Amelia turned about with the grand air of a woman repulsed.
"He _don"t_ bother me," said she, "an" I _will_ let him in." She walked to the door, stepping on b.u.t.tons as she went, and conscious, when she broke them, of a bitter pleasure. It added to her martyrdom.
She flung open the door, and called herself a fool in the doing; for the little old man outside was in the act of turning away. In another instant, she might have escaped. But he was only too eager to come back again, and it seemed to Amelia as if he would run over her, in his desire to get in.
"There! there! "Melia," said he, pushing past her, "can"t stop to talk till I git near the fire. Guess you were settin" in the kitchen, wa"n"t ye? Don"t make no stranger o" me. That your man?"
She had shut the door, and entered, exasperated anew by the rising wind.
"That"s my husband," said she coldly. "Enoch, here"s cousin Josiah Pease."
Enoch looked up benevolently over his spectacles, and put out a h.o.r.n.y left hand, the while the other guarded his heap of treasures. "Pleased to meet you, sir," said he. "You see I"m tinkerin" a clock."
To Enoch, the explanation was enough. All the simple conventions of his life might well wait upon a reason potent as this. Josiah Pease went to the stove, and stood holding his tremulous hands over a cover. He was a little man, eclipsed in a b.u.t.ternut coat of many capes, and his parchment face shaded gradually up from it, as if into a harder medium.
His eyes were light, and they had an exceedingly uncomfortable way of darting from one thing to another, like some insect born to spear and sting. His head was entirely bald, all save a thin fringe of hair not worth mentioning, since it disappeared so effectually beneath his collar; and his general antiquity was grotesquely emphasized by two sets of aggressive teeth, displaying their falsity from every crown.
Amelia took out the broom, and began sweeping up b.u.t.tons. She had an acrid consciousness that by sacrificing them she was somehow completing the tragedy of her day. Rosie gave a little cry; but Amelia pointed to the corner where stood the child"s chair, exhumed from the attic, after forty years of rest. "You set there," she said, in an undertone, "an"
keep still."
Rosie obeyed without a word. Such an atmosphere had not enveloped her since she entered this wonderful house. Remembering vaguely the days when her own mother had "spells," and she and her father effaced themselves until times should change, she folded her little hands, and lapsed back into a condition of mental servitude.
Meanwhile, Amelia followed nervously in the track of Enoch"s talk with cousin Josiah, though her mind kept its undercurrent of foolish musing.
Like all of us, s.n.a.t.c.hed up by the wheels of great emergencies, she caught at trifles while they whirled her round. Here were "soldier-b.u.t.tons." All the other girls had collected them, though she, having no lover in the war, had traded for her few. Here were the gold-stones that held her changeable silk, there the little clouded pearls from her sister"s raglan. Annie had died in youth; its glamour still enwrapped her. Poor Annie! But Rosie had seemed to bring her back.
Amelia swept litter, b.u.t.tons and all, into the dustpan, and marched to the stove to throw her booty in. n.o.body marked her save Rosie, whose playthings were endangered; but Enoch"s very obtuseness to the situation was what stayed her hand. She carried the dustpan away into a closet, and came back, to gather up her tins. A cold rage of nervousness beset her, so overpowering that she herself was amazed at it.
Meantime, Josiah Pease had divested himself of his coat, and drawn the grandfather chair into a s.p.a.ce behind the stove.
"You a clock-mender by trade?" he asked of Enoch.
"No," said Enoch absently, "I ain"t got any reg"lar trade."
"Jest goin" round the country?" amended cousin Josiah, with the preliminary insinuation Amelia knew so well. He was, it had been said, in the habit of inventing lies, and challenging other folks to stick to "em. But Enoch made no reply. He went soberly on with his work.
"Law, "Melia, to think o" your bein" married," continued Josiah, turning to her. "I never should ha" thought that o" you."
"I never thought it of myself," said Amelia tartly. "You don"t know what you"ll do till you"re tried."
"No! no!" said Josiah Pease. "Never in the world. You remember Sally Flint, how plain-spoken she is? Well, Betsy Marden"s darter Ann rode down to the poor-house t" other day with some sweet trade, an" took a young sprig with her. He turned his back a minute, to look out o"
winder, an" Sally spoke right up, as ye might say, afore him. "That your beau?" says she. Well, o" course Ann couldn"t own it, an" him right there, so to speak. So she shook her head. "Well, I"m glad on "t," says Sally. "If I couldn"t have anything to eat, I"d have suthin" to look at!" He was the most unsignifyin"est creatur" you ever put your eyes on.
But they say Ann"s started in on her clo"es."
Amelia"s face had grown scarlet. "I dunno"s any such speech is called for here," said she, in a furious self-betrayal. Josiah Pease had always been able to storm her reserves.
"Law, no," answered he comfortably. "It come into my mind,--that"s all."
She looked at Enoch with a pa.s.sionate sympathy, knowing too well how the hidden sting was intended to work. But Enoch had not heard. He was absorbed in a finer problem of bra.s.s and iron; and though Amelia had wished to save him from hurt, in that instant she scorned him for his blindness. "I guess I shall have to ask you to move," she said to her husband coldly. "I"ve got to git to that stove, if we"re goin" to have any dinner to-day."
It seemed to her that even Enoch might take the hint, and clear away his rubbish. Her feelings might have been a.s.suaged by a clean hearth and some acquiescence in her own mood. But he only moved back a little, and went on fitting and musing. He was not thinking of her in the least, nor even of Josiah Pease. His mind had entered its brighter, more alluring world. She began to fry her pork and apples, with a perfunctory attempt at conversation. "You don"t often git round so early in the spring," said she.
"No," returned cousin Josiah. "I kind o" got started out, this time, I don"t rightly know why. I guess I"ve had you in mind more of late, for some Tiverton folks come over our way, tradin", an" they brought all the news. It sort o" stirred me up to come."
Amelia turned her apples vigorously, well aware that the slices were breaking. That made a part of her bitter day.
"Folks needn"t take the trouble to carry news about me," she said. There was an angry gleam in her eyes. "If anybody wants to know anything, let "em come right here, an" I"ll settle "em." The ring of her voice penetrated even to Enoch"s perception, and he looked up in mild surprise. She seemed to have thrown open, for an instant, a little window into a part of her nature he had never seen.
"How good them apples smell!" said Josiah innocently. "Last time I had "em was down to cousin Amasa True"s, he that married his third wife, an"
she run through all he had. I went down to see "em arter the vandoo,--you know they got red o" most everything,--an" they had fried pork an" apples for dinner. Old Bashaby dropped in. "Law!" says she.
"Fried pork an" apples! Well, I call that livin" pretty nigh the wind!""
Josiah chuckled. He was very warm now, and the savory smell of the dish he decried was mounting to what served him for fancy. ""Melia, you ain"t never had your teeth out, have ye?" he asked, as one who spoke from richer memories.
"I guess my teeth"ll last me as long as I want "em," said Amelia curtly.
"Well, I didn"t know. They looked real white an" firm last time I see "em, but you never can tell how they be underneath. I knew the folks would ask me when I got home. I thought I"d speak."
"Dinner"s ready," said Amelia. She turned an alien look upon her husband. "You want to wash your hands?"
Enoch rose cheerfully. He had got to a hopeful place with the clock.
"Set ri" down," said he. "Don"t wait a minute. I"ll be along."
So Amelia and the guest began their meal, while little Rosie climbed, rather soberly, into her higher chair, and held out her plate.
"You wait," said Amelia harshly. "Can"t you let other folks eat a mouthful before you have to have yours?" Yet as she said it, she remembered, with a remorseful pang, that she had always helped the child first; it had been so sweet to see her pleased and satisfied.
Josiah was never talkative during meals. Not being absolute master of his teeth, his mind dwelt with them. Amelia remembered that, with a malicious satisfaction. But he could not be altogether dumb. That, people said, would never happen to Josiah Pease while he was above ground.
"That his girl?" he asked, indicating Rosie with his knife, in a gustatory pause.
"Whose?" inquired Amelia willfully.
"His." He pointed again, this time to the back room, where Enoch was still washing his hands.
"Yes."
"Mother dead?"
Amelia sprang from her chair, while Rosie looked at her with the frightened glance of a child to whom some half-forgotten grief has suddenly returned.
"Josiah Pease!" said Amelia. "I never thought a poor, insignificant creatur" like you could rile me so,--when I know what you"re doin" it for, too. But you"ve brought it about. Her mother dead? Ain"t I been an"
married her father?"
"Law, Amelia, do se" down!" said Josiah indulgently. There was a mince-pie warming on the back of the stove. He saw it there. "I didn"t mean nuthin". I"ll be bound you thought she"s dead, or you wouldn"t ha"
took such a step. I only meant, did ye see her death in the paper, for example, or anything like that?"
""Melia," called Enoch, from the doorway, "I won"t come in to dinner jest now. Elbridge True"s drove into the yard. I guess he"s got it in mind to talk it over about them cows. I don"t want to lose the chance."
"All right," answered Amelia. She took her seat again, while Enoch"s footsteps went briskly out through the shed. With the clanging of the door, she felt secure. If she had to deal with Josiah Pease, she could do it better alone, clutching at the certainty that was with her from of old, that, if you could only keep your temper with cousin Josiah, you had one chance of victory. Flame out at him, and you were lost. "Some more potatoes?" asked she, with a deceptive calm.
"Don"t care if I do," returned Josiah, selecting greedily, his fork hovering in air. "Little mite watery, ain"t they? Dig "em yourself?"