. The
+outlook of the eyes was so frank and clear; the half-smile playing about
+the parted lips had the honesty of a child. He touched his hat, and
+bowed with an almost stately deference.
+
+Sylvie nodded and smiled, leaning forward a bit. What sent the glad
+light so quickly out of his countenance? The girl glanced at Irene.
+
+Miss Lawrence had stared coolly, haughtily, decisively. This man might
+look at her hundreds of times in the days to come, but he would never
+again expect a social recognition from her. And, oh, perfection of
+cruelty! Sylvie, his fellow-sinner in these social laws, had witnessed
+his pain and discomfiture.
+
+She turned with her face at white heat, one of those inward flashes of
+indignation that transcend any scarlet blaze of anger. Her eyes glowed
+with a fiery ray, and the curves of mouth and chin seemed as if frozen.
+
+"It was a deliberate insult, Irene! How dared you"--
+
+"How dared I pass one of my father's workmen? Well, Miss Barry, I happen
+not to be hand-in-glove with them. I can relegate them to their proper
+place when an ill-judged vanity brings them unduly forward."
+
+"You met him at _my_ house: he is _my_ friend, and the friend of my
+aunt. His birth is as good as yours, or mine."
+
+"Oh, I dare say!" with a satirical laugh. "Are you really going to marry
+him, Sylvie? Have you the courage to throw yourself quite away?"
+
+"Stop!" and she caught at the reins. The next moment she was on the
+sidewalk. "Good-evening," she exclaimed with the dignity of a queen.
+
+"The little spitfire!" laughed Miss Lawrence.
+
+Sylvie's displeasure mattered very little to her. A few days later she
+was on her way to Long Branch, and the episode was soon danced out of
+mind.
+
+As for Sylvie Barry, she made up her mind never to go to Hope Terrace
+again. The friendship was not of her seeking, and now it should end.
+Friendship, indeed! It disgraced the word to use it in connection with
+Irene Lawrence.
+
+That very evening she went around to the Darcys. Neither she nor Jack
+mentioned the rencontre, but there was an indescribable something in her
+manner that told Jack the insult had been as much to her as to him.
+
+Hardly a fortnight later the Lawrence carriage stood at the gate of the
+pretty court-yard, and the liveried driver brought a note to the door.
+
+          DEAR SYLVIE,--[in a tremulous, uncertain hand] I
+          am wretched and lonely. Fred and Irene are away,
+          and Mr. Lawrence has gone West on business. Will
+          you not, out of the generosity of your heart, come
+          and cheer me up a bit? I was in bed all day
+          yesterday with a frightful headache, and can just
+          crawl to-day. Do not disappoint me. I have set my
+          heart on hearing you read, and have some nice new
+          books.
+
+                            Ever your obliged friend, A. L.
+
+"You must go," was her aunt's comment in a sympathizing tone. "I have
+promised all the afternoon to the School Club, you know, and you would
+only be home alone. Poor Mrs. Lawrence! What an invalid she has become!
+And think of me,"--with a cheery laugh,--"able to get about anywhere!"
+
+So Sylvie went up to Hope Terrace in the luxurious carriage she thought
+she had tabooed forever.
+
+Mrs. Lawrence did look very poorly. She kept to her room a great deal
+nowadays; or rather there were two of them,--one off the bedchamber,
+with a pretty oriel window, and exquisitely fitted up with every luxury
+wealth and taste could devise.
+
+Mrs. Lawrence had already lost her interest in life. Her two daughters
+were well married. Irene would be, of course; but marriages were an old
+story for her. She had loved to shine at watering-places, but the gayety
+no longer lured her. She had dazzled in diamonds, silks, and velvets,
+been admired on the right hand and on the left, until it was an old,
+trite story. Servants managed her house admirably. Mr. Lawrence never
+wearied her with any business details. Her clothes were ordered, and
+made, and hung in the closets. The carriage was always at hand. Not a
+want of any kind, hardly a desire, that could not be instantly
+satisfied. She had sunk into a kind of graceful semi-invalidism, and
+enjoyed the coming and going of her children, but her own time was over.
+
+"How good you are, Sylvie dear!" and, drawing the young girl to her, she
+kissed her fondly. "I don't know what I should do without you. Irene
+would stay at home if I wanted her; but she is so full of life and
+excitement, that it wears me out. You are not always in such a whirl of
+society, and then you _are_ different. You have such a sweet,
+sympathetic nature, child! I can always feel it in your hand, and your
+voice is so soothing. What a difference there is in voices!"
+
+Her own was finely modulated: indeed, Sylvie used to think sometimes
+that these Lawrences had more than their share of the good things of
+this world. No physical gift or grace had been denied them.
+
+So Sylvie read and talked, and sang two or three songs before she went
+home. Then she came again and again, sometimes with her aunt, oftener
+alone. Miss Barry took duty calls with her neighbors as one of the
+demands of society, to be fulfilled with the fine grace of thorough
+good-breeding. Beyond the little formalities that always surrounded her
+like a delicate hoar-frost, there was a large heart for the weal and woe
+of all who could in any way be benefited.
+
+"It is a pity to see such a waste of life," she said of Mrs. Lawrence.
+"Some people, after they have served their own turn, and had their good
+time, set about doing something for God and their neighbors at the
+eleventh hour; but she still clings to self, even when all the pleasure
+has dropped out. If she only would exert herself a little, her health
+and interest would improve, and she has so much in her hands."
+
+One day Sylvie had turned the last leaf of her book, when Fred Lawrence
+crossed the hall, having come home unexpectedly half an hour before.
+"Miss Sylvie is with your mother," the housekeeper had said; and he had
+begged that they should not be disturbed. He stood now listening to the
+cool, soft voice, and an odd thought entered his mind.
+
+Sylvie should really be a daughter of the house. How his mother liked
+her, depended upon her! She was not always going to watering-places and
+parties and theatres, she did not talk continually of dress and
+conquests. He did not despise cultivated elegance: in fact, it was a
+strong point with all the Lawrences; but he knew that a great deal of
+this much-praised culture ran into artificiality, while Sylvie's
+elegance had the comprehensiveness of nature. It would be quite
+impossible for her to do an awkward or ungraceful act; for her innate
+sense of beauty, harmony, and right guided her. Something higher than
+worldly maxims toned her soul. And though he, a man with his hands full
+of gold that he had never earned, could content himself with indolent
+dilettanteism, he wanted an earnest, honest, truthful woman, if he ever
+took a wife. He had flirted in a lazy fashion, common with young men who
+find themselves an object to women, and who have only to raise their
+hand, sultan-like, to bring a host of houris. That he had kept out of
+many grosser pleasures was perhaps a credit to him, although that was
+not the weak side of his character.
+
+He did not fall in love with the picture before him, sweet as it
+was,--the young girl in a soft flowing white dress (she was too true an
+artist to have starchy outlines), the shimmering hair, the delicate
+wavering color, the proud poise of the head, the plump white arm and
+slender fingers with their pale-pink nails, and, above all, the
+exquisite voice that seemed so to enter into the culmination of the
+story, the last few sentences of pathos, joy, and complete fruition.
+
+She closed her book. Neither of the ladies spoke. Mrs. Lawrence had been
+deeply touched. She lived almost exclusively in this world of fictitious
+sentiment, I was going to say; but I remember that it is often a
+transcript of human lives. Still she liked sentiment in books, out of
+them she scarcely recognized it.
+
+There was a step and a low tap at the door; then, before Mrs. Lawrence
+could answer, Fred marched in, kissed his mother dutifully, and shook
+hands with Sylvie.
+
+He had always liked Sylvie better as a little girl than any one else who
+ever came to the house, and he liked her now. How happy his mother would
+be! for of course they would go on living here. Irene would be away
+presently, and his parents would need some one. His summer work was
+mapped out before him; and really it was a pleasure to think he should
+escape the bore of society as one found it at summer-resorts, and
+entertain himself with this piquant brown-eyed girl with a heart fresh
+as a rose. He did not want a woman who had been wooed by every Tom,
+Dick, and Harry.
+
+Yet another and more heroic thought entered his mind after chatting with
+her a few moments. He would save _her_ as well. She might have a slight
+fancy for Jack Darcy: his sisters had spoken of it, and these great,
+fair, muscular giants were often attractive to women, through the very
+strength and rude force with which they pushed their suit. But such a
+lumbering, vulgar fellow in Miss Barry's dainty, womanish parlor! and he
+smiled at the thought. Yes, he would be doing a good deed to snatch
+Sylvie from any such possibility.
+
+Fred Lawrence suddenly assumed a new importance in his own eyes. He made
+himself very agreeable to both ladies. Sylvie remained to dinner; and,
+when Mrs. Lawrence would have sent her home in the carriage, he proposed
+to escort her,--he wished to pay his respects to Miss Barry.
+
+They did not take the most direct course, but, leaving the streets with
+their noise of children and possibly vulgar contact, strolled through
+"Lovers' Lane." The old trees met overhead; there were dooryards full of
+sweet, old-fashioned flowers, and now and then the sound of a weak piano
+or a plaintive voice.
+
+"I am glad these streets have been kept free from the vice of modern
+improvement," said he. "It always brings back a touch of my boyhood when
+I walk through them. Your aunt made a good fight, Miss Sylvie, when she
+refused to listen to the golden tongues of speculators, though of course
+you would have been much richer. But it can be turned into money any
+time."
+
+"Money is not every thing," answered the young girl, with a touch of
+sharpness. "Are one's own desires and old associations to count for
+nothing? This place was very dear to my aunt and to many others. I am
+sure there is quite enough of Yerbury laid waste now. The town looks as
+if it were a sort of general house-cleaning, and every thing was thrust
+out of doors and windows. And it was so pretty!" with a curious heat and
+passion. "It was like a dream, with its winding river and green fields,
+and men at their hay, and cows grazing in knee-deep pastures. Now all
+the milkmaids are herded in mills and factories; and the
+children,--well, there are no children any more!"
+
+"No children!" lifting his pencilled brows in languid surprise. "Why, I
+think you can find swarms of them. The poorer the man, the larger the
+family."
+
+"There are babies and babies; then little prigs and drudges. I am not
+sure I am in love with the so-called civilization. For the great
+majority it only means harder work."
+
+"Did we not learn in some school-book--I am quite sure I did--that
+
+          'Satan finds some mischief still,
+              For idle hands to do'?"
+
+"Are you not afraid?" She turned with a bright, tormenting smile to the
+handsome young fellow, who flushed under her clear glance.
+
+"For those who have brains, manual labor may not be the only chance of
+salvation," he returned with a somewhat haughty flippancy.
+
+"I wonder they do not turn their brains to some account."
+
+They reached the gate, and Miss Barry was sitting on the porch. Sylvie
+was too pretty and too womanly to be quarrelled with for the sake of a
+subject that did not in the least interest him. Beside, he meant to come
+in; so he opened the gate for her, and followed in a well-bred,
+gentlemanly way, that had nothing obtrusive in it. Miss Barry welcomed
+him with the quaint formality, the subtile air of education, refinement,
+and morality, so much a part of herself. It pleased him extremely, and
+settled him in his determination.
+
+"Sylvie has a touch of radicalism," he mused to himself; "but it is a
+disease of youth, and thrives by association. Take her quite away, and
+she will soon recover her normal tone."
+
+He found his mother still up on his return, and rather restless. She lay
+on her sofa, and dozed so much through the day, that night had but
+little slumber to bring her.
+
+"I am so glad you did not go to Long Branch," she remarked, as she toyed
+with her son's silken, perfumed hair. "I get so lonesome when your
+father is away; and he seems to think of nothing but business"--in a
+complaining tone. "I do not know what I should do but for Sylvie. She is
+such a charming little body! Fred, do you think there is any truth in
+Gertrude's gossip about her and that--one of your father's mill-hands,
+is it not? How can Miss Barry allow it?"
+
+"There is no truth in it," with a light, scornful laugh. "The families
+are neighbors, you know; and I suppose the boor takes a look for
+encouragement. I shall not go away this summer. I can find pleasanter
+employment."
+
+She pressed his hand, and smiled, as their eyes met. Sons-in-law were
+very little to one, except in the way of respectability, but a daughter
+like Sylvie would be such a comfort! Fred had no need to marry a
+fortune, but Sylvie would not be poor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+NOW that Fred Lawrence had come home, there was no need of going so
+often to Hope Terrace, Sylvie thought. Time never hung heavy on her
+hands; for she was not indolent, and there were friends and pleasures.
+Miss Barry had a conscientious misgiving that Sylvie ought to be taken
+about like other young ladies; but she shrank from fashionable life
+herself, and could not resolve to trust her darling with any other
+person. Beside, Sylvie always seemed contented.
+
+She was content indeed; at least, with her home and her aunt. Up-stairs,
+just out of her sleeping-chamber, she had a studio, chosen because this
+room, of all in the house, had the finest view in summer, when the tall
+old trees shut out so much. From here there were two exquisite
+perspectives. The trees and houses were so arranged that a long, arrowy
+ray of light penetrated through a narrow space over to a small rise of
+ground called Berry Hill on account of its harvest of blueberries. Two
+old, scraggy, immense oak-trees still remained; and she used to watch
+them from their first faint green to the blood-red and copper tints of
+autumn, when the sun shone through them. Down behind he dropped when the
+day was done; sometimes a ball of fire, at others bathed in roseate
+hues, tinged with all the wondrous grades of color, and making fleecy
+islands in a far-off, weird world, dream-haunted. She used to study the
+grand effects of shifting light, that made the hill bold and strong, or
+fused it into dreamy harmonies that seemed to have the subtile essence
+of music; then contrasts that were abrupt and apparently dissonant,
+quite against well-known edicts of human taste. Who was right,--the
+great Author of all? She smiled to herself when she heard people talk so
+glibly of nature, as if the one little rose-leaf were the whole world.
+
+The other picture held in its soft, still, light, an old-fashioned,
+low-gabled house with wide eaves; a broad doorway, with the upper half
+always open in summer; a well with curb and sweep and bucket where
+farm-hands came to drink; a pond with a shady side, where cows herded in
+their peaceful fashion, wading knee-deep on hot days, chewing their cud
+contentedly at others, browsing through golden hours; fields of glowing
+grain, then tawny stubble, a bit of corn with nodding tassels, and not
+infrequently a group of children, picturesque in this far light. It all
+stood out with the clearness of a stereoscope.
+
+She had her ambitions too, this bright little girl. They were tinctured
+with the crudeness of youth, and its boundless vision, it is true; and
+sometimes the passion of despair seized her soul in a cold grasp, when
+she felt hemmed in on every side, and longed for some opening, some step
+in the great world higher than fashionable frivolity.
+
+Miss Barry had no taste for famous women. They were well enough in the
+world: she paid a proper and polite deference to Mrs. Somerville, Mrs.
+Browning, and Rosa Bonheur,--that kind of intellectual deference that
+sets them out of the sphere of ordinary women. Wives and mothers were
+better for the every-day life of the world; since pictures and poetry
+were luxuries, accessories, but not home or food or clothes. Though she
+had missed her woman's destiny, she had not lost faith in it; though she
+had held out her hand to the woman who had made shipwreck of her own
+life for the wild, graceless brother's sake, she still looked on clear
+seas and smooth sailing as possible for lovers' barks. In her plans for
+Sylvie there was a fine, manly, generous husband; a love so sweet and
+entire that the girl should forget her restless yearnings; baby hands to
+cling to her, baby lips to press, young lives to mould, and a future to
+plan for others.
+
+Miss Barry believed in work devoutly, but gentlewomen had a firm place
+in her creed. The paintings and music were well enough as
+accomplishments, and she was proud of them; but she delicately repressed
+the other dreams and desires until Sylvie ceased to speak of them except
+to her friend Jack.
+
+Miss Barry had experienced some anxiety on this point, it must be
+confessed. You would never have perceived it from the wise little
+woman's face or any tone of her voice. She went more frequently to the
+Darcys of an evening with Sylvie: she rolled her easy-chair and
+work-table to the opposite side of the sitting-room, where it commanded
+a view of the piano and the sofa in the parlor, the door being always
+open. She could hear and see, she could make pleasant, trenchant
+remarks: indeed, she was one of themselves, as young in heart, if the
+hair did glisten silvery under the bit of exquisite thread-lace that did
+duty as an apology for a cap.
+
+Jack and Sylvie were not lovers. A rare good friendship it was, more
+perfect than brotherly and sisterly regard, in that it held no
+duty-element, and was spontaneous. Sylvie never laughed at Jack in his
+awkward boyish days: he had never tormented her small belongings as
+brothers are wont to do.
+
+Miss Barry feared the flame might be easily fanned. A little opposition
+or warning would bring Sylvie's innocent wandering thoughts to a focus,
+and kindle the fire. She was very wary. She trusted Sylvie to Jack with
+an air that said, "You are too honorable to betray the confidence I
+repose in you."
+
+The old class prejudice spoke out in this covert objection to Jack as
+a suitor. She honored him sincerely for giving up the dreams of
+ambitious and energetic manhood to stay at home and comfort these two
+delicate women. Yet (strange contradiction) she had a half fancy that it
+betokened weakness or lack of some kind in the very content with which
+he seemed to go about his daily duties. Alas for consistency! We preach
+content from the pulpit on Sunday, and on Monday glance with quiet
+contempt on our plodding neighbor, who can commune with the daisies by
+the wayside, while there is gold lying untroubled in desert gulches.
+
+Honest, sturdy Jack, taking up the duty of to-day cheerfully with a
+manful endurance, because the hands holding his fate were too weak and
+tender to be wrestled with, and that in his large, generous soul he
+could not war on a smaller antagonist, neither was it his nature to
+continually thrust any sacrifice he might make before the eyes of the
+one he was benefiting. How much silent heroism goes unpraised in the
+world, while we stand on the highways, and prate of our discrimination,
+our quick insight! Jack might be praised for his self-denial, but the
+higher appreciation was withheld. Even Sylvie was fretted at times,
+because he would get interested in all things pertaining to the mill.
+
+Miss Barry said to herself, "It is best that Sylvie should marry in her
+own circle, a man of cultivation, refinement, and position. Jack is a
+dear good fellow, but not the person to satisfy her for a lifetime."
+
+Jack thought nothing at all about it. He never gave up the idea of a
+great wide world, where he could have a hand-to-hand struggle with
+something as powerful as himself. He had come to no dreams of wife and
+children. He did like Sylvie with all his big, honest heart. If she had
+fallen in love with him, and betrayed it by some girlish sign, he would
+have been startled at first, then thought it over in his slow, careful
+way, asked her to marry him, and loved her devotedly all his days,
+leaving the dreams to the past with a tender benediction.
+
+But Sylvie was no more in love than he.
+
+As I said, she decided that she was not needed at Hope Terrace, and
+staid away four days. Then the carriage came, with a beseeching note.
+Had Fred gone again?
+
+She found him there in all his elegant listlessness. It exasperated her
+strangely.
+
+"What have you been about, Sylvie?" cried Mrs. Lawrence. "Is your aunt
+ill? It seems a full week since you were here."
+
+"Oh, no!" with her beguiling little smile. "I cannot tell exactly what,
+only I thought"--
+
+"You thought because Fred was home I would need no one else! As if a
+love-story would not bore him, and an invalid's whims--well, men are not
+women, my dear," decisively, and with a complacent expression as if she
+had settled the argument beyond any question, for the first time since
+the world began.
+
+"Why, you never tried me on a love-story," interposed Fred. "You do not
+know how deeply sympathetic I might be with your favorite heroines."
+
+"He is laughing at us, Sylvie. Ah, well! I suppose it is a man's duty to
+_make_ love, not to listen to it second-hand. How charming and fresh you
+look this morning! And how lovely it is after the shower of last night!
+Fred, if you could leave Latin verses and Greek essays you might take us
+to drive. We could stop and bring your aunt with us for lunch, Sylvie."
+
+"Thank you for her. She has gone to Coldbridge to see about a nurse for
+the Orphans' Home, and will not be back until four."
+
+"Then I can keep you without a single scruple," and Mrs. Lawrence looked
+oddly pleased. "Fred, tell them not to put the horses out. What
+wonderful health your aunt has, Sylvie! I don't see how she can endure
+the bother of those schools and institutions: it would wear me out in
+no time. But I have had a family of children;" and she leaned back on
+her pillow with a satisfied air.
+
+The carriage came around again; and with the assistance of a maid,
+Sylvie, and her son, Mrs. Lawrence walked down stairs. He handed both
+ladies in, and seated himself opposite with the air of a prince.
+
+Sylvie looked so bright and gay this morning, her velvety eyes full of
+tender light, her cheek all abloom with youth and health, the sweet
+scarlet lips half smiling, and her attire far enough removed from the
+rigor of fashion to have a kind of originality about it. She always wore
+something that added tone and brightness,--a bit of colored ribbon or a
+flower, or a bow that flashed out unexpectedly, as if greeting you with
+laughing surprise.
+
+"What do you do to mother, Sylvie?" Fred asked, with a touch of
+complimentary curiosity in his voice. "Yesterday she was dull and
+moping. I could not persuade her to drive."
+
+"It was so warm, no wonder. I felt dull and drowsy myself. But to-day is
+the perfection of loveliness."
+
+"And you have a charm, Sylvie. I do not know but it is your perfect,
+buoyant health. You seem to lift one up. I only wish I could keep you
+all the time," remarked Mrs. Lawrence with a touch of longing.
+
+Sylvie colored, and averted her eyes: then she gave herself a kind of
+mental shaking, and resolutely glanced back, uttering some rather trite
+remark. She would not suspect or understand.
+
+They came home again, and had lunch: then, while Mrs. Lawrence was
+taking her siesta, Fred carried off Sylvie to his study. It was
+luxuriously beautiful. Several gems of pictures adorned the wall, which
+had been newly frescoed to suit his fancy. Easy chairs lured one to test
+their capacious depth, some exquisitely-bound books were arranged in a
+carved and polished case, and the table was daintily littered with
+papers. He had an idea that a man's surroundings were a very fair index
+to his character and tastes, quite forgetting that it implied length of
+purse as well.
+
+He made spasmodic attempts at literary work. Abstruse essays were begun
+under the impression that he had something brilliant and original to
+say, but before they were finished a new train of thought led him
+captive. He dreamed delicately sensuous dreams, lapped in luxurious
+idleness, the rooms stifling with odorous hot-house flowers. He went
+clothed in soft raiment, he sunned himself in languid seas of
+imagination, and was too indifferent to concentrate his powers upon any
+great faith or belief, or even emotion. He had a contempt for cheap and
+plain belongings, as leaning insensibly to vitiation of taste. Nothing
+modern met his approbation. The old-time philosophies won him with their
+subtile flavor. He could propound his theories eloquently, but they did
+not touch him deeply enough to rouse him into action of any kind. All
+that his education and culture had done for him so far was to develop an
+incapacity for any regular, wholesome work that would be of the
+slightest use to any human being.
+
+Something of this passed through Sylvie's mind as she sat there. This
+handsome and stalwart lily of the valley, with no desire for toiling,
+and no ability for spinning, would be content to drift and dawdle
+through life on his father's money. At that moment he was more
+contemptible to her than Irene, winning lovers by the score, and casting
+them aside with no more compunction than if they were the litter of
+faded flowers.
+
+After all, why should she care if he did not reach her standard of moral
+and intellectual excellence, of that knightly chivalry whose
+rallying-cry was, "God and my fellow-men!" Why should she desire to
+rouse him from that complacent ease and fastidiousness, brought about
+by wealth, and the certainty of no need of effort on his part? Surely
+she was no modern apostle carrying around the watchword of work.
+
+Yet somehow--if all the subtile forces running to waste in both him and
+Jack could be galvanized into earnest, active life; if the sturdy,
+wholesome thought of the one could be mated with the clear, crisp
+training of the other; if both could have the wide outlook beyond
+material wants and comforts! It fretted her.
+
+Yet these two, sitting here on this peerless summer day, skimmed over
+wide fields like gay butterflies. She could not be in earnest with him.
+Just when she was roused and warm, he seemed to lift her by some flight
+of eloquence, and waft her to his realm of fancy. It annoyed her to find
+he had that much power over her.
+
+It must be admitted that when Fred Lawrence willed, he could be
+extremely fascinating. Women yielded gracefully, nay, eagerly, to his
+sway; and much delicate flattery had their eyes and lips fed him upon.
+Sylvie piqued him a trifle by her utter unconcern--or was it the fine
+instinct of coquetry inherent in feminine nature?
+
+There was no telling what this queer, bright, unconventional little
+thing might do if left to herself. A good marriage would prove her
+salvation. She had many womanly possibilities: yet, with all due
+deference to Miss Barry and her old blue blood, Sylvie might overstep
+the bounds, and take up some of the reforming projects so dear to
+elderly spinsters. As Mrs. Fred Lawrence she would be held regally above
+them, and could depute her charitable work to her aunt.
+
+In justice to the man, it must be confessed that Sylvie's dainty,
+piquant loveliness stirred his soul; and, if self had not been so
+intense a centre, he might have been ardently in love, or
+clearer-sighted. Much of the time her demeanor toward him was coldly
+indifferent: yet the misfortune was, her interest in all things kindled
+so easily that she could not, at a moment, change to him. Her moods of
+reticence and shy evasion added a flavor to the cup. With a man's
+egregious vanity, he jumped at the conclusion that these little
+intangible things signified love.
+
+One day Sylvie stumbled over Irene. She came flying up stairs with some
+choice nectarines for Mrs. Lawrence, a kind that seemed only to reach
+perfection in Miss Barry's old-fashioned garden. There sat Irene,
+superb, nonchalant.
+
+"Oh, you little darling!" clasping her, and pinching the peach-bloom
+cheek. "I am so glad to have a glimpse of you; for mamma has sung your
+praises until I ought to be jealous, but out of my boundless generosity
+I still smile upon you. No need to ask how _you_ are, but one may
+inquire after your aunt?"
+
+"Miss Barry is quite well," Sylvie said with some constraint,
+remembering their last parting.
+
+Irene had honestly forgotten it. She laughed now, a low, ringing,
+melodious laugh.
+
+"Why, it is quite a treat to see you open wide your sunrise eyes. I have
+taken everybody by surprise, and enjoy it immensely. Gerty and I are off
+to fresh fields and pastures new, and home came right in my way. Sylvie,
+you are a good little creature to come and amuse mamma when her own
+lovely and amiable daughter is racing after the pomps and vanities of
+this naughty world. Sit down;" and she made room on the sofa beside
+herself. "Don't let such a frivolous creature as I turn you from the
+post of duty."
+
+"I did not come to stay," Sylvie answered rather stiffly.
+
+"As if the intention were cast in adamant! Oh! why is not Fred here to
+use his persuasive tongue?"
+
+There was a peculiar laughing light in Irene's eye that annoyed Sylvie,
+for it seemed to indicate a secret knowledge.
+
+"I can stay just half an hour," was the reply in a decisive tone. "At
+eleven I take my lesson in painting.-- Aunt wanted you to have these,
+Mrs. Lawrence, in their first bloom of ripeness."
+
+"They are delightful. A thousand thanks to both of you, my dear."
+
+"And you really manage to exist in this dull place, Sylvie! You are a
+miracle of content," interposed Irene.
+
+"I have not come near dying yet," was the rather dry rejoinder.
+
+"You need not be so curt and sharply sweet, my dear. Here I have been
+listening to marvellous accounts of your amiability and devotion"--
+
+"Don't, Rene!" implored her mother. "Sylvie _is_ good to me."
+
+"And it might make the sweetness weak if she stretched it out to me!
+Keep it intact for those who so delight in it. I am fond of spice and
+high flavoring."
+
+"These nectarines are perfect," declared Mrs. Lawrence. "One can taste
+the sunshine in them."
+
+"How poetic, mother mine! Does Fred come and read Latin verses to you
+and Sylvie? I may have one"--stretching out her jewelled hand. "Oh, they
+are delicious! worth coming home for, even if I had not wanted mamma's
+pearls."
+
+"And money and every thing," added her mother. "Rene, you ought not to
+be so extravagant. Papa is quite depressed with the state of business."
+
+"Yes, I have heard _that_ ever since I left my cradle;" and Rene laughed
+gayly.
+
+It suddenly crossed Sylvie's mind: what if this proud, imperious girl
+should be reduced to poverty some day?
+
+"Don't plan a conspiracy against me, Sylvie Barry! I saw it in your
+eyes!"
+
+A vivid flush overspread Sylvie's face, as if she had been caught in the
+commission of some crime. Irene's laugh rang again with a peculiar
+irritating sound.
+
+"I could not form a conspiracy against you--even if I so desired. And I
+must go."
+
+Sylvie rose with a haughty air.
+
+"Wish me worlds to conquer at least, or scalps to hang at my belt. No?
+You ungracious little thing! There is a good-by kiss to show you that I
+always hold out the right hand of peace."
+
+"Have the carriage, Sylvie: it will not take a moment"--
+
+"No, thank you," in a crisp tone. She would have nothing of these
+Lawrences just now.
+
+"Fred will get a spicy wife," commented Irene, with a peculiar smile.
+
+"She is never so with him. They get along beautifully," said the mother.
+
+"Fred is too lazy to rouse Sylvie. Women have quite spoiled him. And
+Sylvie is ever so much prettier when a trifle vexed. Don't tell me about
+her angelic qualities, though I suppose she does keep super-amiable
+before you and Fred just now. I wonder if I could if I were in love!"
+
+"Irene, I am sorry I hinted it. If you begin to tease Fred"--
+
+"I shall not: set your heart at rest. I give full and free consent, and
+approve heartily. Beside, the little thing might throw herself away if
+she was not looked after. There will always be some one to stay at home
+with you."
+
+Mrs. Lawrence turned to her book and her nectarines; and Irene tumbled
+over jewel-cases,--a proud, imperious beauty, whose heart had never been
+touched, who cared only for pleasure and triumphs. Over yonder, men and
+women were toiling, that she might have gold to squander. They lived
+scantily, that she might feast. And the brave old world, seeing it all,
+uttered a silent groan. One day it would speak out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+SYLVIE BARRY meanwhile walked along rather rapidly for a warm morning.
+She felt irritated. Her sweet lips were set in defiant curves, the red
+heats of annoyance burned and faded on her cheek with each passing
+thought, and there was something out of harmony: a fateful discordance
+that swept over her, as if the parts of music had been wrongly put
+together.
+
+Did they think--did Fred imagine--
+
+She had never faced the idea before. Now she thrust it out in the garish
+sunlight. Her eyes sparkled, but there was no triumph in the girl's
+fine, resolute face. This man might lay his father's wealth at her feet,
+borrowed plumes in which he was quite content to shine; his heart--and a
+smile of withering scorn crossed her red lips. She would be a little
+dearer than his horse: dogs the fastidious man could not endure.
+Practically his wooing would be,--
+
+          "I will love thee--half a year,
+              As a man is able."
+
+Not because of a fresher, fairer face: he would give her all he had, all
+that he could rouse his languid pulses to experience. She would be
+lifted out of her present occupations and interests; for Sylvie was too
+clear-eyed to blind herself with the specious reasoning that as the wife
+of a rich man's son, she would be a greater power in the world for good.
+They would fit her into _their_ sphere. She fancied herself coming to an
+aimless middle-life like that of Mrs. Lawrence, taking no interest in
+any thing, but reading novels, and complaining, to pass away the time.
+
+Did she really care for any one else? More than one young man in Yerbury
+had paid her the peculiar deferential attention that asks encouragement
+if there is any to give, but is too truly delicate to proceed without.
+Then there was Jack, who understood her soul better than any one else;
+but had he touched her heart in a lover-like way?
+
+She turned her clear, honest eyes to the blue overhead, as if taking
+Heaven for a witness. Her heart and fancy were quite free. Much as she
+cared for him, there was no thrill of that high sentiment in it.
+
+In some fascinating ideal life she had seen a lover with whom she could
+walk down through the years, whose life would touch hers at all points,
+who could fathom the depths of the nature that so puzzled herself, who
+could measure and supply the yearning reaches of intellect; who could
+awake in her soul a love, strong, deep, and unquestioning, so fervent,
+indeed, that she would turn from all other dreams and desires to him. A
+young girl's ideal--perhaps it is well for the world that some women
+have ideals, and keep faith with them.
+
+As for Fred, his vanity led him straight on. She tried honestly to place
+herself right in his estimation; but he misunderstood her, and liked her
+the better for the variety. She saw too, with dismay, that her aunt
+favored him. Her natural kindness of heart shrank from the pain of
+rejecting him, and to her the triumph had no pleasure. But in her
+anxiety and desperation she saw only this one course.
+
+He dropped in nearly every day, he took her and Miss Barry to drive. He
+haunted croquet-parties, which he hated, because she accepted
+invitations to them. He never met Jack. Some fine sense warned the
+latter that an encounter in Sylvie's parlor would be uncomfortable.
+Yet, strange to say, sometimes when he saw the handsome fellow
+sauntering by, a peculiar tenderness came over him, remembering the
+little boy who had clung fondly to him.
+
+An old-fashioned courtship would prove no end of a bore, Fred decided.
+So one day he marched over to Larch Avenue when he knew Miss Barry was
+alone, and laid his case before her. She received him with graceful
+kindliness, listened to his offer, and assented with evident pleasure.
+There was not a happier woman that night in all Yerbury than Miss Barry.
+The care and desire of her life had been justly crowned. Her good-night
+kiss to Sylvie was inexpressibly sweet.
+
+Fred did not see Sylvie for the next two days, but meanwhile wrought
+himself into a state that he was quite sure was proper and well-bred
+love. Then she came to Hope Terrace, and they kept her to tea. The late,
+heavy dinners were dispensed with at present.
+
+"Will you walk home, to-night, Sylvie?" asked Fred. "I feel in a walking
+mood."
+
+"The slightest symptom of industry ought to be encouraged," she made
+answer gayly. She had been of some real service this afternoon, charmed
+away a fretful headache, and restored Mrs. Lawrence to a comfortable
+state of feeling, and was correspondingly light-hearted. Then, too, Fred
+had kept out of the way, and been gravely polite to her at the
+tea-table. She liked him in such moods.
+
+It was a late August evening, with a small crescent moon shining softly
+as if its forces were well-nigh spent. The heat of the day was over, and
+the falling dew evolved a kind of autumnal sweetness, the flavor of
+ripening fruits rather than flowers. Yerbury was very quiet in the part
+they were to traverse. They walked under great maples where a shadowy
+light sifted through, and the houses looked like fragments of dreams,
+with here and there a lamp in a distant window. The slow wind wandered
+through pines and hemlocks, as if some fairy Puck had laid his finger to
+his lips, saying to crooning insects, "Hush, hush!" A night to dream as
+one went down "Lovers' Lane."
+
+Sylvie was radiantly beautiful. Her face always changed so with her
+moods. Every feature had a perfect sculptured look, but intensely
+human,--the straight nose with the flexible, sensitive nostrils,
+quivering at any sudden breath, the dainty chin and white throat, the
+red curved lips that seem to smile at some inward, richly satisfying
+thought, the large lustrous eyes serious as those of a nun, and the
+calm, clear brow that seemed to index the strength and fineness of the
+nature. He did not take in any of the occult meanings: to him she was
+simply a pretty girl whom he could dress in silk instead of lawn.
+
+The small hand had lain on his arm without the faintest movement. Now he
+took it in his, and pressed it softly. She frowned, and made a slight,
+repellant gesture.
+
+"Sylvie?" with a lingering intonation that was hardly inquiry.
+
+"Well!" roused out of her quiet into a momentary petulance.
+
+"Sylvie, I love you. Will you be my wife?"
+
+In his most commonplace dreams he had never made love so briefly. He
+startled himself.
+
+"Don't!" in a short, decisive tone, as if he were merely teasing.
+
+"Sylvie, I am in earnest;" and in his tone the man spoke.
+
+"Then I think you are mistaken." She seemed to look at him in the cool
+light of invincible candor and honesty.
+
+"No, Sylvie, I am not mistaken," gaining courage that it was to be
+argument instead of sentiment. "I have had this purpose in my mind for
+some time, and have solicited your aunt's consent. You have only to
+say"--
+
+"I have many things to say, but assent is not one of them;" in a voice
+that, though low, seemed to cleave the air with a steely ring. "You
+think you love me. Perhaps you do--as far as you are capable of loving
+any thing beside yourself. You have seen a good deal of me this summer,
+and have made up your mind to marry. I possess some of the necessary
+requirements, and doubtless suit you better than any mere fashionable
+woman. But you have none of that intense desire that makes a matter of
+life and death of love, that elects one woman, or forever keeps a vacant
+niche in the soul."
+
+"Sylvie!"
+
+Her passionate words stunned him. He turned to her with a puzzled look,
+a certain helplessness, as if he were stranded on some far, foreign
+shore. And then he met her lustrous eyes, so clear that they were almost
+pitiless in the glow of undimmed truth.
+
+"Can you not trust me?" with the gentle reproachfulness so winning to
+most women, so confident of a victory over a heart that loves.
+
+"I could trust you to care for no other woman when your word was passed,
+but it seems to me," and her heart swelled with something like contempt,
+"that you are but playing at love. Marriage in your estimation is a fit
+and proper step: your mother likes me, you prefer me to any one else"--
+
+"Good heavens, Sylvie! what more do you want?" and a flood of scarlet
+mounted his calm, handsome brow. "When a man chooses a woman out of the
+whole circle of his friends and acquaintances, what higher compliment
+can he pay her? I have seen women beside those in Yerbury; and, though
+it may savor of vanity, I believe there _are_ those who would
+appreciate"--
+
+"I wonder you did not go to them;" with a fine irony, cutting short his
+sentence.
+
+"Because I liked you, chose you."
+
+"I do not so desire to be chosen," she answered quickly. "The man I
+marry must win my respect, my highest faith; must have an aim, an
+ambition, and not dawdle through life as some silly woman might."
+
+The decisive voice seemed to cut a path between him and her as it went.
+It struck home uncomfortably.
+
+"Then I suppose you call all men not engaged in manual labor,
+dawdlers,--scholars, poets, men of leisure, who can devote their lives
+to work that requires patience and fineness of detail, rather than the
+heavy swing of a blacksmith's hammer. When a man has no need of
+work"--and Fred paused, a trifle out of temper.
+
+"I do not believe God ever made an idler," she said, with high gravity
+that widened the gulf between them. "To whom much is given, much will be
+required."
+
+How unreasonable she was! He hated women who flung texts or proverbs at
+you; and yet he did not hate her. She had a girl's flighty notions, born
+of crude contact with inferior minds, and perhaps over-much
+novel-reading.
+
+"I do not exactly understand what a man must do to win your love," he
+said in one of those calm, intensely irritating tones. "I have chosen
+what suited me best,--culture, refinement, and the education that fits
+me for the sphere in which I am likely to move all my days,"
+impressively. "It is true, much of the wisdom of the world is little to
+my taste. I do not know why a man should wade through a slough of evil
+for the sake of repenting afterward, for looking white in contrast to
+that foul blackness. The ninety and nine just ones seem to me the better
+example."
+
+"I am afraid I shall not be able to make you understand," she went on,
+with a little hesitation. "Perhaps I have not the power or patience to
+shape a man's soul to a noble purpose or ambition. I want him strong
+and earnest, full of energy and that high sense of duty to all around
+him, not satisfied to drift down the stream in frivolous content, but to
+make the way better for his having gone over it. I want him true as
+steel to his friends, generous, yet uncompromising to his foes, to all
+evil; the kind of man who, if crushed down by fate to-day, could see
+some ray above his head to-morrow, who has sufficient moral fibre not to
+be rigidly bound by class feelings and narrow prejudices."
+
+Sylvie paused, startled at herself. She had never framed her hero in
+words before, and that she should do it for this man!
+
+"These are the heroes of our youth, Miss Sylvie, and you are very
+young," in that insufferably patronizing tone.
+
+"I am old enough to know what I want," she retorted, all the fiery blood
+in her pulses leaping to the charge. "I think, too, I can discern
+between the true worker, and him who is content with the frivolous
+outside show."
+
+"Perhaps not. You have been advising me, now allow me a like privilege.
+Do not imagine me actuated by jealousy,--that vice of the Moor is not in
+my nature. I have seen with some surprise that your fancies were for
+those beneath you in the social scale. A woman always loses in this
+dangerous experiment. She seldom raises her commonplace hero to a level
+with the gods, and is much more likely to be dragged down."
+
+She turned suddenly, her face flaming scarlet. The indignation misled
+him. He took it as a sign of personal anger, and wondered if she could,
+if she _dared_, throw him over for that coarse, stupid, blundering
+fellow.
+
+"Yes," he continued, glad to stab her in a vulnerable point; "you
+certainly have made a mistake, if you think this soul an aspiring one. A
+boy who excels in brute strength and force merely, a man who makes a
+deliberate choice between the nobler results of education and the
+common purposes of rude daily labor, will hardly rank with a knight of
+Arthur's time, even if some self-deceived woman chooses to lavish her
+affection upon him."
+
+"If you mean Mr. Darcy"-- And she stood quite still, tremulous with
+passion.
+
+"I mean Mr. Darcy." She had not shown such delicate consideration for
+his feelings that he should hesitate. "I do not see how you, with your
+artistic tastes and refinement, can find companionship in such a nature.
+I understand it very thoroughly. Beware, for you cannot plead even
+daffodil blindness, my fair Persephone."
+
+Sylvie Barry could have struck the man beside her. All the passion of
+her nature surged up in contempt, great waves of white heat. If a look
+could have annihilated, hers might. Even in the shady gloom, he saw the
+flashing eye and quivering lip of scorn.
+
+"Do not distress yourself about me," she answered, with suave
+bitterness. "Jack Darcy may be a mill-hand; but he has the honor, the
+white soul, of a gentleman! And you--you dare to trample on what was
+once a friendship!"
+
+"I believe he was once my admiration because he used to show fight so
+easily. He was for marching West then, and doing some grand thing; but
+you see his hero days are gone by. Ten years from this he may be a
+demagogue, a rank socialist, whining about equality. Still, if I must
+congratulate you"--
+
+She made a haughty gesture, and her first impulse was to let it go; but
+her truthful nature could not brook the implied deception.
+
+"You may congratulate me upon the friendship alone," with a clear, sharp
+emphasis.
+
+His shattered self-confidence returned suddenly, shaped to arrogance. If
+she was not entangled with Jack Darcy, there certainly was no one else.
+
+"Sylvie," he began loftily, "this has been child's play, and I am
+heartily ashamed of my share of it. Let us go back, and forget it. You
+have had your tilt at windmills; so suppose we return to common sense.
+You are still heart-free, it seems; and I beg pardon for repeating
+foolish gossip. Your aunt has accepted me as your suitor; my mother is
+waiting to receive you as a daughter; and I think," with some pride in
+his tone, "that few men can offer you a cleaner hand, or a better
+record. You will have a life of ease and leisure, and-- Why, Sylvie, you
+can teach _me_,--you can help me up these glowing heights."
+
+"I have answered you!"
+
+She seemed to grow tall and regal as she stood there by the gate, the
+long, arrowy ray of lamp-light from within illumining her proud, cold
+face, that could flush with such bewildering warmth. He discerned in
+some dim way that she had access to a life far above his; an atmosphere
+like hoar-frost surrounded her, raying off fine points, that thrust him
+farther away into darkness and coldness. Had something been taken out of
+his life?
+
+The man's well-nigh imperturbable complacency had received a shock.
+
+"Good-night," in a softer tone. One cannot break a pleasant friendship
+without a pang.
+
+As one in a dream he heard the gate close, the soft footfall on the
+brick walk, and a waft of voices from within. Then it occurred to him
+that he, Frederic De Woolfe Lawrence, had been rejected by this little
+girl upon whose head he had meant to shower the blessing of marital
+protection, the regard of a soul that was not quite indifferent, after
+all. What was this dull pang somewhere in his symmetrical, well-kept
+body? Was it the night that made his pulses heavy and turgid?
+
+Then he turned. "By Jove!" he muttered, "there's not another girl in the
+country that could have kept her fingers out of the governor's
+money-bags! Poor mother! What a disappointment for her! Of course
+Sylvie will marry Jack Darcy,--Pluto and Persephone again."
+
+Then he softly whistled a stave of opera-music, and sauntered about
+leisurely. He had no fancy for facing his mother that night.
+
+As for Sylvie, she knew her face was very white when she entered the
+door; but she bustled about with womanly evasion, and began to ask if
+her aunt had been lonesome, if any one had called, and declared she was
+tired from walking home, and her head ached a little, which was true;
+and presently the two women barred their doors, and went to bed.
+
+Was she glad to have it over? Was she sorry she had left no loop-hole
+for future hope? Strange to say, she could not tell.
+
+"But I could never live, like a pauper, on some other person's money!"
+she thought decisively. "And he did not care. It was for his mother's
+sake chiefly."
+
+Again there was a breach between the Montagues and the Capulets, this
+time crossed by no lovers' hands. Mrs. Lawrence was highly indignant,
+Miss Barry vexed and sore disappointed. They went the even tenor of
+their way, however, while the poor self-made invalid at Hope Terrace
+grew more querulous and exacting. Fred took a week at Saratoga to
+restore his wounded vanity, and then settled himself at a hotel in New
+York, wondering if he had not better read a little law to pass away the
+winter. Mrs. Minor was a queen of fashion, and she was glad to have the
+attendance of her handsome brother. Irene and Mrs. Eastman flitted about
+like gay butterflies, with trains of admirers. The faint mutterings in
+the financial world made little difference to them. It was their
+province to spend, to enjoy; and what the strata beneath them did or
+suffered or hoped, was of no more account than the far-off ocean-froth
+beating up on the hard white sand,--picturesque in a drama or a story.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+IT was a dull, gray day, the first of December. Autumn had set in early
+this year. There had been a week of cold rain that had quite destroyed
+the magnificent foliage, one of Yerbury's greatest charms; and it became
+a sodden mass, trodden under foot by pedestrians. The ground was baked
+by sharp frosts at night, making the unpaved streets a mass of ruts
+early and late, and quagmires in the middle of the day.
+
+Yerbury had changed much from the pretty, clean, thriving country-town,
+to something that aped a grand city; unfinished streets, small farms
+laid waste, rows of pretentious houses or florid cottages that had never
+been thoroughly completed, nearly every one adorned with the ominous
+placard, "For Sale." They needed painting and tidying: vines were left
+about, dahlia-stalks hung to poles, steps were awry, and gates swinging
+on one hinge; heaps of ashes and garbage lay here and there.
+
+This day Yerbury wore a particularly listless air. The leafless trees
+hung out long and drooping arms, that swayed to and fro in the biting
+wind. The sullen sky overhead added its tone of dreariness to the
+picture. There was no cheerful whir of factories and shops, no brisk
+steps of men going to and fro, though there were enough standing around
+in groups with scowling faces and compressed lips, or flushed with angry
+gesticulation.
+
+The only places that evinced any air of business were the beer-shops.
+Here a man harangued his fellows; there he did not deign to argue, but
+openly cursed. "Let's treat on that!" said one. "I'll stand to that
+sentiment," declared another. Sometimes voices rose so high that a
+proprietor was forced to command order.
+
+Yerbury was on a strike. There had been a new scale of prices with the
+opening of autumn, submitted to by most of the men with a sympathetic
+good-nature. Trade was getting dull. Fancy prices no longer ruled. An
+ominous feeling pervaded all classes. Building fell off. One tenant gave
+up his house, and took part with another. Housewives looked about for
+the cheapest market, and talked of making last year's coat or cloak do
+for the winter.
+
+Hope Mills had been among the first to propose this second reduction.
+David Lawrence had returned from his business tour much depressed. There
+was an undercurrent of distrust, a disinclination to lay in stock, a
+wordless questioning from eye to eye, with no hopeful response.
+
+Horace Eastman had worked himself into the charge of the inside
+business. He had no real interest, but a liberal salary; and Mr.
+Lawrence felt that he lifted a weight of care from his shoulders. If
+only Fred-- But with college training and elegant tastes he could hardly
+be expected to take to the dull routine of business cares. So matters
+had been left more and more to Eastman, who was shrewd and sharp, who
+always managed to get the most for his money.
+
+Now Mr. Lawrence was appalled by the amount of stock on hand. They had
+been running the mills at full capacity all summer.
+
+"We must offer goods at a lower figure," said Mr. Eastman promptly. "We
+must get command of trade again. Prices _will_ come down,--that is a
+foregone conclusion. The abundant harvests have glutted the market, and
+living will be cheaper. The laborer can live on less; and, if we can
+manufacture at less cost, we shall be all right again."
+
+"But there seems no demand for goods," said Mr. Lawrence faintly.
+"Store-shelves are full. People are carrying last year's stock with no
+call for it. It has always seemed to me, Eastman, that a liberal policy
+to workmen brought its own reward. They are large consumers. Cut them
+down to mere food and shelter, and clothes are the first to go. In
+decent times your workman is ashamed of a ragged coat."
+
+"All very true, Mr. Lawrence; but, if there is no market, we must create
+one. Sell cheaper stock to new men. That will make a demand at once."
+
+"Undersell! We used to call that a cut-throat business, Mr. Eastman;"
+and a flush stained the fine face, now rather worn and thin.
+
+"It is what we must come to. There is next to no premium on gold, and
+the first man who touches bottom will be the lucky one, to my thinking.
+Cheap goods, cheap every thing, will be the next cry. The farmers must
+dispose of their wool, and labor must come down. Why, ordinary workmen
+have been living like princes."
+
+The delicate brows were drawn thoughtfully.
+
+"I always hated to grind workmen down to a bare subsistence," spoke the
+honest, loyal gentleman, as God made him. Trade had not warped body and
+soul. He was an aristocrat, if you please, and his home was as sacred to
+refinement and elegance as a ducal palace. A common person would have
+stood in his hall until his errand was done, and he would never even
+have asked a workman to take a seat in his office; but his soul was
+honorable, if haughty.
+
+"Let me manage it," with a confident nod. "We'll keep the topmost wave,
+as you will see."
+
+So to New York Horace Eastman went, and arranged for a large
+auction-sale of goods, which was a remarkable success, and created quite
+a ripple in the sea of stagnation. Then he contracted to deliver another
+lot by the first of January, at certain prices. And now either
+manufacturer must give up profits, or workman yield his margin, and be
+contented with daily bread alone.
+
+"There really was no need of workmen owning houses, having Brussels
+carpets and pianos," argued Eastman. "They were in some degree
+answerable for the hard times. Every one wanted to out-do his neighbor.
+They were not content to live as their fathers had lived; and, where the
+mothers wore print dresses, the daughters must have silk. They had gone
+on altogether too fast."
+
+Yet only a few years ago workingmen had been urged to put their money
+into homes. Rows of houses had been built for them, and sold on such
+ridiculously easy terms, only a trifle down. The interest would not be
+as much as rent. Then the fascinating shopkeeper had flaunted his wares
+in the faces of the thrifty housewives. "A good article is cheapest in
+the end. This Brussels will outwear two ingrain carpets, at a very
+little advance on the first cost. No moths will trouble it, once down it
+is there for years, saving worry and hard work;" and the buyer was
+persuaded. Then there must be new furniture, and so on to the end. Was
+it altogether their fault? The old things were passing away. The world
+was awaking from its Rip-Van-Winkle nap. There was to be a wider
+outlook, a liberal cultivation, a general rising of every one.
+
+So there had been years of plenty, and men had pulled down the old
+storehouses to build new ones.
+
+Such people as the Eastmans and the Lawrences could not economize at a
+moment's warning. The screws must be put on elsewhere.
+
+At first the workmen looked at each other in blank dismay. Winter was
+coming on--a hard one it bid fair to be. Coal had risen, and in spite of
+the abundant harvest the absolute staples of life had not much decreased
+by the time they reached the consumer. Coffees were high: pease, beans,
+and chiccory were sold at a reduction, to be sure, and you could get
+lumpy heavy flour that spoiled your bread, and poor butter, and teas
+that were colored and doctored; and this was cheap living.
+
+There was a stormy wrangle. Meetings were held, and speakers figured out
+the actual cost of living. Less than the present rates meant loss,
+privation, and want in the end. So a strike was determined upon.
+
+Jack Darcy, being foreman of one department, stood, as it were, between
+the upper and nether millstone, at present just escaping both. He
+thought it hard that the men should have this second reduction so soon,
+and it did seem to him reasonable that profits ought to yield a little,
+that there ought to be a sympathy between them. Personally, he should be
+comfortable enough; but if he had a wife and three or four children, a
+helpless, bedridden mother, or a drunken father, or a do-nothing
+brother, hanging upon him, what then?
+
+He advised a little moderation and patience. It might be better to take
+the wages now, and wait until spring--
+
+"They doant give up any thing, as we sees," broke in an elderly English
+weaver. "The great house is full of every thing, and coal eno' burning
+in the greenhouses to ripen a few bunches of grapes out of God's own
+season, as would keep many of us warm. Who puts our coal down a dollar
+in the ton, or takes it off of house-rent when wages come down? I'll
+work as cheap as the next one if ye'll gi' me a cheap house to live in
+and cheap beef and bread. I doant care for money in the savin's bank, or
+a house that they tax all out o' sight. When I'm old I'll go to the
+poorhouse, I will; but I'm danged if I like starvin' before then, and
+they a-ridin' over us in their carriages. I left 'em over yonder"--with
+a nod of the head--"for that."
+
+"What do you think of it?" asked a thin, hungry-looking man, fingering
+his Cardigan nervously. "See here! If I could have one more prosperous
+year, I'd be through the woods, have the house I've worked so hard for
+settled upon my old woman, and would be out of the reach of misfortune.
+But this thing hits me hard, it does."
+
+"I don't believe striking will succeed just now," said Jack candidly.
+"And it's a bad time. Two or three weeks lost time will more than cover
+the odds in wages."
+
+"I don't want to lose time. I'd rather keep straight on."
+
+"It's the principle of the thing," broke in another. "I'd lose six
+months before I'd give in an inch. I'd have struck the other time."
+
+There was a call for the overseers, and Jack left the group. Eastman was
+talking to several of the men in his office. A fine, portly figure he
+had, indicating rich living and good wines; a man still on the sunny
+side of forty, stout, rather florid, a full dark beard and hair, but
+with eyes that were light and furtive; eyes that could stare you out of
+countenance, and yet not meet yours ordinarily, with a frank, outward
+look. He always went handsomely dressed, and wore diamond shirt-studs,
+an expensive seal-ring, a substantial watch-chain with two or three
+costly charms. He had not a flashy look, but the sign and seal of
+gentlemanliness was wanting in that intensely selfish face.
+
+He had heard of the disaffection. There was not much to say except that
+the new scale of prices would go into effect next Monday morning. He
+never asked a man to work for any less wages than he, the workman,
+considered his services worth. Here was the work, and the wages Hope
+Mills could afford to pay. They could take it, or leave it. There were
+plenty of men at Coldbridge, thrown out by the failure of Kendrick &
+Co., who would be glad to come. He could fill any vacant place.
+
+But the ball grew and grew by handling. There were union-meetings and
+violent harangues, much of them truth, too, but badly and unwisely
+used. And the result was that the men demanded the old wages, were
+peremptorily refused, and struck. The great engine subsided, and a
+Sunday stillness reigned. Down at Hull's Iron Works the same proceedings
+were going on, but the saloons seemed to profit by it.
+
+Jack hung around the mill for a while, then went down stairs. The
+chilliness in the air made him draw his coat together by one button, and
+slip his hands into his pockets. He sauntered through several streets,
+nodding to one and another, or exchanging a few words. Once again his
+advice was asked.
+
+"I think you had better come to work to-morrow," he said. "Don't muddle
+your brains with beer or bad whiskey: that will not make the way any
+clearer."
+
+"A good enough lad!" was the surly comment, "but why grudge a man a sup
+of beer when he can't have wine like the big folks?"
+
+Jack had hardly planned for the enforced idleness. He did not want to go
+home and read, he could not call on Sylvie thus early in the morning,
+neither did he feel in the humor for argument with any of the men. So he
+stopped at the door of a small office, and turned the knob rather
+hesitatingly.
+
+"Hillo, Darcy, is that you? Come in, come in! Sullen gray day, isn't it?
+Off on a strike, eh?"
+
+Jack laughed,--the sound with no real music in it, the sort of
+lip-service merely.
+
+"Come in, old fellow; don't be afraid. I've neither pistol nor bludgeon,
+and I'll promise to treat you civilly."
+
+The man's accents were clear and curt, with a certain ring of out-door
+freshness,--a capital voice to travel with up mountain-sides and through
+forests. The face, too, indicated a kind of joyous strength; for the
+blue eyes were merry and baffling, the laughing lips a brilliant
+scarlet, the nose neither Grecian nor aquiline, but slightly
+_retroussé_; a bronze moustache with long curling ends that were
+undeniably red, and hair a little darker, slightly curling as well. A
+broad-shouldered man with the deep breathing of intense vitality;
+healthy nerves that could enjoy laziness to the full, as well as a brisk
+walk across the country.
+
+A glance at the interior showed the place to be a doctor's office. On
+one side a long case with glass doors above and drawers underneath,
+filled with bottles and books and papers, perhaps in not the most
+systematic order; at the farther end a fire in an open-front stove; a
+luxurious Turkish lounge covered with russet leather, and a bright wool
+blanket thrown carelessly over it; several capacious armchairs; and in
+one, with his legs stretched out on another, sat Dr. Philip Maverick,
+eight and twenty or thirty years old, perhaps.
+
+"How nice and cosey you are! I really did not know what to do with
+myself. Yes, we are all on a strike, I am sorry to say."
+
+"Bad time," and Maverick shook his head. "What's the prospect? Have a
+cigar."
+
+"The prospect is that the weakest goes to the wall, of course," answered
+Jack. "Maverick, I am dreadfully muddled on this point. I have thought
+of it all the week. It _is_ hard on the men. I know the general advice
+is to economize more closely, but how can you do it just at the
+beginning of winter? One cannot move to a cheaper tenement, fire and
+lights cost more, and provision is a little dearer. Low living in winter
+does not conduce to a healthy state in the spring. Then, on the other
+hand, if they are going to make such sales as they did last month, they
+cannot pay the wages, and realize what they consider a fair profit. But
+why shouldn't the Lawrences and the Eastmans and many others give up
+something, as well?"
+
+Jack turned an anxious face to his listener.
+
+"All you manufacturers have been crazy the last few years," he said,
+delicately shaking the ashes from his cigar. "The country was such an
+extensive purchaser through the war, that your dreams became Utopian.
+Then everybody came home with some money and no clothes, and the people
+were large consumers. Now everybody has been clothed, and the stores are
+full, and here is a glutted market. Over-production, my dear fellow."
+
+"Then I do believe it would be better to leave off for a while. Still
+that would not suit as well. Half a loaf is better than no bread, to a
+hungry man. But, after all," said Jack, knitting his brows, "I don't
+altogether believe in the cry of over-production. The boys of war times
+are men now. They are pushing in everywhere for work. They want food,
+shelter, raiment. There are a great many more people in this town than
+there were five years ago. Even if we only depended on the natural
+increase of population"--
+
+"But, you see, people are forever crowding into cities," interposed Dr.
+Maverick.
+
+"I have a fancy they do not come much faster than they are called,"
+returned Jack dryly. "See what we have been doing around here. The small
+outlying farms have been bought up by speculators, cut up, destroyed for
+farming purposes. Their owners with families of children had to go
+somewhere. 'Come to the mills and factories,' was shouted in their ears,
+and they came. Now they are here, depending on their labor for bread,
+and Eastman will bring fifty or a hundred more from Coldbridge; and in
+the spring, if there is any difficulty, some more will come. The old
+ones cannot go back to their farms if they would. Their fertile gardens
+lie cut up into waste squares, their fruit-trees have been despoiled:
+they must starve here, or tramp to some other crowded town, and perhaps
+starve there. Will your farmer take in half a dozen hands at a moment's
+notice? Can they put themselves down in any country place, and go to
+work?"
+
+Maverick studied Jack intently, and then gave a low whistle.
+
+"Upon my word, Darcy, you _have_ been going over the subject. Take the
+stump. And of course you go against capital?"
+
+"No, I don't," returned Jack shortly. "Only it does seem to me that
+there ought to be some place where capital and labor could strike hands.
+It appears to me, both have been to blame. We cannot condemn men for
+crowding into cities, when there has been a steady call for them. We do
+blame them for not laying up a little money against a rainy day; but
+many of them have. Look at the cottages that have been sold to
+workingmen. Look at the bank savings. To-day, perhaps, as many poor men
+could pay their whole indebtedness, according to the ratio, as the rich.
+But we fly at the laboring classes, when it is only human nature
+cropping out. Your millionnaire puts his money into whatever he thinks
+will bring him the greatest return; your poor man puts his capital, his
+capacity, health, and strength, where it will earn him the most money."
+
+"Well, I don't see but they are both right enough," said Maverick. "And
+unless you are running over into communistic ideas"--
+
+"I am not," was the decisive reply. "Some one much wiser than I said,
+ages ago, 'He among you that will not work, let him not eat:' yet," with
+a humorous laugh, "if the rule were strictly enforced, there would more
+than one go hungry, I'm thinking. The great consolation would be that
+the right man would suffer, not the innocent and guiltless."
+
+"I really do not see what you are driving at, Darcy," and the other
+studied him curiously.
+
+"Well, I told you in the beginning I was muddled. I don't pretend to see
+my way clear, only I think we have just begun the fight. It is as much
+of an irrepressible conflict as that other, for which so many brave men
+gave their lives. And one point in it no one seems to take note of. We
+are proud of the increase of population in our country. Every city,
+town, and hamlet boasts of it, and the depopulated places run to slow
+decay. We welcome these people; and yet they must eat to live, and the
+majority of them must work, or they will have nothing to eat. I think
+the most of them labor cheerfully, and my experience is that idleness is
+the worst foe of man. But, on the other hand, every year invention so
+protects and fortifies capital, that one must do a larger business or
+employ fewer men. In five years the condition of labor has greatly
+changed at Hope Mills, and in five years more it will change again. This
+is the inexorable law of nature, or, I ought to say, growing
+intelligence."
+
+"Then I should say we wanted wider markets and a better classification
+of labor."
+
+A quick light came into Jack's eyes.
+
+"I think you have hit it, Maverick," he answered. "But what is
+everybody's business is nobody's; and we are so apt to forget that the
+world does move, and the condition of things changes all the time," and
+Jack's eyes dropped thoughtfully.
+
+"See here, Darcy, take Brock's Hall, and talk to the men to-morrow
+night," began the doctor eagerly. "They will listen to you because to a
+certain extent you are in sympathy with them, one of their number; and
+you do seem to have some clear ideas on the subject. No: we'll say
+Wednesday night, and I will get out some posters."
+
+Jack laughed. "What shall I tell them? I can't see how to get about the
+remedy clearly myself. The trade-unions have not hit it either. When
+they say to a man, 'Because I will not work for a certain sum, you shall
+not,' they lean on a reed that will surely break, and pierce themselves.
+Hunger is stronger than theory. No: I shall have to give the point a
+more thorough study before I become a blatant apostle."
+
+Philip Maverick blew out a curling whiff of smoke, and looked at his
+visitor through it. Darcy gave him a curious feeling, as if a good deal
+of excellent material were running to waste, that if shaped and trained,
+and brought up to higher purposes, might be of much good service to the
+world. Did he realize it himself? He was twenty-four, and had a good
+position as things went; and Dr. Maverick had heard the women of the
+house were prudent and thrifty, and had a nice home. Was Darcy bounded
+in by conservatism, or afraid of losing? or was he honest when he said
+he did not know just what to do? Yet he did not look like the kind of
+man to go plodding all his days.
+
+"Darcy, you puzzle me!" he began abruptly. "With that great body of
+yours, those strong arms and hands that look as if they could wrest
+Nature's secrets from her mighty soul, with that brow, and the resolute
+mouth, it seems as if you ought to be in better business than making
+cloth: pardon me. You don't use up half your energy. You ought to be
+planning a ship-canal across Darien, or tunnelling mountains. You're the
+square man; and how upon earth did you ever get fitted so smoothly to a
+round hole?"
+
+Jack laughed, and told his story very simply. To him there was neither
+romance nor heroism in it, just a plain every-day sort of compulsion.
+The tunnelling would have been much more to his mind.
+
+"Go on with the problem," said Dr. Maverick abruptly. "In the next five
+years I think we will all have use for our wits. We are going to see
+another change in matters, that will require more wisdom than is needed
+in mere money-making. See here, I'm interested in the thing. Let us go
+out, and hear what the men say about it."
+
+Maverick rose, and put on his great-coat, and lighted another cigar.
+Then the two started together.
+
+Maverick had been in the town just six months. He had studied medicine
+in Philadelphia and Paris, taken a three-years ramble over Europe, when
+a college friend begged him to come to Yerbury, and step into a vacant
+place. And he had what he fancied an excellent reason for it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+THE men were, for the most part, in sullen earnest. From their narrower
+outlook they could not see that capital was on the eve of a great
+revulsion; that credit had been stretched to its utmost. They had their
+own pet plans, their own indolences and careless habits; and, as was
+natural, their own desires were the sweetest to them.
+
+There were labor-meetings and harangues. There was a good deal of talk
+about the rights of labor and the tyranny of capital; of the rich mill
+and factory owners living in palaces, and the men in hovels; of what
+England had done, and of what we surely were coming to,--the rich
+growing richer, and the poor poorer. But Jack remarked that of the
+speakers there was not one who owned a little plot of ground, or had a
+bank-account. Two of them were disaffected English weavers, a third an
+Irishman, and the only Yerbury man was a quick-tongued, but shiftless
+fellow who had started in business for himself, and failed; a kind of
+handy Jack-at-all-trades, and correspondingly good for nothing.
+
+Before the close of the week the men in Watkins's shoe-shop had struck.
+There was quite an army of them now. The saloons were filled daily and
+nightly. Jack thought, with a little grimness, that they might better
+save their money for next week's bread.
+
+Several of the men in his room dropped in to see what he thought; and
+the result was, that on the following Monday morning ten of them
+presented themselves with a tolerably cheerful demeanor, and accepted
+the situation. By Tuesday night every vacant place was filled with
+hungry, haggard-looking men from Coldbridge. They were jeered at, and
+annoyed in various ways: the Yerbury men were called rats and turncoats
+and cowards. The mills were driven. There was another great and
+successful sale; in fact, amid the failures and difficulties about, Hope
+Mills loomed up like a star of the first magnitude.
+
+In the spring Mrs. Eastman and Miss Lawrence went to Europe; and Fred
+joined a party of young men on a pleasure-tour through California. Even
+Mrs. Lawrence was persuaded to try Saratoga in the summer. The great
+house was muffled, and left in the charge of servants; but greenhouses,
+graperies, and all the elegant adjuncts were cared for as assiduously as
+ever. David Lawrence used to think it over. Sometimes he was tempted to
+sell out his palatial residence, but who was there to buy? Other men had
+been caught with just such elephants on their hands. The papers were
+full of offers "at an immense sacrifice."
+
+Business grew duller and duller. There was a very great overplus of
+every thing, it seemed, in the world. Harvests were so abundant, and
+prices so low, they were not worth the moving. Fruit lay and rotted on
+the ground: you could get nothing for it. And yet there were wan-eyed
+and hungry women and children who would have feasted regally on this
+waste. Mothers of families turned and patched and darned, and said there
+could be no new garments this winter, while store-shelves groaned under
+the accumulation of goods. Men were failing on this side and that; the
+Alton & West Line Railway stock came down with a crash, and banks were
+shaky. Hope Mills were closed for a month to make some repairs, as
+business was rather slow just now.
+
+There was a great quaking in real estate as well. The large
+property-owners held on stiffly: times would improve; land was worth
+more to-day than ever, because every year there were more people, and
+they required more houses, and the thing would somehow right itself.
+
+Jack had taken his two feminines off to a great roomy farmhouse, where
+they had a horse at their command. Sylvie and Miss Barry were summering
+at the White Mountains. Dr. Maverick found a good deal of sickness among
+the poorer classes, low fevers and various troubles, that he knew well
+enough came from insufficient diet. But what was to be done? There was
+so little work, so much lost time, the inexorable rent, and the
+importunate grocer's bill. Up on Hope Terrace the luscious grapes fell
+to the ground, and were swept up as so much litter; the fresh, lovely
+vegetables passed their prime unheeded, and were tossed in the
+garbage-pit.
+
+September came in hot and sultry. Hope Mills started, but many another
+place did not open. There was a strange, deathly-quiet undercurrent,
+like the awful calm before a thunder-shower. Wages took another tumble,
+and now no one had the courage to make much of a fight.
+
+The second week in October there came an appalling crash. Yerbury Bank
+closed its doors one morning,--the old bank that had weathered many a
+gale; that was considered as safe and stanch as the rock of Gibraltar
+itself; that held in trust the savings of widows and orphans, the
+balance of smaller business-men who would be ruined: indeed, it would
+almost ruin Yerbury itself.
+
+There was the greatest consternation. People flew up the street,
+bank-book in hand; but the dumb doors seemed only to give back a
+pitiless glance to entreaties. What was it? What had happened? "Every
+penny I had in the world was in it," groaned one; and the saddening
+refrain was repeated over and over, sometimes with tears, at others with
+curses.
+
+The old officers of Yerbury Bank had been men of the highest integrity.
+Some were dead; some had been pushed aside by the new, fast men who
+laughed at past methods, as if honor, honesty, and truth were virtues
+easily outgrown. Among these were the Eastmans. George was considered
+shrewd and far-sighted, and for two years had been one of the directors,
+as well as Horace. They paid the highest rate of interest, which
+attracted small savings from all around. There had been no whisper or
+fear about it, so solid was its olden reputation. There were people who
+would as soon have doubted the Bible.
+
+Two days after this, George Eastman sailed for Europe, on a sudden
+summons,--his wife's illness. There had been a meeting called, and a
+short statement made. Owing to sudden and unexpected depreciation in
+railway-bonds and improvement-bonds, and what not, it was deemed best to
+suspend payment for the present. In a few weeks all would be straight
+again, with perhaps a trifling loss to depositors. Already the directors
+had been very magnanimous. Mr. Eastman and several others had turned
+over to the bank a large stock of mortgages: in fact, the virtue of
+these men was so lauded that the losses seemed to be quite thrown into
+the background.
+
+But the examination revealed a sickening mass of selfishness and
+cupidity; transactions that were culpably careless, others dishonorable
+to the last degree. If the larger depositors had not been warned, there
+was certainly a remarkable unanimity of thought, as, for the past
+fortnight, they had been steadily drawing out their thousands. Wild
+railroad-speculations, immense mortgages on real estate that now lay
+flat and dead: scanty available assets that would hardly pay twenty
+cents on a dollar.
+
+This was what David Lawrence heard when he returned from St. Louis, a
+heavy-hearted, dispirited man. Two recent failures had borne heavily
+upon him. If last winter had been dull, there was no adjective to apply
+to this. His first step was to mortgage Hope Terrace. He had deeded it
+to his wife, unincumbered; but now it appeared his only chance of
+salvation. Mrs. Lawrence made a feeble protest at first, and demanded
+that Fred should be sent for, but there was no time. He met his pressing
+notes, and was tided over; but, oh! what was to be the end of it all?
+
+An indignation-meeting was called; and so high ran popular feeling, that
+new directors were appointed for the bank. Mr. Lawrence would have fain
+declined, but the community insisted. In this time of general distrust,
+they came back to the loyal gentleman, who, whatever his pride might be,
+had never deceived one of them.
+
+Alas! had he not enough perplexity of his own, that this new sorrow and
+shame should stare him in the face, bow him to the earth?
+
+Not his own son, thank God! not any blood kin; and yet his daughter's
+husband, his fair Gertrude, of whom he had been so proud years ago! He
+went back suddenly to that old time, and seemed to see them all again as
+little children, a merry household; and his pale, delicate Fred, for
+whom his heart beat so anxiously. How they had welcomed his coming!--a
+son to hand down the name, a son to lean upon in his old age. Nay, those
+were the extremes of life: why should not men count on their sons
+through the burden and heat of middle life? Why wait until the evening
+for comfort?
+
+Where was he now? Did he think of the one who had toiled that he might
+spend? for, now that he looked at it with awesome calmness, like a thing
+standing apart, it was one long, dreary pilgrimage of toil. To what end?
+Was gathering together riches the noblest use of a man made in God's
+image? Ah, how poor and paltry an aim!
+
+Surely he had done something beside that! A pleasant home of culture and
+artistic beauty, a circle of refined people gathered about him, the evil
+and want and woe of the world shut carefully out by silken curtains and
+plate-glass. His daughters he had been proud of. No _mésalliance_, no
+common tastes, as he had sometimes fancied that he had detected in that
+pretty little Sylvie Barry. And his son?
+
+There had been no positive evil in his life. A young man's follies
+perhaps, but few vices, if any, thank God! He would never be a
+libertine, a drunkard, a gambler, a thief. But was negative goodness
+all? These twenty-four years spent in shaping and culturing, but to what
+end? Could he call him back from his pleasure now, and have him take up
+this struggle grown too heavy to fight single-handed? and would he be
+manful, brave, clear-sighted, and unrepining? No. He felt the change
+would be too great. The soul so used to ease and luxury, fine linen and
+soft couches, delicate appetites, indolent habits, intellectual pursuits
+and graces, to be put in rough harness of business at once, would be
+cruel, nay, worse, like chaining humming-birds to a dray-wagon. And
+Irene, flitting like a butterfly through elegant _salons_, how would she
+be content with poverty and a cottage?
+
+And was this all the work of his own hands? Had he laid up no treasure
+against the time of adversity, made no homes into which he might be
+received in his trial hour? For two years he had struggled manfully,
+earnestly; and all this time at his very gate there had been a traitor,
+turning aside the stream until there was nothing but a barren desert
+left.
+
+The crown of his life was poverty and ruin! For himself he could give up
+luxuries, and come to plain fare; but what of the others? This last news
+had swept away all hope.
+
+He sought Horace Eastman, and confronted him with his deceit and wrong:
+somehow he could not bring himself to call it by its true name, crime,
+and fasten it on the man there and then. There was a high-bred delicacy
+about David Lawrence, a little of the old knightly chivalry that in past
+times held a man back from striking a fallen foe. And then he was not
+quite sure. The dishonorable work lay between the two men, and he
+forbore to blame this one wrongly.
+
+He need not have wasted his pity on this man, or have so nicely worded
+his charges. Horace Eastman stood there, surprised to be sure, for he
+had counted upon getting away before this turn in the wheel of fortune.
+For the last year, though he had been outwardly triumphant, and had
+carried business matters with a hopefully high hand, he had known what
+the end must be, and made ready for it with a kind of exultant elation
+at the sense of difficulties surmounted and deceptions carried on
+successfully. He really despised the man before him, that he had
+sufficient faith in human nature to be deceived. Starting from the
+principle that all men are rogues when opportunity offers, he felt no
+more guilty now, than if he had followed any other well-known law of
+nature. He stood before Mr. Lawrence bland and composed: there was no
+vulnerable point to strike, so he need put on no armor. Many a time he
+had reasoned the matter out to his own satisfaction, that the failure of
+Hope Mills was inevitable. What with losses, dull times, and extravagant
+living, it would surely come. That he owed his employer any thing in
+integrity and sharp fighting with adverse circumstances, would never
+enter the mind of such a man, so inwrapped in self.
+
+"There were some irregularities for your son-in-law's benefit," with an
+insolent half smile, half sneer. "He was to explain them to you. There
+have been accommodations for the mills occasionally. You were away: what
+else could I have done?"
+
+A cold shiver ran over David Lawrence. That part of courage allied to
+hope seemed crushed out of him as if by torture. Could he drag his
+daughter's name through the mire? for it would be that in any attempt to
+bring Eastman to the point of responsibility.
+
+"Do you know how much this--this defalcation will amount to?" He would
+call the monstrous thing by its right name now, though he shuddered in
+every limb, and a cold perspiration stood in great beads about his thin
+temples. A third person witnessing his hesitation might fancy him
+faltering and shrinking in the path of dishonor, rather than the other.
+
+"I really have no idea," bracing up his broad, full shoulders with
+portentous dignity: "George managed that matter. No doubt there are some
+memoranda," pausing with an indifferent air as if it were a matter of a
+few dollars.
+
+"The bank must be made good, Mr. Eastman."
+
+"Well; as you think best, as you think best;" nodding confidently, as if
+the repayment were the easiest thing in the world. "Let me see,--would
+it not be better to write to George?"
+
+What impression could he make upon this man? To appeal to conscience,
+justice, or any latent sense of right, would be a waste of words. With
+him success was right, and failure the blunder or sin. He was to "do
+well unto himself," to gain the world's verdict of approval. That solid
+flesh made by good eating and drinking, not debauchery or
+intemperance,--the man had few of these gross vices,--that complacent
+strength, that keen, concentrating force than could bend all energies in
+the one direction, never looking back when he had once set his mind to a
+thing, experiencing no remorse for those he crushed under his feet so
+long as he went to success over them, knowing no disinterestedness,
+trading simply upon the credulity, honor, and honesty of others: he had
+chosen him for some of these very qualities. Do men gather grapes of
+thistles?
+
+"Bring the books to my office. I shall go over them to-night," was the
+haughty command.
+
+Eastman bowed and withdrew. The books were sent by the errand-boy. Then
+he threw himself into his luxurious Russia-leather chair, rested his
+feet upon the edge of the desk, settled his hands comfortably in his
+pockets, and began to consider. A man would be foolish to stay and be
+caught in the ruin of a falling house. He might not be crushed, to be
+sure; but there would be the _débris_, and he had no fancy for clearing
+that away. Not only the mills, but Yerbury, would fall flat. He did not
+care to retire to a garden, and raise strawberries and corn: the clink
+of gold was more melodious to his ear than the voices of nature. There
+was a place for talent like his: the quick sight and keen discrimination
+were still able to give the rusty old world a lift out of ruts it had
+stopped in, and send it on with a rush. He had money in some
+silver-mines: he might go West, and attend to that, then take a run over
+to England, and see George. After all, was George really to blame for
+getting hold of his wife's portion? He had married Miss Lawrence,
+believing in good faith that she was the daughter of a millionnaire;
+and, if he had been sharp enough to save something from the general
+ruin, lucky for him!
+
+On the whole, Mr. Eastman thought it would be well to go to New York for
+a few days until the storm blew over. Jeffries the book-keeper could
+attend to all that was needed. Mr. Lawrence would find Hope Mills in a
+bad plight, to be sure; but he would not be the first man who had come
+to ruin. Mr. Eastman put his desk in order,--he never kept any tell-tale
+papers,--walked leisurely out of Hope Mills with that serene, impassable
+face and high heart no misfortune could daunt.
+
+David Lawrence spread the books open before him. It would be an endless
+task. One fact kept burning into his brain like fire. The Eastmans, or
+Hope Mills, owed Yerbury Bank seventy thousand dollars, the hard
+earnings and self-denials of poor and middle-class people. How it stung
+his haughty pride, unused even to dishonorable thoughts! If he had been
+an exact master, he had also been a just and honest one. Shame and
+disgrace stared him square in the face, where they would have but looked
+askance at Horace Eastman.
+
+It had been quite impossible to take cognizance of every thing after the
+business grew so unwieldy. Then he thought of his son again with
+passionate longing. Never had he so wanted some of his own kin to lean
+upon, to take counsel with, to consider what must be done toward saving
+honor: that was no social figment with him, but a deep, heaven-abiding
+truth.
+
+Heaven! By some strange turn of thought it entered his mind. He was so
+tired, he had been so tired for months and months, so engrossed with
+cares and business, that he had hardly stepped inside a church. How they
+used to go in the old days; how proud he had been of his four pretty
+children, of his tall handsome girls, and his manly son! Respectability,
+and setting a good example,--these had been his motives for
+church-going. Bits of sermons came back to him: how strange that he
+could remember them! There was a rest from labor, a refreshing of soul.
+Oh, how dark and arid, how confused and chaotic, his felt! Was there a
+something he had never known?
+
+Then he pulled himself together mentally, roused his dreaming brain, and
+said something must be done. Fred must come back, and face the terrible
+truth. As well send for him now.
+
+He wrote out a message, and rang the bell. A tall, slim youth answered
+it.
+
+"I want this telegram sent immediately," he said in his quiet tone of
+command. "Is Farrell anywhere about?"
+
+"I can take it, sir, if you please: I often do."
+
+"Very well."
+
+Back to the books again with their long lines of figures. Did he think
+he would find the shame and ruin here in bold black and white? He
+studied them until they all ran together, and his brain seemed to become
+a mass of luminous light with black motes floating about in it. The
+tense agony abated. Strange visions haunted him, frivolous fancies, and
+wonders that had puzzled him in boyhood; heroic fragments of bygone
+declamation; the incidents of a week ago; a picture of some bold
+scenery, and he in the cars, whirling by.
+
+"Am I going crazy?" he asked with a ghastly expression. Then he took
+several turns about the room, listened to the noise of the great engine,
+and assured himself that he was sane.
+
+Had he better go home? He was so tired! In all his life he had never
+been so utterly exhausted. Then in a sudden, fretful mood of
+contradiction he wondered he should think of fatigue when his limbs felt
+strong, and his body knew no physical pain.
+
+"I must shake it off!" he declared resolutely. Of what avail would be
+going home to a wife's peevish complaints, and sit by himself to study
+out this tangle? As well stay here, and master it. And that palace
+yonder was home, and these were the comforts for which he had spent his
+years and his energies! This was what he had laid up. An inheritance
+incorruptible--why would these things come back to him?
+
+The mill-bell began its clang. He listened to the tramp through the
+passage-ways, the confusion of voices. He went to the window. The great
+gates for the work-hands were around on the other side; but he could see
+the motley procession filing down the street. Not gay and cheerful as in
+bygone days: they seemed to drag along, these girls and women in shabby
+clothes, their shawls drawn around their shoulders. Old men and
+boys--why, where had vigorous middle life disappeared? So many faces had
+a hard, discontented look, that pierced him like the sharp point of
+ingratitude. Had he not brought himself to ruin to give the people
+employment? If he had shut down the mill three years ago, he would have
+been a rich man.
+
+Well, why had he not? Was it thought for them? Had the prospect of their
+starving lain heavily on his soul?
+
+Ah, the love of money-getting, the fiend of covetousness! But what would
+these people have done? Some one had once said, "What is that to thee?
+Follow thou me." Was it in a sermon?
+
+He lighted the gas, and went on wearily with his books. Some one opened
+the door softly, and peered in. It was Farrell, the day-man. When he saw
+Mr. Lawrence he touched his cap respectfully.
+
+"Pardon me, sir: I saw a light"--
+
+"Yes, I am going to stay--all night, I think: I shall be busy. When does
+the night-man come?"
+
+"At seven, sir."
+
+"I will send a note up to Hope Terrace, Farrell. Could you take it?"
+
+The man thought of his long day's work and his waiting supper. "Yes," he
+answered rather reluctantly.
+
+"Stop in, then, when you go."
+
+Farrell went off grumbling. He would go home to supper first, that he
+would. These men had no souls. That long walk-- Some people always rode
+in chaises, were born with silver spoons in their mouths, and looked on
+the rest of the world as mere lackeys!
+
+There was some wine in the closet, and Mr. Lawrence took a glass to
+clear his brain. He rarely used it save at dinner. Then back to the
+tormenting books,--columns of business that appeared incredible now. How
+had all this money slipped away?
+
+Farrell tapped, and came in.
+
+"Jackson's here now, sir. Is the note ready?"
+
+"Yes. There is some change. Get a hack, Farrell: it is too far to walk.
+Did Mr. Eastman"--
+
+There was so long a pause that Farrell said,--
+
+"Mr. Eastman went to New York. He said he might not be back to-morrow."
+
+Mr. Lawrence nodded, as if that were sufficient. He would not peer into
+the man's business.
+
+"If you should want any thing, sir, Jackson will be at hand," said the
+man kindly; for the thin, pale face, and strange, nervous light in the
+eyes startled him.
+
+"Jackson," he began, when outside, "Mr. Lawrence is going to stay a bit,
+maybe all night. He has a great pile of books before him; but I'm afraid
+he's queer some way. His eyes look wild and strange. Keep a lookout,
+will you"--
+
+"You don't mean that he's likely to shuffle? Are things as bad as that?
+Has he got a pistol?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure. Maybe I'm wrong;" and Farrell counted over the
+money in his hand. "Anyhow, I would walk up and down this hall, and
+listen."
+
+Jackson nodded, and Farrell went his way; yet now he thought the brisk
+walk would not hurt him. Jackson heeded his bidding, but all was quiet.
+Once he went in the next room, and climbed up to a high sliding window,
+used for ventilation. Mr. Lawrence sat there poring over the books. At
+twelve it was the same. Jackson tolled off the hour of midnight. Every
+thing was safe in the great building. Then he settled himself in an
+easy-chair, and presently fell into a doze.
+
+Meanwhile Mr. Lawrence studied the books in a dazed, bewildered way.
+Here and there a balance had been struck, and it all looked fair. But
+there was a terrible wrong somewhere!
+
+The figures danced before his eyes in lurid lights and grotesque shapes,
+with grinning faces, flying, whirling, in a wild, demoniac waltz. The
+room was full. The procession he had watched to-night winding out from
+the mill, stopped and jeered, and pointed skinny fingers at him. Then
+he was at the bank, and they came in troops, wringing their hands, and
+cursing him. Strange tales that he had read mixed with them in
+inextricable confusion. Pictures of the past hurried by with panoramic
+distinctness; and hark! what was that? The grand trump of the Judgment
+Day? It tolled and tolled again, like a thunder-peal. Was any one dead?
+
+He was so tired! He put his arms down on the desk, and leaned his face
+on them. If he could sleep off this intolerable weariness!
+
+He was a boy again, wading through the limpid brook, stepping from stone
+to stone, and sometimes plashing over. Was that the dried sweetness of
+balsam,--the pungent odor of pennyroyal and water-mint,--the clean,
+resinous fragrance of the pines? Out there were lily-pads,--great
+golden-hearted chalices, with long, sinuous greenish-pink stems under
+the shady, transparent water. How cool and peaceful! The sky overhead
+was of palest blue with white flecks, and somewhere a bird was singing.
+If he could go to it; if he could stay amid all this sweet quiet, and
+forget-- What was it he wanted to forget? Not his little Fred, surely!
+How proud he should be of him in his manhood. What a help and comfort!
+
+There was a strange, sudden darkness. The head drooped a little one
+side, and the visions had come to an end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+WHEN Farrell returned to his post in the morning, Jackson reported Mr.
+Lawrence asleep in the office. No one thought of him again until about
+ten o'clock, when some protested notes came in. Jeffries knocked at the
+door, opened it softly, spoke, but received no answer; then stepped
+nearer, and peered curiously at the face. It was ghastly white, the eyes
+wide open and staring, and with a shriek Jeffries alarmed the whole
+establishment.
+
+Old Dr. Lecounte came, pronounced him dead, and then sent for Dr.
+Maverick, to whom he had taken a great liking. Between them both they
+found a faint sign of life; and he was removed to his elegant mansion on
+Hope Terrace, where his wife went into immediate and violent hysterics.
+They remained several hours, and decided it to be that terrible death in
+life, entire paralysis of brain, nerve, and muscle. He might linger some
+days; he might drop away any moment.
+
+Horace Eastman, looking over the news items the next morning, saw this
+account, and returned at once to Yerbury. Certainly fortune had favored
+him. Affairs were in wild confusion. He learned that a telegram had been
+sent to young Mr. Lawrence, and an answer received. He would be back
+next Monday. Mrs. Minor came up, and brought an experienced nurse.
+
+The mill kept open until Saturday. Then Mr. Eastman called the men
+together.
+
+He was very much puzzled to know what to do, he said. He had resigned
+his position as superintendent of the mills, nearly a month ago; but
+Mr. Lawrence had begged him to stay on until he could come to some
+decision. The affairs were in a very embarrassed condition, and now
+suspension was imperative. What Mr. Lawrence would have done, he could
+not tell; but he did not feel justified in taking the responsibility. He
+was most truly sorry--he could say it from his heart--for those whose
+cheerful faces and light steps he had watched year after year, until he
+came to have a friendly feeling for them all; and he was shocked at the
+result of all this trouble to his dear friend, to whom he was bound by a
+deeper tie than that of mere business. But there had been two years of
+unparalleled depression, and Mr. Lawrence had made a brave fight. No one
+beside himself knew all the difficulties that had beset his old friend's
+path. It was not only here in Yerbury that trade was dull: it was from
+the Atlantic to the Pacific. England, Germany, and France were suffering
+as deeply as ourselves. Production had been overdone by most of the
+employers using their best efforts to keep their hands at work in the
+face of a falling market, or no market at all. Shelves were packed with
+goods everywhere. We were on the eve of a great change, and it would be
+some time before values would become stable again. If the balance of
+trade (high-sounding, but imperfectly understood term) could once more
+turn in our favor; if we could export our surplus goods, and find new
+markets,--as no doubt we would,--every shop and factory would soon be
+ringing with the cheerful sound of labor. It would be a hard winter; but
+he, for one, believed the spring would open auspiciously, that business
+would revive, homes be prosperous, and every heavy heart light. Let them
+all take courage for their own future and that of Hope Mills in the
+hands of its young master. He regretted deeply that there was no money
+to pay them with to-night; but that would doubtless be attended to
+soon. He wanted to bid them a cordial good-by, and beg them to stand by
+young Mr. Lawrence.
+
+There was some rather faint cheering. Troubled eyes questioned
+despondent eyes; what were they to do with winter coming on? First it
+was the bank, now the mills, and what next God only could tell.
+
+Fred Lawrence reached Yerbury Monday evening; and at midnight the faint,
+fluttering soul of his father passed over that mighty river. There had
+been no return to consciousness. Mrs. Lawrence still lay in her darkened
+room, unable to bear any sound beyond that of the trained nurse.
+
+To say that Fred was shocked, would feebly express his emotion. He had
+never dreamed of his father's dying,--never dreamed of any thing like
+misfortune happening to him, of any keener suffering than some temporary
+annoyance. He felt quite helpless. His old philosophies did not inspire
+him with courage, or open a way out of this dark present. There was to
+be a funeral; there were business complications; some one had to think
+of the future; the mill was shut up, the fortune swept away, and he had
+been stranded on a strange shore, knowing not which way to turn.
+
+Eastman was still in Yerbury. He was intensely sympathetic with the
+bereaved family. In fact, now that he would never have to meet the eye
+of the man he had so deeply wronged, his spirits rose, his pity
+overflowed. Fred was quite touched by it. Hamilton Minor, with his
+rather brusque business ways, jarred against his sorrow.
+
+He was rather testy with Mr. Eastman. "For the life of me, I can't see
+how things have come to this pass," he said sharply. "Hope Mills has
+been considered as sound as a nut,--one of the surest places in the
+country. Mr. Lawrence has made thousands and thousands. I have known a
+good deal about his affairs."
+
+"It is the result of a large-hearted philanthropy,--of keeping poor
+devils at work when there was no demand for goods, so that they should
+not starve. I should have closed out the concern two years ago. When you
+begin to lose, it is time to get out,--not wait until every stiver is
+gone. But, if ever there was a noble man, it is our dead friend David
+Lawrence."
+
+His chest swelled as he pronounced this eulogy, and he laid his white
+hand sympathetically on his waistcoat.
+
+"What is all this bank muddle about?"
+
+"I really don't know. Heavy real-estate business"--
+
+"And you a director!" interrupted Minor, with an unpleasant quickness.
+
+"I have had so much on my hands that I did not pay strict attention to
+it, I must confess. You know, Minor, what a tremendous shrinkage there
+has been in values: it seems to me as if the bottom had fallen out of
+every thing. I have an interest out in Nevada that I am anxious to look
+after, and should have gone a year ago, but Lawrence begged me to hold
+over until matters brightened a little. He was so sure times would
+improve. By Jove! I think they grow worse and worse!"
+
+"And Fred knows no more than a baby!" said Minor, in a tone of contempt.
+"You'd be a help to him, Eastman, if you would stay and go over
+accounts."
+
+"I don't know about that," shaking his head slowly. "The books are all
+on the square, as you will see. If one could only make money as easily
+as one can add up that which has been made and spent!" and Eastman gave
+a little laugh.
+
+"But it cannot be a total loss. The house, I know, is settled upon Mrs.
+Lawrence. And the mill-property"--
+
+"Mortgaged for all it is worth in such times as these. Perhaps I ought
+not to speak of it, but George was in a little difficulty which the old
+gentleman tided over. Too much real estate, Minor!"
+
+Hamilton Minor had no great amount of confidence in the man before him;
+but then, he did not have in any one. He was on a little of the paper,
+and just now he felt exceedingly dubious about it. Some arrangement
+ought to be made whereby members of the family who had stood by Mr.
+Lawrence ought not to be losers.
+
+The funeral was strangely quiet and solemn; I was about to add, select.
+The mill overseers and officers were formally invited. Fred had a
+feeling about the men,--it seemed as if they ought to form a procession;
+but the walk to the cemetery was a long one, and Mrs. Minor decisively
+negatived any plan that took in the "rabble." The coffin lay in the
+spacious drawing-room, where friends and acquaintances, in the same set,
+nodded solemnly, and uttered a few words of well-bred condolence. The
+mourners were up-stairs. The few coaches were filled with men, a little
+group stood around the open grave, and David Lawrence passed out of
+mortal sight,--his life-work all done. Had the toil been worth the
+reward?
+
+The next day Eastman left for New York, and his stay there was brief. He
+knew what would be surmised after much trouble and searching, but it
+could not be positively laid at his door. And with a cheerful heart he
+set out to seek a new fortune.
+
+To the great surprise of Mr. and Mrs. Minor, they found Hope Terrace
+mortgaged. Mrs. Lawrence could talk of nothing, could not endure the
+confusion of voices in her room. Some trustees were appointed to
+investigate the whole affair, for Fred was as ignorant as a child of all
+pertaining to the mill.
+
+The examination disclosed a pitiable state of affairs. George Eastman
+had built up Yerbury on borrowed capital, lived on it in luxury,
+speculated, lost and won like any other gaming. He had persuaded each
+individual that he was on the high road to wealth. There had been a
+peculiar fascination about the man; or is it that the appeal to greed
+and covetousness is so much more convincing than that to honor and
+truth, that the baser impulses are quicker with their response? It was a
+great bubble upon credit, and carried with it the seeds of
+self-destruction. True, the bank held mortgages on rows of flimsy-built
+houses where walls were cracking apart, foundations settling, plumbing
+in such a condition that it was a hotbed of disease. They would not
+cover the indebtedness. The available cash had been drawn out by large
+depositors, the best bonds and stocks surreptitiously sold. And with all
+this there was a defalcation traceable to Hope Mills or the Eastmans.
+The money had gone in that direction. On the other hand, it was proven
+by the income of Hope Mills, and the amount paid out for labor, that
+there was no reason why they should not be solvent to-day.
+
+Lavishly as the Lawrences had spent money, they had not taken it all. No
+one could or did accuse David Lawrence of private speculation. Minor had
+once tried his best to induce him to join in some enterprises, but
+failed. It was an easy matter to blame the Eastmans for every thing:
+they were away, and could not deny the charge. But had all these
+bank-officials clean hands? They had been given a sacred trust, the
+savings of the poor, the estates of widows and orphans; they had winked
+at investments of the most precarious kind; they had paid a high rate of
+interest, exacting a higher, which had been gladly given for a brief
+while. Safe principles of finance had been quite ignored: the new era
+was different from any thing that had ever happened to the world before,
+and required new men, and now they would have to go back to the old way.
+Surely there is not much that is new under the sun!
+
+To bring back the Eastmans, and try them for their crimes, seemed hardly
+worth while. More than one man in Yerbury felt that it was safer to
+berate them at a distance, than meet their damaging retorts face to
+face. They could not get back any money. Hope Mills was ruined beyond a
+peradventure, and the affairs of the bank were best wound up as speedily
+as possible. There could be no large stealings for a receiver,
+consequently no occasion for delay. The sooner the wrecks and _débris_
+were cleared away, the quicker the moral atmosphere would be purified.
+There are wounds for which the instant cautery means life, the careful
+hesitation death.
+
+And now every one looked at the exploded bubble in surprise, and cried
+angrily, "What has become of the money? Yesterday we were rich: where
+has it gone to? Six months ago we had twenty per cent dividend: why are
+these stocks worthless now? Why have railroads and shops and mills
+ceased to pay? What sudden blight has fallen over the world?"
+
+Alas! There had been no money. Sanguine credit had traded on the honor
+and faith and nobleness of man toward man, and, behold, it had all been
+selfishness and falsehood and dishonor. Truth and virtue had been
+scorned and flouted in the highway, because forsooth there was a more
+brilliant semblance. Like a garment had men wrapped themselves in it,
+and now it was but rags and tatters.
+
+There could be nothing extracted from the wreck of Hope Mills. Indeed,
+Fred would have given up a rich inheritance to save his father's honor,
+had it been his. To go on at Hope Terrace was madness. The fires and the
+servants would cost enough to maintain a family. Mrs. Minor and Fred
+quarrelled because Mrs. Lawrence had been persuaded to mortgage the
+place: she simply groaned and moaned, and wondered why they must worry
+her about every thing!
+
+"I hope Irene will have the good sense to marry abroad," said Mrs.
+Minor. "And, Fred, what a pity you haven't a profession! What can you
+do?"
+
+Last winter it had been, "my brother, De Woolfe," whom all the young
+ladies in Mrs. Minor's set were wild over.
+
+Fred gave a sigh.
+
+"I suppose I _can_ do something to earn my bread," he replied bitterly.
+
+"Fred," began Agatha suddenly, "there is that Miss Tillon. You know how
+absolutely wild she was over you last winter! Her fortune is all in her
+own right, and it is a solid one too. Hamilton has had occasion to know
+about it. You cannot do a better thing than marry her."
+
+Fred glanced up. His sister was in sober earnest. To be bargained off
+like a woman, for a bare existence! Miss Tillon was at least thirty, of
+a suspicious, jealous turn of mind, well-enough looking perhaps, but
+narrow, with no intellectual culture, no approval of any thing beside
+her money. He had been amused at her preference. Possibly she might
+marry him, and rescue him from the pains of poverty. And he?
+
+He might be vain and trifling, but he was not sunk so low in cowardice.
+His face flushed a vivid scarlet.
+
+"I am not quite prepared to become chargeable to a woman yet," he said
+in a cold, calm voice.
+
+"What nonsense! Some man will marry her, and get the money," Agatha
+retorted decisively.
+
+"Not much of hers;" in a dry, contemptuous tone.
+
+"You know what I mean. She will live in style, and travel; and her
+husband"--
+
+"Will be the laughing-stock of his friends," interrupted Fred angrily.
+"No, Agatha, I will be dependent upon no one for my bread: if I cannot
+earn it I will starve."
+
+"Oh, very well!" with a scornful smile. "I only hope Rene will be wiser.
+They are in Paris--I heard from Gertrude last week. She was very much
+shocked, of course. I hope George has not been foolish enough to let
+every thing slip through his fingers. Who could have believed that
+Horace Eastman would turn out such a swindler! Papa trusted him
+altogether too far. It does not answer to be too noble and disinterested
+in this world."
+
+Fred made no reply to this charming bit of worldly wisdom. His delicate
+and high opinion of self had received a crushing blow. Married off, out
+of hand, to save him from poverty!
+
+Why should his thoughts turn to Sylvie at that moment? Something stirred
+within him, an insane desire to win her--oh, mad enough, surely! He
+could, he _would_, do something! There was all his education and talent;
+yes, he really had talent. He would make himself famous. She should see
+that he had the right kind of stuff in him. He would climb up the hard
+hill in his lonely, sorrowful, proud way, until she, looking on, would
+come to repent her unjust verdict!
+
+He shut himself up in his study, and made some very fair translations
+from his beloved poets. There were better ones, doubtless; and, after
+all, fame might not lie in that direction. There was physical science,
+much in vogue, and entertaining: no doubt he could do something in that
+line. There were theories and speculations, there were old
+philosophies--surely the ground was rich everywhere.
+
+It was very poor at Yerbury, though there were theories enough. But,
+when you took them for temporal meat and drink, they were not a
+fattening diet. Men lounged in the streets and on the corners, or, worst
+of all, in saloons, talking themselves angry and hoarse over the bad
+luck, and blaming every one right and left. Women sat at home, and cried
+over losses and crosses, cooked their scanty dinners, and retired to bed
+early to save fuel. The poorer ones went out to a day's washing, glad to
+get that. Boys played cards, read dime-novels, and dreamed of wonderful
+fortunes at the West: some few stout-hearted chaps set out to seek
+them.
+
+There were panaceas. Mr. Rantley preached the rankest communism and
+broadest free-thinking. Capital, i.e., money, was the tyrant of the
+world, and always would be until the laborers of the world rose up and
+claimed their rights. Why should this man starve when the man over
+yonder had his store-house full of flour that he was holding for higher
+prices? What right had he, except the might? So long as men were allowed
+to hoard up these monstrous fortunes, they could control the market, and
+would! What were the starving thousands to them? What if half the
+provision in the country rotted on the owner's hands? he could get as
+much or more money for the other half. What if the miners were at work
+only a small portion of time? could not the amount of coal be managed
+more easily, and prices kept up? Capital desired to keep production at
+the lowest ebb, because it could be more conveniently mastered. The only
+remedy was to give every man a chance, to break up these colossal
+fortunes, to have no great mills and mines; to have smaller capitalists,
+fewer hours of labor, to divide the immense hoards among the poor and
+needy until there should be no more want or suffering!
+
+The Rev. Mr. Bristow shook his head at this modern anti-Christ. Every
+thing was anti-Christ, with Mr. Bristow, that went outside of his own
+narrow creed. He preached some stirring sermons. It was God's judgment
+upon them for their sins. They had forgotten him, they had been led away
+by false gods; they had made golden calves, and worshipped them; their
+sons had strayed into infidelity; their daughters had flaunted in gay
+attire, with plaiting of the hair, and dancing away their immortal
+souls; and now they must return to their God, to the meat that perisheth
+not, to the bread of life, and to the well of living water. There must
+be such a returning to God, such a revival of religion, that the world
+would be swept clear and clean out of its old sins!
+
+"Splendid sermon! splendid sermon!" said Deacon Boyd, rubbing his hands
+together unctuously. "Parson's hit the nail just on the head. We've all
+strayed out of the way. I think a good old-fashioned revival'll set us
+straight sooner'n any thing. Nothing like coming to the Lord on the
+spot! This very week we ought to begin."
+
+"I think you're right, Deacon Boyd," said grave Mr. Rising. "I, for one,
+will take hold of the work."
+
+They called the church together, and began. I will not disparage the
+work. There were hungry souls that seemed fed with spiritual food,
+aching hearts that were bound up, reckless minds that paused on the
+verge of desperation. But there were others who wondered, even in the
+midst of the deacon's prayer, how it was that the Lord warned him to
+draw his twenty thousand dollars out of Yerbury Bank a week before the
+failure, when there were only he and his wife to keep, and let poor Mrs.
+Wharton with her five helpless children lose her husband's
+life-insurance, her little all, by putting it in the bank just a
+fortnight before the failure. Special providences, whereof Deacon Boyd
+discoursed so eloquently, happened oftener to the rich than to the poor.
+
+However, they prayed and fasted and repented. To many, any strong
+emotion that took them out of the wearing round of thought was a
+blessing.
+
+Jack Darcy, with a curious disbelief in every thing, went the rounds,
+and dropped into Maverick's office to talk it over. Sylvie was not home
+this winter: she and her aunt spent it in Philadelphia. Then Jack grew
+dull and restless. If the end of all things had come in Yerbury, he
+ought to try some other place in the great world.
+
+It was settled presently quite by accident. A cousin of Mrs. Darcy's,
+one of your strong, thorough, energetic women, came to spend the winter
+with them; and Jack's mother, watching the throes of her son's soul, a
+little afraid of socialism, materialism, and all the other isms,
+proposed that Jack should take a journey West or South, and have a
+glimpse of the men and things beyond this narrow boundary.
+
+"Grandmother grows feebler all the time now; and, being past ninety, we
+can't expect to keep her much longer. Of course, Jack, when she is gone,
+I shall have no tie but you; and, if it suited you to settle elsewhere,
+I should not object. You are young and ambitious, and I ought to think
+of your advancement. There never has been a time since your poor
+father's death that you could be so well spared;" yet the mother sighed.
+"And you have been a good son, Jack: you have given up many a wish
+cheerfully to two poor old women."
+
+"Don't call yourself an old woman," said Jack almost gruffly, then he
+stooped to kiss her.
+
+His heart gave a great boyish bound.
+
+"Good-by, old Yerbury!" he cried exultantly one morning, quite sure of a
+new, glad life elsewhere.
+
+"Though I shall be sorry to leave Sylvie and Maverick," he thought.
+"These old towns do grind the very soul out of a fellow who has any
+desire or energy in him. The world isn't all alike, I know," giving his
+chestnut mane a toss like a young, mettlesome colt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+IF Jack Darcy had taken his tour for pure pleasure and enjoyment, the
+time was ill chosen in every respect. Winter was bad enough; but an
+unprosperous one, full of financial clouds and storms, and scurrying
+drifts of distrust, was not calculated to make the way brilliant.
+
+But he had one glorious enjoyment to begin with. He went straight to
+Niagara, and took his first glimpse of it in its awesome majesty of
+frost and ice. From that high exaltation we call worship, through every
+intermediate degree and sense of beauty, to that of a delicate and
+minute fairy dream. The winter sun radiating glowing tints, with skies
+of sapphire and opal, the great stretches of wordless wonder, bound hand
+and foot like some old Norse god amid his ice-fields; the one night when
+a full moon silvered it with prismatic grandeur, and made of the
+glittering ice-crystals entrances to diamond-mines of fabled genii,
+touching him weirdly with this unearthly splendor; and the next solemn
+day, when the very sky seemed chilled to unfallen snow, and the
+ice-caverns turned a dull blue, reminding him of descriptions of polar
+scenery, and filling his soul with a sense of boundless solitude.
+
+Then he began his tour of the cities. He had taken some books along,
+whether to perplex or make clear his brains, he hardly knew. He pored
+over pages of Adam Smith, he turned to Ruskin for comfort, he picked up
+Brassey's figures and experience, and Stuart Mill's strong, kindly
+reasoning, and digested them in his own slow, practical, much-befogged
+way, trying to solve the problems.
+
+It was a great and wonderful world. Little Yerbury had hardly any true
+idea what a mite she was, when one looked at the immense labor-fields of
+the West and apparently endless resources. Yet there was the same
+depression out here. Shops and mills closed, for sale, and to let; some
+running on three-quarter time, with half the number of workmen, others
+going on at ruinous competition; anxious, moody-eyed men walking the
+streets, or grouped on corners, their coats and hats shabby, their
+beards untrimmed, old boots and shoes with the heels tramped over at one
+side, or a bit of stocking showing through the leather. "No man hath
+hired us," said their despondent faces plainer than any words. Young men
+and boys offering to do any kind of work for any kind of pay, sleeping
+in station-houses; relief-stores, church charities and soup-houses,
+homes for the friendless, and all such places, filled to overflowing,
+and new hordes crowding in every day.
+
+Yet there seemed to be no lack of money. It lay in banks, it went
+begging for good security. Where was there any good security? Every inch
+of ground, every building, stocks and furniture, were covered by
+mortgages. Stock companies trembled in the balance, and went down like
+card-houses. Everybody wanted to sell every thing, but there were no
+buyers. Everybody wanted to work, but there was nothing to do. Everybody
+was in a chronic state of grumbling; there was no profit to be made in
+farming, in manufacturing, in any thing. There had been too much
+over-production, for which every one blamed his neighbor. The great
+warehouses were full of grain, the mills loaded up with iron, the
+factories full of cloth and flannels and cottons; and yet people were
+going hungry and in rags. It was puzzling and painful. We had bought too
+much abroad, and sent the money out of the country, the balance of trade
+would make it all right again; there had been over-production, and now
+there must be a vigorous repression; there had been too much
+speculation in real estate; there had been too great an accumulation of
+capital in the business centres; we were fast verging to the state of
+older countries, where there were the few rich and the many poor: there
+was a surplus of labor, and was there not also a surplus of people?
+
+There was another sad side to it all, that made Jack's heart ache. These
+young men and boys tramping through the country, begging or worse,
+swearing, telling foul stories, herding together anywhere, corrupting
+one another's morals, smoking, drinking,--somehow they managed to obtain
+these indulgences,--looking furtively out of languid, sodden eyes, their
+faces hard and worn, their voices coarse and gruff; and they were to be
+the next generation of what?--loyal and honest citizens, or jail-birds?
+
+It was not all so sombre. At five and twenty a healthy, unwarped nature
+is many-sided. There were countless marvels to see and to study. He
+stumbled over people who had known Mr. Lawrence, and who had a kindly
+feeling for a Hope Mills man. And he had done something more in the last
+eight years than merely learn how to make cloth. He had dipped into
+chemistry, and knew a little about dyes; he had studied up in grades and
+kinds of wool, and was interested in labor processes. With fresh
+opportunities he looked into it more closely, observed new methods of
+decreasing waste, or saving labor. He was a well-informed,
+well-mannered, sensible fellow; and occasionally some one would say of
+him, "A smart, long-headed chap, that! The world will hear of him some
+day, or I am mistaken."
+
+He kept looking about for some place where, if the world did not hear of
+him, he might get a chance in some enterprise where he could take a few
+steps upward. There certainly were more men than places. The world was a
+bee-hive, surely; but alas for those who swarmed out in such times as
+these!
+
+After he had gone as far West as Minnesota, he went down the
+Mississippi to a different kind of civilization in the quaint old
+cities. It was none the less heart-sickening. He found traces of the
+war, that we had almost forgotten, fresh at every step; still it seemed
+as if the hand of Nature was much more bounteous than at the bleak
+North. Yet Bishop Heber's old missionary hymn rang continually through
+his mind. Even amid the Florida orange-groves, and the great
+cotton-fields, some cause brought about baleful results, in the unwisdom
+of man.
+
+Then to the cities of luxury and thrift, where wealth was strong enough
+to crowd poverty out one side, where art and music and cultivation made
+a subtile atmosphere that somehow recalled the Lawrences. He lingered
+and quaffed delightsome draughts, and at last tore himself away from
+seductive sights and sounds. In a dim, half-defined way the delights
+came to him. Would he ever be stoic enough to spurn them?
+
+Last of all, home with its sweet welcomes, its cleanliness and order,
+its familiar furniture and cheerful fires, its easy-chairs and quaint
+fragrant air, as if every thing had lain in dried rose-leaves; the
+mother love and tears, the smiles out of dimmer eyes, and cousin Jane
+Morgan's hearty greeting; to say nothing of his delicious supper and his
+own bed, where sleep seemed awaiting him with open arms.
+
+His mother had written a good deal of Yerbury gossip to him, but it had
+been mostly of the pleasant order. When he dropped into Maverick's
+office the next day, and was welcomed so heartily that it was like a
+brother's greeting, he listened to the other side. Affairs were worse
+than ever. The bank had gone into liquidation, and would pay about forty
+per cent. Property mortgages had been foreclosed right and left; there
+was nothing, scarcely, doing; there had been want and misery and
+sickness, and now diphtheria was raging.
+
+"So you see the revival didn't do every thing," said Maverick grimly.
+"I'm of the opinion, if some of them had preached less, and distributed
+bread and broth with a freer hand, it would have been more of a good
+work. The praying would be well enough in its place, and, for those old
+fellows who pray on a full stomach, very enjoyable, I dare say. But I'd
+like them to look after their drains and their wells and their cisterns
+before they ask the Almighty to sanctify these afflictions to the poor
+wretches who suffer from them. And now, Jack Darcy, what are you going
+to do? Have you found better pastures?" and Maverick glanced up with
+curious inquiry.
+
+"No," replied Jack, rather reluctantly it must be confessed. It seemed
+to him now that he had been spending his time for nought, unless
+pleasure counted, and he felt a trifle ashamed of it.
+
+Maverick gave an odd little laugh that puzzled the other.
+
+"See here, Maverick," began Jack in such earnest that he blushed like a
+great boy, "I haven't found any new place for myself. The world seems
+just full and running over. The great cities have their own men out of
+employment, and hordes from every other place. I'd be almost ashamed to
+ask for a job. I declare, I'd rather raise as much of my living as I
+could in our back garden, or take Perley's farm, and put it together,
+and set men raising strawberries, than tramp round, asking for work,
+with a feeling that it was taken from some one who had a better right,
+who was a native of the soil."
+
+"Then you have not lost your conscience?"
+
+"I hope not. It is the same old story everywhere. What is to be done
+about it?" and Jack knit his brows. "I have been going over the books
+that I thought would help or let in a little light on the matter, but it
+is a wisdom hard to get at. How to make more work in the world, how to
+cheapen living, how to"--
+
+"Bring about the millennium! What dead earnest you are in, Darcy!"
+
+"Weren't you in earnest a moment ago, Maverick, when you talked about
+the praying and the bread and broth?" said Jack with a great knot drawn
+in his brow.
+
+"Yes, Heaven knows. And some one must take hold of the thing who has
+eyes to see, and brains, and--and money. You see, people have crowded
+into cities and towns, and if they could be sent out somewhere! Why
+don't we organize colonies or something of the sort? Now, there's
+Florida. Living is cheap, and in such a climate there are fewer needs of
+clothing and fuel. I have been wondering why the big dons in cities did
+not gather up the poor they have been feeding at soup-houses and
+everywhere, and send them out with some one to manage until they could
+stand alone. There would be less diphtherias and fevers and starvation;
+for that's its right name, Darcy. What can you do when one's system is
+all run out with meal-mush, and weak tea that is half willow-leaves, and
+such trash? There's Kilburn--he has had the name of being good to the
+poor this winter because he has given them trust at his store. Such
+stuff! I have looked into a few samples," and the expressive nostrils
+curled in disgust. "He makes an enormous profit, for he sells the
+poorest kind of goods to these people at the highest prices. Then he
+manages to get hold of something, house or furniture, or maybe
+clothes,--I don't know. He and Deacon Boyd--Darcy, how can a man honor
+religion when these two men are its exponents? So good to the poor! Pah!
+It makes me sick. Isn't there a cleaner air somewhere on God's earth?
+Can't they be taken out of this?"
+
+"If they could be! There must be one way out, Maverick: better, perhaps,
+than going West where thousands are tramping about. And Heaven knows
+they need a new factor in civilization down there!"
+
+The young eyes met in sudden hopeful animation. Had they solved even one
+strand of the great tangle, that worse than Gordian knot which could not
+be cut?
+
+The door opened slowly; and there entered a middle-aged, rather grizzled
+man, with shaggy eyebrows, sparse beard, and bent shoulders. He glanced
+in hesitatingly, his eyes wandering down to Darcy.
+
+"I declare to man!" and he stared hard, with the door-knob still in his
+hand. "Jack Darcy! I heard you were home. How d'y do? How d'y do?" and
+he wrung the hand warmly. "I'm powerful glad to see you," and he looked
+him slowly over, from head to foot. "Why, you've grown, or something!
+What a great giant you are!--Morning, doctor," nodding rather
+incidentally to Maverick. "So you've had a long tramp, Jack? Your mother
+brought some of the letters over to my old lady, who has been rather
+poorly the last two months. Why, you could set up book-writing! Well,
+what's the good word? Can't be like Yerbury all over."
+
+"There are too many towns full of idle people, if that is what you mean.
+But it was splendid, Cameron! I have one more dream,--to go up and down
+the Western coast, and over the Rocky Mountains; but I want to digest
+this first. I have no fancy for mental dyspepsia," and he gave a good,
+wholesome laugh.
+
+"The right way, Jack," nodded Maverick, with a shrewd twinkle in his
+eye.
+
+"Well, you've come back to a dull place,--a dull place," and Cameron
+shook his head despondingly. "We used to be main proud of old Yerbury;
+but--is the whole world to go on and starve to death, with such crops,
+and such an abundance of every thing?"
+
+"We are going to weather it through, Cameron," Jack answered with a
+stubborn hopefulness. "There have been hard times before that have ended
+in renewed prosperity."
+
+"Yes. There was '57; hard enough, Heaven knows, with the banks going to
+smash everywhere. It ruined my father. And way back in '37, when there
+was such a wild-fire about real estate, and it came out just as this
+has. Do people ever learn by experience, Maverick?" and the man gave a
+short, unmirthful chuckle. "You could buy up half Yerbury to-day, for
+taxes and mortgages. I can't, for the life of me, see how it all came
+about. And that it has gone all over the world,--well, human nature in
+England or Germany can't well laugh at human nature in this
+country.--Are these things like cholera and fevers, doctor, taking a
+clean sweep once in a while?" and Cameron gave a twist to the end of his
+faded beard, as if he might wring the secret out of it.
+
+"We have learned to manage the cholera, and see in it, not a
+dispensation of Providence, but the natural result of filth and greed
+and carelessness. Darcy and I are getting up a panacea now," with a
+bright little laugh. "But how is Mrs. Cameron? Is her medicine out?"
+
+"Yes;" and Cameron drew a phial from his pocket. "You don't think it
+would do to stop here? She's pretty well, I should say;" and he fingered
+the bottle as if he were debating whether to have it filled or not.
+
+"No. She must go on. She is getting her strength back nicely; but it's
+bad policy to stop at three-quarters of the race,--eh, Cameron? The
+first warm day I'll take her out driving."
+
+While he was talking, he reached out for the bottle, and began
+compounding. Cameron nodded an acknowledgment of the last sentence, then
+turning to Jack, said abruptly,--
+
+"What was the scheme, Darcy?"
+
+Jack flushed, and glanced at Maverick.
+
+"Emigration, the old remedy," answered the doctor. "England has tried
+her hand at it pretty successfully; so why shouldn't we? Only we need
+not go out of our own country. There are thousands of acres of
+productive land lying idle, and thousands of people starving, or worse.
+Too many here,--not enough there."
+
+"Where to?" Cameron asked laconically, his face unmoved by any ripple of
+enthusiasm.
+
+Jack seemed to be put on his mettle by it. Lack of faith in him always
+roused his belligerent qualities, back in the old school days.
+
+"Yes, Cameron," in an incisive tone, looking steadily out of his
+determined eyes. "The cities are crowded over and over, and full of
+tramps, and the West swarms with them. We need not imagine we have all
+the idle people here at the East. But farming there has come to be a
+business of great things, almost as bad as manufacturing. You must have
+money, or the big fellows will swallow you up. But we were talking of
+Florida. No winter, as one may say; and your house a simple matter, your
+fuel, your clothes, a mere nothing. You could hardly starve if you
+tried."
+
+Cameron came back to his chair, pushed it out from the wall, planted
+himself deliberately in it, and tilted back, pushing up his old felt
+hat, as if he did not mean to have his vision obstructed. Then he gave
+his beard another twist.
+
+"Can you tell me why this is, Jack Darcy? Here are countries with fine
+and lovely climates, where every thing grows to your hand; yet they
+always seem to lie idle: Italy and Spain and Turkey and South America,
+and our own Gardens of Eden," with a bit of sarcastic smile. "The very
+ease of living seems to take the ambition out of one. Well, why
+shouldn't it? Even the bees, you know, were demoralized when they found
+they did not have to lay up for winter. Wouldn't those people come to be
+worse tramps and idlers? I'm sure the poor white trash of the South has
+helped itself very little."
+
+"We were talking of concerted effort," interposed
+Maverick,--"purchasing a large tract of land, forming a community,
+taking different kinds of workmen, and making a success of it. Why
+should we not have flourishing towns in Florida, as well as in Kansas?"
+
+"To be sure, to be sure!" nodding his head and tugging at his beard in a
+manner that showed he was not a whit convinced. "Then you give up," he
+said, "that any thing can be done at home?"
+
+"Any thing done at home?" Jack lifted his level brows, and stared a
+little.
+
+"Yes. The going away may all be very well. I tried it in '57; went out
+to Indiana with a little money, and tried farming that I didn't know any
+thing about, had the ague six months, and then came back poorer
+certainly. Now, the thing is just here with a good many of us,--we have
+our little homes, and in such times as these, in any hard times, we
+couldn't sell for any thing worth while. Then there's many a thing, to a
+man or a woman past middle life, that can't be reckoned in dollars and
+cents: the home you've made for yourself, the old friends, the church,
+even the familiar street you've walked over so often that every
+flagstone comes to have a near look."
+
+"But those who have no homes, no strong interests"--
+
+"If I was going to found a colony, I should want a little better stock,"
+with a short, dry laugh.
+
+"May be you have a plan?" suggested Maverick good-naturedly.
+
+"Well, I've thought it over a good deal this winter, sitting in the
+house with the old lady;" and there came a peculiar far-off look in
+Cameron's eye as he studied a figure in the carpet. "If God worked
+miracles nowadays, and was to make a dozen or so honest men with a good,
+stout share of brains, there might be a little lifting-up of the dull
+skies. Take this town, leaving out politics and all that sort. Five
+years ago we were prosperous, and there wasn't a prettier town anywhere
+about. Good wages were paid, people were thrifty; and I will say it for
+David Lawrence, if he was one of your high kind, he was a gentleman.
+I've worked for him fifteen years steady. Then the Eastmans came in, and
+there was nothing but hurry and drive, grumbling about high wages,
+buying cheap wools, and if cloth was poor, blaming the men. Then wages
+went down and down, and, when the men stood out, the scum of all the
+places around was brought in. Yerbury improved, and beer-saloons
+multiplied. Houses were thrown together and sold; and now they're all
+falling apart, and standing empty, and half a dozen families are
+crowding into one miserable tenement. Who made the money? Was it high
+wages that ruined Hope Mills, and wrecked Yerbury Bank?"
+
+"You have hit the truth somewhere, Cameron."
+
+"Those men were thieves and swindlers; and I suppose to-day they're
+living on the fat of the land, milk and honey thrown in. See here, I'm
+not an educated man, but I have a little common sense. Suppose we'd been
+let to go our ways quiet like,--the farmers holding on to their farms,
+and making two blades of grass grow where one grew before. Wasn't that
+some old philosopher's advice? Suppose David Lawrence hadn't built that
+great palace out on Hope Terrace (he was a plainish man himself), and
+there had been five or six beside him making a moderate share of money.
+He's lost all his great fortune, there's seventy thousand or so gone
+somewhere, the bank has smashed with thousands more of everybody's
+money, with nothing much to show but trumpery mortgages; there's no work
+and no money, and a howl goes up that there has been over-production.
+Not over-production of honesty, I take it."
+
+Maverick looked at the little earnest man, and laughed a hearty,
+cheering sort of laugh that was like pouring oil into a wound. Jack
+stared with wide-open eyes.
+
+"I've been to hear Rantley two or three times,--he's going about
+lecturing, you know,--but I don't see as he has any very good plan for
+getting work on its legs again. Then I've listened to the parson this
+winter, to please the old lady; and he is sure all this is a judgment
+for our sins. Seems to me, judgment went a little askew: why doesn't it
+touch Eastman and such fellows?"
+
+"Has nothing been done?" asked Jack. "I have heard no business gossip
+for the last three months. Can't it be proved that he was a defaulter?"
+
+"Perhaps it could. The old lady was reading the other morning about the
+scapegoat being sent into the wilderness with everybody's sins on his
+head; and I guess they'd rather have _him_ off somewhere, and pack the
+trouble on him. He might tell too much if he was here. They couldn't get
+the money back, even if he has it; but no one ever will believe that
+David Lawrence profited by it. That money belongs to the people of
+Yerbury, who have earned it, and saved it; and I say thieving and
+roguery have more to do with hard times than 'surplus of labor.' The big
+men have taken the money that belonged to the little ones."
+
+"None of the Lawrence estate has been settled, I suppose?" asked Jack.
+
+"Every thing is for sale. The mortgage on the big house is to be
+foreclosed, also on the mill I believe. I declare to you, Darcy, it
+makes my heart ache to see those dumb spindles, and the great silent
+engine standing like a mourner at a funeral. Come now, why should Hope
+Mills go to ruin, and Yerbury fall to pieces, while you and Maverick go
+and build up Florida? Wouldn't the money and the energy do something
+here?"
+
+Cameron's eyes looked out of their overhanging thatch with a puzzled,
+thoughtful expression, as if there must be a solution to the mystery.
+
+Jack was startled. Building up Florida looked feasible, but building up
+Yerbury--
+
+"Then you will not go with us?" said Maverick with a half-laugh.
+
+"I've my little home clear of debt, and a trifle at interest; and over
+in Yerbury churchyard there are two graves dear to me and my old lady.
+It would break her heart to leave them. And sometimes, Maverick, I thank
+God, that I've no sons to grow up tramps or worse. No, I'll stay here,
+and fight through somehow."
+
+They were silent for several minutes, each one tugging at the knotty
+problem. Then Cameron rose, reached out for the phial of medicine, drove
+his slouch-hat down over his forehead, and walked toward the door.
+
+"Drop in and see us, Jack, after you have thought it over a bit.
+Mother's always had a warm corner in her heart for you.--Morning,
+doctor;" and, nodding, he closed the door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+JACK and Maverick glanced at each other, a long, searching, questioning
+glance.
+
+"Given twenty or forty moderate fortunes, instead of the one great one,"
+said Jack slowly.
+
+"And you have a greater amount of general prosperity and happiness."
+
+"Co-operation," continued Jack.
+
+"And now, if you don't mind, you may take a walk with me," said
+Maverick. "Office-hours are over, and I have some rather serious cases
+on hand. Jerry's gone lame, stuck a nail in his foot, so I console
+myself with pedestrian theories."
+
+"All right. I may need a pilot."
+
+It was a mid-April day; but spring was late, and every thing looked
+bleak to Jack after his Southern sojourn. Certainly it was quite
+different from the trim little town of Jack's boyhood. The blight of
+poverty and thriftlessness had fallen upon it. There were piles of
+refuse in the streets, still half frozen; there were muddy stoops and
+shabby hall-doors, and broken area-palings, and now and then a window
+patched up with paper or rags. For though there may be much high
+theorizing and preaching on the two or three exceptional men who have
+lifted themselves out of dens of poverty, and come through great
+tribulation, there are thousands who work out nothing but blind
+destruction and utter shipwreck, and who in frantic efforts for
+salvation drag down those nearest and dearest, as a drowning man may
+clutch at his own brother.
+
+"Not very inviting," apologized Maverick; "but I have two calls to make
+here in Boyd's Row,--old rookeries that ought to have been pulled down
+long ago, but I suppose they still bring in Boyd considerable. I have
+made a complaint about the drains: they are enough to breed a
+pestilence. Tom Byrne has three children down with scarlet-fever. Two of
+them will be carried out presently, but I hope to save the little girl.
+No--I won't take you in."
+
+"Tom Byrne--he was a mill-hand. And I know his wife well. Yes,
+Maverick." And Jack followed him.
+
+It was a two-story cottage with three rooms on a floor, and two families
+occupying it. The Byrnes were up-stairs.
+
+The two beds were in the front room, for the middle one was dark. There
+was a well-worn carpet on the floor, and the furniture very poor. Jenny
+Byrne had sold her best to pay the quarter's rent in the last place
+which they had left the first of January, the landlord preferring it
+should stand empty. Her little savings had been swept away by the bank
+disaster: there was no work, and three children to feed, except that
+Deacon Boyd found Tom sufficient employment to pay his rent.
+
+On one bed close by the window lay the little girl, heavy-eyed and
+crimson. The elder boy had come to the stupor that precedes death, the
+other was restless with a half delirium. Jenny Byrne's round rosy cheeks
+had vanished, and her eyes had a distraught look, the lurking fear of
+coming woe. She stared at Jack a moment, then stretched out her hand,
+but as quickly withdrew it.
+
+"Did you tell him, doctor? O Mr. Darcy!"
+
+"Yes. He _would_ come."
+
+She wiped away some tears with the corner of her faded apron, then
+answered a question of Jack's. What could he say to the poor thing?
+Surely she had done her duty with truest endeavor; and Tom Byrne was a
+very fair average man, liking his daily glass of beer, but rarely going
+farther.
+
+"Can you fix a bed in the other room, and put Kitty in it?" the doctor
+asked. "She is better, but I would rather have her out of here."
+
+"And Jamie is better too?" she questioned, with tremulous eagerness.
+"His fever is nearly gone, and he's having such a nice sleep"--
+
+"Sleep is the best thing for him," returned the doctor briefly. "About
+Kitty"--
+
+The mother's wan face flushed. She came close to Dr. Maverick, her eyes
+downcast.
+
+"The coal gave out this morning, and I've no fire there," she said just
+above a whisper. "The relief-store is closed"--
+
+"Yes, yes; I'll see to it;" with a nod. "I will be in again"--looking at
+the sleeping child--"say about four." Then he changed the medicine for
+Kitty, and gave one or two orders.
+
+Jack thrust a bank-note in Jenny's hand, with his good-by. "Tom will be
+so glad to see you, Mr. Darcy," she said, with an effort at calmness.
+
+"Can nothing be done for them?" asked Jack, as they regained the street.
+
+"No. Jamie had gone too far when I was called in. Larger rooms, fresher
+air, nourishing food: that's the secret of a physician's success in many
+cases. Poor little ones! He will not go through the night. Now, Jack,
+you are not to come in here, positively. Stand in this breeze, and blow
+the scarlet-fever out of your clothes."
+
+He did as he was bid, and, getting tired, tramped up and down. How much
+of man's selfishness and dishonesty there was in this! If the time could
+ever come when the mists and fogs of complacency would be swept off,
+and we could see that it was the innocent suffering for the guilty, not
+that these poor souls were sinners above all men, as the self-righteous
+Pharisee preaches!
+
+Maverick rejoined him with a grave face, then the two went down Main
+Street. Houses to let, stores and shops closed, and those open but
+half-stocked, and wearing a listless air. If three hard years so told on
+the place, and there was no prospect of better things, what would it be
+in five or ten? Was it some such misfortune that had overtaken those
+grand and luxurious cities of Oriental lands?
+
+"Where are the Lawrences?" Jack asked presently.
+
+"Well, I really do not know. I think I did hear that Mrs. Lawrence had
+gone to New York. The young man"--
+
+Jack held his breath, and there was a strange flutter at his heart.
+After all these years he saw again the pale, handsome child who had
+given him a boy's ardent love.
+
+"I have a fancy that he will not amount to much. Queer idea that of
+Cameron's, wasn't it, Darcy? Who was it that first preached or wrote of
+the 'duty nearest one'? Of course things cannot stay this way forever,
+they must mend; and maybe if some one took hold to help mend
+them--Cameron's idea is not a bad one. Maybe the same amount of money
+and energy expended here would be productive of good results: still I
+hold on to Florida for my poor and wretched suffering ones. But it is
+worth thinking of. Here, let us turn round by Hope Mills."
+
+Jack was silent. "Hope Mills!" It rang through his brain like a chime of
+bells. Of course he knew that Mr. Hope had given them his name; but had
+he builded better than he knew? Was it indicative of something greater
+than the power of one man,--of many men? of strong, earnest endeavor;
+of truth, honor, and honesty; of thrift, and happy, jocund industry,
+once more?
+
+But now it was very silent. The great yard had an untidy look, with some
+piles of weather-beaten lumber, and old _débris_. The windows were
+covered with dust; the broad stone steps showed where the winter snows
+had fallen and melted, leaving streaks of dirt, and more had blown in
+the corners. No cheerful creak of the great engine; no vapory puffs of
+smoke circling skyward from the chimney; no whir of looms. It saddened
+one inexpressibly.
+
+"It is a big subject," said Jack slowly. "I've been puzzling my brains
+half the winter with what wiser heads than mine have said about capital
+and labor,--Mill and Brassey and Howell, and our own men, with soft,
+sweet bits of Ruskin, and savage bits of Carlyle. I don't know but
+Carlyle was right when he said, 'The beginning and the end of what is
+the matter with us, in these days, is, that we have forgotten God.'
+Cameron said it another way,--honor and honesty. Because, certainly,
+honor appeals to all that is noblest in human nature,--to chivalry, and
+tenderness and thought for others; and nothing ever prospered, in the
+long-run, that did not have a substratum of truth."
+
+"Well, according to Bristow, we came back to him this winter--not I,
+Darcy, I don't make any pretence,"--and he shook his head with slow
+gravity. "But I was interested in the revival on psychological grounds.
+I had never been so inside of one before. Bristow is a good man, no
+doubt; but it is just the one chosen way with him,--strong crying and
+praying, and believing yourself a sinner above all men, and then a
+sudden peace and happiness, and a courage to endure,--a blind,
+unreasoning courage to take the present as it is, because God sent it,
+and it must be for the best. Boyd and Whitlow and Kenny were the great
+lights. They went about from house to house; they exhorted and prayed.
+Whitlow was one of the old bank-directors. Strange to say, he did not
+lose a penny. His money was in government-bonds; and now he has
+persuaded Yerbury that if his advice had been taken there would have
+been no trouble. Whitlow discharged his man this winter, and took in his
+place a half-grown boy. Mrs. Whitlow sets a good example to her class by
+discharging one handmaid and making the other do double duty. Yet, so
+far as I can find, Whitlow is a richer man than he was three years ago.
+Kenny keeps his factory open, and gives the men three days' work in the
+week, and pays them in poor shoes, as much as possible; and takes out a
+good deal in high rent. Boyd, who has the name of being the greatest
+saint of all,--does what? Opens that miserable row of houses, that he
+couldn't let on any terms, and takes in tenants who are willing to work
+out the rent. He gets good prices, too. Is he losing on them? Faugh! the
+very term of charity makes me sick. And this winter he purchased a good
+deal of the stock of the relief-store. Wretched flour; miserable,
+adulterated stuff of tea; pork, some of it that wasn't fit to eat; and
+cheap butter, that every one would have been ten times better without. I
+went to him one day, red-hot, in a sanitary view of the business; and he
+preached religion to me,--his kind. 'Boyd,' said I, 'there's Keppler's
+saloon, your own property, paying you a good income, no doubt, in these
+hard times, adding to the want and misery of Yerbury faster than your
+whole church can save. If you are in earnest, go break up that den of
+iniquity!'"
+
+Jack laughed. "What did he say to that?"
+
+"Meekly, that Keppler had a lease for five years, and was going on the
+second. The man is so honorable, he cannot break faith with his
+fellow-man, forsooth; but he breaks faith with God, in a serene,
+untroubled manner." And Maverick's lip curled scornfully under the
+fringe of moustache.
+
+"But there must be some gold, or the counterfeit would not be so
+successfully received. We have had so much false money everywhere, that,
+since we can make that pass, we do not trouble ourselves. And yet,
+Maverick, there _is_ something in it that you and I don't see clearly
+yet; but we cannot teach it acceptably until we can show better fruit.
+And, when leaders of all kinds, in high places, show that self only is
+at the bottom of every thing they do, it seems hopeless to demand that
+the class below, watching them, and suffering from their wrongdoing,
+shall attain a higher moral status. How can they help following coarsely
+in the footsteps of their betters?"
+
+"Darcy, suppose you turn parson!" and Maverick laughed half quizzically.
+"See here: the world wants a very old sermon preached again to it,
+hammered into every fibre, put up over every doorway,--the essence of
+all knowledge, all religion, briefly comprehended in this, 'Love thy
+neighbor _as_ thyself.' You won't need gown or bands for that work. Not
+to have one code of morals for the rich, and one for the poor; one creed
+for Sunday, and quite another belief for Monday; to have no lofty,
+impossible theories and exalted moods, but truthful, honest living; not
+to push away the miserable, ignorant souls, but take them by the hand in
+hearty co-operation. Maybe Cameron has the right clew. Why should we let
+human love be shamed by such things as an Oneida community or a Mormon
+city?"
+
+The strong, earnest voice stirred Jack like martial music. All these
+years he had been struggling with a great, blind, confused
+something,--perhaps it was not a silver-mine or a railroad, but a work
+just here in the town of his boyhood, where he was known, where he had
+played and worked.
+
+"Seventeenthly, and lastly," and Maverick looked at his watch, "I cannot
+idle any more time upon you, and must cut short with a 'To be
+continued.' We will talk it over again and again; and, if we cannot get
+it into shape, there is still Florida left. So, while you are dreaming
+it out by this great silent mill, whose prisoned spirits should prate of
+prosperity instead of desolation, I'll run my course around Yerbury, and
+we'll compare notes over our cigars. _Addio_," waving his hand.
+
+Jack watched the compact figure as it moved briskly away; then he
+sauntered round the mill, down one street and up another, strolled out
+to Lovers' Lane, and returned by Larch Avenue. The Barry house began to
+show signs of life, for old Mat was clearing up the grounds. This was
+the one oasis that had not been bitten by speculation. He thought of
+winsome little Sylvie, and one summer evening when Irene Lawrence
+stepped into that pretty, cosey room with the grace and beauty of a
+Juno. Where was she now? And what was Fred doing? Making a great leap
+into name and fame, doubtless, now that he was put upon his mettle. The
+old boyish freaks came back to his mind, the enthusiastic unreasoning
+adoration, the last tender parting. An intense and subtile sympathy
+filled his soul; and, though he smiled a little, the memory was very
+sacred.
+
+The texture of Jack's mind was not of the quick, brilliant, or sanguine
+order. He went over his books again; he ruminated as he cleaned the
+garden-paths, spaded the beds, trimmed the trees and shrubbery, and
+attended to the odds and ends known only to a careful householder.
+Cousin Jane was in her element out here; and they two discoursed of
+farming and gardening, and industry, she in a sharp, trenchant way.
+
+She had remarked incidentally that her visit was near its end. Now that
+Jack was home, cousin Ellen would not need her.
+
+"I don't see why you should not make your home here, cousin Jane,"
+replied Mrs. Darcy. "Grandmother grows feebler all the time, and you
+have quite spoiled me by your strength and cheeriness. You have no
+nearer tie; and if you _could_ content yourself with us--Jack was
+speaking about it a few evenings since. We should like so to keep you,
+cousin Jane."
+
+Jane Morgan studied the beseeching eyes a while, then dropped her own,
+and thought.
+
+"Very well," she answered, "if you like to have it so. While I am well
+and strong I think I ought to do enough somewhere to earn my living, and
+not use up the little laid by for a rainy day. If you and Jack are
+agreed, we'll consider it a bargain for a year. I like to be settled
+about what I'm going to do: there's nothing so uncomfortable as hanging
+on tenterhooks. When my visit's through I like to go, if I'm going; not
+stand an hour or two with the door-knob in my hand."
+
+Jack was delighted. They could spare him now and then of an evening to
+stroll down to Maverick's office, where they discussed pretty nearly
+every thing under the sun. It was so in the beginning,--"the earth was
+without form, and void." Then the Barrys returned; Sylvie changed in
+some indescribable way as to a kind of delicate outside manner, but the
+same fresh, earnest girl in heart and soul, taking up her friendship
+with Jack just where she had laid it down. Yet they had both grown
+broader and richer in nature and experience, and there was something of
+the subtile flavor of new acquaintanceship.
+
+Yerbury cleaned house, even to the tidying-up of streets and
+carting-away of rubbish. It was pitiful to see the attempts of some of
+the poor women, who washed their worn white curtains, scrubbed the
+shutters and hall-door, and set out a few ragged geraniums in the front
+yard, or made a little bed of lettuce and onions.
+
+Yerbury Savings Bank was in the hands of a receiver. Some sold out their
+small accounts for a trifle: it was agreed there could not be much in
+the way of dividends. Here was a great mortgage on the Downer farm,
+that the Eastmans had partly cut into city lots. And, though Downer had
+received a large price, he was a poor man to-day, with no business, and
+several sons tramping the highways for work. Farms had not been
+profitable, but had the wealth and extravagance produced any better
+result? These places around would be sold presently for any sum they
+would bring.
+
+"Speculation did look so tempting, though," said Jack with a humorous
+smile. "But for grandmother I might have been in the midst of it."
+
+"There's just one thing that makes a man or a country rich," said Jane
+Morgan incisively; "and that's industry, good, honest labor. Marking up
+one's goods before breakfast, as the Frenchman did, realizes no absolute
+money. The speculators jingle their dollars from hand to hand, until
+some poor fool, attracted by the noise, gives them a hundred for their
+twenty. When a man makes money simply by another person's loss, he has
+not created any thing, or made any more of it; and the world's no
+better, that I can see."
+
+"Cousin Jane, you are dipping into political economy;" and Jack nodded
+gayly. "I shall have to ask Maverick and some of the others up here; and
+maybe you can put in a straw, or a head of wheat, toward the
+regeneration of Yerbury."
+
+"I dip into a little common sense now and then, and it seems to me
+that's what the world needs. There is no lack of the uncommon kind, and
+it's not to be altogether despised, since at times uncommon things are
+given to people to do. But, if all the bees in the hive thought they had
+a call to be queens, it runs in my mind there'd be a lack of honey
+presently."
+
+"You are on the right foundation, cousin Jane. We must not only make the
+honey an honorable thing, but honor the bees, put labor on a better,
+truer foundation."
+
+"I should just say, 'See here, my friends, it is not possible for us all
+to be rich, whether it is some fixed immutable law of fate, or the lack
+of necessary elements in one's character, or the meeting of the right
+person with the right circumstances; but the fact is there, true as
+judgment. You can be comfortable and clean if you have the energy; and
+it is better to scrub your own kitchen-floor, or raise a bushel of
+potatoes, than to sit and whine about luck or respectability. Now and
+then a ready-made fortune drops down upon one, and I don't know but it
+often brings a curse: anyhow, what you work for, you are pretty sure to
+enjoy.' It makes me mad when I see healthy, hearty young women sighing
+for servants and pianos and what not; when their grandmothers, who had
+as good blood, and as good sense, didn't despise honest work."
+
+Sylvie Barry came in while Miss Morgan was in the midst of her "speech,"
+as Jack declared it to be; and now she clapped her small white hands,
+with a "Bravo!"
+
+"A new disciple, Jack," and she smiled. "Miss Morgan, we shall set you
+to reading our favorite authors, and solving the tremendous question.
+Where can we get work for these to do? For a great many stand idle in
+the market-place, because they have not been hired. What can we set them
+at?"
+
+"Well, Miss Barry, I don't know much about the big, outside questions;
+but, going around Yerbury a little this winter, I shouldn't say the work
+was all done up; or, done in such a poor, thrown-together way, that it
+tumbles right to pieces again. There's skewy, ill-made beds with ragged
+counterpanes; there's shreds of old ingrain-carpets, that you fall over;
+there's broken chairs, and shabby clothes, and dirty corners,--work
+enough, I should say, to last some woman an hour or two. She might get
+out her pieces of calico, and, with the children's help, make a new
+spread, maybe a tidy apron, and she might braid a rag mat out of bits,
+and a hundred things that go toward comfort. No: all the work isn't
+done up yet, Miss Sylvie," and Jane Morgan stopped just then, to knit
+the seam-stitch in a stocking for a poor body.
+
+Sylvie threw herself on the footstool, and leaned her arms on Miss
+Morgan's knee.
+
+"I wasn't thinking so much of that when I spoke," she began earnestly;
+"but I do wonder if some of us couldn't take it up. There are
+art-schools, and music-schools, and cooking-schools, in the great
+cities; and why couldn't we start something of the kind here? Poor
+people--the real poor, I mean--are often wasteful and idle because they
+do not just know how to be any thing else. They buy cheap garments in
+stores, and they soon come apart. I had a sewing-school last summer, and
+I found some mothers didn't seem to care whether their children learned
+or not,--since there was so much sewing done by machines. But if the
+mothers could be taught a little"--
+
+"That's about the upshot of what I said. You see, Miss Barry, people
+have been earning so much money of late years, that sewing has gone out
+of fashion. It didn't pay to do this or that, so they earned and spent.
+Now they sit listless in their dirt and rags, bemoaning hard times. It
+is good to know how to do more than one thing," and Miss Morgan nodded
+her head confidently, her strong face full of earnestness.
+
+"Why can't you and Sylvie start a school--what shall we call it?--of
+useful and homely arts? You see, the girls do work in the mills and
+shops until they get married, and then they do not know how to make the
+best of their husbands' money. But don't crowd out all the beauty and
+the pleasure; there must be something to enlist the heart. Give a man an
+interest in a thing, and you awake a new feeling, an enthusiasm that
+makes every thing go as smoothly as oiling up machinery."
+
+"I have often thought," said Mrs. Darcy in her soft, gentle voice,
+"that the poor did not get as much good of their money as the better
+classes, because they never have enough to buy advantageously, and
+store-keepers so often take the advantage of them. Now, yesterday I was
+over to Mrs. Hall's, and the poor thing was trying to make some bread,
+and she was not fit to stand up and knead it; so I thought I'd try. The
+flour was heavy and sticky and lumpy, and what I should call very
+unprofitable. No one could make good bread out of it. She said they
+traded at Kilburn's, because he would wait if they did not have the
+money. The flour was seven and a half a barrel; the eighth, ninety-five
+cents; and I do not believe the bread was fit to eat. So you must
+remember, when you blame people for poor cooking, that they may not
+always have decent materials to work with."
+
+"Maverick was growling about Kilburn the other evening. It is a shame
+that he should sell such poor goods, when prices have come down a good
+deal."
+
+"Can you not reform him a little?" and Mrs. Darcy smiled.
+
+"Cousin Jane and Sylvie might go into business, as did the poor weavers
+of Toad Lane, with their sack of oatmeal, firkin of butter, a little
+sugar and flour," said Jack laughingly. "A fair division of labor. The
+men of Yerbury shall provide work, and the women shall train the
+inefficient how and where to spend money."
+
+Sylvie glanced up with bright, inquiring eyes.
+
+"Was it some more co-operation?" she asked.
+
+Jack brought out his book, and read the story of the "Equitable Pioneers
+of Rochdale" and their wonderful success from a small beginning. The
+girl listened with wide-open eyes, and even Jane Morgan laid down her
+knitting.
+
+"The queen-bee and the workers again," said she, as Jack closed the
+book. "It is not every man for himself, but every man for each other.
+And it comes back, always."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+"WHERE is grandmother?" Jack asked one morning late in May, as he came
+in from the garden, and found her place at the table vacant.
+
+"She does not feel very well this morning, and I told her there was no
+need of rising with the lark," answered cousin Jane; but, though her
+voice was cheerful, there was a new gravity in her face.
+
+"It is something unusual"--
+
+"She is getting to be an old lady, Jack. There, sit down to your
+breakfast while it is nice and hot. No fear but what I will attend to
+grandmother."
+
+She had risen; but in the midst of her dressing her hands had lost their
+cunning, her limbs their strength. Jane came to look at her in alarm.
+
+"It's a warning," she said, with her grand old smile. "But I have no
+pain, and so you can leave me here for a while. My strength may come
+back."
+
+Mrs. Darcy was much frightened.
+
+"Remember that ninety-four is a good old age, and she has hardly had a
+sick day in her life. After breakfast Jack might go over for Dr.
+Maverick. He is sensible, and will not torment her with experiments."
+
+Jack rather hurried through his meal, and then ran up to grandmother's
+room. She put out her wrinkled hand, thin to be sure, but still slender
+and smooth, with no knobby joints. A proud sort of beauty illumined the
+old face, though the eyes were a little dull.
+
+"Dear boy," and there was a curious quaver in her voice, "I've had to
+give in at last. The Lord knows best. He has given me many a happy year
+with you; yet I have never forgotten the folks over yonder. I shall be
+glad to see them again,--your father, Jack, and the rest. 'Then they
+came to the land of Beulah, where the sun shineth day and night, and
+betook themselves to rest'--you know. We used to read it together."
+
+A sharp pang went to Jack's heart. He pressed the limp hand to his lips,
+and gazed into the face that had changed in some indescribable way. Then
+Jane came with a tempting breakfast, and fed her with wonderful
+gentleness, it seemed to him.
+
+He went out, and brought Maverick back with him.
+
+"It is a general breaking-up of nature," said the doctor with a tender
+gravity. "Nothing can be done, unless she should suffer; but I do not
+think she will. It is the way lives ought to end oftener. Give her
+whatever she will take; and keep cheerful, all of you. After all, it is
+only a little journey."
+
+"Where?" the young eyes asked as they met each other in solemn mood.
+
+Jack scarcely left her. She liked to open her eyes, and find him sitting
+there, when she would smile faintly, and murmur a few words. Sylvie and
+Miss Barry were the only visitors admitted to her room. They used to
+read out of "Pilgrim's Progress," the book she had loved so well, and
+occasionally they sang some sweet old hymn.
+
+"Jack," she said once, "you will find everything in my old box there in
+the bureau. It was my mother's, and came across the sea with me. You
+have been a good lad. You took your father's place with me, and you must
+never regret that you staid here to make an old woman happy. You have
+been a good lad--a good--little lad"-- And her mind wandered to other
+years.
+
+Just growing gradually weaker, and falling asleep peacefully. A long,
+well-spent life, and a death to remember and desire.
+
+They buried her in Yerbury churchyard, and the townspeople turned out to
+do her honor. Jack thought of another death, and the almost solitary
+state of the funeral.
+
+How good it was that they had Jane Morgan now! She carried them right
+along.
+
+Jack opened the brass-bound box, still fragrant with its sandal-wood
+lining. Some old letters, the trinkets she had saved from her poverty,
+and a will bequeathing her all, in government bonds, to Jack.
+
+There was nearly seven thousand dollars. With his own little savings he
+felt quite rich.
+
+"Jack," said his mother, "all these years you have waited patiently, and
+put by your own dreams. Do not think that I did not notice the struggle.
+It was very generous and kindly; and I am glad, for grandmother's sake,
+that you staid. But now if you like we will go somewhere else, and make
+a new home"--did her voice tremble a little then? "I am still young
+enough to take root elsewhere, and cousin Jane is so energetic she helps
+one to new life. There may be prettier and more prosperous places, and
+you have years before you in which to realize a fortune."
+
+He glanced up at the face bending over him, instinct with the honorable
+grace of middle life; the hair with a few threads of silver; the soft,
+fine skin showing some wrinkles about the eyes and two or three light
+creases across the forehead; the cheeks out of which roundness had
+vanished, and the lips the scarlet of girlhood, but though both were
+pale the mouth was still tender and sweet. A womanly woman,--that seemed
+to him a perfect description of his mother, a woman who had loved three
+generations, and held by them. Now for his sake she would give up the
+old ties, and try a new world,--this shy, shrinking, loving woman.
+
+What would she leave? She had never known any other home in her married
+life, though this had been changed and improved since her wedding-day.
+Everywhere some trace of his father. The porch with the roses climbing
+over it, the great maples in the street, planted by him; the odorous old
+balm of Gilead, that he had hunted up because she had cared for it, and
+they had one in her old home; the trailing clematis with its shining
+smilax-like green, and its heliotrope fragrance; the white rose that had
+been planted on the morning of Jack's birth, and had sent up many
+generations from the old root; the latticed summer-house with its wealth
+of grapes; and almost like a vision Jack could fancy he saw the tall
+figure and deliberate step,--the sweet ghost of memory that could never
+walk in any other place. Did his mother have such dreams?
+
+Yes, there were better things to life than mere money-getting.
+
+"I believe those were the wild dreams of boyhood,"--smiling a
+little,--"the 'long, long thoughts of youth.' I used to want something
+that would occupy my whole soul and every energy, that was stirring,
+earnest, absorbing, and held a grand outlook. But I think"--very
+deliberately, as if he were weighing every word--"that my work has come
+to me, instead of my going out to seek it. At all events, I shall not go
+away for the present."
+
+"Well," she returned, but she could not keep the great gladness out of
+her voice.
+
+Having thus made his election, Jack Darcy looked sturdily about to see
+what was to be done, and the best way to do it. He asked two of the old
+over-lookers, Hurd and Bradley, to meet him at Maverick's office; and
+there they discussed co-operation until long past midnight. They looked
+into the cotton-mill connected with the Rochdale experiment; they read
+up the workings of those at Oldham and Lancashire, of the industries in
+France, and banking in Germany.
+
+"Here we are," said Jack, "with so much of our lives spent in learning
+to manage looms and turn out different kinds of cloth. People must wear
+clothes until the millennium, and cloth will be made. It seems to me
+that it must be a good thing to identify the workmen, and get their real
+interest. We should avoid strikes on the one hand, the continual
+disputes about wages, and be much less at the mercy of all outside
+influence. The men will understand thoroughly that industry, economy,
+thrift, and perseverance is good for each individually; that he is using
+these qualities not only for the master, but for himself. There will be
+better work, and more of it."
+
+Hurd seemed to be taking the measure of Darcy through this speech. Now
+he said,--
+
+"Darcy, any man who knows enough to head such a business as Hope Mills,
+knows enough to carve out a fortune for himself; and my opinion is that
+he would be a fool to let the chance slip."
+
+"A man may have the knowledge, but not the requisite capital," was the
+patient answer. "Then he might think"--
+
+"Well, you've a sight of faith, that's all! Your men will go on with the
+tramp of soldiers in good times; and when the pinch comes, then look
+out! If they were educated, reasonable, sensible; but you and I both
+know the mass are not. It will do better in the old countries, for there
+children expect to follow in the footsteps of their parents; but here,
+where every boy looks upon himself as a possible president, it cannot be
+done. It has been tried, and has failed. It will again."
+
+"Then you will not join?"
+
+"I don't say that, Darcy. I can't very well get away from Yerbury: if I
+could, the Lord knows I'd go. But there--it is just as bad everywhere
+else. Don't be too sanguine though: you young chaps build air-castles
+easily."
+
+Bradley wrung his hand warmly at parting. "I want to look into this
+thing a little more closely," he said. "I believe you have struck the
+keynote. Whatever raises the workman raises the whole world. If you get
+him to be self-supporting, there is one less pauper or tramp for the
+State to take in charge, and tax all other workingmen for his support."
+
+"I rather like the scheme of the co-operative store," Hurd began
+presently. "There's a sight of money somehow between the producer and
+the consumer. Farmers are grumbling all the time. I wrote to my
+brother-in-law last spring about trading for a small farm, and going
+into poultry-business perhaps; and he sent back a list of prices he had
+obtained for his produce. Butter twenty-five cents, and we paid forty
+this winter. Milk two and a half cents a quart, while ours is from eight
+to ten."
+
+"Transportation to be counted in," suggested Maverick.
+
+"The thing discouraged me, so I thought I'd hold on a bit, since I did
+not know the first rule for farming. As Darcy says, we have spent all
+these years perfecting ourselves in our business, and it hardly looks
+reasonable that we should succeed at once in something altogether
+different. If you don't mind, Darcy, I'd like to look over that Rochdale
+experiment a little at my leisure."
+
+Jack handed him the book, and the small party dispersed. In a week they
+met again, with two more, one a stubborn old Englishman who had been in
+the business. They had done very well for a while, then the market
+flattened. They could not hold their stock, so the big fish swallowed
+them up. That was always the end where you had no credit and no reserve
+capital. Truth to tell, Jack began to realize how hard it would be to
+convert some of the very men he would like to have.
+
+Meanwhile Hamilton Minor came up with some capitalists, and Hope Mills
+was put up at auction. They looked around the town, examined the
+building and machinery, which was the best of its kind; but nobody
+could tell whether we had reached bottom prices or not, and, though the
+place was to be offered at an immense sacrifice, they were wary. Empty
+mills and rusting machinery were not profitable investments. Mr. Minor's
+eloquence went for nothing. These long-headed dons would rather hold on
+to their money, though they expressed a good deal of sympathy for the
+Lawrence estate.
+
+"I do believe it will go for the face of the mortgage," said Jack to
+Maverick that evening. "Twenty thousand dollars, and a year's interest
+and taxes. Twenty-two thousand would cover the whole thing; and three
+years ago Mr. Lawrence wouldn't have looked at fifty thousand. Maverick,
+I can get together ten thousand of my own, and if there was one other
+person"--
+
+"We will hunt him up," returned Maverick hopefully. "There is the
+reputation of the cloth already made, which is one great step in your
+favor. Yes, it must be done."
+
+Yerbury was looking a little brighter and better at midsummer.
+Scarlet-fever had pretty well disappeared; but malaria had come in its
+stead, convenient name for want of nourishment, stagnation, and
+despondency. The haggard-looking wives and mothers went out to a day's
+washing or scrubbing; but the children, better off, roamed over the
+fields in search of berries or a stray ownerless fruit-tree, laughing
+and happy in their rags and bare feet.
+
+Darcy tried two or three pretty well-to-do men, that he fancied had the
+good of the town at heart; but the project looked wild to them. If David
+Lawrence couldn't stand up against hard times, no new men could. He,
+Darcy, had better put his money in government-bonds, and live on the
+interest. Nothing could be made in such times as these.
+
+"It seems as if one half of the world has decided that the other half
+should starve," Jack declared in a discouraged tone. "No one is willing
+to start the ball again. If it wasn't for mother I would risk every
+dollar of my own. And then to think of the land lying idle about
+here,--enough to feed half the town! I do not wonder that we are fast
+coming to beggary and ruin."
+
+Maverick was pretty sober for several days, then he went off to
+Narragansett Pier; "tired of my everlasting badgering," said Jack to
+Sylvie, who, poor child, had her hands and heart full of projects that
+she talked over with Miss Morgan and her aunt, and did not make much
+more progress than Jack.
+
+So it happened one July evening that Jack sat smoking on the porch in a
+rather despondent frame of mind. Miss Morgan and his mother had gone to
+make some neighborly calls.
+
+A quick step came down the street. "If Maverick wasn't in Rhode Island!"
+thought Jack; then it came nearer, with a little halt, and Jack sprang
+down the steps in the moonlight.
+
+"Hillo, old fellow!" said the rich, laughing voice. "Have you looked
+after my patients, and entertained my office-callers, in my absence?
+That would only be fair play, for I have been about your business; and,
+by Jove! succeeded too!"
+
+"Maverick!" There was an odd little tremble in Jack's voice.
+
+"Ask me to sit down, and stay me with--well, a pipe, for I have finished
+my last cigar. I came in the train just fifteen minutes ago, and
+skulked--that's the very word--under the trees and through by-ways, lest
+some one, seeing, should lay violent hands on me. Yes, get out your best
+armchair, old chap, and treat me like a prince."
+
+The two seated themselves again, and stretched out their legs to the
+porch-railing. The soft light fell around, outlining here and there a
+bit of vine as if it were held against a silver background. A few early
+insects were chirping, and somewhere down the street there was a waft of
+distant music.
+
+"Succeeded!" Jack drew a long breath.
+
+"Yes: with a woman too. Nay, you need not look at me so wonderingly. I
+have not sold myself for base gold to the Evil One," laughing lightly.
+"I have never told you much about myself; for, like the needy
+knife-grinder, 'story, God bless you! there was none to tell;' but there
+is a chapter now, and you must hear it first. My mother was left an
+orphan in her infancy, and her aunt adopted her. She was a canny
+Scotswoman, by name Jean McLeod. She was very good to my mother, who
+married quite to her liking, although my father was not rich, but we
+always lived in a certain style, and my father had a fine reputation as
+a lawyer. My mother's death, the result of an accident, so prostrated
+him, that he never recovered from the shock. Aunt McLeod came to stay
+with us through that weary time. Then she took us both to her heart and
+home: it was a large warm heart and a beautiful home. My father left a
+little: it was made over to me; and my sister, five years younger than
+I, was brought up properly, and married properly, and lives in Chicago
+in elegant style. Then Aunt Jean tried her hand on me, chose a suitable
+young woman, and insisted that the fates had decided it. The upshot was
+a quarrel. Not but what the girl was nice enough, and all that, but I
+did not care to marry; and so I walked off to Europe, and was there
+three years. Some rather cool letters passed between us at first, but
+they grew warmer; and when I returned it was winter, and she was in New
+York. I went straight up to her house. She was very glad to see me; and
+there in her lovely library, all glow and softness and perfume, by the
+side of the grate, with a screen in her hand, sat Anastasia Lothrop. She
+is Aunt Jean's pet _protégée_, though she has home and lands and people
+of her own. A handsome woman too, by Jove! However, we have gone our
+separate ways. I think she (Aunt Jean) was rather annoyed at my settling
+at Yerbury.
+
+"Well, I went to Narragansett, and found her alone this time; and she
+has promised to buy Hope Mills. I do believe there's no end to the
+woman's money. She talked it over as a mere bagatelle. I am to meet her
+in New York, and you are to go down, Jack; and we are to see the holder
+of the mortgage, and do no end of business. I think she is rather
+interested in the scheme, and I do believe she is delighted to do me a
+favor. Now you can keep your money for a kind of reserve fund. The mere
+savings of labor will not answer at first, you know."
+
+Maverick drew a long breath then, and puffed lustily at his cigar.
+
+"I don't know how ever to thank you."
+
+"Don't thank me, Darcy. You see, I am interested in this experiment. I
+want to see if there is enough faith and honesty and industry and
+trustfulness left in the world to make such a general partnership a
+success. You know it has been said that since the war our character as a
+whole has degenerated fearfully. Politically there is no doubt of it.
+Commercially and industrially are still open questions. If we could
+succeed in making one hundred people comfortable, instead of one rich,
+nine comfortable, and the other ninety next door to pauperism, we shall
+have done something. If we can so educate ninety men that they are able
+to understand the difficulties and embarrassments of carrying on
+business and its numerous fluctuations, we shall have raised them higher
+in the social scale. And it is most sadly true of all the large failures
+of late, some one has been dishonest, some one or two or three have
+taken other people's money to speculate with. It should be called
+stealing as much as when a poor man takes it, even if he spends it for
+rum. And, Darcy, we will keep our eye single upon one thing: we shall
+not move the world, or convert it, but haply one little corner of
+Yerbury; while all the wit and wisdom the world has been saving up for
+ages will be hurled against us in different shapes, from puffy snowballs
+to the grim old fellows soaked in water and frozen hard. And sometimes I
+think, with all the energy you are going to bring to bear upon this, you
+could carve out a fortune somewhere else."
+
+"I don't know as to that, Maverick," said Darcy in a half-funny,
+half-sad tone. "From New York to St. Louis, from thence to New Orleans,
+to Florida, and back here again, I never found an opening. Two or three
+people did promise to write to me, but they have not. I felt the world
+could go on quite as well without me and hundreds of others. So, then,
+the only thing is to create a place; and Heaven knows I shall try hard
+enough to make a success of this."
+
+"And you will do it too: I'm not afraid. Give us your hand, old chap! I
+never swore friendship with but just one fellow: that was in my college
+days, and I have his note for one hundred dollars as a memento. I might
+have been keener, I dare say; but one of the transcendentally lovely
+things of youth is its perfect faith. These preternaturally wise and
+prudent young people come into the world mentally gray-headed. But I do
+it now with my eyes wide open; and, when you are a rich man, I have
+another scheme I want to take through, a sort of home or hospital of my
+own planning: so don't fancy I shall let you off easy."
+
+They held each other's hands in a long, lingering clasp. Beside the
+warmth and magnetism that was a component part of Dr. Maverick's nature
+when he chose to use it, which was not nearly always, there was a
+steadfast kindliness, the vigor of a true and pure manhood, that made a
+clear atmosphere about him, in which insincerity, weakness, and
+selfishness seemed to flicker into pale shadows, and shrink away from
+the intense mental light he turned upon them.
+
+And just here the vision of the boy face came back to Jack, the
+strangling arms about his neck, the fluttering breath and quivering
+lips, and the sound of the rather thin, childish voice,--"You are _my_
+King Arthur, and I shall love you my whole life long."
+
+The sadness in the smile was for the old ideal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+"THE telegram!" exclaimed Maverick ten days later, striding down the
+garden where Jack was at work in the strawberry-bed.
+
+Jack Darcy flushed like a girl, through the other fine coloring of
+labor. He had hardly dared to believe in and hold to Maverick's promise.
+Manlike, neither had spoken of it since that night.
+
+"'Thursday, at four, at the Westminster.' That is to-morrow. We must be
+on time, or she would never have any faith in us; and, though my credit
+may be _nil_, yours must be"--
+
+"As I hope to keep it through my life," was the grave reply. "You will
+take the morning train?"
+
+"Yes. It will give us a trifle of spare time, which won't be bad for a
+couple of overworked fellows like us. But I must look after a lot of
+people this afternoon, and if I can I will drop in this evening."
+
+Jack went back to his strawberries. He had been making a mental
+calculation about an acre, and the profits thereon, moved to it by
+something Jane Morgan had said. Twenty miles below them, on Swanston
+Bay, which was quite a summer-resort, the hotel-keepers had paid
+twenty-five cents per quart for nice large berries. On their little
+patch they had raised a hundred and twenty quarts. There was another
+side to the labor-question,--diversity of industry. Jane's idea of a
+great fruit-garden, or call it a farm, was not bad. You could crowd ten
+such patches in an acre of ground. If nothing better came to hand, he
+might hire some of the ground lying waste around Yerbury, and set the
+idle at work.
+
+Sylvie came through with some flowers in her hand. Jack looked up again,
+and laughed, and threw himself on the grass under a tree, chatting
+gayly. He felt so light at heart! She wondered a little, and then,
+without knowing the cause, rejoiced with him in the depths of her soul.
+
+The two men started the next morning, and at the appointed time were
+ushered into Miss McLeod's private parlor. Maverick had said, "She's a
+little queer in some ways; but in the main you will like her, I think."
+Meanwhile Jack had formed a dozen ideals of her, based mostly on the
+personal appearance of Miss Barry and his grandmother.
+
+The door of the adjoining room opened, and Miss McLeod entered. An old
+woman, of course, and a fashionable woman, but with a young-old face and
+figure. Not the graceful airiness of youth, so often painful in its
+desire to impress the beholder with what it is not, but an old age to
+which all the good things of life, rightly used, have contributed, and
+brought about a delightful result. She was of medium height, and
+possibly had not been handsome in her palmy days; but she challenged
+one's respect for a true and honorable womanhood, and an old age neither
+inane, querulous, nor servile.
+
+A rather plump figure, with deep chest, full shoulders, and erect
+carriage. The face was wrinkled; but the skin had a peachy softness, the
+lips were still full and finely curved, and, though the mouth was rather
+wide, it indicated resolution and decision. The whole contour of the
+face was slightly aquiline, the forehead high and broad, but the curling
+hair falling over it in the requirements of fashion softened it; shining
+silvery white, curling naturally, and very abundant, the coil at the
+back partly covered with a diamond-shaped bit of elegant black thread
+lace that matched the barb at her throat. Her rich, soft, steel-colored
+silk made no rustle as she crossed the floor, but the diamonds in her
+ears and on her breast flashed a glitter of sunlight about her.
+
+Maverick greeted her with pleasant but not effusive warmth, and
+introduced his friend. They skirmished on the boundary-line of small
+talk for a while, Jack feeling that he was being measured and gauged at
+every possible indication of the real man, but his honesty of purpose
+kept him steadfast.
+
+Presently Maverick plunged into the business part, much to Darcy's
+satisfaction.
+
+"I wrote to my lawyer, Mr. Hildreth, about it," Miss McLeod replied. "He
+has seen the parties holding the mortgage; and, on account of business
+embarrassments, they are extremely anxious to realize upon it. Mr. Minor
+is naturally desirous of having it sold at an advantage; but he is on
+the bond, and has been making continuous efforts with no success. No one
+can tell how low property will sink, business property especially, that
+depreciates so rapidly if neglected. The mortgage is considered
+one-third of what the property was valued at seven years ago; but we
+have all shrunk a trifle since that," with a shrug, and a curious little
+bend of the head, as if the decapitation was not altogether a pleasant
+process. "This is the 4th of August, and on the 19th it is advertised
+for sale. There may be one chance in a thousand of a better purchaser;
+though Mr. Hildreth thinks no one but a lunatic, or a woman, would put
+money in such an adventure," her lips curving in their bitter-sweet
+smile. Indeed, there was nothing she was so much like as a cluster of
+bright bitter-sweet berries, on a sharp but sunshiny autumn day, with
+the leaves and tendrils brown and faded, but the brilliant life and soul
+still shining from the ripe centre. She impressed you with the same
+defiant glow of exultation.
+
+"I have money lying idle, it is true," she continued; "but I want to
+hear your plans before I decide, Mr. Darcy. Philip," nodding to her
+nephew, "has interested me in this scheme; but I must know what it
+promises before I take the risk."
+
+Jack was confused a little by the bright, penetrating glance; and he had
+not quite overcome his boyish trick of blushing. Often as he had gone
+over the plan with Howell, Fawcett, and other political economists at
+his tongue's end, all his troupe of fine ideas seemed to desert him. He
+laughed at his own embarrassment: she smiled and nodded, and that made
+them friends.
+
+"I don't know that I can put it any better," he began earnestly, "than
+to say that I want to take up the lever of work, and put the wheels of
+labor in motion, to bring the starving workmen and the halting capital
+together again. It is all very well for us to rush every dollar into
+government-bonds; but if there is no business, what is to augment our
+revenue, and where then shall we be finally, with our mills and
+workshops shut up, and our people begging? If I had enough of my own to
+bridge over the chasm, I would ask no one's help," he went on a little
+proudly. "The mills at Yerbury stand in sad silence, with ruin before
+them; our men are idle and dispirited, turning into tramps and
+vagabonds, because they hate to sit still and starve. And here am I, of
+no real use to the world, and the eight years back of me that I have
+spent in perfecting myself of no account either, unless I find something
+upon which to employ my ability and training. If I purchase the mills,
+we must hire capital to work them with, and everybody would be shy of
+us. We can get together the capital if we could be sure of the place for
+five years, at a moderate rental."
+
+"But would not a joint-stock company answer the purpose better, and
+carry more weight?" she asked, listening with a sort of intent wariness.
+
+"I want to enlist the workmen, so that we shall be reasonably sure of
+co-operation in other things beside money, industry, thrift,
+faithfulness, and a common interest in success. If times are hard, we
+shall all make sacrifices: if they improve, we shall benefit by the
+earnestness of our endeavors. Maverick and I have made a little draft,
+based on the workings of the best French and English societies. If you
+will look it over"--and he took it out of his memorandum.
+
+She studied it with a keen, rapid glance.
+
+"It is what I should call an industrial partnership," Darcy continued.
+"We _should_ own the mill; but, as we cannot, that must go in the
+working expenses. As the men choose, and are able, they can hold shares;
+but at present this will be obtained--say from a dozen perhaps. Nothing
+now will bring in twenty or even ten per cent, and we must be satisfied
+with whatever we can make. We have had our good times, and now we must
+take the evil; but if there is any better way than sitting down
+resignedly, and folding both hands, I, for one, want to find it."
+
+She was taking in the combinations of emotion and purpose that flitted
+over his face. A man who would do something if he could get that hardest
+of all things, a foothold to stand upon.
+
+"I think you might make more money," she said with pointed brevity.
+
+"Which would not be co-operation," with his frank, genial laugh that
+went to her heart. "I want to try the experiment. Not that I expect to
+solve all the difficulties between labor and capital; but I shall try to
+make them better friends, so that, when you have weathered a hard gale,
+pinching yourselves to keep on the workmen, they will not strike for
+higher wages on the first stir of improvement, as they will be certain
+of their share."
+
+"You are a philanthropist, Mr. Darcy. Can you depend upon the temper of
+your men? They may do very well just now when they are starving; but,
+when times improve, are they going to wait one year or five years for
+the sum they consider part of their wages? And if there should be no
+surplus, but losses, as has often happened in manufacturing? Your
+workman will
+
+          'Fork out his penny, and pocket your shilling,'
+
+fast enough; but when the tables are turned, what then?"
+
+"There _must_ be a different feeling when men are banded together in a
+mutual business interest. The very spirit of association appeals to what
+is best and noblest in human nature. As it has been in Yerbury, for
+example, the workmen contributed of their ability and strength to
+support one family in princely luxury, pay one extravagant salary, and
+several others that were out of all proportion to the wages earned, and
+an extensive defalcation. No one is at all the gainer now, unless it be
+the thief," his face scarlet with indignation at the remembrance of
+Eastman. "The men have been hit the hardest of all. No wonder they feel
+bitter and discouraged. We make many an Ishmael by sending him out with
+his jug of water, while there are feasting and revelry within."
+
+"But you cannot make all human nature noble or sensible or grateful.
+There is the grand co-operation of the forty years in the wilderness,
+when food was provided, and clothing lasted miraculously; yet under
+these favorable circumstances, and with the sure promise at the end,
+there was not a heavenly unity."
+
+Jack laughed heartily.
+
+"We must keep from golden calves and such folly," he said. "We are
+likely enough to have our waters of Marah. But it seems to me the best
+way to ennoble labor, give it its true dignity, and show the
+possibilities for the workmen, is concerted action. As matters stand
+now, few poor men can ever acquire sufficient capital to start any
+business; and perhaps this is not best when we consider the cost of
+machinery, and the ever-appearing new inventions. The small capitalist
+could _not_ compete with the large one. Yet capital often takes as its
+right the best strength of the workman, the years of maturity and
+ability, and throws him off in his old age. I know labor retorts by
+carelessness, wastefulness, and utter indifference to the employer's
+welfare. One is a machine to grind labor into money; the other, to grind
+all he can out of capital. Perhaps my design is Utopian, but it seems as
+if something ought to be done before we train a whole generation of men
+to be paupers and thieves. Better that we should spend our money in
+labor experiments than supporting poorhouses and prisons."
+
+Jack had lost his embarrassment now. There was a glow on his cheek, and
+a steady fire in his eye, the lines about the mouth sharply drawn, and
+indicating not only masterly strength, but a kind of pitying patience,
+that would never degenerate into sentimentality. It was a very manly,
+trusty face; and his sterling honesty impressed Miss McLeod, long
+trained to reading faces, while his sturdy good sense promised much.
+
+"I should like Mr. Hildreth to see this paper," turning it in her still
+supple fingers. "What if some of your men insist upon going out after a
+year or two, Mr. Darcy?"
+
+"There will be some kind of forfeiture, of course. The true business
+capital must remain intact the whole five years: the direct proceeds of
+labor may be subject to some changes, but in any event the business
+interests must not be jeopardized."
+
+There was a moment's interruption of a servant; then dinner was brought
+in, and arranged for three. The bright-eyed old lady made a charming
+hostess. She poured their tea with a quaint dignity, and made them feel
+quite as if she were dispensing hospitality in her own house.
+
+She was the kind of woman whom young people, past the lunacies of
+sixteen, invariably like. The feminine portion told her their love
+troubles, the young wives came to her with tangles and little
+jealousies; and, if she could not always straighten them out, she had a
+marvellous way of comforting. Young men drifted toward her by some
+species of magnetism, though she had none of the fussy motherliness of
+some old ladies. With faculties still keen and bright, a great fund of
+good-humor that had the sparkle of champagne rather than any insipid
+sweetness, she never wearied or palled on any one. She kept herself well
+informed of the world's progress, she knew of the principal stars in the
+literary, dramatic, and artistic world, and to be asked to her house was
+a compliment.
+
+The conversation was more general now; and, though Maverick had told
+every thing of note about Yerbury, she was not indisposed to listen to
+it again. They discussed the panic and its causes, and ventured upon
+guesses as to its duration. They all agreed that there had been too much
+haste to be rich, too much greed of speculation, too much personal
+greatness, and not enough national greatness. No generous striving
+together to build up what the war had pulled down, but every man for
+himself and for gold. If women had been frivolous and vain, and dazzled
+by the glare of newly acquired wealth, men had not been quite free from
+faults. The terrible lowering of morals, the dishonesty and fraud easily
+condoned, and laughed over as a kind of shrewdness, were sad examples to
+set before the next generation.
+
+In her way Miss McLeod was quite a politician, having been so much in
+that circle. Her views of men and measures were keen and discriminating;
+and her bits of trenchant wisdom quite dazzled Jack, who at the last,
+proposed laughingly, as his panacea, that every man should undertake the
+mending of himself, when the world would soon be righted.
+
+Afterward a coupé came, and they drove to the Park. There evening and
+the bonny new moon overtook them; but the streets and country roads were
+so inviting, they did not return until quite late.
+
+"Consider yourselves my guests for the night," she said as they drove
+back to the hotel, and Maverick was too wise to demur.
+
+"I have been thinking this matter over," she said as they were
+separating. "My part will be purchasing the mills, and I shall take so
+much in the shape of rent. I want you to consider what per cent you can
+pay, and not straiten yourselves too much. I frankly confess that I am
+greatly interested in you, Mr. Darcy; and as this young man," touching
+Maverick's shoulder, "prefers to 'gang his ain gait,' he leaves me quite
+free to waste my money as I like. Be fair to yourself. Good-night."
+
+"It's all right with you, Jack," began Maverick after they had been
+shown to their room. "Aunt Jean is a trump! I almost forgive her Miss
+Lothrop. But I suppose women would be less than women, if they did not
+want to dip their fingers into destiny. It is their mental chessboard."
+
+"But you do love her? your aunt, I mean."
+
+"Why, of course. Still, I should never dangle in any woman's train;"
+with a curl of the lip.
+
+Miss McLeod was going back to Narragansett the next morning. They
+discussed their last item of agreement; and Jack said, with modest
+decision, "that such real estate could not possibly pay more than three
+per cent to any owner in the course of the next few years. He would
+rather offer her that, and a share contingent on the amount of business
+done at the end of five years, than assume any greater risk just now."
+
+"Thank you for your honesty and your good sense," she replied. "If you
+had offered higher, I should have had some doubts of your financial
+clear-headedness. It will be an equitable bargain. And will you be kind
+enough to make some arrangements for me in Yerbury? I shall come on the
+18th, with a companion and a maid; and Mr. Hildreth will follow the next
+morning. Get your plans in shape by that time. I am glad to have met
+you, Mr. Darcy, and I wish you success in your undertaking."
+
+They shook hands cordially, and went their ways. Jack could hardly
+believe his good fortune, and now he was afraid some other parties might
+step in and take the mills.
+
+"Much likelihood," laughed Maverick.
+
+Jack took Cameron in hand first, as he had been the real suggester of
+the plan. He, Darcy, could use his ten thousand; and, if ten more could
+be subscribed, they would not need to hire outside. As time went on,
+this capital might be equalized and increased. Hurd offered two thousand
+and himself; and just then one of the old hands who had succeeded in
+getting rid of a good bit of property that had weighted him heavily, and
+picked up a little money here and there, subscribed five thousand.
+Yardley had none of his own, but persuaded his wife's sister to invest a
+thousand. The other, Miss Barry offered, if no workman came to hand.
+Winston was a handy Jack-of-all-trades. He could repair machinery, or do
+any kind of wood-work: he had sold cloth on commission, bartered and
+traded, and had a good deal of shrewdness and good sense, and pluck. He
+and Darcy would do the buying and selling; Cameron would take charge of
+supplies, deal them out, and see that nothing went to waste; Hurd and
+Yardley would be overlookers as before. Every man could weave his yard
+of cloth with the best. They would constitute the managing force.
+
+The days passed rapidly; and to Jack's great satisfaction no purchaser
+appeared, no curious soul even sauntered about the mills. Miss McLeod
+came at the appointed time, accompanied by Miss Lothrop, who was as
+distant to Maverick as if this were their first meeting. The ladies were
+to stay with Mrs. Darcy, and the best in the house was placed at their
+disposal with simple courtesy. They were taken to the mills, where they
+made a tour of inspection; Jack explaining machinery, looms, shuttles,
+and spindles, with an enthusiasm that amazed even himself. There was a
+new interest in the thought of having a voice in the direction of that
+great engine now so silent, and the work it was to do.
+
+"We shall not use half our looms in the beginning," he said; "but I
+hope, before the five years are ended, we shall be doing our utmost."
+
+They all hoped so for his sake. "If any man can make the plan work, he
+will," thought Miss McLeod, who liked him better every hour.
+
+Miss Barry and Sylvie came to call on the ladies in the evening.
+
+"I suppose that is Mr. Darcy's sweetheart," Miss Lothrop remarked
+afterward. "She is a pretty, enthusiastic little thing, and she takes so
+much interest in his affairs. I can just fancy how they will work
+together, and the earnest, useful lives they will lead. What butterflies
+we are!" looking down at her white helpless hands. "Not you, but the
+young women of the day in general. You are a busy bee, and still keep
+storing up your honey."
+
+"And sting occasionally," laughed the sharp, bright old lady.
+
+The sale took place the next morning at ten, at the Court House. There
+was quite a number of spectators, though the ladies, with Maverick and
+Darcy, were in a private office. Hamilton Minor had come up, resolved
+that it should not go for less than the mortgage, but desirous of ending
+his responsibility. There were but two bids. The auctioneer lingered a
+long while on Mr. Hildreth's bid, commenting on the enormous sacrifice,
+but he could move no one's interest. It was reluctantly knocked down,
+the purchase-money paid, and the deed made out to Miss McLeod.
+
+Then the company's agreement was put in lawful, legal shape. The
+managing board of five men were to have sole charge of buying, selling,
+and manufacturing. They were to give all their time and ability, to
+watch the state of the market, and conduct every thing for the benefit
+of the whole corporation. Darcy was to prepare a balance-sheet
+semi-annually, showing profit and loss; and this was to be open to the
+inspection of the firm.
+
+The parties to the second part, the workmen, were to work ten hours a
+day, six days in the week, under the supervision of Hurd and Yardley.
+The wages of the men and the salaries of the managers were to be put at
+the minimum rate, and both parties were to draw two-thirds of this sum
+weekly. At the end of the year, the profits on labor and capital were to
+be evenly divided; one half apportioned to the capital, the other half
+divided _pro rata_; but only half of this sum to be drawn out yearly,
+the other turned over to the capital stock, and placed to each man's
+credit. If any operative should become dissatisfied, and leave, his
+share of the profits was to be forfeited to a fund for sick or disabled
+workmen. Any member of the association guilty of misconduct was to be
+twice reprimanded, and for a third offence expelled. A standing
+committee of the workmen, with one chairman, was to investigate and
+settle such matters. Shares of capital as low as fifty dollars would be
+within reach of the workmen. A clause was inserted, that no ale, beer,
+or spirituous liquors were to be brought into the mill during working
+hours. It had been one of the old-time rules, but often transgressed.
+Each man was to use his best endeavors to promote the interests of the
+firm.
+
+At the end of five years, the agreement was to cease, and the profits to
+be divided.
+
+Then the five-years' lease of Hope Mills and all its appurtenances was
+made out to "Hope Mills Co-operative Association," and duly signed. The
+rental was to be six hundred and sixty dollars per annum, the company to
+pay the taxes, and keep the mills in ordinary repair.
+
+Then the managers and a number of the workmen marched over to Hope Mills
+in a body, opened the doors and barred shutters, and entered with an
+exultant step. They were to try their hand at good-fellowship in labor,
+and see if it would solve the vexations of the old system, or prove any
+stronger bond. Maverick had spread a little feast in what had been
+Eastman's office; and they sat down together, the ladies, joined by
+Sylvie Barry, Mrs. Darcy, and Miss Morgan, taking the head of the table.
+Some speeches were made, and some toasts drank, and everybody wished
+success to Hope Mills. Had John Hope unconsciously foretold their future
+when he christened them for his own glory? Darcy thought so. The name
+had a higher significance now, and was to be the earnest of many souls,
+the watchword to inspire them.
+
+Miss McLeod bade them a hearty farewell. "There may arise some
+emergency, Mr. Darcy," said she, "when indorsing a note, or a similar
+matter, will be of great importance to you. I shall not promise to do
+much of it; but I am strongly interested in this experiment, and want it
+to have a fair trial. Let me hear from you occasionally; and, if you are
+in any great strait, apply to me."
+
+Jack thanked her warmly, and she and Miss Lothrop went their way.
+
+"She is a regular fairy godmother," he said enthusiastically to
+Maverick. "I wonder that you do not adore her!" and he studied his
+friend in astonishment.
+
+"Have you never heard of people being so much alike they could not
+agree?" he asked with a light laugh. "What ever possessed her to bring
+Miss Lothrop? It was in bad taste, to say the least; and, whatever
+faults aunt Jean may have, she seldom makes a blunder of that kind."
+
+"Why, Sylvie was--well, a good deal pleased with her. The acquaintance
+was so short"--
+
+"Miss Barry is the most generous and least exacting woman that I ever
+saw. She judges people by her own noble soul. Jack Darcy"--Maverick shut
+his lips with a sudden resolution, and turned his face partly aside,
+then said in a curiously changed tone, "We are two fools to be talking
+about women, when there are more important matters on hand."
+
+"But I shall always feel grateful to Miss McLeod. There are several
+moneyed men here in Yerbury whose capital is lying idle, who would not
+have done this thing for me if they knew it would keep half Yerbury from
+starving. Yet, if I had offered them ten per cent, they would hardly
+have hesitated. It does seem to me sometimes, that these old dons tempt
+one into lying first, and swindling afterward. If you make them all
+straight, they do not care how much crooked work you do elsewhere."
+
+"Natural depravity and innate selfishness."
+
+And now began the real work. The mills were cleaned of the year's
+accumulation of dust and cobwebs and general untidiness. Winston went at
+the machinery with hearty good-will, and put it in order. Circulars were
+sent out to the old patrons and to new houses, and workmen, workwomen,
+and children straggled in to see what was going on. Were Hope Mills to
+be really opened? and was Mr. Darcy to be master? True, a good many of
+the best men had gone off to try their luck elsewhere, but there were
+plenty left for a start. Only, there was a mystery these people could
+not understand. Something about wages, and something about money; and
+Jack patiently explained the matter, until, as he told Maverick, he felt
+like a cheap-John auctioneer, dispensing wares.
+
+"The best thing will be to have a meeting," declared Maverick. "See
+here, Darcy: I'll hire Brock's Hall myself; and we will have a lecture,
+or a conference-meeting. Subject, 'Work and Wages.' I'll have some
+posters out too. Every one will know what we mean, that we are honest
+men and true; and you will be spared this everlasting palaver. Then we
+will have some rules, or by-laws, or something, for the workmen. Talk to
+Mr. Winston about it. He would make a capital speaker, with his glib
+tongue."
+
+Darcy thought it an excellent plan, and they set about it immediately.
+
+"But you'll have to post me," confessed Winston. "The only co-operation
+I ever was in was a building-association, and our treasurer ran off with
+our funds."
+
+Maverick promised to "coach" him. Indeed, it was the doctor who gathered
+up statistics, and put them in a compact and telling form.
+
+They had a large audience,--men and women. "Robert Winston, Esq.," was
+the orator of the evening. He was a fluent speaker, and had a good deal
+of humor. He began about the early Anglo-Saxon guilds, and the banding
+together of craftsmen when towns grew large and prosperous, and labor
+was performed in the workshops, instead of at home; of the importance of
+the woollen-manufacture in the days of Elizabeth, not only in England,
+but on the Continent, when kings did not disdain to borrow money of
+these corporations; of their final overthrow, and the causes leading to
+it; of the growth of trades-unions, and the views of conflicting writers
+on the subject. The workman's necessities so often compelled him to
+accept what he felt to be inadequate returns, because he could not
+wait,--it was work or starvation with him,--so that in dull times he was
+not only at the mercy of the employer, but every other starving workman.
+On the other hand, so few workmen ever informed themselves concerning
+the employer's perplexities and dangers, they had no broad and vital
+interest in the business until they all became leagued together, as in
+co-operation. Then they shared one another's burdens and prosperity. It
+was not the one great fortune, but the many comfortable incomes. It was
+the fruit of the noblest thought and the truest philanthropy. As a
+producer it had done its best work in France; and he went briefly over
+the work of the masons at Paris, and the Association Remquet, which,
+after carrying on printing business for ten years, divided among its
+members an average of over ten thousand francs; the cloth-factory at
+Vienna, with its flour-mill, bakery, grocery, coal-yard, and farm; the
+different societies in England, that were promising, to say the least.
+All this had been done by the thrift and economy of individual members,
+who educated themselves by doing business, and so were enabled to
+dispense with the profits of middle-men, and the greedy clutch of
+speculators.
+
+After Winston had finished, Dr. Maverick went briefly over their plans
+for Hope Mills in a very simple and direct manner.
+
+"Winston was capital!" said Jack afterward. "When we are hard up we can
+send him off on a lecturing-tour. But wasn't it rather over the heads of
+our people?"
+
+"It was for others beside the workmen. You know, Darcy, some men are so
+used to swindling and misrepresentation, that they invariably accuse
+every plan of another, of the same motive. You will have a good deal of
+this back talk before your five years are ended; and I want Yerbury to
+know that this is an old, old scheme. I might have quoted the children
+of Israel, as aunt Jean did, and shocked the religious portion of the
+community. But, after all, isn't the greatest truth, the Golden Rule,
+co-operation in _all_ forms?" and he glanced up triumphantly.
+
+Jack did not gainsay him.
+
+He had hit the truth in regard to Yerbury. Some of those who had managed
+to hold on to their money through all the stress of hard times raised
+their eyebrows and shook their heads in amused derision. "A fool and his
+money," said they, and "Set a beggar on horseback," besides numerous
+wise saws people love to fling at their neighbors. A mortifying collapse
+was predicted. There wasn't a woollen-mill in the country paying. The
+smaller people who had been easily induced to invest their money in
+building-lots, under the supposition that in a few years there would
+hardly be standing-room in Yerbury, looked askance at this project, so
+much more easily does speculation appeal to human nature, than the
+slower but more honorable results of industry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+IT was easy enough now to get hands who would consent to the
+three-quarter wages. With one winter of semi-starvation the poor of
+Yerbury were glad to take any thing that promised bread. The masters
+were going to share with the men; but they were made distinctly to
+understand, that, unless the mills earned something over and above this,
+there could be no surplus, no dividends. Another thousand of the capital
+had been made up by some of the hands, who thought this promised as well
+as railroad-stocks, lots out on country barrens, or even savings banks.
+
+To be sure, some burly fellows, whose wives could hardly keep soul and
+body together over their washing-tubs, swore great oaths that Jack Darcy
+was a fool to think he could find men to play into his hands that way!
+Bob Winston was a blower, and never kept at any one thing; and some of
+the rest were old screws, and in six months time everybody would see!
+
+However, Hope Mills rang out its great bell cheerfully on Monday
+morning, the middle of September. A small procession wended their way in
+at the side gate. The engine, with Robert Winston at its helm, as they
+had not suited themselves with an engineer, puffed and groaned; but, if
+it was not a merry music, it was good to hear, for all that. The faces
+were pinched and thin with a year's care and want and the horrible fear
+of the future, but they tried to smile cheerfully. More than one poor
+woman had tears in her eyes, and spoke in that hysterical,
+half-laughing, half-crying tone, that told how deeply her feelings were
+moved.
+
+By night they were quite settled in the old places, or adapted to new
+ones. Perhaps the year's experience had done these people some good:
+they had learned to manage closer. Cameron and Darcy had discussed
+thrifty French ways of management, and now meant to profit by them if
+possible. The American spirit of wastefulness should not run riot as it
+had in times past. Dyes and oils and chemicals were to be sharply looked
+after, and Cameron was the man to do it.
+
+Before the first week was out, an engineer came to hand. There had been
+several applications, but some men raised their noses and laughed loudly
+at the rate of wages. A young chap just out of his time when the panic
+came on, and who had tried every thing, even to rail-roading, took the
+place with hearty thanks; a quick, bright fellow too, who had a love for
+his business, and said in ten minutes time, "She's a pretty engine, Mr.
+Winston!" with the enthusiasm of a true artist.
+
+"That chap'll blow up Hope Mills in less than a month," said Jem Stixon,
+who had been refused. "You mark my words! I wouldn't have wife or child
+of mine working there."
+
+Darcy watched the temper of the employees, and reported every few days
+to Maverick. The little social "we" and "ours" was working wonders, he
+thought.
+
+"And we do nothing!" said Sylvie one evening, in a discontented tone, as
+she sat crocheting by Mrs. Darcy's pretty round table in the old
+library, that had become a kind of general business-room. "I thought you
+were going to set us women at work about something. Miss Morgan and I
+have been waiting patiently."
+
+"There was the cooking-school"--
+
+"But we have nothing to cook. And how are we to get any thing? unless we
+set up as those poor weavers in Toad Lane, on our pocket-money. I
+believe I beg from those who have a little, nearly half my time, to give
+to those who have nothing. And, would you believe it, some of the women
+begin to think they _must_ be provided for. Mrs. Cairns asked me to-day
+when the relief-store was going to open. She didn't see why there
+shouldn't always be something here like the parish relief in England.
+And when Mrs. Ray offered to take Josie this winter, and keep her in
+shoes for what she could do, and teach her a little, Mrs. Cairns said,
+'if she was worth any thing, she was worth more than that. She might
+have her for a dollar a week.'"
+
+"Such people ought to go hungry," declared Jane Morgan sharply.
+
+"I've been thinking," said Jack, who now raised his eyes slowly, "there
+is one thing you might help do; and, indirectly, it would be very
+serviceable to me. Sylvie, you know Kit Connelly's corner, as they
+always call it?"
+
+"Well, so it is: Mrs. Connelly earned the money that bought it, and I am
+glad she didn't let Dennis go on in business until he spent every cent
+of it. And oh, Jack! all we women of Yerbury ought to be doubly proud
+that she wouldn't let Den keep a beer-shop there, nor hire it to any one
+else."
+
+"I hope you are. I think Kit was pretty plucky to take the black eyes
+and the grumbling. It was a good job for her when Den went over to the
+Bowman House for hostler. So, of course, it has been shut up a year and
+a half. You know, two blocks down below, Keppler's door stands open for
+everybody, and so many of the mill-hands pass that way. It is so easy to
+run in and get a glass, and the men who bring their lunches go down for
+a mug of ale. It is a terrible temptation, and I wonder if they are not
+more easily tempted on an empty stomach? Well, I've been considering for
+some days if we could not start a coffee-house there,--set Kit up in
+business. I'm not going to fling a temperance-pledge right in every
+man's face,--for that makes them spiteful. I do not even want to exhort.
+But if we put it there,--right in their way,--and there was a nice fire
+in the evening, and maybe a book or two"--
+
+"Splendid, Jack! There's no such thing in Yerbury. Let's get about it
+right away!" and Sylvie sprang up, as if she would start at once.
+
+They all laughed.
+
+"There must be a little planning first. Mrs. Connelly is a bright,
+good-hearted creature, and can make good coffee; and Rose and Kathleen
+would make nice little maids. She stopped me to-night to inquire if
+there was any chance of their being taken in the mill. There must be
+some diversity of employment, or presently we shall all be doing the one
+thing again,"--and Jack smiled humorously. "Dennis gets low wages,
+Bernard is in the mill, and there are two younger boys. She takes in
+gentlemen's laundering, as you know. She was wishing she could rent out
+the store, but no one wants it. Now, if it could be altered into an
+attractive coffee-room, kept neat and bright, and--you will laugh at me,
+no doubt--but given a kind of style,--the cups clean and shining, the
+spoons decent, and some nice bread and butter for noon lunches. All this
+at a moderate price. The men pay five cents for their pint of ale, and
+it is often shared by two: they must not give more than three cents for
+their cup of coffee."
+
+"I suppose you mean that we are to plan it all out for her," said
+Sylvie, and she looked across at Miss Morgan.
+
+"It will not do to buy a pound of sugar and a pound of coffee at a
+time," said Jane concisely.
+
+"Then I will be the capitalist," promised Sylvie.
+
+"Exactly. Kit had better do this on some money that she must give an
+account of, and it will make her more careful. She owns a cow, so there
+is the milk. I should like this started quietly, not with a great blare
+of opposition to the dram-shops."
+
+"Well, what must we do first?" asked Sylvie.
+
+"I wish you and Jane would go down and call on her, and suggest the
+business. See how she takes it, and look around at the capabilities of
+the place. I will see to the fitting-up."
+
+They went, as desired. Mrs. Connelly--a round, rosy, buxom Irishwoman,
+with a mellow voice, laughing eye, and artist-red hair--was very much
+taken with their plan. "To turn an honest penny in these hard times, and
+not be wronging any one, would just suit the likes of her. And there was
+the store standing empty,--but it might stand till the crack o' doom
+afore she'd have a drop of rum sold in it. There never was a better man
+than Den when he was sober, and sure she'd had sorrow enough along wid
+drinking. And there was Barney growin' up, and the two smaller ones, and
+she'd never, never put a bit of temptation in their way."
+
+The store had been used for a meat-shop and green-grocery. Kit had sold
+the fixtures when she had been in sore need of money, so now it was a
+great bare room, with one large window and two small ones.
+
+"Sure I can scrub an' whitewash it myself, an' put clean curtains to the
+windows. And you're very good to think of such a thing, Miss Barry,--may
+the saints bless you! An' if Mr. Darcy will see to getting what is
+wanted, I'll do my very best to please you all."
+
+Sylvie blushed a little at taking the credit, but it was Jack's wish.
+Jack had a small portico built over the door-way, to keep out the cold
+in winter, and a neat sign put up, with but two words,--"Coffee-House."
+Sylvie and Miss Morgan ordered some cheap, small tables, some plain
+wooden chairs, and found two comfortable, old-fashioned, wooden settles.
+Then she collected old magazines and illustrated papers, and a rack was
+put up at one side for them. All the tables were covered with light
+marbled rubber-cloth, so that they would be kept fresh and sweet. The
+sugar and coffee were forthcoming. Kit could roast coffee to a turn. One
+Thursday evening the place was lighted up, and a few guests asked in;
+and the next day the fame of Kit Connelly's coffee-house began. Half the
+folks in Yerbury knew her and Dennis.
+
+Rose Connelly, who was just seventeen, a nice fresh-looking girl, was to
+keep the books, and take the money as she was quite a scholar. Several
+of the mill-hands went over immediately for their lunches. Such splendid
+wheat, rye, and Graham bread, spread already, and brought on a clean
+plate! A nice bite for three cents, and a solid meal for six. Sylvie was
+to go down now and then, of a morning, to keep matters straight.
+
+"There is one entering-wedge in the cause of temperance," she remarked,
+in her piquant way. "Only, Jack, it does not seem quite right for us
+women to take the credit of it. I confess, among all my plans, there has
+been nothing like this."
+
+"I would rather not be openly connected with it," and Jack made a queer
+little grimace. "By and by I may have to do some real fighting on my own
+account, and I don't want too many vulnerable points. Human nature is
+rather queer and cranky, as you have, no doubt, observed by this time."
+
+"But I do not see why any one should want to fight against your good
+work, Jack," said Sylvie, with an indignant flush. "I am sure it is no
+light undertaking to provide all these people with work; and everybody
+ought to strengthen your hands, instead of putting obstacles in the
+way."
+
+"I must be prepared for all things."
+
+Maverick was very enthusiastic over the coffee-house. It was a new
+institution in Yerbury. There had been in good times several so-called
+cheap lunch-rooms, but the fare was invariably poor.
+
+"Keppler will be your first enemy, and your worst one," said the doctor
+with a shrewd smile.
+
+"Very well. He must fight Miss Barry and Miss Morgan. I did send a man
+to do some work, but Miss Barry paid the bills. I keep my hands out of
+it altogether."
+
+"Good for you, Jack. And how does business progress?"
+
+"I am dubious," and Jack shook his head in a mock-serious way. "There is
+too much rose-color. Every thing works to a charm. Whether people really
+have learned something by the hard times, remains to be seen; but it
+looks so now. And we couldn't have a better working firm. Owen Cameron
+is the same kind of a man that Miss Morgan is for a woman, not stingy
+here and wasteful there, but a thorough-going economist. Every week he
+makes a little saving somewhere. It is what we needed to learn, badly
+enough. He manages to make the men understand that every penny saved is
+for the benefit of all, that a yard of cloth or a pound of wool spoiled
+is to the loss of all. And that is the only way to settle this business,
+this everlasting wrangle between labor and capital."
+
+Amos Hurd and Peter Yardley used to talk over the other scheme of a
+co-operative store. It would not do to have too many irons in the fire
+in such times as these, when no one had any great deal of money. But it
+did seem as if poor people were paying at the dearest rate for every
+thing, partly because they asked for trust, and the only man willing to
+trust them to any extent kept a very full line of second or third rate
+articles, but the prices did not always correspond.
+
+"Now, there's coal," said Yardley one evening. "At the trade-sale it
+went up ten cents a ton on the average. Our dealers here, who had their
+yards full, put up their prices from twenty to thirty cents. I know, on
+the other hand, if coal takes a sudden tumble, they may lose; but, after
+watching this thing for years, I find the prices go up five times with
+full yards, where they fall once. Now, I was thinking, when coal was
+bought for the mill, some extra car-loads might be ordered for the men."
+
+"Yes," and Hurd opened his eyes widely. "Let us talk to Darcy about it."
+
+Jack listened to their proposal with a sudden interest.
+
+"It will be some trouble to you," he answered. "It is not as thoroughly
+screened, and there is the delivering. The men cannot carry it home in
+market-baskets."
+
+"I don't know about the screening," said Yardley rather grimly. "When
+you clean up your bin, and find several bushels of sand and refuse out
+of five or six tons, you think half of it, at least, ought to have been
+good burning-coal. And in wholesale buying you get long tons."
+
+"I can do it as well as not," replied Jack. "In fact,"--laughingly,--"it
+will rather redound to my credit to order largely, and we have a
+somewhat extensive coal-shed. But you must look up one or two men who
+will cart it, and a man to screen; and, when you have counted up your
+labor, decide upon what price you can offer your coal. Perhaps it would
+be as well to canvass, and learn how many tons you can dispose of."
+
+The workmen had their own board of managers, of which Yardley had been
+elected president. They generally met every week, and now Yardley laid
+this matter before them. There would be an average saving, he thought,
+of two dollars on every ton, but the coal must be paid for in thirty
+days. If the men chose to leave one or two dollars every Monday night
+(for Darcy had wisely made Monday instead of Saturday pay-day) they
+might give in an order for one or two or even three tons.
+
+Meanwhile Peter Yardley found some thorns even in his path. A good,
+stout Irish lad was willing to do the screening at a dollar per day; but
+when he spoke to several carters, who were not busy half the time, to a
+man they stuck to their regular price, fifty cents per ton. Not one of
+them would work by the day.
+
+"I can fix that just right," declared one of the men. "My wife's brother
+has a heavy wagon and two mules. He used to do carting for the
+iron-mills, and since then he has had mostly catch-jobs. He owns a
+little place over on the creek-road; and I know he will be glad enough
+to do it, and maybe take part of his pay in coal."
+
+Seth Williams was hunted up. He would come, and bring his son who would
+help about loading, for two dollars and a half a day. There were
+seventy-odd tons subscribed for, but they decided to make their order
+one hundred tons. Coal was selling at six dollars and a half per ton at
+Yerbury. After due calculation, they offered theirs to the men at four.
+
+It came duly to hand. After the first day, Williams hired another team
+on his own account, and his son drove one to its destination, making
+thereby extra time. Before the seventy tons had been delivered, the
+remainder was bespoken. They found when it had all been disposed of, and
+their workmen paid, that they had counted very closely, but there was a
+small balance on hand. This was deposited in the bank as a nucleus for a
+co-operative store as soon as there might be sufficient capital to
+warrant it. This, at least, had been a success. So many of the poorer
+class of Yerbury were not able to pay for the last ton of coal until
+they ordered again, being always that much behind.
+
+Yardley was quite jubilant over his scheme.
+
+"You forget that in this you and Hurd have received nothing for your
+trouble," said Darcy. "Then," smilingly, "you have no bad debts to count
+out. Still only a philanthropist can do business this way. If you were
+the proprietor of a coal-yard, you could not afford it."
+
+"I think I have something for my trouble, Mr. Darcy," the man answered
+proudly. "I have saved ten dollars on my four tons of coal, and that
+surely pays me."
+
+They were doing moderately well at the mill. Several orders had come in
+from old buyers; and now Winston started out on a travelling tour, being
+admirably fitted for that part of the business. At the West he managed
+to talk two large wool-dealers into a trade; they taking cloth of
+various grades in exchange, and disposing of it to the best of their
+ability.
+
+"A regular old-fashioned barter," he wrote to Maverick. "It took a good
+deal of talking, to be sure, but I'm never the worse for that. They were
+pleased to get a fair price for their wool, and I lost nothing on my
+cloth. It clears out the stock, and keeps the men busy."
+
+Indeed, Hope Mills was doing a great thing for Yerbury. There was a
+brisker air on the streets, a kind of inspiring music in the whir and
+clatter, that spoke of food and warmth and raiment. Good feeling and
+sympathy had been touched; and though some of the workmen, who were
+harassed by back debts, looked rather ruefully at their small weekly
+pittance, still it was so much better than no money and no employment.
+
+At the Darcys they held what Sylvie laughingly called "symposiums." The
+churches were organizing their winter work, for there would be need
+enough. The few who had found employment merely made a ripple on the
+surface. Some who had stretched out their scanty means the past year now
+found themselves penniless. Others had tramped about the neighboring
+towns and cities, getting a few weeks' work here and there, but had no
+fancy for facing winter in this precarious manner. The hopeful feeling
+animating so many in the early autumn died out again. It was feared
+that we had not seen the worst of the panic.
+
+To Sylvie, who the preceding winter had been engrossed in art-studies
+and delightful social life, the want and misery were appalling. She and
+Miss Morgan did organize a visiting-society according to an idea of Dr.
+Maverick's; and though they alleviated many cases of distress, and were
+the better able to distinguish who were worthy, still they increased
+upon their hands.
+
+"I begin to realize that poor people do not make the best of their
+money," she said. "They do not know how to prepare dishes that shall be
+cheap and palatable. And, worst of all, many of them cannot cook a
+potato so that it shall be fit to eat."
+
+"The weak point of this world, Miss Sylvie," said Dr. Maverick. "When
+women learn to make good bread and cook potatoes, there will be a
+decrease of one-half in dyspepsia. Now, what is the secret of the
+potatoes? Come, air your ideas! Give me a recipe, and I will take it
+around among my patients. I advise them pretty generally to bake them,
+but I find some soggy and watery even then."
+
+"Overdone," said Miss Morgan briefly.
+
+"Well, state the exact time."
+
+The women looked at each other, and laughed.
+
+"From twenty minutes to half an hour," said Mrs. Darcy. "Some kinds boil
+easier than others. For baking, three-quarters to an hour."
+
+"But the infallible test?"
+
+"Watchfulness," said Jane.
+
+"I must admit that you seem to understand it thoroughly, judging from
+the specimens I have seen and eaten. But are you not a little chary in
+your information?" and he glanced from one to another.
+
+"Miss Morgan shall be first spokeswoman," declared Sylvie gayly.
+
+"If it is a boiled potato," began Jane sententiously, as if she were a
+child speaking a piece, "I put mine in the saucepan, and pour hot water
+over them, as they come to a boil sooner, taking care that they shall be
+as nearly of a size as possible. In about twenty minutes I try an
+average potato. If I can stick a fork through it nicely, it is done.
+Then I pour off the water, letting it drain until every drop is gone,
+when I shake up the lot two or three times rather hard and quick, stand
+them on the back of the stove with the cover partly off, so that the
+steam may escape; and you have a dry, light, flaky potato, unless it was
+irremediably bad to begin with. I have sometimes boiled new and rather
+small potatoes in twelve minutes over a good fire. But cooking, like
+liberty, has the same high price, eternal vigilance."
+
+Maverick laughed. "I shall remember this," he exclaimed. "You will yet
+hear of me teaching some of my poor patients to cook potatoes. Heaven
+knows there is enough need of it. Wasn't there some talk of a school for
+useful arts?"
+
+"Yes," answered Sylvie, "only there was no money to start with, and we
+have all been so busy."
+
+"What would be needed?"
+
+"_Imprimis_: a room, a cooking-stove, a fire, a cook, and some
+materials," replied Sylvie with merry audacity.
+
+How pretty and bright she was! He liked to watch her in these changeful
+moods. One great charm of this place was finding her here so frequently.
+
+"And Mr. Darcy has been so much engrossed with weightier matters," she
+continued in a half apology.
+
+"I really think I ought to be more interested in this question than Mr.
+Darcy. It supplements my work. While cheap living is an imperative
+necessity in times of depression and low wages, I cannot see why we do
+not make it more of a study. While we are so ready to copy the vices of
+our French neighbors, perhaps their virtues would do us no harm. A
+doctor often finds himself quite nonplussed by something in the
+preparation of the patient's diet. The old doctrine preached years ago,
+on St. Paul's text of 'keeping the body under,' has worked as much
+damage as the asceticism of the middle ages. A good healthy body is the
+first requisite everywhere; and to keep it so, every one's first duty.
+When men began to consider the body a poor, vile thing, to be treated
+with contumely, and fed with what would just sustain life, they offered
+an outrage to the highest work of God. When people think it is no matter
+what they eat, and that no pains need be taken in the preparation, they
+have made a big lapse toward heathenism. Confusion of the physical
+senses leads to confusion of the moral sense; and weak, miserable bodies
+with hysterical nerves, though they may dream dreams, and see visions,
+cannot do good healthy work in this world. And your poor people need a
+good deal of training on this subject. It must be made an honorable, not
+a despised, business. If I were to build houses, I should make the
+kitchens large, light, and pretty; and, if any room had to be small and
+uninviting, it should be that for the storage of the best furniture,"
+laughing humorously.
+
+"Yes," responded Jane Morgan, "I like to go into an old-fashioned
+country kitchen, with a nice painted floor, and braided rag rugs laid
+down here and there: with a grandmother's corner by a sunny window, and
+a father's chair by the wide, cheerful chimney-piece, and a place for
+the children to play, with plenty of room to get about. Apples and nuts
+always taste so good in such a place! Instead, we have a stuffy little
+kitchen and a cheerless dining-room, that no one wants to sit in, and
+every member of the family goes to his or her room, and sociability is
+at an end. Then we must go to theatres, lectures, and concerts, just to
+catch a glimpse of the members of our own family."
+
+"There is a good deal of truth in that," and the doctor nodded
+sagaciously. "And now I shall take steps for that school. I may count on
+you, Miss Morgan, may I not, and Miss Barry?"
+
+They both promised.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+MEANWHILE what had befallen Fred Lawrence?
+
+He had been greatly shocked at his father's death. True, the tender,
+intense affection that had so sweetened childhood seemed to have died
+out; when they might have attained to an enduring friendship, they had
+gone separate ways, missing the exquisite sympathy that should have
+existed between them. Whether the distance was any disappointment to his
+father, he had never thought. He was the only son of the house, and his
+slightest wish had always been gratified. There had been no wretched
+vices that sap body and soul, nothing to bring dishonor on the old pure,
+family name; and, if David Lawrence missed something that he had hardly
+longed for, he still felt proud of his son.
+
+But his son, bending over the coffined face, was stunned, paralyzed. Of
+this death he had never thought. Was it not rather a frightful dream?
+
+The sharp reality followed fast enough. He listened, still bewildered by
+the horrible visions that crowded upon him. Hope Mills closed, notes
+going to protest, workmen clamoring for pay, Mr. Eastman quite out of
+reach, indeed, no one knew just where.
+
+Mr. Minor did not spare his father-in-law. How could he trust every
+thing to Horace Eastman! How could he allow George to go on unchecked in
+such a career of wild speculation! forgetting that he had speculated
+quite as wildly. And now all the property was covered with mortgages,
+and not a dollar to be squeezed out of any thing. As for the bank
+business, that he sneered at. Let them look to the Eastmans. They might
+have known that a small manufacturing town like Yerbury could not stand
+such galloping progress. In his heart of hearts he thought George and
+Horace rather clever fellows to get away before the crash began. And if
+David Lawrence had only managed to provide well for his family,--his
+manifest duty,--the rest might have gone without a sigh, such trifles as
+notes and wages.
+
+Fred Lawrence he looked upon as a baby. Indeed, Fred was of but little
+use in settling the business, much more plague than profit, since he
+stood up stoutly for his father's honor and integrity. He had that much
+of a son's love. And he characterized Horace Eastman's villany as it
+deserved: his education had not quite done away with his moral sense in
+such matters.
+
+"Here for five years your father has given him a clean sweep with every
+thing! If you thrust temptation right in a man's way, what can you
+expect?"
+
+"His honesty would not be of a very high order if it could withstand no
+temptation," Fred answered rather scornfully. "It was necessary for
+father to travel in the interests of the business. He surely could not
+stay here to watch him. And you thought well of Eastman."
+
+"No man would play _me_ such rascally tricks! There is no telling what
+he has done! Books can be doctored to look very fair."
+
+But they found enough. Pay-rolls for men kept up long after they had
+been discharged, and many who had never been at all; systematic
+falsifications that could not be brought to light without a rigid
+inspection and comparison by an expert. But Hamilton Minor felt, with
+the world's wisdom, that bringing the Eastmans back as criminals would
+not be likely to lead to any restoration; while it would prove a family
+disgrace, and perhaps add Gertrude to the list of dependent ones.
+
+"It makes me heart-sick!" declared Fred. "There is nothing but
+selfishness and hollowness and greed. Are truth and honor quite dead?"
+
+"Very fine talk, my young friend," said Minor in a sneering tone; "but
+the question that more nearly concerns you is how you are all going to
+live, granting even that there may be enough to pay the debts. Of course
+this great house cannot be kept afloat. You had better discharge some of
+the servants, and retrench while you do remain in it."
+
+Then had followed the talk with Agatha, when matrimony was proposed as a
+certain and sure remedy for these present ills: a cure the young man
+disdained with anger.
+
+Mrs. Lawrence kept to her room, and was too ill to listen to business
+details, even if she could have helped in any way, which she could not.
+She fancied now, like many another woman, that her husband had been her
+only delight in life, and that there was nothing left. When Agatha
+suggested that she had been very short-sighted to consent to mortgaging
+Hope Terrace, she cried, and said "she would have given up every thing
+for him, and now that he was gone she wanted no fortune,--she should
+never leave her room again until she was carried."
+
+If there had been any bright little Sylvie to run in and comfort her!
+any strong-hearted, tender woman, to whom he could turn! He seemed now
+to realize more keenly what he had lost, than on the night Sylvie
+rejected him. And that other strong, manly soul--no, bitterly as he
+might regret, he could no more go back to him than to Sylvie.
+
+He roused himself, and began his work, utterly astounded at the
+extravagance that met him on every side. No doubt it looked right enough
+when there was plenty of money; but it seemed now as if the servants had
+been masters and mistresses, that all these luxuries existed for their
+sake,--the gardens and graperies, the greenhouses with their wealth of
+costly flowers; the horses standing idle in the stable, with only
+servants to use them; his father a plain man, his mother confined mostly
+to two or three rooms, and occasional visitors; supplies ordered
+lavishly, and wasted in a manner that seemed wicked even to him. He
+wondered in a vague way if the system was not radically wrong that
+brought such waste and carelessness in vogue, when hundreds had not the
+necessities of life. He remembered one talk his father had with Horace
+Eastman over in the library yonder, with champagne and cigars between
+them, in the height of one of the strikes, and how Eastman had figured
+to a penny the exact percentage of wages the mill could afford to pay.
+What if _they_ had given up a little of their luxury, and _he_ his
+ill-gotten gains!
+
+He had the pictures packed under his supervision, and sent to New York.
+Not without a pang; for many of them he had selected, and each one had
+some pleasant reminder. The choice collection of the greenhouse was
+offered for sale, the elegant furniture, and all the most valuable of
+the personal property. Times were hard, and sales were slow; but there
+would be sufficient realized, it was thought, to pay the floating
+indebtedness. Hope Terrace and the mills would probably go for the
+mortgages. There was a small life-insurance settled upon Mrs. Lawrence,
+and the children would be fortuneless.
+
+By spring the estate was in a fair way of settlement. Fred had vibrated
+between the city and Yerbury all winter, but his mother had been taken
+to Mrs. Minor's. A gardener and his wife were placed in charge of the
+house, while efforts were being made to rent it. A few rooms had not
+been disturbed.
+
+And now Frederic De Woolfe Lawrence looked about him to see what could
+be done. Up to this time he had never given himself an anxious thought
+about money or his future. Now it stared him unpleasantly in the face.
+What could _he_ do?
+
+Many things, he said at first, with the buoyant certainty of youth and
+inexperience. Here was his education, his talents, his fine mental
+training. Surely he had the magical open-sesame of some door.
+
+So he set to work industriously, and wrote several articles on the
+history and the philosophy of the pure sciences. Very fine-drawn indeed,
+very intellectual and analytical, as he went through the different
+schools of thought, being able, it seemed to him, to argue as well for
+the one side as for the other. Then he tried Neo-Platonism with its
+profoundly mystical aspects and its brilliant array of philosophers, its
+fascinating aspects of Pantheism. The new world and to-day had nothing
+for him; the dead and gone past, every thing.
+
+Alas! From every side he heard the cry, Literature had been overdone. No
+one would buy, no one would read, in this great turmoil. Everybody wrote
+now, schoolgirls, college-fledglings: even small farmers and mechanics,
+with the training of the present and a smattering of knowledge, set up
+for geniuses.
+
+One advised him to try the realistic school: the old-time philosophies
+had lost the high place they once held, and to gain the attention of
+to-day writers must have snap and vim. Another recommended popular
+science made easy and attractive to general readers, something that
+caught at the first glance. Life was too short to be devoting years to
+any one branch of study. Still another was fain to persuade him to
+attack the pernicious systems and monstrous abuses of the present day.
+Then he stumbled over Crosby, one of his college-chums and a member of
+the L---- Club, where he had been a frequent and welcome visitor the
+winter before.
+
+"My dear fellow," said he, with patronizing good-nature, "take my
+advice, and let literature alone. It is one of the most uncertain
+things. To-day you may suit, to-morrow a chap comes along with some new
+fandango or summersault of high art, and the world leaves everybody to
+run after him, and you are thrown over. A man cannot earn his salt
+unless he has the _entrée_ of the initiated ring. As for journalism, you
+may hammer at that for twenty years before you get a position."
+
+Poor Fred went back to his room sorely depressed. It was a quiet, clean
+room in a second-rate hotel, for which he paid twelve dollars a week.
+There he sat and brooded, until taking up the paper one morning he saw
+the arrival of one of his old professors at the "Grand Union." Perhaps
+he might put him in the way of something. So he plucked up heart, and
+went to call.
+
+Professor Dennison received him very cordially, and expressed the
+warmest sympathy for the loss of his father and his fortune. He listened
+attentively to the young man's desires, and answered in suavest of
+tones.
+
+There were so many applications: every avenue seemed full. Young lawyers
+and doctors, finding no opening, had gone back to teaching, and the
+college-graduates of every year swelled this number. He would bear it in
+mind, and see what he could do; but he advised his young friend not to
+build too high hopes. "If I could make a place I should put you in it at
+once," he said kindly, just as he said it to a dozen others.
+
+It was so everywhere. There were no copyists, translators, or writers
+needed. The clerkships were overcrowded. It was not that there were too
+many doing one thing, but everything,--too many people in the world.
+Could the Malthusian doctrine be right, after all?
+
+He dropped into his brother-in-law's office one morning, and, though he
+hated to ask a favor of him, discussed in a rather fragmentary and
+abashed way the possibility of getting any thing to do; and a fortnight
+after, Mr. Minor sent him word of a broker who wanted a clerk, salary
+fifty dollars per month.
+
+It was better than nothing. Then, too, it was a beginning, although he
+could imagine more congenial employments. It did not look much like hard
+times, to note the immense amount of stocks and bonds that passed
+through the hands of this great house.
+
+Just at this period Irene returned. A fine, stately girl, with the
+indescribable air that foreign society gives. Yet she seemed haughty,
+bitter, and satirical; and it came out presently that she and Gertrude
+had quarrelled over a possible husband, and the amiable Gertrude had
+taunted her with dependence in the future. Irene had sold some diamonds,
+and travelled on the proceeds.
+
+"I think you were very short-sighted, Irene," said Mrs. Minor when she
+had drawn this story out of her sister. "A handsome American girl does
+stand a better chance for matrimony abroad than here. So many fortunes
+have been lost in the panic, and certainly I cannot blame these men for
+choosing heiresses. You have been in society a great deal here, and you
+will find fresh young girls beginning to crowd you out. Fred has
+nothing, and from present indications will hardly be able to take care
+of himself. It was such a misfortune that papa had every thing
+mortgaged! So Gertrude was right," in a bitterly suave tone: "you must
+be dependent upon some one until you do marry."
+
+"Oh, no! I might set up millinery,--with my taste and aptitude for
+arrangement. I think I have read of reduced young women who made
+fortunes in that line," retorted Irene the queenly, in her unmoved way.
+She was not one to cry out at a dagger-thrust.
+
+"Don't be a fool!" advised Mrs. Minor, in a short, incisive tone.
+
+She, like most other people, had meant to economize this summer; but now
+she made a sudden start for Newport. Irene certainly was peerless in her
+half-mourning, with her statuesque figure. But there was not an eligible
+at Newport, so they turned their steps Saratoga-ward. And here they
+found an old admirer of Mrs. Minor's, Gordon Barringer, a widower for
+the second time, the owner of a silver-mine and a railroad, and Heaven
+alone knew the length and breadth of his possessions.
+
+Miss Agatha Lawrence had turned up her aristocratic nose at him, as a
+rather coarse and self-assured person, as proud of his want of education
+as other men were of its acquirement. Now he was about forty, stout,
+high-colored, loud of voice, and with an important swagger. But money
+had given "our enterprising citizen" power, and he both understood and
+wielded it skilfully.
+
+His wife had been dead barely six months, but when he met Irene Lawrence
+he decided at once that the penniless beauty would be only too glad to
+marry him. He was proud to think he could afford to be so magnanimous.
+Mrs. Minor settled herself to the fact that there must be no foolish
+dallying. Of course Irene _would_ see. She could not be so idiotically,
+so fatally blind!
+
+I do not know that at this period of her life Irene Lawrence had any
+ideal. She had made conquests so easily, she had found men so much
+alike, and in her secret heart she despised them for being so ready to
+kneel and bow at beauty's shrine. It seemed to her as if youth and
+fortune were alike boundless; and she literally took no thought for the
+morrow, until the tidings of her father's death was followed by the
+subsequent news of loss of fortune.
+
+If George Eastman had a self-conviction that he and his cousin had
+contributed to this downfall, he tried to make it up to Irene in
+brotherly kindness and generous expenditure where money was concerned.
+He solaced himself with the thought that, after all, he had no more than
+his own, or what should have been his own rightfully, though he fancied
+he could not have gone on to the end quite as Horace had.
+
+When Sir Christopher Frodsham came across the two ladies in Paris,
+Gertrude exulted at the easy conquest. A man of fifty, whose young years
+and health had been spent in sowing a plentiful crop of wild oats, but
+to whom had come now, quite unexpectedly, a fortune and a title; and
+prosperity, after years of rather bitter economy, made him miserly, as
+it not unfrequently does such men. That he would have been glad to marry
+this young, beautiful girl, for himself alone, was most true. And Irene,
+in the bewilderment of the losses, inclined to his proposal, and begged
+time for consideration.
+
+He was not a man she could admire, respect, or love. He was narrow,
+egotistical, selfish, and with the pitiful vanity of a worn-out _roué_.
+Frodsham Park was in a lonely, mountainous part of England, bordering on
+Wales; and this man would look upon his wife as a nurse and companion,
+and the mother of an heir.
+
+There must have been a little strain of heroism in the girl. Suddenly,
+in one of those quick, vivid flashes, like mental lightning, she saw
+that she could not do this thing. She was not at all given to analysis;
+she had never dissected her own soul, or that of her neighbors; but she
+arrived at one of those swift, clear verdicts,--she could not marry Sir
+Christopher; and she told him so, with a frankness a trifle tenderer,
+perhaps, than she had used with her lovers heretofore, as if some way
+she had wronged him in thought.
+
+Over this, as I said, she and Gertrude had bitter words and a parting.
+Now the same thing stared her in the face again. This lover was too
+obtuse to be stung by the fine arts of coquetry that lengthened practice
+had brought to perfection. In all the bravery of self-assertion, he did
+not know when he was beaten; and so he fought against the intangible
+spear-points with which Miss Lawrence could surround herself.
+
+Mr. Barringer was called to New York on important business law-suits;
+and two days after, Mrs. Minor declared herself wearied out with
+Saratoga. Irene felt the walls of fate closing remorselessly about her.
+Why should she struggle? she asked herself. After all, what could she do
+but marry?
+
+Meanwhile, Hope Mills had been sold. Fred made some inquiries about it.
+
+"A woman--a rich old maid, I believe, by name McLeod, who knows enough
+to drive a sharp bargain--has taken it. Some one is to set up the
+business, I heard; an impecunious nephew, no doubt. No one but a fool
+would make a venture when the market is overstocked with goods. It is a
+shame that the estate had to lose such a valuable piece of property; but
+there was no income to pay taxes and interest, and, standing empty, it
+would soon have eaten itself up."
+
+Fred sighed. For the first time, he wondered how it would have ended if
+he had been brought up to some useful business, and perhaps have taken
+Eastman's place with his father. As for stock and share jobbing, he was
+heartily sick of it. To him it appeared an immense system of swindling
+the ignorant and unsuspecting.
+
+However, he was not destined to nurse his disgust very long in brooding
+silence. The last of September the great house of Bristol, Stokes, &
+Co., collapsed. The wreck was unexpected, the ruin wide-spread. The
+house of Minor & Morgan was hard hit, which did not improve Mr. Minor's
+temper, though, Spartan-like, he wore a cheerful face, and kept his
+losses to himself. Even if it should be his turn next, the world must
+not know it.
+
+"There's a letter that concerns you, though it was sent to me as
+administrator," said Minor to Fred, as he sauntered in one morning,
+tossing the missive over to him.
+
+Fred opened it with languid indifference, and his eye wandered over the
+following lines:--
+
+          HAMILTON MINOR, ESQ.
+
+          _Dear Sir_,--On taking possession of Hope Mills,
+          for business purposes, I find some personal
+          property belonging to the late Mr. Lawrence. It
+          may have a value for the family, and shall be at
+          your disposal whenever you desire it. Respectfully
+          yours,
+
+                                                 JOHN DARCY.
+
+"As soon as Hope Terrace is disposed of, the accounts can be audited and
+settled," said Minor in a sharp, business-like way. "The debts have all
+come in, and been paid dollar for dollar; though, if your father had
+been a prudent man, he would have made sure of something for his family.
+No one expects estates to pay more than fifty per cent nowadays."
+
+Fred rose, and crushed Jack Darcy's note in his pocket, holding himself
+proudly, while his cheek flushed.
+
+"I am very thankful," in a clear, cold tone. "My father's life was pure
+and honorable, and no man can fling a stone at his grave. I would rather
+be penniless, as I am, than have it otherwise."
+
+"Oh! very well, very well," sneeringly.
+
+Fred walked out of the office, and turned into Broadway. The same
+curious, restless, hurrying throng. Where were they all going? Did they
+find room and work? How clearly the sun shone! The sky was so blue, with
+great drifts of white floating about,--strange barques on a mystical
+sea. In spite of the outside roar and rush, there was a solemn and
+awesome stillness within him. He began to feel how entirety alone he
+stood. A twelvemonth ago there were hosts of friends pulling him hither
+and yon, proposing this and that, laughing and chatting gayly. Where
+were they now? Not all weak and false, but the shadow of circumstances
+had drifted them apart. We do not always cease to love or like when
+separation ensues; and in this shifting, changing life, people drop out,
+yet are not quite forgotten. Some of the young fellows whom fortune had
+buffeted had found a place in active, stirring life: he, with his
+education, refinement, accomplishments, and talent, was merely a piece
+of driftwood. Sylvie Barry had been right,--he was a useless appendage
+to the world. Ah, no wonder she despised him! Sturdy, honest Jack Darcy
+could find a place. His self-complacency was more than touched,--it was
+shattered, completely broken up. The present was blank and colorless,
+the future like a thick mist in which there penetrated not one ray of
+light. What did all his elaborate philosophies for him now?--art, that
+was to regenerate the world; science, that explained and refined, and
+found a place and a reason for every thing in the universe; man, the
+most important of all. And here he was, tossed aside like a weed. Who
+cared whether his nature was foul or kinglike? He was, in truth, one of
+the atoms floating about in space, and finding no use or purpose. The
+world could go on just as well without him. Why, if he should drop
+himself over into the river, there would be only a ripple. He laughed,
+as if his personality was something that did not really belong to him,
+that could be put off at will, that was, in truth, answerable to no
+power. All of life, then, had been a lie!
+
+He stumbled onward blindly. A sense of dreary mystery crept over
+him,--an utter hopelessness. He essayed to stretch out his hand to some
+passer-by, but the careless faces mocked him. There was no strength or
+stay. He could not even cry out with his anguish,--it was a dumb,
+inarticulate voice. All his idols had been destroyed, and there was no
+God to cry to!
+
+His last three weeks' salary had gone down in Bristol & Co.'s ruin.
+There were some jewels to sell, a few more pictures, several sets of
+rare books, and--what then?
+
+Starvation had appeared so utterly improbable in this great, thriving
+world, and here he was, almost face to face with it,--he who had never
+taken an anxious thought about any thing, who had felt as if he really
+honored money by the spending of it. A beggar! An object of charity to
+Hamilton Minor!
+
+No, that should never be. He tried to rouse himself from his lethargy.
+He went around to stores and offices where he was not known, and asked
+for something to do, as if in a curious masquerade. The same answer
+everywhere. Nothing! The sun went slowly down, the street-lamps were
+lighted. Every inch of his body ached with the long tramp and nervous
+exhaustion. He had eaten nothing since breakfast, but he was not hungry.
+What if he did steal quietly over to the river, and end it all?
+
+The desperation was hardly black enough for that. Somewhere near
+midnight he strolled home: how much longer would there be a home, he
+wondered?
+
+He thrust his hand in his pocket, and the bit of folded paper struck
+sharp against his fingers, so he drew it out. Hardly the familiar
+school-boy scrawl: Jack used to hate writing, he remembered. This had a
+decisive force about it. How odd that business-like "John" looked!
+"Jack!" He uttered the name aloud, and a thrill seemed to warm his
+frozen heart,--to stir emotions most contradictory. A sense of shame
+predominated, tingling his very finger-ends, crimsoning his pale cheeks,
+and stinging his soul with a sense of utter humiliation. He had prided
+himself so much upon the immaculate honor of his life, and lo! here he
+stood, self-convicted of one of the basest of sins,--broken faith. Not
+from any sudden, hot dispute, not from a knowledge of deception or any
+small meanness, but deliberate, well-considered treachery. It would have
+been manlier had he said to Jack, "Our ways lie apart, and in the future
+we shall meet so seldom, it is hardly worth while to keep up a pretence
+of friendship." He had skulked away instead, kept out of sight,--basely
+shunned the strong, tender soul that had helped to make a peevish
+boyhood sunny and bright.
+
+Black as this ingratitude looked to him now, he experienced a strange
+and intense desire to see his olden friend once more. What was he doing
+at Hope Mills? Had he found a place?
+
+The next morning's mail brought him a check for sixty dollars, for an
+article he had thought little of himself, and sent merely because he had
+happened to finish it, and was despatching his ventures out on the sea
+of chance. Then he went over to Mrs. Minor's: he had not seen his mother
+for several days.
+
+He was quite in the habit of going directly up to her room; but, as he
+neared it, he heard voices raised in no gentle discussion. Agatha stood
+in the middle of the room, flushed, angry, an open note in her hand;
+Mrs. Lawrence was weeping hysterically, while Irene sat pale and sullen,
+but her eyes gleaming with a dangerous fire.
+
+"Very well: if you deliberately decide to take a beggar's portion, then,
+do not look to me for any further help," said Mrs. Minor. "This marriage
+would have afforded you every luxury; and you have thrown aside the
+chance, like a silly school-girl. Perhaps you _have_ some secret,
+favored lover!" and the glittering eyes might have annihilated a weaker
+woman than Irene Lawrence.
+
+"If I had, I should go to him. I would live on crusts and a cup of cold
+water with him, rather than luxury," with a bitter, stinging emphasis,
+"and my own humiliation. The man would drive me mad, Agatha! Some day,
+yielding to an irresistible impulse, I should murder him;" and she gave
+a shrill, unnatural laugh.
+
+Fred went over to her, and took her hand. His business in life was to be
+her champion, her defender, her support,--not only against this
+monstrous marriage, at which her soul revolted, but Agatha's sneers and
+flings, and the dependence a proud soul must naturally feel when the
+very bread turns to ashes in one's mouth. How it was to be done, he
+could not tell at that moment; but he drew one long breath of honest,
+hopeful manliness, and resolved to leave no stone unturned.
+
+His mother wept in his comforting arms. She was very much
+shattered,--quite an old woman long before her time, made so by the
+follies of an indolent, enervating life. Like a pang the thought pierced
+his brain, that for these paltry results his father had given the
+strength and labor of manhood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+THERE were a few faint hints of autumn in Yerbury. The air was warm, and
+freighted with the peculiar sweetness of over-ripe grapes and apples, of
+dried balsam and faded golden-rod by the wayside. The very air seemed to
+quiver with intense contrasts of color, the yellow beeches standing out
+in strong relief, the bronze-red of one great oak, the bluish-green of
+the spruce, and the tender tints of fading, long-armed larches, drooping
+in regretful sadness. Lights of silvery gray and russet-brown, pale gold
+and hazy purple, and a sapphire sky bending over all. The artistic side
+of Fred Lawrence's soul was touched as he had once fancied nothing this
+side of Europe could touch it.
+
+For a moment a mighty rush of regret came over him. This magnificent
+place had been his home. Perhaps he would have been more than human not
+to have experienced a pang.
+
+He wandered about for some time. It was too lovely to go in and explore
+those dusty, darkened rooms: this evening would answer for that. He
+paced the lawn, he lingered by the gate; he took a turn about the
+grapery, now used for profit by the thrifty farmer who had charge of the
+place. Then he turned, and went down the street. The bells were ringing
+for six. From his height above, he could see the laborers wending their
+way, the great chimney of Hope Mills. He would walk in that direction.
+They would all be gone by the time he reached it.
+
+The streets were indeed nearly deserted. In the shade here the wind
+blew a little chilly. Yes, it was just the same; but then, it would not
+be likely to alter in a year. Why, it seemed a decade almost, since the
+night he had come home to his dying father!
+
+Ah, if they had been more to each other! Did he go about with a lonely
+spirit, Fred wondered, feeling the uselessness and insufficiency of the
+life he was leading? Had he been glad to lay the burthen down?
+
+A sudden firm, manful step ran down the stone stairway with a cheerful
+ring, and a voice hummed a tune softly, as one sometimes does for a
+seeming accompaniment, when the mind is occupied with other things;--a
+tall, robust figure, with long arms, and a springy step, as if he might
+still leap a post, or jump the creek. He was rushing off, when,
+curiously enough, with no other motive than an impulse, he turned, and
+saw an almost motionless figure.
+
+Whether he would send for the articles belonging to his father, or visit
+Hope Mills in person, risking a sight of Jack Darcy, or whether he would
+summon courage enough to ask for his old friend, were matters that Fred
+had put off for to-morrow's decision. Why he had wandered here at all,
+amazed him now; and he stood quite breathless at the unexpected
+apparition, without power to move or speak.
+
+If he had still been in the high tide of prosperity, Jack would have
+passed him by silently, but with no rudeness. Something in the bent
+head, the pale face, the general melancholy attitude, came home to his
+heart,--his fresh, generous, magnanimous heart. He ventured a step
+nearer, he put out his hand.
+
+"Fred, old fellow!"
+
+The rich, full voice might have melted any heart. The frank, honest eyes
+lighted with wonderful tenderness: there was a glow and earnestness that
+could come only from a large, forgiving soul, capable of putting by its
+own sense of pain or any past discomfiture.
+
+Fred Lawrence crimsoned to the very edge of his hair, to the farthest
+depths of his soul. He would have taken the hand: then he drew back with
+a gesture of self-reproach, as if he could tread his past sinful pride
+in the dust.
+
+"Let's forget the bygones," the hearty young fellow began, "that is, if
+you would like to have it so," drawing back a trifle to give him his
+choice as a delicate woman might have done.
+
+"Thank you, Jack," grasping the warm, firm hand in his own pale, cold
+one, and raising his soft dark eyes, so near to tears. Just now no other
+words would come.
+
+Jack drew the hand through his arm. "I've thought of you so many times,"
+he began, as if they had parted the best of friends. "It has been a sad
+year for many, doubly so for you."
+
+"Sad indeed. O Jack!"
+
+It was all uttered in the long tremulous swell of voice that tells the
+whole story.
+
+"Yes."
+
+With that, their friendship was renewed. Women might have fallen into
+each other's arms with expressions of penitence and forgiveness; but
+they had said their say, as was characteristic of both.
+
+"Were you coming in?" and Darcy turned back as he asked the question.
+
+"No: I only reached Yerbury an hour or so ago on a little business. Some
+remembrance of old time brought me hither."
+
+"I am glad it did. Shall we walk down Main Street? Are you staying at
+Hope Terrace?"
+
+"I shall be for a few days."
+
+A silence fell between them. There was no one else in the street; and
+their steps sounded with a steady tramp, as if they might walk on to
+some definite end.
+
+"Jack, dear old friend, after requiting your tender love to my exacting
+and selfish boyhood with a pitiless treachery that will always shame my
+manhood, I wonder if I dare ask it back, if I dare come to you."
+
+"There is nothing to give back. I do believe I have kept up a sort of
+girlish hankering for you. And now, if I can do any thing, if you are in
+any perplexity"--
+
+"Come up to Hope Terrace, and take tea with me. I want to talk to you
+all the evening. You have just the same mesmeric strength that used to
+soothe me when a boy. What a milk-and-water cub I must have been! I
+wonder you did not throw me over."
+
+Jack laughed.
+
+"Let us turn back to Kit Connelly's, and I can send a message home, so
+that mother will not keep tea waiting."
+
+That done, they strolled on together the same path by which Fred had
+come. The sun had dropped down behind the hill, and the glowing tints
+had faded to purple-black and indistinct grays. They wound around the
+hills, and came up to the very gate where their last good-by had been
+uttered. And Fred remembered then that this was the first time Jack had
+shared the hospitality of Hope Terrace, now when it was no longer his.
+
+Mrs. Milroy gave them some supper in a pretty little apartment which had
+been the servants' parlor, and was now hers. Then they went up to Fred's
+room, which had been opened and aired. Some of its choicest belongings
+had been taken away, but another than Fred would not have remarked this.
+And here they renewed the remembrances of the years that had fallen
+between.
+
+"It seems cowardly to come to you in trouble, and to take so large a
+share of your sympathy again," Fred said with his good-night. "But you
+always were so strong and earnest."
+
+He went down to the mill the next day, and was much interested in the
+working of Jack's plans.
+
+"You found your place," he said with a curious intonation, as if he half
+envied the man before him.
+
+"Yet in all truth I should not have chosen this," Jack answered with
+honest gravity. "But, when I found circumstances would keep me here, I
+resolved to work at it persistently and faithfully; and I learned in it
+the larger lesson of the true dignity of labor. If I should solve my
+problem successfully, I can ask no more. Five years is a long while when
+you count the days," and he smiled.
+
+"You will succeed, I know. You have just that mastery over every thing."
+
+Jack finally persuaded Fred to come down to the well-remembered cottage,
+and see his mother. Mrs. Darcy would have welcomed her bitterest enemy
+if Jack had desired her to.
+
+All this time Jack was thinking whether he could do his old friend a
+good turn. He hated to offer him any subordinate position in the mill.
+At present he could attend to the book-keeping. Then he heard there was
+to be a change at the paper-mills, and went over. They wanted a clerk
+and foreman, one with taste enough to select pretty designs, and who
+could keep books.
+
+"I do not know as you would like it, Fred," he continued with some
+hesitation in his cheery tones.
+
+"I have been a dawdler long enough, and I have had a bitter experience
+in finding _any thing_ to do. I shall be glad to take it, and you may
+believe I will try my best. Many, many thanks for your kind interest."
+
+There had been a sharp, short struggle in Fred's soul. He would rather
+have gone elsewhere, where he was not known. But if fate had resolved to
+bring him back to Yerbury, if she had offered him bread here, while it
+had been stones elsewhere, he would certainly be a fool to starve for
+pride's sake. Some wholesome ideas had found lodgement in his brain,
+along with the Greek myths and synthetic philosophies. If he could not
+astonish the world with brilliant reasoning, he might at least get his
+own living.
+
+He went back to the city, and discussed the project with his mother and
+Irene. She had a tender longing for her son: to be with him would afford
+her greater satisfaction than the magnificence of her daughter's house.
+Irene consented stonily. It was burying herself alive, but then no one
+would torment her with hateful marriages. To stay here with Agatha was
+simply unendurable.
+
+Mrs. Minor made no further comment than to say she did not think her
+mother could be kept as comfortable. Irene was her own mistress.
+
+So Fred Lawrence went back to Yerbury and work. It was an altogether new
+undertaking. He had no business training and no experience, except his
+desultory two months in Bristol's office. Yet from the very first day
+there was something that interested him here, although for awhile the
+smells, the dust and disorder, half sickened him. As for any wound to
+his pride, he felt that less because the whole world seemed to have
+taken a general overturn. Half of the elegant houses in the neighborhood
+of Hope Terrace were for sale, and shut up. Expensive country mansions
+to be used for a few summer months were quite beyond present incomes. A
+month at the seaside cost much less. Costly scientific, or rather
+unscientific gardening,--since the true aim of science must be the best
+adjustment of power to the desired result,--graperies, green-houses,
+henneries standing empty, the money lavished upon them so much waste
+material at present,--where had the wealth gone to so suddenly? He could
+not understand the rapid and wide-spread ruin. Even of themselves,--how
+was it that for years there should be no stint, but absolute
+wastefulness, and then nothing at all?
+
+He was so new to any business results, that he seemed like a child
+groping in the dark. And here was Jack Darcy, with his academy training
+merely, managing one of the great problems of the day, taking hold
+manfully to right the wrongs brought about by selfishness and utter
+disregard for one's neighbor. Had Plotinus struck the grand key-note
+when he said he "was striving to bring the God within us in harmony with
+the God of the universe"? For might there not be false gods within?
+
+He found he had not much time for abstruse speculations, which was all
+the better for his mental health. After enduring the dirt and disorder
+of the office for a week, he set about remedying that. He might not be
+able to regenerate the world, but he could make one little room decent.
+The office-boy and the scrub-woman were called in; the desks and shelves
+were cleared of the accumulation of months, and presented quite an
+orderly aspect. He found his hands blistered by the rough handling, but
+the reward was a wholesome hunger and a good night's sleep. Not quite as
+entertaining, perhaps, as a scramble in the Sierras or the Alps, but
+productive of as beneficial results.
+
+Then there was a home to be found. Living at Hope Terrace on a thousand
+a year would hardly be possible, even if it could be had rent free. So
+he asked Mrs. Darcy's advice about the matter, and she proposed a pretty
+cottage,--there were so many standing empty. It seemed very queer to be
+counselling this proud, sad-eyed young man, who a year or two ago had
+hardly deigned to look at them. Yet, like Jack, she still held a tender
+feeling for the pretty, enthusiastic boy she remembered.
+
+There had been in his mind a great struggle about Sylvie. He knew now
+that she belonged to Jack. That thorough manliness and integrity, that
+earnest, unflinching soul, the rich, generous temperament that could be
+so tender to weakness, so forgiving to wrong, was the soul of her ideal
+hero. And he had dared to offer her his poor, paltry affectation of
+love! Blinded by his own arrogant self-esteem, he had spurned the pure
+pearl, and taken the empty, glittering shell to her as the kind of
+treasure he was satisfied to deal in.
+
+How thoroughly he despised himself! It was such a keen, bitter
+humiliation! Not only that he had aspired to her, but that he should
+have misrepresented and traduced Jack, not from an overwhelming passion
+of jealousy,--that might be pardoned,--but a shallow, overweening vanity
+of wealth and position.
+
+"She shall see that I have learned to respect and honor him!" he said to
+himself with an intensity of regret that was very honest and real. "If I
+can never regain her esteem, I shall at least try for my old place in
+his regard."
+
+They found a pretty, convenient cottage, quite on the opposite side of
+Yerbury, suiting Fred much better than to be near his old friends. The
+furniture was brought over from the great house; and, though it had
+seemed but odds and ends there, it was amply sufficient. Irene's piano
+and some of the old family silver had been saved out of the wreck, a few
+of the less expensive pictures, and sufficient books to form quite a
+library. Fred really enjoyed arranging and planning. It was quite a
+matter of astonishment to him, that rules of art and harmony were needed
+at every step: if he could not make them remunerative in a written
+article, he could put them in practice here.
+
+He kept much to himself, being busy in the office during the day, and at
+home in the evening. He was sick of society, of the world in general. He
+had met Maverick a few times, but he shrank from strangers. Mrs. Darcy's
+tender, unobtrusive motherliness, he enjoyed, but he did not dare to
+accept much of it. The duties of his life were marked out plainly before
+him, and he must not swerve from the path. It was to be a kind of
+neutral tint, twilight rather than sunshine; and the joys he might come
+to long for, he must put away with a firm hand.
+
+The first of December every thing was in readiness for his small
+household, even to the tidy housekeeper Mrs. Darcy had found for him
+among her poor. Mrs. Lawrence and Irene came in the promised train; and
+he met them with a carriage and a multiplicity of wraps, although it was
+a bright, pleasant day. His mother clung to him with tremulous hands: he
+realized more than ever how much she had broken in the past year,--very
+little older than Mrs. Darcy if counted by years, but whole decades if
+judged by every other point.
+
+Irene was cold and stately. She did not like coming here,--neither did
+she like staying at Mrs. Minor's. Wild thoughts had flooded her brain of
+going somewhere, and under a new name making a mark in the world. She
+had a fine voice, and a decided talent for histrionics, but how to get
+to this place where fame and fortune would be at her command? How to
+bridge across any chasm? Nothing, she said to herself, but just stand
+helpless, and see the great world go on, with no part nor lot in the
+matter. If she must be buried alive, as well at Yerbury as anywhere.
+
+There had never been any sentiment between her and Fred; in truth, none
+of the Lawrence women ever were given to sentiment. She walked into the
+little parlor with the step of a queen, and gave a cool stare around.
+
+"I hope you will like it"--with some hesitation. "There is your piano.
+And mother's room looks as it did at the Terrace, with the exception of
+its being so much smaller. And here is a library. Here is our
+dining-room--some of the old engravings, you see."
+
+"Could I go to my room? Which is it, Fred?" and his mother looked up
+with a weak, pleading smile.
+
+"Yes: let me carry you. You are so thin and light now, and you must be
+fatigued after all this journey;" and, taking her in his arms, he bore
+her up-stairs.
+
+It was a pleasant room over the parlor, with an alcove toward the south,
+in which the mid-day sun was shining. A bright fire burned in the grate:
+there were her own easy-chairs, a bit of the carpet she had once chosen,
+the Persian rug she had admired so much when Fred first sent it home,
+the bed with its snowy drapery, and little ornaments with their familiar
+faces.
+
+"It is delightful," she said, still clinging to her son's arm. "And I am
+to stay here with you? Agatha is very good, of course; but I have always
+had my own home, and if I did sign it away it was to save your poor dear
+father. I don't see how things could have ended so, only, if he had
+lived, it would all have been different;" and she wiped away the tears
+that came so easily now.
+
+Fred put her in the chair nearest the fire, and began to unfasten her
+wraps. He had been quite an expert in delicate ways during his
+prosperity.
+
+"Your room is next--there," nodding his head to the open doorway, and
+glancing up in his sister's immovable face. "I hope I made my divisions
+rightly: I thought you would like to be near mother."
+
+"It is all as well as it can be, I suppose," she answered with weary
+indifference.
+
+There came to Fred Lawrence just then a painful sense of want and loss,
+a far-reaching sympathy in something that had never been, and now, when
+the outside glitter was torn away, left life cold and barren. Was human
+love so much?
+
+His mother went on in her weak, inconsequent way, yet her foolish praise
+was very sweet to him. He had been living such a lonely life for months,
+that even he was grateful for something that looked like home, for a
+woman's figure flitting about, and some voice beside his own.
+
+The dinner-bell rang presently.
+
+"I ordered yours brought up here," said Fred; "and I will have a little
+with you, then I must go back to the office."
+
+"It is terrible, Fred! That you should have to"--
+
+"Dignify labor," and he laughed. "Mother dear, I was so thankful to get
+something to do! And I am proud of making a home for you. Am I not your
+only son?"
+
+"But a clerk!" Some of the old Hope disdain spoke out there. "I cannot
+bear to think of it--with all your education and talents and genius. I
+wish you had found some business. There is the five thousand dollars of
+the life-insurance, you know; and you could take it, though Agatha made
+me promise that I would not have it fooled away in any thing. But I
+should be glad to have you use it."
+
+Fred stooped suddenly, and kissed her on the forehead. There _was_
+something in mother-love, after all.
+
+Just then Martha West came in with the tray. Fred drew out the folding
+breakfast-table that his mother had so often used, while he was
+introducing Martha to his mother and sister. She courtesied, and
+proceeded to lay the cloth and the dishes, and disappeared for the
+viands themselves.
+
+"Is one woman expected to do all the work?" asked Irene at length.
+
+"She thinks she can--with so small a family. Of course I"--
+
+Irene raised her hand deprecatingly. "Spare me details," she said. "It
+is very bitter to eat the bread of dependence: I have learned that
+already."
+
+He made no answer. Mrs. Lawrence looked from one to the other in
+helpless bewilderment, but Martha entered again, and changed the
+troubled current.
+
+It was quite a picnic dinner. Irene unbent a little at the sight of the
+rare china and beautiful old silver. She supposed every thing had gone
+down in the whirlpool of ruin, and that humiliation would be complete in
+delft and plated ware. Then she ventured to glance around.
+
+Fred chatted gayly, making talk. It had not used to be one of his
+accomplishments in his magnificent days when women vied with each other
+in the delight of entertaining him. It was pleasant to see his mother
+touch the bell, and sit back in her chair while Martha brought in the
+dessert.
+
+"And now I must go. Do not expect me much before seven. I wonder if you
+will feel able to come down to tea? Ah! there are the trunks, just in
+time. I will send them up, and you will feel quite at home when you have
+your belongings in place."
+
+Then he went back to his desk, and for the next two hours was too busy
+to think. After all, there is nothing like energetic employment to keep
+dismal forebodings out of one's mind.
+
+But that evening after supper, when they had gathered in the library,
+Mrs. Lawrence began to question him concerning Hope Mills. Agatha had
+said some one had started the business anew.
+
+Fred explained.
+
+"But how could the workmen do it alone? Your father never trusted them,
+Fred; and I am sure my father had trouble enough with them in his day!
+They were always an ignorant, unreasonable set. Don't you remember how
+they struck several years ago, and workmen had to come from elsewhere?
+They must have some head. And who found the money? Mr. Minor says they
+cannot possibly succeed."
+
+Some time Fred would have to stand Jack Darcy on his true pedestal. As
+well do it now, and have it over.
+
+"The project was Mr. Darcy's. I believe he had most of the capital. It
+was very generous of him to risk it in such times as these."
+
+Irene looked up from her moody contemplation of the fire. A dull flush
+suffused her face.
+
+"Not Jack Darcy," she said,--"Sylvie Barry's great hero."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Sylvie Barry!" re-echoed Mrs. Lawrence, and she looked sharply at her
+son. "And she gave you up for him! Who is he?"
+
+"He used to be in the mill," answered Irene, with all her olden scorn.
+"His father was there also. And the Darcys"--
+
+"The Darcys can boast as good blood as we!" exclaimed Fred, his face in
+a sudden heat. "And Jack Darcy is a gentleman by birth, by instinct,
+and, best of all, the impulses of a true and noble heart."
+
+The discussion recalled an old remembrance to Mrs. Lawrence. She looked
+vaguely at her son as if she were not quite certain, as she said,--
+
+"Was there not something about him when you were boys? He was coarse and
+rough, wasn't he? and Agatha used to worry. I knew it was only a boy's
+folly; but she was glad when you went to college, and I think--there was
+his sister"--her maternal instincts taking alarm.
+
+"No, he never had a sister. His father died, and he staid at home. His
+mother was delicate, and his grandmother old. She is dead, and he gets
+his small fortune from her. No, he was not coarse nor rude, but he was
+my champion in boyhood, my hero then; and it is the shame of my life
+that I should have let him drop out of it because I was the richer of
+the two. I despise myself for any thing so narrow and unmanly, and yet
+he was generous enough to forgive. I do not wonder at Miss Barry's
+choice when she contrasted us, and I honor her to-day for her
+discrimination. She never encouraged me, blind, idiotic fool that I was!
+and I have only my wretched vanity to blame. He is fully worthy of her,
+and that is the highest compliment I can pay him."
+
+"Very magnanimous for a rejected lover," commented Irene with a touch of
+sarcasm.
+
+"But you _did_ love Sylvie?" Mrs. Lawrence said, bewildered by his rapid
+defence.
+
+"I blush now at the thought of having offered her such a paltry regard.
+To me she will always be a sweet and peerless woman. I am glad she will
+have the strength of manhood to lean upon, the purity of its honor to
+trust, the exceeding tenderness of a soul that will never know a narrow
+or grudging thought, to confide in. All my years look poor and barren
+beside his."
+
+"I can never forgive her"--
+
+"You must, you must!" and Fred seized his mother's hand, pressing it to
+his lips. "There is nothing to forgive," he went on. "You would not have
+had her throw aside the love of her life for my fancied fortune that has
+taken wings. It was my blunder. And I want to say that I have taken up
+my old friendship for Jack Darcy, come back to the truth that money is
+one of the incidental surroundings of the man, but it can never be the
+man himself."
+
+Irene's haughty lip curled, but no one openly gainsaid Fred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+THE winter was a rather open one, with but little snow. Matters were
+somewhat better in Yerbury, but bad enough, Sylvie Barry thought. The
+churches began their usual work,--parish aids, clothing-clubs, and
+sewing-societies. It was as she said: they begged from the rich to give
+to the poor. Women met to make or to alter over garments, and devise
+means to render the poor more comfortable. There were so many miserable
+homes, so many inefficient wives and mothers, who were ignorant of the
+commonest principles of economy. They could live on meal-mush, they
+could go in rags, but the science of thrift was utterly unknown in many
+instances.
+
+Sylvie had done her share of church work as a growing maiden. Every year
+there had been some mission, and a sewing-school.
+
+"And yet it doesn't seem to do much good," said she. "The girls learn to
+hem a handkerchief, which a sewing-machine can do in ten seconds: they
+sew a few patches together, and perhaps make an apron. By the next
+winter they have forgotten all about it. And some of their mothers do
+not seem to care."
+
+"The mothers need educating," Miss Morgan began, with a decisive nod of
+the head. "They were married out of shops and factories, and know very
+little, and have brought up their children to know less. I'm not one of
+the kind who can see no good in the world's progress, and who want to go
+back to the days of spinning-wheels, wax polish for tables and chairs,
+and a day spent every week scouring the brass andirons and candlesticks
+and door-knobs, and various other matters; but I do think we have gone
+to the other extreme. Women dawdle away half their lives. It is of no
+use to make clothes, you can buy them cheaper; it is of no use to mend,
+to do this or that, and so they do nothing."
+
+"I was struck with a contrast I saw yesterday," returned Sylvie. "I had
+occasion to go to the Webbers,--you know the little cottage on Alden
+Street, Miss Morgan, where they always have such pretty flowers in the
+window. Mr. Webber works at satchel-making, and even in good times did
+not earn very high wages. They have a garden, in which they raise the
+most wonderful succession of crops; they keep some chickens, which they
+manage to have laying most of the time; and they have five children. It
+was quite late in the afternoon. Mrs. Webber sat by the window, making
+lace, on a cushion, at which she realizes about a dollar a week;
+Christine, the eldest girl, who still goes to school, was crocheting a
+baby's hood,--she does a good deal of work for Mrs. Burnett's
+fancy-store, and yet is a very smart scholar; Amelie, the next one, was
+darning the stockings; the boy, who comes third, was out-doors, tidying
+up the chicken-house; and the two little girls were in the corner,
+cutting and sewing patchwork, with a doll in the cradle between them.
+The house is always clean, the children are well and rosy, and play
+about a good deal, and Christine last year earned thirty dollars. Her
+mother puts half the money she earns in the bank for her
+marriage-portion. I was so glad it wasn't in Yerbury Bank! You wouldn't
+believe, that, though she is not quite sixteen, she has almost a hundred
+dollars saved up. And I must tell you, also, there was a most savory
+smell of the supper cooking. Altogether, it was so tidy and thrifty,
+with the clean, bright, and not unpretty faces, that I thought it would
+make a charming 'interior,' if only some Dutch artist could do justice
+to it in his minute, pains-taking way. Then I went to the Coles, who
+live around in the next street. The gate was off its hinges, and the two
+big boys were firing stones from the street at a post in the yard. They
+were ragged and dirty. I went in the house, and found the mother and the
+two girls in the sitting-room. I do not believe there was a piece of
+furniture whole, and every thing was dusty and shabby, with that close
+smell some people always have in their houses. Mrs. Cole sat by the
+window, in a listless manner, doing nothing. Martha had her baby on her
+lap, asleep, in a soiled and ragged dress, while she was reading; the
+little girl, who is about twelve, was cutting up some pretty pieces of
+silk into nothing, that I could see, but a general litter over the
+table. The kitchen looked dreadful. I had some baby-dresses for Martha,
+that Mrs. Kent gave me: so I unrolled my bundle, and displayed them.
+'Oh,' said she, 'they are long, aren't they! and I've just put my baby
+in short dresses.' If you could have heard the kind of helpless,
+dissatisfied tone in which it was uttered! I had half a mind to bundle
+them up, and take them back. 'You can shorten them,' I answered, 'and
+some of them will make two dresses.' 'Yes,' she answered reluctantly,
+'only I should want something for yokes and sleeves.' Then her mother
+came to inspect them, and she was rather more gracious. But I could not
+help contrasting the two families. Mr. Cole is a carpenter, and has
+earned very good wages. Martha ran a machine in the shoe-shop, bought a
+melodeon, and took two or three quarters' music-lessons; purchased a
+very handsome set of amethyst jewelry and two pretty silk dresses when
+she was married. And in the two years of her married life, her husband
+has done next to nothing, although he is a steady, pleasant fellow. Now
+he is at Pittsburg, earning just enough to pay his own board. She has
+her sewing-machine, but she doesn't know how to make any kind of garment
+decently. When they had money they bought every thing ready-made. She
+paid Miss Gilman twenty-two dollars to make her two silk dresses. If she
+had put one of them in some plain, simple garments, how much more
+serviceable it would have proved!"
+
+"Such people are hardly worth helping," Miss Morgan said sharply.
+
+"Isn't it a faulty system that makes them so?" asked Sylvie, drawing her
+brows into a little, perplexed frown. "Martha worked for two years, and
+earned a good deal of money. At one time she made ten dollars a week. It
+was just one thing,--fine stitching on shoes,--yet one would think she
+would understand a sewing-machine so completely that she could do any
+thing with it. But she actually hired part of her baby's wardrobe made;
+and the dresses she bought,--cheap coarse-trimmed things, I should have
+been ashamed of. Christine Webber wants to study for a teacher; and, as
+there is so little for girls to do, I think she will. She will make
+wiser investments of her money than Martha Cole, and think of the kind
+of wife her husband will get!"
+
+"The era of prosperity was too much for some people," said Mrs. Darcy,
+with her motherly smile. "I used to wonder six or seven years ago, how
+it was that so many middle-class people could afford a servant, or fancy
+they needed one. A little more time spent in household duties would not
+have injured the women; and, if they had accustomed the children to take
+a part, it would have been much better for them. Then so much sewing was
+hired; and, although the income looked large, the expenditures swallowed
+it all up, and no one was any better off. How few had any stock of
+underclothing, bed-linen, or useful and durable articles!"
+
+"Industry must come around in the fashion again. Even the despised
+patchwork doubtless had its uses. It taught children to sew, and to
+manage economically. I remember that I once had three quilts on hand at
+one time. The larger pieces went into the first, and so on. My last one
+was a very pretty little thing, and I saved all the scraps for it. Yet
+we often hear people laugh about the folly of cutting calico into bits
+to sew together again. Why should it not be considered honorable and
+respectable to put every thing to the best use?" and Miss Morgan glanced
+up with a confidence no one could gainsay.
+
+"That is the grand secret," cried Sylvie,--"making economy honorable.
+You never see the nice old families flaunting their best silk and their
+point-laces on ordinary occasions. Something is kept sacred. And I do
+think there is more real economy among them, than among those who
+absolutely have a need for it. If wastefulness could once come to be
+considered a sin of ostentation and low-breeding, it would not have so
+many followers. Some people do it because they are afraid of being
+thought mean; but if they could be trained to that bravery of spirit
+that makes a work of beauty out of the poorest and smallest things
+because they are well done, and fitting to the place and season"--
+
+"Bravo!" said a laughing voice as the door opened. "Mrs. Darcy, when the
+committee of ways and means have worn out your carpet by their frequent
+meetings in your charmed temple, you must insist upon their buying you a
+new one. Good-morning, ladies! Miss Barry, I set out to find you; and
+your aunt fancied you would be here, the place of all waifs and strays.
+I want you and Miss Morgan to go and inspect a room, or rather two
+rooms, to see if they will answer our purpose. Mrs. Lane had a school
+there."
+
+"Oh, I know the place!" began Sylvie eagerly, buttoning up her sack
+again, and looking smilingly in Dr. Maverick's face, that had a
+sparkling wholesomeness born of the fresh air and brisk walk. And
+whenever he caught her eye with this light in it, so friendly and
+earnest, a thrill sped through his veins.
+
+Miss Morgan was soon ready, and the three started. The place was only a
+few squares away, in a block of buildings where the stores on the lower
+floor stood empty; indeed, some of them had never been rented. Up-stairs
+there was one large room with three front windows, and a smaller room at
+the back with a fireplace, sink and water, and a large closet.
+
+"I have had the offer of this place rent free until spring," began the
+doctor. "I have also collected fifty dollars in money and
+provisions,--_imprimis_, one barrel of flour, one box of miscellaneous
+packages, rice, barley, corn-starch, &c.,--and a second-hand range that
+will be put up as soon as you decide. In return for my arduous exertion
+and great benevolence, I shall call upon you now and then for meals or
+delicacies for my sick and famishing."
+
+"You are just magnificent!" declared Sylvie, in breathless pleasure.
+
+"I am desirous of getting this experiment started; and, since we shall
+have to help the poor and needy this winter, I shall put my gifts into
+this. Now you must consider what you want for furnishing. Biddy McKim is
+to work out a doctor's bill cleaning the place; Ward Collins will let
+you have ten dollars' worth of house-furnishing goods on another bill. I
+am going to look up all my bad debts to start you two women in
+business!" and he laughed gayly.
+
+"Very good," said Miss Morgan, while Sylvie's face was still blending
+pleasure and astonishment.
+
+"We are going to reform Yerbury, you see. The parsons tried their hands
+last winter; and, though there was need enough of spiritual food,
+there's something else required as well, while we are here in the body.
+You think the rooms will do? I want you to put a large table in that
+one,"--indicating the larger with his head,--"and we'll get two or
+three long benches, and have a tea-party now and then. Well, Miss
+Morgan, now you may take the floor. I see a crowd of ideas in your
+face."
+
+"I am going to propose that when the place is cleaned, both floors shall
+be painted to begin with. Then a simple mopping up will keep them bright
+and fresh. Some idle half-grown boys can do it, I am sure; or I can do
+it myself--it would not be the first time."
+
+"I'll look over my accounts, and levy on some delinquent," said the
+doctor. "I like that idea."
+
+"Can we make out a list now?"
+
+"Why, of course. Put down about all the things you will be likely to
+need, and I will have them sent if they do over run the account. Biddy
+will come to-morrow, and clean. Now, you can hardly have the school open
+every day unless you get more assistance, so I think I should take it at
+first two days in the week."
+
+"A very good suggestion," replied Miss Morgan.
+
+"It might not be sufficiently attended to warrant more than that. My
+experience has been that nearly every housekeeper considers herself a
+finished cook."
+
+Maverick laughed.
+
+They discussed necessary articles of kitchen paraphernalia, and finally
+walked down to Collins's store, and made their selection. Early the next
+morning Bridget McKim was on the spot: the place was cleaned, the stove
+put in place, the floor given one good coat of paint. Two days after,
+the second one was added. Sylvie drew up a code of regulations. The
+school would be open Tuesday and Friday, all day. The dinner would be
+cooked and eaten; the baking, and whatever was left over, divided among
+the scholars to take home. Miss Morgan was elected president, Miss Barry
+vice-president, a secretary, a treasurer, and two in an advisory board.
+At each session two ladies were to be present, and give instruction.
+
+Invitations were sent to all likely to be interested. Dr. Maverick used
+his strong influence wisely. The idea amused some, others wondered how
+ladies like Miss Barry knew about cooking and economy.
+
+"Let her undertake to live on the money we common folk have, and she'll
+see!" exclaimed Mrs. Stixon. "Our kind don't want to learn fussin' and
+fixin' of puddens and pies and such like! Good for us if we can get a
+mess of biled potatoes and bacon. My gals'll get along athout any such
+larnin'."
+
+They opened one Friday morning with seven pupils; a discouraging number,
+Sylvie thought, when she saw the spacious room and the nice
+preparations. The bashful girls sat in a little huddle, looking very
+much as if they were afraid of being laughed at.
+
+Miss Morgan was equal to the occasion. She made a short, sensible
+address, and hoped the girls who were present would interest not only
+their companions, but their mothers and friends. Then she questioned
+them a little. Had they ever boiled potatoes?
+
+At this they all laughed a little foolishly, and looked as if the art of
+boiling potatoes was held in rather low esteem.
+
+"The dinner for the day," announced Miss Morgan, "will be boiled
+potatoes, broiled steak, and corn-muffins. Which of you girls would like
+to try the muffins?"
+
+"I never heerd of such a thing," said one girl timidly.
+
+Sylvie pleasantly corrected the speaker.
+
+"Well, you may try," said Miss Morgan. "First, read this recipe aloud."
+
+Mary Moran stumbled through it, partly owing to ignorance, and the rest
+to feeling very much abashed.
+
+"Please go through it again, Mary," said Sylvie, in an encouraging tone.
+
+This time she did much better.
+
+"Now you may prepare the table and the dishes, and one of the girls may
+measure the meal and the flour. Put the ingredients in this dish--so.
+Keep your mind on the recipe. What comes next?"
+
+Mary was quite awkward. Miss Morgan corrected the slightest mistake. The
+other girls stood around in wondering amusement, and now and then a
+little titter broke out. But Mary went on, gaining courage. The tins had
+been set on the stove, now a bit of butter was put in each one, and
+stirred around, then the dough dropped in. This was quite entertaining.
+
+"What did I say about the oven?" queried Miss Morgan.
+
+The class looked aghast a moment, then one girl said quickly, "That the
+oven-door must be hot enough to hiss."
+
+"Right. Try it and see."
+
+It was in the proper condition. Mary slipped in the two trays of pans,
+shutting up the door. "To look at them, and turn them around in twelve
+minutes, and in twelve more to try them with a whisk," were the final
+directions.
+
+The potatoes were brought out next. Miss Morgan asked each girl to pare
+one, which they did in various uncouth ways. One girl cut off the skin
+in square bits, leaving a figure that would have distracted a
+geometrician; another ran round it rapidly, leaving in all the eyes; and
+out of the six potatoes there was but one neat and shapely. Miss Morgan
+held it up.
+
+"There is an art in so slight a thing as peeling a potato," said she.
+"It is very wasteful to cut it away in this manner, or this, and
+careless to leave in the eyes. Now each of you may pare another."
+
+The second attempt was a great improvement. They were put on to boil;
+one girl was detailed to watch them, another to prepare the steak, while
+a third arranged the dinner-table in the kitchen, as the family was to
+be so small. Mary looked after her corn-muffins. They had risen up like
+little pound-cakes, and a glad smile illumined her rather stolid face.
+
+Sylvie had brought a bit of tatting along, and now took it out.
+
+"Oh, how beautiful, Miss Barry!" exclaimed Kitty Miles. "I can do just
+the plain little scallop; but I never could get these other jiggers!"
+
+Sylvie laughed, "I believe they have a name beside 'jiggers,'" in an
+odd, half-inquiring tone.
+
+"O Miss Barry, we girls can't talk nice like you!" and Kitty blushed.
+
+"I don't see why you cannot with taking a little pains. All words that
+are not names, and 'what-you-may-call-it,' and 'Mrs. Thingumby,' and
+such expressions, are the result of carelessness. If any thing has a
+name, that is the proper word to be used; and by being watchful one
+comes presently to talk in a lady-like manner. Now I will show you about
+these."
+
+"Oh, my muffins!" cried Mary, rushing to the stove. They were quite
+brown. She tried them with the whisk.
+
+"Some stick a little bit, Miss Morgan."
+
+"Push the pan back to the other side. Indian requires very thorough
+cooking or baking, or it will be soggy, and have a moist and not
+agreeable taste. Try your potatoes now."
+
+In a few moments they were done, and Kitty Miles undertook the steak.
+Mary let her muffins stand a moment or two, then turned them out. Two or
+three stuck fast, and broke: the rest were a perfect success. She was
+delighted beyond measure. They had no tea or coffee, but they gathered
+around the table, and enjoyed the meal very heartily. Sylvie desired
+them to ask any questions they liked; and by the time they were through,
+their awe of Miss Morgan had quite vanished.
+
+Afterward followed dish-washing. This was made quite a science, as well.
+They had hardly finished when Mrs. Miles and a neighbor came in, and
+through the course of the afternoon the numbers doubled. Mary begged
+that they might make some muffins to take home: Miss Morgan assented,
+and the girls had quite a gay time. But the oven was not precisely
+right.
+
+"Open the draughts a little. Although not so hot, the oven is very
+steady now. Close the draughts in five minutes."
+
+Mary forgot, and the result was that some at one end were a little
+burned.
+
+"Why, they're elegant!" exclaimed Mrs. Miles. "And what a cheap, hearty
+supper they'd make, when one has three hungry boys to feed! Mrs. Stixon,
+now, was thinking you'd go into all the fancy branches. I didn't know
+ladies ever"--and Mrs. Miles paused suddenly, her face scarlet.
+
+"Ever had occasion to practise economy!" cried Sylvie with her piquant
+smile. "They do a great deal of it, Mrs. Miles. My aunt would no sooner
+think of being wasteful in her kitchen than she would of wearing her
+velvet dress out on a rainy day. There is a neat, pretty, tasteful
+method about these things, that is as much of an art in its way as
+painting a picture, and in some respects a more important one, for the
+health of the body depends upon well-cooked food."
+
+"Since Kitty's nothing much to do, I mean to have her come every time.
+I'm sure you ladies are very good to take so much pains."
+
+The other officers dropped in. The cost of the materials used was
+ascertained, minutes of the session made, and a recipe for corn-muffins
+given to each girl. It was decided to attempt biscuit on the following
+Tuesday, and on the next meeting, bread. Then the fire was pretty well
+poked out, the stove-lids raised, and the class went home in an
+extremely interested spirit.
+
+Just as Sylvie and Miss Morgan had turned the corner, they caught sight
+of Dr. Maverick, who crossed the street to speak. Sylvie described their
+day with a few graphic touches, interspersed with much genuine mirth.
+
+"Some people were afraid to come," said he. "Before a month you will
+have your hands full."
+
+Sure enough, on Tuesday there were fifteen scholars. Miss Morgan and
+Sylvie had hardly a moment to spare until the dinner was through. Then
+the latter proposed that every scholar should bring some sewing,
+garments they wished cut out, any thing that perplexed them, or whatever
+they would like most to learn.
+
+All days were not so fortunate. Occasionally some dish would be spoiled
+by haste, carelessness, or want of attention. There were burned fingers
+and divers cuts; but Miss Morgan patiently explained her deft, neat,
+labor-saving methods. There began to be a great interest; some of the
+mothers coming in for an hour, or bringing a special dish to cook.
+Sylvie discussed the relative value and nourishment of different
+articles, the many changes that could be made at slight expense, the
+saving that a little carefulness brought about. She gave brief lectures
+on cleanliness, order, taste, and neatness; the right way and the wrong
+way of doing many things, the giving out and the taking in; the art of
+making the best, not only in such times as these, but in all times; of
+being brave and true in the lowest and smallest of life's duties; of
+throwing out false pride and shams, and the desire to appear richer or
+grander than one's means would allow.
+
+Then the last half-hour they had what Miss Morgan called an
+inquiry-meeting. Everybody was at liberty to ask one question, and those
+who knew answered it to the best of their ability. New teachers were
+pressed into the service. Dr. Maverick gave them a talk on health, and
+another on preparing food for the sick, and the special care some
+diseases required. And Jack Darcy proposed that Christmas Eve the
+cooking-school should give a supper, the tickets being at the low price
+of twenty-five cents. Every dish was to be cooked by the scholars.
+
+It created a deal of excitement. Hard as times were, the tickets sold
+rapidly. The large room had two long tables, with benches for seats. The
+first table was to be served at eight o'clock, the second at nine.
+Sylvie made a dozen of the girls pretty Suisse aprons and dainty caps,
+and they waited on the guests. Dr. Maverick offered three prizes,--one
+for the best loaf of bread, one for the best plain cake, and a third for
+the nicest and cheapest invalid broth.
+
+The room was full, and they had a very gay time. Indeed, it seemed as if
+half Yerbury turned out, either from honor or curiosity. At nine o'clock
+they ran short of provision, when they honorably decided to refund the
+money for all tickets offered after that, and explain to new-comers the
+state of affairs. But some of the young men proposed a dance; and they
+went on for the next two hours in hearty, healthy jollity.
+
+Out of ten loaves of bread offered, Mary Moran took the prize. That for
+the cake was awarded to quite a new scholar; while Kitty Miles carried
+off that for broth, three doctors concurring in the decision. And the
+treasurer found they had cleared fifty dollars above expenses, so that
+it proved a success in more ways than one. There had been a great dearth
+of amusement for the poorer classes in Yerbury this winter.
+
+"Sure, it was just splendid!" said Bridget McKim. "My boy Mike had a
+week's wages in his pocket that night, and he was goin' off to the Ivy
+Leaf to raffle for a turkey; an' ses I, 'Mike, ye niver took me out of a
+Christmas, so do it now along o' the cookin' school party, an' ye'll get
+the best bit o' turkey yes ever put in yer mouth.' An' so he did; an' he
+said it was the best show he iver was to, and he wouldn't 'a' missed
+seein' Mary Moran get the prize fur twice the money. An' so he went home
+with me, ye see, as sober as an owl, and we bought our own turkey; but
+if he'd gone to the tavern, not a cint would he had of his week's wages,
+and been drunk beside! An' he used to be swate on Mary too, so there's
+no knowin' what may happen!"
+
+The school took a fortnight's vacation. Sylvie and Miss Morgan felt that
+it was no longer an experiment. It would be put to wider uses, and
+perhaps was the corner-stone of a great work, sorely needed in this
+world; the same kind of work Jack Darcy had begun over in the mill
+yonder,--planting beacon-lights on the path where so many had stumbled
+and gone down for want of true and honest guidance.
+
+"It will have to be remodelled somewhat," said Miss Morgan. "I can't
+have you working like a slave, even if it is in a good cause. There is
+something still higher for you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+AFTER the first of January it came off bitterly cold. Coal went up half
+a dollar on a ton; and flour rose, more by the greed of speculators than
+any scarcity, or any demand for it abroad. There was considerable
+suffering, though not as much as the winter before. The men and women
+and boys and girls at Hope Mills were thankful enough for their
+seventy-five per cent, and did their very best. A spirit of economy and
+emulation ran through the whole brotherhood. Every month Cameron
+announced whatever saving had been made in different departments, and
+the hands were proud enough of it. Those who had taken their whole
+winter's coal out of the share were quite jubilant. Once a week the
+workmen had a meeting, and discussed matters a little. Three men had
+been reprimanded, but on the whole the _morale_ was excellent. Winston
+was on the alert continually, east, west, anywhere, buying here, selling
+there, seeing in every thing the promise of better times.
+
+"We've reached the last ditch as surely as they did in the war," he said
+to Darcy, rubbing his hands in great glee. "I tell you, old chap, it was
+a lucky thought of starting just as we did. You see, we shall come up
+with the good times; for I do honestly believe the worst is over."
+
+Jack smiled, but was not so sanguine. They had only gone such a little
+way on the five-years' journey. But there were some very encouraging
+rays right around them. Kit Connelly's coffee-house was working to a
+charm. Jack began to think that drinking liquors was not so much a
+besetting sin, as a natural sequence of having nothing else to drink
+when you were cold or hot, or tired or hungry. The men fell into the
+habit of going to Kit's for their midday lunch, and presently some of
+the women went over. The room was so bright and pleasant; and, with Miss
+Rose there, they were on their best behavior. In the evening Mrs.
+Connelly brought her work, and sat by the desk. Some of the younger men,
+who had no homes; as one may say, dropped in, and looked over the books.
+Once two young chaps had come up from Keppler's to have a little fun, as
+they said, and were rather noisy. Mrs. Connelly rose.
+
+"Gentlemen," she said, "you forget yourselves. This is an orderly, quiet
+house, not a tavern. If you cannot submit to the rules, you must leave
+it."
+
+"Leave it! Come, who'll put us out!" laughed the bully. "Let's see you
+try," with an insolent leer at the lady.
+
+Two men were sitting at a table just a little back of them. Their eyes
+met. Both rose; and, each seizing a shoulder of the bully, he was
+marched out before he could make the slightest resistance, his companion
+looking on in amazement.
+
+"Next time you insult a lady in her own house, you will not get off so
+easily! Just bear that in mind."
+
+The fellow uttered an oath, but the door was shut in his face.
+
+"Thank you, John Kelly, and you, Ben Hay," said Mrs. Connelly, in a
+brave voice, though her heart fluttered a little.
+
+The other young ruffian rose, and walked out quietly.
+
+"If you didn't mind, Ben Hay," she said, an hour or so after, as they
+were shutting up for the night, "I'd like to have you drop in quite
+often of an evening. The boys are hardly big enough if we should ever be
+beset by such scamps as that, and you've always been so friendly-like."
+
+"Yes," answered Ben, flushing, and casting a sheepish look at the desk,
+where Rose's curly head was bent over her accounts. "Yes, I'm at your
+service. It's enough sight cheerfuller here than in Mother Mitchell's
+boarding-house. I'll be glad to come."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+Miss Barry heard of this, and told it over to Jack.
+
+"Ben Hay is a good, plucky fellow. He used to go down at noon for beer,
+but I do not think he has been since the coffee-house was opened.
+Sylvie, do you know, I believe reformers in general would be more
+successful if they put a good and pleasant thing in the place of the
+evil they assail. Too often they leave their convert to pick his way
+alone. Hay is very much interested in the plans of the mill. The
+meetings have done this much already,--a spirit of inquiry has been
+awakened in some of the men, and they are reading up what other people
+have achieved in this line. I want them to get well grounded before
+there comes any strain. We can't go on prospering forever. That would be
+too much like fairy-land."
+
+"But every one thinks the panic nearly at an end," and Sylvie studied
+the grave face before her.
+
+"I do not want to croak," and Jack gave a little laugh that sounded
+forced, "but we have just begun to pay off our debts. Every city and
+town, and nearly every individual, is in debt. If we could pay with
+promises to pay, we might tide over a while longer; but when interest
+reaches a certain point, it swallows capital. If we can meet our
+indebtedness everywhere, as fast as it matures, well and good: if not,
+then we have only nibbled at the crust of our bitter pie."
+
+"Anyhow," cried Sylvie, with the woman's sanguine nature, "Yerbury is a
+great deal better off than it was last winter. Every one admits there
+is much less suffering."
+
+"There is more employment, and no broken bank," with a cheerful smile.
+
+"Do you know," said the young girl presently, while a faint color went
+wandering over her fair face, "that they are doing a marvellous stroke
+of business at Garafield's, even if the times are bad? Mrs. Garafield
+was down to tea a few evenings since, and she was greatly encouraged.
+There is such a rage about the new style of papering. Everybody has run
+mad on dados and friezes, and fresco patterns, bordering, and harmonies
+of color," laughingly. "And they have some wonderful new designs."
+
+"Fred is in just the right place. If he has courage to fight through,"
+and there came a curious, almost foreboding expression in the
+sympathetic eyes.
+
+"You care a good deal for him, Jack! And yet he did not use you nobly,"
+with a peculiar regret in the tone. "It is the one thing"--
+
+"Sylvie, if I forgave it, surely you can." Then he turned his eyes upon
+her, and read or rather dreamed of something in a dim, dazed way, the
+story of a bygone summer. Had it been more to her than any one thought?
+Miss Barry had hinted to his mother that Sylvie's decision in the matter
+was a great disappointment to her. There had been a decision, then, and
+one adverse to Fred Lawrence.
+
+"I hate a false and cowardly man!" her cheeks were flaming now. "And
+when you were schoolboys together,--when Agatha and Gertrude were so
+afraid he would lower himself if he looked at any boy below his own
+social position,--he used to stand up for you,--yes, he did,--and fight;
+of course not in a brutal way with fists," and she laughed at her own
+conceit, "but in that higher, finer manner, with no shield or weapon
+save his love for you. I used to like to see you together,--you so
+sturdy and manful and true, and he delicate and handsome and adoring.
+And then"--
+
+"Sylvie, I wonder if a woman can understand a man's friendship. We never
+had any quarrel. We just drifted apart. I don't believe we forgot each
+other. Circumstances took him out of my sphere, into a new one. If I had
+been there in college, going along with him step by step, don't you
+suppose he would have stood up for me in the face of his fine friends,
+just as he used to with his sisters?"
+
+"I hope so: I would like to believe it."
+
+"I am more just to him than you, Sylvie," said Jack, a little wounded.
+"I _know_ it. I don't doubt it any more than I doubt--well, myself. He
+might have come--I was always sorry to see him avoid me, and I think he
+was weak, but he never forgot."
+
+"He _was_ weak, he was worse, Jack." There was a curious cry of anguish
+in her voice, and her shoulders swayed unconsciously, while her eyes
+looked out on the summer night he could not see.
+
+"Don't get so excited over it, Sylvie," and the pleasant, cheery laugh
+seemed to bring healing on its wings. "Whatever it was, and we will let
+all that go, he made the _amende honorable_ the night we had tea
+together up there in the great house. We took up our friendship just
+where it had dropped. Men never go over those crooked and thorny steps
+of the past, they have so much work to do in the present and the future.
+I wanted then to make a position for him in the mill; but it was not
+possible, and would not have been the part of wisdom under _any_
+circumstances. Yet it seemed as if I had stepped in his place. I was
+glad to hear of this other, though Fred would have been happier
+elsewhere. Sylvie, I do not believe you realize what it cost him to come
+back to Yerbury, to walk about, a working-man, where he had driven in
+his carriage. So down at the bottom there is the temper of the real blue
+steel, which _can_ bend."
+
+"How generous you are, Jack!" There was something more than admiration
+in her tone, and yet she was wondering if she could ever forgive her
+fallen hero.
+
+"See here, Sylvie, I don't mean to question any one's religion, but I've
+often thought about the rejoicing up above, over the one who went
+astray. I do not believe we rejoice with a very full heart: maybe we are
+not heavenly enough. We can never be sure of our own strength until some
+far-reaching test is applied, and yet it may not be an entirely true
+test. It may quiver about the weak spot in our souls; but, while there
+is any feeling, one cannot be entirely lost. That is why I say he never
+forgot. And you and I ought to rejoice that he _did_ come back instead
+of going off in that gloomy, diseased, Manfred style, and upbraiding the
+world. 'Whatever his hand found to do'--that was one of grandmother's
+texts, and he went bravely at it."
+
+"I do believe you are a better Christian than I," she answered softly,
+her eyes limpid with emotion.
+
+"No. Perhaps not even a better friend;" and a smile played about his
+mouth.
+
+"A truer friend, a more generous one"--
+
+"What were we talking of?" in a sudden change of tone. "Oh, the business
+at Garafield's! Fred is a good deal of an artist, an intellectual artist
+I should say; and, though he may not attain to fame by painting
+pictures, there are many other points coming to be appreciated. He is in
+the way for usefulness; and, if he wins the bays for beauty as well, I
+am sure we shall all rejoice. I heard he had been designing."
+
+"You hear every thing." Sylvie made a capricious little _moue_. Her nods
+and gestures were so much a part of her, so piquant, decisive, and full
+of expression, when she did not intrench herself behind a studied
+dignity.
+
+"I am glad you have heard it. I was wondering how best to tell you. I
+thought Garafield's might be a stepping-stone, these hard times, but it
+may prove the veritable ladder itself. Only"--
+
+"Well!" with a trifle of impatience, as if she could not endure the
+suggestiveness of the tone.
+
+"I wonder if you understand the courage it took for Fred Lawrence to
+make a home here in Yerbury, to bring his mother and sister; for you see
+he must endure for them as well as himself. Mrs. Lawrence will always be
+an invalid, I suppose. He thinks her quite changed and softened:
+evidently she clings to him. They see none of their old friends. Miss
+Lawrence never goes anywhere."
+
+"As if one could help that!" almost passionately. "Auntie wrote a note
+to Mrs. Lawrence, and it was merely answered. They do not desire to
+receive any one. We can only let them alone, Jack."
+
+"Even then we can hardly fail to appreciate what he is doing, possibly
+suffering. I think he will come in time to win back all the regard his
+friends ever gave him," Jack Darcy said in a steady tone.
+
+Was he pleading for him? Sylvie was somewhat puzzled, the most so,
+perhaps, about herself. How much had she cared for Fred in that old
+time? If not at all, why did this feeling of shame over a fallen idol
+continually haunt her? She compared the two men in every thing, and
+sometimes was vexed to admit that Jack was the nobler.
+
+Their walk had come to an end. They paused at the gate; and a third
+person striding up Larch Avenue took in the drooping, attentive, and
+pliant figure, the strong, protecting, powerful personality of the
+other,--and wondered, as he had more than once before. Were they friends
+merely? It was not possible for a woman to see so much of Jack Darcy's
+noble, manly life, and not admire, not love, Dr. Maverick admitted. She
+showed in many ways that she did care for him. Oddly enough she
+sheltered herself under his friendly care when other admirers came too
+near. Could not Darcy see! What a blind, stupid mole he must be in this
+respect! and the doctor kicked a stone in his path with such force that
+the two turned in the midst of their good-bys, and waited with smiling
+faces for him to reach them. Not a shade of annoyance in look or tone at
+the interruption.
+
+"The queerest lovers," he thought to himself. "If I stood in that man's
+place"--
+
+Jack went homeward in a curiously speculative mood. He has always
+fancied for Sylvie some handsome, spirited knight, whose mental
+intuitions would be as delicate and refined as hers, whose enjoyment as
+intense. Little as he knew of love, he understood their friendship too
+thoroughly to be betrayed into any mistake. And he wondered now if he
+held the key to Sylvie's spiritual enfranchisement of all other men? If
+she had not loved Fred Lawrence, she had come too dangerously near it
+ever to free herself entirely from whatever thrall his soul had thrown
+over hers. She _had_ been disappointed in him, he read that from her
+tone; but surely, if he brought himself up to a finer and truer standard
+than any known in that enervating atmosphere of luxury, would she still
+be implacable? How could he best serve these two people, whom he loved
+so entirety?
+
+He had many other things to busy himself about beside love and
+friendship. March came on apace, and the balance-sheet for the six
+months had to be put in shape. The accounts had been systematically
+kept: that he had insisted upon in the beginning. Cameron knew every
+gallon of oil, every pound of wool, every penny spent for repairs and
+stock; Hurd and Yardley had kept account of every yard of cloth, and
+what quality, that had passed through their hands; Winston, of
+travelling, advertising, commissions, &c.; and Jack went over every
+thing. They had done wonderfully. There was actually a balance of profit
+to every man, woman, and child. The forms were printed, and distributed
+to every employee, and there was a great rejoicing time. They engaged
+the Cooking Club to provide them a supper, and the young people had a
+merry dance afterward.
+
+"It's hardly safe to halloo until you are out of the woods," said some
+of the solid old men of Yerbury, who were living snugly on the interest
+of government-bonds. "Six months is no test at all. Wait until there is
+a hard pull, and you will not be so jubilant."
+
+"No," answered Jack with a humorous twinkle in his eye: "it's right to
+have the rejoicing now, when we have fairly earned it. The man who
+croaks when Providence has smiled upon him, deserves the frown; and he
+who is unthankful for small successes hardly has a right to great ones.
+I do not expect all fair sailing, but we will weather the storms
+together."
+
+"It _is_ rather unfortunate," commented another wise-acre. "I have
+observed these wonderful beginnings seldom end well. If you should have
+a run of bad luck now, your men will be dissatisfied, and likely blame
+you for not keeping up to that mark. I shouldn't have made such a great
+effort, and then there would have been a chance for improvement."
+
+"A new broom sweeps clean, but it _will_ get worn out," with sundry
+mysterious nods.
+
+"I declare," said Jack to his friend and comforter, Maverick, "half the
+town looks at me as if I must have robbed a bank, or falsified accounts,
+told a lie, or cheated, or maybe murdered some rich old don, and made
+merry on his money. Why can't people rejoice with you when there is any
+thing to rejoice about,--an event which does not happen so often in
+these evil days? I do believe Boyd, and a lot of the others, would be
+glad to see the scheme fail; but I'll work night and day to make a
+success of it. It shall not go down," and Jack set his lips together in
+a way that spoke volumes for his resolve.
+
+"I have observed before that some people are fond of disparaging plans
+that they have no hand in," returned the doctor coolly.
+
+"And philanthropy is a much-derided virtue. If the old Athenian had been
+a stock-broker or a bank-director, he might not have been sent into
+exile, eh?" and Darcy laughed good-humoredly. "If I have kept a few
+people from starvation this winter, I ought surely to have as much
+credit as to have dealt around alms. As for the success, we had the
+reputation of Hope Mills in our favor, and every man had his own fortune
+at stake, and brought out the best that was in him."
+
+He sent Miss McLeod her half-yearly rent, a copy of the statement, and a
+very temperate letter. He was quite proud to think he had no need of
+accepting her proffered favor, but he thanked her again for it.
+
+She answered promptly. She had shown the statement to Mr. Hildreth, and
+he thought it remarkable. Wasn't it a trifle too rose-colored to last?
+Count on her as a friend, if evil days came; and we none of us could
+tell exactly what was in store. The financial horizon was by no means
+clear.
+
+A few others gave him words of heartfelt encouragement. The Rev. Mr.
+Marlow spoke of him in very high terms, much to Sylvie's delight, and
+said already there had been a great change in the mill-hands. The
+coffee-house he considered an especially commendable thought.
+
+There was a quiet change going on that was destined to bear more
+abundant fruit in the future. Some of the men and women had begun to
+think a little for themselves. The pupils of the cooking-school were
+beginning the A B C of beauty and neatness. Their rooms were swept
+cleaner; their clothes took on a more tidy aspect. With the opening
+spring, gardens and court-yards were cleared of their rubbish, and
+flower-beds flourished again. Sylvie gave her girls one very instructive
+lecture on slips and flower-seeds, and one Saturday they went out to
+the woods for ferns and wild flowers. It was only one little corner, to
+be sure, but it was the leaven that was presently to do a wide-spread
+work.
+
+Hope Mills took up its steady march again. Half a dozen new hands were
+added, though Jack wished that he could find employment for some of the
+poor souls that besieged him daily. If times really were coming better,
+if orders only would increase, and he could with safety enlarge his
+borders! But "slow and steady" was his motto. He was not one to
+disparage the present by exaggerating the advantages of the future.
+
+There was one home that these cordial little excitements never entered.
+The three souls in it, although they should have been very near and
+dear, wrapped themselves in their own thoughts and sorrows, and took no
+note of their fellows.
+
+Mrs. Lawrence heeded the outward change least of the three. She had her
+pretty room, her glowing fire in winter, her fur slippers, and zephyr
+shawls; her late breakfast in bed, then her luxurious dressing-gown, and
+her books. She had settled herself into the _rôle_ of an invalid for the
+remainder of her days. The loss and suffering had not taken her out of
+herself, or raised her narrow, vapid nature. She was at once patient and
+complaining,--even her affection for her son was combined with great
+mental and moral weakness. She was profoundly grieved that he should
+have been compelled to accept so unsuitable a position; but to her it
+was only a temporary event. Something _must_ happen. In some mysterious
+way they would come back to their former grandeur,--not that she cared
+especially, but for the sake of Fred and Irene. Then for days she would
+lose herself in the joys and sorrows of her heroines. To such people
+novel-reading is certainly a godsend. A readable book was as
+exhilarating to her as a splendid morning drive or a good deed is to
+many others. She had society without being bored. She had wit, poetry,
+art, music, travels, dinners, and balls, with no worry, no late hours,
+or fatigue.
+
+Irene could not so yield up her personality. She brooded over her lot in
+a haughty, bitter spirit. She uttered no complaint,--she was far too
+proud for that,--but she took no interest in any thing. Like a
+melancholy ghost she wandered up and down, or sat by the window for
+hours in a listless attitude. There were moments when she wished herself
+Lady Frodsham, times when the change and bustle of such a life as that
+of Mr. Barringer would have been heaven itself.
+
+Fred could never persuade her to go anywhere. She took no walks, except
+to pace up and down the garden path when the quiet of the house drove
+her well-nigh crazy. Once in a great while she opened the piano, and
+played as if a demon had taken possession of her soul and her fingers.
+
+Fred breakfasted early and alone. After a while he fell into the habit
+of taking his lunch in his office, and coming home to a late dinner.
+Martha was certainly the perfection of maids. The housekeeping went on
+with the regularity of clockwork: there were no complaints even. Fred
+used to sit in his mother's room until her bedtime, when he would go
+down to the library, and work for an hour or two.
+
+The utter dearth of interest would have been terrible to him but for his
+business. At first he preserved a wide and punctilious distance between
+himself and Mr. Garafield. He was the employer, to be sure; but then
+Fred Lawrence had a dignity of his own to maintain. One day, however,
+the dignity suffered a collapse. Mr. Garafield brought in some new
+designs, and they lapsed into an exceedingly entertaining art
+discussion. The employer had excellent taste, trained and shaped by
+practical experience: Fred possessed the wider mental reach and
+exquisite perception of harmony and color, the sentiment of genius.
+
+"Why do you not take up the idea, Mr. Lawrence?" asked his employer.
+"House finishing and furnishing is fast coming to be a fine art. An
+intelligent, harmonious beauty is demanded. We are leaving behind the
+complacency of mere money in our adornments, and asking for something
+that evinces thought and refinement. I am sure you could succeed if you
+once set about the work."
+
+The compliment touched Fred profoundly, roused him to a new venture. He
+practised his almost lost art of designing to some purpose: he wrote two
+or three art essays that happened to find much more favor than his
+abstruse philosophies. After all, he was young, and the whole world lay
+before him. Surely he could carve out some kind of fortune. The light of
+earnest endeavor shone in his eyes, the languid step quickened into one
+of courageous elasticity. He had dawdled away years enough: he would put
+a purpose into his manhood, that some distant eyes, seeing, might not
+relegate him entirely to the regions of contempt.
+
+"There's quite a good deal in that young Lawrence," declared Phil
+Maverick decisively. "I was in at Garafield's the other evening, and, I
+must confess, listened to a fine art lecture. All about wall-papering,
+too!" with a genial laugh. "What an education that fellow has! Couldn't
+he find any thing to do, that he must drop down upon a paper-factory? I
+am sure I should have made a big fight out somewhere in the great
+world."
+
+"'Beyond the Alps lies Italy,'" quoted Jack. "Not on the top, you
+observe, but perhaps in the valley. I wish you would be a little
+friendly with him, Maverick: you couldn't help but like him."
+
+"There is more in him than I gave him credit for. I thought at the time
+of his father's death I had never seen so useless a fine gentleman,
+with all the stamina educated out of him. I had half a mind to turn him
+over to Aunt Jean and Miss Lothrop."
+
+Darcy laughed absently, and Maverick saw that his mind had wandered
+elsewhere. How odd that these two should be friends! Maverick could not
+discern the fine bond uniting them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+SUMMER came on apace. The Cooking Club took a vacation, or rather turned
+into a gardening club, and studied the sensible part of botany and
+floriculture. People began to look at the waste land lying about, with
+envious eyes. Here and there some one started a garden, or indulged in a
+flock of chickens. The Webbers traded their snug cottage for a place on
+the outskirts of the town, with two acres of ground, which they improved
+rapidly. Men who had sold farms, and spent the money in vain business
+speculations, looked back regretfully, and in some instances hired where
+they had been proprietors. There was no money to be realized in farming,
+but if one could even make a living! No one was making money but those
+lucky fellows at Hope Mills. Of course that was a bubble, and would
+burst presently; but doubtless it was good while it lasted.
+
+Miss Barry, Sylvie, and Mrs. Darcy went away to a pleasant, quiet
+seaside resort. Miss Barry appeared to be ailing a little. Mrs. Minor so
+far relented as to invite her mother and Irene to spend two months with
+her at Long Branch. Mrs. Lawrence consented, Irene refused flatly. "She
+had no money to spend for dress, and she would accept no one's charity,"
+she declared in her haughty way. But she could not stay in the house
+forever: so she took long walks over wild country ways, angry with the
+world, herself, and every thing. A fierce-eyed, beautiful girl, clinging
+desperately to her isolation, and yet eating out her very heart in
+loneliness.
+
+The time ran on rapidly. September came around. Hope Mills did not make
+as good a report this time. Business had been very dull. Sales were next
+to nothing. People did not need much in warm weather, and orders were
+very light. However, several other branches of industry in Yerbury
+improved a trifle. Railroads, stocks, and real estate were fast becoming
+dead speculations: so men ventured to put their money warily into
+business again.
+
+But the bottom had not been reached. Early in October there was a
+tremendous failure of an old and well-known firm of woollen-manufacturers.
+The bankrupt stock was sold at auction. Then another, and various
+smaller houses. The market was suddenly flooded. No one could sell. No
+one seemed to need new garments of any kind. Men wore their old clothes,
+and shrugged their shoulders in a sort of contemptuous content, as if
+they had suddenly found a great charm in a half-worn, shabby overcoat.
+Robert Winston went hither and yon. Not a piece or a yard would any one
+take.
+
+There was a great deal of discussion in various daily journals. The
+business had been overdone again. Foreign markets must be found. We
+could not compete with foreign manufacturers. Our wool was inferior, our
+looms were inferior, our men knew so little, and demanded such high
+wages. Then we never could do any thing under the present wretched
+tariff and the skinning system of taxation. It took all a man could
+make. Another sapient statesman declared nothing could be done without
+more money. The contraction had been so great that not a man could do
+business. Then came a long list of figures to prove what a very little
+money was left in the country. Newspaper war raged, first on this side,
+then on that. If we did this, we would surely be ruined: if we did not,
+then ruin was inevitable.
+
+Jack used to try for some light, no matter how faint. It seemed to him,
+if the great men at the helm of the national ship would set to work
+vigorously to widen and strengthen the commerce of the nation, instead
+of discussing such frivolous issues, prosperity might dawn once more. He
+went over his political economists again, and realized sadly that men
+had always disputed these points, and that each writer or prophet was
+sure his was the only creed that would ever save the world, while by
+following any other they would surely go to ruin.
+
+Winston and he took counsel together: then they called in Cameron, who
+looked blue enough.
+
+"Any ordinary factory would shut down for the winter," said Winston
+ruefully; "but that would be to confess our scheme a failure. We are
+piling up goods--but for what--a grand auction-sale by and by? And the
+men have worked so cheerfully--no, we can't give up."
+
+"Giving up is out of the question at present," Jack answered solemnly,
+as if he was passing his word at the bar. "Our balance at the bank has
+been expended, and we have some notes out that must be cared for in a
+month's time. Wages are falling, and it seems to look now as if we were
+coming back to the era of cheap living. The bargain was the ruling rate
+of wages, you know. I think they will have to come down."
+
+"I will not give up beaten," declared Winston. "I'll have one more try.
+Keep up heart, shipmate."
+
+With that Winston started West again. He talked, he plead, he offered
+for the mere cost of production,--just to get the money back would be
+something. The coal-venture of this winter had been much larger, though
+coal was declining, and the profit somewhat less. Everybody pared the
+margin to the mere skin. Winston had a little luck, however. Two sales
+of some note were effected, and a barter, that only a man with a shrewd
+eye for bargains, and a glib tongue, could have managed. Flour, apples,
+and potatoes were the stock this time. The workmen took them gladly, at
+a little less than store prices. They knew how full the wareroom kept
+all the time.
+
+The first of January, wages were lowered. There was a little grumbling
+among some of the men, but the women took it in wiser part. The
+half-loaf was much better than no bread at all. They remembered the
+dismal year when there had been no employment, and stinted food
+purchased on credit. One wouldn't starve with flour and potatoes, nor
+freeze with a full coal-bin.
+
+Hope Mills had exhausted every source,--had even paid a horrible
+discount, being hard run,--when Darcy wrote to Miss McLeod a true
+statement of affairs. If they could hold out until spring, times might
+be better. They were economizing as they never had before: yet the time
+had come when disaster really stared them in the face, unless they could
+find a true friend.
+
+Miss Barry had generously offered him her store and her credit. Though
+there had been a time when she withheld Sylvie, and fancied Jack Darcy
+not quite the equal of her pretty niece, that time had long gone by. She
+knew now his genuine worth,--she had tested his integrity. Of course
+Sylvie would drift that way; and so, by many delicate turns, she showed
+Jack that she could trust him with any of her treasures.
+
+"You are so good," said the honest fellow, with tears in his eyes,--for
+he was touched beyond measure. "If I can't get through I will gladly
+accept, unless the prospect is so bad that it would be sure to
+jeopardize any one's money. But I hope it will not come to that."
+
+How breathlessly he waited for Miss McLeod's answer! The morning's mail
+did not bring it; night closed in without it. A chill drizzle had set
+in, freezing as it fell, and the keen air fairly flayed one's skin. Yet
+he dreaded to go in-doors, to hear his mother's pleasant voice. Cousin
+Jane had been called away by the illness and possible death of a
+relative, so they two were alone.
+
+When Mrs. Darcy saw her son so grave and pre-occupied, his eyes sadly
+pathetic with trouble, mother-like, she tried to comfort with the small
+talk that women often offer, and that answers the purpose like bathing
+one's brow with Florida-water in a severe headache. She never mentioned
+business to him when in such moods. Now it was a bit of
+newspaper-gossip, concerning some discoveries in Greece, that he and
+Maverick had been quite eager about.
+
+The poor fellow was distraught, and could not listen. He ate his supper,
+choking down the food, for her dear sake, missing strangely Cousin
+Jane's pungency and seasoning. Then he tried to interest himself in the
+paper, but could not; he paced the floor softly; he whistled a tune, for
+his mother's benefit also, but broke down in the middle.
+
+"I must go out a little while," he declared in desperation.
+
+"Not in this storm," said his mother pleadingly.
+
+"Yes. I'll be back by--ten," looking at the clock. "It is too bad to
+leave you alone," with sudden regret, kissing her tenderly.
+
+"I shall not mind for a while. But this wretched storm"--
+
+He laughed, a little strained and forced; then he put on his great-coat,
+almost wishing that every man in the country was without, and had to buy
+one to-morrow. He tramped up the street, drawing long respirations,
+every one of which was nearly a sigh. Was this the way Mr. Lawrence felt
+when times went bad? Was some such trouble the cause of that fatal
+disaster? He bowed his head in a sort of touching and profound respect
+to the dead man. He experienced an earnest sympathy for all struggling
+capitalists. What did unreasoning labor know of such nights as these
+when every thing, even good name, was at stake! He wondered if his mop
+of curly hair would turn gray, and then, in a ridiculously trivial
+mood, remembered he must go and have it cropped. As well now as any
+time; but when he reached the barber's, the place looked so uninviting,
+with the smoky kerosene-lamps turned low. He did not stop: he used to
+wonder afterward how it would have been if he had, until he came to have
+a sincere and reverent belief in God as the disposer of human events,
+the Hand back of the curtain, that guided every step, and kept sacred
+watch even over two sparrows.
+
+He walked down past Maverick's; but half a dozen people were in there,
+so he went on and on to the very end of the street, when by the dim
+light he saw a figure in advance of him, a woman, tall and stately,
+muffled in a waterproof and hood. There was something in the bearing
+different from most of the Yerbury women who ran out of an evening for a
+neighborly gossip, or some provender for their next morning's breakfast.
+There were no stores in this direction; it was quite lonely; perhaps she
+was going home. It would annoy her to be followed, doubtless; and on
+such a night as this no roughs would be abroad in this vicinity.
+
+Jack Darcy was in that nervous state when the brain seems rarefied and
+empowered to wrest secrets from the very elements in his path. He
+pursued several chains of thought at once, with lightning rapidity, and,
+with curious mental inconsistency, dropped them, and lapsed into others.
+Now a sudden interest sprang up in this wandering traveller. He listened
+with the wariness of an Indian to her step. It had in it the essential
+principle of flight, but a baffled, fruitless longing for escape, rather
+than a nearing to some distant haven or goal. He had not used to be so
+keen in this subtile discrimination, until Maverick crossed his path,
+and helped him out of his psychological bondage. And ordinarily his
+senses had not the electric keenness of to-night.
+
+The figure paused. The face seemed to turn to the drear, blank sky--was
+it in appealing, or a desperate daring? an impotent resistance, or a
+wild, agonizing prayer? The hands were thrown up: he had come gradually
+nearer, and could see them, ghostly white in the long feeble ray of the
+distant lamp. What was she deciding or asking? A shiver ran over him as
+the thought of suicide entered his brain. At all events, he must not let
+her go to destruction.
+
+Her hands dropped. She took a few slow, irresolute steps, then turned
+and came so quickly, that before he could stir or think, she confronted
+him. A wild face with staring eyes, a wilder shriek ringing out on the
+night air, making muffled echoes around, a desperate plunge, and a fall.
+He sprang and essayed to raise her from the half-frozen hail-bed of the
+sidewalk; the hood fell back, and he was more than astonished at
+beholding the face of Irene Lawrence.
+
+He appeared suddenly to comprehend the whole fact, though he came to
+know afterward that he misjudged her. Only a desire to put an end to
+life and suffering, real or fancied, could have brought her out this
+night, in the lonely neighborhood, still, not so far from her own home.
+He must take her back, and then go for Maverick, who had become quite a
+favorite with Mrs. Lawrence, and prescribed harmless remedies for her,
+since she insisted she must have them.
+
+Jack Darcy never experienced a more exultant pride in his strength than
+now. He lifted the helpless form, settled the swaying head on his broad
+shoulder, and, clasping the body tightly, picked his way through the
+slippery streets, in a manner that would have done credit to an Alp
+climber. Round this corner and that, to the quiet, deserted street,
+where every window was closed, and perhaps half the inmates in bed. Only
+in one house was there a sound of life. Some one was playing an
+accompaniment for an evening hymn, and youthful voices were singing.
+Two lines floated out as he passed, making a kind of glow on the sullen
+night:--
+
+          "Though long a wanderer,
+              The sun gone down"--
+
+Unconsciously he tightened his arms around this wanderer. Of course all
+their brief acquaintance had gone through his mind, especially the day
+when in her haughty pride and beauty she had given him that cold,
+insolent stare; but he forgave her freely, just as he had forgiven
+Fred's sin, unasked. How strangely he was destined to be mixed up with
+these Lawrences!
+
+He paused on the low porch, where a honeysuckle rioted in summer, and
+was still full of withered leaves. His burthen had not stirred, and was
+a dead weight. Resting it against his knee, he pulled the door-bell
+gently, and waited.
+
+"Is that you, Mr. Lawrence?" asked a voice from within.
+
+"No. Jack Darcy," for he guessed rightly that it was Martha.
+
+She opened the door.
+
+"Don't be frightened, Martha," in a re-assuring tone. "It is Miss
+Lawrence."
+
+"Oh, good heaven!" in tones of terror.
+
+"Hush! do not disturb any one. Is Mr. Lawrence home? Where shall I carry
+her? she is in a dead faint."
+
+"Bring her in the parlor. Oh, Mr. Darcy! where was she?" with a look of
+wild affright. "I did not know she had gone out. I always felt something
+would happen to her; and a long while ago I offered to go out with her,
+but she is so hard and disdainful that one soon comes to letting her
+alone. She made me promise not to tell her brother, or rather she defied
+me to: she wouldn't put any thing as a favor if she was dying. Talk
+about the pride of Lucifer! And I knew it would worry Mr. Lawrence
+dreadfully."
+
+"Was she in the habit of going out--alone--at night?" asked Jack, in
+amaze.
+
+"I think it was from pride," answered Martha simply. "You see, she
+needed some exercise, and she seldom went out in the daytime. And I
+don't think she is afraid of any thing. I never saw such a cold, bitter,
+strong girl--for she is only a girl yet. I've sometimes felt afraid she
+would do something desperate. Oh, if she would only let the Lord help
+her bear her trouble! And Mr. Lawrence is so kind and generous! He would
+do any thing for her. Oh, he ought to be home! There's the clock
+striking ten."
+
+"And I must run for the doctor. Heaven grant she may not be dead! Take
+off her cloak, and try something"--glancing about in alarm.
+
+Then he seemed to take one devouring look at the sculptured face, with
+closed lids, and jetty lashes sweeping the marble cheeks. Hurrying away,
+as if by some great effort, he ran down the street again, despatched
+Maverick, and hastened to Fred's office. The building loomed up dark and
+silent. He might possibly be at Garafield's house: he often went there
+of an evening, he and Mr. Garafield were so engrossed with their plans.
+
+It was a long walk; but Jack strode on, getting rapidly over the ground.
+The hall-door was open, and Mr. and Mrs. Garafield were saying
+good-night to Fred. Jack waited until he came down the steps, and then
+called to him cheerfully. They linked arm-in-arm. The hail and rain had
+turned now to fine, hard snow, and the wind seemed to scurry through the
+deserted streets like a forlorn, wailing spirit.
+
+Jack told his story briefly, also repeating what Martha had said about
+Irene's habit of lonely walking. He felt the sensitive nerves in the arm
+he held, quiver with a shuddering pain.
+
+"Thank God it was you!" Fred said, with a great, tremulous gasp. "She is
+so strange, so cold and self-contained,--so bitter against fate! Believe
+me, Jack, I have tried my utmost"--and the voice broke with something
+like a sob.
+
+"I know it, dear old fellow," drawing him nearer as the blast whistled
+around them.
+
+"We never learned to make each other happy, you know. We never supposed
+we had any special duties to one another, so it was a new task to me. I
+tried to interest her in something, to make her more cheerful; but she
+would wrap herself in that haughty, unconquerable coldness. Yet if I had
+known or guessed"--
+
+"After all, there is very little danger down your end of the town," said
+Jack, in that light, comforting tone. "There's nothing to call tramps or
+roughs; and, I dare say, to-night all would have gone straight if she
+had not run against me, as one may say, and the fright made her faint."
+
+"But if it had been some one else! Oh, my God!"
+
+"It was not; so never give that a second thought. There is no use in
+bringing up an army of 'might-have-beens' to worry you to death when you
+have escaped danger. And--here we are."
+
+"You will come in, of course?"
+
+Jack followed his friend. Maverick had succeeded in restoring Miss
+Lawrence to consciousness; but she was now in a burning fever and raging
+delirium. Outraged nature had at last asserted its sway.
+
+"It is better so, I think," remarked Maverick, in a quiet, decisive
+tone. "She will have a severe run of fever, for this has been some time
+coming on; but she has youth and a naturally fine constitution in her
+favor. I believe she will pull through. But some arrangement must be
+settled upon. It will not do to take her up-stairs; for the effect upon
+your mother will be too great a risk. If you could bring a bed down
+here--to-morrow I will see about getting a nurse."
+
+"I think it would be better to bring her bed down stairs," rejoined
+Martha. "The parlor is used so little. And she would be so much more
+comfortable"--
+
+Martha's eyes went over the heavy, clinging dress, the disordered hair,
+the bracelets that were like manacles as she threw her arms about,
+moaning, muttering, and laughing shrilly. The eyes rolled wildly in
+their senseless stare, until one's blood almost curdled.
+
+"We must get about it immediately," began Dr. Maverick. "She will be
+quieter presently, and I shall remain all night. Darcy, you watch her:
+do not let her injure herself, while we bring down the necessary
+articles."
+
+Just at this juncture Mrs. Lawrence's bell rang. The noise had startled
+her from her first sound sleep. Dr. Maverick explained simply, and gave
+her a composing draught.
+
+"A fever! Is it any thing contagious? Yes, it is better to keep her down
+there: my nerves are so weak, and I think I have a very sensitive,
+susceptible nature. I might take any disease so easily,--do you not
+think so, doctor?" and Mrs. Lawrence looked up from her frills and laces
+and snowy pillow with the helpless air of a child.
+
+"Much better. She may be delirious, too, and that would distress you.
+Now be as quiet as possible, and try to go to sleep again. I shall
+remain to keep you both in order," with a laugh.
+
+"That is very kind," she answered, with a pretty wave of her delicate
+hand. Her daughter might be dying below, but her nerves must be settled
+and cared for. Still, to do her justice, even in her intense
+selfishness, she never considered other people's ailments dangerous,
+while she held that her own precious life was constantly in peril. She
+talked of dying with the calmness of a saint, and admitted that there
+was no further charm to life, but still she must have the choicest care.
+
+Under Martha's supervision they soon dismembered the bedstead, and
+brought down all necessary belongings. Jack had watched his charge,
+strangely exercised by her curious, changeful moods. Once she had looked
+meaningly at him.
+
+"I _might_ marry you," she said, in soft, mocking tones, her scarlet
+lips taking on a bitter, scornful smile; "but I should come to hate you
+so that some night when you lay asleep I should rise and murder you! I
+might endure you in London, where I could be in a continual round of
+gayety; but at Frodsham Park, with an old man like you,--May and
+December! May and December!" and she laughed shrilly.
+
+She did not mean _him_, then! Honest Jack Darcy blushed to the roots of
+his hair, to his very finger-ends. Some old man had wanted her: well,
+she was braver and truer, then, than most people would admit.
+
+The three came in, and transformed the parlor to a hospital-ward,
+without the simplicity. Jack suddenly thought of his mother, and hurried
+away. What an eventful walk it had been! and Hope Mills was quite driven
+out of his mind.
+
+He found his mother frightened and hysterical; and drawing her down
+beside him he told her the story of his wanderings, expressing with some
+tender kisses his sorrow for her alarm, and advised her to go to bed at
+once, as he meant to do. And, though it might not be romantic after such
+an adventure, I must admit that in ten minutes my hero was soundly
+asleep, oblivious of both storm and business.
+
+At the house he had left, there was but little refreshing rest. Mrs.
+Lawrence drowsed away when the confusion of re-arrangement had subsided.
+The gentlemen retired to the library while Martha disrobed her young
+mistress with inward fear and trembling, hardly being able to judge
+what was due to delirium, and what to natural imperiousness. Then Dr.
+Maverick kindly dismissed her.
+
+"You will need your strength in the morning," said he. "Try to get at
+least one good nap."
+
+He took his station at the bedside, and motioned Fred to an armchair
+just out of his sister's range. The opiate was not working successfully,
+but at present he did not consider it wise to increase it. He questioned
+him a little as to Miss Irene's habits and resources, and imagined the
+part withheld, from that rather reluctantly admitted. He understood that
+here kindred blood had not produced harmony, but a horrible discord, the
+more wearing in that every note had been muffled. The self-commiseration
+of the mother, and her weak love for her son that could only pity, but
+never encourage or brace to any vigorous effort; her total inability to
+comprehend any such character as her youngest daughter possessed; the
+wearisome platitudes enunciated in the belief that they were golden
+grains of worldly wisdom, the only kind she supposed existed; the weak,
+vapid repining that she had not married when she might have done so
+well, the discouraging certainty that no marriage was possible in this
+second-rate town, and that to remain single was a stigma and a
+misfortune. In her weak but querulous complaints, which she meant in
+part for sympathy, she had worn and exasperated Irene as much as Mrs.
+Minor: only here there were no lovers, and there Mrs. Minor looked upon
+every single man of means as a fish to be skilfully angled for.
+
+If Irene had been thrown completely upon her own resources, if she had
+been compelled to step entirely out of her olden sphere, and earn her
+daily bread, there would have been a sharp, bitter fight, but the
+bracing mental atmosphere might have dispelled the thick darkness, the
+chilling vacuity, and evolved from the discordant elements a questioning
+and not easily satisfied soul, but one destined to develop into
+strength and nobler uses. But here, she said to herself, there was
+nothing. Friendship could not come to her aid--she would have none of
+it. No one should study her with curious eyes, to see how she bore her
+trials, her losses, the downfall of her pride. Strangers who had glanced
+at her with envy in her pretty pony-phaeton, or the magnificent family
+barouche, should not smile in triumph as they saw her walking by. As she
+had scorned others in her grandeur, so others would rejoice that she had
+been brought low. She had seen so much of the narrowness, the petty
+spite, the sharp stings of the world, that her sensitive flesh shrank at
+every pulse.
+
+She could understand now how high-bred women, when friends and fortune
+had flown, had shut themselves in convents. That she would have been
+glad to do. Any entire renunciation would have met with her approval.
+But to gather up the threads of a commonplace existence, to find joy and
+solace in daily duties, to work for others, to even show others how
+trials and misfortunes could be borne to the perfect working-out of
+nobler aims and uses, was not for her. She had never been trained to any
+such purpose. A heathen of the heathens in a Christian country, the
+product of fashion, wealth, and so-called refinement.
+
+In the solitude to which she condemned herself, she came to brooding
+over a desperate, worldly philosophy. Should she go back, and retrace
+her steps, and marry? There were days when she absolutely contested the
+ground inch by inch, and almost decided.
+
+Her long rapid walks, generally at night when her brain was wild with
+the bitter warfare, had served a useful purpose, and kept her in better
+health. But the strain could not last forever. For days she had
+alternated between a chilly, stupid languor, and hours when her brain
+seemed on fire, when, indeed, she hated the whole world with a bitter,
+awful intensity. In this mood she had stolen out for her walk.
+
+And now the outraged soul had burst its bonds, and revelled in a fearful
+revenge. All the ache and repression put upon it; all this silent
+endurance; all the solitary hours of maddening thought, the wasted
+riches, the spurned sympathy, the youth poisoned by false
+doctrines,--every secret sin committed against it, cried aloud, and
+would not be throttled, nor thrust back into the dreary dungeon.
+
+Fred listened to her ravings in stunned, helpless astonishment. His
+trial had been so much less intense, after all. Could it be possible she
+had suffered this as she sat so like a statue in the little circle,
+disdaining every aid? His startled eyes questioned the doctor.
+
+"Yes," was the reply: "she has been too much alone. She has brooded over
+these things until she has become morbid and imbittered. The curse of
+fashionable life is, that it provides a woman with no resources against
+a dark day, no wisdom, no faith in any thing outside of herself. And
+then we wonder at insanity! A thousand times better that the body should
+be racked with pain, if so be that the soul is purified in passing
+through these fires. It may be her salvation."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+THE morning's mail brought to Darcy the letter he had hardly dared
+expect. It was brief but cordial. Would he come to New York, and the
+matter could be arranged to his satisfaction? "He had not been very
+eager to ask favors."
+
+"We'll weather through, Winston!" he cried joyfully. "I must go to New
+York. Miss McLeod has sent."
+
+Then he ran off home, and arrayed himself in spotless linen and
+immaculate cuffs, complained a little that Jane Morgan should be away,
+and begged his mother to ask in some of the pretty, friendly girls
+living in the next house, if he should not be home to supper. There was
+a late train that he would be quite sure of, if the business detained
+him until night. Then he kissed her tenderly: she was still a little
+shaken from her last night's vigil.
+
+He went around by Maverick's office, though it took him out of his way;
+but he must hear some word of Miss Lawrence.
+
+"She is very ill, and will be for some time to come; but I am
+wonderfully interested in the case. It's a brain-fever. The girl is a
+study in herself. She has the force and power, and capability of both
+suffering and endurance, that would answer for half a dozen souls; but
+it has come pretty nearly to a wreck. Did you ever know much about her?"
+
+"No. I once spent an evening with Miss Barry when she was there," and
+Jack flushed. "It was before Mr. Lawrence died. They used to be great
+friends, you know."
+
+"And it ended like most women's friendships, eh?" with a peculiar light
+in his eyes as he spoke.
+
+"No: it broke off in the middle; regards have a trick of doing that when
+they're not ended, you know. Sylvie is very generous: she would go there
+to-day if she were needed."
+
+"Would she? She may be before it is all over."
+
+"Go down and tell her, Maverick, when you are in that direction."
+
+Maverick nodded.
+
+Darcy was just in time to catch his train. There had been quite a fall
+of snow from midnight to dawn, and the trees were glittering with
+thousands of diamond-sparks and patches of fleecy ermine. The winding
+roads were white; the cottages and the fence-posts were hooded; and the
+snow caught all the tints of sun and shadowy lights, reflecting them
+back like a mirror. His heart was so light as they whirled along, he
+smiled, and could hardly forbear shouting at a group of boys who were
+snow-balling by the roadside.
+
+He met Miss McLeod at Mr. Hildreth's. They had the private office to
+themselves; and he related the mishaps of the past three months, showed
+her the actual figures, and admitted that times seemed really harder
+than last year. There was such a horrible shrinkage everywhere! Still
+there must be some trade presently,--it always had been so in the
+history of the world.
+
+"I think you deserve a great deal of credit for having pulled through so
+far on your limited capital," said she. "Some of the business-men I
+meet, think this will prove the hardest year in our history. It will
+winnow the chaff from the wheat pretty well."
+
+"If it does not winnow us all into chaff," returned the young fellow,
+with a touch of grim humor.
+
+"We shall come back to smaller profits and greater industry. The world
+will not be able to play at being ladies and gentlemen, and perhaps a
+little wholesome work will not be a bad discipline."
+
+Then she wanted to know what amount would be likely to tide him over for
+the next six months. He said he did not desire to exceed ten thousand
+dollars. She would make it twelve, however. After the notes were duly
+signed, she took him to her bank, and introduced him. As he had some
+other parties to see, she drove him about in her carriage, and insisted
+upon taking him home with her presently.
+
+What an elegant old lady she was in her sables and velvets, and her
+royal air! her eyes bright with spirit and energy, her cheeks a little
+pink with the crisp air, glad sunshine, and perhaps her own hearty,
+wholesome mood. Occasionally she leaned out and nodded to some friend;
+and once her carriage drew up to the sidewalk as she summoned a fine,
+portly-looking gentleman to her.
+
+"Mr. Throckmorton," she said, with gracious dignity, "I want to
+introduce my young friend Mr. Darcy, of Hope Mills, Yerbury, to you. If
+you can serve him in any business-way, I shall be glad to have you."
+
+The gentleman bowed, and held out his hand, with cordial fine breeding.
+
+"Hope Mills! It belonged to my friend Lawrence, did it not,--David
+Lawrence?"
+
+"Until his death, yes."
+
+"Sad misfortune, that. He ought to have retired years before. There was
+some villany in his manager, was there not? It is difficult to find a
+purely honest man nowadays; but I do believe Lawrence was one. We dealt
+with him a great many years, but toward the last there was some
+dissatisfaction,--goods not coming quite up to samples."
+
+"We try to do our business on the square, Mr. Throckmorton," returned
+Jack, with a proud curve of the lips that was almost a smile, and
+illumined his face. "If any thing is not exactly as represented, we
+shall make it good; but we try never to have occasion to do that. We
+should be glad to have you test our honesty and skill."
+
+"Thank you,--I will, I will;" and, touching his hat to Miss McLeod, they
+parted.
+
+"If men were as generous as you!" cried Jack, with enthusiastic candor,
+"how splendid a place this world would be for business! Did you ever
+have a jealous thought in all your life?"
+
+She laughed brightly. "I have had nearly all the things I wanted," she
+answered, with tender solemnity. "There would have been little excuse.
+Mr. Darcy, we do not always realize how hard life is to some; and, where
+everybody's man's hand is against one, it is natural for him to be
+against every man."
+
+Their four-o'clock meal was an elegant little dinner. They were quite
+alone, which pleased Jack. She questioned him about Maverick, his
+practice, his friends, and wondered if he ever meant to marry. Jack said
+laughingly no one in Yerbury dared to make fascinating eyes at him.
+
+Did she care so much for Maverick? Surely these two ought to be
+together, yet what would _he_ do without his trusty comrade?
+
+They veered round to the mills presently, and discussed honesty. Jack
+admitted that Mr. Throckmorton and other customers had a right to
+complain. There had been a deal of cheap wool used, and many poor
+workmen employed, during Eastman's last year or two.
+
+"Mr. Darcy," she began energetically, "why do you not think up something
+new? We import pretty material for ladies' wear, that could as well be
+made here, for we women are growing sensible enough to believe something
+beside silk admissible. And though men may cling to superannuated coats,
+with an affection most commendable in hard times, I never heard of a
+woman being attached to an old gown."
+
+"I never thought of it," he admitted frankly.
+
+"That is what you were put in the world for,--to think," and she smiled
+with quaint humor. "Invent something. I'll take a sample to every store
+to match, and lift my brows in surprise when clerks confess they have
+not seen it. Give it a pretty name, of course."
+
+"That is worth considering, surely;" and his eyes sparkled. "Hope Mills
+ought presently to be the grandest place in the country, you take so
+much interest in it," and his whole face expressed his admiration.
+
+"I do hope to see you a successful manufacturer, Mr. Darcy; and,
+woman-like, I want the scheme to succeed. I should like to see even a
+small party of men trained to honesty and fair play. And, if I lose my
+money, it is no worse than a downfall in stocks."
+
+"I shall do my best now and ever," he answered heartily.
+
+They parted with much warm gratitude on the honest fellow's side. He
+took the evening train for home; and his mother had a good cup of tea
+awaiting him, along with her smile. He related his grand good luck, and
+there were not two happier people in all Yerbury. When the bank found he
+had an account at New York, and a good backer, they were extremely
+affable again.
+
+Jack broached the new idea to Winston and Cameron.
+
+"To be sure," admitted Winston. "Some one will do it presently, and we
+might get the lead. Darcy, your old lady is a trump, and always carries
+the honors. There will have to be some new processes: see here, talk to
+Ben Hay about it; he's made two or three improvements, and has some
+brains. Gad! It'll be quite jolly to have a new line of goods. Get the
+ladies on your side, and you're all right!"
+
+He had not a spare moment until after his late supper, when he told his
+mother he must run over to the Lawrences, and stop a moment at the
+doctor's, though he had despatched the good news to him in the morning.
+
+He found matters worse than he had feared. There had been an alarming
+change in Miss Lawrence. Martha ushered him through the hall to the
+library, where Fred was sitting. The two clasped hands, and then sat
+down together. A hard, dry sob seemed to tear its way up from Fred's
+very soul.
+
+"Jack," he cried in a strained, despairing tone, "could I have done any
+thing to save her? I have been engrossed with my own affairs, my own
+dreams of advancement. I wanted to have money again, but it was for her
+sake and my mother's," with a lingering tremulous intonation. "She has
+been too solitary, she has brooded over every thing. But she would not
+go out, or see any company; and somehow it was our misfortune to grow up
+without any warm, vital interest in each other. When I was a boy I used
+to like it at your house, because your father and mother took such a
+real delight in you. It is the pith of life. Poor father--he was very
+proud of me, he gave his life for our pleasure and grandeur and reckless
+extravagance, yet all the later years we were well-nigh strangers. Why
+can't people get nearer to each other, Jack, or is it only given to the
+very few? Does the greedy world swallow up every sentiment, every bit of
+tenderness, and make a mock of it?"
+
+"No, no! Nothing can quite kill it, thank God! You and I have proved
+that. It may be smothered under dust and rubbish, and frozen with
+neglect, but the germ will revive,--just as the brown woolly ball
+evolves the fine delicate fern-leaf that it has held in its heart
+through winter storms, you know. Don't blame yourself. Every soul has to
+fight its own battle somewhere, with no day's-man between but God. We
+get back to the old truth in spite of the new philosophies, and own in
+our vanquished moments that we cannot _make_ strength, that ours is
+only a broken reed, and the true upholding force must come from some
+knowledge higher than our own."
+
+Jack paused, strangely stirred in every fibre. He seldom essayed
+sentiment: with him the deeds of life had to answer, rather than any
+eloquence of words. He laid his strong, warm arm over Fred's shoulder,
+the old boyish caress with which he had often comforted unknowingly.
+
+"I think you have been doing nobly," he went on presently. "I did not
+look to find you so brave and persevering, so earnest in thinking of
+others; for, after all, a man's training does throw a great many
+shackles about him."
+
+Dr. Maverick entered at that moment. He had hurried off his
+office-patients to come and spend an hour watching this case, which held
+a fascinating interest for him. Some most unfavorable symptoms had
+supervened, but he did not despair. The nurse had been regularly
+trained, he had kept her busy in Yerbury the last year. He could trust
+her to note the slightest variations.
+
+Just now Miss Lawrence lay in a heavy stupor, so like death that one
+could not detect it from any motion. Her eyes were half open, her face
+had a dull purplish tint. The abundant hair had been confined in a thick
+plait, and brushed straight across her forehead. How distinct and finely
+clear the brows were pencilled, how haughtily sweet the curve of the
+pallid, fever-burned lips, how exquisitely round and perfect the chin,
+the slope of the throat and neck! Jack stole one glance,--they had both
+gone in with the doctor,--but it seemed almost sacrilegious, now when
+she was powerless to frown the intruder out of her presence. And he had
+carried her in his arms!
+
+"O Darcy," Maverick exclaimed presently, "I did not go to Miss Barry's,
+after all. I have been so desperately busy to-day."
+
+Fred glanced up, and his eye met that of his friend. Both flushed, and
+both mistook the cause.
+
+It was a curiously auspicious moment. Jack went over to him. "I wonder,"
+he began, with a marked persuasiveness in his tone, "if you would like
+to have Sylvie Barry come over? She and your sister used to be such
+friends. And, in times like these, animosities and foolish prejudices
+ought to die out."
+
+Fred gave him a startled look, and half turned, his lids drooping to
+veil the secret in his eyes. Jack waited with breath that half strangled
+him. He had marvelled how these two souls were to be brought into
+friendly contact again; how Sylvie was to have an opportunity of knowing
+that Fred was redeeming the manliness of manhood, instead of grounding
+among its trivial shoals, and, if she ever had cared for him, to
+understand that he was not utterly unworthy. He had spoken--what if the
+chance should fail!
+
+Fred very naturally misinterpreted the emotion. Jack offered this out of
+the boundless tenderness of his heart, so confident was he of Sylvie's
+regard.
+
+"You think--she would come?"
+
+His own voice, under the great stress, sounded miles away to him, quite
+as if some other person had spoken.
+
+How often the tense strain of feeling is relieved by a tone or an
+incident quite out of the magnetic current!
+
+"Some one ought to drop in occasionally, for your mother's sake," said
+Dr. Maverick. "We shall have her in a fever from sympathy," putting the
+fact more delicately in words than it was in his thought.
+
+"She would be glad to come, I know. She would feel hurt if-- You empower
+me to ask her?" with an abrupt transition of tone.
+
+Fred Lawrence bowed his head. He could not trust his voice.
+
+The sick girl started, opened wide her eyes, threw up her arms, and
+began in weird, passionate tones, as if it were a stage declamation. Oh
+the lurid thought that seemed to travel from regions of bliss to the
+nethermost hell; to display a boundless capacity for enjoyment, for
+pleasure or pain, for tenderness and bitter, brilliant satire, a keen
+knowledge of the world to the very dregs,--the dust and ashes! She
+implored her lost idols to come near, and in the next breath she tossed
+them from her with a mocking laugh. She had no faith in God or man, and
+before her was a blank wall of despair.
+
+Jack led him away. He took him out in the keen air of the starry winter
+night, and began to talk of Hope Mills and the new projects. It was too
+late afterward to call on Sylvie, so he waited until the next morning.
+
+She was inexpressibly shocked. "Of course she would go," she made
+answer; and she went that very afternoon, with her aunt for companion.
+
+They found Mrs. Lawrence in a dreadfully disturbed and apprehensive
+state. She was so weary of solitude that she welcomed them gladly, quite
+forgetting this girl had insulted her by rejecting her son. In a weak,
+shuffling manner she excused herself for not having accepted their
+overtures before. She had been so utterly overwhelmed by the death of
+Mr. Lawrence, that, in her state of nervous prostration, it had been
+impossible to see any one. And now she was positive she should take the
+fever. Her health was so delicate, her nerves so susceptible, and to
+hear the raving of delirium,--the laughs that were quite like a
+maniac,--would be sure to shatter her beyond any help. If it were not in
+the dead of winter, she should go to New York at once, and stay with
+Mrs. Minor until all danger of infection was over. She did not seem to
+comprehend the gravity of Irene's case, though she wept over her
+suffering in a soft self-pity.
+
+"If you could be removed to our house," suggested Miss Barry, in her
+gentle way, "we would take the best of care of you; and it must be
+extremely wearing for you here."
+
+"Ah, you have no idea! I never slept last night. I have heard of people
+in these dreadful fevers who have left their beds when the nurse was
+absent, and committed some horrible crime. I locked my door last night;
+then I was afraid I might faint away alone, and Fred had to come and
+stay with me. It was terrible!" and the washed-out eyes dilated with
+real fear.
+
+Martha was despatched for the doctor, who not only came himself, but
+brought a close coach, thankful to dispose of one patient so
+comfortably. Before dusk Mrs. Lawrence was snugly settled in Miss
+Barry's best room, where a cheerful open-front stove made amends for a
+grate, and the new surroundings served to take her mind from her late
+apprehensions. Indeed, she felt so much better for the change, that she
+insisted upon coming down to tea.
+
+It was beneficial in many ways. They removed Irene again to her own
+room, and used her mother's for various convenient purposes. Sylvie went
+back and forth, and shared the day-watching, beside entertaining Mrs.
+Lawrence. The two dropped insensibly into their olden positions. Sylvie
+listened patiently to the death, the loss of fortune, the changes, which
+Mrs. Lawrence dwelt upon with the exaggerating vividness of a nature
+completely engrossed with its own sorrows.
+
+Dr. Maverick had to come every day. Mrs. Lawrence had arrived at that
+stage when a woman depends upon the doctor as a sort of bulletin for her
+own health. Fred, too, must visit his mother frequently; but at first he
+chose the hours he knew Sylvie would be with Irene.
+
+Dr. Maverick used to watch Sylvie Barry with an interest and admiration
+that grew upon him. Her tact was something marvellous, born of a certain
+exquisite harmony and almost divine unselfishness. But of this last she
+appeared serenely unconscious. I think, indeed, that she was. A higher
+love and faith had interpenetrated her soul, her very being. Instead of
+agonizing introspections and lightning flashes to the inward depths of
+her nature, she seemed to live continually on the outside of herself,
+radiating warmth and light as the sun. Her patience was of a rare, fine
+quality, born of health, and spirits not easily wearied.
+
+It would have been quite impossible for any two people to go through
+such a strain of feeling, and not be drawn together in love and
+sympathy, or friendship. With Fred and Sylvie it was unconsciously a
+little of all. If he had gone back with the old love, even exalted and
+refined, he would surely have blundered again. But now she was
+another's, sacred in his eyes. And though in his blind pride he had once
+thought the greatest favor he could do her would be to save her from any
+such _mésalliance_, he recognized now that Jack Darcy was immeasurably
+above him in all the qualities that went to make up pure manhood. Even
+in his work: Jack's ambition was not for himself, but a cause; and
+his--ah, how poor and paltry it seemed! So he accepted his place with
+outward bravery, and a great wrench of all a man holds most dear. For
+now he loved her.
+
+The days passed slowly on. It seemed at the last as if the fever would
+prove the victor. A consultation was held, and new remedies employed.
+Irene's beautiful hair was cut off and laid away, the clear skin seemed
+to grow brown and shrivelled, the hands lost their plump whiteness, and
+the rosy nails were dull and gray. There came a time when human skill
+had done all, and they could only wait for that Higher power to whose
+eternal force death and love alike submit.
+
+There followed upon that awful night of suspense, days when she was but
+just alive, when a turn of her head on the pillow caused a lapse into
+unconsciousness. But the spring came on; and she did rally, at first, it
+appeared, at the entire sacrifice of her regal beauty. Would she care to
+take life on such terms?
+
+They brought Mrs. Lawrence home. Mrs. Minor came up, and insisted that
+both mother and sister should be removed to the city at once. She had
+her horses and carriage, her servants, her luxuries, and she could make
+them so much more comfortable.
+
+Dr. Maverick interposed a decided negative. The body had not yet resumed
+its normal state; but the brain was to be ministered to, as only those
+of experience and study could minister. It was to be brought out of the
+hell of its own despairing self-torture, and enfranchised, set free from
+the demons that, standing in the present abeyance of weakness, had lost
+neither strength nor desire, and were only waiting the auspicious moment
+to seize their prey again. And he was too much fascinated to relinquish
+the study.
+
+Sylvie persuaded her aunt to indulge in a pony-carriage. Miss Barry was
+breaking a little; but she still kept her interest in good works, and
+found she was much more useful with this aid. Winsome little Sylvie
+looked more piquant than ever with the reins in her hands, flashing
+hither and thither through the streets of Yerbury, gathering a harvest
+of smiles and nods. She fairly compelled Mrs. Lawrence to trust her
+precious self to what she laughingly declared was superior
+horsewomanship.
+
+Dr. Maverick used to stop her often, just to catch a delicious ripple of
+laughter, or a bit of trenchant talk. If it were not for Jack Darcy--did
+Jack love her? At all events, she loved him: any one could see that by
+her frank, fearless manner. Oh, sapient Dr. Maverick, with all your
+knowledge of brains and nerves, of occult causes and mysterious effects!
+So it happens that sometimes a simple, direct truth is the greatest
+puzzle of all.
+
+The schools and clubs had not been neglected with all this excitement.
+But this winter Mary Moran had been teacher at a small salary; and a
+bakery and refreshment or dining room had been opened down stairs, which
+really made quite a little money. Wholesomely cooked food was offered
+for sale, with bread, rolls, and biscuit. The club had also given two
+successful suppers. When Jane Morgan was home, Sylvie was relieved of
+the actual care: she would have it. She had come back to Yerbury a
+thousand dollars richer for her relative's death, and she and Jack were
+drawing plans for a co-operative store.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+"I'D rather lose five thousand dollars than do it."
+
+Jack Darcy leaned back in his office-chair. He had just made up the
+third half-yearly account. It was bad enough. They had known this all
+along, and had not concealed it from the men. Now it was to be
+confronted in black and white, with searching eyes.
+
+It was not that they had not made any thing: that would have been
+endurable, considering the kind of winter. But they had gone back, and
+eaten up the profits of last year.
+
+"You see, there co-operation comes in," said Bob Winston. "It isn't
+_your_ loss alone. It's mine and every man's. That's what we agreed to
+when we went in. Labor and capital should share in the ups and downs.
+See here, Jack, I've learned a good deal myself. I have more sympathy
+with employers. Gad! what a pull we've had this winter! If it hadn't
+been for your fairy godmother"--
+
+"Well, it must be done!" and Jack pulled a long face. "There, it is all
+ready to print. Now old fellow, we must brace ourselves up for the shot
+and shell. We'll have to do the fighting all over again. If every man
+had as easy, philosophical a mind as you, or as sensible, reasonable a
+one as Cameron, I should not have so many misgivings."
+
+The statement was printed and distributed. The men looked blue and
+cross. Had they really lost nearly all of last year's balance?
+
+Winston asked them to stop one evening while he went into a slight
+explanation. He was well armed. Without having a logical mind or
+parliamentary training, he had a woman's quick intuitions, and often
+jumped at very decent conclusions with hardly a glance at the premises.
+He had a way of massing his forces, too, that was very telling.
+
+Now, after what he called a little skirmishing, he read that the
+Barnable Mills had been running on three-quarter time all winter. Wages
+had been a trifle lower than with them. Middleham Mills had been closed
+for two months. He gave the figures of loss to the workmen. Crowley and
+Dawson had gone into bankruptcy, owing their men in the aggregate more
+than all Hope Mills had used of last year's profits. Then he read a
+statement from an eminent manufacturer, that he had used fifty-four
+thousand dollars of accrued capital rather than turn off his workmen to
+starve. There had been strikes in several other places, in which the
+workmen had lost much more than at Yerbury.
+
+"So that our showing, bad as it is, is not the worst," said he. "In the
+very dullest of times we cast in our lots together, and we must take the
+good and bad. If you had been living this winter on the private capital
+of any one man or corporation, you would never have given the matter a
+thought. You know now, by experience, that capital does not always float
+on a serene and indolent sea, and gather in treasures for which it has
+cast out no net. You can appreciate the struggle we have gone through;
+though, while you have been going along placidly, with the larger weight
+of care lifted off your shoulders, a man with less energy and pluck than
+our intrepid pilot, John Darcy, might have let us founder. We help him
+now with the readiness and good-humor with which we relinquish the
+profits which were dear to us, and the product of our industry; but he
+has taken us through a very narrow channel, on a dark night, without
+striking rock or snag. He and I thank you heartily for your fidelity to
+our keystone,--co-operation."
+
+"Three cheers for Darcy!" sang out some one in the crowd, "and three
+cheers for Bob Winston!"
+
+It was given heartily.
+
+"And three cheers for the men of Hope Mills," responded Winston.
+
+They shook hands, and dispersed with a little better feeling. Several of
+the men seemed to breathe a clearer mental atmosphere immediately.
+
+"You may be sure it's right, whichever way it is," said one man
+sturdily. "I've known Jack Darcy, boy and man, and his father afore him.
+He comes of good, clean stock, and, if he says a thing can't be
+bettered, it can't; and, if it can, he's just the man to do it. Give him
+a long tether, say I."
+
+Then Winston procured a list of weekly wages ruling in this country, and
+in many places abroad, the hours of work, and the average cost of
+living, with the articles in most general use. The mill-men had their
+flour and coal cheaper, and altogether their winter was proved as
+satisfactory. This was pasted up in the hall.
+
+The matter was discussed through the town, of course. Some people saw in
+it a speedy dissolution of the plan,--a plan that never had worked, and
+never would. Others did not see that this method of getting back part of
+the men's wages was any better than any other swindling scheme. They
+never had any faith in Bob Winston,--Darcy might be honest, but he
+wasn't very bright,--and in five years Winston would own every thing
+there was in the mill!
+
+Winston laughed over the gossip. Jack could not take it so
+light-heartedly. He was an earnest, honest reformer, and hated to have
+things go awry. Winston, not believing there was very much capacity for
+reform in human nature, did not distress himself.
+
+Ben Hay, and a dozen or so others, did their best with the new cloth,
+and succeeded in producing a really creditable article. The heads
+discussed the feasibility of having an auction-sale to clear out some of
+the piles of goods; then concluded that it might be misconstrued at this
+present juncture. They could hold on until fall.
+
+But the delightful _esprit du corps_ had vanished. The men did not seem
+to work with a will. There were moody faces and discourteous greetings,
+half-insolent nods, and more than one wrangle at the workmen's meeting.
+Hurd felt anxious and discouraged. Yardley took a low fever, not severe
+enough to confine him to the house, but it made him irritable, and every
+sneer or innuendo cut him to the quick. Cameron was a great comfort to
+Jack, with his queer, wrinkled, grizzled face, and an expression that
+always puzzled you as to whether nature meant him to laugh or cry.
+
+"I am not surprised," said he, one day, in the office. "I knew we would
+have to come to just this time. A wife shares your joys and sorrows,
+gen'ally speaking; but you see there it's a force put, she can't well
+get away. Other partners like your joys, but they make a wry face over
+the sorrows, and like to squirm out of them if they can. But it is the
+only way to train men to the real responsibilities of business. Now, I'm
+sorry enough to lose, but it stands to reason that times will come
+better. We're getting through the panic; but after the battle there's
+some dead to bury, and some wounded to care for, and you see that's
+tedjus. You can't march straight home, covered with glory. Here's our
+money in the hospital, first up, then down, and all the doctors in the
+land tinkering with allopathic doses and homoeopathic doses, and
+blisters and poultices and remedies, when all it wants is a little
+honest letting-alone. It doesn't occur to these long-headed doctors that
+the best way out is to show everybody that we're willing to go to work
+and pay our debts just as fast as we can. And any fool might know that
+when you are paying up back debts you can't have much money to sport
+around on. Never you mind, Jack: we're coming out straight in five years
+time,--I'll bet my old hat on that!"
+
+Jack wrung his hand warmly.
+
+In May there was quite a jollification over the marriage of two
+mill-hands. Ben Hay took to wife pretty Rose Connelly; and the
+coffee-house parlor was denuded of tables and benches, trimmed with
+evergreens and flowers, and such a merry-making as did one's heart good.
+There was a bountiful supper, plenty of tea, coffee, and lemonade,
+dancing, and ice-cream, and the utmost good-humor and good wishes.
+Connelly _père_ had gone back to his cups, thrown up his situation, come
+home and stirred up a general "ruction," and had now gone off on a
+tramp. Ben Hay was to cast his lot with the Connelly household for the
+present.
+
+"But I tell you what it is, Mr. Darcy," said he, "if any luck comes to
+Hope Mills, in five years' time I'll have my own little house and
+garden. I tramped around a bit in the dull times, but I didn't see many
+prettier places than Yerbury. And, the more I study this business of
+co-operation, the more I think it will succeed in the end."
+
+Jack experienced a great throb of comfort when he heard such words as
+these.
+
+Another mill-hand had married Mary Moran. She was not the beauty of
+Yerbury, by any means, but everybody declared she had improved
+wonderfully, and that she was the smartest girl in town. Their
+wedding-party was given at the club-room. It was a larger and rather
+more boisterous affair; and some of the Morans' warm-hearted Irish
+friends brought a "dhrop of the craythur" in their pockets, to drink the
+bride's health. Everybody admitted that there wasn't such another
+bread-maker in town, unless it was Miss Morgan.
+
+In fact, it was quite astonishing to see what a revolution had been
+worked in this most important article of diet. The women had learned to
+distinguish between poor and good flour, and Kilburn's trade in the
+former had fallen off largely. Of the bread that in Samantha Allen's
+view "required cast-iron principle to back it up," very little was seen.
+It had been rather hard work to convince some of the mothers that bread
+wasn't naturally born into the world heavy and sour, but it had been
+done.
+
+If Hope Mills failed, the impetus to general knowledge that had been
+diffused throughout Yerbury would remain and bear fruit. An
+evening-school had been opened for boys too large to stay at home
+evenings, and just the right age to fall into temptations. It began with
+the mill-boys, but it soon drew in others. There was a short session of
+study, then a talk about some useful art or science. Maverick had
+treated them to sundry experiments, and explained many general rules of
+health. Mr. Winston had described Western cities in a vivid and
+picturesque manner. There had been some astronomy within the reach of
+all, some philosophy of common every-day things; and it had given the
+boys ideas above "high, low, Jack."
+
+Darcy tried to find comfort in this when other matters looked dark to
+him. A little good seed had been sown. The generation growing up would
+not be quite so dull and brutish. One thing was remarked,--the saloons
+were not as full. This was laid to dull times, and ascribed to the
+"revival" of two years ago; but that had not touched the poorer class of
+Irish and English, who, even during the hardest winter, had managed to
+find drink-money, when their families were being supported by the
+relief-store.
+
+Business did "pick up" a little. Prices went lower and lower, however.
+They looked at their great store of goods with dismay. If the currency
+question could ever be settled, if we could export more and import
+less,--though there were people who argued that, the more money we spent
+abroad, the more it really strengthened us, and money lying idle in our
+treasury at home was no evidence of prosperity: partly true and partly
+false reasoning; and, to our astonishment, while we were brilliantly
+theorizing how to do it, our vain and superficial neighbors across the
+water, crushed and beaten down by a useless and costly war, and a
+government of gigantic selfishness, went to work with intrepid courage
+and industry, and did it.
+
+Meanwhile it must be confessed that Jack's interests were very much
+divided. The practical part of him never lost sight of the mill. He had
+the dogged tenacity that holds on with a deathless grip until it
+conquers, or is wholly beaten. It seemed to him this summer that he had
+several distinct individualities. He was so deeply interested in Fred
+and Sylvie! They had slipped into an easy friendship,--a friendship in
+which neither crossed a certain line, but from widely different motives.
+Fred's strongest and highest one was honor toward his friend. He began
+dimly to realize that high culture and refinement of the intellectual
+senses, a perfect state of outward finish and polish, did not always
+strengthen the soul's morality and purity. Patience, self-sacrifice,
+obedience to a creed simpler in words, and yet more comprehensive, than
+any of his grand philosophies, were needed to form a strong and manful
+soul. His had been so long bound about with swaddling-clothes, airy,
+sensuous, fine as a gossamer web, yet strong in beliefs and prejudices.
+There were times when he felt, through that instinctive knowledge we can
+never wholly define or explain, that Sylvie Barry belonged to him, that
+they two could reach a point in mental and artistic life, that she and
+Jack would never attain. His whole soul cried out for her. With the
+charm of self-satisfying and blinding theories swept away, he clung
+passionately to the love that had been only a complacent fancy three
+years ago. The mere touch of her hand, or glance of her eye, quickened
+and kindled his entire soul, and made him acutely and agonizingly
+conscious of the wealth of adoration he had hardly dreamed of
+possessing. There were moments when her presence filled him with a
+heavenly satisfaction, when he understood that divine fusion of spirit
+with spirit in its entirety, when love overcame pride, and he was humble
+enough to go to her in his poverty.
+
+He tried honestly to crush out the passion, but found that neither will
+nor duty could destroy love. It rose up and swept imperiously through
+every pulse of his being, it flooded his heart like a mighty current, it
+would fain have drowned out his sense of honor to his friend; and he
+learned presently that it was of no avail to fight battles with this
+unconquerable foe. He must always love her, therefore he could only bury
+the passion out of the sight of all other eyes. To him it would be the
+root of higher resolves and purer motives. When he had made this great
+sacrifice for his friend, he had offered silently the highest atonement
+in his power.
+
+But his temptation was not to end so soon. He was to be led through the
+fire, that he might be purified and ennobled in other virtues beside
+that of abnegation. He was to learn how sacred a thing strength might
+become; he was to hold the soft hand on his arm, and never clasp it, to
+feel the pressure of the dainty fingers, and make no sign; to meet her
+bewildering smiles with the calmness of a strong spirit held in thrall;
+to listen to words that seemed cruelly pregnant with the dangerous
+glamour of hope, and yet to steel his heart against it all. In such
+times as these we come to believe in a living, loving God, who gathers
+up these great drops of agony as he "makes up his jewels," and that to
+him this pearl of inward anguish is above price. Then, of all times, we
+need to know that he cares for us, that we are not mere atoms floating
+in unregarded space.
+
+Dr. Maverick decided that his patient must have a change. She had
+attained a certain amount of physical strength while her brain still lay
+dormant, utterly exhausted after the great drain upon it. Now it began
+to act again, and, not being in sympathy with the body, consequently
+re-acted upon it. She walked about her room a little; she viewed herself
+in the mirror, a horrid shadow, a mere caricature of her former beauty.
+Dr. Maverick had tried his best to save her hair; but the fever had
+burned out its vital essence, making it dry and harsh, so he had uttered
+his reluctant edict. It was cropped short, and had lost its gloss; her
+brilliant complexion was a ghostly, sallow, opaque white, her eyes large
+and melancholy, every feature sharpened into that thin, worn, hungry
+appearance. "A perfect fright," she said to herself. Why had they not
+let her die? Of what avail was life to her?
+
+Before her illness, in her desperate impatience with circumstances, she
+had fancied herself a martyr, with the fagot and stake of a conventional
+marriage on one hand, and the dreary desert of neglect and enforced
+seclusion on the other. She had tried to make her own wretched and
+passionate imaginings consume her very soul. She could rule no longer.
+She could not exact homage and admiration from society; and, though in
+her secret soul she despised it, yet what was there to life beside it?
+No one wanted or needed her. No human being cared for her above all
+others. She had gone on in ruthless pride, trampling, crushing, and now
+the great world would be only too glad to pay her back; but it never
+should. Even in this extreme bitterness of spirit an acknowledgment of
+that divine rule of love was wrested from her. She had never offered
+love and tenderness and sympathy to others, and it would not come back
+to her: it was just and right that it should not.
+
+Why then vegetate through a narrow, dreary existence? She was only a
+drag on Fred. Even if she were willing to make an essay of work, he
+would not consent, partly from pride, but still more from that innate
+sense of chivalry, a part of some men, who would be more cruelly wounded
+to see a woman dear to them, struggling with distasteful toil, than to
+make any sacrifice on their own part. If she were a man she would starve
+in secret before it should be done. David Lawrence had in him some of
+this pure, nobly generous blood; and many of his finer virtues seemed to
+have been transmitted to these two children. The mother's individuality
+had been absorbed by the two elder ones. Gertrude would be just such a
+woman when she came to her mother's time of life.
+
+Mr. Eastman had floated into another channel of prosperity. He was to go
+to Russia as a railroad-director at a large salary, and ample chance for
+speculation. Gertrude was all elation. She wrote to Irene, generously
+forgiving her for not having submitted to be buried alive at Frodsham
+Park, and proposed that she should rejoin her as soon as she was able to
+travel. They would go to Vienna and Berlin, and spend the winter in St.
+Petersburg. "I hope your beauty has not gone off," she wrote very
+kindly. "One needs it to compare with some of the Russian women I have
+seen."
+
+Mrs. Minor had taken a summer cottage at Long Branch. Servants,
+children, horses and carriages, were to go thither. Irene and her mother
+must spend the season with them.
+
+"You do look dreadfully," she said to Irene; "but moping here will not
+mend you. It was a most absurd step for Fred to come back to Yerbury,
+and take that paltry position! He has no real Lawrence pride, and I
+don't see that his elegant education has done much for him. Why didn't
+he study law, and go into politics? With his style and Mr. Minor's
+connection, he might have filled some high position."
+
+"Really," returned Irene, with a touch of the old sarcasm, "I suppose he
+thought starving hardly a pleasant process while he was waiting for this
+high position. I have sometimes wondered why Mr. Minor did not take him
+into _his_ office, and induct him into the mysteries of stock-broking."
+
+Agatha bit her lip.
+
+"Because he did not know enough," she flung out. "And he will potter
+away his best days there at Garafield's, never amounting to any thing!
+Father had better have put him in the business."
+
+"Jack Darcy is master at Hope Mills. He was once quite a _bête noir_ of
+yours, I believe. He and Fred have floated together again, an
+exemplification of the power of early attraction."
+
+"He will not be master of Hope Mills long, if what I hear is true," said
+Agatha in a vengeful tone, as if she would be glad to bring about such a
+greatly-to-be-desired downfall. "Fred always did have low tastes. But
+about yourself: you had better come to Long Branch, and recruit for two
+months, or so, and then go out to join Gertrude. Of course, Irene, you
+know your best time has gone by here. I intend that _my_ daughters shall
+be married before they are twenty. I will not have them wasting their
+best years."
+
+There was a long pause. Agatha studied Irene's apathetical face, and
+wondered how she could have changed into such a fright.
+
+"Irene!" in a commanding tone.
+
+"Agatha, I may as well tell you,"--the voice was slow and incisive, as
+if every word was measured,--"that I shall _not_ go to Long Branch nor
+abroad. No one shall be troubled by my failing looks and possibly poor
+health. I will live my own secluded life, asking nothing of the world
+but to be let alone."
+
+"You are a fool, Irene!" Mrs. Minor scanned her with her pitiless black
+eyes, and raised her own tall figure to its most impressive height. "You
+are a deliberate, wilful fool! You will maunder and groan and sigh
+through the next few years, and become one of those wretched bundles of
+nerves and whims and conceits, a miserable old maid, whom the world
+holds up to ridicule, and rightly too; a faded, insipid, querulous,
+worn-out belle, whose past triumphs are remembered only to her disfavor.
+We can forgive a woman of mother's age, who has had her day; but the
+other shallow creatures are fit only to be bundled into a convent, out
+of sight."
+
+A dull scarlet had slowly mounted Irene's face. She did not raise her
+eyes. In an emotionless tone she merely said, "Thank you. I wish there
+were convents without the fuss of religion. I should go into one now."
+
+"The best place for you certainly."
+
+Then Mrs. Minor gave Fred a piece of her mind, and washed her hands of
+Yerbury.
+
+The result of sundry after-discussions was that Dr. Maverick found a
+pretty seaside place not many miles distant, with just enough interest
+to keep one entertained, and no fashionable, exhausting life. He managed
+to persuade Miss Barry and Sylvie and Mrs. Lawrence to go, and insisted
+upon Irene having the variety of air and scene. There was a roomy
+furnished cottage at their disposal: they could cook their meals, or
+have them sent in. Fred should come down once or twice a week, and he
+and Darcy would enliven them with flying visits. Miss Barry must take
+her pony and carriage.
+
+Jack approved of the plan at once. It would bring the two beings in whom
+he was so warmly interested more closely in contact with each other,
+give them those bits and fragments of leisurely indolence so conducive
+to sentiment. Sylvie would judge more truly and tenderly than it was
+possible to do at present; and he could not see her alone, could not be
+her companion in walks and drives, without betraying his regard.
+
+While the plan was still under consideration, Dame Fortune resolved to
+smile upon Fred Lawrence. Late in the winter he had sent a paper on
+household art, with several exquisite designs, to a magazine, and for
+once happened to hit the prevailing fancy. He was asked for a series of
+such articles, with the offer of having them collected in book form
+afterward. It more than encouraged him: it gave him a feeling of
+certainty that he had struck the right vein, that here was a fair and
+appreciative field for his talent, his fine taste, and high culture. A
+little utilitarian, perhaps; and he smiled, thinking of some past
+dreams. And was true art so ethereal that it must exist only in the
+exalted states of the mind? Was it not to embellish and beautify all
+lives, rather than crowd out the thousands that the few might feast on
+some exquisite vision? Was any art higher than that which boldly thrust
+aside shams, and went to the shaping of true, strong, faithful aims in
+the work placed before one? Were those wonderful Greek fragments,
+wrought in times of social depravity such as the world now shrank from
+mentioning, to be one's guide and inspirer, to the despising of purer if
+less sensuous forms of beauty? If one enlightened and sweetened the life
+of to-day with the work of to-day, would it not be as worthy as hugging
+to the soul some useless theory?
+
+He mentioned his new offer to Mr. Garafield. It would not be honest to
+take the time that was another's; and surely Fred Lawrence's mental
+capacity had largely cleared when he came to put into every-day work the
+fine sense of honor that he had hitherto supposed belonged only to a
+liberal education.
+
+Mr. Garafield was a shrewd business-man, although fanciful in taste. He
+should be the gainer by associating this true artist with him.
+Decorative art was coming to be a truly recognized branch; and its
+leaders and apostles would reap not only credit, but financial success.
+
+Fred was amazed. Only yesterday, it seemed, he had well-nigh been
+refused the privilege of earning his bread. To-day, in an unexpected
+quarter, prosperity opened upon him.
+
+"I have no capital, as you well know," he said stammeringly to Mr.
+Garafield.
+
+Garafield smiled and nodded in a satisfied manner.
+
+"The brain-work and the ideas are sufficient capital, Mr. Lawrence. By
+this partnership you will be free of drudgery: some other clerk can keep
+books and take orders for us. You will gain time for your literary
+labors, and those in turn will carry weight in the business. Neither do
+I think you will regret taking my offer."
+
+Fred went down to Jack Darcy's that evening, and told over his plans, as
+in other years he had confessed his college ambitions and the laurels he
+was to win. And Jack's face lighted up with honest enthusiasm, while his
+voice took on a curious little tremble. He was so glad! for Sylvie's
+sake and love's sake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+WHEN Fred Lawrence came next day into Sylvie Barry's presence, there was
+a certain proud humility shining in his handsome face, that was now
+quite worn and thin; a dignity born of honor in having achieved at least
+a standing-place in the world. He was not her hero, never had been
+indeed; and his pale face flushed at the remembrance of his once
+complacent claim to her regard.
+
+She was sitting in the room with his mother, but she sprang up from the
+low ottoman.
+
+"I am so glad! your mother has been telling me the news. Why, it is"--
+
+She had held out her hands as she began her sentence, but as he took
+them she made a sudden pause. His were icy cold.
+
+"More than I could have expected in such a brief while, hardly at all.
+Both offers have surprised me greatly."
+
+He strove so hard to render his tone calm, that it was absolutely cold.
+
+She turned with a petulant but charming gesture, while her peachy cheek
+took on a riper tint.
+
+"You are not a bit enthusiastic," in that pretty, imperious, chiding
+tone. "I suppose you think good fortune ought to fall down upon you, be
+thrust on you, like greatness."
+
+"No. I am very thankful for it. I can give my mother and sister some
+needed indulgences that it would have pained me very much to see them go
+without. How is Irene?"
+
+"I don't know," said Mrs. Lawrence fretfully. "She does mope so. I shall
+be so glad to get away."
+
+"I have just come from the doctor's. We are to start on Thursday.
+Sylvie, are you all ready?"
+
+"Yes," with a positive little nod.
+
+He stepped into the next room. Irene had been worse after Mrs. Minor's
+visit, but was the same again now, quiet, cold, impassible. It made no
+difference to her whether they remained here, or went to Depford Beach.
+She evinced neither pain, pleasure, nor interest; but she liked best to
+be alone. She endured Sylvie with rather more equanimity than she did
+her mother, but even the fault-finding energy would have been welcome to
+the doctor. Nothing mattered: that was the trouble.
+
+She heard now they were to go in two days. The cottage was all ready.
+Martha and Miss Barry's trusty handmaiden were to do the housekeeping.
+The place was so arranged, with the spacious hall through the middle,
+that each family could be by itself.
+
+"I have ordered a carriage to come every day for you and mother," Fred
+said quietly. "I thought you would like it better than being dependent
+on Miss Barry."
+
+Irene gave a slow, acquiescent nod.
+
+"Good-by," cried Sylvie, looking in. "I will run over again to-morrow."
+
+"I wanted her to stay to tea," said Mrs. Lawrence complainingly. "It is
+so dull!"
+
+"I will come up and take tea with you. I will order it at once." And he
+ran down.
+
+There was a subtle perfume in the hall. She had a bunch of violets in
+her belt, he remembered. He said over softly Ben Jonson's quaint
+lines,--
+
+          "Here she was wont to go, and here, and here,
+           Just where the daisies, pinks, and violets grow:
+           The world may find the spring by following her."
+
+But he could not follow. Had fate smiled on him to make the
+renunciation more bitter? For now he could work his way up to something
+worthy of her acceptance. And had he not learned the past winter, had he
+not been slowly learning ever since the death and loss, that the manhood
+of a gentleman was his thoughtfulness for others, his courteous
+delicacy, his consideration, often his denial of self, rather than the
+exquisite polish of cultivation, and the veneer of society's
+affectations? How blind he must have been, ever to have offered these
+last to a woman so true and pure of soul!
+
+But a still larger sacrifice had been demanded of him. He must see her
+in seductive solitudes, in still more intimate association. If he could
+stay away from Depford Beach! but that was not possible. He was to spend
+Sundays with them. But surely Jack would be there then. An almost
+careless lover he thought his friend. Was every smile so dear to him?
+
+The doctor and Fred went down with them. Darcy had decided to take a
+business trip, so presently Mrs. Darcy joined the seaside household. In
+the bygone years Mrs. Lawrence would not have deigned to notice her; but
+she found this delicate, mild-mannered, middle-aged woman very
+companionable. Circumstances had rendered Mrs. Darcy exclusive, rather
+than any inherent trait of birth or breeding. She had lived with a few
+people always, and two or three strong attachments had given to her
+character the kind of concentration that passes for strength. Yet all of
+these had been more positive people than herself; and while this had
+softened the tendency to that querulous exactingness that weak, sweet
+natures are apt to possess, it had also shaped to certain generous
+instincts that were quite free from vanity. Her natural kindliness gave
+her the charm of good-breeding, and this settled her in the estimation
+of Mrs. Lawrence. She might have possessed all the virtues in the
+calendar, but an inharmonious, unpolished turn or act would have
+tabooed her. We generally ascribe this grace to life-long culture, or a
+certain inheritance of blood, but it occasionally springs from other
+causes.
+
+The three women, with natures and aims widely different, fraternized in
+the most amiable manner. Sylvie glanced in and out between them as a
+gleam of sunshine penetrates the interstices of a wood, and brings out
+all lights and tints, itself untouched by any. Their greatest diversion
+was driving. Back of the little settlement--it was hardly large enough
+for a village, and had a powerful rival some seven miles farther
+on--there were country lanes and by-ways, sleepy-looking farms, and
+picturesquely careless houses. Below them there was a great fish
+_entrepôt_, with fishing-boats plying up and down, brawny fishermen
+trilling their musical half-chant, half-song, as they floated over the
+bay.
+
+It was curious how, presently, Sylvie came to watch for Fred. Truth to
+tell, she found Depford Beach a trifle monotonous. No interest of
+schools or clubs or young people's affairs, no strong energetic talks
+with Jack about mill business, few people coming and going that she
+cared about; the three ladies purring through the drowsy hours on topics
+that she fancied she had exhausted years ago; and Irene, between whom
+and her there had never been any real electric sympathy, and who was now
+coldly indifferent to all matters. For hours she would sit with her
+hands dropped nerveless in her lap, glancing over the wide sea out to
+the farther horizon. What thoughts were in her mind, Sylvie wondered?
+She could not even provoke her to the wordy combats of old. The flashes
+of temper and imperiousness had alike died out. She was courteously
+polite, and acknowledged all favors with a punctiliousness that built
+the wall around her still more firmly. "If one could only rouse her,"
+Dr. Maverick said; but that seemed just the thing no one _could_ do.
+
+Yet she certainly was improving in health. Her step became more assured,
+her eye less languid, and her complexion cleared up to the hopeful tints
+of renewed bodily vigor. Her slender hands filled out a trifle; and
+sometimes she would take a book, as if she needed an interest beside her
+own sombre thoughts to while away the hours.
+
+So Sylvie established her easel, and had recourse to painting. Oddly
+enough she began to ask herself what it was all for? Filling her own
+rooms, and bestowing gifts upon friends, was very well for a season; but
+was there not a higher purpose in all art, or at least a wider purpose?
+It surely did not tend to isolation. She thought of her winter in
+Philadelphia,--of the friends she had made, of the desires that had been
+awakened. She longed for some purpose, some sympathy and aim. The
+enthusiasms of girlhood could no longer inspire her: there must be a
+reality and definite end, or work lost its great charm. How was she to
+get to this? Her aunt was coming to depend upon her in a peculiar way,
+that at times startled Sylvie. She would say, with her quiet, tender
+smile, "Will you do this or that, Sylvie? I believe I am growing
+indolent: I never thought to so like being waited upon."
+
+The secret in Miss Barry's soul was well kept. In how many lives there
+comes a demand for heroism greater than that which led the martyrs of
+old to the stake, or the brave women in the reign of terror to the
+guillotine! Their inspiration to bravery was patent to all around: their
+cause was a lofty one, and they were apostles of that high creed of
+self-abnegation which leaves behind a memory in the hearts of all noble
+men and women. But there are other pangs quite noiseless: there are
+other martyrs who suffer without the sign, who cannot even confess the
+reason for the high faith that upholds them.
+
+It was quite natural that she should desire to see Sylvie married. She
+could never get over her distaste of having women taking bold strides
+for the world's fame and favor. If left alone, this was what Sylvie
+would surely do. The delicate womanly charities and kindnesses that had
+filled up so much of her life would not satisfy her niece. And, now that
+she had brought herself to the point of satisfaction with Jack Darcy,
+either she had mistaken their regard, or he was proving himself an
+indifferent lover. By a subtile intuition, she understood that Fred
+still cared for her, nay, that he held now a reverent admiration that he
+had never thought of in the past. His melancholy eyes followed her
+about, now and then scintillating sparks of passion that seemed almost
+to rend his soul. She experienced an intense and exquisite sympathy for
+him that drew them together in a manner that he felt, and was grateful
+for, but did not clearly understand.
+
+As for Sylvie, curiously enough, she was at war with herself, though she
+wore such a calm, light-hearted exterior. When she rejected Fred
+Lawrence, she was quite sure she despised the present man, and his
+narrow, futile purposes of life. Truly, to have been the wife of such a
+man would have proved irksome to the last degree. But his misfortunes
+had brought out the fine gold, the solemn strain of strength and
+endurance, that had come from his father's blood. I think even Sylvie
+had been a little mortified first, that he should have come back to
+Yerbury, and taken such a very inferior position. She wanted him to do
+something noteworthy with his pen and his high cultivation. It seemed so
+much choice material quite thrown away. Designing patterns was surely no
+high test of genius. Women with a purely technical art education had
+done it.
+
+But out of it had come this other opportunity that he had grasped with
+the pure instinct of genius. Employment for pen and pencil both, for the
+embodiment of the exquisite outward forms of beauty, and the rare,
+delicate, inward graces of imagination, for the true standards of taste
+and art in which he had been informing himself all these years; in the
+spirit of dilettanteism, it was true, but now when the intellectual
+impetus was added, and the positive need of daily bread, these
+complicated motives worked together as a strong stimulant. Perhaps, too,
+he had a not unworthy desire to show Sylvie Barry that the man who had
+loved her was not utterly unworthy or incapable.
+
+They had drifted together again in the ordinary purposes of life, which,
+after all, occur much more frequently than any grand or overwhelming
+shock. She took up the friendly, half-sisterly way, pleased with the
+instinctive deference he paid her. He understood that it would be quite
+useless to aspire to any regard of hers: that was all done with in the
+past. She could afford to evince an interest in his plans, since Irene
+cared not, and to his mother they were so much Greek, a subtle flavor
+that she admitted was the proper thing, but could not understand,--did
+not care to trouble herself, in fact.
+
+So these two young people, working in a common bond of sympathy,
+insensibly strengthened the regard that had grown with them from
+childhood. Fred gained sufficient courage to discuss some plans with
+Sylvie: she brought out her easel, as I have said, and accepted from him
+friendly criticisms. The difference between their work was soon
+manifest,--he had an earnest purpose, with breadth and scope: she had
+none. How had they so queerly changed places? she asked herself. Why
+were not her talents made of some avail, instead of this puerile
+pottering to please one's self?
+
+She began to wonder--dangerously fascinating employment to a woman--if
+he had ever cared for her. There seemed an adamantine wall built up
+around him, and yet the fruit in the inner garden was more rarely sweet
+than she had ever dreamed it could be. She could not know that the
+passion for her he had put away with such despairing hands, was
+blossoming all the sweeter, and bearing more exquisite fruit in other
+directions. She saw the lovely tenderness toward his mother, the
+unwearying patience with Irene, the fearless, animating ambition that
+seemed to have set his æsthetic desires to a steady, comprehensive
+strain of music, to which he was keeping invisible step, but which
+thrilled and roused every fibre.
+
+All this he had done without any assistance from her, she thought, blind
+little girl; as if the kinship of a true passion could not reach from
+the life that went before to that which was to come afterward! _She_ had
+not inspired his genius, but stern necessity; it had been no longing or
+desire to win _her_, but the material support of his mother and sister.
+She began to feel curiously jealous of these extraneous influences. She
+unconsciously exerted herself to make his visits at the beach more
+interesting. They drove together in her pony-carriage; they studied
+glowing summer sunsets, where fantastic clouds piled up wealth of gold
+and amber and purple and opaline splendors, and shot out arrowy,
+dazzling rays; they paced the sands after it had all faded into tintless
+space, and delicate vapors of grayish green and vague violet rose from
+the crested waves that broke far out at sea, and trooped across like
+airy spirits; they listened to the slow, regular rhythm that came
+marching from some weird country, with a grand crash at last, a sobbing
+crescendo, and an interval of silence that still pulsated on the dusky,
+odorous air, when the moaning billow was dead.
+
+They came so near to Nature, there were moments when they seemed
+empowered to wrest the shadowy secrets out of her bosom; and yet they
+did not come near to each other. Ever this distance between,--a man's
+honor, and faith to his friend, Fred Lawrence thought, never allowing
+his secret soul to swerve. There were midnights when he softly paced the
+floor, his lips compressed, his brow ghostly white, and his hands
+clinched in the throe of a man's deathless love. Then he thought he
+could not endure it, that he must stay away. But circumstances were
+stronger than will. Did God mean that this anguish should redeem that
+other old treachery, that his soul should be purified by its baptism of
+fire, a more worthy offering for his friend? If so, then he must not
+abate one jot or one pang.
+
+There were within Sylvie Barry's soul certain coquettish instincts. She
+was fond of admiration for herself: a purely intellectual regard, with
+the passion-dream flown, would soon have wearied her. A warm, bright
+nature, loving to please others, but to be pleased in return, cruelly
+hurt by surging against this rock-bound coast, piqued and almost
+angered, sent into moods of daring, seductive warmth and gayety, quite
+capable of making a foil of Dr. Maverick, who was strangely puzzled by
+her contradictory moods. But for one thing, he must have tried to cage
+the dazzling, elusive spirit: he, too, had a strong sense of honor
+toward his friend; and he could only imagine her playing sportively with
+the few who came within her radius, not setting herself to win any
+forbidden regard. What might have made some women sad and silent--the
+consciousness that an old lover had over-lived his passion--seemed to
+sting her into renewed effort.
+
+Coming back to them, Jack Darcy was more than puzzled, set at sea in a
+bewildering way, without chart or compass. Had Fred ceased to care for
+Sylvie? Had she never loved him? Or was some other feeling holding him
+back,--a kind of family complication, a sense of duty to the others so
+high that he would not offer them a divided regard, any sooner than her?
+He believed mothers had a peculiar sense of possession in their sons;
+but they surely had married other women's sons with small scruple! Mrs.
+Lawrence was warmly attached to Sylvie. In his honest, inconsequent
+man-fashion, he wondered why they could not always live together, as
+they were doing here.
+
+Fred was strangely worn and thin, with the kind of nervous alertness
+that accompanies an intent watching of one's self.
+
+"Hillo, old fellow!" cried Jack; "what have you been doing? Working
+yourself to a shadow? If high art is so exhaustive, there must be a
+little let-up. A man has no more right to kill himself in an artistic
+industrial way, than in any of the ruder forms of suicide."
+
+Fred shivered visibly.
+
+"Don't speak of suicide," he answered in a shrinking tone. "I never
+thought of it but once; and that was when I fancied myself of no use to
+the world, or myself either. I am not overworked"--and he paused, to
+study Jack a moment. Why, he was positively handsome, with that
+superabundant strength and vitality, the clear red and white of his
+complexion, the bronze beard, the healthful, honest eyes. He seemed to
+be surcharged with a magnetic current of energy and courage.
+
+"Yes, you are. I dare say you have carried your plans and sketches, and
+what not, down to Depford Beach, and pored over them until almost
+morning. You must take a vacation."
+
+"I expect to when the families return;" and he gave a faint, wan smile.
+"I have had another streak of luck, Jack. A lady, a very wealthy widow,
+is building a house in one of the pretty towns up the Hudson, and it is
+to be finished with all the elegance art can bring. She saw one of my
+articles, and sent to me; and we have been corresponding. In September I
+am to go to New York, and make arrangements. There is to be painting and
+frescoing, and rooms finished in different styles,--indeed, I cannot
+tell the half myself, until I see her."
+
+The pale face had kindled with a fine and proud enthusiasm. More than
+ever, Jack recognized the artistic refinement of his friend. What would
+law or medicine have been to him as a profession?
+
+"Humph!" grunted Jack. "A great vacation that will be! But you _must_ be
+careful, or you will not live out half your days. You've a look in your
+face like the little chap I first knew."
+
+The smile that crossed it then, Jack did not understand. It seemed to
+Fred Lawrence that half his days would suffice, when Sylvie Barry was
+his friend's wife.
+
+"Yet you see the 'little chap' lived"--with an attempt at gayety.
+
+"Yes. And, Fred, I am more glad than I can put into words, to know that
+you have been so successful. It is just the career for you. It's odd
+that a great commonplace, blundering fellow like me should have two such
+artistic friends as you and Sylvie Barry."
+
+The well-trained face did not blanch a muscle. He felt, with a flash of
+subtile inner consciousness, that Darcy was studying him. Thank God, he
+could stand before his friend free from a thought of treachery! All
+these weeks he had walked over burning coals, but the smell of the fire
+was not in his garments.
+
+Jack thought it over long after Fred had gone. Why could not these two
+people see! Surely they were meant for one another. It puzzled, it
+almost fretted him. Sylvie was so peculiar, so changed in these few
+weeks! What did it all mean?
+
+And on Saturday when he was to go down to the beach, Fred pleaded some
+urgent business to a neighboring city. He was not quite brave enough to
+see them together.
+
+"I have been meaning to go for some time," he said with gravity, "but I
+did not like to think they would be alone over Sunday. Now that you will
+be there, I certainly can spare three or four days."
+
+"See here," returned Jack,--"wait until Monday. Come, we'll have a nice
+day together down there on the sands. Sundays always seem so wonderful
+by the ocean, with the grand chant forever in your ears. The very waves
+are saying,--
+
+          "'Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord.'"
+
+But Fred Lawrence would not suffer himself to be persuaded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+JACK DARCY'S business-tour, while it had not been productive of any
+great financial results, had restored his healthy mental equilibrium. He
+found other firms were having it just as hard, and that the country was
+still overrun with men willing to work for any wages. Prices were
+certainly falling. All kinds of raw products were offered at the very
+lowest figure; and, labor being so cheap, manufactured goods must
+perforce be low. Men were not now counting on a speedy return to good
+times and high prices: they began to admit that the latter were the
+outcome of extravagant speculation. They bought what they wanted, and no
+more. They gave no extensive credits, and now really appeared to be
+anxious to reach a permanent basis.
+
+"We shall have to sell most of our stock at cost," he said to Winston.
+"Lucky to get that, I suppose. And we shall come out about even--no
+profits for this six months. Still, we shall not run back, and that is
+something gained."
+
+"We can count on the new goods, I'm pretty sure," returned Winston.
+"I've had some inquiries, and sent samples. Some of the fancy
+overcoatings are to be duplicated. That looks like business."
+
+It did, indeed. Jack sat at his desk, ruminating upon it, and feeling as
+if at last they saw a light through the woods, when a step startled him,
+because it was not the kind of step usually heard through that hall, so
+he turned. It was Fred Lawrence, with a face of ashen pallor. Jack
+sprang up, dazed with the vision.
+
+"I was to come and tell you--Maverick has gone to Depford Beach--Miss
+Barry is very ill, and they have telegraphed for him. He left word--that
+we were to come."
+
+The voice had a strained, unnatural sound; and the eyes looked like
+those that have wept out a passionate sorrow, and are dry from despair.
+
+"Ill--Miss Barry--not Sylvie?"
+
+Could he speak of her in that calm tone? A passion of rage swelled in
+Fred's heart, and flushed his face. Only a moment, for the great throb
+of thankfulness that it was _not_ Sylvie restored him.
+
+"It is Miss Barry. You will go?"
+
+The tone had that peculiar, wandering cadence, as if somehow the soul
+had dropped out of it.
+
+"Certainly," and Jack sprang up, puzzled by something quite intangible
+in Fred's demeanor.
+
+"There are just twenty minutes to catch this train. The eight-ten does
+not stop at Depford, you know."
+
+"True: I will just speak to Winston"--
+
+"I will meet you at the station," returned Fred hurriedly, turning away.
+
+Much as he loved Jack, it seemed as if he could not walk to the station
+with him. A feeling of profound pity for Sylvie rose in his heart. This
+man, noble, generous, helpful, and affectionate, had not the finely
+responsive nature Sylvie Barry needed. There would be some distance or
+coldness, or, worse still, a fatal dissonance. One part of her nature
+must remain unmated: her soul would have a language in which he would
+not only be deaf, but wholly dumb. He could express no more than the
+possibilities of his nature. It was not the fine and essential
+difference between man and woman, but that more fatal gulf in which
+there would appear no certain glimpses of a royally endowed love in all
+its spontaneity, its glow of feeling, its variation of rich emotions.
+How would she, with her versatile, changeful soul, with its cycle of
+moods, ever live in the strong, steady prison of his heart!
+
+If he had thought perfect honor to his friend the greatest trial of his
+life, what was this to be? He could not stay and see the slow, consuming
+inward fire that would burn her soul to ashes while it was still in the
+body. Thank God, he could go away, would go soon indeed, and never
+return! He would nerve himself for these few days of torture.
+
+Jack waited on the platform until the last moment. The bell was ringing
+when Fred appeared, and the strong arm grasped him. They sat side by
+side, but were silent after one question as to the nature of Miss
+Barry's illness. Never had they been further divided in heart, for in
+the days when there had been no semblance of friendship the trivial
+repulsion was not to be compared to this wall of adamant. Fred would not
+have gone at all but for his mother's sake, although his heart was with
+Sylvie through every instant of her trial.
+
+The house was very quiet when they reached it. Maverick came to meet
+them, and was as sorely puzzled as Fred by the certain composure of
+Darcy's face.
+
+"It was not altogether unexpected by her or myself," Maverick explained
+in answer to their inquiries. "It is the result of a complication of
+disorders, some of long standing and incurable; and the present effect
+is partial paralysis. I hoped change of air and a quiet summer would
+delay what we knew must come before many years."
+
+Darcy was astonished beyond measure. He would sooner have thought of his
+own mother dying. True, he remembered now that Miss Barry had been about
+less, and looked rather more delicate, and that through the summer she
+had kept extremely quiet. So amazed was he, that at first he quite
+forgot about Sylvie.
+
+Fred Lawrence paced the floor in an agony. Would the man never ask the
+question that was torturing him, because he had no right to ask it
+first!
+
+"How is my mother?" was his huskily tremulous inquiry, as he still went
+up and down like a caged lion.
+
+"The shock was really terrible to her. Mrs. Darcy was invaluable,"
+bowing to Jack. "But for her, Sylvie would have been in
+despair,"--looking furtively at the broad, slightly bowed figure.
+
+"Poor Sylvie!" he murmured, "poor Sylvie!"
+
+Fred turned to the door, compressing his lips over a throb of anguish.
+
+"Of course," began Maverick, "they must all be removed as soon as
+possible. I think it would be well for Mrs. Lawrence and her daughter to
+go to-morrow. Neither is strong enough to bear any prolonged strain."
+
+"Yes." Fred's heart swelled within him. They were all to be thrust aside
+as quickly as possible. This was Sylvie's sorrow--sacred to her and
+Jack.
+
+He went to his mother's room. She was lying on a couch, and was still
+hysterical. From her he heard the story; and though, as ever, she was
+selfishly alive to her own sufferings, she evinced an almost motherly
+tenderness in her sympathy for Sylvie.
+
+Fred spoke of the return. If it could be to-morrow; if he could settle
+them in their own home, and go quite away for a while! he thought.
+
+"And leave Sylvie here alone?" said his mother reproachfully.
+
+"I do not know what you can do for--for Miss Barry." How studiously cold
+and calm the tone was! "The doctor wishes to remove her as speedily as
+possible. I thought we would be out of the way, at least."
+
+"It _is_ terrible here; and if you considered it quite right--the summer
+is so nearly ended, and the nights are growing cool,--yes, we might
+go."
+
+They settled it over their quiet supper. "Miss Barry was comfortable,"
+Martha said, "and Miss Sylvie was lying down."
+
+Mrs. Lawrence retired early, her nerves were so shattered by the
+terrible incident. Irene had disappeared; and, when Fred could stand his
+loneliness no longer, he went to walk upon the beach.
+
+It was a moonless night, but with an intensely blue sky that gave the
+Milky Way the appearance of a luminous trail across the heavens. The
+murmur of the waves seemed sad and softened, and they touched the heart
+of the man who paced beside them. Once he had held so much in his hands!
+Surely he could have won the love of this woman then. Oh the blind,
+insensate, idiotic folly! He could have thrust his own soul down here on
+the sand, and trampled the very life out of it!
+
+Hark! some one was coming with hasty strides. With the wild instinct of
+a wounded animal he turned to flee, and yet--whither should he go?
+
+The hand was on his shoulder. The well-known voice uttered his name, and
+he turned at bay.
+
+"Sylvie"--
+
+"Don't repeat her name to me!" he flung out, beside himself with
+passionate jealousy and love. And then their eyes met, the one lurid
+with an emotion well-nigh beyond control, the other wondering, pitiful,
+amazed.
+
+"Yes, let me go my way. I had not meant you to know it; but once--yes, I
+will confess it to you--I scorned you to her. God knows how I have
+repented; for I was beside myself then, blinded with my own folly and
+arrogance. And now you have won the woman I love, whom I shall always
+love, and it will be at once my bliss and my punishment. Take your
+triumph--tell her that her erring knight came back, and paid her the
+highest homage of his soul." Then, in a sudden, changed tone, freighted
+with a pain that pierced the other's heart, he cried, "Jack Darcy, I
+have made amends for that selfish blunder of my young manhood. For weeks
+I have endured such pangs, that Heaven grant you may never know! I have
+walked by her side with polar wastes between us; I have touched her hand
+with fingers that have had no more passion in them than the dead; I have
+watched her dewy lips ripe with kisses, and remembered they were for
+you; I have been true, _true_ in word and deed and desire, but in
+thought I must love her to her life's end. I will go quite away"--
+
+Up to this point his words had come with the heat and flow of a
+lava-torrent. Now his impassioned voice faltered, trembled, and seemed
+to lose itself.
+
+Jack Darcy stood transfixed. Was it a dream? Had Fred been so blind all
+this while? He essayed speech; but the lines about his mouth were
+constricted, and his breath came in quivering gasps, as the vision of
+torture, suffered for honor's sake, rose up before him. Ah! if ever he
+_had_ sinned,--and the temporary forgetfulness appeared such a little
+thing to Jack's generous soul,--he had redeemed himself nobly.
+
+"Oh! you thought--she doesn't love me, Fred,--not in that way," and his
+voice had the full, throbbing inflection of a great joy. "We are
+friends, such as a man and a woman can truly be. Do you not understand
+that some people are so alike they run in parallels? there are no angles
+to create the intense friction of love, they are so evenly balanced that
+there is no desire for possessorship, they have just as wholesome an
+influence over each other remaining apart. There is hardly Sylvie's
+equal in the world. Half that I am, I owe her."
+
+Had the night changed? Was the world flooded with a serene and tender
+light? Was the moaning ocean filled with the wondrous music of immortal
+love and longing, reaching out to glad fruition? Was that sudden rare
+peace, creating a reverential atmosphere about him, an earnest of days
+to come? He experienced a vivid lightness as if he were being borne on
+clouds, while fragments of delicious remembrances floated through his
+brain. The very refinement of his nature seemed to exalt him to that
+high heaven of love, whose solemn mysteries it is not lawful to utter.
+
+"I cannot quite understand"--in a curious dreamy tone, still spelled by
+the mastery of impassioned emotion--"how you could miss loving Sylvie;
+how she, woman-like, could help adoring you for your strength and
+heroism. Jack, if I were a woman, your very power would compel me to
+worship you. I should love you, whether or no."
+
+Jack gave a bright, cheerful laugh. "It is that kind of strength you
+like in Sylvie," he made answer. "She will always spur a man up to his
+best. Her well-trained ear is quick to detect a false note in honor,
+ambition, or love. She will never be any kind of dead weight, and yet
+she is so deliciously womanly. There was a time--don't be vexed,
+Fred,"--in a tender, pleading tone,--"when I thought you were not going
+to be worthy of her. But that is past."
+
+"She rejected me then," Fred Lawrence said simply. "I offered her my
+father's wealth, the home he had made, my own folly and arrogance and
+self-conceit; and then, Jack, she boldly admitted that you were her
+hero! When I consider the sort of man my training and surroundings made
+me, I am filled with disgust. And yet I was no worse than hundreds of
+others at the present day. When I look at my mother, Irene, and myself,
+I feel that we were the product of the so-called culture of the day,
+which substitutes shallow creeds, conventional manners, and systems, for
+all that is pure, strong, and noble in manhood or womanhood. It is the
+sort of Greek temperament on which we pride our intellectual selves. We
+revel in a glowing, sensuous enjoyment, that intoxicates the brain, and
+leads us to disdain the real work of the world. We are trained to
+consider what society demands of us; we are polished and refined, and in
+too many instances left morally weak and ignorant. No wonder so many of
+us have not the strength to buffet across the stormy sea of hard
+experience, but are lost in the great whirlpool!"
+
+Jack peered into the pale, handsome face by the faint light. Surely this
+man had to make a tremendous effort for salvation, when nearly every
+tide had been against him! He experienced a keener sympathy than he
+could express; he drew the arm within his, and they paced up and down
+again in silence, understanding dimly the sacred mysteries of each
+other's hearts, that needed not to be dragged to open day for
+inspection. In a pure friendship, faith is the highest element: with
+that there is supreme content; without it, distrust gnaws like a
+canker-worm.
+
+They heard the little church-clock striking ten, and turned their steps
+toward the house. On the porch, Fred paused a moment, while an icy fear
+seemed to wring every pulse. He turned cold with apprehension.
+
+"What if I have been deluding myself!" he cried with sudden intensity.
+"Even if you and she could not love, she may have no such regard for me
+as I desire. I could not endure her pity."
+
+A warm, hopeful, generous smile illumined Jack Darcy's face. His hand
+thrilled with an electric force and sympathy.
+
+"I have no fear," he answered; "but I will not dim the grace of your
+exquisite joy by any prediction."
+
+They entered the quiet room. Dr. Maverick came out to meet them.
+
+"Miss Sylvie is asleep," he said. "Miss Barry is comparatively
+comfortable. Hester will stay with her through the night. I have sent
+your mother to bed," nodding to Jack. "I do not know what we should have
+done without her. I shall camp down on the sofa, to be within call; and
+to-morrow we had better begin the process of removal."
+
+"I had arranged to take my family," remarked Fred Lawrence, not exactly
+certain now that it was best.
+
+"Your house must be opened and aired thoroughly, before any one goes
+into it. So must Miss Barry's. Miss Morgan will see to this, I think. I
+am compelled to return in the early morning train, for I have some
+critical cases. One of you had better remain here."
+
+He looked at Jack as he said this, but was amazed at the frank answer,--
+
+"Fred will remain."
+
+He studied Jack with almost angry intentness. Had he been so mistaken in
+the man? Could he so calmly leave the woman he loved to bear her
+terrible trial alone, or did he think his mother's sympathy sufficient
+for her? And, although there were many admirable qualities in Fred
+Lawrence, the two had never fraternized with the deep cordiality that
+must underlie all friendships. They had not the magnetic attraction for
+each other that Darcy held for both.
+
+"What do you think of Miss Barry?" the latter asked hesitatingly.
+
+"It is the beginning of the end;" and Maverick sighed, as he thought of
+the impotence of human skill past a certain point. "Miss Barry consulted
+me a year ago, and was not in ignorance; but I hoped, nay, felt assured,
+with care and quiet her life might be prolonged. She may linger some
+months, and it may all be ended in a week. Good heavens! what a shock
+for Miss Sylvie!"
+
+He took two or three turns across the floor.
+
+"Go," he said abruptly, with an imperious wave of the hand. Then, a
+little scornfully, "You will both be better in bed. Lawrence looks as if
+I might have him for a patient to-morrow; but, Jack, are you made out of
+adamant?"
+
+The thrust hurt him, but Maverick was not in a pitying mood. Indeed,
+just at this moment his temper was savage. He had witnessed the pain
+and the suffering of the woman he had begun to love, until it had been
+hard to refrain from taking her in his strong arms, and sheltering her
+from the keenest pangs.
+
+The household remained the next morning as he had ordered. He was rather
+sulky all the way up in the train with Jack; but a talk with brisk,
+pungent Miss Morgan quite restored him.
+
+"Open the houses, and build fires immediately," he commanded. "Burn up
+and blow out the confined air, that there shall be no pestilential foes
+to greet them on their own hearths."
+
+He went down again that evening. If he had been annoyed before, he was
+puzzled now. There had been no word spoken between Fred and Sylvie; but
+the now, to her, sweet knowledge had come in a gesture, a glance, that
+could no more be described than the fine pulse of love can be dissected.
+She seemed to have waited breathless for just this strength and support.
+A hasty lover might have placed himself in the foreground. It was as if
+he said, "Here is my love, take it, use it, rely upon it; you cannot
+wear it out, you cannot wound or hurt it by any thing that may look like
+coldness; it is a blessed atmosphere to surround you until you stretch
+out your hand, and draw me into your very soul. I have been trained in
+patience and humility; only let me prove myself worthy in your eyes."
+
+Three days after, they all came up to Yerbury. The evening before, Irene
+Lawrence had gone to Sylvie's room, and found her kneeling by the open
+window, her face turned heavenward in a wordless prayer for strength.
+She knelt beside her, she took the passive hands in hers, she even
+touched her own cold lips to the colder forehead of the other.
+
+"Sylvie,"--the tone still had the awful dreariness of that utter inward
+living,--"Sylvie, I have been drawn to you in this your anguish by some
+power quite outside of myself. I think we have always liked each other
+in a curious way, but we were neither of us sentimental girls. I could
+not cry over you now, nor kiss you with effusive fondness; but I wish,
+oh, how passionately I wish, I could save you one pang! I wish I could
+die in _her_ place! My life is of so little value"--
+
+"I believe God is right," Sylvie answered with a great struggle. "She
+has used her life so well; she has garnered ripened sheaves of mercy and
+kindliness and good works. There is not only golden wheat, but the
+sweetness of rose and violet, the pungent purity and strength of
+heliotrope, the use, the beauty, every thing. She is ready."
+
+"And I am not worthy to be taken even for a ransom!" said the proud,
+cold voice, not betraying any inward hurt.
+
+"God does not mean that. You are to shape your life to something better.
+Irene, did you ever think how easy it might be to die for those we love,
+but oh, so hard to live for _them_, not ourselves!"
+
+Irene rose, and stood there like a statue. Sylvie felt for the hand,
+pressed it to her lips, folded it about her chin in a softly caressing
+manner. How had Irene become dear to her?
+
+"I am no heroine, Sylvie. I have been tossed up by the breakers of
+fortune, and am out of joint, broken, bruised, of no avail."
+
+"You can comfort _me_. You can help to give me strength and sympathy.
+You can become a warm, living, active woman. There is always room for
+such in the world, and a work for them to do. God never put an idle or
+useless thing in the world, much more a human soul; and it must go sadly
+astray before it comes to despair. Irene, you will not shut your heart
+again, you will turn its warm side to me, you will take me in, with my
+great sorrow;" and she buried her face in the other's dress, with a
+shivering sob.
+
+"I will do--what you wish. I am physically strong again. Let me help
+you--anywhere, anyhow. You were so good and patient through my dreary
+time."
+
+Then she stole softly away, astonished at herself. Within was still the
+coldness of Alpine glaciers. But oh, if she might be warmed!
+
+Miss Barry's journey was performed in an easy carriage. A paralysis of
+the lower limbs had supervened; but otherwise she had rallied a little,
+and her mind was clear and cheerful. There was only to be a peaceful
+waiting for the end, no feverish fluctuations of hope and fear. It was
+curious how they settled themselves to the fact. A nurse was installed
+for night watching and the more onerous part; and the invalid's room
+took on a pleasant aspect,--Christiana waiting on this side of the
+river.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+FOR the first time in his life, and for some unfathomable cause, Jack
+Darcy found business cares irksome. Balance-time was at hand. He was a
+little tired of the dreary round. The men's disaffection re-acted upon
+him. With his keen and intelligent faculty of making the best of every
+thing, he was disappointed because he had failed to inspire others with
+it.
+
+"It's not so bad, after all. We have nothing that can be passed to
+capital, but we have held our own. Only, there is no dividend for the
+men."
+
+"I'll explain that to them," exclaimed Winston with a confident nod.
+
+He did, and he had a rather stormy venture. All the old arguments and
+agreements had to be gone over. Men unaccustomed to business are quick
+in prosperity and stupid in adversity. They only had three-quarter
+wages: why should they be called upon to lose beside? It was little
+enough, and waiting five years,--and no one knew,--the whole thing might
+go to smash another year! A few wished, with an oath, that they were
+well out of it. They would never be bamboozled into any co-operative
+scheme again.
+
+The grumbling, grew louder and louder. It was discussed at Keppler's
+over beer and bad whiskey, and quite inflammatory speeches were made.
+Then Winston called the mill-hands together.
+
+"My men," said he, "you know we opened the mills in starvation-times.
+Every man who could raise fifty dollars was entitled to a half-share of
+the capital, and he who could not was to have a little capital made off
+of the savings of his labor. Last year you were all pleased and merry
+and satisfied, because we made something: this year it has been the
+reverse, though I declare to you, I, for one, have worked twice as hard.
+Now, we shall never do any thing if we are all going to row different
+ways. It must be the long pull, the strong pull, and the pull all
+together. You know that if any operative became dissatisfied, and left,
+his share was forfeited to the fund for the sick and disabled. Many of
+you _are_ dissatisfied; but maybe you won't leave, thinking of last
+year's money. Now, I want to say, every such man who would like to
+_sell_ his share, may do so. I have had some applications from new men,
+that I have been very sorry to refuse. I shall open a book, and any man
+who wants to go out may put down his name there, and, just as fast as
+the shares are resold, he can go; _but he never comes back into Hope
+Mills again_! Just think it over, and decide in the course of a few
+days."
+
+"O Winston!" cried Jack, "I am afraid there will be a stampede!"
+
+"You're nervous and blue, Darcy. Now, you see if this isn't the very
+best move. There were two men here the other day from Little Falls. They
+had been taking out half their wages in store-pay, and the concern burst
+up, owing them the other half. They knew of a dozen men, not beggarly
+poor either, who would be glad to come. I'll bet my old hat there don't
+six men go out. Come, now!"
+
+"You can't tempt me with your old hat," returned Jack laughingly. "Make
+it a treat at Kit Connelly's."
+
+"Agreed. We'll take in the household."
+
+A dozen names were put down on the first day, two on the second, then
+there was a lull. Afterward four were erased; and, when it came to the
+actual pinch, five men went out, two of them very reluctantly.
+
+"I felt so sorry for Davy," said Jack when they had made the transfers.
+"He didn't want to go, and I do not believe he would if it had not been
+for his brother-in-law."
+
+"A good lesson for all parties. There will not be any grumbling for some
+time to come, I'll warrant. It is rather irregular business; but
+sometimes you can't wait for a regular surgeon, or the patient would be
+past help."
+
+Events pointed the lesson pretty forcibly. By the middle of October
+there was a sudden rush of orders. Prices rallied a little. There were
+some tremendous bankruptcies, but it seemed more in speculation than
+legitimate industry. The new men brought a fresh infusion of spirit and
+energy. One of them, a small, middle-aged man, Gilman by name, who had
+once been manager and had a share in a mill that came to grief through a
+defaulting cashier who had successfully forged the name of the firm, was
+especially enthusiastic about the system. Jack admitted that the
+culmination of the discontent was the very best thing that had happened
+for the mill.
+
+Davy went almost wild over his mistake, cursed his brother-in-law
+roundly, and forbade his wife to visit her brother's household. Nothing
+to do, not even three-quarter wages to live upon, with cheap coal and
+cheap flour. He even waylaid Darcy, and begged to be taken back without
+any share.
+
+"I'm sorry, Davy, but it cannot be done. We resolved, whatever happened,
+we would not go back on our word. You had time enough to think it over."
+
+"Just you wait," said Price, when he heard this. "They've three years
+more to wade through, and they'll never hold together all that time. It
+has a very queer look, too, that, just as soon as they shoved us out,
+they began to make money again. Bob Winston's the sort of fellow to look
+out for himself, and he had this thing all cut and dried."
+
+"Look here," remarked a listener, "you signed your own selves out.
+Nobody made you. I haven't any faith in the scheme, but I like truth for
+all that."
+
+The men worked with a will. The monthly club meetings took on a new
+interest; and they decided, if the prosperity continued, to open a
+co-operative store another year. They were growing more thoughtful and
+intelligent, and Gilman's influence upon them was excellent, while his
+experiences widened their views. A little fresh blood certainly worked
+no harm.
+
+Jack was very cheery again. It seemed to him they had pulled through the
+worst. The larger outlook was better: goods were going abroad, and money
+or bonds were coming back. Here and there some new enterprise started,
+but still there were hundreds of men out of employment. Yerbury showed
+various signs of a new thriftiness. The farms about were better managed.
+Some idle men had ventured to hire a little ground the past summer, and
+raise sufficient to have something over for their trouble. The Webbers
+succeeded beautifully. Of course there were slurs about a Dutchman
+living on a cabbage a week, but every one knew the Webbers were not that
+kind. What Germans were able to do nicely and wisely, Americans might
+copy to their profit. When some of the natives were out of work, they
+patched up their fences, painted a bit, laid a bad place in the
+sidewalk, instead of hanging round a saloon.
+
+As for those who were living through the sad sweet lesson of loving and
+losing, time went on with them also. If they could have stayed his hand!
+Sylvie recovered from the first shock: she could never suffer quite so
+intensely again, for there was one to share her least thought, her most
+trivial to her greatest pain. The explanation had come about very
+gently, making only a small ripple. Mrs. Lawrence was delighted: she
+always had liked Sylvie, and she was certain that Fred was a better
+match than Jack Darcy, though she admitted he was remarkable for a
+young man with no better opportunities.
+
+Miss Barry was truly satisfied. She would cling to her little dream of
+"orders" and "kinds" to the last, but she always did it in an
+unobtrusive way. She had felt all her life long, rather all _their_
+lives, that they were made for one another. Less practically clear-eyed
+than her young niece,--brought up in the active reasoning and doing of
+to-day, rather than the doctrine of passive suffering that had been in
+the old creed for women,--she would have assented when Sylvie refused.
+To be sure, if Jack Darcy had won her he would have had a delicate and
+sincere welcome; but I think her eye would never have lighted with the
+true mother-love at his coming, as it did at Fred's. The worth of his
+years of refinement and polish came out now. He never seemed at loss or
+awkward in the sickroom. If he was reading, he warily noted the first
+droop of the eyes; he could tell by the lines in her face when talking
+wearied her, or when she preferred being alone. Every thing between them
+was harmonious.
+
+She amazed even Dr. Maverick by her improvement, though she held her
+life even yet on the same frail tenure. She really hoped to live until
+spring, when she should plan for Sylvie's marriage. Fred had made a very
+profitable engagement with the widow he had spoken of, and was to
+furnish designs for the interior of her house and furniture. There was
+to be one purely Grecian room, one on the old Roman model, a sunset room
+where every thing was to be in accord, and a "sea" room fit for Naiads
+or Undines. Sylvie was intensely interested. This Mrs. Spottiswoode was
+young and handsome, the widow of a man nearly three times her age, and
+childless.
+
+Fred Lawrence was proud to have something of his very own to offer
+Sylvie, and she took it as the highest of all compliments. She did like
+the profession, if that it could be called; for it brought them nearer
+together, it was something they could both share. She copied designs
+and art essays, she drew patterns, she painted now and then, days when
+Miss Barry was at her best. She would make of herself something that
+should enhance Fred's pride in her,--as if he was not proud enough
+already!
+
+The one least contented with all this was Philip Maverick.
+
+"I never was so thunderstruck in all my life! That's just the word to
+express it, for it left me dazed as the blackness does after the
+lightning. I would have sworn, Jack, that she loved you, and you loved
+her. Good heavens! if I had not believed that, if I had not been too
+honorable to seek to play a friend a scurvy trick, it would have gone
+hard with me if I had not won her for myself."
+
+"Honestly, you would not have succeeded, Maverick. Neither would she
+have married me. I think she belonged to Fred from the beginning. He
+used to hate girls, judging from his sisters, no doubt, but he always
+liked Sylvie. I was afraid of girls,--their sharp eyes and sharper
+tongues,--but I liked her too; yet in my own mind he always had the
+first claim. And they will be suited in the farthest fibre of each
+soul."
+
+"He is not half worthy of her!" growled Maverick.
+
+"Who is?" There was a peculiar tender intonation in the voice. "Sylvie
+Barry's womanhood is unique, like some rare gem. She has the sparkle but
+not the hardness of a diamond; the warmth and vividness of the ruby, but
+not its heats; the serenity of the sapphire, and yet to me that is
+always cold. Rather I think she is a changeful opal with all hues and
+tints and surprises."
+
+"And yet you have never loved her!" in intense surprise.
+
+"I worship her," said Jack reverentially. "I should as soon think of
+wooing an angel."
+
+"And yet this man, who is not as strong, or noble, or high in purpose,
+takes her with your consent. You can see her sit down at his feet, wind
+her own rich, pure, sustaining life-melody about him, to make his path
+seem like going through an enchanted land. She has genius, but it will
+ever linger in the shadow of his; it will help, and purify, and shape
+his; she will give her whole soul to the work. Is he worth the best
+there is in such a woman as Sylvie Barry?"
+
+"No; and we never go by our deserts when a woman loves us," said Jack,
+with frank honesty.
+
+"I am quite sure you will marry a woman I shall hate," returned Maverick
+testily.
+
+Jack laughed. "Marrying has not been much in my thoughts;" and yet his
+fair face flushed. "I have to fight Hope Mills out to the end first."
+
+But just now there did not seem much of a prospect for fighting, though
+he firmly believed he should always be on guard after this.
+
+There was one other person in this little circle, who was of much
+interest to the others, even if it was for the most part unspoken.
+Maverick had tried to rouse Irene Lawrence from her lethargy by appeals
+of different kinds. She certainly was not an intellectual woman, though
+she had a strong and well-cultivated mind, and was accomplished in many
+ways,--society accomplishments, with a view to the admiration they might
+win. He could seem to strike no electric spark, though he succeeded in
+restoring her to health. Every week of her stay at Depford Beach, she
+had improved; but there was the old, dreary, listless life. She used to
+think herself, if some shock like that of an earthquake could lift her
+completely out of it! but none came.
+
+For it could not be said that Miss Barry's illness was any shock to her.
+People were sick, and died, and their perplexity was at an end. A
+generous, kindly life like this of Miss Barry's would have its
+reward--if any life ever was rewarded. She did not doubt so much: she
+had never really believed.
+
+As she said to Sylvie, something stronger than herself had sent her that
+night,--one of those powerful, impelling influences that few can resist.
+And Sylvie was wise enough not to lose her hold. She drew her in very
+gently, she preached no sermon, she asked favors frankly.
+
+"I want you to take my pony-carriage," she said one day, after their
+return to Yerbury. "I ought to go out every day, and if you come with it
+I shall; but if I am left to my own fancies, there will be so much to
+occupy me. Then, too, companionship is always very tempting."
+
+"I should be glad to do any thing for you," was the quiet, unemotional
+reply.
+
+So the carriage was brought every morning to the door. It seemed so odd,
+the day she first drove around Yerbury! Unconsciously the old
+stateliness returned. Her heart swelled with contradictory phases of
+thought and feeling. She was too really proud to suffer from the stings
+of petty vanity. She knew there were people who stared at Miss Lawrence;
+and she allowed them to stare with the serenity of a queen, going her
+way unmoved.
+
+She and Sylvie went through lanes and by-ways this gorgeous October day.
+Her heart was strangely touched by the glory, by the odorous air, the
+softened sounds, and brooding tenderness. Sylvie had a few errands to
+some old parishioners of her aunt's; and, while she went in cottages,
+Irene sat with the reins idly in her hands. There was much in the world
+she had never seen, though she had climbed Alps, and wandered in sunny
+vales. The ripeness and perfection of this midday was exhilarating. They
+talked in little snatches, and then were silent.
+
+Coming back they drove through the town: it was nearer. Crossing over to
+Larch Avenue, a tall figure confronted them. Sylvie bowed, and looked
+straight on, remembering such a rencounter years agone. Irene Lawrence
+turned her head with its proudest poise, but her face flushed scarlet
+under her veil. She would have made the _amende honorable_ then, if it
+had taken all the strength of her soul.
+
+She and Jack Darcy had met occasionally through the summer. Mrs.
+Lawrence rather liked to talk mill affairs with him, and his name was
+quite a familiar one in their household. Now that it had come, she was
+rather glad to offer this wordless apology for a crime against
+good-breeding, that only a rude young girl could be guilty of, to one
+she considered her inferior.
+
+She had wondered more than once, why that long-ago evening at Sylvie's
+should haunt her,--the talk of costumes, the bright chat, the dainty
+ripples of laughter, and that face with its cool, steady power. If it
+had been that of any other man, she would have pitted herself against
+it, and conquered, she fancied. Now conquests were things of the past.
+She was not one of your soft, maudlin women, who sigh for a little love.
+She looked straight into the coming years, and saw herself always alone,
+with no feeling of pity or regret.
+
+As for Jack Darcy, when they had passed, he turned and looked after
+them,--after _her_, in her state and dignity. He held one secret of her
+life that she would never know. He had questioned Maverick, who learned
+that she had no remembrance of going out that night. He had bound Fred
+over to a most willing secrecy.
+
+Ah, Jack! any remembrance that you can carry so guardedly in your soul
+is a dangerous thing,--a spark that may kindle a great fire "that many
+waters cannot quench!"
+
+Sylvie did not relinquish her own outside interests. The school that had
+had so small a beginning was now merged into a regular enterprise, and
+been re-christened an Industrial School. It had a permanent teacher, and
+occupied the whole house, the rent being paid by some benevolent
+gentlemen. A committee of ladies assisted in the different classes. The
+store was kept open, one side being reserved for articles of clothing
+or fancy goods made by the pupils, the other as a bakery on a limited
+scale, and a lunch-counter. It certainly was doing a good work. Some
+young girls, after being trained, had been provided with service places,
+and had given excellent satisfaction. Irene went through it one day with
+Sylvie, and was oddly interested.
+
+"I wish I had a genius of some kind," she said abruptly to Sylvie
+afterward. "If I could write a book, or paint a picture, or design
+exquisite adornments, or if I could hold the world spell-bound by my
+voice"--
+
+"You do sing," returned Sylvie. "Auntie was speaking of it yesterday.
+She said, 'How I should like to hear Miss Lawrence sing some of her
+pathetic old ballads!'"
+
+"You know all the sweet and tender ones."
+
+"I sing mine over daily," and Sylvie laughed with a dainty inflection.
+
+Irene went home, and opened her piano. It might have made jarring
+discord, but for Fred's thoughtfulness. She found it was in perfect
+tune.
+
+Was it the music that brought a curious intensity to her after all these
+long, dreary months? Her fingers seemed a little stiff at first, and
+some things had gone out of her mind. Then she dropped her face into her
+hands, and thought.
+
+"It is my only gift," she said slowly. "When they are married I will not
+be a burthen on them: I can make my way. I shall never try to think of
+marriage again;" and she shuddered.
+
+"I declare, you are quite like yourself," said her mother that evening.
+
+The weeks went on. Miss Barry was making plans for her niece. She could
+not live here alone, even for a few months. And she longed to see her
+married. Though the others had almost forgotten how surely her days were
+numbered, she had not.
+
+Fred assented delicately to her proposal.
+
+"It is not as if there were only your income," she said with a touch of
+pride. "Sylvie will have enough to keep the old house as it is kept now,
+and your mother and sister have some claims on you. Still, for her
+sake"--
+
+Sylvie would fain have put it off, but she was gently overruled. The
+wedding-garments were ordered, the day appointed. A quiet marriage in
+the pretty parlor, with only a few friends. They brought Miss Barry down
+stairs, and she listened while her darling reverently repeated her vows.
+They kissed the new bride while the tears were shining in her eyes, and
+sent her on a brief wedding-journey with heartfelt blessings. Maverick
+was to telegraph to them every day.
+
+Fred Lawrence could hardly believe his happiness. They were like two
+children out on a pleasure-excursion, not needing to realize the gravity
+of life in these golden days. What cared they for pale winter suns and
+shivering blasts!
+
+Long ago he had planned a brilliant tour to Europe for her. He had gone
+over it all, and would only have been bored; but it was the thing to do,
+and he might enjoy her fresh delight in it. But to both of them--to him
+especially--had come the higher revelations of life. It is the
+aggregation of individual characteristics that makes the sum-total of
+national character; and though at first retrenchment and economy seemed
+hideous words to the pleasure-loving, easy-going, self-indulgent souls
+nursed in the lap of prosperity, there was coming a realization to those
+who had fought their way valiantly across the yawning gulf, that the hot
+race for show, the desire to exceed one another, was not a lofty aim for
+an immortal soul, hardly for a cultured nature.
+
+They both understood that beauty and grandeur were not far-off, hardly
+attained ideals, and that the great pleasures were set in the world
+rather as incentives and rewards, than highly seasoned daily food which
+must inevitably produce satiety. Some time, when they had earned this
+glorious vacation, they would take it hungering with the healthy
+appetite of a well-trained soul. At present the duty was to deny one's
+self firmly and contentedly, to round off the sharp corners, to shape
+the daily living to high, pure purposes; so that the greater excellences
+of Art should not despise the minor forms, the steps whereby true
+perfection was attained, the tangled threads that often required more
+real genius to comprehend than the one great moment of inspiration.
+
+They came home again fresh and bright, with the peculiar fragrance of a
+new life about them, just as you shall smell spring in the woods on some
+mild, sunny February day. Fred fluctuated between office and city, quite
+a prophet of household art, welcomed warmly back to the old circles
+which had so quietly dropped him for a while. Is there not a great deal
+of this unconscious proving of the fine metal of souls in the world? We
+cry out as we are thrust aside, or given some hard task to do; we wonder
+people do not hold out kindly hands, smile with sympathetic eyes; and
+yet their very help might weaken us. When we have beaten our way across
+with the roar of the distant waves still in our ears, the shadows of the
+black, fierce, jagged cliff hardly faded, the taste of the brackish
+spray still lingering on our lips, an exultant thrill speeds through
+every nerve as we clasp a hand that has had to buffet through the same
+fateful current.
+
+Early in April Miss Barry had another seizure, a fatal stroke this time.
+For a few days she lay in sweet content; and then dropped peacefully out
+of existence.
+
+It seems always a mystery, why such earnest, useful souls, doing that
+highest of all work,--a pure, unselfish charity,--should be taken away,
+and the slothful, dependent, ease-loving, selfish ones left. The Darcys
+felt that Mrs. Lawrence could have been spared much more easily, and
+served a higher economy in point of usefulness. But God, who sees every
+end from the beginning, and is all-wise, judges differently. Miss Barry
+had done her work, no light life-task either. Only God knew what it had
+been, days of toil and nights of watching and prayer, such pain as only
+a strong soul could have kept to itself, and smiled over. Yet she had
+her exceeding sweet reward in this world,--years of peace and comfort,
+the child-love she had missed in one way, supplied in another, the hope
+of her days crowned more wisely by the waiting.
+
+They did not think it worth while to keep up the two households; indeed,
+Mrs. Lawrence would not have been separated from her son: so she and
+Irene brought their worldly possessions over to Larch Avenue. The old
+house was large enough. Sylvie was a courteous and charming mistress;
+though Fred realized, with the sensitiveness of true tender love, the
+burthen he had brought to her.
+
+"It is not without its wise compensation," she said, tears in her sunny
+brown eyes. "You see, I shall miss auntie so much less! She would not
+desire me to grieve despairingly for her, and here is the new claim to
+take her place. Beside," with a sad yet arch smile, "we shall have to
+strive against the temptation to selfishness that besets newly married
+people, when their pursuits are identical, as ours are. It will give a
+greater breadth, a purer tone, to our lives."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+HOPE MILLS passed through a very prosperous six months. With some new
+processes, invented by the combined energy and ingenuity of the men,
+they made a new line of goods which was a perfect success. Interest and
+discount vanished; and there was a snug balance in the bank, of which
+every man was duly proud. They were beginning, too, to take a great
+interest in the finances of the country, and to see that a stable
+currency and wise economy and honesty were the best friends to
+commercial and industrial prosperity. One little incident made them
+exceedingly jubilant.
+
+They had been undersold, in the same line of goods, with quite a large
+customer. Winston was rather blue about it at first, then laughed it off
+as one of the fluctuations of trade. To his great surprise, six months
+after, he received the largest order for goods that had yet been sent.
+
+          "We have been much deceived in the quality of
+          cloths from Yates, Collins, & Co.," ran the note.
+          "They do not stand wear, though they resemble
+          yours so closely. Our customers have made numerous
+          complaints, and desire the old stock, which we are
+          glad to order again.
+
+                                   "MILES, CHAMBERS, & CO."
+
+This was put up on the bulletin-board, and discussed with much pride at
+the club. Every man had an interest in it, and an ambition to excel in
+his particular branch. It paid in the long-run to be honest; and, though
+there might be a higher principle than remuneration, that was not a bad
+test, after all.
+
+So the third summer opened brilliantly. Yardley, Gilman, and four others
+drew up an agreement for a co-operative store. They hired one man who
+had been a very successful buyer for a large grocery-firm, which had
+failed, and took with it his small invested capital. He was to keep the
+books, take orders, and do the buying, subject to the advisement of the
+managers. A certain low per cent of profits was agreed upon, just
+enough, they calculated, to pay expenses; and the goods were to be
+offered as low as possible for cash. The superior quality and reduced
+price, they decided, would be more agreeable to most of the men than a
+small balance at the end of the year. An account was to be kept with
+every member, and the agreement to remain in force one year from date.
+
+And yet there are shoals and quicksands for prosperity, as well as
+yawning abysses for adversity. There were people in Yerbury--not bad
+souls either--who were not content to allow the world to revolve on any
+axis but their own. They could see their neighbors' planets go to
+destruction with equanimity--following some law of nature or ethics that
+regulated supply and demand of any force, in their estimation; but when
+some bright particular star flashed out of the orbit they had set for
+it, of course it was beyond the pale of safety. There has always been a
+great deal of just such obstinacy in the world, just such narrow
+prescribing, and yet--"it does move."
+
+One of the favorite objections of these wiseacres was, that Hope Mills
+was founded on a wrong basis. Who knew _just exactly_ what amount of
+goods Winston sold? Well, there was the amount manufactured,--the amount
+on hand every six months. True,--with a disbelieving shake of the
+head,--but he was up in the ways of the world; and what would hinder
+him, Ananias-like, from keeping back part of the price? When this was
+shown to be an utter impossibility, they still were quite sure Winston
+harbored in his secret soul some plan for cheating the workmen at the
+last. Here would be all this accumulation of capital, and by some
+successful _coup-d'état_ Winston and Darcy would swoop down upon it, and
+take the lion's share. They were very much afraid that the workmen were
+going to be wronged in some underhand way. A defaulting cashier,
+unprincipled managers, thieves and forgers, committed their crimes in an
+out-and-out way; but there was going to be a profound mystery about
+this--the most simple and above-board management, when every man knew,
+every six months, the best and the worst of the details.
+
+Employment was becoming more general all through the country. Everybody
+drew a long breath, and decided that the grinding times of depression
+had passed. We would soon be back to the brilliant era of past
+prosperity.
+
+And then there arose a new light in the labor horizon, a prophet who had
+discovered the magic key to the workingmen's paradise, and it had only
+to be turned by themselves, to gain entrance. Wherever he went, he was
+hailed with acclamation.
+
+It was the old, old war upon capital, the old seductive science of
+equalizing things, values, money. Every poor man in the country had a
+better right to a cottage and garden and a few hours of leisure, than
+these few magnates to grasp every thing in their own hands, to roll in
+luxury, to feast in magnificence, to clothe their daughters in silks,
+velvets, and diamonds--it was to be noted that Mr. McPherson wore an
+immense diamond, but it was to be presumed that his wife or daughter did
+_not_. Everywhere one could see the rich growing richer, the poor
+poorer, the workman trodden down, brought to the level of slavery with
+his long hours and scanty wages. Where was it to end but in a nation of
+paupers, of thieves, of criminals of every grade? for, when you made a
+brute of a man, there came a time when he turned a brute's hand against
+you. This had been the underlying cause of all the world's great
+struggles: it had uncrowned kings, it had razed thrones, it had swept
+states. There were bits of distorted historical facts, fallacious but
+brilliant reasoning, and much bombast.
+
+They heard of him in this city and that, and there was a great deal said
+about the cordiality with which he greeted "the horny-handed son of
+toil." No town was so small that he disdained it, no city so great that
+he feared it. There had been "demonstrations," but he seemed proud of
+his defiance of danger.
+
+Men who could not altogether approve of him admitted that he was
+"smart," that he uttered a good many truths, half-truths they were,
+dressed up in specious falsehoods, all the more dangerous, since the
+world does pay homage to virtue and truth. They were troublesome
+questions: the great difficulty was the haste made in settling them. A
+balance will finally adjust itself, though there may be many vibrations
+at first.
+
+It was a fact much to be regretted, that with returning prosperity the
+gin-mills and beer-shops of Yerbury had, as a general thing, increased
+in their business. A notable instance to the contrary, however, was
+Keppler's saloon. It had depended a good deal on the men from Hope Mills
+and the iron-works. The latter had been closed so long; and, although
+the coffee-house did not seem much of a rival at first, it had gone on
+steadily, and given the men time to think. It was not simply the one
+glass of beer they took to wash down their midday lunch, but the
+treating when a crowd gathered, the many drinks during a heated
+discussion of an evening. Not half a dozen of the mill-hands went there
+now, so occupied had their minds become with other matters. Keppler's
+lease was not out, and his rent was high for the times; he had lost
+money and customers, and felt sore over it; he had a grudge against
+Jack Darcy as the exponent of a system that interfered with his profits.
+
+McPherson was discussed over pipes and ale one warm June evening, with
+brains cleared, of course, by frequent potations and stifling smoke. It
+was proposed that he should be invited to lecture at Yerbury.
+
+"I like to see fair play!" cried Keppler. "These fellows over
+here"--nodding toward the mill--"have had it all their own way because
+they took up a lot of starving men in dull times. That was all well
+enough,--praise-worthy--praise-w-o-r-thy," with a long accent. "But
+things have changed now,--changed!" with a confident nod. "I'd like to
+hear what the man has to say. You see, he has come up from the ranks, he
+has been poor himself!"
+
+So the ball was put in motion. McPherson's speech at Millville, a great
+laboring-centre, was read aloud with frequent cheering. And the
+laboring-men at Yerbury began to wonder why wages were not higher, when
+so many shops were running on full time! Somebody was making a great
+deal of money: _they_ could barely live. Bread and meat had not fallen
+in the ratio of wages. It was still next door to starvation.
+
+Finally some self-constituted labor-committee sent the letter of
+invitation, and received a cordial and flattering reply. Mr. McPherson
+had heard of Yerbury. He would be only too glad to come among them in
+his humble capacity, and shed what light he could upon the side of right
+and truth; raise his voice for the oppressed against the oppressor. And
+he mentioned that open-air meetings were generally more successful.
+
+They put up a platform on the Common, the largest park in Yerbury. The
+day was very fine, not too hot, and a shower the evening before had laid
+the dust. At precisely four, a deputation awaited Mr. McPherson and his
+party at the station, escorted them to the Bedell House to refresh, and
+then to the grand hall of nature, with its waving arches of glistening
+green overhead.
+
+Already a great concourse had assembled. Mr. McPherson mounted his
+rostrum, and, after a few preliminary flourishes, began in a clear,
+strong tone, that had the power of concentrating the attention of his
+audience. He went back centuries, and proved that from the very
+beginning of all industries there had been the desire to oppress, that
+the working-classes had to combine and fight for every advantage gained,
+to wrest from kings, peers, masters, even equals, the privileges they
+held to-day. Plainly, capital was a tyrant fattening on unpaid toil.
+"Were not the rich always in the ranks of capital, always against the
+poor man? They squeezed him to the utmost when they had need, then they
+flung him away. Did it matter to them if his wife and children starved?
+If he stole a loaf of bread to appease the pangs of hunger, he was sent
+to prison; but if a bank president stole half a million, he went
+to--Europe! [Laughter and applause.] Does the capitalist employ the
+laborer in order that there shall be fewer starving men in the country?
+It comes in the market, and buys at the lowest price, solely for its own
+benefit. It does not concern capital, whether this man can support wife
+and children on such a pittance: what business has he with wife and
+children! If the man drops at the work-bench, the victim of long hours,
+exhaustive toil, insufficient food, the town will thrust him into a
+pauper's grave, and another will fill his place. Even negro-slavery was
+more noble than this: it was to the master's interest that the slave
+should be well fed. Capital was shrewd, selfish, experienced, astute,
+strong: labor was kept in ignorance lest it might learn its worth, its
+rights; it was half-starved that it might be weak; it was driven from
+pillar to post with a more cruel than slave-driver's whip, that it might
+never be able to perfect a successful organization."
+
+And so on and on. The crowd increased. The six-o'clock bells rang, and
+the procession from shops wended their way thither, many from curiosity,
+some from a hope of a new truth, and not a few filled with a secret
+sense of wrong and dissatisfaction. Mr. McPherson was still belaboring
+capital. Now he had declared it "a stupendous fraud, a hollow bubble, a
+reputation for wealth where no wealth existed, a fictitious claim for
+what was not, but which still managed to hold the workman in its iron
+grasp; the concentrated labor of the men, not the lawful working
+interest of money. Some way this system of evil was going to be uprooted
+by men standing firm, refusing the wages of sweat and blood; and in the
+general overturn by legislation of state and country, every man was to
+have a farm or a factory, to quit work in the middle of the afternoon,
+and sit with folded hands on his own door-step, his own master, a free
+man!" [Great shouting and applause.]
+
+He talked until seven, and wound up at last with a desperate but covert
+onslaught on Hope Mills. "No two men or six men, or company of any kind,
+had a right to band together to starve not only the men in their own
+town, but the laborers throughout the world, by so reducing wages for
+their own sole benefit; and every workman who submitted to have these
+chains forged around body and soul, no matter by what specious
+expedient, was a worse traitor, a more cruel oppressor of wife and
+children, than the red-handed capital that stood ready to make him a
+slave!"
+
+There was an immense deal of cheering and applause. Mr. McPherson was
+invited to supper at the Bedell House by a deputation of working-men,
+though I think there were few horny-handed ones among them. Liquors
+flowed freely, and the feast was rather noisy. A purse was handed to him
+when he went away--he was too noble to make any charge when he spoke in
+behalf of a cause so near his heart.
+
+The seed was sown, and it is too true that "foul weeds grow apace."
+There were club-meetings and union-meetings. The shoe-factory, which had
+struggled hard to get on its legs again, soon became a hotbed of
+discontent. The hatters held meetings, the paper-makers were aroused,
+and then began preparation for another grand strike. The weavers from
+Coldbridge and Stilford sent over a deputation to Hope Mills, warning,
+exhorting, and threatening. "No system," said they, "should interfere
+with mutual strength and protection."
+
+And this was not all. It seemed as if Yerbury meant to make them the
+scape-goat of every thing. Robert Winston was broadly caricatured; and
+there was a bit of insulting abuse, calling them traders in their
+brethren's blood, pasted up on the gate-post. "The Evening Transcript"
+went over the system of co-operation, and showed to its own
+satisfaction, that it was a system full of errors and miscalculations
+based on the credulity of workmen. It hinted that the same mysterious
+cause which reduced profits last year would reduce them again next year,
+that at the end of the five years the bread and cheese would come out
+just even, although there had been a great deal more bread than cheese,
+as everybody knew. If the corporation were working for the best
+interests of the men, why had they not sold off stock when every one
+knew prices were going permanently down, instead of waiting to sell it
+below cost? Why had they paid exorbitant prices for wool when the market
+was flooded with it? Why had they not done this or that? until one
+wondered why, understanding the woollen-business so well, and being able
+to see just where enormous profits could be made, and losses avoided,
+they had not all gone into it themselves. The article wound up with a
+covert and insulting insinuation. Human nature was the same, the world
+over. Men of the highest probity and honor had succumbed to temptation:
+these men who had never really been in any responsible position had yet
+to be proved. If men like David Lawrence and Horace Eastman could not
+make a stand against fluctuations and difficulties, it was hardly likely
+success would crown any such abnormal undertaking.
+
+Jack did not see the paper until the next day. Some one laid it
+surreptitiously on his desk. His face flushed darkly at the attack upon
+his honesty, and for a moment all the belligerency of his boyhood rose
+to the surface. He had half a mind to hunt up the writer of the article,
+and pound him to a jelly with his two fists. But presently he laughed to
+himself, and then made a tour of the mills in his cheeriest fashion. He
+saw with grief that the seed had found root. There were some sullen
+faces and short answers.
+
+It certainly is a hard thing to keep on fighting an old foe that can
+only be beaten, never killed.
+
+Jack stumbled over Cameron in the store-room.
+
+"Cameron," said he with a white, rigid face, "I wish to God this was the
+last day of the five years! I should walk out of Hope Mills, and never
+set foot in it again, no, not even if they implored me on their knees. A
+thankless, miserable set! The lying article in last night's paper made
+me mad for a moment, but could not sting: yet the faces of my own men
+did as I came through the rooms."
+
+"You've had a hard pull, Jack!" Cameron's voice was fatherly and
+soothing. "You might have put your money and your brains in something
+that would have proved much pleasanter. But the man who takes up the
+first end of a truth always gets hard knocks: it is the people who come
+after who find a smooth path. Don't you remember," drawing his wrinkled
+face into a queer smile, "the shrewd application your New York lady made
+about the children of Israel? Jack, if the salvation scheme of the Bible
+was all proved false,--which it never will be, to my mind,--there's so
+much wisdom in it beside, that a chap could take it just for a sort of
+guidebook in every-day matters, all the same. And now we're going to
+have a big fight."
+
+"You think that?" cried Jack, in vague alarm. "I wish Winston was here.
+He can always talk so to the point!"
+
+"Well, he isn't: we've got to go through it ourselves. But this settles
+it! You see, there's been Price, and Pickett, and Davy, to stir up
+strife and bad feeling, and all this outside influence; but my old
+woman's praying us through, and I set a good deal of store by her
+prayers, Jack! If these ruffians go on, Yerbury'll be half ruined again,
+but it is their own fault. I'm not much on capital punishment, but I
+would go to the hanging of that McPherson. If he'd staid away, we should
+have done well enough."
+
+Jack drew a long, troubled breath.
+
+"I'd let every man go out who wanted to, but I wouldn't pay-him a red
+cent, there!"
+
+That evening Jack went down to Larch Avenue. He found Fred and Sylvie up
+in arms. Indignation was a mild term.
+
+It was a magnificent night, with a nearly full moon. The light flooded
+the wide lawn path, and made shadows of elves and gnomes on the porch,
+as the wind wandered in and out the great honeysuckle, whose ripe, rich
+perfume was shaken about with every waft. Within, an Argand lamp, and
+porcelain shade with a minute painting of Puck and his fairy host, sent
+a softened radiance on the old, rich-hued carpet, and antique furniture.
+It was but little changed, yet wore an indescribably antique look.
+
+Over at an open window sat Irene Lawrence, dressed in white, with a
+single deep-red velvety rose at her throat, which Sylvie had pinned
+there. Her hair had grown rapidly, and, though it did not quite curl,
+the ends tumbled about loosely, framing in the face with their dusky
+purplish tint. It was very clear now, and a little pale; the old
+brilliant coloring had not all returned; the passionless grace, the deep
+eyes with their steady lights, the mouth suggesting mobility and warmth
+and passion, rather than defining it, the droop of the white lids, the
+unruffled brow, and the pose of the bowed head and slightly-yielding
+throat, made a marvellous picture.
+
+The three were talking earnestly, as people do in the great crises of
+life; Sylvie wondrously piquant, with some thin, black, trailing stuff
+making shifting billows about her restless feet. She questioned Jack
+eagerly, she denounced the attack as cruel and cowardly. What did he
+mean to do? What should Fred do for him?
+
+"There is nothing to do, but just wait for the result. The
+dragon's-teeth have been sown. The only comfort I have is, that you
+never can put a lie on the face of truth, and nail it there. No amount
+of arguing or talk can make a thing so when it is _not_ so. Higher than
+this little human round, God garners every truth in his keeping, and
+will make it tell somewhere!"
+
+Miss Lawrence raised her eyes, and glanced over to him. Had the slow
+impassiveness of her soul been touched, that this sudden peculiar grace
+of sympathy, or some hidden kindred feeling, rose and asserted itself?
+And yet she might have been in some magnetic sleep, for all actual
+movement of her features; it was the dawn of an expression that seemed
+to transport him to some strange world, where he had known her long
+ago,--where he had watched for her coming, listened to her
+voice,--rather than any present interest or meaning.
+
+He rose abruptly.
+
+"You are not going!" cried Sylvie, in her pretty wifely imperiousness.
+
+"I"--for a moment he had the sensation of a man drowning. The surging
+waves were about him, throbbing, leaping, strangling him. There was a
+ringing in his ears, there was a long shuddering sensation, like being
+overwhelmed.
+
+"It is very warm," he went on in a faint, strained voice, wiping the
+beaded drops from his broad brow.
+
+"Come over here," pleaded Sylvie: "you will be cooler. The wind is
+south, and doesn't blow in those windows. You are sure you feel quite
+well?" scanning him anxiously. "You look pale."
+
+"It was only momentary." He wondered now what had so moved him. "I am
+like good old John Bunyan's Pilgrim,"--laughing faintly,--"'tumbled up
+and down' with these excitements. I wish they were at an end. We were
+going on so nicely when that McPherson came! Don't let us think any more
+about it," throwing up his head with a nervous shake. "Sylvie, I wish
+you would sing something."
+
+"With pleasure. Fred and I have been practising duets. When Yerbury is
+laid in ashes we can go off as strolling minstrels;" and she laughed
+gayly, as she went to the piano. That exquisite tact in changing a mood
+or scene was a familiar characteristic of Sylvie Barry.
+
+As the sound of their blending voices floated out on the summer night
+air, there leaped up in Darcy's soul a subtle, forceful, vivifying
+flame, touching to a white heat the farthest pulse of his being.
+Resistance appeared impossible: he did not even dream what manner of
+influence this might be. Long afterward--it seemed ages to him--as their
+heads were bent together over the pages of the music, he raised his
+eyes, and let them wander slowly toward Irene Lawrence.
+
+Was there something quite new in the face,--a sort of strange,
+wondering, troubled expression, as if some unseen, almost unknown, depth
+had been stirred?
+
+He did not need to ask the question now. Wild as it was, he loved that
+statue over yonder, and it seemed to him that his passion in its
+enduring vitality must awaken her soul to kindred life! An exultant
+strength and determination rose within him. What might have abashed
+another man, filled him with a deathless courage, as high as it was
+pure.
+
+He thanked Sylvie and Fred for the song, but resisted their entreaties
+to remain. When he said good-night, he went over to Miss Lawrence, and
+took her hand. It was cold and passive, and her eyes fell beneath his.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+THE excitement ran very high not only in Yerbury, but all over the
+country. Strikes seemed the order of the day again, and for what reason,
+was not clearly made manifest, unless labor felt that it had capital a
+little by the throat, in that its services were again somewhat in
+demand. "Now," said the prophets. Surely, if they did not strike when
+there was employment, they could not when there was none.
+
+It began in the shoe-shop. The next Monday morning the men made their
+demand in no gentle terms, and were refused. There was a large contract
+at stake, however, and by Tuesday night the matter was talked over in a
+better spirit. The employers were willing to accede to one-half of the
+demand, otherwise the order must be sent to another firm. Thursday
+morning they went to work with a rather ill grace, yet some elation.
+Then the hatters took their turn. The hands at Hope Mills were served
+with a notice that the mutual protectionists in all the towns around
+were to be out on the following Monday; and stirring appeals were made
+to those who had any feeling of honor in the cause.
+
+It was exceedingly hard on the men. They gathered around in little knots
+on Sunday, wild with conflicting emotions. Their faith in Hope Mills and
+co-operation was undergoing a severe strain. The fear of secret frauds,
+of underhand dealing, of distrust in Winston and Darcy, had been dinned
+in their ears by outside influence, some of it very potent. Not one
+appeal had been made by the managers: Cameron and the others decided it
+was best.
+
+Jack went over to the mill on Monday morning. The gatekeeper and the
+bell-boy were there. The engineer came in with a quiet, solemn
+"Good-morning." The Brotherhood of Engineers had warned him too, and he
+was a little troubled; but he had cast in his lot with the rest, and it
+might be as well to wait and see what they did. The main shaft was
+turned.
+
+Jack from his office-window watched the streets filling up with men and
+women, many beside the regular operatives. They came to a halt.
+
+"Ding-dong! ding-dong!" the bell rang out cheerily on the summer morning
+air. "Come to work, come to work! The birds build homes, and rear their
+young; the bee skims the fragrant air in search of flowers; the rivers
+run to the sea, turning wheels, driving ships: nothing in the great
+economy of nature is idle," sang out the clang of the bell.
+
+The hands glanced at one another in doubt and dismay, and there was an
+awful silence for a few seconds.
+
+Some one elbowed his way through the crowd. He had come from the bedside
+of his sick child, who might be dying even now,--a small, wiry,
+middle-aged man, with a set, resolute face. He glanced about, then he
+sprang up on a pile of packing-boxes. It was Jesse Gilman.
+
+"My fellow-workmen," he began, "I don't know how you all feel about this
+matter; but Hope Mills took me in when I had tramped the country half
+over, and found nothing to do. I've tried the old system, and this can't
+be any worse; and, if I have to lose money by an employer, I'd rather it
+would be John Darcy of Yerbury, than any man I know. No man on the face
+of the earth has a right to say I shall not work in Hope Mills when I
+made my own bargain long ago to do it. That is all I have to say. I am
+going to work."
+
+"Three cheers!" cried some one as Gilman jumped down.
+
+There were cheers and groans.
+
+Ben Hay followed him, and stood a moment in the gateway.
+
+"Boys," said he in his rich, ringing voice, "Hope Mills was opened to
+receive a crowd of starving men. I'll take my oath to Jack Darcy's
+honesty. He's stuck by us, and we'll stick to him. That's the beauty of
+co-operation. You can't get away, and tramp off with the first fool that
+asks you! It isn't merely keeping company: it's a good, honest,
+up-and-down marriage. I'd as soon think of leaving my wife because some
+day she didn't give me two dinners instead of one!"
+
+There was a shout of laughter. The ice was broken in good earnest.
+"Three cheers for Ben Hay! Three cheers and a tiger for Jack Darcy!" and
+amid all this hubbub the men and women, the boys and girls, rushed in
+pell-mell. A gladder crew one never saw. To decide when others doubt, to
+go forward boldly when others hesitate, to stand up for the principle of
+right when others have traduced and blackened it, to take the first
+step, is to be as heroic as the "six hundred" of deathless fame.
+
+They went to work with a will, though some were a little sore and
+doubtful, but they were carried on by the enthusiasm of the others. The
+street below was still blocked up, and there were yells and groans.
+Presently there came a shower of superannuated eggs. Two landed in
+Darcy's office-window. After that, a stampede of the riotous crew.
+
+Darcy sent Andrew, the bell-boy, to the police-station, and two men were
+detailed. The workmen were allowed to go home peaceably, except a little
+jeering at Keppler's. They heard then the trains had been stopped on the
+two roads leading out of Yerbury. The whole world seemed to be going
+crazy.
+
+Darcy and Cameron remained in the mill that night until almost ten: then
+the latter went home, and Darcy thought he would go for Ben Hay. The
+streets of Yerbury had presented a very peculiar aspect that evening,
+something like a beleaguered town. Groups of men and boys collected on
+the corners, or wended their way through the streets with low, ominous
+mutterings. People barred their doors and locked their windows, though
+it was a hot summer night. Some women were abroad: but they were of the
+rougher sort, and now and then their shrill voices rose on the air in
+derision or vituperation. Still there were no overt acts of violence,
+and at ten everybody began to breathe more freely.
+
+The coffee-house had been shut up that evening: it was deemed advisable.
+Darcy went round to the side-door, and was admitted. Hay and three other
+workmen were within. They had been figuring up possible and probable
+profits by the end of the five years, and looked very well satisfied.
+
+"There's a sort of hope and expectation about it," said one of the men,
+"that kind of stirs and warms a body. And when you come to count lost
+time, and fluctuation in wages, it makes a pretty even thing, after all!
+In '73 I worked in a shoddy-mill that _had_ been making money hand over
+fist,--eleven hours a day,--not a man of us made more than five dollars
+a week. Some poor fellows with families earned only three. You've never
+been as hard up as that! God only knows how they lived: it's beyond my
+guessing!"
+
+"And if that was co-operation, how the system would be blamed!"
+exclaimed Ben Hay. "I declare, it makes me madder than a hen in a
+fence--I've caught that of Cameron," laughingly,--"to hear the things
+people have said about us. They're forever blathering about fair play--I
+wish they'd give a little, as well as take all. Wait till we've come to
+the end, say I, before they tell what we can do, or what we can't or
+sha'n't or won't!"
+
+There was a tramp in the street. The startled eyes studied one another.
+Then a shuffling and muttering, and a knock at the door.
+
+No one stirred but Mrs. Connelly, who threw up her hands, and cried,
+"The saints protect us!"
+
+"Earthly saints, Mother Connelly,--this kind," said Ben Hay with gay
+re-assurance, doubling his fist, and baring his brawny arm.
+
+The pounding increased. Rose ran down stairs wild with affright,
+followed by her sister. The boys fortunately were asleep in the back
+chambers.
+
+"Let us in, Mother Connelly: we want some bread and butter!" shouted a
+voice.
+
+"Cakes and yale!"
+
+"Pretzel and zwei lager!"
+
+"A sup of the craythur!"
+
+"A dhrop of whiskey to warrum us this could night! Av yees the heart av
+a sthone, Kit Connelly?"
+
+A roar of laughter succeeded this.
+
+"Go away, it will be better for you," declared Ben Hay.
+
+"Come out here, Hay, and fight like a man! Don't skulk behind a woman's
+petticoats!"
+
+There was a terrific onslaught at the door. It creaked and groaned, and
+was succeeded by a volley of oaths and imprecations. Rose began to cry,
+and the youngest girl came screaming down the stairs.
+
+Darcy had sent a man out of the back way for policemen. Hay and the two
+other men mounted guard. Again the door shivered and creaked: then it
+flew open, bolts, locks, and hinges having given way in a mass of
+splinters.
+
+Like a flash the men were on their assailants. The mob had not expected
+this. Right and left valorous blows were dealt, and two or three burly
+fellows were laid low. Some nearer sober, and more cowardly, took to
+their heels. Two men fought like tigers; and once Ben Hay came near
+getting the worst; but, by the time the dilatory guards of peace
+arrived, there was only a pile of bruised and battered bodies lying on
+the door-step.
+
+"A pretty tough scrimmage!" was the comment. "Weren't you a little hard
+on these fellows?"
+
+"A man has a right to defend his own life and his own nose," said Ben
+Hay decisively. "His life _may_ be useful, his nose _is_ ornamental when
+it is a handsome one like mine."
+
+What with drunkenness and the drubbing, two of the ruffians were unable
+to walk. Two others were marched off under the escort of the officers,
+the disabled sent for, and a guard detached to protect Mrs. Connelly's
+house. When everybody had been quieted, Jack took a tour down to the
+mills. Some poor object was huddled up in the corner of the main stoop.
+
+"What are you doing here?" demanded Darcy.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Darcy, don't strike me! I'm Bart Kane. I've had enough of this
+night, and I crawled here"--
+
+The boy began to sob and talk brokenly. He lifted his face in the
+moonlight. It was ghastly; one eye swollen shut, and purple-black, and
+streaks of blood and dirt over it; the clothing torn, the throat bare.
+
+"Were you down there at Connelly's?"
+
+"I warn't nowhere. It was along o' father: he comed home drunk."
+
+Barton Kane was a mill-boy, about nineteen now. Darcy's first feeling
+had been one of outrage and anger, but he cooled suddenly.
+
+"Tell me, my lad," in a kindly tone, taking the shivering fingers in
+his.
+
+"You see, Mr. Darcy, father'd been out along of the hatters all day,
+gettin' more and more rum in him. He said on Sunday, as how't I should
+strike; but they went to work here, and I worked with 'em. When I went
+home, mother, she gev me my supper, and ses she, 'Keep out o' sight,
+lad, happen thy dad's powerful mad wi' thee!' So I went to bed. But
+about nine he comed home, and tore up the house wi' his tantrums, and
+then lathered me. He called me a rat, and a sneak, and a turn-coat, and
+kicked me out o' the house, and threw my traps to me. Then afore I was
+fairly dressed he at me again, and said if ever I darkened the door,
+he'd murder me! I strayed round, afeared of everybody, and crawled up
+here. 'Pears like every bone in my body is broke, and my eye, he do hurt
+so!"
+
+With that Barton Kane broke out sobbing again, and clung to Jack Darcy's
+knees.
+
+"My poor lad!" the tone was infinitely tender. "Can you walk a little
+way, to Kit Connelly's? You can be nursed up there, and go to bed
+peaceably. Come, Barton, my boy, you are the hero of Hope Mills. When
+this is over, we shall have to give you a medal."
+
+He put his strong arm around the shivering body, and led him back to a
+kindly shelter.
+
+"Hay, Mrs. Connelly, and all of you: here's a lad that has been
+half-killed for standing by his colors to-day. Look here, Armstrong,
+would you mind going for Dr. Maverick? this poor chap needs some
+patching-up. And, Kit, give me some water and a napkin: we'll get his
+face a little cool and clean."
+
+"Let me do it, Mr. Darcy. Sure, I've boys of my own, and am used to it.
+Oh, the poor, poor lad!"
+
+Barton told his story over again. He was weak and hysterical now, and
+they made him a shake-down on the floor until the doctor came.
+
+"Now I'll start on my inspection-tour again," said Darcy, turning away.
+"We are all likely to make a night of it."
+
+He thought he would go around before he went in to see the watchmen:
+they had placed a force on guard quietly. He had just turned the second
+corner, when he saw a man jump from the high fence, and lie for an
+instant as if stunned. He hastened on, but the man sprang up and ran
+down the dark side of the street. His first impulse was to follow; then
+it struck him as strange that the dog gave no alarm. He had a gate-key
+in his pocket, and unlocked it at once.
+
+"Bruno!" he called, "Bruno, good fellow, come here."
+
+There was not a sound. The ominous silence thrilled Jack.
+
+"Bruno!"
+
+Hark! a curious crackling or sweep of wind, and smoky smell. He ran
+round to the rear. Close up against the back door, quite out of the
+moonlight, something was piled. Forked tongues of flame were shooting
+out of it everywhere. He seized the chain attached to the factory-bell,
+and rang it rapidly. There was a window thrown up, and a voice called.
+
+"Fire! fire!" he shouted. "Turn on the hose,--the lower back door."
+
+The flames streamed up fiercely now. It was plain that the mound had
+been saturated with kerosene.
+
+Daly hurried down, and opened a door. "Hurd and Byrnes are at the
+buckets and hose," he cried. "Where is it? O Mr. Darcy!"
+
+"Quick, quick!" shouted Jack, rushing by him.
+
+The men had the hose ready. They put it out of the window, turned on the
+stream, and in a few moments a column of dense smoke rose amid the
+arrowy flashes of lurid splendor. The watchman ran down from Connelly's.
+
+It was subdued in a few moments. They tore away the charred boxes and
+_débris_, smoking and smouldering. Underneath all they found the body of
+princely Bruno.
+
+"This is fiendish!" cried Jack, dragging the poor fellow away, his
+scorched coat smelling horribly. "Brave Bruno, you are the second hero
+of the night!"
+
+"Whatever dastardly devil did this, knows as much about Hope Mills as
+you or I," shouted Hurd savagely. "Bruno was poisoned first; and he
+wouldn't have taken any thing from a strange hand. But the fellow was a
+fool to build the fire here."
+
+"I don't know about that," said Darcy. "If it had burned the door down,
+it would have gone in the hall, and up the hatchway--if it was open."
+
+"By thunder! so it would; and right to the stock-room. That place must
+never be left open again while Hope Mills stands, or co-operation waves
+her starry banner in the breeze."
+
+"Loud applause!" said some one.
+
+The fire was thoroughly extinguished; and the guardian of the night
+decided to remain here, being within call if another disturbance should
+occur at Mrs. Connelly's. The bells rang out for midnight. A few, who
+had gathered at the alarm, dispersed: and every thing became quiet
+again,--deadly, solemnly quiet.
+
+Jack wanted to see Maverick, so he paced back to Mrs. Connelly's. He was
+trying to remember some distinctive mark of the man he had seen jump. He
+was too stout for Davy, and he could not believe such villany of the
+man. Then Price was a little lame from an old rheumatic affection, and
+would not have dared such a deed.
+
+Barton Kane had been washed, patched, bandaged, put to bed, and given an
+opiate; so now he was in a sound but rather disturbed sleep. The men
+gathered in the lunch-room, and discussed the cowardly attempt upon the
+mill, the day's affairs generally.
+
+"See how great a matter a little fire kindles," said Maverick. "But for
+McPherson's lecture here, I don't believe any of these things would have
+happened. It is a free country, of course, and a man has a right to air
+his ideas; but capital is not set firmly enough on its legs to stand a
+severe fire, and labor is in too great a superabundance. To seek to
+drain the ocean with a silver mug may be grand, but quite hopeless."
+
+One! The witching hour, and a few sleepy men began to yawn.
+
+"How odd it seems, not to hear trains in the night!" Maverick said
+presently. "A queer lock-out this."
+
+One, again. One, two, three: this time the fire-alarm.
+
+They rushed out toward the mill. Then they as suddenly wheeled around.
+In an instant the air seemed full of shouts and cries, and a broad sheet
+of flame flared up in the face of the tranquil heavens. A roar, like a
+mighty tramping of hosts, a crackling, snapping, sweeping sound.
+
+"It's Keppler's. Boyd's block will surely go!"
+
+The houses were frame, old and dry: Keppler's on the corner, the rest
+joined, like a row of sheds, and filled with the very poorest; a few
+apartments standing empty. The engines were out, but it was of little
+avail. The corner was just one brilliant sheet of lurid light. Shrieking
+women and children fled for their lives. The street swarmed again, and
+people trampled over one another in their wild terror. There was a
+crash, and the building fell in. The flames licked up the other fiery
+flood, and had a brave battle in the cellar. The engines played until
+the air was filled with smothering smoke, and there was nothing left but
+a long, blackened ruin.
+
+"It may be ungenerous to rejoice in any man's misfortune," said
+Maverick, "but in a sanitary point of view I am thankful those old
+rookeries have come to an end. Boyd wouldn't do any thing to them, and
+they were unfit for pigs to live in. And, as for Keppler's, there will
+be but one verdict this end of the town."
+
+Some one laid a hand on Jack Darcy's shoulder. He turned and saw Fred
+Lawrence.
+
+"They are all worried to death about you, old chap," began Fred. "Your
+mother, Miss Morgan, Sylvie,--and Irene is walking the floor. I have not
+seen her so excited since--since she had the fever. What a horrible
+thing! Was any one lost, do you know?"
+
+"They will not be able to tell that until morning, every thing is in
+such confusion. Pray God that the morning may dawn soon! I seem to have
+lived through years."
+
+The dawn came up by and by; first in faint opaline splendors, then
+scarlet and gold. The moon paled, and the stars dropped out, and there
+was a chirp of birds to welcome the new-born day.
+
+The shock of the fire cooled the temper of the raiders, for half the men
+were idle hangers-on, rather than absolute strikers. One frantic woman
+flew to the scene of devastation: her boy, four years old, was missing.
+They tried to comfort her with the thought that some neighbor had kindly
+taken him in, but she kept wildly imploring them to search.
+
+There was no further molestation of the men at Hope Mills. They walked
+in the yard quietly at seven o'clock, their faces touched with surprise
+and terror when they heard the story of the night. Barton Kane lay
+disabled at Mrs. Connelly's, and poor Bruno was buried with honors,
+regretted by the whole force.
+
+Jack called the men together, and addressed them briefly. He was very
+pale, and his usually bright, clear eyes were heavy.
+
+"I want to thank you," he said, in a tone that was a little unsteady
+with exhaustion and emotion, "I want to thank you for standing so
+bravely by me, and by your principles. We are all partners together, and
+what is one man's interest is every man's. I feel sure that we shall
+never have another difficulty. We have gone through the worst, and in a
+little while every man will have his free choice again. Let us all keep
+the warmest of friends until then."
+
+There was no cheering: they were not gay enough for that. Some of the
+men wrung his hand silently; then the women pressed forward, and invoked
+a blessing upon him.
+
+"We know better nor any of 'em what it was to have no fire, and childers
+cryin' for bread," said one woman, wiping her eyes with the end of her
+faded shawl. "And, thank the Lord, I've had bite, and sup, and fire,
+ever since the day Hope Mills was opened."
+
+The men outside were working at the ruins,--among them some of the
+strikers of yesterday. They found poor Mrs. Rooney's little Johnny,
+burned to a crisp; and in the house next to Keppler's they exhumed the
+body of Biddy Brady, a good-natured, efficient washerwoman, whose
+greatest fault was her intemperance. She and her son had gone to bed
+very drunk, after having a good time through the evening. The boy had
+been roused in season, but she had perished. It was as vivid and fervent
+a temperance-lecture as ever was given in Yerbury.
+
+About ten in the morning Jack Darcy returned home dead tired, as much
+with the excitement as the fatigue, took a bath, and went to bed.
+
+The Yerbury authorities looked sharply about them that day. The strikers
+were orderly and quiet, but they had lost ground. "The Evening
+Transcript" deprecated all this sort of business, and for once had no
+fling about the "Utopian theory of co-operation." But "The Leader" of
+the morning came out strongly in praise of the good order, forbearance,
+and _esprit de corps_ of Hope Mills, and called Mr. Darcy "our young and
+enterprising citizen, whom, we doubt not, we shall hear of in higher
+positions in life, which he has proved himself eminently worthy to
+fill."
+
+There was no great lament made about Boyd's Row or Keppler's saloon,
+except for the sad casualty it had caused; but the dastardly attack on
+Mrs. Connelly, and the fiendish attempt to burn Hope Mills, met with the
+severest condemnation.
+
+Maverick came around to the Darcys that evening. "I fancy I have found
+your man, Jack," he began. "Mrs. Stixon called me in towards night,
+saying Jem had been on a spree, and was dreadfully beaten. I found one
+side of his face scratched and bruised, and bits of gravel still
+adhering to the flesh. The right arm, on the same side, has one bone
+broken, and his shoulder is dislocated. He said he fell off of a stoop,
+and is dreadfully sullen. I asked him what stoop, but he would not tell.
+Do you remember which way the man fell?"
+
+Jack thought a moment. "On the right side, Maverick, away from me, or I
+should have seen his face. Just such a size man as Jem Stixon, too,"
+with a satisfied nod.
+
+"What will you do about it?"
+
+Jack took two or three turns across the floor. "See here, Maverick, we
+will not do any thing. You cure the poor fellow, and I think he will
+never try to damage Hope Mills again. I can hardly forgive him Bruno,
+though."
+
+"If I were Sylvie Barry,"--he never called her Mrs. Lawrence when
+speaking of her,--"I should say, 'Jack, you are an angel.'"
+
+Jack flushed. "Masculine angels!" he laughed.
+
+"Well, wasn't there Gabriel and a host of them? Why, Jack, they were
+_all_ masculine!"
+
+There was no need for earthly justice to meddle with Jem Stixon. His arm
+inflamed: he had led a hard life late years, and his system was in bad
+order. He would not listen to amputation until it was too late, and in
+less than a month he was dead. It was better for his poor hard-working
+wife and family.
+
+One other death grew out of the summer riots, though this was at a
+distance. Dennis Connelly had been working with a railroad-gang, and the
+strikers there had a desperate struggle with the civil authority. They
+were worsted in the end, and Connelly was one of the victims, or perhaps
+more truly speaking, a victim to bad whiskey, for when sober he was very
+peaceable. Kit sent for his body, and had him decently buried.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+THE strikers at the hat-factory did not carry the day. The employers
+were very indignant, and tabooed the union men altogether. At
+Garafield's the men were called in council, the points discussed, and a
+small advance in wages allowed. The co-operatives went their way
+quietly. Perhaps the most convincing argument was a very jubilant letter
+from Winston, part of which Darcy put up in the hall. He had just
+succeeded in making an important contract for two years, on very fair
+terms. That would see them through safely unless the whole world came to
+grief again!
+
+Jack wrote Miss McLeod a graphic account of the "labor troubles," and
+she replied with equally characteristic _verve_. "She could hardly
+decide," she declared, "whether to be glad, or sorry, that her young
+friend had grown so independent of her; but in any emergency she wished
+to be remembered."
+
+There was now a certain respect paid to Hope Mills, among the community
+at Yerbury. Perhaps there are no people so exacting and difficult to
+satisfy as those friends and neighbors whose advice you have not taken,
+and prospered without it. They indulge in a righteous self-complacency
+if you are unfortunate, and pity you grandly; but to own themselves
+mistaken is the one bitter flavor in the cup. There seemed to be but one
+point now upon which they were doubtful,--the honesty of the managers at
+the last moment. Every workman knew or might know exactly how affairs
+stood, but _they_ did not have the capital. Just at the end of the five
+years _somebody_ might abscond with the money-bag under his arm. It
+seemed so every way certain that human nature could not withstand the
+temptation.
+
+Yet there was growing up among the hands a curious neighborly sympathy,
+as if they were in some degree relatives; and they were made so, in
+fact, by some marriages of sons and daughters. They were more
+intelligent; they kept their houses cleaner, their little gardens
+prettier, not allowing them to go to weeds before the summer was half
+over. Those who could go to the industrial school learned a deal about
+sewing, and became seamstresses instead of mill-girls. Some made their
+own family dresses, some were very tasty milliners. It gave them a
+reliance upon what they could do themselves. The two daughters of one
+workman kept a little poultry-yard "scientifically," and dressed
+themselves from its proceeds. Industry became more general. Instead of
+dawdling away whole evenings in gossip, they had some light employment,
+and worked as they talked.
+
+The September showing was very encouraging. There were still a great
+many bankruptcies and losses, but some of them could not be guarded
+against. Darcy and Winston regularly eschewed speculation, though the
+latter confessed his fingers sometimes burned to be in the pie.
+
+"But, after all," he said frankly, "if the energy, ingenuity, ambition,
+and strength that are expended to make certain people buy and sell, over
+and over, a thing that can be no more valuable than the money it makes
+year by year, which often is not much,--if this were turned into
+industrial and commercial channels,--gad! what a country we would be!
+Our flag would float on every sea, our goods be in every port. And yet
+they go on, rich to-day because they have beggared their neighbor, poor
+to-morrow because their neighbor has beggared them. What idiotic
+business!"
+
+But I must go back a little with my hero. There were many things to
+occupy his mind, the summer of the "strikes;" yet through it all, like
+one strain of heavenly harmony in a clash of discord, he came to know
+the diviner needs of his being. Another man might have been dismayed at
+the revelation. Like a flash when the horizon is opened, he saw the
+light; and he knew, from the depths of the darkness the next moment,
+what manner of storm it would be.
+
+He had never weakened or frittered away his sweetest emotions on the
+various flirtations that fill the early years of so many men. He had
+liked and admired Sylvie Barry above all young women he had ever met;
+but this emotion, though pure and lasting, never stirred the ardor of
+his soul. Had it really lain untouched so long, or had some vague dream
+slipped into it the night he and Sylvie had planned the costume for
+Irene Lawrence, the time he first encountered her beauty in all its
+vivid splendor? To him she was a glorious young goddess.
+
+The long-ago summer day he had met the two in the phaeton, he was more
+keenly pained for her sake than his own. To be sure, his first emotion
+was that of angry indignation, sending the outraged blood through every
+pulse; then, as it cooled, the act appeared so utterly unwomanly. If she
+had passed him by carelessly--but to designedly attract his glance, and
+stab it thus, was as if a giant had taken a club to kill a butterfly
+because it breathed the fragrance of the rose. He shut out that vision.
+You can tell what impression she had made upon him, when he always
+thought of her as he saw her in the glow of Sylvie's pretty parlor, that
+summer night. His healthy, active temperament never brooded over
+disagreeable things a moment longer than necessity kept him there.
+
+She faded from his mind by degrees. Even when he took Fred back into the
+old regard, he thought of her as the possible wife of some millionnaire.
+When she returned to Yerbury, and shut herself up in stately despair,
+refusing even Sylvie's proffered sympathy, she puzzled him. How could
+she, so fond of admiration and gayety, live this nun's life, without the
+nun's spiritual exaltation? He passed her once or twice in the hall, as
+he was calling on Fred, but neither made any sign.
+
+Then came that terrible night, when he had found her astray, her brain
+consumed by the smouldering fire of isolation, when you have only the
+black, choking smoke that never blazes up in purifying flames. There are
+thousands of women who have done this, weakly, sentimentally, through
+the period of adversity that has tried the metal of all souls; but she,
+being stronger, more self-reliant, could not drop into puerile whining.
+
+At Depford Beach they had come in contact again. There was both
+attraction and repulsion in these two people, as there often is in
+strongly-marked, positive natures. She tolerated him because he was
+Sylvie's lover; despised him, believing that he meant to make a
+stepping-stone of this girl's wealth and position; and, in spite of
+herself, felt the current of his strength and buoyant energy. By slow
+degrees the unwilling truth was forced upon her, that God never created
+any human soul for its own self-destruction; that there was no absolute
+virtue in warping and twisting circumstances into chains and bonds, that
+were ordained for higher, nobler purposes. Her mental disease had run
+its course. Sylvie's sorrow was the final electric shock that broke the
+heavy soil of apathy.
+
+Her utter surprise when she found that through all these years Jack
+Darcy had refrained from influencing Sylvie in his behalf, was something
+quite indescribable. She thought she had fathomed men's souls with her
+keen insight, but this man was a Saul amid his peers. Had there been
+some subtile, far-reaching foundation for Fred's regard in the boyhood
+days,--something that their eyes, being holden with golden bonds, could
+not see?
+
+After the marriage there was a certain degree of association, not
+intimacy. And yet she set herself to watch him. Somewhere she would
+discern the print of the feet of clay this idol of Fred and Sylvie's
+possessed.
+
+It was a most fascinating yet dangerous employment. She used to sit
+there in her impassive grace, as they talked, weighing every word,
+testing every sentiment, watching the expressions that flitted over Jack
+Darcy's countenance, until it went everywhere with her, the blue-gray
+eyes piercing the very depths of her soul. They came to the one night
+when a glance stirred and troubled both, when the depths of both natures
+experienced that curious shock of repulsion and wonder. It was not love,
+it was too near, too awesome, yet too spiritually pure, to be hate,
+still it sent them apart none the less surely.
+
+By degrees, even amid the hard struggle of the strikes, he came to a
+self-knowledge. His perceptions were not easily confused; and by that
+intuitive process born pure in every soul, but too often marred and
+dulled by the many counterfeits put upon it, he knew this was love, a
+life-long passion for one woman, not because she had as yet answered any
+need of his nature, or promised any expansion into higher life. He loved
+her just as she was; for her beauty, her swift, proud grace, her virtues
+if she had any, her very faults, and of those he was not in doubt. And
+he set himself to win her with the same high courage that had taken Hope
+Mills in hand.
+
+Occasionally we see a man wrecked by this steady, persistent,
+overwhelming love for an inferior object, caught perhaps by some occult
+fascination that flashes all laws out of sight. We wonder how he can be
+so led astray; and yet it is an integral part of the man, a quality of
+the soul which he would not overcome and put in bonds if he could.
+
+He did not cringe or flatter, or adopt any of the fears or weaknesses of
+passion. It was not weak, and he did not fear. He meant to be master of
+her soul, and win her through that very power, struggle as she might. He
+would wait, if it were years, until she laid down her few weak weapons,
+and capitulated. From that time onward, there would be neither "mine"
+nor "thine."
+
+And now the fine, tested quality of his patience stood him in good
+stead. He might long to draw near, to clasp the snowy hand, to study the
+fathomless dusk of the eyes, and note the frightened droop of the
+fringed lids; but he held aloof. Still he went to Larch Avenue night
+after night; he dropped in of a morning when least expected,
+occasionally finding her alone for a few moments; he walked from church
+with them, by her side, the only times he came near her, and she felt in
+every pulse of her being the indefinable something that she was impelled
+to struggle against.
+
+A curious change came over her. The cold indifference melted to a rose
+hue of interest, a pliant softness stole over her figure, a certain
+buoyant tenderness diffused itself in her tone, her dusky eyes came to
+have a startled softness like a shy, frightened fawn. The old brilliant
+color returned to cheek and lip, yet toned with the tremulous throbbing
+of a new inward life, so exquisitely attuned that she could but listen
+to the harmonious melody.
+
+She came to understand presently; the intangible power in his demeanor
+roused her, I think; and her whole soul, every fibre of her body, rose
+up in mutinous revolt. Whither was this swift current carrying her? What
+great wave was this that struck at the very props of her own strength
+and reliance? How did this man dare to invade the walled sanctities of
+her being? She would have none of him: she would go on her solitary way,
+sufficient for herself. She, who had never loved amid all the
+beguilements the world had to offer, to be conquered by the very man she
+had trained herself to despise!
+
+Irene Lawrence found it hard fighting with this unseen foe. He seemed
+always lying in ambush, always armored with a word or sentiment to which
+she must assent, always before her in the place she had meant to be; and
+she would not throw up the white flag of defeat. She would not own to
+herself she experienced any alarm or annoyance.
+
+One evening Fred and Sylvie had gone to a neighbor's, and were
+momentarily expected. A peculiar temptation entered her soul. If this
+man must needs flutter in the flame, why should she be tender and
+careful of him? Others had dared her, to the burning of their very
+souls: if the experience was worth the pain, he should have it, and
+decide.
+
+She sat down at the piano, and shook a shower of melody out of her
+slender finger-ends. All the affluent grace of womanhood with the polish
+of society spoke in every curve of her pliant figure, in the dainty,
+delicate, high-bred gestures. The eyes hung out their false lights of
+treacherous intent amid the half-slumberous fire; the very lips seemed
+shaped and blossoming with a rare thrill of passion that could turn to a
+caress at a look. All along the brow ran fine sinuosities of light that
+dazzled like the tracery of pale flame. Had she blossomed into some
+royal midsummer flower that is seen but once in an age?
+
+She had motioned him close beside her with an impelling wave of the
+hand. He could feel her warmth, her fragrant breath; her soft billowy
+dress fell against his foot in a crested wave; her white hand and
+slender wrist, just toned, but not hidden, with rare lace like that of
+Arachne's spinning, wandered temptingly over toward him. A sudden
+delirium took possession of him, an exhilaration that steeped the brain,
+that stirred every pulse, that awoke in him an almost maddening desire
+to clasp her in his arms, to drain such sweetness from her lips that the
+whole world might be beggared ever after, and he not care.
+
+She knew the signs. She had seen more than one man dally on the brink,
+and then topple over to the blankness of despair. Even if she had pitied
+herself, which she did not, she could have had no mercy on him. Now she
+was set to her work, and she meant to do it if she brought into play
+every fascination art and nature had furnished her with.
+
+His soul rose and glowed within him. The music, the most ravishing of
+its kind, stirred him to that intensity of pain, it seemed as if he must
+cry out with torture. No suffering had ever been like this: if the
+doctrine of sacrificial fires were true, he might have purchased
+paradise.
+
+Did he mean never to stir or speak? Could that hand, lying so passively
+on the corner of the piano, remain unmoved, with hers just below it? Its
+defiant strength stung her.
+
+"They do not come,"--looking warily around, and passing him with her
+veiled eyes, rather than looking at him. "Are you growing weary? Shall I
+sing for you?"
+
+The tone had the melody of some lotus-freighted stream. She had thrown
+all her sweetness into it.
+
+"If you will."
+
+His was tremulous and husky with repressed passion.
+
+Her voice was not pure: it had the rich depth and pathos of contralto,
+and the vibrant clearness of soprano. Now it threaded a tremulous
+pathway among the pathetic minor notes, while the fingers seemed to drop
+a faint sigh of accompaniment,--
+
+          "Oh! when ye hear me gie a loud, loud cry,--
+             The broom blooms bonnie, and says it is fair,--
+           Shoot an arrow frae thy bow, and there let me lie,
+             And we'll never gang down to the broom ony mair.
+
+          "And when ye see that I'm lying cauld and dead,--
+             The broom blooms bonnie, and says it is fair,--
+           Then ye'll put me in a grave wi' a turf at my head,
+            And we'll never gang down to the broom ony mair."
+
+The last sad note died into summer-night sweetness. A current of bland,
+dangerous magnetism passed between them. She turned her splendid,
+passion-lighted eyes to him, and the subtle, measuring, conquering
+forces in the man and the woman met. With a mighty effort he thrust back
+desire, and compressed his lips to a line under the bronzed-gold
+moustache, while his eyes, like points of steel, never wavered.
+
+Irene Lawrence turned blindly, and held out her hands as if to grasp
+some sure stay. Just as surely as she had not won, she had lost.
+
+"I have tired you," he said,--a murmur just under his breath. "But you
+can hardly know the exquisite pleasure you have given me. It is perfect.
+We will have no more music to-night;" and he rose, shutting the piano
+down.
+
+She went to the open window like one in a trance, so stunned she could
+not even feel angry at his defiance of her. A long, long moment of
+silence: then they heard Sylvie's bright voice on the porch, and she
+came in with a waft of dewy, outdoor fragrance.
+
+Miss Lawrence went to her room presently, to fight out the battle with
+herself. She admitted then that she had come to love Jack Darcy; but she
+was strong and resolute, and would not be mastered by the passion. What
+could she do? for go away she must! Her imperious will and knowledge of
+men had availed her little to ward off this one's influence. Every
+instinct had been baffled, every movement had been met with a
+counterpoise. To stay here, and struggle, would be to yield eventually.
+
+There were dark circles under her eyes the next morning, tokens of her
+vigil and strife. She intrenched herself again behind that dumb apathy:
+she stood aloof from Sylvie. For days she escaped the watchful sight of
+Darcy; but she heard his voice, and every rebellious pulse was
+a-tremble. She cast about for some expedients whereby to escape her
+prison honorably, and after several fruitless efforts found one.
+
+In their early days there had been a girl-friend between Agatha and
+Gertrude, who had always held an attraction for the child Irene.
+Wealthy, beautiful, and accomplished, she had married a man who had
+already made for himself a name in statesmanship, a cultured and
+polished gentleman, and her bridal had been the theme of the day. But
+the fiend of intemperance had wrought destruction of her brilliant
+prospects, and made her life an open scandal. When it could no longer be
+borne, she gathered up the wreck of her fortune and her two little
+girls, and opened a boarding-school in a quiet, aristocratic old town.
+Irene had met her in New York after her own loss of fortune; and, though
+she had disdained sympathy, she was touched by Mrs. Trenholme's
+kindliness.
+
+She wrote to her now; and, of half a dozen applications, this was the
+only one that elicited a favorable reply. Mrs. Trenholme needed a
+teacher of French and music, and she knew Miss Lawrence's accent was
+perfect. The salary was not large, being four hundred dollars a year;
+but the duties were not very arduous, being all confined to
+school-hours.
+
+Much as Irene desired to go, there was some struggle with her pride
+before she could bring herself to accept. Only the prospect of that
+greater pride being laid in ruins before her eyes, could finally have
+induced her. Mrs. Trenholme expressed her delight warmly.
+
+There were strenuous objections on Fred's part when it came to be talked
+over. "She had no need. He was as much her protector as her father had
+been: indeed, was he not paying back the kindly care to himself,
+honoring his father's memory by doing as he would have done?"
+
+Sylvie came to the rescue presently.
+
+"I would let her go, Fred," she counselled. "Beverly is a delightful
+place, with many cultured people, and Mrs. Trenholme is just the woman
+to have an influence over Irene. You see, she gets so tired of having no
+pursuit, no strong interest. I could not endure it myself."
+
+"But she might have--I have dared to dream"--
+
+"Put away dreams, my darling." Sylvie's voice was unconsciously sad.
+Then, with a smile, and tears, "If God kept watch over us, and brought
+us to our haven, can we not trust him for her,--for them?"
+
+And so they acquiesced.
+
+When Jack Darcy left Miss Lawrence on that fateful evening, his whole
+soul was full of unrest. He paced the quiet streets in that tense mood
+which makes thought and breath alike torture. Now that it was over, he
+said, with the inconsequence of love, that he had been a weak, cowardly
+fool to fear his fate too much; and yet the next instant he knew he
+would surely have lost it all, and that in time she _must_ come to need
+him. If he _could_ wait! Well, he _would_ wait. He had not trained
+himself heretofore in these long reaches of patience for no purpose.
+That richly satisfying, inward sight, she could not take from him, that
+exultant faith which was warmed and fed from a thousand secret rills.
+
+He understood why she shunned him, why she had resolved to leave
+Yerbury; and he was thankful now that he had not ruined his cause by
+impatience. To think of not seeing her, of not hearing her voice, was
+like madness! His face grew thin, there were tense lines about his mouth
+and a set resolve in his eyes; yet to his fine temper came no moodiness
+or irritability. The task he had set for himself must be accomplished.
+He was as absolute in his self-denial as he would be in his happiness
+when that came.
+
+So she went away with the merest friendly farewell, and asked herself
+angrily, an hour after, what power this man had over her, and why she
+feared him? Surely there was not much of the lover in that calm face!
+
+He threw himself into the business with renewed energy. As I said, the
+September account was inspiriting. Prospects began to look brighter,
+only it was admitted on all hands that the days of large profits and
+quick fortunes were over for a long while, if not for all time. Industry
+was coming to be respected, and you heard less talk about luck.
+
+The outside world kept watch of them narrowly, jealously. If they turned
+out thieves and swindlers, it would not be for the lack of advice.
+However, they tramped on and on. Their store gained a little, and was
+productive of much good. Keppler went to a different part of the town.
+Boyd sold the ground, and a row of decent cottages were to be put up.
+Kit Connelly had been reimbursed by the town for her damages, and with
+Ben Hay's advice and counsel built an addition to her house, which he
+and Rose took for housekeeping purposes. The lunch and coffee room was a
+regular and profitable institution, and would be a business for one of
+the boys as he grew up to manhood.
+
+Sylvie and Fred went to the city for a winter holiday. Fred's book was
+elegantly brought out, and won him much praise and a little money.
+Sylvie achieved her ambition, and sold two pictures at what she
+considered marvellous prices, but she wisely confessed it only to her
+husband. They were invited to clubs and soirées; and Mrs. Minor was
+extremely affable, though she did blame Fred for allowing Irene to take
+such an idiotic step.
+
+Darcy and Maverick indulged in two or three flying trips. Miss McLeod
+liked nothing better than to get these young people together, and listen
+to the animated conversations, herself as spicy and sharp as any one.
+Miss Lothrop was married; and in the slim, fair, blushing girl the old
+lady had for companion now, he saw no danger.
+
+So the winter wore away, and the spring came again; and the man who was
+counting the days wondered wearily at times what his summer harvest
+might be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+THE regal woman who stepped from the car to the station-platform at
+Yerbury, one balmy day in early June, to be greeted by Fred and Sylvie
+Lawrence with the warmest of welcomes, was indescribably different from
+the pale, cold, haughty statue that had gone away. There was an
+elasticity in her step, a self-reliance in her air, and the peculiar
+confidence discipline wisely used inevitably imparts.
+
+Yet there had been no romantic or highly-wrought change in her. She had
+not taken up teaching from any heroic motive or the possible benefit to
+any one, but simply to protect herself from what she considered the
+weakness of her own soul, to get away from a danger she could not fight.
+Oh, how she had hated French verbs and exercises! If hers had been a
+susceptible musical temperament, she would have gone quite crazy with
+the blunders and sentimentalisms of young girls.
+
+After a month of it, she would have welcomed any relief, even the
+face-to-face conflict with Darcy. But she could not well run away from
+here, and her physical health was perfect: so there was nothing but to
+go straight on, and find that circumstances had to govern, that she
+could not shut herself up in sullen majesty, or fling off the daily
+duties for some wiser and more patient hands to pick up, and restore to
+beauty and harmony.
+
+She had a friend, the best and truest that a young woman could have,
+perhaps; a woman so admirably adapted to the training of girls, that it
+was no marvel she succeeded. Out of the ruins of her life she had built
+up another, wise, sweet, and strong. As Irene began to comprehend what
+Mrs. Trenholme had suffered and achieved, for the first time she paid an
+honest reverence to the nobility of character. And now she despised her
+own petty, shallow thoughts and beliefs. Her lofty despising of the
+world and the vain and selfish people therein had been only a kind of
+scornful regret for the treasures wrested from her, the glitter of
+fashion, the gauds of society. Fred had made a braver stand than she. He
+had not sought to poise himself on the easy, graceful rounds of past
+promises, and to dream futile weakening dreams, nor shut himself up in
+morbid isolation.
+
+After all, how little the great world really cared! It was the few
+friends, the small circle, the near influences, that were of importance.
+And when she found that here in cultured, delightful Beverly, she was
+sought out as an entertaining guest, that she had not lost caste because
+the great bubble of fortune had shivered into fragments, that dressing
+and shopping and flirting were not the highest of human enjoyments, she
+came to a very rational frame of mind, and to a certain extent enjoyed
+her life. But nature had not made her a teacher of children, and never
+does such women, until, informed by that highest of all love, they teach
+their own.
+
+She came back beautiful, strong, and brave, resolute to dare any thing.
+She dazzled them at the little tea-table by her swift, easy animation,
+her brilliancy, the color that went and came, the smiles that were like
+rippling billows over a sea. And Sylvie's heart went down like lead,
+though it was such a fair picture. "For now," she thought, "Jack will
+never dare to love her!"
+
+Perhaps not, if he had to begin now. But the love was in him and of him,
+and would be hers all his life long, whether she took it or no.
+
+He did not come for a day or two. She wondered a little: she even
+laughed lightly at her own past fear, the shadow she had conjured up,
+the warm blood ran so healthily through her veins now.
+
+He sauntered in one morning to find her cutting roses with Sylvie, the
+two the fairest flowers in all the garden. He was in no wise abashed at
+this vision of loveliness: if she had a dower of beauty, he had his
+unstained manhood.
+
+They chatted and laughed. Sylvie pinned a pale bud and geranium-leaf in
+his coat. He held out his hand to Irene with a curious little gesture.
+She had two or three great royal purple pansies clasped lightly in her
+fingers.
+
+She meant to refuse courteously, but their eyes met. Was it the old
+spell working?
+
+Surely, surely all these fine-spun barriers, all these cunning Alps that
+she had thrown up day after day, were over-leaped at a supple bound.
+Master herself she might; but he stood in his man's power and pride and
+love, a suppliant, yet king, asking with wordless lips a little favor,
+taking with calm yet passionate eyes a royal largess. Her heart sank;
+her breath came in one long, tremulous sweep. Whether she gave, or he
+took, she could not have told; but he went away with the pansies in his
+fingers, despite Sylvie's pleading for a longer stay.
+
+When he was quite out of sight, he kissed them, sweet, tender, longing
+kisses. Then he dropped them between the white leaves of a little book,
+to be sacred forever. Sylvie's _boutonnière_ might keep him company
+outwardly, but those no eye must feast upon.
+
+He took the fine right of a lover, not declared, yet certain of his
+ground, not using any power that she could disdain or wound, it was so
+delicate, intangible, the perfume without the flower, the little
+thoughtfulness for her, reaching for her fan, folding her shawl about
+her if the evening blew up cool, seeming to know her wants the very
+instant they occurred to herself. And though she rebelled in secret,
+though she resolved heroically to put an end to it all, the golden
+moment never came.
+
+It seemed as if the four were always together. Not but what Yerbury
+opened spacious doors to them, and proffered flattering welcomes; but
+they could not tone themselves to the insipidities of society. There
+were more complete and intense enjoyments. Sylvie and Irene took long
+drives through country lanes, or of a moonlight summer evening they all
+went. They sat on the porch, and Jack came strolling by: they went
+within, and there were books, music, desultory talking, and that
+wondrous, unseen guest in their midst.
+
+Sylvie rarely left her alone. They were not the women to tease one
+another by flippant jests or allusions; and Mrs. Fred, of all others,
+had a dread of thrusting any vulgar face on this colorless, yet
+delicious, atmosphere. Love knew his own, and was sacredly known of
+them.
+
+Irene Lawrence could no more help blossoming under the intense yet
+steady warmth of his temperament, the vivid creative life in every
+feature, than she could have helped being at all; and to have refused or
+destroyed the love would have been as sure spiritual suicide as a poison
+to the body. He understood that she came to see this presently; and then
+his suit was half won,--more than half: he had only to go on to the
+royal fruition of hope and patience. She no longer shunned him: she
+dropped that pointed, distant "Mr. Darcy," and in the soul's own
+language, gave him no outward name.
+
+And, when he took her at her royal flood-tide, the words of asking and
+answering mattered little. A look, a tone, a clasp of hands, a last
+struggle of her pride, and she was his.
+
+The wide, warm summer night closed about them: the dusk was rich with
+floating dewy perfumes, and golden stars dazzled in the clear, moonless
+sky. Out in the trees a little bird, startled from her nap, sang a
+brief, sweet song to her little ones. He drew the proud yet yielding
+figure closer: their hearts beat, their flushed cheeks touched, their
+lips met in one long, heavenly caress, their hands clasped until pulse
+throbbed with pulse in impassioned unison.
+
+Only a death and a great love can so change the aspect of life. As in
+the grave lies buried the dearest promises of love, hope, existence
+itself, and we learn in time to cling to every faint dream, so, like a
+resurrection, love sweeps away the sins and follies and weaknesses of
+the past, and rises from the dust and ashes transformed, renewed, nay,
+born again to the most sacred purposes.
+
+A strange, swift impression rushed over her as she met the eager,
+intense eyes. Was it in another world these arms had closed about her
+with their strong, restful clasp? She started abruptly: she seemed to
+listen, to puzzle herself with the bewildering impression.
+
+"What is it, my darling?" in a deep, ardent voice.
+
+"I don't know"--with a nervous laugh and shiver. "Have we met in some
+other country? Did you carry me over mountains, or through valleys, or
+hide me from a storm? Was this why I could never get away, try as I
+might?"
+
+Oh the wordless, entreating beauty of those eyes!
+
+"My queen, my own, you will never try again."
+
+"Never!" with a long, delicious, sobbing breath. "Why are you so
+irresistibly, so powerfully strong, Jack? Do you know,--you _must_ know
+how wicked I have been! If you cast me out, it would only be a proper
+punishment. I don't mean that my lips or my hands are blurred with other
+men's kisses. I never could endure that," shuddering. "But they laid
+down their hearts, and I walked over them: they were weak, and I was
+strong! And one night I tried"--her voice sank to a beseeching,
+half-shamed murmur.
+
+"Yes," he gave a pure, genial laugh, rich in his own sustaining
+strength. "You would have broken my heart, your own too; for I think,
+even then, you loved me."
+
+"I surely have never been indifferent. It was either love or hate. Do
+you remember the first evening I saw you in the parlor yonder?"
+
+She learned ere long, that he had never forgotten any thing; but the
+depth and perfectness of his love she could not learn in a day.
+
+If Jack Darcy had been patient hitherto, that grand quality seemed
+suddenly exhausted. He absolutely hurried her into a marriage,--hurried
+Sylvie too, who wanted the courtship to proceed with measured, golden
+steps.
+
+"As if it were not to be a courtship all one's life!" said radiant Jack.
+"Now the moments break in the middle, there are tangled ends, and
+endless beginnings, and one can hardly remember where one left off. Were
+you sorry to go to Fred?"
+
+"Why, no!" with wide-open, surprised eyes.
+
+He carried the day at last, and September was appointed. They would be
+married in the old church. Mrs. Minor responded to the tidings by a
+visit. She had treasured up a great many things to say to Irene; but for
+once she was quite overwhelmed, and her sneers and patronage fell to the
+ground. Though she did remark to her mother,--
+
+"Of course I _am_ disappointed that Irene, with her face and style, has
+not done any better; but you cannot expect much after one passes twenty.
+Mr. Darcy has improved certainly, and Irene is not as exclusive as we
+older girls were. It is a great pity she did not go out to Gertrude."
+
+For George Eastman, with a cat-like propensity, always came down on his
+feet. He was now at the flood-tide of prosperity--on other people's
+money. Mrs. Eastman was regal in velvets, sables, and diamonds, queening
+it at St. Petersburg. Some day there might be a crash again, but they
+would be well out of the way.
+
+Miss Lawrence would have no diamonds, and no show; but she was dazzling
+in her radiant loveliness; and, if Jack was not handsome, his superb
+manliness redeemed him. Hope Mills took a holiday. All Yerbury went, it
+seemed; and those who could not get in remained outside for a glimpse.
+
+Sylvie and Fred leaned over the registry in the vestry-room. In a bold
+hand the bridegroom had written, "John Beaumanoir Darcy."
+
+"A compliment to Irene's pride," laughed Sylvie. "The most aristocratic
+name of them all!"
+
+The old house was brightened up a bit before the young couple returned.
+Gentle Mrs. Darcy wondered how it would be between the old and the new
+love; but she remembered with charity, that she had taken the fresh
+young love of another Darcy, and was content with her day.
+
+The young people brought a new atmosphere with them, but it did not
+clash with the old. Jane Morgan was planning a home for herself. One of
+the cut-up farms had been put together again; and she had taken a
+five-years' lease at a low rate, to try a prudent and sensible scheme of
+philanthropy. Maverick had been intensely puzzled by Jack's love-affair,
+and could not yet account for it satisfactorily, but watched them both
+with a kind of amused interest, and dreamed of the deft, dainty little
+fairy down at his aunt's.
+
+I suppose I ought to say that Mrs. Jack Darcy vied with her husband in
+all good works,--in schools and clubs, and plans for everybody's
+improvement; but it was _not_ her _forte_. He was too well satisfied
+with her love for him, her music, her enchanting ways, to wish her any
+different; and I think he would have been jealous, with that exclusive,
+tender, adoring jealousy, that cannot endure its choice treasures
+lavished upon others. She was kindly and generous in a stately, queenly
+fashion; but what between Jack, who was a more importunate lover than
+ever, and the baby born at Larch Avenue, she had her hands quite full.
+
+The five years of mutual copartnership drew to a close. Their young
+engineer had not blown up the mills; Bob Winston did not go off at the
+last moment with the balance at the bank; Jack Darcy had not falsified
+accounts: but it came out just as _everybody_ had predicted that it
+would! "If your men were honest and honorable, co-operation could not
+fail of success. It was the simplest of all schemes," said "The Evening
+Transcript."
+
+The two offices were thrown into one by the sliding-doors, and the
+workmen and women assembled in their holiday gear. Jack Darcy was really
+struck with the change in their faces and the general demeanor. They had
+a brisk, cheery, self-reliant air: there was a certain neatness and
+respectability about which they used not to care in the old times. The
+boys of five years ago were grown men, and there wasn't a sturdier one
+among them than Barton Kane.
+
+And now Jack Darcy proceeded to read the statement of the whole period,
+to which every one listened with the most profound attention.
+
+At the close of the first year, after rent, wages, and all other
+expenses were taken out, the accumulation of profits had been
+$21,642.27. One-half of this, $10,821.13.5, had been turned directly
+over to capital: the other half, the profit of labor, was divided again
+in equal shares, one going to capital for every person, the other,
+amounting to $5,410.56.7, paid over to them as compensation for
+three-quarter wages. Of course the men had been delighted. They
+remembered their first joy even now.
+
+Then had followed the disastrous second year, which had no such golden
+story to tell. The first six months, interest and discount had made
+horrible inroads into capital, and there had not only been no surplus,
+but an actual deficiency. The latter half showed a poor frightened
+balance of $137. But this year they improved greatly in economic
+management and several new processes that gave larger profit with less
+labor and outlay, so the hard strain had not been entirely without its
+uses. Capital had gone down in the valley of humiliation, and had a
+sorry time of it; but with it had come a knowledge and sympathy they
+could have acquired in no other way.
+
+The third year had proved a grand success. They had all worked so
+heartily together, and business had been undeniably good. Profits had
+been $41,854.92, with very limited discounts. After this there was none,
+and unused capital began to draw a little interest. This year there had
+been $10,963.73 to pay over to the men on the quarter share. The fourth
+year there had been numerous bankrupt stocks thrown on the market, and
+every one trying to do his utmost again: still the balance had been by
+no means disheartening, amounting to $34,982.67; capital's share being
+$17,491.33, and the wages overplus $8,745.66. The last year's profits
+had footed up $43,101.56.
+
+There was now in accrued capital stock $106,288.81.5; and this was to be
+divided in the _pro rata_ of each man's share, the larger amounts making
+the most, of course. And now they saw the object of saving. They had
+earned full wages and something beside; and, though wages had not
+reached the high point of good times, on the other hand they had not
+fallen below a reasonable standard, even with the bad year. There had
+been steady work for the whole five years, and every man had been
+practised in thrift, economy, and self-denial.
+
+Of those who had begun with them, seven had been discharged for
+drunkenness and insubordination, their share forfeited to the fund for
+sick and disabled workmen; three had gone out from loss of faith in the
+plan, accepting Winston's offer to sell; four had died, and thirteen had
+left from various other causes. So that there had been a much greater
+degree of steadiness than usually obtains among factory-workmen. This
+led to a decided improvement in many other respects. With a prospect of
+being permanent, the men were induced to buy homes, and took a greater
+interest in the management and welfare of their own town.
+
+The balance was divided, each man receiving his check, and with it a
+detailed statement of the whole five years. They were now quite free,
+the industrial partnership having legally expired. Hope Mills would take
+a fortnight holiday for repairs and re-organization.
+
+"What if there were to be no re-organization?" exclaimed Ben Hay
+suddenly.
+
+The men stared blankly at one another. No "Hope Mills," and the
+foundation-stone of life would have fallen out!
+
+Robert Winston addressed them, thanking them very heartily for their
+co-operation, and expressing a hope that each man would be satisfied
+with the result of five of the hardest years the country had ever known.
+There was no doubt now, judging from our exports, and the amount of
+money coming in from every quarter of the globe, as one might say, that
+we had entered upon an era of prosperity. We had been educated to the
+practice of prudence, of common-sense, and sound principles, we had
+gained fibre and stamina, and he hoped we had gained honesty and
+integrity. If we could not always compete with low-priced manufacturers,
+the solid truth was made manifest in the end. They might take for their
+passwords, "Honesty, industry, and fidelity."
+
+There was a great deal of cheering, and then Darcy was called upon for a
+speech. He did himself infinite credit, for in these five years not a
+man among them had made more rapid strides than Jack Darcy. As he stood
+there now, noble in form, in bearing, and with his good, strong, manly
+face, they felt somehow that he was _their_ hero, and the cheering was
+heartier than ever.
+
+Then Cameron must say a few words, and Ben Hay and Jesse Gilman; and, as
+Jack declared afterward, it was a regular experience-meeting among
+brethren. They pressed around, and shook hands with Darcy and Winston,
+the captain and the pilot with whom they had weathered gales, and been
+brought safely into port. And they would not let them stir out of the
+building until they had appointed a meeting to form the company again,
+this time on a somewhat stronger basis. They were firmly convinced now
+that this was the only way in which it was possible for workmen to make
+any advancement.
+
+At length the crowd began to disperse. Jack started homeward; but,
+before he had walked half the distance, Davy, one of the men who had
+gone out in the first trouble, confronted him suddenly, seizing his
+hand.
+
+"O Mr. Darcy!" said he in a most eager tone, "are you going to form over
+again? Do you think there's a chance for me to be taken back? There
+hasn't been a day nor a night but what I've cursed myself for being such
+a fool as to let anybody talk me out of a good job. I see just how it is
+now. And, if I can get back again, I'll stand by the old ship through
+thick and thin. O Mr. Darcy! please speak a good word for me!"
+
+"That I will, Davy, if it is needed."
+
+"Thank you, thank you, a thousand times!" cried the poor fellow
+gratefully.
+
+Yerbury had plenty of praise now. To be sure, times _had_ improved. If
+every year had been like the second, it would not have been possible to
+make co-operation work; but then, would it have been possible to carry
+on any business with continual loss? The starting of Hope Mills had
+inspired other disheartened firms, and given an impetus to Yerbury
+industries that might have lain much longer in the Slough of Despond.
+
+Fred and Sylvie came over to the Darcys to tea that evening, and
+Maverick dropped in of course.
+
+"Mrs. Darcy," he exclaimed, "I do not see why you did not have a
+daughter for me to marry! Then we could all have been relations, you
+see. I think it a great mistake on your part."
+
+Mrs. Darcy glanced at her son with a peculiar light in her eyes.
+
+Jack laughed. "She is thinking," he explained, "that if there had been
+another one, I should have gone off long ago to seek my fortune. I have
+learned that God may have better work for one than simply following out
+his own will;" and his voice dropped to a reverential tone.
+
+Maverick studied him with a peculiar interest. All these years there had
+been growing up in Jack Darcy a plant of nobler promise than mere
+worldly ambition. Not that he in any manner despised wealth: he had come
+to understand its true uses. The same power that had educated the
+workmen had been going on with silent, steady processes in him. He had
+come to comprehend the dignity of the soul, and that God desired his
+return in the deeds done for one another, in the continual progress, the
+greatness, nobleness, and loyalty we offered "to one of the least of
+these." Was this true religion,--the simple doctrine of the Cross? And
+Maverick bowed his head in unconscious reverence.
+
+They started homeward presently. Sylvie and Irene had some "last words"
+about baby Lawrence, and the two men paced up and down the porch a few
+moments.
+
+"Thank God that it all came out so well!" said Jack in his strong,
+reverent tone.
+
+Fred put his arm over Jack's shoulder. The two men seemed types of all
+that was highest and finest in human nature.
+
+"Jack," began the other in his full, rich tone, tremulous with emotion,
+"do you remember that in my romantic boyhood I used to liken you to King
+Arthur? You have merged into a nobler hero since that day. Who but a
+Sir Galahad, true, strong, unselfish, at once just yet tender, ambitious
+for the Holy Grail of our times, yet never swerving from the path of
+honor; keeping his own soul stainless amid the many temptations of the
+world--who save such a soul could have gone on in your path to the end?
+And of the other Christ-like virtue"--
+
+"Don't, don't, Fred! You always did rate me too highly, you know. I am
+only a man."
+
+"It is something to be a man in these days," returned the other.
+
+The shady blue eyes smiled out of their twilight depth.
+
+"Fred, where are you?" cried a sweet voice.
+
+"You gave me _her_. You taught me to gain the great prize of my life as
+surely as you trained the men in the mill yonder. God bless you!"
+
+
+
+
+LEE AND SHEPARD'S
+
+SELECT FICTION
+
+
+_All prices given are for CLOTH BINDING, unless otherwise specified_
+
+  =The Way of the World.= By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic).
+        Illustrated                                            $1.50
+  =Living Too Fast.= By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic).
+        Illustrated                                             1.50
+  =Indoors and Out.= By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic).
+        Illustrated                                             1.50
+  =The Fortunate Island.= By Max Adeler. Illustrated            1.00
+  =Dora Darling, the Daughter of the Regiment.= By Jane G.
+        Austin. Illustrated                                     1.00
+  =Dora Darling and Little Sunshine.= By Jane G. Austin         1.00
+  =Life in Danbury.= By James M. Bailey. Illustrated            1.00
+  =Mr. Phillips' Goneness.= By James M. Bailey. Illustrated     1.00
+  =The Danbury Boom.= By James M. Bailey. Illustrated           1.00
+  =They All Do It.= By James M. Bailey                          1.00
+  =Running to Waste.= By George M. Baker. Illustrated           1.50
+  =Something Better.= By George M. Baker                        1.00
+  =A Year Worth Living.= By Rev. W. M. Baker                    1.00
+  =Bright Days in the Old Plantation Time.= By Mary
+        Ross Banks. Illustrated                                 1.50
+  =Simplicity and Fascination.= By Anne Beale                   1.00
+  =Nora's Return=; a Sequel to "The Doll's House." By
+        Ednah. D. Cheney. Palatine Boards                        .50
+  =Life and Times of Jesus=, as related by Thomas Didymus.
+        By Rev. James Freeman Clarke                            1.50
+  =His Marriage Vow.= By Mrs. C. F. Corbin                      1.00
+  =Nobody's Husband.= By Samuel W. Cozzens                      1.00
+  =Andersonville Violets.= By Herbert W. Collingwood            1.00
+  =Battles at Home.= By Mary G. Darling. Illustrated            1.00
+  =In the World.= By Mary G. Darling. Illustrated               1.00
+  =The Dawning.=                                                1.50
+  =The Lily and the Cross.= By James De Mille. Illustrated      1.00
+  =Fore and Aft.= By Robert B. Dixon. Cloth                     1.25
+  =Herman, or Young Knighthood.= By E. Foxton. 2 volumes        3.50
+  =Perseverance Island.= By Douglas Frazar                      1.50
+  =Castle Foam.= By Harry W. French                             1.00
+  =Ego.= By Harry W. French                                     1.00
+
+
+=By MARY A. DENISON=
+
+          =His Triumph=            1.00
+          =Like a Gentleman=       1.00
+          =Mr. Peter Crewitt=      1.00
+          =Rothmell=               1.00
+          =Tell Your Wife=         1.00
+          =That Wife of Mine=      1.00
+          =That Husband of Mine=   1.00
+
+
+=By AMANDA M. DOUGLAS=
+
+          =Osborne of Arrochar=               $1.50
+          =A Modern Adam and Eve=              1.50
+          =The Fortunes of the Faradays=       1.50
+          =A Woman's Inheritance=              1.50
+          =Claudia=                            1.50
+          =Floyd Grandon's Honor=              1.50
+          =Foes of Her Household=              1.50
+          =From Hand to Mouth=                 1.50
+          =Home Nook=                          1.50
+          =Whom Kathie Married=                1.50
+          =Hope Mills=                         1.50
+          =In Trust=                           1.50
+          =Nelly Kinnard's Kingdom=            1.50
+          =Stephen Dane=                       1.50
+          =Out of the Wreck=                   1.50
+          =Seven Daughters=                    1.50
+          =Sydnie Adriance=                    1.50
+          =The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe=  1.50
+          =Lost in a Great City=               1.50
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  =Nuna, the Brahmin Girl.= By Harry W. French. Illustrated     1.00
+  =The Only One.= By Harry W. French                            1.00
+  =A Captive of Love.= By Edward Greey. Illustrated.            1.50
+  =The Golden Lotus.= By Edward Greey. Illustrated              1.75
+  =Malbone.= An Oldport Romance. By Thomas Wentworth Higginson  1.50
+  =Marion Graham.= By Margaret Woods Lawrence                   1.50
+  =The Demagogue.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby)                       1.50
+  =A Paper City.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby)                        1.00
+  =The Morals of Abou Ben Adhem.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby)        1.00
+  =Ekkoes from Kentucky.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby). Illustrated   1.00
+  =Swingin' Round the Cirkle.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby). Illus.   1.00
+  =Little Baron Trump and His Wonderful Dog Bulger.= By
+      Ingersoll Lockwood                                        2.00
+  =Little Giant Boab and His Talking Raven Tabib.= By
+      Ingersoll Lockwood                                        2.00
+  =Barbara Thayer.= By Annie Jenness Miller                     1.50
+
+
+=By SOPHIE MAY=
+
+Sophie May's "Grown-up" Stories
+
+          =Drone's Honey.=                          1.50
+          =Janet: a Poor Heiress.= Illustrated      1.50
+          =Our Helen.= Illustrated                  1.50
+          =Quinnebasset Girls.= Illustrated         1.50
+          =The Asbury Twins.= Illustrated           1.50
+          =The Doctor's Daughter.= Illustrated      1.50
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  =Which--Right or Wrong?= By Miss M. L. Moreland. Illustrated   1.25
+  =The Blind Men and the Devil.= By Phineas                      1.00
+  =The Puddleford Papers, or Humors of the West.= By H. H.
+       Riley. Illustrated                                        1.00
+  =Rosecroft.= By W. M. F. Round                                 1.00
+  =Achsah.= By W. M. F. Round. Illustrated                       1.00
+  =The Fall of Damascus.= By W. W. Russell                       1.00
+  =Daisy Travers.= By Mrs. A. F. Samuels. Illustrated            1.50
+  =Seola.= By Mrs. J. Gregory Smith                              1.00
+  =Brushes and Chisels.= By Signor Teodoro Serrao. Tri-color
+       cloth,                                                    1.00
+  =A Tight Squeeze.= By "Staats." Cloth, $1.00; paper,            .50
+  =John Thorn's Folks.= By Angeline Teal                         1.00
+  =Man Proposes.= By F. H. Underwood                             1.00
+  =Lord of Himself.= By F. H. Underwood                          1.00
+  =Edward Burton.= By Henry Wood                                  .25
+  =Mrs. Armington's Ward.= By Mrs. D. Thew Wright                1.00
+
+
+=By VIRGINIA F. TOWNSEND=
+
+          A Boston's Girl's Ambition      $1.50
+          That Queer Girl                  1.50
+          Daryll Gap                       1.50
+          Lenox Dare                       1.50
+          A Woman's Word                   1.50
+          But a Philistine                 1.50
+          Only Girls                       1.50
+          The Deerings of Medbury          1.00
+          The Hollands                     1.00
+          Six in All                       1.00
+          The Mills of Tuxbury             1.00
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  An American Girl Abroad. By Adeline Trafton. Illustrated      1.00
+  Katherine Earle. By Adeline Trafton                           1.50
+  His Inheritance. By Adeline Trafton.                          1.50
+
+
+=By J. T. TROWBRIDGE=
+
+          Neighbor Jack       $1.50
+          Cudjo's Cave         1.50
+          Drummer Boy          1.50
+          Three Scouts         1.50
+          Farnell's Folly      1.50
+          Martin Merrivale     1.50
+          Neighbors' Wives     1.50
+          Coupon Bonds         1.50
+
+
+=By Judge D. P. THOMPSON.=
+
+  The Green Mountain Boys                                    1.00
+  The Rangers, or The Tory's Daughter                        1.00
+  May Martin, and Other Tales of the Green Mountains         1.00
+  Locke Amsden, the Schoolmaster                             1.00
+  The Wreck of the Chancellor. By Jules Verne                1.00
+  A Winter in the Ice. By Jules Verne. Illustrated           1.00
+  The Adventures of a Chinaman. By Jules Verne. Illustrated  1.50
+  Around the World in Eighty Days. By Jules Verne.   "       1.00
+  The Italian Girl. By Mrs. K. S. Washburn                   1.00
+  Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear. By Mrs. K. S. Washburn      1.00
+  The Gates Wide Open. By George Wood                        1.50
+
+
+THE FOLLOWING ARE OFFERED IN PAPER COVERS
+
+  Mr. Phillips' Goneness. By James M. Bailey      $0.50
+  The Danbury Boom. By James M. Bailey              .50
+  They All Do It. By James M. Bailey                .50
+  Something Better. By George M. Baker              .50
+  Nobody's Husband. By S. W. Cozzens                .50
+  Andersonville Violets. By Herbert W. Collingwood  .50
+  Mr. Peter Crewitt. By Mary A. Denison             .50
+  Tell Your Wife. By Mary A. Denison                .50
+  That Wife of Mine. By Mary A. Denison             .50
+  That Husband of Mine. By Mary A. Denison          .50
+  Lost in a Great City. By Amanda M. Douglas        .50
+  A Paper City                                      .50
+  Morals of Abou Ben Adhem                          .50
+  Ekkoes from Kentucky                              .50
+  Swingin' Round the Cirkle                         .50
+  The Puddleford Papers. By H. H. Riley             .50
+  Barbara Thayer. By Annie Jenness Miller           .50
+  The Blind Men and the Devil. By Phineas           .50
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    _Any of the above sent, postpaid, on receipt of price_
+           LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers      BOSTON
+
+
+
+
+HISTORICAL BOOKS * * * *
+
+* * * * FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Young Folks' History of the United States_
+
+By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. Illustrated. $1.50.
+
+          The story of our country in the most reliable and
+          interesting form. As a story-book it easily leads
+          all other American history stories in interest,
+          while as a text-book for the study of history it
+          is universally admitted to be the best.
+
+
+_Young Folks' Book of American Explorers_
+
+By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. Uniform with the "Young Folks' History of
+the United States." One volume, fully illustrated. Price $1.50.
+
+          "It is not a history told in the third person, nor
+          an historical novel for young folks, where the
+          author supposes the chief characters to have
+          thought and said such and such things under such
+          and such circumstances; but it is the genuine
+          description given by the persons who experienced
+          the things they described in letters written
+          home."--_Montpelier Journal._
+
+
+_The Nation in a Nutshell_
+
+By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE, author of "Heroes of History," "Young Folks'
+History of England," "Young Folks' History of Ireland," etc. Price 50
+cents.
+
+          "To tell the story of a nation like ours in a
+          nutshell, requires a peculiar faculty for
+          selecting, condensing, and philosophizing. The
+          brevity with which he relates the principal events
+          in American history, does not detract from the
+          charming interest of the narrative
+          style."--_Public Opinion._
+
+
+_Young People's History of England_
+
+By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE. Cloth, illustrated. $1.50.
+
+          "The whole narrative is made interesting and
+          attractive--in every way what a book of this kind
+          should be in its clearness of statement, freshness
+          of style, and its telling of the right
+          ways."--_Critic._
+
+
+_Handbook of English History_
+
+Based on "Lectures on English History," by the late M. J. GUEST, and
+brought down to the year 1880. With a Supplementary Chapter on the
+English Literature of the 19th Century. By F. H. UNDERWOOD, LL.D. With
+Maps, Chronological Table, etc. $1.50.
+
+          "It approaches nearer perfection than anything in
+          the line we have seen. It is succinct, accurate,
+          and delightful."--_Hartford Evening Post._
+
+
+_Young People's History of Ireland_
+
+By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE, author of "Young People's History of
+England," "Young Folks' Heroes of History," etc. With an introduction by
+JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY. Cloth, illustrated. $1.50.
+
+          "The history is like a novel, increasing in
+          interest to the very end, and terminating at the
+          most interesting period of the whole; and the
+          reader lays down the book a moment in enthusiastic
+          admiration for a people who have endured so much,
+          and yet have retained so many admirable
+          characteristics."--_N.Y. World._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+YOUNG FOLKS'
+
+BOOKS OF TRAVEL
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DRIFTING ROUND THE WORLD; A Boy's Adventures by Sea and Land
+
+        By CAPT. CHARLES W. HALL, author of "Adrift in the
+          Ice-Fields," "The Great Bonanza," etc. With
+          numerous full-page and letter-press illustrations.
+          Royal 8vo. Handsome cover. $1.75. Cloth, gilt,
+          $2.50.
+
+"Out of the beaten track" in its course of travel, record of adventures,
+and descriptions of life in Greenland, Labrador, Ireland, Scotland,
+England, France, Holland, Russia, Asia, Siberia, and Alaska. Its hero is
+young, bold, and adventurous; and the book is in every way interesting
+and attractive.
+
+
+_EDWARD GRÉEY'S JAPANESE SERIES_
+
+
+YOUNG AMERICANS IN JAPAN; or, The Adventures of the Jewett Family and
+their Friend Oto Nambo
+
+        With 170 full-page and letter-press illustrations.
+          Royal 8vo, 7 × 9½ inches. Handsomely
+          illuminated cover, $1.75. Cloth, black and gold,
+          $2.50.
+
+This story, though essentially a work of fiction, is filled with
+interesting and truthful descriptions of the curious ways of living of
+the good people of the land of the rising sun.
+
+
+THE WONDERFUL CITY OF TOKIO; or, The Further Adventures of the Jewett
+Family and their Friend Oto Nambo
+
+        With 169 illustrations. Royal 8vo, 7 × 9½
+          inches. With cover in gold and colors, designed by
+          the author, $1.75. Cloth, black and gold, $2.50.
+
+"A book full of delightful information. The author has the happy gift of
+permitting the reader to view things as he saw them. The illustrations
+are mostly drawn by a Japanese artist, and are very unique."--_Chicago
+Herald._
+
+
+THE BEAR WORSHIPPERS OF YEZO AND THE ISLAND OF KARAFUTO; being the
+further Adventures of the Jewett Family and their Friend Oto Nambo
+
+          180 illustrations. Boards, $1.75. Cloth, $2.50.
+
+Graphic pen and pencil pictures of the remarkable bearded people who
+live in the north of Japan. The illustrations are by native Japanese
+artists, and give queer pictures of a queer people, who have been seldom
+visited.
+
+
+_HARRY W. FRENCH'S BOOKS_
+
+
+OUR BOYS IN INDIA
+
+       The wanderings of two young Americans in Hindustan,
+         with their exciting adventures on the sacred rivers
+         and wild mountains. With 145 illustrations. Royal
+         8vo, 7 × 9½ inches. Bound in emblematic covers
+         of Oriental design, $1.75. Cloth, black and gold,
+         $2.50.
+
+
+While it has all the exciting interest of a romance, it is remarkably
+vivid in its pictures of manners and customs in the land of the Hindu.
+The illustrations are many and excellent.
+
+
+OUR BOYS IN CHINA
+
+        The adventures of two young Americans, wrecked in
+          the China Sea on their return from India, with
+          their strange wanderings through the Chinese
+          Empire. 188 illustrations. Boards, ornamental
+          covers in colors and gold, $1.75. Cloth, $2.50.
+
+This gives the further adventures of "Our Boys" of India fame in the
+land of Teas and Queues.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+IRENE E. JEROME'S
+
+ART BOOKS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+        =IN A FAIR COUNTRY.= With 55 full-page illustrations;
+          engraved by Andrew. Nearly 100 pages of text, by Thomas
+          Wentworth Higginson. Gold  cloth, full gilt, $6.00;
+          Turkey morocco, $15.00;  tree calf, $15.00; English seal
+          style, $10.00.
+
+Miss Jerome has caught the very glamour of the woodland and the lea with
+her pencil, transferring it to paper with the delicacy of an exquisite
+photograph, while Colonel Higginson's delightful style brings out the
+beauty of his topics most satisfactorily. As a specimen of the
+book-maker's art, the volume leaves nothing to be asked.
+
+
+        =A BUNCH OF VIOLETS.= Original illustrations,
+          engraved on wood and printed under the direction
+          of GEORGE T. ANDREW. 4to, cloth, $3.75: Turkey
+          morocco, $9.00; tree calf, $9.00; English seal
+          style, $7.00.
+
+The new volume is akin to the former triumphs of this favorite artist,
+whose "Sketch Books" have achieved a popularity unequalled in the
+history of fine art publications. In the profusion of designs,
+originality, and delicacy of treatment, the charming sketches of
+mountain, meadow, lake, and forest scenery of New England here
+reproduced are unexcelled. After the wealth of illustration which this
+student of nature has poured into the lap of art, to produce a volume in
+which there is no deterioration of power or beauty, but, if possible,
+increased strength and enlargement of ideas, gives assurance that the
+foremost female artist in America will hold the hearts of her legion of
+admirers.
+
+
+        =NATURE'S HALLELUJAH.= Presented in a series of
+          nearly fifty full-page original illustrations
+          (9½ x 14 inches), engraved on wood by GEORGE T.
+          ANDREW. Elegantly bound in gold cloth, full gilt,
+          gilt edges, $6.00; Turkey morocco, $15.00; tree
+          calf, $15.00; English seal style, $10.00.
+
+This volume has won the most cordial praise on both sides of the water.
+Mr. Francis H. Underwood, U. S. Consul at Glasgow, writes concerning it:
+"I have never seen anything superior, if equal, to the delicacy and
+finish of the engravings, and the perfection of the press-work. The copy
+you sent me has been looked over with evident and unfeigned delight by
+many people of artistic taste. Every one frankly says, 'It is impossible
+to produce such effects here,' and, whether it is possible or not, I am
+sure it is _not done_; no such effects are produced on this side of the
+Atlantic. In this combination of art and workmanship, the United States
+leads the world; and you have a right to be proud of the honor of
+presenting such a specimen to the public."
+
+
+        =ONE YEAR'S SKETCH BOOK.= Containing forty-six
+          full-page original illustrations, engraved on wood
+          by ANDREW; in same bindings and at same prices as
+          "Nature's Hallelujah."
+
+"Every thick, creamy page is embellished by some gems of art. Sometimes
+it is but a dash and a few trembling strokes; at others an impressive
+landscape, but in all and through all runs the master touch. Miss Jerome
+has the genius of an Angelo, and the execution of a Guido. The beauty of
+the sketches will be apparent to all, having been taken from our
+unrivalled New England scenery."--_Washington Chronicle._
+
+
+        =THE MESSAGE OF THE BLUEBIRD, Told to Me to Tell
+          to Others.= Original illustrations engraved on
+          wood by ANDREW. Cloth and gold, $2.00; palatine
+          boards, ribbon ornaments, $1.00.
+
+"In its new bindings is one of the daintiest combinations of song and
+illustration ever published, exhibiting in a marked degree the fine
+poetic taste and wonderfully artistic touch which render this author's
+works so popular. The pictures are exquisite, and the verses exceedingly
+graceful, appealing to the highest sensibilities. The little volume
+ranks among the choicest of holiday souvenirs, and is beautiful and
+pleasing."--_Boston Transcript._
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+          LEE AND   *  *  SEVENTY-FIVE CENT *
+
+           *  SHEPARD'S             *   JUVENILES
+
+_Comprising new editions of the following popular Juveniles Bound in
+best English cloth bright colors Any volume sold separately_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+=CHARLEY AND EVA STORIES= By Miss L. C. THURSTON
+
+          =How Charley Roberts became a Man=
+          =How Eva Roberts gained her Education=
+          =Home in the West=
+          =Children of Amity Court=
+
+Miss Thurston writes with a purpose. She is an admirer of manly boys and
+womanly girls, and so carries her characters through scenes and
+situations that elevate and purify. The books are by no means slow,
+being full of adventures.
+
+
+=GOLDEN PROVERB SERIES= By Mrs. M. E. BRADLEY and Miss KATE J. NEELY
+
+          =Birds of a Feather=
+          =Fine Feathers do not make Fine Birds=
+          =Handsome is that Handsome Does=
+          =A Wrong Confessed is Half Redressed=
+          =One Good Turn deserves Another=
+          =Actions Speak Louder than Words=
+
+Two capital story-tellers, "birds of a feather," have flocked together,
+and produced from six old proverbs six as bright and taking story-books
+as ever gladdened the hearts of Young America; showing, indeed, that
+"handsome is that handsome does."
+
+
+=GOLDEN RULE STORIES= By Mrs. S. C. B. SAMUELS
+
+          =The Golden Rule=
+          =The Shipwrecked Girl=
+          =Under the Sea=
+          =Nettie's Trial=
+          =The Burning Prairie=
+          =The Smuggler's Cave=
+
+
+CELESTA'S LIBRARY for Boys and Girls
+
+          =Celesta=
+          =Crooked and Straight=
+          =The Crook Straightened=
+          =A Thousand a Year=
+          =Abel Grey=
+          =May Coverley=
+
+Mrs. Samuels has written many attractive books. The scenes and incidents
+she portrays are full of life, action, and interest, and decidedly
+wholesome and instructive.
+
+
+=SALT-WATER DICK STORIES= By MAY MANNERING
+
+          =Climbing the Rope=
+          =Billy Grimes's Favorite=
+          =Cruise of the Dashaway=
+          =The Little Spaniard=
+          =Salt-Water Dick=
+          =Little Maid of Oxbow=
+
+Not all tales of the sea, as the title of the series would imply, but
+stories of many lands by a lady who has been a great traveller, and
+tells what she has seen, in a captivating way.
+
+
+=UPSIDE-DOWN STORIES= By ROSA ABBOTT
+
+          =Jack of all Trades=
+          =Alexis the Runaway=
+          =Tommy Hickup=
+          =Upside Down=
+          =The Young Detective=
+          =The Pinks and Blues=
+
+
+=VACATION STORIES for Boys and Girls= 6 vols. Illustrated
+
+          =Worth not Wealth=
+          =Country Life=
+          =The Charm=
+          =Karl Keigler or The Fortunes of a Foundling=
+          =Walter Seyton=
+          =Holidays at Chestnut Hill=
+
+
+=GREAT ROSY DIAMOND STORIES for Girls= 6 vols. Illustrated
+
+          =The Great Rosy Diamond=
+          =Daisy or The Fairy Spectacles=
+          =Violet a Fairy Story=
+          =Minnie or The Little Woman=
+          =The Angel Children=
+          =Little Blossom's Reward=
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+          NARRATIVES · OF · NOTED----
+                           -------TRAVELLERS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+=GERMANY SEEN WITHOUT SPECTACLES; or, Random Sketches of Various
+Subjects, Penned from Different Standpoints in the Empire=
+
+          By HENRY RUGGLES, late United States Consul at the
+          Island of Malta, and at Barcelona, Spain. $1.50.
+
+"Mr. Ruggles writes briskly: he chats and gossips, slashing right and
+left with stout American prejudices, and has made withal a most
+entertaining book."--_New-York Tribune._
+
+
+=TRAVELS AND OBSERVATIONS IN THE ORIENT, with a Hasty Flight in the
+Countries of Europe=
+
+        By WALTER HARRIMAN (ex-Governor of New Hampshire). $1.50.
+
+"The author, in his graphic description of these sacred localities,
+refers with great aptness to scenes and personages which history has
+made famous. It is a chatty narrative of travel."--_Concord Monitor._
+
+
+=FORE AND AFT=
+
+        A Story of Actual Sea-Life. By ROBERT B. DIXON, M.D. $1.25.
+
+Travels in Mexico, with vivid descriptions of manners and customs, form
+a large part of this striking narrative of a fourteen-months' voyage.
+
+
+=VOYAGE OF THE PAPER CANOE=
+
+          A Geographical Journey of Twenty-five Hundred
+          Miles from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico. By
+          NATHANIEL H. BISHOP. With numerous illustrations
+          and maps specially prepared for this work. Crown
+          8vo. $1.50.
+
+"Mr. Bishop did a very bold thing, and has described it with a happy
+mixture of spirit, keen observation, and _bonhomie_."--_London Graphic._
+
+
+=FOUR MONTHS IN A SNEAK-BOX=
+
+        A Boat Voyage of Twenty-six Hundred Miles down the
+          Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and along the Gulf of
+          Mexico. By NATHANIEL H. BISHOP. With numerous maps
+          and illustrations. $1.50.
+
+"His glowing pen-pictures of 'shanty-boat' life on the great rivers are
+true to life. His descriptions of persons and places are
+graphic."--_Zion's Herald._
+
+
+=A THOUSAND MILES' WALK ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA, Over the Pampas and the
+Andes=
+
+        By NATHANIEL H. BISHOP. Crown 8vo. New edition.
+          Illustrated. $1.50.
+
+"Mr. Bishop made this journey when a boy of sixteen, has never forgotten
+it, and tells it in such a way that the reader will always remember it,
+and wish there had been more."
+
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+=CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES=
+
+        Being the Adventures of a Naturalist Bird-hunting
+          in the West-India Islands. By FRED A. OBER. New
+          edition. With maps and illustrations. $1.50.
+
+"During two years he visited mountains, forests, and people, that few,
+if any, tourists had ever reached before. He carried his camera with
+him, and photographed from nature the scenes by which the book is
+illustrated."--_Louisville Courier-Journal._
+
+
+=ENGLAND FROM A BACK WINDOW; With Views of Scotland and Ireland=
+
+        By J. M. BAILEY, the "'Danbury News' Man." 12mo. $1.00.
+
+"The peculiar humor of this writer is well known. The British Isles have
+never before been looked at in just the same way,--at least, not by any
+one who has notified us of the fact. Mr. Bailey's travels possess,
+accordingly, a value of their own for the reader, no matter how many
+previous records of journeys in the mother country he may have
+read."--_Rochester Express._
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
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+BRIGHT AND BREEZY
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+
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+
+          By MARY E. BLAKE and MARGARET F. SULLIVAN. Cloth,
+          $1.25.
+
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+with their eyes wide open, and they have the faculty of interesting
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+
+
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+
+          By HELEN J. SANBORN. Cloth, $1.50.
+
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+
+
+=A SUMMER IN THE AZORES, with a Glimpse of Madeira=
+
+        By Miss C. ALICE BAKER. Little Classic style. Cloth,
+          gilt edges, $1.25.
+
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+picturesque islands. She is an observing traveller, and makes a graphic
+picture of the quaint people and customs."--_Chicago Advance._
+
+
+=LIFE AT PUGET SOUND=
+
+        With sketches of travel in Washington Territory,
+          British Columbia, Oregon, and California. By
+          CAROLINE C. LEIGHTON. 16mo, cloth, $1.50.
+
+"Your chapters on Puget Sound have charmed me. Full of life, deeply
+interesting, and with just that class of facts, and suggestions of
+truth, that cannot fail to help the Indian and the Chinese."--WENDELL
+PHILLIPS.
+
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+=EUROPEAN BREEZES=
+
+        By MARGERY DEANE. Cloth, gilt top, $1.50. Being
+          chapters of travel through Germany, Austria,
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+          usually visited by Americans in making "the Grand
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+
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+of things we never heard of before, and is worth two ordinary books of
+European travel."--_Woman's Journal._
+
+
+=BEATEN PATHS; or, A Woman's Vacation in Europe=
+
+        By ELLA W. THOMPSON. 16mo, cloth. $1.50.
+
+A lively and chatty book of travel, with pen-pictures humorous and
+graphic, that are decidedly out of the "beaten paths" of description.
+
+
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+
+        By Miss ADELINE TRAFTON, author of "His Inheritance,"
+          "Katherine Earle," etc. 16mo. Illustrated. $1.50.
+
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+        By CURTIS GUILD, editor of "The Boston Commercial
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+
+
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+
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+serve as an invaluable guide to those who go 'over the ocean,' as well
+as an interesting companion."--_Halifax Citizen._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
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+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
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+YOUNG FOLKS HEROES OF HISTORY
+
+    By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE.
+  Handsomely Illustrated. Price per vol., $1.25. Sets in neat boxes.
+
+
+VASCO DA GAMA:
+
+HIS VOYAGES AND ADVENTURES.
+
+"Da Gama's history is full of striking adventures, thrilling incidents,
+and perilous situations; and Mr. Towle, while not sacrificing historical
+accuracy, has so skilfully used his materials, that we have a charmingly
+romantic tale."--_Rural New-Yorker._
+
+
+PIZARRO:
+
+HIS ADVENTURES AND CONQUESTS.
+
+"No hero of romance possesses greater power to charm the youthful reader
+than the conqueror of Peru. Not even King Arthur, or Thaddeus of Warsaw,
+has the power to captivate the imagination of the growing boy. Mr. Towle
+has handled his subject in a glowing but truthful manner; and we venture
+the assertion, that, were our children led to read such books as this,
+the taste for unwholesome, exciting, wrong-teaching boys' books--dime
+novels in books' clothing--would be greatly diminished, to the great gain
+of mental force and moral purpose in the rising generation."--_Chicago
+Alliance._
+
+
+MAGELLAN;
+
+OR, THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.
+
+"What more of romantic and spirited adventures any bright boy could want
+than is to be found in this series of historical biography, it is
+difficult to imagine. This volume is written in a most sprightly manner;
+and the life of its hero, Fernan Magellan, with its rapid stride from
+the softness of a petted youth to the sturdy courage and persevering
+fortitude of manhood, makes a tale of marvellous fascination."--_Christian
+Union._
+
+
+MARCO POLO:
+
+HIS TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES.
+
+"The story of the adventurous Venetian, who six hundred years ago
+penetrated into India and Cathay and Thibet and Abyssinia, is pleasantly
+and clearly told; and nothing better can be put into the hands of the
+school boy or girl than this series of the records of noted travellers.
+The heroism displayed by these men was certainly as great as that ever
+shown by conquering warrior; and it was exercised in a far nobler
+cause,--the cause of knowledge and discovery, which has made the
+nineteenth century what it is."--_Graphic._
+
+
+RALEGH:
+
+HIS EXPLOITS AND VOYAGES.
+
+"This belongs to the 'Young Folks' Heroes of History' series, and deals
+with a greater and more interesting man than any of its predecessors.
+With all the black spots on his fame, there are few more brilliant and
+striking figures in English history than the soldier, sailor, courtier,
+author, and explorer, Sir Walter Ralegh. Even at this distance of time,
+more than two hundred and fifty years after his head fell on the
+scaffold, we cannot read his story without emotion. It is graphically
+written, and is pleasant reading, not only for young folks, but for old
+folks with young hearts."--_Woman's Journal._
+
+
+DRAKE:
+
+THE SEA-LION OF DEVON.
+
+Drake was the foremost sea-captain of his age, the first English admiral
+to send a ship completely round the world, the hero of the magnificent
+victory which the English won over the Invincible Armada. His career was
+stirring, bold, and adventurous, from early youth to old age.
+
+          LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston.
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS OF PARTICULAR INTEREST TO YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN
+
+
+=HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW=
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+        His Life, His Works, His Friendships. By GEORGE
+          LOWELL AUSTIN. Profusely illustrated. Cloth,
+          $2.00. New edition. Formerly published by
+          subscription.
+
+"We have here a clear and popular presentation of the poet's literary
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+of it as belongs by right strictly to his family, has been avoided, and
+that properly. What the public have a right to know is found in this
+volume, in a style that is easy and pleasing. Here you have Longfellow
+as a child, as a college student, and as a professor in Bowdoin College;
+and especially does he appear here as a man of letters. It is a charming
+volume."--_Christian Standard._
+
+
+=LIFE AND TIMES OF WENDELL PHILLIPS=
+
+        By GEORGE LOWELL AUSTIN. With steel portrait and
+          illustrations. Cloth, $1.50. New edition. The only
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+
+"The life of a man who was so strongly identified with one of the most
+stirring periods in American history must necessarily be one of much
+interest, and Mr. Austin has succeeded in presenting its features in a
+very attractive way. Portions of Mr. Phillips's most important public
+addresses are given, and there are reminiscences of the man by some of
+his close friends and associates."--_Philadelphia Record._
+
+  Wendell Phillips's Lectures, Orations, and Letters, to 1861.
+        563 pages.
+    Library edition. 8vo                                          $2 50
+    Popular edition, with Biographical Sketch, 16mo                1 00
+  The Scholar in a Republic. Paper, 8vo                              25
+  Eulogy of Garrison. Paper, 8vo                                     25
+  Lost Arts. Paper, 8vo                                              25
+  Daniel O'Connell. Paper, 8vo                                       25
+  Labor Question. Paper, 8vo                                         25
+
+
+=LIFE AND DEEDS OF GENERAL U. S. GRANT=
+
+        By Rev. P. C. HEADLEY and GEORGE LOWELL AUSTIN.
+          Profusely illustrated. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+The materials for the early years of the subject of this popular
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+The work is intensely interesting, and exceedingly popular.
+
+
+=Oliver Optic's OUR STANDARD BEARER=
+
+        Or the Life of General ULYSSES S. GRANT, his
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+          by OLIVER OPTIC. _A new edition_, with
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+          sickness and death. Cloth; illustrated by THOMAS
+          NAST and others, elegantly bound, $1.50.
+
+"It is written in Mr. Adams's happiest vein, and is a most unique and
+interesting presentation of a subject upon which volumes have been
+written and read."
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
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+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
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+AIR=
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+          PARSONS HOPKINS Illustrated School edition cloth
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+ALL)=
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+
+          20 illustrations Cloth 80 cents
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+=GEOGRAPHICAL PLAYS FOR YOUNG FOLKS AT SCHOOL AND AT HOME=
+
+        Price each play in paper 15 cents postage paid 1
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+          paid
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+=GRADED SUPPLEMENTARY READING=
+
+        For use in schools By Professor TWEED, late
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+          each: by mail 5 cents The four parts for each year
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+HISTORICAL READINGS
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+=YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES=
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+        By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON With over 100
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+=YOUNG FOLKS' BOOK OF AMERICAN EXPLORERS=
+
+          By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON Illustrated $1.20
+
+
+=HANDBOOK OF ENGLISH HISTORY=
+
+        Based on Guest's "Lectures on English History,"
+          and brought down to the year 1880 With a
+          Supplementary Chapter on the English Literature of
+          the 19th Century By F. H. UNDERWOOD, LL.D. With
+          maps, chronological tables etc. School edition 90
+          cents
+
+
+=YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND=
+
+        By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE Illustrated School edition 60 cents
+
+
+=YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF IRELAND=
+
+        By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE With introduction by JOHN BOYLE
+          O'REILLY Illustrated School edition 60 cents
+
+
+=HEROES OF HISTORY= By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE Illustrated
+
+        Vasco de Gama: his Voyages and Adventures School edition 60
+          cents
+        Pizarro: his Adventures and Conquests School edition 60 cents
+        Magellan: or The First Voyage Round the World School edition
+          60 cents
+        Marco Polo: his Travels and Adventures School edition 60 cents
+        Raleigh: his Voyages and Adventures School edition 60 cents
+        Drake the Sea King of Devon School edition 60 cents
+
+
+=THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY= By Mrs. L. B. MONROE 80 cents
+
+
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Italics are indicated by
+_underscores_ and bold text is shown by =equal signs=.
+
+Varied hyphenation was retained.
+
+Page 106, "haye" changed to "have" (I have had so)
+
+Page 253, "sucessfully" changed to "successfully" (not working
+successfully)
+
+The spelling of "Ralegh: His Exploits" is actually the title of the book
+by Towle.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hope Mills, by Amanda M. Douglas
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30436 ***
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+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Hope Mills;, by Amanda M. Douglas.
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+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30436 ***</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 372px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="372" height="600" alt="Cover" title="" />
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h1>HOPE MILLS;</h1>
+
+<h3>OR,</h3>
+
+<h2>BETWEEN FRIEND AND SWEETHEART.</h2>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>AMANDA M. DOUGLAS,</h2>
+
+<div class='center'><span class="smcap">Author of "From Hand to Mouth," "Nelly Kinnard's Kingdom,"
+<br />"In Trust," &amp;c., &amp;c.</span><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">"Abou spake more low,</span><br />
+But cheerly still; and said, 'I pray thee, then,<br />
+Write me as one that loves his fellow-men.'"<br />
+<div class='sig'>
+<span class="smcap">Leigh Hunt.</span><br /><br /><br /><br />
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<b>BOSTON:</b><br />
+LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS.<br />
+NEW YORK:<br />
+CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM.<br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p>
+<div class='bbox'><h2>THE DOUGLAS NOVELS.</h2>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br />&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Douglas Novels">
+<tr><td align='left'>OSBORNE OF ARROCHAR.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A MODERN ADAM AND EVE IN A GARDEN.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE FORTUNES OF THE FARADAYS.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>FOES OF HER HOUSEHOLD.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A WOMAN'S INHERITANCE.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>CLAUDIA.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>FLOYD GRANDON'S HONOR.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>FROM HAND TO MOUTH.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>HOME NOOK.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>HOPE MILLS.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>IN TRUST.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>LOST IN A GREAT CITY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>NELLIE KINNARD'S KINGDOM.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>OUT OF THE WRECK.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>SEVEN DAUGHTERS.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>STEPHEN DANE.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>SYDNIE ADRIANCE.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>WHOM KATHIE MARRIED.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br />&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+
+
+PRICE PER VOL., $1.50.<br />
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+
+
+
+
+LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS,<br />
+BOSTON.<br />
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='copyright'><br /><br />
+<span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1879,<br />
+<span class="smcap">By</span> LEE AND SHEPARD.<br />
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+<i>All rights reserved.</i><br />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+TO<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap"><b><big>Hon. Marcus L. Ward,</big></b></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>As a Tribute</b><br />
+<br />
+TO ONE WHO HAS HELD LOYALLY TO GOD AND HIS FELLOW-MEN,<br />
+WHO HAS LABORED IN THE NOBLE CAUSE OF HUMANITY,<br />
+NOT DISHEARTENED WHEN RESULTS WERE INFREQUENT,<br />
+BUT CONTENT TO REAP THE REWARD<br />
+IN THE GREAT HEREAFTER.<br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
+<h2>BETWEEN FRIEND AND SWEETHEART.</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">There</span> is Fred again with his arm around Jack
+Darcy's neck. I declare, they are worse than two romantic
+schoolgirls. I am so thankful Fred goes away
+to-morrow for a year! and I do hope by that time he
+will have outgrown that wretched, commonplace youth.
+Mother, it is very fortunate that Jack is the sole scion
+of the Darcy line; for, if there were a daughter, you would
+no doubt be called upon to receive her into the bosom
+of the family."</p>
+
+<p>"Which I never should do," remarked quiet, aristocratic
+Mrs. Lawrence, not even raising her eyes from
+her book.</p>
+
+<p>"Not for the sake of your only son?" continued
+Agatha, with an irritating laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be silly, Agatha," returned the mother, with
+an indifference that took off the point of the query.</p>
+
+<p>Her second sister glanced up from a bit of pencil-drawing,
+then lowered her eyes to the street where the
+boy friends stood, one with his arm over the other's
+shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Think of a Harvard graduate arm-in-arm with&mdash;well,
+a mill-hand! No doubt Jack's father will put him
+in the mill. I cannot see any sense in a boy of that
+class taking two years at the academy."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On the opposite side of the room were two girls, hardly
+more than children, busily engaged in ornamenting a box
+with transfer-pictures. One had a rather haughty mien,
+as became a Lawrence; the other, pretty, piquant little
+Sylvie Barry, looked toward the elders, knit her brow,
+with both thought and indignation visible in its lines, and
+held her picture absently in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you listen to that?" asked Irene Lawrence
+disdainfully. "It is only Jack Darcy, and he's nobody.
+His father works in the mill."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that!" was Sylvie's rather sharp retort,
+answering the latter part of the sentence merely. Child
+as she was, she experienced a strong desire to do battle,
+not only for Jack, but for some puzzling cause she could
+not quite comprehend. With the blood of a French duke
+in her veins, of soldiers and martyrs as well, she was a
+sturdy little democrat. It seemed cowardly not to take
+up arms.</p>
+
+<p>"That butterfly is to go next," remarked Irene, reaching
+out for it; and Sylvie held her peace, though she felt
+the warm blood burning in her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy did not need any champion within doors;
+for Fred stood up bravely against these three girls, and
+from them received his first impression that women were
+small of soul and narrow of mind. As they stood by
+the gate now, this last hour grudged to them, neither
+dreamed that this was the final canto in the poem of boyhood.
+They had been fast friends since the first day
+pale, puny Fred made his appearance in school, and was
+both laughed at and bullied by some boys larger in size,
+but younger in years.</p>
+
+<p>"He will have to get the nonsense rubbed out of
+him some time," thought Jack; "and it can never be
+younger." But, when the contest degenerated into the
+force of the strong against the weak, one blow of Jack's
+fist sent Brown reeling and howling.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Try a fellow of your own size next time," was Jack's
+pithy advice.</p>
+
+<p>Fred came to him, and cried hysterically in his arms.
+Jack had experienced the same feeling for some poor
+rescued kitten. Fred, with his head full of King Arthur
+and his knights, mythology, and bits of children's histories,
+wherein figured heroes and soldiers, elected Jack to the
+highest niche in his regard.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy was a wonderful boy withal, a very prince
+of boys, who hated study and work, and loved play; who
+despised Sunday clothes and girls' parties; but who had
+not his equal for spinning a top, or raising a kite, and
+when it came to leap-frog, or short stop, he was simply
+immense. Then he always knew the best places to dig
+worms, and the little nooks where fish were sure to bite,
+the best chestnut and walnut trees; and, with years and
+experience, he excelled in baseball, skating, wrestling,
+leaping, and rowing. Jack Darcy was no dunce, either.
+Only one subject extinguished him entirely, and that was
+composition. Under its malign influence he sank to the
+level of any other boy. And here Fred shone pre-eminently,
+kindly casting his mantle over his friend,&mdash;further,
+sometimes, than a conscientious charity would have
+admitted; but a boy's conscience is quite as susceptible
+of a bias as that of older and wiser people. On the other
+hand, Jack wrestled manfully with many a tough problem
+on which Fred would have been hopelessly stranded.
+Once rouse the belligerent impulse in Jack, and he would
+fight his way through.</p>
+
+<p>These two were at different ends of the social plane.
+Fred's father was the great man of Yerbury, the present
+owner of Hope Mills; not only rich, but living in luxury.
+He had married Miss Agatha Hope, and by the death of
+her two brothers she had become sole heir to the Hope
+estate: though it was whispered that her brothers had
+left a heavy legacy of debts behind them. There was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+family on the Lawrence side as well, but not much money.
+David Lawrence had prospered beyond his wildest dreams.
+He had twice been mayor of Yerbury, gone to the State
+Legislature, and been spoken of as a possible senator;
+but he did not sigh for political distinction.</p>
+
+<p>Agatha was their first-born; then Frederic De Woolfe,
+named for some Hope ancestor. Two girls afterward;
+but Fred remained the only son. He was a delicate boy,
+and, until he reached the age of ten, studied with his
+sisters' governess, when he rebelled, and insisted upon
+his boy's prerogative of going to school. Here he met
+and loved Jack Darcy.</p>
+
+<p>Jack was a few months the elder,&mdash;a stout, hardy,
+robust boy, full of mischief, falling into scrapes, and slipping
+out easily. Not vicious or ugly; in fact, he had
+thrashed Ned Thomas for robbing birds' nests, been known
+to rescue a miserable kitten from its tormentors, and was
+always bringing home sore-eyed, mangy curs to be nursed
+and healed. If he had cared, he could have boasted as
+good a pedigree as the Hopes and the Lawrences. For
+his grandmother was of pure old French Jacobin descent,
+titled too. Many a wild romance and adventure had her
+family figured in,&mdash;now on the top round of prosperity,
+now in bitter poverty and exile. At the age of eighteen
+she was living on the western coast of Ireland with her
+old father, when she fell in love with handsome Jack
+Darcy, whose persuasive blue eyes were enough to melt
+the heart of the most obdurate woman; the merriest,
+wittiest, best-tempered lad for miles around, the owner
+of a small farm and numberless family traditions that
+counted back to the time when</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Malachi wore the collar of gold,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">He won from the proud invader."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>For a while they were prosperous and happy: then
+came bad seasons, famine, and finally typhus. Two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+bright, handsome sons and a little daughter were victims,
+leaving only baby Bernard. They came to the New
+World, and began life again, managing thriftily, and buying
+a house and garden in the quaint old town of Yerbury.
+Mr. Darcy died; and his son grew to man's estate, settled
+to the business of carpenter and builder (as he possessed
+a good deal of mechanical skill), married a pretty, delicate
+girl, but did not seem to make of life a signal success.
+Still it is possible that a life of happiness and content
+may have its use in this world, if it does not serve to
+point a prosperous moral.</p>
+
+<p>He added a wing to the house, he raised fruit and
+flowers that were marvels. Grandmother preferred for
+several years to keep house by herself, raise chickens and
+geese, and keep putting by a little of her very own.
+They had a choice garden and a soft-eyed Alderney cow,
+but Bernard Darcy had surely missed his vocation. He
+should have been a scientific farmer.</p>
+
+<p>Baby Jack came to them. He certainly had not inherited
+the beauty of the Darcys nor the Beaumanoirs,
+not even the delicacy of his mother. The eyes of Irish
+blue were tinged with gray, his hair inclined to the
+warmer tints of chestnut, and now he always kept the
+curls cropped short. However, his magnificently shaped
+head was not disfigured by the process. He did get
+terribly freckled and tanned as warm weather came on,
+and the hair turned almost red by much bathing and
+sunshine. A striking contrast indeed to the handsome,
+well-dressed Frederic.</p>
+
+<p>When Fred went to the academy he pleaded for Jack
+to go, and Grandmother Darcy decided that he should.
+She had never taken kindly to her son's rather plebeian
+occupation. After several years of indifferent success,
+Mr. Darcy had accepted a position at the mill, in which,
+if there was not so much profit, there were no losses.</p>
+
+<p>Jack was not a student in an intellectual point of view.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+He did not care to be a doctor, lawyer, or clergyman,
+and certainly not a professor. He would have liked to
+pack a satchel, and start westward, prospect for a railroad,
+gold or silver mine, and live the rugged, unconventional
+camp-life. Once he had ventured to suggest this
+noble ambition; but his timid mother was startled out of
+her wits, and his grandmother said with a sage shake
+of the head,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"A rolling stone gathers no moss."</p>
+
+<p>"Grandmother," began Jack argumentatively, "of
+what real value is the moss to the stone, except in the
+picturesque aspect? Do you know that a great many of
+these time revered and honored adages are the greatest
+humbugs in the world?" asked the audacious young
+iconoclast. "Who wants to be a stone or a clod, or
+even a bit of velvet moss? They go to make up the
+world, it is true; but is that narrow, torpid, insensate
+life any pattern for human souls and active bodies? I
+think a man's business in this world is to find out
+new channels, to build up, to broaden and deepen, and
+somehow to make the world feel that he has been in it.
+I can't just explain,"&mdash;and his brows knit into a puzzled
+frown,&mdash;"but it seems to me there is something
+grander than plodding along and saving a little money."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt you would be glad enough to have the
+money, when you have gone off like the prodigal son,
+and wasted health and substance in foreign lands," said
+grandmother with some asperity.</p>
+
+<p>Jack had been brought up to reverence the Bible and
+religion, and to respect his grandmother was the first
+article in his creed. He relapsed into silence, but the
+busy brain kept up a vigorous ferment. What was life
+all about, anyhow? Why did people come into the world,
+live thirty, sixty, or even eighty years, and then drop
+out of it. Was it merely to eat, drink, and sleep?</p>
+
+<p>The wider lore at the academy had a peculiar effect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
+upon Jack, tangled his brain, begat confusing mental
+processes. Greek he hated; Latin he barely endured;
+chemistry and mineralogy interested him, and in mathematics
+he excelled. Fred carried every thing before him,
+graduated with honors, and was to enter Harvard. The
+Lawrences went to Newport, and Jack missed his bosom
+friend sorely. He rambled through the woods, read every
+thing that came in his way, and thought a good deal in
+his crude, undisciplined fashion.</p>
+
+<p>What was he to do with this tough problem of unknown
+quantities?</p>
+
+<p>He ventured at last to broach the subject to his father.</p>
+
+<p>Bernard Darcy studied his son gravely. Now, it must
+be considered that he had never been troubled with this
+hungry, perplexing view of life that urges one on to dip
+deep into the secrets of existence. To have a pretty
+house and garden, to watch his flowers, vegetables, and
+chickens grow, to dream over his books in his cosey sitting-room,
+not to be pinched for money, not to be anxious
+about employment, but to go on serenely day after day,&mdash;this
+was Mr. Darcy's idea of happiness; and, having this,
+he was perfectly content.</p>
+
+<p>His mother secretly chafed at his lack of ambition; his
+neighbors said, "A good, honest fellow, but with no
+'push' in him." Curiously enough, the virtues that are
+preached from pulpits Sunday after Sunday, that we are
+always recommending to our friends, are <i>not</i> the ones that
+gain any vast amount of credit in this life. "Be content!
+be content!" cries every one, from revelation downward;
+yet content, pure and simple, is rather despised and flouted
+by our fellow-men.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, Jack," said the elder, gravely shaking
+his head with slow dubiousness. "What would you do if
+you were once away?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd go on until I found some place into which I just
+fitted;" and the boy glanced over westward with hungering
+eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But, Jack," said his father, after a pause, "I think
+people oftener fit themselves into a place. There are so
+few places ready made to one's hand. It's always something.
+Now, I'll venture to say that David Lawrence,
+with all his money, doesn't see as much real happiness as
+I do. His is a slave's life, after all. It's day and night,
+bills to pay and stock to get, dissatisfied hands, poor
+hands spoiling work, losses here and there, little leisure,
+small peace of mind; and all for what? There was a time
+when I might have envied him: I don't now."</p>
+
+<p>Jack had lost all but the first two sentences.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the thing!" he cried, with boyish enthusiasm,&mdash;"fitting
+yourself; coming to something that takes hold
+of you like an inspiration; that you could work for, fight
+for, that rouses soul and body."</p>
+
+<p>Bernard Darcy studied the youthful face, eager, alert,
+hopeful, and with something else in it that he could not
+understand.</p>
+
+<p>"I never had any such dreams or desires," he said in
+an uncertain tone, as if fearful he might lose his way
+among his son's vagaries. "I wanted a pleasant home,
+and a loving wife and children. I wish there had been
+more of them, Jack, for your sake," and his voice took
+on a tender inflection. "Then, if one wanted to go away,
+there would have been others left. You see, Jack,
+mother's heart is bound up in you, and she's getting to be
+an old woman with but few ties. I might manage to
+comfort your own mother; but you are so young, Jack.
+There will be many years before you, doubtless; and if
+you could give a few to us," with a wistful, loving look.
+"Now, if you wanted to study"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't," in a hasty, husky tone. "I believe I
+hate quiet. I want life, adventure! I've staid in school
+this last year just to please Larry."</p>
+
+<p>"Have a little patience, Jack. Old people are not like
+young ones. They feel the changes keenly. And you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+are all we have. It would take the sunshine out of our
+lives. It would seem as if there had been a funeral."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Jack with meek hopelessness that one
+would hardly look for in a vigorous boy; and winking
+hard to keep back some tears. No logical argument, no
+stricture of duty, could have half the weight of this bit of
+love pleading. Father was right. God had made him a
+son first of all, given him a son's duties. Jack had never
+troubled his head much about religion in any theological
+sense; but his simple creed had some great if old-fashioned
+truths in it.</p>
+
+<p>"If there's any thing you would like to do, I'd be glad
+to give you a chance. And there's no need to hurry.
+You may come to the right thing presently."</p>
+
+<p>Jack swallowed over a great lump in his throat. The
+two kittens came scampering up the walk, and he caught
+one, lifting it to his shoulder. Then Sylvie Barry entered
+the gate with her dainty milk-kettle shining like silver.</p>
+
+<p>They were in a manner neighbors, for Larch Avenue
+was the next street to Maple Place. Both streets were
+now given over to what is termed decayed gentility. The
+larches were old and ragged and brown with clustering
+cones, and the blue blood of the denizens had grown a
+little sluggish.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Honoria Barry and her small niece lived together,
+with a tall and gaunt handmaiden Norman French, and a
+broad Yorkshire gardener. Miss Barry was the old cream
+of Yerbury. Here her family had lived since the Huguenot
+persecution, and dwindled finally to two. Louis
+Barry was a dissipated spendthrift. He married, and
+tormented his wife into an early grave, and might have
+worn out his sister, but Providence kindly removed him.
+Miss Honoria retrenched, paid off debts and mortgage
+by degrees, and brought up Sylvie in a quaint, refined,
+old-world fashion.</p>
+
+<p>Old Mrs. Darcy and Miss Barry exchanged formal calls,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+and discussed la belle France. Sylvie took great delight
+in listening to grandmother's stories of brave heroes and
+handsome women who figured in old legends.</p>
+
+<p>Oddly enough, one of the many points of agreement
+between Jack and Fred had been their aversion to girls
+in general. Fred judged them from his sisters, who were
+always nagging, always exhorting him to be a gentleman,
+and always holding up Jack Darcy to ridicule. Jack, on
+the other hand, had a bashful fear of girls, and fancied
+they were laughing at every little awkwardness; then they
+cried so easily, went off in a huff if they could not have
+their own way, were silly, vain, and tattling, ready enough
+to beg your assistance if there was a munching cow by the
+roadside, a worm swinging from a tree, or a harmless
+mouse running across the floor. The great fascination to
+the Darcy house was, that the boys could sit in the large,
+clean kitchen, trying all sorts of crude experiments, with
+Ann to clear away the <i>d&eacute;bris</i> and find no fault. Jack
+never wanted to go to the great house. In true boy fashion
+he understood without any explanation. But they
+both liked little Sylvie. She was taught at home except
+in music and drawing, and she was as much interested in
+grandmother's heroes as the two boys.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, the Hopes and the Barrys had always
+been great friends; and, from some odd freak of unlikeness,
+Sylvie and Irene Lawrence carried on the intimacy.</p>
+
+<p>She stopped now, and talked about the kitten with Jack;
+and he carried her milk-pail home to the gate.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long, wearisome vacation to poor Jack. Fishing
+lost its charm, even tramps in the woods became
+monotonous. He spent hours in his father's shop, inspecting
+machinery, though he seldom asked a question
+or ventured upon a remark. Indeed, some of the hands
+thought "Darcy's boy wasn't over-bright." Yet here he
+laid the foundation of the problem that was to vex and
+puzzle his soul in after-years. Here was the great, whirring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+machinery, belts, bands, spindles, looms, and oftentimes
+a stupid and stolid enough workman at one end,
+grinding out luxury and elegance for David Lawrence,
+Esq.; that his family might tread on Wilton and Axminster,
+dine from silver and crystal, dress in silks and velvets,
+drive about with high-stepping bays, and scorn all
+beneath them. Once as Jack was thinking it over he
+laughed aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"You must feel very much amused," said a rather
+sour-looking man standing near by, with a peculiar touchiness
+as if he had been laughed at.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I wasn't amused, I was only thinking"&mdash; But
+Jack stopped in the middle of his sentence. Could <i>this</i>
+man take any such position as that of Mr. Lawrence?</p>
+
+<p>Then he came across a volume of self-made men, which
+he eagerly devoured. Every one seemed to have commenced
+life without a dollar, and almost without friends.
+Were those the important factors in the race, to be light-weighted?
+And he had a triple chain.</p>
+
+<p>Fred returned, handsomer than ever, and doubly glad
+to get back to Jack. There was just four days grace.
+They revisited old haunts, talked endlessly and to little
+purpose, like so much of the talk of youth, and now they
+were parting at the gate for the last time. Unlike girls
+they exchanged no vows or kisses. It is not in boy-nature
+to be effusive.</p>
+
+<p>"To think that I shall not be home until Christmas!
+If only you <i>were</i> going with me, Jack, what jolly times
+we would have!"</p>
+
+<p>"I could have gone," answered Jack with some pride,
+"that is, if I had been prepared. Father was willing,
+and grandmother would have been proud enough;" and
+just then Jack wondered why going to seek his fortune
+appeared so much more terrible to them.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why not, Jack?" with impetuous eagerness.
+"It isn't too late."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I don't want the years of study. I should come to
+hate the sight of a book. No, I'll find out where I
+belong, some day. Don't worry about me," with an
+abrupt laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"But I am so sorry!" Then they looked into each
+other's eyes. All these years had been filled with such
+good, honest boy-love.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, old chap!" cried Jack suddenly; for the
+wrench must come, and lingering over it was painful. "I
+shall miss you lots! it seems so queer to be without you!
+Of course you'll succeed: there's no use wishing about
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a good wish from you, Jack. Good-by. I hate
+awfully to say it: I hate to think that our jolly boyish
+frolics are over."</p>
+
+<p>"But we'll have many a good row on the river, and
+tramps through the woods. We can't outgrow every thing.
+And there'll be summers and summers."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by."</p>
+
+<p>The gate-latch clicked: Jack walked rapidly down the
+street, whistling "Kathleen Mavourneen" unconsciously.
+Did he dream the simple faith of boyhood had reached its
+culmination, and was henceforth to wane?</p>
+
+<p>"Dear old Jack," thought Fred: "I don't know as
+he is quite Launcelot, though I used to think so at first.
+But there was Sir Gawain and Sir Bedevere and a host
+of worthies, and if he only <i>would</i> he could come up to the
+highest. What makes him so obstinate and unambitious,
+I wonder? Are there any King Arthurs and loyal knights
+nowadays, or only common men and women?"</p>
+
+<p>His sisters opened upon him with the fatal persistency
+of narrow feminine natures.</p>
+
+<p>"You may say what you like about Jack Darcy," he
+flung out angrily, "but you'll never make me give him
+up,&mdash;never, never!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do hush, children," interposed Mrs. Lawrence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+"Fred, I hope you will learn to modulate your voice,
+and not shriek so."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie put on her hat to go home. As she passed Fred
+she said just above her breath,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You are right and brave. I wouldn't give up my
+friend because he was poor; and Jack is so nice!"</p>
+
+<p>"Much she knows about it," thought Fred, with a true
+boyish disdain. Yet her approval of Jack was a virtue in
+his eyes.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Father!</span>" exclaimed Jack a few days after this
+parting from his bosom friend, "I think I will go in the
+mill for a year or two, if there is any thing for me to do.
+Meanwhile my inspiration may come along."</p>
+
+<p>"But what would you like best, Jack?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's just the trouble," and the youthful brows knit
+in perplexity. "All things seem alike to me: I haven't
+any choice."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Darcy drew a long breath that was almost a sigh.
+If Jack only would evince some preference!</p>
+
+<p>However, a place was found as under-bookkeeper. It
+was desperately tiresome to Jack to sit perched on a high
+stool all day; and after three months of it he begged to
+be put at something else.</p>
+
+<p>At this period we had gone through our costly civil war;
+and, instead of being exhausted as friends and enemies
+predicted, the machinery of business appeared to have
+been set in motion with a new and overwhelming impetus.
+Every thing was wanted; everybody had work or money;
+and the most useless commodity found a purchaser: as
+if our anguish had crazed us, and we went into a delirium
+of mental opium, and dreamed wild, exhilarating dreams
+which we mistook for reality.</p>
+
+<p>Yerbury had been a slow, solid, conservative town.
+Property was low, taxes light and easily paid, a balance
+on hand in the treasury to commence the new year, and
+very little pauperism in the town. Yerbury officials
+utilized their inefficient population, and their county jail<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+was not made a palace of luxury. The old-fashioned
+element in the place held crime as the result of sin instead
+of occult disease,&mdash;a thing to be punished, rather than
+petted. It had good railroad connections, plenty of
+water, with one navigable stream, and a variety of industries.
+Iron, shoes, hats, paper, and clothing were manufactured
+to a considerable extent, to say nothing of many
+smaller branches. Hope Mills was the largest, the focus
+of the town, and had the prestige of being handed down
+through three generations, though never as extensive as
+now.</p>
+
+<p>Toward the west there was a succession of pretty hills
+that lay in the broad sunshine, making you think somehow
+of Spanish slopes, covered with vineyards, olives,
+and luxuriant verdure. Over beyond, a wide, diversified
+country range, farms, woodland, hills and valleys, with
+a branch of the river winding through, called, rather unromantically,
+Little Creek.</p>
+
+<p>On these slopes, the new part, dwelt the aristocracy.
+Streets wound around in picturesque fashion to make easy
+grades, and many old forest-trees were preserved by that
+means, giving the place an air of years, rather than yesterday
+and improvement. There were two pretty parks,&mdash;one
+devoted to Fourth-of-July orations from time immemorial;
+there were churches of every denomination; a
+boarding and day school for young ladies, the academy,
+some excellent district schools; a hall with library and
+reading-room; a bank; rows of attractive shops and
+stores; and, coming down in the scale of refinement,
+beer-saloons and concert-halls, kept generally up to a
+certain point of morality. There were so many laboring-men,
+and they must have something by way of entertainment.</p>
+
+<p>It struck Jack with a curious wonder. These stolid
+faces and plodding steps were part of the human machines
+out of which wealth was being ground. They went to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+the beer-shops at night in their dirty clothes, smelling
+of grease and dye, drank beer, played a few games, and
+harangued each other, and went home maudlin or stupefied.
+Perhaps it was more comfortable than the slatternly
+wives and crying children. Did it need to be so? If you
+gave the workingman a helping hand, did he turn straightway
+into an unreasoning demagogue?</p>
+
+<p><i>He</i> was not likely to be tempted by such doings. His
+home had always been too clean and pleasant. He still
+kept up with the boys, and joined the lyceum club; but
+the intimate companionship of his life was gone.</p>
+
+<p>Fred did not come home for Christmas. College-life
+was delightful,&mdash;would be just perfect if dear old Jack
+were there. The glowing letters kept alive his own
+secret dissatisfaction. But how explain it to one who
+would be sure to say, "Get out of it all, Jack: no one
+has any right to keep you in such a distasteful round, and
+thwart your life-plans." To be sure, he had no life-plans.</p>
+
+<p>One raw, cold March day, Mr. Darcy went out to repair
+a roof that had leaked in the previous storm. He rarely
+minded wind or weather.</p>
+
+<p>"I declare," he said that evening, dropping into his
+capacious armchair, "I feel as if I should never get
+warmed through. I do believe we shall have a tremendous
+snowstorm to take this chill out of the air. Jack,
+read the paper aloud, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack complied. Local items, bits of State news, and
+the general progress of the country; the starvation of
+a nation at the antipodes, the discovery of a wonderful
+silver-mine, plans for new railroads,&mdash;how busy the
+world was! It stirred Jack's youthful blood.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to be a railroad-president," said Jack suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>His father stared, then laughed at the absurdity.
+"Why, you're only a boy, Jack," he replied.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I know it. But the boy who means to be a railroad-president
+must begin somewhere. Or if I could own a
+silver-mine," he went on, with the boundless audacity of
+youth.</p>
+
+<p>"Could you find use for the silver?" asked his father
+humorously.</p>
+
+<p>Jack flushed, and lapsed into dreams. Grandmother
+opposite was nodding in her chair, her knitting still in
+her fingers. Jack left his vision for a moment, to calculate
+if the old chest upstairs was not nearly full of stockings.
+His mother sat sewing some trifle, and just raised
+her eyes with that longing, beseeching glance mothers
+so often give to their sons.</p>
+
+<p>"If women only did not care so much for one," thought
+Jack, "or if there had been a great family of us. And
+still I can't see the wonderful difference between going to
+college, and going to seek your fortune. Does two or three
+hundred miles more matter when you are once away?"</p>
+
+<p>The snow came on through the night. There being
+nothing urgent on hand, Mr. Darcy remained within; but
+Jack buffeted the storm gallantly. It would be worse
+than this out in the new countries where he meant to go
+some time.</p>
+
+<p>The next day Mr. Darcy was out. There was a dull
+pain in his breast, going through to his back, and he
+coughed a little. It went on thus for forty-eight hours,
+when the pain became intense, and fever set in. Dr.
+Kendrick was summoned; and, though the case was
+severe, it had no alarming symptoms at first. Jack went
+to and fro with his merry whistle; speculative he might
+be, but he was not introspective or morbid: wife and
+mother watched at home.</p>
+
+<p>There came one of those sudden and inexplicable turns
+in the disease. Jack was stunned, incredulous. In his
+mother's eyes lay a look of helpless terror he was never to
+forget.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You'll care for them always, Jack; you'll never leave
+them," said his father imploringly, in one lucid interval.</p>
+
+<p>"Always," answered the young voice bravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, my son, my dear boy;" and there was a
+fervent clasp of the hand.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later Bernard Darcy lay coffined in the
+pretty parlor, while wife and mother were crushed with
+grief.</p>
+
+<p>"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes;" and Jack dropped the
+first handful of earth in his father's open grave. The two
+women clung to him,&mdash;he was their all. Here lay his
+duty as long as God pleased.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed for weeks after this as if Mrs. Darcy would
+follow her husband. She looked so white and wan, she
+was so feeble that some days she could not leave her bed.
+Grandmother rallied with that invincible determination
+not to be beaten down if her prop was wrenched away.</p>
+
+<p>Jack was now a few months past eighteen, stout, and
+growing tall rapidly. There was about him a sturdy persistence
+and the good common sense that lends an adaptiveness
+or pliability of disposition, so to speak, that is
+often mistaken for content. Since he must stay here for
+some years to come, he would devote himself to learning
+the business of manufacturing woollen cloth. It entertained
+him more than keeping books. For the sake of
+these two bereaved women, he would take an actual interest
+in the work he had to do.</p>
+
+<p>Looking back in after-years, he was glad he made the
+resolve, and stood by it manfully. It gave ballast to his
+character, shaped him to a definite purpose. A narrow
+life, to be sure; nay, more, a distasteful one: but he did
+his best, and waited, and that was all that could be asked
+of him.</p>
+
+<p>Early in June there was a great commotion at the mansion
+on Hope Terrace. Miss Agatha Lawrence was married
+to Hamilton Minor, one of the great firm of brokers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+in Wall Street, 'Morgan, Minor, &amp; Co.' For weeks it
+had been the talk of the town. The trousseau came from
+Paris, and was marvellous. The presents were on exhibition,
+and created a vast amount of envy and admiration,&mdash;silver,
+jewels, pictures, crystal, china, and laces. And
+last of all a sumptuous wedding,&mdash;every delicacy in season
+and out of season, costly wines, pyramids of cake,
+and a lavish profusion of flowers. Nothing so grand had
+ever occurred in Yerbury.</p>
+
+<p>Fred and a stylish Miss Minor were to stand. He
+reached home just in time; and, as he was to be off again
+with the bridal party, he sent a note of regret to Jack.</p>
+
+<p>Jack had too much good sense to feel hurt, though he
+was disappointed. A few weeks later he took his mother
+and grandmother up to the mountains for change of air,
+and enjoyed the vacation hugely himself. So it happened
+he did not see Fred at all.</p>
+
+<p>The second year letters languished, indeed failed, I
+may as well admit. Jack was being rapidly inducted
+into the wisdom of the world, Fred into the wisdom of
+society. They would never meet on the old plane again.
+The mill-hand would be no companion for the son and heir
+of David Lawrence, Esq.</p>
+
+<p>It was not in Jack Darcy's nature to be bitter or cynical.
+He just accepted the fact. Somewhere he and Fred
+had outgrown each other, and the boyish interests, once
+such a bond of union. Fred would be an educated and
+cultivated gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>Why should he be left in the background? His ambition
+was suddenly roused again, and he more than half
+wished himself in college. He went back to his books;
+he joined a debating-society. There was no need of being
+a mere clod because he had to work. David Lawrence
+was a gentleman. And the next spring he took up
+a little botany and horticulture with his gardening. Old
+Mr. Rising down the street, who had been gardener to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+some great lord,&mdash;a peculiar, obstinate Englishman, with
+his head crammed full of odd bits of knowledge,&mdash;took a
+fancy to Jack. They discussed not only fruit and flowers,
+but trade in its various aspects, as Mr. Rising had relatives
+at Manchester who had soared to the ambitions of
+mills and factories.</p>
+
+<p>Time sped on, and they came to the second summer.
+Miss Gertrude Lawrence was a belle now, and the great
+house was constantly filled with guests. The Lawrence
+equipages were seen in every direction. Mrs. Minor
+was up frequently, in grand state. The lawn was gay
+with croquet-parties, the evenings were brilliant with
+lights and music: they had two elegant garden-parties,
+when the grounds were illuminated with colored lanterns,
+and the teas were festivals in themselves. Fred had
+brought home two college chums, and for the first fortnight
+was deeply engrossed. Then, too, the girls no longer
+nagged at him. He was developing into an elegant
+young man, with due regard for the proprieties.</p>
+
+<p>He did go to call on Jack one evening. It was a duty,
+a rather awkward and embarrassing one, and he took to
+himself great credit in the point of moral courage. He
+understood thoroughly now what Agatha had striven so
+sedulously to explain, the difference in social station. He
+was not likely in the future to make a blunder on that
+side, but it would not do to turn the cold shoulder to Jack
+all at once. "A boy's will's the wind's will," he repeated
+with much complacency, and it was but natural that it
+should veer in other directions. Jack was a good enough
+fellow, but no Sir Galahad or Sir any one now.</p>
+
+<p>He was a little shocked at Mrs. Darcy in her mourning
+dress and widow's cap. She was pale, and with the extreme
+delicacy so often pronounced characteristic of
+American women. Grandmother sat in state and dignity,
+rather resentful of what she termed in her secret heart
+Fred's neglect, but a thing she would not have confessed
+openly if she had been put to torture. And Jack?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Frederic De Woolfe Lawrence studied him with a critical
+eye. A great, lumbering, inelegant fellow! Jack
+seemed to have grown out in every direction, without
+being finished up in any. He was taken somewhat at a
+disadvantage, too: somehow he fancied, if he had met
+Fred alone in a stray walk, there would have been less
+formality.</p>
+
+<p>They talked about college. Fred was doing well, for
+he was by nature a student. Society's arts and airs would
+never entirely uproot that love. He meant to distinguish
+himself, and have one of the prize essays. Jack was
+rather grave and quiet, hard to get on with, Fred thought;
+and he was relieved when the duty was ended, and he
+could go with a good grace.</p>
+
+<p>Jack lingered on the porch, clinching his fingers, and
+listening to the jaunty retreating footstep. There was
+something different in Fred's walk even, a buoyancy as
+if he could override any little difficulties that fate might
+have in store for him. Jack smiled grimly. Fortune had
+showered every good gift upon him. He would go proudly,
+successfully, through life. He would be praised and
+honored&mdash;and for what?</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Jack felt like wrestling with him, shoulder
+to shoulder, to distance him, to defeat him, to lower
+his complacent pride. His half-patronizing manner had
+stung keenly. Then the real nobility of his nature
+cropped out, and he laughed at his own sudden heat and
+passion.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be folly," he said softly to himself. "I
+could not distinguish myself in any line he will be likely
+to follow. He must work his way: I must work mine.
+He knows what he means to do; and there he has gone
+ahead of me, for I really do not know my own mind.
+No, there's no further basis for a friendship: the boy-love
+has had its day, and died. After all, isn't that the
+history of every thing?" and Jack looked up to the stars,
+still with a little wordless pain at his heart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He heard during the next week that Fred had gone
+West with one of his friends, who was nephew to a great
+railway magnate. It would be only a flying trip, to be
+sure, but here Jack was tempted to envy him. That
+boundless West, the land of his own dreams!</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother grew a trifle less energetic, still it could
+not be said that her health began to fail. Mrs. Darcy
+remained about the same. Every day Jack realized how
+much he was to the two women. To leave them would be
+absolute cruelty.</p>
+
+<p>At Christmas of this year Miss Gertrude Lawrence was
+married. The wedding was rather quieter, from the fact
+that it was winter, and the bride was to leave for Europe
+the next day. Irene was shooting up into a tall girl, and
+being educated at a fashionable and expensive boarding-school.
+Nothing happened to impair her friendship with
+Sylvie Barry, though the two girls were as dissimilar in
+many respects as Jack and Fred, but they both stood on
+the same social plane.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile matters at Yerbury prospered mightily.
+The town was quite bright at night with the glow from
+factory-windows, and people seemed always hurrying to
+and fro. New shops and stores were started, new streets
+were laid out, rows of houses built in town, and out on
+the edge pretty and ugly suburban villas. Property began
+to increase everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>Gertrude and her husband George Eastman came back
+to Yerbury in about five months. He had begun his
+career as clerk in a bank, and joined his brother afterward
+as an army-contractor. From thence they had
+branched into general speculating, and were both considered
+rich men. Mr. Minor owned a Fifth-avenue
+palace, and Mrs. Minor never came to Yerbury without
+her maid. Mrs. Eastman could not have the palace in
+town, so she decided to have a handsome summer residence
+at Yerbury, and spend her winters at different<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+hotels. Mr. Eastman thought he saw a grand opening
+just in this pretty spot. Property was ridiculously low.
+Here were farms and farms that might as well be cut up
+into building-lots, and turned into cities. Here was the
+river-front, here were railroads: why not have twice or
+thrice as many shops? why not call in the people from
+far and wide, and make Yerbury a place of note? Time
+had been when our fathers were content to dream and
+doze, but now it behooved everybody to be up and
+stirring. In the new race the laggards would fall far
+behind.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eastman set the example by purchasing one large
+tract, and laying out streets. Then uprose houses as if
+by magic. Modern improvements, water, gas, bath, butler's
+pantries, and dumb-waiters; and the houses offered
+so cheaply that the solid, slow-going, honest business-men
+wondered how it could be done. The places had a wonderfully
+seductive look, and were sought after eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>There was a peculiar interest in all this to Jack. When
+one day somebody said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Downer's property south of the bridge has gone for
+thirty thousand dollars. Five years ago he'd been glad
+to have taken ten for it. Crater and Harmon are going
+to build a big factory,"&mdash;Jack's heart went up with a
+bound.</p>
+
+<p>He still wanted to get away from Yerbury. He began
+to feel that he had made a mistake with his life, and was
+anxious to rectify it if possible. He did not see how he
+could do it here. He had gone into the groove, and it
+was hard getting out. But if some one came along, and
+offered them a fortune!</p>
+
+<p>The chance drew near. A new street was prospected
+through Miss Barry's grounds, through the Lanier place
+farther back, and the southern end would touch the
+Darcy place, giving it some new fronts and available
+lots, and placing the house on the corner. There would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+be sufficient ground for the width of the street. A petition
+was forthwith circulated.</p>
+
+<p>Alas that there could be people so blind to their own
+interests and the general welfare of the community!
+Miss Barry stoutly resisted. She even inspired some of
+her neighbors to that extent of opposition that they
+would not sell at any price. Destroy the beauty of
+Larch Avenue, that had been "Lovers' Walk" in the old
+days, and held so many tender reminiscences!</p>
+
+<p>"When I am gone I don't care what is done with the
+place," said Miss Barry. "It will have but little sentiment
+for the next generation. A change to me now
+would be like tearing up an old tree by the roots. I
+could not endure it. They may have their elegant new
+houses; but give me my large airy rooms and my old-time
+flowers, my nectarines and apricots. Let me live
+my few years in peace and quiet."</p>
+
+<p>"There is certainly enough to improve," returned
+Grandmother Darcy. "There are miles and miles that
+people are glad to sell. Let them take that. Let them
+build up the vacant lots. And where are all the people
+coming from to fill them?"</p>
+
+<p>"The factories and mills will bring in the people,"
+said Jack sturdily.</p>
+
+<p>"There is plenty of room elsewhere," returned Miss
+Barry with some asperity. "There certainly is no need
+of turning people out of homes they like, and have made
+comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you cannot look at it in a business light,"
+said Jack. "Women rarely do"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"There have been just such whirlwinds before, Mr.
+Darcy," said the shrewd little old lady. "I have lived
+through two of them myself. And it seems to me it is
+an epidemic of running in debt, rather than prosperity.
+If everything were paid for; but you see here are improvement-bonds,
+and our town runs in debt: here is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+everybody raising money on mortgages. How is it to be
+paid? Do wages and salaries double? History proves
+that it is a bad thing for a state when its rich men grow
+richer, and its poor poorer."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure they need not," said Jack valiantly.
+"There is a higher scale of wages paid than ever before."</p>
+
+<p>"And no account made of thrift or economy. Enticements
+at every corner; women flaunting silks and laces
+as everyday gear, with no sacredness; old-fashioned
+neatness despised, industry ridiculed; men lounging in
+beer-shops; girls flirting on the public streets, having no
+duties beyond a day's work in a mill. What will the
+homes and the wives of the next generation be like?"</p>
+
+<p>"But that was all so irrelevant," said Jack after she
+had gone. "Women mix up everything. Now, here:
+you are offered a big price for this property. You two
+could live at ease all the rest of your life, and I"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You would go away," said his mother sorrowfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, perhaps not," trying to make the tone indifferent.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack," began his grandmother, sitting very erect,
+and glancing straight before her into vacancy, "I am an
+old woman now; and, like Miss Barry, I could not take
+a change comfortably. No other place will ever be home
+to your mother or me. There is some money,&mdash;enough,
+I think, to take care of us both. So, if you cannot be
+content, if you must have the restless roving of youth out
+before your blood can cool, go and try the world. It is
+pretty much alike all over,&mdash;some one going up while
+another goes down; chances here, and chances there.
+As for the few years left me"&mdash; And there was a slight
+tremble in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't fret. I'm not going away," said Jack crossly,
+huskily, too much hurt to study his tone. "If I can't
+always see things as you do"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>There were tears in his mother's eyes. Jack rose suddenly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+thrust his hands in his pockets, and walked out
+into the twilight. There was nothing to be done with
+so obstinate a problem as his life. He would learn the
+business thoroughly, getting on as fast as possible, and
+some time make a strike out for himself, become a manufacturer
+in turn. The thing was settled now. Maybe
+some one would want him for mayor or congressman.
+There was a time when David Lawrence, Esq., had
+been a comparatively poor man; and though Jack felt
+that he would hardly turn his hand over to have a million
+of dollars put in it for the mere money's worth, if he could
+not discover a silver-mine, or build a railroad over the
+Rocky Mountains, he might become a rich man. Wealth
+was a mighty lever, after all. He shut his lips grimly,
+and pushed his hat down over his eyes. In the early
+summer dusk, fragrant with rose and violet, he went over
+the old battle-ground. Did some enemy sow it continually
+with dragon's teeth? To stay here eight or ten
+years, mayhap, to make all the money he could. Not
+one year of her life did he mean to grudge grandmother.</p>
+
+<p>It was quite late when he came in, but his mother was
+watching for him. She put her arms softly about his
+neck, and kissed him.</p>
+
+<p>"Have a little patience, dear," she said, in tender,
+motherly tones; but he knew her sympathy was with him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I mean to. I don't care as much as I did an
+hour ago. I'm going to set myself steadily to business.
+You'll hear no more moans or groans out of me, mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Jack&mdash;you know I would go to the end of the world
+with you."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you would&mdash;yes, I do. There, good-night!"
+for she was crying.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the way we rule circumstances," said Jack
+dryly, sitting down in his own room, and taking up
+Carlyle. "What an amount of humbug is talked in this
+world,&mdash;yes, and written too!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">There</span> was an influx of new blood in Yerbury, and it
+brought in fresh ideas. A new railroad touched it at one
+edge, and real-estate dealers left off fighting about Larch
+Avenue. The ancient stages were laid aside for the more
+modern horse-cars: there was bustle and rivalry on every
+hand. George Eastman began to be quoted, and his advice
+asked generally. Mrs. Eastman held her head loftily.
+Then there came on the arena of action a certain Horace
+Eastman, cousin to George, who had been abroad as
+agent for a large firm, and who slipped into the place of
+general manager of Hope Mills.</p>
+
+<p>Plainly, F. De Woolfe Lawrence was not preparing to
+follow in his father's steps. He had graduated with
+honors, and taken a prize essay, and was now a fully-fledged
+modern young man. He was fond of discoursing
+on abstruse subjects, he dabbled a little into art, wrote
+some mystical poems, tied a cravat beyond criticism, and
+wore faultless gloves and boots. His mother and Mrs.
+Eastman were extremely proud of him. His father
+wondered a little what the young man's future would
+be.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not decided upon a profession," he said, with
+a just perceptible but extremely stylish drawl. "The
+next thing is going abroad. I want at least two years of
+travel, and I should not wonder if I settled myself at
+some German or Parisian university. We, as a nation,
+are so sadly deficient in culture. Our country is crude,
+as I suppose all young countries must be."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>David Lawrence nodded slowly, and asked,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"When did you think of going?"</p>
+
+<p>"I may as well go at once, and have it over," returned
+the young man, with the princely indifference he affected.</p>
+
+<p>His father did not dissent. As well in Europe as here,
+or anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>As for Jack, he was quite as much out of his reach as
+if the ocean already rolled between. They used to pass
+each other quietly, nodding if they came face to face, but
+often evading any kind of recognition. Was the old
+regard dead?</p>
+
+<p>Fred smiled rather pityingly on the boy who had been
+so blinded in his first love.</p>
+
+<p>"I used to think him such a hero, because he once
+thrashed a boy in my behalf," mused the young man.
+"And how I used to fly at the girls, who were always
+looking at the feet of clay my idol possessed! How I
+<i>did</i> coax him to go to college!" and Fred gave a little
+rippling laugh. "I must admit that he has good common
+sense,&mdash;he has found his place, and keeps it. There
+could be nothing between us now, of course. My lines
+lie in such different ways."</p>
+
+<p>No moan for a lost ideal under all that self-complacency.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy took the defection in good part. He did
+see the utter incongruity of keeping up even the semblance
+of the old dream. But, where Fred had made
+dozens of new friends, Jack had admitted no one to his
+vacant shrine. He liked, even now, to recall those old
+hours, so bright and gay with childish whims and frolics.
+And he did envy Fred, just a little, that ramble over
+Europe. Would it be a ramble? It was Jack's turn to
+smile. Would it not be bits and pictures seen through
+coach-windows, rather than getting close to Nature's
+heart? No, that would not suit <i>him</i>.</p>
+
+<p>And so glided by two more years. De Woolfe Lawrence&mdash;he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+had dropped the initial now&mdash;returned home in a
+still higher state of cultivation, and quite as undecided as
+to his future career. A life of leisure and <i>belles-lettres</i>
+looked the most tempting to him. He had read up a little
+in medicine, but the practice would not please his fastidious
+inclinations. Law had its objections. In fact, Mr.
+Lawrence had dropped into that dilettante state into which
+extreme cultivation, without genius or ambition, is apt to
+drift its possessor. He was nearing twenty-four now,&mdash;handsome,
+aristocratic, the pride of his family, and the
+distraction of young women in general. Invitations were
+showered upon him, and the delicate flattery society loves
+to use, ministered to his vanity.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile what of Jack?</p>
+
+<p>He had improved considerably through these years.
+The rough angularity of twenty had softened. Tall, but
+robust and compact, no stooping shoulders or slouching
+gait. The chestnut hair was no longer faded, but still
+cropped close; and the eyes were so deep that they seemed
+to have a blue-black tint, large, slow-moving, with that unutterable
+wistfulness which makes one sad. The face was
+good, strong, and earnest; and, if his manners were not
+those of a gentleman of leisure, they bore the impress of
+something quite as noble, honor, tenderness, and sincerity.
+The old restlessness had dropped out. Love, being larger
+than duty, hinted now at no sacrifice. Grandmother
+Darcy, now grown quite feeble, leaned on this strong arm,
+always outstretched, forgetting there had ever been any
+wild dreams of youth.</p>
+
+<p>And, though Yerbury had changed so much, they and
+the old street remained unchanged. Mrs. Darcy was a
+little thinner and older, the light hair just touched with
+silver. The garden was the same: wherever his father's
+favorite flowers had died out, Jack had replaced them.
+Only the honeysuckle was like great twisted ropes, and
+the syringas and lilacs were trees instead of bushes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Old neighbors had gone, and new ones come, but they
+were of the quiet, steady kind. Miss Barry seemed
+smaller and frailer, but she was as active as ever in her
+refined way. Sylvie no longer came to the gate for milk:
+indeed, the wide-eyed Alderney had long been given up,
+and Sylvie was a young woman. Irene Lawrence had
+been sent to a fashionable boarding-school; but Sylvie
+had been educated at home, under her aunt's eye, by a
+French governess who had proved something more than a
+mere teacher. The coming of Madame Tr&eacute;pier served to
+cement more closely the intimacy with the Darcy family.
+Indeed, Jack took a queer, half-shy liking for madame,
+and began to study French. He had a great fondness for
+music, and a fine, rich tenor-voice: so he and Sylvie sang
+duets together, and often walked in the twilight with
+madame. Indeed, Miss Barry would have kept her for
+friend and companion all the rest of her life; but there
+came a very persistent wooer, and madame succumbed
+a second time to the destiny of women.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie Barry was piquant rather than pretty: a soft
+peachy skin neither dark nor fair, with a creamy tint;
+deep lustrous hazel eyes, that seemed to change with her
+moods; hair that had barely shaken off the golden tint,
+and clustered in rings about the low broad forehead; a
+passable nose of no particular design, but a really beautiful
+mouth and chin, the latter dimpled, the former with a
+short curved upper lip, displaying the pearly teeth at the
+faintest smile; barely medium height, with a figure that
+was slim yet not thin, rounded, graceful, pliant, with some
+of the swift dazzling motions of a bird.</p>
+
+<p>While Jack and Fred had drifted so apart, Sylvie and
+Irene still kept up a curious friendship. On Sylvie's part
+there was no election: indeed, Irene in her imperious fashion
+took Sylvie up as the mood seized her. Mrs. Lawrence,
+now quite an invalid, was fond of Sylvie's bright
+face and gay inspiriting voice. In Irene's absence she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+was often sending for her. "Play me a little song before
+you go," she would say; or, "Read a chapter in my book
+for me, will you not? You always make people seem so
+real." Consequently Sylvie had never left off going to
+the great house. Mrs. Eastman would fain have patronized
+her, but in her spirited way she shook off the faintest
+attempt. But Irene flew to her, and insisted upon a croquet-party
+or a drive, or a musical soir&eacute;e.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't do without you, you obstinate little thing,"
+she would exclaim. "I don't know why I take so much
+trouble about you; for I don't believe you like me at all,
+but just tolerate me for the sake of old times. There are
+twenty girls in Yerbury who would go wild with delight if
+I were to ask them."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you not, then?" inquired Sylvie with a tantalizing
+light in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I don't choose to, Miss Impertinence! Don't
+be cross now, and torment me to death with your perverse
+ways."</p>
+
+<p>"You surely need not be tormented."</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie, you are exasperating."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you ask me, then, or tease me to do any of
+these things? I would rather stay at home to-day, and
+paint."</p>
+
+<p>"But I shall not give you up. I'll stay here, and talk
+so that your wits will wander!"</p>
+
+<p>And so at last Sylvie would consent to her friend's
+demands.</p>
+
+<p>One evening she came over to discuss a costume for
+a fancy-dress garden-party. Mrs. Eastman had brought
+some fashion-plates up from New York, but they did not
+altogether suit her fancy: so the carriage was ordered,
+and in a few moments it rolled to Sylvie's door.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie and Jack were at the piano. There was a soft,
+drizzling, summer-night rain, that made all the air fragrant
+without any noisy patter. It was just the evening for an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+old Latin hymn; and Sylvie was playing the strong, rich
+chords that had in them mysterious hints of heavenly joy,
+coming up through waves of passionate suffering. Jack's
+voice seemed toned to these sympathetic vibrations, and
+the grand old words rolled out simply, with none of the
+vicious taste of the more modern fashionable school. So
+engrossed were they, that they did not hear the carriage
+stop; but Sylvie caught her aunt's voice.</p>
+
+<p>They had reached the end of a verse. "Let me see
+what auntie wants," said Sylvie, running into the next
+room; and then it was, "Oh, Irene! oh, Sylvie!"</p>
+
+<p>"Singing to yourself in the twilight!" laughed Irene.
+"How romantic! I'm going to interrupt you now, and
+put you in better business. I am just loaded down with
+the excellent fripperies of this world, and unable to make
+a choice. And the grand occasion is Mrs. Avery Langton's
+garden-party. Now, be good-natured, and help me
+decide."</p>
+
+<p>Uttering this in a rapid breath, she had walked through
+the sitting-room to the parlor, and tumbled her parcel
+down on the great antique sofa, whose edges everywhere
+were studded with brass nails. And there stood Jack,
+thinking, if he had been quicker, he could have stepped
+out of the window into Miss Sylvie's pretty flower-bed, now
+purple with odorous heliotrope. But, as he had not, there
+was nothing to do but to stand his ground manfully.</p>
+
+<p>He had often seen Irene Lawrence in the carriage and
+on horseback; but as she stepped into the room now, and
+stood there rather surprised, she might have been a daughter
+of Juno. Tall, slender, arrowy straight, but lithe and
+faultlessly rounded, her fleecy white shawl like a gossamer
+web falling off her shoulders, her haughty carriage, her
+wealth of purple-black hair coiled about her shapely head,
+a hundred times handsomer than any artifice of dressing,
+her brilliant complexion, her large eyes with their long
+sweeping lashes that veiled their depth, but seemed to add<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
+a certain imperiousness, her coral-red lips that shaped
+differently with every breath, her straight nose, with the
+nostrils thin as a bit of shell, and the softly rounded chin,
+made her a picture that Jack Darcy never forgot.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" in a tone of surprise, "I thought you were
+alone: pardon me."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie was bringing in another lamp, and placed it on
+the great clawfoot centre-table. Then it occurred to her
+that Irene might not know Jack. She should recognize
+him here socially, anyhow.</p>
+
+<p>"My friend Miss Lawrence," she said with a world of
+dignity, "Mr. Darcy."</p>
+
+<p>Jack bowed, in no wise abashed by this proud and
+handsome Miss Lawrence, though as a child she had
+snubbed him many a time. And she glanced him over
+with a sudden interest. It was a manly face and a manly
+figure; and she wondered from what remote corner of the
+earth Sylvie Barry had summoned this fair, stout giant,
+who made her think of the Norse gods of her childish
+romances. She always liked strength: Sylvie was for
+tenderness, pathos, and beauty.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-evening," inclining her proud head. "Did I
+interrupt? You were singing?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is finished," returned Sylvie, with her peculiar
+manner, as if, being hostess here, she should have proper
+respect paid to her position; and each guest should be as
+deferent to the other as if she were a little queen, and this
+her court.</p>
+
+<p>She picked up a stray piece of music that had fallen to
+the floor, seated Irene, and half turned to Jack. Any
+other woman might have been awkward.</p>
+
+<p>"I will leave you two ladies to yourselves," began
+Jack; but Irene interrupted,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mr. Darcy: I shall think I have driven you
+away;" with a beguiling smile. "If you understand
+music, you may have a taste in the fine arts of dress as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+well. At all events, look over these elegant women in
+their party-gowns, and tell me which is fairest and rarest."</p>
+
+<p>The honesty of the glance, although it was coquettish,
+told Jack that Miss Irene did not remember him. For,
+of all the haughty Lawrence women, she had the name of
+being the haughtiest. She gathered up her skirts in other
+people's houses when the plebeian element came too near.
+Now she waved him to a chair, and gently sank into
+another, her trailing robe of thin filmy black with golden
+flecks falling about her like clouds in a gusty sky.</p>
+
+<p>He took the seat indicated. Some strange feeling
+moved him, an enchantment that he had never before
+experienced. The very air about her was filled with a
+subtle, indescribable perfume that he should always associate
+with a tall, dark-eyed woman,&mdash;a glimpse of the
+Orient and its sweetness, he fancied.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie took her place, and began to tumble over the
+colored plates.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so tired of those Watteau things!" began Miss
+Lawrence disdainfully. "They all savor of bread-and-butter
+girls,&mdash;a shepherdess with her crook,&mdash;bah! And
+I've been Marie Stuart so many times. If it were a masquerade;
+but garden-parties are beginning to prove bores,
+after all. There is nothing new about them, only to out-shine
+every other woman. A high ambition, is it not,
+Mr. Darcy?"</p>
+
+<p>"A temptation perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>The tone had in it a bit of delicate homage. Irene
+understood. She knew at once that this man was a little
+dazed by her beauty, just as many other men had been.
+Puny, delicate, namby-pamby men she despised, and
+always gave them a cut with her sharp tongue. Where
+had Sylvie picked up this Saul among his peers?</p>
+
+<p>They were all interested in the pictures, and soon fell to
+making merry comments on them. Sylvie had a quick
+eye and a bright wit, and something made Jack Darcy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+brilliant. They selected bits of fine taste here, they made
+an elegant costume of no particular style, and Irene was
+struck with what she knew would be its becomingness.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Darcy, are you an artist?" She remembered
+just then what an odd way the Barrys had of picking up
+people with some gift or grace.</p>
+
+<p>"No," and Jack flushed boyishly.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must have a houseful of sisters."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I never had a sister."</p>
+
+<p>"When all things else fail with you, you can set up
+opposition to Worth. I shall come to you for designs.
+Now, this will be a peculiar source of gratification to me,
+because no one can possibly have the same combination.
+And you never can depend upon a modiste. Mr. Darcy,
+what makes women so faithless to one another?"</p>
+
+<p>"Are they?" he asked with a man's simplicity.</p>
+
+<p>She laughed gayly, and met Jack's fun-loving, shady
+blue eyes. How handsome they were!</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry entered the room, and joined in the pleasant
+chat: then a rumble of carriage-wheels was heard.</p>
+
+<p>"It has stopped raining," said Sylvie, going to the
+window. "A few soft, melancholy stars have come out."</p>
+
+<p>"You have been very obliging, Sylvie," said Miss Lawrence.
+"Miss Barry, I shall send the carriage over to-morrow.
+Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy handed her out, pushing aside a trailing
+rose that it might not catch her shawl. Then she half
+turned, and said "Good-night" in a softer tone.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie was standing on the porch. "It has been as
+good as a play, Jack," she said with her gay-humored
+laugh. "I don't believe she ever thought"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That I worked in her father's mill!" and Jack
+laughed; but it was a rather pained, jarring sound.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack&mdash;why do you? You are a puzzle to me!" and
+Sylvie's voice sharpened unconsciously. "You do not
+like it. Why did you not go on at the academy, or"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Raise myself in the social scale? That's what you
+mean, Sylvie; although we pass just as pleasant hours as
+if I were a prince, and you the lady of high degree.
+Well, we have gone over the ground a good many times,
+and it is always the same thing. I have no fancy for a
+profession; I have no genius for art, though Miss Lawrence
+suggests that I might become a man-milliner&mdash;is
+that what you call it? You know, I am staying here
+because mother and grandmother will not go anywhere
+else. And I dare say I make as much money as young
+Dr. Romer or Ned Remington. And somehow, now that
+I'm in it, I go on with a stubborn, plucky feeling. Some
+day I'll be a great manufacturer."</p>
+
+<p>This time his laugh was cheerful and ringing.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, Sylvie, your good-nature places you on the
+debatable ground. You and your aunt could be hand-in-glove
+with all these great people, and yet you open your
+generous heart to take in everybody."</p>
+
+<p>"No, not everybody, Jack. And what a little coward
+I am just this minute! No, it is not that either. Jack,
+you <i>do</i> know that I should never be a bit ashamed of you
+before any one. I feel vexed when I think that you could
+take the high places, and yet you let people put you
+down,&mdash;people not half as worthy or half as good as you.
+There's Horace Eastman. He came here a comparatively
+poor man; and now he owns half Yerbury, and talks of
+the mill-hands as if they were&mdash;well, a flock of sheep."</p>
+
+<p>"An apt comparison, Sylvie. To my mind, they are
+shorn pretty close to make broadcloth for their masters."</p>
+
+<p>"And there is Fred&mdash;have you seen him since his
+return?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not to speak to him, of course." And then Jack
+flushed deeply, with a little hurt feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"And what friends you were! Is it the way of the
+world? Then it is a mean, hateful world!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie, you are talking wildly. Don't you see there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+is no point of union in our lives? Now, I do not feel
+so badly over an outgrown friendship. When I was a
+little boy, I remember having a wonderful fancy for Tom
+Deane. We traded jack-knives; we told each other of
+the best nut-trees; we hunted squirrels; we coasted together;
+and, I dare say, he was as much of a hero in my
+childish eyes as I used to be in Fred's. But think of
+any friendship between us now! There isn't a greater
+loafer in all Yerbury than Tom Deane. Why, we have
+not a feeling in common."</p>
+
+<p>"Still I think it is rather different," and a shade of
+annoyance passed over her face. If Jack only would not
+call up these people below him, if he would not identify
+himself so strongly with that common brotherhood! He
+had so many nice tastes, such a clean, pure, honest soul.
+And, young as Sylvie was, she knew this was not always
+the result of culture or wealth or ambition.</p>
+
+<p>Jack guessed what was passing in her mind. From his
+father he had inherited a kind of womanish intuition. A
+pleasant-tempered man Bernard Darcy had always been
+called, but it was that delicate tact, the intuitive knowledge
+of what would be pleasant to others.</p>
+
+<p>"What else can I do here, Sylvie?" Jack cried with
+sudden heat. "If the chance ever comes, I shall be
+fitted for a good business man. You may think there is
+no worthy ambition in that, but wait. Do not judge me
+too hastily."</p>
+
+<p>"I am impatient at times, I know; but it is because I
+see your capabilities, and I can't bear to think of your
+going through the world unappreciated."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not worry about that. Good-night!" rather abruptly.
+"Miss Barry, I have forgotten myself. Pleasant
+dreams!"</p>
+
+<p>"And we did not have our old hymn, after all," said
+Sylvie regretfully.</p>
+
+<p>Jack took the short cut across the garden. There was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+a dim light in the sitting-room; and his mother lay in the
+hammock on the latticed porch, her favorite evening
+resort. She came in now, and Jack bolted the doors.
+Then, with a good-night kiss, he went to his room, and
+in ten minutes was asleep. Sylvie, on the other hand,
+girl-like, tossed and tumbled. Why was the world so
+queer and awry and obstinate? After all, you could do
+so little with it. Your plans came to nought so easily.
+Lizzie Wise, in her Sunday-school class, preferred going
+in the mill, and buying herself cheap finery, because the
+other girls did it. And so all through. You tried to
+train some one, and he or she followed the <i>ignis fatuus</i>
+more readily than any high, ennobling truth. It was hard
+lifting people out of their old grooves.</p>
+
+<p>How bright and entertaining Jack had been this evening!
+Of course Irene had not remembered him. Would
+she be vexed, Sylvie wondered,&mdash;she who held herself up
+so high, and believed in a separate world as it were?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> garden-party was a success, and Miss Lawrence
+the acknowledged belle of the evening. No one else
+could have carried off the peculiar style of dress. She
+knew that she was radiant; and triumphs were a necessary
+sweet incense, that she always kept alive on her
+shrine. There was no need of making a hurried election:
+indeed, her chief aim now was pleasure and conquest.</p>
+
+<p>They were sitting over their dainty lunch, Mrs. Eastman
+having dropped in; and, after the party had been
+pretty thoroughly discussed, a little lull ensued. Fred
+toyed with some luscious cherries, in his usual indolent
+manner. Nothing in this world was worth a hurry or a
+worry, according to this young man's creed. He had
+dawdled through the party, waltzing with a languid grace
+that most girls considered the essence of high-breeding.
+It was all one to him. His "set" affected to think life
+something of a bore. Intense emotion of any kind was
+vulgar.</p>
+
+<p>"By the by, Rene," said Mrs. Eastman, "do you
+suppose Sylvie Barry is engaged to that Darcy fellow?
+It was odd that she should go off on a picnic with him,
+instead of the party. She has the queerest, mixed-up
+tastes."</p>
+
+<p>"What Darcy fellow?" asked Irene in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie Barry! Jack Darcy!" exclaimed Fred, in
+as much amazement as his superfine breeding would
+allow.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Eastman gave a mellifluous laugh.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Don't you remember? but you were such a child!
+Fred does. The Damon to his Pythias."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!"</p>
+
+<p>A vivid scarlet ran up to the edge of Irene's white
+brow. So that was Jack Darcy. What a blind fool she
+had been, <i>not</i> to think! She had laughed and chatted with
+him, smiled on him, worn the costume of his designing,&mdash;a
+common workingman! For a moment she could have
+torn her hair, or beaten her slender white hands against
+the table. What had possessed her?</p>
+
+<p>"I do recall some green and salad days," rejoined Fred
+with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"How Agatha and I used to badger you! We were
+little fools to think such a thing ever went on when one
+came to years of discretion. Only I believe we were
+afraid the elder and idiotic Darcy might foist his son on
+some college. I must say Yerbury has become quite endurable
+now that party lines have been set up;" and
+Mrs. Eastman crumbed her cake, watching her diamond
+sparkle.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know Sylvie went on a picnic?" asked
+Rene, with an angry glitter in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't the dear confess? Rene, you do not keep
+your penitent in very good order."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Eastman had a faculty of putting something extremely
+irritating in her voice. It was honey smooth, and
+yet it rasped.</p>
+
+<p>"Really," answered Irene indifferently, "I do not see
+that Miss Barry's selection of friends need affect me much,
+so long as she keeps the distasteful ones out of my way.
+I may wonder at her choice of pleasures, but I suppose
+she suits herself."</p>
+
+<p>"My nursery-girl belongs to the mission-school. It
+was very good of Lissette to let her off for a whole day,
+I thought. I left her to settle it. What Sylvie sees in
+such people, I cannot imagine. I own I was a trifle surprised<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+when I found this remarkable Mr. Darcy was our
+old <i>b&ecirc;te noir</i>, Jack. Is he still in the mill, I wonder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Apply to papa," laughed Irene.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe papa could tell you the names of five
+workmen. As if he troubled his head about that!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie is a nice little thing," remarked Fred patronizingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no patience with her!" declared Mrs. Eastman.
+"As if it was not necessary to have a line drawn
+somewhere! These people are all well enough in their
+way: they are a necessary factor,"&mdash;picking the words
+slowly to give them weight,&mdash;"and society establishes
+schools and homes for them, trains teachers, provides
+employment: what more do they want? A holiday now
+and then, of course; but why not go off by themselves as
+a class, as the French do? This maudlin, morbid sympathy
+we Americans give, spoils them. There is no keeping
+a servant in her place here. Before you know it she
+studies and graduates at some school, teaches for a while,
+goes abroad, and paints a picture, likely as not."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not excite yourself, Gerty," and Fred pulled the
+ends of his silky moustache.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it does annoy me to see a young girl like Sylvie
+Barry with no better sense. Some day we shall have all
+these people rising up against us, as they did in the French
+Revolution. I hate socialism and all that; and I took
+good care to say to Mrs. Langton that Miss Barry had
+been casting in her lot that day with a parcel of charity-children,
+and would no doubt be too tired to enjoy the
+exquisite pleasure of her f&ecirc;te."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think Sylvie cares a penny!" said Irene
+with a touch of scorn, anxious to return her sister's little
+stab. "I suppose she comforts herself with the remembrance
+of her old blue blood, while Mr. Langton made
+his fortune as an army-contractor."</p>
+
+<p>"The Wylies were a very good family, Irene."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"If you are through eating, I will have a cigar," said
+the young man, sauntering over to the bay-window.</p>
+
+<p>What was there in this simple announcement of Sylvie
+having gone on a charity-school picnic with Jack Darcy
+that should so rouse the art-cultured pulses of Fred Lawrence?
+He had always liked Sylvie: her freshness and
+piquancy stirred him like a whiff of mountain air,&mdash;a
+sure sign that all healthy tone had not been cultivated out
+of him. It would be very foolish for Sylvie to commit a
+<i>m&eacute;salliance</i> with this young man, who was no doubt good
+enough in his way,&mdash;a rather rough, awkward, clownish
+fellow, with a coarsely generous heart. Sylvie so delicate
+and refined, with her pretty ways, her genius,&mdash;yes, she
+really did have a genius! In Paris or Rome she might
+make herself quite a name. He must see a little more of
+her: he must&mdash;well, did he want to marry any one?</p>
+
+<p>Irene and Gertrude retired to the room of the former,
+and discussed Newport and Saratoga.</p>
+
+<p>"I do hope we shall have a cottage at Newport another
+summer," said Mrs. Eastman.</p>
+
+<p>"It gives you tone, of course," was Irene's response;
+"but honest, now, Gerty, don't you think it a little poky?
+I do not want to go anywhere for a whole summer: I like
+the fun of all. Agatha is to spend a month at Long
+Branch, and I am going down just for a little dazzle and
+to give my gowns an airing."</p>
+
+<p>Their siesta was passed in this kind of small talk. Late
+in the afternoon she drove Mrs. Eastman home, and then
+went for Sylvie in her pretty pony-phaeton. As Sylvie
+was about nothing more important than a pale-blue zephyr
+"fascinator," she accepted the invitation.</p>
+
+<p>What a delicious drive it was! A dappled under-roof
+of cloud with the sun just behind it, a golden-gray haze
+filming the air, and fragrant breezes suggestive of roses
+and honeysuckle. All the way was starred with daisies.
+Sylvie drew in long breaths of delight, for she never
+wearied of nature.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They turned homeward early. The bells were ringing
+for six, and the mills and factories began to empty out
+their swarm of human beings.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you go through here?" asked Sylvie in surprise.
+"I thought you hated all this."</p>
+
+<p>"So I do," briefly.</p>
+
+<p>She let the pony walk now. These shrill sounds jarred
+on the summer air. Groups of girls in procession in faded
+gear or tawdry finery; brawny men with an old-country,
+heavy cast of feature, in blue flannel, with arms bared to
+the elbow, and throats exposed; pale stripling youths of
+the American type, boys with the rough fun not yet
+knocked out of them by hard work or the harder blows of
+fate,&mdash;a motley crowd indeed.</p>
+
+<p>It thinned a little just here. Two or three men came
+along leisurely,&mdash;one tall and compact, with a slow, firm
+step, the face grave, the eyes glancing over beyond the
+hills. Irene Lawrence shut her lips with a touch of displeasure.
+Was she to miss the satisfaction that had been
+brooding in her mind for the last hour, for the accomplishment
+of which she had driven through this dusty, ill-smelling
+street?</p>
+
+<p>The pedestrian raised his head. A sudden warm, smiling
+glow overspread the face, no longer grave, but brightening
+like an April sky. The outlook of the eyes was so
+frank and clear; the half-smile playing about the parted
+lips had the honesty of a child. He touched his hat, and
+bowed with an almost stately deference.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie nodded and smiled, leaning forward a bit. What
+sent the glad light so quickly out of his countenance?
+The girl glanced at Irene.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Lawrence had stared coolly, haughtily, decisively.
+This man might look at her hundreds of times in the days
+to come, but he would never again expect a social recognition
+from her. And, oh, perfection of cruelty! Sylvie,
+his fellow-sinner in these social laws, had witnessed his
+pain and discomfiture.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She turned with her face at white heat, one of those
+inward flashes of indignation that transcend any scarlet
+blaze of anger. Her eyes glowed with a fiery ray, and
+the curves of mouth and chin seemed as if frozen.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a deliberate insult, Irene! How dared you"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"How dared I pass one of my father's workmen?
+Well, Miss Barry, I happen not to be hand-in-glove with
+them. I can relegate them to their proper place when an
+ill-judged vanity brings them unduly forward."</p>
+
+<p>"You met him at <i>my</i> house: he is <i>my</i> friend, and the
+friend of my aunt. His birth is as good as yours, or
+mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I dare say!" with a satirical laugh. "Are you
+really going to marry him, Sylvie? Have you the courage
+to throw yourself quite away?"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!" and she caught at the reins. The next
+moment she was on the sidewalk. "Good-evening," she
+exclaimed with the dignity of a queen.</p>
+
+<p>"The little spitfire!" laughed Miss Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie's displeasure mattered very little to her. A few
+days later she was on her way to Long Branch, and the
+episode was soon danced out of mind.</p>
+
+<p>As for Sylvie Barry, she made up her mind never to go
+to Hope Terrace again. The friendship was not of her
+seeking, and now it should end. Friendship, indeed! It
+disgraced the word to use it in connection with Irene
+Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>That very evening she went around to the Darcys.
+Neither she nor Jack mentioned the rencontre, but there
+was an indescribable something in her manner that told
+Jack the insult had been as much to her as to him.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly a fortnight later the Lawrence carriage stood at
+the gate of the pretty court-yard, and the liveried driver
+brought a note to the door.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Dear Sylvie</span>,&mdash;[in a tremulous, uncertain hand] I am
+wretched and lonely. Fred and Irene are away, and Mr. Lawrence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+has gone West on business. Will you not, out of the generosity
+of your heart, come and cheer me up a bit? I was in bed all day
+yesterday with a frightful headache, and can just crawl to-day.
+Do not disappoint me. I have set my heart on hearing you read,
+and have some nice new books.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+Ever your obliged friend, A. L.<br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"You must go," was her aunt's comment in a sympathizing
+tone. "I have promised all the afternoon to the
+School Club, you know, and you would only be home
+alone. Poor Mrs. Lawrence! What an invalid she has
+become! And think of me,"&mdash;with a cheery laugh,&mdash;"able
+to get about anywhere!"</p>
+
+<p>So Sylvie went up to Hope Terrace in the luxurious
+carriage she thought she had tabooed forever.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawrence did look very poorly. She kept to her
+room a great deal nowadays; or rather there were two
+of them,&mdash;one off the bedchamber, with a pretty oriel
+window, and exquisitely fitted up with every luxury wealth
+and taste could devise.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawrence had already lost her interest in life.
+Her two daughters were well married. Irene would be,
+of course; but marriages were an old story for her. She
+had loved to shine at watering-places, but the gayety no
+longer lured her. She had dazzled in diamonds, silks, and
+velvets, been admired on the right hand and on the left,
+until it was an old, trite story. Servants managed her
+house admirably. Mr. Lawrence never wearied her with
+any business details. Her clothes were ordered, and
+made, and hung in the closets. The carriage was always
+at hand. Not a want of any kind, hardly a desire, that
+could not be instantly satisfied. She had sunk into a kind
+of graceful semi-invalidism, and enjoyed the coming and
+going of her children, but her own time was over.</p>
+
+<p>"How good you are, Sylvie dear!" and, drawing the
+young girl to her, she kissed her fondly. "I don't know
+what I should do without you. Irene would stay at home<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+if I wanted her; but she is so full of life and excitement,
+that it wears me out. You are not always in such a whirl
+of society, and then you <i>are</i> different. You have such a
+sweet, sympathetic nature, child! I can always feel it in
+your hand, and your voice is so soothing. What a difference
+there is in voices!"</p>
+
+<p>Her own was finely modulated: indeed, Sylvie used to
+think sometimes that these Lawrences had more than
+their share of the good things of this world. No physical
+gift or grace had been denied them.</p>
+
+<p>So Sylvie read and talked, and sang two or three songs
+before she went home. Then she came again and again,
+sometimes with her aunt, oftener alone. Miss Barry took
+duty calls with her neighbors as one of the demands of
+society, to be fulfilled with the fine grace of thorough
+good-breeding. Beyond the little formalities that always
+surrounded her like a delicate hoar-frost, there was a large
+heart for the weal and woe of all who could in any way be
+benefited.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a pity to see such a waste of life," she said of
+Mrs. Lawrence. "Some people, after they have served
+their own turn, and had their good time, set about doing
+something for God and their neighbors at the eleventh
+hour; but she still clings to self, even when all the pleasure
+has dropped out. If she only would exert herself a little,
+her health and interest would improve, and she has so
+much in her hands."</p>
+
+<p>One day Sylvie had turned the last leaf of her book,
+when Fred Lawrence crossed the hall, having come home
+unexpectedly half an hour before. "Miss Sylvie is with
+your mother," the housekeeper had said; and he had
+begged that they should not be disturbed. He stood now
+listening to the cool, soft voice, and an odd thought
+entered his mind.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie should really be a daughter of the house. How
+his mother liked her, depended upon her! She was not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+always going to watering-places and parties and theatres,
+she did not talk continually of dress and conquests. He
+did not despise cultivated elegance: in fact, it was a strong
+point with all the Lawrences; but he knew that a great
+deal of this much-praised culture ran into artificiality,
+while Sylvie's elegance had the comprehensiveness of nature.
+It would be quite impossible for her to do an awkward
+or ungraceful act; for her innate sense of beauty,
+harmony, and right guided her. Something higher than
+worldly maxims toned her soul. And though he, a man
+with his hands full of gold that he had never earned, could
+content himself with indolent dilettanteism, he wanted an
+earnest, honest, truthful woman, if he ever took a wife.
+He had flirted in a lazy fashion, common with young men
+who find themselves an object to women, and who have
+only to raise their hand, sultan-like, to bring a host of
+houris. That he had kept out of many grosser pleasures
+was perhaps a credit to him, although that was not the
+weak side of his character.</p>
+
+<p>He did not fall in love with the picture before him,
+sweet as it was,&mdash;the young girl in a soft flowing white
+dress (she was too true an artist to have starchy outlines),
+the shimmering hair, the delicate wavering color, the proud
+poise of the head, the plump white arm and slender fingers
+with their pale-pink nails, and, above all, the exquisite
+voice that seemed so to enter into the culmination of the
+story, the last few sentences of pathos, joy, and complete
+fruition.</p>
+
+<p>She closed her book. Neither of the ladies spoke. Mrs.
+Lawrence had been deeply touched. She lived almost exclusively
+in this world of fictitious sentiment, I was going
+to say; but I remember that it is often a transcript of
+human lives. Still she liked sentiment in books, out of
+them she scarcely recognized it.</p>
+
+<p>There was a step and a low tap at the door; then, before
+Mrs. Lawrence could answer, Fred marched in, kissed
+his mother dutifully, and shook hands with Sylvie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He had always liked Sylvie better as a little girl than
+any one else who ever came to the house, and he liked her
+now. How happy his mother would be! for of course
+they would go on living here. Irene would be away presently,
+and his parents would need some one. His summer
+work was mapped out before him; and really it was a
+pleasure to think he should escape the bore of society as
+one found it at summer-resorts, and entertain himself with
+this piquant brown-eyed girl with a heart fresh as a rose.
+He did not want a woman who had been wooed by every
+Tom, Dick, and Harry.</p>
+
+<p>Yet another and more heroic thought entered his mind
+after chatting with her a few moments. He would save
+<i>her</i> as well. She might have a slight fancy for Jack
+Darcy: his sisters had spoken of it, and these great, fair,
+muscular giants were often attractive to women, through
+the very strength and rude force with which they pushed
+their suit. But such a lumbering, vulgar fellow in Miss
+Barry's dainty, womanish parlor! and he smiled at the
+thought. Yes, he would be doing a good deed to snatch
+Sylvie from any such possibility.</p>
+
+<p>Fred Lawrence suddenly assumed a new importance in
+his own eyes. He made himself very agreeable to both
+ladies. Sylvie remained to dinner; and, when Mrs. Lawrence
+would have sent her home in the carriage, he proposed
+to escort her,&mdash;he wished to pay his respects to
+Miss Barry.</p>
+
+<p>They did not take the most direct course, but, leaving
+the streets with their noise of children and possibly vulgar
+contact, strolled through "Lovers' Lane." The old
+trees met overhead; there were dooryards full of sweet,
+old-fashioned flowers, and now and then the sound of a
+weak piano or a plaintive voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad these streets have been kept free from the
+vice of modern improvement," said he. "It always
+brings back a touch of my boyhood when I walk through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+them. Your aunt made a good fight, Miss Sylvie, when
+she refused to listen to the golden tongues of speculators,
+though of course you would have been much richer. But
+it can be turned into money any time."</p>
+
+<p>"Money is not every thing," answered the young girl,
+with a touch of sharpness. "Are one's own desires and
+old associations to count for nothing? This place was
+very dear to my aunt and to many others. I am sure
+there is quite enough of Yerbury laid waste now. The
+town looks as if it were a sort of general house-cleaning,
+and every thing was thrust out of doors and windows.
+And it was so pretty!" with a curious heat and passion.
+"It was like a dream, with its winding river and green
+fields, and men at their hay, and cows grazing in knee-deep
+pastures. Now all the milkmaids are herded in
+mills and factories; and the children,&mdash;well, there are
+no children any more!"</p>
+
+<p>"No children!" lifting his pencilled brows in languid
+surprise. "Why, I think you can find swarms of them.
+The poorer the man, the larger the family."</p>
+
+<p>"There are babies and babies; then little prigs and
+drudges. I am not sure I am in love with the so-called
+civilization. For the great majority it only means harder
+work."</p>
+
+<p>"Did we not learn in some school-book&mdash;I am quite
+sure I did&mdash;that</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+'Satan finds some mischief still,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">For idle hands to do'?"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Are you not afraid?" She turned with a bright,
+tormenting smile to the handsome young fellow, who
+flushed under her clear glance.</p>
+
+<p>"For those who have brains, manual labor may not be
+the only chance of salvation," he returned with a somewhat
+haughty flippancy.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder they do not turn their brains to some
+account."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They reached the gate, and Miss Barry was sitting on
+the porch. Sylvie was too pretty and too womanly to be
+quarrelled with for the sake of a subject that did not in
+the least interest him. Beside, he meant to come in; so
+he opened the gate for her, and followed in a well-bred,
+gentlemanly way, that had nothing obtrusive in it. Miss
+Barry welcomed him with the quaint formality, the subtile
+air of education, refinement, and morality, so much a part
+of herself. It pleased him extremely, and settled him in
+his determination.</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie has a touch of radicalism," he mused to himself;
+"but it is a disease of youth, and thrives by association.
+Take her quite away, and she will soon recover
+her normal tone."</p>
+
+<p>He found his mother still up on his return, and rather
+restless. She lay on her sofa, and dozed so much through
+the day, that night had but little slumber to bring her.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad you did not go to Long Branch," she
+remarked, as she toyed with her son's silken, perfumed
+hair. "I get so lonesome when your father is away;
+and he seems to think of nothing but business"&mdash;in a
+complaining tone. "I do not know what I should do
+but for Sylvie. She is such a charming little body!
+Fred, do you think there is any truth in Gertrude's gossip
+about her and that&mdash;one of your father's mill-hands, is
+it not? How can Miss Barry allow it?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no truth in it," with a light, scornful laugh.
+"The families are neighbors, you know; and I suppose
+the boor takes a look for encouragement. I shall not go
+away this summer. I can find pleasanter employment."</p>
+
+<p>She pressed his hand, and smiled, as their eyes met.
+Sons-in-law were very little to one, except in the way of
+respectability, but a daughter like Sylvie would be such
+a comfort! Fred had no need to marry a fortune, but
+Sylvie would not be poor.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Now</span> that Fred Lawrence had come home, there was no
+need of going so often to Hope Terrace, Sylvie thought.
+Time never hung heavy on her hands; for she was not
+indolent, and there were friends and pleasures. Miss
+Barry had a conscientious misgiving that Sylvie ought to
+be taken about like other young ladies; but she shrank
+from fashionable life herself, and could not resolve to
+trust her darling with any other person. Beside, Sylvie
+always seemed contented.</p>
+
+<p>She was content indeed; at least, with her home and
+her aunt. Up-stairs, just out of her sleeping-chamber,
+she had a studio, chosen because this room, of all in the
+house, had the finest view in summer, when the tall old
+trees shut out so much. From here there were two
+exquisite perspectives. The trees and houses were so
+arranged that a long, arrowy ray of light penetrated
+through a narrow space over to a small rise of ground
+called Berry Hill on account of its harvest of blueberries.
+Two old, scraggy, immense oak-trees still remained;
+and she used to watch them from their first faint
+green to the blood-red and copper tints of autumn, when
+the sun shone through them. Down behind he dropped
+when the day was done; sometimes a ball of fire, at
+others bathed in roseate hues, tinged with all the wondrous
+grades of color, and making fleecy islands in a far-off,
+weird world, dream-haunted. She used to study the
+grand effects of shifting light, that made the hill bold and
+strong, or fused it into dreamy harmonies that seemed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+have the subtile essence of music; then contrasts that
+were abrupt and apparently dissonant, quite against well-known
+edicts of human taste. Who was right,&mdash;the
+great Author of all? She smiled to herself when she
+heard people talk so glibly of nature, as if the one little
+rose-leaf were the whole world.</p>
+
+<p>The other picture held in its soft, still, light, an old-fashioned,
+low-gabled house with wide eaves; a broad doorway,
+with the upper half always open in summer; a well
+with curb and sweep and bucket where farm-hands came
+to drink; a pond with a shady side, where cows herded
+in their peaceful fashion, wading knee-deep on hot days,
+chewing their cud contentedly at others, browsing through
+golden hours; fields of glowing grain, then tawny stubble,
+a bit of corn with nodding tassels, and not infrequently
+a group of children, picturesque in this far light. It all
+stood out with the clearness of a stereoscope.</p>
+
+<p>She had her ambitions too, this bright little girl. They
+were tinctured with the crudeness of youth, and its boundless
+vision, it is true; and sometimes the passion of
+despair seized her soul in a cold grasp, when she felt
+hemmed in on every side, and longed for some opening,
+some step in the great world higher than fashionable
+frivolity.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry had no taste for famous women. They
+were well enough in the world: she paid a proper and
+polite deference to Mrs. Somerville, Mrs. Browning, and
+Rosa Bonheur,&mdash;that kind of intellectual deference that
+sets them out of the sphere of ordinary women. Wives
+and mothers were better for the every-day life of the
+world; since pictures and poetry were luxuries, accessories,
+but not home or food or clothes. Though she had
+missed her woman's destiny, she had not lost faith in it;
+though she had held out her hand to the woman who had
+made shipwreck of her own life for the wild, graceless
+brother's sake, she still looked on clear seas and smooth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+sailing as possible for lovers' barks. In her plans for
+Sylvie there was a fine, manly, generous husband; a love
+so sweet and entire that the girl should forget her restless
+yearnings; baby hands to cling to her, baby lips to press,
+young lives to mould, and a future to plan for others.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry believed in work devoutly, but gentlewomen
+had a firm place in her creed. The paintings and music
+were well enough as accomplishments, and she was proud
+of them; but she delicately repressed the other dreams
+and desires until Sylvie ceased to speak of them except
+to her friend Jack.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry had experienced some anxiety on this point,
+it must be confessed. You would never have perceived it
+from the wise little woman's face or any tone of her voice.
+She went more frequently to the Darcys of an evening
+with Sylvie: she rolled her easy-chair and work-table to
+the opposite side of the sitting-room, where it commanded
+a view of the piano and the sofa in the parlor, the door
+being always open. She could hear and see, she could
+make pleasant, trenchant remarks: indeed, she was one
+of themselves, as young in heart, if the hair did glisten
+silvery under the bit of exquisite thread-lace that did duty
+as an apology for a cap.</p>
+
+<p>Jack and Sylvie were not lovers. A rare good friendship
+it was, more perfect than brotherly and sisterly
+regard, in that it held no duty-element, and was spontaneous.
+Sylvie never laughed at Jack in his awkward
+boyish days: he had never tormented her small belongings
+as brothers are wont to do.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry feared the flame might be easily fanned. A
+little opposition or warning would bring Sylvie's innocent
+wandering thoughts to a focus, and kindle the fire. She
+was very wary. She trusted Sylvie to Jack with an air
+that said, "You are too honorable to betray the confidence
+I repose in you."</p>
+
+<p>The old class prejudice spoke out in this covert objection<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+to Jack as a suitor. She honored him sincerely for
+giving up the dreams of ambitious and energetic manhood
+to stay at home and comfort these two delicate women.
+Yet (strange contradiction) she had a half fancy that it
+betokened weakness or lack of some kind in the very content
+with which he seemed to go about his daily duties.
+Alas for consistency! We preach content from the pulpit
+on Sunday, and on Monday glance with quiet contempt
+on our plodding neighbor, who can commune with
+the daisies by the wayside, while there is gold lying untroubled
+in desert gulches.</p>
+
+<p>Honest, sturdy Jack, taking up the duty of to-day cheerfully
+with a manful endurance, because the hands holding
+his fate were too weak and tender to be wrestled with,
+and that in his large, generous soul he could not war on
+a smaller antagonist, neither was it his nature to continually
+thrust any sacrifice he might make before the eyes of
+the one he was benefiting. How much silent heroism
+goes unpraised in the world, while we stand on the highways,
+and prate of our discrimination, our quick insight!
+Jack might be praised for his self-denial, but the higher
+appreciation was withheld. Even Sylvie was fretted at
+times, because he would get interested in all things pertaining
+to the mill.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry said to herself, "It is best that Sylvie should
+marry in her own circle, a man of cultivation, refinement,
+and position. Jack is a dear good fellow, but not the
+person to satisfy her for a lifetime."</p>
+
+<p>Jack thought nothing at all about it. He never gave
+up the idea of a great wide world, where he could have a
+hand-to-hand struggle with something as powerful as himself.
+He had come to no dreams of wife and children.
+He did like Sylvie with all his big, honest heart. If she
+had fallen in love with him, and betrayed it by some girlish
+sign, he would have been startled at first, then thought it
+over in his slow, careful way, asked her to marry him, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+loved her devotedly all his days, leaving the dreams to the
+past with a tender benediction.</p>
+
+<p>But Sylvie was no more in love than he.</p>
+
+<p>As I said, she decided that she was not needed at Hope
+Terrace, and staid away four days. Then the carriage
+came, with a beseeching note. Had Fred gone again?</p>
+
+<p>She found him there in all his elegant listlessness. It
+exasperated her strangely.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you been about, Sylvie?" cried Mrs.
+Lawrence. "Is your aunt ill? It seems a full week
+since you were here."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no!" with her beguiling little smile. "I cannot
+tell exactly what, only I thought"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You thought because Fred was home I would need no
+one else! As if a love-story would not bore him, and an
+invalid's whims&mdash;well, men are not women, my dear,"
+decisively, and with a complacent expression as if she
+had settled the argument beyond any question, for the first
+time since the world began.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you never tried me on a love-story," interposed
+Fred. "You do not know how deeply sympathetic I
+might be with your favorite heroines."</p>
+
+<p>"He is laughing at us, Sylvie. Ah, well! I suppose it
+is a man's duty to <i>make</i> love, not to listen to it second-hand.
+How charming and fresh you look this morning!
+And how lovely it is after the shower of last night! Fred,
+if you could leave Latin verses and Greek essays you
+might take us to drive. We could stop and bring your
+aunt with us for lunch, Sylvie."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you for her. She has gone to Coldbridge to
+see about a nurse for the Orphans' Home, and will not be
+back until four."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I can keep you without a single scruple," and
+Mrs. Lawrence looked oddly pleased. "Fred, tell them
+not to put the horses out. What wonderful health your
+aunt has, Sylvie! I don't see how she can endure the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+bother of those schools and institutions: it would wear me
+out in no time. But I have had a family of children;"
+and she leaned back on her pillow with a satisfied air.</p>
+
+<p>The carriage came around again; and with the assistance
+of a maid, Sylvie, and her son, Mrs. Lawrence
+walked down stairs. He handed both ladies in, and
+seated himself opposite with the air of a prince.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie looked so bright and gay this morning, her velvety
+eyes full of tender light, her cheek all abloom with
+youth and health, the sweet scarlet lips half smiling, and
+her attire far enough removed from the rigor of fashion to
+have a kind of originality about it. She always wore
+something that added tone and brightness,&mdash;a bit of
+colored ribbon or a flower, or a bow that flashed out unexpectedly,
+as if greeting you with laughing surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you do to mother, Sylvie?" Fred asked,
+with a touch of complimentary curiosity in his voice.
+"Yesterday she was dull and moping. I could not persuade
+her to drive."</p>
+
+<p>"It was so warm, no wonder. I felt dull and drowsy
+myself. But to-day is the perfection of loveliness."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have a charm, Sylvie. I do not know but
+it is your perfect, buoyant health. You seem to lift one
+up. I only wish I could keep you all the time," remarked
+Mrs. Lawrence with a touch of longing.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie colored, and averted her eyes: then she gave
+herself a kind of mental shaking, and resolutely glanced
+back, uttering some rather trite remark. She would not
+suspect or understand.</p>
+
+<p>They came home again, and had lunch: then, while
+Mrs. Lawrence was taking her siesta, Fred carried off
+Sylvie to his study. It was luxuriously beautiful. Several
+gems of pictures adorned the wall, which had been newly
+frescoed to suit his fancy. Easy chairs lured one to test
+their capacious depth, some exquisitely-bound books were
+arranged in a carved and polished case, and the table was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+daintily littered with papers. He had an idea that a
+man's surroundings were a very fair index to his character
+and tastes, quite forgetting that it implied length of purse
+as well.</p>
+
+<p>He made spasmodic attempts at literary work. Abstruse
+essays were begun under the impression that he had
+something brilliant and original to say, but before they
+were finished a new train of thought led him captive. He
+dreamed delicately sensuous dreams, lapped in luxurious
+idleness, the rooms stifling with odorous hot-house flowers.
+He went clothed in soft raiment, he sunned himself in
+languid seas of imagination, and was too indifferent to
+concentrate his powers upon any great faith or belief, or
+even emotion. He had a contempt for cheap and plain
+belongings, as leaning insensibly to vitiation of taste.
+Nothing modern met his approbation. The old-time philosophies
+won him with their subtile flavor. He could
+propound his theories eloquently, but they did not touch
+him deeply enough to rouse him into action of any kind.
+All that his education and culture had done for him so far
+was to develop an incapacity for any regular, wholesome
+work that would be of the slightest use to any human
+being.</p>
+
+<p>Something of this passed through Sylvie's mind as she
+sat there. This handsome and stalwart lily of the valley,
+with no desire for toiling, and no ability for spinning,
+would be content to drift and dawdle through life on his
+father's money. At that moment he was more contemptible
+to her than Irene, winning lovers by the score, and
+casting them aside with no more compunction than if they
+were the litter of faded flowers.</p>
+
+<p>After all, why should she care if he did not reach her
+standard of moral and intellectual excellence, of that
+knightly chivalry whose rallying-cry was, "God and my
+fellow-men!" Why should she desire to rouse him from
+that complacent ease and fastidiousness, brought about by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+wealth, and the certainty of no need of effort on his part?
+Surely she was no modern apostle carrying around the
+watchword of work.</p>
+
+<p>Yet somehow&mdash;if all the subtile forces running to
+waste in both him and Jack could be galvanized into earnest,
+active life; if the sturdy, wholesome thought of the
+one could be mated with the clear, crisp training of the
+other; if both could have the wide outlook beyond material
+wants and comforts! It fretted her.</p>
+
+<p>Yet these two, sitting here on this peerless summer
+day, skimmed over wide fields like gay butterflies. She
+could not be in earnest with him. Just when she was
+roused and warm, he seemed to lift her by some flight of
+eloquence, and waft her to his realm of fancy. It annoyed
+her to find he had that much power over her.</p>
+
+<p>It must be admitted that when Fred Lawrence willed, he
+could be extremely fascinating. Women yielded gracefully,
+nay, eagerly, to his sway; and much delicate flattery
+had their eyes and lips fed him upon. Sylvie piqued him
+a trifle by her utter unconcern&mdash;or was it the fine instinct
+of coquetry inherent in feminine nature?</p>
+
+<p>There was no telling what this queer, bright, unconventional
+little thing might do if left to herself. A good
+marriage would prove her salvation. She had many womanly
+possibilities: yet, with all due deference to Miss
+Barry and her old blue blood, Sylvie might overstep the
+bounds, and take up some of the reforming projects so
+dear to elderly spinsters. As Mrs. Fred Lawrence she
+would be held regally above them, and could depute her
+charitable work to her aunt.</p>
+
+<p>In justice to the man, it must be confessed that Sylvie's
+dainty, piquant loveliness stirred his soul; and, if self had
+not been so intense a centre, he might have been ardently
+in love, or clearer-sighted. Much of the time her demeanor
+toward him was coldly indifferent: yet the misfortune
+was, her interest in all things kindled so easily that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+she could not, at a moment, change to him. Her moods
+of reticence and shy evasion added a flavor to the cup.
+With a man's egregious vanity, he jumped at the conclusion
+that these little intangible things signified love.</p>
+
+<p>One day Sylvie stumbled over Irene. She came flying
+up stairs with some choice nectarines for Mrs. Lawrence,
+a kind that seemed only to reach perfection in Miss Barry's
+old-fashioned garden. There sat Irene, superb, nonchalant.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you little darling!" clasping her, and pinching
+the peach-bloom cheek. "I am so glad to have a glimpse
+of you; for mamma has sung your praises until I ought
+to be jealous, but out of my boundless generosity I still
+smile upon you. No need to ask how <i>you</i> are, but one
+may inquire after your aunt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Barry is quite well," Sylvie said with some constraint,
+remembering their last parting.</p>
+
+<p>Irene had honestly forgotten it. She laughed now, a
+low, ringing, melodious laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it is quite a treat to see you open wide your
+sunrise eyes. I have taken everybody by surprise, and
+enjoy it immensely. Gerty and I are off to fresh fields
+and pastures new, and home came right in my way. Sylvie,
+you are a good little creature to come and amuse
+mamma when her own lovely and amiable daughter is
+racing after the pomps and vanities of this naughty world.
+Sit down;" and she made room on the sofa beside herself.
+"Don't let such a frivolous creature as I turn you
+from the post of duty."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not come to stay," Sylvie answered rather stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>"As if the intention were cast in adamant! Oh! why
+is not Fred here to use his persuasive tongue?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a peculiar laughing light in Irene's eye that
+annoyed Sylvie, for it seemed to indicate a secret knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>"I can stay just half an hour," was the reply in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+decisive tone. "At eleven I take my lesson in painting.&mdash; Aunt
+wanted you to have these, Mrs. Lawrence, in their
+first bloom of ripeness."</p>
+
+<p>"They are delightful. A thousand thanks to both of
+you, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>"And you really manage to exist in this dull place,
+Sylvie! You are a miracle of content," interposed Irene.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not come near dying yet," was the rather dry
+rejoinder.</p>
+
+<p>"You need not be so curt and sharply sweet, my dear.
+Here I have been listening to marvellous accounts of your
+amiability and devotion"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Don't, Rene!" implored her mother. "Sylvie <i>is</i>
+good to me."</p>
+
+<p>"And it might make the sweetness weak if she stretched
+it out to me! Keep it intact for those who so delight in
+it. I am fond of spice and high flavoring."</p>
+
+<p>"These nectarines are perfect," declared Mrs. Lawrence.
+"One can taste the sunshine in them."</p>
+
+<p>"How poetic, mother mine! Does Fred come and read
+Latin verses to you and Sylvie? I may have one"&mdash;stretching
+out her jewelled hand. "Oh, they are delicious!
+worth coming home for, even if I had not wanted
+mamma's pearls."</p>
+
+<p>"And money and every thing," added her mother.
+"Rene, you ought not to be so extravagant. Papa is
+quite depressed with the state of business."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I have heard <i>that</i> ever since I left my cradle;"
+and Rene laughed gayly.</p>
+
+<p>It suddenly crossed Sylvie's mind: what if this proud,
+imperious girl should be reduced to poverty some day?</p>
+
+<p>"Don't plan a conspiracy against me, Sylvie Barry! I
+saw it in your eyes!"</p>
+
+<p>A vivid flush overspread Sylvie's face, as if she had
+been caught in the commission of some crime. Irene's
+laugh rang again with a peculiar irritating sound.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I could not form a conspiracy against you&mdash;even if
+I so desired. And I must go."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie rose with a haughty air.</p>
+
+<p>"Wish me worlds to conquer at least, or scalps to
+hang at my belt. No? You ungracious little thing!
+There is a good-by kiss to show you that I always hold
+out the right hand of peace."</p>
+
+<p>"Have the carriage, Sylvie: it will not take a moment"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"No, thank you," in a crisp tone. She would have
+nothing of these Lawrences just now.</p>
+
+<p>"Fred will get a spicy wife," commented Irene, with
+a peculiar smile.</p>
+
+<p>"She is never so with him. They get along beautifully,"
+said the mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Fred is too lazy to rouse Sylvie. Women have quite
+spoiled him. And Sylvie is ever so much prettier when
+a trifle vexed. Don't tell me about her angelic qualities,
+though I suppose she does keep super-amiable before you
+and Fred just now. I wonder if I could if I were in
+love!"</p>
+
+<p>"Irene, I am sorry I hinted it. If you begin to tease
+Fred"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not: set your heart at rest. I give full and
+free consent, and approve heartily. Beside, the little
+thing might throw herself away if she was not looked
+after. There will always be some one to stay at home
+with you."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawrence turned to her book and her nectarines;
+and Irene tumbled over jewel-cases,&mdash;a proud, imperious
+beauty, whose heart had never been touched, who cared
+only for pleasure and triumphs. Over yonder, men and
+women were toiling, that she might have gold to squander.
+They lived scantily, that she might feast. And the brave
+old world, seeing it all, uttered a silent groan. One day
+it would speak out.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sylvie Barry</span> meanwhile walked along rather rapidly
+for a warm morning. She felt irritated. Her sweet
+lips were set in defiant curves, the red heats of annoyance
+burned and faded on her cheek with each passing thought,
+and there was something out of harmony: a fateful discordance
+that swept over her, as if the parts of music had
+been wrongly put together.</p>
+
+<p>Did they think&mdash;did Fred imagine&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>She had never faced the idea before. Now she thrust
+it out in the garish sunlight. Her eyes sparkled, but
+there was no triumph in the girl's fine, resolute face.
+This man might lay his father's wealth at her feet, borrowed
+plumes in which he was quite content to shine; his
+heart&mdash;and a smile of withering scorn crossed her red
+lips. She would be a little dearer than his horse: dogs
+the fastidious man could not endure. Practically his
+wooing would be,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"I will love thee&mdash;half a year,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">As a man is able."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>Not because of a fresher, fairer face: he would give her
+all he had, all that he could rouse his languid pulses to
+experience. She would be lifted out of her present occupations
+and interests; for Sylvie was too clear-eyed to
+blind herself with the specious reasoning that as the wife
+of a rich man's son, she would be a greater power in the
+world for good. They would fit her into <i>their</i> sphere.
+She fancied herself coming to an aimless middle-life like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+that of Mrs. Lawrence, taking no interest in any thing,
+but reading novels, and complaining, to pass away the
+time.</div>
+
+<p>Did she really care for any one else? More than one
+young man in Yerbury had paid her the peculiar deferential
+attention that asks encouragement if there is any to
+give, but is too truly delicate to proceed without. Then
+there was Jack, who understood her soul better than any
+one else; but had he touched her heart in a lover-like
+way?</p>
+
+<p>She turned her clear, honest eyes to the blue overhead,
+as if taking Heaven for a witness. Her heart and fancy
+were quite free. Much as she cared for him, there was no
+thrill of that high sentiment in it.</p>
+
+<p>In some fascinating ideal life she had seen a lover with
+whom she could walk down through the years, whose life
+would touch hers at all points, who could fathom the
+depths of the nature that so puzzled herself, who could
+measure and supply the yearning reaches of intellect;
+who could awake in her soul a love, strong, deep, and
+unquestioning, so fervent, indeed, that she would turn
+from all other dreams and desires to him. A young
+girl's ideal&mdash;perhaps it is well for the world that some
+women have ideals, and keep faith with them.</p>
+
+<p>As for Fred, his vanity led him straight on. She tried
+honestly to place herself right in his estimation; but he
+misunderstood her, and liked her the better for the
+variety. She saw too, with dismay, that her aunt favored
+him. Her natural kindness of heart shrank from the
+pain of rejecting him, and to her the triumph had no
+pleasure. But in her anxiety and desperation she saw
+only this one course.</p>
+
+<p>He dropped in nearly every day, he took her and Miss
+Barry to drive. He haunted croquet-parties, which he
+hated, because she accepted invitations to them. He
+never met Jack. Some fine sense warned the latter that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+an encounter in Sylvie's parlor would be uncomfortable.
+Yet, strange to say, sometimes when he saw the handsome
+fellow sauntering by, a peculiar tenderness came
+over him, remembering the little boy who had clung
+fondly to him.</p>
+
+<p>An old-fashioned courtship would prove no end of a
+bore, Fred decided. So one day he marched over to
+Larch Avenue when he knew Miss Barry was alone, and
+laid his case before her. She received him with graceful
+kindliness, listened to his offer, and assented with evident
+pleasure. There was not a happier woman that night in
+all Yerbury than Miss Barry. The care and desire of
+her life had been justly crowned. Her good-night kiss
+to Sylvie was inexpressibly sweet.</p>
+
+<p>Fred did not see Sylvie for the next two days, but
+meanwhile wrought himself into a state that he was quite
+sure was proper and well-bred love. Then she came to
+Hope Terrace, and they kept her to tea. The late, heavy
+dinners were dispensed with at present.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you walk home, to-night, Sylvie?" asked Fred.
+"I feel in a walking mood."</p>
+
+<p>"The slightest symptom of industry ought to be encouraged,"
+she made answer gayly. She had been of
+some real service this afternoon, charmed away a fretful
+headache, and restored Mrs. Lawrence to a comfortable
+state of feeling, and was correspondingly light-hearted.
+Then, too, Fred had kept out of the way, and been gravely
+polite to her at the tea-table. She liked him in such
+moods.</p>
+
+<p>It was a late August evening, with a small crescent
+moon shining softly as if its forces were well-nigh spent.
+The heat of the day was over, and the falling dew evolved
+a kind of autumnal sweetness, the flavor of ripening
+fruits rather than flowers. Yerbury was very quiet in the
+part they were to traverse. They walked under great
+maples where a shadowy light sifted through, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+houses looked like fragments of dreams, with here and
+there a lamp in a distant window. The slow wind wandered
+through pines and hemlocks, as if some fairy Puck
+had laid his finger to his lips, saying to crooning insects,
+"Hush, hush!" A night to dream as one went down
+"Lovers' Lane."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie was radiantly beautiful. Her face always
+changed so with her moods. Every feature had a perfect
+sculptured look, but intensely human,&mdash;the straight nose
+with the flexible, sensitive nostrils, quivering at any sudden
+breath, the dainty chin and white throat, the red
+curved lips that seem to smile at some inward, richly
+satisfying thought, the large lustrous eyes serious as those
+of a nun, and the calm, clear brow that seemed to index
+the strength and fineness of the nature. He did not take
+in any of the occult meanings: to him she was simply a
+pretty girl whom he could dress in silk instead of lawn.</p>
+
+<p>The small hand had lain on his arm without the faintest
+movement. Now he took it in his, and pressed it softly.
+She frowned, and made a slight, repellant gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie?" with a lingering intonation that was hardly
+inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" roused out of her quiet into a momentary
+petulance.</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie, I love you. Will you be my wife?"</p>
+
+<p>In his most commonplace dreams he had never made
+love so briefly. He startled himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't!" in a short, decisive tone, as if he were
+merely teasing.</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie, I am in earnest;" and in his tone the man
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I think you are mistaken." She seemed to
+look at him in the cool light of invincible candor and
+honesty.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Sylvie, I am not mistaken," gaining courage that
+it was to be argument instead of sentiment. "I have had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+this purpose in my mind for some time, and have solicited
+your aunt's consent. You have only to say"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have many things to say, but assent is not one of
+them;" in a voice that, though low, seemed to cleave the
+air with a steely ring. "You think you love me. Perhaps
+you do&mdash;as far as you are capable of loving any
+thing beside yourself. You have seen a good deal of me
+this summer, and have made up your mind to marry. I
+possess some of the necessary requirements, and doubtless
+suit you better than any mere fashionable woman.
+But you have none of that intense desire that makes a
+matter of life and death of love, that elects one woman,
+or forever keeps a vacant niche in the soul."</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie!"</p>
+
+<p>Her passionate words stunned him. He turned to her
+with a puzzled look, a certain helplessness, as if he were
+stranded on some far, foreign shore. And then he met
+her lustrous eyes, so clear that they were almost pitiless
+in the glow of undimmed truth.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you not trust me?" with the gentle reproachfulness
+so winning to most women, so confident of a victory
+over a heart that loves.</p>
+
+<p>"I could trust you to care for no other woman when
+your word was passed, but it seems to me," and her heart
+swelled with something like contempt, "that you are but
+playing at love. Marriage in your estimation is a fit and
+proper step: your mother likes me, you prefer me to any
+one else"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens, Sylvie! what more do you want?"
+and a flood of scarlet mounted his calm, handsome brow.
+"When a man chooses a woman out of the whole circle
+of his friends and acquaintances, what higher compliment
+can he pay her? I have seen women beside those in
+Yerbury; and, though it may savor of vanity, I believe
+there <i>are</i> those who would appreciate"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder you did not go to them;" with a fine irony,
+cutting short his sentence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Because I liked you, chose you."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not so desire to be chosen," she answered quickly.
+"The man I marry must win my respect, my highest
+faith; must have an aim, an ambition, and not dawdle
+through life as some silly woman might."</p>
+
+<p>The decisive voice seemed to cut a path between him
+and her as it went. It struck home uncomfortably.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I suppose you call all men not engaged in manual
+labor, dawdlers,&mdash;scholars, poets, men of leisure, who
+can devote their lives to work that requires patience and
+fineness of detail, rather than the heavy swing of a blacksmith's
+hammer. When a man has no need of work"&mdash;and
+Fred paused, a trifle out of temper.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not believe God ever made an idler," she said,
+with high gravity that widened the gulf between them.
+"To whom much is given, much will be required."</p>
+
+<p>How unreasonable she was! He hated women who
+flung texts or proverbs at you; and yet he did not hate
+her. She had a girl's flighty notions, born of crude contact
+with inferior minds, and perhaps over-much novel-reading.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not exactly understand what a man must do to
+win your love," he said in one of those calm, intensely
+irritating tones. "I have chosen what suited me best,&mdash;culture,
+refinement, and the education that fits me for the
+sphere in which I am likely to move all my days," impressively.
+"It is true, much of the wisdom of the world
+is little to my taste. I do not know why a man should
+wade through a slough of evil for the sake of repenting
+afterward, for looking white in contrast to that foul
+blackness. The ninety and nine just ones seem to me
+the better example."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid I shall not be able to make you understand,"
+she went on, with a little hesitation. "Perhaps
+I have not the power or patience to shape a man's soul
+to a noble purpose or ambition. I want him strong and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+earnest, full of energy and that high sense of duty to all
+around him, not satisfied to drift down the stream in
+frivolous content, but to make the way better for his
+having gone over it. I want him true as steel to his
+friends, generous, yet uncompromising to his foes, to all
+evil; the kind of man who, if crushed down by fate
+to-day, could see some ray above his head to-morrow,
+who has sufficient moral fibre not to be rigidly bound by
+class feelings and narrow prejudices."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie paused, startled at herself. She had never
+framed her hero in words before, and that she should do
+it for this man!</p>
+
+<p>"These are the heroes of our youth, Miss Sylvie, and
+you are very young," in that insufferably patronizing
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I am old enough to know what I want," she retorted,
+all the fiery blood in her pulses leaping to the charge.
+"I think, too, I can discern between the true worker, and
+him who is content with the frivolous outside show."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not. You have been advising me, now allow
+me a like privilege. Do not imagine me actuated by
+jealousy,&mdash;that vice of the Moor is not in my nature. I
+have seen with some surprise that your fancies were for
+those beneath you in the social scale. A woman always
+loses in this dangerous experiment. She seldom raises
+her commonplace hero to a level with the gods, and is
+much more likely to be dragged down."</p>
+
+<p>She turned suddenly, her face flaming scarlet. The
+indignation misled him. He took it as a sign of personal
+anger, and wondered if she could, if she <i>dared</i>, throw
+him over for that coarse, stupid, blundering fellow.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he continued, glad to stab her in a vulnerable
+point; "you certainly have made a mistake, if you think
+this soul an aspiring one. A boy who excels in brute
+strength and force merely, a man who makes a deliberate
+choice between the nobler results of education and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+common purposes of rude daily labor, will hardly rank
+with a knight of Arthur's time, even if some self-deceived
+woman chooses to lavish her affection upon him."</p>
+
+<p>"If you mean Mr. Darcy"&mdash; And she stood quite
+still, tremulous with passion.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean Mr. Darcy." She had not shown such delicate
+consideration for his feelings that he should hesitate.
+"I do not see how you, with your artistic tastes and
+refinement, can find companionship in such a nature. I
+understand it very thoroughly. Beware, for you cannot
+plead even daffodil blindness, my fair Persephone."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie Barry could have struck the man beside her.
+All the passion of her nature surged up in contempt, great
+waves of white heat. If a look could have annihilated,
+hers might. Even in the shady gloom, he saw the flashing
+eye and quivering lip of scorn.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not distress yourself about me," she answered,
+with suave bitterness. "Jack Darcy may be a mill-hand;
+but he has the honor, the white soul, of a gentleman!
+And you&mdash;you dare to trample on what was once a
+friendship!"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe he was once my admiration because he used
+to show fight so easily. He was for marching West then,
+and doing some grand thing; but you see his hero days
+are gone by. Ten years from this he may be a demagogue,
+a rank socialist, whining about equality. Still, if
+I must congratulate you"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>She made a haughty gesture, and her first impulse was
+to let it go; but her truthful nature could not brook the
+implied deception.</p>
+
+<p>"You may congratulate me upon the friendship alone,"
+with a clear, sharp emphasis.</p>
+
+<p>His shattered self-confidence returned suddenly, shaped
+to arrogance. If she was not entangled with Jack Darcy,
+there certainly was no one else.</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie," he began loftily, "this has been child's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+play, and I am heartily ashamed of my share of it. Let
+us go back, and forget it. You have had your tilt at
+windmills; so suppose we return to common sense. You
+are still heart-free, it seems; and I beg pardon for repeating
+foolish gossip. Your aunt has accepted me as your
+suitor; my mother is waiting to receive you as a daughter;
+and I think," with some pride in his tone, "that few
+men can offer you a cleaner hand, or a better record.
+You will have a life of ease and leisure, and&mdash; Why,
+Sylvie, you can teach <i>me</i>,&mdash;you can help me up these
+glowing heights."</p>
+
+<p>"I have answered you!"</p>
+
+<p>She seemed to grow tall and regal as she stood there
+by the gate, the long, arrowy ray of lamp-light from
+within illumining her proud, cold face, that could flush
+with such bewildering warmth. He discerned in some
+dim way that she had access to a life far above his; an
+atmosphere like hoar-frost surrounded her, raying off fine
+points, that thrust him farther away into darkness and
+coldness. Had something been taken out of his life?</p>
+
+<p>The man's well-nigh imperturbable complacency had
+received a shock.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night," in a softer tone. One cannot break a
+pleasant friendship without a pang.</p>
+
+<p>As one in a dream he heard the gate close, the soft
+footfall on the brick walk, and a waft of voices from within.
+Then it occurred to him that he, Frederic De Woolfe
+Lawrence, had been rejected by this little girl upon whose
+head he had meant to shower the blessing of marital protection,
+the regard of a soul that was not quite indifferent,
+after all. What was this dull pang somewhere in his
+symmetrical, well-kept body? Was it the night that
+made his pulses heavy and turgid?</p>
+
+<p>Then he turned. "By Jove!" he muttered, "there's
+not another girl in the country that could have kept her
+fingers out of the governor's money-bags! Poor mother!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
+What a disappointment for her! Of course Sylvie will
+marry Jack Darcy,&mdash;Pluto and Persephone again."</p>
+
+<p>Then he softly whistled a stave of opera-music, and
+sauntered about leisurely. He had no fancy for facing his
+mother that night.</p>
+
+<p>As for Sylvie, she knew her face was very white when
+she entered the door; but she bustled about with womanly
+evasion, and began to ask if her aunt had been lonesome,
+if any one had called, and declared she was tired from
+walking home, and her head ached a little, which was
+true; and presently the two women barred their doors,
+and went to bed.</p>
+
+<p>Was she glad to have it over? Was she sorry she had
+left no loop-hole for future hope? Strange to say, she
+could not tell.</p>
+
+<p>"But I could never live, like a pauper, on some other
+person's money!" she thought decisively. "And he did
+not care. It was for his mother's sake chiefly."</p>
+
+<p>Again there was a breach between the Montagues and
+the Capulets, this time crossed by no lovers' hands. Mrs.
+Lawrence was highly indignant, Miss Barry vexed and
+sore disappointed. They went the even tenor of their
+way, however, while the poor self-made invalid at Hope
+Terrace grew more querulous and exacting. Fred took a
+week at Saratoga to restore his wounded vanity, and then
+settled himself at a hotel in New York, wondering if he
+had not better read a little law to pass away the winter.
+Mrs. Minor was a queen of fashion, and she was glad to
+have the attendance of her handsome brother. Irene and
+Mrs. Eastman flitted about like gay butterflies, with trains
+of admirers. The faint mutterings in the financial world
+made little difference to them. It was their province to
+spend, to enjoy; and what the strata beneath them did or
+suffered or hoped, was of no more account than the far-off
+ocean-froth beating up on the hard white sand,&mdash;picturesque
+in a drama or a story.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was a dull, gray day, the first of December. Autumn
+had set in early this year. There had been a week
+of cold rain that had quite destroyed the magnificent foliage,
+one of Yerbury's greatest charms; and it became a
+sodden mass, trodden under foot by pedestrians. The
+ground was baked by sharp frosts at night, making the
+unpaved streets a mass of ruts early and late, and quagmires
+in the middle of the day.</p>
+
+<p>Yerbury had changed much from the pretty, clean,
+thriving country-town, to something that aped a grand
+city; unfinished streets, small farms laid waste, rows of
+pretentious houses or florid cottages that had never been
+thoroughly completed, nearly every one adorned with the
+ominous placard, "For Sale." They needed painting and
+tidying: vines were left about, dahlia-stalks hung to
+poles, steps were awry, and gates swinging on one hinge;
+heaps of ashes and garbage lay here and there.</p>
+
+<p>This day Yerbury wore a particularly listless air. The
+leafless trees hung out long and drooping arms, that
+swayed to and fro in the biting wind. The sullen sky
+overhead added its tone of dreariness to the picture.
+There was no cheerful whir of factories and shops, no
+brisk steps of men going to and fro, though there were
+enough standing around in groups with scowling faces
+and compressed lips, or flushed with angry gesticulation.</p>
+
+<p>The only places that evinced any air of business were
+the beer-shops. Here a man harangued his fellows; there
+he did not deign to argue, but openly cursed. "Let's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+treat on that!" said one. "I'll stand to that sentiment,"
+declared another. Sometimes voices rose so high that a
+proprietor was forced to command order.</p>
+
+<p>Yerbury was on a strike. There had been a new scale
+of prices with the opening of autumn, submitted to by
+most of the men with a sympathetic good-nature. Trade
+was getting dull. Fancy prices no longer ruled. An
+ominous feeling pervaded all classes. Building fell off.
+One tenant gave up his house, and took part with another.
+Housewives looked about for the cheapest market, and
+talked of making last year's coat or cloak do for the
+winter.</p>
+
+<p>Hope Mills had been among the first to propose this
+second reduction. David Lawrence had returned from his
+business tour much depressed. There was an undercurrent
+of distrust, a disinclination to lay in stock, a wordless
+questioning from eye to eye, with no hopeful response.</p>
+
+<p>Horace Eastman had worked himself into the charge of
+the inside business. He had no real interest, but a liberal
+salary; and Mr. Lawrence felt that he lifted a weight of
+care from his shoulders. If only Fred&mdash; But with college
+training and elegant tastes he could hardly be expected to
+take to the dull routine of business cares. So matters
+had been left more and more to Eastman, who was shrewd
+and sharp, who always managed to get the most for his
+money.</p>
+
+<p>Now Mr. Lawrence was appalled by the amount of
+stock on hand. They had been running the mills at full
+capacity all summer.</p>
+
+<p>"We must offer goods at a lower figure," said Mr.
+Eastman promptly. "We must get command of trade
+again. Prices <i>will</i> come down,&mdash;that is a foregone conclusion.
+The abundant harvests have glutted the market,
+and living will be cheaper. The laborer can live on less;
+and, if we can manufacture at less cost, we shall be all
+right again."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But there seems no demand for goods," said Mr.
+Lawrence faintly. "Store-shelves are full. People are
+carrying last year's stock with no call for it. It has
+always seemed to me, Eastman, that a liberal policy to
+workmen brought its own reward. They are large consumers.
+Cut them down to mere food and shelter, and
+clothes are the first to go. In decent times your workman
+is ashamed of a ragged coat."</p>
+
+<p>"All very true, Mr. Lawrence; but, if there is no market,
+we must create one. Sell cheaper stock to new men.
+That will make a demand at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Undersell! We used to call that a cut-throat business,
+Mr. Eastman;" and a flush stained the fine face,
+now rather worn and thin.</p>
+
+<p>"It is what we must come to. There is next to no premium
+on gold, and the first man who touches bottom will
+be the lucky one, to my thinking. Cheap goods, cheap
+every thing, will be the next cry. The farmers must dispose
+of their wool, and labor must come down. Why,
+ordinary workmen have been living like princes."</p>
+
+<p>The delicate brows were drawn thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I always hated to grind workmen down to a bare
+subsistence," spoke the honest, loyal gentleman, as God
+made him. Trade had not warped body and soul. He
+was an aristocrat, if you please, and his home was as
+sacred to refinement and elegance as a ducal palace. A
+common person would have stood in his hall until his
+errand was done, and he would never even have asked a
+workman to take a seat in his office; but his soul was
+honorable, if haughty.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me manage it," with a confident nod. "We'll
+keep the topmost wave, as you will see."</p>
+
+<p>So to New York Horace Eastman went, and arranged
+for a large auction-sale of goods, which was a remarkable
+success, and created quite a ripple in the sea of stagnation.
+Then he contracted to deliver another lot by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+first of January, at certain prices. And now either
+manufacturer must give up profits, or workman yield his
+margin, and be contented with daily bread alone.</p>
+
+<p>"There really was no need of workmen owning houses,
+having Brussels carpets and pianos," argued Eastman.
+"They were in some degree answerable for the hard
+times. Every one wanted to out-do his neighbor. They
+were not content to live as their fathers had lived; and,
+where the mothers wore print dresses, the daughters must
+have silk. They had gone on altogether too fast."</p>
+
+<p>Yet only a few years ago workingmen had been urged
+to put their money into homes. Rows of houses had been
+built for them, and sold on such ridiculously easy terms,
+only a trifle down. The interest would not be as much as
+rent. Then the fascinating shopkeeper had flaunted his
+wares in the faces of the thrifty housewives. "A good
+article is cheapest in the end. This Brussels will outwear
+two ingrain carpets, at a very little advance on the first
+cost. No moths will trouble it, once down it is there for
+years, saving worry and hard work;" and the buyer was
+persuaded. Then there must be new furniture, and so on
+to the end. Was it altogether their fault? The old things
+were passing away. The world was awaking from its
+Rip-Van-Winkle nap. There was to be a wider outlook,
+a liberal cultivation, a general rising of every one.</p>
+
+<p>So there had been years of plenty, and men had pulled
+down the old storehouses to build new ones.</p>
+
+<p>Such people as the Eastmans and the Lawrences could
+not economize at a moment's warning. The screws must
+be put on elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>At first the workmen looked at each other in blank dismay.
+Winter was coming on&mdash;a hard one it bid fair to
+be. Coal had risen, and in spite of the abundant harvest
+the absolute staples of life had not much decreased by
+the time they reached the consumer. Coffees were high:
+pease, beans, and chiccory were sold at a reduction, to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+sure, and you could get lumpy heavy flour that spoiled
+your bread, and poor butter, and teas that were colored
+and doctored; and this was cheap living.</p>
+
+<p>There was a stormy wrangle. Meetings were held, and
+speakers figured out the actual cost of living. Less than
+the present rates meant loss, privation, and want in the
+end. So a strike was determined upon.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy, being foreman of one department, stood, as
+it were, between the upper and nether millstone, at present
+just escaping both. He thought it hard that the men
+should have this second reduction so soon, and it did
+seem to him reasonable that profits ought to yield a little,
+that there ought to be a sympathy between them. Personally,
+he should be comfortable enough; but if he had
+a wife and three or four children, a helpless, bedridden
+mother, or a drunken father, or a do-nothing brother,
+hanging upon him, what then?</p>
+
+<p>He advised a little moderation and patience. It might
+be better to take the wages now, and wait until spring&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"They doant give up any thing, as we sees," broke in
+an elderly English weaver. "The great house is full of
+every thing, and coal eno' burning in the greenhouses to
+ripen a few bunches of grapes out of God's own season,
+as would keep many of us warm. Who puts our coal
+down a dollar in the ton, or takes it off of house-rent
+when wages come down? I'll work as cheap as the next
+one if ye'll gi' me a cheap house to live in and cheap beef
+and bread. I doant care for money in the savin's bank,
+or a house that they tax all out o' sight. When I'm old
+I'll go to the poorhouse, I will; but I'm danged if I like
+starvin' before then, and they a-ridin' over us in their carriages.
+I left 'em over yonder"&mdash;with a nod of the
+head&mdash;"for that."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of it?" asked a thin, hungry-looking
+man, fingering his Cardigan nervously. "See
+here! If I could have one more prosperous year, I'd<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+be through the woods, have the house I've worked so
+hard for settled upon my old woman, and would be out
+of the reach of misfortune. But this thing hits me hard,
+it does."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe striking will succeed just now," said
+Jack candidly. "And it's a bad time. Two or three
+weeks lost time will more than cover the odds in wages."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to lose time. I'd rather keep straight
+on."</p>
+
+<p>"It's the principle of the thing," broke in another.
+"I'd lose six months before I'd give in an inch. I'd
+have struck the other time."</p>
+
+<p>There was a call for the overseers, and Jack left the
+group. Eastman was talking to several of the men in his
+office. A fine, portly figure he had, indicating rich living
+and good wines; a man still on the sunny side of forty,
+stout, rather florid, a full dark beard and hair, but with
+eyes that were light and furtive; eyes that could stare
+you out of countenance, and yet not meet yours ordinarily,
+with a frank, outward look. He always went handsomely
+dressed, and wore diamond shirt-studs, an expensive
+seal-ring, a substantial watch-chain with two or three
+costly charms. He had not a flashy look, but the sign
+and seal of gentlemanliness was wanting in that intensely
+selfish face.</p>
+
+<p>He had heard of the disaffection. There was not much
+to say except that the new scale of prices would go into
+effect next Monday morning. He never asked a man to
+work for any less wages than he, the workman, considered
+his services worth. Here was the work, and the wages
+Hope Mills could afford to pay. They could take it, or
+leave it. There were plenty of men at Coldbridge,
+thrown out by the failure of Kendrick &amp; Co., who would
+be glad to come. He could fill any vacant place.</p>
+
+<p>But the ball grew and grew by handling. There were
+union-meetings and violent harangues, much of them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+truth, too, but badly and unwisely used. And the result
+was that the men demanded the old wages, were peremptorily
+refused, and struck. The great engine subsided,
+and a Sunday stillness reigned. Down at Hull's Iron
+Works the same proceedings were going on, but the
+saloons seemed to profit by it.</p>
+
+<p>Jack hung around the mill for a while, then went down
+stairs. The chilliness in the air made him draw his
+coat together by one button, and slip his hands into his
+pockets. He sauntered through several streets, nodding
+to one and another, or exchanging a few words. Once
+again his advice was asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you had better come to work to-morrow," he
+said. "Don't muddle your brains with beer or bad whiskey:
+that will not make the way any clearer."</p>
+
+<p>"A good enough lad!" was the surly comment, "but
+why grudge a man a sup of beer when he can't have
+wine like the big folks?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack had hardly planned for the enforced idleness. He
+did not want to go home and read, he could not call on
+Sylvie thus early in the morning, neither did he feel in
+the humor for argument with any of the men. So he
+stopped at the door of a small office, and turned the knob
+rather hesitatingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hillo, Darcy, is that you? Come in, come in! Sullen
+gray day, isn't it? Off on a strike, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack laughed,&mdash;the sound with no real music in it, the
+sort of lip-service merely.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in, old fellow; don't be afraid. I've neither
+pistol nor bludgeon, and I'll promise to treat you civilly."</p>
+
+<p>The man's accents were clear and curt, with a certain
+ring of out-door freshness,&mdash;a capital voice to travel
+with up mountain-sides and through forests. The face,
+too, indicated a kind of joyous strength; for the blue
+eyes were merry and baffling, the laughing lips a brilliant
+scarlet, the nose neither Grecian nor aquiline, but slightly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+<i>retrouss&eacute;;</i> a bronze moustache with long curling ends
+that were undeniably red, and hair a little darker, slightly
+curling as well. A broad-shouldered man with the deep
+breathing of intense vitality; healthy nerves that could
+enjoy laziness to the full, as well as a brisk walk across
+the country.</p>
+
+<p>A glance at the interior showed the place to be a doctor's
+office. On one side a long case with glass doors
+above and drawers underneath, filled with bottles and
+books and papers, perhaps in not the most systematic
+order; at the farther end a fire in an open-front stove;
+a luxurious Turkish lounge covered with russet leather,
+and a bright wool blanket thrown carelessly over it;
+several capacious armchairs; and in one, with his legs
+stretched out on another, sat Dr. Philip Maverick, eight
+and twenty or thirty years old, perhaps.</p>
+
+<p>"How nice and cosey you are! I really did not know
+what to do with myself. Yes, we are all on a strike, I
+am sorry to say."</p>
+
+<p>"Bad time," and Maverick shook his head. "What's
+the prospect? Have a cigar."</p>
+
+<p>"The prospect is that the weakest goes to the wall, of
+course," answered Jack. "Maverick, I am dreadfully muddled
+on this point. I have thought of it all the
+week. It <i>is</i> hard on the men. I know the general advice
+is to economize more closely, but how can you do it
+just at the beginning of winter? One cannot move to a
+cheaper tenement, fire and lights cost more, and provision
+is a little dearer. Low living in winter does not conduce
+to a healthy state in the spring. Then, on the other hand,
+if they are going to make such sales as they did last
+month, they cannot pay the wages, and realize what they
+consider a fair profit. But why shouldn't the Lawrences
+and the Eastmans and many others give up something, as
+well?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack turned an anxious face to his listener.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"All you manufacturers have been crazy the last few
+years," he said, delicately shaking the ashes from his cigar.
+"The country was such an extensive purchaser through
+the war, that your dreams became Utopian. Then everybody
+came home with some money and no clothes, and
+the people were large consumers. Now everybody has
+been clothed, and the stores are full, and here is a glutted
+market. Over-production, my dear fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I do believe it would be better to leave off for
+a while. Still that would not suit as well. Half a loaf is
+better than no bread, to a hungry man. But, after all,"
+said Jack, knitting his brows, "I don't altogether believe
+in the cry of over-production. The boys of war times
+are men now. They are pushing in everywhere for work.
+They want food, shelter, raiment. There are a great
+many more people in this town than there were five years
+ago. Even if we only depended on the natural increase
+of population"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But, you see, people are forever crowding into cities,"
+interposed Dr. Maverick.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a fancy they do not come much faster than
+they are called," returned Jack dryly. "See what we
+have been doing around here. The small outlying farms
+have been bought up by speculators, cut up, destroyed
+for farming purposes. Their owners with families of children
+had to go somewhere. 'Come to the mills and factories,'
+was shouted in their ears, and they came. Now
+they are here, depending on their labor for bread, and
+Eastman will bring fifty or a hundred more from Coldbridge;
+and in the spring, if there is any difficulty, some
+more will come. The old ones cannot go back to their
+farms if they would. Their fertile gardens lie cut up into
+waste squares, their fruit-trees have been despoiled: they
+must starve here, or tramp to some other crowded town,
+and perhaps starve there. Will your farmer take in half
+a dozen hands at a moment's notice? Can they put themselves
+down in any country place, and go to work?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Maverick studied Jack intently, and then gave a low
+whistle.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word, Darcy, you <i>have</i> been going over the
+subject. Take the stump. And of course you go against
+capital?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't," returned Jack shortly. "Only it does
+seem to me that there ought to be some place where capital
+and labor could strike hands. It appears to me, both
+have been to blame. We cannot condemn men for crowding
+into cities, when there has been a steady call for
+them. We do blame them for not laying up a little money
+against a rainy day; but many of them have. Look at
+the cottages that have been sold to workingmen. Look
+at the bank savings. To-day, perhaps, as many poor men
+could pay their whole indebtedness, according to the ratio,
+as the rich. But we fly at the laboring classes, when it
+is only human nature cropping out. Your millionnaire
+puts his money into whatever he thinks will bring him the
+greatest return; your poor man puts his capital, his capacity,
+health, and strength, where it will earn him the
+most money."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't see but they are both right enough,"
+said Maverick. "And unless you are running over into
+communistic ideas"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am not," was the decisive reply. "Some one much
+wiser than I said, ages ago, 'He among you that will not
+work, let him not eat:' yet," with a humorous laugh, "if
+the rule were strictly enforced, there would more than one
+go hungry, I'm thinking. The great consolation would
+be that the right man would suffer, not the innocent and
+guiltless."</p>
+
+<p>"I really do not see what you are driving at, Darcy,"
+and the other studied him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I told you in the beginning I was muddled. I
+don't pretend to see my way clear, only I think we have
+just begun the fight. It is as much of an irrepressible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+conflict as that other, for which so many brave men gave
+their lives. And one point in it no one seems to take
+note of. We are proud of the increase of population in
+our country. Every city, town, and hamlet boasts of it,
+and the depopulated places run to slow decay. We welcome
+these people; and yet they must eat to live, and the
+majority of them must work, or they will have nothing to
+eat. I think the most of them labor cheerfully, and my
+experience is that idleness is the worst foe of man. But,
+on the other hand, every year invention so protects and
+fortifies capital, that one must do a larger business or employ
+fewer men. In five years the condition of labor has
+greatly changed at Hope Mills, and in five years more it
+will change again. This is the inexorable law of nature,
+or, I ought to say, growing intelligence."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I should say we wanted wider markets and a
+better classification of labor."</p>
+
+<p>A quick light came into Jack's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you have hit it, Maverick," he answered.
+"But what is everybody's business is nobody's; and we
+are so apt to forget that the world does move, and the
+condition of things changes all the time," and Jack's eyes
+dropped thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Darcy, take Brock's Hall, and talk to the
+men to-morrow night," began the doctor eagerly. "They
+will listen to you because to a certain extent you are in
+sympathy with them, one of their number; and you do
+seem to have some clear ideas on the subject. No: we'll
+say Wednesday night, and I will get out some posters."</p>
+
+<p>Jack laughed. "What shall I tell them? I can't see
+how to get about the remedy clearly myself. The trade-unions
+have not hit it either. When they say to a man,
+'Because I will not work for a certain sum, you shall not,'
+they lean on a reed that will surely break, and pierce themselves.
+Hunger is stronger than theory. No: I shall
+have to give the point a more thorough study before I
+become a blatant apostle."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Philip Maverick blew out a curling whiff of smoke, and
+looked at his visitor through it. Darcy gave him a
+curious feeling, as if a good deal of excellent material
+were running to waste, that if shaped and trained, and
+brought up to higher purposes, might be of much good
+service to the world. Did he realize it himself? He was
+twenty-four, and had a good position as things went; and
+Dr. Maverick had heard the women of the house were
+prudent and thrifty, and had a nice home. Was Darcy
+bounded in by conservatism, or afraid of losing? or was
+he honest when he said he did not know just what to do?
+Yet he did not look like the kind of man to go plodding
+all his days.</p>
+
+<p>"Darcy, you puzzle me!" he began abruptly. "With
+that great body of yours, those strong arms and hands
+that look as if they could wrest Nature's secrets from her
+mighty soul, with that brow, and the resolute mouth, it
+seems as if you ought to be in better business than
+making cloth: pardon me. You don't use up half your
+energy. You ought to be planning a ship-canal across
+Darien, or tunnelling mountains. You're the square man;
+and how upon earth did you ever get fitted so smoothly
+to a round hole?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack laughed, and told his story very simply. To him
+there was neither romance nor heroism in it, just a plain
+every-day sort of compulsion. The tunnelling would have
+been much more to his mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on with the problem," said Dr. Maverick abruptly.
+"In the next five years I think we will all have use
+for our wits. We are going to see another change in matters,
+that will require more wisdom than is needed in mere
+money-making. See here, I'm interested in the thing.
+Let us go out, and hear what the men say about it."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick rose, and put on his great-coat, and lighted
+another cigar. Then the two started together.</p>
+
+<p>Maverick had been in the town just six months. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+had studied medicine in Philadelphia and Paris, taken a
+three-years ramble over Europe, when a college friend
+begged him to come to Yerbury, and step into a vacant
+place. And he had what he fancied an excellent reason
+for it.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> men were, for the most part, in sullen earnest.
+From their narrower outlook they could not see that capital
+was on the eve of a great revulsion; that credit had
+been stretched to its utmost. They had their own pet
+plans, their own indolences and careless habits; and, as
+was natural, their own desires were the sweetest to them.</p>
+
+<p>There were labor-meetings and harangues. There was
+a good deal of talk about the rights of labor and the
+tyranny of capital; of the rich mill and factory owners
+living in palaces, and the men in hovels; of what England
+had done, and of what we surely were coming to,&mdash;the
+rich growing richer, and the poor poorer. But Jack remarked
+that of the speakers there was not one who owned
+a little plot of ground, or had a bank-account. Two of
+them were disaffected English weavers, a third an Irishman,
+and the only Yerbury man was a quick-tongued, but
+shiftless fellow who had started in business for himself,
+and failed; a kind of handy Jack-at-all-trades, and correspondingly
+good for nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Before the close of the week the men in Watkins's shoe-shop
+had struck. There was quite an army of them now.
+The saloons were filled daily and nightly. Jack thought,
+with a little grimness, that they might better save their
+money for next week's bread.</p>
+
+<p>Several of the men in his room dropped in to see what
+he thought; and the result was, that on the following Monday
+morning ten of them presented themselves with a tolerably
+cheerful demeanor, and accepted the situation. By<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+Tuesday night every vacant place was filled with hungry,
+haggard-looking men from Coldbridge. They were jeered
+at, and annoyed in various ways: the Yerbury men were
+called rats and turncoats and cowards. The mills were
+driven. There was another great and successful sale; in
+fact, amid the failures and difficulties about, Hope Mills
+loomed up like a star of the first magnitude.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring Mrs. Eastman and Miss Lawrence went to
+Europe; and Fred joined a party of young men on a
+pleasure-tour through California. Even Mrs. Lawrence
+was persuaded to try Saratoga in the summer. The great
+house was muffled, and left in the charge of servants; but
+greenhouses, graperies, and all the elegant adjuncts were
+cared for as assiduously as ever. David Lawrence used
+to think it over. Sometimes he was tempted to sell out
+his palatial residence, but who was there to buy? Other
+men had been caught with just such elephants on their
+hands. The papers were full of offers "at an immense
+sacrifice."</p>
+
+<p>Business grew duller and duller. There was a very
+great overplus of every thing, it seemed, in the world.
+Harvests were so abundant, and prices so low, they were
+not worth the moving. Fruit lay and rotted on the
+ground: you could get nothing for it. And yet there
+were wan-eyed and hungry women and children who would
+have feasted regally on this waste. Mothers of families
+turned and patched and darned, and said there could be
+no new garments this winter, while store-shelves groaned
+under the accumulation of goods. Men were failing on
+this side and that; the Alton &amp; West Line Railway stock
+came down with a crash, and banks were shaky. Hope
+Mills were closed for a month to make some repairs, as
+business was rather slow just now.</p>
+
+<p>There was a great quaking in real estate as well. The
+large property-owners held on stiffly: times would improve;
+land was worth more to-day than ever, because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+every year there were more people, and they required
+more houses, and the thing would somehow right itself.</p>
+
+<p>Jack had taken his two feminines off to a great roomy
+farmhouse, where they had a horse at their command.
+Sylvie and Miss Barry were summering at the White
+Mountains. Dr. Maverick found a good deal of sickness
+among the poorer classes, low fevers and various troubles,
+that he knew well enough came from insufficient diet.
+But what was to be done? There was so little work, so
+much lost time, the inexorable rent, and the importunate
+grocer's bill. Up on Hope Terrace the luscious grapes
+fell to the ground, and were swept up as so much litter;
+the fresh, lovely vegetables passed their prime unheeded,
+and were tossed in the garbage-pit.</p>
+
+<p>September came in hot and sultry. Hope Mills started,
+but many another place did not open. There was a
+strange, deathly-quiet undercurrent, like the awful calm
+before a thunder-shower. Wages took another tumble,
+and now no one had the courage to make much of a fight.</p>
+
+<p>The second week in October there came an appalling
+crash. Yerbury Bank closed its doors one morning,&mdash;the
+old bank that had weathered many a gale; that was considered
+as safe and stanch as the rock of Gibraltar itself;
+that held in trust the savings of widows and orphans, the
+balance of smaller business-men who would be ruined:
+indeed, it would almost ruin Yerbury itself.</p>
+
+<p>There was the greatest consternation. People flew up
+the street, bank-book in hand; but the dumb doors seemed
+only to give back a pitiless glance to entreaties. What
+was it? What had happened? "Every penny I had in
+the world was in it," groaned one; and the saddening
+refrain was repeated over and over, sometimes with tears,
+at others with curses.</p>
+
+<p>The old officers of Yerbury Bank had been men of
+the highest integrity. Some were dead; some had been
+pushed aside by the new, fast men who laughed at past<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+methods, as if honor, honesty, and truth were virtues
+easily outgrown. Among these were the Eastmans.
+George was considered shrewd and far-sighted, and for
+two years had been one of the directors, as well as
+Horace. They paid the highest rate of interest, which
+attracted small savings from all around. There had been
+no whisper or fear about it, so solid was its olden reputation.
+There were people who would as soon have doubted
+the Bible.</p>
+
+<p>Two days after this, George Eastman sailed for Europe,
+on a sudden summons,&mdash;his wife's illness. There had
+been a meeting called, and a short statement made.
+Owing to sudden and unexpected depreciation in railway-bonds
+and improvement-bonds, and what not, it was
+deemed best to suspend payment for the present. In a
+few weeks all would be straight again, with perhaps a
+trifling loss to depositors. Already the directors had been
+very magnanimous. Mr. Eastman and several others
+had turned over to the bank a large stock of mortgages:
+in fact, the virtue of these men was so lauded that the
+losses seemed to be quite thrown into the background.</p>
+
+<p>But the examination revealed a sickening mass of
+selfishness and cupidity; transactions that were culpably
+careless, others dishonorable to the last degree. If the
+larger depositors had not been warned, there was certainly
+a remarkable unanimity of thought, as, for the past fortnight,
+they had been steadily drawing out their thousands.
+Wild railroad-speculations, immense mortgages on real
+estate that now lay flat and dead: scanty available assets
+that would hardly pay twenty cents on a dollar.</p>
+
+<p>This was what David Lawrence heard when he returned
+from St. Louis, a heavy-hearted, dispirited man. Two
+recent failures had borne heavily upon him. If last
+winter had been dull, there was no adjective to apply to
+this. His first step was to mortgage Hope Terrace. He
+had deeded it to his wife, unincumbered; but now it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+appeared his only chance of salvation. Mrs. Lawrence
+made a feeble protest at first, and demanded that Fred
+should be sent for, but there was no time. He met his
+pressing notes, and was tided over; but, oh! what was to
+be the end of it all?</p>
+
+<p>An indignation-meeting was called; and so high ran
+popular feeling, that new directors were appointed for the
+bank. Mr. Lawrence would have fain declined, but the
+community insisted. In this time of general distrust,
+they came back to the loyal gentleman, who, whatever his
+pride might be, had never deceived one of them.</p>
+
+<p>Alas! had he not enough perplexity of his own, that
+this new sorrow and shame should stare him in the face,
+bow him to the earth?</p>
+
+<p>Not his own son, thank God! not any blood kin; and
+yet his daughter's husband, his fair Gertrude, of whom
+he had been so proud years ago! He went back suddenly
+to that old time, and seemed to see them all again as
+little children, a merry household; and his pale, delicate
+Fred, for whom his heart beat so anxiously. How they
+had welcomed his coming!&mdash;a son to hand down the
+name, a son to lean upon in his old age. Nay, those
+were the extremes of life: why should not men count on
+their sons through the burden and heat of middle life?
+Why wait until the evening for comfort?</p>
+
+<p>Where was he now? Did he think of the one who had
+toiled that he might spend? for, now that he looked at it
+with awesome calmness, like a thing standing apart, it
+was one long, dreary pilgrimage of toil. To what end?
+Was gathering together riches the noblest use of a man
+made in God's image? Ah, how poor and paltry an aim!</p>
+
+<p>Surely he had done something beside that! A pleasant
+home of culture and artistic beauty, a circle of refined
+people gathered about him, the evil and want and woe
+of the world shut carefully out by silken curtains and
+plate-glass. His daughters he had been proud of. No<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+<i>m&eacute;salliance</i>, no common tastes, as he had sometimes fancied
+that he had detected in that pretty little Sylvie Barry.
+And his son?</p>
+
+<p>There had been no positive evil in his life. A young
+man's follies perhaps, but few vices, if any, thank God!
+He would never be a libertine, a drunkard, a gambler, a
+thief. But was negative goodness all? These twenty-four
+years spent in shaping and culturing, but to what
+end? Could he call him back from his pleasure now, and
+have him take up this struggle grown too heavy to fight
+single-handed? and would he be manful, brave, clear-sighted,
+and unrepining? No. He felt the change would
+be too great. The soul so used to ease and luxury, fine
+linen and soft couches, delicate appetites, indolent habits,
+intellectual pursuits and graces, to be put in rough harness
+of business at once, would be cruel, nay, worse, like
+chaining humming-birds to a dray-wagon. And Irene,
+flitting like a butterfly through elegant <i>salons</i>, how would
+she be content with poverty and a cottage?</p>
+
+<p>And was this all the work of his own hands? Had he
+laid up no treasure against the time of adversity, made
+no homes into which he might be received in his trial hour?
+For two years he had struggled manfully, earnestly; and
+all this time at his very gate there had been a traitor,
+turning aside the stream until there was nothing but a
+barren desert left.</p>
+
+<p>The crown of his life was poverty and ruin! For himself
+he could give up luxuries, and come to plain fare; but
+what of the others? This last news had swept away all
+hope.</p>
+
+<p>He sought Horace Eastman, and confronted him with
+his deceit and wrong: somehow he could not bring himself
+to call it by its true name, crime, and fasten it on
+the man there and then. There was a high-bred delicacy
+about David Lawrence, a little of the old knightly chivalry
+that in past times held a man back from striking a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+fallen foe. And then he was not quite sure. The dishonorable
+work lay between the two men, and he forbore
+to blame this one wrongly.</p>
+
+<p>He need not have wasted his pity on this man, or have
+so nicely worded his charges. Horace Eastman stood
+there, surprised to be sure, for he had counted upon getting
+away before this turn in the wheel of fortune. For the
+last year, though he had been outwardly triumphant, and
+had carried business matters with a hopefully high hand,
+he had known what the end must be, and made ready for
+it with a kind of exultant elation at the sense of difficulties
+surmounted and deceptions carried on successfully.
+He really despised the man before him, that he had sufficient
+faith in human nature to be deceived. Starting
+from the principle that all men are rogues when opportunity
+offers, he felt no more guilty now, than if he had
+followed any other well-known law of nature. He stood
+before Mr. Lawrence bland and composed: there was no
+vulnerable point to strike, so he need put on no armor.
+Many a time he had reasoned the matter out to his own
+satisfaction, that the failure of Hope Mills was inevitable.
+What with losses, dull times, and extravagant living, it
+would surely come. That he owed his employer any thing
+in integrity and sharp fighting with adverse circumstances,
+would never enter the mind of such a man, so inwrapped
+in self.</p>
+
+<p>"There were some irregularities for your son-in-law's
+benefit," with an insolent half smile, half sneer. "He
+was to explain them to you. There have been accommodations
+for the mills occasionally. You were away: what
+else could I have done?"</p>
+
+<p>A cold shiver ran over David Lawrence. That part of
+courage allied to hope seemed crushed out of him as if by torture.
+Could he drag his daughter's name through the
+mire? for it would be that in any attempt to bring Eastman
+to the point of responsibility.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Do you know how much this&mdash;this defalcation will
+amount to?" He would call the monstrous thing by its
+right name now, though he shuddered in every limb, and
+a cold perspiration stood in great beads about his thin
+temples. A third person witnessing his hesitation might
+fancy him faltering and shrinking in the path of dishonor,
+rather than the other.</p>
+
+<p>"I really have no idea," bracing up his broad, full
+shoulders with portentous dignity: "George managed
+that matter. No doubt there are some memoranda,"
+pausing with an indifferent air as if it were a matter of a
+few dollars.</p>
+
+<p>"The bank must be made good, Mr. Eastman."</p>
+
+<p>"Well; as you think best, as you think best;" nodding
+confidently, as if the repayment were the easiest thing in
+the world. "Let me see,&mdash;would it not be better to
+write to George?"</p>
+
+<p>What impression could he make upon this man? To
+appeal to conscience, justice, or any latent sense of right,
+would be a waste of words. With him success was right,
+and failure the blunder or sin. He was to "do well unto
+himself," to gain the world's verdict of approval. That
+solid flesh made by good eating and drinking, not debauchery
+or intemperance,&mdash;the man had few of these gross
+vices,&mdash;that complacent strength, that keen, concentrating
+force than could bend all energies in the one direction,
+never looking back when he had once set his mind to a
+thing, experiencing no remorse for those he crushed under
+his feet so long as he went to success over them, knowing
+no disinterestedness, trading simply upon the credulity,
+honor, and honesty of others: he had chosen him for some
+of these very qualities. Do men gather grapes of thistles?</p>
+
+<p>"Bring the books to my office. I shall go over them
+to-night," was the haughty command.</p>
+
+<p>Eastman bowed and withdrew. The books were sent
+by the errand-boy. Then he threw himself into his luxurious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+Russia-leather chair, rested his feet upon the edge
+of the desk, settled his hands comfortably in his pockets,
+and began to consider. A man would be foolish to stay
+and be caught in the ruin of a falling house. He might
+not be crushed, to be sure; but there would be the <i>d&eacute;bris</i>,
+and he had no fancy for clearing that away. Not only
+the mills, but Yerbury, would fall flat. He did not care to
+retire to a garden, and raise strawberries and corn: the
+clink of gold was more melodious to his ear than the
+voices of nature. There was a place for talent like his:
+the quick sight and keen discrimination were still able to
+give the rusty old world a lift out of ruts it had stopped
+in, and send it on with a rush. He had money in some
+silver-mines: he might go West, and attend to that, then
+take a run over to England, and see George. After all,
+was George really to blame for getting hold of his wife's
+portion? He had married Miss Lawrence, believing in
+good faith that she was the daughter of a millionnaire;
+and, if he had been sharp enough to save something from
+the general ruin, lucky for him!</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, Mr. Eastman thought it would be well
+to go to New York for a few days until the storm blew
+over. Jeffries the book-keeper could attend to all that
+was needed. Mr. Lawrence would find Hope Mills in a
+bad plight, to be sure; but he would not be the first man
+who had come to ruin. Mr. Eastman put his desk in
+order,&mdash;he never kept any tell-tale papers,&mdash;walked leisurely
+out of Hope Mills with that serene, impassable
+face and high heart no misfortune could daunt.</p>
+
+<p>David Lawrence spread the books open before him.
+It would be an endless task. One fact kept burning into
+his brain like fire. The Eastmans, or Hope Mills, owed
+Yerbury Bank seventy thousand dollars, the hard earnings
+and self-denials of poor and middle-class people.
+How it stung his haughty pride, unused even to dishonorable
+thoughts! If he had been an exact master, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+had also been a just and honest one. Shame and disgrace
+stared him square in the face, where they would
+have but looked askance at Horace Eastman.</p>
+
+<p>It had been quite impossible to take cognizance of
+every thing after the business grew so unwieldy. Then
+he thought of his son again with passionate longing.
+Never had he so wanted some of his own kin to lean
+upon, to take counsel with, to consider what must be
+done toward saving honor: that was no social figment
+with him, but a deep, heaven-abiding truth.</p>
+
+<p>Heaven! By some strange turn of thought it entered
+his mind. He was so tired, he had been so tired for
+months and months, so engrossed with cares and business,
+that he had hardly stepped inside a church. How
+they used to go in the old days; how proud he had been
+of his four pretty children, of his tall handsome girls,
+and his manly son! Respectability, and setting a good
+example,&mdash;these had been his motives for church-going.
+Bits of sermons came back to him: how strange that he
+could remember them! There was a rest from labor, a
+refreshing of soul. Oh, how dark and arid, how confused
+and chaotic, his felt! Was there a something he
+had never known?</p>
+
+<p>Then he pulled himself together mentally, roused his
+dreaming brain, and said something must be done. Fred
+must come back, and face the terrible truth. As well
+send for him now.</p>
+
+<p>He wrote out a message, and rang the bell. A tall,
+slim youth answered it.</p>
+
+<p>"I want this telegram sent immediately," he said in
+his quiet tone of command. "Is Farrell anywhere
+about?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can take it, sir, if you please: I often do."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well."</p>
+
+<p>Back to the books again with their long lines of
+figures. Did he think he would find the shame and ruin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+here in bold black and white? He studied them until
+they all ran together, and his brain seemed to become a
+mass of luminous light with black motes floating about in
+it. The tense agony abated. Strange visions haunted
+him, frivolous fancies, and wonders that had puzzled him
+in boyhood; heroic fragments of bygone declamation;
+the incidents of a week ago; a picture of some bold
+scenery, and he in the cars, whirling by.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I going crazy?" he asked with a ghastly expression.
+Then he took several turns about the room,
+listened to the noise of the great engine, and assured
+himself that he was sane.</p>
+
+<p>Had he better go home? He was so tired! In all his
+life he had never been so utterly exhausted. Then in a
+sudden, fretful mood of contradiction he wondered he
+should think of fatigue when his limbs felt strong, and
+his body knew no physical pain.</p>
+
+<p>"I must shake it off!" he declared resolutely. Of
+what avail would be going home to a wife's peevish complaints,
+and sit by himself to study out this tangle? As
+well stay here, and master it. And that palace yonder
+was home, and these were the comforts for which he had
+spent his years and his energies! This was what he had
+laid up. An inheritance incorruptible&mdash;why would these
+things come back to him?</p>
+
+<p>The mill-bell began its clang. He listened to the
+tramp through the passage-ways, the confusion of voices.
+He went to the window. The great gates for the work-hands
+were around on the other side; but he could see
+the motley procession filing down the street. Not gay
+and cheerful as in bygone days: they seemed to drag
+along, these girls and women in shabby clothes, their
+shawls drawn around their shoulders. Old men and boys&mdash;why,
+where had vigorous middle life disappeared? So
+many faces had a hard, discontented look, that pierced
+him like the sharp point of ingratitude. Had he not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+brought himself to ruin to give the people employment?
+If he had shut down the mill three years ago, he would
+have been a rich man.</p>
+
+<p>Well, why had he not? Was it thought for them?
+Had the prospect of their starving lain heavily on his
+soul?</p>
+
+<p>Ah, the love of money-getting, the fiend of covetousness!
+But what would these people have done? Some
+one had once said, "What is that to thee? Follow thou
+me." Was it in a sermon?</p>
+
+<p>He lighted the gas, and went on wearily with his books.
+Some one opened the door softly, and peered in. It was
+Farrell, the day-man. When he saw Mr. Lawrence he
+touched his cap respectfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me, sir: I saw a light"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am going to stay&mdash;all night, I think: I shall
+be busy. When does the night-man come?"</p>
+
+<p>"At seven, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"I will send a note up to Hope Terrace, Farrell.
+Could you take it?"</p>
+
+<p>The man thought of his long day's work and his
+waiting supper. "Yes," he answered rather reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop in, then, when you go."</p>
+
+<p>Farrell went off grumbling. He would go home to
+supper first, that he would. These men had no souls.
+That long walk&mdash; Some people always rode in chaises,
+were born with silver spoons in their mouths, and looked
+on the rest of the world as mere lackeys!</p>
+
+<p>There was some wine in the closet, and Mr. Lawrence
+took a glass to clear his brain. He rarely used it save at
+dinner. Then back to the tormenting books,&mdash;columns
+of business that appeared incredible now. How had all
+this money slipped away?</p>
+
+<p>Farrell tapped, and came in.</p>
+
+<p>"Jackson's here now, sir. Is the note ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. There is some change. Get a hack, Farrell:
+it is too far to walk. Did Mr. Eastman"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>There was so long a pause that Farrell said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Eastman went to New York. He said he might
+not be back to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lawrence nodded, as if that were sufficient. He
+would not peer into the man's business.</p>
+
+<p>"If you should want any thing, sir, Jackson will be at
+hand," said the man kindly; for the thin, pale face, and
+strange, nervous light in the eyes startled him.</p>
+
+<p>"Jackson," he began, when outside, "Mr. Lawrence
+is going to stay a bit, maybe all night. He has a great
+pile of books before him; but I'm afraid he's queer some
+way. His eyes look wild and strange. Keep a lookout,
+will you"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You don't mean that he's likely to shuffle? Are
+things as bad as that? Has he got a pistol?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, I'm sure. Maybe I'm wrong;" and
+Farrell counted over the money in his hand. "Anyhow,
+I would walk up and down this hall, and listen."</p>
+
+<p>Jackson nodded, and Farrell went his way; yet now
+he thought the brisk walk would not hurt him. Jackson
+heeded his bidding, but all was quiet. Once he went in
+the next room, and climbed up to a high sliding window,
+used for ventilation. Mr. Lawrence sat there poring over
+the books. At twelve it was the same. Jackson tolled
+off the hour of midnight. Every thing was safe in the
+great building. Then he settled himself in an easy-chair,
+and presently fell into a doze.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Mr. Lawrence studied the books in a dazed,
+bewildered way. Here and there a balance had been
+struck, and it all looked fair. But there was a terrible
+wrong somewhere!</p>
+
+<p>The figures danced before his eyes in lurid lights and
+grotesque shapes, with grinning faces, flying, whirling, in
+a wild, demoniac waltz. The room was full. The procession
+he had watched to-night winding out from the
+mill, stopped and jeered, and pointed skinny fingers at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+him. Then he was at the bank, and they came in troops,
+wringing their hands, and cursing him. Strange tales
+that he had read mixed with them in inextricable confusion.
+Pictures of the past hurried by with panoramic
+distinctness; and hark! what was that? The grand
+trump of the Judgment Day? It tolled and tolled again,
+like a thunder-peal. Was any one dead?</p>
+
+<p>He was so tired! He put his arms down on the desk,
+and leaned his face on them. If he could sleep off this
+intolerable weariness!</p>
+
+<p>He was a boy again, wading through the limpid brook,
+stepping from stone to stone, and sometimes plashing
+over. Was that the dried sweetness of balsam,&mdash;the
+pungent odor of pennyroyal and water-mint,&mdash;the clean,
+resinous fragrance of the pines? Out there were lily-pads,&mdash;great
+golden-hearted chalices, with long, sinuous
+greenish-pink stems under the shady, transparent water.
+How cool and peaceful! The sky overhead was of palest
+blue with white flecks, and somewhere a bird was singing.
+If he could go to it; if he could stay amid all this sweet
+quiet, and forget&mdash; What was it he wanted to forget?
+Not his little Fred, surely! How proud he should be of
+him in his manhood. What a help and comfort!</p>
+
+<p>There was a strange, sudden darkness. The head
+drooped a little one side, and the visions had come to an
+end.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> Farrell returned to his post in the morning,
+Jackson reported Mr. Lawrence asleep in the office. No
+one thought of him again until about ten o'clock, when
+some protested notes came in. Jeffries knocked at the
+door, opened it softly, spoke, but received no answer;
+then stepped nearer, and peered curiously at the face. It
+was ghastly white, the eyes wide open and staring, and
+with a shriek Jeffries alarmed the whole establishment.</p>
+
+<p>Old Dr. Lecounte came, pronounced him dead, and
+then sent for Dr. Maverick, to whom he had taken a great
+liking. Between them both they found a faint sign of
+life; and he was removed to his elegant mansion on Hope
+Terrace, where his wife went into immediate and violent
+hysterics. They remained several hours, and decided it
+to be that terrible death in life, entire paralysis of brain,
+nerve, and muscle. He might linger some days; he might
+drop away any moment.</p>
+
+<p>Horace Eastman, looking over the news items the next
+morning, saw this account, and returned at once to Yerbury.
+Certainly fortune had favored him. Affairs were
+in wild confusion. He learned that a telegram had been
+sent to young Mr. Lawrence, and an answer received.
+He would be back next Monday. Mrs. Minor came up,
+and brought an experienced nurse.</p>
+
+<p>The mill kept open until Saturday. Then Mr. Eastman
+called the men together.</p>
+
+<p>He was very much puzzled to know what to do, he
+said. He had resigned his position as superintendent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
+of the mills, nearly a month ago; but Mr. Lawrence had
+begged him to stay on until he could come to some
+decision. The affairs were in a very embarrassed condition,
+and now suspension was imperative. What Mr.
+Lawrence would have done, he could not tell; but he did
+not feel justified in taking the responsibility. He was
+most truly sorry&mdash;he could say it from his heart&mdash;for
+those whose cheerful faces and light steps he had watched
+year after year, until he came to have a friendly feeling
+for them all; and he was shocked at the result of all this
+trouble to his dear friend, to whom he was bound by a
+deeper tie than that of mere business. But there had
+been two years of unparalleled depression, and Mr. Lawrence
+had made a brave fight. No one beside himself
+knew all the difficulties that had beset his old friend's
+path. It was not only here in Yerbury that trade was
+dull: it was from the Atlantic to the Pacific. England,
+Germany, and France were suffering as deeply as ourselves.
+Production had been overdone by most of the
+employers using their best efforts to keep their hands
+at work in the face of a falling market, or no market at
+all. Shelves were packed with goods everywhere. We
+were on the eve of a great change, and it would be some
+time before values would become stable again. If the
+balance of trade (high-sounding, but imperfectly understood
+term) could once more turn in our favor; if we
+could export our surplus goods, and find new markets,&mdash;as
+no doubt we would,&mdash;every shop and factory would
+soon be ringing with the cheerful sound of labor. It
+would be a hard winter; but he, for one, believed the
+spring would open auspiciously, that business would revive,
+homes be prosperous, and every heavy heart light.
+Let them all take courage for their own future and that
+of Hope Mills in the hands of its young master. He
+regretted deeply that there was no money to pay them
+with to-night; but that would doubtless be attended to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+soon. He wanted to bid them a cordial good-by, and
+beg them to stand by young Mr. Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>There was some rather faint cheering. Troubled eyes
+questioned despondent eyes; what were they to do with
+winter coming on? First it was the bank, now the mills,
+and what next God only could tell.</p>
+
+<p>Fred Lawrence reached Yerbury Monday evening; and
+at midnight the faint, fluttering soul of his father passed
+over that mighty river. There had been no return to
+consciousness. Mrs. Lawrence still lay in her darkened
+room, unable to bear any sound beyond that of the trained
+nurse.</p>
+
+<p>To say that Fred was shocked, would feebly express his
+emotion. He had never dreamed of his father's dying,&mdash;never
+dreamed of any thing like misfortune happening to
+him, of any keener suffering than some temporary annoyance.
+He felt quite helpless. His old philosophies did
+not inspire him with courage, or open a way out of this
+dark present. There was to be a funeral; there were
+business complications; some one had to think of the
+future; the mill was shut up, the fortune swept away,
+and he had been stranded on a strange shore, knowing
+not which way to turn.</p>
+
+<p>Eastman was still in Yerbury. He was intensely sympathetic
+with the bereaved family. In fact, now that he
+would never have to meet the eye of the man he had
+so deeply wronged, his spirits rose, his pity overflowed.
+Fred was quite touched by it. Hamilton Minor, with his
+rather brusque business ways, jarred against his sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>He was rather testy with Mr. Eastman. "For the life
+of me, I can't see how things have come to this pass,"
+he said sharply. "Hope Mills has been considered as
+sound as a nut,&mdash;one of the surest places in the country.
+Mr. Lawrence has made thousands and thousands. I
+have known a good deal about his affairs."</p>
+
+<p>"It is the result of a large-hearted philanthropy,&mdash;of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
+keeping poor devils at work when there was no demand
+for goods, so that they should not starve. I should have
+closed out the concern two years ago. When you begin
+to lose, it is time to get out,&mdash;not wait until every stiver
+is gone. But, if ever there was a noble man, it is our
+dead friend David Lawrence."</p>
+
+<p>His chest swelled as he pronounced this eulogy, and he
+laid his white hand sympathetically on his waistcoat.</p>
+
+<p>"What is all this bank muddle about?"</p>
+
+<p>"I really don't know. Heavy real-estate business"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"And you a director!" interrupted Minor, with an unpleasant
+quickness.</p>
+
+<p>"I <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'haye'">have</ins> had so much on my hands that I did not pay
+strict attention to it, I must confess. You know, Minor,
+what a tremendous shrinkage there has been in values:
+it seems to me as if the bottom had fallen out of every
+thing. I have an interest out in Nevada that I am
+anxious to look after, and should have gone a year
+ago, but Lawrence begged me to hold over until matters
+brightened a little. He was so sure times would improve.
+By Jove! I think they grow worse and worse!"</p>
+
+<p>"And Fred knows no more than a baby!" said Minor,
+in a tone of contempt. "You'd be a help to him, Eastman,
+if you would stay and go over accounts."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know about that," shaking his head slowly.
+"The books are all on the square, as you will see. If
+one could only make money as easily as one can add up
+that which has been made and spent!" and Eastman gave
+a little laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"But it cannot be a total loss. The house, I know, is
+settled upon Mrs. Lawrence. And the mill-property"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mortgaged for all it is worth in such times as these.
+Perhaps I ought not to speak of it, but George was in a
+little difficulty which the old gentleman tided over. Too
+much real estate, Minor!"</p>
+
+<p>Hamilton Minor had no great amount of confidence in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+the man before him; but then, he did not have in any
+one. He was on a little of the paper, and just now he
+felt exceedingly dubious about it. Some arrangement
+ought to be made whereby members of the family who
+had stood by Mr. Lawrence ought not to be losers.</p>
+
+<p>The funeral was strangely quiet and solemn; I was
+about to add, select. The mill overseers and officers
+were formally invited. Fred had a feeling about the men,&mdash;it
+seemed as if they ought to form a procession; but
+the walk to the cemetery was a long one, and Mrs. Minor
+decisively negatived any plan that took in the "rabble."
+The coffin lay in the spacious drawing-room, where friends
+and acquaintances, in the same set, nodded solemnly,
+and uttered a few words of well-bred condolence. The
+mourners were up-stairs. The few coaches were filled
+with men, a little group stood around the open grave,
+and David Lawrence passed out of mortal sight,&mdash;his
+life-work all done. Had the toil been worth the reward?</p>
+
+<p>The next day Eastman left for New York, and his stay
+there was brief. He knew what would be surmised after
+much trouble and searching, but it could not be positively
+laid at his door. And with a cheerful heart he set out to
+seek a new fortune.</p>
+
+<p>To the great surprise of Mr. and Mrs. Minor, they
+found Hope Terrace mortgaged. Mrs. Lawrence could
+talk of nothing, could not endure the confusion of voices
+in her room. Some trustees were appointed to investigate
+the whole affair, for Fred was as ignorant as a child
+of all pertaining to the mill.</p>
+
+<p>The examination disclosed a pitiable state of affairs.
+George Eastman had built up Yerbury on borrowed capital,
+lived on it in luxury, speculated, lost and won like
+any other gaming. He had persuaded each individual
+that he was on the high road to wealth. There had been
+a peculiar fascination about the man; or is it that the
+appeal to greed and covetousness is so much more convincing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+than that to honor and truth, that the baser impulses
+are quicker with their response? It was a great bubble
+upon credit, and carried with it the seeds of self-destruction.
+True, the bank held mortgages on rows of flimsy-built
+houses where walls were cracking apart, foundations
+settling, plumbing in such a condition that it was a hotbed
+of disease. They would not cover the indebtedness.
+The available cash had been drawn out by large depositors,
+the best bonds and stocks surreptitiously sold. And
+with all this there was a defalcation traceable to Hope
+Mills or the Eastmans. The money had gone in that
+direction. On the other hand, it was proven by the income
+of Hope Mills, and the amount paid out for labor,
+that there was no reason why they should not be solvent
+to-day.</p>
+
+<p>Lavishly as the Lawrences had spent money, they had
+not taken it all. No one could or did accuse David Lawrence
+of private speculation. Minor had once tried his
+best to induce him to join in some enterprises, but failed.
+It was an easy matter to blame the Eastmans for every
+thing: they were away, and could not deny the charge.
+But had all these bank-officials clean hands? They had
+been given a sacred trust, the savings of the poor, the
+estates of widows and orphans; they had winked at investments
+of the most precarious kind; they had paid a high
+rate of interest, exacting a higher, which had been gladly
+given for a brief while. Safe principles of finance had been
+quite ignored: the new era was different from any thing
+that had ever happened to the world before, and required
+new men, and now they would have to go back to the old
+way. Surely there is not much that is new under the
+sun!</p>
+
+<p>To bring back the Eastmans, and try them for their
+crimes, seemed hardly worth while. More than one man
+in Yerbury felt that it was safer to berate them at a distance,
+than meet their damaging retorts face to face.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+They could not get back any money. Hope Mills was
+ruined beyond a peradventure, and the affairs of the bank
+were best wound up as speedily as possible. There could
+be no large stealings for a receiver, consequently no occasion
+for delay. The sooner the wrecks and <i>d&eacute;bris</i> were
+cleared away, the quicker the moral atmosphere would be
+purified. There are wounds for which the instant cautery
+means life, the careful hesitation death.</p>
+
+<p>And now every one looked at the exploded bubble in
+surprise, and cried angrily, "What has become of the
+money? Yesterday we were rich: where has it gone to?
+Six months ago we had twenty per cent dividend: why
+are these stocks worthless now? Why have railroads and
+shops and mills ceased to pay? What sudden blight has
+fallen over the world?"</p>
+
+<p>Alas! There had been no money. Sanguine credit
+had traded on the honor and faith and nobleness of man
+toward man, and, behold, it had all been selfishness and
+falsehood and dishonor. Truth and virtue had been
+scorned and flouted in the highway, because forsooth there
+was a more brilliant semblance. Like a garment had men
+wrapped themselves in it, and now it was but rags and
+tatters.</p>
+
+<p>There could be nothing extracted from the wreck of
+Hope Mills. Indeed, Fred would have given up a rich
+inheritance to save his father's honor, had it been his.
+To go on at Hope Terrace was madness. The fires and
+the servants would cost enough to maintain a family.
+Mrs. Minor and Fred quarrelled because Mrs. Lawrence
+had been persuaded to mortgage the place: she simply
+groaned and moaned, and wondered why they must worry
+her about every thing!</p>
+
+<p>"I hope Irene will have the good sense to marry
+abroad," said Mrs. Minor. "And, Fred, what a pity
+you haven't a profession! What can you do?"</p>
+
+<p>Last winter it had been, "my brother, De Woolfe,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+whom all the young ladies in Mrs. Minor's set were wild
+over.</p>
+
+<p>Fred gave a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I <i>can</i> do something to earn my bread," he
+replied bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"Fred," began Agatha suddenly, "there is that Miss
+Tillon. You know how absolutely wild she was over you
+last winter! Her fortune is all in her own right, and it is
+a solid one too. Hamilton has had occasion to know
+about it. You cannot do a better thing than marry her."</p>
+
+<p>Fred glanced up. His sister was in sober earnest. To
+be bargained off like a woman, for a bare existence!
+Miss Tillon was at least thirty, of a suspicious, jealous
+turn of mind, well-enough looking perhaps, but narrow,
+with no intellectual culture, no approval of any thing
+beside her money. He had been amused at her preference.
+Possibly she might marry him, and rescue him
+from the pains of poverty. And he?</p>
+
+<p>He might be vain and trifling, but he was not sunk so
+low in cowardice. His face flushed a vivid scarlet.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not quite prepared to become chargeable to a
+woman yet," he said in a cold, calm voice.</p>
+
+<p>"What nonsense! Some man will marry her, and get
+the money," Agatha retorted decisively.</p>
+
+<p>"Not much of hers;" in a dry, contemptuous tone.</p>
+
+<p>"You know what I mean. She will live in style, and
+travel; and her husband"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Will be the laughing-stock of his friends," interrupted
+Fred angrily. "No, Agatha, I will be dependent upon
+no one for my bread: if I cannot earn it I will starve."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, very well!" with a scornful smile. "I only hope
+Rene will be wiser. They are in Paris&mdash;I heard
+from Gertrude last week. She was very much shocked,
+of course. I hope George has not been foolish enough to
+let every thing slip through his fingers. Who could have
+believed that Horace Eastman would turn out such a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+swindler! Papa trusted him altogether too far. It does
+not answer to be too noble and disinterested in this
+world."</p>
+
+<p>Fred made no reply to this charming bit of worldly
+wisdom. His delicate and high opinion of self had received
+a crushing blow. Married off, out of hand, to save
+him from poverty!</p>
+
+<p>Why should his thoughts turn to Sylvie at that moment?
+Something stirred within him, an insane desire to win her&mdash;oh,
+mad enough, surely! He could, he <i>would</i>, do something!
+There was all his education and talent; yes, he
+really had talent. He would make himself famous. She
+should see that he had the right kind of stuff in him. He
+would climb up the hard hill in his lonely, sorrowful,
+proud way, until she, looking on, would come to repent
+her unjust verdict!</p>
+
+<p>He shut himself up in his study, and made some very
+fair translations from his beloved poets. There were better
+ones, doubtless; and, after all, fame might not lie in
+that direction. There was physical science, much in
+vogue, and entertaining: no doubt he could do something
+in that line. There were theories and speculations, there
+were old philosophies&mdash;surely the ground was rich everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>It was very poor at Yerbury, though there were theories
+enough. But, when you took them for temporal meat
+and drink, they were not a fattening diet. Men lounged in
+the streets and on the corners, or, worst of all, in saloons,
+talking themselves angry and hoarse over the bad luck,
+and blaming every one right and left. Women sat at
+home, and cried over losses and crosses, cooked their
+scanty dinners, and retired to bed early to save fuel. The
+poorer ones went out to a day's washing, glad to get that.
+Boys played cards, read dime-novels, and dreamed of
+wonderful fortunes at the West: some few stout-hearted
+chaps set out to seek them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There were panaceas. Mr. Rantley preached the rankest
+communism and broadest free-thinking. Capital, i.e.,
+money, was the tyrant of the world, and always would be
+until the laborers of the world rose up and claimed their
+rights. Why should this man starve when the man over
+yonder had his store-house full of flour that he was holding
+for higher prices? What right had he, except the
+might? So long as men were allowed to hoard up these
+monstrous fortunes, they could control the market, and
+would! What were the starving thousands to them?
+What if half the provision in the country rotted on the
+owner's hands? he could get as much or more money for
+the other half. What if the miners were at work only a
+small portion of time? could not the amount of coal be
+managed more easily, and prices kept up? Capital desired
+to keep production at the lowest ebb, because it could be
+more conveniently mastered. The only remedy was to
+give every man a chance, to break up these colossal fortunes,
+to have no great mills and mines; to have smaller
+capitalists, fewer hours of labor, to divide the immense
+hoards among the poor and needy until there should be no
+more want or suffering!</p>
+
+<p>The Rev. Mr. Bristow shook his head at this modern
+anti-Christ. Every thing was anti-Christ, with Mr. Bristow,
+that went outside of his own narrow creed. He
+preached some stirring sermons. It was God's judgment
+upon them for their sins. They had forgotten him, they
+had been led away by false gods; they had made golden
+calves, and worshipped them; their sons had strayed into
+infidelity; their daughters had flaunted in gay attire,
+with plaiting of the hair, and dancing away their immortal
+souls; and now they must return to their God, to the
+meat that perisheth not, to the bread of life, and to the
+well of living water. There must be such a returning to
+God, such a revival of religion, that the world would be
+swept clear and clean out of its old sins!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Splendid sermon! splendid sermon!" said Deacon
+Boyd, rubbing his hands together unctuously. "Parson's
+hit the nail just on the head. We've all strayed out of
+the way. I think a good old-fashioned revival'll set us
+straight sooner'n any thing. Nothing like coming to the
+Lord on the spot! This very week we ought to begin."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you're right, Deacon Boyd," said grave Mr.
+Rising. "I, for one, will take hold of the work."</p>
+
+<p>They called the church together, and began. I will
+not disparage the work. There were hungry souls that
+seemed fed with spiritual food, aching hearts that were
+bound up, reckless minds that paused on the verge of
+desperation. But there were others who wondered, even
+in the midst of the deacon's prayer, how it was that the
+Lord warned him to draw his twenty thousand dollars out
+of Yerbury Bank a week before the failure, when there
+were only he and his wife to keep, and let poor Mrs.
+Wharton with her five helpless children lose her husband's
+life-insurance, her little all, by putting it in the bank just a
+fortnight before the failure. Special providences, whereof
+Deacon Boyd discoursed so eloquently, happened oftener
+to the rich than to the poor.</p>
+
+<p>However, they prayed and fasted and repented. To
+many, any strong emotion that took them out of the wearing
+round of thought was a blessing.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy, with a curious disbelief in every thing,
+went the rounds, and dropped into Maverick's office to talk
+it over. Sylvie was not home this winter: she and her
+aunt spent it in Philadelphia. Then Jack grew dull and
+restless. If the end of all things had come in Yerbury,
+he ought to try some other place in the great world.</p>
+
+<p>It was settled presently quite by accident. A cousin
+of Mrs. Darcy's, one of your strong, thorough, energetic
+women, came to spend the winter with them; and Jack's
+mother, watching the throes of her son's soul, a little
+afraid of socialism, materialism, and all the other isms,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+proposed that Jack should take a journey West or South,
+and have a glimpse of the men and things beyond this
+narrow boundary.</p>
+
+<p>"Grandmother grows feebler all the time now; and,
+being past ninety, we can't expect to keep her much
+longer. Of course, Jack, when she is gone, I shall have
+no tie but you; and, if it suited you to settle elsewhere, I
+should not object. You are young and ambitious, and
+I ought to think of your advancement. There never has
+been a time since your poor father's death that you could
+be so well spared;" yet the mother sighed. "And you
+have been a good son, Jack: you have given up many a
+wish cheerfully to two poor old women."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't call yourself an old woman," said Jack almost
+gruffly, then he stooped to kiss her.</p>
+
+<p>His heart gave a great boyish bound.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, old Yerbury!" he cried exultantly one
+morning, quite sure of a new, glad life elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>"Though I shall be sorry to leave Sylvie and Maverick,"
+he thought. "These old towns do grind the very
+soul out of a fellow who has any desire or energy in him.
+The world isn't all alike, I know," giving his chestnut
+mane a toss like a young, mettlesome colt.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">If</span> Jack Darcy had taken his tour for pure pleasure and
+enjoyment, the time was ill chosen in every respect. Winter
+was bad enough; but an unprosperous one, full of financial
+clouds and storms, and scurrying drifts of distrust,
+was not calculated to make the way brilliant.</p>
+
+<p>But he had one glorious enjoyment to begin with. He
+went straight to Niagara, and took his first glimpse of it
+in its awesome majesty of frost and ice. From that high
+exaltation we call worship, through every intermediate degree
+and sense of beauty, to that of a delicate and minute
+fairy dream. The winter sun radiating glowing tints,
+with skies of sapphire and opal, the great stretches of
+wordless wonder, bound hand and foot like some old Norse
+god amid his ice-fields; the one night when a full moon
+silvered it with prismatic grandeur, and made of the glittering
+ice-crystals entrances to diamond-mines of fabled
+genii, touching him weirdly with this unearthly splendor;
+and the next solemn day, when the very sky seemed
+chilled to unfallen snow, and the ice-caverns turned a
+dull blue, reminding him of descriptions of polar scenery,
+and filling his soul with a sense of boundless solitude.</p>
+
+<p>Then he began his tour of the cities. He had taken
+some books along, whether to perplex or make clear his
+brains, he hardly knew. He pored over pages of Adam
+Smith, he turned to Ruskin for comfort, he picked up
+Brassey's figures and experience, and Stuart Mill's strong,
+kindly reasoning, and digested them in his own slow, practical,
+much-befogged way, trying to solve the problems.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was a great and wonderful world. Little Yerbury
+had hardly any true idea what a mite she was, when one
+looked at the immense labor-fields of the West and apparently
+endless resources. Yet there was the same depression
+out here. Shops and mills closed, for sale, and to let;
+some running on three-quarter time, with half the number
+of workmen, others going on at ruinous competition;
+anxious, moody-eyed men walking the streets, or grouped
+on corners, their coats and hats shabby, their beards untrimmed,
+old boots and shoes with the heels tramped over
+at one side, or a bit of stocking showing through the
+leather. "No man hath hired us," said their despondent
+faces plainer than any words. Young men and boys offering
+to do any kind of work for any kind of pay, sleeping
+in station-houses; relief-stores, church charities and soup-houses,
+homes for the friendless, and all such places, filled
+to overflowing, and new hordes crowding in every day.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there seemed to be no lack of money. It lay in
+banks, it went begging for good security. Where was
+there any good security? Every inch of ground, every
+building, stocks and furniture, were covered by mortgages.
+Stock companies trembled in the balance, and went down
+like card-houses. Everybody wanted to sell every thing,
+but there were no buyers. Everybody wanted to work,
+but there was nothing to do. Everybody was in a chronic
+state of grumbling; there was no profit to be made in
+farming, in manufacturing, in any thing. There had been
+too much over-production, for which every one blamed his
+neighbor. The great warehouses were full of grain, the
+mills loaded up with iron, the factories full of cloth and
+flannels and cottons; and yet people were going hungry
+and in rags. It was puzzling and painful. We had
+bought too much abroad, and sent the money out of the
+country, the balance of trade would make it all right
+again; there had been over-production, and now there
+must be a vigorous repression; there had been too much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+speculation in real estate; there had been too great an
+accumulation of capital in the business centres; we were
+fast verging to the state of older countries, where there
+were the few rich and the many poor: there was a surplus
+of labor, and was there not also a surplus of people?</p>
+
+<p>There was another sad side to it all, that made Jack's
+heart ache. These young men and boys tramping through
+the country, begging or worse, swearing, telling foul stories,
+herding together anywhere, corrupting one another's
+morals, smoking, drinking,&mdash;somehow they managed to
+obtain these indulgences,&mdash;looking furtively out of languid,
+sodden eyes, their faces hard and worn, their voices
+coarse and gruff; and they were to be the next generation
+of what?&mdash;loyal and honest citizens, or jail-birds?</p>
+
+<p>It was not all so sombre. At five and twenty a healthy,
+unwarped nature is many-sided. There were countless
+marvels to see and to study. He stumbled over people
+who had known Mr. Lawrence, and who had a kindly
+feeling for a Hope Mills man. And he had done something
+more in the last eight years than merely learn how
+to make cloth. He had dipped into chemistry, and knew
+a little about dyes; he had studied up in grades and kinds
+of wool, and was interested in labor processes. With
+fresh opportunities he looked into it more closely, observed
+new methods of decreasing waste, or saving labor.
+He was a well-informed, well-mannered, sensible fellow;
+and occasionally some one would say of him, "A smart,
+long-headed chap, that! The world will hear of him
+some day, or I am mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>He kept looking about for some place where, if the
+world did not hear of him, he might get a chance in
+some enterprise where he could take a few steps upward.
+There certainly were more men than places. The world
+was a bee-hive, surely; but alas for those who swarmed
+out in such times as these!</p>
+
+<p>After he had gone as far West as Minnesota, he went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+down the Mississippi to a different kind of civilization in
+the quaint old cities. It was none the less heart-sickening.
+He found traces of the war, that we had almost
+forgotten, fresh at every step; still it seemed as if the
+hand of Nature was much more bounteous than at the
+bleak North. Yet Bishop Heber's old missionary hymn
+rang continually through his mind. Even amid the
+Florida orange-groves, and the great cotton-fields, some
+cause brought about baleful results, in the unwisdom of
+man.</p>
+
+<p>Then to the cities of luxury and thrift, where wealth
+was strong enough to crowd poverty out one side, where
+art and music and cultivation made a subtile atmosphere
+that somehow recalled the Lawrences. He lingered and
+quaffed delightsome draughts, and at last tore himself
+away from seductive sights and sounds. In a dim, half-defined
+way the delights came to him. Would he ever
+be stoic enough to spurn them?</p>
+
+<p>Last of all, home with its sweet welcomes, its cleanliness
+and order, its familiar furniture and cheerful fires,
+its easy-chairs and quaint fragrant air, as if every thing
+had lain in dried rose-leaves; the mother love and tears,
+the smiles out of dimmer eyes, and cousin Jane Morgan's
+hearty greeting; to say nothing of his delicious
+supper and his own bed, where sleep seemed awaiting
+him with open arms.</p>
+
+<p>His mother had written a good deal of Yerbury gossip
+to him, but it had been mostly of the pleasant order.
+When he dropped into Maverick's office the next day,
+and was welcomed so heartily that it was like a brother's
+greeting, he listened to the other side. Affairs were
+worse than ever. The bank had gone into liquidation,
+and would pay about forty per cent. Property mortgages
+had been foreclosed right and left; there was nothing,
+scarcely, doing; there had been want and misery and
+sickness, and now diphtheria was raging.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"So you see the revival didn't do every thing," said
+Maverick grimly. "I'm of the opinion, if some of them
+had preached less, and distributed bread and broth with a
+freer hand, it would have been more of a good work.
+The praying would be well enough in its place, and, for
+those old fellows who pray on a full stomach, very enjoyable,
+I dare say. But I'd like them to look after their
+drains and their wells and their cisterns before they ask
+the Almighty to sanctify these afflictions to the poor
+wretches who suffer from them. And now, Jack Darcy,
+what are you going to do? Have you found better pastures?"
+and Maverick glanced up with curious inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied Jack, rather reluctantly it must be confessed.
+It seemed to him now that he had been spending
+his time for nought, unless pleasure counted, and he felt
+a trifle ashamed of it.</p>
+
+<p>Maverick gave an odd little laugh that puzzled the
+other.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Maverick," began Jack in such earnest
+that he blushed like a great boy, "I haven't found any
+new place for myself. The world seems just full and
+running over. The great cities have their own men out
+of employment, and hordes from every other place. I'd
+be almost ashamed to ask for a job. I declare, I'd rather
+raise as much of my living as I could in our back garden,
+or take Perley's farm, and put it together, and set men
+raising strawberries, than tramp round, asking for work,
+with a feeling that it was taken from some one who had
+a better right, who was a native of the soil."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have not lost your conscience?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not. It is the same old story everywhere.
+What is to be done about it?" and Jack knit his brows.
+"I have been going over the books that I thought would
+help or let in a little light on the matter, but it is a wisdom
+hard to get at. How to make more work in the
+world, how to cheapen living, how to"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Bring about the millennium! What dead earnest you
+are in, Darcy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Weren't you in earnest a moment ago, Maverick,
+when you talked about the praying and the bread and
+broth?" said Jack with a great knot drawn in his brow.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Heaven knows. And some one must take hold
+of the thing who has eyes to see, and brains, and&mdash;and
+money. You see, people have crowded into cities and
+towns, and if they could be sent out somewhere! Why
+don't we organize colonies or something of the sort?
+Now, there's Florida. Living is cheap, and in such a
+climate there are fewer needs of clothing and fuel. I
+have been wondering why the big dons in cities did not
+gather up the poor they have been feeding at soup-houses
+and everywhere, and send them out with some one to
+manage until they could stand alone. There would be
+less diphtherias and fevers and starvation; for that's its
+right name, Darcy. What can you do when one's system
+is all run out with meal-mush, and weak tea that is
+half willow-leaves, and such trash? There's Kilburn&mdash;he
+has had the name of being good to the poor this winter
+because he has given them trust at his store. Such stuff!
+I have looked into a few samples," and the expressive
+nostrils curled in disgust. "He makes an enormous
+profit, for he sells the poorest kind of goods to these people
+at the highest prices. Then he manages to get hold
+of something, house or furniture, or maybe clothes,&mdash;I
+don't know. He and Deacon Boyd&mdash;Darcy, how can a
+man honor religion when these two men are its exponents?
+So good to the poor! Pah! It makes me sick.
+Isn't there a cleaner air somewhere on God's earth?
+Can't they be taken out of this?"</p>
+
+<p>"If they could be! There must be one way out, Maverick:
+better, perhaps, than going West where thousands
+are tramping about. And Heaven knows they need a
+new factor in civilization down there!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The young eyes met in sudden hopeful animation. Had
+they solved even one strand of the great tangle, that
+worse than Gordian knot which could not be cut?</p>
+
+<p>The door opened slowly; and there entered a middle-aged,
+rather grizzled man, with shaggy eyebrows, sparse
+beard, and bent shoulders. He glanced in hesitatingly,
+his eyes wandering down to Darcy.</p>
+
+<p>"I declare to man!" and he stared hard, with the
+door-knob still in his hand. "Jack Darcy! I heard
+you were home. How d'y do? How d'y do?" and he
+wrung the hand warmly. "I'm powerful glad to see
+you," and he looked him slowly over, from head to foot.
+"Why, you've grown, or something! What a great giant
+you are!&mdash;Morning, doctor," nodding rather incidentally
+to Maverick. "So you've had a long tramp, Jack?
+Your mother brought some of the letters over to my old
+lady, who has been rather poorly the last two months.
+Why, you could set up book-writing! Well, what's the
+good word? Can't be like Yerbury all over."</p>
+
+<p>"There are too many towns full of idle people, if that
+is what you mean. But it was splendid, Cameron! I
+have one more dream,&mdash;to go up and down the Western
+coast, and over the Rocky Mountains; but I want to
+digest this first. I have no fancy for mental dyspepsia,"
+and he gave a good, wholesome laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"The right way, Jack," nodded Maverick, with a
+shrewd twinkle in his eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you've come back to a dull place,&mdash;a dull
+place," and Cameron shook his head despondingly.
+"We used to be main proud of old Yerbury; but&mdash;is
+the whole world to go on and starve to death, with such
+crops, and such an abundance of every thing?"</p>
+
+<p>"We are going to weather it through, Cameron," Jack
+answered with a stubborn hopefulness. "There have
+been hard times before that have ended in renewed prosperity."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes. There was '57; hard enough, Heaven knows,
+with the banks going to smash everywhere. It ruined
+my father. And way back in '37, when there was such
+a wild-fire about real estate, and it came out just as this
+has. Do people ever learn by experience, Maverick?"
+and the man gave a short, unmirthful chuckle. "You
+could buy up half Yerbury to-day, for taxes and mortgages.
+I can't, for the life of me, see how it all came
+about. And that it has gone all over the world,&mdash;well,
+human nature in England or Germany can't well laugh at
+human nature in this country.&mdash;Are these things like
+cholera and fevers, doctor, taking a clean sweep once in
+a while?" and Cameron gave a twist to the end of his
+faded beard, as if he might wring the secret out of it.</p>
+
+<p>"We have learned to manage the cholera, and see in
+it, not a dispensation of Providence, but the natural
+result of filth and greed and carelessness. Darcy and I
+are getting up a panacea now," with a bright little laugh.
+"But how is Mrs. Cameron? Is her medicine out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes;" and Cameron drew a phial from his pocket.
+"You don't think it would do to stop here? She's pretty
+well, I should say;" and he fingered the bottle as if he
+were debating whether to have it filled or not.</p>
+
+<p>"No. She must go on. She is getting her strength
+back nicely; but it's bad policy to stop at three-quarters
+of the race,&mdash;eh, Cameron? The first warm day I'll
+take her out driving."</p>
+
+<p>While he was talking, he reached out for the bottle, and
+began compounding. Cameron nodded an acknowledgment
+of the last sentence, then turning to Jack, said
+abruptly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What was the scheme, Darcy?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack flushed, and glanced at Maverick.</p>
+
+<p>"Emigration, the old remedy," answered the doctor.
+"England has tried her hand at it pretty successfully; so
+why shouldn't we? Only we need not go out of our own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
+country. There are thousands of acres of productive
+land lying idle, and thousands of people starving, or
+worse. Too many here,&mdash;not enough there."</p>
+
+<p>"Where to?" Cameron asked laconically, his face
+unmoved by any ripple of enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>Jack seemed to be put on his mettle by it. Lack of
+faith in him always roused his belligerent qualities, back
+in the old school days.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Cameron," in an incisive tone, looking steadily
+out of his determined eyes. "The cities are crowded
+over and over, and full of tramps, and the West swarms
+with them. We need not imagine we have all the idle
+people here at the East. But farming there has come to
+be a business of great things, almost as bad as manufacturing.
+You must have money, or the big fellows will
+swallow you up. But we were talking of Florida. No
+winter, as one may say; and your house a simple matter,
+your fuel, your clothes, a mere nothing. You could
+hardly starve if you tried."</p>
+
+<p>Cameron came back to his chair, pushed it out from
+the wall, planted himself deliberately in it, and tilted
+back, pushing up his old felt hat, as if he did not mean
+to have his vision obstructed. Then he gave his beard
+another twist.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you tell me why this is, Jack Darcy? Here are
+countries with fine and lovely climates, where every thing
+grows to your hand; yet they always seem to lie idle:
+Italy and Spain and Turkey and South America, and our
+own Gardens of Eden," with a bit of sarcastic smile.
+"The very ease of living seems to take the ambition out
+of one. Well, why shouldn't it? Even the bees, you
+know, were demoralized when they found they did not
+have to lay up for winter. Wouldn't those people come
+to be worse tramps and idlers? I'm sure the poor white
+trash of the South has helped itself very little."</p>
+
+<p>"We were talking of concerted effort," interposed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+Maverick,&mdash;"purchasing a large tract of land, forming
+a community, taking different kinds of workmen, and
+making a success of it. Why should we not have flourishing
+towns in Florida, as well as in Kansas?"</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure, to be sure!" nodding his head and tugging
+at his beard in a manner that showed he was not a
+whit convinced. "Then you give up," he said, "that
+any thing can be done at home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Any thing done at home?" Jack lifted his level
+brows, and stared a little.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. The going away may all be very well. I tried
+it in '57; went out to Indiana with a little money, and
+tried farming that I didn't know any thing about, had the
+ague six months, and then came back poorer certainly.
+Now, the thing is just here with a good many of us,&mdash;we
+have our little homes, and in such times as these, in any
+hard times, we couldn't sell for any thing worth while.
+Then there's many a thing, to a man or a woman past middle
+life, that can't be reckoned in dollars and cents: the
+home you've made for yourself, the old friends, the church,
+even the familiar street you've walked over so often that
+every flagstone comes to have a near look."</p>
+
+<p>"But those who have no homes, no strong interests"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"If I was going to found a colony, I should want a
+little better stock," with a short, dry laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"May be you have a plan?" suggested Maverick good-naturedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I've thought it over a good deal this winter,
+sitting in the house with the old lady;" and there came a
+peculiar far-off look in Cameron's eye as he studied a
+figure in the carpet. "If God worked miracles nowadays,
+and was to make a dozen or so honest men with a good,
+stout share of brains, there might be a little lifting-up
+of the dull skies. Take this town, leaving out politics
+and all that sort. Five years ago we were prosperous,
+and there wasn't a prettier town anywhere about. Good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
+wages were paid, people were thrifty; and I will say it
+for David Lawrence, if he was one of your high kind,
+he was a gentleman. I've worked for him fifteen years
+steady. Then the Eastmans came in, and there was
+nothing but hurry and drive, grumbling about high wages,
+buying cheap wools, and if cloth was poor, blaming the
+men. Then wages went down and down, and, when the
+men stood out, the scum of all the places around was
+brought in. Yerbury improved, and beer-saloons multiplied.
+Houses were thrown together and sold; and now
+they're all falling apart, and standing empty, and half a
+dozen families are crowding into one miserable tenement.
+Who made the money? Was it high wages that ruined
+Hope Mills, and wrecked Yerbury Bank?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have hit the truth somewhere, Cameron."</p>
+
+<p>"Those men were thieves and swindlers; and I suppose
+to-day they're living on the fat of the land, milk and
+honey thrown in. See here, I'm not an educated man,
+but I have a little common sense. Suppose we'd been let
+to go our ways quiet like,&mdash;the farmers holding on to
+their farms, and making two blades of grass grow where
+one grew before. Wasn't that some old philosopher's
+advice? Suppose David Lawrence hadn't built that great
+palace out on Hope Terrace (he was a plainish man himself),
+and there had been five or six beside him making a
+moderate share of money. He's lost all his great fortune,
+there's seventy thousand or so gone somewhere, the
+bank has smashed with thousands more of everybody's
+money, with nothing much to show but trumpery mortgages;
+there's no work and no money, and a howl goes
+up that there has been over-production. Not over-production
+of honesty, I take it."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick looked at the little earnest man, and laughed
+a hearty, cheering sort of laugh that was like pouring oil
+into a wound. Jack stared with wide-open eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I've been to hear Rantley two or three times,&mdash;he's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+going about lecturing, you know,&mdash;but I don't see as he
+has any very good plan for getting work on its legs again.
+Then I've listened to the parson this winter, to please the
+old lady; and he is sure all this is a judgment for our sins.
+Seems to me, judgment went a little askew: why doesn't
+it touch Eastman and such fellows?"</p>
+
+<p>"Has nothing been done?" asked Jack. "I have
+heard no business gossip for the last three months. Can't
+it be proved that he was a defaulter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it could. The old lady was reading the other
+morning about the scapegoat being sent into the wilderness
+with everybody's sins on his head; and I guess they'd
+rather have <i>him</i> off somewhere, and pack the trouble on
+him. He might tell too much if he was here. They
+couldn't get the money back, even if he has it; but no one
+ever will believe that David Lawrence profited by it.
+That money belongs to the people of Yerbury, who have
+earned it, and saved it; and I say thieving and roguery
+have more to do with hard times than 'surplus of labor.'
+The big men have taken the money that belonged to the
+little ones."</p>
+
+<p>"None of the Lawrence estate has been settled, I suppose?"
+asked Jack.</p>
+
+<p>"Every thing is for sale. The mortgage on the big
+house is to be foreclosed, also on the mill I believe. I
+declare to you, Darcy, it makes my heart ache to see those
+dumb spindles, and the great silent engine standing like a
+mourner at a funeral. Come now, why should Hope Mills
+go to ruin, and Yerbury fall to pieces, while you and Maverick
+go and build up Florida? Wouldn't the money and
+the energy do something here?"</p>
+
+<p>Cameron's eyes looked out of their overhanging thatch
+with a puzzled, thoughtful expression, as if there must be
+a solution to the mystery.</p>
+
+<p>Jack was startled. Building up Florida looked feasible,
+but building up Yerbury<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Then you will not go with us?" said Maverick with a half-laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"I've my little home clear of debt, and a trifle at interest;
+and over in Yerbury churchyard there are two graves
+dear to me and my old lady. It would break her heart to
+leave them. And sometimes, Maverick, I thank God,
+that I've no sons to grow up tramps or worse. No, I'll
+stay here, and fight through somehow."</p>
+
+<p>They were silent for several minutes, each one tugging
+at the knotty problem. Then Cameron rose, reached out
+for the phial of medicine, drove his slouch-hat down over
+his forehead, and walked toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Drop in and see us, Jack, after you have thought it
+over a bit. Mother's always had a warm corner in her
+heart for you.&mdash;Morning, doctor;" and, nodding, he
+closed the door behind him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span> and Maverick glanced at each other, a long,
+searching, questioning glance.</p>
+
+<p>"Given twenty or forty moderate fortunes, instead of
+the one great one," said Jack slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"And you have a greater amount of general prosperity
+and happiness."</p>
+
+<p>"Co-operation," continued Jack.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, if you don't mind, you may take a walk
+with me," said Maverick. "Office-hours are over, and
+I have some rather serious cases on hand. Jerry's gone
+lame, stuck a nail in his foot, so I console myself with
+pedestrian theories."</p>
+
+<p>"All right. I may need a pilot."</p>
+
+<p>It was a mid-April day; but spring was late, and every
+thing looked bleak to Jack after his Southern sojourn.
+Certainly it was quite different from the trim little town
+of Jack's boyhood. The blight of poverty and thriftlessness
+had fallen upon it. There were piles of refuse
+in the streets, still half frozen; there were muddy stoops
+and shabby hall-doors, and broken area-palings, and now
+and then a window patched up with paper or rags. For
+though there may be much high theorizing and preaching
+on the two or three exceptional men who have lifted
+themselves out of dens of poverty, and come through
+great tribulation, there are thousands who work out
+nothing but blind destruction and utter shipwreck, and
+who in frantic efforts for salvation drag down those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>
+nearest and dearest, as a drowning man may clutch at
+his own brother.</p>
+
+<p>"Not very inviting," apologized Maverick; "but I
+have two calls to make here in Boyd's Row,&mdash;old rookeries
+that ought to have been pulled down long ago, but
+I suppose they still bring in Boyd considerable. I have
+made a complaint about the drains: they are enough to
+breed a pestilence. Tom Byrne has three children down
+with scarlet-fever. Two of them will be carried out
+presently, but I hope to save the little girl. No&mdash;I
+won't take you in."</p>
+
+<p>"Tom Byrne&mdash;he was a mill-hand. And I know his
+wife well. Yes, Maverick." And Jack followed him.</p>
+
+<p>It was a two-story cottage with three rooms on a
+floor, and two families occupying it. The Byrnes were
+up-stairs.</p>
+
+<p>The two beds were in the front room, for the middle
+one was dark. There was a well-worn carpet on the
+floor, and the furniture very poor. Jenny Byrne had
+sold her best to pay the quarter's rent in the last place
+which they had left the first of January, the landlord
+preferring it should stand empty. Her little savings had
+been swept away by the bank disaster: there was no
+work, and three children to feed, except that Deacon
+Boyd found Tom sufficient employment to pay his rent.</p>
+
+<p>On one bed close by the window lay the little girl,
+heavy-eyed and crimson. The elder boy had come to the
+stupor that precedes death, the other was restless with a
+half delirium. Jenny Byrne's round rosy cheeks had
+vanished, and her eyes had a distraught look, the lurking
+fear of coming woe. She stared at Jack a moment,
+then stretched out her hand, but as quickly withdrew it.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you tell him, doctor? O Mr. Darcy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. He <i>would</i> come."</p>
+
+<p>She wiped away some tears with the corner of her faded
+apron, then answered a question of Jack's. What could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+he say to the poor thing? Surely she had done her duty
+with truest endeavor; and Tom Byrne was a very fair
+average man, liking his daily glass of beer, but rarely
+going farther.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you fix a bed in the other room, and put Kitty
+in it?" the doctor asked. "She is better, but I would
+rather have her out of here."</p>
+
+<p>"And Jamie is better too?" she questioned, with
+tremulous eagerness. "His fever is nearly gone, and
+he's having such a nice sleep"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Sleep is the best thing for him," returned the doctor
+briefly. "About Kitty"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The mother's wan face flushed. She came close to Dr.
+Maverick, her eyes downcast.</p>
+
+<p>"The coal gave out this morning, and I've no fire
+there," she said just above a whisper. "The relief-store
+is closed"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes; I'll see to it;" with a nod. "I will be in
+again"&mdash;looking at the sleeping child&mdash;"say about
+four." Then he changed the medicine for Kitty, and
+gave one or two orders.</p>
+
+<p>Jack thrust a bank-note in Jenny's hand, with his
+good-by. "Tom will be so glad to see you, Mr. Darcy,"
+she said, with an effort at calmness.</p>
+
+<p>"Can nothing be done for them?" asked Jack, as they
+regained the street.</p>
+
+<p>"No. Jamie had gone too far when I was called in.
+Larger rooms, fresher air, nourishing food: that's the
+secret of a physician's success in many cases. Poor
+little ones! He will not go through the night. Now,
+Jack, you are not to come in here, positively. Stand
+in this breeze, and blow the scarlet-fever out of your
+clothes."</p>
+
+<p>He did as he was bid, and, getting tired, tramped up
+and down. How much of man's selfishness and dishonesty
+there was in this! If the time could ever come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+when the mists and fogs of complacency would be swept
+off, and we could see that it was the innocent suffering
+for the guilty, not that these poor souls were sinners
+above all men, as the self-righteous Pharisee preaches!</p>
+
+<p>Maverick rejoined him with a grave face, then the two
+went down Main Street. Houses to let, stores and shops
+closed, and those open but half-stocked, and wearing a
+listless air. If three hard years so told on the place, and
+there was no prospect of better things, what would it be
+in five or ten? Was it some such misfortune that had
+overtaken those grand and luxurious cities of Oriental
+lands?</p>
+
+<p>"Where are the Lawrences?" Jack asked presently.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I really do not know. I think I did hear that
+Mrs. Lawrence had gone to New York. The young
+man"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Jack held his breath, and there was a strange flutter
+at his heart. After all these years he saw again the
+pale, handsome child who had given him a boy's ardent
+love.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a fancy that he will not amount to much.
+Queer idea that of Cameron's, wasn't it, Darcy? Who
+was it that first preached or wrote of the 'duty nearest
+one'? Of course things cannot stay this way forever,
+they must mend; and maybe if some one took hold to
+help mend them&mdash;Cameron's idea is not a bad one.
+Maybe the same amount of money and energy expended
+here would be productive of good results: still I hold on
+to Florida for my poor and wretched suffering ones. But
+it is worth thinking of. Here, let us turn round by Hope
+Mills."</p>
+
+<p>Jack was silent. "Hope Mills!" It rang through
+his brain like a chime of bells. Of course he knew that
+Mr. Hope had given them his name; but had he builded
+better than he knew? Was it indicative of something
+greater than the power of one man,&mdash;of many men? of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+strong, earnest endeavor; of truth, honor, and honesty;
+of thrift, and happy, jocund industry, once more?</p>
+
+<p>But now it was very silent. The great yard had an
+untidy look, with some piles of weather-beaten lumber,
+and old <i>d&eacute;bris</i>. The windows were covered with dust;
+the broad stone steps showed where the winter snows had
+fallen and melted, leaving streaks of dirt, and more had
+blown in the corners. No cheerful creak of the great
+engine; no vapory puffs of smoke circling skyward from
+the chimney; no whir of looms. It saddened one inexpressibly.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a big subject," said Jack slowly. "I've been
+puzzling my brains half the winter with what wiser heads
+than mine have said about capital and labor,&mdash;Mill and
+Brassey and Howell, and our own men, with soft, sweet
+bits of Ruskin, and savage bits of Carlyle. I don't know
+but Carlyle was right when he said, 'The beginning and
+the end of what is the matter with us, in these days, is, that
+we have forgotten God.' Cameron said it another way,&mdash;honor
+and honesty. Because, certainly, honor appeals
+to all that is noblest in human nature,&mdash;to chivalry, and
+tenderness and thought for others; and nothing ever prospered,
+in the long-run, that did not have a substratum of
+truth."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, according to Bristow, we came back to him this
+winter&mdash;not I, Darcy, I don't make any pretence,"&mdash;and
+he shook his head with slow gravity. "But I was
+interested in the revival on psychological grounds. I had
+never been so inside of one before. Bristow is a good
+man, no doubt; but it is just the one chosen way with
+him,&mdash;strong crying and praying, and believing yourself
+a sinner above all men, and then a sudden peace and
+happiness, and a courage to endure,&mdash;a blind, unreasoning
+courage to take the present as it is, because God sent
+it, and it must be for the best. Boyd and Whitlow and
+Kenny were the great lights. They went about from house<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+to house; they exhorted and prayed. Whitlow was one
+of the old bank-directors. Strange to say, he did not
+lose a penny. His money was in government-bonds; and
+now he has persuaded Yerbury that if his advice had been
+taken there would have been no trouble. Whitlow discharged
+his man this winter, and took in his place a half-grown
+boy. Mrs. Whitlow sets a good example to her
+class by discharging one handmaid and making the other
+do double duty. Yet, so far as I can find, Whitlow is a
+richer man than he was three years ago. Kenny keeps
+his factory open, and gives the men three days' work in
+the week, and pays them in poor shoes, as much as possible;
+and takes out a good deal in high rent. Boyd, who
+has the name of being the greatest saint of all,&mdash;does
+what? Opens that miserable row of houses, that he
+couldn't let on any terms, and takes in tenants who are
+willing to work out the rent. He gets good prices, too.
+Is he losing on them? Faugh! the very term of charity
+makes me sick. And this winter he purchased a good deal
+of the stock of the relief-store. Wretched flour; miserable,
+adulterated stuff of tea; pork, some of it that wasn't
+fit to eat; and cheap butter, that every one would have
+been ten times better without. I went to him one day,
+red-hot, in a sanitary view of the business; and he
+preached religion to me,&mdash;his kind. 'Boyd,' said I,
+'there's Keppler's saloon, your own property, paying you
+a good income, no doubt, in these hard times, adding to
+the want and misery of Yerbury faster than your whole
+church can save. If you are in earnest, go break up that
+den of iniquity!'"</p>
+
+<p>Jack laughed. "What did he say to that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Meekly, that Keppler had a lease for five years, and
+was going on the second. The man is so honorable, he
+cannot break faith with his fellow-man, forsooth; but he
+breaks faith with God, in a serene, untroubled manner."
+And Maverick's lip curled scornfully under the fringe of
+moustache.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But there must be some gold, or the counterfeit would
+not be so successfully received. We have had so much
+false money everywhere, that, since we can make that
+pass, we do not trouble ourselves. And yet, Maverick,
+there <i>is</i> something in it that you and I don't see clearly
+yet; but we cannot teach it acceptably until we can show
+better fruit. And, when leaders of all kinds, in high
+places, show that self only is at the bottom of every
+thing they do, it seems hopeless to demand that the class
+below, watching them, and suffering from their wrongdoing,
+shall attain a higher moral status. How can they
+help following coarsely in the footsteps of their betters?"</p>
+
+<p>"Darcy, suppose you turn parson!" and Maverick
+laughed half quizzically. "See here: the world wants a
+very old sermon preached again to it, hammered into
+every fibre, put up over every doorway,&mdash;the essence
+of all knowledge, all religion, briefly comprehended in
+this, 'Love thy neighbor <i>as</i> thyself.' You won't need
+gown or bands for that work. Not to have one code of
+morals for the rich, and one for the poor; one creed for
+Sunday, and quite another belief for Monday; to have no
+lofty, impossible theories and exalted moods, but truthful,
+honest living; not to push away the miserable, ignorant
+souls, but take them by the hand in hearty co-operation.
+Maybe Cameron has the right clew. Why should we
+let human love be shamed by such things as an Oneida
+community or a Mormon city?"</p>
+
+<p>The strong, earnest voice stirred Jack like martial
+music. All these years he had been struggling with a
+great, blind, confused something,&mdash;perhaps it was not a
+silver-mine or a railroad, but a work just here in the town
+of his boyhood, where he was known, where he had played
+and worked.</p>
+
+<p>"Seventeenthly, and lastly," and Maverick looked at
+his watch, "I cannot idle any more time upon you, and
+must cut short with a 'To be continued.' We will talk it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+over again and again; and, if we cannot get it into shape,
+there is still Florida left. So, while you are dreaming it
+out by this great silent mill, whose prisoned spirits should
+prate of prosperity instead of desolation, I'll run my
+course around Yerbury, and we'll compare notes over our
+cigars. <i>Addio</i>," waving his hand.</p>
+
+<p>Jack watched the compact figure as it moved briskly
+away; then he sauntered round the mill, down one street
+and up another, strolled out to Lovers' Lane, and returned
+by Larch Avenue. The Barry house began to show signs
+of life, for old Mat was clearing up the grounds. This
+was the one oasis that had not been bitten by speculation.
+He thought of winsome little Sylvie, and one summer
+evening when Irene Lawrence stepped into that pretty,
+cosey room with the grace and beauty of a Juno. Where
+was she now? And what was Fred doing? Making a
+great leap into name and fame, doubtless, now that he was
+put upon his mettle. The old boyish freaks came back to
+his mind, the enthusiastic unreasoning adoration, the last
+tender parting. An intense and subtile sympathy filled
+his soul; and, though he smiled a little, the memory was
+very sacred.</p>
+
+<p>The texture of Jack's mind was not of the quick, brilliant,
+or sanguine order. He went over his books again;
+he ruminated as he cleaned the garden-paths, spaded the
+beds, trimmed the trees and shrubbery, and attended to
+the odds and ends known only to a careful householder.
+Cousin Jane was in her element out here; and they two
+discoursed of farming and gardening, and industry, she
+in a sharp, trenchant way.</p>
+
+<p>She had remarked incidentally that her visit was near
+its end. Now that Jack was home, cousin Ellen would
+not need her.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why you should not make your home here,
+cousin Jane," replied Mrs. Darcy. "Grandmother grows
+feebler all the time, and you have quite spoiled me by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+your strength and cheeriness. You have no nearer tie;
+and if you <i>could</i> content yourself with us&mdash;Jack was
+speaking about it a few evenings since. We should like
+so to keep you, cousin Jane."</p>
+
+<p>Jane Morgan studied the beseeching eyes a while, then
+dropped her own, and thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," she answered, "if you like to have it so.
+While I am well and strong I think I ought to do enough
+somewhere to earn my living, and not use up the little laid
+by for a rainy day. If you and Jack are agreed, we'll
+consider it a bargain for a year. I like to be settled about
+what I'm going to do: there's nothing so uncomfortable
+as hanging on tenterhooks. When my visit's through I
+like to go, if I'm going; not stand an hour or two with the
+door-knob in my hand."</p>
+
+<p>Jack was delighted. They could spare him now and
+then of an evening to stroll down to Maverick's office,
+where they discussed pretty nearly every thing under the
+sun. It was so in the beginning,&mdash;"the earth was without
+form, and void." Then the Barrys returned; Sylvie
+changed in some indescribable way as to a kind of delicate
+outside manner, but the same fresh, earnest girl in
+heart and soul, taking up her friendship with Jack just
+where she had laid it down. Yet they had both grown
+broader and richer in nature and experience, and there
+was something of the subtile flavor of new acquaintanceship.</p>
+
+<p>Yerbury cleaned house, even to the tidying-up of streets
+and carting-away of rubbish. It was pitiful to see the
+attempts of some of the poor women, who washed their
+worn white curtains, scrubbed the shutters and hall-door,
+and set out a few ragged geraniums in the front yard, or
+made a little bed of lettuce and onions.</p>
+
+<p>Yerbury Savings Bank was in the hands of a receiver.
+Some sold out their small accounts for a trifle: it was
+agreed there could not be much in the way of dividends.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+Here was a great mortgage on the Downer farm, that the
+Eastmans had partly cut into city lots. And, though
+Downer had received a large price, he was a poor man
+to-day, with no business, and several sons tramping the
+highways for work. Farms had not been profitable, but
+had the wealth and extravagance produced any better result?
+These places around would be sold presently for
+any sum they would bring.</p>
+
+<p>"Speculation did look so tempting, though," said Jack
+with a humorous smile. "But for grandmother I might
+have been in the midst of it."</p>
+
+<p>"There's just one thing that makes a man or a country
+rich," said Jane Morgan incisively; "and that's industry,
+good, honest labor. Marking up one's goods before
+breakfast, as the Frenchman did, realizes no absolute
+money. The speculators jingle their dollars from hand to
+hand, until some poor fool, attracted by the noise, gives
+them a hundred for their twenty. When a man makes
+money simply by another person's loss, he has not created
+any thing, or made any more of it; and the world's no
+better, that I can see."</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Jane, you are dipping into political economy;"
+and Jack nodded gayly. "I shall have to ask
+Maverick and some of the others up here; and maybe
+you can put in a straw, or a head of wheat, toward the
+regeneration of Yerbury."</p>
+
+<p>"I dip into a little common sense now and then, and it
+seems to me that's what the world needs. There is no
+lack of the uncommon kind, and it's not to be altogether
+despised, since at times uncommon things are given to
+people to do. But, if all the bees in the hive thought they
+had a call to be queens, it runs in my mind there'd be a
+lack of honey presently."</p>
+
+<p>"You are on the right foundation, cousin Jane. We
+must not only make the honey an honorable thing, but
+honor the bees, put labor on a better, truer foundation."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I should just say, 'See here, my friends, it is not
+possible for us all to be rich, whether it is some fixed immutable
+law of fate, or the lack of necessary elements in
+one's character, or the meeting of the right person with the
+right circumstances; but the fact is there, true as judgment.
+You can be comfortable and clean if you have the
+energy; and it is better to scrub your own kitchen-floor, or
+raise a bushel of potatoes, than to sit and whine about
+luck or respectability. Now and then a ready-made fortune
+drops down upon one, and I don't know but it often
+brings a curse: anyhow, what you work for, you are pretty
+sure to enjoy.' It makes me mad when I see healthy,
+hearty young women sighing for servants and pianos and
+what not; when their grandmothers, who had as good
+blood, and as good sense, didn't despise honest work."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie Barry came in while Miss Morgan was in the
+midst of her "speech," as Jack declared it to be; and
+now she clapped her small white hands, with a "Bravo!"</p>
+
+<p>"A new disciple, Jack," and she smiled. "Miss
+Morgan, we shall set you to reading our favorite authors,
+and solving the tremendous question. Where can we get
+work for these to do? For a great many stand idle in
+the market-place, because they have not been hired.
+What can we set them at?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Miss Barry, I don't know much about the big,
+outside questions; but, going around Yerbury a little this
+winter, I shouldn't say the work was all done up; or,
+done in such a poor, thrown-together way, that it tumbles
+right to pieces again. There's skewy, ill-made beds with
+ragged counterpanes; there's shreds of old ingrain-carpets,
+that you fall over; there's broken chairs, and shabby
+clothes, and dirty corners,&mdash;work enough, I should say,
+to last some woman an hour or two. She might get out
+her pieces of calico, and, with the children's help, make a
+new spread, maybe a tidy apron, and she might braid a
+rag mat out of bits, and a hundred things that go toward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+comfort. No: all the work isn't done up yet, Miss
+Sylvie," and Jane Morgan stopped just then, to knit the
+seam-stitch in a stocking for a poor body.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie threw herself on the footstool, and leaned her
+arms on Miss Morgan's knee.</p>
+
+<p>"I wasn't thinking so much of that when I spoke,"
+she began earnestly; "but I do wonder if some of us
+couldn't take it up. There are art-schools, and music-schools,
+and cooking-schools, in the great cities; and why
+couldn't we start something of the kind here? Poor
+people&mdash;the real poor, I mean&mdash;are often wasteful and
+idle because they do not just know how to be any thing
+else. They buy cheap garments in stores, and they soon
+come apart. I had a sewing-school last summer, and I
+found some mothers didn't seem to care whether their
+children learned or not,&mdash;since there was so much sewing
+done by machines. But if the mothers could be taught a
+little"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That's about the upshot of what I said. You see,
+Miss Barry, people have been earning so much money of
+late years, that sewing has gone out of fashion. It didn't
+pay to do this or that, so they earned and spent. Now
+they sit listless in their dirt and rags, bemoaning hard
+times. It is good to know how to do more than one
+thing," and Miss Morgan nodded her head confidently,
+her strong face full of earnestness.</p>
+
+<p>"Why can't you and Sylvie start a school&mdash;what
+shall we call it?&mdash;of useful and homely arts? You see,
+the girls do work in the mills and shops until they get
+married, and then they do not know how to make the
+best of their husbands' money. But don't crowd out all
+the beauty and the pleasure; there must be something to
+enlist the heart. Give a man an interest in a thing, and
+you awake a new feeling, an enthusiasm that makes
+every thing go as smoothly as oiling up machinery."</p>
+
+<p>"I have often thought," said Mrs. Darcy in her soft,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+gentle voice, "that the poor did not get as much good of
+their money as the better classes, because they never have
+enough to buy advantageously, and store-keepers so often
+take the advantage of them. Now, yesterday I was over
+to Mrs. Hall's, and the poor thing was trying to make
+some bread, and she was not fit to stand up and knead it;
+so I thought I'd try. The flour was heavy and sticky
+and lumpy, and what I should call very unprofitable.
+No one could make good bread out of it. She said they
+traded at Kilburn's, because he would wait if they did
+not have the money. The flour was seven and a half a
+barrel; the eighth, ninety-five cents; and I do not believe
+the bread was fit to eat. So you must remember,
+when you blame people for poor cooking, that they may
+not always have decent materials to work with."</p>
+
+<p>"Maverick was growling about Kilburn the other evening.
+It is a shame that he should sell such poor goods,
+when prices have come down a good deal."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you not reform him a little?" and Mrs. Darcy
+smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Jane and Sylvie might go into business, as
+did the poor weavers of Toad Lane, with their sack of
+oatmeal, firkin of butter, a little sugar and flour," said
+Jack laughingly. "A fair division of labor. The men
+of Yerbury shall provide work, and the women shall train
+the inefficient how and where to spend money."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie glanced up with bright, inquiring eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it some more co-operation?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Jack brought out his book, and read the story of the
+"Equitable Pioneers of Rochdale" and their wonderful success
+from a small beginning. The girl listened with wide-open
+eyes, and even Jane Morgan laid down her knitting.</p>
+
+<p>"The queen-bee and the workers again," said she, as
+Jack closed the book. "It is not every man for himself,
+but every man for each other. And it comes back,
+always."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Where</span> is grandmother?" Jack asked one morning
+late in May, as he came in from the garden, and found
+her place at the table vacant.</p>
+
+<p>"She does not feel very well this morning, and I told
+her there was no need of rising with the lark," answered
+cousin Jane; but, though her voice was cheerful, there
+was a new gravity in her face.</p>
+
+<p>"It is something unusual"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"She is getting to be an old lady, Jack. There, sit
+down to your breakfast while it is nice and hot. No fear
+but what I will attend to grandmother."</p>
+
+<p>She had risen; but in the midst of her dressing her
+hands had lost their cunning, her limbs their strength.
+Jane came to look at her in alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a warning," she said, with her grand old smile.
+"But I have no pain, and so you can leave me here for a
+while. My strength may come back."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Darcy was much frightened.</p>
+
+<p>"Remember that ninety-four is a good old age, and she
+has hardly had a sick day in her life. After breakfast
+Jack might go over for Dr. Maverick. He is sensible,
+and will not torment her with experiments."</p>
+
+<p>Jack rather hurried through his meal, and then ran up
+to grandmother's room. She put out her wrinkled hand,
+thin to be sure, but still slender and smooth, with no
+knobby joints. A proud sort of beauty illumined the old
+face, though the eyes were a little dull.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear boy," and there was a curious quaver in her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+voice, "I've had to give in at last. The Lord knows
+best. He has given me many a happy year with you;
+yet I have never forgotten the folks over yonder. I shall
+be glad to see them again,&mdash;your father, Jack, and the
+rest. 'Then they came to the land of Beulah, where the
+sun shineth day and night, and betook themselves to
+rest'&mdash;you know. We used to read it together."</p>
+
+<p>A sharp pang went to Jack's heart. He pressed the
+limp hand to his lips, and gazed into the face that had
+changed in some indescribable way. Then Jane came
+with a tempting breakfast, and fed her with wonderful
+gentleness, it seemed to him.</p>
+
+<p>He went out, and brought Maverick back with him.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a general breaking-up of nature," said the doctor
+with a tender gravity. "Nothing can be done, unless
+she should suffer; but I do not think she will. It is the
+way lives ought to end oftener. Give her whatever she
+will take; and keep cheerful, all of you. After all, it is
+only a little journey."</p>
+
+<p>"Where?" the young eyes asked as they met each
+other in solemn mood.</p>
+
+<p>Jack scarcely left her. She liked to open her eyes, and
+find him sitting there, when she would smile faintly, and
+murmur a few words. Sylvie and Miss Barry were the
+only visitors admitted to her room. They used to read
+out of "Pilgrim's Progress," the book she had loved so
+well, and occasionally they sang some sweet old hymn.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack," she said once, "you will find everything in
+my old box there in the bureau. It was my mother's, and
+came across the sea with me. You have been a good lad.
+You took your father's place with me, and you must never
+regret that you staid here to make an old woman happy.
+You have been a good lad&mdash;a good&mdash;little lad"&mdash; And
+her mind wandered to other years.</p>
+
+<p>Just growing gradually weaker, and falling asleep peacefully.
+A long, well-spent life, and a death to remember
+and desire.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They buried her in Yerbury churchyard, and the townspeople
+turned out to do her honor. Jack thought of
+another death, and the almost solitary state of the funeral.</p>
+
+<p>How good it was that they had Jane Morgan now!
+She carried them right along.</p>
+
+<p>Jack opened the brass-bound box, still fragrant with its
+sandal-wood lining. Some old letters, the trinkets she
+had saved from her poverty, and a will bequeathing her
+all, in government bonds, to Jack.</p>
+
+<p>There was nearly seven thousand dollars. With his
+own little savings he felt quite rich.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack," said his mother, "all these years you have
+waited patiently, and put by your own dreams. Do not
+think that I did not notice the struggle. It was very generous
+and kindly; and I am glad, for grandmother's sake,
+that you staid. But now if you like we will go somewhere
+else, and make a new home"&mdash;did her voice tremble
+a little then? "I am still young enough to take root
+elsewhere, and cousin Jane is so energetic she helps one
+to new life. There may be prettier and more prosperous
+places, and you have years before you in which to realize
+a fortune."</p>
+
+<p>He glanced up at the face bending over him, instinct
+with the honorable grace of middle life; the hair with a
+few threads of silver; the soft, fine skin showing some
+wrinkles about the eyes and two or three light creases
+across the forehead; the cheeks out of which roundness
+had vanished, and the lips the scarlet of girlhood, but
+though both were pale the mouth was still tender and
+sweet. A womanly woman,&mdash;that seemed to him a perfect
+description of his mother, a woman who had loved
+three generations, and held by them. Now for his sake
+she would give up the old ties, and try a new world,&mdash;this
+shy, shrinking, loving woman.</p>
+
+<p>What would she leave? She had never known any
+other home in her married life, though this had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+changed and improved since her wedding-day. Everywhere
+some trace of his father. The porch with the
+roses climbing over it, the great maples in the street,
+planted by him; the odorous old balm of Gilead, that he
+had hunted up because she had cared for it, and they had
+one in her old home; the trailing clematis with its shining
+smilax-like green, and its heliotrope fragrance; the white
+rose that had been planted on the morning of Jack's
+birth, and had sent up many generations from the old root;
+the latticed summer-house with its wealth of grapes; and
+almost like a vision Jack could fancy he saw the tall figure
+and deliberate step,&mdash;the sweet ghost of memory that
+could never walk in any other place. Did his mother
+have such dreams?</p>
+
+<p>Yes, there were better things to life than mere money-getting.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe those were the wild dreams of boyhood,"&mdash;smiling
+a little,&mdash;"the 'long, long thoughts of youth.'
+I used to want something that would occupy my whole
+soul and every energy, that was stirring, earnest, absorbing,
+and held a grand outlook. But I think"&mdash;very
+deliberately, as if he were weighing every word&mdash;"that
+my work has come to me, instead of my going out to seek
+it. At all events, I shall not go away for the present."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she returned, but she could not keep the
+great gladness out of her voice.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus made his election, Jack Darcy looked sturdily
+about to see what was to be done, and the best way
+to do it. He asked two of the old over-lookers, Hurd and
+Bradley, to meet him at Maverick's office; and there they
+discussed co-operation until long past midnight. They
+looked into the cotton-mill connected with the Rochdale
+experiment; they read up the workings of those at Oldham
+and Lancashire, of the industries in France, and
+banking in Germany.</p>
+
+<p>"Here we are," said Jack, "with so much of our lives<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+spent in learning to manage looms and turn out different
+kinds of cloth. People must wear clothes until the millennium,
+and cloth will be made. It seems to me that it
+must be a good thing to identify the workmen, and get
+their real interest. We should avoid strikes on the one
+hand, the continual disputes about wages, and be much
+less at the mercy of all outside influence. The men will
+understand thoroughly that industry, economy, thrift, and
+perseverance is good for each individually; that he is
+using these qualities not only for the master, but for himself.
+There will be better work, and more of it."</p>
+
+<p>Hurd seemed to be taking the measure of Darcy
+through this speech. Now he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Darcy, any man who knows enough to head such a
+business as Hope Mills, knows enough to carve out a
+fortune for himself; and my opinion is that he would be
+a fool to let the chance slip."</p>
+
+<p>"A man may have the knowledge, but not the requisite
+capital," was the patient answer. "Then he might
+think"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you've a sight of faith, that's all! Your men
+will go on with the tramp of soldiers in good times; and
+when the pinch comes, then look out! If they were educated,
+reasonable, sensible; but you and I both know the
+mass are not. It will do better in the old countries, for
+there children expect to follow in the footsteps of their
+parents; but here, where every boy looks upon himself as
+a possible president, it cannot be done. It has been tried,
+and has failed. It will again."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you will not join?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't say that, Darcy. I can't very well get away
+from Yerbury: if I could, the Lord knows I'd go. But
+there&mdash;it is just as bad everywhere else. Don't be too
+sanguine though: you young chaps build air-castles
+easily."</p>
+
+<p>Bradley wrung his hand warmly at parting. "I want<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+to look into this thing a little more closely," he said.
+"I believe you have struck the keynote. Whatever raises
+the workman raises the whole world. If you get him to
+be self-supporting, there is one less pauper or tramp for
+the State to take in charge, and tax all other workingmen
+for his support."</p>
+
+<p>"I rather like the scheme of the co-operative store,"
+Hurd began presently. "There's a sight of money somehow
+between the producer and the consumer. Farmers
+are grumbling all the time. I wrote to my brother-in-law
+last spring about trading for a small farm, and going into
+poultry-business perhaps; and he sent back a list of
+prices he had obtained for his produce. Butter twenty-five
+cents, and we paid forty this winter. Milk two and a
+half cents a quart, while ours is from eight to ten."</p>
+
+<p>"Transportation to be counted in," suggested Maverick.</p>
+
+<p>"The thing discouraged me, so I thought I'd hold on
+a bit, since I did not know the first rule for farming.
+As Darcy says, we have spent all these years perfecting
+ourselves in our business, and it hardly looks reasonable
+that we should succeed at once in something altogether
+different. If you don't mind, Darcy, I'd like to look
+over that Rochdale experiment a little at my leisure."</p>
+
+<p>Jack handed him the book, and the small party dispersed.
+In a week they met again, with two more, one a
+stubborn old Englishman who had been in the business.
+They had done very well for a while, then the market flattened.
+They could not hold their stock, so the big fish
+swallowed them up. That was always the end where you
+had no credit and no reserve capital. Truth to tell, Jack
+began to realize how hard it would be to convert some of
+the very men he would like to have.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Hamilton Minor came up with some capitalists,
+and Hope Mills was put up at auction. They looked
+around the town, examined the building and machinery,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
+which was the best of its kind; but nobody could tell
+whether we had reached bottom prices or not, and, though
+the place was to be offered at an immense sacrifice, they
+were wary. Empty mills and rusting machinery were not
+profitable investments. Mr. Minor's eloquence went for
+nothing. These long-headed dons would rather hold on
+to their money, though they expressed a good deal of
+sympathy for the Lawrence estate.</p>
+
+<p>"I do believe it will go for the face of the mortgage,"
+said Jack to Maverick that evening. "Twenty thousand
+dollars, and a year's interest and taxes. Twenty-two
+thousand would cover the whole thing; and three years
+ago Mr. Lawrence wouldn't have looked at fifty thousand.
+Maverick, I can get together ten thousand of my own, and
+if there was one other person"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We will hunt him up," returned Maverick hopefully.
+"There is the reputation of the cloth already
+made, which is one great step in your favor. Yes, it
+must be done."</p>
+
+<p>Yerbury was looking a little brighter and better at midsummer.
+Scarlet-fever had pretty well disappeared; but
+malaria had come in its stead, convenient name for want
+of nourishment, stagnation, and despondency. The haggard-looking
+wives and mothers went out to a day's washing
+or scrubbing; but the children, better off, roamed over
+the fields in search of berries or a stray ownerless fruit-tree,
+laughing and happy in their rags and bare feet.</p>
+
+<p>Darcy tried two or three pretty well-to-do men, that he
+fancied had the good of the town at heart; but the project
+looked wild to them. If David Lawrence couldn't
+stand up against hard times, no new men could. He,
+Darcy, had better put his money in government-bonds,
+and live on the interest. Nothing could be made in such
+times as these.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems as if one half of the world has decided that
+the other half should starve," Jack declared in a discouraged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+tone. "No one is willing to start the ball again.
+If it wasn't for mother I would risk every dollar of my
+own. And then to think of the land lying idle about
+here,&mdash;enough to feed half the town! I do not wonder
+that we are fast coming to beggary and ruin."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick was pretty sober for several days, then he
+went off to Narragansett Pier; "tired of my everlasting
+badgering," said Jack to Sylvie, who, poor child, had her
+hands and heart full of projects that she talked over with
+Miss Morgan and her aunt, and did not make much more
+progress than Jack.</p>
+
+<p>So it happened one July evening that Jack sat smoking
+on the porch in a rather despondent frame of mind.
+Miss Morgan and his mother had gone to make some
+neighborly calls.</p>
+
+<p>A quick step came down the street. "If Maverick
+wasn't in Rhode Island!" thought Jack; then it came
+nearer, with a little halt, and Jack sprang down the steps
+in the moonlight.</p>
+
+<p>"Hillo, old fellow!" said the rich, laughing voice.
+"Have you looked after my patients, and entertained my
+office-callers, in my absence? That would only be fair
+play, for I have been about your business; and, by Jove!
+succeeded too!"</p>
+
+<p>"Maverick!" There was an odd little tremble in
+Jack's voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Ask me to sit down, and stay me with&mdash;well, a pipe,
+for I have finished my last cigar. I came in the train
+just fifteen minutes ago, and skulked&mdash;that's the very
+word&mdash;under the trees and through by-ways, lest some
+one, seeing, should lay violent hands on me. Yes, get
+out your best armchair, old chap, and treat me like a
+prince."</p>
+
+<p>The two seated themselves again, and stretched out
+their legs to the porch-railing. The soft light fell around,
+outlining here and there a bit of vine as if it were held<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+against a silver background. A few early insects were
+chirping, and somewhere down the street there was a waft
+of distant music.</p>
+
+<p>"Succeeded!" Jack drew a long breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes: with a woman too. Nay, you need not look at
+me so wonderingly. I have not sold myself for base gold
+to the Evil One," laughing lightly. "I have never told
+you much about myself; for, like the needy knife-grinder,
+'story, God bless you! there was none to tell;' but there
+is a chapter now, and you must hear it first. My mother
+was left an orphan in her infancy, and her aunt adopted
+her. She was a canny Scotswoman, by name Jean McLeod.
+She was very good to my mother, who married
+quite to her liking, although my father was not rich, but
+we always lived in a certain style, and my father had
+a fine reputation as a lawyer. My mother's death, the
+result of an accident, so prostrated him, that he never
+recovered from the shock. Aunt McLeod came to stay
+with us through that weary time. Then she took us both
+to her heart and home: it was a large warm heart and a
+beautiful home. My father left a little: it was made over
+to me; and my sister, five years younger than I, was
+brought up properly, and married properly, and lives in
+Chicago in elegant style. Then Aunt Jean tried her hand
+on me, chose a suitable young woman, and insisted that
+the fates had decided it. The upshot was a quarrel. Not
+but what the girl was nice enough, and all that, but I did
+not care to marry; and so I walked off to Europe, and
+was there three years. Some rather cool letters passed
+between us at first, but they grew warmer; and when I
+returned it was winter, and she was in New York. I
+went straight up to her house. She was very glad to see
+me; and there in her lovely library, all glow and softness
+and perfume, by the side of the grate, with a screen in
+her hand, sat Anastasia Lothrop. She is Aunt Jean's
+pet <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;e</i>, though she has home and lands and people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+of her own. A handsome woman too, by Jove! However,
+we have gone our separate ways. I think she (Aunt
+Jean) was rather annoyed at my settling at Yerbury.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I went to Narragansett, and found her alone
+this time; and she has promised to buy Hope Mills. I do
+believe there's no end to the woman's money. She talked
+it over as a mere bagatelle. I am to meet her in New
+York, and you are to go down, Jack; and we are to see
+the holder of the mortgage, and do no end of business.
+I think she is rather interested in the scheme, and I do
+believe she is delighted to do me a favor. Now you can
+keep your money for a kind of reserve fund. The mere
+savings of labor will not answer at first, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick drew a long breath then, and puffed lustily at
+his cigar.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know how ever to thank you."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't thank me, Darcy. You see, I am interested in
+this experiment. I want to see if there is enough faith and
+honesty and industry and trustfulness left in the world to
+make such a general partnership a success. You know it
+has been said that since the war our character as a whole
+has degenerated fearfully. Politically there is no doubt
+of it. Commercially and industrially are still open questions.
+If we could succeed in making one hundred people
+comfortable, instead of one rich, nine comfortable, and the
+other ninety next door to pauperism, we shall have done
+something. If we can so educate ninety men that they
+are able to understand the difficulties and embarrassments
+of carrying on business and its numerous fluctuations, we
+shall have raised them higher in the social scale. And it
+is most sadly true of all the large failures of late, some
+one has been dishonest, some one or two or three have
+taken other people's money to speculate with. It should
+be called stealing as much as when a poor man takes it,
+even if he spends it for rum. And, Darcy, we will keep
+our eye single upon one thing: we shall not move the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+world, or convert it, but haply one little corner of Yerbury;
+while all the wit and wisdom the world has been
+saving up for ages will be hurled against us in different
+shapes, from puffy snowballs to the grim old fellows
+soaked in water and frozen hard. And sometimes I
+think, with all the energy you are going to bring to bear
+upon this, you could carve out a fortune somewhere
+else."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know as to that, Maverick," said Darcy in a
+half-funny, half-sad tone. "From New York to St.
+Louis, from thence to New Orleans, to Florida, and back
+here again, I never found an opening. Two or three
+people did promise to write to me, but they have not. I
+felt the world could go on quite as well without me and
+hundreds of others. So, then, the only thing is to create
+a place; and Heaven knows I shall try hard enough to
+make a success of this."</p>
+
+<p>"And you will do it too: I'm not afraid. Give us your
+hand, old chap! I never swore friendship with but just
+one fellow: that was in my college days, and I have his
+note for one hundred dollars as a memento. I might have
+been keener, I dare say; but one of the transcendentally
+lovely things of youth is its perfect faith. These preternaturally
+wise and prudent young people come into the
+world mentally gray-headed. But I do it now with my
+eyes wide open; and, when you are a rich man, I have
+another scheme I want to take through, a sort of home or
+hospital of my own planning: so don't fancy I shall let
+you off easy."</p>
+
+<p>They held each other's hands in a long, lingering clasp.
+Beside the warmth and magnetism that was a component
+part of Dr. Maverick's nature when he chose to use it,
+which was not nearly always, there was a steadfast kindliness,
+the vigor of a true and pure manhood, that made a
+clear atmosphere about him, in which insincerity, weakness,
+and selfishness seemed to flicker into pale shadows,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+and shrink away from the intense mental light he turned
+upon them.</p>
+
+<p>And just here the vision of the boy face came back to
+Jack, the strangling arms about his neck, the fluttering
+breath and quivering lips, and the sound of the rather
+thin, childish voice,&mdash;"You are <i>my</i> King Arthur, and I
+shall love you my whole life long."</p>
+
+<p>The sadness in the smile was for the old ideal.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">The</span> telegram!" exclaimed Maverick ten days later,
+striding down the garden where Jack was at work in the
+strawberry-bed.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy flushed like a girl, through the other fine
+coloring of labor. He had hardly dared to believe in
+and hold to Maverick's promise. Manlike, neither had
+spoken of it since that night.</p>
+
+<p>"'Thursday, at four, at the Westminster.' That is
+to-morrow. We must be on time, or she would never
+have any faith in us; and, though my credit may be <i>nil</i>,
+yours must be"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"As I hope to keep it through my life," was the grave
+reply. "You will take the morning train?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. It will give us a trifle of spare time, which
+won't be bad for a couple of overworked fellows like us.
+But I must look after a lot of people this afternoon, and
+if I can I will drop in this evening."</p>
+
+<p>Jack went back to his strawberries. He had been
+making a mental calculation about an acre, and the
+profits thereon, moved to it by something Jane Morgan
+had said. Twenty miles below them, on Swanston Bay,
+which was quite a summer-resort, the hotel-keepers had
+paid twenty-five cents per quart for nice large berries.
+On their little patch they had raised a hundred and
+twenty quarts. There was another side to the labor-question,&mdash;diversity
+of industry. Jane's idea of a great
+fruit-garden, or call it a farm, was not bad. You could
+crowd ten such patches in an acre of ground. If nothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+better came to hand, he might hire some of the ground
+lying waste around Yerbury, and set the idle at work.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie came through with some flowers in her hand.
+Jack looked up again, and laughed, and threw himself on
+the grass under a tree, chatting gayly. He felt so light at
+heart! She wondered a little, and then, without knowing
+the cause, rejoiced with him in the depths of her soul.</p>
+
+<p>The two men started the next morning, and at the
+appointed time were ushered into Miss McLeod's private
+parlor. Maverick had said, "She's a little queer in
+some ways; but in the main you will like her, I think."
+Meanwhile Jack had formed a dozen ideals of her, based
+mostly on the personal appearance of Miss Barry and his
+grandmother.</p>
+
+<p>The door of the adjoining room opened, and Miss
+McLeod entered. An old woman, of course, and a
+fashionable woman, but with a young-old face and figure.
+Not the graceful airiness of youth, so often painful
+in its desire to impress the beholder with what it is not,
+but an old age to which all the good things of life, rightly
+used, have contributed, and brought about a delightful
+result. She was of medium height, and possibly had not
+been handsome in her palmy days; but she challenged
+one's respect for a true and honorable womanhood, and
+an old age neither inane, querulous, nor servile.</p>
+
+<p>A rather plump figure, with deep chest, full shoulders,
+and erect carriage. The face was wrinkled; but the skin
+had a peachy softness, the lips were still full and finely
+curved, and, though the mouth was rather wide, it indicated
+resolution and decision. The whole contour of the
+face was slightly aquiline, the forehead high and broad,
+but the curling hair falling over it in the requirements of
+fashion softened it; shining silvery white, curling naturally,
+and very abundant, the coil at the back partly covered
+with a diamond-shaped bit of elegant black thread
+lace that matched the barb at her throat. Her rich,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+soft, steel-colored silk made no rustle as she crossed the
+floor, but the diamonds in her ears and on her breast
+flashed a glitter of sunlight about her.</p>
+
+<p>Maverick greeted her with pleasant but not effusive
+warmth, and introduced his friend. They skirmished on
+the boundary-line of small talk for a while, Jack feeling
+that he was being measured and gauged at every possible
+indication of the real man, but his honesty of purpose
+kept him steadfast.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Maverick plunged into the business part,
+much to Darcy's satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"I wrote to my lawyer, Mr. Hildreth, about it," Miss
+McLeod replied. "He has seen the parties holding the
+mortgage; and, on account of business embarrassments,
+they are extremely anxious to realize upon it. Mr.
+Minor is naturally desirous of having it sold at an
+advantage; but he is on the bond, and has been making
+continuous efforts with no success. No one can tell how
+low property will sink, business property especially, that
+depreciates so rapidly if neglected. The mortgage is
+considered one-third of what the property was valued at
+seven years ago; but we have all shrunk a trifle since
+that," with a shrug, and a curious little bend of the
+head, as if the decapitation was not altogether a pleasant
+process. "This is the 4th of August, and on the 19th
+it is advertised for sale. There may be one chance in a
+thousand of a better purchaser; though Mr. Hildreth
+thinks no one but a lunatic, or a woman, would put
+money in such an adventure," her lips curving in their
+bitter-sweet smile. Indeed, there was nothing she was
+so much like as a cluster of bright bitter-sweet berries,
+on a sharp but sunshiny autumn day, with the leaves and
+tendrils brown and faded, but the brilliant life and soul
+still shining from the ripe centre. She impressed you
+with the same defiant glow of exultation.</p>
+
+<p>"I have money lying idle, it is true," she continued;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+"but I want to hear your plans before I decide, Mr.
+Darcy. Philip," nodding to her nephew, "has interested
+me in this scheme; but I must know what it promises
+before I take the risk."</p>
+
+<p>Jack was confused a little by the bright, penetrating
+glance; and he had not quite overcome his boyish trick
+of blushing. Often as he had gone over the plan with
+Howell, Fawcett, and other political economists at his
+tongue's end, all his troupe of fine ideas seemed to desert
+him. He laughed at his own embarrassment: she smiled
+and nodded, and that made them friends.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that I can put it any better," he began
+earnestly, "than to say that I want to take up the lever
+of work, and put the wheels of labor in motion, to bring
+the starving workmen and the halting capital together
+again. It is all very well for us to rush every dollar into
+government-bonds; but if there is no business, what is to
+augment our revenue, and where then shall we be finally,
+with our mills and workshops shut up, and our people
+begging? If I had enough of my own to bridge over
+the chasm, I would ask no one's help," he went on a
+little proudly. "The mills at Yerbury stand in sad
+silence, with ruin before them; our men are idle and dispirited,
+turning into tramps and vagabonds, because they
+hate to sit still and starve. And here am I, of no real
+use to the world, and the eight years back of me that I
+have spent in perfecting myself of no account either,
+unless I find something upon which to employ my ability
+and training. If I purchase the mills, we must hire
+capital to work them with, and everybody would be shy
+of us. We can get together the capital if we could be
+sure of the place for five years, at a moderate rental."</p>
+
+<p>"But would not a joint-stock company answer the purpose
+better, and carry more weight?" she asked, listening
+with a sort of intent wariness.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to enlist the workmen, so that we shall be reasonably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+sure of co-operation in other things beside money,
+industry, thrift, faithfulness, and a common interest in
+success. If times are hard, we shall all make sacrifices:
+if they improve, we shall benefit by the earnestness of our
+endeavors. Maverick and I have made a little draft, based
+on the workings of the best French and English societies.
+If you will look it over"&mdash;and he took it out of his
+memorandum.</p>
+
+<p>She studied it with a keen, rapid glance.</p>
+
+<p>"It is what I should call an industrial partnership,"
+Darcy continued. "We <i>should</i> own the mill; but, as we
+cannot, that must go in the working expenses. As the
+men choose, and are able, they can hold shares; but at
+present this will be obtained&mdash;say from a dozen perhaps.
+Nothing now will bring in twenty or even ten per cent,
+and we must be satisfied with whatever we can make.
+We have had our good times, and now we must take the
+evil; but if there is any better way than sitting down
+resignedly, and folding both hands, I, for one, want to
+find it."</p>
+
+<p>She was taking in the combinations of emotion and purpose
+that flitted over his face. A man who would do
+something if he could get that hardest of all things, a
+foothold to stand upon.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you might make more money," she said with
+pointed brevity.</p>
+
+<p>"Which would not be co-operation," with his frank,
+genial laugh that went to her heart. "I want to try the
+experiment. Not that I expect to solve all the difficulties
+between labor and capital; but I shall try to make them
+better friends, so that, when you have weathered a hard
+gale, pinching yourselves to keep on the workmen, they
+will not strike for higher wages on the first stir of improvement,
+as they will be certain of their share."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a philanthropist, Mr. Darcy. Can you
+depend upon the temper of your men? They may do very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+well just now when they are starving; but, when times
+improve, are they going to wait one year or five years for
+the sum they consider part of their wages? And if there
+should be no surplus, but losses, as has often happened in
+manufacturing? Your workman will</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+'Fork out his penny, and pocket your shilling,'<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>fast enough; but when the tables are turned, what then?"</div>
+
+<p>"There <i>must</i> be a different feeling when men are
+banded together in a mutual business interest. The very
+spirit of association appeals to what is best and noblest in
+human nature. As it has been in Yerbury, for example,
+the workmen contributed of their ability and strength to
+support one family in princely luxury, pay one extravagant
+salary, and several others that were out of all proportion
+to the wages earned, and an extensive defalcation. No
+one is at all the gainer now, unless it be the thief," his
+face scarlet with indignation at the remembrance of Eastman.
+"The men have been hit the hardest of all. No
+wonder they feel bitter and discouraged. We make many
+an Ishmael by sending him out with his jug of water,
+while there are feasting and revelry within."</p>
+
+<p>"But you cannot make all human nature noble or sensible
+or grateful. There is the grand co-operation of the
+forty years in the wilderness, when food was provided,
+and clothing lasted miraculously; yet under these favorable
+circumstances, and with the sure promise at the end, there
+was not a heavenly unity."</p>
+
+<p>Jack laughed heartily.</p>
+
+<p>"We must keep from golden calves and such folly," he
+said. "We are likely enough to have our waters of
+Marah. But it seems to me the best way to ennoble labor,
+give it its true dignity, and show the possibilities for the
+workmen, is concerted action. As matters stand now,
+few poor men can ever acquire sufficient capital to start any
+business; and perhaps this is not best when we consider<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+the cost of machinery, and the ever-appearing new inventions.
+The small capitalist could <i>not</i> compete with the
+large one. Yet capital often takes as its right the best
+strength of the workman, the years of maturity and
+ability, and throws him off in his old age. I know labor
+retorts by carelessness, wastefulness, and utter indifference
+to the employer's welfare. One is a machine to grind
+labor into money; the other, to grind all he can out of
+capital. Perhaps my design is Utopian, but it seems as
+if something ought to be done before we train a whole
+generation of men to be paupers and thieves. Better that
+we should spend our money in labor experiments than
+supporting poorhouses and prisons."</p>
+
+<p>Jack had lost his embarrassment now. There was a
+glow on his cheek, and a steady fire in his eye, the lines
+about the mouth sharply drawn, and indicating not only
+masterly strength, but a kind of pitying patience, that
+would never degenerate into sentimentality. It was a
+very manly, trusty face; and his sterling honesty impressed
+Miss McLeod, long trained to reading faces, while his
+sturdy good sense promised much.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like Mr. Hildreth to see this paper," turning
+it in her still supple fingers. "What if some of your
+men insist upon going out after a year or two, Mr.
+Darcy?"</p>
+
+<p>"There will be some kind of forfeiture, of course.
+The true business capital must remain intact the whole
+five years: the direct proceeds of labor may be subject to
+some changes, but in any event the business interests
+must not be jeopardized."</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's interruption of a servant; then
+dinner was brought in, and arranged for three. The
+bright-eyed old lady made a charming hostess. She
+poured their tea with a quaint dignity, and made them feel
+quite as if she were dispensing hospitality in her own
+house.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She was the kind of woman whom young people, past
+the lunacies of sixteen, invariably like. The feminine
+portion told her their love troubles, the young wives came
+to her with tangles and little jealousies; and, if she could
+not always straighten them out, she had a marvellous way
+of comforting. Young men drifted toward her by some
+species of magnetism, though she had none of the fussy
+motherliness of some old ladies. With faculties still keen
+and bright, a great fund of good-humor that had the
+sparkle of champagne rather than any insipid sweetness,
+she never wearied or palled on any one. She kept herself
+well informed of the world's progress, she knew of the
+principal stars in the literary, dramatic, and artistic world,
+and to be asked to her house was a compliment.</p>
+
+<p>The conversation was more general now; and, though
+Maverick had told every thing of note about Yerbury, she
+was not indisposed to listen to it again. They discussed
+the panic and its causes, and ventured upon guesses as to
+its duration. They all agreed that there had been too
+much haste to be rich, too much greed of speculation, too
+much personal greatness, and not enough national greatness.
+No generous striving together to build up what the
+war had pulled down, but every man for himself and for
+gold. If women had been frivolous and vain, and dazzled
+by the glare of newly acquired wealth, men had not been
+quite free from faults. The terrible lowering of morals,
+the dishonesty and fraud easily condoned, and laughed
+over as a kind of shrewdness, were sad examples to set
+before the next generation.</p>
+
+<p>In her way Miss McLeod was quite a politician, having
+been so much in that circle. Her views of men and
+measures were keen and discriminating; and her bits of
+trenchant wisdom quite dazzled Jack, who at the last, proposed
+laughingly, as his panacea, that every man should
+undertake the mending of himself, when the world would
+soon be righted.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Afterward a coup&eacute; came, and they drove to the Park.
+There evening and the bonny new moon overtook them;
+but the streets and country roads were so inviting, they did
+not return until quite late.</p>
+
+<p>"Consider yourselves my guests for the night," she
+said as they drove back to the hotel, and Maverick was
+too wise to demur.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been thinking this matter over," she said as
+they were separating. "My part will be purchasing the
+mills, and I shall take so much in the shape of rent. I
+want you to consider what per cent you can pay, and not
+straiten yourselves too much. I frankly confess that I am
+greatly interested in you, Mr. Darcy; and as this young
+man," touching Maverick's shoulder, "prefers to 'gang
+his ain gait,' he leaves me quite free to waste my money
+as I like. Be fair to yourself. Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>"It's all right with you, Jack," began Maverick after
+they had been shown to their room. "Aunt Jean is a
+trump! I almost forgive her Miss Lothrop. But I suppose
+women would be less than women, if they did not
+want to dip their fingers into destiny. It is their mental
+chessboard."</p>
+
+<p>"But you do love her? your aunt, I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course. Still, I should never dangle in any
+woman's train;" with a curl of the lip.</p>
+
+<p>Miss McLeod was going back to Narragansett the next
+morning. They discussed their last item of agreement;
+and Jack said, with modest decision, "that such real
+estate could not possibly pay more than three per cent to
+any owner in the course of the next few years. He would
+rather offer her that, and a share contingent on the amount
+of business done at the end of five years, than assume
+any greater risk just now."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you for your honesty and your good sense,"
+she replied. "If you had offered higher, I should have
+had some doubts of your financial clear-headedness. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+will be an equitable bargain. And will you be kind
+enough to make some arrangements for me in Yerbury?
+I shall come on the 18th, with a companion and a maid;
+and Mr. Hildreth will follow the next morning. Get your
+plans in shape by that time. I am glad to have met you,
+Mr. Darcy, and I wish you success in your undertaking."</p>
+
+<p>They shook hands cordially, and went their ways. Jack
+could hardly believe his good fortune, and now he was
+afraid some other parties might step in and take the mills.</p>
+
+<p>"Much likelihood," laughed Maverick.</p>
+
+<p>Jack took Cameron in hand first, as he had been the
+real suggester of the plan. He, Darcy, could use his ten
+thousand; and, if ten more could be subscribed, they would
+not need to hire outside. As time went on, this capital
+might be equalized and increased. Hurd offered two thousand
+and himself; and just then one of the old hands who
+had succeeded in getting rid of a good bit of property that
+had weighted him heavily, and picked up a little money
+here and there, subscribed five thousand. Yardley had
+none of his own, but persuaded his wife's sister to invest a
+thousand. The other, Miss Barry offered, if no workman
+came to hand. Winston was a handy Jack-of-all-trades.
+He could repair machinery, or do any kind of wood-work:
+he had sold cloth on commission, bartered and traded,
+and had a good deal of shrewdness and good sense, and
+pluck. He and Darcy would do the buying and selling;
+Cameron would take charge of supplies, deal them out,
+and see that nothing went to waste; Hurd and Yardley
+would be overlookers as before. Every man could weave
+his yard of cloth with the best. They would constitute
+the managing force.</p>
+
+<p>The days passed rapidly; and to Jack's great satisfaction
+no purchaser appeared, no curious soul even sauntered
+about the mills. Miss McLeod came at the appointed
+time, accompanied by Miss Lothrop, who was as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+distant to Maverick as if this were their first meeting.
+The ladies were to stay with Mrs. Darcy, and the best in
+the house was placed at their disposal with simple courtesy.
+They were taken to the mills, where they made a tour
+of inspection; Jack explaining machinery, looms, shuttles,
+and spindles, with an enthusiasm that amazed even himself.
+There was a new interest in the thought of having
+a voice in the direction of that great engine now so silent,
+and the work it was to do.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall not use half our looms in the beginning,"
+he said; "but I hope, before the five years are ended, we
+shall be doing our utmost."</p>
+
+<p>They all hoped so for his sake. "If any man can make
+the plan work, he will," thought Miss McLeod, who liked
+him better every hour.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry and Sylvie came to call on the ladies in the
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose that is Mr. Darcy's sweetheart," Miss
+Lothrop remarked afterward. "She is a pretty, enthusiastic
+little thing, and she takes so much interest in his
+affairs. I can just fancy how they will work together,
+and the earnest, useful lives they will lead. What butterflies
+we are!" looking down at her white helpless hands.
+"Not you, but the young women of the day in general.
+You are a busy bee, and still keep storing up your
+honey."</p>
+
+<p>"And sting occasionally," laughed the sharp, bright
+old lady.</p>
+
+<p>The sale took place the next morning at ten, at the
+Court House. There was quite a number of spectators,
+though the ladies, with Maverick and Darcy, were in a
+private office. Hamilton Minor had come up, resolved
+that it should not go for less than the mortgage, but desirous
+of ending his responsibility. There were but two
+bids. The auctioneer lingered a long while on Mr. Hildreth's
+bid, commenting on the enormous sacrifice, but he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+could move no one's interest. It was reluctantly knocked
+down, the purchase-money paid, and the deed made out to
+Miss McLeod.</p>
+
+<p>Then the company's agreement was put in lawful, legal
+shape. The managing board of five men were to have
+sole charge of buying, selling, and manufacturing. They
+were to give all their time and ability, to watch the state
+of the market, and conduct every thing for the benefit of
+the whole corporation. Darcy was to prepare a balance-sheet
+semi-annually, showing profit and loss; and this
+was to be open to the inspection of the firm.</p>
+
+<p>The parties to the second part, the workmen, were to
+work ten hours a day, six days in the week, under the
+supervision of Hurd and Yardley. The wages of the
+men and the salaries of the managers were to be put at
+the minimum rate, and both parties were to draw two-thirds
+of this sum weekly. At the end of the year, the
+profits on labor and capital were to be evenly divided;
+one half apportioned to the capital, the other half divided
+<i>pro rata;</i> but only half of this sum to be drawn out
+yearly, the other turned over to the capital stock, and
+placed to each man's credit. If any operative should
+become dissatisfied, and leave, his share of the profits
+was to be forfeited to a fund for sick or disabled workmen.
+Any member of the association guilty of misconduct was
+to be twice reprimanded, and for a third offence expelled.
+A standing committee of the workmen, with one chairman,
+was to investigate and settle such matters. Shares
+of capital as low as fifty dollars would be within reach of
+the workmen. A clause was inserted, that no ale, beer,
+or spirituous liquors were to be brought into the mill
+during working hours. It had been one of the old-time
+rules, but often transgressed. Each man was to use his
+best endeavors to promote the interests of the firm.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of five years, the agreement was to cease,
+and the profits to be divided.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then the five-years' lease of Hope Mills and all its
+appurtenances was made out to "Hope Mills Co-operative
+Association," and duly signed. The rental was to be
+six hundred and sixty dollars per annum, the company to
+pay the taxes, and keep the mills in ordinary repair.</p>
+
+<p>Then the managers and a number of the workmen
+marched over to Hope Mills in a body, opened the doors
+and barred shutters, and entered with an exultant step.
+They were to try their hand at good-fellowship in labor,
+and see if it would solve the vexations of the old system,
+or prove any stronger bond. Maverick had spread a
+little feast in what had been Eastman's office; and they
+sat down together, the ladies, joined by Sylvie Barry,
+Mrs. Darcy, and Miss Morgan, taking the head of the
+table. Some speeches were made, and some toasts drank,
+and everybody wished success to Hope Mills. Had John
+Hope unconsciously foretold their future when he christened
+them for his own glory? Darcy thought so. The
+name had a higher significance now, and was to be the
+earnest of many souls, the watchword to inspire them.</p>
+
+<p>Miss McLeod bade them a hearty farewell. "There
+may arise some emergency, Mr. Darcy," said she, "when
+indorsing a note, or a similar matter, will be of great
+importance to you. I shall not promise to do much of
+it; but I am strongly interested in this experiment, and
+want it to have a fair trial. Let me hear from you occasionally;
+and, if you are in any great strait, apply to
+me."</p>
+
+<p>Jack thanked her warmly, and she and Miss Lothrop
+went their way.</p>
+
+<p>"She is a regular fairy godmother," he said enthusiastically
+to Maverick. "I wonder that you do not adore
+her!" and he studied his friend in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you never heard of people being so much alike
+they could not agree?" he asked with a light laugh.
+"What ever possessed her to bring Miss Lothrop? It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+was in bad taste, to say the least; and, whatever faults
+aunt Jean may have, she seldom makes a blunder of that
+kind."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Sylvie was&mdash;well, a good deal pleased with
+her. The acquaintance was so short"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Barry is the most generous and least exacting
+woman that I ever saw. She judges people by her own
+noble soul. Jack Darcy"&mdash;Maverick shut his lips
+with a sudden resolution, and turned his face partly aside,
+then said in a curiously changed tone, "We are two fools
+to be talking about women, when there are more important
+matters on hand."</p>
+
+<p>"But I shall always feel grateful to Miss McLeod.
+There are several moneyed men here in Yerbury whose
+capital is lying idle, who would not have done this thing
+for me if they knew it would keep half Yerbury from
+starving. Yet, if I had offered them ten per cent, they
+would hardly have hesitated. It does seem to me sometimes,
+that these old dons tempt one into lying first, and
+swindling afterward. If you make them all straight, they
+do not care how much crooked work you do elsewhere."</p>
+
+<p>"Natural depravity and innate selfishness."</p>
+
+<p>And now began the real work. The mills were cleaned
+of the year's accumulation of dust and cobwebs and
+general untidiness. Winston went at the machinery with
+hearty good-will, and put it in order. Circulars were
+sent out to the old patrons and to new houses, and workmen,
+workwomen, and children straggled in to see what
+was going on. Were Hope Mills to be really opened?
+and was Mr. Darcy to be master? True, a good many
+of the best men had gone off to try their luck elsewhere,
+but there were plenty left for a start. Only, there was
+a mystery these people could not understand. Something
+about wages, and something about money; and Jack
+patiently explained the matter, until, as he told Maverick,
+he felt like a cheap-John auctioneer, dispensing wares.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The best thing will be to have a meeting," declared
+Maverick. "See here, Darcy: I'll hire Brock's Hall
+myself; and we will have a lecture, or a conference-meeting.
+Subject, 'Work and Wages.' I'll have some posters
+out too. Every one will know what we mean, that
+we are honest men and true; and you will be spared
+this everlasting palaver. Then we will have some rules,
+or by-laws, or something, for the workmen. Talk to Mr.
+Winston about it. He would make a capital speaker,
+with his glib tongue."</p>
+
+<p>Darcy thought it an excellent plan, and they set about
+it immediately.</p>
+
+<p>"But you'll have to post me," confessed Winston.
+"The only co-operation I ever was in was a building-association,
+and our treasurer ran off with our funds."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick promised to "coach" him. Indeed, it was
+the doctor who gathered up statistics, and put them in a
+compact and telling form.</p>
+
+<p>They had a large audience,&mdash;men and women. "Robert
+Winston, Esq.," was the orator of the evening. He
+was a fluent speaker, and had a good deal of humor.
+He began about the early Anglo-Saxon guilds, and the
+banding together of craftsmen when towns grew large
+and prosperous, and labor was performed in the workshops,
+instead of at home; of the importance of the
+woollen-manufacture in the days of Elizabeth, not only
+in England, but on the Continent, when kings did not
+disdain to borrow money of these corporations; of their
+final overthrow, and the causes leading to it; of the
+growth of trades-unions, and the views of conflicting
+writers on the subject. The workman's necessities so
+often compelled him to accept what he felt to be inadequate
+returns, because he could not wait,&mdash;it was work
+or starvation with him,&mdash;so that in dull times he was not
+only at the mercy of the employer, but every other starving
+workman. On the other hand, so few workmen ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+informed themselves concerning the employer's perplexities
+and dangers, they had no broad and vital interest in the
+business until they all became leagued together, as in
+co-operation. Then they shared one another's burdens
+and prosperity. It was not the one great fortune, but
+the many comfortable incomes. It was the fruit of the
+noblest thought and the truest philanthropy. As a producer
+it had done its best work in France; and he went
+briefly over the work of the masons at Paris, and the
+Association Remquet, which, after carrying on printing
+business for ten years, divided among its members an
+average of over ten thousand francs; the cloth-factory at
+Vienna, with its flour-mill, bakery, grocery, coal-yard, and
+farm; the different societies in England, that were promising,
+to say the least. All this had been done by the
+thrift and economy of individual members, who educated
+themselves by doing business, and so were enabled to
+dispense with the profits of middle-men, and the greedy
+clutch of speculators.</p>
+
+<p>After Winston had finished, Dr. Maverick went briefly
+over their plans for Hope Mills in a very simple and
+direct manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Winston was capital!" said Jack afterward. "When
+we are hard up we can send him off on a lecturing-tour.
+But wasn't it rather over the heads of our people?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was for others beside the workmen. You know,
+Darcy, some men are so used to swindling and misrepresentation,
+that they invariably accuse every plan of another,
+of the same motive. You will have a good deal of
+this back talk before your five years are ended; and I
+want Yerbury to know that this is an old, old scheme.
+I might have quoted the children of Israel, as aunt Jean
+did, and shocked the religious portion of the community.
+But, after all, isn't the greatest truth, the Golden Rule,
+co-operation in <i>all</i> forms?" and he glanced up triumphantly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Jack did not gainsay him.</p>
+
+<p>He had hit the truth in regard to Yerbury. Some of
+those who had managed to hold on to their money through
+all the stress of hard times raised their eyebrows and
+shook their heads in amused derision. "A fool and his
+money," said they, and "Set a beggar on horseback,"
+besides numerous wise saws people love to fling at their
+neighbors. A mortifying collapse was predicted. There
+wasn't a woollen-mill in the country paying. The smaller
+people who had been easily induced to invest their money
+in building-lots, under the supposition that in a few years
+there would hardly be standing-room in Yerbury, looked
+askance at this project, so much more easily does speculation
+appeal to human nature, than the slower but more
+honorable results of industry.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was easy enough now to get hands who would consent
+to the three-quarter wages. With one winter of semi-starvation
+the poor of Yerbury were glad to take any thing
+that promised bread. The masters were going to share
+with the men; but they were made distinctly to understand,
+that, unless the mills earned something over and above
+this, there could be no surplus, no dividends. Another
+thousand of the capital had been made up by some of the
+hands, who thought this promised as well as railroad-stocks,
+lots out on country barrens, or even savings
+banks.</p>
+
+<p>To be sure, some burly fellows, whose wives could hardly
+keep soul and body together over their washing-tubs,
+swore great oaths that Jack Darcy was a fool to think he
+could find men to play into his hands that way! Bob
+Winston was a blower, and never kept at any one thing;
+and some of the rest were old screws, and in six months
+time everybody would see!</p>
+
+<p>However, Hope Mills rang out its great bell cheerfully
+on Monday morning, the middle of September. A small
+procession wended their way in at the side gate. The
+engine, with Robert Winston at its helm, as they had not
+suited themselves with an engineer, puffed and groaned;
+but, if it was not a merry music, it was good to hear, for
+all that. The faces were pinched and thin with a year's
+care and want and the horrible fear of the future, but they
+tried to smile cheerfully. More than one poor woman had
+tears in her eyes, and spoke in that hysterical, half-laughing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>
+half-crying tone, that told how deeply her feelings
+were moved.</p>
+
+<p>By night they were quite settled in the old places, or
+adapted to new ones. Perhaps the year's experience had
+done these people some good: they had learned to manage
+closer. Cameron and Darcy had discussed thrifty
+French ways of management, and now meant to profit by
+them if possible. The American spirit of wastefulness
+should not run riot as it had in times past. Dyes and
+oils and chemicals were to be sharply looked after, and
+Cameron was the man to do it.</p>
+
+<p>Before the first week was out, an engineer came to
+hand. There had been several applications, but some
+men raised their noses and laughed loudly at the rate of
+wages. A young chap just out of his time when the
+panic came on, and who had tried every thing, even to
+rail-roading, took the place with hearty thanks; a quick,
+bright fellow too, who had a love for his business, and
+said in ten minutes time, "She's a pretty engine, Mr.
+Winston!" with the enthusiasm of a true artist.</p>
+
+<p>"That chap'll blow up Hope Mills in less than a
+month," said Jem Stixon, who had been refused. "You
+mark my words! I wouldn't have wife or child of mine
+working there."</p>
+
+<p>Darcy watched the temper of the employees, and reported
+every few days to Maverick. The little social
+"we" and "ours" was working wonders, he thought.</p>
+
+<p>"And we do nothing!" said Sylvie one evening, in a
+discontented tone, as she sat crocheting by Mrs. Darcy's
+pretty round table in the old library, that had become a
+kind of general business-room. "I thought you were
+going to set us women at work about something. Miss
+Morgan and I have been waiting patiently."</p>
+
+<p>"There was the cooking-school"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But we have nothing to cook. And how are we to
+get any thing? unless we set up as those poor weavers in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+Toad Lane, on our pocket-money. I believe I beg from
+those who have a little, nearly half my time, to give to
+those who have nothing. And, would you believe it, some
+of the women begin to think they <i>must</i> be provided for.
+Mrs. Cairns asked me to-day when the relief-store was
+going to open. She didn't see why there shouldn't always
+be something here like the parish relief in England.
+And when Mrs. Ray offered to take Josie this winter, and
+keep her in shoes for what she could do, and teach her a
+little, Mrs. Cairns said, 'if she was worth any thing, she
+was worth more than that. She might have her for a
+dollar a week.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Such people ought to go hungry," declared Jane
+Morgan sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"I've been thinking," said Jack, who now raised his
+eyes slowly, "there is one thing you might help do; and,
+indirectly, it would be very serviceable to me. Sylvie,
+you know Kit Connelly's corner, as they always call it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, so it is: Mrs. Connelly earned the money that
+bought it, and I am glad she didn't let Dennis go on in
+business until he spent every cent of it. And oh, Jack!
+all we women of Yerbury ought to be doubly proud that
+she wouldn't let Den keep a beer-shop there, nor hire it
+to any one else."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you are. I think Kit was pretty plucky to
+take the black eyes and the grumbling. It was a good
+job for her when Den went over to the Bowman House for
+hostler. So, of course, it has been shut up a year and a
+half. You know, two blocks down below, Keppler's door
+stands open for everybody, and so many of the mill-hands
+pass that way. It is so easy to run in and get a glass, and
+the men who bring their lunches go down for a mug of ale.
+It is a terrible temptation, and I wonder if they are not
+more easily tempted on an empty stomach? Well, I've
+been considering for some days if we could not start a
+coffee-house there,&mdash;set Kit up in business. I'm not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+going to fling a temperance-pledge right in every man's
+face,&mdash;for that makes them spiteful. I do not even want
+to exhort. But if we put it there,&mdash;right in their way,&mdash;and
+there was a nice fire in the evening, and maybe a
+book or two"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Splendid, Jack! There's no such thing in Yerbury.
+Let's get about it right away!" and Sylvie sprang up, as
+if she would start at once.</p>
+
+<p>They all laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"There must be a little planning first. Mrs. Connelly
+is a bright, good-hearted creature, and can make good
+coffee; and Rose and Kathleen would make nice little
+maids. She stopped me to-night to inquire if there was
+any chance of their being taken in the mill. There must
+be some diversity of employment, or presently we shall
+all be doing the one thing again,"&mdash;and Jack smiled
+humorously. "Dennis gets low wages, Bernard is in
+the mill, and there are two younger boys. She takes in
+gentlemen's laundering, as you know. She was wishing
+she could rent out the store, but no one wants it. Now,
+if it could be altered into an attractive coffee-room, kept
+neat and bright, and&mdash;you will laugh at me, no doubt&mdash;but
+given a kind of style,&mdash;the cups clean and shining,
+the spoons decent, and some nice bread and butter for
+noon lunches. All this at a moderate price. The men
+pay five cents for their pint of ale, and it is often shared
+by two: they must not give more than three cents for
+their cup of coffee."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you mean that we are to plan it all out
+for her," said Sylvie, and she looked across at Miss
+Morgan.</p>
+
+<p>"It will not do to buy a pound of sugar and a pound
+of coffee at a time," said Jane concisely.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will be the capitalist," promised Sylvie.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. Kit had better do this on some money that
+she must give an account of, and it will make her more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+careful. She owns a cow, so there is the milk. I should
+like this started quietly, not with a great blare of opposition
+to the dram-shops."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what must we do first?" asked Sylvie.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you and Jane would go down and call on her,
+and suggest the business. See how she takes it, and look
+around at the capabilities of the place. I will see to the
+fitting-up."</p>
+
+<p>They went, as desired. Mrs. Connelly&mdash;a round, rosy,
+buxom Irishwoman, with a mellow voice, laughing eye,
+and artist-red hair&mdash;was very much taken with their
+plan. "To turn an honest penny in these hard times,
+and not be wronging any one, would just suit the likes
+of her. And there was the store standing empty,&mdash;but
+it might stand till the crack o' doom afore she'd have a
+drop of rum sold in it. There never was a better man
+than Den when he was sober, and sure she'd had sorrow
+enough along wid drinking. And there was Barney
+growin' up, and the two smaller ones, and she'd never,
+never put a bit of temptation in their way."</p>
+
+<p>The store had been used for a meat-shop and green-grocery.
+Kit had sold the fixtures when she had been
+in sore need of money, so now it was a great bare room,
+with one large window and two small ones.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure I can scrub an' whitewash it myself, an' put
+clean curtains to the windows. And you're very good
+to think of such a thing, Miss Barry,&mdash;may the saints
+bless you! An' if Mr. Darcy will see to getting what is
+wanted, I'll do my very best to please you all."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie blushed a little at taking the credit, but it was
+Jack's wish. Jack had a small portico built over the
+door-way, to keep out the cold in winter, and a neat sign
+put up, with but two words,&mdash;"Coffee-House." Sylvie
+and Miss Morgan ordered some cheap, small tables, some
+plain wooden chairs, and found two comfortable, old-fashioned,
+wooden settles. Then she collected old magazines<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
+and illustrated papers, and a rack was put up at
+one side for them. All the tables were covered with light
+marbled rubber-cloth, so that they would be kept fresh
+and sweet. The sugar and coffee were forthcoming. Kit
+could roast coffee to a turn. One Thursday evening the
+place was lighted up, and a few guests asked in; and the
+next day the fame of Kit Connelly's coffee-house began.
+Half the folks in Yerbury knew her and Dennis.</p>
+
+<p>Rose Connelly, who was just seventeen, a nice fresh-looking
+girl, was to keep the books, and take the money as
+she was quite a scholar. Several of the mill-hands
+went over immediately for their lunches. Such splendid
+wheat, rye, and Graham bread, spread already, and
+brought on a clean plate! A nice bite for three cents,
+and a solid meal for six. Sylvie was to go down now
+and then, of a morning, to keep matters straight.</p>
+
+<p>"There is one entering-wedge in the cause of temperance,"
+she remarked, in her piquant way. "Only, Jack,
+it does not seem quite right for us women to take the
+credit of it. I confess, among all my plans, there has
+been nothing like this."</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather not be openly connected with it," and
+Jack made a queer little grimace. "By and by I may
+have to do some real fighting on my own account, and I
+don't want too many vulnerable points. Human nature
+is rather queer and cranky, as you have, no doubt,
+observed by this time."</p>
+
+<p>"But I do not see why any one should want to fight
+against your good work, Jack," said Sylvie, with an
+indignant flush. "I am sure it is no light undertaking
+to provide all these people with work; and everybody
+ought to strengthen your hands, instead of putting obstacles
+in the way."</p>
+
+<p>"I must be prepared for all things."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick was very enthusiastic over the coffee-house.
+It was a new institution in Yerbury. There had been in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+good times several so-called cheap lunch-rooms, but the
+fare was invariably poor.</p>
+
+<p>"Keppler will be your first enemy, and your worst
+one," said the doctor with a shrewd smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. He must fight Miss Barry and Miss Morgan.
+I did send a man to do some work, but Miss Barry
+paid the bills. I keep my hands out of it altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"Good for you, Jack. And how does business progress?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am dubious," and Jack shook his head in a mock-serious
+way. "There is too much rose-color. Every
+thing works to a charm. Whether people really have
+learned something by the hard times, remains to be seen;
+but it looks so now. And we couldn't have a better working
+firm. Owen Cameron is the same kind of a man that
+Miss Morgan is for a woman, not stingy here and wasteful
+there, but a thorough-going economist. Every week he
+makes a little saving somewhere. It is what we needed
+to learn, badly enough. He manages to make the men
+understand that every penny saved is for the benefit of
+all, that a yard of cloth or a pound of wool spoiled is to
+the loss of all. And that is the only way to settle this
+business, this everlasting wrangle between labor and
+capital."</p>
+
+<p>Amos Hurd and Peter Yardley used to talk over the
+other scheme of a co-operative store. It would not do to
+have too many irons in the fire in such times as these,
+when no one had any great deal of money. But it did
+seem as if poor people were paying at the dearest rate for
+every thing, partly because they asked for trust, and the
+only man willing to trust them to any extent kept a very
+full line of second or third rate articles, but the prices did
+not always correspond.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, there's coal," said Yardley one evening. "At
+the trade-sale it went up ten cents a ton on the average.
+Our dealers here, who had their yards full, put up their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+prices from twenty to thirty cents. I know, on the other
+hand, if coal takes a sudden tumble, they may lose; but,
+after watching this thing for years, I find the prices go up
+five times with full yards, where they fall once. Now, I
+was thinking, when coal was bought for the mill, some
+extra car-loads might be ordered for the men."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," and Hurd opened his eyes widely. "Let us
+talk to Darcy about it."</p>
+
+<p>Jack listened to their proposal with a sudden interest.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be some trouble to you," he answered. "It
+is not as thoroughly screened, and there is the delivering.
+The men cannot carry it home in market-baskets."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know about the screening," said Yardley
+rather grimly. "When you clean up your bin, and find
+several bushels of sand and refuse out of five or six tons,
+you think half of it, at least, ought to have been good
+burning-coal. And in wholesale buying you get long
+tons."</p>
+
+<p>"I can do it as well as not," replied Jack. "In fact,"&mdash;laughingly,&mdash;"it
+will rather redound to my credit to
+order largely, and we have a somewhat extensive coal-shed.
+But you must look up one or two men who will cart it,
+and a man to screen; and, when you have counted up your
+labor, decide upon what price you can offer your coal.
+Perhaps it would be as well to canvass, and learn how
+many tons you can dispose of."</p>
+
+<p>The workmen had their own board of managers, of
+which Yardley had been elected president. They generally
+met every week, and now Yardley laid this matter
+before them. There would be an average saving, he
+thought, of two dollars on every ton, but the coal must be
+paid for in thirty days. If the men chose to leave one or
+two dollars every Monday night (for Darcy had wisely
+made Monday instead of Saturday pay-day) they might
+give in an order for one or two or even three tons.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Peter Yardley found some thorns even in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+path. A good, stout Irish lad was willing to do the
+screening at a dollar per day; but when he spoke to several
+carters, who were not busy half the time, to a man
+they stuck to their regular price, fifty cents per ton. Not
+one of them would work by the day.</p>
+
+<p>"I can fix that just right," declared one of the men.
+"My wife's brother has a heavy wagon and two mules.
+He used to do carting for the iron-mills, and since then he
+has had mostly catch-jobs. He owns a little place over
+on the creek-road; and I know he will be glad enough to
+do it, and maybe take part of his pay in coal."</p>
+
+<p>Seth Williams was hunted up. He would come, and
+bring his son who would help about loading, for two dollars
+and a half a day. There were seventy-odd tons subscribed
+for, but they decided to make their order one hundred
+tons. Coal was selling at six dollars and a half per
+ton at Yerbury. After due calculation, they offered theirs
+to the men at four.</p>
+
+<p>It came duly to hand. After the first day, Williams
+hired another team on his own account, and his son drove
+one to its destination, making thereby extra time. Before
+the seventy tons had been delivered, the remainder was
+bespoken. They found when it had all been disposed of,
+and their workmen paid, that they had counted very
+closely, but there was a small balance on hand. This was
+deposited in the bank as a nucleus for a co-operative store
+as soon as there might be sufficient capital to warrant it.
+This, at least, had been a success. So many of the poorer
+class of Yerbury were not able to pay for the last ton of
+coal until they ordered again, being always that much
+behind.</p>
+
+<p>Yardley was quite jubilant over his scheme.</p>
+
+<p>"You forget that in this you and Hurd have received
+nothing for your trouble," said Darcy. "Then," smilingly,
+"you have no bad debts to count out. Still only a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+philanthropist can do business this way. If you were the
+proprietor of a coal-yard, you could not afford it."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I have something for my trouble, Mr. Darcy,"
+the man answered proudly. "I have saved ten dollars
+on my four tons of coal, and that surely pays me."</p>
+
+<p>They were doing moderately well at the mill. Several
+orders had come in from old buyers; and now Winston
+started out on a travelling tour, being admirably fitted for
+that part of the business. At the West he managed to
+talk two large wool-dealers into a trade; they taking cloth
+of various grades in exchange, and disposing of it to the
+best of their ability.</p>
+
+<p>"A regular old-fashioned barter," he wrote to Maverick.
+"It took a good deal of talking, to be sure, but I'm
+never the worse for that. They were pleased to get a fair
+price for their wool, and I lost nothing on my cloth. It
+clears out the stock, and keeps the men busy."</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, Hope Mills was doing a great thing for Yerbury.
+There was a brisker air on the streets, a kind of inspiring
+music in the whir and clatter, that spoke of food and
+warmth and raiment. Good feeling and sympathy had
+been touched; and though some of the workmen, who
+were harassed by back debts, looked rather ruefully at
+their small weekly pittance, still it was so much better
+than no money and no employment.</p>
+
+<p>At the Darcys they held what Sylvie laughingly called
+"symposiums." The churches were organizing their
+winter work, for there would be need enough. The few
+who had found employment merely made a ripple on the
+surface. Some who had stretched out their scanty means
+the past year now found themselves penniless. Others
+had tramped about the neighboring towns and cities, getting
+a few weeks' work here and there, but had no fancy
+for facing winter in this precarious manner. The hopeful
+feeling animating so many in the early autumn died out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+again. It was feared that we had not seen the worst of
+the panic.</p>
+
+<p>To Sylvie, who the preceding winter had been engrossed
+in art-studies and delightful social life, the want
+and misery were appalling. She and Miss Morgan did
+organize a visiting-society according to an idea of Dr.
+Maverick's; and though they alleviated many cases of
+distress, and were the better able to distinguish who were
+worthy, still they increased upon their hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I begin to realize that poor people do not make the
+best of their money," she said. "They do not know
+how to prepare dishes that shall be cheap and palatable.
+And, worst of all, many of them cannot cook a potato so
+that it shall be fit to eat."</p>
+
+<p>"The weak point of this world, Miss Sylvie," said
+Dr. Maverick. "When women learn to make good bread
+and cook potatoes, there will be a decrease of one-half in
+dyspepsia. Now, what is the secret of the potatoes?
+Come, air your ideas! Give me a recipe, and I will take
+it around among my patients. I advise them pretty generally
+to bake them, but I find some soggy and watery
+even then."</p>
+
+<p>"Overdone," said Miss Morgan briefly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, state the exact time."</p>
+
+<p>The women looked at each other, and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"From twenty minutes to half an hour," said Mrs.
+Darcy. "Some kinds boil easier than others. For baking,
+three-quarters to an hour."</p>
+
+<p>"But the infallible test?"</p>
+
+<p>"Watchfulness," said Jane.</p>
+
+<p>"I must admit that you seem to understand it thoroughly,
+judging from the specimens I have seen and
+eaten. But are you not a little chary in your information?"
+and he glanced from one to another.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Morgan shall be first spokeswoman," declared
+Sylvie gayly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"If it is a boiled potato," began Jane sententiously,
+as if she were a child speaking a piece, "I put mine in the
+saucepan, and pour hot water over them, as they come to
+a boil sooner, taking care that they shall be as nearly of
+a size as possible. In about twenty minutes I try an
+average potato. If I can stick a fork through it nicely,
+it is done. Then I pour off the water, letting it drain
+until every drop is gone, when I shake up the lot two or
+three times rather hard and quick, stand them on the back
+of the stove with the cover partly off, so that the steam
+may escape; and you have a dry, light, flaky potato,
+unless it was irremediably bad to begin with. I have
+sometimes boiled new and rather small potatoes in twelve
+minutes over a good fire. But cooking, like liberty, has
+the same high price, eternal vigilance."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick laughed. "I shall remember this," he exclaimed.
+"You will yet hear of me teaching some of my
+poor patients to cook potatoes. Heaven knows there is
+enough need of it. Wasn't there some talk of a school
+for useful arts?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Sylvie, "only there was no money
+to start with, and we have all been so busy."</p>
+
+<p>"What would be needed?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Imprimis:</i> a room, a cooking-stove, a fire, a cook,
+and some materials," replied Sylvie with merry audacity.</p>
+
+<p>How pretty and bright she was! He liked to watch
+her in these changeful moods. One great charm of this
+place was finding her here so frequently.</p>
+
+<p>"And Mr. Darcy has been so much engrossed with
+weightier matters," she continued in a half apology.</p>
+
+<p>"I really think I ought to be more interested in this
+question than Mr. Darcy. It supplements my work.
+While cheap living is an imperative necessity in times of
+depression and low wages, I cannot see why we do not
+make it more of a study. While we are so ready to copy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+the vices of our French neighbors, perhaps their virtues
+would do us no harm. A doctor often finds himself quite
+nonplussed by something in the preparation of the patient's
+diet. The old doctrine preached years ago, on St.
+Paul's text of 'keeping the body under,' has worked as
+much damage as the asceticism of the middle ages. A
+good healthy body is the first requisite everywhere; and
+to keep it so, every one's first duty. When men began
+to consider the body a poor, vile thing, to be treated with
+contumely, and fed with what would just sustain life, they
+offered an outrage to the highest work of God. When
+people think it is no matter what they eat, and that no
+pains need be taken in the preparation, they have made a
+big lapse toward heathenism. Confusion of the physical
+senses leads to confusion of the moral sense; and weak,
+miserable bodies with hysterical nerves, though they may
+dream dreams, and see visions, cannot do good healthy
+work in this world. And your poor people need a good
+deal of training on this subject. It must be made an honorable,
+not a despised, business. If I were to build houses,
+I should make the kitchens large, light, and pretty; and,
+if any room had to be small and uninviting, it should be
+that for the storage of the best furniture," laughing
+humorously.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," responded Jane Morgan, "I like to go into an
+old-fashioned country kitchen, with a nice painted floor,
+and braided rag rugs laid down here and there: with a
+grandmother's corner by a sunny window, and a father's
+chair by the wide, cheerful chimney-piece, and a place for
+the children to play, with plenty of room to get about.
+Apples and nuts always taste so good in such a place!
+Instead, we have a stuffy little kitchen and a cheerless
+dining-room, that no one wants to sit in, and every member
+of the family goes to his or her room, and sociability
+is at an end. Then we must go to theatres, lectures, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+concerts, just to catch a glimpse of the members of our
+own family."</p>
+
+<p>"There is a good deal of truth in that," and the doctor
+nodded sagaciously. "And now I shall take steps
+for that school. I may count on you, Miss Morgan, may
+I not, and Miss Barry?"</p>
+
+<p>They both promised.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Meanwhile</span> what had befallen Fred Lawrence?</p>
+
+<p>He had been greatly shocked at his father's death.
+True, the tender, intense affection that had so sweetened
+childhood seemed to have died out; when they might
+have attained to an enduring friendship, they had gone
+separate ways, missing the exquisite sympathy that should
+have existed between them. Whether the distance was
+any disappointment to his father, he had never thought.
+He was the only son of the house, and his slightest wish
+had always been gratified. There had been no wretched
+vices that sap body and soul, nothing to bring dishonor
+on the old pure, family name; and, if David Lawrence
+missed something that he had hardly longed for, he still
+felt proud of his son.</p>
+
+<p>But his son, bending over the coffined face, was
+stunned, paralyzed. Of this death he had never thought.
+Was it not rather a frightful dream?</p>
+
+<p>The sharp reality followed fast enough. He listened,
+still bewildered by the horrible visions that crowded upon
+him. Hope Mills closed, notes going to protest, workmen
+clamoring for pay, Mr. Eastman quite out of reach, indeed,
+no one knew just where.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Minor did not spare his father-in-law. How could
+he trust every thing to Horace Eastman! How could he
+allow George to go on unchecked in such a career of wild
+speculation! forgetting that he had speculated quite as
+wildly. And now all the property was covered with mortgages,
+and not a dollar to be squeezed out of any thing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+As for the bank business, that he sneered at. Let them
+look to the Eastmans. They might have known that a
+small manufacturing town like Yerbury could not stand
+such galloping progress. In his heart of hearts he
+thought George and Horace rather clever fellows to get
+away before the crash began. And if David Lawrence
+had only managed to provide well for his family,&mdash;his
+manifest duty,&mdash;the rest might have gone without a sigh,
+such trifles as notes and wages.</p>
+
+<p>Fred Lawrence he looked upon as a baby. Indeed,
+Fred was of but little use in settling the business, much
+more plague than profit, since he stood up stoutly for his
+father's honor and integrity. He had that much of a
+son's love. And he characterized Horace Eastman's
+villany as it deserved: his education had not quite done
+away with his moral sense in such matters.</p>
+
+<p>"Here for five years your father has given him a clean
+sweep with every thing! If you thrust temptation right
+in a man's way, what can you expect?"</p>
+
+<p>"His honesty would not be of a very high order if it
+could withstand no temptation," Fred answered rather
+scornfully. "It was necessary for father to travel in the
+interests of the business. He surely could not stay here
+to watch him. And you thought well of Eastman."</p>
+
+<p>"No man would play <i>me</i> such rascally tricks! There
+is no telling what he has done! Books can be doctored
+to look very fair."</p>
+
+<p>But they found enough. Pay-rolls for men kept up
+long after they had been discharged, and many who had
+never been at all; systematic falsifications that could not
+be brought to light without a rigid inspection and comparison
+by an expert. But Hamilton Minor felt, with the
+world's wisdom, that bringing the Eastmans back as
+criminals would not be likely to lead to any restoration;
+while it would prove a family disgrace, and perhaps add
+Gertrude to the list of dependent ones.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It makes me heart-sick!" declared Fred. "There
+is nothing but selfishness and hollowness and greed. Are
+truth and honor quite dead?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very fine talk, my young friend," said Minor in a
+sneering tone; "but the question that more nearly concerns
+you is how you are all going to live, granting even
+that there may be enough to pay the debts. Of course
+this great house cannot be kept afloat. You had better
+discharge some of the servants, and retrench while you do
+remain in it."</p>
+
+<p>Then had followed the talk with Agatha, when matrimony
+was proposed as a certain and sure remedy for these
+present ills: a cure the young man disdained with anger.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawrence kept to her room, and was too ill to
+listen to business details, even if she could have helped
+in any way, which she could not. She fancied now, like
+many another woman, that her husband had been her only
+delight in life, and that there was nothing left. When
+Agatha suggested that she had been very short-sighted to
+consent to mortgaging Hope Terrace, she cried, and said
+"she would have given up every thing for him, and now
+that he was gone she wanted no fortune,&mdash;she should
+never leave her room again until she was carried."</p>
+
+<p>If there had been any bright little Sylvie to run in and
+comfort her! any strong-hearted, tender woman, to whom
+he could turn! He seemed now to realize more keenly
+what he had lost, than on the night Sylvie rejected him.
+And that other strong, manly soul&mdash;no, bitterly as he
+might regret, he could no more go back to him than to
+Sylvie.</p>
+
+<p>He roused himself, and began his work, utterly astounded
+at the extravagance that met him on every side.
+No doubt it looked right enough when there was plenty of
+money; but it seemed now as if the servants had been
+masters and mistresses, that all these luxuries existed for
+their sake,&mdash;the gardens and graperies, the greenhouses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+with their wealth of costly flowers; the horses standing
+idle in the stable, with only servants to use them; his
+father a plain man, his mother confined mostly to two or
+three rooms, and occasional visitors; supplies ordered
+lavishly, and wasted in a manner that seemed wicked even
+to him. He wondered in a vague way if the system was
+not radically wrong that brought such waste and carelessness
+in vogue, when hundreds had not the necessities of
+life. He remembered one talk his father had with Horace
+Eastman over in the library yonder, with champagne and
+cigars between them, in the height of one of the strikes,
+and how Eastman had figured to a penny the exact percentage
+of wages the mill could afford to pay. What if
+<i>they</i> had given up a little of their luxury, and <i>he</i> his ill-gotten
+gains!</p>
+
+<p>He had the pictures packed under his supervision, and
+sent to New York. Not without a pang; for many of
+them he had selected, and each one had some pleasant
+reminder. The choice collection of the greenhouse was
+offered for sale, the elegant furniture, and all the most
+valuable of the personal property. Times were hard, and
+sales were slow; but there would be sufficient realized, it
+was thought, to pay the floating indebtedness. Hope Terrace
+and the mills would probably go for the mortgages.
+There was a small life-insurance settled upon Mrs. Lawrence,
+and the children would be fortuneless.</p>
+
+<p>By spring the estate was in a fair way of settlement.
+Fred had vibrated between the city and Yerbury all winter,
+but his mother had been taken to Mrs. Minor's. A
+gardener and his wife were placed in charge of the house,
+while efforts were being made to rent it. A few rooms
+had not been disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>And now Frederic De Woolfe Lawrence looked about
+him to see what could be done. Up to this time he had
+never given himself an anxious thought about money or
+his future. Now it stared him unpleasantly in the face.
+What could <i>he</i> do?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Many things, he said at first, with the buoyant certainty
+of youth and inexperience. Here was his education, his
+talents, his fine mental training. Surely he had the magical
+open-sesame of some door.</p>
+
+<p>So he set to work industriously, and wrote several articles
+on the history and the philosophy of the pure
+sciences. Very fine-drawn indeed, very intellectual and
+analytical, as he went through the different schools of
+thought, being able, it seemed to him, to argue as well for
+the one side as for the other. Then he tried Neo-Platonism
+with its profoundly mystical aspects and its brilliant
+array of philosophers, its fascinating aspects of
+Pantheism. The new world and to-day had nothing for
+him; the dead and gone past, every thing.</p>
+
+<p>Alas! From every side he heard the cry, Literature
+had been overdone. No one would buy, no one would
+read, in this great turmoil. Everybody wrote now, schoolgirls,
+college-fledglings: even small farmers and mechanics,
+with the training of the present and a smattering of
+knowledge, set up for geniuses.</p>
+
+<p>One advised him to try the realistic school: the old-time
+philosophies had lost the high place they once held, and to
+gain the attention of to-day writers must have snap and
+vim. Another recommended popular science made easy
+and attractive to general readers, something that caught
+at the first glance. Life was too short to be devoting
+years to any one branch of study. Still another was fain
+to persuade him to attack the pernicious systems and
+monstrous abuses of the present day. Then he stumbled
+over Crosby, one of his college-chums and a member of
+the L&mdash;&mdash; Club, where he had been a frequent and welcome
+visitor the winter before.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow," said he, with patronizing good-nature,
+"take my advice, and let literature alone. It is
+one of the most uncertain things. To-day you may suit,
+to-morrow a chap comes along with some new fandango<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+or summersault of high art, and the world leaves everybody
+to run after him, and you are thrown over. A man
+cannot earn his salt unless he has the <i>entr&eacute;e</i> of the initiated
+ring. As for journalism, you may hammer at that
+for twenty years before you get a position."</p>
+
+<p>Poor Fred went back to his room sorely depressed. It
+was a quiet, clean room in a second-rate hotel, for which
+he paid twelve dollars a week. There he sat and brooded,
+until taking up the paper one morning he saw the arrival
+of one of his old professors at the "Grand Union." Perhaps
+he might put him in the way of something. So he
+plucked up heart, and went to call.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Dennison received him very cordially, and
+expressed the warmest sympathy for the loss of his father
+and his fortune. He listened attentively to the young
+man's desires, and answered in suavest of tones.</p>
+
+<p>There were so many applications: every avenue seemed
+full. Young lawyers and doctors, finding no opening, had
+gone back to teaching, and the college-graduates of every
+year swelled this number. He would bear it in mind, and
+see what he could do; but he advised his young friend
+not to build too high hopes. "If I could make a place I
+should put you in it at once," he said kindly, just as he
+said it to a dozen others.</p>
+
+<p>It was so everywhere. There were no copyists, translators,
+or writers needed. The clerkships were overcrowded.
+It was not that there were too many doing one
+thing, but everything,&mdash;too many people in the world.
+Could the Malthusian doctrine be right, after all?</p>
+
+<p>He dropped into his brother-in-law's office one morning,
+and, though he hated to ask a favor of him, discussed in a
+rather fragmentary and abashed way the possibility of
+getting any thing to do; and a fortnight after, Mr. Minor
+sent him word of a broker who wanted a clerk, salary
+fifty dollars per month.</p>
+
+<p>It was better than nothing. Then, too, it was a beginning,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+although he could imagine more congenial employments.
+It did not look much like hard times, to note the
+immense amount of stocks and bonds that passed through
+the hands of this great house.</p>
+
+<p>Just at this period Irene returned. A fine, stately girl,
+with the indescribable air that foreign society gives. Yet
+she seemed haughty, bitter, and satirical; and it came out
+presently that she and Gertrude had quarrelled over a
+possible husband, and the amiable Gertrude had taunted
+her with dependence in the future. Irene had sold some
+diamonds, and travelled on the proceeds.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you were very short-sighted, Irene," said
+Mrs. Minor when she had drawn this story out of her
+sister. "A handsome American girl does stand a better
+chance for matrimony abroad than here. So many fortunes
+have been lost in the panic, and certainly I cannot
+blame these men for choosing heiresses. You have been
+in society a great deal here, and you will find fresh young
+girls beginning to crowd you out. Fred has nothing, and
+from present indications will hardly be able to take care
+of himself. It was such a misfortune that papa had every
+thing mortgaged! So Gertrude was right," in a bitterly
+suave tone: "you must be dependent upon some one until
+you do marry."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no! I might set up millinery,&mdash;with my taste
+and aptitude for arrangement. I think I have read of
+reduced young women who made fortunes in that line,"
+retorted Irene the queenly, in her unmoved way. She
+was not one to cry out at a dagger-thrust.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be a fool!" advised Mrs. Minor, in a short,
+incisive tone.</p>
+
+<p>She, like most other people, had meant to economize
+this summer; but now she made a sudden start for Newport.
+Irene certainly was peerless in her half-mourning,
+with her statuesque figure. But there was not an eligible
+at Newport, so they turned their steps Saratoga-ward.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+And here they found an old admirer of Mrs. Minor's,
+Gordon Barringer, a widower for the second time, the
+owner of a silver-mine and a railroad, and Heaven alone
+knew the length and breadth of his possessions.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Agatha Lawrence had turned up her aristocratic
+nose at him, as a rather coarse and self-assured person,
+as proud of his want of education as other men were of
+its acquirement. Now he was about forty, stout, high-colored,
+loud of voice, and with an important swagger.
+But money had given "our enterprising citizen" power,
+and he both understood and wielded it skilfully.</p>
+
+<p>His wife had been dead barely six months, but when
+he met Irene Lawrence he decided at once that the penniless
+beauty would be only too glad to marry him. He
+was proud to think he could afford to be so magnanimous.
+Mrs. Minor settled herself to the fact that there must be
+no foolish dallying. Of course Irene <i>would</i> see. She
+could not be so idiotically, so fatally blind!</p>
+
+<p>I do not know that at this period of her life Irene
+Lawrence had any ideal. She had made conquests so
+easily, she had found men so much alike, and in her secret
+heart she despised them for being so ready to kneel and
+bow at beauty's shrine. It seemed to her as if youth
+and fortune were alike boundless; and she literally took
+no thought for the morrow, until the tidings of her father's
+death was followed by the subsequent news of loss of
+fortune.</p>
+
+<p>If George Eastman had a self-conviction that he and
+his cousin had contributed to this downfall, he tried to
+make it up to Irene in brotherly kindness and generous
+expenditure where money was concerned. He solaced
+himself with the thought that, after all, he had no more
+than his own, or what should have been his own rightfully,
+though he fancied he could not have gone on to the
+end quite as Horace had.</p>
+
+<p>When Sir Christopher Frodsham came across the two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+ladies in Paris, Gertrude exulted at the easy conquest.
+A man of fifty, whose young years and health had been
+spent in sowing a plentiful crop of wild oats, but to whom
+had come now, quite unexpectedly, a fortune and a title;
+and prosperity, after years of rather bitter economy, made
+him miserly, as it not unfrequently does such men. That
+he would have been glad to marry this young, beautiful
+girl, for himself alone, was most true. And Irene, in
+the bewilderment of the losses, inclined to his proposal,
+and begged time for consideration.</p>
+
+<p>He was not a man she could admire, respect, or love.
+He was narrow, egotistical, selfish, and with the pitiful
+vanity of a worn-out <i>rou&eacute;</i>. Frodsham Park was in a
+lonely, mountainous part of England, bordering on
+Wales; and this man would look upon his wife as a nurse
+and companion, and the mother of an heir.</p>
+
+<p>There must have been a little strain of heroism in the
+girl. Suddenly, in one of those quick, vivid flashes, like
+mental lightning, she saw that she could not do this thing.
+She was not at all given to analysis; she had never dissected
+her own soul, or that of her neighbors; but she
+arrived at one of those swift, clear verdicts,&mdash;she could
+not marry Sir Christopher; and she told him so, with a
+frankness a trifle tenderer, perhaps, than she had used
+with her lovers heretofore, as if some way she had
+wronged him in thought.</p>
+
+<p>Over this, as I said, she and Gertrude had bitter words
+and a parting. Now the same thing stared her in the
+face again. This lover was too obtuse to be stung by the
+fine arts of coquetry that lengthened practice had brought
+to perfection. In all the bravery of self-assertion, he did
+not know when he was beaten; and so he fought against
+the intangible spear-points with which Miss Lawrence
+could surround herself.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Barringer was called to New York on important
+business law-suits; and two days after, Mrs. Minor declared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+herself wearied out with Saratoga. Irene felt the
+walls of fate closing remorselessly about her. Why
+should she struggle? she asked herself. After all, what
+could she do but marry?</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Hope Mills had been sold. Fred made
+some inquiries about it.</p>
+
+<p>"A woman&mdash;a rich old maid, I believe, by name
+McLeod, who knows enough to drive a sharp bargain&mdash;has
+taken it. Some one is to set up the business, I
+heard; an impecunious nephew, no doubt. No one but a
+fool would make a venture when the market is overstocked
+with goods. It is a shame that the estate had to lose
+such a valuable piece of property; but there was no income
+to pay taxes and interest, and, standing empty, it
+would soon have eaten itself up."</p>
+
+<p>Fred sighed. For the first time, he wondered how it
+would have ended if he had been brought up to some
+useful business, and perhaps have taken Eastman's place
+with his father. As for stock and share jobbing, he was
+heartily sick of it. To him it appeared an immense
+system of swindling the ignorant and unsuspecting.</p>
+
+<p>However, he was not destined to nurse his disgust very
+long in brooding silence. The last of September the
+great house of Bristol, Stokes, &amp; Co., collapsed. The
+wreck was unexpected, the ruin wide-spread. The house
+of Minor &amp; Morgan was hard hit, which did not improve
+Mr. Minor's temper, though, Spartan-like, he wore a
+cheerful face, and kept his losses to himself. Even if it
+should be his turn next, the world must not know it.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a letter that concerns you, though it was
+sent to me as administrator," said Minor to Fred, as he
+sauntered in one morning, tossing the missive over to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Fred opened it with languid indifference, and his eye
+wandered over the following lines:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><span class="smcap">Hamilton Minor, Esq.</span>
+
+<p><i>Dear Sir</i>,&mdash;On taking possession of Hope Mills, for business
+purposes, I find some personal property belonging to the late Mr.
+Lawrence. It may have a value for the family, and shall be at
+your disposal whenever you desire it. Respectfully yours,</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+<span class="smcap">John Darcy.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"As soon as Hope Terrace is disposed of, the accounts
+can be audited and settled," said Minor in a sharp,
+business-like way. "The debts have all come in, and
+been paid dollar for dollar; though, if your father had
+been a prudent man, he would have made sure of something
+for his family. No one expects estates to pay more
+than fifty per cent nowadays."</p>
+
+<p>Fred rose, and crushed Jack Darcy's note in his pocket,
+holding himself proudly, while his cheek flushed.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very thankful," in a clear, cold tone. "My
+father's life was pure and honorable, and no man can
+fling a stone at his grave. I would rather be penniless,
+as I am, than have it otherwise."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! very well, very well," sneeringly.</p>
+
+<p>Fred walked out of the office, and turned into Broadway.
+The same curious, restless, hurrying throng.
+Where were they all going? Did they find room and
+work? How clearly the sun shone! The sky was so
+blue, with great drifts of white floating about,&mdash;strange
+barques on a mystical sea. In spite of the outside roar
+and rush, there was a solemn and awesome stillness
+within him. He began to feel how entirety alone he
+stood. A twelvemonth ago there were hosts of friends
+pulling him hither and yon, proposing this and that,
+laughing and chatting gayly. Where were they now?
+Not all weak and false, but the shadow of circumstances
+had drifted them apart. We do not always cease to love
+or like when separation ensues; and in this shifting,
+changing life, people drop out, yet are not quite forgotten.
+Some of the young fellows whom fortune had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+buffeted had found a place in active, stirring life: he,
+with his education, refinement, accomplishments, and
+talent, was merely a piece of driftwood. Sylvie Barry
+had been right,&mdash;he was a useless appendage to the
+world. Ah, no wonder she despised him! Sturdy,
+honest Jack Darcy could find a place. His self-complacency
+was more than touched,&mdash;it was shattered,
+completely broken up. The present was blank and colorless,
+the future like a thick mist in which there penetrated
+not one ray of light. What did all his elaborate philosophies
+for him now?&mdash;art, that was to regenerate the
+world; science, that explained and refined, and found a
+place and a reason for every thing in the universe; man,
+the most important of all. And here he was, tossed
+aside like a weed. Who cared whether his nature was
+foul or kinglike? He was, in truth, one of the atoms
+floating about in space, and finding no use or purpose.
+The world could go on just as well without him. Why,
+if he should drop himself over into the river, there would
+be only a ripple. He laughed, as if his personality was
+something that did not really belong to him, that could
+be put off at will, that was, in truth, answerable to no
+power. All of life, then, had been a lie!</p>
+
+<p>He stumbled onward blindly. A sense of dreary mystery
+crept over him,&mdash;an utter hopelessness. He essayed to
+stretch out his hand to some passer-by, but the careless
+faces mocked him. There was no strength or stay. He
+could not even cry out with his anguish,&mdash;it was a dumb,
+inarticulate voice. All his idols had been destroyed, and
+there was no God to cry to!</p>
+
+<p>His last three weeks' salary had gone down in Bristol
+&amp; Co.'s ruin. There were some jewels to sell, a few more
+pictures, several sets of rare books, and&mdash;what then?</p>
+
+<p>Starvation had appeared so utterly improbable in this
+great, thriving world, and here he was, almost face to face
+with it,&mdash;he who had never taken an anxious thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
+about any thing, who had felt as if he really honored
+money by the spending of it. A beggar! An object
+of charity to Hamilton Minor!</p>
+
+<p>No, that should never be. He tried to rouse himself
+from his lethargy. He went around to stores and offices
+where he was not known, and asked for something to do,
+as if in a curious masquerade. The same answer everywhere.
+Nothing! The sun went slowly down, the street-lamps
+were lighted. Every inch of his body ached with
+the long tramp and nervous exhaustion. He had eaten
+nothing since breakfast, but he was not hungry. What
+if he did steal quietly over to the river, and end it all?</p>
+
+<p>The desperation was hardly black enough for that.
+Somewhere near midnight he strolled home: how much
+longer would there be a home, he wondered?</p>
+
+<p>He thrust his hand in his pocket, and the bit of folded
+paper struck sharp against his fingers, so he drew it out.
+Hardly the familiar school-boy scrawl: Jack used to hate
+writing, he remembered. This had a decisive force
+about it. How odd that business-like "John" looked!
+"Jack!" He uttered the name aloud, and a thrill
+seemed to warm his frozen heart,&mdash;to stir emotions
+most contradictory. A sense of shame predominated,
+tingling his very finger-ends, crimsoning his pale cheeks,
+and stinging his soul with a sense of utter humiliation.
+He had prided himself so much upon the immaculate
+honor of his life, and lo! here he stood, self-convicted
+of one of the basest of sins,&mdash;broken faith. Not from
+any sudden, hot dispute, not from a knowledge of deception
+or any small meanness, but deliberate, well-considered
+treachery. It would have been manlier had he said to
+Jack, "Our ways lie apart, and in the future we shall
+meet so seldom, it is hardly worth while to keep up a pretence
+of friendship." He had skulked away instead, kept
+out of sight,&mdash;basely shunned the strong, tender soul
+that had helped to make a peevish boyhood sunny and
+bright.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Black as this ingratitude looked to him now, he experienced
+a strange and intense desire to see his olden friend
+once more. What was he doing at Hope Mills? Had he
+found a place?</p>
+
+<p>The next morning's mail brought him a check for sixty
+dollars, for an article he had thought little of himself, and
+sent merely because he had happened to finish it, and was
+despatching his ventures out on the sea of chance. Then
+he went over to Mrs. Minor's: he had not seen his mother
+for several days.</p>
+
+<p>He was quite in the habit of going directly up to her
+room; but, as he neared it, he heard voices raised in no
+gentle discussion. Agatha stood in the middle of the
+room, flushed, angry, an open note in her hand; Mrs.
+Lawrence was weeping hysterically, while Irene sat pale
+and sullen, but her eyes gleaming with a dangerous fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well: if you deliberately decide to take a beggar's
+portion, then, do not look to me for any further help,"
+said Mrs. Minor. "This marriage would have afforded
+you every luxury; and you have thrown aside the chance,
+like a silly school-girl. Perhaps you <i>have</i> some secret,
+favored lover!" and the glittering eyes might have annihilated
+a weaker woman than Irene Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>"If I had, I should go to him. I would live on crusts
+and a cup of cold water with him, rather than luxury,"
+with a bitter, stinging emphasis, "and my own humiliation.
+The man would drive me mad, Agatha! Some
+day, yielding to an irresistible impulse, I should murder
+him;" and she gave a shrill, unnatural laugh.</p>
+
+<p>Fred went over to her, and took her hand. His business
+in life was to be her champion, her defender, her support,&mdash;not
+only against this monstrous marriage, at which her
+soul revolted, but Agatha's sneers and flings, and the
+dependence a proud soul must naturally feel when the
+very bread turns to ashes in one's mouth. How it was
+to be done, he could not tell at that moment; but he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+drew one long breath of honest, hopeful manliness, and
+resolved to leave no stone unturned.</p>
+
+<p>His mother wept in his comforting arms. She was very
+much shattered,&mdash;quite an old woman long before her
+time, made so by the follies of an indolent, enervating
+life. Like a pang the thought pierced his brain, that for
+these paltry results his father had given the strength and
+labor of manhood.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">There</span> were a few faint hints of autumn in Yerbury.
+The air was warm, and freighted with the peculiar sweetness
+of over-ripe grapes and apples, of dried balsam and
+faded golden-rod by the wayside. The very air seemed to
+quiver with intense contrasts of color, the yellow beeches
+standing out in strong relief, the bronze-red of one great
+oak, the bluish-green of the spruce, and the tender tints
+of fading, long-armed larches, drooping in regretful sadness.
+Lights of silvery gray and russet-brown, pale gold
+and hazy purple, and a sapphire sky bending over all.
+The artistic side of Fred Lawrence's soul was touched as
+he had once fancied nothing this side of Europe could
+touch it.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment a mighty rush of regret came over him.
+This magnificent place had been his home. Perhaps he
+would have been more than human not to have experienced
+a pang.</p>
+
+<p>He wandered about for some time. It was too lovely
+to go in and explore those dusty, darkened rooms: this
+evening would answer for that. He paced the lawn, he
+lingered by the gate; he took a turn about the grapery,
+now used for profit by the thrifty farmer who had charge
+of the place. Then he turned, and went down the street.
+The bells were ringing for six. From his height above, he
+could see the laborers wending their way, the great chimney
+of Hope Mills. He would walk in that direction.
+They would all be gone by the time he reached it.</p>
+
+<p>The streets were indeed nearly deserted. In the shade<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+here the wind blew a little chilly. Yes, it was just the
+same; but then, it would not be likely to alter in a year.
+Why, it seemed a decade almost, since the night he had
+come home to his dying father!</p>
+
+<p>Ah, if they had been more to each other! Did he go
+about with a lonely spirit, Fred wondered, feeling the uselessness
+and insufficiency of the life he was leading?
+Had he been glad to lay the burthen down?</p>
+
+<p>A sudden firm, manful step ran down the stone stairway
+with a cheerful ring, and a voice hummed a tune
+softly, as one sometimes does for a seeming accompaniment,
+when the mind is occupied with other things;&mdash;a
+tall, robust figure, with long arms, and a springy step, as
+if he might still leap a post, or jump the creek. He was
+rushing off, when, curiously enough, with no other motive
+than an impulse, he turned, and saw an almost motionless
+figure.</p>
+
+<p>Whether he would send for the articles belonging to his
+father, or visit Hope Mills in person, risking a sight of
+Jack Darcy, or whether he would summon courage enough
+to ask for his old friend, were matters that Fred had put
+off for to-morrow's decision. Why he had wandered here
+at all, amazed him now; and he stood quite breathless at
+the unexpected apparition, without power to move or
+speak.</p>
+
+<p>If he had still been in the high tide of prosperity, Jack
+would have passed him by silently, but with no rudeness.
+Something in the bent head, the pale face, the general
+melancholy attitude, came home to his heart,&mdash;his fresh,
+generous, magnanimous heart. He ventured a step nearer,
+he put out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Fred, old fellow!"</p>
+
+<p>The rich, full voice might have melted any heart. The
+frank, honest eyes lighted with wonderful tenderness:
+there was a glow and earnestness that could come only
+from a large, forgiving soul, capable of putting by its own
+sense of pain or any past discomfiture.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Fred Lawrence crimsoned to the very edge of his hair,
+to the farthest depths of his soul. He would have taken
+the hand: then he drew back with a gesture of self-reproach,
+as if he could tread his past sinful pride in the
+dust.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's forget the bygones," the hearty young fellow
+began, "that is, if you would like to have it so," drawing
+back a trifle to give him his choice as a delicate
+woman might have done.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Jack," grasping the warm, firm hand in
+his own pale, cold one, and raising his soft dark eyes, so
+near to tears. Just now no other words would come.</p>
+
+<p>Jack drew the hand through his arm. "I've thought
+of you so many times," he began, as if they had parted
+the best of friends. "It has been a sad year for many,
+doubly so for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Sad indeed. O Jack!"</p>
+
+<p>It was all uttered in the long tremulous swell of voice
+that tells the whole story.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>With that, their friendship was renewed. Women
+might have fallen into each other's arms with expressions
+of penitence and forgiveness; but they had said their say,
+as was characteristic of both.</p>
+
+<p>"Were you coming in?" and Darcy turned back as he
+asked the question.</p>
+
+<p>"No: I only reached Yerbury an hour or so ago on a
+little business. Some remembrance of old time brought
+me hither."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad it did. Shall we walk down Main Street?
+Are you staying at Hope Terrace?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be for a few days."</p>
+
+<p>A silence fell between them. There was no one else in
+the street; and their steps sounded with a steady tramp,
+as if they might walk on to some definite end.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack, dear old friend, after requiting your tender<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
+love to my exacting and selfish boyhood with a pitiless
+treachery that will always shame my manhood, I wonder
+if I dare ask it back, if I dare come to you."</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to give back. I do believe I have
+kept up a sort of girlish hankering for you. And now,
+if I can do any thing, if you are in any perplexity"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Come up to Hope Terrace, and take tea with me. I
+want to talk to you all the evening. You have just the
+same mesmeric strength that used to soothe me when a
+boy. What a milk-and-water cub I must have been! I
+wonder you did not throw me over."</p>
+
+<p>Jack laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us turn back to Kit Connelly's, and I can send a
+message home, so that mother will not keep tea waiting."</p>
+
+<p>That done, they strolled on together the same path by
+which Fred had come. The sun had dropped down behind
+the hill, and the glowing tints had faded to purple-black
+and indistinct grays. They wound around the hills,
+and came up to the very gate where their last good-by had
+been uttered. And Fred remembered then that this was
+the first time Jack had shared the hospitality of Hope
+Terrace, now when it was no longer his.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Milroy gave them some supper in a pretty little
+apartment which had been the servants' parlor, and was
+now hers. Then they went up to Fred's room, which had
+been opened and aired. Some of its choicest belongings
+had been taken away, but another than Fred would not
+have remarked this. And here they renewed the remembrances
+of the years that had fallen between.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems cowardly to come to you in trouble, and to
+take so large a share of your sympathy again," Fred said
+with his good-night. "But you always were so strong
+and earnest."</p>
+
+<p>He went down to the mill the next day, and was much
+interested in the working of Jack's plans.</p>
+
+<p>"You found your place," he said with a curious intonation,
+as if he half envied the man before him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yet in all truth I should not have chosen this," Jack
+answered with honest gravity. "But, when I found circumstances
+would keep me here, I resolved to work
+at it persistently and faithfully; and I learned in it the
+larger lesson of the true dignity of labor. If I should
+solve my problem successfully, I can ask no more. Five
+years is a long while when you count the days," and he
+smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You will succeed, I know. You have just that mastery
+over every thing."</p>
+
+<p>Jack finally persuaded Fred to come down to the well-remembered
+cottage, and see his mother. Mrs. Darcy
+would have welcomed her bitterest enemy if Jack had
+desired her to.</p>
+
+<p>All this time Jack was thinking whether he could do his
+old friend a good turn. He hated to offer him any subordinate
+position in the mill. At present he could attend
+to the book-keeping. Then he heard there was to be a
+change at the paper-mills, and went over. They wanted
+a clerk and foreman, one with taste enough to select
+pretty designs, and who could keep books.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know as you would like it, Fred," he continued
+with some hesitation in his cheery tones.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been a dawdler long enough, and I have had a
+bitter experience in finding <i>any thing</i> to do. I shall be
+glad to take it, and you may believe I will try my best.
+Many, many thanks for your kind interest."</p>
+
+<p>There had been a sharp, short struggle in Fred's soul.
+He would rather have gone elsewhere, where he was not
+known. But if fate had resolved to bring him back to
+Yerbury, if she had offered him bread here, while it had
+been stones elsewhere, he would certainly be a fool to
+starve for pride's sake. Some wholesome ideas had found
+lodgement in his brain, along with the Greek myths and
+synthetic philosophies. If he could not astonish the world
+with brilliant reasoning, he might at least get his own
+living.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He went back to the city, and discussed the project
+with his mother and Irene. She had a tender longing for
+her son: to be with him would afford her greater satisfaction
+than the magnificence of her daughter's house. Irene
+consented stonily. It was burying herself alive, but then
+no one would torment her with hateful marriages. To
+stay here with Agatha was simply unendurable.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Minor made no further comment than to say she
+did not think her mother could be kept as comfortable.
+Irene was her own mistress.</p>
+
+<p>So Fred Lawrence went back to Yerbury and work. It
+was an altogether new undertaking. He had no business
+training and no experience, except his desultory two
+months in Bristol's office. Yet from the very first day
+there was something that interested him here, although for
+awhile the smells, the dust and disorder, half sickened
+him. As for any wound to his pride, he felt that less
+because the whole world seemed to have taken a general
+overturn. Half of the elegant houses in the neighborhood
+of Hope Terrace were for sale, and shut up. Expensive
+country mansions to be used for a few summer months
+were quite beyond present incomes. A month at the seaside
+cost much less. Costly scientific, or rather unscientific
+gardening,&mdash;since the true aim of science must be the
+best adjustment of power to the desired result,&mdash;graperies,
+green-houses, henneries standing empty, the money lavished
+upon them so much waste material at present,&mdash;where
+had the wealth gone to so suddenly? He could not
+understand the rapid and wide-spread ruin. Even of themselves,&mdash;how
+was it that for years there should be no
+stint, but absolute wastefulness, and then nothing at all?</p>
+
+<p>He was so new to any business results, that he seemed
+like a child groping in the dark. And here was Jack
+Darcy, with his academy training merely, managing one
+of the great problems of the day, taking hold manfully to
+right the wrongs brought about by selfishness and utter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+disregard for one's neighbor. Had Plotinus struck the
+grand key-note when he said he "was striving to bring the
+God within us in harmony with the God of the universe"?
+For might there not be false gods within?</p>
+
+<p>He found he had not much time for abstruse speculations,
+which was all the better for his mental health.
+After enduring the dirt and disorder of the office for a
+week, he set about remedying that. He might not be
+able to regenerate the world, but he could make one little
+room decent. The office-boy and the scrub-woman were
+called in; the desks and shelves were cleared of the accumulation
+of months, and presented quite an orderly
+aspect. He found his hands blistered by the rough handling,
+but the reward was a wholesome hunger and a good
+night's sleep. Not quite as entertaining, perhaps, as a
+scramble in the Sierras or the Alps, but productive of as
+beneficial results.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was a home to be found. Living at Hope
+Terrace on a thousand a year would hardly be possible,
+even if it could be had rent free. So he asked Mrs.
+Darcy's advice about the matter, and she proposed a
+pretty cottage,&mdash;there were so many standing empty. It
+seemed very queer to be counselling this proud, sad-eyed
+young man, who a year or two ago had hardly deigned to
+look at them. Yet, like Jack, she still held a tender feeling
+for the pretty, enthusiastic boy she remembered.</p>
+
+<p>There had been in his mind a great struggle about
+Sylvie. He knew now that she belonged to Jack. That
+thorough manliness and integrity, that earnest, unflinching
+soul, the rich, generous temperament that could be so
+tender to weakness, so forgiving to wrong, was the soul
+of her ideal hero. And he had dared to offer her his poor,
+paltry affectation of love! Blinded by his own arrogant
+self-esteem, he had spurned the pure pearl, and taken the
+empty, glittering shell to her as the kind of treasure he
+was satisfied to deal in.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>How thoroughly he despised himself! It was such a
+keen, bitter humiliation! Not only that he had aspired to
+her, but that he should have misrepresented and traduced
+Jack, not from an overwhelming passion of jealousy,&mdash;that
+might be pardoned,&mdash;but a shallow, overweening
+vanity of wealth and position.</p>
+
+<p>"She shall see that I have learned to respect and honor
+him!" he said to himself with an intensity of regret that
+was very honest and real. "If I can never regain her
+esteem, I shall at least try for my old place in his regard."</p>
+
+<p>They found a pretty, convenient cottage, quite on the
+opposite side of Yerbury, suiting Fred much better than
+to be near his old friends. The furniture was brought
+over from the great house; and, though it had seemed but
+odds and ends there, it was amply sufficient. Irene's
+piano and some of the old family silver had been saved out
+of the wreck, a few of the less expensive pictures, and
+sufficient books to form quite a library. Fred really
+enjoyed arranging and planning. It was quite a matter
+of astonishment to him, that rules of art and harmony
+were needed at every step: if he could not make them
+remunerative in a written article, he could put them in
+practice here.</p>
+
+<p>He kept much to himself, being busy in the office during
+the day, and at home in the evening. He was sick of
+society, of the world in general. He had met Maverick a
+few times, but he shrank from strangers. Mrs. Darcy's
+tender, unobtrusive motherliness, he enjoyed, but he did
+not dare to accept much of it. The duties of his life were
+marked out plainly before him, and he must not swerve
+from the path. It was to be a kind of neutral tint, twilight
+rather than sunshine; and the joys he might come
+to long for, he must put away with a firm hand.</p>
+
+<p>The first of December every thing was in readiness for
+his small household, even to the tidy housekeeper Mrs.
+Darcy had found for him among her poor. Mrs. Lawrence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+and Irene came in the promised train; and he met
+them with a carriage and a multiplicity of wraps, although
+it was a bright, pleasant day. His mother clung to him
+with tremulous hands: he realized more than ever how
+much she had broken in the past year,&mdash;very little older
+than Mrs. Darcy if counted by years, but whole decades
+if judged by every other point.</p>
+
+<p>Irene was cold and stately. She did not like coming
+here,&mdash;neither did she like staying at Mrs. Minor's.
+Wild thoughts had flooded her brain of going somewhere,
+and under a new name making a mark in the world. She
+had a fine voice, and a decided talent for histrionics, but
+how to get to this place where fame and fortune would be
+at her command? How to bridge across any chasm?
+Nothing, she said to herself, but just stand helpless, and
+see the great world go on, with no part nor lot in the
+matter. If she must be buried alive, as well at Yerbury
+as anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>There had never been any sentiment between her and
+Fred; in truth, none of the Lawrence women ever were
+given to sentiment. She walked into the little parlor with
+the step of a queen, and gave a cool stare around.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you will like it"&mdash;with some hesitation.
+"There is your piano. And mother's room looks as it
+did at the Terrace, with the exception of its being so
+much smaller. And here is a library. Here is our dining-room&mdash;some
+of the old engravings, you see."</p>
+
+<p>"Could I go to my room? Which is it, Fred?" and
+his mother looked up with a weak, pleading smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes: let me carry you. You are so thin and light
+now, and you must be fatigued after all this journey;"
+and, taking her in his arms, he bore her up-stairs.</p>
+
+<p>It was a pleasant room over the parlor, with an alcove
+toward the south, in which the mid-day sun was shining.
+A bright fire burned in the grate: there were her own
+easy-chairs, a bit of the carpet she had once chosen, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+Persian rug she had admired so much when Fred first
+sent it home, the bed with its snowy drapery, and little
+ornaments with their familiar faces.</p>
+
+<p>"It is delightful," she said, still clinging to her son's
+arm. "And I am to stay here with you? Agatha is
+very good, of course; but I have always had my own
+home, and if I did sign it away it was to save your poor
+dear father. I don't see how things could have ended so,
+only, if he had lived, it would all have been different;"
+and she wiped away the tears that came so easily now.</p>
+
+<p>Fred put her in the chair nearest the fire, and began to
+unfasten her wraps. He had been quite an expert in delicate
+ways during his prosperity.</p>
+
+<p>"Your room is next&mdash;there," nodding his head to the
+open doorway, and glancing up in his sister's immovable
+face. "I hope I made my divisions rightly: I thought
+you would like to be near mother."</p>
+
+<p>"It is all as well as it can be, I suppose," she answered
+with weary indifference.</p>
+
+<p>There came to Fred Lawrence just then a painful sense
+of want and loss, a far-reaching sympathy in something
+that had never been, and now, when the outside glitter
+was torn away, left life cold and barren. Was human
+love so much?</p>
+
+<p>His mother went on in her weak, inconsequent way,
+yet her foolish praise was very sweet to him. He had
+been living such a lonely life for months, that even he
+was grateful for something that looked like home, for a
+woman's figure flitting about, and some voice beside his
+own.</p>
+
+<p>The dinner-bell rang presently.</p>
+
+<p>"I ordered yours brought up here," said Fred; "and I
+will have a little with you, then I must go back to the
+office."</p>
+
+<p>"It is terrible, Fred! That you should have to"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Dignify labor," and he laughed. "Mother dear, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+was so thankful to get something to do! And I am proud
+of making a home for you. Am I not your only son?"</p>
+
+<p>"But a clerk!" Some of the old Hope disdain spoke
+out there. "I cannot bear to think of it&mdash;with all your
+education and talents and genius. I wish you had found
+some business. There is the five thousand dollars of the
+life-insurance, you know; and you could take it, though
+Agatha made me promise that I would not have it fooled
+away in any thing. But I should be glad to have you use
+it."</p>
+
+<p>Fred stooped suddenly, and kissed her on the forehead.
+There <i>was</i> something in mother-love, after all.</p>
+
+<p>Just then Martha West came in with the tray. Fred
+drew out the folding breakfast-table that his mother had
+so often used, while he was introducing Martha to his
+mother and sister. She courtesied, and proceeded to lay
+the cloth and the dishes, and disappeared for the viands
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>"Is one woman expected to do all the work?" asked
+Irene at length.</p>
+
+<p>"She thinks she can&mdash;with so small a family. Of
+course I"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Irene raised her hand deprecatingly. "Spare me details,"
+she said. "It is very bitter to eat the bread of
+dependence: I have learned that already."</p>
+
+<p>He made no answer. Mrs. Lawrence looked from one
+to the other in helpless bewilderment, but Martha entered
+again, and changed the troubled current.</p>
+
+<p>It was quite a picnic dinner. Irene unbent a little at
+the sight of the rare china and beautiful old silver. She
+supposed every thing had gone down in the whirlpool of
+ruin, and that humiliation would be complete in delft and
+plated ware. Then she ventured to glance around.</p>
+
+<p>Fred chatted gayly, making talk. It had not used to
+be one of his accomplishments in his magnificent days
+when women vied with each other in the delight of entertaining<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+him. It was pleasant to see his mother touch the
+bell, and sit back in her chair while Martha brought in the
+dessert.</p>
+
+<p>"And now I must go. Do not expect me much before
+seven. I wonder if you will feel able to come down to
+tea? Ah! there are the trunks, just in time. I will send
+them up, and you will feel quite at home when you have
+your belongings in place."</p>
+
+<p>Then he went back to his desk, and for the next two
+hours was too busy to think. After all, there is nothing
+like energetic employment to keep dismal forebodings out
+of one's mind.</p>
+
+<p>But that evening after supper, when they had gathered
+in the library, Mrs. Lawrence began to question him concerning
+Hope Mills. Agatha had said some one had
+started the business anew.</p>
+
+<p>Fred explained.</p>
+
+<p>"But how could the workmen do it alone? Your father
+never trusted them, Fred; and I am sure my father had
+trouble enough with them in his day! They were always
+an ignorant, unreasonable set. Don't you remember how
+they struck several years ago, and workmen had to come
+from elsewhere? They must have some head. And who
+found the money? Mr. Minor says they cannot possibly
+succeed."</p>
+
+<p>Some time Fred would have to stand Jack Darcy on his
+true pedestal. As well do it now, and have it over.</p>
+
+<p>"The project was Mr. Darcy's. I believe he had most
+of the capital. It was very generous of him to risk it in
+such times as these."</p>
+
+<p>Irene looked up from her moody contemplation of the
+fire. A dull flush suffused her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Not Jack Darcy," she said,&mdash;"Sylvie Barry's great
+hero."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie Barry!" re-echoed Mrs. Lawrence, and she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+looked sharply at her son. "And she gave you up for
+him! Who is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"He used to be in the mill," answered Irene, with all
+her olden scorn. "His father was there also. And the
+Darcys"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The Darcys can boast as good blood as we!" exclaimed
+Fred, his face in a sudden heat. "And Jack
+Darcy is a gentleman by birth, by instinct, and, best of all,
+the impulses of a true and noble heart."</p>
+
+<p>The discussion recalled an old remembrance to Mrs.
+Lawrence. She looked vaguely at her son as if she were
+not quite certain, as she said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Was there not something about him when you were
+boys? He was coarse and rough, wasn't he? and Agatha
+used to worry. I knew it was only a boy's folly; but she
+was glad when you went to college, and I think&mdash;there
+was his sister"&mdash;her maternal instincts taking alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"No, he never had a sister. His father died, and he
+staid at home. His mother was delicate, and his grandmother
+old. She is dead, and he gets his small fortune
+from her. No, he was not coarse nor rude, but he was my
+champion in boyhood, my hero then; and it is the shame
+of my life that I should have let him drop out of it because
+I was the richer of the two. I despise myself for
+any thing so narrow and unmanly, and yet he was generous
+enough to forgive. I do not wonder at Miss Barry's
+choice when she contrasted us, and I honor her to-day
+for her discrimination. She never encouraged me, blind,
+idiotic fool that I was! and I have only my wretched
+vanity to blame. He is fully worthy of her, and that is
+the highest compliment I can pay him."</p>
+
+<p>"Very magnanimous for a rejected lover," commented
+Irene with a touch of sarcasm.</p>
+
+<p>"But you <i>did</i> love Sylvie?" Mrs. Lawrence said,
+bewildered by his rapid defence.</p>
+
+<p>"I blush now at the thought of having offered her such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+a paltry regard. To me she will always be a sweet and
+peerless woman. I am glad she will have the strength of
+manhood to lean upon, the purity of its honor to trust,
+the exceeding tenderness of a soul that will never know a
+narrow or grudging thought, to confide in. All my years
+look poor and barren beside his."</p>
+
+<p>"I can never forgive her"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You must, you must!" and Fred seized his mother's
+hand, pressing it to his lips. "There is nothing to forgive,"
+he went on. "You would not have had her throw
+aside the love of her life for my fancied fortune that has
+taken wings. It was my blunder. And I want to say
+that I have taken up my old friendship for Jack Darcy,
+come back to the truth that money is one of the incidental
+surroundings of the man, but it can never be the man
+himself."</p>
+
+<p>Irene's haughty lip curled, but no one openly gainsaid
+Fred.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> winter was a rather open one, with but little snow.
+Matters were somewhat better in Yerbury, but bad enough,
+Sylvie Barry thought. The churches began their usual
+work,&mdash;parish aids, clothing-clubs, and sewing-societies.
+It was as she said: they begged from the rich to give to
+the poor. Women met to make or to alter over garments,
+and devise means to render the poor more comfortable.
+There were so many miserable homes, so many inefficient
+wives and mothers, who were ignorant of the commonest
+principles of economy. They could live on meal-mush,
+they could go in rags, but the science of thrift was utterly
+unknown in many instances.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie had done her share of church work as a growing
+maiden. Every year there had been some mission, and a
+sewing-school.</p>
+
+<p>"And yet it doesn't seem to do much good," said she.
+"The girls learn to hem a handkerchief, which a sewing-machine
+can do in ten seconds: they sew a few patches
+together, and perhaps make an apron. By the next winter
+they have forgotten all about it. And some of their
+mothers do not seem to care."</p>
+
+<p>"The mothers need educating," Miss Morgan began,
+with a decisive nod of the head. "They were married
+out of shops and factories, and know very little, and have
+brought up their children to know less. I'm not one of
+the kind who can see no good in the world's progress,
+and who want to go back to the days of spinning-wheels,
+wax polish for tables and chairs, and a day spent every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
+week scouring the brass andirons and candlesticks and
+door-knobs, and various other matters; but I do think we
+have gone to the other extreme. Women dawdle away
+half their lives. It is of no use to make clothes, you can
+buy them cheaper; it is of no use to mend, to do this or
+that, and so they do nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"I was struck with a contrast I saw yesterday," returned
+Sylvie. "I had occasion to go to the Webbers,&mdash;you
+know the little cottage on Alden Street, Miss
+Morgan, where they always have such pretty flowers in
+the window. Mr. Webber works at satchel-making, and
+even in good times did not earn very high wages. They
+have a garden, in which they raise the most wonderful
+succession of crops; they keep some chickens, which
+they manage to have laying most of the time; and they
+have five children. It was quite late in the afternoon.
+Mrs. Webber sat by the window, making lace, on a
+cushion, at which she realizes about a dollar a week;
+Christine, the eldest girl, who still goes to school, was
+crocheting a baby's hood,&mdash;she does a good deal of work
+for Mrs. Burnett's fancy-store, and yet is a very smart
+scholar; Amelie, the next one, was darning the stockings;
+the boy, who comes third, was out-doors, tidying up the
+chicken-house; and the two little girls were in the corner,
+cutting and sewing patchwork, with a doll in the cradle between
+them. The house is always clean, the children are
+well and rosy, and play about a good deal, and Christine
+last year earned thirty dollars. Her mother puts half the
+money she earns in the bank for her marriage-portion. I
+was so glad it wasn't in Yerbury Bank! You wouldn't
+believe, that, though she is not quite sixteen, she has
+almost a hundred dollars saved up. And I must tell you,
+also, there was a most savory smell of the supper cooking.
+Altogether, it was so tidy and thrifty, with the clean,
+bright, and not unpretty faces, that I thought it would
+make a charming 'interior,' if only some Dutch artist could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+do justice to it in his minute, pains-taking way. Then I
+went to the Coles, who live around in the next street.
+The gate was off its hinges, and the two big boys were
+firing stones from the street at a post in the yard. They
+were ragged and dirty. I went in the house, and found
+the mother and the two girls in the sitting-room. I do
+not believe there was a piece of furniture whole, and every
+thing was dusty and shabby, with that close smell some
+people always have in their houses. Mrs. Cole sat by the
+window, in a listless manner, doing nothing. Martha had
+her baby on her lap, asleep, in a soiled and ragged dress,
+while she was reading; the little girl, who is about twelve,
+was cutting up some pretty pieces of silk into nothing,
+that I could see, but a general litter over the table. The
+kitchen looked dreadful. I had some baby-dresses for
+Martha, that Mrs. Kent gave me: so I unrolled my
+bundle, and displayed them. 'Oh,' said she, 'they are
+long, aren't they! and I've just put my baby in short
+dresses.' If you could have heard the kind of helpless,
+dissatisfied tone in which it was uttered! I had half a
+mind to bundle them up, and take them back. 'You
+can shorten them,' I answered, 'and some of them will
+make two dresses.' 'Yes,' she answered reluctantly,
+'only I should want something for yokes and sleeves.'
+Then her mother came to inspect them, and she was
+rather more gracious. But I could not help contrasting the
+two families. Mr. Cole is a carpenter, and has earned very
+good wages. Martha ran a machine in the shoe-shop,
+bought a melodeon, and took two or three quarters' music-lessons;
+purchased a very handsome set of amethyst jewelry
+and two pretty silk dresses when she was married.
+And in the two years of her married life, her husband has
+done next to nothing, although he is a steady, pleasant
+fellow. Now he is at Pittsburg, earning just enough to
+pay his own board. She has her sewing-machine, but she
+doesn't know how to make any kind of garment decently.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+When they had money they bought every thing ready-made.
+She paid Miss Gilman twenty-two dollars to make
+her two silk dresses. If she had put one of them in some
+plain, simple garments, how much more serviceable it
+would have proved!"</p>
+
+<p>"Such people are hardly worth helping," Miss Morgan
+said sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it a faulty system that makes them so?" asked
+Sylvie, drawing her brows into a little, perplexed frown.
+"Martha worked for two years, and earned a good deal
+of money. At one time she made ten dollars a week. It
+was just one thing,&mdash;fine stitching on shoes,&mdash;yet one
+would think she would understand a sewing-machine so
+completely that she could do any thing with it. But she
+actually hired part of her baby's wardrobe made; and
+the dresses she bought,&mdash;cheap coarse-trimmed things,
+I should have been ashamed of. Christine Webber wants
+to study for a teacher; and, as there is so little for girls to
+do, I think she will. She will make wiser investments of
+her money than Martha Cole, and think of the kind of
+wife her husband will get!"</p>
+
+<p>"The era of prosperity was too much for some people,"
+said Mrs. Darcy, with her motherly smile. "I used to
+wonder six or seven years ago, how it was that so many
+middle-class people could afford a servant, or fancy they
+needed one. A little more time spent in household duties
+would not have injured the women; and, if they had accustomed
+the children to take a part, it would have been much
+better for them. Then so much sewing was hired; and,
+although the income looked large, the expenditures swallowed
+it all up, and no one was any better off. How few
+had any stock of underclothing, bed-linen, or useful and
+durable articles!"</p>
+
+<p>"Industry must come around in the fashion again.
+Even the despised patchwork doubtless had its uses. It
+taught children to sew, and to manage economically. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
+remember that I once had three quilts on hand at one
+time. The larger pieces went into the first, and so on.
+My last one was a very pretty little thing, and I saved all
+the scraps for it. Yet we often hear people laugh about
+the folly of cutting calico into bits to sew together again.
+Why should it not be considered honorable and respectable
+to put every thing to the best use?" and Miss
+Morgan glanced up with a confidence no one could gainsay.</p>
+
+<p>"That is the grand secret," cried Sylvie,&mdash;"making
+economy honorable. You never see the nice old families
+flaunting their best silk and their point-laces on ordinary
+occasions. Something is kept sacred. And I do think
+there is more real economy among them, than among
+those who absolutely have a need for it. If wastefulness
+could once come to be considered a sin of ostentation
+and low-breeding, it would not have so many followers.
+Some people do it because they are afraid of being
+thought mean; but if they could be trained to that bravery
+of spirit that makes a work of beauty out of the poorest
+and smallest things because they are well done, and fitting
+to the place and season"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Bravo!" said a laughing voice as the door opened.
+"Mrs. Darcy, when the committee of ways and means
+have worn out your carpet by their frequent meetings in
+your charmed temple, you must insist upon their buying
+you a new one. Good-morning, ladies! Miss Barry, I
+set out to find you; and your aunt fancied you would be
+here, the place of all waifs and strays. I want you and
+Miss Morgan to go and inspect a room, or rather two
+rooms, to see if they will answer our purpose. Mrs. Lane
+had a school there."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know the place!" began Sylvie eagerly, buttoning
+up her sack again, and looking smilingly in Dr.
+Maverick's face, that had a sparkling wholesomeness born
+of the fresh air and brisk walk. And whenever he caught<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+her eye with this light in it, so friendly and earnest, a
+thrill sped through his veins.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Morgan was soon ready, and the three started.
+The place was only a few squares away, in a block of
+buildings where the stores on the lower floor stood empty;
+indeed, some of them had never been rented. Up-stairs
+there was one large room with three front windows, and a
+smaller room at the back with a fireplace, sink and water,
+and a large closet.</p>
+
+<p>"I have had the offer of this place rent free until
+spring," began the doctor. "I have also collected fifty
+dollars in money and provisions,&mdash;<i>imprimis</i>, one barrel
+of flour, one box of miscellaneous packages, rice, barley,
+corn-starch, &amp;c.,&mdash;and a second-hand range that will be
+put up as soon as you decide. In return for my arduous
+exertion and great benevolence, I shall call upon you now
+and then for meals or delicacies for my sick and famishing."</p>
+
+<p>"You are just magnificent!" declared Sylvie, in breathless
+pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"I am desirous of getting this experiment started; and,
+since we shall have to help the poor and needy this winter,
+I shall put my gifts into this. Now you must consider
+what you want for furnishing. Biddy McKim is to work
+out a doctor's bill cleaning the place; Ward Collins will
+let you have ten dollars' worth of house-furnishing goods
+on another bill. I am going to look up all my bad debts to
+start you two women in business!" and he laughed gayly.</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," said Miss Morgan, while Sylvie's face
+was still blending pleasure and astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"We are going to reform Yerbury, you see. The parsons
+tried their hands last winter; and, though there was
+need enough of spiritual food, there's something else required
+as well, while we are here in the body. You think
+the rooms will do? I want you to put a large table in
+that one,"&mdash;indicating the larger with his head,&mdash;"and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+we'll get two or three long benches, and have a tea-party
+now and then. Well, Miss Morgan, now you may take
+the floor. I see a crowd of ideas in your face."</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to propose that when the place is cleaned,
+both floors shall be painted to begin with. Then a simple
+mopping up will keep them bright and fresh. Some idle
+half-grown boys can do it, I am sure; or I can do it myself&mdash;it
+would not be the first time."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll look over my accounts, and levy on some delinquent,"
+said the doctor. "I like that idea."</p>
+
+<p>"Can we make out a list now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course. Put down about all the things you
+will be likely to need, and I will have them sent if they
+do over run the account. Biddy will come to-morrow, and
+clean. Now, you can hardly have the school open every
+day unless you get more assistance, so I think I should
+take it at first two days in the week."</p>
+
+<p>"A very good suggestion," replied Miss Morgan.</p>
+
+<p>"It might not be sufficiently attended to warrant more
+than that. My experience has been that nearly every
+housekeeper considers herself a finished cook."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick laughed.</p>
+
+<p>They discussed necessary articles of kitchen paraphernalia,
+and finally walked down to Collins's store, and made
+their selection. Early the next morning Bridget McKim
+was on the spot: the place was cleaned, the stove put in
+place, the floor given one good coat of paint. Two days
+after, the second one was added. Sylvie drew up a code
+of regulations. The school would be open Tuesday and
+Friday, all day. The dinner would be cooked and eaten;
+the baking, and whatever was left over, divided among
+the scholars to take home. Miss Morgan was elected
+president, Miss Barry vice-president, a secretary, a treasurer,
+and two in an advisory board. At each session two
+ladies were to be present, and give instruction.</p>
+
+<p>Invitations were sent to all likely to be interested. Dr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+Maverick used his strong influence wisely. The idea
+amused some, others wondered how ladies like Miss Barry
+knew about cooking and economy.</p>
+
+<p>"Let her undertake to live on the money we common
+folk have, and she'll see!" exclaimed Mrs. Stixon.
+"Our kind don't want to learn fussin' and fixin' of puddens
+and pies and such like! Good for us if we can get
+a mess of biled potatoes and bacon. My gals'll get along
+athout any such larnin'."</p>
+
+<p>They opened one Friday morning with seven pupils; a
+discouraging number, Sylvie thought, when she saw the
+spacious room and the nice preparations. The bashful
+girls sat in a little huddle, looking very much as if they
+were afraid of being laughed at.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Morgan was equal to the occasion. She made a
+short, sensible address, and hoped the girls who were
+present would interest not only their companions, but their
+mothers and friends. Then she questioned them a little.
+Had they ever boiled potatoes?</p>
+
+<p>At this they all laughed a little foolishly, and looked as
+if the art of boiling potatoes was held in rather low
+esteem.</p>
+
+<p>"The dinner for the day," announced Miss Morgan,
+"will be boiled potatoes, broiled steak, and corn-muffins.
+Which of you girls would like to try the muffins?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never heerd of such a thing," said one girl timidly.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie pleasantly corrected the speaker.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you may try," said Miss Morgan. "First,
+read this recipe aloud."</p>
+
+<p>Mary Moran stumbled through it, partly owing to
+ignorance, and the rest to feeling very much abashed.</p>
+
+<p>"Please go through it again, Mary," said Sylvie, in
+an encouraging tone.</p>
+
+<p>This time she did much better.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you may prepare the table and the dishes, and
+one of the girls may measure the meal and the flour. Put<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
+the ingredients in this dish&mdash;so. Keep your mind on the
+recipe. What comes next?"</p>
+
+<p>Mary was quite awkward. Miss Morgan corrected the
+slightest mistake. The other girls stood around in wondering
+amusement, and now and then a little titter broke
+out. But Mary went on, gaining courage. The tins had
+been set on the stove, now a bit of butter was put in each
+one, and stirred around, then the dough dropped in. This
+was quite entertaining.</p>
+
+<p>"What did I say about the oven?" queried Miss
+Morgan.</p>
+
+<p>The class looked aghast a moment, then one girl said
+quickly, "That the oven-door must be hot enough to
+hiss."</p>
+
+<p>"Right. Try it and see."</p>
+
+<p>It was in the proper condition. Mary slipped in the
+two trays of pans, shutting up the door. "To look at
+them, and turn them around in twelve minutes, and in
+twelve more to try them with a whisk," were the final
+directions.</p>
+
+<p>The potatoes were brought out next. Miss Morgan
+asked each girl to pare one, which they did in various
+uncouth ways. One girl cut off the skin in square bits,
+leaving a figure that would have distracted a geometrician;
+another ran round it rapidly, leaving in all the eyes;
+and out of the six potatoes there was but one neat and
+shapely. Miss Morgan held it up.</p>
+
+<p>"There is an art in so slight a thing as peeling a
+potato," said she. "It is very wasteful to cut it away
+in this manner, or this, and careless to leave in the eyes.
+Now each of you may pare another."</p>
+
+<p>The second attempt was a great improvement. They
+were put on to boil; one girl was detailed to watch them,
+another to prepare the steak, while a third arranged the
+dinner-table in the kitchen, as the family was to be so
+small. Mary looked after her corn-muffins. They had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
+risen up like little pound-cakes, and a glad smile illumined
+her rather stolid face.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie had brought a bit of tatting along, and now took
+it out.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how beautiful, Miss Barry!" exclaimed Kitty
+Miles. "I can do just the plain little scallop; but I
+never could get these other jiggers!"</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie laughed, "I believe they have a name beside
+'jiggers,'" in an odd, half-inquiring tone.</p>
+
+<p>"O Miss Barry, we girls can't talk nice like you!"
+and Kitty blushed.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why you cannot with taking a little pains.
+All words that are not names, and 'what-you-may-call-it,'
+and 'Mrs. Thingumby,' and such expressions, are the result
+of carelessness. If any thing has a name, that is
+the proper word to be used; and by being watchful one
+comes presently to talk in a lady-like manner. Now I
+will show you about these."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my muffins!" cried Mary, rushing to the stove.
+They were quite brown. She tried them with the whisk.</p>
+
+<p>"Some stick a little bit, Miss Morgan."</p>
+
+<p>"Push the pan back to the other side. Indian requires
+very thorough cooking or baking, or it will be
+soggy, and have a moist and not agreeable taste. Try
+your potatoes now."</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments they were done, and Kitty Miles
+undertook the steak. Mary let her muffins stand a
+moment or two, then turned them out. Two or three
+stuck fast, and broke: the rest were a perfect success.
+She was delighted beyond measure. They had no tea or
+coffee, but they gathered around the table, and enjoyed
+the meal very heartily. Sylvie desired them to ask any
+questions they liked; and by the time they were through,
+their awe of Miss Morgan had quite vanished.</p>
+
+<p>Afterward followed dish-washing. This was made
+quite a science, as well. They had hardly finished when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+Mrs. Miles and a neighbor came in, and through the
+course of the afternoon the numbers doubled. Mary
+begged that they might make some muffins to take
+home: Miss Morgan assented, and the girls had quite a
+gay time. But the oven was not precisely right.</p>
+
+<p>"Open the draughts a little. Although not so hot, the
+oven is very steady now. Close the draughts in five
+minutes."</p>
+
+<p>Mary forgot, and the result was that some at one end
+were a little burned.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, they're elegant!" exclaimed Mrs. Miles.
+"And what a cheap, hearty supper they'd make, when
+one has three hungry boys to feed! Mrs. Stixon, now,
+was thinking you'd go into all the fancy branches. I
+didn't know ladies ever"&mdash;and Mrs. Miles paused suddenly,
+her face scarlet.</p>
+
+<p>"Ever had occasion to practise economy!" cried
+Sylvie with her piquant smile. "They do a great deal
+of it, Mrs. Miles. My aunt would no sooner think of
+being wasteful in her kitchen than she would of wearing
+her velvet dress out on a rainy day. There is a neat,
+pretty, tasteful method about these things, that is as much
+of an art in its way as painting a picture, and in some
+respects a more important one, for the health of the body
+depends upon well-cooked food."</p>
+
+<p>"Since Kitty's nothing much to do, I mean to have her
+come every time. I'm sure you ladies are very good to
+take so much pains."</p>
+
+<p>The other officers dropped in. The cost of the materials
+used was ascertained, minutes of the session made,
+and a recipe for corn-muffins given to each girl. It was
+decided to attempt biscuit on the following Tuesday, and
+on the next meeting, bread. Then the fire was pretty
+well poked out, the stove-lids raised, and the class went
+home in an extremely interested spirit.</p>
+
+<p>Just as Sylvie and Miss Morgan had turned the corner,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+they caught sight of Dr. Maverick, who crossed the street
+to speak. Sylvie described their day with a few graphic
+touches, interspersed with much genuine mirth.</p>
+
+<p>"Some people were afraid to come," said he. "Before
+a month you will have your hands full."</p>
+
+<p>Sure enough, on Tuesday there were fifteen scholars.
+Miss Morgan and Sylvie had hardly a moment to spare
+until the dinner was through. Then the latter proposed
+that every scholar should bring some sewing, garments
+they wished cut out, any thing that perplexed them, or
+whatever they would like most to learn.</p>
+
+<p>All days were not so fortunate. Occasionally some dish
+would be spoiled by haste, carelessness, or want of attention.
+There were burned fingers and divers cuts; but
+Miss Morgan patiently explained her deft, neat, labor-saving
+methods. There began to be a great interest;
+some of the mothers coming in for an hour, or bringing a
+special dish to cook. Sylvie discussed the relative value
+and nourishment of different articles, the many changes
+that could be made at slight expense, the saving that a
+little carefulness brought about. She gave brief lectures
+on cleanliness, order, taste, and neatness; the right way
+and the wrong way of doing many things, the giving out
+and the taking in; the art of making the best, not only in
+such times as these, but in all times; of being brave and
+true in the lowest and smallest of life's duties; of throwing
+out false pride and shams, and the desire to appear
+richer or grander than one's means would allow.</p>
+
+<p>Then the last half-hour they had what Miss Morgan
+called an inquiry-meeting. Everybody was at liberty to
+ask one question, and those who knew answered it to the
+best of their ability. New teachers were pressed into the
+service. Dr. Maverick gave them a talk on health, and
+another on preparing food for the sick, and the special
+care some diseases required. And Jack Darcy proposed
+that Christmas Eve the cooking-school should give a supper,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+the tickets being at the low price of twenty-five cents.
+Every dish was to be cooked by the scholars.</p>
+
+<p>It created a deal of excitement. Hard as times were,
+the tickets sold rapidly. The large room had two long
+tables, with benches for seats. The first table was to be
+served at eight o'clock, the second at nine. Sylvie made
+a dozen of the girls pretty Suisse aprons and dainty caps,
+and they waited on the guests. Dr. Maverick offered
+three prizes,&mdash;one for the best loaf of bread, one for the
+best plain cake, and a third for the nicest and cheapest
+invalid broth.</p>
+
+<p>The room was full, and they had a very gay time. Indeed,
+it seemed as if half Yerbury turned out, either
+from honor or curiosity. At nine o'clock they ran short
+of provision, when they honorably decided to refund the
+money for all tickets offered after that, and explain to
+new-comers the state of affairs. But some of the young
+men proposed a dance; and they went on for the next
+two hours in hearty, healthy jollity.</p>
+
+<p>Out of ten loaves of bread offered, Mary Moran took
+the prize. That for the cake was awarded to quite a new
+scholar; while Kitty Miles carried off that for broth, three
+doctors concurring in the decision. And the treasurer
+found they had cleared fifty dollars above expenses, so
+that it proved a success in more ways than one. There
+had been a great dearth of amusement for the poorer
+classes in Yerbury this winter.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, it was just splendid!" said Bridget McKim.
+"My boy Mike had a week's wages in his pocket that
+night, and he was goin' off to the Ivy Leaf to raffle for a
+turkey; an' ses I, 'Mike, ye niver took me out of a Christmas,
+so do it now along o' the cookin' school party, an'
+ye'll get the best bit o' turkey yes ever put in yer mouth.'
+An' so he did; an' he said it was the best show he iver was
+to, and he wouldn't 'a' missed seein' Mary Moran get the
+prize fur twice the money. An' so he went home with me,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
+ye see, as sober as an owl, and we bought our own turkey;
+but if he'd gone to the tavern, not a cint would he had of
+his week's wages, and been drunk beside! An' he used
+to be swate on Mary too, so there's no knowin' what may
+happen!"</p>
+
+<p>The school took a fortnight's vacation. Sylvie and
+Miss Morgan felt that it was no longer an experiment.
+It would be put to wider uses, and perhaps was the corner-stone
+of a great work, sorely needed in this world;
+the same kind of work Jack Darcy had begun over in the
+mill yonder,&mdash;planting beacon-lights on the path where
+so many had stumbled and gone down for want of true
+and honest guidance.</p>
+
+<p>"It will have to be remodelled somewhat," said Miss
+Morgan. "I can't have you working like a slave, even
+if it is in a good cause. There is something still higher
+for you."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">After</span> the first of January it came off bitterly cold.
+Coal went up half a dollar on a ton; and flour rose,
+more by the greed of speculators than any scarcity, or
+any demand for it abroad. There was considerable suffering,
+though not as much as the winter before. The men
+and women and boys and girls at Hope Mills were thankful
+enough for their seventy-five per cent, and did their
+very best. A spirit of economy and emulation ran
+through the whole brotherhood. Every month Cameron
+announced whatever saving had been made in different
+departments, and the hands were proud enough of it.
+Those who had taken their whole winter's coal out of the
+share were quite jubilant. Once a week the workmen had
+a meeting, and discussed matters a little. Three men had
+been reprimanded, but on the whole the <i>morale</i> was excellent.
+Winston was on the alert continually, east, west,
+anywhere, buying here, selling there, seeing in every thing
+the promise of better times.</p>
+
+<p>"We've reached the last ditch as surely as they did in
+the war," he said to Darcy, rubbing his hands in great
+glee. "I tell you, old chap, it was a lucky thought of
+starting just as we did. You see, we shall come up with
+the good times; for I do honestly believe the worst is
+over."</p>
+
+<p>Jack smiled, but was not so sanguine. They had only
+gone such a little way on the five-years' journey. But
+there were some very encouraging rays right around them.
+Kit Connelly's coffee-house was working to a charm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>.
+Jack began to think that drinking liquors was not so
+much a besetting sin, as a natural sequence of having
+nothing else to drink when you were cold or hot, or tired
+or hungry. The men fell into the habit of going to Kit's
+for their midday lunch, and presently some of the women
+went over. The room was so bright and pleasant; and,
+with Miss Rose there, they were on their best behavior.
+In the evening Mrs. Connelly brought her work, and sat
+by the desk. Some of the younger men, who had no
+homes; as one may say, dropped in, and looked over the
+books. Once two young chaps had come up from Keppler's
+to have a little fun, as they said, and were rather
+noisy. Mrs. Connelly rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," she said, "you forget yourselves. This
+is an orderly, quiet house, not a tavern. If you cannot
+submit to the rules, you must leave it."</p>
+
+<p>"Leave it! Come, who'll put us out!" laughed the
+bully. "Let's see you try," with an insolent leer at the
+lady.</p>
+
+<p>Two men were sitting at a table just a little back of
+them. Their eyes met. Both rose; and, each seizing a
+shoulder of the bully, he was marched out before he could
+make the slightest resistance, his companion looking on
+in amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Next time you insult a lady in her own house, you
+will not get off so easily! Just bear that in mind."</p>
+
+<p>The fellow uttered an oath, but the door was shut in his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, John Kelly, and you, Ben Hay," said
+Mrs. Connelly, in a brave voice, though her heart fluttered
+a little.</p>
+
+<p>The other young ruffian rose, and walked out quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"If you didn't mind, Ben Hay," she said, an hour or
+so after, as they were shutting up for the night, "I'd
+like to have you drop in quite often of an evening. The
+boys are hardly big enough if we should ever be beset by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>
+such scamps as that, and you've always been so friendly-like."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Ben, flushing, and casting a sheepish
+look at the desk, where Rose's curly head was bent over
+her accounts. "Yes, I'm at your service. It's enough
+sight cheerfuller here than in Mother Mitchell's boarding-house.
+I'll be glad to come."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry heard of this, and told it over to Jack.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben Hay is a good, plucky fellow. He used to go
+down at noon for beer, but I do not think he has been
+since the coffee-house was opened. Sylvie, do you know,
+I believe reformers in general would be more successful if
+they put a good and pleasant thing in the place of the
+evil they assail. Too often they leave their convert to
+pick his way alone. Hay is very much interested in the
+plans of the mill. The meetings have done this much
+already,&mdash;a spirit of inquiry has been awakened in some
+of the men, and they are reading up what other people
+have achieved in this line. I want them to get well
+grounded before there comes any strain. We can't go
+on prospering forever. That would be too much like
+fairy-land."</p>
+
+<p>"But every one thinks the panic nearly at an end,"
+and Sylvie studied the grave face before her.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not want to croak," and Jack gave a little laugh
+that sounded forced, "but we have just begun to pay off
+our debts. Every city and town, and nearly every individual,
+is in debt. If we could pay with promises to pay,
+we might tide over a while longer; but when interest
+reaches a certain point, it swallows capital. If we can
+meet our indebtedness everywhere, as fast as it matures,
+well and good: if not, then we have only nibbled at the
+crust of our bitter pie."</p>
+
+<p>"Anyhow," cried Sylvie, with the woman's sanguine
+nature, "Yerbury is a great deal better off than it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
+last winter. Every one admits there is much less suffering."</p>
+
+<p>"There is more employment, and no broken bank,"
+with a cheerful smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know," said the young girl presently, while a
+faint color went wandering over her fair face, "that they
+are doing a marvellous stroke of business at Garafield's,
+even if the times are bad? Mrs. Garafield was down to
+tea a few evenings since, and she was greatly encouraged.
+There is such a rage about the new style of papering.
+Everybody has run mad on dados and friezes, and fresco
+patterns, bordering, and harmonies of color," laughingly.
+"And they have some wonderful new designs."</p>
+
+<p>"Fred is in just the right place. If he has courage
+to fight through," and there came a curious, almost foreboding
+expression in the sympathetic eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"You care a good deal for him, Jack! And yet he
+did not use you nobly," with a peculiar regret in the tone.
+"It is the one thing"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie, if I forgave it, surely you can." Then he
+turned his eyes upon her, and read or rather dreamed of
+something in a dim, dazed way, the story of a bygone
+summer. Had it been more to her than any one thought?
+Miss Barry had hinted to his mother that Sylvie's decision
+in the matter was a great disappointment to her. There
+had been a decision, then, and one adverse to Fred Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>"I hate a false and cowardly man!" her cheeks were
+flaming now. "And when you were schoolboys together,&mdash;when
+Agatha and Gertrude were so afraid he would
+lower himself if he looked at any boy below his own
+social position,&mdash;he used to stand up for you,&mdash;yes,
+he did,&mdash;and fight; of course not in a brutal way with
+fists," and she laughed at her own conceit, "but in that
+higher, finer manner, with no shield or weapon save his
+love for you. I used to like to see you together,&mdash;you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
+so sturdy and manful and true, and he delicate and handsome
+and adoring. And then"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie, I wonder if a woman can understand a man's
+friendship. We never had any quarrel. We just drifted
+apart. I don't believe we forgot each other. Circumstances
+took him out of my sphere, into a new one. If I
+had been there in college, going along with him step by
+step, don't you suppose he would have stood up for me in
+the face of his fine friends, just as he used to with his
+sisters?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so: I would like to believe it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am more just to him than you, Sylvie," said Jack, a
+little wounded. "I <i>know</i> it. I don't doubt it any more
+than I doubt&mdash;well, myself. He might have come&mdash;I
+was always sorry to see him avoid me, and I think he was
+weak, but he never forgot."</p>
+
+<p>"He <i>was</i> weak, he was worse, Jack." There was a
+curious cry of anguish in her voice, and her shoulders
+swayed unconsciously, while her eyes looked out on the
+summer night he could not see.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't get so excited over it, Sylvie," and the pleasant,
+cheery laugh seemed to bring healing on its wings.
+"Whatever it was, and we will let all that go, he made
+the <i>amende honorable</i> the night we had tea together up
+there in the great house. We took up our friendship just
+where it had dropped. Men never go over those crooked
+and thorny steps of the past, they have so much work to
+do in the present and the future. I wanted then to make
+a position for him in the mill; but it was not possible, and
+would not have been the part of wisdom under <i>any</i> circumstances.
+Yet it seemed as if I had stepped in his
+place. I was glad to hear of this other, though Fred
+would have been happier elsewhere. Sylvie, I do not
+believe you realize what it cost him to come back to Yerbury,
+to walk about, a working-man, where he had driven
+in his carriage. So down at the bottom there is the temper
+of the real blue steel, which <i>can</i> bend."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How generous you are, Jack!" There was something
+more than admiration in her tone, and yet she was wondering
+if she could ever forgive her fallen hero.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Sylvie, I don't mean to question any one's
+religion, but I've often thought about the rejoicing up
+above, over the one who went astray. I do not believe we
+rejoice with a very full heart: maybe we are not heavenly
+enough. We can never be sure of our own strength until
+some far-reaching test is applied, and yet it may not be
+an entirely true test. It may quiver about the weak spot
+in our souls; but, while there is any feeling, one cannot be
+entirely lost. That is why I say he never forgot. And
+you and I ought to rejoice that he <i>did</i> come back instead
+of going off in that gloomy, diseased, Manfred style, and
+upbraiding the world. 'Whatever his hand found to do'&mdash;that
+was one of grandmother's texts, and he went
+bravely at it."</p>
+
+<p>"I do believe you are a better Christian than I," she
+answered softly, her eyes limpid with emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"No. Perhaps not even a better friend;" and a smile
+played about his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"A truer friend, a more generous one"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What were we talking of?" in a sudden change of
+tone. "Oh, the business at Garafield's! Fred is a good
+deal of an artist, an intellectual artist I should say; and,
+though he may not attain to fame by painting pictures,
+there are many other points coming to be appreciated.
+He is in the way for usefulness; and, if he wins the bays
+for beauty as well, I am sure we shall all rejoice. I heard
+he had been designing."</p>
+
+<p>"You hear every thing." Sylvie made a capricious
+little <i>moue</i>. Her nods and gestures were so much a part
+of her, so piquant, decisive, and full of expression, when
+she did not intrench herself behind a studied dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you have heard it. I was wondering how
+best to tell you. I thought Garafield's might be a stepping-stone,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
+these hard times, but it may prove the veritable
+ladder itself. Only"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" with a trifle of impatience, as if she could
+not endure the suggestiveness of the tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if you understand the courage it took for
+Fred Lawrence to make a home here in Yerbury, to bring
+his mother and sister; for you see he must endure for them
+as well as himself. Mrs. Lawrence will always be an
+invalid, I suppose. He thinks her quite changed and
+softened: evidently she clings to him. They see none of
+their old friends. Miss Lawrence never goes anywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"As if one could help that!" almost passionately.
+"Auntie wrote a note to Mrs. Lawrence, and it was merely
+answered. They do not desire to receive any one. We
+can only let them alone, Jack."</p>
+
+<p>"Even then we can hardly fail to appreciate what he is
+doing, possibly suffering. I think he will come in time to
+win back all the regard his friends ever gave him," Jack
+Darcy said in a steady tone.</p>
+
+<p>Was he pleading for him? Sylvie was somewhat puzzled,
+the most so, perhaps, about herself. How much had
+she cared for Fred in that old time? If not at all, why
+did this feeling of shame over a fallen idol continually
+haunt her? She compared the two men in every thing,
+and sometimes was vexed to admit that Jack was the
+nobler.</p>
+
+<p>Their walk had come to an end. They paused at the
+gate; and a third person striding up Larch Avenue took
+in the drooping, attentive, and pliant figure, the strong,
+protecting, powerful personality of the other,&mdash;and wondered,
+as he had more than once before. Were they
+friends merely? It was not possible for a woman to see
+so much of Jack Darcy's noble, manly life, and not admire,
+not love, Dr. Maverick admitted. She showed in
+many ways that she did care for him. Oddly enough she
+sheltered herself under his friendly care when other admirers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
+came too near. Could not Darcy see! What a
+blind, stupid mole he must be in this respect! and the
+doctor kicked a stone in his path with such force that the
+two turned in the midst of their good-bys, and waited with
+smiling faces for him to reach them. Not a shade of
+annoyance in look or tone at the interruption.</p>
+
+<p>"The queerest lovers," he thought to himself. "If I
+stood in that man's place"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Jack went homeward in a curiously speculative mood.
+He has always fancied for Sylvie some handsome, spirited
+knight, whose mental intuitions would be as delicate and
+refined as hers, whose enjoyment as intense. Little as he
+knew of love, he understood their friendship too thoroughly
+to be betrayed into any mistake. And he wondered
+now if he held the key to Sylvie's spiritual enfranchisement
+of all other men? If she had not loved Fred Lawrence,
+she had come too dangerously near it ever to free
+herself entirely from whatever thrall his soul had thrown
+over hers. She <i>had</i> been disappointed in him, he read
+that from her tone; but surely, if he brought himself up
+to a finer and truer standard than any known in that enervating
+atmosphere of luxury, would she still be implacable?
+How could he best serve these two people, whom he
+loved so entirety?</p>
+
+<p>He had many other things to busy himself about beside
+love and friendship. March came on apace, and the
+balance-sheet for the six months had to be put in shape.
+The accounts had been systematically kept: that he had
+insisted upon in the beginning. Cameron knew every
+gallon of oil, every pound of wool, every penny spent for
+repairs and stock; Hurd and Yardley had kept account
+of every yard of cloth, and what quality, that had passed
+through their hands; Winston, of travelling, advertising,
+commissions, &amp;c.; and Jack went over every thing. They
+had done wonderfully. There was actually a balance of
+profit to every man, woman, and child. The forms were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>
+printed, and distributed to every employee, and there was
+a great rejoicing time. They engaged the Cooking Club
+to provide them a supper, and the young people had a
+merry dance afterward.</p>
+
+<p>"It's hardly safe to halloo until you are out of the
+woods," said some of the solid old men of Yerbury, who
+were living snugly on the interest of government-bonds.
+"Six months is no test at all. Wait until there is a hard
+pull, and you will not be so jubilant."</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered Jack with a humorous twinkle in his
+eye: "it's right to have the rejoicing now, when we have
+fairly earned it. The man who croaks when Providence
+has smiled upon him, deserves the frown; and he who is
+unthankful for small successes hardly has a right to great
+ones. I do not expect all fair sailing, but we will weather
+the storms together."</p>
+
+<p>"It <i>is</i> rather unfortunate," commented another wise-acre.
+"I have observed these wonderful beginnings
+seldom end well. If you should have a run of bad luck
+now, your men will be dissatisfied, and likely blame you
+for not keeping up to that mark. I shouldn't have made
+such a great effort, and then there would have been a
+chance for improvement."</p>
+
+<p>"A new broom sweeps clean, but it <i>will</i> get worn out,"
+with sundry mysterious nods.</p>
+
+<p>"I declare," said Jack to his friend and comforter,
+Maverick, "half the town looks at me as if I must have
+robbed a bank, or falsified accounts, told a lie, or cheated,
+or maybe murdered some rich old don, and made merry
+on his money. Why can't people rejoice with you when
+there is any thing to rejoice about,&mdash;an event which
+does not happen so often in these evil days? I do believe
+Boyd, and a lot of the others, would be glad to see the
+scheme fail; but I'll work night and day to make a success
+of it. It shall not go down," and Jack set his lips
+together in a way that spoke volumes for his resolve.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I have observed before that some people are fond of
+disparaging plans that they have no hand in," returned
+the doctor coolly.</p>
+
+<p>"And philanthropy is a much-derided virtue. If the
+old Athenian had been a stock-broker or a bank-director,
+he might not have been sent into exile, eh?" and Darcy
+laughed good-humoredly. "If I have kept a few people
+from starvation this winter, I ought surely to have as
+much credit as to have dealt around alms. As for the
+success, we had the reputation of Hope Mills in our favor,
+and every man had his own fortune at stake, and brought
+out the best that was in him."</p>
+
+<p>He sent Miss McLeod her half-yearly rent, a copy of
+the statement, and a very temperate letter. He was quite
+proud to think he had no need of accepting her proffered
+favor, but he thanked her again for it.</p>
+
+<p>She answered promptly. She had shown the statement
+to Mr. Hildreth, and he thought it remarkable. Wasn't
+it a trifle too rose-colored to last? Count on her as a
+friend, if evil days came; and we none of us could tell
+exactly what was in store. The financial horizon was by
+no means clear.</p>
+
+<p>A few others gave him words of heartfelt encouragement.
+The Rev. Mr. Marlow spoke of him in very high
+terms, much to Sylvie's delight, and said already there
+had been a great change in the mill-hands. The coffee-house
+he considered an especially commendable thought.</p>
+
+<p>There was a quiet change going on that was destined to
+bear more abundant fruit in the future. Some of the men
+and women had begun to think a little for themselves.
+The pupils of the cooking-school were beginning the
+A B C of beauty and neatness. Their rooms were swept
+cleaner; their clothes took on a more tidy aspect. With
+the opening spring, gardens and court-yards were cleared
+of their rubbish, and flower-beds flourished again. Sylvie
+gave her girls one very instructive lecture on slips and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
+flower-seeds, and one Saturday they went out to the woods
+for ferns and wild flowers. It was only one little corner,
+to be sure, but it was the leaven that was presently to do
+a wide-spread work.</p>
+
+<p>Hope Mills took up its steady march again. Half a
+dozen new hands were added, though Jack wished that he
+could find employment for some of the poor souls that
+besieged him daily. If times really were coming better,
+if orders only would increase, and he could with safety
+enlarge his borders! But "slow and steady" was his
+motto. He was not one to disparage the present by exaggerating
+the advantages of the future.</p>
+
+<p>There was one home that these cordial little excitements
+never entered. The three souls in it, although they should
+have been very near and dear, wrapped themselves in
+their own thoughts and sorrows, and took no note of their
+fellows.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawrence heeded the outward change least of the
+three. She had her pretty room, her glowing fire in
+winter, her fur slippers, and zephyr shawls; her late
+breakfast in bed, then her luxurious dressing-gown, and
+her books. She had settled herself into the <i>r&ocirc;le</i> of an
+invalid for the remainder of her days. The loss and
+suffering had not taken her out of herself, or raised her
+narrow, vapid nature. She was at once patient and complaining,&mdash;even
+her affection for her son was combined
+with great mental and moral weakness. She was profoundly
+grieved that he should have been compelled to
+accept so unsuitable a position; but to her it was only
+a temporary event. Something <i>must</i> happen. In some
+mysterious way they would come back to their former
+grandeur,&mdash;not that she cared especially, but for the
+sake of Fred and Irene. Then for days she would lose
+herself in the joys and sorrows of her heroines. To such
+people novel-reading is certainly a godsend. A readable
+book was as exhilarating to her as a splendid morning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
+drive or a good deed is to many others. She had society
+without being bored. She had wit, poetry, art, music,
+travels, dinners, and balls, with no worry, no late hours,
+or fatigue.</p>
+
+<p>Irene could not so yield up her personality. She
+brooded over her lot in a haughty, bitter spirit. She uttered
+no complaint,&mdash;she was far too proud for that,&mdash;but
+she took no interest in any thing. Like a melancholy
+ghost she wandered up and down, or sat by the window
+for hours in a listless attitude. There were moments
+when she wished herself Lady Frodsham, times when the
+change and bustle of such a life as that of Mr. Barringer
+would have been heaven itself.</p>
+
+<p>Fred could never persuade her to go anywhere. She
+took no walks, except to pace up and down the garden
+path when the quiet of the house drove her well-nigh
+crazy. Once in a great while she opened the piano, and
+played as if a demon had taken possession of her soul
+and her fingers.</p>
+
+<p>Fred breakfasted early and alone. After a while he
+fell into the habit of taking his lunch in his office, and
+coming home to a late dinner. Martha was certainly the
+perfection of maids. The housekeeping went on with the
+regularity of clockwork: there were no complaints even.
+Fred used to sit in his mother's room until her bedtime,
+when he would go down to the library, and work for an
+hour or two.</p>
+
+<p>The utter dearth of interest would have been terrible to
+him but for his business. At first he preserved a wide
+and punctilious distance between himself and Mr. Garafield.
+He was the employer, to be sure; but then Fred
+Lawrence had a dignity of his own to maintain. One
+day, however, the dignity suffered a collapse. Mr. Garafield
+brought in some new designs, and they lapsed into
+an exceedingly entertaining art discussion. The employer
+had excellent taste, trained and shaped by practical experience:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+Fred possessed the wider mental reach and
+exquisite perception of harmony and color, the sentiment
+of genius.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you not take up the idea, Mr. Lawrence?"
+asked his employer. "House finishing and furnishing is
+fast coming to be a fine art. An intelligent, harmonious
+beauty is demanded. We are leaving behind the complacency
+of mere money in our adornments, and asking for
+something that evinces thought and refinement. I am
+sure you could succeed if you once set about the work."</p>
+
+<p>The compliment touched Fred profoundly, roused him
+to a new venture. He practised his almost lost art of
+designing to some purpose: he wrote two or three art
+essays that happened to find much more favor than his
+abstruse philosophies. After all, he was young, and the
+whole world lay before him. Surely he could carve out
+some kind of fortune. The light of earnest endeavor
+shone in his eyes, the languid step quickened into one
+of courageous elasticity. He had dawdled away years
+enough: he would put a purpose into his manhood, that
+some distant eyes, seeing, might not relegate him entirely
+to the regions of contempt.</p>
+
+<p>"There's quite a good deal in that young Lawrence,"
+declared Phil Maverick decisively. "I was in at Garafield's
+the other evening, and, I must confess, listened to a
+fine art lecture. All about wall-papering, too!" with a
+genial laugh. "What an education that fellow has!
+Couldn't he find any thing to do, that he must drop down
+upon a paper-factory? I am sure I should have made a
+big fight out somewhere in the great world."</p>
+
+<p>"'Beyond the Alps lies Italy,'" quoted Jack. "Not
+on the top, you observe, but perhaps in the valley. I
+wish you would be a little friendly with him, Maverick:
+you couldn't help but like him."</p>
+
+<p>"There is more in him than I gave him credit for. I
+thought at the time of his father's death I had never seen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
+so useless a fine gentleman, with all the stamina educated
+out of him. I had half a mind to turn him over to Aunt
+Jean and Miss Lothrop."</p>
+
+<p>Darcy laughed absently, and Maverick saw that his
+mind had wandered elsewhere. How odd that these two
+should be friends! Maverick could not discern the fine
+bond uniting them.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Summer</span> came on apace. The Cooking Club took a
+vacation, or rather turned into a gardening club, and studied
+the sensible part of botany and floriculture. People
+began to look at the waste land lying about, with envious
+eyes. Here and there some one started a garden, or
+indulged in a flock of chickens. The Webbers traded
+their snug cottage for a place on the outskirts of the town,
+with two acres of ground, which they improved rapidly.
+Men who had sold farms, and spent the money in vain
+business speculations, looked back regretfully, and in
+some instances hired where they had been proprietors.
+There was no money to be realized in farming, but if one
+could even make a living! No one was making money
+but those lucky fellows at Hope Mills. Of course that
+was a bubble, and would burst presently; but doubtless it
+was good while it lasted.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry, Sylvie, and Mrs. Darcy went away to a
+pleasant, quiet seaside resort. Miss Barry appeared to be
+ailing a little. Mrs. Minor so far relented as to invite
+her mother and Irene to spend two months with her at
+Long Branch. Mrs. Lawrence consented, Irene refused
+flatly. "She had no money to spend for dress, and she
+would accept no one's charity," she declared in her
+haughty way. But she could not stay in the house forever:
+so she took long walks over wild country ways,
+angry with the world, herself, and every thing. A fierce-eyed,
+beautiful girl, clinging desperately to her isolation,
+and yet eating out her very heart in loneliness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The time ran on rapidly. September came around.
+Hope Mills did not make as good a report this time.
+Business had been very dull. Sales were next to nothing.
+People did not need much in warm weather, and orders
+were very light. However, several other branches of
+industry in Yerbury improved a trifle. Railroads, stocks,
+and real estate were fast becoming dead speculations: so
+men ventured to put their money warily into business
+again.</p>
+
+<p>But the bottom had not been reached. Early in October
+there was a tremendous failure of an old and well-known
+firm of woollen-manufacturers. The bankrupt stock was
+sold at auction. Then another, and various smaller
+houses. The market was suddenly flooded. No one
+could sell. No one seemed to need new garments of any
+kind. Men wore their old clothes, and shrugged their
+shoulders in a sort of contemptuous content, as if they
+had suddenly found a great charm in a half-worn, shabby
+overcoat. Robert Winston went hither and yon. Not a
+piece or a yard would any one take.</p>
+
+<p>There was a great deal of discussion in various daily
+journals. The business had been overdone again. Foreign
+markets must be found. We could not compete with
+foreign manufacturers. Our wool was inferior, our looms
+were inferior, our men knew so little, and demanded such
+high wages. Then we never could do any thing under
+the present wretched tariff and the skinning system of
+taxation. It took all a man could make. Another sapient
+statesman declared nothing could be done without more
+money. The contraction had been so great that not a man
+could do business. Then came a long list of figures to
+prove what a very little money was left in the country.
+Newspaper war raged, first on this side, then on that.
+If we did this, we would surely be ruined: if we did not,
+then ruin was inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>Jack used to try for some light, no matter how faint.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
+It seemed to him, if the great men at the helm of the
+national ship would set to work vigorously to widen and
+strengthen the commerce of the nation, instead of discussing
+such frivolous issues, prosperity might dawn once
+more. He went over his political economists again, and
+realized sadly that men had always disputed these points,
+and that each writer or prophet was sure his was the only
+creed that would ever save the world, while by following
+any other they would surely go to ruin.</p>
+
+<p>Winston and he took counsel together: then they called
+in Cameron, who looked blue enough.</p>
+
+<p>"Any ordinary factory would shut down for the
+winter," said Winston ruefully; "but that would be to
+confess our scheme a failure. We are piling up goods&mdash;but
+for what&mdash;a grand auction-sale by and by? And the
+men have worked so cheerfully&mdash;no, we can't give up."</p>
+
+<p>"Giving up is out of the question at present," Jack
+answered solemnly, as if he was passing his word at the
+bar. "Our balance at the bank has been expended,
+and we have some notes out that must be cared for in a
+month's time. Wages are falling, and it seems to look
+now as if we were coming back to the era of cheap living.
+The bargain was the ruling rate of wages, you know. I
+think they will have to come down."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not give up beaten," declared Winston. "I'll
+have one more try. Keep up heart, shipmate."</p>
+
+<p>With that Winston started West again. He talked, he
+plead, he offered for the mere cost of production,&mdash;just
+to get the money back would be something. The coal-venture
+of this winter had been much larger, though coal
+was declining, and the profit somewhat less. Everybody
+pared the margin to the mere skin. Winston had a little
+luck, however. Two sales of some note were effected,
+and a barter, that only a man with a shrewd eye for bargains,
+and a glib tongue, could have managed. Flour,
+apples, and potatoes were the stock this time. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
+workmen took them gladly, at a little less than store
+prices. They knew how full the wareroom kept all the
+time.</p>
+
+<p>The first of January, wages were lowered. There was a
+little grumbling among some of the men, but the women
+took it in wiser part. The half-loaf was much better
+than no bread at all. They remembered the dismal year
+when there had been no employment, and stinted food
+purchased on credit. One wouldn't starve with flour and
+potatoes, nor freeze with a full coal-bin.</p>
+
+<p>Hope Mills had exhausted every source,&mdash;had even
+paid a horrible discount, being hard run,&mdash;when Darcy
+wrote to Miss McLeod a true statement of affairs. If
+they could hold out until spring, times might be better.
+They were economizing as they never had before: yet the
+time had come when disaster really stared them in the
+face, unless they could find a true friend.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry had generously offered him her store and
+her credit. Though there had been a time when she withheld
+Sylvie, and fancied Jack Darcy not quite the equal
+of her pretty niece, that time had long gone by. She
+knew now his genuine worth,&mdash;she had tested his integrity.
+Of course Sylvie would drift that way; and so,
+by many delicate turns, she showed Jack that she could
+trust him with any of her treasures.</p>
+
+<p>"You are so good," said the honest fellow, with tears
+in his eyes,&mdash;for he was touched beyond measure. "If
+I can't get through I will gladly accept, unless the prospect
+is so bad that it would be sure to jeopardize any one's
+money. But I hope it will not come to that."</p>
+
+<p>How breathlessly he waited for Miss McLeod's answer!
+The morning's mail did not bring it; night closed in without
+it. A chill drizzle had set in, freezing as it fell, and
+the keen air fairly flayed one's skin. Yet he dreaded to
+go in-doors, to hear his mother's pleasant voice. Cousin
+Jane had been called away by the illness and possible
+death of a relative, so they two were alone.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Darcy saw her son so grave and pre-occupied,
+his eyes sadly pathetic with trouble, mother-like, she
+tried to comfort with the small talk that women often offer,
+and that answers the purpose like bathing one's brow with
+Florida-water in a severe headache. She never mentioned
+business to him when in such moods. Now it was a
+bit of newspaper-gossip, concerning some discoveries in
+Greece, that he and Maverick had been quite eager
+about.</p>
+
+<p>The poor fellow was distraught, and could not listen.
+He ate his supper, choking down the food, for her dear
+sake, missing strangely Cousin Jane's pungency and
+seasoning. Then he tried to interest himself in the
+paper, but could not; he paced the floor softly; he
+whistled a tune, for his mother's benefit also, but broke
+down in the middle.</p>
+
+<p>"I must go out a little while," he declared in desperation.</p>
+
+<p>"Not in this storm," said his mother pleadingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I'll be back by&mdash;ten," looking at the clock.
+"It is too bad to leave you alone," with sudden regret,
+kissing her tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not mind for a while. But this wretched
+storm"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>He laughed, a little strained and forced; then he put
+on his great-coat, almost wishing that every man in the
+country was without, and had to buy one to-morrow. He
+tramped up the street, drawing long respirations, every
+one of which was nearly a sigh. Was this the way Mr.
+Lawrence felt when times went bad? Was some such
+trouble the cause of that fatal disaster? He bowed his
+head in a sort of touching and profound respect to the
+dead man. He experienced an earnest sympathy for all
+struggling capitalists. What did unreasoning labor know
+of such nights as these when every thing, even good name,
+was at stake! He wondered if his mop of curly hair<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
+would turn gray, and then, in a ridiculously trivial mood,
+remembered he must go and have it cropped. As well
+now as any time; but when he reached the barber's, the
+place looked so uninviting, with the smoky kerosene-lamps
+turned low. He did not stop: he used to wonder afterward
+how it would have been if he had, until he came to
+have a sincere and reverent belief in God as the disposer
+of human events, the Hand back of the curtain, that
+guided every step, and kept sacred watch even over two
+sparrows.</p>
+
+<p>He walked down past Maverick's; but half a dozen
+people were in there, so he went on and on to the very
+end of the street, when by the dim light he saw a figure
+in advance of him, a woman, tall and stately, muffled in
+a waterproof and hood. There was something in the
+bearing different from most of the Yerbury women who
+ran out of an evening for a neighborly gossip, or some
+provender for their next morning's breakfast. There
+were no stores in this direction; it was quite lonely;
+perhaps she was going home. It would annoy her to be
+followed, doubtless; and on such a night as this no roughs
+would be abroad in this vicinity.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy was in that nervous state when the brain
+seems rarefied and empowered to wrest secrets from the
+very elements in his path. He pursued several chains of
+thought at once, with lightning rapidity, and, with curious
+mental inconsistency, dropped them, and lapsed into
+others. Now a sudden interest sprang up in this wandering
+traveller. He listened with the wariness of an Indian
+to her step. It had in it the essential principle of flight,
+but a baffled, fruitless longing for escape, rather than a
+nearing to some distant haven or goal. He had not used
+to be so keen in this subtile discrimination, until Maverick
+crossed his path, and helped him out of his psychological
+bondage. And ordinarily his senses had not the electric
+keenness of to-night.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The figure paused. The face seemed to turn to the
+drear, blank sky&mdash;was it in appealing, or a desperate
+daring? an impotent resistance, or a wild, agonizing
+prayer? The hands were thrown up: he had come gradually
+nearer, and could see them, ghostly white in the
+long feeble ray of the distant lamp. What was she deciding
+or asking? A shiver ran over him as the thought of
+suicide entered his brain. At all events, he must not let
+her go to destruction.</p>
+
+<p>Her hands dropped. She took a few slow, irresolute
+steps, then turned and came so quickly, that before he
+could stir or think, she confronted him. A wild face with
+staring eyes, a wilder shriek ringing out on the night air,
+making muffled echoes around, a desperate plunge, and a
+fall. He sprang and essayed to raise her from the half-frozen
+hail-bed of the sidewalk; the hood fell back, and he
+was more than astonished at beholding the face of Irene
+Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>He appeared suddenly to comprehend the whole fact,
+though he came to know afterward that he misjudged her.
+Only a desire to put an end to life and suffering, real or
+fancied, could have brought her out this night, in the
+lonely neighborhood, still, not so far from her own home.
+He must take her back, and then go for Maverick, who
+had become quite a favorite with Mrs. Lawrence, and
+prescribed harmless remedies for her, since she insisted
+she must have them.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy never experienced a more exultant pride in
+his strength than now. He lifted the helpless form, settled
+the swaying head on his broad shoulder, and, clasping the
+body tightly, picked his way through the slippery streets,
+in a manner that would have done credit to an Alp
+climber. Round this corner and that, to the quiet, deserted
+street, where every window was closed, and perhaps
+half the inmates in bed. Only in one house was
+there a sound of life. Some one was playing an accompaniment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>
+for an evening hymn, and youthful voices were
+singing. Two lines floated out as he passed, making a
+kind of glow on the sullen night:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Though long a wanderer,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The sun gone down"&mdash;</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Unconsciously he tightened his arms around this wanderer.
+Of course all their brief acquaintance had gone
+through his mind, especially the day when in her haughty
+pride and beauty she had given him that cold, insolent
+stare; but he forgave her freely, just as he had forgiven
+Fred's sin, unasked. How strangely he was destined to
+be mixed up with these Lawrences!</p>
+
+<p>He paused on the low porch, where a honeysuckle rioted
+in summer, and was still full of withered leaves. His
+burthen had not stirred, and was a dead weight. Resting
+it against his knee, he pulled the door-bell gently, and
+waited.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, Mr. Lawrence?" asked a voice from
+within.</p>
+
+<p>"No. Jack Darcy," for he guessed rightly that it was
+Martha.</p>
+
+<p>She opened the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be frightened, Martha," in a re-assuring tone.
+"It is Miss Lawrence."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, good heaven!" in tones of terror.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! do not disturb any one. Is Mr. Lawrence
+home? Where shall I carry her? she is in a dead faint."</p>
+
+<p>"Bring her in the parlor. Oh, Mr. Darcy! where was
+she?" with a look of wild affright. "I did not know
+she had gone out. I always felt something would happen
+to her; and a long while ago I offered to go out with her,
+but she is so hard and disdainful that one soon comes to
+letting her alone. She made me promise not to tell her
+brother, or rather she defied me to: she wouldn't put any
+thing as a favor if she was dying. Talk about the pride<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
+of Lucifer! And I knew it would worry Mr. Lawrence
+dreadfully."</p>
+
+<p>"Was she in the habit of going out&mdash;alone&mdash;at
+night?" asked Jack, in amaze.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it was from pride," answered Martha simply.
+"You see, she needed some exercise, and she seldom went
+out in the daytime. And I don't think she is afraid of
+any thing. I never saw such a cold, bitter, strong girl&mdash;for
+she is only a girl yet. I've sometimes felt afraid she
+would do something desperate. Oh, if she would only
+let the Lord help her bear her trouble! And Mr. Lawrence
+is so kind and generous! He would do any thing
+for her. Oh, he ought to be home! There's the clock
+striking ten."</p>
+
+<p>"And I must run for the doctor. Heaven grant she
+may not be dead! Take off her cloak, and try something"&mdash;glancing
+about in alarm.</p>
+
+<p>Then he seemed to take one devouring look at the
+sculptured face, with closed lids, and jetty lashes sweeping
+the marble cheeks. Hurrying away, as if by some
+great effort, he ran down the street again, despatched
+Maverick, and hastened to Fred's office. The building
+loomed up dark and silent. He might possibly be at
+Garafield's house: he often went there of an evening, he
+and Mr. Garafield were so engrossed with their plans.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long walk; but Jack strode on, getting rapidly
+over the ground. The hall-door was open, and Mr. and
+Mrs. Garafield were saying good-night to Fred. Jack
+waited until he came down the steps, and then called to
+him cheerfully. They linked arm-in-arm. The hail and
+rain had turned now to fine, hard snow, and the wind
+seemed to scurry through the deserted streets like a
+forlorn, wailing spirit.</p>
+
+<p>Jack told his story briefly, also repeating what Martha
+had said about Irene's habit of lonely walking. He felt
+the sensitive nerves in the arm he held, quiver with a
+shuddering pain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Thank God it was you!" Fred said, with a great,
+tremulous gasp. "She is so strange, so cold and self-contained,&mdash;so
+bitter against fate! Believe me, Jack, I
+have tried my utmost"&mdash;and the voice broke with something
+like a sob.</p>
+
+<p>"I know it, dear old fellow," drawing him nearer as
+the blast whistled around them.</p>
+
+<p>"We never learned to make each other happy, you
+know. We never supposed we had any special duties to
+one another, so it was a new task to me. I tried to interest
+her in something, to make her more cheerful; but she
+would wrap herself in that haughty, unconquerable coldness.
+Yet if I had known or guessed"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"After all, there is very little danger down your end
+of the town," said Jack, in that light, comforting tone.
+"There's nothing to call tramps or roughs; and, I dare
+say, to-night all would have gone straight if she had not
+run against me, as one may say, and the fright made her
+faint."</p>
+
+<p>"But if it had been some one else! Oh, my God!"</p>
+
+<p>"It was not; so never give that a second thought.
+There is no use in bringing up an army of 'might-have-beens'
+to worry you to death when you have escaped
+danger. And&mdash;here we are."</p>
+
+<p>"You will come in, of course?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack followed his friend. Maverick had succeeded in
+restoring Miss Lawrence to consciousness; but she was
+now in a burning fever and raging delirium. Outraged
+nature had at last asserted its sway.</p>
+
+<p>"It is better so, I think," remarked Maverick, in a
+quiet, decisive tone. "She will have a severe run of
+fever, for this has been some time coming on; but she
+has youth and a naturally fine constitution in her favor.
+I believe she will pull through. But some arrangement
+must be settled upon. It will not do to take her up-stairs;
+for the effect upon your mother will be too great a risk.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>
+If you could bring a bed down here&mdash;to-morrow I will
+see about getting a nurse."</p>
+
+<p>"I think it would be better to bring her bed down
+stairs," rejoined Martha. "The parlor is used so little.
+And she would be so much more comfortable"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Martha's eyes went over the heavy, clinging dress, the
+disordered hair, the bracelets that were like manacles as
+she threw her arms about, moaning, muttering, and laughing
+shrilly. The eyes rolled wildly in their senseless stare,
+until one's blood almost curdled.</p>
+
+<p>"We must get about it immediately," began Dr. Maverick.
+"She will be quieter presently, and I shall remain
+all night. Darcy, you watch her: do not let her injure
+herself, while we bring down the necessary articles."</p>
+
+<p>Just at this juncture Mrs. Lawrence's bell rang. The
+noise had startled her from her first sound sleep. Dr.
+Maverick explained simply, and gave her a composing
+draught.</p>
+
+<p>"A fever! Is it any thing contagious? Yes, it is
+better to keep her down there: my nerves are so weak,
+and I think I have a very sensitive, susceptible nature.
+I might take any disease so easily,&mdash;do you not think
+so, doctor?" and Mrs. Lawrence looked up from her
+frills and laces and snowy pillow with the helpless air
+of a child.</p>
+
+<p>"Much better. She may be delirious, too, and that
+would distress you. Now be as quiet as possible, and try
+to go to sleep again. I shall remain to keep you both
+in order," with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"That is very kind," she answered, with a pretty wave
+of her delicate hand. Her daughter might be dying
+below, but her nerves must be settled and cared for.
+Still, to do her justice, even in her intense selfishness,
+she never considered other people's ailments dangerous,
+while she held that her own precious life was constantly
+in peril. She talked of dying with the calmness of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+saint, and admitted that there was no further charm to
+life, but still she must have the choicest care.</p>
+
+<p>Under Martha's supervision they soon dismembered
+the bedstead, and brought down all necessary belongings.
+Jack had watched his charge, strangely exercised
+by her curious, changeful moods. Once she had looked
+meaningly at him.</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>might</i> marry you," she said, in soft, mocking tones,
+her scarlet lips taking on a bitter, scornful smile; "but
+I should come to hate you so that some night when you
+lay asleep I should rise and murder you! I might endure
+you in London, where I could be in a continual round of
+gayety; but at Frodsham Park, with an old man like you,&mdash;May
+and December! May and December!" and she
+laughed shrilly.</p>
+
+<p>She did not mean <i>him</i>, then! Honest Jack Darcy
+blushed to the roots of his hair, to his very finger-ends.
+Some old man had wanted her: well, she was braver and
+truer, then, than most people would admit.</p>
+
+<p>The three came in, and transformed the parlor to a hospital-ward,
+without the simplicity. Jack suddenly thought
+of his mother, and hurried away. What an eventful walk
+it had been! and Hope Mills was quite driven out of his
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>He found his mother frightened and hysterical; and
+drawing her down beside him he told her the story of his
+wanderings, expressing with some tender kisses his sorrow
+for her alarm, and advised her to go to bed at once, as he
+meant to do. And, though it might not be romantic after
+such an adventure, I must admit that in ten minutes my
+hero was soundly asleep, oblivious of both storm and
+business.</p>
+
+<p>At the house he had left, there was but little refreshing
+rest. Mrs. Lawrence drowsed away when the confusion
+of re-arrangement had subsided. The gentlemen retired
+to the library while Martha disrobed her young mistress<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+with inward fear and trembling, hardly being able to
+judge what was due to delirium, and what to natural imperiousness.
+Then Dr. Maverick kindly dismissed her.</p>
+
+<p>"You will need your strength in the morning," said he.
+"Try to get at least one good nap."</p>
+
+<p>He took his station at the bedside, and motioned Fred
+to an armchair just out of his sister's range. The opiate
+was not working <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'sucessfully'">successfully</ins>, but at present he did not
+consider it wise to increase it. He questioned him a little
+as to Miss Irene's habits and resources, and imagined the
+part withheld, from that rather reluctantly admitted. He
+understood that here kindred blood had not produced
+harmony, but a horrible discord, the more wearing in that
+every note had been muffled. The self-commiseration
+of the mother, and her weak love for her son that could
+only pity, but never encourage or brace to any vigorous
+effort; her total inability to comprehend any such character
+as her youngest daughter possessed; the wearisome
+platitudes enunciated in the belief that they were golden
+grains of worldly wisdom, the only kind she supposed
+existed; the weak, vapid repining that she had not married
+when she might have done so well, the discouraging certainty
+that no marriage was possible in this second-rate
+town, and that to remain single was a stigma and a misfortune.
+In her weak but querulous complaints, which
+she meant in part for sympathy, she had worn and exasperated
+Irene as much as Mrs. Minor: only here there
+were no lovers, and there Mrs. Minor looked upon every
+single man of means as a fish to be skilfully angled for.</p>
+
+<p>If Irene had been thrown completely upon her own resources,
+if she had been compelled to step entirely out of
+her olden sphere, and earn her daily bread, there would
+have been a sharp, bitter fight, but the bracing mental
+atmosphere might have dispelled the thick darkness, the
+chilling vacuity, and evolved from the discordant elements
+a questioning and not easily satisfied soul, but one destined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>
+to develop into strength and nobler uses. But here, she
+said to herself, there was nothing. Friendship could not
+come to her aid&mdash;she would have none of it. No one
+should study her with curious eyes, to see how she bore
+her trials, her losses, the downfall of her pride. Strangers
+who had glanced at her with envy in her pretty pony-phaeton,
+or the magnificent family barouche, should not
+smile in triumph as they saw her walking by. As she had
+scorned others in her grandeur, so others would rejoice
+that she had been brought low. She had seen so much
+of the narrowness, the petty spite, the sharp stings of the
+world, that her sensitive flesh shrank at every pulse.</p>
+
+<p>She could understand now how high-bred women, when
+friends and fortune had flown, had shut themselves in convents.
+That she would have been glad to do. Any entire
+renunciation would have met with her approval. But
+to gather up the threads of a commonplace existence, to
+find joy and solace in daily duties, to work for others,
+to even show others how trials and misfortunes could be
+borne to the perfect working-out of nobler aims and uses,
+was not for her. She had never been trained to any such
+purpose. A heathen of the heathens in a Christian country,
+the product of fashion, wealth, and so-called refinement.</p>
+
+<p>In the solitude to which she condemned herself, she
+came to brooding over a desperate, worldly philosophy.
+Should she go back, and retrace her steps, and marry?
+There were days when she absolutely contested the ground
+inch by inch, and almost decided.</p>
+
+<p>Her long rapid walks, generally at night when her brain
+was wild with the bitter warfare, had served a useful purpose,
+and kept her in better health. But the strain could
+not last forever. For days she had alternated between a
+chilly, stupid languor, and hours when her brain seemed
+on fire, when, indeed, she hated the whole world with a
+bitter, awful intensity. In this mood she had stolen out
+for her walk.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And now the outraged soul had burst its bonds, and
+revelled in a fearful revenge. All the ache and repression
+put upon it; all this silent endurance; all the solitary
+hours of maddening thought, the wasted riches, the
+spurned sympathy, the youth poisoned by false doctrines,&mdash;every
+secret sin committed against it, cried aloud, and
+would not be throttled, nor thrust back into the dreary
+dungeon.</p>
+
+<p>Fred listened to her ravings in stunned, helpless astonishment.
+His trial had been so much less intense, after
+all. Could it be possible she had suffered this as she sat
+so like a statue in the little circle, disdaining every aid?
+His startled eyes questioned the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was the reply: "she has been too much alone.
+She has brooded over these things until she has become
+morbid and imbittered. The curse of fashionable life is,
+that it provides a woman with no resources against a dark
+day, no wisdom, no faith in any thing outside of herself.
+And then we wonder at insanity! A thousand times better
+that the body should be racked with pain, if so be
+that the soul is purified in passing through these fires. It
+may be her salvation."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> morning's mail brought to Darcy the letter he had
+hardly dared expect. It was brief but cordial. Would
+he come to New York, and the matter could be arranged
+to his satisfaction? "He had not been very eager to ask
+favors."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll weather through, Winston!" he cried joyfully.
+"I must go to New York. Miss McLeod has sent."</p>
+
+<p>Then he ran off home, and arrayed himself in spotless
+linen and immaculate cuffs, complained a little that Jane
+Morgan should be away, and begged his mother to ask
+in some of the pretty, friendly girls living in the next
+house, if he should not be home to supper. There
+was a late train that he would be quite sure of, if the
+business detained him until night. Then he kissed
+her tenderly: she was still a little shaken from her last
+night's vigil.</p>
+
+<p>He went around by Maverick's office, though it took
+him out of his way; but he must hear some word of Miss
+Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>"She is very ill, and will be for some time to come;
+but I am wonderfully interested in the case. It's a brain-fever.
+The girl is a study in herself. She has the force
+and power, and capability of both suffering and endurance,
+that would answer for half a dozen souls; but it has come
+pretty nearly to a wreck. Did you ever know much about
+her?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I once spent an evening with Miss Barry when
+she was there," and Jack flushed. "It was before Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
+Lawrence died. They used to be great friends, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"And it ended like most women's friendships, eh?"
+with a peculiar light in his eyes as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"No: it broke off in the middle; regards have a trick
+of doing that when they're not ended, you know. Sylvie
+is very generous: she would go there to-day if she were
+needed."</p>
+
+<p>"Would she? She may be before it is all over."</p>
+
+<p>"Go down and tell her, Maverick, when you are in
+that direction."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick nodded.</p>
+
+<p>Darcy was just in time to catch his train. There had
+been quite a fall of snow from midnight to dawn, and the
+trees were glittering with thousands of diamond-sparks
+and patches of fleecy ermine. The winding roads were
+white; the cottages and the fence-posts were hooded; and
+the snow caught all the tints of sun and shadowy lights,
+reflecting them back like a mirror. His heart was so
+light as they whirled along, he smiled, and could hardly
+forbear shouting at a group of boys who were snow-balling
+by the roadside.</p>
+
+<p>He met Miss McLeod at Mr. Hildreth's. They had
+the private office to themselves; and he related the mishaps
+of the past three months, showed her the actual
+figures, and admitted that times seemed really harder than
+last year. There was such a horrible shrinkage everywhere!
+Still there must be some trade presently,&mdash;it
+always had been so in the history of the world.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you deserve a great deal of credit for having
+pulled through so far on your limited capital," said she.
+"Some of the business-men I meet, think this will prove
+the hardest year in our history. It will winnow the chaff
+from the wheat pretty well."</p>
+
+<p>"If it does not winnow us all into chaff," returned the
+young fellow, with a touch of grim humor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We shall come back to smaller profits and greater
+industry. The world will not be able to play at being
+ladies and gentlemen, and perhaps a little wholesome
+work will not be a bad discipline."</p>
+
+<p>Then she wanted to know what amount would be likely
+to tide him over for the next six months. He said he did
+not desire to exceed ten thousand dollars. She would
+make it twelve, however. After the notes were duly
+signed, she took him to her bank, and introduced him.
+As he had some other parties to see, she drove him about
+in her carriage, and insisted upon taking him home with
+her presently.</p>
+
+<p>What an elegant old lady she was in her sables and
+velvets, and her royal air! her eyes bright with spirit
+and energy, her cheeks a little pink with the crisp air,
+glad sunshine, and perhaps her own hearty, wholesome
+mood. Occasionally she leaned out and nodded to some
+friend; and once her carriage drew up to the sidewalk as
+she summoned a fine, portly-looking gentleman to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Throckmorton," she said, with gracious dignity,
+"I want to introduce my young friend Mr. Darcy, of
+Hope Mills, Yerbury, to you. If you can serve him in
+any business-way, I shall be glad to have you."</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman bowed, and held out his hand, with
+cordial fine breeding.</p>
+
+<p>"Hope Mills! It belonged to my friend Lawrence,
+did it not,&mdash;David Lawrence?"</p>
+
+<p>"Until his death, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Sad misfortune, that. He ought to have retired years
+before. There was some villany in his manager, was
+there not? It is difficult to find a purely honest man
+nowadays; but I do believe Lawrence was one. We
+dealt with him a great many years, but toward the last
+there was some dissatisfaction,&mdash;goods not coming quite
+up to samples."</p>
+
+<p>"We try to do our business on the square, Mr. Throckmorton,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>
+returned Jack, with a proud curve of the lips
+that was almost a smile, and illumined his face. "If any
+thing is not exactly as represented, we shall make it good;
+but we try never to have occasion to do that. We should
+be glad to have you test our honesty and skill."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you,&mdash;I will, I will;" and, touching his hat
+to Miss McLeod, they parted.</p>
+
+<p>"If men were as generous as you!" cried Jack, with
+enthusiastic candor, "how splendid a place this world
+would be for business! Did you ever have a jealous
+thought in all your life?"</p>
+
+<p>She laughed brightly. "I have had nearly all the
+things I wanted," she answered, with tender solemnity.
+"There would have been little excuse. Mr. Darcy, we
+do not always realize how hard life is to some; and, where
+everybody's man's hand is against one, it is natural for him to
+be against every man."</p>
+
+<p>Their four-o'clock meal was an elegant little dinner.
+They were quite alone, which pleased Jack. She questioned
+him about Maverick, his practice, his friends, and
+wondered if he ever meant to marry. Jack said laughingly
+no one in Yerbury dared to make fascinating eyes at him.</p>
+
+<p>Did she care so much for Maverick? Surely these two
+ought to be together, yet what would <i>he</i> do without his
+trusty comrade?</p>
+
+<p>They veered round to the mills presently, and discussed
+honesty. Jack admitted that Mr. Throckmorton and
+other customers had a right to complain. There had
+been a deal of cheap wool used, and many poor workmen
+employed, during Eastman's last year or two.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Darcy," she began energetically, "why do you
+not think up something new? We import pretty material
+for ladies' wear, that could as well be made here, for we
+women are growing sensible enough to believe something
+beside silk admissible. And though men may cling to
+superannuated coats, with an affection most commendable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>
+in hard times, I never heard of a woman being attached
+to an old gown."</p>
+
+<p>"I never thought of it," he admitted frankly.</p>
+
+<p>"That is what you were put in the world for,&mdash;to
+think," and she smiled with quaint humor. "Invent
+something. I'll take a sample to every store to match,
+and lift my brows in surprise when clerks confess they
+have not seen it. Give it a pretty name, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"That is worth considering, surely;" and his eyes
+sparkled. "Hope Mills ought presently to be the grandest
+place in the country, you take so much interest in it,"
+and his whole face expressed his admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"I do hope to see you a successful manufacturer, Mr.
+Darcy; and, woman-like, I want the scheme to succeed.
+I should like to see even a small party of men trained to
+honesty and fair play. And, if I lose my money, it is no
+worse than a downfall in stocks."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall do my best now and ever," he answered
+heartily.</p>
+
+<p>They parted with much warm gratitude on the honest
+fellow's side. He took the evening train for home; and
+his mother had a good cup of tea awaiting him, along
+with her smile. He related his grand good luck, and
+there were not two happier people in all Yerbury. When
+the bank found he had an account at New York, and a
+good backer, they were extremely affable again.</p>
+
+<p>Jack broached the new idea to Winston and Cameron.</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure," admitted Winston. "Some one will do
+it presently, and we might get the lead. Darcy, your old
+lady is a trump, and always carries the honors. There
+will have to be some new processes: see here, talk to Ben
+Hay about it; he's made two or three improvements, and
+has some brains. Gad! It'll be quite jolly to have a new
+line of goods. Get the ladies on your side, and you're
+all right!"</p>
+
+<p>He had not a spare moment until after his late supper,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>
+when he told his mother he must run over to the Lawrences,
+and stop a moment at the doctor's, though he had
+despatched the good news to him in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>He found matters worse than he had feared. There
+had been an alarming change in Miss Lawrence. Martha
+ushered him through the hall to the library, where Fred
+was sitting. The two clasped hands, and then sat down
+together. A hard, dry sob seemed to tear its way up
+from Fred's very soul.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack," he cried in a strained, despairing tone, "could
+I have done any thing to save her? I have been engrossed
+with my own affairs, my own dreams of advancement.
+I wanted to have money again, but it was for her
+sake and my mother's," with a lingering tremulous intonation.
+"She has been too solitary, she has brooded
+over every thing. But she would not go out, or see any
+company; and somehow it was our misfortune to grow up
+without any warm, vital interest in each other. When I
+was a boy I used to like it at your house, because your
+father and mother took such a real delight in you. It is
+the pith of life. Poor father&mdash;he was very proud of me,
+he gave his life for our pleasure and grandeur and reckless
+extravagance, yet all the later years we were well-nigh
+strangers. Why can't people get nearer to each other,
+Jack, or is it only given to the very few? Does the
+greedy world swallow up every sentiment, every bit of
+tenderness, and make a mock of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! Nothing can quite kill it, thank God! You
+and I have proved that. It may be smothered under dust
+and rubbish, and frozen with neglect, but the germ will
+revive,&mdash;just as the brown woolly ball evolves the fine
+delicate fern-leaf that it has held in its heart through
+winter storms, you know. Don't blame yourself. Every
+soul has to fight its own battle somewhere, with no day's-man
+between but God. We get back to the old truth
+in spite of the new philosophies, and own in our vanquished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>
+moments that we cannot <i>make</i> strength, that ours
+is only a broken reed, and the true upholding force must
+come from some knowledge higher than our own."</p>
+
+<p>Jack paused, strangely stirred in every fibre. He seldom
+essayed sentiment: with him the deeds of life had to
+answer, rather than any eloquence of words. He laid his
+strong, warm arm over Fred's shoulder, the old boyish
+caress with which he had often comforted unknowingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you have been doing nobly," he went on
+presently. "I did not look to find you so brave and persevering,
+so earnest in thinking of others; for, after all, a
+man's training does throw a great many shackles about
+him."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Maverick entered at that moment. He had hurried
+off his office-patients to come and spend an hour watching
+this case, which held a fascinating interest for him. Some
+most unfavorable symptoms had supervened, but he did
+not despair. The nurse had been regularly trained, he
+had kept her busy in Yerbury the last year. He could
+trust her to note the slightest variations.</p>
+
+<p>Just now Miss Lawrence lay in a heavy stupor, so like
+death that one could not detect it from any motion. Her
+eyes were half open, her face had a dull purplish tint.
+The abundant hair had been confined in a thick plait, and
+brushed straight across her forehead. How distinct and
+finely clear the brows were pencilled, how haughtily sweet
+the curve of the pallid, fever-burned lips, how exquisitely
+round and perfect the chin, the slope of the throat and
+neck! Jack stole one glance,&mdash;they had both gone in with
+the doctor,&mdash;but it seemed almost sacrilegious, now when
+she was powerless to frown the intruder out of her presence.
+And he had carried her in his arms!</p>
+
+<p>"O Darcy," Maverick exclaimed presently, "I did not
+go to Miss Barry's, after all. I have been so desperately
+busy to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Fred glanced up, and his eye met that of his friend.
+Both flushed, and both mistook the cause.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was a curiously auspicious moment. Jack went over
+to him. "I wonder," he began, with a marked persuasiveness
+in his tone, "if you would like to have
+Sylvie Barry come over? She and your sister used to
+be such friends. And, in times like these, animosities
+and foolish prejudices ought to die out."</p>
+
+<p>Fred gave him a startled look, and half turned, his lids
+drooping to veil the secret in his eyes. Jack waited with
+breath that half strangled him. He had marvelled how
+these two souls were to be brought into friendly contact
+again; how Sylvie was to have an opportunity of knowing
+that Fred was redeeming the manliness of manhood, instead
+of grounding among its trivial shoals, and, if she
+ever had cared for him, to understand that he was not
+utterly unworthy. He had spoken&mdash;what if the chance
+should fail!</p>
+
+<p>Fred very naturally misinterpreted the emotion. Jack
+offered this out of the boundless tenderness of his heart,
+so confident was he of Sylvie's regard.</p>
+
+<p>"You think&mdash;she would come?"</p>
+
+<p>His own voice, under the great stress, sounded miles
+away to him, quite as if some other person had spoken.</p>
+
+<p>How often the tense strain of feeling is relieved by a
+tone or an incident quite out of the magnetic current!</p>
+
+<p>"Some one ought to drop in occasionally, for your
+mother's sake," said Dr. Maverick. "We shall have her
+in a fever from sympathy," putting the fact more delicately
+in words than it was in his thought.</p>
+
+<p>"She would be glad to come, I know. She would
+feel hurt if&mdash; You empower me to ask her?" with an
+abrupt transition of tone.</p>
+
+<p>Fred Lawrence bowed his head. He could not trust
+his voice.</p>
+
+<p>The sick girl started, opened wide her eyes, threw up
+her arms, and began in weird, passionate tones, as if it
+were a stage declamation. Oh the lurid thought that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>
+seemed to travel from regions of bliss to the nethermost
+hell; to display a boundless capacity for enjoyment, for
+pleasure or pain, for tenderness and bitter, brilliant
+satire, a keen knowledge of the world to the very dregs,&mdash;the
+dust and ashes! She implored her lost idols to
+come near, and in the next breath she tossed them from
+her with a mocking laugh. She had no faith in God or
+man, and before her was a blank wall of despair.</p>
+
+<p>Jack led him away. He took him out in the keen
+air of the starry winter night, and began to talk of Hope
+Mills and the new projects. It was too late afterward to
+call on Sylvie, so he waited until the next morning.</p>
+
+<p>She was inexpressibly shocked. "Of course she would
+go," she made answer; and she went that very afternoon,
+with her aunt for companion.</p>
+
+<p>They found Mrs. Lawrence in a dreadfully disturbed
+and apprehensive state. She was so weary of solitude
+that she welcomed them gladly, quite forgetting this girl
+had insulted her by rejecting her son. In a weak, shuffling
+manner she excused herself for not having accepted
+their overtures before. She had been so utterly overwhelmed
+by the death of Mr. Lawrence, that, in her state
+of nervous prostration, it had been impossible to see any
+one. And now she was positive she should take the fever.
+Her health was so delicate, her nerves so susceptible, and
+to hear the raving of delirium,&mdash;the laughs that were
+quite like a maniac,&mdash;would be sure to shatter her
+beyond any help. If it were not in the dead of winter,
+she should go to New York at once, and stay with Mrs.
+Minor until all danger of infection was over. She did
+not seem to comprehend the gravity of Irene's case,
+though she wept over her suffering in a soft self-pity.</p>
+
+<p>"If you could be removed to our house," suggested
+Miss Barry, in her gentle way, "we would take the best
+of care of you; and it must be extremely wearing for you
+here."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you have no idea! I never slept last night. I
+have heard of people in these dreadful fevers who have
+left their beds when the nurse was absent, and committed
+some horrible crime. I locked my door last night;
+then I was afraid I might faint away alone, and Fred had
+to come and stay with me. It was terrible!" and the
+washed-out eyes dilated with real fear.</p>
+
+<p>Martha was despatched for the doctor, who not only
+came himself, but brought a close coach, thankful to dispose
+of one patient so comfortably. Before dusk Mrs.
+Lawrence was snugly settled in Miss Barry's best room,
+where a cheerful open-front stove made amends for a
+grate, and the new surroundings served to take her mind
+from her late apprehensions. Indeed, she felt so much
+better for the change, that she insisted upon coming down
+to tea.</p>
+
+<p>It was beneficial in many ways. They removed Irene
+again to her own room, and used her mother's for various
+convenient purposes. Sylvie went back and forth, and
+shared the day-watching, beside entertaining Mrs. Lawrence.
+The two dropped insensibly into their olden positions.
+Sylvie listened patiently to the death, the loss of
+fortune, the changes, which Mrs. Lawrence dwelt upon
+with the exaggerating vividness of a nature completely
+engrossed with its own sorrows.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Maverick had to come every day. Mrs. Lawrence
+had arrived at that stage when a woman depends upon
+the doctor as a sort of bulletin for her own health. Fred,
+too, must visit his mother frequently; but at first he chose
+the hours he knew Sylvie would be with Irene.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Maverick used to watch Sylvie Barry with an interest
+and admiration that grew upon him. Her tact was
+something marvellous, born of a certain exquisite harmony
+and almost divine unselfishness. But of this last she appeared
+serenely unconscious. I think, indeed, that she
+was. A higher love and faith had interpenetrated her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
+soul, her very being. Instead of agonizing introspections
+and lightning flashes to the inward depths of her nature,
+she seemed to live continually on the outside of herself,
+radiating warmth and light as the sun. Her patience was
+of a rare, fine quality, born of health, and spirits not
+easily wearied.</p>
+
+<p>It would have been quite impossible for any two people
+to go through such a strain of feeling, and not be drawn
+together in love and sympathy, or friendship. With Fred
+and Sylvie it was unconsciously a little of all. If he had
+gone back with the old love, even exalted and refined,
+he would surely have blundered again. But now she was
+another's, sacred in his eyes. And though in his blind
+pride he had once thought the greatest favor he could
+do her would be to save her from any such <i>m&eacute;salliance</i>,
+he recognized now that Jack Darcy was immeasurably
+above him in all the qualities that went to make up
+pure manhood. Even in his work: Jack's ambition was
+not for himself, but a cause; and his&mdash;ah, how poor and
+paltry it seemed! So he accepted his place with outward
+bravery, and a great wrench of all a man holds most dear.
+For now he loved her.</p>
+
+<p>The days passed slowly on. It seemed at the last as
+if the fever would prove the victor. A consultation was
+held, and new remedies employed. Irene's beautiful hair
+was cut off and laid away, the clear skin seemed to grow
+brown and shrivelled, the hands lost their plump whiteness,
+and the rosy nails were dull and gray. There came
+a time when human skill had done all, and they could only
+wait for that Higher power to whose eternal force death
+and love alike submit.</p>
+
+<p>There followed upon that awful night of suspense, days
+when she was but just alive, when a turn of her head on
+the pillow caused a lapse into unconsciousness. But the
+spring came on; and she did rally, at first, it appeared, at
+the entire sacrifice of her regal beauty. Would she care
+to take life on such terms?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They brought Mrs. Lawrence home. Mrs. Minor came
+up, and insisted that both mother and sister should be
+removed to the city at once. She had her horses and
+carriage, her servants, her luxuries, and she could make
+them so much more comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Maverick interposed a decided negative. The
+body had not yet resumed its normal state; but the brain
+was to be ministered to, as only those of experience and
+study could minister. It was to be brought out of the
+hell of its own despairing self-torture, and enfranchised,
+set free from the demons that, standing in the present
+abeyance of weakness, had lost neither strength nor desire,
+and were only waiting the auspicious moment to
+seize their prey again. And he was too much fascinated
+to relinquish the study.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie persuaded her aunt to indulge in a pony-carriage.
+Miss Barry was breaking a little; but she still kept her
+interest in good works, and found she was much more
+useful with this aid. Winsome little Sylvie looked more
+piquant than ever with the reins in her hands, flashing
+hither and thither through the streets of Yerbury, gathering
+a harvest of smiles and nods. She fairly compelled
+Mrs. Lawrence to trust her precious self to what she
+laughingly declared was superior horsewomanship.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Maverick used to stop her often, just to catch a
+delicious ripple of laughter, or a bit of trenchant talk. If
+it were not for Jack Darcy&mdash;did Jack love her? At all
+events, she loved him: any one could see that by her
+frank, fearless manner. Oh, sapient Dr. Maverick, with
+all your knowledge of brains and nerves, of occult causes
+and mysterious effects! So it happens that sometimes a
+simple, direct truth is the greatest puzzle of all.</p>
+
+<p>The schools and clubs had not been neglected with all
+this excitement. But this winter Mary Moran had been
+teacher at a small salary; and a bakery and refreshment
+or dining room had been opened down stairs, which really<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>
+made quite a little money. Wholesomely cooked food
+was offered for sale, with bread, rolls, and biscuit. The
+club had also given two successful suppers. When Jane
+Morgan was home, Sylvie was relieved of the actual care:
+she would have it. She had come back to Yerbury a
+thousand dollars richer for her relative's death, and she
+and Jack were drawing plans for a co-operative store.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">I'd</span> rather lose five thousand dollars than do it."</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy leaned back in his office-chair. He had
+just made up the third half-yearly account. It was bad
+enough. They had known this all along, and had not
+concealed it from the men. Now it was to be confronted
+in black and white, with searching eyes.</p>
+
+<p>It was not that they had not made any thing: that
+would have been endurable, considering the kind of winter.
+But they had gone back, and eaten up the profits of
+last year.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, there co-operation comes in," said Bob Winston.
+"It isn't <i>your</i> loss alone. It's mine and every
+man's. That's what we agreed to when we went in.
+Labor and capital should share in the ups and downs.
+See here, Jack, I've learned a good deal myself. I have
+more sympathy with employers. Gad! what a pull we've
+had this winter! If it hadn't been for your fairy godmother"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it must be done!" and Jack pulled a long face.
+"There, it is all ready to print. Now old fellow, we
+must brace ourselves up for the shot and shell. We'll
+have to do the fighting all over again. If every man had
+as easy, philosophical a mind as you, or as sensible,
+reasonable a one as Cameron, I should not have so many
+misgivings."</p>
+
+<p>The statement was printed and distributed. The men
+looked blue and cross. Had they really lost nearly all
+of last year's balance?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Winston asked them to stop one evening while he went
+into a slight explanation. He was well armed. Without
+having a logical mind or parliamentary training, he had a
+woman's quick intuitions, and often jumped at very decent
+conclusions with hardly a glance at the premises. He
+had a way of massing his forces, too, that was very telling.</p>
+
+<p>Now, after what he called a little skirmishing, he read
+that the Barnable Mills had been running on three-quarter
+time all winter. Wages had been a trifle lower than
+with them. Middleham Mills had been closed for two
+months. He gave the figures of loss to the workmen.
+Crowley and Dawson had gone into bankruptcy, owing
+their men in the aggregate more than all Hope Mills had
+used of last year's profits. Then he read a statement
+from an eminent manufacturer, that he had used fifty-four
+thousand dollars of accrued capital rather than turn off
+his workmen to starve. There had been strikes in several
+other places, in which the workmen had lost much more
+than at Yerbury.</p>
+
+<p>"So that our showing, bad as it is, is not the worst,"
+said he. "In the very dullest of times we cast in our
+lots together, and we must take the good and bad. If
+you had been living this winter on the private capital of
+any one man or corporation, you would never have given
+the matter a thought. You know now, by experience,
+that capital does not always float on a serene and indolent
+sea, and gather in treasures for which it has cast
+out no net. You can appreciate the struggle we have
+gone through; though, while you have been going along
+placidly, with the larger weight of care lifted off your
+shoulders, a man with less energy and pluck than our
+intrepid pilot, John Darcy, might have let us founder.
+We help him now with the readiness and good-humor
+with which we relinquish the profits which were dear to
+us, and the product of our industry; but he has taken<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>
+us through a very narrow channel, on a dark night, without
+striking rock or snag. He and I thank you heartily
+for your fidelity to our keystone,&mdash;co-operation."</p>
+
+<p>"Three cheers for Darcy!" sang out some one in the
+crowd, "and three cheers for Bob Winston!"</p>
+
+<p>It was given heartily.</p>
+
+<p>"And three cheers for the men of Hope Mills," responded
+Winston.</p>
+
+<p>They shook hands, and dispersed with a little better
+feeling. Several of the men seemed to breathe a clearer
+mental atmosphere immediately.</p>
+
+<p>"You may be sure it's right, whichever way it is," said
+one man sturdily. "I've known Jack Darcy, boy and
+man, and his father afore him. He comes of good, clean
+stock, and, if he says a thing can't be bettered, it can't;
+and, if it can, he's just the man to do it. Give him a
+long tether, say I."</p>
+
+<p>Then Winston procured a list of weekly wages ruling in
+this country, and in many places abroad, the hours of
+work, and the average cost of living, with the articles in
+most general use. The mill-men had their flour and coal
+cheaper, and altogether their winter was proved as satisfactory.
+This was pasted up in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>The matter was discussed through the town, of course.
+Some people saw in it a speedy dissolution of the plan,&mdash;a
+plan that never had worked, and never would. Others
+did not see that this method of getting back part of the
+men's wages was any better than any other swindling
+scheme. They never had any faith in Bob Winston,&mdash;Darcy
+might be honest, but he wasn't very bright,&mdash;and
+in five years Winston would own every thing there was in
+the mill!</p>
+
+<p>Winston laughed over the gossip. Jack could not take
+it so light-heartedly. He was an earnest, honest reformer,
+and hated to have things go awry. Winston, not believing
+there was very much capacity for reform in human
+nature, did not distress himself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ben Hay, and a dozen or so others, did their best
+with the new cloth, and succeeded in producing a really
+creditable article. The heads discussed the feasibility
+of having an auction-sale to clear out some of the piles
+of goods; then concluded that it might be misconstrued
+at this present juncture. They could hold on until fall.</p>
+
+<p>But the delightful <i>esprit du corps</i> had vanished. The
+men did not seem to work with a will. There were moody
+faces and discourteous greetings, half-insolent nods, and
+more than one wrangle at the workmen's meeting. Hurd
+felt anxious and discouraged. Yardley took a low fever,
+not severe enough to confine him to the house, but it made
+him irritable, and every sneer or innuendo cut him to the
+quick. Cameron was a great comfort to Jack, with his
+queer, wrinkled, grizzled face, and an expression that
+always puzzled you as to whether nature meant him to
+laugh or cry.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not surprised," said he, one day, in the office.
+"I knew we would have to come to just this time. A
+wife shares your joys and sorrows, gen'ally speaking; but
+you see there it's a force put, she can't well get away.
+Other partners like your joys, but they make a wry face
+over the sorrows, and like to squirm out of them if they
+can. But it is the only way to train men to the real
+responsibilities of business. Now, I'm sorry enough to
+lose, but it stands to reason that times will come better.
+We're getting through the panic; but after the battle
+there's some dead to bury, and some wounded to care
+for, and you see that's tedjus. You can't march straight
+home, covered with glory. Here's our money in the
+hospital, first up, then down, and all the doctors in the
+land tinkering with allopathic doses and hom&oelig;opathic
+doses, and blisters and poultices and remedies, when all
+it wants is a little honest letting-alone. It doesn't occur
+to these long-headed doctors that the best way out is to
+show everybody that we're willing to go to work and pay<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>
+our debts just as fast as we can. And any fool might
+know that when you are paying up back debts you can't
+have much money to sport around on. Never you mind,
+Jack: we're coming out straight in five years time,&mdash;I'll
+bet my old hat on that!"</p>
+
+<p>Jack wrung his hand warmly.</p>
+
+<p>In May there was quite a jollification over the marriage
+of two mill-hands. Ben Hay took to wife pretty Rose
+Connelly; and the coffee-house parlor was denuded of
+tables and benches, trimmed with evergreens and flowers,
+and such a merry-making as did one's heart good. There
+was a bountiful supper, plenty of tea, coffee, and lemonade,
+dancing, and ice-cream, and the utmost good-humor
+and good wishes. Connelly <i>p&egrave;re</i> had gone back to his
+cups, thrown up his situation, come home and stirred up
+a general "ruction," and had now gone off on a tramp.
+Ben Hay was to cast his lot with the Connelly household
+for the present.</p>
+
+<p>"But I tell you what it is, Mr. Darcy," said he, "if
+any luck comes to Hope Mills, in five years' time I'll have
+my own little house and garden. I tramped around a bit
+in the dull times, but I didn't see many prettier places
+than Yerbury. And, the more I study this business of
+co-operation, the more I think it will succeed in the
+end."</p>
+
+<p>Jack experienced a great throb of comfort when he
+heard such words as these.</p>
+
+<p>Another mill-hand had married Mary Moran. She was
+not the beauty of Yerbury, by any means, but everybody
+declared she had improved wonderfully, and that she was
+the smartest girl in town. Their wedding-party was given
+at the club-room. It was a larger and rather more boisterous
+affair; and some of the Morans' warm-hearted
+Irish friends brought a "dhrop of the craythur" in their
+pockets, to drink the bride's health. Everybody admitted
+that there wasn't such another bread-maker in town, unless
+it was Miss Morgan.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In fact, it was quite astonishing to see what a revolution
+had been worked in this most important article of diet.
+The women had learned to distinguish between poor and
+good flour, and Kilburn's trade in the former had fallen
+off largely. Of the bread that in Samantha Allen's view
+"required cast-iron principle to back it up," very little
+was seen. It had been rather hard work to convince some
+of the mothers that bread wasn't naturally born into the
+world heavy and sour, but it had been done.</p>
+
+<p>If Hope Mills failed, the impetus to general knowledge
+that had been diffused throughout Yerbury would remain
+and bear fruit. An evening-school had been opened for
+boys too large to stay at home evenings, and just the right
+age to fall into temptations. It began with the mill-boys,
+but it soon drew in others. There was a short session of
+study, then a talk about some useful art or science.
+Maverick had treated them to sundry experiments, and
+explained many general rules of health. Mr. Winston
+had described Western cities in a vivid and picturesque
+manner. There had been some astronomy within the
+reach of all, some philosophy of common every-day
+things; and it had given the boys ideas above "high,
+low, Jack."</p>
+
+<p>Darcy tried to find comfort in this when other matters
+looked dark to him. A little good seed had been sown.
+The generation growing up would not be quite so dull and
+brutish. One thing was remarked,&mdash;the saloons were
+not as full. This was laid to dull times, and ascribed to
+the "revival" of two years ago; but that had not touched
+the poorer class of Irish and English, who, even during
+the hardest winter, had managed to find drink-money,
+when their families were being supported by the relief-store.</p>
+
+<p>Business did "pick up" a little. Prices went lower and
+lower, however. They looked at their great store of goods
+with dismay. If the currency question could ever be settled,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>
+if we could export more and import less,&mdash;though
+there were people who argued that, the more money we
+spent abroad, the more it really strengthened us, and
+money lying idle in our treasury at home was no evidence
+of prosperity: partly true and partly false reasoning; and,
+to our astonishment, while we were brilliantly theorizing
+how to do it, our vain and superficial neighbors across the
+water, crushed and beaten down by a useless and costly
+war, and a government of gigantic selfishness, went to
+work with intrepid courage and industry, and did it.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile it must be confessed that Jack's interests
+were very much divided. The practical part of him never
+lost sight of the mill. He had the dogged tenacity that
+holds on with a deathless grip until it conquers, or is
+wholly beaten. It seemed to him this summer that he
+had several distinct individualities. He was so deeply
+interested in Fred and Sylvie! They had slipped into an
+easy friendship,&mdash;a friendship in which neither crossed a
+certain line, but from widely different motives. Fred's
+strongest and highest one was honor toward his friend.
+He began dimly to realize that high culture and refinement
+of the intellectual senses, a perfect state of outward finish
+and polish, did not always strengthen the soul's morality
+and purity. Patience, self-sacrifice, obedience to a creed
+simpler in words, and yet more comprehensive, than any
+of his grand philosophies, were needed to form a strong
+and manful soul. His had been so long bound about
+with swaddling-clothes, airy, sensuous, fine as a gossamer
+web, yet strong in beliefs and prejudices. There were
+times when he felt, through that instinctive knowledge we
+can never wholly define or explain, that Sylvie Barry
+belonged to him, that they two could reach a point in
+mental and artistic life, that she and Jack would never
+attain. His whole soul cried out for her. With the
+charm of self-satisfying and blinding theories swept away,
+he clung passionately to the love that had been only a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>
+complacent fancy three years ago. The mere touch of
+her hand, or glance of her eye, quickened and kindled his
+entire soul, and made him acutely and agonizingly conscious
+of the wealth of adoration he had hardly dreamed of
+possessing. There were moments when her presence filled
+him with a heavenly satisfaction, when he understood
+that divine fusion of spirit with spirit in its entirety, when
+love overcame pride, and he was humble enough to go to
+her in his poverty.</p>
+
+<p>He tried honestly to crush out the passion, but found
+that neither will nor duty could destroy love. It rose up
+and swept imperiously through every pulse of his being,
+it flooded his heart like a mighty current, it would fain
+have drowned out his sense of honor to his friend; and
+he learned presently that it was of no avail to fight battles
+with this unconquerable foe. He must always love
+her, therefore he could only bury the passion out of the
+sight of all other eyes. To him it would be the root of
+higher resolves and purer motives. When he had made
+this great sacrifice for his friend, he had offered silently
+the highest atonement in his power.</p>
+
+<p>But his temptation was not to end so soon. He was to
+be led through the fire, that he might be purified and ennobled
+in other virtues beside that of abnegation. He was
+to learn how sacred a thing strength might become; he
+was to hold the soft hand on his arm, and never clasp it,
+to feel the pressure of the dainty fingers, and make no
+sign; to meet her bewildering smiles with the calmness
+of a strong spirit held in thrall; to listen to words that
+seemed cruelly pregnant with the dangerous glamour of
+hope, and yet to steel his heart against it all. In such
+times as these we come to believe in a living, loving God,
+who gathers up these great drops of agony as he "makes
+up his jewels," and that to him this pearl of inward anguish
+is above price. Then, of all times, we need to know
+that he cares for us, that we are not mere atoms floating
+in unregarded space.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Dr. Maverick decided that his patient must have a
+change. She had attained a certain amount of physical
+strength while her brain still lay dormant, utterly exhausted
+after the great drain upon it. Now it began to
+act again, and, not being in sympathy with the body, consequently
+re-acted upon it. She walked about her room a
+little; she viewed herself in the mirror, a horrid shadow,
+a mere caricature of her former beauty. Dr. Maverick
+had tried his best to save her hair; but the fever had
+burned out its vital essence, making it dry and harsh, so
+he had uttered his reluctant edict. It was cropped short,
+and had lost its gloss; her brilliant complexion was a
+ghostly, sallow, opaque white, her eyes large and melancholy,
+every feature sharpened into that thin, worn, hungry
+appearance. "A perfect fright," she said to herself.
+Why had they not let her die? Of what avail was life to
+her?</p>
+
+<p>Before her illness, in her desperate impatience with
+circumstances, she had fancied herself a martyr, with the
+fagot and stake of a conventional marriage on one hand,
+and the dreary desert of neglect and enforced seclusion on
+the other. She had tried to make her own wretched and
+passionate imaginings consume her very soul. She could
+rule no longer. She could not exact homage and admiration
+from society; and, though in her secret soul she
+despised it, yet what was there to life beside it? No one
+wanted or needed her. No human being cared for her
+above all others. She had gone on in ruthless pride,
+trampling, crushing, and now the great world would be
+only too glad to pay her back; but it never should. Even
+in this extreme bitterness of spirit an acknowledgment
+of that divine rule of love was wrested from her. She
+had never offered love and tenderness and sympathy to
+others, and it would not come back to her: it was just
+and right that it should not.</p>
+
+<p>Why then vegetate through a narrow, dreary existence?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>
+She was only a drag on Fred. Even if she were willing
+to make an essay of work, he would not consent, partly
+from pride, but still more from that innate sense of chivalry,
+a part of some men, who would be more cruelly
+wounded to see a woman dear to them, struggling with
+distasteful toil, than to make any sacrifice on their own
+part. If she were a man she would starve in secret
+before it should be done. David Lawrence had in him
+some of this pure, nobly generous blood; and many of his
+finer virtues seemed to have been transmitted to these
+two children. The mother's individuality had been absorbed
+by the two elder ones. Gertrude would be just
+such a woman when she came to her mother's time of life.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eastman had floated into another channel of prosperity.
+He was to go to Russia as a railroad-director at
+a large salary, and ample chance for speculation. Gertrude
+was all elation. She wrote to Irene, generously
+forgiving her for not having submitted to be buried alive
+at Frodsham Park, and proposed that she should rejoin
+her as soon as she was able to travel. They would go to
+Vienna and Berlin, and spend the winter in St. Petersburg.
+"I hope your beauty has not gone off," she wrote
+very kindly. "One needs it to compare with some of the
+Russian women I have seen."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Minor had taken a summer cottage at Long
+Branch. Servants, children, horses and carriages, were
+to go thither. Irene and her mother must spend the season
+with them.</p>
+
+<p>"You do look dreadfully," she said to Irene; "but
+moping here will not mend you. It was a most absurd
+step for Fred to come back to Yerbury, and take that
+paltry position! He has no real Lawrence pride, and I
+don't see that his elegant education has done much for
+him. Why didn't he study law, and go into politics?
+With his style and Mr. Minor's connection, he might
+have filled some high position."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Really," returned Irene, with a touch of the old
+sarcasm, "I suppose he thought starving hardly a pleasant
+process while he was waiting for this high position. I
+have sometimes wondered why Mr. Minor did not take
+him into <i>his</i> office, and induct him into the mysteries of
+stock-broking."</p>
+
+<p>Agatha bit her lip.</p>
+
+<p>"Because he did not know enough," she flung out.
+"And he will potter away his best days there at Garafield's,
+never amounting to any thing! Father had better
+have put him in the business."</p>
+
+<p>"Jack Darcy is master at Hope Mills. He was once
+quite a <i>b&ecirc;te noir</i> of yours, I believe. He and Fred have
+floated together again, an exemplification of the power of
+early attraction."</p>
+
+<p>"He will not be master of Hope Mills long, if what I
+hear is true," said Agatha in a vengeful tone, as if she
+would be glad to bring about such a greatly-to-be-desired
+downfall. "Fred always did have low tastes. But about
+yourself: you had better come to Long Branch, and
+recruit for two months, or so, and then go out to join
+Gertrude. Of course, Irene, you know your best time has
+gone by here. I intend that <i>my</i> daughters shall be married
+before they are twenty. I will not have them wasting
+their best years."</p>
+
+<p>There was a long pause. Agatha studied Irene's
+apathetical face, and wondered how she could have
+changed into such a fright.</p>
+
+<p>"Irene!" in a commanding tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Agatha, I may as well tell you,"&mdash;the voice was slow
+and incisive, as if every word was measured,&mdash;"that I
+shall <i>not</i> go to Long Branch nor abroad. No one shall be
+troubled by my failing looks and possibly poor health. I
+will live my own secluded life, asking nothing of the
+world but to be let alone."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a fool, Irene!" Mrs. Minor scanned her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>
+with her pitiless black eyes, and raised her own tall figure
+to its most impressive height. "You are a deliberate,
+wilful fool! You will maunder and groan and sigh
+through the next few years, and become one of those
+wretched bundles of nerves and whims and conceits, a
+miserable old maid, whom the world holds up to ridicule,
+and rightly too; a faded, insipid, querulous, worn-out
+belle, whose past triumphs are remembered only to her
+disfavor. We can forgive a woman of mother's age, who
+has had her day; but the other shallow creatures are fit
+only to be bundled into a convent, out of sight."</p>
+
+<p>A dull scarlet had slowly mounted Irene's face. She
+did not raise her eyes. In an emotionless tone she
+merely said, "Thank you. I wish there were convents
+without the fuss of religion. I should go into one now."</p>
+
+<p>"The best place for you certainly."</p>
+
+<p>Then Mrs. Minor gave Fred a piece of her mind, and
+washed her hands of Yerbury.</p>
+
+<p>The result of sundry after-discussions was that Dr.
+Maverick found a pretty seaside place not many miles
+distant, with just enough interest to keep one entertained,
+and no fashionable, exhausting life. He managed to
+persuade Miss Barry and Sylvie and Mrs. Lawrence to
+go, and insisted upon Irene having the variety of air and
+scene. There was a roomy furnished cottage at their disposal:
+they could cook their meals, or have them sent in.
+Fred should come down once or twice a week, and he and
+Darcy would enliven them with flying visits. Miss Barry
+must take her pony and carriage.</p>
+
+<p>Jack approved of the plan at once. It would bring the
+two beings in whom he was so warmly interested more
+closely in contact with each other, give them those bits
+and fragments of leisurely indolence so conducive to sentiment.
+Sylvie would judge more truly and tenderly than
+it was possible to do at present; and he could not see her
+alone, could not be her companion in walks and drives,
+without betraying his regard.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>While the plan was still under consideration, Dame
+Fortune resolved to smile upon Fred Lawrence. Late in
+the winter he had sent a paper on household art, with several
+exquisite designs, to a magazine, and for once happened
+to hit the prevailing fancy. He was asked for a
+series of such articles, with the offer of having them collected
+in book form afterward. It more than encouraged
+him: it gave him a feeling of certainty that he had struck
+the right vein, that here was a fair and appreciative field
+for his talent, his fine taste, and high culture. A little
+utilitarian, perhaps; and he smiled, thinking of some past
+dreams. And was true art so ethereal that it must exist
+only in the exalted states of the mind? Was it not to
+embellish and beautify all lives, rather than crowd out the
+thousands that the few might feast on some exquisite
+vision? Was any art higher than that which boldly thrust
+aside shams, and went to the shaping of true, strong,
+faithful aims in the work placed before one? Were those
+wonderful Greek fragments, wrought in times of social
+depravity such as the world now shrank from mentioning,
+to be one's guide and inspirer, to the despising of purer
+if less sensuous forms of beauty? If one enlightened
+and sweetened the life of to-day with the work of to-day,
+would it not be as worthy as hugging to the soul some
+useless theory?</p>
+
+<p>He mentioned his new offer to Mr. Garafield. It would
+not be honest to take the time that was another's; and
+surely Fred Lawrence's mental capacity had largely
+cleared when he came to put into every-day work the fine
+sense of honor that he had hitherto supposed belonged
+only to a liberal education.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Garafield was a shrewd business-man, although
+fanciful in taste. He should be the gainer by associating
+this true artist with him. Decorative art was coming to
+be a truly recognized branch; and its leaders and apostles
+would reap not only credit, but financial success.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Fred was amazed. Only yesterday, it seemed, he had
+well-nigh been refused the privilege of earning his bread.
+To-day, in an unexpected quarter, prosperity opened
+upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no capital, as you well know," he said stammeringly
+to Mr. Garafield.</p>
+
+<p>Garafield smiled and nodded in a satisfied manner.</p>
+
+<p>"The brain-work and the ideas are sufficient capital,
+Mr. Lawrence. By this partnership you will be free of
+drudgery: some other clerk can keep books and take
+orders for us. You will gain time for your literary labors,
+and those in turn will carry weight in the business.
+Neither do I think you will regret taking my offer."</p>
+
+<p>Fred went down to Jack Darcy's that evening, and told
+over his plans, as in other years he had confessed his college
+ambitions and the laurels he was to win. And
+Jack's face lighted up with honest enthusiasm, while his
+voice took on a curious little tremble. He was so glad!
+for Sylvie's sake and love's sake.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> Fred Lawrence came next day into Sylvie
+Barry's presence, there was a certain proud humility
+shining in his handsome face, that was now quite worn
+and thin; a dignity born of honor in having achieved at
+least a standing-place in the world. He was not her hero,
+never had been indeed; and his pale face flushed at the
+remembrance of his once complacent claim to her regard.</p>
+
+<p>She was sitting in the room with his mother, but she
+sprang up from the low ottoman.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad! your mother has been telling me the
+news. Why, it is"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>She had held out her hands as she began her sentence,
+but as he took them she made a sudden pause. His were
+icy cold.</p>
+
+<p>"More than I could have expected in such a brief while,
+hardly at all. Both offers have surprised me greatly."</p>
+
+<p>He strove so hard to render his tone calm, that it was
+absolutely cold.</p>
+
+<p>She turned with a petulant but charming gesture, while
+her peachy cheek took on a riper tint.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not a bit enthusiastic," in that pretty, imperious,
+chiding tone. "I suppose you think good fortune
+ought to fall down upon you, be thrust on you, like
+greatness."</p>
+
+<p>"No. I am very thankful for it. I can give my
+mother and sister some needed indulgences that it would
+have pained me very much to see them go without. How
+is Irene?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Mrs. Lawrence fretfully. "She
+does mope so. I shall be so glad to get away."</p>
+
+<p>"I have just come from the doctor's. We are to start
+on Thursday. Sylvie, are you all ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," with a positive little nod.</p>
+
+<p>He stepped into the next room. Irene had been worse
+after Mrs. Minor's visit, but was the same again now,
+quiet, cold, impassible. It made no difference to her
+whether they remained here, or went to Depford Beach.
+She evinced neither pain, pleasure, nor interest; but she
+liked best to be alone. She endured Sylvie with rather
+more equanimity than she did her mother, but even the
+fault-finding energy would have been welcome to the doctor.
+Nothing mattered: that was the trouble.</p>
+
+<p>She heard now they were to go in two days. The cottage
+was all ready. Martha and Miss Barry's trusty
+handmaiden were to do the housekeeping. The place
+was so arranged, with the spacious hall through the
+middle, that each family could be by itself.</p>
+
+<p>"I have ordered a carriage to come every day for you
+and mother," Fred said quietly. "I thought you would
+like it better than being dependent on Miss Barry."</p>
+
+<p>Irene gave a slow, acquiescent nod.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by," cried Sylvie, looking in. "I will run
+over again to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted her to stay to tea," said Mrs. Lawrence
+complainingly. "It is so dull!"</p>
+
+<p>"I will come up and take tea with you. I will order
+it at once." And he ran down.</p>
+
+<p>There was a subtle perfume in the hall. She had a
+bunch of violets in her belt, he remembered. He said
+over softly Ben Jonson's quaint lines,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Here she was wont to go, and here, and here,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Just where the daisies, pinks, and violets grow:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">The world may find the spring by following her."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>But he could not follow. Had fate smiled on him to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span>
+make the renunciation more bitter? For now he could
+work his way up to something worthy of her acceptance.
+And had he not learned the past winter, had he not
+been slowly learning ever since the death and loss, that
+the manhood of a gentleman was his thoughtfulness for
+others, his courteous delicacy, his consideration, often
+his denial of self, rather than the exquisite polish of
+cultivation, and the veneer of society's affectations? How
+blind he must have been, ever to have offered these last to
+a woman so true and pure of soul!</p>
+
+<p>But a still larger sacrifice had been demanded of him.
+He must see her in seductive solitudes, in still more intimate
+association. If he could stay away from Depford
+Beach! but that was not possible. He was to spend Sundays
+with them. But surely Jack would be there then.
+An almost careless lover he thought his friend. Was
+every smile so dear to him?</p>
+
+<p>The doctor and Fred went down with them. Darcy
+had decided to take a business trip, so presently Mrs.
+Darcy joined the seaside household. In the bygone years
+Mrs. Lawrence would not have deigned to notice her;
+but she found this delicate, mild-mannered, middle-aged
+woman very companionable. Circumstances had rendered
+Mrs. Darcy exclusive, rather than any inherent
+trait of birth or breeding. She had lived with a few
+people always, and two or three strong attachments had
+given to her character the kind of concentration that
+passes for strength. Yet all of these had been more
+positive people than herself; and while this had softened
+the tendency to that querulous exactingness that weak,
+sweet natures are apt to possess, it had also shaped to
+certain generous instincts that were quite free from
+vanity. Her natural kindliness gave her the charm of
+good-breeding, and this settled her in the estimation of
+Mrs. Lawrence. She might have possessed all the virtues
+in the calendar, but an inharmonious, unpolished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>
+turn or act would have tabooed her. We generally
+ascribe this grace to life-long culture, or a certain inheritance
+of blood, but it occasionally springs from other
+causes.</p>
+
+<p>The three women, with natures and aims widely different,
+fraternized in the most amiable manner. Sylvie
+glanced in and out between them as a gleam of sunshine
+penetrates the interstices of a wood, and brings out all
+lights and tints, itself untouched by any. Their greatest
+diversion was driving. Back of the little settlement&mdash;it
+was hardly large enough for a village, and had a powerful
+rival some seven miles farther on&mdash;there were country
+lanes and by-ways, sleepy-looking farms, and picturesquely
+careless houses. Below them there was a great fish <i>entrep&ocirc;t</i>,
+with fishing-boats plying up and down, brawny fishermen
+trilling their musical half-chant, half-song, as they
+floated over the bay.</p>
+
+<p>It was curious how, presently, Sylvie came to watch
+for Fred. Truth to tell, she found Depford Beach a trifle
+monotonous. No interest of schools or clubs or young
+people's affairs, no strong energetic talks with Jack about
+mill business, few people coming and going that she
+cared about; the three ladies purring through the drowsy
+hours on topics that she fancied she had exhausted years
+ago; and Irene, between whom and her there had never
+been any real electric sympathy, and who was now coldly
+indifferent to all matters. For hours she would sit with
+her hands dropped nerveless in her lap, glancing over the
+wide sea out to the farther horizon. What thoughts were
+in her mind, Sylvie wondered? She could not even provoke
+her to the wordy combats of old. The flashes of
+temper and imperiousness had alike died out. She was
+courteously polite, and acknowledged all favors with a
+punctiliousness that built the wall around her still more
+firmly. "If one could only rouse her," Dr. Maverick
+said; but that seemed just the thing no one <i>could</i> do.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Yet she certainly was improving in health. Her step
+became more assured, her eye less languid, and her complexion
+cleared up to the hopeful tints of renewed bodily
+vigor. Her slender hands filled out a trifle; and sometimes
+she would take a book, as if she needed an interest
+beside her own sombre thoughts to while away the hours.</p>
+
+<p>So Sylvie established her easel, and had recourse to
+painting. Oddly enough she began to ask herself what it
+was all for? Filling her own rooms, and bestowing gifts
+upon friends, was very well for a season; but was there
+not a higher purpose in all art, or at least a wider purpose?
+It surely did not tend to isolation. She thought
+of her winter in Philadelphia,&mdash;of the friends she had
+made, of the desires that had been awakened. She
+longed for some purpose, some sympathy and aim. The
+enthusiasms of girlhood could no longer inspire her: there
+must be a reality and definite end, or work lost its great
+charm. How was she to get to this? Her aunt was coming
+to depend upon her in a peculiar way, that at times
+startled Sylvie. She would say, with her quiet, tender
+smile, "Will you do this or that, Sylvie? I believe I am
+growing indolent: I never thought to so like being waited
+upon."</p>
+
+<p>The secret in Miss Barry's soul was well kept. In how
+many lives there comes a demand for heroism greater than
+that which led the martyrs of old to the stake, or the
+brave women in the reign of terror to the guillotine!
+Their inspiration to bravery was patent to all around:
+their cause was a lofty one, and they were apostles of
+that high creed of self-abnegation which leaves behind a
+memory in the hearts of all noble men and women. But
+there are other pangs quite noiseless: there are other martyrs
+who suffer without the sign, who cannot even confess
+the reason for the high faith that upholds them.</p>
+
+<p>It was quite natural that she should desire to see Sylvie
+married. She could never get over her distaste of having<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>
+women taking bold strides for the world's fame and favor.
+If left alone, this was what Sylvie would surely do. The
+delicate womanly charities and kindnesses that had filled
+up so much of her life would not satisfy her niece. And,
+now that she had brought herself to the point of satisfaction
+with Jack Darcy, either she had mistaken their regard,
+or he was proving himself an indifferent lover. By a
+subtile intuition, she understood that Fred still cared for
+her, nay, that he held now a reverent admiration that he
+had never thought of in the past. His melancholy eyes
+followed her about, now and then scintillating sparks of
+passion that seemed almost to rend his soul. She experienced
+an intense and exquisite sympathy for him that drew
+them together in a manner that he felt, and was grateful
+for, but did not clearly understand.</p>
+
+<p>As for Sylvie, curiously enough, she was at war with
+herself, though she wore such a calm, light-hearted exterior.
+When she rejected Fred Lawrence, she was quite
+sure she despised the present man, and his narrow, futile
+purposes of life. Truly, to have been the wife of such a
+man would have proved irksome to the last degree. But
+his misfortunes had brought out the fine gold, the solemn
+strain of strength and endurance, that had come from his
+father's blood. I think even Sylvie had been a little
+mortified first, that he should have come back to Yerbury,
+and taken such a very inferior position. She wanted him
+to do something noteworthy with his pen and his high
+cultivation. It seemed so much choice material quite
+thrown away. Designing patterns was surely no high test
+of genius. Women with a purely technical art education
+had done it.</p>
+
+<p>But out of it had come this other opportunity that he
+had grasped with the pure instinct of genius. Employment
+for pen and pencil both, for the embodiment of the
+exquisite outward forms of beauty, and the rare, delicate,
+inward graces of imagination, for the true standards of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>
+taste and art in which he had been informing himself all
+these years; in the spirit of dilettanteism, it was true, but
+now when the intellectual impetus was added, and the
+positive need of daily bread, these complicated motives
+worked together as a strong stimulant. Perhaps, too, he
+had a not unworthy desire to show Sylvie Barry that the
+man who had loved her was not utterly unworthy or incapable.</p>
+
+<p>They had drifted together again in the ordinary purposes
+of life, which, after all, occur much more frequently
+than any grand or overwhelming shock. She took up the
+friendly, half-sisterly way, pleased with the instinctive
+deference he paid her. He understood that it would be
+quite useless to aspire to any regard of hers: that was
+all done with in the past. She could afford to evince an
+interest in his plans, since Irene cared not, and to his
+mother they were so much Greek, a subtle flavor that she
+admitted was the proper thing, but could not understand,&mdash;did
+not care to trouble herself, in fact.</p>
+
+<p>So these two young people, working in a common bond
+of sympathy, insensibly strengthened the regard that had
+grown with them from childhood. Fred gained sufficient
+courage to discuss some plans with Sylvie: she brought
+out her easel, as I have said, and accepted from him
+friendly criticisms. The difference between their work
+was soon manifest,&mdash;he had an earnest purpose, with
+breadth and scope: she had none. How had they so
+queerly changed places? she asked herself. Why were
+not her talents made of some avail, instead of this puerile
+pottering to please one's self?</p>
+
+<p>She began to wonder&mdash;dangerously fascinating employment
+to a woman&mdash;if he had ever cared for her.
+There seemed an adamantine wall built up around him,
+and yet the fruit in the inner garden was more rarely
+sweet than she had ever dreamed it could be. She could
+not know that the passion for her he had put away with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>
+such despairing hands, was blossoming all the sweeter,
+and bearing more exquisite fruit in other directions. She
+saw the lovely tenderness toward his mother, the unwearying
+patience with Irene, the fearless, animating
+ambition that seemed to have set his &aelig;sthetic desires to a
+steady, comprehensive strain of music, to which he was
+keeping invisible step, but which thrilled and roused every
+fibre.</p>
+
+<p>All this he had done without any assistance from her,
+she thought, blind little girl; as if the kinship of a true
+passion could not reach from the life that went before to
+that which was to come afterward! <i>She</i> had not inspired
+his genius, but stern necessity; it had been no longing or
+desire to win <i>her</i>, but the material support of his mother
+and sister. She began to feel curiously jealous of these
+extraneous influences. She unconsciously exerted herself
+to make his visits at the beach more interesting.
+They drove together in her pony-carriage; they studied
+glowing summer sunsets, where fantastic clouds piled up
+wealth of gold and amber and purple and opaline splendors,
+and shot out arrowy, dazzling rays; they paced the
+sands after it had all faded into tintless space, and delicate
+vapors of grayish green and vague violet rose from
+the crested waves that broke far out at sea, and trooped
+across like airy spirits; they listened to the slow, regular
+rhythm that came marching from some weird country,
+with a grand crash at last, a sobbing crescendo, and an
+interval of silence that still pulsated on the dusky, odorous
+air, when the moaning billow was dead.</p>
+
+<p>They came so near to Nature, there were moments
+when they seemed empowered to wrest the shadowy secrets
+out of her bosom; and yet they did not come near
+to each other. Ever this distance between,&mdash;a man's
+honor, and faith to his friend, Fred Lawrence thought,
+never allowing his secret soul to swerve. There were
+midnights when he softly paced the floor, his lips compressed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>
+his brow ghostly white, and his hands clinched
+in the throe of a man's deathless love. Then he thought
+he could not endure it, that he must stay away. But
+circumstances were stronger than will. Did God mean
+that this anguish should redeem that other old treachery,
+that his soul should be purified by its baptism of fire, a
+more worthy offering for his friend? If so, then he must
+not abate one jot or one pang.</p>
+
+<p>There were within Sylvie Barry's soul certain coquettish
+instincts. She was fond of admiration for herself: a
+purely intellectual regard, with the passion-dream flown,
+would soon have wearied her. A warm, bright nature,
+loving to please others, but to be pleased in return, cruelly
+hurt by surging against this rock-bound coast, piqued and
+almost angered, sent into moods of daring, seductive
+warmth and gayety, quite capable of making a foil of
+Dr. Maverick, who was strangely puzzled by her contradictory
+moods. But for one thing, he must have tried to
+cage the dazzling, elusive spirit: he, too, had a strong
+sense of honor toward his friend; and he could only
+imagine her playing sportively with the few who came
+within her radius, not setting herself to win any forbidden
+regard. What might have made some women sad and
+silent&mdash;the consciousness that an old lover had over-lived
+his passion&mdash;seemed to sting her into renewed effort.</p>
+
+<p>Coming back to them, Jack Darcy was more than
+puzzled, set at sea in a bewildering way, without chart or
+compass. Had Fred ceased to care for Sylvie? Had
+she never loved him? Or was some other feeling holding
+him back,&mdash;a kind of family complication, a sense of
+duty to the others so high that he would not offer them
+a divided regard, any sooner than her? He believed
+mothers had a peculiar sense of possession in their sons;
+but they surely had married other women's sons with
+small scruple! Mrs. Lawrence was warmly attached to
+Sylvie. In his honest, inconsequent man-fashion, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span>
+wondered why they could not always live together, as they
+were doing here.</p>
+
+<p>Fred was strangely worn and thin, with the kind of
+nervous alertness that accompanies an intent watching of
+one's self.</p>
+
+<p>"Hillo, old fellow!" cried Jack; "what have you
+been doing? Working yourself to a shadow? If high
+art is so exhaustive, there must be a little let-up. A
+man has no more right to kill himself in an artistic industrial
+way, than in any of the ruder forms of suicide."</p>
+
+<p>Fred shivered visibly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't speak of suicide," he answered in a shrinking
+tone. "I never thought of it but once; and that was
+when I fancied myself of no use to the world, or myself
+either. I am not overworked"&mdash;and he paused, to
+study Jack a moment. Why, he was positively handsome,
+with that superabundant strength and vitality, the
+clear red and white of his complexion, the bronze beard,
+the healthful, honest eyes. He seemed to be surcharged
+with a magnetic current of energy and courage.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you are. I dare say you have carried your plans
+and sketches, and what not, down to Depford Beach, and
+pored over them until almost morning. You must take
+a vacation."</p>
+
+<p>"I expect to when the families return;" and he gave
+a faint, wan smile. "I have had another streak of luck,
+Jack. A lady, a very wealthy widow, is building a house
+in one of the pretty towns up the Hudson, and it is to be
+finished with all the elegance art can bring. She saw one
+of my articles, and sent to me; and we have been corresponding.
+In September I am to go to New York, and
+make arrangements. There is to be painting and frescoing,
+and rooms finished in different styles,&mdash;indeed, I
+cannot tell the half myself, until I see her."</p>
+
+<p>The pale face had kindled with a fine and proud enthusiasm.
+More than ever, Jack recognized the artistic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>
+refinement of his friend. What would law or medicine
+have been to him as a profession?</p>
+
+<p>"Humph!" grunted Jack. "A great vacation that
+will be! But you <i>must</i> be careful, or you will not live
+out half your days. You've a look in your face like the
+little chap I first knew."</p>
+
+<p>The smile that crossed it then, Jack did not understand.
+It seemed to Fred Lawrence that half his days
+would suffice, when Sylvie Barry was his friend's wife.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you see the 'little chap' lived"&mdash;with an
+attempt at gayety.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. And, Fred, I am more glad than I can put
+into words, to know that you have been so successful.
+It is just the career for you. It's odd that a great commonplace,
+blundering fellow like me should have two such
+artistic friends as you and Sylvie Barry."</p>
+
+<p>The well-trained face did not blanch a muscle. He
+felt, with a flash of subtile inner consciousness, that
+Darcy was studying him. Thank God, he could stand
+before his friend free from a thought of treachery! All
+these weeks he had walked over burning coals, but the
+smell of the fire was not in his garments.</p>
+
+<p>Jack thought it over long after Fred had gone. Why
+could not these two people see! Surely they were meant
+for one another. It puzzled, it almost fretted him.
+Sylvie was so peculiar, so changed in these few weeks!
+What did it all mean?</p>
+
+<p>And on Saturday when he was to go down to the beach,
+Fred pleaded some urgent business to a neighboring city.
+He was not quite brave enough to see them together.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been meaning to go for some time," he said
+with gravity, "but I did not like to think they would be
+alone over Sunday. Now that you will be there, I certainly
+can spare three or four days."</p>
+
+<p>"See here," returned Jack,&mdash;"wait until Monday.
+Come, we'll have a nice day together down there on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>
+sands. Sundays always seem so wonderful by the ocean,
+with the grand chant forever in your ears. The very
+waves are saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+"'Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord.'"<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>But Fred Lawrence would not suffer himself to be persuaded.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Jack Darcy's</span> business-tour, while it had not been productive
+of any great financial results, had restored his
+healthy mental equilibrium. He found other firms were
+having it just as hard, and that the country was still overrun
+with men willing to work for any wages. Prices were
+certainly falling. All kinds of raw products were offered
+at the very lowest figure; and, labor being so cheap, manufactured
+goods must perforce be low. Men were not
+now counting on a speedy return to good times and high
+prices: they began to admit that the latter were the outcome
+of extravagant speculation. They bought what they
+wanted, and no more. They gave no extensive credits,
+and now really appeared to be anxious to reach a permanent
+basis.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall have to sell most of our stock at cost," he
+said to Winston. "Lucky to get that, I suppose. And
+we shall come out about even&mdash;no profits for this six
+months. Still, we shall not run back, and that is something
+gained."</p>
+
+<p>"We can count on the new goods, I'm pretty sure,"
+returned Winston. "I've had some inquiries, and sent
+samples. Some of the fancy overcoatings are to be duplicated.
+That looks like business."</p>
+
+<p>It did, indeed. Jack sat at his desk, ruminating upon
+it, and feeling as if at last they saw a light through the
+woods, when a step startled him, because it was not the
+kind of step usually heard through that hall, so he turned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>
+It was Fred Lawrence, with a face of ashen pallor. Jack
+sprang up, dazed with the vision.</p>
+
+<p>"I was to come and tell you&mdash;Maverick has gone to
+Depford Beach&mdash;Miss Barry is very ill, and they have
+telegraphed for him. He left word&mdash;that we were to
+come."</p>
+
+<p>The voice had a strained, unnatural sound; and the
+eyes looked like those that have wept out a passionate
+sorrow, and are dry from despair.</p>
+
+<p>"Ill&mdash;Miss Barry&mdash;not Sylvie?"</p>
+
+<p>Could he speak of her in that calm tone? A passion
+of rage swelled in Fred's heart, and flushed his face.
+Only a moment, for the great throb of thankfulness that
+it was <i>not</i> Sylvie restored him.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Miss Barry. You will go?"</p>
+
+<p>The tone had that peculiar, wandering cadence, as if
+somehow the soul had dropped out of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," and Jack sprang up, puzzled by something
+quite intangible in Fred's demeanor.</p>
+
+<p>"There are just twenty minutes to catch this train.
+The eight-ten does not stop at Depford, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"True: I will just speak to Winston"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I will meet you at the station," returned Fred hurriedly,
+turning away.</p>
+
+<p>Much as he loved Jack, it seemed as if he could not
+walk to the station with him. A feeling of profound pity
+for Sylvie rose in his heart. This man, noble, generous,
+helpful, and affectionate, had not the finely responsive
+nature Sylvie Barry needed. There would be some distance
+or coldness, or, worse still, a fatal dissonance. One
+part of her nature must remain unmated: her soul would
+have a language in which he would not only be deaf, but
+wholly dumb. He could express no more than the possibilities
+of his nature. It was not the fine and essential
+difference between man and woman, but that more fatal
+gulf in which there would appear no certain glimpses of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>
+royally endowed love in all its spontaneity, its glow of
+feeling, its variation of rich emotions. How would she,
+with her versatile, changeful soul, with its cycle of moods,
+ever live in the strong, steady prison of his heart!</p>
+
+<p>If he had thought perfect honor to his friend the greatest
+trial of his life, what was this to be? He could not
+stay and see the slow, consuming inward fire that would
+burn her soul to ashes while it was still in the body.
+Thank God, he could go away, would go soon indeed, and
+never return! He would nerve himself for these few days
+of torture.</p>
+
+<p>Jack waited on the platform until the last moment.
+The bell was ringing when Fred appeared, and the strong
+arm grasped him. They sat side by side, but were silent
+after one question as to the nature of Miss Barry's illness.
+Never had they been further divided in heart, for in the
+days when there had been no semblance of friendship the
+trivial repulsion was not to be compared to this wall of
+adamant. Fred would not have gone at all but for his
+mother's sake, although his heart was with Sylvie through
+every instant of her trial.</p>
+
+<p>The house was very quiet when they reached it. Maverick
+came to meet them, and was as sorely puzzled as Fred
+by the certain composure of Darcy's face.</p>
+
+<p>"It was not altogether unexpected by her or myself,"
+Maverick explained in answer to their inquiries. "It is
+the result of a complication of disorders, some of long
+standing and incurable; and the present effect is partial
+paralysis. I hoped change of air and a quiet summer
+would delay what we knew must come before many
+years."</p>
+
+<p>Darcy was astonished beyond measure. He would
+sooner have thought of his own mother dying. True, he
+remembered now that Miss Barry had been about less,
+and looked rather more delicate, and that through the
+summer she had kept extremely quiet. So amazed was
+he, that at first he quite forgot about Sylvie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Fred Lawrence paced the floor in an agony. Would
+the man never ask the question that was torturing him,
+because he had no right to ask it first!</p>
+
+<p>"How is my mother?" was his huskily tremulous inquiry,
+as he still went up and down like a caged lion.</p>
+
+<p>"The shock was really terrible to her. Mrs. Darcy was
+invaluable," bowing to Jack. "But for her, Sylvie would
+have been in despair,"&mdash;looking furtively at the broad,
+slightly bowed figure.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Sylvie!" he murmured, "poor Sylvie!"</p>
+
+<p>Fred turned to the door, compressing his lips over a
+throb of anguish.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," began Maverick, "they must all be removed
+as soon as possible. I think it would be well
+for Mrs. Lawrence and her daughter to go to-morrow.
+Neither is strong enough to bear any prolonged strain."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." Fred's heart swelled within him. They were
+all to be thrust aside as quickly as possible. This was
+Sylvie's sorrow&mdash;sacred to her and Jack.</p>
+
+<p>He went to his mother's room. She was lying on a
+couch, and was still hysterical. From her he heard the
+story; and though, as ever, she was selfishly alive to her
+own sufferings, she evinced an almost motherly tenderness
+in her sympathy for Sylvie.</p>
+
+<p>Fred spoke of the return. If it could be to-morrow;
+if he could settle them in their own home, and go quite
+away for a while! he thought.</p>
+
+<p>"And leave Sylvie here alone?" said his mother reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know what you can do for&mdash;for Miss Barry."
+How studiously cold and calm the tone was! "The doctor
+wishes to remove her as speedily as possible. I thought
+we would be out of the way, at least."</p>
+
+<p>"It <i>is</i> terrible here; and if you considered it quite right&mdash;the
+summer is so nearly ended, and the nights are
+growing cool,&mdash;yes, we might go."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They settled it over their quiet supper. "Miss Barry
+was comfortable," Martha said, "and Miss Sylvie was
+lying down."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawrence retired early, her nerves were so shattered
+by the terrible incident. Irene had disappeared;
+and, when Fred could stand his loneliness no longer, he
+went to walk upon the beach.</p>
+
+<p>It was a moonless night, but with an intensely blue sky
+that gave the Milky Way the appearance of a luminous
+trail across the heavens. The murmur of the waves
+seemed sad and softened, and they touched the heart of
+the man who paced beside them. Once he had held so
+much in his hands! Surely he could have won the love
+of this woman then. Oh the blind, insensate, idiotic
+folly! He could have thrust his own soul down here on
+the sand, and trampled the very life out of it!</p>
+
+<p>Hark! some one was coming with hasty strides. With
+the wild instinct of a wounded animal he turned to flee,
+and yet&mdash;whither should he go?</p>
+
+<p>The hand was on his shoulder. The well-known voice
+uttered his name, and he turned at bay.</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Don't repeat her name to me!" he flung out, beside
+himself with passionate jealousy and love. And then
+their eyes met, the one lurid with an emotion well-nigh
+beyond control, the other wondering, pitiful, amazed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, let me go my way. I had not meant you to
+know it; but once&mdash;yes, I will confess it to you&mdash;I
+scorned you to her. God knows how I have repented;
+for I was beside myself then, blinded with my own folly
+and arrogance. And now you have won the woman I
+love, whom I shall always love, and it will be at once my
+bliss and my punishment. Take your triumph&mdash;tell her
+that her erring knight came back, and paid her the highest
+homage of his soul." Then, in a sudden, changed
+tone, freighted with a pain that pierced the other's heart,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>
+he cried, "Jack Darcy, I have made amends for that
+selfish blunder of my young manhood. For weeks I have
+endured such pangs, that Heaven grant you may never
+know! I have walked by her side with polar wastes
+between us; I have touched her hand with fingers that
+have had no more passion in them than the dead; I have
+watched her dewy lips ripe with kisses, and remembered
+they were for you; I have been true, <i>true</i> in word and
+deed and desire, but in thought I must love her to her
+life's end. I will go quite away"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Up to this point his words had come with the heat and
+flow of a lava-torrent. Now his impassioned voice faltered,
+trembled, and seemed to lose itself.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy stood transfixed. Was it a dream? Had
+Fred been so blind all this while? He essayed speech;
+but the lines about his mouth were constricted, and his
+breath came in quivering gasps, as the vision of torture,
+suffered for honor's sake, rose up before him. Ah! if
+ever he <i>had</i> sinned,&mdash;and the temporary forgetfulness
+appeared such a little thing to Jack's generous soul,&mdash;he
+had redeemed himself nobly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! you thought&mdash;she doesn't love me, Fred,&mdash;not
+in that way," and his voice had the full, throbbing inflection
+of a great joy. "We are friends, such as a man and
+a woman can truly be. Do you not understand that some
+people are so alike they run in parallels? there are no
+angles to create the intense friction of love, they are so
+evenly balanced that there is no desire for possessorship,
+they have just as wholesome an influence over each other
+remaining apart. There is hardly Sylvie's equal in the
+world. Half that I am, I owe her."</p>
+
+<p>Had the night changed? Was the world flooded with
+a serene and tender light? Was the moaning ocean filled
+with the wondrous music of immortal love and longing,
+reaching out to glad fruition? Was that sudden rare
+peace, creating a reverential atmosphere about him, an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span>
+earnest of days to come? He experienced a vivid lightness
+as if he were being borne on clouds, while fragments
+of delicious remembrances floated through his brain.
+The very refinement of his nature seemed to exalt him
+to that high heaven of love, whose solemn mysteries it is
+not lawful to utter.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot quite understand"&mdash;in a curious dreamy
+tone, still spelled by the mastery of impassioned emotion&mdash;"how
+you could miss loving Sylvie; how she, woman-like,
+could help adoring you for your strength and heroism.
+Jack, if I were a woman, your very power would compel
+me to worship you. I should love you, whether or no."</p>
+
+<p>Jack gave a bright, cheerful laugh. "It is that kind
+of strength you like in Sylvie," he made answer. "She
+will always spur a man up to his best. Her well-trained
+ear is quick to detect a false note in honor, ambition, or
+love. She will never be any kind of dead weight, and yet
+she is so deliciously womanly. There was a time&mdash;don't
+be vexed, Fred,"&mdash;in a tender, pleading tone,&mdash;"when
+I thought you were not going to be worthy of her. But
+that is past."</p>
+
+<p>"She rejected me then," Fred Lawrence said simply.
+"I offered her my father's wealth, the home he had made,
+my own folly and arrogance and self-conceit; and then,
+Jack, she boldly admitted that you were her hero! When
+I consider the sort of man my training and surroundings
+made me, I am filled with disgust. And yet I was no
+worse than hundreds of others at the present day. When
+I look at my mother, Irene, and myself, I feel that we
+were the product of the so-called culture of the day,
+which substitutes shallow creeds, conventional manners,
+and systems, for all that is pure, strong, and noble in manhood
+or womanhood. It is the sort of Greek temperament
+on which we pride our intellectual selves. We revel in a
+glowing, sensuous enjoyment, that intoxicates the brain,
+and leads us to disdain the real work of the world. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>
+are trained to consider what society demands of us; we
+are polished and refined, and in too many instances left
+morally weak and ignorant. No wonder so many of us
+have not the strength to buffet across the stormy sea of
+hard experience, but are lost in the great whirlpool!"</p>
+
+<p>Jack peered into the pale, handsome face by the faint
+light. Surely this man had to make a tremendous effort
+for salvation, when nearly every tide had been against
+him! He experienced a keener sympathy than he could
+express; he drew the arm within his, and they paced up
+and down again in silence, understanding dimly the sacred
+mysteries of each other's hearts, that needed not to be
+dragged to open day for inspection. In a pure friendship,
+faith is the highest element: with that there is supreme
+content; without it, distrust gnaws like a canker-worm.</p>
+
+<p>They heard the little church-clock striking ten, and
+turned their steps toward the house. On the porch, Fred
+paused a moment, while an icy fear seemed to wring every
+pulse. He turned cold with apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>"What if I have been deluding myself!" he cried with
+sudden intensity. "Even if you and she could not love,
+she may have no such regard for me as I desire. I could
+not endure her pity."</p>
+
+<p>A warm, hopeful, generous smile illumined Jack Darcy's
+face. His hand thrilled with an electric force and sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no fear," he answered; "but I will not dim
+the grace of your exquisite joy by any prediction."</p>
+
+<p>They entered the quiet room. Dr. Maverick came out
+to meet them.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Sylvie is asleep," he said. "Miss Barry is
+comparatively comfortable. Hester will stay with her
+through the night. I have sent your mother to bed,"
+nodding to Jack. "I do not know what we should have
+done without her. I shall camp down on the sofa, to be
+within call; and to-morrow we had better begin the process
+of removal."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I had arranged to take my family," remarked Fred
+Lawrence, not exactly certain now that it was best.</p>
+
+<p>"Your house must be opened and aired thoroughly,
+before any one goes into it. So must Miss Barry's. Miss
+Morgan will see to this, I think. I am compelled to return
+in the early morning train, for I have some critical
+cases. One of you had better remain here."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at Jack as he said this, but was amazed at
+the frank answer,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Fred will remain."</p>
+
+<p>He studied Jack with almost angry intentness. Had he
+been so mistaken in the man? Could he so calmly leave
+the woman he loved to bear her terrible trial alone, or did
+he think his mother's sympathy sufficient for her? And,
+although there were many admirable qualities in Fred
+Lawrence, the two had never fraternized with the deep
+cordiality that must underlie all friendships. They had
+not the magnetic attraction for each other that Darcy held
+for both.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of Miss Barry?" the latter asked
+hesitatingly.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the beginning of the end;" and Maverick sighed,
+as he thought of the impotence of human skill past a
+certain point. "Miss Barry consulted me a year ago, and
+was not in ignorance; but I hoped, nay, felt assured, with
+care and quiet her life might be prolonged. She may
+linger some months, and it may all be ended in a week.
+Good heavens! what a shock for Miss Sylvie!"</p>
+
+<p>He took two or three turns across the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Go," he said abruptly, with an imperious wave of
+the hand. Then, a little scornfully, "You will both be
+better in bed. Lawrence looks as if I might have him for
+a patient to-morrow; but, Jack, are you made out of
+adamant?"</p>
+
+<p>The thrust hurt him, but Maverick was not in a pitying
+mood. Indeed, just at this moment his temper was savage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span>
+He had witnessed the pain and the suffering of the
+woman he had begun to love, until it had been hard to refrain
+from taking her in his strong arms, and sheltering
+her from the keenest pangs.</p>
+
+<p>The household remained the next morning as he had
+ordered. He was rather sulky all the way up in the train
+with Jack; but a talk with brisk, pungent Miss Morgan
+quite restored him.</p>
+
+<p>"Open the houses, and build fires immediately," he
+commanded. "Burn up and blow out the confined air,
+that there shall be no pestilential foes to greet them on
+their own hearths."</p>
+
+<p>He went down again that evening. If he had been
+annoyed before, he was puzzled now. There had been no
+word spoken between Fred and Sylvie; but the now, to
+her, sweet knowledge had come in a gesture, a glance,
+that could no more be described than the fine pulse of love
+can be dissected. She seemed to have waited breathless
+for just this strength and support. A hasty lover might
+have placed himself in the foreground. It was as if he
+said, "Here is my love, take it, use it, rely upon it; you
+cannot wear it out, you cannot wound or hurt it by any
+thing that may look like coldness; it is a blessed atmosphere
+to surround you until you stretch out your hand, and
+draw me into your very soul. I have been trained in
+patience and humility; only let me prove myself worthy in
+your eyes."</p>
+
+<p>Three days after, they all came up to Yerbury. The
+evening before, Irene Lawrence had gone to Sylvie's room,
+and found her kneeling by the open window, her face
+turned heavenward in a wordless prayer for strength. She
+knelt beside her, she took the passive hands in hers, she
+even touched her own cold lips to the colder forehead of the
+other.</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie,"&mdash;the tone still had the awful dreariness of
+that utter inward living,&mdash;"Sylvie, I have been drawn to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span>
+you in this your anguish by some power quite outside of
+myself. I think we have always liked each other in a
+curious way, but we were neither of us sentimental girls.
+I could not cry over you now, nor kiss you with effusive
+fondness; but I wish, oh, how passionately I wish, I could
+save you one pang! I wish I could die in <i>her</i> place! My
+life is of so little value"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I believe God is right," Sylvie answered with a great
+struggle. "She has used her life so well; she has garnered
+ripened sheaves of mercy and kindliness and good
+works. There is not only golden wheat, but the sweetness
+of rose and violet, the pungent purity and strength
+of heliotrope, the use, the beauty, every thing. She is
+ready."</p>
+
+<p>"And I am not worthy to be taken even for a ransom!"
+said the proud, cold voice, not betraying any
+inward hurt.</p>
+
+<p>"God does not mean that. You are to shape your life
+to something better. Irene, did you ever think how easy
+it might be to die for those we love, but oh, so hard to
+live for <i>them</i>, not ourselves!"</p>
+
+<p>Irene rose, and stood there like a statue. Sylvie felt
+for the hand, pressed it to her lips, folded it about her
+chin in a softly caressing manner. How had Irene become
+dear to her?</p>
+
+<p>"I am no heroine, Sylvie. I have been tossed up by
+the breakers of fortune, and am out of joint, broken,
+bruised, of no avail."</p>
+
+<p>"You can comfort <i>me</i>. You can help to give me
+strength and sympathy. You can become a warm, living,
+active woman. There is always room for such in the
+world, and a work for them to do. God never put an
+idle or useless thing in the world, much more a human
+soul; and it must go sadly astray before it comes to
+despair. Irene, you will not shut your heart again, you
+will turn its warm side to me, you will take me in, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span>
+my great sorrow;" and she buried her face in the other's
+dress, with a shivering sob.</p>
+
+<p>"I will do&mdash;what you wish. I am physically strong
+again. Let me help you&mdash;anywhere, anyhow. You were
+so good and patient through my dreary time."</p>
+
+<p>Then she stole softly away, astonished at herself.
+Within was still the coldness of Alpine glaciers. But oh,
+if she might be warmed!</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry's journey was performed in an easy carriage.
+A paralysis of the lower limbs had supervened;
+but otherwise she had rallied a little, and her mind was
+clear and cheerful. There was only to be a peaceful
+waiting for the end, no feverish fluctuations of hope and
+fear. It was curious how they settled themselves to the
+fact. A nurse was installed for night watching and the
+more onerous part; and the invalid's room took on a
+pleasant aspect,&mdash;Christiana waiting on this side of the
+river.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">For</span> the first time in his life, and for some unfathomable
+cause, Jack Darcy found business cares irksome. Balance-time
+was at hand. He was a little tired of the dreary
+round. The men's disaffection re-acted upon him. With
+his keen and intelligent faculty of making the best of
+every thing, he was disappointed because he had failed to
+inspire others with it.</p>
+
+<p>"It's not so bad, after all. We have nothing that can
+be passed to capital, but we have held our own. Only,
+there is no dividend for the men."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll explain that to them," exclaimed Winston with
+a confident nod.</p>
+
+<p>He did, and he had a rather stormy venture. All the
+old arguments and agreements had to be gone over.
+Men unaccustomed to business are quick in prosperity and
+stupid in adversity. They only had three-quarter wages:
+why should they be called upon to lose beside? It was
+little enough, and waiting five years,&mdash;and no one knew,&mdash;the
+whole thing might go to smash another year! A
+few wished, with an oath, that they were well out of it.
+They would never be bamboozled into any co-operative
+scheme again.</p>
+
+<p>The grumbling, grew louder and louder. It was discussed
+at Keppler's over beer and bad whiskey, and quite
+inflammatory speeches were made. Then Winston called
+the mill-hands together.</p>
+
+<p>"My men," said he, "you know we opened the mills
+in starvation-times. Every man who could raise fifty dollars<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span>
+was entitled to a half-share of the capital, and he
+who could not was to have a little capital made off of the
+savings of his labor. Last year you were all pleased and
+merry and satisfied, because we made something: this
+year it has been the reverse, though I declare to you, I,
+for one, have worked twice as hard. Now, we shall never
+do any thing if we are all going to row different ways.
+It must be the long pull, the strong pull, and the pull
+all together. You know that if any operative became
+dissatisfied, and left, his share was forfeited to the fund
+for the sick and disabled. Many of you <i>are</i> dissatisfied;
+but maybe you won't leave, thinking of last year's money.
+Now, I want to say, every such man who would like to <i>sell</i>
+his share, may do so. I have had some applications
+from new men, that I have been very sorry to refuse. I
+shall open a book, and any man who wants to go out
+may put down his name there, and, just as fast as the
+shares are resold, he can go; <i>but he never comes back into
+Hope Mills again!</i> Just think it over, and decide in the
+course of a few days."</p>
+
+<p>"O Winston!" cried Jack, "I am afraid there will be
+a stampede!"</p>
+
+<p>"You're nervous and blue, Darcy. Now, you see if
+this isn't the very best move. There were two men here
+the other day from Little Falls. They had been taking
+out half their wages in store-pay, and the concern burst
+up, owing them the other half. They knew of a dozen
+men, not beggarly poor either, who would be glad to
+come. I'll bet my old hat there don't six men go out.
+Come, now!"</p>
+
+<p>"You can't tempt me with your old hat," returned
+Jack laughingly. "Make it a treat at Kit Connelly's."</p>
+
+<p>"Agreed. We'll take in the household."</p>
+
+<p>A dozen names were put down on the first day, two on
+the second, then there was a lull. Afterward four were
+erased; and, when it came to the actual pinch, five men
+went out, two of them very reluctantly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I felt so sorry for Davy," said Jack when they had
+made the transfers. "He didn't want to go, and I do
+not believe he would if it had not been for his brother-in-law."</p>
+
+<p>"A good lesson for all parties. There will not be any
+grumbling for some time to come, I'll warrant. It is
+rather irregular business; but sometimes you can't wait
+for a regular surgeon, or the patient would be past help."</p>
+
+<p>Events pointed the lesson pretty forcibly. By the
+middle of October there was a sudden rush of orders.
+Prices rallied a little. There were some tremendous
+bankruptcies, but it seemed more in speculation than
+legitimate industry. The new men brought a fresh infusion
+of spirit and energy. One of them, a small, middle-aged
+man, Gilman by name, who had once been manager
+and had a share in a mill that came to grief through
+a defaulting cashier who had successfully forged the name
+of the firm, was especially enthusiastic about the system.
+Jack admitted that the culmination of the discontent was
+the very best thing that had happened for the mill.</p>
+
+<p>Davy went almost wild over his mistake, cursed his
+brother-in-law roundly, and forbade his wife to visit her
+brother's household. Nothing to do, not even three-quarter
+wages to live upon, with cheap coal and cheap flour.
+He even waylaid Darcy, and begged to be taken back without
+any share.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry, Davy, but it cannot be done. We resolved,
+whatever happened, we would not go back on our word.
+You had time enough to think it over."</p>
+
+<p>"Just you wait," said Price, when he heard this.
+"They've three years more to wade through, and they'll
+never hold together all that time. It has a very queer
+look, too, that, just as soon as they shoved us out, they
+began to make money again. Bob Winston's the sort of
+fellow to look out for himself, and he had this thing all
+cut and dried."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Look here," remarked a listener, "you signed your
+own selves out. Nobody made you. I haven't any faith
+in the scheme, but I like truth for all that."</p>
+
+<p>The men worked with a will. The monthly club meetings
+took on a new interest; and they decided, if the prosperity
+continued, to open a co-operative store another
+year. They were growing more thoughtful and intelligent,
+and Gilman's influence upon them was excellent, while his
+experiences widened their views. A little fresh blood certainly
+worked no harm.</p>
+
+<p>Jack was very cheery again. It seemed to him they
+had pulled through the worst. The larger outlook was
+better: goods were going abroad, and money or bonds
+were coming back. Here and there some new enterprise
+started, but still there were hundreds of men out of employment.
+Yerbury showed various signs of a new thriftiness.
+The farms about were better managed. Some
+idle men had ventured to hire a little ground the past summer,
+and raise sufficient to have something over for their
+trouble. The Webbers succeeded beautifully. Of course
+there were slurs about a Dutchman living on a cabbage a
+week, but every one knew the Webbers were not that
+kind. What Germans were able to do nicely and wisely,
+Americans might copy to their profit. When some of the
+natives were out of work, they patched up their fences,
+painted a bit, laid a bad place in the sidewalk, instead of
+hanging round a saloon.</p>
+
+<p>As for those who were living through the sad sweet
+lesson of loving and losing, time went on with them also.
+If they could have stayed his hand! Sylvie recovered
+from the first shock: she could never suffer quite so intensely
+again, for there was one to share her least thought,
+her most trivial to her greatest pain. The explanation
+had come about very gently, making only a small ripple.
+Mrs. Lawrence was delighted: she always had liked Sylvie,
+and she was certain that Fred was a better match than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span>
+Jack Darcy, though she admitted he was remarkable for a
+young man with no better opportunities.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry was truly satisfied. She would cling to her
+little dream of "orders" and "kinds" to the last, but she
+always did it in an unobtrusive way. She had felt all her
+life long, rather all <i>their</i> lives, that they were made for one
+another. Less practically clear-eyed than her young
+niece,&mdash;brought up in the active reasoning and doing of
+to-day, rather than the doctrine of passive suffering that
+had been in the old creed for women,&mdash;she would have
+assented when Sylvie refused. To be sure, if Jack Darcy
+had won her he would have had a delicate and sincere welcome;
+but I think her eye would never have lighted with
+the true mother-love at his coming, as it did at Fred's.
+The worth of his years of refinement and polish came out
+now. He never seemed at loss or awkward in the sickroom.
+If he was reading, he warily noted the first droop
+of the eyes; he could tell by the lines in her face when
+talking wearied her, or when she preferred being alone.
+Every thing between them was harmonious.</p>
+
+<p>She amazed even Dr. Maverick by her improvement,
+though she held her life even yet on the same frail tenure.
+She really hoped to live until spring, when she should
+plan for Sylvie's marriage. Fred had made a very profitable
+engagement with the widow he had spoken of, and was
+to furnish designs for the interior of her house and furniture.
+There was to be one purely Grecian room, one on
+the old Roman model, a sunset room where every thing
+was to be in accord, and a "sea" room fit for Naiads
+or Undines. Sylvie was intensely interested. This Mrs.
+Spottiswoode was young and handsome, the widow of a
+man nearly three times her age, and childless.</p>
+
+<p>Fred Lawrence was proud to have something of his very
+own to offer Sylvie, and she took it as the highest of all
+compliments. She did like the profession, if that it could
+be called; for it brought them nearer together, it was something<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span>
+they could both share. She copied designs and art
+essays, she drew patterns, she painted now and then, days
+when Miss Barry was at her best. She would make of
+herself something that should enhance Fred's pride in
+her,&mdash;as if he was not proud enough already!</p>
+
+<p>The one least contented with all this was Philip Maverick.</p>
+
+<p>"I never was so thunderstruck in all my life! That's
+just the word to express it, for it left me dazed as the
+blackness does after the lightning. I would have sworn,
+Jack, that she loved you, and you loved her. Good
+heavens! if I had not believed that, if I had not been too
+honorable to seek to play a friend a scurvy trick, it would
+have gone hard with me if I had not won her for myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Honestly, you would not have succeeded, Maverick.
+Neither would she have married me. I think she belonged
+to Fred from the beginning. He used to hate girls, judging
+from his sisters, no doubt, but he always liked Sylvie.
+I was afraid of girls,&mdash;their sharp eyes and sharper
+tongues,&mdash;but I liked her too; yet in my own mind he
+always had the first claim. And they will be suited in the
+farthest fibre of each soul."</p>
+
+<p>"He is not half worthy of her!" growled Maverick.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is?" There was a peculiar tender intonation in
+the voice. "Sylvie Barry's womanhood is unique, like
+some rare gem. She has the sparkle but not the hardness
+of a diamond; the warmth and vividness of the ruby, but
+not its heats; the serenity of the sapphire, and yet to me
+that is always cold. Rather I think she is a changeful
+opal with all hues and tints and surprises."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet you have never loved her!" in intense surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"I worship her," said Jack reverentially. "I should
+as soon think of wooing an angel."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet this man, who is not as strong, or noble, or
+high in purpose, takes her with your consent. You can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span>
+see her sit down at his feet, wind her own rich, pure, sustaining
+life-melody about him, to make his path seem like
+going through an enchanted land. She has genius, but it
+will ever linger in the shadow of his; it will help, and
+purify, and shape his; she will give her whole soul to the
+work. Is he worth the best there is in such a woman as
+Sylvie Barry?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; and we never go by our deserts when a woman
+loves us," said Jack, with frank honesty.</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite sure you will marry a woman I shall hate,"
+returned Maverick testily.</p>
+
+<p>Jack laughed. "Marrying has not been much in my
+thoughts;" and yet his fair face flushed. "I have to
+fight Hope Mills out to the end first."</p>
+
+<p>But just now there did not seem much of a prospect for
+fighting, though he firmly believed he should always be on
+guard after this.</p>
+
+<p>There was one other person in this little circle, who was
+of much interest to the others, even if it was for the most
+part unspoken. Maverick had tried to rouse Irene Lawrence
+from her lethargy by appeals of different kinds.
+She certainly was not an intellectual woman, though she
+had a strong and well-cultivated mind, and was accomplished
+in many ways,&mdash;society accomplishments, with a
+view to the admiration they might win. He could seem
+to strike no electric spark, though he succeeded in restoring
+her to health. Every week of her stay at Depford
+Beach, she had improved; but there was the old, dreary,
+listless life. She used to think herself, if some shock like
+that of an earthquake could lift her completely out of it!
+but none came.</p>
+
+<p>For it could not be said that Miss Barry's illness was
+any shock to her. People were sick, and died, and their
+perplexity was at an end. A generous, kindly life like
+this of Miss Barry's would have its reward&mdash;if any life
+ever was rewarded. She did not doubt so much: she had
+never really believed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As she said to Sylvie, something stronger than herself
+had sent her that night,&mdash;one of those powerful, impelling
+influences that few can resist. And Sylvie was wise
+enough not to lose her hold. She drew her in very gently,
+she preached no sermon, she asked favors frankly.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to take my pony-carriage," she said one
+day, after their return to Yerbury. "I ought to go out
+every day, and if you come with it I shall; but if I am
+left to my own fancies, there will be so much to occupy
+me. Then, too, companionship is always very tempting."</p>
+
+<p>"I should be glad to do any thing for you," was the
+quiet, unemotional reply.</p>
+
+<p>So the carriage was brought every morning to the door.
+It seemed so odd, the day she first drove around Yerbury!
+Unconsciously the old stateliness returned. Her heart
+swelled with contradictory phases of thought and feeling.
+She was too really proud to suffer from the stings of petty
+vanity. She knew there were people who stared at Miss
+Lawrence; and she allowed them to stare with the serenity
+of a queen, going her way unmoved.</p>
+
+<p>She and Sylvie went through lanes and by-ways this
+gorgeous October day. Her heart was strangely touched
+by the glory, by the odorous air, the softened sounds, and
+brooding tenderness. Sylvie had a few errands to some
+old parishioners of her aunt's; and, while she went in
+cottages, Irene sat with the reins idly in her hands.
+There was much in the world she had never seen, though
+she had climbed Alps, and wandered in sunny vales. The
+ripeness and perfection of this midday was exhilarating.
+They talked in little snatches, and then were silent.</p>
+
+<p>Coming back they drove through the town: it was
+nearer. Crossing over to Larch Avenue, a tall figure
+confronted them. Sylvie bowed, and looked straight on,
+remembering such a rencounter years agone. Irene Lawrence
+turned her head with its proudest poise, but her face
+flushed scarlet under her veil. She would have made the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span>
+<i>amende honorable</i> then, if it had taken all the strength of
+her soul.</p>
+
+<p>She and Jack Darcy had met occasionally through the
+summer. Mrs. Lawrence rather liked to talk mill affairs
+with him, and his name was quite a familiar one in their
+household. Now that it had come, she was rather glad to
+offer this wordless apology for a crime against good-breeding,
+that only a rude young girl could be guilty of, to one
+she considered her inferior.</p>
+
+<p>She had wondered more than once, why that long-ago
+evening at Sylvie's should haunt her,&mdash;the talk of costumes,
+the bright chat, the dainty ripples of laughter, and
+that face with its cool, steady power. If it had been that
+of any other man, she would have pitted herself against it,
+and conquered, she fancied. Now conquests were things
+of the past. She was not one of your soft, maudlin
+women, who sigh for a little love. She looked straight
+into the coming years, and saw herself always alone, with
+no feeling of pity or regret.</p>
+
+<p>As for Jack Darcy, when they had passed, he turned
+and looked after them,&mdash;after <i>her</i>, in her state and dignity.
+He held one secret of her life that she would never
+know. He had questioned Maverick, who learned that
+she had no remembrance of going out that night. He
+had bound Fred over to a most willing secrecy.</p>
+
+<p>Ah, Jack! any remembrance that you can carry so
+guardedly in your soul is a dangerous thing,&mdash;a spark
+that may kindle a great fire "that many waters cannot
+quench!"</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie did not relinquish her own outside interests.
+The school that had had so small a beginning was now
+merged into a regular enterprise, and been re-christened
+an Industrial School. It had a permanent teacher, and
+occupied the whole house, the rent being paid by some
+benevolent gentlemen. A committee of ladies assisted in
+the different classes. The store was kept open, one side<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span>
+being reserved for articles of clothing or fancy goods made
+by the pupils, the other as a bakery on a limited scale, and
+a lunch-counter. It certainly was doing a good work.
+Some young girls, after being trained, had been provided
+with service places, and had given excellent satisfaction.
+Irene went through it one day with Sylvie, and was oddly
+interested.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I had a genius of some kind," she said abruptly
+to Sylvie afterward. "If I could write a book, or
+paint a picture, or design exquisite adornments, or if I
+could hold the world spell-bound by my voice"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You do sing," returned Sylvie. "Auntie was speaking
+of it yesterday. She said, 'How I should like to hear
+Miss Lawrence sing some of her pathetic old ballads!'"</p>
+
+<p>"You know all the sweet and tender ones."</p>
+
+<p>"I sing mine over daily," and Sylvie laughed with a
+dainty inflection.</p>
+
+<p>Irene went home, and opened her piano. It might have
+made jarring discord, but for Fred's thoughtfulness. She
+found it was in perfect tune.</p>
+
+<p>Was it the music that brought a curious intensity to her
+after all these long, dreary months? Her fingers seemed
+a little stiff at first, and some things had gone out of her
+mind. Then she dropped her face into her hands, and
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>"It is my only gift," she said slowly. "When they
+are married I will not be a burthen on them: I can make
+my way. I shall never try to think of marriage again;"
+and she shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>"I declare, you are quite like yourself," said her
+mother that evening.</p>
+
+<p>The weeks went on. Miss Barry was making plans for
+her niece. She could not live here alone, even for a few
+months. And she longed to see her married. Though
+the others had almost forgotten how surely her days were
+numbered, she had not.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Fred assented delicately to her proposal.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not as if there were only your income," she said
+with a touch of pride. "Sylvie will have enough to keep
+the old house as it is kept now, and your mother and sister
+have some claims on you. Still, for her sake"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie would fain have put it off, but she was gently
+overruled. The wedding-garments were ordered, the day
+appointed. A quiet marriage in the pretty parlor, with
+only a few friends. They brought Miss Barry down
+stairs, and she listened while her darling reverently repeated
+her vows. They kissed the new bride while the
+tears were shining in her eyes, and sent her on a brief
+wedding-journey with heartfelt blessings. Maverick was
+to telegraph to them every day.</p>
+
+<p>Fred Lawrence could hardly believe his happiness.
+They were like two children out on a pleasure-excursion,
+not needing to realize the gravity of life in these golden
+days. What cared they for pale winter suns and shivering
+blasts!</p>
+
+<p>Long ago he had planned a brilliant tour to Europe for
+her. He had gone over it all, and would only have been
+bored; but it was the thing to do, and he might enjoy
+her fresh delight in it. But to both of them&mdash;to him
+especially&mdash;had come the higher revelations of life. It
+is the aggregation of individual characteristics that makes
+the sum-total of national character; and though at first
+retrenchment and economy seemed hideous words to the
+pleasure-loving, easy-going, self-indulgent souls nursed
+in the lap of prosperity, there was coming a realization
+to those who had fought their way valiantly across the
+yawning gulf, that the hot race for show, the desire to
+exceed one another, was not a lofty aim for an immortal
+soul, hardly for a cultured nature.</p>
+
+<p>They both understood that beauty and grandeur were
+not far-off, hardly attained ideals, and that the great
+pleasures were set in the world rather as incentives and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span>
+rewards, than highly seasoned daily food which must inevitably
+produce satiety. Some time, when they had earned
+this glorious vacation, they would take it hungering with
+the healthy appetite of a well-trained soul. At present
+the duty was to deny one's self firmly and contentedly,
+to round off the sharp corners, to shape the daily living
+to high, pure purposes; so that the greater excellences
+of Art should not despise the minor forms, the steps
+whereby true perfection was attained, the tangled threads
+that often required more real genius to comprehend than
+the one great moment of inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>They came home again fresh and bright, with the peculiar
+fragrance of a new life about them, just as you shall
+smell spring in the woods on some mild, sunny February
+day. Fred fluctuated between office and city, quite a
+prophet of household art, welcomed warmly back to the
+old circles which had so quietly dropped him for a while.
+Is there not a great deal of this unconscious proving of
+the fine metal of souls in the world? We cry out as we
+are thrust aside, or given some hard task to do; we
+wonder people do not hold out kindly hands, smile with
+sympathetic eyes; and yet their very help might weaken
+us. When we have beaten our way across with the roar
+of the distant waves still in our ears, the shadows of the
+black, fierce, jagged cliff hardly faded, the taste of the
+brackish spray still lingering on our lips, an exultant
+thrill speeds through every nerve as we clasp a hand that
+has had to buffet through the same fateful current.</p>
+
+<p>Early in April Miss Barry had another seizure, a fatal
+stroke this time. For a few days she lay in sweet content;
+and then dropped peacefully out of existence.</p>
+
+<p>It seems always a mystery, why such earnest, useful
+souls, doing that highest of all work,&mdash;a pure, unselfish
+charity,&mdash;should be taken away, and the slothful, dependent,
+ease-loving, selfish ones left. The Darcys felt
+that Mrs. Lawrence could have been spared much more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span>
+easily, and served a higher economy in point of usefulness.
+But God, who sees every end from the beginning, and is
+all-wise, judges differently. Miss Barry had done her
+work, no light life-task either. Only God knew what it
+had been, days of toil and nights of watching and prayer,
+such pain as only a strong soul could have kept to itself,
+and smiled over. Yet she had her exceeding sweet
+reward in this world,&mdash;years of peace and comfort, the
+child-love she had missed in one way, supplied in another,
+the hope of her days crowned more wisely by the waiting.</p>
+
+<p>They did not think it worth while to keep up the two
+households; indeed, Mrs. Lawrence would not have been
+separated from her son: so she and Irene brought their
+worldly possessions over to Larch Avenue. The old house
+was large enough. Sylvie was a courteous and charming
+mistress; though Fred realized, with the sensitiveness of
+true tender love, the burthen he had brought to her.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not without its wise compensation," she said,
+tears in her sunny brown eyes. "You see, I shall miss
+auntie so much less! She would not desire me to grieve
+despairingly for her, and here is the new claim to take her
+place. Beside," with a sad yet arch smile, "we shall
+have to strive against the temptation to selfishness that
+besets newly married people, when their pursuits are identical,
+as ours are. It will give a greater breadth, a purer
+tone, to our lives."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Hope Mills</span> passed through a very prosperous six
+months. With some new processes, invented by the
+combined energy and ingenuity of the men, they made a
+new line of goods which was a perfect success. Interest
+and discount vanished; and there was a snug balance in
+the bank, of which every man was duly proud. They
+were beginning, too, to take a great interest in the finances
+of the country, and to see that a stable currency and wise
+economy and honesty were the best friends to commercial
+and industrial prosperity. One little incident made them
+exceedingly jubilant.</p>
+
+<p>They had been undersold, in the same line of goods,
+with quite a large customer. Winston was rather blue
+about it at first, then laughed it off as one of the fluctuations
+of trade. To his great surprise, six months
+after, he received the largest order for goods that had yet
+been sent.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"We have been much deceived in the quality of cloths
+from Yates, Collins, &amp; Co.," ran the note. "They do
+not stand wear, though they resemble yours so closely.
+Our customers have made numerous complaints, and
+desire the old stock, which we are glad to order again.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+"<span class="smcap">Miles, Chambers, &amp; Co</span>."<br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This was put up on the bulletin-board, and discussed
+with much pride at the club. Every man had an interest
+in it, and an ambition to excel in his particular branch.
+It paid in the long-run to be honest; and, though there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span>
+might be a higher principle than remuneration, that was
+not a bad test, after all.</p>
+
+<p>So the third summer opened brilliantly. Yardley, Gilman,
+and four others drew up an agreement for a co-operative
+store. They hired one man who had been a
+very successful buyer for a large grocery-firm, which had
+failed, and took with it his small invested capital. He
+was to keep the books, take orders, and do the buying,
+subject to the advisement of the managers. A certain
+low per cent of profits was agreed upon, just enough, they
+calculated, to pay expenses; and the goods were to be
+offered as low as possible for cash. The superior quality
+and reduced price, they decided, would be more agreeable
+to most of the men than a small balance at the end of the
+year. An account was to be kept with every member, and
+the agreement to remain in force one year from date.</p>
+
+<p>And yet there are shoals and quicksands for prosperity,
+as well as yawning abysses for adversity. There were
+people in Yerbury&mdash;not bad souls either&mdash;who were not
+content to allow the world to revolve on any axis but their
+own. They could see their neighbors' planets go to destruction
+with equanimity&mdash;following some law of nature
+or ethics that regulated supply and demand of any force,
+in their estimation; but when some bright particular star
+flashed out of the orbit they had set for it, of course it
+was beyond the pale of safety. There has always been
+a great deal of just such obstinacy in the world, just such
+narrow prescribing, and yet&mdash;"it does move."</p>
+
+<p>One of the favorite objections of these wiseacres was,
+that Hope Mills was founded on a wrong basis. Who
+knew <i>just exactly</i> what amount of goods Winston sold?
+Well, there was the amount manufactured,&mdash;the amount
+on hand every six months. True,&mdash;with a disbelieving
+shake of the head,&mdash;but he was up in the ways of the
+world; and what would hinder him, Ananias-like, from
+keeping back part of the price? When this was shown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span>
+to be an utter impossibility, they still were quite sure Winston
+harbored in his secret soul some plan for cheating
+the workmen at the last. Here would be all this accumulation
+of capital, and by some successful <i>coup-d'&eacute;tat</i>
+Winston and Darcy would swoop down upon it, and take
+the lion's share. They were very much afraid that the
+workmen were going to be wronged in some underhand
+way. A defaulting cashier, unprincipled managers, thieves
+and forgers, committed their crimes in an out-and-out way;
+but there was going to be a profound mystery about this&mdash;the
+most simple and above-board management, when
+every man knew, every six months, the best and the
+worst of the details.</p>
+
+<p>Employment was becoming more general all through
+the country. Everybody drew a long breath, and decided
+that the grinding times of depression had passed. We
+would soon be back to the brilliant era of past prosperity.</p>
+
+<p>And then there arose a new light in the labor horizon,
+a prophet who had discovered the magic key to the workingmen's
+paradise, and it had only to be turned by themselves,
+to gain entrance. Wherever he went, he was
+hailed with acclamation.</p>
+
+<p>It was the old, old war upon capital, the old seductive
+science of equalizing things, values, money. Every poor
+man in the country had a better right to a cottage and
+garden and a few hours of leisure, than these few magnates
+to grasp every thing in their own hands, to roll in
+luxury, to feast in magnificence, to clothe their daughters
+in silks, velvets, and diamonds&mdash;it was to be noted that
+Mr. McPherson wore an immense diamond, but it was to
+be presumed that his wife or daughter did <i>not</i>. Everywhere
+one could see the rich growing richer, the poor
+poorer, the workman trodden down, brought to the level
+of slavery with his long hours and scanty wages. Where
+was it to end but in a nation of paupers, of thieves, of
+criminals of every grade? for, when you made a brute of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span>
+a man, there came a time when he turned a brute's hand
+against you. This had been the underlying cause of all
+the world's great struggles: it had uncrowned kings, it
+had razed thrones, it had swept states. There were bits
+of distorted historical facts, fallacious but brilliant reasoning,
+and much bombast.</p>
+
+<p>They heard of him in this city and that, and there was
+a great deal said about the cordiality with which he
+greeted "the horny-handed son of toil." No town was
+so small that he disdained it, no city so great that he
+feared it. There had been "demonstrations," but he
+seemed proud of his defiance of danger.</p>
+
+<p>Men who could not altogether approve of him admitted
+that he was "smart," that he uttered a good many truths,
+half-truths they were, dressed up in specious falsehoods,
+all the more dangerous, since the world does pay homage
+to virtue and truth. They were troublesome questions:
+the great difficulty was the haste made in settling them.
+A balance will finally adjust itself, though there may be
+many vibrations at first.</p>
+
+<p>It was a fact much to be regretted, that with returning
+prosperity the gin-mills and beer-shops of Yerbury had,
+as a general thing, increased in their business. A notable
+instance to the contrary, however, was Keppler's saloon.
+It had depended a good deal on the men from Hope Mills
+and the iron-works. The latter had been closed so long;
+and, although the coffee-house did not seem much of a
+rival at first, it had gone on steadily, and given the men
+time to think. It was not simply the one glass of beer
+they took to wash down their midday lunch, but the treating
+when a crowd gathered, the many drinks during a
+heated discussion of an evening. Not half a dozen of the
+mill-hands went there now, so occupied had their minds
+become with other matters. Keppler's lease was not out,
+and his rent was high for the times; he had lost money
+and customers, and felt sore over it; he had a grudge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span>
+against Jack Darcy as the exponent of a system that interfered
+with his profits.</p>
+
+<p>McPherson was discussed over pipes and ale one warm
+June evening, with brains cleared, of course, by frequent
+potations and stifling smoke. It was proposed that he
+should be invited to lecture at Yerbury.</p>
+
+<p>"I like to see fair play!" cried Keppler. "These fellows
+over here"&mdash;nodding toward the mill&mdash;"have had
+it all their own way because they took up a lot of starving
+men in dull times. That was all well enough,&mdash;praise-worthy&mdash;praise-w-o-r-thy,"
+with a long accent. "But
+things have changed now,&mdash;changed!" with a confident
+nod. "I'd like to hear what the man has to say. You
+see, he has come up from the ranks, he has been poor
+himself!"</p>
+
+<p>So the ball was put in motion. McPherson's speech
+at Millville, a great laboring-centre, was read aloud with
+frequent cheering. And the laboring-men at Yerbury
+began to wonder why wages were not higher, when so
+many shops were running on full time! Somebody was
+making a great deal of money: <i>they</i> could barely live.
+Bread and meat had not fallen in the ratio of wages. It
+was still next door to starvation.</p>
+
+<p>Finally some self-constituted labor-committee sent the
+letter of invitation, and received a cordial and flattering
+reply. Mr. McPherson had heard of Yerbury. He would
+be only too glad to come among them in his humble capacity,
+and shed what light he could upon the side of right
+and truth; raise his voice for the oppressed against the
+oppressor. And he mentioned that open-air meetings
+were generally more successful.</p>
+
+<p>They put up a platform on the Common, the largest
+park in Yerbury. The day was very fine, not too hot, and
+a shower the evening before had laid the dust. At precisely
+four, a deputation awaited Mr. McPherson and his
+party at the station, escorted them to the Bedell House<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span>
+to refresh, and then to the grand hall of nature, with its
+waving arches of glistening green overhead.</p>
+
+<p>Already a great concourse had assembled. Mr. McPherson
+mounted his rostrum, and, after a few preliminary
+flourishes, began in a clear, strong tone, that had the
+power of concentrating the attention of his audience. He
+went back centuries, and proved that from the very beginning
+of all industries there had been the desire to oppress,
+that the working-classes had to combine and fight for every
+advantage gained, to wrest from kings, peers, masters,
+even equals, the privileges they held to-day. Plainly,
+capital was a tyrant fattening on unpaid toil. "Were not
+the rich always in the ranks of capital, always against the
+poor man? They squeezed him to the utmost when they
+had need, then they flung him away. Did it matter to
+them if his wife and children starved? If he stole a
+loaf of bread to appease the pangs of hunger, he was sent
+to prison; but if a bank president stole half a million, he
+went to&mdash;Europe! [Laughter and applause.] Does the
+capitalist employ the laborer in order that there shall be
+fewer starving men in the country? It comes in the market,
+and buys at the lowest price, solely for its own benefit.
+It does not concern capital, whether this man can
+support wife and children on such a pittance: what business
+has he with wife and children! If the man drops
+at the work-bench, the victim of long hours, exhaustive
+toil, insufficient food, the town will thrust him into a pauper's
+grave, and another will fill his place. Even negro-slavery
+was more noble than this: it was to the master's
+interest that the slave should be well fed. Capital was
+shrewd, selfish, experienced, astute, strong: labor was
+kept in ignorance lest it might learn its worth, its rights;
+it was half-starved that it might be weak; it was driven
+from pillar to post with a more cruel than slave-driver's
+whip, that it might never be able to perfect a successful
+organization."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And so on and on. The crowd increased. The six-o'clock
+bells rang, and the procession from shops wended
+their way thither, many from curiosity, some from a hope
+of a new truth, and not a few filled with a secret sense of
+wrong and dissatisfaction. Mr. McPherson was still belaboring
+capital. Now he had declared it "a stupendous
+fraud, a hollow bubble, a reputation for wealth where no
+wealth existed, a fictitious claim for what was not, but
+which still managed to hold the workman in its iron
+grasp; the concentrated labor of the men, not the lawful
+working interest of money. Some way this system of evil
+was going to be uprooted by men standing firm, refusing
+the wages of sweat and blood; and in the general overturn
+by legislation of state and country, every man was to
+have a farm or a factory, to quit work in the middle of
+the afternoon, and sit with folded hands on his own door-step,
+his own master, a free man!" [Great shouting
+and applause.]</p>
+
+<p>He talked until seven, and wound up at last with a
+desperate but covert onslaught on Hope Mills. "No two
+men or six men, or company of any kind, had a right to
+band together to starve not only the men in their own
+town, but the laborers throughout the world, by so reducing
+wages for their own sole benefit; and every workman
+who submitted to have these chains forged around body
+and soul, no matter by what specious expedient, was a
+worse traitor, a more cruel oppressor of wife and children,
+than the red-handed capital that stood ready to make him
+a slave!"</p>
+
+<p>There was an immense deal of cheering and applause.
+Mr. McPherson was invited to supper at the Bedell
+House by a deputation of working-men, though I think
+there were few horny-handed ones among them. Liquors
+flowed freely, and the feast was rather noisy. A purse
+was handed to him when he went away&mdash;he was too noble
+to make any charge when he spoke in behalf of a cause
+so near his heart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The seed was sown, and it is too true that "foul
+weeds grow apace." There were club-meetings and
+union-meetings. The shoe-factory, which had struggled
+hard to get on its legs again, soon became a hotbed of
+discontent. The hatters held meetings, the paper-makers
+were aroused, and then began preparation for another
+grand strike. The weavers from Coldbridge and Stilford
+sent over a deputation to Hope Mills, warning, exhorting,
+and threatening. "No system," said they, "should
+interfere with mutual strength and protection."</p>
+
+<p>And this was not all. It seemed as if Yerbury meant
+to make them the scape-goat of every thing. Robert
+Winston was broadly caricatured; and there was a bit of
+insulting abuse, calling them traders in their brethren's
+blood, pasted up on the gate-post. "The Evening Transcript"
+went over the system of co-operation, and showed
+to its own satisfaction, that it was a system full of errors
+and miscalculations based on the credulity of workmen.
+It hinted that the same mysterious cause which reduced
+profits last year would reduce them again next year, that
+at the end of the five years the bread and cheese would
+come out just even, although there had been a great deal
+more bread than cheese, as everybody knew. If the
+corporation were working for the best interests of the
+men, why had they not sold off stock when every one
+knew prices were going permanently down, instead of
+waiting to sell it below cost? Why had they paid exorbitant
+prices for wool when the market was flooded with
+it? Why had they not done this or that? until one wondered
+why, understanding the woollen-business so well,
+and being able to see just where enormous profits could
+be made, and losses avoided, they had not all gone into
+it themselves. The article wound up with a covert and
+insulting insinuation. Human nature was the same, the
+world over. Men of the highest probity and honor had
+succumbed to temptation: these men who had never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span>
+really been in any responsible position had yet to be
+proved. If men like David Lawrence and Horace Eastman
+could not make a stand against fluctuations and difficulties,
+it was hardly likely success would crown any
+such abnormal undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>Jack did not see the paper until the next day. Some
+one laid it surreptitiously on his desk. His face flushed
+darkly at the attack upon his honesty, and for a moment
+all the belligerency of his boyhood rose to the surface.
+He had half a mind to hunt up the writer of the article,
+and pound him to a jelly with his two fists. But presently
+he laughed to himself, and then made a tour of the
+mills in his cheeriest fashion. He saw with grief that
+the seed had found root. There were some sullen faces
+and short answers.</p>
+
+<p>It certainly is a hard thing to keep on fighting an old
+foe that can only be beaten, never killed.</p>
+
+<p>Jack stumbled over Cameron in the store-room.</p>
+
+<p>"Cameron," said he with a white, rigid face, "I wish
+to God this was the last day of the five years! I should
+walk out of Hope Mills, and never set foot in it again, no,
+not even if they implored me on their knees. A thankless,
+miserable set! The lying article in last night's
+paper made me mad for a moment, but could not sting:
+yet the faces of my own men did as I came through the
+rooms."</p>
+
+<p>"You've had a hard pull, Jack!" Cameron's voice
+was fatherly and soothing. "You might have put your
+money and your brains in something that would have
+proved much pleasanter. But the man who takes up the
+first end of a truth always gets hard knocks: it is the
+people who come after who find a smooth path. Don't
+you remember," drawing his wrinkled face into a queer
+smile, "the shrewd application your New York lady made
+about the children of Israel? Jack, if the salvation
+scheme of the Bible was all proved false,&mdash;which it never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span>
+will be, to my mind,&mdash;there's so much wisdom in it beside,
+that a chap could take it just for a sort of guidebook
+in every-day matters, all the same. And now we're
+going to have a big fight."</p>
+
+<p>"You think that?" cried Jack, in vague alarm. "I
+wish Winston was here. He can always talk so to the
+point!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he isn't: we've got to go through it ourselves.
+But this settles it! You see, there's been Price, and
+Pickett, and Davy, to stir up strife and bad feeling, and
+all this outside influence; but my old woman's praying
+us through, and I set a good deal of store by her prayers,
+Jack! If these ruffians go on, Yerbury'll be half ruined
+again, but it is their own fault. I'm not much on capital
+punishment, but I would go to the hanging of that McPherson.
+If he'd staid away, we should have done well
+enough."</p>
+
+<p>Jack drew a long, troubled breath.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd let every man go out who wanted to, but I
+wouldn't pay-him a red cent, there!"</p>
+
+<p>That evening Jack went down to Larch Avenue. He
+found Fred and Sylvie up in arms. Indignation was a
+mild term.</p>
+
+<p>It was a magnificent night, with a nearly full moon.
+The light flooded the wide lawn path, and made shadows
+of elves and gnomes on the porch, as the wind wandered
+in and out the great honeysuckle, whose ripe, rich perfume
+was shaken about with every waft. Within, an
+Argand lamp, and porcelain shade with a minute painting
+of Puck and his fairy host, sent a softened radiance
+on the old, rich-hued carpet, and antique furniture. It
+was but little changed, yet wore an indescribably antique
+look.</p>
+
+<p>Over at an open window sat Irene Lawrence, dressed
+in white, with a single deep-red velvety rose at her throat,
+which Sylvie had pinned there. Her hair had grown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span>
+rapidly, and, though it did not quite curl, the ends tumbled
+about loosely, framing in the face with their dusky purplish
+tint. It was very clear now, and a little pale; the
+old brilliant coloring had not all returned; the passionless
+grace, the deep eyes with their steady lights, the mouth
+suggesting mobility and warmth and passion, rather than
+defining it, the droop of the white lids, the unruffled brow,
+and the pose of the bowed head and slightly-yielding
+throat, made a marvellous picture.</p>
+
+<p>The three were talking earnestly, as people do in the
+great crises of life; Sylvie wondrously piquant, with some
+thin, black, trailing stuff making shifting billows about her
+restless feet. She questioned Jack eagerly, she denounced
+the attack as cruel and cowardly. What did he mean to
+do? What should Fred do for him?</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to do, but just wait for the result.
+The dragon's-teeth have been sown. The only comfort I
+have is, that you never can put a lie on the face of truth,
+and nail it there. No amount of arguing or talk can
+make a thing so when it is <i>not</i> so. Higher than this little
+human round, God garners every truth in his keeping, and
+will make it tell somewhere!"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Lawrence raised her eyes, and glanced over to him.
+Had the slow impassiveness of her soul been touched, that
+this sudden peculiar grace of sympathy, or some hidden
+kindred feeling, rose and asserted itself? And yet she
+might have been in some magnetic sleep, for all actual
+movement of her features; it was the dawn of an expression
+that seemed to transport him to some strange world,
+where he had known her long ago,&mdash;where he had
+watched for her coming, listened to her voice,&mdash;rather
+than any present interest or meaning.</p>
+
+<p>He rose abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not going!" cried Sylvie, in her pretty wifely
+imperiousness.</p>
+
+<p>"I"&mdash;for a moment he had the sensation of a man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span>
+drowning. The surging waves were about him, throbbing,
+leaping, strangling him. There was a ringing in his ears,
+there was a long shuddering sensation, like being overwhelmed.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very warm," he went on in a faint, strained
+voice, wiping the beaded drops from his broad brow.</p>
+
+<p>"Come over here," pleaded Sylvie: "you will be
+cooler. The wind is south, and doesn't blow in those
+windows. You are sure you feel quite well?" scanning
+him anxiously. "You look pale."</p>
+
+<p>"It was only momentary." He wondered now what
+had so moved him. "I am like good old John Bunyan's
+Pilgrim,"&mdash;laughing faintly,&mdash;"'tumbled up and down'
+with these excitements. I wish they were at an end. We
+were going on so nicely when that McPherson came!
+Don't let us think any more about it," throwing up his
+head with a nervous shake. "Sylvie, I wish you would
+sing something."</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure. Fred and I have been practising
+duets. When Yerbury is laid in ashes we can go off as
+strolling minstrels;" and she laughed gayly, as she went
+to the piano. That exquisite tact in changing a mood or
+scene was a familiar characteristic of Sylvie Barry.</p>
+
+<p>As the sound of their blending voices floated out on the
+summer night air, there leaped up in Darcy's soul a subtle,
+forceful, vivifying flame, touching to a white heat the
+farthest pulse of his being. Resistance appeared impossible:
+he did not even dream what manner of influence this
+might be. Long afterward&mdash;it seemed ages to him&mdash;as
+their heads were bent together over the pages of the music,
+he raised his eyes, and let them wander slowly toward
+Irene Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>Was there something quite new in the face,&mdash;a sort of
+strange, wondering, troubled expression, as if some unseen,
+almost unknown, depth had been stirred?</p>
+
+<p>He did not need to ask the question now. Wild as it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span>
+was, he loved that statue over yonder, and it seemed to
+him that his passion in its enduring vitality must awaken
+her soul to kindred life! An exultant strength and determination
+rose within him. What might have abashed
+another man, filled him with a deathless courage, as high
+as it was pure.</p>
+
+<p>He thanked Sylvie and Fred for the song, but resisted
+their entreaties to remain. When he said good-night, he
+went over to Miss Lawrence, and took her hand. It was
+cold and passive, and her eyes fell beneath his.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> excitement ran very high not only in Yerbury, but
+all over the country. Strikes seemed the order of the
+day again, and for what reason, was not clearly made
+manifest, unless labor felt that it had capital a little by
+the throat, in that its services were again somewhat in
+demand. "Now," said the prophets. Surely, if they did
+not strike when there was employment, they could not
+when there was none.</p>
+
+<p>It began in the shoe-shop. The next Monday morning
+the men made their demand in no gentle terms, and
+were refused. There was a large contract at stake, however,
+and by Tuesday night the matter was talked over
+in a better spirit. The employers were willing to accede
+to one-half of the demand, otherwise the order must be
+sent to another firm. Thursday morning they went to
+work with a rather ill grace, yet some elation. Then the
+hatters took their turn. The hands at Hope Mills were
+served with a notice that the mutual protectionists in all
+the towns around were to be out on the following Monday;
+and stirring appeals were made to those who had
+any feeling of honor in the cause.</p>
+
+<p>It was exceedingly hard on the men. They gathered
+around in little knots on Sunday, wild with conflicting
+emotions. Their faith in Hope Mills and co-operation
+was undergoing a severe strain. The fear of secret
+frauds, of underhand dealing, of distrust in Winston and
+Darcy, had been dinned in their ears by outside influence,
+some of it very potent. Not one appeal had been made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span>
+by the managers: Cameron and the others decided it
+was best.</p>
+
+<p>Jack went over to the mill on Monday morning. The
+gatekeeper and the bell-boy were there. The engineer
+came in with a quiet, solemn "Good-morning." The
+Brotherhood of Engineers had warned him too, and he
+was a little troubled; but he had cast in his lot with the
+rest, and it might be as well to wait and see what they
+did. The main shaft was turned.</p>
+
+<p>Jack from his office-window watched the streets filling
+up with men and women, many beside the regular operatives.
+They came to a halt.</p>
+
+<p>"Ding-dong! ding-dong!" the bell rang out cheerily
+on the summer morning air. "Come to work, come to
+work! The birds build homes, and rear their young; the
+bee skims the fragrant air in search of flowers; the rivers
+run to the sea, turning wheels, driving ships: nothing
+in the great economy of nature is idle," sang out the
+clang of the bell.</p>
+
+<p>The hands glanced at one another in doubt and dismay,
+and there was an awful silence for a few seconds.</p>
+
+<p>Some one elbowed his way through the crowd. He had
+come from the bedside of his sick child, who might be
+dying even now,&mdash;a small, wiry, middle-aged man, with
+a set, resolute face. He glanced about, then he sprang
+up on a pile of packing-boxes. It was Jesse Gilman.</p>
+
+<p>"My fellow-workmen," he began, "I don't know how
+you all feel about this matter; but Hope Mills took me
+in when I had tramped the country half over, and found
+nothing to do. I've tried the old system, and this can't
+be any worse; and, if I have to lose money by an employer,
+I'd rather it would be John Darcy of Yerbury, than any
+man I know. No man on the face of the earth has a right
+to say I shall not work in Hope Mills when I made my
+own bargain long ago to do it. That is all I have to say.
+I am going to work."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Three cheers!" cried some one as Gilman jumped
+down.</p>
+
+<p>There were cheers and groans.</p>
+
+<p>Ben Hay followed him, and stood a moment in the gateway.</p>
+
+<p>"Boys," said he in his rich, ringing voice, "Hope
+Mills was opened to receive a crowd of starving men. I'll
+take my oath to Jack Darcy's honesty. He's stuck by
+us, and we'll stick to him. That's the beauty of co-operation.
+You can't get away, and tramp off with the first
+fool that asks you! It isn't merely keeping company: it's
+a good, honest, up-and-down marriage. I'd as soon think
+of leaving my wife because some day she didn't give me
+two dinners instead of one!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a shout of laughter. The ice was broken in
+good earnest. "Three cheers for Ben Hay! Three
+cheers and a tiger for Jack Darcy!" and amid all this
+hubbub the men and women, the boys and girls, rushed in
+pell-mell. A gladder crew one never saw. To decide
+when others doubt, to go forward boldly when others hesitate,
+to stand up for the principle of right when others
+have traduced and blackened it, to take the first step, is
+to be as heroic as the "six hundred" of deathless fame.</p>
+
+<p>They went to work with a will, though some were a
+little sore and doubtful, but they were carried on by the
+enthusiasm of the others. The street below was still
+blocked up, and there were yells and groans. Presently
+there came a shower of superannuated eggs. Two landed
+in Darcy's office-window. After that, a stampede of
+the riotous crew.</p>
+
+<p>Darcy sent Andrew, the bell-boy, to the police-station,
+and two men were detailed. The workmen were allowed
+to go home peaceably, except a little jeering at Keppler's.
+They heard then the trains had been stopped on the two
+roads leading out of Yerbury. The whole world seemed
+to be going crazy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Darcy and Cameron remained in the mill that night
+until almost ten: then the latter went home, and Darcy
+thought he would go for Ben Hay. The streets of Yerbury
+had presented a very peculiar aspect that evening,
+something like a beleaguered town. Groups of men and
+boys collected on the corners, or wended their way
+through the streets with low, ominous mutterings. People
+barred their doors and locked their windows, though
+it was a hot summer night. Some women were abroad:
+but they were of the rougher sort, and now and then their
+shrill voices rose on the air in derision or vituperation.
+Still there were no overt acts of violence, and at ten
+everybody began to breathe more freely.</p>
+
+<p>The coffee-house had been shut up that evening: it
+was deemed advisable. Darcy went round to the side-door,
+and was admitted. Hay and three other workmen
+were within. They had been figuring up possible and
+probable profits by the end of the five years, and looked
+very well satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a sort of hope and expectation about it,"
+said one of the men, "that kind of stirs and warms a
+body. And when you come to count lost time, and fluctuation
+in wages, it makes a pretty even thing, after all!
+In '73 I worked in a shoddy-mill that <i>had</i> been making
+money hand over fist,&mdash;eleven hours a day,&mdash;not a man
+of us made more than five dollars a week. Some poor
+fellows with families earned only three. You've never
+been as hard up as that! God only knows how they
+lived: it's beyond my guessing!"</p>
+
+<p>"And if that was co-operation, how the system would
+be blamed!" exclaimed Ben Hay. "I declare, it makes
+me madder than a hen in a fence&mdash;I've caught that of
+Cameron," laughingly,&mdash;"to hear the things people have
+said about us. They're forever blathering about fair play&mdash;I
+wish they'd give a little, as well as take all. Wait
+till we've come to the end, say I, before they tell what we
+can do, or what we can't or sha'n't or won't!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was a tramp in the street. The startled eyes
+studied one another. Then a shuffling and muttering,
+and a knock at the door.</p>
+
+<p>No one stirred but Mrs. Connelly, who threw up her
+hands, and cried, "The saints protect us!"</p>
+
+<p>"Earthly saints, Mother Connelly,&mdash;this kind," said
+Ben Hay with gay re-assurance, doubling his fist, and
+baring his brawny arm.</p>
+
+<p>The pounding increased. Rose ran down stairs wild
+with affright, followed by her sister. The boys fortunately
+were asleep in the back chambers.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us in, Mother Connelly: we want some bread
+and butter!" shouted a voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Cakes and yale!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pretzel and zwei lager!"</p>
+
+<p>"A sup of the craythur!"</p>
+
+<p>"A dhrop of whiskey to warrum us this could night!
+Av yees the heart av a sthone, Kit Connelly?"</p>
+
+<p>A roar of laughter succeeded this.</p>
+
+<p>"Go away, it will be better for you," declared Ben
+Hay.</p>
+
+<p>"Come out here, Hay, and fight like a man! Don't
+skulk behind a woman's petticoats!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a terrific onslaught at the door. It creaked
+and groaned, and was succeeded by a volley of oaths and
+imprecations. Rose began to cry, and the youngest girl
+came screaming down the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>Darcy had sent a man out of the back way for policemen.
+Hay and the two other men mounted guard. Again the
+door shivered and creaked: then it flew open, bolts, locks,
+and hinges having given way in a mass of splinters.</p>
+
+<p>Like a flash the men were on their assailants. The
+mob had not expected this. Right and left valorous blows
+were dealt, and two or three burly fellows were laid low.
+Some nearer sober, and more cowardly, took to their heels.
+Two men fought like tigers; and once Ben Hay came near<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span>
+getting the worst; but, by the time the dilatory guards of
+peace arrived, there was only a pile of bruised and battered
+bodies lying on the door-step.</p>
+
+<p>"A pretty tough scrimmage!" was the comment.
+"Weren't you a little hard on these fellows?"</p>
+
+<p>"A man has a right to defend his own life and his own
+nose," said Ben Hay decisively. "His life <i>may</i> be useful,
+his nose <i>is</i> ornamental when it is a handsome one like
+mine."</p>
+
+<p>What with drunkenness and the drubbing, two of the
+ruffians were unable to walk. Two others were marched
+off under the escort of the officers, the disabled sent for,
+and a guard detached to protect Mrs. Connelly's house.
+When everybody had been quieted, Jack took a tour down
+to the mills. Some poor object was huddled up in the
+corner of the main stoop.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you doing here?" demanded Darcy.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Darcy, don't strike me! I'm Bart Kane.
+I've had enough of this night, and I crawled here"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The boy began to sob and talk brokenly. He lifted his
+face in the moonlight. It was ghastly; one eye swollen
+shut, and purple-black, and streaks of blood and dirt
+over it; the clothing torn, the throat bare.</p>
+
+<p>"Were you down there at Connelly's?"</p>
+
+<p>"I warn't nowhere. It was along o' father: he comed
+home drunk."</p>
+
+<p>Barton Kane was a mill-boy, about nineteen now.
+Darcy's first feeling had been one of outrage and anger,
+but he cooled suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, my lad," in a kindly tone, taking the shivering
+fingers in his.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, Mr. Darcy, father'd been out along of the
+hatters all day, gettin' more and more rum in him. He
+said on Sunday, as how't I should strike; but they went to
+work here, and I worked with 'em. When I went home,
+mother, she gev me my supper, and ses she, 'Keep out o'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span>
+sight, lad, happen thy dad's powerful mad wi' thee!' So
+I went to bed. But about nine he comed home, and tore
+up the house wi' his tantrums, and then lathered me. He
+called me a rat, and a sneak, and a turn-coat, and kicked
+me out o' the house, and threw my traps to me. Then
+afore I was fairly dressed he at me again, and said if
+ever I darkened the door, he'd murder me! I strayed
+round, afeared of everybody, and crawled up here.
+'Pears like every bone in my body is broke, and my eye,
+he do hurt so!"</p>
+
+<p>With that Barton Kane broke out sobbing again, and
+clung to Jack Darcy's knees.</p>
+
+<p>"My poor lad!" the tone was infinitely tender. "Can
+you walk a little way, to Kit Connelly's? You can be
+nursed up there, and go to bed peaceably. Come, Barton,
+my boy, you are the hero of Hope Mills. When this is
+over, we shall have to give you a medal."</p>
+
+<p>He put his strong arm around the shivering body, and
+led him back to a kindly shelter.</p>
+
+<p>"Hay, Mrs. Connelly, and all of you: here's a lad that
+has been half-killed for standing by his colors to-day.
+Look here, Armstrong, would you mind going for Dr.
+Maverick? this poor chap needs some patching-up. And,
+Kit, give me some water and a napkin: we'll get his face
+a little cool and clean."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me do it, Mr. Darcy. Sure, I've boys of my own,
+and am used to it. Oh, the poor, poor lad!"</p>
+
+<p>Barton told his story over again. He was weak and
+hysterical now, and they made him a shake-down on the
+floor until the doctor came.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I'll start on my inspection-tour again," said
+Darcy, turning away. "We are all likely to make a night
+of it."</p>
+
+<p>He thought he would go around before he went in to
+see the watchmen: they had placed a force on guard
+quietly. He had just turned the second corner, when he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span>
+saw a man jump from the high fence, and lie for an instant
+as if stunned. He hastened on, but the man sprang up
+and ran down the dark side of the street. His first impulse
+was to follow; then it struck him as strange that the
+dog gave no alarm. He had a gate-key in his pocket, and
+unlocked it at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Bruno!" he called, "Bruno, good fellow, come
+here."</p>
+
+<p>There was not a sound. The ominous silence thrilled
+Jack.</p>
+
+<p>"Bruno!"</p>
+
+<p>Hark! a curious crackling or sweep of wind, and
+smoky smell. He ran round to the rear. Close up
+against the back door, quite out of the moonlight, something
+was piled. Forked tongues of flame were shooting
+out of it everywhere. He seized the chain attached to
+the factory-bell, and rang it rapidly. There was a window
+thrown up, and a voice called.</p>
+
+<p>"Fire! fire!" he shouted. "Turn on the hose,&mdash;the
+lower back door."</p>
+
+<p>The flames streamed up fiercely now. It was plain that
+the mound had been saturated with kerosene.</p>
+
+<p>Daly hurried down, and opened a door. "Hurd and
+Byrnes are at the buckets and hose," he cried. "Where
+is it? O Mr. Darcy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Quick, quick!" shouted Jack, rushing by him.</p>
+
+<p>The men had the hose ready. They put it out of the
+window, turned on the stream, and in a few moments a
+column of dense smoke rose amid the arrowy flashes of
+lurid splendor. The watchman ran down from Connelly's.</p>
+
+<p>It was subdued in a few moments. They tore away
+the charred boxes and <i>d&eacute;bris</i>, smoking and smouldering.
+Underneath all they found the body of princely Bruno.</p>
+
+<p>"This is fiendish!" cried Jack, dragging the poor fellow
+away, his scorched coat smelling horribly. "Brave
+Bruno, you are the second hero of the night!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Whatever dastardly devil did this, knows as much
+about Hope Mills as you or I," shouted Hurd savagely.
+"Bruno was poisoned first; and he wouldn't have taken
+any thing from a strange hand. But the fellow was a
+fool to build the fire here."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know about that," said Darcy. "If it had
+burned the door down, it would have gone in the hall, and
+up the hatchway&mdash;if it was open."</p>
+
+<p>"By thunder! so it would; and right to the stock-room.
+That place must never be left open again while Hope
+Mills stands, or co-operation waves her starry banner in
+the breeze."</p>
+
+<p>"Loud applause!" said some one.</p>
+
+<p>The fire was thoroughly extinguished; and the guardian
+of the night decided to remain here, being within call if
+another disturbance should occur at Mrs. Connelly's.
+The bells rang out for midnight. A few, who had
+gathered at the alarm, dispersed: and every thing became
+quiet again,&mdash;deadly, solemnly quiet.</p>
+
+<p>Jack wanted to see Maverick, so he paced back to
+Mrs. Connelly's. He was trying to remember some
+distinctive mark of the man he had seen jump. He
+was too stout for Davy, and he could not believe such
+villany of the man. Then Price was a little lame from
+an old rheumatic affection, and would not have dared such
+a deed.</p>
+
+<p>Barton Kane had been washed, patched, bandaged, put
+to bed, and given an opiate; so now he was in a sound
+but rather disturbed sleep. The men gathered in the
+lunch-room, and discussed the cowardly attempt upon the
+mill, the day's affairs generally.</p>
+
+<p>"See how great a matter a little fire kindles," said
+Maverick. "But for McPherson's lecture here, I don't
+believe any of these things would have happened. It is a
+free country, of course, and a man has a right to air his
+ideas; but capital is not set firmly enough on its legs to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span>
+stand a severe fire, and labor is in too great a superabundance.
+To seek to drain the ocean with a silver mug
+may be grand, but quite hopeless."</p>
+
+<p>One! The witching hour, and a few sleepy men began
+to yawn.</p>
+
+<p>"How odd it seems, not to hear trains in the night!"
+Maverick said presently. "A queer lock-out this."</p>
+
+<p>One, again. One, two, three: this time the fire-alarm.</p>
+
+<p>They rushed out toward the mill. Then they as suddenly
+wheeled around. In an instant the air seemed full
+of shouts and cries, and a broad sheet of flame flared up
+in the face of the tranquil heavens. A roar, like a
+mighty tramping of hosts, a crackling, snapping, sweeping
+sound.</p>
+
+<p>"It's Keppler's. Boyd's block will surely go!"</p>
+
+<p>The houses were frame, old and dry: Keppler's on the
+corner, the rest joined, like a row of sheds, and filled with
+the very poorest; a few apartments standing empty. The
+engines were out, but it was of little avail. The corner
+was just one brilliant sheet of lurid light. Shrieking
+women and children fled for their lives. The street
+swarmed again, and people trampled over one another in
+their wild terror. There was a crash, and the building
+fell in. The flames licked up the other fiery flood, and
+had a brave battle in the cellar. The engines played until
+the air was filled with smothering smoke, and there was
+nothing left but a long, blackened ruin.</p>
+
+<p>"It may be ungenerous to rejoice in any man's misfortune,"
+said Maverick, "but in a sanitary point of
+view I am thankful those old rookeries have come to an
+end. Boyd wouldn't do any thing to them, and they were
+unfit for pigs to live in. And, as for Keppler's, there will
+be but one verdict this end of the town."</p>
+
+<p>Some one laid a hand on Jack Darcy's shoulder. He
+turned and saw Fred Lawrence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"They are all worried to death about you, old chap,"
+began Fred. "Your mother, Miss Morgan, Sylvie,&mdash;and
+Irene is walking the floor. I have not seen her so excited
+since&mdash;since she had the fever. What a horrible thing!
+Was any one lost, do you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"They will not be able to tell that until morning,
+every thing is in such confusion. Pray God that the
+morning may dawn soon! I seem to have lived through
+years."</p>
+
+<p>The dawn came up by and by; first in faint opaline
+splendors, then scarlet and gold. The moon paled, and
+the stars dropped out, and there was a chirp of birds to
+welcome the new-born day.</p>
+
+<p>The shock of the fire cooled the temper of the raiders,
+for half the men were idle hangers-on, rather than absolute
+strikers. One frantic woman flew to the scene of devastation:
+her boy, four years old, was missing. They tried to
+comfort her with the thought that some neighbor had
+kindly taken him in, but she kept wildly imploring them
+to search.</p>
+
+<p>There was no further molestation of the men at Hope
+Mills. They walked in the yard quietly at seven o'clock,
+their faces touched with surprise and terror when they
+heard the story of the night. Barton Kane lay disabled
+at Mrs. Connelly's, and poor Bruno was buried with
+honors, regretted by the whole force.</p>
+
+<p>Jack called the men together, and addressed them briefly.
+He was very pale, and his usually bright, clear eyes
+were heavy.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to thank you," he said, in a tone that was a
+little unsteady with exhaustion and emotion, "I want to
+thank you for standing so bravely by me, and by your
+principles. We are all partners together, and what is
+one man's interest is every man's. I feel sure that we
+shall never have another difficulty. We have gone
+through the worst, and in a little while every man will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span>
+have his free choice again. Let us all keep the warmest
+of friends until then."</p>
+
+<p>There was no cheering: they were not gay enough for
+that. Some of the men wrung his hand silently; then the
+women pressed forward, and invoked a blessing upon
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"We know better nor any of 'em what it was to have
+no fire, and childers cryin' for bread," said one woman,
+wiping her eyes with the end of her faded shawl. "And,
+thank the Lord, I've had bite, and sup, and fire, ever
+since the day Hope Mills was opened."</p>
+
+<p>The men outside were working at the ruins,&mdash;among
+them some of the strikers of yesterday. They found poor
+Mrs. Rooney's little Johnny, burned to a crisp; and
+in the house next to Keppler's they exhumed the body
+of Biddy Brady, a good-natured, efficient washerwoman,
+whose greatest fault was her intemperance. She and her
+son had gone to bed very drunk, after having a good time
+through the evening. The boy had been roused in season,
+but she had perished. It was as vivid and fervent a temperance-lecture
+as ever was given in Yerbury.</p>
+
+<p>About ten in the morning Jack Darcy returned home
+dead tired, as much with the excitement as the fatigue,
+took a bath, and went to bed.</p>
+
+<p>The Yerbury authorities looked sharply about them
+that day. The strikers were orderly and quiet, but they
+had lost ground. "The Evening Transcript" deprecated
+all this sort of business, and for once had no fling about the
+"Utopian theory of co-operation." But "The Leader"
+of the morning came out strongly in praise of the good
+order, forbearance, and <i>esprit de corps</i> of Hope Mills,
+and called Mr. Darcy "our young and enterprising citizen,
+whom, we doubt not, we shall hear of in higher
+positions in life, which he has proved himself eminently
+worthy to fill."</p>
+
+<p>There was no great lament made about Boyd's Row<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span>
+or Keppler's saloon, except for the sad casualty it had
+caused; but the dastardly attack on Mrs. Connelly, and
+the fiendish attempt to burn Hope Mills, met with the
+severest condemnation.</p>
+
+<p>Maverick came around to the Darcys that evening.
+"I fancy I have found your man, Jack," he began.
+"Mrs. Stixon called me in towards night, saying Jem had
+been on a spree, and was dreadfully beaten. I found one
+side of his face scratched and bruised, and bits of gravel
+still adhering to the flesh. The right arm, on the same
+side, has one bone broken, and his shoulder is dislocated.
+He said he fell off of a stoop, and is dreadfully sullen. I
+asked him what stoop, but he would not tell. Do you
+remember which way the man fell?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack thought a moment. "On the right side, Maverick,
+away from me, or I should have seen his face.
+Just such a size man as Jem Stixon, too," with a satisfied
+nod.</p>
+
+<p>"What will you do about it?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack took two or three turns across the floor. "See
+here, Maverick, we will not do any thing. You cure the
+poor fellow, and I think he will never try to damage
+Hope Mills again. I can hardly forgive him Bruno,
+though."</p>
+
+<p>"If I were Sylvie Barry,"&mdash;he never called her Mrs.
+Lawrence when speaking of her,&mdash;"I should say, 'Jack,
+you are an angel.'"</p>
+
+<p>Jack flushed. "Masculine angels!" he laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, wasn't there Gabriel and a host of them?
+Why, Jack, they were <i>all</i> masculine!"</p>
+
+<p>There was no need for earthly justice to meddle with
+Jem Stixon. His arm inflamed: he had led a hard life
+late years, and his system was in bad order. He would
+not listen to amputation until it was too late, and in less
+than a month he was dead. It was better for his poor
+hard-working wife and family.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>One other death grew out of the summer riots, though
+this was at a distance. Dennis Connelly had been working
+with a railroad-gang, and the strikers there had a
+desperate struggle with the civil authority. They were
+worsted in the end, and Connelly was one of the victims,
+or perhaps more truly speaking, a victim to bad whiskey,
+for when sober he was very peaceable. Kit sent for his
+body, and had him decently buried.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> strikers at the hat-factory did not carry the day.
+The employers were very indignant, and tabooed the
+union men altogether. At Garafield's the men were called
+in council, the points discussed, and a small advance in
+wages allowed. The co-operatives went their way quietly.
+Perhaps the most convincing argument was a very jubilant
+letter from Winston, part of which Darcy put up in
+the hall. He had just succeeded in making an important
+contract for two years, on very fair terms. That would
+see them through safely unless the whole world came to
+grief again!</p>
+
+<p>Jack wrote Miss McLeod a graphic account of the
+"labor troubles," and she replied with equally characteristic
+<i>verve</i>. "She could hardly decide," she declared,
+"whether to be glad, or sorry, that her young friend had
+grown so independent of her; but in any emergency she
+wished to be remembered."</p>
+
+<p>There was now a certain respect paid to Hope Mills,
+among the community at Yerbury. Perhaps there are no
+people so exacting and difficult to satisfy as those friends
+and neighbors whose advice you have not taken, and prospered
+without it. They indulge in a righteous self-complacency
+if you are unfortunate, and pity you grandly;
+but to own themselves mistaken is the one bitter flavor in
+the cup. There seemed to be but one point now upon
+which they were doubtful,&mdash;the honesty of the managers
+at the last moment. Every workman knew or might know
+exactly how affairs stood, but <i>they</i> did not have the capital.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span>
+Just at the end of the five years <i>somebody</i> might abscond
+with the money-bag under his arm. It seemed so
+every way certain that human nature could not withstand
+the temptation.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there was growing up among the hands a curious
+neighborly sympathy, as if they were in some degree relatives;
+and they were made so, in fact, by some marriages
+of sons and daughters. They were more intelligent; they
+kept their houses cleaner, their little gardens prettier, not
+allowing them to go to weeds before the summer was half
+over. Those who could go to the industrial school
+learned a deal about sewing, and became seamstresses
+instead of mill-girls. Some made their own family
+dresses, some were very tasty milliners. It gave them a
+reliance upon what they could do themselves. The two
+daughters of one workman kept a little poultry-yard
+"scientifically," and dressed themselves from its proceeds.
+Industry became more general. Instead of dawdling away
+whole evenings in gossip, they had some light employment,
+and worked as they talked.</p>
+
+<p>The September showing was very encouraging. There
+were still a great many bankruptcies and losses, but some
+of them could not be guarded against. Darcy and Winston
+regularly eschewed speculation, though the latter
+confessed his fingers sometimes burned to be in the pie.</p>
+
+<p>"But, after all," he said frankly, "if the energy, ingenuity,
+ambition, and strength that are expended to
+make certain people buy and sell, over and over, a thing
+that can be no more valuable than the money it makes
+year by year, which often is not much,&mdash;if this were
+turned into industrial and commercial channels,&mdash;gad!
+what a country we would be! Our flag would float on
+every sea, our goods be in every port. And yet they go
+on, rich to-day because they have beggared their neighbor,
+poor to-morrow because their neighbor has beggared
+them. What idiotic business!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But I must go back a little with my hero. There were
+many things to occupy his mind, the summer of the
+"strikes;" yet through it all, like one strain of heavenly
+harmony in a clash of discord, he came to know the
+diviner needs of his being. Another man might have
+been dismayed at the revelation. Like a flash when the
+horizon is opened, he saw the light; and he knew, from
+the depths of the darkness the next moment, what manner
+of storm it would be.</p>
+
+<p>He had never weakened or frittered away his sweetest
+emotions on the various flirtations that fill the early years
+of so many men. He had liked and admired Sylvie Barry
+above all young women he had ever met; but this emotion,
+though pure and lasting, never stirred the ardor of his
+soul. Had it really lain untouched so long, or had some
+vague dream slipped into it the night he and Sylvie had
+planned the costume for Irene Lawrence, the time he first
+encountered her beauty in all its vivid splendor? To him
+she was a glorious young goddess.</p>
+
+<p>The long-ago summer day he had met the two in the
+phaeton, he was more keenly pained for her sake than his
+own. To be sure, his first emotion was that of angry indignation,
+sending the outraged blood through every pulse;
+then, as it cooled, the act appeared so utterly unwomanly.
+If she had passed him by carelessly&mdash;but to designedly
+attract his glance, and stab it thus, was as if a giant had
+taken a club to kill a butterfly because it breathed the
+fragrance of the rose. He shut out that vision. You
+can tell what impression she had made upon him, when
+he always thought of her as he saw her in the glow of
+Sylvie's pretty parlor, that summer night. His healthy,
+active temperament never brooded over disagreeable
+things a moment longer than necessity kept him there.</p>
+
+<p>She faded from his mind by degrees. Even when he
+took Fred back into the old regard, he thought of her as
+the possible wife of some millionnaire. When she returned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span>
+to Yerbury, and shut herself up in stately despair,
+refusing even Sylvie's proffered sympathy, she puzzled
+him. How could she, so fond of admiration and gayety,
+live this nun's life, without the nun's spiritual exaltation?
+He passed her once or twice in the hall, as he was calling
+on Fred, but neither made any sign.</p>
+
+<p>Then came that terrible night, when he had found her
+astray, her brain consumed by the smouldering fire of isolation,
+when you have only the black, choking smoke that
+never blazes up in purifying flames. There are thousands
+of women who have done this, weakly, sentimentally,
+through the period of adversity that has tried the metal
+of all souls; but she, being stronger, more self-reliant,
+could not drop into puerile whining.</p>
+
+<p>At Depford Beach they had come in contact again.
+There was both attraction and repulsion in these two
+people, as there often is in strongly-marked, positive
+natures. She tolerated him because he was Sylvie's
+lover; despised him, believing that he meant to make a
+stepping-stone of this girl's wealth and position; and, in
+spite of herself, felt the current of his strength and buoyant
+energy. By slow degrees the unwilling truth was
+forced upon her, that God never created any human soul
+for its own self-destruction; that there was no absolute
+virtue in warping and twisting circumstances into chains
+and bonds, that were ordained for higher, nobler purposes.
+Her mental disease had run its course. Sylvie's sorrow
+was the final electric shock that broke the heavy soil of
+apathy.</p>
+
+<p>Her utter surprise when she found that through all
+these years Jack Darcy had refrained from influencing
+Sylvie in his behalf, was something quite indescribable.
+She thought she had fathomed men's souls with her keen
+insight, but this man was a Saul amid his peers. Had
+there been some subtile, far-reaching foundation for Fred's
+regard in the boyhood days,&mdash;something that their eyes,
+being holden with golden bonds, could not see?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After the marriage there was a certain degree of association,
+not intimacy. And yet she set herself to watch
+him. Somewhere she would discern the print of the feet
+of clay this idol of Fred and Sylvie's possessed.</p>
+
+<p>It was a most fascinating yet dangerous employment.
+She used to sit there in her impassive grace, as they
+talked, weighing every word, testing every sentiment,
+watching the expressions that flitted over Jack Darcy's
+countenance, until it went everywhere with her, the blue-gray
+eyes piercing the very depths of her soul. They
+came to the one night when a glance stirred and troubled
+both, when the depths of both natures experienced that
+curious shock of repulsion and wonder. It was not love,
+it was too near, too awesome, yet too spiritually pure, to
+be hate, still it sent them apart none the less surely.</p>
+
+<p>By degrees, even amid the hard struggle of the strikes,
+he came to a self-knowledge. His perceptions were not
+easily confused; and by that intuitive process born pure
+in every soul, but too often marred and dulled by the
+many counterfeits put upon it, he knew this was love, a
+life-long passion for one woman, not because she had as
+yet answered any need of his nature, or promised any
+expansion into higher life. He loved her just as she was;
+for her beauty, her swift, proud grace, her virtues if she
+had any, her very faults, and of those he was not in doubt.
+And he set himself to win her with the same high courage
+that had taken Hope Mills in hand.</p>
+
+<p>Occasionally we see a man wrecked by this steady, persistent,
+overwhelming love for an inferior object, caught
+perhaps by some occult fascination that flashes all laws
+out of sight. We wonder how he can be so led astray;
+and yet it is an integral part of the man, a quality of the
+soul which he would not overcome and put in bonds if he
+could.</p>
+
+<p>He did not cringe or flatter, or adopt any of the fears or
+weaknesses of passion. It was not weak, and he did not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span>
+fear. He meant to be master of her soul, and win her
+through that very power, struggle as she might. He
+would wait, if it were years, until she laid down her few
+weak weapons, and capitulated. From that time onward,
+there would be neither "mine" nor "thine."</p>
+
+<p>And now the fine, tested quality of his patience stood
+him in good stead. He might long to draw near, to clasp
+the snowy hand, to study the fathomless dusk of the eyes,
+and note the frightened droop of the fringed lids; but he
+held aloof. Still he went to Larch Avenue night after
+night; he dropped in of a morning when least expected,
+occasionally finding her alone for a few moments; he
+walked from church with them, by her side, the only
+times he came near her, and she felt in every pulse of her
+being the indefinable something that she was impelled to
+struggle against.</p>
+
+<p>A curious change came over her. The cold indifference
+melted to a rose hue of interest, a pliant softness stole
+over her figure, a certain buoyant tenderness diffused
+itself in her tone, her dusky eyes came to have a startled
+softness like a shy, frightened fawn. The old brilliant
+color returned to cheek and lip, yet toned with the tremulous
+throbbing of a new inward life, so exquisitely attuned
+that she could but listen to the harmonious melody.</p>
+
+<p>She came to understand presently; the intangible power
+in his demeanor roused her, I think; and her whole soul,
+every fibre of her body, rose up in mutinous revolt.
+Whither was this swift current carrying her? What great
+wave was this that struck at the very props of her own
+strength and reliance? How did this man dare to invade
+the walled sanctities of her being? She would have none
+of him: she would go on her solitary way, sufficient for
+herself. She, who had never loved amid all the beguilements
+the world had to offer, to be conquered by the very
+man she had trained herself to despise!</p>
+
+<p>Irene Lawrence found it hard fighting with this unseen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span>
+foe. He seemed always lying in ambush, always armored
+with a word or sentiment to which she must assent, always
+before her in the place she had meant to be; and she
+would not throw up the white flag of defeat. She would
+not own to herself she experienced any alarm or annoyance.</p>
+
+<p>One evening Fred and Sylvie had gone to a neighbor's,
+and were momentarily expected. A peculiar temptation
+entered her soul. If this man must needs flutter in the
+flame, why should she be tender and careful of him?
+Others had dared her, to the burning of their very souls:
+if the experience was worth the pain, he should have it,
+and decide.</p>
+
+<p>She sat down at the piano, and shook a shower of melody
+out of her slender finger-ends. All the affluent grace
+of womanhood with the polish of society spoke in every
+curve of her pliant figure, in the dainty, delicate, high-bred
+gestures. The eyes hung out their false lights of
+treacherous intent amid the half-slumberous fire; the very
+lips seemed shaped and blossoming with a rare thrill of
+passion that could turn to a caress at a look. All along
+the brow ran fine sinuosities of light that dazzled like
+the tracery of pale flame. Had she blossomed into some
+royal midsummer flower that is seen but once in an age?</p>
+
+<p>She had motioned him close beside her with an impelling
+wave of the hand. He could feel her warmth, her
+fragrant breath; her soft billowy dress fell against his
+foot in a crested wave; her white hand and slender wrist,
+just toned, but not hidden, with rare lace like that of
+Arachne's spinning, wandered temptingly over toward
+him. A sudden delirium took possession of him, an exhilaration
+that steeped the brain, that stirred every pulse,
+that awoke in him an almost maddening desire to clasp
+her in his arms, to drain such sweetness from her lips
+that the whole world might be beggared ever after, and
+he not care.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She knew the signs. She had seen more than one man
+dally on the brink, and then topple over to the blankness
+of despair. Even if she had pitied herself, which she
+did not, she could have had no mercy on him. Now she
+was set to her work, and she meant to do it if she brought
+into play every fascination art and nature had furnished
+her with.</p>
+
+<p>His soul rose and glowed within him. The music, the
+most ravishing of its kind, stirred him to that intensity of
+pain, it seemed as if he must cry out with torture. No
+suffering had ever been like this: if the doctrine of sacrificial
+fires were true, he might have purchased paradise.</p>
+
+<p>Did he mean never to stir or speak? Could that hand,
+lying so passively on the corner of the piano, remain
+unmoved, with hers just below it? Its defiant strength
+stung her.</p>
+
+<p>"They do not come,"&mdash;looking warily around, and
+passing him with her veiled eyes, rather than looking at
+him. "Are you growing weary? Shall I sing for you?"</p>
+
+<p>The tone had the melody of some lotus-freighted stream.
+She had thrown all her sweetness into it.</p>
+
+<p>"If you will."</p>
+
+<p>His was tremulous and husky with repressed passion.</p>
+
+<p>Her voice was not pure: it had the rich depth and
+pathos of contralto, and the vibrant clearness of soprano.
+Now it threaded a tremulous pathway among the pathetic
+minor notes, while the fingers seemed to drop a faint sigh
+of accompaniment,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Oh! when ye hear me gie a loud, loud cry,&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The broom blooms bonnie, and says it is fair,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Shoot an arrow frae thy bow, and there let me lie,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And we'll never gang down to the broom ony mair.</span><br />
+<br />
+"And when ye see that I'm lying cauld and dead,&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The broom blooms bonnie, and says it is fair,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Then ye'll put me in a grave wi' a turf at my head,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And we'll never gang down to the broom ony mair."</span><br />
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The last sad note died into summer-night sweetness.
+A current of bland, dangerous magnetism passed between
+them. She turned her splendid, passion-lighted eyes to
+him, and the subtle, measuring, conquering forces in the
+man and the woman met. With a mighty effort he thrust
+back desire, and compressed his lips to a line under the
+bronzed-gold moustache, while his eyes, like points of
+steel, never wavered.</p>
+
+<p>Irene Lawrence turned blindly, and held out her hands
+as if to grasp some sure stay. Just as surely as she had
+not won, she had lost.</p>
+
+<p>"I have tired you," he said,&mdash;a murmur just under his
+breath. "But you can hardly know the exquisite pleasure
+you have given me. It is perfect. We will have no
+more music to-night;" and he rose, shutting the piano
+down.</p>
+
+<p>She went to the open window like one in a trance, so
+stunned she could not even feel angry at his defiance of
+her. A long, long moment of silence: then they heard
+Sylvie's bright voice on the porch, and she came in with
+a waft of dewy, outdoor fragrance.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Lawrence went to her room presently, to fight out
+the battle with herself. She admitted then that she had
+come to love Jack Darcy; but she was strong and resolute,
+and would not be mastered by the passion. What
+could she do? for go away she must! Her imperious will
+and knowledge of men had availed her little to ward off
+this one's influence. Every instinct had been baffled,
+every movement had been met with a counterpoise. To
+stay here, and struggle, would be to yield eventually.</p>
+
+<p>There were dark circles under her eyes the next morning,
+tokens of her vigil and strife. She intrenched herself
+again behind that dumb apathy: she stood aloof from
+Sylvie. For days she escaped the watchful sight of
+Darcy; but she heard his voice, and every rebellious pulse
+was a-tremble. She cast about for some expedients<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span>
+whereby to escape her prison honorably, and after several
+fruitless efforts found one.</p>
+
+<p>In their early days there had been a girl-friend between
+Agatha and Gertrude, who had always held an attraction
+for the child Irene. Wealthy, beautiful, and accomplished,
+she had married a man who had already made
+for himself a name in statesmanship, a cultured and
+polished gentleman, and her bridal had been the theme of
+the day. But the fiend of intemperance had wrought
+destruction of her brilliant prospects, and made her life
+an open scandal. When it could no longer be borne, she
+gathered up the wreck of her fortune and her two little
+girls, and opened a boarding-school in a quiet, aristocratic
+old town. Irene had met her in New York after
+her own loss of fortune; and, though she had disdained
+sympathy, she was touched by Mrs. Trenholme's kindliness.</p>
+
+<p>She wrote to her now; and, of half a dozen applications,
+this was the only one that elicited a favorable reply.
+Mrs. Trenholme needed a teacher of French and music,
+and she knew Miss Lawrence's accent was perfect. The
+salary was not large, being four hundred dollars a year;
+but the duties were not very arduous, being all confined
+to school-hours.</p>
+
+<p>Much as Irene desired to go, there was some struggle
+with her pride before she could bring herself to accept.
+Only the prospect of that greater pride being laid in
+ruins before her eyes, could finally have induced her.
+Mrs. Trenholme expressed her delight warmly.</p>
+
+<p>There were strenuous objections on Fred's part when
+it came to be talked over. "She had no need. He was
+as much her protector as her father had been: indeed,
+was he not paying back the kindly care to himself, honoring
+his father's memory by doing as he would have
+done?"</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie came to the rescue presently.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I would let her go, Fred," she counselled. "Beverly
+is a delightful place, with many cultured people, and Mrs.
+Trenholme is just the woman to have an influence over
+Irene. You see, she gets so tired of having no pursuit,
+no strong interest. I could not endure it myself."</p>
+
+<p>"But she might have&mdash;I have dared to dream"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Put away dreams, my darling." Sylvie's voice was
+unconsciously sad. Then, with a smile, and tears, "If
+God kept watch over us, and brought us to our haven,
+can we not trust him for her,&mdash;for them?"</p>
+
+<p>And so they acquiesced.</p>
+
+<p>When Jack Darcy left Miss Lawrence on that fateful
+evening, his whole soul was full of unrest. He paced
+the quiet streets in that tense mood which makes thought
+and breath alike torture. Now that it was over, he said,
+with the inconsequence of love, that he had been a weak,
+cowardly fool to fear his fate too much; and yet the next
+instant he knew he would surely have lost it all, and that
+in time she <i>must</i> come to need him. If he <i>could</i> wait!
+Well, he <i>would</i> wait. He had not trained himself heretofore
+in these long reaches of patience for no purpose.
+That richly satisfying, inward sight, she could not take
+from him, that exultant faith which was warmed and fed
+from a thousand secret rills.</p>
+
+<p>He understood why she shunned him, why she had resolved
+to leave Yerbury; and he was thankful now that he
+had not ruined his cause by impatience. To think of not
+seeing her, of not hearing her voice, was like madness!
+His face grew thin, there were tense lines about his mouth
+and a set resolve in his eyes; yet to his fine temper came
+no moodiness or irritability. The task he had set for
+himself must be accomplished. He was as absolute in
+his self-denial as he would be in his happiness when that
+came.</p>
+
+<p>So she went away with the merest friendly farewell, and
+asked herself angrily, an hour after, what power this man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span>
+had over her, and why she feared him? Surely there was
+not much of the lover in that calm face!</p>
+
+<p>He threw himself into the business with renewed energy.
+As I said, the September account was inspiriting.
+Prospects began to look brighter, only it was admitted on
+all hands that the days of large profits and quick fortunes
+were over for a long while, if not for all time. Industry
+was coming to be respected, and you heard less talk
+about luck.</p>
+
+<p>The outside world kept watch of them narrowly, jealously.
+If they turned out thieves and swindlers, it would
+not be for the lack of advice. However, they tramped on
+and on. Their store gained a little, and was productive of
+much good. Keppler went to a different part of the town.
+Boyd sold the ground, and a row of decent cottages were
+to be put up. Kit Connelly had been reimbursed by the
+town for her damages, and with Ben Hay's advice and
+counsel built an addition to her house, which he and Rose
+took for housekeeping purposes. The lunch and coffee
+room was a regular and profitable institution, and would
+be a business for one of the boys as he grew up to
+manhood.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie and Fred went to the city for a winter holiday.
+Fred's book was elegantly brought out, and won him much
+praise and a little money. Sylvie achieved her ambition,
+and sold two pictures at what she considered marvellous
+prices, but she wisely confessed it only to her husband.
+They were invited to clubs and soir&eacute;es; and Mrs. Minor
+was extremely affable, though she did blame Fred for
+allowing Irene to take such an idiotic step.</p>
+
+<p>Darcy and Maverick indulged in two or three flying
+trips. Miss McLeod liked nothing better than to get
+these young people together, and listen to the animated
+conversations, herself as spicy and sharp as any one.
+Miss Lothrop was married; and in the slim, fair, blushing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span>
+girl the old lady had for companion now, he saw no danger.</p>
+
+<p>So the winter wore away, and the spring came again;
+and the man who was counting the days wondered wearily
+at times what his summer harvest might be.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> regal woman who stepped from the car to the station-platform
+at Yerbury, one balmy day in early June, to
+be greeted by Fred and Sylvie Lawrence with the warmest
+of welcomes, was indescribably different from the pale,
+cold, haughty statue that had gone away. There was an
+elasticity in her step, a self-reliance in her air, and the
+peculiar confidence discipline wisely used inevitably imparts.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there had been no romantic or highly-wrought
+change in her. She had not taken up teaching from any
+heroic motive or the possible benefit to any one, but
+simply to protect herself from what she considered the
+weakness of her own soul, to get away from a danger she
+could not fight. Oh, how she had hated French verbs and
+exercises! If hers had been a susceptible musical temperament,
+she would have gone quite crazy with the
+blunders and sentimentalisms of young girls.</p>
+
+<p>After a month of it, she would have welcomed any
+relief, even the face-to-face conflict with Darcy. But she
+could not well run away from here, and her physical health
+was perfect: so there was nothing but to go straight on,
+and find that circumstances had to govern, that she could
+not shut herself up in sullen majesty, or fling off the daily
+duties for some wiser and more patient hands to pick up,
+and restore to beauty and harmony.</p>
+
+<p>She had a friend, the best and truest that a young
+woman could have, perhaps; a woman so admirably adapted
+to the training of girls, that it was no marvel she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span>
+succeeded. Out of the ruins of her life she had built up
+another, wise, sweet, and strong. As Irene began to comprehend
+what Mrs. Trenholme had suffered and achieved,
+for the first time she paid an honest reverence to the
+nobility of character. And now she despised her own
+petty, shallow thoughts and beliefs. Her lofty despising
+of the world and the vain and selfish people therein had
+been only a kind of scornful regret for the treasures
+wrested from her, the glitter of fashion, the gauds of
+society. Fred had made a braver stand than she. He
+had not sought to poise himself on the easy, graceful
+rounds of past promises, and to dream futile weakening
+dreams, nor shut himself up in morbid isolation.</p>
+
+<p>After all, how little the great world really cared! It
+was the few friends, the small circle, the near influences,
+that were of importance. And when she found that here
+in cultured, delightful Beverly, she was sought out as an
+entertaining guest, that she had not lost caste because
+the great bubble of fortune had shivered into fragments,
+that dressing and shopping and flirting were not the highest
+of human enjoyments, she came to a very rational
+frame of mind, and to a certain extent enjoyed her life.
+But nature had not made her a teacher of children, and
+never does such women, until, informed by that highest of
+all love, they teach their own.</p>
+
+<p>She came back beautiful, strong, and brave, resolute to
+dare any thing. She dazzled them at the little tea-table
+by her swift, easy animation, her brilliancy, the color that
+went and came, the smiles that were like rippling billows
+over a sea. And Sylvie's heart went down like lead,
+though it was such a fair picture. "For now," she
+thought, "Jack will never dare to love her!"</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps not, if he had to begin now. But the love was
+in him and of him, and would be hers all his life long,
+whether she took it or no.</p>
+
+<p>He did not come for a day or two. She wondered a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span>
+little: she even laughed lightly at her own past fear, the
+shadow she had conjured up, the warm blood ran so
+healthily through her veins now.</p>
+
+<p>He sauntered in one morning to find her cutting roses
+with Sylvie, the two the fairest flowers in all the garden.
+He was in no wise abashed at this vision of loveliness: if
+she had a dower of beauty, he had his unstained manhood.</p>
+
+<p>They chatted and laughed. Sylvie pinned a pale bud
+and geranium-leaf in his coat. He held out his hand to
+Irene with a curious little gesture. She had two or three
+great royal purple pansies clasped lightly in her fingers.</p>
+
+<p>She meant to refuse courteously, but their eyes met.
+Was it the old spell working?</p>
+
+<p>Surely, surely all these fine-spun barriers, all these cunning
+Alps that she had thrown up day after day, were over-leaped
+at a supple bound. Master herself she might; but
+he stood in his man's power and pride and love, a suppliant,
+yet king, asking with wordless lips a little favor,
+taking with calm yet passionate eyes a royal largess.
+Her heart sank; her breath came in one long, tremulous
+sweep. Whether she gave, or he took, she could not have
+told; but he went away with the pansies in his fingers,
+despite Sylvie's pleading for a longer stay.</p>
+
+<p>When he was quite out of sight, he kissed them, sweet,
+tender, longing kisses. Then he dropped them between
+the white leaves of a little book, to be sacred forever.
+Sylvie's <i>boutonni&egrave;re</i> might keep him company outwardly,
+but those no eye must feast upon.</p>
+
+<p>He took the fine right of a lover, not declared, yet certain
+of his ground, not using any power that she could
+disdain or wound, it was so delicate, intangible, the perfume
+without the flower, the little thoughtfulness for her,
+reaching for her fan, folding her shawl about her if the
+evening blew up cool, seeming to know her wants the
+very instant they occurred to herself. And though she
+rebelled in secret, though she resolved heroically to put an
+end to it all, the golden moment never came.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It seemed as if the four were always together. Not
+but what Yerbury opened spacious doors to them, and
+proffered flattering welcomes; but they could not tone
+themselves to the insipidities of society. There were
+more complete and intense enjoyments. Sylvie and Irene
+took long drives through country lanes, or of a moonlight
+summer evening they all went. They sat on the porch,
+and Jack came strolling by: they went within, and there
+were books, music, desultory talking, and that wondrous,
+unseen guest in their midst.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie rarely left her alone. They were not the women
+to tease one another by flippant jests or allusions; and
+Mrs. Fred, of all others, had a dread of thrusting any
+vulgar face on this colorless, yet delicious, atmosphere.
+Love knew his own, and was sacredly known of them.</p>
+
+<p>Irene Lawrence could no more help blossoming under
+the intense yet steady warmth of his temperament, the
+vivid creative life in every feature, than she could have
+helped being at all; and to have refused or destroyed the
+love would have been as sure spiritual suicide as a poison
+to the body. He understood that she came to see this
+presently; and then his suit was half won,&mdash;more than
+half: he had only to go on to the royal fruition of hope
+and patience. She no longer shunned him: she dropped
+that pointed, distant "Mr. Darcy," and in the soul's
+own language, gave him no outward name.</p>
+
+<p>And, when he took her at her royal flood-tide, the words
+of asking and answering mattered little. A look, a tone,
+a clasp of hands, a last struggle of her pride, and she
+was his.</p>
+
+<p>The wide, warm summer night closed about them: the
+dusk was rich with floating dewy perfumes, and golden
+stars dazzled in the clear, moonless sky. Out in the trees
+a little bird, startled from her nap, sang a brief, sweet
+song to her little ones. He drew the proud yet yielding
+figure closer: their hearts beat, their flushed cheeks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span>
+touched, their lips met in one long, heavenly caress, their
+hands clasped until pulse throbbed with pulse in impassioned
+unison.</p>
+
+<p>Only a death and a great love can so change the aspect
+of life. As in the grave lies buried the dearest promises
+of love, hope, existence itself, and we learn in time to
+cling to every faint dream, so, like a resurrection, love
+sweeps away the sins and follies and weaknesses of the
+past, and rises from the dust and ashes transformed, renewed,
+nay, born again to the most sacred purposes.</p>
+
+<p>A strange, swift impression rushed over her as she met
+the eager, intense eyes. Was it in another world these
+arms had closed about her with their strong, restful clasp?
+She started abruptly: she seemed to listen, to puzzle herself
+with the bewildering impression.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, my darling?" in a deep, ardent voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know"&mdash;with a nervous laugh and shiver.
+"Have we met in some other country? Did you carry
+me over mountains, or through valleys, or hide me from a
+storm? Was this why I could never get away, try as I
+might?"</p>
+
+<p>Oh the wordless, entreating beauty of those eyes!</p>
+
+<p>"My queen, my own, you will never try again."</p>
+
+<p>"Never!" with a long, delicious, sobbing breath.
+"Why are you so irresistibly, so powerfully strong,
+Jack? Do you know,&mdash;you <i>must</i> know how wicked I
+have been! If you cast me out, it would only be a proper
+punishment. I don't mean that my lips or my hands are
+blurred with other men's kisses. I never could endure
+that," shuddering. "But they laid down their hearts,
+and I walked over them: they were weak, and I was
+strong! And one night I tried"&mdash;her voice sank to a
+beseeching, half-shamed murmur.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he gave a pure, genial laugh, rich in his own
+sustaining strength. "You would have broken my heart,
+your own too; for I think, even then, you loved me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I surely have never been indifferent. It was either
+love or hate. Do you remember the first evening I saw
+you in the parlor yonder?"</p>
+
+<p>She learned ere long, that he had never forgotten any
+thing; but the depth and perfectness of his love she could
+not learn in a day.</p>
+
+<p>If Jack Darcy had been patient hitherto, that grand
+quality seemed suddenly exhausted. He absolutely hurried
+her into a marriage,&mdash;hurried Sylvie too, who wanted
+the courtship to proceed with measured, golden steps.</p>
+
+<p>"As if it were not to be a courtship all one's life!"
+said radiant Jack. "Now the moments break in the
+middle, there are tangled ends, and endless beginnings,
+and one can hardly remember where one left off. Were
+you sorry to go to Fred?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, no!" with wide-open, surprised eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He carried the day at last, and September was appointed.
+They would be married in the old church.
+Mrs. Minor responded to the tidings by a visit. She had
+treasured up a great many things to say to Irene; but for
+once she was quite overwhelmed, and her sneers and patronage
+fell to the ground. Though she did remark to her
+mother,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I <i>am</i> disappointed that Irene, with her
+face and style, has not done any better; but you cannot
+expect much after one passes twenty. Mr. Darcy has
+improved certainly, and Irene is not as exclusive as we
+older girls were. It is a great pity she did not go out to
+Gertrude."</p>
+
+<p>For George Eastman, with a cat-like propensity, always
+came down on his feet. He was now at the flood-tide of
+prosperity&mdash;on other people's money. Mrs. Eastman
+was regal in velvets, sables, and diamonds, queening it at
+St. Petersburg. Some day there might be a crash again,
+but they would be well out of the way.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Lawrence would have no diamonds, and no show;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span>
+but she was dazzling in her radiant loveliness; and, if
+Jack was not handsome, his superb manliness redeemed
+him. Hope Mills took a holiday. All Yerbury went, it
+seemed; and those who could not get in remained outside
+for a glimpse.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie and Fred leaned over the registry in the vestry-room.
+In a bold hand the bridegroom had written,
+"John Beaumanoir Darcy."</p>
+
+<p>"A compliment to Irene's pride," laughed Sylvie.
+"The most aristocratic name of them all!"</p>
+
+<p>The old house was brightened up a bit before the young
+couple returned. Gentle Mrs. Darcy wondered how it
+would be between the old and the new love; but she remembered
+with charity, that she had taken the fresh
+young love of another Darcy, and was content with her
+day.</p>
+
+<p>The young people brought a new atmosphere with them,
+but it did not clash with the old. Jane Morgan was
+planning a home for herself. One of the cut-up farms
+had been put together again; and she had taken a five-years'
+lease at a low rate, to try a prudent and sensible
+scheme of philanthropy. Maverick had been intensely
+puzzled by Jack's love-affair, and could not yet account
+for it satisfactorily, but watched them both with a kind of
+amused interest, and dreamed of the deft, dainty little
+fairy down at his aunt's.</p>
+
+<p>I suppose I ought to say that Mrs. Jack Darcy vied
+with her husband in all good works,&mdash;in schools and clubs,
+and plans for everybody's improvement; but it was <i>not</i>
+her <i>forte</i>. He was too well satisfied with her love for
+him, her music, her enchanting ways, to wish her any
+different; and I think he would have been jealous, with
+that exclusive, tender, adoring jealousy, that cannot
+endure its choice treasures lavished upon others. She
+was kindly and generous in a stately, queenly fashion;
+but what between Jack, who was a more importunate lover<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span>
+than ever, and the baby born at Larch Avenue, she had
+her hands quite full.</p>
+
+<p>The five years of mutual copartnership drew to a close.
+Their young engineer had not blown up the mills; Bob
+Winston did not go off at the last moment with the balance
+at the bank; Jack Darcy had not falsified accounts:
+but it came out just as <i>everybody</i> had predicted that it
+would! "If your men were honest and honorable, co-operation
+could not fail of success. It was the simplest
+of all schemes," said "The Evening Transcript."</p>
+
+<p>The two offices were thrown into one by the sliding-doors,
+and the workmen and women assembled in their
+holiday gear. Jack Darcy was really struck with the
+change in their faces and the general demeanor. They
+had a brisk, cheery, self-reliant air: there was a certain
+neatness and respectability about which they used not to
+care in the old times. The boys of five years ago were
+grown men, and there wasn't a sturdier one among them
+than Barton Kane.</p>
+
+<p>And now Jack Darcy proceeded to read the statement
+of the whole period, to which every one listened with the
+most profound attention.</p>
+
+<p>At the close of the first year, after rent, wages, and all
+other expenses were taken out, the accumulation of profits
+had been $21,642.27. One-half of this, $10,821.13.5,
+had been turned directly over to capital: the other half,
+the profit of labor, was divided again in equal shares, one
+going to capital for every person, the other, amounting
+to $5,410.56.7, paid over to them as compensation for
+three-quarter wages. Of course the men had been delighted.
+They remembered their first joy even now.</p>
+
+<p>Then had followed the disastrous second year, which
+had no such golden story to tell. The first six months,
+interest and discount had made horrible inroads into capital,
+and there had not only been no surplus, but an actual
+deficiency. The latter half showed a poor frightened balance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span>
+of $137. But this year they improved greatly in
+economic management and several new processes that
+gave larger profit with less labor and outlay, so the hard
+strain had not been entirely without its uses. Capital
+had gone down in the valley of humiliation, and had a
+sorry time of it; but with it had come a knowledge and
+sympathy they could have acquired in no other way.</p>
+
+<p>The third year had proved a grand success. They had
+all worked so heartily together, and business had been
+undeniably good. Profits had been $41,854.92, with very
+limited discounts. After this there was none, and unused
+capital began to draw a little interest. This year there
+had been $10,963.73 to pay over to the men on the quarter
+share. The fourth year there had been numerous
+bankrupt stocks thrown on the market, and every one
+trying to do his utmost again: still the balance had been
+by no means disheartening, amounting to $34,982.67;
+capital's share being $17,491.33, and the wages overplus
+$8,745.66. The last year's profits had footed up $43,101.56.</p>
+
+<p>There was now in accrued capital stock $106,288.81.5;
+and this was to be divided in the <i>pro rata</i> of each man's
+share, the larger amounts making the most, of course.
+And now they saw the object of saving. They had earned
+full wages and something beside; and, though wages had
+not reached the high point of good times, on the other
+hand they had not fallen below a reasonable standard,
+even with the bad year. There had been steady work for
+the whole five years, and every man had been practised in
+thrift, economy, and self-denial.</p>
+
+<p>Of those who had begun with them, seven had been discharged
+for drunkenness and insubordination, their share
+forfeited to the fund for sick and disabled workmen;
+three had gone out from loss of faith in the plan, accepting
+Winston's offer to sell; four had died, and thirteen
+had left from various other causes. So that there had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span>
+been a much greater degree of steadiness than usually
+obtains among factory-workmen. This led to a decided
+improvement in many other respects. With a prospect of
+being permanent, the men were induced to buy homes,
+and took a greater interest in the management and welfare
+of their own town.</p>
+
+<p>The balance was divided, each man receiving his check,
+and with it a detailed statement of the whole five years.
+They were now quite free, the industrial partnership
+having legally expired. Hope Mills would take a fortnight
+holiday for repairs and re-organization.</p>
+
+<p>"What if there were to be no re-organization?" exclaimed
+Ben Hay suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>The men stared blankly at one another. No "Hope
+Mills," and the foundation-stone of life would have fallen
+out!</p>
+
+<p>Robert Winston addressed them, thanking them very
+heartily for their co-operation, and expressing a hope that
+each man would be satisfied with the result of five of the
+hardest years the country had ever known. There was
+no doubt now, judging from our exports, and the amount
+of money coming in from every quarter of the globe, as
+one might say, that we had entered upon an era of
+prosperity. We had been educated to the practice of
+prudence, of common-sense, and sound principles, we had
+gained fibre and stamina, and he hoped we had gained
+honesty and integrity. If we could not always compete
+with low-priced manufacturers, the solid truth was made
+manifest in the end. They might take for their passwords,
+"Honesty, industry, and fidelity."</p>
+
+<p>There was a great deal of cheering, and then Darcy
+was called upon for a speech. He did himself infinite
+credit, for in these five years not a man among them had
+made more rapid strides than Jack Darcy. As he stood
+there now, noble in form, in bearing, and with his good,
+strong, manly face, they felt somehow that he was <i>their</i>
+hero, and the cheering was heartier than ever.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then Cameron must say a few words, and Ben Hay and
+Jesse Gilman; and, as Jack declared afterward, it was a
+regular experience-meeting among brethren. They pressed
+around, and shook hands with Darcy and Winston, the
+captain and the pilot with whom they had weathered gales,
+and been brought safely into port. And they would not
+let them stir out of the building until they had appointed
+a meeting to form the company again, this time on a
+somewhat stronger basis. They were firmly convinced
+now that this was the only way in which it was possible
+for workmen to make any advancement.</p>
+
+<p>At length the crowd began to disperse. Jack started
+homeward; but, before he had walked half the distance,
+Davy, one of the men who had gone out in the first trouble,
+confronted him suddenly, seizing his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"O Mr. Darcy!" said he in a most eager tone, "are
+you going to form over again? Do you think there's
+a chance for me to be taken back? There hasn't been a
+day nor a night but what I've cursed myself for being
+such a fool as to let anybody talk me out of a good job.
+I see just how it is now. And, if I can get back again,
+I'll stand by the old ship through thick and thin. O
+Mr. Darcy! please speak a good word for me!"</p>
+
+<p>"That I will, Davy, if it is needed."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, thank you, a thousand times!" cried the
+poor fellow gratefully.</p>
+
+<p>Yerbury had plenty of praise now. To be sure, times
+<i>had</i> improved. If every year had been like the second,
+it would not have been possible to make co-operation
+work; but then, would it have been possible to carry on
+any business with continual loss? The starting of Hope
+Mills had inspired other disheartened firms, and given an
+impetus to Yerbury industries that might have lain much
+longer in the Slough of Despond.</p>
+
+<p>Fred and Sylvie came over to the Darcys to tea that
+evening, and Maverick dropped in of course.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Darcy," he exclaimed, "I do not see why you
+did not have a daughter for me to marry! Then we
+could all have been relations, you see. I think it a
+great mistake on your part."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Darcy glanced at her son with a peculiar light in
+her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Jack laughed. "She is thinking," he explained, "that
+if there had been another one, I should have gone off long
+ago to seek my fortune. I have learned that God may
+have better work for one than simply following out his
+own will;" and his voice dropped to a reverential tone.</p>
+
+<p>Maverick studied him with a peculiar interest. All
+these years there had been growing up in Jack Darcy a
+plant of nobler promise than mere worldly ambition. Not
+that he in any manner despised wealth: he had come to
+understand its true uses. The same power that had educated
+the workmen had been going on with silent, steady
+processes in him. He had come to comprehend the dignity
+of the soul, and that God desired his return in the
+deeds done for one another, in the continual progress, the
+greatness, nobleness, and loyalty we offered "to one of
+the least of these." Was this true religion,&mdash;the simple
+doctrine of the Cross? And Maverick bowed his head
+in unconscious reverence.</p>
+
+<p>They started homeward presently. Sylvie and Irene
+had some "last words" about baby Lawrence, and the
+two men paced up and down the porch a few moments.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God that it all came out so well!" said Jack
+in his strong, reverent tone.</p>
+
+<p>Fred put his arm over Jack's shoulder. The two men
+seemed types of all that was highest and finest in human
+nature.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack," began the other in his full, rich tone, tremulous
+with emotion, "do you remember that in my romantic
+boyhood I used to liken you to King Arthur? You
+have merged into a nobler hero since that day. Who but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span>
+a Sir Galahad, true, strong, unselfish, at once just yet
+tender, ambitious for the Holy Grail of our times, yet
+never swerving from the path of honor; keeping his own
+soul stainless amid the many temptations of the world&mdash;who
+save such a soul could have gone on in your path to
+the end? And of the other Christ-like virtue"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Don't, don't, Fred! You always did rate me too
+highly, you know. I am only a man."</p>
+
+<p>"It is something to be a man in these days," returned
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>The shady blue eyes smiled out of their twilight depth.</p>
+
+<p>"Fred, where are you?" cried a sweet voice.</p>
+
+<p>"You gave me <i>her</i>. You taught me to gain the great
+prize of my life as surely as you trained the men in the
+mill yonder. God bless you!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span></p>
+<h3>LEE AND SHEPARD'S</h3>
+
+<h2>SELECT FICTION</h2>
+
+
+<div class='center'><i>All prices given are for CLOTH BINDING, unless
+otherwise specified</i></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Select Fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Way of the World.</b> By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic). Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;&nbsp;$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Living Too Fast.</b> By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic). Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Indoors and Out.</b> By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic). Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Fortunate Island.</b> By Max Adeler. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Dora Darling, the Daughter of the Regiment.</b> By Jane G. Austin. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Dora Darling and Little Sunshine.</b> By Jane G. Austin</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Life in Danbury.</b> By James M. Bailey. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Mr. Phillips' Goneness.</b> By James M. Bailey. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Danbury Boom.</b> By James M. Bailey. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>They All Do It.</b> By James M. Bailey</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Running to Waste.</b> By George M. Baker. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Something Better.</b> By George M. Baker</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>A Year Worth Living.</b> By Rev. W. M. Baker</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Bright Days in the Old Plantation Time.</b> By Mary Ross Banks. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Simplicity and Fascination.</b> By Anne Beale</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Nora's Return;</b> a Sequel to "The Doll's House." By Ednah. D. Cheney. Palatine Boards</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Life and Times of Jesus</b>, as related by Thomas Didymus. By Rev. James Freeman Clarke</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>His Marriage Vow.</b> By Mrs. C. F. Corbin</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Nobody's Husband.</b> By Samuel W. Cozzens</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Andersonville Violets.</b> By Herbert W. Collingwood</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Battles at Home.</b> By Mary G. Darling. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>In the World.</b> By Mary G. Darling. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Dawning.</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Lily and the Cross.</b> By James De Mille. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Fore and Aft.</b> By Robert B. Dixon. Cloth</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Herman, or Young Knighthood.</b> By E. Foxton. 2 volumes</td><td align='right'>3.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Perseverance Island.</b> By Douglas Frazar</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Castle Foam.</b> By Harry W. French</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Ego.</b> By Harry W. French</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b>By MARY A. DENISON</b></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Denison fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'><b>His Triumph</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Like a Gentleman</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Mr. Peter Crewitt</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Rothmell</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Tell Your Wife</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>That Wife of Mine</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>That Husband of Mine</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b>By AMANDA M. DOUGLAS</b></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Douglas Fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Osborne of Arrochar</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;&nbsp;$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>A Modern Adam and Eve</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Fortunes of the Faradays</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>A Woman's Inheritance</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Claudia</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Floyd Grandon's Honor</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Foes of Her Household</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>From Hand to Mouth</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Home Nook</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Whom Kathie Married</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Hope Mills</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>In Trust</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Nelly Kinnard's Kingdom</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Stephen Dane</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Out of the Wreck</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Seven Daughters</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Sydnie Adriance</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Lost in a Great City</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="More fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Nuna, the Brahmin Girl.</b> By Harry W. French. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Only One.</b> By Harry W. French</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>A Captive of Love.</b> By Edward Greey. Illustrated.</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Golden Lotus.</b> By Edward Greey. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Malbone.</b> An Oldport Romance. By Thomas Wentworth Higginson</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Marion Graham.</b> By Margaret Woods Lawrence</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Demagogue.</b> By D. R. Locke (Nasby)</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>A Paper City.</b> By D. R. Locke (Nasby)</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Morals of Abou Ben Adhem.</b> By D. R. Locke (Nasby)</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Ekkoes from Kentucky.</b> By D. R. Locke (Nasby). Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Swingin' Round the Cirkle.</b> By D. R. Locke (Nasby). Illus.</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Little Baron Trump and His Wonderful Dog Bulger.</b> By Ingersoll Lockwood</td><td align='right'>2.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Little Giant Boab and His Talking Raven Tabib.</b> By Ingersoll Lockwood</td><td align='right'>2.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Barbara Thayer.</b> By Annie Jenness Miller</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b>By SOPHIE MAY</b><br />
+
+Sophie May's "Grown-up" Stories</div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Sophie May Stories">
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Drone's Honey.</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Janet: a Poor Heiress.</b> Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Our Helen.</b> Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Quinnebasset Girls.</b> Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Asbury Twins.</b> Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Doctor's Daughter.</b> Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Still more fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Which&mdash;Right or Wrong?</b> By Miss M. L. Moreland. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Blind Men and the Devil.</b> By Phineas</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Puddleford Papers, or Humors of the West.</b> By H. H. Riley. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Rosecroft.</b> By W. M. F. Round</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Achsah.</b> By W. M. F. Round. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Fall of Damascus.</b> By W. W. Russell</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Daisy Travers.</b> By Mrs. A. F. Samuels. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Seola.</b> By Mrs. J. Gregory Smith</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Brushes and Chisels.</b> By Signor Teodoro Serrao. Tri-color cloth, 1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>A Tight Squeeze.</b> By "Staats." Cloth, $1.00; paper,</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>John Thorn's Folks.</b> By Angeline Teal</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Man Proposes.</b> By F. H. Underwood</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Lord of Himself.</b> By F. H. Underwood</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Edward Burton.</b> By Henry Wood</td><td align='right'>.25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Mrs. Armington's Ward.</b> By Mrs. D. Thew Wright</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b>By VIRGINIA F. TOWNSEND</b></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Townsend fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'>A Boston's Girl's Ambition</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;&nbsp;$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>That Queer Girl</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Daryll Gap</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Lenox Dare</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Woman's Word</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>But a Philistine</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Only Girls</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Deerings of Medbury</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Hollands</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Six in All</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Mills of Tuxbury</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Trafton Fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'>An American Girl Abroad. By Adeline Trafton. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Katherine Earle. By Adeline Trafton</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>His Inheritance. By Adeline Trafton.</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b>By J. T. TROWBRIDGE</b></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Trowbridge Fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'>Neighbor Jack</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;&nbsp;$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Cudjo's Cave</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Drummer Boy</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Three Scouts</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Farnell's Folly</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Martin Merrivale</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Neighbors' Wives</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Coupon Bonds</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b>By Judge D. P. THOMPSON.</b></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Thomson fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'>The Green Mountain Boys</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Rangers, or The Tory's Daughter</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>May Martin, and Other Tales of the Green Mountains</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Locke Amsden, the Schoolmaster</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Wreck of the Chancellor. By Jules Verne</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Winter in the Ice. By Jules Verne. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Adventures of a Chinaman. By Jules Verne. Illustrated,</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Around the World in Eighty Days. By Jules Verne.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Italian Girl. By Mrs. K. S. Washburn</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear. By Mrs. K. S. Washburn</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Gates Wide Open. By George Wood</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br />THE FOLLOWING ARE OFFERED IN
+PAPER COVERS</div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Paper covered fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'>Mr. Phillips' Goneness. By James M. Bailey</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;&nbsp;$0.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Danbury Boom. By James M. Bailey</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>They All Do It. By James M. Bailey</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Something Better. By George M. Baker</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Nobody's Husband. By S. W. Cozzens</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Andersonville Violets. By Herbert W. Collingwood</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Mr. Peter Crewitt. By Mary A. Denison</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Tell Your Wife. By Mary A. Denison</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>That Wife of Mine. By Mary A. Denison</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>That Husband of Mine. By Mary A. Denison</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Lost in a Great City. By Amanda M. Douglas</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Paper City</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Morals of Abou Ben Adhem</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Ekkoes from Kentucky</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Swingin' Round the Cirkle</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Puddleford Papers. By H. H. Riley</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Barbara Thayer. By Annie Jenness Miller</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Blind Men and the Devil. By Phineas</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Any of the above sent, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;  BOSTON<br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span></p>
+<h2><span class="u"><span class="smcap">Historical Books</span></span> * * * *<br />
+
+* * * * <span class="u"><span class="smcap">for Young People</span></span></h2>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class='unindent'><br /><span class="u"><b><i>Young Folks' History of the United States</i></b></span></div>
+
+<p>By <span class="smcap">Thomas Wentworth Higginson</span>. Illustrated. $1.50.</p>
+
+<div class="hang1">The story of our country in the most reliable and interesting form. As a
+story-book it easily leads all other American history stories in interest, while as
+a text-book for the study of history it is universally admitted to be the best.</div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><br /><span class="u"><b><i>Young Folks' Book of American Explorers</i></b></span></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">Thomas Wentworth Higginson</span>. Uniform with the "Young Folks'
+History of the United States." One volume, fully illustrated. Price $1.50.</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"It is not a history told in the third person, nor an historical novel for young
+folks, where the author supposes the chief characters to have thought and said
+such and such things under such and such circumstances; but it is the genuine
+description given by the persons who experienced the things they described in
+letters written home."&mdash;<i>Montpelier Journal.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><br /><span class="u"><b><i>The Nation in a Nutshell</i></b></span></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">George Makepeace Towle</span>, author of "Heroes of History," "Young
+Folks' History of England," "Young Folks' History of Ireland," etc.
+Price 50 cents.</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"To tell the story of a nation like ours in a nutshell, requires a peculiar
+faculty for selecting, condensing, and philosophizing. The brevity with which
+he relates the principal events in American history, does not detract from the
+charming interest of the narrative style."&mdash;<i>Public Opinion.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><br /><span class="u"><b><i>Young People's History of England</i></b></span></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">George Makepeace Towle</span>. Cloth, illustrated. $1.50.</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The whole narrative is made interesting and attractive&mdash;in every way
+what a book of this kind should be in its clearness of statement, freshness of
+style, and its telling of the right ways."&mdash;<i>Critic.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><br /><span class="u"><b><i>Handbook of English History</i></b></span></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">Based on "Lectures on English History," by the late <span class="smcap">M. J. Guest</span>, and
+brought down to the year 1880. With a Supplementary Chapter on the
+English Literature of the 19th Century. By <span class="smcap">F. H. Underwood, LL.D</span>.
+With Maps, Chronological Table, etc. $1.50.</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"It approaches nearer perfection than anything in the line we have seen.
+It is succinct, accurate, and delightful."&mdash;<i>Hartford Evening Post.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><br /><span class="u"><b><i>Young People's History of Ireland</i></b></span></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">George Makepeace Towle</span>, author of "Young People's History of
+England," "Young Folks' Heroes of History," etc. With an introduction
+by <span class="smcap">John Boyle O'Reilly</span>. Cloth, illustrated. $1.50.</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The history is like a novel, increasing in interest to the very end, and
+terminating at the most interesting period of the whole; and the reader lays
+down the book a moment in enthusiastic admiration for a people who have
+endured so much, and yet have retained so many admirable characteristics."&mdash;<i>N.Y.
+World.</i></p></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston</b><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span></p>
+<h1><span class="u"><span class="smcap">Young Folks'</span></span>&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+
+&mdash;&mdash;<span class="u"><span class="smcap">Books of Travel</span></span></h1>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<div class="hang1"><b>DRIFTING ROUND THE WORLD; A Boy's Adventures by
+Sea and Land</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">Capt. Charles W. Hall</span>, author of "Adrift in the Ice-Fields," "The
+Great Bonanza," etc. With numerous full-page and letter-press illustrations.
+Royal 8vo. Handsome cover. $1.75. Cloth, gilt, $2.50.</div>
+
+<p>"Out of the beaten track" in its course of travel, record of adventures,
+and descriptions of life in Greenland, Labrador, Ireland, Scotland, England,
+France, Holland, Russia, Asia, Siberia, and Alaska. Its hero is young, bold,
+and adventurous; and the book is in every way interesting and attractive.</p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b><i>EDWARD GR&Eacute;EY'S JAPANESE SERIES</i></b></div>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>YOUNG AMERICANS IN JAPAN; or, The Adventures of the
+Jewett Family and their Friend Oto Nambo</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">With 170 full-page and letter-press illustrations. Royal 8vo, 7 &times; 9&frac12; inches.
+Handsomely illuminated cover, $1.75. Cloth, black and gold, $2.50.</div>
+
+<p>This story, though essentially a work of fiction, is filled with interesting and
+truthful descriptions of the curious ways of living of the good people of the
+land of the rising sun.</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>THE WONDERFUL CITY OF TOKIO; or, The Further Adventures
+of the Jewett Family and their Friend Oto Nambo</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">With 169 illustrations. Royal 8vo, 7 &times; 9&frac12; inches. With cover in gold and
+colors, designed by the author, $1.75. Cloth, black and gold, $2.50.</div>
+
+<p>"A book full of delightful information. The author has the happy gift of
+permitting the reader to view things as he saw them. The illustrations are
+mostly drawn by a Japanese artist, and are very unique."&mdash;<i>Chicago Herald.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>THE BEAR WORSHIPPERS OF YEZO AND THE ISLAND
+OF KARAFUTO; being the further Adventures of the
+Jewett Family and their Friend Oto Nambo</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">180 illustrations. Boards, $1.75. Cloth, $2.50.</div>
+
+<p>Graphic pen and pencil pictures of the remarkable bearded people who live
+in the north of Japan. The illustrations are by native Japanese artists, and
+give queer pictures of a queer people, who have been seldom visited.</p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b><i>HARRY W. FRENCH'S BOOKS</i></b></div>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>OUR BOYS IN INDIA</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">The wanderings of two young Americans in Hindustan, with their exciting
+adventures on the sacred rivers and wild mountains. With 145 illustrations.
+Royal 8vo, 7 &times; 9&frac12; inches. Bound in emblematic covers of Oriental design,
+$1.75. Cloth, black and gold, $2.50.</div>
+
+<p>While it has all the exciting interest of a romance, it is remarkably vivid in
+its pictures of manners and customs in the land of the Hindu. The illustrations
+are many and excellent.</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>OUR BOYS IN CHINA</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">The adventures of two young Americans, wrecked in the China Sea on their
+return from India, with their strange wanderings through the Chinese
+Empire. 188 illustrations. Boards, ornamental covers in colors and gold,
+$1.75. Cloth, $2.50.</div>
+
+<p>This gives the further adventures of "Our Boys" of India fame in the land
+of Teas and Queues.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston</b><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span></p>
+<h1><span class="u"><span class="smcap">Irene E. Jerome's</span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;<br />
+
+&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="u"><span class="smcap">Art Books</span></span></h1>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="hang1"><b>IN A FAIR COUNTRY.</b> With 55 full-page illustrations; engraved
+by Andrew. Nearly 100 pages of text, by Thomas Wentworth
+Higginson. Gold cloth, full gilt, $6.00; Turkey morocco, $15.00;
+tree calf, $15.00; English seal style, $10.00.</div>
+
+<p>Miss Jerome has caught the very glamour of the woodland and the lea
+with her pencil, transferring it to paper with the delicacy of an exquisite
+photograph, while Colonel Higginson's delightful style brings out the
+beauty of his topics most satisfactorily. As a specimen of the book-maker's
+art, the volume leaves nothing to be asked.</p>
+
+
+<div class="hang1"><b>A BUNCH OF VIOLETS.</b> Original illustrations, engraved on
+wood and printed under the direction of <span class="smcap">George T. Andrew</span>. 4to, cloth,
+$3.75: Turkey morocco, $9.00; tree calf, $9.00; English seal style, $7.00.</div>
+
+<p>The new volume is akin to the former triumphs of this favorite artist, whose
+"Sketch Books" have achieved a popularity unequalled in the history of fine
+art publications. In the profusion of designs, originality, and delicacy of
+treatment, the charming sketches of mountain, meadow, lake, and forest
+scenery of New England here reproduced are unexcelled. After the wealth of
+illustration which this student of nature has poured into the lap of art, to produce
+a volume in which there is no deterioration of power or beauty, but, if
+possible, increased strength and enlargement of ideas, gives assurance that the
+foremost female artist in America will hold the hearts of her legion of admirers.</p>
+
+
+<div class="hang1"><b>NATURE'S HALLELUJAH.</b> Presented in a series of nearly
+fifty full-page original illustrations (9&frac12; x 14 inches), engraved on wood by
+<span class="smcap">George T. Andrew</span>. Elegantly bound in gold cloth, full gilt, gilt edges,
+$6.00; Turkey morocco, $15.00; tree calf, $15.00; English seal style, $10.00.</div>
+
+<p>This volume has won the most cordial praise on both sides of the water.
+Mr. Francis H. Underwood, U. S. Consul at Glasgow, writes concerning it:
+"I have never seen anything superior, if equal, to the delicacy and finish of
+the engravings, and the perfection of the press-work. The copy you sent me
+has been looked over with evident and unfeigned delight by many people of
+artistic taste. Every one frankly says, 'It is impossible to produce such
+effects here,' and, whether it is possible or not, I am sure it is <i>not done;</i> no
+such effects are produced on this side of the Atlantic. In this combination of
+art and workmanship, the United States leads the world; and you have a right
+to be proud of the honor of presenting such a specimen to the public."</p>
+
+
+<div class="hang1"><b>ONE YEAR'S SKETCH BOOK.</b> Containing forty-six full-page
+original illustrations, engraved on wood by <span class="smcap">Andrew</span>; in same bindings
+and at same prices as "Nature's Hallelujah."</div>
+
+<p>"Every thick, creamy page is embellished by some gems of art. Sometimes
+it is but a dash and a few trembling strokes; at others an impressive landscape,
+but in all and through all runs the master touch. Miss Jerome has the genius
+of an Angelo, and the execution of a Guido. The beauty of the sketches will
+be apparent to all, having been taken from our unrivalled New England
+scenery."&mdash;<i>Washington Chronicle.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class="hang1"><b>THE MESSAGE OF THE BLUEBIRD, Told to Me
+to Tell to Others.</b> Original illustrations engraved on wood by
+<span class="smcap">Andrew</span>. Cloth and gold, $2.00; palatine boards, ribbon ornaments, $1.00.</div>
+
+<p>"In its new bindings is one of the daintiest combinations of song and illustration
+ever published, exhibiting in a marked degree the fine poetic taste and
+wonderfully artistic touch which render this author's works so popular. The
+pictures are exquisite, and the verses exceedingly graceful, appealing to the
+highest sensibilities. The little volume ranks among the choicest of holiday
+souvenirs, and is beautiful and pleasing."&mdash;<i>Boston Transcript.</i></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston</b><br />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h1>
+<span class="u"><span class="smcap">Lee and</span></span>   * &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="u"><span class="smcap">Seventy-five cent</span></span> &nbsp;  &nbsp;  *<br />
+*&nbsp; <span class="u"><span class="smcap">Shepard's</span></span>&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="u"><span class="smcap">Juveniles</span></span><br />
+</h1>
+
+<div class='center'><i>Comprising new editions of the following popular Juveniles Bound in
+best English cloth bright colors Any volume sold separately</i></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>CHARLEY AND EVA STORIES</b> By Miss L. C. <span class="smcap">Thurston</span></div>
+
+<div>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>How Charley Roberts became a Man</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>How Eva Roberts gained her Education</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Home in the West</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Children of Amity Court</b></span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Miss Thurston writes with a purpose. She is an admirer of manly boys
+and womanly girls, and so carries her characters through scenes and
+situations that elevate and purify. The books are by no means slow,
+being full of adventures.</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>GOLDEN PROVERB SERIES</b> By Mrs. M. E. <span class="smcap">Bradley</span>
+and Miss <span class="smcap">Kate J. Neely</span></div>
+
+<div>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Birds of a Feather</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Fine Feathers do not make Fine Birds</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Handsome is that Handsome Does</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>A Wrong Confessed is Half Redressed</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>One Good Turn deserves Another</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Actions Speak Louder than Words</b></span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Two capital story-tellers, "birds of a feather," have flocked together,
+and produced from six old proverbs six as bright and taking story-books
+as ever gladdened the hearts of Young America; showing, indeed, that
+"handsome is that handsome does."</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>GOLDEN RULE STORIES</b> By Mrs. S. C. B. <span class="smcap">Samuels</span></div>
+
+
+<div>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Golden Rule</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Shipwrecked Girl</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Under the Sea</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Nettie's Trial</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Burning Prairie</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Smuggler's Cave</b></span><br />
+<br /></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>CELESTA'S LIBRARY for Boys and Girls</b></div>
+
+<div>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Celesta</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Crooked and Straight</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Crook Straightened</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>A Thousand a Year</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Abel Grey</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>May Coverley</b></span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Mrs. Samuels has written many attractive books. The scenes and
+incidents she portrays are full of life, action, and interest, and decidedly
+wholesome and instructive.</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>SALT-WATER DICK STORIES</b> By <span class="smcap">May Mannering</span></div>
+
+<div>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Climbing the Rope</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Billy Grimes's Favorite</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Cruise of the Dashaway</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Little Spaniard</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Salt-Water Dick</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Little Maid of Oxbow</b></span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Not all tales of the sea, as the title of the series would imply, but stories
+of many lands by a lady who has been a great traveller, and tells what she
+has seen, in a captivating way.</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>UPSIDE-DOWN STORIES</b> By <span class="smcap">Rosa Abbott</span></div>
+
+<div>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Jack of all Trades</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Alexis the Runaway</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Tommy Hickup</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Upside Down</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Young Detective</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Pinks and Blues</b></span><br /><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>VACATION STORIES for Boys and Girls</b> 6 vols.
+Illustrated</div>
+
+<div>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Worth not Wealth</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Country Life</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Charm</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Karl Keigler or The Fortunes of a Foundling</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Walter Seyton</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Holidays at Chestnut Hill</b></span><br /><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>GREAT ROSY DIAMOND STORIES for Girls</b>
+6 vols. Illustrated</div>
+
+<div>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Great Rosy Diamond</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Daisy or The Fairy Spectacles</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Violet a Fairy Story</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Minnie or The Little Woman</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Angel Children</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Little Blossom's Reward</b></span><br />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston</b><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'><h1><span class="u">NARRATIVES</span></h1></td><td align='left'><h3>&middot; OF &middot; NOTED&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;TRAVELLERS</h3></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>GERMANY SEEN WITHOUT SPECTACLES; or, Random
+Sketches of Various Subjects, Penned from Different Standpoints
+in the Empire</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By <span class="smcap">Henry Ruggles</span>, late United States Consul at the Island of Malta, and
+at Barcelona, Spain. $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"Mr. Ruggles writes briskly: he chats and gossips, slashing right and left
+with stout American prejudices, and has made withal a most entertaining
+book."&mdash;<i>New-York Tribune.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>TRAVELS AND OBSERVATIONS IN THE ORIENT, with a
+Hasty Flight in the Countries of Europe</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By <span class="smcap">Walter Harriman</span> (ex-Governor of New Hampshire). $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"The author, in his graphic description of these sacred localities, refers
+with great aptness to scenes and personages which history has made famous.
+It is a chatty narrative of travel."&mdash;<i>Concord Monitor.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>FORE AND AFT</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>A Story of Actual Sea-Life. By <span class="smcap">Robert B. Dixon</span>, M.D. $1.25.</div>
+
+<p>Travels in Mexico, with vivid descriptions of manners and customs, form a
+large part of this striking narrative of a fourteen-months' voyage.</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>VOYAGE OF THE PAPER CANOE</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>A Geographical Journey of Twenty-five Hundred Miles from Quebec to the
+Gulf of Mexico. By <span class="smcap">Nathaniel H. Bishop</span>. With numerous illustrations
+and maps specially prepared for this work. Crown 8vo. $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"Mr. Bishop did a very bold thing, and has described it with a happy
+mixture of spirit, keen observation, and <i>bonhomie</i>."&mdash;<i>London Graphic.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>FOUR MONTHS IN A SNEAK-BOX</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>A Boat Voyage of Twenty-six Hundred Miles down the Ohio and Mississippi
+Rivers, and along the Gulf of Mexico. By <span class="smcap">Nathaniel H. Bishop</span>. With
+numerous maps and illustrations. $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"His glowing pen-pictures of 'shanty-boat' life on the great rivers are
+true to life. His descriptions of persons and places are graphic."&mdash;<i>Zion's
+Herald.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>A THOUSAND MILES' WALK ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA,
+Over the Pampas and the Andes</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By <span class="smcap">Nathaniel H. Bishop</span>. Crown 8vo. New edition. Illustrated. $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"Mr. Bishop made this journey when a boy of sixteen, has never forgotten
+it, and tells it in such a way that the reader will always remember it, and
+wish there had been more."</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>Being the Adventures of a Naturalist Bird-hunting in the West-India Islands.
+By <span class="smcap">Fred A. Ober</span>. New edition. With maps and illustrations. $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"During two years he visited mountains, forests, and people, that few, if
+any, tourists had ever reached before. He carried his camera with him, and
+photographed from nature the scenes by which the book is illustrated."&mdash;<i>Louisville
+Courier-Journal.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>ENGLAND FROM A BACK WINDOW; With Views of
+Scotland and Ireland</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By J. M. <span class="smcap">Bailey</span>, the "'Danbury News' Man." 12mo. $1.00.</div>
+
+<p>"The peculiar humor of this writer is well known. The British Isles have
+never before been looked at in just the same way,&mdash;at least, not by any one
+who has notified us of the fact. Mr. Bailey's travels possess, accordingly, a
+value of their own for the reader, no matter how many previous records of
+journeys in the mother country he may have read."&mdash;<i>Rochester Express.</i></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 42%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston</b><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/bright.jpg" width="600" height="108" alt="Bright and Breezy Books of Travel by Six Bright Women" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>MEXICO&mdash;PICTURESQUE, POLITICAL, PROGRESSIVE</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By <span class="smcap">Mary E. Blake</span> and <span class="smcap">Margaret F. Sullivan</span>. Cloth, $1.25.</div>
+
+<p>"This is a very charming volume. The writers went through the
+country with their eyes wide open, and they have the faculty of interesting
+others in what was of interest to them."</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>A WINTER IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By <span class="smcap">Helen J. Sanborn</span>. Cloth, $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"A bright, attractive narrative by a wide-awake Boston girl."</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>A SUMMER IN THE AZORES, with a Glimpse of Madeira</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By Miss C. <span class="smcap">Alice Baker</span>. Little Classic style. Cloth, gilt edges, $1.25.</div>
+
+<p>"Miss Baker gives us a breezy, entertaining description of these picturesque
+islands. She is an observing traveller, and makes a graphic picture of the
+quaint people and customs."&mdash;<i>Chicago Advance.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>LIFE AT PUGET SOUND</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>With sketches of travel in Washington Territory, British Columbia, Oregon,
+and California. By <span class="smcap">Caroline C. Leighton</span>. 16mo, cloth, $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"Your chapters on Puget Sound have charmed me. Full of life, deeply
+interesting, and with just that class of facts, and suggestions of truth, that
+cannot fail to help the Indian and the Chinese."&mdash;<span class="smcap">Wendell Phillips.</span></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>EUROPEAN BREEZES</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By <span class="smcap">Margery Deane</span>. Cloth, gilt top, $1.50. Being chapters of travel
+through Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland, covering places not
+usually visited by Americans in making "the Grand Tour of the Continent,"
+by the accomplished writer of "Newport Breezes."</div>
+
+<p>"A very bright, fresh and amusing account, which tells us about a host of
+things we never heard of before, and is worth two ordinary books of European
+travel."&mdash;<i>Woman's Journal.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>BEATEN PATHS; or, A Woman's Vacation in Europe</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By <span class="smcap">Ella W. Thompson</span>. 16mo, cloth. $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>A lively and chatty book of travel, with pen-pictures humorous and graphic,
+that are decidedly out of the "beaten paths" of description.</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>AN AMERICAN GIRL ABROAD</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By Miss <span class="smcap">Adeline Trafton</span>, author of "His Inheritance," "Katherine
+Earle," etc. 16mo. Illustrated. $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"A sparkling account of a European trip by a wide-awake, intelligent, and
+irrepressible American girl. Pictured with a freshness and vivacity that is
+delightful."&mdash;<i>Utica Observer.</i></p>
+
+
+<h3><i>CURTIS GUILD'S TRAVELS</i></h3>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>BRITONS AND MUSCOVITES; or, Traits of Two Empires</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>Cloth, $2.00.<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>OVER THE OCEAN; or, Sights and Scenes in Foreign Lands</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By <span class="smcap">Curtis Guild</span>, editor of "The Boston Commercial Bulletin." Crown 8vo.
+Cloth, $2.50.</div>
+
+<p>"The utmost that any European tourist can hope to do is to tell the old
+story in a somewhat fresh way, and Mr. Guild has succeeded in every part of
+his book in doing this."&mdash;<i>Philadelphia Bulletin</i>.</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>ABROAD AGAIN; or, Fresh Forays in Foreign Fields</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>Uniform with "Over the Ocean." By the same author. Crown 8vo.
+Cloth $2.50.</div>
+
+<p>"He has given us a life-picture. Europe is done in a style that must serve
+as an invaluable guide to those who go 'over the ocean,' as well as an interesting
+companion."&mdash;<i>Halifax Citizen.</i></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston</b><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/heroes.png" width="600" height="140" alt="YOUNG FOLKS HEROES OF HISTORY" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE.<br />
+Handsomely Illustrated. Price per vol., $1.25. Sets in neat boxes.<br /><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><b>VASCO DA GAMA:</b><br />
+
+HIS VOYAGES AND ADVENTURES.</div>
+
+<p>"Da Gama's history is full of striking adventures, thrilling incidents, and
+perilous situations; and Mr. Towle, while not sacrificing historical accuracy,
+has so skilfully used his materials, that we have a charmingly romantic tale."&mdash;<i>Rural
+New-Yorker.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><b>PIZARRO:</b><br />
+
+HIS ADVENTURES AND CONQUESTS.</div>
+
+<p>"No hero of romance possesses greater power to charm the youthful reader
+than the conqueror of Peru. Not even King Arthur, or Thaddeus of Warsaw,
+has the power to captivate the imagination of the growing boy. Mr.
+Towle has handled his subject in a glowing but truthful manner; and we
+venture the assertion, that, were our children led to read such books as this,
+the taste for unwholesome, exciting, wrong-teaching boys' books&mdash;dime
+novels in books' clothing&mdash;would be greatly diminished, to the great gain of
+mental force and moral purpose in the rising generation."&mdash;<i>Chicago Alliance.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><b>MAGELLAN;</b><br />
+
+OR, THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.</div>
+
+<p>"What more of romantic and spirited adventures any bright boy could
+want than is to be found in this series of historical biography, it is difficult
+to imagine. This volume is written in a most sprightly manner; and the
+life of its hero, Fernan Magellan, with its rapid stride from the softness of
+a petted youth to the sturdy courage and persevering fortitude of manhood,
+makes a tale of marvellous fascination."&mdash;<i>Christian Union.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><b>MARCO POLO:</b><br />
+
+HIS TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES.</div>
+
+<p>"The story of the adventurous Venetian, who six hundred years ago penetrated
+into India and Cathay and Thibet and Abyssinia, is pleasantly and
+clearly told; and nothing better can be put into the hands of the school boy
+or girl than this series of the records of noted travellers. The heroism displayed
+by these men was certainly as great as that ever shown by conquering
+warrior; and it was exercised in a far nobler cause,&mdash;the cause of knowledge
+and discovery, which has made the nineteenth century what it is."&mdash;<i>Graphic.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><b>RALEGH:</b><br />
+
+HIS EXPLOITS AND VOYAGES.</div>
+
+<p>"This belongs to the 'Young Folks' Heroes of History' series, and deals
+with a greater and more interesting man than any of its predecessors. With
+all the black spots on his fame, there are few more brilliant and striking
+figures in English history than the soldier, sailor, courtier, author, and explorer,
+Sir Walter Ralegh. Even at this distance of time, more than two
+hundred and fifty years after his head fell on the scaffold, we cannot read his
+story without emotion. It is graphically written, and is pleasant reading,
+not only for young folks, but for old folks with young hearts."&mdash;<i>Woman's
+Journal.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><b>DRAKE:</b><br />
+
+THE SEA-LION OF DEVON.</div>
+
+<p>Drake was the foremost sea-captain of his age, the first English admiral
+to send a ship completely round the world, the hero of the magnificent
+victory which the English won over the Invincible Armada. His career was
+stirring, bold, and adventurous, from early youth to old age.</p>
+
+<div class='right'>
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston.</b><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span></p>
+<h2><big>B</big><span class='u'>OOKS OF PARTICULAR INTEREST</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;<br />
+&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class='u'>TO <big>Y</big>OUNG MEN AND WOMEN</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><b>HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW</b></p>
+
+<div class="hang1">His Life, His Works, His Friendships. By <span class="smcap">George Lowell Austin</span>.
+Profusely illustrated. Cloth, $2.00. New edition. Formerly published by
+subscription.</div>
+
+<p>"We have here a clear and popular presentation of the poet's literary life.
+The details of his personal and private life, or at least so much of it as belongs
+by right strictly to his family, has been avoided, and that properly. What the
+public have a right to know is found in this volume, in a style that is easy and
+pleasing. Here you have Longfellow as a child, as a college student, and as
+a professor in Bowdoin College; and especially does he appear here as a man
+of letters. It is a charming volume."&mdash;<i>Christian Standard.</i></p>
+
+
+<p><b>LIFE AND TIMES OF WENDELL PHILLIPS</b></p>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">George Lowell Austin</span>. With steel portrait and illustrations. Cloth,
+$1.50. New edition. The only complete Life of the great agitator.</div>
+
+<p>"The life of a man who was so strongly identified with one of the most
+stirring periods in American history must necessarily be one of much interest,
+and Mr. Austin has succeeded in presenting its features in a very attractive
+way. Portions of Mr. Phillips's most important public addresses are given,
+and there are reminiscences of the man by some of his close friends and associates."&mdash;<i>Philadelphia
+Record.</i></p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Wendell Phillips books">
+<tr><td align='left'>Wendell Phillips's Lectures, Orations, and Letters, to 1861. 563 pages.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Library edition. 8vo</span></td><td align='right'>$2 50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Popular edition, with Biographical Sketch,</span> 16mo</td><td align='right'>1 00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Scholar in a Republic. Paper, 8vo</td><td align='right'>25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Eulogy of Garrison. Paper, 8vo</td><td align='right'>25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Lost Arts. Paper, 8vo</td><td align='right'>25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Daniel O'Connell. Paper, 8vo</td><td align='right'>25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Labor Question. Paper, 8vo</td><td align='right'>25</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p><b>LIFE AND DEEDS OF GENERAL U. S. GRANT</b></p>
+
+<div class="hang1">By Rev. P. C. <span class="smcap">Headley</span> and <span class="smcap">George Lowell Austin</span>. Profusely illustrated.
+Cloth, $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>The materials for the early years of the subject of this popular biography
+were furnished by the immediate friends and relatives of his family. The
+events bearing upon the war history are based upon the recognized authorities,
+and will stand the test of military criticism. The work is intensely interesting,
+and exceedingly popular.</p>
+
+
+<p><b>Oliver Optic's OUR STANDARD BEARER</b></p>
+
+<div class="hang1">Or the Life of General <span class="smcap">Ulysses S. Grant</span>, his youth, his manhood, his campaign,
+and his eminent services in the reconstruction of the nation his sword
+has redeemed, as seen and related by Captain <span class="smcap">Bernard Gallygasken</span>, Cosmopolitan,
+and written out by <span class="smcap">Oliver Optic</span>. <i>A new edition</i>, with supplementary
+chapters, containing the political life of the general, his travels
+abroad, his sickness and death. Cloth; illustrated by <span class="smcap">Thomas Nast</span> and
+others, elegantly bound, $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"It is written in Mr. Adams's happiest vein, and is a most unique and
+interesting presentation of a subject upon which volumes have been written
+and read."</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston</b><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/popular.png" width="600" height="112" alt="POPULAR READING FOR HOME AND SCHOOL" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'>BY POPULAR AUTHORS</div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><b>JANE ANDREWS' BOOKS</b></div>
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS WHO LIVE ON THE ROUND BALL THAT FLOATS IN THE AIR</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">New edition, with an introduction by <span class="smcap">Louisa Parsons Hopkins</span> Illustrated
+School edition cloth 50 cents Library edition cloth 80 cents</div>
+
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS PROVE THEIR SISTERHOOD (Former title EACH AND ALL)</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">Illustrated School edition cloth 50 cents Library edition cloth 80 cents</div>
+
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>TEN BOYS WHO LIVED ON THE ROAD FROM LONG AGO TO NOW</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">20 illustrations Cloth 80 cents</div>
+
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>GEOGRAPHICAL PLAYS FOR YOUNG FOLKS AT SCHOOL AND AT HOME</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">Price each play in paper 15 cents postage paid 1 United States 2 Europe
+3 Asia 4 Africa and South America 5 Australia and Isles of the Sea
+6 The Commerce of the World</div>
+
+<div class="hang1">The above bound in one volume Cloth $1.00 postage paid</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>GRADED SUPPLEMENTARY READING</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">For use in schools By Professor <span class="smcap">Tweed</span>, late Supervisor of Boston Public
+Schools 12 parts ready: Nos. 1, 4, 7 and 10, 1st year primary; Nos.
+2, 5, 8 and 11, 2d year primary; Nos. 3, 6, 9 and 12, 3d year primary
+In brown paper covers 4 cents each: by mail 5 cents The four parts for
+each year bound together in boards 20 cents each First year primary
+in one volume boards 20 cents Second year primary in one volume
+boards 20 cents Third year primary in one volume boards 20 cents</div>
+
+
+<h3>HISTORICAL READINGS</h3>
+
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">Thomas Wentworth Higginson</span> With over 100 illustrations $1.20</div>
+
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>YOUNG FOLKS' BOOK OF AMERICAN EXPLORERS</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">Thomas Wentworth Higginson</span> Illustrated $1.20</div>
+
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>HANDBOOK OF ENGLISH HISTORY</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">Based on Guest's "Lectures on English History," and brought down to the
+year 1880 With a Supplementary Chapter on the English Literature of
+the 19th Century By <span class="smcap">F. H. Underwood</span>, LL.D. With maps, chronological
+tables etc. School edition 90 cents</div>
+
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">George Makepeace Towle</span> Illustrated School edition 60 cents</div>
+
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF IRELAND</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">George Makepeace Towle</span> With introduction by <span class="smcap">John Boyle
+O'Reilly</span> Illustrated School edition 60 cents</div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><b>HEROES OF HISTORY</b> By <span class="smcap">George Makepeace Towle</span> Illustrated</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Vasco de Gama: his Voyages and Adventures&nbsp; School edition 60 cents</p>
+
+<p>Pizarro: his Adventures and Conquests&nbsp; School edition 60 cents</p>
+
+<p>Magellan: or The First Voyage Round the World &nbsp;School edition 60 cents</p>
+
+<p>Marco Polo: his Travels and Adventures &nbsp;School edition 60 cents</p>
+
+<p>Raleigh: his Voyages and Adventures&nbsp; School edition 60 cents</p>
+
+<p>Drake the Sea King of Devon School edition 60 cents</p></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><b>THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY</b> By Mrs. <span class="smcap">L. B. Monroe</span> 80 cents</div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston</b><br />
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3>
+<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired.</p>
+<p>Varied hyphenation was retained.</p>
+
+<p>The spelling of "Ralegh: His Exploits" is actually the title of the book by Towle.</p>
+<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p></div>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30436 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #30436 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30436)
diff --git a/old/30436-8.txt b/old/30436-8.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hope Mills, by Amanda M. Douglas
+
+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: Hope Mills
+       or Between Friend and Sweetheart
+
+Author: Amanda M. Douglas
+
+Release Date: November 9, 2009 [EBook #30436]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOPE MILLS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charlene Taylor, Emmy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HOPE MILLS;
+
+OR,
+
+BETWEEN FRIEND AND SWEETHEART.
+
+BY
+
+AMANDA M. DOUGLAS,
+
+AUTHOR OF "FROM HAND TO MOUTH," "NELLY KINNARD'S KINGDOM," "IN TRUST,"
+&C., &C.
+
+                                 "Abou spake more low,
+          But cheerly still; and said, 'I pray thee, then,
+          Write me as one that loves his fellow-men.'"
+
+          LEIGH HUNT.
+
+
+          BOSTON:
+          LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS.
+          NEW YORK:
+          CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM.
+
+
+
+
+THE DOUGLAS NOVELS.
+
+
+          OSBORNE OF ARROCHAR.
+          A MODERN ADAM AND EVE IN A GARDEN.
+          THE FORTUNES OF THE FARADAYS.
+          FOES OF HER HOUSEHOLD.
+          A WOMAN'S INHERITANCE.
+          CLAUDIA.
+          FLOYD GRANDON'S HONOR.
+          FROM HAND TO MOUTH.
+          HOME NOOK.
+          HOPE MILLS.
+          IN TRUST.
+          LOST IN A GREAT CITY.
+          NELLIE KINNARD'S KINGDOM.
+          OUT OF THE WRECK.
+          SEVEN DAUGHTERS.
+          STEPHEN DANE.
+          SYDNIE ADRIANCE.
+          THE OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE.
+          WHOM KATHIE MARRIED.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+          PRICE PER VOL., $1.50.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+          LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS,
+          BOSTON.
+
+
+          COPYRIGHT, 1879,
+          BY LEE AND SHEPARD.
+
+          _All rights reserved._
+
+
+
+
+          TO
+
+          HON. MARCUS L. WARD,
+
+          As a Tribute
+
+          TO ONE WHO HAS HELD LOYALLY TO GOD AND HIS FELLOW-MEN,
+          WHO HAS LABORED IN THE NOBLE CAUSE OF HUMANITY,
+          NOT DISHEARTENED WHEN RESULTS WERE INFREQUENT,
+          BUT CONTENT TO REAP THE REWARD
+          IN THE GREAT HEREAFTER.
+
+
+
+
+BETWEEN FRIEND AND SWEETHEART.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+"THERE is Fred again with his arm around Jack Darcy's neck. I declare,
+they are worse than two romantic schoolgirls. I am so thankful Fred goes
+away to-morrow for a year! and I do hope by that time he will have
+outgrown that wretched, commonplace youth. Mother, it is very fortunate
+that Jack is the sole scion of the Darcy line; for, if there were a
+daughter, you would no doubt be called upon to receive her into the
+bosom of the family."
+
+"Which I never should do," remarked quiet, aristocratic Mrs. Lawrence,
+not even raising her eyes from her book.
+
+"Not for the sake of your only son?" continued Agatha, with an
+irritating laugh.
+
+"Don't be silly, Agatha," returned the mother, with an indifference that
+took off the point of the query.
+
+Her second sister glanced up from a bit of pencil-drawing, then lowered
+her eyes to the street where the boy friends stood, one with his arm
+over the other's shoulder.
+
+"Think of a Harvard graduate arm-in-arm with--well, a mill-hand! No
+doubt Jack's father will put him in the mill. I cannot see any sense in
+a boy of that class taking two years at the academy."
+
+On the opposite side of the room were two girls, hardly more than
+children, busily engaged in ornamenting a box with transfer-pictures.
+One had a rather haughty mien, as became a Lawrence; the other, pretty,
+piquant little Sylvie Barry, looked toward the elders, knit her brow,
+with both thought and indignation visible in its lines, and held her
+picture absently in her hand.
+
+"Why do you listen to that?" asked Irene Lawrence disdainfully. "It is
+only Jack Darcy, and he's nobody. His father works in the mill."
+
+"I know that!" was Sylvie's rather sharp retort, answering the latter
+part of the sentence merely. Child as she was, she experienced a strong
+desire to do battle, not only for Jack, but for some puzzling cause she
+could not quite comprehend. With the blood of a French duke in her
+veins, of soldiers and martyrs as well, she was a sturdy little
+democrat. It seemed cowardly not to take up arms.
+
+"That butterfly is to go next," remarked Irene, reaching out for it; and
+Sylvie held her peace, though she felt the warm blood burning in her
+cheeks.
+
+Jack Darcy did not need any champion within doors; for Fred stood up
+bravely against these three girls, and from them received his first
+impression that women were small of soul and narrow of mind. As they
+stood by the gate now, this last hour grudged to them, neither dreamed
+that this was the final canto in the poem of boyhood. They had been fast
+friends since the first day pale, puny Fred made his appearance in
+school, and was both laughed at and bullied by some boys larger in size,
+but younger in years.
+
+"He will have to get the nonsense rubbed out of him some time," thought
+Jack; "and it can never be younger." But, when the contest degenerated
+into the force of the strong against the weak, one blow of Jack's fist
+sent Brown reeling and howling.
+
+"Try a fellow of your own size next time," was Jack's pithy advice.
+
+Fred came to him, and cried hysterically in his arms. Jack had
+experienced the same feeling for some poor rescued kitten. Fred, with
+his head full of King Arthur and his knights, mythology, and bits of
+children's histories, wherein figured heroes and soldiers, elected Jack
+to the highest niche in his regard.
+
+Jack Darcy was a wonderful boy withal, a very prince of boys, who hated
+study and work, and loved play; who despised Sunday clothes and girls'
+parties; but who had not his equal for spinning a top, or raising a
+kite, and when it came to leap-frog, or short stop, he was simply
+immense. Then he always knew the best places to dig worms, and the
+little nooks where fish were sure to bite, the best chestnut and walnut
+trees; and, with years and experience, he excelled in baseball, skating,
+wrestling, leaping, and rowing. Jack Darcy was no dunce, either. Only
+one subject extinguished him entirely, and that was composition. Under
+its malign influence he sank to the level of any other boy. And here
+Fred shone pre-eminently, kindly casting his mantle over his
+friend,--further, sometimes, than a conscientious charity would have
+admitted; but a boy's conscience is quite as susceptible of a bias as
+that of older and wiser people. On the other hand, Jack wrestled
+manfully with many a tough problem on which Fred would have been
+hopelessly stranded. Once rouse the belligerent impulse in Jack, and he
+would fight his way through.
+
+These two were at different ends of the social plane. Fred's father was
+the great man of Yerbury, the present owner of Hope Mills; not only
+rich, but living in luxury. He had married Miss Agatha Hope, and by the
+death of her two brothers she had become sole heir to the Hope estate:
+though it was whispered that her brothers had left a heavy legacy of
+debts behind them. There was family on the Lawrence side as well, but
+not much money. David Lawrence had prospered beyond his wildest dreams.
+He had twice been mayor of Yerbury, gone to the State Legislature, and
+been spoken of as a possible senator; but he did not sigh for political
+distinction.
+
+Agatha was their first-born; then Frederic De Woolfe, named for some
+Hope ancestor. Two girls afterward; but Fred remained the only son. He
+was a delicate boy, and, until he reached the age of ten, studied with
+his sisters' governess, when he rebelled, and insisted upon his boy's
+prerogative of going to school. Here he met and loved Jack Darcy.
+
+Jack was a few months the elder,--a stout, hardy, robust boy, full of
+mischief, falling into scrapes, and slipping out easily. Not vicious or
+ugly; in fact, he had thrashed Ned Thomas for robbing birds' nests, been
+known to rescue a miserable kitten from its tormentors, and was always
+bringing home sore-eyed, mangy curs to be nursed and healed. If he had
+cared, he could have boasted as good a pedigree as the Hopes and the
+Lawrences. For his grandmother was of pure old French Jacobin descent,
+titled too. Many a wild romance and adventure had her family figured
+in,--now on the top round of prosperity, now in bitter poverty and
+exile. At the age of eighteen she was living on the western coast of
+Ireland with her old father, when she fell in love with handsome Jack
+Darcy, whose persuasive blue eyes were enough to melt the heart of the
+most obdurate woman; the merriest, wittiest, best-tempered lad for miles
+around, the owner of a small farm and numberless family traditions that
+counted back to the time when
+
+          "Malachi wore the collar of gold,
+             He won from the proud invader."
+
+For a while they were prosperous and happy: then came bad seasons,
+famine, and finally typhus. Two bright, handsome sons and a little
+daughter were victims, leaving only baby Bernard. They came to the New
+World, and began life again, managing thriftily, and buying a house and
+garden in the quaint old town of Yerbury. Mr. Darcy died; and his son
+grew to man's estate, settled to the business of carpenter and builder
+(as he possessed a good deal of mechanical skill), married a pretty,
+delicate girl, but did not seem to make of life a signal success. Still
+it is possible that a life of happiness and content may have its use in
+this world, if it does not serve to point a prosperous moral.
+
+He added a wing to the house, he raised fruit and flowers that were
+marvels. Grandmother preferred for several years to keep house by
+herself, raise chickens and geese, and keep putting by a little of her
+very own. They had a choice garden and a soft-eyed Alderney cow, but
+Bernard Darcy had surely missed his vocation. He should have been a
+scientific farmer.
+
+Baby Jack came to them. He certainly had not inherited the beauty of the
+Darcys nor the Beaumanoirs, not even the delicacy of his mother. The
+eyes of Irish blue were tinged with gray, his hair inclined to the
+warmer tints of chestnut, and now he always kept the curls cropped
+short. However, his magnificently shaped head was not disfigured by the
+process. He did get terribly freckled and tanned as warm weather came
+on, and the hair turned almost red by much bathing and sunshine. A
+striking contrast indeed to the handsome, well-dressed Frederic.
+
+When Fred went to the academy he pleaded for Jack to go, and Grandmother
+Darcy decided that he should. She had never taken kindly to her son's
+rather plebeian occupation. After several years of indifferent success,
+Mr. Darcy had accepted a position at the mill, in which, if there was
+not so much profit, there were no losses.
+
+Jack was not a student in an intellectual point of view. He did not
+care to be a doctor, lawyer, or clergyman, and certainly not a
+professor. He would have liked to pack a satchel, and start westward,
+prospect for a railroad, gold or silver mine, and live the rugged,
+unconventional camp-life. Once he had ventured to suggest this noble
+ambition; but his timid mother was startled out of her wits, and his
+grandmother said with a sage shake of the head,--
+
+"A rolling stone gathers no moss."
+
+"Grandmother," began Jack argumentatively, "of what real value is the
+moss to the stone, except in the picturesque aspect? Do you know that a
+great many of these time revered and honored adages are the greatest
+humbugs in the world?" asked the audacious young iconoclast. "Who wants
+to be a stone or a clod, or even a bit of velvet moss? They go to make
+up the world, it is true; but is that narrow, torpid, insensate life any
+pattern for human souls and active bodies? I think a man's business in
+this world is to find out new channels, to build up, to broaden and
+deepen, and somehow to make the world feel that he has been in it. I
+can't just explain,"--and his brows knit into a puzzled frown,--"but it
+seems to me there is something grander than plodding along and saving a
+little money."
+
+"No doubt you would be glad enough to have the money, when you have gone
+off like the prodigal son, and wasted health and substance in foreign
+lands," said grandmother with some asperity.
+
+Jack had been brought up to reverence the Bible and religion, and to
+respect his grandmother was the first article in his creed. He relapsed
+into silence, but the busy brain kept up a vigorous ferment. What was
+life all about, anyhow? Why did people come into the world, live thirty,
+sixty, or even eighty years, and then drop out of it. Was it merely to
+eat, drink, and sleep?
+
+The wider lore at the academy had a peculiar effect upon Jack, tangled
+his brain, begat confusing mental processes. Greek he hated; Latin he
+barely endured; chemistry and mineralogy interested him, and in
+mathematics he excelled. Fred carried every thing before him, graduated
+with honors, and was to enter Harvard. The Lawrences went to Newport,
+and Jack missed his bosom friend sorely. He rambled through the woods,
+read every thing that came in his way, and thought a good deal in his
+crude, undisciplined fashion.
+
+What was he to do with this tough problem of unknown quantities?
+
+He ventured at last to broach the subject to his father.
+
+Bernard Darcy studied his son gravely. Now, it must be considered that
+he had never been troubled with this hungry, perplexing view of life
+that urges one on to dip deep into the secrets of existence. To have a
+pretty house and garden, to watch his flowers, vegetables, and chickens
+grow, to dream over his books in his cosey sitting-room, not to be
+pinched for money, not to be anxious about employment, but to go on
+serenely day after day,--this was Mr. Darcy's idea of happiness; and,
+having this, he was perfectly content.
+
+His mother secretly chafed at his lack of ambition; his neighbors said,
+"A good, honest fellow, but with no 'push' in him." Curiously enough,
+the virtues that are preached from pulpits Sunday after Sunday, that we
+are always recommending to our friends, are _not_ the ones that gain any
+vast amount of credit in this life. "Be content! be content!" cries
+every one, from revelation downward; yet content, pure and simple, is
+rather despised and flouted by our fellow-men.
+
+"I don't know, Jack," said the elder, gravely shaking his head with slow
+dubiousness. "What would you do if you were once away?"
+
+"I'd go on until I found some place into which I just fitted;" and the
+boy glanced over westward with hungering eyes.
+
+"But, Jack," said his father, after a pause, "I think people oftener fit
+themselves into a place. There are so few places ready made to one's
+hand. It's always something. Now, I'll venture to say that David
+Lawrence, with all his money, doesn't see as much real happiness as I
+do. His is a slave's life, after all. It's day and night, bills to pay
+and stock to get, dissatisfied hands, poor hands spoiling work, losses
+here and there, little leisure, small peace of mind; and all for what?
+There was a time when I might have envied him: I don't now."
+
+Jack had lost all but the first two sentences.
+
+"That's the thing!" he cried, with boyish enthusiasm,--"fitting
+yourself; coming to something that takes hold of you like an
+inspiration; that you could work for, fight for, that rouses soul and
+body."
+
+Bernard Darcy studied the youthful face, eager, alert, hopeful, and with
+something else in it that he could not understand.
+
+"I never had any such dreams or desires," he said in an uncertain tone,
+as if fearful he might lose his way among his son's vagaries. "I wanted
+a pleasant home, and a loving wife and children. I wish there had been
+more of them, Jack, for your sake," and his voice took on a tender
+inflection. "Then, if one wanted to go away, there would have been
+others left. You see, Jack, mother's heart is bound up in you, and she's
+getting to be an old woman with but few ties. I might manage to comfort
+your own mother; but you are so young, Jack. There will be many years
+before you, doubtless; and if you could give a few to us," with a
+wistful, loving look. "Now, if you wanted to study"--
+
+"But I don't," in a hasty, husky tone. "I believe I hate quiet. I want
+life, adventure! I've staid in school this last year just to please
+Larry."
+
+"Have a little patience, Jack. Old people are not like young ones. They
+feel the changes keenly. And you are all we have. It would take the
+sunshine out of our lives. It would seem as if there had been a
+funeral."
+
+"Yes," said Jack with meek hopelessness that one would hardly look for
+in a vigorous boy; and winking hard to keep back some tears. No logical
+argument, no stricture of duty, could have half the weight of this bit
+of love pleading. Father was right. God had made him a son first of all,
+given him a son's duties. Jack had never troubled his head much about
+religion in any theological sense; but his simple creed had some great
+if old-fashioned truths in it.
+
+"If there's any thing you would like to do, I'd be glad to give you a
+chance. And there's no need to hurry. You may come to the right thing
+presently."
+
+Jack swallowed over a great lump in his throat. The two kittens came
+scampering up the walk, and he caught one, lifting it to his shoulder.
+Then Sylvie Barry entered the gate with her dainty milk-kettle shining
+like silver.
+
+They were in a manner neighbors, for Larch Avenue was the next street to
+Maple Place. Both streets were now given over to what is termed decayed
+gentility. The larches were old and ragged and brown with clustering
+cones, and the blue blood of the denizens had grown a little sluggish.
+
+Miss Honoria Barry and her small niece lived together, with a tall and
+gaunt handmaiden Norman French, and a broad Yorkshire gardener. Miss
+Barry was the old cream of Yerbury. Here her family had lived since the
+Huguenot persecution, and dwindled finally to two. Louis Barry was a
+dissipated spendthrift. He married, and tormented his wife into an early
+grave, and might have worn out his sister, but Providence kindly removed
+him. Miss Honoria retrenched, paid off debts and mortgage by degrees,
+and brought up Sylvie in a quaint, refined, old-world fashion.
+
+Old Mrs. Darcy and Miss Barry exchanged formal calls, and discussed la
+belle France. Sylvie took great delight in listening to grandmother's
+stories of brave heroes and handsome women who figured in old legends.
+
+Oddly enough, one of the many points of agreement between Jack and Fred
+had been their aversion to girls in general. Fred judged them from his
+sisters, who were always nagging, always exhorting him to be a
+gentleman, and always holding up Jack Darcy to ridicule. Jack, on the
+other hand, had a bashful fear of girls, and fancied they were laughing
+at every little awkwardness; then they cried so easily, went off in a
+huff if they could not have their own way, were silly, vain, and
+tattling, ready enough to beg your assistance if there was a munching
+cow by the roadside, a worm swinging from a tree, or a harmless mouse
+running across the floor. The great fascination to the Darcy house was,
+that the boys could sit in the large, clean kitchen, trying all sorts of
+crude experiments, with Ann to clear away the _débris_ and find no
+fault. Jack never wanted to go to the great house. In true boy fashion
+he understood without any explanation. But they both liked little
+Sylvie. She was taught at home except in music and drawing, and she was
+as much interested in grandmother's heroes as the two boys.
+
+On the other hand, the Hopes and the Barrys had always been great
+friends; and, from some odd freak of unlikeness, Sylvie and Irene
+Lawrence carried on the intimacy.
+
+She stopped now, and talked about the kitten with Jack; and he carried
+her milk-pail home to the gate.
+
+It was a long, wearisome vacation to poor Jack. Fishing lost its charm,
+even tramps in the woods became monotonous. He spent hours in his
+father's shop, inspecting machinery, though he seldom asked a question
+or ventured upon a remark. Indeed, some of the hands thought "Darcy's
+boy wasn't over-bright." Yet here he laid the foundation of the problem
+that was to vex and puzzle his soul in after-years. Here was the great,
+whirring machinery, belts, bands, spindles, looms, and oftentimes a
+stupid and stolid enough workman at one end, grinding out luxury and
+elegance for David Lawrence, Esq.; that his family might tread on Wilton
+and Axminster, dine from silver and crystal, dress in silks and velvets,
+drive about with high-stepping bays, and scorn all beneath them. Once as
+Jack was thinking it over he laughed aloud.
+
+"You must feel very much amused," said a rather sour-looking man
+standing near by, with a peculiar touchiness as if he had been laughed
+at.
+
+"No, I wasn't amused, I was only thinking"-- But Jack stopped in the
+middle of his sentence. Could _this_ man take any such position as that
+of Mr. Lawrence?
+
+Then he came across a volume of self-made men, which he eagerly
+devoured. Every one seemed to have commenced life without a dollar, and
+almost without friends. Were those the important factors in the race, to
+be light-weighted? And he had a triple chain.
+
+Fred returned, handsomer than ever, and doubly glad to get back to Jack.
+There was just four days grace. They revisited old haunts, talked
+endlessly and to little purpose, like so much of the talk of youth, and
+now they were parting at the gate for the last time. Unlike girls they
+exchanged no vows or kisses. It is not in boy-nature to be effusive.
+
+"To think that I shall not be home until Christmas! If only you _were_
+going with me, Jack, what jolly times we would have!"
+
+"I could have gone," answered Jack with some pride, "that is, if I had
+been prepared. Father was willing, and grandmother would have been proud
+enough;" and just then Jack wondered why going to seek his fortune
+appeared so much more terrible to them.
+
+"Well, why not, Jack?" with impetuous eagerness. "It isn't too late."
+
+"I don't want the years of study. I should come to hate the sight of a
+book. No, I'll find out where I belong, some day. Don't worry about me,"
+with an abrupt laugh.
+
+"But I am so sorry!" Then they looked into each other's eyes. All these
+years had been filled with such good, honest boy-love.
+
+"Good-by, old chap!" cried Jack suddenly; for the wrench must come, and
+lingering over it was painful. "I shall miss you lots! it seems so queer
+to be without you! Of course you'll succeed: there's no use wishing
+about that."
+
+"It's a good wish from you, Jack. Good-by. I hate awfully to say it: I
+hate to think that our jolly boyish frolics are over."
+
+"But we'll have many a good row on the river, and tramps through the
+woods. We can't outgrow every thing. And there'll be summers and
+summers."
+
+"Good-by."
+
+The gate-latch clicked: Jack walked rapidly down the street, whistling
+"Kathleen Mavourneen" unconsciously. Did he dream the simple faith of
+boyhood had reached its culmination, and was henceforth to wane?
+
+"Dear old Jack," thought Fred: "I don't know as he is quite Launcelot,
+though I used to think so at first. But there was Sir Gawain and Sir
+Bedevere and a host of worthies, and if he only _would_ he could come up
+to the highest. What makes him so obstinate and unambitious, I wonder?
+Are there any King Arthurs and loyal knights nowadays, or only common
+men and women?"
+
+His sisters opened upon him with the fatal persistency of narrow
+feminine natures.
+
+"You may say what you like about Jack Darcy," he flung out angrily, "but
+you'll never make me give him up,--never, never!"
+
+"Do hush, children," interposed Mrs. Lawrence. "Fred, I hope you will
+learn to modulate your voice, and not shriek so."
+
+Sylvie put on her hat to go home. As she passed Fred she said just above
+her breath,--
+
+"You are right and brave. I wouldn't give up my friend because he was
+poor; and Jack is so nice!"
+
+"Much she knows about it," thought Fred, with a true boyish disdain. Yet
+her approval of Jack was a virtue in his eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+"FATHER!" exclaimed Jack a few days after this parting from his bosom
+friend, "I think I will go in the mill for a year or two, if there is
+any thing for me to do. Meanwhile my inspiration may come along."
+
+"But what would you like best, Jack?"
+
+"That's just the trouble," and the youthful brows knit in perplexity.
+"All things seem alike to me: I haven't any choice."
+
+Mr. Darcy drew a long breath that was almost a sigh. If Jack only would
+evince some preference!
+
+However, a place was found as under-bookkeeper. It was desperately
+tiresome to Jack to sit perched on a high stool all day; and after three
+months of it he begged to be put at something else.
+
+At this period we had gone through our costly civil war; and, instead of
+being exhausted as friends and enemies predicted, the machinery of
+business appeared to have been set in motion with a new and overwhelming
+impetus. Every thing was wanted; everybody had work or money; and the
+most useless commodity found a purchaser: as if our anguish had crazed
+us, and we went into a delirium of mental opium, and dreamed wild,
+exhilarating dreams which we mistook for reality.
+
+Yerbury had been a slow, solid, conservative town. Property was low,
+taxes light and easily paid, a balance on hand in the treasury to
+commence the new year, and very little pauperism in the town. Yerbury
+officials utilized their inefficient population, and their county jail
+was not made a palace of luxury. The old-fashioned element in the place
+held crime as the result of sin instead of occult disease,--a thing to
+be punished, rather than petted. It had good railroad connections,
+plenty of water, with one navigable stream, and a variety of industries.
+Iron, shoes, hats, paper, and clothing were manufactured to a
+considerable extent, to say nothing of many smaller branches. Hope Mills
+was the largest, the focus of the town, and had the prestige of being
+handed down through three generations, though never as extensive as now.
+
+Toward the west there was a succession of pretty hills that lay in the
+broad sunshine, making you think somehow of Spanish slopes, covered with
+vineyards, olives, and luxuriant verdure. Over beyond, a wide,
+diversified country range, farms, woodland, hills and valleys, with a
+branch of the river winding through, called, rather unromantically,
+Little Creek.
+
+On these slopes, the new part, dwelt the aristocracy. Streets wound
+around in picturesque fashion to make easy grades, and many old
+forest-trees were preserved by that means, giving the place an air of
+years, rather than yesterday and improvement. There were two pretty
+parks,--one devoted to Fourth-of-July orations from time immemorial;
+there were churches of every denomination; a boarding and day school for
+young ladies, the academy, some excellent district schools; a hall with
+library and reading-room; a bank; rows of attractive shops and stores;
+and, coming down in the scale of refinement, beer-saloons and
+concert-halls, kept generally up to a certain point of morality. There
+were so many laboring-men, and they must have something by way of
+entertainment.
+
+It struck Jack with a curious wonder. These stolid faces and plodding
+steps were part of the human machines out of which wealth was being
+ground. They went to the beer-shops at night in their dirty clothes,
+smelling of grease and dye, drank beer, played a few games, and
+harangued each other, and went home maudlin or stupefied. Perhaps it was
+more comfortable than the slatternly wives and crying children. Did it
+need to be so? If you gave the workingman a helping hand, did he turn
+straightway into an unreasoning demagogue?
+
+_He_ was not likely to be tempted by such doings. His home had always
+been too clean and pleasant. He still kept up with the boys, and joined
+the lyceum club; but the intimate companionship of his life was gone.
+
+Fred did not come home for Christmas. College-life was
+delightful,--would be just perfect if dear old Jack were there. The
+glowing letters kept alive his own secret dissatisfaction. But how
+explain it to one who would be sure to say, "Get out of it all, Jack: no
+one has any right to keep you in such a distasteful round, and thwart
+your life-plans." To be sure, he had no life-plans.
+
+One raw, cold March day, Mr. Darcy went out to repair a roof that had
+leaked in the previous storm. He rarely minded wind or weather.
+
+"I declare," he said that evening, dropping into his capacious armchair,
+"I feel as if I should never get warmed through. I do believe we shall
+have a tremendous snowstorm to take this chill out of the air. Jack,
+read the paper aloud, won't you?"
+
+Jack complied. Local items, bits of State news, and the general progress
+of the country; the starvation of a nation at the antipodes, the
+discovery of a wonderful silver-mine, plans for new railroads,--how busy
+the world was! It stirred Jack's youthful blood.
+
+"I'd like to be a railroad-president," said Jack suddenly.
+
+His father stared, then laughed at the absurdity. "Why, you're only a
+boy, Jack," he replied.
+
+"I know it. But the boy who means to be a railroad-president must begin
+somewhere. Or if I could own a silver-mine," he went on, with the
+boundless audacity of youth.
+
+"Could you find use for the silver?" asked his father humorously.
+
+Jack flushed, and lapsed into dreams. Grandmother opposite was nodding
+in her chair, her knitting still in her fingers. Jack left his vision
+for a moment, to calculate if the old chest upstairs was not nearly full
+of stockings. His mother sat sewing some trifle, and just raised her
+eyes with that longing, beseeching glance mothers so often give to their
+sons.
+
+"If women only did not care so much for one," thought Jack, "or if there
+had been a great family of us. And still I can't see the wonderful
+difference between going to college, and going to seek your fortune.
+Does two or three hundred miles more matter when you are once away?"
+
+The snow came on through the night. There being nothing urgent on hand,
+Mr. Darcy remained within; but Jack buffeted the storm gallantly. It
+would be worse than this out in the new countries where he meant to go
+some time.
+
+The next day Mr. Darcy was out. There was a dull pain in his breast,
+going through to his back, and he coughed a little. It went on thus for
+forty-eight hours, when the pain became intense, and fever set in. Dr.
+Kendrick was summoned; and, though the case was severe, it had no
+alarming symptoms at first. Jack went to and fro with his merry whistle;
+speculative he might be, but he was not introspective or morbid: wife
+and mother watched at home.
+
+There came one of those sudden and inexplicable turns in the disease.
+Jack was stunned, incredulous. In his mother's eyes lay a look of
+helpless terror he was never to forget.
+
+"You'll care for them always, Jack; you'll never leave them," said his
+father imploringly, in one lucid interval.
+
+"Always," answered the young voice bravely.
+
+"Thank you, my son, my dear boy;" and there was a fervent clasp of the
+hand.
+
+A few days later Bernard Darcy lay coffined in the pretty parlor, while
+wife and mother were crushed with grief.
+
+"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes;" and Jack dropped the first handful of
+earth in his father's open grave. The two women clung to him,--he was
+their all. Here lay his duty as long as God pleased.
+
+It seemed for weeks after this as if Mrs. Darcy would follow her
+husband. She looked so white and wan, she was so feeble that some days
+she could not leave her bed. Grandmother rallied with that invincible
+determination not to be beaten down if her prop was wrenched away.
+
+Jack was now a few months past eighteen, stout, and growing tall
+rapidly. There was about him a sturdy persistence and the good common
+sense that lends an adaptiveness or pliability of disposition, so to
+speak, that is often mistaken for content. Since he must stay here for
+some years to come, he would devote himself to learning the business of
+manufacturing woollen cloth. It entertained him more than keeping books.
+For the sake of these two bereaved women, he would take an actual
+interest in the work he had to do.
+
+Looking back in after-years, he was glad he made the resolve, and stood
+by it manfully. It gave ballast to his character, shaped him to a
+definite purpose. A narrow life, to be sure; nay, more, a distasteful
+one: but he did his best, and waited, and that was all that could be
+asked of him.
+
+Early in June there was a great commotion at the mansion on Hope
+Terrace. Miss Agatha Lawrence was married to Hamilton Minor, one of the
+great firm of brokers in Wall Street, 'Morgan, Minor, & Co.' For weeks
+it had been the talk of the town. The trousseau came from Paris, and was
+marvellous. The presents were on exhibition, and created a vast amount
+of envy and admiration,--silver, jewels, pictures, crystal, china, and
+laces. And last of all a sumptuous wedding,--every delicacy in season
+and out of season, costly wines, pyramids of cake, and a lavish
+profusion of flowers. Nothing so grand had ever occurred in Yerbury.
+
+Fred and a stylish Miss Minor were to stand. He reached home just in
+time; and, as he was to be off again with the bridal party, he sent a
+note of regret to Jack.
+
+Jack had too much good sense to feel hurt, though he was disappointed. A
+few weeks later he took his mother and grandmother up to the mountains
+for change of air, and enjoyed the vacation hugely himself. So it
+happened he did not see Fred at all.
+
+The second year letters languished, indeed failed, I may as well admit.
+Jack was being rapidly inducted into the wisdom of the world, Fred into
+the wisdom of society. They would never meet on the old plane again. The
+mill-hand would be no companion for the son and heir of David Lawrence,
+Esq.
+
+It was not in Jack Darcy's nature to be bitter or cynical. He just
+accepted the fact. Somewhere he and Fred had outgrown each other, and
+the boyish interests, once such a bond of union. Fred would be an
+educated and cultivated gentleman.
+
+Why should he be left in the background? His ambition was suddenly
+roused again, and he more than half wished himself in college. He went
+back to his books; he joined a debating-society. There was no need of
+being a mere clod because he had to work. David Lawrence was a
+gentleman. And the next spring he took up a little botany and
+horticulture with his gardening. Old Mr. Rising down the street, who had
+been gardener to some great lord,--a peculiar, obstinate Englishman,
+with his head crammed full of odd bits of knowledge,--took a fancy to
+Jack. They discussed not only fruit and flowers, but trade in its
+various aspects, as Mr. Rising had relatives at Manchester who had
+soared to the ambitions of mills and factories.
+
+Time sped on, and they came to the second summer. Miss Gertrude Lawrence
+was a belle now, and the great house was constantly filled with guests.
+The Lawrence equipages were seen in every direction. Mrs. Minor was up
+frequently, in grand state. The lawn was gay with croquet-parties, the
+evenings were brilliant with lights and music: they had two elegant
+garden-parties, when the grounds were illuminated with colored lanterns,
+and the teas were festivals in themselves. Fred had brought home two
+college chums, and for the first fortnight was deeply engrossed. Then,
+too, the girls no longer nagged at him. He was developing into an
+elegant young man, with due regard for the proprieties.
+
+He did go to call on Jack one evening. It was a duty, a rather awkward
+and embarrassing one, and he took to himself great credit in the point
+of moral courage. He understood thoroughly now what Agatha had striven
+so sedulously to explain, the difference in social station. He was not
+likely in the future to make a blunder on that side, but it would not do
+to turn the cold shoulder to Jack all at once. "A boy's will's the
+wind's will," he repeated with much complacency, and it was but natural
+that it should veer in other directions. Jack was a good enough fellow,
+but no Sir Galahad or Sir any one now.
+
+He was a little shocked at Mrs. Darcy in her mourning dress and widow's
+cap. She was pale, and with the extreme delicacy so often pronounced
+characteristic of American women. Grandmother sat in state and dignity,
+rather resentful of what she termed in her secret heart Fred's neglect,
+but a thing she would not have confessed openly if she had been put to
+torture. And Jack?
+
+Frederic De Woolfe Lawrence studied him with a critical eye. A great,
+lumbering, inelegant fellow! Jack seemed to have grown out in every
+direction, without being finished up in any. He was taken somewhat at a
+disadvantage, too: somehow he fancied, if he had met Fred alone in a
+stray walk, there would have been less formality.
+
+They talked about college. Fred was doing well, for he was by nature a
+student. Society's arts and airs would never entirely uproot that love.
+He meant to distinguish himself, and have one of the prize essays. Jack
+was rather grave and quiet, hard to get on with, Fred thought; and he
+was relieved when the duty was ended, and he could go with a good grace.
+
+Jack lingered on the porch, clinching his fingers, and listening to the
+jaunty retreating footstep. There was something different in Fred's walk
+even, a buoyancy as if he could override any little difficulties that
+fate might have in store for him. Jack smiled grimly. Fortune had
+showered every good gift upon him. He would go proudly, successfully,
+through life. He would be praised and honored--and for what?
+
+For a moment Jack felt like wrestling with him, shoulder to shoulder, to
+distance him, to defeat him, to lower his complacent pride. His
+half-patronizing manner had stung keenly. Then the real nobility of his
+nature cropped out, and he laughed at his own sudden heat and passion.
+
+"It would be folly," he said softly to himself. "I could not distinguish
+myself in any line he will be likely to follow. He must work his way: I
+must work mine. He knows what he means to do; and there he has gone
+ahead of me, for I really do not know my own mind. No, there's no
+further basis for a friendship: the boy-love has had its day, and died.
+After all, isn't that the history of every thing?" and Jack looked up to
+the stars, still with a little wordless pain at his heart.
+
+He heard during the next week that Fred had gone West with one of his
+friends, who was nephew to a great railway magnate. It would be only a
+flying trip, to be sure, but here Jack was tempted to envy him. That
+boundless West, the land of his own dreams!
+
+Grandmother grew a trifle less energetic, still it could not be said
+that her health began to fail. Mrs. Darcy remained about the same. Every
+day Jack realized how much he was to the two women. To leave them would
+be absolute cruelty.
+
+At Christmas of this year Miss Gertrude Lawrence was married. The
+wedding was rather quieter, from the fact that it was winter, and the
+bride was to leave for Europe the next day. Irene was shooting up into a
+tall girl, and being educated at a fashionable and expensive
+boarding-school. Nothing happened to impair her friendship with Sylvie
+Barry, though the two girls were as dissimilar in many respects as Jack
+and Fred, but they both stood on the same social plane.
+
+Meanwhile matters at Yerbury prospered mightily. The town was quite
+bright at night with the glow from factory-windows, and people seemed
+always hurrying to and fro. New shops and stores were started, new
+streets were laid out, rows of houses built in town, and out on the edge
+pretty and ugly suburban villas. Property began to increase everywhere.
+
+Gertrude and her husband George Eastman came back to Yerbury in about
+five months. He had begun his career as clerk in a bank, and joined his
+brother afterward as an army-contractor. From thence they had branched
+into general speculating, and were both considered rich men. Mr. Minor
+owned a Fifth-avenue palace, and Mrs. Minor never came to Yerbury
+without her maid. Mrs. Eastman could not have the palace in town, so she
+decided to have a handsome summer residence at Yerbury, and spend her
+winters at different hotels. Mr. Eastman thought he saw a grand opening
+just in this pretty spot. Property was ridiculously low. Here were farms
+and farms that might as well be cut up into building-lots, and turned
+into cities. Here was the river-front, here were railroads: why not have
+twice or thrice as many shops? why not call in the people from far and
+wide, and make Yerbury a place of note? Time had been when our fathers
+were content to dream and doze, but now it behooved everybody to be up
+and stirring. In the new race the laggards would fall far behind.
+
+Mr. Eastman set the example by purchasing one large tract, and laying
+out streets. Then uprose houses as if by magic. Modern improvements,
+water, gas, bath, butler's pantries, and dumb-waiters; and the houses
+offered so cheaply that the solid, slow-going, honest business-men
+wondered how it could be done. The places had a wonderfully seductive
+look, and were sought after eagerly.
+
+There was a peculiar interest in all this to Jack. When one day somebody
+said,--
+
+"Downer's property south of the bridge has gone for thirty thousand
+dollars. Five years ago he'd been glad to have taken ten for it. Crater
+and Harmon are going to build a big factory,"--Jack's heart went up with
+a bound.
+
+He still wanted to get away from Yerbury. He began to feel that he had
+made a mistake with his life, and was anxious to rectify it if possible.
+He did not see how he could do it here. He had gone into the groove, and
+it was hard getting out. But if some one came along, and offered them a
+fortune!
+
+The chance drew near. A new street was prospected through Miss Barry's
+grounds, through the Lanier place farther back, and the southern end
+would touch the Darcy place, giving it some new fronts and available
+lots, and placing the house on the corner. There would be sufficient
+ground for the width of the street. A petition was forthwith circulated.
+
+Alas that there could be people so blind to their own interests and the
+general welfare of the community! Miss Barry stoutly resisted. She even
+inspired some of her neighbors to that extent of opposition that they
+would not sell at any price. Destroy the beauty of Larch Avenue, that
+had been "Lovers' Walk" in the old days, and held so many tender
+reminiscences!
+
+"When I am gone I don't care what is done with the place," said Miss
+Barry. "It will have but little sentiment for the next generation. A
+change to me now would be like tearing up an old tree by the roots. I
+could not endure it. They may have their elegant new houses; but give me
+my large airy rooms and my old-time flowers, my nectarines and apricots.
+Let me live my few years in peace and quiet."
+
+"There is certainly enough to improve," returned Grandmother Darcy.
+"There are miles and miles that people are glad to sell. Let them take
+that. Let them build up the vacant lots. And where are all the people
+coming from to fill them?"
+
+"The factories and mills will bring in the people," said Jack sturdily.
+
+"There is plenty of room elsewhere," returned Miss Barry with some
+asperity. "There certainly is no need of turning people out of homes
+they like, and have made comfortable."
+
+"I suppose you cannot look at it in a business light," said Jack. "Women
+rarely do"--
+
+"There have been just such whirlwinds before, Mr. Darcy," said the
+shrewd little old lady. "I have lived through two of them myself. And it
+seems to me it is an epidemic of running in debt, rather than
+prosperity. If everything were paid for; but you see here are
+improvement-bonds, and our town runs in debt: here is everybody raising
+money on mortgages. How is it to be paid? Do wages and salaries double?
+History proves that it is a bad thing for a state when its rich men grow
+richer, and its poor poorer."
+
+"I am sure they need not," said Jack valiantly. "There is a higher scale
+of wages paid than ever before."
+
+"And no account made of thrift or economy. Enticements at every corner;
+women flaunting silks and laces as everyday gear, with no sacredness;
+old-fashioned neatness despised, industry ridiculed; men lounging in
+beer-shops; girls flirting on the public streets, having no duties
+beyond a day's work in a mill. What will the homes and the wives of the
+next generation be like?"
+
+"But that was all so irrelevant," said Jack after she had gone. "Women
+mix up everything. Now, here: you are offered a big price for this
+property. You two could live at ease all the rest of your life, and I"--
+
+"You would go away," said his mother sorrowfully.
+
+"Well, perhaps not," trying to make the tone indifferent.
+
+"Jack," began his grandmother, sitting very erect, and glancing straight
+before her into vacancy, "I am an old woman now; and, like Miss Barry, I
+could not take a change comfortably. No other place will ever be home to
+your mother or me. There is some money,--enough, I think, to take care
+of us both. So, if you cannot be content, if you must have the restless
+roving of youth out before your blood can cool, go and try the world. It
+is pretty much alike all over,--some one going up while another goes
+down; chances here, and chances there. As for the few years left me"--
+And there was a slight tremble in her voice.
+
+"Don't fret. I'm not going away," said Jack crossly, huskily, too much
+hurt to study his tone. "If I can't always see things as you do"--
+
+There were tears in his mother's eyes. Jack rose suddenly, thrust his
+hands in his pockets, and walked out into the twilight. There was
+nothing to be done with so obstinate a problem as his life. He would
+learn the business thoroughly, getting on as fast as possible, and some
+time make a strike out for himself, become a manufacturer in turn. The
+thing was settled now. Maybe some one would want him for mayor or
+congressman. There was a time when David Lawrence, Esq., had been a
+comparatively poor man; and though Jack felt that he would hardly turn
+his hand over to have a million of dollars put in it for the mere
+money's worth, if he could not discover a silver-mine, or build a
+railroad over the Rocky Mountains, he might become a rich man. Wealth
+was a mighty lever, after all. He shut his lips grimly, and pushed his
+hat down over his eyes. In the early summer dusk, fragrant with rose and
+violet, he went over the old battle-ground. Did some enemy sow it
+continually with dragon's teeth? To stay here eight or ten years,
+mayhap, to make all the money he could. Not one year of her life did he
+mean to grudge grandmother.
+
+It was quite late when he came in, but his mother was watching for him.
+She put her arms softly about his neck, and kissed him.
+
+"Have a little patience, dear," she said, in tender, motherly tones; but
+he knew her sympathy was with him.
+
+"Yes, I mean to. I don't care as much as I did an hour ago. I'm going to
+set myself steadily to business. You'll hear no more moans or groans out
+of me, mother."
+
+"Jack--you know I would go to the end of the world with you."
+
+"I believe you would--yes, I do. There, good-night!" for she was crying.
+
+"This is the way we rule circumstances," said Jack dryly, sitting down
+in his own room, and taking up Carlyle. "What an amount of humbug is
+talked in this world,--yes, and written too!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+THERE was an influx of new blood in Yerbury, and it brought in fresh
+ideas. A new railroad touched it at one edge, and real-estate dealers
+left off fighting about Larch Avenue. The ancient stages were laid aside
+for the more modern horse-cars: there was bustle and rivalry on every
+hand. George Eastman began to be quoted, and his advice asked generally.
+Mrs. Eastman held her head loftily. Then there came on the arena of
+action a certain Horace Eastman, cousin to George, who had been abroad
+as agent for a large firm, and who slipped into the place of general
+manager of Hope Mills.
+
+Plainly, F. De Woolfe Lawrence was not preparing to follow in his
+father's steps. He had graduated with honors, and taken a prize essay,
+and was now a fully-fledged modern young man. He was fond of discoursing
+on abstruse subjects, he dabbled a little into art, wrote some mystical
+poems, tied a cravat beyond criticism, and wore faultless gloves and
+boots. His mother and Mrs. Eastman were extremely proud of him. His
+father wondered a little what the young man's future would be.
+
+"I have not decided upon a profession," he said, with a just perceptible
+but extremely stylish drawl. "The next thing is going abroad. I want at
+least two years of travel, and I should not wonder if I settled myself
+at some German or Parisian university. We, as a nation, are so sadly
+deficient in culture. Our country is crude, as I suppose all young
+countries must be."
+
+David Lawrence nodded slowly, and asked,--
+
+"When did you think of going?"
+
+"I may as well go at once, and have it over," returned the young man,
+with the princely indifference he affected.
+
+His father did not dissent. As well in Europe as here, or anywhere.
+
+As for Jack, he was quite as much out of his reach as if the ocean
+already rolled between. They used to pass each other quietly, nodding if
+they came face to face, but often evading any kind of recognition. Was
+the old regard dead?
+
+Fred smiled rather pityingly on the boy who had been so blinded in his
+first love.
+
+"I used to think him such a hero, because he once thrashed a boy in my
+behalf," mused the young man. "And how I used to fly at the girls, who
+were always looking at the feet of clay my idol possessed! How I _did_
+coax him to go to college!" and Fred gave a little rippling laugh. "I
+must admit that he has good common sense,--he has found his place, and
+keeps it. There could be nothing between us now, of course. My lines lie
+in such different ways."
+
+No moan for a lost ideal under all that self-complacency.
+
+Jack Darcy took the defection in good part. He did see the utter
+incongruity of keeping up even the semblance of the old dream. But,
+where Fred had made dozens of new friends, Jack had admitted no one to
+his vacant shrine. He liked, even now, to recall those old hours, so
+bright and gay with childish whims and frolics. And he did envy Fred,
+just a little, that ramble over Europe. Would it be a ramble? It was
+Jack's turn to smile. Would it not be bits and pictures seen through
+coach-windows, rather than getting close to Nature's heart? No, that
+would not suit _him_.
+
+And so glided by two more years. De Woolfe Lawrence--he had dropped the
+initial now--returned home in a still higher state of cultivation, and
+quite as undecided as to his future career. A life of leisure and
+_belles-lettres_ looked the most tempting to him. He had read up a
+little in medicine, but the practice would not please his fastidious
+inclinations. Law had its objections. In fact, Mr. Lawrence had dropped
+into that dilettante state into which extreme cultivation, without
+genius or ambition, is apt to drift its possessor. He was nearing
+twenty-four now,--handsome, aristocratic, the pride of his family, and
+the distraction of young women in general. Invitations were showered
+upon him, and the delicate flattery society loves to use, ministered to
+his vanity.
+
+Meanwhile what of Jack?
+
+He had improved considerably through these years. The rough angularity
+of twenty had softened. Tall, but robust and compact, no stooping
+shoulders or slouching gait. The chestnut hair was no longer faded, but
+still cropped close; and the eyes were so deep that they seemed to have
+a blue-black tint, large, slow-moving, with that unutterable wistfulness
+which makes one sad. The face was good, strong, and earnest; and, if his
+manners were not those of a gentleman of leisure, they bore the impress
+of something quite as noble, honor, tenderness, and sincerity. The old
+restlessness had dropped out. Love, being larger than duty, hinted now
+at no sacrifice. Grandmother Darcy, now grown quite feeble, leaned on
+this strong arm, always outstretched, forgetting there had ever been any
+wild dreams of youth.
+
+And, though Yerbury had changed so much, they and the old street
+remained unchanged. Mrs. Darcy was a little thinner and older, the light
+hair just touched with silver. The garden was the same: wherever his
+father's favorite flowers had died out, Jack had replaced them. Only the
+honeysuckle was like great twisted ropes, and the syringas and lilacs
+were trees instead of bushes.
+
+Old neighbors had gone, and new ones come, but they were of the quiet,
+steady kind. Miss Barry seemed smaller and frailer, but she was as
+active as ever in her refined way. Sylvie no longer came to the gate for
+milk: indeed, the wide-eyed Alderney had long been given up, and Sylvie
+was a young woman. Irene Lawrence had been sent to a fashionable
+boarding-school; but Sylvie had been educated at home, under her aunt's
+eye, by a French governess who had proved something more than a mere
+teacher. The coming of Madame Trépier served to cement more closely the
+intimacy with the Darcy family. Indeed, Jack took a queer, half-shy
+liking for madame, and began to study French. He had a great fondness
+for music, and a fine, rich tenor-voice: so he and Sylvie sang duets
+together, and often walked in the twilight with madame. Indeed, Miss
+Barry would have kept her for friend and companion all the rest of her
+life; but there came a very persistent wooer, and madame succumbed a
+second time to the destiny of women.
+
+Sylvie Barry was piquant rather than pretty: a soft peachy skin neither
+dark nor fair, with a creamy tint; deep lustrous hazel eyes, that seemed
+to change with her moods; hair that had barely shaken off the golden
+tint, and clustered in rings about the low broad forehead; a passable
+nose of no particular design, but a really beautiful mouth and chin, the
+latter dimpled, the former with a short curved upper lip, displaying the
+pearly teeth at the faintest smile; barely medium height, with a figure
+that was slim yet not thin, rounded, graceful, pliant, with some of the
+swift dazzling motions of a bird.
+
+While Jack and Fred had drifted so apart, Sylvie and Irene still kept up
+a curious friendship. On Sylvie's part there was no election: indeed,
+Irene in her imperious fashion took Sylvie up as the mood seized her.
+Mrs. Lawrence, now quite an invalid, was fond of Sylvie's bright face
+and gay inspiriting voice. In Irene's absence she was often sending for
+her. "Play me a little song before you go," she would say; or, "Read a
+chapter in my book for me, will you not? You always make people seem so
+real." Consequently Sylvie had never left off going to the great house.
+Mrs. Eastman would fain have patronized her, but in her spirited way she
+shook off the faintest attempt. But Irene flew to her, and insisted upon
+a croquet-party or a drive, or a musical soirée.
+
+"I can't do without you, you obstinate little thing," she would exclaim.
+"I don't know why I take so much trouble about you; for I don't believe
+you like me at all, but just tolerate me for the sake of old times.
+There are twenty girls in Yerbury who would go wild with delight if I
+were to ask them."
+
+"Why do you not, then?" inquired Sylvie with a tantalizing light in her
+eyes.
+
+"Because I don't choose to, Miss Impertinence! Don't be cross now, and
+torment me to death with your perverse ways."
+
+"You surely need not be tormented."
+
+"Sylvie, you are exasperating."
+
+"Why do you ask me, then, or tease me to do any of these things? I would
+rather stay at home to-day, and paint."
+
+"But I shall not give you up. I'll stay here, and talk so that your wits
+will wander!"
+
+And so at last Sylvie would consent to her friend's demands.
+
+One evening she came over to discuss a costume for a fancy-dress
+garden-party. Mrs. Eastman had brought some fashion-plates up from New
+York, but they did not altogether suit her fancy: so the carriage was
+ordered, and in a few moments it rolled to Sylvie's door.
+
+Sylvie and Jack were at the piano. There was a soft, drizzling,
+summer-night rain, that made all the air fragrant without any noisy
+patter. It was just the evening for an old Latin hymn; and Sylvie was
+playing the strong, rich chords that had in them mysterious hints of
+heavenly joy, coming up through waves of passionate suffering. Jack's
+voice seemed toned to these sympathetic vibrations, and the grand old
+words rolled out simply, with none of the vicious taste of the more
+modern fashionable school. So engrossed were they, that they did not
+hear the carriage stop; but Sylvie caught her aunt's voice.
+
+They had reached the end of a verse. "Let me see what auntie wants,"
+said Sylvie, running into the next room; and then it was, "Oh, Irene!
+oh, Sylvie!"
+
+"Singing to yourself in the twilight!" laughed Irene. "How romantic! I'm
+going to interrupt you now, and put you in better business. I am just
+loaded down with the excellent fripperies of this world, and unable to
+make a choice. And the grand occasion is Mrs. Avery Langton's
+garden-party. Now, be good-natured, and help me decide."
+
+Uttering this in a rapid breath, she had walked through the sitting-room
+to the parlor, and tumbled her parcel down on the great antique sofa,
+whose edges everywhere were studded with brass nails. And there stood
+Jack, thinking, if he had been quicker, he could have stepped out of the
+window into Miss Sylvie's pretty flower-bed, now purple with odorous
+heliotrope. But, as he had not, there was nothing to do but to stand his
+ground manfully.
+
+He had often seen Irene Lawrence in the carriage and on horseback; but
+as she stepped into the room now, and stood there rather surprised, she
+might have been a daughter of Juno. Tall, slender, arrowy straight, but
+lithe and faultlessly rounded, her fleecy white shawl like a gossamer
+web falling off her shoulders, her haughty carriage, her wealth of
+purple-black hair coiled about her shapely head, a hundred times
+handsomer than any artifice of dressing, her brilliant complexion, her
+large eyes with their long sweeping lashes that veiled their depth, but
+seemed to add a certain imperiousness, her coral-red lips that shaped
+differently with every breath, her straight nose, with the nostrils thin
+as a bit of shell, and the softly rounded chin, made her a picture that
+Jack Darcy never forgot.
+
+"Oh!" in a tone of surprise, "I thought you were alone: pardon me."
+
+Sylvie was bringing in another lamp, and placed it on the great clawfoot
+centre-table. Then it occurred to her that Irene might not know Jack.
+She should recognize him here socially, anyhow.
+
+"My friend Miss Lawrence," she said with a world of dignity, "Mr.
+Darcy."
+
+Jack bowed, in no wise abashed by this proud and handsome Miss Lawrence,
+though as a child she had snubbed him many a time. And she glanced him
+over with a sudden interest. It was a manly face and a manly figure; and
+she wondered from what remote corner of the earth Sylvie Barry had
+summoned this fair, stout giant, who made her think of the Norse gods of
+her childish romances. She always liked strength: Sylvie was for
+tenderness, pathos, and beauty.
+
+"Good-evening," inclining her proud head. "Did I interrupt? You were
+singing?"
+
+"That is finished," returned Sylvie, with her peculiar manner, as if,
+being hostess here, she should have proper respect paid to her position;
+and each guest should be as deferent to the other as if she were a
+little queen, and this her court.
+
+She picked up a stray piece of music that had fallen to the floor,
+seated Irene, and half turned to Jack. Any other woman might have been
+awkward.
+
+"I will leave you two ladies to yourselves," began Jack; but Irene
+interrupted,--
+
+"No, Mr. Darcy: I shall think I have driven you away;" with a beguiling
+smile. "If you understand music, you may have a taste in the fine arts
+of dress as well. At all events, look over these elegant women in their
+party-gowns, and tell me which is fairest and rarest."
+
+The honesty of the glance, although it was coquettish, told Jack that
+Miss Irene did not remember him. For, of all the haughty Lawrence women,
+she had the name of being the haughtiest. She gathered up her skirts in
+other people's houses when the plebeian element came too near. Now she
+waved him to a chair, and gently sank into another, her trailing robe of
+thin filmy black with golden flecks falling about her like clouds in a
+gusty sky.
+
+He took the seat indicated. Some strange feeling moved him, an
+enchantment that he had never before experienced. The very air about her
+was filled with a subtle, indescribable perfume that he should always
+associate with a tall, dark-eyed woman,--a glimpse of the Orient and its
+sweetness, he fancied.
+
+Sylvie took her place, and began to tumble over the colored plates.
+
+"I'm so tired of those Watteau things!" began Miss Lawrence
+disdainfully. "They all savor of bread-and-butter girls,--a shepherdess
+with her crook,--bah! And I've been Marie Stuart so many times. If it
+were a masquerade; but garden-parties are beginning to prove bores,
+after all. There is nothing new about them, only to out-shine every
+other woman. A high ambition, is it not, Mr. Darcy?"
+
+"A temptation perhaps."
+
+The tone had in it a bit of delicate homage. Irene understood. She knew
+at once that this man was a little dazed by her beauty, just as many
+other men had been. Puny, delicate, namby-pamby men she despised, and
+always gave them a cut with her sharp tongue. Where had Sylvie picked up
+this Saul among his peers?
+
+They were all interested in the pictures, and soon fell to making merry
+comments on them. Sylvie had a quick eye and a bright wit, and something
+made Jack Darcy brilliant. They selected bits of fine taste here, they
+made an elegant costume of no particular style, and Irene was struck
+with what she knew would be its becomingness.
+
+"Mr. Darcy, are you an artist?" She remembered just then what an odd way
+the Barrys had of picking up people with some gift or grace.
+
+"No," and Jack flushed boyishly.
+
+"Then you must have a houseful of sisters."
+
+"No, I never had a sister."
+
+"When all things else fail with you, you can set up opposition to Worth.
+I shall come to you for designs. Now, this will be a peculiar source of
+gratification to me, because no one can possibly have the same
+combination. And you never can depend upon a modiste. Mr. Darcy, what
+makes women so faithless to one another?"
+
+"Are they?" he asked with a man's simplicity.
+
+She laughed gayly, and met Jack's fun-loving, shady blue eyes. How
+handsome they were!
+
+Miss Barry entered the room, and joined in the pleasant chat: then a
+rumble of carriage-wheels was heard.
+
+"It has stopped raining," said Sylvie, going to the window. "A few soft,
+melancholy stars have come out."
+
+"You have been very obliging, Sylvie," said Miss Lawrence. "Miss Barry,
+I shall send the carriage over to-morrow. Good-night."
+
+Jack Darcy handed her out, pushing aside a trailing rose that it might
+not catch her shawl. Then she half turned, and said "Good-night" in a
+softer tone.
+
+Sylvie was standing on the porch. "It has been as good as a play, Jack,"
+she said with her gay-humored laugh. "I don't believe she ever
+thought"--
+
+"That I worked in her father's mill!" and Jack laughed; but it was a
+rather pained, jarring sound.
+
+"Jack--why do you? You are a puzzle to me!" and Sylvie's voice sharpened
+unconsciously. "You do not like it. Why did you not go on at the
+academy, or"--
+
+"Raise myself in the social scale? That's what you mean, Sylvie;
+although we pass just as pleasant hours as if I were a prince, and you
+the lady of high degree. Well, we have gone over the ground a good many
+times, and it is always the same thing. I have no fancy for a
+profession; I have no genius for art, though Miss Lawrence suggests that
+I might become a man-milliner--is that what you call it? You know, I am
+staying here because mother and grandmother will not go anywhere else.
+And I dare say I make as much money as young Dr. Romer or Ned Remington.
+And somehow, now that I'm in it, I go on with a stubborn, plucky
+feeling. Some day I'll be a great manufacturer."
+
+This time his laugh was cheerful and ringing.
+
+"You see, Sylvie, your good-nature places you on the debatable ground.
+You and your aunt could be hand-in-glove with all these great people,
+and yet you open your generous heart to take in everybody."
+
+"No, not everybody, Jack. And what a little coward I am just this
+minute! No, it is not that either. Jack, you _do_ know that I should
+never be a bit ashamed of you before any one. I feel vexed when I think
+that you could take the high places, and yet you let people put you
+down,--people not half as worthy or half as good as you. There's Horace
+Eastman. He came here a comparatively poor man; and now he owns half
+Yerbury, and talks of the mill-hands as if they were--well, a flock of
+sheep."
+
+"An apt comparison, Sylvie. To my mind, they are shorn pretty close to
+make broadcloth for their masters."
+
+"And there is Fred--have you seen him since his return?"
+
+"Not to speak to him, of course." And then Jack flushed deeply, with a
+little hurt feeling.
+
+"And what friends you were! Is it the way of the world? Then it is a
+mean, hateful world!"
+
+"Sylvie, you are talking wildly. Don't you see there is no point of
+union in our lives? Now, I do not feel so badly over an outgrown
+friendship. When I was a little boy, I remember having a wonderful fancy
+for Tom Deane. We traded jack-knives; we told each other of the best
+nut-trees; we hunted squirrels; we coasted together; and, I dare say, he
+was as much of a hero in my childish eyes as I used to be in Fred's. But
+think of any friendship between us now! There isn't a greater loafer in
+all Yerbury than Tom Deane. Why, we have not a feeling in common."
+
+"Still I think it is rather different," and a shade of annoyance passed
+over her face. If Jack only would not call up these people below him, if
+he would not identify himself so strongly with that common brotherhood!
+He had so many nice tastes, such a clean, pure, honest soul. And, young
+as Sylvie was, she knew this was not always the result of culture or
+wealth or ambition.
+
+Jack guessed what was passing in her mind. From his father he had
+inherited a kind of womanish intuition. A pleasant-tempered man Bernard
+Darcy had always been called, but it was that delicate tact, the
+intuitive knowledge of what would be pleasant to others.
+
+"What else can I do here, Sylvie?" Jack cried with sudden heat. "If the
+chance ever comes, I shall be fitted for a good business man. You may
+think there is no worthy ambition in that, but wait. Do not judge me too
+hastily."
+
+"I am impatient at times, I know; but it is because I see your
+capabilities, and I can't bear to think of your going through the world
+unappreciated."
+
+"Do not worry about that. Good-night!" rather abruptly. "Miss Barry, I
+have forgotten myself. Pleasant dreams!"
+
+"And we did not have our old hymn, after all," said Sylvie regretfully.
+
+Jack took the short cut across the garden. There was a dim light in the
+sitting-room; and his mother lay in the hammock on the latticed porch,
+her favorite evening resort. She came in now, and Jack bolted the doors.
+Then, with a good-night kiss, he went to his room, and in ten minutes
+was asleep. Sylvie, on the other hand, girl-like, tossed and tumbled.
+Why was the world so queer and awry and obstinate? After all, you could
+do so little with it. Your plans came to nought so easily. Lizzie Wise,
+in her Sunday-school class, preferred going in the mill, and buying
+herself cheap finery, because the other girls did it. And so all
+through. You tried to train some one, and he or she followed the _ignis
+fatuus_ more readily than any high, ennobling truth. It was hard lifting
+people out of their old grooves.
+
+How bright and entertaining Jack had been this evening! Of course Irene
+had not remembered him. Would she be vexed, Sylvie wondered,--she who
+held herself up so high, and believed in a separate world as it were?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+THE garden-party was a success, and Miss Lawrence the acknowledged belle
+of the evening. No one else could have carried off the peculiar style of
+dress. She knew that she was radiant; and triumphs were a necessary
+sweet incense, that she always kept alive on her shrine. There was no
+need of making a hurried election: indeed, her chief aim now was
+pleasure and conquest.
+
+They were sitting over their dainty lunch, Mrs. Eastman having dropped
+in; and, after the party had been pretty thoroughly discussed, a little
+lull ensued. Fred toyed with some luscious cherries, in his usual
+indolent manner. Nothing in this world was worth a hurry or a worry,
+according to this young man's creed. He had dawdled through the party,
+waltzing with a languid grace that most girls considered the essence of
+high-breeding. It was all one to him. His "set" affected to think life
+something of a bore. Intense emotion of any kind was vulgar.
+
+"By the by, Rene," said Mrs. Eastman, "do you suppose Sylvie Barry is
+engaged to that Darcy fellow? It was odd that she should go off on a
+picnic with him, instead of the party. She has the queerest, mixed-up
+tastes."
+
+"What Darcy fellow?" asked Irene in surprise.
+
+"Sylvie Barry! Jack Darcy!" exclaimed Fred, in as much amazement as his
+superfine breeding would allow.
+
+Mrs. Eastman gave a mellifluous laugh.
+
+"Don't you remember? but you were such a child! Fred does. The Damon to
+his Pythias."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+A vivid scarlet ran up to the edge of Irene's white brow. So that was
+Jack Darcy. What a blind fool she had been, _not_ to think! She had
+laughed and chatted with him, smiled on him, worn the costume of his
+designing,--a common workingman! For a moment she could have torn her
+hair, or beaten her slender white hands against the table. What had
+possessed her?
+
+"I do recall some green and salad days," rejoined Fred with a laugh.
+
+"How Agatha and I used to badger you! We were little fools to think such
+a thing ever went on when one came to years of discretion. Only I
+believe we were afraid the elder and idiotic Darcy might foist his son
+on some college. I must say Yerbury has become quite endurable now that
+party lines have been set up;" and Mrs. Eastman crumbed her cake,
+watching her diamond sparkle.
+
+"How do you know Sylvie went on a picnic?" asked Rene, with an angry
+glitter in her eyes.
+
+"Didn't the dear confess? Rene, you do not keep your penitent in very
+good order."
+
+Mrs. Eastman had a faculty of putting something extremely irritating in
+her voice. It was honey smooth, and yet it rasped.
+
+"Really," answered Irene indifferently, "I do not see that Miss Barry's
+selection of friends need affect me much, so long as she keeps the
+distasteful ones out of my way. I may wonder at her choice of pleasures,
+but I suppose she suits herself."
+
+"My nursery-girl belongs to the mission-school. It was very good of
+Lissette to let her off for a whole day, I thought. I left her to settle
+it. What Sylvie sees in such people, I cannot imagine. I own I was a
+trifle surprised when I found this remarkable Mr. Darcy was our old
+_bête noir_, Jack. Is he still in the mill, I wonder?"
+
+"Apply to papa," laughed Irene.
+
+"I don't believe papa could tell you the names of five workmen. As if he
+troubled his head about that!"
+
+"Sylvie is a nice little thing," remarked Fred patronizingly.
+
+"I have no patience with her!" declared Mrs. Eastman. "As if it was not
+necessary to have a line drawn somewhere! These people are all well
+enough in their way: they are a necessary factor,"--picking the words
+slowly to give them weight,--"and society establishes schools and homes
+for them, trains teachers, provides employment: what more do they want?
+A holiday now and then, of course; but why not go off by themselves as a
+class, as the French do? This maudlin, morbid sympathy we Americans
+give, spoils them. There is no keeping a servant in her place here.
+Before you know it she studies and graduates at some school, teaches for
+a while, goes abroad, and paints a picture, likely as not."
+
+"Do not excite yourself, Gerty," and Fred pulled the ends of his silky
+moustache.
+
+"Well, it does annoy me to see a young girl like Sylvie Barry with no
+better sense. Some day we shall have all these people rising up against
+us, as they did in the French Revolution. I hate socialism and all that;
+and I took good care to say to Mrs. Langton that Miss Barry had been
+casting in her lot that day with a parcel of charity-children, and would
+no doubt be too tired to enjoy the exquisite pleasure of her fête."
+
+"I do not think Sylvie cares a penny!" said Irene with a touch of scorn,
+anxious to return her sister's little stab. "I suppose she comforts
+herself with the remembrance of her old blue blood, while Mr. Langton
+made his fortune as an army-contractor."
+
+"The Wylies were a very good family, Irene."
+
+"If you are through eating, I will have a cigar," said the young man,
+sauntering over to the bay-window.
+
+What was there in this simple announcement of Sylvie having gone on a
+charity-school picnic with Jack Darcy that should so rouse the
+art-cultured pulses of Fred Lawrence? He had always liked Sylvie: her
+freshness and piquancy stirred him like a whiff of mountain air,--a sure
+sign that all healthy tone had not been cultivated out of him. It would
+be very foolish for Sylvie to commit a _mésalliance_ with this young
+man, who was no doubt good enough in his way,--a rather rough, awkward,
+clownish fellow, with a coarsely generous heart. Sylvie so delicate and
+refined, with her pretty ways, her genius,--yes, she really did have a
+genius! In Paris or Rome she might make herself quite a name. He must
+see a little more of her: he must--well, did he want to marry any one?
+
+Irene and Gertrude retired to the room of the former, and discussed
+Newport and Saratoga.
+
+"I do hope we shall have a cottage at Newport another summer," said Mrs.
+Eastman.
+
+"It gives you tone, of course," was Irene's response; "but honest, now,
+Gerty, don't you think it a little poky? I do not want to go anywhere
+for a whole summer: I like the fun of all. Agatha is to spend a month at
+Long Branch, and I am going down just for a little dazzle and to give my
+gowns an airing."
+
+Their siesta was passed in this kind of small talk. Late in the
+afternoon she drove Mrs. Eastman home, and then went for Sylvie in her
+pretty pony-phaeton. As Sylvie was about nothing more important than a
+pale-blue zephyr "fascinator," she accepted the invitation.
+
+What a delicious drive it was! A dappled under-roof of cloud with the
+sun just behind it, a golden-gray haze filming the air, and fragrant
+breezes suggestive of roses and honeysuckle. All the way was starred
+with daisies. Sylvie drew in long breaths of delight, for she never
+wearied of nature.
+
+They turned homeward early. The bells were ringing for six, and the
+mills and factories began to empty out their swarm of human beings.
+
+"Why do you go through here?" asked Sylvie in surprise. "I thought you
+hated all this."
+
+"So I do," briefly.
+
+She let the pony walk now. These shrill sounds jarred on the summer air.
+Groups of girls in procession in faded gear or tawdry finery; brawny men
+with an old-country, heavy cast of feature, in blue flannel, with arms
+bared to the elbow, and throats exposed; pale stripling youths of the
+American type, boys with the rough fun not yet knocked out of them by
+hard work or the harder blows of fate,--a motley crowd indeed.
+
+It thinned a little just here. Two or three men came along
+leisurely,--one tall and compact, with a slow, firm step, the face
+grave, the eyes glancing over beyond the hills. Irene Lawrence shut her
+lips with a touch of displeasure. Was she to miss the satisfaction that
+had been brooding in her mind for the last hour, for the accomplishment
+of which she had driven through this dusty, ill-smelling street?
+
+The pedestrian raised his head. A sudden warm, smiling glow overspread
+the face, no longer grave, but brightening like an April sky. The
+outlook of the eyes was so frank and clear; the half-smile playing about
+the parted lips had the honesty of a child. He touched his hat, and
+bowed with an almost stately deference.
+
+Sylvie nodded and smiled, leaning forward a bit. What sent the glad
+light so quickly out of his countenance? The girl glanced at Irene.
+
+Miss Lawrence had stared coolly, haughtily, decisively. This man might
+look at her hundreds of times in the days to come, but he would never
+again expect a social recognition from her. And, oh, perfection of
+cruelty! Sylvie, his fellow-sinner in these social laws, had witnessed
+his pain and discomfiture.
+
+She turned with her face at white heat, one of those inward flashes of
+indignation that transcend any scarlet blaze of anger. Her eyes glowed
+with a fiery ray, and the curves of mouth and chin seemed as if frozen.
+
+"It was a deliberate insult, Irene! How dared you"--
+
+"How dared I pass one of my father's workmen? Well, Miss Barry, I happen
+not to be hand-in-glove with them. I can relegate them to their proper
+place when an ill-judged vanity brings them unduly forward."
+
+"You met him at _my_ house: he is _my_ friend, and the friend of my
+aunt. His birth is as good as yours, or mine."
+
+"Oh, I dare say!" with a satirical laugh. "Are you really going to marry
+him, Sylvie? Have you the courage to throw yourself quite away?"
+
+"Stop!" and she caught at the reins. The next moment she was on the
+sidewalk. "Good-evening," she exclaimed with the dignity of a queen.
+
+"The little spitfire!" laughed Miss Lawrence.
+
+Sylvie's displeasure mattered very little to her. A few days later she
+was on her way to Long Branch, and the episode was soon danced out of
+mind.
+
+As for Sylvie Barry, she made up her mind never to go to Hope Terrace
+again. The friendship was not of her seeking, and now it should end.
+Friendship, indeed! It disgraced the word to use it in connection with
+Irene Lawrence.
+
+That very evening she went around to the Darcys. Neither she nor Jack
+mentioned the rencontre, but there was an indescribable something in her
+manner that told Jack the insult had been as much to her as to him.
+
+Hardly a fortnight later the Lawrence carriage stood at the gate of the
+pretty court-yard, and the liveried driver brought a note to the door.
+
+          DEAR SYLVIE,--[in a tremulous, uncertain hand] I
+          am wretched and lonely. Fred and Irene are away,
+          and Mr. Lawrence has gone West on business. Will
+          you not, out of the generosity of your heart, come
+          and cheer me up a bit? I was in bed all day
+          yesterday with a frightful headache, and can just
+          crawl to-day. Do not disappoint me. I have set my
+          heart on hearing you read, and have some nice new
+          books.
+
+                            Ever your obliged friend, A. L.
+
+"You must go," was her aunt's comment in a sympathizing tone. "I have
+promised all the afternoon to the School Club, you know, and you would
+only be home alone. Poor Mrs. Lawrence! What an invalid she has become!
+And think of me,"--with a cheery laugh,--"able to get about anywhere!"
+
+So Sylvie went up to Hope Terrace in the luxurious carriage she thought
+she had tabooed forever.
+
+Mrs. Lawrence did look very poorly. She kept to her room a great deal
+nowadays; or rather there were two of them,--one off the bedchamber,
+with a pretty oriel window, and exquisitely fitted up with every luxury
+wealth and taste could devise.
+
+Mrs. Lawrence had already lost her interest in life. Her two daughters
+were well married. Irene would be, of course; but marriages were an old
+story for her. She had loved to shine at watering-places, but the gayety
+no longer lured her. She had dazzled in diamonds, silks, and velvets,
+been admired on the right hand and on the left, until it was an old,
+trite story. Servants managed her house admirably. Mr. Lawrence never
+wearied her with any business details. Her clothes were ordered, and
+made, and hung in the closets. The carriage was always at hand. Not a
+want of any kind, hardly a desire, that could not be instantly
+satisfied. She had sunk into a kind of graceful semi-invalidism, and
+enjoyed the coming and going of her children, but her own time was over.
+
+"How good you are, Sylvie dear!" and, drawing the young girl to her, she
+kissed her fondly. "I don't know what I should do without you. Irene
+would stay at home if I wanted her; but she is so full of life and
+excitement, that it wears me out. You are not always in such a whirl of
+society, and then you _are_ different. You have such a sweet,
+sympathetic nature, child! I can always feel it in your hand, and your
+voice is so soothing. What a difference there is in voices!"
+
+Her own was finely modulated: indeed, Sylvie used to think sometimes
+that these Lawrences had more than their share of the good things of
+this world. No physical gift or grace had been denied them.
+
+So Sylvie read and talked, and sang two or three songs before she went
+home. Then she came again and again, sometimes with her aunt, oftener
+alone. Miss Barry took duty calls with her neighbors as one of the
+demands of society, to be fulfilled with the fine grace of thorough
+good-breeding. Beyond the little formalities that always surrounded her
+like a delicate hoar-frost, there was a large heart for the weal and woe
+of all who could in any way be benefited.
+
+"It is a pity to see such a waste of life," she said of Mrs. Lawrence.
+"Some people, after they have served their own turn, and had their good
+time, set about doing something for God and their neighbors at the
+eleventh hour; but she still clings to self, even when all the pleasure
+has dropped out. If she only would exert herself a little, her health
+and interest would improve, and she has so much in her hands."
+
+One day Sylvie had turned the last leaf of her book, when Fred Lawrence
+crossed the hall, having come home unexpectedly half an hour before.
+"Miss Sylvie is with your mother," the housekeeper had said; and he had
+begged that they should not be disturbed. He stood now listening to the
+cool, soft voice, and an odd thought entered his mind.
+
+Sylvie should really be a daughter of the house. How his mother liked
+her, depended upon her! She was not always going to watering-places and
+parties and theatres, she did not talk continually of dress and
+conquests. He did not despise cultivated elegance: in fact, it was a
+strong point with all the Lawrences; but he knew that a great deal of
+this much-praised culture ran into artificiality, while Sylvie's
+elegance had the comprehensiveness of nature. It would be quite
+impossible for her to do an awkward or ungraceful act; for her innate
+sense of beauty, harmony, and right guided her. Something higher than
+worldly maxims toned her soul. And though he, a man with his hands full
+of gold that he had never earned, could content himself with indolent
+dilettanteism, he wanted an earnest, honest, truthful woman, if he ever
+took a wife. He had flirted in a lazy fashion, common with young men who
+find themselves an object to women, and who have only to raise their
+hand, sultan-like, to bring a host of houris. That he had kept out of
+many grosser pleasures was perhaps a credit to him, although that was
+not the weak side of his character.
+
+He did not fall in love with the picture before him, sweet as it
+was,--the young girl in a soft flowing white dress (she was too true an
+artist to have starchy outlines), the shimmering hair, the delicate
+wavering color, the proud poise of the head, the plump white arm and
+slender fingers with their pale-pink nails, and, above all, the
+exquisite voice that seemed so to enter into the culmination of the
+story, the last few sentences of pathos, joy, and complete fruition.
+
+She closed her book. Neither of the ladies spoke. Mrs. Lawrence had been
+deeply touched. She lived almost exclusively in this world of fictitious
+sentiment, I was going to say; but I remember that it is often a
+transcript of human lives. Still she liked sentiment in books, out of
+them she scarcely recognized it.
+
+There was a step and a low tap at the door; then, before Mrs. Lawrence
+could answer, Fred marched in, kissed his mother dutifully, and shook
+hands with Sylvie.
+
+He had always liked Sylvie better as a little girl than any one else who
+ever came to the house, and he liked her now. How happy his mother would
+be! for of course they would go on living here. Irene would be away
+presently, and his parents would need some one. His summer work was
+mapped out before him; and really it was a pleasure to think he should
+escape the bore of society as one found it at summer-resorts, and
+entertain himself with this piquant brown-eyed girl with a heart fresh
+as a rose. He did not want a woman who had been wooed by every Tom,
+Dick, and Harry.
+
+Yet another and more heroic thought entered his mind after chatting with
+her a few moments. He would save _her_ as well. She might have a slight
+fancy for Jack Darcy: his sisters had spoken of it, and these great,
+fair, muscular giants were often attractive to women, through the very
+strength and rude force with which they pushed their suit. But such a
+lumbering, vulgar fellow in Miss Barry's dainty, womanish parlor! and he
+smiled at the thought. Yes, he would be doing a good deed to snatch
+Sylvie from any such possibility.
+
+Fred Lawrence suddenly assumed a new importance in his own eyes. He made
+himself very agreeable to both ladies. Sylvie remained to dinner; and,
+when Mrs. Lawrence would have sent her home in the carriage, he proposed
+to escort her,--he wished to pay his respects to Miss Barry.
+
+They did not take the most direct course, but, leaving the streets with
+their noise of children and possibly vulgar contact, strolled through
+"Lovers' Lane." The old trees met overhead; there were dooryards full of
+sweet, old-fashioned flowers, and now and then the sound of a weak piano
+or a plaintive voice.
+
+"I am glad these streets have been kept free from the vice of modern
+improvement," said he. "It always brings back a touch of my boyhood when
+I walk through them. Your aunt made a good fight, Miss Sylvie, when she
+refused to listen to the golden tongues of speculators, though of course
+you would have been much richer. But it can be turned into money any
+time."
+
+"Money is not every thing," answered the young girl, with a touch of
+sharpness. "Are one's own desires and old associations to count for
+nothing? This place was very dear to my aunt and to many others. I am
+sure there is quite enough of Yerbury laid waste now. The town looks as
+if it were a sort of general house-cleaning, and every thing was thrust
+out of doors and windows. And it was so pretty!" with a curious heat and
+passion. "It was like a dream, with its winding river and green fields,
+and men at their hay, and cows grazing in knee-deep pastures. Now all
+the milkmaids are herded in mills and factories; and the
+children,--well, there are no children any more!"
+
+"No children!" lifting his pencilled brows in languid surprise. "Why, I
+think you can find swarms of them. The poorer the man, the larger the
+family."
+
+"There are babies and babies; then little prigs and drudges. I am not
+sure I am in love with the so-called civilization. For the great
+majority it only means harder work."
+
+"Did we not learn in some school-book--I am quite sure I did--that
+
+          'Satan finds some mischief still,
+              For idle hands to do'?"
+
+"Are you not afraid?" She turned with a bright, tormenting smile to the
+handsome young fellow, who flushed under her clear glance.
+
+"For those who have brains, manual labor may not be the only chance of
+salvation," he returned with a somewhat haughty flippancy.
+
+"I wonder they do not turn their brains to some account."
+
+They reached the gate, and Miss Barry was sitting on the porch. Sylvie
+was too pretty and too womanly to be quarrelled with for the sake of a
+subject that did not in the least interest him. Beside, he meant to come
+in; so he opened the gate for her, and followed in a well-bred,
+gentlemanly way, that had nothing obtrusive in it. Miss Barry welcomed
+him with the quaint formality, the subtile air of education, refinement,
+and morality, so much a part of herself. It pleased him extremely, and
+settled him in his determination.
+
+"Sylvie has a touch of radicalism," he mused to himself; "but it is a
+disease of youth, and thrives by association. Take her quite away, and
+she will soon recover her normal tone."
+
+He found his mother still up on his return, and rather restless. She lay
+on her sofa, and dozed so much through the day, that night had but
+little slumber to bring her.
+
+"I am so glad you did not go to Long Branch," she remarked, as she toyed
+with her son's silken, perfumed hair. "I get so lonesome when your
+father is away; and he seems to think of nothing but business"--in a
+complaining tone. "I do not know what I should do but for Sylvie. She is
+such a charming little body! Fred, do you think there is any truth in
+Gertrude's gossip about her and that--one of your father's mill-hands,
+is it not? How can Miss Barry allow it?"
+
+"There is no truth in it," with a light, scornful laugh. "The families
+are neighbors, you know; and I suppose the boor takes a look for
+encouragement. I shall not go away this summer. I can find pleasanter
+employment."
+
+She pressed his hand, and smiled, as their eyes met. Sons-in-law were
+very little to one, except in the way of respectability, but a daughter
+like Sylvie would be such a comfort! Fred had no need to marry a
+fortune, but Sylvie would not be poor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+NOW that Fred Lawrence had come home, there was no need of going so
+often to Hope Terrace, Sylvie thought. Time never hung heavy on her
+hands; for she was not indolent, and there were friends and pleasures.
+Miss Barry had a conscientious misgiving that Sylvie ought to be taken
+about like other young ladies; but she shrank from fashionable life
+herself, and could not resolve to trust her darling with any other
+person. Beside, Sylvie always seemed contented.
+
+She was content indeed; at least, with her home and her aunt. Up-stairs,
+just out of her sleeping-chamber, she had a studio, chosen because this
+room, of all in the house, had the finest view in summer, when the tall
+old trees shut out so much. From here there were two exquisite
+perspectives. The trees and houses were so arranged that a long, arrowy
+ray of light penetrated through a narrow space over to a small rise of
+ground called Berry Hill on account of its harvest of blueberries. Two
+old, scraggy, immense oak-trees still remained; and she used to watch
+them from their first faint green to the blood-red and copper tints of
+autumn, when the sun shone through them. Down behind he dropped when the
+day was done; sometimes a ball of fire, at others bathed in roseate
+hues, tinged with all the wondrous grades of color, and making fleecy
+islands in a far-off, weird world, dream-haunted. She used to study the
+grand effects of shifting light, that made the hill bold and strong, or
+fused it into dreamy harmonies that seemed to have the subtile essence
+of music; then contrasts that were abrupt and apparently dissonant,
+quite against well-known edicts of human taste. Who was right,--the
+great Author of all? She smiled to herself when she heard people talk so
+glibly of nature, as if the one little rose-leaf were the whole world.
+
+The other picture held in its soft, still, light, an old-fashioned,
+low-gabled house with wide eaves; a broad doorway, with the upper half
+always open in summer; a well with curb and sweep and bucket where
+farm-hands came to drink; a pond with a shady side, where cows herded in
+their peaceful fashion, wading knee-deep on hot days, chewing their cud
+contentedly at others, browsing through golden hours; fields of glowing
+grain, then tawny stubble, a bit of corn with nodding tassels, and not
+infrequently a group of children, picturesque in this far light. It all
+stood out with the clearness of a stereoscope.
+
+She had her ambitions too, this bright little girl. They were tinctured
+with the crudeness of youth, and its boundless vision, it is true; and
+sometimes the passion of despair seized her soul in a cold grasp, when
+she felt hemmed in on every side, and longed for some opening, some step
+in the great world higher than fashionable frivolity.
+
+Miss Barry had no taste for famous women. They were well enough in the
+world: she paid a proper and polite deference to Mrs. Somerville, Mrs.
+Browning, and Rosa Bonheur,--that kind of intellectual deference that
+sets them out of the sphere of ordinary women. Wives and mothers were
+better for the every-day life of the world; since pictures and poetry
+were luxuries, accessories, but not home or food or clothes. Though she
+had missed her woman's destiny, she had not lost faith in it; though she
+had held out her hand to the woman who had made shipwreck of her own
+life for the wild, graceless brother's sake, she still looked on clear
+seas and smooth sailing as possible for lovers' barks. In her plans for
+Sylvie there was a fine, manly, generous husband; a love so sweet and
+entire that the girl should forget her restless yearnings; baby hands to
+cling to her, baby lips to press, young lives to mould, and a future to
+plan for others.
+
+Miss Barry believed in work devoutly, but gentlewomen had a firm place
+in her creed. The paintings and music were well enough as
+accomplishments, and she was proud of them; but she delicately repressed
+the other dreams and desires until Sylvie ceased to speak of them except
+to her friend Jack.
+
+Miss Barry had experienced some anxiety on this point, it must be
+confessed. You would never have perceived it from the wise little
+woman's face or any tone of her voice. She went more frequently to the
+Darcys of an evening with Sylvie: she rolled her easy-chair and
+work-table to the opposite side of the sitting-room, where it commanded
+a view of the piano and the sofa in the parlor, the door being always
+open. She could hear and see, she could make pleasant, trenchant
+remarks: indeed, she was one of themselves, as young in heart, if the
+hair did glisten silvery under the bit of exquisite thread-lace that did
+duty as an apology for a cap.
+
+Jack and Sylvie were not lovers. A rare good friendship it was, more
+perfect than brotherly and sisterly regard, in that it held no
+duty-element, and was spontaneous. Sylvie never laughed at Jack in his
+awkward boyish days: he had never tormented her small belongings as
+brothers are wont to do.
+
+Miss Barry feared the flame might be easily fanned. A little opposition
+or warning would bring Sylvie's innocent wandering thoughts to a focus,
+and kindle the fire. She was very wary. She trusted Sylvie to Jack with
+an air that said, "You are too honorable to betray the confidence I
+repose in you."
+
+The old class prejudice spoke out in this covert objection to Jack as
+a suitor. She honored him sincerely for giving up the dreams of
+ambitious and energetic manhood to stay at home and comfort these two
+delicate women. Yet (strange contradiction) she had a half fancy that it
+betokened weakness or lack of some kind in the very content with which
+he seemed to go about his daily duties. Alas for consistency! We preach
+content from the pulpit on Sunday, and on Monday glance with quiet
+contempt on our plodding neighbor, who can commune with the daisies by
+the wayside, while there is gold lying untroubled in desert gulches.
+
+Honest, sturdy Jack, taking up the duty of to-day cheerfully with a
+manful endurance, because the hands holding his fate were too weak and
+tender to be wrestled with, and that in his large, generous soul he
+could not war on a smaller antagonist, neither was it his nature to
+continually thrust any sacrifice he might make before the eyes of the
+one he was benefiting. How much silent heroism goes unpraised in the
+world, while we stand on the highways, and prate of our discrimination,
+our quick insight! Jack might be praised for his self-denial, but the
+higher appreciation was withheld. Even Sylvie was fretted at times,
+because he would get interested in all things pertaining to the mill.
+
+Miss Barry said to herself, "It is best that Sylvie should marry in her
+own circle, a man of cultivation, refinement, and position. Jack is a
+dear good fellow, but not the person to satisfy her for a lifetime."
+
+Jack thought nothing at all about it. He never gave up the idea of a
+great wide world, where he could have a hand-to-hand struggle with
+something as powerful as himself. He had come to no dreams of wife and
+children. He did like Sylvie with all his big, honest heart. If she had
+fallen in love with him, and betrayed it by some girlish sign, he would
+have been startled at first, then thought it over in his slow, careful
+way, asked her to marry him, and loved her devotedly all his days,
+leaving the dreams to the past with a tender benediction.
+
+But Sylvie was no more in love than he.
+
+As I said, she decided that she was not needed at Hope Terrace, and
+staid away four days. Then the carriage came, with a beseeching note.
+Had Fred gone again?
+
+She found him there in all his elegant listlessness. It exasperated her
+strangely.
+
+"What have you been about, Sylvie?" cried Mrs. Lawrence. "Is your aunt
+ill? It seems a full week since you were here."
+
+"Oh, no!" with her beguiling little smile. "I cannot tell exactly what,
+only I thought"--
+
+"You thought because Fred was home I would need no one else! As if a
+love-story would not bore him, and an invalid's whims--well, men are not
+women, my dear," decisively, and with a complacent expression as if she
+had settled the argument beyond any question, for the first time since
+the world began.
+
+"Why, you never tried me on a love-story," interposed Fred. "You do not
+know how deeply sympathetic I might be with your favorite heroines."
+
+"He is laughing at us, Sylvie. Ah, well! I suppose it is a man's duty to
+_make_ love, not to listen to it second-hand. How charming and fresh you
+look this morning! And how lovely it is after the shower of last night!
+Fred, if you could leave Latin verses and Greek essays you might take us
+to drive. We could stop and bring your aunt with us for lunch, Sylvie."
+
+"Thank you for her. She has gone to Coldbridge to see about a nurse for
+the Orphans' Home, and will not be back until four."
+
+"Then I can keep you without a single scruple," and Mrs. Lawrence looked
+oddly pleased. "Fred, tell them not to put the horses out. What
+wonderful health your aunt has, Sylvie! I don't see how she can endure
+the bother of those schools and institutions: it would wear me out in
+no time. But I have had a family of children;" and she leaned back on
+her pillow with a satisfied air.
+
+The carriage came around again; and with the assistance of a maid,
+Sylvie, and her son, Mrs. Lawrence walked down stairs. He handed both
+ladies in, and seated himself opposite with the air of a prince.
+
+Sylvie looked so bright and gay this morning, her velvety eyes full of
+tender light, her cheek all abloom with youth and health, the sweet
+scarlet lips half smiling, and her attire far enough removed from the
+rigor of fashion to have a kind of originality about it. She always wore
+something that added tone and brightness,--a bit of colored ribbon or a
+flower, or a bow that flashed out unexpectedly, as if greeting you with
+laughing surprise.
+
+"What do you do to mother, Sylvie?" Fred asked, with a touch of
+complimentary curiosity in his voice. "Yesterday she was dull and
+moping. I could not persuade her to drive."
+
+"It was so warm, no wonder. I felt dull and drowsy myself. But to-day is
+the perfection of loveliness."
+
+"And you have a charm, Sylvie. I do not know but it is your perfect,
+buoyant health. You seem to lift one up. I only wish I could keep you
+all the time," remarked Mrs. Lawrence with a touch of longing.
+
+Sylvie colored, and averted her eyes: then she gave herself a kind of
+mental shaking, and resolutely glanced back, uttering some rather trite
+remark. She would not suspect or understand.
+
+They came home again, and had lunch: then, while Mrs. Lawrence was
+taking her siesta, Fred carried off Sylvie to his study. It was
+luxuriously beautiful. Several gems of pictures adorned the wall, which
+had been newly frescoed to suit his fancy. Easy chairs lured one to test
+their capacious depth, some exquisitely-bound books were arranged in a
+carved and polished case, and the table was daintily littered with
+papers. He had an idea that a man's surroundings were a very fair index
+to his character and tastes, quite forgetting that it implied length of
+purse as well.
+
+He made spasmodic attempts at literary work. Abstruse essays were begun
+under the impression that he had something brilliant and original to
+say, but before they were finished a new train of thought led him
+captive. He dreamed delicately sensuous dreams, lapped in luxurious
+idleness, the rooms stifling with odorous hot-house flowers. He went
+clothed in soft raiment, he sunned himself in languid seas of
+imagination, and was too indifferent to concentrate his powers upon any
+great faith or belief, or even emotion. He had a contempt for cheap and
+plain belongings, as leaning insensibly to vitiation of taste. Nothing
+modern met his approbation. The old-time philosophies won him with their
+subtile flavor. He could propound his theories eloquently, but they did
+not touch him deeply enough to rouse him into action of any kind. All
+that his education and culture had done for him so far was to develop an
+incapacity for any regular, wholesome work that would be of the
+slightest use to any human being.
+
+Something of this passed through Sylvie's mind as she sat there. This
+handsome and stalwart lily of the valley, with no desire for toiling,
+and no ability for spinning, would be content to drift and dawdle
+through life on his father's money. At that moment he was more
+contemptible to her than Irene, winning lovers by the score, and casting
+them aside with no more compunction than if they were the litter of
+faded flowers.
+
+After all, why should she care if he did not reach her standard of moral
+and intellectual excellence, of that knightly chivalry whose
+rallying-cry was, "God and my fellow-men!" Why should she desire to
+rouse him from that complacent ease and fastidiousness, brought about
+by wealth, and the certainty of no need of effort on his part? Surely
+she was no modern apostle carrying around the watchword of work.
+
+Yet somehow--if all the subtile forces running to waste in both him and
+Jack could be galvanized into earnest, active life; if the sturdy,
+wholesome thought of the one could be mated with the clear, crisp
+training of the other; if both could have the wide outlook beyond
+material wants and comforts! It fretted her.
+
+Yet these two, sitting here on this peerless summer day, skimmed over
+wide fields like gay butterflies. She could not be in earnest with him.
+Just when she was roused and warm, he seemed to lift her by some flight
+of eloquence, and waft her to his realm of fancy. It annoyed her to find
+he had that much power over her.
+
+It must be admitted that when Fred Lawrence willed, he could be
+extremely fascinating. Women yielded gracefully, nay, eagerly, to his
+sway; and much delicate flattery had their eyes and lips fed him upon.
+Sylvie piqued him a trifle by her utter unconcern--or was it the fine
+instinct of coquetry inherent in feminine nature?
+
+There was no telling what this queer, bright, unconventional little
+thing might do if left to herself. A good marriage would prove her
+salvation. She had many womanly possibilities: yet, with all due
+deference to Miss Barry and her old blue blood, Sylvie might overstep
+the bounds, and take up some of the reforming projects so dear to
+elderly spinsters. As Mrs. Fred Lawrence she would be held regally above
+them, and could depute her charitable work to her aunt.
+
+In justice to the man, it must be confessed that Sylvie's dainty,
+piquant loveliness stirred his soul; and, if self had not been so
+intense a centre, he might have been ardently in love, or
+clearer-sighted. Much of the time her demeanor toward him was coldly
+indifferent: yet the misfortune was, her interest in all things kindled
+so easily that she could not, at a moment, change to him. Her moods of
+reticence and shy evasion added a flavor to the cup. With a man's
+egregious vanity, he jumped at the conclusion that these little
+intangible things signified love.
+
+One day Sylvie stumbled over Irene. She came flying up stairs with some
+choice nectarines for Mrs. Lawrence, a kind that seemed only to reach
+perfection in Miss Barry's old-fashioned garden. There sat Irene,
+superb, nonchalant.
+
+"Oh, you little darling!" clasping her, and pinching the peach-bloom
+cheek. "I am so glad to have a glimpse of you; for mamma has sung your
+praises until I ought to be jealous, but out of my boundless generosity
+I still smile upon you. No need to ask how _you_ are, but one may
+inquire after your aunt?"
+
+"Miss Barry is quite well," Sylvie said with some constraint,
+remembering their last parting.
+
+Irene had honestly forgotten it. She laughed now, a low, ringing,
+melodious laugh.
+
+"Why, it is quite a treat to see you open wide your sunrise eyes. I have
+taken everybody by surprise, and enjoy it immensely. Gerty and I are off
+to fresh fields and pastures new, and home came right in my way. Sylvie,
+you are a good little creature to come and amuse mamma when her own
+lovely and amiable daughter is racing after the pomps and vanities of
+this naughty world. Sit down;" and she made room on the sofa beside
+herself. "Don't let such a frivolous creature as I turn you from the
+post of duty."
+
+"I did not come to stay," Sylvie answered rather stiffly.
+
+"As if the intention were cast in adamant! Oh! why is not Fred here to
+use his persuasive tongue?"
+
+There was a peculiar laughing light in Irene's eye that annoyed Sylvie,
+for it seemed to indicate a secret knowledge.
+
+"I can stay just half an hour," was the reply in a decisive tone. "At
+eleven I take my lesson in painting.-- Aunt wanted you to have these,
+Mrs. Lawrence, in their first bloom of ripeness."
+
+"They are delightful. A thousand thanks to both of you, my dear."
+
+"And you really manage to exist in this dull place, Sylvie! You are a
+miracle of content," interposed Irene.
+
+"I have not come near dying yet," was the rather dry rejoinder.
+
+"You need not be so curt and sharply sweet, my dear. Here I have been
+listening to marvellous accounts of your amiability and devotion"--
+
+"Don't, Rene!" implored her mother. "Sylvie _is_ good to me."
+
+"And it might make the sweetness weak if she stretched it out to me!
+Keep it intact for those who so delight in it. I am fond of spice and
+high flavoring."
+
+"These nectarines are perfect," declared Mrs. Lawrence. "One can taste
+the sunshine in them."
+
+"How poetic, mother mine! Does Fred come and read Latin verses to you
+and Sylvie? I may have one"--stretching out her jewelled hand. "Oh, they
+are delicious! worth coming home for, even if I had not wanted mamma's
+pearls."
+
+"And money and every thing," added her mother. "Rene, you ought not to
+be so extravagant. Papa is quite depressed with the state of business."
+
+"Yes, I have heard _that_ ever since I left my cradle;" and Rene laughed
+gayly.
+
+It suddenly crossed Sylvie's mind: what if this proud, imperious girl
+should be reduced to poverty some day?
+
+"Don't plan a conspiracy against me, Sylvie Barry! I saw it in your
+eyes!"
+
+A vivid flush overspread Sylvie's face, as if she had been caught in the
+commission of some crime. Irene's laugh rang again with a peculiar
+irritating sound.
+
+"I could not form a conspiracy against you--even if I so desired. And I
+must go."
+
+Sylvie rose with a haughty air.
+
+"Wish me worlds to conquer at least, or scalps to hang at my belt. No?
+You ungracious little thing! There is a good-by kiss to show you that I
+always hold out the right hand of peace."
+
+"Have the carriage, Sylvie: it will not take a moment"--
+
+"No, thank you," in a crisp tone. She would have nothing of these
+Lawrences just now.
+
+"Fred will get a spicy wife," commented Irene, with a peculiar smile.
+
+"She is never so with him. They get along beautifully," said the mother.
+
+"Fred is too lazy to rouse Sylvie. Women have quite spoiled him. And
+Sylvie is ever so much prettier when a trifle vexed. Don't tell me about
+her angelic qualities, though I suppose she does keep super-amiable
+before you and Fred just now. I wonder if I could if I were in love!"
+
+"Irene, I am sorry I hinted it. If you begin to tease Fred"--
+
+"I shall not: set your heart at rest. I give full and free consent, and
+approve heartily. Beside, the little thing might throw herself away if
+she was not looked after. There will always be some one to stay at home
+with you."
+
+Mrs. Lawrence turned to her book and her nectarines; and Irene tumbled
+over jewel-cases,--a proud, imperious beauty, whose heart had never been
+touched, who cared only for pleasure and triumphs. Over yonder, men and
+women were toiling, that she might have gold to squander. They lived
+scantily, that she might feast. And the brave old world, seeing it all,
+uttered a silent groan. One day it would speak out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+SYLVIE BARRY meanwhile walked along rather rapidly for a warm morning.
+She felt irritated. Her sweet lips were set in defiant curves, the red
+heats of annoyance burned and faded on her cheek with each passing
+thought, and there was something out of harmony: a fateful discordance
+that swept over her, as if the parts of music had been wrongly put
+together.
+
+Did they think--did Fred imagine--
+
+She had never faced the idea before. Now she thrust it out in the garish
+sunlight. Her eyes sparkled, but there was no triumph in the girl's
+fine, resolute face. This man might lay his father's wealth at her feet,
+borrowed plumes in which he was quite content to shine; his heart--and a
+smile of withering scorn crossed her red lips. She would be a little
+dearer than his horse: dogs the fastidious man could not endure.
+Practically his wooing would be,--
+
+          "I will love thee--half a year,
+              As a man is able."
+
+Not because of a fresher, fairer face: he would give her all he had, all
+that he could rouse his languid pulses to experience. She would be
+lifted out of her present occupations and interests; for Sylvie was too
+clear-eyed to blind herself with the specious reasoning that as the wife
+of a rich man's son, she would be a greater power in the world for good.
+They would fit her into _their_ sphere. She fancied herself coming to an
+aimless middle-life like that of Mrs. Lawrence, taking no interest in
+any thing, but reading novels, and complaining, to pass away the time.
+
+Did she really care for any one else? More than one young man in Yerbury
+had paid her the peculiar deferential attention that asks encouragement
+if there is any to give, but is too truly delicate to proceed without.
+Then there was Jack, who understood her soul better than any one else;
+but had he touched her heart in a lover-like way?
+
+She turned her clear, honest eyes to the blue overhead, as if taking
+Heaven for a witness. Her heart and fancy were quite free. Much as she
+cared for him, there was no thrill of that high sentiment in it.
+
+In some fascinating ideal life she had seen a lover with whom she could
+walk down through the years, whose life would touch hers at all points,
+who could fathom the depths of the nature that so puzzled herself, who
+could measure and supply the yearning reaches of intellect; who could
+awake in her soul a love, strong, deep, and unquestioning, so fervent,
+indeed, that she would turn from all other dreams and desires to him. A
+young girl's ideal--perhaps it is well for the world that some women
+have ideals, and keep faith with them.
+
+As for Fred, his vanity led him straight on. She tried honestly to place
+herself right in his estimation; but he misunderstood her, and liked her
+the better for the variety. She saw too, with dismay, that her aunt
+favored him. Her natural kindness of heart shrank from the pain of
+rejecting him, and to her the triumph had no pleasure. But in her
+anxiety and desperation she saw only this one course.
+
+He dropped in nearly every day, he took her and Miss Barry to drive. He
+haunted croquet-parties, which he hated, because she accepted
+invitations to them. He never met Jack. Some fine sense warned the
+latter that an encounter in Sylvie's parlor would be uncomfortable.
+Yet, strange to say, sometimes when he saw the handsome fellow
+sauntering by, a peculiar tenderness came over him, remembering the
+little boy who had clung fondly to him.
+
+An old-fashioned courtship would prove no end of a bore, Fred decided.
+So one day he marched over to Larch Avenue when he knew Miss Barry was
+alone, and laid his case before her. She received him with graceful
+kindliness, listened to his offer, and assented with evident pleasure.
+There was not a happier woman that night in all Yerbury than Miss Barry.
+The care and desire of her life had been justly crowned. Her good-night
+kiss to Sylvie was inexpressibly sweet.
+
+Fred did not see Sylvie for the next two days, but meanwhile wrought
+himself into a state that he was quite sure was proper and well-bred
+love. Then she came to Hope Terrace, and they kept her to tea. The late,
+heavy dinners were dispensed with at present.
+
+"Will you walk home, to-night, Sylvie?" asked Fred. "I feel in a walking
+mood."
+
+"The slightest symptom of industry ought to be encouraged," she made
+answer gayly. She had been of some real service this afternoon, charmed
+away a fretful headache, and restored Mrs. Lawrence to a comfortable
+state of feeling, and was correspondingly light-hearted. Then, too, Fred
+had kept out of the way, and been gravely polite to her at the
+tea-table. She liked him in such moods.
+
+It was a late August evening, with a small crescent moon shining softly
+as if its forces were well-nigh spent. The heat of the day was over, and
+the falling dew evolved a kind of autumnal sweetness, the flavor of
+ripening fruits rather than flowers. Yerbury was very quiet in the part
+they were to traverse. They walked under great maples where a shadowy
+light sifted through, and the houses looked like fragments of dreams,
+with here and there a lamp in a distant window. The slow wind wandered
+through pines and hemlocks, as if some fairy Puck had laid his finger to
+his lips, saying to crooning insects, "Hush, hush!" A night to dream as
+one went down "Lovers' Lane."
+
+Sylvie was radiantly beautiful. Her face always changed so with her
+moods. Every feature had a perfect sculptured look, but intensely
+human,--the straight nose with the flexible, sensitive nostrils,
+quivering at any sudden breath, the dainty chin and white throat, the
+red curved lips that seem to smile at some inward, richly satisfying
+thought, the large lustrous eyes serious as those of a nun, and the
+calm, clear brow that seemed to index the strength and fineness of the
+nature. He did not take in any of the occult meanings: to him she was
+simply a pretty girl whom he could dress in silk instead of lawn.
+
+The small hand had lain on his arm without the faintest movement. Now he
+took it in his, and pressed it softly. She frowned, and made a slight,
+repellant gesture.
+
+"Sylvie?" with a lingering intonation that was hardly inquiry.
+
+"Well!" roused out of her quiet into a momentary petulance.
+
+"Sylvie, I love you. Will you be my wife?"
+
+In his most commonplace dreams he had never made love so briefly. He
+startled himself.
+
+"Don't!" in a short, decisive tone, as if he were merely teasing.
+
+"Sylvie, I am in earnest;" and in his tone the man spoke.
+
+"Then I think you are mistaken." She seemed to look at him in the cool
+light of invincible candor and honesty.
+
+"No, Sylvie, I am not mistaken," gaining courage that it was to be
+argument instead of sentiment. "I have had this purpose in my mind for
+some time, and have solicited your aunt's consent. You have only to
+say"--
+
+"I have many things to say, but assent is not one of them;" in a voice
+that, though low, seemed to cleave the air with a steely ring. "You
+think you love me. Perhaps you do--as far as you are capable of loving
+any thing beside yourself. You have seen a good deal of me this summer,
+and have made up your mind to marry. I possess some of the necessary
+requirements, and doubtless suit you better than any mere fashionable
+woman. But you have none of that intense desire that makes a matter of
+life and death of love, that elects one woman, or forever keeps a vacant
+niche in the soul."
+
+"Sylvie!"
+
+Her passionate words stunned him. He turned to her with a puzzled look,
+a certain helplessness, as if he were stranded on some far, foreign
+shore. And then he met her lustrous eyes, so clear that they were almost
+pitiless in the glow of undimmed truth.
+
+"Can you not trust me?" with the gentle reproachfulness so winning to
+most women, so confident of a victory over a heart that loves.
+
+"I could trust you to care for no other woman when your word was passed,
+but it seems to me," and her heart swelled with something like contempt,
+"that you are but playing at love. Marriage in your estimation is a fit
+and proper step: your mother likes me, you prefer me to any one else"--
+
+"Good heavens, Sylvie! what more do you want?" and a flood of scarlet
+mounted his calm, handsome brow. "When a man chooses a woman out of the
+whole circle of his friends and acquaintances, what higher compliment
+can he pay her? I have seen women beside those in Yerbury; and, though
+it may savor of vanity, I believe there _are_ those who would
+appreciate"--
+
+"I wonder you did not go to them;" with a fine irony, cutting short his
+sentence.
+
+"Because I liked you, chose you."
+
+"I do not so desire to be chosen," she answered quickly. "The man I
+marry must win my respect, my highest faith; must have an aim, an
+ambition, and not dawdle through life as some silly woman might."
+
+The decisive voice seemed to cut a path between him and her as it went.
+It struck home uncomfortably.
+
+"Then I suppose you call all men not engaged in manual labor,
+dawdlers,--scholars, poets, men of leisure, who can devote their lives
+to work that requires patience and fineness of detail, rather than the
+heavy swing of a blacksmith's hammer. When a man has no need of
+work"--and Fred paused, a trifle out of temper.
+
+"I do not believe God ever made an idler," she said, with high gravity
+that widened the gulf between them. "To whom much is given, much will be
+required."
+
+How unreasonable she was! He hated women who flung texts or proverbs at
+you; and yet he did not hate her. She had a girl's flighty notions, born
+of crude contact with inferior minds, and perhaps over-much
+novel-reading.
+
+"I do not exactly understand what a man must do to win your love," he
+said in one of those calm, intensely irritating tones. "I have chosen
+what suited me best,--culture, refinement, and the education that fits
+me for the sphere in which I am likely to move all my days,"
+impressively. "It is true, much of the wisdom of the world is little to
+my taste. I do not know why a man should wade through a slough of evil
+for the sake of repenting afterward, for looking white in contrast to
+that foul blackness. The ninety and nine just ones seem to me the better
+example."
+
+"I am afraid I shall not be able to make you understand," she went on,
+with a little hesitation. "Perhaps I have not the power or patience to
+shape a man's soul to a noble purpose or ambition. I want him strong
+and earnest, full of energy and that high sense of duty to all around
+him, not satisfied to drift down the stream in frivolous content, but to
+make the way better for his having gone over it. I want him true as
+steel to his friends, generous, yet uncompromising to his foes, to all
+evil; the kind of man who, if crushed down by fate to-day, could see
+some ray above his head to-morrow, who has sufficient moral fibre not to
+be rigidly bound by class feelings and narrow prejudices."
+
+Sylvie paused, startled at herself. She had never framed her hero in
+words before, and that she should do it for this man!
+
+"These are the heroes of our youth, Miss Sylvie, and you are very
+young," in that insufferably patronizing tone.
+
+"I am old enough to know what I want," she retorted, all the fiery blood
+in her pulses leaping to the charge. "I think, too, I can discern
+between the true worker, and him who is content with the frivolous
+outside show."
+
+"Perhaps not. You have been advising me, now allow me a like privilege.
+Do not imagine me actuated by jealousy,--that vice of the Moor is not in
+my nature. I have seen with some surprise that your fancies were for
+those beneath you in the social scale. A woman always loses in this
+dangerous experiment. She seldom raises her commonplace hero to a level
+with the gods, and is much more likely to be dragged down."
+
+She turned suddenly, her face flaming scarlet. The indignation misled
+him. He took it as a sign of personal anger, and wondered if she could,
+if she _dared_, throw him over for that coarse, stupid, blundering
+fellow.
+
+"Yes," he continued, glad to stab her in a vulnerable point; "you
+certainly have made a mistake, if you think this soul an aspiring one. A
+boy who excels in brute strength and force merely, a man who makes a
+deliberate choice between the nobler results of education and the
+common purposes of rude daily labor, will hardly rank with a knight of
+Arthur's time, even if some self-deceived woman chooses to lavish her
+affection upon him."
+
+"If you mean Mr. Darcy"-- And she stood quite still, tremulous with
+passion.
+
+"I mean Mr. Darcy." She had not shown such delicate consideration for
+his feelings that he should hesitate. "I do not see how you, with your
+artistic tastes and refinement, can find companionship in such a nature.
+I understand it very thoroughly. Beware, for you cannot plead even
+daffodil blindness, my fair Persephone."
+
+Sylvie Barry could have struck the man beside her. All the passion of
+her nature surged up in contempt, great waves of white heat. If a look
+could have annihilated, hers might. Even in the shady gloom, he saw the
+flashing eye and quivering lip of scorn.
+
+"Do not distress yourself about me," she answered, with suave
+bitterness. "Jack Darcy may be a mill-hand; but he has the honor, the
+white soul, of a gentleman! And you--you dare to trample on what was
+once a friendship!"
+
+"I believe he was once my admiration because he used to show fight so
+easily. He was for marching West then, and doing some grand thing; but
+you see his hero days are gone by. Ten years from this he may be a
+demagogue, a rank socialist, whining about equality. Still, if I must
+congratulate you"--
+
+She made a haughty gesture, and her first impulse was to let it go; but
+her truthful nature could not brook the implied deception.
+
+"You may congratulate me upon the friendship alone," with a clear, sharp
+emphasis.
+
+His shattered self-confidence returned suddenly, shaped to arrogance. If
+she was not entangled with Jack Darcy, there certainly was no one else.
+
+"Sylvie," he began loftily, "this has been child's play, and I am
+heartily ashamed of my share of it. Let us go back, and forget it. You
+have had your tilt at windmills; so suppose we return to common sense.
+You are still heart-free, it seems; and I beg pardon for repeating
+foolish gossip. Your aunt has accepted me as your suitor; my mother is
+waiting to receive you as a daughter; and I think," with some pride in
+his tone, "that few men can offer you a cleaner hand, or a better
+record. You will have a life of ease and leisure, and-- Why, Sylvie, you
+can teach _me_,--you can help me up these glowing heights."
+
+"I have answered you!"
+
+She seemed to grow tall and regal as she stood there by the gate, the
+long, arrowy ray of lamp-light from within illumining her proud, cold
+face, that could flush with such bewildering warmth. He discerned in
+some dim way that she had access to a life far above his; an atmosphere
+like hoar-frost surrounded her, raying off fine points, that thrust him
+farther away into darkness and coldness. Had something been taken out of
+his life?
+
+The man's well-nigh imperturbable complacency had received a shock.
+
+"Good-night," in a softer tone. One cannot break a pleasant friendship
+without a pang.
+
+As one in a dream he heard the gate close, the soft footfall on the
+brick walk, and a waft of voices from within. Then it occurred to him
+that he, Frederic De Woolfe Lawrence, had been rejected by this little
+girl upon whose head he had meant to shower the blessing of marital
+protection, the regard of a soul that was not quite indifferent, after
+all. What was this dull pang somewhere in his symmetrical, well-kept
+body? Was it the night that made his pulses heavy and turgid?
+
+Then he turned. "By Jove!" he muttered, "there's not another girl in the
+country that could have kept her fingers out of the governor's
+money-bags! Poor mother! What a disappointment for her! Of course
+Sylvie will marry Jack Darcy,--Pluto and Persephone again."
+
+Then he softly whistled a stave of opera-music, and sauntered about
+leisurely. He had no fancy for facing his mother that night.
+
+As for Sylvie, she knew her face was very white when she entered the
+door; but she bustled about with womanly evasion, and began to ask if
+her aunt had been lonesome, if any one had called, and declared she was
+tired from walking home, and her head ached a little, which was true;
+and presently the two women barred their doors, and went to bed.
+
+Was she glad to have it over? Was she sorry she had left no loop-hole
+for future hope? Strange to say, she could not tell.
+
+"But I could never live, like a pauper, on some other person's money!"
+she thought decisively. "And he did not care. It was for his mother's
+sake chiefly."
+
+Again there was a breach between the Montagues and the Capulets, this
+time crossed by no lovers' hands. Mrs. Lawrence was highly indignant,
+Miss Barry vexed and sore disappointed. They went the even tenor of
+their way, however, while the poor self-made invalid at Hope Terrace
+grew more querulous and exacting. Fred took a week at Saratoga to
+restore his wounded vanity, and then settled himself at a hotel in New
+York, wondering if he had not better read a little law to pass away the
+winter. Mrs. Minor was a queen of fashion, and she was glad to have the
+attendance of her handsome brother. Irene and Mrs. Eastman flitted about
+like gay butterflies, with trains of admirers. The faint mutterings in
+the financial world made little difference to them. It was their
+province to spend, to enjoy; and what the strata beneath them did or
+suffered or hoped, was of no more account than the far-off ocean-froth
+beating up on the hard white sand,--picturesque in a drama or a story.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+IT was a dull, gray day, the first of December. Autumn had set in early
+this year. There had been a week of cold rain that had quite destroyed
+the magnificent foliage, one of Yerbury's greatest charms; and it became
+a sodden mass, trodden under foot by pedestrians. The ground was baked
+by sharp frosts at night, making the unpaved streets a mass of ruts
+early and late, and quagmires in the middle of the day.
+
+Yerbury had changed much from the pretty, clean, thriving country-town,
+to something that aped a grand city; unfinished streets, small farms
+laid waste, rows of pretentious houses or florid cottages that had never
+been thoroughly completed, nearly every one adorned with the ominous
+placard, "For Sale." They needed painting and tidying: vines were left
+about, dahlia-stalks hung to poles, steps were awry, and gates swinging
+on one hinge; heaps of ashes and garbage lay here and there.
+
+This day Yerbury wore a particularly listless air. The leafless trees
+hung out long and drooping arms, that swayed to and fro in the biting
+wind. The sullen sky overhead added its tone of dreariness to the
+picture. There was no cheerful whir of factories and shops, no brisk
+steps of men going to and fro, though there were enough standing around
+in groups with scowling faces and compressed lips, or flushed with angry
+gesticulation.
+
+The only places that evinced any air of business were the beer-shops.
+Here a man harangued his fellows; there he did not deign to argue, but
+openly cursed. "Let's treat on that!" said one. "I'll stand to that
+sentiment," declared another. Sometimes voices rose so high that a
+proprietor was forced to command order.
+
+Yerbury was on a strike. There had been a new scale of prices with the
+opening of autumn, submitted to by most of the men with a sympathetic
+good-nature. Trade was getting dull. Fancy prices no longer ruled. An
+ominous feeling pervaded all classes. Building fell off. One tenant gave
+up his house, and took part with another. Housewives looked about for
+the cheapest market, and talked of making last year's coat or cloak do
+for the winter.
+
+Hope Mills had been among the first to propose this second reduction.
+David Lawrence had returned from his business tour much depressed. There
+was an undercurrent of distrust, a disinclination to lay in stock, a
+wordless questioning from eye to eye, with no hopeful response.
+
+Horace Eastman had worked himself into the charge of the inside
+business. He had no real interest, but a liberal salary; and Mr.
+Lawrence felt that he lifted a weight of care from his shoulders. If
+only Fred-- But with college training and elegant tastes he could hardly
+be expected to take to the dull routine of business cares. So matters
+had been left more and more to Eastman, who was shrewd and sharp, who
+always managed to get the most for his money.
+
+Now Mr. Lawrence was appalled by the amount of stock on hand. They had
+been running the mills at full capacity all summer.
+
+"We must offer goods at a lower figure," said Mr. Eastman promptly. "We
+must get command of trade again. Prices _will_ come down,--that is a
+foregone conclusion. The abundant harvests have glutted the market, and
+living will be cheaper. The laborer can live on less; and, if we can
+manufacture at less cost, we shall be all right again."
+
+"But there seems no demand for goods," said Mr. Lawrence faintly.
+"Store-shelves are full. People are carrying last year's stock with no
+call for it. It has always seemed to me, Eastman, that a liberal policy
+to workmen brought its own reward. They are large consumers. Cut them
+down to mere food and shelter, and clothes are the first to go. In
+decent times your workman is ashamed of a ragged coat."
+
+"All very true, Mr. Lawrence; but, if there is no market, we must create
+one. Sell cheaper stock to new men. That will make a demand at once."
+
+"Undersell! We used to call that a cut-throat business, Mr. Eastman;"
+and a flush stained the fine face, now rather worn and thin.
+
+"It is what we must come to. There is next to no premium on gold, and
+the first man who touches bottom will be the lucky one, to my thinking.
+Cheap goods, cheap every thing, will be the next cry. The farmers must
+dispose of their wool, and labor must come down. Why, ordinary workmen
+have been living like princes."
+
+The delicate brows were drawn thoughtfully.
+
+"I always hated to grind workmen down to a bare subsistence," spoke the
+honest, loyal gentleman, as God made him. Trade had not warped body and
+soul. He was an aristocrat, if you please, and his home was as sacred to
+refinement and elegance as a ducal palace. A common person would have
+stood in his hall until his errand was done, and he would never even
+have asked a workman to take a seat in his office; but his soul was
+honorable, if haughty.
+
+"Let me manage it," with a confident nod. "We'll keep the topmost wave,
+as you will see."
+
+So to New York Horace Eastman went, and arranged for a large
+auction-sale of goods, which was a remarkable success, and created quite
+a ripple in the sea of stagnation. Then he contracted to deliver another
+lot by the first of January, at certain prices. And now either
+manufacturer must give up profits, or workman yield his margin, and be
+contented with daily bread alone.
+
+"There really was no need of workmen owning houses, having Brussels
+carpets and pianos," argued Eastman. "They were in some degree
+answerable for the hard times. Every one wanted to out-do his neighbor.
+They were not content to live as their fathers had lived; and, where the
+mothers wore print dresses, the daughters must have silk. They had gone
+on altogether too fast."
+
+Yet only a few years ago workingmen had been urged to put their money
+into homes. Rows of houses had been built for them, and sold on such
+ridiculously easy terms, only a trifle down. The interest would not be
+as much as rent. Then the fascinating shopkeeper had flaunted his wares
+in the faces of the thrifty housewives. "A good article is cheapest in
+the end. This Brussels will outwear two ingrain carpets, at a very
+little advance on the first cost. No moths will trouble it, once down it
+is there for years, saving worry and hard work;" and the buyer was
+persuaded. Then there must be new furniture, and so on to the end. Was
+it altogether their fault? The old things were passing away. The world
+was awaking from its Rip-Van-Winkle nap. There was to be a wider
+outlook, a liberal cultivation, a general rising of every one.
+
+So there had been years of plenty, and men had pulled down the old
+storehouses to build new ones.
+
+Such people as the Eastmans and the Lawrences could not economize at a
+moment's warning. The screws must be put on elsewhere.
+
+At first the workmen looked at each other in blank dismay. Winter was
+coming on--a hard one it bid fair to be. Coal had risen, and in spite of
+the abundant harvest the absolute staples of life had not much decreased
+by the time they reached the consumer. Coffees were high: pease, beans,
+and chiccory were sold at a reduction, to be sure, and you could get
+lumpy heavy flour that spoiled your bread, and poor butter, and teas
+that were colored and doctored; and this was cheap living.
+
+There was a stormy wrangle. Meetings were held, and speakers figured out
+the actual cost of living. Less than the present rates meant loss,
+privation, and want in the end. So a strike was determined upon.
+
+Jack Darcy, being foreman of one department, stood, as it were, between
+the upper and nether millstone, at present just escaping both. He
+thought it hard that the men should have this second reduction so soon,
+and it did seem to him reasonable that profits ought to yield a little,
+that there ought to be a sympathy between them. Personally, he should be
+comfortable enough; but if he had a wife and three or four children, a
+helpless, bedridden mother, or a drunken father, or a do-nothing
+brother, hanging upon him, what then?
+
+He advised a little moderation and patience. It might be better to take
+the wages now, and wait until spring--
+
+"They doant give up any thing, as we sees," broke in an elderly English
+weaver. "The great house is full of every thing, and coal eno' burning
+in the greenhouses to ripen a few bunches of grapes out of God's own
+season, as would keep many of us warm. Who puts our coal down a dollar
+in the ton, or takes it off of house-rent when wages come down? I'll
+work as cheap as the next one if ye'll gi' me a cheap house to live in
+and cheap beef and bread. I doant care for money in the savin's bank, or
+a house that they tax all out o' sight. When I'm old I'll go to the
+poorhouse, I will; but I'm danged if I like starvin' before then, and
+they a-ridin' over us in their carriages. I left 'em over yonder"--with
+a nod of the head--"for that."
+
+"What do you think of it?" asked a thin, hungry-looking man, fingering
+his Cardigan nervously. "See here! If I could have one more prosperous
+year, I'd be through the woods, have the house I've worked so hard for
+settled upon my old woman, and would be out of the reach of misfortune.
+But this thing hits me hard, it does."
+
+"I don't believe striking will succeed just now," said Jack candidly.
+"And it's a bad time. Two or three weeks lost time will more than cover
+the odds in wages."
+
+"I don't want to lose time. I'd rather keep straight on."
+
+"It's the principle of the thing," broke in another. "I'd lose six
+months before I'd give in an inch. I'd have struck the other time."
+
+There was a call for the overseers, and Jack left the group. Eastman was
+talking to several of the men in his office. A fine, portly figure he
+had, indicating rich living and good wines; a man still on the sunny
+side of forty, stout, rather florid, a full dark beard and hair, but
+with eyes that were light and furtive; eyes that could stare you out of
+countenance, and yet not meet yours ordinarily, with a frank, outward
+look. He always went handsomely dressed, and wore diamond shirt-studs,
+an expensive seal-ring, a substantial watch-chain with two or three
+costly charms. He had not a flashy look, but the sign and seal of
+gentlemanliness was wanting in that intensely selfish face.
+
+He had heard of the disaffection. There was not much to say except that
+the new scale of prices would go into effect next Monday morning. He
+never asked a man to work for any less wages than he, the workman,
+considered his services worth. Here was the work, and the wages Hope
+Mills could afford to pay. They could take it, or leave it. There were
+plenty of men at Coldbridge, thrown out by the failure of Kendrick &
+Co., who would be glad to come. He could fill any vacant place.
+
+But the ball grew and grew by handling. There were union-meetings and
+violent harangues, much of them truth, too, but badly and unwisely
+used. And the result was that the men demanded the old wages, were
+peremptorily refused, and struck. The great engine subsided, and a
+Sunday stillness reigned. Down at Hull's Iron Works the same proceedings
+were going on, but the saloons seemed to profit by it.
+
+Jack hung around the mill for a while, then went down stairs. The
+chilliness in the air made him draw his coat together by one button, and
+slip his hands into his pockets. He sauntered through several streets,
+nodding to one and another, or exchanging a few words. Once again his
+advice was asked.
+
+"I think you had better come to work to-morrow," he said. "Don't muddle
+your brains with beer or bad whiskey: that will not make the way any
+clearer."
+
+"A good enough lad!" was the surly comment, "but why grudge a man a sup
+of beer when he can't have wine like the big folks?"
+
+Jack had hardly planned for the enforced idleness. He did not want to go
+home and read, he could not call on Sylvie thus early in the morning,
+neither did he feel in the humor for argument with any of the men. So he
+stopped at the door of a small office, and turned the knob rather
+hesitatingly.
+
+"Hillo, Darcy, is that you? Come in, come in! Sullen gray day, isn't it?
+Off on a strike, eh?"
+
+Jack laughed,--the sound with no real music in it, the sort of
+lip-service merely.
+
+"Come in, old fellow; don't be afraid. I've neither pistol nor bludgeon,
+and I'll promise to treat you civilly."
+
+The man's accents were clear and curt, with a certain ring of out-door
+freshness,--a capital voice to travel with up mountain-sides and through
+forests. The face, too, indicated a kind of joyous strength; for the
+blue eyes were merry and baffling, the laughing lips a brilliant
+scarlet, the nose neither Grecian nor aquiline, but slightly
+_retroussé_; a bronze moustache with long curling ends that were
+undeniably red, and hair a little darker, slightly curling as well. A
+broad-shouldered man with the deep breathing of intense vitality;
+healthy nerves that could enjoy laziness to the full, as well as a brisk
+walk across the country.
+
+A glance at the interior showed the place to be a doctor's office. On
+one side a long case with glass doors above and drawers underneath,
+filled with bottles and books and papers, perhaps in not the most
+systematic order; at the farther end a fire in an open-front stove; a
+luxurious Turkish lounge covered with russet leather, and a bright wool
+blanket thrown carelessly over it; several capacious armchairs; and in
+one, with his legs stretched out on another, sat Dr. Philip Maverick,
+eight and twenty or thirty years old, perhaps.
+
+"How nice and cosey you are! I really did not know what to do with
+myself. Yes, we are all on a strike, I am sorry to say."
+
+"Bad time," and Maverick shook his head. "What's the prospect? Have a
+cigar."
+
+"The prospect is that the weakest goes to the wall, of course," answered
+Jack. "Maverick, I am dreadfully muddled on this point. I have thought
+of it all the week. It _is_ hard on the men. I know the general advice
+is to economize more closely, but how can you do it just at the
+beginning of winter? One cannot move to a cheaper tenement, fire and
+lights cost more, and provision is a little dearer. Low living in winter
+does not conduce to a healthy state in the spring. Then, on the other
+hand, if they are going to make such sales as they did last month, they
+cannot pay the wages, and realize what they consider a fair profit. But
+why shouldn't the Lawrences and the Eastmans and many others give up
+something, as well?"
+
+Jack turned an anxious face to his listener.
+
+"All you manufacturers have been crazy the last few years," he said,
+delicately shaking the ashes from his cigar. "The country was such an
+extensive purchaser through the war, that your dreams became Utopian.
+Then everybody came home with some money and no clothes, and the people
+were large consumers. Now everybody has been clothed, and the stores are
+full, and here is a glutted market. Over-production, my dear fellow."
+
+"Then I do believe it would be better to leave off for a while. Still
+that would not suit as well. Half a loaf is better than no bread, to a
+hungry man. But, after all," said Jack, knitting his brows, "I don't
+altogether believe in the cry of over-production. The boys of war times
+are men now. They are pushing in everywhere for work. They want food,
+shelter, raiment. There are a great many more people in this town than
+there were five years ago. Even if we only depended on the natural
+increase of population"--
+
+"But, you see, people are forever crowding into cities," interposed Dr.
+Maverick.
+
+"I have a fancy they do not come much faster than they are called,"
+returned Jack dryly. "See what we have been doing around here. The small
+outlying farms have been bought up by speculators, cut up, destroyed for
+farming purposes. Their owners with families of children had to go
+somewhere. 'Come to the mills and factories,' was shouted in their ears,
+and they came. Now they are here, depending on their labor for bread,
+and Eastman will bring fifty or a hundred more from Coldbridge; and in
+the spring, if there is any difficulty, some more will come. The old
+ones cannot go back to their farms if they would. Their fertile gardens
+lie cut up into waste squares, their fruit-trees have been despoiled:
+they must starve here, or tramp to some other crowded town, and perhaps
+starve there. Will your farmer take in half a dozen hands at a moment's
+notice? Can they put themselves down in any country place, and go to
+work?"
+
+Maverick studied Jack intently, and then gave a low whistle.
+
+"Upon my word, Darcy, you _have_ been going over the subject. Take the
+stump. And of course you go against capital?"
+
+"No, I don't," returned Jack shortly. "Only it does seem to me that
+there ought to be some place where capital and labor could strike hands.
+It appears to me, both have been to blame. We cannot condemn men for
+crowding into cities, when there has been a steady call for them. We do
+blame them for not laying up a little money against a rainy day; but
+many of them have. Look at the cottages that have been sold to
+workingmen. Look at the bank savings. To-day, perhaps, as many poor men
+could pay their whole indebtedness, according to the ratio, as the rich.
+But we fly at the laboring classes, when it is only human nature
+cropping out. Your millionnaire puts his money into whatever he thinks
+will bring him the greatest return; your poor man puts his capital, his
+capacity, health, and strength, where it will earn him the most money."
+
+"Well, I don't see but they are both right enough," said Maverick. "And
+unless you are running over into communistic ideas"--
+
+"I am not," was the decisive reply. "Some one much wiser than I said,
+ages ago, 'He among you that will not work, let him not eat:' yet," with
+a humorous laugh, "if the rule were strictly enforced, there would more
+than one go hungry, I'm thinking. The great consolation would be that
+the right man would suffer, not the innocent and guiltless."
+
+"I really do not see what you are driving at, Darcy," and the other
+studied him curiously.
+
+"Well, I told you in the beginning I was muddled. I don't pretend to see
+my way clear, only I think we have just begun the fight. It is as much
+of an irrepressible conflict as that other, for which so many brave men
+gave their lives. And one point in it no one seems to take note of. We
+are proud of the increase of population in our country. Every city,
+town, and hamlet boasts of it, and the depopulated places run to slow
+decay. We welcome these people; and yet they must eat to live, and the
+majority of them must work, or they will have nothing to eat. I think
+the most of them labor cheerfully, and my experience is that idleness is
+the worst foe of man. But, on the other hand, every year invention so
+protects and fortifies capital, that one must do a larger business or
+employ fewer men. In five years the condition of labor has greatly
+changed at Hope Mills, and in five years more it will change again. This
+is the inexorable law of nature, or, I ought to say, growing
+intelligence."
+
+"Then I should say we wanted wider markets and a better classification
+of labor."
+
+A quick light came into Jack's eyes.
+
+"I think you have hit it, Maverick," he answered. "But what is
+everybody's business is nobody's; and we are so apt to forget that the
+world does move, and the condition of things changes all the time," and
+Jack's eyes dropped thoughtfully.
+
+"See here, Darcy, take Brock's Hall, and talk to the men to-morrow
+night," began the doctor eagerly. "They will listen to you because to a
+certain extent you are in sympathy with them, one of their number; and
+you do seem to have some clear ideas on the subject. No: we'll say
+Wednesday night, and I will get out some posters."
+
+Jack laughed. "What shall I tell them? I can't see how to get about the
+remedy clearly myself. The trade-unions have not hit it either. When
+they say to a man, 'Because I will not work for a certain sum, you shall
+not,' they lean on a reed that will surely break, and pierce themselves.
+Hunger is stronger than theory. No: I shall have to give the point a
+more thorough study before I become a blatant apostle."
+
+Philip Maverick blew out a curling whiff of smoke, and looked at his
+visitor through it. Darcy gave him a curious feeling, as if a good deal
+of excellent material were running to waste, that if shaped and trained,
+and brought up to higher purposes, might be of much good service to the
+world. Did he realize it himself? He was twenty-four, and had a good
+position as things went; and Dr. Maverick had heard the women of the
+house were prudent and thrifty, and had a nice home. Was Darcy bounded
+in by conservatism, or afraid of losing? or was he honest when he said
+he did not know just what to do? Yet he did not look like the kind of
+man to go plodding all his days.
+
+"Darcy, you puzzle me!" he began abruptly. "With that great body of
+yours, those strong arms and hands that look as if they could wrest
+Nature's secrets from her mighty soul, with that brow, and the resolute
+mouth, it seems as if you ought to be in better business than making
+cloth: pardon me. You don't use up half your energy. You ought to be
+planning a ship-canal across Darien, or tunnelling mountains. You're the
+square man; and how upon earth did you ever get fitted so smoothly to a
+round hole?"
+
+Jack laughed, and told his story very simply. To him there was neither
+romance nor heroism in it, just a plain every-day sort of compulsion.
+The tunnelling would have been much more to his mind.
+
+"Go on with the problem," said Dr. Maverick abruptly. "In the next five
+years I think we will all have use for our wits. We are going to see
+another change in matters, that will require more wisdom than is needed
+in mere money-making. See here, I'm interested in the thing. Let us go
+out, and hear what the men say about it."
+
+Maverick rose, and put on his great-coat, and lighted another cigar.
+Then the two started together.
+
+Maverick had been in the town just six months. He had studied medicine
+in Philadelphia and Paris, taken a three-years ramble over Europe, when
+a college friend begged him to come to Yerbury, and step into a vacant
+place. And he had what he fancied an excellent reason for it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+THE men were, for the most part, in sullen earnest. From their narrower
+outlook they could not see that capital was on the eve of a great
+revulsion; that credit had been stretched to its utmost. They had their
+own pet plans, their own indolences and careless habits; and, as was
+natural, their own desires were the sweetest to them.
+
+There were labor-meetings and harangues. There was a good deal of talk
+about the rights of labor and the tyranny of capital; of the rich mill
+and factory owners living in palaces, and the men in hovels; of what
+England had done, and of what we surely were coming to,--the rich
+growing richer, and the poor poorer. But Jack remarked that of the
+speakers there was not one who owned a little plot of ground, or had a
+bank-account. Two of them were disaffected English weavers, a third an
+Irishman, and the only Yerbury man was a quick-tongued, but shiftless
+fellow who had started in business for himself, and failed; a kind of
+handy Jack-at-all-trades, and correspondingly good for nothing.
+
+Before the close of the week the men in Watkins's shoe-shop had struck.
+There was quite an army of them now. The saloons were filled daily and
+nightly. Jack thought, with a little grimness, that they might better
+save their money for next week's bread.
+
+Several of the men in his room dropped in to see what he thought; and
+the result was, that on the following Monday morning ten of them
+presented themselves with a tolerably cheerful demeanor, and accepted
+the situation. By Tuesday night every vacant place was filled with
+hungry, haggard-looking men from Coldbridge. They were jeered at, and
+annoyed in various ways: the Yerbury men were called rats and turncoats
+and cowards. The mills were driven. There was another great and
+successful sale; in fact, amid the failures and difficulties about, Hope
+Mills loomed up like a star of the first magnitude.
+
+In the spring Mrs. Eastman and Miss Lawrence went to Europe; and Fred
+joined a party of young men on a pleasure-tour through California. Even
+Mrs. Lawrence was persuaded to try Saratoga in the summer. The great
+house was muffled, and left in the charge of servants; but greenhouses,
+graperies, and all the elegant adjuncts were cared for as assiduously as
+ever. David Lawrence used to think it over. Sometimes he was tempted to
+sell out his palatial residence, but who was there to buy? Other men had
+been caught with just such elephants on their hands. The papers were
+full of offers "at an immense sacrifice."
+
+Business grew duller and duller. There was a very great overplus of
+every thing, it seemed, in the world. Harvests were so abundant, and
+prices so low, they were not worth the moving. Fruit lay and rotted on
+the ground: you could get nothing for it. And yet there were wan-eyed
+and hungry women and children who would have feasted regally on this
+waste. Mothers of families turned and patched and darned, and said there
+could be no new garments this winter, while store-shelves groaned under
+the accumulation of goods. Men were failing on this side and that; the
+Alton & West Line Railway stock came down with a crash, and banks were
+shaky. Hope Mills were closed for a month to make some repairs, as
+business was rather slow just now.
+
+There was a great quaking in real estate as well. The large
+property-owners held on stiffly: times would improve; land was worth
+more to-day than ever, because every year there were more people, and
+they required more houses, and the thing would somehow right itself.
+
+Jack had taken his two feminines off to a great roomy farmhouse, where
+they had a horse at their command. Sylvie and Miss Barry were summering
+at the White Mountains. Dr. Maverick found a good deal of sickness among
+the poorer classes, low fevers and various troubles, that he knew well
+enough came from insufficient diet. But what was to be done? There was
+so little work, so much lost time, the inexorable rent, and the
+importunate grocer's bill. Up on Hope Terrace the luscious grapes fell
+to the ground, and were swept up as so much litter; the fresh, lovely
+vegetables passed their prime unheeded, and were tossed in the
+garbage-pit.
+
+September came in hot and sultry. Hope Mills started, but many another
+place did not open. There was a strange, deathly-quiet undercurrent,
+like the awful calm before a thunder-shower. Wages took another tumble,
+and now no one had the courage to make much of a fight.
+
+The second week in October there came an appalling crash. Yerbury Bank
+closed its doors one morning,--the old bank that had weathered many a
+gale; that was considered as safe and stanch as the rock of Gibraltar
+itself; that held in trust the savings of widows and orphans, the
+balance of smaller business-men who would be ruined: indeed, it would
+almost ruin Yerbury itself.
+
+There was the greatest consternation. People flew up the street,
+bank-book in hand; but the dumb doors seemed only to give back a
+pitiless glance to entreaties. What was it? What had happened? "Every
+penny I had in the world was in it," groaned one; and the saddening
+refrain was repeated over and over, sometimes with tears, at others with
+curses.
+
+The old officers of Yerbury Bank had been men of the highest integrity.
+Some were dead; some had been pushed aside by the new, fast men who
+laughed at past methods, as if honor, honesty, and truth were virtues
+easily outgrown. Among these were the Eastmans. George was considered
+shrewd and far-sighted, and for two years had been one of the directors,
+as well as Horace. They paid the highest rate of interest, which
+attracted small savings from all around. There had been no whisper or
+fear about it, so solid was its olden reputation. There were people who
+would as soon have doubted the Bible.
+
+Two days after this, George Eastman sailed for Europe, on a sudden
+summons,--his wife's illness. There had been a meeting called, and a
+short statement made. Owing to sudden and unexpected depreciation in
+railway-bonds and improvement-bonds, and what not, it was deemed best to
+suspend payment for the present. In a few weeks all would be straight
+again, with perhaps a trifling loss to depositors. Already the directors
+had been very magnanimous. Mr. Eastman and several others had turned
+over to the bank a large stock of mortgages: in fact, the virtue of
+these men was so lauded that the losses seemed to be quite thrown into
+the background.
+
+But the examination revealed a sickening mass of selfishness and
+cupidity; transactions that were culpably careless, others dishonorable
+to the last degree. If the larger depositors had not been warned, there
+was certainly a remarkable unanimity of thought, as, for the past
+fortnight, they had been steadily drawing out their thousands. Wild
+railroad-speculations, immense mortgages on real estate that now lay
+flat and dead: scanty available assets that would hardly pay twenty
+cents on a dollar.
+
+This was what David Lawrence heard when he returned from St. Louis, a
+heavy-hearted, dispirited man. Two recent failures had borne heavily
+upon him. If last winter had been dull, there was no adjective to apply
+to this. His first step was to mortgage Hope Terrace. He had deeded it
+to his wife, unincumbered; but now it appeared his only chance of
+salvation. Mrs. Lawrence made a feeble protest at first, and demanded
+that Fred should be sent for, but there was no time. He met his pressing
+notes, and was tided over; but, oh! what was to be the end of it all?
+
+An indignation-meeting was called; and so high ran popular feeling, that
+new directors were appointed for the bank. Mr. Lawrence would have fain
+declined, but the community insisted. In this time of general distrust,
+they came back to the loyal gentleman, who, whatever his pride might be,
+had never deceived one of them.
+
+Alas! had he not enough perplexity of his own, that this new sorrow and
+shame should stare him in the face, bow him to the earth?
+
+Not his own son, thank God! not any blood kin; and yet his daughter's
+husband, his fair Gertrude, of whom he had been so proud years ago! He
+went back suddenly to that old time, and seemed to see them all again as
+little children, a merry household; and his pale, delicate Fred, for
+whom his heart beat so anxiously. How they had welcomed his coming!--a
+son to hand down the name, a son to lean upon in his old age. Nay, those
+were the extremes of life: why should not men count on their sons
+through the burden and heat of middle life? Why wait until the evening
+for comfort?
+
+Where was he now? Did he think of the one who had toiled that he might
+spend? for, now that he looked at it with awesome calmness, like a thing
+standing apart, it was one long, dreary pilgrimage of toil. To what end?
+Was gathering together riches the noblest use of a man made in God's
+image? Ah, how poor and paltry an aim!
+
+Surely he had done something beside that! A pleasant home of culture and
+artistic beauty, a circle of refined people gathered about him, the evil
+and want and woe of the world shut carefully out by silken curtains and
+plate-glass. His daughters he had been proud of. No _mésalliance_, no
+common tastes, as he had sometimes fancied that he had detected in that
+pretty little Sylvie Barry. And his son?
+
+There had been no positive evil in his life. A young man's follies
+perhaps, but few vices, if any, thank God! He would never be a
+libertine, a drunkard, a gambler, a thief. But was negative goodness
+all? These twenty-four years spent in shaping and culturing, but to what
+end? Could he call him back from his pleasure now, and have him take up
+this struggle grown too heavy to fight single-handed? and would he be
+manful, brave, clear-sighted, and unrepining? No. He felt the change
+would be too great. The soul so used to ease and luxury, fine linen and
+soft couches, delicate appetites, indolent habits, intellectual pursuits
+and graces, to be put in rough harness of business at once, would be
+cruel, nay, worse, like chaining humming-birds to a dray-wagon. And
+Irene, flitting like a butterfly through elegant _salons_, how would she
+be content with poverty and a cottage?
+
+And was this all the work of his own hands? Had he laid up no treasure
+against the time of adversity, made no homes into which he might be
+received in his trial hour? For two years he had struggled manfully,
+earnestly; and all this time at his very gate there had been a traitor,
+turning aside the stream until there was nothing but a barren desert
+left.
+
+The crown of his life was poverty and ruin! For himself he could give up
+luxuries, and come to plain fare; but what of the others? This last news
+had swept away all hope.
+
+He sought Horace Eastman, and confronted him with his deceit and wrong:
+somehow he could not bring himself to call it by its true name, crime,
+and fasten it on the man there and then. There was a high-bred delicacy
+about David Lawrence, a little of the old knightly chivalry that in past
+times held a man back from striking a fallen foe. And then he was not
+quite sure. The dishonorable work lay between the two men, and he
+forbore to blame this one wrongly.
+
+He need not have wasted his pity on this man, or have so nicely worded
+his charges. Horace Eastman stood there, surprised to be sure, for he
+had counted upon getting away before this turn in the wheel of fortune.
+For the last year, though he had been outwardly triumphant, and had
+carried business matters with a hopefully high hand, he had known what
+the end must be, and made ready for it with a kind of exultant elation
+at the sense of difficulties surmounted and deceptions carried on
+successfully. He really despised the man before him, that he had
+sufficient faith in human nature to be deceived. Starting from the
+principle that all men are rogues when opportunity offers, he felt no
+more guilty now, than if he had followed any other well-known law of
+nature. He stood before Mr. Lawrence bland and composed: there was no
+vulnerable point to strike, so he need put on no armor. Many a time he
+had reasoned the matter out to his own satisfaction, that the failure of
+Hope Mills was inevitable. What with losses, dull times, and extravagant
+living, it would surely come. That he owed his employer any thing in
+integrity and sharp fighting with adverse circumstances, would never
+enter the mind of such a man, so inwrapped in self.
+
+"There were some irregularities for your son-in-law's benefit," with an
+insolent half smile, half sneer. "He was to explain them to you. There
+have been accommodations for the mills occasionally. You were away: what
+else could I have done?"
+
+A cold shiver ran over David Lawrence. That part of courage allied to
+hope seemed crushed out of him as if by torture. Could he drag his
+daughter's name through the mire? for it would be that in any attempt to
+bring Eastman to the point of responsibility.
+
+"Do you know how much this--this defalcation will amount to?" He would
+call the monstrous thing by its right name now, though he shuddered in
+every limb, and a cold perspiration stood in great beads about his thin
+temples. A third person witnessing his hesitation might fancy him
+faltering and shrinking in the path of dishonor, rather than the other.
+
+"I really have no idea," bracing up his broad, full shoulders with
+portentous dignity: "George managed that matter. No doubt there are some
+memoranda," pausing with an indifferent air as if it were a matter of a
+few dollars.
+
+"The bank must be made good, Mr. Eastman."
+
+"Well; as you think best, as you think best;" nodding confidently, as if
+the repayment were the easiest thing in the world. "Let me see,--would
+it not be better to write to George?"
+
+What impression could he make upon this man? To appeal to conscience,
+justice, or any latent sense of right, would be a waste of words. With
+him success was right, and failure the blunder or sin. He was to "do
+well unto himself," to gain the world's verdict of approval. That solid
+flesh made by good eating and drinking, not debauchery or
+intemperance,--the man had few of these gross vices,--that complacent
+strength, that keen, concentrating force than could bend all energies in
+the one direction, never looking back when he had once set his mind to a
+thing, experiencing no remorse for those he crushed under his feet so
+long as he went to success over them, knowing no disinterestedness,
+trading simply upon the credulity, honor, and honesty of others: he had
+chosen him for some of these very qualities. Do men gather grapes of
+thistles?
+
+"Bring the books to my office. I shall go over them to-night," was the
+haughty command.
+
+Eastman bowed and withdrew. The books were sent by the errand-boy. Then
+he threw himself into his luxurious Russia-leather chair, rested his
+feet upon the edge of the desk, settled his hands comfortably in his
+pockets, and began to consider. A man would be foolish to stay and be
+caught in the ruin of a falling house. He might not be crushed, to be
+sure; but there would be the _débris_, and he had no fancy for clearing
+that away. Not only the mills, but Yerbury, would fall flat. He did not
+care to retire to a garden, and raise strawberries and corn: the clink
+of gold was more melodious to his ear than the voices of nature. There
+was a place for talent like his: the quick sight and keen discrimination
+were still able to give the rusty old world a lift out of ruts it had
+stopped in, and send it on with a rush. He had money in some
+silver-mines: he might go West, and attend to that, then take a run over
+to England, and see George. After all, was George really to blame for
+getting hold of his wife's portion? He had married Miss Lawrence,
+believing in good faith that she was the daughter of a millionnaire;
+and, if he had been sharp enough to save something from the general
+ruin, lucky for him!
+
+On the whole, Mr. Eastman thought it would be well to go to New York for
+a few days until the storm blew over. Jeffries the book-keeper could
+attend to all that was needed. Mr. Lawrence would find Hope Mills in a
+bad plight, to be sure; but he would not be the first man who had come
+to ruin. Mr. Eastman put his desk in order,--he never kept any tell-tale
+papers,--walked leisurely out of Hope Mills with that serene, impassable
+face and high heart no misfortune could daunt.
+
+David Lawrence spread the books open before him. It would be an endless
+task. One fact kept burning into his brain like fire. The Eastmans, or
+Hope Mills, owed Yerbury Bank seventy thousand dollars, the hard
+earnings and self-denials of poor and middle-class people. How it stung
+his haughty pride, unused even to dishonorable thoughts! If he had been
+an exact master, he had also been a just and honest one. Shame and
+disgrace stared him square in the face, where they would have but looked
+askance at Horace Eastman.
+
+It had been quite impossible to take cognizance of every thing after the
+business grew so unwieldy. Then he thought of his son again with
+passionate longing. Never had he so wanted some of his own kin to lean
+upon, to take counsel with, to consider what must be done toward saving
+honor: that was no social figment with him, but a deep, heaven-abiding
+truth.
+
+Heaven! By some strange turn of thought it entered his mind. He was so
+tired, he had been so tired for months and months, so engrossed with
+cares and business, that he had hardly stepped inside a church. How they
+used to go in the old days; how proud he had been of his four pretty
+children, of his tall handsome girls, and his manly son! Respectability,
+and setting a good example,--these had been his motives for
+church-going. Bits of sermons came back to him: how strange that he
+could remember them! There was a rest from labor, a refreshing of soul.
+Oh, how dark and arid, how confused and chaotic, his felt! Was there a
+something he had never known?
+
+Then he pulled himself together mentally, roused his dreaming brain, and
+said something must be done. Fred must come back, and face the terrible
+truth. As well send for him now.
+
+He wrote out a message, and rang the bell. A tall, slim youth answered
+it.
+
+"I want this telegram sent immediately," he said in his quiet tone of
+command. "Is Farrell anywhere about?"
+
+"I can take it, sir, if you please: I often do."
+
+"Very well."
+
+Back to the books again with their long lines of figures. Did he think
+he would find the shame and ruin here in bold black and white? He
+studied them until they all ran together, and his brain seemed to become
+a mass of luminous light with black motes floating about in it. The
+tense agony abated. Strange visions haunted him, frivolous fancies, and
+wonders that had puzzled him in boyhood; heroic fragments of bygone
+declamation; the incidents of a week ago; a picture of some bold
+scenery, and he in the cars, whirling by.
+
+"Am I going crazy?" he asked with a ghastly expression. Then he took
+several turns about the room, listened to the noise of the great engine,
+and assured himself that he was sane.
+
+Had he better go home? He was so tired! In all his life he had never
+been so utterly exhausted. Then in a sudden, fretful mood of
+contradiction he wondered he should think of fatigue when his limbs felt
+strong, and his body knew no physical pain.
+
+"I must shake it off!" he declared resolutely. Of what avail would be
+going home to a wife's peevish complaints, and sit by himself to study
+out this tangle? As well stay here, and master it. And that palace
+yonder was home, and these were the comforts for which he had spent his
+years and his energies! This was what he had laid up. An inheritance
+incorruptible--why would these things come back to him?
+
+The mill-bell began its clang. He listened to the tramp through the
+passage-ways, the confusion of voices. He went to the window. The great
+gates for the work-hands were around on the other side; but he could see
+the motley procession filing down the street. Not gay and cheerful as in
+bygone days: they seemed to drag along, these girls and women in shabby
+clothes, their shawls drawn around their shoulders. Old men and
+boys--why, where had vigorous middle life disappeared? So many faces had
+a hard, discontented look, that pierced him like the sharp point of
+ingratitude. Had he not brought himself to ruin to give the people
+employment? If he had shut down the mill three years ago, he would have
+been a rich man.
+
+Well, why had he not? Was it thought for them? Had the prospect of their
+starving lain heavily on his soul?
+
+Ah, the love of money-getting, the fiend of covetousness! But what would
+these people have done? Some one had once said, "What is that to thee?
+Follow thou me." Was it in a sermon?
+
+He lighted the gas, and went on wearily with his books. Some one opened
+the door softly, and peered in. It was Farrell, the day-man. When he saw
+Mr. Lawrence he touched his cap respectfully.
+
+"Pardon me, sir: I saw a light"--
+
+"Yes, I am going to stay--all night, I think: I shall be busy. When does
+the night-man come?"
+
+"At seven, sir."
+
+"I will send a note up to Hope Terrace, Farrell. Could you take it?"
+
+The man thought of his long day's work and his waiting supper. "Yes," he
+answered rather reluctantly.
+
+"Stop in, then, when you go."
+
+Farrell went off grumbling. He would go home to supper first, that he
+would. These men had no souls. That long walk-- Some people always rode
+in chaises, were born with silver spoons in their mouths, and looked on
+the rest of the world as mere lackeys!
+
+There was some wine in the closet, and Mr. Lawrence took a glass to
+clear his brain. He rarely used it save at dinner. Then back to the
+tormenting books,--columns of business that appeared incredible now. How
+had all this money slipped away?
+
+Farrell tapped, and came in.
+
+"Jackson's here now, sir. Is the note ready?"
+
+"Yes. There is some change. Get a hack, Farrell: it is too far to walk.
+Did Mr. Eastman"--
+
+There was so long a pause that Farrell said,--
+
+"Mr. Eastman went to New York. He said he might not be back to-morrow."
+
+Mr. Lawrence nodded, as if that were sufficient. He would not peer into
+the man's business.
+
+"If you should want any thing, sir, Jackson will be at hand," said the
+man kindly; for the thin, pale face, and strange, nervous light in the
+eyes startled him.
+
+"Jackson," he began, when outside, "Mr. Lawrence is going to stay a bit,
+maybe all night. He has a great pile of books before him; but I'm afraid
+he's queer some way. His eyes look wild and strange. Keep a lookout,
+will you"--
+
+"You don't mean that he's likely to shuffle? Are things as bad as that?
+Has he got a pistol?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure. Maybe I'm wrong;" and Farrell counted over the
+money in his hand. "Anyhow, I would walk up and down this hall, and
+listen."
+
+Jackson nodded, and Farrell went his way; yet now he thought the brisk
+walk would not hurt him. Jackson heeded his bidding, but all was quiet.
+Once he went in the next room, and climbed up to a high sliding window,
+used for ventilation. Mr. Lawrence sat there poring over the books. At
+twelve it was the same. Jackson tolled off the hour of midnight. Every
+thing was safe in the great building. Then he settled himself in an
+easy-chair, and presently fell into a doze.
+
+Meanwhile Mr. Lawrence studied the books in a dazed, bewildered way.
+Here and there a balance had been struck, and it all looked fair. But
+there was a terrible wrong somewhere!
+
+The figures danced before his eyes in lurid lights and grotesque shapes,
+with grinning faces, flying, whirling, in a wild, demoniac waltz. The
+room was full. The procession he had watched to-night winding out from
+the mill, stopped and jeered, and pointed skinny fingers at him. Then
+he was at the bank, and they came in troops, wringing their hands, and
+cursing him. Strange tales that he had read mixed with them in
+inextricable confusion. Pictures of the past hurried by with panoramic
+distinctness; and hark! what was that? The grand trump of the Judgment
+Day? It tolled and tolled again, like a thunder-peal. Was any one dead?
+
+He was so tired! He put his arms down on the desk, and leaned his face
+on them. If he could sleep off this intolerable weariness!
+
+He was a boy again, wading through the limpid brook, stepping from stone
+to stone, and sometimes plashing over. Was that the dried sweetness of
+balsam,--the pungent odor of pennyroyal and water-mint,--the clean,
+resinous fragrance of the pines? Out there were lily-pads,--great
+golden-hearted chalices, with long, sinuous greenish-pink stems under
+the shady, transparent water. How cool and peaceful! The sky overhead
+was of palest blue with white flecks, and somewhere a bird was singing.
+If he could go to it; if he could stay amid all this sweet quiet, and
+forget-- What was it he wanted to forget? Not his little Fred, surely!
+How proud he should be of him in his manhood. What a help and comfort!
+
+There was a strange, sudden darkness. The head drooped a little one
+side, and the visions had come to an end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+WHEN Farrell returned to his post in the morning, Jackson reported Mr.
+Lawrence asleep in the office. No one thought of him again until about
+ten o'clock, when some protested notes came in. Jeffries knocked at the
+door, opened it softly, spoke, but received no answer; then stepped
+nearer, and peered curiously at the face. It was ghastly white, the eyes
+wide open and staring, and with a shriek Jeffries alarmed the whole
+establishment.
+
+Old Dr. Lecounte came, pronounced him dead, and then sent for Dr.
+Maverick, to whom he had taken a great liking. Between them both they
+found a faint sign of life; and he was removed to his elegant mansion on
+Hope Terrace, where his wife went into immediate and violent hysterics.
+They remained several hours, and decided it to be that terrible death in
+life, entire paralysis of brain, nerve, and muscle. He might linger some
+days; he might drop away any moment.
+
+Horace Eastman, looking over the news items the next morning, saw this
+account, and returned at once to Yerbury. Certainly fortune had favored
+him. Affairs were in wild confusion. He learned that a telegram had been
+sent to young Mr. Lawrence, and an answer received. He would be back
+next Monday. Mrs. Minor came up, and brought an experienced nurse.
+
+The mill kept open until Saturday. Then Mr. Eastman called the men
+together.
+
+He was very much puzzled to know what to do, he said. He had resigned
+his position as superintendent of the mills, nearly a month ago; but
+Mr. Lawrence had begged him to stay on until he could come to some
+decision. The affairs were in a very embarrassed condition, and now
+suspension was imperative. What Mr. Lawrence would have done, he could
+not tell; but he did not feel justified in taking the responsibility. He
+was most truly sorry--he could say it from his heart--for those whose
+cheerful faces and light steps he had watched year after year, until he
+came to have a friendly feeling for them all; and he was shocked at the
+result of all this trouble to his dear friend, to whom he was bound by a
+deeper tie than that of mere business. But there had been two years of
+unparalleled depression, and Mr. Lawrence had made a brave fight. No one
+beside himself knew all the difficulties that had beset his old friend's
+path. It was not only here in Yerbury that trade was dull: it was from
+the Atlantic to the Pacific. England, Germany, and France were suffering
+as deeply as ourselves. Production had been overdone by most of the
+employers using their best efforts to keep their hands at work in the
+face of a falling market, or no market at all. Shelves were packed with
+goods everywhere. We were on the eve of a great change, and it would be
+some time before values would become stable again. If the balance of
+trade (high-sounding, but imperfectly understood term) could once more
+turn in our favor; if we could export our surplus goods, and find new
+markets,--as no doubt we would,--every shop and factory would soon be
+ringing with the cheerful sound of labor. It would be a hard winter; but
+he, for one, believed the spring would open auspiciously, that business
+would revive, homes be prosperous, and every heavy heart light. Let them
+all take courage for their own future and that of Hope Mills in the
+hands of its young master. He regretted deeply that there was no money
+to pay them with to-night; but that would doubtless be attended to
+soon. He wanted to bid them a cordial good-by, and beg them to stand by
+young Mr. Lawrence.
+
+There was some rather faint cheering. Troubled eyes questioned
+despondent eyes; what were they to do with winter coming on? First it
+was the bank, now the mills, and what next God only could tell.
+
+Fred Lawrence reached Yerbury Monday evening; and at midnight the faint,
+fluttering soul of his father passed over that mighty river. There had
+been no return to consciousness. Mrs. Lawrence still lay in her darkened
+room, unable to bear any sound beyond that of the trained nurse.
+
+To say that Fred was shocked, would feebly express his emotion. He had
+never dreamed of his father's dying,--never dreamed of any thing like
+misfortune happening to him, of any keener suffering than some temporary
+annoyance. He felt quite helpless. His old philosophies did not inspire
+him with courage, or open a way out of this dark present. There was to
+be a funeral; there were business complications; some one had to think
+of the future; the mill was shut up, the fortune swept away, and he had
+been stranded on a strange shore, knowing not which way to turn.
+
+Eastman was still in Yerbury. He was intensely sympathetic with the
+bereaved family. In fact, now that he would never have to meet the eye
+of the man he had so deeply wronged, his spirits rose, his pity
+overflowed. Fred was quite touched by it. Hamilton Minor, with his
+rather brusque business ways, jarred against his sorrow.
+
+He was rather testy with Mr. Eastman. "For the life of me, I can't see
+how things have come to this pass," he said sharply. "Hope Mills has
+been considered as sound as a nut,--one of the surest places in the
+country. Mr. Lawrence has made thousands and thousands. I have known a
+good deal about his affairs."
+
+"It is the result of a large-hearted philanthropy,--of keeping poor
+devils at work when there was no demand for goods, so that they should
+not starve. I should have closed out the concern two years ago. When you
+begin to lose, it is time to get out,--not wait until every stiver is
+gone. But, if ever there was a noble man, it is our dead friend David
+Lawrence."
+
+His chest swelled as he pronounced this eulogy, and he laid his white
+hand sympathetically on his waistcoat.
+
+"What is all this bank muddle about?"
+
+"I really don't know. Heavy real-estate business"--
+
+"And you a director!" interrupted Minor, with an unpleasant quickness.
+
+"I have had so much on my hands that I did not pay strict attention to
+it, I must confess. You know, Minor, what a tremendous shrinkage there
+has been in values: it seems to me as if the bottom had fallen out of
+every thing. I have an interest out in Nevada that I am anxious to look
+after, and should have gone a year ago, but Lawrence begged me to hold
+over until matters brightened a little. He was so sure times would
+improve. By Jove! I think they grow worse and worse!"
+
+"And Fred knows no more than a baby!" said Minor, in a tone of contempt.
+"You'd be a help to him, Eastman, if you would stay and go over
+accounts."
+
+"I don't know about that," shaking his head slowly. "The books are all
+on the square, as you will see. If one could only make money as easily
+as one can add up that which has been made and spent!" and Eastman gave
+a little laugh.
+
+"But it cannot be a total loss. The house, I know, is settled upon Mrs.
+Lawrence. And the mill-property"--
+
+"Mortgaged for all it is worth in such times as these. Perhaps I ought
+not to speak of it, but George was in a little difficulty which the old
+gentleman tided over. Too much real estate, Minor!"
+
+Hamilton Minor had no great amount of confidence in the man before him;
+but then, he did not have in any one. He was on a little of the paper,
+and just now he felt exceedingly dubious about it. Some arrangement
+ought to be made whereby members of the family who had stood by Mr.
+Lawrence ought not to be losers.
+
+The funeral was strangely quiet and solemn; I was about to add, select.
+The mill overseers and officers were formally invited. Fred had a
+feeling about the men,--it seemed as if they ought to form a procession;
+but the walk to the cemetery was a long one, and Mrs. Minor decisively
+negatived any plan that took in the "rabble." The coffin lay in the
+spacious drawing-room, where friends and acquaintances, in the same set,
+nodded solemnly, and uttered a few words of well-bred condolence. The
+mourners were up-stairs. The few coaches were filled with men, a little
+group stood around the open grave, and David Lawrence passed out of
+mortal sight,--his life-work all done. Had the toil been worth the
+reward?
+
+The next day Eastman left for New York, and his stay there was brief. He
+knew what would be surmised after much trouble and searching, but it
+could not be positively laid at his door. And with a cheerful heart he
+set out to seek a new fortune.
+
+To the great surprise of Mr. and Mrs. Minor, they found Hope Terrace
+mortgaged. Mrs. Lawrence could talk of nothing, could not endure the
+confusion of voices in her room. Some trustees were appointed to
+investigate the whole affair, for Fred was as ignorant as a child of all
+pertaining to the mill.
+
+The examination disclosed a pitiable state of affairs. George Eastman
+had built up Yerbury on borrowed capital, lived on it in luxury,
+speculated, lost and won like any other gaming. He had persuaded each
+individual that he was on the high road to wealth. There had been a
+peculiar fascination about the man; or is it that the appeal to greed
+and covetousness is so much more convincing than that to honor and
+truth, that the baser impulses are quicker with their response? It was a
+great bubble upon credit, and carried with it the seeds of
+self-destruction. True, the bank held mortgages on rows of flimsy-built
+houses where walls were cracking apart, foundations settling, plumbing
+in such a condition that it was a hotbed of disease. They would not
+cover the indebtedness. The available cash had been drawn out by large
+depositors, the best bonds and stocks surreptitiously sold. And with all
+this there was a defalcation traceable to Hope Mills or the Eastmans.
+The money had gone in that direction. On the other hand, it was proven
+by the income of Hope Mills, and the amount paid out for labor, that
+there was no reason why they should not be solvent to-day.
+
+Lavishly as the Lawrences had spent money, they had not taken it all. No
+one could or did accuse David Lawrence of private speculation. Minor had
+once tried his best to induce him to join in some enterprises, but
+failed. It was an easy matter to blame the Eastmans for every thing:
+they were away, and could not deny the charge. But had all these
+bank-officials clean hands? They had been given a sacred trust, the
+savings of the poor, the estates of widows and orphans; they had winked
+at investments of the most precarious kind; they had paid a high rate of
+interest, exacting a higher, which had been gladly given for a brief
+while. Safe principles of finance had been quite ignored: the new era
+was different from any thing that had ever happened to the world before,
+and required new men, and now they would have to go back to the old way.
+Surely there is not much that is new under the sun!
+
+To bring back the Eastmans, and try them for their crimes, seemed hardly
+worth while. More than one man in Yerbury felt that it was safer to
+berate them at a distance, than meet their damaging retorts face to
+face. They could not get back any money. Hope Mills was ruined beyond a
+peradventure, and the affairs of the bank were best wound up as speedily
+as possible. There could be no large stealings for a receiver,
+consequently no occasion for delay. The sooner the wrecks and _débris_
+were cleared away, the quicker the moral atmosphere would be purified.
+There are wounds for which the instant cautery means life, the careful
+hesitation death.
+
+And now every one looked at the exploded bubble in surprise, and cried
+angrily, "What has become of the money? Yesterday we were rich: where
+has it gone to? Six months ago we had twenty per cent dividend: why are
+these stocks worthless now? Why have railroads and shops and mills
+ceased to pay? What sudden blight has fallen over the world?"
+
+Alas! There had been no money. Sanguine credit had traded on the honor
+and faith and nobleness of man toward man, and, behold, it had all been
+selfishness and falsehood and dishonor. Truth and virtue had been
+scorned and flouted in the highway, because forsooth there was a more
+brilliant semblance. Like a garment had men wrapped themselves in it,
+and now it was but rags and tatters.
+
+There could be nothing extracted from the wreck of Hope Mills. Indeed,
+Fred would have given up a rich inheritance to save his father's honor,
+had it been his. To go on at Hope Terrace was madness. The fires and the
+servants would cost enough to maintain a family. Mrs. Minor and Fred
+quarrelled because Mrs. Lawrence had been persuaded to mortgage the
+place: she simply groaned and moaned, and wondered why they must worry
+her about every thing!
+
+"I hope Irene will have the good sense to marry abroad," said Mrs.
+Minor. "And, Fred, what a pity you haven't a profession! What can you
+do?"
+
+Last winter it had been, "my brother, De Woolfe," whom all the young
+ladies in Mrs. Minor's set were wild over.
+
+Fred gave a sigh.
+
+"I suppose I _can_ do something to earn my bread," he replied bitterly.
+
+"Fred," began Agatha suddenly, "there is that Miss Tillon. You know how
+absolutely wild she was over you last winter! Her fortune is all in her
+own right, and it is a solid one too. Hamilton has had occasion to know
+about it. You cannot do a better thing than marry her."
+
+Fred glanced up. His sister was in sober earnest. To be bargained off
+like a woman, for a bare existence! Miss Tillon was at least thirty, of
+a suspicious, jealous turn of mind, well-enough looking perhaps, but
+narrow, with no intellectual culture, no approval of any thing beside
+her money. He had been amused at her preference. Possibly she might
+marry him, and rescue him from the pains of poverty. And he?
+
+He might be vain and trifling, but he was not sunk so low in cowardice.
+His face flushed a vivid scarlet.
+
+"I am not quite prepared to become chargeable to a woman yet," he said
+in a cold, calm voice.
+
+"What nonsense! Some man will marry her, and get the money," Agatha
+retorted decisively.
+
+"Not much of hers;" in a dry, contemptuous tone.
+
+"You know what I mean. She will live in style, and travel; and her
+husband"--
+
+"Will be the laughing-stock of his friends," interrupted Fred angrily.
+"No, Agatha, I will be dependent upon no one for my bread: if I cannot
+earn it I will starve."
+
+"Oh, very well!" with a scornful smile. "I only hope Rene will be wiser.
+They are in Paris--I heard from Gertrude last week. She was very much
+shocked, of course. I hope George has not been foolish enough to let
+every thing slip through his fingers. Who could have believed that
+Horace Eastman would turn out such a swindler! Papa trusted him
+altogether too far. It does not answer to be too noble and disinterested
+in this world."
+
+Fred made no reply to this charming bit of worldly wisdom. His delicate
+and high opinion of self had received a crushing blow. Married off, out
+of hand, to save him from poverty!
+
+Why should his thoughts turn to Sylvie at that moment? Something stirred
+within him, an insane desire to win her--oh, mad enough, surely! He
+could, he _would_, do something! There was all his education and talent;
+yes, he really had talent. He would make himself famous. She should see
+that he had the right kind of stuff in him. He would climb up the hard
+hill in his lonely, sorrowful, proud way, until she, looking on, would
+come to repent her unjust verdict!
+
+He shut himself up in his study, and made some very fair translations
+from his beloved poets. There were better ones, doubtless; and, after
+all, fame might not lie in that direction. There was physical science,
+much in vogue, and entertaining: no doubt he could do something in that
+line. There were theories and speculations, there were old
+philosophies--surely the ground was rich everywhere.
+
+It was very poor at Yerbury, though there were theories enough. But,
+when you took them for temporal meat and drink, they were not a
+fattening diet. Men lounged in the streets and on the corners, or, worst
+of all, in saloons, talking themselves angry and hoarse over the bad
+luck, and blaming every one right and left. Women sat at home, and cried
+over losses and crosses, cooked their scanty dinners, and retired to bed
+early to save fuel. The poorer ones went out to a day's washing, glad to
+get that. Boys played cards, read dime-novels, and dreamed of wonderful
+fortunes at the West: some few stout-hearted chaps set out to seek
+them.
+
+There were panaceas. Mr. Rantley preached the rankest communism and
+broadest free-thinking. Capital, i.e., money, was the tyrant of the
+world, and always would be until the laborers of the world rose up and
+claimed their rights. Why should this man starve when the man over
+yonder had his store-house full of flour that he was holding for higher
+prices? What right had he, except the might? So long as men were allowed
+to hoard up these monstrous fortunes, they could control the market, and
+would! What were the starving thousands to them? What if half the
+provision in the country rotted on the owner's hands? he could get as
+much or more money for the other half. What if the miners were at work
+only a small portion of time? could not the amount of coal be managed
+more easily, and prices kept up? Capital desired to keep production at
+the lowest ebb, because it could be more conveniently mastered. The only
+remedy was to give every man a chance, to break up these colossal
+fortunes, to have no great mills and mines; to have smaller capitalists,
+fewer hours of labor, to divide the immense hoards among the poor and
+needy until there should be no more want or suffering!
+
+The Rev. Mr. Bristow shook his head at this modern anti-Christ. Every
+thing was anti-Christ, with Mr. Bristow, that went outside of his own
+narrow creed. He preached some stirring sermons. It was God's judgment
+upon them for their sins. They had forgotten him, they had been led away
+by false gods; they had made golden calves, and worshipped them; their
+sons had strayed into infidelity; their daughters had flaunted in gay
+attire, with plaiting of the hair, and dancing away their immortal
+souls; and now they must return to their God, to the meat that perisheth
+not, to the bread of life, and to the well of living water. There must
+be such a returning to God, such a revival of religion, that the world
+would be swept clear and clean out of its old sins!
+
+"Splendid sermon! splendid sermon!" said Deacon Boyd, rubbing his hands
+together unctuously. "Parson's hit the nail just on the head. We've all
+strayed out of the way. I think a good old-fashioned revival'll set us
+straight sooner'n any thing. Nothing like coming to the Lord on the
+spot! This very week we ought to begin."
+
+"I think you're right, Deacon Boyd," said grave Mr. Rising. "I, for one,
+will take hold of the work."
+
+They called the church together, and began. I will not disparage the
+work. There were hungry souls that seemed fed with spiritual food,
+aching hearts that were bound up, reckless minds that paused on the
+verge of desperation. But there were others who wondered, even in the
+midst of the deacon's prayer, how it was that the Lord warned him to
+draw his twenty thousand dollars out of Yerbury Bank a week before the
+failure, when there were only he and his wife to keep, and let poor Mrs.
+Wharton with her five helpless children lose her husband's
+life-insurance, her little all, by putting it in the bank just a
+fortnight before the failure. Special providences, whereof Deacon Boyd
+discoursed so eloquently, happened oftener to the rich than to the poor.
+
+However, they prayed and fasted and repented. To many, any strong
+emotion that took them out of the wearing round of thought was a
+blessing.
+
+Jack Darcy, with a curious disbelief in every thing, went the rounds,
+and dropped into Maverick's office to talk it over. Sylvie was not home
+this winter: she and her aunt spent it in Philadelphia. Then Jack grew
+dull and restless. If the end of all things had come in Yerbury, he
+ought to try some other place in the great world.
+
+It was settled presently quite by accident. A cousin of Mrs. Darcy's,
+one of your strong, thorough, energetic women, came to spend the winter
+with them; and Jack's mother, watching the throes of her son's soul, a
+little afraid of socialism, materialism, and all the other isms,
+proposed that Jack should take a journey West or South, and have a
+glimpse of the men and things beyond this narrow boundary.
+
+"Grandmother grows feebler all the time now; and, being past ninety, we
+can't expect to keep her much longer. Of course, Jack, when she is gone,
+I shall have no tie but you; and, if it suited you to settle elsewhere,
+I should not object. You are young and ambitious, and I ought to think
+of your advancement. There never has been a time since your poor
+father's death that you could be so well spared;" yet the mother sighed.
+"And you have been a good son, Jack: you have given up many a wish
+cheerfully to two poor old women."
+
+"Don't call yourself an old woman," said Jack almost gruffly, then he
+stooped to kiss her.
+
+His heart gave a great boyish bound.
+
+"Good-by, old Yerbury!" he cried exultantly one morning, quite sure of a
+new, glad life elsewhere.
+
+"Though I shall be sorry to leave Sylvie and Maverick," he thought.
+"These old towns do grind the very soul out of a fellow who has any
+desire or energy in him. The world isn't all alike, I know," giving his
+chestnut mane a toss like a young, mettlesome colt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+IF Jack Darcy had taken his tour for pure pleasure and enjoyment, the
+time was ill chosen in every respect. Winter was bad enough; but an
+unprosperous one, full of financial clouds and storms, and scurrying
+drifts of distrust, was not calculated to make the way brilliant.
+
+But he had one glorious enjoyment to begin with. He went straight to
+Niagara, and took his first glimpse of it in its awesome majesty of
+frost and ice. From that high exaltation we call worship, through every
+intermediate degree and sense of beauty, to that of a delicate and
+minute fairy dream. The winter sun radiating glowing tints, with skies
+of sapphire and opal, the great stretches of wordless wonder, bound hand
+and foot like some old Norse god amid his ice-fields; the one night when
+a full moon silvered it with prismatic grandeur, and made of the
+glittering ice-crystals entrances to diamond-mines of fabled genii,
+touching him weirdly with this unearthly splendor; and the next solemn
+day, when the very sky seemed chilled to unfallen snow, and the
+ice-caverns turned a dull blue, reminding him of descriptions of polar
+scenery, and filling his soul with a sense of boundless solitude.
+
+Then he began his tour of the cities. He had taken some books along,
+whether to perplex or make clear his brains, he hardly knew. He pored
+over pages of Adam Smith, he turned to Ruskin for comfort, he picked up
+Brassey's figures and experience, and Stuart Mill's strong, kindly
+reasoning, and digested them in his own slow, practical, much-befogged
+way, trying to solve the problems.
+
+It was a great and wonderful world. Little Yerbury had hardly any true
+idea what a mite she was, when one looked at the immense labor-fields of
+the West and apparently endless resources. Yet there was the same
+depression out here. Shops and mills closed, for sale, and to let; some
+running on three-quarter time, with half the number of workmen, others
+going on at ruinous competition; anxious, moody-eyed men walking the
+streets, or grouped on corners, their coats and hats shabby, their
+beards untrimmed, old boots and shoes with the heels tramped over at one
+side, or a bit of stocking showing through the leather. "No man hath
+hired us," said their despondent faces plainer than any words. Young men
+and boys offering to do any kind of work for any kind of pay, sleeping
+in station-houses; relief-stores, church charities and soup-houses,
+homes for the friendless, and all such places, filled to overflowing,
+and new hordes crowding in every day.
+
+Yet there seemed to be no lack of money. It lay in banks, it went
+begging for good security. Where was there any good security? Every inch
+of ground, every building, stocks and furniture, were covered by
+mortgages. Stock companies trembled in the balance, and went down like
+card-houses. Everybody wanted to sell every thing, but there were no
+buyers. Everybody wanted to work, but there was nothing to do. Everybody
+was in a chronic state of grumbling; there was no profit to be made in
+farming, in manufacturing, in any thing. There had been too much
+over-production, for which every one blamed his neighbor. The great
+warehouses were full of grain, the mills loaded up with iron, the
+factories full of cloth and flannels and cottons; and yet people were
+going hungry and in rags. It was puzzling and painful. We had bought too
+much abroad, and sent the money out of the country, the balance of trade
+would make it all right again; there had been over-production, and now
+there must be a vigorous repression; there had been too much
+speculation in real estate; there had been too great an accumulation of
+capital in the business centres; we were fast verging to the state of
+older countries, where there were the few rich and the many poor: there
+was a surplus of labor, and was there not also a surplus of people?
+
+There was another sad side to it all, that made Jack's heart ache. These
+young men and boys tramping through the country, begging or worse,
+swearing, telling foul stories, herding together anywhere, corrupting
+one another's morals, smoking, drinking,--somehow they managed to obtain
+these indulgences,--looking furtively out of languid, sodden eyes, their
+faces hard and worn, their voices coarse and gruff; and they were to be
+the next generation of what?--loyal and honest citizens, or jail-birds?
+
+It was not all so sombre. At five and twenty a healthy, unwarped nature
+is many-sided. There were countless marvels to see and to study. He
+stumbled over people who had known Mr. Lawrence, and who had a kindly
+feeling for a Hope Mills man. And he had done something more in the last
+eight years than merely learn how to make cloth. He had dipped into
+chemistry, and knew a little about dyes; he had studied up in grades and
+kinds of wool, and was interested in labor processes. With fresh
+opportunities he looked into it more closely, observed new methods of
+decreasing waste, or saving labor. He was a well-informed,
+well-mannered, sensible fellow; and occasionally some one would say of
+him, "A smart, long-headed chap, that! The world will hear of him some
+day, or I am mistaken."
+
+He kept looking about for some place where, if the world did not hear of
+him, he might get a chance in some enterprise where he could take a few
+steps upward. There certainly were more men than places. The world was a
+bee-hive, surely; but alas for those who swarmed out in such times as
+these!
+
+After he had gone as far West as Minnesota, he went down the
+Mississippi to a different kind of civilization in the quaint old
+cities. It was none the less heart-sickening. He found traces of the
+war, that we had almost forgotten, fresh at every step; still it seemed
+as if the hand of Nature was much more bounteous than at the bleak
+North. Yet Bishop Heber's old missionary hymn rang continually through
+his mind. Even amid the Florida orange-groves, and the great
+cotton-fields, some cause brought about baleful results, in the unwisdom
+of man.
+
+Then to the cities of luxury and thrift, where wealth was strong enough
+to crowd poverty out one side, where art and music and cultivation made
+a subtile atmosphere that somehow recalled the Lawrences. He lingered
+and quaffed delightsome draughts, and at last tore himself away from
+seductive sights and sounds. In a dim, half-defined way the delights
+came to him. Would he ever be stoic enough to spurn them?
+
+Last of all, home with its sweet welcomes, its cleanliness and order,
+its familiar furniture and cheerful fires, its easy-chairs and quaint
+fragrant air, as if every thing had lain in dried rose-leaves; the
+mother love and tears, the smiles out of dimmer eyes, and cousin Jane
+Morgan's hearty greeting; to say nothing of his delicious supper and his
+own bed, where sleep seemed awaiting him with open arms.
+
+His mother had written a good deal of Yerbury gossip to him, but it had
+been mostly of the pleasant order. When he dropped into Maverick's
+office the next day, and was welcomed so heartily that it was like a
+brother's greeting, he listened to the other side. Affairs were worse
+than ever. The bank had gone into liquidation, and would pay about forty
+per cent. Property mortgages had been foreclosed right and left; there
+was nothing, scarcely, doing; there had been want and misery and
+sickness, and now diphtheria was raging.
+
+"So you see the revival didn't do every thing," said Maverick grimly.
+"I'm of the opinion, if some of them had preached less, and distributed
+bread and broth with a freer hand, it would have been more of a good
+work. The praying would be well enough in its place, and, for those old
+fellows who pray on a full stomach, very enjoyable, I dare say. But I'd
+like them to look after their drains and their wells and their cisterns
+before they ask the Almighty to sanctify these afflictions to the poor
+wretches who suffer from them. And now, Jack Darcy, what are you going
+to do? Have you found better pastures?" and Maverick glanced up with
+curious inquiry.
+
+"No," replied Jack, rather reluctantly it must be confessed. It seemed
+to him now that he had been spending his time for nought, unless
+pleasure counted, and he felt a trifle ashamed of it.
+
+Maverick gave an odd little laugh that puzzled the other.
+
+"See here, Maverick," began Jack in such earnest that he blushed like a
+great boy, "I haven't found any new place for myself. The world seems
+just full and running over. The great cities have their own men out of
+employment, and hordes from every other place. I'd be almost ashamed to
+ask for a job. I declare, I'd rather raise as much of my living as I
+could in our back garden, or take Perley's farm, and put it together,
+and set men raising strawberries, than tramp round, asking for work,
+with a feeling that it was taken from some one who had a better right,
+who was a native of the soil."
+
+"Then you have not lost your conscience?"
+
+"I hope not. It is the same old story everywhere. What is to be done
+about it?" and Jack knit his brows. "I have been going over the books
+that I thought would help or let in a little light on the matter, but it
+is a wisdom hard to get at. How to make more work in the world, how to
+cheapen living, how to"--
+
+"Bring about the millennium! What dead earnest you are in, Darcy!"
+
+"Weren't you in earnest a moment ago, Maverick, when you talked about
+the praying and the bread and broth?" said Jack with a great knot drawn
+in his brow.
+
+"Yes, Heaven knows. And some one must take hold of the thing who has
+eyes to see, and brains, and--and money. You see, people have crowded
+into cities and towns, and if they could be sent out somewhere! Why
+don't we organize colonies or something of the sort? Now, there's
+Florida. Living is cheap, and in such a climate there are fewer needs of
+clothing and fuel. I have been wondering why the big dons in cities did
+not gather up the poor they have been feeding at soup-houses and
+everywhere, and send them out with some one to manage until they could
+stand alone. There would be less diphtherias and fevers and starvation;
+for that's its right name, Darcy. What can you do when one's system is
+all run out with meal-mush, and weak tea that is half willow-leaves, and
+such trash? There's Kilburn--he has had the name of being good to the
+poor this winter because he has given them trust at his store. Such
+stuff! I have looked into a few samples," and the expressive nostrils
+curled in disgust. "He makes an enormous profit, for he sells the
+poorest kind of goods to these people at the highest prices. Then he
+manages to get hold of something, house or furniture, or maybe
+clothes,--I don't know. He and Deacon Boyd--Darcy, how can a man honor
+religion when these two men are its exponents? So good to the poor! Pah!
+It makes me sick. Isn't there a cleaner air somewhere on God's earth?
+Can't they be taken out of this?"
+
+"If they could be! There must be one way out, Maverick: better, perhaps,
+than going West where thousands are tramping about. And Heaven knows
+they need a new factor in civilization down there!"
+
+The young eyes met in sudden hopeful animation. Had they solved even one
+strand of the great tangle, that worse than Gordian knot which could not
+be cut?
+
+The door opened slowly; and there entered a middle-aged, rather grizzled
+man, with shaggy eyebrows, sparse beard, and bent shoulders. He glanced
+in hesitatingly, his eyes wandering down to Darcy.
+
+"I declare to man!" and he stared hard, with the door-knob still in his
+hand. "Jack Darcy! I heard you were home. How d'y do? How d'y do?" and
+he wrung the hand warmly. "I'm powerful glad to see you," and he looked
+him slowly over, from head to foot. "Why, you've grown, or something!
+What a great giant you are!--Morning, doctor," nodding rather
+incidentally to Maverick. "So you've had a long tramp, Jack? Your mother
+brought some of the letters over to my old lady, who has been rather
+poorly the last two months. Why, you could set up book-writing! Well,
+what's the good word? Can't be like Yerbury all over."
+
+"There are too many towns full of idle people, if that is what you mean.
+But it was splendid, Cameron! I have one more dream,--to go up and down
+the Western coast, and over the Rocky Mountains; but I want to digest
+this first. I have no fancy for mental dyspepsia," and he gave a good,
+wholesome laugh.
+
+"The right way, Jack," nodded Maverick, with a shrewd twinkle in his
+eye.
+
+"Well, you've come back to a dull place,--a dull place," and Cameron
+shook his head despondingly. "We used to be main proud of old Yerbury;
+but--is the whole world to go on and starve to death, with such crops,
+and such an abundance of every thing?"
+
+"We are going to weather it through, Cameron," Jack answered with a
+stubborn hopefulness. "There have been hard times before that have ended
+in renewed prosperity."
+
+"Yes. There was '57; hard enough, Heaven knows, with the banks going to
+smash everywhere. It ruined my father. And way back in '37, when there
+was such a wild-fire about real estate, and it came out just as this
+has. Do people ever learn by experience, Maverick?" and the man gave a
+short, unmirthful chuckle. "You could buy up half Yerbury to-day, for
+taxes and mortgages. I can't, for the life of me, see how it all came
+about. And that it has gone all over the world,--well, human nature in
+England or Germany can't well laugh at human nature in this
+country.--Are these things like cholera and fevers, doctor, taking a
+clean sweep once in a while?" and Cameron gave a twist to the end of his
+faded beard, as if he might wring the secret out of it.
+
+"We have learned to manage the cholera, and see in it, not a
+dispensation of Providence, but the natural result of filth and greed
+and carelessness. Darcy and I are getting up a panacea now," with a
+bright little laugh. "But how is Mrs. Cameron? Is her medicine out?"
+
+"Yes;" and Cameron drew a phial from his pocket. "You don't think it
+would do to stop here? She's pretty well, I should say;" and he fingered
+the bottle as if he were debating whether to have it filled or not.
+
+"No. She must go on. She is getting her strength back nicely; but it's
+bad policy to stop at three-quarters of the race,--eh, Cameron? The
+first warm day I'll take her out driving."
+
+While he was talking, he reached out for the bottle, and began
+compounding. Cameron nodded an acknowledgment of the last sentence, then
+turning to Jack, said abruptly,--
+
+"What was the scheme, Darcy?"
+
+Jack flushed, and glanced at Maverick.
+
+"Emigration, the old remedy," answered the doctor. "England has tried
+her hand at it pretty successfully; so why shouldn't we? Only we need
+not go out of our own country. There are thousands of acres of
+productive land lying idle, and thousands of people starving, or worse.
+Too many here,--not enough there."
+
+"Where to?" Cameron asked laconically, his face unmoved by any ripple of
+enthusiasm.
+
+Jack seemed to be put on his mettle by it. Lack of faith in him always
+roused his belligerent qualities, back in the old school days.
+
+"Yes, Cameron," in an incisive tone, looking steadily out of his
+determined eyes. "The cities are crowded over and over, and full of
+tramps, and the West swarms with them. We need not imagine we have all
+the idle people here at the East. But farming there has come to be a
+business of great things, almost as bad as manufacturing. You must have
+money, or the big fellows will swallow you up. But we were talking of
+Florida. No winter, as one may say; and your house a simple matter, your
+fuel, your clothes, a mere nothing. You could hardly starve if you
+tried."
+
+Cameron came back to his chair, pushed it out from the wall, planted
+himself deliberately in it, and tilted back, pushing up his old felt
+hat, as if he did not mean to have his vision obstructed. Then he gave
+his beard another twist.
+
+"Can you tell me why this is, Jack Darcy? Here are countries with fine
+and lovely climates, where every thing grows to your hand; yet they
+always seem to lie idle: Italy and Spain and Turkey and South America,
+and our own Gardens of Eden," with a bit of sarcastic smile. "The very
+ease of living seems to take the ambition out of one. Well, why
+shouldn't it? Even the bees, you know, were demoralized when they found
+they did not have to lay up for winter. Wouldn't those people come to be
+worse tramps and idlers? I'm sure the poor white trash of the South has
+helped itself very little."
+
+"We were talking of concerted effort," interposed
+Maverick,--"purchasing a large tract of land, forming a community,
+taking different kinds of workmen, and making a success of it. Why
+should we not have flourishing towns in Florida, as well as in Kansas?"
+
+"To be sure, to be sure!" nodding his head and tugging at his beard in a
+manner that showed he was not a whit convinced. "Then you give up," he
+said, "that any thing can be done at home?"
+
+"Any thing done at home?" Jack lifted his level brows, and stared a
+little.
+
+"Yes. The going away may all be very well. I tried it in '57; went out
+to Indiana with a little money, and tried farming that I didn't know any
+thing about, had the ague six months, and then came back poorer
+certainly. Now, the thing is just here with a good many of us,--we have
+our little homes, and in such times as these, in any hard times, we
+couldn't sell for any thing worth while. Then there's many a thing, to a
+man or a woman past middle life, that can't be reckoned in dollars and
+cents: the home you've made for yourself, the old friends, the church,
+even the familiar street you've walked over so often that every
+flagstone comes to have a near look."
+
+"But those who have no homes, no strong interests"--
+
+"If I was going to found a colony, I should want a little better stock,"
+with a short, dry laugh.
+
+"May be you have a plan?" suggested Maverick good-naturedly.
+
+"Well, I've thought it over a good deal this winter, sitting in the
+house with the old lady;" and there came a peculiar far-off look in
+Cameron's eye as he studied a figure in the carpet. "If God worked
+miracles nowadays, and was to make a dozen or so honest men with a good,
+stout share of brains, there might be a little lifting-up of the dull
+skies. Take this town, leaving out politics and all that sort. Five
+years ago we were prosperous, and there wasn't a prettier town anywhere
+about. Good wages were paid, people were thrifty; and I will say it for
+David Lawrence, if he was one of your high kind, he was a gentleman.
+I've worked for him fifteen years steady. Then the Eastmans came in, and
+there was nothing but hurry and drive, grumbling about high wages,
+buying cheap wools, and if cloth was poor, blaming the men. Then wages
+went down and down, and, when the men stood out, the scum of all the
+places around was brought in. Yerbury improved, and beer-saloons
+multiplied. Houses were thrown together and sold; and now they're all
+falling apart, and standing empty, and half a dozen families are
+crowding into one miserable tenement. Who made the money? Was it high
+wages that ruined Hope Mills, and wrecked Yerbury Bank?"
+
+"You have hit the truth somewhere, Cameron."
+
+"Those men were thieves and swindlers; and I suppose to-day they're
+living on the fat of the land, milk and honey thrown in. See here, I'm
+not an educated man, but I have a little common sense. Suppose we'd been
+let to go our ways quiet like,--the farmers holding on to their farms,
+and making two blades of grass grow where one grew before. Wasn't that
+some old philosopher's advice? Suppose David Lawrence hadn't built that
+great palace out on Hope Terrace (he was a plainish man himself), and
+there had been five or six beside him making a moderate share of money.
+He's lost all his great fortune, there's seventy thousand or so gone
+somewhere, the bank has smashed with thousands more of everybody's
+money, with nothing much to show but trumpery mortgages; there's no work
+and no money, and a howl goes up that there has been over-production.
+Not over-production of honesty, I take it."
+
+Maverick looked at the little earnest man, and laughed a hearty,
+cheering sort of laugh that was like pouring oil into a wound. Jack
+stared with wide-open eyes.
+
+"I've been to hear Rantley two or three times,--he's going about
+lecturing, you know,--but I don't see as he has any very good plan for
+getting work on its legs again. Then I've listened to the parson this
+winter, to please the old lady; and he is sure all this is a judgment
+for our sins. Seems to me, judgment went a little askew: why doesn't it
+touch Eastman and such fellows?"
+
+"Has nothing been done?" asked Jack. "I have heard no business gossip
+for the last three months. Can't it be proved that he was a defaulter?"
+
+"Perhaps it could. The old lady was reading the other morning about the
+scapegoat being sent into the wilderness with everybody's sins on his
+head; and I guess they'd rather have _him_ off somewhere, and pack the
+trouble on him. He might tell too much if he was here. They couldn't get
+the money back, even if he has it; but no one ever will believe that
+David Lawrence profited by it. That money belongs to the people of
+Yerbury, who have earned it, and saved it; and I say thieving and
+roguery have more to do with hard times than 'surplus of labor.' The big
+men have taken the money that belonged to the little ones."
+
+"None of the Lawrence estate has been settled, I suppose?" asked Jack.
+
+"Every thing is for sale. The mortgage on the big house is to be
+foreclosed, also on the mill I believe. I declare to you, Darcy, it
+makes my heart ache to see those dumb spindles, and the great silent
+engine standing like a mourner at a funeral. Come now, why should Hope
+Mills go to ruin, and Yerbury fall to pieces, while you and Maverick go
+and build up Florida? Wouldn't the money and the energy do something
+here?"
+
+Cameron's eyes looked out of their overhanging thatch with a puzzled,
+thoughtful expression, as if there must be a solution to the mystery.
+
+Jack was startled. Building up Florida looked feasible, but building up
+Yerbury--
+
+"Then you will not go with us?" said Maverick with a half-laugh.
+
+"I've my little home clear of debt, and a trifle at interest; and over
+in Yerbury churchyard there are two graves dear to me and my old lady.
+It would break her heart to leave them. And sometimes, Maverick, I thank
+God, that I've no sons to grow up tramps or worse. No, I'll stay here,
+and fight through somehow."
+
+They were silent for several minutes, each one tugging at the knotty
+problem. Then Cameron rose, reached out for the phial of medicine, drove
+his slouch-hat down over his forehead, and walked toward the door.
+
+"Drop in and see us, Jack, after you have thought it over a bit.
+Mother's always had a warm corner in her heart for you.--Morning,
+doctor;" and, nodding, he closed the door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+JACK and Maverick glanced at each other, a long, searching, questioning
+glance.
+
+"Given twenty or forty moderate fortunes, instead of the one great one,"
+said Jack slowly.
+
+"And you have a greater amount of general prosperity and happiness."
+
+"Co-operation," continued Jack.
+
+"And now, if you don't mind, you may take a walk with me," said
+Maverick. "Office-hours are over, and I have some rather serious cases
+on hand. Jerry's gone lame, stuck a nail in his foot, so I console
+myself with pedestrian theories."
+
+"All right. I may need a pilot."
+
+It was a mid-April day; but spring was late, and every thing looked
+bleak to Jack after his Southern sojourn. Certainly it was quite
+different from the trim little town of Jack's boyhood. The blight of
+poverty and thriftlessness had fallen upon it. There were piles of
+refuse in the streets, still half frozen; there were muddy stoops and
+shabby hall-doors, and broken area-palings, and now and then a window
+patched up with paper or rags. For though there may be much high
+theorizing and preaching on the two or three exceptional men who have
+lifted themselves out of dens of poverty, and come through great
+tribulation, there are thousands who work out nothing but blind
+destruction and utter shipwreck, and who in frantic efforts for
+salvation drag down those nearest and dearest, as a drowning man may
+clutch at his own brother.
+
+"Not very inviting," apologized Maverick; "but I have two calls to make
+here in Boyd's Row,--old rookeries that ought to have been pulled down
+long ago, but I suppose they still bring in Boyd considerable. I have
+made a complaint about the drains: they are enough to breed a
+pestilence. Tom Byrne has three children down with scarlet-fever. Two of
+them will be carried out presently, but I hope to save the little girl.
+No--I won't take you in."
+
+"Tom Byrne--he was a mill-hand. And I know his wife well. Yes,
+Maverick." And Jack followed him.
+
+It was a two-story cottage with three rooms on a floor, and two families
+occupying it. The Byrnes were up-stairs.
+
+The two beds were in the front room, for the middle one was dark. There
+was a well-worn carpet on the floor, and the furniture very poor. Jenny
+Byrne had sold her best to pay the quarter's rent in the last place
+which they had left the first of January, the landlord preferring it
+should stand empty. Her little savings had been swept away by the bank
+disaster: there was no work, and three children to feed, except that
+Deacon Boyd found Tom sufficient employment to pay his rent.
+
+On one bed close by the window lay the little girl, heavy-eyed and
+crimson. The elder boy had come to the stupor that precedes death, the
+other was restless with a half delirium. Jenny Byrne's round rosy cheeks
+had vanished, and her eyes had a distraught look, the lurking fear of
+coming woe. She stared at Jack a moment, then stretched out her hand,
+but as quickly withdrew it.
+
+"Did you tell him, doctor? O Mr. Darcy!"
+
+"Yes. He _would_ come."
+
+She wiped away some tears with the corner of her faded apron, then
+answered a question of Jack's. What could he say to the poor thing?
+Surely she had done her duty with truest endeavor; and Tom Byrne was a
+very fair average man, liking his daily glass of beer, but rarely going
+farther.
+
+"Can you fix a bed in the other room, and put Kitty in it?" the doctor
+asked. "She is better, but I would rather have her out of here."
+
+"And Jamie is better too?" she questioned, with tremulous eagerness.
+"His fever is nearly gone, and he's having such a nice sleep"--
+
+"Sleep is the best thing for him," returned the doctor briefly. "About
+Kitty"--
+
+The mother's wan face flushed. She came close to Dr. Maverick, her eyes
+downcast.
+
+"The coal gave out this morning, and I've no fire there," she said just
+above a whisper. "The relief-store is closed"--
+
+"Yes, yes; I'll see to it;" with a nod. "I will be in again"--looking at
+the sleeping child--"say about four." Then he changed the medicine for
+Kitty, and gave one or two orders.
+
+Jack thrust a bank-note in Jenny's hand, with his good-by. "Tom will be
+so glad to see you, Mr. Darcy," she said, with an effort at calmness.
+
+"Can nothing be done for them?" asked Jack, as they regained the street.
+
+"No. Jamie had gone too far when I was called in. Larger rooms, fresher
+air, nourishing food: that's the secret of a physician's success in many
+cases. Poor little ones! He will not go through the night. Now, Jack,
+you are not to come in here, positively. Stand in this breeze, and blow
+the scarlet-fever out of your clothes."
+
+He did as he was bid, and, getting tired, tramped up and down. How much
+of man's selfishness and dishonesty there was in this! If the time could
+ever come when the mists and fogs of complacency would be swept off,
+and we could see that it was the innocent suffering for the guilty, not
+that these poor souls were sinners above all men, as the self-righteous
+Pharisee preaches!
+
+Maverick rejoined him with a grave face, then the two went down Main
+Street. Houses to let, stores and shops closed, and those open but
+half-stocked, and wearing a listless air. If three hard years so told on
+the place, and there was no prospect of better things, what would it be
+in five or ten? Was it some such misfortune that had overtaken those
+grand and luxurious cities of Oriental lands?
+
+"Where are the Lawrences?" Jack asked presently.
+
+"Well, I really do not know. I think I did hear that Mrs. Lawrence had
+gone to New York. The young man"--
+
+Jack held his breath, and there was a strange flutter at his heart.
+After all these years he saw again the pale, handsome child who had
+given him a boy's ardent love.
+
+"I have a fancy that he will not amount to much. Queer idea that of
+Cameron's, wasn't it, Darcy? Who was it that first preached or wrote of
+the 'duty nearest one'? Of course things cannot stay this way forever,
+they must mend; and maybe if some one took hold to help mend
+them--Cameron's idea is not a bad one. Maybe the same amount of money
+and energy expended here would be productive of good results: still I
+hold on to Florida for my poor and wretched suffering ones. But it is
+worth thinking of. Here, let us turn round by Hope Mills."
+
+Jack was silent. "Hope Mills!" It rang through his brain like a chime of
+bells. Of course he knew that Mr. Hope had given them his name; but had
+he builded better than he knew? Was it indicative of something greater
+than the power of one man,--of many men? of strong, earnest endeavor;
+of truth, honor, and honesty; of thrift, and happy, jocund industry,
+once more?
+
+But now it was very silent. The great yard had an untidy look, with some
+piles of weather-beaten lumber, and old _débris_. The windows were
+covered with dust; the broad stone steps showed where the winter snows
+had fallen and melted, leaving streaks of dirt, and more had blown in
+the corners. No cheerful creak of the great engine; no vapory puffs of
+smoke circling skyward from the chimney; no whir of looms. It saddened
+one inexpressibly.
+
+"It is a big subject," said Jack slowly. "I've been puzzling my brains
+half the winter with what wiser heads than mine have said about capital
+and labor,--Mill and Brassey and Howell, and our own men, with soft,
+sweet bits of Ruskin, and savage bits of Carlyle. I don't know but
+Carlyle was right when he said, 'The beginning and the end of what is
+the matter with us, in these days, is, that we have forgotten God.'
+Cameron said it another way,--honor and honesty. Because, certainly,
+honor appeals to all that is noblest in human nature,--to chivalry, and
+tenderness and thought for others; and nothing ever prospered, in the
+long-run, that did not have a substratum of truth."
+
+"Well, according to Bristow, we came back to him this winter--not I,
+Darcy, I don't make any pretence,"--and he shook his head with slow
+gravity. "But I was interested in the revival on psychological grounds.
+I had never been so inside of one before. Bristow is a good man, no
+doubt; but it is just the one chosen way with him,--strong crying and
+praying, and believing yourself a sinner above all men, and then a
+sudden peace and happiness, and a courage to endure,--a blind,
+unreasoning courage to take the present as it is, because God sent it,
+and it must be for the best. Boyd and Whitlow and Kenny were the great
+lights. They went about from house to house; they exhorted and prayed.
+Whitlow was one of the old bank-directors. Strange to say, he did not
+lose a penny. His money was in government-bonds; and now he has
+persuaded Yerbury that if his advice had been taken there would have
+been no trouble. Whitlow discharged his man this winter, and took in his
+place a half-grown boy. Mrs. Whitlow sets a good example to her class by
+discharging one handmaid and making the other do double duty. Yet, so
+far as I can find, Whitlow is a richer man than he was three years ago.
+Kenny keeps his factory open, and gives the men three days' work in the
+week, and pays them in poor shoes, as much as possible; and takes out a
+good deal in high rent. Boyd, who has the name of being the greatest
+saint of all,--does what? Opens that miserable row of houses, that he
+couldn't let on any terms, and takes in tenants who are willing to work
+out the rent. He gets good prices, too. Is he losing on them? Faugh! the
+very term of charity makes me sick. And this winter he purchased a good
+deal of the stock of the relief-store. Wretched flour; miserable,
+adulterated stuff of tea; pork, some of it that wasn't fit to eat; and
+cheap butter, that every one would have been ten times better without. I
+went to him one day, red-hot, in a sanitary view of the business; and he
+preached religion to me,--his kind. 'Boyd,' said I, 'there's Keppler's
+saloon, your own property, paying you a good income, no doubt, in these
+hard times, adding to the want and misery of Yerbury faster than your
+whole church can save. If you are in earnest, go break up that den of
+iniquity!'"
+
+Jack laughed. "What did he say to that?"
+
+"Meekly, that Keppler had a lease for five years, and was going on the
+second. The man is so honorable, he cannot break faith with his
+fellow-man, forsooth; but he breaks faith with God, in a serene,
+untroubled manner." And Maverick's lip curled scornfully under the
+fringe of moustache.
+
+"But there must be some gold, or the counterfeit would not be so
+successfully received. We have had so much false money everywhere, that,
+since we can make that pass, we do not trouble ourselves. And yet,
+Maverick, there _is_ something in it that you and I don't see clearly
+yet; but we cannot teach it acceptably until we can show better fruit.
+And, when leaders of all kinds, in high places, show that self only is
+at the bottom of every thing they do, it seems hopeless to demand that
+the class below, watching them, and suffering from their wrongdoing,
+shall attain a higher moral status. How can they help following coarsely
+in the footsteps of their betters?"
+
+"Darcy, suppose you turn parson!" and Maverick laughed half quizzically.
+"See here: the world wants a very old sermon preached again to it,
+hammered into every fibre, put up over every doorway,--the essence of
+all knowledge, all religion, briefly comprehended in this, 'Love thy
+neighbor _as_ thyself.' You won't need gown or bands for that work. Not
+to have one code of morals for the rich, and one for the poor; one creed
+for Sunday, and quite another belief for Monday; to have no lofty,
+impossible theories and exalted moods, but truthful, honest living; not
+to push away the miserable, ignorant souls, but take them by the hand in
+hearty co-operation. Maybe Cameron has the right clew. Why should we let
+human love be shamed by such things as an Oneida community or a Mormon
+city?"
+
+The strong, earnest voice stirred Jack like martial music. All these
+years he had been struggling with a great, blind, confused
+something,--perhaps it was not a silver-mine or a railroad, but a work
+just here in the town of his boyhood, where he was known, where he had
+played and worked.
+
+"Seventeenthly, and lastly," and Maverick looked at his watch, "I cannot
+idle any more time upon you, and must cut short with a 'To be
+continued.' We will talk it over again and again; and, if we cannot get
+it into shape, there is still Florida left. So, while you are dreaming
+it out by this great silent mill, whose prisoned spirits should prate of
+prosperity instead of desolation, I'll run my course around Yerbury, and
+we'll compare notes over our cigars. _Addio_," waving his hand.
+
+Jack watched the compact figure as it moved briskly away; then he
+sauntered round the mill, down one street and up another, strolled out
+to Lovers' Lane, and returned by Larch Avenue. The Barry house began to
+show signs of life, for old Mat was clearing up the grounds. This was
+the one oasis that had not been bitten by speculation. He thought of
+winsome little Sylvie, and one summer evening when Irene Lawrence
+stepped into that pretty, cosey room with the grace and beauty of a
+Juno. Where was she now? And what was Fred doing? Making a great leap
+into name and fame, doubtless, now that he was put upon his mettle. The
+old boyish freaks came back to his mind, the enthusiastic unreasoning
+adoration, the last tender parting. An intense and subtile sympathy
+filled his soul; and, though he smiled a little, the memory was very
+sacred.
+
+The texture of Jack's mind was not of the quick, brilliant, or sanguine
+order. He went over his books again; he ruminated as he cleaned the
+garden-paths, spaded the beds, trimmed the trees and shrubbery, and
+attended to the odds and ends known only to a careful householder.
+Cousin Jane was in her element out here; and they two discoursed of
+farming and gardening, and industry, she in a sharp, trenchant way.
+
+She had remarked incidentally that her visit was near its end. Now that
+Jack was home, cousin Ellen would not need her.
+
+"I don't see why you should not make your home here, cousin Jane,"
+replied Mrs. Darcy. "Grandmother grows feebler all the time, and you
+have quite spoiled me by your strength and cheeriness. You have no
+nearer tie; and if you _could_ content yourself with us--Jack was
+speaking about it a few evenings since. We should like so to keep you,
+cousin Jane."
+
+Jane Morgan studied the beseeching eyes a while, then dropped her own,
+and thought.
+
+"Very well," she answered, "if you like to have it so. While I am well
+and strong I think I ought to do enough somewhere to earn my living, and
+not use up the little laid by for a rainy day. If you and Jack are
+agreed, we'll consider it a bargain for a year. I like to be settled
+about what I'm going to do: there's nothing so uncomfortable as hanging
+on tenterhooks. When my visit's through I like to go, if I'm going; not
+stand an hour or two with the door-knob in my hand."
+
+Jack was delighted. They could spare him now and then of an evening to
+stroll down to Maverick's office, where they discussed pretty nearly
+every thing under the sun. It was so in the beginning,--"the earth was
+without form, and void." Then the Barrys returned; Sylvie changed in
+some indescribable way as to a kind of delicate outside manner, but the
+same fresh, earnest girl in heart and soul, taking up her friendship
+with Jack just where she had laid it down. Yet they had both grown
+broader and richer in nature and experience, and there was something of
+the subtile flavor of new acquaintanceship.
+
+Yerbury cleaned house, even to the tidying-up of streets and
+carting-away of rubbish. It was pitiful to see the attempts of some of
+the poor women, who washed their worn white curtains, scrubbed the
+shutters and hall-door, and set out a few ragged geraniums in the front
+yard, or made a little bed of lettuce and onions.
+
+Yerbury Savings Bank was in the hands of a receiver. Some sold out their
+small accounts for a trifle: it was agreed there could not be much in
+the way of dividends. Here was a great mortgage on the Downer farm,
+that the Eastmans had partly cut into city lots. And, though Downer had
+received a large price, he was a poor man to-day, with no business, and
+several sons tramping the highways for work. Farms had not been
+profitable, but had the wealth and extravagance produced any better
+result? These places around would be sold presently for any sum they
+would bring.
+
+"Speculation did look so tempting, though," said Jack with a humorous
+smile. "But for grandmother I might have been in the midst of it."
+
+"There's just one thing that makes a man or a country rich," said Jane
+Morgan incisively; "and that's industry, good, honest labor. Marking up
+one's goods before breakfast, as the Frenchman did, realizes no absolute
+money. The speculators jingle their dollars from hand to hand, until
+some poor fool, attracted by the noise, gives them a hundred for their
+twenty. When a man makes money simply by another person's loss, he has
+not created any thing, or made any more of it; and the world's no
+better, that I can see."
+
+"Cousin Jane, you are dipping into political economy;" and Jack nodded
+gayly. "I shall have to ask Maverick and some of the others up here; and
+maybe you can put in a straw, or a head of wheat, toward the
+regeneration of Yerbury."
+
+"I dip into a little common sense now and then, and it seems to me
+that's what the world needs. There is no lack of the uncommon kind, and
+it's not to be altogether despised, since at times uncommon things are
+given to people to do. But, if all the bees in the hive thought they had
+a call to be queens, it runs in my mind there'd be a lack of honey
+presently."
+
+"You are on the right foundation, cousin Jane. We must not only make the
+honey an honorable thing, but honor the bees, put labor on a better,
+truer foundation."
+
+"I should just say, 'See here, my friends, it is not possible for us all
+to be rich, whether it is some fixed immutable law of fate, or the lack
+of necessary elements in one's character, or the meeting of the right
+person with the right circumstances; but the fact is there, true as
+judgment. You can be comfortable and clean if you have the energy; and
+it is better to scrub your own kitchen-floor, or raise a bushel of
+potatoes, than to sit and whine about luck or respectability. Now and
+then a ready-made fortune drops down upon one, and I don't know but it
+often brings a curse: anyhow, what you work for, you are pretty sure to
+enjoy.' It makes me mad when I see healthy, hearty young women sighing
+for servants and pianos and what not; when their grandmothers, who had
+as good blood, and as good sense, didn't despise honest work."
+
+Sylvie Barry came in while Miss Morgan was in the midst of her "speech,"
+as Jack declared it to be; and now she clapped her small white hands,
+with a "Bravo!"
+
+"A new disciple, Jack," and she smiled. "Miss Morgan, we shall set you
+to reading our favorite authors, and solving the tremendous question.
+Where can we get work for these to do? For a great many stand idle in
+the market-place, because they have not been hired. What can we set them
+at?"
+
+"Well, Miss Barry, I don't know much about the big, outside questions;
+but, going around Yerbury a little this winter, I shouldn't say the work
+was all done up; or, done in such a poor, thrown-together way, that it
+tumbles right to pieces again. There's skewy, ill-made beds with ragged
+counterpanes; there's shreds of old ingrain-carpets, that you fall over;
+there's broken chairs, and shabby clothes, and dirty corners,--work
+enough, I should say, to last some woman an hour or two. She might get
+out her pieces of calico, and, with the children's help, make a new
+spread, maybe a tidy apron, and she might braid a rag mat out of bits,
+and a hundred things that go toward comfort. No: all the work isn't
+done up yet, Miss Sylvie," and Jane Morgan stopped just then, to knit
+the seam-stitch in a stocking for a poor body.
+
+Sylvie threw herself on the footstool, and leaned her arms on Miss
+Morgan's knee.
+
+"I wasn't thinking so much of that when I spoke," she began earnestly;
+"but I do wonder if some of us couldn't take it up. There are
+art-schools, and music-schools, and cooking-schools, in the great
+cities; and why couldn't we start something of the kind here? Poor
+people--the real poor, I mean--are often wasteful and idle because they
+do not just know how to be any thing else. They buy cheap garments in
+stores, and they soon come apart. I had a sewing-school last summer, and
+I found some mothers didn't seem to care whether their children learned
+or not,--since there was so much sewing done by machines. But if the
+mothers could be taught a little"--
+
+"That's about the upshot of what I said. You see, Miss Barry, people
+have been earning so much money of late years, that sewing has gone out
+of fashion. It didn't pay to do this or that, so they earned and spent.
+Now they sit listless in their dirt and rags, bemoaning hard times. It
+is good to know how to do more than one thing," and Miss Morgan nodded
+her head confidently, her strong face full of earnestness.
+
+"Why can't you and Sylvie start a school--what shall we call it?--of
+useful and homely arts? You see, the girls do work in the mills and
+shops until they get married, and then they do not know how to make the
+best of their husbands' money. But don't crowd out all the beauty and
+the pleasure; there must be something to enlist the heart. Give a man an
+interest in a thing, and you awake a new feeling, an enthusiasm that
+makes every thing go as smoothly as oiling up machinery."
+
+"I have often thought," said Mrs. Darcy in her soft, gentle voice,
+"that the poor did not get as much good of their money as the better
+classes, because they never have enough to buy advantageously, and
+store-keepers so often take the advantage of them. Now, yesterday I was
+over to Mrs. Hall's, and the poor thing was trying to make some bread,
+and she was not fit to stand up and knead it; so I thought I'd try. The
+flour was heavy and sticky and lumpy, and what I should call very
+unprofitable. No one could make good bread out of it. She said they
+traded at Kilburn's, because he would wait if they did not have the
+money. The flour was seven and a half a barrel; the eighth, ninety-five
+cents; and I do not believe the bread was fit to eat. So you must
+remember, when you blame people for poor cooking, that they may not
+always have decent materials to work with."
+
+"Maverick was growling about Kilburn the other evening. It is a shame
+that he should sell such poor goods, when prices have come down a good
+deal."
+
+"Can you not reform him a little?" and Mrs. Darcy smiled.
+
+"Cousin Jane and Sylvie might go into business, as did the poor weavers
+of Toad Lane, with their sack of oatmeal, firkin of butter, a little
+sugar and flour," said Jack laughingly. "A fair division of labor. The
+men of Yerbury shall provide work, and the women shall train the
+inefficient how and where to spend money."
+
+Sylvie glanced up with bright, inquiring eyes.
+
+"Was it some more co-operation?" she asked.
+
+Jack brought out his book, and read the story of the "Equitable Pioneers
+of Rochdale" and their wonderful success from a small beginning. The
+girl listened with wide-open eyes, and even Jane Morgan laid down her
+knitting.
+
+"The queen-bee and the workers again," said she, as Jack closed the
+book. "It is not every man for himself, but every man for each other.
+And it comes back, always."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+"WHERE is grandmother?" Jack asked one morning late in May, as he came
+in from the garden, and found her place at the table vacant.
+
+"She does not feel very well this morning, and I told her there was no
+need of rising with the lark," answered cousin Jane; but, though her
+voice was cheerful, there was a new gravity in her face.
+
+"It is something unusual"--
+
+"She is getting to be an old lady, Jack. There, sit down to your
+breakfast while it is nice and hot. No fear but what I will attend to
+grandmother."
+
+She had risen; but in the midst of her dressing her hands had lost their
+cunning, her limbs their strength. Jane came to look at her in alarm.
+
+"It's a warning," she said, with her grand old smile. "But I have no
+pain, and so you can leave me here for a while. My strength may come
+back."
+
+Mrs. Darcy was much frightened.
+
+"Remember that ninety-four is a good old age, and she has hardly had a
+sick day in her life. After breakfast Jack might go over for Dr.
+Maverick. He is sensible, and will not torment her with experiments."
+
+Jack rather hurried through his meal, and then ran up to grandmother's
+room. She put out her wrinkled hand, thin to be sure, but still slender
+and smooth, with no knobby joints. A proud sort of beauty illumined the
+old face, though the eyes were a little dull.
+
+"Dear boy," and there was a curious quaver in her voice, "I've had to
+give in at last. The Lord knows best. He has given me many a happy year
+with you; yet I have never forgotten the folks over yonder. I shall be
+glad to see them again,--your father, Jack, and the rest. 'Then they
+came to the land of Beulah, where the sun shineth day and night, and
+betook themselves to rest'--you know. We used to read it together."
+
+A sharp pang went to Jack's heart. He pressed the limp hand to his lips,
+and gazed into the face that had changed in some indescribable way. Then
+Jane came with a tempting breakfast, and fed her with wonderful
+gentleness, it seemed to him.
+
+He went out, and brought Maverick back with him.
+
+"It is a general breaking-up of nature," said the doctor with a tender
+gravity. "Nothing can be done, unless she should suffer; but I do not
+think she will. It is the way lives ought to end oftener. Give her
+whatever she will take; and keep cheerful, all of you. After all, it is
+only a little journey."
+
+"Where?" the young eyes asked as they met each other in solemn mood.
+
+Jack scarcely left her. She liked to open her eyes, and find him sitting
+there, when she would smile faintly, and murmur a few words. Sylvie and
+Miss Barry were the only visitors admitted to her room. They used to
+read out of "Pilgrim's Progress," the book she had loved so well, and
+occasionally they sang some sweet old hymn.
+
+"Jack," she said once, "you will find everything in my old box there in
+the bureau. It was my mother's, and came across the sea with me. You
+have been a good lad. You took your father's place with me, and you must
+never regret that you staid here to make an old woman happy. You have
+been a good lad--a good--little lad"-- And her mind wandered to other
+years.
+
+Just growing gradually weaker, and falling asleep peacefully. A long,
+well-spent life, and a death to remember and desire.
+
+They buried her in Yerbury churchyard, and the townspeople turned out to
+do her honor. Jack thought of another death, and the almost solitary
+state of the funeral.
+
+How good it was that they had Jane Morgan now! She carried them right
+along.
+
+Jack opened the brass-bound box, still fragrant with its sandal-wood
+lining. Some old letters, the trinkets she had saved from her poverty,
+and a will bequeathing her all, in government bonds, to Jack.
+
+There was nearly seven thousand dollars. With his own little savings he
+felt quite rich.
+
+"Jack," said his mother, "all these years you have waited patiently, and
+put by your own dreams. Do not think that I did not notice the struggle.
+It was very generous and kindly; and I am glad, for grandmother's sake,
+that you staid. But now if you like we will go somewhere else, and make
+a new home"--did her voice tremble a little then? "I am still young
+enough to take root elsewhere, and cousin Jane is so energetic she helps
+one to new life. There may be prettier and more prosperous places, and
+you have years before you in which to realize a fortune."
+
+He glanced up at the face bending over him, instinct with the honorable
+grace of middle life; the hair with a few threads of silver; the soft,
+fine skin showing some wrinkles about the eyes and two or three light
+creases across the forehead; the cheeks out of which roundness had
+vanished, and the lips the scarlet of girlhood, but though both were
+pale the mouth was still tender and sweet. A womanly woman,--that seemed
+to him a perfect description of his mother, a woman who had loved three
+generations, and held by them. Now for his sake she would give up the
+old ties, and try a new world,--this shy, shrinking, loving woman.
+
+What would she leave? She had never known any other home in her married
+life, though this had been changed and improved since her wedding-day.
+Everywhere some trace of his father. The porch with the roses climbing
+over it, the great maples in the street, planted by him; the odorous old
+balm of Gilead, that he had hunted up because she had cared for it, and
+they had one in her old home; the trailing clematis with its shining
+smilax-like green, and its heliotrope fragrance; the white rose that had
+been planted on the morning of Jack's birth, and had sent up many
+generations from the old root; the latticed summer-house with its wealth
+of grapes; and almost like a vision Jack could fancy he saw the tall
+figure and deliberate step,--the sweet ghost of memory that could never
+walk in any other place. Did his mother have such dreams?
+
+Yes, there were better things to life than mere money-getting.
+
+"I believe those were the wild dreams of boyhood,"--smiling a
+little,--"the 'long, long thoughts of youth.' I used to want something
+that would occupy my whole soul and every energy, that was stirring,
+earnest, absorbing, and held a grand outlook. But I think"--very
+deliberately, as if he were weighing every word--"that my work has come
+to me, instead of my going out to seek it. At all events, I shall not go
+away for the present."
+
+"Well," she returned, but she could not keep the great gladness out of
+her voice.
+
+Having thus made his election, Jack Darcy looked sturdily about to see
+what was to be done, and the best way to do it. He asked two of the old
+over-lookers, Hurd and Bradley, to meet him at Maverick's office; and
+there they discussed co-operation until long past midnight. They looked
+into the cotton-mill connected with the Rochdale experiment; they read
+up the workings of those at Oldham and Lancashire, of the industries in
+France, and banking in Germany.
+
+"Here we are," said Jack, "with so much of our lives spent in learning
+to manage looms and turn out different kinds of cloth. People must wear
+clothes until the millennium, and cloth will be made. It seems to me
+that it must be a good thing to identify the workmen, and get their real
+interest. We should avoid strikes on the one hand, the continual
+disputes about wages, and be much less at the mercy of all outside
+influence. The men will understand thoroughly that industry, economy,
+thrift, and perseverance is good for each individually; that he is using
+these qualities not only for the master, but for himself. There will be
+better work, and more of it."
+
+Hurd seemed to be taking the measure of Darcy through this speech. Now
+he said,--
+
+"Darcy, any man who knows enough to head such a business as Hope Mills,
+knows enough to carve out a fortune for himself; and my opinion is that
+he would be a fool to let the chance slip."
+
+"A man may have the knowledge, but not the requisite capital," was the
+patient answer. "Then he might think"--
+
+"Well, you've a sight of faith, that's all! Your men will go on with the
+tramp of soldiers in good times; and when the pinch comes, then look
+out! If they were educated, reasonable, sensible; but you and I both
+know the mass are not. It will do better in the old countries, for there
+children expect to follow in the footsteps of their parents; but here,
+where every boy looks upon himself as a possible president, it cannot be
+done. It has been tried, and has failed. It will again."
+
+"Then you will not join?"
+
+"I don't say that, Darcy. I can't very well get away from Yerbury: if I
+could, the Lord knows I'd go. But there--it is just as bad everywhere
+else. Don't be too sanguine though: you young chaps build air-castles
+easily."
+
+Bradley wrung his hand warmly at parting. "I want to look into this
+thing a little more closely," he said. "I believe you have struck the
+keynote. Whatever raises the workman raises the whole world. If you get
+him to be self-supporting, there is one less pauper or tramp for the
+State to take in charge, and tax all other workingmen for his support."
+
+"I rather like the scheme of the co-operative store," Hurd began
+presently. "There's a sight of money somehow between the producer and
+the consumer. Farmers are grumbling all the time. I wrote to my
+brother-in-law last spring about trading for a small farm, and going
+into poultry-business perhaps; and he sent back a list of prices he had
+obtained for his produce. Butter twenty-five cents, and we paid forty
+this winter. Milk two and a half cents a quart, while ours is from eight
+to ten."
+
+"Transportation to be counted in," suggested Maverick.
+
+"The thing discouraged me, so I thought I'd hold on a bit, since I did
+not know the first rule for farming. As Darcy says, we have spent all
+these years perfecting ourselves in our business, and it hardly looks
+reasonable that we should succeed at once in something altogether
+different. If you don't mind, Darcy, I'd like to look over that Rochdale
+experiment a little at my leisure."
+
+Jack handed him the book, and the small party dispersed. In a week they
+met again, with two more, one a stubborn old Englishman who had been in
+the business. They had done very well for a while, then the market
+flattened. They could not hold their stock, so the big fish swallowed
+them up. That was always the end where you had no credit and no reserve
+capital. Truth to tell, Jack began to realize how hard it would be to
+convert some of the very men he would like to have.
+
+Meanwhile Hamilton Minor came up with some capitalists, and Hope Mills
+was put up at auction. They looked around the town, examined the
+building and machinery, which was the best of its kind; but nobody
+could tell whether we had reached bottom prices or not, and, though the
+place was to be offered at an immense sacrifice, they were wary. Empty
+mills and rusting machinery were not profitable investments. Mr. Minor's
+eloquence went for nothing. These long-headed dons would rather hold on
+to their money, though they expressed a good deal of sympathy for the
+Lawrence estate.
+
+"I do believe it will go for the face of the mortgage," said Jack to
+Maverick that evening. "Twenty thousand dollars, and a year's interest
+and taxes. Twenty-two thousand would cover the whole thing; and three
+years ago Mr. Lawrence wouldn't have looked at fifty thousand. Maverick,
+I can get together ten thousand of my own, and if there was one other
+person"--
+
+"We will hunt him up," returned Maverick hopefully. "There is the
+reputation of the cloth already made, which is one great step in your
+favor. Yes, it must be done."
+
+Yerbury was looking a little brighter and better at midsummer.
+Scarlet-fever had pretty well disappeared; but malaria had come in its
+stead, convenient name for want of nourishment, stagnation, and
+despondency. The haggard-looking wives and mothers went out to a day's
+washing or scrubbing; but the children, better off, roamed over the
+fields in search of berries or a stray ownerless fruit-tree, laughing
+and happy in their rags and bare feet.
+
+Darcy tried two or three pretty well-to-do men, that he fancied had the
+good of the town at heart; but the project looked wild to them. If David
+Lawrence couldn't stand up against hard times, no new men could. He,
+Darcy, had better put his money in government-bonds, and live on the
+interest. Nothing could be made in such times as these.
+
+"It seems as if one half of the world has decided that the other half
+should starve," Jack declared in a discouraged tone. "No one is willing
+to start the ball again. If it wasn't for mother I would risk every
+dollar of my own. And then to think of the land lying idle about
+here,--enough to feed half the town! I do not wonder that we are fast
+coming to beggary and ruin."
+
+Maverick was pretty sober for several days, then he went off to
+Narragansett Pier; "tired of my everlasting badgering," said Jack to
+Sylvie, who, poor child, had her hands and heart full of projects that
+she talked over with Miss Morgan and her aunt, and did not make much
+more progress than Jack.
+
+So it happened one July evening that Jack sat smoking on the porch in a
+rather despondent frame of mind. Miss Morgan and his mother had gone to
+make some neighborly calls.
+
+A quick step came down the street. "If Maverick wasn't in Rhode Island!"
+thought Jack; then it came nearer, with a little halt, and Jack sprang
+down the steps in the moonlight.
+
+"Hillo, old fellow!" said the rich, laughing voice. "Have you looked
+after my patients, and entertained my office-callers, in my absence?
+That would only be fair play, for I have been about your business; and,
+by Jove! succeeded too!"
+
+"Maverick!" There was an odd little tremble in Jack's voice.
+
+"Ask me to sit down, and stay me with--well, a pipe, for I have finished
+my last cigar. I came in the train just fifteen minutes ago, and
+skulked--that's the very word--under the trees and through by-ways, lest
+some one, seeing, should lay violent hands on me. Yes, get out your best
+armchair, old chap, and treat me like a prince."
+
+The two seated themselves again, and stretched out their legs to the
+porch-railing. The soft light fell around, outlining here and there a
+bit of vine as if it were held against a silver background. A few early
+insects were chirping, and somewhere down the street there was a waft of
+distant music.
+
+"Succeeded!" Jack drew a long breath.
+
+"Yes: with a woman too. Nay, you need not look at me so wonderingly. I
+have not sold myself for base gold to the Evil One," laughing lightly.
+"I have never told you much about myself; for, like the needy
+knife-grinder, 'story, God bless you! there was none to tell;' but there
+is a chapter now, and you must hear it first. My mother was left an
+orphan in her infancy, and her aunt adopted her. She was a canny
+Scotswoman, by name Jean McLeod. She was very good to my mother, who
+married quite to her liking, although my father was not rich, but we
+always lived in a certain style, and my father had a fine reputation as
+a lawyer. My mother's death, the result of an accident, so prostrated
+him, that he never recovered from the shock. Aunt McLeod came to stay
+with us through that weary time. Then she took us both to her heart and
+home: it was a large warm heart and a beautiful home. My father left a
+little: it was made over to me; and my sister, five years younger than
+I, was brought up properly, and married properly, and lives in Chicago
+in elegant style. Then Aunt Jean tried her hand on me, chose a suitable
+young woman, and insisted that the fates had decided it. The upshot was
+a quarrel. Not but what the girl was nice enough, and all that, but I
+did not care to marry; and so I walked off to Europe, and was there
+three years. Some rather cool letters passed between us at first, but
+they grew warmer; and when I returned it was winter, and she was in New
+York. I went straight up to her house. She was very glad to see me; and
+there in her lovely library, all glow and softness and perfume, by the
+side of the grate, with a screen in her hand, sat Anastasia Lothrop. She
+is Aunt Jean's pet _protégée_, though she has home and lands and people
+of her own. A handsome woman too, by Jove! However, we have gone our
+separate ways. I think she (Aunt Jean) was rather annoyed at my settling
+at Yerbury.
+
+"Well, I went to Narragansett, and found her alone this time; and she
+has promised to buy Hope Mills. I do believe there's no end to the
+woman's money. She talked it over as a mere bagatelle. I am to meet her
+in New York, and you are to go down, Jack; and we are to see the holder
+of the mortgage, and do no end of business. I think she is rather
+interested in the scheme, and I do believe she is delighted to do me a
+favor. Now you can keep your money for a kind of reserve fund. The mere
+savings of labor will not answer at first, you know."
+
+Maverick drew a long breath then, and puffed lustily at his cigar.
+
+"I don't know how ever to thank you."
+
+"Don't thank me, Darcy. You see, I am interested in this experiment. I
+want to see if there is enough faith and honesty and industry and
+trustfulness left in the world to make such a general partnership a
+success. You know it has been said that since the war our character as a
+whole has degenerated fearfully. Politically there is no doubt of it.
+Commercially and industrially are still open questions. If we could
+succeed in making one hundred people comfortable, instead of one rich,
+nine comfortable, and the other ninety next door to pauperism, we shall
+have done something. If we can so educate ninety men that they are able
+to understand the difficulties and embarrassments of carrying on
+business and its numerous fluctuations, we shall have raised them higher
+in the social scale. And it is most sadly true of all the large failures
+of late, some one has been dishonest, some one or two or three have
+taken other people's money to speculate with. It should be called
+stealing as much as when a poor man takes it, even if he spends it for
+rum. And, Darcy, we will keep our eye single upon one thing: we shall
+not move the world, or convert it, but haply one little corner of
+Yerbury; while all the wit and wisdom the world has been saving up for
+ages will be hurled against us in different shapes, from puffy snowballs
+to the grim old fellows soaked in water and frozen hard. And sometimes I
+think, with all the energy you are going to bring to bear upon this, you
+could carve out a fortune somewhere else."
+
+"I don't know as to that, Maverick," said Darcy in a half-funny,
+half-sad tone. "From New York to St. Louis, from thence to New Orleans,
+to Florida, and back here again, I never found an opening. Two or three
+people did promise to write to me, but they have not. I felt the world
+could go on quite as well without me and hundreds of others. So, then,
+the only thing is to create a place; and Heaven knows I shall try hard
+enough to make a success of this."
+
+"And you will do it too: I'm not afraid. Give us your hand, old chap! I
+never swore friendship with but just one fellow: that was in my college
+days, and I have his note for one hundred dollars as a memento. I might
+have been keener, I dare say; but one of the transcendentally lovely
+things of youth is its perfect faith. These preternaturally wise and
+prudent young people come into the world mentally gray-headed. But I do
+it now with my eyes wide open; and, when you are a rich man, I have
+another scheme I want to take through, a sort of home or hospital of my
+own planning: so don't fancy I shall let you off easy."
+
+They held each other's hands in a long, lingering clasp. Beside the
+warmth and magnetism that was a component part of Dr. Maverick's nature
+when he chose to use it, which was not nearly always, there was a
+steadfast kindliness, the vigor of a true and pure manhood, that made a
+clear atmosphere about him, in which insincerity, weakness, and
+selfishness seemed to flicker into pale shadows, and shrink away from
+the intense mental light he turned upon them.
+
+And just here the vision of the boy face came back to Jack, the
+strangling arms about his neck, the fluttering breath and quivering
+lips, and the sound of the rather thin, childish voice,--"You are _my_
+King Arthur, and I shall love you my whole life long."
+
+The sadness in the smile was for the old ideal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+"THE telegram!" exclaimed Maverick ten days later, striding down the
+garden where Jack was at work in the strawberry-bed.
+
+Jack Darcy flushed like a girl, through the other fine coloring of
+labor. He had hardly dared to believe in and hold to Maverick's promise.
+Manlike, neither had spoken of it since that night.
+
+"'Thursday, at four, at the Westminster.' That is to-morrow. We must be
+on time, or she would never have any faith in us; and, though my credit
+may be _nil_, yours must be"--
+
+"As I hope to keep it through my life," was the grave reply. "You will
+take the morning train?"
+
+"Yes. It will give us a trifle of spare time, which won't be bad for a
+couple of overworked fellows like us. But I must look after a lot of
+people this afternoon, and if I can I will drop in this evening."
+
+Jack went back to his strawberries. He had been making a mental
+calculation about an acre, and the profits thereon, moved to it by
+something Jane Morgan had said. Twenty miles below them, on Swanston
+Bay, which was quite a summer-resort, the hotel-keepers had paid
+twenty-five cents per quart for nice large berries. On their little
+patch they had raised a hundred and twenty quarts. There was another
+side to the labor-question,--diversity of industry. Jane's idea of a
+great fruit-garden, or call it a farm, was not bad. You could crowd ten
+such patches in an acre of ground. If nothing better came to hand, he
+might hire some of the ground lying waste around Yerbury, and set the
+idle at work.
+
+Sylvie came through with some flowers in her hand. Jack looked up again,
+and laughed, and threw himself on the grass under a tree, chatting
+gayly. He felt so light at heart! She wondered a little, and then,
+without knowing the cause, rejoiced with him in the depths of her soul.
+
+The two men started the next morning, and at the appointed time were
+ushered into Miss McLeod's private parlor. Maverick had said, "She's a
+little queer in some ways; but in the main you will like her, I think."
+Meanwhile Jack had formed a dozen ideals of her, based mostly on the
+personal appearance of Miss Barry and his grandmother.
+
+The door of the adjoining room opened, and Miss McLeod entered. An old
+woman, of course, and a fashionable woman, but with a young-old face and
+figure. Not the graceful airiness of youth, so often painful in its
+desire to impress the beholder with what it is not, but an old age to
+which all the good things of life, rightly used, have contributed, and
+brought about a delightful result. She was of medium height, and
+possibly had not been handsome in her palmy days; but she challenged
+one's respect for a true and honorable womanhood, and an old age neither
+inane, querulous, nor servile.
+
+A rather plump figure, with deep chest, full shoulders, and erect
+carriage. The face was wrinkled; but the skin had a peachy softness, the
+lips were still full and finely curved, and, though the mouth was rather
+wide, it indicated resolution and decision. The whole contour of the
+face was slightly aquiline, the forehead high and broad, but the curling
+hair falling over it in the requirements of fashion softened it; shining
+silvery white, curling naturally, and very abundant, the coil at the
+back partly covered with a diamond-shaped bit of elegant black thread
+lace that matched the barb at her throat. Her rich, soft, steel-colored
+silk made no rustle as she crossed the floor, but the diamonds in her
+ears and on her breast flashed a glitter of sunlight about her.
+
+Maverick greeted her with pleasant but not effusive warmth, and
+introduced his friend. They skirmished on the boundary-line of small
+talk for a while, Jack feeling that he was being measured and gauged at
+every possible indication of the real man, but his honesty of purpose
+kept him steadfast.
+
+Presently Maverick plunged into the business part, much to Darcy's
+satisfaction.
+
+"I wrote to my lawyer, Mr. Hildreth, about it," Miss McLeod replied. "He
+has seen the parties holding the mortgage; and, on account of business
+embarrassments, they are extremely anxious to realize upon it. Mr. Minor
+is naturally desirous of having it sold at an advantage; but he is on
+the bond, and has been making continuous efforts with no success. No one
+can tell how low property will sink, business property especially, that
+depreciates so rapidly if neglected. The mortgage is considered
+one-third of what the property was valued at seven years ago; but we
+have all shrunk a trifle since that," with a shrug, and a curious little
+bend of the head, as if the decapitation was not altogether a pleasant
+process. "This is the 4th of August, and on the 19th it is advertised
+for sale. There may be one chance in a thousand of a better purchaser;
+though Mr. Hildreth thinks no one but a lunatic, or a woman, would put
+money in such an adventure," her lips curving in their bitter-sweet
+smile. Indeed, there was nothing she was so much like as a cluster of
+bright bitter-sweet berries, on a sharp but sunshiny autumn day, with
+the leaves and tendrils brown and faded, but the brilliant life and soul
+still shining from the ripe centre. She impressed you with the same
+defiant glow of exultation.
+
+"I have money lying idle, it is true," she continued; "but I want to
+hear your plans before I decide, Mr. Darcy. Philip," nodding to her
+nephew, "has interested me in this scheme; but I must know what it
+promises before I take the risk."
+
+Jack was confused a little by the bright, penetrating glance; and he had
+not quite overcome his boyish trick of blushing. Often as he had gone
+over the plan with Howell, Fawcett, and other political economists at
+his tongue's end, all his troupe of fine ideas seemed to desert him. He
+laughed at his own embarrassment: she smiled and nodded, and that made
+them friends.
+
+"I don't know that I can put it any better," he began earnestly, "than
+to say that I want to take up the lever of work, and put the wheels of
+labor in motion, to bring the starving workmen and the halting capital
+together again. It is all very well for us to rush every dollar into
+government-bonds; but if there is no business, what is to augment our
+revenue, and where then shall we be finally, with our mills and
+workshops shut up, and our people begging? If I had enough of my own to
+bridge over the chasm, I would ask no one's help," he went on a little
+proudly. "The mills at Yerbury stand in sad silence, with ruin before
+them; our men are idle and dispirited, turning into tramps and
+vagabonds, because they hate to sit still and starve. And here am I, of
+no real use to the world, and the eight years back of me that I have
+spent in perfecting myself of no account either, unless I find something
+upon which to employ my ability and training. If I purchase the mills,
+we must hire capital to work them with, and everybody would be shy of
+us. We can get together the capital if we could be sure of the place for
+five years, at a moderate rental."
+
+"But would not a joint-stock company answer the purpose better, and
+carry more weight?" she asked, listening with a sort of intent wariness.
+
+"I want to enlist the workmen, so that we shall be reasonably sure of
+co-operation in other things beside money, industry, thrift,
+faithfulness, and a common interest in success. If times are hard, we
+shall all make sacrifices: if they improve, we shall benefit by the
+earnestness of our endeavors. Maverick and I have made a little draft,
+based on the workings of the best French and English societies. If you
+will look it over"--and he took it out of his memorandum.
+
+She studied it with a keen, rapid glance.
+
+"It is what I should call an industrial partnership," Darcy continued.
+"We _should_ own the mill; but, as we cannot, that must go in the
+working expenses. As the men choose, and are able, they can hold shares;
+but at present this will be obtained--say from a dozen perhaps. Nothing
+now will bring in twenty or even ten per cent, and we must be satisfied
+with whatever we can make. We have had our good times, and now we must
+take the evil; but if there is any better way than sitting down
+resignedly, and folding both hands, I, for one, want to find it."
+
+She was taking in the combinations of emotion and purpose that flitted
+over his face. A man who would do something if he could get that hardest
+of all things, a foothold to stand upon.
+
+"I think you might make more money," she said with pointed brevity.
+
+"Which would not be co-operation," with his frank, genial laugh that
+went to her heart. "I want to try the experiment. Not that I expect to
+solve all the difficulties between labor and capital; but I shall try to
+make them better friends, so that, when you have weathered a hard gale,
+pinching yourselves to keep on the workmen, they will not strike for
+higher wages on the first stir of improvement, as they will be certain
+of their share."
+
+"You are a philanthropist, Mr. Darcy. Can you depend upon the temper of
+your men? They may do very well just now when they are starving; but,
+when times improve, are they going to wait one year or five years for
+the sum they consider part of their wages? And if there should be no
+surplus, but losses, as has often happened in manufacturing? Your
+workman will
+
+          'Fork out his penny, and pocket your shilling,'
+
+fast enough; but when the tables are turned, what then?"
+
+"There _must_ be a different feeling when men are banded together in a
+mutual business interest. The very spirit of association appeals to what
+is best and noblest in human nature. As it has been in Yerbury, for
+example, the workmen contributed of their ability and strength to
+support one family in princely luxury, pay one extravagant salary, and
+several others that were out of all proportion to the wages earned, and
+an extensive defalcation. No one is at all the gainer now, unless it be
+the thief," his face scarlet with indignation at the remembrance of
+Eastman. "The men have been hit the hardest of all. No wonder they feel
+bitter and discouraged. We make many an Ishmael by sending him out with
+his jug of water, while there are feasting and revelry within."
+
+"But you cannot make all human nature noble or sensible or grateful.
+There is the grand co-operation of the forty years in the wilderness,
+when food was provided, and clothing lasted miraculously; yet under
+these favorable circumstances, and with the sure promise at the end,
+there was not a heavenly unity."
+
+Jack laughed heartily.
+
+"We must keep from golden calves and such folly," he said. "We are
+likely enough to have our waters of Marah. But it seems to me the best
+way to ennoble labor, give it its true dignity, and show the
+possibilities for the workmen, is concerted action. As matters stand
+now, few poor men can ever acquire sufficient capital to start any
+business; and perhaps this is not best when we consider the cost of
+machinery, and the ever-appearing new inventions. The small capitalist
+could _not_ compete with the large one. Yet capital often takes as its
+right the best strength of the workman, the years of maturity and
+ability, and throws him off in his old age. I know labor retorts by
+carelessness, wastefulness, and utter indifference to the employer's
+welfare. One is a machine to grind labor into money; the other, to grind
+all he can out of capital. Perhaps my design is Utopian, but it seems as
+if something ought to be done before we train a whole generation of men
+to be paupers and thieves. Better that we should spend our money in
+labor experiments than supporting poorhouses and prisons."
+
+Jack had lost his embarrassment now. There was a glow on his cheek, and
+a steady fire in his eye, the lines about the mouth sharply drawn, and
+indicating not only masterly strength, but a kind of pitying patience,
+that would never degenerate into sentimentality. It was a very manly,
+trusty face; and his sterling honesty impressed Miss McLeod, long
+trained to reading faces, while his sturdy good sense promised much.
+
+"I should like Mr. Hildreth to see this paper," turning it in her still
+supple fingers. "What if some of your men insist upon going out after a
+year or two, Mr. Darcy?"
+
+"There will be some kind of forfeiture, of course. The true business
+capital must remain intact the whole five years: the direct proceeds of
+labor may be subject to some changes, but in any event the business
+interests must not be jeopardized."
+
+There was a moment's interruption of a servant; then dinner was brought
+in, and arranged for three. The bright-eyed old lady made a charming
+hostess. She poured their tea with a quaint dignity, and made them feel
+quite as if she were dispensing hospitality in her own house.
+
+She was the kind of woman whom young people, past the lunacies of
+sixteen, invariably like. The feminine portion told her their love
+troubles, the young wives came to her with tangles and little
+jealousies; and, if she could not always straighten them out, she had a
+marvellous way of comforting. Young men drifted toward her by some
+species of magnetism, though she had none of the fussy motherliness of
+some old ladies. With faculties still keen and bright, a great fund of
+good-humor that had the sparkle of champagne rather than any insipid
+sweetness, she never wearied or palled on any one. She kept herself well
+informed of the world's progress, she knew of the principal stars in the
+literary, dramatic, and artistic world, and to be asked to her house was
+a compliment.
+
+The conversation was more general now; and, though Maverick had told
+every thing of note about Yerbury, she was not indisposed to listen to
+it again. They discussed the panic and its causes, and ventured upon
+guesses as to its duration. They all agreed that there had been too much
+haste to be rich, too much greed of speculation, too much personal
+greatness, and not enough national greatness. No generous striving
+together to build up what the war had pulled down, but every man for
+himself and for gold. If women had been frivolous and vain, and dazzled
+by the glare of newly acquired wealth, men had not been quite free from
+faults. The terrible lowering of morals, the dishonesty and fraud easily
+condoned, and laughed over as a kind of shrewdness, were sad examples to
+set before the next generation.
+
+In her way Miss McLeod was quite a politician, having been so much in
+that circle. Her views of men and measures were keen and discriminating;
+and her bits of trenchant wisdom quite dazzled Jack, who at the last,
+proposed laughingly, as his panacea, that every man should undertake the
+mending of himself, when the world would soon be righted.
+
+Afterward a coupé came, and they drove to the Park. There evening and
+the bonny new moon overtook them; but the streets and country roads were
+so inviting, they did not return until quite late.
+
+"Consider yourselves my guests for the night," she said as they drove
+back to the hotel, and Maverick was too wise to demur.
+
+"I have been thinking this matter over," she said as they were
+separating. "My part will be purchasing the mills, and I shall take so
+much in the shape of rent. I want you to consider what per cent you can
+pay, and not straiten yourselves too much. I frankly confess that I am
+greatly interested in you, Mr. Darcy; and as this young man," touching
+Maverick's shoulder, "prefers to 'gang his ain gait,' he leaves me quite
+free to waste my money as I like. Be fair to yourself. Good-night."
+
+"It's all right with you, Jack," began Maverick after they had been
+shown to their room. "Aunt Jean is a trump! I almost forgive her Miss
+Lothrop. But I suppose women would be less than women, if they did not
+want to dip their fingers into destiny. It is their mental chessboard."
+
+"But you do love her? your aunt, I mean."
+
+"Why, of course. Still, I should never dangle in any woman's train;"
+with a curl of the lip.
+
+Miss McLeod was going back to Narragansett the next morning. They
+discussed their last item of agreement; and Jack said, with modest
+decision, "that such real estate could not possibly pay more than three
+per cent to any owner in the course of the next few years. He would
+rather offer her that, and a share contingent on the amount of business
+done at the end of five years, than assume any greater risk just now."
+
+"Thank you for your honesty and your good sense," she replied. "If you
+had offered higher, I should have had some doubts of your financial
+clear-headedness. It will be an equitable bargain. And will you be kind
+enough to make some arrangements for me in Yerbury? I shall come on the
+18th, with a companion and a maid; and Mr. Hildreth will follow the next
+morning. Get your plans in shape by that time. I am glad to have met
+you, Mr. Darcy, and I wish you success in your undertaking."
+
+They shook hands cordially, and went their ways. Jack could hardly
+believe his good fortune, and now he was afraid some other parties might
+step in and take the mills.
+
+"Much likelihood," laughed Maverick.
+
+Jack took Cameron in hand first, as he had been the real suggester of
+the plan. He, Darcy, could use his ten thousand; and, if ten more could
+be subscribed, they would not need to hire outside. As time went on,
+this capital might be equalized and increased. Hurd offered two thousand
+and himself; and just then one of the old hands who had succeeded in
+getting rid of a good bit of property that had weighted him heavily, and
+picked up a little money here and there, subscribed five thousand.
+Yardley had none of his own, but persuaded his wife's sister to invest a
+thousand. The other, Miss Barry offered, if no workman came to hand.
+Winston was a handy Jack-of-all-trades. He could repair machinery, or do
+any kind of wood-work: he had sold cloth on commission, bartered and
+traded, and had a good deal of shrewdness and good sense, and pluck. He
+and Darcy would do the buying and selling; Cameron would take charge of
+supplies, deal them out, and see that nothing went to waste; Hurd and
+Yardley would be overlookers as before. Every man could weave his yard
+of cloth with the best. They would constitute the managing force.
+
+The days passed rapidly; and to Jack's great satisfaction no purchaser
+appeared, no curious soul even sauntered about the mills. Miss McLeod
+came at the appointed time, accompanied by Miss Lothrop, who was as
+distant to Maverick as if this were their first meeting. The ladies were
+to stay with Mrs. Darcy, and the best in the house was placed at their
+disposal with simple courtesy. They were taken to the mills, where they
+made a tour of inspection; Jack explaining machinery, looms, shuttles,
+and spindles, with an enthusiasm that amazed even himself. There was a
+new interest in the thought of having a voice in the direction of that
+great engine now so silent, and the work it was to do.
+
+"We shall not use half our looms in the beginning," he said; "but I
+hope, before the five years are ended, we shall be doing our utmost."
+
+They all hoped so for his sake. "If any man can make the plan work, he
+will," thought Miss McLeod, who liked him better every hour.
+
+Miss Barry and Sylvie came to call on the ladies in the evening.
+
+"I suppose that is Mr. Darcy's sweetheart," Miss Lothrop remarked
+afterward. "She is a pretty, enthusiastic little thing, and she takes so
+much interest in his affairs. I can just fancy how they will work
+together, and the earnest, useful lives they will lead. What butterflies
+we are!" looking down at her white helpless hands. "Not you, but the
+young women of the day in general. You are a busy bee, and still keep
+storing up your honey."
+
+"And sting occasionally," laughed the sharp, bright old lady.
+
+The sale took place the next morning at ten, at the Court House. There
+was quite a number of spectators, though the ladies, with Maverick and
+Darcy, were in a private office. Hamilton Minor had come up, resolved
+that it should not go for less than the mortgage, but desirous of ending
+his responsibility. There were but two bids. The auctioneer lingered a
+long while on Mr. Hildreth's bid, commenting on the enormous sacrifice,
+but he could move no one's interest. It was reluctantly knocked down,
+the purchase-money paid, and the deed made out to Miss McLeod.
+
+Then the company's agreement was put in lawful, legal shape. The
+managing board of five men were to have sole charge of buying, selling,
+and manufacturing. They were to give all their time and ability, to
+watch the state of the market, and conduct every thing for the benefit
+of the whole corporation. Darcy was to prepare a balance-sheet
+semi-annually, showing profit and loss; and this was to be open to the
+inspection of the firm.
+
+The parties to the second part, the workmen, were to work ten hours a
+day, six days in the week, under the supervision of Hurd and Yardley.
+The wages of the men and the salaries of the managers were to be put at
+the minimum rate, and both parties were to draw two-thirds of this sum
+weekly. At the end of the year, the profits on labor and capital were to
+be evenly divided; one half apportioned to the capital, the other half
+divided _pro rata_; but only half of this sum to be drawn out yearly,
+the other turned over to the capital stock, and placed to each man's
+credit. If any operative should become dissatisfied, and leave, his
+share of the profits was to be forfeited to a fund for sick or disabled
+workmen. Any member of the association guilty of misconduct was to be
+twice reprimanded, and for a third offence expelled. A standing
+committee of the workmen, with one chairman, was to investigate and
+settle such matters. Shares of capital as low as fifty dollars would be
+within reach of the workmen. A clause was inserted, that no ale, beer,
+or spirituous liquors were to be brought into the mill during working
+hours. It had been one of the old-time rules, but often transgressed.
+Each man was to use his best endeavors to promote the interests of the
+firm.
+
+At the end of five years, the agreement was to cease, and the profits to
+be divided.
+
+Then the five-years' lease of Hope Mills and all its appurtenances was
+made out to "Hope Mills Co-operative Association," and duly signed. The
+rental was to be six hundred and sixty dollars per annum, the company to
+pay the taxes, and keep the mills in ordinary repair.
+
+Then the managers and a number of the workmen marched over to Hope Mills
+in a body, opened the doors and barred shutters, and entered with an
+exultant step. They were to try their hand at good-fellowship in labor,
+and see if it would solve the vexations of the old system, or prove any
+stronger bond. Maverick had spread a little feast in what had been
+Eastman's office; and they sat down together, the ladies, joined by
+Sylvie Barry, Mrs. Darcy, and Miss Morgan, taking the head of the table.
+Some speeches were made, and some toasts drank, and everybody wished
+success to Hope Mills. Had John Hope unconsciously foretold their future
+when he christened them for his own glory? Darcy thought so. The name
+had a higher significance now, and was to be the earnest of many souls,
+the watchword to inspire them.
+
+Miss McLeod bade them a hearty farewell. "There may arise some
+emergency, Mr. Darcy," said she, "when indorsing a note, or a similar
+matter, will be of great importance to you. I shall not promise to do
+much of it; but I am strongly interested in this experiment, and want it
+to have a fair trial. Let me hear from you occasionally; and, if you are
+in any great strait, apply to me."
+
+Jack thanked her warmly, and she and Miss Lothrop went their way.
+
+"She is a regular fairy godmother," he said enthusiastically to
+Maverick. "I wonder that you do not adore her!" and he studied his
+friend in astonishment.
+
+"Have you never heard of people being so much alike they could not
+agree?" he asked with a light laugh. "What ever possessed her to bring
+Miss Lothrop? It was in bad taste, to say the least; and, whatever
+faults aunt Jean may have, she seldom makes a blunder of that kind."
+
+"Why, Sylvie was--well, a good deal pleased with her. The acquaintance
+was so short"--
+
+"Miss Barry is the most generous and least exacting woman that I ever
+saw. She judges people by her own noble soul. Jack Darcy"--Maverick shut
+his lips with a sudden resolution, and turned his face partly aside,
+then said in a curiously changed tone, "We are two fools to be talking
+about women, when there are more important matters on hand."
+
+"But I shall always feel grateful to Miss McLeod. There are several
+moneyed men here in Yerbury whose capital is lying idle, who would not
+have done this thing for me if they knew it would keep half Yerbury from
+starving. Yet, if I had offered them ten per cent, they would hardly
+have hesitated. It does seem to me sometimes, that these old dons tempt
+one into lying first, and swindling afterward. If you make them all
+straight, they do not care how much crooked work you do elsewhere."
+
+"Natural depravity and innate selfishness."
+
+And now began the real work. The mills were cleaned of the year's
+accumulation of dust and cobwebs and general untidiness. Winston went at
+the machinery with hearty good-will, and put it in order. Circulars were
+sent out to the old patrons and to new houses, and workmen, workwomen,
+and children straggled in to see what was going on. Were Hope Mills to
+be really opened? and was Mr. Darcy to be master? True, a good many of
+the best men had gone off to try their luck elsewhere, but there were
+plenty left for a start. Only, there was a mystery these people could
+not understand. Something about wages, and something about money; and
+Jack patiently explained the matter, until, as he told Maverick, he felt
+like a cheap-John auctioneer, dispensing wares.
+
+"The best thing will be to have a meeting," declared Maverick. "See
+here, Darcy: I'll hire Brock's Hall myself; and we will have a lecture,
+or a conference-meeting. Subject, 'Work and Wages.' I'll have some
+posters out too. Every one will know what we mean, that we are honest
+men and true; and you will be spared this everlasting palaver. Then we
+will have some rules, or by-laws, or something, for the workmen. Talk to
+Mr. Winston about it. He would make a capital speaker, with his glib
+tongue."
+
+Darcy thought it an excellent plan, and they set about it immediately.
+
+"But you'll have to post me," confessed Winston. "The only co-operation
+I ever was in was a building-association, and our treasurer ran off with
+our funds."
+
+Maverick promised to "coach" him. Indeed, it was the doctor who gathered
+up statistics, and put them in a compact and telling form.
+
+They had a large audience,--men and women. "Robert Winston, Esq.," was
+the orator of the evening. He was a fluent speaker, and had a good deal
+of humor. He began about the early Anglo-Saxon guilds, and the banding
+together of craftsmen when towns grew large and prosperous, and labor
+was performed in the workshops, instead of at home; of the importance of
+the woollen-manufacture in the days of Elizabeth, not only in England,
+but on the Continent, when kings did not disdain to borrow money of
+these corporations; of their final overthrow, and the causes leading to
+it; of the growth of trades-unions, and the views of conflicting writers
+on the subject. The workman's necessities so often compelled him to
+accept what he felt to be inadequate returns, because he could not
+wait,--it was work or starvation with him,--so that in dull times he was
+not only at the mercy of the employer, but every other starving workman.
+On the other hand, so few workmen ever informed themselves concerning
+the employer's perplexities and dangers, they had no broad and vital
+interest in the business until they all became leagued together, as in
+co-operation. Then they shared one another's burdens and prosperity. It
+was not the one great fortune, but the many comfortable incomes. It was
+the fruit of the noblest thought and the truest philanthropy. As a
+producer it had done its best work in France; and he went briefly over
+the work of the masons at Paris, and the Association Remquet, which,
+after carrying on printing business for ten years, divided among its
+members an average of over ten thousand francs; the cloth-factory at
+Vienna, with its flour-mill, bakery, grocery, coal-yard, and farm; the
+different societies in England, that were promising, to say the least.
+All this had been done by the thrift and economy of individual members,
+who educated themselves by doing business, and so were enabled to
+dispense with the profits of middle-men, and the greedy clutch of
+speculators.
+
+After Winston had finished, Dr. Maverick went briefly over their plans
+for Hope Mills in a very simple and direct manner.
+
+"Winston was capital!" said Jack afterward. "When we are hard up we can
+send him off on a lecturing-tour. But wasn't it rather over the heads of
+our people?"
+
+"It was for others beside the workmen. You know, Darcy, some men are so
+used to swindling and misrepresentation, that they invariably accuse
+every plan of another, of the same motive. You will have a good deal of
+this back talk before your five years are ended; and I want Yerbury to
+know that this is an old, old scheme. I might have quoted the children
+of Israel, as aunt Jean did, and shocked the religious portion of the
+community. But, after all, isn't the greatest truth, the Golden Rule,
+co-operation in _all_ forms?" and he glanced up triumphantly.
+
+Jack did not gainsay him.
+
+He had hit the truth in regard to Yerbury. Some of those who had managed
+to hold on to their money through all the stress of hard times raised
+their eyebrows and shook their heads in amused derision. "A fool and his
+money," said they, and "Set a beggar on horseback," besides numerous
+wise saws people love to fling at their neighbors. A mortifying collapse
+was predicted. There wasn't a woollen-mill in the country paying. The
+smaller people who had been easily induced to invest their money in
+building-lots, under the supposition that in a few years there would
+hardly be standing-room in Yerbury, looked askance at this project, so
+much more easily does speculation appeal to human nature, than the
+slower but more honorable results of industry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+IT was easy enough now to get hands who would consent to the
+three-quarter wages. With one winter of semi-starvation the poor of
+Yerbury were glad to take any thing that promised bread. The masters
+were going to share with the men; but they were made distinctly to
+understand, that, unless the mills earned something over and above this,
+there could be no surplus, no dividends. Another thousand of the capital
+had been made up by some of the hands, who thought this promised as well
+as railroad-stocks, lots out on country barrens, or even savings banks.
+
+To be sure, some burly fellows, whose wives could hardly keep soul and
+body together over their washing-tubs, swore great oaths that Jack Darcy
+was a fool to think he could find men to play into his hands that way!
+Bob Winston was a blower, and never kept at any one thing; and some of
+the rest were old screws, and in six months time everybody would see!
+
+However, Hope Mills rang out its great bell cheerfully on Monday
+morning, the middle of September. A small procession wended their way in
+at the side gate. The engine, with Robert Winston at its helm, as they
+had not suited themselves with an engineer, puffed and groaned; but, if
+it was not a merry music, it was good to hear, for all that. The faces
+were pinched and thin with a year's care and want and the horrible fear
+of the future, but they tried to smile cheerfully. More than one poor
+woman had tears in her eyes, and spoke in that hysterical,
+half-laughing, half-crying tone, that told how deeply her feelings were
+moved.
+
+By night they were quite settled in the old places, or adapted to new
+ones. Perhaps the year's experience had done these people some good:
+they had learned to manage closer. Cameron and Darcy had discussed
+thrifty French ways of management, and now meant to profit by them if
+possible. The American spirit of wastefulness should not run riot as it
+had in times past. Dyes and oils and chemicals were to be sharply looked
+after, and Cameron was the man to do it.
+
+Before the first week was out, an engineer came to hand. There had been
+several applications, but some men raised their noses and laughed loudly
+at the rate of wages. A young chap just out of his time when the panic
+came on, and who had tried every thing, even to rail-roading, took the
+place with hearty thanks; a quick, bright fellow too, who had a love for
+his business, and said in ten minutes time, "She's a pretty engine, Mr.
+Winston!" with the enthusiasm of a true artist.
+
+"That chap'll blow up Hope Mills in less than a month," said Jem Stixon,
+who had been refused. "You mark my words! I wouldn't have wife or child
+of mine working there."
+
+Darcy watched the temper of the employees, and reported every few days
+to Maverick. The little social "we" and "ours" was working wonders, he
+thought.
+
+"And we do nothing!" said Sylvie one evening, in a discontented tone, as
+she sat crocheting by Mrs. Darcy's pretty round table in the old
+library, that had become a kind of general business-room. "I thought you
+were going to set us women at work about something. Miss Morgan and I
+have been waiting patiently."
+
+"There was the cooking-school"--
+
+"But we have nothing to cook. And how are we to get any thing? unless we
+set up as those poor weavers in Toad Lane, on our pocket-money. I
+believe I beg from those who have a little, nearly half my time, to give
+to those who have nothing. And, would you believe it, some of the women
+begin to think they _must_ be provided for. Mrs. Cairns asked me to-day
+when the relief-store was going to open. She didn't see why there
+shouldn't always be something here like the parish relief in England.
+And when Mrs. Ray offered to take Josie this winter, and keep her in
+shoes for what she could do, and teach her a little, Mrs. Cairns said,
+'if she was worth any thing, she was worth more than that. She might
+have her for a dollar a week.'"
+
+"Such people ought to go hungry," declared Jane Morgan sharply.
+
+"I've been thinking," said Jack, who now raised his eyes slowly, "there
+is one thing you might help do; and, indirectly, it would be very
+serviceable to me. Sylvie, you know Kit Connelly's corner, as they
+always call it?"
+
+"Well, so it is: Mrs. Connelly earned the money that bought it, and I am
+glad she didn't let Dennis go on in business until he spent every cent
+of it. And oh, Jack! all we women of Yerbury ought to be doubly proud
+that she wouldn't let Den keep a beer-shop there, nor hire it to any one
+else."
+
+"I hope you are. I think Kit was pretty plucky to take the black eyes
+and the grumbling. It was a good job for her when Den went over to the
+Bowman House for hostler. So, of course, it has been shut up a year and
+a half. You know, two blocks down below, Keppler's door stands open for
+everybody, and so many of the mill-hands pass that way. It is so easy to
+run in and get a glass, and the men who bring their lunches go down for
+a mug of ale. It is a terrible temptation, and I wonder if they are not
+more easily tempted on an empty stomach? Well, I've been considering for
+some days if we could not start a coffee-house there,--set Kit up in
+business. I'm not going to fling a temperance-pledge right in every
+man's face,--for that makes them spiteful. I do not even want to exhort.
+But if we put it there,--right in their way,--and there was a nice fire
+in the evening, and maybe a book or two"--
+
+"Splendid, Jack! There's no such thing in Yerbury. Let's get about it
+right away!" and Sylvie sprang up, as if she would start at once.
+
+They all laughed.
+
+"There must be a little planning first. Mrs. Connelly is a bright,
+good-hearted creature, and can make good coffee; and Rose and Kathleen
+would make nice little maids. She stopped me to-night to inquire if
+there was any chance of their being taken in the mill. There must be
+some diversity of employment, or presently we shall all be doing the one
+thing again,"--and Jack smiled humorously. "Dennis gets low wages,
+Bernard is in the mill, and there are two younger boys. She takes in
+gentlemen's laundering, as you know. She was wishing she could rent out
+the store, but no one wants it. Now, if it could be altered into an
+attractive coffee-room, kept neat and bright, and--you will laugh at me,
+no doubt--but given a kind of style,--the cups clean and shining, the
+spoons decent, and some nice bread and butter for noon lunches. All this
+at a moderate price. The men pay five cents for their pint of ale, and
+it is often shared by two: they must not give more than three cents for
+their cup of coffee."
+
+"I suppose you mean that we are to plan it all out for her," said
+Sylvie, and she looked across at Miss Morgan.
+
+"It will not do to buy a pound of sugar and a pound of coffee at a
+time," said Jane concisely.
+
+"Then I will be the capitalist," promised Sylvie.
+
+"Exactly. Kit had better do this on some money that she must give an
+account of, and it will make her more careful. She owns a cow, so there
+is the milk. I should like this started quietly, not with a great blare
+of opposition to the dram-shops."
+
+"Well, what must we do first?" asked Sylvie.
+
+"I wish you and Jane would go down and call on her, and suggest the
+business. See how she takes it, and look around at the capabilities of
+the place. I will see to the fitting-up."
+
+They went, as desired. Mrs. Connelly--a round, rosy, buxom Irishwoman,
+with a mellow voice, laughing eye, and artist-red hair--was very much
+taken with their plan. "To turn an honest penny in these hard times, and
+not be wronging any one, would just suit the likes of her. And there was
+the store standing empty,--but it might stand till the crack o' doom
+afore she'd have a drop of rum sold in it. There never was a better man
+than Den when he was sober, and sure she'd had sorrow enough along wid
+drinking. And there was Barney growin' up, and the two smaller ones, and
+she'd never, never put a bit of temptation in their way."
+
+The store had been used for a meat-shop and green-grocery. Kit had sold
+the fixtures when she had been in sore need of money, so now it was a
+great bare room, with one large window and two small ones.
+
+"Sure I can scrub an' whitewash it myself, an' put clean curtains to the
+windows. And you're very good to think of such a thing, Miss Barry,--may
+the saints bless you! An' if Mr. Darcy will see to getting what is
+wanted, I'll do my very best to please you all."
+
+Sylvie blushed a little at taking the credit, but it was Jack's wish.
+Jack had a small portico built over the door-way, to keep out the cold
+in winter, and a neat sign put up, with but two words,--"Coffee-House."
+Sylvie and Miss Morgan ordered some cheap, small tables, some plain
+wooden chairs, and found two comfortable, old-fashioned, wooden settles.
+Then she collected old magazines and illustrated papers, and a rack was
+put up at one side for them. All the tables were covered with light
+marbled rubber-cloth, so that they would be kept fresh and sweet. The
+sugar and coffee were forthcoming. Kit could roast coffee to a turn. One
+Thursday evening the place was lighted up, and a few guests asked in;
+and the next day the fame of Kit Connelly's coffee-house began. Half the
+folks in Yerbury knew her and Dennis.
+
+Rose Connelly, who was just seventeen, a nice fresh-looking girl, was to
+keep the books, and take the money as she was quite a scholar. Several
+of the mill-hands went over immediately for their lunches. Such splendid
+wheat, rye, and Graham bread, spread already, and brought on a clean
+plate! A nice bite for three cents, and a solid meal for six. Sylvie was
+to go down now and then, of a morning, to keep matters straight.
+
+"There is one entering-wedge in the cause of temperance," she remarked,
+in her piquant way. "Only, Jack, it does not seem quite right for us
+women to take the credit of it. I confess, among all my plans, there has
+been nothing like this."
+
+"I would rather not be openly connected with it," and Jack made a queer
+little grimace. "By and by I may have to do some real fighting on my own
+account, and I don't want too many vulnerable points. Human nature is
+rather queer and cranky, as you have, no doubt, observed by this time."
+
+"But I do not see why any one should want to fight against your good
+work, Jack," said Sylvie, with an indignant flush. "I am sure it is no
+light undertaking to provide all these people with work; and everybody
+ought to strengthen your hands, instead of putting obstacles in the
+way."
+
+"I must be prepared for all things."
+
+Maverick was very enthusiastic over the coffee-house. It was a new
+institution in Yerbury. There had been in good times several so-called
+cheap lunch-rooms, but the fare was invariably poor.
+
+"Keppler will be your first enemy, and your worst one," said the doctor
+with a shrewd smile.
+
+"Very well. He must fight Miss Barry and Miss Morgan. I did send a man
+to do some work, but Miss Barry paid the bills. I keep my hands out of
+it altogether."
+
+"Good for you, Jack. And how does business progress?"
+
+"I am dubious," and Jack shook his head in a mock-serious way. "There is
+too much rose-color. Every thing works to a charm. Whether people really
+have learned something by the hard times, remains to be seen; but it
+looks so now. And we couldn't have a better working firm. Owen Cameron
+is the same kind of a man that Miss Morgan is for a woman, not stingy
+here and wasteful there, but a thorough-going economist. Every week he
+makes a little saving somewhere. It is what we needed to learn, badly
+enough. He manages to make the men understand that every penny saved is
+for the benefit of all, that a yard of cloth or a pound of wool spoiled
+is to the loss of all. And that is the only way to settle this business,
+this everlasting wrangle between labor and capital."
+
+Amos Hurd and Peter Yardley used to talk over the other scheme of a
+co-operative store. It would not do to have too many irons in the fire
+in such times as these, when no one had any great deal of money. But it
+did seem as if poor people were paying at the dearest rate for every
+thing, partly because they asked for trust, and the only man willing to
+trust them to any extent kept a very full line of second or third rate
+articles, but the prices did not always correspond.
+
+"Now, there's coal," said Yardley one evening. "At the trade-sale it
+went up ten cents a ton on the average. Our dealers here, who had their
+yards full, put up their prices from twenty to thirty cents. I know, on
+the other hand, if coal takes a sudden tumble, they may lose; but, after
+watching this thing for years, I find the prices go up five times with
+full yards, where they fall once. Now, I was thinking, when coal was
+bought for the mill, some extra car-loads might be ordered for the men."
+
+"Yes," and Hurd opened his eyes widely. "Let us talk to Darcy about it."
+
+Jack listened to their proposal with a sudden interest.
+
+"It will be some trouble to you," he answered. "It is not as thoroughly
+screened, and there is the delivering. The men cannot carry it home in
+market-baskets."
+
+"I don't know about the screening," said Yardley rather grimly. "When
+you clean up your bin, and find several bushels of sand and refuse out
+of five or six tons, you think half of it, at least, ought to have been
+good burning-coal. And in wholesale buying you get long tons."
+
+"I can do it as well as not," replied Jack. "In fact,"--laughingly,--"it
+will rather redound to my credit to order largely, and we have a
+somewhat extensive coal-shed. But you must look up one or two men who
+will cart it, and a man to screen; and, when you have counted up your
+labor, decide upon what price you can offer your coal. Perhaps it would
+be as well to canvass, and learn how many tons you can dispose of."
+
+The workmen had their own board of managers, of which Yardley had been
+elected president. They generally met every week, and now Yardley laid
+this matter before them. There would be an average saving, he thought,
+of two dollars on every ton, but the coal must be paid for in thirty
+days. If the men chose to leave one or two dollars every Monday night
+(for Darcy had wisely made Monday instead of Saturday pay-day) they
+might give in an order for one or two or even three tons.
+
+Meanwhile Peter Yardley found some thorns even in his path. A good,
+stout Irish lad was willing to do the screening at a dollar per day; but
+when he spoke to several carters, who were not busy half the time, to a
+man they stuck to their regular price, fifty cents per ton. Not one of
+them would work by the day.
+
+"I can fix that just right," declared one of the men. "My wife's brother
+has a heavy wagon and two mules. He used to do carting for the
+iron-mills, and since then he has had mostly catch-jobs. He owns a
+little place over on the creek-road; and I know he will be glad enough
+to do it, and maybe take part of his pay in coal."
+
+Seth Williams was hunted up. He would come, and bring his son who would
+help about loading, for two dollars and a half a day. There were
+seventy-odd tons subscribed for, but they decided to make their order
+one hundred tons. Coal was selling at six dollars and a half per ton at
+Yerbury. After due calculation, they offered theirs to the men at four.
+
+It came duly to hand. After the first day, Williams hired another team
+on his own account, and his son drove one to its destination, making
+thereby extra time. Before the seventy tons had been delivered, the
+remainder was bespoken. They found when it had all been disposed of, and
+their workmen paid, that they had counted very closely, but there was a
+small balance on hand. This was deposited in the bank as a nucleus for a
+co-operative store as soon as there might be sufficient capital to
+warrant it. This, at least, had been a success. So many of the poorer
+class of Yerbury were not able to pay for the last ton of coal until
+they ordered again, being always that much behind.
+
+Yardley was quite jubilant over his scheme.
+
+"You forget that in this you and Hurd have received nothing for your
+trouble," said Darcy. "Then," smilingly, "you have no bad debts to count
+out. Still only a philanthropist can do business this way. If you were
+the proprietor of a coal-yard, you could not afford it."
+
+"I think I have something for my trouble, Mr. Darcy," the man answered
+proudly. "I have saved ten dollars on my four tons of coal, and that
+surely pays me."
+
+They were doing moderately well at the mill. Several orders had come in
+from old buyers; and now Winston started out on a travelling tour, being
+admirably fitted for that part of the business. At the West he managed
+to talk two large wool-dealers into a trade; they taking cloth of
+various grades in exchange, and disposing of it to the best of their
+ability.
+
+"A regular old-fashioned barter," he wrote to Maverick. "It took a good
+deal of talking, to be sure, but I'm never the worse for that. They were
+pleased to get a fair price for their wool, and I lost nothing on my
+cloth. It clears out the stock, and keeps the men busy."
+
+Indeed, Hope Mills was doing a great thing for Yerbury. There was a
+brisker air on the streets, a kind of inspiring music in the whir and
+clatter, that spoke of food and warmth and raiment. Good feeling and
+sympathy had been touched; and though some of the workmen, who were
+harassed by back debts, looked rather ruefully at their small weekly
+pittance, still it was so much better than no money and no employment.
+
+At the Darcys they held what Sylvie laughingly called "symposiums." The
+churches were organizing their winter work, for there would be need
+enough. The few who had found employment merely made a ripple on the
+surface. Some who had stretched out their scanty means the past year now
+found themselves penniless. Others had tramped about the neighboring
+towns and cities, getting a few weeks' work here and there, but had no
+fancy for facing winter in this precarious manner. The hopeful feeling
+animating so many in the early autumn died out again. It was feared
+that we had not seen the worst of the panic.
+
+To Sylvie, who the preceding winter had been engrossed in art-studies
+and delightful social life, the want and misery were appalling. She and
+Miss Morgan did organize a visiting-society according to an idea of Dr.
+Maverick's; and though they alleviated many cases of distress, and were
+the better able to distinguish who were worthy, still they increased
+upon their hands.
+
+"I begin to realize that poor people do not make the best of their
+money," she said. "They do not know how to prepare dishes that shall be
+cheap and palatable. And, worst of all, many of them cannot cook a
+potato so that it shall be fit to eat."
+
+"The weak point of this world, Miss Sylvie," said Dr. Maverick. "When
+women learn to make good bread and cook potatoes, there will be a
+decrease of one-half in dyspepsia. Now, what is the secret of the
+potatoes? Come, air your ideas! Give me a recipe, and I will take it
+around among my patients. I advise them pretty generally to bake them,
+but I find some soggy and watery even then."
+
+"Overdone," said Miss Morgan briefly.
+
+"Well, state the exact time."
+
+The women looked at each other, and laughed.
+
+"From twenty minutes to half an hour," said Mrs. Darcy. "Some kinds boil
+easier than others. For baking, three-quarters to an hour."
+
+"But the infallible test?"
+
+"Watchfulness," said Jane.
+
+"I must admit that you seem to understand it thoroughly, judging from
+the specimens I have seen and eaten. But are you not a little chary in
+your information?" and he glanced from one to another.
+
+"Miss Morgan shall be first spokeswoman," declared Sylvie gayly.
+
+"If it is a boiled potato," began Jane sententiously, as if she were a
+child speaking a piece, "I put mine in the saucepan, and pour hot water
+over them, as they come to a boil sooner, taking care that they shall be
+as nearly of a size as possible. In about twenty minutes I try an
+average potato. If I can stick a fork through it nicely, it is done.
+Then I pour off the water, letting it drain until every drop is gone,
+when I shake up the lot two or three times rather hard and quick, stand
+them on the back of the stove with the cover partly off, so that the
+steam may escape; and you have a dry, light, flaky potato, unless it was
+irremediably bad to begin with. I have sometimes boiled new and rather
+small potatoes in twelve minutes over a good fire. But cooking, like
+liberty, has the same high price, eternal vigilance."
+
+Maverick laughed. "I shall remember this," he exclaimed. "You will yet
+hear of me teaching some of my poor patients to cook potatoes. Heaven
+knows there is enough need of it. Wasn't there some talk of a school for
+useful arts?"
+
+"Yes," answered Sylvie, "only there was no money to start with, and we
+have all been so busy."
+
+"What would be needed?"
+
+"_Imprimis_: a room, a cooking-stove, a fire, a cook, and some
+materials," replied Sylvie with merry audacity.
+
+How pretty and bright she was! He liked to watch her in these changeful
+moods. One great charm of this place was finding her here so frequently.
+
+"And Mr. Darcy has been so much engrossed with weightier matters," she
+continued in a half apology.
+
+"I really think I ought to be more interested in this question than Mr.
+Darcy. It supplements my work. While cheap living is an imperative
+necessity in times of depression and low wages, I cannot see why we do
+not make it more of a study. While we are so ready to copy the vices of
+our French neighbors, perhaps their virtues would do us no harm. A
+doctor often finds himself quite nonplussed by something in the
+preparation of the patient's diet. The old doctrine preached years ago,
+on St. Paul's text of 'keeping the body under,' has worked as much
+damage as the asceticism of the middle ages. A good healthy body is the
+first requisite everywhere; and to keep it so, every one's first duty.
+When men began to consider the body a poor, vile thing, to be treated
+with contumely, and fed with what would just sustain life, they offered
+an outrage to the highest work of God. When people think it is no matter
+what they eat, and that no pains need be taken in the preparation, they
+have made a big lapse toward heathenism. Confusion of the physical
+senses leads to confusion of the moral sense; and weak, miserable bodies
+with hysterical nerves, though they may dream dreams, and see visions,
+cannot do good healthy work in this world. And your poor people need a
+good deal of training on this subject. It must be made an honorable, not
+a despised, business. If I were to build houses, I should make the
+kitchens large, light, and pretty; and, if any room had to be small and
+uninviting, it should be that for the storage of the best furniture,"
+laughing humorously.
+
+"Yes," responded Jane Morgan, "I like to go into an old-fashioned
+country kitchen, with a nice painted floor, and braided rag rugs laid
+down here and there: with a grandmother's corner by a sunny window, and
+a father's chair by the wide, cheerful chimney-piece, and a place for
+the children to play, with plenty of room to get about. Apples and nuts
+always taste so good in such a place! Instead, we have a stuffy little
+kitchen and a cheerless dining-room, that no one wants to sit in, and
+every member of the family goes to his or her room, and sociability is
+at an end. Then we must go to theatres, lectures, and concerts, just to
+catch a glimpse of the members of our own family."
+
+"There is a good deal of truth in that," and the doctor nodded
+sagaciously. "And now I shall take steps for that school. I may count on
+you, Miss Morgan, may I not, and Miss Barry?"
+
+They both promised.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+MEANWHILE what had befallen Fred Lawrence?
+
+He had been greatly shocked at his father's death. True, the tender,
+intense affection that had so sweetened childhood seemed to have died
+out; when they might have attained to an enduring friendship, they had
+gone separate ways, missing the exquisite sympathy that should have
+existed between them. Whether the distance was any disappointment to his
+father, he had never thought. He was the only son of the house, and his
+slightest wish had always been gratified. There had been no wretched
+vices that sap body and soul, nothing to bring dishonor on the old pure,
+family name; and, if David Lawrence missed something that he had hardly
+longed for, he still felt proud of his son.
+
+But his son, bending over the coffined face, was stunned, paralyzed. Of
+this death he had never thought. Was it not rather a frightful dream?
+
+The sharp reality followed fast enough. He listened, still bewildered by
+the horrible visions that crowded upon him. Hope Mills closed, notes
+going to protest, workmen clamoring for pay, Mr. Eastman quite out of
+reach, indeed, no one knew just where.
+
+Mr. Minor did not spare his father-in-law. How could he trust every
+thing to Horace Eastman! How could he allow George to go on unchecked in
+such a career of wild speculation! forgetting that he had speculated
+quite as wildly. And now all the property was covered with mortgages,
+and not a dollar to be squeezed out of any thing. As for the bank
+business, that he sneered at. Let them look to the Eastmans. They might
+have known that a small manufacturing town like Yerbury could not stand
+such galloping progress. In his heart of hearts he thought George and
+Horace rather clever fellows to get away before the crash began. And if
+David Lawrence had only managed to provide well for his family,--his
+manifest duty,--the rest might have gone without a sigh, such trifles as
+notes and wages.
+
+Fred Lawrence he looked upon as a baby. Indeed, Fred was of but little
+use in settling the business, much more plague than profit, since he
+stood up stoutly for his father's honor and integrity. He had that much
+of a son's love. And he characterized Horace Eastman's villany as it
+deserved: his education had not quite done away with his moral sense in
+such matters.
+
+"Here for five years your father has given him a clean sweep with every
+thing! If you thrust temptation right in a man's way, what can you
+expect?"
+
+"His honesty would not be of a very high order if it could withstand no
+temptation," Fred answered rather scornfully. "It was necessary for
+father to travel in the interests of the business. He surely could not
+stay here to watch him. And you thought well of Eastman."
+
+"No man would play _me_ such rascally tricks! There is no telling what
+he has done! Books can be doctored to look very fair."
+
+But they found enough. Pay-rolls for men kept up long after they had
+been discharged, and many who had never been at all; systematic
+falsifications that could not be brought to light without a rigid
+inspection and comparison by an expert. But Hamilton Minor felt, with
+the world's wisdom, that bringing the Eastmans back as criminals would
+not be likely to lead to any restoration; while it would prove a family
+disgrace, and perhaps add Gertrude to the list of dependent ones.
+
+"It makes me heart-sick!" declared Fred. "There is nothing but
+selfishness and hollowness and greed. Are truth and honor quite dead?"
+
+"Very fine talk, my young friend," said Minor in a sneering tone; "but
+the question that more nearly concerns you is how you are all going to
+live, granting even that there may be enough to pay the debts. Of course
+this great house cannot be kept afloat. You had better discharge some of
+the servants, and retrench while you do remain in it."
+
+Then had followed the talk with Agatha, when matrimony was proposed as a
+certain and sure remedy for these present ills: a cure the young man
+disdained with anger.
+
+Mrs. Lawrence kept to her room, and was too ill to listen to business
+details, even if she could have helped in any way, which she could not.
+She fancied now, like many another woman, that her husband had been her
+only delight in life, and that there was nothing left. When Agatha
+suggested that she had been very short-sighted to consent to mortgaging
+Hope Terrace, she cried, and said "she would have given up every thing
+for him, and now that he was gone she wanted no fortune,--she should
+never leave her room again until she was carried."
+
+If there had been any bright little Sylvie to run in and comfort her!
+any strong-hearted, tender woman, to whom he could turn! He seemed now
+to realize more keenly what he had lost, than on the night Sylvie
+rejected him. And that other strong, manly soul--no, bitterly as he
+might regret, he could no more go back to him than to Sylvie.
+
+He roused himself, and began his work, utterly astounded at the
+extravagance that met him on every side. No doubt it looked right enough
+when there was plenty of money; but it seemed now as if the servants had
+been masters and mistresses, that all these luxuries existed for their
+sake,--the gardens and graperies, the greenhouses with their wealth of
+costly flowers; the horses standing idle in the stable, with only
+servants to use them; his father a plain man, his mother confined mostly
+to two or three rooms, and occasional visitors; supplies ordered
+lavishly, and wasted in a manner that seemed wicked even to him. He
+wondered in a vague way if the system was not radically wrong that
+brought such waste and carelessness in vogue, when hundreds had not the
+necessities of life. He remembered one talk his father had with Horace
+Eastman over in the library yonder, with champagne and cigars between
+them, in the height of one of the strikes, and how Eastman had figured
+to a penny the exact percentage of wages the mill could afford to pay.
+What if _they_ had given up a little of their luxury, and _he_ his
+ill-gotten gains!
+
+He had the pictures packed under his supervision, and sent to New York.
+Not without a pang; for many of them he had selected, and each one had
+some pleasant reminder. The choice collection of the greenhouse was
+offered for sale, the elegant furniture, and all the most valuable of
+the personal property. Times were hard, and sales were slow; but there
+would be sufficient realized, it was thought, to pay the floating
+indebtedness. Hope Terrace and the mills would probably go for the
+mortgages. There was a small life-insurance settled upon Mrs. Lawrence,
+and the children would be fortuneless.
+
+By spring the estate was in a fair way of settlement. Fred had vibrated
+between the city and Yerbury all winter, but his mother had been taken
+to Mrs. Minor's. A gardener and his wife were placed in charge of the
+house, while efforts were being made to rent it. A few rooms had not
+been disturbed.
+
+And now Frederic De Woolfe Lawrence looked about him to see what could
+be done. Up to this time he had never given himself an anxious thought
+about money or his future. Now it stared him unpleasantly in the face.
+What could _he_ do?
+
+Many things, he said at first, with the buoyant certainty of youth and
+inexperience. Here was his education, his talents, his fine mental
+training. Surely he had the magical open-sesame of some door.
+
+So he set to work industriously, and wrote several articles on the
+history and the philosophy of the pure sciences. Very fine-drawn indeed,
+very intellectual and analytical, as he went through the different
+schools of thought, being able, it seemed to him, to argue as well for
+the one side as for the other. Then he tried Neo-Platonism with its
+profoundly mystical aspects and its brilliant array of philosophers, its
+fascinating aspects of Pantheism. The new world and to-day had nothing
+for him; the dead and gone past, every thing.
+
+Alas! From every side he heard the cry, Literature had been overdone. No
+one would buy, no one would read, in this great turmoil. Everybody wrote
+now, schoolgirls, college-fledglings: even small farmers and mechanics,
+with the training of the present and a smattering of knowledge, set up
+for geniuses.
+
+One advised him to try the realistic school: the old-time philosophies
+had lost the high place they once held, and to gain the attention of
+to-day writers must have snap and vim. Another recommended popular
+science made easy and attractive to general readers, something that
+caught at the first glance. Life was too short to be devoting years to
+any one branch of study. Still another was fain to persuade him to
+attack the pernicious systems and monstrous abuses of the present day.
+Then he stumbled over Crosby, one of his college-chums and a member of
+the L---- Club, where he had been a frequent and welcome visitor the
+winter before.
+
+"My dear fellow," said he, with patronizing good-nature, "take my
+advice, and let literature alone. It is one of the most uncertain
+things. To-day you may suit, to-morrow a chap comes along with some new
+fandango or summersault of high art, and the world leaves everybody to
+run after him, and you are thrown over. A man cannot earn his salt
+unless he has the _entrée_ of the initiated ring. As for journalism, you
+may hammer at that for twenty years before you get a position."
+
+Poor Fred went back to his room sorely depressed. It was a quiet, clean
+room in a second-rate hotel, for which he paid twelve dollars a week.
+There he sat and brooded, until taking up the paper one morning he saw
+the arrival of one of his old professors at the "Grand Union." Perhaps
+he might put him in the way of something. So he plucked up heart, and
+went to call.
+
+Professor Dennison received him very cordially, and expressed the
+warmest sympathy for the loss of his father and his fortune. He listened
+attentively to the young man's desires, and answered in suavest of
+tones.
+
+There were so many applications: every avenue seemed full. Young lawyers
+and doctors, finding no opening, had gone back to teaching, and the
+college-graduates of every year swelled this number. He would bear it in
+mind, and see what he could do; but he advised his young friend not to
+build too high hopes. "If I could make a place I should put you in it at
+once," he said kindly, just as he said it to a dozen others.
+
+It was so everywhere. There were no copyists, translators, or writers
+needed. The clerkships were overcrowded. It was not that there were too
+many doing one thing, but everything,--too many people in the world.
+Could the Malthusian doctrine be right, after all?
+
+He dropped into his brother-in-law's office one morning, and, though he
+hated to ask a favor of him, discussed in a rather fragmentary and
+abashed way the possibility of getting any thing to do; and a fortnight
+after, Mr. Minor sent him word of a broker who wanted a clerk, salary
+fifty dollars per month.
+
+It was better than nothing. Then, too, it was a beginning, although he
+could imagine more congenial employments. It did not look much like hard
+times, to note the immense amount of stocks and bonds that passed
+through the hands of this great house.
+
+Just at this period Irene returned. A fine, stately girl, with the
+indescribable air that foreign society gives. Yet she seemed haughty,
+bitter, and satirical; and it came out presently that she and Gertrude
+had quarrelled over a possible husband, and the amiable Gertrude had
+taunted her with dependence in the future. Irene had sold some diamonds,
+and travelled on the proceeds.
+
+"I think you were very short-sighted, Irene," said Mrs. Minor when she
+had drawn this story out of her sister. "A handsome American girl does
+stand a better chance for matrimony abroad than here. So many fortunes
+have been lost in the panic, and certainly I cannot blame these men for
+choosing heiresses. You have been in society a great deal here, and you
+will find fresh young girls beginning to crowd you out. Fred has
+nothing, and from present indications will hardly be able to take care
+of himself. It was such a misfortune that papa had every thing
+mortgaged! So Gertrude was right," in a bitterly suave tone: "you must
+be dependent upon some one until you do marry."
+
+"Oh, no! I might set up millinery,--with my taste and aptitude for
+arrangement. I think I have read of reduced young women who made
+fortunes in that line," retorted Irene the queenly, in her unmoved way.
+She was not one to cry out at a dagger-thrust.
+
+"Don't be a fool!" advised Mrs. Minor, in a short, incisive tone.
+
+She, like most other people, had meant to economize this summer; but now
+she made a sudden start for Newport. Irene certainly was peerless in her
+half-mourning, with her statuesque figure. But there was not an eligible
+at Newport, so they turned their steps Saratoga-ward. And here they
+found an old admirer of Mrs. Minor's, Gordon Barringer, a widower for
+the second time, the owner of a silver-mine and a railroad, and Heaven
+alone knew the length and breadth of his possessions.
+
+Miss Agatha Lawrence had turned up her aristocratic nose at him, as a
+rather coarse and self-assured person, as proud of his want of education
+as other men were of its acquirement. Now he was about forty, stout,
+high-colored, loud of voice, and with an important swagger. But money
+had given "our enterprising citizen" power, and he both understood and
+wielded it skilfully.
+
+His wife had been dead barely six months, but when he met Irene Lawrence
+he decided at once that the penniless beauty would be only too glad to
+marry him. He was proud to think he could afford to be so magnanimous.
+Mrs. Minor settled herself to the fact that there must be no foolish
+dallying. Of course Irene _would_ see. She could not be so idiotically,
+so fatally blind!
+
+I do not know that at this period of her life Irene Lawrence had any
+ideal. She had made conquests so easily, she had found men so much
+alike, and in her secret heart she despised them for being so ready to
+kneel and bow at beauty's shrine. It seemed to her as if youth and
+fortune were alike boundless; and she literally took no thought for the
+morrow, until the tidings of her father's death was followed by the
+subsequent news of loss of fortune.
+
+If George Eastman had a self-conviction that he and his cousin had
+contributed to this downfall, he tried to make it up to Irene in
+brotherly kindness and generous expenditure where money was concerned.
+He solaced himself with the thought that, after all, he had no more than
+his own, or what should have been his own rightfully, though he fancied
+he could not have gone on to the end quite as Horace had.
+
+When Sir Christopher Frodsham came across the two ladies in Paris,
+Gertrude exulted at the easy conquest. A man of fifty, whose young years
+and health had been spent in sowing a plentiful crop of wild oats, but
+to whom had come now, quite unexpectedly, a fortune and a title; and
+prosperity, after years of rather bitter economy, made him miserly, as
+it not unfrequently does such men. That he would have been glad to marry
+this young, beautiful girl, for himself alone, was most true. And Irene,
+in the bewilderment of the losses, inclined to his proposal, and begged
+time for consideration.
+
+He was not a man she could admire, respect, or love. He was narrow,
+egotistical, selfish, and with the pitiful vanity of a worn-out _roué_.
+Frodsham Park was in a lonely, mountainous part of England, bordering on
+Wales; and this man would look upon his wife as a nurse and companion,
+and the mother of an heir.
+
+There must have been a little strain of heroism in the girl. Suddenly,
+in one of those quick, vivid flashes, like mental lightning, she saw
+that she could not do this thing. She was not at all given to analysis;
+she had never dissected her own soul, or that of her neighbors; but she
+arrived at one of those swift, clear verdicts,--she could not marry Sir
+Christopher; and she told him so, with a frankness a trifle tenderer,
+perhaps, than she had used with her lovers heretofore, as if some way
+she had wronged him in thought.
+
+Over this, as I said, she and Gertrude had bitter words and a parting.
+Now the same thing stared her in the face again. This lover was too
+obtuse to be stung by the fine arts of coquetry that lengthened practice
+had brought to perfection. In all the bravery of self-assertion, he did
+not know when he was beaten; and so he fought against the intangible
+spear-points with which Miss Lawrence could surround herself.
+
+Mr. Barringer was called to New York on important business law-suits;
+and two days after, Mrs. Minor declared herself wearied out with
+Saratoga. Irene felt the walls of fate closing remorselessly about her.
+Why should she struggle? she asked herself. After all, what could she do
+but marry?
+
+Meanwhile, Hope Mills had been sold. Fred made some inquiries about it.
+
+"A woman--a rich old maid, I believe, by name McLeod, who knows enough
+to drive a sharp bargain--has taken it. Some one is to set up the
+business, I heard; an impecunious nephew, no doubt. No one but a fool
+would make a venture when the market is overstocked with goods. It is a
+shame that the estate had to lose such a valuable piece of property; but
+there was no income to pay taxes and interest, and, standing empty, it
+would soon have eaten itself up."
+
+Fred sighed. For the first time, he wondered how it would have ended if
+he had been brought up to some useful business, and perhaps have taken
+Eastman's place with his father. As for stock and share jobbing, he was
+heartily sick of it. To him it appeared an immense system of swindling
+the ignorant and unsuspecting.
+
+However, he was not destined to nurse his disgust very long in brooding
+silence. The last of September the great house of Bristol, Stokes, &
+Co., collapsed. The wreck was unexpected, the ruin wide-spread. The
+house of Minor & Morgan was hard hit, which did not improve Mr. Minor's
+temper, though, Spartan-like, he wore a cheerful face, and kept his
+losses to himself. Even if it should be his turn next, the world must
+not know it.
+
+"There's a letter that concerns you, though it was sent to me as
+administrator," said Minor to Fred, as he sauntered in one morning,
+tossing the missive over to him.
+
+Fred opened it with languid indifference, and his eye wandered over the
+following lines:--
+
+          HAMILTON MINOR, ESQ.
+
+          _Dear Sir_,--On taking possession of Hope Mills,
+          for business purposes, I find some personal
+          property belonging to the late Mr. Lawrence. It
+          may have a value for the family, and shall be at
+          your disposal whenever you desire it. Respectfully
+          yours,
+
+                                                 JOHN DARCY.
+
+"As soon as Hope Terrace is disposed of, the accounts can be audited and
+settled," said Minor in a sharp, business-like way. "The debts have all
+come in, and been paid dollar for dollar; though, if your father had
+been a prudent man, he would have made sure of something for his family.
+No one expects estates to pay more than fifty per cent nowadays."
+
+Fred rose, and crushed Jack Darcy's note in his pocket, holding himself
+proudly, while his cheek flushed.
+
+"I am very thankful," in a clear, cold tone. "My father's life was pure
+and honorable, and no man can fling a stone at his grave. I would rather
+be penniless, as I am, than have it otherwise."
+
+"Oh! very well, very well," sneeringly.
+
+Fred walked out of the office, and turned into Broadway. The same
+curious, restless, hurrying throng. Where were they all going? Did they
+find room and work? How clearly the sun shone! The sky was so blue, with
+great drifts of white floating about,--strange barques on a mystical
+sea. In spite of the outside roar and rush, there was a solemn and
+awesome stillness within him. He began to feel how entirety alone he
+stood. A twelvemonth ago there were hosts of friends pulling him hither
+and yon, proposing this and that, laughing and chatting gayly. Where
+were they now? Not all weak and false, but the shadow of circumstances
+had drifted them apart. We do not always cease to love or like when
+separation ensues; and in this shifting, changing life, people drop out,
+yet are not quite forgotten. Some of the young fellows whom fortune had
+buffeted had found a place in active, stirring life: he, with his
+education, refinement, accomplishments, and talent, was merely a piece
+of driftwood. Sylvie Barry had been right,--he was a useless appendage
+to the world. Ah, no wonder she despised him! Sturdy, honest Jack Darcy
+could find a place. His self-complacency was more than touched,--it was
+shattered, completely broken up. The present was blank and colorless,
+the future like a thick mist in which there penetrated not one ray of
+light. What did all his elaborate philosophies for him now?--art, that
+was to regenerate the world; science, that explained and refined, and
+found a place and a reason for every thing in the universe; man, the
+most important of all. And here he was, tossed aside like a weed. Who
+cared whether his nature was foul or kinglike? He was, in truth, one of
+the atoms floating about in space, and finding no use or purpose. The
+world could go on just as well without him. Why, if he should drop
+himself over into the river, there would be only a ripple. He laughed,
+as if his personality was something that did not really belong to him,
+that could be put off at will, that was, in truth, answerable to no
+power. All of life, then, had been a lie!
+
+He stumbled onward blindly. A sense of dreary mystery crept over
+him,--an utter hopelessness. He essayed to stretch out his hand to some
+passer-by, but the careless faces mocked him. There was no strength or
+stay. He could not even cry out with his anguish,--it was a dumb,
+inarticulate voice. All his idols had been destroyed, and there was no
+God to cry to!
+
+His last three weeks' salary had gone down in Bristol & Co.'s ruin.
+There were some jewels to sell, a few more pictures, several sets of
+rare books, and--what then?
+
+Starvation had appeared so utterly improbable in this great, thriving
+world, and here he was, almost face to face with it,--he who had never
+taken an anxious thought about any thing, who had felt as if he really
+honored money by the spending of it. A beggar! An object of charity to
+Hamilton Minor!
+
+No, that should never be. He tried to rouse himself from his lethargy.
+He went around to stores and offices where he was not known, and asked
+for something to do, as if in a curious masquerade. The same answer
+everywhere. Nothing! The sun went slowly down, the street-lamps were
+lighted. Every inch of his body ached with the long tramp and nervous
+exhaustion. He had eaten nothing since breakfast, but he was not hungry.
+What if he did steal quietly over to the river, and end it all?
+
+The desperation was hardly black enough for that. Somewhere near
+midnight he strolled home: how much longer would there be a home, he
+wondered?
+
+He thrust his hand in his pocket, and the bit of folded paper struck
+sharp against his fingers, so he drew it out. Hardly the familiar
+school-boy scrawl: Jack used to hate writing, he remembered. This had a
+decisive force about it. How odd that business-like "John" looked!
+"Jack!" He uttered the name aloud, and a thrill seemed to warm his
+frozen heart,--to stir emotions most contradictory. A sense of shame
+predominated, tingling his very finger-ends, crimsoning his pale cheeks,
+and stinging his soul with a sense of utter humiliation. He had prided
+himself so much upon the immaculate honor of his life, and lo! here he
+stood, self-convicted of one of the basest of sins,--broken faith. Not
+from any sudden, hot dispute, not from a knowledge of deception or any
+small meanness, but deliberate, well-considered treachery. It would have
+been manlier had he said to Jack, "Our ways lie apart, and in the future
+we shall meet so seldom, it is hardly worth while to keep up a pretence
+of friendship." He had skulked away instead, kept out of sight,--basely
+shunned the strong, tender soul that had helped to make a peevish
+boyhood sunny and bright.
+
+Black as this ingratitude looked to him now, he experienced a strange
+and intense desire to see his olden friend once more. What was he doing
+at Hope Mills? Had he found a place?
+
+The next morning's mail brought him a check for sixty dollars, for an
+article he had thought little of himself, and sent merely because he had
+happened to finish it, and was despatching his ventures out on the sea
+of chance. Then he went over to Mrs. Minor's: he had not seen his mother
+for several days.
+
+He was quite in the habit of going directly up to her room; but, as he
+neared it, he heard voices raised in no gentle discussion. Agatha stood
+in the middle of the room, flushed, angry, an open note in her hand;
+Mrs. Lawrence was weeping hysterically, while Irene sat pale and sullen,
+but her eyes gleaming with a dangerous fire.
+
+"Very well: if you deliberately decide to take a beggar's portion, then,
+do not look to me for any further help," said Mrs. Minor. "This marriage
+would have afforded you every luxury; and you have thrown aside the
+chance, like a silly school-girl. Perhaps you _have_ some secret,
+favored lover!" and the glittering eyes might have annihilated a weaker
+woman than Irene Lawrence.
+
+"If I had, I should go to him. I would live on crusts and a cup of cold
+water with him, rather than luxury," with a bitter, stinging emphasis,
+"and my own humiliation. The man would drive me mad, Agatha! Some day,
+yielding to an irresistible impulse, I should murder him;" and she gave
+a shrill, unnatural laugh.
+
+Fred went over to her, and took her hand. His business in life was to be
+her champion, her defender, her support,--not only against this
+monstrous marriage, at which her soul revolted, but Agatha's sneers and
+flings, and the dependence a proud soul must naturally feel when the
+very bread turns to ashes in one's mouth. How it was to be done, he
+could not tell at that moment; but he drew one long breath of honest,
+hopeful manliness, and resolved to leave no stone unturned.
+
+His mother wept in his comforting arms. She was very much
+shattered,--quite an old woman long before her time, made so by the
+follies of an indolent, enervating life. Like a pang the thought pierced
+his brain, that for these paltry results his father had given the
+strength and labor of manhood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+THERE were a few faint hints of autumn in Yerbury. The air was warm, and
+freighted with the peculiar sweetness of over-ripe grapes and apples, of
+dried balsam and faded golden-rod by the wayside. The very air seemed to
+quiver with intense contrasts of color, the yellow beeches standing out
+in strong relief, the bronze-red of one great oak, the bluish-green of
+the spruce, and the tender tints of fading, long-armed larches, drooping
+in regretful sadness. Lights of silvery gray and russet-brown, pale gold
+and hazy purple, and a sapphire sky bending over all. The artistic side
+of Fred Lawrence's soul was touched as he had once fancied nothing this
+side of Europe could touch it.
+
+For a moment a mighty rush of regret came over him. This magnificent
+place had been his home. Perhaps he would have been more than human not
+to have experienced a pang.
+
+He wandered about for some time. It was too lovely to go in and explore
+those dusty, darkened rooms: this evening would answer for that. He
+paced the lawn, he lingered by the gate; he took a turn about the
+grapery, now used for profit by the thrifty farmer who had charge of the
+place. Then he turned, and went down the street. The bells were ringing
+for six. From his height above, he could see the laborers wending their
+way, the great chimney of Hope Mills. He would walk in that direction.
+They would all be gone by the time he reached it.
+
+The streets were indeed nearly deserted. In the shade here the wind
+blew a little chilly. Yes, it was just the same; but then, it would not
+be likely to alter in a year. Why, it seemed a decade almost, since the
+night he had come home to his dying father!
+
+Ah, if they had been more to each other! Did he go about with a lonely
+spirit, Fred wondered, feeling the uselessness and insufficiency of the
+life he was leading? Had he been glad to lay the burthen down?
+
+A sudden firm, manful step ran down the stone stairway with a cheerful
+ring, and a voice hummed a tune softly, as one sometimes does for a
+seeming accompaniment, when the mind is occupied with other things;--a
+tall, robust figure, with long arms, and a springy step, as if he might
+still leap a post, or jump the creek. He was rushing off, when,
+curiously enough, with no other motive than an impulse, he turned, and
+saw an almost motionless figure.
+
+Whether he would send for the articles belonging to his father, or visit
+Hope Mills in person, risking a sight of Jack Darcy, or whether he would
+summon courage enough to ask for his old friend, were matters that Fred
+had put off for to-morrow's decision. Why he had wandered here at all,
+amazed him now; and he stood quite breathless at the unexpected
+apparition, without power to move or speak.
+
+If he had still been in the high tide of prosperity, Jack would have
+passed him by silently, but with no rudeness. Something in the bent
+head, the pale face, the general melancholy attitude, came home to his
+heart,--his fresh, generous, magnanimous heart. He ventured a step
+nearer, he put out his hand.
+
+"Fred, old fellow!"
+
+The rich, full voice might have melted any heart. The frank, honest eyes
+lighted with wonderful tenderness: there was a glow and earnestness that
+could come only from a large, forgiving soul, capable of putting by its
+own sense of pain or any past discomfiture.
+
+Fred Lawrence crimsoned to the very edge of his hair, to the farthest
+depths of his soul. He would have taken the hand: then he drew back with
+a gesture of self-reproach, as if he could tread his past sinful pride
+in the dust.
+
+"Let's forget the bygones," the hearty young fellow began, "that is, if
+you would like to have it so," drawing back a trifle to give him his
+choice as a delicate woman might have done.
+
+"Thank you, Jack," grasping the warm, firm hand in his own pale, cold
+one, and raising his soft dark eyes, so near to tears. Just now no other
+words would come.
+
+Jack drew the hand through his arm. "I've thought of you so many times,"
+he began, as if they had parted the best of friends. "It has been a sad
+year for many, doubly so for you."
+
+"Sad indeed. O Jack!"
+
+It was all uttered in the long tremulous swell of voice that tells the
+whole story.
+
+"Yes."
+
+With that, their friendship was renewed. Women might have fallen into
+each other's arms with expressions of penitence and forgiveness; but
+they had said their say, as was characteristic of both.
+
+"Were you coming in?" and Darcy turned back as he asked the question.
+
+"No: I only reached Yerbury an hour or so ago on a little business. Some
+remembrance of old time brought me hither."
+
+"I am glad it did. Shall we walk down Main Street? Are you staying at
+Hope Terrace?"
+
+"I shall be for a few days."
+
+A silence fell between them. There was no one else in the street; and
+their steps sounded with a steady tramp, as if they might walk on to
+some definite end.
+
+"Jack, dear old friend, after requiting your tender love to my exacting
+and selfish boyhood with a pitiless treachery that will always shame my
+manhood, I wonder if I dare ask it back, if I dare come to you."
+
+"There is nothing to give back. I do believe I have kept up a sort of
+girlish hankering for you. And now, if I can do any thing, if you are in
+any perplexity"--
+
+"Come up to Hope Terrace, and take tea with me. I want to talk to you
+all the evening. You have just the same mesmeric strength that used to
+soothe me when a boy. What a milk-and-water cub I must have been! I
+wonder you did not throw me over."
+
+Jack laughed.
+
+"Let us turn back to Kit Connelly's, and I can send a message home, so
+that mother will not keep tea waiting."
+
+That done, they strolled on together the same path by which Fred had
+come. The sun had dropped down behind the hill, and the glowing tints
+had faded to purple-black and indistinct grays. They wound around the
+hills, and came up to the very gate where their last good-by had been
+uttered. And Fred remembered then that this was the first time Jack had
+shared the hospitality of Hope Terrace, now when it was no longer his.
+
+Mrs. Milroy gave them some supper in a pretty little apartment which had
+been the servants' parlor, and was now hers. Then they went up to Fred's
+room, which had been opened and aired. Some of its choicest belongings
+had been taken away, but another than Fred would not have remarked this.
+And here they renewed the remembrances of the years that had fallen
+between.
+
+"It seems cowardly to come to you in trouble, and to take so large a
+share of your sympathy again," Fred said with his good-night. "But you
+always were so strong and earnest."
+
+He went down to the mill the next day, and was much interested in the
+working of Jack's plans.
+
+"You found your place," he said with a curious intonation, as if he half
+envied the man before him.
+
+"Yet in all truth I should not have chosen this," Jack answered with
+honest gravity. "But, when I found circumstances would keep me here, I
+resolved to work at it persistently and faithfully; and I learned in it
+the larger lesson of the true dignity of labor. If I should solve my
+problem successfully, I can ask no more. Five years is a long while when
+you count the days," and he smiled.
+
+"You will succeed, I know. You have just that mastery over every thing."
+
+Jack finally persuaded Fred to come down to the well-remembered cottage,
+and see his mother. Mrs. Darcy would have welcomed her bitterest enemy
+if Jack had desired her to.
+
+All this time Jack was thinking whether he could do his old friend a
+good turn. He hated to offer him any subordinate position in the mill.
+At present he could attend to the book-keeping. Then he heard there was
+to be a change at the paper-mills, and went over. They wanted a clerk
+and foreman, one with taste enough to select pretty designs, and who
+could keep books.
+
+"I do not know as you would like it, Fred," he continued with some
+hesitation in his cheery tones.
+
+"I have been a dawdler long enough, and I have had a bitter experience
+in finding _any thing_ to do. I shall be glad to take it, and you may
+believe I will try my best. Many, many thanks for your kind interest."
+
+There had been a sharp, short struggle in Fred's soul. He would rather
+have gone elsewhere, where he was not known. But if fate had resolved to
+bring him back to Yerbury, if she had offered him bread here, while it
+had been stones elsewhere, he would certainly be a fool to starve for
+pride's sake. Some wholesome ideas had found lodgement in his brain,
+along with the Greek myths and synthetic philosophies. If he could not
+astonish the world with brilliant reasoning, he might at least get his
+own living.
+
+He went back to the city, and discussed the project with his mother and
+Irene. She had a tender longing for her son: to be with him would afford
+her greater satisfaction than the magnificence of her daughter's house.
+Irene consented stonily. It was burying herself alive, but then no one
+would torment her with hateful marriages. To stay here with Agatha was
+simply unendurable.
+
+Mrs. Minor made no further comment than to say she did not think her
+mother could be kept as comfortable. Irene was her own mistress.
+
+So Fred Lawrence went back to Yerbury and work. It was an altogether new
+undertaking. He had no business training and no experience, except his
+desultory two months in Bristol's office. Yet from the very first day
+there was something that interested him here, although for awhile the
+smells, the dust and disorder, half sickened him. As for any wound to
+his pride, he felt that less because the whole world seemed to have
+taken a general overturn. Half of the elegant houses in the neighborhood
+of Hope Terrace were for sale, and shut up. Expensive country mansions
+to be used for a few summer months were quite beyond present incomes. A
+month at the seaside cost much less. Costly scientific, or rather
+unscientific gardening,--since the true aim of science must be the best
+adjustment of power to the desired result,--graperies, green-houses,
+henneries standing empty, the money lavished upon them so much waste
+material at present,--where had the wealth gone to so suddenly? He could
+not understand the rapid and wide-spread ruin. Even of themselves,--how
+was it that for years there should be no stint, but absolute
+wastefulness, and then nothing at all?
+
+He was so new to any business results, that he seemed like a child
+groping in the dark. And here was Jack Darcy, with his academy training
+merely, managing one of the great problems of the day, taking hold
+manfully to right the wrongs brought about by selfishness and utter
+disregard for one's neighbor. Had Plotinus struck the grand key-note
+when he said he "was striving to bring the God within us in harmony with
+the God of the universe"? For might there not be false gods within?
+
+He found he had not much time for abstruse speculations, which was all
+the better for his mental health. After enduring the dirt and disorder
+of the office for a week, he set about remedying that. He might not be
+able to regenerate the world, but he could make one little room decent.
+The office-boy and the scrub-woman were called in; the desks and shelves
+were cleared of the accumulation of months, and presented quite an
+orderly aspect. He found his hands blistered by the rough handling, but
+the reward was a wholesome hunger and a good night's sleep. Not quite as
+entertaining, perhaps, as a scramble in the Sierras or the Alps, but
+productive of as beneficial results.
+
+Then there was a home to be found. Living at Hope Terrace on a thousand
+a year would hardly be possible, even if it could be had rent free. So
+he asked Mrs. Darcy's advice about the matter, and she proposed a pretty
+cottage,--there were so many standing empty. It seemed very queer to be
+counselling this proud, sad-eyed young man, who a year or two ago had
+hardly deigned to look at them. Yet, like Jack, she still held a tender
+feeling for the pretty, enthusiastic boy she remembered.
+
+There had been in his mind a great struggle about Sylvie. He knew now
+that she belonged to Jack. That thorough manliness and integrity, that
+earnest, unflinching soul, the rich, generous temperament that could be
+so tender to weakness, so forgiving to wrong, was the soul of her ideal
+hero. And he had dared to offer her his poor, paltry affectation of
+love! Blinded by his own arrogant self-esteem, he had spurned the pure
+pearl, and taken the empty, glittering shell to her as the kind of
+treasure he was satisfied to deal in.
+
+How thoroughly he despised himself! It was such a keen, bitter
+humiliation! Not only that he had aspired to her, but that he should
+have misrepresented and traduced Jack, not from an overwhelming passion
+of jealousy,--that might be pardoned,--but a shallow, overweening vanity
+of wealth and position.
+
+"She shall see that I have learned to respect and honor him!" he said to
+himself with an intensity of regret that was very honest and real. "If I
+can never regain her esteem, I shall at least try for my old place in
+his regard."
+
+They found a pretty, convenient cottage, quite on the opposite side of
+Yerbury, suiting Fred much better than to be near his old friends. The
+furniture was brought over from the great house; and, though it had
+seemed but odds and ends there, it was amply sufficient. Irene's piano
+and some of the old family silver had been saved out of the wreck, a few
+of the less expensive pictures, and sufficient books to form quite a
+library. Fred really enjoyed arranging and planning. It was quite a
+matter of astonishment to him, that rules of art and harmony were needed
+at every step: if he could not make them remunerative in a written
+article, he could put them in practice here.
+
+He kept much to himself, being busy in the office during the day, and at
+home in the evening. He was sick of society, of the world in general. He
+had met Maverick a few times, but he shrank from strangers. Mrs. Darcy's
+tender, unobtrusive motherliness, he enjoyed, but he did not dare to
+accept much of it. The duties of his life were marked out plainly before
+him, and he must not swerve from the path. It was to be a kind of
+neutral tint, twilight rather than sunshine; and the joys he might come
+to long for, he must put away with a firm hand.
+
+The first of December every thing was in readiness for his small
+household, even to the tidy housekeeper Mrs. Darcy had found for him
+among her poor. Mrs. Lawrence and Irene came in the promised train; and
+he met them with a carriage and a multiplicity of wraps, although it was
+a bright, pleasant day. His mother clung to him with tremulous hands: he
+realized more than ever how much she had broken in the past year,--very
+little older than Mrs. Darcy if counted by years, but whole decades if
+judged by every other point.
+
+Irene was cold and stately. She did not like coming here,--neither did
+she like staying at Mrs. Minor's. Wild thoughts had flooded her brain of
+going somewhere, and under a new name making a mark in the world. She
+had a fine voice, and a decided talent for histrionics, but how to get
+to this place where fame and fortune would be at her command? How to
+bridge across any chasm? Nothing, she said to herself, but just stand
+helpless, and see the great world go on, with no part nor lot in the
+matter. If she must be buried alive, as well at Yerbury as anywhere.
+
+There had never been any sentiment between her and Fred; in truth, none
+of the Lawrence women ever were given to sentiment. She walked into the
+little parlor with the step of a queen, and gave a cool stare around.
+
+"I hope you will like it"--with some hesitation. "There is your piano.
+And mother's room looks as it did at the Terrace, with the exception of
+its being so much smaller. And here is a library. Here is our
+dining-room--some of the old engravings, you see."
+
+"Could I go to my room? Which is it, Fred?" and his mother looked up
+with a weak, pleading smile.
+
+"Yes: let me carry you. You are so thin and light now, and you must be
+fatigued after all this journey;" and, taking her in his arms, he bore
+her up-stairs.
+
+It was a pleasant room over the parlor, with an alcove toward the south,
+in which the mid-day sun was shining. A bright fire burned in the grate:
+there were her own easy-chairs, a bit of the carpet she had once chosen,
+the Persian rug she had admired so much when Fred first sent it home,
+the bed with its snowy drapery, and little ornaments with their familiar
+faces.
+
+"It is delightful," she said, still clinging to her son's arm. "And I am
+to stay here with you? Agatha is very good, of course; but I have always
+had my own home, and if I did sign it away it was to save your poor dear
+father. I don't see how things could have ended so, only, if he had
+lived, it would all have been different;" and she wiped away the tears
+that came so easily now.
+
+Fred put her in the chair nearest the fire, and began to unfasten her
+wraps. He had been quite an expert in delicate ways during his
+prosperity.
+
+"Your room is next--there," nodding his head to the open doorway, and
+glancing up in his sister's immovable face. "I hope I made my divisions
+rightly: I thought you would like to be near mother."
+
+"It is all as well as it can be, I suppose," she answered with weary
+indifference.
+
+There came to Fred Lawrence just then a painful sense of want and loss,
+a far-reaching sympathy in something that had never been, and now, when
+the outside glitter was torn away, left life cold and barren. Was human
+love so much?
+
+His mother went on in her weak, inconsequent way, yet her foolish praise
+was very sweet to him. He had been living such a lonely life for months,
+that even he was grateful for something that looked like home, for a
+woman's figure flitting about, and some voice beside his own.
+
+The dinner-bell rang presently.
+
+"I ordered yours brought up here," said Fred; "and I will have a little
+with you, then I must go back to the office."
+
+"It is terrible, Fred! That you should have to"--
+
+"Dignify labor," and he laughed. "Mother dear, I was so thankful to get
+something to do! And I am proud of making a home for you. Am I not your
+only son?"
+
+"But a clerk!" Some of the old Hope disdain spoke out there. "I cannot
+bear to think of it--with all your education and talents and genius. I
+wish you had found some business. There is the five thousand dollars of
+the life-insurance, you know; and you could take it, though Agatha made
+me promise that I would not have it fooled away in any thing. But I
+should be glad to have you use it."
+
+Fred stooped suddenly, and kissed her on the forehead. There _was_
+something in mother-love, after all.
+
+Just then Martha West came in with the tray. Fred drew out the folding
+breakfast-table that his mother had so often used, while he was
+introducing Martha to his mother and sister. She courtesied, and
+proceeded to lay the cloth and the dishes, and disappeared for the
+viands themselves.
+
+"Is one woman expected to do all the work?" asked Irene at length.
+
+"She thinks she can--with so small a family. Of course I"--
+
+Irene raised her hand deprecatingly. "Spare me details," she said. "It
+is very bitter to eat the bread of dependence: I have learned that
+already."
+
+He made no answer. Mrs. Lawrence looked from one to the other in
+helpless bewilderment, but Martha entered again, and changed the
+troubled current.
+
+It was quite a picnic dinner. Irene unbent a little at the sight of the
+rare china and beautiful old silver. She supposed every thing had gone
+down in the whirlpool of ruin, and that humiliation would be complete in
+delft and plated ware. Then she ventured to glance around.
+
+Fred chatted gayly, making talk. It had not used to be one of his
+accomplishments in his magnificent days when women vied with each other
+in the delight of entertaining him. It was pleasant to see his mother
+touch the bell, and sit back in her chair while Martha brought in the
+dessert.
+
+"And now I must go. Do not expect me much before seven. I wonder if you
+will feel able to come down to tea? Ah! there are the trunks, just in
+time. I will send them up, and you will feel quite at home when you have
+your belongings in place."
+
+Then he went back to his desk, and for the next two hours was too busy
+to think. After all, there is nothing like energetic employment to keep
+dismal forebodings out of one's mind.
+
+But that evening after supper, when they had gathered in the library,
+Mrs. Lawrence began to question him concerning Hope Mills. Agatha had
+said some one had started the business anew.
+
+Fred explained.
+
+"But how could the workmen do it alone? Your father never trusted them,
+Fred; and I am sure my father had trouble enough with them in his day!
+They were always an ignorant, unreasonable set. Don't you remember how
+they struck several years ago, and workmen had to come from elsewhere?
+They must have some head. And who found the money? Mr. Minor says they
+cannot possibly succeed."
+
+Some time Fred would have to stand Jack Darcy on his true pedestal. As
+well do it now, and have it over.
+
+"The project was Mr. Darcy's. I believe he had most of the capital. It
+was very generous of him to risk it in such times as these."
+
+Irene looked up from her moody contemplation of the fire. A dull flush
+suffused her face.
+
+"Not Jack Darcy," she said,--"Sylvie Barry's great hero."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Sylvie Barry!" re-echoed Mrs. Lawrence, and she looked sharply at her
+son. "And she gave you up for him! Who is he?"
+
+"He used to be in the mill," answered Irene, with all her olden scorn.
+"His father was there also. And the Darcys"--
+
+"The Darcys can boast as good blood as we!" exclaimed Fred, his face in
+a sudden heat. "And Jack Darcy is a gentleman by birth, by instinct,
+and, best of all, the impulses of a true and noble heart."
+
+The discussion recalled an old remembrance to Mrs. Lawrence. She looked
+vaguely at her son as if she were not quite certain, as she said,--
+
+"Was there not something about him when you were boys? He was coarse and
+rough, wasn't he? and Agatha used to worry. I knew it was only a boy's
+folly; but she was glad when you went to college, and I think--there was
+his sister"--her maternal instincts taking alarm.
+
+"No, he never had a sister. His father died, and he staid at home. His
+mother was delicate, and his grandmother old. She is dead, and he gets
+his small fortune from her. No, he was not coarse nor rude, but he was
+my champion in boyhood, my hero then; and it is the shame of my life
+that I should have let him drop out of it because I was the richer of
+the two. I despise myself for any thing so narrow and unmanly, and yet
+he was generous enough to forgive. I do not wonder at Miss Barry's
+choice when she contrasted us, and I honor her to-day for her
+discrimination. She never encouraged me, blind, idiotic fool that I was!
+and I have only my wretched vanity to blame. He is fully worthy of her,
+and that is the highest compliment I can pay him."
+
+"Very magnanimous for a rejected lover," commented Irene with a touch of
+sarcasm.
+
+"But you _did_ love Sylvie?" Mrs. Lawrence said, bewildered by his rapid
+defence.
+
+"I blush now at the thought of having offered her such a paltry regard.
+To me she will always be a sweet and peerless woman. I am glad she will
+have the strength of manhood to lean upon, the purity of its honor to
+trust, the exceeding tenderness of a soul that will never know a narrow
+or grudging thought, to confide in. All my years look poor and barren
+beside his."
+
+"I can never forgive her"--
+
+"You must, you must!" and Fred seized his mother's hand, pressing it to
+his lips. "There is nothing to forgive," he went on. "You would not have
+had her throw aside the love of her life for my fancied fortune that has
+taken wings. It was my blunder. And I want to say that I have taken up
+my old friendship for Jack Darcy, come back to the truth that money is
+one of the incidental surroundings of the man, but it can never be the
+man himself."
+
+Irene's haughty lip curled, but no one openly gainsaid Fred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+THE winter was a rather open one, with but little snow. Matters were
+somewhat better in Yerbury, but bad enough, Sylvie Barry thought. The
+churches began their usual work,--parish aids, clothing-clubs, and
+sewing-societies. It was as she said: they begged from the rich to give
+to the poor. Women met to make or to alter over garments, and devise
+means to render the poor more comfortable. There were so many miserable
+homes, so many inefficient wives and mothers, who were ignorant of the
+commonest principles of economy. They could live on meal-mush, they
+could go in rags, but the science of thrift was utterly unknown in many
+instances.
+
+Sylvie had done her share of church work as a growing maiden. Every year
+there had been some mission, and a sewing-school.
+
+"And yet it doesn't seem to do much good," said she. "The girls learn to
+hem a handkerchief, which a sewing-machine can do in ten seconds: they
+sew a few patches together, and perhaps make an apron. By the next
+winter they have forgotten all about it. And some of their mothers do
+not seem to care."
+
+"The mothers need educating," Miss Morgan began, with a decisive nod of
+the head. "They were married out of shops and factories, and know very
+little, and have brought up their children to know less. I'm not one of
+the kind who can see no good in the world's progress, and who want to go
+back to the days of spinning-wheels, wax polish for tables and chairs,
+and a day spent every week scouring the brass andirons and candlesticks
+and door-knobs, and various other matters; but I do think we have gone
+to the other extreme. Women dawdle away half their lives. It is of no
+use to make clothes, you can buy them cheaper; it is of no use to mend,
+to do this or that, and so they do nothing."
+
+"I was struck with a contrast I saw yesterday," returned Sylvie. "I had
+occasion to go to the Webbers,--you know the little cottage on Alden
+Street, Miss Morgan, where they always have such pretty flowers in the
+window. Mr. Webber works at satchel-making, and even in good times did
+not earn very high wages. They have a garden, in which they raise the
+most wonderful succession of crops; they keep some chickens, which they
+manage to have laying most of the time; and they have five children. It
+was quite late in the afternoon. Mrs. Webber sat by the window, making
+lace, on a cushion, at which she realizes about a dollar a week;
+Christine, the eldest girl, who still goes to school, was crocheting a
+baby's hood,--she does a good deal of work for Mrs. Burnett's
+fancy-store, and yet is a very smart scholar; Amelie, the next one, was
+darning the stockings; the boy, who comes third, was out-doors, tidying
+up the chicken-house; and the two little girls were in the corner,
+cutting and sewing patchwork, with a doll in the cradle between them.
+The house is always clean, the children are well and rosy, and play
+about a good deal, and Christine last year earned thirty dollars. Her
+mother puts half the money she earns in the bank for her
+marriage-portion. I was so glad it wasn't in Yerbury Bank! You wouldn't
+believe, that, though she is not quite sixteen, she has almost a hundred
+dollars saved up. And I must tell you, also, there was a most savory
+smell of the supper cooking. Altogether, it was so tidy and thrifty,
+with the clean, bright, and not unpretty faces, that I thought it would
+make a charming 'interior,' if only some Dutch artist could do justice
+to it in his minute, pains-taking way. Then I went to the Coles, who
+live around in the next street. The gate was off its hinges, and the two
+big boys were firing stones from the street at a post in the yard. They
+were ragged and dirty. I went in the house, and found the mother and the
+two girls in the sitting-room. I do not believe there was a piece of
+furniture whole, and every thing was dusty and shabby, with that close
+smell some people always have in their houses. Mrs. Cole sat by the
+window, in a listless manner, doing nothing. Martha had her baby on her
+lap, asleep, in a soiled and ragged dress, while she was reading; the
+little girl, who is about twelve, was cutting up some pretty pieces of
+silk into nothing, that I could see, but a general litter over the
+table. The kitchen looked dreadful. I had some baby-dresses for Martha,
+that Mrs. Kent gave me: so I unrolled my bundle, and displayed them.
+'Oh,' said she, 'they are long, aren't they! and I've just put my baby
+in short dresses.' If you could have heard the kind of helpless,
+dissatisfied tone in which it was uttered! I had half a mind to bundle
+them up, and take them back. 'You can shorten them,' I answered, 'and
+some of them will make two dresses.' 'Yes,' she answered reluctantly,
+'only I should want something for yokes and sleeves.' Then her mother
+came to inspect them, and she was rather more gracious. But I could not
+help contrasting the two families. Mr. Cole is a carpenter, and has
+earned very good wages. Martha ran a machine in the shoe-shop, bought a
+melodeon, and took two or three quarters' music-lessons; purchased a
+very handsome set of amethyst jewelry and two pretty silk dresses when
+she was married. And in the two years of her married life, her husband
+has done next to nothing, although he is a steady, pleasant fellow. Now
+he is at Pittsburg, earning just enough to pay his own board. She has
+her sewing-machine, but she doesn't know how to make any kind of garment
+decently. When they had money they bought every thing ready-made. She
+paid Miss Gilman twenty-two dollars to make her two silk dresses. If she
+had put one of them in some plain, simple garments, how much more
+serviceable it would have proved!"
+
+"Such people are hardly worth helping," Miss Morgan said sharply.
+
+"Isn't it a faulty system that makes them so?" asked Sylvie, drawing her
+brows into a little, perplexed frown. "Martha worked for two years, and
+earned a good deal of money. At one time she made ten dollars a week. It
+was just one thing,--fine stitching on shoes,--yet one would think she
+would understand a sewing-machine so completely that she could do any
+thing with it. But she actually hired part of her baby's wardrobe made;
+and the dresses she bought,--cheap coarse-trimmed things, I should have
+been ashamed of. Christine Webber wants to study for a teacher; and, as
+there is so little for girls to do, I think she will. She will make
+wiser investments of her money than Martha Cole, and think of the kind
+of wife her husband will get!"
+
+"The era of prosperity was too much for some people," said Mrs. Darcy,
+with her motherly smile. "I used to wonder six or seven years ago, how
+it was that so many middle-class people could afford a servant, or fancy
+they needed one. A little more time spent in household duties would not
+have injured the women; and, if they had accustomed the children to take
+a part, it would have been much better for them. Then so much sewing was
+hired; and, although the income looked large, the expenditures swallowed
+it all up, and no one was any better off. How few had any stock of
+underclothing, bed-linen, or useful and durable articles!"
+
+"Industry must come around in the fashion again. Even the despised
+patchwork doubtless had its uses. It taught children to sew, and to
+manage economically. I remember that I once had three quilts on hand at
+one time. The larger pieces went into the first, and so on. My last one
+was a very pretty little thing, and I saved all the scraps for it. Yet
+we often hear people laugh about the folly of cutting calico into bits
+to sew together again. Why should it not be considered honorable and
+respectable to put every thing to the best use?" and Miss Morgan glanced
+up with a confidence no one could gainsay.
+
+"That is the grand secret," cried Sylvie,--"making economy honorable.
+You never see the nice old families flaunting their best silk and their
+point-laces on ordinary occasions. Something is kept sacred. And I do
+think there is more real economy among them, than among those who
+absolutely have a need for it. If wastefulness could once come to be
+considered a sin of ostentation and low-breeding, it would not have so
+many followers. Some people do it because they are afraid of being
+thought mean; but if they could be trained to that bravery of spirit
+that makes a work of beauty out of the poorest and smallest things
+because they are well done, and fitting to the place and season"--
+
+"Bravo!" said a laughing voice as the door opened. "Mrs. Darcy, when the
+committee of ways and means have worn out your carpet by their frequent
+meetings in your charmed temple, you must insist upon their buying you a
+new one. Good-morning, ladies! Miss Barry, I set out to find you; and
+your aunt fancied you would be here, the place of all waifs and strays.
+I want you and Miss Morgan to go and inspect a room, or rather two
+rooms, to see if they will answer our purpose. Mrs. Lane had a school
+there."
+
+"Oh, I know the place!" began Sylvie eagerly, buttoning up her sack
+again, and looking smilingly in Dr. Maverick's face, that had a
+sparkling wholesomeness born of the fresh air and brisk walk. And
+whenever he caught her eye with this light in it, so friendly and
+earnest, a thrill sped through his veins.
+
+Miss Morgan was soon ready, and the three started. The place was only a
+few squares away, in a block of buildings where the stores on the lower
+floor stood empty; indeed, some of them had never been rented. Up-stairs
+there was one large room with three front windows, and a smaller room at
+the back with a fireplace, sink and water, and a large closet.
+
+"I have had the offer of this place rent free until spring," began the
+doctor. "I have also collected fifty dollars in money and
+provisions,--_imprimis_, one barrel of flour, one box of miscellaneous
+packages, rice, barley, corn-starch, &c.,--and a second-hand range that
+will be put up as soon as you decide. In return for my arduous exertion
+and great benevolence, I shall call upon you now and then for meals or
+delicacies for my sick and famishing."
+
+"You are just magnificent!" declared Sylvie, in breathless pleasure.
+
+"I am desirous of getting this experiment started; and, since we shall
+have to help the poor and needy this winter, I shall put my gifts into
+this. Now you must consider what you want for furnishing. Biddy McKim is
+to work out a doctor's bill cleaning the place; Ward Collins will let
+you have ten dollars' worth of house-furnishing goods on another bill. I
+am going to look up all my bad debts to start you two women in
+business!" and he laughed gayly.
+
+"Very good," said Miss Morgan, while Sylvie's face was still blending
+pleasure and astonishment.
+
+"We are going to reform Yerbury, you see. The parsons tried their hands
+last winter; and, though there was need enough of spiritual food,
+there's something else required as well, while we are here in the body.
+You think the rooms will do? I want you to put a large table in that
+one,"--indicating the larger with his head,--"and we'll get two or
+three long benches, and have a tea-party now and then. Well, Miss
+Morgan, now you may take the floor. I see a crowd of ideas in your
+face."
+
+"I am going to propose that when the place is cleaned, both floors shall
+be painted to begin with. Then a simple mopping up will keep them bright
+and fresh. Some idle half-grown boys can do it, I am sure; or I can do
+it myself--it would not be the first time."
+
+"I'll look over my accounts, and levy on some delinquent," said the
+doctor. "I like that idea."
+
+"Can we make out a list now?"
+
+"Why, of course. Put down about all the things you will be likely to
+need, and I will have them sent if they do over run the account. Biddy
+will come to-morrow, and clean. Now, you can hardly have the school open
+every day unless you get more assistance, so I think I should take it at
+first two days in the week."
+
+"A very good suggestion," replied Miss Morgan.
+
+"It might not be sufficiently attended to warrant more than that. My
+experience has been that nearly every housekeeper considers herself a
+finished cook."
+
+Maverick laughed.
+
+They discussed necessary articles of kitchen paraphernalia, and finally
+walked down to Collins's store, and made their selection. Early the next
+morning Bridget McKim was on the spot: the place was cleaned, the stove
+put in place, the floor given one good coat of paint. Two days after,
+the second one was added. Sylvie drew up a code of regulations. The
+school would be open Tuesday and Friday, all day. The dinner would be
+cooked and eaten; the baking, and whatever was left over, divided among
+the scholars to take home. Miss Morgan was elected president, Miss Barry
+vice-president, a secretary, a treasurer, and two in an advisory board.
+At each session two ladies were to be present, and give instruction.
+
+Invitations were sent to all likely to be interested. Dr. Maverick used
+his strong influence wisely. The idea amused some, others wondered how
+ladies like Miss Barry knew about cooking and economy.
+
+"Let her undertake to live on the money we common folk have, and she'll
+see!" exclaimed Mrs. Stixon. "Our kind don't want to learn fussin' and
+fixin' of puddens and pies and such like! Good for us if we can get a
+mess of biled potatoes and bacon. My gals'll get along athout any such
+larnin'."
+
+They opened one Friday morning with seven pupils; a discouraging number,
+Sylvie thought, when she saw the spacious room and the nice
+preparations. The bashful girls sat in a little huddle, looking very
+much as if they were afraid of being laughed at.
+
+Miss Morgan was equal to the occasion. She made a short, sensible
+address, and hoped the girls who were present would interest not only
+their companions, but their mothers and friends. Then she questioned
+them a little. Had they ever boiled potatoes?
+
+At this they all laughed a little foolishly, and looked as if the art of
+boiling potatoes was held in rather low esteem.
+
+"The dinner for the day," announced Miss Morgan, "will be boiled
+potatoes, broiled steak, and corn-muffins. Which of you girls would like
+to try the muffins?"
+
+"I never heerd of such a thing," said one girl timidly.
+
+Sylvie pleasantly corrected the speaker.
+
+"Well, you may try," said Miss Morgan. "First, read this recipe aloud."
+
+Mary Moran stumbled through it, partly owing to ignorance, and the rest
+to feeling very much abashed.
+
+"Please go through it again, Mary," said Sylvie, in an encouraging tone.
+
+This time she did much better.
+
+"Now you may prepare the table and the dishes, and one of the girls may
+measure the meal and the flour. Put the ingredients in this dish--so.
+Keep your mind on the recipe. What comes next?"
+
+Mary was quite awkward. Miss Morgan corrected the slightest mistake. The
+other girls stood around in wondering amusement, and now and then a
+little titter broke out. But Mary went on, gaining courage. The tins had
+been set on the stove, now a bit of butter was put in each one, and
+stirred around, then the dough dropped in. This was quite entertaining.
+
+"What did I say about the oven?" queried Miss Morgan.
+
+The class looked aghast a moment, then one girl said quickly, "That the
+oven-door must be hot enough to hiss."
+
+"Right. Try it and see."
+
+It was in the proper condition. Mary slipped in the two trays of pans,
+shutting up the door. "To look at them, and turn them around in twelve
+minutes, and in twelve more to try them with a whisk," were the final
+directions.
+
+The potatoes were brought out next. Miss Morgan asked each girl to pare
+one, which they did in various uncouth ways. One girl cut off the skin
+in square bits, leaving a figure that would have distracted a
+geometrician; another ran round it rapidly, leaving in all the eyes; and
+out of the six potatoes there was but one neat and shapely. Miss Morgan
+held it up.
+
+"There is an art in so slight a thing as peeling a potato," said she.
+"It is very wasteful to cut it away in this manner, or this, and
+careless to leave in the eyes. Now each of you may pare another."
+
+The second attempt was a great improvement. They were put on to boil;
+one girl was detailed to watch them, another to prepare the steak, while
+a third arranged the dinner-table in the kitchen, as the family was to
+be so small. Mary looked after her corn-muffins. They had risen up like
+little pound-cakes, and a glad smile illumined her rather stolid face.
+
+Sylvie had brought a bit of tatting along, and now took it out.
+
+"Oh, how beautiful, Miss Barry!" exclaimed Kitty Miles. "I can do just
+the plain little scallop; but I never could get these other jiggers!"
+
+Sylvie laughed, "I believe they have a name beside 'jiggers,'" in an
+odd, half-inquiring tone.
+
+"O Miss Barry, we girls can't talk nice like you!" and Kitty blushed.
+
+"I don't see why you cannot with taking a little pains. All words that
+are not names, and 'what-you-may-call-it,' and 'Mrs. Thingumby,' and
+such expressions, are the result of carelessness. If any thing has a
+name, that is the proper word to be used; and by being watchful one
+comes presently to talk in a lady-like manner. Now I will show you about
+these."
+
+"Oh, my muffins!" cried Mary, rushing to the stove. They were quite
+brown. She tried them with the whisk.
+
+"Some stick a little bit, Miss Morgan."
+
+"Push the pan back to the other side. Indian requires very thorough
+cooking or baking, or it will be soggy, and have a moist and not
+agreeable taste. Try your potatoes now."
+
+In a few moments they were done, and Kitty Miles undertook the steak.
+Mary let her muffins stand a moment or two, then turned them out. Two or
+three stuck fast, and broke: the rest were a perfect success. She was
+delighted beyond measure. They had no tea or coffee, but they gathered
+around the table, and enjoyed the meal very heartily. Sylvie desired
+them to ask any questions they liked; and by the time they were through,
+their awe of Miss Morgan had quite vanished.
+
+Afterward followed dish-washing. This was made quite a science, as well.
+They had hardly finished when Mrs. Miles and a neighbor came in, and
+through the course of the afternoon the numbers doubled. Mary begged
+that they might make some muffins to take home: Miss Morgan assented,
+and the girls had quite a gay time. But the oven was not precisely
+right.
+
+"Open the draughts a little. Although not so hot, the oven is very
+steady now. Close the draughts in five minutes."
+
+Mary forgot, and the result was that some at one end were a little
+burned.
+
+"Why, they're elegant!" exclaimed Mrs. Miles. "And what a cheap, hearty
+supper they'd make, when one has three hungry boys to feed! Mrs. Stixon,
+now, was thinking you'd go into all the fancy branches. I didn't know
+ladies ever"--and Mrs. Miles paused suddenly, her face scarlet.
+
+"Ever had occasion to practise economy!" cried Sylvie with her piquant
+smile. "They do a great deal of it, Mrs. Miles. My aunt would no sooner
+think of being wasteful in her kitchen than she would of wearing her
+velvet dress out on a rainy day. There is a neat, pretty, tasteful
+method about these things, that is as much of an art in its way as
+painting a picture, and in some respects a more important one, for the
+health of the body depends upon well-cooked food."
+
+"Since Kitty's nothing much to do, I mean to have her come every time.
+I'm sure you ladies are very good to take so much pains."
+
+The other officers dropped in. The cost of the materials used was
+ascertained, minutes of the session made, and a recipe for corn-muffins
+given to each girl. It was decided to attempt biscuit on the following
+Tuesday, and on the next meeting, bread. Then the fire was pretty well
+poked out, the stove-lids raised, and the class went home in an
+extremely interested spirit.
+
+Just as Sylvie and Miss Morgan had turned the corner, they caught sight
+of Dr. Maverick, who crossed the street to speak. Sylvie described their
+day with a few graphic touches, interspersed with much genuine mirth.
+
+"Some people were afraid to come," said he. "Before a month you will
+have your hands full."
+
+Sure enough, on Tuesday there were fifteen scholars. Miss Morgan and
+Sylvie had hardly a moment to spare until the dinner was through. Then
+the latter proposed that every scholar should bring some sewing,
+garments they wished cut out, any thing that perplexed them, or whatever
+they would like most to learn.
+
+All days were not so fortunate. Occasionally some dish would be spoiled
+by haste, carelessness, or want of attention. There were burned fingers
+and divers cuts; but Miss Morgan patiently explained her deft, neat,
+labor-saving methods. There began to be a great interest; some of the
+mothers coming in for an hour, or bringing a special dish to cook.
+Sylvie discussed the relative value and nourishment of different
+articles, the many changes that could be made at slight expense, the
+saving that a little carefulness brought about. She gave brief lectures
+on cleanliness, order, taste, and neatness; the right way and the wrong
+way of doing many things, the giving out and the taking in; the art of
+making the best, not only in such times as these, but in all times; of
+being brave and true in the lowest and smallest of life's duties; of
+throwing out false pride and shams, and the desire to appear richer or
+grander than one's means would allow.
+
+Then the last half-hour they had what Miss Morgan called an
+inquiry-meeting. Everybody was at liberty to ask one question, and those
+who knew answered it to the best of their ability. New teachers were
+pressed into the service. Dr. Maverick gave them a talk on health, and
+another on preparing food for the sick, and the special care some
+diseases required. And Jack Darcy proposed that Christmas Eve the
+cooking-school should give a supper, the tickets being at the low price
+of twenty-five cents. Every dish was to be cooked by the scholars.
+
+It created a deal of excitement. Hard as times were, the tickets sold
+rapidly. The large room had two long tables, with benches for seats. The
+first table was to be served at eight o'clock, the second at nine.
+Sylvie made a dozen of the girls pretty Suisse aprons and dainty caps,
+and they waited on the guests. Dr. Maverick offered three prizes,--one
+for the best loaf of bread, one for the best plain cake, and a third for
+the nicest and cheapest invalid broth.
+
+The room was full, and they had a very gay time. Indeed, it seemed as if
+half Yerbury turned out, either from honor or curiosity. At nine o'clock
+they ran short of provision, when they honorably decided to refund the
+money for all tickets offered after that, and explain to new-comers the
+state of affairs. But some of the young men proposed a dance; and they
+went on for the next two hours in hearty, healthy jollity.
+
+Out of ten loaves of bread offered, Mary Moran took the prize. That for
+the cake was awarded to quite a new scholar; while Kitty Miles carried
+off that for broth, three doctors concurring in the decision. And the
+treasurer found they had cleared fifty dollars above expenses, so that
+it proved a success in more ways than one. There had been a great dearth
+of amusement for the poorer classes in Yerbury this winter.
+
+"Sure, it was just splendid!" said Bridget McKim. "My boy Mike had a
+week's wages in his pocket that night, and he was goin' off to the Ivy
+Leaf to raffle for a turkey; an' ses I, 'Mike, ye niver took me out of a
+Christmas, so do it now along o' the cookin' school party, an' ye'll get
+the best bit o' turkey yes ever put in yer mouth.' An' so he did; an' he
+said it was the best show he iver was to, and he wouldn't 'a' missed
+seein' Mary Moran get the prize fur twice the money. An' so he went home
+with me, ye see, as sober as an owl, and we bought our own turkey; but
+if he'd gone to the tavern, not a cint would he had of his week's wages,
+and been drunk beside! An' he used to be swate on Mary too, so there's
+no knowin' what may happen!"
+
+The school took a fortnight's vacation. Sylvie and Miss Morgan felt that
+it was no longer an experiment. It would be put to wider uses, and
+perhaps was the corner-stone of a great work, sorely needed in this
+world; the same kind of work Jack Darcy had begun over in the mill
+yonder,--planting beacon-lights on the path where so many had stumbled
+and gone down for want of true and honest guidance.
+
+"It will have to be remodelled somewhat," said Miss Morgan. "I can't
+have you working like a slave, even if it is in a good cause. There is
+something still higher for you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+AFTER the first of January it came off bitterly cold. Coal went up half
+a dollar on a ton; and flour rose, more by the greed of speculators than
+any scarcity, or any demand for it abroad. There was considerable
+suffering, though not as much as the winter before. The men and women
+and boys and girls at Hope Mills were thankful enough for their
+seventy-five per cent, and did their very best. A spirit of economy and
+emulation ran through the whole brotherhood. Every month Cameron
+announced whatever saving had been made in different departments, and
+the hands were proud enough of it. Those who had taken their whole
+winter's coal out of the share were quite jubilant. Once a week the
+workmen had a meeting, and discussed matters a little. Three men had
+been reprimanded, but on the whole the _morale_ was excellent. Winston
+was on the alert continually, east, west, anywhere, buying here, selling
+there, seeing in every thing the promise of better times.
+
+"We've reached the last ditch as surely as they did in the war," he said
+to Darcy, rubbing his hands in great glee. "I tell you, old chap, it was
+a lucky thought of starting just as we did. You see, we shall come up
+with the good times; for I do honestly believe the worst is over."
+
+Jack smiled, but was not so sanguine. They had only gone such a little
+way on the five-years' journey. But there were some very encouraging
+rays right around them. Kit Connelly's coffee-house was working to a
+charm. Jack began to think that drinking liquors was not so much a
+besetting sin, as a natural sequence of having nothing else to drink
+when you were cold or hot, or tired or hungry. The men fell into the
+habit of going to Kit's for their midday lunch, and presently some of
+the women went over. The room was so bright and pleasant; and, with Miss
+Rose there, they were on their best behavior. In the evening Mrs.
+Connelly brought her work, and sat by the desk. Some of the younger men,
+who had no homes; as one may say, dropped in, and looked over the books.
+Once two young chaps had come up from Keppler's to have a little fun, as
+they said, and were rather noisy. Mrs. Connelly rose.
+
+"Gentlemen," she said, "you forget yourselves. This is an orderly, quiet
+house, not a tavern. If you cannot submit to the rules, you must leave
+it."
+
+"Leave it! Come, who'll put us out!" laughed the bully. "Let's see you
+try," with an insolent leer at the lady.
+
+Two men were sitting at a table just a little back of them. Their eyes
+met. Both rose; and, each seizing a shoulder of the bully, he was
+marched out before he could make the slightest resistance, his companion
+looking on in amazement.
+
+"Next time you insult a lady in her own house, you will not get off so
+easily! Just bear that in mind."
+
+The fellow uttered an oath, but the door was shut in his face.
+
+"Thank you, John Kelly, and you, Ben Hay," said Mrs. Connelly, in a
+brave voice, though her heart fluttered a little.
+
+The other young ruffian rose, and walked out quietly.
+
+"If you didn't mind, Ben Hay," she said, an hour or so after, as they
+were shutting up for the night, "I'd like to have you drop in quite
+often of an evening. The boys are hardly big enough if we should ever be
+beset by such scamps as that, and you've always been so friendly-like."
+
+"Yes," answered Ben, flushing, and casting a sheepish look at the desk,
+where Rose's curly head was bent over her accounts. "Yes, I'm at your
+service. It's enough sight cheerfuller here than in Mother Mitchell's
+boarding-house. I'll be glad to come."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+Miss Barry heard of this, and told it over to Jack.
+
+"Ben Hay is a good, plucky fellow. He used to go down at noon for beer,
+but I do not think he has been since the coffee-house was opened.
+Sylvie, do you know, I believe reformers in general would be more
+successful if they put a good and pleasant thing in the place of the
+evil they assail. Too often they leave their convert to pick his way
+alone. Hay is very much interested in the plans of the mill. The
+meetings have done this much already,--a spirit of inquiry has been
+awakened in some of the men, and they are reading up what other people
+have achieved in this line. I want them to get well grounded before
+there comes any strain. We can't go on prospering forever. That would be
+too much like fairy-land."
+
+"But every one thinks the panic nearly at an end," and Sylvie studied
+the grave face before her.
+
+"I do not want to croak," and Jack gave a little laugh that sounded
+forced, "but we have just begun to pay off our debts. Every city and
+town, and nearly every individual, is in debt. If we could pay with
+promises to pay, we might tide over a while longer; but when interest
+reaches a certain point, it swallows capital. If we can meet our
+indebtedness everywhere, as fast as it matures, well and good: if not,
+then we have only nibbled at the crust of our bitter pie."
+
+"Anyhow," cried Sylvie, with the woman's sanguine nature, "Yerbury is a
+great deal better off than it was last winter. Every one admits there
+is much less suffering."
+
+"There is more employment, and no broken bank," with a cheerful smile.
+
+"Do you know," said the young girl presently, while a faint color went
+wandering over her fair face, "that they are doing a marvellous stroke
+of business at Garafield's, even if the times are bad? Mrs. Garafield
+was down to tea a few evenings since, and she was greatly encouraged.
+There is such a rage about the new style of papering. Everybody has run
+mad on dados and friezes, and fresco patterns, bordering, and harmonies
+of color," laughingly. "And they have some wonderful new designs."
+
+"Fred is in just the right place. If he has courage to fight through,"
+and there came a curious, almost foreboding expression in the
+sympathetic eyes.
+
+"You care a good deal for him, Jack! And yet he did not use you nobly,"
+with a peculiar regret in the tone. "It is the one thing"--
+
+"Sylvie, if I forgave it, surely you can." Then he turned his eyes upon
+her, and read or rather dreamed of something in a dim, dazed way, the
+story of a bygone summer. Had it been more to her than any one thought?
+Miss Barry had hinted to his mother that Sylvie's decision in the matter
+was a great disappointment to her. There had been a decision, then, and
+one adverse to Fred Lawrence.
+
+"I hate a false and cowardly man!" her cheeks were flaming now. "And
+when you were schoolboys together,--when Agatha and Gertrude were so
+afraid he would lower himself if he looked at any boy below his own
+social position,--he used to stand up for you,--yes, he did,--and fight;
+of course not in a brutal way with fists," and she laughed at her own
+conceit, "but in that higher, finer manner, with no shield or weapon
+save his love for you. I used to like to see you together,--you so
+sturdy and manful and true, and he delicate and handsome and adoring.
+And then"--
+
+"Sylvie, I wonder if a woman can understand a man's friendship. We never
+had any quarrel. We just drifted apart. I don't believe we forgot each
+other. Circumstances took him out of my sphere, into a new one. If I had
+been there in college, going along with him step by step, don't you
+suppose he would have stood up for me in the face of his fine friends,
+just as he used to with his sisters?"
+
+"I hope so: I would like to believe it."
+
+"I am more just to him than you, Sylvie," said Jack, a little wounded.
+"I _know_ it. I don't doubt it any more than I doubt--well, myself. He
+might have come--I was always sorry to see him avoid me, and I think he
+was weak, but he never forgot."
+
+"He _was_ weak, he was worse, Jack." There was a curious cry of anguish
+in her voice, and her shoulders swayed unconsciously, while her eyes
+looked out on the summer night he could not see.
+
+"Don't get so excited over it, Sylvie," and the pleasant, cheery laugh
+seemed to bring healing on its wings. "Whatever it was, and we will let
+all that go, he made the _amende honorable_ the night we had tea
+together up there in the great house. We took up our friendship just
+where it had dropped. Men never go over those crooked and thorny steps
+of the past, they have so much work to do in the present and the future.
+I wanted then to make a position for him in the mill; but it was not
+possible, and would not have been the part of wisdom under _any_
+circumstances. Yet it seemed as if I had stepped in his place. I was
+glad to hear of this other, though Fred would have been happier
+elsewhere. Sylvie, I do not believe you realize what it cost him to come
+back to Yerbury, to walk about, a working-man, where he had driven in
+his carriage. So down at the bottom there is the temper of the real blue
+steel, which _can_ bend."
+
+"How generous you are, Jack!" There was something more than admiration
+in her tone, and yet she was wondering if she could ever forgive her
+fallen hero.
+
+"See here, Sylvie, I don't mean to question any one's religion, but I've
+often thought about the rejoicing up above, over the one who went
+astray. I do not believe we rejoice with a very full heart: maybe we are
+not heavenly enough. We can never be sure of our own strength until some
+far-reaching test is applied, and yet it may not be an entirely true
+test. It may quiver about the weak spot in our souls; but, while there
+is any feeling, one cannot be entirely lost. That is why I say he never
+forgot. And you and I ought to rejoice that he _did_ come back instead
+of going off in that gloomy, diseased, Manfred style, and upbraiding the
+world. 'Whatever his hand found to do'--that was one of grandmother's
+texts, and he went bravely at it."
+
+"I do believe you are a better Christian than I," she answered softly,
+her eyes limpid with emotion.
+
+"No. Perhaps not even a better friend;" and a smile played about his
+mouth.
+
+"A truer friend, a more generous one"--
+
+"What were we talking of?" in a sudden change of tone. "Oh, the business
+at Garafield's! Fred is a good deal of an artist, an intellectual artist
+I should say; and, though he may not attain to fame by painting
+pictures, there are many other points coming to be appreciated. He is in
+the way for usefulness; and, if he wins the bays for beauty as well, I
+am sure we shall all rejoice. I heard he had been designing."
+
+"You hear every thing." Sylvie made a capricious little _moue_. Her nods
+and gestures were so much a part of her, so piquant, decisive, and full
+of expression, when she did not intrench herself behind a studied
+dignity.
+
+"I am glad you have heard it. I was wondering how best to tell you. I
+thought Garafield's might be a stepping-stone, these hard times, but it
+may prove the veritable ladder itself. Only"--
+
+"Well!" with a trifle of impatience, as if she could not endure the
+suggestiveness of the tone.
+
+"I wonder if you understand the courage it took for Fred Lawrence to
+make a home here in Yerbury, to bring his mother and sister; for you see
+he must endure for them as well as himself. Mrs. Lawrence will always be
+an invalid, I suppose. He thinks her quite changed and softened:
+evidently she clings to him. They see none of their old friends. Miss
+Lawrence never goes anywhere."
+
+"As if one could help that!" almost passionately. "Auntie wrote a note
+to Mrs. Lawrence, and it was merely answered. They do not desire to
+receive any one. We can only let them alone, Jack."
+
+"Even then we can hardly fail to appreciate what he is doing, possibly
+suffering. I think he will come in time to win back all the regard his
+friends ever gave him," Jack Darcy said in a steady tone.
+
+Was he pleading for him? Sylvie was somewhat puzzled, the most so,
+perhaps, about herself. How much had she cared for Fred in that old
+time? If not at all, why did this feeling of shame over a fallen idol
+continually haunt her? She compared the two men in every thing, and
+sometimes was vexed to admit that Jack was the nobler.
+
+Their walk had come to an end. They paused at the gate; and a third
+person striding up Larch Avenue took in the drooping, attentive, and
+pliant figure, the strong, protecting, powerful personality of the
+other,--and wondered, as he had more than once before. Were they friends
+merely? It was not possible for a woman to see so much of Jack Darcy's
+noble, manly life, and not admire, not love, Dr. Maverick admitted. She
+showed in many ways that she did care for him. Oddly enough she
+sheltered herself under his friendly care when other admirers came too
+near. Could not Darcy see! What a blind, stupid mole he must be in this
+respect! and the doctor kicked a stone in his path with such force that
+the two turned in the midst of their good-bys, and waited with smiling
+faces for him to reach them. Not a shade of annoyance in look or tone at
+the interruption.
+
+"The queerest lovers," he thought to himself. "If I stood in that man's
+place"--
+
+Jack went homeward in a curiously speculative mood. He has always
+fancied for Sylvie some handsome, spirited knight, whose mental
+intuitions would be as delicate and refined as hers, whose enjoyment as
+intense. Little as he knew of love, he understood their friendship too
+thoroughly to be betrayed into any mistake. And he wondered now if he
+held the key to Sylvie's spiritual enfranchisement of all other men? If
+she had not loved Fred Lawrence, she had come too dangerously near it
+ever to free herself entirely from whatever thrall his soul had thrown
+over hers. She _had_ been disappointed in him, he read that from her
+tone; but surely, if he brought himself up to a finer and truer standard
+than any known in that enervating atmosphere of luxury, would she still
+be implacable? How could he best serve these two people, whom he loved
+so entirety?
+
+He had many other things to busy himself about beside love and
+friendship. March came on apace, and the balance-sheet for the six
+months had to be put in shape. The accounts had been systematically
+kept: that he had insisted upon in the beginning. Cameron knew every
+gallon of oil, every pound of wool, every penny spent for repairs and
+stock; Hurd and Yardley had kept account of every yard of cloth, and
+what quality, that had passed through their hands; Winston, of
+travelling, advertising, commissions, &c.; and Jack went over every
+thing. They had done wonderfully. There was actually a balance of profit
+to every man, woman, and child. The forms were printed, and distributed
+to every employee, and there was a great rejoicing time. They engaged
+the Cooking Club to provide them a supper, and the young people had a
+merry dance afterward.
+
+"It's hardly safe to halloo until you are out of the woods," said some
+of the solid old men of Yerbury, who were living snugly on the interest
+of government-bonds. "Six months is no test at all. Wait until there is
+a hard pull, and you will not be so jubilant."
+
+"No," answered Jack with a humorous twinkle in his eye: "it's right to
+have the rejoicing now, when we have fairly earned it. The man who
+croaks when Providence has smiled upon him, deserves the frown; and he
+who is unthankful for small successes hardly has a right to great ones.
+I do not expect all fair sailing, but we will weather the storms
+together."
+
+"It _is_ rather unfortunate," commented another wise-acre. "I have
+observed these wonderful beginnings seldom end well. If you should have
+a run of bad luck now, your men will be dissatisfied, and likely blame
+you for not keeping up to that mark. I shouldn't have made such a great
+effort, and then there would have been a chance for improvement."
+
+"A new broom sweeps clean, but it _will_ get worn out," with sundry
+mysterious nods.
+
+"I declare," said Jack to his friend and comforter, Maverick, "half the
+town looks at me as if I must have robbed a bank, or falsified accounts,
+told a lie, or cheated, or maybe murdered some rich old don, and made
+merry on his money. Why can't people rejoice with you when there is any
+thing to rejoice about,--an event which does not happen so often in
+these evil days? I do believe Boyd, and a lot of the others, would be
+glad to see the scheme fail; but I'll work night and day to make a
+success of it. It shall not go down," and Jack set his lips together in
+a way that spoke volumes for his resolve.
+
+"I have observed before that some people are fond of disparaging plans
+that they have no hand in," returned the doctor coolly.
+
+"And philanthropy is a much-derided virtue. If the old Athenian had been
+a stock-broker or a bank-director, he might not have been sent into
+exile, eh?" and Darcy laughed good-humoredly. "If I have kept a few
+people from starvation this winter, I ought surely to have as much
+credit as to have dealt around alms. As for the success, we had the
+reputation of Hope Mills in our favor, and every man had his own fortune
+at stake, and brought out the best that was in him."
+
+He sent Miss McLeod her half-yearly rent, a copy of the statement, and a
+very temperate letter. He was quite proud to think he had no need of
+accepting her proffered favor, but he thanked her again for it.
+
+She answered promptly. She had shown the statement to Mr. Hildreth, and
+he thought it remarkable. Wasn't it a trifle too rose-colored to last?
+Count on her as a friend, if evil days came; and we none of us could
+tell exactly what was in store. The financial horizon was by no means
+clear.
+
+A few others gave him words of heartfelt encouragement. The Rev. Mr.
+Marlow spoke of him in very high terms, much to Sylvie's delight, and
+said already there had been a great change in the mill-hands. The
+coffee-house he considered an especially commendable thought.
+
+There was a quiet change going on that was destined to bear more
+abundant fruit in the future. Some of the men and women had begun to
+think a little for themselves. The pupils of the cooking-school were
+beginning the A B C of beauty and neatness. Their rooms were swept
+cleaner; their clothes took on a more tidy aspect. With the opening
+spring, gardens and court-yards were cleared of their rubbish, and
+flower-beds flourished again. Sylvie gave her girls one very instructive
+lecture on slips and flower-seeds, and one Saturday they went out to
+the woods for ferns and wild flowers. It was only one little corner, to
+be sure, but it was the leaven that was presently to do a wide-spread
+work.
+
+Hope Mills took up its steady march again. Half a dozen new hands were
+added, though Jack wished that he could find employment for some of the
+poor souls that besieged him daily. If times really were coming better,
+if orders only would increase, and he could with safety enlarge his
+borders! But "slow and steady" was his motto. He was not one to
+disparage the present by exaggerating the advantages of the future.
+
+There was one home that these cordial little excitements never entered.
+The three souls in it, although they should have been very near and
+dear, wrapped themselves in their own thoughts and sorrows, and took no
+note of their fellows.
+
+Mrs. Lawrence heeded the outward change least of the three. She had her
+pretty room, her glowing fire in winter, her fur slippers, and zephyr
+shawls; her late breakfast in bed, then her luxurious dressing-gown, and
+her books. She had settled herself into the _rôle_ of an invalid for the
+remainder of her days. The loss and suffering had not taken her out of
+herself, or raised her narrow, vapid nature. She was at once patient and
+complaining,--even her affection for her son was combined with great
+mental and moral weakness. She was profoundly grieved that he should
+have been compelled to accept so unsuitable a position; but to her it
+was only a temporary event. Something _must_ happen. In some mysterious
+way they would come back to their former grandeur,--not that she cared
+especially, but for the sake of Fred and Irene. Then for days she would
+lose herself in the joys and sorrows of her heroines. To such people
+novel-reading is certainly a godsend. A readable book was as
+exhilarating to her as a splendid morning drive or a good deed is to
+many others. She had society without being bored. She had wit, poetry,
+art, music, travels, dinners, and balls, with no worry, no late hours,
+or fatigue.
+
+Irene could not so yield up her personality. She brooded over her lot in
+a haughty, bitter spirit. She uttered no complaint,--she was far too
+proud for that,--but she took no interest in any thing. Like a
+melancholy ghost she wandered up and down, or sat by the window for
+hours in a listless attitude. There were moments when she wished herself
+Lady Frodsham, times when the change and bustle of such a life as that
+of Mr. Barringer would have been heaven itself.
+
+Fred could never persuade her to go anywhere. She took no walks, except
+to pace up and down the garden path when the quiet of the house drove
+her well-nigh crazy. Once in a great while she opened the piano, and
+played as if a demon had taken possession of her soul and her fingers.
+
+Fred breakfasted early and alone. After a while he fell into the habit
+of taking his lunch in his office, and coming home to a late dinner.
+Martha was certainly the perfection of maids. The housekeeping went on
+with the regularity of clockwork: there were no complaints even. Fred
+used to sit in his mother's room until her bedtime, when he would go
+down to the library, and work for an hour or two.
+
+The utter dearth of interest would have been terrible to him but for his
+business. At first he preserved a wide and punctilious distance between
+himself and Mr. Garafield. He was the employer, to be sure; but then
+Fred Lawrence had a dignity of his own to maintain. One day, however,
+the dignity suffered a collapse. Mr. Garafield brought in some new
+designs, and they lapsed into an exceedingly entertaining art
+discussion. The employer had excellent taste, trained and shaped by
+practical experience: Fred possessed the wider mental reach and
+exquisite perception of harmony and color, the sentiment of genius.
+
+"Why do you not take up the idea, Mr. Lawrence?" asked his employer.
+"House finishing and furnishing is fast coming to be a fine art. An
+intelligent, harmonious beauty is demanded. We are leaving behind the
+complacency of mere money in our adornments, and asking for something
+that evinces thought and refinement. I am sure you could succeed if you
+once set about the work."
+
+The compliment touched Fred profoundly, roused him to a new venture. He
+practised his almost lost art of designing to some purpose: he wrote two
+or three art essays that happened to find much more favor than his
+abstruse philosophies. After all, he was young, and the whole world lay
+before him. Surely he could carve out some kind of fortune. The light of
+earnest endeavor shone in his eyes, the languid step quickened into one
+of courageous elasticity. He had dawdled away years enough: he would put
+a purpose into his manhood, that some distant eyes, seeing, might not
+relegate him entirely to the regions of contempt.
+
+"There's quite a good deal in that young Lawrence," declared Phil
+Maverick decisively. "I was in at Garafield's the other evening, and, I
+must confess, listened to a fine art lecture. All about wall-papering,
+too!" with a genial laugh. "What an education that fellow has! Couldn't
+he find any thing to do, that he must drop down upon a paper-factory? I
+am sure I should have made a big fight out somewhere in the great
+world."
+
+"'Beyond the Alps lies Italy,'" quoted Jack. "Not on the top, you
+observe, but perhaps in the valley. I wish you would be a little
+friendly with him, Maverick: you couldn't help but like him."
+
+"There is more in him than I gave him credit for. I thought at the time
+of his father's death I had never seen so useless a fine gentleman,
+with all the stamina educated out of him. I had half a mind to turn him
+over to Aunt Jean and Miss Lothrop."
+
+Darcy laughed absently, and Maverick saw that his mind had wandered
+elsewhere. How odd that these two should be friends! Maverick could not
+discern the fine bond uniting them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+SUMMER came on apace. The Cooking Club took a vacation, or rather turned
+into a gardening club, and studied the sensible part of botany and
+floriculture. People began to look at the waste land lying about, with
+envious eyes. Here and there some one started a garden, or indulged in a
+flock of chickens. The Webbers traded their snug cottage for a place on
+the outskirts of the town, with two acres of ground, which they improved
+rapidly. Men who had sold farms, and spent the money in vain business
+speculations, looked back regretfully, and in some instances hired where
+they had been proprietors. There was no money to be realized in farming,
+but if one could even make a living! No one was making money but those
+lucky fellows at Hope Mills. Of course that was a bubble, and would
+burst presently; but doubtless it was good while it lasted.
+
+Miss Barry, Sylvie, and Mrs. Darcy went away to a pleasant, quiet
+seaside resort. Miss Barry appeared to be ailing a little. Mrs. Minor so
+far relented as to invite her mother and Irene to spend two months with
+her at Long Branch. Mrs. Lawrence consented, Irene refused flatly. "She
+had no money to spend for dress, and she would accept no one's charity,"
+she declared in her haughty way. But she could not stay in the house
+forever: so she took long walks over wild country ways, angry with the
+world, herself, and every thing. A fierce-eyed, beautiful girl, clinging
+desperately to her isolation, and yet eating out her very heart in
+loneliness.
+
+The time ran on rapidly. September came around. Hope Mills did not make
+as good a report this time. Business had been very dull. Sales were next
+to nothing. People did not need much in warm weather, and orders were
+very light. However, several other branches of industry in Yerbury
+improved a trifle. Railroads, stocks, and real estate were fast becoming
+dead speculations: so men ventured to put their money warily into
+business again.
+
+But the bottom had not been reached. Early in October there was a
+tremendous failure of an old and well-known firm of woollen-manufacturers.
+The bankrupt stock was sold at auction. Then another, and various
+smaller houses. The market was suddenly flooded. No one could sell. No
+one seemed to need new garments of any kind. Men wore their old clothes,
+and shrugged their shoulders in a sort of contemptuous content, as if
+they had suddenly found a great charm in a half-worn, shabby overcoat.
+Robert Winston went hither and yon. Not a piece or a yard would any one
+take.
+
+There was a great deal of discussion in various daily journals. The
+business had been overdone again. Foreign markets must be found. We
+could not compete with foreign manufacturers. Our wool was inferior, our
+looms were inferior, our men knew so little, and demanded such high
+wages. Then we never could do any thing under the present wretched
+tariff and the skinning system of taxation. It took all a man could
+make. Another sapient statesman declared nothing could be done without
+more money. The contraction had been so great that not a man could do
+business. Then came a long list of figures to prove what a very little
+money was left in the country. Newspaper war raged, first on this side,
+then on that. If we did this, we would surely be ruined: if we did not,
+then ruin was inevitable.
+
+Jack used to try for some light, no matter how faint. It seemed to him,
+if the great men at the helm of the national ship would set to work
+vigorously to widen and strengthen the commerce of the nation, instead
+of discussing such frivolous issues, prosperity might dawn once more. He
+went over his political economists again, and realized sadly that men
+had always disputed these points, and that each writer or prophet was
+sure his was the only creed that would ever save the world, while by
+following any other they would surely go to ruin.
+
+Winston and he took counsel together: then they called in Cameron, who
+looked blue enough.
+
+"Any ordinary factory would shut down for the winter," said Winston
+ruefully; "but that would be to confess our scheme a failure. We are
+piling up goods--but for what--a grand auction-sale by and by? And the
+men have worked so cheerfully--no, we can't give up."
+
+"Giving up is out of the question at present," Jack answered solemnly,
+as if he was passing his word at the bar. "Our balance at the bank has
+been expended, and we have some notes out that must be cared for in a
+month's time. Wages are falling, and it seems to look now as if we were
+coming back to the era of cheap living. The bargain was the ruling rate
+of wages, you know. I think they will have to come down."
+
+"I will not give up beaten," declared Winston. "I'll have one more try.
+Keep up heart, shipmate."
+
+With that Winston started West again. He talked, he plead, he offered
+for the mere cost of production,--just to get the money back would be
+something. The coal-venture of this winter had been much larger, though
+coal was declining, and the profit somewhat less. Everybody pared the
+margin to the mere skin. Winston had a little luck, however. Two sales
+of some note were effected, and a barter, that only a man with a shrewd
+eye for bargains, and a glib tongue, could have managed. Flour, apples,
+and potatoes were the stock this time. The workmen took them gladly, at
+a little less than store prices. They knew how full the wareroom kept
+all the time.
+
+The first of January, wages were lowered. There was a little grumbling
+among some of the men, but the women took it in wiser part. The
+half-loaf was much better than no bread at all. They remembered the
+dismal year when there had been no employment, and stinted food
+purchased on credit. One wouldn't starve with flour and potatoes, nor
+freeze with a full coal-bin.
+
+Hope Mills had exhausted every source,--had even paid a horrible
+discount, being hard run,--when Darcy wrote to Miss McLeod a true
+statement of affairs. If they could hold out until spring, times might
+be better. They were economizing as they never had before: yet the time
+had come when disaster really stared them in the face, unless they could
+find a true friend.
+
+Miss Barry had generously offered him her store and her credit. Though
+there had been a time when she withheld Sylvie, and fancied Jack Darcy
+not quite the equal of her pretty niece, that time had long gone by. She
+knew now his genuine worth,--she had tested his integrity. Of course
+Sylvie would drift that way; and so, by many delicate turns, she showed
+Jack that she could trust him with any of her treasures.
+
+"You are so good," said the honest fellow, with tears in his eyes,--for
+he was touched beyond measure. "If I can't get through I will gladly
+accept, unless the prospect is so bad that it would be sure to
+jeopardize any one's money. But I hope it will not come to that."
+
+How breathlessly he waited for Miss McLeod's answer! The morning's mail
+did not bring it; night closed in without it. A chill drizzle had set
+in, freezing as it fell, and the keen air fairly flayed one's skin. Yet
+he dreaded to go in-doors, to hear his mother's pleasant voice. Cousin
+Jane had been called away by the illness and possible death of a
+relative, so they two were alone.
+
+When Mrs. Darcy saw her son so grave and pre-occupied, his eyes sadly
+pathetic with trouble, mother-like, she tried to comfort with the small
+talk that women often offer, and that answers the purpose like bathing
+one's brow with Florida-water in a severe headache. She never mentioned
+business to him when in such moods. Now it was a bit of
+newspaper-gossip, concerning some discoveries in Greece, that he and
+Maverick had been quite eager about.
+
+The poor fellow was distraught, and could not listen. He ate his supper,
+choking down the food, for her dear sake, missing strangely Cousin
+Jane's pungency and seasoning. Then he tried to interest himself in the
+paper, but could not; he paced the floor softly; he whistled a tune, for
+his mother's benefit also, but broke down in the middle.
+
+"I must go out a little while," he declared in desperation.
+
+"Not in this storm," said his mother pleadingly.
+
+"Yes. I'll be back by--ten," looking at the clock. "It is too bad to
+leave you alone," with sudden regret, kissing her tenderly.
+
+"I shall not mind for a while. But this wretched storm"--
+
+He laughed, a little strained and forced; then he put on his great-coat,
+almost wishing that every man in the country was without, and had to buy
+one to-morrow. He tramped up the street, drawing long respirations,
+every one of which was nearly a sigh. Was this the way Mr. Lawrence felt
+when times went bad? Was some such trouble the cause of that fatal
+disaster? He bowed his head in a sort of touching and profound respect
+to the dead man. He experienced an earnest sympathy for all struggling
+capitalists. What did unreasoning labor know of such nights as these
+when every thing, even good name, was at stake! He wondered if his mop
+of curly hair would turn gray, and then, in a ridiculously trivial
+mood, remembered he must go and have it cropped. As well now as any
+time; but when he reached the barber's, the place looked so uninviting,
+with the smoky kerosene-lamps turned low. He did not stop: he used to
+wonder afterward how it would have been if he had, until he came to have
+a sincere and reverent belief in God as the disposer of human events,
+the Hand back of the curtain, that guided every step, and kept sacred
+watch even over two sparrows.
+
+He walked down past Maverick's; but half a dozen people were in there,
+so he went on and on to the very end of the street, when by the dim
+light he saw a figure in advance of him, a woman, tall and stately,
+muffled in a waterproof and hood. There was something in the bearing
+different from most of the Yerbury women who ran out of an evening for a
+neighborly gossip, or some provender for their next morning's breakfast.
+There were no stores in this direction; it was quite lonely; perhaps she
+was going home. It would annoy her to be followed, doubtless; and on
+such a night as this no roughs would be abroad in this vicinity.
+
+Jack Darcy was in that nervous state when the brain seems rarefied and
+empowered to wrest secrets from the very elements in his path. He
+pursued several chains of thought at once, with lightning rapidity, and,
+with curious mental inconsistency, dropped them, and lapsed into others.
+Now a sudden interest sprang up in this wandering traveller. He listened
+with the wariness of an Indian to her step. It had in it the essential
+principle of flight, but a baffled, fruitless longing for escape, rather
+than a nearing to some distant haven or goal. He had not used to be so
+keen in this subtile discrimination, until Maverick crossed his path,
+and helped him out of his psychological bondage. And ordinarily his
+senses had not the electric keenness of to-night.
+
+The figure paused. The face seemed to turn to the drear, blank sky--was
+it in appealing, or a desperate daring? an impotent resistance, or a
+wild, agonizing prayer? The hands were thrown up: he had come gradually
+nearer, and could see them, ghostly white in the long feeble ray of the
+distant lamp. What was she deciding or asking? A shiver ran over him as
+the thought of suicide entered his brain. At all events, he must not let
+her go to destruction.
+
+Her hands dropped. She took a few slow, irresolute steps, then turned
+and came so quickly, that before he could stir or think, she confronted
+him. A wild face with staring eyes, a wilder shriek ringing out on the
+night air, making muffled echoes around, a desperate plunge, and a fall.
+He sprang and essayed to raise her from the half-frozen hail-bed of the
+sidewalk; the hood fell back, and he was more than astonished at
+beholding the face of Irene Lawrence.
+
+He appeared suddenly to comprehend the whole fact, though he came to
+know afterward that he misjudged her. Only a desire to put an end to
+life and suffering, real or fancied, could have brought her out this
+night, in the lonely neighborhood, still, not so far from her own home.
+He must take her back, and then go for Maverick, who had become quite a
+favorite with Mrs. Lawrence, and prescribed harmless remedies for her,
+since she insisted she must have them.
+
+Jack Darcy never experienced a more exultant pride in his strength than
+now. He lifted the helpless form, settled the swaying head on his broad
+shoulder, and, clasping the body tightly, picked his way through the
+slippery streets, in a manner that would have done credit to an Alp
+climber. Round this corner and that, to the quiet, deserted street,
+where every window was closed, and perhaps half the inmates in bed. Only
+in one house was there a sound of life. Some one was playing an
+accompaniment for an evening hymn, and youthful voices were singing.
+Two lines floated out as he passed, making a kind of glow on the sullen
+night:--
+
+          "Though long a wanderer,
+              The sun gone down"--
+
+Unconsciously he tightened his arms around this wanderer. Of course all
+their brief acquaintance had gone through his mind, especially the day
+when in her haughty pride and beauty she had given him that cold,
+insolent stare; but he forgave her freely, just as he had forgiven
+Fred's sin, unasked. How strangely he was destined to be mixed up with
+these Lawrences!
+
+He paused on the low porch, where a honeysuckle rioted in summer, and
+was still full of withered leaves. His burthen had not stirred, and was
+a dead weight. Resting it against his knee, he pulled the door-bell
+gently, and waited.
+
+"Is that you, Mr. Lawrence?" asked a voice from within.
+
+"No. Jack Darcy," for he guessed rightly that it was Martha.
+
+She opened the door.
+
+"Don't be frightened, Martha," in a re-assuring tone. "It is Miss
+Lawrence."
+
+"Oh, good heaven!" in tones of terror.
+
+"Hush! do not disturb any one. Is Mr. Lawrence home? Where shall I carry
+her? she is in a dead faint."
+
+"Bring her in the parlor. Oh, Mr. Darcy! where was she?" with a look of
+wild affright. "I did not know she had gone out. I always felt something
+would happen to her; and a long while ago I offered to go out with her,
+but she is so hard and disdainful that one soon comes to letting her
+alone. She made me promise not to tell her brother, or rather she defied
+me to: she wouldn't put any thing as a favor if she was dying. Talk
+about the pride of Lucifer! And I knew it would worry Mr. Lawrence
+dreadfully."
+
+"Was she in the habit of going out--alone--at night?" asked Jack, in
+amaze.
+
+"I think it was from pride," answered Martha simply. "You see, she
+needed some exercise, and she seldom went out in the daytime. And I
+don't think she is afraid of any thing. I never saw such a cold, bitter,
+strong girl--for she is only a girl yet. I've sometimes felt afraid she
+would do something desperate. Oh, if she would only let the Lord help
+her bear her trouble! And Mr. Lawrence is so kind and generous! He would
+do any thing for her. Oh, he ought to be home! There's the clock
+striking ten."
+
+"And I must run for the doctor. Heaven grant she may not be dead! Take
+off her cloak, and try something"--glancing about in alarm.
+
+Then he seemed to take one devouring look at the sculptured face, with
+closed lids, and jetty lashes sweeping the marble cheeks. Hurrying away,
+as if by some great effort, he ran down the street again, despatched
+Maverick, and hastened to Fred's office. The building loomed up dark and
+silent. He might possibly be at Garafield's house: he often went there
+of an evening, he and Mr. Garafield were so engrossed with their plans.
+
+It was a long walk; but Jack strode on, getting rapidly over the ground.
+The hall-door was open, and Mr. and Mrs. Garafield were saying
+good-night to Fred. Jack waited until he came down the steps, and then
+called to him cheerfully. They linked arm-in-arm. The hail and rain had
+turned now to fine, hard snow, and the wind seemed to scurry through the
+deserted streets like a forlorn, wailing spirit.
+
+Jack told his story briefly, also repeating what Martha had said about
+Irene's habit of lonely walking. He felt the sensitive nerves in the arm
+he held, quiver with a shuddering pain.
+
+"Thank God it was you!" Fred said, with a great, tremulous gasp. "She is
+so strange, so cold and self-contained,--so bitter against fate! Believe
+me, Jack, I have tried my utmost"--and the voice broke with something
+like a sob.
+
+"I know it, dear old fellow," drawing him nearer as the blast whistled
+around them.
+
+"We never learned to make each other happy, you know. We never supposed
+we had any special duties to one another, so it was a new task to me. I
+tried to interest her in something, to make her more cheerful; but she
+would wrap herself in that haughty, unconquerable coldness. Yet if I had
+known or guessed"--
+
+"After all, there is very little danger down your end of the town," said
+Jack, in that light, comforting tone. "There's nothing to call tramps or
+roughs; and, I dare say, to-night all would have gone straight if she
+had not run against me, as one may say, and the fright made her faint."
+
+"But if it had been some one else! Oh, my God!"
+
+"It was not; so never give that a second thought. There is no use in
+bringing up an army of 'might-have-beens' to worry you to death when you
+have escaped danger. And--here we are."
+
+"You will come in, of course?"
+
+Jack followed his friend. Maverick had succeeded in restoring Miss
+Lawrence to consciousness; but she was now in a burning fever and raging
+delirium. Outraged nature had at last asserted its sway.
+
+"It is better so, I think," remarked Maverick, in a quiet, decisive
+tone. "She will have a severe run of fever, for this has been some time
+coming on; but she has youth and a naturally fine constitution in her
+favor. I believe she will pull through. But some arrangement must be
+settled upon. It will not do to take her up-stairs; for the effect upon
+your mother will be too great a risk. If you could bring a bed down
+here--to-morrow I will see about getting a nurse."
+
+"I think it would be better to bring her bed down stairs," rejoined
+Martha. "The parlor is used so little. And she would be so much more
+comfortable"--
+
+Martha's eyes went over the heavy, clinging dress, the disordered hair,
+the bracelets that were like manacles as she threw her arms about,
+moaning, muttering, and laughing shrilly. The eyes rolled wildly in
+their senseless stare, until one's blood almost curdled.
+
+"We must get about it immediately," began Dr. Maverick. "She will be
+quieter presently, and I shall remain all night. Darcy, you watch her:
+do not let her injure herself, while we bring down the necessary
+articles."
+
+Just at this juncture Mrs. Lawrence's bell rang. The noise had startled
+her from her first sound sleep. Dr. Maverick explained simply, and gave
+her a composing draught.
+
+"A fever! Is it any thing contagious? Yes, it is better to keep her down
+there: my nerves are so weak, and I think I have a very sensitive,
+susceptible nature. I might take any disease so easily,--do you not
+think so, doctor?" and Mrs. Lawrence looked up from her frills and laces
+and snowy pillow with the helpless air of a child.
+
+"Much better. She may be delirious, too, and that would distress you.
+Now be as quiet as possible, and try to go to sleep again. I shall
+remain to keep you both in order," with a laugh.
+
+"That is very kind," she answered, with a pretty wave of her delicate
+hand. Her daughter might be dying below, but her nerves must be settled
+and cared for. Still, to do her justice, even in her intense
+selfishness, she never considered other people's ailments dangerous,
+while she held that her own precious life was constantly in peril. She
+talked of dying with the calmness of a saint, and admitted that there
+was no further charm to life, but still she must have the choicest care.
+
+Under Martha's supervision they soon dismembered the bedstead, and
+brought down all necessary belongings. Jack had watched his charge,
+strangely exercised by her curious, changeful moods. Once she had looked
+meaningly at him.
+
+"I _might_ marry you," she said, in soft, mocking tones, her scarlet
+lips taking on a bitter, scornful smile; "but I should come to hate you
+so that some night when you lay asleep I should rise and murder you! I
+might endure you in London, where I could be in a continual round of
+gayety; but at Frodsham Park, with an old man like you,--May and
+December! May and December!" and she laughed shrilly.
+
+She did not mean _him_, then! Honest Jack Darcy blushed to the roots of
+his hair, to his very finger-ends. Some old man had wanted her: well,
+she was braver and truer, then, than most people would admit.
+
+The three came in, and transformed the parlor to a hospital-ward,
+without the simplicity. Jack suddenly thought of his mother, and hurried
+away. What an eventful walk it had been! and Hope Mills was quite driven
+out of his mind.
+
+He found his mother frightened and hysterical; and drawing her down
+beside him he told her the story of his wanderings, expressing with some
+tender kisses his sorrow for her alarm, and advised her to go to bed at
+once, as he meant to do. And, though it might not be romantic after such
+an adventure, I must admit that in ten minutes my hero was soundly
+asleep, oblivious of both storm and business.
+
+At the house he had left, there was but little refreshing rest. Mrs.
+Lawrence drowsed away when the confusion of re-arrangement had subsided.
+The gentlemen retired to the library while Martha disrobed her young
+mistress with inward fear and trembling, hardly being able to judge
+what was due to delirium, and what to natural imperiousness. Then Dr.
+Maverick kindly dismissed her.
+
+"You will need your strength in the morning," said he. "Try to get at
+least one good nap."
+
+He took his station at the bedside, and motioned Fred to an armchair
+just out of his sister's range. The opiate was not working successfully,
+but at present he did not consider it wise to increase it. He questioned
+him a little as to Miss Irene's habits and resources, and imagined the
+part withheld, from that rather reluctantly admitted. He understood that
+here kindred blood had not produced harmony, but a horrible discord, the
+more wearing in that every note had been muffled. The self-commiseration
+of the mother, and her weak love for her son that could only pity, but
+never encourage or brace to any vigorous effort; her total inability to
+comprehend any such character as her youngest daughter possessed; the
+wearisome platitudes enunciated in the belief that they were golden
+grains of worldly wisdom, the only kind she supposed existed; the weak,
+vapid repining that she had not married when she might have done so
+well, the discouraging certainty that no marriage was possible in this
+second-rate town, and that to remain single was a stigma and a
+misfortune. In her weak but querulous complaints, which she meant in
+part for sympathy, she had worn and exasperated Irene as much as Mrs.
+Minor: only here there were no lovers, and there Mrs. Minor looked upon
+every single man of means as a fish to be skilfully angled for.
+
+If Irene had been thrown completely upon her own resources, if she had
+been compelled to step entirely out of her olden sphere, and earn her
+daily bread, there would have been a sharp, bitter fight, but the
+bracing mental atmosphere might have dispelled the thick darkness, the
+chilling vacuity, and evolved from the discordant elements a questioning
+and not easily satisfied soul, but one destined to develop into
+strength and nobler uses. But here, she said to herself, there was
+nothing. Friendship could not come to her aid--she would have none of
+it. No one should study her with curious eyes, to see how she bore her
+trials, her losses, the downfall of her pride. Strangers who had glanced
+at her with envy in her pretty pony-phaeton, or the magnificent family
+barouche, should not smile in triumph as they saw her walking by. As she
+had scorned others in her grandeur, so others would rejoice that she had
+been brought low. She had seen so much of the narrowness, the petty
+spite, the sharp stings of the world, that her sensitive flesh shrank at
+every pulse.
+
+She could understand now how high-bred women, when friends and fortune
+had flown, had shut themselves in convents. That she would have been
+glad to do. Any entire renunciation would have met with her approval.
+But to gather up the threads of a commonplace existence, to find joy and
+solace in daily duties, to work for others, to even show others how
+trials and misfortunes could be borne to the perfect working-out of
+nobler aims and uses, was not for her. She had never been trained to any
+such purpose. A heathen of the heathens in a Christian country, the
+product of fashion, wealth, and so-called refinement.
+
+In the solitude to which she condemned herself, she came to brooding
+over a desperate, worldly philosophy. Should she go back, and retrace
+her steps, and marry? There were days when she absolutely contested the
+ground inch by inch, and almost decided.
+
+Her long rapid walks, generally at night when her brain was wild with
+the bitter warfare, had served a useful purpose, and kept her in better
+health. But the strain could not last forever. For days she had
+alternated between a chilly, stupid languor, and hours when her brain
+seemed on fire, when, indeed, she hated the whole world with a bitter,
+awful intensity. In this mood she had stolen out for her walk.
+
+And now the outraged soul had burst its bonds, and revelled in a fearful
+revenge. All the ache and repression put upon it; all this silent
+endurance; all the solitary hours of maddening thought, the wasted
+riches, the spurned sympathy, the youth poisoned by false
+doctrines,--every secret sin committed against it, cried aloud, and
+would not be throttled, nor thrust back into the dreary dungeon.
+
+Fred listened to her ravings in stunned, helpless astonishment. His
+trial had been so much less intense, after all. Could it be possible she
+had suffered this as she sat so like a statue in the little circle,
+disdaining every aid? His startled eyes questioned the doctor.
+
+"Yes," was the reply: "she has been too much alone. She has brooded over
+these things until she has become morbid and imbittered. The curse of
+fashionable life is, that it provides a woman with no resources against
+a dark day, no wisdom, no faith in any thing outside of herself. And
+then we wonder at insanity! A thousand times better that the body should
+be racked with pain, if so be that the soul is purified in passing
+through these fires. It may be her salvation."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+THE morning's mail brought to Darcy the letter he had hardly dared
+expect. It was brief but cordial. Would he come to New York, and the
+matter could be arranged to his satisfaction? "He had not been very
+eager to ask favors."
+
+"We'll weather through, Winston!" he cried joyfully. "I must go to New
+York. Miss McLeod has sent."
+
+Then he ran off home, and arrayed himself in spotless linen and
+immaculate cuffs, complained a little that Jane Morgan should be away,
+and begged his mother to ask in some of the pretty, friendly girls
+living in the next house, if he should not be home to supper. There was
+a late train that he would be quite sure of, if the business detained
+him until night. Then he kissed her tenderly: she was still a little
+shaken from her last night's vigil.
+
+He went around by Maverick's office, though it took him out of his way;
+but he must hear some word of Miss Lawrence.
+
+"She is very ill, and will be for some time to come; but I am
+wonderfully interested in the case. It's a brain-fever. The girl is a
+study in herself. She has the force and power, and capability of both
+suffering and endurance, that would answer for half a dozen souls; but
+it has come pretty nearly to a wreck. Did you ever know much about her?"
+
+"No. I once spent an evening with Miss Barry when she was there," and
+Jack flushed. "It was before Mr. Lawrence died. They used to be great
+friends, you know."
+
+"And it ended like most women's friendships, eh?" with a peculiar light
+in his eyes as he spoke.
+
+"No: it broke off in the middle; regards have a trick of doing that when
+they're not ended, you know. Sylvie is very generous: she would go there
+to-day if she were needed."
+
+"Would she? She may be before it is all over."
+
+"Go down and tell her, Maverick, when you are in that direction."
+
+Maverick nodded.
+
+Darcy was just in time to catch his train. There had been quite a fall
+of snow from midnight to dawn, and the trees were glittering with
+thousands of diamond-sparks and patches of fleecy ermine. The winding
+roads were white; the cottages and the fence-posts were hooded; and the
+snow caught all the tints of sun and shadowy lights, reflecting them
+back like a mirror. His heart was so light as they whirled along, he
+smiled, and could hardly forbear shouting at a group of boys who were
+snow-balling by the roadside.
+
+He met Miss McLeod at Mr. Hildreth's. They had the private office to
+themselves; and he related the mishaps of the past three months, showed
+her the actual figures, and admitted that times seemed really harder
+than last year. There was such a horrible shrinkage everywhere! Still
+there must be some trade presently,--it always had been so in the
+history of the world.
+
+"I think you deserve a great deal of credit for having pulled through so
+far on your limited capital," said she. "Some of the business-men I
+meet, think this will prove the hardest year in our history. It will
+winnow the chaff from the wheat pretty well."
+
+"If it does not winnow us all into chaff," returned the young fellow,
+with a touch of grim humor.
+
+"We shall come back to smaller profits and greater industry. The world
+will not be able to play at being ladies and gentlemen, and perhaps a
+little wholesome work will not be a bad discipline."
+
+Then she wanted to know what amount would be likely to tide him over for
+the next six months. He said he did not desire to exceed ten thousand
+dollars. She would make it twelve, however. After the notes were duly
+signed, she took him to her bank, and introduced him. As he had some
+other parties to see, she drove him about in her carriage, and insisted
+upon taking him home with her presently.
+
+What an elegant old lady she was in her sables and velvets, and her
+royal air! her eyes bright with spirit and energy, her cheeks a little
+pink with the crisp air, glad sunshine, and perhaps her own hearty,
+wholesome mood. Occasionally she leaned out and nodded to some friend;
+and once her carriage drew up to the sidewalk as she summoned a fine,
+portly-looking gentleman to her.
+
+"Mr. Throckmorton," she said, with gracious dignity, "I want to
+introduce my young friend Mr. Darcy, of Hope Mills, Yerbury, to you. If
+you can serve him in any business-way, I shall be glad to have you."
+
+The gentleman bowed, and held out his hand, with cordial fine breeding.
+
+"Hope Mills! It belonged to my friend Lawrence, did it not,--David
+Lawrence?"
+
+"Until his death, yes."
+
+"Sad misfortune, that. He ought to have retired years before. There was
+some villany in his manager, was there not? It is difficult to find a
+purely honest man nowadays; but I do believe Lawrence was one. We dealt
+with him a great many years, but toward the last there was some
+dissatisfaction,--goods not coming quite up to samples."
+
+"We try to do our business on the square, Mr. Throckmorton," returned
+Jack, with a proud curve of the lips that was almost a smile, and
+illumined his face. "If any thing is not exactly as represented, we
+shall make it good; but we try never to have occasion to do that. We
+should be glad to have you test our honesty and skill."
+
+"Thank you,--I will, I will;" and, touching his hat to Miss McLeod, they
+parted.
+
+"If men were as generous as you!" cried Jack, with enthusiastic candor,
+"how splendid a place this world would be for business! Did you ever
+have a jealous thought in all your life?"
+
+She laughed brightly. "I have had nearly all the things I wanted," she
+answered, with tender solemnity. "There would have been little excuse.
+Mr. Darcy, we do not always realize how hard life is to some; and, where
+everybody's man's hand is against one, it is natural for him to be
+against every man."
+
+Their four-o'clock meal was an elegant little dinner. They were quite
+alone, which pleased Jack. She questioned him about Maverick, his
+practice, his friends, and wondered if he ever meant to marry. Jack said
+laughingly no one in Yerbury dared to make fascinating eyes at him.
+
+Did she care so much for Maverick? Surely these two ought to be
+together, yet what would _he_ do without his trusty comrade?
+
+They veered round to the mills presently, and discussed honesty. Jack
+admitted that Mr. Throckmorton and other customers had a right to
+complain. There had been a deal of cheap wool used, and many poor
+workmen employed, during Eastman's last year or two.
+
+"Mr. Darcy," she began energetically, "why do you not think up something
+new? We import pretty material for ladies' wear, that could as well be
+made here, for we women are growing sensible enough to believe something
+beside silk admissible. And though men may cling to superannuated coats,
+with an affection most commendable in hard times, I never heard of a
+woman being attached to an old gown."
+
+"I never thought of it," he admitted frankly.
+
+"That is what you were put in the world for,--to think," and she smiled
+with quaint humor. "Invent something. I'll take a sample to every store
+to match, and lift my brows in surprise when clerks confess they have
+not seen it. Give it a pretty name, of course."
+
+"That is worth considering, surely;" and his eyes sparkled. "Hope Mills
+ought presently to be the grandest place in the country, you take so
+much interest in it," and his whole face expressed his admiration.
+
+"I do hope to see you a successful manufacturer, Mr. Darcy; and,
+woman-like, I want the scheme to succeed. I should like to see even a
+small party of men trained to honesty and fair play. And, if I lose my
+money, it is no worse than a downfall in stocks."
+
+"I shall do my best now and ever," he answered heartily.
+
+They parted with much warm gratitude on the honest fellow's side. He
+took the evening train for home; and his mother had a good cup of tea
+awaiting him, along with her smile. He related his grand good luck, and
+there were not two happier people in all Yerbury. When the bank found he
+had an account at New York, and a good backer, they were extremely
+affable again.
+
+Jack broached the new idea to Winston and Cameron.
+
+"To be sure," admitted Winston. "Some one will do it presently, and we
+might get the lead. Darcy, your old lady is a trump, and always carries
+the honors. There will have to be some new processes: see here, talk to
+Ben Hay about it; he's made two or three improvements, and has some
+brains. Gad! It'll be quite jolly to have a new line of goods. Get the
+ladies on your side, and you're all right!"
+
+He had not a spare moment until after his late supper, when he told his
+mother he must run over to the Lawrences, and stop a moment at the
+doctor's, though he had despatched the good news to him in the morning.
+
+He found matters worse than he had feared. There had been an alarming
+change in Miss Lawrence. Martha ushered him through the hall to the
+library, where Fred was sitting. The two clasped hands, and then sat
+down together. A hard, dry sob seemed to tear its way up from Fred's
+very soul.
+
+"Jack," he cried in a strained, despairing tone, "could I have done any
+thing to save her? I have been engrossed with my own affairs, my own
+dreams of advancement. I wanted to have money again, but it was for her
+sake and my mother's," with a lingering tremulous intonation. "She has
+been too solitary, she has brooded over every thing. But she would not
+go out, or see any company; and somehow it was our misfortune to grow up
+without any warm, vital interest in each other. When I was a boy I used
+to like it at your house, because your father and mother took such a
+real delight in you. It is the pith of life. Poor father--he was very
+proud of me, he gave his life for our pleasure and grandeur and reckless
+extravagance, yet all the later years we were well-nigh strangers. Why
+can't people get nearer to each other, Jack, or is it only given to the
+very few? Does the greedy world swallow up every sentiment, every bit of
+tenderness, and make a mock of it?"
+
+"No, no! Nothing can quite kill it, thank God! You and I have proved
+that. It may be smothered under dust and rubbish, and frozen with
+neglect, but the germ will revive,--just as the brown woolly ball
+evolves the fine delicate fern-leaf that it has held in its heart
+through winter storms, you know. Don't blame yourself. Every soul has to
+fight its own battle somewhere, with no day's-man between but God. We
+get back to the old truth in spite of the new philosophies, and own in
+our vanquished moments that we cannot _make_ strength, that ours is
+only a broken reed, and the true upholding force must come from some
+knowledge higher than our own."
+
+Jack paused, strangely stirred in every fibre. He seldom essayed
+sentiment: with him the deeds of life had to answer, rather than any
+eloquence of words. He laid his strong, warm arm over Fred's shoulder,
+the old boyish caress with which he had often comforted unknowingly.
+
+"I think you have been doing nobly," he went on presently. "I did not
+look to find you so brave and persevering, so earnest in thinking of
+others; for, after all, a man's training does throw a great many
+shackles about him."
+
+Dr. Maverick entered at that moment. He had hurried off his
+office-patients to come and spend an hour watching this case, which held
+a fascinating interest for him. Some most unfavorable symptoms had
+supervened, but he did not despair. The nurse had been regularly
+trained, he had kept her busy in Yerbury the last year. He could trust
+her to note the slightest variations.
+
+Just now Miss Lawrence lay in a heavy stupor, so like death that one
+could not detect it from any motion. Her eyes were half open, her face
+had a dull purplish tint. The abundant hair had been confined in a thick
+plait, and brushed straight across her forehead. How distinct and finely
+clear the brows were pencilled, how haughtily sweet the curve of the
+pallid, fever-burned lips, how exquisitely round and perfect the chin,
+the slope of the throat and neck! Jack stole one glance,--they had both
+gone in with the doctor,--but it seemed almost sacrilegious, now when
+she was powerless to frown the intruder out of her presence. And he had
+carried her in his arms!
+
+"O Darcy," Maverick exclaimed presently, "I did not go to Miss Barry's,
+after all. I have been so desperately busy to-day."
+
+Fred glanced up, and his eye met that of his friend. Both flushed, and
+both mistook the cause.
+
+It was a curiously auspicious moment. Jack went over to him. "I wonder,"
+he began, with a marked persuasiveness in his tone, "if you would like
+to have Sylvie Barry come over? She and your sister used to be such
+friends. And, in times like these, animosities and foolish prejudices
+ought to die out."
+
+Fred gave him a startled look, and half turned, his lids drooping to
+veil the secret in his eyes. Jack waited with breath that half strangled
+him. He had marvelled how these two souls were to be brought into
+friendly contact again; how Sylvie was to have an opportunity of knowing
+that Fred was redeeming the manliness of manhood, instead of grounding
+among its trivial shoals, and, if she ever had cared for him, to
+understand that he was not utterly unworthy. He had spoken--what if the
+chance should fail!
+
+Fred very naturally misinterpreted the emotion. Jack offered this out of
+the boundless tenderness of his heart, so confident was he of Sylvie's
+regard.
+
+"You think--she would come?"
+
+His own voice, under the great stress, sounded miles away to him, quite
+as if some other person had spoken.
+
+How often the tense strain of feeling is relieved by a tone or an
+incident quite out of the magnetic current!
+
+"Some one ought to drop in occasionally, for your mother's sake," said
+Dr. Maverick. "We shall have her in a fever from sympathy," putting the
+fact more delicately in words than it was in his thought.
+
+"She would be glad to come, I know. She would feel hurt if-- You empower
+me to ask her?" with an abrupt transition of tone.
+
+Fred Lawrence bowed his head. He could not trust his voice.
+
+The sick girl started, opened wide her eyes, threw up her arms, and
+began in weird, passionate tones, as if it were a stage declamation. Oh
+the lurid thought that seemed to travel from regions of bliss to the
+nethermost hell; to display a boundless capacity for enjoyment, for
+pleasure or pain, for tenderness and bitter, brilliant satire, a keen
+knowledge of the world to the very dregs,--the dust and ashes! She
+implored her lost idols to come near, and in the next breath she tossed
+them from her with a mocking laugh. She had no faith in God or man, and
+before her was a blank wall of despair.
+
+Jack led him away. He took him out in the keen air of the starry winter
+night, and began to talk of Hope Mills and the new projects. It was too
+late afterward to call on Sylvie, so he waited until the next morning.
+
+She was inexpressibly shocked. "Of course she would go," she made
+answer; and she went that very afternoon, with her aunt for companion.
+
+They found Mrs. Lawrence in a dreadfully disturbed and apprehensive
+state. She was so weary of solitude that she welcomed them gladly, quite
+forgetting this girl had insulted her by rejecting her son. In a weak,
+shuffling manner she excused herself for not having accepted their
+overtures before. She had been so utterly overwhelmed by the death of
+Mr. Lawrence, that, in her state of nervous prostration, it had been
+impossible to see any one. And now she was positive she should take the
+fever. Her health was so delicate, her nerves so susceptible, and to
+hear the raving of delirium,--the laughs that were quite like a
+maniac,--would be sure to shatter her beyond any help. If it were not in
+the dead of winter, she should go to New York at once, and stay with
+Mrs. Minor until all danger of infection was over. She did not seem to
+comprehend the gravity of Irene's case, though she wept over her
+suffering in a soft self-pity.
+
+"If you could be removed to our house," suggested Miss Barry, in her
+gentle way, "we would take the best of care of you; and it must be
+extremely wearing for you here."
+
+"Ah, you have no idea! I never slept last night. I have heard of people
+in these dreadful fevers who have left their beds when the nurse was
+absent, and committed some horrible crime. I locked my door last night;
+then I was afraid I might faint away alone, and Fred had to come and
+stay with me. It was terrible!" and the washed-out eyes dilated with
+real fear.
+
+Martha was despatched for the doctor, who not only came himself, but
+brought a close coach, thankful to dispose of one patient so
+comfortably. Before dusk Mrs. Lawrence was snugly settled in Miss
+Barry's best room, where a cheerful open-front stove made amends for a
+grate, and the new surroundings served to take her mind from her late
+apprehensions. Indeed, she felt so much better for the change, that she
+insisted upon coming down to tea.
+
+It was beneficial in many ways. They removed Irene again to her own
+room, and used her mother's for various convenient purposes. Sylvie went
+back and forth, and shared the day-watching, beside entertaining Mrs.
+Lawrence. The two dropped insensibly into their olden positions. Sylvie
+listened patiently to the death, the loss of fortune, the changes, which
+Mrs. Lawrence dwelt upon with the exaggerating vividness of a nature
+completely engrossed with its own sorrows.
+
+Dr. Maverick had to come every day. Mrs. Lawrence had arrived at that
+stage when a woman depends upon the doctor as a sort of bulletin for her
+own health. Fred, too, must visit his mother frequently; but at first he
+chose the hours he knew Sylvie would be with Irene.
+
+Dr. Maverick used to watch Sylvie Barry with an interest and admiration
+that grew upon him. Her tact was something marvellous, born of a certain
+exquisite harmony and almost divine unselfishness. But of this last she
+appeared serenely unconscious. I think, indeed, that she was. A higher
+love and faith had interpenetrated her soul, her very being. Instead of
+agonizing introspections and lightning flashes to the inward depths of
+her nature, she seemed to live continually on the outside of herself,
+radiating warmth and light as the sun. Her patience was of a rare, fine
+quality, born of health, and spirits not easily wearied.
+
+It would have been quite impossible for any two people to go through
+such a strain of feeling, and not be drawn together in love and
+sympathy, or friendship. With Fred and Sylvie it was unconsciously a
+little of all. If he had gone back with the old love, even exalted and
+refined, he would surely have blundered again. But now she was
+another's, sacred in his eyes. And though in his blind pride he had once
+thought the greatest favor he could do her would be to save her from any
+such _mésalliance_, he recognized now that Jack Darcy was immeasurably
+above him in all the qualities that went to make up pure manhood. Even
+in his work: Jack's ambition was not for himself, but a cause; and
+his--ah, how poor and paltry it seemed! So he accepted his place with
+outward bravery, and a great wrench of all a man holds most dear. For
+now he loved her.
+
+The days passed slowly on. It seemed at the last as if the fever would
+prove the victor. A consultation was held, and new remedies employed.
+Irene's beautiful hair was cut off and laid away, the clear skin seemed
+to grow brown and shrivelled, the hands lost their plump whiteness, and
+the rosy nails were dull and gray. There came a time when human skill
+had done all, and they could only wait for that Higher power to whose
+eternal force death and love alike submit.
+
+There followed upon that awful night of suspense, days when she was but
+just alive, when a turn of her head on the pillow caused a lapse into
+unconsciousness. But the spring came on; and she did rally, at first, it
+appeared, at the entire sacrifice of her regal beauty. Would she care to
+take life on such terms?
+
+They brought Mrs. Lawrence home. Mrs. Minor came up, and insisted that
+both mother and sister should be removed to the city at once. She had
+her horses and carriage, her servants, her luxuries, and she could make
+them so much more comfortable.
+
+Dr. Maverick interposed a decided negative. The body had not yet resumed
+its normal state; but the brain was to be ministered to, as only those
+of experience and study could minister. It was to be brought out of the
+hell of its own despairing self-torture, and enfranchised, set free from
+the demons that, standing in the present abeyance of weakness, had lost
+neither strength nor desire, and were only waiting the auspicious moment
+to seize their prey again. And he was too much fascinated to relinquish
+the study.
+
+Sylvie persuaded her aunt to indulge in a pony-carriage. Miss Barry was
+breaking a little; but she still kept her interest in good works, and
+found she was much more useful with this aid. Winsome little Sylvie
+looked more piquant than ever with the reins in her hands, flashing
+hither and thither through the streets of Yerbury, gathering a harvest
+of smiles and nods. She fairly compelled Mrs. Lawrence to trust her
+precious self to what she laughingly declared was superior
+horsewomanship.
+
+Dr. Maverick used to stop her often, just to catch a delicious ripple of
+laughter, or a bit of trenchant talk. If it were not for Jack Darcy--did
+Jack love her? At all events, she loved him: any one could see that by
+her frank, fearless manner. Oh, sapient Dr. Maverick, with all your
+knowledge of brains and nerves, of occult causes and mysterious effects!
+So it happens that sometimes a simple, direct truth is the greatest
+puzzle of all.
+
+The schools and clubs had not been neglected with all this excitement.
+But this winter Mary Moran had been teacher at a small salary; and a
+bakery and refreshment or dining room had been opened down stairs, which
+really made quite a little money. Wholesomely cooked food was offered
+for sale, with bread, rolls, and biscuit. The club had also given two
+successful suppers. When Jane Morgan was home, Sylvie was relieved of
+the actual care: she would have it. She had come back to Yerbury a
+thousand dollars richer for her relative's death, and she and Jack were
+drawing plans for a co-operative store.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+"I'D rather lose five thousand dollars than do it."
+
+Jack Darcy leaned back in his office-chair. He had just made up the
+third half-yearly account. It was bad enough. They had known this all
+along, and had not concealed it from the men. Now it was to be
+confronted in black and white, with searching eyes.
+
+It was not that they had not made any thing: that would have been
+endurable, considering the kind of winter. But they had gone back, and
+eaten up the profits of last year.
+
+"You see, there co-operation comes in," said Bob Winston. "It isn't
+_your_ loss alone. It's mine and every man's. That's what we agreed to
+when we went in. Labor and capital should share in the ups and downs.
+See here, Jack, I've learned a good deal myself. I have more sympathy
+with employers. Gad! what a pull we've had this winter! If it hadn't
+been for your fairy godmother"--
+
+"Well, it must be done!" and Jack pulled a long face. "There, it is all
+ready to print. Now old fellow, we must brace ourselves up for the shot
+and shell. We'll have to do the fighting all over again. If every man
+had as easy, philosophical a mind as you, or as sensible, reasonable a
+one as Cameron, I should not have so many misgivings."
+
+The statement was printed and distributed. The men looked blue and
+cross. Had they really lost nearly all of last year's balance?
+
+Winston asked them to stop one evening while he went into a slight
+explanation. He was well armed. Without having a logical mind or
+parliamentary training, he had a woman's quick intuitions, and often
+jumped at very decent conclusions with hardly a glance at the premises.
+He had a way of massing his forces, too, that was very telling.
+
+Now, after what he called a little skirmishing, he read that the
+Barnable Mills had been running on three-quarter time all winter. Wages
+had been a trifle lower than with them. Middleham Mills had been closed
+for two months. He gave the figures of loss to the workmen. Crowley and
+Dawson had gone into bankruptcy, owing their men in the aggregate more
+than all Hope Mills had used of last year's profits. Then he read a
+statement from an eminent manufacturer, that he had used fifty-four
+thousand dollars of accrued capital rather than turn off his workmen to
+starve. There had been strikes in several other places, in which the
+workmen had lost much more than at Yerbury.
+
+"So that our showing, bad as it is, is not the worst," said he. "In the
+very dullest of times we cast in our lots together, and we must take the
+good and bad. If you had been living this winter on the private capital
+of any one man or corporation, you would never have given the matter a
+thought. You know now, by experience, that capital does not always float
+on a serene and indolent sea, and gather in treasures for which it has
+cast out no net. You can appreciate the struggle we have gone through;
+though, while you have been going along placidly, with the larger weight
+of care lifted off your shoulders, a man with less energy and pluck than
+our intrepid pilot, John Darcy, might have let us founder. We help him
+now with the readiness and good-humor with which we relinquish the
+profits which were dear to us, and the product of our industry; but he
+has taken us through a very narrow channel, on a dark night, without
+striking rock or snag. He and I thank you heartily for your fidelity to
+our keystone,--co-operation."
+
+"Three cheers for Darcy!" sang out some one in the crowd, "and three
+cheers for Bob Winston!"
+
+It was given heartily.
+
+"And three cheers for the men of Hope Mills," responded Winston.
+
+They shook hands, and dispersed with a little better feeling. Several of
+the men seemed to breathe a clearer mental atmosphere immediately.
+
+"You may be sure it's right, whichever way it is," said one man
+sturdily. "I've known Jack Darcy, boy and man, and his father afore him.
+He comes of good, clean stock, and, if he says a thing can't be
+bettered, it can't; and, if it can, he's just the man to do it. Give him
+a long tether, say I."
+
+Then Winston procured a list of weekly wages ruling in this country, and
+in many places abroad, the hours of work, and the average cost of
+living, with the articles in most general use. The mill-men had their
+flour and coal cheaper, and altogether their winter was proved as
+satisfactory. This was pasted up in the hall.
+
+The matter was discussed through the town, of course. Some people saw in
+it a speedy dissolution of the plan,--a plan that never had worked, and
+never would. Others did not see that this method of getting back part of
+the men's wages was any better than any other swindling scheme. They
+never had any faith in Bob Winston,--Darcy might be honest, but he
+wasn't very bright,--and in five years Winston would own every thing
+there was in the mill!
+
+Winston laughed over the gossip. Jack could not take it so
+light-heartedly. He was an earnest, honest reformer, and hated to have
+things go awry. Winston, not believing there was very much capacity for
+reform in human nature, did not distress himself.
+
+Ben Hay, and a dozen or so others, did their best with the new cloth,
+and succeeded in producing a really creditable article. The heads
+discussed the feasibility of having an auction-sale to clear out some of
+the piles of goods; then concluded that it might be misconstrued at this
+present juncture. They could hold on until fall.
+
+But the delightful _esprit du corps_ had vanished. The men did not seem
+to work with a will. There were moody faces and discourteous greetings,
+half-insolent nods, and more than one wrangle at the workmen's meeting.
+Hurd felt anxious and discouraged. Yardley took a low fever, not severe
+enough to confine him to the house, but it made him irritable, and every
+sneer or innuendo cut him to the quick. Cameron was a great comfort to
+Jack, with his queer, wrinkled, grizzled face, and an expression that
+always puzzled you as to whether nature meant him to laugh or cry.
+
+"I am not surprised," said he, one day, in the office. "I knew we would
+have to come to just this time. A wife shares your joys and sorrows,
+gen'ally speaking; but you see there it's a force put, she can't well
+get away. Other partners like your joys, but they make a wry face over
+the sorrows, and like to squirm out of them if they can. But it is the
+only way to train men to the real responsibilities of business. Now, I'm
+sorry enough to lose, but it stands to reason that times will come
+better. We're getting through the panic; but after the battle there's
+some dead to bury, and some wounded to care for, and you see that's
+tedjus. You can't march straight home, covered with glory. Here's our
+money in the hospital, first up, then down, and all the doctors in the
+land tinkering with allopathic doses and homoeopathic doses, and
+blisters and poultices and remedies, when all it wants is a little
+honest letting-alone. It doesn't occur to these long-headed doctors that
+the best way out is to show everybody that we're willing to go to work
+and pay our debts just as fast as we can. And any fool might know that
+when you are paying up back debts you can't have much money to sport
+around on. Never you mind, Jack: we're coming out straight in five years
+time,--I'll bet my old hat on that!"
+
+Jack wrung his hand warmly.
+
+In May there was quite a jollification over the marriage of two
+mill-hands. Ben Hay took to wife pretty Rose Connelly; and the
+coffee-house parlor was denuded of tables and benches, trimmed with
+evergreens and flowers, and such a merry-making as did one's heart good.
+There was a bountiful supper, plenty of tea, coffee, and lemonade,
+dancing, and ice-cream, and the utmost good-humor and good wishes.
+Connelly _père_ had gone back to his cups, thrown up his situation, come
+home and stirred up a general "ruction," and had now gone off on a
+tramp. Ben Hay was to cast his lot with the Connelly household for the
+present.
+
+"But I tell you what it is, Mr. Darcy," said he, "if any luck comes to
+Hope Mills, in five years' time I'll have my own little house and
+garden. I tramped around a bit in the dull times, but I didn't see many
+prettier places than Yerbury. And, the more I study this business of
+co-operation, the more I think it will succeed in the end."
+
+Jack experienced a great throb of comfort when he heard such words as
+these.
+
+Another mill-hand had married Mary Moran. She was not the beauty of
+Yerbury, by any means, but everybody declared she had improved
+wonderfully, and that she was the smartest girl in town. Their
+wedding-party was given at the club-room. It was a larger and rather
+more boisterous affair; and some of the Morans' warm-hearted Irish
+friends brought a "dhrop of the craythur" in their pockets, to drink the
+bride's health. Everybody admitted that there wasn't such another
+bread-maker in town, unless it was Miss Morgan.
+
+In fact, it was quite astonishing to see what a revolution had been
+worked in this most important article of diet. The women had learned to
+distinguish between poor and good flour, and Kilburn's trade in the
+former had fallen off largely. Of the bread that in Samantha Allen's
+view "required cast-iron principle to back it up," very little was seen.
+It had been rather hard work to convince some of the mothers that bread
+wasn't naturally born into the world heavy and sour, but it had been
+done.
+
+If Hope Mills failed, the impetus to general knowledge that had been
+diffused throughout Yerbury would remain and bear fruit. An
+evening-school had been opened for boys too large to stay at home
+evenings, and just the right age to fall into temptations. It began with
+the mill-boys, but it soon drew in others. There was a short session of
+study, then a talk about some useful art or science. Maverick had
+treated them to sundry experiments, and explained many general rules of
+health. Mr. Winston had described Western cities in a vivid and
+picturesque manner. There had been some astronomy within the reach of
+all, some philosophy of common every-day things; and it had given the
+boys ideas above "high, low, Jack."
+
+Darcy tried to find comfort in this when other matters looked dark to
+him. A little good seed had been sown. The generation growing up would
+not be quite so dull and brutish. One thing was remarked,--the saloons
+were not as full. This was laid to dull times, and ascribed to the
+"revival" of two years ago; but that had not touched the poorer class of
+Irish and English, who, even during the hardest winter, had managed to
+find drink-money, when their families were being supported by the
+relief-store.
+
+Business did "pick up" a little. Prices went lower and lower, however.
+They looked at their great store of goods with dismay. If the currency
+question could ever be settled, if we could export more and import
+less,--though there were people who argued that, the more money we spent
+abroad, the more it really strengthened us, and money lying idle in our
+treasury at home was no evidence of prosperity: partly true and partly
+false reasoning; and, to our astonishment, while we were brilliantly
+theorizing how to do it, our vain and superficial neighbors across the
+water, crushed and beaten down by a useless and costly war, and a
+government of gigantic selfishness, went to work with intrepid courage
+and industry, and did it.
+
+Meanwhile it must be confessed that Jack's interests were very much
+divided. The practical part of him never lost sight of the mill. He had
+the dogged tenacity that holds on with a deathless grip until it
+conquers, or is wholly beaten. It seemed to him this summer that he had
+several distinct individualities. He was so deeply interested in Fred
+and Sylvie! They had slipped into an easy friendship,--a friendship in
+which neither crossed a certain line, but from widely different motives.
+Fred's strongest and highest one was honor toward his friend. He began
+dimly to realize that high culture and refinement of the intellectual
+senses, a perfect state of outward finish and polish, did not always
+strengthen the soul's morality and purity. Patience, self-sacrifice,
+obedience to a creed simpler in words, and yet more comprehensive, than
+any of his grand philosophies, were needed to form a strong and manful
+soul. His had been so long bound about with swaddling-clothes, airy,
+sensuous, fine as a gossamer web, yet strong in beliefs and prejudices.
+There were times when he felt, through that instinctive knowledge we can
+never wholly define or explain, that Sylvie Barry belonged to him, that
+they two could reach a point in mental and artistic life, that she and
+Jack would never attain. His whole soul cried out for her. With the
+charm of self-satisfying and blinding theories swept away, he clung
+passionately to the love that had been only a complacent fancy three
+years ago. The mere touch of her hand, or glance of her eye, quickened
+and kindled his entire soul, and made him acutely and agonizingly
+conscious of the wealth of adoration he had hardly dreamed of
+possessing. There were moments when her presence filled him with a
+heavenly satisfaction, when he understood that divine fusion of spirit
+with spirit in its entirety, when love overcame pride, and he was humble
+enough to go to her in his poverty.
+
+He tried honestly to crush out the passion, but found that neither will
+nor duty could destroy love. It rose up and swept imperiously through
+every pulse of his being, it flooded his heart like a mighty current, it
+would fain have drowned out his sense of honor to his friend; and he
+learned presently that it was of no avail to fight battles with this
+unconquerable foe. He must always love her, therefore he could only bury
+the passion out of the sight of all other eyes. To him it would be the
+root of higher resolves and purer motives. When he had made this great
+sacrifice for his friend, he had offered silently the highest atonement
+in his power.
+
+But his temptation was not to end so soon. He was to be led through the
+fire, that he might be purified and ennobled in other virtues beside
+that of abnegation. He was to learn how sacred a thing strength might
+become; he was to hold the soft hand on his arm, and never clasp it, to
+feel the pressure of the dainty fingers, and make no sign; to meet her
+bewildering smiles with the calmness of a strong spirit held in thrall;
+to listen to words that seemed cruelly pregnant with the dangerous
+glamour of hope, and yet to steel his heart against it all. In such
+times as these we come to believe in a living, loving God, who gathers
+up these great drops of agony as he "makes up his jewels," and that to
+him this pearl of inward anguish is above price. Then, of all times, we
+need to know that he cares for us, that we are not mere atoms floating
+in unregarded space.
+
+Dr. Maverick decided that his patient must have a change. She had
+attained a certain amount of physical strength while her brain still lay
+dormant, utterly exhausted after the great drain upon it. Now it began
+to act again, and, not being in sympathy with the body, consequently
+re-acted upon it. She walked about her room a little; she viewed herself
+in the mirror, a horrid shadow, a mere caricature of her former beauty.
+Dr. Maverick had tried his best to save her hair; but the fever had
+burned out its vital essence, making it dry and harsh, so he had uttered
+his reluctant edict. It was cropped short, and had lost its gloss; her
+brilliant complexion was a ghostly, sallow, opaque white, her eyes large
+and melancholy, every feature sharpened into that thin, worn, hungry
+appearance. "A perfect fright," she said to herself. Why had they not
+let her die? Of what avail was life to her?
+
+Before her illness, in her desperate impatience with circumstances, she
+had fancied herself a martyr, with the fagot and stake of a conventional
+marriage on one hand, and the dreary desert of neglect and enforced
+seclusion on the other. She had tried to make her own wretched and
+passionate imaginings consume her very soul. She could rule no longer.
+She could not exact homage and admiration from society; and, though in
+her secret soul she despised it, yet what was there to life beside it?
+No one wanted or needed her. No human being cared for her above all
+others. She had gone on in ruthless pride, trampling, crushing, and now
+the great world would be only too glad to pay her back; but it never
+should. Even in this extreme bitterness of spirit an acknowledgment of
+that divine rule of love was wrested from her. She had never offered
+love and tenderness and sympathy to others, and it would not come back
+to her: it was just and right that it should not.
+
+Why then vegetate through a narrow, dreary existence? She was only a
+drag on Fred. Even if she were willing to make an essay of work, he
+would not consent, partly from pride, but still more from that innate
+sense of chivalry, a part of some men, who would be more cruelly wounded
+to see a woman dear to them, struggling with distasteful toil, than to
+make any sacrifice on their own part. If she were a man she would starve
+in secret before it should be done. David Lawrence had in him some of
+this pure, nobly generous blood; and many of his finer virtues seemed to
+have been transmitted to these two children. The mother's individuality
+had been absorbed by the two elder ones. Gertrude would be just such a
+woman when she came to her mother's time of life.
+
+Mr. Eastman had floated into another channel of prosperity. He was to go
+to Russia as a railroad-director at a large salary, and ample chance for
+speculation. Gertrude was all elation. She wrote to Irene, generously
+forgiving her for not having submitted to be buried alive at Frodsham
+Park, and proposed that she should rejoin her as soon as she was able to
+travel. They would go to Vienna and Berlin, and spend the winter in St.
+Petersburg. "I hope your beauty has not gone off," she wrote very
+kindly. "One needs it to compare with some of the Russian women I have
+seen."
+
+Mrs. Minor had taken a summer cottage at Long Branch. Servants,
+children, horses and carriages, were to go thither. Irene and her mother
+must spend the season with them.
+
+"You do look dreadfully," she said to Irene; "but moping here will not
+mend you. It was a most absurd step for Fred to come back to Yerbury,
+and take that paltry position! He has no real Lawrence pride, and I
+don't see that his elegant education has done much for him. Why didn't
+he study law, and go into politics? With his style and Mr. Minor's
+connection, he might have filled some high position."
+
+"Really," returned Irene, with a touch of the old sarcasm, "I suppose he
+thought starving hardly a pleasant process while he was waiting for this
+high position. I have sometimes wondered why Mr. Minor did not take him
+into _his_ office, and induct him into the mysteries of stock-broking."
+
+Agatha bit her lip.
+
+"Because he did not know enough," she flung out. "And he will potter
+away his best days there at Garafield's, never amounting to any thing!
+Father had better have put him in the business."
+
+"Jack Darcy is master at Hope Mills. He was once quite a _bête noir_ of
+yours, I believe. He and Fred have floated together again, an
+exemplification of the power of early attraction."
+
+"He will not be master of Hope Mills long, if what I hear is true," said
+Agatha in a vengeful tone, as if she would be glad to bring about such a
+greatly-to-be-desired downfall. "Fred always did have low tastes. But
+about yourself: you had better come to Long Branch, and recruit for two
+months, or so, and then go out to join Gertrude. Of course, Irene, you
+know your best time has gone by here. I intend that _my_ daughters shall
+be married before they are twenty. I will not have them wasting their
+best years."
+
+There was a long pause. Agatha studied Irene's apathetical face, and
+wondered how she could have changed into such a fright.
+
+"Irene!" in a commanding tone.
+
+"Agatha, I may as well tell you,"--the voice was slow and incisive, as
+if every word was measured,--"that I shall _not_ go to Long Branch nor
+abroad. No one shall be troubled by my failing looks and possibly poor
+health. I will live my own secluded life, asking nothing of the world
+but to be let alone."
+
+"You are a fool, Irene!" Mrs. Minor scanned her with her pitiless black
+eyes, and raised her own tall figure to its most impressive height. "You
+are a deliberate, wilful fool! You will maunder and groan and sigh
+through the next few years, and become one of those wretched bundles of
+nerves and whims and conceits, a miserable old maid, whom the world
+holds up to ridicule, and rightly too; a faded, insipid, querulous,
+worn-out belle, whose past triumphs are remembered only to her disfavor.
+We can forgive a woman of mother's age, who has had her day; but the
+other shallow creatures are fit only to be bundled into a convent, out
+of sight."
+
+A dull scarlet had slowly mounted Irene's face. She did not raise her
+eyes. In an emotionless tone she merely said, "Thank you. I wish there
+were convents without the fuss of religion. I should go into one now."
+
+"The best place for you certainly."
+
+Then Mrs. Minor gave Fred a piece of her mind, and washed her hands of
+Yerbury.
+
+The result of sundry after-discussions was that Dr. Maverick found a
+pretty seaside place not many miles distant, with just enough interest
+to keep one entertained, and no fashionable, exhausting life. He managed
+to persuade Miss Barry and Sylvie and Mrs. Lawrence to go, and insisted
+upon Irene having the variety of air and scene. There was a roomy
+furnished cottage at their disposal: they could cook their meals, or
+have them sent in. Fred should come down once or twice a week, and he
+and Darcy would enliven them with flying visits. Miss Barry must take
+her pony and carriage.
+
+Jack approved of the plan at once. It would bring the two beings in whom
+he was so warmly interested more closely in contact with each other,
+give them those bits and fragments of leisurely indolence so conducive
+to sentiment. Sylvie would judge more truly and tenderly than it was
+possible to do at present; and he could not see her alone, could not be
+her companion in walks and drives, without betraying his regard.
+
+While the plan was still under consideration, Dame Fortune resolved to
+smile upon Fred Lawrence. Late in the winter he had sent a paper on
+household art, with several exquisite designs, to a magazine, and for
+once happened to hit the prevailing fancy. He was asked for a series of
+such articles, with the offer of having them collected in book form
+afterward. It more than encouraged him: it gave him a feeling of
+certainty that he had struck the right vein, that here was a fair and
+appreciative field for his talent, his fine taste, and high culture. A
+little utilitarian, perhaps; and he smiled, thinking of some past
+dreams. And was true art so ethereal that it must exist only in the
+exalted states of the mind? Was it not to embellish and beautify all
+lives, rather than crowd out the thousands that the few might feast on
+some exquisite vision? Was any art higher than that which boldly thrust
+aside shams, and went to the shaping of true, strong, faithful aims in
+the work placed before one? Were those wonderful Greek fragments,
+wrought in times of social depravity such as the world now shrank from
+mentioning, to be one's guide and inspirer, to the despising of purer if
+less sensuous forms of beauty? If one enlightened and sweetened the life
+of to-day with the work of to-day, would it not be as worthy as hugging
+to the soul some useless theory?
+
+He mentioned his new offer to Mr. Garafield. It would not be honest to
+take the time that was another's; and surely Fred Lawrence's mental
+capacity had largely cleared when he came to put into every-day work the
+fine sense of honor that he had hitherto supposed belonged only to a
+liberal education.
+
+Mr. Garafield was a shrewd business-man, although fanciful in taste. He
+should be the gainer by associating this true artist with him.
+Decorative art was coming to be a truly recognized branch; and its
+leaders and apostles would reap not only credit, but financial success.
+
+Fred was amazed. Only yesterday, it seemed, he had well-nigh been
+refused the privilege of earning his bread. To-day, in an unexpected
+quarter, prosperity opened upon him.
+
+"I have no capital, as you well know," he said stammeringly to Mr.
+Garafield.
+
+Garafield smiled and nodded in a satisfied manner.
+
+"The brain-work and the ideas are sufficient capital, Mr. Lawrence. By
+this partnership you will be free of drudgery: some other clerk can keep
+books and take orders for us. You will gain time for your literary
+labors, and those in turn will carry weight in the business. Neither do
+I think you will regret taking my offer."
+
+Fred went down to Jack Darcy's that evening, and told over his plans, as
+in other years he had confessed his college ambitions and the laurels he
+was to win. And Jack's face lighted up with honest enthusiasm, while his
+voice took on a curious little tremble. He was so glad! for Sylvie's
+sake and love's sake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+WHEN Fred Lawrence came next day into Sylvie Barry's presence, there was
+a certain proud humility shining in his handsome face, that was now
+quite worn and thin; a dignity born of honor in having achieved at least
+a standing-place in the world. He was not her hero, never had been
+indeed; and his pale face flushed at the remembrance of his once
+complacent claim to her regard.
+
+She was sitting in the room with his mother, but she sprang up from the
+low ottoman.
+
+"I am so glad! your mother has been telling me the news. Why, it is"--
+
+She had held out her hands as she began her sentence, but as he took
+them she made a sudden pause. His were icy cold.
+
+"More than I could have expected in such a brief while, hardly at all.
+Both offers have surprised me greatly."
+
+He strove so hard to render his tone calm, that it was absolutely cold.
+
+She turned with a petulant but charming gesture, while her peachy cheek
+took on a riper tint.
+
+"You are not a bit enthusiastic," in that pretty, imperious, chiding
+tone. "I suppose you think good fortune ought to fall down upon you, be
+thrust on you, like greatness."
+
+"No. I am very thankful for it. I can give my mother and sister some
+needed indulgences that it would have pained me very much to see them go
+without. How is Irene?"
+
+"I don't know," said Mrs. Lawrence fretfully. "She does mope so. I shall
+be so glad to get away."
+
+"I have just come from the doctor's. We are to start on Thursday.
+Sylvie, are you all ready?"
+
+"Yes," with a positive little nod.
+
+He stepped into the next room. Irene had been worse after Mrs. Minor's
+visit, but was the same again now, quiet, cold, impassible. It made no
+difference to her whether they remained here, or went to Depford Beach.
+She evinced neither pain, pleasure, nor interest; but she liked best to
+be alone. She endured Sylvie with rather more equanimity than she did
+her mother, but even the fault-finding energy would have been welcome to
+the doctor. Nothing mattered: that was the trouble.
+
+She heard now they were to go in two days. The cottage was all ready.
+Martha and Miss Barry's trusty handmaiden were to do the housekeeping.
+The place was so arranged, with the spacious hall through the middle,
+that each family could be by itself.
+
+"I have ordered a carriage to come every day for you and mother," Fred
+said quietly. "I thought you would like it better than being dependent
+on Miss Barry."
+
+Irene gave a slow, acquiescent nod.
+
+"Good-by," cried Sylvie, looking in. "I will run over again to-morrow."
+
+"I wanted her to stay to tea," said Mrs. Lawrence complainingly. "It is
+so dull!"
+
+"I will come up and take tea with you. I will order it at once." And he
+ran down.
+
+There was a subtle perfume in the hall. She had a bunch of violets in
+her belt, he remembered. He said over softly Ben Jonson's quaint
+lines,--
+
+          "Here she was wont to go, and here, and here,
+           Just where the daisies, pinks, and violets grow:
+           The world may find the spring by following her."
+
+But he could not follow. Had fate smiled on him to make the
+renunciation more bitter? For now he could work his way up to something
+worthy of her acceptance. And had he not learned the past winter, had he
+not been slowly learning ever since the death and loss, that the manhood
+of a gentleman was his thoughtfulness for others, his courteous
+delicacy, his consideration, often his denial of self, rather than the
+exquisite polish of cultivation, and the veneer of society's
+affectations? How blind he must have been, ever to have offered these
+last to a woman so true and pure of soul!
+
+But a still larger sacrifice had been demanded of him. He must see her
+in seductive solitudes, in still more intimate association. If he could
+stay away from Depford Beach! but that was not possible. He was to spend
+Sundays with them. But surely Jack would be there then. An almost
+careless lover he thought his friend. Was every smile so dear to him?
+
+The doctor and Fred went down with them. Darcy had decided to take a
+business trip, so presently Mrs. Darcy joined the seaside household. In
+the bygone years Mrs. Lawrence would not have deigned to notice her; but
+she found this delicate, mild-mannered, middle-aged woman very
+companionable. Circumstances had rendered Mrs. Darcy exclusive, rather
+than any inherent trait of birth or breeding. She had lived with a few
+people always, and two or three strong attachments had given to her
+character the kind of concentration that passes for strength. Yet all of
+these had been more positive people than herself; and while this had
+softened the tendency to that querulous exactingness that weak, sweet
+natures are apt to possess, it had also shaped to certain generous
+instincts that were quite free from vanity. Her natural kindliness gave
+her the charm of good-breeding, and this settled her in the estimation
+of Mrs. Lawrence. She might have possessed all the virtues in the
+calendar, but an inharmonious, unpolished turn or act would have
+tabooed her. We generally ascribe this grace to life-long culture, or a
+certain inheritance of blood, but it occasionally springs from other
+causes.
+
+The three women, with natures and aims widely different, fraternized in
+the most amiable manner. Sylvie glanced in and out between them as a
+gleam of sunshine penetrates the interstices of a wood, and brings out
+all lights and tints, itself untouched by any. Their greatest diversion
+was driving. Back of the little settlement--it was hardly large enough
+for a village, and had a powerful rival some seven miles farther
+on--there were country lanes and by-ways, sleepy-looking farms, and
+picturesquely careless houses. Below them there was a great fish
+_entrepôt_, with fishing-boats plying up and down, brawny fishermen
+trilling their musical half-chant, half-song, as they floated over the
+bay.
+
+It was curious how, presently, Sylvie came to watch for Fred. Truth to
+tell, she found Depford Beach a trifle monotonous. No interest of
+schools or clubs or young people's affairs, no strong energetic talks
+with Jack about mill business, few people coming and going that she
+cared about; the three ladies purring through the drowsy hours on topics
+that she fancied she had exhausted years ago; and Irene, between whom
+and her there had never been any real electric sympathy, and who was now
+coldly indifferent to all matters. For hours she would sit with her
+hands dropped nerveless in her lap, glancing over the wide sea out to
+the farther horizon. What thoughts were in her mind, Sylvie wondered?
+She could not even provoke her to the wordy combats of old. The flashes
+of temper and imperiousness had alike died out. She was courteously
+polite, and acknowledged all favors with a punctiliousness that built
+the wall around her still more firmly. "If one could only rouse her,"
+Dr. Maverick said; but that seemed just the thing no one _could_ do.
+
+Yet she certainly was improving in health. Her step became more assured,
+her eye less languid, and her complexion cleared up to the hopeful tints
+of renewed bodily vigor. Her slender hands filled out a trifle; and
+sometimes she would take a book, as if she needed an interest beside her
+own sombre thoughts to while away the hours.
+
+So Sylvie established her easel, and had recourse to painting. Oddly
+enough she began to ask herself what it was all for? Filling her own
+rooms, and bestowing gifts upon friends, was very well for a season; but
+was there not a higher purpose in all art, or at least a wider purpose?
+It surely did not tend to isolation. She thought of her winter in
+Philadelphia,--of the friends she had made, of the desires that had been
+awakened. She longed for some purpose, some sympathy and aim. The
+enthusiasms of girlhood could no longer inspire her: there must be a
+reality and definite end, or work lost its great charm. How was she to
+get to this? Her aunt was coming to depend upon her in a peculiar way,
+that at times startled Sylvie. She would say, with her quiet, tender
+smile, "Will you do this or that, Sylvie? I believe I am growing
+indolent: I never thought to so like being waited upon."
+
+The secret in Miss Barry's soul was well kept. In how many lives there
+comes a demand for heroism greater than that which led the martyrs of
+old to the stake, or the brave women in the reign of terror to the
+guillotine! Their inspiration to bravery was patent to all around: their
+cause was a lofty one, and they were apostles of that high creed of
+self-abnegation which leaves behind a memory in the hearts of all noble
+men and women. But there are other pangs quite noiseless: there are
+other martyrs who suffer without the sign, who cannot even confess the
+reason for the high faith that upholds them.
+
+It was quite natural that she should desire to see Sylvie married. She
+could never get over her distaste of having women taking bold strides
+for the world's fame and favor. If left alone, this was what Sylvie
+would surely do. The delicate womanly charities and kindnesses that had
+filled up so much of her life would not satisfy her niece. And, now that
+she had brought herself to the point of satisfaction with Jack Darcy,
+either she had mistaken their regard, or he was proving himself an
+indifferent lover. By a subtile intuition, she understood that Fred
+still cared for her, nay, that he held now a reverent admiration that he
+had never thought of in the past. His melancholy eyes followed her
+about, now and then scintillating sparks of passion that seemed almost
+to rend his soul. She experienced an intense and exquisite sympathy for
+him that drew them together in a manner that he felt, and was grateful
+for, but did not clearly understand.
+
+As for Sylvie, curiously enough, she was at war with herself, though she
+wore such a calm, light-hearted exterior. When she rejected Fred
+Lawrence, she was quite sure she despised the present man, and his
+narrow, futile purposes of life. Truly, to have been the wife of such a
+man would have proved irksome to the last degree. But his misfortunes
+had brought out the fine gold, the solemn strain of strength and
+endurance, that had come from his father's blood. I think even Sylvie
+had been a little mortified first, that he should have come back to
+Yerbury, and taken such a very inferior position. She wanted him to do
+something noteworthy with his pen and his high cultivation. It seemed so
+much choice material quite thrown away. Designing patterns was surely no
+high test of genius. Women with a purely technical art education had
+done it.
+
+But out of it had come this other opportunity that he had grasped with
+the pure instinct of genius. Employment for pen and pencil both, for the
+embodiment of the exquisite outward forms of beauty, and the rare,
+delicate, inward graces of imagination, for the true standards of taste
+and art in which he had been informing himself all these years; in the
+spirit of dilettanteism, it was true, but now when the intellectual
+impetus was added, and the positive need of daily bread, these
+complicated motives worked together as a strong stimulant. Perhaps, too,
+he had a not unworthy desire to show Sylvie Barry that the man who had
+loved her was not utterly unworthy or incapable.
+
+They had drifted together again in the ordinary purposes of life, which,
+after all, occur much more frequently than any grand or overwhelming
+shock. She took up the friendly, half-sisterly way, pleased with the
+instinctive deference he paid her. He understood that it would be quite
+useless to aspire to any regard of hers: that was all done with in the
+past. She could afford to evince an interest in his plans, since Irene
+cared not, and to his mother they were so much Greek, a subtle flavor
+that she admitted was the proper thing, but could not understand,--did
+not care to trouble herself, in fact.
+
+So these two young people, working in a common bond of sympathy,
+insensibly strengthened the regard that had grown with them from
+childhood. Fred gained sufficient courage to discuss some plans with
+Sylvie: she brought out her easel, as I have said, and accepted from him
+friendly criticisms. The difference between their work was soon
+manifest,--he had an earnest purpose, with breadth and scope: she had
+none. How had they so queerly changed places? she asked herself. Why
+were not her talents made of some avail, instead of this puerile
+pottering to please one's self?
+
+She began to wonder--dangerously fascinating employment to a woman--if
+he had ever cared for her. There seemed an adamantine wall built up
+around him, and yet the fruit in the inner garden was more rarely sweet
+than she had ever dreamed it could be. She could not know that the
+passion for her he had put away with such despairing hands, was
+blossoming all the sweeter, and bearing more exquisite fruit in other
+directions. She saw the lovely tenderness toward his mother, the
+unwearying patience with Irene, the fearless, animating ambition that
+seemed to have set his æsthetic desires to a steady, comprehensive
+strain of music, to which he was keeping invisible step, but which
+thrilled and roused every fibre.
+
+All this he had done without any assistance from her, she thought, blind
+little girl; as if the kinship of a true passion could not reach from
+the life that went before to that which was to come afterward! _She_ had
+not inspired his genius, but stern necessity; it had been no longing or
+desire to win _her_, but the material support of his mother and sister.
+She began to feel curiously jealous of these extraneous influences. She
+unconsciously exerted herself to make his visits at the beach more
+interesting. They drove together in her pony-carriage; they studied
+glowing summer sunsets, where fantastic clouds piled up wealth of gold
+and amber and purple and opaline splendors, and shot out arrowy,
+dazzling rays; they paced the sands after it had all faded into tintless
+space, and delicate vapors of grayish green and vague violet rose from
+the crested waves that broke far out at sea, and trooped across like
+airy spirits; they listened to the slow, regular rhythm that came
+marching from some weird country, with a grand crash at last, a sobbing
+crescendo, and an interval of silence that still pulsated on the dusky,
+odorous air, when the moaning billow was dead.
+
+They came so near to Nature, there were moments when they seemed
+empowered to wrest the shadowy secrets out of her bosom; and yet they
+did not come near to each other. Ever this distance between,--a man's
+honor, and faith to his friend, Fred Lawrence thought, never allowing
+his secret soul to swerve. There were midnights when he softly paced the
+floor, his lips compressed, his brow ghostly white, and his hands
+clinched in the throe of a man's deathless love. Then he thought he
+could not endure it, that he must stay away. But circumstances were
+stronger than will. Did God mean that this anguish should redeem that
+other old treachery, that his soul should be purified by its baptism of
+fire, a more worthy offering for his friend? If so, then he must not
+abate one jot or one pang.
+
+There were within Sylvie Barry's soul certain coquettish instincts. She
+was fond of admiration for herself: a purely intellectual regard, with
+the passion-dream flown, would soon have wearied her. A warm, bright
+nature, loving to please others, but to be pleased in return, cruelly
+hurt by surging against this rock-bound coast, piqued and almost
+angered, sent into moods of daring, seductive warmth and gayety, quite
+capable of making a foil of Dr. Maverick, who was strangely puzzled by
+her contradictory moods. But for one thing, he must have tried to cage
+the dazzling, elusive spirit: he, too, had a strong sense of honor
+toward his friend; and he could only imagine her playing sportively with
+the few who came within her radius, not setting herself to win any
+forbidden regard. What might have made some women sad and silent--the
+consciousness that an old lover had over-lived his passion--seemed to
+sting her into renewed effort.
+
+Coming back to them, Jack Darcy was more than puzzled, set at sea in a
+bewildering way, without chart or compass. Had Fred ceased to care for
+Sylvie? Had she never loved him? Or was some other feeling holding him
+back,--a kind of family complication, a sense of duty to the others so
+high that he would not offer them a divided regard, any sooner than her?
+He believed mothers had a peculiar sense of possession in their sons;
+but they surely had married other women's sons with small scruple! Mrs.
+Lawrence was warmly attached to Sylvie. In his honest, inconsequent
+man-fashion, he wondered why they could not always live together, as
+they were doing here.
+
+Fred was strangely worn and thin, with the kind of nervous alertness
+that accompanies an intent watching of one's self.
+
+"Hillo, old fellow!" cried Jack; "what have you been doing? Working
+yourself to a shadow? If high art is so exhaustive, there must be a
+little let-up. A man has no more right to kill himself in an artistic
+industrial way, than in any of the ruder forms of suicide."
+
+Fred shivered visibly.
+
+"Don't speak of suicide," he answered in a shrinking tone. "I never
+thought of it but once; and that was when I fancied myself of no use to
+the world, or myself either. I am not overworked"--and he paused, to
+study Jack a moment. Why, he was positively handsome, with that
+superabundant strength and vitality, the clear red and white of his
+complexion, the bronze beard, the healthful, honest eyes. He seemed to
+be surcharged with a magnetic current of energy and courage.
+
+"Yes, you are. I dare say you have carried your plans and sketches, and
+what not, down to Depford Beach, and pored over them until almost
+morning. You must take a vacation."
+
+"I expect to when the families return;" and he gave a faint, wan smile.
+"I have had another streak of luck, Jack. A lady, a very wealthy widow,
+is building a house in one of the pretty towns up the Hudson, and it is
+to be finished with all the elegance art can bring. She saw one of my
+articles, and sent to me; and we have been corresponding. In September I
+am to go to New York, and make arrangements. There is to be painting and
+frescoing, and rooms finished in different styles,--indeed, I cannot
+tell the half myself, until I see her."
+
+The pale face had kindled with a fine and proud enthusiasm. More than
+ever, Jack recognized the artistic refinement of his friend. What would
+law or medicine have been to him as a profession?
+
+"Humph!" grunted Jack. "A great vacation that will be! But you _must_ be
+careful, or you will not live out half your days. You've a look in your
+face like the little chap I first knew."
+
+The smile that crossed it then, Jack did not understand. It seemed to
+Fred Lawrence that half his days would suffice, when Sylvie Barry was
+his friend's wife.
+
+"Yet you see the 'little chap' lived"--with an attempt at gayety.
+
+"Yes. And, Fred, I am more glad than I can put into words, to know that
+you have been so successful. It is just the career for you. It's odd
+that a great commonplace, blundering fellow like me should have two such
+artistic friends as you and Sylvie Barry."
+
+The well-trained face did not blanch a muscle. He felt, with a flash of
+subtile inner consciousness, that Darcy was studying him. Thank God, he
+could stand before his friend free from a thought of treachery! All
+these weeks he had walked over burning coals, but the smell of the fire
+was not in his garments.
+
+Jack thought it over long after Fred had gone. Why could not these two
+people see! Surely they were meant for one another. It puzzled, it
+almost fretted him. Sylvie was so peculiar, so changed in these few
+weeks! What did it all mean?
+
+And on Saturday when he was to go down to the beach, Fred pleaded some
+urgent business to a neighboring city. He was not quite brave enough to
+see them together.
+
+"I have been meaning to go for some time," he said with gravity, "but I
+did not like to think they would be alone over Sunday. Now that you will
+be there, I certainly can spare three or four days."
+
+"See here," returned Jack,--"wait until Monday. Come, we'll have a nice
+day together down there on the sands. Sundays always seem so wonderful
+by the ocean, with the grand chant forever in your ears. The very waves
+are saying,--
+
+          "'Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord.'"
+
+But Fred Lawrence would not suffer himself to be persuaded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+JACK DARCY'S business-tour, while it had not been productive of any
+great financial results, had restored his healthy mental equilibrium. He
+found other firms were having it just as hard, and that the country was
+still overrun with men willing to work for any wages. Prices were
+certainly falling. All kinds of raw products were offered at the very
+lowest figure; and, labor being so cheap, manufactured goods must
+perforce be low. Men were not now counting on a speedy return to good
+times and high prices: they began to admit that the latter were the
+outcome of extravagant speculation. They bought what they wanted, and no
+more. They gave no extensive credits, and now really appeared to be
+anxious to reach a permanent basis.
+
+"We shall have to sell most of our stock at cost," he said to Winston.
+"Lucky to get that, I suppose. And we shall come out about even--no
+profits for this six months. Still, we shall not run back, and that is
+something gained."
+
+"We can count on the new goods, I'm pretty sure," returned Winston.
+"I've had some inquiries, and sent samples. Some of the fancy
+overcoatings are to be duplicated. That looks like business."
+
+It did, indeed. Jack sat at his desk, ruminating upon it, and feeling as
+if at last they saw a light through the woods, when a step startled him,
+because it was not the kind of step usually heard through that hall, so
+he turned. It was Fred Lawrence, with a face of ashen pallor. Jack
+sprang up, dazed with the vision.
+
+"I was to come and tell you--Maverick has gone to Depford Beach--Miss
+Barry is very ill, and they have telegraphed for him. He left word--that
+we were to come."
+
+The voice had a strained, unnatural sound; and the eyes looked like
+those that have wept out a passionate sorrow, and are dry from despair.
+
+"Ill--Miss Barry--not Sylvie?"
+
+Could he speak of her in that calm tone? A passion of rage swelled in
+Fred's heart, and flushed his face. Only a moment, for the great throb
+of thankfulness that it was _not_ Sylvie restored him.
+
+"It is Miss Barry. You will go?"
+
+The tone had that peculiar, wandering cadence, as if somehow the soul
+had dropped out of it.
+
+"Certainly," and Jack sprang up, puzzled by something quite intangible
+in Fred's demeanor.
+
+"There are just twenty minutes to catch this train. The eight-ten does
+not stop at Depford, you know."
+
+"True: I will just speak to Winston"--
+
+"I will meet you at the station," returned Fred hurriedly, turning away.
+
+Much as he loved Jack, it seemed as if he could not walk to the station
+with him. A feeling of profound pity for Sylvie rose in his heart. This
+man, noble, generous, helpful, and affectionate, had not the finely
+responsive nature Sylvie Barry needed. There would be some distance or
+coldness, or, worse still, a fatal dissonance. One part of her nature
+must remain unmated: her soul would have a language in which he would
+not only be deaf, but wholly dumb. He could express no more than the
+possibilities of his nature. It was not the fine and essential
+difference between man and woman, but that more fatal gulf in which
+there would appear no certain glimpses of a royally endowed love in all
+its spontaneity, its glow of feeling, its variation of rich emotions.
+How would she, with her versatile, changeful soul, with its cycle of
+moods, ever live in the strong, steady prison of his heart!
+
+If he had thought perfect honor to his friend the greatest trial of his
+life, what was this to be? He could not stay and see the slow, consuming
+inward fire that would burn her soul to ashes while it was still in the
+body. Thank God, he could go away, would go soon indeed, and never
+return! He would nerve himself for these few days of torture.
+
+Jack waited on the platform until the last moment. The bell was ringing
+when Fred appeared, and the strong arm grasped him. They sat side by
+side, but were silent after one question as to the nature of Miss
+Barry's illness. Never had they been further divided in heart, for in
+the days when there had been no semblance of friendship the trivial
+repulsion was not to be compared to this wall of adamant. Fred would not
+have gone at all but for his mother's sake, although his heart was with
+Sylvie through every instant of her trial.
+
+The house was very quiet when they reached it. Maverick came to meet
+them, and was as sorely puzzled as Fred by the certain composure of
+Darcy's face.
+
+"It was not altogether unexpected by her or myself," Maverick explained
+in answer to their inquiries. "It is the result of a complication of
+disorders, some of long standing and incurable; and the present effect
+is partial paralysis. I hoped change of air and a quiet summer would
+delay what we knew must come before many years."
+
+Darcy was astonished beyond measure. He would sooner have thought of his
+own mother dying. True, he remembered now that Miss Barry had been about
+less, and looked rather more delicate, and that through the summer she
+had kept extremely quiet. So amazed was he, that at first he quite
+forgot about Sylvie.
+
+Fred Lawrence paced the floor in an agony. Would the man never ask the
+question that was torturing him, because he had no right to ask it
+first!
+
+"How is my mother?" was his huskily tremulous inquiry, as he still went
+up and down like a caged lion.
+
+"The shock was really terrible to her. Mrs. Darcy was invaluable,"
+bowing to Jack. "But for her, Sylvie would have been in
+despair,"--looking furtively at the broad, slightly bowed figure.
+
+"Poor Sylvie!" he murmured, "poor Sylvie!"
+
+Fred turned to the door, compressing his lips over a throb of anguish.
+
+"Of course," began Maverick, "they must all be removed as soon as
+possible. I think it would be well for Mrs. Lawrence and her daughter to
+go to-morrow. Neither is strong enough to bear any prolonged strain."
+
+"Yes." Fred's heart swelled within him. They were all to be thrust aside
+as quickly as possible. This was Sylvie's sorrow--sacred to her and
+Jack.
+
+He went to his mother's room. She was lying on a couch, and was still
+hysterical. From her he heard the story; and though, as ever, she was
+selfishly alive to her own sufferings, she evinced an almost motherly
+tenderness in her sympathy for Sylvie.
+
+Fred spoke of the return. If it could be to-morrow; if he could settle
+them in their own home, and go quite away for a while! he thought.
+
+"And leave Sylvie here alone?" said his mother reproachfully.
+
+"I do not know what you can do for--for Miss Barry." How studiously cold
+and calm the tone was! "The doctor wishes to remove her as speedily as
+possible. I thought we would be out of the way, at least."
+
+"It _is_ terrible here; and if you considered it quite right--the summer
+is so nearly ended, and the nights are growing cool,--yes, we might
+go."
+
+They settled it over their quiet supper. "Miss Barry was comfortable,"
+Martha said, "and Miss Sylvie was lying down."
+
+Mrs. Lawrence retired early, her nerves were so shattered by the
+terrible incident. Irene had disappeared; and, when Fred could stand his
+loneliness no longer, he went to walk upon the beach.
+
+It was a moonless night, but with an intensely blue sky that gave the
+Milky Way the appearance of a luminous trail across the heavens. The
+murmur of the waves seemed sad and softened, and they touched the heart
+of the man who paced beside them. Once he had held so much in his hands!
+Surely he could have won the love of this woman then. Oh the blind,
+insensate, idiotic folly! He could have thrust his own soul down here on
+the sand, and trampled the very life out of it!
+
+Hark! some one was coming with hasty strides. With the wild instinct of
+a wounded animal he turned to flee, and yet--whither should he go?
+
+The hand was on his shoulder. The well-known voice uttered his name, and
+he turned at bay.
+
+"Sylvie"--
+
+"Don't repeat her name to me!" he flung out, beside himself with
+passionate jealousy and love. And then their eyes met, the one lurid
+with an emotion well-nigh beyond control, the other wondering, pitiful,
+amazed.
+
+"Yes, let me go my way. I had not meant you to know it; but once--yes, I
+will confess it to you--I scorned you to her. God knows how I have
+repented; for I was beside myself then, blinded with my own folly and
+arrogance. And now you have won the woman I love, whom I shall always
+love, and it will be at once my bliss and my punishment. Take your
+triumph--tell her that her erring knight came back, and paid her the
+highest homage of his soul." Then, in a sudden, changed tone, freighted
+with a pain that pierced the other's heart, he cried, "Jack Darcy, I
+have made amends for that selfish blunder of my young manhood. For weeks
+I have endured such pangs, that Heaven grant you may never know! I have
+walked by her side with polar wastes between us; I have touched her hand
+with fingers that have had no more passion in them than the dead; I have
+watched her dewy lips ripe with kisses, and remembered they were for
+you; I have been true, _true_ in word and deed and desire, but in
+thought I must love her to her life's end. I will go quite away"--
+
+Up to this point his words had come with the heat and flow of a
+lava-torrent. Now his impassioned voice faltered, trembled, and seemed
+to lose itself.
+
+Jack Darcy stood transfixed. Was it a dream? Had Fred been so blind all
+this while? He essayed speech; but the lines about his mouth were
+constricted, and his breath came in quivering gasps, as the vision of
+torture, suffered for honor's sake, rose up before him. Ah! if ever he
+_had_ sinned,--and the temporary forgetfulness appeared such a little
+thing to Jack's generous soul,--he had redeemed himself nobly.
+
+"Oh! you thought--she doesn't love me, Fred,--not in that way," and his
+voice had the full, throbbing inflection of a great joy. "We are
+friends, such as a man and a woman can truly be. Do you not understand
+that some people are so alike they run in parallels? there are no angles
+to create the intense friction of love, they are so evenly balanced that
+there is no desire for possessorship, they have just as wholesome an
+influence over each other remaining apart. There is hardly Sylvie's
+equal in the world. Half that I am, I owe her."
+
+Had the night changed? Was the world flooded with a serene and tender
+light? Was the moaning ocean filled with the wondrous music of immortal
+love and longing, reaching out to glad fruition? Was that sudden rare
+peace, creating a reverential atmosphere about him, an earnest of days
+to come? He experienced a vivid lightness as if he were being borne on
+clouds, while fragments of delicious remembrances floated through his
+brain. The very refinement of his nature seemed to exalt him to that
+high heaven of love, whose solemn mysteries it is not lawful to utter.
+
+"I cannot quite understand"--in a curious dreamy tone, still spelled by
+the mastery of impassioned emotion--"how you could miss loving Sylvie;
+how she, woman-like, could help adoring you for your strength and
+heroism. Jack, if I were a woman, your very power would compel me to
+worship you. I should love you, whether or no."
+
+Jack gave a bright, cheerful laugh. "It is that kind of strength you
+like in Sylvie," he made answer. "She will always spur a man up to his
+best. Her well-trained ear is quick to detect a false note in honor,
+ambition, or love. She will never be any kind of dead weight, and yet
+she is so deliciously womanly. There was a time--don't be vexed,
+Fred,"--in a tender, pleading tone,--"when I thought you were not going
+to be worthy of her. But that is past."
+
+"She rejected me then," Fred Lawrence said simply. "I offered her my
+father's wealth, the home he had made, my own folly and arrogance and
+self-conceit; and then, Jack, she boldly admitted that you were her
+hero! When I consider the sort of man my training and surroundings made
+me, I am filled with disgust. And yet I was no worse than hundreds of
+others at the present day. When I look at my mother, Irene, and myself,
+I feel that we were the product of the so-called culture of the day,
+which substitutes shallow creeds, conventional manners, and systems, for
+all that is pure, strong, and noble in manhood or womanhood. It is the
+sort of Greek temperament on which we pride our intellectual selves. We
+revel in a glowing, sensuous enjoyment, that intoxicates the brain, and
+leads us to disdain the real work of the world. We are trained to
+consider what society demands of us; we are polished and refined, and in
+too many instances left morally weak and ignorant. No wonder so many of
+us have not the strength to buffet across the stormy sea of hard
+experience, but are lost in the great whirlpool!"
+
+Jack peered into the pale, handsome face by the faint light. Surely this
+man had to make a tremendous effort for salvation, when nearly every
+tide had been against him! He experienced a keener sympathy than he
+could express; he drew the arm within his, and they paced up and down
+again in silence, understanding dimly the sacred mysteries of each
+other's hearts, that needed not to be dragged to open day for
+inspection. In a pure friendship, faith is the highest element: with
+that there is supreme content; without it, distrust gnaws like a
+canker-worm.
+
+They heard the little church-clock striking ten, and turned their steps
+toward the house. On the porch, Fred paused a moment, while an icy fear
+seemed to wring every pulse. He turned cold with apprehension.
+
+"What if I have been deluding myself!" he cried with sudden intensity.
+"Even if you and she could not love, she may have no such regard for me
+as I desire. I could not endure her pity."
+
+A warm, hopeful, generous smile illumined Jack Darcy's face. His hand
+thrilled with an electric force and sympathy.
+
+"I have no fear," he answered; "but I will not dim the grace of your
+exquisite joy by any prediction."
+
+They entered the quiet room. Dr. Maverick came out to meet them.
+
+"Miss Sylvie is asleep," he said. "Miss Barry is comparatively
+comfortable. Hester will stay with her through the night. I have sent
+your mother to bed," nodding to Jack. "I do not know what we should have
+done without her. I shall camp down on the sofa, to be within call; and
+to-morrow we had better begin the process of removal."
+
+"I had arranged to take my family," remarked Fred Lawrence, not exactly
+certain now that it was best.
+
+"Your house must be opened and aired thoroughly, before any one goes
+into it. So must Miss Barry's. Miss Morgan will see to this, I think. I
+am compelled to return in the early morning train, for I have some
+critical cases. One of you had better remain here."
+
+He looked at Jack as he said this, but was amazed at the frank answer,--
+
+"Fred will remain."
+
+He studied Jack with almost angry intentness. Had he been so mistaken in
+the man? Could he so calmly leave the woman he loved to bear her
+terrible trial alone, or did he think his mother's sympathy sufficient
+for her? And, although there were many admirable qualities in Fred
+Lawrence, the two had never fraternized with the deep cordiality that
+must underlie all friendships. They had not the magnetic attraction for
+each other that Darcy held for both.
+
+"What do you think of Miss Barry?" the latter asked hesitatingly.
+
+"It is the beginning of the end;" and Maverick sighed, as he thought of
+the impotence of human skill past a certain point. "Miss Barry consulted
+me a year ago, and was not in ignorance; but I hoped, nay, felt assured,
+with care and quiet her life might be prolonged. She may linger some
+months, and it may all be ended in a week. Good heavens! what a shock
+for Miss Sylvie!"
+
+He took two or three turns across the floor.
+
+"Go," he said abruptly, with an imperious wave of the hand. Then, a
+little scornfully, "You will both be better in bed. Lawrence looks as if
+I might have him for a patient to-morrow; but, Jack, are you made out of
+adamant?"
+
+The thrust hurt him, but Maverick was not in a pitying mood. Indeed,
+just at this moment his temper was savage. He had witnessed the pain
+and the suffering of the woman he had begun to love, until it had been
+hard to refrain from taking her in his strong arms, and sheltering her
+from the keenest pangs.
+
+The household remained the next morning as he had ordered. He was rather
+sulky all the way up in the train with Jack; but a talk with brisk,
+pungent Miss Morgan quite restored him.
+
+"Open the houses, and build fires immediately," he commanded. "Burn up
+and blow out the confined air, that there shall be no pestilential foes
+to greet them on their own hearths."
+
+He went down again that evening. If he had been annoyed before, he was
+puzzled now. There had been no word spoken between Fred and Sylvie; but
+the now, to her, sweet knowledge had come in a gesture, a glance, that
+could no more be described than the fine pulse of love can be dissected.
+She seemed to have waited breathless for just this strength and support.
+A hasty lover might have placed himself in the foreground. It was as if
+he said, "Here is my love, take it, use it, rely upon it; you cannot
+wear it out, you cannot wound or hurt it by any thing that may look like
+coldness; it is a blessed atmosphere to surround you until you stretch
+out your hand, and draw me into your very soul. I have been trained in
+patience and humility; only let me prove myself worthy in your eyes."
+
+Three days after, they all came up to Yerbury. The evening before, Irene
+Lawrence had gone to Sylvie's room, and found her kneeling by the open
+window, her face turned heavenward in a wordless prayer for strength.
+She knelt beside her, she took the passive hands in hers, she even
+touched her own cold lips to the colder forehead of the other.
+
+"Sylvie,"--the tone still had the awful dreariness of that utter inward
+living,--"Sylvie, I have been drawn to you in this your anguish by some
+power quite outside of myself. I think we have always liked each other
+in a curious way, but we were neither of us sentimental girls. I could
+not cry over you now, nor kiss you with effusive fondness; but I wish,
+oh, how passionately I wish, I could save you one pang! I wish I could
+die in _her_ place! My life is of so little value"--
+
+"I believe God is right," Sylvie answered with a great struggle. "She
+has used her life so well; she has garnered ripened sheaves of mercy and
+kindliness and good works. There is not only golden wheat, but the
+sweetness of rose and violet, the pungent purity and strength of
+heliotrope, the use, the beauty, every thing. She is ready."
+
+"And I am not worthy to be taken even for a ransom!" said the proud,
+cold voice, not betraying any inward hurt.
+
+"God does not mean that. You are to shape your life to something better.
+Irene, did you ever think how easy it might be to die for those we love,
+but oh, so hard to live for _them_, not ourselves!"
+
+Irene rose, and stood there like a statue. Sylvie felt for the hand,
+pressed it to her lips, folded it about her chin in a softly caressing
+manner. How had Irene become dear to her?
+
+"I am no heroine, Sylvie. I have been tossed up by the breakers of
+fortune, and am out of joint, broken, bruised, of no avail."
+
+"You can comfort _me_. You can help to give me strength and sympathy.
+You can become a warm, living, active woman. There is always room for
+such in the world, and a work for them to do. God never put an idle or
+useless thing in the world, much more a human soul; and it must go sadly
+astray before it comes to despair. Irene, you will not shut your heart
+again, you will turn its warm side to me, you will take me in, with my
+great sorrow;" and she buried her face in the other's dress, with a
+shivering sob.
+
+"I will do--what you wish. I am physically strong again. Let me help
+you--anywhere, anyhow. You were so good and patient through my dreary
+time."
+
+Then she stole softly away, astonished at herself. Within was still the
+coldness of Alpine glaciers. But oh, if she might be warmed!
+
+Miss Barry's journey was performed in an easy carriage. A paralysis of
+the lower limbs had supervened; but otherwise she had rallied a little,
+and her mind was clear and cheerful. There was only to be a peaceful
+waiting for the end, no feverish fluctuations of hope and fear. It was
+curious how they settled themselves to the fact. A nurse was installed
+for night watching and the more onerous part; and the invalid's room
+took on a pleasant aspect,--Christiana waiting on this side of the
+river.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+FOR the first time in his life, and for some unfathomable cause, Jack
+Darcy found business cares irksome. Balance-time was at hand. He was a
+little tired of the dreary round. The men's disaffection re-acted upon
+him. With his keen and intelligent faculty of making the best of every
+thing, he was disappointed because he had failed to inspire others with
+it.
+
+"It's not so bad, after all. We have nothing that can be passed to
+capital, but we have held our own. Only, there is no dividend for the
+men."
+
+"I'll explain that to them," exclaimed Winston with a confident nod.
+
+He did, and he had a rather stormy venture. All the old arguments and
+agreements had to be gone over. Men unaccustomed to business are quick
+in prosperity and stupid in adversity. They only had three-quarter
+wages: why should they be called upon to lose beside? It was little
+enough, and waiting five years,--and no one knew,--the whole thing might
+go to smash another year! A few wished, with an oath, that they were
+well out of it. They would never be bamboozled into any co-operative
+scheme again.
+
+The grumbling, grew louder and louder. It was discussed at Keppler's
+over beer and bad whiskey, and quite inflammatory speeches were made.
+Then Winston called the mill-hands together.
+
+"My men," said he, "you know we opened the mills in starvation-times.
+Every man who could raise fifty dollars was entitled to a half-share of
+the capital, and he who could not was to have a little capital made off
+of the savings of his labor. Last year you were all pleased and merry
+and satisfied, because we made something: this year it has been the
+reverse, though I declare to you, I, for one, have worked twice as hard.
+Now, we shall never do any thing if we are all going to row different
+ways. It must be the long pull, the strong pull, and the pull all
+together. You know that if any operative became dissatisfied, and left,
+his share was forfeited to the fund for the sick and disabled. Many of
+you _are_ dissatisfied; but maybe you won't leave, thinking of last
+year's money. Now, I want to say, every such man who would like to
+_sell_ his share, may do so. I have had some applications from new men,
+that I have been very sorry to refuse. I shall open a book, and any man
+who wants to go out may put down his name there, and, just as fast as
+the shares are resold, he can go; _but he never comes back into Hope
+Mills again_! Just think it over, and decide in the course of a few
+days."
+
+"O Winston!" cried Jack, "I am afraid there will be a stampede!"
+
+"You're nervous and blue, Darcy. Now, you see if this isn't the very
+best move. There were two men here the other day from Little Falls. They
+had been taking out half their wages in store-pay, and the concern burst
+up, owing them the other half. They knew of a dozen men, not beggarly
+poor either, who would be glad to come. I'll bet my old hat there don't
+six men go out. Come, now!"
+
+"You can't tempt me with your old hat," returned Jack laughingly. "Make
+it a treat at Kit Connelly's."
+
+"Agreed. We'll take in the household."
+
+A dozen names were put down on the first day, two on the second, then
+there was a lull. Afterward four were erased; and, when it came to the
+actual pinch, five men went out, two of them very reluctantly.
+
+"I felt so sorry for Davy," said Jack when they had made the transfers.
+"He didn't want to go, and I do not believe he would if it had not been
+for his brother-in-law."
+
+"A good lesson for all parties. There will not be any grumbling for some
+time to come, I'll warrant. It is rather irregular business; but
+sometimes you can't wait for a regular surgeon, or the patient would be
+past help."
+
+Events pointed the lesson pretty forcibly. By the middle of October
+there was a sudden rush of orders. Prices rallied a little. There were
+some tremendous bankruptcies, but it seemed more in speculation than
+legitimate industry. The new men brought a fresh infusion of spirit and
+energy. One of them, a small, middle-aged man, Gilman by name, who had
+once been manager and had a share in a mill that came to grief through a
+defaulting cashier who had successfully forged the name of the firm, was
+especially enthusiastic about the system. Jack admitted that the
+culmination of the discontent was the very best thing that had happened
+for the mill.
+
+Davy went almost wild over his mistake, cursed his brother-in-law
+roundly, and forbade his wife to visit her brother's household. Nothing
+to do, not even three-quarter wages to live upon, with cheap coal and
+cheap flour. He even waylaid Darcy, and begged to be taken back without
+any share.
+
+"I'm sorry, Davy, but it cannot be done. We resolved, whatever happened,
+we would not go back on our word. You had time enough to think it over."
+
+"Just you wait," said Price, when he heard this. "They've three years
+more to wade through, and they'll never hold together all that time. It
+has a very queer look, too, that, just as soon as they shoved us out,
+they began to make money again. Bob Winston's the sort of fellow to look
+out for himself, and he had this thing all cut and dried."
+
+"Look here," remarked a listener, "you signed your own selves out.
+Nobody made you. I haven't any faith in the scheme, but I like truth for
+all that."
+
+The men worked with a will. The monthly club meetings took on a new
+interest; and they decided, if the prosperity continued, to open a
+co-operative store another year. They were growing more thoughtful and
+intelligent, and Gilman's influence upon them was excellent, while his
+experiences widened their views. A little fresh blood certainly worked
+no harm.
+
+Jack was very cheery again. It seemed to him they had pulled through the
+worst. The larger outlook was better: goods were going abroad, and money
+or bonds were coming back. Here and there some new enterprise started,
+but still there were hundreds of men out of employment. Yerbury showed
+various signs of a new thriftiness. The farms about were better managed.
+Some idle men had ventured to hire a little ground the past summer, and
+raise sufficient to have something over for their trouble. The Webbers
+succeeded beautifully. Of course there were slurs about a Dutchman
+living on a cabbage a week, but every one knew the Webbers were not that
+kind. What Germans were able to do nicely and wisely, Americans might
+copy to their profit. When some of the natives were out of work, they
+patched up their fences, painted a bit, laid a bad place in the
+sidewalk, instead of hanging round a saloon.
+
+As for those who were living through the sad sweet lesson of loving and
+losing, time went on with them also. If they could have stayed his hand!
+Sylvie recovered from the first shock: she could never suffer quite so
+intensely again, for there was one to share her least thought, her most
+trivial to her greatest pain. The explanation had come about very
+gently, making only a small ripple. Mrs. Lawrence was delighted: she
+always had liked Sylvie, and she was certain that Fred was a better
+match than Jack Darcy, though she admitted he was remarkable for a
+young man with no better opportunities.
+
+Miss Barry was truly satisfied. She would cling to her little dream of
+"orders" and "kinds" to the last, but she always did it in an
+unobtrusive way. She had felt all her life long, rather all _their_
+lives, that they were made for one another. Less practically clear-eyed
+than her young niece,--brought up in the active reasoning and doing of
+to-day, rather than the doctrine of passive suffering that had been in
+the old creed for women,--she would have assented when Sylvie refused.
+To be sure, if Jack Darcy had won her he would have had a delicate and
+sincere welcome; but I think her eye would never have lighted with the
+true mother-love at his coming, as it did at Fred's. The worth of his
+years of refinement and polish came out now. He never seemed at loss or
+awkward in the sickroom. If he was reading, he warily noted the first
+droop of the eyes; he could tell by the lines in her face when talking
+wearied her, or when she preferred being alone. Every thing between them
+was harmonious.
+
+She amazed even Dr. Maverick by her improvement, though she held her
+life even yet on the same frail tenure. She really hoped to live until
+spring, when she should plan for Sylvie's marriage. Fred had made a very
+profitable engagement with the widow he had spoken of, and was to
+furnish designs for the interior of her house and furniture. There was
+to be one purely Grecian room, one on the old Roman model, a sunset room
+where every thing was to be in accord, and a "sea" room fit for Naiads
+or Undines. Sylvie was intensely interested. This Mrs. Spottiswoode was
+young and handsome, the widow of a man nearly three times her age, and
+childless.
+
+Fred Lawrence was proud to have something of his very own to offer
+Sylvie, and she took it as the highest of all compliments. She did like
+the profession, if that it could be called; for it brought them nearer
+together, it was something they could both share. She copied designs
+and art essays, she drew patterns, she painted now and then, days when
+Miss Barry was at her best. She would make of herself something that
+should enhance Fred's pride in her,--as if he was not proud enough
+already!
+
+The one least contented with all this was Philip Maverick.
+
+"I never was so thunderstruck in all my life! That's just the word to
+express it, for it left me dazed as the blackness does after the
+lightning. I would have sworn, Jack, that she loved you, and you loved
+her. Good heavens! if I had not believed that, if I had not been too
+honorable to seek to play a friend a scurvy trick, it would have gone
+hard with me if I had not won her for myself."
+
+"Honestly, you would not have succeeded, Maverick. Neither would she
+have married me. I think she belonged to Fred from the beginning. He
+used to hate girls, judging from his sisters, no doubt, but he always
+liked Sylvie. I was afraid of girls,--their sharp eyes and sharper
+tongues,--but I liked her too; yet in my own mind he always had the
+first claim. And they will be suited in the farthest fibre of each
+soul."
+
+"He is not half worthy of her!" growled Maverick.
+
+"Who is?" There was a peculiar tender intonation in the voice. "Sylvie
+Barry's womanhood is unique, like some rare gem. She has the sparkle but
+not the hardness of a diamond; the warmth and vividness of the ruby, but
+not its heats; the serenity of the sapphire, and yet to me that is
+always cold. Rather I think she is a changeful opal with all hues and
+tints and surprises."
+
+"And yet you have never loved her!" in intense surprise.
+
+"I worship her," said Jack reverentially. "I should as soon think of
+wooing an angel."
+
+"And yet this man, who is not as strong, or noble, or high in purpose,
+takes her with your consent. You can see her sit down at his feet, wind
+her own rich, pure, sustaining life-melody about him, to make his path
+seem like going through an enchanted land. She has genius, but it will
+ever linger in the shadow of his; it will help, and purify, and shape
+his; she will give her whole soul to the work. Is he worth the best
+there is in such a woman as Sylvie Barry?"
+
+"No; and we never go by our deserts when a woman loves us," said Jack,
+with frank honesty.
+
+"I am quite sure you will marry a woman I shall hate," returned Maverick
+testily.
+
+Jack laughed. "Marrying has not been much in my thoughts;" and yet his
+fair face flushed. "I have to fight Hope Mills out to the end first."
+
+But just now there did not seem much of a prospect for fighting, though
+he firmly believed he should always be on guard after this.
+
+There was one other person in this little circle, who was of much
+interest to the others, even if it was for the most part unspoken.
+Maverick had tried to rouse Irene Lawrence from her lethargy by appeals
+of different kinds. She certainly was not an intellectual woman, though
+she had a strong and well-cultivated mind, and was accomplished in many
+ways,--society accomplishments, with a view to the admiration they might
+win. He could seem to strike no electric spark, though he succeeded in
+restoring her to health. Every week of her stay at Depford Beach, she
+had improved; but there was the old, dreary, listless life. She used to
+think herself, if some shock like that of an earthquake could lift her
+completely out of it! but none came.
+
+For it could not be said that Miss Barry's illness was any shock to her.
+People were sick, and died, and their perplexity was at an end. A
+generous, kindly life like this of Miss Barry's would have its
+reward--if any life ever was rewarded. She did not doubt so much: she
+had never really believed.
+
+As she said to Sylvie, something stronger than herself had sent her that
+night,--one of those powerful, impelling influences that few can resist.
+And Sylvie was wise enough not to lose her hold. She drew her in very
+gently, she preached no sermon, she asked favors frankly.
+
+"I want you to take my pony-carriage," she said one day, after their
+return to Yerbury. "I ought to go out every day, and if you come with it
+I shall; but if I am left to my own fancies, there will be so much to
+occupy me. Then, too, companionship is always very tempting."
+
+"I should be glad to do any thing for you," was the quiet, unemotional
+reply.
+
+So the carriage was brought every morning to the door. It seemed so odd,
+the day she first drove around Yerbury! Unconsciously the old
+stateliness returned. Her heart swelled with contradictory phases of
+thought and feeling. She was too really proud to suffer from the stings
+of petty vanity. She knew there were people who stared at Miss Lawrence;
+and she allowed them to stare with the serenity of a queen, going her
+way unmoved.
+
+She and Sylvie went through lanes and by-ways this gorgeous October day.
+Her heart was strangely touched by the glory, by the odorous air, the
+softened sounds, and brooding tenderness. Sylvie had a few errands to
+some old parishioners of her aunt's; and, while she went in cottages,
+Irene sat with the reins idly in her hands. There was much in the world
+she had never seen, though she had climbed Alps, and wandered in sunny
+vales. The ripeness and perfection of this midday was exhilarating. They
+talked in little snatches, and then were silent.
+
+Coming back they drove through the town: it was nearer. Crossing over to
+Larch Avenue, a tall figure confronted them. Sylvie bowed, and looked
+straight on, remembering such a rencounter years agone. Irene Lawrence
+turned her head with its proudest poise, but her face flushed scarlet
+under her veil. She would have made the _amende honorable_ then, if it
+had taken all the strength of her soul.
+
+She and Jack Darcy had met occasionally through the summer. Mrs.
+Lawrence rather liked to talk mill affairs with him, and his name was
+quite a familiar one in their household. Now that it had come, she was
+rather glad to offer this wordless apology for a crime against
+good-breeding, that only a rude young girl could be guilty of, to one
+she considered her inferior.
+
+She had wondered more than once, why that long-ago evening at Sylvie's
+should haunt her,--the talk of costumes, the bright chat, the dainty
+ripples of laughter, and that face with its cool, steady power. If it
+had been that of any other man, she would have pitted herself against
+it, and conquered, she fancied. Now conquests were things of the past.
+She was not one of your soft, maudlin women, who sigh for a little love.
+She looked straight into the coming years, and saw herself always alone,
+with no feeling of pity or regret.
+
+As for Jack Darcy, when they had passed, he turned and looked after
+them,--after _her_, in her state and dignity. He held one secret of her
+life that she would never know. He had questioned Maverick, who learned
+that she had no remembrance of going out that night. He had bound Fred
+over to a most willing secrecy.
+
+Ah, Jack! any remembrance that you can carry so guardedly in your soul
+is a dangerous thing,--a spark that may kindle a great fire "that many
+waters cannot quench!"
+
+Sylvie did not relinquish her own outside interests. The school that had
+had so small a beginning was now merged into a regular enterprise, and
+been re-christened an Industrial School. It had a permanent teacher, and
+occupied the whole house, the rent being paid by some benevolent
+gentlemen. A committee of ladies assisted in the different classes. The
+store was kept open, one side being reserved for articles of clothing
+or fancy goods made by the pupils, the other as a bakery on a limited
+scale, and a lunch-counter. It certainly was doing a good work. Some
+young girls, after being trained, had been provided with service places,
+and had given excellent satisfaction. Irene went through it one day with
+Sylvie, and was oddly interested.
+
+"I wish I had a genius of some kind," she said abruptly to Sylvie
+afterward. "If I could write a book, or paint a picture, or design
+exquisite adornments, or if I could hold the world spell-bound by my
+voice"--
+
+"You do sing," returned Sylvie. "Auntie was speaking of it yesterday.
+She said, 'How I should like to hear Miss Lawrence sing some of her
+pathetic old ballads!'"
+
+"You know all the sweet and tender ones."
+
+"I sing mine over daily," and Sylvie laughed with a dainty inflection.
+
+Irene went home, and opened her piano. It might have made jarring
+discord, but for Fred's thoughtfulness. She found it was in perfect
+tune.
+
+Was it the music that brought a curious intensity to her after all these
+long, dreary months? Her fingers seemed a little stiff at first, and
+some things had gone out of her mind. Then she dropped her face into her
+hands, and thought.
+
+"It is my only gift," she said slowly. "When they are married I will not
+be a burthen on them: I can make my way. I shall never try to think of
+marriage again;" and she shuddered.
+
+"I declare, you are quite like yourself," said her mother that evening.
+
+The weeks went on. Miss Barry was making plans for her niece. She could
+not live here alone, even for a few months. And she longed to see her
+married. Though the others had almost forgotten how surely her days were
+numbered, she had not.
+
+Fred assented delicately to her proposal.
+
+"It is not as if there were only your income," she said with a touch of
+pride. "Sylvie will have enough to keep the old house as it is kept now,
+and your mother and sister have some claims on you. Still, for her
+sake"--
+
+Sylvie would fain have put it off, but she was gently overruled. The
+wedding-garments were ordered, the day appointed. A quiet marriage in
+the pretty parlor, with only a few friends. They brought Miss Barry down
+stairs, and she listened while her darling reverently repeated her vows.
+They kissed the new bride while the tears were shining in her eyes, and
+sent her on a brief wedding-journey with heartfelt blessings. Maverick
+was to telegraph to them every day.
+
+Fred Lawrence could hardly believe his happiness. They were like two
+children out on a pleasure-excursion, not needing to realize the gravity
+of life in these golden days. What cared they for pale winter suns and
+shivering blasts!
+
+Long ago he had planned a brilliant tour to Europe for her. He had gone
+over it all, and would only have been bored; but it was the thing to do,
+and he might enjoy her fresh delight in it. But to both of them--to him
+especially--had come the higher revelations of life. It is the
+aggregation of individual characteristics that makes the sum-total of
+national character; and though at first retrenchment and economy seemed
+hideous words to the pleasure-loving, easy-going, self-indulgent souls
+nursed in the lap of prosperity, there was coming a realization to those
+who had fought their way valiantly across the yawning gulf, that the hot
+race for show, the desire to exceed one another, was not a lofty aim for
+an immortal soul, hardly for a cultured nature.
+
+They both understood that beauty and grandeur were not far-off, hardly
+attained ideals, and that the great pleasures were set in the world
+rather as incentives and rewards, than highly seasoned daily food which
+must inevitably produce satiety. Some time, when they had earned this
+glorious vacation, they would take it hungering with the healthy
+appetite of a well-trained soul. At present the duty was to deny one's
+self firmly and contentedly, to round off the sharp corners, to shape
+the daily living to high, pure purposes; so that the greater excellences
+of Art should not despise the minor forms, the steps whereby true
+perfection was attained, the tangled threads that often required more
+real genius to comprehend than the one great moment of inspiration.
+
+They came home again fresh and bright, with the peculiar fragrance of a
+new life about them, just as you shall smell spring in the woods on some
+mild, sunny February day. Fred fluctuated between office and city, quite
+a prophet of household art, welcomed warmly back to the old circles
+which had so quietly dropped him for a while. Is there not a great deal
+of this unconscious proving of the fine metal of souls in the world? We
+cry out as we are thrust aside, or given some hard task to do; we wonder
+people do not hold out kindly hands, smile with sympathetic eyes; and
+yet their very help might weaken us. When we have beaten our way across
+with the roar of the distant waves still in our ears, the shadows of the
+black, fierce, jagged cliff hardly faded, the taste of the brackish
+spray still lingering on our lips, an exultant thrill speeds through
+every nerve as we clasp a hand that has had to buffet through the same
+fateful current.
+
+Early in April Miss Barry had another seizure, a fatal stroke this time.
+For a few days she lay in sweet content; and then dropped peacefully out
+of existence.
+
+It seems always a mystery, why such earnest, useful souls, doing that
+highest of all work,--a pure, unselfish charity,--should be taken away,
+and the slothful, dependent, ease-loving, selfish ones left. The Darcys
+felt that Mrs. Lawrence could have been spared much more easily, and
+served a higher economy in point of usefulness. But God, who sees every
+end from the beginning, and is all-wise, judges differently. Miss Barry
+had done her work, no light life-task either. Only God knew what it had
+been, days of toil and nights of watching and prayer, such pain as only
+a strong soul could have kept to itself, and smiled over. Yet she had
+her exceeding sweet reward in this world,--years of peace and comfort,
+the child-love she had missed in one way, supplied in another, the hope
+of her days crowned more wisely by the waiting.
+
+They did not think it worth while to keep up the two households; indeed,
+Mrs. Lawrence would not have been separated from her son: so she and
+Irene brought their worldly possessions over to Larch Avenue. The old
+house was large enough. Sylvie was a courteous and charming mistress;
+though Fred realized, with the sensitiveness of true tender love, the
+burthen he had brought to her.
+
+"It is not without its wise compensation," she said, tears in her sunny
+brown eyes. "You see, I shall miss auntie so much less! She would not
+desire me to grieve despairingly for her, and here is the new claim to
+take her place. Beside," with a sad yet arch smile, "we shall have to
+strive against the temptation to selfishness that besets newly married
+people, when their pursuits are identical, as ours are. It will give a
+greater breadth, a purer tone, to our lives."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+HOPE MILLS passed through a very prosperous six months. With some new
+processes, invented by the combined energy and ingenuity of the men,
+they made a new line of goods which was a perfect success. Interest and
+discount vanished; and there was a snug balance in the bank, of which
+every man was duly proud. They were beginning, too, to take a great
+interest in the finances of the country, and to see that a stable
+currency and wise economy and honesty were the best friends to
+commercial and industrial prosperity. One little incident made them
+exceedingly jubilant.
+
+They had been undersold, in the same line of goods, with quite a large
+customer. Winston was rather blue about it at first, then laughed it off
+as one of the fluctuations of trade. To his great surprise, six months
+after, he received the largest order for goods that had yet been sent.
+
+          "We have been much deceived in the quality of
+          cloths from Yates, Collins, & Co.," ran the note.
+          "They do not stand wear, though they resemble
+          yours so closely. Our customers have made numerous
+          complaints, and desire the old stock, which we are
+          glad to order again.
+
+                                   "MILES, CHAMBERS, & CO."
+
+This was put up on the bulletin-board, and discussed with much pride at
+the club. Every man had an interest in it, and an ambition to excel in
+his particular branch. It paid in the long-run to be honest; and, though
+there might be a higher principle than remuneration, that was not a bad
+test, after all.
+
+So the third summer opened brilliantly. Yardley, Gilman, and four others
+drew up an agreement for a co-operative store. They hired one man who
+had been a very successful buyer for a large grocery-firm, which had
+failed, and took with it his small invested capital. He was to keep the
+books, take orders, and do the buying, subject to the advisement of the
+managers. A certain low per cent of profits was agreed upon, just
+enough, they calculated, to pay expenses; and the goods were to be
+offered as low as possible for cash. The superior quality and reduced
+price, they decided, would be more agreeable to most of the men than a
+small balance at the end of the year. An account was to be kept with
+every member, and the agreement to remain in force one year from date.
+
+And yet there are shoals and quicksands for prosperity, as well as
+yawning abysses for adversity. There were people in Yerbury--not bad
+souls either--who were not content to allow the world to revolve on any
+axis but their own. They could see their neighbors' planets go to
+destruction with equanimity--following some law of nature or ethics that
+regulated supply and demand of any force, in their estimation; but when
+some bright particular star flashed out of the orbit they had set for
+it, of course it was beyond the pale of safety. There has always been a
+great deal of just such obstinacy in the world, just such narrow
+prescribing, and yet--"it does move."
+
+One of the favorite objections of these wiseacres was, that Hope Mills
+was founded on a wrong basis. Who knew _just exactly_ what amount of
+goods Winston sold? Well, there was the amount manufactured,--the amount
+on hand every six months. True,--with a disbelieving shake of the
+head,--but he was up in the ways of the world; and what would hinder
+him, Ananias-like, from keeping back part of the price? When this was
+shown to be an utter impossibility, they still were quite sure Winston
+harbored in his secret soul some plan for cheating the workmen at the
+last. Here would be all this accumulation of capital, and by some
+successful _coup-d'état_ Winston and Darcy would swoop down upon it, and
+take the lion's share. They were very much afraid that the workmen were
+going to be wronged in some underhand way. A defaulting cashier,
+unprincipled managers, thieves and forgers, committed their crimes in an
+out-and-out way; but there was going to be a profound mystery about
+this--the most simple and above-board management, when every man knew,
+every six months, the best and the worst of the details.
+
+Employment was becoming more general all through the country. Everybody
+drew a long breath, and decided that the grinding times of depression
+had passed. We would soon be back to the brilliant era of past
+prosperity.
+
+And then there arose a new light in the labor horizon, a prophet who had
+discovered the magic key to the workingmen's paradise, and it had only
+to be turned by themselves, to gain entrance. Wherever he went, he was
+hailed with acclamation.
+
+It was the old, old war upon capital, the old seductive science of
+equalizing things, values, money. Every poor man in the country had a
+better right to a cottage and garden and a few hours of leisure, than
+these few magnates to grasp every thing in their own hands, to roll in
+luxury, to feast in magnificence, to clothe their daughters in silks,
+velvets, and diamonds--it was to be noted that Mr. McPherson wore an
+immense diamond, but it was to be presumed that his wife or daughter did
+_not_. Everywhere one could see the rich growing richer, the poor
+poorer, the workman trodden down, brought to the level of slavery with
+his long hours and scanty wages. Where was it to end but in a nation of
+paupers, of thieves, of criminals of every grade? for, when you made a
+brute of a man, there came a time when he turned a brute's hand against
+you. This had been the underlying cause of all the world's great
+struggles: it had uncrowned kings, it had razed thrones, it had swept
+states. There were bits of distorted historical facts, fallacious but
+brilliant reasoning, and much bombast.
+
+They heard of him in this city and that, and there was a great deal said
+about the cordiality with which he greeted "the horny-handed son of
+toil." No town was so small that he disdained it, no city so great that
+he feared it. There had been "demonstrations," but he seemed proud of
+his defiance of danger.
+
+Men who could not altogether approve of him admitted that he was
+"smart," that he uttered a good many truths, half-truths they were,
+dressed up in specious falsehoods, all the more dangerous, since the
+world does pay homage to virtue and truth. They were troublesome
+questions: the great difficulty was the haste made in settling them. A
+balance will finally adjust itself, though there may be many vibrations
+at first.
+
+It was a fact much to be regretted, that with returning prosperity the
+gin-mills and beer-shops of Yerbury had, as a general thing, increased
+in their business. A notable instance to the contrary, however, was
+Keppler's saloon. It had depended a good deal on the men from Hope Mills
+and the iron-works. The latter had been closed so long; and, although
+the coffee-house did not seem much of a rival at first, it had gone on
+steadily, and given the men time to think. It was not simply the one
+glass of beer they took to wash down their midday lunch, but the
+treating when a crowd gathered, the many drinks during a heated
+discussion of an evening. Not half a dozen of the mill-hands went there
+now, so occupied had their minds become with other matters. Keppler's
+lease was not out, and his rent was high for the times; he had lost
+money and customers, and felt sore over it; he had a grudge against
+Jack Darcy as the exponent of a system that interfered with his profits.
+
+McPherson was discussed over pipes and ale one warm June evening, with
+brains cleared, of course, by frequent potations and stifling smoke. It
+was proposed that he should be invited to lecture at Yerbury.
+
+"I like to see fair play!" cried Keppler. "These fellows over
+here"--nodding toward the mill--"have had it all their own way because
+they took up a lot of starving men in dull times. That was all well
+enough,--praise-worthy--praise-w-o-r-thy," with a long accent. "But
+things have changed now,--changed!" with a confident nod. "I'd like to
+hear what the man has to say. You see, he has come up from the ranks, he
+has been poor himself!"
+
+So the ball was put in motion. McPherson's speech at Millville, a great
+laboring-centre, was read aloud with frequent cheering. And the
+laboring-men at Yerbury began to wonder why wages were not higher, when
+so many shops were running on full time! Somebody was making a great
+deal of money: _they_ could barely live. Bread and meat had not fallen
+in the ratio of wages. It was still next door to starvation.
+
+Finally some self-constituted labor-committee sent the letter of
+invitation, and received a cordial and flattering reply. Mr. McPherson
+had heard of Yerbury. He would be only too glad to come among them in
+his humble capacity, and shed what light he could upon the side of right
+and truth; raise his voice for the oppressed against the oppressor. And
+he mentioned that open-air meetings were generally more successful.
+
+They put up a platform on the Common, the largest park in Yerbury. The
+day was very fine, not too hot, and a shower the evening before had laid
+the dust. At precisely four, a deputation awaited Mr. McPherson and his
+party at the station, escorted them to the Bedell House to refresh, and
+then to the grand hall of nature, with its waving arches of glistening
+green overhead.
+
+Already a great concourse had assembled. Mr. McPherson mounted his
+rostrum, and, after a few preliminary flourishes, began in a clear,
+strong tone, that had the power of concentrating the attention of his
+audience. He went back centuries, and proved that from the very
+beginning of all industries there had been the desire to oppress, that
+the working-classes had to combine and fight for every advantage gained,
+to wrest from kings, peers, masters, even equals, the privileges they
+held to-day. Plainly, capital was a tyrant fattening on unpaid toil.
+"Were not the rich always in the ranks of capital, always against the
+poor man? They squeezed him to the utmost when they had need, then they
+flung him away. Did it matter to them if his wife and children starved?
+If he stole a loaf of bread to appease the pangs of hunger, he was sent
+to prison; but if a bank president stole half a million, he went
+to--Europe! [Laughter and applause.] Does the capitalist employ the
+laborer in order that there shall be fewer starving men in the country?
+It comes in the market, and buys at the lowest price, solely for its own
+benefit. It does not concern capital, whether this man can support wife
+and children on such a pittance: what business has he with wife and
+children! If the man drops at the work-bench, the victim of long hours,
+exhaustive toil, insufficient food, the town will thrust him into a
+pauper's grave, and another will fill his place. Even negro-slavery was
+more noble than this: it was to the master's interest that the slave
+should be well fed. Capital was shrewd, selfish, experienced, astute,
+strong: labor was kept in ignorance lest it might learn its worth, its
+rights; it was half-starved that it might be weak; it was driven from
+pillar to post with a more cruel than slave-driver's whip, that it might
+never be able to perfect a successful organization."
+
+And so on and on. The crowd increased. The six-o'clock bells rang, and
+the procession from shops wended their way thither, many from curiosity,
+some from a hope of a new truth, and not a few filled with a secret
+sense of wrong and dissatisfaction. Mr. McPherson was still belaboring
+capital. Now he had declared it "a stupendous fraud, a hollow bubble, a
+reputation for wealth where no wealth existed, a fictitious claim for
+what was not, but which still managed to hold the workman in its iron
+grasp; the concentrated labor of the men, not the lawful working
+interest of money. Some way this system of evil was going to be uprooted
+by men standing firm, refusing the wages of sweat and blood; and in the
+general overturn by legislation of state and country, every man was to
+have a farm or a factory, to quit work in the middle of the afternoon,
+and sit with folded hands on his own door-step, his own master, a free
+man!" [Great shouting and applause.]
+
+He talked until seven, and wound up at last with a desperate but covert
+onslaught on Hope Mills. "No two men or six men, or company of any kind,
+had a right to band together to starve not only the men in their own
+town, but the laborers throughout the world, by so reducing wages for
+their own sole benefit; and every workman who submitted to have these
+chains forged around body and soul, no matter by what specious
+expedient, was a worse traitor, a more cruel oppressor of wife and
+children, than the red-handed capital that stood ready to make him a
+slave!"
+
+There was an immense deal of cheering and applause. Mr. McPherson was
+invited to supper at the Bedell House by a deputation of working-men,
+though I think there were few horny-handed ones among them. Liquors
+flowed freely, and the feast was rather noisy. A purse was handed to him
+when he went away--he was too noble to make any charge when he spoke in
+behalf of a cause so near his heart.
+
+The seed was sown, and it is too true that "foul weeds grow apace."
+There were club-meetings and union-meetings. The shoe-factory, which had
+struggled hard to get on its legs again, soon became a hotbed of
+discontent. The hatters held meetings, the paper-makers were aroused,
+and then began preparation for another grand strike. The weavers from
+Coldbridge and Stilford sent over a deputation to Hope Mills, warning,
+exhorting, and threatening. "No system," said they, "should interfere
+with mutual strength and protection."
+
+And this was not all. It seemed as if Yerbury meant to make them the
+scape-goat of every thing. Robert Winston was broadly caricatured; and
+there was a bit of insulting abuse, calling them traders in their
+brethren's blood, pasted up on the gate-post. "The Evening Transcript"
+went over the system of co-operation, and showed to its own
+satisfaction, that it was a system full of errors and miscalculations
+based on the credulity of workmen. It hinted that the same mysterious
+cause which reduced profits last year would reduce them again next year,
+that at the end of the five years the bread and cheese would come out
+just even, although there had been a great deal more bread than cheese,
+as everybody knew. If the corporation were working for the best
+interests of the men, why had they not sold off stock when every one
+knew prices were going permanently down, instead of waiting to sell it
+below cost? Why had they paid exorbitant prices for wool when the market
+was flooded with it? Why had they not done this or that? until one
+wondered why, understanding the woollen-business so well, and being able
+to see just where enormous profits could be made, and losses avoided,
+they had not all gone into it themselves. The article wound up with a
+covert and insulting insinuation. Human nature was the same, the world
+over. Men of the highest probity and honor had succumbed to temptation:
+these men who had never really been in any responsible position had yet
+to be proved. If men like David Lawrence and Horace Eastman could not
+make a stand against fluctuations and difficulties, it was hardly likely
+success would crown any such abnormal undertaking.
+
+Jack did not see the paper until the next day. Some one laid it
+surreptitiously on his desk. His face flushed darkly at the attack upon
+his honesty, and for a moment all the belligerency of his boyhood rose
+to the surface. He had half a mind to hunt up the writer of the article,
+and pound him to a jelly with his two fists. But presently he laughed to
+himself, and then made a tour of the mills in his cheeriest fashion. He
+saw with grief that the seed had found root. There were some sullen
+faces and short answers.
+
+It certainly is a hard thing to keep on fighting an old foe that can
+only be beaten, never killed.
+
+Jack stumbled over Cameron in the store-room.
+
+"Cameron," said he with a white, rigid face, "I wish to God this was the
+last day of the five years! I should walk out of Hope Mills, and never
+set foot in it again, no, not even if they implored me on their knees. A
+thankless, miserable set! The lying article in last night's paper made
+me mad for a moment, but could not sting: yet the faces of my own men
+did as I came through the rooms."
+
+"You've had a hard pull, Jack!" Cameron's voice was fatherly and
+soothing. "You might have put your money and your brains in something
+that would have proved much pleasanter. But the man who takes up the
+first end of a truth always gets hard knocks: it is the people who come
+after who find a smooth path. Don't you remember," drawing his wrinkled
+face into a queer smile, "the shrewd application your New York lady made
+about the children of Israel? Jack, if the salvation scheme of the Bible
+was all proved false,--which it never will be, to my mind,--there's so
+much wisdom in it beside, that a chap could take it just for a sort of
+guidebook in every-day matters, all the same. And now we're going to
+have a big fight."
+
+"You think that?" cried Jack, in vague alarm. "I wish Winston was here.
+He can always talk so to the point!"
+
+"Well, he isn't: we've got to go through it ourselves. But this settles
+it! You see, there's been Price, and Pickett, and Davy, to stir up
+strife and bad feeling, and all this outside influence; but my old
+woman's praying us through, and I set a good deal of store by her
+prayers, Jack! If these ruffians go on, Yerbury'll be half ruined again,
+but it is their own fault. I'm not much on capital punishment, but I
+would go to the hanging of that McPherson. If he'd staid away, we should
+have done well enough."
+
+Jack drew a long, troubled breath.
+
+"I'd let every man go out who wanted to, but I wouldn't pay-him a red
+cent, there!"
+
+That evening Jack went down to Larch Avenue. He found Fred and Sylvie up
+in arms. Indignation was a mild term.
+
+It was a magnificent night, with a nearly full moon. The light flooded
+the wide lawn path, and made shadows of elves and gnomes on the porch,
+as the wind wandered in and out the great honeysuckle, whose ripe, rich
+perfume was shaken about with every waft. Within, an Argand lamp, and
+porcelain shade with a minute painting of Puck and his fairy host, sent
+a softened radiance on the old, rich-hued carpet, and antique furniture.
+It was but little changed, yet wore an indescribably antique look.
+
+Over at an open window sat Irene Lawrence, dressed in white, with a
+single deep-red velvety rose at her throat, which Sylvie had pinned
+there. Her hair had grown rapidly, and, though it did not quite curl,
+the ends tumbled about loosely, framing in the face with their dusky
+purplish tint. It was very clear now, and a little pale; the old
+brilliant coloring had not all returned; the passionless grace, the deep
+eyes with their steady lights, the mouth suggesting mobility and warmth
+and passion, rather than defining it, the droop of the white lids, the
+unruffled brow, and the pose of the bowed head and slightly-yielding
+throat, made a marvellous picture.
+
+The three were talking earnestly, as people do in the great crises of
+life; Sylvie wondrously piquant, with some thin, black, trailing stuff
+making shifting billows about her restless feet. She questioned Jack
+eagerly, she denounced the attack as cruel and cowardly. What did he
+mean to do? What should Fred do for him?
+
+"There is nothing to do, but just wait for the result. The
+dragon's-teeth have been sown. The only comfort I have is, that you
+never can put a lie on the face of truth, and nail it there. No amount
+of arguing or talk can make a thing so when it is _not_ so. Higher than
+this little human round, God garners every truth in his keeping, and
+will make it tell somewhere!"
+
+Miss Lawrence raised her eyes, and glanced over to him. Had the slow
+impassiveness of her soul been touched, that this sudden peculiar grace
+of sympathy, or some hidden kindred feeling, rose and asserted itself?
+And yet she might have been in some magnetic sleep, for all actual
+movement of her features; it was the dawn of an expression that seemed
+to transport him to some strange world, where he had known her long
+ago,--where he had watched for her coming, listened to her
+voice,--rather than any present interest or meaning.
+
+He rose abruptly.
+
+"You are not going!" cried Sylvie, in her pretty wifely imperiousness.
+
+"I"--for a moment he had the sensation of a man drowning. The surging
+waves were about him, throbbing, leaping, strangling him. There was a
+ringing in his ears, there was a long shuddering sensation, like being
+overwhelmed.
+
+"It is very warm," he went on in a faint, strained voice, wiping the
+beaded drops from his broad brow.
+
+"Come over here," pleaded Sylvie: "you will be cooler. The wind is
+south, and doesn't blow in those windows. You are sure you feel quite
+well?" scanning him anxiously. "You look pale."
+
+"It was only momentary." He wondered now what had so moved him. "I am
+like good old John Bunyan's Pilgrim,"--laughing faintly,--"'tumbled up
+and down' with these excitements. I wish they were at an end. We were
+going on so nicely when that McPherson came! Don't let us think any more
+about it," throwing up his head with a nervous shake. "Sylvie, I wish
+you would sing something."
+
+"With pleasure. Fred and I have been practising duets. When Yerbury is
+laid in ashes we can go off as strolling minstrels;" and she laughed
+gayly, as she went to the piano. That exquisite tact in changing a mood
+or scene was a familiar characteristic of Sylvie Barry.
+
+As the sound of their blending voices floated out on the summer night
+air, there leaped up in Darcy's soul a subtle, forceful, vivifying
+flame, touching to a white heat the farthest pulse of his being.
+Resistance appeared impossible: he did not even dream what manner of
+influence this might be. Long afterward--it seemed ages to him--as their
+heads were bent together over the pages of the music, he raised his
+eyes, and let them wander slowly toward Irene Lawrence.
+
+Was there something quite new in the face,--a sort of strange,
+wondering, troubled expression, as if some unseen, almost unknown, depth
+had been stirred?
+
+He did not need to ask the question now. Wild as it was, he loved that
+statue over yonder, and it seemed to him that his passion in its
+enduring vitality must awaken her soul to kindred life! An exultant
+strength and determination rose within him. What might have abashed
+another man, filled him with a deathless courage, as high as it was
+pure.
+
+He thanked Sylvie and Fred for the song, but resisted their entreaties
+to remain. When he said good-night, he went over to Miss Lawrence, and
+took her hand. It was cold and passive, and her eyes fell beneath his.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+THE excitement ran very high not only in Yerbury, but all over the
+country. Strikes seemed the order of the day again, and for what reason,
+was not clearly made manifest, unless labor felt that it had capital a
+little by the throat, in that its services were again somewhat in
+demand. "Now," said the prophets. Surely, if they did not strike when
+there was employment, they could not when there was none.
+
+It began in the shoe-shop. The next Monday morning the men made their
+demand in no gentle terms, and were refused. There was a large contract
+at stake, however, and by Tuesday night the matter was talked over in a
+better spirit. The employers were willing to accede to one-half of the
+demand, otherwise the order must be sent to another firm. Thursday
+morning they went to work with a rather ill grace, yet some elation.
+Then the hatters took their turn. The hands at Hope Mills were served
+with a notice that the mutual protectionists in all the towns around
+were to be out on the following Monday; and stirring appeals were made
+to those who had any feeling of honor in the cause.
+
+It was exceedingly hard on the men. They gathered around in little knots
+on Sunday, wild with conflicting emotions. Their faith in Hope Mills and
+co-operation was undergoing a severe strain. The fear of secret frauds,
+of underhand dealing, of distrust in Winston and Darcy, had been dinned
+in their ears by outside influence, some of it very potent. Not one
+appeal had been made by the managers: Cameron and the others decided it
+was best.
+
+Jack went over to the mill on Monday morning. The gatekeeper and the
+bell-boy were there. The engineer came in with a quiet, solemn
+"Good-morning." The Brotherhood of Engineers had warned him too, and he
+was a little troubled; but he had cast in his lot with the rest, and it
+might be as well to wait and see what they did. The main shaft was
+turned.
+
+Jack from his office-window watched the streets filling up with men and
+women, many beside the regular operatives. They came to a halt.
+
+"Ding-dong! ding-dong!" the bell rang out cheerily on the summer morning
+air. "Come to work, come to work! The birds build homes, and rear their
+young; the bee skims the fragrant air in search of flowers; the rivers
+run to the sea, turning wheels, driving ships: nothing in the great
+economy of nature is idle," sang out the clang of the bell.
+
+The hands glanced at one another in doubt and dismay, and there was an
+awful silence for a few seconds.
+
+Some one elbowed his way through the crowd. He had come from the bedside
+of his sick child, who might be dying even now,--a small, wiry,
+middle-aged man, with a set, resolute face. He glanced about, then he
+sprang up on a pile of packing-boxes. It was Jesse Gilman.
+
+"My fellow-workmen," he began, "I don't know how you all feel about this
+matter; but Hope Mills took me in when I had tramped the country half
+over, and found nothing to do. I've tried the old system, and this can't
+be any worse; and, if I have to lose money by an employer, I'd rather it
+would be John Darcy of Yerbury, than any man I know. No man on the face
+of the earth has a right to say I shall not work in Hope Mills when I
+made my own bargain long ago to do it. That is all I have to say. I am
+going to work."
+
+"Three cheers!" cried some one as Gilman jumped down.
+
+There were cheers and groans.
+
+Ben Hay followed him, and stood a moment in the gateway.
+
+"Boys," said he in his rich, ringing voice, "Hope Mills was opened to
+receive a crowd of starving men. I'll take my oath to Jack Darcy's
+honesty. He's stuck by us, and we'll stick to him. That's the beauty of
+co-operation. You can't get away, and tramp off with the first fool that
+asks you! It isn't merely keeping company: it's a good, honest,
+up-and-down marriage. I'd as soon think of leaving my wife because some
+day she didn't give me two dinners instead of one!"
+
+There was a shout of laughter. The ice was broken in good earnest.
+"Three cheers for Ben Hay! Three cheers and a tiger for Jack Darcy!" and
+amid all this hubbub the men and women, the boys and girls, rushed in
+pell-mell. A gladder crew one never saw. To decide when others doubt, to
+go forward boldly when others hesitate, to stand up for the principle of
+right when others have traduced and blackened it, to take the first
+step, is to be as heroic as the "six hundred" of deathless fame.
+
+They went to work with a will, though some were a little sore and
+doubtful, but they were carried on by the enthusiasm of the others. The
+street below was still blocked up, and there were yells and groans.
+Presently there came a shower of superannuated eggs. Two landed in
+Darcy's office-window. After that, a stampede of the riotous crew.
+
+Darcy sent Andrew, the bell-boy, to the police-station, and two men were
+detailed. The workmen were allowed to go home peaceably, except a little
+jeering at Keppler's. They heard then the trains had been stopped on the
+two roads leading out of Yerbury. The whole world seemed to be going
+crazy.
+
+Darcy and Cameron remained in the mill that night until almost ten: then
+the latter went home, and Darcy thought he would go for Ben Hay. The
+streets of Yerbury had presented a very peculiar aspect that evening,
+something like a beleaguered town. Groups of men and boys collected on
+the corners, or wended their way through the streets with low, ominous
+mutterings. People barred their doors and locked their windows, though
+it was a hot summer night. Some women were abroad: but they were of the
+rougher sort, and now and then their shrill voices rose on the air in
+derision or vituperation. Still there were no overt acts of violence,
+and at ten everybody began to breathe more freely.
+
+The coffee-house had been shut up that evening: it was deemed advisable.
+Darcy went round to the side-door, and was admitted. Hay and three other
+workmen were within. They had been figuring up possible and probable
+profits by the end of the five years, and looked very well satisfied.
+
+"There's a sort of hope and expectation about it," said one of the men,
+"that kind of stirs and warms a body. And when you come to count lost
+time, and fluctuation in wages, it makes a pretty even thing, after all!
+In '73 I worked in a shoddy-mill that _had_ been making money hand over
+fist,--eleven hours a day,--not a man of us made more than five dollars
+a week. Some poor fellows with families earned only three. You've never
+been as hard up as that! God only knows how they lived: it's beyond my
+guessing!"
+
+"And if that was co-operation, how the system would be blamed!"
+exclaimed Ben Hay. "I declare, it makes me madder than a hen in a
+fence--I've caught that of Cameron," laughingly,--"to hear the things
+people have said about us. They're forever blathering about fair play--I
+wish they'd give a little, as well as take all. Wait till we've come to
+the end, say I, before they tell what we can do, or what we can't or
+sha'n't or won't!"
+
+There was a tramp in the street. The startled eyes studied one another.
+Then a shuffling and muttering, and a knock at the door.
+
+No one stirred but Mrs. Connelly, who threw up her hands, and cried,
+"The saints protect us!"
+
+"Earthly saints, Mother Connelly,--this kind," said Ben Hay with gay
+re-assurance, doubling his fist, and baring his brawny arm.
+
+The pounding increased. Rose ran down stairs wild with affright,
+followed by her sister. The boys fortunately were asleep in the back
+chambers.
+
+"Let us in, Mother Connelly: we want some bread and butter!" shouted a
+voice.
+
+"Cakes and yale!"
+
+"Pretzel and zwei lager!"
+
+"A sup of the craythur!"
+
+"A dhrop of whiskey to warrum us this could night! Av yees the heart av
+a sthone, Kit Connelly?"
+
+A roar of laughter succeeded this.
+
+"Go away, it will be better for you," declared Ben Hay.
+
+"Come out here, Hay, and fight like a man! Don't skulk behind a woman's
+petticoats!"
+
+There was a terrific onslaught at the door. It creaked and groaned, and
+was succeeded by a volley of oaths and imprecations. Rose began to cry,
+and the youngest girl came screaming down the stairs.
+
+Darcy had sent a man out of the back way for policemen. Hay and the two
+other men mounted guard. Again the door shivered and creaked: then it
+flew open, bolts, locks, and hinges having given way in a mass of
+splinters.
+
+Like a flash the men were on their assailants. The mob had not expected
+this. Right and left valorous blows were dealt, and two or three burly
+fellows were laid low. Some nearer sober, and more cowardly, took to
+their heels. Two men fought like tigers; and once Ben Hay came near
+getting the worst; but, by the time the dilatory guards of peace
+arrived, there was only a pile of bruised and battered bodies lying on
+the door-step.
+
+"A pretty tough scrimmage!" was the comment. "Weren't you a little hard
+on these fellows?"
+
+"A man has a right to defend his own life and his own nose," said Ben
+Hay decisively. "His life _may_ be useful, his nose _is_ ornamental when
+it is a handsome one like mine."
+
+What with drunkenness and the drubbing, two of the ruffians were unable
+to walk. Two others were marched off under the escort of the officers,
+the disabled sent for, and a guard detached to protect Mrs. Connelly's
+house. When everybody had been quieted, Jack took a tour down to the
+mills. Some poor object was huddled up in the corner of the main stoop.
+
+"What are you doing here?" demanded Darcy.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Darcy, don't strike me! I'm Bart Kane. I've had enough of this
+night, and I crawled here"--
+
+The boy began to sob and talk brokenly. He lifted his face in the
+moonlight. It was ghastly; one eye swollen shut, and purple-black, and
+streaks of blood and dirt over it; the clothing torn, the throat bare.
+
+"Were you down there at Connelly's?"
+
+"I warn't nowhere. It was along o' father: he comed home drunk."
+
+Barton Kane was a mill-boy, about nineteen now. Darcy's first feeling
+had been one of outrage and anger, but he cooled suddenly.
+
+"Tell me, my lad," in a kindly tone, taking the shivering fingers in
+his.
+
+"You see, Mr. Darcy, father'd been out along of the hatters all day,
+gettin' more and more rum in him. He said on Sunday, as how't I should
+strike; but they went to work here, and I worked with 'em. When I went
+home, mother, she gev me my supper, and ses she, 'Keep out o' sight,
+lad, happen thy dad's powerful mad wi' thee!' So I went to bed. But
+about nine he comed home, and tore up the house wi' his tantrums, and
+then lathered me. He called me a rat, and a sneak, and a turn-coat, and
+kicked me out o' the house, and threw my traps to me. Then afore I was
+fairly dressed he at me again, and said if ever I darkened the door,
+he'd murder me! I strayed round, afeared of everybody, and crawled up
+here. 'Pears like every bone in my body is broke, and my eye, he do hurt
+so!"
+
+With that Barton Kane broke out sobbing again, and clung to Jack Darcy's
+knees.
+
+"My poor lad!" the tone was infinitely tender. "Can you walk a little
+way, to Kit Connelly's? You can be nursed up there, and go to bed
+peaceably. Come, Barton, my boy, you are the hero of Hope Mills. When
+this is over, we shall have to give you a medal."
+
+He put his strong arm around the shivering body, and led him back to a
+kindly shelter.
+
+"Hay, Mrs. Connelly, and all of you: here's a lad that has been
+half-killed for standing by his colors to-day. Look here, Armstrong,
+would you mind going for Dr. Maverick? this poor chap needs some
+patching-up. And, Kit, give me some water and a napkin: we'll get his
+face a little cool and clean."
+
+"Let me do it, Mr. Darcy. Sure, I've boys of my own, and am used to it.
+Oh, the poor, poor lad!"
+
+Barton told his story over again. He was weak and hysterical now, and
+they made him a shake-down on the floor until the doctor came.
+
+"Now I'll start on my inspection-tour again," said Darcy, turning away.
+"We are all likely to make a night of it."
+
+He thought he would go around before he went in to see the watchmen:
+they had placed a force on guard quietly. He had just turned the second
+corner, when he saw a man jump from the high fence, and lie for an
+instant as if stunned. He hastened on, but the man sprang up and ran
+down the dark side of the street. His first impulse was to follow; then
+it struck him as strange that the dog gave no alarm. He had a gate-key
+in his pocket, and unlocked it at once.
+
+"Bruno!" he called, "Bruno, good fellow, come here."
+
+There was not a sound. The ominous silence thrilled Jack.
+
+"Bruno!"
+
+Hark! a curious crackling or sweep of wind, and smoky smell. He ran
+round to the rear. Close up against the back door, quite out of the
+moonlight, something was piled. Forked tongues of flame were shooting
+out of it everywhere. He seized the chain attached to the factory-bell,
+and rang it rapidly. There was a window thrown up, and a voice called.
+
+"Fire! fire!" he shouted. "Turn on the hose,--the lower back door."
+
+The flames streamed up fiercely now. It was plain that the mound had
+been saturated with kerosene.
+
+Daly hurried down, and opened a door. "Hurd and Byrnes are at the
+buckets and hose," he cried. "Where is it? O Mr. Darcy!"
+
+"Quick, quick!" shouted Jack, rushing by him.
+
+The men had the hose ready. They put it out of the window, turned on the
+stream, and in a few moments a column of dense smoke rose amid the
+arrowy flashes of lurid splendor. The watchman ran down from Connelly's.
+
+It was subdued in a few moments. They tore away the charred boxes and
+_débris_, smoking and smouldering. Underneath all they found the body of
+princely Bruno.
+
+"This is fiendish!" cried Jack, dragging the poor fellow away, his
+scorched coat smelling horribly. "Brave Bruno, you are the second hero
+of the night!"
+
+"Whatever dastardly devil did this, knows as much about Hope Mills as
+you or I," shouted Hurd savagely. "Bruno was poisoned first; and he
+wouldn't have taken any thing from a strange hand. But the fellow was a
+fool to build the fire here."
+
+"I don't know about that," said Darcy. "If it had burned the door down,
+it would have gone in the hall, and up the hatchway--if it was open."
+
+"By thunder! so it would; and right to the stock-room. That place must
+never be left open again while Hope Mills stands, or co-operation waves
+her starry banner in the breeze."
+
+"Loud applause!" said some one.
+
+The fire was thoroughly extinguished; and the guardian of the night
+decided to remain here, being within call if another disturbance should
+occur at Mrs. Connelly's. The bells rang out for midnight. A few, who
+had gathered at the alarm, dispersed: and every thing became quiet
+again,--deadly, solemnly quiet.
+
+Jack wanted to see Maverick, so he paced back to Mrs. Connelly's. He was
+trying to remember some distinctive mark of the man he had seen jump. He
+was too stout for Davy, and he could not believe such villany of the
+man. Then Price was a little lame from an old rheumatic affection, and
+would not have dared such a deed.
+
+Barton Kane had been washed, patched, bandaged, put to bed, and given an
+opiate; so now he was in a sound but rather disturbed sleep. The men
+gathered in the lunch-room, and discussed the cowardly attempt upon the
+mill, the day's affairs generally.
+
+"See how great a matter a little fire kindles," said Maverick. "But for
+McPherson's lecture here, I don't believe any of these things would have
+happened. It is a free country, of course, and a man has a right to air
+his ideas; but capital is not set firmly enough on its legs to stand a
+severe fire, and labor is in too great a superabundance. To seek to
+drain the ocean with a silver mug may be grand, but quite hopeless."
+
+One! The witching hour, and a few sleepy men began to yawn.
+
+"How odd it seems, not to hear trains in the night!" Maverick said
+presently. "A queer lock-out this."
+
+One, again. One, two, three: this time the fire-alarm.
+
+They rushed out toward the mill. Then they as suddenly wheeled around.
+In an instant the air seemed full of shouts and cries, and a broad sheet
+of flame flared up in the face of the tranquil heavens. A roar, like a
+mighty tramping of hosts, a crackling, snapping, sweeping sound.
+
+"It's Keppler's. Boyd's block will surely go!"
+
+The houses were frame, old and dry: Keppler's on the corner, the rest
+joined, like a row of sheds, and filled with the very poorest; a few
+apartments standing empty. The engines were out, but it was of little
+avail. The corner was just one brilliant sheet of lurid light. Shrieking
+women and children fled for their lives. The street swarmed again, and
+people trampled over one another in their wild terror. There was a
+crash, and the building fell in. The flames licked up the other fiery
+flood, and had a brave battle in the cellar. The engines played until
+the air was filled with smothering smoke, and there was nothing left but
+a long, blackened ruin.
+
+"It may be ungenerous to rejoice in any man's misfortune," said
+Maverick, "but in a sanitary point of view I am thankful those old
+rookeries have come to an end. Boyd wouldn't do any thing to them, and
+they were unfit for pigs to live in. And, as for Keppler's, there will
+be but one verdict this end of the town."
+
+Some one laid a hand on Jack Darcy's shoulder. He turned and saw Fred
+Lawrence.
+
+"They are all worried to death about you, old chap," began Fred. "Your
+mother, Miss Morgan, Sylvie,--and Irene is walking the floor. I have not
+seen her so excited since--since she had the fever. What a horrible
+thing! Was any one lost, do you know?"
+
+"They will not be able to tell that until morning, every thing is in
+such confusion. Pray God that the morning may dawn soon! I seem to have
+lived through years."
+
+The dawn came up by and by; first in faint opaline splendors, then
+scarlet and gold. The moon paled, and the stars dropped out, and there
+was a chirp of birds to welcome the new-born day.
+
+The shock of the fire cooled the temper of the raiders, for half the men
+were idle hangers-on, rather than absolute strikers. One frantic woman
+flew to the scene of devastation: her boy, four years old, was missing.
+They tried to comfort her with the thought that some neighbor had kindly
+taken him in, but she kept wildly imploring them to search.
+
+There was no further molestation of the men at Hope Mills. They walked
+in the yard quietly at seven o'clock, their faces touched with surprise
+and terror when they heard the story of the night. Barton Kane lay
+disabled at Mrs. Connelly's, and poor Bruno was buried with honors,
+regretted by the whole force.
+
+Jack called the men together, and addressed them briefly. He was very
+pale, and his usually bright, clear eyes were heavy.
+
+"I want to thank you," he said, in a tone that was a little unsteady
+with exhaustion and emotion, "I want to thank you for standing so
+bravely by me, and by your principles. We are all partners together, and
+what is one man's interest is every man's. I feel sure that we shall
+never have another difficulty. We have gone through the worst, and in a
+little while every man will have his free choice again. Let us all keep
+the warmest of friends until then."
+
+There was no cheering: they were not gay enough for that. Some of the
+men wrung his hand silently; then the women pressed forward, and invoked
+a blessing upon him.
+
+"We know better nor any of 'em what it was to have no fire, and childers
+cryin' for bread," said one woman, wiping her eyes with the end of her
+faded shawl. "And, thank the Lord, I've had bite, and sup, and fire,
+ever since the day Hope Mills was opened."
+
+The men outside were working at the ruins,--among them some of the
+strikers of yesterday. They found poor Mrs. Rooney's little Johnny,
+burned to a crisp; and in the house next to Keppler's they exhumed the
+body of Biddy Brady, a good-natured, efficient washerwoman, whose
+greatest fault was her intemperance. She and her son had gone to bed
+very drunk, after having a good time through the evening. The boy had
+been roused in season, but she had perished. It was as vivid and fervent
+a temperance-lecture as ever was given in Yerbury.
+
+About ten in the morning Jack Darcy returned home dead tired, as much
+with the excitement as the fatigue, took a bath, and went to bed.
+
+The Yerbury authorities looked sharply about them that day. The strikers
+were orderly and quiet, but they had lost ground. "The Evening
+Transcript" deprecated all this sort of business, and for once had no
+fling about the "Utopian theory of co-operation." But "The Leader" of
+the morning came out strongly in praise of the good order, forbearance,
+and _esprit de corps_ of Hope Mills, and called Mr. Darcy "our young and
+enterprising citizen, whom, we doubt not, we shall hear of in higher
+positions in life, which he has proved himself eminently worthy to
+fill."
+
+There was no great lament made about Boyd's Row or Keppler's saloon,
+except for the sad casualty it had caused; but the dastardly attack on
+Mrs. Connelly, and the fiendish attempt to burn Hope Mills, met with the
+severest condemnation.
+
+Maverick came around to the Darcys that evening. "I fancy I have found
+your man, Jack," he began. "Mrs. Stixon called me in towards night,
+saying Jem had been on a spree, and was dreadfully beaten. I found one
+side of his face scratched and bruised, and bits of gravel still
+adhering to the flesh. The right arm, on the same side, has one bone
+broken, and his shoulder is dislocated. He said he fell off of a stoop,
+and is dreadfully sullen. I asked him what stoop, but he would not tell.
+Do you remember which way the man fell?"
+
+Jack thought a moment. "On the right side, Maverick, away from me, or I
+should have seen his face. Just such a size man as Jem Stixon, too,"
+with a satisfied nod.
+
+"What will you do about it?"
+
+Jack took two or three turns across the floor. "See here, Maverick, we
+will not do any thing. You cure the poor fellow, and I think he will
+never try to damage Hope Mills again. I can hardly forgive him Bruno,
+though."
+
+"If I were Sylvie Barry,"--he never called her Mrs. Lawrence when
+speaking of her,--"I should say, 'Jack, you are an angel.'"
+
+Jack flushed. "Masculine angels!" he laughed.
+
+"Well, wasn't there Gabriel and a host of them? Why, Jack, they were
+_all_ masculine!"
+
+There was no need for earthly justice to meddle with Jem Stixon. His arm
+inflamed: he had led a hard life late years, and his system was in bad
+order. He would not listen to amputation until it was too late, and in
+less than a month he was dead. It was better for his poor hard-working
+wife and family.
+
+One other death grew out of the summer riots, though this was at a
+distance. Dennis Connelly had been working with a railroad-gang, and the
+strikers there had a desperate struggle with the civil authority. They
+were worsted in the end, and Connelly was one of the victims, or perhaps
+more truly speaking, a victim to bad whiskey, for when sober he was very
+peaceable. Kit sent for his body, and had him decently buried.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+THE strikers at the hat-factory did not carry the day. The employers
+were very indignant, and tabooed the union men altogether. At
+Garafield's the men were called in council, the points discussed, and a
+small advance in wages allowed. The co-operatives went their way
+quietly. Perhaps the most convincing argument was a very jubilant letter
+from Winston, part of which Darcy put up in the hall. He had just
+succeeded in making an important contract for two years, on very fair
+terms. That would see them through safely unless the whole world came to
+grief again!
+
+Jack wrote Miss McLeod a graphic account of the "labor troubles," and
+she replied with equally characteristic _verve_. "She could hardly
+decide," she declared, "whether to be glad, or sorry, that her young
+friend had grown so independent of her; but in any emergency she wished
+to be remembered."
+
+There was now a certain respect paid to Hope Mills, among the community
+at Yerbury. Perhaps there are no people so exacting and difficult to
+satisfy as those friends and neighbors whose advice you have not taken,
+and prospered without it. They indulge in a righteous self-complacency
+if you are unfortunate, and pity you grandly; but to own themselves
+mistaken is the one bitter flavor in the cup. There seemed to be but one
+point now upon which they were doubtful,--the honesty of the managers at
+the last moment. Every workman knew or might know exactly how affairs
+stood, but _they_ did not have the capital. Just at the end of the five
+years _somebody_ might abscond with the money-bag under his arm. It
+seemed so every way certain that human nature could not withstand the
+temptation.
+
+Yet there was growing up among the hands a curious neighborly sympathy,
+as if they were in some degree relatives; and they were made so, in
+fact, by some marriages of sons and daughters. They were more
+intelligent; they kept their houses cleaner, their little gardens
+prettier, not allowing them to go to weeds before the summer was half
+over. Those who could go to the industrial school learned a deal about
+sewing, and became seamstresses instead of mill-girls. Some made their
+own family dresses, some were very tasty milliners. It gave them a
+reliance upon what they could do themselves. The two daughters of one
+workman kept a little poultry-yard "scientifically," and dressed
+themselves from its proceeds. Industry became more general. Instead of
+dawdling away whole evenings in gossip, they had some light employment,
+and worked as they talked.
+
+The September showing was very encouraging. There were still a great
+many bankruptcies and losses, but some of them could not be guarded
+against. Darcy and Winston regularly eschewed speculation, though the
+latter confessed his fingers sometimes burned to be in the pie.
+
+"But, after all," he said frankly, "if the energy, ingenuity, ambition,
+and strength that are expended to make certain people buy and sell, over
+and over, a thing that can be no more valuable than the money it makes
+year by year, which often is not much,--if this were turned into
+industrial and commercial channels,--gad! what a country we would be!
+Our flag would float on every sea, our goods be in every port. And yet
+they go on, rich to-day because they have beggared their neighbor, poor
+to-morrow because their neighbor has beggared them. What idiotic
+business!"
+
+But I must go back a little with my hero. There were many things to
+occupy his mind, the summer of the "strikes;" yet through it all, like
+one strain of heavenly harmony in a clash of discord, he came to know
+the diviner needs of his being. Another man might have been dismayed at
+the revelation. Like a flash when the horizon is opened, he saw the
+light; and he knew, from the depths of the darkness the next moment,
+what manner of storm it would be.
+
+He had never weakened or frittered away his sweetest emotions on the
+various flirtations that fill the early years of so many men. He had
+liked and admired Sylvie Barry above all young women he had ever met;
+but this emotion, though pure and lasting, never stirred the ardor of
+his soul. Had it really lain untouched so long, or had some vague dream
+slipped into it the night he and Sylvie had planned the costume for
+Irene Lawrence, the time he first encountered her beauty in all its
+vivid splendor? To him she was a glorious young goddess.
+
+The long-ago summer day he had met the two in the phaeton, he was more
+keenly pained for her sake than his own. To be sure, his first emotion
+was that of angry indignation, sending the outraged blood through every
+pulse; then, as it cooled, the act appeared so utterly unwomanly. If she
+had passed him by carelessly--but to designedly attract his glance, and
+stab it thus, was as if a giant had taken a club to kill a butterfly
+because it breathed the fragrance of the rose. He shut out that vision.
+You can tell what impression she had made upon him, when he always
+thought of her as he saw her in the glow of Sylvie's pretty parlor, that
+summer night. His healthy, active temperament never brooded over
+disagreeable things a moment longer than necessity kept him there.
+
+She faded from his mind by degrees. Even when he took Fred back into the
+old regard, he thought of her as the possible wife of some millionnaire.
+When she returned to Yerbury, and shut herself up in stately despair,
+refusing even Sylvie's proffered sympathy, she puzzled him. How could
+she, so fond of admiration and gayety, live this nun's life, without the
+nun's spiritual exaltation? He passed her once or twice in the hall, as
+he was calling on Fred, but neither made any sign.
+
+Then came that terrible night, when he had found her astray, her brain
+consumed by the smouldering fire of isolation, when you have only the
+black, choking smoke that never blazes up in purifying flames. There are
+thousands of women who have done this, weakly, sentimentally, through
+the period of adversity that has tried the metal of all souls; but she,
+being stronger, more self-reliant, could not drop into puerile whining.
+
+At Depford Beach they had come in contact again. There was both
+attraction and repulsion in these two people, as there often is in
+strongly-marked, positive natures. She tolerated him because he was
+Sylvie's lover; despised him, believing that he meant to make a
+stepping-stone of this girl's wealth and position; and, in spite of
+herself, felt the current of his strength and buoyant energy. By slow
+degrees the unwilling truth was forced upon her, that God never created
+any human soul for its own self-destruction; that there was no absolute
+virtue in warping and twisting circumstances into chains and bonds, that
+were ordained for higher, nobler purposes. Her mental disease had run
+its course. Sylvie's sorrow was the final electric shock that broke the
+heavy soil of apathy.
+
+Her utter surprise when she found that through all these years Jack
+Darcy had refrained from influencing Sylvie in his behalf, was something
+quite indescribable. She thought she had fathomed men's souls with her
+keen insight, but this man was a Saul amid his peers. Had there been
+some subtile, far-reaching foundation for Fred's regard in the boyhood
+days,--something that their eyes, being holden with golden bonds, could
+not see?
+
+After the marriage there was a certain degree of association, not
+intimacy. And yet she set herself to watch him. Somewhere she would
+discern the print of the feet of clay this idol of Fred and Sylvie's
+possessed.
+
+It was a most fascinating yet dangerous employment. She used to sit
+there in her impassive grace, as they talked, weighing every word,
+testing every sentiment, watching the expressions that flitted over Jack
+Darcy's countenance, until it went everywhere with her, the blue-gray
+eyes piercing the very depths of her soul. They came to the one night
+when a glance stirred and troubled both, when the depths of both natures
+experienced that curious shock of repulsion and wonder. It was not love,
+it was too near, too awesome, yet too spiritually pure, to be hate,
+still it sent them apart none the less surely.
+
+By degrees, even amid the hard struggle of the strikes, he came to a
+self-knowledge. His perceptions were not easily confused; and by that
+intuitive process born pure in every soul, but too often marred and
+dulled by the many counterfeits put upon it, he knew this was love, a
+life-long passion for one woman, not because she had as yet answered any
+need of his nature, or promised any expansion into higher life. He loved
+her just as she was; for her beauty, her swift, proud grace, her virtues
+if she had any, her very faults, and of those he was not in doubt. And
+he set himself to win her with the same high courage that had taken Hope
+Mills in hand.
+
+Occasionally we see a man wrecked by this steady, persistent,
+overwhelming love for an inferior object, caught perhaps by some occult
+fascination that flashes all laws out of sight. We wonder how he can be
+so led astray; and yet it is an integral part of the man, a quality of
+the soul which he would not overcome and put in bonds if he could.
+
+He did not cringe or flatter, or adopt any of the fears or weaknesses of
+passion. It was not weak, and he did not fear. He meant to be master of
+her soul, and win her through that very power, struggle as she might. He
+would wait, if it were years, until she laid down her few weak weapons,
+and capitulated. From that time onward, there would be neither "mine"
+nor "thine."
+
+And now the fine, tested quality of his patience stood him in good
+stead. He might long to draw near, to clasp the snowy hand, to study the
+fathomless dusk of the eyes, and note the frightened droop of the
+fringed lids; but he held aloof. Still he went to Larch Avenue night
+after night; he dropped in of a morning when least expected,
+occasionally finding her alone for a few moments; he walked from church
+with them, by her side, the only times he came near her, and she felt in
+every pulse of her being the indefinable something that she was impelled
+to struggle against.
+
+A curious change came over her. The cold indifference melted to a rose
+hue of interest, a pliant softness stole over her figure, a certain
+buoyant tenderness diffused itself in her tone, her dusky eyes came to
+have a startled softness like a shy, frightened fawn. The old brilliant
+color returned to cheek and lip, yet toned with the tremulous throbbing
+of a new inward life, so exquisitely attuned that she could but listen
+to the harmonious melody.
+
+She came to understand presently; the intangible power in his demeanor
+roused her, I think; and her whole soul, every fibre of her body, rose
+up in mutinous revolt. Whither was this swift current carrying her? What
+great wave was this that struck at the very props of her own strength
+and reliance? How did this man dare to invade the walled sanctities of
+her being? She would have none of him: she would go on her solitary way,
+sufficient for herself. She, who had never loved amid all the
+beguilements the world had to offer, to be conquered by the very man she
+had trained herself to despise!
+
+Irene Lawrence found it hard fighting with this unseen foe. He seemed
+always lying in ambush, always armored with a word or sentiment to which
+she must assent, always before her in the place she had meant to be; and
+she would not throw up the white flag of defeat. She would not own to
+herself she experienced any alarm or annoyance.
+
+One evening Fred and Sylvie had gone to a neighbor's, and were
+momentarily expected. A peculiar temptation entered her soul. If this
+man must needs flutter in the flame, why should she be tender and
+careful of him? Others had dared her, to the burning of their very
+souls: if the experience was worth the pain, he should have it, and
+decide.
+
+She sat down at the piano, and shook a shower of melody out of her
+slender finger-ends. All the affluent grace of womanhood with the polish
+of society spoke in every curve of her pliant figure, in the dainty,
+delicate, high-bred gestures. The eyes hung out their false lights of
+treacherous intent amid the half-slumberous fire; the very lips seemed
+shaped and blossoming with a rare thrill of passion that could turn to a
+caress at a look. All along the brow ran fine sinuosities of light that
+dazzled like the tracery of pale flame. Had she blossomed into some
+royal midsummer flower that is seen but once in an age?
+
+She had motioned him close beside her with an impelling wave of the
+hand. He could feel her warmth, her fragrant breath; her soft billowy
+dress fell against his foot in a crested wave; her white hand and
+slender wrist, just toned, but not hidden, with rare lace like that of
+Arachne's spinning, wandered temptingly over toward him. A sudden
+delirium took possession of him, an exhilaration that steeped the brain,
+that stirred every pulse, that awoke in him an almost maddening desire
+to clasp her in his arms, to drain such sweetness from her lips that the
+whole world might be beggared ever after, and he not care.
+
+She knew the signs. She had seen more than one man dally on the brink,
+and then topple over to the blankness of despair. Even if she had pitied
+herself, which she did not, she could have had no mercy on him. Now she
+was set to her work, and she meant to do it if she brought into play
+every fascination art and nature had furnished her with.
+
+His soul rose and glowed within him. The music, the most ravishing of
+its kind, stirred him to that intensity of pain, it seemed as if he must
+cry out with torture. No suffering had ever been like this: if the
+doctrine of sacrificial fires were true, he might have purchased
+paradise.
+
+Did he mean never to stir or speak? Could that hand, lying so passively
+on the corner of the piano, remain unmoved, with hers just below it? Its
+defiant strength stung her.
+
+"They do not come,"--looking warily around, and passing him with her
+veiled eyes, rather than looking at him. "Are you growing weary? Shall I
+sing for you?"
+
+The tone had the melody of some lotus-freighted stream. She had thrown
+all her sweetness into it.
+
+"If you will."
+
+His was tremulous and husky with repressed passion.
+
+Her voice was not pure: it had the rich depth and pathos of contralto,
+and the vibrant clearness of soprano. Now it threaded a tremulous
+pathway among the pathetic minor notes, while the fingers seemed to drop
+a faint sigh of accompaniment,--
+
+          "Oh! when ye hear me gie a loud, loud cry,--
+             The broom blooms bonnie, and says it is fair,--
+           Shoot an arrow frae thy bow, and there let me lie,
+             And we'll never gang down to the broom ony mair.
+
+          "And when ye see that I'm lying cauld and dead,--
+             The broom blooms bonnie, and says it is fair,--
+           Then ye'll put me in a grave wi' a turf at my head,
+            And we'll never gang down to the broom ony mair."
+
+The last sad note died into summer-night sweetness. A current of bland,
+dangerous magnetism passed between them. She turned her splendid,
+passion-lighted eyes to him, and the subtle, measuring, conquering
+forces in the man and the woman met. With a mighty effort he thrust back
+desire, and compressed his lips to a line under the bronzed-gold
+moustache, while his eyes, like points of steel, never wavered.
+
+Irene Lawrence turned blindly, and held out her hands as if to grasp
+some sure stay. Just as surely as she had not won, she had lost.
+
+"I have tired you," he said,--a murmur just under his breath. "But you
+can hardly know the exquisite pleasure you have given me. It is perfect.
+We will have no more music to-night;" and he rose, shutting the piano
+down.
+
+She went to the open window like one in a trance, so stunned she could
+not even feel angry at his defiance of her. A long, long moment of
+silence: then they heard Sylvie's bright voice on the porch, and she
+came in with a waft of dewy, outdoor fragrance.
+
+Miss Lawrence went to her room presently, to fight out the battle with
+herself. She admitted then that she had come to love Jack Darcy; but she
+was strong and resolute, and would not be mastered by the passion. What
+could she do? for go away she must! Her imperious will and knowledge of
+men had availed her little to ward off this one's influence. Every
+instinct had been baffled, every movement had been met with a
+counterpoise. To stay here, and struggle, would be to yield eventually.
+
+There were dark circles under her eyes the next morning, tokens of her
+vigil and strife. She intrenched herself again behind that dumb apathy:
+she stood aloof from Sylvie. For days she escaped the watchful sight of
+Darcy; but she heard his voice, and every rebellious pulse was
+a-tremble. She cast about for some expedients whereby to escape her
+prison honorably, and after several fruitless efforts found one.
+
+In their early days there had been a girl-friend between Agatha and
+Gertrude, who had always held an attraction for the child Irene.
+Wealthy, beautiful, and accomplished, she had married a man who had
+already made for himself a name in statesmanship, a cultured and
+polished gentleman, and her bridal had been the theme of the day. But
+the fiend of intemperance had wrought destruction of her brilliant
+prospects, and made her life an open scandal. When it could no longer be
+borne, she gathered up the wreck of her fortune and her two little
+girls, and opened a boarding-school in a quiet, aristocratic old town.
+Irene had met her in New York after her own loss of fortune; and, though
+she had disdained sympathy, she was touched by Mrs. Trenholme's
+kindliness.
+
+She wrote to her now; and, of half a dozen applications, this was the
+only one that elicited a favorable reply. Mrs. Trenholme needed a
+teacher of French and music, and she knew Miss Lawrence's accent was
+perfect. The salary was not large, being four hundred dollars a year;
+but the duties were not very arduous, being all confined to
+school-hours.
+
+Much as Irene desired to go, there was some struggle with her pride
+before she could bring herself to accept. Only the prospect of that
+greater pride being laid in ruins before her eyes, could finally have
+induced her. Mrs. Trenholme expressed her delight warmly.
+
+There were strenuous objections on Fred's part when it came to be talked
+over. "She had no need. He was as much her protector as her father had
+been: indeed, was he not paying back the kindly care to himself,
+honoring his father's memory by doing as he would have done?"
+
+Sylvie came to the rescue presently.
+
+"I would let her go, Fred," she counselled. "Beverly is a delightful
+place, with many cultured people, and Mrs. Trenholme is just the woman
+to have an influence over Irene. You see, she gets so tired of having no
+pursuit, no strong interest. I could not endure it myself."
+
+"But she might have--I have dared to dream"--
+
+"Put away dreams, my darling." Sylvie's voice was unconsciously sad.
+Then, with a smile, and tears, "If God kept watch over us, and brought
+us to our haven, can we not trust him for her,--for them?"
+
+And so they acquiesced.
+
+When Jack Darcy left Miss Lawrence on that fateful evening, his whole
+soul was full of unrest. He paced the quiet streets in that tense mood
+which makes thought and breath alike torture. Now that it was over, he
+said, with the inconsequence of love, that he had been a weak, cowardly
+fool to fear his fate too much; and yet the next instant he knew he
+would surely have lost it all, and that in time she _must_ come to need
+him. If he _could_ wait! Well, he _would_ wait. He had not trained
+himself heretofore in these long reaches of patience for no purpose.
+That richly satisfying, inward sight, she could not take from him, that
+exultant faith which was warmed and fed from a thousand secret rills.
+
+He understood why she shunned him, why she had resolved to leave
+Yerbury; and he was thankful now that he had not ruined his cause by
+impatience. To think of not seeing her, of not hearing her voice, was
+like madness! His face grew thin, there were tense lines about his mouth
+and a set resolve in his eyes; yet to his fine temper came no moodiness
+or irritability. The task he had set for himself must be accomplished.
+He was as absolute in his self-denial as he would be in his happiness
+when that came.
+
+So she went away with the merest friendly farewell, and asked herself
+angrily, an hour after, what power this man had over her, and why she
+feared him? Surely there was not much of the lover in that calm face!
+
+He threw himself into the business with renewed energy. As I said, the
+September account was inspiriting. Prospects began to look brighter,
+only it was admitted on all hands that the days of large profits and
+quick fortunes were over for a long while, if not for all time. Industry
+was coming to be respected, and you heard less talk about luck.
+
+The outside world kept watch of them narrowly, jealously. If they turned
+out thieves and swindlers, it would not be for the lack of advice.
+However, they tramped on and on. Their store gained a little, and was
+productive of much good. Keppler went to a different part of the town.
+Boyd sold the ground, and a row of decent cottages were to be put up.
+Kit Connelly had been reimbursed by the town for her damages, and with
+Ben Hay's advice and counsel built an addition to her house, which he
+and Rose took for housekeeping purposes. The lunch and coffee room was a
+regular and profitable institution, and would be a business for one of
+the boys as he grew up to manhood.
+
+Sylvie and Fred went to the city for a winter holiday. Fred's book was
+elegantly brought out, and won him much praise and a little money.
+Sylvie achieved her ambition, and sold two pictures at what she
+considered marvellous prices, but she wisely confessed it only to her
+husband. They were invited to clubs and soirées; and Mrs. Minor was
+extremely affable, though she did blame Fred for allowing Irene to take
+such an idiotic step.
+
+Darcy and Maverick indulged in two or three flying trips. Miss McLeod
+liked nothing better than to get these young people together, and listen
+to the animated conversations, herself as spicy and sharp as any one.
+Miss Lothrop was married; and in the slim, fair, blushing girl the old
+lady had for companion now, he saw no danger.
+
+So the winter wore away, and the spring came again; and the man who was
+counting the days wondered wearily at times what his summer harvest
+might be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+THE regal woman who stepped from the car to the station-platform at
+Yerbury, one balmy day in early June, to be greeted by Fred and Sylvie
+Lawrence with the warmest of welcomes, was indescribably different from
+the pale, cold, haughty statue that had gone away. There was an
+elasticity in her step, a self-reliance in her air, and the peculiar
+confidence discipline wisely used inevitably imparts.
+
+Yet there had been no romantic or highly-wrought change in her. She had
+not taken up teaching from any heroic motive or the possible benefit to
+any one, but simply to protect herself from what she considered the
+weakness of her own soul, to get away from a danger she could not fight.
+Oh, how she had hated French verbs and exercises! If hers had been a
+susceptible musical temperament, she would have gone quite crazy with
+the blunders and sentimentalisms of young girls.
+
+After a month of it, she would have welcomed any relief, even the
+face-to-face conflict with Darcy. But she could not well run away from
+here, and her physical health was perfect: so there was nothing but to
+go straight on, and find that circumstances had to govern, that she
+could not shut herself up in sullen majesty, or fling off the daily
+duties for some wiser and more patient hands to pick up, and restore to
+beauty and harmony.
+
+She had a friend, the best and truest that a young woman could have,
+perhaps; a woman so admirably adapted to the training of girls, that it
+was no marvel she succeeded. Out of the ruins of her life she had built
+up another, wise, sweet, and strong. As Irene began to comprehend what
+Mrs. Trenholme had suffered and achieved, for the first time she paid an
+honest reverence to the nobility of character. And now she despised her
+own petty, shallow thoughts and beliefs. Her lofty despising of the
+world and the vain and selfish people therein had been only a kind of
+scornful regret for the treasures wrested from her, the glitter of
+fashion, the gauds of society. Fred had made a braver stand than she. He
+had not sought to poise himself on the easy, graceful rounds of past
+promises, and to dream futile weakening dreams, nor shut himself up in
+morbid isolation.
+
+After all, how little the great world really cared! It was the few
+friends, the small circle, the near influences, that were of importance.
+And when she found that here in cultured, delightful Beverly, she was
+sought out as an entertaining guest, that she had not lost caste because
+the great bubble of fortune had shivered into fragments, that dressing
+and shopping and flirting were not the highest of human enjoyments, she
+came to a very rational frame of mind, and to a certain extent enjoyed
+her life. But nature had not made her a teacher of children, and never
+does such women, until, informed by that highest of all love, they teach
+their own.
+
+She came back beautiful, strong, and brave, resolute to dare any thing.
+She dazzled them at the little tea-table by her swift, easy animation,
+her brilliancy, the color that went and came, the smiles that were like
+rippling billows over a sea. And Sylvie's heart went down like lead,
+though it was such a fair picture. "For now," she thought, "Jack will
+never dare to love her!"
+
+Perhaps not, if he had to begin now. But the love was in him and of him,
+and would be hers all his life long, whether she took it or no.
+
+He did not come for a day or two. She wondered a little: she even
+laughed lightly at her own past fear, the shadow she had conjured up,
+the warm blood ran so healthily through her veins now.
+
+He sauntered in one morning to find her cutting roses with Sylvie, the
+two the fairest flowers in all the garden. He was in no wise abashed at
+this vision of loveliness: if she had a dower of beauty, he had his
+unstained manhood.
+
+They chatted and laughed. Sylvie pinned a pale bud and geranium-leaf in
+his coat. He held out his hand to Irene with a curious little gesture.
+She had two or three great royal purple pansies clasped lightly in her
+fingers.
+
+She meant to refuse courteously, but their eyes met. Was it the old
+spell working?
+
+Surely, surely all these fine-spun barriers, all these cunning Alps that
+she had thrown up day after day, were over-leaped at a supple bound.
+Master herself she might; but he stood in his man's power and pride and
+love, a suppliant, yet king, asking with wordless lips a little favor,
+taking with calm yet passionate eyes a royal largess. Her heart sank;
+her breath came in one long, tremulous sweep. Whether she gave, or he
+took, she could not have told; but he went away with the pansies in his
+fingers, despite Sylvie's pleading for a longer stay.
+
+When he was quite out of sight, he kissed them, sweet, tender, longing
+kisses. Then he dropped them between the white leaves of a little book,
+to be sacred forever. Sylvie's _boutonnière_ might keep him company
+outwardly, but those no eye must feast upon.
+
+He took the fine right of a lover, not declared, yet certain of his
+ground, not using any power that she could disdain or wound, it was so
+delicate, intangible, the perfume without the flower, the little
+thoughtfulness for her, reaching for her fan, folding her shawl about
+her if the evening blew up cool, seeming to know her wants the very
+instant they occurred to herself. And though she rebelled in secret,
+though she resolved heroically to put an end to it all, the golden
+moment never came.
+
+It seemed as if the four were always together. Not but what Yerbury
+opened spacious doors to them, and proffered flattering welcomes; but
+they could not tone themselves to the insipidities of society. There
+were more complete and intense enjoyments. Sylvie and Irene took long
+drives through country lanes, or of a moonlight summer evening they all
+went. They sat on the porch, and Jack came strolling by: they went
+within, and there were books, music, desultory talking, and that
+wondrous, unseen guest in their midst.
+
+Sylvie rarely left her alone. They were not the women to tease one
+another by flippant jests or allusions; and Mrs. Fred, of all others,
+had a dread of thrusting any vulgar face on this colorless, yet
+delicious, atmosphere. Love knew his own, and was sacredly known of
+them.
+
+Irene Lawrence could no more help blossoming under the intense yet
+steady warmth of his temperament, the vivid creative life in every
+feature, than she could have helped being at all; and to have refused or
+destroyed the love would have been as sure spiritual suicide as a poison
+to the body. He understood that she came to see this presently; and then
+his suit was half won,--more than half: he had only to go on to the
+royal fruition of hope and patience. She no longer shunned him: she
+dropped that pointed, distant "Mr. Darcy," and in the soul's own
+language, gave him no outward name.
+
+And, when he took her at her royal flood-tide, the words of asking and
+answering mattered little. A look, a tone, a clasp of hands, a last
+struggle of her pride, and she was his.
+
+The wide, warm summer night closed about them: the dusk was rich with
+floating dewy perfumes, and golden stars dazzled in the clear, moonless
+sky. Out in the trees a little bird, startled from her nap, sang a
+brief, sweet song to her little ones. He drew the proud yet yielding
+figure closer: their hearts beat, their flushed cheeks touched, their
+lips met in one long, heavenly caress, their hands clasped until pulse
+throbbed with pulse in impassioned unison.
+
+Only a death and a great love can so change the aspect of life. As in
+the grave lies buried the dearest promises of love, hope, existence
+itself, and we learn in time to cling to every faint dream, so, like a
+resurrection, love sweeps away the sins and follies and weaknesses of
+the past, and rises from the dust and ashes transformed, renewed, nay,
+born again to the most sacred purposes.
+
+A strange, swift impression rushed over her as she met the eager,
+intense eyes. Was it in another world these arms had closed about her
+with their strong, restful clasp? She started abruptly: she seemed to
+listen, to puzzle herself with the bewildering impression.
+
+"What is it, my darling?" in a deep, ardent voice.
+
+"I don't know"--with a nervous laugh and shiver. "Have we met in some
+other country? Did you carry me over mountains, or through valleys, or
+hide me from a storm? Was this why I could never get away, try as I
+might?"
+
+Oh the wordless, entreating beauty of those eyes!
+
+"My queen, my own, you will never try again."
+
+"Never!" with a long, delicious, sobbing breath. "Why are you so
+irresistibly, so powerfully strong, Jack? Do you know,--you _must_ know
+how wicked I have been! If you cast me out, it would only be a proper
+punishment. I don't mean that my lips or my hands are blurred with other
+men's kisses. I never could endure that," shuddering. "But they laid
+down their hearts, and I walked over them: they were weak, and I was
+strong! And one night I tried"--her voice sank to a beseeching,
+half-shamed murmur.
+
+"Yes," he gave a pure, genial laugh, rich in his own sustaining
+strength. "You would have broken my heart, your own too; for I think,
+even then, you loved me."
+
+"I surely have never been indifferent. It was either love or hate. Do
+you remember the first evening I saw you in the parlor yonder?"
+
+She learned ere long, that he had never forgotten any thing; but the
+depth and perfectness of his love she could not learn in a day.
+
+If Jack Darcy had been patient hitherto, that grand quality seemed
+suddenly exhausted. He absolutely hurried her into a marriage,--hurried
+Sylvie too, who wanted the courtship to proceed with measured, golden
+steps.
+
+"As if it were not to be a courtship all one's life!" said radiant Jack.
+"Now the moments break in the middle, there are tangled ends, and
+endless beginnings, and one can hardly remember where one left off. Were
+you sorry to go to Fred?"
+
+"Why, no!" with wide-open, surprised eyes.
+
+He carried the day at last, and September was appointed. They would be
+married in the old church. Mrs. Minor responded to the tidings by a
+visit. She had treasured up a great many things to say to Irene; but for
+once she was quite overwhelmed, and her sneers and patronage fell to the
+ground. Though she did remark to her mother,--
+
+"Of course I _am_ disappointed that Irene, with her face and style, has
+not done any better; but you cannot expect much after one passes twenty.
+Mr. Darcy has improved certainly, and Irene is not as exclusive as we
+older girls were. It is a great pity she did not go out to Gertrude."
+
+For George Eastman, with a cat-like propensity, always came down on his
+feet. He was now at the flood-tide of prosperity--on other people's
+money. Mrs. Eastman was regal in velvets, sables, and diamonds, queening
+it at St. Petersburg. Some day there might be a crash again, but they
+would be well out of the way.
+
+Miss Lawrence would have no diamonds, and no show; but she was dazzling
+in her radiant loveliness; and, if Jack was not handsome, his superb
+manliness redeemed him. Hope Mills took a holiday. All Yerbury went, it
+seemed; and those who could not get in remained outside for a glimpse.
+
+Sylvie and Fred leaned over the registry in the vestry-room. In a bold
+hand the bridegroom had written, "John Beaumanoir Darcy."
+
+"A compliment to Irene's pride," laughed Sylvie. "The most aristocratic
+name of them all!"
+
+The old house was brightened up a bit before the young couple returned.
+Gentle Mrs. Darcy wondered how it would be between the old and the new
+love; but she remembered with charity, that she had taken the fresh
+young love of another Darcy, and was content with her day.
+
+The young people brought a new atmosphere with them, but it did not
+clash with the old. Jane Morgan was planning a home for herself. One of
+the cut-up farms had been put together again; and she had taken a
+five-years' lease at a low rate, to try a prudent and sensible scheme of
+philanthropy. Maverick had been intensely puzzled by Jack's love-affair,
+and could not yet account for it satisfactorily, but watched them both
+with a kind of amused interest, and dreamed of the deft, dainty little
+fairy down at his aunt's.
+
+I suppose I ought to say that Mrs. Jack Darcy vied with her husband in
+all good works,--in schools and clubs, and plans for everybody's
+improvement; but it was _not_ her _forte_. He was too well satisfied
+with her love for him, her music, her enchanting ways, to wish her any
+different; and I think he would have been jealous, with that exclusive,
+tender, adoring jealousy, that cannot endure its choice treasures
+lavished upon others. She was kindly and generous in a stately, queenly
+fashion; but what between Jack, who was a more importunate lover than
+ever, and the baby born at Larch Avenue, she had her hands quite full.
+
+The five years of mutual copartnership drew to a close. Their young
+engineer had not blown up the mills; Bob Winston did not go off at the
+last moment with the balance at the bank; Jack Darcy had not falsified
+accounts: but it came out just as _everybody_ had predicted that it
+would! "If your men were honest and honorable, co-operation could not
+fail of success. It was the simplest of all schemes," said "The Evening
+Transcript."
+
+The two offices were thrown into one by the sliding-doors, and the
+workmen and women assembled in their holiday gear. Jack Darcy was really
+struck with the change in their faces and the general demeanor. They had
+a brisk, cheery, self-reliant air: there was a certain neatness and
+respectability about which they used not to care in the old times. The
+boys of five years ago were grown men, and there wasn't a sturdier one
+among them than Barton Kane.
+
+And now Jack Darcy proceeded to read the statement of the whole period,
+to which every one listened with the most profound attention.
+
+At the close of the first year, after rent, wages, and all other
+expenses were taken out, the accumulation of profits had been
+$21,642.27. One-half of this, $10,821.13.5, had been turned directly
+over to capital: the other half, the profit of labor, was divided again
+in equal shares, one going to capital for every person, the other,
+amounting to $5,410.56.7, paid over to them as compensation for
+three-quarter wages. Of course the men had been delighted. They
+remembered their first joy even now.
+
+Then had followed the disastrous second year, which had no such golden
+story to tell. The first six months, interest and discount had made
+horrible inroads into capital, and there had not only been no surplus,
+but an actual deficiency. The latter half showed a poor frightened
+balance of $137. But this year they improved greatly in economic
+management and several new processes that gave larger profit with less
+labor and outlay, so the hard strain had not been entirely without its
+uses. Capital had gone down in the valley of humiliation, and had a
+sorry time of it; but with it had come a knowledge and sympathy they
+could have acquired in no other way.
+
+The third year had proved a grand success. They had all worked so
+heartily together, and business had been undeniably good. Profits had
+been $41,854.92, with very limited discounts. After this there was none,
+and unused capital began to draw a little interest. This year there had
+been $10,963.73 to pay over to the men on the quarter share. The fourth
+year there had been numerous bankrupt stocks thrown on the market, and
+every one trying to do his utmost again: still the balance had been by
+no means disheartening, amounting to $34,982.67; capital's share being
+$17,491.33, and the wages overplus $8,745.66. The last year's profits
+had footed up $43,101.56.
+
+There was now in accrued capital stock $106,288.81.5; and this was to be
+divided in the _pro rata_ of each man's share, the larger amounts making
+the most, of course. And now they saw the object of saving. They had
+earned full wages and something beside; and, though wages had not
+reached the high point of good times, on the other hand they had not
+fallen below a reasonable standard, even with the bad year. There had
+been steady work for the whole five years, and every man had been
+practised in thrift, economy, and self-denial.
+
+Of those who had begun with them, seven had been discharged for
+drunkenness and insubordination, their share forfeited to the fund for
+sick and disabled workmen; three had gone out from loss of faith in the
+plan, accepting Winston's offer to sell; four had died, and thirteen had
+left from various other causes. So that there had been a much greater
+degree of steadiness than usually obtains among factory-workmen. This
+led to a decided improvement in many other respects. With a prospect of
+being permanent, the men were induced to buy homes, and took a greater
+interest in the management and welfare of their own town.
+
+The balance was divided, each man receiving his check, and with it a
+detailed statement of the whole five years. They were now quite free,
+the industrial partnership having legally expired. Hope Mills would take
+a fortnight holiday for repairs and re-organization.
+
+"What if there were to be no re-organization?" exclaimed Ben Hay
+suddenly.
+
+The men stared blankly at one another. No "Hope Mills," and the
+foundation-stone of life would have fallen out!
+
+Robert Winston addressed them, thanking them very heartily for their
+co-operation, and expressing a hope that each man would be satisfied
+with the result of five of the hardest years the country had ever known.
+There was no doubt now, judging from our exports, and the amount of
+money coming in from every quarter of the globe, as one might say, that
+we had entered upon an era of prosperity. We had been educated to the
+practice of prudence, of common-sense, and sound principles, we had
+gained fibre and stamina, and he hoped we had gained honesty and
+integrity. If we could not always compete with low-priced manufacturers,
+the solid truth was made manifest in the end. They might take for their
+passwords, "Honesty, industry, and fidelity."
+
+There was a great deal of cheering, and then Darcy was called upon for a
+speech. He did himself infinite credit, for in these five years not a
+man among them had made more rapid strides than Jack Darcy. As he stood
+there now, noble in form, in bearing, and with his good, strong, manly
+face, they felt somehow that he was _their_ hero, and the cheering was
+heartier than ever.
+
+Then Cameron must say a few words, and Ben Hay and Jesse Gilman; and, as
+Jack declared afterward, it was a regular experience-meeting among
+brethren. They pressed around, and shook hands with Darcy and Winston,
+the captain and the pilot with whom they had weathered gales, and been
+brought safely into port. And they would not let them stir out of the
+building until they had appointed a meeting to form the company again,
+this time on a somewhat stronger basis. They were firmly convinced now
+that this was the only way in which it was possible for workmen to make
+any advancement.
+
+At length the crowd began to disperse. Jack started homeward; but,
+before he had walked half the distance, Davy, one of the men who had
+gone out in the first trouble, confronted him suddenly, seizing his
+hand.
+
+"O Mr. Darcy!" said he in a most eager tone, "are you going to form over
+again? Do you think there's a chance for me to be taken back? There
+hasn't been a day nor a night but what I've cursed myself for being such
+a fool as to let anybody talk me out of a good job. I see just how it is
+now. And, if I can get back again, I'll stand by the old ship through
+thick and thin. O Mr. Darcy! please speak a good word for me!"
+
+"That I will, Davy, if it is needed."
+
+"Thank you, thank you, a thousand times!" cried the poor fellow
+gratefully.
+
+Yerbury had plenty of praise now. To be sure, times _had_ improved. If
+every year had been like the second, it would not have been possible to
+make co-operation work; but then, would it have been possible to carry
+on any business with continual loss? The starting of Hope Mills had
+inspired other disheartened firms, and given an impetus to Yerbury
+industries that might have lain much longer in the Slough of Despond.
+
+Fred and Sylvie came over to the Darcys to tea that evening, and
+Maverick dropped in of course.
+
+"Mrs. Darcy," he exclaimed, "I do not see why you did not have a
+daughter for me to marry! Then we could all have been relations, you
+see. I think it a great mistake on your part."
+
+Mrs. Darcy glanced at her son with a peculiar light in her eyes.
+
+Jack laughed. "She is thinking," he explained, "that if there had been
+another one, I should have gone off long ago to seek my fortune. I have
+learned that God may have better work for one than simply following out
+his own will;" and his voice dropped to a reverential tone.
+
+Maverick studied him with a peculiar interest. All these years there had
+been growing up in Jack Darcy a plant of nobler promise than mere
+worldly ambition. Not that he in any manner despised wealth: he had come
+to understand its true uses. The same power that had educated the
+workmen had been going on with silent, steady processes in him. He had
+come to comprehend the dignity of the soul, and that God desired his
+return in the deeds done for one another, in the continual progress, the
+greatness, nobleness, and loyalty we offered "to one of the least of
+these." Was this true religion,--the simple doctrine of the Cross? And
+Maverick bowed his head in unconscious reverence.
+
+They started homeward presently. Sylvie and Irene had some "last words"
+about baby Lawrence, and the two men paced up and down the porch a few
+moments.
+
+"Thank God that it all came out so well!" said Jack in his strong,
+reverent tone.
+
+Fred put his arm over Jack's shoulder. The two men seemed types of all
+that was highest and finest in human nature.
+
+"Jack," began the other in his full, rich tone, tremulous with emotion,
+"do you remember that in my romantic boyhood I used to liken you to King
+Arthur? You have merged into a nobler hero since that day. Who but a
+Sir Galahad, true, strong, unselfish, at once just yet tender, ambitious
+for the Holy Grail of our times, yet never swerving from the path of
+honor; keeping his own soul stainless amid the many temptations of the
+world--who save such a soul could have gone on in your path to the end?
+And of the other Christ-like virtue"--
+
+"Don't, don't, Fred! You always did rate me too highly, you know. I am
+only a man."
+
+"It is something to be a man in these days," returned the other.
+
+The shady blue eyes smiled out of their twilight depth.
+
+"Fred, where are you?" cried a sweet voice.
+
+"You gave me _her_. You taught me to gain the great prize of my life as
+surely as you trained the men in the mill yonder. God bless you!"
+
+
+
+
+LEE AND SHEPARD'S
+
+SELECT FICTION
+
+
+_All prices given are for CLOTH BINDING, unless otherwise specified_
+
+  =The Way of the World.= By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic).
+        Illustrated                                            $1.50
+  =Living Too Fast.= By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic).
+        Illustrated                                             1.50
+  =Indoors and Out.= By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic).
+        Illustrated                                             1.50
+  =The Fortunate Island.= By Max Adeler. Illustrated            1.00
+  =Dora Darling, the Daughter of the Regiment.= By Jane G.
+        Austin. Illustrated                                     1.00
+  =Dora Darling and Little Sunshine.= By Jane G. Austin         1.00
+  =Life in Danbury.= By James M. Bailey. Illustrated            1.00
+  =Mr. Phillips' Goneness.= By James M. Bailey. Illustrated     1.00
+  =The Danbury Boom.= By James M. Bailey. Illustrated           1.00
+  =They All Do It.= By James M. Bailey                          1.00
+  =Running to Waste.= By George M. Baker. Illustrated           1.50
+  =Something Better.= By George M. Baker                        1.00
+  =A Year Worth Living.= By Rev. W. M. Baker                    1.00
+  =Bright Days in the Old Plantation Time.= By Mary
+        Ross Banks. Illustrated                                 1.50
+  =Simplicity and Fascination.= By Anne Beale                   1.00
+  =Nora's Return=; a Sequel to "The Doll's House." By
+        Ednah. D. Cheney. Palatine Boards                        .50
+  =Life and Times of Jesus=, as related by Thomas Didymus.
+        By Rev. James Freeman Clarke                            1.50
+  =His Marriage Vow.= By Mrs. C. F. Corbin                      1.00
+  =Nobody's Husband.= By Samuel W. Cozzens                      1.00
+  =Andersonville Violets.= By Herbert W. Collingwood            1.00
+  =Battles at Home.= By Mary G. Darling. Illustrated            1.00
+  =In the World.= By Mary G. Darling. Illustrated               1.00
+  =The Dawning.=                                                1.50
+  =The Lily and the Cross.= By James De Mille. Illustrated      1.00
+  =Fore and Aft.= By Robert B. Dixon. Cloth                     1.25
+  =Herman, or Young Knighthood.= By E. Foxton. 2 volumes        3.50
+  =Perseverance Island.= By Douglas Frazar                      1.50
+  =Castle Foam.= By Harry W. French                             1.00
+  =Ego.= By Harry W. French                                     1.00
+
+
+=By MARY A. DENISON=
+
+          =His Triumph=            1.00
+          =Like a Gentleman=       1.00
+          =Mr. Peter Crewitt=      1.00
+          =Rothmell=               1.00
+          =Tell Your Wife=         1.00
+          =That Wife of Mine=      1.00
+          =That Husband of Mine=   1.00
+
+
+=By AMANDA M. DOUGLAS=
+
+          =Osborne of Arrochar=               $1.50
+          =A Modern Adam and Eve=              1.50
+          =The Fortunes of the Faradays=       1.50
+          =A Woman's Inheritance=              1.50
+          =Claudia=                            1.50
+          =Floyd Grandon's Honor=              1.50
+          =Foes of Her Household=              1.50
+          =From Hand to Mouth=                 1.50
+          =Home Nook=                          1.50
+          =Whom Kathie Married=                1.50
+          =Hope Mills=                         1.50
+          =In Trust=                           1.50
+          =Nelly Kinnard's Kingdom=            1.50
+          =Stephen Dane=                       1.50
+          =Out of the Wreck=                   1.50
+          =Seven Daughters=                    1.50
+          =Sydnie Adriance=                    1.50
+          =The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe=  1.50
+          =Lost in a Great City=               1.50
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  =Nuna, the Brahmin Girl.= By Harry W. French. Illustrated     1.00
+  =The Only One.= By Harry W. French                            1.00
+  =A Captive of Love.= By Edward Greey. Illustrated.            1.50
+  =The Golden Lotus.= By Edward Greey. Illustrated              1.75
+  =Malbone.= An Oldport Romance. By Thomas Wentworth Higginson  1.50
+  =Marion Graham.= By Margaret Woods Lawrence                   1.50
+  =The Demagogue.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby)                       1.50
+  =A Paper City.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby)                        1.00
+  =The Morals of Abou Ben Adhem.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby)        1.00
+  =Ekkoes from Kentucky.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby). Illustrated   1.00
+  =Swingin' Round the Cirkle.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby). Illus.   1.00
+  =Little Baron Trump and His Wonderful Dog Bulger.= By
+      Ingersoll Lockwood                                        2.00
+  =Little Giant Boab and His Talking Raven Tabib.= By
+      Ingersoll Lockwood                                        2.00
+  =Barbara Thayer.= By Annie Jenness Miller                     1.50
+
+
+=By SOPHIE MAY=
+
+Sophie May's "Grown-up" Stories
+
+          =Drone's Honey.=                          1.50
+          =Janet: a Poor Heiress.= Illustrated      1.50
+          =Our Helen.= Illustrated                  1.50
+          =Quinnebasset Girls.= Illustrated         1.50
+          =The Asbury Twins.= Illustrated           1.50
+          =The Doctor's Daughter.= Illustrated      1.50
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  =Which--Right or Wrong?= By Miss M. L. Moreland. Illustrated   1.25
+  =The Blind Men and the Devil.= By Phineas                      1.00
+  =The Puddleford Papers, or Humors of the West.= By H. H.
+       Riley. Illustrated                                        1.00
+  =Rosecroft.= By W. M. F. Round                                 1.00
+  =Achsah.= By W. M. F. Round. Illustrated                       1.00
+  =The Fall of Damascus.= By W. W. Russell                       1.00
+  =Daisy Travers.= By Mrs. A. F. Samuels. Illustrated            1.50
+  =Seola.= By Mrs. J. Gregory Smith                              1.00
+  =Brushes and Chisels.= By Signor Teodoro Serrao. Tri-color
+       cloth,                                                    1.00
+  =A Tight Squeeze.= By "Staats." Cloth, $1.00; paper,            .50
+  =John Thorn's Folks.= By Angeline Teal                         1.00
+  =Man Proposes.= By F. H. Underwood                             1.00
+  =Lord of Himself.= By F. H. Underwood                          1.00
+  =Edward Burton.= By Henry Wood                                  .25
+  =Mrs. Armington's Ward.= By Mrs. D. Thew Wright                1.00
+
+
+=By VIRGINIA F. TOWNSEND=
+
+          A Boston's Girl's Ambition      $1.50
+          That Queer Girl                  1.50
+          Daryll Gap                       1.50
+          Lenox Dare                       1.50
+          A Woman's Word                   1.50
+          But a Philistine                 1.50
+          Only Girls                       1.50
+          The Deerings of Medbury          1.00
+          The Hollands                     1.00
+          Six in All                       1.00
+          The Mills of Tuxbury             1.00
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  An American Girl Abroad. By Adeline Trafton. Illustrated      1.00
+  Katherine Earle. By Adeline Trafton                           1.50
+  His Inheritance. By Adeline Trafton.                          1.50
+
+
+=By J. T. TROWBRIDGE=
+
+          Neighbor Jack       $1.50
+          Cudjo's Cave         1.50
+          Drummer Boy          1.50
+          Three Scouts         1.50
+          Farnell's Folly      1.50
+          Martin Merrivale     1.50
+          Neighbors' Wives     1.50
+          Coupon Bonds         1.50
+
+
+=By Judge D. P. THOMPSON.=
+
+  The Green Mountain Boys                                    1.00
+  The Rangers, or The Tory's Daughter                        1.00
+  May Martin, and Other Tales of the Green Mountains         1.00
+  Locke Amsden, the Schoolmaster                             1.00
+  The Wreck of the Chancellor. By Jules Verne                1.00
+  A Winter in the Ice. By Jules Verne. Illustrated           1.00
+  The Adventures of a Chinaman. By Jules Verne. Illustrated  1.50
+  Around the World in Eighty Days. By Jules Verne.   "       1.00
+  The Italian Girl. By Mrs. K. S. Washburn                   1.00
+  Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear. By Mrs. K. S. Washburn      1.00
+  The Gates Wide Open. By George Wood                        1.50
+
+
+THE FOLLOWING ARE OFFERED IN PAPER COVERS
+
+  Mr. Phillips' Goneness. By James M. Bailey      $0.50
+  The Danbury Boom. By James M. Bailey              .50
+  They All Do It. By James M. Bailey                .50
+  Something Better. By George M. Baker              .50
+  Nobody's Husband. By S. W. Cozzens                .50
+  Andersonville Violets. By Herbert W. Collingwood  .50
+  Mr. Peter Crewitt. By Mary A. Denison             .50
+  Tell Your Wife. By Mary A. Denison                .50
+  That Wife of Mine. By Mary A. Denison             .50
+  That Husband of Mine. By Mary A. Denison          .50
+  Lost in a Great City. By Amanda M. Douglas        .50
+  A Paper City                                      .50
+  Morals of Abou Ben Adhem                          .50
+  Ekkoes from Kentucky                              .50
+  Swingin' Round the Cirkle                         .50
+  The Puddleford Papers. By H. H. Riley             .50
+  Barbara Thayer. By Annie Jenness Miller           .50
+  The Blind Men and the Devil. By Phineas           .50
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    _Any of the above sent, postpaid, on receipt of price_
+           LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers      BOSTON
+
+
+
+
+HISTORICAL BOOKS * * * *
+
+* * * * FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Young Folks' History of the United States_
+
+By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. Illustrated. $1.50.
+
+          The story of our country in the most reliable and
+          interesting form. As a story-book it easily leads
+          all other American history stories in interest,
+          while as a text-book for the study of history it
+          is universally admitted to be the best.
+
+
+_Young Folks' Book of American Explorers_
+
+By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. Uniform with the "Young Folks' History of
+the United States." One volume, fully illustrated. Price $1.50.
+
+          "It is not a history told in the third person, nor
+          an historical novel for young folks, where the
+          author supposes the chief characters to have
+          thought and said such and such things under such
+          and such circumstances; but it is the genuine
+          description given by the persons who experienced
+          the things they described in letters written
+          home."--_Montpelier Journal._
+
+
+_The Nation in a Nutshell_
+
+By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE, author of "Heroes of History," "Young Folks'
+History of England," "Young Folks' History of Ireland," etc. Price 50
+cents.
+
+          "To tell the story of a nation like ours in a
+          nutshell, requires a peculiar faculty for
+          selecting, condensing, and philosophizing. The
+          brevity with which he relates the principal events
+          in American history, does not detract from the
+          charming interest of the narrative
+          style."--_Public Opinion._
+
+
+_Young People's History of England_
+
+By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE. Cloth, illustrated. $1.50.
+
+          "The whole narrative is made interesting and
+          attractive--in every way what a book of this kind
+          should be in its clearness of statement, freshness
+          of style, and its telling of the right
+          ways."--_Critic._
+
+
+_Handbook of English History_
+
+Based on "Lectures on English History," by the late M. J. GUEST, and
+brought down to the year 1880. With a Supplementary Chapter on the
+English Literature of the 19th Century. By F. H. UNDERWOOD, LL.D. With
+Maps, Chronological Table, etc. $1.50.
+
+          "It approaches nearer perfection than anything in
+          the line we have seen. It is succinct, accurate,
+          and delightful."--_Hartford Evening Post._
+
+
+_Young People's History of Ireland_
+
+By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE, author of "Young People's History of
+England," "Young Folks' Heroes of History," etc. With an introduction by
+JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY. Cloth, illustrated. $1.50.
+
+          "The history is like a novel, increasing in
+          interest to the very end, and terminating at the
+          most interesting period of the whole; and the
+          reader lays down the book a moment in enthusiastic
+          admiration for a people who have endured so much,
+          and yet have retained so many admirable
+          characteristics."--_N.Y. World._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+YOUNG FOLKS'
+
+BOOKS OF TRAVEL
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DRIFTING ROUND THE WORLD; A Boy's Adventures by Sea and Land
+
+        By CAPT. CHARLES W. HALL, author of "Adrift in the
+          Ice-Fields," "The Great Bonanza," etc. With
+          numerous full-page and letter-press illustrations.
+          Royal 8vo. Handsome cover. $1.75. Cloth, gilt,
+          $2.50.
+
+"Out of the beaten track" in its course of travel, record of adventures,
+and descriptions of life in Greenland, Labrador, Ireland, Scotland,
+England, France, Holland, Russia, Asia, Siberia, and Alaska. Its hero is
+young, bold, and adventurous; and the book is in every way interesting
+and attractive.
+
+
+_EDWARD GRÉEY'S JAPANESE SERIES_
+
+
+YOUNG AMERICANS IN JAPAN; or, The Adventures of the Jewett Family and
+their Friend Oto Nambo
+
+        With 170 full-page and letter-press illustrations.
+          Royal 8vo, 7 × 9½ inches. Handsomely
+          illuminated cover, $1.75. Cloth, black and gold,
+          $2.50.
+
+This story, though essentially a work of fiction, is filled with
+interesting and truthful descriptions of the curious ways of living of
+the good people of the land of the rising sun.
+
+
+THE WONDERFUL CITY OF TOKIO; or, The Further Adventures of the Jewett
+Family and their Friend Oto Nambo
+
+        With 169 illustrations. Royal 8vo, 7 × 9½
+          inches. With cover in gold and colors, designed by
+          the author, $1.75. Cloth, black and gold, $2.50.
+
+"A book full of delightful information. The author has the happy gift of
+permitting the reader to view things as he saw them. The illustrations
+are mostly drawn by a Japanese artist, and are very unique."--_Chicago
+Herald._
+
+
+THE BEAR WORSHIPPERS OF YEZO AND THE ISLAND OF KARAFUTO; being the
+further Adventures of the Jewett Family and their Friend Oto Nambo
+
+          180 illustrations. Boards, $1.75. Cloth, $2.50.
+
+Graphic pen and pencil pictures of the remarkable bearded people who
+live in the north of Japan. The illustrations are by native Japanese
+artists, and give queer pictures of a queer people, who have been seldom
+visited.
+
+
+_HARRY W. FRENCH'S BOOKS_
+
+
+OUR BOYS IN INDIA
+
+       The wanderings of two young Americans in Hindustan,
+         with their exciting adventures on the sacred rivers
+         and wild mountains. With 145 illustrations. Royal
+         8vo, 7 × 9½ inches. Bound in emblematic covers
+         of Oriental design, $1.75. Cloth, black and gold,
+         $2.50.
+
+
+While it has all the exciting interest of a romance, it is remarkably
+vivid in its pictures of manners and customs in the land of the Hindu.
+The illustrations are many and excellent.
+
+
+OUR BOYS IN CHINA
+
+        The adventures of two young Americans, wrecked in
+          the China Sea on their return from India, with
+          their strange wanderings through the Chinese
+          Empire. 188 illustrations. Boards, ornamental
+          covers in colors and gold, $1.75. Cloth, $2.50.
+
+This gives the further adventures of "Our Boys" of India fame in the
+land of Teas and Queues.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+IRENE E. JEROME'S
+
+ART BOOKS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+        =IN A FAIR COUNTRY.= With 55 full-page illustrations;
+          engraved by Andrew. Nearly 100 pages of text, by Thomas
+          Wentworth Higginson. Gold  cloth, full gilt, $6.00;
+          Turkey morocco, $15.00;  tree calf, $15.00; English seal
+          style, $10.00.
+
+Miss Jerome has caught the very glamour of the woodland and the lea with
+her pencil, transferring it to paper with the delicacy of an exquisite
+photograph, while Colonel Higginson's delightful style brings out the
+beauty of his topics most satisfactorily. As a specimen of the
+book-maker's art, the volume leaves nothing to be asked.
+
+
+        =A BUNCH OF VIOLETS.= Original illustrations,
+          engraved on wood and printed under the direction
+          of GEORGE T. ANDREW. 4to, cloth, $3.75: Turkey
+          morocco, $9.00; tree calf, $9.00; English seal
+          style, $7.00.
+
+The new volume is akin to the former triumphs of this favorite artist,
+whose "Sketch Books" have achieved a popularity unequalled in the
+history of fine art publications. In the profusion of designs,
+originality, and delicacy of treatment, the charming sketches of
+mountain, meadow, lake, and forest scenery of New England here
+reproduced are unexcelled. After the wealth of illustration which this
+student of nature has poured into the lap of art, to produce a volume in
+which there is no deterioration of power or beauty, but, if possible,
+increased strength and enlargement of ideas, gives assurance that the
+foremost female artist in America will hold the hearts of her legion of
+admirers.
+
+
+        =NATURE'S HALLELUJAH.= Presented in a series of
+          nearly fifty full-page original illustrations
+          (9½ x 14 inches), engraved on wood by GEORGE T.
+          ANDREW. Elegantly bound in gold cloth, full gilt,
+          gilt edges, $6.00; Turkey morocco, $15.00; tree
+          calf, $15.00; English seal style, $10.00.
+
+This volume has won the most cordial praise on both sides of the water.
+Mr. Francis H. Underwood, U. S. Consul at Glasgow, writes concerning it:
+"I have never seen anything superior, if equal, to the delicacy and
+finish of the engravings, and the perfection of the press-work. The copy
+you sent me has been looked over with evident and unfeigned delight by
+many people of artistic taste. Every one frankly says, 'It is impossible
+to produce such effects here,' and, whether it is possible or not, I am
+sure it is _not done_; no such effects are produced on this side of the
+Atlantic. In this combination of art and workmanship, the United States
+leads the world; and you have a right to be proud of the honor of
+presenting such a specimen to the public."
+
+
+        =ONE YEAR'S SKETCH BOOK.= Containing forty-six
+          full-page original illustrations, engraved on wood
+          by ANDREW; in same bindings and at same prices as
+          "Nature's Hallelujah."
+
+"Every thick, creamy page is embellished by some gems of art. Sometimes
+it is but a dash and a few trembling strokes; at others an impressive
+landscape, but in all and through all runs the master touch. Miss Jerome
+has the genius of an Angelo, and the execution of a Guido. The beauty of
+the sketches will be apparent to all, having been taken from our
+unrivalled New England scenery."--_Washington Chronicle._
+
+
+        =THE MESSAGE OF THE BLUEBIRD, Told to Me to Tell
+          to Others.= Original illustrations engraved on
+          wood by ANDREW. Cloth and gold, $2.00; palatine
+          boards, ribbon ornaments, $1.00.
+
+"In its new bindings is one of the daintiest combinations of song and
+illustration ever published, exhibiting in a marked degree the fine
+poetic taste and wonderfully artistic touch which render this author's
+works so popular. The pictures are exquisite, and the verses exceedingly
+graceful, appealing to the highest sensibilities. The little volume
+ranks among the choicest of holiday souvenirs, and is beautiful and
+pleasing."--_Boston Transcript._
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+          LEE AND   *  *  SEVENTY-FIVE CENT *
+
+           *  SHEPARD'S             *   JUVENILES
+
+_Comprising new editions of the following popular Juveniles Bound in
+best English cloth bright colors Any volume sold separately_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+=CHARLEY AND EVA STORIES= By Miss L. C. THURSTON
+
+          =How Charley Roberts became a Man=
+          =How Eva Roberts gained her Education=
+          =Home in the West=
+          =Children of Amity Court=
+
+Miss Thurston writes with a purpose. She is an admirer of manly boys and
+womanly girls, and so carries her characters through scenes and
+situations that elevate and purify. The books are by no means slow,
+being full of adventures.
+
+
+=GOLDEN PROVERB SERIES= By Mrs. M. E. BRADLEY and Miss KATE J. NEELY
+
+          =Birds of a Feather=
+          =Fine Feathers do not make Fine Birds=
+          =Handsome is that Handsome Does=
+          =A Wrong Confessed is Half Redressed=
+          =One Good Turn deserves Another=
+          =Actions Speak Louder than Words=
+
+Two capital story-tellers, "birds of a feather," have flocked together,
+and produced from six old proverbs six as bright and taking story-books
+as ever gladdened the hearts of Young America; showing, indeed, that
+"handsome is that handsome does."
+
+
+=GOLDEN RULE STORIES= By Mrs. S. C. B. SAMUELS
+
+          =The Golden Rule=
+          =The Shipwrecked Girl=
+          =Under the Sea=
+          =Nettie's Trial=
+          =The Burning Prairie=
+          =The Smuggler's Cave=
+
+
+CELESTA'S LIBRARY for Boys and Girls
+
+          =Celesta=
+          =Crooked and Straight=
+          =The Crook Straightened=
+          =A Thousand a Year=
+          =Abel Grey=
+          =May Coverley=
+
+Mrs. Samuels has written many attractive books. The scenes and incidents
+she portrays are full of life, action, and interest, and decidedly
+wholesome and instructive.
+
+
+=SALT-WATER DICK STORIES= By MAY MANNERING
+
+          =Climbing the Rope=
+          =Billy Grimes's Favorite=
+          =Cruise of the Dashaway=
+          =The Little Spaniard=
+          =Salt-Water Dick=
+          =Little Maid of Oxbow=
+
+Not all tales of the sea, as the title of the series would imply, but
+stories of many lands by a lady who has been a great traveller, and
+tells what she has seen, in a captivating way.
+
+
+=UPSIDE-DOWN STORIES= By ROSA ABBOTT
+
+          =Jack of all Trades=
+          =Alexis the Runaway=
+          =Tommy Hickup=
+          =Upside Down=
+          =The Young Detective=
+          =The Pinks and Blues=
+
+
+=VACATION STORIES for Boys and Girls= 6 vols. Illustrated
+
+          =Worth not Wealth=
+          =Country Life=
+          =The Charm=
+          =Karl Keigler or The Fortunes of a Foundling=
+          =Walter Seyton=
+          =Holidays at Chestnut Hill=
+
+
+=GREAT ROSY DIAMOND STORIES for Girls= 6 vols. Illustrated
+
+          =The Great Rosy Diamond=
+          =Daisy or The Fairy Spectacles=
+          =Violet a Fairy Story=
+          =Minnie or The Little Woman=
+          =The Angel Children=
+          =Little Blossom's Reward=
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+          NARRATIVES · OF · NOTED----
+                           -------TRAVELLERS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+=GERMANY SEEN WITHOUT SPECTACLES; or, Random Sketches of Various
+Subjects, Penned from Different Standpoints in the Empire=
+
+          By HENRY RUGGLES, late United States Consul at the
+          Island of Malta, and at Barcelona, Spain. $1.50.
+
+"Mr. Ruggles writes briskly: he chats and gossips, slashing right and
+left with stout American prejudices, and has made withal a most
+entertaining book."--_New-York Tribune._
+
+
+=TRAVELS AND OBSERVATIONS IN THE ORIENT, with a Hasty Flight in the
+Countries of Europe=
+
+        By WALTER HARRIMAN (ex-Governor of New Hampshire). $1.50.
+
+"The author, in his graphic description of these sacred localities,
+refers with great aptness to scenes and personages which history has
+made famous. It is a chatty narrative of travel."--_Concord Monitor._
+
+
+=FORE AND AFT=
+
+        A Story of Actual Sea-Life. By ROBERT B. DIXON, M.D. $1.25.
+
+Travels in Mexico, with vivid descriptions of manners and customs, form
+a large part of this striking narrative of a fourteen-months' voyage.
+
+
+=VOYAGE OF THE PAPER CANOE=
+
+          A Geographical Journey of Twenty-five Hundred
+          Miles from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico. By
+          NATHANIEL H. BISHOP. With numerous illustrations
+          and maps specially prepared for this work. Crown
+          8vo. $1.50.
+
+"Mr. Bishop did a very bold thing, and has described it with a happy
+mixture of spirit, keen observation, and _bonhomie_."--_London Graphic._
+
+
+=FOUR MONTHS IN A SNEAK-BOX=
+
+        A Boat Voyage of Twenty-six Hundred Miles down the
+          Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and along the Gulf of
+          Mexico. By NATHANIEL H. BISHOP. With numerous maps
+          and illustrations. $1.50.
+
+"His glowing pen-pictures of 'shanty-boat' life on the great rivers are
+true to life. His descriptions of persons and places are
+graphic."--_Zion's Herald._
+
+
+=A THOUSAND MILES' WALK ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA, Over the Pampas and the
+Andes=
+
+        By NATHANIEL H. BISHOP. Crown 8vo. New edition.
+          Illustrated. $1.50.
+
+"Mr. Bishop made this journey when a boy of sixteen, has never forgotten
+it, and tells it in such a way that the reader will always remember it,
+and wish there had been more."
+
+
+=CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES=
+
+        Being the Adventures of a Naturalist Bird-hunting
+          in the West-India Islands. By FRED A. OBER. New
+          edition. With maps and illustrations. $1.50.
+
+"During two years he visited mountains, forests, and people, that few,
+if any, tourists had ever reached before. He carried his camera with
+him, and photographed from nature the scenes by which the book is
+illustrated."--_Louisville Courier-Journal._
+
+
+=ENGLAND FROM A BACK WINDOW; With Views of Scotland and Ireland=
+
+        By J. M. BAILEY, the "'Danbury News' Man." 12mo. $1.00.
+
+"The peculiar humor of this writer is well known. The British Isles have
+never before been looked at in just the same way,--at least, not by any
+one who has notified us of the fact. Mr. Bailey's travels possess,
+accordingly, a value of their own for the reader, no matter how many
+previous records of journeys in the mother country he may have
+read."--_Rochester Express._
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+BRIGHT AND BREEZY
+
+BOOKS OF TRAVEL
+
+BY SIX BRIGHT WOMEN
+
+
+=MEXICO--PICTURESQUE, POLITICAL, PROGRESSIVE=
+
+          By MARY E. BLAKE and MARGARET F. SULLIVAN. Cloth,
+          $1.25.
+
+"This is a very charming volume. The writers went through the country
+with their eyes wide open, and they have the faculty of interesting
+others in what was of interest to them."
+
+
+=A WINTER IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO=
+
+          By HELEN J. SANBORN. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+"A bright, attractive narrative by a wide-awake Boston girl."
+
+
+=A SUMMER IN THE AZORES, with a Glimpse of Madeira=
+
+        By Miss C. ALICE BAKER. Little Classic style. Cloth,
+          gilt edges, $1.25.
+
+"Miss Baker gives us a breezy, entertaining description of these
+picturesque islands. She is an observing traveller, and makes a graphic
+picture of the quaint people and customs."--_Chicago Advance._
+
+
+=LIFE AT PUGET SOUND=
+
+        With sketches of travel in Washington Territory,
+          British Columbia, Oregon, and California. By
+          CAROLINE C. LEIGHTON. 16mo, cloth, $1.50.
+
+"Your chapters on Puget Sound have charmed me. Full of life, deeply
+interesting, and with just that class of facts, and suggestions of
+truth, that cannot fail to help the Indian and the Chinese."--WENDELL
+PHILLIPS.
+
+
+=EUROPEAN BREEZES=
+
+        By MARGERY DEANE. Cloth, gilt top, $1.50. Being
+          chapters of travel through Germany, Austria,
+          Hungary, and Switzerland, covering places not
+          usually visited by Americans in making "the Grand
+          Tour of the Continent," by the accomplished writer
+          of "Newport Breezes."
+
+"A very bright, fresh and amusing account, which tells us about a host
+of things we never heard of before, and is worth two ordinary books of
+European travel."--_Woman's Journal._
+
+
+=BEATEN PATHS; or, A Woman's Vacation in Europe=
+
+        By ELLA W. THOMPSON. 16mo, cloth. $1.50.
+
+A lively and chatty book of travel, with pen-pictures humorous and
+graphic, that are decidedly out of the "beaten paths" of description.
+
+
+=AN AMERICAN GIRL ABROAD=
+
+        By Miss ADELINE TRAFTON, author of "His Inheritance,"
+          "Katherine Earle," etc. 16mo. Illustrated. $1.50.
+
+"A sparkling account of a European trip by a wide-awake, intelligent,
+and irrepressible American girl. Pictured with a freshness and vivacity
+that is delightful."--_Utica Observer._
+
+
+_CURTIS GUILD'S TRAVELS_
+
+
+=BRITONS AND MUSCOVITES; or, Traits of Two Empires=
+
+          Cloth, $2.00.
+
+
+=OVER THE OCEAN; or, Sights and Scenes in Foreign Lands=
+
+        By CURTIS GUILD, editor of "The Boston Commercial
+          Bulletin." Crown 8vo. Cloth, $2.50.
+
+"The utmost that any European tourist can hope to do is to tell the old
+story in a somewhat fresh way, and Mr. Guild has succeeded in every part
+of his book in doing this."--_Philadelphia Bulletin_.
+
+
+=ABROAD AGAIN; or, Fresh Forays in Foreign Fields=
+
+        Uniform with "Over the Ocean." By the same author.
+          Crown 8vo. Cloth $2.50.
+
+"He has given us a life-picture. Europe is done in a style that must
+serve as an invaluable guide to those who go 'over the ocean,' as well
+as an interesting companion."--_Halifax Citizen._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+YOUNG FOLKS HEROES OF HISTORY
+
+    By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE.
+  Handsomely Illustrated. Price per vol., $1.25. Sets in neat boxes.
+
+
+VASCO DA GAMA:
+
+HIS VOYAGES AND ADVENTURES.
+
+"Da Gama's history is full of striking adventures, thrilling incidents,
+and perilous situations; and Mr. Towle, while not sacrificing historical
+accuracy, has so skilfully used his materials, that we have a charmingly
+romantic tale."--_Rural New-Yorker._
+
+
+PIZARRO:
+
+HIS ADVENTURES AND CONQUESTS.
+
+"No hero of romance possesses greater power to charm the youthful reader
+than the conqueror of Peru. Not even King Arthur, or Thaddeus of Warsaw,
+has the power to captivate the imagination of the growing boy. Mr. Towle
+has handled his subject in a glowing but truthful manner; and we venture
+the assertion, that, were our children led to read such books as this,
+the taste for unwholesome, exciting, wrong-teaching boys' books--dime
+novels in books' clothing--would be greatly diminished, to the great gain
+of mental force and moral purpose in the rising generation."--_Chicago
+Alliance._
+
+
+MAGELLAN;
+
+OR, THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.
+
+"What more of romantic and spirited adventures any bright boy could want
+than is to be found in this series of historical biography, it is
+difficult to imagine. This volume is written in a most sprightly manner;
+and the life of its hero, Fernan Magellan, with its rapid stride from
+the softness of a petted youth to the sturdy courage and persevering
+fortitude of manhood, makes a tale of marvellous fascination."--_Christian
+Union._
+
+
+MARCO POLO:
+
+HIS TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES.
+
+"The story of the adventurous Venetian, who six hundred years ago
+penetrated into India and Cathay and Thibet and Abyssinia, is pleasantly
+and clearly told; and nothing better can be put into the hands of the
+school boy or girl than this series of the records of noted travellers.
+The heroism displayed by these men was certainly as great as that ever
+shown by conquering warrior; and it was exercised in a far nobler
+cause,--the cause of knowledge and discovery, which has made the
+nineteenth century what it is."--_Graphic._
+
+
+RALEGH:
+
+HIS EXPLOITS AND VOYAGES.
+
+"This belongs to the 'Young Folks' Heroes of History' series, and deals
+with a greater and more interesting man than any of its predecessors.
+With all the black spots on his fame, there are few more brilliant and
+striking figures in English history than the soldier, sailor, courtier,
+author, and explorer, Sir Walter Ralegh. Even at this distance of time,
+more than two hundred and fifty years after his head fell on the
+scaffold, we cannot read his story without emotion. It is graphically
+written, and is pleasant reading, not only for young folks, but for old
+folks with young hearts."--_Woman's Journal._
+
+
+DRAKE:
+
+THE SEA-LION OF DEVON.
+
+Drake was the foremost sea-captain of his age, the first English admiral
+to send a ship completely round the world, the hero of the magnificent
+victory which the English won over the Invincible Armada. His career was
+stirring, bold, and adventurous, from early youth to old age.
+
+          LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston.
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS OF PARTICULAR INTEREST TO YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN
+
+
+=HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW=
+
+        His Life, His Works, His Friendships. By GEORGE
+          LOWELL AUSTIN. Profusely illustrated. Cloth,
+          $2.00. New edition. Formerly published by
+          subscription.
+
+"We have here a clear and popular presentation of the poet's literary
+life. The details of his personal and private life, or at least so much
+of it as belongs by right strictly to his family, has been avoided, and
+that properly. What the public have a right to know is found in this
+volume, in a style that is easy and pleasing. Here you have Longfellow
+as a child, as a college student, and as a professor in Bowdoin College;
+and especially does he appear here as a man of letters. It is a charming
+volume."--_Christian Standard._
+
+
+=LIFE AND TIMES OF WENDELL PHILLIPS=
+
+        By GEORGE LOWELL AUSTIN. With steel portrait and
+          illustrations. Cloth, $1.50. New edition. The only
+          complete Life of the great agitator.
+
+"The life of a man who was so strongly identified with one of the most
+stirring periods in American history must necessarily be one of much
+interest, and Mr. Austin has succeeded in presenting its features in a
+very attractive way. Portions of Mr. Phillips's most important public
+addresses are given, and there are reminiscences of the man by some of
+his close friends and associates."--_Philadelphia Record._
+
+  Wendell Phillips's Lectures, Orations, and Letters, to 1861.
+        563 pages.
+    Library edition. 8vo                                          $2 50
+    Popular edition, with Biographical Sketch, 16mo                1 00
+  The Scholar in a Republic. Paper, 8vo                              25
+  Eulogy of Garrison. Paper, 8vo                                     25
+  Lost Arts. Paper, 8vo                                              25
+  Daniel O'Connell. Paper, 8vo                                       25
+  Labor Question. Paper, 8vo                                         25
+
+
+=LIFE AND DEEDS OF GENERAL U. S. GRANT=
+
+        By Rev. P. C. HEADLEY and GEORGE LOWELL AUSTIN.
+          Profusely illustrated. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+The materials for the early years of the subject of this popular
+biography were furnished by the immediate friends and relatives of his
+family. The events bearing upon the war history are based upon the
+recognized authorities, and will stand the test of military criticism.
+The work is intensely interesting, and exceedingly popular.
+
+
+=Oliver Optic's OUR STANDARD BEARER=
+
+        Or the Life of General ULYSSES S. GRANT, his
+          youth, his manhood, his campaign, and his eminent
+          services in the reconstruction of the nation his
+          sword has redeemed, as seen and related by Captain
+          BERNARD GALLYGASKEN, Cosmopolitan, and written out
+          by OLIVER OPTIC. _A new edition_, with
+          supplementary chapters, containing the political
+          life of the general, his travels abroad, his
+          sickness and death. Cloth; illustrated by THOMAS
+          NAST and others, elegantly bound, $1.50.
+
+"It is written in Mr. Adams's happiest vein, and is a most unique and
+interesting presentation of a subject upon which volumes have been
+written and read."
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+POPULAR READING FOR HOME AND SCHOOL
+
+BY POPULAR AUTHORS
+
+
+JANE ANDREWS' BOOKS
+
+=THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS WHO LIVE ON THE ROUND BALL THAT FLOATS IN THE
+AIR=
+
+        New edition, with an introduction by LOUISA
+          PARSONS HOPKINS Illustrated School edition cloth
+          50 cents Library edition cloth 80 cents
+
+
+=THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS PROVE THEIR SISTERHOOD (Former title EACH AND
+ALL)=
+
+        Illustrated School edition cloth 50 cents Library
+          edition cloth 80 cents
+
+
+=TEN BOYS WHO LIVED ON THE ROAD FROM LONG AGO TO NOW=
+
+          20 illustrations Cloth 80 cents
+
+
+=GEOGRAPHICAL PLAYS FOR YOUNG FOLKS AT SCHOOL AND AT HOME=
+
+        Price each play in paper 15 cents postage paid 1
+          United States 2 Europe 3 Asia 4 Africa and South
+          America 5 Australia and Isles of the Sea 6 The
+          Commerce of the World
+
+          The above bound in one volume Cloth $1.00 postage
+          paid
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+=GRADED SUPPLEMENTARY READING=
+
+        For use in schools By Professor TWEED, late
+          Supervisor of Boston Public Schools 12 parts
+          ready: Nos. 1, 4, 7 and 10, 1st year primary; Nos.
+          2, 5, 8 and 11, 2d year primary; Nos. 3, 6, 9 and
+          12, 3d year primary In brown paper covers 4 cents
+          each: by mail 5 cents The four parts for each year
+          bound together in boards 20 cents each First year
+          primary in one volume boards 20 cents Second year
+          primary in one volume boards 20 cents Third year
+          primary in one volume boards 20 cents
+
+
+HISTORICAL READINGS
+
+
+=YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES=
+
+        By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON With over 100
+          illustrations $1.20
+
+
+=YOUNG FOLKS' BOOK OF AMERICAN EXPLORERS=
+
+          By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON Illustrated $1.20
+
+
+=HANDBOOK OF ENGLISH HISTORY=
+
+        Based on Guest's "Lectures on English History,"
+          and brought down to the year 1880 With a
+          Supplementary Chapter on the English Literature of
+          the 19th Century By F. H. UNDERWOOD, LL.D. With
+          maps, chronological tables etc. School edition 90
+          cents
+
+
+=YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND=
+
+        By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE Illustrated School edition 60 cents
+
+
+=YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF IRELAND=
+
+        By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE With introduction by JOHN BOYLE
+          O'REILLY Illustrated School edition 60 cents
+
+
+=HEROES OF HISTORY= By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE Illustrated
+
+        Vasco de Gama: his Voyages and Adventures School edition 60
+          cents
+        Pizarro: his Adventures and Conquests School edition 60 cents
+        Magellan: or The First Voyage Round the World School edition
+          60 cents
+        Marco Polo: his Travels and Adventures School edition 60 cents
+        Raleigh: his Voyages and Adventures School edition 60 cents
+        Drake the Sea King of Devon School edition 60 cents
+
+
+=THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY= By Mrs. L. B. MONROE 80 cents
+
+
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Italics are indicated by
+_underscores_ and bold text is shown by =equal signs=.
+
+Varied hyphenation was retained.
+
+Page 106, "haye" changed to "have" (I have had so)
+
+Page 253, "sucessfully" changed to "successfully" (not working
+successfully)
+
+The spelling of "Ralegh: His Exploits" is actually the title of the book
+by Towle.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hope Mills, by Amanda M. Douglas
+
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Hope Mills;, by Amanda M. Douglas.
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hope Mills, by Amanda M. Douglas
+
+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: Hope Mills
+       or Between Friend and Sweetheart
+
+Author: Amanda M. Douglas
+
+Release Date: November 9, 2009 [EBook #30436]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOPE MILLS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charlene Taylor, Emmy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 372px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="372" height="600" alt="Cover" title="" />
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h1>HOPE MILLS;</h1>
+
+<h3>OR,</h3>
+
+<h2>BETWEEN FRIEND AND SWEETHEART.</h2>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>AMANDA M. DOUGLAS,</h2>
+
+<div class='center'><span class="smcap">Author of "From Hand to Mouth," "Nelly Kinnard's Kingdom,"
+<br />"In Trust," &amp;c., &amp;c.</span><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">"Abou spake more low,</span><br />
+But cheerly still; and said, 'I pray thee, then,<br />
+Write me as one that loves his fellow-men.'"<br />
+<div class='sig'>
+<span class="smcap">Leigh Hunt.</span><br /><br /><br /><br />
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<b>BOSTON:</b><br />
+LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS.<br />
+NEW YORK:<br />
+CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM.<br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p>
+<div class='bbox'><h2>THE DOUGLAS NOVELS.</h2>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br />&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Douglas Novels">
+<tr><td align='left'>OSBORNE OF ARROCHAR.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A MODERN ADAM AND EVE IN A GARDEN.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE FORTUNES OF THE FARADAYS.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>FOES OF HER HOUSEHOLD.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A WOMAN'S INHERITANCE.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>CLAUDIA.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>FLOYD GRANDON'S HONOR.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>FROM HAND TO MOUTH.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>HOME NOOK.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>HOPE MILLS.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>IN TRUST.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>LOST IN A GREAT CITY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>NELLIE KINNARD'S KINGDOM.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>OUT OF THE WRECK.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>SEVEN DAUGHTERS.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>STEPHEN DANE.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>SYDNIE ADRIANCE.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>WHOM KATHIE MARRIED.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br />&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+
+
+PRICE PER VOL., $1.50.<br />
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+
+
+
+
+LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS,<br />
+BOSTON.<br />
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='copyright'><br /><br />
+<span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1879,<br />
+<span class="smcap">By</span> LEE AND SHEPARD.<br />
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+<i>All rights reserved.</i><br />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+TO<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap"><b><big>Hon. Marcus L. Ward,</big></b></span><br />
+<br />
+<b>As a Tribute</b><br />
+<br />
+TO ONE WHO HAS HELD LOYALLY TO GOD AND HIS FELLOW-MEN,<br />
+WHO HAS LABORED IN THE NOBLE CAUSE OF HUMANITY,<br />
+NOT DISHEARTENED WHEN RESULTS WERE INFREQUENT,<br />
+BUT CONTENT TO REAP THE REWARD<br />
+IN THE GREAT HEREAFTER.<br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
+<h2>BETWEEN FRIEND AND SWEETHEART.</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">There</span> is Fred again with his arm around Jack
+Darcy's neck. I declare, they are worse than two romantic
+schoolgirls. I am so thankful Fred goes away
+to-morrow for a year! and I do hope by that time he
+will have outgrown that wretched, commonplace youth.
+Mother, it is very fortunate that Jack is the sole scion
+of the Darcy line; for, if there were a daughter, you would
+no doubt be called upon to receive her into the bosom
+of the family."</p>
+
+<p>"Which I never should do," remarked quiet, aristocratic
+Mrs. Lawrence, not even raising her eyes from
+her book.</p>
+
+<p>"Not for the sake of your only son?" continued
+Agatha, with an irritating laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be silly, Agatha," returned the mother, with
+an indifference that took off the point of the query.</p>
+
+<p>Her second sister glanced up from a bit of pencil-drawing,
+then lowered her eyes to the street where the
+boy friends stood, one with his arm over the other's
+shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Think of a Harvard graduate arm-in-arm with&mdash;well,
+a mill-hand! No doubt Jack's father will put him
+in the mill. I cannot see any sense in a boy of that
+class taking two years at the academy."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On the opposite side of the room were two girls, hardly
+more than children, busily engaged in ornamenting a box
+with transfer-pictures. One had a rather haughty mien,
+as became a Lawrence; the other, pretty, piquant little
+Sylvie Barry, looked toward the elders, knit her brow,
+with both thought and indignation visible in its lines, and
+held her picture absently in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you listen to that?" asked Irene Lawrence
+disdainfully. "It is only Jack Darcy, and he's nobody.
+His father works in the mill."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that!" was Sylvie's rather sharp retort,
+answering the latter part of the sentence merely. Child
+as she was, she experienced a strong desire to do battle,
+not only for Jack, but for some puzzling cause she could
+not quite comprehend. With the blood of a French duke
+in her veins, of soldiers and martyrs as well, she was a
+sturdy little democrat. It seemed cowardly not to take
+up arms.</p>
+
+<p>"That butterfly is to go next," remarked Irene, reaching
+out for it; and Sylvie held her peace, though she felt
+the warm blood burning in her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy did not need any champion within doors;
+for Fred stood up bravely against these three girls, and
+from them received his first impression that women were
+small of soul and narrow of mind. As they stood by
+the gate now, this last hour grudged to them, neither
+dreamed that this was the final canto in the poem of boyhood.
+They had been fast friends since the first day
+pale, puny Fred made his appearance in school, and was
+both laughed at and bullied by some boys larger in size,
+but younger in years.</p>
+
+<p>"He will have to get the nonsense rubbed out of
+him some time," thought Jack; "and it can never be
+younger." But, when the contest degenerated into the
+force of the strong against the weak, one blow of Jack's
+fist sent Brown reeling and howling.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Try a fellow of your own size next time," was Jack's
+pithy advice.</p>
+
+<p>Fred came to him, and cried hysterically in his arms.
+Jack had experienced the same feeling for some poor
+rescued kitten. Fred, with his head full of King Arthur
+and his knights, mythology, and bits of children's histories,
+wherein figured heroes and soldiers, elected Jack to the
+highest niche in his regard.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy was a wonderful boy withal, a very prince
+of boys, who hated study and work, and loved play; who
+despised Sunday clothes and girls' parties; but who had
+not his equal for spinning a top, or raising a kite, and
+when it came to leap-frog, or short stop, he was simply
+immense. Then he always knew the best places to dig
+worms, and the little nooks where fish were sure to bite,
+the best chestnut and walnut trees; and, with years and
+experience, he excelled in baseball, skating, wrestling,
+leaping, and rowing. Jack Darcy was no dunce, either.
+Only one subject extinguished him entirely, and that was
+composition. Under its malign influence he sank to the
+level of any other boy. And here Fred shone pre-eminently,
+kindly casting his mantle over his friend,&mdash;further,
+sometimes, than a conscientious charity would have
+admitted; but a boy's conscience is quite as susceptible
+of a bias as that of older and wiser people. On the other
+hand, Jack wrestled manfully with many a tough problem
+on which Fred would have been hopelessly stranded.
+Once rouse the belligerent impulse in Jack, and he would
+fight his way through.</p>
+
+<p>These two were at different ends of the social plane.
+Fred's father was the great man of Yerbury, the present
+owner of Hope Mills; not only rich, but living in luxury.
+He had married Miss Agatha Hope, and by the death of
+her two brothers she had become sole heir to the Hope
+estate: though it was whispered that her brothers had
+left a heavy legacy of debts behind them. There was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+family on the Lawrence side as well, but not much money.
+David Lawrence had prospered beyond his wildest dreams.
+He had twice been mayor of Yerbury, gone to the State
+Legislature, and been spoken of as a possible senator;
+but he did not sigh for political distinction.</p>
+
+<p>Agatha was their first-born; then Frederic De Woolfe,
+named for some Hope ancestor. Two girls afterward;
+but Fred remained the only son. He was a delicate boy,
+and, until he reached the age of ten, studied with his
+sisters' governess, when he rebelled, and insisted upon
+his boy's prerogative of going to school. Here he met
+and loved Jack Darcy.</p>
+
+<p>Jack was a few months the elder,&mdash;a stout, hardy,
+robust boy, full of mischief, falling into scrapes, and slipping
+out easily. Not vicious or ugly; in fact, he had
+thrashed Ned Thomas for robbing birds' nests, been known
+to rescue a miserable kitten from its tormentors, and was
+always bringing home sore-eyed, mangy curs to be nursed
+and healed. If he had cared, he could have boasted as
+good a pedigree as the Hopes and the Lawrences. For
+his grandmother was of pure old French Jacobin descent,
+titled too. Many a wild romance and adventure had her
+family figured in,&mdash;now on the top round of prosperity,
+now in bitter poverty and exile. At the age of eighteen
+she was living on the western coast of Ireland with her
+old father, when she fell in love with handsome Jack
+Darcy, whose persuasive blue eyes were enough to melt
+the heart of the most obdurate woman; the merriest,
+wittiest, best-tempered lad for miles around, the owner
+of a small farm and numberless family traditions that
+counted back to the time when</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Malachi wore the collar of gold,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">He won from the proud invader."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>For a while they were prosperous and happy: then
+came bad seasons, famine, and finally typhus. Two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+bright, handsome sons and a little daughter were victims,
+leaving only baby Bernard. They came to the New
+World, and began life again, managing thriftily, and buying
+a house and garden in the quaint old town of Yerbury.
+Mr. Darcy died; and his son grew to man's estate, settled
+to the business of carpenter and builder (as he possessed
+a good deal of mechanical skill), married a pretty, delicate
+girl, but did not seem to make of life a signal success.
+Still it is possible that a life of happiness and content
+may have its use in this world, if it does not serve to
+point a prosperous moral.</p>
+
+<p>He added a wing to the house, he raised fruit and
+flowers that were marvels. Grandmother preferred for
+several years to keep house by herself, raise chickens and
+geese, and keep putting by a little of her very own.
+They had a choice garden and a soft-eyed Alderney cow,
+but Bernard Darcy had surely missed his vocation. He
+should have been a scientific farmer.</p>
+
+<p>Baby Jack came to them. He certainly had not inherited
+the beauty of the Darcys nor the Beaumanoirs,
+not even the delicacy of his mother. The eyes of Irish
+blue were tinged with gray, his hair inclined to the
+warmer tints of chestnut, and now he always kept the
+curls cropped short. However, his magnificently shaped
+head was not disfigured by the process. He did get
+terribly freckled and tanned as warm weather came on,
+and the hair turned almost red by much bathing and
+sunshine. A striking contrast indeed to the handsome,
+well-dressed Frederic.</p>
+
+<p>When Fred went to the academy he pleaded for Jack
+to go, and Grandmother Darcy decided that he should.
+She had never taken kindly to her son's rather plebeian
+occupation. After several years of indifferent success,
+Mr. Darcy had accepted a position at the mill, in which,
+if there was not so much profit, there were no losses.</p>
+
+<p>Jack was not a student in an intellectual point of view.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+He did not care to be a doctor, lawyer, or clergyman,
+and certainly not a professor. He would have liked to
+pack a satchel, and start westward, prospect for a railroad,
+gold or silver mine, and live the rugged, unconventional
+camp-life. Once he had ventured to suggest this
+noble ambition; but his timid mother was startled out of
+her wits, and his grandmother said with a sage shake
+of the head,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"A rolling stone gathers no moss."</p>
+
+<p>"Grandmother," began Jack argumentatively, "of
+what real value is the moss to the stone, except in the
+picturesque aspect? Do you know that a great many of
+these time revered and honored adages are the greatest
+humbugs in the world?" asked the audacious young
+iconoclast. "Who wants to be a stone or a clod, or
+even a bit of velvet moss? They go to make up the
+world, it is true; but is that narrow, torpid, insensate
+life any pattern for human souls and active bodies? I
+think a man's business in this world is to find out
+new channels, to build up, to broaden and deepen, and
+somehow to make the world feel that he has been in it.
+I can't just explain,"&mdash;and his brows knit into a puzzled
+frown,&mdash;"but it seems to me there is something
+grander than plodding along and saving a little money."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt you would be glad enough to have the
+money, when you have gone off like the prodigal son,
+and wasted health and substance in foreign lands," said
+grandmother with some asperity.</p>
+
+<p>Jack had been brought up to reverence the Bible and
+religion, and to respect his grandmother was the first
+article in his creed. He relapsed into silence, but the
+busy brain kept up a vigorous ferment. What was life
+all about, anyhow? Why did people come into the world,
+live thirty, sixty, or even eighty years, and then drop
+out of it. Was it merely to eat, drink, and sleep?</p>
+
+<p>The wider lore at the academy had a peculiar effect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
+upon Jack, tangled his brain, begat confusing mental
+processes. Greek he hated; Latin he barely endured;
+chemistry and mineralogy interested him, and in mathematics
+he excelled. Fred carried every thing before him,
+graduated with honors, and was to enter Harvard. The
+Lawrences went to Newport, and Jack missed his bosom
+friend sorely. He rambled through the woods, read every
+thing that came in his way, and thought a good deal in
+his crude, undisciplined fashion.</p>
+
+<p>What was he to do with this tough problem of unknown
+quantities?</p>
+
+<p>He ventured at last to broach the subject to his father.</p>
+
+<p>Bernard Darcy studied his son gravely. Now, it must
+be considered that he had never been troubled with this
+hungry, perplexing view of life that urges one on to dip
+deep into the secrets of existence. To have a pretty
+house and garden, to watch his flowers, vegetables, and
+chickens grow, to dream over his books in his cosey sitting-room,
+not to be pinched for money, not to be anxious
+about employment, but to go on serenely day after day,&mdash;this
+was Mr. Darcy's idea of happiness; and, having this,
+he was perfectly content.</p>
+
+<p>His mother secretly chafed at his lack of ambition; his
+neighbors said, "A good, honest fellow, but with no
+'push' in him." Curiously enough, the virtues that are
+preached from pulpits Sunday after Sunday, that we are
+always recommending to our friends, are <i>not</i> the ones that
+gain any vast amount of credit in this life. "Be content!
+be content!" cries every one, from revelation downward;
+yet content, pure and simple, is rather despised and flouted
+by our fellow-men.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, Jack," said the elder, gravely shaking
+his head with slow dubiousness. "What would you do if
+you were once away?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd go on until I found some place into which I just
+fitted;" and the boy glanced over westward with hungering
+eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But, Jack," said his father, after a pause, "I think
+people oftener fit themselves into a place. There are so
+few places ready made to one's hand. It's always something.
+Now, I'll venture to say that David Lawrence,
+with all his money, doesn't see as much real happiness as
+I do. His is a slave's life, after all. It's day and night,
+bills to pay and stock to get, dissatisfied hands, poor
+hands spoiling work, losses here and there, little leisure,
+small peace of mind; and all for what? There was a time
+when I might have envied him: I don't now."</p>
+
+<p>Jack had lost all but the first two sentences.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the thing!" he cried, with boyish enthusiasm,&mdash;"fitting
+yourself; coming to something that takes hold
+of you like an inspiration; that you could work for, fight
+for, that rouses soul and body."</p>
+
+<p>Bernard Darcy studied the youthful face, eager, alert,
+hopeful, and with something else in it that he could not
+understand.</p>
+
+<p>"I never had any such dreams or desires," he said in
+an uncertain tone, as if fearful he might lose his way
+among his son's vagaries. "I wanted a pleasant home,
+and a loving wife and children. I wish there had been
+more of them, Jack, for your sake," and his voice took
+on a tender inflection. "Then, if one wanted to go away,
+there would have been others left. You see, Jack,
+mother's heart is bound up in you, and she's getting to be
+an old woman with but few ties. I might manage to
+comfort your own mother; but you are so young, Jack.
+There will be many years before you, doubtless; and if
+you could give a few to us," with a wistful, loving look.
+"Now, if you wanted to study"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't," in a hasty, husky tone. "I believe I
+hate quiet. I want life, adventure! I've staid in school
+this last year just to please Larry."</p>
+
+<p>"Have a little patience, Jack. Old people are not like
+young ones. They feel the changes keenly. And you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+are all we have. It would take the sunshine out of our
+lives. It would seem as if there had been a funeral."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Jack with meek hopelessness that one
+would hardly look for in a vigorous boy; and winking
+hard to keep back some tears. No logical argument, no
+stricture of duty, could have half the weight of this bit of
+love pleading. Father was right. God had made him a
+son first of all, given him a son's duties. Jack had never
+troubled his head much about religion in any theological
+sense; but his simple creed had some great if old-fashioned
+truths in it.</p>
+
+<p>"If there's any thing you would like to do, I'd be glad
+to give you a chance. And there's no need to hurry.
+You may come to the right thing presently."</p>
+
+<p>Jack swallowed over a great lump in his throat. The
+two kittens came scampering up the walk, and he caught
+one, lifting it to his shoulder. Then Sylvie Barry entered
+the gate with her dainty milk-kettle shining like silver.</p>
+
+<p>They were in a manner neighbors, for Larch Avenue
+was the next street to Maple Place. Both streets were
+now given over to what is termed decayed gentility. The
+larches were old and ragged and brown with clustering
+cones, and the blue blood of the denizens had grown a
+little sluggish.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Honoria Barry and her small niece lived together,
+with a tall and gaunt handmaiden Norman French, and a
+broad Yorkshire gardener. Miss Barry was the old cream
+of Yerbury. Here her family had lived since the Huguenot
+persecution, and dwindled finally to two. Louis
+Barry was a dissipated spendthrift. He married, and
+tormented his wife into an early grave, and might have
+worn out his sister, but Providence kindly removed him.
+Miss Honoria retrenched, paid off debts and mortgage
+by degrees, and brought up Sylvie in a quaint, refined,
+old-world fashion.</p>
+
+<p>Old Mrs. Darcy and Miss Barry exchanged formal calls,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+and discussed la belle France. Sylvie took great delight
+in listening to grandmother's stories of brave heroes and
+handsome women who figured in old legends.</p>
+
+<p>Oddly enough, one of the many points of agreement
+between Jack and Fred had been their aversion to girls
+in general. Fred judged them from his sisters, who were
+always nagging, always exhorting him to be a gentleman,
+and always holding up Jack Darcy to ridicule. Jack, on
+the other hand, had a bashful fear of girls, and fancied
+they were laughing at every little awkwardness; then they
+cried so easily, went off in a huff if they could not have
+their own way, were silly, vain, and tattling, ready enough
+to beg your assistance if there was a munching cow by the
+roadside, a worm swinging from a tree, or a harmless
+mouse running across the floor. The great fascination to
+the Darcy house was, that the boys could sit in the large,
+clean kitchen, trying all sorts of crude experiments, with
+Ann to clear away the <i>d&eacute;bris</i> and find no fault. Jack
+never wanted to go to the great house. In true boy fashion
+he understood without any explanation. But they
+both liked little Sylvie. She was taught at home except
+in music and drawing, and she was as much interested in
+grandmother's heroes as the two boys.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, the Hopes and the Barrys had always
+been great friends; and, from some odd freak of unlikeness,
+Sylvie and Irene Lawrence carried on the intimacy.</p>
+
+<p>She stopped now, and talked about the kitten with Jack;
+and he carried her milk-pail home to the gate.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long, wearisome vacation to poor Jack. Fishing
+lost its charm, even tramps in the woods became
+monotonous. He spent hours in his father's shop, inspecting
+machinery, though he seldom asked a question
+or ventured upon a remark. Indeed, some of the hands
+thought "Darcy's boy wasn't over-bright." Yet here he
+laid the foundation of the problem that was to vex and
+puzzle his soul in after-years. Here was the great, whirring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+machinery, belts, bands, spindles, looms, and oftentimes
+a stupid and stolid enough workman at one end,
+grinding out luxury and elegance for David Lawrence,
+Esq.; that his family might tread on Wilton and Axminster,
+dine from silver and crystal, dress in silks and velvets,
+drive about with high-stepping bays, and scorn all
+beneath them. Once as Jack was thinking it over he
+laughed aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"You must feel very much amused," said a rather
+sour-looking man standing near by, with a peculiar touchiness
+as if he had been laughed at.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I wasn't amused, I was only thinking"&mdash; But
+Jack stopped in the middle of his sentence. Could <i>this</i>
+man take any such position as that of Mr. Lawrence?</p>
+
+<p>Then he came across a volume of self-made men, which
+he eagerly devoured. Every one seemed to have commenced
+life without a dollar, and almost without friends.
+Were those the important factors in the race, to be light-weighted?
+And he had a triple chain.</p>
+
+<p>Fred returned, handsomer than ever, and doubly glad
+to get back to Jack. There was just four days grace.
+They revisited old haunts, talked endlessly and to little
+purpose, like so much of the talk of youth, and now they
+were parting at the gate for the last time. Unlike girls
+they exchanged no vows or kisses. It is not in boy-nature
+to be effusive.</p>
+
+<p>"To think that I shall not be home until Christmas!
+If only you <i>were</i> going with me, Jack, what jolly times
+we would have!"</p>
+
+<p>"I could have gone," answered Jack with some pride,
+"that is, if I had been prepared. Father was willing,
+and grandmother would have been proud enough;" and
+just then Jack wondered why going to seek his fortune
+appeared so much more terrible to them.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why not, Jack?" with impetuous eagerness.
+"It isn't too late."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I don't want the years of study. I should come to
+hate the sight of a book. No, I'll find out where I
+belong, some day. Don't worry about me," with an
+abrupt laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"But I am so sorry!" Then they looked into each
+other's eyes. All these years had been filled with such
+good, honest boy-love.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, old chap!" cried Jack suddenly; for the
+wrench must come, and lingering over it was painful. "I
+shall miss you lots! it seems so queer to be without you!
+Of course you'll succeed: there's no use wishing about
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a good wish from you, Jack. Good-by. I hate
+awfully to say it: I hate to think that our jolly boyish
+frolics are over."</p>
+
+<p>"But we'll have many a good row on the river, and
+tramps through the woods. We can't outgrow every thing.
+And there'll be summers and summers."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by."</p>
+
+<p>The gate-latch clicked: Jack walked rapidly down the
+street, whistling "Kathleen Mavourneen" unconsciously.
+Did he dream the simple faith of boyhood had reached its
+culmination, and was henceforth to wane?</p>
+
+<p>"Dear old Jack," thought Fred: "I don't know as
+he is quite Launcelot, though I used to think so at first.
+But there was Sir Gawain and Sir Bedevere and a host
+of worthies, and if he only <i>would</i> he could come up to the
+highest. What makes him so obstinate and unambitious,
+I wonder? Are there any King Arthurs and loyal knights
+nowadays, or only common men and women?"</p>
+
+<p>His sisters opened upon him with the fatal persistency
+of narrow feminine natures.</p>
+
+<p>"You may say what you like about Jack Darcy," he
+flung out angrily, "but you'll never make me give him
+up,&mdash;never, never!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do hush, children," interposed Mrs. Lawrence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+"Fred, I hope you will learn to modulate your voice,
+and not shriek so."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie put on her hat to go home. As she passed Fred
+she said just above her breath,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You are right and brave. I wouldn't give up my
+friend because he was poor; and Jack is so nice!"</p>
+
+<p>"Much she knows about it," thought Fred, with a true
+boyish disdain. Yet her approval of Jack was a virtue in
+his eyes.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Father!</span>" exclaimed Jack a few days after this
+parting from his bosom friend, "I think I will go in the
+mill for a year or two, if there is any thing for me to do.
+Meanwhile my inspiration may come along."</p>
+
+<p>"But what would you like best, Jack?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's just the trouble," and the youthful brows knit
+in perplexity. "All things seem alike to me: I haven't
+any choice."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Darcy drew a long breath that was almost a sigh.
+If Jack only would evince some preference!</p>
+
+<p>However, a place was found as under-bookkeeper. It
+was desperately tiresome to Jack to sit perched on a high
+stool all day; and after three months of it he begged to
+be put at something else.</p>
+
+<p>At this period we had gone through our costly civil war;
+and, instead of being exhausted as friends and enemies
+predicted, the machinery of business appeared to have
+been set in motion with a new and overwhelming impetus.
+Every thing was wanted; everybody had work or money;
+and the most useless commodity found a purchaser: as
+if our anguish had crazed us, and we went into a delirium
+of mental opium, and dreamed wild, exhilarating dreams
+which we mistook for reality.</p>
+
+<p>Yerbury had been a slow, solid, conservative town.
+Property was low, taxes light and easily paid, a balance
+on hand in the treasury to commence the new year, and
+very little pauperism in the town. Yerbury officials
+utilized their inefficient population, and their county jail<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+was not made a palace of luxury. The old-fashioned
+element in the place held crime as the result of sin instead
+of occult disease,&mdash;a thing to be punished, rather than
+petted. It had good railroad connections, plenty of
+water, with one navigable stream, and a variety of industries.
+Iron, shoes, hats, paper, and clothing were manufactured
+to a considerable extent, to say nothing of many
+smaller branches. Hope Mills was the largest, the focus
+of the town, and had the prestige of being handed down
+through three generations, though never as extensive as
+now.</p>
+
+<p>Toward the west there was a succession of pretty hills
+that lay in the broad sunshine, making you think somehow
+of Spanish slopes, covered with vineyards, olives,
+and luxuriant verdure. Over beyond, a wide, diversified
+country range, farms, woodland, hills and valleys, with
+a branch of the river winding through, called, rather unromantically,
+Little Creek.</p>
+
+<p>On these slopes, the new part, dwelt the aristocracy.
+Streets wound around in picturesque fashion to make easy
+grades, and many old forest-trees were preserved by that
+means, giving the place an air of years, rather than yesterday
+and improvement. There were two pretty parks,&mdash;one
+devoted to Fourth-of-July orations from time immemorial;
+there were churches of every denomination; a
+boarding and day school for young ladies, the academy,
+some excellent district schools; a hall with library and
+reading-room; a bank; rows of attractive shops and
+stores; and, coming down in the scale of refinement,
+beer-saloons and concert-halls, kept generally up to a
+certain point of morality. There were so many laboring-men,
+and they must have something by way of entertainment.</p>
+
+<p>It struck Jack with a curious wonder. These stolid
+faces and plodding steps were part of the human machines
+out of which wealth was being ground. They went to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+the beer-shops at night in their dirty clothes, smelling
+of grease and dye, drank beer, played a few games, and
+harangued each other, and went home maudlin or stupefied.
+Perhaps it was more comfortable than the slatternly
+wives and crying children. Did it need to be so? If you
+gave the workingman a helping hand, did he turn straightway
+into an unreasoning demagogue?</p>
+
+<p><i>He</i> was not likely to be tempted by such doings. His
+home had always been too clean and pleasant. He still
+kept up with the boys, and joined the lyceum club; but
+the intimate companionship of his life was gone.</p>
+
+<p>Fred did not come home for Christmas. College-life
+was delightful,&mdash;would be just perfect if dear old Jack
+were there. The glowing letters kept alive his own
+secret dissatisfaction. But how explain it to one who
+would be sure to say, "Get out of it all, Jack: no one
+has any right to keep you in such a distasteful round, and
+thwart your life-plans." To be sure, he had no life-plans.</p>
+
+<p>One raw, cold March day, Mr. Darcy went out to repair
+a roof that had leaked in the previous storm. He rarely
+minded wind or weather.</p>
+
+<p>"I declare," he said that evening, dropping into his
+capacious armchair, "I feel as if I should never get
+warmed through. I do believe we shall have a tremendous
+snowstorm to take this chill out of the air. Jack,
+read the paper aloud, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack complied. Local items, bits of State news, and
+the general progress of the country; the starvation of
+a nation at the antipodes, the discovery of a wonderful
+silver-mine, plans for new railroads,&mdash;how busy the
+world was! It stirred Jack's youthful blood.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to be a railroad-president," said Jack suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>His father stared, then laughed at the absurdity.
+"Why, you're only a boy, Jack," he replied.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I know it. But the boy who means to be a railroad-president
+must begin somewhere. Or if I could own a
+silver-mine," he went on, with the boundless audacity of
+youth.</p>
+
+<p>"Could you find use for the silver?" asked his father
+humorously.</p>
+
+<p>Jack flushed, and lapsed into dreams. Grandmother
+opposite was nodding in her chair, her knitting still in
+her fingers. Jack left his vision for a moment, to calculate
+if the old chest upstairs was not nearly full of stockings.
+His mother sat sewing some trifle, and just raised
+her eyes with that longing, beseeching glance mothers
+so often give to their sons.</p>
+
+<p>"If women only did not care so much for one," thought
+Jack, "or if there had been a great family of us. And
+still I can't see the wonderful difference between going to
+college, and going to seek your fortune. Does two or three
+hundred miles more matter when you are once away?"</p>
+
+<p>The snow came on through the night. There being
+nothing urgent on hand, Mr. Darcy remained within; but
+Jack buffeted the storm gallantly. It would be worse
+than this out in the new countries where he meant to go
+some time.</p>
+
+<p>The next day Mr. Darcy was out. There was a dull
+pain in his breast, going through to his back, and he
+coughed a little. It went on thus for forty-eight hours,
+when the pain became intense, and fever set in. Dr.
+Kendrick was summoned; and, though the case was
+severe, it had no alarming symptoms at first. Jack went
+to and fro with his merry whistle; speculative he might
+be, but he was not introspective or morbid: wife and
+mother watched at home.</p>
+
+<p>There came one of those sudden and inexplicable turns
+in the disease. Jack was stunned, incredulous. In his
+mother's eyes lay a look of helpless terror he was never to
+forget.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You'll care for them always, Jack; you'll never leave
+them," said his father imploringly, in one lucid interval.</p>
+
+<p>"Always," answered the young voice bravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, my son, my dear boy;" and there was a
+fervent clasp of the hand.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later Bernard Darcy lay coffined in the
+pretty parlor, while wife and mother were crushed with
+grief.</p>
+
+<p>"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes;" and Jack dropped the
+first handful of earth in his father's open grave. The two
+women clung to him,&mdash;he was their all. Here lay his
+duty as long as God pleased.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed for weeks after this as if Mrs. Darcy would
+follow her husband. She looked so white and wan, she
+was so feeble that some days she could not leave her bed.
+Grandmother rallied with that invincible determination
+not to be beaten down if her prop was wrenched away.</p>
+
+<p>Jack was now a few months past eighteen, stout, and
+growing tall rapidly. There was about him a sturdy persistence
+and the good common sense that lends an adaptiveness
+or pliability of disposition, so to speak, that is
+often mistaken for content. Since he must stay here for
+some years to come, he would devote himself to learning
+the business of manufacturing woollen cloth. It entertained
+him more than keeping books. For the sake of
+these two bereaved women, he would take an actual interest
+in the work he had to do.</p>
+
+<p>Looking back in after-years, he was glad he made the
+resolve, and stood by it manfully. It gave ballast to his
+character, shaped him to a definite purpose. A narrow
+life, to be sure; nay, more, a distasteful one: but he did
+his best, and waited, and that was all that could be asked
+of him.</p>
+
+<p>Early in June there was a great commotion at the mansion
+on Hope Terrace. Miss Agatha Lawrence was married
+to Hamilton Minor, one of the great firm of brokers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+in Wall Street, 'Morgan, Minor, &amp; Co.' For weeks it
+had been the talk of the town. The trousseau came from
+Paris, and was marvellous. The presents were on exhibition,
+and created a vast amount of envy and admiration,&mdash;silver,
+jewels, pictures, crystal, china, and laces. And
+last of all a sumptuous wedding,&mdash;every delicacy in season
+and out of season, costly wines, pyramids of cake,
+and a lavish profusion of flowers. Nothing so grand had
+ever occurred in Yerbury.</p>
+
+<p>Fred and a stylish Miss Minor were to stand. He
+reached home just in time; and, as he was to be off again
+with the bridal party, he sent a note of regret to Jack.</p>
+
+<p>Jack had too much good sense to feel hurt, though he
+was disappointed. A few weeks later he took his mother
+and grandmother up to the mountains for change of air,
+and enjoyed the vacation hugely himself. So it happened
+he did not see Fred at all.</p>
+
+<p>The second year letters languished, indeed failed, I
+may as well admit. Jack was being rapidly inducted
+into the wisdom of the world, Fred into the wisdom of
+society. They would never meet on the old plane again.
+The mill-hand would be no companion for the son and heir
+of David Lawrence, Esq.</p>
+
+<p>It was not in Jack Darcy's nature to be bitter or cynical.
+He just accepted the fact. Somewhere he and Fred
+had outgrown each other, and the boyish interests, once
+such a bond of union. Fred would be an educated and
+cultivated gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>Why should he be left in the background? His ambition
+was suddenly roused again, and he more than half
+wished himself in college. He went back to his books;
+he joined a debating-society. There was no need of being
+a mere clod because he had to work. David Lawrence
+was a gentleman. And the next spring he took up
+a little botany and horticulture with his gardening. Old
+Mr. Rising down the street, who had been gardener to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+some great lord,&mdash;a peculiar, obstinate Englishman, with
+his head crammed full of odd bits of knowledge,&mdash;took a
+fancy to Jack. They discussed not only fruit and flowers,
+but trade in its various aspects, as Mr. Rising had relatives
+at Manchester who had soared to the ambitions of
+mills and factories.</p>
+
+<p>Time sped on, and they came to the second summer.
+Miss Gertrude Lawrence was a belle now, and the great
+house was constantly filled with guests. The Lawrence
+equipages were seen in every direction. Mrs. Minor
+was up frequently, in grand state. The lawn was gay
+with croquet-parties, the evenings were brilliant with
+lights and music: they had two elegant garden-parties,
+when the grounds were illuminated with colored lanterns,
+and the teas were festivals in themselves. Fred had
+brought home two college chums, and for the first fortnight
+was deeply engrossed. Then, too, the girls no longer
+nagged at him. He was developing into an elegant
+young man, with due regard for the proprieties.</p>
+
+<p>He did go to call on Jack one evening. It was a duty,
+a rather awkward and embarrassing one, and he took to
+himself great credit in the point of moral courage. He
+understood thoroughly now what Agatha had striven so
+sedulously to explain, the difference in social station. He
+was not likely in the future to make a blunder on that
+side, but it would not do to turn the cold shoulder to Jack
+all at once. "A boy's will's the wind's will," he repeated
+with much complacency, and it was but natural that it
+should veer in other directions. Jack was a good enough
+fellow, but no Sir Galahad or Sir any one now.</p>
+
+<p>He was a little shocked at Mrs. Darcy in her mourning
+dress and widow's cap. She was pale, and with the extreme
+delicacy so often pronounced characteristic of
+American women. Grandmother sat in state and dignity,
+rather resentful of what she termed in her secret heart
+Fred's neglect, but a thing she would not have confessed
+openly if she had been put to torture. And Jack?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Frederic De Woolfe Lawrence studied him with a critical
+eye. A great, lumbering, inelegant fellow! Jack
+seemed to have grown out in every direction, without
+being finished up in any. He was taken somewhat at a
+disadvantage, too: somehow he fancied, if he had met
+Fred alone in a stray walk, there would have been less
+formality.</p>
+
+<p>They talked about college. Fred was doing well, for
+he was by nature a student. Society's arts and airs would
+never entirely uproot that love. He meant to distinguish
+himself, and have one of the prize essays. Jack was
+rather grave and quiet, hard to get on with, Fred thought;
+and he was relieved when the duty was ended, and he
+could go with a good grace.</p>
+
+<p>Jack lingered on the porch, clinching his fingers, and
+listening to the jaunty retreating footstep. There was
+something different in Fred's walk even, a buoyancy as
+if he could override any little difficulties that fate might
+have in store for him. Jack smiled grimly. Fortune had
+showered every good gift upon him. He would go proudly,
+successfully, through life. He would be praised and
+honored&mdash;and for what?</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Jack felt like wrestling with him, shoulder
+to shoulder, to distance him, to defeat him, to lower
+his complacent pride. His half-patronizing manner had
+stung keenly. Then the real nobility of his nature
+cropped out, and he laughed at his own sudden heat and
+passion.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be folly," he said softly to himself. "I
+could not distinguish myself in any line he will be likely
+to follow. He must work his way: I must work mine.
+He knows what he means to do; and there he has gone
+ahead of me, for I really do not know my own mind.
+No, there's no further basis for a friendship: the boy-love
+has had its day, and died. After all, isn't that the
+history of every thing?" and Jack looked up to the stars,
+still with a little wordless pain at his heart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He heard during the next week that Fred had gone
+West with one of his friends, who was nephew to a great
+railway magnate. It would be only a flying trip, to be
+sure, but here Jack was tempted to envy him. That
+boundless West, the land of his own dreams!</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother grew a trifle less energetic, still it could
+not be said that her health began to fail. Mrs. Darcy
+remained about the same. Every day Jack realized how
+much he was to the two women. To leave them would be
+absolute cruelty.</p>
+
+<p>At Christmas of this year Miss Gertrude Lawrence was
+married. The wedding was rather quieter, from the fact
+that it was winter, and the bride was to leave for Europe
+the next day. Irene was shooting up into a tall girl, and
+being educated at a fashionable and expensive boarding-school.
+Nothing happened to impair her friendship with
+Sylvie Barry, though the two girls were as dissimilar in
+many respects as Jack and Fred, but they both stood on
+the same social plane.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile matters at Yerbury prospered mightily.
+The town was quite bright at night with the glow from
+factory-windows, and people seemed always hurrying to
+and fro. New shops and stores were started, new streets
+were laid out, rows of houses built in town, and out on
+the edge pretty and ugly suburban villas. Property began
+to increase everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>Gertrude and her husband George Eastman came back
+to Yerbury in about five months. He had begun his
+career as clerk in a bank, and joined his brother afterward
+as an army-contractor. From thence they had
+branched into general speculating, and were both considered
+rich men. Mr. Minor owned a Fifth-avenue
+palace, and Mrs. Minor never came to Yerbury without
+her maid. Mrs. Eastman could not have the palace in
+town, so she decided to have a handsome summer residence
+at Yerbury, and spend her winters at different<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+hotels. Mr. Eastman thought he saw a grand opening
+just in this pretty spot. Property was ridiculously low.
+Here were farms and farms that might as well be cut up
+into building-lots, and turned into cities. Here was the
+river-front, here were railroads: why not have twice or
+thrice as many shops? why not call in the people from
+far and wide, and make Yerbury a place of note? Time
+had been when our fathers were content to dream and
+doze, but now it behooved everybody to be up and
+stirring. In the new race the laggards would fall far
+behind.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eastman set the example by purchasing one large
+tract, and laying out streets. Then uprose houses as if
+by magic. Modern improvements, water, gas, bath, butler's
+pantries, and dumb-waiters; and the houses offered
+so cheaply that the solid, slow-going, honest business-men
+wondered how it could be done. The places had a wonderfully
+seductive look, and were sought after eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>There was a peculiar interest in all this to Jack. When
+one day somebody said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Downer's property south of the bridge has gone for
+thirty thousand dollars. Five years ago he'd been glad
+to have taken ten for it. Crater and Harmon are going
+to build a big factory,"&mdash;Jack's heart went up with a
+bound.</p>
+
+<p>He still wanted to get away from Yerbury. He began
+to feel that he had made a mistake with his life, and was
+anxious to rectify it if possible. He did not see how he
+could do it here. He had gone into the groove, and it
+was hard getting out. But if some one came along, and
+offered them a fortune!</p>
+
+<p>The chance drew near. A new street was prospected
+through Miss Barry's grounds, through the Lanier place
+farther back, and the southern end would touch the
+Darcy place, giving it some new fronts and available
+lots, and placing the house on the corner. There would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+be sufficient ground for the width of the street. A petition
+was forthwith circulated.</p>
+
+<p>Alas that there could be people so blind to their own
+interests and the general welfare of the community!
+Miss Barry stoutly resisted. She even inspired some of
+her neighbors to that extent of opposition that they
+would not sell at any price. Destroy the beauty of
+Larch Avenue, that had been "Lovers' Walk" in the old
+days, and held so many tender reminiscences!</p>
+
+<p>"When I am gone I don't care what is done with the
+place," said Miss Barry. "It will have but little sentiment
+for the next generation. A change to me now
+would be like tearing up an old tree by the roots. I
+could not endure it. They may have their elegant new
+houses; but give me my large airy rooms and my old-time
+flowers, my nectarines and apricots. Let me live
+my few years in peace and quiet."</p>
+
+<p>"There is certainly enough to improve," returned
+Grandmother Darcy. "There are miles and miles that
+people are glad to sell. Let them take that. Let them
+build up the vacant lots. And where are all the people
+coming from to fill them?"</p>
+
+<p>"The factories and mills will bring in the people,"
+said Jack sturdily.</p>
+
+<p>"There is plenty of room elsewhere," returned Miss
+Barry with some asperity. "There certainly is no need
+of turning people out of homes they like, and have made
+comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you cannot look at it in a business light,"
+said Jack. "Women rarely do"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"There have been just such whirlwinds before, Mr.
+Darcy," said the shrewd little old lady. "I have lived
+through two of them myself. And it seems to me it is
+an epidemic of running in debt, rather than prosperity.
+If everything were paid for; but you see here are improvement-bonds,
+and our town runs in debt: here is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+everybody raising money on mortgages. How is it to be
+paid? Do wages and salaries double? History proves
+that it is a bad thing for a state when its rich men grow
+richer, and its poor poorer."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure they need not," said Jack valiantly.
+"There is a higher scale of wages paid than ever before."</p>
+
+<p>"And no account made of thrift or economy. Enticements
+at every corner; women flaunting silks and laces
+as everyday gear, with no sacredness; old-fashioned
+neatness despised, industry ridiculed; men lounging in
+beer-shops; girls flirting on the public streets, having no
+duties beyond a day's work in a mill. What will the
+homes and the wives of the next generation be like?"</p>
+
+<p>"But that was all so irrelevant," said Jack after she
+had gone. "Women mix up everything. Now, here:
+you are offered a big price for this property. You two
+could live at ease all the rest of your life, and I"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You would go away," said his mother sorrowfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, perhaps not," trying to make the tone indifferent.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack," began his grandmother, sitting very erect,
+and glancing straight before her into vacancy, "I am an
+old woman now; and, like Miss Barry, I could not take
+a change comfortably. No other place will ever be home
+to your mother or me. There is some money,&mdash;enough,
+I think, to take care of us both. So, if you cannot be
+content, if you must have the restless roving of youth out
+before your blood can cool, go and try the world. It is
+pretty much alike all over,&mdash;some one going up while
+another goes down; chances here, and chances there.
+As for the few years left me"&mdash; And there was a slight
+tremble in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't fret. I'm not going away," said Jack crossly,
+huskily, too much hurt to study his tone. "If I can't
+always see things as you do"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>There were tears in his mother's eyes. Jack rose suddenly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+thrust his hands in his pockets, and walked out
+into the twilight. There was nothing to be done with
+so obstinate a problem as his life. He would learn the
+business thoroughly, getting on as fast as possible, and
+some time make a strike out for himself, become a manufacturer
+in turn. The thing was settled now. Maybe
+some one would want him for mayor or congressman.
+There was a time when David Lawrence, Esq., had
+been a comparatively poor man; and though Jack felt
+that he would hardly turn his hand over to have a million
+of dollars put in it for the mere money's worth, if he could
+not discover a silver-mine, or build a railroad over the
+Rocky Mountains, he might become a rich man. Wealth
+was a mighty lever, after all. He shut his lips grimly,
+and pushed his hat down over his eyes. In the early
+summer dusk, fragrant with rose and violet, he went over
+the old battle-ground. Did some enemy sow it continually
+with dragon's teeth? To stay here eight or ten
+years, mayhap, to make all the money he could. Not
+one year of her life did he mean to grudge grandmother.</p>
+
+<p>It was quite late when he came in, but his mother was
+watching for him. She put her arms softly about his
+neck, and kissed him.</p>
+
+<p>"Have a little patience, dear," she said, in tender,
+motherly tones; but he knew her sympathy was with him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I mean to. I don't care as much as I did an
+hour ago. I'm going to set myself steadily to business.
+You'll hear no more moans or groans out of me, mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Jack&mdash;you know I would go to the end of the world
+with you."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you would&mdash;yes, I do. There, good-night!"
+for she was crying.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the way we rule circumstances," said Jack
+dryly, sitting down in his own room, and taking up
+Carlyle. "What an amount of humbug is talked in this
+world,&mdash;yes, and written too!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">There</span> was an influx of new blood in Yerbury, and it
+brought in fresh ideas. A new railroad touched it at one
+edge, and real-estate dealers left off fighting about Larch
+Avenue. The ancient stages were laid aside for the more
+modern horse-cars: there was bustle and rivalry on every
+hand. George Eastman began to be quoted, and his advice
+asked generally. Mrs. Eastman held her head loftily.
+Then there came on the arena of action a certain Horace
+Eastman, cousin to George, who had been abroad as
+agent for a large firm, and who slipped into the place of
+general manager of Hope Mills.</p>
+
+<p>Plainly, F. De Woolfe Lawrence was not preparing to
+follow in his father's steps. He had graduated with
+honors, and taken a prize essay, and was now a fully-fledged
+modern young man. He was fond of discoursing
+on abstruse subjects, he dabbled a little into art, wrote
+some mystical poems, tied a cravat beyond criticism, and
+wore faultless gloves and boots. His mother and Mrs.
+Eastman were extremely proud of him. His father
+wondered a little what the young man's future would
+be.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not decided upon a profession," he said, with
+a just perceptible but extremely stylish drawl. "The
+next thing is going abroad. I want at least two years of
+travel, and I should not wonder if I settled myself at
+some German or Parisian university. We, as a nation,
+are so sadly deficient in culture. Our country is crude,
+as I suppose all young countries must be."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>David Lawrence nodded slowly, and asked,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"When did you think of going?"</p>
+
+<p>"I may as well go at once, and have it over," returned
+the young man, with the princely indifference he affected.</p>
+
+<p>His father did not dissent. As well in Europe as here,
+or anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>As for Jack, he was quite as much out of his reach as
+if the ocean already rolled between. They used to pass
+each other quietly, nodding if they came face to face, but
+often evading any kind of recognition. Was the old
+regard dead?</p>
+
+<p>Fred smiled rather pityingly on the boy who had been
+so blinded in his first love.</p>
+
+<p>"I used to think him such a hero, because he once
+thrashed a boy in my behalf," mused the young man.
+"And how I used to fly at the girls, who were always
+looking at the feet of clay my idol possessed! How I
+<i>did</i> coax him to go to college!" and Fred gave a little
+rippling laugh. "I must admit that he has good common
+sense,&mdash;he has found his place, and keeps it. There
+could be nothing between us now, of course. My lines
+lie in such different ways."</p>
+
+<p>No moan for a lost ideal under all that self-complacency.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy took the defection in good part. He did
+see the utter incongruity of keeping up even the semblance
+of the old dream. But, where Fred had made
+dozens of new friends, Jack had admitted no one to his
+vacant shrine. He liked, even now, to recall those old
+hours, so bright and gay with childish whims and frolics.
+And he did envy Fred, just a little, that ramble over
+Europe. Would it be a ramble? It was Jack's turn to
+smile. Would it not be bits and pictures seen through
+coach-windows, rather than getting close to Nature's
+heart? No, that would not suit <i>him</i>.</p>
+
+<p>And so glided by two more years. De Woolfe Lawrence&mdash;he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+had dropped the initial now&mdash;returned home in a
+still higher state of cultivation, and quite as undecided as
+to his future career. A life of leisure and <i>belles-lettres</i>
+looked the most tempting to him. He had read up a little
+in medicine, but the practice would not please his fastidious
+inclinations. Law had its objections. In fact, Mr.
+Lawrence had dropped into that dilettante state into which
+extreme cultivation, without genius or ambition, is apt to
+drift its possessor. He was nearing twenty-four now,&mdash;handsome,
+aristocratic, the pride of his family, and the
+distraction of young women in general. Invitations were
+showered upon him, and the delicate flattery society loves
+to use, ministered to his vanity.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile what of Jack?</p>
+
+<p>He had improved considerably through these years.
+The rough angularity of twenty had softened. Tall, but
+robust and compact, no stooping shoulders or slouching
+gait. The chestnut hair was no longer faded, but still
+cropped close; and the eyes were so deep that they seemed
+to have a blue-black tint, large, slow-moving, with that unutterable
+wistfulness which makes one sad. The face was
+good, strong, and earnest; and, if his manners were not
+those of a gentleman of leisure, they bore the impress of
+something quite as noble, honor, tenderness, and sincerity.
+The old restlessness had dropped out. Love, being larger
+than duty, hinted now at no sacrifice. Grandmother
+Darcy, now grown quite feeble, leaned on this strong arm,
+always outstretched, forgetting there had ever been any
+wild dreams of youth.</p>
+
+<p>And, though Yerbury had changed so much, they and
+the old street remained unchanged. Mrs. Darcy was a
+little thinner and older, the light hair just touched with
+silver. The garden was the same: wherever his father's
+favorite flowers had died out, Jack had replaced them.
+Only the honeysuckle was like great twisted ropes, and
+the syringas and lilacs were trees instead of bushes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Old neighbors had gone, and new ones come, but they
+were of the quiet, steady kind. Miss Barry seemed
+smaller and frailer, but she was as active as ever in her
+refined way. Sylvie no longer came to the gate for milk:
+indeed, the wide-eyed Alderney had long been given up,
+and Sylvie was a young woman. Irene Lawrence had
+been sent to a fashionable boarding-school; but Sylvie
+had been educated at home, under her aunt's eye, by a
+French governess who had proved something more than a
+mere teacher. The coming of Madame Tr&eacute;pier served to
+cement more closely the intimacy with the Darcy family.
+Indeed, Jack took a queer, half-shy liking for madame,
+and began to study French. He had a great fondness for
+music, and a fine, rich tenor-voice: so he and Sylvie sang
+duets together, and often walked in the twilight with
+madame. Indeed, Miss Barry would have kept her for
+friend and companion all the rest of her life; but there
+came a very persistent wooer, and madame succumbed
+a second time to the destiny of women.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie Barry was piquant rather than pretty: a soft
+peachy skin neither dark nor fair, with a creamy tint;
+deep lustrous hazel eyes, that seemed to change with her
+moods; hair that had barely shaken off the golden tint,
+and clustered in rings about the low broad forehead; a
+passable nose of no particular design, but a really beautiful
+mouth and chin, the latter dimpled, the former with a
+short curved upper lip, displaying the pearly teeth at the
+faintest smile; barely medium height, with a figure that
+was slim yet not thin, rounded, graceful, pliant, with some
+of the swift dazzling motions of a bird.</p>
+
+<p>While Jack and Fred had drifted so apart, Sylvie and
+Irene still kept up a curious friendship. On Sylvie's part
+there was no election: indeed, Irene in her imperious fashion
+took Sylvie up as the mood seized her. Mrs. Lawrence,
+now quite an invalid, was fond of Sylvie's bright
+face and gay inspiriting voice. In Irene's absence she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+was often sending for her. "Play me a little song before
+you go," she would say; or, "Read a chapter in my book
+for me, will you not? You always make people seem so
+real." Consequently Sylvie had never left off going to
+the great house. Mrs. Eastman would fain have patronized
+her, but in her spirited way she shook off the faintest
+attempt. But Irene flew to her, and insisted upon a croquet-party
+or a drive, or a musical soir&eacute;e.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't do without you, you obstinate little thing,"
+she would exclaim. "I don't know why I take so much
+trouble about you; for I don't believe you like me at all,
+but just tolerate me for the sake of old times. There are
+twenty girls in Yerbury who would go wild with delight if
+I were to ask them."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you not, then?" inquired Sylvie with a tantalizing
+light in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I don't choose to, Miss Impertinence! Don't
+be cross now, and torment me to death with your perverse
+ways."</p>
+
+<p>"You surely need not be tormented."</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie, you are exasperating."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you ask me, then, or tease me to do any of
+these things? I would rather stay at home to-day, and
+paint."</p>
+
+<p>"But I shall not give you up. I'll stay here, and talk
+so that your wits will wander!"</p>
+
+<p>And so at last Sylvie would consent to her friend's
+demands.</p>
+
+<p>One evening she came over to discuss a costume for
+a fancy-dress garden-party. Mrs. Eastman had brought
+some fashion-plates up from New York, but they did not
+altogether suit her fancy: so the carriage was ordered,
+and in a few moments it rolled to Sylvie's door.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie and Jack were at the piano. There was a soft,
+drizzling, summer-night rain, that made all the air fragrant
+without any noisy patter. It was just the evening for an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+old Latin hymn; and Sylvie was playing the strong, rich
+chords that had in them mysterious hints of heavenly joy,
+coming up through waves of passionate suffering. Jack's
+voice seemed toned to these sympathetic vibrations, and
+the grand old words rolled out simply, with none of the
+vicious taste of the more modern fashionable school. So
+engrossed were they, that they did not hear the carriage
+stop; but Sylvie caught her aunt's voice.</p>
+
+<p>They had reached the end of a verse. "Let me see
+what auntie wants," said Sylvie, running into the next
+room; and then it was, "Oh, Irene! oh, Sylvie!"</p>
+
+<p>"Singing to yourself in the twilight!" laughed Irene.
+"How romantic! I'm going to interrupt you now, and
+put you in better business. I am just loaded down with
+the excellent fripperies of this world, and unable to make
+a choice. And the grand occasion is Mrs. Avery Langton's
+garden-party. Now, be good-natured, and help me
+decide."</p>
+
+<p>Uttering this in a rapid breath, she had walked through
+the sitting-room to the parlor, and tumbled her parcel
+down on the great antique sofa, whose edges everywhere
+were studded with brass nails. And there stood Jack,
+thinking, if he had been quicker, he could have stepped
+out of the window into Miss Sylvie's pretty flower-bed, now
+purple with odorous heliotrope. But, as he had not, there
+was nothing to do but to stand his ground manfully.</p>
+
+<p>He had often seen Irene Lawrence in the carriage and
+on horseback; but as she stepped into the room now, and
+stood there rather surprised, she might have been a daughter
+of Juno. Tall, slender, arrowy straight, but lithe and
+faultlessly rounded, her fleecy white shawl like a gossamer
+web falling off her shoulders, her haughty carriage, her
+wealth of purple-black hair coiled about her shapely head,
+a hundred times handsomer than any artifice of dressing,
+her brilliant complexion, her large eyes with their long
+sweeping lashes that veiled their depth, but seemed to add<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
+a certain imperiousness, her coral-red lips that shaped
+differently with every breath, her straight nose, with the
+nostrils thin as a bit of shell, and the softly rounded chin,
+made her a picture that Jack Darcy never forgot.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" in a tone of surprise, "I thought you were
+alone: pardon me."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie was bringing in another lamp, and placed it on
+the great clawfoot centre-table. Then it occurred to her
+that Irene might not know Jack. She should recognize
+him here socially, anyhow.</p>
+
+<p>"My friend Miss Lawrence," she said with a world of
+dignity, "Mr. Darcy."</p>
+
+<p>Jack bowed, in no wise abashed by this proud and
+handsome Miss Lawrence, though as a child she had
+snubbed him many a time. And she glanced him over
+with a sudden interest. It was a manly face and a manly
+figure; and she wondered from what remote corner of the
+earth Sylvie Barry had summoned this fair, stout giant,
+who made her think of the Norse gods of her childish
+romances. She always liked strength: Sylvie was for
+tenderness, pathos, and beauty.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-evening," inclining her proud head. "Did I
+interrupt? You were singing?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is finished," returned Sylvie, with her peculiar
+manner, as if, being hostess here, she should have proper
+respect paid to her position; and each guest should be as
+deferent to the other as if she were a little queen, and this
+her court.</p>
+
+<p>She picked up a stray piece of music that had fallen to
+the floor, seated Irene, and half turned to Jack. Any
+other woman might have been awkward.</p>
+
+<p>"I will leave you two ladies to yourselves," began
+Jack; but Irene interrupted,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mr. Darcy: I shall think I have driven you
+away;" with a beguiling smile. "If you understand
+music, you may have a taste in the fine arts of dress as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+well. At all events, look over these elegant women in
+their party-gowns, and tell me which is fairest and rarest."</p>
+
+<p>The honesty of the glance, although it was coquettish,
+told Jack that Miss Irene did not remember him. For,
+of all the haughty Lawrence women, she had the name of
+being the haughtiest. She gathered up her skirts in other
+people's houses when the plebeian element came too near.
+Now she waved him to a chair, and gently sank into
+another, her trailing robe of thin filmy black with golden
+flecks falling about her like clouds in a gusty sky.</p>
+
+<p>He took the seat indicated. Some strange feeling
+moved him, an enchantment that he had never before
+experienced. The very air about her was filled with a
+subtle, indescribable perfume that he should always associate
+with a tall, dark-eyed woman,&mdash;a glimpse of the
+Orient and its sweetness, he fancied.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie took her place, and began to tumble over the
+colored plates.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so tired of those Watteau things!" began Miss
+Lawrence disdainfully. "They all savor of bread-and-butter
+girls,&mdash;a shepherdess with her crook,&mdash;bah! And
+I've been Marie Stuart so many times. If it were a masquerade;
+but garden-parties are beginning to prove bores,
+after all. There is nothing new about them, only to out-shine
+every other woman. A high ambition, is it not,
+Mr. Darcy?"</p>
+
+<p>"A temptation perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>The tone had in it a bit of delicate homage. Irene
+understood. She knew at once that this man was a little
+dazed by her beauty, just as many other men had been.
+Puny, delicate, namby-pamby men she despised, and
+always gave them a cut with her sharp tongue. Where
+had Sylvie picked up this Saul among his peers?</p>
+
+<p>They were all interested in the pictures, and soon fell to
+making merry comments on them. Sylvie had a quick
+eye and a bright wit, and something made Jack Darcy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+brilliant. They selected bits of fine taste here, they made
+an elegant costume of no particular style, and Irene was
+struck with what she knew would be its becomingness.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Darcy, are you an artist?" She remembered
+just then what an odd way the Barrys had of picking up
+people with some gift or grace.</p>
+
+<p>"No," and Jack flushed boyishly.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must have a houseful of sisters."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I never had a sister."</p>
+
+<p>"When all things else fail with you, you can set up
+opposition to Worth. I shall come to you for designs.
+Now, this will be a peculiar source of gratification to me,
+because no one can possibly have the same combination.
+And you never can depend upon a modiste. Mr. Darcy,
+what makes women so faithless to one another?"</p>
+
+<p>"Are they?" he asked with a man's simplicity.</p>
+
+<p>She laughed gayly, and met Jack's fun-loving, shady
+blue eyes. How handsome they were!</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry entered the room, and joined in the pleasant
+chat: then a rumble of carriage-wheels was heard.</p>
+
+<p>"It has stopped raining," said Sylvie, going to the
+window. "A few soft, melancholy stars have come out."</p>
+
+<p>"You have been very obliging, Sylvie," said Miss Lawrence.
+"Miss Barry, I shall send the carriage over to-morrow.
+Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy handed her out, pushing aside a trailing
+rose that it might not catch her shawl. Then she half
+turned, and said "Good-night" in a softer tone.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie was standing on the porch. "It has been as
+good as a play, Jack," she said with her gay-humored
+laugh. "I don't believe she ever thought"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That I worked in her father's mill!" and Jack
+laughed; but it was a rather pained, jarring sound.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack&mdash;why do you? You are a puzzle to me!" and
+Sylvie's voice sharpened unconsciously. "You do not
+like it. Why did you not go on at the academy, or"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Raise myself in the social scale? That's what you
+mean, Sylvie; although we pass just as pleasant hours as
+if I were a prince, and you the lady of high degree.
+Well, we have gone over the ground a good many times,
+and it is always the same thing. I have no fancy for a
+profession; I have no genius for art, though Miss Lawrence
+suggests that I might become a man-milliner&mdash;is
+that what you call it? You know, I am staying here
+because mother and grandmother will not go anywhere
+else. And I dare say I make as much money as young
+Dr. Romer or Ned Remington. And somehow, now that
+I'm in it, I go on with a stubborn, plucky feeling. Some
+day I'll be a great manufacturer."</p>
+
+<p>This time his laugh was cheerful and ringing.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, Sylvie, your good-nature places you on the
+debatable ground. You and your aunt could be hand-in-glove
+with all these great people, and yet you open your
+generous heart to take in everybody."</p>
+
+<p>"No, not everybody, Jack. And what a little coward
+I am just this minute! No, it is not that either. Jack,
+you <i>do</i> know that I should never be a bit ashamed of you
+before any one. I feel vexed when I think that you could
+take the high places, and yet you let people put you
+down,&mdash;people not half as worthy or half as good as you.
+There's Horace Eastman. He came here a comparatively
+poor man; and now he owns half Yerbury, and talks of
+the mill-hands as if they were&mdash;well, a flock of sheep."</p>
+
+<p>"An apt comparison, Sylvie. To my mind, they are
+shorn pretty close to make broadcloth for their masters."</p>
+
+<p>"And there is Fred&mdash;have you seen him since his
+return?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not to speak to him, of course." And then Jack
+flushed deeply, with a little hurt feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"And what friends you were! Is it the way of the
+world? Then it is a mean, hateful world!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie, you are talking wildly. Don't you see there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+is no point of union in our lives? Now, I do not feel
+so badly over an outgrown friendship. When I was a
+little boy, I remember having a wonderful fancy for Tom
+Deane. We traded jack-knives; we told each other of
+the best nut-trees; we hunted squirrels; we coasted together;
+and, I dare say, he was as much of a hero in my
+childish eyes as I used to be in Fred's. But think of
+any friendship between us now! There isn't a greater
+loafer in all Yerbury than Tom Deane. Why, we have
+not a feeling in common."</p>
+
+<p>"Still I think it is rather different," and a shade of
+annoyance passed over her face. If Jack only would not
+call up these people below him, if he would not identify
+himself so strongly with that common brotherhood! He
+had so many nice tastes, such a clean, pure, honest soul.
+And, young as Sylvie was, she knew this was not always
+the result of culture or wealth or ambition.</p>
+
+<p>Jack guessed what was passing in her mind. From his
+father he had inherited a kind of womanish intuition. A
+pleasant-tempered man Bernard Darcy had always been
+called, but it was that delicate tact, the intuitive knowledge
+of what would be pleasant to others.</p>
+
+<p>"What else can I do here, Sylvie?" Jack cried with
+sudden heat. "If the chance ever comes, I shall be
+fitted for a good business man. You may think there is
+no worthy ambition in that, but wait. Do not judge me
+too hastily."</p>
+
+<p>"I am impatient at times, I know; but it is because I
+see your capabilities, and I can't bear to think of your
+going through the world unappreciated."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not worry about that. Good-night!" rather abruptly.
+"Miss Barry, I have forgotten myself. Pleasant
+dreams!"</p>
+
+<p>"And we did not have our old hymn, after all," said
+Sylvie regretfully.</p>
+
+<p>Jack took the short cut across the garden. There was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+a dim light in the sitting-room; and his mother lay in the
+hammock on the latticed porch, her favorite evening
+resort. She came in now, and Jack bolted the doors.
+Then, with a good-night kiss, he went to his room, and
+in ten minutes was asleep. Sylvie, on the other hand,
+girl-like, tossed and tumbled. Why was the world so
+queer and awry and obstinate? After all, you could do
+so little with it. Your plans came to nought so easily.
+Lizzie Wise, in her Sunday-school class, preferred going
+in the mill, and buying herself cheap finery, because the
+other girls did it. And so all through. You tried to
+train some one, and he or she followed the <i>ignis fatuus</i>
+more readily than any high, ennobling truth. It was hard
+lifting people out of their old grooves.</p>
+
+<p>How bright and entertaining Jack had been this evening!
+Of course Irene had not remembered him. Would
+she be vexed, Sylvie wondered,&mdash;she who held herself up
+so high, and believed in a separate world as it were?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> garden-party was a success, and Miss Lawrence
+the acknowledged belle of the evening. No one else
+could have carried off the peculiar style of dress. She
+knew that she was radiant; and triumphs were a necessary
+sweet incense, that she always kept alive on her
+shrine. There was no need of making a hurried election:
+indeed, her chief aim now was pleasure and conquest.</p>
+
+<p>They were sitting over their dainty lunch, Mrs. Eastman
+having dropped in; and, after the party had been
+pretty thoroughly discussed, a little lull ensued. Fred
+toyed with some luscious cherries, in his usual indolent
+manner. Nothing in this world was worth a hurry or a
+worry, according to this young man's creed. He had
+dawdled through the party, waltzing with a languid grace
+that most girls considered the essence of high-breeding.
+It was all one to him. His "set" affected to think life
+something of a bore. Intense emotion of any kind was
+vulgar.</p>
+
+<p>"By the by, Rene," said Mrs. Eastman, "do you
+suppose Sylvie Barry is engaged to that Darcy fellow?
+It was odd that she should go off on a picnic with him,
+instead of the party. She has the queerest, mixed-up
+tastes."</p>
+
+<p>"What Darcy fellow?" asked Irene in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie Barry! Jack Darcy!" exclaimed Fred, in
+as much amazement as his superfine breeding would
+allow.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Eastman gave a mellifluous laugh.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Don't you remember? but you were such a child!
+Fred does. The Damon to his Pythias."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!"</p>
+
+<p>A vivid scarlet ran up to the edge of Irene's white
+brow. So that was Jack Darcy. What a blind fool she
+had been, <i>not</i> to think! She had laughed and chatted with
+him, smiled on him, worn the costume of his designing,&mdash;a
+common workingman! For a moment she could have
+torn her hair, or beaten her slender white hands against
+the table. What had possessed her?</p>
+
+<p>"I do recall some green and salad days," rejoined Fred
+with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"How Agatha and I used to badger you! We were
+little fools to think such a thing ever went on when one
+came to years of discretion. Only I believe we were
+afraid the elder and idiotic Darcy might foist his son on
+some college. I must say Yerbury has become quite endurable
+now that party lines have been set up;" and
+Mrs. Eastman crumbed her cake, watching her diamond
+sparkle.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know Sylvie went on a picnic?" asked
+Rene, with an angry glitter in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't the dear confess? Rene, you do not keep
+your penitent in very good order."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Eastman had a faculty of putting something extremely
+irritating in her voice. It was honey smooth, and
+yet it rasped.</p>
+
+<p>"Really," answered Irene indifferently, "I do not see
+that Miss Barry's selection of friends need affect me much,
+so long as she keeps the distasteful ones out of my way.
+I may wonder at her choice of pleasures, but I suppose
+she suits herself."</p>
+
+<p>"My nursery-girl belongs to the mission-school. It
+was very good of Lissette to let her off for a whole day,
+I thought. I left her to settle it. What Sylvie sees in
+such people, I cannot imagine. I own I was a trifle surprised<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+when I found this remarkable Mr. Darcy was our
+old <i>b&ecirc;te noir</i>, Jack. Is he still in the mill, I wonder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Apply to papa," laughed Irene.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe papa could tell you the names of five
+workmen. As if he troubled his head about that!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie is a nice little thing," remarked Fred patronizingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no patience with her!" declared Mrs. Eastman.
+"As if it was not necessary to have a line drawn
+somewhere! These people are all well enough in their
+way: they are a necessary factor,"&mdash;picking the words
+slowly to give them weight,&mdash;"and society establishes
+schools and homes for them, trains teachers, provides
+employment: what more do they want? A holiday now
+and then, of course; but why not go off by themselves as
+a class, as the French do? This maudlin, morbid sympathy
+we Americans give, spoils them. There is no keeping
+a servant in her place here. Before you know it she
+studies and graduates at some school, teaches for a while,
+goes abroad, and paints a picture, likely as not."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not excite yourself, Gerty," and Fred pulled the
+ends of his silky moustache.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it does annoy me to see a young girl like Sylvie
+Barry with no better sense. Some day we shall have all
+these people rising up against us, as they did in the French
+Revolution. I hate socialism and all that; and I took
+good care to say to Mrs. Langton that Miss Barry had
+been casting in her lot that day with a parcel of charity-children,
+and would no doubt be too tired to enjoy the
+exquisite pleasure of her f&ecirc;te."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think Sylvie cares a penny!" said Irene
+with a touch of scorn, anxious to return her sister's little
+stab. "I suppose she comforts herself with the remembrance
+of her old blue blood, while Mr. Langton made
+his fortune as an army-contractor."</p>
+
+<p>"The Wylies were a very good family, Irene."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"If you are through eating, I will have a cigar," said
+the young man, sauntering over to the bay-window.</p>
+
+<p>What was there in this simple announcement of Sylvie
+having gone on a charity-school picnic with Jack Darcy
+that should so rouse the art-cultured pulses of Fred Lawrence?
+He had always liked Sylvie: her freshness and
+piquancy stirred him like a whiff of mountain air,&mdash;a
+sure sign that all healthy tone had not been cultivated out
+of him. It would be very foolish for Sylvie to commit a
+<i>m&eacute;salliance</i> with this young man, who was no doubt good
+enough in his way,&mdash;a rather rough, awkward, clownish
+fellow, with a coarsely generous heart. Sylvie so delicate
+and refined, with her pretty ways, her genius,&mdash;yes, she
+really did have a genius! In Paris or Rome she might
+make herself quite a name. He must see a little more of
+her: he must&mdash;well, did he want to marry any one?</p>
+
+<p>Irene and Gertrude retired to the room of the former,
+and discussed Newport and Saratoga.</p>
+
+<p>"I do hope we shall have a cottage at Newport another
+summer," said Mrs. Eastman.</p>
+
+<p>"It gives you tone, of course," was Irene's response;
+"but honest, now, Gerty, don't you think it a little poky?
+I do not want to go anywhere for a whole summer: I like
+the fun of all. Agatha is to spend a month at Long
+Branch, and I am going down just for a little dazzle and
+to give my gowns an airing."</p>
+
+<p>Their siesta was passed in this kind of small talk. Late
+in the afternoon she drove Mrs. Eastman home, and then
+went for Sylvie in her pretty pony-phaeton. As Sylvie
+was about nothing more important than a pale-blue zephyr
+"fascinator," she accepted the invitation.</p>
+
+<p>What a delicious drive it was! A dappled under-roof
+of cloud with the sun just behind it, a golden-gray haze
+filming the air, and fragrant breezes suggestive of roses
+and honeysuckle. All the way was starred with daisies.
+Sylvie drew in long breaths of delight, for she never
+wearied of nature.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They turned homeward early. The bells were ringing
+for six, and the mills and factories began to empty out
+their swarm of human beings.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you go through here?" asked Sylvie in surprise.
+"I thought you hated all this."</p>
+
+<p>"So I do," briefly.</p>
+
+<p>She let the pony walk now. These shrill sounds jarred
+on the summer air. Groups of girls in procession in faded
+gear or tawdry finery; brawny men with an old-country,
+heavy cast of feature, in blue flannel, with arms bared to
+the elbow, and throats exposed; pale stripling youths of
+the American type, boys with the rough fun not yet
+knocked out of them by hard work or the harder blows of
+fate,&mdash;a motley crowd indeed.</p>
+
+<p>It thinned a little just here. Two or three men came
+along leisurely,&mdash;one tall and compact, with a slow, firm
+step, the face grave, the eyes glancing over beyond the
+hills. Irene Lawrence shut her lips with a touch of displeasure.
+Was she to miss the satisfaction that had been
+brooding in her mind for the last hour, for the accomplishment
+of which she had driven through this dusty, ill-smelling
+street?</p>
+
+<p>The pedestrian raised his head. A sudden warm, smiling
+glow overspread the face, no longer grave, but brightening
+like an April sky. The outlook of the eyes was so
+frank and clear; the half-smile playing about the parted
+lips had the honesty of a child. He touched his hat, and
+bowed with an almost stately deference.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie nodded and smiled, leaning forward a bit. What
+sent the glad light so quickly out of his countenance?
+The girl glanced at Irene.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Lawrence had stared coolly, haughtily, decisively.
+This man might look at her hundreds of times in the days
+to come, but he would never again expect a social recognition
+from her. And, oh, perfection of cruelty! Sylvie,
+his fellow-sinner in these social laws, had witnessed his
+pain and discomfiture.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She turned with her face at white heat, one of those
+inward flashes of indignation that transcend any scarlet
+blaze of anger. Her eyes glowed with a fiery ray, and
+the curves of mouth and chin seemed as if frozen.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a deliberate insult, Irene! How dared you"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"How dared I pass one of my father's workmen?
+Well, Miss Barry, I happen not to be hand-in-glove with
+them. I can relegate them to their proper place when an
+ill-judged vanity brings them unduly forward."</p>
+
+<p>"You met him at <i>my</i> house: he is <i>my</i> friend, and the
+friend of my aunt. His birth is as good as yours, or
+mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I dare say!" with a satirical laugh. "Are you
+really going to marry him, Sylvie? Have you the courage
+to throw yourself quite away?"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!" and she caught at the reins. The next
+moment she was on the sidewalk. "Good-evening," she
+exclaimed with the dignity of a queen.</p>
+
+<p>"The little spitfire!" laughed Miss Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie's displeasure mattered very little to her. A few
+days later she was on her way to Long Branch, and the
+episode was soon danced out of mind.</p>
+
+<p>As for Sylvie Barry, she made up her mind never to go
+to Hope Terrace again. The friendship was not of her
+seeking, and now it should end. Friendship, indeed! It
+disgraced the word to use it in connection with Irene
+Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>That very evening she went around to the Darcys.
+Neither she nor Jack mentioned the rencontre, but there
+was an indescribable something in her manner that told
+Jack the insult had been as much to her as to him.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly a fortnight later the Lawrence carriage stood at
+the gate of the pretty court-yard, and the liveried driver
+brought a note to the door.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Dear Sylvie</span>,&mdash;[in a tremulous, uncertain hand] I am
+wretched and lonely. Fred and Irene are away, and Mr. Lawrence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+has gone West on business. Will you not, out of the generosity
+of your heart, come and cheer me up a bit? I was in bed all day
+yesterday with a frightful headache, and can just crawl to-day.
+Do not disappoint me. I have set my heart on hearing you read,
+and have some nice new books.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+Ever your obliged friend, A. L.<br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"You must go," was her aunt's comment in a sympathizing
+tone. "I have promised all the afternoon to the
+School Club, you know, and you would only be home
+alone. Poor Mrs. Lawrence! What an invalid she has
+become! And think of me,"&mdash;with a cheery laugh,&mdash;"able
+to get about anywhere!"</p>
+
+<p>So Sylvie went up to Hope Terrace in the luxurious
+carriage she thought she had tabooed forever.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawrence did look very poorly. She kept to her
+room a great deal nowadays; or rather there were two
+of them,&mdash;one off the bedchamber, with a pretty oriel
+window, and exquisitely fitted up with every luxury wealth
+and taste could devise.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawrence had already lost her interest in life.
+Her two daughters were well married. Irene would be,
+of course; but marriages were an old story for her. She
+had loved to shine at watering-places, but the gayety no
+longer lured her. She had dazzled in diamonds, silks, and
+velvets, been admired on the right hand and on the left,
+until it was an old, trite story. Servants managed her
+house admirably. Mr. Lawrence never wearied her with
+any business details. Her clothes were ordered, and
+made, and hung in the closets. The carriage was always
+at hand. Not a want of any kind, hardly a desire, that
+could not be instantly satisfied. She had sunk into a kind
+of graceful semi-invalidism, and enjoyed the coming and
+going of her children, but her own time was over.</p>
+
+<p>"How good you are, Sylvie dear!" and, drawing the
+young girl to her, she kissed her fondly. "I don't know
+what I should do without you. Irene would stay at home<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+if I wanted her; but she is so full of life and excitement,
+that it wears me out. You are not always in such a whirl
+of society, and then you <i>are</i> different. You have such a
+sweet, sympathetic nature, child! I can always feel it in
+your hand, and your voice is so soothing. What a difference
+there is in voices!"</p>
+
+<p>Her own was finely modulated: indeed, Sylvie used to
+think sometimes that these Lawrences had more than
+their share of the good things of this world. No physical
+gift or grace had been denied them.</p>
+
+<p>So Sylvie read and talked, and sang two or three songs
+before she went home. Then she came again and again,
+sometimes with her aunt, oftener alone. Miss Barry took
+duty calls with her neighbors as one of the demands of
+society, to be fulfilled with the fine grace of thorough
+good-breeding. Beyond the little formalities that always
+surrounded her like a delicate hoar-frost, there was a large
+heart for the weal and woe of all who could in any way be
+benefited.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a pity to see such a waste of life," she said of
+Mrs. Lawrence. "Some people, after they have served
+their own turn, and had their good time, set about doing
+something for God and their neighbors at the eleventh
+hour; but she still clings to self, even when all the pleasure
+has dropped out. If she only would exert herself a little,
+her health and interest would improve, and she has so
+much in her hands."</p>
+
+<p>One day Sylvie had turned the last leaf of her book,
+when Fred Lawrence crossed the hall, having come home
+unexpectedly half an hour before. "Miss Sylvie is with
+your mother," the housekeeper had said; and he had
+begged that they should not be disturbed. He stood now
+listening to the cool, soft voice, and an odd thought
+entered his mind.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie should really be a daughter of the house. How
+his mother liked her, depended upon her! She was not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+always going to watering-places and parties and theatres,
+she did not talk continually of dress and conquests. He
+did not despise cultivated elegance: in fact, it was a strong
+point with all the Lawrences; but he knew that a great
+deal of this much-praised culture ran into artificiality,
+while Sylvie's elegance had the comprehensiveness of nature.
+It would be quite impossible for her to do an awkward
+or ungraceful act; for her innate sense of beauty,
+harmony, and right guided her. Something higher than
+worldly maxims toned her soul. And though he, a man
+with his hands full of gold that he had never earned, could
+content himself with indolent dilettanteism, he wanted an
+earnest, honest, truthful woman, if he ever took a wife.
+He had flirted in a lazy fashion, common with young men
+who find themselves an object to women, and who have
+only to raise their hand, sultan-like, to bring a host of
+houris. That he had kept out of many grosser pleasures
+was perhaps a credit to him, although that was not the
+weak side of his character.</p>
+
+<p>He did not fall in love with the picture before him,
+sweet as it was,&mdash;the young girl in a soft flowing white
+dress (she was too true an artist to have starchy outlines),
+the shimmering hair, the delicate wavering color, the proud
+poise of the head, the plump white arm and slender fingers
+with their pale-pink nails, and, above all, the exquisite
+voice that seemed so to enter into the culmination of the
+story, the last few sentences of pathos, joy, and complete
+fruition.</p>
+
+<p>She closed her book. Neither of the ladies spoke. Mrs.
+Lawrence had been deeply touched. She lived almost exclusively
+in this world of fictitious sentiment, I was going
+to say; but I remember that it is often a transcript of
+human lives. Still she liked sentiment in books, out of
+them she scarcely recognized it.</p>
+
+<p>There was a step and a low tap at the door; then, before
+Mrs. Lawrence could answer, Fred marched in, kissed
+his mother dutifully, and shook hands with Sylvie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He had always liked Sylvie better as a little girl than
+any one else who ever came to the house, and he liked her
+now. How happy his mother would be! for of course
+they would go on living here. Irene would be away presently,
+and his parents would need some one. His summer
+work was mapped out before him; and really it was a
+pleasure to think he should escape the bore of society as
+one found it at summer-resorts, and entertain himself with
+this piquant brown-eyed girl with a heart fresh as a rose.
+He did not want a woman who had been wooed by every
+Tom, Dick, and Harry.</p>
+
+<p>Yet another and more heroic thought entered his mind
+after chatting with her a few moments. He would save
+<i>her</i> as well. She might have a slight fancy for Jack
+Darcy: his sisters had spoken of it, and these great, fair,
+muscular giants were often attractive to women, through
+the very strength and rude force with which they pushed
+their suit. But such a lumbering, vulgar fellow in Miss
+Barry's dainty, womanish parlor! and he smiled at the
+thought. Yes, he would be doing a good deed to snatch
+Sylvie from any such possibility.</p>
+
+<p>Fred Lawrence suddenly assumed a new importance in
+his own eyes. He made himself very agreeable to both
+ladies. Sylvie remained to dinner; and, when Mrs. Lawrence
+would have sent her home in the carriage, he proposed
+to escort her,&mdash;he wished to pay his respects to
+Miss Barry.</p>
+
+<p>They did not take the most direct course, but, leaving
+the streets with their noise of children and possibly vulgar
+contact, strolled through "Lovers' Lane." The old
+trees met overhead; there were dooryards full of sweet,
+old-fashioned flowers, and now and then the sound of a
+weak piano or a plaintive voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad these streets have been kept free from the
+vice of modern improvement," said he. "It always
+brings back a touch of my boyhood when I walk through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+them. Your aunt made a good fight, Miss Sylvie, when
+she refused to listen to the golden tongues of speculators,
+though of course you would have been much richer. But
+it can be turned into money any time."</p>
+
+<p>"Money is not every thing," answered the young girl,
+with a touch of sharpness. "Are one's own desires and
+old associations to count for nothing? This place was
+very dear to my aunt and to many others. I am sure
+there is quite enough of Yerbury laid waste now. The
+town looks as if it were a sort of general house-cleaning,
+and every thing was thrust out of doors and windows.
+And it was so pretty!" with a curious heat and passion.
+"It was like a dream, with its winding river and green
+fields, and men at their hay, and cows grazing in knee-deep
+pastures. Now all the milkmaids are herded in
+mills and factories; and the children,&mdash;well, there are
+no children any more!"</p>
+
+<p>"No children!" lifting his pencilled brows in languid
+surprise. "Why, I think you can find swarms of them.
+The poorer the man, the larger the family."</p>
+
+<p>"There are babies and babies; then little prigs and
+drudges. I am not sure I am in love with the so-called
+civilization. For the great majority it only means harder
+work."</p>
+
+<p>"Did we not learn in some school-book&mdash;I am quite
+sure I did&mdash;that</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+'Satan finds some mischief still,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">For idle hands to do'?"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Are you not afraid?" She turned with a bright,
+tormenting smile to the handsome young fellow, who
+flushed under her clear glance.</p>
+
+<p>"For those who have brains, manual labor may not be
+the only chance of salvation," he returned with a somewhat
+haughty flippancy.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder they do not turn their brains to some
+account."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They reached the gate, and Miss Barry was sitting on
+the porch. Sylvie was too pretty and too womanly to be
+quarrelled with for the sake of a subject that did not in
+the least interest him. Beside, he meant to come in; so
+he opened the gate for her, and followed in a well-bred,
+gentlemanly way, that had nothing obtrusive in it. Miss
+Barry welcomed him with the quaint formality, the subtile
+air of education, refinement, and morality, so much a part
+of herself. It pleased him extremely, and settled him in
+his determination.</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie has a touch of radicalism," he mused to himself;
+"but it is a disease of youth, and thrives by association.
+Take her quite away, and she will soon recover
+her normal tone."</p>
+
+<p>He found his mother still up on his return, and rather
+restless. She lay on her sofa, and dozed so much through
+the day, that night had but little slumber to bring her.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad you did not go to Long Branch," she
+remarked, as she toyed with her son's silken, perfumed
+hair. "I get so lonesome when your father is away;
+and he seems to think of nothing but business"&mdash;in a
+complaining tone. "I do not know what I should do
+but for Sylvie. She is such a charming little body!
+Fred, do you think there is any truth in Gertrude's gossip
+about her and that&mdash;one of your father's mill-hands, is
+it not? How can Miss Barry allow it?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no truth in it," with a light, scornful laugh.
+"The families are neighbors, you know; and I suppose
+the boor takes a look for encouragement. I shall not go
+away this summer. I can find pleasanter employment."</p>
+
+<p>She pressed his hand, and smiled, as their eyes met.
+Sons-in-law were very little to one, except in the way of
+respectability, but a daughter like Sylvie would be such
+a comfort! Fred had no need to marry a fortune, but
+Sylvie would not be poor.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Now</span> that Fred Lawrence had come home, there was no
+need of going so often to Hope Terrace, Sylvie thought.
+Time never hung heavy on her hands; for she was not
+indolent, and there were friends and pleasures. Miss
+Barry had a conscientious misgiving that Sylvie ought to
+be taken about like other young ladies; but she shrank
+from fashionable life herself, and could not resolve to
+trust her darling with any other person. Beside, Sylvie
+always seemed contented.</p>
+
+<p>She was content indeed; at least, with her home and
+her aunt. Up-stairs, just out of her sleeping-chamber,
+she had a studio, chosen because this room, of all in the
+house, had the finest view in summer, when the tall old
+trees shut out so much. From here there were two
+exquisite perspectives. The trees and houses were so
+arranged that a long, arrowy ray of light penetrated
+through a narrow space over to a small rise of ground
+called Berry Hill on account of its harvest of blueberries.
+Two old, scraggy, immense oak-trees still remained;
+and she used to watch them from their first faint
+green to the blood-red and copper tints of autumn, when
+the sun shone through them. Down behind he dropped
+when the day was done; sometimes a ball of fire, at
+others bathed in roseate hues, tinged with all the wondrous
+grades of color, and making fleecy islands in a far-off,
+weird world, dream-haunted. She used to study the
+grand effects of shifting light, that made the hill bold and
+strong, or fused it into dreamy harmonies that seemed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+have the subtile essence of music; then contrasts that
+were abrupt and apparently dissonant, quite against well-known
+edicts of human taste. Who was right,&mdash;the
+great Author of all? She smiled to herself when she
+heard people talk so glibly of nature, as if the one little
+rose-leaf were the whole world.</p>
+
+<p>The other picture held in its soft, still, light, an old-fashioned,
+low-gabled house with wide eaves; a broad doorway,
+with the upper half always open in summer; a well
+with curb and sweep and bucket where farm-hands came
+to drink; a pond with a shady side, where cows herded
+in their peaceful fashion, wading knee-deep on hot days,
+chewing their cud contentedly at others, browsing through
+golden hours; fields of glowing grain, then tawny stubble,
+a bit of corn with nodding tassels, and not infrequently
+a group of children, picturesque in this far light. It all
+stood out with the clearness of a stereoscope.</p>
+
+<p>She had her ambitions too, this bright little girl. They
+were tinctured with the crudeness of youth, and its boundless
+vision, it is true; and sometimes the passion of
+despair seized her soul in a cold grasp, when she felt
+hemmed in on every side, and longed for some opening,
+some step in the great world higher than fashionable
+frivolity.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry had no taste for famous women. They
+were well enough in the world: she paid a proper and
+polite deference to Mrs. Somerville, Mrs. Browning, and
+Rosa Bonheur,&mdash;that kind of intellectual deference that
+sets them out of the sphere of ordinary women. Wives
+and mothers were better for the every-day life of the
+world; since pictures and poetry were luxuries, accessories,
+but not home or food or clothes. Though she had
+missed her woman's destiny, she had not lost faith in it;
+though she had held out her hand to the woman who had
+made shipwreck of her own life for the wild, graceless
+brother's sake, she still looked on clear seas and smooth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+sailing as possible for lovers' barks. In her plans for
+Sylvie there was a fine, manly, generous husband; a love
+so sweet and entire that the girl should forget her restless
+yearnings; baby hands to cling to her, baby lips to press,
+young lives to mould, and a future to plan for others.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry believed in work devoutly, but gentlewomen
+had a firm place in her creed. The paintings and music
+were well enough as accomplishments, and she was proud
+of them; but she delicately repressed the other dreams
+and desires until Sylvie ceased to speak of them except
+to her friend Jack.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry had experienced some anxiety on this point,
+it must be confessed. You would never have perceived it
+from the wise little woman's face or any tone of her voice.
+She went more frequently to the Darcys of an evening
+with Sylvie: she rolled her easy-chair and work-table to
+the opposite side of the sitting-room, where it commanded
+a view of the piano and the sofa in the parlor, the door
+being always open. She could hear and see, she could
+make pleasant, trenchant remarks: indeed, she was one
+of themselves, as young in heart, if the hair did glisten
+silvery under the bit of exquisite thread-lace that did duty
+as an apology for a cap.</p>
+
+<p>Jack and Sylvie were not lovers. A rare good friendship
+it was, more perfect than brotherly and sisterly
+regard, in that it held no duty-element, and was spontaneous.
+Sylvie never laughed at Jack in his awkward
+boyish days: he had never tormented her small belongings
+as brothers are wont to do.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry feared the flame might be easily fanned. A
+little opposition or warning would bring Sylvie's innocent
+wandering thoughts to a focus, and kindle the fire. She
+was very wary. She trusted Sylvie to Jack with an air
+that said, "You are too honorable to betray the confidence
+I repose in you."</p>
+
+<p>The old class prejudice spoke out in this covert objection<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+to Jack as a suitor. She honored him sincerely for
+giving up the dreams of ambitious and energetic manhood
+to stay at home and comfort these two delicate women.
+Yet (strange contradiction) she had a half fancy that it
+betokened weakness or lack of some kind in the very content
+with which he seemed to go about his daily duties.
+Alas for consistency! We preach content from the pulpit
+on Sunday, and on Monday glance with quiet contempt
+on our plodding neighbor, who can commune with
+the daisies by the wayside, while there is gold lying untroubled
+in desert gulches.</p>
+
+<p>Honest, sturdy Jack, taking up the duty of to-day cheerfully
+with a manful endurance, because the hands holding
+his fate were too weak and tender to be wrestled with,
+and that in his large, generous soul he could not war on
+a smaller antagonist, neither was it his nature to continually
+thrust any sacrifice he might make before the eyes of
+the one he was benefiting. How much silent heroism
+goes unpraised in the world, while we stand on the highways,
+and prate of our discrimination, our quick insight!
+Jack might be praised for his self-denial, but the higher
+appreciation was withheld. Even Sylvie was fretted at
+times, because he would get interested in all things pertaining
+to the mill.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry said to herself, "It is best that Sylvie should
+marry in her own circle, a man of cultivation, refinement,
+and position. Jack is a dear good fellow, but not the
+person to satisfy her for a lifetime."</p>
+
+<p>Jack thought nothing at all about it. He never gave
+up the idea of a great wide world, where he could have a
+hand-to-hand struggle with something as powerful as himself.
+He had come to no dreams of wife and children.
+He did like Sylvie with all his big, honest heart. If she
+had fallen in love with him, and betrayed it by some girlish
+sign, he would have been startled at first, then thought it
+over in his slow, careful way, asked her to marry him, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+loved her devotedly all his days, leaving the dreams to the
+past with a tender benediction.</p>
+
+<p>But Sylvie was no more in love than he.</p>
+
+<p>As I said, she decided that she was not needed at Hope
+Terrace, and staid away four days. Then the carriage
+came, with a beseeching note. Had Fred gone again?</p>
+
+<p>She found him there in all his elegant listlessness. It
+exasperated her strangely.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you been about, Sylvie?" cried Mrs.
+Lawrence. "Is your aunt ill? It seems a full week
+since you were here."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no!" with her beguiling little smile. "I cannot
+tell exactly what, only I thought"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You thought because Fred was home I would need no
+one else! As if a love-story would not bore him, and an
+invalid's whims&mdash;well, men are not women, my dear,"
+decisively, and with a complacent expression as if she
+had settled the argument beyond any question, for the first
+time since the world began.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you never tried me on a love-story," interposed
+Fred. "You do not know how deeply sympathetic I
+might be with your favorite heroines."</p>
+
+<p>"He is laughing at us, Sylvie. Ah, well! I suppose it
+is a man's duty to <i>make</i> love, not to listen to it second-hand.
+How charming and fresh you look this morning!
+And how lovely it is after the shower of last night! Fred,
+if you could leave Latin verses and Greek essays you
+might take us to drive. We could stop and bring your
+aunt with us for lunch, Sylvie."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you for her. She has gone to Coldbridge to
+see about a nurse for the Orphans' Home, and will not be
+back until four."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I can keep you without a single scruple," and
+Mrs. Lawrence looked oddly pleased. "Fred, tell them
+not to put the horses out. What wonderful health your
+aunt has, Sylvie! I don't see how she can endure the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+bother of those schools and institutions: it would wear me
+out in no time. But I have had a family of children;"
+and she leaned back on her pillow with a satisfied air.</p>
+
+<p>The carriage came around again; and with the assistance
+of a maid, Sylvie, and her son, Mrs. Lawrence
+walked down stairs. He handed both ladies in, and
+seated himself opposite with the air of a prince.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie looked so bright and gay this morning, her velvety
+eyes full of tender light, her cheek all abloom with
+youth and health, the sweet scarlet lips half smiling, and
+her attire far enough removed from the rigor of fashion to
+have a kind of originality about it. She always wore
+something that added tone and brightness,&mdash;a bit of
+colored ribbon or a flower, or a bow that flashed out unexpectedly,
+as if greeting you with laughing surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you do to mother, Sylvie?" Fred asked,
+with a touch of complimentary curiosity in his voice.
+"Yesterday she was dull and moping. I could not persuade
+her to drive."</p>
+
+<p>"It was so warm, no wonder. I felt dull and drowsy
+myself. But to-day is the perfection of loveliness."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have a charm, Sylvie. I do not know but
+it is your perfect, buoyant health. You seem to lift one
+up. I only wish I could keep you all the time," remarked
+Mrs. Lawrence with a touch of longing.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie colored, and averted her eyes: then she gave
+herself a kind of mental shaking, and resolutely glanced
+back, uttering some rather trite remark. She would not
+suspect or understand.</p>
+
+<p>They came home again, and had lunch: then, while
+Mrs. Lawrence was taking her siesta, Fred carried off
+Sylvie to his study. It was luxuriously beautiful. Several
+gems of pictures adorned the wall, which had been newly
+frescoed to suit his fancy. Easy chairs lured one to test
+their capacious depth, some exquisitely-bound books were
+arranged in a carved and polished case, and the table was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+daintily littered with papers. He had an idea that a
+man's surroundings were a very fair index to his character
+and tastes, quite forgetting that it implied length of purse
+as well.</p>
+
+<p>He made spasmodic attempts at literary work. Abstruse
+essays were begun under the impression that he had
+something brilliant and original to say, but before they
+were finished a new train of thought led him captive. He
+dreamed delicately sensuous dreams, lapped in luxurious
+idleness, the rooms stifling with odorous hot-house flowers.
+He went clothed in soft raiment, he sunned himself in
+languid seas of imagination, and was too indifferent to
+concentrate his powers upon any great faith or belief, or
+even emotion. He had a contempt for cheap and plain
+belongings, as leaning insensibly to vitiation of taste.
+Nothing modern met his approbation. The old-time philosophies
+won him with their subtile flavor. He could
+propound his theories eloquently, but they did not touch
+him deeply enough to rouse him into action of any kind.
+All that his education and culture had done for him so far
+was to develop an incapacity for any regular, wholesome
+work that would be of the slightest use to any human
+being.</p>
+
+<p>Something of this passed through Sylvie's mind as she
+sat there. This handsome and stalwart lily of the valley,
+with no desire for toiling, and no ability for spinning,
+would be content to drift and dawdle through life on his
+father's money. At that moment he was more contemptible
+to her than Irene, winning lovers by the score, and
+casting them aside with no more compunction than if they
+were the litter of faded flowers.</p>
+
+<p>After all, why should she care if he did not reach her
+standard of moral and intellectual excellence, of that
+knightly chivalry whose rallying-cry was, "God and my
+fellow-men!" Why should she desire to rouse him from
+that complacent ease and fastidiousness, brought about by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+wealth, and the certainty of no need of effort on his part?
+Surely she was no modern apostle carrying around the
+watchword of work.</p>
+
+<p>Yet somehow&mdash;if all the subtile forces running to
+waste in both him and Jack could be galvanized into earnest,
+active life; if the sturdy, wholesome thought of the
+one could be mated with the clear, crisp training of the
+other; if both could have the wide outlook beyond material
+wants and comforts! It fretted her.</p>
+
+<p>Yet these two, sitting here on this peerless summer
+day, skimmed over wide fields like gay butterflies. She
+could not be in earnest with him. Just when she was
+roused and warm, he seemed to lift her by some flight of
+eloquence, and waft her to his realm of fancy. It annoyed
+her to find he had that much power over her.</p>
+
+<p>It must be admitted that when Fred Lawrence willed, he
+could be extremely fascinating. Women yielded gracefully,
+nay, eagerly, to his sway; and much delicate flattery
+had their eyes and lips fed him upon. Sylvie piqued him
+a trifle by her utter unconcern&mdash;or was it the fine instinct
+of coquetry inherent in feminine nature?</p>
+
+<p>There was no telling what this queer, bright, unconventional
+little thing might do if left to herself. A good
+marriage would prove her salvation. She had many womanly
+possibilities: yet, with all due deference to Miss
+Barry and her old blue blood, Sylvie might overstep the
+bounds, and take up some of the reforming projects so
+dear to elderly spinsters. As Mrs. Fred Lawrence she
+would be held regally above them, and could depute her
+charitable work to her aunt.</p>
+
+<p>In justice to the man, it must be confessed that Sylvie's
+dainty, piquant loveliness stirred his soul; and, if self had
+not been so intense a centre, he might have been ardently
+in love, or clearer-sighted. Much of the time her demeanor
+toward him was coldly indifferent: yet the misfortune
+was, her interest in all things kindled so easily that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+she could not, at a moment, change to him. Her moods
+of reticence and shy evasion added a flavor to the cup.
+With a man's egregious vanity, he jumped at the conclusion
+that these little intangible things signified love.</p>
+
+<p>One day Sylvie stumbled over Irene. She came flying
+up stairs with some choice nectarines for Mrs. Lawrence,
+a kind that seemed only to reach perfection in Miss Barry's
+old-fashioned garden. There sat Irene, superb, nonchalant.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you little darling!" clasping her, and pinching
+the peach-bloom cheek. "I am so glad to have a glimpse
+of you; for mamma has sung your praises until I ought
+to be jealous, but out of my boundless generosity I still
+smile upon you. No need to ask how <i>you</i> are, but one
+may inquire after your aunt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Barry is quite well," Sylvie said with some constraint,
+remembering their last parting.</p>
+
+<p>Irene had honestly forgotten it. She laughed now, a
+low, ringing, melodious laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it is quite a treat to see you open wide your
+sunrise eyes. I have taken everybody by surprise, and
+enjoy it immensely. Gerty and I are off to fresh fields
+and pastures new, and home came right in my way. Sylvie,
+you are a good little creature to come and amuse
+mamma when her own lovely and amiable daughter is
+racing after the pomps and vanities of this naughty world.
+Sit down;" and she made room on the sofa beside herself.
+"Don't let such a frivolous creature as I turn you
+from the post of duty."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not come to stay," Sylvie answered rather stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>"As if the intention were cast in adamant! Oh! why
+is not Fred here to use his persuasive tongue?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a peculiar laughing light in Irene's eye that
+annoyed Sylvie, for it seemed to indicate a secret knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>"I can stay just half an hour," was the reply in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+decisive tone. "At eleven I take my lesson in painting.&mdash; Aunt
+wanted you to have these, Mrs. Lawrence, in their
+first bloom of ripeness."</p>
+
+<p>"They are delightful. A thousand thanks to both of
+you, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>"And you really manage to exist in this dull place,
+Sylvie! You are a miracle of content," interposed Irene.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not come near dying yet," was the rather dry
+rejoinder.</p>
+
+<p>"You need not be so curt and sharply sweet, my dear.
+Here I have been listening to marvellous accounts of your
+amiability and devotion"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Don't, Rene!" implored her mother. "Sylvie <i>is</i>
+good to me."</p>
+
+<p>"And it might make the sweetness weak if she stretched
+it out to me! Keep it intact for those who so delight in
+it. I am fond of spice and high flavoring."</p>
+
+<p>"These nectarines are perfect," declared Mrs. Lawrence.
+"One can taste the sunshine in them."</p>
+
+<p>"How poetic, mother mine! Does Fred come and read
+Latin verses to you and Sylvie? I may have one"&mdash;stretching
+out her jewelled hand. "Oh, they are delicious!
+worth coming home for, even if I had not wanted
+mamma's pearls."</p>
+
+<p>"And money and every thing," added her mother.
+"Rene, you ought not to be so extravagant. Papa is
+quite depressed with the state of business."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I have heard <i>that</i> ever since I left my cradle;"
+and Rene laughed gayly.</p>
+
+<p>It suddenly crossed Sylvie's mind: what if this proud,
+imperious girl should be reduced to poverty some day?</p>
+
+<p>"Don't plan a conspiracy against me, Sylvie Barry! I
+saw it in your eyes!"</p>
+
+<p>A vivid flush overspread Sylvie's face, as if she had
+been caught in the commission of some crime. Irene's
+laugh rang again with a peculiar irritating sound.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I could not form a conspiracy against you&mdash;even if
+I so desired. And I must go."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie rose with a haughty air.</p>
+
+<p>"Wish me worlds to conquer at least, or scalps to
+hang at my belt. No? You ungracious little thing!
+There is a good-by kiss to show you that I always hold
+out the right hand of peace."</p>
+
+<p>"Have the carriage, Sylvie: it will not take a moment"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"No, thank you," in a crisp tone. She would have
+nothing of these Lawrences just now.</p>
+
+<p>"Fred will get a spicy wife," commented Irene, with
+a peculiar smile.</p>
+
+<p>"She is never so with him. They get along beautifully,"
+said the mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Fred is too lazy to rouse Sylvie. Women have quite
+spoiled him. And Sylvie is ever so much prettier when
+a trifle vexed. Don't tell me about her angelic qualities,
+though I suppose she does keep super-amiable before you
+and Fred just now. I wonder if I could if I were in
+love!"</p>
+
+<p>"Irene, I am sorry I hinted it. If you begin to tease
+Fred"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not: set your heart at rest. I give full and
+free consent, and approve heartily. Beside, the little
+thing might throw herself away if she was not looked
+after. There will always be some one to stay at home
+with you."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawrence turned to her book and her nectarines;
+and Irene tumbled over jewel-cases,&mdash;a proud, imperious
+beauty, whose heart had never been touched, who cared
+only for pleasure and triumphs. Over yonder, men and
+women were toiling, that she might have gold to squander.
+They lived scantily, that she might feast. And the brave
+old world, seeing it all, uttered a silent groan. One day
+it would speak out.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sylvie Barry</span> meanwhile walked along rather rapidly
+for a warm morning. She felt irritated. Her sweet
+lips were set in defiant curves, the red heats of annoyance
+burned and faded on her cheek with each passing thought,
+and there was something out of harmony: a fateful discordance
+that swept over her, as if the parts of music had
+been wrongly put together.</p>
+
+<p>Did they think&mdash;did Fred imagine&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>She had never faced the idea before. Now she thrust
+it out in the garish sunlight. Her eyes sparkled, but
+there was no triumph in the girl's fine, resolute face.
+This man might lay his father's wealth at her feet, borrowed
+plumes in which he was quite content to shine; his
+heart&mdash;and a smile of withering scorn crossed her red
+lips. She would be a little dearer than his horse: dogs
+the fastidious man could not endure. Practically his
+wooing would be,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"I will love thee&mdash;half a year,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">As a man is able."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>Not because of a fresher, fairer face: he would give her
+all he had, all that he could rouse his languid pulses to
+experience. She would be lifted out of her present occupations
+and interests; for Sylvie was too clear-eyed to
+blind herself with the specious reasoning that as the wife
+of a rich man's son, she would be a greater power in the
+world for good. They would fit her into <i>their</i> sphere.
+She fancied herself coming to an aimless middle-life like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+that of Mrs. Lawrence, taking no interest in any thing,
+but reading novels, and complaining, to pass away the
+time.</div>
+
+<p>Did she really care for any one else? More than one
+young man in Yerbury had paid her the peculiar deferential
+attention that asks encouragement if there is any to
+give, but is too truly delicate to proceed without. Then
+there was Jack, who understood her soul better than any
+one else; but had he touched her heart in a lover-like
+way?</p>
+
+<p>She turned her clear, honest eyes to the blue overhead,
+as if taking Heaven for a witness. Her heart and fancy
+were quite free. Much as she cared for him, there was no
+thrill of that high sentiment in it.</p>
+
+<p>In some fascinating ideal life she had seen a lover with
+whom she could walk down through the years, whose life
+would touch hers at all points, who could fathom the
+depths of the nature that so puzzled herself, who could
+measure and supply the yearning reaches of intellect;
+who could awake in her soul a love, strong, deep, and
+unquestioning, so fervent, indeed, that she would turn
+from all other dreams and desires to him. A young
+girl's ideal&mdash;perhaps it is well for the world that some
+women have ideals, and keep faith with them.</p>
+
+<p>As for Fred, his vanity led him straight on. She tried
+honestly to place herself right in his estimation; but he
+misunderstood her, and liked her the better for the
+variety. She saw too, with dismay, that her aunt favored
+him. Her natural kindness of heart shrank from the
+pain of rejecting him, and to her the triumph had no
+pleasure. But in her anxiety and desperation she saw
+only this one course.</p>
+
+<p>He dropped in nearly every day, he took her and Miss
+Barry to drive. He haunted croquet-parties, which he
+hated, because she accepted invitations to them. He
+never met Jack. Some fine sense warned the latter that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+an encounter in Sylvie's parlor would be uncomfortable.
+Yet, strange to say, sometimes when he saw the handsome
+fellow sauntering by, a peculiar tenderness came
+over him, remembering the little boy who had clung
+fondly to him.</p>
+
+<p>An old-fashioned courtship would prove no end of a
+bore, Fred decided. So one day he marched over to
+Larch Avenue when he knew Miss Barry was alone, and
+laid his case before her. She received him with graceful
+kindliness, listened to his offer, and assented with evident
+pleasure. There was not a happier woman that night in
+all Yerbury than Miss Barry. The care and desire of
+her life had been justly crowned. Her good-night kiss
+to Sylvie was inexpressibly sweet.</p>
+
+<p>Fred did not see Sylvie for the next two days, but
+meanwhile wrought himself into a state that he was quite
+sure was proper and well-bred love. Then she came to
+Hope Terrace, and they kept her to tea. The late, heavy
+dinners were dispensed with at present.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you walk home, to-night, Sylvie?" asked Fred.
+"I feel in a walking mood."</p>
+
+<p>"The slightest symptom of industry ought to be encouraged,"
+she made answer gayly. She had been of
+some real service this afternoon, charmed away a fretful
+headache, and restored Mrs. Lawrence to a comfortable
+state of feeling, and was correspondingly light-hearted.
+Then, too, Fred had kept out of the way, and been gravely
+polite to her at the tea-table. She liked him in such
+moods.</p>
+
+<p>It was a late August evening, with a small crescent
+moon shining softly as if its forces were well-nigh spent.
+The heat of the day was over, and the falling dew evolved
+a kind of autumnal sweetness, the flavor of ripening
+fruits rather than flowers. Yerbury was very quiet in the
+part they were to traverse. They walked under great
+maples where a shadowy light sifted through, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+houses looked like fragments of dreams, with here and
+there a lamp in a distant window. The slow wind wandered
+through pines and hemlocks, as if some fairy Puck
+had laid his finger to his lips, saying to crooning insects,
+"Hush, hush!" A night to dream as one went down
+"Lovers' Lane."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie was radiantly beautiful. Her face always
+changed so with her moods. Every feature had a perfect
+sculptured look, but intensely human,&mdash;the straight nose
+with the flexible, sensitive nostrils, quivering at any sudden
+breath, the dainty chin and white throat, the red
+curved lips that seem to smile at some inward, richly
+satisfying thought, the large lustrous eyes serious as those
+of a nun, and the calm, clear brow that seemed to index
+the strength and fineness of the nature. He did not take
+in any of the occult meanings: to him she was simply a
+pretty girl whom he could dress in silk instead of lawn.</p>
+
+<p>The small hand had lain on his arm without the faintest
+movement. Now he took it in his, and pressed it softly.
+She frowned, and made a slight, repellant gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie?" with a lingering intonation that was hardly
+inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" roused out of her quiet into a momentary
+petulance.</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie, I love you. Will you be my wife?"</p>
+
+<p>In his most commonplace dreams he had never made
+love so briefly. He startled himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't!" in a short, decisive tone, as if he were
+merely teasing.</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie, I am in earnest;" and in his tone the man
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I think you are mistaken." She seemed to
+look at him in the cool light of invincible candor and
+honesty.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Sylvie, I am not mistaken," gaining courage that
+it was to be argument instead of sentiment. "I have had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+this purpose in my mind for some time, and have solicited
+your aunt's consent. You have only to say"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have many things to say, but assent is not one of
+them;" in a voice that, though low, seemed to cleave the
+air with a steely ring. "You think you love me. Perhaps
+you do&mdash;as far as you are capable of loving any
+thing beside yourself. You have seen a good deal of me
+this summer, and have made up your mind to marry. I
+possess some of the necessary requirements, and doubtless
+suit you better than any mere fashionable woman.
+But you have none of that intense desire that makes a
+matter of life and death of love, that elects one woman,
+or forever keeps a vacant niche in the soul."</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie!"</p>
+
+<p>Her passionate words stunned him. He turned to her
+with a puzzled look, a certain helplessness, as if he were
+stranded on some far, foreign shore. And then he met
+her lustrous eyes, so clear that they were almost pitiless
+in the glow of undimmed truth.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you not trust me?" with the gentle reproachfulness
+so winning to most women, so confident of a victory
+over a heart that loves.</p>
+
+<p>"I could trust you to care for no other woman when
+your word was passed, but it seems to me," and her heart
+swelled with something like contempt, "that you are but
+playing at love. Marriage in your estimation is a fit and
+proper step: your mother likes me, you prefer me to any
+one else"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens, Sylvie! what more do you want?"
+and a flood of scarlet mounted his calm, handsome brow.
+"When a man chooses a woman out of the whole circle
+of his friends and acquaintances, what higher compliment
+can he pay her? I have seen women beside those in
+Yerbury; and, though it may savor of vanity, I believe
+there <i>are</i> those who would appreciate"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder you did not go to them;" with a fine irony,
+cutting short his sentence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Because I liked you, chose you."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not so desire to be chosen," she answered quickly.
+"The man I marry must win my respect, my highest
+faith; must have an aim, an ambition, and not dawdle
+through life as some silly woman might."</p>
+
+<p>The decisive voice seemed to cut a path between him
+and her as it went. It struck home uncomfortably.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I suppose you call all men not engaged in manual
+labor, dawdlers,&mdash;scholars, poets, men of leisure, who
+can devote their lives to work that requires patience and
+fineness of detail, rather than the heavy swing of a blacksmith's
+hammer. When a man has no need of work"&mdash;and
+Fred paused, a trifle out of temper.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not believe God ever made an idler," she said,
+with high gravity that widened the gulf between them.
+"To whom much is given, much will be required."</p>
+
+<p>How unreasonable she was! He hated women who
+flung texts or proverbs at you; and yet he did not hate
+her. She had a girl's flighty notions, born of crude contact
+with inferior minds, and perhaps over-much novel-reading.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not exactly understand what a man must do to
+win your love," he said in one of those calm, intensely
+irritating tones. "I have chosen what suited me best,&mdash;culture,
+refinement, and the education that fits me for the
+sphere in which I am likely to move all my days," impressively.
+"It is true, much of the wisdom of the world
+is little to my taste. I do not know why a man should
+wade through a slough of evil for the sake of repenting
+afterward, for looking white in contrast to that foul
+blackness. The ninety and nine just ones seem to me
+the better example."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid I shall not be able to make you understand,"
+she went on, with a little hesitation. "Perhaps
+I have not the power or patience to shape a man's soul
+to a noble purpose or ambition. I want him strong and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+earnest, full of energy and that high sense of duty to all
+around him, not satisfied to drift down the stream in
+frivolous content, but to make the way better for his
+having gone over it. I want him true as steel to his
+friends, generous, yet uncompromising to his foes, to all
+evil; the kind of man who, if crushed down by fate
+to-day, could see some ray above his head to-morrow,
+who has sufficient moral fibre not to be rigidly bound by
+class feelings and narrow prejudices."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie paused, startled at herself. She had never
+framed her hero in words before, and that she should do
+it for this man!</p>
+
+<p>"These are the heroes of our youth, Miss Sylvie, and
+you are very young," in that insufferably patronizing
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I am old enough to know what I want," she retorted,
+all the fiery blood in her pulses leaping to the charge.
+"I think, too, I can discern between the true worker, and
+him who is content with the frivolous outside show."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not. You have been advising me, now allow
+me a like privilege. Do not imagine me actuated by
+jealousy,&mdash;that vice of the Moor is not in my nature. I
+have seen with some surprise that your fancies were for
+those beneath you in the social scale. A woman always
+loses in this dangerous experiment. She seldom raises
+her commonplace hero to a level with the gods, and is
+much more likely to be dragged down."</p>
+
+<p>She turned suddenly, her face flaming scarlet. The
+indignation misled him. He took it as a sign of personal
+anger, and wondered if she could, if she <i>dared</i>, throw
+him over for that coarse, stupid, blundering fellow.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he continued, glad to stab her in a vulnerable
+point; "you certainly have made a mistake, if you think
+this soul an aspiring one. A boy who excels in brute
+strength and force merely, a man who makes a deliberate
+choice between the nobler results of education and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+common purposes of rude daily labor, will hardly rank
+with a knight of Arthur's time, even if some self-deceived
+woman chooses to lavish her affection upon him."</p>
+
+<p>"If you mean Mr. Darcy"&mdash; And she stood quite
+still, tremulous with passion.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean Mr. Darcy." She had not shown such delicate
+consideration for his feelings that he should hesitate.
+"I do not see how you, with your artistic tastes and
+refinement, can find companionship in such a nature. I
+understand it very thoroughly. Beware, for you cannot
+plead even daffodil blindness, my fair Persephone."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie Barry could have struck the man beside her.
+All the passion of her nature surged up in contempt, great
+waves of white heat. If a look could have annihilated,
+hers might. Even in the shady gloom, he saw the flashing
+eye and quivering lip of scorn.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not distress yourself about me," she answered,
+with suave bitterness. "Jack Darcy may be a mill-hand;
+but he has the honor, the white soul, of a gentleman!
+And you&mdash;you dare to trample on what was once a
+friendship!"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe he was once my admiration because he used
+to show fight so easily. He was for marching West then,
+and doing some grand thing; but you see his hero days
+are gone by. Ten years from this he may be a demagogue,
+a rank socialist, whining about equality. Still, if
+I must congratulate you"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>She made a haughty gesture, and her first impulse was
+to let it go; but her truthful nature could not brook the
+implied deception.</p>
+
+<p>"You may congratulate me upon the friendship alone,"
+with a clear, sharp emphasis.</p>
+
+<p>His shattered self-confidence returned suddenly, shaped
+to arrogance. If she was not entangled with Jack Darcy,
+there certainly was no one else.</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie," he began loftily, "this has been child's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+play, and I am heartily ashamed of my share of it. Let
+us go back, and forget it. You have had your tilt at
+windmills; so suppose we return to common sense. You
+are still heart-free, it seems; and I beg pardon for repeating
+foolish gossip. Your aunt has accepted me as your
+suitor; my mother is waiting to receive you as a daughter;
+and I think," with some pride in his tone, "that few
+men can offer you a cleaner hand, or a better record.
+You will have a life of ease and leisure, and&mdash; Why,
+Sylvie, you can teach <i>me</i>,&mdash;you can help me up these
+glowing heights."</p>
+
+<p>"I have answered you!"</p>
+
+<p>She seemed to grow tall and regal as she stood there
+by the gate, the long, arrowy ray of lamp-light from
+within illumining her proud, cold face, that could flush
+with such bewildering warmth. He discerned in some
+dim way that she had access to a life far above his; an
+atmosphere like hoar-frost surrounded her, raying off fine
+points, that thrust him farther away into darkness and
+coldness. Had something been taken out of his life?</p>
+
+<p>The man's well-nigh imperturbable complacency had
+received a shock.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night," in a softer tone. One cannot break a
+pleasant friendship without a pang.</p>
+
+<p>As one in a dream he heard the gate close, the soft
+footfall on the brick walk, and a waft of voices from within.
+Then it occurred to him that he, Frederic De Woolfe
+Lawrence, had been rejected by this little girl upon whose
+head he had meant to shower the blessing of marital protection,
+the regard of a soul that was not quite indifferent,
+after all. What was this dull pang somewhere in his
+symmetrical, well-kept body? Was it the night that
+made his pulses heavy and turgid?</p>
+
+<p>Then he turned. "By Jove!" he muttered, "there's
+not another girl in the country that could have kept her
+fingers out of the governor's money-bags! Poor mother!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
+What a disappointment for her! Of course Sylvie will
+marry Jack Darcy,&mdash;Pluto and Persephone again."</p>
+
+<p>Then he softly whistled a stave of opera-music, and
+sauntered about leisurely. He had no fancy for facing his
+mother that night.</p>
+
+<p>As for Sylvie, she knew her face was very white when
+she entered the door; but she bustled about with womanly
+evasion, and began to ask if her aunt had been lonesome,
+if any one had called, and declared she was tired from
+walking home, and her head ached a little, which was
+true; and presently the two women barred their doors,
+and went to bed.</p>
+
+<p>Was she glad to have it over? Was she sorry she had
+left no loop-hole for future hope? Strange to say, she
+could not tell.</p>
+
+<p>"But I could never live, like a pauper, on some other
+person's money!" she thought decisively. "And he did
+not care. It was for his mother's sake chiefly."</p>
+
+<p>Again there was a breach between the Montagues and
+the Capulets, this time crossed by no lovers' hands. Mrs.
+Lawrence was highly indignant, Miss Barry vexed and
+sore disappointed. They went the even tenor of their
+way, however, while the poor self-made invalid at Hope
+Terrace grew more querulous and exacting. Fred took a
+week at Saratoga to restore his wounded vanity, and then
+settled himself at a hotel in New York, wondering if he
+had not better read a little law to pass away the winter.
+Mrs. Minor was a queen of fashion, and she was glad to
+have the attendance of her handsome brother. Irene and
+Mrs. Eastman flitted about like gay butterflies, with trains
+of admirers. The faint mutterings in the financial world
+made little difference to them. It was their province to
+spend, to enjoy; and what the strata beneath them did or
+suffered or hoped, was of no more account than the far-off
+ocean-froth beating up on the hard white sand,&mdash;picturesque
+in a drama or a story.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was a dull, gray day, the first of December. Autumn
+had set in early this year. There had been a week
+of cold rain that had quite destroyed the magnificent foliage,
+one of Yerbury's greatest charms; and it became a
+sodden mass, trodden under foot by pedestrians. The
+ground was baked by sharp frosts at night, making the
+unpaved streets a mass of ruts early and late, and quagmires
+in the middle of the day.</p>
+
+<p>Yerbury had changed much from the pretty, clean,
+thriving country-town, to something that aped a grand
+city; unfinished streets, small farms laid waste, rows of
+pretentious houses or florid cottages that had never been
+thoroughly completed, nearly every one adorned with the
+ominous placard, "For Sale." They needed painting and
+tidying: vines were left about, dahlia-stalks hung to
+poles, steps were awry, and gates swinging on one hinge;
+heaps of ashes and garbage lay here and there.</p>
+
+<p>This day Yerbury wore a particularly listless air. The
+leafless trees hung out long and drooping arms, that
+swayed to and fro in the biting wind. The sullen sky
+overhead added its tone of dreariness to the picture.
+There was no cheerful whir of factories and shops, no
+brisk steps of men going to and fro, though there were
+enough standing around in groups with scowling faces
+and compressed lips, or flushed with angry gesticulation.</p>
+
+<p>The only places that evinced any air of business were
+the beer-shops. Here a man harangued his fellows; there
+he did not deign to argue, but openly cursed. "Let's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+treat on that!" said one. "I'll stand to that sentiment,"
+declared another. Sometimes voices rose so high that a
+proprietor was forced to command order.</p>
+
+<p>Yerbury was on a strike. There had been a new scale
+of prices with the opening of autumn, submitted to by
+most of the men with a sympathetic good-nature. Trade
+was getting dull. Fancy prices no longer ruled. An
+ominous feeling pervaded all classes. Building fell off.
+One tenant gave up his house, and took part with another.
+Housewives looked about for the cheapest market, and
+talked of making last year's coat or cloak do for the
+winter.</p>
+
+<p>Hope Mills had been among the first to propose this
+second reduction. David Lawrence had returned from his
+business tour much depressed. There was an undercurrent
+of distrust, a disinclination to lay in stock, a wordless
+questioning from eye to eye, with no hopeful response.</p>
+
+<p>Horace Eastman had worked himself into the charge of
+the inside business. He had no real interest, but a liberal
+salary; and Mr. Lawrence felt that he lifted a weight of
+care from his shoulders. If only Fred&mdash; But with college
+training and elegant tastes he could hardly be expected to
+take to the dull routine of business cares. So matters
+had been left more and more to Eastman, who was shrewd
+and sharp, who always managed to get the most for his
+money.</p>
+
+<p>Now Mr. Lawrence was appalled by the amount of
+stock on hand. They had been running the mills at full
+capacity all summer.</p>
+
+<p>"We must offer goods at a lower figure," said Mr.
+Eastman promptly. "We must get command of trade
+again. Prices <i>will</i> come down,&mdash;that is a foregone conclusion.
+The abundant harvests have glutted the market,
+and living will be cheaper. The laborer can live on less;
+and, if we can manufacture at less cost, we shall be all
+right again."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But there seems no demand for goods," said Mr.
+Lawrence faintly. "Store-shelves are full. People are
+carrying last year's stock with no call for it. It has
+always seemed to me, Eastman, that a liberal policy to
+workmen brought its own reward. They are large consumers.
+Cut them down to mere food and shelter, and
+clothes are the first to go. In decent times your workman
+is ashamed of a ragged coat."</p>
+
+<p>"All very true, Mr. Lawrence; but, if there is no market,
+we must create one. Sell cheaper stock to new men.
+That will make a demand at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Undersell! We used to call that a cut-throat business,
+Mr. Eastman;" and a flush stained the fine face,
+now rather worn and thin.</p>
+
+<p>"It is what we must come to. There is next to no premium
+on gold, and the first man who touches bottom will
+be the lucky one, to my thinking. Cheap goods, cheap
+every thing, will be the next cry. The farmers must dispose
+of their wool, and labor must come down. Why,
+ordinary workmen have been living like princes."</p>
+
+<p>The delicate brows were drawn thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I always hated to grind workmen down to a bare
+subsistence," spoke the honest, loyal gentleman, as God
+made him. Trade had not warped body and soul. He
+was an aristocrat, if you please, and his home was as
+sacred to refinement and elegance as a ducal palace. A
+common person would have stood in his hall until his
+errand was done, and he would never even have asked a
+workman to take a seat in his office; but his soul was
+honorable, if haughty.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me manage it," with a confident nod. "We'll
+keep the topmost wave, as you will see."</p>
+
+<p>So to New York Horace Eastman went, and arranged
+for a large auction-sale of goods, which was a remarkable
+success, and created quite a ripple in the sea of stagnation.
+Then he contracted to deliver another lot by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+first of January, at certain prices. And now either
+manufacturer must give up profits, or workman yield his
+margin, and be contented with daily bread alone.</p>
+
+<p>"There really was no need of workmen owning houses,
+having Brussels carpets and pianos," argued Eastman.
+"They were in some degree answerable for the hard
+times. Every one wanted to out-do his neighbor. They
+were not content to live as their fathers had lived; and,
+where the mothers wore print dresses, the daughters must
+have silk. They had gone on altogether too fast."</p>
+
+<p>Yet only a few years ago workingmen had been urged
+to put their money into homes. Rows of houses had been
+built for them, and sold on such ridiculously easy terms,
+only a trifle down. The interest would not be as much as
+rent. Then the fascinating shopkeeper had flaunted his
+wares in the faces of the thrifty housewives. "A good
+article is cheapest in the end. This Brussels will outwear
+two ingrain carpets, at a very little advance on the first
+cost. No moths will trouble it, once down it is there for
+years, saving worry and hard work;" and the buyer was
+persuaded. Then there must be new furniture, and so on
+to the end. Was it altogether their fault? The old things
+were passing away. The world was awaking from its
+Rip-Van-Winkle nap. There was to be a wider outlook,
+a liberal cultivation, a general rising of every one.</p>
+
+<p>So there had been years of plenty, and men had pulled
+down the old storehouses to build new ones.</p>
+
+<p>Such people as the Eastmans and the Lawrences could
+not economize at a moment's warning. The screws must
+be put on elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>At first the workmen looked at each other in blank dismay.
+Winter was coming on&mdash;a hard one it bid fair to
+be. Coal had risen, and in spite of the abundant harvest
+the absolute staples of life had not much decreased by
+the time they reached the consumer. Coffees were high:
+pease, beans, and chiccory were sold at a reduction, to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+sure, and you could get lumpy heavy flour that spoiled
+your bread, and poor butter, and teas that were colored
+and doctored; and this was cheap living.</p>
+
+<p>There was a stormy wrangle. Meetings were held, and
+speakers figured out the actual cost of living. Less than
+the present rates meant loss, privation, and want in the
+end. So a strike was determined upon.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy, being foreman of one department, stood, as
+it were, between the upper and nether millstone, at present
+just escaping both. He thought it hard that the men
+should have this second reduction so soon, and it did
+seem to him reasonable that profits ought to yield a little,
+that there ought to be a sympathy between them. Personally,
+he should be comfortable enough; but if he had
+a wife and three or four children, a helpless, bedridden
+mother, or a drunken father, or a do-nothing brother,
+hanging upon him, what then?</p>
+
+<p>He advised a little moderation and patience. It might
+be better to take the wages now, and wait until spring&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"They doant give up any thing, as we sees," broke in
+an elderly English weaver. "The great house is full of
+every thing, and coal eno' burning in the greenhouses to
+ripen a few bunches of grapes out of God's own season,
+as would keep many of us warm. Who puts our coal
+down a dollar in the ton, or takes it off of house-rent
+when wages come down? I'll work as cheap as the next
+one if ye'll gi' me a cheap house to live in and cheap beef
+and bread. I doant care for money in the savin's bank,
+or a house that they tax all out o' sight. When I'm old
+I'll go to the poorhouse, I will; but I'm danged if I like
+starvin' before then, and they a-ridin' over us in their carriages.
+I left 'em over yonder"&mdash;with a nod of the
+head&mdash;"for that."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of it?" asked a thin, hungry-looking
+man, fingering his Cardigan nervously. "See
+here! If I could have one more prosperous year, I'd<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+be through the woods, have the house I've worked so
+hard for settled upon my old woman, and would be out
+of the reach of misfortune. But this thing hits me hard,
+it does."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe striking will succeed just now," said
+Jack candidly. "And it's a bad time. Two or three
+weeks lost time will more than cover the odds in wages."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to lose time. I'd rather keep straight
+on."</p>
+
+<p>"It's the principle of the thing," broke in another.
+"I'd lose six months before I'd give in an inch. I'd
+have struck the other time."</p>
+
+<p>There was a call for the overseers, and Jack left the
+group. Eastman was talking to several of the men in his
+office. A fine, portly figure he had, indicating rich living
+and good wines; a man still on the sunny side of forty,
+stout, rather florid, a full dark beard and hair, but with
+eyes that were light and furtive; eyes that could stare
+you out of countenance, and yet not meet yours ordinarily,
+with a frank, outward look. He always went handsomely
+dressed, and wore diamond shirt-studs, an expensive
+seal-ring, a substantial watch-chain with two or three
+costly charms. He had not a flashy look, but the sign
+and seal of gentlemanliness was wanting in that intensely
+selfish face.</p>
+
+<p>He had heard of the disaffection. There was not much
+to say except that the new scale of prices would go into
+effect next Monday morning. He never asked a man to
+work for any less wages than he, the workman, considered
+his services worth. Here was the work, and the wages
+Hope Mills could afford to pay. They could take it, or
+leave it. There were plenty of men at Coldbridge,
+thrown out by the failure of Kendrick &amp; Co., who would
+be glad to come. He could fill any vacant place.</p>
+
+<p>But the ball grew and grew by handling. There were
+union-meetings and violent harangues, much of them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+truth, too, but badly and unwisely used. And the result
+was that the men demanded the old wages, were peremptorily
+refused, and struck. The great engine subsided,
+and a Sunday stillness reigned. Down at Hull's Iron
+Works the same proceedings were going on, but the
+saloons seemed to profit by it.</p>
+
+<p>Jack hung around the mill for a while, then went down
+stairs. The chilliness in the air made him draw his
+coat together by one button, and slip his hands into his
+pockets. He sauntered through several streets, nodding
+to one and another, or exchanging a few words. Once
+again his advice was asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you had better come to work to-morrow," he
+said. "Don't muddle your brains with beer or bad whiskey:
+that will not make the way any clearer."</p>
+
+<p>"A good enough lad!" was the surly comment, "but
+why grudge a man a sup of beer when he can't have
+wine like the big folks?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack had hardly planned for the enforced idleness. He
+did not want to go home and read, he could not call on
+Sylvie thus early in the morning, neither did he feel in
+the humor for argument with any of the men. So he
+stopped at the door of a small office, and turned the knob
+rather hesitatingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hillo, Darcy, is that you? Come in, come in! Sullen
+gray day, isn't it? Off on a strike, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack laughed,&mdash;the sound with no real music in it, the
+sort of lip-service merely.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in, old fellow; don't be afraid. I've neither
+pistol nor bludgeon, and I'll promise to treat you civilly."</p>
+
+<p>The man's accents were clear and curt, with a certain
+ring of out-door freshness,&mdash;a capital voice to travel
+with up mountain-sides and through forests. The face,
+too, indicated a kind of joyous strength; for the blue
+eyes were merry and baffling, the laughing lips a brilliant
+scarlet, the nose neither Grecian nor aquiline, but slightly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+<i>retrouss&eacute;;</i> a bronze moustache with long curling ends
+that were undeniably red, and hair a little darker, slightly
+curling as well. A broad-shouldered man with the deep
+breathing of intense vitality; healthy nerves that could
+enjoy laziness to the full, as well as a brisk walk across
+the country.</p>
+
+<p>A glance at the interior showed the place to be a doctor's
+office. On one side a long case with glass doors
+above and drawers underneath, filled with bottles and
+books and papers, perhaps in not the most systematic
+order; at the farther end a fire in an open-front stove;
+a luxurious Turkish lounge covered with russet leather,
+and a bright wool blanket thrown carelessly over it;
+several capacious armchairs; and in one, with his legs
+stretched out on another, sat Dr. Philip Maverick, eight
+and twenty or thirty years old, perhaps.</p>
+
+<p>"How nice and cosey you are! I really did not know
+what to do with myself. Yes, we are all on a strike, I
+am sorry to say."</p>
+
+<p>"Bad time," and Maverick shook his head. "What's
+the prospect? Have a cigar."</p>
+
+<p>"The prospect is that the weakest goes to the wall, of
+course," answered Jack. "Maverick, I am dreadfully muddled
+on this point. I have thought of it all the
+week. It <i>is</i> hard on the men. I know the general advice
+is to economize more closely, but how can you do it
+just at the beginning of winter? One cannot move to a
+cheaper tenement, fire and lights cost more, and provision
+is a little dearer. Low living in winter does not conduce
+to a healthy state in the spring. Then, on the other hand,
+if they are going to make such sales as they did last
+month, they cannot pay the wages, and realize what they
+consider a fair profit. But why shouldn't the Lawrences
+and the Eastmans and many others give up something, as
+well?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack turned an anxious face to his listener.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"All you manufacturers have been crazy the last few
+years," he said, delicately shaking the ashes from his cigar.
+"The country was such an extensive purchaser through
+the war, that your dreams became Utopian. Then everybody
+came home with some money and no clothes, and
+the people were large consumers. Now everybody has
+been clothed, and the stores are full, and here is a glutted
+market. Over-production, my dear fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I do believe it would be better to leave off for
+a while. Still that would not suit as well. Half a loaf is
+better than no bread, to a hungry man. But, after all,"
+said Jack, knitting his brows, "I don't altogether believe
+in the cry of over-production. The boys of war times
+are men now. They are pushing in everywhere for work.
+They want food, shelter, raiment. There are a great
+many more people in this town than there were five years
+ago. Even if we only depended on the natural increase
+of population"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But, you see, people are forever crowding into cities,"
+interposed Dr. Maverick.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a fancy they do not come much faster than
+they are called," returned Jack dryly. "See what we
+have been doing around here. The small outlying farms
+have been bought up by speculators, cut up, destroyed
+for farming purposes. Their owners with families of children
+had to go somewhere. 'Come to the mills and factories,'
+was shouted in their ears, and they came. Now
+they are here, depending on their labor for bread, and
+Eastman will bring fifty or a hundred more from Coldbridge;
+and in the spring, if there is any difficulty, some
+more will come. The old ones cannot go back to their
+farms if they would. Their fertile gardens lie cut up into
+waste squares, their fruit-trees have been despoiled: they
+must starve here, or tramp to some other crowded town,
+and perhaps starve there. Will your farmer take in half
+a dozen hands at a moment's notice? Can they put themselves
+down in any country place, and go to work?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Maverick studied Jack intently, and then gave a low
+whistle.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word, Darcy, you <i>have</i> been going over the
+subject. Take the stump. And of course you go against
+capital?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't," returned Jack shortly. "Only it does
+seem to me that there ought to be some place where capital
+and labor could strike hands. It appears to me, both
+have been to blame. We cannot condemn men for crowding
+into cities, when there has been a steady call for
+them. We do blame them for not laying up a little money
+against a rainy day; but many of them have. Look at
+the cottages that have been sold to workingmen. Look
+at the bank savings. To-day, perhaps, as many poor men
+could pay their whole indebtedness, according to the ratio,
+as the rich. But we fly at the laboring classes, when it
+is only human nature cropping out. Your millionnaire
+puts his money into whatever he thinks will bring him the
+greatest return; your poor man puts his capital, his capacity,
+health, and strength, where it will earn him the
+most money."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't see but they are both right enough,"
+said Maverick. "And unless you are running over into
+communistic ideas"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am not," was the decisive reply. "Some one much
+wiser than I said, ages ago, 'He among you that will not
+work, let him not eat:' yet," with a humorous laugh, "if
+the rule were strictly enforced, there would more than one
+go hungry, I'm thinking. The great consolation would
+be that the right man would suffer, not the innocent and
+guiltless."</p>
+
+<p>"I really do not see what you are driving at, Darcy,"
+and the other studied him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I told you in the beginning I was muddled. I
+don't pretend to see my way clear, only I think we have
+just begun the fight. It is as much of an irrepressible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+conflict as that other, for which so many brave men gave
+their lives. And one point in it no one seems to take
+note of. We are proud of the increase of population in
+our country. Every city, town, and hamlet boasts of it,
+and the depopulated places run to slow decay. We welcome
+these people; and yet they must eat to live, and the
+majority of them must work, or they will have nothing to
+eat. I think the most of them labor cheerfully, and my
+experience is that idleness is the worst foe of man. But,
+on the other hand, every year invention so protects and
+fortifies capital, that one must do a larger business or employ
+fewer men. In five years the condition of labor has
+greatly changed at Hope Mills, and in five years more it
+will change again. This is the inexorable law of nature,
+or, I ought to say, growing intelligence."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I should say we wanted wider markets and a
+better classification of labor."</p>
+
+<p>A quick light came into Jack's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you have hit it, Maverick," he answered.
+"But what is everybody's business is nobody's; and we
+are so apt to forget that the world does move, and the
+condition of things changes all the time," and Jack's eyes
+dropped thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Darcy, take Brock's Hall, and talk to the
+men to-morrow night," began the doctor eagerly. "They
+will listen to you because to a certain extent you are in
+sympathy with them, one of their number; and you do
+seem to have some clear ideas on the subject. No: we'll
+say Wednesday night, and I will get out some posters."</p>
+
+<p>Jack laughed. "What shall I tell them? I can't see
+how to get about the remedy clearly myself. The trade-unions
+have not hit it either. When they say to a man,
+'Because I will not work for a certain sum, you shall not,'
+they lean on a reed that will surely break, and pierce themselves.
+Hunger is stronger than theory. No: I shall
+have to give the point a more thorough study before I
+become a blatant apostle."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Philip Maverick blew out a curling whiff of smoke, and
+looked at his visitor through it. Darcy gave him a
+curious feeling, as if a good deal of excellent material
+were running to waste, that if shaped and trained, and
+brought up to higher purposes, might be of much good
+service to the world. Did he realize it himself? He was
+twenty-four, and had a good position as things went; and
+Dr. Maverick had heard the women of the house were
+prudent and thrifty, and had a nice home. Was Darcy
+bounded in by conservatism, or afraid of losing? or was
+he honest when he said he did not know just what to do?
+Yet he did not look like the kind of man to go plodding
+all his days.</p>
+
+<p>"Darcy, you puzzle me!" he began abruptly. "With
+that great body of yours, those strong arms and hands
+that look as if they could wrest Nature's secrets from her
+mighty soul, with that brow, and the resolute mouth, it
+seems as if you ought to be in better business than
+making cloth: pardon me. You don't use up half your
+energy. You ought to be planning a ship-canal across
+Darien, or tunnelling mountains. You're the square man;
+and how upon earth did you ever get fitted so smoothly
+to a round hole?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack laughed, and told his story very simply. To him
+there was neither romance nor heroism in it, just a plain
+every-day sort of compulsion. The tunnelling would have
+been much more to his mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on with the problem," said Dr. Maverick abruptly.
+"In the next five years I think we will all have use
+for our wits. We are going to see another change in matters,
+that will require more wisdom than is needed in mere
+money-making. See here, I'm interested in the thing.
+Let us go out, and hear what the men say about it."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick rose, and put on his great-coat, and lighted
+another cigar. Then the two started together.</p>
+
+<p>Maverick had been in the town just six months. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+had studied medicine in Philadelphia and Paris, taken a
+three-years ramble over Europe, when a college friend
+begged him to come to Yerbury, and step into a vacant
+place. And he had what he fancied an excellent reason
+for it.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> men were, for the most part, in sullen earnest.
+From their narrower outlook they could not see that capital
+was on the eve of a great revulsion; that credit had
+been stretched to its utmost. They had their own pet
+plans, their own indolences and careless habits; and, as
+was natural, their own desires were the sweetest to them.</p>
+
+<p>There were labor-meetings and harangues. There was
+a good deal of talk about the rights of labor and the
+tyranny of capital; of the rich mill and factory owners
+living in palaces, and the men in hovels; of what England
+had done, and of what we surely were coming to,&mdash;the
+rich growing richer, and the poor poorer. But Jack remarked
+that of the speakers there was not one who owned
+a little plot of ground, or had a bank-account. Two of
+them were disaffected English weavers, a third an Irishman,
+and the only Yerbury man was a quick-tongued, but
+shiftless fellow who had started in business for himself,
+and failed; a kind of handy Jack-at-all-trades, and correspondingly
+good for nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Before the close of the week the men in Watkins's shoe-shop
+had struck. There was quite an army of them now.
+The saloons were filled daily and nightly. Jack thought,
+with a little grimness, that they might better save their
+money for next week's bread.</p>
+
+<p>Several of the men in his room dropped in to see what
+he thought; and the result was, that on the following Monday
+morning ten of them presented themselves with a tolerably
+cheerful demeanor, and accepted the situation. By<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+Tuesday night every vacant place was filled with hungry,
+haggard-looking men from Coldbridge. They were jeered
+at, and annoyed in various ways: the Yerbury men were
+called rats and turncoats and cowards. The mills were
+driven. There was another great and successful sale; in
+fact, amid the failures and difficulties about, Hope Mills
+loomed up like a star of the first magnitude.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring Mrs. Eastman and Miss Lawrence went to
+Europe; and Fred joined a party of young men on a
+pleasure-tour through California. Even Mrs. Lawrence
+was persuaded to try Saratoga in the summer. The great
+house was muffled, and left in the charge of servants; but
+greenhouses, graperies, and all the elegant adjuncts were
+cared for as assiduously as ever. David Lawrence used
+to think it over. Sometimes he was tempted to sell out
+his palatial residence, but who was there to buy? Other
+men had been caught with just such elephants on their
+hands. The papers were full of offers "at an immense
+sacrifice."</p>
+
+<p>Business grew duller and duller. There was a very
+great overplus of every thing, it seemed, in the world.
+Harvests were so abundant, and prices so low, they were
+not worth the moving. Fruit lay and rotted on the
+ground: you could get nothing for it. And yet there
+were wan-eyed and hungry women and children who would
+have feasted regally on this waste. Mothers of families
+turned and patched and darned, and said there could be
+no new garments this winter, while store-shelves groaned
+under the accumulation of goods. Men were failing on
+this side and that; the Alton &amp; West Line Railway stock
+came down with a crash, and banks were shaky. Hope
+Mills were closed for a month to make some repairs, as
+business was rather slow just now.</p>
+
+<p>There was a great quaking in real estate as well. The
+large property-owners held on stiffly: times would improve;
+land was worth more to-day than ever, because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+every year there were more people, and they required
+more houses, and the thing would somehow right itself.</p>
+
+<p>Jack had taken his two feminines off to a great roomy
+farmhouse, where they had a horse at their command.
+Sylvie and Miss Barry were summering at the White
+Mountains. Dr. Maverick found a good deal of sickness
+among the poorer classes, low fevers and various troubles,
+that he knew well enough came from insufficient diet.
+But what was to be done? There was so little work, so
+much lost time, the inexorable rent, and the importunate
+grocer's bill. Up on Hope Terrace the luscious grapes
+fell to the ground, and were swept up as so much litter;
+the fresh, lovely vegetables passed their prime unheeded,
+and were tossed in the garbage-pit.</p>
+
+<p>September came in hot and sultry. Hope Mills started,
+but many another place did not open. There was a
+strange, deathly-quiet undercurrent, like the awful calm
+before a thunder-shower. Wages took another tumble,
+and now no one had the courage to make much of a fight.</p>
+
+<p>The second week in October there came an appalling
+crash. Yerbury Bank closed its doors one morning,&mdash;the
+old bank that had weathered many a gale; that was considered
+as safe and stanch as the rock of Gibraltar itself;
+that held in trust the savings of widows and orphans, the
+balance of smaller business-men who would be ruined:
+indeed, it would almost ruin Yerbury itself.</p>
+
+<p>There was the greatest consternation. People flew up
+the street, bank-book in hand; but the dumb doors seemed
+only to give back a pitiless glance to entreaties. What
+was it? What had happened? "Every penny I had in
+the world was in it," groaned one; and the saddening
+refrain was repeated over and over, sometimes with tears,
+at others with curses.</p>
+
+<p>The old officers of Yerbury Bank had been men of
+the highest integrity. Some were dead; some had been
+pushed aside by the new, fast men who laughed at past<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+methods, as if honor, honesty, and truth were virtues
+easily outgrown. Among these were the Eastmans.
+George was considered shrewd and far-sighted, and for
+two years had been one of the directors, as well as
+Horace. They paid the highest rate of interest, which
+attracted small savings from all around. There had been
+no whisper or fear about it, so solid was its olden reputation.
+There were people who would as soon have doubted
+the Bible.</p>
+
+<p>Two days after this, George Eastman sailed for Europe,
+on a sudden summons,&mdash;his wife's illness. There had
+been a meeting called, and a short statement made.
+Owing to sudden and unexpected depreciation in railway-bonds
+and improvement-bonds, and what not, it was
+deemed best to suspend payment for the present. In a
+few weeks all would be straight again, with perhaps a
+trifling loss to depositors. Already the directors had been
+very magnanimous. Mr. Eastman and several others
+had turned over to the bank a large stock of mortgages:
+in fact, the virtue of these men was so lauded that the
+losses seemed to be quite thrown into the background.</p>
+
+<p>But the examination revealed a sickening mass of
+selfishness and cupidity; transactions that were culpably
+careless, others dishonorable to the last degree. If the
+larger depositors had not been warned, there was certainly
+a remarkable unanimity of thought, as, for the past fortnight,
+they had been steadily drawing out their thousands.
+Wild railroad-speculations, immense mortgages on real
+estate that now lay flat and dead: scanty available assets
+that would hardly pay twenty cents on a dollar.</p>
+
+<p>This was what David Lawrence heard when he returned
+from St. Louis, a heavy-hearted, dispirited man. Two
+recent failures had borne heavily upon him. If last
+winter had been dull, there was no adjective to apply to
+this. His first step was to mortgage Hope Terrace. He
+had deeded it to his wife, unincumbered; but now it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+appeared his only chance of salvation. Mrs. Lawrence
+made a feeble protest at first, and demanded that Fred
+should be sent for, but there was no time. He met his
+pressing notes, and was tided over; but, oh! what was to
+be the end of it all?</p>
+
+<p>An indignation-meeting was called; and so high ran
+popular feeling, that new directors were appointed for the
+bank. Mr. Lawrence would have fain declined, but the
+community insisted. In this time of general distrust,
+they came back to the loyal gentleman, who, whatever his
+pride might be, had never deceived one of them.</p>
+
+<p>Alas! had he not enough perplexity of his own, that
+this new sorrow and shame should stare him in the face,
+bow him to the earth?</p>
+
+<p>Not his own son, thank God! not any blood kin; and
+yet his daughter's husband, his fair Gertrude, of whom
+he had been so proud years ago! He went back suddenly
+to that old time, and seemed to see them all again as
+little children, a merry household; and his pale, delicate
+Fred, for whom his heart beat so anxiously. How they
+had welcomed his coming!&mdash;a son to hand down the
+name, a son to lean upon in his old age. Nay, those
+were the extremes of life: why should not men count on
+their sons through the burden and heat of middle life?
+Why wait until the evening for comfort?</p>
+
+<p>Where was he now? Did he think of the one who had
+toiled that he might spend? for, now that he looked at it
+with awesome calmness, like a thing standing apart, it
+was one long, dreary pilgrimage of toil. To what end?
+Was gathering together riches the noblest use of a man
+made in God's image? Ah, how poor and paltry an aim!</p>
+
+<p>Surely he had done something beside that! A pleasant
+home of culture and artistic beauty, a circle of refined
+people gathered about him, the evil and want and woe
+of the world shut carefully out by silken curtains and
+plate-glass. His daughters he had been proud of. No<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+<i>m&eacute;salliance</i>, no common tastes, as he had sometimes fancied
+that he had detected in that pretty little Sylvie Barry.
+And his son?</p>
+
+<p>There had been no positive evil in his life. A young
+man's follies perhaps, but few vices, if any, thank God!
+He would never be a libertine, a drunkard, a gambler, a
+thief. But was negative goodness all? These twenty-four
+years spent in shaping and culturing, but to what
+end? Could he call him back from his pleasure now, and
+have him take up this struggle grown too heavy to fight
+single-handed? and would he be manful, brave, clear-sighted,
+and unrepining? No. He felt the change would
+be too great. The soul so used to ease and luxury, fine
+linen and soft couches, delicate appetites, indolent habits,
+intellectual pursuits and graces, to be put in rough harness
+of business at once, would be cruel, nay, worse, like
+chaining humming-birds to a dray-wagon. And Irene,
+flitting like a butterfly through elegant <i>salons</i>, how would
+she be content with poverty and a cottage?</p>
+
+<p>And was this all the work of his own hands? Had he
+laid up no treasure against the time of adversity, made
+no homes into which he might be received in his trial hour?
+For two years he had struggled manfully, earnestly; and
+all this time at his very gate there had been a traitor,
+turning aside the stream until there was nothing but a
+barren desert left.</p>
+
+<p>The crown of his life was poverty and ruin! For himself
+he could give up luxuries, and come to plain fare; but
+what of the others? This last news had swept away all
+hope.</p>
+
+<p>He sought Horace Eastman, and confronted him with
+his deceit and wrong: somehow he could not bring himself
+to call it by its true name, crime, and fasten it on
+the man there and then. There was a high-bred delicacy
+about David Lawrence, a little of the old knightly chivalry
+that in past times held a man back from striking a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+fallen foe. And then he was not quite sure. The dishonorable
+work lay between the two men, and he forbore
+to blame this one wrongly.</p>
+
+<p>He need not have wasted his pity on this man, or have
+so nicely worded his charges. Horace Eastman stood
+there, surprised to be sure, for he had counted upon getting
+away before this turn in the wheel of fortune. For the
+last year, though he had been outwardly triumphant, and
+had carried business matters with a hopefully high hand,
+he had known what the end must be, and made ready for
+it with a kind of exultant elation at the sense of difficulties
+surmounted and deceptions carried on successfully.
+He really despised the man before him, that he had sufficient
+faith in human nature to be deceived. Starting
+from the principle that all men are rogues when opportunity
+offers, he felt no more guilty now, than if he had
+followed any other well-known law of nature. He stood
+before Mr. Lawrence bland and composed: there was no
+vulnerable point to strike, so he need put on no armor.
+Many a time he had reasoned the matter out to his own
+satisfaction, that the failure of Hope Mills was inevitable.
+What with losses, dull times, and extravagant living, it
+would surely come. That he owed his employer any thing
+in integrity and sharp fighting with adverse circumstances,
+would never enter the mind of such a man, so inwrapped
+in self.</p>
+
+<p>"There were some irregularities for your son-in-law's
+benefit," with an insolent half smile, half sneer. "He
+was to explain them to you. There have been accommodations
+for the mills occasionally. You were away: what
+else could I have done?"</p>
+
+<p>A cold shiver ran over David Lawrence. That part of
+courage allied to hope seemed crushed out of him as if by torture.
+Could he drag his daughter's name through the
+mire? for it would be that in any attempt to bring Eastman
+to the point of responsibility.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Do you know how much this&mdash;this defalcation will
+amount to?" He would call the monstrous thing by its
+right name now, though he shuddered in every limb, and
+a cold perspiration stood in great beads about his thin
+temples. A third person witnessing his hesitation might
+fancy him faltering and shrinking in the path of dishonor,
+rather than the other.</p>
+
+<p>"I really have no idea," bracing up his broad, full
+shoulders with portentous dignity: "George managed
+that matter. No doubt there are some memoranda,"
+pausing with an indifferent air as if it were a matter of a
+few dollars.</p>
+
+<p>"The bank must be made good, Mr. Eastman."</p>
+
+<p>"Well; as you think best, as you think best;" nodding
+confidently, as if the repayment were the easiest thing in
+the world. "Let me see,&mdash;would it not be better to
+write to George?"</p>
+
+<p>What impression could he make upon this man? To
+appeal to conscience, justice, or any latent sense of right,
+would be a waste of words. With him success was right,
+and failure the blunder or sin. He was to "do well unto
+himself," to gain the world's verdict of approval. That
+solid flesh made by good eating and drinking, not debauchery
+or intemperance,&mdash;the man had few of these gross
+vices,&mdash;that complacent strength, that keen, concentrating
+force than could bend all energies in the one direction,
+never looking back when he had once set his mind to a
+thing, experiencing no remorse for those he crushed under
+his feet so long as he went to success over them, knowing
+no disinterestedness, trading simply upon the credulity,
+honor, and honesty of others: he had chosen him for some
+of these very qualities. Do men gather grapes of thistles?</p>
+
+<p>"Bring the books to my office. I shall go over them
+to-night," was the haughty command.</p>
+
+<p>Eastman bowed and withdrew. The books were sent
+by the errand-boy. Then he threw himself into his luxurious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+Russia-leather chair, rested his feet upon the edge
+of the desk, settled his hands comfortably in his pockets,
+and began to consider. A man would be foolish to stay
+and be caught in the ruin of a falling house. He might
+not be crushed, to be sure; but there would be the <i>d&eacute;bris</i>,
+and he had no fancy for clearing that away. Not only
+the mills, but Yerbury, would fall flat. He did not care to
+retire to a garden, and raise strawberries and corn: the
+clink of gold was more melodious to his ear than the
+voices of nature. There was a place for talent like his:
+the quick sight and keen discrimination were still able to
+give the rusty old world a lift out of ruts it had stopped
+in, and send it on with a rush. He had money in some
+silver-mines: he might go West, and attend to that, then
+take a run over to England, and see George. After all,
+was George really to blame for getting hold of his wife's
+portion? He had married Miss Lawrence, believing in
+good faith that she was the daughter of a millionnaire;
+and, if he had been sharp enough to save something from
+the general ruin, lucky for him!</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, Mr. Eastman thought it would be well
+to go to New York for a few days until the storm blew
+over. Jeffries the book-keeper could attend to all that
+was needed. Mr. Lawrence would find Hope Mills in a
+bad plight, to be sure; but he would not be the first man
+who had come to ruin. Mr. Eastman put his desk in
+order,&mdash;he never kept any tell-tale papers,&mdash;walked leisurely
+out of Hope Mills with that serene, impassable
+face and high heart no misfortune could daunt.</p>
+
+<p>David Lawrence spread the books open before him.
+It would be an endless task. One fact kept burning into
+his brain like fire. The Eastmans, or Hope Mills, owed
+Yerbury Bank seventy thousand dollars, the hard earnings
+and self-denials of poor and middle-class people.
+How it stung his haughty pride, unused even to dishonorable
+thoughts! If he had been an exact master, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+had also been a just and honest one. Shame and disgrace
+stared him square in the face, where they would
+have but looked askance at Horace Eastman.</p>
+
+<p>It had been quite impossible to take cognizance of
+every thing after the business grew so unwieldy. Then
+he thought of his son again with passionate longing.
+Never had he so wanted some of his own kin to lean
+upon, to take counsel with, to consider what must be
+done toward saving honor: that was no social figment
+with him, but a deep, heaven-abiding truth.</p>
+
+<p>Heaven! By some strange turn of thought it entered
+his mind. He was so tired, he had been so tired for
+months and months, so engrossed with cares and business,
+that he had hardly stepped inside a church. How
+they used to go in the old days; how proud he had been
+of his four pretty children, of his tall handsome girls,
+and his manly son! Respectability, and setting a good
+example,&mdash;these had been his motives for church-going.
+Bits of sermons came back to him: how strange that he
+could remember them! There was a rest from labor, a
+refreshing of soul. Oh, how dark and arid, how confused
+and chaotic, his felt! Was there a something he
+had never known?</p>
+
+<p>Then he pulled himself together mentally, roused his
+dreaming brain, and said something must be done. Fred
+must come back, and face the terrible truth. As well
+send for him now.</p>
+
+<p>He wrote out a message, and rang the bell. A tall,
+slim youth answered it.</p>
+
+<p>"I want this telegram sent immediately," he said in
+his quiet tone of command. "Is Farrell anywhere
+about?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can take it, sir, if you please: I often do."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well."</p>
+
+<p>Back to the books again with their long lines of
+figures. Did he think he would find the shame and ruin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+here in bold black and white? He studied them until
+they all ran together, and his brain seemed to become a
+mass of luminous light with black motes floating about in
+it. The tense agony abated. Strange visions haunted
+him, frivolous fancies, and wonders that had puzzled him
+in boyhood; heroic fragments of bygone declamation;
+the incidents of a week ago; a picture of some bold
+scenery, and he in the cars, whirling by.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I going crazy?" he asked with a ghastly expression.
+Then he took several turns about the room,
+listened to the noise of the great engine, and assured
+himself that he was sane.</p>
+
+<p>Had he better go home? He was so tired! In all his
+life he had never been so utterly exhausted. Then in a
+sudden, fretful mood of contradiction he wondered he
+should think of fatigue when his limbs felt strong, and
+his body knew no physical pain.</p>
+
+<p>"I must shake it off!" he declared resolutely. Of
+what avail would be going home to a wife's peevish complaints,
+and sit by himself to study out this tangle? As
+well stay here, and master it. And that palace yonder
+was home, and these were the comforts for which he had
+spent his years and his energies! This was what he had
+laid up. An inheritance incorruptible&mdash;why would these
+things come back to him?</p>
+
+<p>The mill-bell began its clang. He listened to the
+tramp through the passage-ways, the confusion of voices.
+He went to the window. The great gates for the work-hands
+were around on the other side; but he could see
+the motley procession filing down the street. Not gay
+and cheerful as in bygone days: they seemed to drag
+along, these girls and women in shabby clothes, their
+shawls drawn around their shoulders. Old men and boys&mdash;why,
+where had vigorous middle life disappeared? So
+many faces had a hard, discontented look, that pierced
+him like the sharp point of ingratitude. Had he not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+brought himself to ruin to give the people employment?
+If he had shut down the mill three years ago, he would
+have been a rich man.</p>
+
+<p>Well, why had he not? Was it thought for them?
+Had the prospect of their starving lain heavily on his
+soul?</p>
+
+<p>Ah, the love of money-getting, the fiend of covetousness!
+But what would these people have done? Some
+one had once said, "What is that to thee? Follow thou
+me." Was it in a sermon?</p>
+
+<p>He lighted the gas, and went on wearily with his books.
+Some one opened the door softly, and peered in. It was
+Farrell, the day-man. When he saw Mr. Lawrence he
+touched his cap respectfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me, sir: I saw a light"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am going to stay&mdash;all night, I think: I shall
+be busy. When does the night-man come?"</p>
+
+<p>"At seven, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"I will send a note up to Hope Terrace, Farrell.
+Could you take it?"</p>
+
+<p>The man thought of his long day's work and his
+waiting supper. "Yes," he answered rather reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop in, then, when you go."</p>
+
+<p>Farrell went off grumbling. He would go home to
+supper first, that he would. These men had no souls.
+That long walk&mdash; Some people always rode in chaises,
+were born with silver spoons in their mouths, and looked
+on the rest of the world as mere lackeys!</p>
+
+<p>There was some wine in the closet, and Mr. Lawrence
+took a glass to clear his brain. He rarely used it save at
+dinner. Then back to the tormenting books,&mdash;columns
+of business that appeared incredible now. How had all
+this money slipped away?</p>
+
+<p>Farrell tapped, and came in.</p>
+
+<p>"Jackson's here now, sir. Is the note ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. There is some change. Get a hack, Farrell:
+it is too far to walk. Did Mr. Eastman"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>There was so long a pause that Farrell said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Eastman went to New York. He said he might
+not be back to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lawrence nodded, as if that were sufficient. He
+would not peer into the man's business.</p>
+
+<p>"If you should want any thing, sir, Jackson will be at
+hand," said the man kindly; for the thin, pale face, and
+strange, nervous light in the eyes startled him.</p>
+
+<p>"Jackson," he began, when outside, "Mr. Lawrence
+is going to stay a bit, maybe all night. He has a great
+pile of books before him; but I'm afraid he's queer some
+way. His eyes look wild and strange. Keep a lookout,
+will you"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You don't mean that he's likely to shuffle? Are
+things as bad as that? Has he got a pistol?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, I'm sure. Maybe I'm wrong;" and
+Farrell counted over the money in his hand. "Anyhow,
+I would walk up and down this hall, and listen."</p>
+
+<p>Jackson nodded, and Farrell went his way; yet now
+he thought the brisk walk would not hurt him. Jackson
+heeded his bidding, but all was quiet. Once he went in
+the next room, and climbed up to a high sliding window,
+used for ventilation. Mr. Lawrence sat there poring over
+the books. At twelve it was the same. Jackson tolled
+off the hour of midnight. Every thing was safe in the
+great building. Then he settled himself in an easy-chair,
+and presently fell into a doze.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Mr. Lawrence studied the books in a dazed,
+bewildered way. Here and there a balance had been
+struck, and it all looked fair. But there was a terrible
+wrong somewhere!</p>
+
+<p>The figures danced before his eyes in lurid lights and
+grotesque shapes, with grinning faces, flying, whirling, in
+a wild, demoniac waltz. The room was full. The procession
+he had watched to-night winding out from the
+mill, stopped and jeered, and pointed skinny fingers at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+him. Then he was at the bank, and they came in troops,
+wringing their hands, and cursing him. Strange tales
+that he had read mixed with them in inextricable confusion.
+Pictures of the past hurried by with panoramic
+distinctness; and hark! what was that? The grand
+trump of the Judgment Day? It tolled and tolled again,
+like a thunder-peal. Was any one dead?</p>
+
+<p>He was so tired! He put his arms down on the desk,
+and leaned his face on them. If he could sleep off this
+intolerable weariness!</p>
+
+<p>He was a boy again, wading through the limpid brook,
+stepping from stone to stone, and sometimes plashing
+over. Was that the dried sweetness of balsam,&mdash;the
+pungent odor of pennyroyal and water-mint,&mdash;the clean,
+resinous fragrance of the pines? Out there were lily-pads,&mdash;great
+golden-hearted chalices, with long, sinuous
+greenish-pink stems under the shady, transparent water.
+How cool and peaceful! The sky overhead was of palest
+blue with white flecks, and somewhere a bird was singing.
+If he could go to it; if he could stay amid all this sweet
+quiet, and forget&mdash; What was it he wanted to forget?
+Not his little Fred, surely! How proud he should be of
+him in his manhood. What a help and comfort!</p>
+
+<p>There was a strange, sudden darkness. The head
+drooped a little one side, and the visions had come to an
+end.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> Farrell returned to his post in the morning,
+Jackson reported Mr. Lawrence asleep in the office. No
+one thought of him again until about ten o'clock, when
+some protested notes came in. Jeffries knocked at the
+door, opened it softly, spoke, but received no answer;
+then stepped nearer, and peered curiously at the face. It
+was ghastly white, the eyes wide open and staring, and
+with a shriek Jeffries alarmed the whole establishment.</p>
+
+<p>Old Dr. Lecounte came, pronounced him dead, and
+then sent for Dr. Maverick, to whom he had taken a great
+liking. Between them both they found a faint sign of
+life; and he was removed to his elegant mansion on Hope
+Terrace, where his wife went into immediate and violent
+hysterics. They remained several hours, and decided it
+to be that terrible death in life, entire paralysis of brain,
+nerve, and muscle. He might linger some days; he might
+drop away any moment.</p>
+
+<p>Horace Eastman, looking over the news items the next
+morning, saw this account, and returned at once to Yerbury.
+Certainly fortune had favored him. Affairs were
+in wild confusion. He learned that a telegram had been
+sent to young Mr. Lawrence, and an answer received.
+He would be back next Monday. Mrs. Minor came up,
+and brought an experienced nurse.</p>
+
+<p>The mill kept open until Saturday. Then Mr. Eastman
+called the men together.</p>
+
+<p>He was very much puzzled to know what to do, he
+said. He had resigned his position as superintendent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
+of the mills, nearly a month ago; but Mr. Lawrence had
+begged him to stay on until he could come to some
+decision. The affairs were in a very embarrassed condition,
+and now suspension was imperative. What Mr.
+Lawrence would have done, he could not tell; but he did
+not feel justified in taking the responsibility. He was
+most truly sorry&mdash;he could say it from his heart&mdash;for
+those whose cheerful faces and light steps he had watched
+year after year, until he came to have a friendly feeling
+for them all; and he was shocked at the result of all this
+trouble to his dear friend, to whom he was bound by a
+deeper tie than that of mere business. But there had
+been two years of unparalleled depression, and Mr. Lawrence
+had made a brave fight. No one beside himself
+knew all the difficulties that had beset his old friend's
+path. It was not only here in Yerbury that trade was
+dull: it was from the Atlantic to the Pacific. England,
+Germany, and France were suffering as deeply as ourselves.
+Production had been overdone by most of the
+employers using their best efforts to keep their hands
+at work in the face of a falling market, or no market at
+all. Shelves were packed with goods everywhere. We
+were on the eve of a great change, and it would be some
+time before values would become stable again. If the
+balance of trade (high-sounding, but imperfectly understood
+term) could once more turn in our favor; if we
+could export our surplus goods, and find new markets,&mdash;as
+no doubt we would,&mdash;every shop and factory would
+soon be ringing with the cheerful sound of labor. It
+would be a hard winter; but he, for one, believed the
+spring would open auspiciously, that business would revive,
+homes be prosperous, and every heavy heart light.
+Let them all take courage for their own future and that
+of Hope Mills in the hands of its young master. He
+regretted deeply that there was no money to pay them
+with to-night; but that would doubtless be attended to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+soon. He wanted to bid them a cordial good-by, and
+beg them to stand by young Mr. Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>There was some rather faint cheering. Troubled eyes
+questioned despondent eyes; what were they to do with
+winter coming on? First it was the bank, now the mills,
+and what next God only could tell.</p>
+
+<p>Fred Lawrence reached Yerbury Monday evening; and
+at midnight the faint, fluttering soul of his father passed
+over that mighty river. There had been no return to
+consciousness. Mrs. Lawrence still lay in her darkened
+room, unable to bear any sound beyond that of the trained
+nurse.</p>
+
+<p>To say that Fred was shocked, would feebly express his
+emotion. He had never dreamed of his father's dying,&mdash;never
+dreamed of any thing like misfortune happening to
+him, of any keener suffering than some temporary annoyance.
+He felt quite helpless. His old philosophies did
+not inspire him with courage, or open a way out of this
+dark present. There was to be a funeral; there were
+business complications; some one had to think of the
+future; the mill was shut up, the fortune swept away,
+and he had been stranded on a strange shore, knowing
+not which way to turn.</p>
+
+<p>Eastman was still in Yerbury. He was intensely sympathetic
+with the bereaved family. In fact, now that he
+would never have to meet the eye of the man he had
+so deeply wronged, his spirits rose, his pity overflowed.
+Fred was quite touched by it. Hamilton Minor, with his
+rather brusque business ways, jarred against his sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>He was rather testy with Mr. Eastman. "For the life
+of me, I can't see how things have come to this pass,"
+he said sharply. "Hope Mills has been considered as
+sound as a nut,&mdash;one of the surest places in the country.
+Mr. Lawrence has made thousands and thousands. I
+have known a good deal about his affairs."</p>
+
+<p>"It is the result of a large-hearted philanthropy,&mdash;of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
+keeping poor devils at work when there was no demand
+for goods, so that they should not starve. I should have
+closed out the concern two years ago. When you begin
+to lose, it is time to get out,&mdash;not wait until every stiver
+is gone. But, if ever there was a noble man, it is our
+dead friend David Lawrence."</p>
+
+<p>His chest swelled as he pronounced this eulogy, and he
+laid his white hand sympathetically on his waistcoat.</p>
+
+<p>"What is all this bank muddle about?"</p>
+
+<p>"I really don't know. Heavy real-estate business"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"And you a director!" interrupted Minor, with an unpleasant
+quickness.</p>
+
+<p>"I <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'haye'">have</ins> had so much on my hands that I did not pay
+strict attention to it, I must confess. You know, Minor,
+what a tremendous shrinkage there has been in values:
+it seems to me as if the bottom had fallen out of every
+thing. I have an interest out in Nevada that I am
+anxious to look after, and should have gone a year
+ago, but Lawrence begged me to hold over until matters
+brightened a little. He was so sure times would improve.
+By Jove! I think they grow worse and worse!"</p>
+
+<p>"And Fred knows no more than a baby!" said Minor,
+in a tone of contempt. "You'd be a help to him, Eastman,
+if you would stay and go over accounts."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know about that," shaking his head slowly.
+"The books are all on the square, as you will see. If
+one could only make money as easily as one can add up
+that which has been made and spent!" and Eastman gave
+a little laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"But it cannot be a total loss. The house, I know, is
+settled upon Mrs. Lawrence. And the mill-property"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mortgaged for all it is worth in such times as these.
+Perhaps I ought not to speak of it, but George was in a
+little difficulty which the old gentleman tided over. Too
+much real estate, Minor!"</p>
+
+<p>Hamilton Minor had no great amount of confidence in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+the man before him; but then, he did not have in any
+one. He was on a little of the paper, and just now he
+felt exceedingly dubious about it. Some arrangement
+ought to be made whereby members of the family who
+had stood by Mr. Lawrence ought not to be losers.</p>
+
+<p>The funeral was strangely quiet and solemn; I was
+about to add, select. The mill overseers and officers
+were formally invited. Fred had a feeling about the men,&mdash;it
+seemed as if they ought to form a procession; but
+the walk to the cemetery was a long one, and Mrs. Minor
+decisively negatived any plan that took in the "rabble."
+The coffin lay in the spacious drawing-room, where friends
+and acquaintances, in the same set, nodded solemnly,
+and uttered a few words of well-bred condolence. The
+mourners were up-stairs. The few coaches were filled
+with men, a little group stood around the open grave,
+and David Lawrence passed out of mortal sight,&mdash;his
+life-work all done. Had the toil been worth the reward?</p>
+
+<p>The next day Eastman left for New York, and his stay
+there was brief. He knew what would be surmised after
+much trouble and searching, but it could not be positively
+laid at his door. And with a cheerful heart he set out to
+seek a new fortune.</p>
+
+<p>To the great surprise of Mr. and Mrs. Minor, they
+found Hope Terrace mortgaged. Mrs. Lawrence could
+talk of nothing, could not endure the confusion of voices
+in her room. Some trustees were appointed to investigate
+the whole affair, for Fred was as ignorant as a child
+of all pertaining to the mill.</p>
+
+<p>The examination disclosed a pitiable state of affairs.
+George Eastman had built up Yerbury on borrowed capital,
+lived on it in luxury, speculated, lost and won like
+any other gaming. He had persuaded each individual
+that he was on the high road to wealth. There had been
+a peculiar fascination about the man; or is it that the
+appeal to greed and covetousness is so much more convincing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+than that to honor and truth, that the baser impulses
+are quicker with their response? It was a great bubble
+upon credit, and carried with it the seeds of self-destruction.
+True, the bank held mortgages on rows of flimsy-built
+houses where walls were cracking apart, foundations
+settling, plumbing in such a condition that it was a hotbed
+of disease. They would not cover the indebtedness.
+The available cash had been drawn out by large depositors,
+the best bonds and stocks surreptitiously sold. And
+with all this there was a defalcation traceable to Hope
+Mills or the Eastmans. The money had gone in that
+direction. On the other hand, it was proven by the income
+of Hope Mills, and the amount paid out for labor,
+that there was no reason why they should not be solvent
+to-day.</p>
+
+<p>Lavishly as the Lawrences had spent money, they had
+not taken it all. No one could or did accuse David Lawrence
+of private speculation. Minor had once tried his
+best to induce him to join in some enterprises, but failed.
+It was an easy matter to blame the Eastmans for every
+thing: they were away, and could not deny the charge.
+But had all these bank-officials clean hands? They had
+been given a sacred trust, the savings of the poor, the
+estates of widows and orphans; they had winked at investments
+of the most precarious kind; they had paid a high
+rate of interest, exacting a higher, which had been gladly
+given for a brief while. Safe principles of finance had been
+quite ignored: the new era was different from any thing
+that had ever happened to the world before, and required
+new men, and now they would have to go back to the old
+way. Surely there is not much that is new under the
+sun!</p>
+
+<p>To bring back the Eastmans, and try them for their
+crimes, seemed hardly worth while. More than one man
+in Yerbury felt that it was safer to berate them at a distance,
+than meet their damaging retorts face to face.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+They could not get back any money. Hope Mills was
+ruined beyond a peradventure, and the affairs of the bank
+were best wound up as speedily as possible. There could
+be no large stealings for a receiver, consequently no occasion
+for delay. The sooner the wrecks and <i>d&eacute;bris</i> were
+cleared away, the quicker the moral atmosphere would be
+purified. There are wounds for which the instant cautery
+means life, the careful hesitation death.</p>
+
+<p>And now every one looked at the exploded bubble in
+surprise, and cried angrily, "What has become of the
+money? Yesterday we were rich: where has it gone to?
+Six months ago we had twenty per cent dividend: why
+are these stocks worthless now? Why have railroads and
+shops and mills ceased to pay? What sudden blight has
+fallen over the world?"</p>
+
+<p>Alas! There had been no money. Sanguine credit
+had traded on the honor and faith and nobleness of man
+toward man, and, behold, it had all been selfishness and
+falsehood and dishonor. Truth and virtue had been
+scorned and flouted in the highway, because forsooth there
+was a more brilliant semblance. Like a garment had men
+wrapped themselves in it, and now it was but rags and
+tatters.</p>
+
+<p>There could be nothing extracted from the wreck of
+Hope Mills. Indeed, Fred would have given up a rich
+inheritance to save his father's honor, had it been his.
+To go on at Hope Terrace was madness. The fires and
+the servants would cost enough to maintain a family.
+Mrs. Minor and Fred quarrelled because Mrs. Lawrence
+had been persuaded to mortgage the place: she simply
+groaned and moaned, and wondered why they must worry
+her about every thing!</p>
+
+<p>"I hope Irene will have the good sense to marry
+abroad," said Mrs. Minor. "And, Fred, what a pity
+you haven't a profession! What can you do?"</p>
+
+<p>Last winter it had been, "my brother, De Woolfe,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+whom all the young ladies in Mrs. Minor's set were wild
+over.</p>
+
+<p>Fred gave a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I <i>can</i> do something to earn my bread," he
+replied bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"Fred," began Agatha suddenly, "there is that Miss
+Tillon. You know how absolutely wild she was over you
+last winter! Her fortune is all in her own right, and it is
+a solid one too. Hamilton has had occasion to know
+about it. You cannot do a better thing than marry her."</p>
+
+<p>Fred glanced up. His sister was in sober earnest. To
+be bargained off like a woman, for a bare existence!
+Miss Tillon was at least thirty, of a suspicious, jealous
+turn of mind, well-enough looking perhaps, but narrow,
+with no intellectual culture, no approval of any thing
+beside her money. He had been amused at her preference.
+Possibly she might marry him, and rescue him
+from the pains of poverty. And he?</p>
+
+<p>He might be vain and trifling, but he was not sunk so
+low in cowardice. His face flushed a vivid scarlet.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not quite prepared to become chargeable to a
+woman yet," he said in a cold, calm voice.</p>
+
+<p>"What nonsense! Some man will marry her, and get
+the money," Agatha retorted decisively.</p>
+
+<p>"Not much of hers;" in a dry, contemptuous tone.</p>
+
+<p>"You know what I mean. She will live in style, and
+travel; and her husband"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Will be the laughing-stock of his friends," interrupted
+Fred angrily. "No, Agatha, I will be dependent upon
+no one for my bread: if I cannot earn it I will starve."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, very well!" with a scornful smile. "I only hope
+Rene will be wiser. They are in Paris&mdash;I heard
+from Gertrude last week. She was very much shocked,
+of course. I hope George has not been foolish enough to
+let every thing slip through his fingers. Who could have
+believed that Horace Eastman would turn out such a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+swindler! Papa trusted him altogether too far. It does
+not answer to be too noble and disinterested in this
+world."</p>
+
+<p>Fred made no reply to this charming bit of worldly
+wisdom. His delicate and high opinion of self had received
+a crushing blow. Married off, out of hand, to save
+him from poverty!</p>
+
+<p>Why should his thoughts turn to Sylvie at that moment?
+Something stirred within him, an insane desire to win her&mdash;oh,
+mad enough, surely! He could, he <i>would</i>, do something!
+There was all his education and talent; yes, he
+really had talent. He would make himself famous. She
+should see that he had the right kind of stuff in him. He
+would climb up the hard hill in his lonely, sorrowful,
+proud way, until she, looking on, would come to repent
+her unjust verdict!</p>
+
+<p>He shut himself up in his study, and made some very
+fair translations from his beloved poets. There were better
+ones, doubtless; and, after all, fame might not lie in
+that direction. There was physical science, much in
+vogue, and entertaining: no doubt he could do something
+in that line. There were theories and speculations, there
+were old philosophies&mdash;surely the ground was rich everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>It was very poor at Yerbury, though there were theories
+enough. But, when you took them for temporal meat
+and drink, they were not a fattening diet. Men lounged in
+the streets and on the corners, or, worst of all, in saloons,
+talking themselves angry and hoarse over the bad luck,
+and blaming every one right and left. Women sat at
+home, and cried over losses and crosses, cooked their
+scanty dinners, and retired to bed early to save fuel. The
+poorer ones went out to a day's washing, glad to get that.
+Boys played cards, read dime-novels, and dreamed of
+wonderful fortunes at the West: some few stout-hearted
+chaps set out to seek them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There were panaceas. Mr. Rantley preached the rankest
+communism and broadest free-thinking. Capital, i.e.,
+money, was the tyrant of the world, and always would be
+until the laborers of the world rose up and claimed their
+rights. Why should this man starve when the man over
+yonder had his store-house full of flour that he was holding
+for higher prices? What right had he, except the
+might? So long as men were allowed to hoard up these
+monstrous fortunes, they could control the market, and
+would! What were the starving thousands to them?
+What if half the provision in the country rotted on the
+owner's hands? he could get as much or more money for
+the other half. What if the miners were at work only a
+small portion of time? could not the amount of coal be
+managed more easily, and prices kept up? Capital desired
+to keep production at the lowest ebb, because it could be
+more conveniently mastered. The only remedy was to
+give every man a chance, to break up these colossal fortunes,
+to have no great mills and mines; to have smaller
+capitalists, fewer hours of labor, to divide the immense
+hoards among the poor and needy until there should be no
+more want or suffering!</p>
+
+<p>The Rev. Mr. Bristow shook his head at this modern
+anti-Christ. Every thing was anti-Christ, with Mr. Bristow,
+that went outside of his own narrow creed. He
+preached some stirring sermons. It was God's judgment
+upon them for their sins. They had forgotten him, they
+had been led away by false gods; they had made golden
+calves, and worshipped them; their sons had strayed into
+infidelity; their daughters had flaunted in gay attire,
+with plaiting of the hair, and dancing away their immortal
+souls; and now they must return to their God, to the
+meat that perisheth not, to the bread of life, and to the
+well of living water. There must be such a returning to
+God, such a revival of religion, that the world would be
+swept clear and clean out of its old sins!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Splendid sermon! splendid sermon!" said Deacon
+Boyd, rubbing his hands together unctuously. "Parson's
+hit the nail just on the head. We've all strayed out of
+the way. I think a good old-fashioned revival'll set us
+straight sooner'n any thing. Nothing like coming to the
+Lord on the spot! This very week we ought to begin."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you're right, Deacon Boyd," said grave Mr.
+Rising. "I, for one, will take hold of the work."</p>
+
+<p>They called the church together, and began. I will
+not disparage the work. There were hungry souls that
+seemed fed with spiritual food, aching hearts that were
+bound up, reckless minds that paused on the verge of
+desperation. But there were others who wondered, even
+in the midst of the deacon's prayer, how it was that the
+Lord warned him to draw his twenty thousand dollars out
+of Yerbury Bank a week before the failure, when there
+were only he and his wife to keep, and let poor Mrs.
+Wharton with her five helpless children lose her husband's
+life-insurance, her little all, by putting it in the bank just a
+fortnight before the failure. Special providences, whereof
+Deacon Boyd discoursed so eloquently, happened oftener
+to the rich than to the poor.</p>
+
+<p>However, they prayed and fasted and repented. To
+many, any strong emotion that took them out of the wearing
+round of thought was a blessing.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy, with a curious disbelief in every thing,
+went the rounds, and dropped into Maverick's office to talk
+it over. Sylvie was not home this winter: she and her
+aunt spent it in Philadelphia. Then Jack grew dull and
+restless. If the end of all things had come in Yerbury,
+he ought to try some other place in the great world.</p>
+
+<p>It was settled presently quite by accident. A cousin
+of Mrs. Darcy's, one of your strong, thorough, energetic
+women, came to spend the winter with them; and Jack's
+mother, watching the throes of her son's soul, a little
+afraid of socialism, materialism, and all the other isms,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+proposed that Jack should take a journey West or South,
+and have a glimpse of the men and things beyond this
+narrow boundary.</p>
+
+<p>"Grandmother grows feebler all the time now; and,
+being past ninety, we can't expect to keep her much
+longer. Of course, Jack, when she is gone, I shall have
+no tie but you; and, if it suited you to settle elsewhere, I
+should not object. You are young and ambitious, and
+I ought to think of your advancement. There never has
+been a time since your poor father's death that you could
+be so well spared;" yet the mother sighed. "And you
+have been a good son, Jack: you have given up many a
+wish cheerfully to two poor old women."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't call yourself an old woman," said Jack almost
+gruffly, then he stooped to kiss her.</p>
+
+<p>His heart gave a great boyish bound.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, old Yerbury!" he cried exultantly one
+morning, quite sure of a new, glad life elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>"Though I shall be sorry to leave Sylvie and Maverick,"
+he thought. "These old towns do grind the very
+soul out of a fellow who has any desire or energy in him.
+The world isn't all alike, I know," giving his chestnut
+mane a toss like a young, mettlesome colt.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">If</span> Jack Darcy had taken his tour for pure pleasure and
+enjoyment, the time was ill chosen in every respect. Winter
+was bad enough; but an unprosperous one, full of financial
+clouds and storms, and scurrying drifts of distrust,
+was not calculated to make the way brilliant.</p>
+
+<p>But he had one glorious enjoyment to begin with. He
+went straight to Niagara, and took his first glimpse of it
+in its awesome majesty of frost and ice. From that high
+exaltation we call worship, through every intermediate degree
+and sense of beauty, to that of a delicate and minute
+fairy dream. The winter sun radiating glowing tints,
+with skies of sapphire and opal, the great stretches of
+wordless wonder, bound hand and foot like some old Norse
+god amid his ice-fields; the one night when a full moon
+silvered it with prismatic grandeur, and made of the glittering
+ice-crystals entrances to diamond-mines of fabled
+genii, touching him weirdly with this unearthly splendor;
+and the next solemn day, when the very sky seemed
+chilled to unfallen snow, and the ice-caverns turned a
+dull blue, reminding him of descriptions of polar scenery,
+and filling his soul with a sense of boundless solitude.</p>
+
+<p>Then he began his tour of the cities. He had taken
+some books along, whether to perplex or make clear his
+brains, he hardly knew. He pored over pages of Adam
+Smith, he turned to Ruskin for comfort, he picked up
+Brassey's figures and experience, and Stuart Mill's strong,
+kindly reasoning, and digested them in his own slow, practical,
+much-befogged way, trying to solve the problems.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was a great and wonderful world. Little Yerbury
+had hardly any true idea what a mite she was, when one
+looked at the immense labor-fields of the West and apparently
+endless resources. Yet there was the same depression
+out here. Shops and mills closed, for sale, and to let;
+some running on three-quarter time, with half the number
+of workmen, others going on at ruinous competition;
+anxious, moody-eyed men walking the streets, or grouped
+on corners, their coats and hats shabby, their beards untrimmed,
+old boots and shoes with the heels tramped over
+at one side, or a bit of stocking showing through the
+leather. "No man hath hired us," said their despondent
+faces plainer than any words. Young men and boys offering
+to do any kind of work for any kind of pay, sleeping
+in station-houses; relief-stores, church charities and soup-houses,
+homes for the friendless, and all such places, filled
+to overflowing, and new hordes crowding in every day.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there seemed to be no lack of money. It lay in
+banks, it went begging for good security. Where was
+there any good security? Every inch of ground, every
+building, stocks and furniture, were covered by mortgages.
+Stock companies trembled in the balance, and went down
+like card-houses. Everybody wanted to sell every thing,
+but there were no buyers. Everybody wanted to work,
+but there was nothing to do. Everybody was in a chronic
+state of grumbling; there was no profit to be made in
+farming, in manufacturing, in any thing. There had been
+too much over-production, for which every one blamed his
+neighbor. The great warehouses were full of grain, the
+mills loaded up with iron, the factories full of cloth and
+flannels and cottons; and yet people were going hungry
+and in rags. It was puzzling and painful. We had
+bought too much abroad, and sent the money out of the
+country, the balance of trade would make it all right
+again; there had been over-production, and now there
+must be a vigorous repression; there had been too much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+speculation in real estate; there had been too great an
+accumulation of capital in the business centres; we were
+fast verging to the state of older countries, where there
+were the few rich and the many poor: there was a surplus
+of labor, and was there not also a surplus of people?</p>
+
+<p>There was another sad side to it all, that made Jack's
+heart ache. These young men and boys tramping through
+the country, begging or worse, swearing, telling foul stories,
+herding together anywhere, corrupting one another's
+morals, smoking, drinking,&mdash;somehow they managed to
+obtain these indulgences,&mdash;looking furtively out of languid,
+sodden eyes, their faces hard and worn, their voices
+coarse and gruff; and they were to be the next generation
+of what?&mdash;loyal and honest citizens, or jail-birds?</p>
+
+<p>It was not all so sombre. At five and twenty a healthy,
+unwarped nature is many-sided. There were countless
+marvels to see and to study. He stumbled over people
+who had known Mr. Lawrence, and who had a kindly
+feeling for a Hope Mills man. And he had done something
+more in the last eight years than merely learn how
+to make cloth. He had dipped into chemistry, and knew
+a little about dyes; he had studied up in grades and kinds
+of wool, and was interested in labor processes. With
+fresh opportunities he looked into it more closely, observed
+new methods of decreasing waste, or saving labor.
+He was a well-informed, well-mannered, sensible fellow;
+and occasionally some one would say of him, "A smart,
+long-headed chap, that! The world will hear of him
+some day, or I am mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>He kept looking about for some place where, if the
+world did not hear of him, he might get a chance in
+some enterprise where he could take a few steps upward.
+There certainly were more men than places. The world
+was a bee-hive, surely; but alas for those who swarmed
+out in such times as these!</p>
+
+<p>After he had gone as far West as Minnesota, he went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+down the Mississippi to a different kind of civilization in
+the quaint old cities. It was none the less heart-sickening.
+He found traces of the war, that we had almost
+forgotten, fresh at every step; still it seemed as if the
+hand of Nature was much more bounteous than at the
+bleak North. Yet Bishop Heber's old missionary hymn
+rang continually through his mind. Even amid the
+Florida orange-groves, and the great cotton-fields, some
+cause brought about baleful results, in the unwisdom of
+man.</p>
+
+<p>Then to the cities of luxury and thrift, where wealth
+was strong enough to crowd poverty out one side, where
+art and music and cultivation made a subtile atmosphere
+that somehow recalled the Lawrences. He lingered and
+quaffed delightsome draughts, and at last tore himself
+away from seductive sights and sounds. In a dim, half-defined
+way the delights came to him. Would he ever
+be stoic enough to spurn them?</p>
+
+<p>Last of all, home with its sweet welcomes, its cleanliness
+and order, its familiar furniture and cheerful fires,
+its easy-chairs and quaint fragrant air, as if every thing
+had lain in dried rose-leaves; the mother love and tears,
+the smiles out of dimmer eyes, and cousin Jane Morgan's
+hearty greeting; to say nothing of his delicious
+supper and his own bed, where sleep seemed awaiting
+him with open arms.</p>
+
+<p>His mother had written a good deal of Yerbury gossip
+to him, but it had been mostly of the pleasant order.
+When he dropped into Maverick's office the next day,
+and was welcomed so heartily that it was like a brother's
+greeting, he listened to the other side. Affairs were
+worse than ever. The bank had gone into liquidation,
+and would pay about forty per cent. Property mortgages
+had been foreclosed right and left; there was nothing,
+scarcely, doing; there had been want and misery and
+sickness, and now diphtheria was raging.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"So you see the revival didn't do every thing," said
+Maverick grimly. "I'm of the opinion, if some of them
+had preached less, and distributed bread and broth with a
+freer hand, it would have been more of a good work.
+The praying would be well enough in its place, and, for
+those old fellows who pray on a full stomach, very enjoyable,
+I dare say. But I'd like them to look after their
+drains and their wells and their cisterns before they ask
+the Almighty to sanctify these afflictions to the poor
+wretches who suffer from them. And now, Jack Darcy,
+what are you going to do? Have you found better pastures?"
+and Maverick glanced up with curious inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied Jack, rather reluctantly it must be confessed.
+It seemed to him now that he had been spending
+his time for nought, unless pleasure counted, and he felt
+a trifle ashamed of it.</p>
+
+<p>Maverick gave an odd little laugh that puzzled the
+other.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Maverick," began Jack in such earnest
+that he blushed like a great boy, "I haven't found any
+new place for myself. The world seems just full and
+running over. The great cities have their own men out
+of employment, and hordes from every other place. I'd
+be almost ashamed to ask for a job. I declare, I'd rather
+raise as much of my living as I could in our back garden,
+or take Perley's farm, and put it together, and set men
+raising strawberries, than tramp round, asking for work,
+with a feeling that it was taken from some one who had
+a better right, who was a native of the soil."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have not lost your conscience?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not. It is the same old story everywhere.
+What is to be done about it?" and Jack knit his brows.
+"I have been going over the books that I thought would
+help or let in a little light on the matter, but it is a wisdom
+hard to get at. How to make more work in the
+world, how to cheapen living, how to"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Bring about the millennium! What dead earnest you
+are in, Darcy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Weren't you in earnest a moment ago, Maverick,
+when you talked about the praying and the bread and
+broth?" said Jack with a great knot drawn in his brow.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Heaven knows. And some one must take hold
+of the thing who has eyes to see, and brains, and&mdash;and
+money. You see, people have crowded into cities and
+towns, and if they could be sent out somewhere! Why
+don't we organize colonies or something of the sort?
+Now, there's Florida. Living is cheap, and in such a
+climate there are fewer needs of clothing and fuel. I
+have been wondering why the big dons in cities did not
+gather up the poor they have been feeding at soup-houses
+and everywhere, and send them out with some one to
+manage until they could stand alone. There would be
+less diphtherias and fevers and starvation; for that's its
+right name, Darcy. What can you do when one's system
+is all run out with meal-mush, and weak tea that is
+half willow-leaves, and such trash? There's Kilburn&mdash;he
+has had the name of being good to the poor this winter
+because he has given them trust at his store. Such stuff!
+I have looked into a few samples," and the expressive
+nostrils curled in disgust. "He makes an enormous
+profit, for he sells the poorest kind of goods to these people
+at the highest prices. Then he manages to get hold
+of something, house or furniture, or maybe clothes,&mdash;I
+don't know. He and Deacon Boyd&mdash;Darcy, how can a
+man honor religion when these two men are its exponents?
+So good to the poor! Pah! It makes me sick.
+Isn't there a cleaner air somewhere on God's earth?
+Can't they be taken out of this?"</p>
+
+<p>"If they could be! There must be one way out, Maverick:
+better, perhaps, than going West where thousands
+are tramping about. And Heaven knows they need a
+new factor in civilization down there!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The young eyes met in sudden hopeful animation. Had
+they solved even one strand of the great tangle, that
+worse than Gordian knot which could not be cut?</p>
+
+<p>The door opened slowly; and there entered a middle-aged,
+rather grizzled man, with shaggy eyebrows, sparse
+beard, and bent shoulders. He glanced in hesitatingly,
+his eyes wandering down to Darcy.</p>
+
+<p>"I declare to man!" and he stared hard, with the
+door-knob still in his hand. "Jack Darcy! I heard
+you were home. How d'y do? How d'y do?" and he
+wrung the hand warmly. "I'm powerful glad to see
+you," and he looked him slowly over, from head to foot.
+"Why, you've grown, or something! What a great giant
+you are!&mdash;Morning, doctor," nodding rather incidentally
+to Maverick. "So you've had a long tramp, Jack?
+Your mother brought some of the letters over to my old
+lady, who has been rather poorly the last two months.
+Why, you could set up book-writing! Well, what's the
+good word? Can't be like Yerbury all over."</p>
+
+<p>"There are too many towns full of idle people, if that
+is what you mean. But it was splendid, Cameron! I
+have one more dream,&mdash;to go up and down the Western
+coast, and over the Rocky Mountains; but I want to
+digest this first. I have no fancy for mental dyspepsia,"
+and he gave a good, wholesome laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"The right way, Jack," nodded Maverick, with a
+shrewd twinkle in his eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you've come back to a dull place,&mdash;a dull
+place," and Cameron shook his head despondingly.
+"We used to be main proud of old Yerbury; but&mdash;is
+the whole world to go on and starve to death, with such
+crops, and such an abundance of every thing?"</p>
+
+<p>"We are going to weather it through, Cameron," Jack
+answered with a stubborn hopefulness. "There have
+been hard times before that have ended in renewed prosperity."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes. There was '57; hard enough, Heaven knows,
+with the banks going to smash everywhere. It ruined
+my father. And way back in '37, when there was such
+a wild-fire about real estate, and it came out just as this
+has. Do people ever learn by experience, Maverick?"
+and the man gave a short, unmirthful chuckle. "You
+could buy up half Yerbury to-day, for taxes and mortgages.
+I can't, for the life of me, see how it all came
+about. And that it has gone all over the world,&mdash;well,
+human nature in England or Germany can't well laugh at
+human nature in this country.&mdash;Are these things like
+cholera and fevers, doctor, taking a clean sweep once in
+a while?" and Cameron gave a twist to the end of his
+faded beard, as if he might wring the secret out of it.</p>
+
+<p>"We have learned to manage the cholera, and see in
+it, not a dispensation of Providence, but the natural
+result of filth and greed and carelessness. Darcy and I
+are getting up a panacea now," with a bright little laugh.
+"But how is Mrs. Cameron? Is her medicine out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes;" and Cameron drew a phial from his pocket.
+"You don't think it would do to stop here? She's pretty
+well, I should say;" and he fingered the bottle as if he
+were debating whether to have it filled or not.</p>
+
+<p>"No. She must go on. She is getting her strength
+back nicely; but it's bad policy to stop at three-quarters
+of the race,&mdash;eh, Cameron? The first warm day I'll
+take her out driving."</p>
+
+<p>While he was talking, he reached out for the bottle, and
+began compounding. Cameron nodded an acknowledgment
+of the last sentence, then turning to Jack, said
+abruptly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What was the scheme, Darcy?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack flushed, and glanced at Maverick.</p>
+
+<p>"Emigration, the old remedy," answered the doctor.
+"England has tried her hand at it pretty successfully; so
+why shouldn't we? Only we need not go out of our own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
+country. There are thousands of acres of productive
+land lying idle, and thousands of people starving, or
+worse. Too many here,&mdash;not enough there."</p>
+
+<p>"Where to?" Cameron asked laconically, his face
+unmoved by any ripple of enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>Jack seemed to be put on his mettle by it. Lack of
+faith in him always roused his belligerent qualities, back
+in the old school days.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Cameron," in an incisive tone, looking steadily
+out of his determined eyes. "The cities are crowded
+over and over, and full of tramps, and the West swarms
+with them. We need not imagine we have all the idle
+people here at the East. But farming there has come to
+be a business of great things, almost as bad as manufacturing.
+You must have money, or the big fellows will
+swallow you up. But we were talking of Florida. No
+winter, as one may say; and your house a simple matter,
+your fuel, your clothes, a mere nothing. You could
+hardly starve if you tried."</p>
+
+<p>Cameron came back to his chair, pushed it out from
+the wall, planted himself deliberately in it, and tilted
+back, pushing up his old felt hat, as if he did not mean
+to have his vision obstructed. Then he gave his beard
+another twist.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you tell me why this is, Jack Darcy? Here are
+countries with fine and lovely climates, where every thing
+grows to your hand; yet they always seem to lie idle:
+Italy and Spain and Turkey and South America, and our
+own Gardens of Eden," with a bit of sarcastic smile.
+"The very ease of living seems to take the ambition out
+of one. Well, why shouldn't it? Even the bees, you
+know, were demoralized when they found they did not
+have to lay up for winter. Wouldn't those people come
+to be worse tramps and idlers? I'm sure the poor white
+trash of the South has helped itself very little."</p>
+
+<p>"We were talking of concerted effort," interposed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+Maverick,&mdash;"purchasing a large tract of land, forming
+a community, taking different kinds of workmen, and
+making a success of it. Why should we not have flourishing
+towns in Florida, as well as in Kansas?"</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure, to be sure!" nodding his head and tugging
+at his beard in a manner that showed he was not a
+whit convinced. "Then you give up," he said, "that
+any thing can be done at home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Any thing done at home?" Jack lifted his level
+brows, and stared a little.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. The going away may all be very well. I tried
+it in '57; went out to Indiana with a little money, and
+tried farming that I didn't know any thing about, had the
+ague six months, and then came back poorer certainly.
+Now, the thing is just here with a good many of us,&mdash;we
+have our little homes, and in such times as these, in any
+hard times, we couldn't sell for any thing worth while.
+Then there's many a thing, to a man or a woman past middle
+life, that can't be reckoned in dollars and cents: the
+home you've made for yourself, the old friends, the church,
+even the familiar street you've walked over so often that
+every flagstone comes to have a near look."</p>
+
+<p>"But those who have no homes, no strong interests"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"If I was going to found a colony, I should want a
+little better stock," with a short, dry laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"May be you have a plan?" suggested Maverick good-naturedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I've thought it over a good deal this winter,
+sitting in the house with the old lady;" and there came a
+peculiar far-off look in Cameron's eye as he studied a
+figure in the carpet. "If God worked miracles nowadays,
+and was to make a dozen or so honest men with a good,
+stout share of brains, there might be a little lifting-up
+of the dull skies. Take this town, leaving out politics
+and all that sort. Five years ago we were prosperous,
+and there wasn't a prettier town anywhere about. Good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
+wages were paid, people were thrifty; and I will say it
+for David Lawrence, if he was one of your high kind,
+he was a gentleman. I've worked for him fifteen years
+steady. Then the Eastmans came in, and there was
+nothing but hurry and drive, grumbling about high wages,
+buying cheap wools, and if cloth was poor, blaming the
+men. Then wages went down and down, and, when the
+men stood out, the scum of all the places around was
+brought in. Yerbury improved, and beer-saloons multiplied.
+Houses were thrown together and sold; and now
+they're all falling apart, and standing empty, and half a
+dozen families are crowding into one miserable tenement.
+Who made the money? Was it high wages that ruined
+Hope Mills, and wrecked Yerbury Bank?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have hit the truth somewhere, Cameron."</p>
+
+<p>"Those men were thieves and swindlers; and I suppose
+to-day they're living on the fat of the land, milk and
+honey thrown in. See here, I'm not an educated man,
+but I have a little common sense. Suppose we'd been let
+to go our ways quiet like,&mdash;the farmers holding on to
+their farms, and making two blades of grass grow where
+one grew before. Wasn't that some old philosopher's
+advice? Suppose David Lawrence hadn't built that great
+palace out on Hope Terrace (he was a plainish man himself),
+and there had been five or six beside him making a
+moderate share of money. He's lost all his great fortune,
+there's seventy thousand or so gone somewhere, the
+bank has smashed with thousands more of everybody's
+money, with nothing much to show but trumpery mortgages;
+there's no work and no money, and a howl goes
+up that there has been over-production. Not over-production
+of honesty, I take it."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick looked at the little earnest man, and laughed
+a hearty, cheering sort of laugh that was like pouring oil
+into a wound. Jack stared with wide-open eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I've been to hear Rantley two or three times,&mdash;he's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+going about lecturing, you know,&mdash;but I don't see as he
+has any very good plan for getting work on its legs again.
+Then I've listened to the parson this winter, to please the
+old lady; and he is sure all this is a judgment for our sins.
+Seems to me, judgment went a little askew: why doesn't
+it touch Eastman and such fellows?"</p>
+
+<p>"Has nothing been done?" asked Jack. "I have
+heard no business gossip for the last three months. Can't
+it be proved that he was a defaulter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it could. The old lady was reading the other
+morning about the scapegoat being sent into the wilderness
+with everybody's sins on his head; and I guess they'd
+rather have <i>him</i> off somewhere, and pack the trouble on
+him. He might tell too much if he was here. They
+couldn't get the money back, even if he has it; but no one
+ever will believe that David Lawrence profited by it.
+That money belongs to the people of Yerbury, who have
+earned it, and saved it; and I say thieving and roguery
+have more to do with hard times than 'surplus of labor.'
+The big men have taken the money that belonged to the
+little ones."</p>
+
+<p>"None of the Lawrence estate has been settled, I suppose?"
+asked Jack.</p>
+
+<p>"Every thing is for sale. The mortgage on the big
+house is to be foreclosed, also on the mill I believe. I
+declare to you, Darcy, it makes my heart ache to see those
+dumb spindles, and the great silent engine standing like a
+mourner at a funeral. Come now, why should Hope Mills
+go to ruin, and Yerbury fall to pieces, while you and Maverick
+go and build up Florida? Wouldn't the money and
+the energy do something here?"</p>
+
+<p>Cameron's eyes looked out of their overhanging thatch
+with a puzzled, thoughtful expression, as if there must be
+a solution to the mystery.</p>
+
+<p>Jack was startled. Building up Florida looked feasible,
+but building up Yerbury<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Then you will not go with us?" said Maverick with a half-laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"I've my little home clear of debt, and a trifle at interest;
+and over in Yerbury churchyard there are two graves
+dear to me and my old lady. It would break her heart to
+leave them. And sometimes, Maverick, I thank God,
+that I've no sons to grow up tramps or worse. No, I'll
+stay here, and fight through somehow."</p>
+
+<p>They were silent for several minutes, each one tugging
+at the knotty problem. Then Cameron rose, reached out
+for the phial of medicine, drove his slouch-hat down over
+his forehead, and walked toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Drop in and see us, Jack, after you have thought it
+over a bit. Mother's always had a warm corner in her
+heart for you.&mdash;Morning, doctor;" and, nodding, he
+closed the door behind him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span> and Maverick glanced at each other, a long,
+searching, questioning glance.</p>
+
+<p>"Given twenty or forty moderate fortunes, instead of
+the one great one," said Jack slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"And you have a greater amount of general prosperity
+and happiness."</p>
+
+<p>"Co-operation," continued Jack.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, if you don't mind, you may take a walk
+with me," said Maverick. "Office-hours are over, and
+I have some rather serious cases on hand. Jerry's gone
+lame, stuck a nail in his foot, so I console myself with
+pedestrian theories."</p>
+
+<p>"All right. I may need a pilot."</p>
+
+<p>It was a mid-April day; but spring was late, and every
+thing looked bleak to Jack after his Southern sojourn.
+Certainly it was quite different from the trim little town
+of Jack's boyhood. The blight of poverty and thriftlessness
+had fallen upon it. There were piles of refuse
+in the streets, still half frozen; there were muddy stoops
+and shabby hall-doors, and broken area-palings, and now
+and then a window patched up with paper or rags. For
+though there may be much high theorizing and preaching
+on the two or three exceptional men who have lifted
+themselves out of dens of poverty, and come through
+great tribulation, there are thousands who work out
+nothing but blind destruction and utter shipwreck, and
+who in frantic efforts for salvation drag down those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>
+nearest and dearest, as a drowning man may clutch at
+his own brother.</p>
+
+<p>"Not very inviting," apologized Maverick; "but I
+have two calls to make here in Boyd's Row,&mdash;old rookeries
+that ought to have been pulled down long ago, but
+I suppose they still bring in Boyd considerable. I have
+made a complaint about the drains: they are enough to
+breed a pestilence. Tom Byrne has three children down
+with scarlet-fever. Two of them will be carried out
+presently, but I hope to save the little girl. No&mdash;I
+won't take you in."</p>
+
+<p>"Tom Byrne&mdash;he was a mill-hand. And I know his
+wife well. Yes, Maverick." And Jack followed him.</p>
+
+<p>It was a two-story cottage with three rooms on a
+floor, and two families occupying it. The Byrnes were
+up-stairs.</p>
+
+<p>The two beds were in the front room, for the middle
+one was dark. There was a well-worn carpet on the
+floor, and the furniture very poor. Jenny Byrne had
+sold her best to pay the quarter's rent in the last place
+which they had left the first of January, the landlord
+preferring it should stand empty. Her little savings had
+been swept away by the bank disaster: there was no
+work, and three children to feed, except that Deacon
+Boyd found Tom sufficient employment to pay his rent.</p>
+
+<p>On one bed close by the window lay the little girl,
+heavy-eyed and crimson. The elder boy had come to the
+stupor that precedes death, the other was restless with a
+half delirium. Jenny Byrne's round rosy cheeks had
+vanished, and her eyes had a distraught look, the lurking
+fear of coming woe. She stared at Jack a moment,
+then stretched out her hand, but as quickly withdrew it.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you tell him, doctor? O Mr. Darcy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. He <i>would</i> come."</p>
+
+<p>She wiped away some tears with the corner of her faded
+apron, then answered a question of Jack's. What could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+he say to the poor thing? Surely she had done her duty
+with truest endeavor; and Tom Byrne was a very fair
+average man, liking his daily glass of beer, but rarely
+going farther.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you fix a bed in the other room, and put Kitty
+in it?" the doctor asked. "She is better, but I would
+rather have her out of here."</p>
+
+<p>"And Jamie is better too?" she questioned, with
+tremulous eagerness. "His fever is nearly gone, and
+he's having such a nice sleep"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Sleep is the best thing for him," returned the doctor
+briefly. "About Kitty"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The mother's wan face flushed. She came close to Dr.
+Maverick, her eyes downcast.</p>
+
+<p>"The coal gave out this morning, and I've no fire
+there," she said just above a whisper. "The relief-store
+is closed"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes; I'll see to it;" with a nod. "I will be in
+again"&mdash;looking at the sleeping child&mdash;"say about
+four." Then he changed the medicine for Kitty, and
+gave one or two orders.</p>
+
+<p>Jack thrust a bank-note in Jenny's hand, with his
+good-by. "Tom will be so glad to see you, Mr. Darcy,"
+she said, with an effort at calmness.</p>
+
+<p>"Can nothing be done for them?" asked Jack, as they
+regained the street.</p>
+
+<p>"No. Jamie had gone too far when I was called in.
+Larger rooms, fresher air, nourishing food: that's the
+secret of a physician's success in many cases. Poor
+little ones! He will not go through the night. Now,
+Jack, you are not to come in here, positively. Stand
+in this breeze, and blow the scarlet-fever out of your
+clothes."</p>
+
+<p>He did as he was bid, and, getting tired, tramped up
+and down. How much of man's selfishness and dishonesty
+there was in this! If the time could ever come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+when the mists and fogs of complacency would be swept
+off, and we could see that it was the innocent suffering
+for the guilty, not that these poor souls were sinners
+above all men, as the self-righteous Pharisee preaches!</p>
+
+<p>Maverick rejoined him with a grave face, then the two
+went down Main Street. Houses to let, stores and shops
+closed, and those open but half-stocked, and wearing a
+listless air. If three hard years so told on the place, and
+there was no prospect of better things, what would it be
+in five or ten? Was it some such misfortune that had
+overtaken those grand and luxurious cities of Oriental
+lands?</p>
+
+<p>"Where are the Lawrences?" Jack asked presently.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I really do not know. I think I did hear that
+Mrs. Lawrence had gone to New York. The young
+man"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Jack held his breath, and there was a strange flutter
+at his heart. After all these years he saw again the
+pale, handsome child who had given him a boy's ardent
+love.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a fancy that he will not amount to much.
+Queer idea that of Cameron's, wasn't it, Darcy? Who
+was it that first preached or wrote of the 'duty nearest
+one'? Of course things cannot stay this way forever,
+they must mend; and maybe if some one took hold to
+help mend them&mdash;Cameron's idea is not a bad one.
+Maybe the same amount of money and energy expended
+here would be productive of good results: still I hold on
+to Florida for my poor and wretched suffering ones. But
+it is worth thinking of. Here, let us turn round by Hope
+Mills."</p>
+
+<p>Jack was silent. "Hope Mills!" It rang through
+his brain like a chime of bells. Of course he knew that
+Mr. Hope had given them his name; but had he builded
+better than he knew? Was it indicative of something
+greater than the power of one man,&mdash;of many men? of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+strong, earnest endeavor; of truth, honor, and honesty;
+of thrift, and happy, jocund industry, once more?</p>
+
+<p>But now it was very silent. The great yard had an
+untidy look, with some piles of weather-beaten lumber,
+and old <i>d&eacute;bris</i>. The windows were covered with dust;
+the broad stone steps showed where the winter snows had
+fallen and melted, leaving streaks of dirt, and more had
+blown in the corners. No cheerful creak of the great
+engine; no vapory puffs of smoke circling skyward from
+the chimney; no whir of looms. It saddened one inexpressibly.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a big subject," said Jack slowly. "I've been
+puzzling my brains half the winter with what wiser heads
+than mine have said about capital and labor,&mdash;Mill and
+Brassey and Howell, and our own men, with soft, sweet
+bits of Ruskin, and savage bits of Carlyle. I don't know
+but Carlyle was right when he said, 'The beginning and
+the end of what is the matter with us, in these days, is, that
+we have forgotten God.' Cameron said it another way,&mdash;honor
+and honesty. Because, certainly, honor appeals
+to all that is noblest in human nature,&mdash;to chivalry, and
+tenderness and thought for others; and nothing ever prospered,
+in the long-run, that did not have a substratum of
+truth."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, according to Bristow, we came back to him this
+winter&mdash;not I, Darcy, I don't make any pretence,"&mdash;and
+he shook his head with slow gravity. "But I was
+interested in the revival on psychological grounds. I had
+never been so inside of one before. Bristow is a good
+man, no doubt; but it is just the one chosen way with
+him,&mdash;strong crying and praying, and believing yourself
+a sinner above all men, and then a sudden peace and
+happiness, and a courage to endure,&mdash;a blind, unreasoning
+courage to take the present as it is, because God sent
+it, and it must be for the best. Boyd and Whitlow and
+Kenny were the great lights. They went about from house<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+to house; they exhorted and prayed. Whitlow was one
+of the old bank-directors. Strange to say, he did not
+lose a penny. His money was in government-bonds; and
+now he has persuaded Yerbury that if his advice had been
+taken there would have been no trouble. Whitlow discharged
+his man this winter, and took in his place a half-grown
+boy. Mrs. Whitlow sets a good example to her
+class by discharging one handmaid and making the other
+do double duty. Yet, so far as I can find, Whitlow is a
+richer man than he was three years ago. Kenny keeps
+his factory open, and gives the men three days' work in
+the week, and pays them in poor shoes, as much as possible;
+and takes out a good deal in high rent. Boyd, who
+has the name of being the greatest saint of all,&mdash;does
+what? Opens that miserable row of houses, that he
+couldn't let on any terms, and takes in tenants who are
+willing to work out the rent. He gets good prices, too.
+Is he losing on them? Faugh! the very term of charity
+makes me sick. And this winter he purchased a good deal
+of the stock of the relief-store. Wretched flour; miserable,
+adulterated stuff of tea; pork, some of it that wasn't
+fit to eat; and cheap butter, that every one would have
+been ten times better without. I went to him one day,
+red-hot, in a sanitary view of the business; and he
+preached religion to me,&mdash;his kind. 'Boyd,' said I,
+'there's Keppler's saloon, your own property, paying you
+a good income, no doubt, in these hard times, adding to
+the want and misery of Yerbury faster than your whole
+church can save. If you are in earnest, go break up that
+den of iniquity!'"</p>
+
+<p>Jack laughed. "What did he say to that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Meekly, that Keppler had a lease for five years, and
+was going on the second. The man is so honorable, he
+cannot break faith with his fellow-man, forsooth; but he
+breaks faith with God, in a serene, untroubled manner."
+And Maverick's lip curled scornfully under the fringe of
+moustache.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But there must be some gold, or the counterfeit would
+not be so successfully received. We have had so much
+false money everywhere, that, since we can make that
+pass, we do not trouble ourselves. And yet, Maverick,
+there <i>is</i> something in it that you and I don't see clearly
+yet; but we cannot teach it acceptably until we can show
+better fruit. And, when leaders of all kinds, in high
+places, show that self only is at the bottom of every
+thing they do, it seems hopeless to demand that the class
+below, watching them, and suffering from their wrongdoing,
+shall attain a higher moral status. How can they
+help following coarsely in the footsteps of their betters?"</p>
+
+<p>"Darcy, suppose you turn parson!" and Maverick
+laughed half quizzically. "See here: the world wants a
+very old sermon preached again to it, hammered into
+every fibre, put up over every doorway,&mdash;the essence
+of all knowledge, all religion, briefly comprehended in
+this, 'Love thy neighbor <i>as</i> thyself.' You won't need
+gown or bands for that work. Not to have one code of
+morals for the rich, and one for the poor; one creed for
+Sunday, and quite another belief for Monday; to have no
+lofty, impossible theories and exalted moods, but truthful,
+honest living; not to push away the miserable, ignorant
+souls, but take them by the hand in hearty co-operation.
+Maybe Cameron has the right clew. Why should we
+let human love be shamed by such things as an Oneida
+community or a Mormon city?"</p>
+
+<p>The strong, earnest voice stirred Jack like martial
+music. All these years he had been struggling with a
+great, blind, confused something,&mdash;perhaps it was not a
+silver-mine or a railroad, but a work just here in the town
+of his boyhood, where he was known, where he had played
+and worked.</p>
+
+<p>"Seventeenthly, and lastly," and Maverick looked at
+his watch, "I cannot idle any more time upon you, and
+must cut short with a 'To be continued.' We will talk it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+over again and again; and, if we cannot get it into shape,
+there is still Florida left. So, while you are dreaming it
+out by this great silent mill, whose prisoned spirits should
+prate of prosperity instead of desolation, I'll run my
+course around Yerbury, and we'll compare notes over our
+cigars. <i>Addio</i>," waving his hand.</p>
+
+<p>Jack watched the compact figure as it moved briskly
+away; then he sauntered round the mill, down one street
+and up another, strolled out to Lovers' Lane, and returned
+by Larch Avenue. The Barry house began to show signs
+of life, for old Mat was clearing up the grounds. This
+was the one oasis that had not been bitten by speculation.
+He thought of winsome little Sylvie, and one summer
+evening when Irene Lawrence stepped into that pretty,
+cosey room with the grace and beauty of a Juno. Where
+was she now? And what was Fred doing? Making a
+great leap into name and fame, doubtless, now that he was
+put upon his mettle. The old boyish freaks came back to
+his mind, the enthusiastic unreasoning adoration, the last
+tender parting. An intense and subtile sympathy filled
+his soul; and, though he smiled a little, the memory was
+very sacred.</p>
+
+<p>The texture of Jack's mind was not of the quick, brilliant,
+or sanguine order. He went over his books again;
+he ruminated as he cleaned the garden-paths, spaded the
+beds, trimmed the trees and shrubbery, and attended to
+the odds and ends known only to a careful householder.
+Cousin Jane was in her element out here; and they two
+discoursed of farming and gardening, and industry, she
+in a sharp, trenchant way.</p>
+
+<p>She had remarked incidentally that her visit was near
+its end. Now that Jack was home, cousin Ellen would
+not need her.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why you should not make your home here,
+cousin Jane," replied Mrs. Darcy. "Grandmother grows
+feebler all the time, and you have quite spoiled me by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+your strength and cheeriness. You have no nearer tie;
+and if you <i>could</i> content yourself with us&mdash;Jack was
+speaking about it a few evenings since. We should like
+so to keep you, cousin Jane."</p>
+
+<p>Jane Morgan studied the beseeching eyes a while, then
+dropped her own, and thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," she answered, "if you like to have it so.
+While I am well and strong I think I ought to do enough
+somewhere to earn my living, and not use up the little laid
+by for a rainy day. If you and Jack are agreed, we'll
+consider it a bargain for a year. I like to be settled about
+what I'm going to do: there's nothing so uncomfortable
+as hanging on tenterhooks. When my visit's through I
+like to go, if I'm going; not stand an hour or two with the
+door-knob in my hand."</p>
+
+<p>Jack was delighted. They could spare him now and
+then of an evening to stroll down to Maverick's office,
+where they discussed pretty nearly every thing under the
+sun. It was so in the beginning,&mdash;"the earth was without
+form, and void." Then the Barrys returned; Sylvie
+changed in some indescribable way as to a kind of delicate
+outside manner, but the same fresh, earnest girl in
+heart and soul, taking up her friendship with Jack just
+where she had laid it down. Yet they had both grown
+broader and richer in nature and experience, and there
+was something of the subtile flavor of new acquaintanceship.</p>
+
+<p>Yerbury cleaned house, even to the tidying-up of streets
+and carting-away of rubbish. It was pitiful to see the
+attempts of some of the poor women, who washed their
+worn white curtains, scrubbed the shutters and hall-door,
+and set out a few ragged geraniums in the front yard, or
+made a little bed of lettuce and onions.</p>
+
+<p>Yerbury Savings Bank was in the hands of a receiver.
+Some sold out their small accounts for a trifle: it was
+agreed there could not be much in the way of dividends.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+Here was a great mortgage on the Downer farm, that the
+Eastmans had partly cut into city lots. And, though
+Downer had received a large price, he was a poor man
+to-day, with no business, and several sons tramping the
+highways for work. Farms had not been profitable, but
+had the wealth and extravagance produced any better result?
+These places around would be sold presently for
+any sum they would bring.</p>
+
+<p>"Speculation did look so tempting, though," said Jack
+with a humorous smile. "But for grandmother I might
+have been in the midst of it."</p>
+
+<p>"There's just one thing that makes a man or a country
+rich," said Jane Morgan incisively; "and that's industry,
+good, honest labor. Marking up one's goods before
+breakfast, as the Frenchman did, realizes no absolute
+money. The speculators jingle their dollars from hand to
+hand, until some poor fool, attracted by the noise, gives
+them a hundred for their twenty. When a man makes
+money simply by another person's loss, he has not created
+any thing, or made any more of it; and the world's no
+better, that I can see."</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Jane, you are dipping into political economy;"
+and Jack nodded gayly. "I shall have to ask
+Maverick and some of the others up here; and maybe
+you can put in a straw, or a head of wheat, toward the
+regeneration of Yerbury."</p>
+
+<p>"I dip into a little common sense now and then, and it
+seems to me that's what the world needs. There is no
+lack of the uncommon kind, and it's not to be altogether
+despised, since at times uncommon things are given to
+people to do. But, if all the bees in the hive thought they
+had a call to be queens, it runs in my mind there'd be a
+lack of honey presently."</p>
+
+<p>"You are on the right foundation, cousin Jane. We
+must not only make the honey an honorable thing, but
+honor the bees, put labor on a better, truer foundation."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I should just say, 'See here, my friends, it is not
+possible for us all to be rich, whether it is some fixed immutable
+law of fate, or the lack of necessary elements in
+one's character, or the meeting of the right person with the
+right circumstances; but the fact is there, true as judgment.
+You can be comfortable and clean if you have the
+energy; and it is better to scrub your own kitchen-floor, or
+raise a bushel of potatoes, than to sit and whine about
+luck or respectability. Now and then a ready-made fortune
+drops down upon one, and I don't know but it often
+brings a curse: anyhow, what you work for, you are pretty
+sure to enjoy.' It makes me mad when I see healthy,
+hearty young women sighing for servants and pianos and
+what not; when their grandmothers, who had as good
+blood, and as good sense, didn't despise honest work."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie Barry came in while Miss Morgan was in the
+midst of her "speech," as Jack declared it to be; and
+now she clapped her small white hands, with a "Bravo!"</p>
+
+<p>"A new disciple, Jack," and she smiled. "Miss
+Morgan, we shall set you to reading our favorite authors,
+and solving the tremendous question. Where can we get
+work for these to do? For a great many stand idle in
+the market-place, because they have not been hired.
+What can we set them at?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Miss Barry, I don't know much about the big,
+outside questions; but, going around Yerbury a little this
+winter, I shouldn't say the work was all done up; or,
+done in such a poor, thrown-together way, that it tumbles
+right to pieces again. There's skewy, ill-made beds with
+ragged counterpanes; there's shreds of old ingrain-carpets,
+that you fall over; there's broken chairs, and shabby
+clothes, and dirty corners,&mdash;work enough, I should say,
+to last some woman an hour or two. She might get out
+her pieces of calico, and, with the children's help, make a
+new spread, maybe a tidy apron, and she might braid a
+rag mat out of bits, and a hundred things that go toward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+comfort. No: all the work isn't done up yet, Miss
+Sylvie," and Jane Morgan stopped just then, to knit the
+seam-stitch in a stocking for a poor body.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie threw herself on the footstool, and leaned her
+arms on Miss Morgan's knee.</p>
+
+<p>"I wasn't thinking so much of that when I spoke,"
+she began earnestly; "but I do wonder if some of us
+couldn't take it up. There are art-schools, and music-schools,
+and cooking-schools, in the great cities; and why
+couldn't we start something of the kind here? Poor
+people&mdash;the real poor, I mean&mdash;are often wasteful and
+idle because they do not just know how to be any thing
+else. They buy cheap garments in stores, and they soon
+come apart. I had a sewing-school last summer, and I
+found some mothers didn't seem to care whether their
+children learned or not,&mdash;since there was so much sewing
+done by machines. But if the mothers could be taught a
+little"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That's about the upshot of what I said. You see,
+Miss Barry, people have been earning so much money of
+late years, that sewing has gone out of fashion. It didn't
+pay to do this or that, so they earned and spent. Now
+they sit listless in their dirt and rags, bemoaning hard
+times. It is good to know how to do more than one
+thing," and Miss Morgan nodded her head confidently,
+her strong face full of earnestness.</p>
+
+<p>"Why can't you and Sylvie start a school&mdash;what
+shall we call it?&mdash;of useful and homely arts? You see,
+the girls do work in the mills and shops until they get
+married, and then they do not know how to make the
+best of their husbands' money. But don't crowd out all
+the beauty and the pleasure; there must be something to
+enlist the heart. Give a man an interest in a thing, and
+you awake a new feeling, an enthusiasm that makes
+every thing go as smoothly as oiling up machinery."</p>
+
+<p>"I have often thought," said Mrs. Darcy in her soft,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+gentle voice, "that the poor did not get as much good of
+their money as the better classes, because they never have
+enough to buy advantageously, and store-keepers so often
+take the advantage of them. Now, yesterday I was over
+to Mrs. Hall's, and the poor thing was trying to make
+some bread, and she was not fit to stand up and knead it;
+so I thought I'd try. The flour was heavy and sticky
+and lumpy, and what I should call very unprofitable.
+No one could make good bread out of it. She said they
+traded at Kilburn's, because he would wait if they did
+not have the money. The flour was seven and a half a
+barrel; the eighth, ninety-five cents; and I do not believe
+the bread was fit to eat. So you must remember,
+when you blame people for poor cooking, that they may
+not always have decent materials to work with."</p>
+
+<p>"Maverick was growling about Kilburn the other evening.
+It is a shame that he should sell such poor goods,
+when prices have come down a good deal."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you not reform him a little?" and Mrs. Darcy
+smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Jane and Sylvie might go into business, as
+did the poor weavers of Toad Lane, with their sack of
+oatmeal, firkin of butter, a little sugar and flour," said
+Jack laughingly. "A fair division of labor. The men
+of Yerbury shall provide work, and the women shall train
+the inefficient how and where to spend money."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie glanced up with bright, inquiring eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it some more co-operation?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Jack brought out his book, and read the story of the
+"Equitable Pioneers of Rochdale" and their wonderful success
+from a small beginning. The girl listened with wide-open
+eyes, and even Jane Morgan laid down her knitting.</p>
+
+<p>"The queen-bee and the workers again," said she, as
+Jack closed the book. "It is not every man for himself,
+but every man for each other. And it comes back,
+always."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Where</span> is grandmother?" Jack asked one morning
+late in May, as he came in from the garden, and found
+her place at the table vacant.</p>
+
+<p>"She does not feel very well this morning, and I told
+her there was no need of rising with the lark," answered
+cousin Jane; but, though her voice was cheerful, there
+was a new gravity in her face.</p>
+
+<p>"It is something unusual"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"She is getting to be an old lady, Jack. There, sit
+down to your breakfast while it is nice and hot. No fear
+but what I will attend to grandmother."</p>
+
+<p>She had risen; but in the midst of her dressing her
+hands had lost their cunning, her limbs their strength.
+Jane came to look at her in alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a warning," she said, with her grand old smile.
+"But I have no pain, and so you can leave me here for a
+while. My strength may come back."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Darcy was much frightened.</p>
+
+<p>"Remember that ninety-four is a good old age, and she
+has hardly had a sick day in her life. After breakfast
+Jack might go over for Dr. Maverick. He is sensible,
+and will not torment her with experiments."</p>
+
+<p>Jack rather hurried through his meal, and then ran up
+to grandmother's room. She put out her wrinkled hand,
+thin to be sure, but still slender and smooth, with no
+knobby joints. A proud sort of beauty illumined the old
+face, though the eyes were a little dull.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear boy," and there was a curious quaver in her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+voice, "I've had to give in at last. The Lord knows
+best. He has given me many a happy year with you;
+yet I have never forgotten the folks over yonder. I shall
+be glad to see them again,&mdash;your father, Jack, and the
+rest. 'Then they came to the land of Beulah, where the
+sun shineth day and night, and betook themselves to
+rest'&mdash;you know. We used to read it together."</p>
+
+<p>A sharp pang went to Jack's heart. He pressed the
+limp hand to his lips, and gazed into the face that had
+changed in some indescribable way. Then Jane came
+with a tempting breakfast, and fed her with wonderful
+gentleness, it seemed to him.</p>
+
+<p>He went out, and brought Maverick back with him.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a general breaking-up of nature," said the doctor
+with a tender gravity. "Nothing can be done, unless
+she should suffer; but I do not think she will. It is the
+way lives ought to end oftener. Give her whatever she
+will take; and keep cheerful, all of you. After all, it is
+only a little journey."</p>
+
+<p>"Where?" the young eyes asked as they met each
+other in solemn mood.</p>
+
+<p>Jack scarcely left her. She liked to open her eyes, and
+find him sitting there, when she would smile faintly, and
+murmur a few words. Sylvie and Miss Barry were the
+only visitors admitted to her room. They used to read
+out of "Pilgrim's Progress," the book she had loved so
+well, and occasionally they sang some sweet old hymn.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack," she said once, "you will find everything in
+my old box there in the bureau. It was my mother's, and
+came across the sea with me. You have been a good lad.
+You took your father's place with me, and you must never
+regret that you staid here to make an old woman happy.
+You have been a good lad&mdash;a good&mdash;little lad"&mdash; And
+her mind wandered to other years.</p>
+
+<p>Just growing gradually weaker, and falling asleep peacefully.
+A long, well-spent life, and a death to remember
+and desire.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They buried her in Yerbury churchyard, and the townspeople
+turned out to do her honor. Jack thought of
+another death, and the almost solitary state of the funeral.</p>
+
+<p>How good it was that they had Jane Morgan now!
+She carried them right along.</p>
+
+<p>Jack opened the brass-bound box, still fragrant with its
+sandal-wood lining. Some old letters, the trinkets she
+had saved from her poverty, and a will bequeathing her
+all, in government bonds, to Jack.</p>
+
+<p>There was nearly seven thousand dollars. With his
+own little savings he felt quite rich.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack," said his mother, "all these years you have
+waited patiently, and put by your own dreams. Do not
+think that I did not notice the struggle. It was very generous
+and kindly; and I am glad, for grandmother's sake,
+that you staid. But now if you like we will go somewhere
+else, and make a new home"&mdash;did her voice tremble
+a little then? "I am still young enough to take root
+elsewhere, and cousin Jane is so energetic she helps one
+to new life. There may be prettier and more prosperous
+places, and you have years before you in which to realize
+a fortune."</p>
+
+<p>He glanced up at the face bending over him, instinct
+with the honorable grace of middle life; the hair with a
+few threads of silver; the soft, fine skin showing some
+wrinkles about the eyes and two or three light creases
+across the forehead; the cheeks out of which roundness
+had vanished, and the lips the scarlet of girlhood, but
+though both were pale the mouth was still tender and
+sweet. A womanly woman,&mdash;that seemed to him a perfect
+description of his mother, a woman who had loved
+three generations, and held by them. Now for his sake
+she would give up the old ties, and try a new world,&mdash;this
+shy, shrinking, loving woman.</p>
+
+<p>What would she leave? She had never known any
+other home in her married life, though this had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+changed and improved since her wedding-day. Everywhere
+some trace of his father. The porch with the
+roses climbing over it, the great maples in the street,
+planted by him; the odorous old balm of Gilead, that he
+had hunted up because she had cared for it, and they had
+one in her old home; the trailing clematis with its shining
+smilax-like green, and its heliotrope fragrance; the white
+rose that had been planted on the morning of Jack's
+birth, and had sent up many generations from the old root;
+the latticed summer-house with its wealth of grapes; and
+almost like a vision Jack could fancy he saw the tall figure
+and deliberate step,&mdash;the sweet ghost of memory that
+could never walk in any other place. Did his mother
+have such dreams?</p>
+
+<p>Yes, there were better things to life than mere money-getting.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe those were the wild dreams of boyhood,"&mdash;smiling
+a little,&mdash;"the 'long, long thoughts of youth.'
+I used to want something that would occupy my whole
+soul and every energy, that was stirring, earnest, absorbing,
+and held a grand outlook. But I think"&mdash;very
+deliberately, as if he were weighing every word&mdash;"that
+my work has come to me, instead of my going out to seek
+it. At all events, I shall not go away for the present."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she returned, but she could not keep the
+great gladness out of her voice.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus made his election, Jack Darcy looked sturdily
+about to see what was to be done, and the best way
+to do it. He asked two of the old over-lookers, Hurd and
+Bradley, to meet him at Maverick's office; and there they
+discussed co-operation until long past midnight. They
+looked into the cotton-mill connected with the Rochdale
+experiment; they read up the workings of those at Oldham
+and Lancashire, of the industries in France, and
+banking in Germany.</p>
+
+<p>"Here we are," said Jack, "with so much of our lives<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+spent in learning to manage looms and turn out different
+kinds of cloth. People must wear clothes until the millennium,
+and cloth will be made. It seems to me that it
+must be a good thing to identify the workmen, and get
+their real interest. We should avoid strikes on the one
+hand, the continual disputes about wages, and be much
+less at the mercy of all outside influence. The men will
+understand thoroughly that industry, economy, thrift, and
+perseverance is good for each individually; that he is
+using these qualities not only for the master, but for himself.
+There will be better work, and more of it."</p>
+
+<p>Hurd seemed to be taking the measure of Darcy
+through this speech. Now he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Darcy, any man who knows enough to head such a
+business as Hope Mills, knows enough to carve out a
+fortune for himself; and my opinion is that he would be
+a fool to let the chance slip."</p>
+
+<p>"A man may have the knowledge, but not the requisite
+capital," was the patient answer. "Then he might
+think"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you've a sight of faith, that's all! Your men
+will go on with the tramp of soldiers in good times; and
+when the pinch comes, then look out! If they were educated,
+reasonable, sensible; but you and I both know the
+mass are not. It will do better in the old countries, for
+there children expect to follow in the footsteps of their
+parents; but here, where every boy looks upon himself as
+a possible president, it cannot be done. It has been tried,
+and has failed. It will again."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you will not join?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't say that, Darcy. I can't very well get away
+from Yerbury: if I could, the Lord knows I'd go. But
+there&mdash;it is just as bad everywhere else. Don't be too
+sanguine though: you young chaps build air-castles
+easily."</p>
+
+<p>Bradley wrung his hand warmly at parting. "I want<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+to look into this thing a little more closely," he said.
+"I believe you have struck the keynote. Whatever raises
+the workman raises the whole world. If you get him to
+be self-supporting, there is one less pauper or tramp for
+the State to take in charge, and tax all other workingmen
+for his support."</p>
+
+<p>"I rather like the scheme of the co-operative store,"
+Hurd began presently. "There's a sight of money somehow
+between the producer and the consumer. Farmers
+are grumbling all the time. I wrote to my brother-in-law
+last spring about trading for a small farm, and going into
+poultry-business perhaps; and he sent back a list of
+prices he had obtained for his produce. Butter twenty-five
+cents, and we paid forty this winter. Milk two and a
+half cents a quart, while ours is from eight to ten."</p>
+
+<p>"Transportation to be counted in," suggested Maverick.</p>
+
+<p>"The thing discouraged me, so I thought I'd hold on
+a bit, since I did not know the first rule for farming.
+As Darcy says, we have spent all these years perfecting
+ourselves in our business, and it hardly looks reasonable
+that we should succeed at once in something altogether
+different. If you don't mind, Darcy, I'd like to look
+over that Rochdale experiment a little at my leisure."</p>
+
+<p>Jack handed him the book, and the small party dispersed.
+In a week they met again, with two more, one a
+stubborn old Englishman who had been in the business.
+They had done very well for a while, then the market flattened.
+They could not hold their stock, so the big fish
+swallowed them up. That was always the end where you
+had no credit and no reserve capital. Truth to tell, Jack
+began to realize how hard it would be to convert some of
+the very men he would like to have.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Hamilton Minor came up with some capitalists,
+and Hope Mills was put up at auction. They looked
+around the town, examined the building and machinery,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
+which was the best of its kind; but nobody could tell
+whether we had reached bottom prices or not, and, though
+the place was to be offered at an immense sacrifice, they
+were wary. Empty mills and rusting machinery were not
+profitable investments. Mr. Minor's eloquence went for
+nothing. These long-headed dons would rather hold on
+to their money, though they expressed a good deal of
+sympathy for the Lawrence estate.</p>
+
+<p>"I do believe it will go for the face of the mortgage,"
+said Jack to Maverick that evening. "Twenty thousand
+dollars, and a year's interest and taxes. Twenty-two
+thousand would cover the whole thing; and three years
+ago Mr. Lawrence wouldn't have looked at fifty thousand.
+Maverick, I can get together ten thousand of my own, and
+if there was one other person"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We will hunt him up," returned Maverick hopefully.
+"There is the reputation of the cloth already
+made, which is one great step in your favor. Yes, it
+must be done."</p>
+
+<p>Yerbury was looking a little brighter and better at midsummer.
+Scarlet-fever had pretty well disappeared; but
+malaria had come in its stead, convenient name for want
+of nourishment, stagnation, and despondency. The haggard-looking
+wives and mothers went out to a day's washing
+or scrubbing; but the children, better off, roamed over
+the fields in search of berries or a stray ownerless fruit-tree,
+laughing and happy in their rags and bare feet.</p>
+
+<p>Darcy tried two or three pretty well-to-do men, that he
+fancied had the good of the town at heart; but the project
+looked wild to them. If David Lawrence couldn't
+stand up against hard times, no new men could. He,
+Darcy, had better put his money in government-bonds,
+and live on the interest. Nothing could be made in such
+times as these.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems as if one half of the world has decided that
+the other half should starve," Jack declared in a discouraged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+tone. "No one is willing to start the ball again.
+If it wasn't for mother I would risk every dollar of my
+own. And then to think of the land lying idle about
+here,&mdash;enough to feed half the town! I do not wonder
+that we are fast coming to beggary and ruin."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick was pretty sober for several days, then he
+went off to Narragansett Pier; "tired of my everlasting
+badgering," said Jack to Sylvie, who, poor child, had her
+hands and heart full of projects that she talked over with
+Miss Morgan and her aunt, and did not make much more
+progress than Jack.</p>
+
+<p>So it happened one July evening that Jack sat smoking
+on the porch in a rather despondent frame of mind.
+Miss Morgan and his mother had gone to make some
+neighborly calls.</p>
+
+<p>A quick step came down the street. "If Maverick
+wasn't in Rhode Island!" thought Jack; then it came
+nearer, with a little halt, and Jack sprang down the steps
+in the moonlight.</p>
+
+<p>"Hillo, old fellow!" said the rich, laughing voice.
+"Have you looked after my patients, and entertained my
+office-callers, in my absence? That would only be fair
+play, for I have been about your business; and, by Jove!
+succeeded too!"</p>
+
+<p>"Maverick!" There was an odd little tremble in
+Jack's voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Ask me to sit down, and stay me with&mdash;well, a pipe,
+for I have finished my last cigar. I came in the train
+just fifteen minutes ago, and skulked&mdash;that's the very
+word&mdash;under the trees and through by-ways, lest some
+one, seeing, should lay violent hands on me. Yes, get
+out your best armchair, old chap, and treat me like a
+prince."</p>
+
+<p>The two seated themselves again, and stretched out
+their legs to the porch-railing. The soft light fell around,
+outlining here and there a bit of vine as if it were held<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+against a silver background. A few early insects were
+chirping, and somewhere down the street there was a waft
+of distant music.</p>
+
+<p>"Succeeded!" Jack drew a long breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes: with a woman too. Nay, you need not look at
+me so wonderingly. I have not sold myself for base gold
+to the Evil One," laughing lightly. "I have never told
+you much about myself; for, like the needy knife-grinder,
+'story, God bless you! there was none to tell;' but there
+is a chapter now, and you must hear it first. My mother
+was left an orphan in her infancy, and her aunt adopted
+her. She was a canny Scotswoman, by name Jean McLeod.
+She was very good to my mother, who married
+quite to her liking, although my father was not rich, but
+we always lived in a certain style, and my father had
+a fine reputation as a lawyer. My mother's death, the
+result of an accident, so prostrated him, that he never
+recovered from the shock. Aunt McLeod came to stay
+with us through that weary time. Then she took us both
+to her heart and home: it was a large warm heart and a
+beautiful home. My father left a little: it was made over
+to me; and my sister, five years younger than I, was
+brought up properly, and married properly, and lives in
+Chicago in elegant style. Then Aunt Jean tried her hand
+on me, chose a suitable young woman, and insisted that
+the fates had decided it. The upshot was a quarrel. Not
+but what the girl was nice enough, and all that, but I did
+not care to marry; and so I walked off to Europe, and
+was there three years. Some rather cool letters passed
+between us at first, but they grew warmer; and when I
+returned it was winter, and she was in New York. I
+went straight up to her house. She was very glad to see
+me; and there in her lovely library, all glow and softness
+and perfume, by the side of the grate, with a screen in
+her hand, sat Anastasia Lothrop. She is Aunt Jean's
+pet <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;e</i>, though she has home and lands and people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+of her own. A handsome woman too, by Jove! However,
+we have gone our separate ways. I think she (Aunt
+Jean) was rather annoyed at my settling at Yerbury.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I went to Narragansett, and found her alone
+this time; and she has promised to buy Hope Mills. I do
+believe there's no end to the woman's money. She talked
+it over as a mere bagatelle. I am to meet her in New
+York, and you are to go down, Jack; and we are to see
+the holder of the mortgage, and do no end of business.
+I think she is rather interested in the scheme, and I do
+believe she is delighted to do me a favor. Now you can
+keep your money for a kind of reserve fund. The mere
+savings of labor will not answer at first, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick drew a long breath then, and puffed lustily at
+his cigar.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know how ever to thank you."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't thank me, Darcy. You see, I am interested in
+this experiment. I want to see if there is enough faith and
+honesty and industry and trustfulness left in the world to
+make such a general partnership a success. You know it
+has been said that since the war our character as a whole
+has degenerated fearfully. Politically there is no doubt
+of it. Commercially and industrially are still open questions.
+If we could succeed in making one hundred people
+comfortable, instead of one rich, nine comfortable, and the
+other ninety next door to pauperism, we shall have done
+something. If we can so educate ninety men that they
+are able to understand the difficulties and embarrassments
+of carrying on business and its numerous fluctuations, we
+shall have raised them higher in the social scale. And it
+is most sadly true of all the large failures of late, some
+one has been dishonest, some one or two or three have
+taken other people's money to speculate with. It should
+be called stealing as much as when a poor man takes it,
+even if he spends it for rum. And, Darcy, we will keep
+our eye single upon one thing: we shall not move the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+world, or convert it, but haply one little corner of Yerbury;
+while all the wit and wisdom the world has been
+saving up for ages will be hurled against us in different
+shapes, from puffy snowballs to the grim old fellows
+soaked in water and frozen hard. And sometimes I
+think, with all the energy you are going to bring to bear
+upon this, you could carve out a fortune somewhere
+else."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know as to that, Maverick," said Darcy in a
+half-funny, half-sad tone. "From New York to St.
+Louis, from thence to New Orleans, to Florida, and back
+here again, I never found an opening. Two or three
+people did promise to write to me, but they have not. I
+felt the world could go on quite as well without me and
+hundreds of others. So, then, the only thing is to create
+a place; and Heaven knows I shall try hard enough to
+make a success of this."</p>
+
+<p>"And you will do it too: I'm not afraid. Give us your
+hand, old chap! I never swore friendship with but just
+one fellow: that was in my college days, and I have his
+note for one hundred dollars as a memento. I might have
+been keener, I dare say; but one of the transcendentally
+lovely things of youth is its perfect faith. These preternaturally
+wise and prudent young people come into the
+world mentally gray-headed. But I do it now with my
+eyes wide open; and, when you are a rich man, I have
+another scheme I want to take through, a sort of home or
+hospital of my own planning: so don't fancy I shall let
+you off easy."</p>
+
+<p>They held each other's hands in a long, lingering clasp.
+Beside the warmth and magnetism that was a component
+part of Dr. Maverick's nature when he chose to use it,
+which was not nearly always, there was a steadfast kindliness,
+the vigor of a true and pure manhood, that made a
+clear atmosphere about him, in which insincerity, weakness,
+and selfishness seemed to flicker into pale shadows,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+and shrink away from the intense mental light he turned
+upon them.</p>
+
+<p>And just here the vision of the boy face came back to
+Jack, the strangling arms about his neck, the fluttering
+breath and quivering lips, and the sound of the rather
+thin, childish voice,&mdash;"You are <i>my</i> King Arthur, and I
+shall love you my whole life long."</p>
+
+<p>The sadness in the smile was for the old ideal.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">The</span> telegram!" exclaimed Maverick ten days later,
+striding down the garden where Jack was at work in the
+strawberry-bed.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy flushed like a girl, through the other fine
+coloring of labor. He had hardly dared to believe in
+and hold to Maverick's promise. Manlike, neither had
+spoken of it since that night.</p>
+
+<p>"'Thursday, at four, at the Westminster.' That is
+to-morrow. We must be on time, or she would never
+have any faith in us; and, though my credit may be <i>nil</i>,
+yours must be"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"As I hope to keep it through my life," was the grave
+reply. "You will take the morning train?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. It will give us a trifle of spare time, which
+won't be bad for a couple of overworked fellows like us.
+But I must look after a lot of people this afternoon, and
+if I can I will drop in this evening."</p>
+
+<p>Jack went back to his strawberries. He had been
+making a mental calculation about an acre, and the
+profits thereon, moved to it by something Jane Morgan
+had said. Twenty miles below them, on Swanston Bay,
+which was quite a summer-resort, the hotel-keepers had
+paid twenty-five cents per quart for nice large berries.
+On their little patch they had raised a hundred and
+twenty quarts. There was another side to the labor-question,&mdash;diversity
+of industry. Jane's idea of a great
+fruit-garden, or call it a farm, was not bad. You could
+crowd ten such patches in an acre of ground. If nothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+better came to hand, he might hire some of the ground
+lying waste around Yerbury, and set the idle at work.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie came through with some flowers in her hand.
+Jack looked up again, and laughed, and threw himself on
+the grass under a tree, chatting gayly. He felt so light at
+heart! She wondered a little, and then, without knowing
+the cause, rejoiced with him in the depths of her soul.</p>
+
+<p>The two men started the next morning, and at the
+appointed time were ushered into Miss McLeod's private
+parlor. Maverick had said, "She's a little queer in
+some ways; but in the main you will like her, I think."
+Meanwhile Jack had formed a dozen ideals of her, based
+mostly on the personal appearance of Miss Barry and his
+grandmother.</p>
+
+<p>The door of the adjoining room opened, and Miss
+McLeod entered. An old woman, of course, and a
+fashionable woman, but with a young-old face and figure.
+Not the graceful airiness of youth, so often painful
+in its desire to impress the beholder with what it is not,
+but an old age to which all the good things of life, rightly
+used, have contributed, and brought about a delightful
+result. She was of medium height, and possibly had not
+been handsome in her palmy days; but she challenged
+one's respect for a true and honorable womanhood, and
+an old age neither inane, querulous, nor servile.</p>
+
+<p>A rather plump figure, with deep chest, full shoulders,
+and erect carriage. The face was wrinkled; but the skin
+had a peachy softness, the lips were still full and finely
+curved, and, though the mouth was rather wide, it indicated
+resolution and decision. The whole contour of the
+face was slightly aquiline, the forehead high and broad,
+but the curling hair falling over it in the requirements of
+fashion softened it; shining silvery white, curling naturally,
+and very abundant, the coil at the back partly covered
+with a diamond-shaped bit of elegant black thread
+lace that matched the barb at her throat. Her rich,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+soft, steel-colored silk made no rustle as she crossed the
+floor, but the diamonds in her ears and on her breast
+flashed a glitter of sunlight about her.</p>
+
+<p>Maverick greeted her with pleasant but not effusive
+warmth, and introduced his friend. They skirmished on
+the boundary-line of small talk for a while, Jack feeling
+that he was being measured and gauged at every possible
+indication of the real man, but his honesty of purpose
+kept him steadfast.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Maverick plunged into the business part,
+much to Darcy's satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"I wrote to my lawyer, Mr. Hildreth, about it," Miss
+McLeod replied. "He has seen the parties holding the
+mortgage; and, on account of business embarrassments,
+they are extremely anxious to realize upon it. Mr.
+Minor is naturally desirous of having it sold at an
+advantage; but he is on the bond, and has been making
+continuous efforts with no success. No one can tell how
+low property will sink, business property especially, that
+depreciates so rapidly if neglected. The mortgage is
+considered one-third of what the property was valued at
+seven years ago; but we have all shrunk a trifle since
+that," with a shrug, and a curious little bend of the
+head, as if the decapitation was not altogether a pleasant
+process. "This is the 4th of August, and on the 19th
+it is advertised for sale. There may be one chance in a
+thousand of a better purchaser; though Mr. Hildreth
+thinks no one but a lunatic, or a woman, would put
+money in such an adventure," her lips curving in their
+bitter-sweet smile. Indeed, there was nothing she was
+so much like as a cluster of bright bitter-sweet berries,
+on a sharp but sunshiny autumn day, with the leaves and
+tendrils brown and faded, but the brilliant life and soul
+still shining from the ripe centre. She impressed you
+with the same defiant glow of exultation.</p>
+
+<p>"I have money lying idle, it is true," she continued;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+"but I want to hear your plans before I decide, Mr.
+Darcy. Philip," nodding to her nephew, "has interested
+me in this scheme; but I must know what it promises
+before I take the risk."</p>
+
+<p>Jack was confused a little by the bright, penetrating
+glance; and he had not quite overcome his boyish trick
+of blushing. Often as he had gone over the plan with
+Howell, Fawcett, and other political economists at his
+tongue's end, all his troupe of fine ideas seemed to desert
+him. He laughed at his own embarrassment: she smiled
+and nodded, and that made them friends.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that I can put it any better," he began
+earnestly, "than to say that I want to take up the lever
+of work, and put the wheels of labor in motion, to bring
+the starving workmen and the halting capital together
+again. It is all very well for us to rush every dollar into
+government-bonds; but if there is no business, what is to
+augment our revenue, and where then shall we be finally,
+with our mills and workshops shut up, and our people
+begging? If I had enough of my own to bridge over
+the chasm, I would ask no one's help," he went on a
+little proudly. "The mills at Yerbury stand in sad
+silence, with ruin before them; our men are idle and dispirited,
+turning into tramps and vagabonds, because they
+hate to sit still and starve. And here am I, of no real
+use to the world, and the eight years back of me that I
+have spent in perfecting myself of no account either,
+unless I find something upon which to employ my ability
+and training. If I purchase the mills, we must hire
+capital to work them with, and everybody would be shy
+of us. We can get together the capital if we could be
+sure of the place for five years, at a moderate rental."</p>
+
+<p>"But would not a joint-stock company answer the purpose
+better, and carry more weight?" she asked, listening
+with a sort of intent wariness.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to enlist the workmen, so that we shall be reasonably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+sure of co-operation in other things beside money,
+industry, thrift, faithfulness, and a common interest in
+success. If times are hard, we shall all make sacrifices:
+if they improve, we shall benefit by the earnestness of our
+endeavors. Maverick and I have made a little draft, based
+on the workings of the best French and English societies.
+If you will look it over"&mdash;and he took it out of his
+memorandum.</p>
+
+<p>She studied it with a keen, rapid glance.</p>
+
+<p>"It is what I should call an industrial partnership,"
+Darcy continued. "We <i>should</i> own the mill; but, as we
+cannot, that must go in the working expenses. As the
+men choose, and are able, they can hold shares; but at
+present this will be obtained&mdash;say from a dozen perhaps.
+Nothing now will bring in twenty or even ten per cent,
+and we must be satisfied with whatever we can make.
+We have had our good times, and now we must take the
+evil; but if there is any better way than sitting down
+resignedly, and folding both hands, I, for one, want to
+find it."</p>
+
+<p>She was taking in the combinations of emotion and purpose
+that flitted over his face. A man who would do
+something if he could get that hardest of all things, a
+foothold to stand upon.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you might make more money," she said with
+pointed brevity.</p>
+
+<p>"Which would not be co-operation," with his frank,
+genial laugh that went to her heart. "I want to try the
+experiment. Not that I expect to solve all the difficulties
+between labor and capital; but I shall try to make them
+better friends, so that, when you have weathered a hard
+gale, pinching yourselves to keep on the workmen, they
+will not strike for higher wages on the first stir of improvement,
+as they will be certain of their share."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a philanthropist, Mr. Darcy. Can you
+depend upon the temper of your men? They may do very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+well just now when they are starving; but, when times
+improve, are they going to wait one year or five years for
+the sum they consider part of their wages? And if there
+should be no surplus, but losses, as has often happened in
+manufacturing? Your workman will</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+'Fork out his penny, and pocket your shilling,'<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>fast enough; but when the tables are turned, what then?"</div>
+
+<p>"There <i>must</i> be a different feeling when men are
+banded together in a mutual business interest. The very
+spirit of association appeals to what is best and noblest in
+human nature. As it has been in Yerbury, for example,
+the workmen contributed of their ability and strength to
+support one family in princely luxury, pay one extravagant
+salary, and several others that were out of all proportion
+to the wages earned, and an extensive defalcation. No
+one is at all the gainer now, unless it be the thief," his
+face scarlet with indignation at the remembrance of Eastman.
+"The men have been hit the hardest of all. No
+wonder they feel bitter and discouraged. We make many
+an Ishmael by sending him out with his jug of water,
+while there are feasting and revelry within."</p>
+
+<p>"But you cannot make all human nature noble or sensible
+or grateful. There is the grand co-operation of the
+forty years in the wilderness, when food was provided,
+and clothing lasted miraculously; yet under these favorable
+circumstances, and with the sure promise at the end, there
+was not a heavenly unity."</p>
+
+<p>Jack laughed heartily.</p>
+
+<p>"We must keep from golden calves and such folly," he
+said. "We are likely enough to have our waters of
+Marah. But it seems to me the best way to ennoble labor,
+give it its true dignity, and show the possibilities for the
+workmen, is concerted action. As matters stand now,
+few poor men can ever acquire sufficient capital to start any
+business; and perhaps this is not best when we consider<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+the cost of machinery, and the ever-appearing new inventions.
+The small capitalist could <i>not</i> compete with the
+large one. Yet capital often takes as its right the best
+strength of the workman, the years of maturity and
+ability, and throws him off in his old age. I know labor
+retorts by carelessness, wastefulness, and utter indifference
+to the employer's welfare. One is a machine to grind
+labor into money; the other, to grind all he can out of
+capital. Perhaps my design is Utopian, but it seems as
+if something ought to be done before we train a whole
+generation of men to be paupers and thieves. Better that
+we should spend our money in labor experiments than
+supporting poorhouses and prisons."</p>
+
+<p>Jack had lost his embarrassment now. There was a
+glow on his cheek, and a steady fire in his eye, the lines
+about the mouth sharply drawn, and indicating not only
+masterly strength, but a kind of pitying patience, that
+would never degenerate into sentimentality. It was a
+very manly, trusty face; and his sterling honesty impressed
+Miss McLeod, long trained to reading faces, while his
+sturdy good sense promised much.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like Mr. Hildreth to see this paper," turning
+it in her still supple fingers. "What if some of your
+men insist upon going out after a year or two, Mr.
+Darcy?"</p>
+
+<p>"There will be some kind of forfeiture, of course.
+The true business capital must remain intact the whole
+five years: the direct proceeds of labor may be subject to
+some changes, but in any event the business interests
+must not be jeopardized."</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's interruption of a servant; then
+dinner was brought in, and arranged for three. The
+bright-eyed old lady made a charming hostess. She
+poured their tea with a quaint dignity, and made them feel
+quite as if she were dispensing hospitality in her own
+house.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She was the kind of woman whom young people, past
+the lunacies of sixteen, invariably like. The feminine
+portion told her their love troubles, the young wives came
+to her with tangles and little jealousies; and, if she could
+not always straighten them out, she had a marvellous way
+of comforting. Young men drifted toward her by some
+species of magnetism, though she had none of the fussy
+motherliness of some old ladies. With faculties still keen
+and bright, a great fund of good-humor that had the
+sparkle of champagne rather than any insipid sweetness,
+she never wearied or palled on any one. She kept herself
+well informed of the world's progress, she knew of the
+principal stars in the literary, dramatic, and artistic world,
+and to be asked to her house was a compliment.</p>
+
+<p>The conversation was more general now; and, though
+Maverick had told every thing of note about Yerbury, she
+was not indisposed to listen to it again. They discussed
+the panic and its causes, and ventured upon guesses as to
+its duration. They all agreed that there had been too
+much haste to be rich, too much greed of speculation, too
+much personal greatness, and not enough national greatness.
+No generous striving together to build up what the
+war had pulled down, but every man for himself and for
+gold. If women had been frivolous and vain, and dazzled
+by the glare of newly acquired wealth, men had not been
+quite free from faults. The terrible lowering of morals,
+the dishonesty and fraud easily condoned, and laughed
+over as a kind of shrewdness, were sad examples to set
+before the next generation.</p>
+
+<p>In her way Miss McLeod was quite a politician, having
+been so much in that circle. Her views of men and
+measures were keen and discriminating; and her bits of
+trenchant wisdom quite dazzled Jack, who at the last, proposed
+laughingly, as his panacea, that every man should
+undertake the mending of himself, when the world would
+soon be righted.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Afterward a coup&eacute; came, and they drove to the Park.
+There evening and the bonny new moon overtook them;
+but the streets and country roads were so inviting, they did
+not return until quite late.</p>
+
+<p>"Consider yourselves my guests for the night," she
+said as they drove back to the hotel, and Maverick was
+too wise to demur.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been thinking this matter over," she said as
+they were separating. "My part will be purchasing the
+mills, and I shall take so much in the shape of rent. I
+want you to consider what per cent you can pay, and not
+straiten yourselves too much. I frankly confess that I am
+greatly interested in you, Mr. Darcy; and as this young
+man," touching Maverick's shoulder, "prefers to 'gang
+his ain gait,' he leaves me quite free to waste my money
+as I like. Be fair to yourself. Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>"It's all right with you, Jack," began Maverick after
+they had been shown to their room. "Aunt Jean is a
+trump! I almost forgive her Miss Lothrop. But I suppose
+women would be less than women, if they did not
+want to dip their fingers into destiny. It is their mental
+chessboard."</p>
+
+<p>"But you do love her? your aunt, I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course. Still, I should never dangle in any
+woman's train;" with a curl of the lip.</p>
+
+<p>Miss McLeod was going back to Narragansett the next
+morning. They discussed their last item of agreement;
+and Jack said, with modest decision, "that such real
+estate could not possibly pay more than three per cent to
+any owner in the course of the next few years. He would
+rather offer her that, and a share contingent on the amount
+of business done at the end of five years, than assume
+any greater risk just now."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you for your honesty and your good sense,"
+she replied. "If you had offered higher, I should have
+had some doubts of your financial clear-headedness. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+will be an equitable bargain. And will you be kind
+enough to make some arrangements for me in Yerbury?
+I shall come on the 18th, with a companion and a maid;
+and Mr. Hildreth will follow the next morning. Get your
+plans in shape by that time. I am glad to have met you,
+Mr. Darcy, and I wish you success in your undertaking."</p>
+
+<p>They shook hands cordially, and went their ways. Jack
+could hardly believe his good fortune, and now he was
+afraid some other parties might step in and take the mills.</p>
+
+<p>"Much likelihood," laughed Maverick.</p>
+
+<p>Jack took Cameron in hand first, as he had been the
+real suggester of the plan. He, Darcy, could use his ten
+thousand; and, if ten more could be subscribed, they would
+not need to hire outside. As time went on, this capital
+might be equalized and increased. Hurd offered two thousand
+and himself; and just then one of the old hands who
+had succeeded in getting rid of a good bit of property that
+had weighted him heavily, and picked up a little money
+here and there, subscribed five thousand. Yardley had
+none of his own, but persuaded his wife's sister to invest a
+thousand. The other, Miss Barry offered, if no workman
+came to hand. Winston was a handy Jack-of-all-trades.
+He could repair machinery, or do any kind of wood-work:
+he had sold cloth on commission, bartered and traded,
+and had a good deal of shrewdness and good sense, and
+pluck. He and Darcy would do the buying and selling;
+Cameron would take charge of supplies, deal them out,
+and see that nothing went to waste; Hurd and Yardley
+would be overlookers as before. Every man could weave
+his yard of cloth with the best. They would constitute
+the managing force.</p>
+
+<p>The days passed rapidly; and to Jack's great satisfaction
+no purchaser appeared, no curious soul even sauntered
+about the mills. Miss McLeod came at the appointed
+time, accompanied by Miss Lothrop, who was as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+distant to Maverick as if this were their first meeting.
+The ladies were to stay with Mrs. Darcy, and the best in
+the house was placed at their disposal with simple courtesy.
+They were taken to the mills, where they made a tour
+of inspection; Jack explaining machinery, looms, shuttles,
+and spindles, with an enthusiasm that amazed even himself.
+There was a new interest in the thought of having
+a voice in the direction of that great engine now so silent,
+and the work it was to do.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall not use half our looms in the beginning,"
+he said; "but I hope, before the five years are ended, we
+shall be doing our utmost."</p>
+
+<p>They all hoped so for his sake. "If any man can make
+the plan work, he will," thought Miss McLeod, who liked
+him better every hour.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry and Sylvie came to call on the ladies in the
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose that is Mr. Darcy's sweetheart," Miss
+Lothrop remarked afterward. "She is a pretty, enthusiastic
+little thing, and she takes so much interest in his
+affairs. I can just fancy how they will work together,
+and the earnest, useful lives they will lead. What butterflies
+we are!" looking down at her white helpless hands.
+"Not you, but the young women of the day in general.
+You are a busy bee, and still keep storing up your
+honey."</p>
+
+<p>"And sting occasionally," laughed the sharp, bright
+old lady.</p>
+
+<p>The sale took place the next morning at ten, at the
+Court House. There was quite a number of spectators,
+though the ladies, with Maverick and Darcy, were in a
+private office. Hamilton Minor had come up, resolved
+that it should not go for less than the mortgage, but desirous
+of ending his responsibility. There were but two
+bids. The auctioneer lingered a long while on Mr. Hildreth's
+bid, commenting on the enormous sacrifice, but he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+could move no one's interest. It was reluctantly knocked
+down, the purchase-money paid, and the deed made out to
+Miss McLeod.</p>
+
+<p>Then the company's agreement was put in lawful, legal
+shape. The managing board of five men were to have
+sole charge of buying, selling, and manufacturing. They
+were to give all their time and ability, to watch the state
+of the market, and conduct every thing for the benefit of
+the whole corporation. Darcy was to prepare a balance-sheet
+semi-annually, showing profit and loss; and this
+was to be open to the inspection of the firm.</p>
+
+<p>The parties to the second part, the workmen, were to
+work ten hours a day, six days in the week, under the
+supervision of Hurd and Yardley. The wages of the
+men and the salaries of the managers were to be put at
+the minimum rate, and both parties were to draw two-thirds
+of this sum weekly. At the end of the year, the
+profits on labor and capital were to be evenly divided;
+one half apportioned to the capital, the other half divided
+<i>pro rata;</i> but only half of this sum to be drawn out
+yearly, the other turned over to the capital stock, and
+placed to each man's credit. If any operative should
+become dissatisfied, and leave, his share of the profits
+was to be forfeited to a fund for sick or disabled workmen.
+Any member of the association guilty of misconduct was
+to be twice reprimanded, and for a third offence expelled.
+A standing committee of the workmen, with one chairman,
+was to investigate and settle such matters. Shares
+of capital as low as fifty dollars would be within reach of
+the workmen. A clause was inserted, that no ale, beer,
+or spirituous liquors were to be brought into the mill
+during working hours. It had been one of the old-time
+rules, but often transgressed. Each man was to use his
+best endeavors to promote the interests of the firm.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of five years, the agreement was to cease,
+and the profits to be divided.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then the five-years' lease of Hope Mills and all its
+appurtenances was made out to "Hope Mills Co-operative
+Association," and duly signed. The rental was to be
+six hundred and sixty dollars per annum, the company to
+pay the taxes, and keep the mills in ordinary repair.</p>
+
+<p>Then the managers and a number of the workmen
+marched over to Hope Mills in a body, opened the doors
+and barred shutters, and entered with an exultant step.
+They were to try their hand at good-fellowship in labor,
+and see if it would solve the vexations of the old system,
+or prove any stronger bond. Maverick had spread a
+little feast in what had been Eastman's office; and they
+sat down together, the ladies, joined by Sylvie Barry,
+Mrs. Darcy, and Miss Morgan, taking the head of the
+table. Some speeches were made, and some toasts drank,
+and everybody wished success to Hope Mills. Had John
+Hope unconsciously foretold their future when he christened
+them for his own glory? Darcy thought so. The
+name had a higher significance now, and was to be the
+earnest of many souls, the watchword to inspire them.</p>
+
+<p>Miss McLeod bade them a hearty farewell. "There
+may arise some emergency, Mr. Darcy," said she, "when
+indorsing a note, or a similar matter, will be of great
+importance to you. I shall not promise to do much of
+it; but I am strongly interested in this experiment, and
+want it to have a fair trial. Let me hear from you occasionally;
+and, if you are in any great strait, apply to
+me."</p>
+
+<p>Jack thanked her warmly, and she and Miss Lothrop
+went their way.</p>
+
+<p>"She is a regular fairy godmother," he said enthusiastically
+to Maverick. "I wonder that you do not adore
+her!" and he studied his friend in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you never heard of people being so much alike
+they could not agree?" he asked with a light laugh.
+"What ever possessed her to bring Miss Lothrop? It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+was in bad taste, to say the least; and, whatever faults
+aunt Jean may have, she seldom makes a blunder of that
+kind."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Sylvie was&mdash;well, a good deal pleased with
+her. The acquaintance was so short"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Barry is the most generous and least exacting
+woman that I ever saw. She judges people by her own
+noble soul. Jack Darcy"&mdash;Maverick shut his lips
+with a sudden resolution, and turned his face partly aside,
+then said in a curiously changed tone, "We are two fools
+to be talking about women, when there are more important
+matters on hand."</p>
+
+<p>"But I shall always feel grateful to Miss McLeod.
+There are several moneyed men here in Yerbury whose
+capital is lying idle, who would not have done this thing
+for me if they knew it would keep half Yerbury from
+starving. Yet, if I had offered them ten per cent, they
+would hardly have hesitated. It does seem to me sometimes,
+that these old dons tempt one into lying first, and
+swindling afterward. If you make them all straight, they
+do not care how much crooked work you do elsewhere."</p>
+
+<p>"Natural depravity and innate selfishness."</p>
+
+<p>And now began the real work. The mills were cleaned
+of the year's accumulation of dust and cobwebs and
+general untidiness. Winston went at the machinery with
+hearty good-will, and put it in order. Circulars were
+sent out to the old patrons and to new houses, and workmen,
+workwomen, and children straggled in to see what
+was going on. Were Hope Mills to be really opened?
+and was Mr. Darcy to be master? True, a good many
+of the best men had gone off to try their luck elsewhere,
+but there were plenty left for a start. Only, there was
+a mystery these people could not understand. Something
+about wages, and something about money; and Jack
+patiently explained the matter, until, as he told Maverick,
+he felt like a cheap-John auctioneer, dispensing wares.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The best thing will be to have a meeting," declared
+Maverick. "See here, Darcy: I'll hire Brock's Hall
+myself; and we will have a lecture, or a conference-meeting.
+Subject, 'Work and Wages.' I'll have some posters
+out too. Every one will know what we mean, that
+we are honest men and true; and you will be spared
+this everlasting palaver. Then we will have some rules,
+or by-laws, or something, for the workmen. Talk to Mr.
+Winston about it. He would make a capital speaker,
+with his glib tongue."</p>
+
+<p>Darcy thought it an excellent plan, and they set about
+it immediately.</p>
+
+<p>"But you'll have to post me," confessed Winston.
+"The only co-operation I ever was in was a building-association,
+and our treasurer ran off with our funds."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick promised to "coach" him. Indeed, it was
+the doctor who gathered up statistics, and put them in a
+compact and telling form.</p>
+
+<p>They had a large audience,&mdash;men and women. "Robert
+Winston, Esq.," was the orator of the evening. He
+was a fluent speaker, and had a good deal of humor.
+He began about the early Anglo-Saxon guilds, and the
+banding together of craftsmen when towns grew large
+and prosperous, and labor was performed in the workshops,
+instead of at home; of the importance of the
+woollen-manufacture in the days of Elizabeth, not only
+in England, but on the Continent, when kings did not
+disdain to borrow money of these corporations; of their
+final overthrow, and the causes leading to it; of the
+growth of trades-unions, and the views of conflicting
+writers on the subject. The workman's necessities so
+often compelled him to accept what he felt to be inadequate
+returns, because he could not wait,&mdash;it was work
+or starvation with him,&mdash;so that in dull times he was not
+only at the mercy of the employer, but every other starving
+workman. On the other hand, so few workmen ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+informed themselves concerning the employer's perplexities
+and dangers, they had no broad and vital interest in the
+business until they all became leagued together, as in
+co-operation. Then they shared one another's burdens
+and prosperity. It was not the one great fortune, but
+the many comfortable incomes. It was the fruit of the
+noblest thought and the truest philanthropy. As a producer
+it had done its best work in France; and he went
+briefly over the work of the masons at Paris, and the
+Association Remquet, which, after carrying on printing
+business for ten years, divided among its members an
+average of over ten thousand francs; the cloth-factory at
+Vienna, with its flour-mill, bakery, grocery, coal-yard, and
+farm; the different societies in England, that were promising,
+to say the least. All this had been done by the
+thrift and economy of individual members, who educated
+themselves by doing business, and so were enabled to
+dispense with the profits of middle-men, and the greedy
+clutch of speculators.</p>
+
+<p>After Winston had finished, Dr. Maverick went briefly
+over their plans for Hope Mills in a very simple and
+direct manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Winston was capital!" said Jack afterward. "When
+we are hard up we can send him off on a lecturing-tour.
+But wasn't it rather over the heads of our people?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was for others beside the workmen. You know,
+Darcy, some men are so used to swindling and misrepresentation,
+that they invariably accuse every plan of another,
+of the same motive. You will have a good deal of
+this back talk before your five years are ended; and I
+want Yerbury to know that this is an old, old scheme.
+I might have quoted the children of Israel, as aunt Jean
+did, and shocked the religious portion of the community.
+But, after all, isn't the greatest truth, the Golden Rule,
+co-operation in <i>all</i> forms?" and he glanced up triumphantly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Jack did not gainsay him.</p>
+
+<p>He had hit the truth in regard to Yerbury. Some of
+those who had managed to hold on to their money through
+all the stress of hard times raised their eyebrows and
+shook their heads in amused derision. "A fool and his
+money," said they, and "Set a beggar on horseback,"
+besides numerous wise saws people love to fling at their
+neighbors. A mortifying collapse was predicted. There
+wasn't a woollen-mill in the country paying. The smaller
+people who had been easily induced to invest their money
+in building-lots, under the supposition that in a few years
+there would hardly be standing-room in Yerbury, looked
+askance at this project, so much more easily does speculation
+appeal to human nature, than the slower but more
+honorable results of industry.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was easy enough now to get hands who would consent
+to the three-quarter wages. With one winter of semi-starvation
+the poor of Yerbury were glad to take any thing
+that promised bread. The masters were going to share
+with the men; but they were made distinctly to understand,
+that, unless the mills earned something over and above
+this, there could be no surplus, no dividends. Another
+thousand of the capital had been made up by some of the
+hands, who thought this promised as well as railroad-stocks,
+lots out on country barrens, or even savings
+banks.</p>
+
+<p>To be sure, some burly fellows, whose wives could hardly
+keep soul and body together over their washing-tubs,
+swore great oaths that Jack Darcy was a fool to think he
+could find men to play into his hands that way! Bob
+Winston was a blower, and never kept at any one thing;
+and some of the rest were old screws, and in six months
+time everybody would see!</p>
+
+<p>However, Hope Mills rang out its great bell cheerfully
+on Monday morning, the middle of September. A small
+procession wended their way in at the side gate. The
+engine, with Robert Winston at its helm, as they had not
+suited themselves with an engineer, puffed and groaned;
+but, if it was not a merry music, it was good to hear, for
+all that. The faces were pinched and thin with a year's
+care and want and the horrible fear of the future, but they
+tried to smile cheerfully. More than one poor woman had
+tears in her eyes, and spoke in that hysterical, half-laughing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>
+half-crying tone, that told how deeply her feelings
+were moved.</p>
+
+<p>By night they were quite settled in the old places, or
+adapted to new ones. Perhaps the year's experience had
+done these people some good: they had learned to manage
+closer. Cameron and Darcy had discussed thrifty
+French ways of management, and now meant to profit by
+them if possible. The American spirit of wastefulness
+should not run riot as it had in times past. Dyes and
+oils and chemicals were to be sharply looked after, and
+Cameron was the man to do it.</p>
+
+<p>Before the first week was out, an engineer came to
+hand. There had been several applications, but some
+men raised their noses and laughed loudly at the rate of
+wages. A young chap just out of his time when the
+panic came on, and who had tried every thing, even to
+rail-roading, took the place with hearty thanks; a quick,
+bright fellow too, who had a love for his business, and
+said in ten minutes time, "She's a pretty engine, Mr.
+Winston!" with the enthusiasm of a true artist.</p>
+
+<p>"That chap'll blow up Hope Mills in less than a
+month," said Jem Stixon, who had been refused. "You
+mark my words! I wouldn't have wife or child of mine
+working there."</p>
+
+<p>Darcy watched the temper of the employees, and reported
+every few days to Maverick. The little social
+"we" and "ours" was working wonders, he thought.</p>
+
+<p>"And we do nothing!" said Sylvie one evening, in a
+discontented tone, as she sat crocheting by Mrs. Darcy's
+pretty round table in the old library, that had become a
+kind of general business-room. "I thought you were
+going to set us women at work about something. Miss
+Morgan and I have been waiting patiently."</p>
+
+<p>"There was the cooking-school"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But we have nothing to cook. And how are we to
+get any thing? unless we set up as those poor weavers in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+Toad Lane, on our pocket-money. I believe I beg from
+those who have a little, nearly half my time, to give to
+those who have nothing. And, would you believe it, some
+of the women begin to think they <i>must</i> be provided for.
+Mrs. Cairns asked me to-day when the relief-store was
+going to open. She didn't see why there shouldn't always
+be something here like the parish relief in England.
+And when Mrs. Ray offered to take Josie this winter, and
+keep her in shoes for what she could do, and teach her a
+little, Mrs. Cairns said, 'if she was worth any thing, she
+was worth more than that. She might have her for a
+dollar a week.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Such people ought to go hungry," declared Jane
+Morgan sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"I've been thinking," said Jack, who now raised his
+eyes slowly, "there is one thing you might help do; and,
+indirectly, it would be very serviceable to me. Sylvie,
+you know Kit Connelly's corner, as they always call it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, so it is: Mrs. Connelly earned the money that
+bought it, and I am glad she didn't let Dennis go on in
+business until he spent every cent of it. And oh, Jack!
+all we women of Yerbury ought to be doubly proud that
+she wouldn't let Den keep a beer-shop there, nor hire it
+to any one else."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you are. I think Kit was pretty plucky to
+take the black eyes and the grumbling. It was a good
+job for her when Den went over to the Bowman House for
+hostler. So, of course, it has been shut up a year and a
+half. You know, two blocks down below, Keppler's door
+stands open for everybody, and so many of the mill-hands
+pass that way. It is so easy to run in and get a glass, and
+the men who bring their lunches go down for a mug of ale.
+It is a terrible temptation, and I wonder if they are not
+more easily tempted on an empty stomach? Well, I've
+been considering for some days if we could not start a
+coffee-house there,&mdash;set Kit up in business. I'm not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+going to fling a temperance-pledge right in every man's
+face,&mdash;for that makes them spiteful. I do not even want
+to exhort. But if we put it there,&mdash;right in their way,&mdash;and
+there was a nice fire in the evening, and maybe a
+book or two"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Splendid, Jack! There's no such thing in Yerbury.
+Let's get about it right away!" and Sylvie sprang up, as
+if she would start at once.</p>
+
+<p>They all laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"There must be a little planning first. Mrs. Connelly
+is a bright, good-hearted creature, and can make good
+coffee; and Rose and Kathleen would make nice little
+maids. She stopped me to-night to inquire if there was
+any chance of their being taken in the mill. There must
+be some diversity of employment, or presently we shall
+all be doing the one thing again,"&mdash;and Jack smiled
+humorously. "Dennis gets low wages, Bernard is in
+the mill, and there are two younger boys. She takes in
+gentlemen's laundering, as you know. She was wishing
+she could rent out the store, but no one wants it. Now,
+if it could be altered into an attractive coffee-room, kept
+neat and bright, and&mdash;you will laugh at me, no doubt&mdash;but
+given a kind of style,&mdash;the cups clean and shining,
+the spoons decent, and some nice bread and butter for
+noon lunches. All this at a moderate price. The men
+pay five cents for their pint of ale, and it is often shared
+by two: they must not give more than three cents for
+their cup of coffee."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you mean that we are to plan it all out
+for her," said Sylvie, and she looked across at Miss
+Morgan.</p>
+
+<p>"It will not do to buy a pound of sugar and a pound
+of coffee at a time," said Jane concisely.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will be the capitalist," promised Sylvie.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. Kit had better do this on some money that
+she must give an account of, and it will make her more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+careful. She owns a cow, so there is the milk. I should
+like this started quietly, not with a great blare of opposition
+to the dram-shops."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what must we do first?" asked Sylvie.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you and Jane would go down and call on her,
+and suggest the business. See how she takes it, and look
+around at the capabilities of the place. I will see to the
+fitting-up."</p>
+
+<p>They went, as desired. Mrs. Connelly&mdash;a round, rosy,
+buxom Irishwoman, with a mellow voice, laughing eye,
+and artist-red hair&mdash;was very much taken with their
+plan. "To turn an honest penny in these hard times,
+and not be wronging any one, would just suit the likes
+of her. And there was the store standing empty,&mdash;but
+it might stand till the crack o' doom afore she'd have a
+drop of rum sold in it. There never was a better man
+than Den when he was sober, and sure she'd had sorrow
+enough along wid drinking. And there was Barney
+growin' up, and the two smaller ones, and she'd never,
+never put a bit of temptation in their way."</p>
+
+<p>The store had been used for a meat-shop and green-grocery.
+Kit had sold the fixtures when she had been
+in sore need of money, so now it was a great bare room,
+with one large window and two small ones.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure I can scrub an' whitewash it myself, an' put
+clean curtains to the windows. And you're very good
+to think of such a thing, Miss Barry,&mdash;may the saints
+bless you! An' if Mr. Darcy will see to getting what is
+wanted, I'll do my very best to please you all."</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie blushed a little at taking the credit, but it was
+Jack's wish. Jack had a small portico built over the
+door-way, to keep out the cold in winter, and a neat sign
+put up, with but two words,&mdash;"Coffee-House." Sylvie
+and Miss Morgan ordered some cheap, small tables, some
+plain wooden chairs, and found two comfortable, old-fashioned,
+wooden settles. Then she collected old magazines<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
+and illustrated papers, and a rack was put up at
+one side for them. All the tables were covered with light
+marbled rubber-cloth, so that they would be kept fresh
+and sweet. The sugar and coffee were forthcoming. Kit
+could roast coffee to a turn. One Thursday evening the
+place was lighted up, and a few guests asked in; and the
+next day the fame of Kit Connelly's coffee-house began.
+Half the folks in Yerbury knew her and Dennis.</p>
+
+<p>Rose Connelly, who was just seventeen, a nice fresh-looking
+girl, was to keep the books, and take the money as
+she was quite a scholar. Several of the mill-hands
+went over immediately for their lunches. Such splendid
+wheat, rye, and Graham bread, spread already, and
+brought on a clean plate! A nice bite for three cents,
+and a solid meal for six. Sylvie was to go down now
+and then, of a morning, to keep matters straight.</p>
+
+<p>"There is one entering-wedge in the cause of temperance,"
+she remarked, in her piquant way. "Only, Jack,
+it does not seem quite right for us women to take the
+credit of it. I confess, among all my plans, there has
+been nothing like this."</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather not be openly connected with it," and
+Jack made a queer little grimace. "By and by I may
+have to do some real fighting on my own account, and I
+don't want too many vulnerable points. Human nature
+is rather queer and cranky, as you have, no doubt,
+observed by this time."</p>
+
+<p>"But I do not see why any one should want to fight
+against your good work, Jack," said Sylvie, with an
+indignant flush. "I am sure it is no light undertaking
+to provide all these people with work; and everybody
+ought to strengthen your hands, instead of putting obstacles
+in the way."</p>
+
+<p>"I must be prepared for all things."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick was very enthusiastic over the coffee-house.
+It was a new institution in Yerbury. There had been in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+good times several so-called cheap lunch-rooms, but the
+fare was invariably poor.</p>
+
+<p>"Keppler will be your first enemy, and your worst
+one," said the doctor with a shrewd smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. He must fight Miss Barry and Miss Morgan.
+I did send a man to do some work, but Miss Barry
+paid the bills. I keep my hands out of it altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"Good for you, Jack. And how does business progress?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am dubious," and Jack shook his head in a mock-serious
+way. "There is too much rose-color. Every
+thing works to a charm. Whether people really have
+learned something by the hard times, remains to be seen;
+but it looks so now. And we couldn't have a better working
+firm. Owen Cameron is the same kind of a man that
+Miss Morgan is for a woman, not stingy here and wasteful
+there, but a thorough-going economist. Every week he
+makes a little saving somewhere. It is what we needed
+to learn, badly enough. He manages to make the men
+understand that every penny saved is for the benefit of
+all, that a yard of cloth or a pound of wool spoiled is to
+the loss of all. And that is the only way to settle this
+business, this everlasting wrangle between labor and
+capital."</p>
+
+<p>Amos Hurd and Peter Yardley used to talk over the
+other scheme of a co-operative store. It would not do to
+have too many irons in the fire in such times as these,
+when no one had any great deal of money. But it did
+seem as if poor people were paying at the dearest rate for
+every thing, partly because they asked for trust, and the
+only man willing to trust them to any extent kept a very
+full line of second or third rate articles, but the prices did
+not always correspond.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, there's coal," said Yardley one evening. "At
+the trade-sale it went up ten cents a ton on the average.
+Our dealers here, who had their yards full, put up their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+prices from twenty to thirty cents. I know, on the other
+hand, if coal takes a sudden tumble, they may lose; but,
+after watching this thing for years, I find the prices go up
+five times with full yards, where they fall once. Now, I
+was thinking, when coal was bought for the mill, some
+extra car-loads might be ordered for the men."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," and Hurd opened his eyes widely. "Let us
+talk to Darcy about it."</p>
+
+<p>Jack listened to their proposal with a sudden interest.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be some trouble to you," he answered. "It
+is not as thoroughly screened, and there is the delivering.
+The men cannot carry it home in market-baskets."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know about the screening," said Yardley
+rather grimly. "When you clean up your bin, and find
+several bushels of sand and refuse out of five or six tons,
+you think half of it, at least, ought to have been good
+burning-coal. And in wholesale buying you get long
+tons."</p>
+
+<p>"I can do it as well as not," replied Jack. "In fact,"&mdash;laughingly,&mdash;"it
+will rather redound to my credit to
+order largely, and we have a somewhat extensive coal-shed.
+But you must look up one or two men who will cart it,
+and a man to screen; and, when you have counted up your
+labor, decide upon what price you can offer your coal.
+Perhaps it would be as well to canvass, and learn how
+many tons you can dispose of."</p>
+
+<p>The workmen had their own board of managers, of
+which Yardley had been elected president. They generally
+met every week, and now Yardley laid this matter
+before them. There would be an average saving, he
+thought, of two dollars on every ton, but the coal must be
+paid for in thirty days. If the men chose to leave one or
+two dollars every Monday night (for Darcy had wisely
+made Monday instead of Saturday pay-day) they might
+give in an order for one or two or even three tons.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Peter Yardley found some thorns even in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+path. A good, stout Irish lad was willing to do the
+screening at a dollar per day; but when he spoke to several
+carters, who were not busy half the time, to a man
+they stuck to their regular price, fifty cents per ton. Not
+one of them would work by the day.</p>
+
+<p>"I can fix that just right," declared one of the men.
+"My wife's brother has a heavy wagon and two mules.
+He used to do carting for the iron-mills, and since then he
+has had mostly catch-jobs. He owns a little place over
+on the creek-road; and I know he will be glad enough to
+do it, and maybe take part of his pay in coal."</p>
+
+<p>Seth Williams was hunted up. He would come, and
+bring his son who would help about loading, for two dollars
+and a half a day. There were seventy-odd tons subscribed
+for, but they decided to make their order one hundred
+tons. Coal was selling at six dollars and a half per
+ton at Yerbury. After due calculation, they offered theirs
+to the men at four.</p>
+
+<p>It came duly to hand. After the first day, Williams
+hired another team on his own account, and his son drove
+one to its destination, making thereby extra time. Before
+the seventy tons had been delivered, the remainder was
+bespoken. They found when it had all been disposed of,
+and their workmen paid, that they had counted very
+closely, but there was a small balance on hand. This was
+deposited in the bank as a nucleus for a co-operative store
+as soon as there might be sufficient capital to warrant it.
+This, at least, had been a success. So many of the poorer
+class of Yerbury were not able to pay for the last ton of
+coal until they ordered again, being always that much
+behind.</p>
+
+<p>Yardley was quite jubilant over his scheme.</p>
+
+<p>"You forget that in this you and Hurd have received
+nothing for your trouble," said Darcy. "Then," smilingly,
+"you have no bad debts to count out. Still only a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+philanthropist can do business this way. If you were the
+proprietor of a coal-yard, you could not afford it."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I have something for my trouble, Mr. Darcy,"
+the man answered proudly. "I have saved ten dollars
+on my four tons of coal, and that surely pays me."</p>
+
+<p>They were doing moderately well at the mill. Several
+orders had come in from old buyers; and now Winston
+started out on a travelling tour, being admirably fitted for
+that part of the business. At the West he managed to
+talk two large wool-dealers into a trade; they taking cloth
+of various grades in exchange, and disposing of it to the
+best of their ability.</p>
+
+<p>"A regular old-fashioned barter," he wrote to Maverick.
+"It took a good deal of talking, to be sure, but I'm
+never the worse for that. They were pleased to get a fair
+price for their wool, and I lost nothing on my cloth. It
+clears out the stock, and keeps the men busy."</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, Hope Mills was doing a great thing for Yerbury.
+There was a brisker air on the streets, a kind of inspiring
+music in the whir and clatter, that spoke of food and
+warmth and raiment. Good feeling and sympathy had
+been touched; and though some of the workmen, who
+were harassed by back debts, looked rather ruefully at
+their small weekly pittance, still it was so much better
+than no money and no employment.</p>
+
+<p>At the Darcys they held what Sylvie laughingly called
+"symposiums." The churches were organizing their
+winter work, for there would be need enough. The few
+who had found employment merely made a ripple on the
+surface. Some who had stretched out their scanty means
+the past year now found themselves penniless. Others
+had tramped about the neighboring towns and cities, getting
+a few weeks' work here and there, but had no fancy
+for facing winter in this precarious manner. The hopeful
+feeling animating so many in the early autumn died out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+again. It was feared that we had not seen the worst of
+the panic.</p>
+
+<p>To Sylvie, who the preceding winter had been engrossed
+in art-studies and delightful social life, the want
+and misery were appalling. She and Miss Morgan did
+organize a visiting-society according to an idea of Dr.
+Maverick's; and though they alleviated many cases of
+distress, and were the better able to distinguish who were
+worthy, still they increased upon their hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I begin to realize that poor people do not make the
+best of their money," she said. "They do not know
+how to prepare dishes that shall be cheap and palatable.
+And, worst of all, many of them cannot cook a potato so
+that it shall be fit to eat."</p>
+
+<p>"The weak point of this world, Miss Sylvie," said
+Dr. Maverick. "When women learn to make good bread
+and cook potatoes, there will be a decrease of one-half in
+dyspepsia. Now, what is the secret of the potatoes?
+Come, air your ideas! Give me a recipe, and I will take
+it around among my patients. I advise them pretty generally
+to bake them, but I find some soggy and watery
+even then."</p>
+
+<p>"Overdone," said Miss Morgan briefly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, state the exact time."</p>
+
+<p>The women looked at each other, and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"From twenty minutes to half an hour," said Mrs.
+Darcy. "Some kinds boil easier than others. For baking,
+three-quarters to an hour."</p>
+
+<p>"But the infallible test?"</p>
+
+<p>"Watchfulness," said Jane.</p>
+
+<p>"I must admit that you seem to understand it thoroughly,
+judging from the specimens I have seen and
+eaten. But are you not a little chary in your information?"
+and he glanced from one to another.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Morgan shall be first spokeswoman," declared
+Sylvie gayly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"If it is a boiled potato," began Jane sententiously,
+as if she were a child speaking a piece, "I put mine in the
+saucepan, and pour hot water over them, as they come to
+a boil sooner, taking care that they shall be as nearly of
+a size as possible. In about twenty minutes I try an
+average potato. If I can stick a fork through it nicely,
+it is done. Then I pour off the water, letting it drain
+until every drop is gone, when I shake up the lot two or
+three times rather hard and quick, stand them on the back
+of the stove with the cover partly off, so that the steam
+may escape; and you have a dry, light, flaky potato,
+unless it was irremediably bad to begin with. I have
+sometimes boiled new and rather small potatoes in twelve
+minutes over a good fire. But cooking, like liberty, has
+the same high price, eternal vigilance."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick laughed. "I shall remember this," he exclaimed.
+"You will yet hear of me teaching some of my
+poor patients to cook potatoes. Heaven knows there is
+enough need of it. Wasn't there some talk of a school
+for useful arts?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Sylvie, "only there was no money
+to start with, and we have all been so busy."</p>
+
+<p>"What would be needed?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Imprimis:</i> a room, a cooking-stove, a fire, a cook,
+and some materials," replied Sylvie with merry audacity.</p>
+
+<p>How pretty and bright she was! He liked to watch
+her in these changeful moods. One great charm of this
+place was finding her here so frequently.</p>
+
+<p>"And Mr. Darcy has been so much engrossed with
+weightier matters," she continued in a half apology.</p>
+
+<p>"I really think I ought to be more interested in this
+question than Mr. Darcy. It supplements my work.
+While cheap living is an imperative necessity in times of
+depression and low wages, I cannot see why we do not
+make it more of a study. While we are so ready to copy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+the vices of our French neighbors, perhaps their virtues
+would do us no harm. A doctor often finds himself quite
+nonplussed by something in the preparation of the patient's
+diet. The old doctrine preached years ago, on St.
+Paul's text of 'keeping the body under,' has worked as
+much damage as the asceticism of the middle ages. A
+good healthy body is the first requisite everywhere; and
+to keep it so, every one's first duty. When men began
+to consider the body a poor, vile thing, to be treated with
+contumely, and fed with what would just sustain life, they
+offered an outrage to the highest work of God. When
+people think it is no matter what they eat, and that no
+pains need be taken in the preparation, they have made a
+big lapse toward heathenism. Confusion of the physical
+senses leads to confusion of the moral sense; and weak,
+miserable bodies with hysterical nerves, though they may
+dream dreams, and see visions, cannot do good healthy
+work in this world. And your poor people need a good
+deal of training on this subject. It must be made an honorable,
+not a despised, business. If I were to build houses,
+I should make the kitchens large, light, and pretty; and,
+if any room had to be small and uninviting, it should be
+that for the storage of the best furniture," laughing
+humorously.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," responded Jane Morgan, "I like to go into an
+old-fashioned country kitchen, with a nice painted floor,
+and braided rag rugs laid down here and there: with a
+grandmother's corner by a sunny window, and a father's
+chair by the wide, cheerful chimney-piece, and a place for
+the children to play, with plenty of room to get about.
+Apples and nuts always taste so good in such a place!
+Instead, we have a stuffy little kitchen and a cheerless
+dining-room, that no one wants to sit in, and every member
+of the family goes to his or her room, and sociability
+is at an end. Then we must go to theatres, lectures, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+concerts, just to catch a glimpse of the members of our
+own family."</p>
+
+<p>"There is a good deal of truth in that," and the doctor
+nodded sagaciously. "And now I shall take steps
+for that school. I may count on you, Miss Morgan, may
+I not, and Miss Barry?"</p>
+
+<p>They both promised.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Meanwhile</span> what had befallen Fred Lawrence?</p>
+
+<p>He had been greatly shocked at his father's death.
+True, the tender, intense affection that had so sweetened
+childhood seemed to have died out; when they might
+have attained to an enduring friendship, they had gone
+separate ways, missing the exquisite sympathy that should
+have existed between them. Whether the distance was
+any disappointment to his father, he had never thought.
+He was the only son of the house, and his slightest wish
+had always been gratified. There had been no wretched
+vices that sap body and soul, nothing to bring dishonor
+on the old pure, family name; and, if David Lawrence
+missed something that he had hardly longed for, he still
+felt proud of his son.</p>
+
+<p>But his son, bending over the coffined face, was
+stunned, paralyzed. Of this death he had never thought.
+Was it not rather a frightful dream?</p>
+
+<p>The sharp reality followed fast enough. He listened,
+still bewildered by the horrible visions that crowded upon
+him. Hope Mills closed, notes going to protest, workmen
+clamoring for pay, Mr. Eastman quite out of reach, indeed,
+no one knew just where.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Minor did not spare his father-in-law. How could
+he trust every thing to Horace Eastman! How could he
+allow George to go on unchecked in such a career of wild
+speculation! forgetting that he had speculated quite as
+wildly. And now all the property was covered with mortgages,
+and not a dollar to be squeezed out of any thing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+As for the bank business, that he sneered at. Let them
+look to the Eastmans. They might have known that a
+small manufacturing town like Yerbury could not stand
+such galloping progress. In his heart of hearts he
+thought George and Horace rather clever fellows to get
+away before the crash began. And if David Lawrence
+had only managed to provide well for his family,&mdash;his
+manifest duty,&mdash;the rest might have gone without a sigh,
+such trifles as notes and wages.</p>
+
+<p>Fred Lawrence he looked upon as a baby. Indeed,
+Fred was of but little use in settling the business, much
+more plague than profit, since he stood up stoutly for his
+father's honor and integrity. He had that much of a
+son's love. And he characterized Horace Eastman's
+villany as it deserved: his education had not quite done
+away with his moral sense in such matters.</p>
+
+<p>"Here for five years your father has given him a clean
+sweep with every thing! If you thrust temptation right
+in a man's way, what can you expect?"</p>
+
+<p>"His honesty would not be of a very high order if it
+could withstand no temptation," Fred answered rather
+scornfully. "It was necessary for father to travel in the
+interests of the business. He surely could not stay here
+to watch him. And you thought well of Eastman."</p>
+
+<p>"No man would play <i>me</i> such rascally tricks! There
+is no telling what he has done! Books can be doctored
+to look very fair."</p>
+
+<p>But they found enough. Pay-rolls for men kept up
+long after they had been discharged, and many who had
+never been at all; systematic falsifications that could not
+be brought to light without a rigid inspection and comparison
+by an expert. But Hamilton Minor felt, with the
+world's wisdom, that bringing the Eastmans back as
+criminals would not be likely to lead to any restoration;
+while it would prove a family disgrace, and perhaps add
+Gertrude to the list of dependent ones.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It makes me heart-sick!" declared Fred. "There
+is nothing but selfishness and hollowness and greed. Are
+truth and honor quite dead?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very fine talk, my young friend," said Minor in a
+sneering tone; "but the question that more nearly concerns
+you is how you are all going to live, granting even
+that there may be enough to pay the debts. Of course
+this great house cannot be kept afloat. You had better
+discharge some of the servants, and retrench while you do
+remain in it."</p>
+
+<p>Then had followed the talk with Agatha, when matrimony
+was proposed as a certain and sure remedy for these
+present ills: a cure the young man disdained with anger.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawrence kept to her room, and was too ill to
+listen to business details, even if she could have helped
+in any way, which she could not. She fancied now, like
+many another woman, that her husband had been her only
+delight in life, and that there was nothing left. When
+Agatha suggested that she had been very short-sighted to
+consent to mortgaging Hope Terrace, she cried, and said
+"she would have given up every thing for him, and now
+that he was gone she wanted no fortune,&mdash;she should
+never leave her room again until she was carried."</p>
+
+<p>If there had been any bright little Sylvie to run in and
+comfort her! any strong-hearted, tender woman, to whom
+he could turn! He seemed now to realize more keenly
+what he had lost, than on the night Sylvie rejected him.
+And that other strong, manly soul&mdash;no, bitterly as he
+might regret, he could no more go back to him than to
+Sylvie.</p>
+
+<p>He roused himself, and began his work, utterly astounded
+at the extravagance that met him on every side.
+No doubt it looked right enough when there was plenty of
+money; but it seemed now as if the servants had been
+masters and mistresses, that all these luxuries existed for
+their sake,&mdash;the gardens and graperies, the greenhouses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+with their wealth of costly flowers; the horses standing
+idle in the stable, with only servants to use them; his
+father a plain man, his mother confined mostly to two or
+three rooms, and occasional visitors; supplies ordered
+lavishly, and wasted in a manner that seemed wicked even
+to him. He wondered in a vague way if the system was
+not radically wrong that brought such waste and carelessness
+in vogue, when hundreds had not the necessities of
+life. He remembered one talk his father had with Horace
+Eastman over in the library yonder, with champagne and
+cigars between them, in the height of one of the strikes,
+and how Eastman had figured to a penny the exact percentage
+of wages the mill could afford to pay. What if
+<i>they</i> had given up a little of their luxury, and <i>he</i> his ill-gotten
+gains!</p>
+
+<p>He had the pictures packed under his supervision, and
+sent to New York. Not without a pang; for many of
+them he had selected, and each one had some pleasant
+reminder. The choice collection of the greenhouse was
+offered for sale, the elegant furniture, and all the most
+valuable of the personal property. Times were hard, and
+sales were slow; but there would be sufficient realized, it
+was thought, to pay the floating indebtedness. Hope Terrace
+and the mills would probably go for the mortgages.
+There was a small life-insurance settled upon Mrs. Lawrence,
+and the children would be fortuneless.</p>
+
+<p>By spring the estate was in a fair way of settlement.
+Fred had vibrated between the city and Yerbury all winter,
+but his mother had been taken to Mrs. Minor's. A
+gardener and his wife were placed in charge of the house,
+while efforts were being made to rent it. A few rooms
+had not been disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>And now Frederic De Woolfe Lawrence looked about
+him to see what could be done. Up to this time he had
+never given himself an anxious thought about money or
+his future. Now it stared him unpleasantly in the face.
+What could <i>he</i> do?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Many things, he said at first, with the buoyant certainty
+of youth and inexperience. Here was his education, his
+talents, his fine mental training. Surely he had the magical
+open-sesame of some door.</p>
+
+<p>So he set to work industriously, and wrote several articles
+on the history and the philosophy of the pure
+sciences. Very fine-drawn indeed, very intellectual and
+analytical, as he went through the different schools of
+thought, being able, it seemed to him, to argue as well for
+the one side as for the other. Then he tried Neo-Platonism
+with its profoundly mystical aspects and its brilliant
+array of philosophers, its fascinating aspects of
+Pantheism. The new world and to-day had nothing for
+him; the dead and gone past, every thing.</p>
+
+<p>Alas! From every side he heard the cry, Literature
+had been overdone. No one would buy, no one would
+read, in this great turmoil. Everybody wrote now, schoolgirls,
+college-fledglings: even small farmers and mechanics,
+with the training of the present and a smattering of
+knowledge, set up for geniuses.</p>
+
+<p>One advised him to try the realistic school: the old-time
+philosophies had lost the high place they once held, and to
+gain the attention of to-day writers must have snap and
+vim. Another recommended popular science made easy
+and attractive to general readers, something that caught
+at the first glance. Life was too short to be devoting
+years to any one branch of study. Still another was fain
+to persuade him to attack the pernicious systems and
+monstrous abuses of the present day. Then he stumbled
+over Crosby, one of his college-chums and a member of
+the L&mdash;&mdash; Club, where he had been a frequent and welcome
+visitor the winter before.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow," said he, with patronizing good-nature,
+"take my advice, and let literature alone. It is
+one of the most uncertain things. To-day you may suit,
+to-morrow a chap comes along with some new fandango<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+or summersault of high art, and the world leaves everybody
+to run after him, and you are thrown over. A man
+cannot earn his salt unless he has the <i>entr&eacute;e</i> of the initiated
+ring. As for journalism, you may hammer at that
+for twenty years before you get a position."</p>
+
+<p>Poor Fred went back to his room sorely depressed. It
+was a quiet, clean room in a second-rate hotel, for which
+he paid twelve dollars a week. There he sat and brooded,
+until taking up the paper one morning he saw the arrival
+of one of his old professors at the "Grand Union." Perhaps
+he might put him in the way of something. So he
+plucked up heart, and went to call.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Dennison received him very cordially, and
+expressed the warmest sympathy for the loss of his father
+and his fortune. He listened attentively to the young
+man's desires, and answered in suavest of tones.</p>
+
+<p>There were so many applications: every avenue seemed
+full. Young lawyers and doctors, finding no opening, had
+gone back to teaching, and the college-graduates of every
+year swelled this number. He would bear it in mind, and
+see what he could do; but he advised his young friend
+not to build too high hopes. "If I could make a place I
+should put you in it at once," he said kindly, just as he
+said it to a dozen others.</p>
+
+<p>It was so everywhere. There were no copyists, translators,
+or writers needed. The clerkships were overcrowded.
+It was not that there were too many doing one
+thing, but everything,&mdash;too many people in the world.
+Could the Malthusian doctrine be right, after all?</p>
+
+<p>He dropped into his brother-in-law's office one morning,
+and, though he hated to ask a favor of him, discussed in a
+rather fragmentary and abashed way the possibility of
+getting any thing to do; and a fortnight after, Mr. Minor
+sent him word of a broker who wanted a clerk, salary
+fifty dollars per month.</p>
+
+<p>It was better than nothing. Then, too, it was a beginning,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+although he could imagine more congenial employments.
+It did not look much like hard times, to note the
+immense amount of stocks and bonds that passed through
+the hands of this great house.</p>
+
+<p>Just at this period Irene returned. A fine, stately girl,
+with the indescribable air that foreign society gives. Yet
+she seemed haughty, bitter, and satirical; and it came out
+presently that she and Gertrude had quarrelled over a
+possible husband, and the amiable Gertrude had taunted
+her with dependence in the future. Irene had sold some
+diamonds, and travelled on the proceeds.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you were very short-sighted, Irene," said
+Mrs. Minor when she had drawn this story out of her
+sister. "A handsome American girl does stand a better
+chance for matrimony abroad than here. So many fortunes
+have been lost in the panic, and certainly I cannot
+blame these men for choosing heiresses. You have been
+in society a great deal here, and you will find fresh young
+girls beginning to crowd you out. Fred has nothing, and
+from present indications will hardly be able to take care
+of himself. It was such a misfortune that papa had every
+thing mortgaged! So Gertrude was right," in a bitterly
+suave tone: "you must be dependent upon some one until
+you do marry."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no! I might set up millinery,&mdash;with my taste
+and aptitude for arrangement. I think I have read of
+reduced young women who made fortunes in that line,"
+retorted Irene the queenly, in her unmoved way. She
+was not one to cry out at a dagger-thrust.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be a fool!" advised Mrs. Minor, in a short,
+incisive tone.</p>
+
+<p>She, like most other people, had meant to economize
+this summer; but now she made a sudden start for Newport.
+Irene certainly was peerless in her half-mourning,
+with her statuesque figure. But there was not an eligible
+at Newport, so they turned their steps Saratoga-ward.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+And here they found an old admirer of Mrs. Minor's,
+Gordon Barringer, a widower for the second time, the
+owner of a silver-mine and a railroad, and Heaven alone
+knew the length and breadth of his possessions.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Agatha Lawrence had turned up her aristocratic
+nose at him, as a rather coarse and self-assured person,
+as proud of his want of education as other men were of
+its acquirement. Now he was about forty, stout, high-colored,
+loud of voice, and with an important swagger.
+But money had given "our enterprising citizen" power,
+and he both understood and wielded it skilfully.</p>
+
+<p>His wife had been dead barely six months, but when
+he met Irene Lawrence he decided at once that the penniless
+beauty would be only too glad to marry him. He
+was proud to think he could afford to be so magnanimous.
+Mrs. Minor settled herself to the fact that there must be
+no foolish dallying. Of course Irene <i>would</i> see. She
+could not be so idiotically, so fatally blind!</p>
+
+<p>I do not know that at this period of her life Irene
+Lawrence had any ideal. She had made conquests so
+easily, she had found men so much alike, and in her secret
+heart she despised them for being so ready to kneel and
+bow at beauty's shrine. It seemed to her as if youth
+and fortune were alike boundless; and she literally took
+no thought for the morrow, until the tidings of her father's
+death was followed by the subsequent news of loss of
+fortune.</p>
+
+<p>If George Eastman had a self-conviction that he and
+his cousin had contributed to this downfall, he tried to
+make it up to Irene in brotherly kindness and generous
+expenditure where money was concerned. He solaced
+himself with the thought that, after all, he had no more
+than his own, or what should have been his own rightfully,
+though he fancied he could not have gone on to the
+end quite as Horace had.</p>
+
+<p>When Sir Christopher Frodsham came across the two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+ladies in Paris, Gertrude exulted at the easy conquest.
+A man of fifty, whose young years and health had been
+spent in sowing a plentiful crop of wild oats, but to whom
+had come now, quite unexpectedly, a fortune and a title;
+and prosperity, after years of rather bitter economy, made
+him miserly, as it not unfrequently does such men. That
+he would have been glad to marry this young, beautiful
+girl, for himself alone, was most true. And Irene, in
+the bewilderment of the losses, inclined to his proposal,
+and begged time for consideration.</p>
+
+<p>He was not a man she could admire, respect, or love.
+He was narrow, egotistical, selfish, and with the pitiful
+vanity of a worn-out <i>rou&eacute;</i>. Frodsham Park was in a
+lonely, mountainous part of England, bordering on
+Wales; and this man would look upon his wife as a nurse
+and companion, and the mother of an heir.</p>
+
+<p>There must have been a little strain of heroism in the
+girl. Suddenly, in one of those quick, vivid flashes, like
+mental lightning, she saw that she could not do this thing.
+She was not at all given to analysis; she had never dissected
+her own soul, or that of her neighbors; but she
+arrived at one of those swift, clear verdicts,&mdash;she could
+not marry Sir Christopher; and she told him so, with a
+frankness a trifle tenderer, perhaps, than she had used
+with her lovers heretofore, as if some way she had
+wronged him in thought.</p>
+
+<p>Over this, as I said, she and Gertrude had bitter words
+and a parting. Now the same thing stared her in the
+face again. This lover was too obtuse to be stung by the
+fine arts of coquetry that lengthened practice had brought
+to perfection. In all the bravery of self-assertion, he did
+not know when he was beaten; and so he fought against
+the intangible spear-points with which Miss Lawrence
+could surround herself.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Barringer was called to New York on important
+business law-suits; and two days after, Mrs. Minor declared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+herself wearied out with Saratoga. Irene felt the
+walls of fate closing remorselessly about her. Why
+should she struggle? she asked herself. After all, what
+could she do but marry?</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Hope Mills had been sold. Fred made
+some inquiries about it.</p>
+
+<p>"A woman&mdash;a rich old maid, I believe, by name
+McLeod, who knows enough to drive a sharp bargain&mdash;has
+taken it. Some one is to set up the business, I
+heard; an impecunious nephew, no doubt. No one but a
+fool would make a venture when the market is overstocked
+with goods. It is a shame that the estate had to lose
+such a valuable piece of property; but there was no income
+to pay taxes and interest, and, standing empty, it
+would soon have eaten itself up."</p>
+
+<p>Fred sighed. For the first time, he wondered how it
+would have ended if he had been brought up to some
+useful business, and perhaps have taken Eastman's place
+with his father. As for stock and share jobbing, he was
+heartily sick of it. To him it appeared an immense
+system of swindling the ignorant and unsuspecting.</p>
+
+<p>However, he was not destined to nurse his disgust very
+long in brooding silence. The last of September the
+great house of Bristol, Stokes, &amp; Co., collapsed. The
+wreck was unexpected, the ruin wide-spread. The house
+of Minor &amp; Morgan was hard hit, which did not improve
+Mr. Minor's temper, though, Spartan-like, he wore a
+cheerful face, and kept his losses to himself. Even if it
+should be his turn next, the world must not know it.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a letter that concerns you, though it was
+sent to me as administrator," said Minor to Fred, as he
+sauntered in one morning, tossing the missive over to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Fred opened it with languid indifference, and his eye
+wandered over the following lines:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><span class="smcap">Hamilton Minor, Esq.</span>
+
+<p><i>Dear Sir</i>,&mdash;On taking possession of Hope Mills, for business
+purposes, I find some personal property belonging to the late Mr.
+Lawrence. It may have a value for the family, and shall be at
+your disposal whenever you desire it. Respectfully yours,</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+<span class="smcap">John Darcy.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"As soon as Hope Terrace is disposed of, the accounts
+can be audited and settled," said Minor in a sharp,
+business-like way. "The debts have all come in, and
+been paid dollar for dollar; though, if your father had
+been a prudent man, he would have made sure of something
+for his family. No one expects estates to pay more
+than fifty per cent nowadays."</p>
+
+<p>Fred rose, and crushed Jack Darcy's note in his pocket,
+holding himself proudly, while his cheek flushed.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very thankful," in a clear, cold tone. "My
+father's life was pure and honorable, and no man can
+fling a stone at his grave. I would rather be penniless,
+as I am, than have it otherwise."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! very well, very well," sneeringly.</p>
+
+<p>Fred walked out of the office, and turned into Broadway.
+The same curious, restless, hurrying throng.
+Where were they all going? Did they find room and
+work? How clearly the sun shone! The sky was so
+blue, with great drifts of white floating about,&mdash;strange
+barques on a mystical sea. In spite of the outside roar
+and rush, there was a solemn and awesome stillness
+within him. He began to feel how entirety alone he
+stood. A twelvemonth ago there were hosts of friends
+pulling him hither and yon, proposing this and that,
+laughing and chatting gayly. Where were they now?
+Not all weak and false, but the shadow of circumstances
+had drifted them apart. We do not always cease to love
+or like when separation ensues; and in this shifting,
+changing life, people drop out, yet are not quite forgotten.
+Some of the young fellows whom fortune had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+buffeted had found a place in active, stirring life: he,
+with his education, refinement, accomplishments, and
+talent, was merely a piece of driftwood. Sylvie Barry
+had been right,&mdash;he was a useless appendage to the
+world. Ah, no wonder she despised him! Sturdy,
+honest Jack Darcy could find a place. His self-complacency
+was more than touched,&mdash;it was shattered,
+completely broken up. The present was blank and colorless,
+the future like a thick mist in which there penetrated
+not one ray of light. What did all his elaborate philosophies
+for him now?&mdash;art, that was to regenerate the
+world; science, that explained and refined, and found a
+place and a reason for every thing in the universe; man,
+the most important of all. And here he was, tossed
+aside like a weed. Who cared whether his nature was
+foul or kinglike? He was, in truth, one of the atoms
+floating about in space, and finding no use or purpose.
+The world could go on just as well without him. Why,
+if he should drop himself over into the river, there would
+be only a ripple. He laughed, as if his personality was
+something that did not really belong to him, that could
+be put off at will, that was, in truth, answerable to no
+power. All of life, then, had been a lie!</p>
+
+<p>He stumbled onward blindly. A sense of dreary mystery
+crept over him,&mdash;an utter hopelessness. He essayed to
+stretch out his hand to some passer-by, but the careless
+faces mocked him. There was no strength or stay. He
+could not even cry out with his anguish,&mdash;it was a dumb,
+inarticulate voice. All his idols had been destroyed, and
+there was no God to cry to!</p>
+
+<p>His last three weeks' salary had gone down in Bristol
+&amp; Co.'s ruin. There were some jewels to sell, a few more
+pictures, several sets of rare books, and&mdash;what then?</p>
+
+<p>Starvation had appeared so utterly improbable in this
+great, thriving world, and here he was, almost face to face
+with it,&mdash;he who had never taken an anxious thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
+about any thing, who had felt as if he really honored
+money by the spending of it. A beggar! An object
+of charity to Hamilton Minor!</p>
+
+<p>No, that should never be. He tried to rouse himself
+from his lethargy. He went around to stores and offices
+where he was not known, and asked for something to do,
+as if in a curious masquerade. The same answer everywhere.
+Nothing! The sun went slowly down, the street-lamps
+were lighted. Every inch of his body ached with
+the long tramp and nervous exhaustion. He had eaten
+nothing since breakfast, but he was not hungry. What
+if he did steal quietly over to the river, and end it all?</p>
+
+<p>The desperation was hardly black enough for that.
+Somewhere near midnight he strolled home: how much
+longer would there be a home, he wondered?</p>
+
+<p>He thrust his hand in his pocket, and the bit of folded
+paper struck sharp against his fingers, so he drew it out.
+Hardly the familiar school-boy scrawl: Jack used to hate
+writing, he remembered. This had a decisive force
+about it. How odd that business-like "John" looked!
+"Jack!" He uttered the name aloud, and a thrill
+seemed to warm his frozen heart,&mdash;to stir emotions
+most contradictory. A sense of shame predominated,
+tingling his very finger-ends, crimsoning his pale cheeks,
+and stinging his soul with a sense of utter humiliation.
+He had prided himself so much upon the immaculate
+honor of his life, and lo! here he stood, self-convicted
+of one of the basest of sins,&mdash;broken faith. Not from
+any sudden, hot dispute, not from a knowledge of deception
+or any small meanness, but deliberate, well-considered
+treachery. It would have been manlier had he said to
+Jack, "Our ways lie apart, and in the future we shall
+meet so seldom, it is hardly worth while to keep up a pretence
+of friendship." He had skulked away instead, kept
+out of sight,&mdash;basely shunned the strong, tender soul
+that had helped to make a peevish boyhood sunny and
+bright.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Black as this ingratitude looked to him now, he experienced
+a strange and intense desire to see his olden friend
+once more. What was he doing at Hope Mills? Had he
+found a place?</p>
+
+<p>The next morning's mail brought him a check for sixty
+dollars, for an article he had thought little of himself, and
+sent merely because he had happened to finish it, and was
+despatching his ventures out on the sea of chance. Then
+he went over to Mrs. Minor's: he had not seen his mother
+for several days.</p>
+
+<p>He was quite in the habit of going directly up to her
+room; but, as he neared it, he heard voices raised in no
+gentle discussion. Agatha stood in the middle of the
+room, flushed, angry, an open note in her hand; Mrs.
+Lawrence was weeping hysterically, while Irene sat pale
+and sullen, but her eyes gleaming with a dangerous fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well: if you deliberately decide to take a beggar's
+portion, then, do not look to me for any further help,"
+said Mrs. Minor. "This marriage would have afforded
+you every luxury; and you have thrown aside the chance,
+like a silly school-girl. Perhaps you <i>have</i> some secret,
+favored lover!" and the glittering eyes might have annihilated
+a weaker woman than Irene Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>"If I had, I should go to him. I would live on crusts
+and a cup of cold water with him, rather than luxury,"
+with a bitter, stinging emphasis, "and my own humiliation.
+The man would drive me mad, Agatha! Some
+day, yielding to an irresistible impulse, I should murder
+him;" and she gave a shrill, unnatural laugh.</p>
+
+<p>Fred went over to her, and took her hand. His business
+in life was to be her champion, her defender, her support,&mdash;not
+only against this monstrous marriage, at which her
+soul revolted, but Agatha's sneers and flings, and the
+dependence a proud soul must naturally feel when the
+very bread turns to ashes in one's mouth. How it was
+to be done, he could not tell at that moment; but he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+drew one long breath of honest, hopeful manliness, and
+resolved to leave no stone unturned.</p>
+
+<p>His mother wept in his comforting arms. She was very
+much shattered,&mdash;quite an old woman long before her
+time, made so by the follies of an indolent, enervating
+life. Like a pang the thought pierced his brain, that for
+these paltry results his father had given the strength and
+labor of manhood.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">There</span> were a few faint hints of autumn in Yerbury.
+The air was warm, and freighted with the peculiar sweetness
+of over-ripe grapes and apples, of dried balsam and
+faded golden-rod by the wayside. The very air seemed to
+quiver with intense contrasts of color, the yellow beeches
+standing out in strong relief, the bronze-red of one great
+oak, the bluish-green of the spruce, and the tender tints
+of fading, long-armed larches, drooping in regretful sadness.
+Lights of silvery gray and russet-brown, pale gold
+and hazy purple, and a sapphire sky bending over all.
+The artistic side of Fred Lawrence's soul was touched as
+he had once fancied nothing this side of Europe could
+touch it.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment a mighty rush of regret came over him.
+This magnificent place had been his home. Perhaps he
+would have been more than human not to have experienced
+a pang.</p>
+
+<p>He wandered about for some time. It was too lovely
+to go in and explore those dusty, darkened rooms: this
+evening would answer for that. He paced the lawn, he
+lingered by the gate; he took a turn about the grapery,
+now used for profit by the thrifty farmer who had charge
+of the place. Then he turned, and went down the street.
+The bells were ringing for six. From his height above, he
+could see the laborers wending their way, the great chimney
+of Hope Mills. He would walk in that direction.
+They would all be gone by the time he reached it.</p>
+
+<p>The streets were indeed nearly deserted. In the shade<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+here the wind blew a little chilly. Yes, it was just the
+same; but then, it would not be likely to alter in a year.
+Why, it seemed a decade almost, since the night he had
+come home to his dying father!</p>
+
+<p>Ah, if they had been more to each other! Did he go
+about with a lonely spirit, Fred wondered, feeling the uselessness
+and insufficiency of the life he was leading?
+Had he been glad to lay the burthen down?</p>
+
+<p>A sudden firm, manful step ran down the stone stairway
+with a cheerful ring, and a voice hummed a tune
+softly, as one sometimes does for a seeming accompaniment,
+when the mind is occupied with other things;&mdash;a
+tall, robust figure, with long arms, and a springy step, as
+if he might still leap a post, or jump the creek. He was
+rushing off, when, curiously enough, with no other motive
+than an impulse, he turned, and saw an almost motionless
+figure.</p>
+
+<p>Whether he would send for the articles belonging to his
+father, or visit Hope Mills in person, risking a sight of
+Jack Darcy, or whether he would summon courage enough
+to ask for his old friend, were matters that Fred had put
+off for to-morrow's decision. Why he had wandered here
+at all, amazed him now; and he stood quite breathless at
+the unexpected apparition, without power to move or
+speak.</p>
+
+<p>If he had still been in the high tide of prosperity, Jack
+would have passed him by silently, but with no rudeness.
+Something in the bent head, the pale face, the general
+melancholy attitude, came home to his heart,&mdash;his fresh,
+generous, magnanimous heart. He ventured a step nearer,
+he put out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Fred, old fellow!"</p>
+
+<p>The rich, full voice might have melted any heart. The
+frank, honest eyes lighted with wonderful tenderness:
+there was a glow and earnestness that could come only
+from a large, forgiving soul, capable of putting by its own
+sense of pain or any past discomfiture.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Fred Lawrence crimsoned to the very edge of his hair,
+to the farthest depths of his soul. He would have taken
+the hand: then he drew back with a gesture of self-reproach,
+as if he could tread his past sinful pride in the
+dust.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's forget the bygones," the hearty young fellow
+began, "that is, if you would like to have it so," drawing
+back a trifle to give him his choice as a delicate
+woman might have done.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Jack," grasping the warm, firm hand in
+his own pale, cold one, and raising his soft dark eyes, so
+near to tears. Just now no other words would come.</p>
+
+<p>Jack drew the hand through his arm. "I've thought
+of you so many times," he began, as if they had parted
+the best of friends. "It has been a sad year for many,
+doubly so for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Sad indeed. O Jack!"</p>
+
+<p>It was all uttered in the long tremulous swell of voice
+that tells the whole story.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>With that, their friendship was renewed. Women
+might have fallen into each other's arms with expressions
+of penitence and forgiveness; but they had said their say,
+as was characteristic of both.</p>
+
+<p>"Were you coming in?" and Darcy turned back as he
+asked the question.</p>
+
+<p>"No: I only reached Yerbury an hour or so ago on a
+little business. Some remembrance of old time brought
+me hither."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad it did. Shall we walk down Main Street?
+Are you staying at Hope Terrace?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be for a few days."</p>
+
+<p>A silence fell between them. There was no one else in
+the street; and their steps sounded with a steady tramp,
+as if they might walk on to some definite end.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack, dear old friend, after requiting your tender<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
+love to my exacting and selfish boyhood with a pitiless
+treachery that will always shame my manhood, I wonder
+if I dare ask it back, if I dare come to you."</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to give back. I do believe I have
+kept up a sort of girlish hankering for you. And now,
+if I can do any thing, if you are in any perplexity"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Come up to Hope Terrace, and take tea with me. I
+want to talk to you all the evening. You have just the
+same mesmeric strength that used to soothe me when a
+boy. What a milk-and-water cub I must have been! I
+wonder you did not throw me over."</p>
+
+<p>Jack laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us turn back to Kit Connelly's, and I can send a
+message home, so that mother will not keep tea waiting."</p>
+
+<p>That done, they strolled on together the same path by
+which Fred had come. The sun had dropped down behind
+the hill, and the glowing tints had faded to purple-black
+and indistinct grays. They wound around the hills,
+and came up to the very gate where their last good-by had
+been uttered. And Fred remembered then that this was
+the first time Jack had shared the hospitality of Hope
+Terrace, now when it was no longer his.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Milroy gave them some supper in a pretty little
+apartment which had been the servants' parlor, and was
+now hers. Then they went up to Fred's room, which had
+been opened and aired. Some of its choicest belongings
+had been taken away, but another than Fred would not
+have remarked this. And here they renewed the remembrances
+of the years that had fallen between.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems cowardly to come to you in trouble, and to
+take so large a share of your sympathy again," Fred said
+with his good-night. "But you always were so strong
+and earnest."</p>
+
+<p>He went down to the mill the next day, and was much
+interested in the working of Jack's plans.</p>
+
+<p>"You found your place," he said with a curious intonation,
+as if he half envied the man before him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yet in all truth I should not have chosen this," Jack
+answered with honest gravity. "But, when I found circumstances
+would keep me here, I resolved to work
+at it persistently and faithfully; and I learned in it the
+larger lesson of the true dignity of labor. If I should
+solve my problem successfully, I can ask no more. Five
+years is a long while when you count the days," and he
+smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You will succeed, I know. You have just that mastery
+over every thing."</p>
+
+<p>Jack finally persuaded Fred to come down to the well-remembered
+cottage, and see his mother. Mrs. Darcy
+would have welcomed her bitterest enemy if Jack had
+desired her to.</p>
+
+<p>All this time Jack was thinking whether he could do his
+old friend a good turn. He hated to offer him any subordinate
+position in the mill. At present he could attend
+to the book-keeping. Then he heard there was to be a
+change at the paper-mills, and went over. They wanted
+a clerk and foreman, one with taste enough to select
+pretty designs, and who could keep books.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know as you would like it, Fred," he continued
+with some hesitation in his cheery tones.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been a dawdler long enough, and I have had a
+bitter experience in finding <i>any thing</i> to do. I shall be
+glad to take it, and you may believe I will try my best.
+Many, many thanks for your kind interest."</p>
+
+<p>There had been a sharp, short struggle in Fred's soul.
+He would rather have gone elsewhere, where he was not
+known. But if fate had resolved to bring him back to
+Yerbury, if she had offered him bread here, while it had
+been stones elsewhere, he would certainly be a fool to
+starve for pride's sake. Some wholesome ideas had found
+lodgement in his brain, along with the Greek myths and
+synthetic philosophies. If he could not astonish the world
+with brilliant reasoning, he might at least get his own
+living.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He went back to the city, and discussed the project
+with his mother and Irene. She had a tender longing for
+her son: to be with him would afford her greater satisfaction
+than the magnificence of her daughter's house. Irene
+consented stonily. It was burying herself alive, but then
+no one would torment her with hateful marriages. To
+stay here with Agatha was simply unendurable.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Minor made no further comment than to say she
+did not think her mother could be kept as comfortable.
+Irene was her own mistress.</p>
+
+<p>So Fred Lawrence went back to Yerbury and work. It
+was an altogether new undertaking. He had no business
+training and no experience, except his desultory two
+months in Bristol's office. Yet from the very first day
+there was something that interested him here, although for
+awhile the smells, the dust and disorder, half sickened
+him. As for any wound to his pride, he felt that less
+because the whole world seemed to have taken a general
+overturn. Half of the elegant houses in the neighborhood
+of Hope Terrace were for sale, and shut up. Expensive
+country mansions to be used for a few summer months
+were quite beyond present incomes. A month at the seaside
+cost much less. Costly scientific, or rather unscientific
+gardening,&mdash;since the true aim of science must be the
+best adjustment of power to the desired result,&mdash;graperies,
+green-houses, henneries standing empty, the money lavished
+upon them so much waste material at present,&mdash;where
+had the wealth gone to so suddenly? He could not
+understand the rapid and wide-spread ruin. Even of themselves,&mdash;how
+was it that for years there should be no
+stint, but absolute wastefulness, and then nothing at all?</p>
+
+<p>He was so new to any business results, that he seemed
+like a child groping in the dark. And here was Jack
+Darcy, with his academy training merely, managing one
+of the great problems of the day, taking hold manfully to
+right the wrongs brought about by selfishness and utter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+disregard for one's neighbor. Had Plotinus struck the
+grand key-note when he said he "was striving to bring the
+God within us in harmony with the God of the universe"?
+For might there not be false gods within?</p>
+
+<p>He found he had not much time for abstruse speculations,
+which was all the better for his mental health.
+After enduring the dirt and disorder of the office for a
+week, he set about remedying that. He might not be
+able to regenerate the world, but he could make one little
+room decent. The office-boy and the scrub-woman were
+called in; the desks and shelves were cleared of the accumulation
+of months, and presented quite an orderly
+aspect. He found his hands blistered by the rough handling,
+but the reward was a wholesome hunger and a good
+night's sleep. Not quite as entertaining, perhaps, as a
+scramble in the Sierras or the Alps, but productive of as
+beneficial results.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was a home to be found. Living at Hope
+Terrace on a thousand a year would hardly be possible,
+even if it could be had rent free. So he asked Mrs.
+Darcy's advice about the matter, and she proposed a
+pretty cottage,&mdash;there were so many standing empty. It
+seemed very queer to be counselling this proud, sad-eyed
+young man, who a year or two ago had hardly deigned to
+look at them. Yet, like Jack, she still held a tender feeling
+for the pretty, enthusiastic boy she remembered.</p>
+
+<p>There had been in his mind a great struggle about
+Sylvie. He knew now that she belonged to Jack. That
+thorough manliness and integrity, that earnest, unflinching
+soul, the rich, generous temperament that could be so
+tender to weakness, so forgiving to wrong, was the soul
+of her ideal hero. And he had dared to offer her his poor,
+paltry affectation of love! Blinded by his own arrogant
+self-esteem, he had spurned the pure pearl, and taken the
+empty, glittering shell to her as the kind of treasure he
+was satisfied to deal in.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>How thoroughly he despised himself! It was such a
+keen, bitter humiliation! Not only that he had aspired to
+her, but that he should have misrepresented and traduced
+Jack, not from an overwhelming passion of jealousy,&mdash;that
+might be pardoned,&mdash;but a shallow, overweening
+vanity of wealth and position.</p>
+
+<p>"She shall see that I have learned to respect and honor
+him!" he said to himself with an intensity of regret that
+was very honest and real. "If I can never regain her
+esteem, I shall at least try for my old place in his regard."</p>
+
+<p>They found a pretty, convenient cottage, quite on the
+opposite side of Yerbury, suiting Fred much better than
+to be near his old friends. The furniture was brought
+over from the great house; and, though it had seemed but
+odds and ends there, it was amply sufficient. Irene's
+piano and some of the old family silver had been saved out
+of the wreck, a few of the less expensive pictures, and
+sufficient books to form quite a library. Fred really
+enjoyed arranging and planning. It was quite a matter
+of astonishment to him, that rules of art and harmony
+were needed at every step: if he could not make them
+remunerative in a written article, he could put them in
+practice here.</p>
+
+<p>He kept much to himself, being busy in the office during
+the day, and at home in the evening. He was sick of
+society, of the world in general. He had met Maverick a
+few times, but he shrank from strangers. Mrs. Darcy's
+tender, unobtrusive motherliness, he enjoyed, but he did
+not dare to accept much of it. The duties of his life were
+marked out plainly before him, and he must not swerve
+from the path. It was to be a kind of neutral tint, twilight
+rather than sunshine; and the joys he might come
+to long for, he must put away with a firm hand.</p>
+
+<p>The first of December every thing was in readiness for
+his small household, even to the tidy housekeeper Mrs.
+Darcy had found for him among her poor. Mrs. Lawrence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+and Irene came in the promised train; and he met
+them with a carriage and a multiplicity of wraps, although
+it was a bright, pleasant day. His mother clung to him
+with tremulous hands: he realized more than ever how
+much she had broken in the past year,&mdash;very little older
+than Mrs. Darcy if counted by years, but whole decades
+if judged by every other point.</p>
+
+<p>Irene was cold and stately. She did not like coming
+here,&mdash;neither did she like staying at Mrs. Minor's.
+Wild thoughts had flooded her brain of going somewhere,
+and under a new name making a mark in the world. She
+had a fine voice, and a decided talent for histrionics, but
+how to get to this place where fame and fortune would be
+at her command? How to bridge across any chasm?
+Nothing, she said to herself, but just stand helpless, and
+see the great world go on, with no part nor lot in the
+matter. If she must be buried alive, as well at Yerbury
+as anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>There had never been any sentiment between her and
+Fred; in truth, none of the Lawrence women ever were
+given to sentiment. She walked into the little parlor with
+the step of a queen, and gave a cool stare around.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you will like it"&mdash;with some hesitation.
+"There is your piano. And mother's room looks as it
+did at the Terrace, with the exception of its being so
+much smaller. And here is a library. Here is our dining-room&mdash;some
+of the old engravings, you see."</p>
+
+<p>"Could I go to my room? Which is it, Fred?" and
+his mother looked up with a weak, pleading smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes: let me carry you. You are so thin and light
+now, and you must be fatigued after all this journey;"
+and, taking her in his arms, he bore her up-stairs.</p>
+
+<p>It was a pleasant room over the parlor, with an alcove
+toward the south, in which the mid-day sun was shining.
+A bright fire burned in the grate: there were her own
+easy-chairs, a bit of the carpet she had once chosen, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+Persian rug she had admired so much when Fred first
+sent it home, the bed with its snowy drapery, and little
+ornaments with their familiar faces.</p>
+
+<p>"It is delightful," she said, still clinging to her son's
+arm. "And I am to stay here with you? Agatha is
+very good, of course; but I have always had my own
+home, and if I did sign it away it was to save your poor
+dear father. I don't see how things could have ended so,
+only, if he had lived, it would all have been different;"
+and she wiped away the tears that came so easily now.</p>
+
+<p>Fred put her in the chair nearest the fire, and began to
+unfasten her wraps. He had been quite an expert in delicate
+ways during his prosperity.</p>
+
+<p>"Your room is next&mdash;there," nodding his head to the
+open doorway, and glancing up in his sister's immovable
+face. "I hope I made my divisions rightly: I thought
+you would like to be near mother."</p>
+
+<p>"It is all as well as it can be, I suppose," she answered
+with weary indifference.</p>
+
+<p>There came to Fred Lawrence just then a painful sense
+of want and loss, a far-reaching sympathy in something
+that had never been, and now, when the outside glitter
+was torn away, left life cold and barren. Was human
+love so much?</p>
+
+<p>His mother went on in her weak, inconsequent way,
+yet her foolish praise was very sweet to him. He had
+been living such a lonely life for months, that even he
+was grateful for something that looked like home, for a
+woman's figure flitting about, and some voice beside his
+own.</p>
+
+<p>The dinner-bell rang presently.</p>
+
+<p>"I ordered yours brought up here," said Fred; "and I
+will have a little with you, then I must go back to the
+office."</p>
+
+<p>"It is terrible, Fred! That you should have to"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Dignify labor," and he laughed. "Mother dear, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+was so thankful to get something to do! And I am proud
+of making a home for you. Am I not your only son?"</p>
+
+<p>"But a clerk!" Some of the old Hope disdain spoke
+out there. "I cannot bear to think of it&mdash;with all your
+education and talents and genius. I wish you had found
+some business. There is the five thousand dollars of the
+life-insurance, you know; and you could take it, though
+Agatha made me promise that I would not have it fooled
+away in any thing. But I should be glad to have you use
+it."</p>
+
+<p>Fred stooped suddenly, and kissed her on the forehead.
+There <i>was</i> something in mother-love, after all.</p>
+
+<p>Just then Martha West came in with the tray. Fred
+drew out the folding breakfast-table that his mother had
+so often used, while he was introducing Martha to his
+mother and sister. She courtesied, and proceeded to lay
+the cloth and the dishes, and disappeared for the viands
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>"Is one woman expected to do all the work?" asked
+Irene at length.</p>
+
+<p>"She thinks she can&mdash;with so small a family. Of
+course I"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Irene raised her hand deprecatingly. "Spare me details,"
+she said. "It is very bitter to eat the bread of
+dependence: I have learned that already."</p>
+
+<p>He made no answer. Mrs. Lawrence looked from one
+to the other in helpless bewilderment, but Martha entered
+again, and changed the troubled current.</p>
+
+<p>It was quite a picnic dinner. Irene unbent a little at
+the sight of the rare china and beautiful old silver. She
+supposed every thing had gone down in the whirlpool of
+ruin, and that humiliation would be complete in delft and
+plated ware. Then she ventured to glance around.</p>
+
+<p>Fred chatted gayly, making talk. It had not used to
+be one of his accomplishments in his magnificent days
+when women vied with each other in the delight of entertaining<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+him. It was pleasant to see his mother touch the
+bell, and sit back in her chair while Martha brought in the
+dessert.</p>
+
+<p>"And now I must go. Do not expect me much before
+seven. I wonder if you will feel able to come down to
+tea? Ah! there are the trunks, just in time. I will send
+them up, and you will feel quite at home when you have
+your belongings in place."</p>
+
+<p>Then he went back to his desk, and for the next two
+hours was too busy to think. After all, there is nothing
+like energetic employment to keep dismal forebodings out
+of one's mind.</p>
+
+<p>But that evening after supper, when they had gathered
+in the library, Mrs. Lawrence began to question him concerning
+Hope Mills. Agatha had said some one had
+started the business anew.</p>
+
+<p>Fred explained.</p>
+
+<p>"But how could the workmen do it alone? Your father
+never trusted them, Fred; and I am sure my father had
+trouble enough with them in his day! They were always
+an ignorant, unreasonable set. Don't you remember how
+they struck several years ago, and workmen had to come
+from elsewhere? They must have some head. And who
+found the money? Mr. Minor says they cannot possibly
+succeed."</p>
+
+<p>Some time Fred would have to stand Jack Darcy on his
+true pedestal. As well do it now, and have it over.</p>
+
+<p>"The project was Mr. Darcy's. I believe he had most
+of the capital. It was very generous of him to risk it in
+such times as these."</p>
+
+<p>Irene looked up from her moody contemplation of the
+fire. A dull flush suffused her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Not Jack Darcy," she said,&mdash;"Sylvie Barry's great
+hero."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie Barry!" re-echoed Mrs. Lawrence, and she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+looked sharply at her son. "And she gave you up for
+him! Who is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"He used to be in the mill," answered Irene, with all
+her olden scorn. "His father was there also. And the
+Darcys"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The Darcys can boast as good blood as we!" exclaimed
+Fred, his face in a sudden heat. "And Jack
+Darcy is a gentleman by birth, by instinct, and, best of all,
+the impulses of a true and noble heart."</p>
+
+<p>The discussion recalled an old remembrance to Mrs.
+Lawrence. She looked vaguely at her son as if she were
+not quite certain, as she said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Was there not something about him when you were
+boys? He was coarse and rough, wasn't he? and Agatha
+used to worry. I knew it was only a boy's folly; but she
+was glad when you went to college, and I think&mdash;there
+was his sister"&mdash;her maternal instincts taking alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"No, he never had a sister. His father died, and he
+staid at home. His mother was delicate, and his grandmother
+old. She is dead, and he gets his small fortune
+from her. No, he was not coarse nor rude, but he was my
+champion in boyhood, my hero then; and it is the shame
+of my life that I should have let him drop out of it because
+I was the richer of the two. I despise myself for
+any thing so narrow and unmanly, and yet he was generous
+enough to forgive. I do not wonder at Miss Barry's
+choice when she contrasted us, and I honor her to-day
+for her discrimination. She never encouraged me, blind,
+idiotic fool that I was! and I have only my wretched
+vanity to blame. He is fully worthy of her, and that is
+the highest compliment I can pay him."</p>
+
+<p>"Very magnanimous for a rejected lover," commented
+Irene with a touch of sarcasm.</p>
+
+<p>"But you <i>did</i> love Sylvie?" Mrs. Lawrence said,
+bewildered by his rapid defence.</p>
+
+<p>"I blush now at the thought of having offered her such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+a paltry regard. To me she will always be a sweet and
+peerless woman. I am glad she will have the strength of
+manhood to lean upon, the purity of its honor to trust,
+the exceeding tenderness of a soul that will never know a
+narrow or grudging thought, to confide in. All my years
+look poor and barren beside his."</p>
+
+<p>"I can never forgive her"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You must, you must!" and Fred seized his mother's
+hand, pressing it to his lips. "There is nothing to forgive,"
+he went on. "You would not have had her throw
+aside the love of her life for my fancied fortune that has
+taken wings. It was my blunder. And I want to say
+that I have taken up my old friendship for Jack Darcy,
+come back to the truth that money is one of the incidental
+surroundings of the man, but it can never be the man
+himself."</p>
+
+<p>Irene's haughty lip curled, but no one openly gainsaid
+Fred.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> winter was a rather open one, with but little snow.
+Matters were somewhat better in Yerbury, but bad enough,
+Sylvie Barry thought. The churches began their usual
+work,&mdash;parish aids, clothing-clubs, and sewing-societies.
+It was as she said: they begged from the rich to give to
+the poor. Women met to make or to alter over garments,
+and devise means to render the poor more comfortable.
+There were so many miserable homes, so many inefficient
+wives and mothers, who were ignorant of the commonest
+principles of economy. They could live on meal-mush,
+they could go in rags, but the science of thrift was utterly
+unknown in many instances.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie had done her share of church work as a growing
+maiden. Every year there had been some mission, and a
+sewing-school.</p>
+
+<p>"And yet it doesn't seem to do much good," said she.
+"The girls learn to hem a handkerchief, which a sewing-machine
+can do in ten seconds: they sew a few patches
+together, and perhaps make an apron. By the next winter
+they have forgotten all about it. And some of their
+mothers do not seem to care."</p>
+
+<p>"The mothers need educating," Miss Morgan began,
+with a decisive nod of the head. "They were married
+out of shops and factories, and know very little, and have
+brought up their children to know less. I'm not one of
+the kind who can see no good in the world's progress,
+and who want to go back to the days of spinning-wheels,
+wax polish for tables and chairs, and a day spent every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
+week scouring the brass andirons and candlesticks and
+door-knobs, and various other matters; but I do think we
+have gone to the other extreme. Women dawdle away
+half their lives. It is of no use to make clothes, you can
+buy them cheaper; it is of no use to mend, to do this or
+that, and so they do nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"I was struck with a contrast I saw yesterday," returned
+Sylvie. "I had occasion to go to the Webbers,&mdash;you
+know the little cottage on Alden Street, Miss
+Morgan, where they always have such pretty flowers in
+the window. Mr. Webber works at satchel-making, and
+even in good times did not earn very high wages. They
+have a garden, in which they raise the most wonderful
+succession of crops; they keep some chickens, which
+they manage to have laying most of the time; and they
+have five children. It was quite late in the afternoon.
+Mrs. Webber sat by the window, making lace, on a
+cushion, at which she realizes about a dollar a week;
+Christine, the eldest girl, who still goes to school, was
+crocheting a baby's hood,&mdash;she does a good deal of work
+for Mrs. Burnett's fancy-store, and yet is a very smart
+scholar; Amelie, the next one, was darning the stockings;
+the boy, who comes third, was out-doors, tidying up the
+chicken-house; and the two little girls were in the corner,
+cutting and sewing patchwork, with a doll in the cradle between
+them. The house is always clean, the children are
+well and rosy, and play about a good deal, and Christine
+last year earned thirty dollars. Her mother puts half the
+money she earns in the bank for her marriage-portion. I
+was so glad it wasn't in Yerbury Bank! You wouldn't
+believe, that, though she is not quite sixteen, she has
+almost a hundred dollars saved up. And I must tell you,
+also, there was a most savory smell of the supper cooking.
+Altogether, it was so tidy and thrifty, with the clean,
+bright, and not unpretty faces, that I thought it would
+make a charming 'interior,' if only some Dutch artist could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+do justice to it in his minute, pains-taking way. Then I
+went to the Coles, who live around in the next street.
+The gate was off its hinges, and the two big boys were
+firing stones from the street at a post in the yard. They
+were ragged and dirty. I went in the house, and found
+the mother and the two girls in the sitting-room. I do
+not believe there was a piece of furniture whole, and every
+thing was dusty and shabby, with that close smell some
+people always have in their houses. Mrs. Cole sat by the
+window, in a listless manner, doing nothing. Martha had
+her baby on her lap, asleep, in a soiled and ragged dress,
+while she was reading; the little girl, who is about twelve,
+was cutting up some pretty pieces of silk into nothing,
+that I could see, but a general litter over the table. The
+kitchen looked dreadful. I had some baby-dresses for
+Martha, that Mrs. Kent gave me: so I unrolled my
+bundle, and displayed them. 'Oh,' said she, 'they are
+long, aren't they! and I've just put my baby in short
+dresses.' If you could have heard the kind of helpless,
+dissatisfied tone in which it was uttered! I had half a
+mind to bundle them up, and take them back. 'You
+can shorten them,' I answered, 'and some of them will
+make two dresses.' 'Yes,' she answered reluctantly,
+'only I should want something for yokes and sleeves.'
+Then her mother came to inspect them, and she was
+rather more gracious. But I could not help contrasting the
+two families. Mr. Cole is a carpenter, and has earned very
+good wages. Martha ran a machine in the shoe-shop,
+bought a melodeon, and took two or three quarters' music-lessons;
+purchased a very handsome set of amethyst jewelry
+and two pretty silk dresses when she was married.
+And in the two years of her married life, her husband has
+done next to nothing, although he is a steady, pleasant
+fellow. Now he is at Pittsburg, earning just enough to
+pay his own board. She has her sewing-machine, but she
+doesn't know how to make any kind of garment decently.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+When they had money they bought every thing ready-made.
+She paid Miss Gilman twenty-two dollars to make
+her two silk dresses. If she had put one of them in some
+plain, simple garments, how much more serviceable it
+would have proved!"</p>
+
+<p>"Such people are hardly worth helping," Miss Morgan
+said sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it a faulty system that makes them so?" asked
+Sylvie, drawing her brows into a little, perplexed frown.
+"Martha worked for two years, and earned a good deal
+of money. At one time she made ten dollars a week. It
+was just one thing,&mdash;fine stitching on shoes,&mdash;yet one
+would think she would understand a sewing-machine so
+completely that she could do any thing with it. But she
+actually hired part of her baby's wardrobe made; and
+the dresses she bought,&mdash;cheap coarse-trimmed things,
+I should have been ashamed of. Christine Webber wants
+to study for a teacher; and, as there is so little for girls to
+do, I think she will. She will make wiser investments of
+her money than Martha Cole, and think of the kind of
+wife her husband will get!"</p>
+
+<p>"The era of prosperity was too much for some people,"
+said Mrs. Darcy, with her motherly smile. "I used to
+wonder six or seven years ago, how it was that so many
+middle-class people could afford a servant, or fancy they
+needed one. A little more time spent in household duties
+would not have injured the women; and, if they had accustomed
+the children to take a part, it would have been much
+better for them. Then so much sewing was hired; and,
+although the income looked large, the expenditures swallowed
+it all up, and no one was any better off. How few
+had any stock of underclothing, bed-linen, or useful and
+durable articles!"</p>
+
+<p>"Industry must come around in the fashion again.
+Even the despised patchwork doubtless had its uses. It
+taught children to sew, and to manage economically. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
+remember that I once had three quilts on hand at one
+time. The larger pieces went into the first, and so on.
+My last one was a very pretty little thing, and I saved all
+the scraps for it. Yet we often hear people laugh about
+the folly of cutting calico into bits to sew together again.
+Why should it not be considered honorable and respectable
+to put every thing to the best use?" and Miss
+Morgan glanced up with a confidence no one could gainsay.</p>
+
+<p>"That is the grand secret," cried Sylvie,&mdash;"making
+economy honorable. You never see the nice old families
+flaunting their best silk and their point-laces on ordinary
+occasions. Something is kept sacred. And I do think
+there is more real economy among them, than among
+those who absolutely have a need for it. If wastefulness
+could once come to be considered a sin of ostentation
+and low-breeding, it would not have so many followers.
+Some people do it because they are afraid of being
+thought mean; but if they could be trained to that bravery
+of spirit that makes a work of beauty out of the poorest
+and smallest things because they are well done, and fitting
+to the place and season"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Bravo!" said a laughing voice as the door opened.
+"Mrs. Darcy, when the committee of ways and means
+have worn out your carpet by their frequent meetings in
+your charmed temple, you must insist upon their buying
+you a new one. Good-morning, ladies! Miss Barry, I
+set out to find you; and your aunt fancied you would be
+here, the place of all waifs and strays. I want you and
+Miss Morgan to go and inspect a room, or rather two
+rooms, to see if they will answer our purpose. Mrs. Lane
+had a school there."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know the place!" began Sylvie eagerly, buttoning
+up her sack again, and looking smilingly in Dr.
+Maverick's face, that had a sparkling wholesomeness born
+of the fresh air and brisk walk. And whenever he caught<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+her eye with this light in it, so friendly and earnest, a
+thrill sped through his veins.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Morgan was soon ready, and the three started.
+The place was only a few squares away, in a block of
+buildings where the stores on the lower floor stood empty;
+indeed, some of them had never been rented. Up-stairs
+there was one large room with three front windows, and a
+smaller room at the back with a fireplace, sink and water,
+and a large closet.</p>
+
+<p>"I have had the offer of this place rent free until
+spring," began the doctor. "I have also collected fifty
+dollars in money and provisions,&mdash;<i>imprimis</i>, one barrel
+of flour, one box of miscellaneous packages, rice, barley,
+corn-starch, &amp;c.,&mdash;and a second-hand range that will be
+put up as soon as you decide. In return for my arduous
+exertion and great benevolence, I shall call upon you now
+and then for meals or delicacies for my sick and famishing."</p>
+
+<p>"You are just magnificent!" declared Sylvie, in breathless
+pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"I am desirous of getting this experiment started; and,
+since we shall have to help the poor and needy this winter,
+I shall put my gifts into this. Now you must consider
+what you want for furnishing. Biddy McKim is to work
+out a doctor's bill cleaning the place; Ward Collins will
+let you have ten dollars' worth of house-furnishing goods
+on another bill. I am going to look up all my bad debts to
+start you two women in business!" and he laughed gayly.</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," said Miss Morgan, while Sylvie's face
+was still blending pleasure and astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"We are going to reform Yerbury, you see. The parsons
+tried their hands last winter; and, though there was
+need enough of spiritual food, there's something else required
+as well, while we are here in the body. You think
+the rooms will do? I want you to put a large table in
+that one,"&mdash;indicating the larger with his head,&mdash;"and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+we'll get two or three long benches, and have a tea-party
+now and then. Well, Miss Morgan, now you may take
+the floor. I see a crowd of ideas in your face."</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to propose that when the place is cleaned,
+both floors shall be painted to begin with. Then a simple
+mopping up will keep them bright and fresh. Some idle
+half-grown boys can do it, I am sure; or I can do it myself&mdash;it
+would not be the first time."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll look over my accounts, and levy on some delinquent,"
+said the doctor. "I like that idea."</p>
+
+<p>"Can we make out a list now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course. Put down about all the things you
+will be likely to need, and I will have them sent if they
+do over run the account. Biddy will come to-morrow, and
+clean. Now, you can hardly have the school open every
+day unless you get more assistance, so I think I should
+take it at first two days in the week."</p>
+
+<p>"A very good suggestion," replied Miss Morgan.</p>
+
+<p>"It might not be sufficiently attended to warrant more
+than that. My experience has been that nearly every
+housekeeper considers herself a finished cook."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick laughed.</p>
+
+<p>They discussed necessary articles of kitchen paraphernalia,
+and finally walked down to Collins's store, and made
+their selection. Early the next morning Bridget McKim
+was on the spot: the place was cleaned, the stove put in
+place, the floor given one good coat of paint. Two days
+after, the second one was added. Sylvie drew up a code
+of regulations. The school would be open Tuesday and
+Friday, all day. The dinner would be cooked and eaten;
+the baking, and whatever was left over, divided among
+the scholars to take home. Miss Morgan was elected
+president, Miss Barry vice-president, a secretary, a treasurer,
+and two in an advisory board. At each session two
+ladies were to be present, and give instruction.</p>
+
+<p>Invitations were sent to all likely to be interested. Dr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+Maverick used his strong influence wisely. The idea
+amused some, others wondered how ladies like Miss Barry
+knew about cooking and economy.</p>
+
+<p>"Let her undertake to live on the money we common
+folk have, and she'll see!" exclaimed Mrs. Stixon.
+"Our kind don't want to learn fussin' and fixin' of puddens
+and pies and such like! Good for us if we can get
+a mess of biled potatoes and bacon. My gals'll get along
+athout any such larnin'."</p>
+
+<p>They opened one Friday morning with seven pupils; a
+discouraging number, Sylvie thought, when she saw the
+spacious room and the nice preparations. The bashful
+girls sat in a little huddle, looking very much as if they
+were afraid of being laughed at.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Morgan was equal to the occasion. She made a
+short, sensible address, and hoped the girls who were
+present would interest not only their companions, but their
+mothers and friends. Then she questioned them a little.
+Had they ever boiled potatoes?</p>
+
+<p>At this they all laughed a little foolishly, and looked as
+if the art of boiling potatoes was held in rather low
+esteem.</p>
+
+<p>"The dinner for the day," announced Miss Morgan,
+"will be boiled potatoes, broiled steak, and corn-muffins.
+Which of you girls would like to try the muffins?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never heerd of such a thing," said one girl timidly.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie pleasantly corrected the speaker.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you may try," said Miss Morgan. "First,
+read this recipe aloud."</p>
+
+<p>Mary Moran stumbled through it, partly owing to
+ignorance, and the rest to feeling very much abashed.</p>
+
+<p>"Please go through it again, Mary," said Sylvie, in
+an encouraging tone.</p>
+
+<p>This time she did much better.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you may prepare the table and the dishes, and
+one of the girls may measure the meal and the flour. Put<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
+the ingredients in this dish&mdash;so. Keep your mind on the
+recipe. What comes next?"</p>
+
+<p>Mary was quite awkward. Miss Morgan corrected the
+slightest mistake. The other girls stood around in wondering
+amusement, and now and then a little titter broke
+out. But Mary went on, gaining courage. The tins had
+been set on the stove, now a bit of butter was put in each
+one, and stirred around, then the dough dropped in. This
+was quite entertaining.</p>
+
+<p>"What did I say about the oven?" queried Miss
+Morgan.</p>
+
+<p>The class looked aghast a moment, then one girl said
+quickly, "That the oven-door must be hot enough to
+hiss."</p>
+
+<p>"Right. Try it and see."</p>
+
+<p>It was in the proper condition. Mary slipped in the
+two trays of pans, shutting up the door. "To look at
+them, and turn them around in twelve minutes, and in
+twelve more to try them with a whisk," were the final
+directions.</p>
+
+<p>The potatoes were brought out next. Miss Morgan
+asked each girl to pare one, which they did in various
+uncouth ways. One girl cut off the skin in square bits,
+leaving a figure that would have distracted a geometrician;
+another ran round it rapidly, leaving in all the eyes;
+and out of the six potatoes there was but one neat and
+shapely. Miss Morgan held it up.</p>
+
+<p>"There is an art in so slight a thing as peeling a
+potato," said she. "It is very wasteful to cut it away
+in this manner, or this, and careless to leave in the eyes.
+Now each of you may pare another."</p>
+
+<p>The second attempt was a great improvement. They
+were put on to boil; one girl was detailed to watch them,
+another to prepare the steak, while a third arranged the
+dinner-table in the kitchen, as the family was to be so
+small. Mary looked after her corn-muffins. They had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
+risen up like little pound-cakes, and a glad smile illumined
+her rather stolid face.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie had brought a bit of tatting along, and now took
+it out.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how beautiful, Miss Barry!" exclaimed Kitty
+Miles. "I can do just the plain little scallop; but I
+never could get these other jiggers!"</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie laughed, "I believe they have a name beside
+'jiggers,'" in an odd, half-inquiring tone.</p>
+
+<p>"O Miss Barry, we girls can't talk nice like you!"
+and Kitty blushed.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why you cannot with taking a little pains.
+All words that are not names, and 'what-you-may-call-it,'
+and 'Mrs. Thingumby,' and such expressions, are the result
+of carelessness. If any thing has a name, that is
+the proper word to be used; and by being watchful one
+comes presently to talk in a lady-like manner. Now I
+will show you about these."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my muffins!" cried Mary, rushing to the stove.
+They were quite brown. She tried them with the whisk.</p>
+
+<p>"Some stick a little bit, Miss Morgan."</p>
+
+<p>"Push the pan back to the other side. Indian requires
+very thorough cooking or baking, or it will be
+soggy, and have a moist and not agreeable taste. Try
+your potatoes now."</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments they were done, and Kitty Miles
+undertook the steak. Mary let her muffins stand a
+moment or two, then turned them out. Two or three
+stuck fast, and broke: the rest were a perfect success.
+She was delighted beyond measure. They had no tea or
+coffee, but they gathered around the table, and enjoyed
+the meal very heartily. Sylvie desired them to ask any
+questions they liked; and by the time they were through,
+their awe of Miss Morgan had quite vanished.</p>
+
+<p>Afterward followed dish-washing. This was made
+quite a science, as well. They had hardly finished when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+Mrs. Miles and a neighbor came in, and through the
+course of the afternoon the numbers doubled. Mary
+begged that they might make some muffins to take
+home: Miss Morgan assented, and the girls had quite a
+gay time. But the oven was not precisely right.</p>
+
+<p>"Open the draughts a little. Although not so hot, the
+oven is very steady now. Close the draughts in five
+minutes."</p>
+
+<p>Mary forgot, and the result was that some at one end
+were a little burned.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, they're elegant!" exclaimed Mrs. Miles.
+"And what a cheap, hearty supper they'd make, when
+one has three hungry boys to feed! Mrs. Stixon, now,
+was thinking you'd go into all the fancy branches. I
+didn't know ladies ever"&mdash;and Mrs. Miles paused suddenly,
+her face scarlet.</p>
+
+<p>"Ever had occasion to practise economy!" cried
+Sylvie with her piquant smile. "They do a great deal
+of it, Mrs. Miles. My aunt would no sooner think of
+being wasteful in her kitchen than she would of wearing
+her velvet dress out on a rainy day. There is a neat,
+pretty, tasteful method about these things, that is as much
+of an art in its way as painting a picture, and in some
+respects a more important one, for the health of the body
+depends upon well-cooked food."</p>
+
+<p>"Since Kitty's nothing much to do, I mean to have her
+come every time. I'm sure you ladies are very good to
+take so much pains."</p>
+
+<p>The other officers dropped in. The cost of the materials
+used was ascertained, minutes of the session made,
+and a recipe for corn-muffins given to each girl. It was
+decided to attempt biscuit on the following Tuesday, and
+on the next meeting, bread. Then the fire was pretty
+well poked out, the stove-lids raised, and the class went
+home in an extremely interested spirit.</p>
+
+<p>Just as Sylvie and Miss Morgan had turned the corner,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+they caught sight of Dr. Maverick, who crossed the street
+to speak. Sylvie described their day with a few graphic
+touches, interspersed with much genuine mirth.</p>
+
+<p>"Some people were afraid to come," said he. "Before
+a month you will have your hands full."</p>
+
+<p>Sure enough, on Tuesday there were fifteen scholars.
+Miss Morgan and Sylvie had hardly a moment to spare
+until the dinner was through. Then the latter proposed
+that every scholar should bring some sewing, garments
+they wished cut out, any thing that perplexed them, or
+whatever they would like most to learn.</p>
+
+<p>All days were not so fortunate. Occasionally some dish
+would be spoiled by haste, carelessness, or want of attention.
+There were burned fingers and divers cuts; but
+Miss Morgan patiently explained her deft, neat, labor-saving
+methods. There began to be a great interest;
+some of the mothers coming in for an hour, or bringing a
+special dish to cook. Sylvie discussed the relative value
+and nourishment of different articles, the many changes
+that could be made at slight expense, the saving that a
+little carefulness brought about. She gave brief lectures
+on cleanliness, order, taste, and neatness; the right way
+and the wrong way of doing many things, the giving out
+and the taking in; the art of making the best, not only in
+such times as these, but in all times; of being brave and
+true in the lowest and smallest of life's duties; of throwing
+out false pride and shams, and the desire to appear
+richer or grander than one's means would allow.</p>
+
+<p>Then the last half-hour they had what Miss Morgan
+called an inquiry-meeting. Everybody was at liberty to
+ask one question, and those who knew answered it to the
+best of their ability. New teachers were pressed into the
+service. Dr. Maverick gave them a talk on health, and
+another on preparing food for the sick, and the special
+care some diseases required. And Jack Darcy proposed
+that Christmas Eve the cooking-school should give a supper,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+the tickets being at the low price of twenty-five cents.
+Every dish was to be cooked by the scholars.</p>
+
+<p>It created a deal of excitement. Hard as times were,
+the tickets sold rapidly. The large room had two long
+tables, with benches for seats. The first table was to be
+served at eight o'clock, the second at nine. Sylvie made
+a dozen of the girls pretty Suisse aprons and dainty caps,
+and they waited on the guests. Dr. Maverick offered
+three prizes,&mdash;one for the best loaf of bread, one for the
+best plain cake, and a third for the nicest and cheapest
+invalid broth.</p>
+
+<p>The room was full, and they had a very gay time. Indeed,
+it seemed as if half Yerbury turned out, either
+from honor or curiosity. At nine o'clock they ran short
+of provision, when they honorably decided to refund the
+money for all tickets offered after that, and explain to
+new-comers the state of affairs. But some of the young
+men proposed a dance; and they went on for the next
+two hours in hearty, healthy jollity.</p>
+
+<p>Out of ten loaves of bread offered, Mary Moran took
+the prize. That for the cake was awarded to quite a new
+scholar; while Kitty Miles carried off that for broth, three
+doctors concurring in the decision. And the treasurer
+found they had cleared fifty dollars above expenses, so
+that it proved a success in more ways than one. There
+had been a great dearth of amusement for the poorer
+classes in Yerbury this winter.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, it was just splendid!" said Bridget McKim.
+"My boy Mike had a week's wages in his pocket that
+night, and he was goin' off to the Ivy Leaf to raffle for a
+turkey; an' ses I, 'Mike, ye niver took me out of a Christmas,
+so do it now along o' the cookin' school party, an'
+ye'll get the best bit o' turkey yes ever put in yer mouth.'
+An' so he did; an' he said it was the best show he iver was
+to, and he wouldn't 'a' missed seein' Mary Moran get the
+prize fur twice the money. An' so he went home with me,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
+ye see, as sober as an owl, and we bought our own turkey;
+but if he'd gone to the tavern, not a cint would he had of
+his week's wages, and been drunk beside! An' he used
+to be swate on Mary too, so there's no knowin' what may
+happen!"</p>
+
+<p>The school took a fortnight's vacation. Sylvie and
+Miss Morgan felt that it was no longer an experiment.
+It would be put to wider uses, and perhaps was the corner-stone
+of a great work, sorely needed in this world;
+the same kind of work Jack Darcy had begun over in the
+mill yonder,&mdash;planting beacon-lights on the path where
+so many had stumbled and gone down for want of true
+and honest guidance.</p>
+
+<p>"It will have to be remodelled somewhat," said Miss
+Morgan. "I can't have you working like a slave, even
+if it is in a good cause. There is something still higher
+for you."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">After</span> the first of January it came off bitterly cold.
+Coal went up half a dollar on a ton; and flour rose,
+more by the greed of speculators than any scarcity, or
+any demand for it abroad. There was considerable suffering,
+though not as much as the winter before. The men
+and women and boys and girls at Hope Mills were thankful
+enough for their seventy-five per cent, and did their
+very best. A spirit of economy and emulation ran
+through the whole brotherhood. Every month Cameron
+announced whatever saving had been made in different
+departments, and the hands were proud enough of it.
+Those who had taken their whole winter's coal out of the
+share were quite jubilant. Once a week the workmen had
+a meeting, and discussed matters a little. Three men had
+been reprimanded, but on the whole the <i>morale</i> was excellent.
+Winston was on the alert continually, east, west,
+anywhere, buying here, selling there, seeing in every thing
+the promise of better times.</p>
+
+<p>"We've reached the last ditch as surely as they did in
+the war," he said to Darcy, rubbing his hands in great
+glee. "I tell you, old chap, it was a lucky thought of
+starting just as we did. You see, we shall come up with
+the good times; for I do honestly believe the worst is
+over."</p>
+
+<p>Jack smiled, but was not so sanguine. They had only
+gone such a little way on the five-years' journey. But
+there were some very encouraging rays right around them.
+Kit Connelly's coffee-house was working to a charm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>.
+Jack began to think that drinking liquors was not so
+much a besetting sin, as a natural sequence of having
+nothing else to drink when you were cold or hot, or tired
+or hungry. The men fell into the habit of going to Kit's
+for their midday lunch, and presently some of the women
+went over. The room was so bright and pleasant; and,
+with Miss Rose there, they were on their best behavior.
+In the evening Mrs. Connelly brought her work, and sat
+by the desk. Some of the younger men, who had no
+homes; as one may say, dropped in, and looked over the
+books. Once two young chaps had come up from Keppler's
+to have a little fun, as they said, and were rather
+noisy. Mrs. Connelly rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," she said, "you forget yourselves. This
+is an orderly, quiet house, not a tavern. If you cannot
+submit to the rules, you must leave it."</p>
+
+<p>"Leave it! Come, who'll put us out!" laughed the
+bully. "Let's see you try," with an insolent leer at the
+lady.</p>
+
+<p>Two men were sitting at a table just a little back of
+them. Their eyes met. Both rose; and, each seizing a
+shoulder of the bully, he was marched out before he could
+make the slightest resistance, his companion looking on
+in amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Next time you insult a lady in her own house, you
+will not get off so easily! Just bear that in mind."</p>
+
+<p>The fellow uttered an oath, but the door was shut in his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, John Kelly, and you, Ben Hay," said
+Mrs. Connelly, in a brave voice, though her heart fluttered
+a little.</p>
+
+<p>The other young ruffian rose, and walked out quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"If you didn't mind, Ben Hay," she said, an hour or
+so after, as they were shutting up for the night, "I'd
+like to have you drop in quite often of an evening. The
+boys are hardly big enough if we should ever be beset by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>
+such scamps as that, and you've always been so friendly-like."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Ben, flushing, and casting a sheepish
+look at the desk, where Rose's curly head was bent over
+her accounts. "Yes, I'm at your service. It's enough
+sight cheerfuller here than in Mother Mitchell's boarding-house.
+I'll be glad to come."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry heard of this, and told it over to Jack.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben Hay is a good, plucky fellow. He used to go
+down at noon for beer, but I do not think he has been
+since the coffee-house was opened. Sylvie, do you know,
+I believe reformers in general would be more successful if
+they put a good and pleasant thing in the place of the
+evil they assail. Too often they leave their convert to
+pick his way alone. Hay is very much interested in the
+plans of the mill. The meetings have done this much
+already,&mdash;a spirit of inquiry has been awakened in some
+of the men, and they are reading up what other people
+have achieved in this line. I want them to get well
+grounded before there comes any strain. We can't go
+on prospering forever. That would be too much like
+fairy-land."</p>
+
+<p>"But every one thinks the panic nearly at an end,"
+and Sylvie studied the grave face before her.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not want to croak," and Jack gave a little laugh
+that sounded forced, "but we have just begun to pay off
+our debts. Every city and town, and nearly every individual,
+is in debt. If we could pay with promises to pay,
+we might tide over a while longer; but when interest
+reaches a certain point, it swallows capital. If we can
+meet our indebtedness everywhere, as fast as it matures,
+well and good: if not, then we have only nibbled at the
+crust of our bitter pie."</p>
+
+<p>"Anyhow," cried Sylvie, with the woman's sanguine
+nature, "Yerbury is a great deal better off than it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
+last winter. Every one admits there is much less suffering."</p>
+
+<p>"There is more employment, and no broken bank,"
+with a cheerful smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know," said the young girl presently, while a
+faint color went wandering over her fair face, "that they
+are doing a marvellous stroke of business at Garafield's,
+even if the times are bad? Mrs. Garafield was down to
+tea a few evenings since, and she was greatly encouraged.
+There is such a rage about the new style of papering.
+Everybody has run mad on dados and friezes, and fresco
+patterns, bordering, and harmonies of color," laughingly.
+"And they have some wonderful new designs."</p>
+
+<p>"Fred is in just the right place. If he has courage
+to fight through," and there came a curious, almost foreboding
+expression in the sympathetic eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"You care a good deal for him, Jack! And yet he
+did not use you nobly," with a peculiar regret in the tone.
+"It is the one thing"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie, if I forgave it, surely you can." Then he
+turned his eyes upon her, and read or rather dreamed of
+something in a dim, dazed way, the story of a bygone
+summer. Had it been more to her than any one thought?
+Miss Barry had hinted to his mother that Sylvie's decision
+in the matter was a great disappointment to her. There
+had been a decision, then, and one adverse to Fred Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>"I hate a false and cowardly man!" her cheeks were
+flaming now. "And when you were schoolboys together,&mdash;when
+Agatha and Gertrude were so afraid he would
+lower himself if he looked at any boy below his own
+social position,&mdash;he used to stand up for you,&mdash;yes,
+he did,&mdash;and fight; of course not in a brutal way with
+fists," and she laughed at her own conceit, "but in that
+higher, finer manner, with no shield or weapon save his
+love for you. I used to like to see you together,&mdash;you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
+so sturdy and manful and true, and he delicate and handsome
+and adoring. And then"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie, I wonder if a woman can understand a man's
+friendship. We never had any quarrel. We just drifted
+apart. I don't believe we forgot each other. Circumstances
+took him out of my sphere, into a new one. If I
+had been there in college, going along with him step by
+step, don't you suppose he would have stood up for me in
+the face of his fine friends, just as he used to with his
+sisters?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so: I would like to believe it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am more just to him than you, Sylvie," said Jack, a
+little wounded. "I <i>know</i> it. I don't doubt it any more
+than I doubt&mdash;well, myself. He might have come&mdash;I
+was always sorry to see him avoid me, and I think he was
+weak, but he never forgot."</p>
+
+<p>"He <i>was</i> weak, he was worse, Jack." There was a
+curious cry of anguish in her voice, and her shoulders
+swayed unconsciously, while her eyes looked out on the
+summer night he could not see.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't get so excited over it, Sylvie," and the pleasant,
+cheery laugh seemed to bring healing on its wings.
+"Whatever it was, and we will let all that go, he made
+the <i>amende honorable</i> the night we had tea together up
+there in the great house. We took up our friendship just
+where it had dropped. Men never go over those crooked
+and thorny steps of the past, they have so much work to
+do in the present and the future. I wanted then to make
+a position for him in the mill; but it was not possible, and
+would not have been the part of wisdom under <i>any</i> circumstances.
+Yet it seemed as if I had stepped in his
+place. I was glad to hear of this other, though Fred
+would have been happier elsewhere. Sylvie, I do not
+believe you realize what it cost him to come back to Yerbury,
+to walk about, a working-man, where he had driven
+in his carriage. So down at the bottom there is the temper
+of the real blue steel, which <i>can</i> bend."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How generous you are, Jack!" There was something
+more than admiration in her tone, and yet she was wondering
+if she could ever forgive her fallen hero.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Sylvie, I don't mean to question any one's
+religion, but I've often thought about the rejoicing up
+above, over the one who went astray. I do not believe we
+rejoice with a very full heart: maybe we are not heavenly
+enough. We can never be sure of our own strength until
+some far-reaching test is applied, and yet it may not be
+an entirely true test. It may quiver about the weak spot
+in our souls; but, while there is any feeling, one cannot be
+entirely lost. That is why I say he never forgot. And
+you and I ought to rejoice that he <i>did</i> come back instead
+of going off in that gloomy, diseased, Manfred style, and
+upbraiding the world. 'Whatever his hand found to do'&mdash;that
+was one of grandmother's texts, and he went
+bravely at it."</p>
+
+<p>"I do believe you are a better Christian than I," she
+answered softly, her eyes limpid with emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"No. Perhaps not even a better friend;" and a smile
+played about his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"A truer friend, a more generous one"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What were we talking of?" in a sudden change of
+tone. "Oh, the business at Garafield's! Fred is a good
+deal of an artist, an intellectual artist I should say; and,
+though he may not attain to fame by painting pictures,
+there are many other points coming to be appreciated.
+He is in the way for usefulness; and, if he wins the bays
+for beauty as well, I am sure we shall all rejoice. I heard
+he had been designing."</p>
+
+<p>"You hear every thing." Sylvie made a capricious
+little <i>moue</i>. Her nods and gestures were so much a part
+of her, so piquant, decisive, and full of expression, when
+she did not intrench herself behind a studied dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you have heard it. I was wondering how
+best to tell you. I thought Garafield's might be a stepping-stone,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
+these hard times, but it may prove the veritable
+ladder itself. Only"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" with a trifle of impatience, as if she could
+not endure the suggestiveness of the tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if you understand the courage it took for
+Fred Lawrence to make a home here in Yerbury, to bring
+his mother and sister; for you see he must endure for them
+as well as himself. Mrs. Lawrence will always be an
+invalid, I suppose. He thinks her quite changed and
+softened: evidently she clings to him. They see none of
+their old friends. Miss Lawrence never goes anywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"As if one could help that!" almost passionately.
+"Auntie wrote a note to Mrs. Lawrence, and it was merely
+answered. They do not desire to receive any one. We
+can only let them alone, Jack."</p>
+
+<p>"Even then we can hardly fail to appreciate what he is
+doing, possibly suffering. I think he will come in time to
+win back all the regard his friends ever gave him," Jack
+Darcy said in a steady tone.</p>
+
+<p>Was he pleading for him? Sylvie was somewhat puzzled,
+the most so, perhaps, about herself. How much had
+she cared for Fred in that old time? If not at all, why
+did this feeling of shame over a fallen idol continually
+haunt her? She compared the two men in every thing,
+and sometimes was vexed to admit that Jack was the
+nobler.</p>
+
+<p>Their walk had come to an end. They paused at the
+gate; and a third person striding up Larch Avenue took
+in the drooping, attentive, and pliant figure, the strong,
+protecting, powerful personality of the other,&mdash;and wondered,
+as he had more than once before. Were they
+friends merely? It was not possible for a woman to see
+so much of Jack Darcy's noble, manly life, and not admire,
+not love, Dr. Maverick admitted. She showed in
+many ways that she did care for him. Oddly enough she
+sheltered herself under his friendly care when other admirers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
+came too near. Could not Darcy see! What a
+blind, stupid mole he must be in this respect! and the
+doctor kicked a stone in his path with such force that the
+two turned in the midst of their good-bys, and waited with
+smiling faces for him to reach them. Not a shade of
+annoyance in look or tone at the interruption.</p>
+
+<p>"The queerest lovers," he thought to himself. "If I
+stood in that man's place"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Jack went homeward in a curiously speculative mood.
+He has always fancied for Sylvie some handsome, spirited
+knight, whose mental intuitions would be as delicate and
+refined as hers, whose enjoyment as intense. Little as he
+knew of love, he understood their friendship too thoroughly
+to be betrayed into any mistake. And he wondered
+now if he held the key to Sylvie's spiritual enfranchisement
+of all other men? If she had not loved Fred Lawrence,
+she had come too dangerously near it ever to free
+herself entirely from whatever thrall his soul had thrown
+over hers. She <i>had</i> been disappointed in him, he read
+that from her tone; but surely, if he brought himself up
+to a finer and truer standard than any known in that enervating
+atmosphere of luxury, would she still be implacable?
+How could he best serve these two people, whom he
+loved so entirety?</p>
+
+<p>He had many other things to busy himself about beside
+love and friendship. March came on apace, and the
+balance-sheet for the six months had to be put in shape.
+The accounts had been systematically kept: that he had
+insisted upon in the beginning. Cameron knew every
+gallon of oil, every pound of wool, every penny spent for
+repairs and stock; Hurd and Yardley had kept account
+of every yard of cloth, and what quality, that had passed
+through their hands; Winston, of travelling, advertising,
+commissions, &amp;c.; and Jack went over every thing. They
+had done wonderfully. There was actually a balance of
+profit to every man, woman, and child. The forms were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>
+printed, and distributed to every employee, and there was
+a great rejoicing time. They engaged the Cooking Club
+to provide them a supper, and the young people had a
+merry dance afterward.</p>
+
+<p>"It's hardly safe to halloo until you are out of the
+woods," said some of the solid old men of Yerbury, who
+were living snugly on the interest of government-bonds.
+"Six months is no test at all. Wait until there is a hard
+pull, and you will not be so jubilant."</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered Jack with a humorous twinkle in his
+eye: "it's right to have the rejoicing now, when we have
+fairly earned it. The man who croaks when Providence
+has smiled upon him, deserves the frown; and he who is
+unthankful for small successes hardly has a right to great
+ones. I do not expect all fair sailing, but we will weather
+the storms together."</p>
+
+<p>"It <i>is</i> rather unfortunate," commented another wise-acre.
+"I have observed these wonderful beginnings
+seldom end well. If you should have a run of bad luck
+now, your men will be dissatisfied, and likely blame you
+for not keeping up to that mark. I shouldn't have made
+such a great effort, and then there would have been a
+chance for improvement."</p>
+
+<p>"A new broom sweeps clean, but it <i>will</i> get worn out,"
+with sundry mysterious nods.</p>
+
+<p>"I declare," said Jack to his friend and comforter,
+Maverick, "half the town looks at me as if I must have
+robbed a bank, or falsified accounts, told a lie, or cheated,
+or maybe murdered some rich old don, and made merry
+on his money. Why can't people rejoice with you when
+there is any thing to rejoice about,&mdash;an event which
+does not happen so often in these evil days? I do believe
+Boyd, and a lot of the others, would be glad to see the
+scheme fail; but I'll work night and day to make a success
+of it. It shall not go down," and Jack set his lips
+together in a way that spoke volumes for his resolve.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I have observed before that some people are fond of
+disparaging plans that they have no hand in," returned
+the doctor coolly.</p>
+
+<p>"And philanthropy is a much-derided virtue. If the
+old Athenian had been a stock-broker or a bank-director,
+he might not have been sent into exile, eh?" and Darcy
+laughed good-humoredly. "If I have kept a few people
+from starvation this winter, I ought surely to have as
+much credit as to have dealt around alms. As for the
+success, we had the reputation of Hope Mills in our favor,
+and every man had his own fortune at stake, and brought
+out the best that was in him."</p>
+
+<p>He sent Miss McLeod her half-yearly rent, a copy of
+the statement, and a very temperate letter. He was quite
+proud to think he had no need of accepting her proffered
+favor, but he thanked her again for it.</p>
+
+<p>She answered promptly. She had shown the statement
+to Mr. Hildreth, and he thought it remarkable. Wasn't
+it a trifle too rose-colored to last? Count on her as a
+friend, if evil days came; and we none of us could tell
+exactly what was in store. The financial horizon was by
+no means clear.</p>
+
+<p>A few others gave him words of heartfelt encouragement.
+The Rev. Mr. Marlow spoke of him in very high
+terms, much to Sylvie's delight, and said already there
+had been a great change in the mill-hands. The coffee-house
+he considered an especially commendable thought.</p>
+
+<p>There was a quiet change going on that was destined to
+bear more abundant fruit in the future. Some of the men
+and women had begun to think a little for themselves.
+The pupils of the cooking-school were beginning the
+A B C of beauty and neatness. Their rooms were swept
+cleaner; their clothes took on a more tidy aspect. With
+the opening spring, gardens and court-yards were cleared
+of their rubbish, and flower-beds flourished again. Sylvie
+gave her girls one very instructive lecture on slips and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
+flower-seeds, and one Saturday they went out to the woods
+for ferns and wild flowers. It was only one little corner,
+to be sure, but it was the leaven that was presently to do
+a wide-spread work.</p>
+
+<p>Hope Mills took up its steady march again. Half a
+dozen new hands were added, though Jack wished that he
+could find employment for some of the poor souls that
+besieged him daily. If times really were coming better,
+if orders only would increase, and he could with safety
+enlarge his borders! But "slow and steady" was his
+motto. He was not one to disparage the present by exaggerating
+the advantages of the future.</p>
+
+<p>There was one home that these cordial little excitements
+never entered. The three souls in it, although they should
+have been very near and dear, wrapped themselves in
+their own thoughts and sorrows, and took no note of their
+fellows.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawrence heeded the outward change least of the
+three. She had her pretty room, her glowing fire in
+winter, her fur slippers, and zephyr shawls; her late
+breakfast in bed, then her luxurious dressing-gown, and
+her books. She had settled herself into the <i>r&ocirc;le</i> of an
+invalid for the remainder of her days. The loss and
+suffering had not taken her out of herself, or raised her
+narrow, vapid nature. She was at once patient and complaining,&mdash;even
+her affection for her son was combined
+with great mental and moral weakness. She was profoundly
+grieved that he should have been compelled to
+accept so unsuitable a position; but to her it was only
+a temporary event. Something <i>must</i> happen. In some
+mysterious way they would come back to their former
+grandeur,&mdash;not that she cared especially, but for the
+sake of Fred and Irene. Then for days she would lose
+herself in the joys and sorrows of her heroines. To such
+people novel-reading is certainly a godsend. A readable
+book was as exhilarating to her as a splendid morning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
+drive or a good deed is to many others. She had society
+without being bored. She had wit, poetry, art, music,
+travels, dinners, and balls, with no worry, no late hours,
+or fatigue.</p>
+
+<p>Irene could not so yield up her personality. She
+brooded over her lot in a haughty, bitter spirit. She uttered
+no complaint,&mdash;she was far too proud for that,&mdash;but
+she took no interest in any thing. Like a melancholy
+ghost she wandered up and down, or sat by the window
+for hours in a listless attitude. There were moments
+when she wished herself Lady Frodsham, times when the
+change and bustle of such a life as that of Mr. Barringer
+would have been heaven itself.</p>
+
+<p>Fred could never persuade her to go anywhere. She
+took no walks, except to pace up and down the garden
+path when the quiet of the house drove her well-nigh
+crazy. Once in a great while she opened the piano, and
+played as if a demon had taken possession of her soul
+and her fingers.</p>
+
+<p>Fred breakfasted early and alone. After a while he
+fell into the habit of taking his lunch in his office, and
+coming home to a late dinner. Martha was certainly the
+perfection of maids. The housekeeping went on with the
+regularity of clockwork: there were no complaints even.
+Fred used to sit in his mother's room until her bedtime,
+when he would go down to the library, and work for an
+hour or two.</p>
+
+<p>The utter dearth of interest would have been terrible to
+him but for his business. At first he preserved a wide
+and punctilious distance between himself and Mr. Garafield.
+He was the employer, to be sure; but then Fred
+Lawrence had a dignity of his own to maintain. One
+day, however, the dignity suffered a collapse. Mr. Garafield
+brought in some new designs, and they lapsed into
+an exceedingly entertaining art discussion. The employer
+had excellent taste, trained and shaped by practical experience:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+Fred possessed the wider mental reach and
+exquisite perception of harmony and color, the sentiment
+of genius.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you not take up the idea, Mr. Lawrence?"
+asked his employer. "House finishing and furnishing is
+fast coming to be a fine art. An intelligent, harmonious
+beauty is demanded. We are leaving behind the complacency
+of mere money in our adornments, and asking for
+something that evinces thought and refinement. I am
+sure you could succeed if you once set about the work."</p>
+
+<p>The compliment touched Fred profoundly, roused him
+to a new venture. He practised his almost lost art of
+designing to some purpose: he wrote two or three art
+essays that happened to find much more favor than his
+abstruse philosophies. After all, he was young, and the
+whole world lay before him. Surely he could carve out
+some kind of fortune. The light of earnest endeavor
+shone in his eyes, the languid step quickened into one
+of courageous elasticity. He had dawdled away years
+enough: he would put a purpose into his manhood, that
+some distant eyes, seeing, might not relegate him entirely
+to the regions of contempt.</p>
+
+<p>"There's quite a good deal in that young Lawrence,"
+declared Phil Maverick decisively. "I was in at Garafield's
+the other evening, and, I must confess, listened to a
+fine art lecture. All about wall-papering, too!" with a
+genial laugh. "What an education that fellow has!
+Couldn't he find any thing to do, that he must drop down
+upon a paper-factory? I am sure I should have made a
+big fight out somewhere in the great world."</p>
+
+<p>"'Beyond the Alps lies Italy,'" quoted Jack. "Not
+on the top, you observe, but perhaps in the valley. I
+wish you would be a little friendly with him, Maverick:
+you couldn't help but like him."</p>
+
+<p>"There is more in him than I gave him credit for. I
+thought at the time of his father's death I had never seen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
+so useless a fine gentleman, with all the stamina educated
+out of him. I had half a mind to turn him over to Aunt
+Jean and Miss Lothrop."</p>
+
+<p>Darcy laughed absently, and Maverick saw that his
+mind had wandered elsewhere. How odd that these two
+should be friends! Maverick could not discern the fine
+bond uniting them.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Summer</span> came on apace. The Cooking Club took a
+vacation, or rather turned into a gardening club, and studied
+the sensible part of botany and floriculture. People
+began to look at the waste land lying about, with envious
+eyes. Here and there some one started a garden, or
+indulged in a flock of chickens. The Webbers traded
+their snug cottage for a place on the outskirts of the town,
+with two acres of ground, which they improved rapidly.
+Men who had sold farms, and spent the money in vain
+business speculations, looked back regretfully, and in
+some instances hired where they had been proprietors.
+There was no money to be realized in farming, but if one
+could even make a living! No one was making money
+but those lucky fellows at Hope Mills. Of course that
+was a bubble, and would burst presently; but doubtless it
+was good while it lasted.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry, Sylvie, and Mrs. Darcy went away to a
+pleasant, quiet seaside resort. Miss Barry appeared to be
+ailing a little. Mrs. Minor so far relented as to invite
+her mother and Irene to spend two months with her at
+Long Branch. Mrs. Lawrence consented, Irene refused
+flatly. "She had no money to spend for dress, and she
+would accept no one's charity," she declared in her
+haughty way. But she could not stay in the house forever:
+so she took long walks over wild country ways,
+angry with the world, herself, and every thing. A fierce-eyed,
+beautiful girl, clinging desperately to her isolation,
+and yet eating out her very heart in loneliness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The time ran on rapidly. September came around.
+Hope Mills did not make as good a report this time.
+Business had been very dull. Sales were next to nothing.
+People did not need much in warm weather, and orders
+were very light. However, several other branches of
+industry in Yerbury improved a trifle. Railroads, stocks,
+and real estate were fast becoming dead speculations: so
+men ventured to put their money warily into business
+again.</p>
+
+<p>But the bottom had not been reached. Early in October
+there was a tremendous failure of an old and well-known
+firm of woollen-manufacturers. The bankrupt stock was
+sold at auction. Then another, and various smaller
+houses. The market was suddenly flooded. No one
+could sell. No one seemed to need new garments of any
+kind. Men wore their old clothes, and shrugged their
+shoulders in a sort of contemptuous content, as if they
+had suddenly found a great charm in a half-worn, shabby
+overcoat. Robert Winston went hither and yon. Not a
+piece or a yard would any one take.</p>
+
+<p>There was a great deal of discussion in various daily
+journals. The business had been overdone again. Foreign
+markets must be found. We could not compete with
+foreign manufacturers. Our wool was inferior, our looms
+were inferior, our men knew so little, and demanded such
+high wages. Then we never could do any thing under
+the present wretched tariff and the skinning system of
+taxation. It took all a man could make. Another sapient
+statesman declared nothing could be done without more
+money. The contraction had been so great that not a man
+could do business. Then came a long list of figures to
+prove what a very little money was left in the country.
+Newspaper war raged, first on this side, then on that.
+If we did this, we would surely be ruined: if we did not,
+then ruin was inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>Jack used to try for some light, no matter how faint.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
+It seemed to him, if the great men at the helm of the
+national ship would set to work vigorously to widen and
+strengthen the commerce of the nation, instead of discussing
+such frivolous issues, prosperity might dawn once
+more. He went over his political economists again, and
+realized sadly that men had always disputed these points,
+and that each writer or prophet was sure his was the only
+creed that would ever save the world, while by following
+any other they would surely go to ruin.</p>
+
+<p>Winston and he took counsel together: then they called
+in Cameron, who looked blue enough.</p>
+
+<p>"Any ordinary factory would shut down for the
+winter," said Winston ruefully; "but that would be to
+confess our scheme a failure. We are piling up goods&mdash;but
+for what&mdash;a grand auction-sale by and by? And the
+men have worked so cheerfully&mdash;no, we can't give up."</p>
+
+<p>"Giving up is out of the question at present," Jack
+answered solemnly, as if he was passing his word at the
+bar. "Our balance at the bank has been expended,
+and we have some notes out that must be cared for in a
+month's time. Wages are falling, and it seems to look
+now as if we were coming back to the era of cheap living.
+The bargain was the ruling rate of wages, you know. I
+think they will have to come down."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not give up beaten," declared Winston. "I'll
+have one more try. Keep up heart, shipmate."</p>
+
+<p>With that Winston started West again. He talked, he
+plead, he offered for the mere cost of production,&mdash;just
+to get the money back would be something. The coal-venture
+of this winter had been much larger, though coal
+was declining, and the profit somewhat less. Everybody
+pared the margin to the mere skin. Winston had a little
+luck, however. Two sales of some note were effected,
+and a barter, that only a man with a shrewd eye for bargains,
+and a glib tongue, could have managed. Flour,
+apples, and potatoes were the stock this time. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
+workmen took them gladly, at a little less than store
+prices. They knew how full the wareroom kept all the
+time.</p>
+
+<p>The first of January, wages were lowered. There was a
+little grumbling among some of the men, but the women
+took it in wiser part. The half-loaf was much better
+than no bread at all. They remembered the dismal year
+when there had been no employment, and stinted food
+purchased on credit. One wouldn't starve with flour and
+potatoes, nor freeze with a full coal-bin.</p>
+
+<p>Hope Mills had exhausted every source,&mdash;had even
+paid a horrible discount, being hard run,&mdash;when Darcy
+wrote to Miss McLeod a true statement of affairs. If
+they could hold out until spring, times might be better.
+They were economizing as they never had before: yet the
+time had come when disaster really stared them in the
+face, unless they could find a true friend.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry had generously offered him her store and
+her credit. Though there had been a time when she withheld
+Sylvie, and fancied Jack Darcy not quite the equal
+of her pretty niece, that time had long gone by. She
+knew now his genuine worth,&mdash;she had tested his integrity.
+Of course Sylvie would drift that way; and so,
+by many delicate turns, she showed Jack that she could
+trust him with any of her treasures.</p>
+
+<p>"You are so good," said the honest fellow, with tears
+in his eyes,&mdash;for he was touched beyond measure. "If
+I can't get through I will gladly accept, unless the prospect
+is so bad that it would be sure to jeopardize any one's
+money. But I hope it will not come to that."</p>
+
+<p>How breathlessly he waited for Miss McLeod's answer!
+The morning's mail did not bring it; night closed in without
+it. A chill drizzle had set in, freezing as it fell, and
+the keen air fairly flayed one's skin. Yet he dreaded to
+go in-doors, to hear his mother's pleasant voice. Cousin
+Jane had been called away by the illness and possible
+death of a relative, so they two were alone.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Darcy saw her son so grave and pre-occupied,
+his eyes sadly pathetic with trouble, mother-like, she
+tried to comfort with the small talk that women often offer,
+and that answers the purpose like bathing one's brow with
+Florida-water in a severe headache. She never mentioned
+business to him when in such moods. Now it was a
+bit of newspaper-gossip, concerning some discoveries in
+Greece, that he and Maverick had been quite eager
+about.</p>
+
+<p>The poor fellow was distraught, and could not listen.
+He ate his supper, choking down the food, for her dear
+sake, missing strangely Cousin Jane's pungency and
+seasoning. Then he tried to interest himself in the
+paper, but could not; he paced the floor softly; he
+whistled a tune, for his mother's benefit also, but broke
+down in the middle.</p>
+
+<p>"I must go out a little while," he declared in desperation.</p>
+
+<p>"Not in this storm," said his mother pleadingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I'll be back by&mdash;ten," looking at the clock.
+"It is too bad to leave you alone," with sudden regret,
+kissing her tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not mind for a while. But this wretched
+storm"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>He laughed, a little strained and forced; then he put
+on his great-coat, almost wishing that every man in the
+country was without, and had to buy one to-morrow. He
+tramped up the street, drawing long respirations, every
+one of which was nearly a sigh. Was this the way Mr.
+Lawrence felt when times went bad? Was some such
+trouble the cause of that fatal disaster? He bowed his
+head in a sort of touching and profound respect to the
+dead man. He experienced an earnest sympathy for all
+struggling capitalists. What did unreasoning labor know
+of such nights as these when every thing, even good name,
+was at stake! He wondered if his mop of curly hair<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
+would turn gray, and then, in a ridiculously trivial mood,
+remembered he must go and have it cropped. As well
+now as any time; but when he reached the barber's, the
+place looked so uninviting, with the smoky kerosene-lamps
+turned low. He did not stop: he used to wonder afterward
+how it would have been if he had, until he came to
+have a sincere and reverent belief in God as the disposer
+of human events, the Hand back of the curtain, that
+guided every step, and kept sacred watch even over two
+sparrows.</p>
+
+<p>He walked down past Maverick's; but half a dozen
+people were in there, so he went on and on to the very
+end of the street, when by the dim light he saw a figure
+in advance of him, a woman, tall and stately, muffled in
+a waterproof and hood. There was something in the
+bearing different from most of the Yerbury women who
+ran out of an evening for a neighborly gossip, or some
+provender for their next morning's breakfast. There
+were no stores in this direction; it was quite lonely;
+perhaps she was going home. It would annoy her to be
+followed, doubtless; and on such a night as this no roughs
+would be abroad in this vicinity.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy was in that nervous state when the brain
+seems rarefied and empowered to wrest secrets from the
+very elements in his path. He pursued several chains of
+thought at once, with lightning rapidity, and, with curious
+mental inconsistency, dropped them, and lapsed into
+others. Now a sudden interest sprang up in this wandering
+traveller. He listened with the wariness of an Indian
+to her step. It had in it the essential principle of flight,
+but a baffled, fruitless longing for escape, rather than a
+nearing to some distant haven or goal. He had not used
+to be so keen in this subtile discrimination, until Maverick
+crossed his path, and helped him out of his psychological
+bondage. And ordinarily his senses had not the electric
+keenness of to-night.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The figure paused. The face seemed to turn to the
+drear, blank sky&mdash;was it in appealing, or a desperate
+daring? an impotent resistance, or a wild, agonizing
+prayer? The hands were thrown up: he had come gradually
+nearer, and could see them, ghostly white in the
+long feeble ray of the distant lamp. What was she deciding
+or asking? A shiver ran over him as the thought of
+suicide entered his brain. At all events, he must not let
+her go to destruction.</p>
+
+<p>Her hands dropped. She took a few slow, irresolute
+steps, then turned and came so quickly, that before he
+could stir or think, she confronted him. A wild face with
+staring eyes, a wilder shriek ringing out on the night air,
+making muffled echoes around, a desperate plunge, and a
+fall. He sprang and essayed to raise her from the half-frozen
+hail-bed of the sidewalk; the hood fell back, and he
+was more than astonished at beholding the face of Irene
+Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>He appeared suddenly to comprehend the whole fact,
+though he came to know afterward that he misjudged her.
+Only a desire to put an end to life and suffering, real or
+fancied, could have brought her out this night, in the
+lonely neighborhood, still, not so far from her own home.
+He must take her back, and then go for Maverick, who
+had become quite a favorite with Mrs. Lawrence, and
+prescribed harmless remedies for her, since she insisted
+she must have them.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy never experienced a more exultant pride in
+his strength than now. He lifted the helpless form, settled
+the swaying head on his broad shoulder, and, clasping the
+body tightly, picked his way through the slippery streets,
+in a manner that would have done credit to an Alp
+climber. Round this corner and that, to the quiet, deserted
+street, where every window was closed, and perhaps
+half the inmates in bed. Only in one house was
+there a sound of life. Some one was playing an accompaniment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>
+for an evening hymn, and youthful voices were
+singing. Two lines floated out as he passed, making a
+kind of glow on the sullen night:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Though long a wanderer,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The sun gone down"&mdash;</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Unconsciously he tightened his arms around this wanderer.
+Of course all their brief acquaintance had gone
+through his mind, especially the day when in her haughty
+pride and beauty she had given him that cold, insolent
+stare; but he forgave her freely, just as he had forgiven
+Fred's sin, unasked. How strangely he was destined to
+be mixed up with these Lawrences!</p>
+
+<p>He paused on the low porch, where a honeysuckle rioted
+in summer, and was still full of withered leaves. His
+burthen had not stirred, and was a dead weight. Resting
+it against his knee, he pulled the door-bell gently, and
+waited.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, Mr. Lawrence?" asked a voice from
+within.</p>
+
+<p>"No. Jack Darcy," for he guessed rightly that it was
+Martha.</p>
+
+<p>She opened the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be frightened, Martha," in a re-assuring tone.
+"It is Miss Lawrence."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, good heaven!" in tones of terror.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! do not disturb any one. Is Mr. Lawrence
+home? Where shall I carry her? she is in a dead faint."</p>
+
+<p>"Bring her in the parlor. Oh, Mr. Darcy! where was
+she?" with a look of wild affright. "I did not know
+she had gone out. I always felt something would happen
+to her; and a long while ago I offered to go out with her,
+but she is so hard and disdainful that one soon comes to
+letting her alone. She made me promise not to tell her
+brother, or rather she defied me to: she wouldn't put any
+thing as a favor if she was dying. Talk about the pride<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
+of Lucifer! And I knew it would worry Mr. Lawrence
+dreadfully."</p>
+
+<p>"Was she in the habit of going out&mdash;alone&mdash;at
+night?" asked Jack, in amaze.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it was from pride," answered Martha simply.
+"You see, she needed some exercise, and she seldom went
+out in the daytime. And I don't think she is afraid of
+any thing. I never saw such a cold, bitter, strong girl&mdash;for
+she is only a girl yet. I've sometimes felt afraid she
+would do something desperate. Oh, if she would only
+let the Lord help her bear her trouble! And Mr. Lawrence
+is so kind and generous! He would do any thing
+for her. Oh, he ought to be home! There's the clock
+striking ten."</p>
+
+<p>"And I must run for the doctor. Heaven grant she
+may not be dead! Take off her cloak, and try something"&mdash;glancing
+about in alarm.</p>
+
+<p>Then he seemed to take one devouring look at the
+sculptured face, with closed lids, and jetty lashes sweeping
+the marble cheeks. Hurrying away, as if by some
+great effort, he ran down the street again, despatched
+Maverick, and hastened to Fred's office. The building
+loomed up dark and silent. He might possibly be at
+Garafield's house: he often went there of an evening, he
+and Mr. Garafield were so engrossed with their plans.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long walk; but Jack strode on, getting rapidly
+over the ground. The hall-door was open, and Mr. and
+Mrs. Garafield were saying good-night to Fred. Jack
+waited until he came down the steps, and then called to
+him cheerfully. They linked arm-in-arm. The hail and
+rain had turned now to fine, hard snow, and the wind
+seemed to scurry through the deserted streets like a
+forlorn, wailing spirit.</p>
+
+<p>Jack told his story briefly, also repeating what Martha
+had said about Irene's habit of lonely walking. He felt
+the sensitive nerves in the arm he held, quiver with a
+shuddering pain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Thank God it was you!" Fred said, with a great,
+tremulous gasp. "She is so strange, so cold and self-contained,&mdash;so
+bitter against fate! Believe me, Jack, I
+have tried my utmost"&mdash;and the voice broke with something
+like a sob.</p>
+
+<p>"I know it, dear old fellow," drawing him nearer as
+the blast whistled around them.</p>
+
+<p>"We never learned to make each other happy, you
+know. We never supposed we had any special duties to
+one another, so it was a new task to me. I tried to interest
+her in something, to make her more cheerful; but she
+would wrap herself in that haughty, unconquerable coldness.
+Yet if I had known or guessed"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"After all, there is very little danger down your end
+of the town," said Jack, in that light, comforting tone.
+"There's nothing to call tramps or roughs; and, I dare
+say, to-night all would have gone straight if she had not
+run against me, as one may say, and the fright made her
+faint."</p>
+
+<p>"But if it had been some one else! Oh, my God!"</p>
+
+<p>"It was not; so never give that a second thought.
+There is no use in bringing up an army of 'might-have-beens'
+to worry you to death when you have escaped
+danger. And&mdash;here we are."</p>
+
+<p>"You will come in, of course?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack followed his friend. Maverick had succeeded in
+restoring Miss Lawrence to consciousness; but she was
+now in a burning fever and raging delirium. Outraged
+nature had at last asserted its sway.</p>
+
+<p>"It is better so, I think," remarked Maverick, in a
+quiet, decisive tone. "She will have a severe run of
+fever, for this has been some time coming on; but she
+has youth and a naturally fine constitution in her favor.
+I believe she will pull through. But some arrangement
+must be settled upon. It will not do to take her up-stairs;
+for the effect upon your mother will be too great a risk.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>
+If you could bring a bed down here&mdash;to-morrow I will
+see about getting a nurse."</p>
+
+<p>"I think it would be better to bring her bed down
+stairs," rejoined Martha. "The parlor is used so little.
+And she would be so much more comfortable"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Martha's eyes went over the heavy, clinging dress, the
+disordered hair, the bracelets that were like manacles as
+she threw her arms about, moaning, muttering, and laughing
+shrilly. The eyes rolled wildly in their senseless stare,
+until one's blood almost curdled.</p>
+
+<p>"We must get about it immediately," began Dr. Maverick.
+"She will be quieter presently, and I shall remain
+all night. Darcy, you watch her: do not let her injure
+herself, while we bring down the necessary articles."</p>
+
+<p>Just at this juncture Mrs. Lawrence's bell rang. The
+noise had startled her from her first sound sleep. Dr.
+Maverick explained simply, and gave her a composing
+draught.</p>
+
+<p>"A fever! Is it any thing contagious? Yes, it is
+better to keep her down there: my nerves are so weak,
+and I think I have a very sensitive, susceptible nature.
+I might take any disease so easily,&mdash;do you not think
+so, doctor?" and Mrs. Lawrence looked up from her
+frills and laces and snowy pillow with the helpless air
+of a child.</p>
+
+<p>"Much better. She may be delirious, too, and that
+would distress you. Now be as quiet as possible, and try
+to go to sleep again. I shall remain to keep you both
+in order," with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"That is very kind," she answered, with a pretty wave
+of her delicate hand. Her daughter might be dying
+below, but her nerves must be settled and cared for.
+Still, to do her justice, even in her intense selfishness,
+she never considered other people's ailments dangerous,
+while she held that her own precious life was constantly
+in peril. She talked of dying with the calmness of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+saint, and admitted that there was no further charm to
+life, but still she must have the choicest care.</p>
+
+<p>Under Martha's supervision they soon dismembered
+the bedstead, and brought down all necessary belongings.
+Jack had watched his charge, strangely exercised
+by her curious, changeful moods. Once she had looked
+meaningly at him.</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>might</i> marry you," she said, in soft, mocking tones,
+her scarlet lips taking on a bitter, scornful smile; "but
+I should come to hate you so that some night when you
+lay asleep I should rise and murder you! I might endure
+you in London, where I could be in a continual round of
+gayety; but at Frodsham Park, with an old man like you,&mdash;May
+and December! May and December!" and she
+laughed shrilly.</p>
+
+<p>She did not mean <i>him</i>, then! Honest Jack Darcy
+blushed to the roots of his hair, to his very finger-ends.
+Some old man had wanted her: well, she was braver and
+truer, then, than most people would admit.</p>
+
+<p>The three came in, and transformed the parlor to a hospital-ward,
+without the simplicity. Jack suddenly thought
+of his mother, and hurried away. What an eventful walk
+it had been! and Hope Mills was quite driven out of his
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>He found his mother frightened and hysterical; and
+drawing her down beside him he told her the story of his
+wanderings, expressing with some tender kisses his sorrow
+for her alarm, and advised her to go to bed at once, as he
+meant to do. And, though it might not be romantic after
+such an adventure, I must admit that in ten minutes my
+hero was soundly asleep, oblivious of both storm and
+business.</p>
+
+<p>At the house he had left, there was but little refreshing
+rest. Mrs. Lawrence drowsed away when the confusion
+of re-arrangement had subsided. The gentlemen retired
+to the library while Martha disrobed her young mistress<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+with inward fear and trembling, hardly being able to
+judge what was due to delirium, and what to natural imperiousness.
+Then Dr. Maverick kindly dismissed her.</p>
+
+<p>"You will need your strength in the morning," said he.
+"Try to get at least one good nap."</p>
+
+<p>He took his station at the bedside, and motioned Fred
+to an armchair just out of his sister's range. The opiate
+was not working <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'sucessfully'">successfully</ins>, but at present he did not
+consider it wise to increase it. He questioned him a little
+as to Miss Irene's habits and resources, and imagined the
+part withheld, from that rather reluctantly admitted. He
+understood that here kindred blood had not produced
+harmony, but a horrible discord, the more wearing in that
+every note had been muffled. The self-commiseration
+of the mother, and her weak love for her son that could
+only pity, but never encourage or brace to any vigorous
+effort; her total inability to comprehend any such character
+as her youngest daughter possessed; the wearisome
+platitudes enunciated in the belief that they were golden
+grains of worldly wisdom, the only kind she supposed
+existed; the weak, vapid repining that she had not married
+when she might have done so well, the discouraging certainty
+that no marriage was possible in this second-rate
+town, and that to remain single was a stigma and a misfortune.
+In her weak but querulous complaints, which
+she meant in part for sympathy, she had worn and exasperated
+Irene as much as Mrs. Minor: only here there
+were no lovers, and there Mrs. Minor looked upon every
+single man of means as a fish to be skilfully angled for.</p>
+
+<p>If Irene had been thrown completely upon her own resources,
+if she had been compelled to step entirely out of
+her olden sphere, and earn her daily bread, there would
+have been a sharp, bitter fight, but the bracing mental
+atmosphere might have dispelled the thick darkness, the
+chilling vacuity, and evolved from the discordant elements
+a questioning and not easily satisfied soul, but one destined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>
+to develop into strength and nobler uses. But here, she
+said to herself, there was nothing. Friendship could not
+come to her aid&mdash;she would have none of it. No one
+should study her with curious eyes, to see how she bore
+her trials, her losses, the downfall of her pride. Strangers
+who had glanced at her with envy in her pretty pony-phaeton,
+or the magnificent family barouche, should not
+smile in triumph as they saw her walking by. As she had
+scorned others in her grandeur, so others would rejoice
+that she had been brought low. She had seen so much
+of the narrowness, the petty spite, the sharp stings of the
+world, that her sensitive flesh shrank at every pulse.</p>
+
+<p>She could understand now how high-bred women, when
+friends and fortune had flown, had shut themselves in convents.
+That she would have been glad to do. Any entire
+renunciation would have met with her approval. But
+to gather up the threads of a commonplace existence, to
+find joy and solace in daily duties, to work for others,
+to even show others how trials and misfortunes could be
+borne to the perfect working-out of nobler aims and uses,
+was not for her. She had never been trained to any such
+purpose. A heathen of the heathens in a Christian country,
+the product of fashion, wealth, and so-called refinement.</p>
+
+<p>In the solitude to which she condemned herself, she
+came to brooding over a desperate, worldly philosophy.
+Should she go back, and retrace her steps, and marry?
+There were days when she absolutely contested the ground
+inch by inch, and almost decided.</p>
+
+<p>Her long rapid walks, generally at night when her brain
+was wild with the bitter warfare, had served a useful purpose,
+and kept her in better health. But the strain could
+not last forever. For days she had alternated between a
+chilly, stupid languor, and hours when her brain seemed
+on fire, when, indeed, she hated the whole world with a
+bitter, awful intensity. In this mood she had stolen out
+for her walk.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And now the outraged soul had burst its bonds, and
+revelled in a fearful revenge. All the ache and repression
+put upon it; all this silent endurance; all the solitary
+hours of maddening thought, the wasted riches, the
+spurned sympathy, the youth poisoned by false doctrines,&mdash;every
+secret sin committed against it, cried aloud, and
+would not be throttled, nor thrust back into the dreary
+dungeon.</p>
+
+<p>Fred listened to her ravings in stunned, helpless astonishment.
+His trial had been so much less intense, after
+all. Could it be possible she had suffered this as she sat
+so like a statue in the little circle, disdaining every aid?
+His startled eyes questioned the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was the reply: "she has been too much alone.
+She has brooded over these things until she has become
+morbid and imbittered. The curse of fashionable life is,
+that it provides a woman with no resources against a dark
+day, no wisdom, no faith in any thing outside of herself.
+And then we wonder at insanity! A thousand times better
+that the body should be racked with pain, if so be
+that the soul is purified in passing through these fires. It
+may be her salvation."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> morning's mail brought to Darcy the letter he had
+hardly dared expect. It was brief but cordial. Would
+he come to New York, and the matter could be arranged
+to his satisfaction? "He had not been very eager to ask
+favors."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll weather through, Winston!" he cried joyfully.
+"I must go to New York. Miss McLeod has sent."</p>
+
+<p>Then he ran off home, and arrayed himself in spotless
+linen and immaculate cuffs, complained a little that Jane
+Morgan should be away, and begged his mother to ask
+in some of the pretty, friendly girls living in the next
+house, if he should not be home to supper. There
+was a late train that he would be quite sure of, if the
+business detained him until night. Then he kissed
+her tenderly: she was still a little shaken from her last
+night's vigil.</p>
+
+<p>He went around by Maverick's office, though it took
+him out of his way; but he must hear some word of Miss
+Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>"She is very ill, and will be for some time to come;
+but I am wonderfully interested in the case. It's a brain-fever.
+The girl is a study in herself. She has the force
+and power, and capability of both suffering and endurance,
+that would answer for half a dozen souls; but it has come
+pretty nearly to a wreck. Did you ever know much about
+her?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I once spent an evening with Miss Barry when
+she was there," and Jack flushed. "It was before Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
+Lawrence died. They used to be great friends, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"And it ended like most women's friendships, eh?"
+with a peculiar light in his eyes as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"No: it broke off in the middle; regards have a trick
+of doing that when they're not ended, you know. Sylvie
+is very generous: she would go there to-day if she were
+needed."</p>
+
+<p>"Would she? She may be before it is all over."</p>
+
+<p>"Go down and tell her, Maverick, when you are in
+that direction."</p>
+
+<p>Maverick nodded.</p>
+
+<p>Darcy was just in time to catch his train. There had
+been quite a fall of snow from midnight to dawn, and the
+trees were glittering with thousands of diamond-sparks
+and patches of fleecy ermine. The winding roads were
+white; the cottages and the fence-posts were hooded; and
+the snow caught all the tints of sun and shadowy lights,
+reflecting them back like a mirror. His heart was so
+light as they whirled along, he smiled, and could hardly
+forbear shouting at a group of boys who were snow-balling
+by the roadside.</p>
+
+<p>He met Miss McLeod at Mr. Hildreth's. They had
+the private office to themselves; and he related the mishaps
+of the past three months, showed her the actual
+figures, and admitted that times seemed really harder than
+last year. There was such a horrible shrinkage everywhere!
+Still there must be some trade presently,&mdash;it
+always had been so in the history of the world.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you deserve a great deal of credit for having
+pulled through so far on your limited capital," said she.
+"Some of the business-men I meet, think this will prove
+the hardest year in our history. It will winnow the chaff
+from the wheat pretty well."</p>
+
+<p>"If it does not winnow us all into chaff," returned the
+young fellow, with a touch of grim humor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We shall come back to smaller profits and greater
+industry. The world will not be able to play at being
+ladies and gentlemen, and perhaps a little wholesome
+work will not be a bad discipline."</p>
+
+<p>Then she wanted to know what amount would be likely
+to tide him over for the next six months. He said he did
+not desire to exceed ten thousand dollars. She would
+make it twelve, however. After the notes were duly
+signed, she took him to her bank, and introduced him.
+As he had some other parties to see, she drove him about
+in her carriage, and insisted upon taking him home with
+her presently.</p>
+
+<p>What an elegant old lady she was in her sables and
+velvets, and her royal air! her eyes bright with spirit
+and energy, her cheeks a little pink with the crisp air,
+glad sunshine, and perhaps her own hearty, wholesome
+mood. Occasionally she leaned out and nodded to some
+friend; and once her carriage drew up to the sidewalk as
+she summoned a fine, portly-looking gentleman to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Throckmorton," she said, with gracious dignity,
+"I want to introduce my young friend Mr. Darcy, of
+Hope Mills, Yerbury, to you. If you can serve him in
+any business-way, I shall be glad to have you."</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman bowed, and held out his hand, with
+cordial fine breeding.</p>
+
+<p>"Hope Mills! It belonged to my friend Lawrence,
+did it not,&mdash;David Lawrence?"</p>
+
+<p>"Until his death, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Sad misfortune, that. He ought to have retired years
+before. There was some villany in his manager, was
+there not? It is difficult to find a purely honest man
+nowadays; but I do believe Lawrence was one. We
+dealt with him a great many years, but toward the last
+there was some dissatisfaction,&mdash;goods not coming quite
+up to samples."</p>
+
+<p>"We try to do our business on the square, Mr. Throckmorton,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>
+returned Jack, with a proud curve of the lips
+that was almost a smile, and illumined his face. "If any
+thing is not exactly as represented, we shall make it good;
+but we try never to have occasion to do that. We should
+be glad to have you test our honesty and skill."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you,&mdash;I will, I will;" and, touching his hat
+to Miss McLeod, they parted.</p>
+
+<p>"If men were as generous as you!" cried Jack, with
+enthusiastic candor, "how splendid a place this world
+would be for business! Did you ever have a jealous
+thought in all your life?"</p>
+
+<p>She laughed brightly. "I have had nearly all the
+things I wanted," she answered, with tender solemnity.
+"There would have been little excuse. Mr. Darcy, we
+do not always realize how hard life is to some; and, where
+everybody's man's hand is against one, it is natural for him to
+be against every man."</p>
+
+<p>Their four-o'clock meal was an elegant little dinner.
+They were quite alone, which pleased Jack. She questioned
+him about Maverick, his practice, his friends, and
+wondered if he ever meant to marry. Jack said laughingly
+no one in Yerbury dared to make fascinating eyes at him.</p>
+
+<p>Did she care so much for Maverick? Surely these two
+ought to be together, yet what would <i>he</i> do without his
+trusty comrade?</p>
+
+<p>They veered round to the mills presently, and discussed
+honesty. Jack admitted that Mr. Throckmorton and
+other customers had a right to complain. There had
+been a deal of cheap wool used, and many poor workmen
+employed, during Eastman's last year or two.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Darcy," she began energetically, "why do you
+not think up something new? We import pretty material
+for ladies' wear, that could as well be made here, for we
+women are growing sensible enough to believe something
+beside silk admissible. And though men may cling to
+superannuated coats, with an affection most commendable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>
+in hard times, I never heard of a woman being attached
+to an old gown."</p>
+
+<p>"I never thought of it," he admitted frankly.</p>
+
+<p>"That is what you were put in the world for,&mdash;to
+think," and she smiled with quaint humor. "Invent
+something. I'll take a sample to every store to match,
+and lift my brows in surprise when clerks confess they
+have not seen it. Give it a pretty name, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"That is worth considering, surely;" and his eyes
+sparkled. "Hope Mills ought presently to be the grandest
+place in the country, you take so much interest in it,"
+and his whole face expressed his admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"I do hope to see you a successful manufacturer, Mr.
+Darcy; and, woman-like, I want the scheme to succeed.
+I should like to see even a small party of men trained to
+honesty and fair play. And, if I lose my money, it is no
+worse than a downfall in stocks."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall do my best now and ever," he answered
+heartily.</p>
+
+<p>They parted with much warm gratitude on the honest
+fellow's side. He took the evening train for home; and
+his mother had a good cup of tea awaiting him, along
+with her smile. He related his grand good luck, and
+there were not two happier people in all Yerbury. When
+the bank found he had an account at New York, and a
+good backer, they were extremely affable again.</p>
+
+<p>Jack broached the new idea to Winston and Cameron.</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure," admitted Winston. "Some one will do
+it presently, and we might get the lead. Darcy, your old
+lady is a trump, and always carries the honors. There
+will have to be some new processes: see here, talk to Ben
+Hay about it; he's made two or three improvements, and
+has some brains. Gad! It'll be quite jolly to have a new
+line of goods. Get the ladies on your side, and you're
+all right!"</p>
+
+<p>He had not a spare moment until after his late supper,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>
+when he told his mother he must run over to the Lawrences,
+and stop a moment at the doctor's, though he had
+despatched the good news to him in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>He found matters worse than he had feared. There
+had been an alarming change in Miss Lawrence. Martha
+ushered him through the hall to the library, where Fred
+was sitting. The two clasped hands, and then sat down
+together. A hard, dry sob seemed to tear its way up
+from Fred's very soul.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack," he cried in a strained, despairing tone, "could
+I have done any thing to save her? I have been engrossed
+with my own affairs, my own dreams of advancement.
+I wanted to have money again, but it was for her
+sake and my mother's," with a lingering tremulous intonation.
+"She has been too solitary, she has brooded
+over every thing. But she would not go out, or see any
+company; and somehow it was our misfortune to grow up
+without any warm, vital interest in each other. When I
+was a boy I used to like it at your house, because your
+father and mother took such a real delight in you. It is
+the pith of life. Poor father&mdash;he was very proud of me,
+he gave his life for our pleasure and grandeur and reckless
+extravagance, yet all the later years we were well-nigh
+strangers. Why can't people get nearer to each other,
+Jack, or is it only given to the very few? Does the
+greedy world swallow up every sentiment, every bit of
+tenderness, and make a mock of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! Nothing can quite kill it, thank God! You
+and I have proved that. It may be smothered under dust
+and rubbish, and frozen with neglect, but the germ will
+revive,&mdash;just as the brown woolly ball evolves the fine
+delicate fern-leaf that it has held in its heart through
+winter storms, you know. Don't blame yourself. Every
+soul has to fight its own battle somewhere, with no day's-man
+between but God. We get back to the old truth
+in spite of the new philosophies, and own in our vanquished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>
+moments that we cannot <i>make</i> strength, that ours
+is only a broken reed, and the true upholding force must
+come from some knowledge higher than our own."</p>
+
+<p>Jack paused, strangely stirred in every fibre. He seldom
+essayed sentiment: with him the deeds of life had to
+answer, rather than any eloquence of words. He laid his
+strong, warm arm over Fred's shoulder, the old boyish
+caress with which he had often comforted unknowingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you have been doing nobly," he went on
+presently. "I did not look to find you so brave and persevering,
+so earnest in thinking of others; for, after all, a
+man's training does throw a great many shackles about
+him."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Maverick entered at that moment. He had hurried
+off his office-patients to come and spend an hour watching
+this case, which held a fascinating interest for him. Some
+most unfavorable symptoms had supervened, but he did
+not despair. The nurse had been regularly trained, he
+had kept her busy in Yerbury the last year. He could
+trust her to note the slightest variations.</p>
+
+<p>Just now Miss Lawrence lay in a heavy stupor, so like
+death that one could not detect it from any motion. Her
+eyes were half open, her face had a dull purplish tint.
+The abundant hair had been confined in a thick plait, and
+brushed straight across her forehead. How distinct and
+finely clear the brows were pencilled, how haughtily sweet
+the curve of the pallid, fever-burned lips, how exquisitely
+round and perfect the chin, the slope of the throat and
+neck! Jack stole one glance,&mdash;they had both gone in with
+the doctor,&mdash;but it seemed almost sacrilegious, now when
+she was powerless to frown the intruder out of her presence.
+And he had carried her in his arms!</p>
+
+<p>"O Darcy," Maverick exclaimed presently, "I did not
+go to Miss Barry's, after all. I have been so desperately
+busy to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Fred glanced up, and his eye met that of his friend.
+Both flushed, and both mistook the cause.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was a curiously auspicious moment. Jack went over
+to him. "I wonder," he began, with a marked persuasiveness
+in his tone, "if you would like to have
+Sylvie Barry come over? She and your sister used to
+be such friends. And, in times like these, animosities
+and foolish prejudices ought to die out."</p>
+
+<p>Fred gave him a startled look, and half turned, his lids
+drooping to veil the secret in his eyes. Jack waited with
+breath that half strangled him. He had marvelled how
+these two souls were to be brought into friendly contact
+again; how Sylvie was to have an opportunity of knowing
+that Fred was redeeming the manliness of manhood, instead
+of grounding among its trivial shoals, and, if she
+ever had cared for him, to understand that he was not
+utterly unworthy. He had spoken&mdash;what if the chance
+should fail!</p>
+
+<p>Fred very naturally misinterpreted the emotion. Jack
+offered this out of the boundless tenderness of his heart,
+so confident was he of Sylvie's regard.</p>
+
+<p>"You think&mdash;she would come?"</p>
+
+<p>His own voice, under the great stress, sounded miles
+away to him, quite as if some other person had spoken.</p>
+
+<p>How often the tense strain of feeling is relieved by a
+tone or an incident quite out of the magnetic current!</p>
+
+<p>"Some one ought to drop in occasionally, for your
+mother's sake," said Dr. Maverick. "We shall have her
+in a fever from sympathy," putting the fact more delicately
+in words than it was in his thought.</p>
+
+<p>"She would be glad to come, I know. She would
+feel hurt if&mdash; You empower me to ask her?" with an
+abrupt transition of tone.</p>
+
+<p>Fred Lawrence bowed his head. He could not trust
+his voice.</p>
+
+<p>The sick girl started, opened wide her eyes, threw up
+her arms, and began in weird, passionate tones, as if it
+were a stage declamation. Oh the lurid thought that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>
+seemed to travel from regions of bliss to the nethermost
+hell; to display a boundless capacity for enjoyment, for
+pleasure or pain, for tenderness and bitter, brilliant
+satire, a keen knowledge of the world to the very dregs,&mdash;the
+dust and ashes! She implored her lost idols to
+come near, and in the next breath she tossed them from
+her with a mocking laugh. She had no faith in God or
+man, and before her was a blank wall of despair.</p>
+
+<p>Jack led him away. He took him out in the keen
+air of the starry winter night, and began to talk of Hope
+Mills and the new projects. It was too late afterward to
+call on Sylvie, so he waited until the next morning.</p>
+
+<p>She was inexpressibly shocked. "Of course she would
+go," she made answer; and she went that very afternoon,
+with her aunt for companion.</p>
+
+<p>They found Mrs. Lawrence in a dreadfully disturbed
+and apprehensive state. She was so weary of solitude
+that she welcomed them gladly, quite forgetting this girl
+had insulted her by rejecting her son. In a weak, shuffling
+manner she excused herself for not having accepted
+their overtures before. She had been so utterly overwhelmed
+by the death of Mr. Lawrence, that, in her state
+of nervous prostration, it had been impossible to see any
+one. And now she was positive she should take the fever.
+Her health was so delicate, her nerves so susceptible, and
+to hear the raving of delirium,&mdash;the laughs that were
+quite like a maniac,&mdash;would be sure to shatter her
+beyond any help. If it were not in the dead of winter,
+she should go to New York at once, and stay with Mrs.
+Minor until all danger of infection was over. She did
+not seem to comprehend the gravity of Irene's case,
+though she wept over her suffering in a soft self-pity.</p>
+
+<p>"If you could be removed to our house," suggested
+Miss Barry, in her gentle way, "we would take the best
+of care of you; and it must be extremely wearing for you
+here."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you have no idea! I never slept last night. I
+have heard of people in these dreadful fevers who have
+left their beds when the nurse was absent, and committed
+some horrible crime. I locked my door last night;
+then I was afraid I might faint away alone, and Fred had
+to come and stay with me. It was terrible!" and the
+washed-out eyes dilated with real fear.</p>
+
+<p>Martha was despatched for the doctor, who not only
+came himself, but brought a close coach, thankful to dispose
+of one patient so comfortably. Before dusk Mrs.
+Lawrence was snugly settled in Miss Barry's best room,
+where a cheerful open-front stove made amends for a
+grate, and the new surroundings served to take her mind
+from her late apprehensions. Indeed, she felt so much
+better for the change, that she insisted upon coming down
+to tea.</p>
+
+<p>It was beneficial in many ways. They removed Irene
+again to her own room, and used her mother's for various
+convenient purposes. Sylvie went back and forth, and
+shared the day-watching, beside entertaining Mrs. Lawrence.
+The two dropped insensibly into their olden positions.
+Sylvie listened patiently to the death, the loss of
+fortune, the changes, which Mrs. Lawrence dwelt upon
+with the exaggerating vividness of a nature completely
+engrossed with its own sorrows.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Maverick had to come every day. Mrs. Lawrence
+had arrived at that stage when a woman depends upon
+the doctor as a sort of bulletin for her own health. Fred,
+too, must visit his mother frequently; but at first he chose
+the hours he knew Sylvie would be with Irene.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Maverick used to watch Sylvie Barry with an interest
+and admiration that grew upon him. Her tact was
+something marvellous, born of a certain exquisite harmony
+and almost divine unselfishness. But of this last she appeared
+serenely unconscious. I think, indeed, that she
+was. A higher love and faith had interpenetrated her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
+soul, her very being. Instead of agonizing introspections
+and lightning flashes to the inward depths of her nature,
+she seemed to live continually on the outside of herself,
+radiating warmth and light as the sun. Her patience was
+of a rare, fine quality, born of health, and spirits not
+easily wearied.</p>
+
+<p>It would have been quite impossible for any two people
+to go through such a strain of feeling, and not be drawn
+together in love and sympathy, or friendship. With Fred
+and Sylvie it was unconsciously a little of all. If he had
+gone back with the old love, even exalted and refined,
+he would surely have blundered again. But now she was
+another's, sacred in his eyes. And though in his blind
+pride he had once thought the greatest favor he could
+do her would be to save her from any such <i>m&eacute;salliance</i>,
+he recognized now that Jack Darcy was immeasurably
+above him in all the qualities that went to make up
+pure manhood. Even in his work: Jack's ambition was
+not for himself, but a cause; and his&mdash;ah, how poor and
+paltry it seemed! So he accepted his place with outward
+bravery, and a great wrench of all a man holds most dear.
+For now he loved her.</p>
+
+<p>The days passed slowly on. It seemed at the last as
+if the fever would prove the victor. A consultation was
+held, and new remedies employed. Irene's beautiful hair
+was cut off and laid away, the clear skin seemed to grow
+brown and shrivelled, the hands lost their plump whiteness,
+and the rosy nails were dull and gray. There came
+a time when human skill had done all, and they could only
+wait for that Higher power to whose eternal force death
+and love alike submit.</p>
+
+<p>There followed upon that awful night of suspense, days
+when she was but just alive, when a turn of her head on
+the pillow caused a lapse into unconsciousness. But the
+spring came on; and she did rally, at first, it appeared, at
+the entire sacrifice of her regal beauty. Would she care
+to take life on such terms?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They brought Mrs. Lawrence home. Mrs. Minor came
+up, and insisted that both mother and sister should be
+removed to the city at once. She had her horses and
+carriage, her servants, her luxuries, and she could make
+them so much more comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Maverick interposed a decided negative. The
+body had not yet resumed its normal state; but the brain
+was to be ministered to, as only those of experience and
+study could minister. It was to be brought out of the
+hell of its own despairing self-torture, and enfranchised,
+set free from the demons that, standing in the present
+abeyance of weakness, had lost neither strength nor desire,
+and were only waiting the auspicious moment to
+seize their prey again. And he was too much fascinated
+to relinquish the study.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie persuaded her aunt to indulge in a pony-carriage.
+Miss Barry was breaking a little; but she still kept her
+interest in good works, and found she was much more
+useful with this aid. Winsome little Sylvie looked more
+piquant than ever with the reins in her hands, flashing
+hither and thither through the streets of Yerbury, gathering
+a harvest of smiles and nods. She fairly compelled
+Mrs. Lawrence to trust her precious self to what she
+laughingly declared was superior horsewomanship.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Maverick used to stop her often, just to catch a
+delicious ripple of laughter, or a bit of trenchant talk. If
+it were not for Jack Darcy&mdash;did Jack love her? At all
+events, she loved him: any one could see that by her
+frank, fearless manner. Oh, sapient Dr. Maverick, with
+all your knowledge of brains and nerves, of occult causes
+and mysterious effects! So it happens that sometimes a
+simple, direct truth is the greatest puzzle of all.</p>
+
+<p>The schools and clubs had not been neglected with all
+this excitement. But this winter Mary Moran had been
+teacher at a small salary; and a bakery and refreshment
+or dining room had been opened down stairs, which really<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>
+made quite a little money. Wholesomely cooked food
+was offered for sale, with bread, rolls, and biscuit. The
+club had also given two successful suppers. When Jane
+Morgan was home, Sylvie was relieved of the actual care:
+she would have it. She had come back to Yerbury a
+thousand dollars richer for her relative's death, and she
+and Jack were drawing plans for a co-operative store.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">I'd</span> rather lose five thousand dollars than do it."</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy leaned back in his office-chair. He had
+just made up the third half-yearly account. It was bad
+enough. They had known this all along, and had not
+concealed it from the men. Now it was to be confronted
+in black and white, with searching eyes.</p>
+
+<p>It was not that they had not made any thing: that
+would have been endurable, considering the kind of winter.
+But they had gone back, and eaten up the profits of
+last year.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, there co-operation comes in," said Bob Winston.
+"It isn't <i>your</i> loss alone. It's mine and every
+man's. That's what we agreed to when we went in.
+Labor and capital should share in the ups and downs.
+See here, Jack, I've learned a good deal myself. I have
+more sympathy with employers. Gad! what a pull we've
+had this winter! If it hadn't been for your fairy godmother"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it must be done!" and Jack pulled a long face.
+"There, it is all ready to print. Now old fellow, we
+must brace ourselves up for the shot and shell. We'll
+have to do the fighting all over again. If every man had
+as easy, philosophical a mind as you, or as sensible,
+reasonable a one as Cameron, I should not have so many
+misgivings."</p>
+
+<p>The statement was printed and distributed. The men
+looked blue and cross. Had they really lost nearly all
+of last year's balance?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Winston asked them to stop one evening while he went
+into a slight explanation. He was well armed. Without
+having a logical mind or parliamentary training, he had a
+woman's quick intuitions, and often jumped at very decent
+conclusions with hardly a glance at the premises. He
+had a way of massing his forces, too, that was very telling.</p>
+
+<p>Now, after what he called a little skirmishing, he read
+that the Barnable Mills had been running on three-quarter
+time all winter. Wages had been a trifle lower than
+with them. Middleham Mills had been closed for two
+months. He gave the figures of loss to the workmen.
+Crowley and Dawson had gone into bankruptcy, owing
+their men in the aggregate more than all Hope Mills had
+used of last year's profits. Then he read a statement
+from an eminent manufacturer, that he had used fifty-four
+thousand dollars of accrued capital rather than turn off
+his workmen to starve. There had been strikes in several
+other places, in which the workmen had lost much more
+than at Yerbury.</p>
+
+<p>"So that our showing, bad as it is, is not the worst,"
+said he. "In the very dullest of times we cast in our
+lots together, and we must take the good and bad. If
+you had been living this winter on the private capital of
+any one man or corporation, you would never have given
+the matter a thought. You know now, by experience,
+that capital does not always float on a serene and indolent
+sea, and gather in treasures for which it has cast
+out no net. You can appreciate the struggle we have
+gone through; though, while you have been going along
+placidly, with the larger weight of care lifted off your
+shoulders, a man with less energy and pluck than our
+intrepid pilot, John Darcy, might have let us founder.
+We help him now with the readiness and good-humor
+with which we relinquish the profits which were dear to
+us, and the product of our industry; but he has taken<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>
+us through a very narrow channel, on a dark night, without
+striking rock or snag. He and I thank you heartily
+for your fidelity to our keystone,&mdash;co-operation."</p>
+
+<p>"Three cheers for Darcy!" sang out some one in the
+crowd, "and three cheers for Bob Winston!"</p>
+
+<p>It was given heartily.</p>
+
+<p>"And three cheers for the men of Hope Mills," responded
+Winston.</p>
+
+<p>They shook hands, and dispersed with a little better
+feeling. Several of the men seemed to breathe a clearer
+mental atmosphere immediately.</p>
+
+<p>"You may be sure it's right, whichever way it is," said
+one man sturdily. "I've known Jack Darcy, boy and
+man, and his father afore him. He comes of good, clean
+stock, and, if he says a thing can't be bettered, it can't;
+and, if it can, he's just the man to do it. Give him a
+long tether, say I."</p>
+
+<p>Then Winston procured a list of weekly wages ruling in
+this country, and in many places abroad, the hours of
+work, and the average cost of living, with the articles in
+most general use. The mill-men had their flour and coal
+cheaper, and altogether their winter was proved as satisfactory.
+This was pasted up in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>The matter was discussed through the town, of course.
+Some people saw in it a speedy dissolution of the plan,&mdash;a
+plan that never had worked, and never would. Others
+did not see that this method of getting back part of the
+men's wages was any better than any other swindling
+scheme. They never had any faith in Bob Winston,&mdash;Darcy
+might be honest, but he wasn't very bright,&mdash;and
+in five years Winston would own every thing there was in
+the mill!</p>
+
+<p>Winston laughed over the gossip. Jack could not take
+it so light-heartedly. He was an earnest, honest reformer,
+and hated to have things go awry. Winston, not believing
+there was very much capacity for reform in human
+nature, did not distress himself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ben Hay, and a dozen or so others, did their best
+with the new cloth, and succeeded in producing a really
+creditable article. The heads discussed the feasibility
+of having an auction-sale to clear out some of the piles
+of goods; then concluded that it might be misconstrued
+at this present juncture. They could hold on until fall.</p>
+
+<p>But the delightful <i>esprit du corps</i> had vanished. The
+men did not seem to work with a will. There were moody
+faces and discourteous greetings, half-insolent nods, and
+more than one wrangle at the workmen's meeting. Hurd
+felt anxious and discouraged. Yardley took a low fever,
+not severe enough to confine him to the house, but it made
+him irritable, and every sneer or innuendo cut him to the
+quick. Cameron was a great comfort to Jack, with his
+queer, wrinkled, grizzled face, and an expression that
+always puzzled you as to whether nature meant him to
+laugh or cry.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not surprised," said he, one day, in the office.
+"I knew we would have to come to just this time. A
+wife shares your joys and sorrows, gen'ally speaking; but
+you see there it's a force put, she can't well get away.
+Other partners like your joys, but they make a wry face
+over the sorrows, and like to squirm out of them if they
+can. But it is the only way to train men to the real
+responsibilities of business. Now, I'm sorry enough to
+lose, but it stands to reason that times will come better.
+We're getting through the panic; but after the battle
+there's some dead to bury, and some wounded to care
+for, and you see that's tedjus. You can't march straight
+home, covered with glory. Here's our money in the
+hospital, first up, then down, and all the doctors in the
+land tinkering with allopathic doses and hom&oelig;opathic
+doses, and blisters and poultices and remedies, when all
+it wants is a little honest letting-alone. It doesn't occur
+to these long-headed doctors that the best way out is to
+show everybody that we're willing to go to work and pay<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>
+our debts just as fast as we can. And any fool might
+know that when you are paying up back debts you can't
+have much money to sport around on. Never you mind,
+Jack: we're coming out straight in five years time,&mdash;I'll
+bet my old hat on that!"</p>
+
+<p>Jack wrung his hand warmly.</p>
+
+<p>In May there was quite a jollification over the marriage
+of two mill-hands. Ben Hay took to wife pretty Rose
+Connelly; and the coffee-house parlor was denuded of
+tables and benches, trimmed with evergreens and flowers,
+and such a merry-making as did one's heart good. There
+was a bountiful supper, plenty of tea, coffee, and lemonade,
+dancing, and ice-cream, and the utmost good-humor
+and good wishes. Connelly <i>p&egrave;re</i> had gone back to his
+cups, thrown up his situation, come home and stirred up
+a general "ruction," and had now gone off on a tramp.
+Ben Hay was to cast his lot with the Connelly household
+for the present.</p>
+
+<p>"But I tell you what it is, Mr. Darcy," said he, "if
+any luck comes to Hope Mills, in five years' time I'll have
+my own little house and garden. I tramped around a bit
+in the dull times, but I didn't see many prettier places
+than Yerbury. And, the more I study this business of
+co-operation, the more I think it will succeed in the
+end."</p>
+
+<p>Jack experienced a great throb of comfort when he
+heard such words as these.</p>
+
+<p>Another mill-hand had married Mary Moran. She was
+not the beauty of Yerbury, by any means, but everybody
+declared she had improved wonderfully, and that she was
+the smartest girl in town. Their wedding-party was given
+at the club-room. It was a larger and rather more boisterous
+affair; and some of the Morans' warm-hearted
+Irish friends brought a "dhrop of the craythur" in their
+pockets, to drink the bride's health. Everybody admitted
+that there wasn't such another bread-maker in town, unless
+it was Miss Morgan.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In fact, it was quite astonishing to see what a revolution
+had been worked in this most important article of diet.
+The women had learned to distinguish between poor and
+good flour, and Kilburn's trade in the former had fallen
+off largely. Of the bread that in Samantha Allen's view
+"required cast-iron principle to back it up," very little
+was seen. It had been rather hard work to convince some
+of the mothers that bread wasn't naturally born into the
+world heavy and sour, but it had been done.</p>
+
+<p>If Hope Mills failed, the impetus to general knowledge
+that had been diffused throughout Yerbury would remain
+and bear fruit. An evening-school had been opened for
+boys too large to stay at home evenings, and just the right
+age to fall into temptations. It began with the mill-boys,
+but it soon drew in others. There was a short session of
+study, then a talk about some useful art or science.
+Maverick had treated them to sundry experiments, and
+explained many general rules of health. Mr. Winston
+had described Western cities in a vivid and picturesque
+manner. There had been some astronomy within the
+reach of all, some philosophy of common every-day
+things; and it had given the boys ideas above "high,
+low, Jack."</p>
+
+<p>Darcy tried to find comfort in this when other matters
+looked dark to him. A little good seed had been sown.
+The generation growing up would not be quite so dull and
+brutish. One thing was remarked,&mdash;the saloons were
+not as full. This was laid to dull times, and ascribed to
+the "revival" of two years ago; but that had not touched
+the poorer class of Irish and English, who, even during
+the hardest winter, had managed to find drink-money,
+when their families were being supported by the relief-store.</p>
+
+<p>Business did "pick up" a little. Prices went lower and
+lower, however. They looked at their great store of goods
+with dismay. If the currency question could ever be settled,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>
+if we could export more and import less,&mdash;though
+there were people who argued that, the more money we
+spent abroad, the more it really strengthened us, and
+money lying idle in our treasury at home was no evidence
+of prosperity: partly true and partly false reasoning; and,
+to our astonishment, while we were brilliantly theorizing
+how to do it, our vain and superficial neighbors across the
+water, crushed and beaten down by a useless and costly
+war, and a government of gigantic selfishness, went to
+work with intrepid courage and industry, and did it.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile it must be confessed that Jack's interests
+were very much divided. The practical part of him never
+lost sight of the mill. He had the dogged tenacity that
+holds on with a deathless grip until it conquers, or is
+wholly beaten. It seemed to him this summer that he
+had several distinct individualities. He was so deeply
+interested in Fred and Sylvie! They had slipped into an
+easy friendship,&mdash;a friendship in which neither crossed a
+certain line, but from widely different motives. Fred's
+strongest and highest one was honor toward his friend.
+He began dimly to realize that high culture and refinement
+of the intellectual senses, a perfect state of outward finish
+and polish, did not always strengthen the soul's morality
+and purity. Patience, self-sacrifice, obedience to a creed
+simpler in words, and yet more comprehensive, than any
+of his grand philosophies, were needed to form a strong
+and manful soul. His had been so long bound about
+with swaddling-clothes, airy, sensuous, fine as a gossamer
+web, yet strong in beliefs and prejudices. There were
+times when he felt, through that instinctive knowledge we
+can never wholly define or explain, that Sylvie Barry
+belonged to him, that they two could reach a point in
+mental and artistic life, that she and Jack would never
+attain. His whole soul cried out for her. With the
+charm of self-satisfying and blinding theories swept away,
+he clung passionately to the love that had been only a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>
+complacent fancy three years ago. The mere touch of
+her hand, or glance of her eye, quickened and kindled his
+entire soul, and made him acutely and agonizingly conscious
+of the wealth of adoration he had hardly dreamed of
+possessing. There were moments when her presence filled
+him with a heavenly satisfaction, when he understood
+that divine fusion of spirit with spirit in its entirety, when
+love overcame pride, and he was humble enough to go to
+her in his poverty.</p>
+
+<p>He tried honestly to crush out the passion, but found
+that neither will nor duty could destroy love. It rose up
+and swept imperiously through every pulse of his being,
+it flooded his heart like a mighty current, it would fain
+have drowned out his sense of honor to his friend; and
+he learned presently that it was of no avail to fight battles
+with this unconquerable foe. He must always love
+her, therefore he could only bury the passion out of the
+sight of all other eyes. To him it would be the root of
+higher resolves and purer motives. When he had made
+this great sacrifice for his friend, he had offered silently
+the highest atonement in his power.</p>
+
+<p>But his temptation was not to end so soon. He was to
+be led through the fire, that he might be purified and ennobled
+in other virtues beside that of abnegation. He was
+to learn how sacred a thing strength might become; he
+was to hold the soft hand on his arm, and never clasp it,
+to feel the pressure of the dainty fingers, and make no
+sign; to meet her bewildering smiles with the calmness
+of a strong spirit held in thrall; to listen to words that
+seemed cruelly pregnant with the dangerous glamour of
+hope, and yet to steel his heart against it all. In such
+times as these we come to believe in a living, loving God,
+who gathers up these great drops of agony as he "makes
+up his jewels," and that to him this pearl of inward anguish
+is above price. Then, of all times, we need to know
+that he cares for us, that we are not mere atoms floating
+in unregarded space.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Dr. Maverick decided that his patient must have a
+change. She had attained a certain amount of physical
+strength while her brain still lay dormant, utterly exhausted
+after the great drain upon it. Now it began to
+act again, and, not being in sympathy with the body, consequently
+re-acted upon it. She walked about her room a
+little; she viewed herself in the mirror, a horrid shadow,
+a mere caricature of her former beauty. Dr. Maverick
+had tried his best to save her hair; but the fever had
+burned out its vital essence, making it dry and harsh, so
+he had uttered his reluctant edict. It was cropped short,
+and had lost its gloss; her brilliant complexion was a
+ghostly, sallow, opaque white, her eyes large and melancholy,
+every feature sharpened into that thin, worn, hungry
+appearance. "A perfect fright," she said to herself.
+Why had they not let her die? Of what avail was life to
+her?</p>
+
+<p>Before her illness, in her desperate impatience with
+circumstances, she had fancied herself a martyr, with the
+fagot and stake of a conventional marriage on one hand,
+and the dreary desert of neglect and enforced seclusion on
+the other. She had tried to make her own wretched and
+passionate imaginings consume her very soul. She could
+rule no longer. She could not exact homage and admiration
+from society; and, though in her secret soul she
+despised it, yet what was there to life beside it? No one
+wanted or needed her. No human being cared for her
+above all others. She had gone on in ruthless pride,
+trampling, crushing, and now the great world would be
+only too glad to pay her back; but it never should. Even
+in this extreme bitterness of spirit an acknowledgment
+of that divine rule of love was wrested from her. She
+had never offered love and tenderness and sympathy to
+others, and it would not come back to her: it was just
+and right that it should not.</p>
+
+<p>Why then vegetate through a narrow, dreary existence?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>
+She was only a drag on Fred. Even if she were willing
+to make an essay of work, he would not consent, partly
+from pride, but still more from that innate sense of chivalry,
+a part of some men, who would be more cruelly
+wounded to see a woman dear to them, struggling with
+distasteful toil, than to make any sacrifice on their own
+part. If she were a man she would starve in secret
+before it should be done. David Lawrence had in him
+some of this pure, nobly generous blood; and many of his
+finer virtues seemed to have been transmitted to these
+two children. The mother's individuality had been absorbed
+by the two elder ones. Gertrude would be just
+such a woman when she came to her mother's time of life.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eastman had floated into another channel of prosperity.
+He was to go to Russia as a railroad-director at
+a large salary, and ample chance for speculation. Gertrude
+was all elation. She wrote to Irene, generously
+forgiving her for not having submitted to be buried alive
+at Frodsham Park, and proposed that she should rejoin
+her as soon as she was able to travel. They would go to
+Vienna and Berlin, and spend the winter in St. Petersburg.
+"I hope your beauty has not gone off," she wrote
+very kindly. "One needs it to compare with some of the
+Russian women I have seen."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Minor had taken a summer cottage at Long
+Branch. Servants, children, horses and carriages, were
+to go thither. Irene and her mother must spend the season
+with them.</p>
+
+<p>"You do look dreadfully," she said to Irene; "but
+moping here will not mend you. It was a most absurd
+step for Fred to come back to Yerbury, and take that
+paltry position! He has no real Lawrence pride, and I
+don't see that his elegant education has done much for
+him. Why didn't he study law, and go into politics?
+With his style and Mr. Minor's connection, he might
+have filled some high position."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Really," returned Irene, with a touch of the old
+sarcasm, "I suppose he thought starving hardly a pleasant
+process while he was waiting for this high position. I
+have sometimes wondered why Mr. Minor did not take
+him into <i>his</i> office, and induct him into the mysteries of
+stock-broking."</p>
+
+<p>Agatha bit her lip.</p>
+
+<p>"Because he did not know enough," she flung out.
+"And he will potter away his best days there at Garafield's,
+never amounting to any thing! Father had better
+have put him in the business."</p>
+
+<p>"Jack Darcy is master at Hope Mills. He was once
+quite a <i>b&ecirc;te noir</i> of yours, I believe. He and Fred have
+floated together again, an exemplification of the power of
+early attraction."</p>
+
+<p>"He will not be master of Hope Mills long, if what I
+hear is true," said Agatha in a vengeful tone, as if she
+would be glad to bring about such a greatly-to-be-desired
+downfall. "Fred always did have low tastes. But about
+yourself: you had better come to Long Branch, and
+recruit for two months, or so, and then go out to join
+Gertrude. Of course, Irene, you know your best time has
+gone by here. I intend that <i>my</i> daughters shall be married
+before they are twenty. I will not have them wasting
+their best years."</p>
+
+<p>There was a long pause. Agatha studied Irene's
+apathetical face, and wondered how she could have
+changed into such a fright.</p>
+
+<p>"Irene!" in a commanding tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Agatha, I may as well tell you,"&mdash;the voice was slow
+and incisive, as if every word was measured,&mdash;"that I
+shall <i>not</i> go to Long Branch nor abroad. No one shall be
+troubled by my failing looks and possibly poor health. I
+will live my own secluded life, asking nothing of the
+world but to be let alone."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a fool, Irene!" Mrs. Minor scanned her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>
+with her pitiless black eyes, and raised her own tall figure
+to its most impressive height. "You are a deliberate,
+wilful fool! You will maunder and groan and sigh
+through the next few years, and become one of those
+wretched bundles of nerves and whims and conceits, a
+miserable old maid, whom the world holds up to ridicule,
+and rightly too; a faded, insipid, querulous, worn-out
+belle, whose past triumphs are remembered only to her
+disfavor. We can forgive a woman of mother's age, who
+has had her day; but the other shallow creatures are fit
+only to be bundled into a convent, out of sight."</p>
+
+<p>A dull scarlet had slowly mounted Irene's face. She
+did not raise her eyes. In an emotionless tone she
+merely said, "Thank you. I wish there were convents
+without the fuss of religion. I should go into one now."</p>
+
+<p>"The best place for you certainly."</p>
+
+<p>Then Mrs. Minor gave Fred a piece of her mind, and
+washed her hands of Yerbury.</p>
+
+<p>The result of sundry after-discussions was that Dr.
+Maverick found a pretty seaside place not many miles
+distant, with just enough interest to keep one entertained,
+and no fashionable, exhausting life. He managed to
+persuade Miss Barry and Sylvie and Mrs. Lawrence to
+go, and insisted upon Irene having the variety of air and
+scene. There was a roomy furnished cottage at their disposal:
+they could cook their meals, or have them sent in.
+Fred should come down once or twice a week, and he and
+Darcy would enliven them with flying visits. Miss Barry
+must take her pony and carriage.</p>
+
+<p>Jack approved of the plan at once. It would bring the
+two beings in whom he was so warmly interested more
+closely in contact with each other, give them those bits
+and fragments of leisurely indolence so conducive to sentiment.
+Sylvie would judge more truly and tenderly than
+it was possible to do at present; and he could not see her
+alone, could not be her companion in walks and drives,
+without betraying his regard.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>While the plan was still under consideration, Dame
+Fortune resolved to smile upon Fred Lawrence. Late in
+the winter he had sent a paper on household art, with several
+exquisite designs, to a magazine, and for once happened
+to hit the prevailing fancy. He was asked for a
+series of such articles, with the offer of having them collected
+in book form afterward. It more than encouraged
+him: it gave him a feeling of certainty that he had struck
+the right vein, that here was a fair and appreciative field
+for his talent, his fine taste, and high culture. A little
+utilitarian, perhaps; and he smiled, thinking of some past
+dreams. And was true art so ethereal that it must exist
+only in the exalted states of the mind? Was it not to
+embellish and beautify all lives, rather than crowd out the
+thousands that the few might feast on some exquisite
+vision? Was any art higher than that which boldly thrust
+aside shams, and went to the shaping of true, strong,
+faithful aims in the work placed before one? Were those
+wonderful Greek fragments, wrought in times of social
+depravity such as the world now shrank from mentioning,
+to be one's guide and inspirer, to the despising of purer
+if less sensuous forms of beauty? If one enlightened
+and sweetened the life of to-day with the work of to-day,
+would it not be as worthy as hugging to the soul some
+useless theory?</p>
+
+<p>He mentioned his new offer to Mr. Garafield. It would
+not be honest to take the time that was another's; and
+surely Fred Lawrence's mental capacity had largely
+cleared when he came to put into every-day work the fine
+sense of honor that he had hitherto supposed belonged
+only to a liberal education.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Garafield was a shrewd business-man, although
+fanciful in taste. He should be the gainer by associating
+this true artist with him. Decorative art was coming to
+be a truly recognized branch; and its leaders and apostles
+would reap not only credit, but financial success.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Fred was amazed. Only yesterday, it seemed, he had
+well-nigh been refused the privilege of earning his bread.
+To-day, in an unexpected quarter, prosperity opened
+upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no capital, as you well know," he said stammeringly
+to Mr. Garafield.</p>
+
+<p>Garafield smiled and nodded in a satisfied manner.</p>
+
+<p>"The brain-work and the ideas are sufficient capital,
+Mr. Lawrence. By this partnership you will be free of
+drudgery: some other clerk can keep books and take
+orders for us. You will gain time for your literary labors,
+and those in turn will carry weight in the business.
+Neither do I think you will regret taking my offer."</p>
+
+<p>Fred went down to Jack Darcy's that evening, and told
+over his plans, as in other years he had confessed his college
+ambitions and the laurels he was to win. And
+Jack's face lighted up with honest enthusiasm, while his
+voice took on a curious little tremble. He was so glad!
+for Sylvie's sake and love's sake.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> Fred Lawrence came next day into Sylvie
+Barry's presence, there was a certain proud humility
+shining in his handsome face, that was now quite worn
+and thin; a dignity born of honor in having achieved at
+least a standing-place in the world. He was not her hero,
+never had been indeed; and his pale face flushed at the
+remembrance of his once complacent claim to her regard.</p>
+
+<p>She was sitting in the room with his mother, but she
+sprang up from the low ottoman.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad! your mother has been telling me the
+news. Why, it is"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>She had held out her hands as she began her sentence,
+but as he took them she made a sudden pause. His were
+icy cold.</p>
+
+<p>"More than I could have expected in such a brief while,
+hardly at all. Both offers have surprised me greatly."</p>
+
+<p>He strove so hard to render his tone calm, that it was
+absolutely cold.</p>
+
+<p>She turned with a petulant but charming gesture, while
+her peachy cheek took on a riper tint.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not a bit enthusiastic," in that pretty, imperious,
+chiding tone. "I suppose you think good fortune
+ought to fall down upon you, be thrust on you, like
+greatness."</p>
+
+<p>"No. I am very thankful for it. I can give my
+mother and sister some needed indulgences that it would
+have pained me very much to see them go without. How
+is Irene?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Mrs. Lawrence fretfully. "She
+does mope so. I shall be so glad to get away."</p>
+
+<p>"I have just come from the doctor's. We are to start
+on Thursday. Sylvie, are you all ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," with a positive little nod.</p>
+
+<p>He stepped into the next room. Irene had been worse
+after Mrs. Minor's visit, but was the same again now,
+quiet, cold, impassible. It made no difference to her
+whether they remained here, or went to Depford Beach.
+She evinced neither pain, pleasure, nor interest; but she
+liked best to be alone. She endured Sylvie with rather
+more equanimity than she did her mother, but even the
+fault-finding energy would have been welcome to the doctor.
+Nothing mattered: that was the trouble.</p>
+
+<p>She heard now they were to go in two days. The cottage
+was all ready. Martha and Miss Barry's trusty
+handmaiden were to do the housekeeping. The place
+was so arranged, with the spacious hall through the
+middle, that each family could be by itself.</p>
+
+<p>"I have ordered a carriage to come every day for you
+and mother," Fred said quietly. "I thought you would
+like it better than being dependent on Miss Barry."</p>
+
+<p>Irene gave a slow, acquiescent nod.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by," cried Sylvie, looking in. "I will run
+over again to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted her to stay to tea," said Mrs. Lawrence
+complainingly. "It is so dull!"</p>
+
+<p>"I will come up and take tea with you. I will order
+it at once." And he ran down.</p>
+
+<p>There was a subtle perfume in the hall. She had a
+bunch of violets in her belt, he remembered. He said
+over softly Ben Jonson's quaint lines,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Here she was wont to go, and here, and here,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Just where the daisies, pinks, and violets grow:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">The world may find the spring by following her."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>But he could not follow. Had fate smiled on him to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span>
+make the renunciation more bitter? For now he could
+work his way up to something worthy of her acceptance.
+And had he not learned the past winter, had he not
+been slowly learning ever since the death and loss, that
+the manhood of a gentleman was his thoughtfulness for
+others, his courteous delicacy, his consideration, often
+his denial of self, rather than the exquisite polish of
+cultivation, and the veneer of society's affectations? How
+blind he must have been, ever to have offered these last to
+a woman so true and pure of soul!</p>
+
+<p>But a still larger sacrifice had been demanded of him.
+He must see her in seductive solitudes, in still more intimate
+association. If he could stay away from Depford
+Beach! but that was not possible. He was to spend Sundays
+with them. But surely Jack would be there then.
+An almost careless lover he thought his friend. Was
+every smile so dear to him?</p>
+
+<p>The doctor and Fred went down with them. Darcy
+had decided to take a business trip, so presently Mrs.
+Darcy joined the seaside household. In the bygone years
+Mrs. Lawrence would not have deigned to notice her;
+but she found this delicate, mild-mannered, middle-aged
+woman very companionable. Circumstances had rendered
+Mrs. Darcy exclusive, rather than any inherent
+trait of birth or breeding. She had lived with a few
+people always, and two or three strong attachments had
+given to her character the kind of concentration that
+passes for strength. Yet all of these had been more
+positive people than herself; and while this had softened
+the tendency to that querulous exactingness that weak,
+sweet natures are apt to possess, it had also shaped to
+certain generous instincts that were quite free from
+vanity. Her natural kindliness gave her the charm of
+good-breeding, and this settled her in the estimation of
+Mrs. Lawrence. She might have possessed all the virtues
+in the calendar, but an inharmonious, unpolished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>
+turn or act would have tabooed her. We generally
+ascribe this grace to life-long culture, or a certain inheritance
+of blood, but it occasionally springs from other
+causes.</p>
+
+<p>The three women, with natures and aims widely different,
+fraternized in the most amiable manner. Sylvie
+glanced in and out between them as a gleam of sunshine
+penetrates the interstices of a wood, and brings out all
+lights and tints, itself untouched by any. Their greatest
+diversion was driving. Back of the little settlement&mdash;it
+was hardly large enough for a village, and had a powerful
+rival some seven miles farther on&mdash;there were country
+lanes and by-ways, sleepy-looking farms, and picturesquely
+careless houses. Below them there was a great fish <i>entrep&ocirc;t</i>,
+with fishing-boats plying up and down, brawny fishermen
+trilling their musical half-chant, half-song, as they
+floated over the bay.</p>
+
+<p>It was curious how, presently, Sylvie came to watch
+for Fred. Truth to tell, she found Depford Beach a trifle
+monotonous. No interest of schools or clubs or young
+people's affairs, no strong energetic talks with Jack about
+mill business, few people coming and going that she
+cared about; the three ladies purring through the drowsy
+hours on topics that she fancied she had exhausted years
+ago; and Irene, between whom and her there had never
+been any real electric sympathy, and who was now coldly
+indifferent to all matters. For hours she would sit with
+her hands dropped nerveless in her lap, glancing over the
+wide sea out to the farther horizon. What thoughts were
+in her mind, Sylvie wondered? She could not even provoke
+her to the wordy combats of old. The flashes of
+temper and imperiousness had alike died out. She was
+courteously polite, and acknowledged all favors with a
+punctiliousness that built the wall around her still more
+firmly. "If one could only rouse her," Dr. Maverick
+said; but that seemed just the thing no one <i>could</i> do.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Yet she certainly was improving in health. Her step
+became more assured, her eye less languid, and her complexion
+cleared up to the hopeful tints of renewed bodily
+vigor. Her slender hands filled out a trifle; and sometimes
+she would take a book, as if she needed an interest
+beside her own sombre thoughts to while away the hours.</p>
+
+<p>So Sylvie established her easel, and had recourse to
+painting. Oddly enough she began to ask herself what it
+was all for? Filling her own rooms, and bestowing gifts
+upon friends, was very well for a season; but was there
+not a higher purpose in all art, or at least a wider purpose?
+It surely did not tend to isolation. She thought
+of her winter in Philadelphia,&mdash;of the friends she had
+made, of the desires that had been awakened. She
+longed for some purpose, some sympathy and aim. The
+enthusiasms of girlhood could no longer inspire her: there
+must be a reality and definite end, or work lost its great
+charm. How was she to get to this? Her aunt was coming
+to depend upon her in a peculiar way, that at times
+startled Sylvie. She would say, with her quiet, tender
+smile, "Will you do this or that, Sylvie? I believe I am
+growing indolent: I never thought to so like being waited
+upon."</p>
+
+<p>The secret in Miss Barry's soul was well kept. In how
+many lives there comes a demand for heroism greater than
+that which led the martyrs of old to the stake, or the
+brave women in the reign of terror to the guillotine!
+Their inspiration to bravery was patent to all around:
+their cause was a lofty one, and they were apostles of
+that high creed of self-abnegation which leaves behind a
+memory in the hearts of all noble men and women. But
+there are other pangs quite noiseless: there are other martyrs
+who suffer without the sign, who cannot even confess
+the reason for the high faith that upholds them.</p>
+
+<p>It was quite natural that she should desire to see Sylvie
+married. She could never get over her distaste of having<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>
+women taking bold strides for the world's fame and favor.
+If left alone, this was what Sylvie would surely do. The
+delicate womanly charities and kindnesses that had filled
+up so much of her life would not satisfy her niece. And,
+now that she had brought herself to the point of satisfaction
+with Jack Darcy, either she had mistaken their regard,
+or he was proving himself an indifferent lover. By a
+subtile intuition, she understood that Fred still cared for
+her, nay, that he held now a reverent admiration that he
+had never thought of in the past. His melancholy eyes
+followed her about, now and then scintillating sparks of
+passion that seemed almost to rend his soul. She experienced
+an intense and exquisite sympathy for him that drew
+them together in a manner that he felt, and was grateful
+for, but did not clearly understand.</p>
+
+<p>As for Sylvie, curiously enough, she was at war with
+herself, though she wore such a calm, light-hearted exterior.
+When she rejected Fred Lawrence, she was quite
+sure she despised the present man, and his narrow, futile
+purposes of life. Truly, to have been the wife of such a
+man would have proved irksome to the last degree. But
+his misfortunes had brought out the fine gold, the solemn
+strain of strength and endurance, that had come from his
+father's blood. I think even Sylvie had been a little
+mortified first, that he should have come back to Yerbury,
+and taken such a very inferior position. She wanted him
+to do something noteworthy with his pen and his high
+cultivation. It seemed so much choice material quite
+thrown away. Designing patterns was surely no high test
+of genius. Women with a purely technical art education
+had done it.</p>
+
+<p>But out of it had come this other opportunity that he
+had grasped with the pure instinct of genius. Employment
+for pen and pencil both, for the embodiment of the
+exquisite outward forms of beauty, and the rare, delicate,
+inward graces of imagination, for the true standards of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>
+taste and art in which he had been informing himself all
+these years; in the spirit of dilettanteism, it was true, but
+now when the intellectual impetus was added, and the
+positive need of daily bread, these complicated motives
+worked together as a strong stimulant. Perhaps, too, he
+had a not unworthy desire to show Sylvie Barry that the
+man who had loved her was not utterly unworthy or incapable.</p>
+
+<p>They had drifted together again in the ordinary purposes
+of life, which, after all, occur much more frequently
+than any grand or overwhelming shock. She took up the
+friendly, half-sisterly way, pleased with the instinctive
+deference he paid her. He understood that it would be
+quite useless to aspire to any regard of hers: that was
+all done with in the past. She could afford to evince an
+interest in his plans, since Irene cared not, and to his
+mother they were so much Greek, a subtle flavor that she
+admitted was the proper thing, but could not understand,&mdash;did
+not care to trouble herself, in fact.</p>
+
+<p>So these two young people, working in a common bond
+of sympathy, insensibly strengthened the regard that had
+grown with them from childhood. Fred gained sufficient
+courage to discuss some plans with Sylvie: she brought
+out her easel, as I have said, and accepted from him
+friendly criticisms. The difference between their work
+was soon manifest,&mdash;he had an earnest purpose, with
+breadth and scope: she had none. How had they so
+queerly changed places? she asked herself. Why were
+not her talents made of some avail, instead of this puerile
+pottering to please one's self?</p>
+
+<p>She began to wonder&mdash;dangerously fascinating employment
+to a woman&mdash;if he had ever cared for her.
+There seemed an adamantine wall built up around him,
+and yet the fruit in the inner garden was more rarely
+sweet than she had ever dreamed it could be. She could
+not know that the passion for her he had put away with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>
+such despairing hands, was blossoming all the sweeter,
+and bearing more exquisite fruit in other directions. She
+saw the lovely tenderness toward his mother, the unwearying
+patience with Irene, the fearless, animating
+ambition that seemed to have set his &aelig;sthetic desires to a
+steady, comprehensive strain of music, to which he was
+keeping invisible step, but which thrilled and roused every
+fibre.</p>
+
+<p>All this he had done without any assistance from her,
+she thought, blind little girl; as if the kinship of a true
+passion could not reach from the life that went before to
+that which was to come afterward! <i>She</i> had not inspired
+his genius, but stern necessity; it had been no longing or
+desire to win <i>her</i>, but the material support of his mother
+and sister. She began to feel curiously jealous of these
+extraneous influences. She unconsciously exerted herself
+to make his visits at the beach more interesting.
+They drove together in her pony-carriage; they studied
+glowing summer sunsets, where fantastic clouds piled up
+wealth of gold and amber and purple and opaline splendors,
+and shot out arrowy, dazzling rays; they paced the
+sands after it had all faded into tintless space, and delicate
+vapors of grayish green and vague violet rose from
+the crested waves that broke far out at sea, and trooped
+across like airy spirits; they listened to the slow, regular
+rhythm that came marching from some weird country,
+with a grand crash at last, a sobbing crescendo, and an
+interval of silence that still pulsated on the dusky, odorous
+air, when the moaning billow was dead.</p>
+
+<p>They came so near to Nature, there were moments
+when they seemed empowered to wrest the shadowy secrets
+out of her bosom; and yet they did not come near
+to each other. Ever this distance between,&mdash;a man's
+honor, and faith to his friend, Fred Lawrence thought,
+never allowing his secret soul to swerve. There were
+midnights when he softly paced the floor, his lips compressed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>
+his brow ghostly white, and his hands clinched
+in the throe of a man's deathless love. Then he thought
+he could not endure it, that he must stay away. But
+circumstances were stronger than will. Did God mean
+that this anguish should redeem that other old treachery,
+that his soul should be purified by its baptism of fire, a
+more worthy offering for his friend? If so, then he must
+not abate one jot or one pang.</p>
+
+<p>There were within Sylvie Barry's soul certain coquettish
+instincts. She was fond of admiration for herself: a
+purely intellectual regard, with the passion-dream flown,
+would soon have wearied her. A warm, bright nature,
+loving to please others, but to be pleased in return, cruelly
+hurt by surging against this rock-bound coast, piqued and
+almost angered, sent into moods of daring, seductive
+warmth and gayety, quite capable of making a foil of
+Dr. Maverick, who was strangely puzzled by her contradictory
+moods. But for one thing, he must have tried to
+cage the dazzling, elusive spirit: he, too, had a strong
+sense of honor toward his friend; and he could only
+imagine her playing sportively with the few who came
+within her radius, not setting herself to win any forbidden
+regard. What might have made some women sad and
+silent&mdash;the consciousness that an old lover had over-lived
+his passion&mdash;seemed to sting her into renewed effort.</p>
+
+<p>Coming back to them, Jack Darcy was more than
+puzzled, set at sea in a bewildering way, without chart or
+compass. Had Fred ceased to care for Sylvie? Had
+she never loved him? Or was some other feeling holding
+him back,&mdash;a kind of family complication, a sense of
+duty to the others so high that he would not offer them
+a divided regard, any sooner than her? He believed
+mothers had a peculiar sense of possession in their sons;
+but they surely had married other women's sons with
+small scruple! Mrs. Lawrence was warmly attached to
+Sylvie. In his honest, inconsequent man-fashion, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span>
+wondered why they could not always live together, as they
+were doing here.</p>
+
+<p>Fred was strangely worn and thin, with the kind of
+nervous alertness that accompanies an intent watching of
+one's self.</p>
+
+<p>"Hillo, old fellow!" cried Jack; "what have you
+been doing? Working yourself to a shadow? If high
+art is so exhaustive, there must be a little let-up. A
+man has no more right to kill himself in an artistic industrial
+way, than in any of the ruder forms of suicide."</p>
+
+<p>Fred shivered visibly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't speak of suicide," he answered in a shrinking
+tone. "I never thought of it but once; and that was
+when I fancied myself of no use to the world, or myself
+either. I am not overworked"&mdash;and he paused, to
+study Jack a moment. Why, he was positively handsome,
+with that superabundant strength and vitality, the
+clear red and white of his complexion, the bronze beard,
+the healthful, honest eyes. He seemed to be surcharged
+with a magnetic current of energy and courage.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you are. I dare say you have carried your plans
+and sketches, and what not, down to Depford Beach, and
+pored over them until almost morning. You must take
+a vacation."</p>
+
+<p>"I expect to when the families return;" and he gave
+a faint, wan smile. "I have had another streak of luck,
+Jack. A lady, a very wealthy widow, is building a house
+in one of the pretty towns up the Hudson, and it is to be
+finished with all the elegance art can bring. She saw one
+of my articles, and sent to me; and we have been corresponding.
+In September I am to go to New York, and
+make arrangements. There is to be painting and frescoing,
+and rooms finished in different styles,&mdash;indeed, I
+cannot tell the half myself, until I see her."</p>
+
+<p>The pale face had kindled with a fine and proud enthusiasm.
+More than ever, Jack recognized the artistic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>
+refinement of his friend. What would law or medicine
+have been to him as a profession?</p>
+
+<p>"Humph!" grunted Jack. "A great vacation that
+will be! But you <i>must</i> be careful, or you will not live
+out half your days. You've a look in your face like the
+little chap I first knew."</p>
+
+<p>The smile that crossed it then, Jack did not understand.
+It seemed to Fred Lawrence that half his days
+would suffice, when Sylvie Barry was his friend's wife.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you see the 'little chap' lived"&mdash;with an
+attempt at gayety.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. And, Fred, I am more glad than I can put
+into words, to know that you have been so successful.
+It is just the career for you. It's odd that a great commonplace,
+blundering fellow like me should have two such
+artistic friends as you and Sylvie Barry."</p>
+
+<p>The well-trained face did not blanch a muscle. He
+felt, with a flash of subtile inner consciousness, that
+Darcy was studying him. Thank God, he could stand
+before his friend free from a thought of treachery! All
+these weeks he had walked over burning coals, but the
+smell of the fire was not in his garments.</p>
+
+<p>Jack thought it over long after Fred had gone. Why
+could not these two people see! Surely they were meant
+for one another. It puzzled, it almost fretted him.
+Sylvie was so peculiar, so changed in these few weeks!
+What did it all mean?</p>
+
+<p>And on Saturday when he was to go down to the beach,
+Fred pleaded some urgent business to a neighboring city.
+He was not quite brave enough to see them together.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been meaning to go for some time," he said
+with gravity, "but I did not like to think they would be
+alone over Sunday. Now that you will be there, I certainly
+can spare three or four days."</p>
+
+<p>"See here," returned Jack,&mdash;"wait until Monday.
+Come, we'll have a nice day together down there on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>
+sands. Sundays always seem so wonderful by the ocean,
+with the grand chant forever in your ears. The very
+waves are saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+"'Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord.'"<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>But Fred Lawrence would not suffer himself to be persuaded.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Jack Darcy's</span> business-tour, while it had not been productive
+of any great financial results, had restored his
+healthy mental equilibrium. He found other firms were
+having it just as hard, and that the country was still overrun
+with men willing to work for any wages. Prices were
+certainly falling. All kinds of raw products were offered
+at the very lowest figure; and, labor being so cheap, manufactured
+goods must perforce be low. Men were not
+now counting on a speedy return to good times and high
+prices: they began to admit that the latter were the outcome
+of extravagant speculation. They bought what they
+wanted, and no more. They gave no extensive credits,
+and now really appeared to be anxious to reach a permanent
+basis.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall have to sell most of our stock at cost," he
+said to Winston. "Lucky to get that, I suppose. And
+we shall come out about even&mdash;no profits for this six
+months. Still, we shall not run back, and that is something
+gained."</p>
+
+<p>"We can count on the new goods, I'm pretty sure,"
+returned Winston. "I've had some inquiries, and sent
+samples. Some of the fancy overcoatings are to be duplicated.
+That looks like business."</p>
+
+<p>It did, indeed. Jack sat at his desk, ruminating upon
+it, and feeling as if at last they saw a light through the
+woods, when a step startled him, because it was not the
+kind of step usually heard through that hall, so he turned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>
+It was Fred Lawrence, with a face of ashen pallor. Jack
+sprang up, dazed with the vision.</p>
+
+<p>"I was to come and tell you&mdash;Maverick has gone to
+Depford Beach&mdash;Miss Barry is very ill, and they have
+telegraphed for him. He left word&mdash;that we were to
+come."</p>
+
+<p>The voice had a strained, unnatural sound; and the
+eyes looked like those that have wept out a passionate
+sorrow, and are dry from despair.</p>
+
+<p>"Ill&mdash;Miss Barry&mdash;not Sylvie?"</p>
+
+<p>Could he speak of her in that calm tone? A passion
+of rage swelled in Fred's heart, and flushed his face.
+Only a moment, for the great throb of thankfulness that
+it was <i>not</i> Sylvie restored him.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Miss Barry. You will go?"</p>
+
+<p>The tone had that peculiar, wandering cadence, as if
+somehow the soul had dropped out of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," and Jack sprang up, puzzled by something
+quite intangible in Fred's demeanor.</p>
+
+<p>"There are just twenty minutes to catch this train.
+The eight-ten does not stop at Depford, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"True: I will just speak to Winston"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I will meet you at the station," returned Fred hurriedly,
+turning away.</p>
+
+<p>Much as he loved Jack, it seemed as if he could not
+walk to the station with him. A feeling of profound pity
+for Sylvie rose in his heart. This man, noble, generous,
+helpful, and affectionate, had not the finely responsive
+nature Sylvie Barry needed. There would be some distance
+or coldness, or, worse still, a fatal dissonance. One
+part of her nature must remain unmated: her soul would
+have a language in which he would not only be deaf, but
+wholly dumb. He could express no more than the possibilities
+of his nature. It was not the fine and essential
+difference between man and woman, but that more fatal
+gulf in which there would appear no certain glimpses of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>
+royally endowed love in all its spontaneity, its glow of
+feeling, its variation of rich emotions. How would she,
+with her versatile, changeful soul, with its cycle of moods,
+ever live in the strong, steady prison of his heart!</p>
+
+<p>If he had thought perfect honor to his friend the greatest
+trial of his life, what was this to be? He could not
+stay and see the slow, consuming inward fire that would
+burn her soul to ashes while it was still in the body.
+Thank God, he could go away, would go soon indeed, and
+never return! He would nerve himself for these few days
+of torture.</p>
+
+<p>Jack waited on the platform until the last moment.
+The bell was ringing when Fred appeared, and the strong
+arm grasped him. They sat side by side, but were silent
+after one question as to the nature of Miss Barry's illness.
+Never had they been further divided in heart, for in the
+days when there had been no semblance of friendship the
+trivial repulsion was not to be compared to this wall of
+adamant. Fred would not have gone at all but for his
+mother's sake, although his heart was with Sylvie through
+every instant of her trial.</p>
+
+<p>The house was very quiet when they reached it. Maverick
+came to meet them, and was as sorely puzzled as Fred
+by the certain composure of Darcy's face.</p>
+
+<p>"It was not altogether unexpected by her or myself,"
+Maverick explained in answer to their inquiries. "It is
+the result of a complication of disorders, some of long
+standing and incurable; and the present effect is partial
+paralysis. I hoped change of air and a quiet summer
+would delay what we knew must come before many
+years."</p>
+
+<p>Darcy was astonished beyond measure. He would
+sooner have thought of his own mother dying. True, he
+remembered now that Miss Barry had been about less,
+and looked rather more delicate, and that through the
+summer she had kept extremely quiet. So amazed was
+he, that at first he quite forgot about Sylvie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Fred Lawrence paced the floor in an agony. Would
+the man never ask the question that was torturing him,
+because he had no right to ask it first!</p>
+
+<p>"How is my mother?" was his huskily tremulous inquiry,
+as he still went up and down like a caged lion.</p>
+
+<p>"The shock was really terrible to her. Mrs. Darcy was
+invaluable," bowing to Jack. "But for her, Sylvie would
+have been in despair,"&mdash;looking furtively at the broad,
+slightly bowed figure.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Sylvie!" he murmured, "poor Sylvie!"</p>
+
+<p>Fred turned to the door, compressing his lips over a
+throb of anguish.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," began Maverick, "they must all be removed
+as soon as possible. I think it would be well
+for Mrs. Lawrence and her daughter to go to-morrow.
+Neither is strong enough to bear any prolonged strain."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." Fred's heart swelled within him. They were
+all to be thrust aside as quickly as possible. This was
+Sylvie's sorrow&mdash;sacred to her and Jack.</p>
+
+<p>He went to his mother's room. She was lying on a
+couch, and was still hysterical. From her he heard the
+story; and though, as ever, she was selfishly alive to her
+own sufferings, she evinced an almost motherly tenderness
+in her sympathy for Sylvie.</p>
+
+<p>Fred spoke of the return. If it could be to-morrow;
+if he could settle them in their own home, and go quite
+away for a while! he thought.</p>
+
+<p>"And leave Sylvie here alone?" said his mother reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know what you can do for&mdash;for Miss Barry."
+How studiously cold and calm the tone was! "The doctor
+wishes to remove her as speedily as possible. I thought
+we would be out of the way, at least."</p>
+
+<p>"It <i>is</i> terrible here; and if you considered it quite right&mdash;the
+summer is so nearly ended, and the nights are
+growing cool,&mdash;yes, we might go."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They settled it over their quiet supper. "Miss Barry
+was comfortable," Martha said, "and Miss Sylvie was
+lying down."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lawrence retired early, her nerves were so shattered
+by the terrible incident. Irene had disappeared;
+and, when Fred could stand his loneliness no longer, he
+went to walk upon the beach.</p>
+
+<p>It was a moonless night, but with an intensely blue sky
+that gave the Milky Way the appearance of a luminous
+trail across the heavens. The murmur of the waves
+seemed sad and softened, and they touched the heart of
+the man who paced beside them. Once he had held so
+much in his hands! Surely he could have won the love
+of this woman then. Oh the blind, insensate, idiotic
+folly! He could have thrust his own soul down here on
+the sand, and trampled the very life out of it!</p>
+
+<p>Hark! some one was coming with hasty strides. With
+the wild instinct of a wounded animal he turned to flee,
+and yet&mdash;whither should he go?</p>
+
+<p>The hand was on his shoulder. The well-known voice
+uttered his name, and he turned at bay.</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Don't repeat her name to me!" he flung out, beside
+himself with passionate jealousy and love. And then
+their eyes met, the one lurid with an emotion well-nigh
+beyond control, the other wondering, pitiful, amazed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, let me go my way. I had not meant you to
+know it; but once&mdash;yes, I will confess it to you&mdash;I
+scorned you to her. God knows how I have repented;
+for I was beside myself then, blinded with my own folly
+and arrogance. And now you have won the woman I
+love, whom I shall always love, and it will be at once my
+bliss and my punishment. Take your triumph&mdash;tell her
+that her erring knight came back, and paid her the highest
+homage of his soul." Then, in a sudden, changed
+tone, freighted with a pain that pierced the other's heart,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>
+he cried, "Jack Darcy, I have made amends for that
+selfish blunder of my young manhood. For weeks I have
+endured such pangs, that Heaven grant you may never
+know! I have walked by her side with polar wastes
+between us; I have touched her hand with fingers that
+have had no more passion in them than the dead; I have
+watched her dewy lips ripe with kisses, and remembered
+they were for you; I have been true, <i>true</i> in word and
+deed and desire, but in thought I must love her to her
+life's end. I will go quite away"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Up to this point his words had come with the heat and
+flow of a lava-torrent. Now his impassioned voice faltered,
+trembled, and seemed to lose itself.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Darcy stood transfixed. Was it a dream? Had
+Fred been so blind all this while? He essayed speech;
+but the lines about his mouth were constricted, and his
+breath came in quivering gasps, as the vision of torture,
+suffered for honor's sake, rose up before him. Ah! if
+ever he <i>had</i> sinned,&mdash;and the temporary forgetfulness
+appeared such a little thing to Jack's generous soul,&mdash;he
+had redeemed himself nobly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! you thought&mdash;she doesn't love me, Fred,&mdash;not
+in that way," and his voice had the full, throbbing inflection
+of a great joy. "We are friends, such as a man and
+a woman can truly be. Do you not understand that some
+people are so alike they run in parallels? there are no
+angles to create the intense friction of love, they are so
+evenly balanced that there is no desire for possessorship,
+they have just as wholesome an influence over each other
+remaining apart. There is hardly Sylvie's equal in the
+world. Half that I am, I owe her."</p>
+
+<p>Had the night changed? Was the world flooded with
+a serene and tender light? Was the moaning ocean filled
+with the wondrous music of immortal love and longing,
+reaching out to glad fruition? Was that sudden rare
+peace, creating a reverential atmosphere about him, an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span>
+earnest of days to come? He experienced a vivid lightness
+as if he were being borne on clouds, while fragments
+of delicious remembrances floated through his brain.
+The very refinement of his nature seemed to exalt him
+to that high heaven of love, whose solemn mysteries it is
+not lawful to utter.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot quite understand"&mdash;in a curious dreamy
+tone, still spelled by the mastery of impassioned emotion&mdash;"how
+you could miss loving Sylvie; how she, woman-like,
+could help adoring you for your strength and heroism.
+Jack, if I were a woman, your very power would compel
+me to worship you. I should love you, whether or no."</p>
+
+<p>Jack gave a bright, cheerful laugh. "It is that kind
+of strength you like in Sylvie," he made answer. "She
+will always spur a man up to his best. Her well-trained
+ear is quick to detect a false note in honor, ambition, or
+love. She will never be any kind of dead weight, and yet
+she is so deliciously womanly. There was a time&mdash;don't
+be vexed, Fred,"&mdash;in a tender, pleading tone,&mdash;"when
+I thought you were not going to be worthy of her. But
+that is past."</p>
+
+<p>"She rejected me then," Fred Lawrence said simply.
+"I offered her my father's wealth, the home he had made,
+my own folly and arrogance and self-conceit; and then,
+Jack, she boldly admitted that you were her hero! When
+I consider the sort of man my training and surroundings
+made me, I am filled with disgust. And yet I was no
+worse than hundreds of others at the present day. When
+I look at my mother, Irene, and myself, I feel that we
+were the product of the so-called culture of the day,
+which substitutes shallow creeds, conventional manners,
+and systems, for all that is pure, strong, and noble in manhood
+or womanhood. It is the sort of Greek temperament
+on which we pride our intellectual selves. We revel in a
+glowing, sensuous enjoyment, that intoxicates the brain,
+and leads us to disdain the real work of the world. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>
+are trained to consider what society demands of us; we
+are polished and refined, and in too many instances left
+morally weak and ignorant. No wonder so many of us
+have not the strength to buffet across the stormy sea of
+hard experience, but are lost in the great whirlpool!"</p>
+
+<p>Jack peered into the pale, handsome face by the faint
+light. Surely this man had to make a tremendous effort
+for salvation, when nearly every tide had been against
+him! He experienced a keener sympathy than he could
+express; he drew the arm within his, and they paced up
+and down again in silence, understanding dimly the sacred
+mysteries of each other's hearts, that needed not to be
+dragged to open day for inspection. In a pure friendship,
+faith is the highest element: with that there is supreme
+content; without it, distrust gnaws like a canker-worm.</p>
+
+<p>They heard the little church-clock striking ten, and
+turned their steps toward the house. On the porch, Fred
+paused a moment, while an icy fear seemed to wring every
+pulse. He turned cold with apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>"What if I have been deluding myself!" he cried with
+sudden intensity. "Even if you and she could not love,
+she may have no such regard for me as I desire. I could
+not endure her pity."</p>
+
+<p>A warm, hopeful, generous smile illumined Jack Darcy's
+face. His hand thrilled with an electric force and sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no fear," he answered; "but I will not dim
+the grace of your exquisite joy by any prediction."</p>
+
+<p>They entered the quiet room. Dr. Maverick came out
+to meet them.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Sylvie is asleep," he said. "Miss Barry is
+comparatively comfortable. Hester will stay with her
+through the night. I have sent your mother to bed,"
+nodding to Jack. "I do not know what we should have
+done without her. I shall camp down on the sofa, to be
+within call; and to-morrow we had better begin the process
+of removal."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I had arranged to take my family," remarked Fred
+Lawrence, not exactly certain now that it was best.</p>
+
+<p>"Your house must be opened and aired thoroughly,
+before any one goes into it. So must Miss Barry's. Miss
+Morgan will see to this, I think. I am compelled to return
+in the early morning train, for I have some critical
+cases. One of you had better remain here."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at Jack as he said this, but was amazed at
+the frank answer,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Fred will remain."</p>
+
+<p>He studied Jack with almost angry intentness. Had he
+been so mistaken in the man? Could he so calmly leave
+the woman he loved to bear her terrible trial alone, or did
+he think his mother's sympathy sufficient for her? And,
+although there were many admirable qualities in Fred
+Lawrence, the two had never fraternized with the deep
+cordiality that must underlie all friendships. They had
+not the magnetic attraction for each other that Darcy held
+for both.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of Miss Barry?" the latter asked
+hesitatingly.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the beginning of the end;" and Maverick sighed,
+as he thought of the impotence of human skill past a
+certain point. "Miss Barry consulted me a year ago, and
+was not in ignorance; but I hoped, nay, felt assured, with
+care and quiet her life might be prolonged. She may
+linger some months, and it may all be ended in a week.
+Good heavens! what a shock for Miss Sylvie!"</p>
+
+<p>He took two or three turns across the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Go," he said abruptly, with an imperious wave of
+the hand. Then, a little scornfully, "You will both be
+better in bed. Lawrence looks as if I might have him for
+a patient to-morrow; but, Jack, are you made out of
+adamant?"</p>
+
+<p>The thrust hurt him, but Maverick was not in a pitying
+mood. Indeed, just at this moment his temper was savage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span>
+He had witnessed the pain and the suffering of the
+woman he had begun to love, until it had been hard to refrain
+from taking her in his strong arms, and sheltering
+her from the keenest pangs.</p>
+
+<p>The household remained the next morning as he had
+ordered. He was rather sulky all the way up in the train
+with Jack; but a talk with brisk, pungent Miss Morgan
+quite restored him.</p>
+
+<p>"Open the houses, and build fires immediately," he
+commanded. "Burn up and blow out the confined air,
+that there shall be no pestilential foes to greet them on
+their own hearths."</p>
+
+<p>He went down again that evening. If he had been
+annoyed before, he was puzzled now. There had been no
+word spoken between Fred and Sylvie; but the now, to
+her, sweet knowledge had come in a gesture, a glance,
+that could no more be described than the fine pulse of love
+can be dissected. She seemed to have waited breathless
+for just this strength and support. A hasty lover might
+have placed himself in the foreground. It was as if he
+said, "Here is my love, take it, use it, rely upon it; you
+cannot wear it out, you cannot wound or hurt it by any
+thing that may look like coldness; it is a blessed atmosphere
+to surround you until you stretch out your hand, and
+draw me into your very soul. I have been trained in
+patience and humility; only let me prove myself worthy in
+your eyes."</p>
+
+<p>Three days after, they all came up to Yerbury. The
+evening before, Irene Lawrence had gone to Sylvie's room,
+and found her kneeling by the open window, her face
+turned heavenward in a wordless prayer for strength. She
+knelt beside her, she took the passive hands in hers, she
+even touched her own cold lips to the colder forehead of the
+other.</p>
+
+<p>"Sylvie,"&mdash;the tone still had the awful dreariness of
+that utter inward living,&mdash;"Sylvie, I have been drawn to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span>
+you in this your anguish by some power quite outside of
+myself. I think we have always liked each other in a
+curious way, but we were neither of us sentimental girls.
+I could not cry over you now, nor kiss you with effusive
+fondness; but I wish, oh, how passionately I wish, I could
+save you one pang! I wish I could die in <i>her</i> place! My
+life is of so little value"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I believe God is right," Sylvie answered with a great
+struggle. "She has used her life so well; she has garnered
+ripened sheaves of mercy and kindliness and good
+works. There is not only golden wheat, but the sweetness
+of rose and violet, the pungent purity and strength
+of heliotrope, the use, the beauty, every thing. She is
+ready."</p>
+
+<p>"And I am not worthy to be taken even for a ransom!"
+said the proud, cold voice, not betraying any
+inward hurt.</p>
+
+<p>"God does not mean that. You are to shape your life
+to something better. Irene, did you ever think how easy
+it might be to die for those we love, but oh, so hard to
+live for <i>them</i>, not ourselves!"</p>
+
+<p>Irene rose, and stood there like a statue. Sylvie felt
+for the hand, pressed it to her lips, folded it about her
+chin in a softly caressing manner. How had Irene become
+dear to her?</p>
+
+<p>"I am no heroine, Sylvie. I have been tossed up by
+the breakers of fortune, and am out of joint, broken,
+bruised, of no avail."</p>
+
+<p>"You can comfort <i>me</i>. You can help to give me
+strength and sympathy. You can become a warm, living,
+active woman. There is always room for such in the
+world, and a work for them to do. God never put an
+idle or useless thing in the world, much more a human
+soul; and it must go sadly astray before it comes to
+despair. Irene, you will not shut your heart again, you
+will turn its warm side to me, you will take me in, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span>
+my great sorrow;" and she buried her face in the other's
+dress, with a shivering sob.</p>
+
+<p>"I will do&mdash;what you wish. I am physically strong
+again. Let me help you&mdash;anywhere, anyhow. You were
+so good and patient through my dreary time."</p>
+
+<p>Then she stole softly away, astonished at herself.
+Within was still the coldness of Alpine glaciers. But oh,
+if she might be warmed!</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry's journey was performed in an easy carriage.
+A paralysis of the lower limbs had supervened;
+but otherwise she had rallied a little, and her mind was
+clear and cheerful. There was only to be a peaceful
+waiting for the end, no feverish fluctuations of hope and
+fear. It was curious how they settled themselves to the
+fact. A nurse was installed for night watching and the
+more onerous part; and the invalid's room took on a
+pleasant aspect,&mdash;Christiana waiting on this side of the
+river.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">For</span> the first time in his life, and for some unfathomable
+cause, Jack Darcy found business cares irksome. Balance-time
+was at hand. He was a little tired of the dreary
+round. The men's disaffection re-acted upon him. With
+his keen and intelligent faculty of making the best of
+every thing, he was disappointed because he had failed to
+inspire others with it.</p>
+
+<p>"It's not so bad, after all. We have nothing that can
+be passed to capital, but we have held our own. Only,
+there is no dividend for the men."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll explain that to them," exclaimed Winston with
+a confident nod.</p>
+
+<p>He did, and he had a rather stormy venture. All the
+old arguments and agreements had to be gone over.
+Men unaccustomed to business are quick in prosperity and
+stupid in adversity. They only had three-quarter wages:
+why should they be called upon to lose beside? It was
+little enough, and waiting five years,&mdash;and no one knew,&mdash;the
+whole thing might go to smash another year! A
+few wished, with an oath, that they were well out of it.
+They would never be bamboozled into any co-operative
+scheme again.</p>
+
+<p>The grumbling, grew louder and louder. It was discussed
+at Keppler's over beer and bad whiskey, and quite
+inflammatory speeches were made. Then Winston called
+the mill-hands together.</p>
+
+<p>"My men," said he, "you know we opened the mills
+in starvation-times. Every man who could raise fifty dollars<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span>
+was entitled to a half-share of the capital, and he
+who could not was to have a little capital made off of the
+savings of his labor. Last year you were all pleased and
+merry and satisfied, because we made something: this
+year it has been the reverse, though I declare to you, I,
+for one, have worked twice as hard. Now, we shall never
+do any thing if we are all going to row different ways.
+It must be the long pull, the strong pull, and the pull
+all together. You know that if any operative became
+dissatisfied, and left, his share was forfeited to the fund
+for the sick and disabled. Many of you <i>are</i> dissatisfied;
+but maybe you won't leave, thinking of last year's money.
+Now, I want to say, every such man who would like to <i>sell</i>
+his share, may do so. I have had some applications
+from new men, that I have been very sorry to refuse. I
+shall open a book, and any man who wants to go out
+may put down his name there, and, just as fast as the
+shares are resold, he can go; <i>but he never comes back into
+Hope Mills again!</i> Just think it over, and decide in the
+course of a few days."</p>
+
+<p>"O Winston!" cried Jack, "I am afraid there will be
+a stampede!"</p>
+
+<p>"You're nervous and blue, Darcy. Now, you see if
+this isn't the very best move. There were two men here
+the other day from Little Falls. They had been taking
+out half their wages in store-pay, and the concern burst
+up, owing them the other half. They knew of a dozen
+men, not beggarly poor either, who would be glad to
+come. I'll bet my old hat there don't six men go out.
+Come, now!"</p>
+
+<p>"You can't tempt me with your old hat," returned
+Jack laughingly. "Make it a treat at Kit Connelly's."</p>
+
+<p>"Agreed. We'll take in the household."</p>
+
+<p>A dozen names were put down on the first day, two on
+the second, then there was a lull. Afterward four were
+erased; and, when it came to the actual pinch, five men
+went out, two of them very reluctantly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I felt so sorry for Davy," said Jack when they had
+made the transfers. "He didn't want to go, and I do
+not believe he would if it had not been for his brother-in-law."</p>
+
+<p>"A good lesson for all parties. There will not be any
+grumbling for some time to come, I'll warrant. It is
+rather irregular business; but sometimes you can't wait
+for a regular surgeon, or the patient would be past help."</p>
+
+<p>Events pointed the lesson pretty forcibly. By the
+middle of October there was a sudden rush of orders.
+Prices rallied a little. There were some tremendous
+bankruptcies, but it seemed more in speculation than
+legitimate industry. The new men brought a fresh infusion
+of spirit and energy. One of them, a small, middle-aged
+man, Gilman by name, who had once been manager
+and had a share in a mill that came to grief through
+a defaulting cashier who had successfully forged the name
+of the firm, was especially enthusiastic about the system.
+Jack admitted that the culmination of the discontent was
+the very best thing that had happened for the mill.</p>
+
+<p>Davy went almost wild over his mistake, cursed his
+brother-in-law roundly, and forbade his wife to visit her
+brother's household. Nothing to do, not even three-quarter
+wages to live upon, with cheap coal and cheap flour.
+He even waylaid Darcy, and begged to be taken back without
+any share.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry, Davy, but it cannot be done. We resolved,
+whatever happened, we would not go back on our word.
+You had time enough to think it over."</p>
+
+<p>"Just you wait," said Price, when he heard this.
+"They've three years more to wade through, and they'll
+never hold together all that time. It has a very queer
+look, too, that, just as soon as they shoved us out, they
+began to make money again. Bob Winston's the sort of
+fellow to look out for himself, and he had this thing all
+cut and dried."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Look here," remarked a listener, "you signed your
+own selves out. Nobody made you. I haven't any faith
+in the scheme, but I like truth for all that."</p>
+
+<p>The men worked with a will. The monthly club meetings
+took on a new interest; and they decided, if the prosperity
+continued, to open a co-operative store another
+year. They were growing more thoughtful and intelligent,
+and Gilman's influence upon them was excellent, while his
+experiences widened their views. A little fresh blood certainly
+worked no harm.</p>
+
+<p>Jack was very cheery again. It seemed to him they
+had pulled through the worst. The larger outlook was
+better: goods were going abroad, and money or bonds
+were coming back. Here and there some new enterprise
+started, but still there were hundreds of men out of employment.
+Yerbury showed various signs of a new thriftiness.
+The farms about were better managed. Some
+idle men had ventured to hire a little ground the past summer,
+and raise sufficient to have something over for their
+trouble. The Webbers succeeded beautifully. Of course
+there were slurs about a Dutchman living on a cabbage a
+week, but every one knew the Webbers were not that
+kind. What Germans were able to do nicely and wisely,
+Americans might copy to their profit. When some of the
+natives were out of work, they patched up their fences,
+painted a bit, laid a bad place in the sidewalk, instead of
+hanging round a saloon.</p>
+
+<p>As for those who were living through the sad sweet
+lesson of loving and losing, time went on with them also.
+If they could have stayed his hand! Sylvie recovered
+from the first shock: she could never suffer quite so intensely
+again, for there was one to share her least thought,
+her most trivial to her greatest pain. The explanation
+had come about very gently, making only a small ripple.
+Mrs. Lawrence was delighted: she always had liked Sylvie,
+and she was certain that Fred was a better match than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span>
+Jack Darcy, though she admitted he was remarkable for a
+young man with no better opportunities.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Barry was truly satisfied. She would cling to her
+little dream of "orders" and "kinds" to the last, but she
+always did it in an unobtrusive way. She had felt all her
+life long, rather all <i>their</i> lives, that they were made for one
+another. Less practically clear-eyed than her young
+niece,&mdash;brought up in the active reasoning and doing of
+to-day, rather than the doctrine of passive suffering that
+had been in the old creed for women,&mdash;she would have
+assented when Sylvie refused. To be sure, if Jack Darcy
+had won her he would have had a delicate and sincere welcome;
+but I think her eye would never have lighted with
+the true mother-love at his coming, as it did at Fred's.
+The worth of his years of refinement and polish came out
+now. He never seemed at loss or awkward in the sickroom.
+If he was reading, he warily noted the first droop
+of the eyes; he could tell by the lines in her face when
+talking wearied her, or when she preferred being alone.
+Every thing between them was harmonious.</p>
+
+<p>She amazed even Dr. Maverick by her improvement,
+though she held her life even yet on the same frail tenure.
+She really hoped to live until spring, when she should
+plan for Sylvie's marriage. Fred had made a very profitable
+engagement with the widow he had spoken of, and was
+to furnish designs for the interior of her house and furniture.
+There was to be one purely Grecian room, one on
+the old Roman model, a sunset room where every thing
+was to be in accord, and a "sea" room fit for Naiads
+or Undines. Sylvie was intensely interested. This Mrs.
+Spottiswoode was young and handsome, the widow of a
+man nearly three times her age, and childless.</p>
+
+<p>Fred Lawrence was proud to have something of his very
+own to offer Sylvie, and she took it as the highest of all
+compliments. She did like the profession, if that it could
+be called; for it brought them nearer together, it was something<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span>
+they could both share. She copied designs and art
+essays, she drew patterns, she painted now and then, days
+when Miss Barry was at her best. She would make of
+herself something that should enhance Fred's pride in
+her,&mdash;as if he was not proud enough already!</p>
+
+<p>The one least contented with all this was Philip Maverick.</p>
+
+<p>"I never was so thunderstruck in all my life! That's
+just the word to express it, for it left me dazed as the
+blackness does after the lightning. I would have sworn,
+Jack, that she loved you, and you loved her. Good
+heavens! if I had not believed that, if I had not been too
+honorable to seek to play a friend a scurvy trick, it would
+have gone hard with me if I had not won her for myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Honestly, you would not have succeeded, Maverick.
+Neither would she have married me. I think she belonged
+to Fred from the beginning. He used to hate girls, judging
+from his sisters, no doubt, but he always liked Sylvie.
+I was afraid of girls,&mdash;their sharp eyes and sharper
+tongues,&mdash;but I liked her too; yet in my own mind he
+always had the first claim. And they will be suited in the
+farthest fibre of each soul."</p>
+
+<p>"He is not half worthy of her!" growled Maverick.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is?" There was a peculiar tender intonation in
+the voice. "Sylvie Barry's womanhood is unique, like
+some rare gem. She has the sparkle but not the hardness
+of a diamond; the warmth and vividness of the ruby, but
+not its heats; the serenity of the sapphire, and yet to me
+that is always cold. Rather I think she is a changeful
+opal with all hues and tints and surprises."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet you have never loved her!" in intense surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"I worship her," said Jack reverentially. "I should
+as soon think of wooing an angel."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet this man, who is not as strong, or noble, or
+high in purpose, takes her with your consent. You can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span>
+see her sit down at his feet, wind her own rich, pure, sustaining
+life-melody about him, to make his path seem like
+going through an enchanted land. She has genius, but it
+will ever linger in the shadow of his; it will help, and
+purify, and shape his; she will give her whole soul to the
+work. Is he worth the best there is in such a woman as
+Sylvie Barry?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; and we never go by our deserts when a woman
+loves us," said Jack, with frank honesty.</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite sure you will marry a woman I shall hate,"
+returned Maverick testily.</p>
+
+<p>Jack laughed. "Marrying has not been much in my
+thoughts;" and yet his fair face flushed. "I have to
+fight Hope Mills out to the end first."</p>
+
+<p>But just now there did not seem much of a prospect for
+fighting, though he firmly believed he should always be on
+guard after this.</p>
+
+<p>There was one other person in this little circle, who was
+of much interest to the others, even if it was for the most
+part unspoken. Maverick had tried to rouse Irene Lawrence
+from her lethargy by appeals of different kinds.
+She certainly was not an intellectual woman, though she
+had a strong and well-cultivated mind, and was accomplished
+in many ways,&mdash;society accomplishments, with a
+view to the admiration they might win. He could seem
+to strike no electric spark, though he succeeded in restoring
+her to health. Every week of her stay at Depford
+Beach, she had improved; but there was the old, dreary,
+listless life. She used to think herself, if some shock like
+that of an earthquake could lift her completely out of it!
+but none came.</p>
+
+<p>For it could not be said that Miss Barry's illness was
+any shock to her. People were sick, and died, and their
+perplexity was at an end. A generous, kindly life like
+this of Miss Barry's would have its reward&mdash;if any life
+ever was rewarded. She did not doubt so much: she had
+never really believed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As she said to Sylvie, something stronger than herself
+had sent her that night,&mdash;one of those powerful, impelling
+influences that few can resist. And Sylvie was wise
+enough not to lose her hold. She drew her in very gently,
+she preached no sermon, she asked favors frankly.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to take my pony-carriage," she said one
+day, after their return to Yerbury. "I ought to go out
+every day, and if you come with it I shall; but if I am
+left to my own fancies, there will be so much to occupy
+me. Then, too, companionship is always very tempting."</p>
+
+<p>"I should be glad to do any thing for you," was the
+quiet, unemotional reply.</p>
+
+<p>So the carriage was brought every morning to the door.
+It seemed so odd, the day she first drove around Yerbury!
+Unconsciously the old stateliness returned. Her heart
+swelled with contradictory phases of thought and feeling.
+She was too really proud to suffer from the stings of petty
+vanity. She knew there were people who stared at Miss
+Lawrence; and she allowed them to stare with the serenity
+of a queen, going her way unmoved.</p>
+
+<p>She and Sylvie went through lanes and by-ways this
+gorgeous October day. Her heart was strangely touched
+by the glory, by the odorous air, the softened sounds, and
+brooding tenderness. Sylvie had a few errands to some
+old parishioners of her aunt's; and, while she went in
+cottages, Irene sat with the reins idly in her hands.
+There was much in the world she had never seen, though
+she had climbed Alps, and wandered in sunny vales. The
+ripeness and perfection of this midday was exhilarating.
+They talked in little snatches, and then were silent.</p>
+
+<p>Coming back they drove through the town: it was
+nearer. Crossing over to Larch Avenue, a tall figure
+confronted them. Sylvie bowed, and looked straight on,
+remembering such a rencounter years agone. Irene Lawrence
+turned her head with its proudest poise, but her face
+flushed scarlet under her veil. She would have made the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span>
+<i>amende honorable</i> then, if it had taken all the strength of
+her soul.</p>
+
+<p>She and Jack Darcy had met occasionally through the
+summer. Mrs. Lawrence rather liked to talk mill affairs
+with him, and his name was quite a familiar one in their
+household. Now that it had come, she was rather glad to
+offer this wordless apology for a crime against good-breeding,
+that only a rude young girl could be guilty of, to one
+she considered her inferior.</p>
+
+<p>She had wondered more than once, why that long-ago
+evening at Sylvie's should haunt her,&mdash;the talk of costumes,
+the bright chat, the dainty ripples of laughter, and
+that face with its cool, steady power. If it had been that
+of any other man, she would have pitted herself against it,
+and conquered, she fancied. Now conquests were things
+of the past. She was not one of your soft, maudlin
+women, who sigh for a little love. She looked straight
+into the coming years, and saw herself always alone, with
+no feeling of pity or regret.</p>
+
+<p>As for Jack Darcy, when they had passed, he turned
+and looked after them,&mdash;after <i>her</i>, in her state and dignity.
+He held one secret of her life that she would never
+know. He had questioned Maverick, who learned that
+she had no remembrance of going out that night. He
+had bound Fred over to a most willing secrecy.</p>
+
+<p>Ah, Jack! any remembrance that you can carry so
+guardedly in your soul is a dangerous thing,&mdash;a spark
+that may kindle a great fire "that many waters cannot
+quench!"</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie did not relinquish her own outside interests.
+The school that had had so small a beginning was now
+merged into a regular enterprise, and been re-christened
+an Industrial School. It had a permanent teacher, and
+occupied the whole house, the rent being paid by some
+benevolent gentlemen. A committee of ladies assisted in
+the different classes. The store was kept open, one side<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span>
+being reserved for articles of clothing or fancy goods made
+by the pupils, the other as a bakery on a limited scale, and
+a lunch-counter. It certainly was doing a good work.
+Some young girls, after being trained, had been provided
+with service places, and had given excellent satisfaction.
+Irene went through it one day with Sylvie, and was oddly
+interested.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I had a genius of some kind," she said abruptly
+to Sylvie afterward. "If I could write a book, or
+paint a picture, or design exquisite adornments, or if I
+could hold the world spell-bound by my voice"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You do sing," returned Sylvie. "Auntie was speaking
+of it yesterday. She said, 'How I should like to hear
+Miss Lawrence sing some of her pathetic old ballads!'"</p>
+
+<p>"You know all the sweet and tender ones."</p>
+
+<p>"I sing mine over daily," and Sylvie laughed with a
+dainty inflection.</p>
+
+<p>Irene went home, and opened her piano. It might have
+made jarring discord, but for Fred's thoughtfulness. She
+found it was in perfect tune.</p>
+
+<p>Was it the music that brought a curious intensity to her
+after all these long, dreary months? Her fingers seemed
+a little stiff at first, and some things had gone out of her
+mind. Then she dropped her face into her hands, and
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>"It is my only gift," she said slowly. "When they
+are married I will not be a burthen on them: I can make
+my way. I shall never try to think of marriage again;"
+and she shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>"I declare, you are quite like yourself," said her
+mother that evening.</p>
+
+<p>The weeks went on. Miss Barry was making plans for
+her niece. She could not live here alone, even for a few
+months. And she longed to see her married. Though
+the others had almost forgotten how surely her days were
+numbered, she had not.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Fred assented delicately to her proposal.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not as if there were only your income," she said
+with a touch of pride. "Sylvie will have enough to keep
+the old house as it is kept now, and your mother and sister
+have some claims on you. Still, for her sake"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie would fain have put it off, but she was gently
+overruled. The wedding-garments were ordered, the day
+appointed. A quiet marriage in the pretty parlor, with
+only a few friends. They brought Miss Barry down
+stairs, and she listened while her darling reverently repeated
+her vows. They kissed the new bride while the
+tears were shining in her eyes, and sent her on a brief
+wedding-journey with heartfelt blessings. Maverick was
+to telegraph to them every day.</p>
+
+<p>Fred Lawrence could hardly believe his happiness.
+They were like two children out on a pleasure-excursion,
+not needing to realize the gravity of life in these golden
+days. What cared they for pale winter suns and shivering
+blasts!</p>
+
+<p>Long ago he had planned a brilliant tour to Europe for
+her. He had gone over it all, and would only have been
+bored; but it was the thing to do, and he might enjoy
+her fresh delight in it. But to both of them&mdash;to him
+especially&mdash;had come the higher revelations of life. It
+is the aggregation of individual characteristics that makes
+the sum-total of national character; and though at first
+retrenchment and economy seemed hideous words to the
+pleasure-loving, easy-going, self-indulgent souls nursed
+in the lap of prosperity, there was coming a realization
+to those who had fought their way valiantly across the
+yawning gulf, that the hot race for show, the desire to
+exceed one another, was not a lofty aim for an immortal
+soul, hardly for a cultured nature.</p>
+
+<p>They both understood that beauty and grandeur were
+not far-off, hardly attained ideals, and that the great
+pleasures were set in the world rather as incentives and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span>
+rewards, than highly seasoned daily food which must inevitably
+produce satiety. Some time, when they had earned
+this glorious vacation, they would take it hungering with
+the healthy appetite of a well-trained soul. At present
+the duty was to deny one's self firmly and contentedly,
+to round off the sharp corners, to shape the daily living
+to high, pure purposes; so that the greater excellences
+of Art should not despise the minor forms, the steps
+whereby true perfection was attained, the tangled threads
+that often required more real genius to comprehend than
+the one great moment of inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>They came home again fresh and bright, with the peculiar
+fragrance of a new life about them, just as you shall
+smell spring in the woods on some mild, sunny February
+day. Fred fluctuated between office and city, quite a
+prophet of household art, welcomed warmly back to the
+old circles which had so quietly dropped him for a while.
+Is there not a great deal of this unconscious proving of
+the fine metal of souls in the world? We cry out as we
+are thrust aside, or given some hard task to do; we
+wonder people do not hold out kindly hands, smile with
+sympathetic eyes; and yet their very help might weaken
+us. When we have beaten our way across with the roar
+of the distant waves still in our ears, the shadows of the
+black, fierce, jagged cliff hardly faded, the taste of the
+brackish spray still lingering on our lips, an exultant
+thrill speeds through every nerve as we clasp a hand that
+has had to buffet through the same fateful current.</p>
+
+<p>Early in April Miss Barry had another seizure, a fatal
+stroke this time. For a few days she lay in sweet content;
+and then dropped peacefully out of existence.</p>
+
+<p>It seems always a mystery, why such earnest, useful
+souls, doing that highest of all work,&mdash;a pure, unselfish
+charity,&mdash;should be taken away, and the slothful, dependent,
+ease-loving, selfish ones left. The Darcys felt
+that Mrs. Lawrence could have been spared much more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span>
+easily, and served a higher economy in point of usefulness.
+But God, who sees every end from the beginning, and is
+all-wise, judges differently. Miss Barry had done her
+work, no light life-task either. Only God knew what it
+had been, days of toil and nights of watching and prayer,
+such pain as only a strong soul could have kept to itself,
+and smiled over. Yet she had her exceeding sweet
+reward in this world,&mdash;years of peace and comfort, the
+child-love she had missed in one way, supplied in another,
+the hope of her days crowned more wisely by the waiting.</p>
+
+<p>They did not think it worth while to keep up the two
+households; indeed, Mrs. Lawrence would not have been
+separated from her son: so she and Irene brought their
+worldly possessions over to Larch Avenue. The old house
+was large enough. Sylvie was a courteous and charming
+mistress; though Fred realized, with the sensitiveness of
+true tender love, the burthen he had brought to her.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not without its wise compensation," she said,
+tears in her sunny brown eyes. "You see, I shall miss
+auntie so much less! She would not desire me to grieve
+despairingly for her, and here is the new claim to take her
+place. Beside," with a sad yet arch smile, "we shall
+have to strive against the temptation to selfishness that
+besets newly married people, when their pursuits are identical,
+as ours are. It will give a greater breadth, a purer
+tone, to our lives."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Hope Mills</span> passed through a very prosperous six
+months. With some new processes, invented by the
+combined energy and ingenuity of the men, they made a
+new line of goods which was a perfect success. Interest
+and discount vanished; and there was a snug balance in
+the bank, of which every man was duly proud. They
+were beginning, too, to take a great interest in the finances
+of the country, and to see that a stable currency and wise
+economy and honesty were the best friends to commercial
+and industrial prosperity. One little incident made them
+exceedingly jubilant.</p>
+
+<p>They had been undersold, in the same line of goods,
+with quite a large customer. Winston was rather blue
+about it at first, then laughed it off as one of the fluctuations
+of trade. To his great surprise, six months
+after, he received the largest order for goods that had yet
+been sent.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"We have been much deceived in the quality of cloths
+from Yates, Collins, &amp; Co.," ran the note. "They do
+not stand wear, though they resemble yours so closely.
+Our customers have made numerous complaints, and
+desire the old stock, which we are glad to order again.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+"<span class="smcap">Miles, Chambers, &amp; Co</span>."<br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This was put up on the bulletin-board, and discussed
+with much pride at the club. Every man had an interest
+in it, and an ambition to excel in his particular branch.
+It paid in the long-run to be honest; and, though there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span>
+might be a higher principle than remuneration, that was
+not a bad test, after all.</p>
+
+<p>So the third summer opened brilliantly. Yardley, Gilman,
+and four others drew up an agreement for a co-operative
+store. They hired one man who had been a
+very successful buyer for a large grocery-firm, which had
+failed, and took with it his small invested capital. He
+was to keep the books, take orders, and do the buying,
+subject to the advisement of the managers. A certain
+low per cent of profits was agreed upon, just enough, they
+calculated, to pay expenses; and the goods were to be
+offered as low as possible for cash. The superior quality
+and reduced price, they decided, would be more agreeable
+to most of the men than a small balance at the end of the
+year. An account was to be kept with every member, and
+the agreement to remain in force one year from date.</p>
+
+<p>And yet there are shoals and quicksands for prosperity,
+as well as yawning abysses for adversity. There were
+people in Yerbury&mdash;not bad souls either&mdash;who were not
+content to allow the world to revolve on any axis but their
+own. They could see their neighbors' planets go to destruction
+with equanimity&mdash;following some law of nature
+or ethics that regulated supply and demand of any force,
+in their estimation; but when some bright particular star
+flashed out of the orbit they had set for it, of course it
+was beyond the pale of safety. There has always been
+a great deal of just such obstinacy in the world, just such
+narrow prescribing, and yet&mdash;"it does move."</p>
+
+<p>One of the favorite objections of these wiseacres was,
+that Hope Mills was founded on a wrong basis. Who
+knew <i>just exactly</i> what amount of goods Winston sold?
+Well, there was the amount manufactured,&mdash;the amount
+on hand every six months. True,&mdash;with a disbelieving
+shake of the head,&mdash;but he was up in the ways of the
+world; and what would hinder him, Ananias-like, from
+keeping back part of the price? When this was shown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span>
+to be an utter impossibility, they still were quite sure Winston
+harbored in his secret soul some plan for cheating
+the workmen at the last. Here would be all this accumulation
+of capital, and by some successful <i>coup-d'&eacute;tat</i>
+Winston and Darcy would swoop down upon it, and take
+the lion's share. They were very much afraid that the
+workmen were going to be wronged in some underhand
+way. A defaulting cashier, unprincipled managers, thieves
+and forgers, committed their crimes in an out-and-out way;
+but there was going to be a profound mystery about this&mdash;the
+most simple and above-board management, when
+every man knew, every six months, the best and the
+worst of the details.</p>
+
+<p>Employment was becoming more general all through
+the country. Everybody drew a long breath, and decided
+that the grinding times of depression had passed. We
+would soon be back to the brilliant era of past prosperity.</p>
+
+<p>And then there arose a new light in the labor horizon,
+a prophet who had discovered the magic key to the workingmen's
+paradise, and it had only to be turned by themselves,
+to gain entrance. Wherever he went, he was
+hailed with acclamation.</p>
+
+<p>It was the old, old war upon capital, the old seductive
+science of equalizing things, values, money. Every poor
+man in the country had a better right to a cottage and
+garden and a few hours of leisure, than these few magnates
+to grasp every thing in their own hands, to roll in
+luxury, to feast in magnificence, to clothe their daughters
+in silks, velvets, and diamonds&mdash;it was to be noted that
+Mr. McPherson wore an immense diamond, but it was to
+be presumed that his wife or daughter did <i>not</i>. Everywhere
+one could see the rich growing richer, the poor
+poorer, the workman trodden down, brought to the level
+of slavery with his long hours and scanty wages. Where
+was it to end but in a nation of paupers, of thieves, of
+criminals of every grade? for, when you made a brute of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span>
+a man, there came a time when he turned a brute's hand
+against you. This had been the underlying cause of all
+the world's great struggles: it had uncrowned kings, it
+had razed thrones, it had swept states. There were bits
+of distorted historical facts, fallacious but brilliant reasoning,
+and much bombast.</p>
+
+<p>They heard of him in this city and that, and there was
+a great deal said about the cordiality with which he
+greeted "the horny-handed son of toil." No town was
+so small that he disdained it, no city so great that he
+feared it. There had been "demonstrations," but he
+seemed proud of his defiance of danger.</p>
+
+<p>Men who could not altogether approve of him admitted
+that he was "smart," that he uttered a good many truths,
+half-truths they were, dressed up in specious falsehoods,
+all the more dangerous, since the world does pay homage
+to virtue and truth. They were troublesome questions:
+the great difficulty was the haste made in settling them.
+A balance will finally adjust itself, though there may be
+many vibrations at first.</p>
+
+<p>It was a fact much to be regretted, that with returning
+prosperity the gin-mills and beer-shops of Yerbury had,
+as a general thing, increased in their business. A notable
+instance to the contrary, however, was Keppler's saloon.
+It had depended a good deal on the men from Hope Mills
+and the iron-works. The latter had been closed so long;
+and, although the coffee-house did not seem much of a
+rival at first, it had gone on steadily, and given the men
+time to think. It was not simply the one glass of beer
+they took to wash down their midday lunch, but the treating
+when a crowd gathered, the many drinks during a
+heated discussion of an evening. Not half a dozen of the
+mill-hands went there now, so occupied had their minds
+become with other matters. Keppler's lease was not out,
+and his rent was high for the times; he had lost money
+and customers, and felt sore over it; he had a grudge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span>
+against Jack Darcy as the exponent of a system that interfered
+with his profits.</p>
+
+<p>McPherson was discussed over pipes and ale one warm
+June evening, with brains cleared, of course, by frequent
+potations and stifling smoke. It was proposed that he
+should be invited to lecture at Yerbury.</p>
+
+<p>"I like to see fair play!" cried Keppler. "These fellows
+over here"&mdash;nodding toward the mill&mdash;"have had
+it all their own way because they took up a lot of starving
+men in dull times. That was all well enough,&mdash;praise-worthy&mdash;praise-w-o-r-thy,"
+with a long accent. "But
+things have changed now,&mdash;changed!" with a confident
+nod. "I'd like to hear what the man has to say. You
+see, he has come up from the ranks, he has been poor
+himself!"</p>
+
+<p>So the ball was put in motion. McPherson's speech
+at Millville, a great laboring-centre, was read aloud with
+frequent cheering. And the laboring-men at Yerbury
+began to wonder why wages were not higher, when so
+many shops were running on full time! Somebody was
+making a great deal of money: <i>they</i> could barely live.
+Bread and meat had not fallen in the ratio of wages. It
+was still next door to starvation.</p>
+
+<p>Finally some self-constituted labor-committee sent the
+letter of invitation, and received a cordial and flattering
+reply. Mr. McPherson had heard of Yerbury. He would
+be only too glad to come among them in his humble capacity,
+and shed what light he could upon the side of right
+and truth; raise his voice for the oppressed against the
+oppressor. And he mentioned that open-air meetings
+were generally more successful.</p>
+
+<p>They put up a platform on the Common, the largest
+park in Yerbury. The day was very fine, not too hot, and
+a shower the evening before had laid the dust. At precisely
+four, a deputation awaited Mr. McPherson and his
+party at the station, escorted them to the Bedell House<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span>
+to refresh, and then to the grand hall of nature, with its
+waving arches of glistening green overhead.</p>
+
+<p>Already a great concourse had assembled. Mr. McPherson
+mounted his rostrum, and, after a few preliminary
+flourishes, began in a clear, strong tone, that had the
+power of concentrating the attention of his audience. He
+went back centuries, and proved that from the very beginning
+of all industries there had been the desire to oppress,
+that the working-classes had to combine and fight for every
+advantage gained, to wrest from kings, peers, masters,
+even equals, the privileges they held to-day. Plainly,
+capital was a tyrant fattening on unpaid toil. "Were not
+the rich always in the ranks of capital, always against the
+poor man? They squeezed him to the utmost when they
+had need, then they flung him away. Did it matter to
+them if his wife and children starved? If he stole a
+loaf of bread to appease the pangs of hunger, he was sent
+to prison; but if a bank president stole half a million, he
+went to&mdash;Europe! [Laughter and applause.] Does the
+capitalist employ the laborer in order that there shall be
+fewer starving men in the country? It comes in the market,
+and buys at the lowest price, solely for its own benefit.
+It does not concern capital, whether this man can
+support wife and children on such a pittance: what business
+has he with wife and children! If the man drops
+at the work-bench, the victim of long hours, exhaustive
+toil, insufficient food, the town will thrust him into a pauper's
+grave, and another will fill his place. Even negro-slavery
+was more noble than this: it was to the master's
+interest that the slave should be well fed. Capital was
+shrewd, selfish, experienced, astute, strong: labor was
+kept in ignorance lest it might learn its worth, its rights;
+it was half-starved that it might be weak; it was driven
+from pillar to post with a more cruel than slave-driver's
+whip, that it might never be able to perfect a successful
+organization."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And so on and on. The crowd increased. The six-o'clock
+bells rang, and the procession from shops wended
+their way thither, many from curiosity, some from a hope
+of a new truth, and not a few filled with a secret sense of
+wrong and dissatisfaction. Mr. McPherson was still belaboring
+capital. Now he had declared it "a stupendous
+fraud, a hollow bubble, a reputation for wealth where no
+wealth existed, a fictitious claim for what was not, but
+which still managed to hold the workman in its iron
+grasp; the concentrated labor of the men, not the lawful
+working interest of money. Some way this system of evil
+was going to be uprooted by men standing firm, refusing
+the wages of sweat and blood; and in the general overturn
+by legislation of state and country, every man was to
+have a farm or a factory, to quit work in the middle of
+the afternoon, and sit with folded hands on his own door-step,
+his own master, a free man!" [Great shouting
+and applause.]</p>
+
+<p>He talked until seven, and wound up at last with a
+desperate but covert onslaught on Hope Mills. "No two
+men or six men, or company of any kind, had a right to
+band together to starve not only the men in their own
+town, but the laborers throughout the world, by so reducing
+wages for their own sole benefit; and every workman
+who submitted to have these chains forged around body
+and soul, no matter by what specious expedient, was a
+worse traitor, a more cruel oppressor of wife and children,
+than the red-handed capital that stood ready to make him
+a slave!"</p>
+
+<p>There was an immense deal of cheering and applause.
+Mr. McPherson was invited to supper at the Bedell
+House by a deputation of working-men, though I think
+there were few horny-handed ones among them. Liquors
+flowed freely, and the feast was rather noisy. A purse
+was handed to him when he went away&mdash;he was too noble
+to make any charge when he spoke in behalf of a cause
+so near his heart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The seed was sown, and it is too true that "foul
+weeds grow apace." There were club-meetings and
+union-meetings. The shoe-factory, which had struggled
+hard to get on its legs again, soon became a hotbed of
+discontent. The hatters held meetings, the paper-makers
+were aroused, and then began preparation for another
+grand strike. The weavers from Coldbridge and Stilford
+sent over a deputation to Hope Mills, warning, exhorting,
+and threatening. "No system," said they, "should
+interfere with mutual strength and protection."</p>
+
+<p>And this was not all. It seemed as if Yerbury meant
+to make them the scape-goat of every thing. Robert
+Winston was broadly caricatured; and there was a bit of
+insulting abuse, calling them traders in their brethren's
+blood, pasted up on the gate-post. "The Evening Transcript"
+went over the system of co-operation, and showed
+to its own satisfaction, that it was a system full of errors
+and miscalculations based on the credulity of workmen.
+It hinted that the same mysterious cause which reduced
+profits last year would reduce them again next year, that
+at the end of the five years the bread and cheese would
+come out just even, although there had been a great deal
+more bread than cheese, as everybody knew. If the
+corporation were working for the best interests of the
+men, why had they not sold off stock when every one
+knew prices were going permanently down, instead of
+waiting to sell it below cost? Why had they paid exorbitant
+prices for wool when the market was flooded with
+it? Why had they not done this or that? until one wondered
+why, understanding the woollen-business so well,
+and being able to see just where enormous profits could
+be made, and losses avoided, they had not all gone into
+it themselves. The article wound up with a covert and
+insulting insinuation. Human nature was the same, the
+world over. Men of the highest probity and honor had
+succumbed to temptation: these men who had never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span>
+really been in any responsible position had yet to be
+proved. If men like David Lawrence and Horace Eastman
+could not make a stand against fluctuations and difficulties,
+it was hardly likely success would crown any
+such abnormal undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>Jack did not see the paper until the next day. Some
+one laid it surreptitiously on his desk. His face flushed
+darkly at the attack upon his honesty, and for a moment
+all the belligerency of his boyhood rose to the surface.
+He had half a mind to hunt up the writer of the article,
+and pound him to a jelly with his two fists. But presently
+he laughed to himself, and then made a tour of the
+mills in his cheeriest fashion. He saw with grief that
+the seed had found root. There were some sullen faces
+and short answers.</p>
+
+<p>It certainly is a hard thing to keep on fighting an old
+foe that can only be beaten, never killed.</p>
+
+<p>Jack stumbled over Cameron in the store-room.</p>
+
+<p>"Cameron," said he with a white, rigid face, "I wish
+to God this was the last day of the five years! I should
+walk out of Hope Mills, and never set foot in it again, no,
+not even if they implored me on their knees. A thankless,
+miserable set! The lying article in last night's
+paper made me mad for a moment, but could not sting:
+yet the faces of my own men did as I came through the
+rooms."</p>
+
+<p>"You've had a hard pull, Jack!" Cameron's voice
+was fatherly and soothing. "You might have put your
+money and your brains in something that would have
+proved much pleasanter. But the man who takes up the
+first end of a truth always gets hard knocks: it is the
+people who come after who find a smooth path. Don't
+you remember," drawing his wrinkled face into a queer
+smile, "the shrewd application your New York lady made
+about the children of Israel? Jack, if the salvation
+scheme of the Bible was all proved false,&mdash;which it never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span>
+will be, to my mind,&mdash;there's so much wisdom in it beside,
+that a chap could take it just for a sort of guidebook
+in every-day matters, all the same. And now we're
+going to have a big fight."</p>
+
+<p>"You think that?" cried Jack, in vague alarm. "I
+wish Winston was here. He can always talk so to the
+point!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he isn't: we've got to go through it ourselves.
+But this settles it! You see, there's been Price, and
+Pickett, and Davy, to stir up strife and bad feeling, and
+all this outside influence; but my old woman's praying
+us through, and I set a good deal of store by her prayers,
+Jack! If these ruffians go on, Yerbury'll be half ruined
+again, but it is their own fault. I'm not much on capital
+punishment, but I would go to the hanging of that McPherson.
+If he'd staid away, we should have done well
+enough."</p>
+
+<p>Jack drew a long, troubled breath.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd let every man go out who wanted to, but I
+wouldn't pay-him a red cent, there!"</p>
+
+<p>That evening Jack went down to Larch Avenue. He
+found Fred and Sylvie up in arms. Indignation was a
+mild term.</p>
+
+<p>It was a magnificent night, with a nearly full moon.
+The light flooded the wide lawn path, and made shadows
+of elves and gnomes on the porch, as the wind wandered
+in and out the great honeysuckle, whose ripe, rich perfume
+was shaken about with every waft. Within, an
+Argand lamp, and porcelain shade with a minute painting
+of Puck and his fairy host, sent a softened radiance
+on the old, rich-hued carpet, and antique furniture. It
+was but little changed, yet wore an indescribably antique
+look.</p>
+
+<p>Over at an open window sat Irene Lawrence, dressed
+in white, with a single deep-red velvety rose at her throat,
+which Sylvie had pinned there. Her hair had grown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span>
+rapidly, and, though it did not quite curl, the ends tumbled
+about loosely, framing in the face with their dusky purplish
+tint. It was very clear now, and a little pale; the
+old brilliant coloring had not all returned; the passionless
+grace, the deep eyes with their steady lights, the mouth
+suggesting mobility and warmth and passion, rather than
+defining it, the droop of the white lids, the unruffled brow,
+and the pose of the bowed head and slightly-yielding
+throat, made a marvellous picture.</p>
+
+<p>The three were talking earnestly, as people do in the
+great crises of life; Sylvie wondrously piquant, with some
+thin, black, trailing stuff making shifting billows about her
+restless feet. She questioned Jack eagerly, she denounced
+the attack as cruel and cowardly. What did he mean to
+do? What should Fred do for him?</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to do, but just wait for the result.
+The dragon's-teeth have been sown. The only comfort I
+have is, that you never can put a lie on the face of truth,
+and nail it there. No amount of arguing or talk can
+make a thing so when it is <i>not</i> so. Higher than this little
+human round, God garners every truth in his keeping, and
+will make it tell somewhere!"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Lawrence raised her eyes, and glanced over to him.
+Had the slow impassiveness of her soul been touched, that
+this sudden peculiar grace of sympathy, or some hidden
+kindred feeling, rose and asserted itself? And yet she
+might have been in some magnetic sleep, for all actual
+movement of her features; it was the dawn of an expression
+that seemed to transport him to some strange world,
+where he had known her long ago,&mdash;where he had
+watched for her coming, listened to her voice,&mdash;rather
+than any present interest or meaning.</p>
+
+<p>He rose abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not going!" cried Sylvie, in her pretty wifely
+imperiousness.</p>
+
+<p>"I"&mdash;for a moment he had the sensation of a man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span>
+drowning. The surging waves were about him, throbbing,
+leaping, strangling him. There was a ringing in his ears,
+there was a long shuddering sensation, like being overwhelmed.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very warm," he went on in a faint, strained
+voice, wiping the beaded drops from his broad brow.</p>
+
+<p>"Come over here," pleaded Sylvie: "you will be
+cooler. The wind is south, and doesn't blow in those
+windows. You are sure you feel quite well?" scanning
+him anxiously. "You look pale."</p>
+
+<p>"It was only momentary." He wondered now what
+had so moved him. "I am like good old John Bunyan's
+Pilgrim,"&mdash;laughing faintly,&mdash;"'tumbled up and down'
+with these excitements. I wish they were at an end. We
+were going on so nicely when that McPherson came!
+Don't let us think any more about it," throwing up his
+head with a nervous shake. "Sylvie, I wish you would
+sing something."</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure. Fred and I have been practising
+duets. When Yerbury is laid in ashes we can go off as
+strolling minstrels;" and she laughed gayly, as she went
+to the piano. That exquisite tact in changing a mood or
+scene was a familiar characteristic of Sylvie Barry.</p>
+
+<p>As the sound of their blending voices floated out on the
+summer night air, there leaped up in Darcy's soul a subtle,
+forceful, vivifying flame, touching to a white heat the
+farthest pulse of his being. Resistance appeared impossible:
+he did not even dream what manner of influence this
+might be. Long afterward&mdash;it seemed ages to him&mdash;as
+their heads were bent together over the pages of the music,
+he raised his eyes, and let them wander slowly toward
+Irene Lawrence.</p>
+
+<p>Was there something quite new in the face,&mdash;a sort of
+strange, wondering, troubled expression, as if some unseen,
+almost unknown, depth had been stirred?</p>
+
+<p>He did not need to ask the question now. Wild as it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span>
+was, he loved that statue over yonder, and it seemed to
+him that his passion in its enduring vitality must awaken
+her soul to kindred life! An exultant strength and determination
+rose within him. What might have abashed
+another man, filled him with a deathless courage, as high
+as it was pure.</p>
+
+<p>He thanked Sylvie and Fred for the song, but resisted
+their entreaties to remain. When he said good-night, he
+went over to Miss Lawrence, and took her hand. It was
+cold and passive, and her eyes fell beneath his.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> excitement ran very high not only in Yerbury, but
+all over the country. Strikes seemed the order of the
+day again, and for what reason, was not clearly made
+manifest, unless labor felt that it had capital a little by
+the throat, in that its services were again somewhat in
+demand. "Now," said the prophets. Surely, if they did
+not strike when there was employment, they could not
+when there was none.</p>
+
+<p>It began in the shoe-shop. The next Monday morning
+the men made their demand in no gentle terms, and
+were refused. There was a large contract at stake, however,
+and by Tuesday night the matter was talked over
+in a better spirit. The employers were willing to accede
+to one-half of the demand, otherwise the order must be
+sent to another firm. Thursday morning they went to
+work with a rather ill grace, yet some elation. Then the
+hatters took their turn. The hands at Hope Mills were
+served with a notice that the mutual protectionists in all
+the towns around were to be out on the following Monday;
+and stirring appeals were made to those who had
+any feeling of honor in the cause.</p>
+
+<p>It was exceedingly hard on the men. They gathered
+around in little knots on Sunday, wild with conflicting
+emotions. Their faith in Hope Mills and co-operation
+was undergoing a severe strain. The fear of secret
+frauds, of underhand dealing, of distrust in Winston and
+Darcy, had been dinned in their ears by outside influence,
+some of it very potent. Not one appeal had been made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span>
+by the managers: Cameron and the others decided it
+was best.</p>
+
+<p>Jack went over to the mill on Monday morning. The
+gatekeeper and the bell-boy were there. The engineer
+came in with a quiet, solemn "Good-morning." The
+Brotherhood of Engineers had warned him too, and he
+was a little troubled; but he had cast in his lot with the
+rest, and it might be as well to wait and see what they
+did. The main shaft was turned.</p>
+
+<p>Jack from his office-window watched the streets filling
+up with men and women, many beside the regular operatives.
+They came to a halt.</p>
+
+<p>"Ding-dong! ding-dong!" the bell rang out cheerily
+on the summer morning air. "Come to work, come to
+work! The birds build homes, and rear their young; the
+bee skims the fragrant air in search of flowers; the rivers
+run to the sea, turning wheels, driving ships: nothing
+in the great economy of nature is idle," sang out the
+clang of the bell.</p>
+
+<p>The hands glanced at one another in doubt and dismay,
+and there was an awful silence for a few seconds.</p>
+
+<p>Some one elbowed his way through the crowd. He had
+come from the bedside of his sick child, who might be
+dying even now,&mdash;a small, wiry, middle-aged man, with
+a set, resolute face. He glanced about, then he sprang
+up on a pile of packing-boxes. It was Jesse Gilman.</p>
+
+<p>"My fellow-workmen," he began, "I don't know how
+you all feel about this matter; but Hope Mills took me
+in when I had tramped the country half over, and found
+nothing to do. I've tried the old system, and this can't
+be any worse; and, if I have to lose money by an employer,
+I'd rather it would be John Darcy of Yerbury, than any
+man I know. No man on the face of the earth has a right
+to say I shall not work in Hope Mills when I made my
+own bargain long ago to do it. That is all I have to say.
+I am going to work."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Three cheers!" cried some one as Gilman jumped
+down.</p>
+
+<p>There were cheers and groans.</p>
+
+<p>Ben Hay followed him, and stood a moment in the gateway.</p>
+
+<p>"Boys," said he in his rich, ringing voice, "Hope
+Mills was opened to receive a crowd of starving men. I'll
+take my oath to Jack Darcy's honesty. He's stuck by
+us, and we'll stick to him. That's the beauty of co-operation.
+You can't get away, and tramp off with the first
+fool that asks you! It isn't merely keeping company: it's
+a good, honest, up-and-down marriage. I'd as soon think
+of leaving my wife because some day she didn't give me
+two dinners instead of one!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a shout of laughter. The ice was broken in
+good earnest. "Three cheers for Ben Hay! Three
+cheers and a tiger for Jack Darcy!" and amid all this
+hubbub the men and women, the boys and girls, rushed in
+pell-mell. A gladder crew one never saw. To decide
+when others doubt, to go forward boldly when others hesitate,
+to stand up for the principle of right when others
+have traduced and blackened it, to take the first step, is
+to be as heroic as the "six hundred" of deathless fame.</p>
+
+<p>They went to work with a will, though some were a
+little sore and doubtful, but they were carried on by the
+enthusiasm of the others. The street below was still
+blocked up, and there were yells and groans. Presently
+there came a shower of superannuated eggs. Two landed
+in Darcy's office-window. After that, a stampede of
+the riotous crew.</p>
+
+<p>Darcy sent Andrew, the bell-boy, to the police-station,
+and two men were detailed. The workmen were allowed
+to go home peaceably, except a little jeering at Keppler's.
+They heard then the trains had been stopped on the two
+roads leading out of Yerbury. The whole world seemed
+to be going crazy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Darcy and Cameron remained in the mill that night
+until almost ten: then the latter went home, and Darcy
+thought he would go for Ben Hay. The streets of Yerbury
+had presented a very peculiar aspect that evening,
+something like a beleaguered town. Groups of men and
+boys collected on the corners, or wended their way
+through the streets with low, ominous mutterings. People
+barred their doors and locked their windows, though
+it was a hot summer night. Some women were abroad:
+but they were of the rougher sort, and now and then their
+shrill voices rose on the air in derision or vituperation.
+Still there were no overt acts of violence, and at ten
+everybody began to breathe more freely.</p>
+
+<p>The coffee-house had been shut up that evening: it
+was deemed advisable. Darcy went round to the side-door,
+and was admitted. Hay and three other workmen
+were within. They had been figuring up possible and
+probable profits by the end of the five years, and looked
+very well satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a sort of hope and expectation about it,"
+said one of the men, "that kind of stirs and warms a
+body. And when you come to count lost time, and fluctuation
+in wages, it makes a pretty even thing, after all!
+In '73 I worked in a shoddy-mill that <i>had</i> been making
+money hand over fist,&mdash;eleven hours a day,&mdash;not a man
+of us made more than five dollars a week. Some poor
+fellows with families earned only three. You've never
+been as hard up as that! God only knows how they
+lived: it's beyond my guessing!"</p>
+
+<p>"And if that was co-operation, how the system would
+be blamed!" exclaimed Ben Hay. "I declare, it makes
+me madder than a hen in a fence&mdash;I've caught that of
+Cameron," laughingly,&mdash;"to hear the things people have
+said about us. They're forever blathering about fair play&mdash;I
+wish they'd give a little, as well as take all. Wait
+till we've come to the end, say I, before they tell what we
+can do, or what we can't or sha'n't or won't!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was a tramp in the street. The startled eyes
+studied one another. Then a shuffling and muttering,
+and a knock at the door.</p>
+
+<p>No one stirred but Mrs. Connelly, who threw up her
+hands, and cried, "The saints protect us!"</p>
+
+<p>"Earthly saints, Mother Connelly,&mdash;this kind," said
+Ben Hay with gay re-assurance, doubling his fist, and
+baring his brawny arm.</p>
+
+<p>The pounding increased. Rose ran down stairs wild
+with affright, followed by her sister. The boys fortunately
+were asleep in the back chambers.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us in, Mother Connelly: we want some bread
+and butter!" shouted a voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Cakes and yale!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pretzel and zwei lager!"</p>
+
+<p>"A sup of the craythur!"</p>
+
+<p>"A dhrop of whiskey to warrum us this could night!
+Av yees the heart av a sthone, Kit Connelly?"</p>
+
+<p>A roar of laughter succeeded this.</p>
+
+<p>"Go away, it will be better for you," declared Ben
+Hay.</p>
+
+<p>"Come out here, Hay, and fight like a man! Don't
+skulk behind a woman's petticoats!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a terrific onslaught at the door. It creaked
+and groaned, and was succeeded by a volley of oaths and
+imprecations. Rose began to cry, and the youngest girl
+came screaming down the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>Darcy had sent a man out of the back way for policemen.
+Hay and the two other men mounted guard. Again the
+door shivered and creaked: then it flew open, bolts, locks,
+and hinges having given way in a mass of splinters.</p>
+
+<p>Like a flash the men were on their assailants. The
+mob had not expected this. Right and left valorous blows
+were dealt, and two or three burly fellows were laid low.
+Some nearer sober, and more cowardly, took to their heels.
+Two men fought like tigers; and once Ben Hay came near<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span>
+getting the worst; but, by the time the dilatory guards of
+peace arrived, there was only a pile of bruised and battered
+bodies lying on the door-step.</p>
+
+<p>"A pretty tough scrimmage!" was the comment.
+"Weren't you a little hard on these fellows?"</p>
+
+<p>"A man has a right to defend his own life and his own
+nose," said Ben Hay decisively. "His life <i>may</i> be useful,
+his nose <i>is</i> ornamental when it is a handsome one like
+mine."</p>
+
+<p>What with drunkenness and the drubbing, two of the
+ruffians were unable to walk. Two others were marched
+off under the escort of the officers, the disabled sent for,
+and a guard detached to protect Mrs. Connelly's house.
+When everybody had been quieted, Jack took a tour down
+to the mills. Some poor object was huddled up in the
+corner of the main stoop.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you doing here?" demanded Darcy.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Darcy, don't strike me! I'm Bart Kane.
+I've had enough of this night, and I crawled here"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The boy began to sob and talk brokenly. He lifted his
+face in the moonlight. It was ghastly; one eye swollen
+shut, and purple-black, and streaks of blood and dirt
+over it; the clothing torn, the throat bare.</p>
+
+<p>"Were you down there at Connelly's?"</p>
+
+<p>"I warn't nowhere. It was along o' father: he comed
+home drunk."</p>
+
+<p>Barton Kane was a mill-boy, about nineteen now.
+Darcy's first feeling had been one of outrage and anger,
+but he cooled suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, my lad," in a kindly tone, taking the shivering
+fingers in his.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, Mr. Darcy, father'd been out along of the
+hatters all day, gettin' more and more rum in him. He
+said on Sunday, as how't I should strike; but they went to
+work here, and I worked with 'em. When I went home,
+mother, she gev me my supper, and ses she, 'Keep out o'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span>
+sight, lad, happen thy dad's powerful mad wi' thee!' So
+I went to bed. But about nine he comed home, and tore
+up the house wi' his tantrums, and then lathered me. He
+called me a rat, and a sneak, and a turn-coat, and kicked
+me out o' the house, and threw my traps to me. Then
+afore I was fairly dressed he at me again, and said if
+ever I darkened the door, he'd murder me! I strayed
+round, afeared of everybody, and crawled up here.
+'Pears like every bone in my body is broke, and my eye,
+he do hurt so!"</p>
+
+<p>With that Barton Kane broke out sobbing again, and
+clung to Jack Darcy's knees.</p>
+
+<p>"My poor lad!" the tone was infinitely tender. "Can
+you walk a little way, to Kit Connelly's? You can be
+nursed up there, and go to bed peaceably. Come, Barton,
+my boy, you are the hero of Hope Mills. When this is
+over, we shall have to give you a medal."</p>
+
+<p>He put his strong arm around the shivering body, and
+led him back to a kindly shelter.</p>
+
+<p>"Hay, Mrs. Connelly, and all of you: here's a lad that
+has been half-killed for standing by his colors to-day.
+Look here, Armstrong, would you mind going for Dr.
+Maverick? this poor chap needs some patching-up. And,
+Kit, give me some water and a napkin: we'll get his face
+a little cool and clean."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me do it, Mr. Darcy. Sure, I've boys of my own,
+and am used to it. Oh, the poor, poor lad!"</p>
+
+<p>Barton told his story over again. He was weak and
+hysterical now, and they made him a shake-down on the
+floor until the doctor came.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I'll start on my inspection-tour again," said
+Darcy, turning away. "We are all likely to make a night
+of it."</p>
+
+<p>He thought he would go around before he went in to
+see the watchmen: they had placed a force on guard
+quietly. He had just turned the second corner, when he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span>
+saw a man jump from the high fence, and lie for an instant
+as if stunned. He hastened on, but the man sprang up
+and ran down the dark side of the street. His first impulse
+was to follow; then it struck him as strange that the
+dog gave no alarm. He had a gate-key in his pocket, and
+unlocked it at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Bruno!" he called, "Bruno, good fellow, come
+here."</p>
+
+<p>There was not a sound. The ominous silence thrilled
+Jack.</p>
+
+<p>"Bruno!"</p>
+
+<p>Hark! a curious crackling or sweep of wind, and
+smoky smell. He ran round to the rear. Close up
+against the back door, quite out of the moonlight, something
+was piled. Forked tongues of flame were shooting
+out of it everywhere. He seized the chain attached to
+the factory-bell, and rang it rapidly. There was a window
+thrown up, and a voice called.</p>
+
+<p>"Fire! fire!" he shouted. "Turn on the hose,&mdash;the
+lower back door."</p>
+
+<p>The flames streamed up fiercely now. It was plain that
+the mound had been saturated with kerosene.</p>
+
+<p>Daly hurried down, and opened a door. "Hurd and
+Byrnes are at the buckets and hose," he cried. "Where
+is it? O Mr. Darcy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Quick, quick!" shouted Jack, rushing by him.</p>
+
+<p>The men had the hose ready. They put it out of the
+window, turned on the stream, and in a few moments a
+column of dense smoke rose amid the arrowy flashes of
+lurid splendor. The watchman ran down from Connelly's.</p>
+
+<p>It was subdued in a few moments. They tore away
+the charred boxes and <i>d&eacute;bris</i>, smoking and smouldering.
+Underneath all they found the body of princely Bruno.</p>
+
+<p>"This is fiendish!" cried Jack, dragging the poor fellow
+away, his scorched coat smelling horribly. "Brave
+Bruno, you are the second hero of the night!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Whatever dastardly devil did this, knows as much
+about Hope Mills as you or I," shouted Hurd savagely.
+"Bruno was poisoned first; and he wouldn't have taken
+any thing from a strange hand. But the fellow was a
+fool to build the fire here."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know about that," said Darcy. "If it had
+burned the door down, it would have gone in the hall, and
+up the hatchway&mdash;if it was open."</p>
+
+<p>"By thunder! so it would; and right to the stock-room.
+That place must never be left open again while Hope
+Mills stands, or co-operation waves her starry banner in
+the breeze."</p>
+
+<p>"Loud applause!" said some one.</p>
+
+<p>The fire was thoroughly extinguished; and the guardian
+of the night decided to remain here, being within call if
+another disturbance should occur at Mrs. Connelly's.
+The bells rang out for midnight. A few, who had
+gathered at the alarm, dispersed: and every thing became
+quiet again,&mdash;deadly, solemnly quiet.</p>
+
+<p>Jack wanted to see Maverick, so he paced back to
+Mrs. Connelly's. He was trying to remember some
+distinctive mark of the man he had seen jump. He
+was too stout for Davy, and he could not believe such
+villany of the man. Then Price was a little lame from
+an old rheumatic affection, and would not have dared such
+a deed.</p>
+
+<p>Barton Kane had been washed, patched, bandaged, put
+to bed, and given an opiate; so now he was in a sound
+but rather disturbed sleep. The men gathered in the
+lunch-room, and discussed the cowardly attempt upon the
+mill, the day's affairs generally.</p>
+
+<p>"See how great a matter a little fire kindles," said
+Maverick. "But for McPherson's lecture here, I don't
+believe any of these things would have happened. It is a
+free country, of course, and a man has a right to air his
+ideas; but capital is not set firmly enough on its legs to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span>
+stand a severe fire, and labor is in too great a superabundance.
+To seek to drain the ocean with a silver mug
+may be grand, but quite hopeless."</p>
+
+<p>One! The witching hour, and a few sleepy men began
+to yawn.</p>
+
+<p>"How odd it seems, not to hear trains in the night!"
+Maverick said presently. "A queer lock-out this."</p>
+
+<p>One, again. One, two, three: this time the fire-alarm.</p>
+
+<p>They rushed out toward the mill. Then they as suddenly
+wheeled around. In an instant the air seemed full
+of shouts and cries, and a broad sheet of flame flared up
+in the face of the tranquil heavens. A roar, like a
+mighty tramping of hosts, a crackling, snapping, sweeping
+sound.</p>
+
+<p>"It's Keppler's. Boyd's block will surely go!"</p>
+
+<p>The houses were frame, old and dry: Keppler's on the
+corner, the rest joined, like a row of sheds, and filled with
+the very poorest; a few apartments standing empty. The
+engines were out, but it was of little avail. The corner
+was just one brilliant sheet of lurid light. Shrieking
+women and children fled for their lives. The street
+swarmed again, and people trampled over one another in
+their wild terror. There was a crash, and the building
+fell in. The flames licked up the other fiery flood, and
+had a brave battle in the cellar. The engines played until
+the air was filled with smothering smoke, and there was
+nothing left but a long, blackened ruin.</p>
+
+<p>"It may be ungenerous to rejoice in any man's misfortune,"
+said Maverick, "but in a sanitary point of
+view I am thankful those old rookeries have come to an
+end. Boyd wouldn't do any thing to them, and they were
+unfit for pigs to live in. And, as for Keppler's, there will
+be but one verdict this end of the town."</p>
+
+<p>Some one laid a hand on Jack Darcy's shoulder. He
+turned and saw Fred Lawrence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"They are all worried to death about you, old chap,"
+began Fred. "Your mother, Miss Morgan, Sylvie,&mdash;and
+Irene is walking the floor. I have not seen her so excited
+since&mdash;since she had the fever. What a horrible thing!
+Was any one lost, do you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"They will not be able to tell that until morning,
+every thing is in such confusion. Pray God that the
+morning may dawn soon! I seem to have lived through
+years."</p>
+
+<p>The dawn came up by and by; first in faint opaline
+splendors, then scarlet and gold. The moon paled, and
+the stars dropped out, and there was a chirp of birds to
+welcome the new-born day.</p>
+
+<p>The shock of the fire cooled the temper of the raiders,
+for half the men were idle hangers-on, rather than absolute
+strikers. One frantic woman flew to the scene of devastation:
+her boy, four years old, was missing. They tried to
+comfort her with the thought that some neighbor had
+kindly taken him in, but she kept wildly imploring them
+to search.</p>
+
+<p>There was no further molestation of the men at Hope
+Mills. They walked in the yard quietly at seven o'clock,
+their faces touched with surprise and terror when they
+heard the story of the night. Barton Kane lay disabled
+at Mrs. Connelly's, and poor Bruno was buried with
+honors, regretted by the whole force.</p>
+
+<p>Jack called the men together, and addressed them briefly.
+He was very pale, and his usually bright, clear eyes
+were heavy.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to thank you," he said, in a tone that was a
+little unsteady with exhaustion and emotion, "I want to
+thank you for standing so bravely by me, and by your
+principles. We are all partners together, and what is
+one man's interest is every man's. I feel sure that we
+shall never have another difficulty. We have gone
+through the worst, and in a little while every man will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span>
+have his free choice again. Let us all keep the warmest
+of friends until then."</p>
+
+<p>There was no cheering: they were not gay enough for
+that. Some of the men wrung his hand silently; then the
+women pressed forward, and invoked a blessing upon
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"We know better nor any of 'em what it was to have
+no fire, and childers cryin' for bread," said one woman,
+wiping her eyes with the end of her faded shawl. "And,
+thank the Lord, I've had bite, and sup, and fire, ever
+since the day Hope Mills was opened."</p>
+
+<p>The men outside were working at the ruins,&mdash;among
+them some of the strikers of yesterday. They found poor
+Mrs. Rooney's little Johnny, burned to a crisp; and
+in the house next to Keppler's they exhumed the body
+of Biddy Brady, a good-natured, efficient washerwoman,
+whose greatest fault was her intemperance. She and her
+son had gone to bed very drunk, after having a good time
+through the evening. The boy had been roused in season,
+but she had perished. It was as vivid and fervent a temperance-lecture
+as ever was given in Yerbury.</p>
+
+<p>About ten in the morning Jack Darcy returned home
+dead tired, as much with the excitement as the fatigue,
+took a bath, and went to bed.</p>
+
+<p>The Yerbury authorities looked sharply about them
+that day. The strikers were orderly and quiet, but they
+had lost ground. "The Evening Transcript" deprecated
+all this sort of business, and for once had no fling about the
+"Utopian theory of co-operation." But "The Leader"
+of the morning came out strongly in praise of the good
+order, forbearance, and <i>esprit de corps</i> of Hope Mills,
+and called Mr. Darcy "our young and enterprising citizen,
+whom, we doubt not, we shall hear of in higher
+positions in life, which he has proved himself eminently
+worthy to fill."</p>
+
+<p>There was no great lament made about Boyd's Row<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span>
+or Keppler's saloon, except for the sad casualty it had
+caused; but the dastardly attack on Mrs. Connelly, and
+the fiendish attempt to burn Hope Mills, met with the
+severest condemnation.</p>
+
+<p>Maverick came around to the Darcys that evening.
+"I fancy I have found your man, Jack," he began.
+"Mrs. Stixon called me in towards night, saying Jem had
+been on a spree, and was dreadfully beaten. I found one
+side of his face scratched and bruised, and bits of gravel
+still adhering to the flesh. The right arm, on the same
+side, has one bone broken, and his shoulder is dislocated.
+He said he fell off of a stoop, and is dreadfully sullen. I
+asked him what stoop, but he would not tell. Do you
+remember which way the man fell?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack thought a moment. "On the right side, Maverick,
+away from me, or I should have seen his face.
+Just such a size man as Jem Stixon, too," with a satisfied
+nod.</p>
+
+<p>"What will you do about it?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack took two or three turns across the floor. "See
+here, Maverick, we will not do any thing. You cure the
+poor fellow, and I think he will never try to damage
+Hope Mills again. I can hardly forgive him Bruno,
+though."</p>
+
+<p>"If I were Sylvie Barry,"&mdash;he never called her Mrs.
+Lawrence when speaking of her,&mdash;"I should say, 'Jack,
+you are an angel.'"</p>
+
+<p>Jack flushed. "Masculine angels!" he laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, wasn't there Gabriel and a host of them?
+Why, Jack, they were <i>all</i> masculine!"</p>
+
+<p>There was no need for earthly justice to meddle with
+Jem Stixon. His arm inflamed: he had led a hard life
+late years, and his system was in bad order. He would
+not listen to amputation until it was too late, and in less
+than a month he was dead. It was better for his poor
+hard-working wife and family.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>One other death grew out of the summer riots, though
+this was at a distance. Dennis Connelly had been working
+with a railroad-gang, and the strikers there had a
+desperate struggle with the civil authority. They were
+worsted in the end, and Connelly was one of the victims,
+or perhaps more truly speaking, a victim to bad whiskey,
+for when sober he was very peaceable. Kit sent for his
+body, and had him decently buried.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> strikers at the hat-factory did not carry the day.
+The employers were very indignant, and tabooed the
+union men altogether. At Garafield's the men were called
+in council, the points discussed, and a small advance in
+wages allowed. The co-operatives went their way quietly.
+Perhaps the most convincing argument was a very jubilant
+letter from Winston, part of which Darcy put up in
+the hall. He had just succeeded in making an important
+contract for two years, on very fair terms. That would
+see them through safely unless the whole world came to
+grief again!</p>
+
+<p>Jack wrote Miss McLeod a graphic account of the
+"labor troubles," and she replied with equally characteristic
+<i>verve</i>. "She could hardly decide," she declared,
+"whether to be glad, or sorry, that her young friend had
+grown so independent of her; but in any emergency she
+wished to be remembered."</p>
+
+<p>There was now a certain respect paid to Hope Mills,
+among the community at Yerbury. Perhaps there are no
+people so exacting and difficult to satisfy as those friends
+and neighbors whose advice you have not taken, and prospered
+without it. They indulge in a righteous self-complacency
+if you are unfortunate, and pity you grandly;
+but to own themselves mistaken is the one bitter flavor in
+the cup. There seemed to be but one point now upon
+which they were doubtful,&mdash;the honesty of the managers
+at the last moment. Every workman knew or might know
+exactly how affairs stood, but <i>they</i> did not have the capital.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span>
+Just at the end of the five years <i>somebody</i> might abscond
+with the money-bag under his arm. It seemed so
+every way certain that human nature could not withstand
+the temptation.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there was growing up among the hands a curious
+neighborly sympathy, as if they were in some degree relatives;
+and they were made so, in fact, by some marriages
+of sons and daughters. They were more intelligent; they
+kept their houses cleaner, their little gardens prettier, not
+allowing them to go to weeds before the summer was half
+over. Those who could go to the industrial school
+learned a deal about sewing, and became seamstresses
+instead of mill-girls. Some made their own family
+dresses, some were very tasty milliners. It gave them a
+reliance upon what they could do themselves. The two
+daughters of one workman kept a little poultry-yard
+"scientifically," and dressed themselves from its proceeds.
+Industry became more general. Instead of dawdling away
+whole evenings in gossip, they had some light employment,
+and worked as they talked.</p>
+
+<p>The September showing was very encouraging. There
+were still a great many bankruptcies and losses, but some
+of them could not be guarded against. Darcy and Winston
+regularly eschewed speculation, though the latter
+confessed his fingers sometimes burned to be in the pie.</p>
+
+<p>"But, after all," he said frankly, "if the energy, ingenuity,
+ambition, and strength that are expended to
+make certain people buy and sell, over and over, a thing
+that can be no more valuable than the money it makes
+year by year, which often is not much,&mdash;if this were
+turned into industrial and commercial channels,&mdash;gad!
+what a country we would be! Our flag would float on
+every sea, our goods be in every port. And yet they go
+on, rich to-day because they have beggared their neighbor,
+poor to-morrow because their neighbor has beggared
+them. What idiotic business!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But I must go back a little with my hero. There were
+many things to occupy his mind, the summer of the
+"strikes;" yet through it all, like one strain of heavenly
+harmony in a clash of discord, he came to know the
+diviner needs of his being. Another man might have
+been dismayed at the revelation. Like a flash when the
+horizon is opened, he saw the light; and he knew, from
+the depths of the darkness the next moment, what manner
+of storm it would be.</p>
+
+<p>He had never weakened or frittered away his sweetest
+emotions on the various flirtations that fill the early years
+of so many men. He had liked and admired Sylvie Barry
+above all young women he had ever met; but this emotion,
+though pure and lasting, never stirred the ardor of his
+soul. Had it really lain untouched so long, or had some
+vague dream slipped into it the night he and Sylvie had
+planned the costume for Irene Lawrence, the time he first
+encountered her beauty in all its vivid splendor? To him
+she was a glorious young goddess.</p>
+
+<p>The long-ago summer day he had met the two in the
+phaeton, he was more keenly pained for her sake than his
+own. To be sure, his first emotion was that of angry indignation,
+sending the outraged blood through every pulse;
+then, as it cooled, the act appeared so utterly unwomanly.
+If she had passed him by carelessly&mdash;but to designedly
+attract his glance, and stab it thus, was as if a giant had
+taken a club to kill a butterfly because it breathed the
+fragrance of the rose. He shut out that vision. You
+can tell what impression she had made upon him, when
+he always thought of her as he saw her in the glow of
+Sylvie's pretty parlor, that summer night. His healthy,
+active temperament never brooded over disagreeable
+things a moment longer than necessity kept him there.</p>
+
+<p>She faded from his mind by degrees. Even when he
+took Fred back into the old regard, he thought of her as
+the possible wife of some millionnaire. When she returned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span>
+to Yerbury, and shut herself up in stately despair,
+refusing even Sylvie's proffered sympathy, she puzzled
+him. How could she, so fond of admiration and gayety,
+live this nun's life, without the nun's spiritual exaltation?
+He passed her once or twice in the hall, as he was calling
+on Fred, but neither made any sign.</p>
+
+<p>Then came that terrible night, when he had found her
+astray, her brain consumed by the smouldering fire of isolation,
+when you have only the black, choking smoke that
+never blazes up in purifying flames. There are thousands
+of women who have done this, weakly, sentimentally,
+through the period of adversity that has tried the metal
+of all souls; but she, being stronger, more self-reliant,
+could not drop into puerile whining.</p>
+
+<p>At Depford Beach they had come in contact again.
+There was both attraction and repulsion in these two
+people, as there often is in strongly-marked, positive
+natures. She tolerated him because he was Sylvie's
+lover; despised him, believing that he meant to make a
+stepping-stone of this girl's wealth and position; and, in
+spite of herself, felt the current of his strength and buoyant
+energy. By slow degrees the unwilling truth was
+forced upon her, that God never created any human soul
+for its own self-destruction; that there was no absolute
+virtue in warping and twisting circumstances into chains
+and bonds, that were ordained for higher, nobler purposes.
+Her mental disease had run its course. Sylvie's sorrow
+was the final electric shock that broke the heavy soil of
+apathy.</p>
+
+<p>Her utter surprise when she found that through all
+these years Jack Darcy had refrained from influencing
+Sylvie in his behalf, was something quite indescribable.
+She thought she had fathomed men's souls with her keen
+insight, but this man was a Saul amid his peers. Had
+there been some subtile, far-reaching foundation for Fred's
+regard in the boyhood days,&mdash;something that their eyes,
+being holden with golden bonds, could not see?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After the marriage there was a certain degree of association,
+not intimacy. And yet she set herself to watch
+him. Somewhere she would discern the print of the feet
+of clay this idol of Fred and Sylvie's possessed.</p>
+
+<p>It was a most fascinating yet dangerous employment.
+She used to sit there in her impassive grace, as they
+talked, weighing every word, testing every sentiment,
+watching the expressions that flitted over Jack Darcy's
+countenance, until it went everywhere with her, the blue-gray
+eyes piercing the very depths of her soul. They
+came to the one night when a glance stirred and troubled
+both, when the depths of both natures experienced that
+curious shock of repulsion and wonder. It was not love,
+it was too near, too awesome, yet too spiritually pure, to
+be hate, still it sent them apart none the less surely.</p>
+
+<p>By degrees, even amid the hard struggle of the strikes,
+he came to a self-knowledge. His perceptions were not
+easily confused; and by that intuitive process born pure
+in every soul, but too often marred and dulled by the
+many counterfeits put upon it, he knew this was love, a
+life-long passion for one woman, not because she had as
+yet answered any need of his nature, or promised any
+expansion into higher life. He loved her just as she was;
+for her beauty, her swift, proud grace, her virtues if she
+had any, her very faults, and of those he was not in doubt.
+And he set himself to win her with the same high courage
+that had taken Hope Mills in hand.</p>
+
+<p>Occasionally we see a man wrecked by this steady, persistent,
+overwhelming love for an inferior object, caught
+perhaps by some occult fascination that flashes all laws
+out of sight. We wonder how he can be so led astray;
+and yet it is an integral part of the man, a quality of the
+soul which he would not overcome and put in bonds if he
+could.</p>
+
+<p>He did not cringe or flatter, or adopt any of the fears or
+weaknesses of passion. It was not weak, and he did not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span>
+fear. He meant to be master of her soul, and win her
+through that very power, struggle as she might. He
+would wait, if it were years, until she laid down her few
+weak weapons, and capitulated. From that time onward,
+there would be neither "mine" nor "thine."</p>
+
+<p>And now the fine, tested quality of his patience stood
+him in good stead. He might long to draw near, to clasp
+the snowy hand, to study the fathomless dusk of the eyes,
+and note the frightened droop of the fringed lids; but he
+held aloof. Still he went to Larch Avenue night after
+night; he dropped in of a morning when least expected,
+occasionally finding her alone for a few moments; he
+walked from church with them, by her side, the only
+times he came near her, and she felt in every pulse of her
+being the indefinable something that she was impelled to
+struggle against.</p>
+
+<p>A curious change came over her. The cold indifference
+melted to a rose hue of interest, a pliant softness stole
+over her figure, a certain buoyant tenderness diffused
+itself in her tone, her dusky eyes came to have a startled
+softness like a shy, frightened fawn. The old brilliant
+color returned to cheek and lip, yet toned with the tremulous
+throbbing of a new inward life, so exquisitely attuned
+that she could but listen to the harmonious melody.</p>
+
+<p>She came to understand presently; the intangible power
+in his demeanor roused her, I think; and her whole soul,
+every fibre of her body, rose up in mutinous revolt.
+Whither was this swift current carrying her? What great
+wave was this that struck at the very props of her own
+strength and reliance? How did this man dare to invade
+the walled sanctities of her being? She would have none
+of him: she would go on her solitary way, sufficient for
+herself. She, who had never loved amid all the beguilements
+the world had to offer, to be conquered by the very
+man she had trained herself to despise!</p>
+
+<p>Irene Lawrence found it hard fighting with this unseen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span>
+foe. He seemed always lying in ambush, always armored
+with a word or sentiment to which she must assent, always
+before her in the place she had meant to be; and she
+would not throw up the white flag of defeat. She would
+not own to herself she experienced any alarm or annoyance.</p>
+
+<p>One evening Fred and Sylvie had gone to a neighbor's,
+and were momentarily expected. A peculiar temptation
+entered her soul. If this man must needs flutter in the
+flame, why should she be tender and careful of him?
+Others had dared her, to the burning of their very souls:
+if the experience was worth the pain, he should have it,
+and decide.</p>
+
+<p>She sat down at the piano, and shook a shower of melody
+out of her slender finger-ends. All the affluent grace
+of womanhood with the polish of society spoke in every
+curve of her pliant figure, in the dainty, delicate, high-bred
+gestures. The eyes hung out their false lights of
+treacherous intent amid the half-slumberous fire; the very
+lips seemed shaped and blossoming with a rare thrill of
+passion that could turn to a caress at a look. All along
+the brow ran fine sinuosities of light that dazzled like
+the tracery of pale flame. Had she blossomed into some
+royal midsummer flower that is seen but once in an age?</p>
+
+<p>She had motioned him close beside her with an impelling
+wave of the hand. He could feel her warmth, her
+fragrant breath; her soft billowy dress fell against his
+foot in a crested wave; her white hand and slender wrist,
+just toned, but not hidden, with rare lace like that of
+Arachne's spinning, wandered temptingly over toward
+him. A sudden delirium took possession of him, an exhilaration
+that steeped the brain, that stirred every pulse,
+that awoke in him an almost maddening desire to clasp
+her in his arms, to drain such sweetness from her lips
+that the whole world might be beggared ever after, and
+he not care.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She knew the signs. She had seen more than one man
+dally on the brink, and then topple over to the blankness
+of despair. Even if she had pitied herself, which she
+did not, she could have had no mercy on him. Now she
+was set to her work, and she meant to do it if she brought
+into play every fascination art and nature had furnished
+her with.</p>
+
+<p>His soul rose and glowed within him. The music, the
+most ravishing of its kind, stirred him to that intensity of
+pain, it seemed as if he must cry out with torture. No
+suffering had ever been like this: if the doctrine of sacrificial
+fires were true, he might have purchased paradise.</p>
+
+<p>Did he mean never to stir or speak? Could that hand,
+lying so passively on the corner of the piano, remain
+unmoved, with hers just below it? Its defiant strength
+stung her.</p>
+
+<p>"They do not come,"&mdash;looking warily around, and
+passing him with her veiled eyes, rather than looking at
+him. "Are you growing weary? Shall I sing for you?"</p>
+
+<p>The tone had the melody of some lotus-freighted stream.
+She had thrown all her sweetness into it.</p>
+
+<p>"If you will."</p>
+
+<p>His was tremulous and husky with repressed passion.</p>
+
+<p>Her voice was not pure: it had the rich depth and
+pathos of contralto, and the vibrant clearness of soprano.
+Now it threaded a tremulous pathway among the pathetic
+minor notes, while the fingers seemed to drop a faint sigh
+of accompaniment,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Oh! when ye hear me gie a loud, loud cry,&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The broom blooms bonnie, and says it is fair,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Shoot an arrow frae thy bow, and there let me lie,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And we'll never gang down to the broom ony mair.</span><br />
+<br />
+"And when ye see that I'm lying cauld and dead,&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The broom blooms bonnie, and says it is fair,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Then ye'll put me in a grave wi' a turf at my head,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And we'll never gang down to the broom ony mair."</span><br />
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The last sad note died into summer-night sweetness.
+A current of bland, dangerous magnetism passed between
+them. She turned her splendid, passion-lighted eyes to
+him, and the subtle, measuring, conquering forces in the
+man and the woman met. With a mighty effort he thrust
+back desire, and compressed his lips to a line under the
+bronzed-gold moustache, while his eyes, like points of
+steel, never wavered.</p>
+
+<p>Irene Lawrence turned blindly, and held out her hands
+as if to grasp some sure stay. Just as surely as she had
+not won, she had lost.</p>
+
+<p>"I have tired you," he said,&mdash;a murmur just under his
+breath. "But you can hardly know the exquisite pleasure
+you have given me. It is perfect. We will have no
+more music to-night;" and he rose, shutting the piano
+down.</p>
+
+<p>She went to the open window like one in a trance, so
+stunned she could not even feel angry at his defiance of
+her. A long, long moment of silence: then they heard
+Sylvie's bright voice on the porch, and she came in with
+a waft of dewy, outdoor fragrance.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Lawrence went to her room presently, to fight out
+the battle with herself. She admitted then that she had
+come to love Jack Darcy; but she was strong and resolute,
+and would not be mastered by the passion. What
+could she do? for go away she must! Her imperious will
+and knowledge of men had availed her little to ward off
+this one's influence. Every instinct had been baffled,
+every movement had been met with a counterpoise. To
+stay here, and struggle, would be to yield eventually.</p>
+
+<p>There were dark circles under her eyes the next morning,
+tokens of her vigil and strife. She intrenched herself
+again behind that dumb apathy: she stood aloof from
+Sylvie. For days she escaped the watchful sight of
+Darcy; but she heard his voice, and every rebellious pulse
+was a-tremble. She cast about for some expedients<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span>
+whereby to escape her prison honorably, and after several
+fruitless efforts found one.</p>
+
+<p>In their early days there had been a girl-friend between
+Agatha and Gertrude, who had always held an attraction
+for the child Irene. Wealthy, beautiful, and accomplished,
+she had married a man who had already made
+for himself a name in statesmanship, a cultured and
+polished gentleman, and her bridal had been the theme of
+the day. But the fiend of intemperance had wrought
+destruction of her brilliant prospects, and made her life
+an open scandal. When it could no longer be borne, she
+gathered up the wreck of her fortune and her two little
+girls, and opened a boarding-school in a quiet, aristocratic
+old town. Irene had met her in New York after
+her own loss of fortune; and, though she had disdained
+sympathy, she was touched by Mrs. Trenholme's kindliness.</p>
+
+<p>She wrote to her now; and, of half a dozen applications,
+this was the only one that elicited a favorable reply.
+Mrs. Trenholme needed a teacher of French and music,
+and she knew Miss Lawrence's accent was perfect. The
+salary was not large, being four hundred dollars a year;
+but the duties were not very arduous, being all confined
+to school-hours.</p>
+
+<p>Much as Irene desired to go, there was some struggle
+with her pride before she could bring herself to accept.
+Only the prospect of that greater pride being laid in
+ruins before her eyes, could finally have induced her.
+Mrs. Trenholme expressed her delight warmly.</p>
+
+<p>There were strenuous objections on Fred's part when
+it came to be talked over. "She had no need. He was
+as much her protector as her father had been: indeed,
+was he not paying back the kindly care to himself, honoring
+his father's memory by doing as he would have
+done?"</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie came to the rescue presently.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I would let her go, Fred," she counselled. "Beverly
+is a delightful place, with many cultured people, and Mrs.
+Trenholme is just the woman to have an influence over
+Irene. You see, she gets so tired of having no pursuit,
+no strong interest. I could not endure it myself."</p>
+
+<p>"But she might have&mdash;I have dared to dream"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Put away dreams, my darling." Sylvie's voice was
+unconsciously sad. Then, with a smile, and tears, "If
+God kept watch over us, and brought us to our haven,
+can we not trust him for her,&mdash;for them?"</p>
+
+<p>And so they acquiesced.</p>
+
+<p>When Jack Darcy left Miss Lawrence on that fateful
+evening, his whole soul was full of unrest. He paced
+the quiet streets in that tense mood which makes thought
+and breath alike torture. Now that it was over, he said,
+with the inconsequence of love, that he had been a weak,
+cowardly fool to fear his fate too much; and yet the next
+instant he knew he would surely have lost it all, and that
+in time she <i>must</i> come to need him. If he <i>could</i> wait!
+Well, he <i>would</i> wait. He had not trained himself heretofore
+in these long reaches of patience for no purpose.
+That richly satisfying, inward sight, she could not take
+from him, that exultant faith which was warmed and fed
+from a thousand secret rills.</p>
+
+<p>He understood why she shunned him, why she had resolved
+to leave Yerbury; and he was thankful now that he
+had not ruined his cause by impatience. To think of not
+seeing her, of not hearing her voice, was like madness!
+His face grew thin, there were tense lines about his mouth
+and a set resolve in his eyes; yet to his fine temper came
+no moodiness or irritability. The task he had set for
+himself must be accomplished. He was as absolute in
+his self-denial as he would be in his happiness when that
+came.</p>
+
+<p>So she went away with the merest friendly farewell, and
+asked herself angrily, an hour after, what power this man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span>
+had over her, and why she feared him? Surely there was
+not much of the lover in that calm face!</p>
+
+<p>He threw himself into the business with renewed energy.
+As I said, the September account was inspiriting.
+Prospects began to look brighter, only it was admitted on
+all hands that the days of large profits and quick fortunes
+were over for a long while, if not for all time. Industry
+was coming to be respected, and you heard less talk
+about luck.</p>
+
+<p>The outside world kept watch of them narrowly, jealously.
+If they turned out thieves and swindlers, it would
+not be for the lack of advice. However, they tramped on
+and on. Their store gained a little, and was productive of
+much good. Keppler went to a different part of the town.
+Boyd sold the ground, and a row of decent cottages were
+to be put up. Kit Connelly had been reimbursed by the
+town for her damages, and with Ben Hay's advice and
+counsel built an addition to her house, which he and Rose
+took for housekeeping purposes. The lunch and coffee
+room was a regular and profitable institution, and would
+be a business for one of the boys as he grew up to
+manhood.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie and Fred went to the city for a winter holiday.
+Fred's book was elegantly brought out, and won him much
+praise and a little money. Sylvie achieved her ambition,
+and sold two pictures at what she considered marvellous
+prices, but she wisely confessed it only to her husband.
+They were invited to clubs and soir&eacute;es; and Mrs. Minor
+was extremely affable, though she did blame Fred for
+allowing Irene to take such an idiotic step.</p>
+
+<p>Darcy and Maverick indulged in two or three flying
+trips. Miss McLeod liked nothing better than to get
+these young people together, and listen to the animated
+conversations, herself as spicy and sharp as any one.
+Miss Lothrop was married; and in the slim, fair, blushing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span>
+girl the old lady had for companion now, he saw no danger.</p>
+
+<p>So the winter wore away, and the spring came again;
+and the man who was counting the days wondered wearily
+at times what his summer harvest might be.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> regal woman who stepped from the car to the station-platform
+at Yerbury, one balmy day in early June, to
+be greeted by Fred and Sylvie Lawrence with the warmest
+of welcomes, was indescribably different from the pale,
+cold, haughty statue that had gone away. There was an
+elasticity in her step, a self-reliance in her air, and the
+peculiar confidence discipline wisely used inevitably imparts.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there had been no romantic or highly-wrought
+change in her. She had not taken up teaching from any
+heroic motive or the possible benefit to any one, but
+simply to protect herself from what she considered the
+weakness of her own soul, to get away from a danger she
+could not fight. Oh, how she had hated French verbs and
+exercises! If hers had been a susceptible musical temperament,
+she would have gone quite crazy with the
+blunders and sentimentalisms of young girls.</p>
+
+<p>After a month of it, she would have welcomed any
+relief, even the face-to-face conflict with Darcy. But she
+could not well run away from here, and her physical health
+was perfect: so there was nothing but to go straight on,
+and find that circumstances had to govern, that she could
+not shut herself up in sullen majesty, or fling off the daily
+duties for some wiser and more patient hands to pick up,
+and restore to beauty and harmony.</p>
+
+<p>She had a friend, the best and truest that a young
+woman could have, perhaps; a woman so admirably adapted
+to the training of girls, that it was no marvel she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span>
+succeeded. Out of the ruins of her life she had built up
+another, wise, sweet, and strong. As Irene began to comprehend
+what Mrs. Trenholme had suffered and achieved,
+for the first time she paid an honest reverence to the
+nobility of character. And now she despised her own
+petty, shallow thoughts and beliefs. Her lofty despising
+of the world and the vain and selfish people therein had
+been only a kind of scornful regret for the treasures
+wrested from her, the glitter of fashion, the gauds of
+society. Fred had made a braver stand than she. He
+had not sought to poise himself on the easy, graceful
+rounds of past promises, and to dream futile weakening
+dreams, nor shut himself up in morbid isolation.</p>
+
+<p>After all, how little the great world really cared! It
+was the few friends, the small circle, the near influences,
+that were of importance. And when she found that here
+in cultured, delightful Beverly, she was sought out as an
+entertaining guest, that she had not lost caste because
+the great bubble of fortune had shivered into fragments,
+that dressing and shopping and flirting were not the highest
+of human enjoyments, she came to a very rational
+frame of mind, and to a certain extent enjoyed her life.
+But nature had not made her a teacher of children, and
+never does such women, until, informed by that highest of
+all love, they teach their own.</p>
+
+<p>She came back beautiful, strong, and brave, resolute to
+dare any thing. She dazzled them at the little tea-table
+by her swift, easy animation, her brilliancy, the color that
+went and came, the smiles that were like rippling billows
+over a sea. And Sylvie's heart went down like lead,
+though it was such a fair picture. "For now," she
+thought, "Jack will never dare to love her!"</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps not, if he had to begin now. But the love was
+in him and of him, and would be hers all his life long,
+whether she took it or no.</p>
+
+<p>He did not come for a day or two. She wondered a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span>
+little: she even laughed lightly at her own past fear, the
+shadow she had conjured up, the warm blood ran so
+healthily through her veins now.</p>
+
+<p>He sauntered in one morning to find her cutting roses
+with Sylvie, the two the fairest flowers in all the garden.
+He was in no wise abashed at this vision of loveliness: if
+she had a dower of beauty, he had his unstained manhood.</p>
+
+<p>They chatted and laughed. Sylvie pinned a pale bud
+and geranium-leaf in his coat. He held out his hand to
+Irene with a curious little gesture. She had two or three
+great royal purple pansies clasped lightly in her fingers.</p>
+
+<p>She meant to refuse courteously, but their eyes met.
+Was it the old spell working?</p>
+
+<p>Surely, surely all these fine-spun barriers, all these cunning
+Alps that she had thrown up day after day, were over-leaped
+at a supple bound. Master herself she might; but
+he stood in his man's power and pride and love, a suppliant,
+yet king, asking with wordless lips a little favor,
+taking with calm yet passionate eyes a royal largess.
+Her heart sank; her breath came in one long, tremulous
+sweep. Whether she gave, or he took, she could not have
+told; but he went away with the pansies in his fingers,
+despite Sylvie's pleading for a longer stay.</p>
+
+<p>When he was quite out of sight, he kissed them, sweet,
+tender, longing kisses. Then he dropped them between
+the white leaves of a little book, to be sacred forever.
+Sylvie's <i>boutonni&egrave;re</i> might keep him company outwardly,
+but those no eye must feast upon.</p>
+
+<p>He took the fine right of a lover, not declared, yet certain
+of his ground, not using any power that she could
+disdain or wound, it was so delicate, intangible, the perfume
+without the flower, the little thoughtfulness for her,
+reaching for her fan, folding her shawl about her if the
+evening blew up cool, seeming to know her wants the
+very instant they occurred to herself. And though she
+rebelled in secret, though she resolved heroically to put an
+end to it all, the golden moment never came.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It seemed as if the four were always together. Not
+but what Yerbury opened spacious doors to them, and
+proffered flattering welcomes; but they could not tone
+themselves to the insipidities of society. There were
+more complete and intense enjoyments. Sylvie and Irene
+took long drives through country lanes, or of a moonlight
+summer evening they all went. They sat on the porch,
+and Jack came strolling by: they went within, and there
+were books, music, desultory talking, and that wondrous,
+unseen guest in their midst.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie rarely left her alone. They were not the women
+to tease one another by flippant jests or allusions; and
+Mrs. Fred, of all others, had a dread of thrusting any
+vulgar face on this colorless, yet delicious, atmosphere.
+Love knew his own, and was sacredly known of them.</p>
+
+<p>Irene Lawrence could no more help blossoming under
+the intense yet steady warmth of his temperament, the
+vivid creative life in every feature, than she could have
+helped being at all; and to have refused or destroyed the
+love would have been as sure spiritual suicide as a poison
+to the body. He understood that she came to see this
+presently; and then his suit was half won,&mdash;more than
+half: he had only to go on to the royal fruition of hope
+and patience. She no longer shunned him: she dropped
+that pointed, distant "Mr. Darcy," and in the soul's
+own language, gave him no outward name.</p>
+
+<p>And, when he took her at her royal flood-tide, the words
+of asking and answering mattered little. A look, a tone,
+a clasp of hands, a last struggle of her pride, and she
+was his.</p>
+
+<p>The wide, warm summer night closed about them: the
+dusk was rich with floating dewy perfumes, and golden
+stars dazzled in the clear, moonless sky. Out in the trees
+a little bird, startled from her nap, sang a brief, sweet
+song to her little ones. He drew the proud yet yielding
+figure closer: their hearts beat, their flushed cheeks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span>
+touched, their lips met in one long, heavenly caress, their
+hands clasped until pulse throbbed with pulse in impassioned
+unison.</p>
+
+<p>Only a death and a great love can so change the aspect
+of life. As in the grave lies buried the dearest promises
+of love, hope, existence itself, and we learn in time to
+cling to every faint dream, so, like a resurrection, love
+sweeps away the sins and follies and weaknesses of the
+past, and rises from the dust and ashes transformed, renewed,
+nay, born again to the most sacred purposes.</p>
+
+<p>A strange, swift impression rushed over her as she met
+the eager, intense eyes. Was it in another world these
+arms had closed about her with their strong, restful clasp?
+She started abruptly: she seemed to listen, to puzzle herself
+with the bewildering impression.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, my darling?" in a deep, ardent voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know"&mdash;with a nervous laugh and shiver.
+"Have we met in some other country? Did you carry
+me over mountains, or through valleys, or hide me from a
+storm? Was this why I could never get away, try as I
+might?"</p>
+
+<p>Oh the wordless, entreating beauty of those eyes!</p>
+
+<p>"My queen, my own, you will never try again."</p>
+
+<p>"Never!" with a long, delicious, sobbing breath.
+"Why are you so irresistibly, so powerfully strong,
+Jack? Do you know,&mdash;you <i>must</i> know how wicked I
+have been! If you cast me out, it would only be a proper
+punishment. I don't mean that my lips or my hands are
+blurred with other men's kisses. I never could endure
+that," shuddering. "But they laid down their hearts,
+and I walked over them: they were weak, and I was
+strong! And one night I tried"&mdash;her voice sank to a
+beseeching, half-shamed murmur.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he gave a pure, genial laugh, rich in his own
+sustaining strength. "You would have broken my heart,
+your own too; for I think, even then, you loved me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I surely have never been indifferent. It was either
+love or hate. Do you remember the first evening I saw
+you in the parlor yonder?"</p>
+
+<p>She learned ere long, that he had never forgotten any
+thing; but the depth and perfectness of his love she could
+not learn in a day.</p>
+
+<p>If Jack Darcy had been patient hitherto, that grand
+quality seemed suddenly exhausted. He absolutely hurried
+her into a marriage,&mdash;hurried Sylvie too, who wanted
+the courtship to proceed with measured, golden steps.</p>
+
+<p>"As if it were not to be a courtship all one's life!"
+said radiant Jack. "Now the moments break in the
+middle, there are tangled ends, and endless beginnings,
+and one can hardly remember where one left off. Were
+you sorry to go to Fred?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, no!" with wide-open, surprised eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He carried the day at last, and September was appointed.
+They would be married in the old church.
+Mrs. Minor responded to the tidings by a visit. She had
+treasured up a great many things to say to Irene; but for
+once she was quite overwhelmed, and her sneers and patronage
+fell to the ground. Though she did remark to her
+mother,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I <i>am</i> disappointed that Irene, with her
+face and style, has not done any better; but you cannot
+expect much after one passes twenty. Mr. Darcy has
+improved certainly, and Irene is not as exclusive as we
+older girls were. It is a great pity she did not go out to
+Gertrude."</p>
+
+<p>For George Eastman, with a cat-like propensity, always
+came down on his feet. He was now at the flood-tide of
+prosperity&mdash;on other people's money. Mrs. Eastman
+was regal in velvets, sables, and diamonds, queening it at
+St. Petersburg. Some day there might be a crash again,
+but they would be well out of the way.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Lawrence would have no diamonds, and no show;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span>
+but she was dazzling in her radiant loveliness; and, if
+Jack was not handsome, his superb manliness redeemed
+him. Hope Mills took a holiday. All Yerbury went, it
+seemed; and those who could not get in remained outside
+for a glimpse.</p>
+
+<p>Sylvie and Fred leaned over the registry in the vestry-room.
+In a bold hand the bridegroom had written,
+"John Beaumanoir Darcy."</p>
+
+<p>"A compliment to Irene's pride," laughed Sylvie.
+"The most aristocratic name of them all!"</p>
+
+<p>The old house was brightened up a bit before the young
+couple returned. Gentle Mrs. Darcy wondered how it
+would be between the old and the new love; but she remembered
+with charity, that she had taken the fresh
+young love of another Darcy, and was content with her
+day.</p>
+
+<p>The young people brought a new atmosphere with them,
+but it did not clash with the old. Jane Morgan was
+planning a home for herself. One of the cut-up farms
+had been put together again; and she had taken a five-years'
+lease at a low rate, to try a prudent and sensible
+scheme of philanthropy. Maverick had been intensely
+puzzled by Jack's love-affair, and could not yet account
+for it satisfactorily, but watched them both with a kind of
+amused interest, and dreamed of the deft, dainty little
+fairy down at his aunt's.</p>
+
+<p>I suppose I ought to say that Mrs. Jack Darcy vied
+with her husband in all good works,&mdash;in schools and clubs,
+and plans for everybody's improvement; but it was <i>not</i>
+her <i>forte</i>. He was too well satisfied with her love for
+him, her music, her enchanting ways, to wish her any
+different; and I think he would have been jealous, with
+that exclusive, tender, adoring jealousy, that cannot
+endure its choice treasures lavished upon others. She
+was kindly and generous in a stately, queenly fashion;
+but what between Jack, who was a more importunate lover<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span>
+than ever, and the baby born at Larch Avenue, she had
+her hands quite full.</p>
+
+<p>The five years of mutual copartnership drew to a close.
+Their young engineer had not blown up the mills; Bob
+Winston did not go off at the last moment with the balance
+at the bank; Jack Darcy had not falsified accounts:
+but it came out just as <i>everybody</i> had predicted that it
+would! "If your men were honest and honorable, co-operation
+could not fail of success. It was the simplest
+of all schemes," said "The Evening Transcript."</p>
+
+<p>The two offices were thrown into one by the sliding-doors,
+and the workmen and women assembled in their
+holiday gear. Jack Darcy was really struck with the
+change in their faces and the general demeanor. They
+had a brisk, cheery, self-reliant air: there was a certain
+neatness and respectability about which they used not to
+care in the old times. The boys of five years ago were
+grown men, and there wasn't a sturdier one among them
+than Barton Kane.</p>
+
+<p>And now Jack Darcy proceeded to read the statement
+of the whole period, to which every one listened with the
+most profound attention.</p>
+
+<p>At the close of the first year, after rent, wages, and all
+other expenses were taken out, the accumulation of profits
+had been $21,642.27. One-half of this, $10,821.13.5,
+had been turned directly over to capital: the other half,
+the profit of labor, was divided again in equal shares, one
+going to capital for every person, the other, amounting
+to $5,410.56.7, paid over to them as compensation for
+three-quarter wages. Of course the men had been delighted.
+They remembered their first joy even now.</p>
+
+<p>Then had followed the disastrous second year, which
+had no such golden story to tell. The first six months,
+interest and discount had made horrible inroads into capital,
+and there had not only been no surplus, but an actual
+deficiency. The latter half showed a poor frightened balance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span>
+of $137. But this year they improved greatly in
+economic management and several new processes that
+gave larger profit with less labor and outlay, so the hard
+strain had not been entirely without its uses. Capital
+had gone down in the valley of humiliation, and had a
+sorry time of it; but with it had come a knowledge and
+sympathy they could have acquired in no other way.</p>
+
+<p>The third year had proved a grand success. They had
+all worked so heartily together, and business had been
+undeniably good. Profits had been $41,854.92, with very
+limited discounts. After this there was none, and unused
+capital began to draw a little interest. This year there
+had been $10,963.73 to pay over to the men on the quarter
+share. The fourth year there had been numerous
+bankrupt stocks thrown on the market, and every one
+trying to do his utmost again: still the balance had been
+by no means disheartening, amounting to $34,982.67;
+capital's share being $17,491.33, and the wages overplus
+$8,745.66. The last year's profits had footed up $43,101.56.</p>
+
+<p>There was now in accrued capital stock $106,288.81.5;
+and this was to be divided in the <i>pro rata</i> of each man's
+share, the larger amounts making the most, of course.
+And now they saw the object of saving. They had earned
+full wages and something beside; and, though wages had
+not reached the high point of good times, on the other
+hand they had not fallen below a reasonable standard,
+even with the bad year. There had been steady work for
+the whole five years, and every man had been practised in
+thrift, economy, and self-denial.</p>
+
+<p>Of those who had begun with them, seven had been discharged
+for drunkenness and insubordination, their share
+forfeited to the fund for sick and disabled workmen;
+three had gone out from loss of faith in the plan, accepting
+Winston's offer to sell; four had died, and thirteen
+had left from various other causes. So that there had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span>
+been a much greater degree of steadiness than usually
+obtains among factory-workmen. This led to a decided
+improvement in many other respects. With a prospect of
+being permanent, the men were induced to buy homes,
+and took a greater interest in the management and welfare
+of their own town.</p>
+
+<p>The balance was divided, each man receiving his check,
+and with it a detailed statement of the whole five years.
+They were now quite free, the industrial partnership
+having legally expired. Hope Mills would take a fortnight
+holiday for repairs and re-organization.</p>
+
+<p>"What if there were to be no re-organization?" exclaimed
+Ben Hay suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>The men stared blankly at one another. No "Hope
+Mills," and the foundation-stone of life would have fallen
+out!</p>
+
+<p>Robert Winston addressed them, thanking them very
+heartily for their co-operation, and expressing a hope that
+each man would be satisfied with the result of five of the
+hardest years the country had ever known. There was
+no doubt now, judging from our exports, and the amount
+of money coming in from every quarter of the globe, as
+one might say, that we had entered upon an era of
+prosperity. We had been educated to the practice of
+prudence, of common-sense, and sound principles, we had
+gained fibre and stamina, and he hoped we had gained
+honesty and integrity. If we could not always compete
+with low-priced manufacturers, the solid truth was made
+manifest in the end. They might take for their passwords,
+"Honesty, industry, and fidelity."</p>
+
+<p>There was a great deal of cheering, and then Darcy
+was called upon for a speech. He did himself infinite
+credit, for in these five years not a man among them had
+made more rapid strides than Jack Darcy. As he stood
+there now, noble in form, in bearing, and with his good,
+strong, manly face, they felt somehow that he was <i>their</i>
+hero, and the cheering was heartier than ever.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then Cameron must say a few words, and Ben Hay and
+Jesse Gilman; and, as Jack declared afterward, it was a
+regular experience-meeting among brethren. They pressed
+around, and shook hands with Darcy and Winston, the
+captain and the pilot with whom they had weathered gales,
+and been brought safely into port. And they would not
+let them stir out of the building until they had appointed
+a meeting to form the company again, this time on a
+somewhat stronger basis. They were firmly convinced
+now that this was the only way in which it was possible
+for workmen to make any advancement.</p>
+
+<p>At length the crowd began to disperse. Jack started
+homeward; but, before he had walked half the distance,
+Davy, one of the men who had gone out in the first trouble,
+confronted him suddenly, seizing his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"O Mr. Darcy!" said he in a most eager tone, "are
+you going to form over again? Do you think there's
+a chance for me to be taken back? There hasn't been a
+day nor a night but what I've cursed myself for being
+such a fool as to let anybody talk me out of a good job.
+I see just how it is now. And, if I can get back again,
+I'll stand by the old ship through thick and thin. O
+Mr. Darcy! please speak a good word for me!"</p>
+
+<p>"That I will, Davy, if it is needed."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, thank you, a thousand times!" cried the
+poor fellow gratefully.</p>
+
+<p>Yerbury had plenty of praise now. To be sure, times
+<i>had</i> improved. If every year had been like the second,
+it would not have been possible to make co-operation
+work; but then, would it have been possible to carry on
+any business with continual loss? The starting of Hope
+Mills had inspired other disheartened firms, and given an
+impetus to Yerbury industries that might have lain much
+longer in the Slough of Despond.</p>
+
+<p>Fred and Sylvie came over to the Darcys to tea that
+evening, and Maverick dropped in of course.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Darcy," he exclaimed, "I do not see why you
+did not have a daughter for me to marry! Then we
+could all have been relations, you see. I think it a
+great mistake on your part."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Darcy glanced at her son with a peculiar light in
+her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Jack laughed. "She is thinking," he explained, "that
+if there had been another one, I should have gone off long
+ago to seek my fortune. I have learned that God may
+have better work for one than simply following out his
+own will;" and his voice dropped to a reverential tone.</p>
+
+<p>Maverick studied him with a peculiar interest. All
+these years there had been growing up in Jack Darcy a
+plant of nobler promise than mere worldly ambition. Not
+that he in any manner despised wealth: he had come to
+understand its true uses. The same power that had educated
+the workmen had been going on with silent, steady
+processes in him. He had come to comprehend the dignity
+of the soul, and that God desired his return in the
+deeds done for one another, in the continual progress, the
+greatness, nobleness, and loyalty we offered "to one of
+the least of these." Was this true religion,&mdash;the simple
+doctrine of the Cross? And Maverick bowed his head
+in unconscious reverence.</p>
+
+<p>They started homeward presently. Sylvie and Irene
+had some "last words" about baby Lawrence, and the
+two men paced up and down the porch a few moments.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God that it all came out so well!" said Jack
+in his strong, reverent tone.</p>
+
+<p>Fred put his arm over Jack's shoulder. The two men
+seemed types of all that was highest and finest in human
+nature.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack," began the other in his full, rich tone, tremulous
+with emotion, "do you remember that in my romantic
+boyhood I used to liken you to King Arthur? You
+have merged into a nobler hero since that day. Who but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span>
+a Sir Galahad, true, strong, unselfish, at once just yet
+tender, ambitious for the Holy Grail of our times, yet
+never swerving from the path of honor; keeping his own
+soul stainless amid the many temptations of the world&mdash;who
+save such a soul could have gone on in your path to
+the end? And of the other Christ-like virtue"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Don't, don't, Fred! You always did rate me too
+highly, you know. I am only a man."</p>
+
+<p>"It is something to be a man in these days," returned
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>The shady blue eyes smiled out of their twilight depth.</p>
+
+<p>"Fred, where are you?" cried a sweet voice.</p>
+
+<p>"You gave me <i>her</i>. You taught me to gain the great
+prize of my life as surely as you trained the men in the
+mill yonder. God bless you!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span></p>
+<h3>LEE AND SHEPARD'S</h3>
+
+<h2>SELECT FICTION</h2>
+
+
+<div class='center'><i>All prices given are for CLOTH BINDING, unless
+otherwise specified</i></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Select Fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Way of the World.</b> By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic). Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;&nbsp;$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Living Too Fast.</b> By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic). Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Indoors and Out.</b> By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic). Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Fortunate Island.</b> By Max Adeler. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Dora Darling, the Daughter of the Regiment.</b> By Jane G. Austin. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Dora Darling and Little Sunshine.</b> By Jane G. Austin</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Life in Danbury.</b> By James M. Bailey. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Mr. Phillips' Goneness.</b> By James M. Bailey. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Danbury Boom.</b> By James M. Bailey. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>They All Do It.</b> By James M. Bailey</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Running to Waste.</b> By George M. Baker. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Something Better.</b> By George M. Baker</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>A Year Worth Living.</b> By Rev. W. M. Baker</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Bright Days in the Old Plantation Time.</b> By Mary Ross Banks. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Simplicity and Fascination.</b> By Anne Beale</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Nora's Return;</b> a Sequel to "The Doll's House." By Ednah. D. Cheney. Palatine Boards</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Life and Times of Jesus</b>, as related by Thomas Didymus. By Rev. James Freeman Clarke</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>His Marriage Vow.</b> By Mrs. C. F. Corbin</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Nobody's Husband.</b> By Samuel W. Cozzens</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Andersonville Violets.</b> By Herbert W. Collingwood</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Battles at Home.</b> By Mary G. Darling. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>In the World.</b> By Mary G. Darling. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Dawning.</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Lily and the Cross.</b> By James De Mille. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Fore and Aft.</b> By Robert B. Dixon. Cloth</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Herman, or Young Knighthood.</b> By E. Foxton. 2 volumes</td><td align='right'>3.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Perseverance Island.</b> By Douglas Frazar</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Castle Foam.</b> By Harry W. French</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Ego.</b> By Harry W. French</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b>By MARY A. DENISON</b></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Denison fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'><b>His Triumph</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Like a Gentleman</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Mr. Peter Crewitt</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Rothmell</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Tell Your Wife</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>That Wife of Mine</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>That Husband of Mine</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b>By AMANDA M. DOUGLAS</b></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Douglas Fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Osborne of Arrochar</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;&nbsp;$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>A Modern Adam and Eve</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Fortunes of the Faradays</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>A Woman's Inheritance</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Claudia</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Floyd Grandon's Honor</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Foes of Her Household</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>From Hand to Mouth</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Home Nook</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Whom Kathie Married</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Hope Mills</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>In Trust</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Nelly Kinnard's Kingdom</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Stephen Dane</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Out of the Wreck</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Seven Daughters</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Sydnie Adriance</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Lost in a Great City</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="More fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Nuna, the Brahmin Girl.</b> By Harry W. French. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Only One.</b> By Harry W. French</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>A Captive of Love.</b> By Edward Greey. Illustrated.</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Golden Lotus.</b> By Edward Greey. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Malbone.</b> An Oldport Romance. By Thomas Wentworth Higginson</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Marion Graham.</b> By Margaret Woods Lawrence</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Demagogue.</b> By D. R. Locke (Nasby)</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>A Paper City.</b> By D. R. Locke (Nasby)</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Morals of Abou Ben Adhem.</b> By D. R. Locke (Nasby)</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Ekkoes from Kentucky.</b> By D. R. Locke (Nasby). Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Swingin' Round the Cirkle.</b> By D. R. Locke (Nasby). Illus.</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Little Baron Trump and His Wonderful Dog Bulger.</b> By Ingersoll Lockwood</td><td align='right'>2.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Little Giant Boab and His Talking Raven Tabib.</b> By Ingersoll Lockwood</td><td align='right'>2.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Barbara Thayer.</b> By Annie Jenness Miller</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b>By SOPHIE MAY</b><br />
+
+Sophie May's "Grown-up" Stories</div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Sophie May Stories">
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Drone's Honey.</b></td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Janet: a Poor Heiress.</b> Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Our Helen.</b> Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Quinnebasset Girls.</b> Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Asbury Twins.</b> Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Doctor's Daughter.</b> Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Still more fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Which&mdash;Right or Wrong?</b> By Miss M. L. Moreland. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Blind Men and the Devil.</b> By Phineas</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Puddleford Papers, or Humors of the West.</b> By H. H. Riley. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Rosecroft.</b> By W. M. F. Round</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Achsah.</b> By W. M. F. Round. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Fall of Damascus.</b> By W. W. Russell</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Daisy Travers.</b> By Mrs. A. F. Samuels. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Seola.</b> By Mrs. J. Gregory Smith</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Brushes and Chisels.</b> By Signor Teodoro Serrao. Tri-color cloth, 1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>A Tight Squeeze.</b> By "Staats." Cloth, $1.00; paper,</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>John Thorn's Folks.</b> By Angeline Teal</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Man Proposes.</b> By F. H. Underwood</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Lord of Himself.</b> By F. H. Underwood</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Edward Burton.</b> By Henry Wood</td><td align='right'>.25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>Mrs. Armington's Ward.</b> By Mrs. D. Thew Wright</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b>By VIRGINIA F. TOWNSEND</b></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Townsend fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'>A Boston's Girl's Ambition</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;&nbsp;$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>That Queer Girl</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Daryll Gap</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Lenox Dare</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Woman's Word</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>But a Philistine</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Only Girls</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Deerings of Medbury</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Hollands</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Six in All</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Mills of Tuxbury</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Trafton Fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'>An American Girl Abroad. By Adeline Trafton. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Katherine Earle. By Adeline Trafton</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>His Inheritance. By Adeline Trafton.</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b>By J. T. TROWBRIDGE</b></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Trowbridge Fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'>Neighbor Jack</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;&nbsp;$1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Cudjo's Cave</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Drummer Boy</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Three Scouts</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Farnell's Folly</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Martin Merrivale</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Neighbors' Wives</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Coupon Bonds</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b>By Judge D. P. THOMPSON.</b></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Thomson fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'>The Green Mountain Boys</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Rangers, or The Tory's Daughter</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>May Martin, and Other Tales of the Green Mountains</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Locke Amsden, the Schoolmaster</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Wreck of the Chancellor. By Jules Verne</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Winter in the Ice. By Jules Verne. Illustrated</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Adventures of a Chinaman. By Jules Verne. Illustrated,</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Around the World in Eighty Days. By Jules Verne.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Italian Girl. By Mrs. K. S. Washburn</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear. By Mrs. K. S. Washburn</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Gates Wide Open. By George Wood</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;1.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br />THE FOLLOWING ARE OFFERED IN
+PAPER COVERS</div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Paper covered fiction">
+<tr><td align='left'>Mr. Phillips' Goneness. By James M. Bailey</td><td align='right'>&nbsp;&nbsp;$0.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Danbury Boom. By James M. Bailey</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>They All Do It. By James M. Bailey</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Something Better. By George M. Baker</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Nobody's Husband. By S. W. Cozzens</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Andersonville Violets. By Herbert W. Collingwood</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Mr. Peter Crewitt. By Mary A. Denison</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Tell Your Wife. By Mary A. Denison</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>That Wife of Mine. By Mary A. Denison</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>That Husband of Mine. By Mary A. Denison</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Lost in a Great City. By Amanda M. Douglas</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Paper City</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Morals of Abou Ben Adhem</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Ekkoes from Kentucky</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Swingin' Round the Cirkle</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Puddleford Papers. By H. H. Riley</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Barbara Thayer. By Annie Jenness Miller</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Blind Men and the Devil. By Phineas</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Any of the above sent, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;  BOSTON<br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span></p>
+<h2><span class="u"><span class="smcap">Historical Books</span></span> * * * *<br />
+
+* * * * <span class="u"><span class="smcap">for Young People</span></span></h2>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class='unindent'><br /><span class="u"><b><i>Young Folks' History of the United States</i></b></span></div>
+
+<p>By <span class="smcap">Thomas Wentworth Higginson</span>. Illustrated. $1.50.</p>
+
+<div class="hang1">The story of our country in the most reliable and interesting form. As a
+story-book it easily leads all other American history stories in interest, while as
+a text-book for the study of history it is universally admitted to be the best.</div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><br /><span class="u"><b><i>Young Folks' Book of American Explorers</i></b></span></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">Thomas Wentworth Higginson</span>. Uniform with the "Young Folks'
+History of the United States." One volume, fully illustrated. Price $1.50.</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"It is not a history told in the third person, nor an historical novel for young
+folks, where the author supposes the chief characters to have thought and said
+such and such things under such and such circumstances; but it is the genuine
+description given by the persons who experienced the things they described in
+letters written home."&mdash;<i>Montpelier Journal.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><br /><span class="u"><b><i>The Nation in a Nutshell</i></b></span></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">George Makepeace Towle</span>, author of "Heroes of History," "Young
+Folks' History of England," "Young Folks' History of Ireland," etc.
+Price 50 cents.</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"To tell the story of a nation like ours in a nutshell, requires a peculiar
+faculty for selecting, condensing, and philosophizing. The brevity with which
+he relates the principal events in American history, does not detract from the
+charming interest of the narrative style."&mdash;<i>Public Opinion.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><br /><span class="u"><b><i>Young People's History of England</i></b></span></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">George Makepeace Towle</span>. Cloth, illustrated. $1.50.</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The whole narrative is made interesting and attractive&mdash;in every way
+what a book of this kind should be in its clearness of statement, freshness of
+style, and its telling of the right ways."&mdash;<i>Critic.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><br /><span class="u"><b><i>Handbook of English History</i></b></span></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">Based on "Lectures on English History," by the late <span class="smcap">M. J. Guest</span>, and
+brought down to the year 1880. With a Supplementary Chapter on the
+English Literature of the 19th Century. By <span class="smcap">F. H. Underwood, LL.D</span>.
+With Maps, Chronological Table, etc. $1.50.</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"It approaches nearer perfection than anything in the line we have seen.
+It is succinct, accurate, and delightful."&mdash;<i>Hartford Evening Post.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><br /><span class="u"><b><i>Young People's History of Ireland</i></b></span></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">George Makepeace Towle</span>, author of "Young People's History of
+England," "Young Folks' Heroes of History," etc. With an introduction
+by <span class="smcap">John Boyle O'Reilly</span>. Cloth, illustrated. $1.50.</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The history is like a novel, increasing in interest to the very end, and
+terminating at the most interesting period of the whole; and the reader lays
+down the book a moment in enthusiastic admiration for a people who have
+endured so much, and yet have retained so many admirable characteristics."&mdash;<i>N.Y.
+World.</i></p></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston</b><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span></p>
+<h1><span class="u"><span class="smcap">Young Folks'</span></span>&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+
+&mdash;&mdash;<span class="u"><span class="smcap">Books of Travel</span></span></h1>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<div class="hang1"><b>DRIFTING ROUND THE WORLD; A Boy's Adventures by
+Sea and Land</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">Capt. Charles W. Hall</span>, author of "Adrift in the Ice-Fields," "The
+Great Bonanza," etc. With numerous full-page and letter-press illustrations.
+Royal 8vo. Handsome cover. $1.75. Cloth, gilt, $2.50.</div>
+
+<p>"Out of the beaten track" in its course of travel, record of adventures,
+and descriptions of life in Greenland, Labrador, Ireland, Scotland, England,
+France, Holland, Russia, Asia, Siberia, and Alaska. Its hero is young, bold,
+and adventurous; and the book is in every way interesting and attractive.</p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b><i>EDWARD GR&Eacute;EY'S JAPANESE SERIES</i></b></div>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>YOUNG AMERICANS IN JAPAN; or, The Adventures of the
+Jewett Family and their Friend Oto Nambo</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">With 170 full-page and letter-press illustrations. Royal 8vo, 7 &times; 9&frac12; inches.
+Handsomely illuminated cover, $1.75. Cloth, black and gold, $2.50.</div>
+
+<p>This story, though essentially a work of fiction, is filled with interesting and
+truthful descriptions of the curious ways of living of the good people of the
+land of the rising sun.</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>THE WONDERFUL CITY OF TOKIO; or, The Further Adventures
+of the Jewett Family and their Friend Oto Nambo</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">With 169 illustrations. Royal 8vo, 7 &times; 9&frac12; inches. With cover in gold and
+colors, designed by the author, $1.75. Cloth, black and gold, $2.50.</div>
+
+<p>"A book full of delightful information. The author has the happy gift of
+permitting the reader to view things as he saw them. The illustrations are
+mostly drawn by a Japanese artist, and are very unique."&mdash;<i>Chicago Herald.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>THE BEAR WORSHIPPERS OF YEZO AND THE ISLAND
+OF KARAFUTO; being the further Adventures of the
+Jewett Family and their Friend Oto Nambo</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">180 illustrations. Boards, $1.75. Cloth, $2.50.</div>
+
+<p>Graphic pen and pencil pictures of the remarkable bearded people who live
+in the north of Japan. The illustrations are by native Japanese artists, and
+give queer pictures of a queer people, who have been seldom visited.</p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br /><b><i>HARRY W. FRENCH'S BOOKS</i></b></div>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>OUR BOYS IN INDIA</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">The wanderings of two young Americans in Hindustan, with their exciting
+adventures on the sacred rivers and wild mountains. With 145 illustrations.
+Royal 8vo, 7 &times; 9&frac12; inches. Bound in emblematic covers of Oriental design,
+$1.75. Cloth, black and gold, $2.50.</div>
+
+<p>While it has all the exciting interest of a romance, it is remarkably vivid in
+its pictures of manners and customs in the land of the Hindu. The illustrations
+are many and excellent.</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>OUR BOYS IN CHINA</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">The adventures of two young Americans, wrecked in the China Sea on their
+return from India, with their strange wanderings through the Chinese
+Empire. 188 illustrations. Boards, ornamental covers in colors and gold,
+$1.75. Cloth, $2.50.</div>
+
+<p>This gives the further adventures of "Our Boys" of India fame in the land
+of Teas and Queues.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston</b><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span></p>
+<h1><span class="u"><span class="smcap">Irene E. Jerome's</span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;<br />
+
+&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="u"><span class="smcap">Art Books</span></span></h1>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="hang1"><b>IN A FAIR COUNTRY.</b> With 55 full-page illustrations; engraved
+by Andrew. Nearly 100 pages of text, by Thomas Wentworth
+Higginson. Gold cloth, full gilt, $6.00; Turkey morocco, $15.00;
+tree calf, $15.00; English seal style, $10.00.</div>
+
+<p>Miss Jerome has caught the very glamour of the woodland and the lea
+with her pencil, transferring it to paper with the delicacy of an exquisite
+photograph, while Colonel Higginson's delightful style brings out the
+beauty of his topics most satisfactorily. As a specimen of the book-maker's
+art, the volume leaves nothing to be asked.</p>
+
+
+<div class="hang1"><b>A BUNCH OF VIOLETS.</b> Original illustrations, engraved on
+wood and printed under the direction of <span class="smcap">George T. Andrew</span>. 4to, cloth,
+$3.75: Turkey morocco, $9.00; tree calf, $9.00; English seal style, $7.00.</div>
+
+<p>The new volume is akin to the former triumphs of this favorite artist, whose
+"Sketch Books" have achieved a popularity unequalled in the history of fine
+art publications. In the profusion of designs, originality, and delicacy of
+treatment, the charming sketches of mountain, meadow, lake, and forest
+scenery of New England here reproduced are unexcelled. After the wealth of
+illustration which this student of nature has poured into the lap of art, to produce
+a volume in which there is no deterioration of power or beauty, but, if
+possible, increased strength and enlargement of ideas, gives assurance that the
+foremost female artist in America will hold the hearts of her legion of admirers.</p>
+
+
+<div class="hang1"><b>NATURE'S HALLELUJAH.</b> Presented in a series of nearly
+fifty full-page original illustrations (9&frac12; x 14 inches), engraved on wood by
+<span class="smcap">George T. Andrew</span>. Elegantly bound in gold cloth, full gilt, gilt edges,
+$6.00; Turkey morocco, $15.00; tree calf, $15.00; English seal style, $10.00.</div>
+
+<p>This volume has won the most cordial praise on both sides of the water.
+Mr. Francis H. Underwood, U. S. Consul at Glasgow, writes concerning it:
+"I have never seen anything superior, if equal, to the delicacy and finish of
+the engravings, and the perfection of the press-work. The copy you sent me
+has been looked over with evident and unfeigned delight by many people of
+artistic taste. Every one frankly says, 'It is impossible to produce such
+effects here,' and, whether it is possible or not, I am sure it is <i>not done;</i> no
+such effects are produced on this side of the Atlantic. In this combination of
+art and workmanship, the United States leads the world; and you have a right
+to be proud of the honor of presenting such a specimen to the public."</p>
+
+
+<div class="hang1"><b>ONE YEAR'S SKETCH BOOK.</b> Containing forty-six full-page
+original illustrations, engraved on wood by <span class="smcap">Andrew</span>; in same bindings
+and at same prices as "Nature's Hallelujah."</div>
+
+<p>"Every thick, creamy page is embellished by some gems of art. Sometimes
+it is but a dash and a few trembling strokes; at others an impressive landscape,
+but in all and through all runs the master touch. Miss Jerome has the genius
+of an Angelo, and the execution of a Guido. The beauty of the sketches will
+be apparent to all, having been taken from our unrivalled New England
+scenery."&mdash;<i>Washington Chronicle.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class="hang1"><b>THE MESSAGE OF THE BLUEBIRD, Told to Me
+to Tell to Others.</b> Original illustrations engraved on wood by
+<span class="smcap">Andrew</span>. Cloth and gold, $2.00; palatine boards, ribbon ornaments, $1.00.</div>
+
+<p>"In its new bindings is one of the daintiest combinations of song and illustration
+ever published, exhibiting in a marked degree the fine poetic taste and
+wonderfully artistic touch which render this author's works so popular. The
+pictures are exquisite, and the verses exceedingly graceful, appealing to the
+highest sensibilities. The little volume ranks among the choicest of holiday
+souvenirs, and is beautiful and pleasing."&mdash;<i>Boston Transcript.</i></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston</b><br />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h1>
+<span class="u"><span class="smcap">Lee and</span></span>   * &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="u"><span class="smcap">Seventy-five cent</span></span> &nbsp;  &nbsp;  *<br />
+*&nbsp; <span class="u"><span class="smcap">Shepard's</span></span>&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="u"><span class="smcap">Juveniles</span></span><br />
+</h1>
+
+<div class='center'><i>Comprising new editions of the following popular Juveniles Bound in
+best English cloth bright colors Any volume sold separately</i></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>CHARLEY AND EVA STORIES</b> By Miss L. C. <span class="smcap">Thurston</span></div>
+
+<div>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>How Charley Roberts became a Man</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>How Eva Roberts gained her Education</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Home in the West</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Children of Amity Court</b></span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Miss Thurston writes with a purpose. She is an admirer of manly boys
+and womanly girls, and so carries her characters through scenes and
+situations that elevate and purify. The books are by no means slow,
+being full of adventures.</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>GOLDEN PROVERB SERIES</b> By Mrs. M. E. <span class="smcap">Bradley</span>
+and Miss <span class="smcap">Kate J. Neely</span></div>
+
+<div>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Birds of a Feather</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Fine Feathers do not make Fine Birds</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Handsome is that Handsome Does</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>A Wrong Confessed is Half Redressed</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>One Good Turn deserves Another</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Actions Speak Louder than Words</b></span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Two capital story-tellers, "birds of a feather," have flocked together,
+and produced from six old proverbs six as bright and taking story-books
+as ever gladdened the hearts of Young America; showing, indeed, that
+"handsome is that handsome does."</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>GOLDEN RULE STORIES</b> By Mrs. S. C. B. <span class="smcap">Samuels</span></div>
+
+
+<div>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Golden Rule</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Shipwrecked Girl</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Under the Sea</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Nettie's Trial</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Burning Prairie</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Smuggler's Cave</b></span><br />
+<br /></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>CELESTA'S LIBRARY for Boys and Girls</b></div>
+
+<div>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Celesta</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Crooked and Straight</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Crook Straightened</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>A Thousand a Year</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Abel Grey</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>May Coverley</b></span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Mrs. Samuels has written many attractive books. The scenes and
+incidents she portrays are full of life, action, and interest, and decidedly
+wholesome and instructive.</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>SALT-WATER DICK STORIES</b> By <span class="smcap">May Mannering</span></div>
+
+<div>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Climbing the Rope</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Billy Grimes's Favorite</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Cruise of the Dashaway</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Little Spaniard</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Salt-Water Dick</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Little Maid of Oxbow</b></span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Not all tales of the sea, as the title of the series would imply, but stories
+of many lands by a lady who has been a great traveller, and tells what she
+has seen, in a captivating way.</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>UPSIDE-DOWN STORIES</b> By <span class="smcap">Rosa Abbott</span></div>
+
+<div>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Jack of all Trades</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Alexis the Runaway</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Tommy Hickup</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Upside Down</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Young Detective</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Pinks and Blues</b></span><br /><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>VACATION STORIES for Boys and Girls</b> 6 vols.
+Illustrated</div>
+
+<div>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Worth not Wealth</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Country Life</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Charm</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Karl Keigler or The Fortunes of a Foundling</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Walter Seyton</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Holidays at Chestnut Hill</b></span><br /><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>GREAT ROSY DIAMOND STORIES for Girls</b>
+6 vols. Illustrated</div>
+
+<div>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Great Rosy Diamond</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Daisy or The Fairy Spectacles</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Violet a Fairy Story</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Minnie or The Little Woman</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>The Angel Children</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Little Blossom's Reward</b></span><br />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston</b><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'><h1><span class="u">NARRATIVES</span></h1></td><td align='left'><h3>&middot; OF &middot; NOTED&mdash;&mdash;<br />
+&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;TRAVELLERS</h3></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>GERMANY SEEN WITHOUT SPECTACLES; or, Random
+Sketches of Various Subjects, Penned from Different Standpoints
+in the Empire</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By <span class="smcap">Henry Ruggles</span>, late United States Consul at the Island of Malta, and
+at Barcelona, Spain. $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"Mr. Ruggles writes briskly: he chats and gossips, slashing right and left
+with stout American prejudices, and has made withal a most entertaining
+book."&mdash;<i>New-York Tribune.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>TRAVELS AND OBSERVATIONS IN THE ORIENT, with a
+Hasty Flight in the Countries of Europe</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By <span class="smcap">Walter Harriman</span> (ex-Governor of New Hampshire). $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"The author, in his graphic description of these sacred localities, refers
+with great aptness to scenes and personages which history has made famous.
+It is a chatty narrative of travel."&mdash;<i>Concord Monitor.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>FORE AND AFT</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>A Story of Actual Sea-Life. By <span class="smcap">Robert B. Dixon</span>, M.D. $1.25.</div>
+
+<p>Travels in Mexico, with vivid descriptions of manners and customs, form a
+large part of this striking narrative of a fourteen-months' voyage.</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>VOYAGE OF THE PAPER CANOE</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>A Geographical Journey of Twenty-five Hundred Miles from Quebec to the
+Gulf of Mexico. By <span class="smcap">Nathaniel H. Bishop</span>. With numerous illustrations
+and maps specially prepared for this work. Crown 8vo. $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"Mr. Bishop did a very bold thing, and has described it with a happy
+mixture of spirit, keen observation, and <i>bonhomie</i>."&mdash;<i>London Graphic.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>FOUR MONTHS IN A SNEAK-BOX</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>A Boat Voyage of Twenty-six Hundred Miles down the Ohio and Mississippi
+Rivers, and along the Gulf of Mexico. By <span class="smcap">Nathaniel H. Bishop</span>. With
+numerous maps and illustrations. $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"His glowing pen-pictures of 'shanty-boat' life on the great rivers are
+true to life. His descriptions of persons and places are graphic."&mdash;<i>Zion's
+Herald.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>A THOUSAND MILES' WALK ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA,
+Over the Pampas and the Andes</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By <span class="smcap">Nathaniel H. Bishop</span>. Crown 8vo. New edition. Illustrated. $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"Mr. Bishop made this journey when a boy of sixteen, has never forgotten
+it, and tells it in such a way that the reader will always remember it, and
+wish there had been more."</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>Being the Adventures of a Naturalist Bird-hunting in the West-India Islands.
+By <span class="smcap">Fred A. Ober</span>. New edition. With maps and illustrations. $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"During two years he visited mountains, forests, and people, that few, if
+any, tourists had ever reached before. He carried his camera with him, and
+photographed from nature the scenes by which the book is illustrated."&mdash;<i>Louisville
+Courier-Journal.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>ENGLAND FROM A BACK WINDOW; With Views of
+Scotland and Ireland</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By J. M. <span class="smcap">Bailey</span>, the "'Danbury News' Man." 12mo. $1.00.</div>
+
+<p>"The peculiar humor of this writer is well known. The British Isles have
+never before been looked at in just the same way,&mdash;at least, not by any one
+who has notified us of the fact. Mr. Bailey's travels possess, accordingly, a
+value of their own for the reader, no matter how many previous records of
+journeys in the mother country he may have read."&mdash;<i>Rochester Express.</i></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 42%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston</b><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/bright.jpg" width="600" height="108" alt="Bright and Breezy Books of Travel by Six Bright Women" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>MEXICO&mdash;PICTURESQUE, POLITICAL, PROGRESSIVE</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By <span class="smcap">Mary E. Blake</span> and <span class="smcap">Margaret F. Sullivan</span>. Cloth, $1.25.</div>
+
+<p>"This is a very charming volume. The writers went through the
+country with their eyes wide open, and they have the faculty of interesting
+others in what was of interest to them."</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>A WINTER IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By <span class="smcap">Helen J. Sanborn</span>. Cloth, $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"A bright, attractive narrative by a wide-awake Boston girl."</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>A SUMMER IN THE AZORES, with a Glimpse of Madeira</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By Miss C. <span class="smcap">Alice Baker</span>. Little Classic style. Cloth, gilt edges, $1.25.</div>
+
+<p>"Miss Baker gives us a breezy, entertaining description of these picturesque
+islands. She is an observing traveller, and makes a graphic picture of the
+quaint people and customs."&mdash;<i>Chicago Advance.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>LIFE AT PUGET SOUND</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>With sketches of travel in Washington Territory, British Columbia, Oregon,
+and California. By <span class="smcap">Caroline C. Leighton</span>. 16mo, cloth, $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"Your chapters on Puget Sound have charmed me. Full of life, deeply
+interesting, and with just that class of facts, and suggestions of truth, that
+cannot fail to help the Indian and the Chinese."&mdash;<span class="smcap">Wendell Phillips.</span></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>EUROPEAN BREEZES</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By <span class="smcap">Margery Deane</span>. Cloth, gilt top, $1.50. Being chapters of travel
+through Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland, covering places not
+usually visited by Americans in making "the Grand Tour of the Continent,"
+by the accomplished writer of "Newport Breezes."</div>
+
+<p>"A very bright, fresh and amusing account, which tells us about a host of
+things we never heard of before, and is worth two ordinary books of European
+travel."&mdash;<i>Woman's Journal.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>BEATEN PATHS; or, A Woman's Vacation in Europe</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By <span class="smcap">Ella W. Thompson</span>. 16mo, cloth. $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>A lively and chatty book of travel, with pen-pictures humorous and graphic,
+that are decidedly out of the "beaten paths" of description.</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>AN AMERICAN GIRL ABROAD</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By Miss <span class="smcap">Adeline Trafton</span>, author of "His Inheritance," "Katherine
+Earle," etc. 16mo. Illustrated. $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"A sparkling account of a European trip by a wide-awake, intelligent, and
+irrepressible American girl. Pictured with a freshness and vivacity that is
+delightful."&mdash;<i>Utica Observer.</i></p>
+
+
+<h3><i>CURTIS GUILD'S TRAVELS</i></h3>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>BRITONS AND MUSCOVITES; or, Traits of Two Empires</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>Cloth, $2.00.<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>OVER THE OCEAN; or, Sights and Scenes in Foreign Lands</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>By <span class="smcap">Curtis Guild</span>, editor of "The Boston Commercial Bulletin." Crown 8vo.
+Cloth, $2.50.</div>
+
+<p>"The utmost that any European tourist can hope to do is to tell the old
+story in a somewhat fresh way, and Mr. Guild has succeeded in every part of
+his book in doing this."&mdash;<i>Philadelphia Bulletin</i>.</p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>ABROAD AGAIN; or, Fresh Forays in Foreign Fields</b></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>Uniform with "Over the Ocean." By the same author. Crown 8vo.
+Cloth $2.50.</div>
+
+<p>"He has given us a life-picture. Europe is done in a style that must serve
+as an invaluable guide to those who go 'over the ocean,' as well as an interesting
+companion."&mdash;<i>Halifax Citizen.</i></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston</b><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/heroes.png" width="600" height="140" alt="YOUNG FOLKS HEROES OF HISTORY" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE.<br />
+Handsomely Illustrated. Price per vol., $1.25. Sets in neat boxes.<br /><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><b>VASCO DA GAMA:</b><br />
+
+HIS VOYAGES AND ADVENTURES.</div>
+
+<p>"Da Gama's history is full of striking adventures, thrilling incidents, and
+perilous situations; and Mr. Towle, while not sacrificing historical accuracy,
+has so skilfully used his materials, that we have a charmingly romantic tale."&mdash;<i>Rural
+New-Yorker.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><b>PIZARRO:</b><br />
+
+HIS ADVENTURES AND CONQUESTS.</div>
+
+<p>"No hero of romance possesses greater power to charm the youthful reader
+than the conqueror of Peru. Not even King Arthur, or Thaddeus of Warsaw,
+has the power to captivate the imagination of the growing boy. Mr.
+Towle has handled his subject in a glowing but truthful manner; and we
+venture the assertion, that, were our children led to read such books as this,
+the taste for unwholesome, exciting, wrong-teaching boys' books&mdash;dime
+novels in books' clothing&mdash;would be greatly diminished, to the great gain of
+mental force and moral purpose in the rising generation."&mdash;<i>Chicago Alliance.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><b>MAGELLAN;</b><br />
+
+OR, THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.</div>
+
+<p>"What more of romantic and spirited adventures any bright boy could
+want than is to be found in this series of historical biography, it is difficult
+to imagine. This volume is written in a most sprightly manner; and the
+life of its hero, Fernan Magellan, with its rapid stride from the softness of
+a petted youth to the sturdy courage and persevering fortitude of manhood,
+makes a tale of marvellous fascination."&mdash;<i>Christian Union.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><b>MARCO POLO:</b><br />
+
+HIS TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES.</div>
+
+<p>"The story of the adventurous Venetian, who six hundred years ago penetrated
+into India and Cathay and Thibet and Abyssinia, is pleasantly and
+clearly told; and nothing better can be put into the hands of the school boy
+or girl than this series of the records of noted travellers. The heroism displayed
+by these men was certainly as great as that ever shown by conquering
+warrior; and it was exercised in a far nobler cause,&mdash;the cause of knowledge
+and discovery, which has made the nineteenth century what it is."&mdash;<i>Graphic.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><b>RALEGH:</b><br />
+
+HIS EXPLOITS AND VOYAGES.</div>
+
+<p>"This belongs to the 'Young Folks' Heroes of History' series, and deals
+with a greater and more interesting man than any of its predecessors. With
+all the black spots on his fame, there are few more brilliant and striking
+figures in English history than the soldier, sailor, courtier, author, and explorer,
+Sir Walter Ralegh. Even at this distance of time, more than two
+hundred and fifty years after his head fell on the scaffold, we cannot read his
+story without emotion. It is graphically written, and is pleasant reading,
+not only for young folks, but for old folks with young hearts."&mdash;<i>Woman's
+Journal.</i></p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><b>DRAKE:</b><br />
+
+THE SEA-LION OF DEVON.</div>
+
+<p>Drake was the foremost sea-captain of his age, the first English admiral
+to send a ship completely round the world, the hero of the magnificent
+victory which the English won over the Invincible Armada. His career was
+stirring, bold, and adventurous, from early youth to old age.</p>
+
+<div class='right'>
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston.</b><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span></p>
+<h2><big>B</big><span class='u'>OOKS OF PARTICULAR INTEREST</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;<br />
+&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class='u'>TO <big>Y</big>OUNG MEN AND WOMEN</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><b>HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW</b></p>
+
+<div class="hang1">His Life, His Works, His Friendships. By <span class="smcap">George Lowell Austin</span>.
+Profusely illustrated. Cloth, $2.00. New edition. Formerly published by
+subscription.</div>
+
+<p>"We have here a clear and popular presentation of the poet's literary life.
+The details of his personal and private life, or at least so much of it as belongs
+by right strictly to his family, has been avoided, and that properly. What the
+public have a right to know is found in this volume, in a style that is easy and
+pleasing. Here you have Longfellow as a child, as a college student, and as
+a professor in Bowdoin College; and especially does he appear here as a man
+of letters. It is a charming volume."&mdash;<i>Christian Standard.</i></p>
+
+
+<p><b>LIFE AND TIMES OF WENDELL PHILLIPS</b></p>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">George Lowell Austin</span>. With steel portrait and illustrations. Cloth,
+$1.50. New edition. The only complete Life of the great agitator.</div>
+
+<p>"The life of a man who was so strongly identified with one of the most
+stirring periods in American history must necessarily be one of much interest,
+and Mr. Austin has succeeded in presenting its features in a very attractive
+way. Portions of Mr. Phillips's most important public addresses are given,
+and there are reminiscences of the man by some of his close friends and associates."&mdash;<i>Philadelphia
+Record.</i></p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Wendell Phillips books">
+<tr><td align='left'>Wendell Phillips's Lectures, Orations, and Letters, to 1861. 563 pages.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Library edition. 8vo</span></td><td align='right'>$2 50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Popular edition, with Biographical Sketch,</span> 16mo</td><td align='right'>1 00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Scholar in a Republic. Paper, 8vo</td><td align='right'>25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Eulogy of Garrison. Paper, 8vo</td><td align='right'>25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Lost Arts. Paper, 8vo</td><td align='right'>25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Daniel O'Connell. Paper, 8vo</td><td align='right'>25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Labor Question. Paper, 8vo</td><td align='right'>25</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p><b>LIFE AND DEEDS OF GENERAL U. S. GRANT</b></p>
+
+<div class="hang1">By Rev. P. C. <span class="smcap">Headley</span> and <span class="smcap">George Lowell Austin</span>. Profusely illustrated.
+Cloth, $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>The materials for the early years of the subject of this popular biography
+were furnished by the immediate friends and relatives of his family. The
+events bearing upon the war history are based upon the recognized authorities,
+and will stand the test of military criticism. The work is intensely interesting,
+and exceedingly popular.</p>
+
+
+<p><b>Oliver Optic's OUR STANDARD BEARER</b></p>
+
+<div class="hang1">Or the Life of General <span class="smcap">Ulysses S. Grant</span>, his youth, his manhood, his campaign,
+and his eminent services in the reconstruction of the nation his sword
+has redeemed, as seen and related by Captain <span class="smcap">Bernard Gallygasken</span>, Cosmopolitan,
+and written out by <span class="smcap">Oliver Optic</span>. <i>A new edition</i>, with supplementary
+chapters, containing the political life of the general, his travels
+abroad, his sickness and death. Cloth; illustrated by <span class="smcap">Thomas Nast</span> and
+others, elegantly bound, $1.50.</div>
+
+<p>"It is written in Mr. Adams's happiest vein, and is a most unique and
+interesting presentation of a subject upon which volumes have been written
+and read."</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston</b><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/popular.png" width="600" height="112" alt="POPULAR READING FOR HOME AND SCHOOL" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'>BY POPULAR AUTHORS</div>
+
+
+<div class='center'><b>JANE ANDREWS' BOOKS</b></div>
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS WHO LIVE ON THE ROUND BALL THAT FLOATS IN THE AIR</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">New edition, with an introduction by <span class="smcap">Louisa Parsons Hopkins</span> Illustrated
+School edition cloth 50 cents Library edition cloth 80 cents</div>
+
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS PROVE THEIR SISTERHOOD (Former title EACH AND ALL)</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">Illustrated School edition cloth 50 cents Library edition cloth 80 cents</div>
+
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>TEN BOYS WHO LIVED ON THE ROAD FROM LONG AGO TO NOW</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">20 illustrations Cloth 80 cents</div>
+
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>GEOGRAPHICAL PLAYS FOR YOUNG FOLKS AT SCHOOL AND AT HOME</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">Price each play in paper 15 cents postage paid 1 United States 2 Europe
+3 Asia 4 Africa and South America 5 Australia and Isles of the Sea
+6 The Commerce of the World</div>
+
+<div class="hang1">The above bound in one volume Cloth $1.00 postage paid</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>GRADED SUPPLEMENTARY READING</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">For use in schools By Professor <span class="smcap">Tweed</span>, late Supervisor of Boston Public
+Schools 12 parts ready: Nos. 1, 4, 7 and 10, 1st year primary; Nos.
+2, 5, 8 and 11, 2d year primary; Nos. 3, 6, 9 and 12, 3d year primary
+In brown paper covers 4 cents each: by mail 5 cents The four parts for
+each year bound together in boards 20 cents each First year primary
+in one volume boards 20 cents Second year primary in one volume
+boards 20 cents Third year primary in one volume boards 20 cents</div>
+
+
+<h3>HISTORICAL READINGS</h3>
+
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">Thomas Wentworth Higginson</span> With over 100 illustrations $1.20</div>
+
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>YOUNG FOLKS' BOOK OF AMERICAN EXPLORERS</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">Thomas Wentworth Higginson</span> Illustrated $1.20</div>
+
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>HANDBOOK OF ENGLISH HISTORY</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">Based on Guest's "Lectures on English History," and brought down to the
+year 1880 With a Supplementary Chapter on the English Literature of
+the 19th Century By <span class="smcap">F. H. Underwood</span>, LL.D. With maps, chronological
+tables etc. School edition 90 cents</div>
+
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">George Makepeace Towle</span> Illustrated School edition 60 cents</div>
+
+
+<div class="unindent"><b>YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF IRELAND</b></div>
+
+<div class="hang1">By <span class="smcap">George Makepeace Towle</span> With introduction by <span class="smcap">John Boyle
+O'Reilly</span> Illustrated School edition 60 cents</div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><b>HEROES OF HISTORY</b> By <span class="smcap">George Makepeace Towle</span> Illustrated</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Vasco de Gama: his Voyages and Adventures&nbsp; School edition 60 cents</p>
+
+<p>Pizarro: his Adventures and Conquests&nbsp; School edition 60 cents</p>
+
+<p>Magellan: or The First Voyage Round the World &nbsp;School edition 60 cents</p>
+
+<p>Marco Polo: his Travels and Adventures &nbsp;School edition 60 cents</p>
+
+<p>Raleigh: his Voyages and Adventures&nbsp; School edition 60 cents</p>
+
+<p>Drake the Sea King of Devon School edition 60 cents</p></div>
+
+
+<div class='unindent'><b>THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY</b> By Mrs. <span class="smcap">L. B. Monroe</span> 80 cents</div>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i>Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price</i><br />
+<b>LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston</b><br />
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3>
+<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired.</p>
+<p>Varied hyphenation was retained.</p>
+
+<p>The spelling of "Ralegh: His Exploits" is actually the title of the book by Towle.</p>
+<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hope Mills, by Amanda M. Douglas
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOPE MILLS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 30436-h.htm or 30436-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/4/3/30436/
+
+Produced by Charlene Taylor, Emmy and the Online Distributed
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+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hope Mills, by Amanda M. Douglas
+
+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: Hope Mills
+       or Between Friend and Sweetheart
+
+Author: Amanda M. Douglas
+
+Release Date: November 9, 2009 [EBook #30436]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOPE MILLS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charlene Taylor, Emmy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HOPE MILLS;
+
+OR,
+
+BETWEEN FRIEND AND SWEETHEART.
+
+BY
+
+AMANDA M. DOUGLAS,
+
+AUTHOR OF "FROM HAND TO MOUTH," "NELLY KINNARD'S KINGDOM," "IN TRUST,"
+&C., &C.
+
+                                 "Abou spake more low,
+          But cheerly still; and said, 'I pray thee, then,
+          Write me as one that loves his fellow-men.'"
+
+          LEIGH HUNT.
+
+
+          BOSTON:
+          LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS.
+          NEW YORK:
+          CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM.
+
+
+
+
+THE DOUGLAS NOVELS.
+
+
+          OSBORNE OF ARROCHAR.
+          A MODERN ADAM AND EVE IN A GARDEN.
+          THE FORTUNES OF THE FARADAYS.
+          FOES OF HER HOUSEHOLD.
+          A WOMAN'S INHERITANCE.
+          CLAUDIA.
+          FLOYD GRANDON'S HONOR.
+          FROM HAND TO MOUTH.
+          HOME NOOK.
+          HOPE MILLS.
+          IN TRUST.
+          LOST IN A GREAT CITY.
+          NELLIE KINNARD'S KINGDOM.
+          OUT OF THE WRECK.
+          SEVEN DAUGHTERS.
+          STEPHEN DANE.
+          SYDNIE ADRIANCE.
+          THE OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE.
+          WHOM KATHIE MARRIED.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+          PRICE PER VOL., $1.50.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+          LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS,
+          BOSTON.
+
+
+          COPYRIGHT, 1879,
+          BY LEE AND SHEPARD.
+
+          _All rights reserved._
+
+
+
+
+          TO
+
+          HON. MARCUS L. WARD,
+
+          As a Tribute
+
+          TO ONE WHO HAS HELD LOYALLY TO GOD AND HIS FELLOW-MEN,
+          WHO HAS LABORED IN THE NOBLE CAUSE OF HUMANITY,
+          NOT DISHEARTENED WHEN RESULTS WERE INFREQUENT,
+          BUT CONTENT TO REAP THE REWARD
+          IN THE GREAT HEREAFTER.
+
+
+
+
+BETWEEN FRIEND AND SWEETHEART.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+"THERE is Fred again with his arm around Jack Darcy's neck. I declare,
+they are worse than two romantic schoolgirls. I am so thankful Fred goes
+away to-morrow for a year! and I do hope by that time he will have
+outgrown that wretched, commonplace youth. Mother, it is very fortunate
+that Jack is the sole scion of the Darcy line; for, if there were a
+daughter, you would no doubt be called upon to receive her into the
+bosom of the family."
+
+"Which I never should do," remarked quiet, aristocratic Mrs. Lawrence,
+not even raising her eyes from her book.
+
+"Not for the sake of your only son?" continued Agatha, with an
+irritating laugh.
+
+"Don't be silly, Agatha," returned the mother, with an indifference that
+took off the point of the query.
+
+Her second sister glanced up from a bit of pencil-drawing, then lowered
+her eyes to the street where the boy friends stood, one with his arm
+over the other's shoulder.
+
+"Think of a Harvard graduate arm-in-arm with--well, a mill-hand! No
+doubt Jack's father will put him in the mill. I cannot see any sense in
+a boy of that class taking two years at the academy."
+
+On the opposite side of the room were two girls, hardly more than
+children, busily engaged in ornamenting a box with transfer-pictures.
+One had a rather haughty mien, as became a Lawrence; the other, pretty,
+piquant little Sylvie Barry, looked toward the elders, knit her brow,
+with both thought and indignation visible in its lines, and held her
+picture absently in her hand.
+
+"Why do you listen to that?" asked Irene Lawrence disdainfully. "It is
+only Jack Darcy, and he's nobody. His father works in the mill."
+
+"I know that!" was Sylvie's rather sharp retort, answering the latter
+part of the sentence merely. Child as she was, she experienced a strong
+desire to do battle, not only for Jack, but for some puzzling cause she
+could not quite comprehend. With the blood of a French duke in her
+veins, of soldiers and martyrs as well, she was a sturdy little
+democrat. It seemed cowardly not to take up arms.
+
+"That butterfly is to go next," remarked Irene, reaching out for it; and
+Sylvie held her peace, though she felt the warm blood burning in her
+cheeks.
+
+Jack Darcy did not need any champion within doors; for Fred stood up
+bravely against these three girls, and from them received his first
+impression that women were small of soul and narrow of mind. As they
+stood by the gate now, this last hour grudged to them, neither dreamed
+that this was the final canto in the poem of boyhood. They had been fast
+friends since the first day pale, puny Fred made his appearance in
+school, and was both laughed at and bullied by some boys larger in size,
+but younger in years.
+
+"He will have to get the nonsense rubbed out of him some time," thought
+Jack; "and it can never be younger." But, when the contest degenerated
+into the force of the strong against the weak, one blow of Jack's fist
+sent Brown reeling and howling.
+
+"Try a fellow of your own size next time," was Jack's pithy advice.
+
+Fred came to him, and cried hysterically in his arms. Jack had
+experienced the same feeling for some poor rescued kitten. Fred, with
+his head full of King Arthur and his knights, mythology, and bits of
+children's histories, wherein figured heroes and soldiers, elected Jack
+to the highest niche in his regard.
+
+Jack Darcy was a wonderful boy withal, a very prince of boys, who hated
+study and work, and loved play; who despised Sunday clothes and girls'
+parties; but who had not his equal for spinning a top, or raising a
+kite, and when it came to leap-frog, or short stop, he was simply
+immense. Then he always knew the best places to dig worms, and the
+little nooks where fish were sure to bite, the best chestnut and walnut
+trees; and, with years and experience, he excelled in baseball, skating,
+wrestling, leaping, and rowing. Jack Darcy was no dunce, either. Only
+one subject extinguished him entirely, and that was composition. Under
+its malign influence he sank to the level of any other boy. And here
+Fred shone pre-eminently, kindly casting his mantle over his
+friend,--further, sometimes, than a conscientious charity would have
+admitted; but a boy's conscience is quite as susceptible of a bias as
+that of older and wiser people. On the other hand, Jack wrestled
+manfully with many a tough problem on which Fred would have been
+hopelessly stranded. Once rouse the belligerent impulse in Jack, and he
+would fight his way through.
+
+These two were at different ends of the social plane. Fred's father was
+the great man of Yerbury, the present owner of Hope Mills; not only
+rich, but living in luxury. He had married Miss Agatha Hope, and by the
+death of her two brothers she had become sole heir to the Hope estate:
+though it was whispered that her brothers had left a heavy legacy of
+debts behind them. There was family on the Lawrence side as well, but
+not much money. David Lawrence had prospered beyond his wildest dreams.
+He had twice been mayor of Yerbury, gone to the State Legislature, and
+been spoken of as a possible senator; but he did not sigh for political
+distinction.
+
+Agatha was their first-born; then Frederic De Woolfe, named for some
+Hope ancestor. Two girls afterward; but Fred remained the only son. He
+was a delicate boy, and, until he reached the age of ten, studied with
+his sisters' governess, when he rebelled, and insisted upon his boy's
+prerogative of going to school. Here he met and loved Jack Darcy.
+
+Jack was a few months the elder,--a stout, hardy, robust boy, full of
+mischief, falling into scrapes, and slipping out easily. Not vicious or
+ugly; in fact, he had thrashed Ned Thomas for robbing birds' nests, been
+known to rescue a miserable kitten from its tormentors, and was always
+bringing home sore-eyed, mangy curs to be nursed and healed. If he had
+cared, he could have boasted as good a pedigree as the Hopes and the
+Lawrences. For his grandmother was of pure old French Jacobin descent,
+titled too. Many a wild romance and adventure had her family figured
+in,--now on the top round of prosperity, now in bitter poverty and
+exile. At the age of eighteen she was living on the western coast of
+Ireland with her old father, when she fell in love with handsome Jack
+Darcy, whose persuasive blue eyes were enough to melt the heart of the
+most obdurate woman; the merriest, wittiest, best-tempered lad for miles
+around, the owner of a small farm and numberless family traditions that
+counted back to the time when
+
+          "Malachi wore the collar of gold,
+             He won from the proud invader."
+
+For a while they were prosperous and happy: then came bad seasons,
+famine, and finally typhus. Two bright, handsome sons and a little
+daughter were victims, leaving only baby Bernard. They came to the New
+World, and began life again, managing thriftily, and buying a house and
+garden in the quaint old town of Yerbury. Mr. Darcy died; and his son
+grew to man's estate, settled to the business of carpenter and builder
+(as he possessed a good deal of mechanical skill), married a pretty,
+delicate girl, but did not seem to make of life a signal success. Still
+it is possible that a life of happiness and content may have its use in
+this world, if it does not serve to point a prosperous moral.
+
+He added a wing to the house, he raised fruit and flowers that were
+marvels. Grandmother preferred for several years to keep house by
+herself, raise chickens and geese, and keep putting by a little of her
+very own. They had a choice garden and a soft-eyed Alderney cow, but
+Bernard Darcy had surely missed his vocation. He should have been a
+scientific farmer.
+
+Baby Jack came to them. He certainly had not inherited the beauty of the
+Darcys nor the Beaumanoirs, not even the delicacy of his mother. The
+eyes of Irish blue were tinged with gray, his hair inclined to the
+warmer tints of chestnut, and now he always kept the curls cropped
+short. However, his magnificently shaped head was not disfigured by the
+process. He did get terribly freckled and tanned as warm weather came
+on, and the hair turned almost red by much bathing and sunshine. A
+striking contrast indeed to the handsome, well-dressed Frederic.
+
+When Fred went to the academy he pleaded for Jack to go, and Grandmother
+Darcy decided that he should. She had never taken kindly to her son's
+rather plebeian occupation. After several years of indifferent success,
+Mr. Darcy had accepted a position at the mill, in which, if there was
+not so much profit, there were no losses.
+
+Jack was not a student in an intellectual point of view. He did not
+care to be a doctor, lawyer, or clergyman, and certainly not a
+professor. He would have liked to pack a satchel, and start westward,
+prospect for a railroad, gold or silver mine, and live the rugged,
+unconventional camp-life. Once he had ventured to suggest this noble
+ambition; but his timid mother was startled out of her wits, and his
+grandmother said with a sage shake of the head,--
+
+"A rolling stone gathers no moss."
+
+"Grandmother," began Jack argumentatively, "of what real value is the
+moss to the stone, except in the picturesque aspect? Do you know that a
+great many of these time revered and honored adages are the greatest
+humbugs in the world?" asked the audacious young iconoclast. "Who wants
+to be a stone or a clod, or even a bit of velvet moss? They go to make
+up the world, it is true; but is that narrow, torpid, insensate life any
+pattern for human souls and active bodies? I think a man's business in
+this world is to find out new channels, to build up, to broaden and
+deepen, and somehow to make the world feel that he has been in it. I
+can't just explain,"--and his brows knit into a puzzled frown,--"but it
+seems to me there is something grander than plodding along and saving a
+little money."
+
+"No doubt you would be glad enough to have the money, when you have gone
+off like the prodigal son, and wasted health and substance in foreign
+lands," said grandmother with some asperity.
+
+Jack had been brought up to reverence the Bible and religion, and to
+respect his grandmother was the first article in his creed. He relapsed
+into silence, but the busy brain kept up a vigorous ferment. What was
+life all about, anyhow? Why did people come into the world, live thirty,
+sixty, or even eighty years, and then drop out of it. Was it merely to
+eat, drink, and sleep?
+
+The wider lore at the academy had a peculiar effect upon Jack, tangled
+his brain, begat confusing mental processes. Greek he hated; Latin he
+barely endured; chemistry and mineralogy interested him, and in
+mathematics he excelled. Fred carried every thing before him, graduated
+with honors, and was to enter Harvard. The Lawrences went to Newport,
+and Jack missed his bosom friend sorely. He rambled through the woods,
+read every thing that came in his way, and thought a good deal in his
+crude, undisciplined fashion.
+
+What was he to do with this tough problem of unknown quantities?
+
+He ventured at last to broach the subject to his father.
+
+Bernard Darcy studied his son gravely. Now, it must be considered that
+he had never been troubled with this hungry, perplexing view of life
+that urges one on to dip deep into the secrets of existence. To have a
+pretty house and garden, to watch his flowers, vegetables, and chickens
+grow, to dream over his books in his cosey sitting-room, not to be
+pinched for money, not to be anxious about employment, but to go on
+serenely day after day,--this was Mr. Darcy's idea of happiness; and,
+having this, he was perfectly content.
+
+His mother secretly chafed at his lack of ambition; his neighbors said,
+"A good, honest fellow, but with no 'push' in him." Curiously enough,
+the virtues that are preached from pulpits Sunday after Sunday, that we
+are always recommending to our friends, are _not_ the ones that gain any
+vast amount of credit in this life. "Be content! be content!" cries
+every one, from revelation downward; yet content, pure and simple, is
+rather despised and flouted by our fellow-men.
+
+"I don't know, Jack," said the elder, gravely shaking his head with slow
+dubiousness. "What would you do if you were once away?"
+
+"I'd go on until I found some place into which I just fitted;" and the
+boy glanced over westward with hungering eyes.
+
+"But, Jack," said his father, after a pause, "I think people oftener fit
+themselves into a place. There are so few places ready made to one's
+hand. It's always something. Now, I'll venture to say that David
+Lawrence, with all his money, doesn't see as much real happiness as I
+do. His is a slave's life, after all. It's day and night, bills to pay
+and stock to get, dissatisfied hands, poor hands spoiling work, losses
+here and there, little leisure, small peace of mind; and all for what?
+There was a time when I might have envied him: I don't now."
+
+Jack had lost all but the first two sentences.
+
+"That's the thing!" he cried, with boyish enthusiasm,--"fitting
+yourself; coming to something that takes hold of you like an
+inspiration; that you could work for, fight for, that rouses soul and
+body."
+
+Bernard Darcy studied the youthful face, eager, alert, hopeful, and with
+something else in it that he could not understand.
+
+"I never had any such dreams or desires," he said in an uncertain tone,
+as if fearful he might lose his way among his son's vagaries. "I wanted
+a pleasant home, and a loving wife and children. I wish there had been
+more of them, Jack, for your sake," and his voice took on a tender
+inflection. "Then, if one wanted to go away, there would have been
+others left. You see, Jack, mother's heart is bound up in you, and she's
+getting to be an old woman with but few ties. I might manage to comfort
+your own mother; but you are so young, Jack. There will be many years
+before you, doubtless; and if you could give a few to us," with a
+wistful, loving look. "Now, if you wanted to study"--
+
+"But I don't," in a hasty, husky tone. "I believe I hate quiet. I want
+life, adventure! I've staid in school this last year just to please
+Larry."
+
+"Have a little patience, Jack. Old people are not like young ones. They
+feel the changes keenly. And you are all we have. It would take the
+sunshine out of our lives. It would seem as if there had been a
+funeral."
+
+"Yes," said Jack with meek hopelessness that one would hardly look for
+in a vigorous boy; and winking hard to keep back some tears. No logical
+argument, no stricture of duty, could have half the weight of this bit
+of love pleading. Father was right. God had made him a son first of all,
+given him a son's duties. Jack had never troubled his head much about
+religion in any theological sense; but his simple creed had some great
+if old-fashioned truths in it.
+
+"If there's any thing you would like to do, I'd be glad to give you a
+chance. And there's no need to hurry. You may come to the right thing
+presently."
+
+Jack swallowed over a great lump in his throat. The two kittens came
+scampering up the walk, and he caught one, lifting it to his shoulder.
+Then Sylvie Barry entered the gate with her dainty milk-kettle shining
+like silver.
+
+They were in a manner neighbors, for Larch Avenue was the next street to
+Maple Place. Both streets were now given over to what is termed decayed
+gentility. The larches were old and ragged and brown with clustering
+cones, and the blue blood of the denizens had grown a little sluggish.
+
+Miss Honoria Barry and her small niece lived together, with a tall and
+gaunt handmaiden Norman French, and a broad Yorkshire gardener. Miss
+Barry was the old cream of Yerbury. Here her family had lived since the
+Huguenot persecution, and dwindled finally to two. Louis Barry was a
+dissipated spendthrift. He married, and tormented his wife into an early
+grave, and might have worn out his sister, but Providence kindly removed
+him. Miss Honoria retrenched, paid off debts and mortgage by degrees,
+and brought up Sylvie in a quaint, refined, old-world fashion.
+
+Old Mrs. Darcy and Miss Barry exchanged formal calls, and discussed la
+belle France. Sylvie took great delight in listening to grandmother's
+stories of brave heroes and handsome women who figured in old legends.
+
+Oddly enough, one of the many points of agreement between Jack and Fred
+had been their aversion to girls in general. Fred judged them from his
+sisters, who were always nagging, always exhorting him to be a
+gentleman, and always holding up Jack Darcy to ridicule. Jack, on the
+other hand, had a bashful fear of girls, and fancied they were laughing
+at every little awkwardness; then they cried so easily, went off in a
+huff if they could not have their own way, were silly, vain, and
+tattling, ready enough to beg your assistance if there was a munching
+cow by the roadside, a worm swinging from a tree, or a harmless mouse
+running across the floor. The great fascination to the Darcy house was,
+that the boys could sit in the large, clean kitchen, trying all sorts of
+crude experiments, with Ann to clear away the _debris_ and find no
+fault. Jack never wanted to go to the great house. In true boy fashion
+he understood without any explanation. But they both liked little
+Sylvie. She was taught at home except in music and drawing, and she was
+as much interested in grandmother's heroes as the two boys.
+
+On the other hand, the Hopes and the Barrys had always been great
+friends; and, from some odd freak of unlikeness, Sylvie and Irene
+Lawrence carried on the intimacy.
+
+She stopped now, and talked about the kitten with Jack; and he carried
+her milk-pail home to the gate.
+
+It was a long, wearisome vacation to poor Jack. Fishing lost its charm,
+even tramps in the woods became monotonous. He spent hours in his
+father's shop, inspecting machinery, though he seldom asked a question
+or ventured upon a remark. Indeed, some of the hands thought "Darcy's
+boy wasn't over-bright." Yet here he laid the foundation of the problem
+that was to vex and puzzle his soul in after-years. Here was the great,
+whirring machinery, belts, bands, spindles, looms, and oftentimes a
+stupid and stolid enough workman at one end, grinding out luxury and
+elegance for David Lawrence, Esq.; that his family might tread on Wilton
+and Axminster, dine from silver and crystal, dress in silks and velvets,
+drive about with high-stepping bays, and scorn all beneath them. Once as
+Jack was thinking it over he laughed aloud.
+
+"You must feel very much amused," said a rather sour-looking man
+standing near by, with a peculiar touchiness as if he had been laughed
+at.
+
+"No, I wasn't amused, I was only thinking"-- But Jack stopped in the
+middle of his sentence. Could _this_ man take any such position as that
+of Mr. Lawrence?
+
+Then he came across a volume of self-made men, which he eagerly
+devoured. Every one seemed to have commenced life without a dollar, and
+almost without friends. Were those the important factors in the race, to
+be light-weighted? And he had a triple chain.
+
+Fred returned, handsomer than ever, and doubly glad to get back to Jack.
+There was just four days grace. They revisited old haunts, talked
+endlessly and to little purpose, like so much of the talk of youth, and
+now they were parting at the gate for the last time. Unlike girls they
+exchanged no vows or kisses. It is not in boy-nature to be effusive.
+
+"To think that I shall not be home until Christmas! If only you _were_
+going with me, Jack, what jolly times we would have!"
+
+"I could have gone," answered Jack with some pride, "that is, if I had
+been prepared. Father was willing, and grandmother would have been proud
+enough;" and just then Jack wondered why going to seek his fortune
+appeared so much more terrible to them.
+
+"Well, why not, Jack?" with impetuous eagerness. "It isn't too late."
+
+"I don't want the years of study. I should come to hate the sight of a
+book. No, I'll find out where I belong, some day. Don't worry about me,"
+with an abrupt laugh.
+
+"But I am so sorry!" Then they looked into each other's eyes. All these
+years had been filled with such good, honest boy-love.
+
+"Good-by, old chap!" cried Jack suddenly; for the wrench must come, and
+lingering over it was painful. "I shall miss you lots! it seems so queer
+to be without you! Of course you'll succeed: there's no use wishing
+about that."
+
+"It's a good wish from you, Jack. Good-by. I hate awfully to say it: I
+hate to think that our jolly boyish frolics are over."
+
+"But we'll have many a good row on the river, and tramps through the
+woods. We can't outgrow every thing. And there'll be summers and
+summers."
+
+"Good-by."
+
+The gate-latch clicked: Jack walked rapidly down the street, whistling
+"Kathleen Mavourneen" unconsciously. Did he dream the simple faith of
+boyhood had reached its culmination, and was henceforth to wane?
+
+"Dear old Jack," thought Fred: "I don't know as he is quite Launcelot,
+though I used to think so at first. But there was Sir Gawain and Sir
+Bedevere and a host of worthies, and if he only _would_ he could come up
+to the highest. What makes him so obstinate and unambitious, I wonder?
+Are there any King Arthurs and loyal knights nowadays, or only common
+men and women?"
+
+His sisters opened upon him with the fatal persistency of narrow
+feminine natures.
+
+"You may say what you like about Jack Darcy," he flung out angrily, "but
+you'll never make me give him up,--never, never!"
+
+"Do hush, children," interposed Mrs. Lawrence. "Fred, I hope you will
+learn to modulate your voice, and not shriek so."
+
+Sylvie put on her hat to go home. As she passed Fred she said just above
+her breath,--
+
+"You are right and brave. I wouldn't give up my friend because he was
+poor; and Jack is so nice!"
+
+"Much she knows about it," thought Fred, with a true boyish disdain. Yet
+her approval of Jack was a virtue in his eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+"FATHER!" exclaimed Jack a few days after this parting from his bosom
+friend, "I think I will go in the mill for a year or two, if there is
+any thing for me to do. Meanwhile my inspiration may come along."
+
+"But what would you like best, Jack?"
+
+"That's just the trouble," and the youthful brows knit in perplexity.
+"All things seem alike to me: I haven't any choice."
+
+Mr. Darcy drew a long breath that was almost a sigh. If Jack only would
+evince some preference!
+
+However, a place was found as under-bookkeeper. It was desperately
+tiresome to Jack to sit perched on a high stool all day; and after three
+months of it he begged to be put at something else.
+
+At this period we had gone through our costly civil war; and, instead of
+being exhausted as friends and enemies predicted, the machinery of
+business appeared to have been set in motion with a new and overwhelming
+impetus. Every thing was wanted; everybody had work or money; and the
+most useless commodity found a purchaser: as if our anguish had crazed
+us, and we went into a delirium of mental opium, and dreamed wild,
+exhilarating dreams which we mistook for reality.
+
+Yerbury had been a slow, solid, conservative town. Property was low,
+taxes light and easily paid, a balance on hand in the treasury to
+commence the new year, and very little pauperism in the town. Yerbury
+officials utilized their inefficient population, and their county jail
+was not made a palace of luxury. The old-fashioned element in the place
+held crime as the result of sin instead of occult disease,--a thing to
+be punished, rather than petted. It had good railroad connections,
+plenty of water, with one navigable stream, and a variety of industries.
+Iron, shoes, hats, paper, and clothing were manufactured to a
+considerable extent, to say nothing of many smaller branches. Hope Mills
+was the largest, the focus of the town, and had the prestige of being
+handed down through three generations, though never as extensive as now.
+
+Toward the west there was a succession of pretty hills that lay in the
+broad sunshine, making you think somehow of Spanish slopes, covered with
+vineyards, olives, and luxuriant verdure. Over beyond, a wide,
+diversified country range, farms, woodland, hills and valleys, with a
+branch of the river winding through, called, rather unromantically,
+Little Creek.
+
+On these slopes, the new part, dwelt the aristocracy. Streets wound
+around in picturesque fashion to make easy grades, and many old
+forest-trees were preserved by that means, giving the place an air of
+years, rather than yesterday and improvement. There were two pretty
+parks,--one devoted to Fourth-of-July orations from time immemorial;
+there were churches of every denomination; a boarding and day school for
+young ladies, the academy, some excellent district schools; a hall with
+library and reading-room; a bank; rows of attractive shops and stores;
+and, coming down in the scale of refinement, beer-saloons and
+concert-halls, kept generally up to a certain point of morality. There
+were so many laboring-men, and they must have something by way of
+entertainment.
+
+It struck Jack with a curious wonder. These stolid faces and plodding
+steps were part of the human machines out of which wealth was being
+ground. They went to the beer-shops at night in their dirty clothes,
+smelling of grease and dye, drank beer, played a few games, and
+harangued each other, and went home maudlin or stupefied. Perhaps it was
+more comfortable than the slatternly wives and crying children. Did it
+need to be so? If you gave the workingman a helping hand, did he turn
+straightway into an unreasoning demagogue?
+
+_He_ was not likely to be tempted by such doings. His home had always
+been too clean and pleasant. He still kept up with the boys, and joined
+the lyceum club; but the intimate companionship of his life was gone.
+
+Fred did not come home for Christmas. College-life was
+delightful,--would be just perfect if dear old Jack were there. The
+glowing letters kept alive his own secret dissatisfaction. But how
+explain it to one who would be sure to say, "Get out of it all, Jack: no
+one has any right to keep you in such a distasteful round, and thwart
+your life-plans." To be sure, he had no life-plans.
+
+One raw, cold March day, Mr. Darcy went out to repair a roof that had
+leaked in the previous storm. He rarely minded wind or weather.
+
+"I declare," he said that evening, dropping into his capacious armchair,
+"I feel as if I should never get warmed through. I do believe we shall
+have a tremendous snowstorm to take this chill out of the air. Jack,
+read the paper aloud, won't you?"
+
+Jack complied. Local items, bits of State news, and the general progress
+of the country; the starvation of a nation at the antipodes, the
+discovery of a wonderful silver-mine, plans for new railroads,--how busy
+the world was! It stirred Jack's youthful blood.
+
+"I'd like to be a railroad-president," said Jack suddenly.
+
+His father stared, then laughed at the absurdity. "Why, you're only a
+boy, Jack," he replied.
+
+"I know it. But the boy who means to be a railroad-president must begin
+somewhere. Or if I could own a silver-mine," he went on, with the
+boundless audacity of youth.
+
+"Could you find use for the silver?" asked his father humorously.
+
+Jack flushed, and lapsed into dreams. Grandmother opposite was nodding
+in her chair, her knitting still in her fingers. Jack left his vision
+for a moment, to calculate if the old chest upstairs was not nearly full
+of stockings. His mother sat sewing some trifle, and just raised her
+eyes with that longing, beseeching glance mothers so often give to their
+sons.
+
+"If women only did not care so much for one," thought Jack, "or if there
+had been a great family of us. And still I can't see the wonderful
+difference between going to college, and going to seek your fortune.
+Does two or three hundred miles more matter when you are once away?"
+
+The snow came on through the night. There being nothing urgent on hand,
+Mr. Darcy remained within; but Jack buffeted the storm gallantly. It
+would be worse than this out in the new countries where he meant to go
+some time.
+
+The next day Mr. Darcy was out. There was a dull pain in his breast,
+going through to his back, and he coughed a little. It went on thus for
+forty-eight hours, when the pain became intense, and fever set in. Dr.
+Kendrick was summoned; and, though the case was severe, it had no
+alarming symptoms at first. Jack went to and fro with his merry whistle;
+speculative he might be, but he was not introspective or morbid: wife
+and mother watched at home.
+
+There came one of those sudden and inexplicable turns in the disease.
+Jack was stunned, incredulous. In his mother's eyes lay a look of
+helpless terror he was never to forget.
+
+"You'll care for them always, Jack; you'll never leave them," said his
+father imploringly, in one lucid interval.
+
+"Always," answered the young voice bravely.
+
+"Thank you, my son, my dear boy;" and there was a fervent clasp of the
+hand.
+
+A few days later Bernard Darcy lay coffined in the pretty parlor, while
+wife and mother were crushed with grief.
+
+"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes;" and Jack dropped the first handful of
+earth in his father's open grave. The two women clung to him,--he was
+their all. Here lay his duty as long as God pleased.
+
+It seemed for weeks after this as if Mrs. Darcy would follow her
+husband. She looked so white and wan, she was so feeble that some days
+she could not leave her bed. Grandmother rallied with that invincible
+determination not to be beaten down if her prop was wrenched away.
+
+Jack was now a few months past eighteen, stout, and growing tall
+rapidly. There was about him a sturdy persistence and the good common
+sense that lends an adaptiveness or pliability of disposition, so to
+speak, that is often mistaken for content. Since he must stay here for
+some years to come, he would devote himself to learning the business of
+manufacturing woollen cloth. It entertained him more than keeping books.
+For the sake of these two bereaved women, he would take an actual
+interest in the work he had to do.
+
+Looking back in after-years, he was glad he made the resolve, and stood
+by it manfully. It gave ballast to his character, shaped him to a
+definite purpose. A narrow life, to be sure; nay, more, a distasteful
+one: but he did his best, and waited, and that was all that could be
+asked of him.
+
+Early in June there was a great commotion at the mansion on Hope
+Terrace. Miss Agatha Lawrence was married to Hamilton Minor, one of the
+great firm of brokers in Wall Street, 'Morgan, Minor, & Co.' For weeks
+it had been the talk of the town. The trousseau came from Paris, and was
+marvellous. The presents were on exhibition, and created a vast amount
+of envy and admiration,--silver, jewels, pictures, crystal, china, and
+laces. And last of all a sumptuous wedding,--every delicacy in season
+and out of season, costly wines, pyramids of cake, and a lavish
+profusion of flowers. Nothing so grand had ever occurred in Yerbury.
+
+Fred and a stylish Miss Minor were to stand. He reached home just in
+time; and, as he was to be off again with the bridal party, he sent a
+note of regret to Jack.
+
+Jack had too much good sense to feel hurt, though he was disappointed. A
+few weeks later he took his mother and grandmother up to the mountains
+for change of air, and enjoyed the vacation hugely himself. So it
+happened he did not see Fred at all.
+
+The second year letters languished, indeed failed, I may as well admit.
+Jack was being rapidly inducted into the wisdom of the world, Fred into
+the wisdom of society. They would never meet on the old plane again. The
+mill-hand would be no companion for the son and heir of David Lawrence,
+Esq.
+
+It was not in Jack Darcy's nature to be bitter or cynical. He just
+accepted the fact. Somewhere he and Fred had outgrown each other, and
+the boyish interests, once such a bond of union. Fred would be an
+educated and cultivated gentleman.
+
+Why should he be left in the background? His ambition was suddenly
+roused again, and he more than half wished himself in college. He went
+back to his books; he joined a debating-society. There was no need of
+being a mere clod because he had to work. David Lawrence was a
+gentleman. And the next spring he took up a little botany and
+horticulture with his gardening. Old Mr. Rising down the street, who had
+been gardener to some great lord,--a peculiar, obstinate Englishman,
+with his head crammed full of odd bits of knowledge,--took a fancy to
+Jack. They discussed not only fruit and flowers, but trade in its
+various aspects, as Mr. Rising had relatives at Manchester who had
+soared to the ambitions of mills and factories.
+
+Time sped on, and they came to the second summer. Miss Gertrude Lawrence
+was a belle now, and the great house was constantly filled with guests.
+The Lawrence equipages were seen in every direction. Mrs. Minor was up
+frequently, in grand state. The lawn was gay with croquet-parties, the
+evenings were brilliant with lights and music: they had two elegant
+garden-parties, when the grounds were illuminated with colored lanterns,
+and the teas were festivals in themselves. Fred had brought home two
+college chums, and for the first fortnight was deeply engrossed. Then,
+too, the girls no longer nagged at him. He was developing into an
+elegant young man, with due regard for the proprieties.
+
+He did go to call on Jack one evening. It was a duty, a rather awkward
+and embarrassing one, and he took to himself great credit in the point
+of moral courage. He understood thoroughly now what Agatha had striven
+so sedulously to explain, the difference in social station. He was not
+likely in the future to make a blunder on that side, but it would not do
+to turn the cold shoulder to Jack all at once. "A boy's will's the
+wind's will," he repeated with much complacency, and it was but natural
+that it should veer in other directions. Jack was a good enough fellow,
+but no Sir Galahad or Sir any one now.
+
+He was a little shocked at Mrs. Darcy in her mourning dress and widow's
+cap. She was pale, and with the extreme delicacy so often pronounced
+characteristic of American women. Grandmother sat in state and dignity,
+rather resentful of what she termed in her secret heart Fred's neglect,
+but a thing she would not have confessed openly if she had been put to
+torture. And Jack?
+
+Frederic De Woolfe Lawrence studied him with a critical eye. A great,
+lumbering, inelegant fellow! Jack seemed to have grown out in every
+direction, without being finished up in any. He was taken somewhat at a
+disadvantage, too: somehow he fancied, if he had met Fred alone in a
+stray walk, there would have been less formality.
+
+They talked about college. Fred was doing well, for he was by nature a
+student. Society's arts and airs would never entirely uproot that love.
+He meant to distinguish himself, and have one of the prize essays. Jack
+was rather grave and quiet, hard to get on with, Fred thought; and he
+was relieved when the duty was ended, and he could go with a good grace.
+
+Jack lingered on the porch, clinching his fingers, and listening to the
+jaunty retreating footstep. There was something different in Fred's walk
+even, a buoyancy as if he could override any little difficulties that
+fate might have in store for him. Jack smiled grimly. Fortune had
+showered every good gift upon him. He would go proudly, successfully,
+through life. He would be praised and honored--and for what?
+
+For a moment Jack felt like wrestling with him, shoulder to shoulder, to
+distance him, to defeat him, to lower his complacent pride. His
+half-patronizing manner had stung keenly. Then the real nobility of his
+nature cropped out, and he laughed at his own sudden heat and passion.
+
+"It would be folly," he said softly to himself. "I could not distinguish
+myself in any line he will be likely to follow. He must work his way: I
+must work mine. He knows what he means to do; and there he has gone
+ahead of me, for I really do not know my own mind. No, there's no
+further basis for a friendship: the boy-love has had its day, and died.
+After all, isn't that the history of every thing?" and Jack looked up to
+the stars, still with a little wordless pain at his heart.
+
+He heard during the next week that Fred had gone West with one of his
+friends, who was nephew to a great railway magnate. It would be only a
+flying trip, to be sure, but here Jack was tempted to envy him. That
+boundless West, the land of his own dreams!
+
+Grandmother grew a trifle less energetic, still it could not be said
+that her health began to fail. Mrs. Darcy remained about the same. Every
+day Jack realized how much he was to the two women. To leave them would
+be absolute cruelty.
+
+At Christmas of this year Miss Gertrude Lawrence was married. The
+wedding was rather quieter, from the fact that it was winter, and the
+bride was to leave for Europe the next day. Irene was shooting up into a
+tall girl, and being educated at a fashionable and expensive
+boarding-school. Nothing happened to impair her friendship with Sylvie
+Barry, though the two girls were as dissimilar in many respects as Jack
+and Fred, but they both stood on the same social plane.
+
+Meanwhile matters at Yerbury prospered mightily. The town was quite
+bright at night with the glow from factory-windows, and people seemed
+always hurrying to and fro. New shops and stores were started, new
+streets were laid out, rows of houses built in town, and out on the edge
+pretty and ugly suburban villas. Property began to increase everywhere.
+
+Gertrude and her husband George Eastman came back to Yerbury in about
+five months. He had begun his career as clerk in a bank, and joined his
+brother afterward as an army-contractor. From thence they had branched
+into general speculating, and were both considered rich men. Mr. Minor
+owned a Fifth-avenue palace, and Mrs. Minor never came to Yerbury
+without her maid. Mrs. Eastman could not have the palace in town, so she
+decided to have a handsome summer residence at Yerbury, and spend her
+winters at different hotels. Mr. Eastman thought he saw a grand opening
+just in this pretty spot. Property was ridiculously low. Here were farms
+and farms that might as well be cut up into building-lots, and turned
+into cities. Here was the river-front, here were railroads: why not have
+twice or thrice as many shops? why not call in the people from far and
+wide, and make Yerbury a place of note? Time had been when our fathers
+were content to dream and doze, but now it behooved everybody to be up
+and stirring. In the new race the laggards would fall far behind.
+
+Mr. Eastman set the example by purchasing one large tract, and laying
+out streets. Then uprose houses as if by magic. Modern improvements,
+water, gas, bath, butler's pantries, and dumb-waiters; and the houses
+offered so cheaply that the solid, slow-going, honest business-men
+wondered how it could be done. The places had a wonderfully seductive
+look, and were sought after eagerly.
+
+There was a peculiar interest in all this to Jack. When one day somebody
+said,--
+
+"Downer's property south of the bridge has gone for thirty thousand
+dollars. Five years ago he'd been glad to have taken ten for it. Crater
+and Harmon are going to build a big factory,"--Jack's heart went up with
+a bound.
+
+He still wanted to get away from Yerbury. He began to feel that he had
+made a mistake with his life, and was anxious to rectify it if possible.
+He did not see how he could do it here. He had gone into the groove, and
+it was hard getting out. But if some one came along, and offered them a
+fortune!
+
+The chance drew near. A new street was prospected through Miss Barry's
+grounds, through the Lanier place farther back, and the southern end
+would touch the Darcy place, giving it some new fronts and available
+lots, and placing the house on the corner. There would be sufficient
+ground for the width of the street. A petition was forthwith circulated.
+
+Alas that there could be people so blind to their own interests and the
+general welfare of the community! Miss Barry stoutly resisted. She even
+inspired some of her neighbors to that extent of opposition that they
+would not sell at any price. Destroy the beauty of Larch Avenue, that
+had been "Lovers' Walk" in the old days, and held so many tender
+reminiscences!
+
+"When I am gone I don't care what is done with the place," said Miss
+Barry. "It will have but little sentiment for the next generation. A
+change to me now would be like tearing up an old tree by the roots. I
+could not endure it. They may have their elegant new houses; but give me
+my large airy rooms and my old-time flowers, my nectarines and apricots.
+Let me live my few years in peace and quiet."
+
+"There is certainly enough to improve," returned Grandmother Darcy.
+"There are miles and miles that people are glad to sell. Let them take
+that. Let them build up the vacant lots. And where are all the people
+coming from to fill them?"
+
+"The factories and mills will bring in the people," said Jack sturdily.
+
+"There is plenty of room elsewhere," returned Miss Barry with some
+asperity. "There certainly is no need of turning people out of homes
+they like, and have made comfortable."
+
+"I suppose you cannot look at it in a business light," said Jack. "Women
+rarely do"--
+
+"There have been just such whirlwinds before, Mr. Darcy," said the
+shrewd little old lady. "I have lived through two of them myself. And it
+seems to me it is an epidemic of running in debt, rather than
+prosperity. If everything were paid for; but you see here are
+improvement-bonds, and our town runs in debt: here is everybody raising
+money on mortgages. How is it to be paid? Do wages and salaries double?
+History proves that it is a bad thing for a state when its rich men grow
+richer, and its poor poorer."
+
+"I am sure they need not," said Jack valiantly. "There is a higher scale
+of wages paid than ever before."
+
+"And no account made of thrift or economy. Enticements at every corner;
+women flaunting silks and laces as everyday gear, with no sacredness;
+old-fashioned neatness despised, industry ridiculed; men lounging in
+beer-shops; girls flirting on the public streets, having no duties
+beyond a day's work in a mill. What will the homes and the wives of the
+next generation be like?"
+
+"But that was all so irrelevant," said Jack after she had gone. "Women
+mix up everything. Now, here: you are offered a big price for this
+property. You two could live at ease all the rest of your life, and I"--
+
+"You would go away," said his mother sorrowfully.
+
+"Well, perhaps not," trying to make the tone indifferent.
+
+"Jack," began his grandmother, sitting very erect, and glancing straight
+before her into vacancy, "I am an old woman now; and, like Miss Barry, I
+could not take a change comfortably. No other place will ever be home to
+your mother or me. There is some money,--enough, I think, to take care
+of us both. So, if you cannot be content, if you must have the restless
+roving of youth out before your blood can cool, go and try the world. It
+is pretty much alike all over,--some one going up while another goes
+down; chances here, and chances there. As for the few years left me"--
+And there was a slight tremble in her voice.
+
+"Don't fret. I'm not going away," said Jack crossly, huskily, too much
+hurt to study his tone. "If I can't always see things as you do"--
+
+There were tears in his mother's eyes. Jack rose suddenly, thrust his
+hands in his pockets, and walked out into the twilight. There was
+nothing to be done with so obstinate a problem as his life. He would
+learn the business thoroughly, getting on as fast as possible, and some
+time make a strike out for himself, become a manufacturer in turn. The
+thing was settled now. Maybe some one would want him for mayor or
+congressman. There was a time when David Lawrence, Esq., had been a
+comparatively poor man; and though Jack felt that he would hardly turn
+his hand over to have a million of dollars put in it for the mere
+money's worth, if he could not discover a silver-mine, or build a
+railroad over the Rocky Mountains, he might become a rich man. Wealth
+was a mighty lever, after all. He shut his lips grimly, and pushed his
+hat down over his eyes. In the early summer dusk, fragrant with rose and
+violet, he went over the old battle-ground. Did some enemy sow it
+continually with dragon's teeth? To stay here eight or ten years,
+mayhap, to make all the money he could. Not one year of her life did he
+mean to grudge grandmother.
+
+It was quite late when he came in, but his mother was watching for him.
+She put her arms softly about his neck, and kissed him.
+
+"Have a little patience, dear," she said, in tender, motherly tones; but
+he knew her sympathy was with him.
+
+"Yes, I mean to. I don't care as much as I did an hour ago. I'm going to
+set myself steadily to business. You'll hear no more moans or groans out
+of me, mother."
+
+"Jack--you know I would go to the end of the world with you."
+
+"I believe you would--yes, I do. There, good-night!" for she was crying.
+
+"This is the way we rule circumstances," said Jack dryly, sitting down
+in his own room, and taking up Carlyle. "What an amount of humbug is
+talked in this world,--yes, and written too!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+THERE was an influx of new blood in Yerbury, and it brought in fresh
+ideas. A new railroad touched it at one edge, and real-estate dealers
+left off fighting about Larch Avenue. The ancient stages were laid aside
+for the more modern horse-cars: there was bustle and rivalry on every
+hand. George Eastman began to be quoted, and his advice asked generally.
+Mrs. Eastman held her head loftily. Then there came on the arena of
+action a certain Horace Eastman, cousin to George, who had been abroad
+as agent for a large firm, and who slipped into the place of general
+manager of Hope Mills.
+
+Plainly, F. De Woolfe Lawrence was not preparing to follow in his
+father's steps. He had graduated with honors, and taken a prize essay,
+and was now a fully-fledged modern young man. He was fond of discoursing
+on abstruse subjects, he dabbled a little into art, wrote some mystical
+poems, tied a cravat beyond criticism, and wore faultless gloves and
+boots. His mother and Mrs. Eastman were extremely proud of him. His
+father wondered a little what the young man's future would be.
+
+"I have not decided upon a profession," he said, with a just perceptible
+but extremely stylish drawl. "The next thing is going abroad. I want at
+least two years of travel, and I should not wonder if I settled myself
+at some German or Parisian university. We, as a nation, are so sadly
+deficient in culture. Our country is crude, as I suppose all young
+countries must be."
+
+David Lawrence nodded slowly, and asked,--
+
+"When did you think of going?"
+
+"I may as well go at once, and have it over," returned the young man,
+with the princely indifference he affected.
+
+His father did not dissent. As well in Europe as here, or anywhere.
+
+As for Jack, he was quite as much out of his reach as if the ocean
+already rolled between. They used to pass each other quietly, nodding if
+they came face to face, but often evading any kind of recognition. Was
+the old regard dead?
+
+Fred smiled rather pityingly on the boy who had been so blinded in his
+first love.
+
+"I used to think him such a hero, because he once thrashed a boy in my
+behalf," mused the young man. "And how I used to fly at the girls, who
+were always looking at the feet of clay my idol possessed! How I _did_
+coax him to go to college!" and Fred gave a little rippling laugh. "I
+must admit that he has good common sense,--he has found his place, and
+keeps it. There could be nothing between us now, of course. My lines lie
+in such different ways."
+
+No moan for a lost ideal under all that self-complacency.
+
+Jack Darcy took the defection in good part. He did see the utter
+incongruity of keeping up even the semblance of the old dream. But,
+where Fred had made dozens of new friends, Jack had admitted no one to
+his vacant shrine. He liked, even now, to recall those old hours, so
+bright and gay with childish whims and frolics. And he did envy Fred,
+just a little, that ramble over Europe. Would it be a ramble? It was
+Jack's turn to smile. Would it not be bits and pictures seen through
+coach-windows, rather than getting close to Nature's heart? No, that
+would not suit _him_.
+
+And so glided by two more years. De Woolfe Lawrence--he had dropped the
+initial now--returned home in a still higher state of cultivation, and
+quite as undecided as to his future career. A life of leisure and
+_belles-lettres_ looked the most tempting to him. He had read up a
+little in medicine, but the practice would not please his fastidious
+inclinations. Law had its objections. In fact, Mr. Lawrence had dropped
+into that dilettante state into which extreme cultivation, without
+genius or ambition, is apt to drift its possessor. He was nearing
+twenty-four now,--handsome, aristocratic, the pride of his family, and
+the distraction of young women in general. Invitations were showered
+upon him, and the delicate flattery society loves to use, ministered to
+his vanity.
+
+Meanwhile what of Jack?
+
+He had improved considerably through these years. The rough angularity
+of twenty had softened. Tall, but robust and compact, no stooping
+shoulders or slouching gait. The chestnut hair was no longer faded, but
+still cropped close; and the eyes were so deep that they seemed to have
+a blue-black tint, large, slow-moving, with that unutterable wistfulness
+which makes one sad. The face was good, strong, and earnest; and, if his
+manners were not those of a gentleman of leisure, they bore the impress
+of something quite as noble, honor, tenderness, and sincerity. The old
+restlessness had dropped out. Love, being larger than duty, hinted now
+at no sacrifice. Grandmother Darcy, now grown quite feeble, leaned on
+this strong arm, always outstretched, forgetting there had ever been any
+wild dreams of youth.
+
+And, though Yerbury had changed so much, they and the old street
+remained unchanged. Mrs. Darcy was a little thinner and older, the light
+hair just touched with silver. The garden was the same: wherever his
+father's favorite flowers had died out, Jack had replaced them. Only the
+honeysuckle was like great twisted ropes, and the syringas and lilacs
+were trees instead of bushes.
+
+Old neighbors had gone, and new ones come, but they were of the quiet,
+steady kind. Miss Barry seemed smaller and frailer, but she was as
+active as ever in her refined way. Sylvie no longer came to the gate for
+milk: indeed, the wide-eyed Alderney had long been given up, and Sylvie
+was a young woman. Irene Lawrence had been sent to a fashionable
+boarding-school; but Sylvie had been educated at home, under her aunt's
+eye, by a French governess who had proved something more than a mere
+teacher. The coming of Madame Trepier served to cement more closely the
+intimacy with the Darcy family. Indeed, Jack took a queer, half-shy
+liking for madame, and began to study French. He had a great fondness
+for music, and a fine, rich tenor-voice: so he and Sylvie sang duets
+together, and often walked in the twilight with madame. Indeed, Miss
+Barry would have kept her for friend and companion all the rest of her
+life; but there came a very persistent wooer, and madame succumbed a
+second time to the destiny of women.
+
+Sylvie Barry was piquant rather than pretty: a soft peachy skin neither
+dark nor fair, with a creamy tint; deep lustrous hazel eyes, that seemed
+to change with her moods; hair that had barely shaken off the golden
+tint, and clustered in rings about the low broad forehead; a passable
+nose of no particular design, but a really beautiful mouth and chin, the
+latter dimpled, the former with a short curved upper lip, displaying the
+pearly teeth at the faintest smile; barely medium height, with a figure
+that was slim yet not thin, rounded, graceful, pliant, with some of the
+swift dazzling motions of a bird.
+
+While Jack and Fred had drifted so apart, Sylvie and Irene still kept up
+a curious friendship. On Sylvie's part there was no election: indeed,
+Irene in her imperious fashion took Sylvie up as the mood seized her.
+Mrs. Lawrence, now quite an invalid, was fond of Sylvie's bright face
+and gay inspiriting voice. In Irene's absence she was often sending for
+her. "Play me a little song before you go," she would say; or, "Read a
+chapter in my book for me, will you not? You always make people seem so
+real." Consequently Sylvie had never left off going to the great house.
+Mrs. Eastman would fain have patronized her, but in her spirited way she
+shook off the faintest attempt. But Irene flew to her, and insisted upon
+a croquet-party or a drive, or a musical soiree.
+
+"I can't do without you, you obstinate little thing," she would exclaim.
+"I don't know why I take so much trouble about you; for I don't believe
+you like me at all, but just tolerate me for the sake of old times.
+There are twenty girls in Yerbury who would go wild with delight if I
+were to ask them."
+
+"Why do you not, then?" inquired Sylvie with a tantalizing light in her
+eyes.
+
+"Because I don't choose to, Miss Impertinence! Don't be cross now, and
+torment me to death with your perverse ways."
+
+"You surely need not be tormented."
+
+"Sylvie, you are exasperating."
+
+"Why do you ask me, then, or tease me to do any of these things? I would
+rather stay at home to-day, and paint."
+
+"But I shall not give you up. I'll stay here, and talk so that your wits
+will wander!"
+
+And so at last Sylvie would consent to her friend's demands.
+
+One evening she came over to discuss a costume for a fancy-dress
+garden-party. Mrs. Eastman had brought some fashion-plates up from New
+York, but they did not altogether suit her fancy: so the carriage was
+ordered, and in a few moments it rolled to Sylvie's door.
+
+Sylvie and Jack were at the piano. There was a soft, drizzling,
+summer-night rain, that made all the air fragrant without any noisy
+patter. It was just the evening for an old Latin hymn; and Sylvie was
+playing the strong, rich chords that had in them mysterious hints of
+heavenly joy, coming up through waves of passionate suffering. Jack's
+voice seemed toned to these sympathetic vibrations, and the grand old
+words rolled out simply, with none of the vicious taste of the more
+modern fashionable school. So engrossed were they, that they did not
+hear the carriage stop; but Sylvie caught her aunt's voice.
+
+They had reached the end of a verse. "Let me see what auntie wants,"
+said Sylvie, running into the next room; and then it was, "Oh, Irene!
+oh, Sylvie!"
+
+"Singing to yourself in the twilight!" laughed Irene. "How romantic! I'm
+going to interrupt you now, and put you in better business. I am just
+loaded down with the excellent fripperies of this world, and unable to
+make a choice. And the grand occasion is Mrs. Avery Langton's
+garden-party. Now, be good-natured, and help me decide."
+
+Uttering this in a rapid breath, she had walked through the sitting-room
+to the parlor, and tumbled her parcel down on the great antique sofa,
+whose edges everywhere were studded with brass nails. And there stood
+Jack, thinking, if he had been quicker, he could have stepped out of the
+window into Miss Sylvie's pretty flower-bed, now purple with odorous
+heliotrope. But, as he had not, there was nothing to do but to stand his
+ground manfully.
+
+He had often seen Irene Lawrence in the carriage and on horseback; but
+as she stepped into the room now, and stood there rather surprised, she
+might have been a daughter of Juno. Tall, slender, arrowy straight, but
+lithe and faultlessly rounded, her fleecy white shawl like a gossamer
+web falling off her shoulders, her haughty carriage, her wealth of
+purple-black hair coiled about her shapely head, a hundred times
+handsomer than any artifice of dressing, her brilliant complexion, her
+large eyes with their long sweeping lashes that veiled their depth, but
+seemed to add a certain imperiousness, her coral-red lips that shaped
+differently with every breath, her straight nose, with the nostrils thin
+as a bit of shell, and the softly rounded chin, made her a picture that
+Jack Darcy never forgot.
+
+"Oh!" in a tone of surprise, "I thought you were alone: pardon me."
+
+Sylvie was bringing in another lamp, and placed it on the great clawfoot
+centre-table. Then it occurred to her that Irene might not know Jack.
+She should recognize him here socially, anyhow.
+
+"My friend Miss Lawrence," she said with a world of dignity, "Mr.
+Darcy."
+
+Jack bowed, in no wise abashed by this proud and handsome Miss Lawrence,
+though as a child she had snubbed him many a time. And she glanced him
+over with a sudden interest. It was a manly face and a manly figure; and
+she wondered from what remote corner of the earth Sylvie Barry had
+summoned this fair, stout giant, who made her think of the Norse gods of
+her childish romances. She always liked strength: Sylvie was for
+tenderness, pathos, and beauty.
+
+"Good-evening," inclining her proud head. "Did I interrupt? You were
+singing?"
+
+"That is finished," returned Sylvie, with her peculiar manner, as if,
+being hostess here, she should have proper respect paid to her position;
+and each guest should be as deferent to the other as if she were a
+little queen, and this her court.
+
+She picked up a stray piece of music that had fallen to the floor,
+seated Irene, and half turned to Jack. Any other woman might have been
+awkward.
+
+"I will leave you two ladies to yourselves," began Jack; but Irene
+interrupted,--
+
+"No, Mr. Darcy: I shall think I have driven you away;" with a beguiling
+smile. "If you understand music, you may have a taste in the fine arts
+of dress as well. At all events, look over these elegant women in their
+party-gowns, and tell me which is fairest and rarest."
+
+The honesty of the glance, although it was coquettish, told Jack that
+Miss Irene did not remember him. For, of all the haughty Lawrence women,
+she had the name of being the haughtiest. She gathered up her skirts in
+other people's houses when the plebeian element came too near. Now she
+waved him to a chair, and gently sank into another, her trailing robe of
+thin filmy black with golden flecks falling about her like clouds in a
+gusty sky.
+
+He took the seat indicated. Some strange feeling moved him, an
+enchantment that he had never before experienced. The very air about her
+was filled with a subtle, indescribable perfume that he should always
+associate with a tall, dark-eyed woman,--a glimpse of the Orient and its
+sweetness, he fancied.
+
+Sylvie took her place, and began to tumble over the colored plates.
+
+"I'm so tired of those Watteau things!" began Miss Lawrence
+disdainfully. "They all savor of bread-and-butter girls,--a shepherdess
+with her crook,--bah! And I've been Marie Stuart so many times. If it
+were a masquerade; but garden-parties are beginning to prove bores,
+after all. There is nothing new about them, only to out-shine every
+other woman. A high ambition, is it not, Mr. Darcy?"
+
+"A temptation perhaps."
+
+The tone had in it a bit of delicate homage. Irene understood. She knew
+at once that this man was a little dazed by her beauty, just as many
+other men had been. Puny, delicate, namby-pamby men she despised, and
+always gave them a cut with her sharp tongue. Where had Sylvie picked up
+this Saul among his peers?
+
+They were all interested in the pictures, and soon fell to making merry
+comments on them. Sylvie had a quick eye and a bright wit, and something
+made Jack Darcy brilliant. They selected bits of fine taste here, they
+made an elegant costume of no particular style, and Irene was struck
+with what she knew would be its becomingness.
+
+"Mr. Darcy, are you an artist?" She remembered just then what an odd way
+the Barrys had of picking up people with some gift or grace.
+
+"No," and Jack flushed boyishly.
+
+"Then you must have a houseful of sisters."
+
+"No, I never had a sister."
+
+"When all things else fail with you, you can set up opposition to Worth.
+I shall come to you for designs. Now, this will be a peculiar source of
+gratification to me, because no one can possibly have the same
+combination. And you never can depend upon a modiste. Mr. Darcy, what
+makes women so faithless to one another?"
+
+"Are they?" he asked with a man's simplicity.
+
+She laughed gayly, and met Jack's fun-loving, shady blue eyes. How
+handsome they were!
+
+Miss Barry entered the room, and joined in the pleasant chat: then a
+rumble of carriage-wheels was heard.
+
+"It has stopped raining," said Sylvie, going to the window. "A few soft,
+melancholy stars have come out."
+
+"You have been very obliging, Sylvie," said Miss Lawrence. "Miss Barry,
+I shall send the carriage over to-morrow. Good-night."
+
+Jack Darcy handed her out, pushing aside a trailing rose that it might
+not catch her shawl. Then she half turned, and said "Good-night" in a
+softer tone.
+
+Sylvie was standing on the porch. "It has been as good as a play, Jack,"
+she said with her gay-humored laugh. "I don't believe she ever
+thought"--
+
+"That I worked in her father's mill!" and Jack laughed; but it was a
+rather pained, jarring sound.
+
+"Jack--why do you? You are a puzzle to me!" and Sylvie's voice sharpened
+unconsciously. "You do not like it. Why did you not go on at the
+academy, or"--
+
+"Raise myself in the social scale? That's what you mean, Sylvie;
+although we pass just as pleasant hours as if I were a prince, and you
+the lady of high degree. Well, we have gone over the ground a good many
+times, and it is always the same thing. I have no fancy for a
+profession; I have no genius for art, though Miss Lawrence suggests that
+I might become a man-milliner--is that what you call it? You know, I am
+staying here because mother and grandmother will not go anywhere else.
+And I dare say I make as much money as young Dr. Romer or Ned Remington.
+And somehow, now that I'm in it, I go on with a stubborn, plucky
+feeling. Some day I'll be a great manufacturer."
+
+This time his laugh was cheerful and ringing.
+
+"You see, Sylvie, your good-nature places you on the debatable ground.
+You and your aunt could be hand-in-glove with all these great people,
+and yet you open your generous heart to take in everybody."
+
+"No, not everybody, Jack. And what a little coward I am just this
+minute! No, it is not that either. Jack, you _do_ know that I should
+never be a bit ashamed of you before any one. I feel vexed when I think
+that you could take the high places, and yet you let people put you
+down,--people not half as worthy or half as good as you. There's Horace
+Eastman. He came here a comparatively poor man; and now he owns half
+Yerbury, and talks of the mill-hands as if they were--well, a flock of
+sheep."
+
+"An apt comparison, Sylvie. To my mind, they are shorn pretty close to
+make broadcloth for their masters."
+
+"And there is Fred--have you seen him since his return?"
+
+"Not to speak to him, of course." And then Jack flushed deeply, with a
+little hurt feeling.
+
+"And what friends you were! Is it the way of the world? Then it is a
+mean, hateful world!"
+
+"Sylvie, you are talking wildly. Don't you see there is no point of
+union in our lives? Now, I do not feel so badly over an outgrown
+friendship. When I was a little boy, I remember having a wonderful fancy
+for Tom Deane. We traded jack-knives; we told each other of the best
+nut-trees; we hunted squirrels; we coasted together; and, I dare say, he
+was as much of a hero in my childish eyes as I used to be in Fred's. But
+think of any friendship between us now! There isn't a greater loafer in
+all Yerbury than Tom Deane. Why, we have not a feeling in common."
+
+"Still I think it is rather different," and a shade of annoyance passed
+over her face. If Jack only would not call up these people below him, if
+he would not identify himself so strongly with that common brotherhood!
+He had so many nice tastes, such a clean, pure, honest soul. And, young
+as Sylvie was, she knew this was not always the result of culture or
+wealth or ambition.
+
+Jack guessed what was passing in her mind. From his father he had
+inherited a kind of womanish intuition. A pleasant-tempered man Bernard
+Darcy had always been called, but it was that delicate tact, the
+intuitive knowledge of what would be pleasant to others.
+
+"What else can I do here, Sylvie?" Jack cried with sudden heat. "If the
+chance ever comes, I shall be fitted for a good business man. You may
+think there is no worthy ambition in that, but wait. Do not judge me too
+hastily."
+
+"I am impatient at times, I know; but it is because I see your
+capabilities, and I can't bear to think of your going through the world
+unappreciated."
+
+"Do not worry about that. Good-night!" rather abruptly. "Miss Barry, I
+have forgotten myself. Pleasant dreams!"
+
+"And we did not have our old hymn, after all," said Sylvie regretfully.
+
+Jack took the short cut across the garden. There was a dim light in the
+sitting-room; and his mother lay in the hammock on the latticed porch,
+her favorite evening resort. She came in now, and Jack bolted the doors.
+Then, with a good-night kiss, he went to his room, and in ten minutes
+was asleep. Sylvie, on the other hand, girl-like, tossed and tumbled.
+Why was the world so queer and awry and obstinate? After all, you could
+do so little with it. Your plans came to nought so easily. Lizzie Wise,
+in her Sunday-school class, preferred going in the mill, and buying
+herself cheap finery, because the other girls did it. And so all
+through. You tried to train some one, and he or she followed the _ignis
+fatuus_ more readily than any high, ennobling truth. It was hard lifting
+people out of their old grooves.
+
+How bright and entertaining Jack had been this evening! Of course Irene
+had not remembered him. Would she be vexed, Sylvie wondered,--she who
+held herself up so high, and believed in a separate world as it were?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+THE garden-party was a success, and Miss Lawrence the acknowledged belle
+of the evening. No one else could have carried off the peculiar style of
+dress. She knew that she was radiant; and triumphs were a necessary
+sweet incense, that she always kept alive on her shrine. There was no
+need of making a hurried election: indeed, her chief aim now was
+pleasure and conquest.
+
+They were sitting over their dainty lunch, Mrs. Eastman having dropped
+in; and, after the party had been pretty thoroughly discussed, a little
+lull ensued. Fred toyed with some luscious cherries, in his usual
+indolent manner. Nothing in this world was worth a hurry or a worry,
+according to this young man's creed. He had dawdled through the party,
+waltzing with a languid grace that most girls considered the essence of
+high-breeding. It was all one to him. His "set" affected to think life
+something of a bore. Intense emotion of any kind was vulgar.
+
+"By the by, Rene," said Mrs. Eastman, "do you suppose Sylvie Barry is
+engaged to that Darcy fellow? It was odd that she should go off on a
+picnic with him, instead of the party. She has the queerest, mixed-up
+tastes."
+
+"What Darcy fellow?" asked Irene in surprise.
+
+"Sylvie Barry! Jack Darcy!" exclaimed Fred, in as much amazement as his
+superfine breeding would allow.
+
+Mrs. Eastman gave a mellifluous laugh.
+
+"Don't you remember? but you were such a child! Fred does. The Damon to
+his Pythias."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+A vivid scarlet ran up to the edge of Irene's white brow. So that was
+Jack Darcy. What a blind fool she had been, _not_ to think! She had
+laughed and chatted with him, smiled on him, worn the costume of his
+designing,--a common workingman! For a moment she could have torn her
+hair, or beaten her slender white hands against the table. What had
+possessed her?
+
+"I do recall some green and salad days," rejoined Fred with a laugh.
+
+"How Agatha and I used to badger you! We were little fools to think such
+a thing ever went on when one came to years of discretion. Only I
+believe we were afraid the elder and idiotic Darcy might foist his son
+on some college. I must say Yerbury has become quite endurable now that
+party lines have been set up;" and Mrs. Eastman crumbed her cake,
+watching her diamond sparkle.
+
+"How do you know Sylvie went on a picnic?" asked Rene, with an angry
+glitter in her eyes.
+
+"Didn't the dear confess? Rene, you do not keep your penitent in very
+good order."
+
+Mrs. Eastman had a faculty of putting something extremely irritating in
+her voice. It was honey smooth, and yet it rasped.
+
+"Really," answered Irene indifferently, "I do not see that Miss Barry's
+selection of friends need affect me much, so long as she keeps the
+distasteful ones out of my way. I may wonder at her choice of pleasures,
+but I suppose she suits herself."
+
+"My nursery-girl belongs to the mission-school. It was very good of
+Lissette to let her off for a whole day, I thought. I left her to settle
+it. What Sylvie sees in such people, I cannot imagine. I own I was a
+trifle surprised when I found this remarkable Mr. Darcy was our old
+_bete noir_, Jack. Is he still in the mill, I wonder?"
+
+"Apply to papa," laughed Irene.
+
+"I don't believe papa could tell you the names of five workmen. As if he
+troubled his head about that!"
+
+"Sylvie is a nice little thing," remarked Fred patronizingly.
+
+"I have no patience with her!" declared Mrs. Eastman. "As if it was not
+necessary to have a line drawn somewhere! These people are all well
+enough in their way: they are a necessary factor,"--picking the words
+slowly to give them weight,--"and society establishes schools and homes
+for them, trains teachers, provides employment: what more do they want?
+A holiday now and then, of course; but why not go off by themselves as a
+class, as the French do? This maudlin, morbid sympathy we Americans
+give, spoils them. There is no keeping a servant in her place here.
+Before you know it she studies and graduates at some school, teaches for
+a while, goes abroad, and paints a picture, likely as not."
+
+"Do not excite yourself, Gerty," and Fred pulled the ends of his silky
+moustache.
+
+"Well, it does annoy me to see a young girl like Sylvie Barry with no
+better sense. Some day we shall have all these people rising up against
+us, as they did in the French Revolution. I hate socialism and all that;
+and I took good care to say to Mrs. Langton that Miss Barry had been
+casting in her lot that day with a parcel of charity-children, and would
+no doubt be too tired to enjoy the exquisite pleasure of her fete."
+
+"I do not think Sylvie cares a penny!" said Irene with a touch of scorn,
+anxious to return her sister's little stab. "I suppose she comforts
+herself with the remembrance of her old blue blood, while Mr. Langton
+made his fortune as an army-contractor."
+
+"The Wylies were a very good family, Irene."
+
+"If you are through eating, I will have a cigar," said the young man,
+sauntering over to the bay-window.
+
+What was there in this simple announcement of Sylvie having gone on a
+charity-school picnic with Jack Darcy that should so rouse the
+art-cultured pulses of Fred Lawrence? He had always liked Sylvie: her
+freshness and piquancy stirred him like a whiff of mountain air,--a sure
+sign that all healthy tone had not been cultivated out of him. It would
+be very foolish for Sylvie to commit a _mesalliance_ with this young
+man, who was no doubt good enough in his way,--a rather rough, awkward,
+clownish fellow, with a coarsely generous heart. Sylvie so delicate and
+refined, with her pretty ways, her genius,--yes, she really did have a
+genius! In Paris or Rome she might make herself quite a name. He must
+see a little more of her: he must--well, did he want to marry any one?
+
+Irene and Gertrude retired to the room of the former, and discussed
+Newport and Saratoga.
+
+"I do hope we shall have a cottage at Newport another summer," said Mrs.
+Eastman.
+
+"It gives you tone, of course," was Irene's response; "but honest, now,
+Gerty, don't you think it a little poky? I do not want to go anywhere
+for a whole summer: I like the fun of all. Agatha is to spend a month at
+Long Branch, and I am going down just for a little dazzle and to give my
+gowns an airing."
+
+Their siesta was passed in this kind of small talk. Late in the
+afternoon she drove Mrs. Eastman home, and then went for Sylvie in her
+pretty pony-phaeton. As Sylvie was about nothing more important than a
+pale-blue zephyr "fascinator," she accepted the invitation.
+
+What a delicious drive it was! A dappled under-roof of cloud with the
+sun just behind it, a golden-gray haze filming the air, and fragrant
+breezes suggestive of roses and honeysuckle. All the way was starred
+with daisies. Sylvie drew in long breaths of delight, for she never
+wearied of nature.
+
+They turned homeward early. The bells were ringing for six, and the
+mills and factories began to empty out their swarm of human beings.
+
+"Why do you go through here?" asked Sylvie in surprise. "I thought you
+hated all this."
+
+"So I do," briefly.
+
+She let the pony walk now. These shrill sounds jarred on the summer air.
+Groups of girls in procession in faded gear or tawdry finery; brawny men
+with an old-country, heavy cast of feature, in blue flannel, with arms
+bared to the elbow, and throats exposed; pale stripling youths of the
+American type, boys with the rough fun not yet knocked out of them by
+hard work or the harder blows of fate,--a motley crowd indeed.
+
+It thinned a little just here. Two or three men came along
+leisurely,--one tall and compact, with a slow, firm step, the face
+grave, the eyes glancing over beyond the hills. Irene Lawrence shut her
+lips with a touch of displeasure. Was she to miss the satisfaction that
+had been brooding in her mind for the last hour, for the accomplishment
+of which she had driven through this dusty, ill-smelling street?
+
+The pedestrian raised his head. A sudden warm, smiling glow overspread
+the face, no longer grave, but brightening like an April sky. The
+outlook of the eyes was so frank and clear; the half-smile playing about
+the parted lips had the honesty of a child. He touched his hat, and
+bowed with an almost stately deference.
+
+Sylvie nodded and smiled, leaning forward a bit. What sent the glad
+light so quickly out of his countenance? The girl glanced at Irene.
+
+Miss Lawrence had stared coolly, haughtily, decisively. This man might
+look at her hundreds of times in the days to come, but he would never
+again expect a social recognition from her. And, oh, perfection of
+cruelty! Sylvie, his fellow-sinner in these social laws, had witnessed
+his pain and discomfiture.
+
+She turned with her face at white heat, one of those inward flashes of
+indignation that transcend any scarlet blaze of anger. Her eyes glowed
+with a fiery ray, and the curves of mouth and chin seemed as if frozen.
+
+"It was a deliberate insult, Irene! How dared you"--
+
+"How dared I pass one of my father's workmen? Well, Miss Barry, I happen
+not to be hand-in-glove with them. I can relegate them to their proper
+place when an ill-judged vanity brings them unduly forward."
+
+"You met him at _my_ house: he is _my_ friend, and the friend of my
+aunt. His birth is as good as yours, or mine."
+
+"Oh, I dare say!" with a satirical laugh. "Are you really going to marry
+him, Sylvie? Have you the courage to throw yourself quite away?"
+
+"Stop!" and she caught at the reins. The next moment she was on the
+sidewalk. "Good-evening," she exclaimed with the dignity of a queen.
+
+"The little spitfire!" laughed Miss Lawrence.
+
+Sylvie's displeasure mattered very little to her. A few days later she
+was on her way to Long Branch, and the episode was soon danced out of
+mind.
+
+As for Sylvie Barry, she made up her mind never to go to Hope Terrace
+again. The friendship was not of her seeking, and now it should end.
+Friendship, indeed! It disgraced the word to use it in connection with
+Irene Lawrence.
+
+That very evening she went around to the Darcys. Neither she nor Jack
+mentioned the rencontre, but there was an indescribable something in her
+manner that told Jack the insult had been as much to her as to him.
+
+Hardly a fortnight later the Lawrence carriage stood at the gate of the
+pretty court-yard, and the liveried driver brought a note to the door.
+
+          DEAR SYLVIE,--[in a tremulous, uncertain hand] I
+          am wretched and lonely. Fred and Irene are away,
+          and Mr. Lawrence has gone West on business. Will
+          you not, out of the generosity of your heart, come
+          and cheer me up a bit? I was in bed all day
+          yesterday with a frightful headache, and can just
+          crawl to-day. Do not disappoint me. I have set my
+          heart on hearing you read, and have some nice new
+          books.
+
+                            Ever your obliged friend, A. L.
+
+"You must go," was her aunt's comment in a sympathizing tone. "I have
+promised all the afternoon to the School Club, you know, and you would
+only be home alone. Poor Mrs. Lawrence! What an invalid she has become!
+And think of me,"--with a cheery laugh,--"able to get about anywhere!"
+
+So Sylvie went up to Hope Terrace in the luxurious carriage she thought
+she had tabooed forever.
+
+Mrs. Lawrence did look very poorly. She kept to her room a great deal
+nowadays; or rather there were two of them,--one off the bedchamber,
+with a pretty oriel window, and exquisitely fitted up with every luxury
+wealth and taste could devise.
+
+Mrs. Lawrence had already lost her interest in life. Her two daughters
+were well married. Irene would be, of course; but marriages were an old
+story for her. She had loved to shine at watering-places, but the gayety
+no longer lured her. She had dazzled in diamonds, silks, and velvets,
+been admired on the right hand and on the left, until it was an old,
+trite story. Servants managed her house admirably. Mr. Lawrence never
+wearied her with any business details. Her clothes were ordered, and
+made, and hung in the closets. The carriage was always at hand. Not a
+want of any kind, hardly a desire, that could not be instantly
+satisfied. She had sunk into a kind of graceful semi-invalidism, and
+enjoyed the coming and going of her children, but her own time was over.
+
+"How good you are, Sylvie dear!" and, drawing the young girl to her, she
+kissed her fondly. "I don't know what I should do without you. Irene
+would stay at home if I wanted her; but she is so full of life and
+excitement, that it wears me out. You are not always in such a whirl of
+society, and then you _are_ different. You have such a sweet,
+sympathetic nature, child! I can always feel it in your hand, and your
+voice is so soothing. What a difference there is in voices!"
+
+Her own was finely modulated: indeed, Sylvie used to think sometimes
+that these Lawrences had more than their share of the good things of
+this world. No physical gift or grace had been denied them.
+
+So Sylvie read and talked, and sang two or three songs before she went
+home. Then she came again and again, sometimes with her aunt, oftener
+alone. Miss Barry took duty calls with her neighbors as one of the
+demands of society, to be fulfilled with the fine grace of thorough
+good-breeding. Beyond the little formalities that always surrounded her
+like a delicate hoar-frost, there was a large heart for the weal and woe
+of all who could in any way be benefited.
+
+"It is a pity to see such a waste of life," she said of Mrs. Lawrence.
+"Some people, after they have served their own turn, and had their good
+time, set about doing something for God and their neighbors at the
+eleventh hour; but she still clings to self, even when all the pleasure
+has dropped out. If she only would exert herself a little, her health
+and interest would improve, and she has so much in her hands."
+
+One day Sylvie had turned the last leaf of her book, when Fred Lawrence
+crossed the hall, having come home unexpectedly half an hour before.
+"Miss Sylvie is with your mother," the housekeeper had said; and he had
+begged that they should not be disturbed. He stood now listening to the
+cool, soft voice, and an odd thought entered his mind.
+
+Sylvie should really be a daughter of the house. How his mother liked
+her, depended upon her! She was not always going to watering-places and
+parties and theatres, she did not talk continually of dress and
+conquests. He did not despise cultivated elegance: in fact, it was a
+strong point with all the Lawrences; but he knew that a great deal of
+this much-praised culture ran into artificiality, while Sylvie's
+elegance had the comprehensiveness of nature. It would be quite
+impossible for her to do an awkward or ungraceful act; for her innate
+sense of beauty, harmony, and right guided her. Something higher than
+worldly maxims toned her soul. And though he, a man with his hands full
+of gold that he had never earned, could content himself with indolent
+dilettanteism, he wanted an earnest, honest, truthful woman, if he ever
+took a wife. He had flirted in a lazy fashion, common with young men who
+find themselves an object to women, and who have only to raise their
+hand, sultan-like, to bring a host of houris. That he had kept out of
+many grosser pleasures was perhaps a credit to him, although that was
+not the weak side of his character.
+
+He did not fall in love with the picture before him, sweet as it
+was,--the young girl in a soft flowing white dress (she was too true an
+artist to have starchy outlines), the shimmering hair, the delicate
+wavering color, the proud poise of the head, the plump white arm and
+slender fingers with their pale-pink nails, and, above all, the
+exquisite voice that seemed so to enter into the culmination of the
+story, the last few sentences of pathos, joy, and complete fruition.
+
+She closed her book. Neither of the ladies spoke. Mrs. Lawrence had been
+deeply touched. She lived almost exclusively in this world of fictitious
+sentiment, I was going to say; but I remember that it is often a
+transcript of human lives. Still she liked sentiment in books, out of
+them she scarcely recognized it.
+
+There was a step and a low tap at the door; then, before Mrs. Lawrence
+could answer, Fred marched in, kissed his mother dutifully, and shook
+hands with Sylvie.
+
+He had always liked Sylvie better as a little girl than any one else who
+ever came to the house, and he liked her now. How happy his mother would
+be! for of course they would go on living here. Irene would be away
+presently, and his parents would need some one. His summer work was
+mapped out before him; and really it was a pleasure to think he should
+escape the bore of society as one found it at summer-resorts, and
+entertain himself with this piquant brown-eyed girl with a heart fresh
+as a rose. He did not want a woman who had been wooed by every Tom,
+Dick, and Harry.
+
+Yet another and more heroic thought entered his mind after chatting with
+her a few moments. He would save _her_ as well. She might have a slight
+fancy for Jack Darcy: his sisters had spoken of it, and these great,
+fair, muscular giants were often attractive to women, through the very
+strength and rude force with which they pushed their suit. But such a
+lumbering, vulgar fellow in Miss Barry's dainty, womanish parlor! and he
+smiled at the thought. Yes, he would be doing a good deed to snatch
+Sylvie from any such possibility.
+
+Fred Lawrence suddenly assumed a new importance in his own eyes. He made
+himself very agreeable to both ladies. Sylvie remained to dinner; and,
+when Mrs. Lawrence would have sent her home in the carriage, he proposed
+to escort her,--he wished to pay his respects to Miss Barry.
+
+They did not take the most direct course, but, leaving the streets with
+their noise of children and possibly vulgar contact, strolled through
+"Lovers' Lane." The old trees met overhead; there were dooryards full of
+sweet, old-fashioned flowers, and now and then the sound of a weak piano
+or a plaintive voice.
+
+"I am glad these streets have been kept free from the vice of modern
+improvement," said he. "It always brings back a touch of my boyhood when
+I walk through them. Your aunt made a good fight, Miss Sylvie, when she
+refused to listen to the golden tongues of speculators, though of course
+you would have been much richer. But it can be turned into money any
+time."
+
+"Money is not every thing," answered the young girl, with a touch of
+sharpness. "Are one's own desires and old associations to count for
+nothing? This place was very dear to my aunt and to many others. I am
+sure there is quite enough of Yerbury laid waste now. The town looks as
+if it were a sort of general house-cleaning, and every thing was thrust
+out of doors and windows. And it was so pretty!" with a curious heat and
+passion. "It was like a dream, with its winding river and green fields,
+and men at their hay, and cows grazing in knee-deep pastures. Now all
+the milkmaids are herded in mills and factories; and the
+children,--well, there are no children any more!"
+
+"No children!" lifting his pencilled brows in languid surprise. "Why, I
+think you can find swarms of them. The poorer the man, the larger the
+family."
+
+"There are babies and babies; then little prigs and drudges. I am not
+sure I am in love with the so-called civilization. For the great
+majority it only means harder work."
+
+"Did we not learn in some school-book--I am quite sure I did--that
+
+          'Satan finds some mischief still,
+              For idle hands to do'?"
+
+"Are you not afraid?" She turned with a bright, tormenting smile to the
+handsome young fellow, who flushed under her clear glance.
+
+"For those who have brains, manual labor may not be the only chance of
+salvation," he returned with a somewhat haughty flippancy.
+
+"I wonder they do not turn their brains to some account."
+
+They reached the gate, and Miss Barry was sitting on the porch. Sylvie
+was too pretty and too womanly to be quarrelled with for the sake of a
+subject that did not in the least interest him. Beside, he meant to come
+in; so he opened the gate for her, and followed in a well-bred,
+gentlemanly way, that had nothing obtrusive in it. Miss Barry welcomed
+him with the quaint formality, the subtile air of education, refinement,
+and morality, so much a part of herself. It pleased him extremely, and
+settled him in his determination.
+
+"Sylvie has a touch of radicalism," he mused to himself; "but it is a
+disease of youth, and thrives by association. Take her quite away, and
+she will soon recover her normal tone."
+
+He found his mother still up on his return, and rather restless. She lay
+on her sofa, and dozed so much through the day, that night had but
+little slumber to bring her.
+
+"I am so glad you did not go to Long Branch," she remarked, as she toyed
+with her son's silken, perfumed hair. "I get so lonesome when your
+father is away; and he seems to think of nothing but business"--in a
+complaining tone. "I do not know what I should do but for Sylvie. She is
+such a charming little body! Fred, do you think there is any truth in
+Gertrude's gossip about her and that--one of your father's mill-hands,
+is it not? How can Miss Barry allow it?"
+
+"There is no truth in it," with a light, scornful laugh. "The families
+are neighbors, you know; and I suppose the boor takes a look for
+encouragement. I shall not go away this summer. I can find pleasanter
+employment."
+
+She pressed his hand, and smiled, as their eyes met. Sons-in-law were
+very little to one, except in the way of respectability, but a daughter
+like Sylvie would be such a comfort! Fred had no need to marry a
+fortune, but Sylvie would not be poor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+NOW that Fred Lawrence had come home, there was no need of going so
+often to Hope Terrace, Sylvie thought. Time never hung heavy on her
+hands; for she was not indolent, and there were friends and pleasures.
+Miss Barry had a conscientious misgiving that Sylvie ought to be taken
+about like other young ladies; but she shrank from fashionable life
+herself, and could not resolve to trust her darling with any other
+person. Beside, Sylvie always seemed contented.
+
+She was content indeed; at least, with her home and her aunt. Up-stairs,
+just out of her sleeping-chamber, she had a studio, chosen because this
+room, of all in the house, had the finest view in summer, when the tall
+old trees shut out so much. From here there were two exquisite
+perspectives. The trees and houses were so arranged that a long, arrowy
+ray of light penetrated through a narrow space over to a small rise of
+ground called Berry Hill on account of its harvest of blueberries. Two
+old, scraggy, immense oak-trees still remained; and she used to watch
+them from their first faint green to the blood-red and copper tints of
+autumn, when the sun shone through them. Down behind he dropped when the
+day was done; sometimes a ball of fire, at others bathed in roseate
+hues, tinged with all the wondrous grades of color, and making fleecy
+islands in a far-off, weird world, dream-haunted. She used to study the
+grand effects of shifting light, that made the hill bold and strong, or
+fused it into dreamy harmonies that seemed to have the subtile essence
+of music; then contrasts that were abrupt and apparently dissonant,
+quite against well-known edicts of human taste. Who was right,--the
+great Author of all? She smiled to herself when she heard people talk so
+glibly of nature, as if the one little rose-leaf were the whole world.
+
+The other picture held in its soft, still, light, an old-fashioned,
+low-gabled house with wide eaves; a broad doorway, with the upper half
+always open in summer; a well with curb and sweep and bucket where
+farm-hands came to drink; a pond with a shady side, where cows herded in
+their peaceful fashion, wading knee-deep on hot days, chewing their cud
+contentedly at others, browsing through golden hours; fields of glowing
+grain, then tawny stubble, a bit of corn with nodding tassels, and not
+infrequently a group of children, picturesque in this far light. It all
+stood out with the clearness of a stereoscope.
+
+She had her ambitions too, this bright little girl. They were tinctured
+with the crudeness of youth, and its boundless vision, it is true; and
+sometimes the passion of despair seized her soul in a cold grasp, when
+she felt hemmed in on every side, and longed for some opening, some step
+in the great world higher than fashionable frivolity.
+
+Miss Barry had no taste for famous women. They were well enough in the
+world: she paid a proper and polite deference to Mrs. Somerville, Mrs.
+Browning, and Rosa Bonheur,--that kind of intellectual deference that
+sets them out of the sphere of ordinary women. Wives and mothers were
+better for the every-day life of the world; since pictures and poetry
+were luxuries, accessories, but not home or food or clothes. Though she
+had missed her woman's destiny, she had not lost faith in it; though she
+had held out her hand to the woman who had made shipwreck of her own
+life for the wild, graceless brother's sake, she still looked on clear
+seas and smooth sailing as possible for lovers' barks. In her plans for
+Sylvie there was a fine, manly, generous husband; a love so sweet and
+entire that the girl should forget her restless yearnings; baby hands to
+cling to her, baby lips to press, young lives to mould, and a future to
+plan for others.
+
+Miss Barry believed in work devoutly, but gentlewomen had a firm place
+in her creed. The paintings and music were well enough as
+accomplishments, and she was proud of them; but she delicately repressed
+the other dreams and desires until Sylvie ceased to speak of them except
+to her friend Jack.
+
+Miss Barry had experienced some anxiety on this point, it must be
+confessed. You would never have perceived it from the wise little
+woman's face or any tone of her voice. She went more frequently to the
+Darcys of an evening with Sylvie: she rolled her easy-chair and
+work-table to the opposite side of the sitting-room, where it commanded
+a view of the piano and the sofa in the parlor, the door being always
+open. She could hear and see, she could make pleasant, trenchant
+remarks: indeed, she was one of themselves, as young in heart, if the
+hair did glisten silvery under the bit of exquisite thread-lace that did
+duty as an apology for a cap.
+
+Jack and Sylvie were not lovers. A rare good friendship it was, more
+perfect than brotherly and sisterly regard, in that it held no
+duty-element, and was spontaneous. Sylvie never laughed at Jack in his
+awkward boyish days: he had never tormented her small belongings as
+brothers are wont to do.
+
+Miss Barry feared the flame might be easily fanned. A little opposition
+or warning would bring Sylvie's innocent wandering thoughts to a focus,
+and kindle the fire. She was very wary. She trusted Sylvie to Jack with
+an air that said, "You are too honorable to betray the confidence I
+repose in you."
+
+The old class prejudice spoke out in this covert objection to Jack as
+a suitor. She honored him sincerely for giving up the dreams of
+ambitious and energetic manhood to stay at home and comfort these two
+delicate women. Yet (strange contradiction) she had a half fancy that it
+betokened weakness or lack of some kind in the very content with which
+he seemed to go about his daily duties. Alas for consistency! We preach
+content from the pulpit on Sunday, and on Monday glance with quiet
+contempt on our plodding neighbor, who can commune with the daisies by
+the wayside, while there is gold lying untroubled in desert gulches.
+
+Honest, sturdy Jack, taking up the duty of to-day cheerfully with a
+manful endurance, because the hands holding his fate were too weak and
+tender to be wrestled with, and that in his large, generous soul he
+could not war on a smaller antagonist, neither was it his nature to
+continually thrust any sacrifice he might make before the eyes of the
+one he was benefiting. How much silent heroism goes unpraised in the
+world, while we stand on the highways, and prate of our discrimination,
+our quick insight! Jack might be praised for his self-denial, but the
+higher appreciation was withheld. Even Sylvie was fretted at times,
+because he would get interested in all things pertaining to the mill.
+
+Miss Barry said to herself, "It is best that Sylvie should marry in her
+own circle, a man of cultivation, refinement, and position. Jack is a
+dear good fellow, but not the person to satisfy her for a lifetime."
+
+Jack thought nothing at all about it. He never gave up the idea of a
+great wide world, where he could have a hand-to-hand struggle with
+something as powerful as himself. He had come to no dreams of wife and
+children. He did like Sylvie with all his big, honest heart. If she had
+fallen in love with him, and betrayed it by some girlish sign, he would
+have been startled at first, then thought it over in his slow, careful
+way, asked her to marry him, and loved her devotedly all his days,
+leaving the dreams to the past with a tender benediction.
+
+But Sylvie was no more in love than he.
+
+As I said, she decided that she was not needed at Hope Terrace, and
+staid away four days. Then the carriage came, with a beseeching note.
+Had Fred gone again?
+
+She found him there in all his elegant listlessness. It exasperated her
+strangely.
+
+"What have you been about, Sylvie?" cried Mrs. Lawrence. "Is your aunt
+ill? It seems a full week since you were here."
+
+"Oh, no!" with her beguiling little smile. "I cannot tell exactly what,
+only I thought"--
+
+"You thought because Fred was home I would need no one else! As if a
+love-story would not bore him, and an invalid's whims--well, men are not
+women, my dear," decisively, and with a complacent expression as if she
+had settled the argument beyond any question, for the first time since
+the world began.
+
+"Why, you never tried me on a love-story," interposed Fred. "You do not
+know how deeply sympathetic I might be with your favorite heroines."
+
+"He is laughing at us, Sylvie. Ah, well! I suppose it is a man's duty to
+_make_ love, not to listen to it second-hand. How charming and fresh you
+look this morning! And how lovely it is after the shower of last night!
+Fred, if you could leave Latin verses and Greek essays you might take us
+to drive. We could stop and bring your aunt with us for lunch, Sylvie."
+
+"Thank you for her. She has gone to Coldbridge to see about a nurse for
+the Orphans' Home, and will not be back until four."
+
+"Then I can keep you without a single scruple," and Mrs. Lawrence looked
+oddly pleased. "Fred, tell them not to put the horses out. What
+wonderful health your aunt has, Sylvie! I don't see how she can endure
+the bother of those schools and institutions: it would wear me out in
+no time. But I have had a family of children;" and she leaned back on
+her pillow with a satisfied air.
+
+The carriage came around again; and with the assistance of a maid,
+Sylvie, and her son, Mrs. Lawrence walked down stairs. He handed both
+ladies in, and seated himself opposite with the air of a prince.
+
+Sylvie looked so bright and gay this morning, her velvety eyes full of
+tender light, her cheek all abloom with youth and health, the sweet
+scarlet lips half smiling, and her attire far enough removed from the
+rigor of fashion to have a kind of originality about it. She always wore
+something that added tone and brightness,--a bit of colored ribbon or a
+flower, or a bow that flashed out unexpectedly, as if greeting you with
+laughing surprise.
+
+"What do you do to mother, Sylvie?" Fred asked, with a touch of
+complimentary curiosity in his voice. "Yesterday she was dull and
+moping. I could not persuade her to drive."
+
+"It was so warm, no wonder. I felt dull and drowsy myself. But to-day is
+the perfection of loveliness."
+
+"And you have a charm, Sylvie. I do not know but it is your perfect,
+buoyant health. You seem to lift one up. I only wish I could keep you
+all the time," remarked Mrs. Lawrence with a touch of longing.
+
+Sylvie colored, and averted her eyes: then she gave herself a kind of
+mental shaking, and resolutely glanced back, uttering some rather trite
+remark. She would not suspect or understand.
+
+They came home again, and had lunch: then, while Mrs. Lawrence was
+taking her siesta, Fred carried off Sylvie to his study. It was
+luxuriously beautiful. Several gems of pictures adorned the wall, which
+had been newly frescoed to suit his fancy. Easy chairs lured one to test
+their capacious depth, some exquisitely-bound books were arranged in a
+carved and polished case, and the table was daintily littered with
+papers. He had an idea that a man's surroundings were a very fair index
+to his character and tastes, quite forgetting that it implied length of
+purse as well.
+
+He made spasmodic attempts at literary work. Abstruse essays were begun
+under the impression that he had something brilliant and original to
+say, but before they were finished a new train of thought led him
+captive. He dreamed delicately sensuous dreams, lapped in luxurious
+idleness, the rooms stifling with odorous hot-house flowers. He went
+clothed in soft raiment, he sunned himself in languid seas of
+imagination, and was too indifferent to concentrate his powers upon any
+great faith or belief, or even emotion. He had a contempt for cheap and
+plain belongings, as leaning insensibly to vitiation of taste. Nothing
+modern met his approbation. The old-time philosophies won him with their
+subtile flavor. He could propound his theories eloquently, but they did
+not touch him deeply enough to rouse him into action of any kind. All
+that his education and culture had done for him so far was to develop an
+incapacity for any regular, wholesome work that would be of the
+slightest use to any human being.
+
+Something of this passed through Sylvie's mind as she sat there. This
+handsome and stalwart lily of the valley, with no desire for toiling,
+and no ability for spinning, would be content to drift and dawdle
+through life on his father's money. At that moment he was more
+contemptible to her than Irene, winning lovers by the score, and casting
+them aside with no more compunction than if they were the litter of
+faded flowers.
+
+After all, why should she care if he did not reach her standard of moral
+and intellectual excellence, of that knightly chivalry whose
+rallying-cry was, "God and my fellow-men!" Why should she desire to
+rouse him from that complacent ease and fastidiousness, brought about
+by wealth, and the certainty of no need of effort on his part? Surely
+she was no modern apostle carrying around the watchword of work.
+
+Yet somehow--if all the subtile forces running to waste in both him and
+Jack could be galvanized into earnest, active life; if the sturdy,
+wholesome thought of the one could be mated with the clear, crisp
+training of the other; if both could have the wide outlook beyond
+material wants and comforts! It fretted her.
+
+Yet these two, sitting here on this peerless summer day, skimmed over
+wide fields like gay butterflies. She could not be in earnest with him.
+Just when she was roused and warm, he seemed to lift her by some flight
+of eloquence, and waft her to his realm of fancy. It annoyed her to find
+he had that much power over her.
+
+It must be admitted that when Fred Lawrence willed, he could be
+extremely fascinating. Women yielded gracefully, nay, eagerly, to his
+sway; and much delicate flattery had their eyes and lips fed him upon.
+Sylvie piqued him a trifle by her utter unconcern--or was it the fine
+instinct of coquetry inherent in feminine nature?
+
+There was no telling what this queer, bright, unconventional little
+thing might do if left to herself. A good marriage would prove her
+salvation. She had many womanly possibilities: yet, with all due
+deference to Miss Barry and her old blue blood, Sylvie might overstep
+the bounds, and take up some of the reforming projects so dear to
+elderly spinsters. As Mrs. Fred Lawrence she would be held regally above
+them, and could depute her charitable work to her aunt.
+
+In justice to the man, it must be confessed that Sylvie's dainty,
+piquant loveliness stirred his soul; and, if self had not been so
+intense a centre, he might have been ardently in love, or
+clearer-sighted. Much of the time her demeanor toward him was coldly
+indifferent: yet the misfortune was, her interest in all things kindled
+so easily that she could not, at a moment, change to him. Her moods of
+reticence and shy evasion added a flavor to the cup. With a man's
+egregious vanity, he jumped at the conclusion that these little
+intangible things signified love.
+
+One day Sylvie stumbled over Irene. She came flying up stairs with some
+choice nectarines for Mrs. Lawrence, a kind that seemed only to reach
+perfection in Miss Barry's old-fashioned garden. There sat Irene,
+superb, nonchalant.
+
+"Oh, you little darling!" clasping her, and pinching the peach-bloom
+cheek. "I am so glad to have a glimpse of you; for mamma has sung your
+praises until I ought to be jealous, but out of my boundless generosity
+I still smile upon you. No need to ask how _you_ are, but one may
+inquire after your aunt?"
+
+"Miss Barry is quite well," Sylvie said with some constraint,
+remembering their last parting.
+
+Irene had honestly forgotten it. She laughed now, a low, ringing,
+melodious laugh.
+
+"Why, it is quite a treat to see you open wide your sunrise eyes. I have
+taken everybody by surprise, and enjoy it immensely. Gerty and I are off
+to fresh fields and pastures new, and home came right in my way. Sylvie,
+you are a good little creature to come and amuse mamma when her own
+lovely and amiable daughter is racing after the pomps and vanities of
+this naughty world. Sit down;" and she made room on the sofa beside
+herself. "Don't let such a frivolous creature as I turn you from the
+post of duty."
+
+"I did not come to stay," Sylvie answered rather stiffly.
+
+"As if the intention were cast in adamant! Oh! why is not Fred here to
+use his persuasive tongue?"
+
+There was a peculiar laughing light in Irene's eye that annoyed Sylvie,
+for it seemed to indicate a secret knowledge.
+
+"I can stay just half an hour," was the reply in a decisive tone. "At
+eleven I take my lesson in painting.-- Aunt wanted you to have these,
+Mrs. Lawrence, in their first bloom of ripeness."
+
+"They are delightful. A thousand thanks to both of you, my dear."
+
+"And you really manage to exist in this dull place, Sylvie! You are a
+miracle of content," interposed Irene.
+
+"I have not come near dying yet," was the rather dry rejoinder.
+
+"You need not be so curt and sharply sweet, my dear. Here I have been
+listening to marvellous accounts of your amiability and devotion"--
+
+"Don't, Rene!" implored her mother. "Sylvie _is_ good to me."
+
+"And it might make the sweetness weak if she stretched it out to me!
+Keep it intact for those who so delight in it. I am fond of spice and
+high flavoring."
+
+"These nectarines are perfect," declared Mrs. Lawrence. "One can taste
+the sunshine in them."
+
+"How poetic, mother mine! Does Fred come and read Latin verses to you
+and Sylvie? I may have one"--stretching out her jewelled hand. "Oh, they
+are delicious! worth coming home for, even if I had not wanted mamma's
+pearls."
+
+"And money and every thing," added her mother. "Rene, you ought not to
+be so extravagant. Papa is quite depressed with the state of business."
+
+"Yes, I have heard _that_ ever since I left my cradle;" and Rene laughed
+gayly.
+
+It suddenly crossed Sylvie's mind: what if this proud, imperious girl
+should be reduced to poverty some day?
+
+"Don't plan a conspiracy against me, Sylvie Barry! I saw it in your
+eyes!"
+
+A vivid flush overspread Sylvie's face, as if she had been caught in the
+commission of some crime. Irene's laugh rang again with a peculiar
+irritating sound.
+
+"I could not form a conspiracy against you--even if I so desired. And I
+must go."
+
+Sylvie rose with a haughty air.
+
+"Wish me worlds to conquer at least, or scalps to hang at my belt. No?
+You ungracious little thing! There is a good-by kiss to show you that I
+always hold out the right hand of peace."
+
+"Have the carriage, Sylvie: it will not take a moment"--
+
+"No, thank you," in a crisp tone. She would have nothing of these
+Lawrences just now.
+
+"Fred will get a spicy wife," commented Irene, with a peculiar smile.
+
+"She is never so with him. They get along beautifully," said the mother.
+
+"Fred is too lazy to rouse Sylvie. Women have quite spoiled him. And
+Sylvie is ever so much prettier when a trifle vexed. Don't tell me about
+her angelic qualities, though I suppose she does keep super-amiable
+before you and Fred just now. I wonder if I could if I were in love!"
+
+"Irene, I am sorry I hinted it. If you begin to tease Fred"--
+
+"I shall not: set your heart at rest. I give full and free consent, and
+approve heartily. Beside, the little thing might throw herself away if
+she was not looked after. There will always be some one to stay at home
+with you."
+
+Mrs. Lawrence turned to her book and her nectarines; and Irene tumbled
+over jewel-cases,--a proud, imperious beauty, whose heart had never been
+touched, who cared only for pleasure and triumphs. Over yonder, men and
+women were toiling, that she might have gold to squander. They lived
+scantily, that she might feast. And the brave old world, seeing it all,
+uttered a silent groan. One day it would speak out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+SYLVIE BARRY meanwhile walked along rather rapidly for a warm morning.
+She felt irritated. Her sweet lips were set in defiant curves, the red
+heats of annoyance burned and faded on her cheek with each passing
+thought, and there was something out of harmony: a fateful discordance
+that swept over her, as if the parts of music had been wrongly put
+together.
+
+Did they think--did Fred imagine--
+
+She had never faced the idea before. Now she thrust it out in the garish
+sunlight. Her eyes sparkled, but there was no triumph in the girl's
+fine, resolute face. This man might lay his father's wealth at her feet,
+borrowed plumes in which he was quite content to shine; his heart--and a
+smile of withering scorn crossed her red lips. She would be a little
+dearer than his horse: dogs the fastidious man could not endure.
+Practically his wooing would be,--
+
+          "I will love thee--half a year,
+              As a man is able."
+
+Not because of a fresher, fairer face: he would give her all he had, all
+that he could rouse his languid pulses to experience. She would be
+lifted out of her present occupations and interests; for Sylvie was too
+clear-eyed to blind herself with the specious reasoning that as the wife
+of a rich man's son, she would be a greater power in the world for good.
+They would fit her into _their_ sphere. She fancied herself coming to an
+aimless middle-life like that of Mrs. Lawrence, taking no interest in
+any thing, but reading novels, and complaining, to pass away the time.
+
+Did she really care for any one else? More than one young man in Yerbury
+had paid her the peculiar deferential attention that asks encouragement
+if there is any to give, but is too truly delicate to proceed without.
+Then there was Jack, who understood her soul better than any one else;
+but had he touched her heart in a lover-like way?
+
+She turned her clear, honest eyes to the blue overhead, as if taking
+Heaven for a witness. Her heart and fancy were quite free. Much as she
+cared for him, there was no thrill of that high sentiment in it.
+
+In some fascinating ideal life she had seen a lover with whom she could
+walk down through the years, whose life would touch hers at all points,
+who could fathom the depths of the nature that so puzzled herself, who
+could measure and supply the yearning reaches of intellect; who could
+awake in her soul a love, strong, deep, and unquestioning, so fervent,
+indeed, that she would turn from all other dreams and desires to him. A
+young girl's ideal--perhaps it is well for the world that some women
+have ideals, and keep faith with them.
+
+As for Fred, his vanity led him straight on. She tried honestly to place
+herself right in his estimation; but he misunderstood her, and liked her
+the better for the variety. She saw too, with dismay, that her aunt
+favored him. Her natural kindness of heart shrank from the pain of
+rejecting him, and to her the triumph had no pleasure. But in her
+anxiety and desperation she saw only this one course.
+
+He dropped in nearly every day, he took her and Miss Barry to drive. He
+haunted croquet-parties, which he hated, because she accepted
+invitations to them. He never met Jack. Some fine sense warned the
+latter that an encounter in Sylvie's parlor would be uncomfortable.
+Yet, strange to say, sometimes when he saw the handsome fellow
+sauntering by, a peculiar tenderness came over him, remembering the
+little boy who had clung fondly to him.
+
+An old-fashioned courtship would prove no end of a bore, Fred decided.
+So one day he marched over to Larch Avenue when he knew Miss Barry was
+alone, and laid his case before her. She received him with graceful
+kindliness, listened to his offer, and assented with evident pleasure.
+There was not a happier woman that night in all Yerbury than Miss Barry.
+The care and desire of her life had been justly crowned. Her good-night
+kiss to Sylvie was inexpressibly sweet.
+
+Fred did not see Sylvie for the next two days, but meanwhile wrought
+himself into a state that he was quite sure was proper and well-bred
+love. Then she came to Hope Terrace, and they kept her to tea. The late,
+heavy dinners were dispensed with at present.
+
+"Will you walk home, to-night, Sylvie?" asked Fred. "I feel in a walking
+mood."
+
+"The slightest symptom of industry ought to be encouraged," she made
+answer gayly. She had been of some real service this afternoon, charmed
+away a fretful headache, and restored Mrs. Lawrence to a comfortable
+state of feeling, and was correspondingly light-hearted. Then, too, Fred
+had kept out of the way, and been gravely polite to her at the
+tea-table. She liked him in such moods.
+
+It was a late August evening, with a small crescent moon shining softly
+as if its forces were well-nigh spent. The heat of the day was over, and
+the falling dew evolved a kind of autumnal sweetness, the flavor of
+ripening fruits rather than flowers. Yerbury was very quiet in the part
+they were to traverse. They walked under great maples where a shadowy
+light sifted through, and the houses looked like fragments of dreams,
+with here and there a lamp in a distant window. The slow wind wandered
+through pines and hemlocks, as if some fairy Puck had laid his finger to
+his lips, saying to crooning insects, "Hush, hush!" A night to dream as
+one went down "Lovers' Lane."
+
+Sylvie was radiantly beautiful. Her face always changed so with her
+moods. Every feature had a perfect sculptured look, but intensely
+human,--the straight nose with the flexible, sensitive nostrils,
+quivering at any sudden breath, the dainty chin and white throat, the
+red curved lips that seem to smile at some inward, richly satisfying
+thought, the large lustrous eyes serious as those of a nun, and the
+calm, clear brow that seemed to index the strength and fineness of the
+nature. He did not take in any of the occult meanings: to him she was
+simply a pretty girl whom he could dress in silk instead of lawn.
+
+The small hand had lain on his arm without the faintest movement. Now he
+took it in his, and pressed it softly. She frowned, and made a slight,
+repellant gesture.
+
+"Sylvie?" with a lingering intonation that was hardly inquiry.
+
+"Well!" roused out of her quiet into a momentary petulance.
+
+"Sylvie, I love you. Will you be my wife?"
+
+In his most commonplace dreams he had never made love so briefly. He
+startled himself.
+
+"Don't!" in a short, decisive tone, as if he were merely teasing.
+
+"Sylvie, I am in earnest;" and in his tone the man spoke.
+
+"Then I think you are mistaken." She seemed to look at him in the cool
+light of invincible candor and honesty.
+
+"No, Sylvie, I am not mistaken," gaining courage that it was to be
+argument instead of sentiment. "I have had this purpose in my mind for
+some time, and have solicited your aunt's consent. You have only to
+say"--
+
+"I have many things to say, but assent is not one of them;" in a voice
+that, though low, seemed to cleave the air with a steely ring. "You
+think you love me. Perhaps you do--as far as you are capable of loving
+any thing beside yourself. You have seen a good deal of me this summer,
+and have made up your mind to marry. I possess some of the necessary
+requirements, and doubtless suit you better than any mere fashionable
+woman. But you have none of that intense desire that makes a matter of
+life and death of love, that elects one woman, or forever keeps a vacant
+niche in the soul."
+
+"Sylvie!"
+
+Her passionate words stunned him. He turned to her with a puzzled look,
+a certain helplessness, as if he were stranded on some far, foreign
+shore. And then he met her lustrous eyes, so clear that they were almost
+pitiless in the glow of undimmed truth.
+
+"Can you not trust me?" with the gentle reproachfulness so winning to
+most women, so confident of a victory over a heart that loves.
+
+"I could trust you to care for no other woman when your word was passed,
+but it seems to me," and her heart swelled with something like contempt,
+"that you are but playing at love. Marriage in your estimation is a fit
+and proper step: your mother likes me, you prefer me to any one else"--
+
+"Good heavens, Sylvie! what more do you want?" and a flood of scarlet
+mounted his calm, handsome brow. "When a man chooses a woman out of the
+whole circle of his friends and acquaintances, what higher compliment
+can he pay her? I have seen women beside those in Yerbury; and, though
+it may savor of vanity, I believe there _are_ those who would
+appreciate"--
+
+"I wonder you did not go to them;" with a fine irony, cutting short his
+sentence.
+
+"Because I liked you, chose you."
+
+"I do not so desire to be chosen," she answered quickly. "The man I
+marry must win my respect, my highest faith; must have an aim, an
+ambition, and not dawdle through life as some silly woman might."
+
+The decisive voice seemed to cut a path between him and her as it went.
+It struck home uncomfortably.
+
+"Then I suppose you call all men not engaged in manual labor,
+dawdlers,--scholars, poets, men of leisure, who can devote their lives
+to work that requires patience and fineness of detail, rather than the
+heavy swing of a blacksmith's hammer. When a man has no need of
+work"--and Fred paused, a trifle out of temper.
+
+"I do not believe God ever made an idler," she said, with high gravity
+that widened the gulf between them. "To whom much is given, much will be
+required."
+
+How unreasonable she was! He hated women who flung texts or proverbs at
+you; and yet he did not hate her. She had a girl's flighty notions, born
+of crude contact with inferior minds, and perhaps over-much
+novel-reading.
+
+"I do not exactly understand what a man must do to win your love," he
+said in one of those calm, intensely irritating tones. "I have chosen
+what suited me best,--culture, refinement, and the education that fits
+me for the sphere in which I am likely to move all my days,"
+impressively. "It is true, much of the wisdom of the world is little to
+my taste. I do not know why a man should wade through a slough of evil
+for the sake of repenting afterward, for looking white in contrast to
+that foul blackness. The ninety and nine just ones seem to me the better
+example."
+
+"I am afraid I shall not be able to make you understand," she went on,
+with a little hesitation. "Perhaps I have not the power or patience to
+shape a man's soul to a noble purpose or ambition. I want him strong
+and earnest, full of energy and that high sense of duty to all around
+him, not satisfied to drift down the stream in frivolous content, but to
+make the way better for his having gone over it. I want him true as
+steel to his friends, generous, yet uncompromising to his foes, to all
+evil; the kind of man who, if crushed down by fate to-day, could see
+some ray above his head to-morrow, who has sufficient moral fibre not to
+be rigidly bound by class feelings and narrow prejudices."
+
+Sylvie paused, startled at herself. She had never framed her hero in
+words before, and that she should do it for this man!
+
+"These are the heroes of our youth, Miss Sylvie, and you are very
+young," in that insufferably patronizing tone.
+
+"I am old enough to know what I want," she retorted, all the fiery blood
+in her pulses leaping to the charge. "I think, too, I can discern
+between the true worker, and him who is content with the frivolous
+outside show."
+
+"Perhaps not. You have been advising me, now allow me a like privilege.
+Do not imagine me actuated by jealousy,--that vice of the Moor is not in
+my nature. I have seen with some surprise that your fancies were for
+those beneath you in the social scale. A woman always loses in this
+dangerous experiment. She seldom raises her commonplace hero to a level
+with the gods, and is much more likely to be dragged down."
+
+She turned suddenly, her face flaming scarlet. The indignation misled
+him. He took it as a sign of personal anger, and wondered if she could,
+if she _dared_, throw him over for that coarse, stupid, blundering
+fellow.
+
+"Yes," he continued, glad to stab her in a vulnerable point; "you
+certainly have made a mistake, if you think this soul an aspiring one. A
+boy who excels in brute strength and force merely, a man who makes a
+deliberate choice between the nobler results of education and the
+common purposes of rude daily labor, will hardly rank with a knight of
+Arthur's time, even if some self-deceived woman chooses to lavish her
+affection upon him."
+
+"If you mean Mr. Darcy"-- And she stood quite still, tremulous with
+passion.
+
+"I mean Mr. Darcy." She had not shown such delicate consideration for
+his feelings that he should hesitate. "I do not see how you, with your
+artistic tastes and refinement, can find companionship in such a nature.
+I understand it very thoroughly. Beware, for you cannot plead even
+daffodil blindness, my fair Persephone."
+
+Sylvie Barry could have struck the man beside her. All the passion of
+her nature surged up in contempt, great waves of white heat. If a look
+could have annihilated, hers might. Even in the shady gloom, he saw the
+flashing eye and quivering lip of scorn.
+
+"Do not distress yourself about me," she answered, with suave
+bitterness. "Jack Darcy may be a mill-hand; but he has the honor, the
+white soul, of a gentleman! And you--you dare to trample on what was
+once a friendship!"
+
+"I believe he was once my admiration because he used to show fight so
+easily. He was for marching West then, and doing some grand thing; but
+you see his hero days are gone by. Ten years from this he may be a
+demagogue, a rank socialist, whining about equality. Still, if I must
+congratulate you"--
+
+She made a haughty gesture, and her first impulse was to let it go; but
+her truthful nature could not brook the implied deception.
+
+"You may congratulate me upon the friendship alone," with a clear, sharp
+emphasis.
+
+His shattered self-confidence returned suddenly, shaped to arrogance. If
+she was not entangled with Jack Darcy, there certainly was no one else.
+
+"Sylvie," he began loftily, "this has been child's play, and I am
+heartily ashamed of my share of it. Let us go back, and forget it. You
+have had your tilt at windmills; so suppose we return to common sense.
+You are still heart-free, it seems; and I beg pardon for repeating
+foolish gossip. Your aunt has accepted me as your suitor; my mother is
+waiting to receive you as a daughter; and I think," with some pride in
+his tone, "that few men can offer you a cleaner hand, or a better
+record. You will have a life of ease and leisure, and-- Why, Sylvie, you
+can teach _me_,--you can help me up these glowing heights."
+
+"I have answered you!"
+
+She seemed to grow tall and regal as she stood there by the gate, the
+long, arrowy ray of lamp-light from within illumining her proud, cold
+face, that could flush with such bewildering warmth. He discerned in
+some dim way that she had access to a life far above his; an atmosphere
+like hoar-frost surrounded her, raying off fine points, that thrust him
+farther away into darkness and coldness. Had something been taken out of
+his life?
+
+The man's well-nigh imperturbable complacency had received a shock.
+
+"Good-night," in a softer tone. One cannot break a pleasant friendship
+without a pang.
+
+As one in a dream he heard the gate close, the soft footfall on the
+brick walk, and a waft of voices from within. Then it occurred to him
+that he, Frederic De Woolfe Lawrence, had been rejected by this little
+girl upon whose head he had meant to shower the blessing of marital
+protection, the regard of a soul that was not quite indifferent, after
+all. What was this dull pang somewhere in his symmetrical, well-kept
+body? Was it the night that made his pulses heavy and turgid?
+
+Then he turned. "By Jove!" he muttered, "there's not another girl in the
+country that could have kept her fingers out of the governor's
+money-bags! Poor mother! What a disappointment for her! Of course
+Sylvie will marry Jack Darcy,--Pluto and Persephone again."
+
+Then he softly whistled a stave of opera-music, and sauntered about
+leisurely. He had no fancy for facing his mother that night.
+
+As for Sylvie, she knew her face was very white when she entered the
+door; but she bustled about with womanly evasion, and began to ask if
+her aunt had been lonesome, if any one had called, and declared she was
+tired from walking home, and her head ached a little, which was true;
+and presently the two women barred their doors, and went to bed.
+
+Was she glad to have it over? Was she sorry she had left no loop-hole
+for future hope? Strange to say, she could not tell.
+
+"But I could never live, like a pauper, on some other person's money!"
+she thought decisively. "And he did not care. It was for his mother's
+sake chiefly."
+
+Again there was a breach between the Montagues and the Capulets, this
+time crossed by no lovers' hands. Mrs. Lawrence was highly indignant,
+Miss Barry vexed and sore disappointed. They went the even tenor of
+their way, however, while the poor self-made invalid at Hope Terrace
+grew more querulous and exacting. Fred took a week at Saratoga to
+restore his wounded vanity, and then settled himself at a hotel in New
+York, wondering if he had not better read a little law to pass away the
+winter. Mrs. Minor was a queen of fashion, and she was glad to have the
+attendance of her handsome brother. Irene and Mrs. Eastman flitted about
+like gay butterflies, with trains of admirers. The faint mutterings in
+the financial world made little difference to them. It was their
+province to spend, to enjoy; and what the strata beneath them did or
+suffered or hoped, was of no more account than the far-off ocean-froth
+beating up on the hard white sand,--picturesque in a drama or a story.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+IT was a dull, gray day, the first of December. Autumn had set in early
+this year. There had been a week of cold rain that had quite destroyed
+the magnificent foliage, one of Yerbury's greatest charms; and it became
+a sodden mass, trodden under foot by pedestrians. The ground was baked
+by sharp frosts at night, making the unpaved streets a mass of ruts
+early and late, and quagmires in the middle of the day.
+
+Yerbury had changed much from the pretty, clean, thriving country-town,
+to something that aped a grand city; unfinished streets, small farms
+laid waste, rows of pretentious houses or florid cottages that had never
+been thoroughly completed, nearly every one adorned with the ominous
+placard, "For Sale." They needed painting and tidying: vines were left
+about, dahlia-stalks hung to poles, steps were awry, and gates swinging
+on one hinge; heaps of ashes and garbage lay here and there.
+
+This day Yerbury wore a particularly listless air. The leafless trees
+hung out long and drooping arms, that swayed to and fro in the biting
+wind. The sullen sky overhead added its tone of dreariness to the
+picture. There was no cheerful whir of factories and shops, no brisk
+steps of men going to and fro, though there were enough standing around
+in groups with scowling faces and compressed lips, or flushed with angry
+gesticulation.
+
+The only places that evinced any air of business were the beer-shops.
+Here a man harangued his fellows; there he did not deign to argue, but
+openly cursed. "Let's treat on that!" said one. "I'll stand to that
+sentiment," declared another. Sometimes voices rose so high that a
+proprietor was forced to command order.
+
+Yerbury was on a strike. There had been a new scale of prices with the
+opening of autumn, submitted to by most of the men with a sympathetic
+good-nature. Trade was getting dull. Fancy prices no longer ruled. An
+ominous feeling pervaded all classes. Building fell off. One tenant gave
+up his house, and took part with another. Housewives looked about for
+the cheapest market, and talked of making last year's coat or cloak do
+for the winter.
+
+Hope Mills had been among the first to propose this second reduction.
+David Lawrence had returned from his business tour much depressed. There
+was an undercurrent of distrust, a disinclination to lay in stock, a
+wordless questioning from eye to eye, with no hopeful response.
+
+Horace Eastman had worked himself into the charge of the inside
+business. He had no real interest, but a liberal salary; and Mr.
+Lawrence felt that he lifted a weight of care from his shoulders. If
+only Fred-- But with college training and elegant tastes he could hardly
+be expected to take to the dull routine of business cares. So matters
+had been left more and more to Eastman, who was shrewd and sharp, who
+always managed to get the most for his money.
+
+Now Mr. Lawrence was appalled by the amount of stock on hand. They had
+been running the mills at full capacity all summer.
+
+"We must offer goods at a lower figure," said Mr. Eastman promptly. "We
+must get command of trade again. Prices _will_ come down,--that is a
+foregone conclusion. The abundant harvests have glutted the market, and
+living will be cheaper. The laborer can live on less; and, if we can
+manufacture at less cost, we shall be all right again."
+
+"But there seems no demand for goods," said Mr. Lawrence faintly.
+"Store-shelves are full. People are carrying last year's stock with no
+call for it. It has always seemed to me, Eastman, that a liberal policy
+to workmen brought its own reward. They are large consumers. Cut them
+down to mere food and shelter, and clothes are the first to go. In
+decent times your workman is ashamed of a ragged coat."
+
+"All very true, Mr. Lawrence; but, if there is no market, we must create
+one. Sell cheaper stock to new men. That will make a demand at once."
+
+"Undersell! We used to call that a cut-throat business, Mr. Eastman;"
+and a flush stained the fine face, now rather worn and thin.
+
+"It is what we must come to. There is next to no premium on gold, and
+the first man who touches bottom will be the lucky one, to my thinking.
+Cheap goods, cheap every thing, will be the next cry. The farmers must
+dispose of their wool, and labor must come down. Why, ordinary workmen
+have been living like princes."
+
+The delicate brows were drawn thoughtfully.
+
+"I always hated to grind workmen down to a bare subsistence," spoke the
+honest, loyal gentleman, as God made him. Trade had not warped body and
+soul. He was an aristocrat, if you please, and his home was as sacred to
+refinement and elegance as a ducal palace. A common person would have
+stood in his hall until his errand was done, and he would never even
+have asked a workman to take a seat in his office; but his soul was
+honorable, if haughty.
+
+"Let me manage it," with a confident nod. "We'll keep the topmost wave,
+as you will see."
+
+So to New York Horace Eastman went, and arranged for a large
+auction-sale of goods, which was a remarkable success, and created quite
+a ripple in the sea of stagnation. Then he contracted to deliver another
+lot by the first of January, at certain prices. And now either
+manufacturer must give up profits, or workman yield his margin, and be
+contented with daily bread alone.
+
+"There really was no need of workmen owning houses, having Brussels
+carpets and pianos," argued Eastman. "They were in some degree
+answerable for the hard times. Every one wanted to out-do his neighbor.
+They were not content to live as their fathers had lived; and, where the
+mothers wore print dresses, the daughters must have silk. They had gone
+on altogether too fast."
+
+Yet only a few years ago workingmen had been urged to put their money
+into homes. Rows of houses had been built for them, and sold on such
+ridiculously easy terms, only a trifle down. The interest would not be
+as much as rent. Then the fascinating shopkeeper had flaunted his wares
+in the faces of the thrifty housewives. "A good article is cheapest in
+the end. This Brussels will outwear two ingrain carpets, at a very
+little advance on the first cost. No moths will trouble it, once down it
+is there for years, saving worry and hard work;" and the buyer was
+persuaded. Then there must be new furniture, and so on to the end. Was
+it altogether their fault? The old things were passing away. The world
+was awaking from its Rip-Van-Winkle nap. There was to be a wider
+outlook, a liberal cultivation, a general rising of every one.
+
+So there had been years of plenty, and men had pulled down the old
+storehouses to build new ones.
+
+Such people as the Eastmans and the Lawrences could not economize at a
+moment's warning. The screws must be put on elsewhere.
+
+At first the workmen looked at each other in blank dismay. Winter was
+coming on--a hard one it bid fair to be. Coal had risen, and in spite of
+the abundant harvest the absolute staples of life had not much decreased
+by the time they reached the consumer. Coffees were high: pease, beans,
+and chiccory were sold at a reduction, to be sure, and you could get
+lumpy heavy flour that spoiled your bread, and poor butter, and teas
+that were colored and doctored; and this was cheap living.
+
+There was a stormy wrangle. Meetings were held, and speakers figured out
+the actual cost of living. Less than the present rates meant loss,
+privation, and want in the end. So a strike was determined upon.
+
+Jack Darcy, being foreman of one department, stood, as it were, between
+the upper and nether millstone, at present just escaping both. He
+thought it hard that the men should have this second reduction so soon,
+and it did seem to him reasonable that profits ought to yield a little,
+that there ought to be a sympathy between them. Personally, he should be
+comfortable enough; but if he had a wife and three or four children, a
+helpless, bedridden mother, or a drunken father, or a do-nothing
+brother, hanging upon him, what then?
+
+He advised a little moderation and patience. It might be better to take
+the wages now, and wait until spring--
+
+"They doant give up any thing, as we sees," broke in an elderly English
+weaver. "The great house is full of every thing, and coal eno' burning
+in the greenhouses to ripen a few bunches of grapes out of God's own
+season, as would keep many of us warm. Who puts our coal down a dollar
+in the ton, or takes it off of house-rent when wages come down? I'll
+work as cheap as the next one if ye'll gi' me a cheap house to live in
+and cheap beef and bread. I doant care for money in the savin's bank, or
+a house that they tax all out o' sight. When I'm old I'll go to the
+poorhouse, I will; but I'm danged if I like starvin' before then, and
+they a-ridin' over us in their carriages. I left 'em over yonder"--with
+a nod of the head--"for that."
+
+"What do you think of it?" asked a thin, hungry-looking man, fingering
+his Cardigan nervously. "See here! If I could have one more prosperous
+year, I'd be through the woods, have the house I've worked so hard for
+settled upon my old woman, and would be out of the reach of misfortune.
+But this thing hits me hard, it does."
+
+"I don't believe striking will succeed just now," said Jack candidly.
+"And it's a bad time. Two or three weeks lost time will more than cover
+the odds in wages."
+
+"I don't want to lose time. I'd rather keep straight on."
+
+"It's the principle of the thing," broke in another. "I'd lose six
+months before I'd give in an inch. I'd have struck the other time."
+
+There was a call for the overseers, and Jack left the group. Eastman was
+talking to several of the men in his office. A fine, portly figure he
+had, indicating rich living and good wines; a man still on the sunny
+side of forty, stout, rather florid, a full dark beard and hair, but
+with eyes that were light and furtive; eyes that could stare you out of
+countenance, and yet not meet yours ordinarily, with a frank, outward
+look. He always went handsomely dressed, and wore diamond shirt-studs,
+an expensive seal-ring, a substantial watch-chain with two or three
+costly charms. He had not a flashy look, but the sign and seal of
+gentlemanliness was wanting in that intensely selfish face.
+
+He had heard of the disaffection. There was not much to say except that
+the new scale of prices would go into effect next Monday morning. He
+never asked a man to work for any less wages than he, the workman,
+considered his services worth. Here was the work, and the wages Hope
+Mills could afford to pay. They could take it, or leave it. There were
+plenty of men at Coldbridge, thrown out by the failure of Kendrick &
+Co., who would be glad to come. He could fill any vacant place.
+
+But the ball grew and grew by handling. There were union-meetings and
+violent harangues, much of them truth, too, but badly and unwisely
+used. And the result was that the men demanded the old wages, were
+peremptorily refused, and struck. The great engine subsided, and a
+Sunday stillness reigned. Down at Hull's Iron Works the same proceedings
+were going on, but the saloons seemed to profit by it.
+
+Jack hung around the mill for a while, then went down stairs. The
+chilliness in the air made him draw his coat together by one button, and
+slip his hands into his pockets. He sauntered through several streets,
+nodding to one and another, or exchanging a few words. Once again his
+advice was asked.
+
+"I think you had better come to work to-morrow," he said. "Don't muddle
+your brains with beer or bad whiskey: that will not make the way any
+clearer."
+
+"A good enough lad!" was the surly comment, "but why grudge a man a sup
+of beer when he can't have wine like the big folks?"
+
+Jack had hardly planned for the enforced idleness. He did not want to go
+home and read, he could not call on Sylvie thus early in the morning,
+neither did he feel in the humor for argument with any of the men. So he
+stopped at the door of a small office, and turned the knob rather
+hesitatingly.
+
+"Hillo, Darcy, is that you? Come in, come in! Sullen gray day, isn't it?
+Off on a strike, eh?"
+
+Jack laughed,--the sound with no real music in it, the sort of
+lip-service merely.
+
+"Come in, old fellow; don't be afraid. I've neither pistol nor bludgeon,
+and I'll promise to treat you civilly."
+
+The man's accents were clear and curt, with a certain ring of out-door
+freshness,--a capital voice to travel with up mountain-sides and through
+forests. The face, too, indicated a kind of joyous strength; for the
+blue eyes were merry and baffling, the laughing lips a brilliant
+scarlet, the nose neither Grecian nor aquiline, but slightly
+_retrousse_; a bronze moustache with long curling ends that were
+undeniably red, and hair a little darker, slightly curling as well. A
+broad-shouldered man with the deep breathing of intense vitality;
+healthy nerves that could enjoy laziness to the full, as well as a brisk
+walk across the country.
+
+A glance at the interior showed the place to be a doctor's office. On
+one side a long case with glass doors above and drawers underneath,
+filled with bottles and books and papers, perhaps in not the most
+systematic order; at the farther end a fire in an open-front stove; a
+luxurious Turkish lounge covered with russet leather, and a bright wool
+blanket thrown carelessly over it; several capacious armchairs; and in
+one, with his legs stretched out on another, sat Dr. Philip Maverick,
+eight and twenty or thirty years old, perhaps.
+
+"How nice and cosey you are! I really did not know what to do with
+myself. Yes, we are all on a strike, I am sorry to say."
+
+"Bad time," and Maverick shook his head. "What's the prospect? Have a
+cigar."
+
+"The prospect is that the weakest goes to the wall, of course," answered
+Jack. "Maverick, I am dreadfully muddled on this point. I have thought
+of it all the week. It _is_ hard on the men. I know the general advice
+is to economize more closely, but how can you do it just at the
+beginning of winter? One cannot move to a cheaper tenement, fire and
+lights cost more, and provision is a little dearer. Low living in winter
+does not conduce to a healthy state in the spring. Then, on the other
+hand, if they are going to make such sales as they did last month, they
+cannot pay the wages, and realize what they consider a fair profit. But
+why shouldn't the Lawrences and the Eastmans and many others give up
+something, as well?"
+
+Jack turned an anxious face to his listener.
+
+"All you manufacturers have been crazy the last few years," he said,
+delicately shaking the ashes from his cigar. "The country was such an
+extensive purchaser through the war, that your dreams became Utopian.
+Then everybody came home with some money and no clothes, and the people
+were large consumers. Now everybody has been clothed, and the stores are
+full, and here is a glutted market. Over-production, my dear fellow."
+
+"Then I do believe it would be better to leave off for a while. Still
+that would not suit as well. Half a loaf is better than no bread, to a
+hungry man. But, after all," said Jack, knitting his brows, "I don't
+altogether believe in the cry of over-production. The boys of war times
+are men now. They are pushing in everywhere for work. They want food,
+shelter, raiment. There are a great many more people in this town than
+there were five years ago. Even if we only depended on the natural
+increase of population"--
+
+"But, you see, people are forever crowding into cities," interposed Dr.
+Maverick.
+
+"I have a fancy they do not come much faster than they are called,"
+returned Jack dryly. "See what we have been doing around here. The small
+outlying farms have been bought up by speculators, cut up, destroyed for
+farming purposes. Their owners with families of children had to go
+somewhere. 'Come to the mills and factories,' was shouted in their ears,
+and they came. Now they are here, depending on their labor for bread,
+and Eastman will bring fifty or a hundred more from Coldbridge; and in
+the spring, if there is any difficulty, some more will come. The old
+ones cannot go back to their farms if they would. Their fertile gardens
+lie cut up into waste squares, their fruit-trees have been despoiled:
+they must starve here, or tramp to some other crowded town, and perhaps
+starve there. Will your farmer take in half a dozen hands at a moment's
+notice? Can they put themselves down in any country place, and go to
+work?"
+
+Maverick studied Jack intently, and then gave a low whistle.
+
+"Upon my word, Darcy, you _have_ been going over the subject. Take the
+stump. And of course you go against capital?"
+
+"No, I don't," returned Jack shortly. "Only it does seem to me that
+there ought to be some place where capital and labor could strike hands.
+It appears to me, both have been to blame. We cannot condemn men for
+crowding into cities, when there has been a steady call for them. We do
+blame them for not laying up a little money against a rainy day; but
+many of them have. Look at the cottages that have been sold to
+workingmen. Look at the bank savings. To-day, perhaps, as many poor men
+could pay their whole indebtedness, according to the ratio, as the rich.
+But we fly at the laboring classes, when it is only human nature
+cropping out. Your millionnaire puts his money into whatever he thinks
+will bring him the greatest return; your poor man puts his capital, his
+capacity, health, and strength, where it will earn him the most money."
+
+"Well, I don't see but they are both right enough," said Maverick. "And
+unless you are running over into communistic ideas"--
+
+"I am not," was the decisive reply. "Some one much wiser than I said,
+ages ago, 'He among you that will not work, let him not eat:' yet," with
+a humorous laugh, "if the rule were strictly enforced, there would more
+than one go hungry, I'm thinking. The great consolation would be that
+the right man would suffer, not the innocent and guiltless."
+
+"I really do not see what you are driving at, Darcy," and the other
+studied him curiously.
+
+"Well, I told you in the beginning I was muddled. I don't pretend to see
+my way clear, only I think we have just begun the fight. It is as much
+of an irrepressible conflict as that other, for which so many brave men
+gave their lives. And one point in it no one seems to take note of. We
+are proud of the increase of population in our country. Every city,
+town, and hamlet boasts of it, and the depopulated places run to slow
+decay. We welcome these people; and yet they must eat to live, and the
+majority of them must work, or they will have nothing to eat. I think
+the most of them labor cheerfully, and my experience is that idleness is
+the worst foe of man. But, on the other hand, every year invention so
+protects and fortifies capital, that one must do a larger business or
+employ fewer men. In five years the condition of labor has greatly
+changed at Hope Mills, and in five years more it will change again. This
+is the inexorable law of nature, or, I ought to say, growing
+intelligence."
+
+"Then I should say we wanted wider markets and a better classification
+of labor."
+
+A quick light came into Jack's eyes.
+
+"I think you have hit it, Maverick," he answered. "But what is
+everybody's business is nobody's; and we are so apt to forget that the
+world does move, and the condition of things changes all the time," and
+Jack's eyes dropped thoughtfully.
+
+"See here, Darcy, take Brock's Hall, and talk to the men to-morrow
+night," began the doctor eagerly. "They will listen to you because to a
+certain extent you are in sympathy with them, one of their number; and
+you do seem to have some clear ideas on the subject. No: we'll say
+Wednesday night, and I will get out some posters."
+
+Jack laughed. "What shall I tell them? I can't see how to get about the
+remedy clearly myself. The trade-unions have not hit it either. When
+they say to a man, 'Because I will not work for a certain sum, you shall
+not,' they lean on a reed that will surely break, and pierce themselves.
+Hunger is stronger than theory. No: I shall have to give the point a
+more thorough study before I become a blatant apostle."
+
+Philip Maverick blew out a curling whiff of smoke, and looked at his
+visitor through it. Darcy gave him a curious feeling, as if a good deal
+of excellent material were running to waste, that if shaped and trained,
+and brought up to higher purposes, might be of much good service to the
+world. Did he realize it himself? He was twenty-four, and had a good
+position as things went; and Dr. Maverick had heard the women of the
+house were prudent and thrifty, and had a nice home. Was Darcy bounded
+in by conservatism, or afraid of losing? or was he honest when he said
+he did not know just what to do? Yet he did not look like the kind of
+man to go plodding all his days.
+
+"Darcy, you puzzle me!" he began abruptly. "With that great body of
+yours, those strong arms and hands that look as if they could wrest
+Nature's secrets from her mighty soul, with that brow, and the resolute
+mouth, it seems as if you ought to be in better business than making
+cloth: pardon me. You don't use up half your energy. You ought to be
+planning a ship-canal across Darien, or tunnelling mountains. You're the
+square man; and how upon earth did you ever get fitted so smoothly to a
+round hole?"
+
+Jack laughed, and told his story very simply. To him there was neither
+romance nor heroism in it, just a plain every-day sort of compulsion.
+The tunnelling would have been much more to his mind.
+
+"Go on with the problem," said Dr. Maverick abruptly. "In the next five
+years I think we will all have use for our wits. We are going to see
+another change in matters, that will require more wisdom than is needed
+in mere money-making. See here, I'm interested in the thing. Let us go
+out, and hear what the men say about it."
+
+Maverick rose, and put on his great-coat, and lighted another cigar.
+Then the two started together.
+
+Maverick had been in the town just six months. He had studied medicine
+in Philadelphia and Paris, taken a three-years ramble over Europe, when
+a college friend begged him to come to Yerbury, and step into a vacant
+place. And he had what he fancied an excellent reason for it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+THE men were, for the most part, in sullen earnest. From their narrower
+outlook they could not see that capital was on the eve of a great
+revulsion; that credit had been stretched to its utmost. They had their
+own pet plans, their own indolences and careless habits; and, as was
+natural, their own desires were the sweetest to them.
+
+There were labor-meetings and harangues. There was a good deal of talk
+about the rights of labor and the tyranny of capital; of the rich mill
+and factory owners living in palaces, and the men in hovels; of what
+England had done, and of what we surely were coming to,--the rich
+growing richer, and the poor poorer. But Jack remarked that of the
+speakers there was not one who owned a little plot of ground, or had a
+bank-account. Two of them were disaffected English weavers, a third an
+Irishman, and the only Yerbury man was a quick-tongued, but shiftless
+fellow who had started in business for himself, and failed; a kind of
+handy Jack-at-all-trades, and correspondingly good for nothing.
+
+Before the close of the week the men in Watkins's shoe-shop had struck.
+There was quite an army of them now. The saloons were filled daily and
+nightly. Jack thought, with a little grimness, that they might better
+save their money for next week's bread.
+
+Several of the men in his room dropped in to see what he thought; and
+the result was, that on the following Monday morning ten of them
+presented themselves with a tolerably cheerful demeanor, and accepted
+the situation. By Tuesday night every vacant place was filled with
+hungry, haggard-looking men from Coldbridge. They were jeered at, and
+annoyed in various ways: the Yerbury men were called rats and turncoats
+and cowards. The mills were driven. There was another great and
+successful sale; in fact, amid the failures and difficulties about, Hope
+Mills loomed up like a star of the first magnitude.
+
+In the spring Mrs. Eastman and Miss Lawrence went to Europe; and Fred
+joined a party of young men on a pleasure-tour through California. Even
+Mrs. Lawrence was persuaded to try Saratoga in the summer. The great
+house was muffled, and left in the charge of servants; but greenhouses,
+graperies, and all the elegant adjuncts were cared for as assiduously as
+ever. David Lawrence used to think it over. Sometimes he was tempted to
+sell out his palatial residence, but who was there to buy? Other men had
+been caught with just such elephants on their hands. The papers were
+full of offers "at an immense sacrifice."
+
+Business grew duller and duller. There was a very great overplus of
+every thing, it seemed, in the world. Harvests were so abundant, and
+prices so low, they were not worth the moving. Fruit lay and rotted on
+the ground: you could get nothing for it. And yet there were wan-eyed
+and hungry women and children who would have feasted regally on this
+waste. Mothers of families turned and patched and darned, and said there
+could be no new garments this winter, while store-shelves groaned under
+the accumulation of goods. Men were failing on this side and that; the
+Alton & West Line Railway stock came down with a crash, and banks were
+shaky. Hope Mills were closed for a month to make some repairs, as
+business was rather slow just now.
+
+There was a great quaking in real estate as well. The large
+property-owners held on stiffly: times would improve; land was worth
+more to-day than ever, because every year there were more people, and
+they required more houses, and the thing would somehow right itself.
+
+Jack had taken his two feminines off to a great roomy farmhouse, where
+they had a horse at their command. Sylvie and Miss Barry were summering
+at the White Mountains. Dr. Maverick found a good deal of sickness among
+the poorer classes, low fevers and various troubles, that he knew well
+enough came from insufficient diet. But what was to be done? There was
+so little work, so much lost time, the inexorable rent, and the
+importunate grocer's bill. Up on Hope Terrace the luscious grapes fell
+to the ground, and were swept up as so much litter; the fresh, lovely
+vegetables passed their prime unheeded, and were tossed in the
+garbage-pit.
+
+September came in hot and sultry. Hope Mills started, but many another
+place did not open. There was a strange, deathly-quiet undercurrent,
+like the awful calm before a thunder-shower. Wages took another tumble,
+and now no one had the courage to make much of a fight.
+
+The second week in October there came an appalling crash. Yerbury Bank
+closed its doors one morning,--the old bank that had weathered many a
+gale; that was considered as safe and stanch as the rock of Gibraltar
+itself; that held in trust the savings of widows and orphans, the
+balance of smaller business-men who would be ruined: indeed, it would
+almost ruin Yerbury itself.
+
+There was the greatest consternation. People flew up the street,
+bank-book in hand; but the dumb doors seemed only to give back a
+pitiless glance to entreaties. What was it? What had happened? "Every
+penny I had in the world was in it," groaned one; and the saddening
+refrain was repeated over and over, sometimes with tears, at others with
+curses.
+
+The old officers of Yerbury Bank had been men of the highest integrity.
+Some were dead; some had been pushed aside by the new, fast men who
+laughed at past methods, as if honor, honesty, and truth were virtues
+easily outgrown. Among these were the Eastmans. George was considered
+shrewd and far-sighted, and for two years had been one of the directors,
+as well as Horace. They paid the highest rate of interest, which
+attracted small savings from all around. There had been no whisper or
+fear about it, so solid was its olden reputation. There were people who
+would as soon have doubted the Bible.
+
+Two days after this, George Eastman sailed for Europe, on a sudden
+summons,--his wife's illness. There had been a meeting called, and a
+short statement made. Owing to sudden and unexpected depreciation in
+railway-bonds and improvement-bonds, and what not, it was deemed best to
+suspend payment for the present. In a few weeks all would be straight
+again, with perhaps a trifling loss to depositors. Already the directors
+had been very magnanimous. Mr. Eastman and several others had turned
+over to the bank a large stock of mortgages: in fact, the virtue of
+these men was so lauded that the losses seemed to be quite thrown into
+the background.
+
+But the examination revealed a sickening mass of selfishness and
+cupidity; transactions that were culpably careless, others dishonorable
+to the last degree. If the larger depositors had not been warned, there
+was certainly a remarkable unanimity of thought, as, for the past
+fortnight, they had been steadily drawing out their thousands. Wild
+railroad-speculations, immense mortgages on real estate that now lay
+flat and dead: scanty available assets that would hardly pay twenty
+cents on a dollar.
+
+This was what David Lawrence heard when he returned from St. Louis, a
+heavy-hearted, dispirited man. Two recent failures had borne heavily
+upon him. If last winter had been dull, there was no adjective to apply
+to this. His first step was to mortgage Hope Terrace. He had deeded it
+to his wife, unincumbered; but now it appeared his only chance of
+salvation. Mrs. Lawrence made a feeble protest at first, and demanded
+that Fred should be sent for, but there was no time. He met his pressing
+notes, and was tided over; but, oh! what was to be the end of it all?
+
+An indignation-meeting was called; and so high ran popular feeling, that
+new directors were appointed for the bank. Mr. Lawrence would have fain
+declined, but the community insisted. In this time of general distrust,
+they came back to the loyal gentleman, who, whatever his pride might be,
+had never deceived one of them.
+
+Alas! had he not enough perplexity of his own, that this new sorrow and
+shame should stare him in the face, bow him to the earth?
+
+Not his own son, thank God! not any blood kin; and yet his daughter's
+husband, his fair Gertrude, of whom he had been so proud years ago! He
+went back suddenly to that old time, and seemed to see them all again as
+little children, a merry household; and his pale, delicate Fred, for
+whom his heart beat so anxiously. How they had welcomed his coming!--a
+son to hand down the name, a son to lean upon in his old age. Nay, those
+were the extremes of life: why should not men count on their sons
+through the burden and heat of middle life? Why wait until the evening
+for comfort?
+
+Where was he now? Did he think of the one who had toiled that he might
+spend? for, now that he looked at it with awesome calmness, like a thing
+standing apart, it was one long, dreary pilgrimage of toil. To what end?
+Was gathering together riches the noblest use of a man made in God's
+image? Ah, how poor and paltry an aim!
+
+Surely he had done something beside that! A pleasant home of culture and
+artistic beauty, a circle of refined people gathered about him, the evil
+and want and woe of the world shut carefully out by silken curtains and
+plate-glass. His daughters he had been proud of. No _mesalliance_, no
+common tastes, as he had sometimes fancied that he had detected in that
+pretty little Sylvie Barry. And his son?
+
+There had been no positive evil in his life. A young man's follies
+perhaps, but few vices, if any, thank God! He would never be a
+libertine, a drunkard, a gambler, a thief. But was negative goodness
+all? These twenty-four years spent in shaping and culturing, but to what
+end? Could he call him back from his pleasure now, and have him take up
+this struggle grown too heavy to fight single-handed? and would he be
+manful, brave, clear-sighted, and unrepining? No. He felt the change
+would be too great. The soul so used to ease and luxury, fine linen and
+soft couches, delicate appetites, indolent habits, intellectual pursuits
+and graces, to be put in rough harness of business at once, would be
+cruel, nay, worse, like chaining humming-birds to a dray-wagon. And
+Irene, flitting like a butterfly through elegant _salons_, how would she
+be content with poverty and a cottage?
+
+And was this all the work of his own hands? Had he laid up no treasure
+against the time of adversity, made no homes into which he might be
+received in his trial hour? For two years he had struggled manfully,
+earnestly; and all this time at his very gate there had been a traitor,
+turning aside the stream until there was nothing but a barren desert
+left.
+
+The crown of his life was poverty and ruin! For himself he could give up
+luxuries, and come to plain fare; but what of the others? This last news
+had swept away all hope.
+
+He sought Horace Eastman, and confronted him with his deceit and wrong:
+somehow he could not bring himself to call it by its true name, crime,
+and fasten it on the man there and then. There was a high-bred delicacy
+about David Lawrence, a little of the old knightly chivalry that in past
+times held a man back from striking a fallen foe. And then he was not
+quite sure. The dishonorable work lay between the two men, and he
+forbore to blame this one wrongly.
+
+He need not have wasted his pity on this man, or have so nicely worded
+his charges. Horace Eastman stood there, surprised to be sure, for he
+had counted upon getting away before this turn in the wheel of fortune.
+For the last year, though he had been outwardly triumphant, and had
+carried business matters with a hopefully high hand, he had known what
+the end must be, and made ready for it with a kind of exultant elation
+at the sense of difficulties surmounted and deceptions carried on
+successfully. He really despised the man before him, that he had
+sufficient faith in human nature to be deceived. Starting from the
+principle that all men are rogues when opportunity offers, he felt no
+more guilty now, than if he had followed any other well-known law of
+nature. He stood before Mr. Lawrence bland and composed: there was no
+vulnerable point to strike, so he need put on no armor. Many a time he
+had reasoned the matter out to his own satisfaction, that the failure of
+Hope Mills was inevitable. What with losses, dull times, and extravagant
+living, it would surely come. That he owed his employer any thing in
+integrity and sharp fighting with adverse circumstances, would never
+enter the mind of such a man, so inwrapped in self.
+
+"There were some irregularities for your son-in-law's benefit," with an
+insolent half smile, half sneer. "He was to explain them to you. There
+have been accommodations for the mills occasionally. You were away: what
+else could I have done?"
+
+A cold shiver ran over David Lawrence. That part of courage allied to
+hope seemed crushed out of him as if by torture. Could he drag his
+daughter's name through the mire? for it would be that in any attempt to
+bring Eastman to the point of responsibility.
+
+"Do you know how much this--this defalcation will amount to?" He would
+call the monstrous thing by its right name now, though he shuddered in
+every limb, and a cold perspiration stood in great beads about his thin
+temples. A third person witnessing his hesitation might fancy him
+faltering and shrinking in the path of dishonor, rather than the other.
+
+"I really have no idea," bracing up his broad, full shoulders with
+portentous dignity: "George managed that matter. No doubt there are some
+memoranda," pausing with an indifferent air as if it were a matter of a
+few dollars.
+
+"The bank must be made good, Mr. Eastman."
+
+"Well; as you think best, as you think best;" nodding confidently, as if
+the repayment were the easiest thing in the world. "Let me see,--would
+it not be better to write to George?"
+
+What impression could he make upon this man? To appeal to conscience,
+justice, or any latent sense of right, would be a waste of words. With
+him success was right, and failure the blunder or sin. He was to "do
+well unto himself," to gain the world's verdict of approval. That solid
+flesh made by good eating and drinking, not debauchery or
+intemperance,--the man had few of these gross vices,--that complacent
+strength, that keen, concentrating force than could bend all energies in
+the one direction, never looking back when he had once set his mind to a
+thing, experiencing no remorse for those he crushed under his feet so
+long as he went to success over them, knowing no disinterestedness,
+trading simply upon the credulity, honor, and honesty of others: he had
+chosen him for some of these very qualities. Do men gather grapes of
+thistles?
+
+"Bring the books to my office. I shall go over them to-night," was the
+haughty command.
+
+Eastman bowed and withdrew. The books were sent by the errand-boy. Then
+he threw himself into his luxurious Russia-leather chair, rested his
+feet upon the edge of the desk, settled his hands comfortably in his
+pockets, and began to consider. A man would be foolish to stay and be
+caught in the ruin of a falling house. He might not be crushed, to be
+sure; but there would be the _debris_, and he had no fancy for clearing
+that away. Not only the mills, but Yerbury, would fall flat. He did not
+care to retire to a garden, and raise strawberries and corn: the clink
+of gold was more melodious to his ear than the voices of nature. There
+was a place for talent like his: the quick sight and keen discrimination
+were still able to give the rusty old world a lift out of ruts it had
+stopped in, and send it on with a rush. He had money in some
+silver-mines: he might go West, and attend to that, then take a run over
+to England, and see George. After all, was George really to blame for
+getting hold of his wife's portion? He had married Miss Lawrence,
+believing in good faith that she was the daughter of a millionnaire;
+and, if he had been sharp enough to save something from the general
+ruin, lucky for him!
+
+On the whole, Mr. Eastman thought it would be well to go to New York for
+a few days until the storm blew over. Jeffries the book-keeper could
+attend to all that was needed. Mr. Lawrence would find Hope Mills in a
+bad plight, to be sure; but he would not be the first man who had come
+to ruin. Mr. Eastman put his desk in order,--he never kept any tell-tale
+papers,--walked leisurely out of Hope Mills with that serene, impassable
+face and high heart no misfortune could daunt.
+
+David Lawrence spread the books open before him. It would be an endless
+task. One fact kept burning into his brain like fire. The Eastmans, or
+Hope Mills, owed Yerbury Bank seventy thousand dollars, the hard
+earnings and self-denials of poor and middle-class people. How it stung
+his haughty pride, unused even to dishonorable thoughts! If he had been
+an exact master, he had also been a just and honest one. Shame and
+disgrace stared him square in the face, where they would have but looked
+askance at Horace Eastman.
+
+It had been quite impossible to take cognizance of every thing after the
+business grew so unwieldy. Then he thought of his son again with
+passionate longing. Never had he so wanted some of his own kin to lean
+upon, to take counsel with, to consider what must be done toward saving
+honor: that was no social figment with him, but a deep, heaven-abiding
+truth.
+
+Heaven! By some strange turn of thought it entered his mind. He was so
+tired, he had been so tired for months and months, so engrossed with
+cares and business, that he had hardly stepped inside a church. How they
+used to go in the old days; how proud he had been of his four pretty
+children, of his tall handsome girls, and his manly son! Respectability,
+and setting a good example,--these had been his motives for
+church-going. Bits of sermons came back to him: how strange that he
+could remember them! There was a rest from labor, a refreshing of soul.
+Oh, how dark and arid, how confused and chaotic, his felt! Was there a
+something he had never known?
+
+Then he pulled himself together mentally, roused his dreaming brain, and
+said something must be done. Fred must come back, and face the terrible
+truth. As well send for him now.
+
+He wrote out a message, and rang the bell. A tall, slim youth answered
+it.
+
+"I want this telegram sent immediately," he said in his quiet tone of
+command. "Is Farrell anywhere about?"
+
+"I can take it, sir, if you please: I often do."
+
+"Very well."
+
+Back to the books again with their long lines of figures. Did he think
+he would find the shame and ruin here in bold black and white? He
+studied them until they all ran together, and his brain seemed to become
+a mass of luminous light with black motes floating about in it. The
+tense agony abated. Strange visions haunted him, frivolous fancies, and
+wonders that had puzzled him in boyhood; heroic fragments of bygone
+declamation; the incidents of a week ago; a picture of some bold
+scenery, and he in the cars, whirling by.
+
+"Am I going crazy?" he asked with a ghastly expression. Then he took
+several turns about the room, listened to the noise of the great engine,
+and assured himself that he was sane.
+
+Had he better go home? He was so tired! In all his life he had never
+been so utterly exhausted. Then in a sudden, fretful mood of
+contradiction he wondered he should think of fatigue when his limbs felt
+strong, and his body knew no physical pain.
+
+"I must shake it off!" he declared resolutely. Of what avail would be
+going home to a wife's peevish complaints, and sit by himself to study
+out this tangle? As well stay here, and master it. And that palace
+yonder was home, and these were the comforts for which he had spent his
+years and his energies! This was what he had laid up. An inheritance
+incorruptible--why would these things come back to him?
+
+The mill-bell began its clang. He listened to the tramp through the
+passage-ways, the confusion of voices. He went to the window. The great
+gates for the work-hands were around on the other side; but he could see
+the motley procession filing down the street. Not gay and cheerful as in
+bygone days: they seemed to drag along, these girls and women in shabby
+clothes, their shawls drawn around their shoulders. Old men and
+boys--why, where had vigorous middle life disappeared? So many faces had
+a hard, discontented look, that pierced him like the sharp point of
+ingratitude. Had he not brought himself to ruin to give the people
+employment? If he had shut down the mill three years ago, he would have
+been a rich man.
+
+Well, why had he not? Was it thought for them? Had the prospect of their
+starving lain heavily on his soul?
+
+Ah, the love of money-getting, the fiend of covetousness! But what would
+these people have done? Some one had once said, "What is that to thee?
+Follow thou me." Was it in a sermon?
+
+He lighted the gas, and went on wearily with his books. Some one opened
+the door softly, and peered in. It was Farrell, the day-man. When he saw
+Mr. Lawrence he touched his cap respectfully.
+
+"Pardon me, sir: I saw a light"--
+
+"Yes, I am going to stay--all night, I think: I shall be busy. When does
+the night-man come?"
+
+"At seven, sir."
+
+"I will send a note up to Hope Terrace, Farrell. Could you take it?"
+
+The man thought of his long day's work and his waiting supper. "Yes," he
+answered rather reluctantly.
+
+"Stop in, then, when you go."
+
+Farrell went off grumbling. He would go home to supper first, that he
+would. These men had no souls. That long walk-- Some people always rode
+in chaises, were born with silver spoons in their mouths, and looked on
+the rest of the world as mere lackeys!
+
+There was some wine in the closet, and Mr. Lawrence took a glass to
+clear his brain. He rarely used it save at dinner. Then back to the
+tormenting books,--columns of business that appeared incredible now. How
+had all this money slipped away?
+
+Farrell tapped, and came in.
+
+"Jackson's here now, sir. Is the note ready?"
+
+"Yes. There is some change. Get a hack, Farrell: it is too far to walk.
+Did Mr. Eastman"--
+
+There was so long a pause that Farrell said,--
+
+"Mr. Eastman went to New York. He said he might not be back to-morrow."
+
+Mr. Lawrence nodded, as if that were sufficient. He would not peer into
+the man's business.
+
+"If you should want any thing, sir, Jackson will be at hand," said the
+man kindly; for the thin, pale face, and strange, nervous light in the
+eyes startled him.
+
+"Jackson," he began, when outside, "Mr. Lawrence is going to stay a bit,
+maybe all night. He has a great pile of books before him; but I'm afraid
+he's queer some way. His eyes look wild and strange. Keep a lookout,
+will you"--
+
+"You don't mean that he's likely to shuffle? Are things as bad as that?
+Has he got a pistol?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure. Maybe I'm wrong;" and Farrell counted over the
+money in his hand. "Anyhow, I would walk up and down this hall, and
+listen."
+
+Jackson nodded, and Farrell went his way; yet now he thought the brisk
+walk would not hurt him. Jackson heeded his bidding, but all was quiet.
+Once he went in the next room, and climbed up to a high sliding window,
+used for ventilation. Mr. Lawrence sat there poring over the books. At
+twelve it was the same. Jackson tolled off the hour of midnight. Every
+thing was safe in the great building. Then he settled himself in an
+easy-chair, and presently fell into a doze.
+
+Meanwhile Mr. Lawrence studied the books in a dazed, bewildered way.
+Here and there a balance had been struck, and it all looked fair. But
+there was a terrible wrong somewhere!
+
+The figures danced before his eyes in lurid lights and grotesque shapes,
+with grinning faces, flying, whirling, in a wild, demoniac waltz. The
+room was full. The procession he had watched to-night winding out from
+the mill, stopped and jeered, and pointed skinny fingers at him. Then
+he was at the bank, and they came in troops, wringing their hands, and
+cursing him. Strange tales that he had read mixed with them in
+inextricable confusion. Pictures of the past hurried by with panoramic
+distinctness; and hark! what was that? The grand trump of the Judgment
+Day? It tolled and tolled again, like a thunder-peal. Was any one dead?
+
+He was so tired! He put his arms down on the desk, and leaned his face
+on them. If he could sleep off this intolerable weariness!
+
+He was a boy again, wading through the limpid brook, stepping from stone
+to stone, and sometimes plashing over. Was that the dried sweetness of
+balsam,--the pungent odor of pennyroyal and water-mint,--the clean,
+resinous fragrance of the pines? Out there were lily-pads,--great
+golden-hearted chalices, with long, sinuous greenish-pink stems under
+the shady, transparent water. How cool and peaceful! The sky overhead
+was of palest blue with white flecks, and somewhere a bird was singing.
+If he could go to it; if he could stay amid all this sweet quiet, and
+forget-- What was it he wanted to forget? Not his little Fred, surely!
+How proud he should be of him in his manhood. What a help and comfort!
+
+There was a strange, sudden darkness. The head drooped a little one
+side, and the visions had come to an end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+WHEN Farrell returned to his post in the morning, Jackson reported Mr.
+Lawrence asleep in the office. No one thought of him again until about
+ten o'clock, when some protested notes came in. Jeffries knocked at the
+door, opened it softly, spoke, but received no answer; then stepped
+nearer, and peered curiously at the face. It was ghastly white, the eyes
+wide open and staring, and with a shriek Jeffries alarmed the whole
+establishment.
+
+Old Dr. Lecounte came, pronounced him dead, and then sent for Dr.
+Maverick, to whom he had taken a great liking. Between them both they
+found a faint sign of life; and he was removed to his elegant mansion on
+Hope Terrace, where his wife went into immediate and violent hysterics.
+They remained several hours, and decided it to be that terrible death in
+life, entire paralysis of brain, nerve, and muscle. He might linger some
+days; he might drop away any moment.
+
+Horace Eastman, looking over the news items the next morning, saw this
+account, and returned at once to Yerbury. Certainly fortune had favored
+him. Affairs were in wild confusion. He learned that a telegram had been
+sent to young Mr. Lawrence, and an answer received. He would be back
+next Monday. Mrs. Minor came up, and brought an experienced nurse.
+
+The mill kept open until Saturday. Then Mr. Eastman called the men
+together.
+
+He was very much puzzled to know what to do, he said. He had resigned
+his position as superintendent of the mills, nearly a month ago; but
+Mr. Lawrence had begged him to stay on until he could come to some
+decision. The affairs were in a very embarrassed condition, and now
+suspension was imperative. What Mr. Lawrence would have done, he could
+not tell; but he did not feel justified in taking the responsibility. He
+was most truly sorry--he could say it from his heart--for those whose
+cheerful faces and light steps he had watched year after year, until he
+came to have a friendly feeling for them all; and he was shocked at the
+result of all this trouble to his dear friend, to whom he was bound by a
+deeper tie than that of mere business. But there had been two years of
+unparalleled depression, and Mr. Lawrence had made a brave fight. No one
+beside himself knew all the difficulties that had beset his old friend's
+path. It was not only here in Yerbury that trade was dull: it was from
+the Atlantic to the Pacific. England, Germany, and France were suffering
+as deeply as ourselves. Production had been overdone by most of the
+employers using their best efforts to keep their hands at work in the
+face of a falling market, or no market at all. Shelves were packed with
+goods everywhere. We were on the eve of a great change, and it would be
+some time before values would become stable again. If the balance of
+trade (high-sounding, but imperfectly understood term) could once more
+turn in our favor; if we could export our surplus goods, and find new
+markets,--as no doubt we would,--every shop and factory would soon be
+ringing with the cheerful sound of labor. It would be a hard winter; but
+he, for one, believed the spring would open auspiciously, that business
+would revive, homes be prosperous, and every heavy heart light. Let them
+all take courage for their own future and that of Hope Mills in the
+hands of its young master. He regretted deeply that there was no money
+to pay them with to-night; but that would doubtless be attended to
+soon. He wanted to bid them a cordial good-by, and beg them to stand by
+young Mr. Lawrence.
+
+There was some rather faint cheering. Troubled eyes questioned
+despondent eyes; what were they to do with winter coming on? First it
+was the bank, now the mills, and what next God only could tell.
+
+Fred Lawrence reached Yerbury Monday evening; and at midnight the faint,
+fluttering soul of his father passed over that mighty river. There had
+been no return to consciousness. Mrs. Lawrence still lay in her darkened
+room, unable to bear any sound beyond that of the trained nurse.
+
+To say that Fred was shocked, would feebly express his emotion. He had
+never dreamed of his father's dying,--never dreamed of any thing like
+misfortune happening to him, of any keener suffering than some temporary
+annoyance. He felt quite helpless. His old philosophies did not inspire
+him with courage, or open a way out of this dark present. There was to
+be a funeral; there were business complications; some one had to think
+of the future; the mill was shut up, the fortune swept away, and he had
+been stranded on a strange shore, knowing not which way to turn.
+
+Eastman was still in Yerbury. He was intensely sympathetic with the
+bereaved family. In fact, now that he would never have to meet the eye
+of the man he had so deeply wronged, his spirits rose, his pity
+overflowed. Fred was quite touched by it. Hamilton Minor, with his
+rather brusque business ways, jarred against his sorrow.
+
+He was rather testy with Mr. Eastman. "For the life of me, I can't see
+how things have come to this pass," he said sharply. "Hope Mills has
+been considered as sound as a nut,--one of the surest places in the
+country. Mr. Lawrence has made thousands and thousands. I have known a
+good deal about his affairs."
+
+"It is the result of a large-hearted philanthropy,--of keeping poor
+devils at work when there was no demand for goods, so that they should
+not starve. I should have closed out the concern two years ago. When you
+begin to lose, it is time to get out,--not wait until every stiver is
+gone. But, if ever there was a noble man, it is our dead friend David
+Lawrence."
+
+His chest swelled as he pronounced this eulogy, and he laid his white
+hand sympathetically on his waistcoat.
+
+"What is all this bank muddle about?"
+
+"I really don't know. Heavy real-estate business"--
+
+"And you a director!" interrupted Minor, with an unpleasant quickness.
+
+"I have had so much on my hands that I did not pay strict attention to
+it, I must confess. You know, Minor, what a tremendous shrinkage there
+has been in values: it seems to me as if the bottom had fallen out of
+every thing. I have an interest out in Nevada that I am anxious to look
+after, and should have gone a year ago, but Lawrence begged me to hold
+over until matters brightened a little. He was so sure times would
+improve. By Jove! I think they grow worse and worse!"
+
+"And Fred knows no more than a baby!" said Minor, in a tone of contempt.
+"You'd be a help to him, Eastman, if you would stay and go over
+accounts."
+
+"I don't know about that," shaking his head slowly. "The books are all
+on the square, as you will see. If one could only make money as easily
+as one can add up that which has been made and spent!" and Eastman gave
+a little laugh.
+
+"But it cannot be a total loss. The house, I know, is settled upon Mrs.
+Lawrence. And the mill-property"--
+
+"Mortgaged for all it is worth in such times as these. Perhaps I ought
+not to speak of it, but George was in a little difficulty which the old
+gentleman tided over. Too much real estate, Minor!"
+
+Hamilton Minor had no great amount of confidence in the man before him;
+but then, he did not have in any one. He was on a little of the paper,
+and just now he felt exceedingly dubious about it. Some arrangement
+ought to be made whereby members of the family who had stood by Mr.
+Lawrence ought not to be losers.
+
+The funeral was strangely quiet and solemn; I was about to add, select.
+The mill overseers and officers were formally invited. Fred had a
+feeling about the men,--it seemed as if they ought to form a procession;
+but the walk to the cemetery was a long one, and Mrs. Minor decisively
+negatived any plan that took in the "rabble." The coffin lay in the
+spacious drawing-room, where friends and acquaintances, in the same set,
+nodded solemnly, and uttered a few words of well-bred condolence. The
+mourners were up-stairs. The few coaches were filled with men, a little
+group stood around the open grave, and David Lawrence passed out of
+mortal sight,--his life-work all done. Had the toil been worth the
+reward?
+
+The next day Eastman left for New York, and his stay there was brief. He
+knew what would be surmised after much trouble and searching, but it
+could not be positively laid at his door. And with a cheerful heart he
+set out to seek a new fortune.
+
+To the great surprise of Mr. and Mrs. Minor, they found Hope Terrace
+mortgaged. Mrs. Lawrence could talk of nothing, could not endure the
+confusion of voices in her room. Some trustees were appointed to
+investigate the whole affair, for Fred was as ignorant as a child of all
+pertaining to the mill.
+
+The examination disclosed a pitiable state of affairs. George Eastman
+had built up Yerbury on borrowed capital, lived on it in luxury,
+speculated, lost and won like any other gaming. He had persuaded each
+individual that he was on the high road to wealth. There had been a
+peculiar fascination about the man; or is it that the appeal to greed
+and covetousness is so much more convincing than that to honor and
+truth, that the baser impulses are quicker with their response? It was a
+great bubble upon credit, and carried with it the seeds of
+self-destruction. True, the bank held mortgages on rows of flimsy-built
+houses where walls were cracking apart, foundations settling, plumbing
+in such a condition that it was a hotbed of disease. They would not
+cover the indebtedness. The available cash had been drawn out by large
+depositors, the best bonds and stocks surreptitiously sold. And with all
+this there was a defalcation traceable to Hope Mills or the Eastmans.
+The money had gone in that direction. On the other hand, it was proven
+by the income of Hope Mills, and the amount paid out for labor, that
+there was no reason why they should not be solvent to-day.
+
+Lavishly as the Lawrences had spent money, they had not taken it all. No
+one could or did accuse David Lawrence of private speculation. Minor had
+once tried his best to induce him to join in some enterprises, but
+failed. It was an easy matter to blame the Eastmans for every thing:
+they were away, and could not deny the charge. But had all these
+bank-officials clean hands? They had been given a sacred trust, the
+savings of the poor, the estates of widows and orphans; they had winked
+at investments of the most precarious kind; they had paid a high rate of
+interest, exacting a higher, which had been gladly given for a brief
+while. Safe principles of finance had been quite ignored: the new era
+was different from any thing that had ever happened to the world before,
+and required new men, and now they would have to go back to the old way.
+Surely there is not much that is new under the sun!
+
+To bring back the Eastmans, and try them for their crimes, seemed hardly
+worth while. More than one man in Yerbury felt that it was safer to
+berate them at a distance, than meet their damaging retorts face to
+face. They could not get back any money. Hope Mills was ruined beyond a
+peradventure, and the affairs of the bank were best wound up as speedily
+as possible. There could be no large stealings for a receiver,
+consequently no occasion for delay. The sooner the wrecks and _debris_
+were cleared away, the quicker the moral atmosphere would be purified.
+There are wounds for which the instant cautery means life, the careful
+hesitation death.
+
+And now every one looked at the exploded bubble in surprise, and cried
+angrily, "What has become of the money? Yesterday we were rich: where
+has it gone to? Six months ago we had twenty per cent dividend: why are
+these stocks worthless now? Why have railroads and shops and mills
+ceased to pay? What sudden blight has fallen over the world?"
+
+Alas! There had been no money. Sanguine credit had traded on the honor
+and faith and nobleness of man toward man, and, behold, it had all been
+selfishness and falsehood and dishonor. Truth and virtue had been
+scorned and flouted in the highway, because forsooth there was a more
+brilliant semblance. Like a garment had men wrapped themselves in it,
+and now it was but rags and tatters.
+
+There could be nothing extracted from the wreck of Hope Mills. Indeed,
+Fred would have given up a rich inheritance to save his father's honor,
+had it been his. To go on at Hope Terrace was madness. The fires and the
+servants would cost enough to maintain a family. Mrs. Minor and Fred
+quarrelled because Mrs. Lawrence had been persuaded to mortgage the
+place: she simply groaned and moaned, and wondered why they must worry
+her about every thing!
+
+"I hope Irene will have the good sense to marry abroad," said Mrs.
+Minor. "And, Fred, what a pity you haven't a profession! What can you
+do?"
+
+Last winter it had been, "my brother, De Woolfe," whom all the young
+ladies in Mrs. Minor's set were wild over.
+
+Fred gave a sigh.
+
+"I suppose I _can_ do something to earn my bread," he replied bitterly.
+
+"Fred," began Agatha suddenly, "there is that Miss Tillon. You know how
+absolutely wild she was over you last winter! Her fortune is all in her
+own right, and it is a solid one too. Hamilton has had occasion to know
+about it. You cannot do a better thing than marry her."
+
+Fred glanced up. His sister was in sober earnest. To be bargained off
+like a woman, for a bare existence! Miss Tillon was at least thirty, of
+a suspicious, jealous turn of mind, well-enough looking perhaps, but
+narrow, with no intellectual culture, no approval of any thing beside
+her money. He had been amused at her preference. Possibly she might
+marry him, and rescue him from the pains of poverty. And he?
+
+He might be vain and trifling, but he was not sunk so low in cowardice.
+His face flushed a vivid scarlet.
+
+"I am not quite prepared to become chargeable to a woman yet," he said
+in a cold, calm voice.
+
+"What nonsense! Some man will marry her, and get the money," Agatha
+retorted decisively.
+
+"Not much of hers;" in a dry, contemptuous tone.
+
+"You know what I mean. She will live in style, and travel; and her
+husband"--
+
+"Will be the laughing-stock of his friends," interrupted Fred angrily.
+"No, Agatha, I will be dependent upon no one for my bread: if I cannot
+earn it I will starve."
+
+"Oh, very well!" with a scornful smile. "I only hope Rene will be wiser.
+They are in Paris--I heard from Gertrude last week. She was very much
+shocked, of course. I hope George has not been foolish enough to let
+every thing slip through his fingers. Who could have believed that
+Horace Eastman would turn out such a swindler! Papa trusted him
+altogether too far. It does not answer to be too noble and disinterested
+in this world."
+
+Fred made no reply to this charming bit of worldly wisdom. His delicate
+and high opinion of self had received a crushing blow. Married off, out
+of hand, to save him from poverty!
+
+Why should his thoughts turn to Sylvie at that moment? Something stirred
+within him, an insane desire to win her--oh, mad enough, surely! He
+could, he _would_, do something! There was all his education and talent;
+yes, he really had talent. He would make himself famous. She should see
+that he had the right kind of stuff in him. He would climb up the hard
+hill in his lonely, sorrowful, proud way, until she, looking on, would
+come to repent her unjust verdict!
+
+He shut himself up in his study, and made some very fair translations
+from his beloved poets. There were better ones, doubtless; and, after
+all, fame might not lie in that direction. There was physical science,
+much in vogue, and entertaining: no doubt he could do something in that
+line. There were theories and speculations, there were old
+philosophies--surely the ground was rich everywhere.
+
+It was very poor at Yerbury, though there were theories enough. But,
+when you took them for temporal meat and drink, they were not a
+fattening diet. Men lounged in the streets and on the corners, or, worst
+of all, in saloons, talking themselves angry and hoarse over the bad
+luck, and blaming every one right and left. Women sat at home, and cried
+over losses and crosses, cooked their scanty dinners, and retired to bed
+early to save fuel. The poorer ones went out to a day's washing, glad to
+get that. Boys played cards, read dime-novels, and dreamed of wonderful
+fortunes at the West: some few stout-hearted chaps set out to seek
+them.
+
+There were panaceas. Mr. Rantley preached the rankest communism and
+broadest free-thinking. Capital, i.e., money, was the tyrant of the
+world, and always would be until the laborers of the world rose up and
+claimed their rights. Why should this man starve when the man over
+yonder had his store-house full of flour that he was holding for higher
+prices? What right had he, except the might? So long as men were allowed
+to hoard up these monstrous fortunes, they could control the market, and
+would! What were the starving thousands to them? What if half the
+provision in the country rotted on the owner's hands? he could get as
+much or more money for the other half. What if the miners were at work
+only a small portion of time? could not the amount of coal be managed
+more easily, and prices kept up? Capital desired to keep production at
+the lowest ebb, because it could be more conveniently mastered. The only
+remedy was to give every man a chance, to break up these colossal
+fortunes, to have no great mills and mines; to have smaller capitalists,
+fewer hours of labor, to divide the immense hoards among the poor and
+needy until there should be no more want or suffering!
+
+The Rev. Mr. Bristow shook his head at this modern anti-Christ. Every
+thing was anti-Christ, with Mr. Bristow, that went outside of his own
+narrow creed. He preached some stirring sermons. It was God's judgment
+upon them for their sins. They had forgotten him, they had been led away
+by false gods; they had made golden calves, and worshipped them; their
+sons had strayed into infidelity; their daughters had flaunted in gay
+attire, with plaiting of the hair, and dancing away their immortal
+souls; and now they must return to their God, to the meat that perisheth
+not, to the bread of life, and to the well of living water. There must
+be such a returning to God, such a revival of religion, that the world
+would be swept clear and clean out of its old sins!
+
+"Splendid sermon! splendid sermon!" said Deacon Boyd, rubbing his hands
+together unctuously. "Parson's hit the nail just on the head. We've all
+strayed out of the way. I think a good old-fashioned revival'll set us
+straight sooner'n any thing. Nothing like coming to the Lord on the
+spot! This very week we ought to begin."
+
+"I think you're right, Deacon Boyd," said grave Mr. Rising. "I, for one,
+will take hold of the work."
+
+They called the church together, and began. I will not disparage the
+work. There were hungry souls that seemed fed with spiritual food,
+aching hearts that were bound up, reckless minds that paused on the
+verge of desperation. But there were others who wondered, even in the
+midst of the deacon's prayer, how it was that the Lord warned him to
+draw his twenty thousand dollars out of Yerbury Bank a week before the
+failure, when there were only he and his wife to keep, and let poor Mrs.
+Wharton with her five helpless children lose her husband's
+life-insurance, her little all, by putting it in the bank just a
+fortnight before the failure. Special providences, whereof Deacon Boyd
+discoursed so eloquently, happened oftener to the rich than to the poor.
+
+However, they prayed and fasted and repented. To many, any strong
+emotion that took them out of the wearing round of thought was a
+blessing.
+
+Jack Darcy, with a curious disbelief in every thing, went the rounds,
+and dropped into Maverick's office to talk it over. Sylvie was not home
+this winter: she and her aunt spent it in Philadelphia. Then Jack grew
+dull and restless. If the end of all things had come in Yerbury, he
+ought to try some other place in the great world.
+
+It was settled presently quite by accident. A cousin of Mrs. Darcy's,
+one of your strong, thorough, energetic women, came to spend the winter
+with them; and Jack's mother, watching the throes of her son's soul, a
+little afraid of socialism, materialism, and all the other isms,
+proposed that Jack should take a journey West or South, and have a
+glimpse of the men and things beyond this narrow boundary.
+
+"Grandmother grows feebler all the time now; and, being past ninety, we
+can't expect to keep her much longer. Of course, Jack, when she is gone,
+I shall have no tie but you; and, if it suited you to settle elsewhere,
+I should not object. You are young and ambitious, and I ought to think
+of your advancement. There never has been a time since your poor
+father's death that you could be so well spared;" yet the mother sighed.
+"And you have been a good son, Jack: you have given up many a wish
+cheerfully to two poor old women."
+
+"Don't call yourself an old woman," said Jack almost gruffly, then he
+stooped to kiss her.
+
+His heart gave a great boyish bound.
+
+"Good-by, old Yerbury!" he cried exultantly one morning, quite sure of a
+new, glad life elsewhere.
+
+"Though I shall be sorry to leave Sylvie and Maverick," he thought.
+"These old towns do grind the very soul out of a fellow who has any
+desire or energy in him. The world isn't all alike, I know," giving his
+chestnut mane a toss like a young, mettlesome colt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+IF Jack Darcy had taken his tour for pure pleasure and enjoyment, the
+time was ill chosen in every respect. Winter was bad enough; but an
+unprosperous one, full of financial clouds and storms, and scurrying
+drifts of distrust, was not calculated to make the way brilliant.
+
+But he had one glorious enjoyment to begin with. He went straight to
+Niagara, and took his first glimpse of it in its awesome majesty of
+frost and ice. From that high exaltation we call worship, through every
+intermediate degree and sense of beauty, to that of a delicate and
+minute fairy dream. The winter sun radiating glowing tints, with skies
+of sapphire and opal, the great stretches of wordless wonder, bound hand
+and foot like some old Norse god amid his ice-fields; the one night when
+a full moon silvered it with prismatic grandeur, and made of the
+glittering ice-crystals entrances to diamond-mines of fabled genii,
+touching him weirdly with this unearthly splendor; and the next solemn
+day, when the very sky seemed chilled to unfallen snow, and the
+ice-caverns turned a dull blue, reminding him of descriptions of polar
+scenery, and filling his soul with a sense of boundless solitude.
+
+Then he began his tour of the cities. He had taken some books along,
+whether to perplex or make clear his brains, he hardly knew. He pored
+over pages of Adam Smith, he turned to Ruskin for comfort, he picked up
+Brassey's figures and experience, and Stuart Mill's strong, kindly
+reasoning, and digested them in his own slow, practical, much-befogged
+way, trying to solve the problems.
+
+It was a great and wonderful world. Little Yerbury had hardly any true
+idea what a mite she was, when one looked at the immense labor-fields of
+the West and apparently endless resources. Yet there was the same
+depression out here. Shops and mills closed, for sale, and to let; some
+running on three-quarter time, with half the number of workmen, others
+going on at ruinous competition; anxious, moody-eyed men walking the
+streets, or grouped on corners, their coats and hats shabby, their
+beards untrimmed, old boots and shoes with the heels tramped over at one
+side, or a bit of stocking showing through the leather. "No man hath
+hired us," said their despondent faces plainer than any words. Young men
+and boys offering to do any kind of work for any kind of pay, sleeping
+in station-houses; relief-stores, church charities and soup-houses,
+homes for the friendless, and all such places, filled to overflowing,
+and new hordes crowding in every day.
+
+Yet there seemed to be no lack of money. It lay in banks, it went
+begging for good security. Where was there any good security? Every inch
+of ground, every building, stocks and furniture, were covered by
+mortgages. Stock companies trembled in the balance, and went down like
+card-houses. Everybody wanted to sell every thing, but there were no
+buyers. Everybody wanted to work, but there was nothing to do. Everybody
+was in a chronic state of grumbling; there was no profit to be made in
+farming, in manufacturing, in any thing. There had been too much
+over-production, for which every one blamed his neighbor. The great
+warehouses were full of grain, the mills loaded up with iron, the
+factories full of cloth and flannels and cottons; and yet people were
+going hungry and in rags. It was puzzling and painful. We had bought too
+much abroad, and sent the money out of the country, the balance of trade
+would make it all right again; there had been over-production, and now
+there must be a vigorous repression; there had been too much
+speculation in real estate; there had been too great an accumulation of
+capital in the business centres; we were fast verging to the state of
+older countries, where there were the few rich and the many poor: there
+was a surplus of labor, and was there not also a surplus of people?
+
+There was another sad side to it all, that made Jack's heart ache. These
+young men and boys tramping through the country, begging or worse,
+swearing, telling foul stories, herding together anywhere, corrupting
+one another's morals, smoking, drinking,--somehow they managed to obtain
+these indulgences,--looking furtively out of languid, sodden eyes, their
+faces hard and worn, their voices coarse and gruff; and they were to be
+the next generation of what?--loyal and honest citizens, or jail-birds?
+
+It was not all so sombre. At five and twenty a healthy, unwarped nature
+is many-sided. There were countless marvels to see and to study. He
+stumbled over people who had known Mr. Lawrence, and who had a kindly
+feeling for a Hope Mills man. And he had done something more in the last
+eight years than merely learn how to make cloth. He had dipped into
+chemistry, and knew a little about dyes; he had studied up in grades and
+kinds of wool, and was interested in labor processes. With fresh
+opportunities he looked into it more closely, observed new methods of
+decreasing waste, or saving labor. He was a well-informed,
+well-mannered, sensible fellow; and occasionally some one would say of
+him, "A smart, long-headed chap, that! The world will hear of him some
+day, or I am mistaken."
+
+He kept looking about for some place where, if the world did not hear of
+him, he might get a chance in some enterprise where he could take a few
+steps upward. There certainly were more men than places. The world was a
+bee-hive, surely; but alas for those who swarmed out in such times as
+these!
+
+After he had gone as far West as Minnesota, he went down the
+Mississippi to a different kind of civilization in the quaint old
+cities. It was none the less heart-sickening. He found traces of the
+war, that we had almost forgotten, fresh at every step; still it seemed
+as if the hand of Nature was much more bounteous than at the bleak
+North. Yet Bishop Heber's old missionary hymn rang continually through
+his mind. Even amid the Florida orange-groves, and the great
+cotton-fields, some cause brought about baleful results, in the unwisdom
+of man.
+
+Then to the cities of luxury and thrift, where wealth was strong enough
+to crowd poverty out one side, where art and music and cultivation made
+a subtile atmosphere that somehow recalled the Lawrences. He lingered
+and quaffed delightsome draughts, and at last tore himself away from
+seductive sights and sounds. In a dim, half-defined way the delights
+came to him. Would he ever be stoic enough to spurn them?
+
+Last of all, home with its sweet welcomes, its cleanliness and order,
+its familiar furniture and cheerful fires, its easy-chairs and quaint
+fragrant air, as if every thing had lain in dried rose-leaves; the
+mother love and tears, the smiles out of dimmer eyes, and cousin Jane
+Morgan's hearty greeting; to say nothing of his delicious supper and his
+own bed, where sleep seemed awaiting him with open arms.
+
+His mother had written a good deal of Yerbury gossip to him, but it had
+been mostly of the pleasant order. When he dropped into Maverick's
+office the next day, and was welcomed so heartily that it was like a
+brother's greeting, he listened to the other side. Affairs were worse
+than ever. The bank had gone into liquidation, and would pay about forty
+per cent. Property mortgages had been foreclosed right and left; there
+was nothing, scarcely, doing; there had been want and misery and
+sickness, and now diphtheria was raging.
+
+"So you see the revival didn't do every thing," said Maverick grimly.
+"I'm of the opinion, if some of them had preached less, and distributed
+bread and broth with a freer hand, it would have been more of a good
+work. The praying would be well enough in its place, and, for those old
+fellows who pray on a full stomach, very enjoyable, I dare say. But I'd
+like them to look after their drains and their wells and their cisterns
+before they ask the Almighty to sanctify these afflictions to the poor
+wretches who suffer from them. And now, Jack Darcy, what are you going
+to do? Have you found better pastures?" and Maverick glanced up with
+curious inquiry.
+
+"No," replied Jack, rather reluctantly it must be confessed. It seemed
+to him now that he had been spending his time for nought, unless
+pleasure counted, and he felt a trifle ashamed of it.
+
+Maverick gave an odd little laugh that puzzled the other.
+
+"See here, Maverick," began Jack in such earnest that he blushed like a
+great boy, "I haven't found any new place for myself. The world seems
+just full and running over. The great cities have their own men out of
+employment, and hordes from every other place. I'd be almost ashamed to
+ask for a job. I declare, I'd rather raise as much of my living as I
+could in our back garden, or take Perley's farm, and put it together,
+and set men raising strawberries, than tramp round, asking for work,
+with a feeling that it was taken from some one who had a better right,
+who was a native of the soil."
+
+"Then you have not lost your conscience?"
+
+"I hope not. It is the same old story everywhere. What is to be done
+about it?" and Jack knit his brows. "I have been going over the books
+that I thought would help or let in a little light on the matter, but it
+is a wisdom hard to get at. How to make more work in the world, how to
+cheapen living, how to"--
+
+"Bring about the millennium! What dead earnest you are in, Darcy!"
+
+"Weren't you in earnest a moment ago, Maverick, when you talked about
+the praying and the bread and broth?" said Jack with a great knot drawn
+in his brow.
+
+"Yes, Heaven knows. And some one must take hold of the thing who has
+eyes to see, and brains, and--and money. You see, people have crowded
+into cities and towns, and if they could be sent out somewhere! Why
+don't we organize colonies or something of the sort? Now, there's
+Florida. Living is cheap, and in such a climate there are fewer needs of
+clothing and fuel. I have been wondering why the big dons in cities did
+not gather up the poor they have been feeding at soup-houses and
+everywhere, and send them out with some one to manage until they could
+stand alone. There would be less diphtherias and fevers and starvation;
+for that's its right name, Darcy. What can you do when one's system is
+all run out with meal-mush, and weak tea that is half willow-leaves, and
+such trash? There's Kilburn--he has had the name of being good to the
+poor this winter because he has given them trust at his store. Such
+stuff! I have looked into a few samples," and the expressive nostrils
+curled in disgust. "He makes an enormous profit, for he sells the
+poorest kind of goods to these people at the highest prices. Then he
+manages to get hold of something, house or furniture, or maybe
+clothes,--I don't know. He and Deacon Boyd--Darcy, how can a man honor
+religion when these two men are its exponents? So good to the poor! Pah!
+It makes me sick. Isn't there a cleaner air somewhere on God's earth?
+Can't they be taken out of this?"
+
+"If they could be! There must be one way out, Maverick: better, perhaps,
+than going West where thousands are tramping about. And Heaven knows
+they need a new factor in civilization down there!"
+
+The young eyes met in sudden hopeful animation. Had they solved even one
+strand of the great tangle, that worse than Gordian knot which could not
+be cut?
+
+The door opened slowly; and there entered a middle-aged, rather grizzled
+man, with shaggy eyebrows, sparse beard, and bent shoulders. He glanced
+in hesitatingly, his eyes wandering down to Darcy.
+
+"I declare to man!" and he stared hard, with the door-knob still in his
+hand. "Jack Darcy! I heard you were home. How d'y do? How d'y do?" and
+he wrung the hand warmly. "I'm powerful glad to see you," and he looked
+him slowly over, from head to foot. "Why, you've grown, or something!
+What a great giant you are!--Morning, doctor," nodding rather
+incidentally to Maverick. "So you've had a long tramp, Jack? Your mother
+brought some of the letters over to my old lady, who has been rather
+poorly the last two months. Why, you could set up book-writing! Well,
+what's the good word? Can't be like Yerbury all over."
+
+"There are too many towns full of idle people, if that is what you mean.
+But it was splendid, Cameron! I have one more dream,--to go up and down
+the Western coast, and over the Rocky Mountains; but I want to digest
+this first. I have no fancy for mental dyspepsia," and he gave a good,
+wholesome laugh.
+
+"The right way, Jack," nodded Maverick, with a shrewd twinkle in his
+eye.
+
+"Well, you've come back to a dull place,--a dull place," and Cameron
+shook his head despondingly. "We used to be main proud of old Yerbury;
+but--is the whole world to go on and starve to death, with such crops,
+and such an abundance of every thing?"
+
+"We are going to weather it through, Cameron," Jack answered with a
+stubborn hopefulness. "There have been hard times before that have ended
+in renewed prosperity."
+
+"Yes. There was '57; hard enough, Heaven knows, with the banks going to
+smash everywhere. It ruined my father. And way back in '37, when there
+was such a wild-fire about real estate, and it came out just as this
+has. Do people ever learn by experience, Maverick?" and the man gave a
+short, unmirthful chuckle. "You could buy up half Yerbury to-day, for
+taxes and mortgages. I can't, for the life of me, see how it all came
+about. And that it has gone all over the world,--well, human nature in
+England or Germany can't well laugh at human nature in this
+country.--Are these things like cholera and fevers, doctor, taking a
+clean sweep once in a while?" and Cameron gave a twist to the end of his
+faded beard, as if he might wring the secret out of it.
+
+"We have learned to manage the cholera, and see in it, not a
+dispensation of Providence, but the natural result of filth and greed
+and carelessness. Darcy and I are getting up a panacea now," with a
+bright little laugh. "But how is Mrs. Cameron? Is her medicine out?"
+
+"Yes;" and Cameron drew a phial from his pocket. "You don't think it
+would do to stop here? She's pretty well, I should say;" and he fingered
+the bottle as if he were debating whether to have it filled or not.
+
+"No. She must go on. She is getting her strength back nicely; but it's
+bad policy to stop at three-quarters of the race,--eh, Cameron? The
+first warm day I'll take her out driving."
+
+While he was talking, he reached out for the bottle, and began
+compounding. Cameron nodded an acknowledgment of the last sentence, then
+turning to Jack, said abruptly,--
+
+"What was the scheme, Darcy?"
+
+Jack flushed, and glanced at Maverick.
+
+"Emigration, the old remedy," answered the doctor. "England has tried
+her hand at it pretty successfully; so why shouldn't we? Only we need
+not go out of our own country. There are thousands of acres of
+productive land lying idle, and thousands of people starving, or worse.
+Too many here,--not enough there."
+
+"Where to?" Cameron asked laconically, his face unmoved by any ripple of
+enthusiasm.
+
+Jack seemed to be put on his mettle by it. Lack of faith in him always
+roused his belligerent qualities, back in the old school days.
+
+"Yes, Cameron," in an incisive tone, looking steadily out of his
+determined eyes. "The cities are crowded over and over, and full of
+tramps, and the West swarms with them. We need not imagine we have all
+the idle people here at the East. But farming there has come to be a
+business of great things, almost as bad as manufacturing. You must have
+money, or the big fellows will swallow you up. But we were talking of
+Florida. No winter, as one may say; and your house a simple matter, your
+fuel, your clothes, a mere nothing. You could hardly starve if you
+tried."
+
+Cameron came back to his chair, pushed it out from the wall, planted
+himself deliberately in it, and tilted back, pushing up his old felt
+hat, as if he did not mean to have his vision obstructed. Then he gave
+his beard another twist.
+
+"Can you tell me why this is, Jack Darcy? Here are countries with fine
+and lovely climates, where every thing grows to your hand; yet they
+always seem to lie idle: Italy and Spain and Turkey and South America,
+and our own Gardens of Eden," with a bit of sarcastic smile. "The very
+ease of living seems to take the ambition out of one. Well, why
+shouldn't it? Even the bees, you know, were demoralized when they found
+they did not have to lay up for winter. Wouldn't those people come to be
+worse tramps and idlers? I'm sure the poor white trash of the South has
+helped itself very little."
+
+"We were talking of concerted effort," interposed
+Maverick,--"purchasing a large tract of land, forming a community,
+taking different kinds of workmen, and making a success of it. Why
+should we not have flourishing towns in Florida, as well as in Kansas?"
+
+"To be sure, to be sure!" nodding his head and tugging at his beard in a
+manner that showed he was not a whit convinced. "Then you give up," he
+said, "that any thing can be done at home?"
+
+"Any thing done at home?" Jack lifted his level brows, and stared a
+little.
+
+"Yes. The going away may all be very well. I tried it in '57; went out
+to Indiana with a little money, and tried farming that I didn't know any
+thing about, had the ague six months, and then came back poorer
+certainly. Now, the thing is just here with a good many of us,--we have
+our little homes, and in such times as these, in any hard times, we
+couldn't sell for any thing worth while. Then there's many a thing, to a
+man or a woman past middle life, that can't be reckoned in dollars and
+cents: the home you've made for yourself, the old friends, the church,
+even the familiar street you've walked over so often that every
+flagstone comes to have a near look."
+
+"But those who have no homes, no strong interests"--
+
+"If I was going to found a colony, I should want a little better stock,"
+with a short, dry laugh.
+
+"May be you have a plan?" suggested Maverick good-naturedly.
+
+"Well, I've thought it over a good deal this winter, sitting in the
+house with the old lady;" and there came a peculiar far-off look in
+Cameron's eye as he studied a figure in the carpet. "If God worked
+miracles nowadays, and was to make a dozen or so honest men with a good,
+stout share of brains, there might be a little lifting-up of the dull
+skies. Take this town, leaving out politics and all that sort. Five
+years ago we were prosperous, and there wasn't a prettier town anywhere
+about. Good wages were paid, people were thrifty; and I will say it for
+David Lawrence, if he was one of your high kind, he was a gentleman.
+I've worked for him fifteen years steady. Then the Eastmans came in, and
+there was nothing but hurry and drive, grumbling about high wages,
+buying cheap wools, and if cloth was poor, blaming the men. Then wages
+went down and down, and, when the men stood out, the scum of all the
+places around was brought in. Yerbury improved, and beer-saloons
+multiplied. Houses were thrown together and sold; and now they're all
+falling apart, and standing empty, and half a dozen families are
+crowding into one miserable tenement. Who made the money? Was it high
+wages that ruined Hope Mills, and wrecked Yerbury Bank?"
+
+"You have hit the truth somewhere, Cameron."
+
+"Those men were thieves and swindlers; and I suppose to-day they're
+living on the fat of the land, milk and honey thrown in. See here, I'm
+not an educated man, but I have a little common sense. Suppose we'd been
+let to go our ways quiet like,--the farmers holding on to their farms,
+and making two blades of grass grow where one grew before. Wasn't that
+some old philosopher's advice? Suppose David Lawrence hadn't built that
+great palace out on Hope Terrace (he was a plainish man himself), and
+there had been five or six beside him making a moderate share of money.
+He's lost all his great fortune, there's seventy thousand or so gone
+somewhere, the bank has smashed with thousands more of everybody's
+money, with nothing much to show but trumpery mortgages; there's no work
+and no money, and a howl goes up that there has been over-production.
+Not over-production of honesty, I take it."
+
+Maverick looked at the little earnest man, and laughed a hearty,
+cheering sort of laugh that was like pouring oil into a wound. Jack
+stared with wide-open eyes.
+
+"I've been to hear Rantley two or three times,--he's going about
+lecturing, you know,--but I don't see as he has any very good plan for
+getting work on its legs again. Then I've listened to the parson this
+winter, to please the old lady; and he is sure all this is a judgment
+for our sins. Seems to me, judgment went a little askew: why doesn't it
+touch Eastman and such fellows?"
+
+"Has nothing been done?" asked Jack. "I have heard no business gossip
+for the last three months. Can't it be proved that he was a defaulter?"
+
+"Perhaps it could. The old lady was reading the other morning about the
+scapegoat being sent into the wilderness with everybody's sins on his
+head; and I guess they'd rather have _him_ off somewhere, and pack the
+trouble on him. He might tell too much if he was here. They couldn't get
+the money back, even if he has it; but no one ever will believe that
+David Lawrence profited by it. That money belongs to the people of
+Yerbury, who have earned it, and saved it; and I say thieving and
+roguery have more to do with hard times than 'surplus of labor.' The big
+men have taken the money that belonged to the little ones."
+
+"None of the Lawrence estate has been settled, I suppose?" asked Jack.
+
+"Every thing is for sale. The mortgage on the big house is to be
+foreclosed, also on the mill I believe. I declare to you, Darcy, it
+makes my heart ache to see those dumb spindles, and the great silent
+engine standing like a mourner at a funeral. Come now, why should Hope
+Mills go to ruin, and Yerbury fall to pieces, while you and Maverick go
+and build up Florida? Wouldn't the money and the energy do something
+here?"
+
+Cameron's eyes looked out of their overhanging thatch with a puzzled,
+thoughtful expression, as if there must be a solution to the mystery.
+
+Jack was startled. Building up Florida looked feasible, but building up
+Yerbury--
+
+"Then you will not go with us?" said Maverick with a half-laugh.
+
+"I've my little home clear of debt, and a trifle at interest; and over
+in Yerbury churchyard there are two graves dear to me and my old lady.
+It would break her heart to leave them. And sometimes, Maverick, I thank
+God, that I've no sons to grow up tramps or worse. No, I'll stay here,
+and fight through somehow."
+
+They were silent for several minutes, each one tugging at the knotty
+problem. Then Cameron rose, reached out for the phial of medicine, drove
+his slouch-hat down over his forehead, and walked toward the door.
+
+"Drop in and see us, Jack, after you have thought it over a bit.
+Mother's always had a warm corner in her heart for you.--Morning,
+doctor;" and, nodding, he closed the door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+JACK and Maverick glanced at each other, a long, searching, questioning
+glance.
+
+"Given twenty or forty moderate fortunes, instead of the one great one,"
+said Jack slowly.
+
+"And you have a greater amount of general prosperity and happiness."
+
+"Co-operation," continued Jack.
+
+"And now, if you don't mind, you may take a walk with me," said
+Maverick. "Office-hours are over, and I have some rather serious cases
+on hand. Jerry's gone lame, stuck a nail in his foot, so I console
+myself with pedestrian theories."
+
+"All right. I may need a pilot."
+
+It was a mid-April day; but spring was late, and every thing looked
+bleak to Jack after his Southern sojourn. Certainly it was quite
+different from the trim little town of Jack's boyhood. The blight of
+poverty and thriftlessness had fallen upon it. There were piles of
+refuse in the streets, still half frozen; there were muddy stoops and
+shabby hall-doors, and broken area-palings, and now and then a window
+patched up with paper or rags. For though there may be much high
+theorizing and preaching on the two or three exceptional men who have
+lifted themselves out of dens of poverty, and come through great
+tribulation, there are thousands who work out nothing but blind
+destruction and utter shipwreck, and who in frantic efforts for
+salvation drag down those nearest and dearest, as a drowning man may
+clutch at his own brother.
+
+"Not very inviting," apologized Maverick; "but I have two calls to make
+here in Boyd's Row,--old rookeries that ought to have been pulled down
+long ago, but I suppose they still bring in Boyd considerable. I have
+made a complaint about the drains: they are enough to breed a
+pestilence. Tom Byrne has three children down with scarlet-fever. Two of
+them will be carried out presently, but I hope to save the little girl.
+No--I won't take you in."
+
+"Tom Byrne--he was a mill-hand. And I know his wife well. Yes,
+Maverick." And Jack followed him.
+
+It was a two-story cottage with three rooms on a floor, and two families
+occupying it. The Byrnes were up-stairs.
+
+The two beds were in the front room, for the middle one was dark. There
+was a well-worn carpet on the floor, and the furniture very poor. Jenny
+Byrne had sold her best to pay the quarter's rent in the last place
+which they had left the first of January, the landlord preferring it
+should stand empty. Her little savings had been swept away by the bank
+disaster: there was no work, and three children to feed, except that
+Deacon Boyd found Tom sufficient employment to pay his rent.
+
+On one bed close by the window lay the little girl, heavy-eyed and
+crimson. The elder boy had come to the stupor that precedes death, the
+other was restless with a half delirium. Jenny Byrne's round rosy cheeks
+had vanished, and her eyes had a distraught look, the lurking fear of
+coming woe. She stared at Jack a moment, then stretched out her hand,
+but as quickly withdrew it.
+
+"Did you tell him, doctor? O Mr. Darcy!"
+
+"Yes. He _would_ come."
+
+She wiped away some tears with the corner of her faded apron, then
+answered a question of Jack's. What could he say to the poor thing?
+Surely she had done her duty with truest endeavor; and Tom Byrne was a
+very fair average man, liking his daily glass of beer, but rarely going
+farther.
+
+"Can you fix a bed in the other room, and put Kitty in it?" the doctor
+asked. "She is better, but I would rather have her out of here."
+
+"And Jamie is better too?" she questioned, with tremulous eagerness.
+"His fever is nearly gone, and he's having such a nice sleep"--
+
+"Sleep is the best thing for him," returned the doctor briefly. "About
+Kitty"--
+
+The mother's wan face flushed. She came close to Dr. Maverick, her eyes
+downcast.
+
+"The coal gave out this morning, and I've no fire there," she said just
+above a whisper. "The relief-store is closed"--
+
+"Yes, yes; I'll see to it;" with a nod. "I will be in again"--looking at
+the sleeping child--"say about four." Then he changed the medicine for
+Kitty, and gave one or two orders.
+
+Jack thrust a bank-note in Jenny's hand, with his good-by. "Tom will be
+so glad to see you, Mr. Darcy," she said, with an effort at calmness.
+
+"Can nothing be done for them?" asked Jack, as they regained the street.
+
+"No. Jamie had gone too far when I was called in. Larger rooms, fresher
+air, nourishing food: that's the secret of a physician's success in many
+cases. Poor little ones! He will not go through the night. Now, Jack,
+you are not to come in here, positively. Stand in this breeze, and blow
+the scarlet-fever out of your clothes."
+
+He did as he was bid, and, getting tired, tramped up and down. How much
+of man's selfishness and dishonesty there was in this! If the time could
+ever come when the mists and fogs of complacency would be swept off,
+and we could see that it was the innocent suffering for the guilty, not
+that these poor souls were sinners above all men, as the self-righteous
+Pharisee preaches!
+
+Maverick rejoined him with a grave face, then the two went down Main
+Street. Houses to let, stores and shops closed, and those open but
+half-stocked, and wearing a listless air. If three hard years so told on
+the place, and there was no prospect of better things, what would it be
+in five or ten? Was it some such misfortune that had overtaken those
+grand and luxurious cities of Oriental lands?
+
+"Where are the Lawrences?" Jack asked presently.
+
+"Well, I really do not know. I think I did hear that Mrs. Lawrence had
+gone to New York. The young man"--
+
+Jack held his breath, and there was a strange flutter at his heart.
+After all these years he saw again the pale, handsome child who had
+given him a boy's ardent love.
+
+"I have a fancy that he will not amount to much. Queer idea that of
+Cameron's, wasn't it, Darcy? Who was it that first preached or wrote of
+the 'duty nearest one'? Of course things cannot stay this way forever,
+they must mend; and maybe if some one took hold to help mend
+them--Cameron's idea is not a bad one. Maybe the same amount of money
+and energy expended here would be productive of good results: still I
+hold on to Florida for my poor and wretched suffering ones. But it is
+worth thinking of. Here, let us turn round by Hope Mills."
+
+Jack was silent. "Hope Mills!" It rang through his brain like a chime of
+bells. Of course he knew that Mr. Hope had given them his name; but had
+he builded better than he knew? Was it indicative of something greater
+than the power of one man,--of many men? of strong, earnest endeavor;
+of truth, honor, and honesty; of thrift, and happy, jocund industry,
+once more?
+
+But now it was very silent. The great yard had an untidy look, with some
+piles of weather-beaten lumber, and old _debris_. The windows were
+covered with dust; the broad stone steps showed where the winter snows
+had fallen and melted, leaving streaks of dirt, and more had blown in
+the corners. No cheerful creak of the great engine; no vapory puffs of
+smoke circling skyward from the chimney; no whir of looms. It saddened
+one inexpressibly.
+
+"It is a big subject," said Jack slowly. "I've been puzzling my brains
+half the winter with what wiser heads than mine have said about capital
+and labor,--Mill and Brassey and Howell, and our own men, with soft,
+sweet bits of Ruskin, and savage bits of Carlyle. I don't know but
+Carlyle was right when he said, 'The beginning and the end of what is
+the matter with us, in these days, is, that we have forgotten God.'
+Cameron said it another way,--honor and honesty. Because, certainly,
+honor appeals to all that is noblest in human nature,--to chivalry, and
+tenderness and thought for others; and nothing ever prospered, in the
+long-run, that did not have a substratum of truth."
+
+"Well, according to Bristow, we came back to him this winter--not I,
+Darcy, I don't make any pretence,"--and he shook his head with slow
+gravity. "But I was interested in the revival on psychological grounds.
+I had never been so inside of one before. Bristow is a good man, no
+doubt; but it is just the one chosen way with him,--strong crying and
+praying, and believing yourself a sinner above all men, and then a
+sudden peace and happiness, and a courage to endure,--a blind,
+unreasoning courage to take the present as it is, because God sent it,
+and it must be for the best. Boyd and Whitlow and Kenny were the great
+lights. They went about from house to house; they exhorted and prayed.
+Whitlow was one of the old bank-directors. Strange to say, he did not
+lose a penny. His money was in government-bonds; and now he has
+persuaded Yerbury that if his advice had been taken there would have
+been no trouble. Whitlow discharged his man this winter, and took in his
+place a half-grown boy. Mrs. Whitlow sets a good example to her class by
+discharging one handmaid and making the other do double duty. Yet, so
+far as I can find, Whitlow is a richer man than he was three years ago.
+Kenny keeps his factory open, and gives the men three days' work in the
+week, and pays them in poor shoes, as much as possible; and takes out a
+good deal in high rent. Boyd, who has the name of being the greatest
+saint of all,--does what? Opens that miserable row of houses, that he
+couldn't let on any terms, and takes in tenants who are willing to work
+out the rent. He gets good prices, too. Is he losing on them? Faugh! the
+very term of charity makes me sick. And this winter he purchased a good
+deal of the stock of the relief-store. Wretched flour; miserable,
+adulterated stuff of tea; pork, some of it that wasn't fit to eat; and
+cheap butter, that every one would have been ten times better without. I
+went to him one day, red-hot, in a sanitary view of the business; and he
+preached religion to me,--his kind. 'Boyd,' said I, 'there's Keppler's
+saloon, your own property, paying you a good income, no doubt, in these
+hard times, adding to the want and misery of Yerbury faster than your
+whole church can save. If you are in earnest, go break up that den of
+iniquity!'"
+
+Jack laughed. "What did he say to that?"
+
+"Meekly, that Keppler had a lease for five years, and was going on the
+second. The man is so honorable, he cannot break faith with his
+fellow-man, forsooth; but he breaks faith with God, in a serene,
+untroubled manner." And Maverick's lip curled scornfully under the
+fringe of moustache.
+
+"But there must be some gold, or the counterfeit would not be so
+successfully received. We have had so much false money everywhere, that,
+since we can make that pass, we do not trouble ourselves. And yet,
+Maverick, there _is_ something in it that you and I don't see clearly
+yet; but we cannot teach it acceptably until we can show better fruit.
+And, when leaders of all kinds, in high places, show that self only is
+at the bottom of every thing they do, it seems hopeless to demand that
+the class below, watching them, and suffering from their wrongdoing,
+shall attain a higher moral status. How can they help following coarsely
+in the footsteps of their betters?"
+
+"Darcy, suppose you turn parson!" and Maverick laughed half quizzically.
+"See here: the world wants a very old sermon preached again to it,
+hammered into every fibre, put up over every doorway,--the essence of
+all knowledge, all religion, briefly comprehended in this, 'Love thy
+neighbor _as_ thyself.' You won't need gown or bands for that work. Not
+to have one code of morals for the rich, and one for the poor; one creed
+for Sunday, and quite another belief for Monday; to have no lofty,
+impossible theories and exalted moods, but truthful, honest living; not
+to push away the miserable, ignorant souls, but take them by the hand in
+hearty co-operation. Maybe Cameron has the right clew. Why should we let
+human love be shamed by such things as an Oneida community or a Mormon
+city?"
+
+The strong, earnest voice stirred Jack like martial music. All these
+years he had been struggling with a great, blind, confused
+something,--perhaps it was not a silver-mine or a railroad, but a work
+just here in the town of his boyhood, where he was known, where he had
+played and worked.
+
+"Seventeenthly, and lastly," and Maverick looked at his watch, "I cannot
+idle any more time upon you, and must cut short with a 'To be
+continued.' We will talk it over again and again; and, if we cannot get
+it into shape, there is still Florida left. So, while you are dreaming
+it out by this great silent mill, whose prisoned spirits should prate of
+prosperity instead of desolation, I'll run my course around Yerbury, and
+we'll compare notes over our cigars. _Addio_," waving his hand.
+
+Jack watched the compact figure as it moved briskly away; then he
+sauntered round the mill, down one street and up another, strolled out
+to Lovers' Lane, and returned by Larch Avenue. The Barry house began to
+show signs of life, for old Mat was clearing up the grounds. This was
+the one oasis that had not been bitten by speculation. He thought of
+winsome little Sylvie, and one summer evening when Irene Lawrence
+stepped into that pretty, cosey room with the grace and beauty of a
+Juno. Where was she now? And what was Fred doing? Making a great leap
+into name and fame, doubtless, now that he was put upon his mettle. The
+old boyish freaks came back to his mind, the enthusiastic unreasoning
+adoration, the last tender parting. An intense and subtile sympathy
+filled his soul; and, though he smiled a little, the memory was very
+sacred.
+
+The texture of Jack's mind was not of the quick, brilliant, or sanguine
+order. He went over his books again; he ruminated as he cleaned the
+garden-paths, spaded the beds, trimmed the trees and shrubbery, and
+attended to the odds and ends known only to a careful householder.
+Cousin Jane was in her element out here; and they two discoursed of
+farming and gardening, and industry, she in a sharp, trenchant way.
+
+She had remarked incidentally that her visit was near its end. Now that
+Jack was home, cousin Ellen would not need her.
+
+"I don't see why you should not make your home here, cousin Jane,"
+replied Mrs. Darcy. "Grandmother grows feebler all the time, and you
+have quite spoiled me by your strength and cheeriness. You have no
+nearer tie; and if you _could_ content yourself with us--Jack was
+speaking about it a few evenings since. We should like so to keep you,
+cousin Jane."
+
+Jane Morgan studied the beseeching eyes a while, then dropped her own,
+and thought.
+
+"Very well," she answered, "if you like to have it so. While I am well
+and strong I think I ought to do enough somewhere to earn my living, and
+not use up the little laid by for a rainy day. If you and Jack are
+agreed, we'll consider it a bargain for a year. I like to be settled
+about what I'm going to do: there's nothing so uncomfortable as hanging
+on tenterhooks. When my visit's through I like to go, if I'm going; not
+stand an hour or two with the door-knob in my hand."
+
+Jack was delighted. They could spare him now and then of an evening to
+stroll down to Maverick's office, where they discussed pretty nearly
+every thing under the sun. It was so in the beginning,--"the earth was
+without form, and void." Then the Barrys returned; Sylvie changed in
+some indescribable way as to a kind of delicate outside manner, but the
+same fresh, earnest girl in heart and soul, taking up her friendship
+with Jack just where she had laid it down. Yet they had both grown
+broader and richer in nature and experience, and there was something of
+the subtile flavor of new acquaintanceship.
+
+Yerbury cleaned house, even to the tidying-up of streets and
+carting-away of rubbish. It was pitiful to see the attempts of some of
+the poor women, who washed their worn white curtains, scrubbed the
+shutters and hall-door, and set out a few ragged geraniums in the front
+yard, or made a little bed of lettuce and onions.
+
+Yerbury Savings Bank was in the hands of a receiver. Some sold out their
+small accounts for a trifle: it was agreed there could not be much in
+the way of dividends. Here was a great mortgage on the Downer farm,
+that the Eastmans had partly cut into city lots. And, though Downer had
+received a large price, he was a poor man to-day, with no business, and
+several sons tramping the highways for work. Farms had not been
+profitable, but had the wealth and extravagance produced any better
+result? These places around would be sold presently for any sum they
+would bring.
+
+"Speculation did look so tempting, though," said Jack with a humorous
+smile. "But for grandmother I might have been in the midst of it."
+
+"There's just one thing that makes a man or a country rich," said Jane
+Morgan incisively; "and that's industry, good, honest labor. Marking up
+one's goods before breakfast, as the Frenchman did, realizes no absolute
+money. The speculators jingle their dollars from hand to hand, until
+some poor fool, attracted by the noise, gives them a hundred for their
+twenty. When a man makes money simply by another person's loss, he has
+not created any thing, or made any more of it; and the world's no
+better, that I can see."
+
+"Cousin Jane, you are dipping into political economy;" and Jack nodded
+gayly. "I shall have to ask Maverick and some of the others up here; and
+maybe you can put in a straw, or a head of wheat, toward the
+regeneration of Yerbury."
+
+"I dip into a little common sense now and then, and it seems to me
+that's what the world needs. There is no lack of the uncommon kind, and
+it's not to be altogether despised, since at times uncommon things are
+given to people to do. But, if all the bees in the hive thought they had
+a call to be queens, it runs in my mind there'd be a lack of honey
+presently."
+
+"You are on the right foundation, cousin Jane. We must not only make the
+honey an honorable thing, but honor the bees, put labor on a better,
+truer foundation."
+
+"I should just say, 'See here, my friends, it is not possible for us all
+to be rich, whether it is some fixed immutable law of fate, or the lack
+of necessary elements in one's character, or the meeting of the right
+person with the right circumstances; but the fact is there, true as
+judgment. You can be comfortable and clean if you have the energy; and
+it is better to scrub your own kitchen-floor, or raise a bushel of
+potatoes, than to sit and whine about luck or respectability. Now and
+then a ready-made fortune drops down upon one, and I don't know but it
+often brings a curse: anyhow, what you work for, you are pretty sure to
+enjoy.' It makes me mad when I see healthy, hearty young women sighing
+for servants and pianos and what not; when their grandmothers, who had
+as good blood, and as good sense, didn't despise honest work."
+
+Sylvie Barry came in while Miss Morgan was in the midst of her "speech,"
+as Jack declared it to be; and now she clapped her small white hands,
+with a "Bravo!"
+
+"A new disciple, Jack," and she smiled. "Miss Morgan, we shall set you
+to reading our favorite authors, and solving the tremendous question.
+Where can we get work for these to do? For a great many stand idle in
+the market-place, because they have not been hired. What can we set them
+at?"
+
+"Well, Miss Barry, I don't know much about the big, outside questions;
+but, going around Yerbury a little this winter, I shouldn't say the work
+was all done up; or, done in such a poor, thrown-together way, that it
+tumbles right to pieces again. There's skewy, ill-made beds with ragged
+counterpanes; there's shreds of old ingrain-carpets, that you fall over;
+there's broken chairs, and shabby clothes, and dirty corners,--work
+enough, I should say, to last some woman an hour or two. She might get
+out her pieces of calico, and, with the children's help, make a new
+spread, maybe a tidy apron, and she might braid a rag mat out of bits,
+and a hundred things that go toward comfort. No: all the work isn't
+done up yet, Miss Sylvie," and Jane Morgan stopped just then, to knit
+the seam-stitch in a stocking for a poor body.
+
+Sylvie threw herself on the footstool, and leaned her arms on Miss
+Morgan's knee.
+
+"I wasn't thinking so much of that when I spoke," she began earnestly;
+"but I do wonder if some of us couldn't take it up. There are
+art-schools, and music-schools, and cooking-schools, in the great
+cities; and why couldn't we start something of the kind here? Poor
+people--the real poor, I mean--are often wasteful and idle because they
+do not just know how to be any thing else. They buy cheap garments in
+stores, and they soon come apart. I had a sewing-school last summer, and
+I found some mothers didn't seem to care whether their children learned
+or not,--since there was so much sewing done by machines. But if the
+mothers could be taught a little"--
+
+"That's about the upshot of what I said. You see, Miss Barry, people
+have been earning so much money of late years, that sewing has gone out
+of fashion. It didn't pay to do this or that, so they earned and spent.
+Now they sit listless in their dirt and rags, bemoaning hard times. It
+is good to know how to do more than one thing," and Miss Morgan nodded
+her head confidently, her strong face full of earnestness.
+
+"Why can't you and Sylvie start a school--what shall we call it?--of
+useful and homely arts? You see, the girls do work in the mills and
+shops until they get married, and then they do not know how to make the
+best of their husbands' money. But don't crowd out all the beauty and
+the pleasure; there must be something to enlist the heart. Give a man an
+interest in a thing, and you awake a new feeling, an enthusiasm that
+makes every thing go as smoothly as oiling up machinery."
+
+"I have often thought," said Mrs. Darcy in her soft, gentle voice,
+"that the poor did not get as much good of their money as the better
+classes, because they never have enough to buy advantageously, and
+store-keepers so often take the advantage of them. Now, yesterday I was
+over to Mrs. Hall's, and the poor thing was trying to make some bread,
+and she was not fit to stand up and knead it; so I thought I'd try. The
+flour was heavy and sticky and lumpy, and what I should call very
+unprofitable. No one could make good bread out of it. She said they
+traded at Kilburn's, because he would wait if they did not have the
+money. The flour was seven and a half a barrel; the eighth, ninety-five
+cents; and I do not believe the bread was fit to eat. So you must
+remember, when you blame people for poor cooking, that they may not
+always have decent materials to work with."
+
+"Maverick was growling about Kilburn the other evening. It is a shame
+that he should sell such poor goods, when prices have come down a good
+deal."
+
+"Can you not reform him a little?" and Mrs. Darcy smiled.
+
+"Cousin Jane and Sylvie might go into business, as did the poor weavers
+of Toad Lane, with their sack of oatmeal, firkin of butter, a little
+sugar and flour," said Jack laughingly. "A fair division of labor. The
+men of Yerbury shall provide work, and the women shall train the
+inefficient how and where to spend money."
+
+Sylvie glanced up with bright, inquiring eyes.
+
+"Was it some more co-operation?" she asked.
+
+Jack brought out his book, and read the story of the "Equitable Pioneers
+of Rochdale" and their wonderful success from a small beginning. The
+girl listened with wide-open eyes, and even Jane Morgan laid down her
+knitting.
+
+"The queen-bee and the workers again," said she, as Jack closed the
+book. "It is not every man for himself, but every man for each other.
+And it comes back, always."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+"WHERE is grandmother?" Jack asked one morning late in May, as he came
+in from the garden, and found her place at the table vacant.
+
+"She does not feel very well this morning, and I told her there was no
+need of rising with the lark," answered cousin Jane; but, though her
+voice was cheerful, there was a new gravity in her face.
+
+"It is something unusual"--
+
+"She is getting to be an old lady, Jack. There, sit down to your
+breakfast while it is nice and hot. No fear but what I will attend to
+grandmother."
+
+She had risen; but in the midst of her dressing her hands had lost their
+cunning, her limbs their strength. Jane came to look at her in alarm.
+
+"It's a warning," she said, with her grand old smile. "But I have no
+pain, and so you can leave me here for a while. My strength may come
+back."
+
+Mrs. Darcy was much frightened.
+
+"Remember that ninety-four is a good old age, and she has hardly had a
+sick day in her life. After breakfast Jack might go over for Dr.
+Maverick. He is sensible, and will not torment her with experiments."
+
+Jack rather hurried through his meal, and then ran up to grandmother's
+room. She put out her wrinkled hand, thin to be sure, but still slender
+and smooth, with no knobby joints. A proud sort of beauty illumined the
+old face, though the eyes were a little dull.
+
+"Dear boy," and there was a curious quaver in her voice, "I've had to
+give in at last. The Lord knows best. He has given me many a happy year
+with you; yet I have never forgotten the folks over yonder. I shall be
+glad to see them again,--your father, Jack, and the rest. 'Then they
+came to the land of Beulah, where the sun shineth day and night, and
+betook themselves to rest'--you know. We used to read it together."
+
+A sharp pang went to Jack's heart. He pressed the limp hand to his lips,
+and gazed into the face that had changed in some indescribable way. Then
+Jane came with a tempting breakfast, and fed her with wonderful
+gentleness, it seemed to him.
+
+He went out, and brought Maverick back with him.
+
+"It is a general breaking-up of nature," said the doctor with a tender
+gravity. "Nothing can be done, unless she should suffer; but I do not
+think she will. It is the way lives ought to end oftener. Give her
+whatever she will take; and keep cheerful, all of you. After all, it is
+only a little journey."
+
+"Where?" the young eyes asked as they met each other in solemn mood.
+
+Jack scarcely left her. She liked to open her eyes, and find him sitting
+there, when she would smile faintly, and murmur a few words. Sylvie and
+Miss Barry were the only visitors admitted to her room. They used to
+read out of "Pilgrim's Progress," the book she had loved so well, and
+occasionally they sang some sweet old hymn.
+
+"Jack," she said once, "you will find everything in my old box there in
+the bureau. It was my mother's, and came across the sea with me. You
+have been a good lad. You took your father's place with me, and you must
+never regret that you staid here to make an old woman happy. You have
+been a good lad--a good--little lad"-- And her mind wandered to other
+years.
+
+Just growing gradually weaker, and falling asleep peacefully. A long,
+well-spent life, and a death to remember and desire.
+
+They buried her in Yerbury churchyard, and the townspeople turned out to
+do her honor. Jack thought of another death, and the almost solitary
+state of the funeral.
+
+How good it was that they had Jane Morgan now! She carried them right
+along.
+
+Jack opened the brass-bound box, still fragrant with its sandal-wood
+lining. Some old letters, the trinkets she had saved from her poverty,
+and a will bequeathing her all, in government bonds, to Jack.
+
+There was nearly seven thousand dollars. With his own little savings he
+felt quite rich.
+
+"Jack," said his mother, "all these years you have waited patiently, and
+put by your own dreams. Do not think that I did not notice the struggle.
+It was very generous and kindly; and I am glad, for grandmother's sake,
+that you staid. But now if you like we will go somewhere else, and make
+a new home"--did her voice tremble a little then? "I am still young
+enough to take root elsewhere, and cousin Jane is so energetic she helps
+one to new life. There may be prettier and more prosperous places, and
+you have years before you in which to realize a fortune."
+
+He glanced up at the face bending over him, instinct with the honorable
+grace of middle life; the hair with a few threads of silver; the soft,
+fine skin showing some wrinkles about the eyes and two or three light
+creases across the forehead; the cheeks out of which roundness had
+vanished, and the lips the scarlet of girlhood, but though both were
+pale the mouth was still tender and sweet. A womanly woman,--that seemed
+to him a perfect description of his mother, a woman who had loved three
+generations, and held by them. Now for his sake she would give up the
+old ties, and try a new world,--this shy, shrinking, loving woman.
+
+What would she leave? She had never known any other home in her married
+life, though this had been changed and improved since her wedding-day.
+Everywhere some trace of his father. The porch with the roses climbing
+over it, the great maples in the street, planted by him; the odorous old
+balm of Gilead, that he had hunted up because she had cared for it, and
+they had one in her old home; the trailing clematis with its shining
+smilax-like green, and its heliotrope fragrance; the white rose that had
+been planted on the morning of Jack's birth, and had sent up many
+generations from the old root; the latticed summer-house with its wealth
+of grapes; and almost like a vision Jack could fancy he saw the tall
+figure and deliberate step,--the sweet ghost of memory that could never
+walk in any other place. Did his mother have such dreams?
+
+Yes, there were better things to life than mere money-getting.
+
+"I believe those were the wild dreams of boyhood,"--smiling a
+little,--"the 'long, long thoughts of youth.' I used to want something
+that would occupy my whole soul and every energy, that was stirring,
+earnest, absorbing, and held a grand outlook. But I think"--very
+deliberately, as if he were weighing every word--"that my work has come
+to me, instead of my going out to seek it. At all events, I shall not go
+away for the present."
+
+"Well," she returned, but she could not keep the great gladness out of
+her voice.
+
+Having thus made his election, Jack Darcy looked sturdily about to see
+what was to be done, and the best way to do it. He asked two of the old
+over-lookers, Hurd and Bradley, to meet him at Maverick's office; and
+there they discussed co-operation until long past midnight. They looked
+into the cotton-mill connected with the Rochdale experiment; they read
+up the workings of those at Oldham and Lancashire, of the industries in
+France, and banking in Germany.
+
+"Here we are," said Jack, "with so much of our lives spent in learning
+to manage looms and turn out different kinds of cloth. People must wear
+clothes until the millennium, and cloth will be made. It seems to me
+that it must be a good thing to identify the workmen, and get their real
+interest. We should avoid strikes on the one hand, the continual
+disputes about wages, and be much less at the mercy of all outside
+influence. The men will understand thoroughly that industry, economy,
+thrift, and perseverance is good for each individually; that he is using
+these qualities not only for the master, but for himself. There will be
+better work, and more of it."
+
+Hurd seemed to be taking the measure of Darcy through this speech. Now
+he said,--
+
+"Darcy, any man who knows enough to head such a business as Hope Mills,
+knows enough to carve out a fortune for himself; and my opinion is that
+he would be a fool to let the chance slip."
+
+"A man may have the knowledge, but not the requisite capital," was the
+patient answer. "Then he might think"--
+
+"Well, you've a sight of faith, that's all! Your men will go on with the
+tramp of soldiers in good times; and when the pinch comes, then look
+out! If they were educated, reasonable, sensible; but you and I both
+know the mass are not. It will do better in the old countries, for there
+children expect to follow in the footsteps of their parents; but here,
+where every boy looks upon himself as a possible president, it cannot be
+done. It has been tried, and has failed. It will again."
+
+"Then you will not join?"
+
+"I don't say that, Darcy. I can't very well get away from Yerbury: if I
+could, the Lord knows I'd go. But there--it is just as bad everywhere
+else. Don't be too sanguine though: you young chaps build air-castles
+easily."
+
+Bradley wrung his hand warmly at parting. "I want to look into this
+thing a little more closely," he said. "I believe you have struck the
+keynote. Whatever raises the workman raises the whole world. If you get
+him to be self-supporting, there is one less pauper or tramp for the
+State to take in charge, and tax all other workingmen for his support."
+
+"I rather like the scheme of the co-operative store," Hurd began
+presently. "There's a sight of money somehow between the producer and
+the consumer. Farmers are grumbling all the time. I wrote to my
+brother-in-law last spring about trading for a small farm, and going
+into poultry-business perhaps; and he sent back a list of prices he had
+obtained for his produce. Butter twenty-five cents, and we paid forty
+this winter. Milk two and a half cents a quart, while ours is from eight
+to ten."
+
+"Transportation to be counted in," suggested Maverick.
+
+"The thing discouraged me, so I thought I'd hold on a bit, since I did
+not know the first rule for farming. As Darcy says, we have spent all
+these years perfecting ourselves in our business, and it hardly looks
+reasonable that we should succeed at once in something altogether
+different. If you don't mind, Darcy, I'd like to look over that Rochdale
+experiment a little at my leisure."
+
+Jack handed him the book, and the small party dispersed. In a week they
+met again, with two more, one a stubborn old Englishman who had been in
+the business. They had done very well for a while, then the market
+flattened. They could not hold their stock, so the big fish swallowed
+them up. That was always the end where you had no credit and no reserve
+capital. Truth to tell, Jack began to realize how hard it would be to
+convert some of the very men he would like to have.
+
+Meanwhile Hamilton Minor came up with some capitalists, and Hope Mills
+was put up at auction. They looked around the town, examined the
+building and machinery, which was the best of its kind; but nobody
+could tell whether we had reached bottom prices or not, and, though the
+place was to be offered at an immense sacrifice, they were wary. Empty
+mills and rusting machinery were not profitable investments. Mr. Minor's
+eloquence went for nothing. These long-headed dons would rather hold on
+to their money, though they expressed a good deal of sympathy for the
+Lawrence estate.
+
+"I do believe it will go for the face of the mortgage," said Jack to
+Maverick that evening. "Twenty thousand dollars, and a year's interest
+and taxes. Twenty-two thousand would cover the whole thing; and three
+years ago Mr. Lawrence wouldn't have looked at fifty thousand. Maverick,
+I can get together ten thousand of my own, and if there was one other
+person"--
+
+"We will hunt him up," returned Maverick hopefully. "There is the
+reputation of the cloth already made, which is one great step in your
+favor. Yes, it must be done."
+
+Yerbury was looking a little brighter and better at midsummer.
+Scarlet-fever had pretty well disappeared; but malaria had come in its
+stead, convenient name for want of nourishment, stagnation, and
+despondency. The haggard-looking wives and mothers went out to a day's
+washing or scrubbing; but the children, better off, roamed over the
+fields in search of berries or a stray ownerless fruit-tree, laughing
+and happy in their rags and bare feet.
+
+Darcy tried two or three pretty well-to-do men, that he fancied had the
+good of the town at heart; but the project looked wild to them. If David
+Lawrence couldn't stand up against hard times, no new men could. He,
+Darcy, had better put his money in government-bonds, and live on the
+interest. Nothing could be made in such times as these.
+
+"It seems as if one half of the world has decided that the other half
+should starve," Jack declared in a discouraged tone. "No one is willing
+to start the ball again. If it wasn't for mother I would risk every
+dollar of my own. And then to think of the land lying idle about
+here,--enough to feed half the town! I do not wonder that we are fast
+coming to beggary and ruin."
+
+Maverick was pretty sober for several days, then he went off to
+Narragansett Pier; "tired of my everlasting badgering," said Jack to
+Sylvie, who, poor child, had her hands and heart full of projects that
+she talked over with Miss Morgan and her aunt, and did not make much
+more progress than Jack.
+
+So it happened one July evening that Jack sat smoking on the porch in a
+rather despondent frame of mind. Miss Morgan and his mother had gone to
+make some neighborly calls.
+
+A quick step came down the street. "If Maverick wasn't in Rhode Island!"
+thought Jack; then it came nearer, with a little halt, and Jack sprang
+down the steps in the moonlight.
+
+"Hillo, old fellow!" said the rich, laughing voice. "Have you looked
+after my patients, and entertained my office-callers, in my absence?
+That would only be fair play, for I have been about your business; and,
+by Jove! succeeded too!"
+
+"Maverick!" There was an odd little tremble in Jack's voice.
+
+"Ask me to sit down, and stay me with--well, a pipe, for I have finished
+my last cigar. I came in the train just fifteen minutes ago, and
+skulked--that's the very word--under the trees and through by-ways, lest
+some one, seeing, should lay violent hands on me. Yes, get out your best
+armchair, old chap, and treat me like a prince."
+
+The two seated themselves again, and stretched out their legs to the
+porch-railing. The soft light fell around, outlining here and there a
+bit of vine as if it were held against a silver background. A few early
+insects were chirping, and somewhere down the street there was a waft of
+distant music.
+
+"Succeeded!" Jack drew a long breath.
+
+"Yes: with a woman too. Nay, you need not look at me so wonderingly. I
+have not sold myself for base gold to the Evil One," laughing lightly.
+"I have never told you much about myself; for, like the needy
+knife-grinder, 'story, God bless you! there was none to tell;' but there
+is a chapter now, and you must hear it first. My mother was left an
+orphan in her infancy, and her aunt adopted her. She was a canny
+Scotswoman, by name Jean McLeod. She was very good to my mother, who
+married quite to her liking, although my father was not rich, but we
+always lived in a certain style, and my father had a fine reputation as
+a lawyer. My mother's death, the result of an accident, so prostrated
+him, that he never recovered from the shock. Aunt McLeod came to stay
+with us through that weary time. Then she took us both to her heart and
+home: it was a large warm heart and a beautiful home. My father left a
+little: it was made over to me; and my sister, five years younger than
+I, was brought up properly, and married properly, and lives in Chicago
+in elegant style. Then Aunt Jean tried her hand on me, chose a suitable
+young woman, and insisted that the fates had decided it. The upshot was
+a quarrel. Not but what the girl was nice enough, and all that, but I
+did not care to marry; and so I walked off to Europe, and was there
+three years. Some rather cool letters passed between us at first, but
+they grew warmer; and when I returned it was winter, and she was in New
+York. I went straight up to her house. She was very glad to see me; and
+there in her lovely library, all glow and softness and perfume, by the
+side of the grate, with a screen in her hand, sat Anastasia Lothrop. She
+is Aunt Jean's pet _protegee_, though she has home and lands and people
+of her own. A handsome woman too, by Jove! However, we have gone our
+separate ways. I think she (Aunt Jean) was rather annoyed at my settling
+at Yerbury.
+
+"Well, I went to Narragansett, and found her alone this time; and she
+has promised to buy Hope Mills. I do believe there's no end to the
+woman's money. She talked it over as a mere bagatelle. I am to meet her
+in New York, and you are to go down, Jack; and we are to see the holder
+of the mortgage, and do no end of business. I think she is rather
+interested in the scheme, and I do believe she is delighted to do me a
+favor. Now you can keep your money for a kind of reserve fund. The mere
+savings of labor will not answer at first, you know."
+
+Maverick drew a long breath then, and puffed lustily at his cigar.
+
+"I don't know how ever to thank you."
+
+"Don't thank me, Darcy. You see, I am interested in this experiment. I
+want to see if there is enough faith and honesty and industry and
+trustfulness left in the world to make such a general partnership a
+success. You know it has been said that since the war our character as a
+whole has degenerated fearfully. Politically there is no doubt of it.
+Commercially and industrially are still open questions. If we could
+succeed in making one hundred people comfortable, instead of one rich,
+nine comfortable, and the other ninety next door to pauperism, we shall
+have done something. If we can so educate ninety men that they are able
+to understand the difficulties and embarrassments of carrying on
+business and its numerous fluctuations, we shall have raised them higher
+in the social scale. And it is most sadly true of all the large failures
+of late, some one has been dishonest, some one or two or three have
+taken other people's money to speculate with. It should be called
+stealing as much as when a poor man takes it, even if he spends it for
+rum. And, Darcy, we will keep our eye single upon one thing: we shall
+not move the world, or convert it, but haply one little corner of
+Yerbury; while all the wit and wisdom the world has been saving up for
+ages will be hurled against us in different shapes, from puffy snowballs
+to the grim old fellows soaked in water and frozen hard. And sometimes I
+think, with all the energy you are going to bring to bear upon this, you
+could carve out a fortune somewhere else."
+
+"I don't know as to that, Maverick," said Darcy in a half-funny,
+half-sad tone. "From New York to St. Louis, from thence to New Orleans,
+to Florida, and back here again, I never found an opening. Two or three
+people did promise to write to me, but they have not. I felt the world
+could go on quite as well without me and hundreds of others. So, then,
+the only thing is to create a place; and Heaven knows I shall try hard
+enough to make a success of this."
+
+"And you will do it too: I'm not afraid. Give us your hand, old chap! I
+never swore friendship with but just one fellow: that was in my college
+days, and I have his note for one hundred dollars as a memento. I might
+have been keener, I dare say; but one of the transcendentally lovely
+things of youth is its perfect faith. These preternaturally wise and
+prudent young people come into the world mentally gray-headed. But I do
+it now with my eyes wide open; and, when you are a rich man, I have
+another scheme I want to take through, a sort of home or hospital of my
+own planning: so don't fancy I shall let you off easy."
+
+They held each other's hands in a long, lingering clasp. Beside the
+warmth and magnetism that was a component part of Dr. Maverick's nature
+when he chose to use it, which was not nearly always, there was a
+steadfast kindliness, the vigor of a true and pure manhood, that made a
+clear atmosphere about him, in which insincerity, weakness, and
+selfishness seemed to flicker into pale shadows, and shrink away from
+the intense mental light he turned upon them.
+
+And just here the vision of the boy face came back to Jack, the
+strangling arms about his neck, the fluttering breath and quivering
+lips, and the sound of the rather thin, childish voice,--"You are _my_
+King Arthur, and I shall love you my whole life long."
+
+The sadness in the smile was for the old ideal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+"THE telegram!" exclaimed Maverick ten days later, striding down the
+garden where Jack was at work in the strawberry-bed.
+
+Jack Darcy flushed like a girl, through the other fine coloring of
+labor. He had hardly dared to believe in and hold to Maverick's promise.
+Manlike, neither had spoken of it since that night.
+
+"'Thursday, at four, at the Westminster.' That is to-morrow. We must be
+on time, or she would never have any faith in us; and, though my credit
+may be _nil_, yours must be"--
+
+"As I hope to keep it through my life," was the grave reply. "You will
+take the morning train?"
+
+"Yes. It will give us a trifle of spare time, which won't be bad for a
+couple of overworked fellows like us. But I must look after a lot of
+people this afternoon, and if I can I will drop in this evening."
+
+Jack went back to his strawberries. He had been making a mental
+calculation about an acre, and the profits thereon, moved to it by
+something Jane Morgan had said. Twenty miles below them, on Swanston
+Bay, which was quite a summer-resort, the hotel-keepers had paid
+twenty-five cents per quart for nice large berries. On their little
+patch they had raised a hundred and twenty quarts. There was another
+side to the labor-question,--diversity of industry. Jane's idea of a
+great fruit-garden, or call it a farm, was not bad. You could crowd ten
+such patches in an acre of ground. If nothing better came to hand, he
+might hire some of the ground lying waste around Yerbury, and set the
+idle at work.
+
+Sylvie came through with some flowers in her hand. Jack looked up again,
+and laughed, and threw himself on the grass under a tree, chatting
+gayly. He felt so light at heart! She wondered a little, and then,
+without knowing the cause, rejoiced with him in the depths of her soul.
+
+The two men started the next morning, and at the appointed time were
+ushered into Miss McLeod's private parlor. Maverick had said, "She's a
+little queer in some ways; but in the main you will like her, I think."
+Meanwhile Jack had formed a dozen ideals of her, based mostly on the
+personal appearance of Miss Barry and his grandmother.
+
+The door of the adjoining room opened, and Miss McLeod entered. An old
+woman, of course, and a fashionable woman, but with a young-old face and
+figure. Not the graceful airiness of youth, so often painful in its
+desire to impress the beholder with what it is not, but an old age to
+which all the good things of life, rightly used, have contributed, and
+brought about a delightful result. She was of medium height, and
+possibly had not been handsome in her palmy days; but she challenged
+one's respect for a true and honorable womanhood, and an old age neither
+inane, querulous, nor servile.
+
+A rather plump figure, with deep chest, full shoulders, and erect
+carriage. The face was wrinkled; but the skin had a peachy softness, the
+lips were still full and finely curved, and, though the mouth was rather
+wide, it indicated resolution and decision. The whole contour of the
+face was slightly aquiline, the forehead high and broad, but the curling
+hair falling over it in the requirements of fashion softened it; shining
+silvery white, curling naturally, and very abundant, the coil at the
+back partly covered with a diamond-shaped bit of elegant black thread
+lace that matched the barb at her throat. Her rich, soft, steel-colored
+silk made no rustle as she crossed the floor, but the diamonds in her
+ears and on her breast flashed a glitter of sunlight about her.
+
+Maverick greeted her with pleasant but not effusive warmth, and
+introduced his friend. They skirmished on the boundary-line of small
+talk for a while, Jack feeling that he was being measured and gauged at
+every possible indication of the real man, but his honesty of purpose
+kept him steadfast.
+
+Presently Maverick plunged into the business part, much to Darcy's
+satisfaction.
+
+"I wrote to my lawyer, Mr. Hildreth, about it," Miss McLeod replied. "He
+has seen the parties holding the mortgage; and, on account of business
+embarrassments, they are extremely anxious to realize upon it. Mr. Minor
+is naturally desirous of having it sold at an advantage; but he is on
+the bond, and has been making continuous efforts with no success. No one
+can tell how low property will sink, business property especially, that
+depreciates so rapidly if neglected. The mortgage is considered
+one-third of what the property was valued at seven years ago; but we
+have all shrunk a trifle since that," with a shrug, and a curious little
+bend of the head, as if the decapitation was not altogether a pleasant
+process. "This is the 4th of August, and on the 19th it is advertised
+for sale. There may be one chance in a thousand of a better purchaser;
+though Mr. Hildreth thinks no one but a lunatic, or a woman, would put
+money in such an adventure," her lips curving in their bitter-sweet
+smile. Indeed, there was nothing she was so much like as a cluster of
+bright bitter-sweet berries, on a sharp but sunshiny autumn day, with
+the leaves and tendrils brown and faded, but the brilliant life and soul
+still shining from the ripe centre. She impressed you with the same
+defiant glow of exultation.
+
+"I have money lying idle, it is true," she continued; "but I want to
+hear your plans before I decide, Mr. Darcy. Philip," nodding to her
+nephew, "has interested me in this scheme; but I must know what it
+promises before I take the risk."
+
+Jack was confused a little by the bright, penetrating glance; and he had
+not quite overcome his boyish trick of blushing. Often as he had gone
+over the plan with Howell, Fawcett, and other political economists at
+his tongue's end, all his troupe of fine ideas seemed to desert him. He
+laughed at his own embarrassment: she smiled and nodded, and that made
+them friends.
+
+"I don't know that I can put it any better," he began earnestly, "than
+to say that I want to take up the lever of work, and put the wheels of
+labor in motion, to bring the starving workmen and the halting capital
+together again. It is all very well for us to rush every dollar into
+government-bonds; but if there is no business, what is to augment our
+revenue, and where then shall we be finally, with our mills and
+workshops shut up, and our people begging? If I had enough of my own to
+bridge over the chasm, I would ask no one's help," he went on a little
+proudly. "The mills at Yerbury stand in sad silence, with ruin before
+them; our men are idle and dispirited, turning into tramps and
+vagabonds, because they hate to sit still and starve. And here am I, of
+no real use to the world, and the eight years back of me that I have
+spent in perfecting myself of no account either, unless I find something
+upon which to employ my ability and training. If I purchase the mills,
+we must hire capital to work them with, and everybody would be shy of
+us. We can get together the capital if we could be sure of the place for
+five years, at a moderate rental."
+
+"But would not a joint-stock company answer the purpose better, and
+carry more weight?" she asked, listening with a sort of intent wariness.
+
+"I want to enlist the workmen, so that we shall be reasonably sure of
+co-operation in other things beside money, industry, thrift,
+faithfulness, and a common interest in success. If times are hard, we
+shall all make sacrifices: if they improve, we shall benefit by the
+earnestness of our endeavors. Maverick and I have made a little draft,
+based on the workings of the best French and English societies. If you
+will look it over"--and he took it out of his memorandum.
+
+She studied it with a keen, rapid glance.
+
+"It is what I should call an industrial partnership," Darcy continued.
+"We _should_ own the mill; but, as we cannot, that must go in the
+working expenses. As the men choose, and are able, they can hold shares;
+but at present this will be obtained--say from a dozen perhaps. Nothing
+now will bring in twenty or even ten per cent, and we must be satisfied
+with whatever we can make. We have had our good times, and now we must
+take the evil; but if there is any better way than sitting down
+resignedly, and folding both hands, I, for one, want to find it."
+
+She was taking in the combinations of emotion and purpose that flitted
+over his face. A man who would do something if he could get that hardest
+of all things, a foothold to stand upon.
+
+"I think you might make more money," she said with pointed brevity.
+
+"Which would not be co-operation," with his frank, genial laugh that
+went to her heart. "I want to try the experiment. Not that I expect to
+solve all the difficulties between labor and capital; but I shall try to
+make them better friends, so that, when you have weathered a hard gale,
+pinching yourselves to keep on the workmen, they will not strike for
+higher wages on the first stir of improvement, as they will be certain
+of their share."
+
+"You are a philanthropist, Mr. Darcy. Can you depend upon the temper of
+your men? They may do very well just now when they are starving; but,
+when times improve, are they going to wait one year or five years for
+the sum they consider part of their wages? And if there should be no
+surplus, but losses, as has often happened in manufacturing? Your
+workman will
+
+          'Fork out his penny, and pocket your shilling,'
+
+fast enough; but when the tables are turned, what then?"
+
+"There _must_ be a different feeling when men are banded together in a
+mutual business interest. The very spirit of association appeals to what
+is best and noblest in human nature. As it has been in Yerbury, for
+example, the workmen contributed of their ability and strength to
+support one family in princely luxury, pay one extravagant salary, and
+several others that were out of all proportion to the wages earned, and
+an extensive defalcation. No one is at all the gainer now, unless it be
+the thief," his face scarlet with indignation at the remembrance of
+Eastman. "The men have been hit the hardest of all. No wonder they feel
+bitter and discouraged. We make many an Ishmael by sending him out with
+his jug of water, while there are feasting and revelry within."
+
+"But you cannot make all human nature noble or sensible or grateful.
+There is the grand co-operation of the forty years in the wilderness,
+when food was provided, and clothing lasted miraculously; yet under
+these favorable circumstances, and with the sure promise at the end,
+there was not a heavenly unity."
+
+Jack laughed heartily.
+
+"We must keep from golden calves and such folly," he said. "We are
+likely enough to have our waters of Marah. But it seems to me the best
+way to ennoble labor, give it its true dignity, and show the
+possibilities for the workmen, is concerted action. As matters stand
+now, few poor men can ever acquire sufficient capital to start any
+business; and perhaps this is not best when we consider the cost of
+machinery, and the ever-appearing new inventions. The small capitalist
+could _not_ compete with the large one. Yet capital often takes as its
+right the best strength of the workman, the years of maturity and
+ability, and throws him off in his old age. I know labor retorts by
+carelessness, wastefulness, and utter indifference to the employer's
+welfare. One is a machine to grind labor into money; the other, to grind
+all he can out of capital. Perhaps my design is Utopian, but it seems as
+if something ought to be done before we train a whole generation of men
+to be paupers and thieves. Better that we should spend our money in
+labor experiments than supporting poorhouses and prisons."
+
+Jack had lost his embarrassment now. There was a glow on his cheek, and
+a steady fire in his eye, the lines about the mouth sharply drawn, and
+indicating not only masterly strength, but a kind of pitying patience,
+that would never degenerate into sentimentality. It was a very manly,
+trusty face; and his sterling honesty impressed Miss McLeod, long
+trained to reading faces, while his sturdy good sense promised much.
+
+"I should like Mr. Hildreth to see this paper," turning it in her still
+supple fingers. "What if some of your men insist upon going out after a
+year or two, Mr. Darcy?"
+
+"There will be some kind of forfeiture, of course. The true business
+capital must remain intact the whole five years: the direct proceeds of
+labor may be subject to some changes, but in any event the business
+interests must not be jeopardized."
+
+There was a moment's interruption of a servant; then dinner was brought
+in, and arranged for three. The bright-eyed old lady made a charming
+hostess. She poured their tea with a quaint dignity, and made them feel
+quite as if she were dispensing hospitality in her own house.
+
+She was the kind of woman whom young people, past the lunacies of
+sixteen, invariably like. The feminine portion told her their love
+troubles, the young wives came to her with tangles and little
+jealousies; and, if she could not always straighten them out, she had a
+marvellous way of comforting. Young men drifted toward her by some
+species of magnetism, though she had none of the fussy motherliness of
+some old ladies. With faculties still keen and bright, a great fund of
+good-humor that had the sparkle of champagne rather than any insipid
+sweetness, she never wearied or palled on any one. She kept herself well
+informed of the world's progress, she knew of the principal stars in the
+literary, dramatic, and artistic world, and to be asked to her house was
+a compliment.
+
+The conversation was more general now; and, though Maverick had told
+every thing of note about Yerbury, she was not indisposed to listen to
+it again. They discussed the panic and its causes, and ventured upon
+guesses as to its duration. They all agreed that there had been too much
+haste to be rich, too much greed of speculation, too much personal
+greatness, and not enough national greatness. No generous striving
+together to build up what the war had pulled down, but every man for
+himself and for gold. If women had been frivolous and vain, and dazzled
+by the glare of newly acquired wealth, men had not been quite free from
+faults. The terrible lowering of morals, the dishonesty and fraud easily
+condoned, and laughed over as a kind of shrewdness, were sad examples to
+set before the next generation.
+
+In her way Miss McLeod was quite a politician, having been so much in
+that circle. Her views of men and measures were keen and discriminating;
+and her bits of trenchant wisdom quite dazzled Jack, who at the last,
+proposed laughingly, as his panacea, that every man should undertake the
+mending of himself, when the world would soon be righted.
+
+Afterward a coupe came, and they drove to the Park. There evening and
+the bonny new moon overtook them; but the streets and country roads were
+so inviting, they did not return until quite late.
+
+"Consider yourselves my guests for the night," she said as they drove
+back to the hotel, and Maverick was too wise to demur.
+
+"I have been thinking this matter over," she said as they were
+separating. "My part will be purchasing the mills, and I shall take so
+much in the shape of rent. I want you to consider what per cent you can
+pay, and not straiten yourselves too much. I frankly confess that I am
+greatly interested in you, Mr. Darcy; and as this young man," touching
+Maverick's shoulder, "prefers to 'gang his ain gait,' he leaves me quite
+free to waste my money as I like. Be fair to yourself. Good-night."
+
+"It's all right with you, Jack," began Maverick after they had been
+shown to their room. "Aunt Jean is a trump! I almost forgive her Miss
+Lothrop. But I suppose women would be less than women, if they did not
+want to dip their fingers into destiny. It is their mental chessboard."
+
+"But you do love her? your aunt, I mean."
+
+"Why, of course. Still, I should never dangle in any woman's train;"
+with a curl of the lip.
+
+Miss McLeod was going back to Narragansett the next morning. They
+discussed their last item of agreement; and Jack said, with modest
+decision, "that such real estate could not possibly pay more than three
+per cent to any owner in the course of the next few years. He would
+rather offer her that, and a share contingent on the amount of business
+done at the end of five years, than assume any greater risk just now."
+
+"Thank you for your honesty and your good sense," she replied. "If you
+had offered higher, I should have had some doubts of your financial
+clear-headedness. It will be an equitable bargain. And will you be kind
+enough to make some arrangements for me in Yerbury? I shall come on the
+18th, with a companion and a maid; and Mr. Hildreth will follow the next
+morning. Get your plans in shape by that time. I am glad to have met
+you, Mr. Darcy, and I wish you success in your undertaking."
+
+They shook hands cordially, and went their ways. Jack could hardly
+believe his good fortune, and now he was afraid some other parties might
+step in and take the mills.
+
+"Much likelihood," laughed Maverick.
+
+Jack took Cameron in hand first, as he had been the real suggester of
+the plan. He, Darcy, could use his ten thousand; and, if ten more could
+be subscribed, they would not need to hire outside. As time went on,
+this capital might be equalized and increased. Hurd offered two thousand
+and himself; and just then one of the old hands who had succeeded in
+getting rid of a good bit of property that had weighted him heavily, and
+picked up a little money here and there, subscribed five thousand.
+Yardley had none of his own, but persuaded his wife's sister to invest a
+thousand. The other, Miss Barry offered, if no workman came to hand.
+Winston was a handy Jack-of-all-trades. He could repair machinery, or do
+any kind of wood-work: he had sold cloth on commission, bartered and
+traded, and had a good deal of shrewdness and good sense, and pluck. He
+and Darcy would do the buying and selling; Cameron would take charge of
+supplies, deal them out, and see that nothing went to waste; Hurd and
+Yardley would be overlookers as before. Every man could weave his yard
+of cloth with the best. They would constitute the managing force.
+
+The days passed rapidly; and to Jack's great satisfaction no purchaser
+appeared, no curious soul even sauntered about the mills. Miss McLeod
+came at the appointed time, accompanied by Miss Lothrop, who was as
+distant to Maverick as if this were their first meeting. The ladies were
+to stay with Mrs. Darcy, and the best in the house was placed at their
+disposal with simple courtesy. They were taken to the mills, where they
+made a tour of inspection; Jack explaining machinery, looms, shuttles,
+and spindles, with an enthusiasm that amazed even himself. There was a
+new interest in the thought of having a voice in the direction of that
+great engine now so silent, and the work it was to do.
+
+"We shall not use half our looms in the beginning," he said; "but I
+hope, before the five years are ended, we shall be doing our utmost."
+
+They all hoped so for his sake. "If any man can make the plan work, he
+will," thought Miss McLeod, who liked him better every hour.
+
+Miss Barry and Sylvie came to call on the ladies in the evening.
+
+"I suppose that is Mr. Darcy's sweetheart," Miss Lothrop remarked
+afterward. "She is a pretty, enthusiastic little thing, and she takes so
+much interest in his affairs. I can just fancy how they will work
+together, and the earnest, useful lives they will lead. What butterflies
+we are!" looking down at her white helpless hands. "Not you, but the
+young women of the day in general. You are a busy bee, and still keep
+storing up your honey."
+
+"And sting occasionally," laughed the sharp, bright old lady.
+
+The sale took place the next morning at ten, at the Court House. There
+was quite a number of spectators, though the ladies, with Maverick and
+Darcy, were in a private office. Hamilton Minor had come up, resolved
+that it should not go for less than the mortgage, but desirous of ending
+his responsibility. There were but two bids. The auctioneer lingered a
+long while on Mr. Hildreth's bid, commenting on the enormous sacrifice,
+but he could move no one's interest. It was reluctantly knocked down,
+the purchase-money paid, and the deed made out to Miss McLeod.
+
+Then the company's agreement was put in lawful, legal shape. The
+managing board of five men were to have sole charge of buying, selling,
+and manufacturing. They were to give all their time and ability, to
+watch the state of the market, and conduct every thing for the benefit
+of the whole corporation. Darcy was to prepare a balance-sheet
+semi-annually, showing profit and loss; and this was to be open to the
+inspection of the firm.
+
+The parties to the second part, the workmen, were to work ten hours a
+day, six days in the week, under the supervision of Hurd and Yardley.
+The wages of the men and the salaries of the managers were to be put at
+the minimum rate, and both parties were to draw two-thirds of this sum
+weekly. At the end of the year, the profits on labor and capital were to
+be evenly divided; one half apportioned to the capital, the other half
+divided _pro rata_; but only half of this sum to be drawn out yearly,
+the other turned over to the capital stock, and placed to each man's
+credit. If any operative should become dissatisfied, and leave, his
+share of the profits was to be forfeited to a fund for sick or disabled
+workmen. Any member of the association guilty of misconduct was to be
+twice reprimanded, and for a third offence expelled. A standing
+committee of the workmen, with one chairman, was to investigate and
+settle such matters. Shares of capital as low as fifty dollars would be
+within reach of the workmen. A clause was inserted, that no ale, beer,
+or spirituous liquors were to be brought into the mill during working
+hours. It had been one of the old-time rules, but often transgressed.
+Each man was to use his best endeavors to promote the interests of the
+firm.
+
+At the end of five years, the agreement was to cease, and the profits to
+be divided.
+
+Then the five-years' lease of Hope Mills and all its appurtenances was
+made out to "Hope Mills Co-operative Association," and duly signed. The
+rental was to be six hundred and sixty dollars per annum, the company to
+pay the taxes, and keep the mills in ordinary repair.
+
+Then the managers and a number of the workmen marched over to Hope Mills
+in a body, opened the doors and barred shutters, and entered with an
+exultant step. They were to try their hand at good-fellowship in labor,
+and see if it would solve the vexations of the old system, or prove any
+stronger bond. Maverick had spread a little feast in what had been
+Eastman's office; and they sat down together, the ladies, joined by
+Sylvie Barry, Mrs. Darcy, and Miss Morgan, taking the head of the table.
+Some speeches were made, and some toasts drank, and everybody wished
+success to Hope Mills. Had John Hope unconsciously foretold their future
+when he christened them for his own glory? Darcy thought so. The name
+had a higher significance now, and was to be the earnest of many souls,
+the watchword to inspire them.
+
+Miss McLeod bade them a hearty farewell. "There may arise some
+emergency, Mr. Darcy," said she, "when indorsing a note, or a similar
+matter, will be of great importance to you. I shall not promise to do
+much of it; but I am strongly interested in this experiment, and want it
+to have a fair trial. Let me hear from you occasionally; and, if you are
+in any great strait, apply to me."
+
+Jack thanked her warmly, and she and Miss Lothrop went their way.
+
+"She is a regular fairy godmother," he said enthusiastically to
+Maverick. "I wonder that you do not adore her!" and he studied his
+friend in astonishment.
+
+"Have you never heard of people being so much alike they could not
+agree?" he asked with a light laugh. "What ever possessed her to bring
+Miss Lothrop? It was in bad taste, to say the least; and, whatever
+faults aunt Jean may have, she seldom makes a blunder of that kind."
+
+"Why, Sylvie was--well, a good deal pleased with her. The acquaintance
+was so short"--
+
+"Miss Barry is the most generous and least exacting woman that I ever
+saw. She judges people by her own noble soul. Jack Darcy"--Maverick shut
+his lips with a sudden resolution, and turned his face partly aside,
+then said in a curiously changed tone, "We are two fools to be talking
+about women, when there are more important matters on hand."
+
+"But I shall always feel grateful to Miss McLeod. There are several
+moneyed men here in Yerbury whose capital is lying idle, who would not
+have done this thing for me if they knew it would keep half Yerbury from
+starving. Yet, if I had offered them ten per cent, they would hardly
+have hesitated. It does seem to me sometimes, that these old dons tempt
+one into lying first, and swindling afterward. If you make them all
+straight, they do not care how much crooked work you do elsewhere."
+
+"Natural depravity and innate selfishness."
+
+And now began the real work. The mills were cleaned of the year's
+accumulation of dust and cobwebs and general untidiness. Winston went at
+the machinery with hearty good-will, and put it in order. Circulars were
+sent out to the old patrons and to new houses, and workmen, workwomen,
+and children straggled in to see what was going on. Were Hope Mills to
+be really opened? and was Mr. Darcy to be master? True, a good many of
+the best men had gone off to try their luck elsewhere, but there were
+plenty left for a start. Only, there was a mystery these people could
+not understand. Something about wages, and something about money; and
+Jack patiently explained the matter, until, as he told Maverick, he felt
+like a cheap-John auctioneer, dispensing wares.
+
+"The best thing will be to have a meeting," declared Maverick. "See
+here, Darcy: I'll hire Brock's Hall myself; and we will have a lecture,
+or a conference-meeting. Subject, 'Work and Wages.' I'll have some
+posters out too. Every one will know what we mean, that we are honest
+men and true; and you will be spared this everlasting palaver. Then we
+will have some rules, or by-laws, or something, for the workmen. Talk to
+Mr. Winston about it. He would make a capital speaker, with his glib
+tongue."
+
+Darcy thought it an excellent plan, and they set about it immediately.
+
+"But you'll have to post me," confessed Winston. "The only co-operation
+I ever was in was a building-association, and our treasurer ran off with
+our funds."
+
+Maverick promised to "coach" him. Indeed, it was the doctor who gathered
+up statistics, and put them in a compact and telling form.
+
+They had a large audience,--men and women. "Robert Winston, Esq.," was
+the orator of the evening. He was a fluent speaker, and had a good deal
+of humor. He began about the early Anglo-Saxon guilds, and the banding
+together of craftsmen when towns grew large and prosperous, and labor
+was performed in the workshops, instead of at home; of the importance of
+the woollen-manufacture in the days of Elizabeth, not only in England,
+but on the Continent, when kings did not disdain to borrow money of
+these corporations; of their final overthrow, and the causes leading to
+it; of the growth of trades-unions, and the views of conflicting writers
+on the subject. The workman's necessities so often compelled him to
+accept what he felt to be inadequate returns, because he could not
+wait,--it was work or starvation with him,--so that in dull times he was
+not only at the mercy of the employer, but every other starving workman.
+On the other hand, so few workmen ever informed themselves concerning
+the employer's perplexities and dangers, they had no broad and vital
+interest in the business until they all became leagued together, as in
+co-operation. Then they shared one another's burdens and prosperity. It
+was not the one great fortune, but the many comfortable incomes. It was
+the fruit of the noblest thought and the truest philanthropy. As a
+producer it had done its best work in France; and he went briefly over
+the work of the masons at Paris, and the Association Remquet, which,
+after carrying on printing business for ten years, divided among its
+members an average of over ten thousand francs; the cloth-factory at
+Vienna, with its flour-mill, bakery, grocery, coal-yard, and farm; the
+different societies in England, that were promising, to say the least.
+All this had been done by the thrift and economy of individual members,
+who educated themselves by doing business, and so were enabled to
+dispense with the profits of middle-men, and the greedy clutch of
+speculators.
+
+After Winston had finished, Dr. Maverick went briefly over their plans
+for Hope Mills in a very simple and direct manner.
+
+"Winston was capital!" said Jack afterward. "When we are hard up we can
+send him off on a lecturing-tour. But wasn't it rather over the heads of
+our people?"
+
+"It was for others beside the workmen. You know, Darcy, some men are so
+used to swindling and misrepresentation, that they invariably accuse
+every plan of another, of the same motive. You will have a good deal of
+this back talk before your five years are ended; and I want Yerbury to
+know that this is an old, old scheme. I might have quoted the children
+of Israel, as aunt Jean did, and shocked the religious portion of the
+community. But, after all, isn't the greatest truth, the Golden Rule,
+co-operation in _all_ forms?" and he glanced up triumphantly.
+
+Jack did not gainsay him.
+
+He had hit the truth in regard to Yerbury. Some of those who had managed
+to hold on to their money through all the stress of hard times raised
+their eyebrows and shook their heads in amused derision. "A fool and his
+money," said they, and "Set a beggar on horseback," besides numerous
+wise saws people love to fling at their neighbors. A mortifying collapse
+was predicted. There wasn't a woollen-mill in the country paying. The
+smaller people who had been easily induced to invest their money in
+building-lots, under the supposition that in a few years there would
+hardly be standing-room in Yerbury, looked askance at this project, so
+much more easily does speculation appeal to human nature, than the
+slower but more honorable results of industry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+IT was easy enough now to get hands who would consent to the
+three-quarter wages. With one winter of semi-starvation the poor of
+Yerbury were glad to take any thing that promised bread. The masters
+were going to share with the men; but they were made distinctly to
+understand, that, unless the mills earned something over and above this,
+there could be no surplus, no dividends. Another thousand of the capital
+had been made up by some of the hands, who thought this promised as well
+as railroad-stocks, lots out on country barrens, or even savings banks.
+
+To be sure, some burly fellows, whose wives could hardly keep soul and
+body together over their washing-tubs, swore great oaths that Jack Darcy
+was a fool to think he could find men to play into his hands that way!
+Bob Winston was a blower, and never kept at any one thing; and some of
+the rest were old screws, and in six months time everybody would see!
+
+However, Hope Mills rang out its great bell cheerfully on Monday
+morning, the middle of September. A small procession wended their way in
+at the side gate. The engine, with Robert Winston at its helm, as they
+had not suited themselves with an engineer, puffed and groaned; but, if
+it was not a merry music, it was good to hear, for all that. The faces
+were pinched and thin with a year's care and want and the horrible fear
+of the future, but they tried to smile cheerfully. More than one poor
+woman had tears in her eyes, and spoke in that hysterical,
+half-laughing, half-crying tone, that told how deeply her feelings were
+moved.
+
+By night they were quite settled in the old places, or adapted to new
+ones. Perhaps the year's experience had done these people some good:
+they had learned to manage closer. Cameron and Darcy had discussed
+thrifty French ways of management, and now meant to profit by them if
+possible. The American spirit of wastefulness should not run riot as it
+had in times past. Dyes and oils and chemicals were to be sharply looked
+after, and Cameron was the man to do it.
+
+Before the first week was out, an engineer came to hand. There had been
+several applications, but some men raised their noses and laughed loudly
+at the rate of wages. A young chap just out of his time when the panic
+came on, and who had tried every thing, even to rail-roading, took the
+place with hearty thanks; a quick, bright fellow too, who had a love for
+his business, and said in ten minutes time, "She's a pretty engine, Mr.
+Winston!" with the enthusiasm of a true artist.
+
+"That chap'll blow up Hope Mills in less than a month," said Jem Stixon,
+who had been refused. "You mark my words! I wouldn't have wife or child
+of mine working there."
+
+Darcy watched the temper of the employees, and reported every few days
+to Maverick. The little social "we" and "ours" was working wonders, he
+thought.
+
+"And we do nothing!" said Sylvie one evening, in a discontented tone, as
+she sat crocheting by Mrs. Darcy's pretty round table in the old
+library, that had become a kind of general business-room. "I thought you
+were going to set us women at work about something. Miss Morgan and I
+have been waiting patiently."
+
+"There was the cooking-school"--
+
+"But we have nothing to cook. And how are we to get any thing? unless we
+set up as those poor weavers in Toad Lane, on our pocket-money. I
+believe I beg from those who have a little, nearly half my time, to give
+to those who have nothing. And, would you believe it, some of the women
+begin to think they _must_ be provided for. Mrs. Cairns asked me to-day
+when the relief-store was going to open. She didn't see why there
+shouldn't always be something here like the parish relief in England.
+And when Mrs. Ray offered to take Josie this winter, and keep her in
+shoes for what she could do, and teach her a little, Mrs. Cairns said,
+'if she was worth any thing, she was worth more than that. She might
+have her for a dollar a week.'"
+
+"Such people ought to go hungry," declared Jane Morgan sharply.
+
+"I've been thinking," said Jack, who now raised his eyes slowly, "there
+is one thing you might help do; and, indirectly, it would be very
+serviceable to me. Sylvie, you know Kit Connelly's corner, as they
+always call it?"
+
+"Well, so it is: Mrs. Connelly earned the money that bought it, and I am
+glad she didn't let Dennis go on in business until he spent every cent
+of it. And oh, Jack! all we women of Yerbury ought to be doubly proud
+that she wouldn't let Den keep a beer-shop there, nor hire it to any one
+else."
+
+"I hope you are. I think Kit was pretty plucky to take the black eyes
+and the grumbling. It was a good job for her when Den went over to the
+Bowman House for hostler. So, of course, it has been shut up a year and
+a half. You know, two blocks down below, Keppler's door stands open for
+everybody, and so many of the mill-hands pass that way. It is so easy to
+run in and get a glass, and the men who bring their lunches go down for
+a mug of ale. It is a terrible temptation, and I wonder if they are not
+more easily tempted on an empty stomach? Well, I've been considering for
+some days if we could not start a coffee-house there,--set Kit up in
+business. I'm not going to fling a temperance-pledge right in every
+man's face,--for that makes them spiteful. I do not even want to exhort.
+But if we put it there,--right in their way,--and there was a nice fire
+in the evening, and maybe a book or two"--
+
+"Splendid, Jack! There's no such thing in Yerbury. Let's get about it
+right away!" and Sylvie sprang up, as if she would start at once.
+
+They all laughed.
+
+"There must be a little planning first. Mrs. Connelly is a bright,
+good-hearted creature, and can make good coffee; and Rose and Kathleen
+would make nice little maids. She stopped me to-night to inquire if
+there was any chance of their being taken in the mill. There must be
+some diversity of employment, or presently we shall all be doing the one
+thing again,"--and Jack smiled humorously. "Dennis gets low wages,
+Bernard is in the mill, and there are two younger boys. She takes in
+gentlemen's laundering, as you know. She was wishing she could rent out
+the store, but no one wants it. Now, if it could be altered into an
+attractive coffee-room, kept neat and bright, and--you will laugh at me,
+no doubt--but given a kind of style,--the cups clean and shining, the
+spoons decent, and some nice bread and butter for noon lunches. All this
+at a moderate price. The men pay five cents for their pint of ale, and
+it is often shared by two: they must not give more than three cents for
+their cup of coffee."
+
+"I suppose you mean that we are to plan it all out for her," said
+Sylvie, and she looked across at Miss Morgan.
+
+"It will not do to buy a pound of sugar and a pound of coffee at a
+time," said Jane concisely.
+
+"Then I will be the capitalist," promised Sylvie.
+
+"Exactly. Kit had better do this on some money that she must give an
+account of, and it will make her more careful. She owns a cow, so there
+is the milk. I should like this started quietly, not with a great blare
+of opposition to the dram-shops."
+
+"Well, what must we do first?" asked Sylvie.
+
+"I wish you and Jane would go down and call on her, and suggest the
+business. See how she takes it, and look around at the capabilities of
+the place. I will see to the fitting-up."
+
+They went, as desired. Mrs. Connelly--a round, rosy, buxom Irishwoman,
+with a mellow voice, laughing eye, and artist-red hair--was very much
+taken with their plan. "To turn an honest penny in these hard times, and
+not be wronging any one, would just suit the likes of her. And there was
+the store standing empty,--but it might stand till the crack o' doom
+afore she'd have a drop of rum sold in it. There never was a better man
+than Den when he was sober, and sure she'd had sorrow enough along wid
+drinking. And there was Barney growin' up, and the two smaller ones, and
+she'd never, never put a bit of temptation in their way."
+
+The store had been used for a meat-shop and green-grocery. Kit had sold
+the fixtures when she had been in sore need of money, so now it was a
+great bare room, with one large window and two small ones.
+
+"Sure I can scrub an' whitewash it myself, an' put clean curtains to the
+windows. And you're very good to think of such a thing, Miss Barry,--may
+the saints bless you! An' if Mr. Darcy will see to getting what is
+wanted, I'll do my very best to please you all."
+
+Sylvie blushed a little at taking the credit, but it was Jack's wish.
+Jack had a small portico built over the door-way, to keep out the cold
+in winter, and a neat sign put up, with but two words,--"Coffee-House."
+Sylvie and Miss Morgan ordered some cheap, small tables, some plain
+wooden chairs, and found two comfortable, old-fashioned, wooden settles.
+Then she collected old magazines and illustrated papers, and a rack was
+put up at one side for them. All the tables were covered with light
+marbled rubber-cloth, so that they would be kept fresh and sweet. The
+sugar and coffee were forthcoming. Kit could roast coffee to a turn. One
+Thursday evening the place was lighted up, and a few guests asked in;
+and the next day the fame of Kit Connelly's coffee-house began. Half the
+folks in Yerbury knew her and Dennis.
+
+Rose Connelly, who was just seventeen, a nice fresh-looking girl, was to
+keep the books, and take the money as she was quite a scholar. Several
+of the mill-hands went over immediately for their lunches. Such splendid
+wheat, rye, and Graham bread, spread already, and brought on a clean
+plate! A nice bite for three cents, and a solid meal for six. Sylvie was
+to go down now and then, of a morning, to keep matters straight.
+
+"There is one entering-wedge in the cause of temperance," she remarked,
+in her piquant way. "Only, Jack, it does not seem quite right for us
+women to take the credit of it. I confess, among all my plans, there has
+been nothing like this."
+
+"I would rather not be openly connected with it," and Jack made a queer
+little grimace. "By and by I may have to do some real fighting on my own
+account, and I don't want too many vulnerable points. Human nature is
+rather queer and cranky, as you have, no doubt, observed by this time."
+
+"But I do not see why any one should want to fight against your good
+work, Jack," said Sylvie, with an indignant flush. "I am sure it is no
+light undertaking to provide all these people with work; and everybody
+ought to strengthen your hands, instead of putting obstacles in the
+way."
+
+"I must be prepared for all things."
+
+Maverick was very enthusiastic over the coffee-house. It was a new
+institution in Yerbury. There had been in good times several so-called
+cheap lunch-rooms, but the fare was invariably poor.
+
+"Keppler will be your first enemy, and your worst one," said the doctor
+with a shrewd smile.
+
+"Very well. He must fight Miss Barry and Miss Morgan. I did send a man
+to do some work, but Miss Barry paid the bills. I keep my hands out of
+it altogether."
+
+"Good for you, Jack. And how does business progress?"
+
+"I am dubious," and Jack shook his head in a mock-serious way. "There is
+too much rose-color. Every thing works to a charm. Whether people really
+have learned something by the hard times, remains to be seen; but it
+looks so now. And we couldn't have a better working firm. Owen Cameron
+is the same kind of a man that Miss Morgan is for a woman, not stingy
+here and wasteful there, but a thorough-going economist. Every week he
+makes a little saving somewhere. It is what we needed to learn, badly
+enough. He manages to make the men understand that every penny saved is
+for the benefit of all, that a yard of cloth or a pound of wool spoiled
+is to the loss of all. And that is the only way to settle this business,
+this everlasting wrangle between labor and capital."
+
+Amos Hurd and Peter Yardley used to talk over the other scheme of a
+co-operative store. It would not do to have too many irons in the fire
+in such times as these, when no one had any great deal of money. But it
+did seem as if poor people were paying at the dearest rate for every
+thing, partly because they asked for trust, and the only man willing to
+trust them to any extent kept a very full line of second or third rate
+articles, but the prices did not always correspond.
+
+"Now, there's coal," said Yardley one evening. "At the trade-sale it
+went up ten cents a ton on the average. Our dealers here, who had their
+yards full, put up their prices from twenty to thirty cents. I know, on
+the other hand, if coal takes a sudden tumble, they may lose; but, after
+watching this thing for years, I find the prices go up five times with
+full yards, where they fall once. Now, I was thinking, when coal was
+bought for the mill, some extra car-loads might be ordered for the men."
+
+"Yes," and Hurd opened his eyes widely. "Let us talk to Darcy about it."
+
+Jack listened to their proposal with a sudden interest.
+
+"It will be some trouble to you," he answered. "It is not as thoroughly
+screened, and there is the delivering. The men cannot carry it home in
+market-baskets."
+
+"I don't know about the screening," said Yardley rather grimly. "When
+you clean up your bin, and find several bushels of sand and refuse out
+of five or six tons, you think half of it, at least, ought to have been
+good burning-coal. And in wholesale buying you get long tons."
+
+"I can do it as well as not," replied Jack. "In fact,"--laughingly,--"it
+will rather redound to my credit to order largely, and we have a
+somewhat extensive coal-shed. But you must look up one or two men who
+will cart it, and a man to screen; and, when you have counted up your
+labor, decide upon what price you can offer your coal. Perhaps it would
+be as well to canvass, and learn how many tons you can dispose of."
+
+The workmen had their own board of managers, of which Yardley had been
+elected president. They generally met every week, and now Yardley laid
+this matter before them. There would be an average saving, he thought,
+of two dollars on every ton, but the coal must be paid for in thirty
+days. If the men chose to leave one or two dollars every Monday night
+(for Darcy had wisely made Monday instead of Saturday pay-day) they
+might give in an order for one or two or even three tons.
+
+Meanwhile Peter Yardley found some thorns even in his path. A good,
+stout Irish lad was willing to do the screening at a dollar per day; but
+when he spoke to several carters, who were not busy half the time, to a
+man they stuck to their regular price, fifty cents per ton. Not one of
+them would work by the day.
+
+"I can fix that just right," declared one of the men. "My wife's brother
+has a heavy wagon and two mules. He used to do carting for the
+iron-mills, and since then he has had mostly catch-jobs. He owns a
+little place over on the creek-road; and I know he will be glad enough
+to do it, and maybe take part of his pay in coal."
+
+Seth Williams was hunted up. He would come, and bring his son who would
+help about loading, for two dollars and a half a day. There were
+seventy-odd tons subscribed for, but they decided to make their order
+one hundred tons. Coal was selling at six dollars and a half per ton at
+Yerbury. After due calculation, they offered theirs to the men at four.
+
+It came duly to hand. After the first day, Williams hired another team
+on his own account, and his son drove one to its destination, making
+thereby extra time. Before the seventy tons had been delivered, the
+remainder was bespoken. They found when it had all been disposed of, and
+their workmen paid, that they had counted very closely, but there was a
+small balance on hand. This was deposited in the bank as a nucleus for a
+co-operative store as soon as there might be sufficient capital to
+warrant it. This, at least, had been a success. So many of the poorer
+class of Yerbury were not able to pay for the last ton of coal until
+they ordered again, being always that much behind.
+
+Yardley was quite jubilant over his scheme.
+
+"You forget that in this you and Hurd have received nothing for your
+trouble," said Darcy. "Then," smilingly, "you have no bad debts to count
+out. Still only a philanthropist can do business this way. If you were
+the proprietor of a coal-yard, you could not afford it."
+
+"I think I have something for my trouble, Mr. Darcy," the man answered
+proudly. "I have saved ten dollars on my four tons of coal, and that
+surely pays me."
+
+They were doing moderately well at the mill. Several orders had come in
+from old buyers; and now Winston started out on a travelling tour, being
+admirably fitted for that part of the business. At the West he managed
+to talk two large wool-dealers into a trade; they taking cloth of
+various grades in exchange, and disposing of it to the best of their
+ability.
+
+"A regular old-fashioned barter," he wrote to Maverick. "It took a good
+deal of talking, to be sure, but I'm never the worse for that. They were
+pleased to get a fair price for their wool, and I lost nothing on my
+cloth. It clears out the stock, and keeps the men busy."
+
+Indeed, Hope Mills was doing a great thing for Yerbury. There was a
+brisker air on the streets, a kind of inspiring music in the whir and
+clatter, that spoke of food and warmth and raiment. Good feeling and
+sympathy had been touched; and though some of the workmen, who were
+harassed by back debts, looked rather ruefully at their small weekly
+pittance, still it was so much better than no money and no employment.
+
+At the Darcys they held what Sylvie laughingly called "symposiums." The
+churches were organizing their winter work, for there would be need
+enough. The few who had found employment merely made a ripple on the
+surface. Some who had stretched out their scanty means the past year now
+found themselves penniless. Others had tramped about the neighboring
+towns and cities, getting a few weeks' work here and there, but had no
+fancy for facing winter in this precarious manner. The hopeful feeling
+animating so many in the early autumn died out again. It was feared
+that we had not seen the worst of the panic.
+
+To Sylvie, who the preceding winter had been engrossed in art-studies
+and delightful social life, the want and misery were appalling. She and
+Miss Morgan did organize a visiting-society according to an idea of Dr.
+Maverick's; and though they alleviated many cases of distress, and were
+the better able to distinguish who were worthy, still they increased
+upon their hands.
+
+"I begin to realize that poor people do not make the best of their
+money," she said. "They do not know how to prepare dishes that shall be
+cheap and palatable. And, worst of all, many of them cannot cook a
+potato so that it shall be fit to eat."
+
+"The weak point of this world, Miss Sylvie," said Dr. Maverick. "When
+women learn to make good bread and cook potatoes, there will be a
+decrease of one-half in dyspepsia. Now, what is the secret of the
+potatoes? Come, air your ideas! Give me a recipe, and I will take it
+around among my patients. I advise them pretty generally to bake them,
+but I find some soggy and watery even then."
+
+"Overdone," said Miss Morgan briefly.
+
+"Well, state the exact time."
+
+The women looked at each other, and laughed.
+
+"From twenty minutes to half an hour," said Mrs. Darcy. "Some kinds boil
+easier than others. For baking, three-quarters to an hour."
+
+"But the infallible test?"
+
+"Watchfulness," said Jane.
+
+"I must admit that you seem to understand it thoroughly, judging from
+the specimens I have seen and eaten. But are you not a little chary in
+your information?" and he glanced from one to another.
+
+"Miss Morgan shall be first spokeswoman," declared Sylvie gayly.
+
+"If it is a boiled potato," began Jane sententiously, as if she were a
+child speaking a piece, "I put mine in the saucepan, and pour hot water
+over them, as they come to a boil sooner, taking care that they shall be
+as nearly of a size as possible. In about twenty minutes I try an
+average potato. If I can stick a fork through it nicely, it is done.
+Then I pour off the water, letting it drain until every drop is gone,
+when I shake up the lot two or three times rather hard and quick, stand
+them on the back of the stove with the cover partly off, so that the
+steam may escape; and you have a dry, light, flaky potato, unless it was
+irremediably bad to begin with. I have sometimes boiled new and rather
+small potatoes in twelve minutes over a good fire. But cooking, like
+liberty, has the same high price, eternal vigilance."
+
+Maverick laughed. "I shall remember this," he exclaimed. "You will yet
+hear of me teaching some of my poor patients to cook potatoes. Heaven
+knows there is enough need of it. Wasn't there some talk of a school for
+useful arts?"
+
+"Yes," answered Sylvie, "only there was no money to start with, and we
+have all been so busy."
+
+"What would be needed?"
+
+"_Imprimis_: a room, a cooking-stove, a fire, a cook, and some
+materials," replied Sylvie with merry audacity.
+
+How pretty and bright she was! He liked to watch her in these changeful
+moods. One great charm of this place was finding her here so frequently.
+
+"And Mr. Darcy has been so much engrossed with weightier matters," she
+continued in a half apology.
+
+"I really think I ought to be more interested in this question than Mr.
+Darcy. It supplements my work. While cheap living is an imperative
+necessity in times of depression and low wages, I cannot see why we do
+not make it more of a study. While we are so ready to copy the vices of
+our French neighbors, perhaps their virtues would do us no harm. A
+doctor often finds himself quite nonplussed by something in the
+preparation of the patient's diet. The old doctrine preached years ago,
+on St. Paul's text of 'keeping the body under,' has worked as much
+damage as the asceticism of the middle ages. A good healthy body is the
+first requisite everywhere; and to keep it so, every one's first duty.
+When men began to consider the body a poor, vile thing, to be treated
+with contumely, and fed with what would just sustain life, they offered
+an outrage to the highest work of God. When people think it is no matter
+what they eat, and that no pains need be taken in the preparation, they
+have made a big lapse toward heathenism. Confusion of the physical
+senses leads to confusion of the moral sense; and weak, miserable bodies
+with hysterical nerves, though they may dream dreams, and see visions,
+cannot do good healthy work in this world. And your poor people need a
+good deal of training on this subject. It must be made an honorable, not
+a despised, business. If I were to build houses, I should make the
+kitchens large, light, and pretty; and, if any room had to be small and
+uninviting, it should be that for the storage of the best furniture,"
+laughing humorously.
+
+"Yes," responded Jane Morgan, "I like to go into an old-fashioned
+country kitchen, with a nice painted floor, and braided rag rugs laid
+down here and there: with a grandmother's corner by a sunny window, and
+a father's chair by the wide, cheerful chimney-piece, and a place for
+the children to play, with plenty of room to get about. Apples and nuts
+always taste so good in such a place! Instead, we have a stuffy little
+kitchen and a cheerless dining-room, that no one wants to sit in, and
+every member of the family goes to his or her room, and sociability is
+at an end. Then we must go to theatres, lectures, and concerts, just to
+catch a glimpse of the members of our own family."
+
+"There is a good deal of truth in that," and the doctor nodded
+sagaciously. "And now I shall take steps for that school. I may count on
+you, Miss Morgan, may I not, and Miss Barry?"
+
+They both promised.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+MEANWHILE what had befallen Fred Lawrence?
+
+He had been greatly shocked at his father's death. True, the tender,
+intense affection that had so sweetened childhood seemed to have died
+out; when they might have attained to an enduring friendship, they had
+gone separate ways, missing the exquisite sympathy that should have
+existed between them. Whether the distance was any disappointment to his
+father, he had never thought. He was the only son of the house, and his
+slightest wish had always been gratified. There had been no wretched
+vices that sap body and soul, nothing to bring dishonor on the old pure,
+family name; and, if David Lawrence missed something that he had hardly
+longed for, he still felt proud of his son.
+
+But his son, bending over the coffined face, was stunned, paralyzed. Of
+this death he had never thought. Was it not rather a frightful dream?
+
+The sharp reality followed fast enough. He listened, still bewildered by
+the horrible visions that crowded upon him. Hope Mills closed, notes
+going to protest, workmen clamoring for pay, Mr. Eastman quite out of
+reach, indeed, no one knew just where.
+
+Mr. Minor did not spare his father-in-law. How could he trust every
+thing to Horace Eastman! How could he allow George to go on unchecked in
+such a career of wild speculation! forgetting that he had speculated
+quite as wildly. And now all the property was covered with mortgages,
+and not a dollar to be squeezed out of any thing. As for the bank
+business, that he sneered at. Let them look to the Eastmans. They might
+have known that a small manufacturing town like Yerbury could not stand
+such galloping progress. In his heart of hearts he thought George and
+Horace rather clever fellows to get away before the crash began. And if
+David Lawrence had only managed to provide well for his family,--his
+manifest duty,--the rest might have gone without a sigh, such trifles as
+notes and wages.
+
+Fred Lawrence he looked upon as a baby. Indeed, Fred was of but little
+use in settling the business, much more plague than profit, since he
+stood up stoutly for his father's honor and integrity. He had that much
+of a son's love. And he characterized Horace Eastman's villany as it
+deserved: his education had not quite done away with his moral sense in
+such matters.
+
+"Here for five years your father has given him a clean sweep with every
+thing! If you thrust temptation right in a man's way, what can you
+expect?"
+
+"His honesty would not be of a very high order if it could withstand no
+temptation," Fred answered rather scornfully. "It was necessary for
+father to travel in the interests of the business. He surely could not
+stay here to watch him. And you thought well of Eastman."
+
+"No man would play _me_ such rascally tricks! There is no telling what
+he has done! Books can be doctored to look very fair."
+
+But they found enough. Pay-rolls for men kept up long after they had
+been discharged, and many who had never been at all; systematic
+falsifications that could not be brought to light without a rigid
+inspection and comparison by an expert. But Hamilton Minor felt, with
+the world's wisdom, that bringing the Eastmans back as criminals would
+not be likely to lead to any restoration; while it would prove a family
+disgrace, and perhaps add Gertrude to the list of dependent ones.
+
+"It makes me heart-sick!" declared Fred. "There is nothing but
+selfishness and hollowness and greed. Are truth and honor quite dead?"
+
+"Very fine talk, my young friend," said Minor in a sneering tone; "but
+the question that more nearly concerns you is how you are all going to
+live, granting even that there may be enough to pay the debts. Of course
+this great house cannot be kept afloat. You had better discharge some of
+the servants, and retrench while you do remain in it."
+
+Then had followed the talk with Agatha, when matrimony was proposed as a
+certain and sure remedy for these present ills: a cure the young man
+disdained with anger.
+
+Mrs. Lawrence kept to her room, and was too ill to listen to business
+details, even if she could have helped in any way, which she could not.
+She fancied now, like many another woman, that her husband had been her
+only delight in life, and that there was nothing left. When Agatha
+suggested that she had been very short-sighted to consent to mortgaging
+Hope Terrace, she cried, and said "she would have given up every thing
+for him, and now that he was gone she wanted no fortune,--she should
+never leave her room again until she was carried."
+
+If there had been any bright little Sylvie to run in and comfort her!
+any strong-hearted, tender woman, to whom he could turn! He seemed now
+to realize more keenly what he had lost, than on the night Sylvie
+rejected him. And that other strong, manly soul--no, bitterly as he
+might regret, he could no more go back to him than to Sylvie.
+
+He roused himself, and began his work, utterly astounded at the
+extravagance that met him on every side. No doubt it looked right enough
+when there was plenty of money; but it seemed now as if the servants had
+been masters and mistresses, that all these luxuries existed for their
+sake,--the gardens and graperies, the greenhouses with their wealth of
+costly flowers; the horses standing idle in the stable, with only
+servants to use them; his father a plain man, his mother confined mostly
+to two or three rooms, and occasional visitors; supplies ordered
+lavishly, and wasted in a manner that seemed wicked even to him. He
+wondered in a vague way if the system was not radically wrong that
+brought such waste and carelessness in vogue, when hundreds had not the
+necessities of life. He remembered one talk his father had with Horace
+Eastman over in the library yonder, with champagne and cigars between
+them, in the height of one of the strikes, and how Eastman had figured
+to a penny the exact percentage of wages the mill could afford to pay.
+What if _they_ had given up a little of their luxury, and _he_ his
+ill-gotten gains!
+
+He had the pictures packed under his supervision, and sent to New York.
+Not without a pang; for many of them he had selected, and each one had
+some pleasant reminder. The choice collection of the greenhouse was
+offered for sale, the elegant furniture, and all the most valuable of
+the personal property. Times were hard, and sales were slow; but there
+would be sufficient realized, it was thought, to pay the floating
+indebtedness. Hope Terrace and the mills would probably go for the
+mortgages. There was a small life-insurance settled upon Mrs. Lawrence,
+and the children would be fortuneless.
+
+By spring the estate was in a fair way of settlement. Fred had vibrated
+between the city and Yerbury all winter, but his mother had been taken
+to Mrs. Minor's. A gardener and his wife were placed in charge of the
+house, while efforts were being made to rent it. A few rooms had not
+been disturbed.
+
+And now Frederic De Woolfe Lawrence looked about him to see what could
+be done. Up to this time he had never given himself an anxious thought
+about money or his future. Now it stared him unpleasantly in the face.
+What could _he_ do?
+
+Many things, he said at first, with the buoyant certainty of youth and
+inexperience. Here was his education, his talents, his fine mental
+training. Surely he had the magical open-sesame of some door.
+
+So he set to work industriously, and wrote several articles on the
+history and the philosophy of the pure sciences. Very fine-drawn indeed,
+very intellectual and analytical, as he went through the different
+schools of thought, being able, it seemed to him, to argue as well for
+the one side as for the other. Then he tried Neo-Platonism with its
+profoundly mystical aspects and its brilliant array of philosophers, its
+fascinating aspects of Pantheism. The new world and to-day had nothing
+for him; the dead and gone past, every thing.
+
+Alas! From every side he heard the cry, Literature had been overdone. No
+one would buy, no one would read, in this great turmoil. Everybody wrote
+now, schoolgirls, college-fledglings: even small farmers and mechanics,
+with the training of the present and a smattering of knowledge, set up
+for geniuses.
+
+One advised him to try the realistic school: the old-time philosophies
+had lost the high place they once held, and to gain the attention of
+to-day writers must have snap and vim. Another recommended popular
+science made easy and attractive to general readers, something that
+caught at the first glance. Life was too short to be devoting years to
+any one branch of study. Still another was fain to persuade him to
+attack the pernicious systems and monstrous abuses of the present day.
+Then he stumbled over Crosby, one of his college-chums and a member of
+the L---- Club, where he had been a frequent and welcome visitor the
+winter before.
+
+"My dear fellow," said he, with patronizing good-nature, "take my
+advice, and let literature alone. It is one of the most uncertain
+things. To-day you may suit, to-morrow a chap comes along with some new
+fandango or summersault of high art, and the world leaves everybody to
+run after him, and you are thrown over. A man cannot earn his salt
+unless he has the _entree_ of the initiated ring. As for journalism, you
+may hammer at that for twenty years before you get a position."
+
+Poor Fred went back to his room sorely depressed. It was a quiet, clean
+room in a second-rate hotel, for which he paid twelve dollars a week.
+There he sat and brooded, until taking up the paper one morning he saw
+the arrival of one of his old professors at the "Grand Union." Perhaps
+he might put him in the way of something. So he plucked up heart, and
+went to call.
+
+Professor Dennison received him very cordially, and expressed the
+warmest sympathy for the loss of his father and his fortune. He listened
+attentively to the young man's desires, and answered in suavest of
+tones.
+
+There were so many applications: every avenue seemed full. Young lawyers
+and doctors, finding no opening, had gone back to teaching, and the
+college-graduates of every year swelled this number. He would bear it in
+mind, and see what he could do; but he advised his young friend not to
+build too high hopes. "If I could make a place I should put you in it at
+once," he said kindly, just as he said it to a dozen others.
+
+It was so everywhere. There were no copyists, translators, or writers
+needed. The clerkships were overcrowded. It was not that there were too
+many doing one thing, but everything,--too many people in the world.
+Could the Malthusian doctrine be right, after all?
+
+He dropped into his brother-in-law's office one morning, and, though he
+hated to ask a favor of him, discussed in a rather fragmentary and
+abashed way the possibility of getting any thing to do; and a fortnight
+after, Mr. Minor sent him word of a broker who wanted a clerk, salary
+fifty dollars per month.
+
+It was better than nothing. Then, too, it was a beginning, although he
+could imagine more congenial employments. It did not look much like hard
+times, to note the immense amount of stocks and bonds that passed
+through the hands of this great house.
+
+Just at this period Irene returned. A fine, stately girl, with the
+indescribable air that foreign society gives. Yet she seemed haughty,
+bitter, and satirical; and it came out presently that she and Gertrude
+had quarrelled over a possible husband, and the amiable Gertrude had
+taunted her with dependence in the future. Irene had sold some diamonds,
+and travelled on the proceeds.
+
+"I think you were very short-sighted, Irene," said Mrs. Minor when she
+had drawn this story out of her sister. "A handsome American girl does
+stand a better chance for matrimony abroad than here. So many fortunes
+have been lost in the panic, and certainly I cannot blame these men for
+choosing heiresses. You have been in society a great deal here, and you
+will find fresh young girls beginning to crowd you out. Fred has
+nothing, and from present indications will hardly be able to take care
+of himself. It was such a misfortune that papa had every thing
+mortgaged! So Gertrude was right," in a bitterly suave tone: "you must
+be dependent upon some one until you do marry."
+
+"Oh, no! I might set up millinery,--with my taste and aptitude for
+arrangement. I think I have read of reduced young women who made
+fortunes in that line," retorted Irene the queenly, in her unmoved way.
+She was not one to cry out at a dagger-thrust.
+
+"Don't be a fool!" advised Mrs. Minor, in a short, incisive tone.
+
+She, like most other people, had meant to economize this summer; but now
+she made a sudden start for Newport. Irene certainly was peerless in her
+half-mourning, with her statuesque figure. But there was not an eligible
+at Newport, so they turned their steps Saratoga-ward. And here they
+found an old admirer of Mrs. Minor's, Gordon Barringer, a widower for
+the second time, the owner of a silver-mine and a railroad, and Heaven
+alone knew the length and breadth of his possessions.
+
+Miss Agatha Lawrence had turned up her aristocratic nose at him, as a
+rather coarse and self-assured person, as proud of his want of education
+as other men were of its acquirement. Now he was about forty, stout,
+high-colored, loud of voice, and with an important swagger. But money
+had given "our enterprising citizen" power, and he both understood and
+wielded it skilfully.
+
+His wife had been dead barely six months, but when he met Irene Lawrence
+he decided at once that the penniless beauty would be only too glad to
+marry him. He was proud to think he could afford to be so magnanimous.
+Mrs. Minor settled herself to the fact that there must be no foolish
+dallying. Of course Irene _would_ see. She could not be so idiotically,
+so fatally blind!
+
+I do not know that at this period of her life Irene Lawrence had any
+ideal. She had made conquests so easily, she had found men so much
+alike, and in her secret heart she despised them for being so ready to
+kneel and bow at beauty's shrine. It seemed to her as if youth and
+fortune were alike boundless; and she literally took no thought for the
+morrow, until the tidings of her father's death was followed by the
+subsequent news of loss of fortune.
+
+If George Eastman had a self-conviction that he and his cousin had
+contributed to this downfall, he tried to make it up to Irene in
+brotherly kindness and generous expenditure where money was concerned.
+He solaced himself with the thought that, after all, he had no more than
+his own, or what should have been his own rightfully, though he fancied
+he could not have gone on to the end quite as Horace had.
+
+When Sir Christopher Frodsham came across the two ladies in Paris,
+Gertrude exulted at the easy conquest. A man of fifty, whose young years
+and health had been spent in sowing a plentiful crop of wild oats, but
+to whom had come now, quite unexpectedly, a fortune and a title; and
+prosperity, after years of rather bitter economy, made him miserly, as
+it not unfrequently does such men. That he would have been glad to marry
+this young, beautiful girl, for himself alone, was most true. And Irene,
+in the bewilderment of the losses, inclined to his proposal, and begged
+time for consideration.
+
+He was not a man she could admire, respect, or love. He was narrow,
+egotistical, selfish, and with the pitiful vanity of a worn-out _roue_.
+Frodsham Park was in a lonely, mountainous part of England, bordering on
+Wales; and this man would look upon his wife as a nurse and companion,
+and the mother of an heir.
+
+There must have been a little strain of heroism in the girl. Suddenly,
+in one of those quick, vivid flashes, like mental lightning, she saw
+that she could not do this thing. She was not at all given to analysis;
+she had never dissected her own soul, or that of her neighbors; but she
+arrived at one of those swift, clear verdicts,--she could not marry Sir
+Christopher; and she told him so, with a frankness a trifle tenderer,
+perhaps, than she had used with her lovers heretofore, as if some way
+she had wronged him in thought.
+
+Over this, as I said, she and Gertrude had bitter words and a parting.
+Now the same thing stared her in the face again. This lover was too
+obtuse to be stung by the fine arts of coquetry that lengthened practice
+had brought to perfection. In all the bravery of self-assertion, he did
+not know when he was beaten; and so he fought against the intangible
+spear-points with which Miss Lawrence could surround herself.
+
+Mr. Barringer was called to New York on important business law-suits;
+and two days after, Mrs. Minor declared herself wearied out with
+Saratoga. Irene felt the walls of fate closing remorselessly about her.
+Why should she struggle? she asked herself. After all, what could she do
+but marry?
+
+Meanwhile, Hope Mills had been sold. Fred made some inquiries about it.
+
+"A woman--a rich old maid, I believe, by name McLeod, who knows enough
+to drive a sharp bargain--has taken it. Some one is to set up the
+business, I heard; an impecunious nephew, no doubt. No one but a fool
+would make a venture when the market is overstocked with goods. It is a
+shame that the estate had to lose such a valuable piece of property; but
+there was no income to pay taxes and interest, and, standing empty, it
+would soon have eaten itself up."
+
+Fred sighed. For the first time, he wondered how it would have ended if
+he had been brought up to some useful business, and perhaps have taken
+Eastman's place with his father. As for stock and share jobbing, he was
+heartily sick of it. To him it appeared an immense system of swindling
+the ignorant and unsuspecting.
+
+However, he was not destined to nurse his disgust very long in brooding
+silence. The last of September the great house of Bristol, Stokes, &
+Co., collapsed. The wreck was unexpected, the ruin wide-spread. The
+house of Minor & Morgan was hard hit, which did not improve Mr. Minor's
+temper, though, Spartan-like, he wore a cheerful face, and kept his
+losses to himself. Even if it should be his turn next, the world must
+not know it.
+
+"There's a letter that concerns you, though it was sent to me as
+administrator," said Minor to Fred, as he sauntered in one morning,
+tossing the missive over to him.
+
+Fred opened it with languid indifference, and his eye wandered over the
+following lines:--
+
+          HAMILTON MINOR, ESQ.
+
+          _Dear Sir_,--On taking possession of Hope Mills,
+          for business purposes, I find some personal
+          property belonging to the late Mr. Lawrence. It
+          may have a value for the family, and shall be at
+          your disposal whenever you desire it. Respectfully
+          yours,
+
+                                                 JOHN DARCY.
+
+"As soon as Hope Terrace is disposed of, the accounts can be audited and
+settled," said Minor in a sharp, business-like way. "The debts have all
+come in, and been paid dollar for dollar; though, if your father had
+been a prudent man, he would have made sure of something for his family.
+No one expects estates to pay more than fifty per cent nowadays."
+
+Fred rose, and crushed Jack Darcy's note in his pocket, holding himself
+proudly, while his cheek flushed.
+
+"I am very thankful," in a clear, cold tone. "My father's life was pure
+and honorable, and no man can fling a stone at his grave. I would rather
+be penniless, as I am, than have it otherwise."
+
+"Oh! very well, very well," sneeringly.
+
+Fred walked out of the office, and turned into Broadway. The same
+curious, restless, hurrying throng. Where were they all going? Did they
+find room and work? How clearly the sun shone! The sky was so blue, with
+great drifts of white floating about,--strange barques on a mystical
+sea. In spite of the outside roar and rush, there was a solemn and
+awesome stillness within him. He began to feel how entirety alone he
+stood. A twelvemonth ago there were hosts of friends pulling him hither
+and yon, proposing this and that, laughing and chatting gayly. Where
+were they now? Not all weak and false, but the shadow of circumstances
+had drifted them apart. We do not always cease to love or like when
+separation ensues; and in this shifting, changing life, people drop out,
+yet are not quite forgotten. Some of the young fellows whom fortune had
+buffeted had found a place in active, stirring life: he, with his
+education, refinement, accomplishments, and talent, was merely a piece
+of driftwood. Sylvie Barry had been right,--he was a useless appendage
+to the world. Ah, no wonder she despised him! Sturdy, honest Jack Darcy
+could find a place. His self-complacency was more than touched,--it was
+shattered, completely broken up. The present was blank and colorless,
+the future like a thick mist in which there penetrated not one ray of
+light. What did all his elaborate philosophies for him now?--art, that
+was to regenerate the world; science, that explained and refined, and
+found a place and a reason for every thing in the universe; man, the
+most important of all. And here he was, tossed aside like a weed. Who
+cared whether his nature was foul or kinglike? He was, in truth, one of
+the atoms floating about in space, and finding no use or purpose. The
+world could go on just as well without him. Why, if he should drop
+himself over into the river, there would be only a ripple. He laughed,
+as if his personality was something that did not really belong to him,
+that could be put off at will, that was, in truth, answerable to no
+power. All of life, then, had been a lie!
+
+He stumbled onward blindly. A sense of dreary mystery crept over
+him,--an utter hopelessness. He essayed to stretch out his hand to some
+passer-by, but the careless faces mocked him. There was no strength or
+stay. He could not even cry out with his anguish,--it was a dumb,
+inarticulate voice. All his idols had been destroyed, and there was no
+God to cry to!
+
+His last three weeks' salary had gone down in Bristol & Co.'s ruin.
+There were some jewels to sell, a few more pictures, several sets of
+rare books, and--what then?
+
+Starvation had appeared so utterly improbable in this great, thriving
+world, and here he was, almost face to face with it,--he who had never
+taken an anxious thought about any thing, who had felt as if he really
+honored money by the spending of it. A beggar! An object of charity to
+Hamilton Minor!
+
+No, that should never be. He tried to rouse himself from his lethargy.
+He went around to stores and offices where he was not known, and asked
+for something to do, as if in a curious masquerade. The same answer
+everywhere. Nothing! The sun went slowly down, the street-lamps were
+lighted. Every inch of his body ached with the long tramp and nervous
+exhaustion. He had eaten nothing since breakfast, but he was not hungry.
+What if he did steal quietly over to the river, and end it all?
+
+The desperation was hardly black enough for that. Somewhere near
+midnight he strolled home: how much longer would there be a home, he
+wondered?
+
+He thrust his hand in his pocket, and the bit of folded paper struck
+sharp against his fingers, so he drew it out. Hardly the familiar
+school-boy scrawl: Jack used to hate writing, he remembered. This had a
+decisive force about it. How odd that business-like "John" looked!
+"Jack!" He uttered the name aloud, and a thrill seemed to warm his
+frozen heart,--to stir emotions most contradictory. A sense of shame
+predominated, tingling his very finger-ends, crimsoning his pale cheeks,
+and stinging his soul with a sense of utter humiliation. He had prided
+himself so much upon the immaculate honor of his life, and lo! here he
+stood, self-convicted of one of the basest of sins,--broken faith. Not
+from any sudden, hot dispute, not from a knowledge of deception or any
+small meanness, but deliberate, well-considered treachery. It would have
+been manlier had he said to Jack, "Our ways lie apart, and in the future
+we shall meet so seldom, it is hardly worth while to keep up a pretence
+of friendship." He had skulked away instead, kept out of sight,--basely
+shunned the strong, tender soul that had helped to make a peevish
+boyhood sunny and bright.
+
+Black as this ingratitude looked to him now, he experienced a strange
+and intense desire to see his olden friend once more. What was he doing
+at Hope Mills? Had he found a place?
+
+The next morning's mail brought him a check for sixty dollars, for an
+article he had thought little of himself, and sent merely because he had
+happened to finish it, and was despatching his ventures out on the sea
+of chance. Then he went over to Mrs. Minor's: he had not seen his mother
+for several days.
+
+He was quite in the habit of going directly up to her room; but, as he
+neared it, he heard voices raised in no gentle discussion. Agatha stood
+in the middle of the room, flushed, angry, an open note in her hand;
+Mrs. Lawrence was weeping hysterically, while Irene sat pale and sullen,
+but her eyes gleaming with a dangerous fire.
+
+"Very well: if you deliberately decide to take a beggar's portion, then,
+do not look to me for any further help," said Mrs. Minor. "This marriage
+would have afforded you every luxury; and you have thrown aside the
+chance, like a silly school-girl. Perhaps you _have_ some secret,
+favored lover!" and the glittering eyes might have annihilated a weaker
+woman than Irene Lawrence.
+
+"If I had, I should go to him. I would live on crusts and a cup of cold
+water with him, rather than luxury," with a bitter, stinging emphasis,
+"and my own humiliation. The man would drive me mad, Agatha! Some day,
+yielding to an irresistible impulse, I should murder him;" and she gave
+a shrill, unnatural laugh.
+
+Fred went over to her, and took her hand. His business in life was to be
+her champion, her defender, her support,--not only against this
+monstrous marriage, at which her soul revolted, but Agatha's sneers and
+flings, and the dependence a proud soul must naturally feel when the
+very bread turns to ashes in one's mouth. How it was to be done, he
+could not tell at that moment; but he drew one long breath of honest,
+hopeful manliness, and resolved to leave no stone unturned.
+
+His mother wept in his comforting arms. She was very much
+shattered,--quite an old woman long before her time, made so by the
+follies of an indolent, enervating life. Like a pang the thought pierced
+his brain, that for these paltry results his father had given the
+strength and labor of manhood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+THERE were a few faint hints of autumn in Yerbury. The air was warm, and
+freighted with the peculiar sweetness of over-ripe grapes and apples, of
+dried balsam and faded golden-rod by the wayside. The very air seemed to
+quiver with intense contrasts of color, the yellow beeches standing out
+in strong relief, the bronze-red of one great oak, the bluish-green of
+the spruce, and the tender tints of fading, long-armed larches, drooping
+in regretful sadness. Lights of silvery gray and russet-brown, pale gold
+and hazy purple, and a sapphire sky bending over all. The artistic side
+of Fred Lawrence's soul was touched as he had once fancied nothing this
+side of Europe could touch it.
+
+For a moment a mighty rush of regret came over him. This magnificent
+place had been his home. Perhaps he would have been more than human not
+to have experienced a pang.
+
+He wandered about for some time. It was too lovely to go in and explore
+those dusty, darkened rooms: this evening would answer for that. He
+paced the lawn, he lingered by the gate; he took a turn about the
+grapery, now used for profit by the thrifty farmer who had charge of the
+place. Then he turned, and went down the street. The bells were ringing
+for six. From his height above, he could see the laborers wending their
+way, the great chimney of Hope Mills. He would walk in that direction.
+They would all be gone by the time he reached it.
+
+The streets were indeed nearly deserted. In the shade here the wind
+blew a little chilly. Yes, it was just the same; but then, it would not
+be likely to alter in a year. Why, it seemed a decade almost, since the
+night he had come home to his dying father!
+
+Ah, if they had been more to each other! Did he go about with a lonely
+spirit, Fred wondered, feeling the uselessness and insufficiency of the
+life he was leading? Had he been glad to lay the burthen down?
+
+A sudden firm, manful step ran down the stone stairway with a cheerful
+ring, and a voice hummed a tune softly, as one sometimes does for a
+seeming accompaniment, when the mind is occupied with other things;--a
+tall, robust figure, with long arms, and a springy step, as if he might
+still leap a post, or jump the creek. He was rushing off, when,
+curiously enough, with no other motive than an impulse, he turned, and
+saw an almost motionless figure.
+
+Whether he would send for the articles belonging to his father, or visit
+Hope Mills in person, risking a sight of Jack Darcy, or whether he would
+summon courage enough to ask for his old friend, were matters that Fred
+had put off for to-morrow's decision. Why he had wandered here at all,
+amazed him now; and he stood quite breathless at the unexpected
+apparition, without power to move or speak.
+
+If he had still been in the high tide of prosperity, Jack would have
+passed him by silently, but with no rudeness. Something in the bent
+head, the pale face, the general melancholy attitude, came home to his
+heart,--his fresh, generous, magnanimous heart. He ventured a step
+nearer, he put out his hand.
+
+"Fred, old fellow!"
+
+The rich, full voice might have melted any heart. The frank, honest eyes
+lighted with wonderful tenderness: there was a glow and earnestness that
+could come only from a large, forgiving soul, capable of putting by its
+own sense of pain or any past discomfiture.
+
+Fred Lawrence crimsoned to the very edge of his hair, to the farthest
+depths of his soul. He would have taken the hand: then he drew back with
+a gesture of self-reproach, as if he could tread his past sinful pride
+in the dust.
+
+"Let's forget the bygones," the hearty young fellow began, "that is, if
+you would like to have it so," drawing back a trifle to give him his
+choice as a delicate woman might have done.
+
+"Thank you, Jack," grasping the warm, firm hand in his own pale, cold
+one, and raising his soft dark eyes, so near to tears. Just now no other
+words would come.
+
+Jack drew the hand through his arm. "I've thought of you so many times,"
+he began, as if they had parted the best of friends. "It has been a sad
+year for many, doubly so for you."
+
+"Sad indeed. O Jack!"
+
+It was all uttered in the long tremulous swell of voice that tells the
+whole story.
+
+"Yes."
+
+With that, their friendship was renewed. Women might have fallen into
+each other's arms with expressions of penitence and forgiveness; but
+they had said their say, as was characteristic of both.
+
+"Were you coming in?" and Darcy turned back as he asked the question.
+
+"No: I only reached Yerbury an hour or so ago on a little business. Some
+remembrance of old time brought me hither."
+
+"I am glad it did. Shall we walk down Main Street? Are you staying at
+Hope Terrace?"
+
+"I shall be for a few days."
+
+A silence fell between them. There was no one else in the street; and
+their steps sounded with a steady tramp, as if they might walk on to
+some definite end.
+
+"Jack, dear old friend, after requiting your tender love to my exacting
+and selfish boyhood with a pitiless treachery that will always shame my
+manhood, I wonder if I dare ask it back, if I dare come to you."
+
+"There is nothing to give back. I do believe I have kept up a sort of
+girlish hankering for you. And now, if I can do any thing, if you are in
+any perplexity"--
+
+"Come up to Hope Terrace, and take tea with me. I want to talk to you
+all the evening. You have just the same mesmeric strength that used to
+soothe me when a boy. What a milk-and-water cub I must have been! I
+wonder you did not throw me over."
+
+Jack laughed.
+
+"Let us turn back to Kit Connelly's, and I can send a message home, so
+that mother will not keep tea waiting."
+
+That done, they strolled on together the same path by which Fred had
+come. The sun had dropped down behind the hill, and the glowing tints
+had faded to purple-black and indistinct grays. They wound around the
+hills, and came up to the very gate where their last good-by had been
+uttered. And Fred remembered then that this was the first time Jack had
+shared the hospitality of Hope Terrace, now when it was no longer his.
+
+Mrs. Milroy gave them some supper in a pretty little apartment which had
+been the servants' parlor, and was now hers. Then they went up to Fred's
+room, which had been opened and aired. Some of its choicest belongings
+had been taken away, but another than Fred would not have remarked this.
+And here they renewed the remembrances of the years that had fallen
+between.
+
+"It seems cowardly to come to you in trouble, and to take so large a
+share of your sympathy again," Fred said with his good-night. "But you
+always were so strong and earnest."
+
+He went down to the mill the next day, and was much interested in the
+working of Jack's plans.
+
+"You found your place," he said with a curious intonation, as if he half
+envied the man before him.
+
+"Yet in all truth I should not have chosen this," Jack answered with
+honest gravity. "But, when I found circumstances would keep me here, I
+resolved to work at it persistently and faithfully; and I learned in it
+the larger lesson of the true dignity of labor. If I should solve my
+problem successfully, I can ask no more. Five years is a long while when
+you count the days," and he smiled.
+
+"You will succeed, I know. You have just that mastery over every thing."
+
+Jack finally persuaded Fred to come down to the well-remembered cottage,
+and see his mother. Mrs. Darcy would have welcomed her bitterest enemy
+if Jack had desired her to.
+
+All this time Jack was thinking whether he could do his old friend a
+good turn. He hated to offer him any subordinate position in the mill.
+At present he could attend to the book-keeping. Then he heard there was
+to be a change at the paper-mills, and went over. They wanted a clerk
+and foreman, one with taste enough to select pretty designs, and who
+could keep books.
+
+"I do not know as you would like it, Fred," he continued with some
+hesitation in his cheery tones.
+
+"I have been a dawdler long enough, and I have had a bitter experience
+in finding _any thing_ to do. I shall be glad to take it, and you may
+believe I will try my best. Many, many thanks for your kind interest."
+
+There had been a sharp, short struggle in Fred's soul. He would rather
+have gone elsewhere, where he was not known. But if fate had resolved to
+bring him back to Yerbury, if she had offered him bread here, while it
+had been stones elsewhere, he would certainly be a fool to starve for
+pride's sake. Some wholesome ideas had found lodgement in his brain,
+along with the Greek myths and synthetic philosophies. If he could not
+astonish the world with brilliant reasoning, he might at least get his
+own living.
+
+He went back to the city, and discussed the project with his mother and
+Irene. She had a tender longing for her son: to be with him would afford
+her greater satisfaction than the magnificence of her daughter's house.
+Irene consented stonily. It was burying herself alive, but then no one
+would torment her with hateful marriages. To stay here with Agatha was
+simply unendurable.
+
+Mrs. Minor made no further comment than to say she did not think her
+mother could be kept as comfortable. Irene was her own mistress.
+
+So Fred Lawrence went back to Yerbury and work. It was an altogether new
+undertaking. He had no business training and no experience, except his
+desultory two months in Bristol's office. Yet from the very first day
+there was something that interested him here, although for awhile the
+smells, the dust and disorder, half sickened him. As for any wound to
+his pride, he felt that less because the whole world seemed to have
+taken a general overturn. Half of the elegant houses in the neighborhood
+of Hope Terrace were for sale, and shut up. Expensive country mansions
+to be used for a few summer months were quite beyond present incomes. A
+month at the seaside cost much less. Costly scientific, or rather
+unscientific gardening,--since the true aim of science must be the best
+adjustment of power to the desired result,--graperies, green-houses,
+henneries standing empty, the money lavished upon them so much waste
+material at present,--where had the wealth gone to so suddenly? He could
+not understand the rapid and wide-spread ruin. Even of themselves,--how
+was it that for years there should be no stint, but absolute
+wastefulness, and then nothing at all?
+
+He was so new to any business results, that he seemed like a child
+groping in the dark. And here was Jack Darcy, with his academy training
+merely, managing one of the great problems of the day, taking hold
+manfully to right the wrongs brought about by selfishness and utter
+disregard for one's neighbor. Had Plotinus struck the grand key-note
+when he said he "was striving to bring the God within us in harmony with
+the God of the universe"? For might there not be false gods within?
+
+He found he had not much time for abstruse speculations, which was all
+the better for his mental health. After enduring the dirt and disorder
+of the office for a week, he set about remedying that. He might not be
+able to regenerate the world, but he could make one little room decent.
+The office-boy and the scrub-woman were called in; the desks and shelves
+were cleared of the accumulation of months, and presented quite an
+orderly aspect. He found his hands blistered by the rough handling, but
+the reward was a wholesome hunger and a good night's sleep. Not quite as
+entertaining, perhaps, as a scramble in the Sierras or the Alps, but
+productive of as beneficial results.
+
+Then there was a home to be found. Living at Hope Terrace on a thousand
+a year would hardly be possible, even if it could be had rent free. So
+he asked Mrs. Darcy's advice about the matter, and she proposed a pretty
+cottage,--there were so many standing empty. It seemed very queer to be
+counselling this proud, sad-eyed young man, who a year or two ago had
+hardly deigned to look at them. Yet, like Jack, she still held a tender
+feeling for the pretty, enthusiastic boy she remembered.
+
+There had been in his mind a great struggle about Sylvie. He knew now
+that she belonged to Jack. That thorough manliness and integrity, that
+earnest, unflinching soul, the rich, generous temperament that could be
+so tender to weakness, so forgiving to wrong, was the soul of her ideal
+hero. And he had dared to offer her his poor, paltry affectation of
+love! Blinded by his own arrogant self-esteem, he had spurned the pure
+pearl, and taken the empty, glittering shell to her as the kind of
+treasure he was satisfied to deal in.
+
+How thoroughly he despised himself! It was such a keen, bitter
+humiliation! Not only that he had aspired to her, but that he should
+have misrepresented and traduced Jack, not from an overwhelming passion
+of jealousy,--that might be pardoned,--but a shallow, overweening vanity
+of wealth and position.
+
+"She shall see that I have learned to respect and honor him!" he said to
+himself with an intensity of regret that was very honest and real. "If I
+can never regain her esteem, I shall at least try for my old place in
+his regard."
+
+They found a pretty, convenient cottage, quite on the opposite side of
+Yerbury, suiting Fred much better than to be near his old friends. The
+furniture was brought over from the great house; and, though it had
+seemed but odds and ends there, it was amply sufficient. Irene's piano
+and some of the old family silver had been saved out of the wreck, a few
+of the less expensive pictures, and sufficient books to form quite a
+library. Fred really enjoyed arranging and planning. It was quite a
+matter of astonishment to him, that rules of art and harmony were needed
+at every step: if he could not make them remunerative in a written
+article, he could put them in practice here.
+
+He kept much to himself, being busy in the office during the day, and at
+home in the evening. He was sick of society, of the world in general. He
+had met Maverick a few times, but he shrank from strangers. Mrs. Darcy's
+tender, unobtrusive motherliness, he enjoyed, but he did not dare to
+accept much of it. The duties of his life were marked out plainly before
+him, and he must not swerve from the path. It was to be a kind of
+neutral tint, twilight rather than sunshine; and the joys he might come
+to long for, he must put away with a firm hand.
+
+The first of December every thing was in readiness for his small
+household, even to the tidy housekeeper Mrs. Darcy had found for him
+among her poor. Mrs. Lawrence and Irene came in the promised train; and
+he met them with a carriage and a multiplicity of wraps, although it was
+a bright, pleasant day. His mother clung to him with tremulous hands: he
+realized more than ever how much she had broken in the past year,--very
+little older than Mrs. Darcy if counted by years, but whole decades if
+judged by every other point.
+
+Irene was cold and stately. She did not like coming here,--neither did
+she like staying at Mrs. Minor's. Wild thoughts had flooded her brain of
+going somewhere, and under a new name making a mark in the world. She
+had a fine voice, and a decided talent for histrionics, but how to get
+to this place where fame and fortune would be at her command? How to
+bridge across any chasm? Nothing, she said to herself, but just stand
+helpless, and see the great world go on, with no part nor lot in the
+matter. If she must be buried alive, as well at Yerbury as anywhere.
+
+There had never been any sentiment between her and Fred; in truth, none
+of the Lawrence women ever were given to sentiment. She walked into the
+little parlor with the step of a queen, and gave a cool stare around.
+
+"I hope you will like it"--with some hesitation. "There is your piano.
+And mother's room looks as it did at the Terrace, with the exception of
+its being so much smaller. And here is a library. Here is our
+dining-room--some of the old engravings, you see."
+
+"Could I go to my room? Which is it, Fred?" and his mother looked up
+with a weak, pleading smile.
+
+"Yes: let me carry you. You are so thin and light now, and you must be
+fatigued after all this journey;" and, taking her in his arms, he bore
+her up-stairs.
+
+It was a pleasant room over the parlor, with an alcove toward the south,
+in which the mid-day sun was shining. A bright fire burned in the grate:
+there were her own easy-chairs, a bit of the carpet she had once chosen,
+the Persian rug she had admired so much when Fred first sent it home,
+the bed with its snowy drapery, and little ornaments with their familiar
+faces.
+
+"It is delightful," she said, still clinging to her son's arm. "And I am
+to stay here with you? Agatha is very good, of course; but I have always
+had my own home, and if I did sign it away it was to save your poor dear
+father. I don't see how things could have ended so, only, if he had
+lived, it would all have been different;" and she wiped away the tears
+that came so easily now.
+
+Fred put her in the chair nearest the fire, and began to unfasten her
+wraps. He had been quite an expert in delicate ways during his
+prosperity.
+
+"Your room is next--there," nodding his head to the open doorway, and
+glancing up in his sister's immovable face. "I hope I made my divisions
+rightly: I thought you would like to be near mother."
+
+"It is all as well as it can be, I suppose," she answered with weary
+indifference.
+
+There came to Fred Lawrence just then a painful sense of want and loss,
+a far-reaching sympathy in something that had never been, and now, when
+the outside glitter was torn away, left life cold and barren. Was human
+love so much?
+
+His mother went on in her weak, inconsequent way, yet her foolish praise
+was very sweet to him. He had been living such a lonely life for months,
+that even he was grateful for something that looked like home, for a
+woman's figure flitting about, and some voice beside his own.
+
+The dinner-bell rang presently.
+
+"I ordered yours brought up here," said Fred; "and I will have a little
+with you, then I must go back to the office."
+
+"It is terrible, Fred! That you should have to"--
+
+"Dignify labor," and he laughed. "Mother dear, I was so thankful to get
+something to do! And I am proud of making a home for you. Am I not your
+only son?"
+
+"But a clerk!" Some of the old Hope disdain spoke out there. "I cannot
+bear to think of it--with all your education and talents and genius. I
+wish you had found some business. There is the five thousand dollars of
+the life-insurance, you know; and you could take it, though Agatha made
+me promise that I would not have it fooled away in any thing. But I
+should be glad to have you use it."
+
+Fred stooped suddenly, and kissed her on the forehead. There _was_
+something in mother-love, after all.
+
+Just then Martha West came in with the tray. Fred drew out the folding
+breakfast-table that his mother had so often used, while he was
+introducing Martha to his mother and sister. She courtesied, and
+proceeded to lay the cloth and the dishes, and disappeared for the
+viands themselves.
+
+"Is one woman expected to do all the work?" asked Irene at length.
+
+"She thinks she can--with so small a family. Of course I"--
+
+Irene raised her hand deprecatingly. "Spare me details," she said. "It
+is very bitter to eat the bread of dependence: I have learned that
+already."
+
+He made no answer. Mrs. Lawrence looked from one to the other in
+helpless bewilderment, but Martha entered again, and changed the
+troubled current.
+
+It was quite a picnic dinner. Irene unbent a little at the sight of the
+rare china and beautiful old silver. She supposed every thing had gone
+down in the whirlpool of ruin, and that humiliation would be complete in
+delft and plated ware. Then she ventured to glance around.
+
+Fred chatted gayly, making talk. It had not used to be one of his
+accomplishments in his magnificent days when women vied with each other
+in the delight of entertaining him. It was pleasant to see his mother
+touch the bell, and sit back in her chair while Martha brought in the
+dessert.
+
+"And now I must go. Do not expect me much before seven. I wonder if you
+will feel able to come down to tea? Ah! there are the trunks, just in
+time. I will send them up, and you will feel quite at home when you have
+your belongings in place."
+
+Then he went back to his desk, and for the next two hours was too busy
+to think. After all, there is nothing like energetic employment to keep
+dismal forebodings out of one's mind.
+
+But that evening after supper, when they had gathered in the library,
+Mrs. Lawrence began to question him concerning Hope Mills. Agatha had
+said some one had started the business anew.
+
+Fred explained.
+
+"But how could the workmen do it alone? Your father never trusted them,
+Fred; and I am sure my father had trouble enough with them in his day!
+They were always an ignorant, unreasonable set. Don't you remember how
+they struck several years ago, and workmen had to come from elsewhere?
+They must have some head. And who found the money? Mr. Minor says they
+cannot possibly succeed."
+
+Some time Fred would have to stand Jack Darcy on his true pedestal. As
+well do it now, and have it over.
+
+"The project was Mr. Darcy's. I believe he had most of the capital. It
+was very generous of him to risk it in such times as these."
+
+Irene looked up from her moody contemplation of the fire. A dull flush
+suffused her face.
+
+"Not Jack Darcy," she said,--"Sylvie Barry's great hero."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Sylvie Barry!" re-echoed Mrs. Lawrence, and she looked sharply at her
+son. "And she gave you up for him! Who is he?"
+
+"He used to be in the mill," answered Irene, with all her olden scorn.
+"His father was there also. And the Darcys"--
+
+"The Darcys can boast as good blood as we!" exclaimed Fred, his face in
+a sudden heat. "And Jack Darcy is a gentleman by birth, by instinct,
+and, best of all, the impulses of a true and noble heart."
+
+The discussion recalled an old remembrance to Mrs. Lawrence. She looked
+vaguely at her son as if she were not quite certain, as she said,--
+
+"Was there not something about him when you were boys? He was coarse and
+rough, wasn't he? and Agatha used to worry. I knew it was only a boy's
+folly; but she was glad when you went to college, and I think--there was
+his sister"--her maternal instincts taking alarm.
+
+"No, he never had a sister. His father died, and he staid at home. His
+mother was delicate, and his grandmother old. She is dead, and he gets
+his small fortune from her. No, he was not coarse nor rude, but he was
+my champion in boyhood, my hero then; and it is the shame of my life
+that I should have let him drop out of it because I was the richer of
+the two. I despise myself for any thing so narrow and unmanly, and yet
+he was generous enough to forgive. I do not wonder at Miss Barry's
+choice when she contrasted us, and I honor her to-day for her
+discrimination. She never encouraged me, blind, idiotic fool that I was!
+and I have only my wretched vanity to blame. He is fully worthy of her,
+and that is the highest compliment I can pay him."
+
+"Very magnanimous for a rejected lover," commented Irene with a touch of
+sarcasm.
+
+"But you _did_ love Sylvie?" Mrs. Lawrence said, bewildered by his rapid
+defence.
+
+"I blush now at the thought of having offered her such a paltry regard.
+To me she will always be a sweet and peerless woman. I am glad she will
+have the strength of manhood to lean upon, the purity of its honor to
+trust, the exceeding tenderness of a soul that will never know a narrow
+or grudging thought, to confide in. All my years look poor and barren
+beside his."
+
+"I can never forgive her"--
+
+"You must, you must!" and Fred seized his mother's hand, pressing it to
+his lips. "There is nothing to forgive," he went on. "You would not have
+had her throw aside the love of her life for my fancied fortune that has
+taken wings. It was my blunder. And I want to say that I have taken up
+my old friendship for Jack Darcy, come back to the truth that money is
+one of the incidental surroundings of the man, but it can never be the
+man himself."
+
+Irene's haughty lip curled, but no one openly gainsaid Fred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+THE winter was a rather open one, with but little snow. Matters were
+somewhat better in Yerbury, but bad enough, Sylvie Barry thought. The
+churches began their usual work,--parish aids, clothing-clubs, and
+sewing-societies. It was as she said: they begged from the rich to give
+to the poor. Women met to make or to alter over garments, and devise
+means to render the poor more comfortable. There were so many miserable
+homes, so many inefficient wives and mothers, who were ignorant of the
+commonest principles of economy. They could live on meal-mush, they
+could go in rags, but the science of thrift was utterly unknown in many
+instances.
+
+Sylvie had done her share of church work as a growing maiden. Every year
+there had been some mission, and a sewing-school.
+
+"And yet it doesn't seem to do much good," said she. "The girls learn to
+hem a handkerchief, which a sewing-machine can do in ten seconds: they
+sew a few patches together, and perhaps make an apron. By the next
+winter they have forgotten all about it. And some of their mothers do
+not seem to care."
+
+"The mothers need educating," Miss Morgan began, with a decisive nod of
+the head. "They were married out of shops and factories, and know very
+little, and have brought up their children to know less. I'm not one of
+the kind who can see no good in the world's progress, and who want to go
+back to the days of spinning-wheels, wax polish for tables and chairs,
+and a day spent every week scouring the brass andirons and candlesticks
+and door-knobs, and various other matters; but I do think we have gone
+to the other extreme. Women dawdle away half their lives. It is of no
+use to make clothes, you can buy them cheaper; it is of no use to mend,
+to do this or that, and so they do nothing."
+
+"I was struck with a contrast I saw yesterday," returned Sylvie. "I had
+occasion to go to the Webbers,--you know the little cottage on Alden
+Street, Miss Morgan, where they always have such pretty flowers in the
+window. Mr. Webber works at satchel-making, and even in good times did
+not earn very high wages. They have a garden, in which they raise the
+most wonderful succession of crops; they keep some chickens, which they
+manage to have laying most of the time; and they have five children. It
+was quite late in the afternoon. Mrs. Webber sat by the window, making
+lace, on a cushion, at which she realizes about a dollar a week;
+Christine, the eldest girl, who still goes to school, was crocheting a
+baby's hood,--she does a good deal of work for Mrs. Burnett's
+fancy-store, and yet is a very smart scholar; Amelie, the next one, was
+darning the stockings; the boy, who comes third, was out-doors, tidying
+up the chicken-house; and the two little girls were in the corner,
+cutting and sewing patchwork, with a doll in the cradle between them.
+The house is always clean, the children are well and rosy, and play
+about a good deal, and Christine last year earned thirty dollars. Her
+mother puts half the money she earns in the bank for her
+marriage-portion. I was so glad it wasn't in Yerbury Bank! You wouldn't
+believe, that, though she is not quite sixteen, she has almost a hundred
+dollars saved up. And I must tell you, also, there was a most savory
+smell of the supper cooking. Altogether, it was so tidy and thrifty,
+with the clean, bright, and not unpretty faces, that I thought it would
+make a charming 'interior,' if only some Dutch artist could do justice
+to it in his minute, pains-taking way. Then I went to the Coles, who
+live around in the next street. The gate was off its hinges, and the two
+big boys were firing stones from the street at a post in the yard. They
+were ragged and dirty. I went in the house, and found the mother and the
+two girls in the sitting-room. I do not believe there was a piece of
+furniture whole, and every thing was dusty and shabby, with that close
+smell some people always have in their houses. Mrs. Cole sat by the
+window, in a listless manner, doing nothing. Martha had her baby on her
+lap, asleep, in a soiled and ragged dress, while she was reading; the
+little girl, who is about twelve, was cutting up some pretty pieces of
+silk into nothing, that I could see, but a general litter over the
+table. The kitchen looked dreadful. I had some baby-dresses for Martha,
+that Mrs. Kent gave me: so I unrolled my bundle, and displayed them.
+'Oh,' said she, 'they are long, aren't they! and I've just put my baby
+in short dresses.' If you could have heard the kind of helpless,
+dissatisfied tone in which it was uttered! I had half a mind to bundle
+them up, and take them back. 'You can shorten them,' I answered, 'and
+some of them will make two dresses.' 'Yes,' she answered reluctantly,
+'only I should want something for yokes and sleeves.' Then her mother
+came to inspect them, and she was rather more gracious. But I could not
+help contrasting the two families. Mr. Cole is a carpenter, and has
+earned very good wages. Martha ran a machine in the shoe-shop, bought a
+melodeon, and took two or three quarters' music-lessons; purchased a
+very handsome set of amethyst jewelry and two pretty silk dresses when
+she was married. And in the two years of her married life, her husband
+has done next to nothing, although he is a steady, pleasant fellow. Now
+he is at Pittsburg, earning just enough to pay his own board. She has
+her sewing-machine, but she doesn't know how to make any kind of garment
+decently. When they had money they bought every thing ready-made. She
+paid Miss Gilman twenty-two dollars to make her two silk dresses. If she
+had put one of them in some plain, simple garments, how much more
+serviceable it would have proved!"
+
+"Such people are hardly worth helping," Miss Morgan said sharply.
+
+"Isn't it a faulty system that makes them so?" asked Sylvie, drawing her
+brows into a little, perplexed frown. "Martha worked for two years, and
+earned a good deal of money. At one time she made ten dollars a week. It
+was just one thing,--fine stitching on shoes,--yet one would think she
+would understand a sewing-machine so completely that she could do any
+thing with it. But she actually hired part of her baby's wardrobe made;
+and the dresses she bought,--cheap coarse-trimmed things, I should have
+been ashamed of. Christine Webber wants to study for a teacher; and, as
+there is so little for girls to do, I think she will. She will make
+wiser investments of her money than Martha Cole, and think of the kind
+of wife her husband will get!"
+
+"The era of prosperity was too much for some people," said Mrs. Darcy,
+with her motherly smile. "I used to wonder six or seven years ago, how
+it was that so many middle-class people could afford a servant, or fancy
+they needed one. A little more time spent in household duties would not
+have injured the women; and, if they had accustomed the children to take
+a part, it would have been much better for them. Then so much sewing was
+hired; and, although the income looked large, the expenditures swallowed
+it all up, and no one was any better off. How few had any stock of
+underclothing, bed-linen, or useful and durable articles!"
+
+"Industry must come around in the fashion again. Even the despised
+patchwork doubtless had its uses. It taught children to sew, and to
+manage economically. I remember that I once had three quilts on hand at
+one time. The larger pieces went into the first, and so on. My last one
+was a very pretty little thing, and I saved all the scraps for it. Yet
+we often hear people laugh about the folly of cutting calico into bits
+to sew together again. Why should it not be considered honorable and
+respectable to put every thing to the best use?" and Miss Morgan glanced
+up with a confidence no one could gainsay.
+
+"That is the grand secret," cried Sylvie,--"making economy honorable.
+You never see the nice old families flaunting their best silk and their
+point-laces on ordinary occasions. Something is kept sacred. And I do
+think there is more real economy among them, than among those who
+absolutely have a need for it. If wastefulness could once come to be
+considered a sin of ostentation and low-breeding, it would not have so
+many followers. Some people do it because they are afraid of being
+thought mean; but if they could be trained to that bravery of spirit
+that makes a work of beauty out of the poorest and smallest things
+because they are well done, and fitting to the place and season"--
+
+"Bravo!" said a laughing voice as the door opened. "Mrs. Darcy, when the
+committee of ways and means have worn out your carpet by their frequent
+meetings in your charmed temple, you must insist upon their buying you a
+new one. Good-morning, ladies! Miss Barry, I set out to find you; and
+your aunt fancied you would be here, the place of all waifs and strays.
+I want you and Miss Morgan to go and inspect a room, or rather two
+rooms, to see if they will answer our purpose. Mrs. Lane had a school
+there."
+
+"Oh, I know the place!" began Sylvie eagerly, buttoning up her sack
+again, and looking smilingly in Dr. Maverick's face, that had a
+sparkling wholesomeness born of the fresh air and brisk walk. And
+whenever he caught her eye with this light in it, so friendly and
+earnest, a thrill sped through his veins.
+
+Miss Morgan was soon ready, and the three started. The place was only a
+few squares away, in a block of buildings where the stores on the lower
+floor stood empty; indeed, some of them had never been rented. Up-stairs
+there was one large room with three front windows, and a smaller room at
+the back with a fireplace, sink and water, and a large closet.
+
+"I have had the offer of this place rent free until spring," began the
+doctor. "I have also collected fifty dollars in money and
+provisions,--_imprimis_, one barrel of flour, one box of miscellaneous
+packages, rice, barley, corn-starch, &c.,--and a second-hand range that
+will be put up as soon as you decide. In return for my arduous exertion
+and great benevolence, I shall call upon you now and then for meals or
+delicacies for my sick and famishing."
+
+"You are just magnificent!" declared Sylvie, in breathless pleasure.
+
+"I am desirous of getting this experiment started; and, since we shall
+have to help the poor and needy this winter, I shall put my gifts into
+this. Now you must consider what you want for furnishing. Biddy McKim is
+to work out a doctor's bill cleaning the place; Ward Collins will let
+you have ten dollars' worth of house-furnishing goods on another bill. I
+am going to look up all my bad debts to start you two women in
+business!" and he laughed gayly.
+
+"Very good," said Miss Morgan, while Sylvie's face was still blending
+pleasure and astonishment.
+
+"We are going to reform Yerbury, you see. The parsons tried their hands
+last winter; and, though there was need enough of spiritual food,
+there's something else required as well, while we are here in the body.
+You think the rooms will do? I want you to put a large table in that
+one,"--indicating the larger with his head,--"and we'll get two or
+three long benches, and have a tea-party now and then. Well, Miss
+Morgan, now you may take the floor. I see a crowd of ideas in your
+face."
+
+"I am going to propose that when the place is cleaned, both floors shall
+be painted to begin with. Then a simple mopping up will keep them bright
+and fresh. Some idle half-grown boys can do it, I am sure; or I can do
+it myself--it would not be the first time."
+
+"I'll look over my accounts, and levy on some delinquent," said the
+doctor. "I like that idea."
+
+"Can we make out a list now?"
+
+"Why, of course. Put down about all the things you will be likely to
+need, and I will have them sent if they do over run the account. Biddy
+will come to-morrow, and clean. Now, you can hardly have the school open
+every day unless you get more assistance, so I think I should take it at
+first two days in the week."
+
+"A very good suggestion," replied Miss Morgan.
+
+"It might not be sufficiently attended to warrant more than that. My
+experience has been that nearly every housekeeper considers herself a
+finished cook."
+
+Maverick laughed.
+
+They discussed necessary articles of kitchen paraphernalia, and finally
+walked down to Collins's store, and made their selection. Early the next
+morning Bridget McKim was on the spot: the place was cleaned, the stove
+put in place, the floor given one good coat of paint. Two days after,
+the second one was added. Sylvie drew up a code of regulations. The
+school would be open Tuesday and Friday, all day. The dinner would be
+cooked and eaten; the baking, and whatever was left over, divided among
+the scholars to take home. Miss Morgan was elected president, Miss Barry
+vice-president, a secretary, a treasurer, and two in an advisory board.
+At each session two ladies were to be present, and give instruction.
+
+Invitations were sent to all likely to be interested. Dr. Maverick used
+his strong influence wisely. The idea amused some, others wondered how
+ladies like Miss Barry knew about cooking and economy.
+
+"Let her undertake to live on the money we common folk have, and she'll
+see!" exclaimed Mrs. Stixon. "Our kind don't want to learn fussin' and
+fixin' of puddens and pies and such like! Good for us if we can get a
+mess of biled potatoes and bacon. My gals'll get along athout any such
+larnin'."
+
+They opened one Friday morning with seven pupils; a discouraging number,
+Sylvie thought, when she saw the spacious room and the nice
+preparations. The bashful girls sat in a little huddle, looking very
+much as if they were afraid of being laughed at.
+
+Miss Morgan was equal to the occasion. She made a short, sensible
+address, and hoped the girls who were present would interest not only
+their companions, but their mothers and friends. Then she questioned
+them a little. Had they ever boiled potatoes?
+
+At this they all laughed a little foolishly, and looked as if the art of
+boiling potatoes was held in rather low esteem.
+
+"The dinner for the day," announced Miss Morgan, "will be boiled
+potatoes, broiled steak, and corn-muffins. Which of you girls would like
+to try the muffins?"
+
+"I never heerd of such a thing," said one girl timidly.
+
+Sylvie pleasantly corrected the speaker.
+
+"Well, you may try," said Miss Morgan. "First, read this recipe aloud."
+
+Mary Moran stumbled through it, partly owing to ignorance, and the rest
+to feeling very much abashed.
+
+"Please go through it again, Mary," said Sylvie, in an encouraging tone.
+
+This time she did much better.
+
+"Now you may prepare the table and the dishes, and one of the girls may
+measure the meal and the flour. Put the ingredients in this dish--so.
+Keep your mind on the recipe. What comes next?"
+
+Mary was quite awkward. Miss Morgan corrected the slightest mistake. The
+other girls stood around in wondering amusement, and now and then a
+little titter broke out. But Mary went on, gaining courage. The tins had
+been set on the stove, now a bit of butter was put in each one, and
+stirred around, then the dough dropped in. This was quite entertaining.
+
+"What did I say about the oven?" queried Miss Morgan.
+
+The class looked aghast a moment, then one girl said quickly, "That the
+oven-door must be hot enough to hiss."
+
+"Right. Try it and see."
+
+It was in the proper condition. Mary slipped in the two trays of pans,
+shutting up the door. "To look at them, and turn them around in twelve
+minutes, and in twelve more to try them with a whisk," were the final
+directions.
+
+The potatoes were brought out next. Miss Morgan asked each girl to pare
+one, which they did in various uncouth ways. One girl cut off the skin
+in square bits, leaving a figure that would have distracted a
+geometrician; another ran round it rapidly, leaving in all the eyes; and
+out of the six potatoes there was but one neat and shapely. Miss Morgan
+held it up.
+
+"There is an art in so slight a thing as peeling a potato," said she.
+"It is very wasteful to cut it away in this manner, or this, and
+careless to leave in the eyes. Now each of you may pare another."
+
+The second attempt was a great improvement. They were put on to boil;
+one girl was detailed to watch them, another to prepare the steak, while
+a third arranged the dinner-table in the kitchen, as the family was to
+be so small. Mary looked after her corn-muffins. They had risen up like
+little pound-cakes, and a glad smile illumined her rather stolid face.
+
+Sylvie had brought a bit of tatting along, and now took it out.
+
+"Oh, how beautiful, Miss Barry!" exclaimed Kitty Miles. "I can do just
+the plain little scallop; but I never could get these other jiggers!"
+
+Sylvie laughed, "I believe they have a name beside 'jiggers,'" in an
+odd, half-inquiring tone.
+
+"O Miss Barry, we girls can't talk nice like you!" and Kitty blushed.
+
+"I don't see why you cannot with taking a little pains. All words that
+are not names, and 'what-you-may-call-it,' and 'Mrs. Thingumby,' and
+such expressions, are the result of carelessness. If any thing has a
+name, that is the proper word to be used; and by being watchful one
+comes presently to talk in a lady-like manner. Now I will show you about
+these."
+
+"Oh, my muffins!" cried Mary, rushing to the stove. They were quite
+brown. She tried them with the whisk.
+
+"Some stick a little bit, Miss Morgan."
+
+"Push the pan back to the other side. Indian requires very thorough
+cooking or baking, or it will be soggy, and have a moist and not
+agreeable taste. Try your potatoes now."
+
+In a few moments they were done, and Kitty Miles undertook the steak.
+Mary let her muffins stand a moment or two, then turned them out. Two or
+three stuck fast, and broke: the rest were a perfect success. She was
+delighted beyond measure. They had no tea or coffee, but they gathered
+around the table, and enjoyed the meal very heartily. Sylvie desired
+them to ask any questions they liked; and by the time they were through,
+their awe of Miss Morgan had quite vanished.
+
+Afterward followed dish-washing. This was made quite a science, as well.
+They had hardly finished when Mrs. Miles and a neighbor came in, and
+through the course of the afternoon the numbers doubled. Mary begged
+that they might make some muffins to take home: Miss Morgan assented,
+and the girls had quite a gay time. But the oven was not precisely
+right.
+
+"Open the draughts a little. Although not so hot, the oven is very
+steady now. Close the draughts in five minutes."
+
+Mary forgot, and the result was that some at one end were a little
+burned.
+
+"Why, they're elegant!" exclaimed Mrs. Miles. "And what a cheap, hearty
+supper they'd make, when one has three hungry boys to feed! Mrs. Stixon,
+now, was thinking you'd go into all the fancy branches. I didn't know
+ladies ever"--and Mrs. Miles paused suddenly, her face scarlet.
+
+"Ever had occasion to practise economy!" cried Sylvie with her piquant
+smile. "They do a great deal of it, Mrs. Miles. My aunt would no sooner
+think of being wasteful in her kitchen than she would of wearing her
+velvet dress out on a rainy day. There is a neat, pretty, tasteful
+method about these things, that is as much of an art in its way as
+painting a picture, and in some respects a more important one, for the
+health of the body depends upon well-cooked food."
+
+"Since Kitty's nothing much to do, I mean to have her come every time.
+I'm sure you ladies are very good to take so much pains."
+
+The other officers dropped in. The cost of the materials used was
+ascertained, minutes of the session made, and a recipe for corn-muffins
+given to each girl. It was decided to attempt biscuit on the following
+Tuesday, and on the next meeting, bread. Then the fire was pretty well
+poked out, the stove-lids raised, and the class went home in an
+extremely interested spirit.
+
+Just as Sylvie and Miss Morgan had turned the corner, they caught sight
+of Dr. Maverick, who crossed the street to speak. Sylvie described their
+day with a few graphic touches, interspersed with much genuine mirth.
+
+"Some people were afraid to come," said he. "Before a month you will
+have your hands full."
+
+Sure enough, on Tuesday there were fifteen scholars. Miss Morgan and
+Sylvie had hardly a moment to spare until the dinner was through. Then
+the latter proposed that every scholar should bring some sewing,
+garments they wished cut out, any thing that perplexed them, or whatever
+they would like most to learn.
+
+All days were not so fortunate. Occasionally some dish would be spoiled
+by haste, carelessness, or want of attention. There were burned fingers
+and divers cuts; but Miss Morgan patiently explained her deft, neat,
+labor-saving methods. There began to be a great interest; some of the
+mothers coming in for an hour, or bringing a special dish to cook.
+Sylvie discussed the relative value and nourishment of different
+articles, the many changes that could be made at slight expense, the
+saving that a little carefulness brought about. She gave brief lectures
+on cleanliness, order, taste, and neatness; the right way and the wrong
+way of doing many things, the giving out and the taking in; the art of
+making the best, not only in such times as these, but in all times; of
+being brave and true in the lowest and smallest of life's duties; of
+throwing out false pride and shams, and the desire to appear richer or
+grander than one's means would allow.
+
+Then the last half-hour they had what Miss Morgan called an
+inquiry-meeting. Everybody was at liberty to ask one question, and those
+who knew answered it to the best of their ability. New teachers were
+pressed into the service. Dr. Maverick gave them a talk on health, and
+another on preparing food for the sick, and the special care some
+diseases required. And Jack Darcy proposed that Christmas Eve the
+cooking-school should give a supper, the tickets being at the low price
+of twenty-five cents. Every dish was to be cooked by the scholars.
+
+It created a deal of excitement. Hard as times were, the tickets sold
+rapidly. The large room had two long tables, with benches for seats. The
+first table was to be served at eight o'clock, the second at nine.
+Sylvie made a dozen of the girls pretty Suisse aprons and dainty caps,
+and they waited on the guests. Dr. Maverick offered three prizes,--one
+for the best loaf of bread, one for the best plain cake, and a third for
+the nicest and cheapest invalid broth.
+
+The room was full, and they had a very gay time. Indeed, it seemed as if
+half Yerbury turned out, either from honor or curiosity. At nine o'clock
+they ran short of provision, when they honorably decided to refund the
+money for all tickets offered after that, and explain to new-comers the
+state of affairs. But some of the young men proposed a dance; and they
+went on for the next two hours in hearty, healthy jollity.
+
+Out of ten loaves of bread offered, Mary Moran took the prize. That for
+the cake was awarded to quite a new scholar; while Kitty Miles carried
+off that for broth, three doctors concurring in the decision. And the
+treasurer found they had cleared fifty dollars above expenses, so that
+it proved a success in more ways than one. There had been a great dearth
+of amusement for the poorer classes in Yerbury this winter.
+
+"Sure, it was just splendid!" said Bridget McKim. "My boy Mike had a
+week's wages in his pocket that night, and he was goin' off to the Ivy
+Leaf to raffle for a turkey; an' ses I, 'Mike, ye niver took me out of a
+Christmas, so do it now along o' the cookin' school party, an' ye'll get
+the best bit o' turkey yes ever put in yer mouth.' An' so he did; an' he
+said it was the best show he iver was to, and he wouldn't 'a' missed
+seein' Mary Moran get the prize fur twice the money. An' so he went home
+with me, ye see, as sober as an owl, and we bought our own turkey; but
+if he'd gone to the tavern, not a cint would he had of his week's wages,
+and been drunk beside! An' he used to be swate on Mary too, so there's
+no knowin' what may happen!"
+
+The school took a fortnight's vacation. Sylvie and Miss Morgan felt that
+it was no longer an experiment. It would be put to wider uses, and
+perhaps was the corner-stone of a great work, sorely needed in this
+world; the same kind of work Jack Darcy had begun over in the mill
+yonder,--planting beacon-lights on the path where so many had stumbled
+and gone down for want of true and honest guidance.
+
+"It will have to be remodelled somewhat," said Miss Morgan. "I can't
+have you working like a slave, even if it is in a good cause. There is
+something still higher for you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+AFTER the first of January it came off bitterly cold. Coal went up half
+a dollar on a ton; and flour rose, more by the greed of speculators than
+any scarcity, or any demand for it abroad. There was considerable
+suffering, though not as much as the winter before. The men and women
+and boys and girls at Hope Mills were thankful enough for their
+seventy-five per cent, and did their very best. A spirit of economy and
+emulation ran through the whole brotherhood. Every month Cameron
+announced whatever saving had been made in different departments, and
+the hands were proud enough of it. Those who had taken their whole
+winter's coal out of the share were quite jubilant. Once a week the
+workmen had a meeting, and discussed matters a little. Three men had
+been reprimanded, but on the whole the _morale_ was excellent. Winston
+was on the alert continually, east, west, anywhere, buying here, selling
+there, seeing in every thing the promise of better times.
+
+"We've reached the last ditch as surely as they did in the war," he said
+to Darcy, rubbing his hands in great glee. "I tell you, old chap, it was
+a lucky thought of starting just as we did. You see, we shall come up
+with the good times; for I do honestly believe the worst is over."
+
+Jack smiled, but was not so sanguine. They had only gone such a little
+way on the five-years' journey. But there were some very encouraging
+rays right around them. Kit Connelly's coffee-house was working to a
+charm. Jack began to think that drinking liquors was not so much a
+besetting sin, as a natural sequence of having nothing else to drink
+when you were cold or hot, or tired or hungry. The men fell into the
+habit of going to Kit's for their midday lunch, and presently some of
+the women went over. The room was so bright and pleasant; and, with Miss
+Rose there, they were on their best behavior. In the evening Mrs.
+Connelly brought her work, and sat by the desk. Some of the younger men,
+who had no homes; as one may say, dropped in, and looked over the books.
+Once two young chaps had come up from Keppler's to have a little fun, as
+they said, and were rather noisy. Mrs. Connelly rose.
+
+"Gentlemen," she said, "you forget yourselves. This is an orderly, quiet
+house, not a tavern. If you cannot submit to the rules, you must leave
+it."
+
+"Leave it! Come, who'll put us out!" laughed the bully. "Let's see you
+try," with an insolent leer at the lady.
+
+Two men were sitting at a table just a little back of them. Their eyes
+met. Both rose; and, each seizing a shoulder of the bully, he was
+marched out before he could make the slightest resistance, his companion
+looking on in amazement.
+
+"Next time you insult a lady in her own house, you will not get off so
+easily! Just bear that in mind."
+
+The fellow uttered an oath, but the door was shut in his face.
+
+"Thank you, John Kelly, and you, Ben Hay," said Mrs. Connelly, in a
+brave voice, though her heart fluttered a little.
+
+The other young ruffian rose, and walked out quietly.
+
+"If you didn't mind, Ben Hay," she said, an hour or so after, as they
+were shutting up for the night, "I'd like to have you drop in quite
+often of an evening. The boys are hardly big enough if we should ever be
+beset by such scamps as that, and you've always been so friendly-like."
+
+"Yes," answered Ben, flushing, and casting a sheepish look at the desk,
+where Rose's curly head was bent over her accounts. "Yes, I'm at your
+service. It's enough sight cheerfuller here than in Mother Mitchell's
+boarding-house. I'll be glad to come."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+Miss Barry heard of this, and told it over to Jack.
+
+"Ben Hay is a good, plucky fellow. He used to go down at noon for beer,
+but I do not think he has been since the coffee-house was opened.
+Sylvie, do you know, I believe reformers in general would be more
+successful if they put a good and pleasant thing in the place of the
+evil they assail. Too often they leave their convert to pick his way
+alone. Hay is very much interested in the plans of the mill. The
+meetings have done this much already,--a spirit of inquiry has been
+awakened in some of the men, and they are reading up what other people
+have achieved in this line. I want them to get well grounded before
+there comes any strain. We can't go on prospering forever. That would be
+too much like fairy-land."
+
+"But every one thinks the panic nearly at an end," and Sylvie studied
+the grave face before her.
+
+"I do not want to croak," and Jack gave a little laugh that sounded
+forced, "but we have just begun to pay off our debts. Every city and
+town, and nearly every individual, is in debt. If we could pay with
+promises to pay, we might tide over a while longer; but when interest
+reaches a certain point, it swallows capital. If we can meet our
+indebtedness everywhere, as fast as it matures, well and good: if not,
+then we have only nibbled at the crust of our bitter pie."
+
+"Anyhow," cried Sylvie, with the woman's sanguine nature, "Yerbury is a
+great deal better off than it was last winter. Every one admits there
+is much less suffering."
+
+"There is more employment, and no broken bank," with a cheerful smile.
+
+"Do you know," said the young girl presently, while a faint color went
+wandering over her fair face, "that they are doing a marvellous stroke
+of business at Garafield's, even if the times are bad? Mrs. Garafield
+was down to tea a few evenings since, and she was greatly encouraged.
+There is such a rage about the new style of papering. Everybody has run
+mad on dados and friezes, and fresco patterns, bordering, and harmonies
+of color," laughingly. "And they have some wonderful new designs."
+
+"Fred is in just the right place. If he has courage to fight through,"
+and there came a curious, almost foreboding expression in the
+sympathetic eyes.
+
+"You care a good deal for him, Jack! And yet he did not use you nobly,"
+with a peculiar regret in the tone. "It is the one thing"--
+
+"Sylvie, if I forgave it, surely you can." Then he turned his eyes upon
+her, and read or rather dreamed of something in a dim, dazed way, the
+story of a bygone summer. Had it been more to her than any one thought?
+Miss Barry had hinted to his mother that Sylvie's decision in the matter
+was a great disappointment to her. There had been a decision, then, and
+one adverse to Fred Lawrence.
+
+"I hate a false and cowardly man!" her cheeks were flaming now. "And
+when you were schoolboys together,--when Agatha and Gertrude were so
+afraid he would lower himself if he looked at any boy below his own
+social position,--he used to stand up for you,--yes, he did,--and fight;
+of course not in a brutal way with fists," and she laughed at her own
+conceit, "but in that higher, finer manner, with no shield or weapon
+save his love for you. I used to like to see you together,--you so
+sturdy and manful and true, and he delicate and handsome and adoring.
+And then"--
+
+"Sylvie, I wonder if a woman can understand a man's friendship. We never
+had any quarrel. We just drifted apart. I don't believe we forgot each
+other. Circumstances took him out of my sphere, into a new one. If I had
+been there in college, going along with him step by step, don't you
+suppose he would have stood up for me in the face of his fine friends,
+just as he used to with his sisters?"
+
+"I hope so: I would like to believe it."
+
+"I am more just to him than you, Sylvie," said Jack, a little wounded.
+"I _know_ it. I don't doubt it any more than I doubt--well, myself. He
+might have come--I was always sorry to see him avoid me, and I think he
+was weak, but he never forgot."
+
+"He _was_ weak, he was worse, Jack." There was a curious cry of anguish
+in her voice, and her shoulders swayed unconsciously, while her eyes
+looked out on the summer night he could not see.
+
+"Don't get so excited over it, Sylvie," and the pleasant, cheery laugh
+seemed to bring healing on its wings. "Whatever it was, and we will let
+all that go, he made the _amende honorable_ the night we had tea
+together up there in the great house. We took up our friendship just
+where it had dropped. Men never go over those crooked and thorny steps
+of the past, they have so much work to do in the present and the future.
+I wanted then to make a position for him in the mill; but it was not
+possible, and would not have been the part of wisdom under _any_
+circumstances. Yet it seemed as if I had stepped in his place. I was
+glad to hear of this other, though Fred would have been happier
+elsewhere. Sylvie, I do not believe you realize what it cost him to come
+back to Yerbury, to walk about, a working-man, where he had driven in
+his carriage. So down at the bottom there is the temper of the real blue
+steel, which _can_ bend."
+
+"How generous you are, Jack!" There was something more than admiration
+in her tone, and yet she was wondering if she could ever forgive her
+fallen hero.
+
+"See here, Sylvie, I don't mean to question any one's religion, but I've
+often thought about the rejoicing up above, over the one who went
+astray. I do not believe we rejoice with a very full heart: maybe we are
+not heavenly enough. We can never be sure of our own strength until some
+far-reaching test is applied, and yet it may not be an entirely true
+test. It may quiver about the weak spot in our souls; but, while there
+is any feeling, one cannot be entirely lost. That is why I say he never
+forgot. And you and I ought to rejoice that he _did_ come back instead
+of going off in that gloomy, diseased, Manfred style, and upbraiding the
+world. 'Whatever his hand found to do'--that was one of grandmother's
+texts, and he went bravely at it."
+
+"I do believe you are a better Christian than I," she answered softly,
+her eyes limpid with emotion.
+
+"No. Perhaps not even a better friend;" and a smile played about his
+mouth.
+
+"A truer friend, a more generous one"--
+
+"What were we talking of?" in a sudden change of tone. "Oh, the business
+at Garafield's! Fred is a good deal of an artist, an intellectual artist
+I should say; and, though he may not attain to fame by painting
+pictures, there are many other points coming to be appreciated. He is in
+the way for usefulness; and, if he wins the bays for beauty as well, I
+am sure we shall all rejoice. I heard he had been designing."
+
+"You hear every thing." Sylvie made a capricious little _moue_. Her nods
+and gestures were so much a part of her, so piquant, decisive, and full
+of expression, when she did not intrench herself behind a studied
+dignity.
+
+"I am glad you have heard it. I was wondering how best to tell you. I
+thought Garafield's might be a stepping-stone, these hard times, but it
+may prove the veritable ladder itself. Only"--
+
+"Well!" with a trifle of impatience, as if she could not endure the
+suggestiveness of the tone.
+
+"I wonder if you understand the courage it took for Fred Lawrence to
+make a home here in Yerbury, to bring his mother and sister; for you see
+he must endure for them as well as himself. Mrs. Lawrence will always be
+an invalid, I suppose. He thinks her quite changed and softened:
+evidently she clings to him. They see none of their old friends. Miss
+Lawrence never goes anywhere."
+
+"As if one could help that!" almost passionately. "Auntie wrote a note
+to Mrs. Lawrence, and it was merely answered. They do not desire to
+receive any one. We can only let them alone, Jack."
+
+"Even then we can hardly fail to appreciate what he is doing, possibly
+suffering. I think he will come in time to win back all the regard his
+friends ever gave him," Jack Darcy said in a steady tone.
+
+Was he pleading for him? Sylvie was somewhat puzzled, the most so,
+perhaps, about herself. How much had she cared for Fred in that old
+time? If not at all, why did this feeling of shame over a fallen idol
+continually haunt her? She compared the two men in every thing, and
+sometimes was vexed to admit that Jack was the nobler.
+
+Their walk had come to an end. They paused at the gate; and a third
+person striding up Larch Avenue took in the drooping, attentive, and
+pliant figure, the strong, protecting, powerful personality of the
+other,--and wondered, as he had more than once before. Were they friends
+merely? It was not possible for a woman to see so much of Jack Darcy's
+noble, manly life, and not admire, not love, Dr. Maverick admitted. She
+showed in many ways that she did care for him. Oddly enough she
+sheltered herself under his friendly care when other admirers came too
+near. Could not Darcy see! What a blind, stupid mole he must be in this
+respect! and the doctor kicked a stone in his path with such force that
+the two turned in the midst of their good-bys, and waited with smiling
+faces for him to reach them. Not a shade of annoyance in look or tone at
+the interruption.
+
+"The queerest lovers," he thought to himself. "If I stood in that man's
+place"--
+
+Jack went homeward in a curiously speculative mood. He has always
+fancied for Sylvie some handsome, spirited knight, whose mental
+intuitions would be as delicate and refined as hers, whose enjoyment as
+intense. Little as he knew of love, he understood their friendship too
+thoroughly to be betrayed into any mistake. And he wondered now if he
+held the key to Sylvie's spiritual enfranchisement of all other men? If
+she had not loved Fred Lawrence, she had come too dangerously near it
+ever to free herself entirely from whatever thrall his soul had thrown
+over hers. She _had_ been disappointed in him, he read that from her
+tone; but surely, if he brought himself up to a finer and truer standard
+than any known in that enervating atmosphere of luxury, would she still
+be implacable? How could he best serve these two people, whom he loved
+so entirety?
+
+He had many other things to busy himself about beside love and
+friendship. March came on apace, and the balance-sheet for the six
+months had to be put in shape. The accounts had been systematically
+kept: that he had insisted upon in the beginning. Cameron knew every
+gallon of oil, every pound of wool, every penny spent for repairs and
+stock; Hurd and Yardley had kept account of every yard of cloth, and
+what quality, that had passed through their hands; Winston, of
+travelling, advertising, commissions, &c.; and Jack went over every
+thing. They had done wonderfully. There was actually a balance of profit
+to every man, woman, and child. The forms were printed, and distributed
+to every employee, and there was a great rejoicing time. They engaged
+the Cooking Club to provide them a supper, and the young people had a
+merry dance afterward.
+
+"It's hardly safe to halloo until you are out of the woods," said some
+of the solid old men of Yerbury, who were living snugly on the interest
+of government-bonds. "Six months is no test at all. Wait until there is
+a hard pull, and you will not be so jubilant."
+
+"No," answered Jack with a humorous twinkle in his eye: "it's right to
+have the rejoicing now, when we have fairly earned it. The man who
+croaks when Providence has smiled upon him, deserves the frown; and he
+who is unthankful for small successes hardly has a right to great ones.
+I do not expect all fair sailing, but we will weather the storms
+together."
+
+"It _is_ rather unfortunate," commented another wise-acre. "I have
+observed these wonderful beginnings seldom end well. If you should have
+a run of bad luck now, your men will be dissatisfied, and likely blame
+you for not keeping up to that mark. I shouldn't have made such a great
+effort, and then there would have been a chance for improvement."
+
+"A new broom sweeps clean, but it _will_ get worn out," with sundry
+mysterious nods.
+
+"I declare," said Jack to his friend and comforter, Maverick, "half the
+town looks at me as if I must have robbed a bank, or falsified accounts,
+told a lie, or cheated, or maybe murdered some rich old don, and made
+merry on his money. Why can't people rejoice with you when there is any
+thing to rejoice about,--an event which does not happen so often in
+these evil days? I do believe Boyd, and a lot of the others, would be
+glad to see the scheme fail; but I'll work night and day to make a
+success of it. It shall not go down," and Jack set his lips together in
+a way that spoke volumes for his resolve.
+
+"I have observed before that some people are fond of disparaging plans
+that they have no hand in," returned the doctor coolly.
+
+"And philanthropy is a much-derided virtue. If the old Athenian had been
+a stock-broker or a bank-director, he might not have been sent into
+exile, eh?" and Darcy laughed good-humoredly. "If I have kept a few
+people from starvation this winter, I ought surely to have as much
+credit as to have dealt around alms. As for the success, we had the
+reputation of Hope Mills in our favor, and every man had his own fortune
+at stake, and brought out the best that was in him."
+
+He sent Miss McLeod her half-yearly rent, a copy of the statement, and a
+very temperate letter. He was quite proud to think he had no need of
+accepting her proffered favor, but he thanked her again for it.
+
+She answered promptly. She had shown the statement to Mr. Hildreth, and
+he thought it remarkable. Wasn't it a trifle too rose-colored to last?
+Count on her as a friend, if evil days came; and we none of us could
+tell exactly what was in store. The financial horizon was by no means
+clear.
+
+A few others gave him words of heartfelt encouragement. The Rev. Mr.
+Marlow spoke of him in very high terms, much to Sylvie's delight, and
+said already there had been a great change in the mill-hands. The
+coffee-house he considered an especially commendable thought.
+
+There was a quiet change going on that was destined to bear more
+abundant fruit in the future. Some of the men and women had begun to
+think a little for themselves. The pupils of the cooking-school were
+beginning the A B C of beauty and neatness. Their rooms were swept
+cleaner; their clothes took on a more tidy aspect. With the opening
+spring, gardens and court-yards were cleared of their rubbish, and
+flower-beds flourished again. Sylvie gave her girls one very instructive
+lecture on slips and flower-seeds, and one Saturday they went out to
+the woods for ferns and wild flowers. It was only one little corner, to
+be sure, but it was the leaven that was presently to do a wide-spread
+work.
+
+Hope Mills took up its steady march again. Half a dozen new hands were
+added, though Jack wished that he could find employment for some of the
+poor souls that besieged him daily. If times really were coming better,
+if orders only would increase, and he could with safety enlarge his
+borders! But "slow and steady" was his motto. He was not one to
+disparage the present by exaggerating the advantages of the future.
+
+There was one home that these cordial little excitements never entered.
+The three souls in it, although they should have been very near and
+dear, wrapped themselves in their own thoughts and sorrows, and took no
+note of their fellows.
+
+Mrs. Lawrence heeded the outward change least of the three. She had her
+pretty room, her glowing fire in winter, her fur slippers, and zephyr
+shawls; her late breakfast in bed, then her luxurious dressing-gown, and
+her books. She had settled herself into the _role_ of an invalid for the
+remainder of her days. The loss and suffering had not taken her out of
+herself, or raised her narrow, vapid nature. She was at once patient and
+complaining,--even her affection for her son was combined with great
+mental and moral weakness. She was profoundly grieved that he should
+have been compelled to accept so unsuitable a position; but to her it
+was only a temporary event. Something _must_ happen. In some mysterious
+way they would come back to their former grandeur,--not that she cared
+especially, but for the sake of Fred and Irene. Then for days she would
+lose herself in the joys and sorrows of her heroines. To such people
+novel-reading is certainly a godsend. A readable book was as
+exhilarating to her as a splendid morning drive or a good deed is to
+many others. She had society without being bored. She had wit, poetry,
+art, music, travels, dinners, and balls, with no worry, no late hours,
+or fatigue.
+
+Irene could not so yield up her personality. She brooded over her lot in
+a haughty, bitter spirit. She uttered no complaint,--she was far too
+proud for that,--but she took no interest in any thing. Like a
+melancholy ghost she wandered up and down, or sat by the window for
+hours in a listless attitude. There were moments when she wished herself
+Lady Frodsham, times when the change and bustle of such a life as that
+of Mr. Barringer would have been heaven itself.
+
+Fred could never persuade her to go anywhere. She took no walks, except
+to pace up and down the garden path when the quiet of the house drove
+her well-nigh crazy. Once in a great while she opened the piano, and
+played as if a demon had taken possession of her soul and her fingers.
+
+Fred breakfasted early and alone. After a while he fell into the habit
+of taking his lunch in his office, and coming home to a late dinner.
+Martha was certainly the perfection of maids. The housekeeping went on
+with the regularity of clockwork: there were no complaints even. Fred
+used to sit in his mother's room until her bedtime, when he would go
+down to the library, and work for an hour or two.
+
+The utter dearth of interest would have been terrible to him but for his
+business. At first he preserved a wide and punctilious distance between
+himself and Mr. Garafield. He was the employer, to be sure; but then
+Fred Lawrence had a dignity of his own to maintain. One day, however,
+the dignity suffered a collapse. Mr. Garafield brought in some new
+designs, and they lapsed into an exceedingly entertaining art
+discussion. The employer had excellent taste, trained and shaped by
+practical experience: Fred possessed the wider mental reach and
+exquisite perception of harmony and color, the sentiment of genius.
+
+"Why do you not take up the idea, Mr. Lawrence?" asked his employer.
+"House finishing and furnishing is fast coming to be a fine art. An
+intelligent, harmonious beauty is demanded. We are leaving behind the
+complacency of mere money in our adornments, and asking for something
+that evinces thought and refinement. I am sure you could succeed if you
+once set about the work."
+
+The compliment touched Fred profoundly, roused him to a new venture. He
+practised his almost lost art of designing to some purpose: he wrote two
+or three art essays that happened to find much more favor than his
+abstruse philosophies. After all, he was young, and the whole world lay
+before him. Surely he could carve out some kind of fortune. The light of
+earnest endeavor shone in his eyes, the languid step quickened into one
+of courageous elasticity. He had dawdled away years enough: he would put
+a purpose into his manhood, that some distant eyes, seeing, might not
+relegate him entirely to the regions of contempt.
+
+"There's quite a good deal in that young Lawrence," declared Phil
+Maverick decisively. "I was in at Garafield's the other evening, and, I
+must confess, listened to a fine art lecture. All about wall-papering,
+too!" with a genial laugh. "What an education that fellow has! Couldn't
+he find any thing to do, that he must drop down upon a paper-factory? I
+am sure I should have made a big fight out somewhere in the great
+world."
+
+"'Beyond the Alps lies Italy,'" quoted Jack. "Not on the top, you
+observe, but perhaps in the valley. I wish you would be a little
+friendly with him, Maverick: you couldn't help but like him."
+
+"There is more in him than I gave him credit for. I thought at the time
+of his father's death I had never seen so useless a fine gentleman,
+with all the stamina educated out of him. I had half a mind to turn him
+over to Aunt Jean and Miss Lothrop."
+
+Darcy laughed absently, and Maverick saw that his mind had wandered
+elsewhere. How odd that these two should be friends! Maverick could not
+discern the fine bond uniting them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+SUMMER came on apace. The Cooking Club took a vacation, or rather turned
+into a gardening club, and studied the sensible part of botany and
+floriculture. People began to look at the waste land lying about, with
+envious eyes. Here and there some one started a garden, or indulged in a
+flock of chickens. The Webbers traded their snug cottage for a place on
+the outskirts of the town, with two acres of ground, which they improved
+rapidly. Men who had sold farms, and spent the money in vain business
+speculations, looked back regretfully, and in some instances hired where
+they had been proprietors. There was no money to be realized in farming,
+but if one could even make a living! No one was making money but those
+lucky fellows at Hope Mills. Of course that was a bubble, and would
+burst presently; but doubtless it was good while it lasted.
+
+Miss Barry, Sylvie, and Mrs. Darcy went away to a pleasant, quiet
+seaside resort. Miss Barry appeared to be ailing a little. Mrs. Minor so
+far relented as to invite her mother and Irene to spend two months with
+her at Long Branch. Mrs. Lawrence consented, Irene refused flatly. "She
+had no money to spend for dress, and she would accept no one's charity,"
+she declared in her haughty way. But she could not stay in the house
+forever: so she took long walks over wild country ways, angry with the
+world, herself, and every thing. A fierce-eyed, beautiful girl, clinging
+desperately to her isolation, and yet eating out her very heart in
+loneliness.
+
+The time ran on rapidly. September came around. Hope Mills did not make
+as good a report this time. Business had been very dull. Sales were next
+to nothing. People did not need much in warm weather, and orders were
+very light. However, several other branches of industry in Yerbury
+improved a trifle. Railroads, stocks, and real estate were fast becoming
+dead speculations: so men ventured to put their money warily into
+business again.
+
+But the bottom had not been reached. Early in October there was a
+tremendous failure of an old and well-known firm of woollen-manufacturers.
+The bankrupt stock was sold at auction. Then another, and various
+smaller houses. The market was suddenly flooded. No one could sell. No
+one seemed to need new garments of any kind. Men wore their old clothes,
+and shrugged their shoulders in a sort of contemptuous content, as if
+they had suddenly found a great charm in a half-worn, shabby overcoat.
+Robert Winston went hither and yon. Not a piece or a yard would any one
+take.
+
+There was a great deal of discussion in various daily journals. The
+business had been overdone again. Foreign markets must be found. We
+could not compete with foreign manufacturers. Our wool was inferior, our
+looms were inferior, our men knew so little, and demanded such high
+wages. Then we never could do any thing under the present wretched
+tariff and the skinning system of taxation. It took all a man could
+make. Another sapient statesman declared nothing could be done without
+more money. The contraction had been so great that not a man could do
+business. Then came a long list of figures to prove what a very little
+money was left in the country. Newspaper war raged, first on this side,
+then on that. If we did this, we would surely be ruined: if we did not,
+then ruin was inevitable.
+
+Jack used to try for some light, no matter how faint. It seemed to him,
+if the great men at the helm of the national ship would set to work
+vigorously to widen and strengthen the commerce of the nation, instead
+of discussing such frivolous issues, prosperity might dawn once more. He
+went over his political economists again, and realized sadly that men
+had always disputed these points, and that each writer or prophet was
+sure his was the only creed that would ever save the world, while by
+following any other they would surely go to ruin.
+
+Winston and he took counsel together: then they called in Cameron, who
+looked blue enough.
+
+"Any ordinary factory would shut down for the winter," said Winston
+ruefully; "but that would be to confess our scheme a failure. We are
+piling up goods--but for what--a grand auction-sale by and by? And the
+men have worked so cheerfully--no, we can't give up."
+
+"Giving up is out of the question at present," Jack answered solemnly,
+as if he was passing his word at the bar. "Our balance at the bank has
+been expended, and we have some notes out that must be cared for in a
+month's time. Wages are falling, and it seems to look now as if we were
+coming back to the era of cheap living. The bargain was the ruling rate
+of wages, you know. I think they will have to come down."
+
+"I will not give up beaten," declared Winston. "I'll have one more try.
+Keep up heart, shipmate."
+
+With that Winston started West again. He talked, he plead, he offered
+for the mere cost of production,--just to get the money back would be
+something. The coal-venture of this winter had been much larger, though
+coal was declining, and the profit somewhat less. Everybody pared the
+margin to the mere skin. Winston had a little luck, however. Two sales
+of some note were effected, and a barter, that only a man with a shrewd
+eye for bargains, and a glib tongue, could have managed. Flour, apples,
+and potatoes were the stock this time. The workmen took them gladly, at
+a little less than store prices. They knew how full the wareroom kept
+all the time.
+
+The first of January, wages were lowered. There was a little grumbling
+among some of the men, but the women took it in wiser part. The
+half-loaf was much better than no bread at all. They remembered the
+dismal year when there had been no employment, and stinted food
+purchased on credit. One wouldn't starve with flour and potatoes, nor
+freeze with a full coal-bin.
+
+Hope Mills had exhausted every source,--had even paid a horrible
+discount, being hard run,--when Darcy wrote to Miss McLeod a true
+statement of affairs. If they could hold out until spring, times might
+be better. They were economizing as they never had before: yet the time
+had come when disaster really stared them in the face, unless they could
+find a true friend.
+
+Miss Barry had generously offered him her store and her credit. Though
+there had been a time when she withheld Sylvie, and fancied Jack Darcy
+not quite the equal of her pretty niece, that time had long gone by. She
+knew now his genuine worth,--she had tested his integrity. Of course
+Sylvie would drift that way; and so, by many delicate turns, she showed
+Jack that she could trust him with any of her treasures.
+
+"You are so good," said the honest fellow, with tears in his eyes,--for
+he was touched beyond measure. "If I can't get through I will gladly
+accept, unless the prospect is so bad that it would be sure to
+jeopardize any one's money. But I hope it will not come to that."
+
+How breathlessly he waited for Miss McLeod's answer! The morning's mail
+did not bring it; night closed in without it. A chill drizzle had set
+in, freezing as it fell, and the keen air fairly flayed one's skin. Yet
+he dreaded to go in-doors, to hear his mother's pleasant voice. Cousin
+Jane had been called away by the illness and possible death of a
+relative, so they two were alone.
+
+When Mrs. Darcy saw her son so grave and pre-occupied, his eyes sadly
+pathetic with trouble, mother-like, she tried to comfort with the small
+talk that women often offer, and that answers the purpose like bathing
+one's brow with Florida-water in a severe headache. She never mentioned
+business to him when in such moods. Now it was a bit of
+newspaper-gossip, concerning some discoveries in Greece, that he and
+Maverick had been quite eager about.
+
+The poor fellow was distraught, and could not listen. He ate his supper,
+choking down the food, for her dear sake, missing strangely Cousin
+Jane's pungency and seasoning. Then he tried to interest himself in the
+paper, but could not; he paced the floor softly; he whistled a tune, for
+his mother's benefit also, but broke down in the middle.
+
+"I must go out a little while," he declared in desperation.
+
+"Not in this storm," said his mother pleadingly.
+
+"Yes. I'll be back by--ten," looking at the clock. "It is too bad to
+leave you alone," with sudden regret, kissing her tenderly.
+
+"I shall not mind for a while. But this wretched storm"--
+
+He laughed, a little strained and forced; then he put on his great-coat,
+almost wishing that every man in the country was without, and had to buy
+one to-morrow. He tramped up the street, drawing long respirations,
+every one of which was nearly a sigh. Was this the way Mr. Lawrence felt
+when times went bad? Was some such trouble the cause of that fatal
+disaster? He bowed his head in a sort of touching and profound respect
+to the dead man. He experienced an earnest sympathy for all struggling
+capitalists. What did unreasoning labor know of such nights as these
+when every thing, even good name, was at stake! He wondered if his mop
+of curly hair would turn gray, and then, in a ridiculously trivial
+mood, remembered he must go and have it cropped. As well now as any
+time; but when he reached the barber's, the place looked so uninviting,
+with the smoky kerosene-lamps turned low. He did not stop: he used to
+wonder afterward how it would have been if he had, until he came to have
+a sincere and reverent belief in God as the disposer of human events,
+the Hand back of the curtain, that guided every step, and kept sacred
+watch even over two sparrows.
+
+He walked down past Maverick's; but half a dozen people were in there,
+so he went on and on to the very end of the street, when by the dim
+light he saw a figure in advance of him, a woman, tall and stately,
+muffled in a waterproof and hood. There was something in the bearing
+different from most of the Yerbury women who ran out of an evening for a
+neighborly gossip, or some provender for their next morning's breakfast.
+There were no stores in this direction; it was quite lonely; perhaps she
+was going home. It would annoy her to be followed, doubtless; and on
+such a night as this no roughs would be abroad in this vicinity.
+
+Jack Darcy was in that nervous state when the brain seems rarefied and
+empowered to wrest secrets from the very elements in his path. He
+pursued several chains of thought at once, with lightning rapidity, and,
+with curious mental inconsistency, dropped them, and lapsed into others.
+Now a sudden interest sprang up in this wandering traveller. He listened
+with the wariness of an Indian to her step. It had in it the essential
+principle of flight, but a baffled, fruitless longing for escape, rather
+than a nearing to some distant haven or goal. He had not used to be so
+keen in this subtile discrimination, until Maverick crossed his path,
+and helped him out of his psychological bondage. And ordinarily his
+senses had not the electric keenness of to-night.
+
+The figure paused. The face seemed to turn to the drear, blank sky--was
+it in appealing, or a desperate daring? an impotent resistance, or a
+wild, agonizing prayer? The hands were thrown up: he had come gradually
+nearer, and could see them, ghostly white in the long feeble ray of the
+distant lamp. What was she deciding or asking? A shiver ran over him as
+the thought of suicide entered his brain. At all events, he must not let
+her go to destruction.
+
+Her hands dropped. She took a few slow, irresolute steps, then turned
+and came so quickly, that before he could stir or think, she confronted
+him. A wild face with staring eyes, a wilder shriek ringing out on the
+night air, making muffled echoes around, a desperate plunge, and a fall.
+He sprang and essayed to raise her from the half-frozen hail-bed of the
+sidewalk; the hood fell back, and he was more than astonished at
+beholding the face of Irene Lawrence.
+
+He appeared suddenly to comprehend the whole fact, though he came to
+know afterward that he misjudged her. Only a desire to put an end to
+life and suffering, real or fancied, could have brought her out this
+night, in the lonely neighborhood, still, not so far from her own home.
+He must take her back, and then go for Maverick, who had become quite a
+favorite with Mrs. Lawrence, and prescribed harmless remedies for her,
+since she insisted she must have them.
+
+Jack Darcy never experienced a more exultant pride in his strength than
+now. He lifted the helpless form, settled the swaying head on his broad
+shoulder, and, clasping the body tightly, picked his way through the
+slippery streets, in a manner that would have done credit to an Alp
+climber. Round this corner and that, to the quiet, deserted street,
+where every window was closed, and perhaps half the inmates in bed. Only
+in one house was there a sound of life. Some one was playing an
+accompaniment for an evening hymn, and youthful voices were singing.
+Two lines floated out as he passed, making a kind of glow on the sullen
+night:--
+
+          "Though long a wanderer,
+              The sun gone down"--
+
+Unconsciously he tightened his arms around this wanderer. Of course all
+their brief acquaintance had gone through his mind, especially the day
+when in her haughty pride and beauty she had given him that cold,
+insolent stare; but he forgave her freely, just as he had forgiven
+Fred's sin, unasked. How strangely he was destined to be mixed up with
+these Lawrences!
+
+He paused on the low porch, where a honeysuckle rioted in summer, and
+was still full of withered leaves. His burthen had not stirred, and was
+a dead weight. Resting it against his knee, he pulled the door-bell
+gently, and waited.
+
+"Is that you, Mr. Lawrence?" asked a voice from within.
+
+"No. Jack Darcy," for he guessed rightly that it was Martha.
+
+She opened the door.
+
+"Don't be frightened, Martha," in a re-assuring tone. "It is Miss
+Lawrence."
+
+"Oh, good heaven!" in tones of terror.
+
+"Hush! do not disturb any one. Is Mr. Lawrence home? Where shall I carry
+her? she is in a dead faint."
+
+"Bring her in the parlor. Oh, Mr. Darcy! where was she?" with a look of
+wild affright. "I did not know she had gone out. I always felt something
+would happen to her; and a long while ago I offered to go out with her,
+but she is so hard and disdainful that one soon comes to letting her
+alone. She made me promise not to tell her brother, or rather she defied
+me to: she wouldn't put any thing as a favor if she was dying. Talk
+about the pride of Lucifer! And I knew it would worry Mr. Lawrence
+dreadfully."
+
+"Was she in the habit of going out--alone--at night?" asked Jack, in
+amaze.
+
+"I think it was from pride," answered Martha simply. "You see, she
+needed some exercise, and she seldom went out in the daytime. And I
+don't think she is afraid of any thing. I never saw such a cold, bitter,
+strong girl--for she is only a girl yet. I've sometimes felt afraid she
+would do something desperate. Oh, if she would only let the Lord help
+her bear her trouble! And Mr. Lawrence is so kind and generous! He would
+do any thing for her. Oh, he ought to be home! There's the clock
+striking ten."
+
+"And I must run for the doctor. Heaven grant she may not be dead! Take
+off her cloak, and try something"--glancing about in alarm.
+
+Then he seemed to take one devouring look at the sculptured face, with
+closed lids, and jetty lashes sweeping the marble cheeks. Hurrying away,
+as if by some great effort, he ran down the street again, despatched
+Maverick, and hastened to Fred's office. The building loomed up dark and
+silent. He might possibly be at Garafield's house: he often went there
+of an evening, he and Mr. Garafield were so engrossed with their plans.
+
+It was a long walk; but Jack strode on, getting rapidly over the ground.
+The hall-door was open, and Mr. and Mrs. Garafield were saying
+good-night to Fred. Jack waited until he came down the steps, and then
+called to him cheerfully. They linked arm-in-arm. The hail and rain had
+turned now to fine, hard snow, and the wind seemed to scurry through the
+deserted streets like a forlorn, wailing spirit.
+
+Jack told his story briefly, also repeating what Martha had said about
+Irene's habit of lonely walking. He felt the sensitive nerves in the arm
+he held, quiver with a shuddering pain.
+
+"Thank God it was you!" Fred said, with a great, tremulous gasp. "She is
+so strange, so cold and self-contained,--so bitter against fate! Believe
+me, Jack, I have tried my utmost"--and the voice broke with something
+like a sob.
+
+"I know it, dear old fellow," drawing him nearer as the blast whistled
+around them.
+
+"We never learned to make each other happy, you know. We never supposed
+we had any special duties to one another, so it was a new task to me. I
+tried to interest her in something, to make her more cheerful; but she
+would wrap herself in that haughty, unconquerable coldness. Yet if I had
+known or guessed"--
+
+"After all, there is very little danger down your end of the town," said
+Jack, in that light, comforting tone. "There's nothing to call tramps or
+roughs; and, I dare say, to-night all would have gone straight if she
+had not run against me, as one may say, and the fright made her faint."
+
+"But if it had been some one else! Oh, my God!"
+
+"It was not; so never give that a second thought. There is no use in
+bringing up an army of 'might-have-beens' to worry you to death when you
+have escaped danger. And--here we are."
+
+"You will come in, of course?"
+
+Jack followed his friend. Maverick had succeeded in restoring Miss
+Lawrence to consciousness; but she was now in a burning fever and raging
+delirium. Outraged nature had at last asserted its sway.
+
+"It is better so, I think," remarked Maverick, in a quiet, decisive
+tone. "She will have a severe run of fever, for this has been some time
+coming on; but she has youth and a naturally fine constitution in her
+favor. I believe she will pull through. But some arrangement must be
+settled upon. It will not do to take her up-stairs; for the effect upon
+your mother will be too great a risk. If you could bring a bed down
+here--to-morrow I will see about getting a nurse."
+
+"I think it would be better to bring her bed down stairs," rejoined
+Martha. "The parlor is used so little. And she would be so much more
+comfortable"--
+
+Martha's eyes went over the heavy, clinging dress, the disordered hair,
+the bracelets that were like manacles as she threw her arms about,
+moaning, muttering, and laughing shrilly. The eyes rolled wildly in
+their senseless stare, until one's blood almost curdled.
+
+"We must get about it immediately," began Dr. Maverick. "She will be
+quieter presently, and I shall remain all night. Darcy, you watch her:
+do not let her injure herself, while we bring down the necessary
+articles."
+
+Just at this juncture Mrs. Lawrence's bell rang. The noise had startled
+her from her first sound sleep. Dr. Maverick explained simply, and gave
+her a composing draught.
+
+"A fever! Is it any thing contagious? Yes, it is better to keep her down
+there: my nerves are so weak, and I think I have a very sensitive,
+susceptible nature. I might take any disease so easily,--do you not
+think so, doctor?" and Mrs. Lawrence looked up from her frills and laces
+and snowy pillow with the helpless air of a child.
+
+"Much better. She may be delirious, too, and that would distress you.
+Now be as quiet as possible, and try to go to sleep again. I shall
+remain to keep you both in order," with a laugh.
+
+"That is very kind," she answered, with a pretty wave of her delicate
+hand. Her daughter might be dying below, but her nerves must be settled
+and cared for. Still, to do her justice, even in her intense
+selfishness, she never considered other people's ailments dangerous,
+while she held that her own precious life was constantly in peril. She
+talked of dying with the calmness of a saint, and admitted that there
+was no further charm to life, but still she must have the choicest care.
+
+Under Martha's supervision they soon dismembered the bedstead, and
+brought down all necessary belongings. Jack had watched his charge,
+strangely exercised by her curious, changeful moods. Once she had looked
+meaningly at him.
+
+"I _might_ marry you," she said, in soft, mocking tones, her scarlet
+lips taking on a bitter, scornful smile; "but I should come to hate you
+so that some night when you lay asleep I should rise and murder you! I
+might endure you in London, where I could be in a continual round of
+gayety; but at Frodsham Park, with an old man like you,--May and
+December! May and December!" and she laughed shrilly.
+
+She did not mean _him_, then! Honest Jack Darcy blushed to the roots of
+his hair, to his very finger-ends. Some old man had wanted her: well,
+she was braver and truer, then, than most people would admit.
+
+The three came in, and transformed the parlor to a hospital-ward,
+without the simplicity. Jack suddenly thought of his mother, and hurried
+away. What an eventful walk it had been! and Hope Mills was quite driven
+out of his mind.
+
+He found his mother frightened and hysterical; and drawing her down
+beside him he told her the story of his wanderings, expressing with some
+tender kisses his sorrow for her alarm, and advised her to go to bed at
+once, as he meant to do. And, though it might not be romantic after such
+an adventure, I must admit that in ten minutes my hero was soundly
+asleep, oblivious of both storm and business.
+
+At the house he had left, there was but little refreshing rest. Mrs.
+Lawrence drowsed away when the confusion of re-arrangement had subsided.
+The gentlemen retired to the library while Martha disrobed her young
+mistress with inward fear and trembling, hardly being able to judge
+what was due to delirium, and what to natural imperiousness. Then Dr.
+Maverick kindly dismissed her.
+
+"You will need your strength in the morning," said he. "Try to get at
+least one good nap."
+
+He took his station at the bedside, and motioned Fred to an armchair
+just out of his sister's range. The opiate was not working successfully,
+but at present he did not consider it wise to increase it. He questioned
+him a little as to Miss Irene's habits and resources, and imagined the
+part withheld, from that rather reluctantly admitted. He understood that
+here kindred blood had not produced harmony, but a horrible discord, the
+more wearing in that every note had been muffled. The self-commiseration
+of the mother, and her weak love for her son that could only pity, but
+never encourage or brace to any vigorous effort; her total inability to
+comprehend any such character as her youngest daughter possessed; the
+wearisome platitudes enunciated in the belief that they were golden
+grains of worldly wisdom, the only kind she supposed existed; the weak,
+vapid repining that she had not married when she might have done so
+well, the discouraging certainty that no marriage was possible in this
+second-rate town, and that to remain single was a stigma and a
+misfortune. In her weak but querulous complaints, which she meant in
+part for sympathy, she had worn and exasperated Irene as much as Mrs.
+Minor: only here there were no lovers, and there Mrs. Minor looked upon
+every single man of means as a fish to be skilfully angled for.
+
+If Irene had been thrown completely upon her own resources, if she had
+been compelled to step entirely out of her olden sphere, and earn her
+daily bread, there would have been a sharp, bitter fight, but the
+bracing mental atmosphere might have dispelled the thick darkness, the
+chilling vacuity, and evolved from the discordant elements a questioning
+and not easily satisfied soul, but one destined to develop into
+strength and nobler uses. But here, she said to herself, there was
+nothing. Friendship could not come to her aid--she would have none of
+it. No one should study her with curious eyes, to see how she bore her
+trials, her losses, the downfall of her pride. Strangers who had glanced
+at her with envy in her pretty pony-phaeton, or the magnificent family
+barouche, should not smile in triumph as they saw her walking by. As she
+had scorned others in her grandeur, so others would rejoice that she had
+been brought low. She had seen so much of the narrowness, the petty
+spite, the sharp stings of the world, that her sensitive flesh shrank at
+every pulse.
+
+She could understand now how high-bred women, when friends and fortune
+had flown, had shut themselves in convents. That she would have been
+glad to do. Any entire renunciation would have met with her approval.
+But to gather up the threads of a commonplace existence, to find joy and
+solace in daily duties, to work for others, to even show others how
+trials and misfortunes could be borne to the perfect working-out of
+nobler aims and uses, was not for her. She had never been trained to any
+such purpose. A heathen of the heathens in a Christian country, the
+product of fashion, wealth, and so-called refinement.
+
+In the solitude to which she condemned herself, she came to brooding
+over a desperate, worldly philosophy. Should she go back, and retrace
+her steps, and marry? There were days when she absolutely contested the
+ground inch by inch, and almost decided.
+
+Her long rapid walks, generally at night when her brain was wild with
+the bitter warfare, had served a useful purpose, and kept her in better
+health. But the strain could not last forever. For days she had
+alternated between a chilly, stupid languor, and hours when her brain
+seemed on fire, when, indeed, she hated the whole world with a bitter,
+awful intensity. In this mood she had stolen out for her walk.
+
+And now the outraged soul had burst its bonds, and revelled in a fearful
+revenge. All the ache and repression put upon it; all this silent
+endurance; all the solitary hours of maddening thought, the wasted
+riches, the spurned sympathy, the youth poisoned by false
+doctrines,--every secret sin committed against it, cried aloud, and
+would not be throttled, nor thrust back into the dreary dungeon.
+
+Fred listened to her ravings in stunned, helpless astonishment. His
+trial had been so much less intense, after all. Could it be possible she
+had suffered this as she sat so like a statue in the little circle,
+disdaining every aid? His startled eyes questioned the doctor.
+
+"Yes," was the reply: "she has been too much alone. She has brooded over
+these things until she has become morbid and imbittered. The curse of
+fashionable life is, that it provides a woman with no resources against
+a dark day, no wisdom, no faith in any thing outside of herself. And
+then we wonder at insanity! A thousand times better that the body should
+be racked with pain, if so be that the soul is purified in passing
+through these fires. It may be her salvation."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+THE morning's mail brought to Darcy the letter he had hardly dared
+expect. It was brief but cordial. Would he come to New York, and the
+matter could be arranged to his satisfaction? "He had not been very
+eager to ask favors."
+
+"We'll weather through, Winston!" he cried joyfully. "I must go to New
+York. Miss McLeod has sent."
+
+Then he ran off home, and arrayed himself in spotless linen and
+immaculate cuffs, complained a little that Jane Morgan should be away,
+and begged his mother to ask in some of the pretty, friendly girls
+living in the next house, if he should not be home to supper. There was
+a late train that he would be quite sure of, if the business detained
+him until night. Then he kissed her tenderly: she was still a little
+shaken from her last night's vigil.
+
+He went around by Maverick's office, though it took him out of his way;
+but he must hear some word of Miss Lawrence.
+
+"She is very ill, and will be for some time to come; but I am
+wonderfully interested in the case. It's a brain-fever. The girl is a
+study in herself. She has the force and power, and capability of both
+suffering and endurance, that would answer for half a dozen souls; but
+it has come pretty nearly to a wreck. Did you ever know much about her?"
+
+"No. I once spent an evening with Miss Barry when she was there," and
+Jack flushed. "It was before Mr. Lawrence died. They used to be great
+friends, you know."
+
+"And it ended like most women's friendships, eh?" with a peculiar light
+in his eyes as he spoke.
+
+"No: it broke off in the middle; regards have a trick of doing that when
+they're not ended, you know. Sylvie is very generous: she would go there
+to-day if she were needed."
+
+"Would she? She may be before it is all over."
+
+"Go down and tell her, Maverick, when you are in that direction."
+
+Maverick nodded.
+
+Darcy was just in time to catch his train. There had been quite a fall
+of snow from midnight to dawn, and the trees were glittering with
+thousands of diamond-sparks and patches of fleecy ermine. The winding
+roads were white; the cottages and the fence-posts were hooded; and the
+snow caught all the tints of sun and shadowy lights, reflecting them
+back like a mirror. His heart was so light as they whirled along, he
+smiled, and could hardly forbear shouting at a group of boys who were
+snow-balling by the roadside.
+
+He met Miss McLeod at Mr. Hildreth's. They had the private office to
+themselves; and he related the mishaps of the past three months, showed
+her the actual figures, and admitted that times seemed really harder
+than last year. There was such a horrible shrinkage everywhere! Still
+there must be some trade presently,--it always had been so in the
+history of the world.
+
+"I think you deserve a great deal of credit for having pulled through so
+far on your limited capital," said she. "Some of the business-men I
+meet, think this will prove the hardest year in our history. It will
+winnow the chaff from the wheat pretty well."
+
+"If it does not winnow us all into chaff," returned the young fellow,
+with a touch of grim humor.
+
+"We shall come back to smaller profits and greater industry. The world
+will not be able to play at being ladies and gentlemen, and perhaps a
+little wholesome work will not be a bad discipline."
+
+Then she wanted to know what amount would be likely to tide him over for
+the next six months. He said he did not desire to exceed ten thousand
+dollars. She would make it twelve, however. After the notes were duly
+signed, she took him to her bank, and introduced him. As he had some
+other parties to see, she drove him about in her carriage, and insisted
+upon taking him home with her presently.
+
+What an elegant old lady she was in her sables and velvets, and her
+royal air! her eyes bright with spirit and energy, her cheeks a little
+pink with the crisp air, glad sunshine, and perhaps her own hearty,
+wholesome mood. Occasionally she leaned out and nodded to some friend;
+and once her carriage drew up to the sidewalk as she summoned a fine,
+portly-looking gentleman to her.
+
+"Mr. Throckmorton," she said, with gracious dignity, "I want to
+introduce my young friend Mr. Darcy, of Hope Mills, Yerbury, to you. If
+you can serve him in any business-way, I shall be glad to have you."
+
+The gentleman bowed, and held out his hand, with cordial fine breeding.
+
+"Hope Mills! It belonged to my friend Lawrence, did it not,--David
+Lawrence?"
+
+"Until his death, yes."
+
+"Sad misfortune, that. He ought to have retired years before. There was
+some villany in his manager, was there not? It is difficult to find a
+purely honest man nowadays; but I do believe Lawrence was one. We dealt
+with him a great many years, but toward the last there was some
+dissatisfaction,--goods not coming quite up to samples."
+
+"We try to do our business on the square, Mr. Throckmorton," returned
+Jack, with a proud curve of the lips that was almost a smile, and
+illumined his face. "If any thing is not exactly as represented, we
+shall make it good; but we try never to have occasion to do that. We
+should be glad to have you test our honesty and skill."
+
+"Thank you,--I will, I will;" and, touching his hat to Miss McLeod, they
+parted.
+
+"If men were as generous as you!" cried Jack, with enthusiastic candor,
+"how splendid a place this world would be for business! Did you ever
+have a jealous thought in all your life?"
+
+She laughed brightly. "I have had nearly all the things I wanted," she
+answered, with tender solemnity. "There would have been little excuse.
+Mr. Darcy, we do not always realize how hard life is to some; and, where
+everybody's man's hand is against one, it is natural for him to be
+against every man."
+
+Their four-o'clock meal was an elegant little dinner. They were quite
+alone, which pleased Jack. She questioned him about Maverick, his
+practice, his friends, and wondered if he ever meant to marry. Jack said
+laughingly no one in Yerbury dared to make fascinating eyes at him.
+
+Did she care so much for Maverick? Surely these two ought to be
+together, yet what would _he_ do without his trusty comrade?
+
+They veered round to the mills presently, and discussed honesty. Jack
+admitted that Mr. Throckmorton and other customers had a right to
+complain. There had been a deal of cheap wool used, and many poor
+workmen employed, during Eastman's last year or two.
+
+"Mr. Darcy," she began energetically, "why do you not think up something
+new? We import pretty material for ladies' wear, that could as well be
+made here, for we women are growing sensible enough to believe something
+beside silk admissible. And though men may cling to superannuated coats,
+with an affection most commendable in hard times, I never heard of a
+woman being attached to an old gown."
+
+"I never thought of it," he admitted frankly.
+
+"That is what you were put in the world for,--to think," and she smiled
+with quaint humor. "Invent something. I'll take a sample to every store
+to match, and lift my brows in surprise when clerks confess they have
+not seen it. Give it a pretty name, of course."
+
+"That is worth considering, surely;" and his eyes sparkled. "Hope Mills
+ought presently to be the grandest place in the country, you take so
+much interest in it," and his whole face expressed his admiration.
+
+"I do hope to see you a successful manufacturer, Mr. Darcy; and,
+woman-like, I want the scheme to succeed. I should like to see even a
+small party of men trained to honesty and fair play. And, if I lose my
+money, it is no worse than a downfall in stocks."
+
+"I shall do my best now and ever," he answered heartily.
+
+They parted with much warm gratitude on the honest fellow's side. He
+took the evening train for home; and his mother had a good cup of tea
+awaiting him, along with her smile. He related his grand good luck, and
+there were not two happier people in all Yerbury. When the bank found he
+had an account at New York, and a good backer, they were extremely
+affable again.
+
+Jack broached the new idea to Winston and Cameron.
+
+"To be sure," admitted Winston. "Some one will do it presently, and we
+might get the lead. Darcy, your old lady is a trump, and always carries
+the honors. There will have to be some new processes: see here, talk to
+Ben Hay about it; he's made two or three improvements, and has some
+brains. Gad! It'll be quite jolly to have a new line of goods. Get the
+ladies on your side, and you're all right!"
+
+He had not a spare moment until after his late supper, when he told his
+mother he must run over to the Lawrences, and stop a moment at the
+doctor's, though he had despatched the good news to him in the morning.
+
+He found matters worse than he had feared. There had been an alarming
+change in Miss Lawrence. Martha ushered him through the hall to the
+library, where Fred was sitting. The two clasped hands, and then sat
+down together. A hard, dry sob seemed to tear its way up from Fred's
+very soul.
+
+"Jack," he cried in a strained, despairing tone, "could I have done any
+thing to save her? I have been engrossed with my own affairs, my own
+dreams of advancement. I wanted to have money again, but it was for her
+sake and my mother's," with a lingering tremulous intonation. "She has
+been too solitary, she has brooded over every thing. But she would not
+go out, or see any company; and somehow it was our misfortune to grow up
+without any warm, vital interest in each other. When I was a boy I used
+to like it at your house, because your father and mother took such a
+real delight in you. It is the pith of life. Poor father--he was very
+proud of me, he gave his life for our pleasure and grandeur and reckless
+extravagance, yet all the later years we were well-nigh strangers. Why
+can't people get nearer to each other, Jack, or is it only given to the
+very few? Does the greedy world swallow up every sentiment, every bit of
+tenderness, and make a mock of it?"
+
+"No, no! Nothing can quite kill it, thank God! You and I have proved
+that. It may be smothered under dust and rubbish, and frozen with
+neglect, but the germ will revive,--just as the brown woolly ball
+evolves the fine delicate fern-leaf that it has held in its heart
+through winter storms, you know. Don't blame yourself. Every soul has to
+fight its own battle somewhere, with no day's-man between but God. We
+get back to the old truth in spite of the new philosophies, and own in
+our vanquished moments that we cannot _make_ strength, that ours is
+only a broken reed, and the true upholding force must come from some
+knowledge higher than our own."
+
+Jack paused, strangely stirred in every fibre. He seldom essayed
+sentiment: with him the deeds of life had to answer, rather than any
+eloquence of words. He laid his strong, warm arm over Fred's shoulder,
+the old boyish caress with which he had often comforted unknowingly.
+
+"I think you have been doing nobly," he went on presently. "I did not
+look to find you so brave and persevering, so earnest in thinking of
+others; for, after all, a man's training does throw a great many
+shackles about him."
+
+Dr. Maverick entered at that moment. He had hurried off his
+office-patients to come and spend an hour watching this case, which held
+a fascinating interest for him. Some most unfavorable symptoms had
+supervened, but he did not despair. The nurse had been regularly
+trained, he had kept her busy in Yerbury the last year. He could trust
+her to note the slightest variations.
+
+Just now Miss Lawrence lay in a heavy stupor, so like death that one
+could not detect it from any motion. Her eyes were half open, her face
+had a dull purplish tint. The abundant hair had been confined in a thick
+plait, and brushed straight across her forehead. How distinct and finely
+clear the brows were pencilled, how haughtily sweet the curve of the
+pallid, fever-burned lips, how exquisitely round and perfect the chin,
+the slope of the throat and neck! Jack stole one glance,--they had both
+gone in with the doctor,--but it seemed almost sacrilegious, now when
+she was powerless to frown the intruder out of her presence. And he had
+carried her in his arms!
+
+"O Darcy," Maverick exclaimed presently, "I did not go to Miss Barry's,
+after all. I have been so desperately busy to-day."
+
+Fred glanced up, and his eye met that of his friend. Both flushed, and
+both mistook the cause.
+
+It was a curiously auspicious moment. Jack went over to him. "I wonder,"
+he began, with a marked persuasiveness in his tone, "if you would like
+to have Sylvie Barry come over? She and your sister used to be such
+friends. And, in times like these, animosities and foolish prejudices
+ought to die out."
+
+Fred gave him a startled look, and half turned, his lids drooping to
+veil the secret in his eyes. Jack waited with breath that half strangled
+him. He had marvelled how these two souls were to be brought into
+friendly contact again; how Sylvie was to have an opportunity of knowing
+that Fred was redeeming the manliness of manhood, instead of grounding
+among its trivial shoals, and, if she ever had cared for him, to
+understand that he was not utterly unworthy. He had spoken--what if the
+chance should fail!
+
+Fred very naturally misinterpreted the emotion. Jack offered this out of
+the boundless tenderness of his heart, so confident was he of Sylvie's
+regard.
+
+"You think--she would come?"
+
+His own voice, under the great stress, sounded miles away to him, quite
+as if some other person had spoken.
+
+How often the tense strain of feeling is relieved by a tone or an
+incident quite out of the magnetic current!
+
+"Some one ought to drop in occasionally, for your mother's sake," said
+Dr. Maverick. "We shall have her in a fever from sympathy," putting the
+fact more delicately in words than it was in his thought.
+
+"She would be glad to come, I know. She would feel hurt if-- You empower
+me to ask her?" with an abrupt transition of tone.
+
+Fred Lawrence bowed his head. He could not trust his voice.
+
+The sick girl started, opened wide her eyes, threw up her arms, and
+began in weird, passionate tones, as if it were a stage declamation. Oh
+the lurid thought that seemed to travel from regions of bliss to the
+nethermost hell; to display a boundless capacity for enjoyment, for
+pleasure or pain, for tenderness and bitter, brilliant satire, a keen
+knowledge of the world to the very dregs,--the dust and ashes! She
+implored her lost idols to come near, and in the next breath she tossed
+them from her with a mocking laugh. She had no faith in God or man, and
+before her was a blank wall of despair.
+
+Jack led him away. He took him out in the keen air of the starry winter
+night, and began to talk of Hope Mills and the new projects. It was too
+late afterward to call on Sylvie, so he waited until the next morning.
+
+She was inexpressibly shocked. "Of course she would go," she made
+answer; and she went that very afternoon, with her aunt for companion.
+
+They found Mrs. Lawrence in a dreadfully disturbed and apprehensive
+state. She was so weary of solitude that she welcomed them gladly, quite
+forgetting this girl had insulted her by rejecting her son. In a weak,
+shuffling manner she excused herself for not having accepted their
+overtures before. She had been so utterly overwhelmed by the death of
+Mr. Lawrence, that, in her state of nervous prostration, it had been
+impossible to see any one. And now she was positive she should take the
+fever. Her health was so delicate, her nerves so susceptible, and to
+hear the raving of delirium,--the laughs that were quite like a
+maniac,--would be sure to shatter her beyond any help. If it were not in
+the dead of winter, she should go to New York at once, and stay with
+Mrs. Minor until all danger of infection was over. She did not seem to
+comprehend the gravity of Irene's case, though she wept over her
+suffering in a soft self-pity.
+
+"If you could be removed to our house," suggested Miss Barry, in her
+gentle way, "we would take the best of care of you; and it must be
+extremely wearing for you here."
+
+"Ah, you have no idea! I never slept last night. I have heard of people
+in these dreadful fevers who have left their beds when the nurse was
+absent, and committed some horrible crime. I locked my door last night;
+then I was afraid I might faint away alone, and Fred had to come and
+stay with me. It was terrible!" and the washed-out eyes dilated with
+real fear.
+
+Martha was despatched for the doctor, who not only came himself, but
+brought a close coach, thankful to dispose of one patient so
+comfortably. Before dusk Mrs. Lawrence was snugly settled in Miss
+Barry's best room, where a cheerful open-front stove made amends for a
+grate, and the new surroundings served to take her mind from her late
+apprehensions. Indeed, she felt so much better for the change, that she
+insisted upon coming down to tea.
+
+It was beneficial in many ways. They removed Irene again to her own
+room, and used her mother's for various convenient purposes. Sylvie went
+back and forth, and shared the day-watching, beside entertaining Mrs.
+Lawrence. The two dropped insensibly into their olden positions. Sylvie
+listened patiently to the death, the loss of fortune, the changes, which
+Mrs. Lawrence dwelt upon with the exaggerating vividness of a nature
+completely engrossed with its own sorrows.
+
+Dr. Maverick had to come every day. Mrs. Lawrence had arrived at that
+stage when a woman depends upon the doctor as a sort of bulletin for her
+own health. Fred, too, must visit his mother frequently; but at first he
+chose the hours he knew Sylvie would be with Irene.
+
+Dr. Maverick used to watch Sylvie Barry with an interest and admiration
+that grew upon him. Her tact was something marvellous, born of a certain
+exquisite harmony and almost divine unselfishness. But of this last she
+appeared serenely unconscious. I think, indeed, that she was. A higher
+love and faith had interpenetrated her soul, her very being. Instead of
+agonizing introspections and lightning flashes to the inward depths of
+her nature, she seemed to live continually on the outside of herself,
+radiating warmth and light as the sun. Her patience was of a rare, fine
+quality, born of health, and spirits not easily wearied.
+
+It would have been quite impossible for any two people to go through
+such a strain of feeling, and not be drawn together in love and
+sympathy, or friendship. With Fred and Sylvie it was unconsciously a
+little of all. If he had gone back with the old love, even exalted and
+refined, he would surely have blundered again. But now she was
+another's, sacred in his eyes. And though in his blind pride he had once
+thought the greatest favor he could do her would be to save her from any
+such _mesalliance_, he recognized now that Jack Darcy was immeasurably
+above him in all the qualities that went to make up pure manhood. Even
+in his work: Jack's ambition was not for himself, but a cause; and
+his--ah, how poor and paltry it seemed! So he accepted his place with
+outward bravery, and a great wrench of all a man holds most dear. For
+now he loved her.
+
+The days passed slowly on. It seemed at the last as if the fever would
+prove the victor. A consultation was held, and new remedies employed.
+Irene's beautiful hair was cut off and laid away, the clear skin seemed
+to grow brown and shrivelled, the hands lost their plump whiteness, and
+the rosy nails were dull and gray. There came a time when human skill
+had done all, and they could only wait for that Higher power to whose
+eternal force death and love alike submit.
+
+There followed upon that awful night of suspense, days when she was but
+just alive, when a turn of her head on the pillow caused a lapse into
+unconsciousness. But the spring came on; and she did rally, at first, it
+appeared, at the entire sacrifice of her regal beauty. Would she care to
+take life on such terms?
+
+They brought Mrs. Lawrence home. Mrs. Minor came up, and insisted that
+both mother and sister should be removed to the city at once. She had
+her horses and carriage, her servants, her luxuries, and she could make
+them so much more comfortable.
+
+Dr. Maverick interposed a decided negative. The body had not yet resumed
+its normal state; but the brain was to be ministered to, as only those
+of experience and study could minister. It was to be brought out of the
+hell of its own despairing self-torture, and enfranchised, set free from
+the demons that, standing in the present abeyance of weakness, had lost
+neither strength nor desire, and were only waiting the auspicious moment
+to seize their prey again. And he was too much fascinated to relinquish
+the study.
+
+Sylvie persuaded her aunt to indulge in a pony-carriage. Miss Barry was
+breaking a little; but she still kept her interest in good works, and
+found she was much more useful with this aid. Winsome little Sylvie
+looked more piquant than ever with the reins in her hands, flashing
+hither and thither through the streets of Yerbury, gathering a harvest
+of smiles and nods. She fairly compelled Mrs. Lawrence to trust her
+precious self to what she laughingly declared was superior
+horsewomanship.
+
+Dr. Maverick used to stop her often, just to catch a delicious ripple of
+laughter, or a bit of trenchant talk. If it were not for Jack Darcy--did
+Jack love her? At all events, she loved him: any one could see that by
+her frank, fearless manner. Oh, sapient Dr. Maverick, with all your
+knowledge of brains and nerves, of occult causes and mysterious effects!
+So it happens that sometimes a simple, direct truth is the greatest
+puzzle of all.
+
+The schools and clubs had not been neglected with all this excitement.
+But this winter Mary Moran had been teacher at a small salary; and a
+bakery and refreshment or dining room had been opened down stairs, which
+really made quite a little money. Wholesomely cooked food was offered
+for sale, with bread, rolls, and biscuit. The club had also given two
+successful suppers. When Jane Morgan was home, Sylvie was relieved of
+the actual care: she would have it. She had come back to Yerbury a
+thousand dollars richer for her relative's death, and she and Jack were
+drawing plans for a co-operative store.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+"I'D rather lose five thousand dollars than do it."
+
+Jack Darcy leaned back in his office-chair. He had just made up the
+third half-yearly account. It was bad enough. They had known this all
+along, and had not concealed it from the men. Now it was to be
+confronted in black and white, with searching eyes.
+
+It was not that they had not made any thing: that would have been
+endurable, considering the kind of winter. But they had gone back, and
+eaten up the profits of last year.
+
+"You see, there co-operation comes in," said Bob Winston. "It isn't
+_your_ loss alone. It's mine and every man's. That's what we agreed to
+when we went in. Labor and capital should share in the ups and downs.
+See here, Jack, I've learned a good deal myself. I have more sympathy
+with employers. Gad! what a pull we've had this winter! If it hadn't
+been for your fairy godmother"--
+
+"Well, it must be done!" and Jack pulled a long face. "There, it is all
+ready to print. Now old fellow, we must brace ourselves up for the shot
+and shell. We'll have to do the fighting all over again. If every man
+had as easy, philosophical a mind as you, or as sensible, reasonable a
+one as Cameron, I should not have so many misgivings."
+
+The statement was printed and distributed. The men looked blue and
+cross. Had they really lost nearly all of last year's balance?
+
+Winston asked them to stop one evening while he went into a slight
+explanation. He was well armed. Without having a logical mind or
+parliamentary training, he had a woman's quick intuitions, and often
+jumped at very decent conclusions with hardly a glance at the premises.
+He had a way of massing his forces, too, that was very telling.
+
+Now, after what he called a little skirmishing, he read that the
+Barnable Mills had been running on three-quarter time all winter. Wages
+had been a trifle lower than with them. Middleham Mills had been closed
+for two months. He gave the figures of loss to the workmen. Crowley and
+Dawson had gone into bankruptcy, owing their men in the aggregate more
+than all Hope Mills had used of last year's profits. Then he read a
+statement from an eminent manufacturer, that he had used fifty-four
+thousand dollars of accrued capital rather than turn off his workmen to
+starve. There had been strikes in several other places, in which the
+workmen had lost much more than at Yerbury.
+
+"So that our showing, bad as it is, is not the worst," said he. "In the
+very dullest of times we cast in our lots together, and we must take the
+good and bad. If you had been living this winter on the private capital
+of any one man or corporation, you would never have given the matter a
+thought. You know now, by experience, that capital does not always float
+on a serene and indolent sea, and gather in treasures for which it has
+cast out no net. You can appreciate the struggle we have gone through;
+though, while you have been going along placidly, with the larger weight
+of care lifted off your shoulders, a man with less energy and pluck than
+our intrepid pilot, John Darcy, might have let us founder. We help him
+now with the readiness and good-humor with which we relinquish the
+profits which were dear to us, and the product of our industry; but he
+has taken us through a very narrow channel, on a dark night, without
+striking rock or snag. He and I thank you heartily for your fidelity to
+our keystone,--co-operation."
+
+"Three cheers for Darcy!" sang out some one in the crowd, "and three
+cheers for Bob Winston!"
+
+It was given heartily.
+
+"And three cheers for the men of Hope Mills," responded Winston.
+
+They shook hands, and dispersed with a little better feeling. Several of
+the men seemed to breathe a clearer mental atmosphere immediately.
+
+"You may be sure it's right, whichever way it is," said one man
+sturdily. "I've known Jack Darcy, boy and man, and his father afore him.
+He comes of good, clean stock, and, if he says a thing can't be
+bettered, it can't; and, if it can, he's just the man to do it. Give him
+a long tether, say I."
+
+Then Winston procured a list of weekly wages ruling in this country, and
+in many places abroad, the hours of work, and the average cost of
+living, with the articles in most general use. The mill-men had their
+flour and coal cheaper, and altogether their winter was proved as
+satisfactory. This was pasted up in the hall.
+
+The matter was discussed through the town, of course. Some people saw in
+it a speedy dissolution of the plan,--a plan that never had worked, and
+never would. Others did not see that this method of getting back part of
+the men's wages was any better than any other swindling scheme. They
+never had any faith in Bob Winston,--Darcy might be honest, but he
+wasn't very bright,--and in five years Winston would own every thing
+there was in the mill!
+
+Winston laughed over the gossip. Jack could not take it so
+light-heartedly. He was an earnest, honest reformer, and hated to have
+things go awry. Winston, not believing there was very much capacity for
+reform in human nature, did not distress himself.
+
+Ben Hay, and a dozen or so others, did their best with the new cloth,
+and succeeded in producing a really creditable article. The heads
+discussed the feasibility of having an auction-sale to clear out some of
+the piles of goods; then concluded that it might be misconstrued at this
+present juncture. They could hold on until fall.
+
+But the delightful _esprit du corps_ had vanished. The men did not seem
+to work with a will. There were moody faces and discourteous greetings,
+half-insolent nods, and more than one wrangle at the workmen's meeting.
+Hurd felt anxious and discouraged. Yardley took a low fever, not severe
+enough to confine him to the house, but it made him irritable, and every
+sneer or innuendo cut him to the quick. Cameron was a great comfort to
+Jack, with his queer, wrinkled, grizzled face, and an expression that
+always puzzled you as to whether nature meant him to laugh or cry.
+
+"I am not surprised," said he, one day, in the office. "I knew we would
+have to come to just this time. A wife shares your joys and sorrows,
+gen'ally speaking; but you see there it's a force put, she can't well
+get away. Other partners like your joys, but they make a wry face over
+the sorrows, and like to squirm out of them if they can. But it is the
+only way to train men to the real responsibilities of business. Now, I'm
+sorry enough to lose, but it stands to reason that times will come
+better. We're getting through the panic; but after the battle there's
+some dead to bury, and some wounded to care for, and you see that's
+tedjus. You can't march straight home, covered with glory. Here's our
+money in the hospital, first up, then down, and all the doctors in the
+land tinkering with allopathic doses and homoeopathic doses, and
+blisters and poultices and remedies, when all it wants is a little
+honest letting-alone. It doesn't occur to these long-headed doctors that
+the best way out is to show everybody that we're willing to go to work
+and pay our debts just as fast as we can. And any fool might know that
+when you are paying up back debts you can't have much money to sport
+around on. Never you mind, Jack: we're coming out straight in five years
+time,--I'll bet my old hat on that!"
+
+Jack wrung his hand warmly.
+
+In May there was quite a jollification over the marriage of two
+mill-hands. Ben Hay took to wife pretty Rose Connelly; and the
+coffee-house parlor was denuded of tables and benches, trimmed with
+evergreens and flowers, and such a merry-making as did one's heart good.
+There was a bountiful supper, plenty of tea, coffee, and lemonade,
+dancing, and ice-cream, and the utmost good-humor and good wishes.
+Connelly _pere_ had gone back to his cups, thrown up his situation, come
+home and stirred up a general "ruction," and had now gone off on a
+tramp. Ben Hay was to cast his lot with the Connelly household for the
+present.
+
+"But I tell you what it is, Mr. Darcy," said he, "if any luck comes to
+Hope Mills, in five years' time I'll have my own little house and
+garden. I tramped around a bit in the dull times, but I didn't see many
+prettier places than Yerbury. And, the more I study this business of
+co-operation, the more I think it will succeed in the end."
+
+Jack experienced a great throb of comfort when he heard such words as
+these.
+
+Another mill-hand had married Mary Moran. She was not the beauty of
+Yerbury, by any means, but everybody declared she had improved
+wonderfully, and that she was the smartest girl in town. Their
+wedding-party was given at the club-room. It was a larger and rather
+more boisterous affair; and some of the Morans' warm-hearted Irish
+friends brought a "dhrop of the craythur" in their pockets, to drink the
+bride's health. Everybody admitted that there wasn't such another
+bread-maker in town, unless it was Miss Morgan.
+
+In fact, it was quite astonishing to see what a revolution had been
+worked in this most important article of diet. The women had learned to
+distinguish between poor and good flour, and Kilburn's trade in the
+former had fallen off largely. Of the bread that in Samantha Allen's
+view "required cast-iron principle to back it up," very little was seen.
+It had been rather hard work to convince some of the mothers that bread
+wasn't naturally born into the world heavy and sour, but it had been
+done.
+
+If Hope Mills failed, the impetus to general knowledge that had been
+diffused throughout Yerbury would remain and bear fruit. An
+evening-school had been opened for boys too large to stay at home
+evenings, and just the right age to fall into temptations. It began with
+the mill-boys, but it soon drew in others. There was a short session of
+study, then a talk about some useful art or science. Maverick had
+treated them to sundry experiments, and explained many general rules of
+health. Mr. Winston had described Western cities in a vivid and
+picturesque manner. There had been some astronomy within the reach of
+all, some philosophy of common every-day things; and it had given the
+boys ideas above "high, low, Jack."
+
+Darcy tried to find comfort in this when other matters looked dark to
+him. A little good seed had been sown. The generation growing up would
+not be quite so dull and brutish. One thing was remarked,--the saloons
+were not as full. This was laid to dull times, and ascribed to the
+"revival" of two years ago; but that had not touched the poorer class of
+Irish and English, who, even during the hardest winter, had managed to
+find drink-money, when their families were being supported by the
+relief-store.
+
+Business did "pick up" a little. Prices went lower and lower, however.
+They looked at their great store of goods with dismay. If the currency
+question could ever be settled, if we could export more and import
+less,--though there were people who argued that, the more money we spent
+abroad, the more it really strengthened us, and money lying idle in our
+treasury at home was no evidence of prosperity: partly true and partly
+false reasoning; and, to our astonishment, while we were brilliantly
+theorizing how to do it, our vain and superficial neighbors across the
+water, crushed and beaten down by a useless and costly war, and a
+government of gigantic selfishness, went to work with intrepid courage
+and industry, and did it.
+
+Meanwhile it must be confessed that Jack's interests were very much
+divided. The practical part of him never lost sight of the mill. He had
+the dogged tenacity that holds on with a deathless grip until it
+conquers, or is wholly beaten. It seemed to him this summer that he had
+several distinct individualities. He was so deeply interested in Fred
+and Sylvie! They had slipped into an easy friendship,--a friendship in
+which neither crossed a certain line, but from widely different motives.
+Fred's strongest and highest one was honor toward his friend. He began
+dimly to realize that high culture and refinement of the intellectual
+senses, a perfect state of outward finish and polish, did not always
+strengthen the soul's morality and purity. Patience, self-sacrifice,
+obedience to a creed simpler in words, and yet more comprehensive, than
+any of his grand philosophies, were needed to form a strong and manful
+soul. His had been so long bound about with swaddling-clothes, airy,
+sensuous, fine as a gossamer web, yet strong in beliefs and prejudices.
+There were times when he felt, through that instinctive knowledge we can
+never wholly define or explain, that Sylvie Barry belonged to him, that
+they two could reach a point in mental and artistic life, that she and
+Jack would never attain. His whole soul cried out for her. With the
+charm of self-satisfying and blinding theories swept away, he clung
+passionately to the love that had been only a complacent fancy three
+years ago. The mere touch of her hand, or glance of her eye, quickened
+and kindled his entire soul, and made him acutely and agonizingly
+conscious of the wealth of adoration he had hardly dreamed of
+possessing. There were moments when her presence filled him with a
+heavenly satisfaction, when he understood that divine fusion of spirit
+with spirit in its entirety, when love overcame pride, and he was humble
+enough to go to her in his poverty.
+
+He tried honestly to crush out the passion, but found that neither will
+nor duty could destroy love. It rose up and swept imperiously through
+every pulse of his being, it flooded his heart like a mighty current, it
+would fain have drowned out his sense of honor to his friend; and he
+learned presently that it was of no avail to fight battles with this
+unconquerable foe. He must always love her, therefore he could only bury
+the passion out of the sight of all other eyes. To him it would be the
+root of higher resolves and purer motives. When he had made this great
+sacrifice for his friend, he had offered silently the highest atonement
+in his power.
+
+But his temptation was not to end so soon. He was to be led through the
+fire, that he might be purified and ennobled in other virtues beside
+that of abnegation. He was to learn how sacred a thing strength might
+become; he was to hold the soft hand on his arm, and never clasp it, to
+feel the pressure of the dainty fingers, and make no sign; to meet her
+bewildering smiles with the calmness of a strong spirit held in thrall;
+to listen to words that seemed cruelly pregnant with the dangerous
+glamour of hope, and yet to steel his heart against it all. In such
+times as these we come to believe in a living, loving God, who gathers
+up these great drops of agony as he "makes up his jewels," and that to
+him this pearl of inward anguish is above price. Then, of all times, we
+need to know that he cares for us, that we are not mere atoms floating
+in unregarded space.
+
+Dr. Maverick decided that his patient must have a change. She had
+attained a certain amount of physical strength while her brain still lay
+dormant, utterly exhausted after the great drain upon it. Now it began
+to act again, and, not being in sympathy with the body, consequently
+re-acted upon it. She walked about her room a little; she viewed herself
+in the mirror, a horrid shadow, a mere caricature of her former beauty.
+Dr. Maverick had tried his best to save her hair; but the fever had
+burned out its vital essence, making it dry and harsh, so he had uttered
+his reluctant edict. It was cropped short, and had lost its gloss; her
+brilliant complexion was a ghostly, sallow, opaque white, her eyes large
+and melancholy, every feature sharpened into that thin, worn, hungry
+appearance. "A perfect fright," she said to herself. Why had they not
+let her die? Of what avail was life to her?
+
+Before her illness, in her desperate impatience with circumstances, she
+had fancied herself a martyr, with the fagot and stake of a conventional
+marriage on one hand, and the dreary desert of neglect and enforced
+seclusion on the other. She had tried to make her own wretched and
+passionate imaginings consume her very soul. She could rule no longer.
+She could not exact homage and admiration from society; and, though in
+her secret soul she despised it, yet what was there to life beside it?
+No one wanted or needed her. No human being cared for her above all
+others. She had gone on in ruthless pride, trampling, crushing, and now
+the great world would be only too glad to pay her back; but it never
+should. Even in this extreme bitterness of spirit an acknowledgment of
+that divine rule of love was wrested from her. She had never offered
+love and tenderness and sympathy to others, and it would not come back
+to her: it was just and right that it should not.
+
+Why then vegetate through a narrow, dreary existence? She was only a
+drag on Fred. Even if she were willing to make an essay of work, he
+would not consent, partly from pride, but still more from that innate
+sense of chivalry, a part of some men, who would be more cruelly wounded
+to see a woman dear to them, struggling with distasteful toil, than to
+make any sacrifice on their own part. If she were a man she would starve
+in secret before it should be done. David Lawrence had in him some of
+this pure, nobly generous blood; and many of his finer virtues seemed to
+have been transmitted to these two children. The mother's individuality
+had been absorbed by the two elder ones. Gertrude would be just such a
+woman when she came to her mother's time of life.
+
+Mr. Eastman had floated into another channel of prosperity. He was to go
+to Russia as a railroad-director at a large salary, and ample chance for
+speculation. Gertrude was all elation. She wrote to Irene, generously
+forgiving her for not having submitted to be buried alive at Frodsham
+Park, and proposed that she should rejoin her as soon as she was able to
+travel. They would go to Vienna and Berlin, and spend the winter in St.
+Petersburg. "I hope your beauty has not gone off," she wrote very
+kindly. "One needs it to compare with some of the Russian women I have
+seen."
+
+Mrs. Minor had taken a summer cottage at Long Branch. Servants,
+children, horses and carriages, were to go thither. Irene and her mother
+must spend the season with them.
+
+"You do look dreadfully," she said to Irene; "but moping here will not
+mend you. It was a most absurd step for Fred to come back to Yerbury,
+and take that paltry position! He has no real Lawrence pride, and I
+don't see that his elegant education has done much for him. Why didn't
+he study law, and go into politics? With his style and Mr. Minor's
+connection, he might have filled some high position."
+
+"Really," returned Irene, with a touch of the old sarcasm, "I suppose he
+thought starving hardly a pleasant process while he was waiting for this
+high position. I have sometimes wondered why Mr. Minor did not take him
+into _his_ office, and induct him into the mysteries of stock-broking."
+
+Agatha bit her lip.
+
+"Because he did not know enough," she flung out. "And he will potter
+away his best days there at Garafield's, never amounting to any thing!
+Father had better have put him in the business."
+
+"Jack Darcy is master at Hope Mills. He was once quite a _bete noir_ of
+yours, I believe. He and Fred have floated together again, an
+exemplification of the power of early attraction."
+
+"He will not be master of Hope Mills long, if what I hear is true," said
+Agatha in a vengeful tone, as if she would be glad to bring about such a
+greatly-to-be-desired downfall. "Fred always did have low tastes. But
+about yourself: you had better come to Long Branch, and recruit for two
+months, or so, and then go out to join Gertrude. Of course, Irene, you
+know your best time has gone by here. I intend that _my_ daughters shall
+be married before they are twenty. I will not have them wasting their
+best years."
+
+There was a long pause. Agatha studied Irene's apathetical face, and
+wondered how she could have changed into such a fright.
+
+"Irene!" in a commanding tone.
+
+"Agatha, I may as well tell you,"--the voice was slow and incisive, as
+if every word was measured,--"that I shall _not_ go to Long Branch nor
+abroad. No one shall be troubled by my failing looks and possibly poor
+health. I will live my own secluded life, asking nothing of the world
+but to be let alone."
+
+"You are a fool, Irene!" Mrs. Minor scanned her with her pitiless black
+eyes, and raised her own tall figure to its most impressive height. "You
+are a deliberate, wilful fool! You will maunder and groan and sigh
+through the next few years, and become one of those wretched bundles of
+nerves and whims and conceits, a miserable old maid, whom the world
+holds up to ridicule, and rightly too; a faded, insipid, querulous,
+worn-out belle, whose past triumphs are remembered only to her disfavor.
+We can forgive a woman of mother's age, who has had her day; but the
+other shallow creatures are fit only to be bundled into a convent, out
+of sight."
+
+A dull scarlet had slowly mounted Irene's face. She did not raise her
+eyes. In an emotionless tone she merely said, "Thank you. I wish there
+were convents without the fuss of religion. I should go into one now."
+
+"The best place for you certainly."
+
+Then Mrs. Minor gave Fred a piece of her mind, and washed her hands of
+Yerbury.
+
+The result of sundry after-discussions was that Dr. Maverick found a
+pretty seaside place not many miles distant, with just enough interest
+to keep one entertained, and no fashionable, exhausting life. He managed
+to persuade Miss Barry and Sylvie and Mrs. Lawrence to go, and insisted
+upon Irene having the variety of air and scene. There was a roomy
+furnished cottage at their disposal: they could cook their meals, or
+have them sent in. Fred should come down once or twice a week, and he
+and Darcy would enliven them with flying visits. Miss Barry must take
+her pony and carriage.
+
+Jack approved of the plan at once. It would bring the two beings in whom
+he was so warmly interested more closely in contact with each other,
+give them those bits and fragments of leisurely indolence so conducive
+to sentiment. Sylvie would judge more truly and tenderly than it was
+possible to do at present; and he could not see her alone, could not be
+her companion in walks and drives, without betraying his regard.
+
+While the plan was still under consideration, Dame Fortune resolved to
+smile upon Fred Lawrence. Late in the winter he had sent a paper on
+household art, with several exquisite designs, to a magazine, and for
+once happened to hit the prevailing fancy. He was asked for a series of
+such articles, with the offer of having them collected in book form
+afterward. It more than encouraged him: it gave him a feeling of
+certainty that he had struck the right vein, that here was a fair and
+appreciative field for his talent, his fine taste, and high culture. A
+little utilitarian, perhaps; and he smiled, thinking of some past
+dreams. And was true art so ethereal that it must exist only in the
+exalted states of the mind? Was it not to embellish and beautify all
+lives, rather than crowd out the thousands that the few might feast on
+some exquisite vision? Was any art higher than that which boldly thrust
+aside shams, and went to the shaping of true, strong, faithful aims in
+the work placed before one? Were those wonderful Greek fragments,
+wrought in times of social depravity such as the world now shrank from
+mentioning, to be one's guide and inspirer, to the despising of purer if
+less sensuous forms of beauty? If one enlightened and sweetened the life
+of to-day with the work of to-day, would it not be as worthy as hugging
+to the soul some useless theory?
+
+He mentioned his new offer to Mr. Garafield. It would not be honest to
+take the time that was another's; and surely Fred Lawrence's mental
+capacity had largely cleared when he came to put into every-day work the
+fine sense of honor that he had hitherto supposed belonged only to a
+liberal education.
+
+Mr. Garafield was a shrewd business-man, although fanciful in taste. He
+should be the gainer by associating this true artist with him.
+Decorative art was coming to be a truly recognized branch; and its
+leaders and apostles would reap not only credit, but financial success.
+
+Fred was amazed. Only yesterday, it seemed, he had well-nigh been
+refused the privilege of earning his bread. To-day, in an unexpected
+quarter, prosperity opened upon him.
+
+"I have no capital, as you well know," he said stammeringly to Mr.
+Garafield.
+
+Garafield smiled and nodded in a satisfied manner.
+
+"The brain-work and the ideas are sufficient capital, Mr. Lawrence. By
+this partnership you will be free of drudgery: some other clerk can keep
+books and take orders for us. You will gain time for your literary
+labors, and those in turn will carry weight in the business. Neither do
+I think you will regret taking my offer."
+
+Fred went down to Jack Darcy's that evening, and told over his plans, as
+in other years he had confessed his college ambitions and the laurels he
+was to win. And Jack's face lighted up with honest enthusiasm, while his
+voice took on a curious little tremble. He was so glad! for Sylvie's
+sake and love's sake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+WHEN Fred Lawrence came next day into Sylvie Barry's presence, there was
+a certain proud humility shining in his handsome face, that was now
+quite worn and thin; a dignity born of honor in having achieved at least
+a standing-place in the world. He was not her hero, never had been
+indeed; and his pale face flushed at the remembrance of his once
+complacent claim to her regard.
+
+She was sitting in the room with his mother, but she sprang up from the
+low ottoman.
+
+"I am so glad! your mother has been telling me the news. Why, it is"--
+
+She had held out her hands as she began her sentence, but as he took
+them she made a sudden pause. His were icy cold.
+
+"More than I could have expected in such a brief while, hardly at all.
+Both offers have surprised me greatly."
+
+He strove so hard to render his tone calm, that it was absolutely cold.
+
+She turned with a petulant but charming gesture, while her peachy cheek
+took on a riper tint.
+
+"You are not a bit enthusiastic," in that pretty, imperious, chiding
+tone. "I suppose you think good fortune ought to fall down upon you, be
+thrust on you, like greatness."
+
+"No. I am very thankful for it. I can give my mother and sister some
+needed indulgences that it would have pained me very much to see them go
+without. How is Irene?"
+
+"I don't know," said Mrs. Lawrence fretfully. "She does mope so. I shall
+be so glad to get away."
+
+"I have just come from the doctor's. We are to start on Thursday.
+Sylvie, are you all ready?"
+
+"Yes," with a positive little nod.
+
+He stepped into the next room. Irene had been worse after Mrs. Minor's
+visit, but was the same again now, quiet, cold, impassible. It made no
+difference to her whether they remained here, or went to Depford Beach.
+She evinced neither pain, pleasure, nor interest; but she liked best to
+be alone. She endured Sylvie with rather more equanimity than she did
+her mother, but even the fault-finding energy would have been welcome to
+the doctor. Nothing mattered: that was the trouble.
+
+She heard now they were to go in two days. The cottage was all ready.
+Martha and Miss Barry's trusty handmaiden were to do the housekeeping.
+The place was so arranged, with the spacious hall through the middle,
+that each family could be by itself.
+
+"I have ordered a carriage to come every day for you and mother," Fred
+said quietly. "I thought you would like it better than being dependent
+on Miss Barry."
+
+Irene gave a slow, acquiescent nod.
+
+"Good-by," cried Sylvie, looking in. "I will run over again to-morrow."
+
+"I wanted her to stay to tea," said Mrs. Lawrence complainingly. "It is
+so dull!"
+
+"I will come up and take tea with you. I will order it at once." And he
+ran down.
+
+There was a subtle perfume in the hall. She had a bunch of violets in
+her belt, he remembered. He said over softly Ben Jonson's quaint
+lines,--
+
+          "Here she was wont to go, and here, and here,
+           Just where the daisies, pinks, and violets grow:
+           The world may find the spring by following her."
+
+But he could not follow. Had fate smiled on him to make the
+renunciation more bitter? For now he could work his way up to something
+worthy of her acceptance. And had he not learned the past winter, had he
+not been slowly learning ever since the death and loss, that the manhood
+of a gentleman was his thoughtfulness for others, his courteous
+delicacy, his consideration, often his denial of self, rather than the
+exquisite polish of cultivation, and the veneer of society's
+affectations? How blind he must have been, ever to have offered these
+last to a woman so true and pure of soul!
+
+But a still larger sacrifice had been demanded of him. He must see her
+in seductive solitudes, in still more intimate association. If he could
+stay away from Depford Beach! but that was not possible. He was to spend
+Sundays with them. But surely Jack would be there then. An almost
+careless lover he thought his friend. Was every smile so dear to him?
+
+The doctor and Fred went down with them. Darcy had decided to take a
+business trip, so presently Mrs. Darcy joined the seaside household. In
+the bygone years Mrs. Lawrence would not have deigned to notice her; but
+she found this delicate, mild-mannered, middle-aged woman very
+companionable. Circumstances had rendered Mrs. Darcy exclusive, rather
+than any inherent trait of birth or breeding. She had lived with a few
+people always, and two or three strong attachments had given to her
+character the kind of concentration that passes for strength. Yet all of
+these had been more positive people than herself; and while this had
+softened the tendency to that querulous exactingness that weak, sweet
+natures are apt to possess, it had also shaped to certain generous
+instincts that were quite free from vanity. Her natural kindliness gave
+her the charm of good-breeding, and this settled her in the estimation
+of Mrs. Lawrence. She might have possessed all the virtues in the
+calendar, but an inharmonious, unpolished turn or act would have
+tabooed her. We generally ascribe this grace to life-long culture, or a
+certain inheritance of blood, but it occasionally springs from other
+causes.
+
+The three women, with natures and aims widely different, fraternized in
+the most amiable manner. Sylvie glanced in and out between them as a
+gleam of sunshine penetrates the interstices of a wood, and brings out
+all lights and tints, itself untouched by any. Their greatest diversion
+was driving. Back of the little settlement--it was hardly large enough
+for a village, and had a powerful rival some seven miles farther
+on--there were country lanes and by-ways, sleepy-looking farms, and
+picturesquely careless houses. Below them there was a great fish
+_entrepot_, with fishing-boats plying up and down, brawny fishermen
+trilling their musical half-chant, half-song, as they floated over the
+bay.
+
+It was curious how, presently, Sylvie came to watch for Fred. Truth to
+tell, she found Depford Beach a trifle monotonous. No interest of
+schools or clubs or young people's affairs, no strong energetic talks
+with Jack about mill business, few people coming and going that she
+cared about; the three ladies purring through the drowsy hours on topics
+that she fancied she had exhausted years ago; and Irene, between whom
+and her there had never been any real electric sympathy, and who was now
+coldly indifferent to all matters. For hours she would sit with her
+hands dropped nerveless in her lap, glancing over the wide sea out to
+the farther horizon. What thoughts were in her mind, Sylvie wondered?
+She could not even provoke her to the wordy combats of old. The flashes
+of temper and imperiousness had alike died out. She was courteously
+polite, and acknowledged all favors with a punctiliousness that built
+the wall around her still more firmly. "If one could only rouse her,"
+Dr. Maverick said; but that seemed just the thing no one _could_ do.
+
+Yet she certainly was improving in health. Her step became more assured,
+her eye less languid, and her complexion cleared up to the hopeful tints
+of renewed bodily vigor. Her slender hands filled out a trifle; and
+sometimes she would take a book, as if she needed an interest beside her
+own sombre thoughts to while away the hours.
+
+So Sylvie established her easel, and had recourse to painting. Oddly
+enough she began to ask herself what it was all for? Filling her own
+rooms, and bestowing gifts upon friends, was very well for a season; but
+was there not a higher purpose in all art, or at least a wider purpose?
+It surely did not tend to isolation. She thought of her winter in
+Philadelphia,--of the friends she had made, of the desires that had been
+awakened. She longed for some purpose, some sympathy and aim. The
+enthusiasms of girlhood could no longer inspire her: there must be a
+reality and definite end, or work lost its great charm. How was she to
+get to this? Her aunt was coming to depend upon her in a peculiar way,
+that at times startled Sylvie. She would say, with her quiet, tender
+smile, "Will you do this or that, Sylvie? I believe I am growing
+indolent: I never thought to so like being waited upon."
+
+The secret in Miss Barry's soul was well kept. In how many lives there
+comes a demand for heroism greater than that which led the martyrs of
+old to the stake, or the brave women in the reign of terror to the
+guillotine! Their inspiration to bravery was patent to all around: their
+cause was a lofty one, and they were apostles of that high creed of
+self-abnegation which leaves behind a memory in the hearts of all noble
+men and women. But there are other pangs quite noiseless: there are
+other martyrs who suffer without the sign, who cannot even confess the
+reason for the high faith that upholds them.
+
+It was quite natural that she should desire to see Sylvie married. She
+could never get over her distaste of having women taking bold strides
+for the world's fame and favor. If left alone, this was what Sylvie
+would surely do. The delicate womanly charities and kindnesses that had
+filled up so much of her life would not satisfy her niece. And, now that
+she had brought herself to the point of satisfaction with Jack Darcy,
+either she had mistaken their regard, or he was proving himself an
+indifferent lover. By a subtile intuition, she understood that Fred
+still cared for her, nay, that he held now a reverent admiration that he
+had never thought of in the past. His melancholy eyes followed her
+about, now and then scintillating sparks of passion that seemed almost
+to rend his soul. She experienced an intense and exquisite sympathy for
+him that drew them together in a manner that he felt, and was grateful
+for, but did not clearly understand.
+
+As for Sylvie, curiously enough, she was at war with herself, though she
+wore such a calm, light-hearted exterior. When she rejected Fred
+Lawrence, she was quite sure she despised the present man, and his
+narrow, futile purposes of life. Truly, to have been the wife of such a
+man would have proved irksome to the last degree. But his misfortunes
+had brought out the fine gold, the solemn strain of strength and
+endurance, that had come from his father's blood. I think even Sylvie
+had been a little mortified first, that he should have come back to
+Yerbury, and taken such a very inferior position. She wanted him to do
+something noteworthy with his pen and his high cultivation. It seemed so
+much choice material quite thrown away. Designing patterns was surely no
+high test of genius. Women with a purely technical art education had
+done it.
+
+But out of it had come this other opportunity that he had grasped with
+the pure instinct of genius. Employment for pen and pencil both, for the
+embodiment of the exquisite outward forms of beauty, and the rare,
+delicate, inward graces of imagination, for the true standards of taste
+and art in which he had been informing himself all these years; in the
+spirit of dilettanteism, it was true, but now when the intellectual
+impetus was added, and the positive need of daily bread, these
+complicated motives worked together as a strong stimulant. Perhaps, too,
+he had a not unworthy desire to show Sylvie Barry that the man who had
+loved her was not utterly unworthy or incapable.
+
+They had drifted together again in the ordinary purposes of life, which,
+after all, occur much more frequently than any grand or overwhelming
+shock. She took up the friendly, half-sisterly way, pleased with the
+instinctive deference he paid her. He understood that it would be quite
+useless to aspire to any regard of hers: that was all done with in the
+past. She could afford to evince an interest in his plans, since Irene
+cared not, and to his mother they were so much Greek, a subtle flavor
+that she admitted was the proper thing, but could not understand,--did
+not care to trouble herself, in fact.
+
+So these two young people, working in a common bond of sympathy,
+insensibly strengthened the regard that had grown with them from
+childhood. Fred gained sufficient courage to discuss some plans with
+Sylvie: she brought out her easel, as I have said, and accepted from him
+friendly criticisms. The difference between their work was soon
+manifest,--he had an earnest purpose, with breadth and scope: she had
+none. How had they so queerly changed places? she asked herself. Why
+were not her talents made of some avail, instead of this puerile
+pottering to please one's self?
+
+She began to wonder--dangerously fascinating employment to a woman--if
+he had ever cared for her. There seemed an adamantine wall built up
+around him, and yet the fruit in the inner garden was more rarely sweet
+than she had ever dreamed it could be. She could not know that the
+passion for her he had put away with such despairing hands, was
+blossoming all the sweeter, and bearing more exquisite fruit in other
+directions. She saw the lovely tenderness toward his mother, the
+unwearying patience with Irene, the fearless, animating ambition that
+seemed to have set his aesthetic desires to a steady, comprehensive
+strain of music, to which he was keeping invisible step, but which
+thrilled and roused every fibre.
+
+All this he had done without any assistance from her, she thought, blind
+little girl; as if the kinship of a true passion could not reach from
+the life that went before to that which was to come afterward! _She_ had
+not inspired his genius, but stern necessity; it had been no longing or
+desire to win _her_, but the material support of his mother and sister.
+She began to feel curiously jealous of these extraneous influences. She
+unconsciously exerted herself to make his visits at the beach more
+interesting. They drove together in her pony-carriage; they studied
+glowing summer sunsets, where fantastic clouds piled up wealth of gold
+and amber and purple and opaline splendors, and shot out arrowy,
+dazzling rays; they paced the sands after it had all faded into tintless
+space, and delicate vapors of grayish green and vague violet rose from
+the crested waves that broke far out at sea, and trooped across like
+airy spirits; they listened to the slow, regular rhythm that came
+marching from some weird country, with a grand crash at last, a sobbing
+crescendo, and an interval of silence that still pulsated on the dusky,
+odorous air, when the moaning billow was dead.
+
+They came so near to Nature, there were moments when they seemed
+empowered to wrest the shadowy secrets out of her bosom; and yet they
+did not come near to each other. Ever this distance between,--a man's
+honor, and faith to his friend, Fred Lawrence thought, never allowing
+his secret soul to swerve. There were midnights when he softly paced the
+floor, his lips compressed, his brow ghostly white, and his hands
+clinched in the throe of a man's deathless love. Then he thought he
+could not endure it, that he must stay away. But circumstances were
+stronger than will. Did God mean that this anguish should redeem that
+other old treachery, that his soul should be purified by its baptism of
+fire, a more worthy offering for his friend? If so, then he must not
+abate one jot or one pang.
+
+There were within Sylvie Barry's soul certain coquettish instincts. She
+was fond of admiration for herself: a purely intellectual regard, with
+the passion-dream flown, would soon have wearied her. A warm, bright
+nature, loving to please others, but to be pleased in return, cruelly
+hurt by surging against this rock-bound coast, piqued and almost
+angered, sent into moods of daring, seductive warmth and gayety, quite
+capable of making a foil of Dr. Maverick, who was strangely puzzled by
+her contradictory moods. But for one thing, he must have tried to cage
+the dazzling, elusive spirit: he, too, had a strong sense of honor
+toward his friend; and he could only imagine her playing sportively with
+the few who came within her radius, not setting herself to win any
+forbidden regard. What might have made some women sad and silent--the
+consciousness that an old lover had over-lived his passion--seemed to
+sting her into renewed effort.
+
+Coming back to them, Jack Darcy was more than puzzled, set at sea in a
+bewildering way, without chart or compass. Had Fred ceased to care for
+Sylvie? Had she never loved him? Or was some other feeling holding him
+back,--a kind of family complication, a sense of duty to the others so
+high that he would not offer them a divided regard, any sooner than her?
+He believed mothers had a peculiar sense of possession in their sons;
+but they surely had married other women's sons with small scruple! Mrs.
+Lawrence was warmly attached to Sylvie. In his honest, inconsequent
+man-fashion, he wondered why they could not always live together, as
+they were doing here.
+
+Fred was strangely worn and thin, with the kind of nervous alertness
+that accompanies an intent watching of one's self.
+
+"Hillo, old fellow!" cried Jack; "what have you been doing? Working
+yourself to a shadow? If high art is so exhaustive, there must be a
+little let-up. A man has no more right to kill himself in an artistic
+industrial way, than in any of the ruder forms of suicide."
+
+Fred shivered visibly.
+
+"Don't speak of suicide," he answered in a shrinking tone. "I never
+thought of it but once; and that was when I fancied myself of no use to
+the world, or myself either. I am not overworked"--and he paused, to
+study Jack a moment. Why, he was positively handsome, with that
+superabundant strength and vitality, the clear red and white of his
+complexion, the bronze beard, the healthful, honest eyes. He seemed to
+be surcharged with a magnetic current of energy and courage.
+
+"Yes, you are. I dare say you have carried your plans and sketches, and
+what not, down to Depford Beach, and pored over them until almost
+morning. You must take a vacation."
+
+"I expect to when the families return;" and he gave a faint, wan smile.
+"I have had another streak of luck, Jack. A lady, a very wealthy widow,
+is building a house in one of the pretty towns up the Hudson, and it is
+to be finished with all the elegance art can bring. She saw one of my
+articles, and sent to me; and we have been corresponding. In September I
+am to go to New York, and make arrangements. There is to be painting and
+frescoing, and rooms finished in different styles,--indeed, I cannot
+tell the half myself, until I see her."
+
+The pale face had kindled with a fine and proud enthusiasm. More than
+ever, Jack recognized the artistic refinement of his friend. What would
+law or medicine have been to him as a profession?
+
+"Humph!" grunted Jack. "A great vacation that will be! But you _must_ be
+careful, or you will not live out half your days. You've a look in your
+face like the little chap I first knew."
+
+The smile that crossed it then, Jack did not understand. It seemed to
+Fred Lawrence that half his days would suffice, when Sylvie Barry was
+his friend's wife.
+
+"Yet you see the 'little chap' lived"--with an attempt at gayety.
+
+"Yes. And, Fred, I am more glad than I can put into words, to know that
+you have been so successful. It is just the career for you. It's odd
+that a great commonplace, blundering fellow like me should have two such
+artistic friends as you and Sylvie Barry."
+
+The well-trained face did not blanch a muscle. He felt, with a flash of
+subtile inner consciousness, that Darcy was studying him. Thank God, he
+could stand before his friend free from a thought of treachery! All
+these weeks he had walked over burning coals, but the smell of the fire
+was not in his garments.
+
+Jack thought it over long after Fred had gone. Why could not these two
+people see! Surely they were meant for one another. It puzzled, it
+almost fretted him. Sylvie was so peculiar, so changed in these few
+weeks! What did it all mean?
+
+And on Saturday when he was to go down to the beach, Fred pleaded some
+urgent business to a neighboring city. He was not quite brave enough to
+see them together.
+
+"I have been meaning to go for some time," he said with gravity, "but I
+did not like to think they would be alone over Sunday. Now that you will
+be there, I certainly can spare three or four days."
+
+"See here," returned Jack,--"wait until Monday. Come, we'll have a nice
+day together down there on the sands. Sundays always seem so wonderful
+by the ocean, with the grand chant forever in your ears. The very waves
+are saying,--
+
+          "'Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord.'"
+
+But Fred Lawrence would not suffer himself to be persuaded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+JACK DARCY'S business-tour, while it had not been productive of any
+great financial results, had restored his healthy mental equilibrium. He
+found other firms were having it just as hard, and that the country was
+still overrun with men willing to work for any wages. Prices were
+certainly falling. All kinds of raw products were offered at the very
+lowest figure; and, labor being so cheap, manufactured goods must
+perforce be low. Men were not now counting on a speedy return to good
+times and high prices: they began to admit that the latter were the
+outcome of extravagant speculation. They bought what they wanted, and no
+more. They gave no extensive credits, and now really appeared to be
+anxious to reach a permanent basis.
+
+"We shall have to sell most of our stock at cost," he said to Winston.
+"Lucky to get that, I suppose. And we shall come out about even--no
+profits for this six months. Still, we shall not run back, and that is
+something gained."
+
+"We can count on the new goods, I'm pretty sure," returned Winston.
+"I've had some inquiries, and sent samples. Some of the fancy
+overcoatings are to be duplicated. That looks like business."
+
+It did, indeed. Jack sat at his desk, ruminating upon it, and feeling as
+if at last they saw a light through the woods, when a step startled him,
+because it was not the kind of step usually heard through that hall, so
+he turned. It was Fred Lawrence, with a face of ashen pallor. Jack
+sprang up, dazed with the vision.
+
+"I was to come and tell you--Maverick has gone to Depford Beach--Miss
+Barry is very ill, and they have telegraphed for him. He left word--that
+we were to come."
+
+The voice had a strained, unnatural sound; and the eyes looked like
+those that have wept out a passionate sorrow, and are dry from despair.
+
+"Ill--Miss Barry--not Sylvie?"
+
+Could he speak of her in that calm tone? A passion of rage swelled in
+Fred's heart, and flushed his face. Only a moment, for the great throb
+of thankfulness that it was _not_ Sylvie restored him.
+
+"It is Miss Barry. You will go?"
+
+The tone had that peculiar, wandering cadence, as if somehow the soul
+had dropped out of it.
+
+"Certainly," and Jack sprang up, puzzled by something quite intangible
+in Fred's demeanor.
+
+"There are just twenty minutes to catch this train. The eight-ten does
+not stop at Depford, you know."
+
+"True: I will just speak to Winston"--
+
+"I will meet you at the station," returned Fred hurriedly, turning away.
+
+Much as he loved Jack, it seemed as if he could not walk to the station
+with him. A feeling of profound pity for Sylvie rose in his heart. This
+man, noble, generous, helpful, and affectionate, had not the finely
+responsive nature Sylvie Barry needed. There would be some distance or
+coldness, or, worse still, a fatal dissonance. One part of her nature
+must remain unmated: her soul would have a language in which he would
+not only be deaf, but wholly dumb. He could express no more than the
+possibilities of his nature. It was not the fine and essential
+difference between man and woman, but that more fatal gulf in which
+there would appear no certain glimpses of a royally endowed love in all
+its spontaneity, its glow of feeling, its variation of rich emotions.
+How would she, with her versatile, changeful soul, with its cycle of
+moods, ever live in the strong, steady prison of his heart!
+
+If he had thought perfect honor to his friend the greatest trial of his
+life, what was this to be? He could not stay and see the slow, consuming
+inward fire that would burn her soul to ashes while it was still in the
+body. Thank God, he could go away, would go soon indeed, and never
+return! He would nerve himself for these few days of torture.
+
+Jack waited on the platform until the last moment. The bell was ringing
+when Fred appeared, and the strong arm grasped him. They sat side by
+side, but were silent after one question as to the nature of Miss
+Barry's illness. Never had they been further divided in heart, for in
+the days when there had been no semblance of friendship the trivial
+repulsion was not to be compared to this wall of adamant. Fred would not
+have gone at all but for his mother's sake, although his heart was with
+Sylvie through every instant of her trial.
+
+The house was very quiet when they reached it. Maverick came to meet
+them, and was as sorely puzzled as Fred by the certain composure of
+Darcy's face.
+
+"It was not altogether unexpected by her or myself," Maverick explained
+in answer to their inquiries. "It is the result of a complication of
+disorders, some of long standing and incurable; and the present effect
+is partial paralysis. I hoped change of air and a quiet summer would
+delay what we knew must come before many years."
+
+Darcy was astonished beyond measure. He would sooner have thought of his
+own mother dying. True, he remembered now that Miss Barry had been about
+less, and looked rather more delicate, and that through the summer she
+had kept extremely quiet. So amazed was he, that at first he quite
+forgot about Sylvie.
+
+Fred Lawrence paced the floor in an agony. Would the man never ask the
+question that was torturing him, because he had no right to ask it
+first!
+
+"How is my mother?" was his huskily tremulous inquiry, as he still went
+up and down like a caged lion.
+
+"The shock was really terrible to her. Mrs. Darcy was invaluable,"
+bowing to Jack. "But for her, Sylvie would have been in
+despair,"--looking furtively at the broad, slightly bowed figure.
+
+"Poor Sylvie!" he murmured, "poor Sylvie!"
+
+Fred turned to the door, compressing his lips over a throb of anguish.
+
+"Of course," began Maverick, "they must all be removed as soon as
+possible. I think it would be well for Mrs. Lawrence and her daughter to
+go to-morrow. Neither is strong enough to bear any prolonged strain."
+
+"Yes." Fred's heart swelled within him. They were all to be thrust aside
+as quickly as possible. This was Sylvie's sorrow--sacred to her and
+Jack.
+
+He went to his mother's room. She was lying on a couch, and was still
+hysterical. From her he heard the story; and though, as ever, she was
+selfishly alive to her own sufferings, she evinced an almost motherly
+tenderness in her sympathy for Sylvie.
+
+Fred spoke of the return. If it could be to-morrow; if he could settle
+them in their own home, and go quite away for a while! he thought.
+
+"And leave Sylvie here alone?" said his mother reproachfully.
+
+"I do not know what you can do for--for Miss Barry." How studiously cold
+and calm the tone was! "The doctor wishes to remove her as speedily as
+possible. I thought we would be out of the way, at least."
+
+"It _is_ terrible here; and if you considered it quite right--the summer
+is so nearly ended, and the nights are growing cool,--yes, we might
+go."
+
+They settled it over their quiet supper. "Miss Barry was comfortable,"
+Martha said, "and Miss Sylvie was lying down."
+
+Mrs. Lawrence retired early, her nerves were so shattered by the
+terrible incident. Irene had disappeared; and, when Fred could stand his
+loneliness no longer, he went to walk upon the beach.
+
+It was a moonless night, but with an intensely blue sky that gave the
+Milky Way the appearance of a luminous trail across the heavens. The
+murmur of the waves seemed sad and softened, and they touched the heart
+of the man who paced beside them. Once he had held so much in his hands!
+Surely he could have won the love of this woman then. Oh the blind,
+insensate, idiotic folly! He could have thrust his own soul down here on
+the sand, and trampled the very life out of it!
+
+Hark! some one was coming with hasty strides. With the wild instinct of
+a wounded animal he turned to flee, and yet--whither should he go?
+
+The hand was on his shoulder. The well-known voice uttered his name, and
+he turned at bay.
+
+"Sylvie"--
+
+"Don't repeat her name to me!" he flung out, beside himself with
+passionate jealousy and love. And then their eyes met, the one lurid
+with an emotion well-nigh beyond control, the other wondering, pitiful,
+amazed.
+
+"Yes, let me go my way. I had not meant you to know it; but once--yes, I
+will confess it to you--I scorned you to her. God knows how I have
+repented; for I was beside myself then, blinded with my own folly and
+arrogance. And now you have won the woman I love, whom I shall always
+love, and it will be at once my bliss and my punishment. Take your
+triumph--tell her that her erring knight came back, and paid her the
+highest homage of his soul." Then, in a sudden, changed tone, freighted
+with a pain that pierced the other's heart, he cried, "Jack Darcy, I
+have made amends for that selfish blunder of my young manhood. For weeks
+I have endured such pangs, that Heaven grant you may never know! I have
+walked by her side with polar wastes between us; I have touched her hand
+with fingers that have had no more passion in them than the dead; I have
+watched her dewy lips ripe with kisses, and remembered they were for
+you; I have been true, _true_ in word and deed and desire, but in
+thought I must love her to her life's end. I will go quite away"--
+
+Up to this point his words had come with the heat and flow of a
+lava-torrent. Now his impassioned voice faltered, trembled, and seemed
+to lose itself.
+
+Jack Darcy stood transfixed. Was it a dream? Had Fred been so blind all
+this while? He essayed speech; but the lines about his mouth were
+constricted, and his breath came in quivering gasps, as the vision of
+torture, suffered for honor's sake, rose up before him. Ah! if ever he
+_had_ sinned,--and the temporary forgetfulness appeared such a little
+thing to Jack's generous soul,--he had redeemed himself nobly.
+
+"Oh! you thought--she doesn't love me, Fred,--not in that way," and his
+voice had the full, throbbing inflection of a great joy. "We are
+friends, such as a man and a woman can truly be. Do you not understand
+that some people are so alike they run in parallels? there are no angles
+to create the intense friction of love, they are so evenly balanced that
+there is no desire for possessorship, they have just as wholesome an
+influence over each other remaining apart. There is hardly Sylvie's
+equal in the world. Half that I am, I owe her."
+
+Had the night changed? Was the world flooded with a serene and tender
+light? Was the moaning ocean filled with the wondrous music of immortal
+love and longing, reaching out to glad fruition? Was that sudden rare
+peace, creating a reverential atmosphere about him, an earnest of days
+to come? He experienced a vivid lightness as if he were being borne on
+clouds, while fragments of delicious remembrances floated through his
+brain. The very refinement of his nature seemed to exalt him to that
+high heaven of love, whose solemn mysteries it is not lawful to utter.
+
+"I cannot quite understand"--in a curious dreamy tone, still spelled by
+the mastery of impassioned emotion--"how you could miss loving Sylvie;
+how she, woman-like, could help adoring you for your strength and
+heroism. Jack, if I were a woman, your very power would compel me to
+worship you. I should love you, whether or no."
+
+Jack gave a bright, cheerful laugh. "It is that kind of strength you
+like in Sylvie," he made answer. "She will always spur a man up to his
+best. Her well-trained ear is quick to detect a false note in honor,
+ambition, or love. She will never be any kind of dead weight, and yet
+she is so deliciously womanly. There was a time--don't be vexed,
+Fred,"--in a tender, pleading tone,--"when I thought you were not going
+to be worthy of her. But that is past."
+
+"She rejected me then," Fred Lawrence said simply. "I offered her my
+father's wealth, the home he had made, my own folly and arrogance and
+self-conceit; and then, Jack, she boldly admitted that you were her
+hero! When I consider the sort of man my training and surroundings made
+me, I am filled with disgust. And yet I was no worse than hundreds of
+others at the present day. When I look at my mother, Irene, and myself,
+I feel that we were the product of the so-called culture of the day,
+which substitutes shallow creeds, conventional manners, and systems, for
+all that is pure, strong, and noble in manhood or womanhood. It is the
+sort of Greek temperament on which we pride our intellectual selves. We
+revel in a glowing, sensuous enjoyment, that intoxicates the brain, and
+leads us to disdain the real work of the world. We are trained to
+consider what society demands of us; we are polished and refined, and in
+too many instances left morally weak and ignorant. No wonder so many of
+us have not the strength to buffet across the stormy sea of hard
+experience, but are lost in the great whirlpool!"
+
+Jack peered into the pale, handsome face by the faint light. Surely this
+man had to make a tremendous effort for salvation, when nearly every
+tide had been against him! He experienced a keener sympathy than he
+could express; he drew the arm within his, and they paced up and down
+again in silence, understanding dimly the sacred mysteries of each
+other's hearts, that needed not to be dragged to open day for
+inspection. In a pure friendship, faith is the highest element: with
+that there is supreme content; without it, distrust gnaws like a
+canker-worm.
+
+They heard the little church-clock striking ten, and turned their steps
+toward the house. On the porch, Fred paused a moment, while an icy fear
+seemed to wring every pulse. He turned cold with apprehension.
+
+"What if I have been deluding myself!" he cried with sudden intensity.
+"Even if you and she could not love, she may have no such regard for me
+as I desire. I could not endure her pity."
+
+A warm, hopeful, generous smile illumined Jack Darcy's face. His hand
+thrilled with an electric force and sympathy.
+
+"I have no fear," he answered; "but I will not dim the grace of your
+exquisite joy by any prediction."
+
+They entered the quiet room. Dr. Maverick came out to meet them.
+
+"Miss Sylvie is asleep," he said. "Miss Barry is comparatively
+comfortable. Hester will stay with her through the night. I have sent
+your mother to bed," nodding to Jack. "I do not know what we should have
+done without her. I shall camp down on the sofa, to be within call; and
+to-morrow we had better begin the process of removal."
+
+"I had arranged to take my family," remarked Fred Lawrence, not exactly
+certain now that it was best.
+
+"Your house must be opened and aired thoroughly, before any one goes
+into it. So must Miss Barry's. Miss Morgan will see to this, I think. I
+am compelled to return in the early morning train, for I have some
+critical cases. One of you had better remain here."
+
+He looked at Jack as he said this, but was amazed at the frank answer,--
+
+"Fred will remain."
+
+He studied Jack with almost angry intentness. Had he been so mistaken in
+the man? Could he so calmly leave the woman he loved to bear her
+terrible trial alone, or did he think his mother's sympathy sufficient
+for her? And, although there were many admirable qualities in Fred
+Lawrence, the two had never fraternized with the deep cordiality that
+must underlie all friendships. They had not the magnetic attraction for
+each other that Darcy held for both.
+
+"What do you think of Miss Barry?" the latter asked hesitatingly.
+
+"It is the beginning of the end;" and Maverick sighed, as he thought of
+the impotence of human skill past a certain point. "Miss Barry consulted
+me a year ago, and was not in ignorance; but I hoped, nay, felt assured,
+with care and quiet her life might be prolonged. She may linger some
+months, and it may all be ended in a week. Good heavens! what a shock
+for Miss Sylvie!"
+
+He took two or three turns across the floor.
+
+"Go," he said abruptly, with an imperious wave of the hand. Then, a
+little scornfully, "You will both be better in bed. Lawrence looks as if
+I might have him for a patient to-morrow; but, Jack, are you made out of
+adamant?"
+
+The thrust hurt him, but Maverick was not in a pitying mood. Indeed,
+just at this moment his temper was savage. He had witnessed the pain
+and the suffering of the woman he had begun to love, until it had been
+hard to refrain from taking her in his strong arms, and sheltering her
+from the keenest pangs.
+
+The household remained the next morning as he had ordered. He was rather
+sulky all the way up in the train with Jack; but a talk with brisk,
+pungent Miss Morgan quite restored him.
+
+"Open the houses, and build fires immediately," he commanded. "Burn up
+and blow out the confined air, that there shall be no pestilential foes
+to greet them on their own hearths."
+
+He went down again that evening. If he had been annoyed before, he was
+puzzled now. There had been no word spoken between Fred and Sylvie; but
+the now, to her, sweet knowledge had come in a gesture, a glance, that
+could no more be described than the fine pulse of love can be dissected.
+She seemed to have waited breathless for just this strength and support.
+A hasty lover might have placed himself in the foreground. It was as if
+he said, "Here is my love, take it, use it, rely upon it; you cannot
+wear it out, you cannot wound or hurt it by any thing that may look like
+coldness; it is a blessed atmosphere to surround you until you stretch
+out your hand, and draw me into your very soul. I have been trained in
+patience and humility; only let me prove myself worthy in your eyes."
+
+Three days after, they all came up to Yerbury. The evening before, Irene
+Lawrence had gone to Sylvie's room, and found her kneeling by the open
+window, her face turned heavenward in a wordless prayer for strength.
+She knelt beside her, she took the passive hands in hers, she even
+touched her own cold lips to the colder forehead of the other.
+
+"Sylvie,"--the tone still had the awful dreariness of that utter inward
+living,--"Sylvie, I have been drawn to you in this your anguish by some
+power quite outside of myself. I think we have always liked each other
+in a curious way, but we were neither of us sentimental girls. I could
+not cry over you now, nor kiss you with effusive fondness; but I wish,
+oh, how passionately I wish, I could save you one pang! I wish I could
+die in _her_ place! My life is of so little value"--
+
+"I believe God is right," Sylvie answered with a great struggle. "She
+has used her life so well; she has garnered ripened sheaves of mercy and
+kindliness and good works. There is not only golden wheat, but the
+sweetness of rose and violet, the pungent purity and strength of
+heliotrope, the use, the beauty, every thing. She is ready."
+
+"And I am not worthy to be taken even for a ransom!" said the proud,
+cold voice, not betraying any inward hurt.
+
+"God does not mean that. You are to shape your life to something better.
+Irene, did you ever think how easy it might be to die for those we love,
+but oh, so hard to live for _them_, not ourselves!"
+
+Irene rose, and stood there like a statue. Sylvie felt for the hand,
+pressed it to her lips, folded it about her chin in a softly caressing
+manner. How had Irene become dear to her?
+
+"I am no heroine, Sylvie. I have been tossed up by the breakers of
+fortune, and am out of joint, broken, bruised, of no avail."
+
+"You can comfort _me_. You can help to give me strength and sympathy.
+You can become a warm, living, active woman. There is always room for
+such in the world, and a work for them to do. God never put an idle or
+useless thing in the world, much more a human soul; and it must go sadly
+astray before it comes to despair. Irene, you will not shut your heart
+again, you will turn its warm side to me, you will take me in, with my
+great sorrow;" and she buried her face in the other's dress, with a
+shivering sob.
+
+"I will do--what you wish. I am physically strong again. Let me help
+you--anywhere, anyhow. You were so good and patient through my dreary
+time."
+
+Then she stole softly away, astonished at herself. Within was still the
+coldness of Alpine glaciers. But oh, if she might be warmed!
+
+Miss Barry's journey was performed in an easy carriage. A paralysis of
+the lower limbs had supervened; but otherwise she had rallied a little,
+and her mind was clear and cheerful. There was only to be a peaceful
+waiting for the end, no feverish fluctuations of hope and fear. It was
+curious how they settled themselves to the fact. A nurse was installed
+for night watching and the more onerous part; and the invalid's room
+took on a pleasant aspect,--Christiana waiting on this side of the
+river.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+FOR the first time in his life, and for some unfathomable cause, Jack
+Darcy found business cares irksome. Balance-time was at hand. He was a
+little tired of the dreary round. The men's disaffection re-acted upon
+him. With his keen and intelligent faculty of making the best of every
+thing, he was disappointed because he had failed to inspire others with
+it.
+
+"It's not so bad, after all. We have nothing that can be passed to
+capital, but we have held our own. Only, there is no dividend for the
+men."
+
+"I'll explain that to them," exclaimed Winston with a confident nod.
+
+He did, and he had a rather stormy venture. All the old arguments and
+agreements had to be gone over. Men unaccustomed to business are quick
+in prosperity and stupid in adversity. They only had three-quarter
+wages: why should they be called upon to lose beside? It was little
+enough, and waiting five years,--and no one knew,--the whole thing might
+go to smash another year! A few wished, with an oath, that they were
+well out of it. They would never be bamboozled into any co-operative
+scheme again.
+
+The grumbling, grew louder and louder. It was discussed at Keppler's
+over beer and bad whiskey, and quite inflammatory speeches were made.
+Then Winston called the mill-hands together.
+
+"My men," said he, "you know we opened the mills in starvation-times.
+Every man who could raise fifty dollars was entitled to a half-share of
+the capital, and he who could not was to have a little capital made off
+of the savings of his labor. Last year you were all pleased and merry
+and satisfied, because we made something: this year it has been the
+reverse, though I declare to you, I, for one, have worked twice as hard.
+Now, we shall never do any thing if we are all going to row different
+ways. It must be the long pull, the strong pull, and the pull all
+together. You know that if any operative became dissatisfied, and left,
+his share was forfeited to the fund for the sick and disabled. Many of
+you _are_ dissatisfied; but maybe you won't leave, thinking of last
+year's money. Now, I want to say, every such man who would like to
+_sell_ his share, may do so. I have had some applications from new men,
+that I have been very sorry to refuse. I shall open a book, and any man
+who wants to go out may put down his name there, and, just as fast as
+the shares are resold, he can go; _but he never comes back into Hope
+Mills again_! Just think it over, and decide in the course of a few
+days."
+
+"O Winston!" cried Jack, "I am afraid there will be a stampede!"
+
+"You're nervous and blue, Darcy. Now, you see if this isn't the very
+best move. There were two men here the other day from Little Falls. They
+had been taking out half their wages in store-pay, and the concern burst
+up, owing them the other half. They knew of a dozen men, not beggarly
+poor either, who would be glad to come. I'll bet my old hat there don't
+six men go out. Come, now!"
+
+"You can't tempt me with your old hat," returned Jack laughingly. "Make
+it a treat at Kit Connelly's."
+
+"Agreed. We'll take in the household."
+
+A dozen names were put down on the first day, two on the second, then
+there was a lull. Afterward four were erased; and, when it came to the
+actual pinch, five men went out, two of them very reluctantly.
+
+"I felt so sorry for Davy," said Jack when they had made the transfers.
+"He didn't want to go, and I do not believe he would if it had not been
+for his brother-in-law."
+
+"A good lesson for all parties. There will not be any grumbling for some
+time to come, I'll warrant. It is rather irregular business; but
+sometimes you can't wait for a regular surgeon, or the patient would be
+past help."
+
+Events pointed the lesson pretty forcibly. By the middle of October
+there was a sudden rush of orders. Prices rallied a little. There were
+some tremendous bankruptcies, but it seemed more in speculation than
+legitimate industry. The new men brought a fresh infusion of spirit and
+energy. One of them, a small, middle-aged man, Gilman by name, who had
+once been manager and had a share in a mill that came to grief through a
+defaulting cashier who had successfully forged the name of the firm, was
+especially enthusiastic about the system. Jack admitted that the
+culmination of the discontent was the very best thing that had happened
+for the mill.
+
+Davy went almost wild over his mistake, cursed his brother-in-law
+roundly, and forbade his wife to visit her brother's household. Nothing
+to do, not even three-quarter wages to live upon, with cheap coal and
+cheap flour. He even waylaid Darcy, and begged to be taken back without
+any share.
+
+"I'm sorry, Davy, but it cannot be done. We resolved, whatever happened,
+we would not go back on our word. You had time enough to think it over."
+
+"Just you wait," said Price, when he heard this. "They've three years
+more to wade through, and they'll never hold together all that time. It
+has a very queer look, too, that, just as soon as they shoved us out,
+they began to make money again. Bob Winston's the sort of fellow to look
+out for himself, and he had this thing all cut and dried."
+
+"Look here," remarked a listener, "you signed your own selves out.
+Nobody made you. I haven't any faith in the scheme, but I like truth for
+all that."
+
+The men worked with a will. The monthly club meetings took on a new
+interest; and they decided, if the prosperity continued, to open a
+co-operative store another year. They were growing more thoughtful and
+intelligent, and Gilman's influence upon them was excellent, while his
+experiences widened their views. A little fresh blood certainly worked
+no harm.
+
+Jack was very cheery again. It seemed to him they had pulled through the
+worst. The larger outlook was better: goods were going abroad, and money
+or bonds were coming back. Here and there some new enterprise started,
+but still there were hundreds of men out of employment. Yerbury showed
+various signs of a new thriftiness. The farms about were better managed.
+Some idle men had ventured to hire a little ground the past summer, and
+raise sufficient to have something over for their trouble. The Webbers
+succeeded beautifully. Of course there were slurs about a Dutchman
+living on a cabbage a week, but every one knew the Webbers were not that
+kind. What Germans were able to do nicely and wisely, Americans might
+copy to their profit. When some of the natives were out of work, they
+patched up their fences, painted a bit, laid a bad place in the
+sidewalk, instead of hanging round a saloon.
+
+As for those who were living through the sad sweet lesson of loving and
+losing, time went on with them also. If they could have stayed his hand!
+Sylvie recovered from the first shock: she could never suffer quite so
+intensely again, for there was one to share her least thought, her most
+trivial to her greatest pain. The explanation had come about very
+gently, making only a small ripple. Mrs. Lawrence was delighted: she
+always had liked Sylvie, and she was certain that Fred was a better
+match than Jack Darcy, though she admitted he was remarkable for a
+young man with no better opportunities.
+
+Miss Barry was truly satisfied. She would cling to her little dream of
+"orders" and "kinds" to the last, but she always did it in an
+unobtrusive way. She had felt all her life long, rather all _their_
+lives, that they were made for one another. Less practically clear-eyed
+than her young niece,--brought up in the active reasoning and doing of
+to-day, rather than the doctrine of passive suffering that had been in
+the old creed for women,--she would have assented when Sylvie refused.
+To be sure, if Jack Darcy had won her he would have had a delicate and
+sincere welcome; but I think her eye would never have lighted with the
+true mother-love at his coming, as it did at Fred's. The worth of his
+years of refinement and polish came out now. He never seemed at loss or
+awkward in the sickroom. If he was reading, he warily noted the first
+droop of the eyes; he could tell by the lines in her face when talking
+wearied her, or when she preferred being alone. Every thing between them
+was harmonious.
+
+She amazed even Dr. Maverick by her improvement, though she held her
+life even yet on the same frail tenure. She really hoped to live until
+spring, when she should plan for Sylvie's marriage. Fred had made a very
+profitable engagement with the widow he had spoken of, and was to
+furnish designs for the interior of her house and furniture. There was
+to be one purely Grecian room, one on the old Roman model, a sunset room
+where every thing was to be in accord, and a "sea" room fit for Naiads
+or Undines. Sylvie was intensely interested. This Mrs. Spottiswoode was
+young and handsome, the widow of a man nearly three times her age, and
+childless.
+
+Fred Lawrence was proud to have something of his very own to offer
+Sylvie, and she took it as the highest of all compliments. She did like
+the profession, if that it could be called; for it brought them nearer
+together, it was something they could both share. She copied designs
+and art essays, she drew patterns, she painted now and then, days when
+Miss Barry was at her best. She would make of herself something that
+should enhance Fred's pride in her,--as if he was not proud enough
+already!
+
+The one least contented with all this was Philip Maverick.
+
+"I never was so thunderstruck in all my life! That's just the word to
+express it, for it left me dazed as the blackness does after the
+lightning. I would have sworn, Jack, that she loved you, and you loved
+her. Good heavens! if I had not believed that, if I had not been too
+honorable to seek to play a friend a scurvy trick, it would have gone
+hard with me if I had not won her for myself."
+
+"Honestly, you would not have succeeded, Maverick. Neither would she
+have married me. I think she belonged to Fred from the beginning. He
+used to hate girls, judging from his sisters, no doubt, but he always
+liked Sylvie. I was afraid of girls,--their sharp eyes and sharper
+tongues,--but I liked her too; yet in my own mind he always had the
+first claim. And they will be suited in the farthest fibre of each
+soul."
+
+"He is not half worthy of her!" growled Maverick.
+
+"Who is?" There was a peculiar tender intonation in the voice. "Sylvie
+Barry's womanhood is unique, like some rare gem. She has the sparkle but
+not the hardness of a diamond; the warmth and vividness of the ruby, but
+not its heats; the serenity of the sapphire, and yet to me that is
+always cold. Rather I think she is a changeful opal with all hues and
+tints and surprises."
+
+"And yet you have never loved her!" in intense surprise.
+
+"I worship her," said Jack reverentially. "I should as soon think of
+wooing an angel."
+
+"And yet this man, who is not as strong, or noble, or high in purpose,
+takes her with your consent. You can see her sit down at his feet, wind
+her own rich, pure, sustaining life-melody about him, to make his path
+seem like going through an enchanted land. She has genius, but it will
+ever linger in the shadow of his; it will help, and purify, and shape
+his; she will give her whole soul to the work. Is he worth the best
+there is in such a woman as Sylvie Barry?"
+
+"No; and we never go by our deserts when a woman loves us," said Jack,
+with frank honesty.
+
+"I am quite sure you will marry a woman I shall hate," returned Maverick
+testily.
+
+Jack laughed. "Marrying has not been much in my thoughts;" and yet his
+fair face flushed. "I have to fight Hope Mills out to the end first."
+
+But just now there did not seem much of a prospect for fighting, though
+he firmly believed he should always be on guard after this.
+
+There was one other person in this little circle, who was of much
+interest to the others, even if it was for the most part unspoken.
+Maverick had tried to rouse Irene Lawrence from her lethargy by appeals
+of different kinds. She certainly was not an intellectual woman, though
+she had a strong and well-cultivated mind, and was accomplished in many
+ways,--society accomplishments, with a view to the admiration they might
+win. He could seem to strike no electric spark, though he succeeded in
+restoring her to health. Every week of her stay at Depford Beach, she
+had improved; but there was the old, dreary, listless life. She used to
+think herself, if some shock like that of an earthquake could lift her
+completely out of it! but none came.
+
+For it could not be said that Miss Barry's illness was any shock to her.
+People were sick, and died, and their perplexity was at an end. A
+generous, kindly life like this of Miss Barry's would have its
+reward--if any life ever was rewarded. She did not doubt so much: she
+had never really believed.
+
+As she said to Sylvie, something stronger than herself had sent her that
+night,--one of those powerful, impelling influences that few can resist.
+And Sylvie was wise enough not to lose her hold. She drew her in very
+gently, she preached no sermon, she asked favors frankly.
+
+"I want you to take my pony-carriage," she said one day, after their
+return to Yerbury. "I ought to go out every day, and if you come with it
+I shall; but if I am left to my own fancies, there will be so much to
+occupy me. Then, too, companionship is always very tempting."
+
+"I should be glad to do any thing for you," was the quiet, unemotional
+reply.
+
+So the carriage was brought every morning to the door. It seemed so odd,
+the day she first drove around Yerbury! Unconsciously the old
+stateliness returned. Her heart swelled with contradictory phases of
+thought and feeling. She was too really proud to suffer from the stings
+of petty vanity. She knew there were people who stared at Miss Lawrence;
+and she allowed them to stare with the serenity of a queen, going her
+way unmoved.
+
+She and Sylvie went through lanes and by-ways this gorgeous October day.
+Her heart was strangely touched by the glory, by the odorous air, the
+softened sounds, and brooding tenderness. Sylvie had a few errands to
+some old parishioners of her aunt's; and, while she went in cottages,
+Irene sat with the reins idly in her hands. There was much in the world
+she had never seen, though she had climbed Alps, and wandered in sunny
+vales. The ripeness and perfection of this midday was exhilarating. They
+talked in little snatches, and then were silent.
+
+Coming back they drove through the town: it was nearer. Crossing over to
+Larch Avenue, a tall figure confronted them. Sylvie bowed, and looked
+straight on, remembering such a rencounter years agone. Irene Lawrence
+turned her head with its proudest poise, but her face flushed scarlet
+under her veil. She would have made the _amende honorable_ then, if it
+had taken all the strength of her soul.
+
+She and Jack Darcy had met occasionally through the summer. Mrs.
+Lawrence rather liked to talk mill affairs with him, and his name was
+quite a familiar one in their household. Now that it had come, she was
+rather glad to offer this wordless apology for a crime against
+good-breeding, that only a rude young girl could be guilty of, to one
+she considered her inferior.
+
+She had wondered more than once, why that long-ago evening at Sylvie's
+should haunt her,--the talk of costumes, the bright chat, the dainty
+ripples of laughter, and that face with its cool, steady power. If it
+had been that of any other man, she would have pitted herself against
+it, and conquered, she fancied. Now conquests were things of the past.
+She was not one of your soft, maudlin women, who sigh for a little love.
+She looked straight into the coming years, and saw herself always alone,
+with no feeling of pity or regret.
+
+As for Jack Darcy, when they had passed, he turned and looked after
+them,--after _her_, in her state and dignity. He held one secret of her
+life that she would never know. He had questioned Maverick, who learned
+that she had no remembrance of going out that night. He had bound Fred
+over to a most willing secrecy.
+
+Ah, Jack! any remembrance that you can carry so guardedly in your soul
+is a dangerous thing,--a spark that may kindle a great fire "that many
+waters cannot quench!"
+
+Sylvie did not relinquish her own outside interests. The school that had
+had so small a beginning was now merged into a regular enterprise, and
+been re-christened an Industrial School. It had a permanent teacher, and
+occupied the whole house, the rent being paid by some benevolent
+gentlemen. A committee of ladies assisted in the different classes. The
+store was kept open, one side being reserved for articles of clothing
+or fancy goods made by the pupils, the other as a bakery on a limited
+scale, and a lunch-counter. It certainly was doing a good work. Some
+young girls, after being trained, had been provided with service places,
+and had given excellent satisfaction. Irene went through it one day with
+Sylvie, and was oddly interested.
+
+"I wish I had a genius of some kind," she said abruptly to Sylvie
+afterward. "If I could write a book, or paint a picture, or design
+exquisite adornments, or if I could hold the world spell-bound by my
+voice"--
+
+"You do sing," returned Sylvie. "Auntie was speaking of it yesterday.
+She said, 'How I should like to hear Miss Lawrence sing some of her
+pathetic old ballads!'"
+
+"You know all the sweet and tender ones."
+
+"I sing mine over daily," and Sylvie laughed with a dainty inflection.
+
+Irene went home, and opened her piano. It might have made jarring
+discord, but for Fred's thoughtfulness. She found it was in perfect
+tune.
+
+Was it the music that brought a curious intensity to her after all these
+long, dreary months? Her fingers seemed a little stiff at first, and
+some things had gone out of her mind. Then she dropped her face into her
+hands, and thought.
+
+"It is my only gift," she said slowly. "When they are married I will not
+be a burthen on them: I can make my way. I shall never try to think of
+marriage again;" and she shuddered.
+
+"I declare, you are quite like yourself," said her mother that evening.
+
+The weeks went on. Miss Barry was making plans for her niece. She could
+not live here alone, even for a few months. And she longed to see her
+married. Though the others had almost forgotten how surely her days were
+numbered, she had not.
+
+Fred assented delicately to her proposal.
+
+"It is not as if there were only your income," she said with a touch of
+pride. "Sylvie will have enough to keep the old house as it is kept now,
+and your mother and sister have some claims on you. Still, for her
+sake"--
+
+Sylvie would fain have put it off, but she was gently overruled. The
+wedding-garments were ordered, the day appointed. A quiet marriage in
+the pretty parlor, with only a few friends. They brought Miss Barry down
+stairs, and she listened while her darling reverently repeated her vows.
+They kissed the new bride while the tears were shining in her eyes, and
+sent her on a brief wedding-journey with heartfelt blessings. Maverick
+was to telegraph to them every day.
+
+Fred Lawrence could hardly believe his happiness. They were like two
+children out on a pleasure-excursion, not needing to realize the gravity
+of life in these golden days. What cared they for pale winter suns and
+shivering blasts!
+
+Long ago he had planned a brilliant tour to Europe for her. He had gone
+over it all, and would only have been bored; but it was the thing to do,
+and he might enjoy her fresh delight in it. But to both of them--to him
+especially--had come the higher revelations of life. It is the
+aggregation of individual characteristics that makes the sum-total of
+national character; and though at first retrenchment and economy seemed
+hideous words to the pleasure-loving, easy-going, self-indulgent souls
+nursed in the lap of prosperity, there was coming a realization to those
+who had fought their way valiantly across the yawning gulf, that the hot
+race for show, the desire to exceed one another, was not a lofty aim for
+an immortal soul, hardly for a cultured nature.
+
+They both understood that beauty and grandeur were not far-off, hardly
+attained ideals, and that the great pleasures were set in the world
+rather as incentives and rewards, than highly seasoned daily food which
+must inevitably produce satiety. Some time, when they had earned this
+glorious vacation, they would take it hungering with the healthy
+appetite of a well-trained soul. At present the duty was to deny one's
+self firmly and contentedly, to round off the sharp corners, to shape
+the daily living to high, pure purposes; so that the greater excellences
+of Art should not despise the minor forms, the steps whereby true
+perfection was attained, the tangled threads that often required more
+real genius to comprehend than the one great moment of inspiration.
+
+They came home again fresh and bright, with the peculiar fragrance of a
+new life about them, just as you shall smell spring in the woods on some
+mild, sunny February day. Fred fluctuated between office and city, quite
+a prophet of household art, welcomed warmly back to the old circles
+which had so quietly dropped him for a while. Is there not a great deal
+of this unconscious proving of the fine metal of souls in the world? We
+cry out as we are thrust aside, or given some hard task to do; we wonder
+people do not hold out kindly hands, smile with sympathetic eyes; and
+yet their very help might weaken us. When we have beaten our way across
+with the roar of the distant waves still in our ears, the shadows of the
+black, fierce, jagged cliff hardly faded, the taste of the brackish
+spray still lingering on our lips, an exultant thrill speeds through
+every nerve as we clasp a hand that has had to buffet through the same
+fateful current.
+
+Early in April Miss Barry had another seizure, a fatal stroke this time.
+For a few days she lay in sweet content; and then dropped peacefully out
+of existence.
+
+It seems always a mystery, why such earnest, useful souls, doing that
+highest of all work,--a pure, unselfish charity,--should be taken away,
+and the slothful, dependent, ease-loving, selfish ones left. The Darcys
+felt that Mrs. Lawrence could have been spared much more easily, and
+served a higher economy in point of usefulness. But God, who sees every
+end from the beginning, and is all-wise, judges differently. Miss Barry
+had done her work, no light life-task either. Only God knew what it had
+been, days of toil and nights of watching and prayer, such pain as only
+a strong soul could have kept to itself, and smiled over. Yet she had
+her exceeding sweet reward in this world,--years of peace and comfort,
+the child-love she had missed in one way, supplied in another, the hope
+of her days crowned more wisely by the waiting.
+
+They did not think it worth while to keep up the two households; indeed,
+Mrs. Lawrence would not have been separated from her son: so she and
+Irene brought their worldly possessions over to Larch Avenue. The old
+house was large enough. Sylvie was a courteous and charming mistress;
+though Fred realized, with the sensitiveness of true tender love, the
+burthen he had brought to her.
+
+"It is not without its wise compensation," she said, tears in her sunny
+brown eyes. "You see, I shall miss auntie so much less! She would not
+desire me to grieve despairingly for her, and here is the new claim to
+take her place. Beside," with a sad yet arch smile, "we shall have to
+strive against the temptation to selfishness that besets newly married
+people, when their pursuits are identical, as ours are. It will give a
+greater breadth, a purer tone, to our lives."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+HOPE MILLS passed through a very prosperous six months. With some new
+processes, invented by the combined energy and ingenuity of the men,
+they made a new line of goods which was a perfect success. Interest and
+discount vanished; and there was a snug balance in the bank, of which
+every man was duly proud. They were beginning, too, to take a great
+interest in the finances of the country, and to see that a stable
+currency and wise economy and honesty were the best friends to
+commercial and industrial prosperity. One little incident made them
+exceedingly jubilant.
+
+They had been undersold, in the same line of goods, with quite a large
+customer. Winston was rather blue about it at first, then laughed it off
+as one of the fluctuations of trade. To his great surprise, six months
+after, he received the largest order for goods that had yet been sent.
+
+          "We have been much deceived in the quality of
+          cloths from Yates, Collins, & Co.," ran the note.
+          "They do not stand wear, though they resemble
+          yours so closely. Our customers have made numerous
+          complaints, and desire the old stock, which we are
+          glad to order again.
+
+                                   "MILES, CHAMBERS, & CO."
+
+This was put up on the bulletin-board, and discussed with much pride at
+the club. Every man had an interest in it, and an ambition to excel in
+his particular branch. It paid in the long-run to be honest; and, though
+there might be a higher principle than remuneration, that was not a bad
+test, after all.
+
+So the third summer opened brilliantly. Yardley, Gilman, and four others
+drew up an agreement for a co-operative store. They hired one man who
+had been a very successful buyer for a large grocery-firm, which had
+failed, and took with it his small invested capital. He was to keep the
+books, take orders, and do the buying, subject to the advisement of the
+managers. A certain low per cent of profits was agreed upon, just
+enough, they calculated, to pay expenses; and the goods were to be
+offered as low as possible for cash. The superior quality and reduced
+price, they decided, would be more agreeable to most of the men than a
+small balance at the end of the year. An account was to be kept with
+every member, and the agreement to remain in force one year from date.
+
+And yet there are shoals and quicksands for prosperity, as well as
+yawning abysses for adversity. There were people in Yerbury--not bad
+souls either--who were not content to allow the world to revolve on any
+axis but their own. They could see their neighbors' planets go to
+destruction with equanimity--following some law of nature or ethics that
+regulated supply and demand of any force, in their estimation; but when
+some bright particular star flashed out of the orbit they had set for
+it, of course it was beyond the pale of safety. There has always been a
+great deal of just such obstinacy in the world, just such narrow
+prescribing, and yet--"it does move."
+
+One of the favorite objections of these wiseacres was, that Hope Mills
+was founded on a wrong basis. Who knew _just exactly_ what amount of
+goods Winston sold? Well, there was the amount manufactured,--the amount
+on hand every six months. True,--with a disbelieving shake of the
+head,--but he was up in the ways of the world; and what would hinder
+him, Ananias-like, from keeping back part of the price? When this was
+shown to be an utter impossibility, they still were quite sure Winston
+harbored in his secret soul some plan for cheating the workmen at the
+last. Here would be all this accumulation of capital, and by some
+successful _coup-d'etat_ Winston and Darcy would swoop down upon it, and
+take the lion's share. They were very much afraid that the workmen were
+going to be wronged in some underhand way. A defaulting cashier,
+unprincipled managers, thieves and forgers, committed their crimes in an
+out-and-out way; but there was going to be a profound mystery about
+this--the most simple and above-board management, when every man knew,
+every six months, the best and the worst of the details.
+
+Employment was becoming more general all through the country. Everybody
+drew a long breath, and decided that the grinding times of depression
+had passed. We would soon be back to the brilliant era of past
+prosperity.
+
+And then there arose a new light in the labor horizon, a prophet who had
+discovered the magic key to the workingmen's paradise, and it had only
+to be turned by themselves, to gain entrance. Wherever he went, he was
+hailed with acclamation.
+
+It was the old, old war upon capital, the old seductive science of
+equalizing things, values, money. Every poor man in the country had a
+better right to a cottage and garden and a few hours of leisure, than
+these few magnates to grasp every thing in their own hands, to roll in
+luxury, to feast in magnificence, to clothe their daughters in silks,
+velvets, and diamonds--it was to be noted that Mr. McPherson wore an
+immense diamond, but it was to be presumed that his wife or daughter did
+_not_. Everywhere one could see the rich growing richer, the poor
+poorer, the workman trodden down, brought to the level of slavery with
+his long hours and scanty wages. Where was it to end but in a nation of
+paupers, of thieves, of criminals of every grade? for, when you made a
+brute of a man, there came a time when he turned a brute's hand against
+you. This had been the underlying cause of all the world's great
+struggles: it had uncrowned kings, it had razed thrones, it had swept
+states. There were bits of distorted historical facts, fallacious but
+brilliant reasoning, and much bombast.
+
+They heard of him in this city and that, and there was a great deal said
+about the cordiality with which he greeted "the horny-handed son of
+toil." No town was so small that he disdained it, no city so great that
+he feared it. There had been "demonstrations," but he seemed proud of
+his defiance of danger.
+
+Men who could not altogether approve of him admitted that he was
+"smart," that he uttered a good many truths, half-truths they were,
+dressed up in specious falsehoods, all the more dangerous, since the
+world does pay homage to virtue and truth. They were troublesome
+questions: the great difficulty was the haste made in settling them. A
+balance will finally adjust itself, though there may be many vibrations
+at first.
+
+It was a fact much to be regretted, that with returning prosperity the
+gin-mills and beer-shops of Yerbury had, as a general thing, increased
+in their business. A notable instance to the contrary, however, was
+Keppler's saloon. It had depended a good deal on the men from Hope Mills
+and the iron-works. The latter had been closed so long; and, although
+the coffee-house did not seem much of a rival at first, it had gone on
+steadily, and given the men time to think. It was not simply the one
+glass of beer they took to wash down their midday lunch, but the
+treating when a crowd gathered, the many drinks during a heated
+discussion of an evening. Not half a dozen of the mill-hands went there
+now, so occupied had their minds become with other matters. Keppler's
+lease was not out, and his rent was high for the times; he had lost
+money and customers, and felt sore over it; he had a grudge against
+Jack Darcy as the exponent of a system that interfered with his profits.
+
+McPherson was discussed over pipes and ale one warm June evening, with
+brains cleared, of course, by frequent potations and stifling smoke. It
+was proposed that he should be invited to lecture at Yerbury.
+
+"I like to see fair play!" cried Keppler. "These fellows over
+here"--nodding toward the mill--"have had it all their own way because
+they took up a lot of starving men in dull times. That was all well
+enough,--praise-worthy--praise-w-o-r-thy," with a long accent. "But
+things have changed now,--changed!" with a confident nod. "I'd like to
+hear what the man has to say. You see, he has come up from the ranks, he
+has been poor himself!"
+
+So the ball was put in motion. McPherson's speech at Millville, a great
+laboring-centre, was read aloud with frequent cheering. And the
+laboring-men at Yerbury began to wonder why wages were not higher, when
+so many shops were running on full time! Somebody was making a great
+deal of money: _they_ could barely live. Bread and meat had not fallen
+in the ratio of wages. It was still next door to starvation.
+
+Finally some self-constituted labor-committee sent the letter of
+invitation, and received a cordial and flattering reply. Mr. McPherson
+had heard of Yerbury. He would be only too glad to come among them in
+his humble capacity, and shed what light he could upon the side of right
+and truth; raise his voice for the oppressed against the oppressor. And
+he mentioned that open-air meetings were generally more successful.
+
+They put up a platform on the Common, the largest park in Yerbury. The
+day was very fine, not too hot, and a shower the evening before had laid
+the dust. At precisely four, a deputation awaited Mr. McPherson and his
+party at the station, escorted them to the Bedell House to refresh, and
+then to the grand hall of nature, with its waving arches of glistening
+green overhead.
+
+Already a great concourse had assembled. Mr. McPherson mounted his
+rostrum, and, after a few preliminary flourishes, began in a clear,
+strong tone, that had the power of concentrating the attention of his
+audience. He went back centuries, and proved that from the very
+beginning of all industries there had been the desire to oppress, that
+the working-classes had to combine and fight for every advantage gained,
+to wrest from kings, peers, masters, even equals, the privileges they
+held to-day. Plainly, capital was a tyrant fattening on unpaid toil.
+"Were not the rich always in the ranks of capital, always against the
+poor man? They squeezed him to the utmost when they had need, then they
+flung him away. Did it matter to them if his wife and children starved?
+If he stole a loaf of bread to appease the pangs of hunger, he was sent
+to prison; but if a bank president stole half a million, he went
+to--Europe! [Laughter and applause.] Does the capitalist employ the
+laborer in order that there shall be fewer starving men in the country?
+It comes in the market, and buys at the lowest price, solely for its own
+benefit. It does not concern capital, whether this man can support wife
+and children on such a pittance: what business has he with wife and
+children! If the man drops at the work-bench, the victim of long hours,
+exhaustive toil, insufficient food, the town will thrust him into a
+pauper's grave, and another will fill his place. Even negro-slavery was
+more noble than this: it was to the master's interest that the slave
+should be well fed. Capital was shrewd, selfish, experienced, astute,
+strong: labor was kept in ignorance lest it might learn its worth, its
+rights; it was half-starved that it might be weak; it was driven from
+pillar to post with a more cruel than slave-driver's whip, that it might
+never be able to perfect a successful organization."
+
+And so on and on. The crowd increased. The six-o'clock bells rang, and
+the procession from shops wended their way thither, many from curiosity,
+some from a hope of a new truth, and not a few filled with a secret
+sense of wrong and dissatisfaction. Mr. McPherson was still belaboring
+capital. Now he had declared it "a stupendous fraud, a hollow bubble, a
+reputation for wealth where no wealth existed, a fictitious claim for
+what was not, but which still managed to hold the workman in its iron
+grasp; the concentrated labor of the men, not the lawful working
+interest of money. Some way this system of evil was going to be uprooted
+by men standing firm, refusing the wages of sweat and blood; and in the
+general overturn by legislation of state and country, every man was to
+have a farm or a factory, to quit work in the middle of the afternoon,
+and sit with folded hands on his own door-step, his own master, a free
+man!" [Great shouting and applause.]
+
+He talked until seven, and wound up at last with a desperate but covert
+onslaught on Hope Mills. "No two men or six men, or company of any kind,
+had a right to band together to starve not only the men in their own
+town, but the laborers throughout the world, by so reducing wages for
+their own sole benefit; and every workman who submitted to have these
+chains forged around body and soul, no matter by what specious
+expedient, was a worse traitor, a more cruel oppressor of wife and
+children, than the red-handed capital that stood ready to make him a
+slave!"
+
+There was an immense deal of cheering and applause. Mr. McPherson was
+invited to supper at the Bedell House by a deputation of working-men,
+though I think there were few horny-handed ones among them. Liquors
+flowed freely, and the feast was rather noisy. A purse was handed to him
+when he went away--he was too noble to make any charge when he spoke in
+behalf of a cause so near his heart.
+
+The seed was sown, and it is too true that "foul weeds grow apace."
+There were club-meetings and union-meetings. The shoe-factory, which had
+struggled hard to get on its legs again, soon became a hotbed of
+discontent. The hatters held meetings, the paper-makers were aroused,
+and then began preparation for another grand strike. The weavers from
+Coldbridge and Stilford sent over a deputation to Hope Mills, warning,
+exhorting, and threatening. "No system," said they, "should interfere
+with mutual strength and protection."
+
+And this was not all. It seemed as if Yerbury meant to make them the
+scape-goat of every thing. Robert Winston was broadly caricatured; and
+there was a bit of insulting abuse, calling them traders in their
+brethren's blood, pasted up on the gate-post. "The Evening Transcript"
+went over the system of co-operation, and showed to its own
+satisfaction, that it was a system full of errors and miscalculations
+based on the credulity of workmen. It hinted that the same mysterious
+cause which reduced profits last year would reduce them again next year,
+that at the end of the five years the bread and cheese would come out
+just even, although there had been a great deal more bread than cheese,
+as everybody knew. If the corporation were working for the best
+interests of the men, why had they not sold off stock when every one
+knew prices were going permanently down, instead of waiting to sell it
+below cost? Why had they paid exorbitant prices for wool when the market
+was flooded with it? Why had they not done this or that? until one
+wondered why, understanding the woollen-business so well, and being able
+to see just where enormous profits could be made, and losses avoided,
+they had not all gone into it themselves. The article wound up with a
+covert and insulting insinuation. Human nature was the same, the world
+over. Men of the highest probity and honor had succumbed to temptation:
+these men who had never really been in any responsible position had yet
+to be proved. If men like David Lawrence and Horace Eastman could not
+make a stand against fluctuations and difficulties, it was hardly likely
+success would crown any such abnormal undertaking.
+
+Jack did not see the paper until the next day. Some one laid it
+surreptitiously on his desk. His face flushed darkly at the attack upon
+his honesty, and for a moment all the belligerency of his boyhood rose
+to the surface. He had half a mind to hunt up the writer of the article,
+and pound him to a jelly with his two fists. But presently he laughed to
+himself, and then made a tour of the mills in his cheeriest fashion. He
+saw with grief that the seed had found root. There were some sullen
+faces and short answers.
+
+It certainly is a hard thing to keep on fighting an old foe that can
+only be beaten, never killed.
+
+Jack stumbled over Cameron in the store-room.
+
+"Cameron," said he with a white, rigid face, "I wish to God this was the
+last day of the five years! I should walk out of Hope Mills, and never
+set foot in it again, no, not even if they implored me on their knees. A
+thankless, miserable set! The lying article in last night's paper made
+me mad for a moment, but could not sting: yet the faces of my own men
+did as I came through the rooms."
+
+"You've had a hard pull, Jack!" Cameron's voice was fatherly and
+soothing. "You might have put your money and your brains in something
+that would have proved much pleasanter. But the man who takes up the
+first end of a truth always gets hard knocks: it is the people who come
+after who find a smooth path. Don't you remember," drawing his wrinkled
+face into a queer smile, "the shrewd application your New York lady made
+about the children of Israel? Jack, if the salvation scheme of the Bible
+was all proved false,--which it never will be, to my mind,--there's so
+much wisdom in it beside, that a chap could take it just for a sort of
+guidebook in every-day matters, all the same. And now we're going to
+have a big fight."
+
+"You think that?" cried Jack, in vague alarm. "I wish Winston was here.
+He can always talk so to the point!"
+
+"Well, he isn't: we've got to go through it ourselves. But this settles
+it! You see, there's been Price, and Pickett, and Davy, to stir up
+strife and bad feeling, and all this outside influence; but my old
+woman's praying us through, and I set a good deal of store by her
+prayers, Jack! If these ruffians go on, Yerbury'll be half ruined again,
+but it is their own fault. I'm not much on capital punishment, but I
+would go to the hanging of that McPherson. If he'd staid away, we should
+have done well enough."
+
+Jack drew a long, troubled breath.
+
+"I'd let every man go out who wanted to, but I wouldn't pay-him a red
+cent, there!"
+
+That evening Jack went down to Larch Avenue. He found Fred and Sylvie up
+in arms. Indignation was a mild term.
+
+It was a magnificent night, with a nearly full moon. The light flooded
+the wide lawn path, and made shadows of elves and gnomes on the porch,
+as the wind wandered in and out the great honeysuckle, whose ripe, rich
+perfume was shaken about with every waft. Within, an Argand lamp, and
+porcelain shade with a minute painting of Puck and his fairy host, sent
+a softened radiance on the old, rich-hued carpet, and antique furniture.
+It was but little changed, yet wore an indescribably antique look.
+
+Over at an open window sat Irene Lawrence, dressed in white, with a
+single deep-red velvety rose at her throat, which Sylvie had pinned
+there. Her hair had grown rapidly, and, though it did not quite curl,
+the ends tumbled about loosely, framing in the face with their dusky
+purplish tint. It was very clear now, and a little pale; the old
+brilliant coloring had not all returned; the passionless grace, the deep
+eyes with their steady lights, the mouth suggesting mobility and warmth
+and passion, rather than defining it, the droop of the white lids, the
+unruffled brow, and the pose of the bowed head and slightly-yielding
+throat, made a marvellous picture.
+
+The three were talking earnestly, as people do in the great crises of
+life; Sylvie wondrously piquant, with some thin, black, trailing stuff
+making shifting billows about her restless feet. She questioned Jack
+eagerly, she denounced the attack as cruel and cowardly. What did he
+mean to do? What should Fred do for him?
+
+"There is nothing to do, but just wait for the result. The
+dragon's-teeth have been sown. The only comfort I have is, that you
+never can put a lie on the face of truth, and nail it there. No amount
+of arguing or talk can make a thing so when it is _not_ so. Higher than
+this little human round, God garners every truth in his keeping, and
+will make it tell somewhere!"
+
+Miss Lawrence raised her eyes, and glanced over to him. Had the slow
+impassiveness of her soul been touched, that this sudden peculiar grace
+of sympathy, or some hidden kindred feeling, rose and asserted itself?
+And yet she might have been in some magnetic sleep, for all actual
+movement of her features; it was the dawn of an expression that seemed
+to transport him to some strange world, where he had known her long
+ago,--where he had watched for her coming, listened to her
+voice,--rather than any present interest or meaning.
+
+He rose abruptly.
+
+"You are not going!" cried Sylvie, in her pretty wifely imperiousness.
+
+"I"--for a moment he had the sensation of a man drowning. The surging
+waves were about him, throbbing, leaping, strangling him. There was a
+ringing in his ears, there was a long shuddering sensation, like being
+overwhelmed.
+
+"It is very warm," he went on in a faint, strained voice, wiping the
+beaded drops from his broad brow.
+
+"Come over here," pleaded Sylvie: "you will be cooler. The wind is
+south, and doesn't blow in those windows. You are sure you feel quite
+well?" scanning him anxiously. "You look pale."
+
+"It was only momentary." He wondered now what had so moved him. "I am
+like good old John Bunyan's Pilgrim,"--laughing faintly,--"'tumbled up
+and down' with these excitements. I wish they were at an end. We were
+going on so nicely when that McPherson came! Don't let us think any more
+about it," throwing up his head with a nervous shake. "Sylvie, I wish
+you would sing something."
+
+"With pleasure. Fred and I have been practising duets. When Yerbury is
+laid in ashes we can go off as strolling minstrels;" and she laughed
+gayly, as she went to the piano. That exquisite tact in changing a mood
+or scene was a familiar characteristic of Sylvie Barry.
+
+As the sound of their blending voices floated out on the summer night
+air, there leaped up in Darcy's soul a subtle, forceful, vivifying
+flame, touching to a white heat the farthest pulse of his being.
+Resistance appeared impossible: he did not even dream what manner of
+influence this might be. Long afterward--it seemed ages to him--as their
+heads were bent together over the pages of the music, he raised his
+eyes, and let them wander slowly toward Irene Lawrence.
+
+Was there something quite new in the face,--a sort of strange,
+wondering, troubled expression, as if some unseen, almost unknown, depth
+had been stirred?
+
+He did not need to ask the question now. Wild as it was, he loved that
+statue over yonder, and it seemed to him that his passion in its
+enduring vitality must awaken her soul to kindred life! An exultant
+strength and determination rose within him. What might have abashed
+another man, filled him with a deathless courage, as high as it was
+pure.
+
+He thanked Sylvie and Fred for the song, but resisted their entreaties
+to remain. When he said good-night, he went over to Miss Lawrence, and
+took her hand. It was cold and passive, and her eyes fell beneath his.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+THE excitement ran very high not only in Yerbury, but all over the
+country. Strikes seemed the order of the day again, and for what reason,
+was not clearly made manifest, unless labor felt that it had capital a
+little by the throat, in that its services were again somewhat in
+demand. "Now," said the prophets. Surely, if they did not strike when
+there was employment, they could not when there was none.
+
+It began in the shoe-shop. The next Monday morning the men made their
+demand in no gentle terms, and were refused. There was a large contract
+at stake, however, and by Tuesday night the matter was talked over in a
+better spirit. The employers were willing to accede to one-half of the
+demand, otherwise the order must be sent to another firm. Thursday
+morning they went to work with a rather ill grace, yet some elation.
+Then the hatters took their turn. The hands at Hope Mills were served
+with a notice that the mutual protectionists in all the towns around
+were to be out on the following Monday; and stirring appeals were made
+to those who had any feeling of honor in the cause.
+
+It was exceedingly hard on the men. They gathered around in little knots
+on Sunday, wild with conflicting emotions. Their faith in Hope Mills and
+co-operation was undergoing a severe strain. The fear of secret frauds,
+of underhand dealing, of distrust in Winston and Darcy, had been dinned
+in their ears by outside influence, some of it very potent. Not one
+appeal had been made by the managers: Cameron and the others decided it
+was best.
+
+Jack went over to the mill on Monday morning. The gatekeeper and the
+bell-boy were there. The engineer came in with a quiet, solemn
+"Good-morning." The Brotherhood of Engineers had warned him too, and he
+was a little troubled; but he had cast in his lot with the rest, and it
+might be as well to wait and see what they did. The main shaft was
+turned.
+
+Jack from his office-window watched the streets filling up with men and
+women, many beside the regular operatives. They came to a halt.
+
+"Ding-dong! ding-dong!" the bell rang out cheerily on the summer morning
+air. "Come to work, come to work! The birds build homes, and rear their
+young; the bee skims the fragrant air in search of flowers; the rivers
+run to the sea, turning wheels, driving ships: nothing in the great
+economy of nature is idle," sang out the clang of the bell.
+
+The hands glanced at one another in doubt and dismay, and there was an
+awful silence for a few seconds.
+
+Some one elbowed his way through the crowd. He had come from the bedside
+of his sick child, who might be dying even now,--a small, wiry,
+middle-aged man, with a set, resolute face. He glanced about, then he
+sprang up on a pile of packing-boxes. It was Jesse Gilman.
+
+"My fellow-workmen," he began, "I don't know how you all feel about this
+matter; but Hope Mills took me in when I had tramped the country half
+over, and found nothing to do. I've tried the old system, and this can't
+be any worse; and, if I have to lose money by an employer, I'd rather it
+would be John Darcy of Yerbury, than any man I know. No man on the face
+of the earth has a right to say I shall not work in Hope Mills when I
+made my own bargain long ago to do it. That is all I have to say. I am
+going to work."
+
+"Three cheers!" cried some one as Gilman jumped down.
+
+There were cheers and groans.
+
+Ben Hay followed him, and stood a moment in the gateway.
+
+"Boys," said he in his rich, ringing voice, "Hope Mills was opened to
+receive a crowd of starving men. I'll take my oath to Jack Darcy's
+honesty. He's stuck by us, and we'll stick to him. That's the beauty of
+co-operation. You can't get away, and tramp off with the first fool that
+asks you! It isn't merely keeping company: it's a good, honest,
+up-and-down marriage. I'd as soon think of leaving my wife because some
+day she didn't give me two dinners instead of one!"
+
+There was a shout of laughter. The ice was broken in good earnest.
+"Three cheers for Ben Hay! Three cheers and a tiger for Jack Darcy!" and
+amid all this hubbub the men and women, the boys and girls, rushed in
+pell-mell. A gladder crew one never saw. To decide when others doubt, to
+go forward boldly when others hesitate, to stand up for the principle of
+right when others have traduced and blackened it, to take the first
+step, is to be as heroic as the "six hundred" of deathless fame.
+
+They went to work with a will, though some were a little sore and
+doubtful, but they were carried on by the enthusiasm of the others. The
+street below was still blocked up, and there were yells and groans.
+Presently there came a shower of superannuated eggs. Two landed in
+Darcy's office-window. After that, a stampede of the riotous crew.
+
+Darcy sent Andrew, the bell-boy, to the police-station, and two men were
+detailed. The workmen were allowed to go home peaceably, except a little
+jeering at Keppler's. They heard then the trains had been stopped on the
+two roads leading out of Yerbury. The whole world seemed to be going
+crazy.
+
+Darcy and Cameron remained in the mill that night until almost ten: then
+the latter went home, and Darcy thought he would go for Ben Hay. The
+streets of Yerbury had presented a very peculiar aspect that evening,
+something like a beleaguered town. Groups of men and boys collected on
+the corners, or wended their way through the streets with low, ominous
+mutterings. People barred their doors and locked their windows, though
+it was a hot summer night. Some women were abroad: but they were of the
+rougher sort, and now and then their shrill voices rose on the air in
+derision or vituperation. Still there were no overt acts of violence,
+and at ten everybody began to breathe more freely.
+
+The coffee-house had been shut up that evening: it was deemed advisable.
+Darcy went round to the side-door, and was admitted. Hay and three other
+workmen were within. They had been figuring up possible and probable
+profits by the end of the five years, and looked very well satisfied.
+
+"There's a sort of hope and expectation about it," said one of the men,
+"that kind of stirs and warms a body. And when you come to count lost
+time, and fluctuation in wages, it makes a pretty even thing, after all!
+In '73 I worked in a shoddy-mill that _had_ been making money hand over
+fist,--eleven hours a day,--not a man of us made more than five dollars
+a week. Some poor fellows with families earned only three. You've never
+been as hard up as that! God only knows how they lived: it's beyond my
+guessing!"
+
+"And if that was co-operation, how the system would be blamed!"
+exclaimed Ben Hay. "I declare, it makes me madder than a hen in a
+fence--I've caught that of Cameron," laughingly,--"to hear the things
+people have said about us. They're forever blathering about fair play--I
+wish they'd give a little, as well as take all. Wait till we've come to
+the end, say I, before they tell what we can do, or what we can't or
+sha'n't or won't!"
+
+There was a tramp in the street. The startled eyes studied one another.
+Then a shuffling and muttering, and a knock at the door.
+
+No one stirred but Mrs. Connelly, who threw up her hands, and cried,
+"The saints protect us!"
+
+"Earthly saints, Mother Connelly,--this kind," said Ben Hay with gay
+re-assurance, doubling his fist, and baring his brawny arm.
+
+The pounding increased. Rose ran down stairs wild with affright,
+followed by her sister. The boys fortunately were asleep in the back
+chambers.
+
+"Let us in, Mother Connelly: we want some bread and butter!" shouted a
+voice.
+
+"Cakes and yale!"
+
+"Pretzel and zwei lager!"
+
+"A sup of the craythur!"
+
+"A dhrop of whiskey to warrum us this could night! Av yees the heart av
+a sthone, Kit Connelly?"
+
+A roar of laughter succeeded this.
+
+"Go away, it will be better for you," declared Ben Hay.
+
+"Come out here, Hay, and fight like a man! Don't skulk behind a woman's
+petticoats!"
+
+There was a terrific onslaught at the door. It creaked and groaned, and
+was succeeded by a volley of oaths and imprecations. Rose began to cry,
+and the youngest girl came screaming down the stairs.
+
+Darcy had sent a man out of the back way for policemen. Hay and the two
+other men mounted guard. Again the door shivered and creaked: then it
+flew open, bolts, locks, and hinges having given way in a mass of
+splinters.
+
+Like a flash the men were on their assailants. The mob had not expected
+this. Right and left valorous blows were dealt, and two or three burly
+fellows were laid low. Some nearer sober, and more cowardly, took to
+their heels. Two men fought like tigers; and once Ben Hay came near
+getting the worst; but, by the time the dilatory guards of peace
+arrived, there was only a pile of bruised and battered bodies lying on
+the door-step.
+
+"A pretty tough scrimmage!" was the comment. "Weren't you a little hard
+on these fellows?"
+
+"A man has a right to defend his own life and his own nose," said Ben
+Hay decisively. "His life _may_ be useful, his nose _is_ ornamental when
+it is a handsome one like mine."
+
+What with drunkenness and the drubbing, two of the ruffians were unable
+to walk. Two others were marched off under the escort of the officers,
+the disabled sent for, and a guard detached to protect Mrs. Connelly's
+house. When everybody had been quieted, Jack took a tour down to the
+mills. Some poor object was huddled up in the corner of the main stoop.
+
+"What are you doing here?" demanded Darcy.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Darcy, don't strike me! I'm Bart Kane. I've had enough of this
+night, and I crawled here"--
+
+The boy began to sob and talk brokenly. He lifted his face in the
+moonlight. It was ghastly; one eye swollen shut, and purple-black, and
+streaks of blood and dirt over it; the clothing torn, the throat bare.
+
+"Were you down there at Connelly's?"
+
+"I warn't nowhere. It was along o' father: he comed home drunk."
+
+Barton Kane was a mill-boy, about nineteen now. Darcy's first feeling
+had been one of outrage and anger, but he cooled suddenly.
+
+"Tell me, my lad," in a kindly tone, taking the shivering fingers in
+his.
+
+"You see, Mr. Darcy, father'd been out along of the hatters all day,
+gettin' more and more rum in him. He said on Sunday, as how't I should
+strike; but they went to work here, and I worked with 'em. When I went
+home, mother, she gev me my supper, and ses she, 'Keep out o' sight,
+lad, happen thy dad's powerful mad wi' thee!' So I went to bed. But
+about nine he comed home, and tore up the house wi' his tantrums, and
+then lathered me. He called me a rat, and a sneak, and a turn-coat, and
+kicked me out o' the house, and threw my traps to me. Then afore I was
+fairly dressed he at me again, and said if ever I darkened the door,
+he'd murder me! I strayed round, afeared of everybody, and crawled up
+here. 'Pears like every bone in my body is broke, and my eye, he do hurt
+so!"
+
+With that Barton Kane broke out sobbing again, and clung to Jack Darcy's
+knees.
+
+"My poor lad!" the tone was infinitely tender. "Can you walk a little
+way, to Kit Connelly's? You can be nursed up there, and go to bed
+peaceably. Come, Barton, my boy, you are the hero of Hope Mills. When
+this is over, we shall have to give you a medal."
+
+He put his strong arm around the shivering body, and led him back to a
+kindly shelter.
+
+"Hay, Mrs. Connelly, and all of you: here's a lad that has been
+half-killed for standing by his colors to-day. Look here, Armstrong,
+would you mind going for Dr. Maverick? this poor chap needs some
+patching-up. And, Kit, give me some water and a napkin: we'll get his
+face a little cool and clean."
+
+"Let me do it, Mr. Darcy. Sure, I've boys of my own, and am used to it.
+Oh, the poor, poor lad!"
+
+Barton told his story over again. He was weak and hysterical now, and
+they made him a shake-down on the floor until the doctor came.
+
+"Now I'll start on my inspection-tour again," said Darcy, turning away.
+"We are all likely to make a night of it."
+
+He thought he would go around before he went in to see the watchmen:
+they had placed a force on guard quietly. He had just turned the second
+corner, when he saw a man jump from the high fence, and lie for an
+instant as if stunned. He hastened on, but the man sprang up and ran
+down the dark side of the street. His first impulse was to follow; then
+it struck him as strange that the dog gave no alarm. He had a gate-key
+in his pocket, and unlocked it at once.
+
+"Bruno!" he called, "Bruno, good fellow, come here."
+
+There was not a sound. The ominous silence thrilled Jack.
+
+"Bruno!"
+
+Hark! a curious crackling or sweep of wind, and smoky smell. He ran
+round to the rear. Close up against the back door, quite out of the
+moonlight, something was piled. Forked tongues of flame were shooting
+out of it everywhere. He seized the chain attached to the factory-bell,
+and rang it rapidly. There was a window thrown up, and a voice called.
+
+"Fire! fire!" he shouted. "Turn on the hose,--the lower back door."
+
+The flames streamed up fiercely now. It was plain that the mound had
+been saturated with kerosene.
+
+Daly hurried down, and opened a door. "Hurd and Byrnes are at the
+buckets and hose," he cried. "Where is it? O Mr. Darcy!"
+
+"Quick, quick!" shouted Jack, rushing by him.
+
+The men had the hose ready. They put it out of the window, turned on the
+stream, and in a few moments a column of dense smoke rose amid the
+arrowy flashes of lurid splendor. The watchman ran down from Connelly's.
+
+It was subdued in a few moments. They tore away the charred boxes and
+_debris_, smoking and smouldering. Underneath all they found the body of
+princely Bruno.
+
+"This is fiendish!" cried Jack, dragging the poor fellow away, his
+scorched coat smelling horribly. "Brave Bruno, you are the second hero
+of the night!"
+
+"Whatever dastardly devil did this, knows as much about Hope Mills as
+you or I," shouted Hurd savagely. "Bruno was poisoned first; and he
+wouldn't have taken any thing from a strange hand. But the fellow was a
+fool to build the fire here."
+
+"I don't know about that," said Darcy. "If it had burned the door down,
+it would have gone in the hall, and up the hatchway--if it was open."
+
+"By thunder! so it would; and right to the stock-room. That place must
+never be left open again while Hope Mills stands, or co-operation waves
+her starry banner in the breeze."
+
+"Loud applause!" said some one.
+
+The fire was thoroughly extinguished; and the guardian of the night
+decided to remain here, being within call if another disturbance should
+occur at Mrs. Connelly's. The bells rang out for midnight. A few, who
+had gathered at the alarm, dispersed: and every thing became quiet
+again,--deadly, solemnly quiet.
+
+Jack wanted to see Maverick, so he paced back to Mrs. Connelly's. He was
+trying to remember some distinctive mark of the man he had seen jump. He
+was too stout for Davy, and he could not believe such villany of the
+man. Then Price was a little lame from an old rheumatic affection, and
+would not have dared such a deed.
+
+Barton Kane had been washed, patched, bandaged, put to bed, and given an
+opiate; so now he was in a sound but rather disturbed sleep. The men
+gathered in the lunch-room, and discussed the cowardly attempt upon the
+mill, the day's affairs generally.
+
+"See how great a matter a little fire kindles," said Maverick. "But for
+McPherson's lecture here, I don't believe any of these things would have
+happened. It is a free country, of course, and a man has a right to air
+his ideas; but capital is not set firmly enough on its legs to stand a
+severe fire, and labor is in too great a superabundance. To seek to
+drain the ocean with a silver mug may be grand, but quite hopeless."
+
+One! The witching hour, and a few sleepy men began to yawn.
+
+"How odd it seems, not to hear trains in the night!" Maverick said
+presently. "A queer lock-out this."
+
+One, again. One, two, three: this time the fire-alarm.
+
+They rushed out toward the mill. Then they as suddenly wheeled around.
+In an instant the air seemed full of shouts and cries, and a broad sheet
+of flame flared up in the face of the tranquil heavens. A roar, like a
+mighty tramping of hosts, a crackling, snapping, sweeping sound.
+
+"It's Keppler's. Boyd's block will surely go!"
+
+The houses were frame, old and dry: Keppler's on the corner, the rest
+joined, like a row of sheds, and filled with the very poorest; a few
+apartments standing empty. The engines were out, but it was of little
+avail. The corner was just one brilliant sheet of lurid light. Shrieking
+women and children fled for their lives. The street swarmed again, and
+people trampled over one another in their wild terror. There was a
+crash, and the building fell in. The flames licked up the other fiery
+flood, and had a brave battle in the cellar. The engines played until
+the air was filled with smothering smoke, and there was nothing left but
+a long, blackened ruin.
+
+"It may be ungenerous to rejoice in any man's misfortune," said
+Maverick, "but in a sanitary point of view I am thankful those old
+rookeries have come to an end. Boyd wouldn't do any thing to them, and
+they were unfit for pigs to live in. And, as for Keppler's, there will
+be but one verdict this end of the town."
+
+Some one laid a hand on Jack Darcy's shoulder. He turned and saw Fred
+Lawrence.
+
+"They are all worried to death about you, old chap," began Fred. "Your
+mother, Miss Morgan, Sylvie,--and Irene is walking the floor. I have not
+seen her so excited since--since she had the fever. What a horrible
+thing! Was any one lost, do you know?"
+
+"They will not be able to tell that until morning, every thing is in
+such confusion. Pray God that the morning may dawn soon! I seem to have
+lived through years."
+
+The dawn came up by and by; first in faint opaline splendors, then
+scarlet and gold. The moon paled, and the stars dropped out, and there
+was a chirp of birds to welcome the new-born day.
+
+The shock of the fire cooled the temper of the raiders, for half the men
+were idle hangers-on, rather than absolute strikers. One frantic woman
+flew to the scene of devastation: her boy, four years old, was missing.
+They tried to comfort her with the thought that some neighbor had kindly
+taken him in, but she kept wildly imploring them to search.
+
+There was no further molestation of the men at Hope Mills. They walked
+in the yard quietly at seven o'clock, their faces touched with surprise
+and terror when they heard the story of the night. Barton Kane lay
+disabled at Mrs. Connelly's, and poor Bruno was buried with honors,
+regretted by the whole force.
+
+Jack called the men together, and addressed them briefly. He was very
+pale, and his usually bright, clear eyes were heavy.
+
+"I want to thank you," he said, in a tone that was a little unsteady
+with exhaustion and emotion, "I want to thank you for standing so
+bravely by me, and by your principles. We are all partners together, and
+what is one man's interest is every man's. I feel sure that we shall
+never have another difficulty. We have gone through the worst, and in a
+little while every man will have his free choice again. Let us all keep
+the warmest of friends until then."
+
+There was no cheering: they were not gay enough for that. Some of the
+men wrung his hand silently; then the women pressed forward, and invoked
+a blessing upon him.
+
+"We know better nor any of 'em what it was to have no fire, and childers
+cryin' for bread," said one woman, wiping her eyes with the end of her
+faded shawl. "And, thank the Lord, I've had bite, and sup, and fire,
+ever since the day Hope Mills was opened."
+
+The men outside were working at the ruins,--among them some of the
+strikers of yesterday. They found poor Mrs. Rooney's little Johnny,
+burned to a crisp; and in the house next to Keppler's they exhumed the
+body of Biddy Brady, a good-natured, efficient washerwoman, whose
+greatest fault was her intemperance. She and her son had gone to bed
+very drunk, after having a good time through the evening. The boy had
+been roused in season, but she had perished. It was as vivid and fervent
+a temperance-lecture as ever was given in Yerbury.
+
+About ten in the morning Jack Darcy returned home dead tired, as much
+with the excitement as the fatigue, took a bath, and went to bed.
+
+The Yerbury authorities looked sharply about them that day. The strikers
+were orderly and quiet, but they had lost ground. "The Evening
+Transcript" deprecated all this sort of business, and for once had no
+fling about the "Utopian theory of co-operation." But "The Leader" of
+the morning came out strongly in praise of the good order, forbearance,
+and _esprit de corps_ of Hope Mills, and called Mr. Darcy "our young and
+enterprising citizen, whom, we doubt not, we shall hear of in higher
+positions in life, which he has proved himself eminently worthy to
+fill."
+
+There was no great lament made about Boyd's Row or Keppler's saloon,
+except for the sad casualty it had caused; but the dastardly attack on
+Mrs. Connelly, and the fiendish attempt to burn Hope Mills, met with the
+severest condemnation.
+
+Maverick came around to the Darcys that evening. "I fancy I have found
+your man, Jack," he began. "Mrs. Stixon called me in towards night,
+saying Jem had been on a spree, and was dreadfully beaten. I found one
+side of his face scratched and bruised, and bits of gravel still
+adhering to the flesh. The right arm, on the same side, has one bone
+broken, and his shoulder is dislocated. He said he fell off of a stoop,
+and is dreadfully sullen. I asked him what stoop, but he would not tell.
+Do you remember which way the man fell?"
+
+Jack thought a moment. "On the right side, Maverick, away from me, or I
+should have seen his face. Just such a size man as Jem Stixon, too,"
+with a satisfied nod.
+
+"What will you do about it?"
+
+Jack took two or three turns across the floor. "See here, Maverick, we
+will not do any thing. You cure the poor fellow, and I think he will
+never try to damage Hope Mills again. I can hardly forgive him Bruno,
+though."
+
+"If I were Sylvie Barry,"--he never called her Mrs. Lawrence when
+speaking of her,--"I should say, 'Jack, you are an angel.'"
+
+Jack flushed. "Masculine angels!" he laughed.
+
+"Well, wasn't there Gabriel and a host of them? Why, Jack, they were
+_all_ masculine!"
+
+There was no need for earthly justice to meddle with Jem Stixon. His arm
+inflamed: he had led a hard life late years, and his system was in bad
+order. He would not listen to amputation until it was too late, and in
+less than a month he was dead. It was better for his poor hard-working
+wife and family.
+
+One other death grew out of the summer riots, though this was at a
+distance. Dennis Connelly had been working with a railroad-gang, and the
+strikers there had a desperate struggle with the civil authority. They
+were worsted in the end, and Connelly was one of the victims, or perhaps
+more truly speaking, a victim to bad whiskey, for when sober he was very
+peaceable. Kit sent for his body, and had him decently buried.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+THE strikers at the hat-factory did not carry the day. The employers
+were very indignant, and tabooed the union men altogether. At
+Garafield's the men were called in council, the points discussed, and a
+small advance in wages allowed. The co-operatives went their way
+quietly. Perhaps the most convincing argument was a very jubilant letter
+from Winston, part of which Darcy put up in the hall. He had just
+succeeded in making an important contract for two years, on very fair
+terms. That would see them through safely unless the whole world came to
+grief again!
+
+Jack wrote Miss McLeod a graphic account of the "labor troubles," and
+she replied with equally characteristic _verve_. "She could hardly
+decide," she declared, "whether to be glad, or sorry, that her young
+friend had grown so independent of her; but in any emergency she wished
+to be remembered."
+
+There was now a certain respect paid to Hope Mills, among the community
+at Yerbury. Perhaps there are no people so exacting and difficult to
+satisfy as those friends and neighbors whose advice you have not taken,
+and prospered without it. They indulge in a righteous self-complacency
+if you are unfortunate, and pity you grandly; but to own themselves
+mistaken is the one bitter flavor in the cup. There seemed to be but one
+point now upon which they were doubtful,--the honesty of the managers at
+the last moment. Every workman knew or might know exactly how affairs
+stood, but _they_ did not have the capital. Just at the end of the five
+years _somebody_ might abscond with the money-bag under his arm. It
+seemed so every way certain that human nature could not withstand the
+temptation.
+
+Yet there was growing up among the hands a curious neighborly sympathy,
+as if they were in some degree relatives; and they were made so, in
+fact, by some marriages of sons and daughters. They were more
+intelligent; they kept their houses cleaner, their little gardens
+prettier, not allowing them to go to weeds before the summer was half
+over. Those who could go to the industrial school learned a deal about
+sewing, and became seamstresses instead of mill-girls. Some made their
+own family dresses, some were very tasty milliners. It gave them a
+reliance upon what they could do themselves. The two daughters of one
+workman kept a little poultry-yard "scientifically," and dressed
+themselves from its proceeds. Industry became more general. Instead of
+dawdling away whole evenings in gossip, they had some light employment,
+and worked as they talked.
+
+The September showing was very encouraging. There were still a great
+many bankruptcies and losses, but some of them could not be guarded
+against. Darcy and Winston regularly eschewed speculation, though the
+latter confessed his fingers sometimes burned to be in the pie.
+
+"But, after all," he said frankly, "if the energy, ingenuity, ambition,
+and strength that are expended to make certain people buy and sell, over
+and over, a thing that can be no more valuable than the money it makes
+year by year, which often is not much,--if this were turned into
+industrial and commercial channels,--gad! what a country we would be!
+Our flag would float on every sea, our goods be in every port. And yet
+they go on, rich to-day because they have beggared their neighbor, poor
+to-morrow because their neighbor has beggared them. What idiotic
+business!"
+
+But I must go back a little with my hero. There were many things to
+occupy his mind, the summer of the "strikes;" yet through it all, like
+one strain of heavenly harmony in a clash of discord, he came to know
+the diviner needs of his being. Another man might have been dismayed at
+the revelation. Like a flash when the horizon is opened, he saw the
+light; and he knew, from the depths of the darkness the next moment,
+what manner of storm it would be.
+
+He had never weakened or frittered away his sweetest emotions on the
+various flirtations that fill the early years of so many men. He had
+liked and admired Sylvie Barry above all young women he had ever met;
+but this emotion, though pure and lasting, never stirred the ardor of
+his soul. Had it really lain untouched so long, or had some vague dream
+slipped into it the night he and Sylvie had planned the costume for
+Irene Lawrence, the time he first encountered her beauty in all its
+vivid splendor? To him she was a glorious young goddess.
+
+The long-ago summer day he had met the two in the phaeton, he was more
+keenly pained for her sake than his own. To be sure, his first emotion
+was that of angry indignation, sending the outraged blood through every
+pulse; then, as it cooled, the act appeared so utterly unwomanly. If she
+had passed him by carelessly--but to designedly attract his glance, and
+stab it thus, was as if a giant had taken a club to kill a butterfly
+because it breathed the fragrance of the rose. He shut out that vision.
+You can tell what impression she had made upon him, when he always
+thought of her as he saw her in the glow of Sylvie's pretty parlor, that
+summer night. His healthy, active temperament never brooded over
+disagreeable things a moment longer than necessity kept him there.
+
+She faded from his mind by degrees. Even when he took Fred back into the
+old regard, he thought of her as the possible wife of some millionnaire.
+When she returned to Yerbury, and shut herself up in stately despair,
+refusing even Sylvie's proffered sympathy, she puzzled him. How could
+she, so fond of admiration and gayety, live this nun's life, without the
+nun's spiritual exaltation? He passed her once or twice in the hall, as
+he was calling on Fred, but neither made any sign.
+
+Then came that terrible night, when he had found her astray, her brain
+consumed by the smouldering fire of isolation, when you have only the
+black, choking smoke that never blazes up in purifying flames. There are
+thousands of women who have done this, weakly, sentimentally, through
+the period of adversity that has tried the metal of all souls; but she,
+being stronger, more self-reliant, could not drop into puerile whining.
+
+At Depford Beach they had come in contact again. There was both
+attraction and repulsion in these two people, as there often is in
+strongly-marked, positive natures. She tolerated him because he was
+Sylvie's lover; despised him, believing that he meant to make a
+stepping-stone of this girl's wealth and position; and, in spite of
+herself, felt the current of his strength and buoyant energy. By slow
+degrees the unwilling truth was forced upon her, that God never created
+any human soul for its own self-destruction; that there was no absolute
+virtue in warping and twisting circumstances into chains and bonds, that
+were ordained for higher, nobler purposes. Her mental disease had run
+its course. Sylvie's sorrow was the final electric shock that broke the
+heavy soil of apathy.
+
+Her utter surprise when she found that through all these years Jack
+Darcy had refrained from influencing Sylvie in his behalf, was something
+quite indescribable. She thought she had fathomed men's souls with her
+keen insight, but this man was a Saul amid his peers. Had there been
+some subtile, far-reaching foundation for Fred's regard in the boyhood
+days,--something that their eyes, being holden with golden bonds, could
+not see?
+
+After the marriage there was a certain degree of association, not
+intimacy. And yet she set herself to watch him. Somewhere she would
+discern the print of the feet of clay this idol of Fred and Sylvie's
+possessed.
+
+It was a most fascinating yet dangerous employment. She used to sit
+there in her impassive grace, as they talked, weighing every word,
+testing every sentiment, watching the expressions that flitted over Jack
+Darcy's countenance, until it went everywhere with her, the blue-gray
+eyes piercing the very depths of her soul. They came to the one night
+when a glance stirred and troubled both, when the depths of both natures
+experienced that curious shock of repulsion and wonder. It was not love,
+it was too near, too awesome, yet too spiritually pure, to be hate,
+still it sent them apart none the less surely.
+
+By degrees, even amid the hard struggle of the strikes, he came to a
+self-knowledge. His perceptions were not easily confused; and by that
+intuitive process born pure in every soul, but too often marred and
+dulled by the many counterfeits put upon it, he knew this was love, a
+life-long passion for one woman, not because she had as yet answered any
+need of his nature, or promised any expansion into higher life. He loved
+her just as she was; for her beauty, her swift, proud grace, her virtues
+if she had any, her very faults, and of those he was not in doubt. And
+he set himself to win her with the same high courage that had taken Hope
+Mills in hand.
+
+Occasionally we see a man wrecked by this steady, persistent,
+overwhelming love for an inferior object, caught perhaps by some occult
+fascination that flashes all laws out of sight. We wonder how he can be
+so led astray; and yet it is an integral part of the man, a quality of
+the soul which he would not overcome and put in bonds if he could.
+
+He did not cringe or flatter, or adopt any of the fears or weaknesses of
+passion. It was not weak, and he did not fear. He meant to be master of
+her soul, and win her through that very power, struggle as she might. He
+would wait, if it were years, until she laid down her few weak weapons,
+and capitulated. From that time onward, there would be neither "mine"
+nor "thine."
+
+And now the fine, tested quality of his patience stood him in good
+stead. He might long to draw near, to clasp the snowy hand, to study the
+fathomless dusk of the eyes, and note the frightened droop of the
+fringed lids; but he held aloof. Still he went to Larch Avenue night
+after night; he dropped in of a morning when least expected,
+occasionally finding her alone for a few moments; he walked from church
+with them, by her side, the only times he came near her, and she felt in
+every pulse of her being the indefinable something that she was impelled
+to struggle against.
+
+A curious change came over her. The cold indifference melted to a rose
+hue of interest, a pliant softness stole over her figure, a certain
+buoyant tenderness diffused itself in her tone, her dusky eyes came to
+have a startled softness like a shy, frightened fawn. The old brilliant
+color returned to cheek and lip, yet toned with the tremulous throbbing
+of a new inward life, so exquisitely attuned that she could but listen
+to the harmonious melody.
+
+She came to understand presently; the intangible power in his demeanor
+roused her, I think; and her whole soul, every fibre of her body, rose
+up in mutinous revolt. Whither was this swift current carrying her? What
+great wave was this that struck at the very props of her own strength
+and reliance? How did this man dare to invade the walled sanctities of
+her being? She would have none of him: she would go on her solitary way,
+sufficient for herself. She, who had never loved amid all the
+beguilements the world had to offer, to be conquered by the very man she
+had trained herself to despise!
+
+Irene Lawrence found it hard fighting with this unseen foe. He seemed
+always lying in ambush, always armored with a word or sentiment to which
+she must assent, always before her in the place she had meant to be; and
+she would not throw up the white flag of defeat. She would not own to
+herself she experienced any alarm or annoyance.
+
+One evening Fred and Sylvie had gone to a neighbor's, and were
+momentarily expected. A peculiar temptation entered her soul. If this
+man must needs flutter in the flame, why should she be tender and
+careful of him? Others had dared her, to the burning of their very
+souls: if the experience was worth the pain, he should have it, and
+decide.
+
+She sat down at the piano, and shook a shower of melody out of her
+slender finger-ends. All the affluent grace of womanhood with the polish
+of society spoke in every curve of her pliant figure, in the dainty,
+delicate, high-bred gestures. The eyes hung out their false lights of
+treacherous intent amid the half-slumberous fire; the very lips seemed
+shaped and blossoming with a rare thrill of passion that could turn to a
+caress at a look. All along the brow ran fine sinuosities of light that
+dazzled like the tracery of pale flame. Had she blossomed into some
+royal midsummer flower that is seen but once in an age?
+
+She had motioned him close beside her with an impelling wave of the
+hand. He could feel her warmth, her fragrant breath; her soft billowy
+dress fell against his foot in a crested wave; her white hand and
+slender wrist, just toned, but not hidden, with rare lace like that of
+Arachne's spinning, wandered temptingly over toward him. A sudden
+delirium took possession of him, an exhilaration that steeped the brain,
+that stirred every pulse, that awoke in him an almost maddening desire
+to clasp her in his arms, to drain such sweetness from her lips that the
+whole world might be beggared ever after, and he not care.
+
+She knew the signs. She had seen more than one man dally on the brink,
+and then topple over to the blankness of despair. Even if she had pitied
+herself, which she did not, she could have had no mercy on him. Now she
+was set to her work, and she meant to do it if she brought into play
+every fascination art and nature had furnished her with.
+
+His soul rose and glowed within him. The music, the most ravishing of
+its kind, stirred him to that intensity of pain, it seemed as if he must
+cry out with torture. No suffering had ever been like this: if the
+doctrine of sacrificial fires were true, he might have purchased
+paradise.
+
+Did he mean never to stir or speak? Could that hand, lying so passively
+on the corner of the piano, remain unmoved, with hers just below it? Its
+defiant strength stung her.
+
+"They do not come,"--looking warily around, and passing him with her
+veiled eyes, rather than looking at him. "Are you growing weary? Shall I
+sing for you?"
+
+The tone had the melody of some lotus-freighted stream. She had thrown
+all her sweetness into it.
+
+"If you will."
+
+His was tremulous and husky with repressed passion.
+
+Her voice was not pure: it had the rich depth and pathos of contralto,
+and the vibrant clearness of soprano. Now it threaded a tremulous
+pathway among the pathetic minor notes, while the fingers seemed to drop
+a faint sigh of accompaniment,--
+
+          "Oh! when ye hear me gie a loud, loud cry,--
+             The broom blooms bonnie, and says it is fair,--
+           Shoot an arrow frae thy bow, and there let me lie,
+             And we'll never gang down to the broom ony mair.
+
+          "And when ye see that I'm lying cauld and dead,--
+             The broom blooms bonnie, and says it is fair,--
+           Then ye'll put me in a grave wi' a turf at my head,
+            And we'll never gang down to the broom ony mair."
+
+The last sad note died into summer-night sweetness. A current of bland,
+dangerous magnetism passed between them. She turned her splendid,
+passion-lighted eyes to him, and the subtle, measuring, conquering
+forces in the man and the woman met. With a mighty effort he thrust back
+desire, and compressed his lips to a line under the bronzed-gold
+moustache, while his eyes, like points of steel, never wavered.
+
+Irene Lawrence turned blindly, and held out her hands as if to grasp
+some sure stay. Just as surely as she had not won, she had lost.
+
+"I have tired you," he said,--a murmur just under his breath. "But you
+can hardly know the exquisite pleasure you have given me. It is perfect.
+We will have no more music to-night;" and he rose, shutting the piano
+down.
+
+She went to the open window like one in a trance, so stunned she could
+not even feel angry at his defiance of her. A long, long moment of
+silence: then they heard Sylvie's bright voice on the porch, and she
+came in with a waft of dewy, outdoor fragrance.
+
+Miss Lawrence went to her room presently, to fight out the battle with
+herself. She admitted then that she had come to love Jack Darcy; but she
+was strong and resolute, and would not be mastered by the passion. What
+could she do? for go away she must! Her imperious will and knowledge of
+men had availed her little to ward off this one's influence. Every
+instinct had been baffled, every movement had been met with a
+counterpoise. To stay here, and struggle, would be to yield eventually.
+
+There were dark circles under her eyes the next morning, tokens of her
+vigil and strife. She intrenched herself again behind that dumb apathy:
+she stood aloof from Sylvie. For days she escaped the watchful sight of
+Darcy; but she heard his voice, and every rebellious pulse was
+a-tremble. She cast about for some expedients whereby to escape her
+prison honorably, and after several fruitless efforts found one.
+
+In their early days there had been a girl-friend between Agatha and
+Gertrude, who had always held an attraction for the child Irene.
+Wealthy, beautiful, and accomplished, she had married a man who had
+already made for himself a name in statesmanship, a cultured and
+polished gentleman, and her bridal had been the theme of the day. But
+the fiend of intemperance had wrought destruction of her brilliant
+prospects, and made her life an open scandal. When it could no longer be
+borne, she gathered up the wreck of her fortune and her two little
+girls, and opened a boarding-school in a quiet, aristocratic old town.
+Irene had met her in New York after her own loss of fortune; and, though
+she had disdained sympathy, she was touched by Mrs. Trenholme's
+kindliness.
+
+She wrote to her now; and, of half a dozen applications, this was the
+only one that elicited a favorable reply. Mrs. Trenholme needed a
+teacher of French and music, and she knew Miss Lawrence's accent was
+perfect. The salary was not large, being four hundred dollars a year;
+but the duties were not very arduous, being all confined to
+school-hours.
+
+Much as Irene desired to go, there was some struggle with her pride
+before she could bring herself to accept. Only the prospect of that
+greater pride being laid in ruins before her eyes, could finally have
+induced her. Mrs. Trenholme expressed her delight warmly.
+
+There were strenuous objections on Fred's part when it came to be talked
+over. "She had no need. He was as much her protector as her father had
+been: indeed, was he not paying back the kindly care to himself,
+honoring his father's memory by doing as he would have done?"
+
+Sylvie came to the rescue presently.
+
+"I would let her go, Fred," she counselled. "Beverly is a delightful
+place, with many cultured people, and Mrs. Trenholme is just the woman
+to have an influence over Irene. You see, she gets so tired of having no
+pursuit, no strong interest. I could not endure it myself."
+
+"But she might have--I have dared to dream"--
+
+"Put away dreams, my darling." Sylvie's voice was unconsciously sad.
+Then, with a smile, and tears, "If God kept watch over us, and brought
+us to our haven, can we not trust him for her,--for them?"
+
+And so they acquiesced.
+
+When Jack Darcy left Miss Lawrence on that fateful evening, his whole
+soul was full of unrest. He paced the quiet streets in that tense mood
+which makes thought and breath alike torture. Now that it was over, he
+said, with the inconsequence of love, that he had been a weak, cowardly
+fool to fear his fate too much; and yet the next instant he knew he
+would surely have lost it all, and that in time she _must_ come to need
+him. If he _could_ wait! Well, he _would_ wait. He had not trained
+himself heretofore in these long reaches of patience for no purpose.
+That richly satisfying, inward sight, she could not take from him, that
+exultant faith which was warmed and fed from a thousand secret rills.
+
+He understood why she shunned him, why she had resolved to leave
+Yerbury; and he was thankful now that he had not ruined his cause by
+impatience. To think of not seeing her, of not hearing her voice, was
+like madness! His face grew thin, there were tense lines about his mouth
+and a set resolve in his eyes; yet to his fine temper came no moodiness
+or irritability. The task he had set for himself must be accomplished.
+He was as absolute in his self-denial as he would be in his happiness
+when that came.
+
+So she went away with the merest friendly farewell, and asked herself
+angrily, an hour after, what power this man had over her, and why she
+feared him? Surely there was not much of the lover in that calm face!
+
+He threw himself into the business with renewed energy. As I said, the
+September account was inspiriting. Prospects began to look brighter,
+only it was admitted on all hands that the days of large profits and
+quick fortunes were over for a long while, if not for all time. Industry
+was coming to be respected, and you heard less talk about luck.
+
+The outside world kept watch of them narrowly, jealously. If they turned
+out thieves and swindlers, it would not be for the lack of advice.
+However, they tramped on and on. Their store gained a little, and was
+productive of much good. Keppler went to a different part of the town.
+Boyd sold the ground, and a row of decent cottages were to be put up.
+Kit Connelly had been reimbursed by the town for her damages, and with
+Ben Hay's advice and counsel built an addition to her house, which he
+and Rose took for housekeeping purposes. The lunch and coffee room was a
+regular and profitable institution, and would be a business for one of
+the boys as he grew up to manhood.
+
+Sylvie and Fred went to the city for a winter holiday. Fred's book was
+elegantly brought out, and won him much praise and a little money.
+Sylvie achieved her ambition, and sold two pictures at what she
+considered marvellous prices, but she wisely confessed it only to her
+husband. They were invited to clubs and soirees; and Mrs. Minor was
+extremely affable, though she did blame Fred for allowing Irene to take
+such an idiotic step.
+
+Darcy and Maverick indulged in two or three flying trips. Miss McLeod
+liked nothing better than to get these young people together, and listen
+to the animated conversations, herself as spicy and sharp as any one.
+Miss Lothrop was married; and in the slim, fair, blushing girl the old
+lady had for companion now, he saw no danger.
+
+So the winter wore away, and the spring came again; and the man who was
+counting the days wondered wearily at times what his summer harvest
+might be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+THE regal woman who stepped from the car to the station-platform at
+Yerbury, one balmy day in early June, to be greeted by Fred and Sylvie
+Lawrence with the warmest of welcomes, was indescribably different from
+the pale, cold, haughty statue that had gone away. There was an
+elasticity in her step, a self-reliance in her air, and the peculiar
+confidence discipline wisely used inevitably imparts.
+
+Yet there had been no romantic or highly-wrought change in her. She had
+not taken up teaching from any heroic motive or the possible benefit to
+any one, but simply to protect herself from what she considered the
+weakness of her own soul, to get away from a danger she could not fight.
+Oh, how she had hated French verbs and exercises! If hers had been a
+susceptible musical temperament, she would have gone quite crazy with
+the blunders and sentimentalisms of young girls.
+
+After a month of it, she would have welcomed any relief, even the
+face-to-face conflict with Darcy. But she could not well run away from
+here, and her physical health was perfect: so there was nothing but to
+go straight on, and find that circumstances had to govern, that she
+could not shut herself up in sullen majesty, or fling off the daily
+duties for some wiser and more patient hands to pick up, and restore to
+beauty and harmony.
+
+She had a friend, the best and truest that a young woman could have,
+perhaps; a woman so admirably adapted to the training of girls, that it
+was no marvel she succeeded. Out of the ruins of her life she had built
+up another, wise, sweet, and strong. As Irene began to comprehend what
+Mrs. Trenholme had suffered and achieved, for the first time she paid an
+honest reverence to the nobility of character. And now she despised her
+own petty, shallow thoughts and beliefs. Her lofty despising of the
+world and the vain and selfish people therein had been only a kind of
+scornful regret for the treasures wrested from her, the glitter of
+fashion, the gauds of society. Fred had made a braver stand than she. He
+had not sought to poise himself on the easy, graceful rounds of past
+promises, and to dream futile weakening dreams, nor shut himself up in
+morbid isolation.
+
+After all, how little the great world really cared! It was the few
+friends, the small circle, the near influences, that were of importance.
+And when she found that here in cultured, delightful Beverly, she was
+sought out as an entertaining guest, that she had not lost caste because
+the great bubble of fortune had shivered into fragments, that dressing
+and shopping and flirting were not the highest of human enjoyments, she
+came to a very rational frame of mind, and to a certain extent enjoyed
+her life. But nature had not made her a teacher of children, and never
+does such women, until, informed by that highest of all love, they teach
+their own.
+
+She came back beautiful, strong, and brave, resolute to dare any thing.
+She dazzled them at the little tea-table by her swift, easy animation,
+her brilliancy, the color that went and came, the smiles that were like
+rippling billows over a sea. And Sylvie's heart went down like lead,
+though it was such a fair picture. "For now," she thought, "Jack will
+never dare to love her!"
+
+Perhaps not, if he had to begin now. But the love was in him and of him,
+and would be hers all his life long, whether she took it or no.
+
+He did not come for a day or two. She wondered a little: she even
+laughed lightly at her own past fear, the shadow she had conjured up,
+the warm blood ran so healthily through her veins now.
+
+He sauntered in one morning to find her cutting roses with Sylvie, the
+two the fairest flowers in all the garden. He was in no wise abashed at
+this vision of loveliness: if she had a dower of beauty, he had his
+unstained manhood.
+
+They chatted and laughed. Sylvie pinned a pale bud and geranium-leaf in
+his coat. He held out his hand to Irene with a curious little gesture.
+She had two or three great royal purple pansies clasped lightly in her
+fingers.
+
+She meant to refuse courteously, but their eyes met. Was it the old
+spell working?
+
+Surely, surely all these fine-spun barriers, all these cunning Alps that
+she had thrown up day after day, were over-leaped at a supple bound.
+Master herself she might; but he stood in his man's power and pride and
+love, a suppliant, yet king, asking with wordless lips a little favor,
+taking with calm yet passionate eyes a royal largess. Her heart sank;
+her breath came in one long, tremulous sweep. Whether she gave, or he
+took, she could not have told; but he went away with the pansies in his
+fingers, despite Sylvie's pleading for a longer stay.
+
+When he was quite out of sight, he kissed them, sweet, tender, longing
+kisses. Then he dropped them between the white leaves of a little book,
+to be sacred forever. Sylvie's _boutonniere_ might keep him company
+outwardly, but those no eye must feast upon.
+
+He took the fine right of a lover, not declared, yet certain of his
+ground, not using any power that she could disdain or wound, it was so
+delicate, intangible, the perfume without the flower, the little
+thoughtfulness for her, reaching for her fan, folding her shawl about
+her if the evening blew up cool, seeming to know her wants the very
+instant they occurred to herself. And though she rebelled in secret,
+though she resolved heroically to put an end to it all, the golden
+moment never came.
+
+It seemed as if the four were always together. Not but what Yerbury
+opened spacious doors to them, and proffered flattering welcomes; but
+they could not tone themselves to the insipidities of society. There
+were more complete and intense enjoyments. Sylvie and Irene took long
+drives through country lanes, or of a moonlight summer evening they all
+went. They sat on the porch, and Jack came strolling by: they went
+within, and there were books, music, desultory talking, and that
+wondrous, unseen guest in their midst.
+
+Sylvie rarely left her alone. They were not the women to tease one
+another by flippant jests or allusions; and Mrs. Fred, of all others,
+had a dread of thrusting any vulgar face on this colorless, yet
+delicious, atmosphere. Love knew his own, and was sacredly known of
+them.
+
+Irene Lawrence could no more help blossoming under the intense yet
+steady warmth of his temperament, the vivid creative life in every
+feature, than she could have helped being at all; and to have refused or
+destroyed the love would have been as sure spiritual suicide as a poison
+to the body. He understood that she came to see this presently; and then
+his suit was half won,--more than half: he had only to go on to the
+royal fruition of hope and patience. She no longer shunned him: she
+dropped that pointed, distant "Mr. Darcy," and in the soul's own
+language, gave him no outward name.
+
+And, when he took her at her royal flood-tide, the words of asking and
+answering mattered little. A look, a tone, a clasp of hands, a last
+struggle of her pride, and she was his.
+
+The wide, warm summer night closed about them: the dusk was rich with
+floating dewy perfumes, and golden stars dazzled in the clear, moonless
+sky. Out in the trees a little bird, startled from her nap, sang a
+brief, sweet song to her little ones. He drew the proud yet yielding
+figure closer: their hearts beat, their flushed cheeks touched, their
+lips met in one long, heavenly caress, their hands clasped until pulse
+throbbed with pulse in impassioned unison.
+
+Only a death and a great love can so change the aspect of life. As in
+the grave lies buried the dearest promises of love, hope, existence
+itself, and we learn in time to cling to every faint dream, so, like a
+resurrection, love sweeps away the sins and follies and weaknesses of
+the past, and rises from the dust and ashes transformed, renewed, nay,
+born again to the most sacred purposes.
+
+A strange, swift impression rushed over her as she met the eager,
+intense eyes. Was it in another world these arms had closed about her
+with their strong, restful clasp? She started abruptly: she seemed to
+listen, to puzzle herself with the bewildering impression.
+
+"What is it, my darling?" in a deep, ardent voice.
+
+"I don't know"--with a nervous laugh and shiver. "Have we met in some
+other country? Did you carry me over mountains, or through valleys, or
+hide me from a storm? Was this why I could never get away, try as I
+might?"
+
+Oh the wordless, entreating beauty of those eyes!
+
+"My queen, my own, you will never try again."
+
+"Never!" with a long, delicious, sobbing breath. "Why are you so
+irresistibly, so powerfully strong, Jack? Do you know,--you _must_ know
+how wicked I have been! If you cast me out, it would only be a proper
+punishment. I don't mean that my lips or my hands are blurred with other
+men's kisses. I never could endure that," shuddering. "But they laid
+down their hearts, and I walked over them: they were weak, and I was
+strong! And one night I tried"--her voice sank to a beseeching,
+half-shamed murmur.
+
+"Yes," he gave a pure, genial laugh, rich in his own sustaining
+strength. "You would have broken my heart, your own too; for I think,
+even then, you loved me."
+
+"I surely have never been indifferent. It was either love or hate. Do
+you remember the first evening I saw you in the parlor yonder?"
+
+She learned ere long, that he had never forgotten any thing; but the
+depth and perfectness of his love she could not learn in a day.
+
+If Jack Darcy had been patient hitherto, that grand quality seemed
+suddenly exhausted. He absolutely hurried her into a marriage,--hurried
+Sylvie too, who wanted the courtship to proceed with measured, golden
+steps.
+
+"As if it were not to be a courtship all one's life!" said radiant Jack.
+"Now the moments break in the middle, there are tangled ends, and
+endless beginnings, and one can hardly remember where one left off. Were
+you sorry to go to Fred?"
+
+"Why, no!" with wide-open, surprised eyes.
+
+He carried the day at last, and September was appointed. They would be
+married in the old church. Mrs. Minor responded to the tidings by a
+visit. She had treasured up a great many things to say to Irene; but for
+once she was quite overwhelmed, and her sneers and patronage fell to the
+ground. Though she did remark to her mother,--
+
+"Of course I _am_ disappointed that Irene, with her face and style, has
+not done any better; but you cannot expect much after one passes twenty.
+Mr. Darcy has improved certainly, and Irene is not as exclusive as we
+older girls were. It is a great pity she did not go out to Gertrude."
+
+For George Eastman, with a cat-like propensity, always came down on his
+feet. He was now at the flood-tide of prosperity--on other people's
+money. Mrs. Eastman was regal in velvets, sables, and diamonds, queening
+it at St. Petersburg. Some day there might be a crash again, but they
+would be well out of the way.
+
+Miss Lawrence would have no diamonds, and no show; but she was dazzling
+in her radiant loveliness; and, if Jack was not handsome, his superb
+manliness redeemed him. Hope Mills took a holiday. All Yerbury went, it
+seemed; and those who could not get in remained outside for a glimpse.
+
+Sylvie and Fred leaned over the registry in the vestry-room. In a bold
+hand the bridegroom had written, "John Beaumanoir Darcy."
+
+"A compliment to Irene's pride," laughed Sylvie. "The most aristocratic
+name of them all!"
+
+The old house was brightened up a bit before the young couple returned.
+Gentle Mrs. Darcy wondered how it would be between the old and the new
+love; but she remembered with charity, that she had taken the fresh
+young love of another Darcy, and was content with her day.
+
+The young people brought a new atmosphere with them, but it did not
+clash with the old. Jane Morgan was planning a home for herself. One of
+the cut-up farms had been put together again; and she had taken a
+five-years' lease at a low rate, to try a prudent and sensible scheme of
+philanthropy. Maverick had been intensely puzzled by Jack's love-affair,
+and could not yet account for it satisfactorily, but watched them both
+with a kind of amused interest, and dreamed of the deft, dainty little
+fairy down at his aunt's.
+
+I suppose I ought to say that Mrs. Jack Darcy vied with her husband in
+all good works,--in schools and clubs, and plans for everybody's
+improvement; but it was _not_ her _forte_. He was too well satisfied
+with her love for him, her music, her enchanting ways, to wish her any
+different; and I think he would have been jealous, with that exclusive,
+tender, adoring jealousy, that cannot endure its choice treasures
+lavished upon others. She was kindly and generous in a stately, queenly
+fashion; but what between Jack, who was a more importunate lover than
+ever, and the baby born at Larch Avenue, she had her hands quite full.
+
+The five years of mutual copartnership drew to a close. Their young
+engineer had not blown up the mills; Bob Winston did not go off at the
+last moment with the balance at the bank; Jack Darcy had not falsified
+accounts: but it came out just as _everybody_ had predicted that it
+would! "If your men were honest and honorable, co-operation could not
+fail of success. It was the simplest of all schemes," said "The Evening
+Transcript."
+
+The two offices were thrown into one by the sliding-doors, and the
+workmen and women assembled in their holiday gear. Jack Darcy was really
+struck with the change in their faces and the general demeanor. They had
+a brisk, cheery, self-reliant air: there was a certain neatness and
+respectability about which they used not to care in the old times. The
+boys of five years ago were grown men, and there wasn't a sturdier one
+among them than Barton Kane.
+
+And now Jack Darcy proceeded to read the statement of the whole period,
+to which every one listened with the most profound attention.
+
+At the close of the first year, after rent, wages, and all other
+expenses were taken out, the accumulation of profits had been
+$21,642.27. One-half of this, $10,821.13.5, had been turned directly
+over to capital: the other half, the profit of labor, was divided again
+in equal shares, one going to capital for every person, the other,
+amounting to $5,410.56.7, paid over to them as compensation for
+three-quarter wages. Of course the men had been delighted. They
+remembered their first joy even now.
+
+Then had followed the disastrous second year, which had no such golden
+story to tell. The first six months, interest and discount had made
+horrible inroads into capital, and there had not only been no surplus,
+but an actual deficiency. The latter half showed a poor frightened
+balance of $137. But this year they improved greatly in economic
+management and several new processes that gave larger profit with less
+labor and outlay, so the hard strain had not been entirely without its
+uses. Capital had gone down in the valley of humiliation, and had a
+sorry time of it; but with it had come a knowledge and sympathy they
+could have acquired in no other way.
+
+The third year had proved a grand success. They had all worked so
+heartily together, and business had been undeniably good. Profits had
+been $41,854.92, with very limited discounts. After this there was none,
+and unused capital began to draw a little interest. This year there had
+been $10,963.73 to pay over to the men on the quarter share. The fourth
+year there had been numerous bankrupt stocks thrown on the market, and
+every one trying to do his utmost again: still the balance had been by
+no means disheartening, amounting to $34,982.67; capital's share being
+$17,491.33, and the wages overplus $8,745.66. The last year's profits
+had footed up $43,101.56.
+
+There was now in accrued capital stock $106,288.81.5; and this was to be
+divided in the _pro rata_ of each man's share, the larger amounts making
+the most, of course. And now they saw the object of saving. They had
+earned full wages and something beside; and, though wages had not
+reached the high point of good times, on the other hand they had not
+fallen below a reasonable standard, even with the bad year. There had
+been steady work for the whole five years, and every man had been
+practised in thrift, economy, and self-denial.
+
+Of those who had begun with them, seven had been discharged for
+drunkenness and insubordination, their share forfeited to the fund for
+sick and disabled workmen; three had gone out from loss of faith in the
+plan, accepting Winston's offer to sell; four had died, and thirteen had
+left from various other causes. So that there had been a much greater
+degree of steadiness than usually obtains among factory-workmen. This
+led to a decided improvement in many other respects. With a prospect of
+being permanent, the men were induced to buy homes, and took a greater
+interest in the management and welfare of their own town.
+
+The balance was divided, each man receiving his check, and with it a
+detailed statement of the whole five years. They were now quite free,
+the industrial partnership having legally expired. Hope Mills would take
+a fortnight holiday for repairs and re-organization.
+
+"What if there were to be no re-organization?" exclaimed Ben Hay
+suddenly.
+
+The men stared blankly at one another. No "Hope Mills," and the
+foundation-stone of life would have fallen out!
+
+Robert Winston addressed them, thanking them very heartily for their
+co-operation, and expressing a hope that each man would be satisfied
+with the result of five of the hardest years the country had ever known.
+There was no doubt now, judging from our exports, and the amount of
+money coming in from every quarter of the globe, as one might say, that
+we had entered upon an era of prosperity. We had been educated to the
+practice of prudence, of common-sense, and sound principles, we had
+gained fibre and stamina, and he hoped we had gained honesty and
+integrity. If we could not always compete with low-priced manufacturers,
+the solid truth was made manifest in the end. They might take for their
+passwords, "Honesty, industry, and fidelity."
+
+There was a great deal of cheering, and then Darcy was called upon for a
+speech. He did himself infinite credit, for in these five years not a
+man among them had made more rapid strides than Jack Darcy. As he stood
+there now, noble in form, in bearing, and with his good, strong, manly
+face, they felt somehow that he was _their_ hero, and the cheering was
+heartier than ever.
+
+Then Cameron must say a few words, and Ben Hay and Jesse Gilman; and, as
+Jack declared afterward, it was a regular experience-meeting among
+brethren. They pressed around, and shook hands with Darcy and Winston,
+the captain and the pilot with whom they had weathered gales, and been
+brought safely into port. And they would not let them stir out of the
+building until they had appointed a meeting to form the company again,
+this time on a somewhat stronger basis. They were firmly convinced now
+that this was the only way in which it was possible for workmen to make
+any advancement.
+
+At length the crowd began to disperse. Jack started homeward; but,
+before he had walked half the distance, Davy, one of the men who had
+gone out in the first trouble, confronted him suddenly, seizing his
+hand.
+
+"O Mr. Darcy!" said he in a most eager tone, "are you going to form over
+again? Do you think there's a chance for me to be taken back? There
+hasn't been a day nor a night but what I've cursed myself for being such
+a fool as to let anybody talk me out of a good job. I see just how it is
+now. And, if I can get back again, I'll stand by the old ship through
+thick and thin. O Mr. Darcy! please speak a good word for me!"
+
+"That I will, Davy, if it is needed."
+
+"Thank you, thank you, a thousand times!" cried the poor fellow
+gratefully.
+
+Yerbury had plenty of praise now. To be sure, times _had_ improved. If
+every year had been like the second, it would not have been possible to
+make co-operation work; but then, would it have been possible to carry
+on any business with continual loss? The starting of Hope Mills had
+inspired other disheartened firms, and given an impetus to Yerbury
+industries that might have lain much longer in the Slough of Despond.
+
+Fred and Sylvie came over to the Darcys to tea that evening, and
+Maverick dropped in of course.
+
+"Mrs. Darcy," he exclaimed, "I do not see why you did not have a
+daughter for me to marry! Then we could all have been relations, you
+see. I think it a great mistake on your part."
+
+Mrs. Darcy glanced at her son with a peculiar light in her eyes.
+
+Jack laughed. "She is thinking," he explained, "that if there had been
+another one, I should have gone off long ago to seek my fortune. I have
+learned that God may have better work for one than simply following out
+his own will;" and his voice dropped to a reverential tone.
+
+Maverick studied him with a peculiar interest. All these years there had
+been growing up in Jack Darcy a plant of nobler promise than mere
+worldly ambition. Not that he in any manner despised wealth: he had come
+to understand its true uses. The same power that had educated the
+workmen had been going on with silent, steady processes in him. He had
+come to comprehend the dignity of the soul, and that God desired his
+return in the deeds done for one another, in the continual progress, the
+greatness, nobleness, and loyalty we offered "to one of the least of
+these." Was this true religion,--the simple doctrine of the Cross? And
+Maverick bowed his head in unconscious reverence.
+
+They started homeward presently. Sylvie and Irene had some "last words"
+about baby Lawrence, and the two men paced up and down the porch a few
+moments.
+
+"Thank God that it all came out so well!" said Jack in his strong,
+reverent tone.
+
+Fred put his arm over Jack's shoulder. The two men seemed types of all
+that was highest and finest in human nature.
+
+"Jack," began the other in his full, rich tone, tremulous with emotion,
+"do you remember that in my romantic boyhood I used to liken you to King
+Arthur? You have merged into a nobler hero since that day. Who but a
+Sir Galahad, true, strong, unselfish, at once just yet tender, ambitious
+for the Holy Grail of our times, yet never swerving from the path of
+honor; keeping his own soul stainless amid the many temptations of the
+world--who save such a soul could have gone on in your path to the end?
+And of the other Christ-like virtue"--
+
+"Don't, don't, Fred! You always did rate me too highly, you know. I am
+only a man."
+
+"It is something to be a man in these days," returned the other.
+
+The shady blue eyes smiled out of their twilight depth.
+
+"Fred, where are you?" cried a sweet voice.
+
+"You gave me _her_. You taught me to gain the great prize of my life as
+surely as you trained the men in the mill yonder. God bless you!"
+
+
+
+
+LEE AND SHEPARD'S
+
+SELECT FICTION
+
+
+_All prices given are for CLOTH BINDING, unless otherwise specified_
+
+  =The Way of the World.= By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic).
+        Illustrated                                            $1.50
+  =Living Too Fast.= By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic).
+        Illustrated                                             1.50
+  =Indoors and Out.= By William T. Adams (Oliver Optic).
+        Illustrated                                             1.50
+  =The Fortunate Island.= By Max Adeler. Illustrated            1.00
+  =Dora Darling, the Daughter of the Regiment.= By Jane G.
+        Austin. Illustrated                                     1.00
+  =Dora Darling and Little Sunshine.= By Jane G. Austin         1.00
+  =Life in Danbury.= By James M. Bailey. Illustrated            1.00
+  =Mr. Phillips' Goneness.= By James M. Bailey. Illustrated     1.00
+  =The Danbury Boom.= By James M. Bailey. Illustrated           1.00
+  =They All Do It.= By James M. Bailey                          1.00
+  =Running to Waste.= By George M. Baker. Illustrated           1.50
+  =Something Better.= By George M. Baker                        1.00
+  =A Year Worth Living.= By Rev. W. M. Baker                    1.00
+  =Bright Days in the Old Plantation Time.= By Mary
+        Ross Banks. Illustrated                                 1.50
+  =Simplicity and Fascination.= By Anne Beale                   1.00
+  =Nora's Return=; a Sequel to "The Doll's House." By
+        Ednah. D. Cheney. Palatine Boards                        .50
+  =Life and Times of Jesus=, as related by Thomas Didymus.
+        By Rev. James Freeman Clarke                            1.50
+  =His Marriage Vow.= By Mrs. C. F. Corbin                      1.00
+  =Nobody's Husband.= By Samuel W. Cozzens                      1.00
+  =Andersonville Violets.= By Herbert W. Collingwood            1.00
+  =Battles at Home.= By Mary G. Darling. Illustrated            1.00
+  =In the World.= By Mary G. Darling. Illustrated               1.00
+  =The Dawning.=                                                1.50
+  =The Lily and the Cross.= By James De Mille. Illustrated      1.00
+  =Fore and Aft.= By Robert B. Dixon. Cloth                     1.25
+  =Herman, or Young Knighthood.= By E. Foxton. 2 volumes        3.50
+  =Perseverance Island.= By Douglas Frazar                      1.50
+  =Castle Foam.= By Harry W. French                             1.00
+  =Ego.= By Harry W. French                                     1.00
+
+
+=By MARY A. DENISON=
+
+          =His Triumph=            1.00
+          =Like a Gentleman=       1.00
+          =Mr. Peter Crewitt=      1.00
+          =Rothmell=               1.00
+          =Tell Your Wife=         1.00
+          =That Wife of Mine=      1.00
+          =That Husband of Mine=   1.00
+
+
+=By AMANDA M. DOUGLAS=
+
+          =Osborne of Arrochar=               $1.50
+          =A Modern Adam and Eve=              1.50
+          =The Fortunes of the Faradays=       1.50
+          =A Woman's Inheritance=              1.50
+          =Claudia=                            1.50
+          =Floyd Grandon's Honor=              1.50
+          =Foes of Her Household=              1.50
+          =From Hand to Mouth=                 1.50
+          =Home Nook=                          1.50
+          =Whom Kathie Married=                1.50
+          =Hope Mills=                         1.50
+          =In Trust=                           1.50
+          =Nelly Kinnard's Kingdom=            1.50
+          =Stephen Dane=                       1.50
+          =Out of the Wreck=                   1.50
+          =Seven Daughters=                    1.50
+          =Sydnie Adriance=                    1.50
+          =The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe=  1.50
+          =Lost in a Great City=               1.50
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  =Nuna, the Brahmin Girl.= By Harry W. French. Illustrated     1.00
+  =The Only One.= By Harry W. French                            1.00
+  =A Captive of Love.= By Edward Greey. Illustrated.            1.50
+  =The Golden Lotus.= By Edward Greey. Illustrated              1.75
+  =Malbone.= An Oldport Romance. By Thomas Wentworth Higginson  1.50
+  =Marion Graham.= By Margaret Woods Lawrence                   1.50
+  =The Demagogue.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby)                       1.50
+  =A Paper City.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby)                        1.00
+  =The Morals of Abou Ben Adhem.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby)        1.00
+  =Ekkoes from Kentucky.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby). Illustrated   1.00
+  =Swingin' Round the Cirkle.= By D. R. Locke (Nasby). Illus.   1.00
+  =Little Baron Trump and His Wonderful Dog Bulger.= By
+      Ingersoll Lockwood                                        2.00
+  =Little Giant Boab and His Talking Raven Tabib.= By
+      Ingersoll Lockwood                                        2.00
+  =Barbara Thayer.= By Annie Jenness Miller                     1.50
+
+
+=By SOPHIE MAY=
+
+Sophie May's "Grown-up" Stories
+
+          =Drone's Honey.=                          1.50
+          =Janet: a Poor Heiress.= Illustrated      1.50
+          =Our Helen.= Illustrated                  1.50
+          =Quinnebasset Girls.= Illustrated         1.50
+          =The Asbury Twins.= Illustrated           1.50
+          =The Doctor's Daughter.= Illustrated      1.50
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  =Which--Right or Wrong?= By Miss M. L. Moreland. Illustrated   1.25
+  =The Blind Men and the Devil.= By Phineas                      1.00
+  =The Puddleford Papers, or Humors of the West.= By H. H.
+       Riley. Illustrated                                        1.00
+  =Rosecroft.= By W. M. F. Round                                 1.00
+  =Achsah.= By W. M. F. Round. Illustrated                       1.00
+  =The Fall of Damascus.= By W. W. Russell                       1.00
+  =Daisy Travers.= By Mrs. A. F. Samuels. Illustrated            1.50
+  =Seola.= By Mrs. J. Gregory Smith                              1.00
+  =Brushes and Chisels.= By Signor Teodoro Serrao. Tri-color
+       cloth,                                                    1.00
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+  =John Thorn's Folks.= By Angeline Teal                         1.00
+  =Man Proposes.= By F. H. Underwood                             1.00
+  =Lord of Himself.= By F. H. Underwood                          1.00
+  =Edward Burton.= By Henry Wood                                  .25
+  =Mrs. Armington's Ward.= By Mrs. D. Thew Wright                1.00
+
+
+=By VIRGINIA F. TOWNSEND=
+
+          A Boston's Girl's Ambition      $1.50
+          That Queer Girl                  1.50
+          Daryll Gap                       1.50
+          Lenox Dare                       1.50
+          A Woman's Word                   1.50
+          But a Philistine                 1.50
+          Only Girls                       1.50
+          The Deerings of Medbury          1.00
+          The Hollands                     1.00
+          Six in All                       1.00
+          The Mills of Tuxbury             1.00
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  An American Girl Abroad. By Adeline Trafton. Illustrated      1.00
+  Katherine Earle. By Adeline Trafton                           1.50
+  His Inheritance. By Adeline Trafton.                          1.50
+
+
+=By J. T. TROWBRIDGE=
+
+          Neighbor Jack       $1.50
+          Cudjo's Cave         1.50
+          Drummer Boy          1.50
+          Three Scouts         1.50
+          Farnell's Folly      1.50
+          Martin Merrivale     1.50
+          Neighbors' Wives     1.50
+          Coupon Bonds         1.50
+
+
+=By Judge D. P. THOMPSON.=
+
+  The Green Mountain Boys                                    1.00
+  The Rangers, or The Tory's Daughter                        1.00
+  May Martin, and Other Tales of the Green Mountains         1.00
+  Locke Amsden, the Schoolmaster                             1.00
+  The Wreck of the Chancellor. By Jules Verne                1.00
+  A Winter in the Ice. By Jules Verne. Illustrated           1.00
+  The Adventures of a Chinaman. By Jules Verne. Illustrated  1.50
+  Around the World in Eighty Days. By Jules Verne.   "       1.00
+  The Italian Girl. By Mrs. K. S. Washburn                   1.00
+  Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear. By Mrs. K. S. Washburn      1.00
+  The Gates Wide Open. By George Wood                        1.50
+
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+  The Danbury Boom. By James M. Bailey              .50
+  They All Do It. By James M. Bailey                .50
+  Something Better. By George M. Baker              .50
+  Nobody's Husband. By S. W. Cozzens                .50
+  Andersonville Violets. By Herbert W. Collingwood  .50
+  Mr. Peter Crewitt. By Mary A. Denison             .50
+  Tell Your Wife. By Mary A. Denison                .50
+  That Wife of Mine. By Mary A. Denison             .50
+  That Husband of Mine. By Mary A. Denison          .50
+  Lost in a Great City. By Amanda M. Douglas        .50
+  A Paper City                                      .50
+  Morals of Abou Ben Adhem                          .50
+  Ekkoes from Kentucky                              .50
+  Swingin' Round the Cirkle                         .50
+  The Puddleford Papers. By H. H. Riley             .50
+  Barbara Thayer. By Annie Jenness Miller           .50
+  The Blind Men and the Devil. By Phineas           .50
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    _Any of the above sent, postpaid, on receipt of price_
+           LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers      BOSTON
+
+
+
+
+HISTORICAL BOOKS * * * *
+
+* * * * FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Young Folks' History of the United States_
+
+By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. Illustrated. $1.50.
+
+          The story of our country in the most reliable and
+          interesting form. As a story-book it easily leads
+          all other American history stories in interest,
+          while as a text-book for the study of history it
+          is universally admitted to be the best.
+
+
+_Young Folks' Book of American Explorers_
+
+By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. Uniform with the "Young Folks' History of
+the United States." One volume, fully illustrated. Price $1.50.
+
+          "It is not a history told in the third person, nor
+          an historical novel for young folks, where the
+          author supposes the chief characters to have
+          thought and said such and such things under such
+          and such circumstances; but it is the genuine
+          description given by the persons who experienced
+          the things they described in letters written
+          home."--_Montpelier Journal._
+
+
+_The Nation in a Nutshell_
+
+By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE, author of "Heroes of History," "Young Folks'
+History of England," "Young Folks' History of Ireland," etc. Price 50
+cents.
+
+          "To tell the story of a nation like ours in a
+          nutshell, requires a peculiar faculty for
+          selecting, condensing, and philosophizing. The
+          brevity with which he relates the principal events
+          in American history, does not detract from the
+          charming interest of the narrative
+          style."--_Public Opinion._
+
+
+_Young People's History of England_
+
+By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE. Cloth, illustrated. $1.50.
+
+          "The whole narrative is made interesting and
+          attractive--in every way what a book of this kind
+          should be in its clearness of statement, freshness
+          of style, and its telling of the right
+          ways."--_Critic._
+
+
+_Handbook of English History_
+
+Based on "Lectures on English History," by the late M. J. GUEST, and
+brought down to the year 1880. With a Supplementary Chapter on the
+English Literature of the 19th Century. By F. H. UNDERWOOD, LL.D. With
+Maps, Chronological Table, etc. $1.50.
+
+          "It approaches nearer perfection than anything in
+          the line we have seen. It is succinct, accurate,
+          and delightful."--_Hartford Evening Post._
+
+
+_Young People's History of Ireland_
+
+By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE, author of "Young People's History of
+England," "Young Folks' Heroes of History," etc. With an introduction by
+JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY. Cloth, illustrated. $1.50.
+
+          "The history is like a novel, increasing in
+          interest to the very end, and terminating at the
+          most interesting period of the whole; and the
+          reader lays down the book a moment in enthusiastic
+          admiration for a people who have endured so much,
+          and yet have retained so many admirable
+          characteristics."--_N.Y. World._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+YOUNG FOLKS'
+
+BOOKS OF TRAVEL
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DRIFTING ROUND THE WORLD; A Boy's Adventures by Sea and Land
+
+        By CAPT. CHARLES W. HALL, author of "Adrift in the
+          Ice-Fields," "The Great Bonanza," etc. With
+          numerous full-page and letter-press illustrations.
+          Royal 8vo. Handsome cover. $1.75. Cloth, gilt,
+          $2.50.
+
+"Out of the beaten track" in its course of travel, record of adventures,
+and descriptions of life in Greenland, Labrador, Ireland, Scotland,
+England, France, Holland, Russia, Asia, Siberia, and Alaska. Its hero is
+young, bold, and adventurous; and the book is in every way interesting
+and attractive.
+
+
+_EDWARD GREEY'S JAPANESE SERIES_
+
+
+YOUNG AMERICANS IN JAPAN; or, The Adventures of the Jewett Family and
+their Friend Oto Nambo
+
+        With 170 full-page and letter-press illustrations.
+          Royal 8vo, 7 x 91/2 inches. Handsomely
+          illuminated cover, $1.75. Cloth, black and gold,
+          $2.50.
+
+This story, though essentially a work of fiction, is filled with
+interesting and truthful descriptions of the curious ways of living of
+the good people of the land of the rising sun.
+
+
+THE WONDERFUL CITY OF TOKIO; or, The Further Adventures of the Jewett
+Family and their Friend Oto Nambo
+
+        With 169 illustrations. Royal 8vo, 7 x 91/2
+          inches. With cover in gold and colors, designed by
+          the author, $1.75. Cloth, black and gold, $2.50.
+
+"A book full of delightful information. The author has the happy gift of
+permitting the reader to view things as he saw them. The illustrations
+are mostly drawn by a Japanese artist, and are very unique."--_Chicago
+Herald._
+
+
+THE BEAR WORSHIPPERS OF YEZO AND THE ISLAND OF KARAFUTO; being the
+further Adventures of the Jewett Family and their Friend Oto Nambo
+
+          180 illustrations. Boards, $1.75. Cloth, $2.50.
+
+Graphic pen and pencil pictures of the remarkable bearded people who
+live in the north of Japan. The illustrations are by native Japanese
+artists, and give queer pictures of a queer people, who have been seldom
+visited.
+
+
+_HARRY W. FRENCH'S BOOKS_
+
+
+OUR BOYS IN INDIA
+
+       The wanderings of two young Americans in Hindustan,
+         with their exciting adventures on the sacred rivers
+         and wild mountains. With 145 illustrations. Royal
+         8vo, 7 x 91/2 inches. Bound in emblematic covers
+         of Oriental design, $1.75. Cloth, black and gold,
+         $2.50.
+
+
+While it has all the exciting interest of a romance, it is remarkably
+vivid in its pictures of manners and customs in the land of the Hindu.
+The illustrations are many and excellent.
+
+
+OUR BOYS IN CHINA
+
+        The adventures of two young Americans, wrecked in
+          the China Sea on their return from India, with
+          their strange wanderings through the Chinese
+          Empire. 188 illustrations. Boards, ornamental
+          covers in colors and gold, $1.75. Cloth, $2.50.
+
+This gives the further adventures of "Our Boys" of India fame in the
+land of Teas and Queues.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+IRENE E. JEROME'S
+
+ART BOOKS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+        =IN A FAIR COUNTRY.= With 55 full-page illustrations;
+          engraved by Andrew. Nearly 100 pages of text, by Thomas
+          Wentworth Higginson. Gold  cloth, full gilt, $6.00;
+          Turkey morocco, $15.00;  tree calf, $15.00; English seal
+          style, $10.00.
+
+Miss Jerome has caught the very glamour of the woodland and the lea with
+her pencil, transferring it to paper with the delicacy of an exquisite
+photograph, while Colonel Higginson's delightful style brings out the
+beauty of his topics most satisfactorily. As a specimen of the
+book-maker's art, the volume leaves nothing to be asked.
+
+
+        =A BUNCH OF VIOLETS.= Original illustrations,
+          engraved on wood and printed under the direction
+          of GEORGE T. ANDREW. 4to, cloth, $3.75: Turkey
+          morocco, $9.00; tree calf, $9.00; English seal
+          style, $7.00.
+
+The new volume is akin to the former triumphs of this favorite artist,
+whose "Sketch Books" have achieved a popularity unequalled in the
+history of fine art publications. In the profusion of designs,
+originality, and delicacy of treatment, the charming sketches of
+mountain, meadow, lake, and forest scenery of New England here
+reproduced are unexcelled. After the wealth of illustration which this
+student of nature has poured into the lap of art, to produce a volume in
+which there is no deterioration of power or beauty, but, if possible,
+increased strength and enlargement of ideas, gives assurance that the
+foremost female artist in America will hold the hearts of her legion of
+admirers.
+
+
+        =NATURE'S HALLELUJAH.= Presented in a series of
+          nearly fifty full-page original illustrations
+          (91/2 x 14 inches), engraved on wood by GEORGE T.
+          ANDREW. Elegantly bound in gold cloth, full gilt,
+          gilt edges, $6.00; Turkey morocco, $15.00; tree
+          calf, $15.00; English seal style, $10.00.
+
+This volume has won the most cordial praise on both sides of the water.
+Mr. Francis H. Underwood, U. S. Consul at Glasgow, writes concerning it:
+"I have never seen anything superior, if equal, to the delicacy and
+finish of the engravings, and the perfection of the press-work. The copy
+you sent me has been looked over with evident and unfeigned delight by
+many people of artistic taste. Every one frankly says, 'It is impossible
+to produce such effects here,' and, whether it is possible or not, I am
+sure it is _not done_; no such effects are produced on this side of the
+Atlantic. In this combination of art and workmanship, the United States
+leads the world; and you have a right to be proud of the honor of
+presenting such a specimen to the public."
+
+
+        =ONE YEAR'S SKETCH BOOK.= Containing forty-six
+          full-page original illustrations, engraved on wood
+          by ANDREW; in same bindings and at same prices as
+          "Nature's Hallelujah."
+
+"Every thick, creamy page is embellished by some gems of art. Sometimes
+it is but a dash and a few trembling strokes; at others an impressive
+landscape, but in all and through all runs the master touch. Miss Jerome
+has the genius of an Angelo, and the execution of a Guido. The beauty of
+the sketches will be apparent to all, having been taken from our
+unrivalled New England scenery."--_Washington Chronicle._
+
+
+        =THE MESSAGE OF THE BLUEBIRD, Told to Me to Tell
+          to Others.= Original illustrations engraved on
+          wood by ANDREW. Cloth and gold, $2.00; palatine
+          boards, ribbon ornaments, $1.00.
+
+"In its new bindings is one of the daintiest combinations of song and
+illustration ever published, exhibiting in a marked degree the fine
+poetic taste and wonderfully artistic touch which render this author's
+works so popular. The pictures are exquisite, and the verses exceedingly
+graceful, appealing to the highest sensibilities. The little volume
+ranks among the choicest of holiday souvenirs, and is beautiful and
+pleasing."--_Boston Transcript._
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+          LEE AND   *  *  SEVENTY-FIVE CENT *
+
+           *  SHEPARD'S             *   JUVENILES
+
+_Comprising new editions of the following popular Juveniles Bound in
+best English cloth bright colors Any volume sold separately_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+=CHARLEY AND EVA STORIES= By Miss L. C. THURSTON
+
+          =How Charley Roberts became a Man=
+          =How Eva Roberts gained her Education=
+          =Home in the West=
+          =Children of Amity Court=
+
+Miss Thurston writes with a purpose. She is an admirer of manly boys and
+womanly girls, and so carries her characters through scenes and
+situations that elevate and purify. The books are by no means slow,
+being full of adventures.
+
+
+=GOLDEN PROVERB SERIES= By Mrs. M. E. BRADLEY and Miss KATE J. NEELY
+
+          =Birds of a Feather=
+          =Fine Feathers do not make Fine Birds=
+          =Handsome is that Handsome Does=
+          =A Wrong Confessed is Half Redressed=
+          =One Good Turn deserves Another=
+          =Actions Speak Louder than Words=
+
+Two capital story-tellers, "birds of a feather," have flocked together,
+and produced from six old proverbs six as bright and taking story-books
+as ever gladdened the hearts of Young America; showing, indeed, that
+"handsome is that handsome does."
+
+
+=GOLDEN RULE STORIES= By Mrs. S. C. B. SAMUELS
+
+          =The Golden Rule=
+          =The Shipwrecked Girl=
+          =Under the Sea=
+          =Nettie's Trial=
+          =The Burning Prairie=
+          =The Smuggler's Cave=
+
+
+CELESTA'S LIBRARY for Boys and Girls
+
+          =Celesta=
+          =Crooked and Straight=
+          =The Crook Straightened=
+          =A Thousand a Year=
+          =Abel Grey=
+          =May Coverley=
+
+Mrs. Samuels has written many attractive books. The scenes and incidents
+she portrays are full of life, action, and interest, and decidedly
+wholesome and instructive.
+
+
+=SALT-WATER DICK STORIES= By MAY MANNERING
+
+          =Climbing the Rope=
+          =Billy Grimes's Favorite=
+          =Cruise of the Dashaway=
+          =The Little Spaniard=
+          =Salt-Water Dick=
+          =Little Maid of Oxbow=
+
+Not all tales of the sea, as the title of the series would imply, but
+stories of many lands by a lady who has been a great traveller, and
+tells what she has seen, in a captivating way.
+
+
+=UPSIDE-DOWN STORIES= By ROSA ABBOTT
+
+          =Jack of all Trades=
+          =Alexis the Runaway=
+          =Tommy Hickup=
+          =Upside Down=
+          =The Young Detective=
+          =The Pinks and Blues=
+
+
+=VACATION STORIES for Boys and Girls= 6 vols. Illustrated
+
+          =Worth not Wealth=
+          =Country Life=
+          =The Charm=
+          =Karl Keigler or The Fortunes of a Foundling=
+          =Walter Seyton=
+          =Holidays at Chestnut Hill=
+
+
+=GREAT ROSY DIAMOND STORIES for Girls= 6 vols. Illustrated
+
+          =The Great Rosy Diamond=
+          =Daisy or The Fairy Spectacles=
+          =Violet a Fairy Story=
+          =Minnie or The Little Woman=
+          =The Angel Children=
+          =Little Blossom's Reward=
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+          NARRATIVES . OF . NOTED----
+                           -------TRAVELLERS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+=GERMANY SEEN WITHOUT SPECTACLES; or, Random Sketches of Various
+Subjects, Penned from Different Standpoints in the Empire=
+
+          By HENRY RUGGLES, late United States Consul at the
+          Island of Malta, and at Barcelona, Spain. $1.50.
+
+"Mr. Ruggles writes briskly: he chats and gossips, slashing right and
+left with stout American prejudices, and has made withal a most
+entertaining book."--_New-York Tribune._
+
+
+=TRAVELS AND OBSERVATIONS IN THE ORIENT, with a Hasty Flight in the
+Countries of Europe=
+
+        By WALTER HARRIMAN (ex-Governor of New Hampshire). $1.50.
+
+"The author, in his graphic description of these sacred localities,
+refers with great aptness to scenes and personages which history has
+made famous. It is a chatty narrative of travel."--_Concord Monitor._
+
+
+=FORE AND AFT=
+
+        A Story of Actual Sea-Life. By ROBERT B. DIXON, M.D. $1.25.
+
+Travels in Mexico, with vivid descriptions of manners and customs, form
+a large part of this striking narrative of a fourteen-months' voyage.
+
+
+=VOYAGE OF THE PAPER CANOE=
+
+          A Geographical Journey of Twenty-five Hundred
+          Miles from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico. By
+          NATHANIEL H. BISHOP. With numerous illustrations
+          and maps specially prepared for this work. Crown
+          8vo. $1.50.
+
+"Mr. Bishop did a very bold thing, and has described it with a happy
+mixture of spirit, keen observation, and _bonhomie_."--_London Graphic._
+
+
+=FOUR MONTHS IN A SNEAK-BOX=
+
+        A Boat Voyage of Twenty-six Hundred Miles down the
+          Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and along the Gulf of
+          Mexico. By NATHANIEL H. BISHOP. With numerous maps
+          and illustrations. $1.50.
+
+"His glowing pen-pictures of 'shanty-boat' life on the great rivers are
+true to life. His descriptions of persons and places are
+graphic."--_Zion's Herald._
+
+
+=A THOUSAND MILES' WALK ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA, Over the Pampas and the
+Andes=
+
+        By NATHANIEL H. BISHOP. Crown 8vo. New edition.
+          Illustrated. $1.50.
+
+"Mr. Bishop made this journey when a boy of sixteen, has never forgotten
+it, and tells it in such a way that the reader will always remember it,
+and wish there had been more."
+
+
+=CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES=
+
+        Being the Adventures of a Naturalist Bird-hunting
+          in the West-India Islands. By FRED A. OBER. New
+          edition. With maps and illustrations. $1.50.
+
+"During two years he visited mountains, forests, and people, that few,
+if any, tourists had ever reached before. He carried his camera with
+him, and photographed from nature the scenes by which the book is
+illustrated."--_Louisville Courier-Journal._
+
+
+=ENGLAND FROM A BACK WINDOW; With Views of Scotland and Ireland=
+
+        By J. M. BAILEY, the "'Danbury News' Man." 12mo. $1.00.
+
+"The peculiar humor of this writer is well known. The British Isles have
+never before been looked at in just the same way,--at least, not by any
+one who has notified us of the fact. Mr. Bailey's travels possess,
+accordingly, a value of their own for the reader, no matter how many
+previous records of journeys in the mother country he may have
+read."--_Rochester Express._
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+BRIGHT AND BREEZY
+
+BOOKS OF TRAVEL
+
+BY SIX BRIGHT WOMEN
+
+
+=MEXICO--PICTURESQUE, POLITICAL, PROGRESSIVE=
+
+          By MARY E. BLAKE and MARGARET F. SULLIVAN. Cloth,
+          $1.25.
+
+"This is a very charming volume. The writers went through the country
+with their eyes wide open, and they have the faculty of interesting
+others in what was of interest to them."
+
+
+=A WINTER IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO=
+
+          By HELEN J. SANBORN. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+"A bright, attractive narrative by a wide-awake Boston girl."
+
+
+=A SUMMER IN THE AZORES, with a Glimpse of Madeira=
+
+        By Miss C. ALICE BAKER. Little Classic style. Cloth,
+          gilt edges, $1.25.
+
+"Miss Baker gives us a breezy, entertaining description of these
+picturesque islands. She is an observing traveller, and makes a graphic
+picture of the quaint people and customs."--_Chicago Advance._
+
+
+=LIFE AT PUGET SOUND=
+
+        With sketches of travel in Washington Territory,
+          British Columbia, Oregon, and California. By
+          CAROLINE C. LEIGHTON. 16mo, cloth, $1.50.
+
+"Your chapters on Puget Sound have charmed me. Full of life, deeply
+interesting, and with just that class of facts, and suggestions of
+truth, that cannot fail to help the Indian and the Chinese."--WENDELL
+PHILLIPS.
+
+
+=EUROPEAN BREEZES=
+
+        By MARGERY DEANE. Cloth, gilt top, $1.50. Being
+          chapters of travel through Germany, Austria,
+          Hungary, and Switzerland, covering places not
+          usually visited by Americans in making "the Grand
+          Tour of the Continent," by the accomplished writer
+          of "Newport Breezes."
+
+"A very bright, fresh and amusing account, which tells us about a host
+of things we never heard of before, and is worth two ordinary books of
+European travel."--_Woman's Journal._
+
+
+=BEATEN PATHS; or, A Woman's Vacation in Europe=
+
+        By ELLA W. THOMPSON. 16mo, cloth. $1.50.
+
+A lively and chatty book of travel, with pen-pictures humorous and
+graphic, that are decidedly out of the "beaten paths" of description.
+
+
+=AN AMERICAN GIRL ABROAD=
+
+        By Miss ADELINE TRAFTON, author of "His Inheritance,"
+          "Katherine Earle," etc. 16mo. Illustrated. $1.50.
+
+"A sparkling account of a European trip by a wide-awake, intelligent,
+and irrepressible American girl. Pictured with a freshness and vivacity
+that is delightful."--_Utica Observer._
+
+
+_CURTIS GUILD'S TRAVELS_
+
+
+=BRITONS AND MUSCOVITES; or, Traits of Two Empires=
+
+          Cloth, $2.00.
+
+
+=OVER THE OCEAN; or, Sights and Scenes in Foreign Lands=
+
+        By CURTIS GUILD, editor of "The Boston Commercial
+          Bulletin." Crown 8vo. Cloth, $2.50.
+
+"The utmost that any European tourist can hope to do is to tell the old
+story in a somewhat fresh way, and Mr. Guild has succeeded in every part
+of his book in doing this."--_Philadelphia Bulletin_.
+
+
+=ABROAD AGAIN; or, Fresh Forays in Foreign Fields=
+
+        Uniform with "Over the Ocean." By the same author.
+          Crown 8vo. Cloth $2.50.
+
+"He has given us a life-picture. Europe is done in a style that must
+serve as an invaluable guide to those who go 'over the ocean,' as well
+as an interesting companion."--_Halifax Citizen._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+
+
+
+YOUNG FOLKS HEROES OF HISTORY
+
+    By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE.
+  Handsomely Illustrated. Price per vol., $1.25. Sets in neat boxes.
+
+
+VASCO DA GAMA:
+
+HIS VOYAGES AND ADVENTURES.
+
+"Da Gama's history is full of striking adventures, thrilling incidents,
+and perilous situations; and Mr. Towle, while not sacrificing historical
+accuracy, has so skilfully used his materials, that we have a charmingly
+romantic tale."--_Rural New-Yorker._
+
+
+PIZARRO:
+
+HIS ADVENTURES AND CONQUESTS.
+
+"No hero of romance possesses greater power to charm the youthful reader
+than the conqueror of Peru. Not even King Arthur, or Thaddeus of Warsaw,
+has the power to captivate the imagination of the growing boy. Mr. Towle
+has handled his subject in a glowing but truthful manner; and we venture
+the assertion, that, were our children led to read such books as this,
+the taste for unwholesome, exciting, wrong-teaching boys' books--dime
+novels in books' clothing--would be greatly diminished, to the great gain
+of mental force and moral purpose in the rising generation."--_Chicago
+Alliance._
+
+
+MAGELLAN;
+
+OR, THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.
+
+"What more of romantic and spirited adventures any bright boy could want
+than is to be found in this series of historical biography, it is
+difficult to imagine. This volume is written in a most sprightly manner;
+and the life of its hero, Fernan Magellan, with its rapid stride from
+the softness of a petted youth to the sturdy courage and persevering
+fortitude of manhood, makes a tale of marvellous fascination."--_Christian
+Union._
+
+
+MARCO POLO:
+
+HIS TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES.
+
+"The story of the adventurous Venetian, who six hundred years ago
+penetrated into India and Cathay and Thibet and Abyssinia, is pleasantly
+and clearly told; and nothing better can be put into the hands of the
+school boy or girl than this series of the records of noted travellers.
+The heroism displayed by these men was certainly as great as that ever
+shown by conquering warrior; and it was exercised in a far nobler
+cause,--the cause of knowledge and discovery, which has made the
+nineteenth century what it is."--_Graphic._
+
+
+RALEGH:
+
+HIS EXPLOITS AND VOYAGES.
+
+"This belongs to the 'Young Folks' Heroes of History' series, and deals
+with a greater and more interesting man than any of its predecessors.
+With all the black spots on his fame, there are few more brilliant and
+striking figures in English history than the soldier, sailor, courtier,
+author, and explorer, Sir Walter Ralegh. Even at this distance of time,
+more than two hundred and fifty years after his head fell on the
+scaffold, we cannot read his story without emotion. It is graphically
+written, and is pleasant reading, not only for young folks, but for old
+folks with young hearts."--_Woman's Journal._
+
+
+DRAKE:
+
+THE SEA-LION OF DEVON.
+
+Drake was the foremost sea-captain of his age, the first English admiral
+to send a ship completely round the world, the hero of the magnificent
+victory which the English won over the Invincible Armada. His career was
+stirring, bold, and adventurous, from early youth to old age.
+
+          LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston.
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS OF PARTICULAR INTEREST TO YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN
+
+
+=HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW=
+
+        His Life, His Works, His Friendships. By GEORGE
+          LOWELL AUSTIN. Profusely illustrated. Cloth,
+          $2.00. New edition. Formerly published by
+          subscription.
+
+"We have here a clear and popular presentation of the poet's literary
+life. The details of his personal and private life, or at least so much
+of it as belongs by right strictly to his family, has been avoided, and
+that properly. What the public have a right to know is found in this
+volume, in a style that is easy and pleasing. Here you have Longfellow
+as a child, as a college student, and as a professor in Bowdoin College;
+and especially does he appear here as a man of letters. It is a charming
+volume."--_Christian Standard._
+
+
+=LIFE AND TIMES OF WENDELL PHILLIPS=
+
+        By GEORGE LOWELL AUSTIN. With steel portrait and
+          illustrations. Cloth, $1.50. New edition. The only
+          complete Life of the great agitator.
+
+"The life of a man who was so strongly identified with one of the most
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+interest, and Mr. Austin has succeeded in presenting its features in a
+very attractive way. Portions of Mr. Phillips's most important public
+addresses are given, and there are reminiscences of the man by some of
+his close friends and associates."--_Philadelphia Record._
+
+  Wendell Phillips's Lectures, Orations, and Letters, to 1861.
+        563 pages.
+    Library edition. 8vo                                          $2 50
+    Popular edition, with Biographical Sketch, 16mo                1 00
+  The Scholar in a Republic. Paper, 8vo                              25
+  Eulogy of Garrison. Paper, 8vo                                     25
+  Lost Arts. Paper, 8vo                                              25
+  Daniel O'Connell. Paper, 8vo                                       25
+  Labor Question. Paper, 8vo                                         25
+
+
+=LIFE AND DEEDS OF GENERAL U. S. GRANT=
+
+        By Rev. P. C. HEADLEY and GEORGE LOWELL AUSTIN.
+          Profusely illustrated. Cloth, $1.50.
+
+The materials for the early years of the subject of this popular
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+          by OLIVER OPTIC. _A new edition_, with
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+          life of the general, his travels abroad, his
+          sickness and death. Cloth; illustrated by THOMAS
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+
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+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
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+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
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+AIR=
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+        New edition, with an introduction by LOUISA
+          PARSONS HOPKINS Illustrated School edition cloth
+          50 cents Library edition cloth 80 cents
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+=THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS PROVE THEIR SISTERHOOD (Former title EACH AND
+ALL)=
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+        Illustrated School edition cloth 50 cents Library
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+        Price each play in paper 15 cents postage paid 1
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+          The above bound in one volume Cloth $1.00 postage
+          paid
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+       *       *       *       *       *
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+=GRADED SUPPLEMENTARY READING=
+
+        For use in schools By Professor TWEED, late
+          Supervisor of Boston Public Schools 12 parts
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+          each: by mail 5 cents The four parts for each year
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+          primary in one volume boards 20 cents Second year
+          primary in one volume boards 20 cents Third year
+          primary in one volume boards 20 cents
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+HISTORICAL READINGS
+
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+=YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES=
+
+        By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON With over 100
+          illustrations $1.20
+
+
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+
+          By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON Illustrated $1.20
+
+
+=HANDBOOK OF ENGLISH HISTORY=
+
+        Based on Guest's "Lectures on English History,"
+          and brought down to the year 1880 With a
+          Supplementary Chapter on the English Literature of
+          the 19th Century By F. H. UNDERWOOD, LL.D. With
+          maps, chronological tables etc. School edition 90
+          cents
+
+
+=YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND=
+
+        By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE Illustrated School edition 60 cents
+
+
+=YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF IRELAND=
+
+        By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE With introduction by JOHN BOYLE
+          O'REILLY Illustrated School edition 60 cents
+
+
+=HEROES OF HISTORY= By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE Illustrated
+
+        Vasco de Gama: his Voyages and Adventures School edition 60
+          cents
+        Pizarro: his Adventures and Conquests School edition 60 cents
+        Magellan: or The First Voyage Round the World School edition
+          60 cents
+        Marco Polo: his Travels and Adventures School edition 60 cents
+        Raleigh: his Voyages and Adventures School edition 60 cents
+        Drake the Sea King of Devon School edition 60 cents
+
+
+=THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY= By Mrs. L. B. MONROE 80 cents
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+
+
+  _Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt
+                                  of price_
+                  =LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers Boston=
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Italics are indicated by
+_underscores_ and bold text is shown by =equal signs=.
+
+Varied hyphenation was retained.
+
+Page 106, "haye" changed to "have" (I have had so)
+
+Page 253, "sucessfully" changed to "successfully" (not working
+successfully)
+
+The spelling of "Ralegh: His Exploits" is actually the title of the book
+by Towle.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hope Mills, by Amanda M. Douglas
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