"Oh, she was!" He sat down sort of limp-like and queer.
"Yes. She said she was glad you"d found an estimable woman to make a home for you."
"Oh, she did." He said this, too, in that queer, funny, quiet kind of way.
"Yes." I spoke, decided and firm. I"d begun to think, all of a sudden, that maybe he didn"t appreciate Mother as much as she did him; and I determined right then and there to make him, if I could. When I remembered all the lovely things she"d said about him--
"Father," I began; and I spoke this time, even more decided and firm.
"I don"t believe you appreciate Mother."
"Eh? What?"
He made _me_ jump this time, he turned around with such a jerk, and spoke so sharply. But in spite of the jump I still held on to my subject, firm and decided.
"I say I don"t believe you appreciate my mother. You acted right now as if you didn"t believe she meant it when I told you she was glad you had found an estimable woman to make a home for you. But she did mean it. I know, because she said it before, once, last year, that she hoped you _would_ find one."
"Oh, she did." He sat back in his chair again, sort of limp-like. But I couldn"t tell yet, from his face, whether I"d convinced him or not.
So I went on.
"Yes, and that isn"t all. There"s another reason, why I know Mother always has--has your best interest at heart. She--she tried to make me over into Mary before I came, so as to please you."
"She did _what_?" Once more he made me jump, he turned so suddenly, and spoke with such a short, sharp snap.
But in spite of the jump I went right on, just as I had before, firm and decided. I told him everything--all about the cooking lessons, and the astronomy book we read an hour every day, and the pink silk dress I couldn"t have, and even about the box of chocolates and the self-discipline. And how she said if she"d had self-discipline when she was a girl, her life would have been very different. And I told him about how she began to hush me up from laughing too loud, or making any kind of noise, because I was soon to be Mary, and she wanted me to get used to it, so I wouldn"t trouble him when I got here.
I talked very fast and hurriedly. I was afraid he"d interrupt, and I wanted to get in all I could before he did. But he didn"t interrupt at all. I couldn"t see how he was taking it, though--what I said--for after the very first he sat back in his chair and shaded his eyes with his hand; and he sat like that all the time I was talking. He did not even stir until I said how at the last she bought me the homely shoes and the plain dark suit so I could go as Mary, and be Mary when Aunt Jane first saw me get off the train.
When I said that, he dropped his hand and turned around and stared at me. And there was such a funny look in his eyes.
"I _thought_ you didn"t look the same!" he cried; "not so white and airy and--and--I can"t explain it, but you looked different. And yet, I didn"t think it could be so, for I knew you looked just as you did when you came, and that no one had asked you to--to put on Mary"s things this year."
He sort of smiled when he said that; then he got up and began to walk up and down the piazza, muttering: "So you _came_ as Mary, you _came_ as Mary." Then, after a minute, he gave a funny little laugh and sat down.
Mrs. Small came up the front walk then to see Cousin Grace, and Father told her to go right into the library where Cousin Grace was. So we were left alone again, after a minute.
It was "most dark on the piazza, but I could see Father"s face in the light from the window; and it looked--well, I"d never seen it look like that before. It was as if something that had been on it for years had dropped off and left it clear where before it had been blurred and indistinct. No, that doesn"t exactly describe it either. I _can"t_ describe it. But I"ll go on and say what he said.
After Mrs. Small had gone into the house, and he saw that she was sitting down with Cousin Grace in the library, he turned to me and said:
"And so you came as Mary?"
I said yes, I did.
"Well, I--I got ready for Marie."
But then I didn"t quite understand, not even when I looked at him, and saw the old understanding twinkle in his eyes.
"You mean--you thought I was coming as Marie, of course," I said then.
"Yes," he nodded.
"But I came as Mary."
"I see now that you did." He drew in his breath with a queer little catch to it; then he got up and walked up and down the _piazza_ again.
(Why do old folks always walk up and down the room like that when they"re thinking hard about something? Father always does; and Mother does lots of times, too.) But it wasn"t but a minute this time before Father came and sat down.
"Well, Mary," he began; and his voice sounded odd, with a little shake in it. "You"ve told me your story, so I suppose I may as well tell you mine--now. You see, I not only got ready for Marie, but I had planned to keep her Marie, and not let her be Mary--at all."
And then he told me. He told me how he"d never forgotten that day in the parlor when I cried (and made a wet spot on the arm of the sofa--_I_ never forgot that!), and he saw then how hard it was for me to live here, with him so absorbed in his work and Aunt Jane so stern in her black dress. And he said I put it very vividly when I talked about being Marie in Boston, and Mary here, and he saw just how it was. And so he thought and thought about it all winter, and wondered what he could do. And after a time it came to him--he"d let me be Marie here; that is, he"d try to make it so I could be Marie. And he was just wondering how he was going to get Aunt Jane to help him when she was sent for and asked to go to an old friend who was sick. And he told her to go, by all means to go. Then he got Cousin Grace to come here. He said he knew Cousin Grace, and he was very sure she would know how to help him to let me stay Marie. So he talked it over with her--how they would let me laugh, and sing and play the piano all I wanted to, and wear the clothes I brought with me, and be just as near as I could be the way I was in Boston.
"And to think, after all my preparation for Marie, you should _be_ Mary already, when you came," he finished.
"Yes. Wasn"t it funny?" I laughed. "All the time _you_ were getting ready for Marie, Mother was getting me ready to be Mary. It _was_ funny!" And it did seem funny to me then.
But Father was not laughing. He had sat back in his chair, and had covered his eyes with his hand again, as if he was thinking and thinking, just as hard as he could. And I suppose it did seem queer to him, that he should be trying to make me Marie, and all the while Mother was trying to make me Mary. And it seemed so to me, as I began to think it over. It wasn"t funny at all, any longer.
"And so your mother--did that," Father muttered; and there was the queer little catch in his breath again.
He didn"t say any more, not a single word. And after a minute he got up and went into the house. But he didn"t go into the library where Mrs. Small and Cousin Grace were talking. He went straight upstairs to his own room and shut the door. I heard it. And he was still there when I went up to bed afterwards.
Well, I guess he doesn"t feel any worse than I do. I thought at first it was funny, a good joke--his trying to have me Marie while Mother was making me over into Mary. But I see now that it isn"t. It"s awful.
Why, how am I going to know at all who to be--now? Before, I used to know just when to be Mary, and when to be Marie--Mary with Father, Marie with Mother. Now I don"t know at all. Why, they can"t even seem to agree on that! I suppose it"s just some more of that incompatibility business showing up even when they are apart. And poor me--I have to suffer for it. I"m beginning to see that the child does suffer--I mean the child of unlikes.
Now, look at me right now--about my clothes, for instance. (Of course clothes are a little thing, you may think; but I don"t think anything"s little that"s always with you like clothes are!) Well, here all summer, and even before I came, I"ve been wearing stuffy gingham and clumpy shoes to please Father. And Father isn"t pleased at all. He wanted me to wear the Marie things.
And there you are.
How do you suppose Mother"s going to feel when I tell her that after all her pains Father didn"t like it at all. He wanted me to be Marie.
It"s a shame, after all the pains she took. But I won"t write it to her, anyway. Maybe I won"t have to tell her, unless she _asks_ me.
But _I_ know it. And, pray, what am I to do? Of course, I can _act_ like Marie here all right, if that is what folks want. (I guess I have been doing it a good deal of the time, anyway, for I kept forgetting that I was Mary.) But I can"t _wear_ Marie, for I haven"t a single Marie thing here. They"re all Mary. That"s all I brought.
Oh, dear suz me! Why couldn"t Father and Mother have been just the common live-happy-ever-after kind, or else found out before they married that they were unlikes?
_September_.
Well, vacation is over, and I go back to Boston to-morrow. It"s been very nice and I"ve had a good time, in spite of being so mixed up as to whether I was Mary or Marie. It wasn"t so bad as I was afraid it would be. Very soon after Father and I had that talk on the piazza, Cousin Grace took me down to the store and bought me two new white dresses, and the dearest little pair of shoes I ever saw. She said Father wanted me to have them.
And that"s all--every single word that"s been said about that Mary-and-Marie business. And even that didn"t really _say_ anything--not by name. And Cousin Grace never mentioned it again. And Father never mentioned it at all. Not a word.
But he"s been queer. He"s been awfully queer. Some days he"s been just as he was when I first came this time--real talky and folksy, and as if he liked to be with us. Then for whole days at a time he"d be more as he used to--stern, and stirring his coffee when there isn"t any coffee there; and staying all the evening and half the night out in his observatory.
Some days he"s talked a lot with me--asked me questions just as he used to, all about what I did in Boston, and Mother, and the people that came there to see her, and everything. And he spoke of the violinist again, and, of course, this time I told him all about him, and that he didn"t come any more, nor Mr. Easterbrook, either; and Father was _so_ interested! Why, it seemed sometimes as if he just couldn"t hear enough about things. Then, all of a sudden, at times, he"d get right up in the middle of something I was saying and act as if he was just waiting for me to finish my sentence so he could go.
And he did go, just as soon as I _had_ finished my sentence. And after that, maybe, he wouldn"t hardly speak to me again for a whole day.
And so that"s why I say he"s been so queer since that night on the piazza. But most of the time he"s been lovely, perfectly lovely. And so has Cousin Grace, And I"ve had a beautiful time.