diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/ytspr10.txt | 1258 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/ytspr10.zip | bin | 0 -> 21079 bytes |
2 files changed, 1258 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/ytspr10.txt b/old/ytspr10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d8cfe19 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ytspr10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1258 @@ +*The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Yates Pride by Mary Freeman* +Mary E. Wilkins Freeman + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +The Yates Pride + +by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman + +July, 1997 [Etext #978] + + +*The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Yates Pride by Mary Freeman* +******This file should be named ytspr10.txt or ytspr10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, ytspr11.txt. +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, ytspr10a.txt. + + +This etext was created by Judith Boss, Omaha, Nebraska. + + +We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance +of the official release dates, for time for better editing. + + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an +up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes +in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has +a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a +look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a +new copy has at least one byte more or less. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-two text +files per month: or 400 more Etexts in 1996 for a total of 800. +If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the +total should reach 80 billion Etexts. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by the December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only 10% of the present number of computer users. 2001 +should have at least twice as many computer users as that, so it +will require us reaching less than 5% of the users in 2001. + + +We need your donations more than ever! + + +All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are +tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (CMU = Carnegie- +Mellon University). + +For these and other matters, please mail to: + +Project Gutenberg +P. O. Box 2782 +Champaign, IL 61825 + +When all other email fails try our Executive Director: +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +We would prefer to send you this information by email +(Internet, Bitnet, Compuserve, ATTMAIL or MCImail). + +****** +If you have an FTP program (or emulator), please +FTP directly to the Project Gutenberg archives: +[Mac users, do NOT point and click. . .type] + +ftp uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd etext/etext90 through /etext96 +or cd etext/articles [get suggest gut for more information] +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET INDEX?00.GUT +for a list of books +and +GET NEW GUT for general information +and +MGET GUT* for newsletters. + +**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor** +(Three Pages) + + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG- +tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor +Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at +Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project"). Among other +things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- + cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + net profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was created by Judith Boss, Omaha, Nebraska. + + + + + +THE YATES PRIDE +A ROMANCE + +BY +MARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN + + + + +PART I + + +THE YATES PRIDE + +Opposite Miss Eudora Yates's old colonial mansion was the perky +modern Queen Anne residence of Mrs. Joseph Glynn. Mrs. Glynn had +a daughter, Ethel, and an unmarried sister, Miss Julia +Esterbrook. All three were fond of talking, and had many callers +who liked to hear the feebly effervescent news of Wellwood. This +afternoon three ladies were there: Miss Abby Simson, Mrs. John +Bates, and Mrs. Edward Lee. They sat in the Glynn sitting-room, +which shrilled with treble voices as if a flock of sparrows had +settled therein. + +The Glynn sitting-room was charming, mainly because of the +quantity of flowering plants. Every window was filled with them, +until the room seemed like a conservatory. Ivy, too, climbed +over the pictures, and the mantel-shelf was a cascade of +wandering Jew, growing in old china vases. + +"Your plants are really wonderful, Mrs. Glynn," said Mrs. Bates, +"but I don't see how you manage to get a glimpse of anything +outside the house, your windows are so full of them." + +"Maybe she can see and not be seen," said Abby Simson, who had a +quick wit and a ready tongue. + +Mrs. Joseph Glynn flushed a little. "I have not the slightest +curiosity about my neighbors," she said, "but it is impossible to +live just across the road from any house without knowing +something of what is going on, whether one looks or not," said +she, with dignity. + +"Ma and I never look out of the windows from curiosity," said +Ethel Glynn, with spirit. Ethel Glynn had a great deal of +spirit, which was evinced in her personal appearance as well as +her tongue. She had an eye to the fashions; her sleeves were +never out of date, nor was the arrangement of her hair. + +"For instance," said Ethel, "we never look at the house opposite +because we are at all prying, but we do know that that old maid +has been doing a mighty queer thing lately." + +"First thing you know you will be an old maid yourself, and then +your stones will break your own glass house," said Abby Simson. + +"Oh, I don't care," retorted Ethel. "Nowadays an old maid isn't +an old maid except from choice, and everybody knows it. But it +must have been different in Miss Eudora's time. Why, she is older +than you are, Miss Abby." + +"Just five years," replied Abby, unruffled, "and she had chances, +and I know it." + +"Why didn't she take them, then?" + +"Maybe," said Abby, "girls had choice then as much as now, but I +never could make out why she didn't marry Harry Lawton." + +Ethel gave her head a toss. "Maybe," said she, "once in a while, +even so long ago, a girl wasn't so crazy to get married as folks +thought. Maybe she didn't want him." + +"She did want him," said Abby. "A girl doesn't get so pale and +peaked-looking for nothing as Eudora Yates did, after she had +dismissed Harry Lawton and he had gone away, nor haunt the +post-office as she used to, and, when she didn't get a letter, go +away looking as if she would die." + +"Maybe," said Ethel, "her folks were opposed." + +"Nobody ever opposed Eudora Yates except her own self," replied +Abby. "Her father was dead, and Eudora's ma thought the sun rose +and set in her. She would never have opposed her if she had +wanted to marry a foreign duke or the old Harry himself." + +"I remember it perfectly," said Mrs. Joseph Glynn. + +"So do I," said Julia Esterbrook. + +"Don't see why you shouldn't. You were plenty old enough to have +your memory in good working order if it was ever going to be," +said Abby Simson. + +"Well," said Ethel, "it is the funniest thing I ever heard of. +If a girl wanted a man enough to go all to pieces over him, and +he wanted her, why on earth didn't she take him?" + +"Maybe they quarreled," ventured Mrs. Edward Lee, who was a mild, +sickly-looking woman and seldom expressed an opinion. + +"Well, that might have been," agreed Abby, "although Eudora +always had the name of having a beautiful disposition." + +"I have always found," said Mrs. Joseph Glynn, with an air of +wisdom, "that it is the beautiful dispositions which are the most +set the minute they get a start the wrong way. It is the +always-flying-out people who are the easiest to get on with in +the long run." + +"Well," said Abby, "maybe that is so, but folks might get worn +all to a frazzle by the flying-out ones before the long run. I'd +rather take my chances with a woman like Eudora. She always seems +just so, just as calm and sweet. When the Ames's barn, that was +next to hers, burned down and the wind was her way, she just +walked in and out of her house, carrying the things she valued +most, and she looked like a picture--somehow she had got all +dressed fit to make calls--and there wasn't a muscle of her face +that seemed to move. Eudora Yates is to my mind the most +beautiful woman in this town, old or young, I don't care who she +is." + +"I suppose," said Julia Esterbrook, "that she has a lot of +money." + +"I wonder if she has," said Mrs. John Bates. + +The others stared at her. "What makes you think she hasn't?" +Mrs. Glynn inquired, sharply. + +"Nothing," said Mrs. Bates, and closed her thin lips. She would +say no more, but the others had suspicions, because her husband, +John Bates, was a wealthy business man. + +"I can't believe she has lost her money," said Mrs. Glynn. "She +wouldn't have been such a fool as to do what she has if she +hadn't money." + +"What has she done?" asked Mrs. Bates, eagerly. + +"What has she done?" asked Abby, and Mrs. Lee looked up +inquiringly. + +The faces of Mrs. Glynn, her daughter, and her sister became +important, full of sly and triumphant knowledge. + +"Haven't you heard?" asked Mrs. Glynn. + +"Yes, haven't you?" asked Ethel. + +"Haven't any of you heard?" asked Julia Esterbrook. + +"No," admitted Abby, rather feebly. "I don't know as I have." + +"Do you mean about Eudora's going so often to the Lancaster +girls' to tea?" asked Mrs. John Bates, with a slight bridle of +possible knowledge. + +"I heard of that," said Mrs. Lee, not to be outdone. + +"Land, no," replied Mrs. Glynn. "Didn't she always go there? It +isn't that. It is the most unheard-of thing she had done; but no +woman, unless she had plenty of money to bring it up, would have +done it." + +"To bring what up?" asked Abby, sharply. Her eyes looked as +small and bright as needles. + +Julia regarded her with intense satisfaction. "What do women +generally bring up?" said she. + +"I don't know of anything they bring up, whether they have it or +not, except a baby," retorted Abby, sharply. + +Julia wilted a little; but her sister, Mrs. Glynn, was not +perturbed. She launched her thunderbolt of news at once, aware +that the critical moment had come, when the quarry of suspicion +had left the bushes. + +"She has adopted a baby," said she, and paused like a woman who +had fired a gun, half scared herself and shrinking from the +report. + +Ethel seconded her mother. "Yes," said she, "Miss Eudora has +adopted a baby, and she has a baby-carriage, and she wheels it +out any time she takes a notion." Ethel's speech was of the +nature of an after-climax. The baby-carriage weakened the +situation. + +The other women seized upon the idea of the carriage to cover +their surprise and prevent too much gloating on the part of Mrs. +Glynn, Ethel, and Julia. + +"Is it a new carriage?" inquired Mrs. Lee. + +"No, it looks like one that came over in the ark," retorted Mrs. +Glynn. Then she repeated: "She has adopted a baby," but this time +there was no effect of an explosion. However, the treble chorus +rose high, "Where did she get the baby? Was it a boy or a girl? +Why did she adopt it? Did it cry much?" and other queries, none +of which Mrs. Glynn, Ethel, and Julia could answer very decidedly +except the last. They all announced that the adopted baby was +never heard to cry at all. + +"Must be a very good child," said Abby. + +"Must be a very healthy child," said Mrs. Lee, who had had +experience with crying babies. + +"Well, she has it, anyhow," said Mrs. Glynn. + +Right upon the announcement came proof. The beautiful door of +the old colonial mansion opposite was thrown open, and clumsy and +cautious motion was evident. Presently a tall, slender woman +came down the path between the box borders, pushing a +baby-carriage. It was undoubtedly a very old carriage. It must +have dated back to the fifties, if not the forties. It was made +of wood, with a leather buggy-top, and was evidently very heavy. + +Abby eyed it shrewdly. "If I am not mistaken," said she, "that +is the very carriage Eudora herself was wheeled around in when +she was a baby. I am almost sure I have seen that identical +carriage before. When we were girls I used to go to the Yates +house sometimes. Of course, it was always very formal, a little +tea-party for Eudora, with her mother on hand, but I feel sure +that I saw that carriage there one of those times. + +"I suppose it cost a lot of money, in the time of it. The +Yateses always got the very best for Eudora," said Julia. "And +maybe Eudora goes about so little she doesn't realize how out of +date the carriage is, but I should think it would be very heavy +to wheel, especially if the baby is a good-sized one." + +"It looks like a very large baby," said Ethel. "Of course, it is +so rolled up we can't tell." + +"Haven't you gone out and asked to see the baby?" said Abby. + +"Would we dare unless Eudora Yates offered to show it?" said +Julia, with a surprised air; and the others nodded assent. Then +they all crowded to the front windows and watched from behind the +screens of green flowering things. It was very early in the +spring. Fairly hot days alternated with light frosts. The trees +were touched with sprays of rose and gold and gold-green, but the +wind still blew cold from the northern snows, and the occupant of +Eudora's ancient carriage was presumably wrapped well to shelter +it from harm. There was, in fact, nothing to be seen in the +carriage, except a large roll of blue and white, as Eudora +emerged from the yard and closed the iron gate of the tall fence +behind her. + +Through this fence pricked the evergreen box, and the deep yard +was full of soft pastel tints of reluctantly budding trees and +bushes. There was one deep splash of color from a yellow bush in +full bloom. + +Eudora paced down the sidewalk with a magnificent, stately gait. +There was something rather magnificent in her whole appearance. +Her skirts of old, but rich, black fabric swept about her long, +advancing limbs; she held her black-bonneted head high, as if +crowned. She pushed the cumbersome baby-carriage with no +apparent effort. An ancient India shawl was draped about her +sloping shoulders. + +Eudora, as she passed the Glynn house, turned her face slightly, +so that its pure oval was evident. She was now a beauty in late +middle life. Her hair, of an indeterminate shade, swept in soft +shadows over her ears; her features were regular; her expression +was at once regal and gentle. A charm which was neither of youth +nor of age reigned in her face; her grace had surmounted with +triumphant ease the slope of every year. Eudora passed out of +sight with the baby-carriage, lifting her proud lady-head under +the soft droop of the spring boughs; and her inspectors, whom she +had not seen, moved back from the Glynn windows with exclamations +of astonishment. + +"I wonder," said Abby, "whether she will have that baby call her +ma or aunty." + +Meantime Eudora passed down the village street until she reached +the Lancaster house, about half a mile away on the same side. +There dwelt the Misses Amelia and Anna Lancaster, who were about +Eudora's age, and a widowed sister, Mrs. Sophia Willing, who was +much older. The Lancaster house was also a colonial mansion, +much after the fashion of Eudora's, but it showed signs of +continued opulence. Eudora's, behind her trees and leafing +vines, was gray for lack of paint. Some of the colonial +ornamental details about porches and roof were sloughing off or +had already disappeared. The Lancaster house gleamed behind its +grove of evergreen trees as white and perfect as in its youth. +The windows showed rich slants of draperies behind their green +glister of old glass. + +A gardener, with a boy assistant, was at work in the grounds when +Eudora entered. He touched his cap. He was an old man who had +lived with the Lancasters ever since Eudora could remember. He +advanced toward her now. "Sha'n't Tommy push--the baby-carriage +up to the house for you, Miss Eudora?" he said, in his cracked +old voice. + +Eudora flushed slightly, and, as if in response, the old man +flushed, also. "No, I thank you, Wilson," she said, and moved on. + +The boy, who was raking dry leaves, stood gazing at them with a +shrewd, whimsical expression. He was the old man's grandson. + +"Is that a boy or a girl kid, grandpa?" he inquired, when the +gardener returned. + +"Hold your tongue!" replied the old man, irascibly. Suddenly he +seized the boy by his two thin little shoulders with knotted old +hands. + +"Look at here, Tommy, whatever you know, you keep your mouth +shet, and whatever you don't know, you keep your mouth shet, if +you know what's good for you," he said, in a fierce whisper. + +The boy whistled and shrugged his shoulders loose. "You know I +ain't goin' to tell tales, grandpa," he said, in a curiously +manly fashion. + +The old man nodded. "All right, Tommy. I don't believe you be, +nuther, but you may jest as well git it through your head what's +goin' to happen if you do." + +"Ain't goin' to," returned the boy. He whistled charmingly as he +raked the leaves. His whistle sounded like the carol of a bird. + +Eudora pushed the carriage around to the side door, and +immediately there was a fluttering rush of a slender woman clad +in lavender down the steps. This woman first kissed Eudora with +gentle fervor, then, with a sly look around and voice raised +intentionally high, she lifted the blue and white roll from the +carriage with the tenderest care. "Did the darling come to see +his aunties?" she shrilled. + +The old man and the boy in the front yard heard her distinctly. +The old man's face was imperturbable. The boy grinned. + +Two other women, all clad in lavender, appeared in the doorway. +They also bent over the blue and white bundle. They also said +something about the darling coming to see his aunties. Then +there ensued the softest chorus of lady-laughter, as if at some +hidden joke. + +"Come in, Eudora dear," said Amelia Lancaster. "Yes, come in, +Eudora dear," said Anna Lancaster. "Yes, come in, Eudora dear," +said Sophia Willing. + +Sophia looked much older than her sisters, but with that +exception the resemblance between all three was startling. They +always dressed exactly alike, too, in silken fabric of bluish +lavender, like myrtle blossoms. Some of the poetical souls in the +village called the Lancaster sisters "The ladies in lavender." + +There was an astonishing change in the treatment of the blue and +white bundle when the sisters and Eudora were in the stately old +sitting-room, with its heavy mahogany furniture and its +white-wainscoted calls. Amelia simply tossed the bundle into a +corner of the sofa; then the sisters all sat in a loving circle +around Eudora. + +"Are you sure you are not utterly worn out, dear?" asked Amelia, +tenderly; and the others repeated the question in exactly the +same tone. The Lancaster sisters were not pretty, but all had +charming expressions of gentleness and a dignified good-will and +loving kindness. Their blue eyes beamed love at Eudora, and it +was as if she sat encircled in a soul-ring of affection. + +She responded, and her beautiful face glowed with tenderness and +pleasure, and something besides, which was as the light of +victory. + +"I am not in the least tired, thank you, dears," she replied. +"Why should I be tired? I am very strong." + +Amelia murmured something about such hard work. + +"I never thought it would be hard work taking care of a baby," +replied Eudora, "and especially such a very light baby." + +Something whimsical crept into Eudora's voice; something +whimsical crept into the love-light of the other women's eyes. +Again a soft ripple of mirth swept over them. + +"Especially a baby who never cries," said Amelia. + +"No, he never does cry," said Eudora, demurely. + +They laughed again. Then Amelia rose and left the room to get +the tea-things. The old serving-woman who had lived with them +for many years was suffering from rheumatism, and was cared for +by her daughter in the little cottage across the road from the +Lancaster house. Her husband and grandson were the man and boy +at work in the grounds. The three sisters took care of +themselves and their house with the elegant ease and lack of +fluster of gentlewomen born and bred. Miss Amelia, bringing in +the tea-tray, was an unclassed being, neither maid nor mistress, +but outranking either. She had tied on a white apron. She bore +the silver tray with an ease which bespoke either nerve or muscle +in her lace-draped arms. + +She poured the tea, holding the silver pot high and letting the +amber fluid trickle slowly, and the pearls and diamonds on her +thin hands shone dully. Sophia passed little china plates and +fringed napkins, and Anna a silver basket with golden squares of +sponge-cake. + +The ladies ate and drank, and the blue and white bundle on the +sofa remained motionless. Eudora, after she had finished her +tea, leaned back gracefully in her chair, and her dark eyes +gleamed with its mild stimulus. She remained an hour or more. +When she went out, Amelia slipped an envelope into her hand and +at the same time embraced and kissed her. Sophia and Anna +followed her example. Eudora opened her mouth as if to speak, +but smiled instead, a fond, proud smile. During the last fifteen +minutes of her stay Amelia had slipped out of the room with the +blue and white bundle. Now she brought it out and laid it +carefully in the carriage. + +"We are always so glad to see you, dearest Eudora," said she, +"but you understand --" + +"Yes," said Sophia, "you understand, Eudora dear, that there is +not the slightest haste." + +Eudora nodded, and her long neck seemed to grow longer. + +When she was stepping regally down the path, Amelia said in a +hasty whisper to Sophia: "Did you tell her?" + +Sophia shook her head. "No, sister." + +"I didn't know but you might have, while I was out of the room." + +"I did not," said Sophia. She looked doubtfully at Amelia, then +at Anna, and doubt flashed back and forth between the three pairs +of blue eyes for a second. Then Sophia spoke with authority, +because she was the only one of them all who had entered the +estate of matrimony, and had consequently obvious cognizance of +such matters. + +"I think," said she, "that Eudora should be told that Harry +Lawton has come back and is boarding at the Wellwood Inn." + +"You think," faltered Amelia, "that it is possible she might meet +him unexpectedly?" + +"I certainly do think so. And she might show her feelings in a +way which she would ever afterward regret." + +"You think, then, that she --" + +Sophia gave her sister a look. Amelia fled after Eudora and the +baby-carriage. She overtook her at the gate. She laid her hand +on Eudora's arm, draped with India shawl. + +"Eudora!" she gasped. + +Eudora turned her serene face and regarded her questioningly. + +"Eudora," said Amelia, "have you heard of anybody's coming to +stay at the inn lately?" + +"No," replied Eudora, calmly. "Why, dear?" + +"Nothing, only, Eudora, a dear and old friend of yours, of ours, +is there, so I hear." + +Eudora did not inquire who the old friend might be. "Really?" +she remarked. Then she said, "Goodby, Amelia dear," and resumed +her progress with the baby-carriage. + + + +PART II + +"She never even asked who it was," Amelia reported to her +sisters, when she had returned to the house. "Because she knew," +replied Sophia, sagely; "there has never been any old friend but +that one old friend to come back into Eudora Yates's life." + +"Has he come back into her life, I wonder?" said Amelia. + +"What did he return to Wellwood for if he didn't come for that? +All his relatives are gone. He never married. Yes, he has come +back to see Eudora and marry her, if she will have him. No man +who ever loved Eudora would ever get over loving her. And he +will not be shocked when he sees her. She is no more changed +than a beautiful old statue." + +"HE is changed, though," said Amelia. "I saw him the other day. +He didn't see me, and I would hardly have known him. He has +grown stout, and his hair is gray." + +"Eudora's hair is gray," said Sophia. + +"Yes, but you can see the gold through Eudora's gray. It just +looks as if a shadow was thrown over it. It doesn't change her. +Harry Lawton's gray hair does change him." + +"If," said Anna, sentimentally, "Eudora thinks Harry's hair +turned gray for love of her, you can trust her or any woman to +see the gold through it." + +"Harry's hair was never gold--just an ordinary brown," said +Amelia. "Anyway, the Lawtons turned gray young." + +"She won't think of that at all," said Sophia. + +"I wonder why Eudora always avoided him so, years ago," said +Amelia. + +"Why doesn't a girl in a field of daisies stop to pick one, which +she never forgets?" said Sophia. "Eudora had so many chances, +and I don't think her heart was fixed when she was very young; at +least, I don't think it was fixed so she knew it." + +"I wonder," said Amelia, "if he will go and call on her." + +Amelia privately wished that she lived near enough to know if +Harry Lawton did call. She, as well as Mrs. Joseph Glynn, would +have enjoyed watching out and knowing something of the village +happenings, but the Lancaster house was situated so far from the +road, behind its grove of trees, that nothing whatever could be +seen. + +"I doubt if Eudora tells, if he does call--that is, not unless +something definite happens," said Anna. + +"No," remarked Amelia, sadly. "Eudora is a dear, but she is very +silent with regard to her own affairs." + +"She ought to be," said Sophia, with her married authority. She +was, to her sisters, as one who had passed within the shrine and +was dignifiedly silent with regard to its intimate mysteries. + +"I suppose so," assented Anna, with a soft sigh. Amelia sighed +also. Then she took the tea-tray out of the room. She had to +make some biscuits for supper. + +Meantime Eudora was pacing homeward with the baby-carriage. Her +serene face was a little perturbed. Her oval cheeks were flushed, +and her mouth now and then trembled. She had, if she followed +her usual course, to pass the Wellwood Inn, but she could +diverge, and by taking a side street and walking a half-mile +farther reach home without coming in sight of the inn. She did +so to-day. + +When she reached the side street she turned rather swiftly and +gave a little sigh of relief. She was afraid that she might meet +Harry Lawton. It was a lonely way. There was a brook on one +side, bordered thickly with bushy willows which were turning +gold-green. On the other side were undulating pasture-lands on +which grazed a few sheep. There were no houses until she reached +the turn which would lead back to the main street, on which her +home was located. + +Eudora was about midway of this street when she saw a man +approaching. He was a large man clad in gray, and he was +swinging an umbrella. Somehow the swing of that umbrella, even +from a distance, gave an impression of embarrassment and boyish +hesitation. Eudora did not know him at first. She had expected +to see the same Harry Lawton who had gone away. She did not +expect to see a stout, middle-aged man, but a slim youth. + +However, as they drew nearer each other, she knew; and curiously +enough it was that swing of the tightly furled umbrella which +gave her the clue. She knew Harry because of that. It was a +little boyish trick which had survived time. It was too late for +her to draw back, for he had seen her, and Eudora was keenly +alive to the indignity of abruptly turning and scuttling away +with the tail of her black silk swishing, her India shawl +trailing, and the baby-carriage bumping over the furrows. She +continued, and Harry Lawton continued, and they met. + +Harry Lawton had known Eudora at once. She looked the same to +him as when she had been a girl, and he looked the same to her +when he spoke. + +"Hullo, Eudora," said Harry Lawton, in a ludicrously boyish +fashion. His face flushed, too, like a boy. He extended his hand +like a boy. The man, seen near at hand, was a boy. In reality he +himself had not changed. A few layers of flesh and a change of +color-cells do not make another man. He had always been a simple, +sincere, friendly soul, beloved of men and women alike, and he +was that now. Eudora held out her hand, and her eyes fell before +the eyes of the man, in an absurd fashion for such a stately +creature as she. But the man himself acted like a great happy +overgrown school-boy. + +"Hullo, Eudora," he said again. + +"Hullo," said she, falteringly. + +It was inconceivable that they should meet in such wise after the +years of separation and longing which they had both undergone; +but each took refuge, as it were, in a long-past youth, even +childhood, from the fierce tension of age. When they were both +children they had been accustomed to pass each other on the +village street with exactly such salutation, and now both +reverted to it. The tall, regal woman in her India shawl and the +stout, middle-aged man had both stepped back to their +vantage-ground of springtime to meet. + +However, after a moment, Eudora reasserted herself. "I only +heard a short time ago that you were here," she said, in her +usual even voice. The fair oval of her face was as serene and +proud toward the man as the face of the moon. + +The man swung his umbrella, then began prodding the ground with +it. "Hullo, Eudora," he said again; then he added: "How are you, +anyway? Fine and well?" + +"I am very well, thank you," said Eudora. "So you have come home +to Wellwood after all this time?" + +The man made an effort and recovered himself, although his +handsome face was burning. + +"Yes," he remarked, with considerable ease and dignity, to which +he had a right, for Harry Lawton had not made a failure of his +life, even though it had not included Eudora and a fulfilled +dream. + +"Yes," he continued, "I had some leisure; in fact, I have this +spring retired from business; and I thought I would have a look +at the old place. Very little changed I am happy to find it." + +"Yes, it is very little changed," assented Eudora; "at least, it +seems so to me, but it is not for a life-long dweller in any +place to judge of change. It is for the one who goes and returns +after many years." + +There was a faint hint of proud sadness in Eudora's voice as she +spoke the last two words. + +"It has been many years," said Lawton, gravely, "and I wonder if +it has seemed so to you." + +Eudora held her head proudly. "Time passes swiftly," said she, +tritely. + +"But sometimes it may seem long in the passing, however swift," +said Lawton, "though I suppose it has not to you. You look just +the same," he added, regarding her admiringly. + +Eudora flushed a little. "I must be changed," she murmured. + +"Not a bit. I would have known you anywhere. But I--" + +"I knew you the minute you spoke." + +"Did you?" he asked, eagerly. "I was afraid I had grown so stout +you would not remember me at all. Queer how a man will grow +stout. I am not such a big eater, either, and I have worked +hard, and--well, I might have been worse off, but I must say I +have seen men who seemed to me happier, though I have made the +best of things. I always did despise a flunk. But you! I heard +you had adopted a baby," he said, with a sudden glance at the +blue and white bundle in the carriage, "and I thought you were +mighty sensible. When people grow old they want young people +growing around them, staffs for old age, you know, and all that +sort of thing. Don't know but I should have adopted a boy myself +if it hadn't been for --" + +The man stopped, and his face was pink. Eudora turned her face +slightly away. + +"By the way," said the man, in a suddenly hushed voice, "I +suppose the kid you've got there is asleep. Wouldn't do to wake +him?" + +"I think I had better not," replied Eudora, in a hesitating +voice. She began to walk along, and Harry Lawton fell into step +beside her. + +"I suppose it isn't best to wake up babies; makes them cross, and +they cry," he said. "Say, Eudora, is he much trouble?" + +"Very little," replied Eudora, still in that strange voice. + +"Doesn't keep you awake nights?" + +"Oh no." + +"Because if he does, I really think you should have a nurse. I +don't think you ought to lose sleep taking care of him." + +"I do not." + +"Well, I was mighty glad when I heard you had adopted him. I +suppose you made sure about his parentage, where he hailed from +and what sort of people?" + +"Oh yes." Eudora was very pale. + +"That's right. Maybe some time you will tell me all about it. I +am coming over Thursday to have a look at the youngster. I have +to go to the city on business to-morrow and can't get back until +Thursday. I was coming over to-night to call on you, but I have +a man coming to the inn this evening--he called me up on the +telephone just now--one of the men who have taken my place in the +business; and as long as I have met you I will just walk along +with you, and come Thursday. I suppose the baby won't be likely +to wake up just yet, and when he does you'll have to get his +supper and put him to bed. Is that the way the rule goes?" + +Eudora nodded in a shamed, speechless sort of way. + +"All right. I'll come Thursday -but say, look here, Eudora. +This is a quiet road, not a soul in sight, just like an outdoor +room to ourselves. Why shouldn't I know now just as well as wait? +Say, Eudora, you know how I used to feel about you. Well, it has +lasted all these years. There has never been another woman I +even cared to look at. You are alone, except for that baby, and +I am alone. Eudora --" + +The man hesitated. His flushed face had paled. Eudora paced +silently and waveringly at his side. + +"Eudora," the man went on, "you know you always used to run away +from me--never gave me a chance to really ask; and I thought you +didn't care. But somehow I have wondered--perhaps because you +never got married--if you didn't quite mean it, if you didn't +quite know your own mind. You'll think I'm a conceited ass, but +I'm not a bad sort, Eudora. I would be as good to you as I know +how, and--we could bring him up together." He pointed to the +carriage. "I have plenty of money. We could do anything we +wanted to do for him, and we should not have to live alone. Say, +Eudora, you may not think it's the thing for a man to own up to, +but, hang it all! I'm alone, and I don't want to face the rest of +my life alone. Eudora, do you think you could make up your mind +to marry me, after all?" + +They had reached the turn in the road. Just beyond rose the +stately pile of the old Yates mansion. Eudora stood still and +gave one desperate look at her lover. "I will let you know +Thursday," she gasped. Then she was gone, trundling the baby- +carriage with incredible speed. + +"But, Eudora --" + +"I must go," she called back, faintly. The man stood staring +after the hurrying figure with its swishing black skirts and its +flying points of rich India shawl, and he smiled happily and +tenderly. That evening at the inn his caller, a young fellow +just married and beaming with happiness, saw an answering beam in +the older man's face. He broke off in the midst of a sentence +and stared at him. + +"Don't give me away until I tell you to, Ned," he said, "but I +don't know but I am going to follow your example." + +"My example?" + +"Yes, going to get married." + +The young man gasped. A look of surprise, of amusement, then of +generous sympathy came over his face. He grasped Lawton's hand. + +"Who is she?" + +"Oh, a woman I wanted more than anything in the world when I was +about your age." + +"Then she isn't young?" + +"She is better than young." + +"Well," agreed the young man, "being young and pretty is not +everything." + +"Pretty!" said Harry Lawton, scornfully, "pretty! She is a great +beauty." + +"And not young?" + +"She is a great beauty, and better than young, because time has +not touched her beauty, and you can see for yourself that it +lasts." + +The young man laughed. "Oh, well," he said, with a tender +inflection, "I dare say that my Amy will look like that to me." + +"If she doesn't you don't love her," said Lawton. "But my Eudora +IS that." + +"That is a queer-sounding Greek name." + +"She is Greek, like her name. Such beauty never grows old. She +stands on her pedestal, and time only looks at her to love her." + +"I thought you were a business man as hard as nails," said the +young man, wonderingly. Lawton laughed. + +When Thursday came, Lawton, carefully dressed and carrying a long +tissue-paper package, evidently of roses, approached the Yates +house. It was late in the afternoon. There had been a warm day, +and the trees were clouds of green and more bushes had blossomed. +Eudora had put on a green silk dress of her youth. The revolving +fashions had made it very passable, and the fabric was as +beautiful as ever. + +When Lawton presented her with the roses she pinned one in the +yellowed lace which draped her bodice and put the rest in a great +china vase on the table. The roses were very fragrant, and +immediately the whole room was possessed by them. + +A tiny, insistent cry came from a corner, and Lawton and Eudora +turned toward it. There stood the old wooden cradle in which +Eudora had been rocked to sleep, but over the clumsy hood Eudora +had tacked a fall of rich old lace and a great bow of soft pink +satin. + +"He is waking up," said the man, in a hushed, almost reverent +voice. + +Eudora nodded. She went toward the cradle, and the man followed. +She lifted the curtain of lace, and there became visible little +feebly waving pink arms and hands, like tentacles of love, and a +little puckered pink face which was at once ugly and divinely +beautiful. + +"A fine boy," said the man. The baby made a grimace at him which +was hideous but lovely. + +"I do believe he thinks he knows you," said Eudora, foolishly. + +The baby made a little nestling motion, and its creasy eyelids +dropped. + +"Looks to me as if he was going to sleep again," said Lawton, in +a whisper. Eudora jogged the cradle gently with her foot, and +both were still. Then Eudora dropped the lace veil over the +cradle again and moved softly away. + +Lawton followed her. "I haven't my answer yet, Eudora," he +whispered, leaning over her shoulder as she moved. + +"Come into the other room," she murmured, "or we shall wake the +baby." Her voice was softly excited. + +Eudora led the way into the parlor, upon whose walls hung some +really good portraits and whose furnishings still merited the +adjective magnificent. There had been opulence in the Yates +family; and in this room, which had been conserved, there was +still undimmed and unfaded evidence of it. Eudora drew aside a +brocade curtain and sat down on an embroidered satin sofa. +Lawton sat beside her. + +"This room looks every whit as grand as it used to look to me +when I was a boy," he said. + +"It has hardly been opened, except to have it cleaned, since you +went away," replied Eudora, "and no wear has come upon it." + +"And everything was rather splendid to begin with, and has +lasted. And so were you, Eudora, and you have lasted. Well, +what about my answer, dear girl?" + +"You have to hear something first." + +Lawton laughed. "A confession?" + +Eudora held her head proudly. "No, not exactly," said she. "I am +not sure that I have ever had anything to confess." + +"You never were sure, you proud creature." + +"I am not now. I never intended to deceive you, but you were +deceived. I did intend to deceive others, others who had no right +to know. I do not feel that I owe them any explanation. I do owe +you one, although I do not feel that I have done anything wrong. +Still, I cannot allow you to remain deceived." + +"Well, what is it, dear?" + +Eudora looked at him. "You remember that afternoon when you met +me with the baby-carriage?" + +"Well, I should think so. My memory has not failed me in three +days." + +"You thought I had a baby in that carriage." + +"Of course I did." + +"There wasn't a baby in the carriage." + +"Well, what on earth was it, then? A cat?" + +Eudora, if possible, looked prouder. "It was a package of soiled +linen from the Lancaster girls." + +"Oh, good heavens, Eudora!" + +"Yes," said Eudora, proudly. "I lost nearly everything when that +railroad failed. I had enough left to pay the taxes, and that +was all. After I had used a small sum in the savings-bank there +was nothing. One day I went over to the Lancasters', and +I--well, I had not had much to eat for several days. I was a +little faint, and --" + +"Eudora, you poor, darling girl!" + +"And the Lancaster girls found out," continued Eudora, calmly. +"They gave me something to eat, and I suppose I ate as if I were +famished. I was." + +"Eudora!" + +"And they wanted to give me money, but I would not take it, and +they had been trying to find a laundress for their finer +linen--their old serving-woman was ill. They could find one for +the heavier things, but they are very particular, and I was sure +I could manage, and so I begged them to let me have the work, and +they did, and overpaid me, I fear. And I--I knew very well how +many spying eyes were about, and I thought of my proud father and +my proud mother and grandmother, and perhaps I was proud, too. +You know they talk about the Yates pride. It was not so much +because I was ashamed of doing honest work as because I did +resent those prying eyes and tattling tongues, and so I said +nothing, but I did go back and forth in broad daylight with the +linen wrapped up in the old blue and white blanket, in my old +carriage, and they thought what they thought." + +Eudora laughed faintly. She had a gentle humor. "It was +somewhat laughable, too," she observed. "The Lancaster girls and +I have had our little jests over it, but I felt that I could not +deceive you." + +Lawton looked bewildered. "But that is a real baby in there," he +said, jerking an elbow toward the other room. + +"Oh yes," replied Eudora. "I adopted him yesterday. I went to +the Children's Home in Elmfield. Amelia Lancaster went with me. +Wilson drove us over. I know a nurse there. She took care of +mother in her last illness. And I adopted this baby; at least, I +am going to. He comes of respectable people, and his parents are +dead. His mother died when he was born. He is healthy, and I +thought him a beautiful baby." + +"Yes, he is," assented Lawton, but he still looked somewhat +perplexed. "But why did you hurry off so and get him, Eudora?" +said he. + +"I thought from what you said that day that you would be +disappointed when you found out I had only the Lancaster linen +and not a real baby," said Eudora with her calm, grand air and +with no trace of a smile. + +"Then that means that you say yes, Eudora?" + +For the first time Eudora gave a startled glance at him. "Didn't +you know?" she gasped. + +"How should I? You had not said yes really, dear." + +"Do you think," said Eudora Yates, "that I am not too proud to +allow you to ask me if my answer were not yes?" + +"So that is the reason you always ran away from me, years ago, so +that I never had a chance to ask you?" + +"Of course," said Eudora. "No woman of my family ever allows a +declaration which she does not intend to accept. I was always +taught that by my mother." + +Then a small but insistent cry rent the air. "The baby is +awake!" cried Eudora, and ran, or, rather, paced swiftly--Eudora +had been taught never to run--and Lawton followed. It was he who +finally quieted the child, holding the little thing in his arms. + +But the baby, before that, cried so long and lustily that all the +women in the Glynn house opposite were on the alert, and also +some of the friends who were calling there. Abby Simson was one. + +"Harry Lawton has been there over an hour now," said Abby, while +the wailing continued, "and I know as well as I want to that +there will be a wedding." + +"I wonder he doesn't object to that adopted baby," said Julia +Esterbrook. + +"I know one thing," said Abby Simson. "It must be a boy baby, it +hollers so." + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Yates Pride by Mary Freeman + diff --git a/old/ytspr10.zip b/old/ytspr10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..feb8ec7 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ytspr10.zip |