They bought their new stove, and some other things; they hired, at last, two girls for the winter, at three dollars and two and a half, respectively; this was a saving to what they had been doing, and they must get through the cold weather somehow. Besides, Mrs.
Argenter was now seriously out of health. She had had nothing to do but to fall sick under her troubles, and she had honestly and effectually done it.
But how should they manage another year, and another? How long would they have any income, if such a piece was to be taken out of the princ.i.p.al every six months?
In the spring, Mrs. Argenter declared it was of no use; they must give up and go to board. They ought to have done it in the first place. Plenty of people got along so with no more than they had. A cheap place in the country for the summer would save up to pay for rooms in town for the winter. She couldn"t bear another hot season in that village,--nor a cold one, either. A second winter would be just madness. What could two women do, who had never had anything to provide before, with getting in coal, and wood, and vegetables, and everything, and snow to be shoveled, and ashes sifted, and fires to make, and girls going off every Monday morning?
She had just enough reason, as the case stood, for Sylvie not to be able to answer a word. But the lease,--for another year? What should they do with that? Would Mr. Frost take it off their hands?
If Sylvie had known who really stood behind Mr. Frost, and how!
The little poem of village living,--of home simpleness and frugal prettiness,--of _that_, the two first lines alone had rhymed!
They had entered upon the last quarter of their first year when they came to this united and definite conclusion. That month of May was harsh and stormy. Nothing could be done about moving until clearer and finer weather. So the rent was continued, of course, until the year expired, and in June they would pack up and go away.
Sylvie had been to the doctor, first, and told him about her mother; and he had called, in a half-friendly, half-professional way, to see her. After his call, he had had an honest talk with Sylvie.
G.o.d sometimes shows us a glimpse of a future trouble that He holds in his hand, to neutralize the trouble we are immediately under; even, it may be, to turn it into a quietness and content. When Sylvie had heard all that Doctor Sainswell had to say, she put away her money anxiety from off her mind, at once and finally. Nothing was any matter now, but that her mother should go where she would,--have what she wanted.
Then she went to see Mr. Frost.
"He would write to his employer," he said; he could not give an answer of himself.
The answer came in five days. They might relinquish the house at any moment; they need pay the rent only for the time of their occupancy.
It would suit the owner quite as well; the place would let readily.
Sylvie was happy as she told her mother how nicely it had come out.
She might have been less so, had she seen Mr. Sherrett"s face when he read his agent"s letter and replied to it in those three lines without moving from his seat.
"I might have expected it," he said to himself. "She"s a child after all. But she began so bravely! And it can"t help being worse by and by. Well, one can"t live people"s lives for them." And he turned back to his other papers,--his notes of yesterday"s debate in the House.
Early in June, there came lovely days.
Sylvie was very busy. She had kept her two girls with her to the end, by dint of raising their wages a dollar a week each, for the remainder of their stay. She had the whole house to go over; even a year"s acc.u.mulation is formidable, when one has to turn out and dispose of everything anew. She began with the attic; the trunks and the boxes. She had to give away a great deal that would have been of service had they continued to live quietly on. Two old proverbs a.s.serted themselves to her experience now, and kept saying themselves over to her as she worked: "A rolling stone gathers no moss;" "Three removes are as bad as a fire."
She had come down in her progress as far as the closets of their own rooms, and the overlooking of their own clothing, when one afternoon, as, still in her wrapper, she was busy at the topmost shelves of her mother"s wardrobe, with little fear of any but village calls, and scarcely those, wheels came up the Turn, and names were suddenly announced.
"Miss Harkbird and Mr. Shoot!"
Sylvie caught in a flash the idea of what the girl ought to have said. She laughed, she turned red, and the tears very nearly sprang to her eyes, with surprise, amus.e.m.e.nt, embarra.s.sment and flurry.
"What _shall_ I do? Give me your hand, Katy! And where on earth _is_ my other dress? Can"t you learn to get names right ever, Katy? Miss Kirkbright and Mr. Sherrett. Say I will be down presently. O, what hair!"
She was before the gla.s.s now; she caught up stray locks and thrust in hairpins here and there; then she tied a little violet-edged black ribbon through the toss and rumple, and somehow it looked all right. Anyway, her eyes were brilliant; the more brilliant for that cloudiness beneath which they shone.
Her eyes shone and her lips trembled, as she came into the room and told Miss Euphrasia how glad she was to see them. For she remembered then why she was so glad; she remembered the things she had longed to go to Miss Euphrasia with, all the hard winter and doubtful spring.
"We are going away, you see," she told her presently. "Mother must have a change. It does not suit her here in any way. We are going to Lebanon for a little while; then we shall find some quiet place, in the mountains, perhaps. In the winter, we shall have to board in the city. Mother can"t be worried any longer; she must have what she wants."
Miss Kirkbright glanced round the pretty parlor, as yet undisturbed; at all that, with such labor, Sylvie had arranged into a home a year ago.
"What a care for you, dear! What will you do with everything?"
"We are going to store some of our furniture, and sell some. Dot Ingraham is to take my plants for me till we come back to Boston; then I shall have them in our rooms. I hope the gas won"t kill them."
Rodney Sherrett said nothing after the first greeting for some minutes. He only sat and listened, with a sober shadow in his handsome eyes. All this was so different from anything he had antic.i.p.ated.
By and by, in a little pause, he told her that he had come out to ask her for Cla.s.s Day.
"I wouldn"t just send a card for the spread," said he. "Aunt Euphrasia wants you to go with her. I"m in the Reward of Merit list, you see; I"ve earned my good time; been grinding awfully all winter.
I"ve even got a part for Commencement. Only a translation; and it probably won"t be called; but wouldn"t you like to hear it, if it were?"
"O, I wish I could!" said Sylvie, replying in earnest good faith to the question he asked quizzically for a cover to his real eagerness in letting her know. "I _wish_ I could! But we shall be gone."
"Not before Cla.s.s Day?"
"Yes; just about then. I"m so sorry."
Rod Sherrett looked very much as if he thought he had "ground" for nothing.
Then they talked about Lebanon, and the new Vermont Springs; perhaps Mrs. Argenter would go to some of them in July. Miss Kirkbright told Sylvie of a dear little place she had found last year, in the edge of the White Mountain country; "among the great rolling hills that lead you up and up," she said, "through whole counties of wonderful wild beauty; the sacred places of simple living that can never be crowded and profaned. It is a nook to hide away in when one gets discouraged with the world. It consoles you with seeing how great and safe the world is, after all; how the cities are only dots that men have made upon it; picnicking here and there, as it were, with their gross works and pleasures, and making a little rubbish which the Lord could clean all away, if He wanted, with one breath, out of his grand, pure heights."
All the while Sylvie and Rodney had their own young disappointed thoughts. They could not say them out; the invitation had been given and been replied to as it must be; this was only a call with Aunt Euphrasia; everything that they might have in their minds could not be spoken, even if they could have seen it quite clearly enough to speak; they both felt when the half hour was over, as if they had said--had done--nothing that they ought, or wanted to. And neither knew it of the other; that was the worst.
When Rodney at last went out to untie his horse, Miss Euphrasia turned round to Sylvie with a question.
"Is this all quite safe and easy for you, dear?"
"Yes," returned Sylvie, frankly, understanding her. "I have given up all that worry. There is money enough for a good while if we don"t mind using it. And it is _mother"s_ money; and Dr. Sainswell says she _cannot_ have a long life."
Sylvie spoke the last sentence with a break; but her voice was clear and calm,--only tender.
"And after that?" Miss Kirkbright asked, looking kindly into her face.
"After that I shall do what I can; what other girls do, who haven"t money. When the time comes I shall see. All that comes hard to me--after mother"s feebleness--is the changing; the not staying of anything anywhere. My life seems all broken and mixed up, Miss Kirkbright. Nothing goes right on as if it belonged."
""Lo, it is I; be not afraid,"" repeated Miss Kirkbright softly.
"When things work and change, in spite of us, we may know it is the Lord working. That is the comfort,--the certainty."
The tenderness that had been in heart and voice sprang to tears in Sylvie"s eyes, at that word.
"How _do_ you think of such things?" she said, earnestly. "I shall never forget that now."
Aunt Euphrasia could not help telling Rodney as they drove away toward the city, how brave and good the child was. She could not help it, although, wise woman that she was, she refrained carefully, in most ways, from "putting things in his head."
"I knew it before," was Rodney"s answer.
Aunt Euphrasia concluded, at that, in her own mind, that we may be as old and as wise as we please, but in some things the young people are before us; they need very little of our "putting in heads."