"i declare, it is a real fall day," said mrs. stapp, dropping into a chair with a sigh of relief as mrs. march ushered her into the cosy little sitting-room. "the wind would chill the marrow in your bones; winter'll be here before you know it."
"that's so," assented mrs. march, bustling about to stir up the fire. "but i don't know as i mind it at all. winter is real pleasant when it does come, but i must say, i don't fancy these betwixt-and-between days much. sit up to the fire, theodosia. you look real blue."
"i feel so too. lawful heart, but this is comfort. this chimney-corner of yours, anna, is the cosiest spot in the world."
"when did you get home from maitland?" asked mrs. march. "did you have a pleasant time? and how did you leave emily and the children?"
mrs. stapp took this trio of interrogations in calm detail.
"i came home saturday," she said, as she unrolled her knitting. "nice wet day it was too! and as for my visit, yes, i enjoyed myself pretty, well, not but what i worried over peter's rheumatism a good deal. emily is well, and the children ought to be, for such rampageous young ones i never saw! emily can't do no more with them than an old hen with a brood of ducks. but, lawful heart, anna, don't mind about my little affairs! the news peter had for me about you when i got home fairly took my breath. he came down to the garden gate to shout it before i was out of the wagon. i couldn't believe but what he was joking at first. you should have seen peter. he had an old red shawl tied round his rheumatic shoulder, and he was waving his arms like a crazy man. i declare, i thought the chimney was afire! theodosia, theodosia!' he shouted. 'anna march has had a fortune left her by her brother in australy, and she's bought the old carroll place, and is going to move up there!' that was his salute when i got home. i'd have been over before this to hear all about it, but things were at such sixes and sevens in the house that i couldn't go visiting until i'd straightened them out a bit. peter's real neat, as men go, but, lawful heart, such a mess as he makes of housekeeping! i didn't know you had a brother living."
"no more did i, theodosia. i thought, as everyone else did, that poor charles was at the bottom of the sea forty years ago. it's that long since he ran away from home. he had a quarrel with father, and he was always dreadful high-spirited. he went to sea, and we heard that he had sailed for england in the helen ray. she was never heard of after, and we all supposed that my poor brother had perished with her. and four weeks ago i got a letter from a firm of lawyers in melbourne, australia, saying that my brother, charles bennett, had died and left all his fortune to me. i couldn't believe it at first, but they sent me some things of his that he had when he left home, and there was an old picture of myself among them with my name written on it in my own hand, so then i knew there was no mistake. but whether charles did sail in the helen ray, or if he did, how he escaped from her and got to australia, i don't know, and it isn't likely i ever will."
"well, of all wonderful things!" commented mrs. stapp.
"i was glad to hear that i was heir to so much money," said mrs. march firmly. "at first i felt as if it were awful of me to be glad when it came to me by my brother's death. but i mourned for poor charles forty years ago, and i can't sense that he has only just died. not but what i'd rather have seen him come home alive than have all the money in the world, but it has come about otherwise, and as the money is lawfully mine, i may as well feel pleased about it."
"and you've bought the carroll place," said mrs. stapp, with the freedom of a privileged friend. "whatever made you do it? i'm sure you are as cosy here as need be, and nobody but yourself. isn't this house big enough for you?"
"no, it isn't. all my life i've been hankering for a good, big, roomy house, and all my life i've had to put up with little boxes of places, not big enough to turn round in. i've been contented, and made the best of what i had, but now that i can afford it, i mean to have a house that will suit me. the carroll house is just what i want, for all it is a little old-fashioned. i've always had a notion of that house, although i never expected to own it any more than the moon."
"it's a real handsome place," admitted mrs. stapp, "but i expect it will need a lot of fixing up. nobody has lived in it for six years. when are you going to move in?"
"in about three weeks, if all goes well. i'm having it all painted and done over inside. the outside can wait until the spring."
"it's queer how things come about," said mrs. stapp meditatively. "i guess old mrs. carroll never imagined her home was going to pass into other folks' hands as it has. when you and i were girls, and louise carroll was giving herself such airs over us, you didn't much expect to ever stand in her shoes, did you? do you remember lou?"
"yes, i do," said mrs. march sharply. a change came over her sonsy, smiling face. it actually looked hard and revengeful, and a cruel light flickered in her dark brown eyes. "i'll not forget lou carroll as long as i live. she is the only person in this world i ever hated. i suppose it is sinful to say it, but i hate her still, and always will."
"i never liked her myself," admitted mrs. stapp. "she thought herself above us all. well, for that matter i suppose she was—but she needn't have rubbed it in so."
"well, she might have been above me," said mrs. march bitterly, "but she wasn't above twitting and snubbing me every chance she got. she always had a spite at me from the time we were children together at school. when we grew up it was worse. i couldn't begin to tell you all the times that girl insulted me. but there was once in particular—i'll never forgive her for it. i was at a party, and she was there too, and so was that young trenham manning, who was visiting the ashleys. do you remember him, dosia? he was a handsome young fellow, and lou had a liking for him, so all the girls said. but he never looked at her that night, and he kept by me the whole time. it made lou furious, and at last she came up to me with a sneer on her face, and her black eyes just snapping, and said, 'miss bennett, mother told me to tell you to tell your ma that if that plain sewing isn't done by tomorrow night she'll send for it and give it to somebody else; if people engage to have work done by a certain time and don't keep their word, they needn't expect to get it.' oh, how badly i felt! mother and i were poor, and had to work hard, but we had feelings just like other people, and to be insulted like that before trenham manning! i just burst out crying then and there, and ran away and hid. it was very silly of me, but i couldn't help it. that stings me yet. if i was ever to get a chance to pay lou carroll out for that, i'd take it without any compunction."
"oh, but that is unchristian!" protested mrs. stapp feebly.
"perhaps so, but it's the way i feel. old parson jones used to say that people were marbled good and bad pretty even, but that in everybody there were one or two streaks just pure wicked. i guess lou carroll is my wicked streak. i haven't seen or heard of her for years—ever since she married that worthless dency baxter and went away. she may be dead for all i know. i don't expect ever to have a chance to pay her out. but mark what i say, theodosia, if i ever have, i will."
mrs. march snipped off her thread, as if she challenged the world. mrs. stapp felt uncomfortable over the unusual display of feeling she had evoked, and hastened to change the subject.
in three weeks' time mrs. march was established in her new home, and the "old carroll house" blossomed out into renewed splendour. theodosia stapp, who had dropped in to see it, was in a rapture of admiration.
"you have a lovely home now, anna. i used to think it fine enough in the carrolls' time, but it wasn't as grand as this. and that reminds me, i have something to tell you, but i don't want you to get as excited as you did the last time i mentioned her name. you remember the last day i was to see you we were talking of lou carroll? well, next day i was downtown in a store, and who should sail in but mrs. joel kent, from oriental. you know mrs. joel—sarah chapple that was? she and her man keep a little hotel up at oriental. they're not very well off. she is a cousin of old mrs. carroll, but, lawful heart, the carrolls didn't used to make much of the relationship! well, mrs. joel and i had a chat. she told me all her troubles—she always has lots of them. sarah was always of a grumbling turn, and she had a brand-new stock of them this time. what do you think, anna march? lou carroll—or mrs. baxter, i suppose i should say—is up there at joel kent's at oriental, dying of consumption; leastwise, mrs. joel says she is."
"lou carroll dying at oriental!" cried mrs. march.
"yes. she came there from goodness knows where, about a month ago—might as well have dropped from the clouds, mrs. joel says, for all she expected of it. her husband is dead, and i guess he led her a life of it when he was alive, and she's as poor as second skimmings. she was aiming to come here, mrs. joel says, but when she got to oriental she wasn't fit to stir a step further, and the kents had to keep her. i gather from what mrs. joel said that she's rather touched in her mind too, and has an awful hankering to get home here—to this very house. she appears to have the idea that it is hers, and all just the same as it used to be. i guess she is a sight of trouble, and mrs. joel ain't the woman to like that. but there! she has to work most awful hard, and i suppose a sick person doesn't come handy in a hotel. i guess you've got your revenge, anna, without lifting a finger to get it. think of lou carroll coming to that!"
the next day was cold and raw. the ragged, bare trees in the old carroll grounds shook and writhed in the gusts of wind. now and then a drifting scud of rain dashed across the windows. mrs. march looked out with a shiver, and turned thankfully to her own cosy fireside again.
presently she thought she heard a low knock at the front door, and went to see. as she opened it a savage swirl of damp wind rushed in, and the shrinking figure leaning against one of the fluted columns of the grecian porch seemed to cower before its fury. it was a woman who stood there, a woman whose emaciated face wore a piteous expression, as she lifted it to mrs. march.
"you don't know me, of course," she said, with a feeble attempt at dignity. "i am mrs. baxter. i—i used to live here long ago. i thought i'd walk over today and see my old home."
a fit of coughing interrupted her words, and she trembled like a leaf.
"gracious me!" exclaimed mrs. march blankly. "you don't mean to tell me that you have walked over from oriental today—and you a sick woman! for pity's sake, come in, quick. and if you're not wet to the skin!"
she fairly pulled her visitor into the hall, and led her to the sitting-room.
"sit down. take this big easy-chair right up to the fire—so. let me take your bonnet and shawl. i must run right out to tell hannah to get you a hot drink."
"you are very kind," whispered the other. "i don't know you, but you look like a woman i used to know when i was a girl. she was a mrs. bennett, and she had a daughter, anna. do you know what became of her? i forget. i forget everything now."
"my name is march," said mrs. march briefly, ignoring the question. "i don't suppose you ever heard it before."
she wrapped her own warm shawl about the other woman's thin shoulders. then she hastened to the kitchen and soon returned, carrying a tray of food and a steaming hot drink. she wheeled a small table up to her visitor's side and said, very kindly,
"now, take a bite, my dear, and this raspberry vinegar will warm you right up. it is a dreadful day for you to be out. why on earth didn't joel kent drive you over?"
"they didn't know i was coming," whispered mrs. baxter anxiously. "i—i ran away. sarah wouldn't have let me come if she had known. but i wanted to come so much. it is so nice to be home again."
mrs. march watched her guest as she ate and drank. it was plain enough that her mind, or rather her memory, was affected. she did not realize that this was no longer her home. at moments she seemed to fancy herself back in the past again. once or twice she called mrs. march "mother."
presently a sharp knock was heard at the hall door. mrs. march excused herself and went out. in the porch stood theodosia stapp and a woman whom mrs. march did not at first glance recognize—a tall, aggressive-looking person, whose sharp black eyes darted in past mrs. march and searched every corner of the hall before anyone had time to speak.
"lawful heart!" puffed mrs. stapp, as she stepped in out of the biting wind. "i'm right out of breath. mrs. march, allow me to introduce mrs. kent. we're looking for mrs. baxter. she has run away, and we thought perhaps she came here. did she?"
"she is in my sitting-room now," said mrs. march quietly.
"didn't i say so?" demanded mrs. kent, turning to mrs. stapp. she spoke in a sharp, high-pitched tone that grated on mrs. march's nerves. "doesn't she beat all! she slipped away this morning when i was busy in the kitchen. and to think of her walking six miles over here in this wind! i dunno how she did it. i don't believe she's half as sick as she pretends. well, i've got my wagon out here, mrs. march, and i'll be much obliged if you'll tell her i'm here to take her home. i s'pose we'll have a fearful scene."
"i don't see that there is any call for a scene," said mrs. march firmly. "the poor woman has just got here, and she thinks she has got home. she might as well think so if it is of any comfort to her. you'd better leave her here."
theodosia gave a stifled gasp of amazement, but mrs. march went serenely on.
"i'll take care of the poor soul as long as she needs it—and that will not be very long in my opinion, for if ever i saw death in a woman's face, it is looking out of hers. i've plenty of time to look after her and make her comfortable."
mrs. joel kent was voluble in her thanks. it was evident that she was delighted to get the sick woman off her hands. mrs. march cut her short with an invitation to stay to tea, but mrs. kent declined.
"i've got to hurry home straight off and get the men's suppers. such a scamper to have over that woman! i'm sure i'm thankful you're willing to let her stay, for she'd never be contented anywhere else. i'll send over what few things she has tomorrow."
when mrs. kent had gone, mrs. march and mrs. stapp looked at each other.
"and so this is your revenge, anna march?" said the latter solemnly. "do you remember what you said to me about her?"
"yes, i do, theodosia, and i thought i meant every word of it. but i guess my wicked streak ran out just when i needed it to depend on. besides, you see, i've thought of lou carroll all these years as she was when i knew her—handsome and saucy and proud. but that poor creature in there isn't any more like the lou carroll i knew than you are—not a mite. the old lou carroll is dead already, and my spite is dead with her. will you come in and see her?"
"well, no, not just now. she wouldn't know me, and mrs. joel says strangers kind of excite her—a pretty bad place the hotel would be for her at that rate, i should think. i must go and tell peter about it, and i'll send up some of my black currant jam for her."
when mrs. stapp had gone, mrs. march went back to her guest. lou baxter had fallen asleep with her head pillowed on the soft plush back of her chair. mrs. march looked at the hollow, hectic cheeks and the changed, wasted features, and her bright brown eyes softened with tears.
"poor lou," she said softly, as she brushed a loose lock of grey hair back from the sleeping woman's brow.
