"I"d much rather you wouldn"t do any more," replied Miss Evelina, kindly. "You have been very good to me, ever since I came here, and I appreciate it more than I can tell you. I"m going to clean my own house, for, indeed, I"m ashamed of it."
Miss. .h.i.tty grunted unintelligibly, gathered up her paraphernalia, and prepared to depart. "When Minty"s well," she said, "I"ll come back and be neighbourly."
"I hope you"ll come before that," responded Miss Evelina. "I shall miss you if you don"t."
Miss. .h.i.tty affected not to hear, but she was mollified, none the less.
From his patient"s window, Doctor Ralph observed the enemy in full retreat, and laughed gleefully. "What is funny?" queried Araminta, She had been greatly distressed by the recitative in the back bedroom and her cheeks were flushed with fever.
"I was just laughing," said Doctor Ralph, "because your aunt has gone home and is never coming back here any more."
"Oh, Doctor Ralph! Isn"t she?" There was alarm in Araminta"s voice, but her grey eyes were shining.
"Never any more," he a.s.sured her, in a satisfied tone. "How long have you lived with Aunt Hitty?"
"Ever since I was a baby."
"H--m! And how old are you now?"
"Almost nineteen."
"Where did you go to school?"
"I didn"t go to school. Aunt Hitty taught me, at home."
"Didn"t you ever have anybody to play with?"
"Only Aunt Hitty. We used to play a quilt game. I sewed the little blocks together, and she made the big ones."
"Must have been highly exciting. Didn"t you ever have a doll?"
"Oh, no!" Araminta"s eyes were wide and reproachful now. "The Bible says "thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.""
Doctor Ralph sighed deeply, put his hands in his pockets, and paced restlessly across Araminta"s bare, nun-like chamber. As though in a magic mirror, he saw her nineteen years of deprivation, her cramped and narrow childhood, her dense ignorance of life. No playmates, no dolls--nothing but Aunt Hitty. She had kept Araminta wrapped in cotton wool, mentally; shut her out from the world, and persistently shaped her toward a monastic ideal.
A child brought up in a convent could have been no more of a nun in mind and spirit than Araminta. Ralph well knew that the stern guardianship had not been relaxed a moment, either by night or by day.
Miss Mehitable had a well-deserved reputation for thoroughness in whatever she undertook.
And Araminta was made for love. Ralph turned to look at her as she lay on her pillow, her brown, wavy hair rioting about her flushed face.
Araminta"s great grey eyes were very grave and sweet; her mouth was that of a lovable child. Her little hands were dimpled at the knuckles, in fact, as Ralph now noted; there were many dimples appertaining to Araminta.
One of them hovered for an instant about the corner of her mouth. "Why must you walk?" she asked. "Is it because you"re glad your ankle isn"t broken?"
Doctor Ralph came back and sat down on the bed beside her. He had that rare sympathy which is the inestimable gift of the physician, and long years of practice had not yet calloused him so that a suffering fellow-mortal was merely a "case". His heart, was dangerously tender toward her.
"Lots of things are worse than broken ankles," he a.s.sured her. "Has it been so bad to be shut up here, away from Aunt Hitty?"
"No," said the truthful Araminta. "I have always been with Aunt Hitty, and it seems queer, but very nice. Someway, I feel as if I had grown up."
"Has Miss Evelina been good to you?"
"Oh, so good," returned Araminta, gratefully. "Why?"
"Because," said Ralph, concisely, "if she hadn"t been, I"d break her neck."
"You couldn"t," whispered Araminta, softly, "you"re too kind. You wouldn"t hurt anybody."
"Not unless I had to. Sometimes there has to be a little hurt to keep away a greater one."
"You hurt me, I think, but I didn"t know just when. It was the smelly, sweet stuff, wasn"t it?"
Ralph did not heed the question. He was wondering what would become of Araminta when she went back to Miss Mehitable"s, as she soon must. Her ankle was healing nicely and in a very short time she would be able to walk again. He could not keep her there much longer. By a whimsical twist of his thought, he perceived that he was endeavouring to wrap Araminta in cotton wool of a different sort, to prevent Aunt Hitty from wrapping her in her own particular brand.
"The little cat," said Araminta, fondly. "I thought perhaps it would come to-day. Is it coming when I am well?"
"Holy Moses!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Ralph. He had never thought of the kitten again, and the poor child had been waiting patiently, with never a word. The clear grey eyes were upon him, eloquent with belief.
"The little cat," replied Ralph, shamelessly perjuring himself, "was not old enough to leave its mother. We"ll have to wait until to-morrow or next day. I was keeping it for a surprise; that"s why I didn"t say anything about it. I thought you"d forgotten."
"Oh, no! When I go back home, you know, I can"t have it. Aunt Hitty would never let me."
"Won"t she?" queried Ralph. "We"ll see!"
He spoke with confidence he was far from feeling, and was dimly aware that Araminta had the faith he lacked. "She thinks I"m a wonder-worker," he said to himself, grimly, "and I"ve got to live up to it."
It was not necessary to count Araminta"s pulse again, but Doctor Ralph took her hand--a childish, dimpled hand that nestled confidingly in his.
"Listen, child," he said; "I want to talk to you. Your Aunt Hitty hasn"t done right by you. She"s kept you in cotton when you ought to be outdoors. You should have gone to school and had other children to play with."
"And cats?"
"Cats, dogs, birds, rabbits, snakes, mice, pigeons, guinea-pigs--everything."
"I was never in cotton," corrected Araminta, "except once, when I had a bad cold."
"That isn"t just what I mean, but I"m afraid I can"t make you understand. There"s a whole world full of big, beautiful things that you don"t know anything about; great sorrows, great joys, and great loves. Look here, did you ever feel badly about anything?"
"Only--only--" stammered Araminta; "my mother, you know. She was--was married."
"Poor child," said Ralph, beginning to comprehend. "Have you been taught that it"s wrong to be married?"
"Why, yes," answered Araminta, confidently. "It"s dreadful. Aunt Hitty isn"t married, neither is the minister. It"s very, very wrong.
Aunt Hitty told my mother so, but she would do it."
There was a long pause. The little warm hand still rested trustingly in Ralph"s. "Listen, dear," he began, clearing his throat; "it isn"t wrong to be married. I never before in all my life heard of anybody who thought it was. Something is twisted in Aunt Hitty"s mind, or else she"s taught you that because she"s so brutally selfish that she doesn"t want you ever to be married. Some people, who are unhappy themselves, are so const.i.tuted that they can"t bear to see anybody else happy. She"s afraid of life, and she"s taught you to be.
"It"s better to be unhappy, Araminta, than never to take any risks. It all lies in yourself at last. If you"re a true, loving woman, and never let yourself be afraid, nothing very bad can ever happen to you.
Aunt Hitty has been unjust to deny you life. You have the right to love and learn and suffer, to make great sacrifices, see great sacrifices made for you; to believe, to trust--even to be betrayed.
It"s your right, and it"s been kept away from you."