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diff --git a/40016.txt b/40016.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a697d09..0000000 --- a/40016.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1868 +0,0 @@ - THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER - - - - -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 http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Title: The Last Rose of Summer - -Author: Rupert Hughes - -Release Date: June 17, 2012 [EBook #40016] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: US-ASCII - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - -[Illustration: Cover] - - - -[Illustration: Deborah at dressing table] - - - - - THE LAST ROSE - OF SUMMER - - - BY - - RUPERT HUGHES - - - Author of - _What Will People Say?_ - - - - - HARPER & BROTHERS - NEW YORK AND LONDON - MCMXIV - - - - - COPYRIGHT 1914, BY HARPER AND BROTHERS - PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - PUBLISHED OCTOBER, 1914 - - - - - THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER - - - - CHAPTER I - - -As Mrs. Shillaber often said, the one good thing about her old house was -the fact that "you could throw the dining-room into the poller" when you -wanted to give parties or funerals or weddings or such things. You had -only to fold up the accordeon-pleated doors, push the sofa back against -the wall, and lay a rug over the register. - -To-night she had thrown the dining-room into the poller and filled both -rooms with guests. There were so many guests that they occupied every -seat in the house, including the up-stairs chairs and a large batch of -camp-stools from Mr. Crankshaw's, the undertaker's. - -In Carthage it was never a real party or an important funeral unless -those perilous old man-traps of Mr. Crankshaw's appeared. They always -added a dash of excitement to the dullest evening, for at a critical -moment one of them could be depended upon to collapse beneath some -guest, depositing him or her in a small but complicated woodpile on the -floor. - -Less dramatic, but even droller, was the unfailing spectacle of the -solemn man who entered a room carrying one of these stools neatly -folded, proceeded to a chosen spot, and there attempted vainly to open -the thing. This was sure to happen at least once, and it gave an -irresistibly light touch even to the funerals. The obstinacy of some of -Mr. Crankshaw's camp-stools was so diabolic that it almost implied a -perverse intelligence. And the one that was not to be solved generally -fell to the solemnest man in the company. - -To-night at Mrs. Shillaber's the evening might be said to be well under -way; fat Mr. Geggat had already splashed through his camp-stool, and -Deacon Peavey was now at work on his; a snicker had just sneezed out of -the minister's wife (of all people!), and the Deacon himself had -breathed an expletive dangerously close to profanity. - -The party was held in honor of Mrs. Shillaber's girlhood friend, -Birdaline Nickerson (now Mrs. Phineas Duddy). Birdaline and Mrs. -Shillaber (then Josie Barlow) had been fierce rivals for the love of -Asaph Shillaber. Josie had got him away from Birdaline, and Birdaline -had married Phin Duddy for spite, just to show certain people that -Birdaline could get married as well as other people and to prove that -Phin Duddy was not inconsolable for losing Josie, whom he had courted -before Asaph cut him out. - -Luck had smiled on Birdaline and Phin. They had moved away-to Peoria, -no less! And now they were back on a visit to his folks. - -When Birdaline saw what Time had done to Asaph she forgave Josie -completely. It was Josie who did not forgive Birdaline, for Peoria had -done wonders for Phin. Everybody said that; and Birdaline also brought -along a grown-up daughter who was evidently beautiful and, according to -her mother, highly accomplished. Why, one of the leading vocal teachers -in Peoria (and very highly spoken of in Chicago) had heard her sing and -had actually told her that she ought to have her voice cultivated; he -had, indeed; fact was he had even offered to cultivate it himself, and -at a reduced rate from his list price, too! - -It seemed strange to Birdaline and Josie to meet after all these years -and be jealous, not of each other, but of daughters as big as they -themselves had been the last time they had seen each other. Both women -told both women that they looked younger than ever, and each saw the -pillage of time in the opposite mien, the accretion of time in the once -so gracile figure. It was melancholy satisfaction at best, for each -knew all too well how her own mirror slapped her in the face with her -own image. - -When Birdaline bragged of her daughter's voice, Josie had to be loyal to -her oldest girl's own piano-playing. Birdaline, perhaps with serpentine -wisdom, insisted on hearing Miss Shillaber play the piano; it was sure, -she thought, to render the girl unpopular. But the solo annoyed the -guests hardly at all, for they could easily talk above the feeble clamor -of that old Shillaber piano, in which even the needy Carthage tuner had -refused to twist another wrest-pin these many years. - -After the piano had ceased to spatter staccato discords, and people had -applauded politely, of course Josie had to ask Birdaline's daughter to -sing. And the girl, being of the new and rather startling school of -manners which accedes without undue urging, blushingly consented, -provided there was any music there that she could sing and some one -would play her accompa'ment. - -A tattered copy of "The Last Rose of Summer" was unearthed, and Mr. -Norman Maugans, who played the melodeon at the Presbyterian -prayer-meetings, was mobbed into essaying the accompa'ment. He was no -great shucks at sight-reading, he said, but he would do his durnedest. - -The news that the pretty and novel Miss Buddy would sing brought all the -guests forward in a huddle like cattle at home-coming time. Even Deacon -Peavey gave up his vow to open that camp-stool or die and sat down in a -draught to listen. The perspiration cooled on him and he caught a -terrible cold, but that was Mrs. Peavey's business, not ours. - -Miss Pamela Duddy sidled into the elbow of the piano with a most -attractive kittenishness and waited for the prelude to be done. This -required some time, since the ancient sheet-music had a distressing -habit of folding over and, as it were, swooning from the rack into the -pianist's arms. Besides, Mr. Maugans was so used to playing the -melodeon that instead of tapping the keys he was continually squeezing -them, and nothing came. And when he wished to increase his volume of -tone he would hold his hands still and slowly open his knees against -swell-levers that were not there. This earnest futility gave so much -amusement to Josie's youngest daughter that she had to be eyed out of -the room by her mother. - -Miss Pamela saved the day by a sudden inspiration, a recollection of -what she had seen done by one of the leading sopranos from Indianapolis -at a recital in the Star course at Peoria; Miss Pamela bent her pretty -head and took from her juvenile breast one big red rose and held it in -her hands while she sang. During the final stanza she plucked away its -petals one by one and at the end let the shredded core fall upon the -highly improbable roses woven in Josie's American Wilton carpet. - -The girl's features and her attitudes were sheer Grecian; her accent was -the purest Peoria. Now and then she remembered to insert an Italian -"a," but she forgot to suppress the Italian "r," which is exactly the -same as that of Illinois, but lacks its context or prestige. Her fresh, -uncultivated voice was less faithful to the key than to her exquisite -throat. To that same exquisite throat clung one fascinated eye of Mr. -Maugans's, whose other orb angrily glowered at the music as if to -overawe it. Had he possessed a third eye it might have guided his hands -along the keyboard with more accuracy, but this detail could have -affected the result but little, since his hands were incessantly -compelled to clutch the incessantly deciduous music and slap it back on -the rack. - -Two stanzas had thus been punctuated before a shy old maid named Deborah -Larrabee ventured to rise and stand at the piano, supporting the music. -This compelled her to a closer proximity to a nice young man than she -had known for so many years that she almost outblushed the young girl. - -Deborah was afraid to look at anybody, yet when she cast her eyes -downward she had to watch those emotional knees of Mr. Maugans's slowly -parting in the crescendo that never came. - -It was an ordeal for everybody-singer, pianist, and music-sustainer. -But the audience was friendly, and the composer and the poet were too -dead to gyrate in their distant graves. The song, therefore, had -unmitigated success, and the words were so familiar that everybody knew -pretty well what Pamela was driving at when she sang: - - 'Tis thuh lah-ha-ha strow zof sum-mah - Le-ef' bloo-oo-hoo-minnng uh-lone; - Aw lur lu-uh-uh vlee come-pan-yun - Zah-har fay-ay-yay dud ahnd gawn- - No-woe flow-wurr rof her kinn-drud, - No-woe ro-hose buh dis ni-eye-eye-eye-eye-eye - To re-fle-eh-ec' bah-cur blu-shuzz - Aw-hor gi-yi-hiv su-high for su-high! - - -There was hardly a dry eye or a protesting ear in the throng as she -reached the climax: - - Thu-us ki-yine-dlee I scat-tur-r-r - Thy-hi lea-heave zore thuh be-eh-eh-eh-eh-head - Whur-r-r thy may-hay-yate zuv thuh gar-r-dun-n-n-n - Lie-eye sceh-eh-entluss ahnd dead, - Whur-r thy may-YAH-YAH-yah thuh gah-dah - Lie-eye sceh-heh-hen-less ahnd-ah dead-ah. - - -The girl's mother was not hard to find among the applauding auditors. -She looked like the wrecked last September's rose of which her daughter -was the next June's bud. The softened mood of Birdaline and the tears -that bedewed her cheeks gave her back just enough of the beauty she had -had to emphasize how much she had lost. - -And Josie, her quondam rival in the garden, was sweetened by melancholy, -too. It was not hospitality alone, nor mere generosity, but a passing -sympathy that warmed her tone as she squeezed Birdaline's arm and told -her how well her daughter had sung. - -A number of matrons felt the same attar of regret in the air. They had -been beautiful in their days and in their ways, and now they felt like -the dismantled rose on the floor. The common tragedy of beauty belated -and foredone saddened everybody in the room; the old women had -experienced it, the young women foresaw it, the men knew it as the -destruction of the beauties they loved or had loved. Everybody was sad -but Deborah Larrabee. - -That homely little old spinster slipped impudently into the elbow of the -piano-into the place still warm from the presence of Pamela-and she -railed at the sorrow of her schoolmates, Josie and Birdaline. Her voice -was as sharp as the old piano-strings: - -"That song's all wrong, seems to me, girls. Pretty toon and nice words, -but I can't make out why ever'body feels sorry for the last rose of -summer. It's the luckiest rose in the world. The rest of 'em have -bloomed too soon or just when all the other roses are blooming, or when -people are sort of tired of roses. But this one is saved up till the -last. And then, when the garden is all dying out and the bushes are -just dead stalks and the other roses are wilted and brown and folks say, -'I'd give anything for the sight of a rose,' along comes this rose -and-blooms alone! - -"It's that way in my little yard. There's always a last rose that comes -when the rest have gone to seed, and that's the one I prize. Seems to -me it has the laugh on all the rest. The song's all wrong, I tell you, -girls!" - -This heresy had the usual success of attacks on sacred texts-the -orthodox paid no heed to the value of the argument; they simply resented -its impudence. But all they said to Deborah was an indulgent "That's -so, Debby," and a polite "I never thought of that." - -As Deborah turned away, triumphant, to repeat what she had just said to -Mr. Maugans, she overheard Birdaline murmur to Josie in a kinship of -contempt, "Poor old Debby!" - -And Josie consented: "She can't understand! She never was a rose." - - - - - CHAPTER II - - -It was as if Birdaline and Josie had slipped a knife under Deborah's -left slipped a knife under Deborah's left shoulder-blade and pushed it -into her heart. She felt a mortal wound. She clung to the piano and -remembered something she had overheard Birdaline say in exactly that -tone far back in that primeval epoch when Debby had been sixteen-as -sweetless a sixteen as a girl ever endured. - -Deborah had not been pretty then, or ever before, or since. But she had -been a girl, and had expected to have lovers to select a husband from. - -Yet lovers were denied to Deborah. The boys had been fond of her and -nice to her. For Deborah was a good fellow; she was never jealous or -exacting. She was jolly, understood a joke, laughed a lot, and danced -well enough. She never whined or threatened if a fellow neglected her -or forgot to call for his dance or pay a party-call-or anything. She -accepted attentions as compliments, not as taxes. Consequently she -collected fewer than she might have had. The boys respected her so -much, too, that none of them insulted her with flirtatiousness. But how -her hungry heart had longed to be insulted! How she had yearned to -fight her way out from a strong man's audacious arms and to writhe away -from his daring lips! - -On that memorable night Josie had given a party and Deborah had gone. No -fellow had taken her; but, then, Josie lived just across the street from -the Larrabees, and Debby could run right over unnoticed and run home -alone safely afterward. Debby was safe anywhere where it was not too -dark to see her. Her face was her chaperon. - -Asaph Shillaber took Birdaline to Josie's party that night, and he -danced three times with Debby. Each time-as she knew and pretended not -to know-he had come to her because of a mix-up in the program or because -she was the only girl left without a partner. But a dance was a dance, -and Asaph was awful light on his feet, for all he was so big. - -After she had danced the third time with him he led her hastily to a -chair against the stairway, deposited her like an umbrella, and left -her. She did not mind his desertion, but sat panting with the -breathlessness of the dance and with the joy of having been in Asaph's -arms. Then she heard low voices on the stairway, voices back of her, -just above her head. She knew them perfectly. - -Asaph was quarreling with Birdaline. Birdaline was attacking Asaph -because he had danced three times with Josie. - -"But she's the hostess!" Asaph had retorted, and Birdaline snapped back: - -"Then why don't she dance with some of the other fellas, then? -Everybody's noticing how you honey-pie round her." - -"Well, I danced with Deb Larrabee three times, too," Asaph pleaded. -"Why don't you fuss about that?" - -Deborah perked an anxious ear to hear how Birdaline would accept this -rivalry, and Birdaline's answer fell into her ear like poison: - -"Deb Larrabee! Humph! You can dance with that old thing till the cows -come home, and I won't mind. But you can't take me to a party and dance -three times with Josie Barlow. You can't, and that's all. So there!" - -Asaph had a fierce way with women. He talked back to them as if they -were men. And now he rounded on Birdaline: "I'll take who I please, and -I'll dance with who I please after I get there, and if you don't like it -you can lump it!" - -Deborah did not linger to hear the result of the war that was sure to be -waged. There was no strength for curiosity in her hurt soul. She -wanted to crawl off into a cellar and cower in the rubbish like a sick -cat. Birdaline's opinion of her was a ferocious condemnation for any -woman-thing to hear. It was her epitaph. It damned her, past, present, -and future. She sneaked home without telling anybody good-by. - -She had the next dance booked with Phineas Duddy, but she felt that he -would not remember her if he did not see her. And since on the next day -nobody-not even Phineas-ever mentioned her flight, she knew that she had -not been missed. - -She cried and cried and cried. She told her mother that she had a bad -cold, to excuse her eyes that would not stop streaming. She cried -herself out, as mourners do; then gradually accepted life, as mourners -do. - -That was long ago, and now, after all these years-years that had proved -the truth of Birdaline's estimate of her; years in which Birdaline had -married Asaph out of Josie's arms, and Josie had married Phineas out of -Birdaline's private graveyard, and both of them had borne children and -endured their consequences-even now Deborah must hear again the same -relentless verdict as before. Time had not improved her or brought her -luck or lover, husband or child. - -She had thought that she had grown used to herself and her charmless -lot, but the wound began to bleed afresh. She had the same impulse to -take flight-to play the cat in the cellar-again. But her escape was -checked by a little excitement. - -Close upon the heels of Birdaline's unconscious affront to Deborah, -Birdaline herself received an unconscious affront. - -Asaph, desiring to be hospitable and to pay beauty its due, came forward -at the end of the song to where little Pamela stood, receiving -Carthage's homage with all the gracious condescension of Peoria. And -Asaph roared out in the easy hearing of both his own wife and of -Pamela's mother: - -"Well, Miss Pamela, you sang grand. I got no ear for music, but you suit -me right down to the ground. And you're so dog-on pretty! I wouldn't -care if you sang like all-get-out. You look like your mother did when -she was your age. You might not think it to look at your ma now, but in -her day she was one of the best lookers in this whole town; same color -eyes as you-and hair-and, oh, a regular heart-breaker." - -Asaph's memory of Birdaline's eyes and hair was wrong, as a man's -usually is. His praise was a two-edged sword of tactlessness. - -He slashed Birdaline by forgetting her color and by implying that she -retained no traces of her beauty, and he gashed Josie because he implied -a livelier memory of Birdaline's early graces than a husband has any -right to cherish. - -Asaph had counted on doing a very gracious thing. When he had finished -his little oration he glanced at Birdaline for recompense and received a -glare of anger; he turned away to Josie and received from her eyes a -buffet of wrath. He felt that he had made a fool of himself again, and -his ready temper was up at once. He crossed glares with his wife, and -everybody in eye-shot instantly felt a duel begun. It was not going to -be so dull an evening, after all. Even Debby lingered to see what the -result of the Shillaber conflict would be. She was also checked by the -evidences that refreshments were about to be served. Chicken-salad and -ice-cream were not frequent enough in her life to be overlooked. -Disparagement and derision were her every-day porridge. Ice-cream was a -party. So she lingered. - -The Shillabers' hired girl, in a clean apron and a complete armor of -blushes, appeared at the dining-room door and beckoned. Josie summoned -her more than willing children to pass the plates. She nodded to Asaph -to come and roll the ice-cream freezer into place and scrape off the -salty ice. Then she waylaid him in the kitchen, and their wrangle -reached the speedily overcrowded dining-room in little tantalizing -slices as the swinging door opened to admit or emit one of the children. -But it always swung shut at once. It was like an exciting serial with -most of the instalments omitted. - - - - - CHAPTER III - - -The guests made desperate efforts to pretend that they were unaware to -pretend that they were unaware of the feud and at the same time to -follow it. They were polite enough even to try to ignore the salt the -wrathful Asaph had let slip into the ice-cream. - -In the cheerful stampede for the dining-room Debby had crowded into a -sofa alongside another re-visitor to the town, Newton Meldrum, whom she -had known but slightly. He had gone with the older girls and had -already left Carthage when Debby came out-as far as she ever came out -before she went back. - -Newt Meldrum had prospered, according to Carthage standards. He was now -the "credit man" for a New York wholesale house. Debby had not the -faintest idea what a credit man was. But Asaph knew all too well. As -the owner of the largest department store in Carthage, Asaph owed the -New York house more money than he could pay. He gave that as a reason -for owing it still more. The New York house sent Meldrum out to -Carthage to see whether it would be more profitable to close Asaph up or -tide him over another season. - -Asaph's wife chose this anxious moment to give a party to Birdaline! -Asaph protested violently that it would make a bad impression on Meldrum -to be seen giving parties when he could not pay his bills. But Josie -was running a little social business of her own, and not to entertain -Birdaline would be to go into voluntary bankruptcy. She could still get -the necessary things charged-and to Josie getting a thing charged was -just a little cheaper than getting it for nothing. It didn't put you -under obligations, like accepting gifts. Asaph forbade her to give the -party, but of course she gave it, anyway, and he was not brave enough to -forbid the grocer to honor her requisitions. - -Asaph had to invite Meldrum, and Josie announced that she would show how -much a wife can help her husband; she promised to lavish on Meldrum -especial consideration and to introduce him to some pretty girls (he was -a notorious bachelor). - -She forgot him at once for her ancient rivalry with Birdaline. And now -Asaph forgot him in the excitement of quarrel. - -Indeed, host and hostess ignored their fatal guest so completely that -they left him to eat his supper alongside the least-considered woman in -town-poor old "Dubby Debby." - -Debby had long ago fallen out of the practice of expecting attention -from anybody. To-night she was so grievously wounded that she forgot -her custom of squandering the consideration she rarely got back. She -said nothing to her elbow neighbor, but sat pondering her own shame and -trying to extract some ice-cream from between the spots of salt. A few -big tears had welled to her eyelids and dropped into her dish. She -blamed herself for the salt. Then she heard her neighbor grumble: - -"Say, Debby, is your ice-cream all salty?" - -"Ye-es, it is," she murmured, fluttering. - -"So's mine. Funny thing, there's always salt in the ice-cream. Ever -noticed it?" - -"Tha-that's so; there usually is-a little." - -"A lot! That's life, I guess. Poor old Asaph! Plenty of salt in his -ice-cream, eh? What's the matter with that wife of his, anyway? Aren't -they happy together?" - -"Oh, I guess they're as happy as married folks ever are," Debby -answered, absently, and then gasped at the horrible philosophy she had -uttered. - -Meldrum threw her a glance and laughed. - -Debby winced. He probably was saying to himself, "Sour grapes!" At -least she thought he would think that. But she had not meant to be -foxy. The fox in the fable had tried to leap to the grapes before he -maligned them. Debby had hardly come near enough to them or made effort -enough toward them to say that she had failed. - -But Meldrum had not thought, "Sour grapes!" He only remembered that -"Debby" was "Debby." In these returns to childhood circles one rarely -knows what has happened between then and now. He remembered Debby as an -ugly little brat of a girl, and he saw that she was still homely. But -plenty of homely women were married. He proved his ignorance by his -next words: - -"You married, Debby?" - -"N-no," she faltered, without daring even to venture a "not yet." He -surprised her shame with a laughing compliment: - -"Wise lady! Neither am I. Shake!" - -Then she turned on the sofa so that she could see him better. His eyes -were twinkling. He was handsome, citified, sleek, comfortable. Yet he -had never married! - -He was holding out his hand. And because it commanded hers she put hers -in it, and he squeezed her long, fishy fin in a big, warm, comfortable -palm. And she gave her timid, smiling eyes into his big, smiling stare -and wondered why she smiled. But she liked it so much that fresh tears -rushed to her eyelids-little eager, happy tears that could not have had -much salt in them, for one or two of them bounced into her ice-cream. -Yet it did not taste bitter now. - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - -Asaph came in then and looked around the room with defiant eyes around -the room with defiant eyes that dared anybody to be uncomfortable. He -recognized Meldrum with a start, and realized that the most important -guest had been left to Deb Larrabee, of all people. This misstep might -mean ruin to him. His anger changed to anxiety, and he made haste to -carry Meldrum away. He was inspired to present him to Pamela. - -Deborah, abandoned on the sofa, studied Pamela with wonder. How -beautiful the child was! How she drew the men! How their eyes fed upon -her! How she queened it in her little court! Everywhere she went it must -be so. In Peoria they must have gathered about her just as here. They -must be missing her in Peoria now. When she went back they would be -glad. Or if she went on to Chicago men would gather about her there-or -in Omaha, or Council Bluffs, or Toledo-anywhere! - -It was manifest enough why the men gathered about the girl. She -delighted the senses. She improved the view. She was the view. -Suavity of contour, proportion of feature, silkiness of texture, -felicity of tint; every angle masked with a curve, every joint small and -included, desirableness, cuddlesomeness, kissableness, warmth, and all -the things that make up loveliness were Pamela's. - -The contrast between herself and Pamela was so cruel that Deborah's -heart rebelled. She demanded of Heaven: "Why so much to her and none to -me? My mother was as good as her mother, and better-looking in her day; -and my father was a handsome man. Why was I made at all if not well -made? Why allowed to live if not fit for life? My elder sister that -died was more beautiful than Pamela, but she died. Why couldn't I have -died in her place, or taken the beauty she laid aside as I wore her -cast-off clothes? Yet I live, and I shall never be married, shall never -be a mother, shall never be of any use or any beauty. Why? Why?" - -Bitter, bitter were her thoughts as she sat with her plate in her lap. -She hardly noticed when Josie took the plate away. She fell into an -almost sleep of reverie and woke with a start to find that everybody -else was crowding forward to hear Pamela sing. She was repeating "The -Last Rose" by request. Mr. Maugans had said he would like another whack -at that accompa'ment. - -Debby felt again that stab of Birdaline's-"Poor Debby! She never was a -rose." - -She could not bear to remain. She tiptoed from the dining-room, -unnoticed, and went out at the side-door, drawing her shawl over her -head. She must sneak home alone as usual. Thank Heaven, it was only a -block and the streets were black. - -As she reached the front gate she met a man who had just come down from -the porch. It was Meldrum. He peered at her in the dim light of the -street-lamp and called out: - -"That you, Debby? Couldn't you stand it any longer? Neither could I. -That girl is a peach to look at, but she can't sing for sour apples; and -as for brains, she's a nut, a pure pecan! I guess I'm too old or not -old enough to be satisfied with staring at a pretty hide on a pretty -frame. Which way you going? I'll walk along with you if you don't -mind." - -If she didn't mind! Would Lazarus object if Dives sat down on the floor -beside him and brought along his trencher? - -Debby was so bewildered that the sidewalk reeled beneath her intoxicated -feet. She stumbled till Meldrum took her hand and set it in the crook -of his arm, and she trotted along as meek as Tobias with the angel. - -All, all too soon they reached her house. But he paused at the gate. -She dared not invite him even to the porch. - -If her mother heard a man's voice there she would probably open the -window upstairs and shriek: "Murder! Thieves! Help!" - -So Debby waited at the gate while the almost invisible Meldrum chattered -on. She was so afraid that he would go every next minute that she -hardly heard what he said. But he had only a hotel room ahead of him. -He was used to late hours. He was in a mood for talk. The paralyzed -Debby was a perfect listener, and in that intense dark she was as -beautiful as Cleopatra would have been. - -To her he was solely a voice, a voice of strange cynicisms, yet of -strange comfort to her. He was laughing at the people she held in awe. -"This town's a joke to me," he said. "It's a side-show full of freaks." -And he mocked the great folk of the village as if they were yokels. He -laughed at their customs. He ridiculed many, many things that Debby had -believed and suffered from believing. He ridiculed married people and -marriage from the superior heights of one who could have married many -and had rejected all. It was strangely pleasant hearing to her who had -observed marriage from the humble depths of one whom all had rejected. -He talked till he heard the town clock whine eleven times, then he said: - -"Good Lord! I didn't know it was so late. I must have talked your arm -off, Debby. I don't get these moods often. It takes a mighty good -listener to loosen me up. Good night! Don't let any of these fellows -bunco you into marrying 'em. There's nothing in it, Debby. Take it -from me. Good night." - -She felt rather than saw that he lifted his hat. She felt again his big -hand enveloping hers, and she answered its squeeze with a desperate -little clench of her own. - -He left her wonderfully uplifted. Now she felt less an exile from -marriage than a rebel. She almost convinced herself that she had kept -out of matrimony because she was too good for it. The solitary cell of -her bed was a queenly dais when she crept into it. She dreamed that -General Kitchener asked for her hand and she refused it. - - - - - CHAPTER V - - -Meldrum's cynicisms had been strangely opportune to the strangely -opportune to the despondent old maid. He unwittingly helped her over a -deep ditch and got her past a bad night. - -But when she woke, the next morning was but the same old resumption of -the same old day. Poverty, loneliness, and the inanity of a manless -household were again her portion. The face she washed explained to her -why she was not sought after by the men. The hair she combed and wadded -on her cranium clouded with no romance even in her own eyes. She -realized that she was not loved for the simple reason that she was not -lovely. She had never been a rose, and men did not pluck dog-fennel to -wear. And the camomile could never become a marguerite by wishing to be -one. - -Debby haled her awkward self out of her humble cot, out of her coarse -and frilless nightgown, into her matter-of-fact clothes, and slumped -down to a chill, bare kitchen. There she made a fire in a cold stove, -that she might warm up oatmeal and fry eggs and petrify a few slices of -bread into a scratchy toast. - -Not hearing her mother's slippers flap and shuffle on the stairs as -usual, she climbed again to learn the cause. She found her mother -filled with rheumatism and bad news. A letter had come the day before, -and she had concealed it from Deborah so that the child might have a -nice time at the party; and did she have a nice time, and who was there? -But that could wait, for never was there such news as she had now, and -there was never any let-up in bad luck, and them with no man to lean on -or turn to. - -When Deborah finally pried the letter from the poor old talons she found -an announcement that the A.G.&St.P.Ry. would pass its dividend this -year. To the Larrabees the A.G.&St.P. had always been the most -substantial thing in the world next to the Presbyterian Church. - -Deborah's father had said that his death-bed was cheered by the fact -that he had left his widow and his child several shares of that soulful -corporation's stock. He called it the "Angel Gabriel & St. Peter -Railway." The dividend was as sure as flowers in June. It had never -failed, and the Larrabee women always spent it before it was paid. They -had pledged it this year. - -If they had followed the stock-market, of which they had hardly heard, -they would have known that the railroad's shares had fallen from 203 to -51 in two years and that the concern was curving gracefully toward a -receivership. The two women breakfasted that morning on cold dismay and -hot flashes of terror. The few hundred dollars that had come to them -like semi-annual manna and quails would not drop down this year, perhaps -not next year, or ever again. Their creditors would probably throw them -into the town jail. The poorhouse would be a paradise. - -In her distraction Debby had an impulse to consult Newt Meldrum. She -hurried to Shillaber's Bazar, hoping he might be there. Asaph met her -himself and told her that Newt had gone back to New York on an early -train. Debby broke down and told of her plight. She supposed that she -would have to go to work at once somewhere. But what could she do? - -Asaph was feeling amiable; he had won a reprieve from Meldrum and had -made it up with his wife in private for the public quarrel. His heart -melted at the thought of helping poor old Dubby Debby, whom everybody -was fond of in a hatefully unflattering way. He had helped other -gentlewomen in distress, and now he dumfounded Debby by saying, "Why -don't you clerk here, Debby?" - -"Why, I couldn't clerk in a store!" she gasped, terrified. "I don't -know the least thing about it." - -"You'd soon learn the stock, and the prices are all marked in plain -letters that you can memorize easy. You've got a lot of friends, and we -give a commission on all the sales over a certain amount. Better try -it." - -Debby felt now, for the first time, all the sweet panic that most women -undergo with their first proposal. This offer of the job of saleswoman -was as near as Debby had come to being offered the job of helpmeet. She -even murmured, "This is so sudden," and, "I'll have to ask mama." It -was an epoch-making decision, a terrible leap from the stagnant pool of -the Larrabee cottage to the seething maelstrom of Shillaber's Bazar. -She went home to her mother with the thrilling, the glorious news that -henceforth she could acquire all of five dollars a week by merely being -present at Shillaber's for twelve hours or so a day, except Sat'days, -when the store was open evenings till the last possible customer had -gone home to bed. Mrs. Larrabee apologized to Heaven for doubting its -watchfulness, commended Asaph Shillaber to its attention, and bespoke -for him a special invoice of blessings. - -And Asaph went home to his midday dinner as cheerfully as if he had -received them. First he announced the good word about Meldrum's -leniency, which Josie greeted with: - -"You see! I told you that the party would be the proper caper. Maybe -after this you'll believe that your wife knows a thing or two." - -Asaph assured her that he would never doubt that she knew at least that -much. Then, like the wag he was, he said that he had added a new clerk -to his staff-a lady and a beauty, whose charms would draw no end of -custom to the store and dazzle the drummers from far and near. - -Josie's facile temper flashed at once into glow. One of her chief -interests in the Bazar had been to make sure that it never harbored any -saleswoman whose beauty could possibly lure her husband's mind from his -ledgers or his home ties. Under the pretext of purchases or suggestions -she made frequent tours of inspection, and if a girl too young or a pair -of eyes too bright gleamed behind a counter Asaph heard of it at once. -Some years before he had bowed to the inevitable and made it a rule to -engage no woman who could imaginably disturb Josie's delicate equipoise. - -Meldrum had noticed the strange array and had been inclined to impute -the decline of the store's prosperity to the appearance of its staff. - -"Good Lord, Ase!" he had groaned. "What you got here-the overflow of the -Home for Aged and Indignant Females? You've collected a bunch of -clock-stoppers that makes a suffragette meeting look like a Winter -Garden chorus. People like those can't sell pretty things. Send 'em all -to the bone-yard and get in some winners." - -Asaph promised, and Meldrum promised to arrange an extension of credit. -But Asaph would have feared bankruptcy less than such a step. As soon -as Meldrum was gone he put the cap-sheaf to his little army of relicts -and remnants by engaging Debby Larrabee! She made the rest look -handsome by contrast. - -She was the joke that he tried to spring on his wife. Josie took the -allusion seriously, and Asaph was soon trying to hold her down. - -"Wait! Wait till you hear who it is!" he pleaded; but she stormed on: - -"I don't care who it is. I'm not going to have you exposed to the wiles -of any of those designing minxes. I won't have her, I tell you." - -At length he shouted above the din: "I was only joking. It's Debby -Larrabee! I've engaged Debby Larrabee! They've lost all their money." - -When Josie understood, she saw the joke. She began to laugh with -hysterics, to slap and push her husband about hilariously. "Aw, you old -fraud, you! So you've engaged Dubby Debby! Well, you can keep her. I -don't care how late you stay at the store as long as Debby's there." - -Deborah was fortunate enough not to overhear this. In fact, the long -drought in Debby's good luck seemed to be ending. The skies over her -grew dark with the abundance of merciful rain. A gentle drizzle -preceded the cloudburst. There usually is a deluge after a drought. - -A few days later found Debby installed in the washable silks. The -change in her environment was complete. Instead of dozing through a -nightmare of ineptitude in the doleful society of her old mother in a -dismal home where almost nobody ever called, and never a man, now she -stood all day on the edge of a stream of people; she chattered breezily -all day to women in search of beautiful fabrics. She handled beautiful -fabrics. Her conversation was a procession of adjectives of praise. - -Trying to live up to her surroundings, she took thought of her -appearance. Dealing in fashions, with fashion-plates as her scriptures, -she tried to get in touch with the contemporary styles. She bounded -across eight or ten periods at one leap. First she found that she could -at least put up her hair as other women did. The revolution in her -appearance was amazing. Next she retrimmed her old hat, reshaped her -old skirt-drew it so tightly about her ankles that she was forced to the -tremendous deed of slitting it up a few inches so that she could at -least walk slowly. The first time her mother noticed it she said: - -"Why, Debby, what on earth! That skirt of yours is all tore up the -side." - -Debby explained it to her with the delicious confusion of a Magdalen -confessing her entry upon a career of profligacy. Her mother almost -fainted. Debby had gone wrong at this late day! She had heard that -department-stores were awful places for a girl. The papers had been -full of minimum wages and things. - -Worse yet, Debby began to attitudinize, to learn the comfort of poses. -She must be forever holding pretty things forward. She took care of her -hands, polished her nails. Now and then she must drape a piece of silk -across her shoulder and dispose her rigid frame into curves. She began -to talk of "lines" to cold-cream her complexion. - -The mental change in her was no less thorough. Activity was a tonic. -Her patience was compelled to school itself. Prosperity lay in -unfaltering courtesy, untarnished cheer. Cynicism does not sell goods. -All day long she was praising things. Enthusiasm became her instinct. - -Few men swam into her ken, but in learning to satisfy the exactions of -women she built up tact. She had long since omitted malekind from her -life and her plan of life. She was content. Women liked her; women -lingered to talk with her; they asked her help in their vital struggle -for beauty. It was enough. - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - -One morning, as she was making ready to go to the store, and taking -ready to go to the store, and taking much time at the process, she -observed at her forehead a white hair. It startled her, frightened her -for a moment; then she laughed. - -"Why, I'm growing old!" - -What use had she for youth? It had never been kind to her. All the -loss of it meant was that it might harm her a little at the store. She -plucked out the white thread and forgot it-nearly. - -Another day there was another white hair. She removed that, too. Then -came another, and others, swiftly, till she was afraid to take any more -away. - -At last there was a whole gray lock. She tucked it in and pinned it -beneath the nondescript mass of her coiffure. It would have terrified -her more if she had not been so busy. She chattered and proffered her -wares all day long. Hunger became one of her most sincere emotions. -Fatigue wore her out but strengthened her, sweetened her sleep, kept -dreams away. When she woke she must hurry, hurry to the store. The old -stupidity of her life had given way to an eternal hurry. - -And now the white hairs were hurrying, too, like the snowflakes that -suddenly fill the air. But with this snow came the quickening of pulse -and glistening of eyes, the reddening of cheeks that the snow brings. - -The white fell about her hair as if she stood bareheaded in a -snow-storm. There was a kind of benediction in it. She felt that it -softened something about her face, as the snow softens old rubbish-heaps -and dreary yards and bleak patches. - -People began to say, "How well you look, Debby!" They began to dignify -her as "Deborah" or "Miss Larrabee." Her old contemners came to her -counter with a new meekness. Age was making it harder and harder for -them to keep the pace. Bright colors did not become them any longer. -Their petals were falling from them, the velvet was turning to plush, -and the plush losing its nap, rusting, sagging, wearing through. The -years, like moths, were gnawing, gnawing. - -Debby felt so sorry for the women who had been beautiful. She could -imagine how the decay of rosehood must hurt. It is not necessary to have -been Napoleon to understand Elba. - - -One day a sad, heavy figure dragged along Deborah's aisle and sank upon -the mushroom stool in front of her. Deborah could hardly believe that -it was Josie Shillaber. She could hardly force back the shock that -leaped to her expression. From thin, white lips crumpled with pain came -a voice like a rustling of dead leaves in a November gust. And the -voice said, with a kind of envy in it: - -"Why, Deborah, how well you look!" - -"Oh, I am well!" Deborah chanted, then repressed her cheer -unconsciously. It was not tactful to be too well. "That is, I'm -tol'able. And how are you this awful weather?" - -"Not well, Debby. I'm not a bit well; no, I'm never well any more. -Why, your hair is getting right white, isn't it, dear? But it's real -becoming to you. Mine is all gray, too, you see, but it's awful!" - -"Indeed it's not! It's fine! Your children must love it. Don't they?" - -"Oh, the children!" Josie wailed. "What do they think of me? The grown -ones are away, all flirting and getting married. They say they'll come -back, but they never do. But I don't care. I don't want them to see me -like this. And the young ones are so selfish and inconsiderate. It's -awful, getting old, isn't it, Debby? It don't seem to worry you, -though. I suppose it's because you haven't had sorrow in your life as I -have. I'm looking for something to wear, Debby. The styles aren't what -they used to be. There's not a thing fit to wear to a dog-fight in -these new colors. What are people coming to? I can't find a thing to -wear. What would you suggest? Do help me!" - -Deborah emptied the shelves upon the counter, sent to the stock-room for -new shipments that had not been listed yet, ransacked the place; but -there was nothing there for the woman whose husband owned it all. The -physician's wife was sick with time, and even he could not cure her of -that. The draper's wife was turning old; he could not swaddle her from -the chill of that winter. Josie was trying to dress up a rose whose -petals had fallen, whose sepals were curled back; the husk could not -endure colors that the blossom had honored. - -Josie, however, would not acknowledge the inevitable autumn; she would -not grow old with the grace of resignation. She limped from the store, -shaking her unlovely head. Could this be Josie Shillaber, who had -romped through life with beauty in and about everything she was and wore -and did? - -Deborah could have moralized over her as Hamlet over Yorick's skull: -Where be your petal cheeks, your full, red lips, your concise chin, and -that long, lithe throat, and those pearly shoulders, and all that -high-breasted, spindle-hipped, lean-limbed girlishness of yours? And -where your velocity, your tireless laughter, your amorous enterprise? - -Could they have ever been a part of this cumberer of the ground, -creeping almost as slowly and heavily as a vine along a cold, gray wall. - -Deborah's hand went to her heart, where there was an ache of pity for -one who had never pitied her. It was Deborah now that was almost -girlish of form; she was only now filling out, taking flesh upon her -bones and rhythm into her members. And that scrawny chicken-chest of -hers was becoming worthy of that so beautiful name for so dear a place; -she was gaining a bosom. She did not know how the whimsical sultan Time -had shifted his favor to her from his other slaves. - -She knew only that Josie was in disgrace with beauty and stared after -her in wet-eyed pity. Who can feel so sorry for a fallen tyrant as the -risen victim of tyranny? - -A few weeks later Deborah went again to the Shillaber house, sat again -on the sofa in the dining-room. The children had all come home. Josie -was in the parlor, almost hidden in flowers. She did not rise to -receive her guests. They all filed by and looked at her and shook their -heads. She did not answer with a nod. Birdaline wept over her, looking -older and terrified. But Pamela was wonderfully pretty in black. She -sang Josie's favorite hymn, "Jesus, lover of my soul," with a quartet -accompanying her. Then the preacher said a few words and prayed. - -Mr. Crankshaw was there, and so were his camp-stools. One of them had -collapsed, and the bass of the choir had been unable to open his. Some -of the young people giggled, as always. But even for them the laughter -was but the automatic whir of a released spring, and there was no mirth -in the air. - -Deborah was filled with a cowering awe, as one who sees a storm rush -past and is unhurt save by the vision of its wreckage. The girl Pamela -had sung here a year or so ago that song to the rose, and had shredded -the flower and ruined it and tossed it aside. So time had sung away the -rose that had been Josie. Deborah had heard the rose cry out in its -agony of dissolution, and now it was fallen from the bush, scentless and -dead. But it had left at least other buds to replace it. That was more -than Deborah had ever done. - -The store was closed the day of the funeral, and Deborah went home with -her mother. All that her mother could talk about was: - -"Poor Josie! But did you see Birdaline? My, how poorly she looks! And -so kind of scared. And she used to be such a nice-looking girl! My, -how she has aged! Poor Josie! But Birdaline! What was she so scared -about?" - -It was the very old triumphing over the old for meeting the same fate. -In her own summer Mrs. Larrabee had been a rose and had shriveled on the -stem. - -That night Deborah thanked God that He had not lent her beauty. Its -repayment was such ruin. - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - -The next morning the Bazar was open at the regular hour. Shoppers open -at the regular hour. Shoppers came as numerously as before. People -were as eager as ever to enhance their charms or disguise their flaws. -In a few days Asaph Shillaber was again in his office. He wore black -always, and a black tie, and he moved about with mourning in his manner. - -A month later his cravat was brown, not black, and the next week it was -red. He was taking more care of his costume. He talked more with the -women customers, especially the young women, and he did not keep his eye -anxiously on the front door. He rubbed his hands once more, -recommending his goods. - -In a few months younger girls were behind many of the counters. Deborah -felt that youth was invading and replacing. She wondered how soon her -turn would come. It would be a sad day, for she loved the work. - -But she took some reassurance from the praises of Asaph. He paused now -and then to compliment her on a sale or her progress. He led up to her -some of his most particular customers and introduced her with a -flourish. Sometimes he paused as he went down the aisle, and turned back -to stare at her. She knew that she had blushed, because her face was -hot, and once Mrs. Crankshaw, who was trying to match a sample, -whispered to her: - -"Say, Deborah, what kind of rouge do you use? It gives you the nicest -color, and it looks like real." - -When Deborah denied that she painted, the undertaker's wife was angry. -She thought Deborah was trying to copyright her complexion. Deborah's -cheeks tactfully turned pale again, now that Asaph had taken his strange -eyes from her, and now the woman said: - -"You're right; it's your own. It comes and goes! Look, now it's coming -back again." - -And so was Asaph. When Mrs. Crankshaw had moved off Asaph hung about -awkwardly. Finally he put the backs of his knuckles on the counter and -leaned across to murmur: - -"Say, Debby, I was telling Jim Crawford yesterday that you made more -sales than any other clerk in the shop this last month." - -"Oh, really, did I?" Deborah gasped, her eyes snapping like electric -sparks. They seemed to jolt Asaph; he fell back a little. Then he -leaned closer. - -"Crawford said he'd like to have you in his store. I told him you were -a fixture here. Don't you leave me, Debby. You won't, will you?" - -"Why, Asaph!" she cried. - -"Leastways, you'll let me know any offer you get before you take it. -You can promise me that, can't you?" - -"Of course I will, but- Well, I never!" - -This last was true. She never had known till now that superlative -rapture of a woman, to have one man trying to take her away from -another. Debby had not known it even as a little girl, for if two boys -claimed the same dance-which had happened rarely enough-they did not -wrangle and fight, but each yielded to the other with a courtesy that -was odious. - -On her way home Deborah began to doubt the possibility of it all. Asaph -had been talking about somebody else, or he had been joking-he was such -a terrible fellow to cook up things and fool people! Or else Jim -Crawford was just making fun of Asaph. She would not tell her mother -this news. - -That night, as she was washing the dishes after her late supper, the -door-bell burred. - -"You go, mother, will you? My hands are all suds." - -Mrs. Larrabee hobbled slowly to the hall door, but came back with a -burst of unsuspected speed. She was pale with fright. - -"It's a man!" she whispered. - -"A man! Who could it be?" Debby gasped. - -"One of those daylight burglars, prob'ly. What 'll we do?" - -"We could run out the back door while he's at the front." - -"He might have a confederut waiting to grab us there." - -"That's so!" - -What possible motive a burglar could have for grabbing these two women, -what possible value they would have for him, they did not inquire. But -Debby, in the new executive habit of her mind, grew bold enough to take -at least a peek at the stranger. - -The bell continued to ring while she tiptoed into the parlor and lifted -the shade slightly aside. She speedily recognized a familiar suit. - -"It's old Jim Crawford," she said. - -There was a panic of another sort now, getting Debby's hands dry, her -sleeves down, her apron off, her hair puffed, the lamp in the parlor -lighted. Old Jim Crawford was some minutes older before he was -admitted. - -It was the first male caller Deborah had had since her mother could -remember. The old lady received him with a flourish that would have -befitted a king. That he was a widower and, for Carthage, wealthy may -have had something to do with it. A fantastic hope that at last -somebody had come to propose to Deborah excited her mother so that she -took herself out of the way as soon as the weather had been decently -discussed. - -Mr. Crawford made a long and ponderous effort at small talk and came -round to his errand with the subtlety of an ocean liner warping into its -slip. At length he mumbled that if Miss Debby ever got tired of -Shillaber's there was a chance he might make a place for her in his own -store. O' course, times was dull, and he had more help 'n he'd any call -for, but he was a man who believed in bein' neighborly to old friends, -and, knowin' her father and all- - -It was such a luxury to Deborah to be sought after, even with this -hippopotamine stealth, that she rather prolonged the suspense and teased -Crawford to an offer, and to an increase in that before she told him -that she would have to "think it over." - -He lingered on the porch steps to offer Deborah "anything within -reason," but she still told him she would think it over. When she -thought it over she felt that it would be base ingratitude to desert -Asaph Shillaber, who had saved her from starvation by taking her into -his beautiful shop. No bribe should decoy her thence so long as he -wanted her. - -She did not even tell Asaph about it the next day. A week later he -asked her if Crawford had spoken to her. She said that he had mentioned -the subject, but that, of course, she had refused to consider leaving -the man who had done everything in the world for her. - -This shy announcement seemed to exert an immense effect on Asaph. He -thanked her as if she had saved his life. And he stared at her more than -ever. - -A few evenings later there was another ring at the Larrabee bell. This -time Mrs. Larrabee showed no alarm except that she might be late to the -door. It was Asaph! He was as sheepish as a boy. He said that it was -kind of lonesome over to his house and, seeing their light, he kind of -thought he'd drop round and be a little neighborly. Everybody was -growing more neighborly nowadays. - -Once more Mrs. Larrabee vanished. As she sat in the dining-room, -pretending to knit, she thought how good it was to have a man in the -house. The rumble of a deep voice was so comfortable that she fell -asleep long before Asaph could bring himself to going home. - -He had previously sought diversion in the society of some of the very -young and very pretty salesgirls in his store, but he found that, for -all their graces, their prattle bored him. They talked all about -themselves or their friends. Debby talked to Asaph about Asaph. He and -she had been children together-they were of the same generation; she was -a sensible woman, and she had learned much at the counter-school. He -got to dropping round right often. - -That long-silent door bell became a thing to listen for of evenings. -Jim Crawford dropped round now and then; the elderly floor-walker at -Shillaber's dropped round one night and talked styles and fabrics and -gossip in a cackling voice. When he had left, the matchmaker's instinct -led Mrs. Larrabee to warn Debby not to waste her time on him. "Two old -maids talkin' at once is more'n I can stand." - -Three times that year Newt Meldrum was in town and called on Deborah. -She asked him to supper once, and he simply raved over the salt-rising -biscuits and the peach-pusserves. After supper he asked if he might -smoke. That was the last word in masculine possession. If frankincense -and myrrh had been shaken about the room Debby and Mrs. Larrabee could -not have cherished them as they did the odor of tobacco in the curtains -next day. Mrs. Larrabee cried a little. Her husband had smoked. - -Deborah was only now passing through the stages the average woman -travels in her teens and early twenties, Deborah was having callers. -Sometimes two men came at once and tried to freeze each other out. And -finally she had a proposal!-from Asaph!-from Josie's and Birdaline's -Asaph! They had left him alone with Debby once too often. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - -It was not a romantic wooing, and Asaph was not offering the first love -Asaph was not offering the first love of a bachelor heart. He was a -trade-broken widower with a series of assorted orphans on his hands. -And his declaration was dragged out of him by jealousy and fear. - -Jim Crawford, after numerous failures to decoy Deborah, had at last -offered her the position of head saleswoman; this included not only -authority and increase of pay, but two trips a year to New York as -buyer! - -Deborah's soul hungered to make that journey before she died, but she -put even this temptation from her as an ingratitude to Asaph. Still, -when Asaph called the next evening it amused her to tell him that she -was going to transfer herself to Crawford's-just to see what he would -say and to amuse him. Her trifling joke brought a drama down on her -head. - -Asaph turned pale, gulped: "You're going to leave me, Deborah! Why, I-I -couldn't get along without you. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't -talk to you all the time. Jim Crawford's in love with you, the old -scoundrel! But I won't let you marry him. I got a nicer house than -what he has for you to live in, too. There's the childern, of course, -but you like childern. They'd love you. They need mothering something -awful. I been meaning to ask you to marry me, but I was afraid to. But -I couldn't let you go. You won't, will you? I want you should marry -me-right off. You will, won't you?" - -Deborah stared at him agape. Then she cried: "Asaph Shillaber, are you -proposing to me or quarreling with me-which?" - -"I'm proposin' to you, darn it, and I won't take 'No' for an answer." - -Deborah had often wondered what she would say if the impossible should -happen and a man should ask for her hand. And now it had come in the -unlikeliest way, and what she said was: - -"Sakes alive! Ase, one of us must be crazy!" - -Asaph was in a panic; and he besieged and besought till she told him she -would think it over. The sensation was too delicious to be finished -with an immediate monosyllable. He went away blustering. Her mother had -slept through the cataclysm. Deborah postponed telling her, and went to -her room in a state of ecstatic distress. - -Her room was prettier than it had been, and the bureau was more bravely -equipped. It was a place of interesting mystery; there were -curling-irons and skin-foods and nail-powders, and what not? - -Now she was asked to give up this loneliness, this lifelong privacy, -with its blessing and its bane, to move over into a man's house and -share his room and her life with him. - -Only, now she was asked this at the period when many women were -returning to a second spinstership and one of her friends, who had -married young and whose daughter had married young, was a grandmother. -Deborah was experiencing the terror that assails young brides, the dread -of the profoundest revolution in woman's life. Only in her case the -terror was the greater from the double duration of her maidenhood. She -was still a girl, and yet gray was in her hair. - -The thought of marriage was almost intolerably fearful, and yet it was -almost intolerably beautiful. - -How wonderful that she should be asked to marry the ideal of her -youth-she, the laughing-stock of the other girls; and now she could have -a husband, a home, and children of various ages, from the little tot to -the grown-ups. She would never have babies of her own, she supposed, -but she could acquire them ready-made. All her stifled domestic -instincts flamed at the new empire offered her. - -And then she remembered Josie and Josie's sneer: "Poor old Debby. She -never was a rose." - -And now Josie was dead a year and more, and Josie's children and Josie's -lover were submitted to her to take or leave. What a revenge it would -be! What a squaring of old accounts! How she would turn the laugh back -on them! How well she could laugh who waited to the last! - -Then she shook her head. What had she to do with revenge? What meaner -advantage could anybody take than to flaunt a dead enemy's colors? We -can all deal sharply with our friends, but we must be magnanimous with -our foes. - -No, it was impossible. Josie had suffered enough in the ebb of her -beauty. Debby could not strike at her in her grave. - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - -She waited to announce her decision till Asaph should call again. Then -till Asaph should call again. Then she told him what she had decided, -but not why. He suspected every other reason except the truth. He was -always a quick, hard fighter, and now Deborah had to endure what Josie -had endured all her life. He denounced her, threatened her, cajoled -her, pleaded with her, but Josie's ghost chaperoned the two, forbade the -banns, seemed to whisper, "His bad temper was what ruined my beauty." - -The next day in the store Asaph looked wretched. Deborah grew the more -desirable for her denial. He had thought that he had but to ask her; -and now she refused his beseeching. He paused before her counter and -begged her to reconsider. - -He called at her home every evening. He went to her mother and implored -her aid. The poor old soul could hardly believe her ears when she heard -that Deborah was not only desired, but difficult. She promised Asaph -that Deborah would yield, and he went away happy. - -There was a weird conflict in the forsaken house that night. The old -pictures nearly fell off the walls at the sight of the stupefied mother -trying to compel that lifelong virgin to the altar. Mrs. Larrabee -pointed out that there would never be another chance. The A.G.&St.P.Ry. -was in the receiver's hands. They would starve if Deborah lost her job. - -Deborah's only answer was that she would go to Crawford's. Her mother -could not shake her decision, and hobbled off to bed in senile dismay. -She had always been asking what the world was coming to, and now it was -there. Deborah's heart was a whirlpool of indecision. Asaph's gloom -appalled her, his evident need of her was his one unanswerable argument. -He had given her her start in life. How could she desert his store, how -could she refuse him his prayer? But how could she take Josie's place, -kidnap Josie's children? Why was such a puzzle forced upon her, where -every decision was cruel to some one, treacherous to something? - -The turmoil made such a din in her soul that she could hardly transact -the business at her counter. As she stood one morning asking a startled -shopper if a bolt of maroon taffeta matched a clipping of magenta satin, -she saw Newton Meldrum enter the store. As he went by to the office he -saw her, lifted his hat, held it in air while he gazed, then went on. - -It occurred to Deborah that he could help her. She could lay the case -before him, and he would give her an impartial decision. She waited for -him, and when he left the office she beckoned to him and asked him shyly -if he would take supper with her and her mother. - -"You bet I will!" he said, and stared at her so curiously that she -flashed red. - -Through the supper, too, he stared at her so hard that she buttered her -thumb instead of her salt-rising biscuit. Afterward she led him to the -parlor and closed the door on her mother. This was in itself an -epoch-making deed. Then she said to Newt: "Better light the longest -cigar you have, for I have a long story to tell you. Got a match?" - -He had, but he said he hadn't. She fetched one, and was so confused -that she lighted it for him. Her hand trembled till he had to steady it -with his own big fingers, and he stared at her instead of at the match, -whose flickering rays lighted her face eerily. - -When she had him settled in a chair-the best patent rocker it was-she -told him her story. There is no surer test of character than the -problem a mind extracts from a difficulty. As Meldrum watched this -simple, starved soul stating its bewilderment he saw that her one -concern was what she should do to be truest to other souls. There was -no question of her own advantage. - -He studied her earnestly, and his eyes were veiled with a kind of smoke -of their own behind the scarf of tobacco-fumes. When she had finished -she raised her eyes to his in meek appeal and murmured, "And now what -ought I to do?" - -He gazed at her a long while before he answered, "Do you want to go to -Crawford's?" - -"Well, I'd get more money and I'd get to see New York, but I don't like -to leave Asaph. He says he needs me." - -"Do you-do you want to marry Asaph?" - -"Oh no! I-I like him awfully much, but I-I'm kind of afraid of him, too. -But he says he needs me; and Josie's children need me, he says." - -"But do you-l-love Asaph?" - -"Oh no! not the kind of love, that is, that you read about. No, I'm -kind of afraid of him. But I'm not expecting the kind of love you read -about. I'm wondering what I ought to do?" - -"And you want me to decide?" - -"If you only would." - -"Why do you leave it to me, of all people?" - -"Because you're such a fine man; you know so much. I have more-more -respect for you than for anybody else I know." - -"You have!" - -"Oh yes! Oh yes, indeed!" - -"And you'll do what I tell you to?" - -"Ye-yes, I will." - -"Promise?" - -"I promise." - -"Give me your hand on it." - -He rose and stood before her and put forth that great palm of his, and -she set her slim white fingers in it. And then there must have been an -earthquake or something, for suddenly she was swept to her feet and she -was enveloped in his big arms and crushed against him, and his big mouth -was pressed so fiercely to hers that she could not breathe. - -She was so frightened that her heart seemed to break. And then she knew -nothing till she found herself in the patent rocker, with him kneeling -at her side, pleading with her to forgive him for the brute he was. - -She was very weak and very much afraid of him and entirely bewildered. -She wanted to run away, but he would not let her rise. The only thing -that eased her was his saying over and over again, "You are the most -beautiful thing in this world." - -She had to laugh at that, and she heard herself saying, "Why, Newt -Meldrum, one of us must be crazy!" - -"I am-crazy with love of you." - -"But to call me beautiful-poor old Debby!" - -"You are beautiful; you're the handsomest woman I know." - -"Me-with my white hair!" - -"White roses. I don't know what's happened to you. You're not the -woman I talked to at Asaph's, at all. You're like a girl-with silver -hair-only you've got a woman's big heart, and you haven't the -selfishness of the young, but that kind of wonderful sadness that -sweetens a soul more than anything else." - -Meldrum was as much amazed as Deborah was at hearing such rhapsodies -from his matter-of-fact soul. - -Her comment was prosaic enough. She fell back and sighed. "Well, I -guess both of us must be crazy." - -"I guess we are." He laughed boyishly. "We'd better get married and -keep the insanity in one family." - -"Get married!" she echoed, still befuddled. "And after you telling me -what you did!" - -"Yes, but I didn't know the Lord was at work on a masterpiece like -you-girl, woman, grandmother, child, beauty, brains-all in one." - -Deborah was as exhausted by the shock as if she had been stunned by -lightning. She was tired out with the first kiss an impassioned man had -ever pressed upon her lips, the first bone-threatening hug an ursine -lover had ever inflicted upon her wicker ribs. - -She was more afraid of Newt Meldrum than she had been of Asaph. But -when she told him she would think it over he declined to wait. He -laughed at her pleas. She had promised to abide by his decision, and he -had decided that she should go neither to Asaph's nor to Crawford's, but -to New York-not as any old buyer, either, except of things for her own -beautiful body and some hats for that fleecy white hair of hers. And -she should live in New York, take her mother there if she wanted, and -close up this house after they had been married in it. - -She had been shaking her head to all these things and dismissing them -gently as the ravings of a delirious boy. But now she said: "Oh, I -could never be married in this town." - -"And why not?" - -"Oh, I don't know. I just couldn't." - -She was still afraid that people would laugh at her, but more afraid -that they would think she was trying to flaunt her triumph over them-the -triumph of marrying the great Newton Meldrum. She could bear the -laughter; she was used to the town's ridicule. But she could not endure -to be triumphing over anybody. - -Meldrum did not fret over her motives; he simply nodded. - -"All right; then we'll be married in New York. How soon can you start?" - -She stared at him, this amazing man. "How soon? Why, I haven't said I'd -marry you yet! I'll have to think it over." - -He laughed and crushed her in his arms and would not let her breathe -till she breathed "Yes." He was the most amazing man. But, then, men -were all so amazing when you got to know them. 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