ellen withington and her mother lived in a garden. there was a house behind it, with great white pillars like a temple, but it played a secondary part to that sweet inclosure—all bees and blossoms. ellen and her mother duly slept in the house, and through the barren months it did very well for shelter while they talked of slips and bulbs and thirsted over the seed-catalogue come by mail. but from the true birth of the year to the next frost they were steadily out-of-doors, weeding, tending, transplanting, with an untiring passion. all the blossoms new england counts her dearest grew from that ancient mould, enriched with every spring. ladies'-delights forgathered underneath the hedge, and lilies-of-the-valley were rank with chill sweetness in their time. the flowering currant breathed like fruitage from the east, and there were never such peonies, such poppies, and such dahlias in all the town.
ellen herself had an apple-bloom face, and violet eyes down-dropped; some one said their lashes were long enough to braid. fine gold hair flew about her temples, and her innocent chin [43]sank chastely like a nun's. she and her mother never had a minute for thinking about clothes, and so they wore soft sad-colored stuffs rather like the earth; but these quite satisfied ellen, because they were warm or cool to suit the weather, and beauty, she thought, grew only from the ground.
one spring twilight mrs. withington was putting out her geraniums, while ellen leaned over the gate and talked with susan long. the frogs were peeping down by the mill, and a breath of dampness came from the upturned soil. susan long was the only one of the old schoolgirls with whom ellen had kept any semblance of intimacy; the rest of them thought her oddly unsuited to their grown-up pastimes. she was like a bud, all close and green, while they flared their petals to the sun and begged for cherishing.
"just think," said ellen in her reedy voice, never loud enough to be heard at "teacher's desk" in school, "while we've been standing here three couples have gone by. i never saw so much pairing off."
susan laughed exuberantly. she was a big girl, with a mariner's walk and hard red cheeks.
"anybody but you'd seen 'em a good many times," she remarked. "if you ain't the queerest! why, they're fellers and girls!"
[44]"yes, i know it," said ellen innocently. "one was john davis and maria orne, one was—"
"oh, i don't mean that! i mean they're goin' together. ain't you heard what old uncle zephaniah said down to the ridge? he told father this year'd be known as the time o' the flood, all creation walkin' two and two. why, everybody in countisbury's gettin' married. courtin' begun in the fall, with singin'-school, and this is the upshot. what do you s'pose i'm waitin' here for, 'sides talkin' with you? just hold on a minute and you'll see milt richardson pokin' along this way. then there'll be four couples instead o' three."
"o sue!" said ellen, in a little bruised tone. she felt disturbed, as if the spring twilight had in some manner turned to a much-revealing day. sue leaned over the gate and whispered rapidly:
"i'll tell you somethin' else, only don't you let it go no further. mother says might as well not count your chickens till they're hatched, and aunt templeton was left at the meetin'-house door. he asked me seven weeks ago come wednesday, and i've got lots of my sewin' done. some of my trimmin' 's real pretty. you come over'n' see it. good-by. don't you tell."
she walked carelessly away down the road, not casting a glance behind. but milton was coming, a tall fellow, like his sweetheart heavy [45]and honest of face. they might have been brother and sister for the likeness between them.
ellen withdrew from the gate and hurried back to her mother. "come," she urged hastily, "let's go in."
mrs. withington was bent almost double, pressing the earth about the cramped geranium roots. she felt the delight of their freedom, with all the world to spread in.
"i ain't got quite through," she said, without looking up. "you cold? run right along. i'll come."
but ellen only flitted round the house into a deeper shade and waited. she hardly knew why, except that she was disinclined to see any more people walking two and two, with that significant and terrifying future before them.
the next morning, drawn by some subtle power, she went over to susan's, and after sitting awhile on the doorstep, they slipped upstairs into the front chamber, and opened drawer after drawer of fine white clothing, wonderfully trimmed.
"long-cloth!" said susan, in a whisper. "here's some unbleached. we had it on the grass last year; seemed as if it never'd whiten out. that's for every day."
[46]ellen looked, in the short-breathed wonder which sometimes beset her over a new blossom. she touched the fabric delicately and lifted an edge of crocheted lace.
"let's go over to maria's," said susan. "i'll make her show you hers."
they took the short round of the village homes where there were daughters young and still unwed. everywhere white cloth, serpentine braid, and crocheted lace! truly it was a marrying year. ellen said very little, and the girls, talking among themselves, forgot to notice her any more than a flower in a vase.
but that late afternoon was very warm, and when she and her mother sat together on the steps considering rose-bugs, she suddenly broke off to say,—
"mother, should you just as soon i'd have some new things, trimmed like the girls'?"
mrs. withington regarded her in wonder. ellen did not lift her eyes, but a blush rose delicately in her cheeks.
"well, i don't know but what 'twould be a good plan," said her mother, after a pause. "you ain't got an individual thing that's trimmed."
so next day they walked the two miles to town, and for weeks thereafter stayed indoors, setting stitches in snowy cloth, with piles of it drifted near. for a time that spring, the garden almost [47]ran to weeds. then, because a long dormant consciousness stirred in mrs. withington, she went into the attic and brought down woven treasures; and one sunday, ellen, her cheeks scarlet with the excitement of it, walked to church in a shot silk, all blue and pink, and a hat with a long white feather over her golden hair. there were pink roses under the brim, and they paled beside her face.
"god sakes!" whispered milton richardson, in the singing-seats, "ellen withington's a beauty!"
the girls rustled their starched petticoats and nudged one another.
"ain't she come out!" said one; and another answered,—
"my stars! she's the cutest thing i ever see in all my life!"
even the minister, who was then accounted an old man, being between forty-five and fifty, stopped on his way down the aisle where ellen waited for her mother, busy in matronly conclave, and shook hands with her.
"i am very glad to see you out, my dear ellen," said he. "you have been absent quite a while."
she looked up at him, her blue eyes full of wonder; everybody knew she had been regularly to church ever since she was a little girl. but the minister smiled warmly at her and went on.
[48]the next sunday she came to church in a foam of white like a pear tree. that day henry fox, who lingered still unmated, strode up to her and remarked, while a cordial circle stood about to hear, "pretty warm to-day." this was equivalent to "see you home?" at evening meeting.
"yes," said she, desperately, "real warm." then she caught her mother's hand and clung to it; and though henry kept a dogged step beside them to their gate, it was only mrs. withington who spoke.
when the two women were inside the great cool sitting-room, ellen was holding still by that hard, faithful hand. "mother," she entreated breathlessly, "i needn't ever be with anybody but you, need i?"
jealous arms were about her even before the words had time to come.
"no! no! you're mother's own girl."
the very next wednesday ellen went alone to match some trimming; her maiden outfit neared completion, and she was in haste to finish it. the garden needed her. when she had struck into the pine woods on her way home a wagon rattled up behind, and milton richardson called out, "ride?"
she was too timid to say, "no," and so she took his hand and climbed up to the seat beside [49]him. the horse fell into a walk, and ellen blushed more and more because she could not think of anything to say. midway of the pines the horse stood still.
"le's wait a minute in the shade," said milton; and ellen, glancing swiftly at him, wondered why he seemed so strange. he sought her eyes again, but she was gazing at the pines. her cheek was rosy red.
"you been shoppin'?" he asked desperately.
"yes," said ellen, grateful to him for speech, wherein she was so poor. "i went to get some braid."
"you makin' up pretty things, same 's all the girls?"
"i've made some."
milton caught his breath.
"o ellen!" he burst forth, "i wish you'd let me kiss you!"
suddenly she was gone out of the wagon, like a bird let loose from an imprisoning hand. he saw her running like a swift sweet sprite along the darkening road.
"ellen, you hold on!" he cried, whipping up to follow. "i didn't mean nothin'! oh, you let me jest speak one word."
but at the noise of his pursuit she fled over the low stone wall, and without a look behind, dipped into the hollow on her homeward way. milton [50]swore miserably and drove on. he saw mrs. withington gathering cowslip greens in a marsh sufficiently removed from home, and that heartened him to draw rein before the still white house. ellen would be alone. when he strode into the sitting-room she sprang up from the lounge where she had cast herself. the tears still hung in her long lashes, and her cheeks were white.
"my lord! ellen withington!" he cried, in a shamed and rough remorse. "couldn't you give me a chance to speak? i don't know what under the light o' the sun made me say that. only you looked so terrible pretty. but you needn't ha' took it so."
she stood staring at him, fascinated, one brown hand trembling on her heart. her eyes shot a glance at the door behind him, and he was enraged anew with pity of her.
"you don't know what it is to see a girl as pretty as you be," he went on, as if he scolded her, "and all dressed up to the nines."
she was still looking at him dumbly. she saw beyond him the vista of sue's broken life.
"well, then, won't you be friends?" he urged. "great king! you couldn't be any more offish if i'd done it. you needn't think anything's altered. you're the prettiest creatur' that ever stepped, but i wouldn't give up sue for the queen of england. now will you say it's square?"
[51]so nothing was changed. she could not understand it, but she nodded at him and smiled a little. her trembling did not cease until he was far upon the road.
when mrs. withington came home with her basket of greens, ellen had supper all ready, and she ran forward and held a corner of her mother's apron while they walked together toward the house.
"you look kind o' peaked," said mrs. withington tenderly. "what you got on that old brown thing for?"
"i'm going to weed after supper," ellen answered. "the garden looks real bad."
mrs. withington gazed at her keenly.
"henry fox asked if we were goin' to be home this evenin'," she said, with much indifference. "i told him i guessed so."
ellen held the apron hard.
"o mother!" she whispered; "you see him. i haven't got to, have i?"
"law! no, child," said the other woman. "i guess you ain't. you're mother's own girl."
so when the dusk came mrs. withington sat in the parlor and talked of crops with henry, wan beside her, while ellen, safe at the back of the house, weeded a bed of pansies purpling there. a soft after-glow lighted all the windows to flame, and fell full upon the face of one dark [52]flower, quite human in its sombre wistfulness. ellen knelt and kissed it tremulously.
"you darling one!" she murmured under her breath; and somehow she knew that this was the only sort of kiss she should ever want to give.
