"Miss Sally, why have you such a rooted distrust of men?" demanded Willard curiously. "Somehow, it seems so foreign to your character."
"I suppose you think I am a perfect crank," said Miss Sally, sighing.
"Well, I"ll tell you why I don"t trust men. I have a very good reason for it. A man broke my heart and embittered my life. I"ve never spoken about it to a living soul, but if you want to hear about it, you shall."
Miss Sally sat down on the second step of the stairs and tucked her wet handkerchief away. She clasped her slender white hands over her knee. In spite of her silvery hair and the little lines on her face she looked girlish and youthful. There was a pink flush on her cheeks, and her big black eyes sparkled with the anger her memories aroused in her.
"I was a young girl of twenty when I met him," she said, "and I was just as foolish as all young girls are--foolish and romantic and sentimental. He was very handsome and I thought him--but there, I won"t go into that. It vexes me to recall my folly. But I loved him--yes, I did, with all my heart--with all there was of me to love.
He made me love him. He deliberately set himself to win my love. For a whole summer he flirted with me. I didn"t know he was flirting--I thought him in earnest. Oh, I was such a little fool--and so happy.
Then--he went away. Went away suddenly without even a word of goodbye.
But he had been summoned home by his father"s serious illness, and I thought he would write--I waited--I hoped. I never heard from him--never saw him again. He had tired of his plaything and flung it aside. That is all," concluded Miss Sally pa.s.sionately. "I never trusted any man again. When my sister died and gave me her baby, I determined to bring the dear child up safely, training her to avoid the danger I had fallen into. Well, I"ve failed. But perhaps it will be all right--perhaps there are some men who are true, though Stephen Merritt was false."
"Stephen--who?" demanded Willard abruptly. Miss Sally coloured.
"I didn"t mean to tell you his name," she said, getting up. "It was a slip of the tongue. Never mind--forget it and him. He was not worthy of remembrance--and yet I do remember him. I can"t forget him--and I hate him all the more for it--for having entered so deeply into my life that I could not cast him out when I knew him unworthy. It is humiliating. There--let us lock up Eden and go home. I suppose you are dying to see Joyce and tell her your precious plot has succeeded."
Willard did not appear to be at all impatient. He had relapsed into a brown study, during which he let Miss Sally lock up the house. Then he walked silently home with her. Miss Sally was silent too. Perhaps she was repenting her confidence--or perhaps she was thinking of her false lover. There was a pathetic droop to her lips, and her black eyes were sad and dreamy.
"Miss Sally," said Willard at last, as they neared her house, "had Stephen Merritt any sisters?"
Miss Sally threw him a puzzled glance.
"He had one--Jean Merritt--whom I disliked and who disliked me," she said crisply. "I don"t want to talk of her--she was the only woman I ever hated. I never met any of the other members of his family--his home was in a distant part of the state."
Willard stayed with Joyce so brief a time that Miss Sally viewed his departure with suspicion. This was not very lover-like conduct.
"I dare say he"s like all the rest--when his aim is attained the prize loses its value," reflected Miss Sally pessimistically. "Poor Joyce--poor child! But there--there isn"t a single inharmonious thing in his house--that is one comfort. I"m so thankful I didn"t let Willard buy those brocade chairs he wanted. They would have given Joyce the nightmare."
Meanwhile, Willard rushed down to the biological station and from there drove furiously to the station to catch the evening express. He did not return until three days later, when he appeared at Miss Sally"s, dusty and triumphant.
"Joyce is out," said Miss Sally.
"I"m glad of it," said Willard recklessly. "It"s you I want to see, Miss Sally. I have something to show you. I"ve been all the way home to get it."
From his pocketbook Willard drew something folded and creased and yellow that looked like a letter. He opened it carefully and, holding it in his fingers, looked over it at Miss Sally.
"My grandmother"s maiden name was Jean Merritt," he said deliberately, "and Stephen Merritt was my great-uncle. I never saw him--he died when I was a child--but I"ve heard my father speak of him often."
Miss Sally turned very pale. She pa.s.sed her cobwebby handkerchief across her lips and her hand trembled. Willard went on.
"My uncle never married. He and his sister Jean lived together until her late marriage. I was not very fond of my grandmother. She was a selfish, domineering woman--very unlike the grandmother of tradition.
When she died everything she possessed came to me, as my father, her only child, was then dead. In looking over a box of old papers I found a letter--an old love letter. I read it with some interest, wondering whose it could be and how it came among Grandmother"s private letters.
It was signed "Stephen," so that I guessed my great-uncle had been the writer, but I had no idea who the Sally was to whom it was written, until the other day. Then I knew it was you--and I went home to bring you your letter--the letter you should have received long ago. Why you did not receive it I cannot explain. I fear that my grandmother must have been to blame for that--she must have intercepted and kept the letter in order to part her brother and you. In so far as I can I wish to repair the wrong she has done you. I know it can never be repaired--but at least I think this letter will take the bitterness out of the memory of your lover."
He dropped the letter in Miss Sally"s lap and went away.
Pale, Miss Sally picked it up and read it. It was from Stephen Merritt to "dearest Sally," and contained a frank, manly avowal of love. Would she be his wife? If she would, let her write and tell him so. But if she did not and could not love him, let her silence reveal the bitter fact; he would wish to spare her the pain of putting her refusal into words, and if she did not write he would understand that she was not for him.
When Willard and Joyce came back into the twilight room they found Miss Sally still sitting by the table, her head leaning pensively on her hand. She had been crying--the cobwebby handkerchief lay beside her, wrecked and ruined forever--but she looked very happy.
"I wonder if you know what you have done for me," she said to Willard.
"But no--you can"t know--you can"t realize it fully. It means everything to me. You have taken away my humiliation and restored to me my pride of womanhood. He really loved me--he was not false--he was what I believed him to be. Nothing else matters to me at all now. Oh, I am very happy--but it would never have been if I had not consented to give you Joyce."
She rose and took their hands in hers, joining them.
"G.o.d bless you, dears," she said softly. "I believe you will be happy and that your love for each other will always be true and faithful and tender. Willard, I give you my dear child in perfect trust and confidence."
With her yellowed love letter clasped to her heart, and a raptured shining in her eyes, Miss Sally went out of the room.
My Lady Jane
The boat got into Broughton half an hour after the train had gone. We had been delayed by some small accident to the machinery; hence that lost half-hour, which meant a night"s sojourn for me in Broughton. I am ashamed of the things I thought and said. When I think that fate might have taken me at my word and raised up a special train, or some such miracle, by which I might have got away from Broughton that night, I experience a cold chill. Out of grat.i.tude I have never sworn over missing connections since.
At the time, however, I felt thoroughly exasperated. I was in a hurry to get on. Important business engagements would be unhinged by the delay. I was a stranger in Broughton. It looked like a stupid, stuffy little town. I went to a hotel in an atrocious humor. After I had fumed until I wanted a change, it occurred to me that I might as well hunt up Clark Oliver by way of pa.s.sing the time. I had never been overly fond of Clark Oliver, although he was my cousin. He was a bit of a cad, and stupider than anyone belonging to our family had a right to be. Moreover, he was in politics, and I detest politics. But I rather wanted to see if he looked as much like me as he used to. I hadn"t seen him for three years and I hoped that the time might have differentiated us to a saving degree. It was over a year since I had last been blown up by some unknown, excited individual on the ground that I was that scoundrel Oliver--politically speaking. I thought that was a good omen.
I went to Clark"s office, found he had left, and followed him to his rooms. The minute I saw him I experienced the same nasty feeling of lost or bewildered individuality which always overcame me in his presence. He was so absurdly like me. I felt as if I were looking into a mirror where my reflection persisted in doing things I didn"t do, thereby producing a most uncanny sensation.
Clark pretended he was glad to see me. He really couldn"t have been, because his Great Idea hadn"t struck him then, and we had always disliked each other.
"h.e.l.lo, Elliott," he said, shaking me by the hand with a twist he had learned in election campaigns, whereby something like heartiness was simulated. "Glad to see you, old fellow. Gad, you"re as like me as ever. Where did you drop from?"
I explained my predicament and we talked amiably and harmlessly for awhile about family gossip. I abhor family gossip, but it is a shade better than politics, and those two subjects are the only ones on which Clark can converse at all. I described Mary Alice"s wedding, and Florence"s new young man, and Tom-and-Kate"s twins. Clark tried to be interested but I saw he had something on what serves him for a mind.
After awhile it came out. He looked at his watch with a frown.
"I"m in a bit of a puzzle," he said. "The Mark Kennedys are giving a dinner to-night. You don"t know them, of course. They"re the big people of Broughton. Kennedy runs the politics of the place, and Mrs.
K. makes or mars people socially. It"s my first invitation there and it"s necessary I should accept it--necessary every way. Mrs. K. would never forgive me if I disappointed her at the last moment. Not that I, personally, am of much account--yet--to her. But it would leave a vacant place. Mrs. K. would never notice me again and, as she bosses Kennedy, I can"t afford to offend her. Besides, there"s a girl who"ll be there. I"ve met her once. I want to meet her again. She"s a beauty and no mistake. Toplofty as they make "em, though. However, I think I"ve made an impression on her. It was at the Harvey"s dance last week. She was the handsomest woman there, and she never took her eyes off me. I"ve given Mrs. Kennedy a pretty broad hint that I want to take her in to dinner. If I don"t go I"ll miss all round."
"Well, what is there to prevent you from going?" I asked, squiffily. I never could endure the way Clark talked about girls and hinted at his conquests.
"Just this. Herbert Bronson came to town this afternoon and is leaving on the 10.30 train to-night. He"s sent me word to meet him at his hotel this evening and talk over a mining deal I"ve been trying to pull off. I simply must go. It"s my one chance to corral Bronson. If I lose him it"ll be all up, and I"ll be thousands out of pocket."
"Well, you _are_ in rather a predicament," I agreed, with the philosophical acceptance of the situation that marks the outsider. _I_ wasn"t hampered by the multiplicity of my business and social engagements that evening, so I could afford to pity Clark. It is always rather nice to be able to pity a person you dislike.
"I should say so. I can"t make up my mind what to do. Hang it. I"ll _have_ to see Bronson. There"s no question about that. A man ought to keep an understood subst.i.tute on hand to send to dinners when he can"t go. By Jove! Elliott!"
Clark"s Great Idea had arrived. He bounced up eagerly.
"Elliott, will _you_ go to the Kennedys" in my place? They"ll never know the difference. Do, now--there"s a good fellow!"
"Nonsense!" I said.
"It isn"t nonsense. The resemblance between us was foreordained for this hour. I"ll lend you my dress suit--it"ll fit you--your figure is as much like mine as your face. You"ve nothing to do with yourself this evening. I offer you a good dinner and an agreeable partner. Come now, to oblige me. You know you owe me a good turn for that Mulhenen business."
The Mulhenen business clinched the matter. Until he mentioned it I had no notion whatever of masquerading as Clark Oliver at the Kennedys" dinner. But, as Clark so delicately put it, he had done me a good turn in that affair and the obligation had rankled ever since. It is beastly to be indebted for a favor to a man you detest. Now was my chance to pay it off and I took it without more ado.
"But," I said doubtfully, "I don"t know the Kennedys--nor any of the social stunts that are doing in Broughton; I won"t dare to talk about anything, and I"ll seem so stupid, even if I don"t actually make some irremediable blunder, that the Kennedys will be disgusted with you. It will probably do your prospects more harm than your absence would."