"Her health am berry much disproved," and Hannibal retired with a stately bow.
Arden quickened his steps, holding the missive in his hand. As soon as he was out of sight, he opened and devoured Edith"s words. The light of a great joy dawned in his face, and made it look n.o.ble and beautiful, as indeed almost every human face appears when the light of a pure love falls upon it. Where most men would have murmured at the meagre return for their affection, he felt himself immeasurably rewarded and enriched, and it seemed as if he were walking on air the rest of the day. With a face set like a flint, he resolved to be true to the condition implied in the underscored word "friendship," and never to whisper of love to her again. But a richer experience was still in store for him. For, on his return, in the cool of the evening, Edith was in the garden picking currants. She saw him coming, and thought, "If he is ever to be a friend worth the name, I must break the ice of his absurd diffidence and formality. And the sooner he comes to know me as I am, the sooner he will find out that I am like other people, and he will have a new "revelation" that will cure him of his infatuation. I would like him for a _friend_ very much, not only because I need his help, but because one likes a little society now and then, and he seems so well educated, if he is "quar," as Hannibal says." So she startled poor Arden almost as much as if one of his Shakespearean heroines had called him in audible voice, by saying, as he came opposite her:
"Mr. Lacey, won"t you come in a moment and tell me if it is time to pick my currants, and whether you think I could sell them in the village, or at the hotel?"
This address, so matter-of-fact in tone and character, seemed to him like the June twilight, containing, in some subtle manner, the essence of all that was beautiful and full of promise in his heart-history. He bowed and went toward the little gate to comply with her request, as Adam might if he had been created outside of Eden and Eve inside, and she had looked over a flowering hedge in the purple twilight and told him to come in. He was not going merely to look at currants and consider their marketable condition; he was entering openly upon the knightly service to which he had devoted himself. He was approaching his idol, which was not a heathen stock or stone, but a sweet little woman. In regard to the currants, he ventured dubiously--
"They might do for pies."
In regard to herself, his eyes said, in spite of his purpose to be merely friendly, that she was too good for the G.o.ds of Mount Olympus.
He both amused and interested Edith, whose long familiarity with society and lack of any such feeling as swayed him made her quite at ease. With a twinkle in her eyes, she said:
"I have thought that perhaps Mrs. Groody could help me find sale for them at the hotel."
"I am going there to-morrow, and I will ask her for you, if you wish,"
said Arden, timidly.
"Thank you," replied Edith. "I shall be very much obliged to you if you will. You see, I wish to sell everything out of the garden that I can find a market for."
She was rather astonished at the effect of this mercenary speech, for there was a wonderful blending of sympathy and admiration in his face as he said:
"I am frequently going to the hotel and village, and if you will let me know what you have to dispose of, I can find out whether it is in demand, and carry it to market for you." He could not help adding, with a voice trembling with feeling, "Miss Allen, I am so glad you permit me to be of some help to you."
"Oh, dear!" thought Edith, "how can I make him understand what I really am?" She turned to him with an expression that was both perplexed and quizzical, and said:
"Mr. Lacey, I very frankly and gratefully accept your delicately offered friendship (emphasizing the last word), not only because of my need, but of yours also. If any one needs a sensible friend, I think you do. You truly must have lived a "hermit"s life in the world" to have such strange ideas of people. Let me tell you as a perfect certainty, that no such person exists as the Edith Allen that you have imagined. She is no more a reality than your other shadows, and the more you know of me, the sooner you will find it out. I am not in the least like a heroine in a romance. I live on the most substantial food rather than moonlight, and usually have an excellent appet.i.te. I am the most practical matter-of-fact creature in existence, and you will find no one in this place more sharp on the question of dollars and cents. Indeed, I am continually in a most mercenary frame of mind, and this very moment here, in the romantic June twilight, if you ransacked history, poetry, and all the fine arts, you could not tell me anything half so beautiful, half so welcome, as how to make money in a fair, honorable way."
"There," thought she, "that will be another "revelation" to him. If he don"t jump over the garden fence in his haste to escape such a monster, I shall be glad."
But Arden"s face only grew more grave and gentle as he looked down upon her, and he asked:
"Is it because you love the money itself, Miss Allen?"
"Well, no," said Edith, somewhat taken aback. "I can never earn enough to make it worth while to do that. Misers love to count their money,"
she added, with a little pathetic accent in her voice, "and I fear mine will go before I can count it."
"You wish me to think less of you, then, because you are bravely, and without thought of sparing yourself, trying to earn money to provide home-shelter and comfort for your feeble mother and sister. You wish me to think you commonplace because you have the heroism to do any kind of work, rather than be helpless and dependent. Pardon me, but for such a "practical, matter-of-fact" lady, I do not think your logic is good."
Edith"s vexation and perplexity only increased, and she said, earnestly, "But I wish you to understand that I am only Edith Allen, and as poor as poverty, nothing but a sewing girl, and only hoping to arrive at the dignity of a gardener. The majority of the world thinks I am not even fit to speak to," she added, in a low tone.
Arden bowed his head, as if in reverence before her, and then said, firmly:
"And I wish you to understand that I am only Arden Lacey, with a sot for a father, and the scorn, contempt, and hatred of all the world as my heritage. I am a slipshod farmer. Our place is heavily mortgaged, and will eventually be sold away from us. It grows more weeds now than anything else; and it seems that nettles have been the princ.i.p.al crop that I have reaped all my life. Thus, you see, I am poorer than poverty, and am rich only in my mother, and, eventually, I hope," he added timidly, "in the possession of your friendship, Miss Allen; I shall try so sincerely and hard to deserve it."
With a frown, a laugh, and a shy look of sympathy at him, Edith said, "I don"t see but you have got to find out your mistake for yourself.
Time and facts cure many follies." But she found little encouragement in his incredulous smile.
The next moment she turned upon him so sharply that he was startled.
"I am a business woman," she said, "and conduct my affairs on business principles. You said, I think, you would help me find a market for the produce of my place?"
"Certainly," he replied.
"As certainly you must take fifteen per cent commission on all sales."
"Oh, Miss Allen," commenced Arden, "I couldn"t--"
"There," said she, decisively, "you haven"t the first idea of business. Not a thing can you touch unless you comply with my conditions. There is no sentiment, I a.s.sure you, connected with currants and cabbages."
"You may be certain, Miss Allen, that I would comply with any condition," said Arden, with the air of one who is cornered, "but let me suggest, since we are arranging this matter so strictly on business grounds, that ten per cent is all I should take. That is the regular commission, and is all I pay in sending produce to New York."
"Oh, I didn"t know that," said the experienced and uncompromising woman of business, innocently. "Do you think that would pay you for your trouble?"
"I think it would," he replied, so demurely and yet with such a twinkle in his blue eyes, that now looked very different with the light of hope and happiness in them, that Edith turned away with a laugh.
But she said, with a.s.sumed sharpness, "See that you keep your accounts straight. I shall be a very dragon over your account-book."
Thus the ice was broken, and Edith and Arden became _friends_.
The future has now been quite clearly indicated to the reader, and, lest my story should grow wearisome as a "twice-told tale," we pa.s.s over several subsequent months with but a few words.
It was not a good fruit year, and Edith"s place had been sadly neglected previous to her possession. Therefore, though Arden surprised himself in the sharp business traits he developed as Edith"s salesman, the results were not very large. But still they greatly a.s.sisted her, and amounted to more than the earnings of her unskilled hands from other sources. She insisted on doing everything on business principles, and made Arden take his ten per cent, which was of real help to him in this way: he gave all the money to his mother, saying, "_I_ couldn"t spend it to save my life." Mrs. Lacey had many uses for every penny she could obtain.
Then Edith paid old Malcom by making up bouquets for sale at the hotel, and arranging baskets of flowers for parties there and elsewhere, and other lighter labors. Mrs. Groody continued to send her work; and thus during the summer and early fall she managed to make her garden and her labor provide for all family expenses, saving what was left of the four hundred, after paying all debts, for winter need.
Moreover, she stored away in cellar and attic enough of the products of the garden to be of great help also.
Mrs. Allen did recover her usual health, and also her usual modes of thought and feeling. The mental and moral habits of a lifetime are not readily changed. Often and earnestly did Edith talk with her mother, but with few evidences of the result she longed to see.
Mrs. Allen"s condition, in view of the truth, was the most hopeless one of all. She saw only her preconceived ideas, and not the truth itself. One day she said, with some irritation, to Edith, who was pleading with her:
"Do you think I am a heathen? Of course, I believe the Bible. Of course, I believe in Jesus Christ. I have been a member of the church ever since I was sixteen."
Edith sighed, and thought, "Only He who can satisfy her need can reveal it to her."
Poor Mrs. Allen! With the strange infatuation of a worldly mind, she was turning to the world, and it alone, for hope and solace. Untaught by the wretched experience of the past, she was led to enter upon a new and similar scheme for the aggrandizement of her family, as will be explained in another chapter.
Laura regained her strength somewhat, and was able to relieve Edith of the care of her mother and the lighter duties of the house. Her faith developed like that shy, delicate blossom called the "wind-flower,"
easily shaken, and yet with a certain hardiness and power to live and thrive in sterile places.
Edith and Mrs. Lacey were eventually received into the church that Malcom attended, and, after the simple service, they took dinner with the old Scotchman and his wife. Malcom seemed hardly "in the body" all day.
"My heart"s a-bloom," he said, "wi" a" the sweet posies that G.o.d ever made blush when he looked at them the first time, an" ye seem the sweetest o" them a", Miss Edith. Ah, but the Crude Husbandman gathered a fair blossom the day."
"Now, Mr. McTrump," said Edith, reproachfully, but with a face like Malcom"s posies, "you shouldn"t give compliments on Sunday." For Arden and Rose were present also, and Edith thought, "Such foolish words will only increase his infatuation."
"Weel," said Malcom, scratching his head, in his perplexed effort at apology, "I wud na mak ye vain, nor hurt yer conscience, but it kind o" slippit out afore I could stop it."
In the laugh that followed Malcom"s explanation Edith felt that matters had not been helped much, and she adroitly turned the conversation.