"One would think there would be a rule about such things, some acknowledged method; a proverb, for instance; it would simplify matters very much."
"True," said Mr. Dale.
"Yes," Mr. Denner added, "you would think in such a general thing as marriage there would be. Complications like this must constantly arise.
What if Miss Deborah and Miss Ruth had another sister? Just see how confused a man might be. Yes, one would suppose the wisdom of experience would take the form of an axiom. But it hasn"t."
He sighed deeply, and rose, for it was late, and the little fire had burned out.
Mr. Dale bent forward, with his elbows on his lean knees, and gently knocked the ashes from his silver pipe. Then he got up, and, standing with his back to the cold grate, and the tails of his flowered dressing-gown under each arm in a comfortable way, he looked at the lawyer, with his head a little on one side, as though he were about to speak. Mr. Denner noticed it.
"Ah, you cannot make any suggestion, Henry?"
"Well," said Mr. Dale, "it seems to me I had a thought--a sort of a proverb, you might say--but it slips my memory."
Mr. Denner, with his overcoat half on, stood quite still, and trembled.
"It is something about how to make up your mind," Mr. Dale continued, very slowly; "let me see."
"How to make up your mind?" cried Mr. Denner. "That"s just the thing!
I"m sure, that"s just the thing! And we cannot but have the greatest confidence in proverbs. They are so eminently trustworthy. They are the concentrated wisdom--of--of the ages, as it were. Yes, I should be quite willing to decide the matter by a proverb."
He looked at Mr. Dale eagerly, but this especial piece of wisdom still eluded the older man.
"It begins," said Mr. Dale, hesitating, and fixing his eyes upon the ceiling,--"it begins--let me see. "When in doubt"--ah"--
"What is it?" gasped Mr. Denner. "That has a familiar sound, but I cannot seem to finish it. When in doubt, what?"
"Well," answered his friend ruefully, "it is not quite--it does not exactly apply. I am afraid it won"t; help us out. You know the rest. It is merely--"take the trick"!"
CHAPTER XVI.
The morning after John Ward"s return from his two weeks" absence at General a.s.sembly, he found it hard to settle down to work. Not that there was very much to talk about, for daily letters had told of daily doings, but to be with Helen again was an absorbing joy. She followed him about as he put his papers away, and he, in turn, came out into the garden to watch her while she showed Alfaretta where to plant some flower seeds.
"Come over here," Helen said, "and see these violets under the big elm!
I have been so in hopes they would blossom in time to welcome you. Let"s pick some for the study."
They pushed the shining, wet leaves aside, and found the flowers, and then John watched his wife put them in a shallow dish on his table.
"It is weak in me to come in here," Helen said, smiling. "I know you ought to work, yet here I sit."
"This is Thursday," he answered, "and I wrote my sermon on the train yesterday, so after I have copied the reports I can afford to be lazy. I cannot bear to have you out of my sight!" He drew her brown head down on his shoulder, and stroked her face softly. "When I"m away from you, Helen, I seem only half alive."
"And in three weeks I have to go to Ashurst," she said ruefully. "It is too bad I couldn"t have gone while you were at General a.s.sembly, but it wouldn"t have been right for us both to be away from the parsonage at once."
"No. Well, we have the three weeks yet. Yes, I must send you away, and get at the reports. How you brighten this room, Helen! I think it must be the sunshine that seems caught in your hair. It gleams like bronze oak-leaves in October."
"Love has done wonderful things for your eyes, John," she said, smiling, as she left him.
She put on her heavy gloves and brought her trowel from under the front porch, and she and the maid began to dig up the fresh, damp earth on the sunny side of the house.
"We"ll have some sweet-peas here, Alfaretta," she said cheerily, "and I think it would be nice to let the nasturtiums run over that log, don"t you? And you must plant these morning-glory seeds around the kitchen windows." Suddenly she noticed that Alfaretta, instead of listening, was gazing down the road, and her round freckled face flushing hotly.
"He sha"n"t come in," she muttered,--"he sha"n"t come in!" and dropping the hammer, and the box of tacks, and the big ball of twine, she hurried to the gate, her rough hands clinched into two st.u.r.dy fists.
Helen looked towards the road, and saw Mr. Dean come stiffly up to the gate, for lumbago was not altogether a memory. Alfaretta reached it as he did, and as she stooped to lean her elbows on its top bar she slipped the latch inside.
"Alfaretta," said her father pompously, "open the gate, if you please."
As he spoke, he rapped upon it with his heavy stick, and the little latch clattered and shook.
"Were you coming to see me, pa?" the girl asked nervously. "I--I"m busy this morning. It"s my night out, so I"ll see you this evenin"."
"Yes, I"ll see you," returned Mr. Dean significantly, "but not now. I didn"t come to see you now; I"m here to see the preacher, Alfaretta.
Come, don"t keep me out here in the sun," he added impatiently, shaking the gate again.
"I guess he"s too busy to see you this morning,--he"s awful busy."
"I guess he"s not too busy to see me," said the elder.
Alfaretta"s face was white now, but she still stood barring the gateway.
"Well, you can"t see him, anyhow;" her voice had begun to tremble, and Mrs. Ward, who had joined them, said, with a surprised look,--
"Why, what do you mean, Alfaretta? Of course Mr. Ward will see your father. I hope your lumbago is better, Elder Dean?"
Mr. Dean did not notice her question. "Certainly he will see me. Come, now, open the gate; be spry."
"You can"t see him!" cried Alfaretta, bursting into tears. "I say he won"t see you, so there!"
Her mistress looked at her in astonishment, but her father put his big hand over the gate, and, wrenching the little latch open, strode up to the front door of the parsonage.
Helen and her maid looked at each other; Alfaretta"s face working convulsively to keep back the tears, and her mistress"s eyes full of disapproval.
"Why did you say that, Alfaretta?" she said. "It was not true; you knew Mr. Ward could see your father." Then she turned back to her planting.
Alfaretta followed her, and, kneeling down by the border, began to grub at the intruding blades of gra.s.s, stopping to put her hand up to her eyes once in a while, which made her face singularly streaked and muddy.
"What is the matter, Alfaretta?" Helen asked, at last, coldly. She did not mean to be unkind, but she was troubled at the girl"s untruthfulness.
Alfaretta wailed.
"Tell me," Helen said, putting her hand lightly on her shoulder. "Are you crying because you said what was not true?"
""T ain"t that!" sobbed Alfaretta.
"I wish, then, you would either stop, or go into the house." Helen"s voice was stern, and Alfaretta looked at her with reproachful eyes; then covering her face with her hands, she rocked backwards and forwards, and wept without restraint.