I"ll bring some sewing."
"That"s the most industrious girl in the country," said Joe with a laugh. "I shall have to buy goods by the bale to keep her in work."
Some way they did get through with the meal, Uncle Jason and Sam first, then one by one straggling out. Helen helped put away the food and said she would wash the dishes, and Aurelia and Fan might dry them. Why couldn"t Aunt Jane go out on the porch and take a rest?
"I"m tired as a dog. I"ve gone since half past four this morning. There was so much to do. I declare, Helen, your coming over was just a special providence. When I get hold of you again, I"ll see that no one coaxes you away. I was a fool to consent to it. But you"ll soon be home now."
"Yes, go out and get cooled off and rested."
Aunt Jane was really glad to. Helen kept the two girls busy until the things were put away and the kitchen tidied up. The fire was out and the room getting cooler. The girls clung so to Helen, that she felt as if she would be torn in two. And sitting on the steps they wanted to know about the queer old woman, and didn"t Mrs. Dayton make a pile of money? "Reely thought when she was grown up she would keep boarders and have a servant. Did Joanna do everything?
"Oh, no. Mrs. Dayton helps, and I do a good many things when Mrs. Van Dorn does not want me."
"Is she very cross?"
"Oh, no," with a laugh of amus.e.m.e.nt.
"Not as cross as mother?" with childish frankness.
"You all annoy Aunt Jane so," returned Helen. "If you would go at once and do as she tells you, and try to remember."
"But I forget so easily," moaned Aurelia. "And I just hate to work."
"What would you like to do?"
"Play, and go out in the woods, and nutting. Oh, when will it be nut time? And then there"s school."
"One can"t play forever unless one wants to be a dunce."
"I like dolls," interposed f.a.n.n.y. "And I"m making clothes for them. Oh, have you any pretty pieces?"
"It"s time you youngsters went to bed," declared their mother.
"Where"s Helen going to sleep?"
"Don"t you worry about Helen."
The girls came and kissed her. Then she sat in the fragrant dusk and heard a whippoor-will; and Uncle Jason and Joe Northrup comparing crops, and telling yields of certain years. Aunt Jane fell asleep in the quiet. Jenny came down to her step and asked about styles, and what was in the stores, and if prices had gone down. Joe went home presently, and Jenny said, "Now come. You"re going to sleep with me. This"ll be your room when I"m gone. Oh, dear! I suppose some day you"ll be married, too.
Don"t you take a fellow unless he has a house to put you in."
Helen felt in a strange whirl, but after awhile she slept. And Sunday morning was all confusion again. Joe and Jenny and Sam went to church; the company came, and Helen helped with the dinner, making the table look so pretty and tidy, that the dining-room was very pleasant. The four younger children were out in the kitchen, and once Aunt Jane had to go out and administer slaps all round to quell a riot.
Martha and her lover were very staid and sedate. Jane, the younger sister, was rather flighty, and plied Helen with innumerable questions about North Hope. She had heard the young girls went out every day to see the stores and catch the beaus as they came home from work. And did the people in her house have dancing parties every Sat.u.r.day night? She had read in some magazine that it was the fashion to do so.
The two mothers were much engrossed with the coming marriages. The young people walked down to see Jenny"s house; there was a light supper, and then they said good-by to each other.
It seemed to Helen she had never been so happy in her life as when she was once more settled in her round at Mrs. Dayton"s. The order and quietness, the nice adjustment that she was beginning to understand and appreciate; the bright talk that went to outside subjects and did not revolve in one small personal round, was so much more interesting. True, Mrs. Lessing and her daughter discussed clothes, and the other ladies joined in, but it was on the aesthetic and artistic side. They talked of so many other things--daily events outside of North Hope. That was not all their world. It was the larger world that so interested Helen.
She and Mrs. Dayton discussed some possibilities. When Mrs. Dayton went away, Mr. Conway slept in the house, and took his meals elsewhere, but even if Helen could attend to the house it would not be possible to leave her alone in it. Then there would be clothes and various expenses.
It was not as easy a matter to settle as it looked. Of course there was a sort of adoption of Helen, but Mrs. Dayton was not quite sure she wanted the responsibility. She had worked through a good deal of pressure herself, and was now where she could enjoy some of the pleasures of life as a compensation. There might be found a neighbor who would be glad of Helen"s a.s.sistance--she would offer to provide her clothes.
Helen had settled herself at her reading one morning, when Mrs. Disbrowe just paused at the door with her baby in her arms, and nodded to Mrs.
Van Dorn.
"Excuse me for interrupting, but there is a young man down on the porch who wishes to see Helen. He would not come in."
Helen glanced up in amaze, then smiled, as she raised her eyes to Mrs.
Van Dorn.
"I think it is the young man from the library. Perhaps he found the book you wanted."
"Ah--that is quite likely. Run down and see."
Helen put her marker in, and laid down her book. But when she reached the porch and the caller rose from the wicker rocker, she stretched out both her hands with a glad cry of surprise:
"Oh, Mr. Warfield!"
He glanced at her, held her off and studied her again.
"Why, you have grown or changed or something," he exclaimed in surprise.
"And it has only been such a little while! You look as if you were really glad to see me," and the smile gave him such a cordial expression.
"Oh, I am. You can"t think how glad. And it is so unexpected----"
Her voice was fairly alive with delight.
"I crossed ten days sooner than I had planned. A friend wanted some papers which were in my possession, and I had to come out here for them. So I reached the Center just in time for supper, and went over to your uncle"s in the evening."
There was an odd expression in his face--amus.e.m.e.nt and annoyance it seemed, and as if he was quite at sea. Then he said almost abruptly, "Let us sit down. There is a good deal of talking to do--or very little, as the case may turn," in a rather dry tone.
"Excuse me, while I go up and explain to Mrs. Van Dorn. Oh, I have so much to say, too. So many things have happened to me."
She was off like a flash, but he noted the grace of her movement; the air that showed she had capabilities beyond the usual untrained country girl. Would she have to be wasted on a second or third rate life?
"I suppose you have done nothing with the papers I gave you," he began, when she returned. "I have heard of your driving around, and your dissipation."
"Oh, but I have," she replied eagerly. Then she gave a bright infectious laugh. "You can"t think--why it seems now as if I had been at school all summer. I have learned so many new things about the world and the people in it. I have read books and papers, and found out about the places where you have been. Mrs. Van Dorn has been--well, nearly all over the world, I believe, and she has met musicians and artists, and people who write books and poems, and has seen kings and queens----"
"Then you haven"t spent all the time reading novels? I was afraid you had. But your aunt--have you any idea of keeping on at school?"
"They do not want me to," she answered gravely. "But Mrs. Dayton thinks they have no real right to decide for me, if I can do anything for myself. And why isn"t it just as good and honorable for a girl to work for her education when she is hungry for the knowledges in the world, as for a boy! And if I _can_ do anything, don"t you think they ought to consent?"
"Well! well! well!" his exclamation points were in full evidence. He studied her brave eager face, it had in it certain strong earnest lines, certain lines of prettiness, too. All before her was an unknown country.
No one could truly map out another"s life, and be sure of the making, but he knew he should not mar it as the Mulfords might in their ignorance of her desires and capabilities. He resolved to take a decisive hand in it.
"You don"t want to go back to the Center?" He knew what her answer would be, but he desired to see the varying expressions of her face.
"No, I don"t. Oh, I can"t! I should be fighting with something within me all the time, and planning how to get out of it all. I want to learn. I want to teach, too. I want to see some of the great things in the world, some of the great people, and just live all through, every part of me, if you can understand."