that miss whitcom was indeed up and stirring became evident. they heard her gaily calling out to hilda, who was coming up the stairs.
"dear child, see here a minute!"
two doors opened then: hers, briskly wide; the rev. needham's a furtive crack.
"yes, aunt marjie?"
"honey, there isn't any water in my pitcher—would you mind ...?"
"oh, i'll fill it right away for you, aunt marjie!"
"only half full, honey. i'd slip out myself to the pump, only i'm afraid of shocking eliza with my wrapper!"
"i won't be gone a minute, aunt marjie!"
she took the pitcher, extended by means of a plump bare arm, and sped off with it.
"alf," said mrs. needham, "i forgot to tell eliza the pitcher would have to be filled every day."
"i suspect marjory is a bit wasteful of water," he observed.
here at the point there was water, water everywhere; yet the needhams employed far less of the fluid in their daily toilets than they did in the town.[pg 64] this is perhaps not infrequently the case at summer resorts of the more primitive kind, where one attains the frugal attitude generally. then, too, having to go out to a pump for water alters its preciousness. besides, as all the needhams would argue: "we go in bathing so often." so the pitchers weren't refilled every day. they were generally refilled about two or three times a week. miss whitcom's pitcher, however, would have to be put in a class by itself. that was only too clear.
the rev. needham tied his cravat before the dresser glass. a few tiny drops of perspiration stood out on his forehead. "yes," he sighed, "it does upset things some."
"what say, alf?" asked anna, who was bending over an ancient trunk in which clean linen was kept.
"i say, eliza will just have to get used to filling her pitcher every morning."
"i guess so," agreed mrs. needham, straightening, her face flushed.
she held a fresh towel in her hand, which he eyed with glancing suspicion.
"i got to thinking," explained his wife. "perhaps she's used to having a clean towel every morning, too."
the minister compressed his lips almost imperceptibly as she went to her sister's door, the towel over her arm. hilda, with the pitcher of water, arrived at the same moment, so that mother and daughter stood with their respective burdens on aunt[pg 65] marjie's threshold, and even spoke together, like rival hucksters proclaiming their wares.
"gracious!" cried the favoured lady, opening her door and accepting the alms. "such magnificent service! anna," she added, "don't you let me put you out. i can easily live on the view. you really don't know what this means, after being cooped up in a place like tahulamaji!"
miss whitcom was tall, and rather fine looking. she was a trifle taller, for instance, than her brother-in-law, and had a way, when any discussion with him was in progress, of standing up quite close to the minister, so that she created the illusion, a little, of towering over him. she was not, of course, actually a great deal taller, but how one could make the sly inch count at such times! her sister looked almost dumpy beside her.
"i suppose," observed mrs. needham, "you do feel kind of cooped up in those foreign places." that phrase of hers "foreign places," was in the nature of a stock term. it was expansive, elastic, comprehensive. she spoke of foreign places a little as her husband spoke of the east or of "culture." neither had travelled any to speak of. in a sort of whimsical way it seemed to mrs. needham that one might expect to find bombay and peking supporting much the same conditions of life. or even dublin and rome, for that matter. "i don't suppose," she added, "there's anything like this where you've been."
[pg 66]
"i should emphatically say not," her sister assured her. "at rato-muh—that's the capital, you know—we've nothing but a dirty little river. i'm dying for a glorious swim!"
"we go bathing nearly every afternoon, aunt marjie," hilda announced.
"you do? well, i'm with you!" she was just a trifle loud. "do there happen to be any convenient islands one could swim out to?"
"oh, no, aunt marjie, there aren't," replied the girl regretfully, almost with a touch of naïve apology.
"well, no matter. you can always swim round in a circle, of course. only i do like having a definite goal."
and then she paused a moment, even suspending her toilet; for having a goal—hadn't that been, with almost amusing steadfastness, her aim all through life? of course, it was quite true: there had been perhaps a hundred goals, all told; but each, in its own way, and at its own time, had seemed the golden, final one. and always so incorrigibly definite. she had gone vibrantly and humorously on from one pursuit to another, determination taking multiple form. and yet there appeared now to have been, all along, just one permanent and unswerving determination: not to marry o'donnell.
miss whitcom sighed briefly and went on hooking herself up.
"speaking of swimming," she continued. "i[pg 67] won a gold medal once. yep. a very long time ago."
"a medal for swimming, aunt marjie?"
the aunt nodded. "i entered a five-mile endurance and time. entered against thirteen men, and got there first!"
"oh, how wonderful!" cried hilda admiringly.
"yes, it was wonderful," the other admitted; then frowned. "the only trouble was that i had my subsequent doubts of its being really fair."
mrs. needham, who had been standing in the doorway, a faint and musing smile on her lips, received the news of the swimming match with a hurried comment about having to go down and see how eliza was getting on with breakfast. she was always, and especially with alfred in mind, mildly shocked at the glib way in which her sister talked about men.
"how do you mean it wasn't fair, aunt marjie?" demanded little hilda, sitting down eagerly on the edge of the bed.
"came to suspect one of them."
"one of the men?"
"um-hm."
"of cheating, aunt marjie?"
"um. turning lazy at the finish."
"you mean he let you win?"
"afraid so, hilda."
"but i've heard papa say that women ought to be treated...."
[pg 68]
"that men ought to go lazy at the finish and let you pull in ahead?"
"of course papa never put it that way. i don't believe he knows about women going into regular contests like that, with men."
"i daresay not, hilda. such things wouldn't conspicuously have entered into alfred's training."
"what did you do when you found out about it, aunt marjie?"
"what do you mean—when i'd convinced myself he hadn't played fair?"
"yes."
"sent him the medal." she shrugged.
"you did!"
"um. it belonged to him, not me. yes, sir—it went right straight off to him, with a polite note. the note was terribly polite. i told him i hoped he'd get just lots of comfort out of it. real, solid comfort." and she snorted with wrath.
"then what did he say, aunt marjie?"
"then he said—say, look here, hilda, what is your capacity for asking questions?"
"oh, i'm sorry, aunt marjie! i didn't realize how many i was asking."
and she really was sorry. nevertheless, her eyes continued to shine very brightly. aunt marjie had a stimulating effect on hilda—hilda being just at the age of hero-worship. this age, in the life of the individual, is somewhat akin to the prehistoric age in human history; it bristles with ever such[pg 69] fabulous things. and the only natural thing to do when one encounters fabulous things is to ask as many questions about them as one can think of.
but marjory whitcom hadn't, as a matter of fact, spoken with any dominant impatience. she had asked hilda's capacity for questions in a spirit of ridicule which, in a conscious sense of boomerang satire, amply included her own loquacious self. and yet, for all that, there was a slight flush on her face. what brought the flush there? ah, there are deep things in the human heart. the flush lasted quite a long time. indeed, it had hardly faded out altogether when she was seated with the family at breakfast.
the rev. needham asked the blessing in a faintly grim manner. he spoke it off with a defiant assurance. his sister-in-law, he had just been deciding, wasn't to intimidate him at his own table. he kept his eyes tight shut and spoke on almost doggedly. there were a number of graces in the minister's repertory. he was in the habit of using now one, now another. this morning, though the choice was, of course, as always, entirely spontaneous and unconscious, he chose the shortest of them all.
breakfast was simple and bountiful. the needhams were rather hearty eaters. there was no stomach trouble in the family, although very strong emotions had, naturally, the same effect on them as on most people. following louise's affair with [pg 70]richard, as they remembered it, the unhappy girl had eaten almost nothing for months—or it certainly was weeks—and had grown extremely thin. in fact, during the first week following the sad climax none of the needhams had eaten quite normally, except little hilda. she, only a child of twelve then, came up regularly enough for second helpings, despite her sister's trouble and the general depression of the household. childhood is, when not perverted, a blessed span, the heart seeming to stand entirely out of touch with any of the homelier and more prosaic organs.
this morning there were wild raspberries—early ones, and not very large—which the rev. needham and his younger daughter had themselves gathered in the woods and along the sunny roadways the afternoon previous, while marjory was conversing sensibly with her sister. after the fruit came a cooked cereal, which mrs. needham was annoyed to find a trifle lumpy. and then after that there followed pancakes—pancakes, pancakes—hundreds, it seemed, coming in three at a time, which was the griddle's limit.
just subsequent to the blessing, aunt marjie occasioned a very slight flurry in the domestic arrangements by asking anna if she might have a glass of hot water.
"i'm supposed to drink it now," she explained, "before each meal. it's living so long in the tropics, i suppose."
[pg 71]
mrs. needham tinkled the bell for eliza, and glanced, half unconsciously, at her husband. the rev. needham, it is to be feared, was growing rather opinionated about his wife's sister. there is, when one stops to view the matter wholly without passion, nothing really criminal in the request for a glass of hot water, just as there is nothing essentially felonious about using all the water you want up in your room. of course, in such places as deserts it may often be essential to employ circumspection; but scarcely on point betsey, where there lay the vast resources of lake michigan behind even an extravagant indulgence. and as for having the water hot, well, what are kettles for? one poises the issue. still, of course, such implications as these are hardly fair to the rev. needham, who was animated by no real spirit of parsimoniousness at all, but who merely disliked seeing vaguely devastated the quiet, orderly routine of the house. to tell the truth, while he didn't honestly grudge her the water, the clergyman looked upon his sister-in-law as something of an intruder. however legitimate it might be—and of course nobody could possibly deny that marjory had a perfect right to be here in their midst—intrusion still was intrusion. the trouble was, he distrusted—all but feared her. and when men fear others, they will often be found taking exception to minor failings, real or fancied, which a sometimes surprisingly acute vigilance discovers in those who inspire their fear. the rev. needham, however,[pg 72] said nothing: merely pressed his lips together, as he had previously done before the mirror upstairs when informed that his relative would have to have her pitcher refilled every morning. it was these repressions which permitted the world at large no too salient suspicion of what was really going on inside.
a pleasant, wholly unremarkable conversation was kept up. it wasn't the sort of talk to invite preservation, but was, on the contrary, just a normal and uneventful flow. true, there seemed an unwonted excitement in the air. the day upon which mr. barry was to arrive must necessarily be considered a red-letter day, and might even be expected, in a sense, to deliver up talk of some special brilliance. but to tell the truth, the great event had already been discussed in all its possible phases and from all conceivable angles, there remaining at length absolutely nothing but for mr. barry to put in an appearance.
throughout breakfast the rev. needham maintained as consistent an attitude of dignified prosperity, beneficence, common sense, and scrupulously informal godliness as possible. above all, he tried in his demeanour to emphasize an unobtrusive yet firm head-of-the-house bearing—and indeed succeeded, for the most part, so well as almost to persuade himself that he was master of his destiny, after all; that his life was growing more solid, more dependable now.
hilda, of course, chattered a great deal, after her[pg 73] wont, acquainting her hearers, for one thing, with as full an account of louise's early departure as seemed politic. she blushed, mentioning leslie. miss whitcom noted that: noted it and sighed. it was obvious the blush was no accident. another young thing, just starting out; the rough and not always so romantic world ahead of her—and boy-crazy! marjory whitcom sighed again. so futile, she told herself. but another valuation just slipped in: so sweet!
toward the end of the meal, the pancake process, hitherto quite smooth and regular, hitched very badly. no fresh cakes came in, and the supply on the table dwindled alarmingly. the rev. needham affected not to notice this. the management of the household, thank heaven! was not on his shoulders. his burdens were the weightier and more important family matters—aside, that is, from the business of tending to his own rather unmanageable soul and looking after his flock. there was a great difference between household matters and family matters; pancakes were not in his department; so that, not being himself responsible for the present embarrassment, he could afford to keep up a very good and cheerful front indeed, even when his eyes assured him the kitchen door hadn't opened for fully five minutes.
mrs. needham flushed. she always grew more or less excited when there was a break like this in the table service. as concerned her own plate, she, of course, stopped eating, directly it began to look as[pg 74] though the supply of cakes on the table could not possibly survive till there was a reinforcement from the griddle. she nibbled heroically at the cake already unavoidably on her plate, and suddenly began talking with great animation.
anna had always felt, obscurely yet unhappily, that her sister did not consider her a really expert housekeeper. in the old days, before weddings and deaths had disintegrated the family, it had always been marjory who could do things best and most handily. she had seemed a very prize of domestic efficiency. every one said marjory would be married off first. there were even unkind asides to the effect that anna would probably linger on and perhaps eventually run into perpetual maidenhood. ah, the queer pranks of life! anna had been carried off first, after all; and marjory, the acknowledged flower, had gone all these years unplucked.
anna needham was always anxious to make a good household impression on her sister. of course, many sorts of allowances would be made up here at the point. still, there seemed no valid reason why the cakes should cease coming in. at last she tinkled her bell. she tinkled it resolutely. her husband had just helped miss whitcom to the last cake. hilda still had unmistakably a hungry look.
eliza opened the kitchen door and thrust in her head.
"did you ring, ma'am?"
[pg 75]
"yes, eliza, i did. we would like some more cakes."
"yes, ma'am."
eliza withdrew her head and closed the door. but while it yet remained within their view, the face of eliza had something dark and ominous in it.
they heard her making desperate sounds about the stove. one minute, two. mrs. needham grew more and more excited. she talked loudly and steadily. the rev. needham sat with his hands on the arms of his chair, like a statue of patience. presently, however, he began to drum with his fingers. miss whitcom, realizing the dilemma, adjusted herself to it—made the last cake go a wonderfully long way.
finally mrs. needham pushed back her chair, excused herself hurriedly, and went out into the kitchen, the retreat being valiantly covered by her sister, who began telling her brother-in-law fresh tribal characteristics of the people of tahulamaji.
out in the smudge of the kitchen anna needham faced her cook.
"what is the matter, eliza?"
eliza was hot and hopeless. she pointed to the griddle upon which were three cakes, still quite pasty, and which had obviously ceased baking.
"what is the matter with the stove, eliza?"
"it must be the oil is all gone, ma'am."
"but i thought there was plenty to last until the morning delivery from the store."
[pg 76]
"well, ma'am, when i came down i found two burners going, and there was the remains of breakfast on the table. did louise go away somewhere early?"
eliza called the needham girls quite simply by their first names. she might have honoured them by saying miss louise and miss hilda. but she hadn't begun that way. she hadn't done that at her last place, nor at any of the other places which constituted her middle western retrospect as a domestic; and anna, in such comparatively unimportant matters as this, found it less frictional to let instruction slide.
louise had flown, leaving the burners on; there would be no more pancakes for the remaining needhams and their guest.
the rev. needham sighed, and somehow felt that the day was not beginning so very well. however, marjory began laughing in a singularly hearty way.
"it reminds me," she grinned, "of something in an old melodrama i saw years and years ago at an impossible little theatre. the 'comic relief' was a tramp, whose weakness was the flask. he pretended, as i recall it, to have palpitations of the heart, or something like that, and at one stage of the proceedings went into a series of alarming spasms, each of which would be instantly allayed by a swig from a flask belonging to one of the other characters. the[pg 77] other character dared not refuse the flask, for fear of fatal consequences, but eyed its diminishing contents with profound regret. how well do i remember! at length the tramp, in one of his worst spasms, was informed that the whiskey was all gone; whereupon he very decently revived, looked out at the audience soberly, and said, in his most mirth-provoking tones: 'thank heavens there was just enough!'"
the rev. needham, as they left the table, looked at her in a half startled way. these stories of hers were never in actually questionable taste, yet they somehow contrived to upset him. there seemed to be always something just behind them which might, as it were, spring out. it was such he seemed to fear most of all: the things in life that might spring out.
"hilda," said aunt marjie, still chuckling over the whole affair, "did you tell me louise had a young man in the kitchen with her?"
"yes, it was leslie. but aunt marjie ...!"
"ah, then that explains it!"
"oh, but aunt marjie, leslie isn't the one. you see, louise is engaged!"
"she is?" demanded the lady more seriously, yet mockingly, too, as though the communication represented fresh news. "well, then"—for miss whitcom refused to be daunted—"the empty burners are no doubt all the better accounted for, hilda." she laughed again. then she put her hands on hilda's young shoulders. "hilda," she said with[pg 78] great solemnity, "are you quite sure leslie isn't the one?"
hilda blushed, and did not look squarely at her aunt, but instead a little bit beyond her.
"oh, yes!" she cried softly.
