frances farquhar was a beauty and was sometimes called a society butterfly by people who didn't know very much about it. her father was wealthy and her mother came of an extremely blue-blooded family. frances had been out for three years, and was a social favourite. consequently, it may be wondered why she was unhappy.
in plain english, frances farquhar had been jilted—just a commonplace, everyday jilting! she had been engaged to paul holcomb; he was a very handsome fellow, somewhat too evidently aware of the fact, and frances was very deeply in love with him—or thought herself so, which at the time comes to pretty much the same thing. everybody in her set knew of her engagement, and all her girl friends envied her, for holcomb was a matrimonial catch.
then the crash came. nobody outside the family knew exactly what did happen, but everybody knew that the holcomb-farquhar match was off, and everybody had a different story to account for it.
the simple truth was that holcomb was fickle and had fallen in love with another girl. there was nothing of the man about him, and it did not matter to his sublimely selfish caddishness whether he broke frances farquhar's heart or not. he got his freedom and he married maud carroll in six months' time.
the farquhars, especially ned, who was frances's older brother and seldom concerned himself about her except when the family honour was involved, were furious at the whole affair. mr. farquhar stormed, and ned swore, and della lamented her vanished role of bridemaid. as for mrs. farquhar, she cried and said it would ruin frances's future prospects.
the girl herself took no part in the family indignation meetings. but she believed that her heart was broken. her love and her pride had suffered equally, and the effect seemed disastrous.
after a while the farquhars calmed down and devoted themselves to the task of cheering frances up. this they did not accomplish. she got through the rest of the season somehow and showed a proud front to the world, not even flinching when holcomb himself crossed her path. to be sure, she was pale and thin, and had about as much animation as a mask, but the same might be said of a score of other girls who were not suspected of having broken hearts.
when the summer came frances asserted herself. the farquhars went to green harbour every summer. but this time frances said she would not go, and stuck to it. the whole family took turns coaxing her and had nothing to show for their pains.
"i'm going up to windy meadows to stay with aunt eleanor while you are at the harbour," she declared. "she has invited me often enough."
ned whistled. "jolly time you'll have of it, sis. windy meadows is about as festive as a funeral. and aunt eleanor isn't lively, to put it in the mildest possible way."
"i don't care if she isn't. i want to get somewhere where people won't look at me and talk about—that," said frances, looking ready to cry.
ned went out and swore at holcomb again, and then advised his mother to humour frances. accordingly, frances went to windy meadows.
windy meadows was, as ned had said, the reverse of lively. it was a pretty country place, with a sort of fag-end by way of a little fishing village, huddled on a wind-swept bit of beach, locally known as the "cove." aunt eleanor was one of those delightful people, so few and far between in this world, who have perfectly mastered the art of minding their own business exclusively. she left frances in peace.
she knew that her niece had had "some love trouble or other," and hadn't gotten over it rightly.
"it's always best to let those things take their course," said this philosophical lady to her "help" and confidant, margaret ann peabody. "she'll get over it in time—though she doesn't think so now, bless you."
for the first fortnight frances revelled in a luxury of unhindered sorrow. she could cry all night—and all day too, if she wished—without having to stop because people might notice that her eyes were red. she could mope in her room all she liked. and there were no men who demanded civility.
when the fortnight was over, aunt eleanor took crafty counsel with herself. the letting-alone policy was all very well, but it would not do to have the girl die on her hands. frances was getting paler and thinner every day—and she was spoiling her eyelashes by crying.
"i wish," said aunt eleanor one morning at breakfast, while frances pretended to eat, "that i could go and take corona sherwood out for a drive today. i promised her last week that i would, but i've never had time yet. and today is baking and churning day. it's a shame. poor corona!"
"who is she?" asked frances, trying to realize that there was actually someone in the world besides herself who was to be pitied.
"she is our minister's sister. she has been ill with rheumatic fever. she is better now, but doesn't seem to get strong very fast. she ought to go out more, but she isn't able to walk. i really must try and get around tomorrow. she keeps house for her brother at the manse. he isn't married, you know."
frances didn't know, nor did she in the least degree care. but even the luxury of unlimited grief palls, and frances was beginning to feel this vaguely. she offered to go and take miss sherwood out driving.
"i've never seen her," she said, "but i suppose that doesn't matter. i can drive grey tom in the phaeton, if you like."
it was just what aunt eleanor intended, and she saw frances drive off that afternoon with a great deal of satisfaction.
"give my love to corona," she told her, "and say for me that she isn't to go messing about among those shore people until she's perfectly well. the manse is the fourth house after you turn the third corner."
frances kept count of the corners and the houses and found the manse. corona sherwood herself came to the door. frances had been expecting an elderly personage with spectacles and grey crimps; she was surprised to find that the minister's sister was a girl of about her own age and possessed of a distinct worldly prettiness. corona was dark, with a different darkness from that of frances, who had ivory outlines and blue-black hair, while corona was dusky and piquant.
her eyes brightened with delight when frances told her errand.
"how good of you and miss eleanor! i am not strong enough to walk far yet—or do anything useful, in fact, and elliott so seldom has time to take me out."
"where shall we go?" asked frances when they started. "i don't know much about this locality."
"can we drive to the cove first? i want to see poor little jacky hart. he has been so sick—"
"aunt eleanor positively forbade that," said frances dubiously. "will it be safe to disobey her?"
corona laughed.
"miss eleanor blames my poor shore people for making me sick at first, but it was really not that at all. and i want to see jacky hart so much. he has been ill for some time with some disease of the spine and he is worse lately. i'm sure miss eleanor won't mind my calling just to see him."
frances turned grey tom down the shore road that ran to the cove and past it to silvery, wind-swept sands, rimming sea expanses crystal clear. jacky hart's home proved to be a tiny little place overflowing with children. mrs. hart was a pale, tired-looking woman with the patient, farseeing eyes so often found among the women who watch sea and shore every day and night of their lives for those who sometimes never return.
she spoke of jacky with the apathy of hopelessness. the doctor said he would not last much longer. she told all her troubles unreservedly to corona in her monotonous voice. her "man" was drinking again and the mackerel catch was poor.
when mrs. hart asked corona to go in and see jacky, frances went too. the sick boy, a child with a delicate, wasted face and large, bright eyes, lay in a tiny bedroom off the kitchen. the air was hot and heavy. mrs. hart stood at the foot of the bed with her tragic face.
"we have to set up nights with him now," she said. "it's awful hard on me and my man. the neighbours are kind enough and come sometimes, but most of them have enough to do. his medicine has to be given every half hour. i've been up for three nights running now. jabez was off to the tavern for two. i'm just about played out."
she suddenly broke down and began to cry, or rather whimper, in a heart-broken way.
corona looked troubled. "i wish i could come tonight, mrs. hart, but i'm afraid i'm really not strong enough yet."
"i don't know much about sickness," spoke up frances firmly, "but if to sit by the child and give him his medicine regularly is all that is necessary, i am sure i can do that. i'll come and sit up with jacky tonight if you care to have me."
afterwards, when she and corona were driving away, she wondered a good deal at herself. but corona was so evidently pleased with her offer, and took it all so much as a matter of course, that frances had not the courage to display her wonder. they had their drive through the great green bowl of the country valley, brimming over with sunshine, and afterwards corona made frances go home with her to tea.
rev. elliott sherwood had got back from his pastoral visitations, and was training his sweet peas in the way they should go against the garden fence. he was in his shirt sleeves and wore a big straw hat, and seemed in nowise disconcerted thereby. corona introduced him, and he took grey tom away and put him in the barn. then he went back to his sweet peas. he had had his tea, he said, so that frances did not see him again until she went home. she thought he was a very indifferent young man, and not half so nice as his sister.
but she went and sat up with jacky hart that night, getting to the cove at dark, when the sea was a shimmer of fairy tints and the boats were coming in from the fishing grounds. jacky greeted her with a wonderful smile, and later on she found herself watching alone by his bed. the tiny lamp on the table burned dim, and outside, on the rocks, there was loud laughing and talking until a late hour.
afterwards a silence fell, through which the lap of the waves on the sands and the far-off moan of the atlantic surges came sonorously. jacky was restless and wakeful, but did not suffer, and liked to talk. frances listened to him with a new-born power of sympathy, which she thought she must have caught from corona. he told her all the tragedy of his short life, and how bad he felt, about dad's taking to drink and mammy's having to work so hard.
the pitiful little sentences made frances's heart ache. the maternal instinct of the true woman awoke in her. she took a sudden liking to the child. he was a spiritual little creature, and his sufferings had made him old and wise. once in the night he told frances that he thought the angels must look like her.
"you are so sweet pretty," he said gravely. "i never saw anyone so pretty, not even miss c'rona. you look like a picture i once saw on mr. sherwood's table when i was up at the manse one day 'fore i got so bad i couldn't walk. it was a woman with a li'l baby in her arms and a kind of rim round her head. i would like something most awful much."
"what is it, dear?" said frances gently. "if i can get or do it for you, i will."
"you could," he said wistfully, "but maybe you won't want to. but i do wish you'd come here just once every day and sit here five minutes and let me look at you—just that. will it be too much trouble?"
frances stooped and kissed him. "i will come every day, jacky," she said; and a look of ineffable content came over the thin little face. he put up his hand and touched her cheek.
"i knew you were good—as good as miss c'rona, and she is an angel. i love you."
when morning came frances went home. it was raining, and the sea was hidden in mist. as she walked along the wet road, elliott sherwood came splashing along in a little two-wheeled gig and picked her up. he wore a raincoat and a small cap, and did not look at all like a minister—or, at least, like frances's conception of one.
not that she knew much about ministers. her own minister at home—that is to say, the minister of the fashionable uptown church which she attended—was a portly, dignified old man with silvery hair and gold-rimmed glasses, who preached scholarly, cultured sermons and was as far removed from frances's personal life as a star in the milky way.
but a minister who wore rubber coats and little caps and drove about in a two-wheeled gig, very much mud-bespattered, and who talked about the shore people as if they were household intimates of his, was absolutely new to frances.
she could not help seeing, however, that the crisp brown hair under the edges of the unclerical-looking cap curled around a remarkably well-shaped forehead, beneath which flashed out a pair of very fine dark-grey eyes; he had likewise a good mouth, which was resolute and looked as if it might be stubborn on occasion; and, although he was not exactly handsome, frances decided that she liked his face.
he tucked the wet, slippery rubber apron of his conveyance about her and then proceeded to ask questions. jacky hart's case had to be reported on, and then mr. sherwood took out a notebook and looked over its entries intently.
"do you want any more work of that sort to do?" he asked her abruptly.
frances felt faintly amused. he talked to her as he might have done to corona, and seemed utterly oblivious of the fact that her profile was classic and her eyes delicious. his indifference piqued frances a little in spite of her murdered heart. well, if there was anything she could do she might as well do it, she told him briefly, and he, with equal brevity, gave her directions for finding some old lady who lived on the elm creek road and to whom corona had read tracts.
"tracts are a mild dissipation of aunt clorinda's," he said. "she fairly revels in them. she is half blind and has missed corona very much."
there were other matters also—a dozen or so of factory girls who needed to be looked after and a family of ragged children to be clothed. frances, in some dismay, found herself pledged to help in all directions, and then ways and means had to be discussed. the long, wet road, sprinkled with houses, from whose windows people were peering to see "what girl the minister was driving," seemed very short. frances did not know it, but elliott sherwood drove a full mile out of his way that morning to take her home, and risked being late for a very important appointment—from which it may be inferred that he was not quite so blind to the beautiful as he had seemed.
frances went through the rain that afternoon and read tracts to aunt clorinda. she was so dreadfully tired that night that she forgot to cry, and slept well and soundly.
in the morning she went to church for the first time since coming to windy meadows. it did not seem civil not to go to hear a man preach when she had gone slumming with his sister and expected to assist him with his difficulties over factory girls. she was surprised at elliott sherwood's sermon, and mentally wondered why such a man had been allowed to remain for four years in a little country pulpit. later on aunt eleanor told her it was for his health.
"he was not strong when he left college, so he came here. but he is as well as ever now, and i expect he will soon be gobbled up by some of your city churches. he preached in castle street church last winter, and i believe they were delighted with him."
this was all of a month later. during that time frances thought that she must have been re-created, so far was her old self left behind. she seldom had an idle moment; when she had, she spent it with corona. the two girls had become close friends, loving each other with the intensity of exceptional and somewhat exclusive natures.
corona grew strong slowly, and could do little for her brother's people, but frances was an excellent proxy, and elliott sherwood kept her employed. incidentally, frances had come to know the young minister, with his lofty ideals and earnest efforts, very well. he had got into a ridiculous habit of going to her—her, frances farquhar!—for advice in many perplexities.
frances had nursed jacky hart and talked temperance to his father and read tracts to aunt clorinda and started a reading circle among the factory girls and fitted out all the little jarboes with dresses and coaxed the shore children to go to school and patched up a feud between two 'longshore families and done a hundred other things of a similar nature.
aunt eleanor said nothing, as was her wise wont, but she talked it over with margaret ann peabody, and agreed with that model domestic when she said: "work'll keep folks out of trouble and help 'em out of it when they are in. just as long as that girl brooded over her own worries and didn't think of anyone but herself she was miserable. but as soon as she found other folks were unhappy, too, and tried to help 'em out a bit, she helped herself most of all. she's getting fat and rosy, and it is plain to be seen that the minister thinks there isn't the like of her on this planet."
one night frances told corona all about holcomb. elliott sherwood was away, and frances had gone up to stay all night with corona at the manse. they were sitting in the moonlit gloom of corona's room, and frances felt confidential. she had expected to feel badly and cry a little while she told it. but she did not, and before she was half through, it did not seem as if it were worth telling after all. corona was deeply sympathetic. she did not say a great deal, but what she did say put frances on better terms with herself.
"oh, i shall get over it," the latter declared finally. "once i thought i never would—but the truth is, i'm getting over it now. i'm very glad—but i'm horribly ashamed, too, to find myself so fickle."
"i don't think you are fickle, frances," said corona gravely, "because i don't think you ever really loved that man at all. you only imagined you did. and he was not worthy of you. you are so good, dear; those shore people just worship you. elliott says you can do anything you like with them."
frances laughed and said she was not at all good. yet she was pleased. later on, when she was brushing her hair before the mirror and smiling absently at her reflection, corona said: "frances, what is it like to be as pretty as you are?"
"nonsense!" said frances by way of answer.
"it is not nonsense at all. you must know you are very lovely, frances. elliott says you are the most beautiful girl he has ever seen."
for a girl who has told herself a dozen times that she would never care again for masculine admiration, frances experienced a very odd thrill of delight on hearing that the minister of windy meadows thought her beautiful. she knew he admired her intellect and had immense respect for what he called her "genius for influencing people," but she had really believed all along that, if elliott sherwood had been asked, he could not have told whether she was a whit better looking than kitty martin of the cove, who taught a class in sunday school and had round rosy cheeks and a snub nose.
the summer went very quickly. one day jacky hart died—drifted out with the ebb tide, holding frances's hand. she had loved the patient, sweet-souled little creature and missed him greatly.
when the time to go home came frances felt dull. she hated to leave windy meadows and corona and her dear shore people and aunt eleanor and—and—well, margaret ann peabody.
elliott sherwood came up the night before she went away. when margaret ann showed him reverentially in, frances was sitting in a halo of sunset light, and the pale, golden chrysanthemums in her hair shone like stars in the blue-black coils.
elliott sherwood had been absent from windy meadows for several days. there was a subdued jubilance in his manner.
"you think i have come to say good-bye, but i haven't," he told her. "i shall see you again very soon, i hope. i have just received a call to castle street church, and it is my intention to accept. so corona and i will be in town this winter."
frances tried to tell him how glad she was, but only stammered. elliott sherwood came close up to her as she stood by the window in the fading light, and said—
but on second thoughts i shall not record what he said—or what she said either. some things should be left to the imagination.
