"P.S.--Please don"t feel too bad about this.
"C.N."
At the reading of this tactful epistle, Dolly, of course, immediately burst out into hysterics. These shall remain undescribed here. There is something mysterious about hysteria which paralyzes the pen. Not the least mysterious thing about it is the fact that the word, p.r.o.nounced in an a.s.sembly of men and women, will simultaneously call up haggard lines on the faces of the men and cooing sniggles in the throats of the ladies.
Anyway, poor little Dolly had it bad all that night, and all the next day, and all the next night. By the morning of the second day, it had pa.s.sed to a lamentable wandering to and fro within the cage-like apartment, with disordered garments and unkempt hair, through which eyes shone with a glint of madness. By the afternoon of the same day, it was taking some interest in its reflection as it pa.s.sed the several mirrors in its ceaseless pacing. The reflection reminded of Ophelia. Finally, when in the evening it caught itself nibbling cracker and cheese in the upset kitchen, it realized that it needed new stimulus. It telegraphed for Dolly"s Boston aunt.
The calculation proved correct. When, twelve hours later, the Boston aunt pressed the b.u.t.ton at the landing, she found herself almost immediately tackled around the neck, while a shriek pierced her right ear. This was followed by a palpitant hugging, from the folds of which emerged vague, bubbling sounds. The aunt bore the demonstration with stoicism and with a certain reservation of self. She was very much unlike Dolly--tall and spare, with bushy brows, beneath the deep arcade of which glowed two limpid gray eyes. These eyes, during Dolly"s little performance, remained somehow outside of the enveloping flutter. They peered over Dolly"s shoulder in an alert examination of the disorder evident within the flat, and in their serene depths a slight will-o"-the-wisp seemed discreetly dancing. When finally Dolly"s outburst had moderated, the old lady spoke. "Where is the bath-room?" she said.
Dolly dropped her convulsive hold and drew back a step. "The bath-room!"
she exclaimed, her eyes very big; "you want to know where the bath-room is!"
"Yes, the bath," repeated Auntie, as though astonished at the astonishment.
Dolly showed it to her. A calmness had come over her, a calmness of indignation. Auntie gave the bottom of the tub a hurried cleaning, adjusted the faucet to a tepid flow, dropped in the stopper, and sat down on the edge of the porcelain as the water rose within. "I"m going to give you a bath," she announced to Dolly, who stood there petrified with hurt amazement.
And when the tub was full, she rose lightly to her feet and began to take off Dolly"s soiled kimono. Dolly, in a daze, felt the garment slip from her, and then slid into the warm, green pool, which closed softly about her neck. "You lie there a while," said Auntie; "I"ll come back and give you a shampoo."
And Dolly remained alone in the steaming room. Little by little, to the persistent caress of the warm water, she felt her body relax; she shut her eyes; from beneath the closed lids tears exuded softly; they came freely, without a pang. After a while, even these ceased. From the bedroom came the sound of a bed being rolled, a flapping of sheets, a whirring of blinds. Auntie returned. "Now," she said alacriously.
Dolly"s head was being rubbed; a snow-white bubbly mountain was rising upon it, a mountain like an island--that is to say, like that confection known as a floating island; she could feel on her scalp the wise, soothing fingers of her aunt breaking down the resistance of her nerves; her eyes, shut at first merely to keep out the soap, remained closed in semi-ecstasy.
"Now, out you go!" suddenly boomed a voice, as a patter of water descended upon her head; and Dolly stepped out into the vigorous embrace of a turkish towel. It was pa.s.sing over her body with a firm, rotary motion as of machinery; she swayed within it like a palm in a tempest. It slid up into her hair and finally twisted itself about it in a turban. A fresh night-dress descended about her; "to bed, now," said the voice.
The room was gray and cool within the lowered blinds; pa.s.sively, Dolly slipped in between the fresh white sheets; her head sank into the crackling pillow. A little sob rose in her throat. "O, Auntie," she said, "O-o-o."
"Not a word now!" the capable lady immediately broke in. "I know all about it. You can tell it to me when you wake up. Go to sleep now."
It was a pleasant sort of violence; as a harness of flowers the obedience of Dolly"s childhood slipped again about her. She shut her eyes, then like a puppy-dog snuggling to its mother, turned and dug her round little nose into the pillow. A snifflet of a sigh sounded--and as it sounded became the first long breath of sleep.
The Boston aunt stood some time by the bed, tall and straight like a grenadier on watch. Suddenly she stooped down and placed a kiss upon the curve of cheek emerging from the folds of the pillow. Immediately she was erect again. "Poor darned little girl!" she said.
She paused again, out in the dining-room, her eyes far away. "_He_ tried that once on me," she said reminiscently. A gleam of humor lit up her gray eyes. "I fixed him," she said decidedly. And then, with some tenderness: "Poor great big things," she said; "what chance have they against us!"
Upon which she went into the kitchen where lay a pile of viscous dishes, eloquent of the home"s demoralization.
When Dolly emerged from her room some twenty-four hours later, her face was pale and her little nose was red, and she seemed a bit dazed.
"h.e.l.lo, Dolly," said the Boston aunt, looking up and giving the sofa-cushion she was arranging a final thump; "h.e.l.lo, Dolly; come into the kitchen and have some breakfast."
Upon the gas stove she toasted bread and poached two eggs, which she laid before Dolly like two triumphant suns glowing through a fragrant haze of coffee. Dolly successively suppressed the joyous acclaim which instinctively rose from her whole being at the sight; but she ate. Rather mincingly, of course; but still, on the whole, efficiently. At times she closed her eyes, and then from beneath the lowered lids a few tears came gliding without friction. "Now," said the aunt, after the last crumb of toast had disappeared; "let"s go into the other room and hear about it."
She led the way into that little room, which was fairly enc.u.mbered with coziness. She took one of the rocking-chairs. Dolly sank into the other.
By keeping the same rhythm, there was s.p.a.ce for both to swing at the same time. Dolly swayed back and forth three times, and then burst into tears. "He has left me, Auntie; Goosie is gone; ooh-ooh!" The aunt"s chair ceased rocking with an abruptness that made their knees b.u.mp.
Dolly"s chair stopped; she looked at her aunt in astonishment. Aunt Hester was sitting up very straight. "Do you mean to say," she began, and then paused as though unable to believe the evidence; "do you mean to say," she went on, "do you mean to say, Dolly Sims, that you made me come down all the way from Boston just because Charles-Norton is gone?"
"Why, yes," answered Dolly, petrified. "Why, yes. Isn"t that enough; isn"t it _enough_? My life is ruined! Ruined! Oo-oo-ooh"--and her eyes, ablaze for an instant, became veiled by a filmy cascade.
"Pooh," said Aunt Hester, decidedly; "pooh. Charles-Norton is gone; well, he"ll come back."
"He"s not coming back," wailed Dolly, indignantly; "he"s _not_! He has dee-s-s-er-ted me!"
"Deserted," jeered Aunt Hester. "Charles-Norton! A fine chance Charles-Norton has to desert you, Dolly! First of all, he couldn"t make himself want to, no matter how much he tried. And if he did want to, he couldn"t. You wouldn"t let him, Dolly!"
"Wouldn"t let him! Oh! Do you think, Auntie, that I am so low, so base, so devoid of pride, as to keep a man who----"
"Toot-toot," said Aunt Hester; "toot-toot--you can"t help it. Have you ever read that fellow Darwin, Dolly?"
"Darwin," said Dolly, rather astonished at the turn taken by the conversation; "Darwin--did he write "When Knighthood was in Flower"?"
Aunt Hester opened her mouth like a fish suddenly whisked out of water.
She closed it again. By the time she spoke, she had suppressed something.
"No, no, Dolly," she said. "_Darwin_, the--well, it doesn"t matter. We"ve been reading him lately, anyway, at the Cooking Club. That chap _knows_ things, Dolly. He didn"t tell me anything I didn"t know ahead myself; but he _explained_ lots of things I had found out. You should read him."
"I"ll read him, Auntie," said Dolly, with dolorous voice. "I suppose I"ll have to read now, or paint china, or do something like that, now that Charles, that Charles, that Charles----"
"Oh, Charles, Charles, Charles," echoed Aunt Hester, but in much different tone; "you"ll get your Charles back. Charles-Norton! He has as much chance to escape you--as the earth has to stop whirling around. You baby! Why, you"ve got all Nature on your side, plotting and scheming for you. _His_ dice are loaded; he can"t win!"
"Aunty, what _are_ you talking about! Here I am, un-unhappy, and needing, needing, needing friendship, and you sit and talk--I don"t know what."
"For, what is Charles-Norton?" continued the Boston lady, as though she had not heard Dolly. "What is Charles-Norton? A man. Hence, a clung-to."
"A clung-to!" exclaimed Dolly, a dreadful suspicion beginning to add itself to her greater trouble.
"Just so--a clung-to. And the direct heir of hundreds and hundreds and thousands and thousands of clung-tos. For of the men since the beginning of the world, Dolly, it"s only the clung-tos that survived, or rather that had babies that survived----"
"Auntie!" admonished Dolly.
"Certainly," went on Aunt Hester, seemingly misinterpreting Dolly"s interruption. "They alone had babies that survived. The babies of the others--well, they starved, or fell into the fire, or were ma.s.sacred in the wars. So that now there _are_ no others. There are only descendants of clung-tos, and hence clung-tos. Charles-Norton, Dolly, is a clung-to!"
"But, Auntie," protested Dolly, "he isn"t any horrid such thing. And he"s gone, he"s gone--and I certainly won"t _force_ him to----"
"And you, Dolly," pursued Aunt Hester, unruffled, as though a professor addressing a group of freshmen. "And you, Dolly, what are you? A woman.
Hence a cling-to."
"A cling-to!" screamed Dolly.
"Certainly. A cling-to. The end of a line of thousands and thousands of cling-tos. For of the women since the beginning of the world, Dolly, which survived? The cling-tos. They alone were able to live, and to have baby-girls who survived--if cling-tos. The others, and the babies of the others, they starved; that"s all, Dolly, they starved. No mastodon steak for them, Dolly; no nice wing-bone of ictiosaurus--they starved. So that there are now no others--or mighty few. You, Dolly, being alive and well and a woman, are inevitably a cling-to."
"Auntie! Auntie!" murmured Dolly, puzzled and horrified.
"To recapitulate," Aunt Hester swept on. "To recapitulate: Charles-Norton is a clung-to; you are a cling-to. Neither of you can help him or herself. For it is the very essence of the being of the one to hold, of the other to be held."
"How horrible!" said Dolly, with a shudder.
"In other words, my dears," went on the aunt; "in other words, you are _dreadfully_ in love with each other and can"t keep apart."
"Love!" moaned Dolly.